XIII.
THE ROSICRUCIAN TRAINING.
My task of
to-day and of tomorrow will be to show you the path into the
spiritual worlds which has been followed ever since the 14th
and 15th century, particularly in the so-called Occult
Training, and which is the most suitable path for modern
people. But it will be easier for us to understand the
essential points if we first cast a glance over the future
development of humanity.
We have already
spoken of the course of human development through the Stages
of Saturn, Sun, Moon and Earth. Those who are only accustomed
to think in accordance with present-day conceptions will find
it difficult to understand that it is possible to know
something about the future course of evolution: But you must
bear in mind that certain great laws which are now active,
will also exercise their activity in the future, and those
who know these laws can therefore cast a glance into the
future.
In the sphere
of physical reality no one doubts that things can be
foretold, — for example, lunar and solar eclipses and
other astronomical phenomena can be calculated in advance,
far into the future. In the sphere of physical reality there
is no doubt as to this. And everybody knows that when certain
substances are mixed in a retort, scientists can foretell the
result. This is a prophecy relating to external sensory
facts, and these things can be foretold because the laws
which influence the substances are known.
Similarly we
learn to know through spiritual science the laws which govern
the course of human life, so that it is possible to foretell
what will take place in the future.
An objection
might now be raised which has been advanced by the thinkers
of every epoch: “It is impossible to speak of human
freedom if future events can be foreseen!” But here
people confuse the capacity of looking into the future with
predestination. In every philosophy you will therefore come
across the strangest observations, for all philosophers were
unable to make this distinction. Jacob Boehme was the only
exception!
Let me now give
you an example to make things clearer to you. Let me compare
time with space. Imagine yourself standing here, and two
people in the street, outside. You can see what these two
people are doing, for you are watching them from a distance.
But are you able to influence their actions, in view of this
fact? No, you are simply looking at them, and these two
people act in perfect freedom. You can determine nothing in
their actions through the fact that you are looking at them.
Now imagine a clairvoyant who observes what will take place
in the future. He merely sees this, and he does not
in any way influence the events. If these events could be
influenced, if they were, so to speak, predestined in the
present, there would be no pre-vision. But we can only grasp
the difference between predestination and
prevision if we ponder over this problem for a long
tune.
I do not intend
to describe to you what the Earth will be like when it shall
have reached the Venus and the Jupiter stages; instead, I
wish to tell you something which will give you an idea of
man's future development; I wish to explain to you something
which comes from the oldest Christian Mysteries, which
originates from the Christian School of the true Dionysius;
it was a teaching which was always taught in the Christian
esoteric schools.
The following
comparison was taken as a starting point: — I am now
speaking to you. Yell can hear my words; you hear the
thoughts which were, to begin with, in the depths of my soul;
you hear thoughts which would remain concealed to you were I
not to express them in sounds. But you could not hear my
words, if the air did not exist between us. Whenever I utter
a word, the air in the space around us is set into motion;
whenever I speak, I cause the whole volume of air around me
to vibrate, it vibrates in accordance with the words which I
pronounce. Let us now proceed further: Imagine that you were
able liquefy the air, and then to render it solid. Air can be
liquefied; you know that water can exist in the form of steam
and that this air becomes liquid when it cools; and then the
liquid can become a solid block of ice. Imagine now that I
pronounce the word.“God” into the air; a form
would fall down, for instance, the form of a shell; if the
sound-vibrations could render the air solid. And another wave
of sound would fall down as a solid form if I pronounce the
word “World”. A crystallized form of air would
correspond to every word I utter, and you would be able to
perceive these crystallized forms.
This example
was in fact advanced in the Christian schools. First of all
we have the spoken word, and then this word becomes a solid
form, but before it became solid, it existed as an inner
thought. Now the early Christian imagined the following: The
creative process in the universe resembles the creative
process which takes place in space, when we speak. The
creative proceeded from the idea of things and then
the Godhead expressed these ideas in the form of words
uttered out into space. Everything which appears to us
outside in the form of plants, minerals, etc. is the
crystallization of God's utterances. It is possible to
imagine everything dissolved into tone-vibrations of the
Divine Cosmic Word. “Whatever I see before me, is the
crystallization Word of God!” said the Christian. And
on a certain wy he made a distinction between the
“Father in Concealment”, Who had not yet
expressed Himself, the “Word” or the
Son, Who resounds through space, and the
crystallized Word, the “Revelation”.
This enables us
to understand in a deeper sense the beginning of the Gospel
of St. John: — “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was in
the very beginning with God. Everything was made by Him, and
except through Him was nothing made that was made.”
Everything that was made, was made by the Word! We should
take things as literally a possible, then we can easily
recognise the creative element of the Word, or the Logos. In
the Christian meaning, the Word or the Logos stands in the
second place. “Logos” should only be translated
with “Word”, for this means that at the
foundation of everything which exists in the created world
lies the unuttered creative Word; it then resounded as spoken
Word, and this is the origin of every existing thing. If we
go far back into times we could hear animals, plants,
minerals, and men, resound through the cosmic spaces as
“Word” — even as you now hear my own words
— for in those remote, times, the air had not yet
cooled down to such extent as to enable words to take on
solid form.
Let us bear
this in mind, for then we can say to ourselves: Once upon a
time, the Word was ,creative. Men are now beginners in an
activity which was once carried out by their ancestors, the
Gods, who stood above them. Once upon a time, the Gods
created the world by uttering their words into the cosmic
spaces, and this creative activity gave rise to the created
world round about us. The forces of procreation in the
vegetable, animal, and human kingdoms are but, a
metamorphosis of the former creative Word of God. We still
bear within us a higher and a lower nature. The greatest
perfection has been reached by that part within us which is
endowed with sex, whereas our larynx contains the first stage
of a new procreative power. Whenever we pronounce words, we
are at the beginning of an activity which will one day become
procreative. At present we are only beginners in an activity
which was once carried out by the Gods. A new form of
procreation will replace the old one. The larynx is now able
to form words but in the future it will become an organ of
procreation, a generative organ, which will produce more and
more condensed and higher forms. The larynx can now mould
forms of air, but in future it will give rise to real beings.
When the earth shall have reached the Jupiter stager the Word
will have creative power in the mineral kingdom, and during
the Venus stage it will be able to produce plants. Thus the
course of development will proceed, until man will be able to
procreate himself through the Word.
The present
form arose, when man first sent the air streaming through his
lungs through sounds. But in future stages of the earth's
development, the words, the mere words which we now tell each
other, will have a lasting form. And finally, the larynx will
become man's generative organ, through which he will
procreate himself in purity without the intromission of
sex.
This shows us
the future aspects of human development, and the
predisposition of the human larynx. Indeed, an enigmatic
phenomenon can show you how intimately the larynx is
connected with certain stages of development: When a boy
reaches puberty, his voi0e breaks, it undergoes mutation. The
human larynx is at the beginning of its development, whereas
sexual life is at the end of its development. This shows us
the intimate connection of certain things in Nature. In
sexual life we are confronted by something which is dying
off; the larynx, the word, on the other hand, will in the
future become man's generative organ.
We might
indicate many other examples showing how the human being will
gradually develop organs which now exist in a rudimentary
form — for instance, the organs which now constitute
his breathing system, but which really form part of the heart
system.
The training
which was introduced into Europe since the 14th century in
fact anticipates future conditions of human evolution and it
enables us to follow a speedier course of inner development
than the ordinary one. The training which is called the
Rosicrucian training is the one most suited to
modern men. In a certain sense, Rosicrucianism has not a good
reputation among men who have only heard of it now and then.
If we could rely on the statements made in books, and on what
scientists know about Rosicrucianism, then it would indeed be
the swindle which it is reputed to be! But those who judge
Rosicrucianism by these sources do not know real
Rosicrucianism, but a mere swindle!
But let us now
consider Rosicrucianism in it s true form; it arose through
an individuality concealed under the name of
Christian Rosenkreutz,
who gave rise to the Rosicrucian Movement in the year 1459.
[Note 1]
I expressly
remark that what I an telling you now is only to be taken as
an example, in the same way in which I spoke to you yesterday
of the Christian. training. Let me therefore indicate right
away the seven chief points of Rosicrucian training. The
sequence of these stages is not the same for all, but let me
point them out to you, for they come into consideration for
everyone who passes through the Rosicrucian training.
The first thing
is what we call
Study;
the second is what we call the
Appropriation of Imaginative Knowledge;
the third, the
Appropriation of the Occult Writing;
the fourth, the
Preparation of the Stone of the Wise;
the fifth stage is called
Conformity of the Small World, the Microcosm, with the Large
World, the Macrocosm.
[Note 2]
The sixth stage is the
Penetration into the Life of the Macrocosm and the
seventh is what we the
Divine Blissfulness.
The Rosicrucian
path leads in the surest and profoundest way to a knowledge
of Christianity. The Christian path of training is more
suited for those who can abide in faith and who can awaken
their feeling life within them, in the manner described to
you yesterday. But the Rosicrucian path is for these people
who can connect the truths of Christianity with the truths
relating to the external world This above all, will enable
them to protect Christianity against every attack from
outside. Christianity is a world-conception of such
profundity that our wisdom will never suffice to grasp it
fully. The path of Rosicrucian training is the most suitable
one for modern men.
[Note 3]
If we follow a
train of thought which has nothing in common with the sensory
world, we pursue study in the Rosicrucian meaning. What is
designated as “thinking in free thoughts” is only
known to the civilisation of the west, through geometry, the
Christian-Gnostic schools therefore used the name
“mathesis” for the designation of things
connected with the higher truths, with God and the higher
world, for such truths had to be grasped independently of
everything pertaining to the sensory world, even as
mathematics must be grasped independently of all sensory
impressions. A circle drawn with chalk is most imperfect, a
real circle can only be conceived in thoughts; thought alone
is able to grasp everything that can be learned in connection
with the circle. Through mathematics we learn to think of the
circle independently of the senses; we construct it in
thought, with the aid of the triangle built up spiritually,
whose angles equal to 360 degrees.
[Perhaps 180 degrees is meant? – e.Ed.]
It is somewhat
uncomfortable to have to think without the support of
external sensory objects, and for the majority of men there
is no other field of study in this direction than spiritual
science. In my first lecture I told you that the knowledge
contained in spiritual science can absolutely be grasped
through logic. But clairvoyance is needed if anyone wishes to
investigate these truths. Logic suffices, however, for the
understanding of the truths contained in spiritual
science.
Our
materialistic age could only invent the calculating machine,
which teaches us to form thoughts which are not independent
of the senses: A child, above all, should learn to grasp
things independently of sensory impressions. Thee influence
of spiritual science will therefore be of greatest value in
education: Spiritual science is an excellent training for the
development of a thought activity independent of the senses.
Everything which I have told you in connection with Saturn,
the Sun, and the various members of the human beings relates
to things which cannot be, seen; they must be grasped through
thought, independently of the senses. No one should, however,
believe that he can train himself unless he first grasps
these truths theoretically. The advantage of such truths is
that they do not exist for the senses, so that they can
transmit us a way of thinking which goes beyond sensory life.
For many people it is sufficient at first, to penetrate into
the truths which theosophy describes in connection with facts
which cannot be grasped through the senses. These truths
constitute, the kind of thoughts which were always explained
to the pupils of the Rosicrucian Schools, and the truths were
well impressed upon them.
If we now wish
to proceed, we can find a good means of a
Training in Thought
in my books
“Truth and Science”
and
“The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity”.
These books are merely a gymnastic in a form of thinking which is
independent of the senses. Generally speaking, you will find
that in other books it does not make much difference if the
thought- contained in one sentence is transferred to another
one. But in the above-mentioned books no thought can be
transferred to another place. These books have arisen in such
a way that my own person merely, gave this
thought-structure the opportunity to take on a sensory
form. It was necessary to yield to these thoughts, so that
they could arise of their own accord, continue of their own
accord. Those who are willing to penetrate more deeply into
these thoughts, devoting themselves to this study for, say,
half a year (this is not easy, but the effort entailed is the
very best way of tackling ) those who can read these books to
the very end, have drawn out of their inner being a dormant
force.
The second
stage is Imagination,
or the
Imaginative Knowledge,
which is entirely under the influence of
Goethe's beautiful words: “All transient things are but
a symbol”. Only those who have acquired a firm, sure
thinking, should enter this second stage. For they might
easily fall into delusive fancies without a firm foundation
of thought. Consequently, the first condition is to have a
clear head; nothing can protect us more against mistakes than
a clear way of thinking.
In the widest
meaning, imagination might be characterized by observing
everything which surrounds us in the following Manner:
— Observe the face of a human being; you see upon it
creases and wrinkles,which come and go; you do not only
describe these lines, but you designate them as smiles or
sorrow. A man's smile reveals to you his happy disposition of
mind. You do not only deduce an inner truth from something
which you see outside, but this outer perception is for you a
real symbol of that man's inner life or else you see a tear
falling; you are not only a physicist who observes that tear
in accordance with the law of gravity, but you know that that
falling tear is the expression of the soul's inner sadness.
Thus everything which you see outside on a person's
countenance becomes for you the expression of the soul's
inner mood. The Rosicrucian pupil learns to feel that
everything which he sees outside is similarly the expression,
let us say, of the Earth-Spirit, a certain plant, for,
example the meadow-saffron, really appears to him as the
expression of the mourning life of the earth. Even as a
smiling countenance reveals to him the soul's happy mood, so
the flowers become an expression for the earth's happy or
sorrowful mood.
Goethe did not
only wish to convey an external image when the Earth-Spirit
in “Faust” speaks:
“In Lebensfluten Tatensturm,
Wall ich auf und ab,
Webe hin und her
Geburt und Grab,
Ein ewiges Meer,
Ein wechselnd Weben,
Ein glühend Leben,
So schaff ich am sausenden Webstuhl der Zeit,
Und wirke der Gottheit lebendiges Kleid.”
In the floods of life,
in the storm of action,
I surge up and down,
I weave to and fro!
Birth and the Grave;
An eternal ocean,
A changing weaving,
A glowing life,
Thus I work on the whirring loom of Time
And weave the Godhead's living garment.
For Goethe, the
Spirit of the Earth gradually becomes something that lives in
the earth; he acquires a soul-spiritual connection with the
whole surrounding Nature.
Let me now
explain to you more in detail one of the moods which
can be found in Nature.
We have a
Rosicrucian pupil walking across the fields. He sees the tiny
pearls of dew upon each plant. This reminds him of the
ancient “Neflheim, the “Land of Mists”,
where the air was filled with a dewy mist and where the human
beings had quite a different connection with Nature than they
have now. The Rosicrucian pupil who is thus walking over the
meadows and who perceives the pearls of dew upon the plants
says to himself: In the ancient Land of Mists this was once
dissolved in the atmosphere. And within his soul rose up a
deeply concealed memory of the Atlantean age.
Imagination was
specially cultivated among the pupils of the medieval
Rosicrucian Schools, and als0 among the pupils of the
Holy-Grail. Since I cannot express myself in any other way,
let me now convey to you in the form of a dialogue some of
the truths which were taught in these Schools.
The teacher
said to his pupil: — “Behold the plant: see how
it springs out of the ground, opening its calyx with the
organs of fructification; see how the sun's rays come down
upon it and open the blossom, so that the fruit can
ripen”. The Rosicrucian pupil, and also the pupil of
the Holy Grail, had to conjure up before their soul
this image, this idea.
Now there is
something very significant, even in materialistic science,
whenever a plant is being compared with the human being. You
must, in that case, take the plant's root as corresponding to
the human head, whereas the flower corresponds to man's
generative organs, to the which he shame-facedly conceals. In
the plant the root corresponds to the human head. Man is a
reversed plant, the animal is a half reversed pant.
Rosicrucianism therefore says: Behold the plant: Its root is
in the ground and its organs of fructification are chastely
turned towards the sun's ray. Behold the animal: Its spine is
horizontal ... and then behold man: There you have a
complete reverse, a complete transformation. In the cosmic
process of evolution the plant, the animal and man are
symbolized by the Cross! The Cross is the plant, the animal
and man. — Now you will be able to understand Plato's
words: The soul of the universe hangs upon the Cross of the
universe. — the soul of the universe, the cosmic soul
which permeates everything, is stretched out upon the plant,
the animal, and man.
Now it was
impressed upon the Rosicrucian student: “Behold the
plant: In its kind, it is lower than you, for it is not
endowed with consciousness and with the power of thinking;
but its substance is pure and chaste; it turns its calyx
towards the sun; its organ of reproduction is turned without
any passion towards the sun's ray, the holy spear of love.
But physical substance has become permeated with passion. Now
think of the future ideal — a purified substance,
producing itself in purest chastity,” And his
attention, was drawn towards the larynx, where man shall one
day have attained the purity and chastity of the flower's
calyx. “Think of the plant's calyx, which is devoid of
passion. It develops through passion, but it will become pure
again and reproduce itself chastely, by allowing itself to be
fructified by the spiritual ray of the sun, by the Holy Spear
of Love.” A prototype of this “holy spear of
Love” is the spear which pierced the heart of
Christ-Jesus upon the Cross.
Yesterday we
have seen that this blood which streamed out of the
Redeemer's wound banished egoism from the earth. The spear
which pierced him is therefore a foreboding of that higher
spear, the sun's ray in a spiritual form. And the Holy Grail
indicates the chalice of humanity which develops out of the
larynx, and which will be the purified generative organ of
the future, as is the case to-day in the plant.
This is the
deeper meaning of the Holy Grail, which was brought to the
knowledge of the Rosicrucian students and of the disciples of
the Holy Grail when they had reached the imaginative stage.
Now compare the vision which you obtain through these images
— the plant's calyx, sex filled with passion, the Holy
Grail. the passionless chalice — compare this with the
dry, intellectual concept supplied by modern science; this
will show you the difference between imagination and mere
intellectual thought: the whole cosmic process must be
grasped in images! This is important, for the more
intellectual concepts which we have to-day are not creative;
but if these concepts are added to an image, then the images
will become creative. This was felt in past times, and it
should be considered in the education of the child.
Let me now
discuss an actual problem. To-day people say so easily: What
nonsense our elders taught us children, by telling us the
story of the stork! Children should be told the truth.
If our
descendants will treat us as we treat our forefathers, they
will also laugh at us and say: Our forefathers thought that
that the human being arises through a physical act! —
And they will look back upon the time when this was explained
to children in a spiritual way. In ancient times, when the
story of the stork arose, also adults believed in it, for
they knew that when a human being is born, his soul descend a
from the spiritual world; and so they always connected birth
with the descent of a winged being. You may even find this
again in nursery-rhymes, for instance in the following
one:
Flieg, Käfer, flieg!
Dein Vater ist im Krieg!
Deine Mutter ist im Pommerland
Pommerland ist abgebrannt;
Flieg, Käfer, flieg!
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Fly, Beetle, fly!
Your father is in the war.
Your mother is in Pommerland,
Pommerland is burnt to ashes!
Fly, Beetle, fly!
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This “fly, beetle” is meant as
an image for the human soul, because a faint knowledge still
existed of the astral world, from where the souls fly down
into the physical world. And what is
“Pommerland”? “Pommer” is the sane
word as “Pommerle” which means a small child, so
that “Pommerland”, or “Pommerleland”,
is the Land of babies, where the mother goes to-fetch her
baby. Such things must simply be explained in the light of
the spiritual world. If you bear in mind that the image of
the stork bringing babies is really an image for a spiritual
process — reincarnation — you will realise how
immensely important it is that certain things should first be
grasped in the form of pictures; if the child is first taught
to look upon the image of the spiritual process, he will
develop an entirely different frame of mind enabling him to
listen reverently even to the description of the physical
process.
If you know
that the stork is an image for the descending soul, you,
yourself will once more believe in the stork! Your words can
wing a child's fancy, if you understand the truth underlying
an image; in that case a mysterious fluid will stream out of
it and pass over to the child. This applies to every image.
Children can thus be taught everything.
How can you
deal with the problem of life after death? Lead the child to
a butterfly's cocoon and tell him: Even as the butterfly
flies out of its cocoon, so the soul flies out of the body
when we die, but we cannot see this. If you really believe in
this, you will be able to convince the child that when the
butterfly leaves its cocoon, this is, upon a lower stage, the
same as when the soul leaves the body. If spiritual science
enables us to dive down again into the spiritual world, so
that living images rise up in human hearts, education will
change altogether; then the child will no longer be taught
dry intellectual facts which coarsen his soul. We should not
pull things down to a grotesque or comic sphere but we should
realise instead what important things lie at their
foundation.
The third thing
which must be acquired for the paving of the
“path” is the
Learning of the Occult Writing.
This does not consist in learning a writing, as
is the case in ordinary life. The letters of the alphabet may
indeed ba traced back to occult images but they are not by a
long way an occult writing. In occult writing we must
penetrate into the real great cosmic forces which are active
in the universe. And all that we write down, must be so that
one process of development passes over into the next. Take a
plant: It bears seeds; in the seed you have the starting
point for a new plant. But if you could really investigate
the process, you would find that nothing of the old plant
passes over into the new plant. In reality, the old plant
perishes completely in regard to its substance; while the new
plant builds up its form from entirely new substances —
all that passes over into the new plant is a kind of
movement. Here you have some sealing wax and there a seal:
you press the seal into the wax. Of the seal itself nothing
has gone over into the wax, only the form remains. —
This is the case in every process of development. When it
perishes the old substance merely supplies the opportunity
for a new form to arise in accordance with the old form. This
is designated
with two
inter-twining spirals which do not meet. Such a transition
existed after the Atlantea epooh of culture; this epoch
disappears and a new one arises in the Indian epoch of
culture; also this must be designated with two spirals. I
have already told you that in the year 800 A.D. the sun rose
in the sign of Aries; before that in the sign of Taurus;
further back in the sign of Gemini and still further back in
the sign of Cancer. The Graeco-Latin age, containing the
seeds of our present epoch, coincided with the time when the
sun rose in the sign of Aries; the preceeding civilisation;
the Chaldean-Assyrian-Egyptian one, coincided with the time
when the sun rose in the sign of Taurus; before that we have
the Persien culture; when the sun rose in the sign of Gemini;
and the ancient Indian culture developed itself when the sun
stood in the sign of Cancer. It was then that the sign of
Cancer; two inter-twining spirals was first written down.
Thus I might
explain to you each sign of the Zodiac according to its true
meaning. These signs were formed out of Nature, they are an
expression for the forces and laws which are active outside,
in Nature. If we learn to know the occult signs we begin to
go outside ourselves; we penetrate into the mysterious
foundations of Nature.
Thus I have
given you some indications 0n the first three stages of the
Rosiorucian path:
Study,
Imaginative Knowledge,
and the
Acquisition of the Occult Writing.
To-morrow we
shall discuss the other stages, beginning with the
Preparation of the Stone of the Wise.
Notes:
Note 1. See lecture 5 of
Life Between Death and a New Birth.
Note 2. See
Macrocosm and Microcosm. Soul Problems, Life Problems,
Spiritual Problems.
Note 3. See
The Path of Knowledge and its Stages
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