The Rudolf Steiner Archive

No explanations of this mantram have been handed down from the Theosophical working context. But in the lecture Leipzig, October 13, 1906, the following remarks were made that relate to the content of the mantram:

I spoke to you earlier about the fact that forces lie dormant in every human being that can be developed and that elevate him to a higher level of existence. Just as the physical world is perceived through physical organs, so the supersensible world can be perceived through supersensible organs. At that time, the means by which man can make himself see were given, albeit in fragments. Today, in order to lead over to our subject, we want to mention certain means that are used in inner schooling.

At each stage, new instructions are to be followed. What is discussed today is not enough on its own, but it is part of the process. On the path to becoming a disciple, an instruction is given that aims to help people develop a very specific relationship with the supersensible world, a moral relationship. At the first stage, the human being must realize that just as he is a sentient being, so too are animals sentient beings. However, just as the human being has an individual soul, so the animal groups have a generic soul. Thus, all lions, all sharks, all frogs, and so on together have a soul. In other words, while the human being has the soul within, the animal souls, which are, as it were, the psychic connecting threads of the animals, extend into the astral world, and there are the community souls of the animal groups. When a person is hurt, he feels it alone. But if you hurt the lion, the group soul, which does not live on the physical plane but on the astral plane, feels it.

The training is now aimed at developing a relationship, a relationship of feeling, with the animal souls on the astral plane. Here is an example of this: in some areas, the ancient Germans revered the horse. They planted a horse skull as a symbol on their houses. The choice of such a symbol shows that they had a very specific relationship with the horse. Where did this come from? The horse only came into being at a very specific time. In the middle of the Atlantean era, this species of animal appeared, of course, little by little. This coincided with the development of wisdom. Even if man did not make this particularly clear to himself in terms, he had a comparatively attraction to the horse like the lover to the beloved. Even today, the Arab has a special relationship with his horse. Some indications can be found in mythology. Thus, the cleverness of Odysseus devised a wooden horse. In this sense, man will develop a feeling for the generic soul of the various animals. When this becomes conscious, then the relationship to the astral plane begins to emerge.

In this way, a moral relationship with the plant world can also arise. The occultist not only sees the beauty of the plant, but also feels something like a smiling or sad countenance. There is a great deal to be gained from this moral feeling. If you develop such a moral relationship, you will enter into a relationship with the lower region of the Devachan plan.

You can also develop a fine sense for the dead stone world. Rocks have a group soul on the Devachan plan, just as animals have a group soul on the astral plan. The souls of minerals live in Devachan. That is why they are not accessible to humans. Just as the fly that walks over our hand has no idea that there is a soul behind it, so people do not know that stones have souls.

If stones have souls, then you will also understand how a moral relationship with them can arise. A human or animal body has desires, passions and instincts. The body of a plant has no more desires, but it still has instincts. The body of a stone has neither desire nor instinct, and so it presents us with an ideal for human beings, in that our instincts should be spiritualized. And in the distant future this will be achieved: human beings will have bodies without desires or instincts. One day man will be like a diamond; he will no longer have inner urges, but these will then be outwardly controlled.

The stone already represents this chastity today; it is desireless matter. The occult disciple must already now develop this desirelessness within himself. In this sense, the stone is above animal, plant and human. An old Rosicrucian formula begins with the words: “I have laid the eternal creative word in the stone.” Chaste and virginal, the stone preserves this creative word in the depths of physical existence.

If one can develop such a feeling for the stone into a spiritual experience, one becomes clairvoyant in the highest parts of Devachan.

The most detailed explanation available is provided by the answer to a question about Freemasonry and its purpose in one of the lectures for the workers on the Goetheanum building. Therefore, this answer to a question from the lecture Dornach, June 4, 1924 is presented here:

Today's Freemasonry is, one might say, only a shadow of what it once was. I have already spoken here on various occasions about the fact that in the very early days of human development there were no schools like those of today, nor churches like those of today, nor art institutions like those of today. In the ancient mysteries, as they were called, there was the school, the art institution and the religion at the same time. This only diverged later. So that it actually became so for our Central European regions, one could even say, only in the 11th, 12th century; in former times the monasteries were, I would say, a memory of the old times. But in very ancient times it was the case that school, church and art institutions were one and the same. It was the case that in the mysteries everything that was practiced there was taken much more seriously than it is taken today, for example, in our schools and also in our churches.

The fact of the matter is that in those days it took a long time to prepare before one was allowed to learn. Today, basically, whether or not you can learn something is decided by a principle that has nothing to do with learning. Isn't it true that today the only thing that really matters is whether or not the person in question can afford the money to learn! Of course, this has nothing to do with the abilities of the person in question. And it was quite different in the old days. From all of humanity, those who were the most capable were selected – and people had a better eye for this than they do today. Of course, because people are selfish, the system fell into decline almost everywhere; but originally, the principle was to select those who had abilities. And only then were they entitled to learn spiritually – not simply through drilling and training and elements, as taught today, but they were able to learn spiritually.

This spiritual learning, however, is linked to the fact that in preparation one learns to develop very specific abilities. You only have to consider that in ordinary life, when you touch something, you actually have a rough sensation of it; and the most that people achieve today is that they can sometimes distinguish substances from one another in their sensation, that they feel things in this way and distinguish something in their sensation. But people today are actually quite rough in their perception - I mean, in their purely physical perception; they distinguish between warmth and cold. At most, people who depend on it can develop a finer sense of perception. The blind, for example. There are blind people who learn to feel the letter forms when they run their fingers over the paper. Each letter is, after all, slightly engraved on the paper. If the feeling in the fingers is developed finely, one can already feel the letters somewhat. These are the only people today who learn to feel something more subtly, to perceive something more finely. As a rule, sensitivity is not developed at all, but one learns an enormous amount if one develops feeling, and especially feeling in the fingertips and in the fingers, very finely. Today, people distinguish between heat and cold not only by feeling. Yes, they can do that today because they can read the thermometer; the subtle differences in heat and cold become visible to them. But the thermometer was only invented over time. Before that, people only had their feelings. In the mystery preparations, feelings were particularly developed in the fingers and fingertips. And it was so that one learned to feel in the finest way.

So who was it in the mysteries who was the first to be prepared to feel very finely? Well, the other people could not feel so finely. Now suppose there was a mystery somewhere else. People traveled a lot in ancient times; they traveled almost as much as we do, and sometimes we are amazed at how fast they traveled. They didn't have railroads; but they traveled because they were nimble, could walk faster, got less tired, walked a little better, and so on. And now they met on the way, such people. Yes, when two such people, who could feel subtly, shook hands, they noticed that about each other, and it was said: They recognize each other by their finer feeling. That is what is called the grip - the grip when one gripped the other in ancient times and one noticed that he had a finer feeling.

Now, gentlemen, consider the second point: when it was recognized that someone had a fine perception, then one went further, because one learned even more. In ancient times, people did not write as much as they do today; they actually only rarely wrote down the very, very most important things. However, there was already a kind of correspondence in ancient times; but this correspondence was also more in all sorts of signs. And so many signs were created for all sorts of things. It was also the case that people who did not belong to the mysteries, who were not the wise men, as they were called, only traveled in a smaller area when they traveled; they did not get very far. But the scholars, the wise men, traveled a great deal. They should have known not only all languages, but all dialects. Of course, it is difficult even for a North German to speak Swiss German. But for these people, in addition to the language they spoke, there were certain signs for all the things that interested them in the mysteries. They made signs. So, for example, let us say that the usual gesture that one already has in one's mind was further developed: I understand -; or: That is not something you are telling me -; or: We understand each other well. - One drew the cross into it. So that there was a fully developed sign language precisely among the ancient sages, and one put everything one knew into such signs. So you can see: all the people who were in the high schools of the time, in the mysteries, had certain signs for everything. Let's say, for example, that they wanted to record these signs; then they painted them on. This is how the painted signs came about.

It is interesting that there are still certain writings today that clearly show that they have emerged from the signs. This is, for example, the old script of the Indians, the Sanskrit script. In this script, it can be seen everywhere that everything has emerged from the curved and the straight line. Curved lines: dissatisfaction with something, antipathy; straight lines: sympathy. Just think about it: someone knows that straight lines mean sympathy and that curved lines mean antipathy. Now I want to tell him something. I also have my sign for that. He wants to tell me something; that can go quite well at the beginning, but later the story can go badly. You see, it's still going well; later he draws a wavy line: it can go badly. And so they had certain signs for everything. Those who were initiated used these signs to communicate with each other. So the sign was the key to the mystery.

Now, in the past, people saw something very special in words. You see, when a person speaks words today, they actually no longer have any idea what the words actually are. But you can still feel something that is already inherent in the sounds. You will easily be able to feel when someone is in a certain situation in life and they start: A - that has something to do with wonderment. A - the letter A is wonderment. Now take the letter R: it contains the rolling, radiating: R = radiating. A = wonderment, R = rolling, radiating.

Now, however, we know what we just said about the sun's rays. But even if the sun's rays are apparent, if they are not reality, it looks as if they are flowing. Now imagine someone wants to say: There is something up there that throws something at me here on earth, which, when it appears to me in the morning, causes amazement. He expresses the amazement with A, but that it comes from above, with R; he expresses that with: RA. Yes, that is what the ancient Egyptians called the sun god: Ra! Each of these letters contains a feeling, and we have combined the letters into words. So there was a very broad sense to it. Today, this is long forgotten. You can feel something like this in different things. Take, for example, I. This is something like a quiet joy; you come to terms with what you experience and perceive: I. That is why laughter is also expressed with hihi. This is a quiet joy. In this way, each letter has a specific meaning. And there is a knowledge through which one can literally form words if one has an understanding of the sounds that are within the words.

Now you will say one thing, gentlemen: yes, then, if that were the case, there could actually only be one language! Originally there was also one language among humanity; when one still had a feeling for these sounds, these letters, there was only one language. The languages then became different when people scattered. But originally people sensed this, and in the mysteries it was taught correctly how to sense sounds, letters, and how to make words. Therefore there was a language of its own in the mysteries. This language, they all spoke among themselves. They did not speak the dialects among themselves, but this language, everyone understood it. If one said Ra, the other knew that this is the sun. If someone says, for example, E - just feel it: I recoil from something, it doesn't suit me; E = I have a slight fear, something like dread! Now take L: that is like something that is fading away, like something flowing, and EL, yes, that is something that flows towards you and makes you recoil, makes you afraid. Thus in Babylon El = God was called. Thus everything was designated according to this principle. Or take the Bible: when you say: O - that is amazement, sudden amazement, which one cannot overcome. With A - there is a feeling that one likes, an amazement that one likes; O - there one wants to shrink back; H, Ch is the breath. So that one can say: O = recoiling amazement; H = breath; I = one points to it, one is pleased about it, it is quiet joy = I. And M, that is: one wants to go into it oneself. You feel when you pronounce M: M - the breath goes out, and one feels that one is literally running after the breath; M is therefore: going away. Now we put it all together: El, we have already seen that, is the spirit that comes in the wind, El; O = that is the retreating amazement, H = the breath; so that is already the finer spirit that works as breath; I is the quiet joy; M - that is the devotion. There you have Elohim, with which the Bible begins; there you have these sounds in it. So that one can say: What are the Elohim? The Elohim are beings in the wind that one is somewhat afraid of, that one somewhat shies away from, but that through breathing give joy to people, that in devotion give people joy: Elohim. And so originally, in the words, according to the sounds, according to the letters, one studies what the words actually mean. Today people no longer feel what it is actually like.

What is the plural of <501>Wagen here in Switzerland? Do we say: <501>Wagen or do we say: <501>die Wägen? (Answer: <501>die Wagen!) ¹ We still say <501>die Wagen. So there it is already blurred; the original would be: the car, the cars! With the plural we have that in the most diverse way; for example, we have: the brother, the brothers. But that is also the case in Switzerland! They don't say: the brothers? So: the brother, the brothers. Or do we say: the wood, the woods. You probably don't say: the woodworkers. The wood, the woods. You see, gentlemen, when the plural is formed, the umlaut is formed: a in ä, u in ü, o in ö. Why does that happen? Yes, the umlaut expresses that the thing becomes unclear! When I see one brother, he is clearly there as a person; when I see several brothers, it becomes unclear, and I have to distinguish one from the other, and if I cannot do that, it becomes unclear. You have to look at one after the other. The lack of clarity is indicated everywhere by the umlaut. So wherever there is an umlaut in a word, something is unclear.

There is something in language by which one can actually recognize the whole person; there is the whole person. And so people also expressed how certain meanings already lay within the letters that were written down, within these signs. A was always astonishment. When the old Jew wrote down x like this, he said to himself: Who is astonished in the world? The animals are not really surprised, only man. That is why he called man in general: wonder. When he wrote down his Aleph, the x, the Hebrew A, then that also meant man.

And so it was that each letter also meant a specific thing or being. All this was known again to the people who were in the mysteries. So if one was traveling and met another who shared their knowledge, they would recognize each other by the word. So you can say: In the old days, it was the case that people who had studied, who knew a lot, recognized each other by touch, sign, and word. Yes, but, gentlemen, there was something in it! All learning was really contained in these signs, gestures and words. For by learning to feel, one learned to distinguish objects. By having the signs, one had an imitation of all that was natural secrets. And in the word one came to know the inner man. So that one can say: in the grip one had perception; in the sign one had nature, and in the word one had the human being, his inner amazement or his shrinking back, his joy and so on. One had nature and man, and reproduced them in sign, grip and word.

Now, in the course of human development, what emerged on the one hand was divided into the university and later schools, and on the other hand into the churches and art. None of the three understood what was originally present; and grip, sign and word were completely lost. Only those who had then realized: Gosh, those old sages, they had a certain power because they knew that! That is a justified power that a person has when they know something, because it benefits their fellow human beings; if no one knew how to make a locomotive, humanity would never have one! So when someone knows something, it benefits people; that is a justified power. But later on people simply appropriated the power by copying the outward signs. Just as these or those signs once meant something in the past and later on the meaning was lost, so all that has lost its meaning. And then, I might say, by aping the old mysteries, all kinds of things were formed in which you only have the outward form. What did people do? They no longer had the subtle perception, but they agreed on a sign by which they would recognize each other. They shake hands in a certain way, by which one knows: he belongs to this order. They recognized each other by the handshake. Then they make another sign in some way. The sign and the handshake are different, depending on whether one is in the first, second or third degree. People then recognize each other by that. But there is nothing more to it than just a sign of recognition. And in the same way, they have certain words for each degree that they can pronounce in certain Masonic lodges; let us say, for example, for the first degree – if you want to know what the word is: Jachin. It is known that he has learned the word Jachin in the Masonic lodge, otherwise he would not be in the first degree. That is only a password. And in the same way he then makes the sign and so on. Now, actually this kind of Freemasonry only developed when everything else from the mysteries had been forgotten; and individual old things that were no longer understood were imitated. So that what Freemasonry has adopted of the cult is mostly no longer understood by Freemasons today; they also do not understand the sign, grip and word, because they do not know what it is all about. They do not know, for example, that when they pronounce the word of the second degree: Boas, that the B is as much as a house; © is, as I told you, this restrained amazement; A: that is the pleasant amazement; $ is the sign for the snake. With that you have expressed: We recognize the world as that which is a great house, built by the great architect of the world, at which one must marvel both fearfully and pleasantly, and in which there is also evil, the snake. Yes, people knew about such things in ancient times; they looked at nature and saw these things, they looked at people and saw these things. Today, in certain Masonic orders, those who have taken the second degree pronounce the word “Boaz” without realizing what it means. Likewise, didn't they, when in the third degree people put their fingers on the pulse, then it was really a realization that the person in question had a fine perception. You could tell by the way the finger was placed on the pulse. That later became the sign for the third degree. Today people only know when someone comes and takes the hand like that: that's a Freemason. So in these things there is actually something ancient, venerable, great, something in which all earlier learning lay; now this has been completely transferred into formulas, into the void. So that today the Freemasons have such things; they also have ceremonies, a cult: that is still from the times when everything was also shown in a cult, in ceremonies, so that it was more forceful on people. The Freemasons still do that today. So in this inward relationship, the Masonic order really no longer has any significance.

But for many people, it was terribly boring to go through with such covenants when they were established, because it actually degenerated into a kind of gimmick. So something was needed that would be poured into Freemasonry. And that is why the Freemasons became more or less political, or again spread more or less religious Enlightenment teachings. The un-enlightened Roman doctrine was administered by Rome. The doctrine that confronted Rome was then spread by Freemasonry. Therefore, Rome, the Roman cult and Freemasonry are the very greatest opponents. This is no longer connected with what the cult, sign, grip and word were in the case of the Freemasons, but that just came in between. In France, the union was not called a union, but “Orient de France”, because everything was taken from the Orient - “Grand Orient de France”, that is the great French Masonic union. The other signs, grips and words are only there to keep the people together, that is what they recognize each other by. The joint worship is where they come together under particularly solemn circumstances; just as others come together in the church, so these Freemasons come together under ceremonies that come from ancient mysteries. That is what keeps the people together.

It was also common, especially in Italy at certain times, when political secret societies were formed, to recognize and come together under certain ceremonies, signs and grips. Political alliances and political associations have always been linked to this ancient mystery knowledge. And today, it is again quite remarkable: if you go to certain Polish and Austrian areas today, you will find posters; on these posters are strange signs and strange letters that then combine into words; at first you don't know what the poster means – but such a poster, which is posted everywhere in Polish and Austrian areas today, is the outward sign of a league that is formed by certain nationalist groups among the youth. The same things are being done there. It is actually widespread, and people know very well that the symbol also has a certain strong power. There are associations, the German-Volkists, for example, who have an old Indian symbol: two intertwined snakes, or also, if you will, a wheel that has then been transformed into the swastika. They have it as their emblem today. And you will often hear that the swastika is adopted as a symbol by certain chauvinistic nationalistic circles. This is because of the tradition that the ancients expressed their rule through such symbols. And that is how it has always been on a large scale in the Freemasons' Federation. The Freemasons' Union actually exists to keep certain people together, and it does this through ceremonies, signs, grips and words. And then it pursues secret goals by keeping certain secrets among all those who are connected under these ceremonies, signs, grips and words. Of course, secret aims can only be pursued if they are not known to all; and so it is with the Masonic associations that they often pursue political or cultural and similar aims.

But now you can say one more thing, gentlemen. You see, the people who are connected in Masonic associations are by no means to be challenged because of that, but sometimes they have the very best and noblest intentions; they are only of the opinion that you cannot win people over to something other than through such alliances, and therefore most Masonic associations also have the purpose of practicing charity on a large scale. That is nice, to practice charity and humanity. This is also something that is practiced on a large scale by these associations. Therefore, it is no wonder that the Freemason can always point out that an awful lot of extraordinary humanitarian and charitable work is founded and established precisely by the Masonic associations. You just have to say to yourself: In this day and age, all such things are actually no longer in keeping with the times. Because, what do we have to reject most of all today? We have to reject isolation. This also soon leads to the emergence of a spiritual aristocracy, which should not exist. And the democratic principle, which must be applied more and more, is something that the Masonic Alliance and the closed priesthoods are completely opposed to. So that one can say: It is already the case that anyone who can still understand today what is contained in some Masonic ceremonies for the first, second and third degrees, can recognize in what the Freemasons themselves often do not understand that they often go back to very old wisdom; but this is not the main significance. The great significance is that today many Masonic associations, alliances, are actually home to many political or other social charitable endeavors. But the Catholic Church and the Freemasons fight each other tooth and nail. However, this has only emerged over time.

Now, it is of course very easy to mistake such things. And this has also occurred: the Freemasons have a certain garment for their ceremonies; for example, they have a apron made of lambskin, the lambskin apron. Some have said: Freemasonry is nothing more than a play on the masonry trade because the mason has an apron. But that is not true. And the apron that is there is there for a reason – and it has always been originally made of lambskin, not just gradually becoming so – to show that the one who is in such covenants should not be an angry fellow in terms of the passions; so the genitals should be covered with his apron, and that is the sign for it. So it was something that expressed the human character in signs. And so it is with very many signs that also lie in clothing.

Then there are also higher degrees where a garment similar to that of a priest is worn; there every single detail has a meaning. For example, I told you that man has not only a physical body but also an etheric body. And just as the priest has a white linen garment, a shirt-like robe, to express the etheric body, so too certain high degrees of the Freemasons have such a garment, and for the astral body - it is colored - there is a toga, an outer garment; all this expresses it. And the mantle, which was then connected to the helmet, expressed the power of the ego.

All these things lead back to old, very ingenious and significant customs that have lost their meaning today. If someone likes Freemasonry, they should not treat what I have said as disparaging. I just wanted to explain how it is. Of course, a Masonic order can exist that unites exceptionally good people and so on. And in today's world, something like that can be particularly important. Really, what most people learn today when they become doctors or lawyers does not touch their hearts. And that is why many lawyers and doctors become true Freemasons, because at least they have the solemnity of the old ceremonies and something that they can no longer think much about, but which is still something: sign, grip and word, but which indicates that man does not live only in the external material.

From the instruction session in Berlin, December 16, 1911

The sign, grip and word are not just mere identifying marks, but have a deep occult value.¹

The sign in which the right angle is formed between the thumb and the flat of the hand has to do with the hand as an organ of cognition. It was already mentioned in the last cycle that hands and feet are organs of knowledge and that they are better than the brain.²

The physical brain has, as it were, crystallized out of the etheric body, just as ice crystallizes out of water. We can sense an intimate connection between these two “brains” and how the physical brain is actually a kind of mirror apparatus for what is going on in the etheric brain. This is particularly noticeable when one is making a great effort with things that relate to the physical plane, or when one wants to evoke memories in oneself: whether one is aware of it or not, the etheric body is always affected, but especially the physical brain, which lies like a block in the etheric brain and prevents it from following the mobility of the etheric brain. One then feels very clearly that it is not the ether brain that tires; that could evoke thoughts and memories for all of eternity, but the physical brain cannot keep up, it seems like a foreign body in the etheric body. As a result, one feels the fatigue of the physical brain all the more. And even if one could continue to think with the ether brain, one would still make oneself ill; the normal connection would be broken, the physical part would become as dead. It is impossible to break the parallelism between the physical and ether brain to any great extent.

In our brain, we therefore have a very faithful expression of the ether brain in its functions and processes. In the case of the hands of the human etheric body, the connection with the physical organs is different. Just as with the brain, certain etheric processes of the etheric body correspond to the hands, but there is a far greater difference between the physical hands and their function and what corresponds to them in the etheric body than between the physical head and the corresponding etheric part of it. What the hands do is much more of a purely sensory activity, and what the ether organs of the hands can do finds very little expression in what the physical hands do. These etheric hands are real spiritual organs in the elementary or etheric body. A much higher, more intuitive spiritual activity is performed by the [etheric] organs that underlie the hands and find only a limited expression in the hands of the physical body. These etheric organs already lead into the supersensible world and can make observations in it. Somewhat paradoxically, one could say that the human brain is the most unsuitable organ for perceiving the world; the hands - taken etherically - are much more significant and skillful organs of perception than the brain. On the path to initiation, one does not learn very much by learning to move from the use of the physical brain to that of the etheric brain.

What the hands have to do can be found in the connection with the lotus leaves in the heart area, which radiate their forces in such a way that they go from the heart to the hands, thus making the ether hand the organ of spiritual knowledge. Learning to understand these differences gives an idea of how to immerse oneself in initiation. What is important is not to feel how the physical brain fills the etheric brain, but to feel how completely different organs can arise in the human being. What was initially present in the physical human being, such as the hands, is transformed into the inner human being, so that he can experience different things with them.

When we place our hands on our larynx, with the thumb of our right hand by our ear and the flat of our hand under our chin at the level of our larynx, we exclude the etheric currents of the head and shape the rest of our organism into an organ of knowledge.

In this way, knowledge is spiritualized, and if you stand upright in this position, it is a tool to help you absorb knowledge in a spiritual way. The larynx is connected to the thinking that a person developed during the moon phase. Brain thinking is an earthly product and can only touch the world of the senses, not the world of the spirit.

With the grip, in which we form a right angle with the thumb, we also perform something very significant. It eliminates something in the relationship between people that happens in the most brutal way in our materialistic time. We make the currents finer and thus transform our relationship to the outside world. When we touch a certain point on the upper hand with the bent thumb, the two currents unite, and through this we can bring about a beneficial, far-reaching influence for good. There are no causes in the material world; these only live in the supersensible world. Here there are only signs. We should get to know these in our temple, so that we learn to apply and use them in a good sense. Stupid anatomy - as foolish as it may sound, it is still true, even though in our time anatomy must be granted its right to exist - says that the heart pumps the blood. But in reality the blood is driven by currents in the etheric body. The heart is only the sign that the etheric currents come together at that point. For example, our muscles are a sign of the movement that actually originates in the astral body as a tone. Without the muscles, we would know nothing of the movement; they reflect the movement to us. Our whole body is a mirroring apparatus in each of its parts.

The sacred word [JACHIN] is not pronounced, but spelled, as discussed in the recording. It is a word from the original language, and anyone who exchanges it with another person in thought can use it to transfer healing powers from one person to another. When someone is overcome by suffering, or when we meet someone who is struggling with a severe indisposition or illness, we ask ourselves the question: Do you know the sacred word? We direct it to the other person in our thoughts, while imagining that the other person is giving the answer – all in our minds, of course – and thus we exchange the letters and the two syllables with them. In this way, the current passes from one larynx to the other and one can influence people in the most favorable way, without their freedom being compromised.

The sign regulates the relationship of the person to the outside world; the grip regulates the relationship from person to person; and the word has a healing and salvific effect on our fellow human beings.

From the instruction hour in Berlin, February 6, 1913

What we do and think as human beings here, and the movements we make, is what the gods used to do to create this world of ours. The seeds of the future are to be sown through the work and ritual in our M.E. lodges. Magic is not something that performs arbitrary acts or strange customs, but magic is that which prepares the future of humanity and the world.

• 1. This answer is wrong; in Swiss German it is “Wäge”, as Rudolf Steiner assumed.
• 1. The sign and grip were different for each degree; they have not been authentically handed down. In the notes from the instruction session in Munich on September 5, 1912, it says that at the initiation into the first degree, it was said: “The sign of the first degree will in the future be the expression for self-knowledge or for what is meant by ‘know thyself’.” The “word” for the first was Yakin, for the second Boaz, for the third Mah ben-on. For more on the sign, grip and word, see “The Present and the Past in the Human Spirit” (Lecture 4), CW 167.
• 2. See “Excursions into the Realm of the Gospel of Mark” (Lecture 7), CW 124.

Instruction lesson in Cologne, May 12, 1913

Those who were present at the ceremony of the coffin when they were initiated into the third degree cannot absorb its meaning within themselves if they imagine the temple in which we find ourselves as if it were an ordinary temple on earth and the symbols as if they were made of earthly objects. We should form a mental image of the temple as being, as it were, separate from the earth, just as a vacuum is created in a glass container when we pump all the air out of the container from below with an air pump; there is air all around, but all the air has been sucked out of the glass container. Or we can also say that it is as if a piece were taken out of the earth and this were completely isolated from the rest of the earth - meant symbolically, of course. So too the east, west and south in our temple are meant spiritually. Everything that belongs to our temple is supernatural, and the activities in it must be regarded as supersensible.

What is the meaning of the death we undergo during the recording? When the Elohim decided to create man at the beginning of the evolution of the Earth, it was their intention to make man entirely in their own image, so that each member of the human nature would correspond to one of the Elohim. They wanted to see their own reflection in humanity. This did not happen on Earth as we know it, however, but in a sphere that we would now have to draw around the Earth, like the ring of Saturn around Saturn. From outer space, the Elohim acted on this sphere and mirrored themselves in the humanity they had created. And the humans, in turn, looked down to a point in the center of the sphere and saw themselves mirrored there. That's you - they could say to themselves. If Lucifer had not appeared, it would have remained so forever. Human beings would have experienced eternal youth, and the consciousness they would have had of themselves would have been the consciousness of what they saw of themselves on earth as the “You are.”

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But when Lucifer emerged with his activity, he also wanted to be reflected in humanity, and he did so by entering into the innermost being of man and radiating himself from there. Instead of the beautiful and sublime in which man had hitherto seen himself, now emerged the ugly and the shapeless. Like the snake coiled around the tree in the story of paradise, so was the reflection of Lucifer. To prevent man from seeing himself in the ugliness of Lucifer, the Elohim compressed the sphere and threw the humans onto the earth.

The human being would have remained an infant forever, for the constructive powers of the Elohim are still active in the infant. Man would have taken in nourishment by absorbing the substance of plants and animals, which were very different then than they are now. Man would never have progressed beyond the consciousness of an infant.

To enable human self-awareness, the Elohim have placed death in all earthly processes. Everything on earth has thus been subjected to death, and now these forces work in such a way that through the destruction they carry within them, they also give the strength to overcome that destruction and thus to attain a higher state. Our concept of death, like almost everything on the physical plane, is the opposite of the true concept. Only through death is it possible for us to return to the relationship we once had with the gods and the spiritual world. Something in us must die before we can find the right connection again. And the symbol of the coffin can only be understood if we grasp it in this sense.

Through our thinking, we continually kill certain parts of our brain. Thus, everything a person does after infancy involves a killing. The symbol of the coffin means that we should be mindful that all life is connected with death. Even our food is not a process of building up our body, but a process of destruction, because none of the nutrients are absorbed into the body, but they only have a healing effect when the forces of death act on them and destroy the food we eat. If this does not happen, then our organism suffers; in this way, the whole purpose of nutrition is contrary to what science thinks about it. It serves to stimulate those forces that destroy the nutrients and thus build up the human being. It is the same with healing herbs: only when they are able to invoke the destructive powers of death, when these can thus destroy the remedy, can it work as a remedy. And it is precisely because of this that chemical, metallic remedies work so powerfully, because they bring about the process of destruction most quickly and most easily.

And how would it have been with the Mystery of Golgotha if man had not descended to earth and had not had to learn death there? The mystery would have taken place all the same, and that on earth, and man would have watched from his sphere, and that which would have come to destruction there, that would have given man the consciousness of himself. He would no longer have said: You are, but: I am, and so man would have come to his self-consciousness in a supersensible way. Through the effect of Lucifer, the descent of the Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha were delayed by a whole period of development (from the fourth to the fifth age), and it will therefore take us just as long before we have gained the right understanding for it (namely in the middle of the sixth age).

We know that a new possibility has opened up for people for about three decades with the appearance of Michael. Before that, from the 15th century onwards, the archangel Gabriel was at work, and he worked on our brains in such a way that we were enabled to form mental images about nature, which we could transform into science. Our minds were guided to form mental images of nature, and based on these, we constructed laws that we believed to be the true laws. Gabriel is the archangel who acts on the reproductive powers and on the infant. His influence in the 15th and 16th centuries consisted in the fact that part of these powers seized the brain and built an organ in it through which the laws of nature could be absorbed by humans - not formed from within, as one believes, but absorbed from without. Just as the infant cries, so man has cried the laws of nature out into the world, with just as little awareness of their actual inner nature as the infant is aware when it cries.

Now Gabriel has been replaced by Michael, and his task is to give us mental images of the supersensible that carry within them the true and the eternal. And theosophy is the tool that helps us to transform our thinking so that we can find these mental images within us and use them to rise above the earth again. Michael's powers are connected to the powers of the sun; they transform the organ in the brain so that flashes of light can arise in a person, showing him the deeper meaning behind natural laws. This experience can come to a person at any time. The age in which we live is an age of waiting. We should adopt the attitude that we can wait for the higher mental images to come to us, which will bring us the knowledge of the eternal.

From the lecture in Stuttgart, June 14, 1921

You see, in his temporal life between birth and death, the human being is constituted in such a way that he has within him the forces that continually kill him. These are the forces that solidify him, that are effective in the development of the bone system, and that in their morbid development lead to sclerosis, gout, diabetes, and so on. Man has these forces within him, I would say, as the forces of solidification. That is one thing; the other system of forces that man has within him is that which continually rejuvenates him. It is the system of forces that is particularly expressed when one falls prey to pleurisy, to feverish illness, to everything that burns man. In the anthroposophical worldview, I have called the solidifying forces Ahrimanic forces, and the forces that lead to fever, which are therefore warming forces, Luciferic forces. Both forces must be kept in perpetual equilibrium in the human being. If they are not kept in balance, they will lead the person to some kind of destructive extreme, physically, mentally and spiritually. If the feverish forces are not kept in constant physiological balance by the solidifying (salting) forces, the person will inevitably develop a sclerosis or fever. If a person only develops the powers of understanding, if he tends towards intellectualism, he falls prey to the Ahrimanic; if he only develops the fiery elements, the passionate, the emotional, then he falls prey to the Luciferic. And so the human being is always caught between two polarities and must maintain his balance.

But think how difficult it is to maintain this balance. The pendulum that should be in balance always tends to swing in one direction or the other. There are these three tendencies in man: the tendency towards balance, the tendency towards warmth and the tendency towards solidification. He must maintain himself upright; so that one can symbolically see man as a being who is constantly seeking to maintain himself upright against the three forces that are constantly endangering his life.

This is represented by the third degree of Freemasonry, in which man is represented as being threatened by three unruly powers which approach him, which threaten his life; and in the contemplation of this threefold danger, in which man stands - which is symbolically represented in such a way that the Mason to be initiated into the third degree (it is done in various ways, the simplest form is as follows: a man is paraded in a coffin, three assassins creep up who want to kill him) is taught an awareness that man is in danger of death at every moment and must rise up - in this investiture, in a real cultic act, in a real ceremony, man experiences symbolically something important that is connected with life. And so it really is that one must try to get to know life, then the symbols arise out of life. Freemasonry actually has its dark sides in the fact that these symbols are used, cultic acts are performed - in the Blue Masonry in the first three degrees, in the high-grade Masonry there are many other things - and that this ceremonial is drawn from ancient traditions but is no longer understood. There is no longer any connection with the origins, which I wanted to explain to you in a brief sketch. People only look at the ceremony and that is what is dangerous: they get stuck on the ceremony, they are not guided into the ceremony in order to arrive at the spiritual through the ceremony.

From a teaching session in Berlin, February 10, 1913

The human being is connected to the self in thirty-three ways. We have to overcome this self through our I. This self is anchored in the human body in the 33 currents in the spinal cord. The seer sees how currents emanate from the etheric and astral bodies, which can then express themselves in the movements of the limbs, which are half held back in the speech organs, in the larynx, and there form the sound and are then rigidly held back in the human head, brain and skull, cerebral lobes. The brain: the symbols for it in the Lodge...

Beginning with the left hand: J – striving outwards.

The sound J – fix the right eye on an indeterminate point.

Stretching = A – both eyes to infinity.

Enclosing = O – look firmly at a specific point.

Crossing = E – place your right hand over your left hand, and cross your right foot over your left foot, just as the optic nerves are crossed in the human head.

Cupped hand = AO - bend the body in a semicircle.

Fist or clenched hand = U

You should not carry out the movements, but inhibit the movement, press the limbs firmly against the body, but feel the same as if you were carrying out the movements.

We are the lost word of creation ourselves.

The Holy Word is to be used only in the sign.

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Where are we?

In the sign of the four.

Name the four:

Earth, Water, Air, Fire.

The four are also understood by the four sentences that are always spoken in

the lodge and that we know:

Learn to be silent and you will have power.
Give up power and you will have will.
renounce volition and you will have feeling;
renounce feeling and you will have cognition.

The four added up make seven: salt, sulfur, mercury,

Now the holy word is broken down again into the four:

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One column is the sun, the other the moon; both

From a teaching session in Munich, December 12, 1906

Every object that can be seen in the lodge has its meaning; every word that is spoken, every ritual that is practiced has its meaning, which points to a process in the evolution of the world. (...) The Lodge itself is the Temple of the World.

From Instruction Lesson Berlin, December 16, 1911

When we are together in an occult temple, we should be aware that we are in a very special place that completely isolates us from the outside world. It is a sacred place where every object in it has a special and occult significance. (...) Every object in a complete temple not only has a special significance, but it must also be there and has the purpose of stimulating and effecting that which makes it possible to draw the stream of those entities to our temple, which we call the wise masters of the East. They then pour this stream out upon us and thus we are enabled to receive those spiritual teachings that are necessary for human development. Without such reception nothing could be done for the spiritual development of humanity. From here, what has been received should flow forth to other people.

From a teaching session in Berlin, December 17, 1911

It has been said many times that the symbols and rituals of our temple are not created arbitrarily, but have a deep connection with cosmic constellations and correspond to laws that can only be revealed to us slowly and gradually. They are handed down from century to century from the mysteries of the most ancient times so that they can serve as the right channels for the spiritual currents that the wise masters of the East pour over us. It is therefore impossible to explain or understand them in an esoteric way.

From a teaching session in Cologne, May 12, 1913

Everything that belongs to our temple is unearthly, and the activities in it must be considered supersensible.

From a teaching session in Kassel, May 10, 1914

The temple is a reflection of both man and the world. All these relationships are expressed in it.

From a teaching session in Basel, June 1, 1914

The temple is meant to represent the sacrifice that the spirits want to make. The sacrifice must be, without sacrifice there is no becoming, no progress. We want to sacrifice our intellect and offer it to the Christ, that the Christ may also add it to the wreath of pearls that the Christ can wind out of the sacred sacrifices he has brought for the evolution of humanity. ¹

• 1. In the very fragmentary notes from this instruction session, it is stated beforehand that “a human faculty has reached a particularly important point in our time: human thinking. An infinite amount for the development of humanity will depend on how we humans use this faculty. For mankind is faced with the ever-increasing danger of losing its intellect to Ahriman if it does not learn to use its thinking properly. Regarding the words “We want to sacrifice our intellect,” cf. the introduction to this volume on page 25f. 1

From the instruction session in Munich, December 12, 1906

The master's place is in the east (Jupiter – wisdom). In the south is glory, piety, beauty (Venus). In the west is Vulcan, strength.

From an instruction session in Cologne, May 12, 1913

In our temple, the east, west and south are meant spiritually.

From the instruction lesson in Cologne, May 10, 1914) ^{1The three altars also symbolize the three possible paths into the spiritual world, cf. on this, for example, Cologne, November 30, 1906, and in the “Chymischen Hochzeit Christiani Rosenkreutz anno 145” it is stated that four paths are open, but that no mortal is allowed to reach the goal on the fourth. If, according to the notes of a participant, a fourth altar stood in the north during the ritual for the elevation to the third degree, then this was probably in the sense of Goethe's “Fairytale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily” and in Rudolf Steiner's first mystery drama “The Portal of Initiation”, where in the underground temple this fourth king, standing in the north, collapses as the temple rises into the light of day.}

From the east, the powers of the mind of the earth flow in. From there, the sacred powers of the mind flow through the earth. These are reflected in the altar (of the east); that is the head of the earth. If we turn to the south, the sacred powers of the heart, the powers of love and devotion of the earth, radiate from there. From the west, the sacred will of the earth pours into the earth, flowing through the limbs, from which actions flow.

When we form a mental image of our temple in meditation, we should remember that the altar of the east represents the head, the altar of the south the heart, and the altar of the west the limbs of the earth, and we should feel how in the east the powers of the intellect, in the south the powers of the heart and of love, and in the west the powers of will flow and converge in the center of the temple. Then we will turn to these altars and ask that these powers may flow into us and flood and empower us.

From the instruction hour in Berlin, December 16, 1911.

The three lights that now burn symbolize the three higher principles that shine in the darkness in our higher being. They also represent the wisdom, beauty and strength whose words (names) were pronounced when the lights were just lit on the altars of the east, south and west. We will find the light of wisdom if we always strive for truth in our thinking, if we learn to recognize that a new kind of thinking should arise in us, that world thoughts live in our thoughts. We should become aware that it “thinks in us” and that what is thought in us are revelations of spiritual entities that want to bring us wisdom. From the astral world, living, weaving, moving wisdom flows to us, and by letting wisdom permeate our thinking, we can catch the wisdom of those spiritual entities and our soul will attain wisdom.

Beauty flows into us when we acquire true piety. When our soul can open in admiration and devotion to the beauty that is around us, this beauty becomes for us the expression of spiritual beings who want to reveal their language with it and make themselves understood to us. Only heartfelt, true piety can reveal true beauty to us. For you all know that in the spiritual (astral) world, devils can show themselves in the guise of angels under the mask of beauty. But you also know that this is only possible if our soul is not permeated by that purity which is coupled with heartfelt devotion. In the lower Devachan, those beings can be found who send their beauty down to us in truly beautiful images and forms.

Strength or power flows down upon us from the higher Devachan and will strengthen our inner being if we transform our power into virtue, into active virtue. True, active virtue arises when we transform all the qualities that stand out in our lower nature through the power of our will, so that they become forces that can work as spiritual forces in the world.

From the instruction session in Berlin, December 17, 1911

We see here the flames on the altars, which represent wisdom, beauty and strength. These are very deep symbols that we can also find in the human being.

Where can we find wisdom in the human form? It cannot be found on the outside, it is hidden within the form in such a way that it is not currently adapted to the present stage of development, so that the form does not form a cohesive whole. Wisdom can be depicted as follows:

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It is different with beauty, which finds its full expression in human hands when they are raised in an outstretched position, with the head forming the center. In the hands one finds the symbol of beauty and this is represented as follows:

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The purpose of the hand is to be beautiful, not to be strong; the arm may be strong and muscular, but at the bottom it tapers into the beauty-tending form of the human hand.

Strength is found in the opposite of the hands, in the feet. No one who is an occultist will see anything beautiful in the feet, and anyone who wants to see something beautiful in them in their ordinary lives will see nothing but a caricature of beauty. The feet represent power or strength; they must be able to carry the whole body. This is represented as follows:

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Thus we find in the human form these three important symbols, which in occultism are called the “three world mothers”, which Goethe also calls so in his “Faust”.

From the instruction session in Hanover, December 31, 1911

One of the most important symbols is represented by the three flames that stand on the altars of the East, the West and the South, and to which our attention should be drawn first. In them we should see the symbols of wisdom, beauty and strength, but we should not understand them to mean worldly wisdom, worldly beauty and worldly strength.

Wisdom is not to be found in the physical plane. Anyone who is involved in the occult life should make up their mind never to pronounce the word “wisdom” and to think of it as the worldly wisdom that we encounter in the external sciences, for example, or that is generally associated with learning. A learned person is not wise; a wise person does not need to be learned, and may even be a very naive person; but a wise person is the one who keeps wisdom in his heart, who speaks and feels as it were from his heart: I see my God at work in every petal; a person who senses and perceives his God in all of creation and feels connected to creation and the divine. But it should be borne in mind that this does not mean that one should be a pantheist to do so; one must form a much more intimate mental image of such a sage, an inexpressible feeling of being sheltered in the divinity of the world, which gives him peace and bliss in his being.

We must acquire such wisdom for ourselves, it must permeate our entire being so strongly that it is no longer possible for us to think that we are not always and forever surrounded and cared for by the spirit of the world, so that inner peace and security can no longer leave us.

Such perceptions and feelings will flow into us from the astral world, which consists of living, flowing, moving wisdom, which forms the background, the source of the nature that surrounds us and permeates the entire physical world. From there we must draw the strength to become wise. It cannot be found in the physical world itself.

The beauty symbolized by the second flame also has nothing in common with the beauty in the world; it does not refer to any worldly object. To glimpse something of this beauty, we must turn our gaze to the starry night sky and immerse ourselves in it, so that we feel, as it were, that spiritual beings rule behind it. A deep, heartfelt devotion should fill us with this. Or, when we experience a sunset and feel how the radiant orb sinks slowly below the horizon in a purple glow, so that the shadows grow longer and longer and finally the whole of nature around us is shrouded in darkness, then again, a deep, heartfelt devotion should permeate our being and identify so strongly with the divine power in our soul that the inner sun will shine and shine in our soul, as the midnight sun can shine into the dark Christmas days for the student of occultism, and the spiritual beings can be seen in their sublime beauty, in all their majesty. We must think in this sense when we speak of beauty, and these thoughts should transform the concept of beauty.

Beauty can be found in the lower Devachan; from there it streams down upon us from the beings in beautiful images and forms. But on this plane one also still finds ugliness, and precisely in that which on earth is often called “beautiful”. We find every lie there as something ugly. We can even find beauty in this world, but it is only based on illusion, on delusion. We find, for example, beautiful figures and forms there, even angelic figures, which have been created by black magicians, with which they envelop themselves as with a veil to hide their own selfish goals. One can have come quite far in the esoteric life and deal with magical arts or black magic in a particular life, then such people can show themselves in the lower devachan plan in such angelic forms, wrapped in a veil of beautiful garments. So there is no absolute, true beauty in this realm, and only genuine, heartfelt devotion can reveal the true devachanic beauty to us.

The third flame symbolizes power, again not what we know as power in the physical world; but this power from the higher devachan is to flow into the physical world and unfold there in man as “active virtue”. This is the virtue that consists in continually allowing our personality to recede, that we fight our ambition, especially when it expresses itself in that we want to shine with our gifts. This virtue should make us aware that we rest in the Godhead, that we are only a small part of the true, great perfection, so that we feel how all vanity and pride are unreal, so that it would be foolishness to want to be proud of something.

Particularly at the beginning of their occult path, people often become haughty or vain and proud. For example, when they start to notice small successes in themselves, they soon feel superior to others. But that is not the way to achieve active virtue. Those who seek to share their knowledge or powers with others, to teach what they have received as higher teachings, and who then allow themselves to be venerated by those to whom they impart knowledge, will not find the way either. These vices are great obstacles which man himself places in his own way. But also those who thus offer homage place these obstacles in the way of the esotericist. By combating these vices in the physical world and constantly guarding against falling prey to them by practicing “active virtue,” the power found in the higher Devachan as a sum of high spiritual beings will flow into us as spiritual power and strengthen our inner being.

Higher Devachan Power

Lower Devachan Beauty

Astral world Wisdom

Man in truth True piety

Physical world in thought Piety

From a teaching session in Munich, December 12, 1906

The gong represents the primal sound of nature: Tao.

From a teaching session in Basel, September 1912

T is not the name of God, but it signifies the presence of God.

From lecture in Berlin, November 16, 1905

(...) If we look across to Asia, we find at first the still existing remains of an ancient religion, which in fact can no longer be understood as a religion in our present sense. We find this religion in the remarkable culture of the Chinese. I am not speaking of the religion of Confucius, nor of that which spread as Buddhism in India and China, but I would like to speak of the remains of the ancient Chinese religion, the Tao religion. This is the religion that refers man to Tao. Tao is translated as the goal or the way. But one does not get a clear mental image of the essence of this religion if one simply adheres to this translation. For a large part of humanity, the Tao expresses and has expressed for millennia the highest that human beings could aspire to, that they imagine the world, all of humanity, will one day arrive at: the highest that human beings carry within themselves and that will one day develop from the innermost human nature as a mature flower. Tao signifies a deep, hidden source of the soul and a lofty future at the same time. Not only is Tao uttered with shy reverence, but it is also thought of with reverence by those who know what it is about. The Tao religion is based on the principle of evolution, and it says: What is around me today is a stage that will be overcome. I must realize that this development in which I find myself has a goal, that I will develop towards a lofty goal and that a power lives in me that spurs me on to reach the great goal of Tao. When I feel this great power in me and I feel that all beings are heading towards this goal with me, then this power is the steering power that blows towards me from the wind, sounds from the stone, shines towards me from the lightning, and sounds from the thunder, and sends me its light from the sun. In plants, it appears as a growth force; in animals, as sensation and perception. It is the force that will bring forth form after form again and again, until that sublime goal is reached, through which I know myself to be one with all of nature, which flows out of me and into me with every breath, which is the symbol of the highest evolving spirit, which I perceive as life. I feel this power as Tao. - In this religion, there was no mention at first of a god in the hereafter; there was no mention of something outside the world, but of something through which one can find strength for the progress of mankind.

Tao was felt most strongly at that time, when man was still connected to the divine source, especially among the population of Atlantis. These our ancestors did not yet have such a highly developed mind, such intelligence as today's humanity. But instead, they had a more dream-like consciousness, a more instinctively arising imaginative life and a little calculating mental life. Imagine the dream life, but intensified so that it is meaningful and not chaotic, and think of a human race from whose soul arise images that announce the sensations that are in one's own soul, that reflect everything that is around us externally. We have to imagine the soul world of these prehistoric men quite differently from our own. Today, man strives to form thoughts and mental images of the world around him that are as precise as possible. Prehistoric man, on the other hand, formed symbolic, allegorical mental images that appeared full of life within him. When you meet a person today, you try above all to get an idea of whether he is a good or an evil person, a clever or a stupid person, and you try to get an idea that corresponds to the external person in as dry a way as possible. This was never the case with the primeval man of Atlantis. He had an image, not a concept. When he met an evil person, a dull and dark image arose. But the perception did not become a concept. Nevertheless, he judged and behaved according to this image. When he had a bright and beautiful image before him, which stood before his soul as a dream, then he knew that he could trust such a being. And he was afraid of an image when it arose in him in black, red or brown colors. The truths did not appear rationally or intellectually, but as inspiration. He felt as if the Deity working in these images were within himself. He spoke of the Deity that revealed Itself in the blowing of the wind, in the rustling of the forest, and also in the images of the inner life of the soul when he was impelled to look up to a lofty future for humanity. And that is what he called Tao.

Modern man, who has taken the place of this primeval humanity, relates to the spiritual powers in a different way. He has lost the power of direct vision, which in some respects is duller and dimmer than ours, but has gained the stage of development of intellectual and mental images, which in some respects is higher and in some respects lower. Thus, the modern man stands higher than the primitive man because he possesses a keen, penetrating mind; but he no longer feels the living connection with the divinely active Tao forces of the world. Thus he has the world as it reveals itself in his soul, and on the other hand the powers of the mind. The Atlantean felt the images that lived within him. Today's man hears and sees the outer world. These two things, outer and inner, stand opposite each other, and he no longer feels how a bond goes from one to the other. That is the great meaning of the development of mankind. Ever since the land masses rose again after the floods of the oceans had submerged the continents, mankind has longed to rediscover the bond between what it feels and perceives within and what presents itself to it outside in the sensory world. This is the origin of the word religare = religion. It means nothing other than to reconnect what was once connected and is now separated, to reconnect the world and the self. The various forms of religious belief are nothing more than the means, the ways taught by the great sages, to rediscover this connection. They are designed to be so diverse in order to be understood by people at every level of culture in this or that form. ...

Instruction Lesson, Berlin, October 2, 1910

Ahriman prevents us from seeing anything other than how we see it today. For example, we see only the exterior of plants, the leaves, the cells and so on, but not the life force within. What is given in the lodge is intended to help overcome this veil of Ahriman.

There is no point in space where there are no forces at work in man. Now something grotesque must be said, which can only be said in a community like this one, where everything is considered sacred: There is nothing that varies so much from person to person as the brain. It is said that there are no two leaves on a tree that are the same. The brains of human beings are even more diverse. Seen clairvoyantly, the etheric brain contains many, many luminous spots, and these are different in all people. If one could photograph these luminous spots, which of course is not possible because they are in the etheric, one would recognize in the picture thus obtained the starry sky - without the planets. The brain is shaped like a hemisphere. If you could get close enough, you would find each of these constellations of glowing dots in the starry sky in different people.

The human brain is its most distinguished part. It is connected by spiritual forces with the uppermost part, so to speak, of the universe. Further down we come to the signs of the zodiac. These are connected with the twelve nerve cords of the sense organs. The higher the origin of the forces, the more varied is their effect; the nearer to the earth their starting-point, the more uniform is their effect. With the sun, it does not matter to us whether it is stationary or moving; for us human beings it matters that it sends us its forces from the east, then from the south, and then from the west. And we saw yesterday, when we discussed the altars, how it affects us. From the east: wisdom, which created us; from the south: beauty, in which everything reveals itself; from the west: the power, the strength with which we are now to continue to work in life.

All parts of our physical body are formed out of the higher forces. One of the most wonderful parts is the human eye (the eye is drawn on the board). Atma, Budhi and Manas have worked on it. We must know that their forces lie hidden in the eye. (These three forces are represented in the triangle.) What can we do with the eye? We can move it to the right, to the left, up, down. We can do this with our I. It works from the outside on the eye. This is indicated in these rays that go out from the triangle. But what does it fall on? On the veil that Ahriman has spread over everything. This is represented in the cloud lines. We have incorporated the astral body on the moon, behind which Ahriman is at work. So these cloud lines signify the astral body. In the etheric body, work has already been done on the sun so that the eye could one day become such a tool. The further away from the spiritual, the denser the body. The dense clouds indicate the etheric body. And in the physical body, too, work has already been done on Saturn to make it into an eye. The physical body is the densest, darkest part of the human being; here in the drawing, the dark black of the board.

If we often bring this picture before our soul, it will awaken soul forces. The human eye actually looks like this drawing (eye with the triangle). It has only become somewhat different through the skeleton. The form has grown somewhat.

We should allow everything we receive in the lodge in terms of symbols and teachings to take effect on our soul. But we cannot do this if we do not feel that we have become a different person through our initiation into the Temple. We must face life differently. This picture, the triangle with the eye, has an effect on us at night, but so does everything we see in the colorful chaos around us, for example, all the objects in a department store, the hideous posters on the advertising pillars, and so on. And if we let all this have the same effect on us as before, the effect of the symbols is simply lost.

When we absorb all these symbols and teachings with enthusiasm, it is the best in us that speaks. When we return to our external life and let the chaos of impressions rush in on us as before, then a discord arises in us. It will then seem to us as if it had been blind faith in authority that we had submitted to in the temple, while it was the best in us that felt that way – we just don't know that then. And so the conflicts arise to which many are subject.

The lady of the world should not remain a lady of the world in the same sense. If she has to live the life of a lady because of her social position or for other reasons, then she must do it. But she should not do it in the same way, with the same feelings. If she has to take part in coffee klatches, then she should do it out of conviction that she has an obligation to do so, of course. Theosophy should not turn us away from life, but should make us suitable for it – but she should do it with different feelings.

This is not the place for a moralizing lecture, but what I want to get at is this: everyone must make it their duty not to talk about Theosophy at such gatherings and so on and so on. Not at meals, not on ordinary occasions - and eating is an ordinary occupation - talk about Theosophy. In a word: do not gossip about Theosophy everywhere you meet, because then it becomes gossip. If you want to talk about it, then only when you come together specially for that purpose. Theosophy should be a sacred thing to us, and that is how it should be treated, and not in passing.

The ceremonies that have been performed so far, with the exception of the two columns, can be understood by those of the first degree. What follows now, the conclusion, can only be understood after a long time.

From a teaching session, Munich, December 12, 1906.

Let us consider the Rose Cross: the wood of the cross is the dead, the roses are the life that springs from it.

From the instruction session in Berlin on February 8, 1913.¹

When the esotericist regularly performs his exercises and delves into the temple legend or the great cosmic images given to us in Theosophy, or into Jakob Böhme's “Morgenröte” and the other symbols as given in this temple, he will notice that it may seem as if at a certain moment his brain were incapable of thinking, as if a limit had been set to his thinking. This is how the esotericist should feel and inwardly experience. The average person sometimes has the same feelings, that his brain is refusing to work, but he does not come to the experience and awareness of this fact. People actually oversleep their whole lives; not only by sleeping at night, but also during the day they oversleep the most important events because they are completely absorbed by the impressions they receive from the senses. All those who, in an important time such as our own, have turned against what they could have attained as a spiritual current, who, however clever they were in and of themselves, refused to take in the spiritual, who therefore devoted themselves entirely to materialism, have likewise turned against everything spiritual after their death and developed a certain hatred there, which they then, as a power (or powers), hurled back into the physical world. Basically, this has always been the case since the 16th century, and these feelings of hatred make themselves felt in the physical world and have their effect there. The worlds are not separate from each other, they permeate each other.

We have also spoken of how, at the death of Christ Jesus at Golgotha, the physical body penetrated into the physical substances of the earth and how, from this, the strength arose for individuals to undergo martyrdom in the first post-Christian times. In his time, the etheric body of Christ also dissolved into the earth as an etheric substance, and this opened up the possibility for individual personalities to absorb this etheric substance, and thus certain tasks could be accomplished by these individualities here on earth.

The astral body of Christ also entered the astral substance (aura) of the earth at a certain time, and with that, human astral shells could be clothed again, which produced certain events on earth. And now the ego substance can be imparted to people. For even though Jesus of Nazareth left his three covers at baptism, part of the ego substance remained with the covers, and so this power of the earth was also added. ²

The new thing that is now gradually being revealed to people is a remembrance or repetition of what Paul experienced near Damascus. He saw the etheric form of Christ. But the fact that this is now to become visible to us is due to the fact that a new mystery of Golgotha has taken place in the etheric world, as it were. What took place here in the physical world at the crucifixion as a result of the hatred of people who did not understand, has now been repeated on the etheric plane through the hatred of people who, as materialists, entered the etheric world after death.

Consider once more how, in the Mystery of Golgotha, a cross was erected from dead wood, on which the body of Christ hung. And then we see that wood of the cross in the etheric world as sprouting, sprouting wood, green, living wood, charred by the flames of hatred, with only the seven blooming roses appearing on it, representing the sevenfold nature of Christ. And through this dying, this second dying of the Christ, it has become possible for us to behold that etheric body. Men will behold the densification, the dead part of the etheric body of Christ Jesus.

From the Berlin Instruction Conference, February 8, 1913, notes in another hand

The rose cross is the symbol for the second death of the Christ in the 19th century, for the death of the etheric body at the hands of the materialists. The consequence of this is that the Christ can be seen in the 20th century as I have often described to you, namely in the etheric body.

Notes from an instruction session without place or date

In Atlantis, everything that people had around them in nature had a perceptible language. The wisdom (contained in the waters) spoke to them of their Tao. In the dewdrop we have in our language the same term as the word Tao is for what the waters of wisdom revealed to man. Dew in Latin is ros, and cross is crux. Ros-crux denotes the same thing: the Tao-cross, the cross and the dew on the plants. This is the esoteric meaning of the Rosicrucian. ³

• 1. Cf. the lectures “Preliminaries to the Mystery of Golgotha”, GA 152.
• 2. See the lectures “The principle of spiritual economy in connection with questions of re-embodiment”, CW 109/111.
• 3. Cf. the remarks on pages 250f. and 323, and the esoteric lecture in Munich on June 1, 1907 in “The History and Content of the First Section of the Esoteric School 1904 to 1914”, CW 264.