Occult History

Notes and References

(Except where otherwise stated, the lectures by Rudolf Steiner referred to below have all been printcd in English and the dates on which they were delivered are therefore readily ascertainable. Where translations exist at present in typescript only, the dates are indicated.)

Lecture I

Note 1 (p. 7)

See among other lectures by Rudolf Steiner: Deeper Secrets of Human History in the Light of the Gospel of St. Matthew, lectures II and III; The Gospel of St. Matthew, notably lectures I, II, III; The Spiritual Guidance of Man and of Mankind, lecture III; From Jesus to Christ, lecture VIII.

Note 2 (p. 9)

The lecture, not yet printed in English, was entitled: Yuletide and the Christmas Symbols. Stuttgart, 27.XII.10.

Note 3 (p. 12)

See Rudolf Steiner, World-History in the light of Anthroposophy, notably lectures III, IV, V.

See also: Jastrow (Mords), Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Chapter XXIII. (Boston, 1898.) Budge (E. A. Wallis), The Babylonian Story of the Deluge and the Epic of Gilgamish. (London, 1920. Revised by C. J. Gadd, 1929.) Thompson (Reginald Campbell), The Epic of Gilgamish (London, 1928.) Contains a fairly full text.

Note 4 (p. 12)

See Thompson, op. cit., p. 10: "Two-thirds of him (Gilgamish) are divine, and one-third of him human. ..." (From the Ninth Tablet.)

Note 5 (p. 13)

See Budge, op. cit., p. 50:

"I myself shall die, and shall not Ithen be as Enkidi (Eabani) Sorrow hath entered into my soul,
Because of the fear of death which hach got hold of me do I wander over the country ..."

Xisuthros, said to mean " the exceedingly wise," is a Greek corruption of an earlier designation. He is the same being as Uta-Napishtim in the versions of the Epic mentioned abovc, and is the Babylonian Noah. He tells the story of the Deluge to Gilgamish. Cp. Cory (Isaac Preston), Ancient Fragments, p. 49; also Enc. of Religion and Ethics, Vol. VI, pp. 642—3; and Budge, op. cit., PP. 25—40.

Note 6 (p. 15)

See Langdon, op. cit., pp. 207—8. The name Gilgamish is said to mean: " The Fire-god is a commander."

Note 7 (p. 16)

Cp. Jastrow, op. cit., pp. 516–17

Note 8 (p. 18)

Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, 385–412. Persecuted the followers of Origen. Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria. Played a prominent patt at the Council of Ephesus in 431.

Note 9 (p. 19)

The passage on Pherecydes of Syros occurs in lecture 4 of the Course entitled The East in the Light of the West, pp. 67—71 in die English edition.

Lecture II

Note 10 (P. 24)

Leopold von Ranke, 1795–1886. See Rudolf Steiner, Karmic-Relationships: Esoteric Studies, Vol. II, lecture XIV.

Note 11 (P. 24)

J. G. Herder, Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, written between 1784 and 1791. Tr. by T. Churchill; Outline of a Philosophy of the History of Man. (London, 1803.)

Note 12 (p. 25)

G. E. Lessing. The last paragraphs of The Education of the Human Race, published in 1780, are as follows:

“But ... why should not every individual man have existed more than once upon this world?

“ Is this hypothesis so laughable merely because it is the oldest? Because the human widerstanding, before the sophistries of the Schools had dissipated and debilitated it, lighted upon it at once?

“Why may not even I have already performed those steps of my perfecting which bring to man only temporal punishments and rewards ?

“And once more, why not another time all those steps, to perform which the views of Eternal Rewards so powerfully assist us?

“Why should I not come back as often. as I am capable of acquiring fresh knowledge, fresh expertness ? Do I bring away so much from one, that there is nothing to repay the trouble of coming back?

“Is this a reason against it? Or, because I forget that I have been here already? Happy is it for me that I do forget. The recollection of my former condition would perrnit me to make only a bad use of the present. And that which even I must forget now, is that necessarily forgotten for ever?

“Or is it a reason against the hypothesis that so much time would have been lost to me? Lost? — And how much then should I miss? — Is not a whole Eternity mine? "

Tr. F. W. Robertson (1872).
Reprinted (1927) by Anthroposophical
Publishing Co.

Note 13 (p. 29)

August Friedrich Gfrörer, 1803—1861.

Note 14 (p. 30)

Letter of Perceval de Boulainvilliers, 21st June, 1429. See: Procés de condamnation et de réhabilitation de Jeanne d' Arc, ed. Quicherat, Tome V, pages 114—21. (Paris, 1849) where the text is in Latin. The name Boulainvilliers is said to have been incorrectly rendered in several of die earlier translations.

Note 15 (p. 38)

See Thompson, op. cit., p. 33. (Gilgamish is reproaching Ishtar) :

Lovest thou, too, Ishullanu, the gardener he of thy Sire, Bringing dehghts to thee ceaseless, while daily he garnish'd thy platter...."

(From the Sixth Tablet.)

Lecture III

Note 16 (p. 45)

See Rudolf Steiner, The Apocalypse of St. John.

Note 17 (P. 51)

Published in Leipzig, 1854.

Note 18 (p. 57)

See H. P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. III, p. 370. (London, 1897.)

Note 19 (p. 60)

Aristotle, The Poetics, VI. The several English renderings of this famous passalte differ slightly in wording. The following translation is by W. Hamilton Fyfe, in Aristotle's Art of Poetry (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1940): “A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action that is serious, has magnitude, and is complete in itself; in language with pleasurable accessories, each kind brought in separately in the various parts of the work; in a dramatic, not a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.”

Note 20 (p. 61)

See Phaedo, 75; 76, an the Platonic doctrine of reminiscence. “... But if the knowledge which we acquired before but was lost by us at birth, and if afterwards by the use of the scnses we recovered what we previously knew, will not the process which we call learning be a recovering of the knowledge which is natural to us, and may not this be rightly termed recollection? ...”
(Tr. Jowett.)

 

Lecture IV

Note 21 (p. 66)

Fritz Mauthner, 1849–1923. A writer, Journalist and author of philosophical works, notably on the subject of language, often referred to by Rudolf Steiner.

22 (p. 66)

Genesis, XI.

Note 23 (p. 72)

Wilhelm Fliess, b. 1858. Author of Der Ablauf des Lebens: Grundlagen zur exakten Biologie, Leipzig and Vienna, 1906; also Das Jahr im Lebendigen, Jena, 1919.

Note 24 (p. 74)

Julian the Apostate, 331–63. Emperor from 361–63. See Rudolf Steiner: Building-Stones for an Understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha, lectures VII and VIII; Man's Life on Earth and in the Spiritual Worlds, lecture I; The Sun Mystery in the Course of Human History; Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies, Vol. IV, lectures V and VI; World-History in the light of Anthroposophy, lecture VI.

There are many other references, too numerous to be detailed here. The above are of outstanding importance.

Note 25 (p. 78)

See Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies, Vol. IV, lectures V and VI; also Appendix, p. 121.

 

Lecture V

Note 26 (p. 83)

See Rudolf Steiner, The Spiritual Guidance of Man and of Mankind. Lectures II and III.

Note 27 (p. 85)

See Rudolf Steiner, Turning-Points in Spiritual History. Lecture I.

Note 28 (p. 87)

See Rudolf Steiner, Spiritual Hierarchies. Lecture 8. “Mars is a repetition of the ancient Moon and stands in the Same orbit to which the ancient Moon extended. ...” See also, Arenson's Index to Rudolf Steiner's Lecture-Courses, Vol. II, p. 181: “The Mars of to-day arose when the Earth was repeating the ancient Moon existence. What separated off and remained behind at this stage of repetition is the Mars of to-day.”

Note 29 (p. 87)

See Rudolf Steiner, The Whitsuntide Festival: its place in the study of Karma. (Lecture given at Dornach, 4th June, 1924.) “ ... The physical science of to-day looks to find also in the Universe everything which is on the Earth. But the physical organisation is not there in the Universe at all. Man begins with his physical organisation: then he has the etheric and the astral. The Universe an the other hand begins with the Etheric. Out there in the Cosmos the Physical is nowhere to be found. The Physical is only on the Earth and it is but empty fancy and imagination to speak of anything physical in the far Universe. ...”

Note 30 (p. 92)

See Rudolf Steiner, The Spiritual Guidance of Man and of Mankind. Lecture II.

Note 31 (p. 93)

See Rudolf Steiner, The Redemption of Thinking: a Study in the Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. With an Introduction, Epilogue and Appendices by A. P. Shepherd and Mildred Robertson Nicoll. (Hodder and Stoughton, 1956.)

Note 32 (p. 94)

See Rudolf Steiner, The Life between Death and Rebirth in relation to Cosmic Facts. Lecture 5.

Note 33 (p. 95)

See Rudolf Steiner, The Portal of Initiation, Scene I. Four Mystery Plays, Vol. I, p. 28. The following is the English version of words spoken by Theodora, a seeress:

“... Once, long ago, Christ lived upon the earth,
And from this life ensured the consequence
That in soul-substance clad He hovers o'er
The evolution of Humanity,
In union with the earth's own spirit-sphere;
And though as yet invisible to men,
When in such form He manifests Himself,
Since now their being Lacks that spirit-sight
Which first will show itself in future times;
Yet even now this future draweth nigh
When that new sight shall come to men an earth.
What once the senses saw, when Christ did live
Upon the earth: this shall be seen by souls
When soon the time shall reach its fullness due.”

See also, Rudolf Steiner, The Vision of Christ's Advent in the Etheric World.

Note 34 (p. 97)

Johann Freidrich Oberlin. Protestant priest in Steinthal.

Note 35 (p. 97)

Oberlin. A novel by Fritz Lienhard. (Stuttgart, 84th ed., 1920.)

Lecture VI

Note 36 (p. 101)

Cp. Timaeus, 22, 23. “In the Egyptian Delta, at the head of which the River Nile divides, there is a certain district which is called the district of Sais, and the great city of the district is also called Sais. ... To this city came Solon, and was received there with great honour; he asked the priests who were most skilful in such matters, about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither he nor any other Hellene knew anything worth mentioning about the times of old. On one occasion, wishing to draw them an to speak of antiquity, he began to tell about the most ancient things in our part of the world. ... Thereupon one of the priests, who was of a very great age, said: O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children and there is not an old man among you. Solon in return asked him what he meant. I mean to say, he replied, that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. ... just when you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites of civilised life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven, like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education, and so you have to begin all over again like children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. ...”

Note 37 (p. 102)

See Rudolf Steiner, World-History in the light of Anthroposophy, p. 102.

Note 38 (p 106)

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804). “I must, therefore, abolish knowledge, to make room for belief”Preface to the 2nd ed. of the Critique of Pure Reason. (Tr. J. M. D. Meiklejohn, p. xxxv. London, 1860.)

Note 39 40 (p. 108)

See Rudolf Steiner, Earthly and Cosmic Man, Lecture IV.

Note 41 (p. 108)

See Rudolf Steiner, Deeper Secrets of Human History in the light of the Gospel of St. Matthew. Lectures II and III.

Note 42 (p. 109)

See inter alia, Hymns to the Night, the most recent translation of which is by Mabel Cotterell, with an introduction by August Closs, published by the Phoenix Press, London, 1948. Translations were made at the end of the 19th century of Heinrich von Ofterdingen, The Disciples at Sais, of many “Fragments,” and other “Songs.” Carlyle's Essay on Novalis is well known. Apart from there publications, however, the English reader will have some difficulty in finding works in his own language that will enable him to acquire any real insight into the writings of Novalis. A great deal, of course, has been and is continuing to be written in Germany of the one of whom Tieck wrote in 1846: “Few authors have ever produced so great an impression on the world of German thought as Novalis.” The biography by Friedrich Hiebel, Novalis, der Dichter der blauen Blume, is of great value. Students of Spiritual Science will be particularly interested in Novalis in anthroposophischer Betrachtung by Monica V. Miltitz, published in 1956. But Rudolf Steiner alone was able to unveil the mystery enshrouding the personality of Novalis. Among many passages occurring in his lectures, the following is of outstanding importance: “... A deeply shattering event in life made him (Novalis) aware, as by a magic strike, of the relation between life and death and, as well as the great vista of past ages of the earth and cosmos, the Christ Being Himself appeared before his eyes of Spirit. ... In the rase of Novalis we cannot really speak of a self-contained lifc, for his was actually like a remembrance of an earlier incarnation. The initiation he had received as it were by Grace, brought to life within him experiences of an earlier incarnation; there was a certain mysterious consolidation of the fruits of insight acquired in an earlier life. And because he looked back through the ages with his own awakened eyes of spirit, he was able to say that to him nothing in life was comparable with the momentous event when in his inmost self he had discovered what Christ truly is. This experience was like a repetition of the happening at Damascus, when Paul, who had hitherto persecuted the followers of Christ and rejected their message, received in higher vision the direct proof that Christ lives, that He is present! ...” This quotation is from Rudolf Steiner's lecture entitled, The Christinas Mystery. Novalis the Seer. Not yet printed in English. Berlin, 22.XII.08.

Note 43 (p. 109)

The lecture, not yet printed in English, was entitled: The Human Spirit and the Animal Spirit, Berlin, 17.XI.10.

Note 44 (p. 109)

Heinrich Natter 1846–92).