The Rudolf Steiner Archive

by Hella Wiesberger

The information contained in the section 'Notes on the Temple Legend' about the re-embodiments of Hiram Abiff as Lazarus-Johannes and as Christian Rosenkreutz needs to be supplemented, since it only forms part of what can be called Rudolf Steiner's research on Hiram and Johannes in the field of reincarnation. For it is not only concerned with the individuality of Lazarus-Johannes, the evangelist and apocalypticist, but also with that of John the Baptist, as well as the mysterious connection between the two.

These reincarnation research findings, which encompass both John figures equally, occupy a prominent position in the biography of his work because they stand at the beginning and end of Rudolf Steiner's spiritual scientific lecturing activity and also run like a “red thread” through his entire work (Marie Steiner).

The first of these research results can be found at the beginning of Steiner's spiritual scientific lectures (1901/02) in connection with the threefold approach to justifying Christianity as a mystical fact and as the central event of human history: the lecture cycle “From Buddha to Christ” in the Berlin literary avant-garde circle “Die Kommenden”; the lecture series on Egyptian and Greek mystery religions and Christianity in the circle of Berlin theosophists; and the essay “Christianity as Mystical Fact”. All three presentations culminated in the interpretation of the Gospel of John, beginning with the raising of Lazarus as an initiation performed by Christ Jesus and in the conclusion that the raised Lazarus was the author of the Gospel of John. The cycle 'From Buddha to Christ', of which there are no transcripts, ended, according to Rudolf Steiner's statement in his lecture Dornach, June 11, 1923, with this motif; in the transcripts of the lecture series to the Theosophists, it is found under the date of March 15, 1902. In the writing 'Christianity as a Mystical Fact' does not state directly that Lazarus is the author of the Gospel of John, but it follows from the whole presentation.¹

Immediately after the attempt to justify Christianity, Rudolf Steiner also began to introduce the teachings of reincarnation and karma into European intellectual life, since all spiritual scientific research is based on them. ² This applies particularly to those on history; after all, history is brought about by the re-embodied human souls, in that they carry over the results of their lives in one epoch into their lives in other epochs. And because this also applies to the spiritual guides of humanity, an essential chapter is devoted to their impulses in the various ages in the wide-ranging subject of history and reincarnation. The two John figures are given a great deal of space in it.

The first communications from earlier lives on earth of these two Christian leaders were made by Rudolf Steiner in 1904, beginning with John the Baptist. In the public lecture on Christianity and Reincarnation held in Berlin on January 4, 1904, it is stated that reincarnation was taught in the mysteries at all times, including by Christ, who, as it is already stated in the Gospel, pointed out to his trusted disciples that John the Baptist was the reincarnated prophet Elijah. Further messages followed at the turn of the year 1908/09. The background to this is described by Marie Steiner in an essay written after Rudolf Steiner's death:

"It was at the time when Rudolf Steiner encouraged me to come forward more and more with the recitation. At the time, I was trying to work my way through to Novalis. I told him that it was not easy for me, that I had not yet found the key to Novalis. He advised me to put myself in the place of the holy nuns. The nuns did not help me. On the contrary. I didn't really know what to do with them. Then suddenly it brightened up: Raphael's figures surrounded me. The child, with his deep, profound eyes, shone in his mother's arms. “I see you in a thousand images, Maria, sweetly expressed...” A resounding ocean all around, harmonies of color. I said to Rudolf Steiner: The nuns did not do it. But someone else helped: Raphael. Now Novalis is completely transparent to me. A glow passed over Rudolf Steiner's mild countenance. A few days later, he revealed the secret of Novalis, Raphael and John Elias to us for the first time.3 From “On the Eve of Michaelmas Day” in “What is happening in the Anthroposophical Society. News for its members”, 2nd year 1925.

This “a few days later” cannot be dated exactly.⁴ The first fixed date is handed down through the recollections of a Novalis event that took place in Munich on January 6, 1909, and which is described as follows: “I saw and heard Marie von Sivers for the first time under the Christmas tree in the Munich branch's room, when she, surrounded by colorful afterimages of Raphael's paintings, recited verses by Novalis. It was around New Year 1908/09. The whole room was lined with rose-red satin, a rose cross – at that time still with twelve red roses – hung in the middle above the lectern, from where we have just heard through Rudolf Steiner about the being that was incarnated as Elijah, John the Baptist, Raphael, Novalis.” ⁵

It must therefore have been a very solemn event. The same applies to a half-year later event, when, in the middle of the lecture cycle on the Gospel of John in relation to the three other Gospels, a Novalis matinee took place again in Kassel (Kassel, July 4, 1909). Again, we have only the later written memory of a participant: “After a musical introduction, Rudolf Steiner announced that Marie von Sivers would recite some poems by Novalis. With deep empathy, Marie von Sivers spoke in the speech formation that was already her own. After that, Rudolf Steiner began his lecture, in which he presented the incarnations of Elijah-John the Baptist-Raphael-Novalis as a sequence of lives of the same individuality. ... Rudolf Steiner spoke in accordance with the mood of this recitation, in an extremely warm, insistent, even solemn manner. The lecture had an almost sacred character. ... And so at the end of the lecture - the only subject of which was this series of re-embodiments - there was a deep sense of emotion among the audience and many a eye shimmered with restrained tears among the men and welling tears among the women.6From Rudolf Toepel's memoirs for the Rudolf Steiner estate administration archive.

The fact that the process of re-embodiment is not as simple as one might imagine has already been pointed out:

"People, even theosophists, usually have far too simple a mental image of the secrets of reincarnation. One must not imagine that any soul that is embodied today in its three bodies simply embodied itself in a previous incarnation and then again in a previous incarnation, which was then preceded by another one, always according to the same pattern. The secrets are much more complicated. (...) We often cannot fit a historical figure into such a scheme if we want to understand them correctly. We have to approach it in a much more complicated way.” (Leipzig, September 12, 1908)

This was, so to speak, the announcement of what was then begun at the end of 1908 as a higher chapter of the doctrine of re-embodiment. Using concrete examples of historical figures, it was shown how, due to the law of spiritual economy for the preservation of what is valuable in spiritual terms, not only the human ego but also other aspects of the being can be re-embodied, and in other individualities. The descriptions of such interpenetrating embodiments in great spiritual teachers, the highest of whom are the so-called bodhisattvas, were one of the main themes of the years 1909 to 1914.⁷

Among the figures presented in this way, John the Baptist appears again and again. In particular, in the lecture cycle “The Gospel of Mark” (September 1912), not only is he given a great deal of space, but there is also a reference to an incarnation that predates the time of Elijah. Since then, five incarnations in spiritual history have been recognized: Phinehas (in the time of Moses), Elijah, John the Baptist, Raphael, Novalis. It is therefore all the more surprising that in the lectures on the “Fifth Gospel” (1913/14), delivered a year later, the following remark is made with reference to John the Baptist: “I am not saying this now from the Fifth Gospel” - by which he meant the results of the Akasha research on the figures of the Gospels - ‘because, with regard to the Fifth Gospel, it has not yet reached the figure of John the Baptist; but I am saying it from what might otherwise arise.’ (Berlin, January 13, 1914). In view of the amount of research that had already been done on John the Baptist, this remark can only refer to the research into the interpenetration of the embodied beings, as it had already been researched and presented for other figures in the Gospels. The reason why this research on John the Baptist could only be carried out years later is explained by the tradition that Rudolf Steiner was once asked during the war of 1914-1918 whether the reflections on the Fifth Gospel could not be continued and that he replied that the spiritual atmosphere was much too unsettled for such research as a result of the war; and when the question was repeated after the war, the answer was that other tasks were now more urgent.⁸The fact that a possibility must have arisen later is shown by Rudolf Steiner's last address, given on September 28, 1924.

Five incarnations of spiritual-historical significance had also been communicated over the years, also starting in 1904, by the other John figure, Lazarus John: Hiram Abiff, Lazarus John, Christian Rosenkreutz in the 13th and 14th centuries, and the Count of St. Germain in the 18th century. ⁹ In the Berlin lecture of November 4, 1904, it was stated that the Count of St. Germain was a re-embodiment of Christian Rosenkreutz, and the connection of this incarnation with Hiram Abiff is evident from the general tenor of the entire lecture, even if it is not explicitly stated. The reincarnation of Hiram as Lazarus-Johannes was probably first mentioned in the context of the work of the Erkenntnis cult in the time of Austria in 1908; in the two lectures of September 27 and 28, 1911, in Neuchâtel, the two incarnations of Christian Rosenkreutz in the 13th and 14th centuries were described. It is not possible to say exactly when the connection between the incarnations of Lazarus and Johannes and Christian Rosenkreutz was first mentioned, because it was passed on orally without a precise date.¹⁰

Even before Lazarus was spoken of as the reincarnation of Hiram Abiff in the Erkenntniskultischer working group at Easter 1908, the Lazarus-Johannes research had been documented in a special way by the initiation experiences of Lazarus-Johannes from his apocalypse being designed into images of occult seals and columns for the Munich Whitsun Congress in 1907, which at the same time formed the basic elements of the new building idea. Furthermore, it was manifested in word and picture that the path of schooling that is decisive for the West is the Christian-Rosicrucian one founded by Christian Rosenkreutz.¹¹

The extent to which the individuality of John the Baptist can also be seen in connection with the building idea can be seen from the following events. When the laying of the foundation stone for the building originally planned in Munich was scheduled for May 16, 1912, Rudolf Steiner spoke again and repeatedly on his journey there about the already known four incarnations: Elijah, John the Baptist, Raphael, Novalis; last in Munich, on the same day that the laying of the foundation stone should have taken place there. Due to difficulties caused by the authorities, the laying of the foundation stone did not take place. However, in the summer, the artistic-dramatic realization of the idea behind the building - to create a modern, and that means public, mystery center - was embodied in the first great scene of the new mystery drama “The Guardian of the Threshold”. This scene takes place in the anteroom to the rooms of a mystery society, where several people have been summoned to be informed that a major scientific work that has just been published has created the necessary condition for people who were previously not allowed to do so because they had not been initiated to now be able to appear at the place of initiation. The Grand Master of the Mystical Union explains this in a speech about the continuity of the spiritual leadership of humanity, which is given according to a stage direction by Rudolf Steiner in front of the four portraits of Elijah, John the Baptist, Raphael and Novalis, and begins with the words:

In the name of that spirit which

---

in our place of worship, we appear at this moment before people who have not yet been allowed to hear the word that sounds here mysteriously...

And when, eight years later, in the fall of 1920, the building that had since been erected on the Dornach hill near Basel was put into operation, Rudolf Steiner reworked this same speech for the first building event in the first person, which appears extremely rarely in his poetry, and had Marie Steiner read it into the two domed rooms from the organ gallery at the festive opening ceremony:

In the name of that spirit which

---

in our striving proclaims itself,

---

I appear at this moment

---

before people who from now on want to hear

---

the word that sounds so earnestly here for the souls...

Through texts taken from the “Chymischen Hochzeit Christiani Rosenkreutz anno 145% the other Johannes individuality, Lazarus-Johannes, was also included in this first building event.

Then, with the end of Rudolf Steiner's spiritual scientific lectures in September 1924, exactly four years after the first building event (in September 1920), the importance of the research on John was once again forcefully expressed. For when, on Sunday, September 28, 1924, on the eve of Michaelmas, he struggled to his feet, already seriously ill, to speak once more to the members present, what was his concern? The two Johannes individualities! In a deeply moving way, he spoke about the four incarnations of Elias, Johannes, Raffael, Novalis, in order to then actually lead up to the new result of the Johannes research: the mysterious connection between the two in the resurrection of Lazarus. However, his strength was no longer sufficient to present this new research result. It was only hinted at by not always mentioning John the Baptist, but Lazarus-John as the re-embodied Elijah. However, because it could not be further explained, an understanding difficulty arose for the audience. Some friends who were still able to ask him about it have handed down what he replied as follows:

In answer to the further question of how this connection between two individualities is to be understood in terms of further incarnations, Marie Steiner pointed out:

Thus Rudolf Steiner's Hiram-Johannes research, with the mystery of the connection between the two Johannes individualities, as hinted at in the last address, has become a spiritual legacy that calls for constant efforts to understand it, not least because the question of the two Johanneses is one whose solution is of particular importance for the future. This is a statement by Rudolf Steiner from the very last period of his life.¹⁵

Now, a fully valid answer to the question raised by Marie Steiner regarding the distinction between the secrets of incarnation and incorporation will have to be left to future spiritual research. However, the available research results can shed some light on the question of what meaning must be associated with the secret of the interpenetration of the two John individualities. Thus, if one brings together the descriptions that Rudolf Steiner gave in different contexts, it can be seen that a decisive part of this meaning must lie in the significance of the Mystery of Golgotha as “the conquest of earthly death through the life of the spirit” (Berlin, October 23, 1908). What this means can be seen from the following fundamental clarification of the relationship between individuality and personality:

"Today, it is easy to confuse the concepts of individuality and personality. Individuality is the eternal element that runs through life on earth from one incarnation to the next. Personality is what a person acquires in the course of one lifetime. If we wish to study individuality, we must look into the depths of the human soul; if we wish to study personality, we must see how the essential core lives. The essential core is born into the people, into the occupation. All this determines the inner being, depersonalizes it. In a person who is still at a lower level of development, little will be seen of the work on his inner being. The way he speaks, the way he gestures, and so on, is simply as his people have it. But those are the advanced people who give themselves the way of speaking and gesturing from their inner being. The more a person's inner being can work on his outer being, the more he develops as a human being. One could now say that this is how individuality is expressed in personality. The one who has his own gestures, his own physiognomy, even in his actions and in relation to his surroundings, has a distinct personality. Does all this get lost at death for later? No, it is not. Christianity knows very well that this is not the case. What is meant by the resurrection of the flesh or of the personality is nothing other than the preservation of the personal into all subsequent incarnations. What a person has achieved as a personality remains with him, because it is incorporated into the individuality and this carries it forward into the following incarnations. If we have done something with our body that has a unique character, then this body, this power that has worked, rises again. As much as we have worked on ourselves, as much as we have made of ourselves, is not lost on us.” (Berlin, March 15, 1906)

The real consciousness of immortality is thus connected with the depersonalization of the individuality, the higher spiritual faculties of man. And the fact that this process also means the permeation of man with Christ is indicated by the following brief commentary on a passage from the so-called Gospel of the Egyptians:

“There is an old writing in which the greatest ideal for the development of the ego, Christ Jesus, is characterized in such a way that it says: When the two become one, when the outer becomes like the inner, then man has attained Christ-likeness within himself. That is the meaning of a certain passage in the Egyptian Gospel.” (Munich, December 4, 1909)

The interpretation that Rudolf Steiner gives of the Provençal saga of Flor and Blancheflor in his lecture Berlin, May 6, 1909, shows even more clearly what is meant by the union of the inner and the outer, of individuality and personality. This saga - which is closely related to the Hiram Johannes research because it is said that the soul celebrated in Flor reappeared in the 13th and 14th centuries in the founder of Rosicrucianism, for the founding of a new mystery school, which has to cultivate the Christ secret in a new way that corresponds to modern times. It tells of a couple who were born on the same day, at the same hour, in the same house, and were raised together and were devoted to each other from the beginning in great love. Separated from each other due to a lack of understanding on the part of others, Flor sets out to find Blancheflor. After severe, life-threatening dangers, they were finally reunited until they also died on the same day.

Rudolf Steiner interprets these images as follows: Flor means something like the flower with the red leaves or the rose, Blancheflor means the flower with the white leaves or the lily. Flor or Rose is “the symbol of the human soul that has taken up the personality, the I-impulse within itself, that lets the spiritual work out of its individuality, that has brought the I-impulse into the red blood. But in the lily, one saw the symbol of the soul that can only remain spiritual by keeping the ego outside of it, only reaching to the boundary. Thus rose and lily are two opposites. The rose has self-awareness entirely within itself, the lily entirely without itself. But the union of the soul within and the soul without, as the world spirit animating the world, has existed. Flor and Blancheflor express the finding of the world soul, of the world I, by the human soul, the human I. (...) In the union of the lily soul and the rose soul, that was seen which can find connection with the Mystery of Golgotha. (Berlin, May 6, 1909)

When it is said that the union of the soul within and the soul without, which as the world spirit animates the world, has taken place, it is certainly meant that the Christ principle, as the highest spiritual, has united with the personality, the earthly body, of Jesus of Nazareth. For only by these two becoming completely one, right down to the physical, could earthly death truly be conquered.

The extent to which the contrast between Rose Soul and Lily Soul also applies to the two individualities of John can be seen from the fact that Hiram Lazarus is always characterized as a representative of the forces of personality, while the Elijah Soul is often described as such a highly spiritual being that it is only loosely connected from the outside with its earthly vehicles, including John the Baptist. was only loosely connected from the outside.¹⁶ If the union of Rose Soul and Lily Soul can lead to a connection with the Mystery of Golgotha, then, with regard to the union of the two John souls in the resurrection of Lazarus by Christ Jesus, it may be concluded that the disciple whom the Lord loved has become that being to whom the Christ-secret of the conquest of death has been transmitted and is carried forth by it, as is expressed in the saying about Christian Rosenkreutz: “With this individuality and its work since the 13th century” - in which it was allowed to experience a new initiation - ‘we connect everything that includes us, the continuation of the impulse that was given through the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth and through the accomplishment of the Mystery of Golgotha.’ (Berlin, December 22, 1912)

A further aspect arises when the words from the Gospel according to Egypt are added to the words: “When the two become one and the outside becomes like the inside” and the subsequent words: “and the male becomes like the female, so that there is neither male nor female”. This latter word indicates that there will be no more death if there is no more sexuality, since death and sexuality are mutually dependent. Hiram Abiff was already promised in the temple legend that a son would be born to him who, even if he could not see him himself, would bring forth a new race that, according to Rudolf Steiner, would no longer know death because reproduction would no longer take place through sexuality, which conditions death, but through the word connected with the heart, through speech (Berlin, October 23, 1905). Therefore, as stated in the lecture Cologne, December 2, 1906, the perfection of man will consist in the fact that the powers of reproduction will be raised from the heart to the heart and that “precisely the soul power of John” will cause the loving heart to send out “streams of spiritual love”. This is indicated in the Gospel by the fact that, in the description of the Last Supper, it is said that the disciple whom the Lord loved and who knew about this secret of development rose from the Lord's lap to his breast.

Seen in this light, all the documents the various incarnations of the Hiram-Lazarus-John individuality (the legend of the Temple, the Gospel of John, the saga of Flor and Blancheflor, the “Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz in the year 1459”; also the cosmic deed of Christian Rosenkreutz at the beginning of the 17th century, was to make possible the overcoming of the Cain and Abel conflict both in the individual human being and in humanity as a whole.¹⁷ on the central Christian mystery of the overcoming of death.

Rudolf Steiner also saw the goal of his work in this line. This is evident from a statement he made when founding the Erkenntniskultischer (Cult of Knowledge) working group, when he spoke of the fact that the significance of the theorespekte or anthroposophical movement lies in the fact that, through its wisdom, which is neither purely male nor purely female, but transsexual, it is to prepare in the spiritual realm what will later happen on the physical plane: the reunion of the sexes (Berlin, October 23, 1905). This not only gives the full-fledged collaboration of men and women, which he practiced everywhere, including in the context of cultic work, but also the word spoken in the same lecture: “I have reserved for myself to achieve a unification between those of Abel's and those of Cain's sex” a very special biographical significance. And this in turn can help to explain why the Hiram-Johannes research is at the beginning and end of his spiritual scientific lecturing activities and runs like a “red thread” through his entire work.

• 1. This is indicated by Rudolf Steiner himself in his last address on September 28, 1924. In the lecture of July 25, 1904, it was stated that according to the Akasha Chronicle, the resurrected Lazarus was the writer of the Gospel of John, the same disciple whom the Lord loved and who stood beneath the cross.
• 2. See “Reincarnation and Karma”, GA 135.
• 4. The songs of Mary by Novalis were recited for the first time by Marie von Sivers at the Christmas celebration of the Berlin branch on December 22, 1908. Therefore, the “a few days later” could have been at the lecture on December 28, 1908, with which the theme was introduced, which was described as a higher chapter of spiritual science, but in which Rudolf Steiner had not allowed notes to be taken. The fact that it is unlikely that it was not spoken about in Berlin, the main place of activity at the time, also speaks for this date. For in Berlin lectures this series of incarnations is mentioned only much later and as already known. 4
• 5. Max Gümbel-Seiling in “Memorial Sheet for Marie Steiner-von Sivers”, Stuttgart 1949.
• 7. See “The Principle of Spiritual Economy in Connection with Questions of Re-embodiment” (1909), GA 109; “The Gospel of Luke” (1909), GA 114; “Esoteric Christianity and the Spiritual Guidance of Humanity” (1911/12), GA 130; “The Gospel of Mark” (1912), GA 139; “The Fifth Gospel” (1913/14), GA 148.
• 8. Friedrich Rittelmeyer in “Meine Lebensbegegnung mit Rudolf Steiner”, Stuttgart (1st edition 1928).
• 9. This name was also given to other people, “so that not everything that is said here or there about the Count of St. Germain in the outer world can also apply to the real Christian Rosenkreutz.” (Neuchâtel, September 27, 1911).
• 10. Marie Steiner told Günther Schubert personally, and he in turn told the editor of this volume. Later, in 1923, Rudolf Steiner spoke of it again in a small circle, cf. M. Kirchner-Bockholt in 'What is happening in the Anthroposophical Society. News for its members' 1963, nos. 48 and 49.
• 11. See “Images of Occult Seals and Columns. The Munich Congress Whitsun 1907 and its Effects», GA 284.

  In the lectures given at the congress and in the following lectures of 1907, there is repeated mention of this path of training and its founder, Christian Rosenkreutz, as the great spiritual leader of the West. It is said: «... he has always lived among us and is still with us today as a leader in spiritual life.” (Munich, June 1, 1907, esoteric lecture, in CW 264)

  The spiritual connection between this individuality and the new building idea, as manifested at the Munich Congress, shone forth again a few years later when Rudolf Steiner, also out of the building project,

  to found a mode of working that he said had as its direct starting point the individuality whom, “since Western times, we have known as Christian Rosenkreutz.” (Berlin, December 15, 1911, in GA 264). This founding attempt had already been solemnly proclaimed at a Knowledge Cult event in Stuttgart on November 27, 1911. Since nothing more is known about this event, we can only assume that the incarnation connection between Lazarus-Johannes and Christian Rosenkreutz was first communicated at that time - shortly after the two lectures on the life and work of Christian Rosenkreutz in the 13th and 14th centuries (September 1911).

• 12. A certain justification for this supposition could be seen in the triptych “Gral” by the painter Anna May, which, according to a statement by Marie Steiner, was created after the lectures in Neuchâtel. The central section shows the events of Golgotha and Joseph of Arimathea collecting the blood of Christ; on the left wing are the figures from the Temple Legend of King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba and Hiram Abiff; on the right wing is the 13th-century initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz, as first described by Rudolf Steiner in Neuchâtel. Rudolf Steiner is said to have given Anna May some information about this. See Margarete Hauschka in “Das Goetheanum” 1975, No. 24 with a black and white illustration of the painting.
• 13. See the last address of September 28, 1924 with the associated additions in “Esoteric Reflections on Karmic Connections” IV. See also the study by Adolf Arenson, “Elias-Johannes-Lazarus” in “Ergebnisse aus dem Studium der Geisteswissenschaft Rudolf Steiners”, Freiburg i.Br. 1980, as well as the article by M. Kirchner-Bockholt in “Was in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft vorgeht. News for its Members, 1963, No. 48 and 49.
• 14. Cf. footnote 1 on page 425.
• 15. Related by Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz from his conversation with Rudolf Steiner on March 3, 1925.
• 16. See lecture Berlin, December 14, 1911, and “The Gospel of Mark,” GA 139.
• 17. See “Esoteric Christianity and the Spiritual Guidance of Humanity”, GA 130.

I. Instruction Class, Berlin, April 15, 1908

Based on John, chapter 11.

Easter is not only celebrated at this time because it is the beginning of spring; it has a much deeper significance. In ancient times, the group ego, the tribal ego, lived in people. In the initiated (Moses, Hermes, Buddha, Krishna, Zarathustra), the consciousness of the entire tribe was reflected. When they were initiated, they were out of the physical body with their etheric body and saw the essence of the entire tribe. On their return, they then laid this down in the law that they gave to their people. As a result, they became responsible for the sins committed against this law and had to reincarnate among their people until the people's karma was paid off. This was the case for all initiates before Christ, who received the revelation from within in the initiation sleep. Solomon, who was of the Abel-Seth people, belonged to this type of initiate. With these ancient initiates, the group soul of the people united with their etheric body during the initiation. It also lived in them afterwards. Therefore, they all had to undergo many incarnations.

Those who were not initiates in ancient times and did not belong to a people who received the revelations through such initiates - who lived scattered, who had to gather knowledge even from the physical world, were the Cain sons. One such was Hiram Abiff, who had gathered knowledge through life in the physical body and elevated it to wisdom. He expressed his wisdom in the building of temples. It was not the God within who revealed the wisdom to him, as it did to the descendants of the Abel-Seth sons, but it was the knowledge gained in physical existence. The Abel-Seth initiates were under the influence of Jehovah. In the twilight of their consciousness they were given the higher knowledge under the influence of the moon deity (Yahweh).

At that time, Hiram Abiff reached the limit of initiation. But he was only initiated later. For this, the spiritual sun had to come down to earth. This descended into the physical plane in the Christ. Only He could initiate Hiram Abiff. The clear [spiritual] Sun had to shine upon him at the initiation. He was Lazarus, who after the resurrection was called John. He was initiated by the Christ Jesus. That which Hiram Abiff had acquired through his life in the physical had to remain. Not the life of the group, but each individual incarnation should now become important. Every single incarnation was to add a leaf to the Book of Life, a leaf whose content was taken over into the spiritual, something that remained, that could no longer pass away, but was to remain until all future times. This is what Hiram Abiff represents.

Emphasis is placed not on an inner experience, in which the tribal nature is manifested, but on the one incarnation that has significance for all of the future.

Before this initiation of Hiram Abiff by Christ Jesus could take place, the spiritual sun, the sun, had to appear in spring and the old principle had to recede. The sun had to shine first with its light on the full moon, only then could the day of resurrection take place. Christ brought the new principle in place of the old Jehovah principle, that is why the Pharisees hated him, the representatives of the old principle. And when they realized that He represented this new teaching and brought the new initiation, they sought to kill Him after the resurrection of Lazarus. (“This man performs many signs and wonders.”)

In Christ Jesus, the soul of all mankind united with the Jesus bodies. The Christ was only once incarnated in the flesh. He will come again, but no longer in the flesh, only when humanity will recognize him in his etheric body.¹

Note: The folk spirit that united with Moses at the initiation and then lived in him was Michael.

II. Instruction lesson Berlin, April 15, 1908 (notes from another hand)

1. The resurrection of Lazarus

2. Why did the Pharisees want to seize and kill Christ afterwards?

3. Why does Easter fall on the first Sunday after the moon has become full after the spring equinox, March 21?

The resurrection of Lazarus is a kind of climax of the Gospel of John. It is an initiation, the course of which is told here - but a very special, very unique initiation. The initiations that had been carried out in the depths of the mystery centers in the pre-Christian era were of a completely different nature. In these pre-Christian times there were great, high initiates and also lesser ones. The greatest initiates: Moses, Hermes, Zoroaster – also Buddha and Krishna, who were also the lawgivers of their people, had undergone their initiation in such a way that the etheric body was taken out of the physical body for a period of three and a half days, and during this time the person to be initiated experienced the spiritual worlds in his etheric body.

In the past, the common bond of love was based on shared blood: People who belonged to the same tribe loved each other. The I of the tribe went through many generations; the individual human being had no validity. Everyone looked up to the patriarch - the Jew, for example, to his patriarch Abraham. One felt that one belonged to him as a Jew, one said: I am nothing - I and Father Abraham are one. This sense of belonging went from the individual member of the tribe to the patriarch like a ray of light. The initiate saw this ray of light, he saw the whole nation as embedded in its spiritual essence, which was expressed in the peculiarities of the nation and emanated from the patriarch. He saw all this clearly before him as he lay in the sleep of death. Yes, even more: the group soul of his people entered into him. He was now the group soul of the people. Thus, during his initiation, Moses was united with Michael. The laws that such an initiate then gave to his people were born out of the soul of the people themselves. And in formulating them, in setting them forth, the initiate became responsible for them. He had to incarnate again and again within his people. And the sins of his people against the law were his sins. He was karmically linked to them. The sins of the people lay on his karma. These great initiates who took this on were fully aware of this.

All these ancient initiates belonged to the Abel-Seth line. That is to say, they received enlightenment from above. The enlightenment came to them from the lunar forces. It was the forces of Yahweh that they received. And they received them not in the bright light of the sun, but in the darkness. Their etheric body received these Yahweh forces from the spiritual world, while the physical body lay as if in a sleep of death.

This was now to change. The people of the Cain current, those who had worked their way up from below through the work of their hands, had come so far that they could elevate the science they had gained for themselves to wisdom, that is, they could be initiated. The physical body had imprinted its impressions on their etheric bodies. Through their own labor they had purified, ennobled, spiritualized their physical bodies and their souls. These children of Cain were scattered throughout the world, and Hiram Abiff is named as the first of these scattered children of Cain in the world who had worked his way up so far. Hiram Abiff, the lonely hermit, stood before initiation. In his next incarnation he received it. Then he was called “Lazarus” - for in his previous incarnation, Lazarus was Hiram Abiff.

And this initiation of Lazarus was different from all previous ones. Until then, the initiates had received the lunar-Yahweh forces, that is, the forces concerning the mystery of birth and procreation, and each had received the forces of the people to which he belonged. But now the lunar force was no longer to be effective. Now the time had come when the all-embracing power of the sun, the Christ power, which is the power of all humanity, was to be bestowed upon humanity. This power of all humanity was to initiate Lazarus. The lunar forces were to be defeated by the more comprehensive solar power, which shines for all people. No longer should only blood count, flowing through the tribe, the people. From now on, only that which each individual human being works for in his soul should count. Every single human being within his incarnation should from now on have value, the individual incarnation should be consecrated to the striving for sanctification, spiritualization, no matter what name a person is called. This is the deepest idea of Christianity.

From now on, each incarnation should be like a leaf on which the eternal values of the struggling, striving human soul can be recorded. And at the end of such an incarnation, such a leaf should be placed in the Book of Eternity, which should contain ever greater values, ever deeper meanings, ever greater enrichments for each individual human being. These are the fruits of life that each individual human being should work for in his or her individuality, alone in constant striving. And then he should deposit these fruits of life in the bosom of all humanity, so that they can be integrated into the progress of all humanity.

The Christ is the great divine individuality who once appeared on earth in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth, and once lived an incarnation that all striving, seeking human souls can look to as the great model and ideal for their individual striving. The Christ appeared in the flesh only once! But he will appear on earth again! He will reappear in a spiritual body, and those people who, through the striving of their souls, have spiritualized themselves to such an extent, will recognize him in his spiritual body and will be able to live with him.

This Christ, the high sun spirit, initiated Lazarus, the reincarnated Hiram-Abiff.

This meant, however, a radical break with the previous initiation principle. This was fully recognized by the Pharisees, who were also initiates, and this filled them with fear and terror. They recognized what was going on, but they also saw that from now on, if this new principle were to prevail, their own power would be over. From that time forth, they sought to destroy the bearer of the new principle of initiation, and it is they who finally made it possible for the Christ to be led to his death.

It is said of Lazarus that he was the disciple whom the Lord loved. And later it is said that John was the one who rested on the Lord's breast. There is a profound secret of soul development hidden behind these two statements, which we find in the Gospel of John.

Now we also understand why Easter falls at the time of each year when the young spring sun looks the moon full at the spring equinox in the face. She is said to be victorious over the lunar forces. Christ, the Sun-God, conquers the Moon-God! Therefore, in spring, when the sun has regained its full strength, the moon must look the sun full in the face before it is conquered by it. Thus Easter is a festival that reminds us that the human soul rises from the sleep of death within matter, looking up to the Christ-Sun, living in its light, striving in its love, can receive the new life, the resurrection life.

III. Instruction lesson without place or date given with the heading “The mission of man on earth”

When a person begins to ask himself who he actually is, how he can feel this way inside, it must gradually become clear to him that he feels like an ego-entity, and that everything he experiences in terms of joys and pains, everything that drives him to act, is grouped around this center and receives its true impulse from there. Separated from other beings, different from them, is the human being in his sense of self; and yet it is only through this sense of self that it is possible for him to consciously connect with his environment. With regard to the physical body, which visibly, perceptibly represents to the outside world what the human being feels inside as being on one's own, as if he were a being separated from the environment, it becomes clear to him that the heart is the actual center. The heart animates the other organs, in that the invigorating blood is sent from there to the smallest parts of the physical body.

Just as the I is the inner center from which all impulses for the revelation of the human being flow out into the environment, and to which all sensations from the outside world return, being absorbed and processed there, so the invigorating blood flows from the heart through the whole body and then returns to this center. The heart represents an expression of the I-effectiveness in the physical body.

There are two kinds of activity in both the human ego and the physical heart: outward sending and inward receiving and reworking. Just as the returning blue blood is transformed back into red living blood with the help of the breathing process through the lungs, so the experiences that the human ego absorbs from the environment must pass through the feelings and sensations of the astral body and thereby become stimuli for new activity. The human heart accomplishes its effect according to a certain tempo; a short while, a period of time, passes between the successive heartbeats. Thus, the human ego also needs a certain period of time between the arising of the impulse to act and the processing of the sensations, which thereby react from the outside world onto the ego. This tempo will be different for each person, depending on their individual disposition and level of development.

But if a person wants to gradually penetrate to the knowledge of their own being, they must try to understand their own appropriate tempo, listen to their own heartbeat and get to know the inner life of their being. He must be able to see his own being as if it did not belong to him. He must learn to observe it as something external to him, and only then can he gradually descend into it. Just as he previously sent his impulses out into the world around him, he will then transform his powers and turn them inwards instead of outwards. In this way, the inner world becomes the outer world for him.

What man finds when descending into his own interior, first into his three bodily sheaths, is beautifully described in the legend of the temple handed down to mankind from ancient times, in which is symbolically laid the whole course of the evolution of the earth in relation to the building of the temple of the human body - and the evolution of the human ego.

It is told how the great master builder Hiram Abiff wanted to enter the temple once more to see his work. When he wanted to leave the temple again, the first of the three treacherous journeymen met him at the first gate and struck him on the left temple so that the blood flowed down onto his shoulder. Then the Master turned to the other gate, where the second of the treacherous companions struck him and gave him a blow to the right temple, so that the blood flowed down. Then the Master turned to the last of the gates, where the third of the treacherous companions struck him with a blow to the forehead, so that the Master fell dead to the ground.

When the human ego descends into its three sheaths, it first encounters the astral body. It senses this astral body as it truly is. As if by a blow, the ego becomes aware and recognizes itself in this astral sheath. It encounters doubt in everything and in itself. Through this, it is attacked. This is the first of the treacherous companions.

Next, the person then encounters his etheric body, into which he descends. And again he comes to know himself as he is in this body, as if it is suddenly brought to his attention. Then superstition confronts him: all beliefs, all opinions that have been acquired through education. This is the second of the treacherous companions.

Then the person descends into his physical body and gets to know the illusion of the personal self. This is the third of the treacherous companions. When he encounters this, the possibility of feeling himself in his own self as separate from the outside world or his environment is taken away from him in one fell swoop. He learns to recognize appearance and truth, and he steps out of his narrow limitation. No longer enclosed by the three sheaths, the human being steps freely out of himself into the environment and recognizes himself as a microcosm in the macrocosm.

When man is symbolically represented as the pentagram, he must be regarded as encompassing the three lower kingdoms on earth. The mineral kingdom has only the physical body on earth, and can be indicated symbolically by a single line. The plant kingdom has in addition a second principle, the etheric body, and this must therefore be indicated by two lines touching one another. The animal kingdom has a third principle, the astral body. This can be indicated by three lines: (X with line connecting the upper edges) p 414

The etheric body contains the principle of growth. In the plant form, leaf would always appear after leaf if it were not for the astral body coming from above, which causes the flower to emerge. The etheric principle, which in plants would cause continuous growth, is partially transformed in animals, so that it exercises its powers more internally as a receiver of the astral body. The straight line of the etheric is closed and bent by a new line, which symbolically represents the astral principle, and this new line then bends the physical principle again on the other side. Hence the physical form, which in plants represents a vertical line, is bent and has become horizontal in animals. The animal can therefore be symbolically indicated with the three lines; in man, the I is added to the three principles. This I can be symbolically represented as a point above the three lines X, which pours its power into the etheric body and the physical body through two lines that pass through the astral, acting on the one hand through light and on the other through warmth. Through this influence of the I, the human form is raised to an upright line again, and so the symbol of the pentagram arises.

If man is the pentagram himself and lives entirely within it, he will not be able to see himself as such. He will only be able to consciously survey that part of his being that is below his ego, that which he has outgrown. These are the three lines that represent the symbol for the animal. That is why man only sees that part of his physical body that is below the shoulders from the front.

But if he really wants to know himself as an ego, then he must step out of himself, so that he also gets to know the upper part of the pentagram. He must create for himself a new center of perception, which lies outside the pentagram; he must be able to take a superhuman standpoint, which lies outside the ego and yet is a center of consciousness.

The Temple Legend tells how the Master received the first blow on the left temple, the second blow on the right temple, so that the blood ran down upon the shoulder, and the third blow on the forehead. Then physical death sets in. This indicates the upper part of the pentagram. With physical death, the human being steps out of his personal self and experiences himself in the macrocosm. The Temple Legend tells us how the Master's body was buried by the three companions, how the Master himself, reborn in the cosmos, experienced the developmental states of the earth as the old moon, as the sun with the seven planets and as Saturn with the twelve signs of the zodiac. When man has emerged from his three shells and experiences himself in the cosmos, as if newly born, the first thing he feels is the essence of the great mother, the earth mother, from whom he has grown out. He experiences earlier developmental states in which he was more dependent and intimately connected to the earth. He experiences this as the moon state, sun state and Saturn state.

What the great master builder Hiram Abiff could not experience at that time, because – as the temple legend says – he lived before the Christ event on earth, was the light and warmth of the Christ-being in the earth aura. For this being had not yet connected with the earth at that time. It could be seen in the sun, as Zarathustra had once seen it as Ahura Mazdao, the great aura, as the cosmic heart, when it was revealed to him that this sun being would one day live on earth in a human body. His great mission became clear to him, to work through many incarnations and in various ways to prepare such a human body that was capable of carrying the spirit of the sun within itself. He should tune his own individual pace of his ego so that it was in harmony with this higher ego of humanity. The sound and rhythm of his heartbeat should coincide with the sound and rhythm of the great cosmic heart, only then could the sublime sun being live in a human body.

When the great Master Builder, Hiram Abiff, lived on earth, this mighty fact had not yet been accomplished. But the individuality of Hiram Abiff lived on and was reborn on earth at the time when the Christ-being, the great Sun Spirit, lived in Jesus of Nazareth. Once the great master builder, Hiram Abiff, was led to his ancestor in order to receive the new hammer with which he was to continue his work. He was led to him through the fire. At that time, the human ego had to rise through the blood of the generations to the ancestors in order to attain higher wisdom. But now that the great spirit of the Sun had descended to Earth and lived in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ Jesus Himself placed the seed of the new life in the heart of the reborn Hiram Abiff. Through Him, he was raised to spiritual life; he was born again in the disciple whom the Lord loved. The human ego was quickened by the divine ego and raised to a higher existence. Thereafter this disciple could become the writer of the Gospel which has as its starting point the human and the divine ego. And it was revealed to him how the development of this human ego through the post-Atlantean cultural periods extended into the future, until the end of the days on earth, as he portrayed it in the Apocalypse. And in his Gospel it is said how Christ Jesus, with his last words from the cross, handed this disciple over to his mother, who was not his natural mother. As a son he gives the human ego to the Earth Mother, after he has quickened it with his powers, so that she may guard and care for it. As mother, He gives the Earth to this I, so that the son may give his powers to the mother. The human I shall redeem the Earth, uplift it with its powers into spiritual regions, with the full consciousness that without this Earth it could not develop into what it is and is to become.

With the event at Golgotha, when the blood flowed from the wounds of the great redeemer, when the cosmic heart's blood permeated the earth and its powers poured into the center, the earth became radiant, radiating light out into its surroundings from within. Then the possibility was also given for every human individuality to experience this light within itself. When the Earth became the body of the great Sun Spirit by permeating it with his spiritual powers, all beings on Earth were also endowed with these powers. The seed for the reunification of the Sun and the Earth had been sown. The physical body of Jesus of Nazareth was the mediator through which the cosmic powers united with the Earth aura. And when the blood flowed from this body on Golgotha, the Earth was again absorbed into the power of the Sun. Since then, this Christ power radiates from its center into the surrounding area, and from the Sun the Christ power radiates into the Earth. Man can experience this power and this light in himself as an earthly human being when he recognizes himself as a part of the earth, which, as the physical body of Christ, is permeated by His Being. Then the white light shines from within him, as it radiates from the center of the earth.

A person can also experience the power and light of Christ as it radiates from the outside and permeates him with higher life. Then it surrounds and permeates him, just as it passes through the earth, radiating from the sun. Then the human being feels united in spirit with this solar power; he feels himself growing together with the great cosmic heart from the depth of his heart. As a higher being, living in this spiritual sun, he recognizes his true self, as connected to it as he, as an earthly human being, is connected to the earth itself. And just as the sun's forces permeate and give life to the earth, so this higher being permeates and lives through the earthly human being with his powers.

In the temple of the human body there is a holiest of the holy. Many people live in the temple without knowing it. But those who have an inkling of it receive the strength to purify themselves to such an extent that they may enter this Holy of Holies. There is the sacred vessel, which has been prepared throughout the ages so that when the time came, it could be capable of containing the blood of Christ, the Christ-life. When man has entered, he has also found the way to the Holy of Holies in the great temple of the earth. There are many on earth who live without knowing it, but when man has found himself in his innermost sanctuary, he will also be allowed to enter there and find the Holy Grail. The vessel will at first appear to him as if it were cut out of wonderfully sparkling crystals, forming symbols and letters, until he gradually senses the sacred contents, so that it shines for him in a golden splendor. A human being enters the sanctuary of his own heart, then a divine being emerges from this sanctuary and unites with the God outside, with the Christ-being. He lives in the spiritual light that radiates into the vessel and thereby sanctifies it.

Because man lives as a twofold being, he can pour the spiritual power of the sun into the earth and be a connecting link between the sun and the earth. Just as from the center of life, the heart, the invigorating blood flows and pours through the entire physical organism into the bone system, which - as an external solidification and congealing in the organism - can be seen as the opposite of the living, ever active heart, so each human individuality must become a channel for the blood flowing from the cosmic center of life, permeating the solidified earth with life. The earth can be thought of as a cosmic skeletal system. It would be completely ossified and dried up if the cosmic heart had not poured out its life blood through a human body, thereby reviving it anew.

Once upon a time, the great spirit of the sun lived in a human body as an example for humanity, and every human being is meant to follow suit. Through Him the possibility for this has been given. To be imbued with the Christ-spirit, to know oneself as a center, to live in this spirit, through which spiritual light, spiritual power and spiritual warmth can stream into the earth, that is the mission of the individual human being and of all humanity, for in this way will they be able to redeem the earth and uplift it to spiritual regions.

IV Authentic information handed down.

Lazarus, the favorite disciple of Jesus Christ, who later became the author of the Gospel of John, is the re-embodied Hiram Abiff.

Adam-Eva -> Cain

Abel Seth -> Lamech, Hiram Abiff

Solomon -> Lazarus-John.¹

The individuality, which had been re-embodied as Hiram Abiff and Lazarus-Johannes, was initiated anew in its embodiments in the 13th and 14th centuries and has since borne the name Christian Rosenkreutz. ²

From the instruction session in Berlin, February 10, 1913 for the 3rd

The legend, the seven-step ladder ² And each of us should keep these things in mind during the day. Then, as a consequence, if the things we do here are done right, we will feel that the right forces are flowing in.

During the night, the human being can then come close to Hiram Abiff or Adoniram, Lazarus, who was initiated by the Lord Himself. Meditation is given for this purpose: “I am not only in the world for myself, but to become similar to my archetype.

This striving is a duty, not selfishness. These things are given in the first scenes of “Examination of the Soul” and “The Guardian of the Threshold”, as in the three dramas in general, much, much meditation material is given.

You should not forget that the spiritual powers are counting on you in the leadership of mankind.

Every person is a citizen of the spiritual world, but you should be aware of it! At night, you are always in a spiritual world, interacting with beings and judging. This can suddenly come to a person's awareness when waking up or at other times during the day: “I have to educate myself to become a revealer of the divine archetype within me.”

Meditate on death; this is a very important matter.

• 1. See the detailed descriptions in the volume 'The Event of the Appearance of the Christ in the Ethereal World', CW 118.
• 1. Record by Rudolf Steiner for Helene Röchling as a supplement to the temple legend.
• 2. Rudolf Steiner's message conveyed by Marie Steiner in the context of the Knowledge Cult; see the appendix to this section on page 423ff.
• 2. The so-called Jacob's ladder. Schauberg (“Comparative Handbook of the Symbolism of Freemasonry...”) II. Band S. 402f.): “The Persian symbol of the entrance of the soul of the deceased into heaven through the seven planetary spheres is said to have been a staircase or ladder leading to seven different doors. (...) According to Origen, the Egyptians used a similar symbol to represent the descent of heavenly souls in the Milky Way through the seven planetary spheres, namely a ladder that reached from heaven to earth and was divided into seven steps, each with a gate. (...) The ladder that Jacob saw in the famous dream and that also reached from earth to heaven was probably this Egyptian ladder that led the souls of men from heaven to earth and from there back to heaven again, which thus had not just three steps, as is generally the case. 2

We have spoken about various legends which contain esoteric truths in the pictures which they present. These were given to man in this form at a time when he was not mature enough to receive the truths directly. These pictures took hold of man's ‘causal’ body—that part of man which bore the germ of his future Higher Manas—and thus made him ready to understand the truths directly in a future incarnation.

I would like now to show one such legend as this which dates back only a few centuries and is still extant today in many versions. It is the following.

At the beginning of the fifteenth century¹ a personality appeared in Europe who had been initiated into certain secrets in the East. This was Christian Rosenkreutz.² By the time this incarnation of Christian Rosenkreutz had come to an end, he had initiated about ten other people into such matters as he himself had learned through initiation—in so far as this was possible among Europeans at that time. This small brotherhood called itself ‘Fraternitae Rosae Crucis’, the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross. This small group of people then gave a certain legend to a larger, more exoteric fraternity, through whom it then became generally known to the world.

Christian Rosenkreutz himself had revealed certain deep secrets of the Mysteries to those people who were sufficiently prepared to receive them. But, as I said, there were not more than ten in this small circle, consisting of initiated Rosicrucians. What was taught by Christian Rosenkreutz could not be imparted to many people, but it was embodied in a kind of myth.³ Since it was first given out in the fifteenth century, it has often been repeated and explained in the various brotherhoods. It was told in larger brotherhoods, but was interpreted only in intimate circles.

This is the approximate content:

There was a time when one of the Elohim created a human being whom he called Eve. That Elohim united himself with Eve and she gave birth to Cain. After this, another Elohim, named Yahveh, created Adam. Adam also united himself with Eve and from this union came Abel.

Thus we see that Cain is a direct descendant of the gods, but Abel is a descendant of Adam and Eve who are human.

Now the myth proceeds:

The sacrifices which Abel made to Yahveh were pleasing to him, but the sacrifices brought by Cain did not please him because the birth of Cain was not ordained by him. The result was that Cain committed fratricide. He killed Abel and for this he was excluded from communion with Yahveh. He went away into distant lands and founded his own race there.

Adam again united himself with Eve and from this union came Seth, also mentioned in the Bible, who took over the role of Abel. Thus we have two generations of mankind: the race of Cain, who was a descendant of Eve and one of the Elohim, and the other race which had human parentage and was brought into existence at the command of Yahveh.

Among the descendants of Cain are all those who have been creators of art and science, as, for instance, Methuselah, the inventor of the Tau script, and Tubal-Cain, who taught the use and working of metal ores and iron. In this line of descent, stemming from the Elohim, were all those who trained themselves in the arts and sciences.

Hiram also descended from the race of Cain, and he was the inheritor of all that had been learned by the others of his line in technology and art. He was the most significant architect we can imagine.

Out of Seth's line came Solomon, who excelled in everything which came from Yahveh. He was endowed with the wisdom of the world and all the attributes of calm,clear, objective wisdom. This wisdom can be expressed in words which go straight to the human heart and can uplift a person, but it is unable to produce anything tangible of a technical nature, in art or science. It is a wisdom which is a directly inspired gift of God and not attained from below through human passions welling up from the human will—that would be the wisdom pertaining to the sons of Cain, a legacy of the other Elohim, not Yahveh. They are the hardworking industrious ones who seek to accomplish everything through their own efforts.

Solomon now decides to build a temple and calls upon Hiram, the descendant of Cain, to be his master builder. It was at the time when Balkis, the Queen of Sheba, was visiting Jerusalem because she had heard of the wisdom of Solomon. And she was certainly impressed and charmed by the exalted and clear wisdom and beauty of the King when she first arrived, and when he made love to her she consented to be his bride. Now she heard about the temple which was being built and she desired to make the acquaintance of the master builder, Hiram. When she first met him she was captivated merely by his glance. As a result, a certain mood of jealousy arose between Hiram and Solomon and the latter wished to do something or other against Hiram, but he was dependent upon him for the completion of the temple.

Now came the following: The temple was almost complete. Only one thing was still lacking, which was to have been Hiram's masterpiece; that was the Molten Sea, which was to represent the ocean cast in bronze and was to have adorned the temple. All the necessary mixtures of ores had been prepared by Hiram in a most wonderful manner, ready to be cast. Now, however, three apprentices got to work, whom Hiram had found so lacking in skill that he had been unable to promote them to become masters. They had therefore sworn to be revenged on him and desired to prevent the casting of the Molten Sea. A friend of Hiram, who got to know about these plans, confided them to Solomon, so that he should prevent their realisation. But Solomon, through jealousy, did nothing to stop them, because he wished to destroy Hiram. The result was that Hiram had to look on while the whole casting disintegrated due to the addition of a wrong ingredient in the mixture by the three apprentices. He tried to quench the bursting flames by pouring water over them, but this only made matters worse. Just as he was on the point of despairing about the work ever being completed, Tubal-Cain, his ancestor, appeared to him and told him that he should not hesitate to cast himself into the fire, as he was invulnerable to the flames. Hiram did as he was advised and came to the centre of the earth. He was led by Tubal-Cain to Cain, who there resided in a condition of pristine divinity. Hiram was thus initiated into the Mystery of Fire and into the secret of bronze casting, receiving from Tubal-Cain a hammer and a Golden Triangle which he was able to carry with him as a pendant round his neck. Then he returned and was able to complete the casting of the Molten Sea and to put everything in order again.

Hereupon the Queen of Sheba consented to become Hiram's bride. He, however, was set upon by the three apprentices and murdered. But before he died, Hiram managed to throw the Golden Triangle into a well. As no one knew where he had disappeared, a search was made. Even Solomon was afraid and was anxious to find out what had happened. It was thought that the ancient Master Word could be betrayed by the apprentices, and therefore another one was devised. The first word to be spoken when Hiram was discovered should be the new Master Word. At last Hiram was found and was able to utter a few last words. He said: ‘Tubal-Cain had promised me that I shall have a son who will be the father of many descendants who will people the earth and bring my work—the building of the Temple—to completion.’ Then he pointed to the place where the Golden Triangle was to be found. This was then collected and brought to the Molten Sea and both were preserved together in the Holy of Holies. They are only to be discovered by those who can understand the meaning of the legend of the Temple of Solomon and its Master Builder Hiram.

Now we shall proceed from the recounting of the legend itself to its interpretation.

This legend portrays the destiny of the third, fourth and fifth Post-Atlantean cultural epochs. The Temple is the Temple of the Occult Societies, that is to say, what is being built up by the whole of mankind belonging to the fourth and fifth cultural epochs. And the Holy of Holies is the place where these Occult Societies have their abode. The latter are aware of what is meant by the Molten Sea and the Golden Triangle.

We are dealing, therefore, with two races of mankind: with those who, like Solomon, are in possession of divine wisdom and with those of the Race of Cain, who are conversant with fire and know how to make use of it. This fire is not physical fire, but the fire of wishes, desires and instincts which bums in the astral world.

Who, then, are the Sons of Cain? In the sense of this legend, the Sons of Cain are the sons of those Elohim who, during the Moon Epoch, were a little retarded in their role of Elohim. We are dealing with Kama, astrality, during the Moon Epoch. This Kama, or fire, was penetrated with wisdom at that time. But there were two kinds of Elohim. The one kind of Elohim did not remain static with the union of wisdom and fire; they went further. And during the creation of man they were no longer filled with desires and so they were able to endow their creation with calm and clear wisdom. That is the essential Jahve—or Jehovah—religion, the wisdom of which is quite without personal desire. The other Elohim, those in whom wisdom was combined with the fire of the Moon Epoch, created the Sons of Cain.

Therefore, in the case of the Sons of Seth, we find representatives of the religious type of human being with detached wisdom, and in the case of the Sons of Cain, we find those who possess an impulsive nature, who are capable of flaring up and showing enthusiasm for wisdom. These two types are creative within all races of mankind and in all periods of history. Out of the desire life of the Sons of Cain, all arts and the sciences originate; out of the Seth-Abel current, all detached piety and wisdom, lacking enthusiasm, has its origin.

These two types were always present and continued thus until the fourth Post-Atlantean cultural epoch.

Then came the founding of Christianity. Through it, the earlier piety, which had been bestowed on mankind from above, became passionless and detached, and was merged with the element which came to the earth through Christ—Christ, who is not only the incarnation of wisdom, but who is also love itself, a supreme being who has so purified his astral body or Kama that it has been changed into Buddhi. A pure flowing Kama which seeks nothing for itself, but turns every passion into unending devotion towards the things outside itself, is inverted Kama. Buddhi is Kama which has been changed into its opposite.

A higher kind of piety is thereby being prepared among those who are of the pious type, the Sons of Wisdom. This new kind of piety can also develop enthusiasm. It is Christian piety, which was prepared during the fourth Post-Atlantean cultural epoch. This whole stream is not yet in a position to unite with the Sons of Cain, however; they remain adversaries. Were Christianity to take hold of human beings too quickly, they would certainly become filled with love, but the individual human heart would not become involved. It would not be a piety springing from freedom. Christ would not be born within man as his brother, but only as the ruler. It is therefore necessary that the Sons of Cain are active throughout the whole of the fifth Post-Atlantean period. They are active in their initiates who build the temple of all mankind, constructed out of worldly art and worldly science.

This worldly element becomes more and more evident in the history of the fourth and fifth cultural epochs, thus making manifest the entire development of world history at the physical level. And alongside this worldly stream of materialism, the personal element of egoism is involved, which leads to the War of All against All. Even though Christianity had come into the world, it was, in a sense, a secret shared by a few. But it made people of the fourth and fifth cultural epochs aware that everyone is equal in the sight of God. That is a basic principle of Christianity, but it cannot be completely understood by man on earth so long as he is enmeshed in materialism and egoism.

The French Revolution drew its conclusion from this Christian doctrine in a worldly sense. The spiritual conception that all are equal in the sight of God was changed into the purely earthly precept that all men are equal here on earth. That is couched in even more physical terms today.

Before the outbreak of the French Revolution a personality appeared to Madame d'Adhemar,⁴ the lady-in-waiting of Marie-Antoinette, who prophesied all the important events of the coming strife, in order to warn against them. It was the Count of St. Germain,⁵ the same as he who, in a former incarnation, had founded the Rosicrucian Order. He subscribed to the view that mankind at that time must be led in all tranquillity from a worldly view of life to a truly Christian culture. Worldly powers, however, desired to gain freedom for themselves by material violent means. Christian Rosenkreutz foresaw the French Revolution as a necessary consequence of this, but warned against it. He, Christian Rosenkreutz, in his incarnation in the eighteenth century, as guardian of the innermost secrets of the Molten Sea and the Golden Triangle, appeared with the warning that mankind should develop slowly. But he also saw what was to happen.

That is the course taken by mankind's evolution during the fourth and fifth Post-Atlantean epochs when seen esoterically. The temple of mankind's earthly culture, the great Temple of Solomon, has already been built, but what is to crown it must still remain a secret. That could only be brought into being by an initiate. That initiate was misunderstood, betrayed, killed. The secret may not yet be revealed. It remains the possession of a few initiated Christians. It is sealed up in the casting of the Molten Sea and in the Golden Triangle. It is the same as the secret belonging to Christian Rosenkreutz, who was present in a very highly evolved reincarnation prior to the birth of Christ, and who gave utterance to a remarkable saying at that time.

Let me describe in a few words how this Christian Rosenkreutz came to repeat a certain saying at the time of the outbreak of the French Revolution. He said: ‘For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.’⁶ This was said by him long before it was said by Hosea and written down. It stems, however, from Christian Rosenkreutz.

This saying: ‘For they have sown the wind, and shall reap the whirlwind’, is the leading thought for the fourth and fifth cultural epochs and can be rendered in the following way: ‘Mankind shall be made free. The incarnated Buddhi will unite himself with this your freedom and make you equal in the sight of God, but the spirit (‘wind’ means spirit = Ruach) will first become a whirlwind (the War of All against All).’

At first Christianity had to appear as the Christianity of the Cross, which had to develop through the earthly sphere, through the physical plane. But the crucifix was not the symbol of Christianity from the beginning. It was when Christianity became political that the crucified Son of God was introduced, the Son of God suffering on the Cross of the World Body.⁷ It has remained thus to outward sight throughout the rest of the fourth epoch, and will continue to do so during the whole of the fifth epoch of our present Post-Atlantean cycle.

To begin with, Christianity is bound up with the purely materialistic culture of the fourth and fifth epochs, and the true Christianity of the future, which possesses the secret of the Molten Sea and the Golden Triangle, only exists secretly.⁸ This Christianity has another symbol—no longer that of the crucified Son of God, but the Cross encircled by roses. This will become the symbol of the new Christianity of the sixth Post-Atlantean epoch. Out of the Mystery of the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross will arise the Christianity of the sixth cultural epoch, which will recognise the significance of the Molten Sea and the Golden Triangle.

Hiram is the representative of the initiates among the Sons of Cain belonging to the fourth and fifth epochs. The Queen of Sheba is the soul of humanity—every female character denotes the soul in esoteric terminology. She has to choose between the detached piety which does not concern itself with worldly conquest, and the masterful wisdom which is achieved through the overcoming of earthly passions and desires. She is the representative of the true human soul, taking her position between Hiram and Solomon and uniting herself with Hiram in the fourth and fifth epochs, because he is still engaged in building the Temple.

The Molten Sea is what is created when the appropriate amounts of water and molten metal are cast. The three apprentices do it wrongly, and the casting is destroyed, but when the mysteries of fire are revealed to Hiram by Tubal-Cain, he is thereby enabled to unite water and fire in the proper way. This brings the Molten Sea into being. This is what the secret of the Rosicrucians is. It is brought about when the water of calm wisdom is united with the fire of the astral world, with the fire of passion and desire. A union must be brought about which is ‘of bronze’, that is to say, is lasting and durable. It must endure into the next epoch, when the secret of the sacred Golden Triangle is added to it; the secret of Atma, Buddhi and Manas. This Triangle, with all which it entails, will form the content of the renewed Christianity of the sixth cultural epoch. That is being prepared by the Rosicrucians and then what is symbolised by the Molten Sea will be united with a knowledge of reincarnation and karma. That is the new occult teaching which will be united again with Christianity. The higher self of man, composed of Atma, Buddhi and Manas, will become an open secret when the man of the sixth epoch has become ripe enough to receive it. Christian Rosenkreutz will then no longer be required to give warning, but everything which signified strife on the outer plane will be resolved in peace through the Molten Sea and the sacred Golden Triangle.

That is the course which world history will take in the future. What was disseminated by Christian Rosenkreutz in the Temple Legend through the Brotherhood, the Rosicrucians have made into their task: to teach not merely religious piety, but also science in an external way; not merely knowledge of the outer world, but knowledge of spiritual forces, too, and from both directions to go forward into the sixth Round of evolution.

• 1 . At the beginning of the fifteenth century ...
  In the original notes this was given as fourteenth century. Rudolf Steiner sometimes reckoned centuries as the Italians do (Quattrocento = fifteenth century). In a handwritten document from 1907, however, Rudolf Steiner writes: ‘In the first half of the fifteenth century Christian Rosenkreutz. ...’ etc. (Letters and Documents 1901–1925).
• 2 . Christian Rosenkreutz is a personality of the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries, not considered historical by modern investigators, who became known through two legendary anonymous writings: Fama Fratemitatis and Confessio Fraternitatis, published in Cassel in 1614 and 1615 respectively, in which it is stated that Christian Rosenkreutz was of German aristocratic descent and lived from 1378 to 1484. The name first became known through an anonymous handwritten document of 1604, which appeared in 1616 under the title: Chymische Hochzeit: Christian Rosenkreutz, Anno 1459, whose author, Johann Valentin Andreae, was declared by Rudolf Steiner to have been inspired by Christian Rosenkreutz himself. According to Rudolf Steiner, Christian Rosenkreutz was a real historical personality.
  
  See: A Commentary on the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, Michael Press, 1965. Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, E. Foxcroft translation of 1690, Camphill Village Trust, 1969. A Christian Rosenkreutz Anthology, compiled and edited by Paul M. Allen, Rudolf Steiner Publications, Blauvelt, New York, 1968. The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz. A Commentary by E.E. Pfeiffer, The Mercury Press.
• 3 . It is worth noting that Rudolf Steiner here attributes the origin of the Temple Legend to Christian Rosenkreutz in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but he never mentions how it came to be transferred to the Freemasons. Among Freemasons themselves its origin remains obscure. It is generally accepted that it arose in the eighteenth century, because that is the time of its first appearance in literature. Even though it is suspected that it formed a part of masonic knowledge at an earlier period, this cannot be proved from documents. For this lecture, too, Rudolf Steiner seems to have made use of the account given by Charles William Heckethorn in his Secret Societies, viz: Quotation from Vol. I. Book VIII, Ch. 1.
  
  The Legend of the Temple
  
  Ancestry of Hiram Abiff.
  
  Solomon, having determined on the erection of the Temple, collected artificers, divided them into companies, and put them under the command of Adoniram or Hiram Abiff, the architect sent to him by his friend and ally Hiram, King of Tyre. According to mythical tradition, the ancestry of the builders of the mystical temple was as follows: One of the Elohim, or primitive genii, married Eve and had a son called Cain; whilst Jehovah or Adonai, another of the Elohim, created Adam and united him with Eve to bring forth the family of Abel, to whom were subjected the sons of Cain, as a punishment for the transgression of Eve. Cain, though industriously cultivating the soil, yet derived little produce from it, whilst Abel leisurely tended his flocks. Adonai rejected the gifts and sacrifices of Cain, and stirred up strife between the sons of the Elohim, generated out of fire, and the sons formed out of the earth only. Cain killed Abel, and Adonai pursuing his sons, subjected to the sons of Abel the noble family that invented the arts and diffused science. Enoch, a son of Cain, taught men to hew stories, construct edifices and form civil societies. Irad and Mehujael, his son and grandson, set boundaries to the waters and fashioned cedars into beams. Methusael, another of his descendants, invented the sacred characters, the books of Tau and the symbolic T, by which the workers descended from the genii of fire recognised each other. Lamech, whose prophecies are inexplicable to the profane, was the father of Jabal, who first taught men how to dress camels' skins; of Jubal, who discovered the harp; of Naamah, who discovered the arts of spinning and weaving; of Tubal-Cain, who first constructed a furnace, worked in metals, and dug subterranean caves in the mountains to save his race during the deluge; but it perished nevertheless, and only Tubal-Cain and his son, the sole survivors of the glorious and gigantic family, came out alive. The wife of Ham, second son of Noah, thought the son of Tubal-Cain handsomer than the sons of men, and he became progenitor of Nimrod, who taught his brethren the art of hunting, and founded Babylon. Adoniram, the descendant of Tubal-Cain, seemed called by God to lead the militia of the free men, connecting the sons of fire with the sons of thought, progress, and truth.
  
  Hiram, Solomon, and the Queen of Sheba.
  
  By Hiram was erected a marvelous building, the Temple of Solomon. He raised the golden throne of Solomon, most beautifully wrought, and built many other glorious edifices. But, melancholy amidst all his greatness, he lived alone, understood and loved by few, hated by many, and among others by Solomon, envious of his genius and glory. Now the fame of the wisdom of Solomon spread to the remotest ends of the earth; and Balkis, the Queen of Sheba, came to Jerusalem, to greet the great king and behold the marvels of his reign. She found Solomon seated on a throne of gilt cedar wood, arrayed in cloth of gold, so that at first she seemed to behold a statue of gold with hands of ivory. Solomon received her with every kind of festive preparation, and led her to behold his palace and then the grand works of the temple; and the queen was lost in admiration. The king was captivated by her beauty, and in a short time offered her his hand, which the queen, pleased at having conquered this proud heart, accepted. But on again visiting the temple, she repeatedly desired to see the architect who had wrought such wondrous things. Solomon delayed as long as possible presenting Hiram Abiff to the queen, but at last he was obliged to do so. The mysterious artificer was brought before her, and cast on the queen a look that penetrated her very heart. Having recovered her composure, she questioned and defended him against the ill will and rising jealousy of the king. When she wished to see the countless host of workmen that wrought at the temple, Solomon protested the impossibility of assembling them all at once; but Hiram, leaping on a stone to be better seen, with his right hand described in the air the symbolical Tau, and immediately the men hastened from all parts of the works into the presence of their master; at this the queen wondered greatly, and secretly repented of the promise she had given the king, for she felt herself in love with the mighty architect. Solomon set himself to destroy this affection, and to prepare his rival's humiliation and ruin. For this purpose, he employed three fellow-craftsmen, envious of -Hiram, because he had refused to raise them to the degree of masters, on account of their want of knowledge and their idleness. They were Fanor, a Syrian and a mason; Amru, a Phoenician and a carpenter; and Metusael, a Hebrew and a miner. The black envy of these three projected that the casting of the brazen sea, which was to raise the glory of Hiram to its utmost height, should turn out a failure. A young workman, Benoni, discovered the plot and revealed it to Solomon, thinking that sufficient. The day for the casting arrived, and Balkis was present. The doors that restrained the molten metal were opened, and torrents of liquid poured into the vast mould wherein the brazen sea was to assume its form. But the burning mass ran over the edges of the mould, and flowed like lava over the adjacent places. The terrified crowd fled from the advancing stream of fire. Hiram, calm, like a god, endeavoured to arrest its advance with ponderous columns of water, but without success. The water and the fire mixed, and the struggle was terrible; the water rose in dense steam and fell down in the shape of fiery rain, spreading terror and death. The dishonoured artificer needed the sympathy of a faithful heart; he sought Benoni, but in vain; the proud youth perished in endeavouring to prevent the horrible catastrophe when he found that Solomon had done nothing to hinder it.
  
  Hiram could not withdraw himself from the scene of his discomfiture. Oppressed with grief, he heeded not the danger, he remembered not that this ocean of fire might speedily engulph him; he thought of the Queen of Sheba, who came to admire and congratulate him on a great triumph, and who saw nothing but a terrible disaster. Suddenly he heard a strange voice coming from above, and crying, “Hiram, Hiram, Hiram!” He raised his eyes and beheld a gigantic human figure. The apparition continued: “Come, my son, be without fear, I have rendered thee incombustible; cast thyself into the flames.” Hiram threw himself into the furnace, and where others would have found death, he tasted ineffable delights; nor could he, drawn by an irresistible force, leave it, and asked him that drew him into the abyss: “Whither do you take me?” “Into the centre of the earth, into the soul of the world, into the kingdom of great Cain, where liberty reigns with him. There the tyrannous envy of Adonai ceases; there can we, despising his anger, taste the fruit of the tree of knowledge; there is the home of thy fathers.” “Who then am I, and who art thou?” “I am the father of thy fathers, I am the son of Lamech, I am Tubal-Cain.”
  
  Tubal-Cain introduced Hiram into the sanctuary of fire, where he expounded to him the weakness of Adonai and the base passions of that god, the enemy of his own creature whom he condemned to the inexorable law of death, to avenge the benefits the genii of fire had bestowed on him. Hiram was led into the presence of the author of his race, Cain. The angel of light that begat Cain was reflected in the beauty of this son of love, whose noble and generous mind roused the envy of Adonai. Cain related to Hiram his experiences, sufferings, and misfortunes, brought upon him by the implacable Adonai. Presently he heard the voice of him who was the offspring of Tubal-Cain and his sister Naamah: “A son shall be born unto thee whom thou shalt indeed not see, but whose numerous descendants shall perpetuate thy race, which, superior to that of Adam, shall acquire the empire of the world; for many centuries they shall consecrate their courage and genius to the service of the ever ungrateful race of Adam, but at last the best shall become the strongest, and restore on the earth the worship of fire. Thy sons, invincible in thy name, shall destroy the power of kings, the ministers of the Adonai's tyranny. Go, my son, the genii of fire are with thee!” Hiram was restored to the earth. Tubal-Cain before quitting him gave him the hammer with which he himself had wrought great things, and said to him: “Thanks to this hammer and the help of the genii of fire, thou shalt speedily accomplish the work left unfinished through man's stupidity and malignity.” Hiram did not hesitate to test the wonderful efficacy of the precious instrument, and the dawn saw the great mass of bronze cast. The artist felt the most lively joy, the queen exulted. The people came running up, astounded at this secret power which in one night had repaired everything.
  
  One day the queen, accompanied by her maids, went beyond Jerusalem, and there encountered Hiram, alone and thoughtful. The encounter was decisive, they mutually confessed their love. Had-Had, the bird who filled with the queen the office of messenger of the genii of fire, seeing Hiram in the air make the sign of the mystic T, flew around his head and settled on his wrist. At this Sarahil, the nurse of the queen, exclaimed: “The oracle is fulfilled. Had-Had recognises the husband which the genii of fire destined for Balkis, whose love alone she dare accept!” They hesitated no longer, but mutually pledged their vows, and deliberated how Balkis could retract the promise given to the king. Hiram was to be the first to quit Jerusalem; the queen, impatient to rejoin him in Arabia, was to elude the vigilance of the king, which she accomplished by withdrawing from his finger, while he was overcome with wine, the ring wherewith she had plighted her troth to him. Solomon hinted to the fellow-craftsmen that the removal of his rival, who refused to give them the master's word, would be acceptable unto himself; so when the architect came into the temple he was assailed and slain by them. Before his death, however, he had time to throw the golden triangle which he wore round his neck, and on which was engraven the master's word, into a deep well. They wrapped up his body, carried it to a solitary hill and buried it, planting over the grave a sprig of acacia.
  
  Hiram not having made his appearance for seven days, Solomon, against his inclination, but to satisfy the clamour of the people, was forced to have him searched for. The body was found by three masters, and they, suspecting that he had been slain by the three fellow-craftsmen for refusing them the master's word, determined nevertheless for greater security to change the word, and that the first word accidentally uttered on raising the body should thenceforth be the word. In the act of raising it, the skin came off the body, so that one of the masters exclaimed “Macbenach!” (the flesh is off the bones!) and this word became the sacred word of the master's degree. The three fellow-craftsmen were traced, but rather than fall into the hands of their pursuers, they committed suicide and their heads were brought to Solomon. The triangle not having been found on the body of Hiram it was sought for and at last discovered in the well into which the architect had cast it. The king caused it to be placed on a triangular altar erected in a secret vault, built under the most retired part of the temple. The triangle was further concealed by a cubical stone, on which had been inscribed the sacred law. The vault, the existence of which was only known to the twenty-seven elect, was then walled up.
• 4 . The historical basis for this lies in the work of the writer, Etienne-Leon, Baron de Lamothe-Langon, who published the Souvenirs sur Marie-Antoinette, Archiduchesse d’Autriche, Reine de France, et sur la cour de Versailles par Madame la Comtesse d’Adhemar, Dame du Palais, Paris, 1836. About fifty years later these memoirs were rescued from oblivion by H.P. Blavatsky and her friends. One of the very rare copies of these memoirs was to be found in the library of H.P. Blavatsky's aunt who lived in Odessa. Henry Steel Olcott, who founded the Theosophical Society with Blavatsky in 1875, wrote in his Old Diary Leaves—the true story of the Theosophical Society, 1895, Vol. 1, p. 24: ‘If Mme. de Fadeef—H.P.B.'s aunt could only be induced to translate and publish certain documents in her famous library, the world would have a nearer approach to a true history of the pre-revolutionary European mission of this Eastern Adept than has until now been available.’
  
  The English theosophist, Isabel Cooper-Oakley, published all the parts of the Souvenirs de Madame d’AdhemarThe Comte of Saint Germain—The Secret of Kings, Milan, 1912. (See also note II to lecture 9 of 16th December 1904).
• 5 . The spiritual identity of Christian Rosenkreutz and the Count of Saint Germain is a result of Rudolf Steiner's own investigations. See also the lecture of 27th September 1911, translated in the Anthroposophical Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 4, (winter, 1960).
• 6 . Quotation from Hosea 8, verse 7. See also note 7 to lecture 9 of 16th December 1904.
• 7 . See note 10 to lecture 12 of 22nd May 1905.
• 8 . The German rendering is: exists only in between [?] (dazwischen). The sense is somewhat obscure.

“The part that interprets the evolution of humanity in symbolic terms”, as taught in the first degree.
Text based on the original manuscript by Rudolf Steiner.

At the beginning of the evolution of the earth, one of the spirits of light or Elohim descended from the realm of the sun to the earthly realm and united with Eve, the primal mother of all that lives. From this union arose Cain, the first of the earth-dwellers. Thereafter, another of the Elohim, Jahve or Jehovah, formed Adam; and from the union of Adam and Eve arose Abel, Cain's stepbrother. The inequality of descent between Cain and Abel (sexual and asexual descent) caused discord between Cain and Abel. And Cain slew Abel. Abel had lost his connection to the spiritual world through sexual descent, Cain through the moral fall. Jehovah gave Seth, a substitute son, to Abel's parents as compensation. Two types of people descended from Cain and Seth. The descendants of Seth were able to see into the spiritual world in special (dream-like) states of consciousness. The descendants of Cain had lost this ability completely. They had to work their way up through the generations by gradually developing the human powers of the earth in order to regain their spiritual abilities.

One of the descendants of Abel-Seth was the wise Solomon. He had inherited the gift of dream-like clairvoyance; indeed, he had inherited it to a particular degree as a disposition; so it was that his wisdom was so widely known that it is symbolically reported of him that he sat on a throne of gold and ivory (gold and ivory symbols of wisdom).

From the line of Cain came men who, in the course of time, were increasingly concerned with the upward development of human powers on earth. One of these men was Lamech, the keeper of the T-books, in which, as far as was possible for human powers, original wisdom was restored, so that these books are incomprehensible to uninitiated people. Another descendant of the Cain humanity is Tubalkain, who made great progress in the working of metals, and even knew how to form metals into musical instruments in an artistic way. And as a contemporary of Solomon, Hiram Abiff or Adoniram, a descendant of Cain, lived who had advanced so far in his art that it bordered directly on the vision of the higher worlds, and for him there was only a thin wall to break through to initiation.

The wise Solomon conceived the plan of a temple, the formal parts of which were to symbolize the development of mankind. Through his dream wisdom, he was able to conceive the thoughts of this temple in every detail; but he lacked the knowledge of the earth forces for the actual construction, which could only be gained through the training of the earth forces in the Cain race. Therefore, Solomon connected with Hiram-Abiff. He now built the temple that symbolized the development of humanity.

Solomon's fame had reached as far as the Queen of Sheba, Balkis. One day she went to the court of Solomon in order to marry him. She was shown all the glories of Solomon's court, including the mighty temple. From the mental images she had formed up to that point, she could not comprehend how a master builder who had only human powers at his disposal could have accomplished such a thing. She had only learned that the leaders of workers, through the possession of atavistic magical powers, were able to gather sufficient crowds of workers to erect the old, mighty buildings. She demanded to see the strange, remarkable master builder. When he met her, his eye immediately made a deeply significant impression on her. Then he was to show her how he led the workers by mere human agreement. He took his hammer, climbed a hill, and at a sign with the hammer, large crowds of workers rushed to the scene. The Queen of Sheba realized that human powers could develop to such significance.

Soon afterward, the queen and her nurse (the nurse is symbolic of a prophetic person) were walking outside the city gates. They encountered Hiram Abiff. At the moment the two women saw the master builder, the bird Had-Had flew out of the air onto the arm of the Queen of Sheba.

The prophetic nurse interpreted this to mean that the Queen of Sheba was not destined for Solomon, but for Hiram Abiff. From that moment on, the queen thought only of how she could break off her engagement to Solomon. It is further related that now, “in her intoxication,” the engagement ring was pulled from the king's finger, so that the queen could now consider herself the bride destined for Hiram Abiff. (The significance of this feature of the legend lies in the fact that in the Queen of Sheba we see the ancient wisdom of the stars, which was connected with the ancient atavistic soul powers symbolized in Solomon. Occult legends express this in the symbols of female persons, and wisdom is that which can unite with the male part of the soul. The time of Solomon marks the epoch in which this wisdom is to pass over from the atavistic old forces to the newly acquired powers of the I on earth. The “ring” is always the symbol of the “I”. Solomon is still conceived as having a not fully human ego, but one that is only the reflection of the “higher ego” of the angels in the atavistic dream-clairvoyant consciousness. The “intoxication” indicates that this ego is lost again within the semi-conscious soul forces through which it was acquired. Hiram is only in possession of a real-human “I”.)

From this point on, King Solomon is seized by a violent jealousy against his master builder. Therefore, three treacherous companions find it easy to gain the ear of the king for an act by which they want to destroy Hiram Abiff. They are his opponents because they had to be rejected by him when they demanded the master's degree and the master's word, for which they are not ready.

These three traitorous fellows now decide to spoil the work for Hiram Abiff, which he is to accomplish as the crowning achievement of his work at the court of Solomon. This is the casting of the “Brazen Sea”. This is an artificial casting made of the seven basic metals (lead, copper, tin, mercury, iron, silver, gold) in such proportions that it is completely transparent. The thing was finished, except for one very last impact, which was to be made before the assembled court - also before the Queen of Sheba - and by which the still cloudy substance was to be transformed to complete clarity. Now the three treacherous journeymen mixed something wrong into the casting, so that instead of it clearing, sparks of fire sprayed out of it. Hiram Abiff tried to calm the fire with water. This did not work, but the flames leapt in all directions. The assembled people scattered in all directions. But Hiram Abiff heard a voice from the flames and the glowing mass: “Plunge into the sea of flames; you are invulnerable.” He plunged into the flames and soon realized that his path was heading towards the center of the earth. Halfway there, he met his ancestor Tubalkain. The latter led him to the center of the earth, where the great ancestor Cain was, in the state he was in before the sin. Here Hiram Abiff received from Cain the explanation that the vigorous development of human powers on earth would ultimately lead to the height of initiation, and that the initiation attained in this way would replace the vision of the Abel-Seth sons in the course of the earth, which would disappear. Symbolically, the power to confer the Mother Gift, which Hiram Abiff receives from Cain, is expressed by the statement that Hiram received a new hammer from Cain, with which he returned to the earth's surface, touched the Sea of Bronze, and thereby brought about its complete transparency. (This symbolism is given by that which, in appropriate meditation, elevates to the imagination the inner essence of human development on earth. The Iron Sea can be seen as a symbol of what man would have become if the three treacherous forces in the soul had not taken hold: doubt, superstition, and the illusion of the personal self. Through these forces, the evolution of mankind on earth has come to a display of fire in the Lemurian period, which cannot be dampened by the watery evolution of the Atlantean period. Rather, such an evolution of human forces on earth must take place that the original state is restored in the soul, which was present in Cain before the fratricide. The dream-like soul powers of the children of Abel-Seth cannot prevail against the powers of the earth, but only the descendants of Cain, who have come to full, real development of the ego.)

A further transcript of the Temple Legend
Text according to the original manuscript by Rudolf Steiner

[The first part is missing]

From this time on, Solomon became jealous of his master builder. Three treacherous journeymen, who in their vanity had demanded the master builder's word and degree from the master builder, whom he could not give them because they were still immature, supported him in this. They decided to take revenge in the following way.

Hiram Abiff was to perform the so-called Sea of Bronze as the crowning glory of his work at the court of Solomon. It was to be a wonderful metal casting in which all the metals of the earth were poured in such harmony that a magnificent, harmonious whole resulted. Everything about it was completed by Hiram Abiff, down to the last move. This was to be done at a special celebration. The entire court was assembled for the occasion, including the Queen of Sheba. At the decisive moment, the three treacherous journeymen added an unrighteous touch to the casting; and instead of the whole thing bringing itself to a harmonious conclusion, sparks flew out of the casting. Hiram Abiff tried to calm the flames by adding water. But then terrible masses of flames arose from the casting. Everything that had been gathered by people scattered. But Hiram Abiff heard a voice from the fire that told him: do not be afraid, plunge into the flames; you are invulnerable. He plunged into the sea of flames. He soon realized that his flight was to the center of the earth. Halfway there he met Tubalkain, who led him to his ancestor Cain in the center of the earth. Cain was in the form before the commission of sin. He gave Hiram Abiff a new T-sign and told him that with it he would restore the casting when he returned to the surface of the earth. And from him would come a race that would conquer Adam's children on earth and reintroduce the great service of fire, as well as lead mankind back to the divine word of creation.

There is also a deeper meaning in this part of the legend. Before man descended from the bosom of the deity into earthly embodiments, he was in a spiritual environment that he could perceive. He heard the divine creative word. He embodied himself in the metal masses, which were still liquid in the fire at that time. Before this happened, three companions could not harm him: doubt, superstition and the illusion of personal self. He could not have doubt about the spiritual world, because it was around him. He could not be overcome by superstition, because he saw the spiritual in its true form. But superstition consists in the mental image of the spiritual in the wrong form. The illusion of personal self could not affect him, because he knew himself in the general spirituality; he was not yet separated from this general spirituality by being enclosed in his body. If these three treacherous companions had not been on his heels, his body would have become a pure harmonious connection of substances. They mixed in the impact that made him forget the divine-spiritual creative word. The casting was destroyed by this. The descent of Hiram Abiff into the center of the earth then represents man's advance on the occult path. In this way mankind comes into possession of the T, the divine creative word, and gets to know human nature (Cain) as it was before the Fall and how it can create in purity.

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Another imagination is the following:

The eye is the divine eye of power behind all transient existence, even behind the seven-part nature of man. One can form a mental image of this if one recalls the words of St. Augustine:

"Man sees things as they are.

They are as God sees them.

Human vision is passive; things must be there for a person to see them. God's vision creates things in the act of looking. The triangle around the eye is

spirit itself (manas)
spirit of life (budhi)
spirit man (atma)

The rays are the “I” - the upper trinity shines through the I into the lower members of human nature.

These are symbolized:

1. by the illuminated part of the clouds: the astral body
2. by the unilluminated part of the clouds: the etheric body
3. the surrounding darkness: the physical body.

The temple legend and this radiant eye should be a constant subject of meditation for the*. He should remember them again and again; see them as images (imaginations) in his mind. Then, if he devotes the necessary energy and patience to them, he will become aware that they awaken forces and abilities that were dormant in him, and by awakening them he can see into the higher worlds. For man does not attain to the supersensible organs of perception through tumultuous, external means, but through such intimate means as those mentioned, which are applied in inner, quiet soul work, inwardly restlessly and energetically.

Acquire expressions
for: right angle
turn direction
alternately speaking letters

holy. word
password
apron
trowel and trowel tape.

Recordings possibly by Johannes Gottfried Wilhelm Schröder

In the beginning of the Earth, Elohim examined the Primordial Mother Heva. And she bore Cain. After that, Jahve-Elohim formed Adam and created him from clay and gave him a new living soul. Adam begat Cain with Heva.

Then Cain and Abel quarreled, and Cain slew his brother Abel. Since then, blood guilt has rested on Cain and his descendants. But instead of the slain Abel, Seth was born to Adam from Heva.

The priests and kings of the world descended from the Abel-Seth line. They were given the gift of divine wisdom by their progenitor [Yahweh]. The descendants of Abel were shepherds and tended flocks and peoples because what they needed now fell to them without labor through the gift of the gods.

Cain and his descendants were farmers and plowed the earth. From the bottom up, through the forces of the earth, they had to work their way up to the light.

One of Cain's descendants was Lamech. He invented the man of metal according to the sounds of the music of the spheres.

The last of the great enlightened priest-kings of the Abel Seth line was the wise King Solomon. He sat on his throne of gold and ivory and sent his messengers to the four corners of the earth.

By virtue of his divine wisdom, he conceived the plan for building the temple in his mind. But he could not carry it out himself. For this he needed a master builder named Hiram Abiff or Adoniram.

He was of the Cain race and knew the powers of the earth. He could oversee the construction and direct the crowds of workers with the blow of his hammer.

Then the wise Queen of Sheba came from the south, from the land of the streams, to King Solomon to admire the temple that the wise King Solomon had conceived and that Hiram Abiff or Adoniram had built according to his will. And she was very astonished. But she had given the wise King Solomon an engagement ring.

After she had dedicated the temple, she met the master builder Hiram Abiff or Adoniram outside the city. And the bird [Had-Had] came and sat on the right arm of Hiram Abiff. Which the queen's wise nurse interpreted as meaning that she would marry Hiram Abiff. King Solomon became jealous, and in his rage the ring was pulled off and given to Hiram Abiff.

But Hiram Abiff or Adoniram also had a great work to accomplish. He had been instructed by Solomon to create a large metal sea that was to be made transparent like glass. And a day was set for this work to be completed.

And the wise Solomon and the Queen of Sabah came with their retinue at the appointed hour to witness the completion of the miracle. There was only one more ingredient to be added to the mixture, and then the metal sea would transform and appear transparent. But there were three treacherous figures among the workmen of Hiram Abiff or Adoniram: doubt, superstition, and belief in one's own personality. They had secretly spoiled the mixture. When Hiram Abiff or Adoniram added the last ingredients before the king and queen, fire spurted out at him (Lemuria) and the brazen sea darkened.

When he then added water (Atlantis) to extinguish the fire, the mass began to boil even more violently, threatening to destroy everything and to devour everyone present. Then a voice was heard from the fire and steam, calling to Hiram Abiff or Adoniram to plunge himself with his hammer into the fiery mass and thus extinguish the flame.

He did so and then felt himself sinking down, deep into the interior of the earth. There he met his ancestor Cain. Cain gave him a new hammer with which he could complete the work. With this, he rose unharmed back to the surface of the earth and was now able to complete his work.

Solomon and his descendants, however, lost the divine wisdom and perished more and more.

The descendants of Cain, however, are called upon to work their way up to the light of divine wisdom.

These two currents have then mixed in many ways, and in every person of our time there is blood from both currents. But in those who can penetrate to the light, the blood of Cain predominates.

Another incarnation of Hiram Abiff or Adoniram is Jeshu ben Pandirah, the Essene, who lived for about 100 years [records break off].

At the beginning of the earth's development, one of the light spirits or Elohim descended from the solar realm into the earthly realm and joined with Eve, the primal mother of the living. From this union was born Cain, the first of the earth humans. Then another of the Elohim, Yahweh or Jehovah, formed the Adam; and from the union of Adam with Eve arose Abel, Cain's stepbrother. The disparity of descent between Cain and Abel (sexual and asexual descent) caused a quarrel between Cain and Abel. And Cain slew Abel. Abel had lost his connection to the spiritual world through sexual descent; Cain had lost it through the moral fall. Jehovah gave the replacement son Seth to Abel's parents. Two types of people descend from Cain and Seth. The descendants of Seth were able to see into the spiritual world in special (dream-like) states of consciousness. The descendants of Cain had lost this ability altogether. They had to work their way up through the generations by gradually developing the human powers of the earth to regain their spiritual abilities.

One of the descendants of Abel-Seth was the wise Solomon. He had inherited the gift of dream-like clairvoyance; indeed, he had inherited it to a particular degree, so that his wisdom was so widely known that it is symbolically reported of him that he sat on a throne of gold and ivory (gold and ivory are symbols of wisdom).

From the Cain race came men who, in the course of time, became more and more concerned with the upward development of human powers on earth. One of these men was Lamech, the keeper of the T-books, in which, as far as was possible for earthly powers, the original wisdom was restored, so that these books are incomprehensible to uninitiated people. Another descendant of Cain's race was Tubal-Cain, who made great advances in the working of metals, and even understood how to fashion musical instruments from them. And as a contemporary of Solomon, Hiram Abiff or Adoniram, a descendant of Cain, had reached such a level of skill in his art that it bordered directly on the vision of the higher worlds, with only a thin wall still to be broken through for him to achieve initiation.

The wise Solomon conceived the plan of a temple, the formal parts of which were to symbolize the development of mankind. Through his wisdom of dreams he was able to conceive the thoughts of this temple in every detail; but he lacked the knowledge of the earth forces for the actual construction, which could only be gained through the training of the earth forces in the Cain race. Therefore Solomon connected himself with Hiram Abiff. He now built the Temple, which was a symbolic expression of the development of mankind.

Solomon's fame had reached as far as the Queen of Sheba, Balkis. One day she went to the court of Solomon to marry him. She was shown all the glories of Solomon's court, including the mighty temple. From the ideas she had gained so far, she could not understand how a master builder who had only human powers at his disposal could have achieved something like this. She had only learned that the leaders of workers, through the possession of atavistic magical powers, were able to gather sufficient crowds of workers to erect the old, mighty buildings. She demanded to see the master builder, who seemed strange and remarkable to her. When he met her, his eye immediately made a deeply significant impression on her. Then he should show her how he leads the workers by mere human agreement. He took his hammer, climbed a hill, and at a sign with the hammer, large crowds of workers rushed to his side. The Queen of Sheba realized that human powers on earth can develop to such significance.

Soon afterward, the queen and her nurse (the nurse is symbolic of a prophetic person) were walking outside the city gates. They encountered Hiram Abiff. At the moment the two women saw the master builder, the bird Had-Had flew out of the air onto the arm of the Queen of Sheba.

The prophetic nurse interpreted this to mean that the Queen of Sheba was not destined for Solomon, but for Hiram Abiff. From that moment on, the queen thought only of how she could break off her engagement to Solomon. It is further related that now, “in her intoxication,” the engagement “ring” was pulled from the king's finger, so that the queen could now consider herself the bride destined for Hiram Abiff. (The significance of this feature of the legend is based on the fact that the Queen of Sheba is seen as the “ancient wisdom of the stars”, which until that epoch was connected with the ancient atavistic powers of the soul, symbolized in Solomon. Occult legends express this in the symbolism of female figures representing wisdom, which can marry with the male part of the soul. The time of Solomon marks the beginning of the epoch in which this wisdom is to pass over from the atavistic old powers to the newly acquired ego powers on earth. The “ring” is always the symbol for the “ego”. Solomon is still thought of as having a not fully human ego, but one that is only a reflection of the “higher ego” of the angels in the atavistic dream-clairvoyant consciousness. The “intoxication” indicates that this ego is lost again within the semi-conscious soul forces through which it was acquired. Hiram is only in possession of a real human “I”).

From this point on, King Solomon is seized by a violent jealousy against his master builder. Therefore, three treacherous companions have no difficulty in finding the ear of the king for an act by which they want to destroy Hiram Abiff. They are his opponents because they had to be rejected by him when they demanded the master's degree and the master's word, for which they are not ready.

These three treacherous companions now decide to corrupt the work of Hiram Abiff, which he is to accomplish as the crowning achievement of his work at the court of Solomon. This is the casting of the “Brazen Sea”. This is an artificial casting made from the seven basic metals (lead, copper, tin, mercury, iron, silver, gold) in such proportions that it is completely transparent. The matter was finished, except for one very last impact, which was to be made before the assembled court – also before the Queen of Sheba – and by which [it] should transform the still cloudy substance to complete clarity. Now the three treacherous journeymen mixed something wrong into the casting, so that, instead of it clearing, sparks of fire sprayed out of it. Hiram Abiff tried to calm the fire with water. This did not succeed, but the flames leapt in all directions. The assembled people scattered in all directions. But Hiram Abiff heard a voice from the flames and the glowing mass: “Plunge into the sea of fire; you are invulnerable”. He plunged into the flames and soon realized that his path was leading him to the center of the earth. Halfway there, he met his ancestor Tubalkain. The latter led him to the center of the earth, where the great ancestor Cain was, in the state he was in before the sin. Here Hiram Abiff received from Cain the explanation that the vigorous development of human powers on earth would ultimately lead to the height of initiation, and that the initiation attained in this way would have to take the place of the vision of the Abel-Seth sons in the course of the earth, which would disappear. Symbolically, the power of bestowing the Mother, which Hiram Abiff receives from Cain, is expressed by the statement that Hiram received a new hammer from Cain, with which he returned to the earth's surface, touched the Sea of Bronze, and thereby was able to make it completely transparent. (This symbolism is given by that which, in proper meditation, elevates to imagination the inner essence of human development on earth. The Iron Age can be seen as a symbol of what man would have become if the three treacherous forces in the soul had not taken hold: doubt, superstition, and the illusion of the personal self. Through these forces, the development of humanity on Earth has come to a fiery unfolding in the Lemurian period, which cannot be dampened by the watery development of the Atlantean period. Rather, such a development of the human powers on earth must take place that the original state of the soul, as it was in Cain before the fratricide, is restored. The dream-like soul powers of the children of Abel-Seth cannot prevail against the powers of the earth, but only the descendants of Cain, who have come to full real ego development.

Today I wish to make a brief survey of the Rites and Orders of Freemasonry, as I agreed to do. Of course I can only impart to you the main essentials, as the whole subject is so comprehensive, and so many inessential things are connected with it.

The basis for the whole of Freemasonry is to be found in the Temple Legend concerning Hiram-Abiff or Adonhiram about whom I have already spoken in connection with the Rosicrucian Order.¹ Everything to do with what is called the secret of Freemasonry and its tendency is expressed in this Temple Legend.² We are led to a kind of Genesis or theory of evolution of the human race. Let us therefore recall to mind the essentials of this Temple Legend.

One of the Elohim united himself with Eve and out of this union of a divine creative spirit with Eve, Cain was born. Then another of the Elohim, Jehovah or Adonai, created Adam, who is to be regarded as the primal man of the third Root Race. This Adam then united himself with Eve, and from this union Abel was born. Thus at the outset of human evolution there are two starting points: Cain, the direct descendant of one of the Elohim with Eve, and Abel, who, with the help of a divinely created human being, Adam, is the true representative of Jehovah.

The whole conception underlying the creation story according to the Temple Legend is based upon the fact that there is a kind of enmity between Jehovah and everything which is derived from the other Elohim and their descendants, the ‘Sons of Fire’—this being the designation of the descendants of Cain according to the Temple Legend. Jehovah creates enmity between Cain and his race, and Abel and his race. The outcome of this was that Cain slew Abel. That is the arch-enmity which exists between those who receive their existence from the divine worlds, and those who work out everything for themselves. The fact that Abel makes the sacrifice of an animal to Jehovah, while Cain brings the fruits of the earth, is an illustration, which the Bible gives too, of this contrast between the race of Cain and the race of Abel. Cain has to wrest from the earth with hard labour the fruits which are necessary for the sustenance of mankind; Abel takes what is already living, what has been prepared for his livelihood. The race of Cain creates, as it were, the living out of the lifeless. Abel takes up what is already alive, what is already imbued with the breath of life. Abel's sacrifice is pleasing to God, but Cain's is not.

Thus we find two kinds of human being characterised in Cain and Abel. The one consists of those who accept what God has prepared for them. The others—the free humanity—are those who till the soil and labour to win living products out of what is lifeless. Those who regard themselves as Sons of Cain are they who understand the Temple Legend and wish to live by it. Out of the race of Cain spring all those who are the creators of the arts and sciences of mankind: Tubal-Cain who is the first true architect and the God of smithies and working tools; and also Hiram-Abiff, or Adonhiram, who is the hero of the Temple Legend. This Hiram is sent for by King Solomon, famous for his wisdom, who belongs to the race of Abel, those who receive their wisdom from God. Thus this contrast appears once more at the court of Solomon—Solomon the wise, and Hiram the independent worker, who has achieved his wisdom through human striving.

Solomon called to his court Balkis, the Queen of Sheba, and when she arrived her impression of him was as of a statue made of gold and precious stones; it was as though she were looking at a monument bestowed on mankind by the gods. As she gazed in wonderment at the great Temple of Solomon, her desire was to meet the architect of this wonderful building, and her wish was fulfilled. Merely through a single glance which the architect cast on her, she was able to appreciate his true worth. Solomon was immediately seized by a kind of jealousy of Hiram. This grew as Balkis demanded that all the workers engaged in the building of the Temple should be presented to her. Solomon declared that this was impossible, but Hiram conceded to her wishes. He climbed onto a slight eminence, made the mystical sign of the Tau and, behold, all the workers streamed towards him. The will of the Queen had been fulfilled.

Because of this, Solomon is disinclined to oppose the enemies of Hiram and to stand out against them. A Syrian stonemason, a Phoenician carpenter and a Jewish miner were antagonistic towards Hiram. These three fellow craftsmen had been totally denied the Master Word by Hiram-Abiff. The Master Word is that which would have enabled them to work independently as master builders. The Master Word is a secret which is imparted only to those who have made the grade. Therefore they came to the decision to do Hiram some harm.

The opportunity for this came about as Hiram-Abiff was about to fulfil his masterpiece, the casting of the Molten Sea. The movement of the waters was to be held fast in Form. The surging sea was to be preserved alive artistically in a rigid form. That is the point. The three apprentices conspired to make the casting in such a way that instead of flowing into the mould it would flow out over the surroundings. Hiram tried to arrest the flow of the fiery mass by throwing water over it, but this caused the metal to spray up into the air and descend again with great force in a rain of fire. Hiram was powerless to do anything. But suddenly a voice called out to him: ‘Hiram! Hiram! Hiram!’ He was ordered by the voice to plunge into the sea of fire. This he did and he sank down ever deeper until he reached the centre of the earth where fire has its origin. There he met two figures, his ancestor Tubal-Cain, and Cain himself. Cain was irradiated with the brightness of Lucifer, the angel of light. Then Tubal-Cain gave Hiram his hammer which had the magical property of restoring all things to their proper order and he said to him: You will beget a son who will gather about him a race of wise folk, and you will be the progenitor of those who have been born out of fire which brings wisdom and makes man thoughtful. The Molten Sea was now restored by means of the hammer.

Hiram and Queen Balkis then met again outside the city. She became his wife, but Hiram was unable to avert the jealousy of Solomon and the revenge of the three fellow craftsmen. He was slain by them. The only thing he was able to save was the Triangle with the Master Word engraved upon it, which he threw into a deep well. Then Hiram was buried and a branch of acacia was planted on his grave. The acacia branch betrayed the whereabouts of the grave to Solomon, and the Triangle was also discovered. It was sealed up and buried in a place known to only a few people—twenty-seven in all. [It was agreed that] the new Master Word should be the word first uttered after the finding of the corpse—it is the word which is used by the Freemasons. The Freemasons trace back their origin, with some justification, to the Temple Legend and to the old days in which the Temple was built by Solomon as a lasting memorial to the secret of the fifth Root Race.

And now we have to learn to understand how mankind can benefit by Freemasonry. That is not so easy. A person who gets to know something of the complicated initiation ceremonies of Freemasonry might be inclined to ask: is what takes place in such ceremonies very trivial and petty?

I will now describe to you the initiation ceremony of an apprentice wishing to join the Order of Craft Masonry.³ Just imagine someone has decided that he wants to become a member of the Craft Masonry. It consists of three degrees: Apprentice, Fellow Craftsman and Master Mason. After these three degrees come higher degrees which lead the candidate into occult knowledge. I will now describe what happens to a novice about to be initiated into the first degree,⁴ that is the degree of apprentice. When he is brought into the Lodge building for the first time, he is led into a remote chamber by the Brother Warden and left for some minutes to his own thoughts. Then he is deprived of all metal he has about him, such as gold, silver and other metals, his clothes are rent at the knee and the heel of his left shoe is trodden down. In this condition he is led into the midst of the brethren who are assembled in another room, a cord is passed round his neck and a sword is pointed at his naked breast. In this state he is confronted by the Worshipful Master, who asks him if he is still determined to undergo initiation. Then he is cautioned very seriously and during the further procedures the meaning of the treading down of the heel and other procedures are explained to him. There are three things which he is obliged to forego. If he is unable to forswear these three things he will never be accepted as a Freemason. He is told: If you retain the slightest curiosity about anything, then you must leave this house immediately. Secondly, he is told: If you should hesitate to acknowledge every one of your failings and mistakes, then you must leave this house immediately. Thirdly: If you are unable to rise in spirit above all things which differentiate one human being from another, then you must leave this house immediately. These three things are most strictly required from every candidate for initiation.

Then a kind of frame is held in front of the candidate. through which he is thrown, while at the same time an unpleasant noise is produced, so that he flies through the frame with the worst of feelings. In addition to this they shout to him that he is being thrown into Hell. At that same instant, a trapdoor is closed with a bang, and he is given the impression of being in very peculiar surroundings. His skin is then scratched slightly, so that blood is made to flow, and at the same time a gurgling sound is made by those around him, giving him the impression that he is losing a great deal of blood. After that three hammer blows are struck by the Worshipful Master. What is said thereafter in the Lodge must be treated in the strictest secrecy. Were the candidate to reveal it, his connection with Freemasonry, would be changed, just as the drink he is offered also changes: sweet from the one side, bitter from the other. This drink is handed to him in an artfully constructed vessel, so that the drink is sweet from one side, but when turned around it changes to bitter. That is to symbolise how it will be for the candidate if he betrays the secrets.

After these proceedings he is led to a flight of stairs in a room which is very dimly lit. This staircase is so constructed that it moves and thereby gives the impression that one has descended a long way, whereas one has really only descended a short distance. It is the same when the candidate falls. When he thinks he has fallen into a deep well, he has in reality only fallen a very short way. At this point it is explained to him that he has arrived at a decisive moment. In addition to this he is blindfolded again when he is by the staircase. Then the Brother Warden is asked: ‘Brother Senior Warden, deem you the candidate worthy of forming part of our Society?’ If the answer is ‘Yes’ he is then further asked: ‘What do you ask for him?’ He is obliged to answer: ‘Light’. Then the bandage is removed from the candidate's eyes and he sees himself in an illuminated chamber. Then follows the basic question: ‘Do you recognise who is your Master?’ He makes answer: ‘Yes, it is he who is wearing a yellow jacket and blue trousers.’ The blue trousers refer to the rank he possesses. Then he receives the three attributes of apprenticeship: Sign, Grip and Word. The Sign is a symbol of the same kind as occult symbols ... [Gap] The Grip is a special kind of handclasp to be used when shaking hands. These handclasps are different in the case of an apprentice and in the case of a Master. The Word changes according to degree, It does not behove me to reveal what the Words are.

After that, the person concerned can be admitted to his apprenticeship. On admission he is asked: ‘How old are you?’ He makes answer: ‘Not yet seven years.’ He has to serve seven years as an apprentice before he can progress to become a journeyman.

When someone has progressed so far that he is eligible for his Master I s degree, the initiation ceremony is somewhat more difficult. The main thing is, however, that what is contained in the Temple Legend is actually carried out in practice on the candidate himself. He who wishes to attain to the Master's degree is led into one of the rooms in the Lodge building and has to lie in a coffin and to undergo the same fate as the Master-builder Hiram suffered. Then the new Sign, Grip and Word are revealed to him. The Word is the same as the Master Word which was uttered at the finding of Hiram's body. The signs by which a Master is known are extremely complicated. Recognition is achieved with the help of many forms and gestures.

The Freemasonry Masters call themselves ‘Children of the Widow’. Thus the Company of the Masters is directly derived from the Manicheans. I shall still speak about the connection between Manicheism and Freemasonry.⁵

The task of Freemasonry is connected with that belonging to the whole of the fifth Root Race. You could, of course, from the point of view of modern rationalist thinking, dismiss all I have told you about the initiation of an apprentice and the various ceremonies connected therewith as mere tomfoolery and play acting. But that is not what it is. All the things I have mentioned are the outward symbolical enactment of ancient occult practices which once took place on the astral plane through the mystery schools. Such proceedings, therefore, which take place symbolically among Freemasons, are carried out on the astral plane in the mystery temples. The initiation into the degree of a Master, the lying in the coffin and so on, is actually something which takes place on a higher level. However, in Freemasonry, it only takes place symbolically.

One could now ask: Where does all this lead? A Freemason should be conscious of the fact that one should act on the physical plane in a way which will maintain a connection with the spiritual worlds. It makes a difference whether one is a member of a community which believes in symbols which help to create a higher community, or whether ... [Gap] A Freemason need not necessarily have different thoughts from the man in the street, but his feelings are quite different. Feelings are connected with symbolical enactments, and it is not a matter of indifference whether or no a feeling of this kind is aroused, because it corresponds with a certain rhythm on the astral plane.

The meaning behind the first part of the ceremony—the taking away of metal objects—is that the candidate should not retain about his person anything which he has not produced by his own labours. A feeling for this is necessary for anyone who has had his attention drawn to the significance of symbols. He should also retain an enduring memory of the tearing of the trousers at the knee. He should think upon the fact that he ought to present himself in life as if he were appearing completely naked in the eyes of his fellow men. In like manner, the treading down of the heel should act as a constant reminder that—even though he may be strong as far as Freemasonry is concerned—he nevertheless is made vulnerable through his heel of Achilles. All subsequent parts of the ceremony have basically a meaning of this kind—particularly in the case of the eerie feeling which is engendered when a cold, sharp-edged sword is laid against his breast. That is a feeling which persists for a long time and becomes focussed in a suggestion which returns to his mind at important moments and reminds him that he should develop a kind of cold-blooded attitude. Cold-bloodedness should be the suggestion he receives. Complete responsibility for his own actions is what is symbolised by the cord laid about his neck which can be drawn tight at any moment. Presence of mind is suggested by the procedures connected with trapdoors, moving stairways, etc. Those are procedures which take place quite differently in the mysteries because they are performed on the astral plane.

The candidate must then take the oath. Everything about him is horrible, dark, the room only lit by one or two tiny flames. I want you to consider this oath in its full portent: ‘I hereby swear that by Word, Sign and Grip I shall never disclose anything which is henceforth revealed to me within this Lodge. Should I betray any of the secrets, I will allow any of the Brethren who may get to know about it, to slit my throat and wrench out my tongue.’ That is the oath of the apprentice. Still more dreadful is the oath of the journeyman, who consents to having his breast cut open and his heart torn out and thrown to the birds. The oath which the Master has to swear is so terrible that it cannot be repeated here.

These things are used as a means of evoking a certain kind of rhythm in the sensations of the astral body. The result of this is that the spirit is influenced intuitively. This influencing of the spirit was the main purpose of the masonic initiation in ancient times—Freemasonry is really very ancient.

The Freemasons of old were actually stonemasons. They performed all the duties of a mason. They were the builders of temples and public buildings in ancient Greece, where they were known as Dionysiacs.⁶ The building work was carried out in the service of the temple of Dionysus. In Egypt they were the builders of the pyramids, in ancient Rome, the builders of cities, and during the Middle Ages they built cathedrals and churches. After the thirteenth century they also began to build independently of the authority of the Church. At this time the expression ‘Freemason’ came into use. Before that they were under the authority of the religious communities and were the recognised architects.

Let us take our start from the fact that the Freemasons were the builders of the pyramids, of the mystery temples, and of the churches. You will easily gain the conviction—especially by reading Vitruvius⁷ —that the manner in which architecture was formerly studied is quite different from our present method. One did not study it at that time by making calculations, but instead, definite intuitions were imparted by means of symbols.

If you read in Luzifer⁸ how the Lemurians developed their building capacity you will get an inkling of the way in which this art was then practised. It is not possible today to build in that manner. With amazement and wonder we behold the buildings of the ancient Chinese and of the Babylonians and Assyrians, and know that they were constructed without a knowledge of our present-day mathematics. We behold the wonderful engineering feat of Lake Moeris in Egypt; a lake which was constructed to collect water which could be diverted into irrigation channels in times of need. It was not built with our modern engineering technique. The wonderful acoustic effects produced in old buildings were achieved in a way which modern architects are not yet able to imitate. At that time men were able to build by means of intuitive faculties, not through rational understanding.

The whole of this kind of architecture stood in relationship to a knowledge of the universe. If you take the Egyptian pyramids, for instance, their measurements correspond to certain measurements in heavenly space, to the distances of the stars in space. The whole configuration of stellar space was depicted in these buildings. There was a connection between the individual building and the dome of heaven. The mysterious rhythm presented to our gaze when we behold the starry heavens—not just with our outer sense, but with an intuitive gaze which penetrates to higher relationships, to rhythmical relationships—that was what the original architects included in their building, because they were building out of the universe.

This art of building was taught in a fashion as different from our own as the teaching of the art of medicine among certain primitive tribes today differs from our own. Our teaching today stems from the intellect. In primitive tribes the doctor is not trained like our doctors, but has certain occult forces developed in him. He has to undergo a bodily training which would be horrible for anybody of a nervous or weak disposition living in our modern culture. This training teaches him indifference to joy and pain and he who is indifferent to these is already in possession of occult powers. The extent to which the astral body could originally be trained was so great that it led to the development of powers which were designated as the Royal Art, which is an art derived from the mighty symbols of heavenly proportions.

Now you will have an idea of what Freemasonry used to be and you will realise that it had to outgrow its real task. It was bound to lose its significance as the world became rationalistic. It had its meaning when the fourth cultural epoch was still being developed. The fifth epoch brought about the loss of its importance. Today, Freemasons are no longer masons. Anybody can become a member. For occultists, symbols have a real meaning. A symbol that is merely a symbol, merely a copy or image, has no meaning; there is only significance in what can become a reality, in what can become a living force. If a symbol acts upon the spirit of humanity in such a way that intuitive forces are set free, then we are dealing with a true symbol. Today, Freemasons say they have symbols which mean this or that. An occult symbol, however, is one which takes hold of the will and leads over into the astral body. Inasmuch as our culture has become an intellectual culture, Freemasonry has lost its meaning.

Regarding connections with Manicheism ... [Gap]⁹ And after that come the high degrees, which extend as far as the ninetieth, indeed the ninety-sixth degree, and start at the fourth degree. The importance of the first three degrees has gradually been transferred to the high degrees. There is a kind of residue still remaining in what is called the ‘Royal Arch’,¹⁰ which is still extant in Freemasonry today. About these lighter sides and some of the darker sides of Freemasonry we shall have to speak again.

• 1 . Lecture 5 of 4th November 1904.
• 2 . See note 3 to lecture 5 of 4th November 1904.
• 3 . Craft Masonry covers the three degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craftsman and Master Mason. It is referred to by Heckethorn as ‘Blue Masonry’ and by Rudolf Steiner as ‘Johannesmaurerei.’ See notes 2 and 11 to the succeeding lecture (lecture 8, 9th December 1904).
• 4 . For this description Rudolf Steiner again drew on the account given in Charles William Heckethorn's Secret Societies, (pp. 267–271) some passages of which were marked by him accordingly.
• 5 . It is not known whether this intention was carried out.
• 6 . Dionysiacs are mentioned by Heckethorn pp. 79 and 250.
• 7 . Vitruvius Poflio, royal architect under Caesar Augustus, wrote his ten-volume work, De Architectura, between 16 and 13 B.C., drawing from Greek sources and from his own experiences.
• 8 . Rudolf Steiner refers here to articles which he at that time contributed to his periodical Luzifer, later known under the title Luzifer Gnosis, which were then published in book form and are available in English under the title Cosmic Memory, (Rudolf Steiner Publications, Chapter ‘Lemuria’).
• 9 . See note 5.
• 10. Since the Tolerance Agreement of 1813 the ‘Royal Arch Degree’ has passed as the Fourth Degree. See note 16 to the succeeding lecture, also the notes about ‘Goethe's relationship to Rosicrucianism’ which appear as an appendix to these lectures.

Held in Dornach on 27 May 1923, 23 October 1923, 3 January 1924 for the “Wachsmuth-Lerchenfeld Group” ¹

Text by Maria Röschl-Lehrs, “written down immediately afterwards from memory”.

I

n the introduction, it was explained why such a group is possible again now. A clear consciousness is necessary. In the past, people approached the institutions of anthroposophy with too little awareness, too little spiritual awareness.

If what had been given in those old esoteric contexts had been published, it would have given rise to many cults in the world. But because it was not published, hatred and betrayal of the cause arose.

These people here have not been summoned by him, they have gathered together themselves. He has refused to continue forming such groups himself in the face of the spiritual world. Don't be proud! There are more people who would be suitable, including those who are further along! Here are only those who have found each other. Through meditation. It is not just a personal matter, but has world significance. The Cosmos is interested in whether we do it or not.

Oh man...²

Legend [Temple Legend] new appendix two directions - in John the center. Recognizing what comes from the two directions. Fire, because both unite against the center. Hatred against the continuation of this center.

Wake up! Wake up to these two directions, but also in general. Wake up through right meditation! Goethe was fully awake, Schiller only half awake, Herder and Lessing slept completely.

In the face of the mystery of Golgotha, the words of an initiate were: Salem. Now the reversal: Melas... the circle is complete.

Addendum: Before that, Mach ben ach - son of the earth of suffering, or the physical body has separated from the soul and spirit.

Vocal exercise – pilgrimage to the self ³
O A J A O: I in the midst of light and space
A J O J A: Space for me and light
J O A O J: Light through space and me
I am

Now only that of the two directions and the fire.⁴

The Temple Legend

The wording of the temple legend from the esoteric hour of May 27, 1923, was reconstructed afterwards by various participants from memory and from texts from the earlier Erkenntnis cultic work context. The designation “New version, given in spring 1923”, under which this wording was passed on, actually applies only to the last conclusion (in the notes of Maria Lehrs-Röschl designated as “New Appendix”). In the first part, the legend text corresponds word for word to that of Rudolf Steiner's 1906 transcript (p. 365). The subsequent description of the casting of the brazen sea and Hiram's death, on the other hand, shows some variants compared to the earlier descriptions. The description in the 1923 version, which begins after the sentence from Rudolf Steiner's transcript (p. 367): “Hiram is only in possession of a real-human ego,” reads as follows:

From this point on, King Solomon is seized by violent jealousy against his master builder Hiram Abiff. The latter had three journeymen working on the temple construction who demanded the master's degree from him. However, they had shown their incompetence by cutting a mighty beam, which was irreplaceable for the construction of the temple, too short. Hiram had remedied the accident by stretching the beam to the correct length with his special powers. They are now Hiram Abiff's opponents because they had to be rejected by him when they demanded the master's degree and the master's word from him, for which they were not yet ready. The three treacherous companions have no difficulty in finding the ear of the king for the deed by which they want to corrupt Hiram Abiff.

The completion of the temple construction was to be crowned by a work in which Hiram Abiff sought to reconcile the tension and enmity between the Cain and Abel sons. It was the brazen sea, whose casting was to be made from the seven basic metals (lead, tin, iron, gold, copper, mercury and silver) and water, the metal of the earth, in such a way that the finished casting would be completely transparent. The thing was finished except for one very last step, which was to be carried out in front of the assembled court, including the Queen of Sheba, and which was to transform the still cloudy substance into one that was completely clear.

Now the three treacherous companions who had the task of adding the last ingredient mixed the water in the wrong proportion, and instead of becoming transparent, the casting sprayed in devastating flames. Hiram Abiff tried to calm the fire, but failed. The flames burst out on all sides.

But Hiram Abiff heard a voice from the flames and from the glowing mass: Plunge into the sea of fire, you are invulnerable. He plunged into the flames and realized that his path led to the center of the earth. Halfway there he met Tubal Cain, his ancestor. He led him to the center of the earth, where the great ancestor Cain was in the state he was in before the sin of killing Abel. He gave him the golden triangle with the master word. Halfway up, Tubal Cain gave him a hammer and instructed him to touch the casting of the brazen sea with it. There Hiram Abiff receives from Cain the explanation that the vigorous development of human powers on earth ultimately leads to the height of initiation, and that the initiation attained in this way must take the place of the old vision in the course of the world, that the latter will disappear. With the hammer, Hiram returns to the earth's surface; he touches the brazen sea with it, the casting is successful, and he was able to make it completely transparent.

Hiram wanted to see his work, the temple, for the last time and went there at night. There the false companions waylayed him. The first struck him on the left temple at one of the gates, so that the blood flowed down to the shoulder. Hiram Abiff turned to the second gate to leave the temple. There the second companion struck him on the right temple, so that the blood flowed down to the shoulder. He turned to the third gate. There the third journeyman struck him on the forehead, so that he collapsed. He still dragged himself out to a well, into which he sank the golden triangle. The three journeymen buried his body. Before his death, Hiram was still able to sink the golden triangle with the master word into a deep well. On his grave grew a cassia tree, an acacia. It was known to the initiated that a cassia tree grows out of the grave of an initiate. When his body was found, the new master word resounded: “Mach ben ach”.⁵ This means: The spiritual soul has separated from the physical body or: the otherness of the body.⁶ They then searched for the golden triangle and found it in the well. A cubic stone with the Ten Commandments was placed on the triangle and thus it was hidden and walled up in the temple.

With this symbolism, that which in meditation elevated the inner essence of human development on earth to imagination was given. The brazen sea can be seen as a symbol of what man would have become if the three treacherous forces had not found a place in the soul. These three treacherous forces are: doubt, superstition, and the illusion of personal self.

Hiram Abiff was reborn as Lazarus and was thus the one who was first initiated by Christ. With him began the (reconciliation of the differences) that stood between the Cain and Abel currents.

According to another record, the “new appendix” reads as follows:

Hiram Abiff was reborn as Lazarus and thus became the first to be initiated by Christ. With him began the current of the center, which stood between the Cain and Abel currents. Over time, the Cain current found its main representatives in the F. (Masonry current), while the Abel current found its expression in the priestly current of the (Catholic?) Church. Both currents of humanity remained strictly hostile to each other. Only once did they unite in harmony: in their hatred of the current of the center. The result of this harmonious union of two otherwise hostile directions was the destruction of the Johannesbau (Goetheanum).

II

First, the Indian mantram was given for the first time, the translation for the first time. After this Indian mantram, the regular invocation was made: “Brothers of the...”

True esotericism is initially incomprehensible. As an example, imagine a living person who expresses absolutely no spiritual life on the outside. His spiritual life is directed entirely inwards. Nevertheless, it is an intense inner life.

About the vowels: hierarchies are involved.
I A O Seraphim, Cherubim and partly Thrones are involved.
U Kyriotetes, Exusiai, Dynamis
E _ Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi.

The whole together means the ancient-holy word of Jahve in place of the I-am. To create this word of Jahve out of the hierarchies means an act. The execution of this act on earth: the butterfly meditation:

Catch the butterfly
Send it to the icy heights
Where the world's secrets prevail.
It will become a bird for you
Then you have done half the work
. Dip the bird
Into the depths of the sea - - - - - JAOUE
Where the will of the world is at work.
If the bird drowns,
Then you still have to do,
Purifying the bird's corpse
By burning it in the fire.
Then consume the ashes
And you are
The light in the darkness of the world.

The visualization of this butterfly meditation has an ethereal effect. Only a simple interpretation. Searching in memory with the three and a half years following the butterfly meditation. Its ethereal effect is connected with the fact that it causes one to occupy oneself with one's own will, and in the retrospective examination of one's own will, one can find a point in one's life where this will has had a very specific impulse towards certain tasks. It is often the case that when searching for such moments of volition, the non-fulfillment of which has caused dissatisfaction, one comes to a point about three and a half years ago. (Prevention by external circumstances, for example, threefolding.)

Once this point has been reached, the task is to cultivate the content of this longing, not to try to carry out the deed, but to cultivate the content as much as possible, in the highest way. Then, three and a half years after this point in time, there will be another opportunity for realization. And then the task will be to perform a selfless act that has nothing to do with the starting point of seven years ago. This can also be a very inconspicuous act outwardly.

Description of the times, the situation. The present lectures and this hour are, in comparison to the prevailing fanaticism at the height of democracy outside, just the opposite; they signify the height of aristocracy and hierarchy. An enormous abyss that evolution must leap across in order to overcome these contradictions. Descriptions of this abyss, over which some courageously leap, others are dragged, others are torn. The whole thing is a heroic tragedy in the history of mankind.

Falter-Meditation
Invocation
Indian Mantram

III

Brothers of the... Indian Mantram

Indication that the new society was founded without mentioning the esoteric reason. (He had previously said that the reasoning had esoteric reasons.) Esotericism does not tolerate playing around, everything so far has been playful [taken]. Now esotericism must be brought openly and seriously into life, from Dornach, as the center. But now we really must not play with esotericism anymore. For that, modesty is needed, above all modesty before the ego.

Therefore, wake up! Become aware that we are asleep! With each waking we enter into a new sphere of the world, for we live completely surrounded by spheres of the world, only we sleep and know nothing of them. So far, everything in man only happens in dreams. The importance of the Falter meditation (he had said last time that everything he said about the effect of this meditation and its connection with the two times three and a half years only applies to people over 28). Reading it out loud – J A O U E.

Something should be added to enhance the effect of this meditation by Falter:

4 stages of falling asleep: in thinking, feeling, willing, in the I
4 stages of waking up: in thinking, feeling, willing, in the I

Thinking:

The head is like a fruit, the heart like a glowing chalice. We should experience our head as self-illuminating right down to our heart. We should experience our thinking as an etheric organ that feels its way towards everything it is meant to grasp. The difference between the occultist and the non-occultist is that the occultist is aware that this organ radiates out into the etheric. We should experience ourselves as a snail stretching out its feelers. Thinking must become a feeling process! Help for this:

Awaken in thinking: you are in the spiritual light of the world.

Experience yourself as radiant, feeling the radiance.

Through such thinking, all of nature becomes radiant. Stone and plant shine forth in the earthly... as animal and human being... in the moral. Through the experience of thinking as touching, we develop something like a sense of touch: we see a dandelion blossom and experience it as sand; we see chicory and experience it as silk, a sunflower as a spiky animal...

Feeling:

This is still a deep dream. We should experience our heart as glowing, but in such a way that it absorbs light from our entire environment and reflects it back outwards like the moon. Through our awakening feeling, we must experience the world quite differently; the earth as a sentient being that laughs and cries. In the withering of autumn there is a kind of weeping in nature, but joy of the Ahrimanic beings in winter, joy of the luciferic beings in spring. Natural processes as deeds of spiritual beings! Trees - in winter they are only their physical body, the etheric is outside. One can come to see how the trees solve tasks in the etheric.

When one awakens in thinking, one expands into infinity. When one awakens in feeling, one sets oneself in motion, one leaves oneself.

Awaken in feeling: you are in the spiritual deeds of the world.

Experience yourself, feeling the spiritual deeds.

Wanting:

In this respect, the human being of the present is still in a state of deep sleep. But in the realm of the will, the human being is completely on his own. He has his thinking only in this embodiment, taking nothing of it with him into the afterlife. The gods need our thinking, but they do not need our feeling and willing. A person may be ingenious, but only because the gods need it that way. Geniuses are the lamps that the gods need. Our thinking abilities return to the gods after death.

Our will, on the other hand, goes with us through our embodiments; it is a result of our embodiments, we work on it through our earthly lives. In our cooperation in shaping the world, our will is what is essentially characteristic. The will is man's property, while man's thinking belongs to the gods. Envy of the gods! In our volition, we have a life of our own. But people are still asleep in their volition. They love their volition because they always believe that what they want is already the right thing. But with our volition, we are helping to shape the world. We wake up in our volition by becoming aware that we are not alone, but are responsible for the actions of others. For example, Kully: What he does, especially what upsets us the most, is our fault, we are actually participating; Goesch affair = Maya.⁷When we no longer feel ourselves as separate individual beings, but so connected in the general activity, then we awaken in the will, then we come to the living will, then we think the spiritual beings: Awaken in the will: you are in the spiritual beings of the world. The spiritual beings experience you thinking.

Awakening in the I:

We sleep in the I. We use the word “I” only because the gods once spoke it for us - our angeloi - and now, imitating them, we speak it. But we must awaken in the I! Imagination for this: altar, above it the sun. We approach the altar and experience ourselves entirely as shadows, entirely as insubstantial. So far we have said: I am. Now we consciously say: I am not. – Then a deity rises out of the sun above the altar and animates the shadow. We are like a bowl that receives the light of the deity rising out of the sun. – By grace we receive this deity, it gives itself to us. – Fichte experienced this, but only in a shadowy way. Therefore, what he says about it is completely abstract.

In the I awaken: you are in your own spiritual being.

Experience yourself as receiving from and giving to the gods.⁸

Then it was said:
The stones are mute...
Brothers of the...
Indian saying

• 1. Named by Rudolf Steiner (see page 466) because the initiative came from the two Wachsmuth brothers, Count Lerchenfeld and Harriet von Vacano. The following participants are known by name: Marie Steiner, Dr. Ita Wegman, Dr. Elisabeth Vreede, Albert Steffen, Dr. Günther Wachsmuth, Wolfgang Wachsmuth and his wife, Dr. Kurt Piper, Dr. Otto Palmer, Dr. von Baravalle, Dr. Maria Röschl, Count Lerchenfeld, Harriet von Vacano, Jürgen von Grone, Margarita Woloschin.
• 2. This mantram was later incorporated into the mantras of the first class of the School of Spiritual Science.
• 3. See original recording on page 473.
• 4. Regarding this, Maria Röschl-Lehrs' note: “Only very sparse notes here. The order is not clear.”
• 5. Here, according to the usual traditions, the intermediate link is missing: Solomon gave the order to search for Hiram's body. Since it was believed that the murderers had extorted the master word from Hiram, it was agreed that they would remain silent during the search. The first word that one of the masters spoke unintentionally while digging up the body was to be considered the new master word. When the body was found after a long search, the word “Mach ben ach” escaped from one of them at that moment. This was accepted as a new master word.
• 6. Another record has here: “Earth son of suffering”.
• 7. Kully and Goesch: two opponents actively appearing at the time.
• 8. Cf. the manuscript on page 477.

Instruction lesson Berlin, March 1908 (without date)

When it says that the Elohim united with Eve, we do not have to believe that Eve is anything like the present woman. Eve was the human race of the polar race, one very different from present-day humanity, namely, one much simpler. When we think of the warmth of the blood and everything else suggests to us, when we think of this [blood heat] pulsating in every corner and every corner of our body from head to toe, when we imagine [it] in every detail of our body, but think that everything else has disappeared and nothing is left but this blood-warm human, then we can form a mental image of what the Eve looked like, with whom the Elohim united. The earth was dark then, but in the second or Hyperborean epoch, the sun spirits imbued this dark Eve with light, and these sunbeams contained not only light, they also contained nourishment, and what was not used as nourishment to sustain humanity or Eve was available for the purpose of procreation, and in this way Cain came into being from the union of the Elohim with Eve.

In the Lemurian or lunar epoch, the Elohim Jahve, who was also one of the sun spirits and had been sent to lead the lunar evolution, created Adam, that is, he divided humanity into sexes, and when it says that Adam married Eve, it means that the two sexes united for the purpose of reproduction, and from this union Abel was born.

The originally united solar and reproductive forces had separated and produced two classes of people. Cain and Abel fight each other day after day in our bodies, even hourly they quarrel with each other, because Abel is represented by the blood of the arteries that comes from the lungs and from the heart, filled with the life-giving spirit of the air, the pure and invigorating oxygen. Cain, on the other hand, is represented by the venous blood, which is filled with the poisonous, deadly carbonic acid.

If that had been all, then humanity would have ceased to exist at that time. But Abel lives on in Seth, the rejuvenated Abel, who received the breath of life again, the oxygen in his lungs. That is why, whenever Abel is killed, Seth takes his place.

When the solar power divided, the Abel-Seth race became the bearers of divine wisdom and intuition, and its members were priests and kings “by the grace of God”.

Physically, they are negative or feminine (not necessarily physically feminine).

The Cain gender possesses the power of reproduction (not necessarily sexual) instead of intuitive wisdom. They are positive, male (not necessarily physically male) and are the world workers, the scientific researchers and so on. This may be more understandable from the following diagram:

Sons of God...¹ physically female, etherically male, have intuition: Abel

The power of the sun contains nourishment, intuition and reproduction

[IMAGE REMOVED FROM PREVIEW]

Daughters of men... physically male, ethereally female, possess the power of reproduction: Cain.

In Atlantean times, an attempt was made to unite these two classes, but this led to black magic of the worst kind. This is hinted at in the Bible passage: “The sons of God married the daughters of men.”

The arrival of the Queen of Sheba signifies the attempt of the present time. Science, represented by Hiram, can now unite with the wisdom of the soul, symbolized by the Queen of Sheba. The nurse is the prophet who sees into the future, the bird Had-Had is a spirit of intelligence that descends to the soul and turns it away from revelation, as represented by Solomon, and towards self-acquired knowledge, which finds expression in Hiram.

The Temple represents the evolution of the Earth. Solomon is like a mirror that reflects cosmic wisdom without any effort of his own. Hiram, on the other hand, sees the image and elaborates it. He does not possess the ability to draw directly from the divine source; he is the material knowledge that can objectify what Solomon can only see.

Therefore Belkis, the Soul, becomes discontented and breaks her connection with Solomon when she recognizes the beauty of Hiram, and she wins back the ring from Solomon's hand when he is drunk.

The fact that Hiram wields the dew hammer to summon Balkis' workers symbolizes the way in which all great, world-shaking events were brought about when they worked like ants for years to achieve a specific purpose: through the power of mass suggestion. This was used to make them come to work as if they were acting on their own initiative. It would be wrong to use such power now, but in those days people were not as individualized as they are today, and if temples were to be built to serve the progress of humanity, the priests of that time quite rightly needed such means to achieve their purpose. The Crusades and Joan of Arc's army are other examples of such mass suggestion. Sometimes fanatics, some of whom are unbalanced, are very strong in this direction.

When Hiram throws himself into the fire, he meets Tubal-Cain on the way. Tubal-Cain leads Hiram to the center of the earth (where the I-plant grows; Cain was a farmer), and there they find Cain in his innocent state. Cain gives Hiram a new hammer and a new word.

From various participant notes (without further details)

When the preparation of the earth's development had progressed so far that the soul of man could be placed in it, the sun had emerged and shone with its rays on the earth, which was a ball of fire surrounded by a warm atmosphere or aura of warmth. In the globe, the physical and etheric bodies grew out of the earth like a plant, and as the sun radiated the warmth atmosphere, the warmth penetrated the human physical and etheric bodies and formed the astral body, the human soul. This irradiation from the sun beings onto the human forms brought the wisdom powers of these sun beings into man, and that became man's higher selfhood. This is an innate divine wisdom that makes him a spiritually cognizing being. All this must be thought of as the effects or deeds of divine beings. The solar beings, the Elohim, sent their rays to Earth through the archangels and they caused currents in the human forms, which brought light through the aura of warmth and became the human brain, in which intellect and spirituality can reveal themselves, and at the same time currents that became human blood; in this way the universal warmth becomes inner warmth. The first current represents the active power of the archangels, the second the passive power. The stream that formed the brain out of the light was Cain, the fire-earth man; the accompanying stream that brought the blood into man is Abel, who came into being through Adam. The watery substance was the blood. This is the water man.

In Cain, we have the being who possesses all the abilities to penetrate to world wisdom by means of the mind that works in the dark; in Abel, the being who has absorbed the watery element, the blood, with the light and thus has attained a different kind of contact with the spiritual beings, the passive side of the light.

In the Six Day Work cycle ² is hinted at, as at a certain moment in the development of the earth, forces radiate out from the center of the fiery globe into space and from there radiate back again to the center point. The warm atmosphere arises from this; a kind of medium that offers resistance. As the inhalation and exhalation takes place, resistance arises in the warm atmosphere and the sun beings can no longer send their rays directly through the warm atmosphere down to the earth as they did in the beginning. While the beings that grew in the substance of the earth received the pure fire of wisdom, which became the first rudiment of the brain, the fire was later darkened by the resistance and came as air to the earth beings, resulting in a different formation of the brain. So we find Eve, the Earth Mother, now consisting of more atomized matter, after she has given birth to Cain, in union with Adam, the darkened stream of the solar beings, which makes the Earth Beings Abel with breathing of air. During the general condensation through the air, Cain also experiences resistance; the direct contact with breathing fire darkens, and that is the killing of Abel by Cain. Cain is now cut off from the fire gods, but has within him the ability to develop the fire of wisdom from within himself by means of the intellect, which he was able to transform into wisdom.

What is meant by the dust of the earth from which Adam was formed? All evolution in a particular epoch is condensation, working towards shaping. Thus, the preparation for the earthly state is also a working towards the form, the condensing and combining of spiritual forces.

When Eve, the earth mother, came into being through the activity of the Thrones and the Elohim, the first formative process took place in Cain. Then the active aspect of this formation has awakened the fiery element, and the passive aspect causes the condensation according to the material aspect, towards the air element. In other, simpler words: the material, which they will influence from now on, has condensed by having been worked on before; it has become more physical, but has been permeated by an effective spirit. From this more condensed interaction, Adam arises, and the product of Adam and Eve's interaction is Abel, the watery or airy being. The meeting of the fiery and airy elements causes dispute and resistance; the fiery element is darkened and absorbs the dark element into itself.

The characters of Cain and Abel already showed two distinct directions: Cain was a farmer, he wrestled with the earth to get its yield; Abel was a shepherd, he effortlessly took what the flock gave him. Subsequently, these two tendencies became clearly defined among the descendants of the two brothers, so that humanity split into two directions, the Cainite and the Abel-Sethite. The former were those who rose up by their own efforts, the artists in all fields of human endeavor. The others received their knowledge as a gift. The initiated priest-kings came from the latter, “by the grace of God”.

The fratricide also means: the blue blood killed the red blood.

Personal note from Rudolf Steiner to a participant, dated Stuttgart, February 21, 1912.

Solomon possessed three secrets: the two columns of Hercules, the trinity of wisdom, beauty and strength, and the secret of light and darkness.

The natural Hiram is in all of us; we must resurrect it within ourselves.

• 1. The dots are in this order in the template.
• 2. , “The Secrets of the Biblical Creation Story. The Six Day Work in Genesis 1», GA 122.

Recording of participants, from which it emerges that a fourth altar (in the north) figured in this ritual.

After the chimes had sounded, it says:

(To the masters present):

“Let us now seek the tomb of Hiram Abiff.”

(A procession follows.)

"Here is the grave of Hiram Abiff. I plant an acacia branch on this grave as a sign that your higher self lives out of your lower self, just as this acacia branch lives out of your grave.” ¹

(Hereupon one speaks):

"Memento mori! Think of death, think that everything mortal about you is not you."

(Then the Grand Master General speaks):

“Newborn shall he be as Hiram Abiff once was.”

(This is repeated by one of the Masters standing at the North Altar.)

(The Grand Master General speaks):

“The Light shall shine to him from the East, as once did Hiram Abiff.”

(Repeated again by one of the Masters standing at the West Altar.)

(The Grand Master General speaks):

“Victor shall he be over death, as once was Hiram Abiff.”

(Repeated again by one of the Masters standing at the south altar.)

(Now the Grand Master General approaches the coffin; it is opened and the Grand Master General speaks):

“With the Master's lion's grip I lift you from this tomb.”

(He lifts him out and speaks to him in a low tone the Master's word):

"M.. b.. a..” [The bones come out of the flesh - with the master's grip.

• 1. Acacia = cassia (cf. p. 197).