Lecture XI
Who are the Rosicrucians?
Berlin 14th March, 1907
Today's
subject, the Rosicrucians, is one which few people are able
to connect even remotely adequate ideas. And indeed, it is
not easy to arrive at anything conclusive about what the name
implies. For most people it remains extremely vague. If books
are consulted, one is informed that the Rosicrucians are
thought to be some Und of sect that flourished in the early
centuries of German culture. Some say that it is impossible
to verify whether anything serious or rational ever existed
behind the fraud and charlatanry associated with the name. On
the other hand, some learned books do proffer a variety of
information.
If what is
written about Rosicrucianism is true, one could only come to
the conclusion that it has consisted of nothing but idle
boasting, pure fraud or worse. Even those who have attempted
to justify it, do so with an air of patronage, though they
may have found that Rosicrucianism is able to throw light on
certain subjects. But what they have to say about it, for
example, that it is involved with alchemy, with producing the
philosopher's stone, the stone of the wise, and other
alchemical feats, does not inspire much confidence.
However, these
feats were for the genuine Rosicrucian nothing but symbols
for the inner moral purification of the human soul. The
transformations represented symbolically how inner human
virtues should be developed. When the Rosicrucians spoke of
transforming base metals into gold, they meant that it was
possible to transform base vices into the gold of human
virtue.
Those who
uphold that the great work of the Rosicrucians is to be
understood as being symbolic are met with the objection that
in that case Rosicrucianism is simply trivial. It is
difficult to see the need of all these alchemical inventions,
such as the transformation of metals, simply to demonstrate
the obvious fact that a human being should be moral and
change his vices into virtues.
However,
Rosicrucianism contains things of far greater import. Rather
than further historical description, I shall give a factual
account of Rosicrucianism. The historical aspect need concern
us only insofar as we learn from it that Rosicrucianism has
existed in the Occident since the fourteenth century, and
that it goes back to a legendary figure, Christian Rosenkreuz,
[
Christian Rosenkreuz (15th century) was the founder of Rosicrucianism,
a group of secret brotherhoods claiming esoteric wisdom in the late
Middle Ages.
]
about whom much is rumored, but history has little to say.
One incident
that appears as a basic feature of various accounts can be
summed up by saying that Christian Rosenkreuz — that is
not his real name, but the one by which he is
known — made journeys at the end of the fifteenth and the
beginning of the sixteenth centuries. On journeys through the
East he became acquainted with the book
M — — — — , a book from which, so we are
mysteriously told, Paracelsus, the great medieval physician
and mystic, gained his knowledge. This account is true, but
what the book M — — — — actually is, and
what study of it signifies, is known only to initiates.
External
information about Rosicrucianism stems from two writings that
appeared at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the
so-called Fama Fraternitatis in 1614, and a year
later the Confessio, two books much disputed among
scholars. The disputes were by no means confined to the usual
controversy about books, that is, whether Valentin Andreae,
[
Valentin Andreae (1586–1654) theologian, wrote about
Rosicrucianism.
]
who in his later years was an ordinary normal clergyman, was
really the author. In this case it was also disputed whether
the author meant the books to be taken seriously or whether
they were meant as satire, mocking a certain secret brotherhood
known as the Rosicrucians. These two publications were followed
by many others proffering all kinds of information about
Rosicrucianism.
Someone without
knowledge of the true background of Rosicrucianism, who picks
up the writings of Valentin Andreae, or indeed any other
Rosicrucian document, will find nothing exceptional in them.
In fact, right up to our own time, it has been impossible to
gain even elementary knowledge of this spiritual stream that
still exists, and has done so since the fourteenth century.
Everything published, written or printed is nothing but
fragments, lost through betrayal into public hands. Not only
are these fragments inaccurate; they have undergone all kinds
of distortions through charlatanry, fraud, incomprehension
and sheer stupidity. As long as it has existed, genuine
Rosicrucianism has been passed an by word of mouth to members
sworn to secrecy. That is also why nothing of great
importance has found its way into public literature.
We shall speak
today about certain elementary aspects of Rosicrucianism that
can now be spoken of in public, for reasons which at the
moment would take us too far to explain. Only when they are
known can one make any sense of what is found in the often
grotesque, often merely comic, but also often fraudulent, and
seldom accurate information.
Rosicrucianism
is one of the methods whereby what is called "initiation" can
be attained. What initiation is has often been a subject of
discussion in our circles To be initiated means that
faculties slumbering in every human soul are awakened. These
faculties enable a person to look into the spiritual world
that exists behind our physical world. The physical world is
an expression of the spiritual world of which it is a
product. An initiate is someone who has applied the method of
initiation, a method as exact and as scientifically worked
out as those applied in chemistry, physics or any other
science. The difference is that the method of initiation is
not applied to begin with to anything external, but only to
the human being; he is the instrument, the tool through which
knowledge of the spiritual world is attained. An individual
who genuinely strives to attain knowledge of the spirit
recognizes the deep truth contained in Goethe's words:
Mysterious by Day's broad light,
Nature retains her veil, despite our clamors,
and what she won't reveal to human mind or sight
Cannot be wrenched from her with levers, screws or
hammers.
( Faust, Part I, Night.
trans. Bayard Taylor. )
Deep indeed are
the secrets nature holds, but not as impenetrably deep as
those maintain who are too comfortable to make the effort.
The human spirit is certainly capable of penetrating nature's
secrets: not, however, through the soul's ordinary faculties,
but through higher ones, attained when its hidden forces have
been developed through certain strictly circumscribed
methods. A person who gradually prepares will eventually
reach a point where knowledge attainable only through
initiation is revealed to him; to speak in Goethe's sense:
The great secret is revealed of what “ultimately holds
the world together” — a revelation that is truly a
fruit of initiation.
It has often
been explained that the early stages of initiation can be
embarked upon by anyone without any danger whatever. A
prerequisite for the higher stages is the very highest
conscientiousness and devotion to Truth in spiritual
research. When an individual approaches the portals through
which he looks into quite different worlds, he realizes the
truth of what is often emphasized: that it is dangerous to
impart the holy secrets of existence to great masses of
people. However, to the extent that modern humanity is able,
through inner preparation, gradually to find their way to the
highest secrets of nature and the spiritual world, to that
extent can they also be revealed.
The spiritual
scientific movement is a path that guides human beings to the
higher secrets. A number of such paths exist. That is not to
say that the ultimate truth attainable takes different forms.
The highest truth is one. No matter where or when
human beings ever lived or live, once they reach the highest
Truth, it is the same for all. It is comparable to the view
from the mountaintop, which is the same for all who reach it,
no matter what different paths they choose to get there. When
one stands at a certain spot an the mountainside, when a path
is available, one does not walk round the mountain for
another path. The same applies to the path of higher
knowledge, which must be in accordance with a person's
nature. What comes into consideration here is too often
overlooked, that is, the immense differences in human nature.
The people of ancient India were inwardly organized
differently from modern people. This difference in the higher
members is apparent to spiritual research, though not to the
external science of physiology or anatomy. It is thanks to
this fact that we have preserved up to our own time a
wonderful spiritual knowledge, and also the method whereby
initiation was achieved — the path of yoga. This path
leads those who are constituted like the people of ancient
India to the summit of knowledge. For today's European it is
as senseless to seek that path as it would be to first walk
to the opposite side of the mountain and use the path there
rather than the path available where one stands. The nature
of today's European is completely different from that of the
Oriental. A few centuries before the Christian era began,
human nature was different from what it was to become a few
centuries later. And today it is different again.
As we have
seen, initiation is based upon awakening in human beings
certain forces. Bearing this in mind, we must acknowledge
that a person's nature must be taken into account when
methods are developed whereby he becomes the instrument able
to perceive and to investigate the spiritual world.
The wonderful
method developed by the Rishis, the great spiritual teachers
in ancient India, is still valid for those belonging to the
Indian race. At the beginning of the Christian era the right
method was the so-called Christian-Gnostic path. The human
being who stands fully within today's civilization needs a
different method. That is why in the course of centuries and
millennia the great masters of wisdom who guide mankind's
evolution change the methods that lead to the summit of
wisdom.
The Rosicrucian
method of initiation is especially for modern people; it
meets the needs of modern conditions. Not only is it a
Christian path, but it enables the striving human being to
recognize that spiritual research and its achievements are in
complete harmony with modern culture, and with modern
humanity's whole outlook. It will for long centuries to come
be the right method of initiation into spiritual life. When
it was first inaugurated, certain rules were laid down for
its adherents — rules that are basically still valid, and
because they are strictly observed, Rosicrucians are not
recognized by outsiders. Never to let it be known that one is
a Rosicrucian is the first rule that only recently has been
slightly modified. While the wisdom is fostered in narrow
circles, its fruits should be available to all humanity. That
is why until recently no Rosicrucian divulged what enabled
him to investigate nature's secrets. Nothing of the knowledge
was revealed; no hint was given theoretically or otherwise,
but work was done that furthered civilization and implanted
wisdom in ways hardly noticeable to others.
That is the
first basic rule; to elaborate it further would lead too far.
Suffice it to say that today this rule has been partly
relaxed, but the higher Rosicrucian knowledge is not
revealed. The second rule concerns conduct, and may be
expressed as follows: Be truly part of the civilization and
people to which you belong; be a member of the class in which
you find yourself. Wear the clothes that are worn generally,
nothing different or conspicuous. Thus, you will find that
neither ambition nor selfishness motivates the Rosicrucian;
he rather strives wherever possible to improve aspects of the
prevailing culture, while never losing sight of the much
loftier aims that link him with the central Rosicrucian
wisdom.
The other basic
rules need not concern us at the moment. We want to look at
the actual Rosicrucian training as it still exists and has
existed for centuries. What it is possible to say about it
deals only with the elementary stages of the whole system of
Rosicrucian schooling. Something ought to be said about this
training that applies to spiritual scientific training,
namely, that it should not be embarked upon without
knowledgeable guidance. What is to be said about this subject
you will find in my book Knowledge of Higher Worlds and
its Attainment.
The preliminary
Rosicrucian training consists of seven stages that need not
be absolved in the sequence here enumerated. The teacher will
lay more emphasis on one point or another, according to the
pupil's individuality and special needs. Thus, it is a path
of learning and inner development, adapted to the particular
pupil. These are the seven steps:
- Study, in the Rosicrucian sense of the word
- Acquisition of imaginative knowledge
- Acquisition of the occult script
- Bringing rhythm into life, this is also described as
preparing the philosopher's stone. This has nothing in
common with the nonsense written about it.
- Knowledge of the microcosm, that is, of man's
essential nature
- Becoming one with the macrocosm or great world
- Attaining godliness (Gottseligkeit).
The sequence in
which the student passes through these preliminary stages of
Rosicrucian training depends on the students personality, but
they must be absolved. What I have said about it so far, and
also what I am going to say, must be looked upon as
describing the ideal. Do not think that these things can be
attained from one day to the next. However, one can at least
learn the description of what today may seem a far distant
goal. A start can always be made provided it is realized that
patience, energy and perseverance are required.
The first stage
or study, suggests to many something dry and
pedantic. But in this case what is meant has nothing to do
with erudition in the usual sense. One need not be a scholar
to be an initiate. Spiritual knowledge and scholarship have
no dose connection. What is here meant by study is something
rather different, but absolutely essential; and no genuine
teacher of Rosicrucianism will guide the pupil to the higher
stages if the student has no aptitude for what this first
stage demands. It requires the student to develop a thinking
that is thoroughly sensible and logical. This is necessary if
the pupil is not to lose the ground under his feet at the
higher stages. From the start it must be made clear that,
unless all inclination towards fantasy and illusion is
overcome, it is all too easy to fall into error when striving
to enter spiritual realms. A person who is inclined to see
things in a fanciful or unreal light is of no use to the
spiritual world.
That is one
reason; another is that though a person is born from the
astral world, that is from the spiritual world next to the
physical, as much as he is born from the physical world, what
he experiences there is completely different from anything
seen with physical sight or heard with physical ears. One
thing, however, is the same in all three worlds — in the
physical, the astral or spiritual, and the devachanic
world — and that is logical thinking. It is precisely
because it is the same in all three worlds that it can be
learned already in the physical world, and thus provide a
firm support when we enter the other worlds. If one's
thoughts are like will-o-the-wisps so that no distinction is
made between what is merely depicted and reality, then one is
not qualified to rise into higher worlds. This happens for
example in modern physics when the atom, which no one has
even seen, is spoken of as if it were a material reality.
However, what
we are discussing now is not what is generally meant by
thinking. Ordinary thinking consists of combining physical
facts. Here we are concerned with thinking that has become
sense-free. Today there are learned people, including
philosophers, who deny the existence of such thinking. Modern
philosophers of great renown tell us that human beings cannot
think in pure thoughts, only in thoughts that reflect
something physical. Such a statement simply shows that the
person concerned is not capable of thinking in pure thoughts.
However, it is the height of arrogance to maintain that
something is impossible just because one cannot accomplish it
oneself. Human beings must be able to formulate thoughts that
are not dependent on what is seen or heard physically. A
person must be able to find himself in a world of pure
thought when his attention is completely withdrawn from
external reality. In spiritual science, and also in
Rosicrucianism, this is known as self-created thinking.
Someone who resolves to train his thinking in this direction
may turn to books on spiritual science. There he will not
find a thinking that combines physical facts, but thoughts
derived from higher worlds, which present a self-sustaining
continuous thinking. And as anyone can follow it, the reader
is able to rise above the ordinary trivial way of
thinking.
In order to
make accessible the elementary stages of Rosicrucianism, it
was necessary to make available in print and through
lectures, material that had for centuries been guarded in
closed circles. However, what has been released in recent
decades is only the rudiments of an immeasurable,
far-reaching world knowledge. In the course of time more and
more will flow into mankind. Study of this material schools
the pupil's thinking. For those who seek a still stricter
schooling, my books Truth and Knowledge and The
Philosophy of Freedom are particularly suitable. Those
two books are not written like other books; no sentence can
be placed anywhere but where it stands. Each of the books
represents, not a collection of thoughts, but a
thought-organism. Thought is not added to thought, each grows
organically from the preceding one, like growth occurs in an
organism. The thoughts must necessarily develop in like
manner in the reader. In this way a person makes his own
thinking with the characteristic that is self-generating.
Without this kind of thinking the higher stages of
Rosicrucianism cannot be attained. However, a study of the
basic spiritual scientific literature will also school
thinking; the more thorough schooling is not absolutely
necessary in order to absolve the first stage of Rosicrucian
training.
The second
stage is the acquisition of imaginative thinking.
This should only be attempted when the stage of study has
been absolved, so that one possesses an inner foundation of
knowledge and has made one's own thoughts that follow one
another out of inner necessity. Without such a foundation it
is all too easy to lose the ground under one's feet. But what
is meant by imaginative thinking?
Goethe, who in
his poem, The Mysteries, showed his profound
knowledge of Rosicrucianism, gave a hint at what imaginative
thinking was, in the words uttered by the Chorus Mysticus, in
the second part of Faust: “All things
transitory but as symbols are sent.” The knowledge that
everything transitory was mere symbol was systematically
cultivated wherever a Rosicrucian training was pursued. A
Rosicrucian had to acquire an insight that recognizes in
everything, something spiritual and eternal. In addition to
ordinary knowledge of what he encountered an his journeys
through life, a Rosicrucian had to acquire imaginative
knowledge as well.
When someone
meets you with a smiling face, you do not stop short at the
characteristic contortion of his features, you see beyond the
physiognomic expression and recognize that the smile reveals
the person's inner life. Likewise you recognize tears to be
an expression of inner pain and sorrow. In other words, the
outer expresses the inner; through the physiognomy you
perceive the depths of soul. A Rosicrucian has to learn this
in regard to the whole of nature. As the human face, or the
gesture of a hand, is the expression of a person's soul life,
so, for the Rosicrucian, everything that takes place in
nature is an expression of soul and spirit. Every stone,
plant and animal, every current of air, the stars, all
express soul and spirit just as do shining eyes, a wrinkled
brow or tears. If you do not stop short at today's
materialistic interpretation that regards what the
Earth-Spirit says in Goethe's Faust as poetic fantasy, but
recognize that it depicts reality, then you know what is
meant by imaginative knowledge.
In the tides of life, in action's
storm,
A fluctuant wave,
A shuttle free,
Birth and the Grave,
An eternal sea.
A weaving, flowing
Life, all-glowing,
Thus at time's humming loom 'tis my hand prepares
The garment of Life which the Deity wears!
If for you
these words of the Earth-Spirit depict spiritual reality,
then you will know that you possess a deeper logic, and can
calmly accept being called a fool by materialists who only
think they understand. As the human physiognomy expresses the
life of the human soul, so does the physiognomy of the earth
express the life of the Earth-Spirit. When you begin to read
in nature, when nature reveals its mysteries, and different
plants convey to you the Earth-Spirit's cheerfulness or
sorrow, then you begin to understand imaginative knowledge.
Then you will also recognize that it is this that is
presented as the purest and most beautiful expression of the
striving for imaginative knowledge in Rosicrucianism, and
also in what preceded Rosicrucian¬ism, the ideal of the
Holy Grail.
Let us look for
a moment at the true nature of the Holy Grail. This ideal is
always found in every Rosicrucian school. The form it takes I
shall describe as a conversation which, however, never took
place in reality because what I shall summarize could only be
attained in the course of long training and development.
However, what I shall say does convey what is looked up to as
the Quest of the Holy Grail:
Look how the
plant grows out of the earth. Its stem strives upward; its
roots are sunk into the ground, pointing towards the centre
of the earth. The opening blossom contains its reproductive
organs, which bear the seeds through which the plant
continues beyond itself. Charles Robert Darwin,
[
Charles Robert Darwin (1809–1882) the English naturalist
who first formulated the theory of evolution.
]
the famous natural scientist, is not the first to point out
that, if a person is compared to the plant, it is the root,
not the blossom, that corresponds to his head. This was said
already by esoteric Rosicrucianism. The calyx, which chastely
strives towards the sun, corresponds to the reproductive organs
that in human beings are situated downwards. Human beings are
inverted plants. A person turns downwards and covers up in shame
the organs that the plant chastely turns upward to the light.
To recognize
that the human being is the plant inverted is basic to
Rosicrucianism, as indeed to all esoteric knowledge. Human
beings turn their reproductive organs towards the centre of
the earth; in the plant they turn towards the sun. The plant
root points towards the centre of the earth; human beings
Lift their heads unfettered towards sunlit spaces. The animal
occupies a position between the two. The three directions
indicated by plant, animal and human are known as the cross.
The animal represents the beam across, the plant the
downward, the human being the upward pointing section of the
vertical beam. Plato, the great philosopher of antiquity,
stated that the World¬Soul is crucified on the
World-Body. He meant that human beings represent the highest
development of the World-Soul, which passes through the three
kingdoms of plant, animal and human. The World-Soul is
crucified on the cross of plants, animal and human kingdoms.
These words of Plato are spoken completely in the sense of
spiritual science and present a wonderful and deeply
significant picture.
The pupil in
the Rosicrucian school had repeatedly to bring the picture
before his mind of the plant with its head downward and the
reproductive organs stretching towards the beam of the sun.
The sunbeam was called the “holy lance of love”
that must penetrate the plant to enable the seeds to mature
and grow. The pupil was told: Contemplate man in relation to
the plant; compare the substance of which man is composed
with that of the plant. Man, the plant turned upside down,
has permeated his substance, his flesh, with physical
cravings, passion and sensuality. The plant stretches in
purity and chastity the reproductive organs towards the
fertilizing sacred lance of love. This stage will be reached
by an individual when he has completely purified all
cravings. In the future, when earth evolution has reached its
height, a person will attain this ideal. When no impure
desires permeate the lower organs, a person will become as
chaste and pure as the plant is now. That individual will
stretch a lance of spiritual love, the completely
spiritualized productive force, towards a calyx that opens as
does that of the plant to the holy lance of love of the
sunbeam.
Thus, the human
being's development takes him through the kingdoms of nature.
He purifies his being until he develops organs of which there
are as yet only indications. The beginning of a future
productive power can be seen when human beings create
something that is sacred and noble — a force they will
fully possess once their lower nature is purified. A new
organ will then have developed; the calyx will arise on a
higher level and open to the lance of Amfortas, as the plant
calyx opens to the sun's spiritual lance of love.
Thus, what the
Rosicrucian pupil depicted to himself represents on a lower
level the great future ideal of mankind, attainable when the
lower nature has been purified and chastely offers itself to
the spiritualized sun of the future. Then human nature, which
in one sense is higher, in another lower than that of the
plant, will have developed within itself the innocence and
purity of the plant calyx.
The Rosicrucian
pupil grasped all of this in its spiritual meaning. He
understood it as the mystery of the Holy Grail
[
Holy Grail, a cup or chalice, associated in medieval legend
with unusual powers, especially the regeneration of life and
water, and later with Christian purity. Became identified with
the cup used at the Last Supper and given to Joseph of Arimathea.
]
— mankind's highest ideal. He saw the whole of nature
permeating and glowing with spiritual meaning. When everything
is thus seen as symbol of the spirit, one is on the way to attain
imaginative knowledge; color and sound separate from objects and
become independent. Space becomes a world of color and sound in
which spiritual beings announce their presence. The pupil
rises from imaginative knowledge to direct knowledge of the
spiritual realm. That is the path of the Rosicrucian pupil at
the second stage of training.
The third stage
is knowledge of the occult script. This is no ordinary
writing, but one that is connected with nature's secrets. Let
me at once make clear how to depict it. A widely used sign is
the so-called vortex, which can be thought of as two
intertwined figure 6's. This sign is used for indicating and
also characterizing a certain type of event that can occur
both physically and spiritually. For example, a developing
plant will finally produce seeds from which new plants
similar to the old one can develop. To think that anything
material passes from the old plant to the new is
materialistic prejudice without foundation and will
eventually be refuted. What passes over to the new plant is
formative forces. As far as matter is concerned, the old
plant dies completely; materially its offspring is a
completely new creation. This dying and new coming-into-being
of the plant is indicated by drawing two intertwining
spirals, that is, a vortex, but drawing it so that the two
spirals do not touch.
Many events
take place, both physical and spiritual, that correspond to
such a vortex. For example, we know from spiritual research
that the transition from the ancient Atlantean culture to the
first post-Atlantean culture was such a vortex. Natural
science only knows the most elementary aspects of this event.
Spiritual science tells us that the space between Europe and
America, which is now the Atlantic Ocean, was filled with a
continent on which an ancient civilization developed, a
continent that was submerged by the Flood. This proves that
what Plato referred to as the disappearance of the Island of
Poseidon is based on facts; the island was part of the
ancient Atlantean continent. The spiritual aspect of that
ancient culture vanished, and a new culture arose. The vortex
is a sign for this event; the inward-turning spiral signifies
the old civilization and the outward-turning the new.
As the
transition took place from the old culture to the new, the
sun rose in spring in the constellation of Cancer — as
you know the sun moves forward in the course of the year.
Later it rose in early spring in the constellation of Gemini,
then in that of Taurus and later still in that of Aries.
People have always felt that what reached them from the vault
of heaven in the beams of the early spring sun was especially
beneficial. This is why people venerated the ram when the
spring sun rose in the constellation of Aries; it is also the
reason for legends such as “The Golden Fleece”
and others. Earlier than that the sun rose in spring in the
constellation of Taurus, and we find in ancient Egypt the
cult of the bull Apis. But the transition from Atlantis to
post-Atlantis took place under the constellation of Cancer,
whose sign is the intertwining spirals — a sign you find
depicted in calendars.
There exist
hundreds and thousands of such signs that the pupil gradually
learns. The signs are not arbitrary; they enable those who
understand them to immerse themselves in things and directly
experience their essence. While study schools the faculty of
reason, and imaginative knowledge the life of feelings,
knowledge of the occult script takes hold of the will. It is
the path into the realm of creativity. If study brings
knowledge, and imagination spiritual vision, knowledge of the
occult script brings magic. It brings direct insight into the
laws of nature that slumber in things, direct knowledge of
their very essence.
You can find
many who make use of occult signs, even people like Eliphas
Levi. This can provide an idea of what the signs look like,
but not much can be learned, unless one is knowledgeable
about them already. What is found in books an the subject is
usually erroneous. The signs used to be regarded as sacred,
at least by the initiates. If we go back far enough, we find
that strict rules concerning their secrecy were imposed,
incurring severe punishment if broken, to ensure they were
not used for unworthy purposes.
The fourth
stage is known as the preparation of the philosopher's
stone (the stone of the wise). What is written about it
is completely misleading; often it is such grotesque nonsense
that if true anyone would be entitled to be scornful. What I
am going to say will give you a great deal of insight into
the truth of the matter.
At the end of
the eighteenth century there appeared in an earnest
periodical a notice concerning the philosopher's stone. It
was clear from the wording of the notice that its author had
some knowledge of the matter, yet gave the impression that he
did not fully understand. The notice read: The philosopher's
stone is something that all are acquainted with, something
they often handle, and is found all over the world. It is
just that people do not know that it is the philosopher's
stone. A peculiar description of what the philosopher's stone
was supposed to be, yet word for word quite correct.
Consider for a
moment the process of human breathing. The regulation of the
breath is connected with the discovery, or preparation of,
the philosopher's stone. At present human beings inhale
oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, that is, what is exhaled is
a compound of oxygen and carbon. A person inhales oxygen,
life-giving air, and exhales carbon dioxide, which is
poisonous to both human and animal. If animals, who breathe
like human beings, had alone populated the earth, they would
have poisoned the air, and neither they nor humans would be
able to breathe today. So how does it come about that they
are still able to breathe? It is because plants absorb the
carbon dioxide, retain the carbon and give back the oxygen
for human and animal to use again.
Thus, a
beautiful reciprocal process takes place between the breath
of humans and animal, and the breath, or rather assimilation,
of the plant world. Think of someone who every day earns five
shillings and spends two. He creates a surplus, and is in a
different position than someone who earns two shillings but
spends five. Something similar applies to breathing. However,
the significant point is that this exchange takes place
between human beings and the vegetable kingdom.
The process of
breathing is indeed quite amazing, and we must look at it in
a little more detail. Oxygen enters the human body; carbon
dioxide is expelled from it. Carbon dioxide consists of
oxygen and carbon; the plant retains the carbon and gives a
person back the oxygen. Plants that grew millions of years
ago are today dug out of the earth as coal. Looking at this
coal we see carbon that was once inhaled by the plants. Thus,
the ordinary breath, just described, shows how necessary the
plant is to a person's life. It also shows that when humans
breathe they accomplish only half the process; to complete it
they need the plant that possesses something they lack to
transform carbon into oxygen.
The
Rosicrucians introduce a certain rhythm into the breath,
detail of which can only be imparted directly by word of
mouth. However, certain aspects can be mentioned without
going into details. The pupil receives definite instruction
concerning rhythmic breathing accompanied by thoughts of a
special nature. The effect must be thought of as comparable
to the persistent drip of water that wears away the stone.
Certainly even the most highly developed person will not
attain, by breathing in the Rosicrucian manner, a complete
transformation of the inner life processes from one day to
the next. However, the gradual change wrought in the human
body leads eventually to a specific goal. At some time in the
future a person will be able to transform within his own
being carbonic acid into oxygen. Thus, what today the plant
does for human beings — transforming the carbonic acid in
the carbon¬will be done by man himself when the effect
of the changed breath has become great enough. This will take
place in an organ he will then possess, of which physiology
and anatomy as yet know nothing, but which is nevertheless
developing. An individual will accomplish the transformation
himself. Instead of exhaling carbon a person will use it in
his own being; with what he formerly had to give over to the
plant he will build up his own body.
All this must
be thought of in conjunction with what was said about the
Holy Grail: that the purity and chastity of the plant nature
would pan over into human nature. When a person's lower
nature has reached the highest level of spirituality, it will
in that respect be once more at the level of the plant as it
is today. The process that takes place in the plant, a person
will one day be able to carry out in his own being. He will
more and more transform the substance of his present body
into the ideal of a plant body, which will be the bearer of a
much higher and more spiritual consciousness. Thus, the
Rosicrucian pupil learns the alchemy that eventually will
enable a person to transform the fluids and substances of the
human body into carbon. Thus, what the plant does
today — it builds its body from carbon — human beings
will one day accomplish. He will build a structure from
carbon that will be a person's future body. A great mystery
lies hidden in the rhythm of the breath.
You will now
understand the notice about the philosopher's stone alluded
to earlier. But what is it that human beings will learn in
regard to building up the human body in the future? They will
learn to create ordinary coal — which is also what
diamonds consist of — and from it build their body. Human
beings will then possess a higher and more comprehensive
consciousness. They will be able to take the carbon out of
themselves and use it in their own being. They will form
their own substance, that is, plant substance made of carbon.
That is the alchemy that builds the philosopher's stone. The
human body itself is the retort, transformed in the way
indicated.
Thus, behind
the rhythm of the breath lies hidden what is alluded to as
the search for the philosopher's stone; though what is
usually said about it is pure nonsense. The indications given
here have only recently reached the public from the School of
the Rosicrucians; you will not find them in any books. They
represent a small part of the fourth stage: The quest of the
philosopher's stone.
The fifth
stage, or knowledge of the microcosm, the small
world, points to something said by Paracelsus to which I have
often referred, namely, that if we could draw an extract out
of everything around us, it would prove to be like an extract
taken from mankind. The substances and forces within us are
like a miniature recapitulation of what exists in the rest of
nature. When we look at the world around us we can say: What
is within us is like a copy of the great archetype that
exists outside. For example, take what light has brought
about in human beings: ft created the eyes. Without eyes we
would not see the light; the world would remain dark for us,
and likewise for the animals. Those animals that wandered
into dark caves to live, in Kentucky, lost the ability to
see. If light did not exist we would not have eyes. The light
enticed the organs of sight out of the organism. As Goethe
said: “The eye is created by the light for the light,
the ear by the sound for the sound.”
Everything is
born from the microcosm. Hence, the secret that under certain
instruction and guidance it is possible to enter deeply into
the body, and investigate not only what pertains to the body,
but to the spiritual realm, and also to the world of nature
around us. A person who learns under certain conditions to
immerse himself with certain thoughts meditatively in the
inner eye will learn the true nature of light. Another area
of great significance is between the eyebrows at the root of
the nose. By meditatively sinking into this point one learns
of important spiritual events that took place as this part of
the head was formed from the surrounding world. Thus, one
learns the spiritual construction of the human being. He is
completely formed and built up by spiritual beings and
forces. That is why he can, by delving into his own form,
learn about the beings and forces that built up his
organism.
A word must be
said about delving into one's inner being. This penetrating
down from the “I” into the bodily nature, and
also the other exercises, ought only to be undertaken after
due preparation. Before a start is made the powers of
intellect and reason must be strengthened. That is why in
Rosicrucian schools the training of thinking is obligatory.
Furthermore, the pupil must be inwardly morally strong; this
is essential as he may otherwise easily stumble. As a student
learns to sink meditatively into every part of his body,
other worlds dawn in him.
The deeper
aspects of the Old Testament cannot be understood without
this sinking into one's inner being. However, it must be done
according to certain directions provided by a spiritual
scientific training. Everything that is said here in this
respect is derived from the spiritual world and can only be
fully understood when one is able to discover it again within
oneself. Man is born out of the macrocosm; within himself as
microcosm he must rediscover its forces and laws. Not through
anatomy does man learn about his own being, but through
looking into his being and inwardly perceiving that the
various areas emit light and sound. The inward-looking soul
discovers that each organ has its own color and tone.
Human beings
will have direct knowledge of the macrocosm when they learn
to recognize, through a Rosicrucian training, what it is in
their own being that is created from the universe. Once they
know their inner being through meditatively sinking into the
eye, or into the point above the root of the nose, human
beings can spiritually recognize the laws of the macrocosm.
Then, through their own insight, they will understand what it
is that an inspired genius describes in the Old Testament. An
individual looks into the Akasha Chronicle and is able to
follow mankind's evolution through millions of years.
This is insight
that can be attained through a Rosicrucian training. However,
the training is very different from what is customary.
Genuine self¬knowledge is neither reached by aimless
brooding within oneself nor in believing, as is often taught
nowadays, that by looking into oneself the inner god will
speak. The power to recognize the great World-Self is
attained by immersing oneself in the organs. It is true that
down the ages the call has resounded: “Know
thyself,” but it is equally true that within one's own
being the higher self cannot be found. Rather, as Goethe
pointed out, one's spirit must widen until it encompasses the
world.
That can be
attained by those who patiently follow the Rosicrucian path
and reach the sixth stage, or becoming one with the
macrocosm. Immersing oneself in one's inner being is not
a path of comfort. Here phrases and generalities do not
suffice. It is in concrete reality that one must plunge into
every being and phenomenon and lovingly accept it as part of
oneself. It is a concrete and intimate knowledge, far removed
from merely indulging in phrases like: “Being in
harmony with the world”; “being one with the
World-Soul,” or “melt together with the
world.” Such phrases are simply valueless compared with
a Rosicrucian training. Here the aim is to strengthen and
invigorate human soul-forces, rather than chatter about being
in tune with the infinite and the like.
When a human
being has attained this widening of the self, then, the
seventh stage is within reach. Knowledge now becomes feeling;
what lives in the soul is transformed into spiritual
perception. A person no longer feels that he lives only
within himself. He begins to experience himself in all
beings: in the stone, plant and animal, in everything into
which he is immersed. They reveal to him their essential
nature, not in words or concepts, but to his innermost
feelings. A time begins when universal sympathy unites him
with all beings; he feels with them and participates in their
existence. This living within all beings is the seventh
stage, or attaining godliness
(Gottseligkeit), the blessed repose within all
things. When the human being no longer feels confined within
his skin, when he feels himself united with all other beings,
participating in their existence, and when his being
encompasses the whole universe so that he can say to it all:
“Thou are that,” then the words which Goethe, out
of Rosicrucian knowledge, expresses in his poem The Mysteries
will have meaning: “Who added to the cross the wreath
of roses?”
However, these
words can be spoken not only from the highest point of view,
but from the moment that “the cross wreathed in
roses” — what this expresses — has become one's
ideal, one's watchword. It stands as the symbol for a human
being's overcoming the lower self in which he merely broods,
and his rising from it into the higher self that leads a
person to the blissful experience of the life and being of
all things. He will then understand Goethe's words in the
poem: West-East Divan
And until thou truly hast
This dying and becoming,
Thou art but a troubled guest
O'er the dark earth roaming.
Unless one can
grasp what is meant by the overcoming of the lower, narrow
self and the rising into the higher self, it is not possible
to understand the cross as symbol of dying and
becoming — the wood representing the withering of the
lower self, and the blossoming roses the becoming of the
higher self Nor can the words be understood with which we
shall dose the subject of Rosicrucianism — words also
expressed by Goethe, which as watchword belong above the
cross wreathed in roses symbolizing sevenfold man:
The power that holds constrained all
humankind,
The victor o'er himself no more can bind.
Von der Gewalt, die alle Wesen bindet
Befreit der Mensch sich, der sich überwindet.
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