The Rudolf Steiner Archive

This is the 9th of 12 lectures given by Rudolf Steiner at various cities from 1906 to 1923. The series of lectures is entitled: The Essence of Music and the Experience of Tone. Another name of this lecture is: Human Expression through Tone and Word.

I have already pointed out in recent lectures how certain functions or activities of the human being, which emerge in early childhood, are in reality a metamorphosis of activities which belong to man between death and a new birth, i.e. in his pre-earthly life. At birth the child is not yet fully adapted to the earthly gravitation, the earthly conditions of equilibrium. We see the child slowly and gradually adapt himself to these earthly conditions as he learns to stand and walk. Thus the adaptation of the body to the position of equilibrium for earthly life is a faculty which man does not bring with him. He must acquire it during his earthly life.

Now we know that the physical body of man in all its form is the result of a mighty spiritual activity—an activity which man performs in unison with Beings of the Higher Worlds between death and a new birth. Yet that which man forms and creates in this activity—we may call it in a sense the spiritual germ of his future physical earthly body—is not so formed as already to contain the faculty of upright gait and posture. This faculty is only incorporated in man's nature when, after his birth, he gradually finds his way into the conditions of equilibrium, into the forces of earthly existence. For in the pre-earthly life, balance or equilibrium is not the same as it is on earth, where it signifies the power to walk and stand. In the pre-earthly life, balance and equilibrium signify the relation man has to the Angeloi, Archangeloi and so forth—to the Beings of the Hierarchies—a relation manifold and differentiated according as one feels oneself drawn more towards one Being or more towards another. This constitutes the state of equilibrium in the spiritual worlds. And this, man loses in a certain sense when he descends on to the earth. In the mother's womb he is neither in the conditions of equilibrium of his spiritual existence, nor is he yet in the conditions of equilibrium of his earthly life. He has left the former and has not yet entered into the latter.

It is similar in the case of speech. The language which we speak here on earth is, of course, essentially adapted to earthly conditions. In the first place it is an expression of our earthly thoughts. These earthly thoughts contain earthly information and earthly knowledge; and to all this our speech or language is adapted during our life on earth. But in the pre-earthly life as I have already explained, man has a very different language—one which does not go from within outwards, which does not mainly follow the out-breathing process, but the spiritual in-breathing or inspiration (which we observe to correspond to breathing in the pre-earthly life). Thus in pre-earthly existence, man's language is a living with the cosmic Logos; it is a living within the cosmic Word—the cosmic language from out of which all things of the world are made.

This too we lose when we descend on to the earth. We lose the life within the cosmic language, and acquire here on earth the language which serves us in the first place to express our thoughts—our earthly thoughts. This earthly language serves our mutual understanding—understanding as between human beings, all of whom are living on the earth.

And so it is with our thoughts themselves—our earthly thinking. Here on earth, our thinking is gradually adapted to the earthly conditions. In pre-earthly existence on the other hand, our thought is a living within the creative thoughts of the Cosmos.

Walking, Speaking and Thinking:—let us now consider, of these three, the middle member—human speech. We may indeed say that in speech there lies a most essential element of all earthly culture and civilisation. By speech, human beings come together here on earth, and one man finds the way to another. Bridging the gulf that lies between, soul meets with soul through speech. We feel that we have in speech something essential to our nature here on earth. And indeed our speech is the earthly reflection of our life in the Logos, in the cosmic Word. Thus it is particularly interesting to understand the connection of what man attains by great efforts here on earth, as speech and language, with the metamorphosis of speech and language yonder in the pre-earthly life. Indeed, when we study this relationship, we are led to perceive how the human being is inwardly constructed and organised out of the very element of spoken sound and music. And it is a happy coincidence at the present moment that in the cosmological studies we have pursued for some weeks, I can to-day insert the chapter on the expression of the human being through the words of speech and the sounds of song. It is our great pleasure in these days to be having so excellent a performance of song, here in our Goetheanum building.¹ Allow me therefore to-day, if I may say so, to express my personal gratitude for this happy artistic event in our midst, by telling you a little of the connection between the speech and song of man here on earth, and his life in that element which corresponds to the Sound in speech and song, in the spiritual world.

If we study the human organism as it stands before us here on earth, we know that it is through and through an image of the spiritual. Everything here—not only what man bears in himself, but also what surrounds him in external nature—is an image of the spiritual. Now when man expresses himself in speech or in song, he is really manifesting his whole nature—body, soul and spirit—not only outwardly but inwardly. In all that he brings forth by way of sound—whether the articulate sounds of speech or the musical notes of song—the full human being is in fact contained. How deeply and fully he is contained, we only begin to see when we understand more in detail what the human being is in that he speaks or sings.

Let us take our start from speech. In the historic evolution of mankind, speech, as we know, proceeded from something which originally was song. The farther we go back into pre-historic ages, the more does speech become recitative and eventually song. In distant ages of human evolution upon earth, the expression of the human being through sound was not really differentiated into song and speech, but these two were one. What is so often referred to as the primeval language of man was such that we might as well speak of it as a primeval song.

But we will now study speech in its present condition, where it has become very far removed from the pure element of song, and is steeped in the prosaic and intellectual quality. If we take speech as we have it to-day, we find in it two essential elements—consonant and vowel, All that we bring forth in speech is composed of a consonantal and of a vowel element. Now, the consonantal element is in reality entirely based upon the finer plastic structure of our body. Whether we pronounce a B or a P, an L or an M, in each case it rests upon the fact that something or other in our body has a certain plastic form. Nor is this confined by any means to the organs of speech and song alone. These organs only represent the highest culmination of what is here meant. For when the human being brings forth a musical note in song or an articulate sound in speech, his whole body really takes part in the process. The process that goes on in the organ of speech or song is but the final culmination of something that is taking place through the whole human being. Our human body therefore, as to its plastic form and structure, may really be conceived as follows. We take all the consonants there are in any language. They are always variations of twelve primary consonants, and indeed in the Finnish language you still find these twelve preserved very nearly in their pure, original nature; eleven are quite distinct, only the twelfth has grown a little indistinct, but it, too, is still present. Now, these twelve original consonants when rightly understood (and each of them can at the same time be conceived as a form), these twelve consonants taken together really represent the entire plastic structure of the human body. We may say therefore, without speaking figuratively in the least:—the human being is plastically expressed by the twelve primeval consonants.

What then is this human body? From the point of view—the musical point of view—we are now taking, the human body is nothing else than a great musical instrument. Even the external musical instruments—the violin or any other instrument of music—even these you can best understand by somehow perceiving in their form and shape a consonant or consonants. You must see them, as it were, built up out of the consonants. When we refer to the consonant element in speech, there must always be something in our feeling reminiscent of musical instruments; and the totality, the harmony of all consonants, represents the plastic sculpture of the human body.

And the vowel element—in this we have the soul which plays upon the instrument. The soul provides the vowel nature. Thus when you embody in speech the consonant and vowel elements, you have in every manifestation of speech or of song a self-expression of the human being. The soul of the human being plays in vowels upon the consonants of the musical instrument—the human body.

Now if, as I said, we are considering the speech that forms a part of present-day civilisation, we find that our soul, whenever it brings forth vowel sounds, makes use to a very great extent of the brain, the system of head and nerves. In earlier ages of human evolution, this was not the case to the same degree.

Let us consider for a minute the system of head and nerves. The whole structure of the head is permeated by forces which run along the nerve-strands. Now the activity which the nerve-strands here develop is entered and permeated by another activity, namely that which comes about through our breathing-in the air. The air which we breathe in passes through the spinal canal right up into the head, and the impact of the breathing beats in unison with the movements that are executed along the nerve-strands. Pressing upward to the head through the spinal canal, the current of the breath is perpetually meeting with the activity of the nerves in the head. We have not a separate nervous activity, and a separate breathing activity; we have in the head a harmony and mutual resonance of breathing activity and nervous activity. Now the man of to-day, having grown prosaic in his ordinary life, sets more store by the nerve forces than by the breathing impulses. He makes more use of his nervous system when he speaks; he permeates with nerve, if we might put it so, the instrument which through its consonantal nature shapes and forms the vowel currents.

In earlier ages of human evolution, this was not the case. Man lived not so much in his nervous system; he lived in the breathing system. Hence the primeval language was more like song. Now when the man of to-day sings, he takes what he does in speech—where he permeates it with the nervous activity of the nervous system—and restores it to the current of the breath. He consciously calls into activity this second stream—the breathing. It is the continuation of the breathing into the head which is directly called into activity when, as in song, the uttering of the vowel is added to the bringing forth of the note. But here in song man does not leave the element of breath; he takes back his now prosaic language into the poetic and artistic nature of the rhythmic breathing process. The poet of to-day still strives to maintain the rhythm of the breath itself in the way he shapes and moulds the language of his poems. And he who writes for song takes it all back again into the breathing process (including the breathing process of the head). Thus we may say, the very process which man must undergo here on earth, in that he adapts his language to earthly conditions, is reversed in a certain sense when we pass from speech to song. Song is indeed a. real recollection—though by earthly means—of that which we experienced in the pre-earthly life. For in our rhythmic system we are far nearer to the spiritual world than in our thinking system. And it is of course the thinking system which takes hold of speech when speech becomes prosaic.

When we utter the vowel sounds, we press what is living in our soul down into the body; and the body, by adding the consonantal element, does but provide the musical instrument for our soul to use. You will certainly have the feeling that in every vowel there is something of the soul, immediate and living. The vowel can be taken by itself. The consonant on the other hand is perpetually longing for the vowel, tending towards it. The plastic instrument of the body is in fact a dead thing until the vowel nature—the soul—strikes its chords.

You can see this in detailed examples. Take for instance, in certain dialects of Middle Europe, the word mir as in the phrase Es geht mir gut. When I was a little boy, I simply could not conceive that the word should be written as it is. I always wrote it mia; for in the r the longing towards the a is quite inherent. Thus when we perceive the human organism as the harmony of all consonants, we find in it everywhere the longing for the vowel nature, that is to say for the soul. Now we are driven to ask, what is the origin of all these things?

This human body, in the whole arrangement of its plastic structure here on earth, has to adapt itself to the earthly conditions. It is shaped as it is, because the earthly position of equilibrium and the whole system of the earthly forces would not allow it to be otherwise. And yet all the time it is shaped out of the spiritual world. This matter can be understood only by deeper spiritual-scientific research. The soul-nature, manifesting itself through the vowels, strikes upon the consonantal nature, which is plastically shaped and formed in accordance with earthly conditions.

If we lift ourselves into the spiritual world, in the way I have described in my book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment, we first attain Imagination or Imaginative Cognition, as I have often told you. Now when we reach this point, we find that we have lost the consonants. We still possess the vowels, but the consonants—to begin with at any rate—are lost. In the Imaginative condition, we have in effect lost our physical body—i.e. we have lost the consonants. In the Imaginative world, the consonants no longer appeal to us. To describe what we have in that world adequately in spoken words, our words would have to consist, to begin with, of vowels only.

We have lost the instrument, and we enter a pure world of sound, where the vowels are indeed coloured and shaded in manifold variety, but all the consonants of earth are in effect dissolved away in the vowels.

You will therefore find that in those languages which were not yet so far removed from the primeval, the things of the super-sensible world were named in words consisting of vowels only. The word Jahve for example did not contain our present form of J or V. It consisted only of vowels, and was half-scanned, half-sung. We enter here into a vowel-language which it is only natural to sing. And when we reach from Imaginative to Inspired Cognition—when therefore we receive the direct manifestations of the spiritual world—then all the consonants we have on earth are changed into something quite different. The consonants, as such, we lose. But in place of it, a new thing comes forth in the spiritual perception which comes to us in Inspiration. And this new thing we find to be none other than the spiritual counterparts of the consonants.

But the spiritual counterparts of the consonants are not there between the vowels; they live in them. In your speech here on earth you have the consonants and vowels side by side. You lose the consonants as you ascend into the spiritual world. You live your way into a vowel world of song. To put it truly one must say, “It sings,” for you yourself no longer sing. The World itself becomes cosmic song. But all this vowel world is variedly coloured or shaded in a spiritual sense. In effect, there is something living in the vowels—namely the spiritual counterparts of the consonants.

Here on earth we have the vowel sound A for example, and—if you will the note C sharp in a certain octave. But when we reach the spiritual world, we do not have one A, or one C sharp in a given octave, but countless ones differing in inner quality. For it is another thing, whether a Being from the Hierarchy of the Angeloi speaks A to one, or a Being of the Hierarchy of the Archangeloi, or some other Being. Outwardly the manifestation is the same, but it is filled in each case with a different inner soul.

We may say therefore:—Here on earth we have our body. The vowel sound strikes into it. Yonder in the spiritual world we have the vowel sound; and the soul strikes into it, and lives in it, so that the sound becomes the body for the soul. You are immersed in cosmic music, cosmic song; you are within the creative sound—within the creative Word.

Let us now consider sound as it is on earth, including spoken sound. Sound has its earthly life in the element of air. It is, however, but a childish conception of Physics to believe that the peculiar forms in the air are the reality of sound. It is really childish. Imagine, for a moment, you have a piece of ground, and on it stands a man. The ground is most certainly not the man, yet the ground must be there for the man to stand on. Without it, the man himself could not be there. It will not therefore occur to you to seek to understand the man by examining the soil beneath his feet.

In the same way the air must be there for the sound to have a basis of support. Just as man stands on the soil—only in a rather more complicated way the sound has its “soil,” its necessary basis or resistance in the air. For the sound itself, the air signifies no more than does the soil for the man who stands on it. The sound presses forward to the air, and the air gives it the possibility to stand. But the sound itself is spiritual. Just as the man is different from the earthly soil on which he stands, so, is the sound different from the air upon which it stands—in which it finds its support though of course in a more complicated way, in a manifold and varied way.

Through the fact that we on earth can only speak and sing by means of the air, we have in the airy forming of the sound the earthly image of a thing of soul and spirit. The soul-and-spirit of sound belongs to the super-sensible world, and that which dwells here in the air is fundamentally the body of the sound. We need not therefore be surprised if we find the sound again in the spiritual world, though shorn of that which comes from the earthly—the earthly consonant-articulation. The vowel only is carried over there. The sound as such in its spiritual content goes with us when we rise into the spiritual world, only there it becomes filled with soul. Instead of being shaped and moulded outwardly by the nature of the consonants, the sound is inwardly ensouled.

Now all this runs parallel with man's entry into the spiritual world in the widest sense. Think for a moment, my dear friends, man passes through the gate of death. The consonants he soon leaves behind, but the vowels—and especially the manifold intonations of the vowels—these he experiences all the more strongly, only with this difference. He no longer feels the sound proceeding from his own larynx, but he feels that there is singing all around him, and that in every sound of the song, he himself is living. It is so in the very first days after man passes through the gate of death. He is dwelling in a musical element, which is at the same time an element of speech; and this musical element reveals ever more and more as it becomes filled with living soul from the spiritual world.

Now, as I have told you, man's going forth into the Universe after he has passed through the gate of death is at the same time a passing from the earthly world into the world of the stars.

When we describe such a thing as this, we seem to be speaking in images, but our images none the less are reality. Imagine here the Earth. Around it are the planets, then the heavens of the fixed stars, conceived from time immemorial—and rightly so—as the Animal Circle or Zodiac. Man standing on the Earth sees the planets and the fixed stars in their shadowed radiance. He sees them from the Earth—or, shall we say, with due respect to earthly man, he sees them “from in front?” (The Old Testament, as you know, expressed it differently.) After death, when man goes farther and farther from the earth, he gradually comes to see the planets as well as the fixed stars “from behind.” But there he does not see these points of light or surfaces of light which are seen from the earth. Rather does he see the spiritual—the corresponding spiritual Beings. On all sides it is a world of spiritual Beings. Wherever he looks back, whether it be towards Saturn, Sun or Moon, or towards Aries, Taurus and the other constellations, he sees from yonder side the spiritual Beings.

But this seeing is at the same time a hearing; and when he says:—Man sees from the other side—or from behind—Moon, Venus, Aries, Taurus and so forth, we might equally well express it thus:—Man hears the Beings, who have their dwelling in these heavenly bodies, resounding forth into the cosmic spaces.

Try to imagine it in its totality. (It really looks as though we were speaking figuratively, but we are not, it is absolutely real.) Imagine yourself out there in the Cosmos—the planetary world farther from you now, the Zodiac with its twelve constellations nearer. From all the heavenly bodies it is singing, speaking as it sings to you, singing as it speaks; and all your perception is a listening to the speaking song, the singing speech of the World. You look out in the direction of Aries, and as you do so, receive the impression of a consonant soul-nature. Behind Aries maybe, is Saturn, a vowel element of soul. And in this vowel element as it radiates out into the cosmic space from Saturn—in it there dwells the soul-and-spirit Consonant:—Aries, or in another instance, Taurus. Thus you have the planetary sphere singing to you in vowels—singing forth into the cosmic spaces; and the fixed stars permeate the song of the planetary sphere with soul from the consonants. Picture it to yourselves as vividly as you can:—the sphere of the fixed stars at rest, and behind it the wandering planets. Whenever a planet in its course passes a constellation of the fixed stars, there bursts forth not a single note, but a whole world of sound. Then as the planet passes on from Aries to Taurus, a different world of sound rings forth. But behind it there follows, let us say, another planet:—Mars. Mars passing through the constellation of Taurus, causes a different world of sounds to ring forth once more. Thus you have in the heavens of the fixed stars, or the Zodiac, a wondrous cosmic instrument of music, while from behind it our planetary Gods are playing upon this instrument.

We may truly say, my dear friends, when man down here on earth takes back his speech (which is now formed for his earthly needs, just as his walking is transformed, for earthly needs, from his spiritual power of orientation in the Cosmos)—when therefore man takes speech back again into the element of song, he really inclines himself to that cosmic pre-earthly existence from out of which he is born for earthly life. And indeed, all Art comes before man in this sense. It is as though, whenever he expresses himself in Art, he were to say, “’Tis human destiny—and rightly so that man as he begins his earthly course of life is placed into the midst of earthly conditions and must adapt himself to these. But in Art he goes back again a little step, leaves the earthly life to take its course around him, and retreating for a moment approaches once more the world of Soul and Spirit—the pre-earthly life from which he has come forth.”

We do not understand Art, my dear friends, unless we feel in it the longing to experience the Spiritual—though it be but manifested, to begin with, in a world of beautiful semblance. Our creative fancy, whereby we develop all artistic things, is at bottom nothing else than the power of clairvoyance in an earthly form. We are tempted to say:—As sound dwells on earth in the element of air, so it is with the nature of the soul itself. That which is truly spiritual in the pre-earthly life has its earthly dwelling in the image of the spiritual. For when man speaks, he makes use of his whole body. The consonant nature becomes in him the plastic sculpture of the human frame, and the Soul makes use of the current of the breath which does not enter into solid form, to play upon this plastic instrument of music and now, in a twofold way we can turn once more to the Divine, what we thus are as human beings speaking upon earth.

Take the consonantal human frame. Suppose we loosen it as it were from the solid form wherein the earthly forces—gravity and the like—or the chemical forces in the foodstuffs have enchained it. Suppose we liberate the consonant nature that permeates the human being for so we may now describe it. When we place a lung on the dissection table we find chemical substances in it, which we can investigate by chemical methods. But this is not the lung. What is the lung? It is a consonant, spoken forth out of the Cosmos, which has taken plastic form. The heart, if we lay it on the dissection table, consists of cells which we can investigate chemically and find the substances composing it. But this is not the heart. The heart again is a consonant—another consonant, spoken forth out of the Cosmos. And if we conceive the whole twelve consonants, cosmically spoken and resounding forth, we have in all essentials the human bodily frame.

Thus as we look to the consonants, if we have the necessary clairvoyant power of imagination to see them in their real connection, there arises before us the human body in its plastic shape. If then we take the consonants out of the human being, we have the Art of Sculpture. If on the other hand we take the breath, which the soul uses to play upon the bodily instrument in song—if we take the vowel nature out of the human being, there arises the musical art, the Art of Song.

Once more:—Take the Consonant-nature out of the human being, and there arises Form, which you must mould in plastic art. Take the Vowel-nature out of the human being, and there arises Song—Music, which you must sing. Man as he stands before us here on earth proceeds out of the two Cosmic Arts—a Cosmic Art of Sculpture from the one side, and a cosmic Art of Song or Music from the other. Two kinds of spiritual Beings join their activity together. The one provides the instrument, the other plays upon it; the one forms and moulds the instrument, the other plays upon it.

Can we wonder that in olden time, when things like these were felt, it was said of the greatest of all artists, Orpheus, that his command over the soul was such that he was able, not only to use the ready-moulded human body as an instrument, but to cast even amorphous matter into plastic forms—forms which correspond to the notes of his music.

My dear friends! You will understand that when we describe such things as these we must depart a little in our use of words from what is usual in this prosaic age. Nevertheless what I have said is not intended in a figurative or symbolic but in a most real sense. These things are indeed such as I have described them, albeit to describe them we must sometimes bring our language into greater flow and movement than is customary in its use to-day.

• 1. Song-Recital by Frau Werbeck-Svärdstrom and her sisters.

One of the great men whose busts stand before you here, the German philosopher Hegel, summarized his conviction of the essence of human development in the words: this development is a progress of humanity in the consciousness of freedom. And with this he wanted to imply that the development of humanity is not a repetition, a succession of the same facts, the same events, but a constant and continuous progress; that from epoch to epoch humanity rises to ever higher and higher levels.

Those who look at human evolution from a spiritual point of view will find a deep truth in Hegel's saying. This is not to say that there are not also temporary epochs of decline within the ascending course of human development; but it means that the great development of our race is viewed from a small point of view if one does not see the continuing ascent on a large scale in the face of temporary epochs of decline. Only those who are unable to see into the depths of the process of development have the idea, which is so frequently encountered today, when we look further back in time or even look ahead into the future, as if everything, man himself in his form or the natural kingdoms around him, were still roughly similar to what they are today. Even when we speak of development, the spirit, which lives only on the physical plane, usually has no conception of the tremendous differences that exist between the individual epochs of the human spirit and advancing culture. It often seems grotesque to the spirit when the great differences between the nature kingdoms in the past epochs are described to it or when one prophetically points to the future epochs.

Only when we observe the differentiated development of humanity does it present us with the configuration of the higher worlds on the physical plane. Only he recognizes his epoch who knows where he stands in the development of humanity. We have to look around a little to see where we stand – which level our present human development corresponds to. What is called occult wisdom teaches us that on a descending path of development, what we call the spirit in the German language is not the other parts of the human being. It is the spirit that has descended the furthest onto the physical plane in our epoch. Since the last third of the 19th century, it has been, as it were, on the way up again, and anyone who recognizes the configuration can only express it by saying that within this epoch the deepest entanglement of spirit with matter has been the characteristic; now it is striving to ascend again. And all who strive spiritually strive to escape from this entanglement.

For a long time such an important crossroads of human development has been in preparation. If one examines occultly how long this has been in preparation for what emerged as an important turning point in the spiritual development of humanity in the 19th century, one comes back to the time when the human spirit descended from those insights that were still more or less born of the astral plane, and one comes to a special mission in the evolution of humanity for the last four to five centuries. We can pinpoint the most important point at which human evolution moved down from the astral to the physical plane and spiritual knowledge passed into the material realm as the time when the old Ptolemaic worldview, which is not nonsense but a projection of astral knowledge onto the physical plane, was brought down to the physical plane by Copernicus. This realization then penetrated more and more into the later stages of development, until in the 19th century it was taken even lower, when people even wanted to grasp the spirit materially. Those who understand the theosophical movement in the right sense do not criticize what has brought humanity so low. That would not be an active theosophical life. The active theosophical life rather asks: How do we get out of the bonds of the physical plan? — and it tries to recognize what purpose this descent into the physical plan served.

We look back to Egyptian wisdom, to the wonderful Chaldean-Babylonian wisdom and ask ourselves: What is the difference between what the Egyptian priest, the servant of Hermes, saw when he looked up at the starry sky, or what the Chaldean astronomer saw in the stars, and what today's science sees? One does not get a proper idea of what was going on in those wise men when they looked up at the vault of heaven through materialistic science, but one does get it through an analogy when one looks at a human being.

We do not look at a person just by looking at the physiognomy of his face. When we see the tears rolling down, we do not just observe how they move downward under the force of gravity – in fact, if an angel were to come from heaven today, we would first calculate its rate of fall – no, through the rolling tears we see the suffering and pain of his soul. And when he smiles, we see in his smiling countenance what lives in his mind as joy. We know that original elementary sensations take place in man.

This seeing through from the material to the spiritual-soul content of the soul is what the Hermes servants meant when they said: “Down below, everything is like up above!” No material thing that is not the outer expression of a spiritual-soul! Just as ice is only water in a different form, so all matter is only spirit in a different form. If someone came and showed us a piece of ice and we said, “This is condensed water,” but he denied it, we would say to him, “You are naive, you are wrong, this ice is only condensed water. It is just something else, new, when we look at the form. So matter is just the transformed, condensed spirit. But it is not enough just to know that; we must absorb all knowledge into our soul. And spiritual life demands that everything that lives in our soul comes into activity; it is not enough what lives in our soul as ordinary thoughts, feelings, and will impulses. But if we awaken an inner life in us, then we can feel how the Egyptian Hermes servant or the Chaldean astronomer looked up at the starry sky: Mars, Venus, the Moon or Mercury, all were only the expression of the spirit living in the star. In times of spiritual life, one did not describe what today's astronomer understands by the stars, but by the name Mercury, for example, the old wise man, who lived in the spiritual life, imagined the soul, the spirit that lives through Mercury, just as the soul lives in your body. And so he taught everyone who listened to his word. Now imagine vividly how a person looks out into space and sees the stars. It is not an abstract but an intimate spiritual life that connects him to the world. It is spirit that he saw, and in the spiritual realm he himself floated and felt that he was a part of the world, just as a finger is only a part of my hand. If you separate his being from the universal spirituality, it dies and no longer exists, like the finger if you cut it off. Compare this with what today's astronomer sees. For him, physical globes fly around. He lacks the living feeling [for their spiritual essence]. But this living feeling is not so easy to achieve. Perhaps he is a spiritualist in theory; but it is more difficult to be a spiritualist of the whole soul, of the whole life, than to be a spiritualist in mere theoretical terms. Now man lives in a purely physical environment; he no longer finds the living harmony between the divine and the physical. But it is right and of great importance that it came to this.

Let us compare the achievements of people on the physical plane with the high spiritual wisdom of the priests. In ancient times, primitive culture prevailed. When we see the endless labor and effort that has gone into making every single object around us a spiritual creature of the last four centuries, let us not forget that this is thanks to the human spirit of the last centuries. But even that could not be there if the spirit had not descended to the physical plane. Thus, each epoch has its task. And because this was particularly the case for the last epoch of world history, those sources from which spiritual life always flows had to send the spirit down to the last epoch of humanity, to those who wanted to receive it in devotional spiritual work.

If we go back four or five centuries before the descent [of the spirit on the physical plane], and then another two centuries for the preparation, we find a current that, despite the descent, has ensured that the spirit can find its way back; to give the spirit, which necessarily had to descend to the physical plane, means to rise again. This current is called the Rosicrucian current. And just as in ancient times people had to be led up to the eternal, so it is that today man must seek the way to the modern, to the Rosicrucian initiation. It is not to be asserted here that there are different truths in the course of human development. Truth is one, like the sun that illuminates the whole of the physical orbit of the earth; but the paths to truth are different. Imagine, for a moment, comparing the point of view you would have attained with the summit of a mountain; at the top, one would have an unobstructed view in all directions, however one came up. But would you not call it foolish if someone were standing down below on the left side of the mountain and could find a way up on the left side of the mountain, and then would go around the mountain to find a way up on the other side that is not on the side where he is standing? So it is with the evolution of humanity. The starting points of the civilizations are like the paths on the mountain; the different peoples have to move up the different paths. The truth - spiritual realization - is one and the same. Only those who believe that the same thing is repeated in different races can claim that the paths of initiation were the same. But just as the human body that is born fifteen centuries from now is different from the human body that is born today, so must the treatment for the student who wants to go up the path be different. And in certain periods, there must be a renewal of methods, an adaptation to the peoples - to what man has become - even if the structural conditions elude the ordinary eye. But occult physiology and anatomy know that the structural conditions of the physical brain had to change if man was to conquer the physical plane. The physical structures are only the lower facts of what is spiritual above. And so today there is a Rose Cross initiation.

Among the various types of initiation, we need only mention the three most prominent ones. People know what is meant when the Yoga path, the Christian Gnostic path and the Rosicrucian path are mentioned. You all know the Yoga path from literature. The Christian-Gnostic path is the one taught in Christian esotericism - in the early days when Christianity was spreading - by Dionysius Arcopagita. Scholarship speaks of him as a pseudo-Dionysius, who is said to have lived in the 6th century and written all the great books. Christian tradition dates this back to the time of the Apostle Paul. Scholarship only asks: When were these scrolls written?, but Christian esotericism knows that this Dionysius Areopagita was a disciple of the Apostle Paul and was specially commissioned by his master to found the esoteric school of Christianity. For countless people, this Christian esotericism has become truth. Today it is hard to imagine the sources from which some of the words of a Christian teacher came to us. This source was the Christian Initiation. To the materialistically-minded, this Christian Initiation appears to be a figment of the imagination. But for people at that time, it was direct and immediate life. We distinguish seven stages in it, which everyone who wanted to achieve the Christian Initiation had to go through. I will only mention the seven names for them:

the washing of the feet
the scourging
the crowning with thorns
the crucifixion
the mystical death
the burial and resurrection
the ascension of the soul.

These are the seven true stages that had to be gone through in the Lehtrstätten, where the Christian initiation was at home. At least two of these stations, the first and the fourth, I will characterize for you to understand.

When the Christian disciple had reached the point where what is called morality in ordinary life had been purified and raised to a higher level, when one could take it for granted that he would no longer stray from this higher morality, then he was received by his master of the Christian initiation, and he should now experience something within himself that I can only describe to you in the form of a dialogue, although it never took place in a dialogue.

After the student had been disciplined in this way, he was told by the teacher:

Take a look at the plant world. It grows out of the mineral kingdom. If it were not for the mineral kingdom, the plant could not flourish, even though it is at a higher level. If the plant could think, it would have to say: You may be lower in the hierarchy of the natural kingdoms than I am, but I could not be without you. In humility I bow down before you!” And then the disciple was led to recognize this humility in all the kingdoms of nature. The animal would have to bow down humbly to the plant and man in turn to the animal and say: Without you I could not be! And man, who stands on a higher level, would have to bow down in humility before those who are not yet so far; for no one can stand higher without the others. When man understands this ladder, he looks down with humility on those below. In this way the disciple learned to understand what it means in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John that the Highest, although the twelve are lower than He, bows down in humility before them and washes their feet. Those who have been educated in this way [to higher morals] in the sense of esoteric Christianity, only then understand the inner meaning of the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is a book of initiation about the methods of initiation, the apocalypse about the content of initiation.

When the student had progressed so far that this humility had become second nature to him, the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John became truth for his soul. Then the teacher could lead him to experience very specific feelings. The student could feel and recognize that he now had the opportunity to ascend to a higher level. He felt - and this was a common feeling of all who had received the Christian initiation - as if his feet were standing in the water, as if the waters of the spirit were lapping at him. And the inner symptom that arose as an image each time was that the disciple, when he was ready, had the image before him, from within, through an inner power, which is presented in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. This is not just an external-historical, but a spiritual image that anyone can have: on the astral plane, he sees the image of the washing of the feet spread out before him.

Just to make ourselves understood, I will also mention the fourth stage - the crucifixion. When the third stage was over, it was made clear to the disciple that he no longer had to count his body as part of himself. He had to feel his body as an object, as something outside of himself. The ordinary person thinks that his body is his ego. But anyone who wants to reach the fourth stage of Christian initiation must be able to make his body no more precious to him than any chair or table around him. The ordinary person says: I enter through the door. But it is natural for the initiate to say: I carry my body to the door. Then two more symptoms arise: the arbitrary production of the so-called blood sample is the symptomatic expression of the fourth stage of initiation. Exactly at the points of his body called the stigmata, he is able to produce redness of the skin through the inner power of his spirituality. The stigmata appear on the palms of the hands, on the feet and on the right side of the chest. This is accompanied by the inner symptom that the disciple on the astral plane sees himself as on the cross.

One does not speak of the dangers of this development. What matters is the degree of inner development, and then one no longer speaks of dangers in it. But anyone who wants to do this without the advice of a teacher is certainly in danger. But he who patiently and humbly surrenders himself to the leadership will, only by undergoing his martyrdom, be all the more a useful member of human evolution. However, he should not take this upon himself until he feels the obligation within.

Christian initiation was also the foundation and source of the outer Christian life. This Christian initiation had to be passed over into the somewhat different form of the Rose Cross initiation about two hundred years before the descent of the Spirit upon the material plane.

The Rose Cross initiation is not an un-Christian one. It is a further development of the Christian initiation. But the one who receives it does not step out of the physical environment, as the purely Christian initiation demands - at least for a time. Whoever wants to live as a worthy member of human evolution today must take part in the work on the physical plane. It would be sinful to withdraw from the physical world. We must only understand it and be equal to it. If the Christian initiation had retained its earlier form, man would have risen high spiritually and soul-wise, but would have remained weak on the physical plane. Think of the conquest of the physical plane, of the great inventions, the art of printing and so on. What is flooding in from the other planes... [gap in the transcript]. For this, a completely different inner configuration is required. This requires the ability to develop other strong impulses within oneself in order to channel what comes from material development in the right way. The Rose Cross initiation is one that enables people to use all the means of modern culture. It teaches the spirit to grasp in matter, in that man recognizes the connection of even the most material with the spiritual, so that he can let the spiritual flow out into the material.

The Rose Cross initiation is born out of the necessity of the time. It also has seven levels.

The first is what is broadly called study; the second, the acquisition of imaginative knowledge; the third, the acquisition of occult writing; the fourth, the production of the philosopher's stone - that is the technical word for it -; the fifth, the correspondence between microcosm and macrocosm; the sixth, the absorption in the macrocosm; the seventh, beatitude. You must not imagine that each pupil has to pass through these stages in succession, so to speak; but the teacher must select from each chapter that which is suitable for each pupil according to his individuality. First each pupil must study, but then the material must often be organized in quite different ways. And now we will discuss it in detail.

Study in the sense of the Rosicrucians is not what is called study in ordinary life. In the sense of the Rosicrucians it is what should really be called: living in pure thought. What this means is not at all easy to grasp at the outset. Hegel, on the other hand, spent his whole life trying to teach the Germans what it means to live in pure thought. And ten years after his death, what Hegel contributed to the Germans' deepening had been completely forgotten. Today we have not yet reached the point where Hegel would be understood again. And yet his works would be a good means of showing what it means to live in pure, sensuality-free thought. The more recent philosophers, for example Eduard von Hartmann, deny altogether that we can form a thought that is not influenced by sensuality. They swore that nothing is in the intellect that was not in the senses. What is not of the senses is not real. If these words were true, there would be no mathematics. The Gnostics called the life of the spirit a “mathesis,” not because they imagined it to be mathematics, but because on the higher planes there is pure thinking and knowing, as there is in mathematics, in terms of forms, a thinking free of sensuality. This pure thinking does not proceed from objects, but flows from thought to thought. For those who want to immerse themselves in a completely sensuality-free thinking, I tried to write a book like my “Philosophy of Freedom”. It is not a personal work. It has come into being like an organism: it is a thought organism, and a guide to what is called study in the Rosicrucian sense. Certainly, many do not go through something like that. For most people who cannot undergo something like this, the simple Theosophical teaching is enough. It is sensual thought; no one can hear or see it. If you study Theosophy, it corresponds to the first stage of the Rosicrucian training. Theosophy is itself Rosicrucian study if you pursue it in the right way. There is no need to lose yourself in philosophical heights. The humblest soul can immerse itself in it.

Imaginative knowledge is the second step in the Rose Cross initiation. It is achieved when a person learns to transform thought into image. This is a real fact. A man who knew about Rosicrucianism once uttered the words, “All that is transitory is but a parable!” Then one comes away from the physical plane. I would like to show you how this can be achieved by means of two examples. Take the three Logoi. Everything that has been mentioned so far as a study relates solely and exclusively to the physical plane. Only imaginative knowledge lifts us higher. If you describe the three logos schematically, if you speak of projections, then one can form an idea for the physical mind, even if you say that the second logo vibrates differently from the first. But all this is only for the consciousness of the mind. We cannot take with us to the higher planes anything that relates to three-dimensional space, but only that which is not conceived spatially. A “tone or color quality is indeed built into the space, but it is not spatial. The astral space is a flowing sea of color and light. There you will encounter on the astral plane what you have perceived here as a color quality and a tone quality. What is physical here in color and tone, you lift up to the higher planes; only we must purify and cleanse it in order to lift it up. Therefore, the teacher says: Take away the sensual quality for everything you want to see directly; imagine how a color stands out. Then that is the method for developing the imagination. And anyone who wants to achieve this level confronts the outside world in such a way that these isolated images present themselves in such a way that when one speaks, for example, of the three Logoi, one no longer perceives them as quantity but as quality. Then he feels the third Logos as something that resounds through the world – he feels it as sound; the second, insofar as it appears as an astral projection, as flooding light; and the first Logos as the aroma of the world, as an aroma flying through the world, purified to the most perfect purity. This is how the Rosicrucians felt everywhere. These are images, imaginations, not descriptions, for these come from the physical plane.

Another image, which presents us with a more mundane phenomenon, has been preserved in a wonderful myth, the myth of the Holy Grail. This is also an experience for the Rosicrucian disciple, which he perceives as a real fact of his inner soul life. The Master says to the disciple: “Take a look at the plant; it lives with the root in the ground, sends the stem upwards and has its calyx - that which produces a plant again - turned towards the sun. Even the more recent materialistic scholarship has again pointed out that if we compare the plant with the human being, we must compare the root with the head. The plant is, as it were, a human being turned upside down. Evolution consists in the image being reversed: what the plant opens up chastely before the world, is directed downwards in the human being. What the root is in the plant, striving towards the center of the earth, is directed upwards in the human being. In the human being, the head reaches out into the space of the sun. Between the two, on the inside, is the animal world, whose backbone is directed horizontally. Now the pupil was told: Imagine the plant, the animal and the human being and you have the world cross. The cross was the image of the evolution of the world beings up to the human being. The plant only produces when it is touched by the sunbeam, which was called the “holy lance of love”. When it is touched by this, it fulfills its task. Now imagine the human being with the Kama that has seized him; the lower organs must be purified and cleansed and must appear again at a higher level, so that in the course of evolution this chalice opens. When man has transformed himself, when he has purified this chalice, which the plant has at a primitive level, then he will have it in his hand again, that he will be touched by the holy lance of love – then he will have the purification of man in his hand – not only astral or etheric, but even physical. Thus evolution is imaginatively presented. Those who live in this way will have the astral plane revealed to them.

The third is the attainment of occult writing. It is not a writing like our present-day abstract writing. One appropriates the harmony of the qualities. The teacher says to the disciple: “If you ascend higher, until you attain knowledge of occult writing, you will hear what was called the harmony of the spheres in the Pythagorean school. This is a reality for the initiate, not a mere allegory. What today's science has to offer when it speaks of number systems is often as far removed from the harmony of the spheres as if one wanted to describe a symphony as a wave motion in the air. The occult disciple learns to hear the sounds in the spiritual world. Goethe also knew about this when he said: “The sun resounds in the ancient manner in the brother spheres of song.” And in another place: “The new day is born sounding for spiritual ears.” What happens, what is audible to spiritual, not physical ears, are the events of the spiritual plan, are the harmonies of the spheres. And the signs of occult writing are real cosmic forces, and he who knows them feels the stream of cosmic forces in his organism down to the physical organism. I will give you only one example: four numbers. When I tell you, they are somewhat abstract; but if you were to perceive the music spiritually, you would perceive the relationship of the four lower human limbs. These numbers are: 1, 3, 7, 12. This is how the four lower limbs of human nature sound together harmoniously in the spiritual world. This is the secret of Pythagorean number theory: that it can be transformed into spiritual music.

The fourth is the creation of the philosopher's stone. Modern scholarship has turned it into a fairy tale. But in a way it is right, because if it were really as science imagines it, it would be a childish thing. But it is the highest goal to which man aspires. At the end of the eighteenth century, some of the Rosicrucian secrets were revealed. We find something there that we could say: People have heard something ringing there. We find a remarkable passage in a German newspaper! It says about the philosopher's stone: It exists. If you can recognize it in its full value, you possess the secret of immortality. Actually, the vast majority of people know it. Many have it in their hands every day. The man who wrote this had no idea what it was about, but he had received a message that contained something true. We need to consider nothing other than the process that maintains human beings cosmically in this present epoch: the breathing process. We breathe in and out. We breathe in the oxygen of the air and give back to the surrounding world the carbonic acid, a poisonous gas in which we could not live. The plant absorbs it continually, retains the coal from the carbonic acid and builds up its own body from it. But it gives the oxygen back to animals and humans. Thus, plant, animal and human form a whole, as far as we look at the breathing process. Today, humans need plants. The corpse of the plant as black coal, when you dig it out of the earth, or as a transparent diamond, is something we have within us; but we cannot use it. We have to give it to the plants as air for life. The plant builds its body out of carbonic acid itself. It can do something that man cannot yet do today, but will be able to do later. Imagine this process: the plant taking in carbonic acid and emitting oxygen – transferred to the inside of the human being... [gap in the text] Thus, by merging with the plant world and taking it into human nature, we build up within ourselves a pure, chaste body, as the plant does today. Man is on the way to becoming a being who can consciously carry this out; and then he will be able to develop within himself the chalice of the Holy Grail. The breathing process is not a closed one; it is in the process of becoming more perfect and of performing within man that which today takes place outside of man, and of transforming the human substance, which is permeated by Kama, into pure, chaste substance. This is real alchemy. Then man will have mastered alchemy, by means of which he will also learn to transform the cosmos. The symbol for this is the Holy Grail. We must not reject the lofty ideal because it is still millions of years away from us, but must be attained according to the principle: constant dripping wears away the stone. Thus, he who rhythmizes the breathing process will gradually achieve his goal. The philosopher's stone is coal, it is the substance for building the human body in the future. This process of transformation is alchemy in the Rosicrucian sense. Of course, the intimate instructions are given only from teacher to student.

The fifth, the correspondence of microcosm and macrocosm, is the learning of the correspondence of what we have within ourselves with the outer macrocosm. Paracelsus once said: “Let us look at the animals, plants and minerals - everything is in some way also in the human body. Man is like a confluence of everything that is also in nature outside. Nature is, as it were, the dismembered human being. Nature is like the letters, but the human being is the word that is composed of these letters. When this realization dawns on the consciousness, the student sees how the eye was formed from the light. The eye is formed by the light. Our organism emerged from another that did not yet have eyes; but the light brought forth the eye. This state of consciousness has long since ceased to exist. Man today knows nothing more about it, but the seer on the astral plane sees it. There you get to know again what is weaving within the cosmos as in your own nature. Then you get to know the cosmos through your individual limbs: from the eye the light, from the ears the sound, and the other as it can only be given from the teacher to the disciple.

When a person has come so far that he has learned the correspondence between microcosm and macrocosm, then he can ascend to the sixth: to merging with the macrocosm. Then you have a relationship of friendship with every thing in nature. There is then something like a loving relationship with every being in nature, something like what remains in the love between man and woman. The sunflower appears different, the violet different, the lion and the tiger different, this and that different. The whole cosmos appears as differentiated as love between man and woman. Our inner being flows from the inside out, and this is connected with a transformation of the heart: the etheric and astral bodies transform the heart so that it becomes an arbitrary muscle. Here, the occult teaching, if it perfects itself even more, will spread light. Today, the heart is a crux for physiologists. It is an involuntary muscle, but in terms of its striation it is an arbitrary muscle; for it is transversely striated. All voluntary muscles are transversely striated, while the involuntary muscles are longitudinally striated. The heart is transversely striated because it is on the way to becoming an arbitrary muscle. Today it is endowed with the potential to become one. If in the future man is able to create from the spirituality of the cosmos, he will be able to move the heart as he is able to move the hand today. And so I could give you a hundred and a hundred examples where occult science sheds light on what physical science cannot unravel.

When man gradually attains this personal, intimate relationship with the whole of his environment, when he no longer has to use the physical powers of the brain, then, the teacher says, he can only understand what the Rosicrucian calls divinity, where the independence of man is preserved, but the highest is felt.

I have only been able to sketch out a few ideas today; but the Rosicrucian training has much to give here. Much can also be objected to; one can point out the dangers that can arise in the process. Only one thing can be pointed out: if a person does not strive towards the ideal out of egoism, but feels integrated, if he does not feel the urge for development as a desire but as a duty, if he wants to be a servant of evolution, if he purifies everything that needs to be purified, then there is no danger at all. And the Rosicrucian training in particular will also bring about a moral purification. The disciple must have the intention of merging his soul completely in the pure thought, for the pure thought is a mighty moral purification. Then he is prepared for the six steps.

All striving for occult development must proceed under the principle of conquest, which Goethe also expressed in one place. Only when we have conquered ourselves may we develop higher. This must become our fundamental ideal, for conquest is the fundamental ideal of the Rosicrucians:

From the fetters that bind all beings,
The man who overcomes himself is free!

Yesterday I spoke to you about initiation in the sense of the Rosicrucian spiritual world current, about the stages of knowledge, of feeling, of will impulses, of activities that a person has to undergo if they want to move up the path of knowledge and towards higher levels of humanity. Today let us try to deal with a chapter of this Rosicrucian theosophy ourselves. Not that this Rosicrucian wisdom is anything but the common spiritual wisdom of all peoples and times, as must be emphasized again and again. It is only adapted to our modern way of thinking, to the modern temporal need. It is born out of the realization that our epoch needs a special way of speaking in order to proclaim the eternal truths of all times, so that they can live themselves into the very configuration of today's humanity in Europe and America.

It is perhaps a very distant chapter that is chosen here, yet it is one of the most essential. For nothing shows us man's origin and goal as much as the realization of this chapter and at the same time points us to the forces that we are to unfold in ourselves in order to become co-workers in the service of human evolution. We cannot look at the great evolution of the cosmos any other way than by starting with the human being and his or her essence. And I will say nothing other than what is a common theosophical and Rosicrucian wisdom, what anyone would say who speaks from these sources. There is no contradiction. Many already know what I would like to say here again.

We distinguish seven members of human nature. This morning we heard that one could also take another number as a basis: three times three. It does not matter that I will combine the three middle members into one name today, and if you summarize these three members under what I will call the fourth today, then the explanations will be completely consistent.

We divide the human being in such a way that we say that the human being first has his physical body; it is what hands can touch and eyes can see, what the human being has in common with all of nature and what is subject to physical and chemical laws. The second is the so-called etheric or life body. It is that which the chemical and physical forces and substances call to life and which leaves the connection of physical and chemical substances in death. Occultism says: The human physical body is such a combination of substances and forces that it cannot exist as a physical body by itself; only by having an etheric body inserted into it and as long as it is inserted, it is protected from the disintegration of physical substances and forces. In the moment when the etheric body leaves the physical forces, death occurs, the physical body is a corpse. Therefore, it is also said that the etheric body is what protects us from death at every moment. In every moment, there is a great struggle in the etheric body against that which would otherwise cause our chemical substances to disintegrate. The third link is the carrier of pleasure and suffering, joy and pain, feelings and emotions, which we call the astral body. It is the link of the human being that man has in common with animals, just as he has the ether body in common with the plant and animal world and the mineral body with the whole outer world. The name astral body has been in use since the earliest times. There is no more appropriate name for this part of the human being than astral body. And there is perhaps no better definition of why this body is called the astral body than the one given by the great theosophist Paracelsus. Just as the etheric body leaves the physical body at death, so the astral body leaves the etheric body some time after death. But the astral body also leaves the physical and etheric bodies every night. Then it is outside of us. Where is it then?

Paracelsus rightly asks: Where is it, and what does it do during the night? Does it rest, does it have a task? Yes, it has a task. Although those who do not have clairvoyant powers cannot see into the activity of the astral body during the night. But everyone feels the consequences of this activity. They all go to bed tired in the evening. The fatigue is an expression of disharmony in the composition of our physical and etheric bodies. It must arise if the astral body does not have the power to bring harmony into the other two, the physical and etheric bodies. And as man is today, such disharmony must necessarily arise during the waking hours of the day, were our physical and etheric bodies merely under the control of the astral body - how the forces are to be joined together - then there would always be harmony in our etheric and physical bodies. But as it is, not only does the astral body live in the physical body, but at the level of consciousness that humanity has reached on the Earth, the whole environment of physical, sensually perceptible objects has an effect on the human being. Impressions from the eye and ear and the other senses flow into it from the outside. During the waking hours, disharmony will inevitably arise in every person who has not yet reached a certain higher level of spiritual development. If this astral body could never dwell in any other place than in our physical and etheric bodies, it would itself become disordered. Then its power currents would not remain as they should be if a real etheric and physical body is to be formed. During the day, the inner harmony of the astral body is disturbed, and the expression of this disorder is fatigue. The moment you feel tired, the inner disharmony is there. Where is the astral body during the night?

Paracelsus rightly said: When the lines of force that connect it to the physical body during the day begin to loosen, it then comes into contact with the entire harmonious system of forces that flows through the starry sky. At the moment when a person falls asleep, he rests in the harmony of the spheres, and from there he brings the forces to balance what has been used during the day. Thus, the astral body rests during the night in the world of the stars; that is its true home. And when it returns, it brings with it the powers of the stars to help remove the substances that cause fatigue. That is why sleep is a good doctor, because order and harmony can then be restored when the astral body rests again for some time in the world that contains the laws for the starry sky, and these are the laws for the spiritual world in general. If a person does not sleep, their health will be undermined because the astral body has not rested in the starry world for a while. That is why the astral body has been given this name. In the past, names were not given that did not correspond to the essence of the matter. And before we correct occult names and designations, we must first think about the name, why it was given. Today, when a comet or a minor planet is discovered, one opens a mythology encyclopedia and gives the star a name. The principle of naming in spiritual times was to let the essence of the thing itself resonate in a name: it sounded in the name of the connection with the world.

In the fourth aspect of his being, man has something that makes him the crowning of earthly creation of planetary existence. Follow me for a short time in a subtle observation. In the whole range of the German language, there is a name - and in other languages it is similar - that is fundamentally different from all other names. Each of you can say “table” to the table, “picture” to the picture, and so on. But there is one name which we cannot use in the same sense, and that is the name I. None of them can say “I” to another. Each one is a “you” to every other, and you are a “you” to everyone else. If this name is to describe ourselves, no sound in the external world can embody it; it must resound from within ourselves. This has been felt at all times by those religions that had an impulse from the secret teaching. In the secret teaching, therefore, one says the name for the being, and in the Hebrew secret teaching, the unpronounceable name of God, the name of Yahweh, is nothing other than the name for the ego. In truth, the name of Yahweh is the name for that which begins to hold a monologue in the soul - to live in its self. It was felt that in those worldviews and religions that were built on spiritual foundations, one said: In the I, in the innermost part of the soul, God begins to speak. It is a beginning, but it must be made, and this I - this single central point - is what makes up the most essential distinguishing feature of man from all the beings that surround us on this planet. Sensible people have always felt this. Jean Paul tells us how, as a very young child, he stood in the courtyard of his parents' house and he knew exactly how he first felt: you are a self-being! And he adds that there is no possibility of error and that others have added something to this memory. Because at that time, says Jean Paul, I looked into the hidden holy of holies of my inner being; at that time I knew that I was immortal because I had found the connection with God.

If we now go outwards from the I, we come to the point where we can consider the mutual relationships of the human being. Human evolution consists in the I working on the three bodies, within which it appears like the core of a fruit in its shell. And how does this I work?

If we want to understand this, we must remember primitive peoples. Take a people who today stands at a lower level of culture. You see that this people is ruled by its feelings and instincts, by drives and passions, much like the animal: they devour each other. Now compare this savage with the members of a more highly developed culture, with a Francis of Assisi. What is the difference between the two forms of development?

If we want to answer this question, we must be aware that the human being – through the many incarnations through which he develops – does his work from his I: first on the astral body, then on the etheric body and then also on the physical body. This is human development: this emanation of the I into the three bodies. The savage follows all the instincts and passions that live in him. The cultured man says to himself, “I must not follow certain instincts”; he denies himself certain instincts and passions. The still higher idealist not only denies himself, but out of himself generates ideals that add something new to what the instincts of the astral body constitute at a primitive level of culture. Thus, in the clairvoyant view, we see the astral body as consisting of two parts: what was originally in it and then what the ego itself has made of it. If you look at a highly developed idealist, this part [it is drawn] is larger than in others due to the work of the ego, and in a person like Francis of Assisi you can see how little is left of what the person called his own when he embarked on his first incarnation. In Theosophy, this practically transformed part of the human astral body, over which man has gained control, is called the German word “Geistselbst”, which is otherwise referred to in Theosophical literature as “Manas”; it is a transformed part of the astral body.

But the human being also works on his etheric body from his I. What does it mean to work on the etheric body? Let us make this clear with an example. You can do this in your own development. Remember what you knew as a seven-year-old child in terms of concepts and ideas, and what you know today, what you have learned and changed in your imaginative life. You will find a great deal. But now compare what you have learned with what has changed in other things that are also in you, in temperament, memory, certain basic characteristics of human nature. If you were hot-tempered as an eight-year-old child, this hot temper will still show through at times. If your temperament was melancholy, then perhaps this coloring will remain throughout your life. So that we can say comparatively: what a person actually learns moves forward like the minute hand of a clock; but what a person's basic inclinations are, that moves forward more slowly, like the hour hand. And as slowly as the hour hand of a clock, the etheric body transforms. The etheric body is denser than the astral body; therefore, the work of the ego on the etheric body is essentially more difficult than the work on the astral body. And only when the ego not only works on its intellectual ideas but begins to transform its temperament, then this is accompanied by a transformation of its etheric body. For many, this is only possible during the transition from one incarnation to another. But that is precisely the essence of occult training: everything you can learn is only preparation for occult training, and you have done more if you have tried to get rid of any basic mood, for example, if you have transformed your melancholy temperament into a harmonious one. The moment we begin to change not only our feelings and impulses but our fundamental nature, we begin to work on the etheric body. The part of the human etheric body that has been reshaped by the ego in this way is in turn a new link in human nature. Today, very few people can consciously bring about this transformation of the etheric body, but only those who are in occult training. For example, one of the laws of the Pythagorean school was that the astral body must first be completely purified before work on the etheric body could begin. But one must distinguish between conscious and unconscious schooling of the etheric body. The part that is permeated by the work of the ego is called the “life spirit” in the German language; it is the same in its fundamental essence as what is called “buddhi” in theosophical literature.

The third and most significant thing is when the human being not only begins to become master over the forces of his etheric body, but when he begins to work down into the physical body. It might seem as though the work of the I on the physical body is the basest; but it is in fact the highest. And the work on the physical body is more difficult than the work on the etheric body. When a person consciously begins to work on mastering the forces that work in the physical body through the I, then something else occurs to him. What works in the physical body are the same forces that work in the cosmos. When a person learns to control the forces of his blood and his breathing, he learns the magic of the cosmos. Then what he can do flows out of his physical body and into the universe, and that is a real, true work that can only begin when a person has reached a certain level of work on the etheric body. And because we begin with the regulation of our neighbor, with the regulation of breathing, the name breathing is also taken from 'Atma'. The more a person transforms in his inner physical nature, the more there is of the 'spirit man', of 'Atma'; there is a part of spirit matter in him that has been transformed.

This is not an ascetic escape from the physical world; rather, we have the task of entering the physical world in order to transform it into a spiritual one. That is the great law of redemption. This physical body is a part of the spiritual body that has become what it has become so that we could reach our present stage of development. We now have the task of spiritualizing this physical body again, of redeeming it. This principle lies behind the word redemption. There you have the mutual relationship of the seven members of human nature, as one must have them if one wants to utilize them in practical theosophical work.

Now let us consider the evolution of man. A materialist, who, being acquainted only with the physical body, has only an abstract idea of the evolution of man. But he who realizes how complicated man is, also sees how complicated the evolution of man is. Which of these four members is the oldest and most perfect? Some may be surprised to hear that the oldest and most perfect link in the human being is the physical one; it is the one that took the longest time to develop. The etheric body is younger, and the astral body is even younger. The baby is the I. It is only unfair to call the physical body an imperfect part of the human being. Just consider, for example, the structure of the thigh bone: a wonderful work of art. The beams are laid with such wisdom that no human engineering could achieve it, and they are laid in such a way that the upper body is supported with the least expenditure of energy. Let us now move from this limb to the construction of the human heart. Anyone who delves into what our physiologists teach us about the heart and also about the other organs knows that these limbs are so wisely constructed that no human wisdom can even penetrate these physical forms. The physical body would be good for all people. But now let us look at the astral body, which it does throughout life. Through the activity of its astral body, man continually introduces heart poisons to the physical body, for example to the heart; but the heart is so wisely constructed that it can withstand the attacks of the astral body for quite some time. Only in the future will the astral body be found just as wise as the physical body is today. The physical body is the oldest part of the human nature, which required the longest time to evolve. The parts of the human nature are, however, connected with the whole environment. Just as a single finger can only exist if it is a part of the whole hand, so man is only conceivable in connection with the whole cosmos. If you lift him a few miles above the earth, then he will experience the same fate as the finger if you cut it off. And just because man can walk around on the earth, this dependence is not admitted.

Look back at times long past! And when you look ahead to future times, you see that the shape of its limbs is constantly changing. But they can only change if everything around the person changes. Just because man, despite his advanced science, looks back over such a short span of time, he believes that things have always been as they are. But anyone who looks further knows that our planet must change from form to form if we ourselves want to change. But it is not enough just for the changes that the earth itself is undergoing to happen, but in a certain respect man was already there before the earth could be called “earth” in the cosmos. As man progresses in the cosmos, so do the planets or the beings that inhabit them. Our planet is the reincarnation of another planetary state, and we can trace three preceding incarnations of our Earth and look forward to three subsequent ones. What we call planetary evolution is nothing more than an analogy to our human evolution. The three preceding planetary states through which our Earth had to pass are called in Rosicrucian terms Saturn, Sun, Moon, so that we have to imagine: the Earth was, before it became Earth, Moon, and before it became Moon, it was Sun, and before the Sun it was Saturn; and the later states, which we are looking at, are called Jupiter, Venus, Vulcan. What does it mean that the Earth has passed through these states?

We are today in the fourth incarnation of our own planet, and this is intimately connected with human evolution. On the first planetary form - that is, on Saturn - the first structures of the human physical body were already present. At that time, however, the human physical body was such during the entire Saturn development that no independent etheric body was yet incorporated into it. Through the stages of the sun and moon, down to the stage of the earth, this physical body became more and more perfect, so that we can say: the physical human body today stands on the fourth stage of its development, it stands today at the point of the earth's development. It was only in the second incarnation of our earth that an independent ether body was incorporated into this physical body. The physical body became more perfect, as it were, through the working of an etheric body within it. Then the third reincarnation of the earth — the moon — led to the incorporation of the astral body into the two others, so that the inhabitant of the moon, the ancestor of today's earth man, consisted of three bodies — the physical, the etheric and the astral body. And the meaning of evolution on Earth is this: to integrate the I into these three members, the worker, who then begins to transform what has come to him from the past. Thus we see that the physical body is older than the others, and the I is only at the first stage of its development. One can even know from the configuration of the physical body what comes from the state of Saturn in us. The highest part of our physical body is the sensory organs, and the germ of our sensory organs was laid on Saturn. And so limb by limb was built up, becoming more and more perfect in stages with the other limbs of human nature.

What is called Saturn and Sun here is not the present-day Sun and Saturn, but rather denotes phases of development. Nevertheless, what our Earth has gone through in its development is related to present-day Saturn. Present-day Saturn is to the Earth as a boy is to an old man. The same conditions that Saturn is going through today are the same conditions that our Earth went through in the past. This is why in real occultism we do not speak of Saturn, the Sun and so on, but of a Saturn, a Sun and so on. Our Earth is an older Saturn.

Now we must still be clear about the meaning of this whole development. If we look back to that Saturn development, where man was still without etheric body, astral body and I - insofar as they were independent beings -, we get the best difference of those ancient conditions from today's by referring to the “consciousness”. A state of consciousness is connected with every state of development. There are seven states of consciousness. The present human being is in the fourth; no being can have this state that cannot say “I” to itself. Therefore, the human being developed the form of consciousness that he now has only on earth. The purpose of evolution on Earth is to develop the waking consciousness. On the earlier planetary conditions, there were only imperfect states of consciousness for humans. On Saturn, the human ancestor in his primitive form had a consciousness like that of minerals, or rather: the human physical ancestor is that consciousness. We can hardly find words for it easily; we can only hint at it. This consciousness is a very, very dim, deep trance-like, sleepy consciousness, dull and dusky, but which in a way had an advantage: it encompasses a much larger scope, is much more universal; a mineral consciousness knows of the whole solar system.

Then this consciousness was narrowed down to that of the plant. But it is now a somewhat brighter consciousness than that of the mineral. Man was in this consciousness when the earth was in the sun. The third form of consciousness is pictorial consciousness, also called primary psychic consciousness. It differs from the present one in that it works in images, but in such a way that it conveys the psychic of the other. Imagine a being - and the human ancestor on the moon was like that - that does not yet have sensory consciousness and can cover objects with colors when it wakes up: you have a last remnant of such consciousness in the dream world. The dream world is not the astral consciousness. The present dream consciousness is to the moon consciousness what some atrophied limb is to the form it was in when it still had its tasks in the human being; for example, certain muscles that could move the ears have lost their purpose in the human being. The present-day world of dreams has remained as a vestige of the astral pictorial consciousness of the moon; that is why it also works in the same way as the astral imaginative consciousness works. Imagine someone dreaming that he is catching a tree frog. He sees it jump and grabs it. Then the sleeper wakes up and sees that he had the corner of the bed cover in his hand. Or another dream that really happened. A farmer's wife dreams that she is going to church. She listens devoutly. Then the pastor moves his arms violently and, lo and behold, he gets wings. It was not too strange for the pious farmer's wife that a pastor who preaches from heaven occasionally gets wings too. But what happens? The pastor begins to crow loudly in the pulpit. At the same moment, the farmer's wife wakes up and outside in the yard, the cock crows.

What has happened here, where a whole dramatic action is taking place? In the symbolic image, something is expressed that you would have perceived as an external object in the waking day consciousness. Something is formed symbolically that is not present in this way. But if you retain the symbol in form – think that people use it to have perceptions of the real psychic world, then you have what I am talking about now. A symbolic consciousness that is true and real was the consciousness of the moon. Imagine a human being without our present-day object-consciousness. He approached another being. He does not see the limited form in this being, but a color formation appears before him. When there is sympathy, he sees a very definite color, and likewise when there is antipathy. This is something other than color today: it is the expression of sympathy or antipathy for the other being. And someone who has moon consciousness does what corresponds to moon consciousness: he bases his actions on the symbols. If he perceives a certain color, he knows that something hostile is happening, and he will withdraw.

A later stage of development is that which develops under the influence of the ego, where consciousness no longer perceives the psychic phenomenon, but where what has arisen as a coloration is superimposed over the objects. The colors that you see spread over the objects today are the old colors that once arose as psychic phenomena.

If modern man had, in addition to today's consciousness, that of the moon, so that he fully perceives the psychic world as well as the physical, he would have expanded the present consciousness into the imaginative one. A higher form would be if he had added to this the consciousness that plants have today and that humans had dimly and dully during their solar incarnation. And the highest form would be where man would also have the consciousness that the mineral has today, which in turn would enable him to merge into the universal cosmos. This last consciousness hovers before us as the ideal of man, and it is called spiritual consciousness.

The purpose of planetary evolution is therefore that states of consciousness succeed one another; but for this to happen, the planetary arena must also change completely each time. However, we only understand the complete evolution if we know that within each planetary state, seven stages must be traversed. Thus Saturn, Sun, Moon and now Earth had to cover seven stages. These are called “rounds” in Theosophy, “realms” in Christian esotericism. Each of the planets that the Earth passes through has seven smaller cycles; for each consciousness, if it is to ascend, has degrees, from the most imperfect to the most perfect. They are also called states of life. Each of these realms or states of life, however, must in turn pass through seven different states of revelation or seven states of form: arupa, rupa, astral, physical, plastic, intellectual, spiritual (archetypal).

Thus we have 7 times 7 times 7 = 343 states; they describe the 343 planetary incarnations in their entirety. The development of one state of consciousness encompasses 49 of these states. So you can see how we can glimpse into an enormous cosmic development.

When man still lived on the sun and had only developed his etheric and physical bodies, he was still a completely different being. One could not call him a plant, but in a certain figurative sense one could say that he was then in the plant existence. In relation to his position on earth, he was turned around: what today projects freely into the ether, the head, was then directed towards the center of the earth. The development of consciousness is simultaneously linked with the reversal of the entire human form. This is why the sun man is also called a man directed towards the center of the earth, and in the same sense the man of the moon age is called an orbiting man. If one had drawn a tangent to the moon's surface... [gap in the transcript]. And the earth man is the reverse of the sun man.

Thus everything moves forward. When we look back at lunar evolution, we must realize that what we call affects today could only develop on the moon as an astral impact. But at that time the I had not yet developed. Because the ego did not develop until the earth, the moon man did not yet feel pain as his individual pain; it was the pain of the moon. This physical-etheric-astral moon ancestor was not independent. Unindividual passions, affects and pains arose from this. For example, it was so on the moon — one may express it today, even if so few believe it — that at certain seasons of the year the whole world, all living beings, began to scream, to utter sounds, surrounded by an astral body; this was connected with a certain development in animal life. A vestige of this can still be seen in the mating call in the sexual life of certain animals, where cries are associated with it at certain times.

Now the law of evolution is such that in later states certain earlier ones are always repeated. Thus the earth had to go through the repetition of the Saturn, Sun and Moon existence. Now the earth is in its most essential existence. You can get an idea of what was called the sun here if you stir all the beings that are on the sun, moon and earth today into a pulp; all of this once existed on the sun. During the solar age, the sun, moon and earth were one body. Then the sun had developed into the moon's existence and only then were the sun and moon divided. And during the repetition on earth, first the sun and then the moon separated again, and the actual becoming-ego of the human being is linked to the separation of the moon. The moon contains the forces that prevent the other parts of the human being from becoming the carrier of an ego. I can only suggest that the point in time that occurred for our earth's development in the ancient Lemurian period could only occur because first the sun broke away and then the moon. When the earth had become independent, it could only then bring forth the human form from which today's human being has developed.

Thus, human evolution is most intimately connected with cosmic evolution. If you look back to the ancient Atlantean times, the predecessor of our present time, when man lived on Atlantis – which science has at least already discovered for the animal world – you have the human ancestor who does not yet possess the same consciousness as the human being of today, who can calculate and manufacture industrial objects. But another faculty was highly developed. The Atlantean man had an excellent memory, of which one can no longer really imagine today. Something else was connected with this. You would find that physically, too, this old Atlantis differs quite considerably from the configuration of the earth today. What we call air and water today was not yet there. All the air was filled with a fine water vapor. The water was still dissolved. That is why the old German saga has preserved the name 'Nifelheim'. It means that people in those days lived in a kind of water-laden air, and only in such an air could the image consciousness of man at that time live. The myths and legends of Germanic mythology arose out of this consciousness. Anyone who really knows the people knows that they do not create poetry as today's scholarship claims. The myths and legends were the remnants of an ancient ethereal pictorial consciousness, the expression of an ancient, dim clairvoyance, and people have only forgotten their origin after they have advanced to today's bright day consciousness.

So you can see how the development of mankind is tied to the cosmos. On a round earth, where the air is saturated with water, man perceives the world quite differently. For the Atlanteans, the sound of the wind was a language they understood. There were no commandments or laws in those days. There were still times when, if man wanted to know how he should behave, he went out and listened to the spring as it trickled: that told him something. And when he went out to listen, he listened to a fundamental and underlying tone that was present like a musical keynote that the Atlantean understood. It is a simple, multi-syllabic syllable; it lived in the entire environment of the Atlantean; it went through everything, and the Atlantean said to himself: “In this fundamental tone, the god speaks to me.” And when he wanted to address his prayer to his God, it was in this fundamental tone. The wisdom of the ancient Atlanteans had to change into our own in order for man to progress. But in the process of development we will again have to gain the consciousness of the Atlanteans, in addition to our own. Sometimes we have to make the sacrifice that the old must lie dormant for a time.

Thus the evolution of man is connected with the evolution of the cosmos. Just think how far man has strayed from the sources of wisdom that lie in the world itself! How far he has strayed from direct contact with nature! But what we have lost we shall regain in what we have conquered. This consciousness that we have arises from the consciousness of the individual, concrete facts that in the Rosicrucian method were designated as the “wisdom of the world”. It permeates the whole life of man. If we imbibe it, we feel what the teacher wanted, to whom the name “Rosenkreutz” is linked, who, as a leading individuality, guides and directs the spiritual movement through the centuries.

It seems far-removed when we consider the human being in the context of the whole world; but if it penetrates our hearts, it becomes a force within us that will bless us if we want to work on the transformation and transformation of the cosmos. One has the duty to integrate oneself into the cosmos. Just as a single stone does not seek to dispense itself from the house, so man must not dispense himself from the Cosmos. One must recognize that it must be one's duty to serve within the great evolution of the world. Then that which is eternal in us will integrate itself into the world existence. There will be a reflection of it in our most everyday life, so that man can express this wisdom in every movement of his hand. Then the Cosmos will truly partake of the human being, for everything is in the process of transformation. Everything must be transformed again through beings who are placed in the movement of the world. If we work in this way, we will feel vividly how true it is. And truth will be the impulse for our actions. Thus a beautiful saying of a highly inspired poet will be fulfilled:

Time is a blooming meadow,
Nature is one great living being,
And everything is fruit, and everything is seed!

I would like to say a few words about the color in which we have held our meetings here. There is good reason for this being red. When we see red on the outside, it forms its counter-image on the inside, because the eye has the tendency to create the greenish-blue from within when it sees red in front of it: this is the inner activity of the eye. With children, a great deal depends on how the body responds to external impressions. I refer here to what I said about the color red when we were discussing education. The eye responds to a red environment with a tendency towards green-blue activity, and this inner work is calming. Therefore, the color red in the environment has a calming effect on excited children. If you remember that later stages of human development always lead back to the childhood stage at a higher level, you will understand why the color was chosen for a place – which, even if it is not a place of initiation, should remind us of it through its symbols – that triggers the color in the child's body that is directed towards the sacred. It is not without reason that the Bible says: Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Our inner being must become as pure as the ether of the cosmos, which meets us in blue. The education for this is expressed in the red color of our environment. If red surrounds us externally, the contrary color lives within us. This explains the red in all esoteric cult sites, while exoteric sites, where the secret teachings are spoken of externally and in symbols, are blue. The Rosicrucian worldview expresses the esoteric in the color red. If the room is fully furnished in the sense of the Rosicrucian worldview, then blue arches should still rise above.

What do the two columns mean to the Rosicrucians? If one wants to explain these two columns standing here before us, one must start from the so-called Golden Legend. This says:

When Seth, the son of Adam – who had taken the place of Abel – was ready, he was allowed to gain an insight into Paradise, allowed to pass the angel with the sword whirling in the fire, into the place from which man had been expelled. There Seth saw something very special. He saw how the two trees, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge, entwined each other. Seth got three seeds from these two entwined trees, took them with him and put them in the mouth of his father Adam when he had died. A mighty tree then grew out of Adam's grave. This tree appeared to some who had psychic senses, as if it were glowing with fire, and this fire coiled itself for him who could see into the letters B, the first letters of two words that I am not authorized to pronounce here, but the meaning of which is: “I am who was, I am who is, I am who will be.” This tree divided into three limbs. Seth took wood from it, and it was used in many ways in the evolution of the world. A staff was made from it; the magic wand of Moses, legend says. It was the same wood that was used to form the beams of Solomon's Temple. They remained there as long as people understood the ancient secrets. Then the wood was thrown into a pond in which the lame and the blind were healed at certain times. After it had been taken out again, it formed the bridge over which the Redeemer passed as he made his way to the cross. And finally, so the legend goes, the cross itself, on which the Redeemer hung, was made from the wood of this tree, which had grown out of Adam's mouth after the seeds of the entwined trees of life and knowledge had been placed in his mouth.

This legend has a deep symbolic meaning. Remember the process, the transformation that the disciple must think of when he goes through the fourth stage of the Rosicrucian training: the production of the philosopher's stone. We remember that it has to do with a certain treatment of our red blood. Let us think of the significance of this red blood, not only because Goethe's saying, “Blood is a very special fluid,” points us to it, but because occultism has taught it at all times. The way this red blood appears is a result of breathing oxygen. We can only touch on this briefly. When we are now referred to such an important moment in the legend and in the Bible, to the re-entry of Seth into Paradise, we must remember what caused man to be driven out of Paradise. He was driven out of Paradise, man's ancient state in the bosom of the higher spiritual world, by the following, which is already hinted at in the Bible as the physical process that goes hand in hand with the descent. Those who want to understand the Bible must learn to take it literally. It says: “God breathed into the man the breath of life, and he became a living soul.” This breathing in of the breath was a process that is here expressed figuratively and that extended over millions of years. What does it mean?

In the development of mankind, in the formation of the physical body, there were times when there were no lungs in the human body, so that oxygen could not yet be inhaled. There were times when man more or less floated in liquid elements, when he had an organ, a kind of swim bladder, from which the lungs later developed. This swim bladder of the past has been transformed into the lungs, and we can follow the process of transformation. When we do this, it shows itself as the process that the Bible expresses with the image: “And God breathed into the man the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.” It was only with this breathing of the breath that the production of red blood became possible. Thus the descent of man is connected with the production of the red blood tree in his inner being.

Imagine that the human being stands before you and you can only follow the trickling of the red blood: you would have before you a living red tree. Of this the Christian esoteric says: It is the tree of knowledge. Man has usurped it, he has enjoyed the red blood tree. The erection of the red blood tree, which is the true tree of knowledge: that is sin. And God drove man out of paradise so that he would not also enjoy the tree of life. We have another tree in us, which you can imagine in the same way as the other. But it has red-blue blood. This blood is the stuff of death. The red-blue tree was implanted in man at the same time as the other. When man rested in the bosom of the Godhead, the Godhead in him was able to interweave what his life and his knowledge meant. And in the future lies the point in time when man, through his expanded consciousness will be able to transform the blue blood into the red blood; then he will have within himself the source for the blue blood tree to be a tree of life. Today it is a tree of death. In this image, there is both a retrospective and a prospective view! You see that in man a red blood tree and a red-blue blood tree are entwined. The red blood is the expression of the I, it is the lower part of the knowledge of the I. The blue blood is the expression of death. As a punishment, the blue blood tree was added to the red tree of knowledge as the tree of death. In the distant future, this tree of death will be transformed into the tree of life, just as it was originally a tree of life. When you imagine man as he stands before you, his whole life is based on the interaction of these two trees.

The fact that Seth was allowed to enter Paradise again means that he was an initiate and was allowed to look back on the divine-spiritual state where the two trees were intertwined. And he put three seeds of the entwined trees into Adam's mouth, from which a tree divided into three arose. This means: the tree that grows out of man, Manas, Buddhi, Atma, these three parts that make up the upper part of man, are found in him by nature. The legend thus indicates how the trinity of the divine is already present in the human disposition, even in Adam, how it grows out of him and how it is initially seen only by the initiate. Man must go his course of development. All the things that have taken place in the development of mankind and that lead to initiation are further expressed to us by the legend.

From the realization that the threefold tree rests within us, the tree of the eternal, which expresses itself in the words: “I am that was - I am that is - I am that will be!” we gain the power that moves us forward and gives us the magic wand. Hence Moses' wand. Hence the wood of the tree growing out of the seed is taken to build the temple of wisdom. Hence the cross is hewn out of it, that sign of initiation which signifies the overcoming of the lower limbs in man by the three higher ones.

Thus this legend shows how the initiate looks forward to a future state where the tree of knowledge - the red blood tree - and the tree of life - the blue-red blood tree - will be entwined, where they will intertwine in man himself. Now, the one who wants to develop inscribes in his heart what the two columns – the red column on the one hand, suggesting the red blood column; the blue-red, suggesting the blue blood column – want to tell us. Today, both are separate. Therefore, in the hall, the red column stands on the left and the blue-red column on the right. They want to challenge us to overcome the present state of humanity, to direct our path to the point where, through our expanded consciousness, they will intertwine in a way that is called: J-B. The red column is designated J, the blue-red column B.

The sayings on the pillars will help you to visualize the connection between the individual pillars. The words on the red pillar are:

In pure thought you will find
The Self that can sustain itself.

Transform your thoughts into images,
And you will experience creative wisdom.

Those who meditate on this will, through the power of their thoughts, instill in their red blood column the power that leads to the goal: the wisdom column.

The power needed for the life column is instilled when one devotes oneself to the thought that stands on the other, the blue column:

When you condense feeling into light,
You reveal the forming power.

You objectify the will into being,
Thus you create in the world's being.

Some words relate to knowledge, others to life. The formative power first “reveals” itself in the sense of the first saying; it only becomes “magical” in the sense of the second saying. The transition from mere cognitive power to magical action lies in the transition from the power of the saying on the first column to that of the saying on the second.

Thus you see how what these symbols, the two pillars, mean, is directly related to the ideals and goals of the Rosicrucian student. In some esoteric societies, these two pillars are also erected. The esotericist will always associate the meaning that has been attached to them.

The seven images that adorn the hall are symbolic expressions of very specific ancient wisdoms. They represent the so-called seven seals of ancient and ever-new wisdom. The Apocalypse of John also talks about it, and this apocalypse is also a kind of interpretation of an occult sign language. Those who study it will recognize these very seals in the visions of the writer of the Apocalypse.

Every letter, every color of the images means something. If we look at things in the right way and sense the context, then very specific feelings are triggered that can become the creators of inner strength. The point is that we are not dealing here with leather allegories, but with a living expression of what anyone [initiate] can experience as real facts on the astral plane.

The first picture is the man with the fire sword in his mouth. This sword – and this one move is crucial – is connected with a secret of development. Speech has always been compared to the sword. But this is not just a poetic image. In occultism, everything is to be taken literally. One must only understand it.

There is a certain mysterious connection between what lives in our language, what expresses itself through our larynx in our words, and today's lower human drives of reproduction. The human form is undergoing transformation. Some can already see on the astral plane today what will be physically available in the future. In such a picture, the seer sees a state that man will one day reach, as in the first of the seven. This picture is an astral one today. It expresses a state of evolution of the physical human body in the future.

If we want to imagine this state, we have to think of it in this way: through his present, lower reproductive power, man exercises a production in the involuntary and unconscious. Through the reproductive instinct he can bring forth forms filled with matter. Now there is another power in man that does not yet enable him to produce lasting forms: that is the power of his speech. By speaking here, I also produce something. If you follow what is happening in this room while I speak, you can follow oscillating air waves. These are nothing other than words set in motion: movement. In the distant past, such words set in motion were also what is expressed today in the reproductive life. What is condensed today was, when it was still spirit, a word set in motion. What man today can only do out of his word as movement will later become truly reproductive power. Imagine you were able to freeze my words in a moment, so that the solidified air waves would fall down. You would find a special form for each word: a different one for “and” than for “God” ; a shell shape, for all I care. When I say “God”, other forms would be there than when I say “and”. Occultism shows us that everything around us in the form of physical objects has really come into being in this way. The spirit of the Logos resounded into space and matter took shape; the rest is a process of solidification. What is around us today are formed words, condensed divine word. The forces within us are condensed divine forces. What was once created through the word is now being transformed into natural forms. Thus, in the course of evolution, the human larynx will become a reptile-reproducing organ. We will not only be able to create movements, but the larynx will become the true reproductive organ. What is language today will become the creator of its own kind. The larynx is the future organ of reproduction, elevated to spirituality; hence, in man, the parallel in sexual development and laryngeal development can already be seen. The transformation of the voice at sexual maturity points to the creative power that will one day develop from the human voice. The true power of reproduction will arise from speech, the conscious power of human beings to bring forth. And just as you know that we give the name fire spirits to the spirits who were our ancestors because they were related to fire as we are to air, so we will develop from an air spirit to a fire spirit again as we ascend. Not only will the one power flow from the larynx, but also the power of the fire spirits.

You can see this expressed in the first picture, in the fiery sword of the one who represents the eternal essence of man that continues through all incarnations. This eternal element in man is at the same time the divine creator. It is true that what passes through our incarnations as our eternal essence is of the same nature as that which created the sevenfold planetary series. Therefore, the man in his right hand holds the symbols of the seven planets.

The second picture shows the so-called apocalyptic animals: the lion, eagle, bull and human. We get an idea of them when we remember that the animal today does not have an ego soul like we do. The animal does not have its ego soul on the physical plane; the individual animal relates to the ego of a group like a limb of the human being relates to the whole ego. Therefore, we speak of group souls in animals, and if you investigate these group souls, you will find them on the astral plane. Now everyone will realize that man, in his evolution, has also gone through conditions where that which was on the physical plane did not yet have the I-soul. Man also went through conditions where he had a group soul. At the same time — which is called the Lemurian Age — that the soul descended into physical corporeality, the group soul transformed into the individual soul. In the distant future, man will again rise to the state of the group soul, only consciously, in a higher sense. The symbol for that higher group soul is the second picture. The unity in the distant future is represented by the outer forms of those group souls that humanity had in the past. These group souls, from which the human individual soul has emerged and to which it will return, are divided into four typical groups. These are four real astral groups. One is characterized by the group soul as it is still embodied today in rudiments of the soul of Taurus; the other as it develops in the soul of Leo; the third as in the soul of the bird; but the soul that elevated man, allowed him to enter into individuality, is called the human being. Man emerged from these four group souls and into them he will return. The group soul that is the most advanced, which is already individualized on the astral plane as a human soul, we see in the middle of the symbol. It is the Christ-soul, symbolized by the lamb. It complements the four other group souls.

Then you see here in the rainbow, which surrounds the whole in the seven colors, the creative world principle in a second form. It is the sevenfold creative principle that effectively underlay the inner, human path of evolution when man was still at that stage. And regarding the numbers I to XII, which can be read like the numbers on a clock on the colors of the rainbow, we must remember that the earth, moon and sun were once one body.

This unity is connected with conditions as shown here. This form of cosmic order was necessary for man to be a group soul. Our present time division is connected with the position of the world bodies. In that very distant past, when there was not yet an earth revolving around the sun, all time relationships must have been different. In those days there was no day and hour. The sun itself made its way, and there was a great cosmic clock face. This represented the places the sun passed through. The hour hand on our clocks passes the clock twice a day; so in that ancient cosmic calendar, the sun did not pass through the zodiac once, but twice, through a period of brightness and darkness. This double passage, this double passing through these stations, is called passing by the elder brothers of the cosmic order. They are the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse. Hence a kind of world clock is arranged.

If we look at the distant future, you will see cosmic, future states expressed in the sixth picture, where man will have risen again in his outer form; we see that the earth and sun will be united and what is eliminated will be eliminated as a moon body. Remember that Goethe calls the highest thing the soul can strive for the eternal feminine. What overcomes the unusable substances in human nature is called feminine. When the earth has united with the sun, then man himself will be the sun-woman; man will have created the union. The unusable substance is represented as the moon, which is trampled underfoot. What must come out when the earth becomes the sun again is represented by the dragon. It will be overcome when the earth becomes the sun again.

The third image shows an open book, surrounded by bowls and angels blowing trumpets, surrounded by flowing light and colors.

The trumpeting angels express the harmony of the spheres. When one ascends from the astral plane to the devachan plane, one experiences the floating world of light and color of the astral plane being permeated by the harmony of the spheres. That which can be seen within the astral plane as floating light and color begins to resound, revealing itself as an expression of the essence of the mental plane. The Pythagorean school called this harmony the music of the spheres. Goethe also speaks of it when he says: “The sun sounds according to ancient ways...” and “The new day is already born sounding for spiritual ears!”

The bowls signify the so-called bowls of wrath, that is to say that the human being will have attained the spirit when he has overcome and transformed what is called wrath. All that is wrathful must be cast out; therefore the bowls of wrath are poured out.

The book is not intended to imply anything other than that man himself, in his development, if we know how to solve his secrets correctly, represents an image of the eternal evolution of the world. When he recognizes this, that man is an image of the evolution of the world, then he can read himself, he has become a book to himself. Then the moment will arrive of which it says in the Apocalypse that John must devour the book. This is explained in more detail in the next seal.

The two columns of the fourth picture represent the devouring red and blue blood tree. The cloud is the present-day air, which the larynx only controls. From this, the productive power of man, which creates into the solid, will arise in the future. Above the two blood columns, the initiated human being who has devoured the book will emerge. And man generates within himself the power that will transform the earth into the sun. This power is characterized in the face that is born out of the sun. When man has reached this stage, his vision is a vision into the astral world. This is indicated to you in the rainbow above the face of the sun. This rainbow indicates the power that man will have acquired when he himself becomes a cosmic creator being.

In the fifth picture we have a being that conquers the dragon. This is the future human being who will have completely subdued what is called the lower self. This is connected with cosmic conditions that arise when what is called Kama is trampled underfoot.

The state that will occur when this has happened is symbolized in the Holy Grail of the narrated image. The transparent cube below represents a transparent diamond cube made of pure carbon. When man has progressed to the point where he uses carbon itself to build his body - without the help of plants - he will create the cube. This cube of crystallized pure carbon is the best indication of the future state of man. Man will have progressed so far that he will not only recognize the three dimensions, but also the oncoming contra-dimensions: hence the three other dimensions meet the three in the mirror image. These counter-dimensions represent what man will one day achieve when he has overcome the physical in spirit. The serpents signify the upward development to the higher. This is indicated in the seal in violet-bluish coils as a luminous image. This luminous image of the serpent signifies the devoted nature of knowledge. Only this devoted nature can grasp the world spiral in the Caduceus, which will then be fiery, which winds itself out of pure knowledge. Then it transforms into the downward-pointing pure chalice. The chalice of the plant is today directed upwards, pure and chaste; in man it is the other way round. But the human chalice will again be chaste and will turn downwards - that is why the Grail is represented here as a chalice turned downwards. The pure man, the man who has become innocent, is represented by the dove. The rainbow indicates the sevenfold creative man.

Thus the entire evolution of humanity is indicated in the seven seals. Contemplation of such images is intended to evoke the feelings that we must gain and that themselves represent effective evolutionary moments.

The program book is inscribed with the signature of the Rosicrucian school: E.D.N. I.C.M. P.S.S.R. This means:

Ex deo nascimur
In Christo morimur
Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.

The seven seals express the secrets of initiation; in the seven pillars, they are expressed in planetary terms. These pillars support the heavens, that is to say, all evolution. The capitals have their own specific meaning in all their individual features. If you feel vividly how the upper part slopes towards the lower, feelings are triggered in you that give an account of the currents in the respective states of these world bodies. The motifs of the first column have simple inclinations and curvatures. Contemplation of them evokes a feeling of the currents that permeated the Earth when it was embodied in its first state, which is called the Saturn state. That is why this is the Saturn pillar.

When you feel the progression of the motifs when looking at the second column – the lower part is structured like the ovary of a plant, and from above it is structured in such a way that it can become a calyx – feelings are triggered in you that correspond to the currents that flowed through the earth when it was in the sun state. That is why we speak here of the sun column. And so it is with the consideration of the third, fourth and further pillars. When one passes from one to the other, different currents of feeling develop again and again.

The first half of the evolution of the earth has its special peculiarity from the influence of Mars. Now, in the second half, it is under the influence of the power that the occultist sees emanating from Mercury. The evolution of the earth is therefore divided into the two halves of Mars and Mercury. If we now omit the volcanic state as a kind of octave of the Saturn state, the following series of states in the evolution of the earth emerges: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus.

In the Mercury column, the Saturn motif is interwoven with the Mercury motif. The snake staff emerges organically from what has gone before. It develops further. And as we delve into the motifs of the other capitals, we sense the earth currents that arise from further development. In the last one, we have the goblet shape again.

The secret of the seven planetary states of our earth has been incorporated into the names of the seven days of the week. They are: Saturday, Samedi, Samstag; Sunday; Monday, Monday; Martian Day: Mardi or Ziu, Tuesday; Mercury Day: Mercredi (Wednesday is a profane name); Jupiter Day: Jeudi, Thor, Donar, Thursday; Venus Day: Vendredi, Freya, Friday. The names of the days of the week are deeply symbolic. In their succession, we see something by which the initiates wanted to say: Remember that you have been placed in the living evolution of time. This is how the highest teaches us to understand the very nearest, that which is in our immediate surroundings.

The idea of the evolution of humanity was to be hinted at in the pillars. It is expressed as it has always been expressed in occult symbolism. The sites of occultism were symbolically structured and designed. One should see what lives in the soul in form, in image, in color. What lives in the soul should shine out to us from the outside, then one has worked in the sense of world evolution. Above all, it is our task to think selflessly about this great evolution. It will be fulfilled when we allow the inner life to flow into the outer life completely.

The Munich Congress, the fourth – after Amsterdam, London and Paris – should in a certain respect be a stage in the development of our Theosophical movement. It will create a kind of connection between the different nations, also in relation to our Theosophical cause within Europe. I do not want to give a proper report of the congress today, but just a few remarks for those who could not attend.

It should show one thing that I have emphasized over and over again with regard to our Theosophical cause – it should show that Theosophy should not be just a matter of personal brooding and introspection. The Theosophical cause should intervene in practical life, should be a matter of education, a matter of becoming immersed in all branches of practical existence. Only those who have a deeper understanding and a deeper concept of the actual impulses of the theosophical cause already know today what possibilities this 'theosophy will offer in the future. It will be the harmony between what we see and look at and inwardly feel. For those who can see more deeply, an important reason for the distraction of people lies in the disharmony between what is and what Theosophy wants. Not only Theosophists have felt this, but also other important natures, such as Richard Wagner.

In earlier times, every door lock, every house, every structure was a structure of the soul. Soul substance had flowed into it. In ancient times, the work of art belonged to human feeling and thinking. The forms of Gothic churches were in ancient times corresponding to the mood of those who made the pilgrimage to the Kitchen. They were the expression of their own spiritual mood. Those who made a pilgrimage to the church felt at that time that the forms were like the folding of hands, just as the ancient Teuton felt in the folding of the trees a folding of hands. In those times, everything was more familiar to people. You can still see this wonderfully expressed in Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. The gathering of the entire village around the church was nothing more than an expression of the life of its soul. The whole ether currents gathered at the place where the church stood. The materialistic age has cleft all that. Those who cannot contemplate life do not know that. But the seer knows that today, when you walk through a city, there is almost nothing to see but things that concern the stomach or the obsession with cleanliness. He who can follow the secret threads of life also knows what materialistic culture has brought to this cleft. A recovery of the outside world can arise from the fact that it becomes an expression of what our most inner soul moods are. One cannot immediately reach for the most perfect, but an example of this was given in Munich. The theosophical world view was expressed in the room. There was nothing but theosophy to be seen. The whole hall was decorated in red. There is often a great misunderstanding about the color red, but the red could not be mistaken in its deeper meaning.

The development of humanity is a process of ascent and descent. Look at the original peoples. They live in a natural environment of green. And what do they love most? Red. The occultist knows that red has a special effect on the healthy soul. It releases the active forces in the healthy soul, those forces that inspire action, those forces that are to move the soul from the comfort into the discomfort of doing. A room with a festive atmosphere must be papered in red. Anyone who papers a living room in red shows that they no longer know what a festive atmosphere is and profane the red color. Goethe has said the most beautiful words about such things: “The effect of this color is as unique as its nature. It gives an impression of both seriousness and dignity as well as of grace and charm. It does this in its dark, condensed state, and in its light, diluted state. And so the dignity of age and the loveliness of youth can be clothed in one color.”

These are the moods that are triggered by red; moods that can be proven in an occult way. Look at the landscape through a red glass and you get the impression: this is how it must look on Judgment Day. Red makes you happy about what man has achieved in his further development. Red is an enemy of retarding moods, of sinful moods.

Then there were seven column motifs for the time when a building could also be built for Theosophy. The motifs of the columns are taken from the teachings of the initiates, from ancient times. Theosophy will have the opportunity to give architecture truly new column motifs. The old columns have actually no longer meant anything to people for a long time. The new ones relate to Saturn, the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus. The laws were expressed in the capitals. Between the columns we had placed the seven apocalyptic seals in the Rosicrucian manner. The Grail seal has been revealed to the public for the first time.

Theosophy can also be built: it can be built in architectonics, in education and in the social question. The principle of Rosicrucianism is to introduce the spirit into the world, to do fruitful work for the soul. We will also succeed in elevating art to a mystery art, for which Richard Wagner had such a great longing. An attempt has been made in Edouard Schuré's mystery drama. Here Edouard Schur has tried to recreate the Greek mystery plays.

The program showed the festive color red and bore a black cross with roses entwined in the blue field. Rosicrucianism carries forward into the future what Christianity has given. The initials on the program reflect the basic ideas.

The underlying intention was to crystallize theosophy in the construction of the world.

The subject of our study today will appear at first comparatively remote; nevertheless, these things can interest us in a certain sense even for our everyday life. The motif of today's lecture will be what is called by a name borrowed from ancient times; namely, Chaos. What this word really refers to lies even beyond what we understand as Heaven. Not only the wonderful old Grecian myth speaks of Chaos when it says that the most ancient Gods were born out of the Chaos; the legends and myths of other nations, too, are acquainted with this Chaos, albeit under a different name. In the Norse Saga we find it designated as Ginnungagap, the Yawning Abyss, from which there arises on the one hand the cold Niflheim, and on the other hand, the hot Muspelheim. The beginning of the Bible also refers to it in the words: “In the Beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth; and the Earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the waters. Then there resounded the Word of the Godhead: “May Light become.” And it became light. And the Godhead perceived the Light and perceived that it was beautiful, and severed the World of Light from the World of Darkness.”

“The earth was without form and void”—these are only other words for the Chaos out of which the highest Spiritual Beings are born. What is the Chaos? With these old words for very lofty concepts things have taken a strange course in human evolution. For a long time past men have lost the right feeling and right conception of them; they no longer know what was meant when such words were said. The materialistic age scarcely has words any more to truly characterize what underlies such concepts as of Chaos. Indeed, many words have assumed quite a different meaning. Formerly it was different; the word corresponded to the spiritual meaning of the object; that is to say, to the concept. Our words today have been divided and distributed, so to speak, into so many materialistic meanings, referring, as they do, to the outer and material objects. They are no longer applied to the spiritual meaning. Whoever hears a word today applies it to what it represents in the sense world, and no longer thinks of relating it to the Spiritual World. Among the manifold reasons for the founding of this spiritual movement is one that is connected with the transmutation of the word. If this spiritual movement, this spiritual stream, did not find entry into the world before the end of this century, such a movement would probably be quite impossible in a hundred years' time. We have just been able to catch at the favourable conditions. Why so? In a hundred years' time it would be no longer possible at all to express in the words of ordinary language the ideas of super-sensible facts in their true nature. We should no longer understand them, for the words are more and more assuming the character where they can only be applied to material things and conditions. So it would gradually have come about that people would no longer understand the spiritual teachings at all, because everything would at once be applied to the material world. Spiritual knowledge must bring about an actual renewal of language. The words must be given a new stamp; new values must be lent to the words once more. Men must once more gain the feeling that there is something inherent in these words, that certain words intend something that points to higher worlds. It is the task of this spiritual movement to carry up into the higher worlds not only deeds, but words. In former ages this was done; and we must try to find again the feelings of those human beings who were far more directed to the non-material ideas—far more attracted to the Spiritual World than the feelings of our time.

It is very interesting to take up an old book and enter into it, and transplant one's feelings into such an ancient work, and read out of it the spirit of the author. Take, for instance, the Physica by Amos Comenius, who lived from 1592–1671. His Physica are physics of which the man of today will not be able to make very much in his way of thinking. He speaks of physical things, yet always referring to the spiritual background of spiritual forces and beings. Many things are described in this book, which were objects of real knowledge at that time. Comenius, the great educationist and thinker of the 17th Century, not only comprised all the knowledge of his time, but developed deep and original thoughts of his own on men and events, and discovered deep spiritual relationships. He is a remarkable and very strange personality.

In the 14th and 15th centuries there were quite a number of such people. In that time the Rosicrucian Order was founded; it guarded and preserved the occult secrets in their form for the New Age. Originally it consisted of seven members only. Down to our own times it has secretly carried on and handed on the great occult teachings. No one in the outer world ever discovered anything about Rosicrucians—no one who was not a Rosicrucian himself; no one could write about it. Whatever has been published on it is either quite unreliable, or if correct, came out of betrayal. Only today has the time come when something of the teachings of the Rosicrucians can be published and can be communicated to the world in general. But there are, and there were in those times, many ways and means of letting such spiritual movements flow into the general life of culture. It was, for instance, through such an influence, from a secret Rosicrucian stream, that Lessing said at the conclusion of his essay, The Education of the Human Race, that man is born again and again in the world: “Is not the whole of Eternity mine?” For one who knows, this is a sign that something of the Rosicrucian Movement worked upon Lessing, albeit in a way of which he himself remained unconscious, when he wrote these words on reincarnation. There are, in fact, many ways and means whereby this influence was poured out on men without their even knowing it. Nor does it matter if the work that is done, the influence that is wielded, is or is not attached to a name. Nowadays lawsuits are enacted against the stealing of thoughts, of the spiritual property of others. Lawsuits against plagiarism were never instituted by the Rosicrucians. They did not mind what the personal source was from which such things went out; the main thing was that they came into the world. It is a vicious custom of our time to institute legal proceedings against the stealing of thoughts.

Amos Comenius, the great educationalist, was among those who possessed higher knowledge as a result of a high spiritual development, and who, in consequence of the Rosicrucians, raised himself into the higher worlds by a strong and energetic will. It is very useful for mankind to enter into the thoughts of Comenius. Likewise it is useful to enter deeply into the thoughts of John van Helmont, a contemporary of Amos Comenius, who was also a Rosicrucian.

We all of us are familiar with the word which many people believe to be very old—the word ‘gas’. Many people today are only familiar with it as the gas we use for lighting. But we know from Physics that most substances can be transformed into gas. Without further thought one might imagine that the word was as old as any other. Gas and ‘gaseous’ were unknown concepts before the time of Comenius and Helmont. Helmont was the first; he invented the word ‘gas’. It was in 1615 that he wrote the work in which this word first occurs.

When one uses a new word, one must have some definite occasion to do so. Helmont was the first to give to mankind the idea, the concept of a gas which is current today. What occasion had he for the concept of a gas? When you heat water, and cause it to evaporate, water vapour or steam arises in the first place. Steam is not yet a gas; it is something you can still see with your eyes. It is the same substance which was formerly there in the water, divided there into finer particles. You can divide the great majority of substances into vapour. But you can heat them still further. By further heating you can get a condition where the substance is no longer visible; it passes over into quite another form. This new condition, the vapourous state in a higher form of development, is what we call the gaseous state; it is a vapourous condition at a higher level of temperature. Helmont, who was also a Rosicrucian, worked like Comenius, and with similar results. Before the Rosicrucians Helmont and Comenius, the gaseous state was unknown in this form. It was in the case of carbonic acid gas that Helmont first realized the nature of the gas. Helmont came to the idea that among the states of substance there is also the gaseous state, and in his work Ortus Medicinale we find the following sentence: “This spirit which was hitherto unknown, I will name with a new name: ‘Gas’.” We can learn a great deal from this sentence. Helmont calls what he describes as gas, “Spiritum”; that is, a Spirit. That is to say, the transparent substance he has constituted is for him the instrument for a spiritual being. He sees in it the expression for a spiritual being, and he calls this Spirit by a new name: Gas. He was well aware that when the gas was cooled, strange, cloud-like phenomena appeared. The gas became vapourous and watery again. To him the gas was a transparent and clear foundation from out of which something more dense and condensed arises. To him the gas was a parable in the sense of Goethe's saying: “Everything transient is but a parable.” Hence we can understand how much Van Helmont recognized in the process wherein a gas is cooled and condensed. Miniature worlds went forth from the gas, for Helmont. A human being who could feel in this way could also say: This unknown Spirit, I name “Gas.’ In contemplating this world he said to himself: How did all this that is here, originally come to be? Originally it arose from something that one cannot see, from out of which, however, as from a gas, the Universe was formed. Once upon a time, the whole Universe was Spiritum, purely spiritual. As the clouds of misty vapour are formed out of the gas, so out of the transparent, radiant, unclouded infinity of the Spiritual, all things that now exist emerged.

Already in primeval times and among primitive peoples we find good parables and comparisons for that which we have just described. Primitive peoples sometimes see even the material world still in a spiritual way. In the breath that flows from the mouth, that turns to steamy vapour by contact with the outer air, they see something arising out of the soul's nature, and condensing. This was regarded as a parable of the origin of the world out of the Spirit. The breath, for them, came from the inner being, from the soul; thus the whole world to them was the result of the outbreathing of the Godhead. This ancient idea contains quite another concept of Spirit than man has today. Space, to them, was not a great infinite void in which there is absolutely nothing, as it is to the man of today. For those who stood on the ground of Occult Science, space was the all-spreading spirit whose parable they saw in the unclouded gas. In it they saw the source from out of which all seeds of things are created, and spring forth through the Word of the original Divine Spirit. Not endless emptiness is space; space is originally Spirit. We are ourselves condensed space, for space is Spirit. If all things were dissolved again, seemingly there would be an endless void around us; but this apparent void would contain all things that have ever been. It is no empty nothingness. The visible world is space condensed. This was clear to Helmont, too; he knew the world foundation, the world origin, from out of which all beings are condensed. Van Helmont had this thought: the gas is very thin, transparent; the light goes through. You do not even divine its existence. But in relation to the world origin, even the gas is a condensation. Nevertheless, one can understand, one can conceive the cosmic origin thereof. You can gain an idea of the Spiritual if you imagine that the gas is itself a vapour of the Spirit, just as the steam is vapour of the gas. With this conception in his soul, Van Helmont said: “I have described this vapour by the name ‘gas;’ it is not far removed from the Chaos of the ancients. Helmont coined the word ‘gas’ from the word ‘chaos.’ It is an extremely interesting connection in the world order. We are thus led by Helmont to a living conception of space, not empty and infertile like the concept of space for the man of today, but a concept of space appearing infinitely fertile, bearing countless seeds. The infinitude that is spread out is the seed from out of which we issue. Everything that is in the world is space condensed; it is the infinite Spirit who shows Himself to us in place of a mere empty space.

When we transplant ourselves into the condition of space (when space was still altogether spiritual) and we trace its condensation out of the laws of this space itself, then we shall clearly feel the beautiful words of the Bible: “In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth, and the Earth was without form and void, and the Spirit of the Godhead brooded and weaved over the depths.”

Imagine how originally the pure, spiritual transparent space was there. What happened in this pure transparent space? In this same space is also the extended gaseous air. As the thoughts that rise from our soul, when they are spoken in the word, bring the air around us into vibration, and every word shapes itself into forms in the air, quite silently and unseen by us, so did the Spirit of God hover over the waters. Into the waters the creating words of the Godhead were spoken. Now let us imagine the empty widespread cosmic space; fertile, rich in seeds, and resounding into it, the Word of the Godhead, working formatively into this space. Then we hear the words of the Bible. This Chaos, this cloud mist of the earth that was emerging was still waste and void: and the Spirit of the Godhead worked and wove, brooding thereover. First was the Spiritual World; then the Chaos revealed to begin with, in a kind of cloudiness, all that was to become. So do we recognize the depths of the religious documents. Human beings must gradually regain the feelings with which we understand such things.

But the Chaos works not only in the beginning of world evolution; it works on and on; it is present even today. Just as around us are the harmonies of the spheres, the harmonious heaven, so all around us is the Chaos, all things are permeated by it. It was the first and original foundation. Then it became cloudy; the seeds were formed; the shapes and forms arise; worlds were formed out of the Chaos. But just as when a gaseous mass condenses, something remains behind that works on between the single condensing particles, so likewise of the original Spirit something remained behind. And so the Chaos works on and lives on, along with the world. Everything is still permeated by the Chaos—every stone, every plant, every animal is permeated by the Chaos. Our soul and our Spirit are permeated with the Chaos. Such as he here is, the soul and the Spirit of man also partake in the Chaos.

This Chaos is at the same time the essential reason of the constant and ever-present fertility in nature. Let us take a simple example: the working of Chaos appears wherever animal excrements occur. The New Year's crop springs from the ploughed land, after manure has been put into it—manure which lends the land fertility and causes the crop to spring and thrive. What has happened in such a case? What was the manure, to begin with? The manure, too, was perhaps at one time a beautiful, marvelously-formed plant, an entity in the world that had also once been formed out of the Chaos. Then it served as nourishment for the animals, and the useless substances were excreted again. Now the manure mingles with the soil; it is a return of beings into Chaos. Chaos is working in manure, in all that is cast out; and unless, at some time or other, you mingle Chaos with the Cosmos, further evolution is never possible. The process we here have before us on its lowest level will enable us to rise to an understanding of the word ‘chaos’ with respect to higher realms. Cosmos cannot work alone. Everything in the Cosmos has grown from causes, from things that went before—not only all physical things, but intellectual and moral teachings, too, arise from causes that were planted once before.

It is Cosmos when a Goethe, a Schiller, a Lessing have done their work. When a schoolmaster comes and assimilates and passes on all the beautiful things that are found in the works of these great men, he can only do so because the causes are already there for him. But with the man of genius it is not so; he works out of the Chaos. New impulses, new entries into evolution, new concepts arise and begin to take effect. Genius is like a fresh spark; it is out of the ordinary just because a union there takes place between the Cosmos and the Chaos; thereby a new thing arises not connected with the laws of evolution that come from olden time. It enters in from other worlds like a Divine spark. Genius is the marriage of the past with the present, of the Cosmos with the Chaos. Hence the peculiar feeling and influence which the occult pupils of olden times experienced when the name ‘Chaos’ was spoken. It is only felt as merely waste and void by those human beings who stand entirely on the ground of what is working from the past. But something new must arise out of the Chaos; there must be a union with something new to work in this spiritual movement. This movement has arisen because mankind needs to be fertilized with a fresh spiritual seed; and we must realize that it is not a question here of carrying on and merely evolving existing things and past things, but that entirely new seeds must spring forth from the Chaos. He who would understand this movement must understand that in this movement we cannot work out of the Cosmos of our worthy forebears, but that new things must come into the world as if out of the Chaos. Thereby humanity is spiritually fertilized. Spiritual Science realizes concepts and ideas that are not taken from the past, as when the geologist, for instance, derives his knowledge from the past of our earth. For Spiritual Science the future form is the important thing. There are laws of the future that must flow out of the Chaos into the Cosmos. It is important for man to receive into himself ideas, feelings and impulses of will, taken directly from that form which the Spirit had, before it took shape out of the Chaos. Such ideas out of the Chaos, taken from the higher worlds, are the signs and symbols. Such symbols and signs were intended to be given to us among those things that underlie all occult science, all imaginative knowledge. In the Cosmos that is about to become, there are the Spiritual Beings. Out of the Chaos they work in upon the human soul in new impulses; new condensations arise and take effect.

That which is presented in the Seven Seals is not yet in the Cosmos, but it is in the Chaos. Out of the Chaos they work upon the human soul. If they work in the right way, then the Chaos works livingly, and leads the human being into worlds that lie beyond the Cosmos. This is what it means when the human being has recourse to such pictures. We feel the overwhelming influence of the Chaos that contains the seed of all things, when we let these things work upon us. Thus we can see how comprehensive the idea of Chaos is for anyone who understands it in the right way. It is the Chaos from out of which the physical arises. Whether it be the Greek Philosophy or the Bible, or the Indian Philosophy of the A-Chaos, the Akasha—all this shall remind us that that which was in the Beginning works throughout all time. To him who is bound to the sense world, the Chaos appears waste and void. But he who penetrates it in a spiritual sense can hear the harmonies of the spheres resounding through it. Today it is still possible for single human beings to get a feeling for some of these words that come from the spiritual world. Hence it is the time to speak of these things.

... What we were also responsible for in international terms was the holding of the Munich Congress. You were able to get an idea of our intentions from the design of the congress hall, the images of the seals and columns with which the hall was decorated, and the nature of the entire program. The intention was to make a start, to allow Theosophy to be more than just a collection of abstract dogmas, but to give it influence over the life that surrounds us. No one can be under the illusion that the way in which we have succeeded in harmonizing the entire organization of the congress was more than a weak beginning compared to what lives as Theosophical thought. But everything has to start somewhere. If the German Section has only shown what intentions could prevail at such a congress, shown how the life that lives in the soul can also be expressed in form, in art and in being together, then the German Section has done what it was able to contribute on this particular occasion. From such inspiration, the strength can arise that will gradually make it possible for the Theosophical Society to be not just a place for spreading these or those dogmas, but to intervene deeply in the whole life of the human being.

What also needs to be mentioned is the fact that the budgeted expenditure for the congress, which amounted to 4,500 marks, has been greatly exceeded. The congress has become all the more beautiful as a result. It is deeply gratifying to note that on this occasion in particular there has been such a spirit of understanding, especially in the German Section. We needed a lot of money; but it has been shown that where it matters to sustain the Theosophical life, there is also understanding and a willingness to make sacrifices. Therefore, there is no deficit to report.

No less emphasis should be placed on the deeply satisfying fact that those who were able to have worked in an incredibly dedicated manner. Everything that had to be done was done by our dear friends in Munich in a way that was not only dedicated but also thoroughly understanding, so that what is called Theosophical unity and harmony was most beautifully realized in this work. There was no one who was not willing to do the most demanding spiritual work alongside the most menial work, which is necessary at such a congress. People who had never done such work in their entire lives carried large items that were intended for this or that purpose; others hammered, others painted large columns; in short, it was all dedicated work. Donations ranging from the thousand-mark note to the ten-pfennig piece were collected. The administration, which had been taken over from Munich, was prudent in everything except the work that showed how real achievement, real cooperation, harmonizes people. We brought it to the point where the deeply satisfying performance of the Mystery Drama of Eleusis could take place. If you could realize what had to be done to make it happen, from the translation from the French to the sandals on the feet of the actors, who were all members and had to undergo weeks of rehearsals; if you knew how it all went , how beautifully and harmoniously everything went, how the work was carried by the common idea and the devotion of the feeling, then you could appreciate the practical value that arises when a common bond of work embraces everyone. Just as the plant harmoniously strives towards the sun, so people become harmonious when they are ruled by the same feelings.

We have the good spirit of this corps of contributors to our Munich Congress to thank for the fact that everything has turned out as it has. The spirit of harmony really did live in the Munich working group during all these preparations, and in this respect it could, to a certain extent, serve as a model for the way in which people in the Theosophical Society can work together and collaborate in general. It is to be hoped that this somewhat different way of working, which the German Section has been trying to achieve for five years, will not only be recognized in the International Theosophical Society, but will also have a somewhat fruitful effect. The International Theosophical Society can only flourish if each section contributes its share on the altar of joint, theosophical international activity.

It hardly needs saying that the most heartfelt thanks of the German Section of the Theosophical Society go to Fdonard Schure, the author of the mystery drama. However, it should be emphasized that we are deeply indebted to Bernhard Stavenhagen, the famous pianist and sensitive composer, who, in the midst of his busy and demanding workload, took it upon himself to provide the musical part of the dramatic performance at my request. The deep impression that this composition made on all those present will remain in their memories. The beautiful harmony between the musical creation and the mystery was felt by everyone.

An Introduction to the Portfolio with Fourteen Images

The fourteen plates presented here are reproductions of the “seals and symbols” used to line the interior of the building where the Congress of the “Federation of European Sections of the Theosophical Society” took place on May 18, 19, 20 and 21, 1907 (in Munich). They are not arbitrary “symbols” that can be interpreted rationally, but spiritual-scientific “characters” that must be taken as befits true spiritual science. These do not invent such “signs” out of their own minds or arbitrary imagination, but only reflect in them what is really present as a vision to the spiritual perception in the supersensible worlds. No speculation, no intellectual explanation, however ingenious, is appropriate in the presence of such signs, because they are not invented, but merely provide a description of what the so-called “seer” perceives in the invisible worlds. The signs reproduced here are a description of experiences in the “astral” and “spiritual” (devachanic) worlds. The “seals” of the first seven tablets represent such real facts of the astral world and the seven “columns” represent similar facts of the spiritual world. However, while the seals directly reflect the experiences of “spiritual vision”, this is not the case with the seven columns. For the perceptions of the spiritual world cannot be compared to “seeing”, but rather to “spiritual hearing”. In this, it must be borne in mind that one should not think of it as too similar to “hearing” in the physical world, for although it can be compared to it, it is nevertheless very unlike it. The experiences of this spiritual hearing can only be expressed in an image if they are translated from “sounding” into form. This has been done with these “columns”, but their essence can only be understood if the forms are thought of as plastic (not painterly).

In the sense of spiritual science, the causes of the things of the physical world are to be found in the supersensible, invisible. What manifests itself physically has its archetypes in the astral world and its spiritual primal forces (primal sounds) in the spiritual world. The seven seals give the astral archetypes of human development on earth in the sense of spiritual science. When the “seer” on the “astral plane” follows this development into the distant past and distant future, it presents itself to him in the given seven seal images. He has nothing to invent, but merely to understand the facts he perceives spiritually.

SEAL I comprehensively represents the entire evolution of man on earth. This seal, as well as other seals in the series, can also be found, in a sense, described in the “Revelation of St. John” (Apocalypse). For anyone who is able to understand this writing in a spiritual-scientific sense sees in it nothing other than the description given in words of what the “seer” perceives in an archetypal way as the development of humanity on the astral plane. Thus, such a person also understands the first words of this writing, which (approximately correctly rendered) read as follows: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God has offered him to illustrate to his servants how the necessary events will shortly take place; this is sent in ‘signs’ by God's angel to his servant John. He has expressed the 'Word' of God and its revelation through Jesus Christ in the way he saw it.” The ‘signs’ that he saw have been depicted by the recorder of the ‘secret revelation.’ — One can see that the following seals are in many ways similar to what is described in the Apocalypse, but not quite. For our pictures are based on a spiritual-scientific method which, although it is in harmony with all traditions, has been developed in its own form since the 14th century in those circles that have had the task of cultivating these things since that time, in accordance with the modern spiritual needs of humanity. Nevertheless, the description here, where it matters, is given with reference to the “Revelation of St. John”. It should be expressly noted that some of the seven seals have already been published in this or that work of modern times; but the initiate in such matters will be able to find that these other renderings differ in some respects from the form given here, which seeks to present the genuine spiritual-scientific basis.

The description of the first seal can be compared with that in the Apocalypse. “And I turned to hear the sound that came to me; and I saw seven golden lamps, and in the midst of the lamps the image of the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot and girded about the loins with a golden girdle. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. And his feet were like glowing coals of a fiery furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. And in his right hand were seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face in its brightness was like the shining sun.” In general images, the most comprehensive secrets of human development are pointed out. If one wanted to present in detail what the seer can see from these images, one would have to write a thick book. Only a few hints are made. Every sign, every form on the seal images is meaningful, and what is said here can only be a little of much. Among the organs and means of expression in the human being, there are some which, in their present form, represent the downward stages of development of earlier forms, and which have thus already passed their degree of perfection. Others, however, represent the initial stages of a development that moves in an ascending direction. Such members in the human being are still imperfect today and will have to fulfill completely different, higher tasks in the future. The organ of speech represents an organ that will be something much higher and more perfect in the future than it is at present, with all that belongs to it in a human being. In touching on this, one touches on a great secret of existence, which is also called the “mystery of the creative word”. This gives a hint of the future state of this organ, which will one day, when man has spiritualized, become a productive (creative) organ.

In myths and religious stories, this future spiritualized form of production is indicated by the appropriate image of a fiery “sword” coming out of the mouth. The first stages of man's development on earth took place at a time when the earth was still “fiery”; and it was out of the element of fire that the first human embodiments took shape; at the end of his earthly career, man himself will radiate his inner being creatively outwards through the power of the element of fire. This progressive evolution from the beginning to the end of the Earth is revealed to the “seer” when he beholds the archetype of the evolving human being on the astral plane, as depicted in the first seal. The beginning of the evolution of the earth is represented by the fiery feet, the end by the fiery countenance, and the complete power of the “creative word” to be attained last of all by the fiery sword that comes out of the mouth. During this process of development, the becoming of the human being and the powers that are thereby unfolded are successively influenced by forces that are expressed in the seven stars of the right. Thus, each line and each point in the picture represents something that is connected with the comprehensive developmental secret of the human being.

SEAL II represents one of the first developmental stages of humanity on earth, with everything that goes with it. In distant prehistoric times, the human being on earth did not yet have what is called an individual soul. In those days, what was present in him was what animals, which are still at an earlier stage of human development, still have today: the group soul. When, through imaginative clairvoyance, human group souls are traced on the astral plane in retrospect to prehistoric times, it becomes clear that the various forms of these can be traced back to four basic types. And these are represented in the four apocalyptic animals of the second seal: the lion, the bull, the eagle and that figure which also approaches the individual soul of the present man as the group soul and which is therefore also called: the “human being”. This touches on the truth of what is often so dryly allegorized in the four animals.

SEAL III represents the secrets of the so-called harmony of the spheres. Man experiences these secrets in the interim between death and a new birth (in the “spirit realm” or what is called “Devachan” in the common theosophical literature). However, it should be noted that all these seals only represent the experiences of the astral world. But other worlds than the astral world itself can be observed in it. Our physical world can be observed in its astral-plane counterparts. And the spiritual world can be seen in its after-images on this plane. Thus, the third seal represents the astral after-images of the “spirit world”. The angels blowing trumpets represent the spiritual primal beings of the world phenomena; the sounds of the trumpets themselves represent the forces that flow from these primal beings into the world and through which the beings and things are built and sustained in their becoming and working. The “apocalyptic riders” represent the main points of development through which an individual human being passes in the course of many embodiments, and which are represented on the astral plane by the riders on their horses: a horse shining white, expressing a very early stage of soul development; a horse of fiery color, pointing to the warlike ; a black horse, corresponding to that stage of the soul where only the outer physical perception of the soul is developed; and a green shimmering horse, the image of the mature soul, which has mastery over the body (hence the green color, which results as an expression of the life force working from the inside out).

SEAL IV represents, among other things, two columns, one rising from the sea and the other from the earth. These columns hint at the secret of the role played by red (oxygen-rich) blood and blue-red (carbon-rich) blood in human development. The human 'I' undergoes its development in the cycle of the earth by physically expressing its life in the interaction between red blood, without which there would be no life, and the blue blood, without which there would be no knowledge. Blue blood is the physical expression of the powers that give knowledge, but which in their human form are connected with death; and red blood is the expression of life, which in its human form could not give knowledge by itself. Both in their interaction represent the tree of knowledge and the tree of life, or also the two columns on which life and the knowledge of the ego develop further to that degree of perfection where man will become one with the universal earth forces. This latter state of the future is shown on the seal by the upper body, which consists of clouds, and by the face, which has appropriated the spiritual powers of the sun. Man will then no longer absorb “knowledge” from outside into himself, but will have “swallowed” it into himself, which is indicated in the book in the middle of the seal. Only through such “devouring” on a higher level of existence do the seven seals of the book open, as they are also indicated on Seal III. In the “Revelation of St. John” we find the significant words about this: “And I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it...”

SEAL V represents a higher stage of human development, which will occur when the earth has united with the sun again and man will no longer work merely with the forces of the earth, but with the forces of the sun. The “Woman who gives birth to the sun” refers to this future human being. Certain forces of a lower nature, which live in man and prevent him from fully developing his higher spirituality, will then have been expelled from him. These forces are represented in the seal, on the one hand, by the beast with the “seven heads and ten horns” and, on the other, by the moon at the feet of the solar man. For spiritual science, the moon is the center of certain lower forces that still work in the human being today and that the man of the future will subjugate.

SEAL SIX represents the purified human being, not only spiritualized but also having become strongly spiritual, who has not only overcome the lower forces but transformed them so that they are at his service in an improved form. This is expressed by the tamed “beast”. In the Book of Revelation we read: “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, who is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.”

SEAL VII is the reproduction of the “mystery of the Holy Grail”. It is the astral experience that reflects the universal meaning of human development. The cube represents the “space world”, which is not yet permeated by any physical being or physical event. For spiritual science, space is not just the “void”, but is the carrier that holds the seeds of all physicality in an as yet invisible way. Out of it, the whole physical world precipitates, as a salt precipitates out of a still completely transparent solution. And what, in relation to the human being, is formed out of the world of space, undergoes a development from the lower to the higher. Out of the three spatial dimensions, which are expressed in the cube, the lower human powers first develop, visualized by the two serpents that give birth to the purified higher spiritual nature, which is represented in the world spirals. Through the upward growth of these higher forces, the human being can become a recipient (chalice) for the reception of the pure spiritual world, expressed by the dove. Thus man becomes the ruler of the spiritual powers of the world, of which the rainbow is the image. This is only a very sketchy description of this seal, which contains within itself immeasurable depths that can reveal themselves to him who, in devoted meditation, allows it to take effect upon him. This seal is circumscribed by the truth saying of modern spiritual science: “Ex deo nascimur, in Christo morimur, per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus,” “From God I am born; in Christ I die; through the Holy Spirit I am reborn.” In this saying, the meaning of human development is fully indicated.

In the congress hall, one of the seven columns reproduced in the second series of pictures was placed between every two of these seals. As already indicated above, the capitals of these columns depict the experiences of the “seer” (which is actually no longer an appropriate name in this field) in the “spiritual world”. It is about the perception of the primal forces that exist in spiritual tones. The plastic forms of the capitals are translations of what the “seer” hears. But these forms are by no means arbitrary, but rather as they naturally arise when the “seeing man” allows the “spiritual music” (harmony of the spheres), which flows through his entire being, to act on the forming hand. The plastic forms here are truly a kind of “frozen music” that expresses the secrets of the world. That these forms appear as column capitals seems self-evident to anyone who understands the situation. The basis of the physical development of earthly beings lies in the spiritual world. From there it is “supported”. Now all development is based on a progression in seven stages. (The number seven should not be understood as the result of “superstition”, but as the expression of a spiritual law, just as the seven colors of the rainbow are the expression of a physical law.) The earth itself passes through seven states in its development, which are designated by the seven planetary names: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus. (For an understanding of this, see my “Occult Science” or the essays “From the Akasha Chronicle” in “Lucifer-Gnosis”. But it is not only a heavenly body that advances in its evolution; every evolution passes through seven stages, which, in the sense of modern spiritual science, are designated by the terms for the seven planetary conditions. The spiritual supporting forces of these conditions are reflected in the forms of the Capitals of the Columns in the manner described above. But we shall not arrive at a true understanding of this matter if we base our observation of the forms only on a rational explanation. We must look into the forms with a feeling and intuitive perception and let the capitals act on us as forms. If we fail to do this, we shall believe that we have before us only allegories or, at best, symbols. We shall then have misunderstood everything. The same motif runs through all seven captains: a force from above and one from below, which first strive towards each other, then, reaching each other, work together. These forces can be felt in their fullness and in their inner life and then the soul itself can experience how they expand, contract, embrace, devour, unlock and so on, in a lively, formative way. We will be able to feel this complication of forces, just as we feel the plant's “shaping” from its living forces, and we will be able to sense how the line of force first grows vertically upwards in the column, how it unfolds at the bottom in the plastic forms of the capitals, which open and unlock to the forces coming towards them from above, so that a meaningful capital becomes. First the power from below develops in the simplest way, and you strive just as simply towards the power from above (Saturn column);

He who can feel all that is expressed in these “columns” of world events feels the all-embracing laws of all being, which solve the riddles of life in a very different way from abstract “laws of nature”.

These pictures are intended to show how spiritual insight can take shape, come to life and be artistically expressed. Note that the pictures depict living forces of existence in the higher world; and these higher spiritual forces have a profound effect on the observer of the pictures. They act directly on forces that, corresponding to them, lie dormant in every human being. But their effect is only right if one looks at these pictures with the right inner soul disposition. Those who look at the pictures with theosophical mental images and theosophical feelings in their hearts will receive the most sacred from them. If you want to hang them anywhere or put them anywhere, where you will encounter them with everyday thoughts and feelings, you will feel an unfavorable effect, which can go as far as a bad influence on your physical life. You should act accordingly and only enter into a relationship with the pictures that is in harmony with a devotion to the spiritual worlds. Such pictures should serve as decoration for a room that serves a higher life; they should never be found or viewed in places where people's thoughts are not in harmony with them.

Description of the situation by Max Gümbel-Seiling

We were in the living room of the family home, which stood alone in the forest. There were about 24 people present. Rudolf Steiner stepped in front of the table, behind which we were standing, with the document he had written. First he explained the sign of the macrocosm, which he had drawn on it with simple lines. Around the six-pointed star formed by two intersecting triangles, two dragons closed, biting each other's tails. Above was a white, winged dragon, below a dried-up, dark one. On the right were the words, one above the other: “Above all as below,” and one read, starting from the left, going up: “Below all as above.” Then we all signed the document, which Rudolf Steiner rolled up and placed in a bottle under the foundation stone. It was late in the evening, but Rudolf Steiner wanted to wait for the moon before we followed him outside to a forest ravine where the small, open-topped building lay. “Dear sisters and brothers,” Rudolf Steiner began. We were standing close together in front of him, filling the small space. First he spoke of the laying of the foundation stone in ancient times, when a priest voluntarily allowed himself to be walled into the ground, then of the slave whom the Romans forced to do so, and finally of the present-day meaning of the foundation stone. He then performed the laying of the foundation stone himself.

Approximate rendering of the words of Dr. Rudolf Steiner at the laying of the foundation stone of the Rose Cross Temple of the Malsch Lodge, “Francis of Assisi.” Rendering from the memory of Hilde Stockmeyer.

Human skeletons have been found among the ruins of many old buildings. The reason for this is that people used to know that a building had to develop an inner life. Originally, however, this meant the spiritual life, which must flow through every building if it is to bring blessing. A decadent time took this to mean something external and created the custom of walling a slave alive under the building. What should really be buried with the foundation stone are the feelings and thoughts and blessings of those who build the building and those who want to use it.

So we too want to lower the foundation stone of this temple into the lap of our mother earth, in the light of the rays of the full moon, which shine on us, surrounded by the green plant world that entwines the building. And like the moon reflects the bright sunlight, so we want to reflect the light of the spiritual-divine beings. We want to turn trustingly to our great Mother Earth, who lovingly carries and protects us, and we want to entrust her with the charter of the building... [Here followed the description of the document].

At the same time as the document, we want to lower our wishes, our blessings, all of us who are gathered here, and remember this moment often and often and what has made our hearts and souls glow. Then our intentions will continue to work, promoting and protecting the construction of this temple, the existence of the Malsch Lodge. We implore the blessing of the Masters of Wisdom and of the harmony of feelings upon this stone and upon the Lodge of Malsch, and the blessing of all high and highest beings, of all spiritual hierarchies connected with the evolution of the earth. We implore them to let their power flow into this foundation stone and continue to work in it, so that everything that is thought, felt, willed and done through this stone may be in harmony with them and inspired by their spirit.

May the light of the spirits of the East shine upon this building
The spirits of the West may reflect it;
The spirits of the North may solidify it
And the spirits of the South may warm it,
So that the spirits of the East, West,
North and South may flow through it.

With great pain, our mother earth has solidified. Our mission is to spiritualize her again, to redeem her, by reworking her into a spirit-filled work of art through the power of our hands. May this stone be a first foundation stone for the redemption and transformation of our planet, and may the power of this stone increase a thousandfold.

When we still rested in the bosom of the Godhead, sheltered by divine powers, the all-pervading and enveloping Father Spirit wove in us. But we were still unconscious, not in possession of independence. Therefore we descended into matter to learn to develop self-awareness here. Then came evil, then came death. But in matter also worked the Christ and helped us to conquer death. And so, by dying in Christ, we live. We shall overcome death and, through our mighty strength, spiritualize matter and deify it. Thus will awaken in us the power of the Holy Spirit.

So let the word resound as a truth here at this point:

Ex Deo nascimur,
In Christo morimur,
Per Spiritum sanctum reviviscimus.

From God I am born,
In Christ I die,
Through the Holy Spirit I resurrect.

Address by the architect Carl Schmid-Curtius

As the builder of this house, it is my privilege to address the first words of greeting and welcome to you at today's house dedication.

The abundance of feelings that move me at the handover of this building, our new Theosophical home, should above all find expression in my heartfelt thanks to all those who, with their advice and support, have actually made this building possible. Once I have thus fulfilled the noblest duty of someone who has accomplished a work with the help of others, I may summarize my many wishes for this house, in which Theosophy is to be taught for many generations to come, that I say: In these rooms, the occult motifs have been arranged according to a fundamental idea under higher guidance and approval; we know that everything that surrounds us here is the expression of a spiritual. May these forms all serve to promote Theosophical work and may this building always be dedicated to the spirit in which it was built!

I hereby hand over the keys of the house to the building association of the Stuttgart branch association, and express my heartfelt thanks for their loyal support. I also wish them all the best and much success in their work in these beautiful rooms.

Address by the chairman of the Stuttgart branch association's building association, Jost del Monte

On behalf of the building association, I take over the key of this house.

If you, my dear Mr. Schmid, have addressed words of thanks to all those who have helped you to accomplish this work, we are well aware that these thanks must go above all to the one whose profound knowledge alone made it possible to develop the ideas embodied in these rooms, and each of us shares your sentiments with all our hearts. And as far as these thanks are directed at us, let me tell you that we have regarded it as a very special favor to be allowed to participate in this work. We leave it to our dear guests to judge the extent to which the work has been successful; but let me add one thing: working together with you in harmony has given us great satisfaction, and we fully appreciate the amount of dedicated work this work has required of the builder. We thank you very much and are pleased to be able to say this to you from this point.

Furthermore, we would like to thank all those who have generously contributed to this undertaking, and in particular we would like to mention one of our members who, with a large, fundamental donation, has made it possible to fulfill our long-held wish.

And finally, on behalf of the building association, let me express our joy at being able to celebrate the inauguration of the house together with so many friends from outside. We thank you for your interest in our celebration and warmly welcome you. We have been able to create a stronghold for theosophical life through our loyal cooperation; this house is now complete, and the building association has thus fulfilled its primary task. I now hand over the key to this house to the Stuttgart branches, which may become a place of loyal work for them.

Address by the Chairman of the Association of Stuttgart Branches Adolf Arenson

On behalf of the Association of Stuttgart Branches, I take possession of the key to this house.

It has been designed and built in accordance with spiritual rhythms and spiritual laws that have been transmitted to us by our esteemed teacher.

The forms and designs that confront us, the signs and images that give the room its character, are drawn from those spheres that underlie our earthly one; we should always be mindful of this, and the work we do in this house should strive to achieve harmony with our surroundings. The symbols that look down on us – they shall become inner life through our work.

Sacred is the space in its arrangement - in its holiness it shall be animated by our work. It shall become a home for the Highest, which has become ours through high spiritual powers. And we want to protect with all our strength the good that has been entrusted to us. We solemnly swear this.

In this spirit, we ask our esteemed leader to consecrate the place of our future work.

Consecration speech by Rudolf Steiner

All of us gathered here today feel the significance and consecration of this moment. And perhaps at this hour many a heart here will ask itself what the greater significance and the greater consecration lies in, whether in the fact that we have before us, and whose importance for the theosophical life in our circles we cannot sufficiently feel, or whether in the symbolic meaning, in the symbolic importance of what we are allowed to begin here today. The most beautiful and solemn words at this moment are undoubtedly those that resonate quietly in the hearts of those gathered here, and it is hardly my duty to express these unspoken words that now fill our hearts. We feel the significance of the fact that from now on, for the first time, the spirit that has been maintained for years within our Central European Theosophical Society can be realized in a space that, wherever we we turn our eyes, surrounds us with signs and features of what is so intimately connected with all that we strive for as an impulse for our knowledge, which should lead us into the supersensible worlds. And basically, the full weight of this moment can be summed up in a few words: for the first time we are surrounded by a home, by a space that is ours. A concept can easily be associated with such words, but it must be a distant one. Such a word can be associated with the concept of selfishness; but the word cannot and must not be understood by us in this sense, but solely and exclusively in the sense that we now have a space around us that belongs in an intimate and personal way to what we strive for in the spiritual worlds; and if we allow the weight of these words to weigh on our soul, then the all-embracing feeling of gratitude to all those who have made it possible for us to stand today before such a fact will spring up.

However, if we want to go back to the first sources of this possibility, we have to go back years, we have to look back on the dedicated theosophical work that has been done here in this place for years, and we have to remember the beautiful way in which the most diverse most diverse theosophical impulses have interacted here in this place, how mystical-inner and theosophical-intellectual striving have been lovingly combined here for years, and how harmoniously people with of the most diverse temperaments and working methods, but who were all able to harmonize their working methods, temperaments and characters because the deepest impulse lived in them, which we can express as theosophical love, as a theosophical feeling and striving for peace. We would have to reach far into what has been achieved here on the horizon of our theosophical life if we wanted to characterize everything that has finally been condensed into one impulse. So we can say: born here out of diligent, energetic work in the theosophical field was an understanding of the needs of real theosophical life.

This has captured the heart of one of our dear friends, who was able to turn an idea into reality, which must surely always live in all our hearts. Therefore, our thanks must go to the person who made the basic donation for this building, which was conceived in the noble theosophical spirit and can be entered in the memory of the theosophical development. Thus, relatively early in our theosophical striving, a home for our 'Theosophy' was created here, showing a reflection of our thinking and feeling in every detail. The impulse given by our dear friend is, first of all, an invitation to work in a dignified manner in the home that has been given to us. Thus, we feel, as we have done from the very beginning, that not only what lies before our eyes, what affects our senses, is theosophically ours, but we feel at this moment that space is also, in a sense, morally ours; and we feel this space permeated by theosophical love and theosophical willingness to make sacrifices, the love of those who have worked here for years, devotedly and self-sacrificingly, to give the impulse of theosophical understanding, and the love of the one who first made this room possible. And we may say that we also feel the exemplary nature of this present moment in many respects. It has often been emphasized how Theosophy must find its way into all branches and activities of the human spirit, of the soul life and of the outer life.

Just as everything comes from the spirit, so should all human activity be imbued and inspired by the spirit, and so we must regard it as a fact to be recognized in the true sense as a theosophical result, that we have found in our own midst the man who with what our theosophical spirit is. And you all undoubtedly feel at this moment that our dear Mr. Schmid, who has executed this building, has combined his best theosophical feeling and thinking with what the outside world has given him as his artistic ability. We can feel happy with him about this fact. What do we feel when we take a look at everything that surrounds us! Above all, we feel that not only the skill of a master builder, but also the heart of a theosophical master builder has worked here. As true as it is that we stand in awe of the way our friend Schmid implements what 'Theosophy is' in his art, it must also be true that we are full of gratitude for all the love that he was able to put into this building. I think it has also been a task for you, my dear Mr. Schmid, which filled your heart with joy, with the kind of joy that belongs to the realm of spiritual feeling and that arises when a person is allowed to let his ability to work, his creative urge, his skill flow into the forces of spiritual life. But we consider it a favorable karma of our theosophical movement that we have found precisely this master builder, who — as I, perhaps more than anyone outside Stuttgart, can assure you — has shown a wonderful devotion and understanding for what architecture in this case can offer to spiritual life. And we may be glad if a similar relationship can be achieved in the future.

And now let us, who have come together from the most diverse regions to celebrate this hour with our friends here, remember not only the general, sacrificial and dedicated work that has been done, but also the more specific work that has had to be done in recent years. Just think back to nine and a half months ago, when we were able to lay the foundation stone for this building, and consider all the selfless work that had to be done beforehand. Consider further what had to be done by our friends in Stuttgart, by the inner circle of the Society, which today took possession of this building, so that we can be united within this theosophical new structure. It would be impossible to describe this laborious and devoted work. But one thing in particular should be emphasized about this work. Let me mention a fundamental aspect of such theosophical work! You are all undoubtedly filled with joy and heartfelt satisfaction at how our Theosophical Society has grown; but on such an occasion we should not forget that, although it is the greatest happiness in the sense that one can speak of it here, that it has grown so much, with the growth the difficulties in the management of the affairs of this very Society are also growing considerably.

Things such as those that are now appearing before us, full of significance and laden with meaning, must be accomplished by people who, at the time of their creation, can put their whole hearts into the work. This makes it necessary to speak of the fundamental nerve of such a matter at this moment. The more our Society grows, the more it seems as if such work should be placed in the hands of all theosophists. That cannot be! That is impossible! But something else is possible: that the genuine work on such a project should be carried out in an exemplary manner, almost pedagogically, for all those who profess to be our followers. What will be the best in social terms if our movement is to realize in numerous fruits what it has as a germ? It will not be voting and majority decisions, but the trust that one person can place in another personally and individually; that trust that consists in letting the small groups that have to carry out one or the other work work without hindrance. Then they can work as we have worked here. Let us not disturb those who, sacrificing their hearts, are attached to what should promote our great goal, and let us give them complete freedom to work, let us not surround them with the obstacles of know-it-alls who cannot possibly be there! And when the small circle here has been working quietly for years, demanding that trust, then we may say: If we may judge from the fruit on the germ, then what is in any case in line with the theosophical work has proven itself here in the most brilliant way. The work that we see today is, in the fullest sense, a glorious vindication of the trust that we had in the faithful work of this small building association that has been at work here. With understanding and trust, we express our gratitude for the exemplary work of this building association.

When you leave this room today or tomorrow, take this feeling with you: how different it is to be able to devote ourselves to theosophical thoughts in such an environment than in an environment that we encounter when we have to work elsewhere. Let us feel in this moment how the word can expand for us: This space is ours. What does this mean in yet another sense? What was said at the laying of the foundation stone can be repeated in a modified way: “We have built a temple for the Spirit we serve.” How differently we can feel connected to this spirit within such a building! And we then understand the longing for images of the beautiful, magnificent model that has been given to us here. Perhaps more than any words that could otherwise be spoken, this room itself can speak to those who are able to create afterimages; it speaks in a clearly audible way of the necessity to be surrounded by that which is our spirit's temple. And if there has been talk in Munich of another, similar building, only to be executed on a larger scale, then consider as a beautiful intensification of all these words, which can only be spoken with the mouth, what this room is able to say to you. When we enter it with understanding, dwell in it, and leave it to return to it again and again, does it not emphasize the necessity of such buildings in other places as well?

If we allow our feelings free rein for a moment, we cannot but say that human karma works in the strangest ways. We could be filled with emotion that this building of ours could be placed in this region of this country. Let us remember how much of the intellectual life of Central Europe has sprung precisely from these regions. Think of how, in a quiet, earnest, intimate way, a 18th-century spirit wrote the fervent worship of the spirit that reigns and weaves through all worlds in a friend's book with three words: “One in All.” The unfortunate ZZölderlin, from a sense of the spirit in the universe, wrote the words to his philosophical friend in this very area: “One in All.” The word that was written out of deep feeling in this area has often been repeated. It was written in the family register of a man whose philosophical spirit filled all of Germany and, in fact, the whole of the educated world.

Let us also remember how intellectual life in the 18th and 19th centuries took its starting point from this very area. Theosophy, which could only have existed at that time, originated in this very area. Within the Swabian region, there were theosophical centers in the 18th century from which many colonies originated, some of which are still active today. Let us remember that it was a son of this area who came to an 18th-century seer in Thuringia, Oetinger, who represented the theosophy that was possible at that time. Through his own temperament, he found that seer personality of Central Germany who bore a name that has local significance here. Let us remember that from the vision of the 'Thuringian peoples, the theosophy of this region drew rich sources of seership. Let us remember that the great philosophers were sent to us from the same spiritual substance of this region, let us remember that the one who has become so popular within the spiritual life and who spoke the beautiful word: “Thought is an immeasurable realm, and the word is a winged tool.”

If we bear in mind that we wish to be servants of the spirit through the word in this building, which in symbols and forms is intended to be an expression of the spirit we serve, then in a somewhat modified form, transposed into our theosophical thoughts, a word that long, long ago moved and uplifted countless hearts, which had gathered together everything they had left to build a temple for the Spirit they served. And the one who was allowed to serve with his person in the construction of this temple spoke words that we may translate into our language:

"O Spirit of the Universe, You who proclaim yourself to our true self-awareness, You have graciously kept the word You gave us when You saw our work, as it has been done for years by Your servants; and it is becoming apparent today in this hour. Although the furthest reaches of the spirit are not able to grasp You, great Spirit of the Universe, You who permeate all Your works with Your thoughts, You who want to dwell in the words that may sound from our lips; how much less can these temple walls, which we have built for You, grasp You. But behold, Spirit of the Universe, You who make Yourself known in our true self-awareness, upon our will to understand, upon our yearning for knowledge of Your servants! Behold, Spirit of the Universe, Pervader of every ego, look down upon us, and let Your eyes be open over this structure, where You have decided to dwell! Hear our feelings, which urge us, through our work of letting Your spirit flow into the spaces we have dedicated to You, to show ourselves worthy of You!"

I had to resort to the words of the Old Testament, to the words of Solomon, to express what we ourselves, out of the spirit of human development that has progressed with the world, have to address like a prayer to the spirit of the universe, which dwells in all hearts that strive for true self-knowledge. If we can develop something in us of the devoted feelings that have been invoked in all times by the spirit of a community towards a building, then let us create this feeling in our hearts! As we continue to work in this room, we will see how differently our work can be done than in an otherwise indifferent space.

What, above all, is possible here? There is one thing we need that we can summarize in a single word: concentration of mind, seclusion of soul, while we devote ourselves to theosophical knowledge. We can feel what the voice of the universe itself can tell us if we tune into the spring mood. Even if it is autumn outside, we have spring in this room. Then we can understand from the language of the world spirit in nature how justified it is to seek contemplation and collection. If those who say, “Why do you shut yourselves away with your work, don't carry it out as a labor of love?” should come, then we will not answer, but let us let the great world spirit answer, which speaks from the works of nature itself. How much depends on what happens in spring! What is necessary for the salvation of the plant world that sprouts out of the earth in spring? That the seeds are taken from the full sunlight of outer activity; but in order to flourish, they must enter into the darkness, into the seclusion in which they enter in autumn. Thus, these spiritual seeds of life must be carried into the quiet home of meditation, of knowledge, of love and of peace, in order to work there quietly like the seed in the bosom of the earth; and only then can they be effectively carried out into the full sunshine of life. Such places are necessary for the interaction of human development, and insofar as we ourselves want to be bearers of the best seeds of our cultural life, it is necessary that what can be won from outside, what can only be cultivated and flourish here, be brought into the hiddenness.

Thus it is a wonderful fulfillment of karma that our first Theosophical house has been built on this very ground, like a tribute of the new spiritual life to the old. When the spirit we serve has received this shell, we ourselves feel integrated into the organism of the whole human spiritual life and know that we have a contemporary work in the highest and most sacred sense. It is contemporary because this work is connected to the spiritual current that flows from the source of spiritual life after the karma of all humanity in the present.

Therefore, we can admit it today: we feel that we have been allowed to serve those whom we regard as the source of our work, but also of our opportunity to work, with this work. We were allowed to serve the Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings, in whom lie the sources of our occult knowledge, with our outer work as well, and because we are allowed to feel this, we are also allowed to feel that they help us in our work. May their spirit prevail in this room, which has arisen out of theosophical devotion, which the masters of wisdom and of the harmony of feelings will honor by allowing the forces of the invisible worlds to flow into it, which we need to strengthen and invigorate what our souls themselves are capable of. I visualize the Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings looking down with favor upon this hour and especially upon the feelings that live in our hearts, which are the best when we pledge ourselves to fulfill the work of the Masters in this room that we have built for them. The spirits who have been connected with Theosophy in its best form, as long as it has existed, will send their help into this room; so speaks the feeling that they may do so, but so also speaks a prayer that may be addressed to them in a silent way. When the Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feeling, whom we invoke, work in a place where we strive for knowledge, for harmonization, for a foothold in our lives, then this work thrives.

May these good spirits of the theosophical movement bestow their blessings on me when I write out of all your hearts at this hour, not with physical words but only with spiritual words, something like a motto over the door of this house, which is to be written in our hearts , so that we need no physical eyes when we read it upon entering this house, and which we keep in our hearts when we are in this house, when we leave this house, taking with us the longing to gather again and again to cultivate Theosophy. Written over the door shall be:

Those who enter bring love to this home, those who stay inside seek knowledge in this place, those who leave take peace with them from this house.