The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Before the meeting, I received a letter from Miss Völker, delivered to me by ¹. She explained to me that she was asking to be released from the circle. At the beginning of the meeting I handed it to Dr. Unger, who read it aloud. In it she says that she does not believe that the step of bringing the group out into the open will effectively protect Dr. Steiner and that she cannot take on the shared responsibility as long as there are no deeds and no change of attitude behind the words. The letter was met with general disapproval. Unger repeatedly called it “pharisaical” and “clerical”. Fri. Völker said: “Thank God I am not like these ‘thirties’!” The admonitions it contained were empty phrases. Stein said it was due to the insult that Miss Völker received from Dr. Steiner on July 11. In the further discussion, resignation was described as “shirking responsibility” and it was decided without objection to dispense with the further collaboration of Miss Völker.

Arenson and Stein reported on it afterwards. ².

When it came to signing the appeal and providing names and addresses, it became clear how little organized the group's membership is. It was proposed that a secretary be elected for the group, which in the future will be called the “Vertrauenskreis der Stuttgarter Institutionen” (Circle of Trust of Stuttgart Institutions). I was proposed from two sides, but I shook my head each time, whereupon Arenson encouraged me: “Don't shake your head, say yes!” I replied that I did not have enough experience, whereupon Stein replied: “Just wait, you will gain experience!”

Afterwards, the following was discussed: Dr. Husemann on the Goesch case, the project of the Kennenburg insane asylum (to which Stein remarked that the Anthroposophical Society could not exist without an insane asylum, since, according to a saying of Dr. Steiner, mental illnesses will occur epidemically in the near future, if only due to malnutrition), the problem of Dr. Noll and the Vademecum, and then the meeting was adjourned until Sunday.

On parting, there was still talk of the separatism of the Rhinelanders and a letter from the editor of the “Kölner Mittagsblatts”, H. Blume, to Dr. Büchenbacher was read out, in which Blume complains about the local board and announces that he will resign his position because the newspaper is not doing well. Sigismund von Gleich is expected to be his successor. Thereupon they met again and decided to notify Kretzschmar immediately that under no circumstances should von Gleich be employed, since he would not be allowed to work for the movement in any official capacity. In this context, a statement by Dr. Steiner was mentioned, that he would not enter a house in which von Gleich was staying.

• 1. Theodor Lauer, who was serving as secretary of the Circle of Thirty at the time.
• 2. see Appendix II, page 829

We shall best realise the significance of these 31 lectures given in 1905 if we transpose ourselves still further back in time to the year 1902, when, during her first personal conversation with Rudolf Steiner, Marie von Sivers, later Marie Steiner, put to him the all-important question: “Would it not be a very important thing to found an Occult Society suited to people of the West?” His response to this question was to begin laying the foundations of what was to become his greatest creation, the worldwide Anthroposophical Society.

A small number of Berlin theosophists gathered round him, and formed a group to which he began imparting the basic elements of Spiritual Science, “translating”—the expression was his—direct from the Akashic Script into the words of an earthly language. The mood of these first meetings was profoundly earnest. They were strictly private. If anyone wished to join the group he was only admitted after Marie von Sivers had taken through with him all the material already given. There was at that time no stenographer, and she, together with two members of the group, took copious notes, and as soon as possible after the meeting wrote the lecture out from memory. Later they compared their drafts and decided upon the final version. These manuscripts still exist and when these lectures were published in the complete edition of Rudolf Steiner's works they were again used to check their content.

When we remember that the Ancient Wisdom upon which Theosophy was based did not as yet include the immortality of the individual, or the eventual development, made possible by the Mystery of Golgotha, of individual human freedom, we can see that Rudolf Steiner had to give an entirely new direction to the thoughts of his hearers.

Thus we find that the manifold exact and detailed descriptions of the events of evolution form in a sense the background to the evolving figure of man. The mighty event of the Moon leaving the Earth, most vividly described, took place in order to provide an environment suited to his progress.

The wonderful moment when the higher being of man descended in a bell-like form and enveloped the lower human form, still on a level with the animals, depicts what eventually provided him with a body suited to the development of the ego. Spiritual Beings and the great Initiates led him along the path he had to tread.

Where do we look today for these ego-endowed human beings? They are within each one of us. We stand poised between guidance and responsibility. Let us turn our thoughts from the past to the future. One of the most impressive Basic Elements tells how the present conduct of life can affect the far distant future. It is a cosmic law that what has once taken place can never vanish, but must reappear later in a metamorphosed form. Every thought, feeling and action brought about by man does not only affect the world around him but will re-appear on the future Jupiter as the equivalent of the kingdoms of nature of our earthly world; for, to quote Rudolf Steiner's words, “Jupiter will be a man-made Planet”.

Vera and Judith Compton-Burnett

In the library of the Research Institute in preparation for tomorrow's meeting, at which Dr. Steiner has promised to appear.

It was stated at the beginning that, according to Dr. Steiner, it is not the task of the group to discuss questions, as happened at the meeting on July 2 and for which Dr. Steiner's later participation Steiner's later participation in the meetings, which were intended to deal with how to prepare for the appearance of the etheric Christ, how to take the dead into account in society, and which ideals of which cultural epoch (the fifth or sixth) should be represented in society's basic attitude. All these are matters for private study. In contrast, the representatives of the institutions are together in our group to do practical work. The theoretical discussions must stop, and we must finally get down to doing real work.

After that, various matters were addressed. It was mentioned that the students (Maikowski, Rosenthal, and others) intended to use the funds that had been made available for a college at the delegates' meeting to build a house on the grounds of the Waldorf School that would also serve as a meeting place for the Free Anthroposophical Society. As Leinhas, who administers this fund, was not present, it could not be determined whether the benefactors had been informed of this use, which was not in accordance with the original purpose of the foundation. In any case, however, it was stated that if the funds were not used directly for a college - Dr. Steiner once said that even if we had billions for a college, we could not open one because there would be no teachers and because if the Waldorf teachers were claimed for it, then the Waldorf school would perish - they should not be used for such a construction under any circumstances. It would be better to spend it on a movement for a free university or to combine it with the intended Goetheanum foundation fund.

Dr. Stein then reported on a conversation with Mr. Kretzschmar. He had pointed out to him after the “financial meeting” on June 22 that the anthroposophical economists who had not yet joined the coming day should join forces to support the movement after the Stuttgart financiers had committed themselves in the coming day. Kretzschmar replied that this was not the case. On the contrary, Unger and Del Monte had rehabilitated their businesses by founding Kommender Tag, made a killing, and now walked around with a halo on top of it. Stein said he had communicated this to Leinhas, who had written to Kretzschmar but received an evasive answer.

Benkendörfer said that such things kept coming up, but that after the unpleasant experiences he had had, he was no longer interested in finding out more. Unger explained that he no longer cared about such things at all.

Finally, Dr. Stein reported that the Kerning branch had been continuously approaching the board of directors since the delegates' meeting about Dr. Unger's continued presence on the board, and even after the board had declared that it would continue to work with Dr. Unger, even after he knew everything that the Kerning branch had brought forward against him, was not satisfied and threatened to pursue the matter further.

When the matter was discussed, reference was made to events that had given rise to it 16 years ago.

At the time, Miss Völker had spoken of the Jewish rule that was here. Benkendörfer, on the other hand, had said during the fall of the Besant that Miss Völker would soon meet the same fate.

Here, too, Benkendörfer and Unger declared that any hope of an understanding was completely hopeless.

The way this armed conflict (of the First World War) was such that it cannot be compared with anything in history so far, it will be followed by a spiritual battle that will also be unlike anything in history. ... It will be seen that the whole earth will take part in this spiritual struggle, and that in this spiritual struggle Orient and Occident will stand in spiritual and soulful contrasts such as have never been seen before. (Stuttgart, June 15, 1919)

From the new approaches after the First World War to the reestablishment of the Esoteric School as the “Free University for Spiritual Science”

For Rudolf Steiner, the First World War was a blazing sign that completely new forms had to be found for a fruitful further development of general and esoteric social life. Far more than before the war, he must therefore have been under the strain of the tension that necessarily arose from the opposing efforts to maintain continuity with the hitherto valid hierarchical principle on the one hand, and to meet the demands of the new era on the other, that is, to introduce the democratic principle, i.e. publicness, into esoteric work. This is made clear by the following two statements. While one of them reads (it was made in the lecture Dornach, December 20, 1918, i.e. immediately after the end of the war): “In order to maintain the continuity of human development, it is still necessary today to take up ritual and symbolism, so to speak.” The other (it was said in connection with a description of Freemasonry in response to a question from workers on the Goetheanum construction site): ”In today's world, all such things are actually no longer appropriate. For, isn't it true that what we have to reject most of all in such things today is isolation? This soon leads to the emergence of a spiritual aristocracy, which should not exist. And the democratic principle, which must be given more and more scope, is completely opposed to both the freemasons' union and the closed priesthoods.

At the time of this latter utterance, Rudolf Steiner had already tackled the reorganization of the Society and the esoteric school, by means of which he evidently wanted to bring the contrast between the old hierarchical mode of working and the demand of the new time for democracy to a higher synthesis. The steps he took in this direction from the end of the war until his death were, broadly speaking, the following.

When he was asked several times immediately after the end of the war in the late fall of 1918 to resume esoteric teaching, he initially refused completely. This was partly due to the inappropriate behavior that had often occurred in the past, but also because the new forms necessary for the times had not yet been developed. But when, a year later, at the end of 1919, the question was put to him at the Stuttgart School as to whether a religious celebration could be arranged for the students of free religious education on Sundays, he replied that it would have to be a cult and added: If this cult could be given, it would at the same time be the first reconnection with the esotericism interrupted by the war.¹ - obviously insofar as it should again be a non-ecclesiastical cult.

Shortly after this ritual, the “Sunday ritual”, had been created and performed for the first time (February 1, 1920), ² - from the teachers' conference in Stuttgart on November 16, 1921, the sentence is handed down: “A cult is the most esoteric thing one can imagine.” - Rudolf Steiner now resumed the esoteric work within the Anthroposophical Society. Initially in Dornach with two esoteric lessons on February 9 and 17, 1920. Although it was intended, it was not continued because various members had again behaved inappropriately. At the teachers' conference on November 16, 1921, when the question of esoteric lessons was raised, he said that it would be very difficult to do so and that he had to refrain from doing so because everything esoteric had been “disgracefully abused” so far. Esotericism is a “painful” chapter in the anthroposophical movement. ³ Nevertheless, shortly afterwards, on December 4, 1921, in Norway, where lectures could be held again for the first time since the outbreak of the war in the summer of 1914, he gave an esoteric lecture. Furthermore, there was also a meeting with the members of the department of the cult of knowledge, at which - although two or three new members were admitted - the circle was solemnly dissolved (p. 451), just as it had been immediately after the outbreak of the war in the summer of 1914 (p. 114). But that does not mean that the old is dead – he explained in Kristiania – but will be resurrected in a metamorphosed form. In the course of 1922, two esoteric hours also took place in England (London), one during the April stay and the other during the November stay. Shortly before, in October, in connection with the pedagogical youth course that took place in Stuttgart, ⁴ young anthroposophists approached Rudolf Steiner with the request for esoteric teachings to strengthen and deepen their community. The so-called esoteric youth group was formed, and it also received esoteric lessons. In the course of 1923 and early 1924, the following esoteric lessons also took place: in Kristiania in May 1923; in Dornach on May 27, October 23, 1923 and January 3, 1924 for the circle named by Rudolf Steiner after its initiators, the “Wachsmuth-Lerchenfeld Group” ; in Stuttgart on July 13 and October 13 for the esoteric youth group; in Vienna on September 30, 1923 for a small group that had come together at the request of Polzer-Hoditz.

Of the notes handed down from these hours, only those that reveal a relationship in content to the earlier esoteric cult of knowledge have been included in the present volume. These are the two hours in Kristiania and the three in Dornach that are thought to be for the 'Wachsmuth-Lerchenfeld Group'.⁵

The metamorphosis of esoteric, especially of the cult of knowledge, which has become necessary due to the changed conditions of the times, as indicated in Kristiania in December 1921 on the occasion of the formal dissolution of the circle, can already be found addressed immediately after the end of the war in the Dornach lecture of December 20, 1918. It was already stated at that time that the progress of time requires that many things must be renewed. For from the present time on and in the future, ever more clearly, new revelations break through the veils of events into the spiritual and mental horizon of human beings. Since these new revelations are the expression of a new creative principle, borne by the spirits of personality, the future will be increasingly determined by the expression of the impulses of personality. In this context, the fundamental difference between old and new revelation was explained and the nature of symbols and rituals was characterized as a form of expression of the old revelation, through which man was formerly addressed. The old symbolism did not play a significant role in anthroposophically oriented spiritual science. When reference was made to symbols, it was in the sense of “symbols of allegiance” to exemplify this or that or to demonstrate the “concordance” between “what is newly discovered, what can serve the new humanity, and what has been antiquated from ancient times.”

The style of this lecture, in which anthroposophical spiritual science is most emphatically described as a form of expression of the new revelation, was evidently influenced by the request of various friends to resume the esoteric work, especially the work of the cult of knowledge. The words seem to indicate this:

"There are a certain number of you who know that in our circles, too, those who seek have truly not been kept from the exposition of the symbolic and ritualistic traditions that have come down to us from ancient times, but always in a different spirit than is otherwise cultivated where symbols and ritual are valued in an antiquated sense. In order to maintain the continuity of human development, it is still necessary today to take up ritual and symbolism, so to speak. But in our circles, ritual and symbolism have never been presented as anything other than what is now supposed to lead to spiritual reality, to the direct integration of spiritual reality into contemporary values. Therefore, especially within anthroposophically oriented spiritual science, the explanation for many, actually for all ritual and symbolic aspects of the past. One can show how, on other paths, a wisdom that is antiquated today has been received by humanity, which has, so to speak, brought people into a state of bondage, but how today other paths of wisdom must be taken. ... It is extremely important to bear this in mind. To be able to be a human being in the innermost, deepest sense, connecting with what new revelations from the heavens want in terms of the evolution of the earth, that is what matters today.

Therefore, in the future it would no longer be acceptable to understand everyday life only as the poor, profane life and then to withdraw into the church or the mason temple, leaving these two worlds completely separate from each other.

Since then, Rudolf Steiner must have reflected on how esoteric work could be given a contemporary form, how the “old antiquated secret motif” could be replaced by something else (Dornach, December 20, 1918). Marie Steiner reports that at this time he often reflected on the nature that the new would have to take, that it would have to be “something binding, firm, overcoming lukewarmness and yet compatible with the freedom of each individual”: “He did not believe that one could still practice esotericism as in earlier times, in deepest seclusion, with strictly binding vows. These are no longer compatible with the sense of freedom of the individual. The soul must come before its own higher self and recognize what it owes to this self and to the spiritual world in reverent silence.“ ⁶

These considerations, which arose from the changed conditions of the time, the tragic loss of the Goetheanum building due to the fire on New Year's Eve 1922, the necessary but so difficult reorganization of the Society, led in the course of 1923 to the decision to found the Society anew at Christmas 1923, not only to constitute the Society as a completely public one, but also to give the esoteric school a form appropriate to the new consciousness of the times. It was anchored in the statutes of the Society as a “Free University for Spiritual Science”, which was to be built up in three classes and various scientific and artistic sections, and each member was granted the right to apply for admission after a certain period of belonging to the Society. In several essays Steiner characterized how he wanted this new esoteric school to be understood as a “Free University for Spiritual Science”. He stated that this university would not be like ordinary universities and would therefore not strive to compete with them or replace them. But what cannot be found at ordinary universities, the esoteric deepening that the soul seeks in its quest for knowledge, should be possible to obtain. The General Section should be there for those who want to seek the paths to the spiritual world in a general, human way; for those who seek an esoteric deepening in a specific scientific, artistic and so on direction, the other sections will endeavor to show the ways. In this way, every seeker will find at the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum what they need to strive for in their particular circumstances. The School should not be a purely scientific institution, but a completely human one that also fully meets the esoteric needs of scientists and artists. Steiner said that he would ensure that the School's work would always be known in the broadest sense. ⁷

Due to his immense overwork and his serious illness that began in the fall of 1924, only the first of the three classes could be established, along with a few scientific and artistic sections. We only have a hint of how the second and third classes would have been designed and that the cultic element should also figure in them. Much later, Marie Steiner once mentioned in a letter that he had told her that 'in Class II much of what he gave us in M.E. would flow pictorially into it and that in Class III this would have been transformed into moral power'. ⁸ And in her notes for an address at the celebration commemorating the anniversary of Rudolf Steiner's death on March 30, 1926, she wrote ⁹ :

"He left us before he was able to finish the work he had begun, before he was able to give us what he referred to as the second and third classes. In the second class, he wanted to give us the spiritual practice that would have corresponded to what the revelations that flowed forth in imaginations were of the supersensible school of Michael from... [end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century].” ¹⁰

Rudolf Steiner died a few months after making these suggestions. He had been exhausted for a long time and on March 30, 1925, he succumbed to the excessive efforts he had taken upon himself since Christmas 1923 as a result of his decision to to reshape society and the esoteric school in such a way that the abyss between the aristocratic nature of the spiritual and the ever-increasing demands of the new age for democracy, which he had spoken of in the esoteric hour of October 27, 1923 as a “heroic tragedy in the history of mankind,” could be bridged. Fate did not allow him to complete this large-scale work of the future. Nevertheless, it was “set up on earth as an example” in the sense of a word from his mystery dramas and “will continue to work spiritually in life, even if it does not persist in the sense being. A part of the power will be created in him that must ultimately lead to the marriage of spiritual goals and deeds of the senses.“¹¹

• 1. From one of the first two RE teachers, Herbert Hahn, handed down.
• 2. See “Conferences with the teachers of the Free Waldorf School in Stuttgart from 1919 to 1924”, Volume I (Introduction), GA 300a-c
• 3. Desgl., Band II.
• 4. See “Geistige Wirkenskräfte im Zusammenleben von alter und junger Generation. Pedagogical Youth Course», GA 217.
• 5. The remaining notes handed down are planned for a later volume.
• 6. Marie Steiner in ‘Remembrance’ for the first edition of the lectures ”Esoteric Reflections on Karmic Connections. The karmic connections of the Anthroposophical Movement), Dornach 1926; reprinted in “Nachrichten der Rudolf Steiner-Nachlaßverwaltung” no. 23, Christmas 1968.
  6
• 7. See “The Constitution of the General Anthroposophical Society and the School of Spiritual Science - The Rebuilding of the Goetheanum”, CW 260a.
• 8. In a letter dated November 8, 1947, to Helga Geelmuyden in Norway.
• 9. In notebook archive number 133.
• 10. Cf. page 120f.
• 11. See ‘The Awakening of the Soul’ (Scene 1).

The addresses published here do not belong in a narrow sense to those ‘Private Papers’ of Rudolf Steiner which have been published as urgently desired study-material for seekers after true humanity and a world-conception in accordance with spiritual values. Nevertheless what Rudolf Steiner himself says in his ‘Lebensgang’ concerning the printing of words which were taken down by his listeners, though intended by the lecturer himself to be only spoken, applies also to these:

‘Of my anthroposophical work there are now two results; first, my books which are open to all the world, and secondly a long series of Courses, which were intended to be looked upon as private publications, for sale only to the members of the Theosophical, later the Anthroposophical Society. These were versions, made with more or less accuracy at the lectures, which, owing to lack of time, could not be corrected by me. I should have preferred if the spoken word were to have remained so. But members wanted the printed edition of the Courses, and so it came into being. Had I had time to correct things, there would have been no need from the beginning for the limitation “Only for Members.” Now it has been omitted for more than a year.

‘Here in my “Lebensgang” it is above all necessary to say how the two things—my published books and private editions—fit into what I established as Anthroposophy.

‘Anyone who wishes to follow my inner struggle and work to bring Anthroposophy before the consciousness of the present age, must do so by means of the general published writings. In them I elaborate everything that exists at present in the way of the pursuit of knowledge. There is given what was revealed more and more to me in “spiritual vision,” what became part of the building of Anthroposophy—although in many respects in an incomplete manner.

‘Side by side with this demand to build up Anthroposophy, and by doing so to take the consequence of giving messages from the spirit-world to the general world of culture to-day, there was also the other demand, to meet fully the spiritual needs and desires of the members as they manifested themselves.’

Also the lectures given publicly in Berlin had, beside the casual listeners each time, an audience of people who came regularly, whose intelligence and capacity to understand were from time to time taken into consideration by the lecturer. And the stenographer had to adapt his gradually increasing skill to catching lectures of one and a half hour's duration. The two addresses published here cannot pretend to give again the pure style of the spoken word, which Rudolf Steiner so sharply differentiates from the style of the written Essay.

As there is such a strong demand for the spoken wisdom of Rudolf Steiner, that we can scarcely keep up in the issue of his addresses with the wishes of readers, our obligation increases to place simultaneously the written Essays of Rudolf Steiner by the side of these as a corrective. They are contributions to several papers, notably to the Goetheanum. Under the title ‘Studies in Goethe, the Goetheanistic Thought Methods,’ a series of these Essays is to appear shortly in book form. In them one will recognize the continuity of Rudolf Steiner's thought and the impersonality and timelessness of his style as a form of expression of those thoughts which are directed towards the eternal, and grasp ‘all things transitory’ with the most intimate sympathy and the acutest accuracy, as a link in the chain from earthly growth to divine existence.

Sunday supplement of the Basler Nachrichten

Now that the Solothurn government has approved the model design of the new Goetheanum in principle, the Anthroposophical Society will begin its reconstruction in the very near future. In order to do justice to the suggestions for modification from the municipality of Dornach and the government, only a small amount of preparatory drawing and calculating work is needed before construction begins.

The new building will, however, differ greatly in form from the old Goetheanum. This is because it will not be made of wood like the old Goetheanum, but of concrete. The artistic sense must be allowed to express itself in the realization of the building idea. It is clear that the Goetheanum cannot be built in any old “style” determined by external factors. For it is meant to serve anthroposophy; and this is not a one-sided theoretical world view, but a comprehensive spiritual-spiritual way of life. When it presents itself to the world artistically, it can only do so by its spiritual view producing the style of art. Not building in this own style would mean denying the essence of anthroposophy in its own house.

An unbiased artistic observation will find that the Goetheanum style does not reject anything that is still significant today in historical styles; but it does not start from this or that 'inspiration' from given styles, but rather it is a matter of creating from the basic conditions of all sense of style. But the forms in which one can create a style are also dependent on the material. The old building was able to give its design in every detail to the space in which work was carried out, in the softness of the wood, from the spirit of anthroposophical contemplation; with concrete, forms had to be sought in which the space, by its very nature, could develop the formations that could accommodate the anthroposophical work. Essentially, straight lines and flat surfaces were used for the enclosing walls and roofing, which combine in their angular slopes to form the overall architectural concept. Only towards and in the portals do the lines and surfaces become somewhat smaller and their structure somewhat more varied. The whole building rises up on a ramp, which will have an artistic finish on all sides and will make it possible to walk around the building. As the visitor walks around it, the wonderful landscape of the surroundings will unfold before his eyes.

The building will enclose the following: a lower floor, which will house studios, lecture and practice rooms, workplaces, etc.; and an upper floor, which will contain the space designed for nine hundred to one thousand spectators or listeners. At the back, the lower floor is adjoined by a rehearsal stage, and the upper floor by the stage where public performances will take place. On the outside, the building is intended to be the artistic and true-to-life wrapping of what will unfold inside in terms of intellectual experience. Stylish staircases will lead up from the ground to the ramp at the portals. The necessary interior design of the two floors will have to follow the exterior forms; the roof – not in the form of a dome this time – will have to follow the lines and surfaces of the ascending auditorium on the one hand; on the other hand, it will have to be artistically integrated with the two stages and their storage rooms. Inside, the task will be to design the space for use as a lecture hall as well as a eurythmy and mystery theater. For example, the stretching of the space upwards in the configuration of columns can be seen. Thus, as in the old Goetheanum, what anthroposophy has to say can also be sensed in the building forms and in the overall architectural idea, in which it erects the house in which it is to work.

The fact that something monumental has emerged in the building idea has come about through the idea of the building; but what has been striven for in the whole and in every detail is not to be untrue in the building design, but to create in it an artistically completely truthful image of what is worked out within from spiritual knowledge. The builder is of the opinion that something is being created that the general, unbiased taste, which knows nothing about anthroposophy or wants to know, can definitely go along with.

As I have said, theoretical explanations about karma and repeated earthly lives cannot but remain unliving and inadequate, until our thought in this direction really flows into our understanding of the life around us. We must contemplate life itself in the light of karma and repeated earthly lives. But such a contemplation requires the very greatest earnestness, for it may indeed be said that the temptation is very great for man to spin out all manner of ideas about karmic connections and repeated earthly lives. The temptation is great; the source of illusions in this sphere is exceedingly great. And indeed, real investigations in this sphere can be made only by one to whom the spiritual world has in a sense been opened through his own soul-development.

Hence it must also be said that in these matters especially the investigator must rely on those foundations of conviction in his audience which may follow from other things he has brought to light. Indeed we ought not to have any confidence in one who begins without more ado to speak about repeated earthly lives in detail. What is derived from such occult depths as these must be confirmed and supported by the fact that many other things have already been produced which give a real basis for confidence in the spiritual investigator.

Now I think I may say that in the twenty-three to twenty-four years during which we have cultivated Anthroposophy, enough occult material has been gathered to warrant the description at this present time even of these bold researches into karma and repeated earthly lives, for the benefit of those who may have gained true confidence through the other realms of spiritual life which have been unfolded before them in the course of time. True, many are present here to-day who have been in the society for a comparatively short time. But the evolution of the society would be made impossible if we always had to begin at the beginning for those who enter newly; and on the other hand, to our great joy and satisfaction, large numbers of our oldest Anthroposophical friends have come here at this busy time when so many lecture-courses are to be given. Many Anthroposophists are gathered here who have witnessed nearly the whole period of Anthroposophical development and as time goes on opportunities must be created in the Anthroposophical Society for those in the earlier stages of membership to be properly introduced to all that must now be cultivated for the further course of the society's development.

I had to make these preliminary remarks, because what I shall say to-day will be given more in the form of a simple communication, and much of it may well appear exceedingly bold. It will however form the starting-point for what will follow in the succeeding lectures.

A human life after all only appears in its true nature when we consider how it passes through repeated lives on earth. Serious and responsible research in this domain is however by no means easy, for the results we gain do in a certain way contradict our habitual ideas on the subject.

At first sight, when considering the life of a man on earth with all the contents of his destiny, most people will be struck by those events of destiny which are connected with his outer profession or inner calling, with his social position and the like. As to the essential content of his earthly life, a human being will naturally appear to us in the light of these characteristics, nor need they by any means be superficial, for they may signify much for his inner life of soul. Nevertheless, to look into those depths in which repeated lives on earth are seen, it is necessary to look aside from many of these obvious and outer things that stamp themselves upon the destiny of a human being in his earthly life.

In effect, we must not imagine that the outer or inner calling of a man has a very great significance for his karma that passes through repeated lives on earth. True, even if we take a comparatively external and typical calling, that of a civil servant for example, we can conceive how much it is connected, even outwardly, with his destiny. Nevertheless, for the deepest relationships of karma or destiny those things that we can describe in a man as proceeding from his external calling are sometimes of no significance at all. And so it is with inner callings too. How easily we are tempted, in the case of a musician, to think that at any rate in one former earthly life he was, if not a musician, an artist of some kind. But it is by no means always so. Nay, I must go farther—it is so only in the rarest cases. For when we investigate these things in reality, we find that the continued thread of karma or destiny goes far deeper into the inner being of man and is little connected with his outer profession or inner calling. It is far more concerned with the inner forces of soul and resistances of soul, with moral relationships which can, after all, reveal themselves in any and every calling whether it be an outer or an inner one.

For this very reason, the investigation of karma—of the thread of destiny—requires us to concentrate on circumstances in the life of a human being which may often appear outwardly trivial or of small importance. In this connection I must refer again and again to a fact that once occurred to me.

I had to investigate the karmic connections of a certain human being. He had many characteristics in this his present life. He had a certain task in life, he had indeed his profession. But to intuitive vision, from all that he did out of his profession, or that he did as a philanthropist and the like, no indication of his former earthly lives could be found. Not that these things were unconnected with his former lives on earth, but for spiritual vision they gave no clue. One could penetrate no farther when concentrating on these facts of his profession or of his philanthropic work. On the other hand, curiously enough, a quite unimportant peculiarity of his life gave a result. He frequently had to lecture. Every time before he began he quite habitually took out his pocket handkerchief and blew his nose! I often heard him lecture, and without exception whenever he began to speak (I do not mean when he began to speak in conversation, but whenever he had to speak continuously) he first took out his pocket-handkerchief and blew his nose. Now this gave a picture from which there radiated out the power to look into his former lives on earth.

I give this as a particularly grotesque example. It is not always so grotesque; but the point is, we must be able to enter into the whole human being if we wish to look in any valid way into his karma.

You see, from a deeper point of view, the special calling of a man is, after all, something that results from education and other circumstances. On the other hand, it is deeply connected with his inner spiritual configuration if every time before he begins to make a speech he simply cannot help taking out his pocket-handkerchief and blowing his nose! That is a thing far more intimately connected with the being of a man. Still, I admit, this is a radical and extreme example. It is not always quite like this. I wanted only to awaken in you the idea that for the investigation of karma, that which lies on the obvious surface of a man's life is as a rule of no use. We have to enter into certain intimate features of his life—I do not mean into things that one pries into unjustifiably—but into the finer qualities and characteristics that nevertheless appear quite openly.

Having said this by way of introduction, I will now relate a certain instance perfectly frankly and straightforwardly, and of course with all the reservations which are necessary in the case. I mean with the reservation that everyone is free to believe or disbelieve what I now say, though I must assure you that it is based on the deepest and most earnest spiritual-scientific research.

These things do not by any means come to one if one approaches them with the deliberate intention to investigate, like a modern scientist in his laboratory. In a certain way, researches on karma must themselves result from karma.

I had to mention this fact at the end of the new edition of my book Theosophy, for among the various strange requirements that have been made of me from time to time during my life, this too occurred not long ago.—It was suggested that I should submit myself to examination in some psychological laboratory, so that they might ascertain whether the things I have to say on spiritual science are well founded. It is of course just as absurd as if someone were to produce mathematical results and, instead of testing their accuracy, you were to challenge him to submit to an examination in a laboratory, to see whether or not he was a real mathematician. Absurdities of this kind go under the name of scholarship to-day and are taken seriously by learned people!

I said quite definitely at the close of the new edition of my Theosophy, that experiments in this spirit can of course give no result. And I also mentioned that all the paths of approach which lead to the discovery of a certain occult result must themselves be prepared in a spiritual, in a super-sensible way.

Now I once had occasion to meet an eminent doctor of our time, who was well known to me by reputation and especially by his literary career. I had a very high regard for him. You see, I am mentioning the karmic details which led to the investigation, the results of which I shall now describe. The investigation itself took a very long time and only reached its conclusion during the last few weeks. Only now has it reached a stage which enables me conscientiously to speak of it. I am mentioning all these details in order that you may see some at least of the inner connections, though of course not all of them.

Thus I made the acquaintance of this doctor, a man of our own day. When I met him I was in the company of another person whom I had known very well for a long time. This other person had always made, I will not say a deep, but a very thorough impression on me. He was exceedingly fond of the society of men who were interested in occultism in the widest possible range, though an occultism somewhat externally conceived. He was fond of relating the views of his many acquaintances on all kinds of occult matters, and especially on the occult connections of what the modern artist should strive for, as a lyric and epic poet, or as a dramatist. Around this person there was what I might call a kind of moral, ethical aura. I am applying the word ‘moral’ to all that is connected with the soul-qualities under the command of the will.

I was paying a visit to him, and in his company I found the other man first mentioned, whom I knew by reputation and respected very highly for his literary and medical career. Everything that took place during this visit made a deep impression on me and impelled me to receive the whole experience into the realm of spiritual research.

Then a very remarkable thing happened. By witnessing the two persons in the company of one another, and by the impression which my new acquaintance made on me—(I had known him for a long time as an eminent literary and medical man and had a great regard for him, but this was the first time that I saw him in the flesh)—by these impressions I gained certain perceptions. To begin with however, it enabled me, not to investigate in any way the connections in life and destiny of my new acquaintance. On the contrary, my seeing them together shed light as it were upon the other one, whom I had long known. And the result was this.—He had lived in ancient Egypt, not in his last, but in one of his former lives on earth. And (this is the peculiar thing) he had been mummified, embalmed as a mummy. Soon afterwards I discovered that the mummy was still in existence. Indeed a long time afterwards I saw the actual mummy. This, then, was the starting-point. But once the line of research had been kindled in connection with the person whom I had long known, it shed its light still farther, and eventually I was enabled to investigate the karmic connections of the other man, my new acquaintance, the doctor. And the following was the result.

As a general rule one is led from one earthly life of a human being to the preceding one. But in this case intuition led far back into ancient Egypt, to a kind of chieftain in ancient Egypt. It was a chieftain who in a certain sense, indeed in a very interesting way, possessed the ancient Egyptian Initiation, but had become somewhat decadent as an Initiate. In the further course of his life, he began to take his Initiation not very seriously, indeed he even treated it with a certain scorn. Now this man had a servant, who in his turn was extremely serious. This servant was of course not initiated; but both of them together were given the task of embalming mummies and procuring the substances for this purpose, which was no easy matter.

Now especially in the more ancient periods of Egypt, the process of embalming mummies was very complicated and demanded an intimate knowledge of the human being, of the human body. Nay more, of those who had to do the embalming—if they did it legitimately—deep knowledge of the human soul was required. The chieftain of whom I spoke had been initiated for this very work, but he gradually became, in a manner of speaking, frivolous in relation to this, his proper calling. So it came about that in the course of time he betrayed (so they would have put it in the language of the Mysteries) the knowledge he had received through his Initiation to his servant, and the latter gradually proved to be a man who understood the content of Initiation better than the Initiate himself. Thus the servant became the embalmer of mummies, and at length his master did not even trouble to supervise the work, though of course he still took advantage of the social position, etc., which this honourable task involved. But at length his character became such that he no longer enjoyed great respect, and he thus came into various conflicts of life. The servant, on the other hand, worked his way up by degrees to a very, very earnest conception of life, and was thus taken hold of, in a remarkably congenial way, by a kind of Initiation. It was no real Initiation, but it lived within him instinctively. Thus a large number of mummies were mummified under the supervision and co-operation of these two people.

Time went on. The two men passed through the gate of death and underwent the experiences of which I shall speak next time—the experiences in the super-sensible which are connected with the development of karma or destiny. And in the Roman epoch they both of them came back to earthly life. They came back at the very time when the dominion of the Roman Emperors was founded, in the time of Augustus—not exactly, but approximately, in the time of Augustus himself.

I said above that this is a matter of conscientious research, no less exact in its methods than any researches of physics or chemistry, and I should not speak of these things unless for some weeks past it had become possible for me to speak of them so definitely.

The chieftain, who had gradually become a really frivolous Initiate, and who, when he had passed through the gate of death, had felt this as an extraordinarily bitter trial of earthly life, experiencing it in all the bitterness of its effects—we find him again as Julia, the daughter of Augustus. She married Tiberius, the step-son of Augustus, and led a life which to herself seemed justified but was considered, in the Roman society of that time, so immoral that at length both she and Tiberius were banished.

The other man—the servant who had worked his way from the bottom upwards nearly to the grade of an Initiate—was born again at the same time, as the Roman historian Titus Livius, or Livy.

It is most interesting how Livy came to be an historian. In the ancient Egyptian times he had embalmed a large number of mummies. The souls who had lived in the bodies of these mummies—very many of them—were reincarnated as Romans. And certain ones among them were actually reincarnated as the seven Kings of Rome. For the Seven Kings were no mere legendary figures. Going back into the time when the chieftain and his servant had lived in Egypt, we come into a very old Egyptian epoch. Now through a certain law which applies especially to the reincarnation of souls whose bodies have been mummified, these souls were called back again to earth comparatively soon. And the karmic connection of the servant of the chieftain with the souls whose bodies he had embalmed was so intimate, that he had to write the history of the very same human being whom in a previous life he had embalmed, though naturally, he also included the history of many others whom he had not embalmed. Thus Titus Livius became an historian. Now I would like some, indeed as many of you as possible, to take Livy's Roman History, and, with the knowledge that results from these karmic connections, to receive a real impression of his style. You will see that his peculiar penetration into the human being and his tendency at the same time towards the style of the myth, is akin to that intimate knowledge of man which an embalmer could attain.

We do not perceive such connections until the corresponding researches have been made. But once this has been done, a great light is shed on many things. It is difficult to understand the origin of the peculiar style of Titus Livius, who as it were embalms the human beings whom he describes. For such is his style. Real light is thrown upon it when we point to these connections.

Thus we have the same two people again as Julia and Titus Livius. Then Julia and Livy passed once more through the gate of death. The one soul had had the experience of being an Initiate to a considerable degree, and having then distorted his Initiation by frivolous conduct. He had discovered all the bitterness of the after-effects of this in the life between death and a new birth. He had then undergone a peculiar destiny in his new life on earth as Julia, of which life you may read in history. The result was, that in his next life between death and a new birth (following on the life as Julia) he conceived a strong antipathy to this his incarnation as Julia. And in a curious way this antipathy of his was universalised. For spiritual intuition shows this individuality in his life between death and a new birth as though perpetually crying out: “Would that I had never become a woman! It was the evil that I did in yonder life in ancient Egypt which led me thus to become a woman.”

We can now trace the life of these two individualities still farther. We come into the Middle Ages. We find Livy again as the glad poet and minstrel in the very centre of the Middle Ages. We are astonished to find him thus, for there is no connection between the external callings. But the greatest possible surprises that a human being can possibly have are those that result from a real study of successive lives on earth. The Roman historian, with his style that proceeded from a knowledge of man acquired in embalming mummies, with his style so wonderfully light—we find him again as the poet Walther von der Vogelweide. His style is carried upwards, as it were, upon the wings of lyric poetry.

Walther von der Vogelweide lived in the Tyrol. He had many patrons; and among his many patrons there was one very peculiar man, who was on familiar terms with alchemists of every kind, for there were scores of alchemists at that time, in the Tyrol. This man was himself the owner of a castle, but he frequented all manner of alchemists' dens and hovels. In so doing he learned extraordinarily much, and (as happened in the case of Paracelsus too) by spending his time in the dens of alchemists he was impelled to study all occult matters very intensely, and gained an unusually intense feeling for occult things. He thus came into the position of rediscovering in the Tyrol what was then only known as a legend, namely, the Castle in the Mountain—the Castle in the Rocks—(which indeed no one would have recognised as such, for it consisted of rocks, it was hollowed out of the rocks)—I mean, the Castle of the Dwarf King Laurin. The daemonic nature in the district of the Castle of the Dwarf King Laurin made a profound impression on him. Thus there was a remarkable combination in this soul—Initiation which he had carried into frivolity, annoyance at having been a woman and having thus been drawn into the sphere of Roman immorality and, at the same time, Roman cant and hypocrisy about morals; and lastly, an intimate knowledge, though still only external, of all manner of alchemical matters, which knowledge he had extended to a clear feeling of the nature-daemons and of other spiritual agencies in nature.

These two men—though it is not recorded in the biography of Walther, nevertheless it is the case—Walther von der Vogelweide and this other man often came together, and Walther received many an influence and impulse from him.

Here we have an instance of what is really a kind of karmic law. We see the same people drawn together again and again, called to the earth again and again simultaneously, complementing one another, living in a kind of mutual contrast. It is interesting once more, to enter into the peculiar lyrical style of Walther. It is as though at last he had grown thoroughly sick of embalming dead mummies and had turned to an entirely different aspect of life. He will no longer have anything to do with dead things, but only with the fullness and joy of life. And yet again, there is a certain undercurrent of pessimism in his work. Feel the style of Walther von der Yogelweide, feel in his style the two preceding earthly lives: feel too, his restless life. It is extraordinarily reminiscent of that life which dawns upon one who spends much of his time with the dead, when many destinies are unburdened in the soul. For such indeed was the case with an embalmer of mummies.

Now we go on.—My further researches into this karmic chain led me at length into the same room where I had visited my old acquaintance, whom I had recognised as an Egyptian mummy. And now I perceived that this very mummy had been embalmed by the other man whom I now met in his room. The whole line of research led me back to this same room. In effect, I found the soul who had passed through the servant of the old Egyptian embalmer, through Titus Livius, through Walther von der Vogelweide—I found him again in the doctor of our time, in Ludwig Schleich.

Thus astonishingly do the connections in life appear. Who, with the ordinary consciousness alone, can understand an earthly life? It can only be understood when we know what is there in the foundations of a soul. Theoretically, many people know that deep in the foundations of the soul there are the layers of successive earthly lives. But it becomes real and concrete only when we behold it in a specific instance.

Then inner vision was directed out of this room once more. (For in the case of the other man, who had been mummified by this one, I was led to no more clues—at any rate to no important ones.) On the other hand I now perceived the further soul-pilgrimage of the old chieftain, of Julia, of the discoverer of Laurin's Castle. For he came back to earth as August Strindberg.

Now I would like you to take the whole life and literary work of August Strindberg and set it against the background which I have just described. See the peculiar misogyny of Strindberg, which is no true misogyny, but proceeds from quite different foundations. Look, too, at all the strange daemonic elements that occur in his works. See his peculiar attraction to all manner of alchemistic and occult arts and artifices. And at length, look at the adventurous life of August Strindberg. You will find how well it stands out against the background which I have described.

Then read the Memoirs of Ludwig Schleich, his relations to August Strindberg, and you will see how all this arises once more against the background of their former earthly lives. Indeed, from the Memoirs of Ludwig Schleich a very remarkable light may suddenly arise, a light truly astonishing. For the man in whose company I first met Ludwig Schleich—the man of whom I said that in his ancient Egyptian life he was mummified by Schleich—it is he of whom Schleich himself tells in his Memoirs that he led him to Strindberg. In a past life, Strindberg and Schleich had worked together upon the corpse. And the soul who dwelt in that body, led them together again.

Thus, all that we have to explain to begin with about repeated earthly lives and the karmic connections in general, becomes real and concrete. Only then do the facts that appear in earthly life become transparent. A single human life on earth is an entire mystery. What else can it be, until seen against the background of the former lives on earth?

My dear friends, when I explain such things as these I always have an accompanying feeling. If these things which it has become possible to set forth since the Christmas Foundation Meeting are to be regarded in a true sense they demand real earnestness in the listener. They demand an earnest spirit. They require us to stand with real earnestness in the Anthroposophical Movement. For they might easily lead to all manner of frivolities. But they are brought forward here because it is necessary for the Anthroposophical Society to-day to take its stand on a basis of real earnestness and to become conscious of its tasks in modern civilisation.

Having thus laid the foundation, I wish to speak in the next lecture about the karma of the Anthroposophical Society. And in the following lecture which I shall then announce, I shall pass on to describe what these studies of karma may become for the human being who wishes to understand his own life in its deeper meaning.

by Hella Wiesberger

At the re-establishment of the Anthroposophical Society at Christmas 1923/24, Rudolf Steiner spoke of his plan to establish the new esoteric school in future as a “Free University for Spiritual Science” with three classes and pointed out that such three classes had existed before, only in a slightly different form. These were the three working groups or departments of the Esoteric School, as they had existed from 1904 until the outbreak of the First World War in the summer of 1914. In keeping with the precept of maintaining continuity as far as possible, he had also linked these groups to what already existed at the time and which lay in the direction of his own intentions: for the first group to the Esoteric School of Theosophy of the Theosophical Society, for the second and third groups, from which the department of the cult of knowledge was formed, to a society with masonic cult forms. ¹

Structure

The Esoteric School of Theosophy – abbreviated as E.S.T. or simply called E.S. – was founded in 1888 by H.P. Blavatsky and was under her sole leadership until her death in 1891.² After that, Annie Besant and W.Q. Judge took over together, and from 1895 A. Besant alone.” The few German Theosophists who were seeking esoteric training were affiliated with this E.S. in London. It was only through Rudolf Steiner that a German Esoteric School was established together with the German Society.

The following can still be reconstructed today about the successive development of the first circle initially affiliated with the E.S.T.

On October 20, 1902, the German Section of the Theosophical Society, based in Berlin, was officially founded with Rudolf Steiner as General Secretary and Marie von Sivers as Secretary. Annie Besant, one of the most active representatives of the Theosophical Society and then head of the Esoteric School, came to Berlin and delivered the certificate of foundation. On this occasion, Rudolf Steiner asked her to admit him to the E.S.³ He reports on this in his “Life Course” (chapter 32) as follows:

"In this context, I must discuss something that the opposing side, shrouded in a fog of misunderstanding, repeatedly brings up. For personal reasons I need not talk about it at all, because it had no influence on my development or on my public work. And compared to everything I have to describe here, it remained a purely “private” matter. It is my admission to the “Esoteric School” within the Theosophical Society.

This “Esoteric School” goes back to H.P. Blavatsky. She had created a place for a small inner circle of the Society where she shared what she did not want to say in the general Society. Like other experts on the spiritual world, she did not consider it possible to communicate certain deeper teachings to the general public.

Now all this is connected with the way in which H. P. Blavatsky came by her teachings. There has always been a tradition of such teachings, going back to the old mystery schools. This tradition is cultivated in all kinds of societies, which strictly guard against the teachings of the societies from leaking out.

But from some quarter it was thought advisable to communicate such teachings to H. P. Blavatsky. She then connected what she received with revelations that arose within her. For she was a human individuality in whom the spiritual worked through a remarkable atavism, as it once worked in the leaders of the mysteries, in a state of consciousness that, compared to the modern one, was pervaded by the consciousness soul and tuned down into the dream-like. Thus, something in Blavatsky was renewed that had been at home in the mysteries of ancient times.

For the modern man there is an infallible way to decide what of the content of spiritual vision can be communicated to wider circles. This can happen with anything that the researcher can clothe in such ideas as are proper to the consciousness soul and as, by their very nature, also come into play in recognized science.

The situation is different when spiritual knowledge lives not in the consciousness soul but in more subconscious soul powers. These are not sufficiently independent of the forces at work in the physical. Therefore, for teachings that are brought from subconscious regions in this way, the communication can become dangerous. For such teachings can only be absorbed by the subconscious again. And teacher and student are moving in an area where what is beneficial and what is harmful to the human being must be treated very carefully.

All this does not apply to Anthroposophy because it draws its teachings entirely from the unconscious region.

Blavatsky's inner circle lived on in the “Esoteric School”. I had placed my anthroposophical work within the Theosophical Society. Therefore, I had to be informed about everything that was going on in it. For the sake of this information and because I myself considered a narrower circle necessary for those who had progressed in the anthroposophical spiritual knowledge, I allowed myself to be accepted into the “Esoteric School”. However, my narrower circle was to have a different meaning than this school. It was to represent a higher section, a higher class for those who had absorbed enough of the elementary knowledge of anthroposophy. Now I wanted to tie in with what already existed and what had been established historically. I wanted to do this with regard to the Theosophical Society and also with regard to the Esoteric School. That is why my “inner circle” initially existed in connection with this school. But the connection was only in the institutions, not in what I communicated from the spiritual world. So in the early years, my inner circle looked like a department of Mrs. Besant's “Esoteric School”. Internally, it was not at all like that. And in 1907, when Mrs. Besant was at the Theosophical Congress in Munich, the external connection between us also ceased completely, according to an agreement between Mrs. Besant and me.

The possibility that I could have learned something special from Mrs. Besant within the “Esoteric School” was out of the question, because I did not attend events of this school from the very beginning, except for a few that were intended to provide me with information about what was going on.

At the school at that time there was no other real content than that which came from H. P. Blavatsky, and that was already printed.⁴. In addition to this printed material, Mrs. Besant gave all sorts of Indian exercises for the advancement of knowledge, which I rejected.

Thus, until 1907, my immediate circle was, in a sense, related to what Mrs. Besant cultivated as such a circle in terms of the institution. But it is completely unjustified to make out of these facts what opponents have made out of them. They went so far as to assert the absurdity that I was led to the spiritual knowledge only through the esoteric school of Mrs. Besant."

The letters summarized in the first part of this volume document that Rudolf Steiner was asked for esoteric instructions immediately after the founding of the German Section, that is, even before he was officially nominated Arch-Warden (National Leader) of the Esoteric School in 1904. The formation of a circle, which he considered necessary and which his first students hoped for, is hinted at in the letter to Marie von Sivers of April 16, 1903, which states: “Without a core of true Theosophists who, through the most diligent meditation work, improve the present karma, the Theosophical teaching would only be preached to half-deaf ears.” (GA 262), as well as by the answer to a corresponding question from Mathilde Scholl: “It would be quite nice if the newer members of the E.S. in Germany would somehow come together more closely. We need that especially in Germany. For the E.S. must become the soul of the Theosophical Society.” (Letter dated May 1, 1903, $43.

One year after this statement, in May 1904, Rudolf Steiner and Marie von Sivers spent a week in London to discuss with Annie Besant his role in the E.S. Marie von Sivers was always present as an interpreter during his personal conversations with Annie Besant. In a circular letter dated May 10, 1904, sent to all members of the E.S. in Germany and Austria, Annie Besant announced that Rudolf Steiner had been authorized to act as Arch-Warden for Germany and Austria. According to his statements, he was also responsible for German-speaking Switzerland and Hungary.⁵ Annie Besant's circular letter of May 10, 1904, read as follows (see facsimile on page 26):

To all members of the E.S. in Germany and Austria.

I hereby appoint Dr. Rudolf Steiner as Arch-Warden of the E.S. in Germany and the Austrian Empire, with full authority, as my representative, to call meetings of the school, to organize groups and appoint Wardens, and to do all else necessary for the welfare of the school, remaining in direct communication with myself. Annie Besant.

(To all members of the E.S. in Germany and Austria.

I hereby appoint Dr. Rudolf Steiner as Arch-Leader of the E.S. in Germany and Austria, with full authority as my representative to hold meetings of the school, organize groups and appoint leaders, and to do everything necessary for the welfare of the school in direct communication with myself. Annie Besant.

Upon his return from London to Berlin, Rudolf Steiner began to build up his Esoteric School in addition to his activities for the public dissemination of spiritual science and the development of the Society. Since he placed the main emphasis of his activity from the very beginning on public work, he began to present the Christian-Rosicrucian path of training that is necessary for the West in a series of articles in the public Theosophical journal “Lucifer-Gnosis”, which he founded and edited: “How to Know Higher Worlds?” (June 1904 to 1908, 1st edition 1909). The earliest date of an E.S. event undertaken by him in his capacity as Arch-Warden of the E.S.T. also dates from this month of June 1904. It was during the days of the Theosophical Congress in Amsterdam, which lasted from June 18 to 21, 1904, and in which, in addition to Rudolf Steiner and Marie von Sivers, several German Theosophists also participated; among them were Mathilde Scholl from Cologne, Sophie Stinde and Pauline von Kalckreuth from Munich, Günther Wagner from Lugano and his sister Amalie Wagner from Hamburg. Mathilde Scholl reports that Amalie Wagner was to be accepted into the E.S. at the time and that Rudolf Steiner organized this acceptance in her hotel room. However, this can only have been a kind of anticipation, since the official E.S. work was only established from Berlin after the Amsterdam Congress. The first esoteric lessons took place there on July 9 and 14, 1904; at any rate, these are the two earliest known dates for esoteric lessons in Berlin, and from the available notes it can be seen that the E.S. work in Berlin began at that time. But these lessons must actually still be counted among the preliminary stages, which basically extended into the fall of 1905. For it was only when the second and third departments were established that the school was fully formed.

During the month of August vacation in 1904, Rudolf Steiner addressed personal letters to various external members, admitting them to the school or inviting them to join. Another E.S. meeting was planned for the beginning of September (according to a letter dated August 29, 1904 to Günther Wagner); however, it is not known whether it actually took place.

In the second half of September 1904, Rudolf Steiner accompanied Annie Besant on her lecture tour through several German cities and repeated the public lectures she gave in English in German. At the last stop on this trip, in Cologne, where both were staying with Mathilde Scholl, a meeting of E.S. members also took place, according to her account: “Mrs. Besant, Dr. Steiner, Fräulein von Sivers, Miss Bright, Mr. Keightley, Mathilde Scholl in Mrs. Besant's room. Before we left the room, Mrs. Besant spoke with Dr. Steiner about the study material for E.S. students. She recommended Leadbeater's “The Christian Creed.” Dr. Steiner replied politely but firmly that he could not use this book for his students.

In the period that followed, until May 1905, a few esoteric lessons took place in Berlin. But the first official orientation through the “long-prepared circular letter to the German E.S. members” with rules did not take place until the beginning of June 1905.

In October 1905, when a large number of members travelled to Berlin at the express request of Rudolf Steiner for the general assembly of the German Section and the School was expanded to include the second and third sections of the Knowledge of Religion, several E.S. lessons were also held. Steiner personally wrote down the content of the lesson of October 24, 1905 for Anna Wagner, the wife of Günther Wagner, who had been unable to attend for health reasons. ⁶ This is the only esoteric lecture recorded in his handwriting, apart from the short summary in a letter from the lecture on October 4, 1905 for Adolf Kolbe in Hamburg. All other records of such hours were made by participants afterwards from memory, since it was not allowed to take notes during the hours themselves.

From this autumn of 1905 onwards, more and more esoteric hours took place not only in Berlin, but also in other German cities and later in other countries, where Rudolf Steiner's students worked in this way. After the outbreak of the First World War in the summer of 1914, the esoteric work was discontinued because strictly closed events could be mistrusted, but also because it was not possible to work esoterically in a time so burdened by strong emotions. It was only ten years later, in connection with the re-establishment of the Anthroposophical Society, that an Esoteric School was re-established.

The rules

From the relevant documents it can be seen that during the period of the establishment of the first esoteric working group, “rules” were set up that were based on those of the E.S.T. The latter were originally very strict, but over time they were modified several times. At the time of Rudolf Steiner's affiliation, admission to the T.S. could be requested after two years of membership. The school was divided into grades, which could be worked through in four different ways or methods (disciplines): a general one, a special yoga one, a Christian-Gnostic one, and a Pythagorean one. Before one was admitted to the actual training, however, one had to belong to the probationary or hearer order (Shrävaka order in Indian) for at least one, and later two, years. Upon admission, a written “promise” had to be given to treat the received papers confidentially and to return them upon request. After the prescribed probationary period, one could be admitted to the actual first degree, provided one was willing to make the written vow to make Theosophy the all-determining factor of one's life.

Since Rudolf Steiner's first esoteric study group was outwardly affiliated with the examination order of the E.S.T., and within the general discipline therefore in the first rules issued by him the designation “Shrävaka-Orden” - was connected, his students also had to give the obligatory “promise”, as can be seen from various letters. He ran his working group completely independently of this. For example, there were no electable disciplines, even though the four disciplines are mentioned in the letters to Anna and Günther Wagner dated January 2, 1905. But at that time everything was still in the process of being formed and soon after it had obviously become a matter of course to follow Rudolf Steiner's intentions. For example, on January 23, 1905, Mathilde Scholl, who through his mediation in May 1904 had been accepted by Annie Besant into the first degree of the E.S.T. in London, but had not yet received his instructions, wrote to him: “Personally, it is now of no importance to me at all whether Mrs. Mead sends the writings or not, because everything I need you give me and is given to me, and that is so much that I can only raise my eyes with awe and wonder at all that is coming.” Similar words are spoken in a letter from Günther Wagner, who wrote to him on April 3, 1905: “Months ago I received from Mrs. Oakley an English E.S. pamphlet containing messages about the four paths that are taken in the E.S., which you also mention in your kind and loving letter to my wife. My wife and I have decided to follow the 'Christian' path and now ask whether we should also start on April 1 in Germany, as stated in the English pamphlet. Will a German instruction be issued? Probably, since you cannot give written instructions to all E.S. members living abroad. I would also like to know whether there are any other regulations for students in the first degree (according to the old regulations) than those in the English brochure, or whether everyone should follow these from now on. On January 2, you wrote to my wife, instructing her to do the exercises for four weeks from around January 6. She did that and continues to do so, but she too is asking for further instructions.” These questions were answered more and more with the first E.S. circular letter of June 5, 1905 and the further instructions given.

Thus far, the gradual development of the first circle can be reconstructed. However, the question of how the oath of the E.S.T. was handled remains open, since Rudolf Steiner's pupils did not go through the degrees of the E.S.T. and yet there are some such oaths that, as far as they are dated, date from 1906. Whether they were given at the time of admission to the first degree of the Section for the Cult of Knowledge or in some other context is not known. In any case, in the same year, 1906, Rudolf Steiner also wrote to an esoteric disciple: “Please do not regard the keeping of secrets as an obligation in principle, but as a temporary one, due to the confused present circumstances in the E.S. and T.S. ... I myself would be glad if this too need not be.” This statement is consistent with the fact that nothing of it has been handed down - although the circle of students had already grown quite large - that after the separation from E.S.T. in May 1907, Rudolf Steiner had written promises made. In fact, when the Esoteric School was re-established in 1924, the only appeal made with regard to the obligation to treat the teaching material received confidentially was to the sense of responsibility of the individual. In this sense, Marie Steiner wrote after Rudolf Steiner's death: “He did not believe that esotericism could be practised as in earlier times, in the deepest seclusion, with strictly binding vows. These were no longer compatible with the sense of freedom of the individual. The soul must come before its own higher self and recognize what it owes to this self and to the spiritual world in reverent silence.” ⁷

The teaching material

The teaching was divided into three parts, so to speak: the rules and exercises that applied equally to all students; the personal exercises; and the esoteric lessons, in which the intimacies of the training path were discussed and the consciousness was directed to the great teachers of humanity, the masters of wisdom and of the harmony of feelings, as the actual leaders of the school. The ideal goal of the training was, through the higher consciousness developed by the exercises, to gradually find access to the Masters themselves.

The descriptions of the nature and work of the Masters, as imparted in esoteric hours, were intended to help on this path. The little that has been handed down is summarized in the section on the Masters. However, since Rudolf Steiner not only spoke about them in esoteric lessons, but also in lectures for members of the Society and even in public, a sufficient idea can be gained from the picture that he painted of the Masters. See the attempt at an overview in the appendix to the section 'From the teaching material on the Masters...'.

Knowledge about the masters has been of fundamental importance in the Theosophical Society and its Esoteric School since its inception.⁸ For Rudolf Steiner himself, the existence of the masters was a reality that he had personally experienced decades before his association with the Theosophical Society. He testified to this on several occasions.⁹ He also taught from his own experience the necessity of teaching the truths of occultism to the world, as he received them from his master. Beiträge zur Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe», Heft 83/84, 1984. There is also personal testimony that he was convinced by his Master of the necessity of teaching the truths of occultism to the world:

”... if the Master had not been able to convince me that despite everything [the immaturity of the time for the high truths of occultism], Theosophy is necessary for our age: I would have written only philosophical books even after 1901, and, speaking literarily and philosophically.” (Letter of January 9, 1905 to Marie von Sivers, GA 262).

And he had only joined the Society after he had realized at the “endpoint of a long inner development” that “the spiritual forces I must serve are present in the T.S.” ¹⁰

However, while in the T.S. the Masters were always spoken of as the “Masters of Wisdom”, he spoke of them as the “Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings” or also the “Feelings of Humanity”, because they not only possess a high degree of wisdom, but also an “unlimited source of love for humanity” (letter of August 2, 1904, p. 62). This nuance, like everything in his work, points to the central point of his spiritual knowledge: the unique significance of the Christ principle for the development of all humanity and the Earth. For Steiner, Christ was the Master of all Masters and the “Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings” were those who “stand in direct connection with the forces of the higher hierarchies” (Düsseldorf Lecture, June 15, 1915) and who have grasped that “the progress of humanity depends on the comprehension of the great event of Golgotha” (Berlin, March 22, 1909).

The most enlightening thing about Rudolf Steiner's personal relationship with the masters is probably what he said in one of his very first public lectures in Berlin. Referring to the description of these highly developed individuals in Sinnett's “Secret Buddhism”, he tried to make it clear that, if one bears in mind that there are endless possibilities on the ladder of development — from the least developed to, for example, Goethe and beyond — the concept of the master need not be strange to European thinking. And then follow the words that are so decisive for him:

”...that the so-called masters are great inspirers for us - nothing more - great inspirers in spiritual realms. However, their development goes far beyond what is offered by popular culture. They are great inspirations for us; but they do not demand faith in any authority, not faith in any dogma. They appeal to nothing but one's own human insight and provide guidance on how to develop the powers and abilities that lie in every human soul, through certain methods, in order to ascend to the higher realms of existence.” (Berlin, October 13, 1904)

In the following lecture, he characterizes the masters in such a way that it can be understood how they, in particular, respect human freedom to the highest degree, so that no kind of dependency can arise. For example, no one can suffer harm from the rules in “How to Know Higher Worlds,” in contrast to much of what is touted in such fields today. But because so much is being advertised that is not only worthless but can also be harmful, “the Masters have given permission to publish such rules.” (Berlin, December 15, 1904).

Taking the various statements about the Masters, at first glance they seem to contradict each other. In particular, what was said in the lecture of October 13, 1904 seems to contradict what is to be read in letters to esoteric disciples: “I can and may only lead so far as the exalted Master, who guides me Himself, gives me the instruction” (Letter of August 11, 1904); or when it is said that the theosophical teachings go back to the Masters:

"We say rightly that Theosophy did not come into the world through this or that book, nor through this or that sum of dogmas. Theosophy comes from those exalted individuals whom we call the Masters of wisdom and of the harmony of intuitions, because they have opened the sources of spiritual life, which can henceforth flow into human beings.

“Spiritual life ultimately goes back to those sources that we seek in those individualities whom we call the Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings. In them we find the impulses, if we seek them rightly, of how we are to work from epoch to epoch, from age to age.” (Berlin, December 26, 1909)

However, if we delve into these various statements, the apparent contradiction between them disappears. It becomes clear that Rudolf Steiner himself belongs to those initiates who receive the impulses of the masters with their free powers of thought and have to elaborate them for the progress of humanity. The world of the supersensible, and thus also of the masters, has its own language. It reveals itself in signs and symbols, the study and interpretation of which is only possible through special training. The way in which occult revelations are translated, interpreted and applied depends entirely on the depth of the person's ability to comprehend and on their sense of moral responsibility. Rudolf Steiner's achievement for cultural progress lies quite obviously in the fact that he was able to translate the sign language of the underlying creative-spiritual of all existence into the conceptual language of anthroposophy, which is in keeping with modern consciousness. He had to represent this personal deed in the world without having to invoke the authority of the masters. He was personally responsible for his teaching. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Steiner, especially in the years after the First World War, no longer spoke of the Masters in the intimate way of the earlier years, the stronger the scientific character of Anthroposophy was developed. ¹¹

The way of teaching in the Esoteric School

While Rudolf Steiner personally took responsibility for the way in which he publicly taught his supersensible knowledge in the sense described above, the same did not apply in the same way to the Esoteric School. He himself stated that the school was under the direct leadership of the masters and that it must therefore be a basic commitment of the school that everything that flows through it originates only from the Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings, while the basic obligation for the students would be to apply their entire reason to everything that was taught and to ask themselves whether it is reasonable to follow this path. (Esoteric Lesson Düsseldorf, April 19, 1909, p. 223).

Apparently not always, but in certain esoteric lessons or in certain moments of esoteric lessons, Rudolf Steiner spoke as the direct messenger of the masters. A participant in the Düsseldorf lesson of April 19, 1909 reports that this particular lesson began with the words: “My dear sisters and brothers! This esoteric lesson is one that is not subject to the responsibility of the one who speaks!” And this was said because in the following description of how Zarathustra was once initiated by the spirit of the sun, Rudolf Steiner was said to have been Zarathustra himself at that moment. It could have been perceived as a tremendous experience, how “our great teacher, who had shared with us the results of his research, now showed us himself how an ancient leader and teacher of humanity could reveal himself in an inspiring way,” how Rudolf Steiner was the first person in modern times to be trained, not as a medium, but as a fully conscious spiritual researcher, through his own strict schooling, to become a serving tool for spiritual beings."

Only a few have passed on something about this very special way in which Rudolf Steiner could be experienced as a messenger of the masters in the esoteric hours. One of them put his memory into the words:

Another reports the deep impression he received when he was able to attend an esoteric session for the first time, with the following words:

"Everyone was sitting in silence. When Rudolf Steiner entered, an unearthly light seemed to shine on his face, from the realm from which he came to us - it didn't just seem like it: it was there. He spoke as if he knew the great masters who guide our lives and aspirations from an immediate knowledge: Kuthumi, Morya, Jesus and Christian Rosenkreutz - the “Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings”.

Suffice to say that the consecration of this hour was indescribably beautiful. Here Rudolf Steiner appeared entirely as the messenger of a higher world. The impression is unforgettable.¹³

In his book of memoirs, “Transformations of Life” (Basel 1975), the well-known Russian poet Andrei Bely describes in the most detailed and linguistically subtle way how he experienced the task of training attention more for the how than the what in the “Class of Hearing”. For there was no external difference between the esoteric lectures and the other lectures, since everything had an esoteric tone, all the more delicate the more popularly Rudolf Steiner spoke. But what could have been experienced in a concentrated way in the esoteric lectures was precisely how the how became the what and radiated everything.

• 1. See “On the History and the Content of the Gnostic Section of the Esoteric School”, CW 265.
• 2. For the history of the E.S.T., see the preliminary remarks to the second part of this volume.
• 3. On October 23, 1902. Marie von Sivers had already become a member of the E.S.T.
• 4. "Esotericism” (3rd volume of Blavatsky's “Secret Doctrine”), published as posthumous writings by Annie Besant (1897)
• 5. See “Rules”, page 144
• 6. In “From the content of the esoteric lectures”, GA 266/1.
• 7. Preface to the first edition of the lectures “The Karmic Connections of the Anthroposophical Movement”, Dornach 1926, reprinted in “Contributions to the Rudolf Steiner Complete Works” No. 23 Christmas 1968.
• 8. For more on this, see the preliminary remarks to the second part.
• 9. See the Notes for Edouard Schur and letters to Marie Steiner-von Sivers, both in Briefwechsel und Dokumente... (Correspondence and Documents...), GA 262; also the autobiographical lecture Berlin, February 4, 1913 in Beiträge zur Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe, Heft 83/84, 1984.
• 10. In a draft of the first circular letter to the German Theosophical lodges in the summer of 1902, before the official founding of the German section. In Briefwechsel und Dokumente... (Correspondence and Documents...), GA 262, note on page 17.
• 11. Elisabeth Vreede in a lecture given in Stuttgart on July 9, 1930. See Elisabeth Vreede/Thomas Meyer: Zur Bodhisattvafrage, Basel 1989.
• 12. Jenny Schirmer-Bey in “What is happening in the Anthroposophical Society. News for its members”, 1974, No. 35 dated September 1, 1974
• 13. Ludwig Kleeberg, “Wege und Worte”, Stuttgart 1961