Lecture IV
April 4, 1916
Today I would
like to pass over to the occult side of the lecture which I
gave eight days ago. In the first place, we have seen that
certain occult streams are significant for human life, these
occult streams which bring themselves to expression in
certain occult brotherhoods. You will have seen from the more
externally presented ideas of the last lectures that in a
quite special coloring in West Europe, particularly in the
British lands, such occult brotherhoods are used in order to
achieve certain external goals.
That which is
designated by the name occult brotherhoods is a very
complicated situation. However, this complicated situation
builds itself on a foundation which educates human beings in
a certain direction through the fact that it unites them in a
kind of cult and certain symbols are given over to them and
in this way they are united, as it were, in a service which
comes to expression in certain symbols. Many people today
think in a very light-hearted manner about the significance
of the ceremonies and symbolic matters which are connected
with certain occult brotherhoods, and they tend to dismiss
them as a laughing matter. However, some people, for example
Goethe, attached a great deal of importance to the fact that
something of a definite nature exists in such ceremonial
situations. Goethe knew this very well and he brought it to
expression in one way or another. He was grateful that in the
course of his life he did not go through a normal school
system, but achieved a later education through being
connected with certain orders.
We know that
since the beginning of the 15th century we lived in the
5th-post-Alantean period and this was preceded by the 4th
which started in 747 B.C. and ended in 1413 A.D. In this
period people were so configured that their ether body was
much more receptive than it is in the time since the
15th-century. This ether body could perceive much more of
that which was around it. When the ether body perceives, then
it sees the elementary world, that which is of an elemental
nature, elemental beings in plants, animals and minerals.
When people in those centuries were still able to speak of
cobbies and gnomes which they could perceive in certain
mountains and which approached them from certain mines,
today's people, when they hear about it call this situation
just poetical. However, to the people in these centuries,
this is not poetical; they still knew something about the
presence of an elementary world behind the physical world.
You can see from external documents that people in past ages
did possess a different sort of perception. In the Hamburg
Museum, for example, you can find a certain picture which
presents the original first chapter of Genesis in which you
have the Fall into Sin, the Expulsion from the Garden of
Eden.
We know from
our studies that the tempter was Lucifer and Lucifer is not a
being who can be seen with present day physical eyes, but
must be seen with the awakened etheric body, with the
awakened clairvoyance, and then he manifests himself as that
particular being who was left behind during the Moon
Evolution. We already had our physical body during the Moon
evolution, but it was not physically visible but etherically
visible. In reference to this, present day man is a reflection
of that which was already present as head upon the moon, but
the rest of the human body was not attached to the head as
it is today but was attached in the form of a spinal column
coming from the head and presented as serpent-like form. If
one wants to represent Lucifer as he is left behind from the
Moon development, one has to represent him with a human head
and with a spinal column attached to it, namely, in the
serpent form. This is exactly how the painter, Master
Bertram, represented Lucifer in his Hamburg picture in the
13th, 14th century. We can see that at that time human beings
still had a perception of the elementary world.
Those symbols
which form the foundation for certain occult brotherhoods
also arose in the 4th post-Atlantean period. At that time
these symbols were perceived in a living way. Goethe realized
that this type of symbolism could be made fruitful for
external life. In his book
Wilhelm Meister
you can read how the education was so led that the human being
grew up in a certain type of symbolism. Goethe wanted people to
learn about the four reverences which human beings should
experience through symbols: the reverence for the spiritual
world, the reverence for the physical world, the reverence
for other people and the reverence which can then be built up
out of these three reverences, namely the reverence for
oneself.
Now, the
question is: How does Goethe want to develop people for the
reverence of the spiritual? He wants to teach them certain
gestures: crossed arms over the breast with the gaze turned
upwards. In this position they should acquire a reverence for
that which can have an influence upon human beings from the
spiritual. He intended to combine this gesture with the
acquisition of the feeling for reverence for that which is
above. Now the question arises: why does this have a certain
significance? That has a certain significance because when
the human being really experiences the reverence of the
spirit, which he receives; and when he, himself, puts his
physical hands together behind his back, then the ether hands
cross themselves in the front. And when he directs his
physical glance downwards, then his ether eyes turned
upwards. The natural gesture for the ether eyes is turned
upwards and for the ether hands, crossed in front. And this
is something which the ether body actually carries out when
this reverence for the spiritual is present.
In the 4th
post-Atlantean period, people knew about this because they
were themselves able to perceive the movements of the ether
body; and as far as Goethe was concerned, this was the way of
growing into the spiritual life. In a similar way, when he
wanted to have reverence for the bodily aspect, the earthly
aspect, there was another position; and again for the third
aspect if he wanted to have reverence for other people, then
the gesture was: outstretched hands and the gaze directed
left and right and this would bring to expression reverence
for every similar configurated soul; after that he could
acquire for himself reverence for his own soul. Now, this
direct knowledge of these gestures is correct. It is not just
something arbitrary, but is something connected with the
spiritual organization of man. This has, in the main, been
lost since the 14th century.
What follows
from that? Previously, before the 14th century, one could
lead these people to gestures of that nature and also more
complicated gestures. They would only need to accompany that
with something which they could easily awaken to an inner
life. After that, in our 5th post-Atlantean period, the
situation is such that gestures as Goethe wanted to present
can be brought to young people if you give them the
corresponding instructions and Goethe also wanted this.
However, the complicated gesture language which is involved
in sign, grip and word is spread out within the secret
brotherhoods, and the realities in them could not be brought
to people since the 14th and 15th century; that could no
longer happen. However, this process which belonged to the
4th period continued into the 5th post-Atlantean period
through the brotherhoods. In the three subsequent grades,
they have come among other symbolical things, the grip and
word however this continued among souls who were differently
invigorated from those souls in the earlier periods. These
people could no longer combine anything real with the sign,
grip and word, because they could not bring to themselves
that which was corresponding in the ether body. It was merely
an external aspect as far as the soul was concerned.
Previously in the age of the Intellectual Soul, there was a
possibility of it having a real substantial content, but when
man began to develop the Consciousness Soul, he began to
focus upon the physical brain intellect and the sensitivity
of the ether body receded.
Now, the
question is: What occurred? I ask you to pay attention to
what results from this You find that the occult brotherhoods
continue these practices into the 5th post-Atlantean period.
They take in people and familiarize them with certain
corresponding symbols. These people learn certain signs
through the fact that they bring their body into a certain
position; they learn certain grips by taking hold of someone
else's hand in a way that is not the usual way; they learn to
express certain words which signify a certain activity of the
ether body, etc. I only want to mention the elementary
aspects. Thus people have learned sign, grip and word since
the 15th, 16th century, but they are so configurated now that
their Consciousness Soul is the active aspect and the sign,
grip and word do not work into this Consciousness Soul; it
remains as an entirely external sign. However, you must not
believe that when sign, grip and word are transmitted to
people, that they do not have an action upon the ether body.
They do have an action. With sign, grip and word, a man does
take up that which was once united with sign, grip and word.
You instruct a number of people in sign, grip and word and
through that you bring something into their unconscious which
they cannot have in their consciousness, but this is not
appropriate for our present stage of evolution which requires
that one imparts that which can be understood by the
intellect through the intellect to human beings. First you
must bring it to the intellect and this actually is the
content of spiritual science. In the 1st place you must stand
within the spiritual scientific movement some way and then
after certain time has elapsed after being in the spiritual
scientific movement, then you can be led to receive sign,
grip and word. Then one is prepared to see something which
one knows about, something which one can at least understand.
However, as a general rule, this is not done in these occult
brotherhoods. People are taken up in the first grade or any
other occultism and sign, grip and word and many other things
are transmitted to them. In that way one is able to work upon
their unconsciousness. Now what is the consequence of
that?
The
consequences that you can adapt these people to become tools
for all sorts of plans, because when you are able to work
over the ether body in such a way that be does not understand
what is going on, you eliminate those forces which would
otherwise be present his understanding. In the case of these
brotherhoods can become a tool for those who want to execute
their own plans. Those brotherhoods continue to further
certain political goals or to set up a dogma such as Krishna
Murti Alcione being the physical carrier of Christ Jesus. And
those who are prepared in this way become instruments to
carry this out into the world. However, those who have been
able to study my book
Theosophy
or
Occult Science
and are able to grasp it, can never be damaged
through any transmission of symbols. We see that in a very
extensive way in the British lands there is no sort of
explanation given or instruction which proceeds the symbolic
aspect. When I say explanation it does not mean saying:
‘this symbol indicates this and that symbol indicates
that’, because you can give all sorts of nonsense in
that way. But this instruction must be so arranged that the
mysteries can be revealed from the study of the whole process
of earth and human development, and then one can permit the
symbolism to arise out of that.
A great deal of
damage has occurred in France through the occult literature
of Eliphas Levi, whose books
Dogma and Ritual of the Higher Magic
and
Key to the Higher Magic
surely contained great truths beside terrible errors. However,
these books are so arranged as can be done with our spiritual
science, but they have to be taken up in a symbolic way. Just
read Eliphas Levi. Now you can read them without danger
because you have been specially prepared. You can read his
book
Dogma and Ritual of the Higher Magic
and then you will be able to see how the whole methodology
of symbolism is entirely different. Indeed, my dear friends,
when one is instructed in symbols in a way that is found in
this book, then you have prepared people so that you can use
them in any way you see fit. Actually after Eliphas Levi, the
situation became much worse through Dr. Onkaus, through
Papus, who had such a terrible influence on the Court of St.
Petersburg where he played a very fateful political role.
Now, the situation is not to refute Papus — this may
seem paradoxical because there are terrible things there
— because you have a great deal that is also correct.
However, the terrible danger lies in the way in which this is
given to people. That which you find in Papus' books
penetrate into the soul of weak people and that means
preparing them to become complete sleepers in their intellect
and then you can use them in whatever way you wish. At the
present time, such people have a certain influence.
The teaching of
Jacob Boehme, of which we have often spoken, was implanted in
France in the 18th century by St. Martin, who is called the
Unknown Philosopher. St. Martin translated Jacob Boehme's
works into French and this was then translated back into
German in a way which made his works much easier to
understand than they were in the original German. St.
Martin's book
Errors and Truth
was very beautifully
translated by a very worthy German poet, Matthias Claudius.
So you see that one can experience much of a curious nature
in this field. Actually I have to mention the frivolous
grasping of Christ in connection with the book entitled
The Feet of the Master
which Krishna Murti was
supposed to have written, and how they thought that that was
one of the greatest things that was ever presented. So you
see that all sorts of things happen, this hypocritical
deceit, the spreading of that spiritual stream which goes out
from Papus and those people who call themselves Martinists.
Actually one would like to protect the Unknown Philosopher who
really strove very honestly after truth all that he tried to
do which was necessary the service of the 18th century. All
that is entirely different from the terrible nonsense and
deceit which the followers of Papus are using when they take
his name in vain just to further their ends. He was alright,
but these people are terrible people, full of deceit, doing
all sorts of things in the service of that which they
themselves did not even know.
There are many
things we have to know. We have to know that every occult
brotherhood builds itself up on the basis of three grades. In
the first grade when symbolism is used in the correct way,
the souls advance so far that they acquire an inner
experience of the fact that there is a knowledge which can be
acquired independently of ordinary physical knowledge. Now,
in the 1st place, when I say: correctly presented, I obviously
mean that which is appropriate for our fifth post-Atlantean
period. And in the first grade you must be able to acquire a
certain totality of such knowledge independent of the
physical. In our fifth period, everyone in the first grade
ought to know something of that which exists my book
Occult Science,
and in the second grade everyone
must know, that means, they must have an inner living
knowledge of that which stands in my book
How Does One Acquire Knowledge of the Higher Worlds.
Then the person in the third grade who receives the significant
symbols of sign, grip and word really knows what it means to live
outside his body. This is the whole procedure which should be
carried out. This actually was achieved right into the 8th
and 9th centuries in certain areas in Europe. For example,
this was completely reached by a large number of individuals
in Ireland. This is also true in other areas of Europe, but
not to the extent that it happened in Ireland. However, the
preparation was different at that time because it was
impossible to acquire what people today can acquire as a real
science of the spirit. The science of the spirit can only
appear to us now for many reasons, however, there always has
been occult brotherhoods, and they work particularly out of
pure symbolism.
Now, I would
like to point out that it is especially significant when pure
symbolism is worked in a community which in fact has not
arrived at its complete maturity; and that is how these
terrible evil conditions occur. Under the Empress Catherine
of Russia something was received from Voltairism by the
followers of Paul and others in Russia who attempted to
implant certain secret brotherhoods into Russia from the
West. That has had a great influence upon the whole spiritual
development of Russia since that time; a much greater
influence than you would believe. Naturally such influences
group themselves in various directions. For example, these
influences work in literature through novels and politics
through political writings. However, those influences become
very significant for the subsequent development through
certain channels which are always present. And everything
which is significant in the spiritual life of Russia right up
to Tolstoy leads, in the main, back to that which occurred in
the time of which I just spoke, to the implanting of certain
occult brotherhoods towards Russia from Western Europe.
Now, I have
told you that a certain foundation is present, the foundation
is that which the occult brotherhoods accomplished through
these three grades. However, there are people who advanced to
the so-called higher grades. Here we have a domain which is
subject to a great deal of vanity, because there are
brotherhoods in which people can be brought to the 90th
degree or higher. Just imagine what it means to carry such a
high order in yourself. The idea of the 33rd degree, however,
results from a mistake springing from complete ignorance in a
so-called Scottish high grades which are based upon three
grades which follow in the way in which I just described.
Thus you have the three grades which have their deep
significance. However 30 others follow after these three
grades. If you are already in the third grade and you are
able to achieve the experience of living outside your body,
then just imagine where you would have advanced when you are
able to go through 30 more grades. This rests, however, upon
a grotesque ignorance, because they do not know that in
occult science things are not read in the decimal system, but
in the following way. When you write the 33rd degree, in
reality that signifies, according to the system of memory
which is applicable there, that 33 really means 3x3=9. This
played a great role with Blavatsky. In her
Secret Doctrine
you will find a long debate about the number 777.
There are people who have fantasized all sorts of things
about what this number 777 means. However, it actually is
7x7=49, 49x7=343, 7x7x7=343. That is what it really means.
Because the people could not read 33 correctly, they read it
as 33 instead of reading it as 9.
Now, let us
forget all these vanities and continue. First you have the
three grades as a foundation. Then there are six more degrees
which follow after the first three degrees. And, when you
pass through these six additional degrees, then you have
experienced something of great significance. However, in our
present age, these additional six degrees cannot be
completely fulfilled; it is a pure impossibility. They cannot
be completely fulfilled because human beings in our 5th
post-Atlantean period are not advanced enough to experience
all that can actually be experienced; that will come later,
that will come gradually. You must know that since the year
1413 we stand in the 5th post-Atlantean period. This will
last 2160 years and will be ended in the year 3573. Hence we
really stand in the beginning of our period and in the course
of this 5th period a great deal will happen. This must occur
through the development of spiritual science. This, however,
can only reveal itself gradually step by step. Today we can
impart only the great lines of it and we can also learn many
details about it, but a great deal will only come when it has
strengthened itself on the resistances; and these resistances
will become greater and greater.
Today we live
in a relatively idealistic spiritual age compared with that
which will come in the future. We are living at the end of
the 2nd post-Christian Millennium and it will not be long
until we reach the year 2,000 and then mankind will have to
experience something of a special nature. Things which are
preparing themselves very gradually right now are so prepared
that there are two polarities which we are going to meet as
time goes on. Two polarities are being prepared, one pole
from the East and another from the West. In the East things
will gradually develop in such a way that another kind of
thinking will dominate. Whenever a child is born, one will
attempt to say: “What comes of this child? We have to
deal with a hidden spiritual being who wants gradually to
develop this child.” You will want to solve the riddle
of this child, and in the first place you will unite a kind
of cult dealing with the growing up of this child. This sort
of thing prepares itself in the East. Naturally it will pass
over towards Europe and the consequence will be that an
immense reverence will develop for that which one calls
genius, a seeking for genius. This is what will come from the
East. However this will affect only the smaller portion of
mankind. The larger part of mankind will be influenced from
America, from the West, and this proceeds along an entirely
different line of development.
We might say
that the present time is doing very well compared with that
which will come in the future when the Western development
blossoms more and more. Very shortly, when one will have
written the year 2000, there will come from America not a
direct prohibition, but a kind of prohibition against all
thinking, a sort of law which will have the aim of
suppressing all individual thinking. On the other hand there is
the beginning achieved in this direction of suppressing all
individual thinking into pure materialistic thinking where
one does not need to work upon the soul on the basis of
external experiments, in which the human being is handled as if
he were a machine. Now, I hope you will not misunderstand me,
my dear friends, because in this domain a great deal is
precisely sinned against on the so-called spiritual side. For
example, you can experience the following: People will come
and say: “Yes, I have been exposed to all sorts of
things in medicine and I was not healed; so I went to a
healer who treated me quite spiritually.” Then I asked
him what the healer did with him and he answered:
“There are evil spirits in my body and I must pray them
out of myself.” I asked if this helped. “No, I
became worse and worse.” I ask you to just imagine how
the situation stands. Do not just imagine that this person
has said something incorrect. It is quite correct that there
were spiritual beings in him that were the cause of what
happened to him. But precisely because that healer told him
something correct, this damaged the human being.
Now, just think
of it in this way. A scamp destroys a machine. He is the
cause of the machine no longer running. How can I bring this
machine back into proper working order? According to the
method of your spiritual healer, I must get hold of this
scamp and give him a thorough thrashing so that he will run
away and then everything should be in order. Obviously the
spiritual healer told you that as soon as the evil spirits
have gone away your machine is in order. However, just as
little as the machine is now in order because the scamp was
thrashed and has run away, so now I must work putting machine
back order. And so it is with the person who was sick. Of
course, this spiritual healer was able to drive the evil
spirits out, but the damage had been done and now you must
heal the body. You can see that so much has been sinned
against from this other side, because today people have lost
the ability to think. For example we have machines today
which add and subtract; everything is convenient. Now, in the
Future you will not get a law passed which says you must not
think. No. What will happen is that things will be done the
effect of which will be to exclude all individual thinking.
This is the other pole to which we are proceeding. This is
connected with the development of the West.
You have to
develop a certain counter weight against this tendency in the
world development; and Anthroposophical Spiritual Science is
this counter-weight. What do we have instead? We have these
brotherhoods in which these people take up in the first grade
and were given symbols. Then they were promoted to the second
grade, then into the third where they actually learn the
symbolic without any spiritual science being taken up by
them. And if you were to ask these people if they are
satisfied that they have learned certain ceremonies, hand
grips, certain signs and that certain symbolic activities
occur in the temple room; they will say: “Ah, we are
very happy with that. We do not need to do any more thinking;
each person can interpret it for himself in the way he
wants.” However, the situation is that we ask by real
knowledge into the ether body and people are produced in such
a way that in their ether body they have a comprehensive
knowledge, not in their physical body, not in their conscious
knowledge but in their ether body. They have an immense
knowledge particularly when I have been brought to the third
degree; they have an immense unconscious knowledge, a
knowledge which has been transmitted to them through symbols
can be applied honestly or dishonestly in a significant
way.
You really have
two occult directions, one pole carries the cosmic Christian
character, the other carries the Church Christian character.
Just as with the Freemasons you have to reckon with the
cosmic Christian character of the symbolic brotherhoods, so
with the Jesuits you have to reckon with the Church symbolic
branch, because the Jesuits are led through three grades with
a certain symbolism and learn to acquire precisely through
this symbolism a great effect in their speech. Hence the
Jesuit speakers are so very effective because they know how
to build a speech up in such a way that one can work upon the
uneducated masses. They gradually learn to insert certain
intensities one after another into their presentation. These
people go through their three grades in their own way.
Now, all occult
brotherhoods are not Freemasons. There are all sorts of
varieties such as the Illuminatum in Germany, and in addition
to the three lower grades, you have the three upper grades.
In certain brotherhoods you have members who are in the upper
grades forming a sort of communion with members in the upper
grades of other brotherhoods. You know that the Jesuits
battle against the Freemasons and vise versa. However, the
upper orders of the Freemasons and the upper orders of the
Jesuits build a special brotherhood; they build a state
within a state. Just imagine what you can work in the world
where on the one side you have the upper grades of a
Freemason community which serves as an Instrument in order to
produce certain work, setting up an understanding with the
upper grades of a certain Jesuit community and and then
working together in order to produce certain objectives. Such
an apparatus was set up in the land which exists Northwest of
Europe between Holland and France. This did not happen
recently but some time ago special effects went out which
used the one stream as well as the other, and was able to
produce a great deal of effectiveness.
Now it is
getting late so I will end this lecture by saying that in
eight days I will give you still more concrete ideas about
this field. Today I had to keep the abstract sides of the
situation mind. We had to know all about this in order to
perceive what is really working in this realm of the external
world.
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