LECTURE I
Berlin, 26th September 1905
In all esoteric teaching it is important to learn how we should look
at the things around us. Naturally everyone experiences something or
other when looking at a flower or anything else in the environment. It
is however necessary to gain a higher standpoint, to penetrate more
deeply, to connect specific observations with every object. This is
the basis, for instance, of the profound medical insight of
Paracelsus. He sensed, felt and perceived the force inherent in a
particular plant and the relationship of this force to some
corresponding function in man. For example he perceived which organ of
the human body was affected by Digitalis purpurea (foxglove).
To make this manner of observation clear we will take a particular
example. All religions have symbols. We hear much about these today,
but such explanations are usually external and arbitrary. Profound
religious symbols are however drawn out of the very nature of the
things themselves. Let us consider for instance the symbol of the
serpent, which was imparted to Moses in the Egyptian Mystery Schools.
We will consider what inspired him, what gave him Intuition.
A fundamental difference exists between all those animal creatures
having a vertebral column and those, such as beetles, molluscs, worms
and so on which have none. The entire animal kingdom falls into the
main sections of the vertebrate and the invertebrate animals. In the
case of the invertebrates one can put the question: Where are their
nerves situated? For the principal nerve-cord passes through
the spinal column. The invertebrates however do also have a nervous
system, as is the case with human beings and vertebrate animals. With
the latter it is distributed outside along the spine until it spreads
into the cavity of the body. This is called the sympathetic nervous
system together with the solar plexus. It is the same system which the
invertebrate animals also possess: only for the vertebrates and man,
it has less significance. With the invertebrates this system is much
more closely connected with the rest of the world than the nervous
system in man's head and spine. The activity of this latter can be
obliterated in a condition of trance; then the sympathetic nervous
system comes into action. This occurs for instance in the case of
somnambulists. The consciousness of the sleepwalker is spread out over
the whole life of the environment and goes over into the other beings
surrounding us. The somnambulist experiences external things within him.
Now the Life-ether is the element which everywhere streams around
us. The solar plexus is its mediator. If we were only able to perceive
with the solar plexus we should live in intimate communion with the
whole world. This is so with the invertebrate animals. For instance,
such a creature feels a flower as being within itself. In the earth
system the invertebrate animal is somewhat similar to the eye and ear
in man. It is part of the organism. There is actually a common
spiritual organism which perceives, sees, hears and so on through the
invertebrate animals. The Earth-Spirit is such a common spiritual
organism. Everything which we have around us is a body for this common
spirit. Just as our soul creates eyes and ears in order to perceive
the world, so does this common Earth-Soul create the invertebrate
animals as eyes and ears in order to see and hear the world.
In the evolution of the Earth there came a time when a process of
separation set in. A part separated itself off, as though in a tube.
Only when this point of time was reached did it become in any way
possible for beings to develop which could become separate entities.
The others are members of the one Earth-Soul. Now for the first
time a special grade of separation began. For the first time the
possibility arose that one day something would be able to say I to
itself. This fact that there are two epochs on the Earth,
firstly, the epoch in which there were no animals having a nervous
system enclosed within a bony tube; secondly, the epoch in which such
animals came into being this fact is distinctly expressed in
all religions. The snake is the first to enclose within a tube the
selfless undifferentiated gaze of the Earth Spirit, thus forming the
basis of ego hood. This fact was impressed on their pupils by the
esoteric teachers in such a way that they were able to say to
themselves: Look at the snake and you will see the sign of your ego.
This had to be accompanied by the vivid experience that the
independent ego and the snake belong together. Thus an awareness of
the significance of the things around us was developed, so that the
pupils endowed each being in the realm of Nature with the appropriate
feeling-content. Moses also was forearmed by such an experience when
he went out from the Egyptian Mystery Schools, and so he lifted up the
snake as a symbol. In those schools one did not learn in such an
abstract way as one does nowadays; one learned to comprehend the world
out of one's own inner perception.
We have a description of the human being based on the external
investigation of the different parts of his organism, but we can also
find man described in old mystical and occult works. These
descriptions, however, have arisen in quite another way than by
anatomical examination. They are indeed of far greater exactitude and
much more correct than what is described today by the anatomist, for
he only describes the corpse. The old descriptions were gained in such
a way that the pupils, through meditation, through inner illumination,
became visible to themselves. By means of the so-called Kundalini Fire
(1)
man is able to observe himself from within outwards. There are
different stages of this observation. The exact, correct observation
appears at first in symbols. If man concentrates for instance on his
spinal cord, it is a fact that he always sees a snake. He may perhaps
also dream of a snake, because this is the creature which was placed
out in the world when the spinal cord was formed, and has remained at
this stage. The snake is the spinal column outwardly projected into
the world. This pictorial way of seeing things is astral vision
(Imagination). But it is only through mental vision (Inspiration) that
the full significance is revealed.
This path of knowledge leads man to the recognition of the connection
between microcosm and macrocosm, so that he is able to divide himself
up within the kingdoms of Nature, so that he is able to say to which
part of the world each single one of his organs belongs. The old
Germanic myth distributes the giant Imir in this way. The dome of the
heavens is made from his skull; the mountains from his bones and so
on.
(2)
That is the mythological presentation of this inner vision.
Each part of the world reveals to the esotericist its connection with
something in himself. The inner relationship then becomes apparent.
All religions point to this kind of intensive development. The Gospels
also indicate it. The esotericist says to himself: Everything in the
surrounding world stones, plants and animals are signposts
along the path of my own evolution. Without these kingdoms I could not
exist. This consciousness fills us not only with the feeling that we
have risen above these kingdoms, but also with the knowledge that our
existence depends upon them.
There are seven grades of human consciousness: trance consciousness,
deep sleep, dream consciousness, waking consciousness, psychic,
super-psychic and spiritual consciousness. Actually these are in all
twelve stages of consciousness;
(3)
the five others are creative
stages. They are those of the Creators, of the creative Gods. These
twelve stages are related to the twelve signs of the zodiac. The human
being must pass through the experiences of these twelve stages. He
ascended through the trance, deep sleep and dream consciousness up to
the present clear day consciousness. In the succeeding stages of
planetary evolution he will reach still higher stages. All those which
he has already passed through he will also retain within him. The
physical body has the dull trance consciousness as this was gained by
man on Old Saturn. The human etheric body has the consciousness of
dreamless sleep, as this developed on Old Sun. The astral body dreams
in the same way as one dreams during sleep. Dream consciousness
derives from the Old Moon period. On our present Earth, man achieves
waking consciousness. The ego has clear day-consciousness.
Higher development consists in this, that one casts out what is in
one's own being in the same way as man has cast out the snake, thereby
retaining the snake on a higher level in his spinal cord. With still
further development human beings will not only cast out stones, plants
and animals into the world, but also stages of consciousness. In a
stock of bees, for example, there are three kinds of beings which have
a soul in common.
(4)
Seemingly quite separated beings carry out a
common work. In the future this will also be the case with man; he
will separate off his organs. He will have to control consciously from
outside all the single molecules of his brain. Then he will have
become a higher being. This will also be so with his stages of
consciousness. One can imagine a lofty being who has put forth from
himself all twelve stages of consciousness. He himself is then present
as the thirteenth and will say: I could not be what I am, if I had not
separated off from myself these twelve stages of consciousness. The
twelve apostles represent the stages of consciousness through which
the Christ passed. This can be recognised in the thirteenth chapter of
St. John in the description of the Washing of the Feet,
(5)
which indicates that Christ is indebted to the apostles for his attainment
of the higher stages of consciousness: Verily, Verily, I say unto
you, the servant is not greater than his lord. The more highly
developed being has left the others behind on the way and has himself
now become their servant. Not many people understand the meaning of
these words; nevertheless, when they hear this narrative, through
feeling they are prepared for understanding. In the first centuries
after Christ, for example, through these narratives, our feeling life
has been prepared. Otherwise, our causal body would not have been
sufficiently prepared to receive the truth. It is through pictorial
forms that the soul is prepared. This is why in earlier times the
great initiates, with their outlook into the far future, taught people
by means of stories. Even today such teachers have a concept of what
will be brought about in the future by the teachings of Theosophy. Now
man has in himself both good and evil. In the future this will become
externally apparent as a kingdom of good and a kingdom of evil
(6)
And how at some future time those who are good will have to deal with
those who are evil this is what is being implanted in the soul
today through the concepts of Theosophy. At first people were given
pictures, now they receive concepts and, in the future, they will have
to act in accordance with these in their practical life.
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