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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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Esoteric Christianity and the Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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Esoteric Christianity and the Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz
Schmidt Number: S-2443
On-line since: 1st July, 2004
Neuchatel, 27th September 1911
It gives me great joy to be here for the first time in this newly
founded group bearing the great name of Christian Rosenkreutz,
( 23 )
which gives me the opportunity for the first time of speaking
about Christian Rosenkreutz at greater length. What is contained in
the mystery of Christian Rosenkreutz? I cannot tell you all about this
personality in one evening, so we shall speak about Christian
Rosenkreutz himself today, and tomorrow we shall talk about his work.
To speak about Christian Rosenkreutz presupposes great confidence in
the mysteries of spiritual life, confidence not only in the person but
in the great secrets of the life of the spirit. The founding of a new
group, however, also always presupposes faith in spiritual life.
Christian Rosenkreutz is an individual who is active both when he is
in incarnation and when he is not incarnated in a physical body; he
works not only as a physical being and through physical forces, but
above all spiritually through higher forces.
As we know, man lives not only for himself but also in connection with
human evolution as a whole. Usually when man passes through death his
etheric body dissolves into the cosmos. A part of this dissolving
etheric body always stays intact, however, and so we are always
surrounded by these remaining parts of the etheric bodies of the dead,
for our good, or also to our detriment. They affect us for good or ill
according to whether we ourselves are good or bad. Far reaching
effects emanate also from the etheric bodies of great individualities.
Great forces emanating from the etheric body of Christian Rosenkreutz
can work into our soul and also into our spirit. It is our duty to get
to know these forces, for we work with them as rosicrucians.
Strictly speaking the rosicrucian movement began in the thirteenth
century. At that time these forces worked extraordinarily strongly,
and a Christian Rosenkreutz stream has been active in spiritual life
ever since. There is a law that this spiritual stream of force has to
become especially powerful every hundred years or so. This is to be
seen now in the theosophical movement. Christian Rosenkreutz gave an
indication of this in his last exoteric statements.
( 24 )
In the year 1785 the collected esoteric revelations of the
rosicrucians appeared in the work: The Secret Symbols of the
Rosicrucians
( 25 )
by Hinricus Madathanus Theosophus.
( 26 )
In a certain limited sense this publication
contains references to the rosicrucian stream active in the previous
century which was expressed for the first time in the works collected
and put together by Hinricus Madathanus Theosophus. Another hundred
years later we see the influence of the rosicrucian stream coming to
expression again in the work of H. P. Blavatsky, especially in
the book Isis Unveiled.
( 27 )
Much of the meaning of this
image has been put into words. A considerable amount of Western occult
wisdom is contained in this book that is still a long way from being
improved upon, even though the composition is sometimes very confused.
It is interesting to compare The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians
by Hinricus Madathanus Theosophus with the works of H.P.
Blavatsky. We must think especially of the first part of the
publication, which is written in Symbols. In the second part
Blavatsky deviates a little from the rosicrucian stream. In her later
works she departs entirely from it, and we must be able to distinguish
between her early and her later publications, even though something of
H.P. Blavatsky's uncritical spirit already appears in the early ones.
That this is said can only be the wish of H.P. Blavatsky who is not in
incarnation now.
When we look at the characteristic quality of human consciousness in
the thirteenth century we see that primitive clairvoyance had
gradually disappeared. We know that in earlier times everybody had an
elementary clairvoyance. In the middle of the thirteenth century this
reached its lowest point, and there was suddenly no more clairvoyance.
Everyone experienced a spiritual eclipse. Even the most enlightened
spirits and the most highly developed personalities, including
initiates, had no further access to the spiritual worlds, and when
they spoke about the spiritual worlds they had to confine themselves
to what remained in their memories. People only knew about the
spiritual world from tradition or from those initiates who awakened
their memories of what they had previously experienced. For a short
time, though, even these spirits could not see directly into the
spiritual world.
This short period of darkness had to take place at that time to
prepare for what is characteristic of our present age: today's
intellectual, rational development. That is what is important today in
the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. In the Greco-Roman cultural
epoch the development of the intellect was not as it is today. Direct
perception was the vital factor, not intellectual thinking. Human
beings identified with what they saw and heard, in fact even with what
they thought. They did not produce thoughts from out of themselves
then as we do today, and as we ought to do, for this is the task of
the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. Man's clairvoyance gradually
begins again after this time, and the clairvoyance of the future can
now develop.
The rosicrucian stream began in the thirteenth century. During that
century personalities particularly suitable for initiation had to be
specially chosen. Initiation could take place only after the short
period of darkness had run its course.
In a place in Europe that cannot be named yet
( 28 )
though this
will be possible in the not very distant future a lodge of a
very spiritual nature was formed comprising a council of twelve men
who had received into themselves the sum of the spiritual wisdom of
olden times and of their own time.. So we are concerned with twelve
men who lived in that dark era, twelve outstanding individualities,
who united together to help the progress of humanity. None of them
could see directly into the spiritual world, but they could awaken to
life in themselves memories of what they had experienced through
earlier initiations. And the karma of mankind brought it about that in
seven of the twelve all that still remained to mankind of the ancient
Atlantean epoch was incarnated. In my
Occult Science
it has already been stated that in the seven holy Rishis of old, the
teachers of the ancient Indian cultural epoch, all that was left of the
Atlantean epoch was preserved. These seven men who were incarnated
again in the thirteenth century, and who were part of the council of
twelve, were just those who could look back into the seven streams of
the ancient Atlantean cultural epoch of mankind and the further course
of these streams. Among these seven individualities each one of them
could bring one stream to life for their time and the present time. In
addition to these seven there were another four who could not look
back into times long past but could look back to the occult wisdom
mankind had acquired in the four post-Atlantean epochs. The first
could look back to the ancient Indian period, the second to the
ancient Persian cultural period, the third to the
Egyptian-Chaldaean-Assyrian-Babylonian cultural period and the fourth
to the Greco-Roman culture. These four joined the seven to form a
council of wise men in the thirteenth century. A twelfth had the
fewest memories as it were, however he was the most intellectual among
them, and it was his task to foster external science in particular.
These twelve individualities not only lived in the experiences of
Western occultism, but these twelve different streams of wisdom worked
together to make a whole. A remarkable reference to this can be found
in Goethe's poem The Mysteries.
( 29 )
We shall be speaking, then, of twelve outstanding individualities. The
middle of the thirteenth century is the time when a new culture began.
At this time a certain low point of spiritual life had been reached.
Even the most highly developed could not approach the spiritual
worlds. Then it was that the council of the spiritual elite assembled.
These twelve men, who represented the sum of all the spiritual
knowledge of their age and the twelve tendencies of thought, came
together in a place in Europe that cannot as yet be named.
This council of the twelve only possessed clairvoyant memory and
intellectual wisdom. The seven successors of the seven Rishis
remembered their ancient wisdom, and the other five represented the
wisdom of the five post-Atlantean cultures. Thus the twelve
represented the whole of Atlantean and post-Atlantean wisdom. The
twelfth was a man who attained the intellectual wisdom of his time in
the highest degree. He possessed intellectually all the knowledge of
his time, whilst the others, to whom direct spiritual wisdom was also
denied at that time, acquired their knowledge by returning in memory
to their earlier incarnations.
The beginning of a new culture was only possible, however, because a
thirteenth came to join the twelve. The thirteenth did not become a
scholar in the accepted sense of that time. He was an individuality
who had been incarnated at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. In the
incarnations that followed he prepared himself for his mission through
humility of soul and through a fervent life devoted to God. He was a
great soul, a pious, deeply mystical human being, who had not just
acquired these qualities but was born with them. If you imagine to
yourselves a young man who is very pious and who devotes all his time
to fervent prayer to God, then you can have a picture of the
individuality of this thirteenth. He grew up entirely under the care
and instruction of the twelve, and he received as much wisdom as each
one could give him. He was educated with the greatest care, and every
precaution was taken to see that no one other than the twelve
exercised an influence on him. He was kept apart from the rest of the
world. He was a very delicate child in that incarnation of the
thirteenth century, and therefore the education that the twelve
bestowed upon him worked right into his physical body. Now the twelve,
being deeply devoted to their spiritual tasks and inwardly permeated
with Christianity, were conscious that the external Christianity of
the Church was only a caricature of the real Christianity. They were
permeated with the greatness of Christianity, although in the outside
world they were taken to be its enemies. Each individuality worked his
way into just one aspect of Christianity. Their endeavour was to unite
the various religions into one great whole. They were convinced that
the whole of spiritual life was contained in their twelve streams, and
each one influenced the pupil to the best of his ability. Their aim
was to achieve a synthesis of all the religions, but they knew that
this was not to be achieved by means of any theory but only as the
result of spiritual life. And for this a suitable education of the
thirteenth was essential.
Whilst the spiritual forces of the thirteenth increased beyond
measure, his physical forces drained away. It came to the point where
he almost ceased to have any further connection with external life,
and all interest in the physical world disappeared. He lived entirely
for the sake of the spiritual development which the twelve were
bringing about in him. The wisdom of the twelve was reflected in him.
It reached the point where the thirteenth refused to eat and wasted
away. Then an event occurred that could only happen once in history.
It was the kind of event that can take place when the forces of the
macrocosm co-operate for the sake of what they can bring to fruition.
After a few days the body of the thirteenth became quite transparent,
and for days he lay as though dead. The twelve now gathered round him
at certain intervals. At these moments all knowledge and wisdom flowed
from their lips. Whilst the thirteenth lay as though dead, they let
their wisdom flow towards him in short prayer-like formulae. The best
way to imagine them is to picture the twelve in a circle round the
thirteenth. This situation ended when the soul of the thirteenth
awakened like a new soul. He had experienced a' great transformation
of soul. Within it there now existed something that was like a
completely new birth of the twelve streams of wisdom, so that the
twelve wise men could also learn something entirely new from the
youth. His body, too, came to life now in such a way that this revival
of his absolutely transparent body was beyond compare. The youth could
now speak of quite new experiences. The twelve could recognise that he
had experienced the event of Damascus: it was a repetition of the
vision of Paul on the road to Damascus. In the course of a few weeks
the thirteenth reproduced all the wisdom he had received from the
twelve, but in a new form. This new form was as though given by Christ
Himself. What he now revealed to them, the twelve called true
Christianity, the synthesis of all the religions, and they
distinguished between this true Christianity and the Christianity of
the period in which they lived. The thirteenth died relatively young,
and the twelve then devoted themselves to the task of recording what
the thirteenth had revealed to them, in imaginations for it
could only be done in that way. Thus came the symbolic figures and
pictures contained in the collection of Hinricus Madathanus
Theosophus, and the communications of H.P. Blavatsky in the work
Isis Unveiled. We have to see the occult process in such a way
that the fruits of the initiation of the thirteenth remained as the
residue of his etheric body, within the spiritual atmosphere of the
earth. This residue inspired the twelve as well as their pupils that
succeeded them, so that they could form the occult rosicrucian stream.
Yet it continued to work as an etheric body, and it then became part
of the new etheric body of the thirteenth when he incarnated again.
The individuality of the thirteenth reincarnated as soon as the
fourteenth century, roughly in the middle. In this incarnation he
lived for over a hundred years. He was brought up in a similar way in
the circle of the pupils and successors of the twelve, but not in such
a secluded way as in his previous incarnation. When he was
twenty-eight years old he formed a remarkable resolution. He had to
leave Europe and travel. First he went to Damascus, and what Paul had
experienced there happened again to him. This event can be described
as the fruits of what took place in the previous incarnation. All the
forces of the wonderful etheric body of the individuality of the
thirteenth century had remained intact, none of them dispersed after
death into the general world ether. This was a permanent etheric body,
remaining intact in the ether spheres thereafter. This same highly
spiritual etheric body again radiated from the spiritual world into
the new incarnation, the individuality in the fourteenth century.
Therefore he was led to experience the event of Damascus again. This
is the individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz. He was the thirteenth
in the circle of the twelve. He was named thus from this incarnation
onwards. Esoterically, in the occult sense, he was already Christian
Rosenkreutz in the thirteenth century, but exoterically he was named
thus only from the fourteenth century. And the pupils of this
thirteenth are the successors of the other twelve in the thirteenth
century. These are the rosicrucians.
At that time Christian Rosenkreutz traveled through the whole of the
known world. After he had received all the wisdom of the twelve,
fructified by the mighty Being of the Christ, it was easy for him to
receive all the wisdom of that time in the course of seven years.
When, after seven years, he returned to Europe, he took the most
highly developed pupils and successors of the twelve as his pupils,
and then began the actual work of the rosicrucians.
By the grace of what radiated from the wonderful etheric body of
Christian Rosenkreutz they could develop an absolutely new world
conception. What has been developed by the rosicrucians up to our time
is work of both an outer and an inner nature. The outer work was for
the purpose of discovering what lies behind the maya of the material
world. They wanted to investigate the maya of matter. Just as man has
an etheric body, so does the whole of the macrocosm have an etheric
macrocosm, an etheric body. There is a certain point of transition
from the coarser to the finer substance. Let us look at the boundary
between physical and etheric substance. What lies between physical and
etheric substance is like nothing else in the world. It is neither
gold nor silver, lead nor copper. It is something that cannot be
compared with any other physical substance, yet it is the essence of
all of them. It is a substance that is contained in every other
physical substance, so that the other physical substances can be
considered to be modifications of this one substance. To see this
substance clairvoyantly was the endeavour of the rosicrucians. The
preparation, the development of such vision they saw to require a
heightened activity of the soul's moral forces, which would then
enable them to see this substance. They realised that the power for
this vision lay in the moral power of the soul. This substance was
really seen and discovered by the rosicrucians. They found that this
substance lived in the world in a certain form both in the macrocosm
and in man. In the world outside man they revered it as the mighty
garment of the macrocosm. They saw it arising in man when there is a
harmonious interplay between thinking and willing. They saw the will
forces as being not only in man but in the macrocosm also, for
instance in thunder and lightning. And they saw the forces of thought
on the one hand in man and also outside in the world in the rainbow
and the rosy light of dawn. The rosicrucians sought the strength to
achieve such harmony of willing and thinking in their own soul in the
force radiating from this etheric body of the thirteenth, Christian
Rosenkreutz.
It was established that all the discoveries they made had to remain
the secret of the rosicrucians for a hundred years, and that not until
a hundred years had passed might these rosicrucian revelations be
divulged to the world, for not until they had worked at them for a
hundred years might they talk about them in an appropriate way. Thus
what appeared in 1785 in the work The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians
( 30 )
was being prepared from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century.
Now it is also of great importance to know that in any century the
rosicrucian inspiration is given in such a way that the name of the
one who receives the inspiration is never made public. Only the
highest initiates know it. Today, for instance, only those occurrences
can be made public that happened a hundred years ago, for that is the
time that must pass before it is permissible to speak of it in the
outside world. The temptation is too great that people would idealise
fanatically a person bearing such authority, which is the worst thing
that can happen. It would be too near to idolatry. This silence,
however, is not only essential in order to avoid the outer temptations
of ambition and pride, which could probably be overcome, but above all
to avoid occult astral attacks which would be constantly directed at
an individuality of that calibre. That is why it is an essential
condition that a fact like this can only be spoken of after a hundred
years.
Through the works of the rosicrucians the etheric body of Christian
Rosenkreutz became ever stronger and mightier from century to century.
It worked not only through Christian Rosenkreutz but through all those
who became his pupils. From the fourteenth century onwards Christian
Rosenkreutz has been incarnated again and again. Everything that is
made known in the name of theosophy is strengthened by the etheric
body of Christian Rosenkreutz, and those who make theosophy known let
themselves be overshadowed by this etheric body, that can work on
them, both when Christian Rosenkreutz is incarnated, and when he is
not in incarnation.
The Count of Saint Germain was the exoteric reincarnation of Christian
Rosenkreutz in the eighteenth century.
( 31 )
This name was given to
other people, too, however; therefore not everything that is told
about Count Saint Germain here and there in the outside world applies
to the real Christian Rosenkreutz. Christian Rosenkreutz is incarnated
again today. The inspiration for the work of H.P. Blavatsky, Isis
Unveiled, came from the strength radiating from his etheric
body. It was also Christian Rosenkreutz's influence working invisibly
on Lessing
( 32 )
that inspired him to write The Education of the Human Race (1780).
Because of the rising tide of
materialism it became more and more difficult for inspiration to come
about in the rosicrucian way. Then in the nineteenth century came the
high tide of materialism. Many things could only be given very
incompletely. In 1851 the problem of the immortality of the soul was
solved by Widenmann
( 33 )
through the idea of reincarnation. His
text was awarded a prize. Even around 1850 Drossbach
( 34 )
wrote from a psychological point of view in favour of reincarnation.
Thus the forces radiating from the etheric body of Christian
Rosenkreutz continued to be active in the nineteenth century too. And
a renewal of theosophical life could come about because by 1899 the
little Kali Yuga had run its course. That is why the approach to the
spiritual world is easier now and spiritual influence is possible to a
far greater degree. The etheric body of Christian Rosenkreutz has
become very strong, and, through devotion to this, man will be able to
acquire the new clairvoyance, and lofty spiritual forces will come
into being. This will only be possible, however, for those people who
follow the training of Christian Rosenkreutz correctly. Until now an
esoteric rosicrucian preparation was essential, but the twentieth
century has the mission of enabling this etheric body to become so
powerful that it can also work exoterically. Those affected by it will
be granted the experience of the event that Paul experienced on the
road to Damascus. Until now this etheric body has only worked into the
school of the rosicrucians; in the twentieth century more and more
people will be able to experience the effect of it, and through this
they will come to experience the appearance of Christ in the etheric
body. It is the work of the rosicrucians that makes possible the
etheric vision of Christ. The number of people who will become capable
of seeing it will grow and grow. We must attribute this re-appearance
to the important work of the twelve and the thirteenth in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
If you can become an instrument of Christian Rosenkreutz, then you can
be assured that the smallest detail of your soul activity will be
there for eternity.
Tomorrow we will come to speak about the work of Christian
Rosenkreutz. A vague longing for Spiritual Science is present in
mankind today. And we can be sure, that wherever students of
rosicrucianism are striving seriously and conscientiously, they are
working creatively for eternity. Every spiritual achievement, however
small, brings us further. It is essential to understand and revere
these holy matters.
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