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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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Esoteric Christianity and the Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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Esoteric Christianity and the Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz
Schmidt Number: S-2529
On-line since: 1st July, 2004
THE DAWN OF OCCULTISM IN THE MODERN AGE
Cassel, 27th January 1912
Today's lecture will be historical in character, and the day after
tomorrow I shall speak of matters which will give us deeper insight
into the impulses contained in the thinking, willing and
actions of rosicrucianism. We can only understand the work of
rosicrucianism as it is today when we realise that it was never a
model laid down once and for all but assumes a different form in every
century. This is because rosicrucianism must always adapt itself to
the conditions of the times. It is quite obvious to us that the
fundamental impulses of Spiritual Science must increasingly find their
way into the culture of the present age; but we know, too, that
Western culture presents difficulties. Spiritual Science cannot make
different human beings of us from one day to the next, because through
our karma we have been born into Western culture. Our task is not as
simple as that of the representatives of communities based upon race
or the tenets of a particular religion. For our fundamental principle
must be that we are not rooted in the soil of a specific creed but
regard the different systems of religion as forms and variations of
the one, universal life. It is the seed of spiritual truth in all
religions for which Spiritual Science must seek. As a Westerner, the
Anthroposophist may very easily be misunderstood, above all by the
different religious confessions and schools of thought in the world.
If we rightly understand our task as Spiritual Scientists we must hold
fast to the principle of historical development, realising that
Spiritual Science is an integral part of this development. Each one of
you here has been incarnated in every epoch of culture indeed
more than once. What is the purpose of these reincarnations? Why must
the human being pass through all these different schoolings in the
periods of culture and civilisation? It was this question which
brought Lessing
( 45 )
to avow his belief in the idea of reincarnation.
Lessing thought to himself: Human beings have lived through all the
earlier periods of culture and they must return again and again in
order to learn new things and to be able to connect the old with the
new. There must be a purpose in the fact that we pass through
different incarnations, and the purpose is that in each of them the
human being shall add new experiences to the old.
As you have often heard, there are great differences between the
successive epochs of culture. Today we shall speak in greater detail
of an extremely important period: the thirteenth century. Human beings
in incarnation at that time lived through an experience which had not
fallen to the lot of others. What I am now about to say is known to
all who have reached a certain high level of spiritual life and who
are now again in incarnation.
In the thirteenth century spiritual darkness fell for a time upon all
human beings, even the most enlightened, and also upon the initiates.
Whatever knowledge of the spiritual worlds existed in the thirteenth
century came from tradition or from men who in still earlier times had
been initiates and were able to call up memories of what they had then
experienced. But for a brief space of time it was impossible even for
these men to have direct vision of the spiritual world. Darkness had
to fall for this short period to prepare for the intellectual culture
which was to be characteristic of our modern age. The important point
is that we have this kind of culture today in the fifth post-Atlantean
epoch. Culture in the Greek epoch was quite different. Instead of the
modern, intellectual kind of thinking, direct perception was then the
dominant faculty; the human being was one, as it were, with what he
saw and heard, even with what he thought. He did not cogitate and
reason as he does today, and needs must do, for this is the task of
the fifth post-Atlantean epoch.
In the thirteenth century it was necessary for especially suitable
personalities to be singled out for initiation, and the initiation
itself could only take place after that brief period of darkness had
come to an end. The name of the place in Europe where these events
that I shall now describe took place cannot yet be communicated, but
before very long this too will be possible.
We shall speak today of the dawn of occultism in the modern age. Twelve
men were living at the time of the darkness, twelve men of deep
spirituality, who came together in order to further the progress of
humanity. None of them possessed the power of direct vision of the
spiritual world, but they were able to bring to life within them
memories of what they had experienced through earlier initiation. And
by the dispensation of the karma of mankind, the heritage left by the
ancient culture of Atlantis was embodied in seven of these twelve men.
In my book
Occult Science
it is stated that the seven wise
teachers of the ancient, holy Indian civilisation bore within them the
surviving wisdom of Atlantis. These seven men were incarnated again in
the thirteenth century and formed part of the twelve; it was they who
were able to look back to the seven streams of the ancient Atlantean
wisdom and to their further course. The task assigned to each of the
seven was to make one of the seven streams of wisdom fruitful both for
the culture of the thirteenth century and for that of our modern age.
These seven individualities were joined by four others; unlike the
first seven, these other four were not able to look back to times of
the primeval past; they looked back to what mankind had acquired from
occult truths during the four epochs of post-Atlantean culture. The
first of the four looked back to the period of ancient India, the
second to that of ancient Persia, the third to that of
Egyptian-Chaldean-Babylonian-Assyrian culture, and the fourth to that
of the Greco-Roman age. These four joined the seven in the council of
the wise men in the thirteenth century; the twelfth had fewer
memories; he was the most intellectual of the twelve and it was his
task to cultivate and foster the external sciences. These twelve
individualities did not live on only in the sphere of occultism as
cultivated in the West, but could also be incorporated as it were in
men who possessed some genuine knowledge of occultism. Goethe's poem
The Mysteries
( 46 )
gives a certain indication of this.
Thus there were twelve outstanding individualities, joined by a
thirteenth who, after the period of darkness had come to an end, was
to be chosen for the kind of initiation demanded by the culture of the
West. The circumstances are very mysterious, and I can only give you
the following information in the form of a narrative. To me it is
objective truth, but you yourselves can put it to the test by
gathering together what has been said by Anthroposophical Spiritual
Science during the last few years, in addition to what you know of
history since the thirteenth century.
It was known to the council of twelve wise men that a child was to be
born who had lived in Palestine at the time of Christ and had been
present when the Mystery of Golgotha had taken place. This
individuality had strong heart forces and a power of deep, inward love
which circumstances had since helped him to unfold. An individuality
of extraordinary spirituality was incarnated in this child. It was
necessary in this case for a process to be enacted which will never be
repeated in the same form. What I shall tell you does not describe a
typical initiation but an altogether exceptional happening. It was
necessary for this child to be removed from the environment into which
he was born and to be placed in the care of the twelve at a certain
place in Europe. But it was not the external measures adopted by the
twelve wise men that are of essential importance; what is important is
the fact that the child grew up with the twelve around him, and
because of this, their wisdom was able to stream into him. One of the
twelve, for example, possessed the Mars wisdom and therewith a
definite quality of soul a mood of soul tempered by the form of
culture influenced by Mars. The forces of the Mars culture endowed his
soul with the faculty, among others, of presenting occult sciences
with a fiery enthusiasm and ardour. Similar planetary influences were
also at work in other faculties distributed among the twelve. The
influences pouring from the twelve wise men worked in such mutual
accord that the soul of the child was brought into harmony. And so the
child grew up under the unceasing care of the twelve. Then, at a
certain time, when the child had grown into a young man of about
twenty, he was able to give expression to something that was a kind of
reflection of the twelve streams of wisdom but in a form
altogether new, new even to the twelve wise men. The metamorphosis was
accompanied by violent organic changes. Even physically the child had
been quite unlike other human beings; he was often very ill and his
body became transparent, as though filled with light. Then there came
a time when for some days the soul departed altogether from the body.
The young man lay as if dead ... And when the soul returned it was as
though the twelve streams of wisdom were born anew, so that the twelve
wise men, also, could learn something quite new from the youth. He was
now able to speak of quite new experiences. There had come to him,
through the Mystery of Golgotha, an experience similar to that of Paul
before Damascus. Thereby it was possible for all the twelve world
conceptions, religious and scientific and fundamentally there
are only twelve to be amalgamated into one comprehensive whole,
which could do justice to them all. Of what was taught we shall speak
the day after tomorrow. It remains now to be said that the young man
died very soon afterwards. His life on earth had been brief. His
mission has been to create this synthesis of the twelve streams of
wisdom in the sphere of thought and to bring forth the new impulse
which he could then bequeath to the twelve men who were to carry it
further. A great and significant impetus was thus given. The name of
this individuality from whom this impulse originated was Christian
Rosenkreutz.
( 47 )
He was born again in the fourteenth century and this
earthly life lasted for more than a hundred years. In the new earthly
life he brought to fruitfulness, in the outer world too, all that he
had lived through in that brief space of time. He traveled all over
the West and over practically the whole of the then known world in
order to receive anew the wisdom which in the previous life had
quickened in him the new impulse the impulse which, as a kind
of essence, was to filter into the culture of the times.
This new impulse also came to expression in the exoteric world. The
inspiration of the being of whom we have spoken, worked, for example,
in Lessing. It is not, of course, possible to give external proof of
this, but Lessing's whole mode and manner of thinking is such that the
rosicrucian impulse is perceptible to one who is versed in these
matters. Again in the nineteenth century an age so ill adapted
for the ideas of karma, reincarnation and the like this impulse
worked exoterically. It is an interesting fact that towards the end of
the forties of the nineteenth century a certain scientific body
offered a reward for the best philosophical treatise on the subject of
the immortality of the soul: Among the treatises submitted, the one
that was awarded the prize was by Widenmann
( 48 )
who accepted the principle that the soul has many earthly lives. Naturally
this essay does not speak of reincarnation in the way as Spiritual Science
now does; but it is interesting that such a writing should have appeared
at that time and have been awarded the prize. And other contemporary
psychologists also acknowledged their belief in repeated earth lives.
The thread of belief in reincarnation and karma was never entirely
broken. Moreover the early writings of the founder of the Theosophical
Society, the great H.P. Blavatsky,
( 49 )
are explicable only when we recognise the rosicrucian inspiration underlying
them.
Now it is of the greatest importance for us to know that whenever the
rosicrucian inspiration is given, in each century, the bearer of the
inspiration is never outwardly named. His identity has been known only
to the very highest initiates. Today, for example, it is only
permissible to speak of happenings of a hundred years ago; for this is
the period of time which must elapse before they may be spoken of
openly. The temptation to pay fanatical veneration to authority vested
in some personality than which there is no greater evil
would be too great. This danger is too near at hand. Silence is a
necessary precaution not only against the wiles of ambition and pride
which it might be possible to resist but paramountly
because of the occult, astral attacks which would be directed all the
time against such an individual. Hence the rule that these things may
not be spoken of until a hundred years have elapsed. Such studies must
help us to realise that the fulcrum of historical development is
contained in rosicrucianism.
By a simple comparison let me explain to you what is meant by this.
Think of a pair of scales. There must be only one fulcrum, for if
there were two, no weighing would be possible. One such fulcrum is
also necessary in the process of historical development. Eastern world
conceptions do not admit this, nor do they recognise historical
evolution in this sense; and the same applies to Schopenhauer.
( 50 )
But it is the task of Western humanity to acknowledge the course of
history and it is the mission of rosicrucianism to promote a
kind of thinking which admits the reality of a fulcrum or pivotal
point in history. In regard to what will now be said, the religious
confession to which a man may belong is of no consequence. For it can
be substantiated from the Akashic Record that the day which represents
the pivotal point in the evolution of mankind is the 3rd April in the
year 33 AD. Knowledge of the fact that the pivot of evolution lies at
this point is an essential part of rosicrucianism.
What was it that really happened then? What happened was what can be
called the crisis in the world of the demons. And what does this mean?
We know that in earlier times human beings possessed the faculty of
primitive clairvoyance. This clairvoyance became progressively
feebler, almost to the point of extinction. The fact is that hitherto
the human being had been conscious mainly in the astral body and less
in the ego. The crisis came about because of the darkening of the
ancient clairvoyance. Man's vision extended only into the lowest
regions of the spiritual world. The ego still lived in the astral
world; but the beings and powers which the ego was able to behold
deteriorated into greater and greater impurity. Man no longer had any
vision of the good powers, but as he looked into the astral world he
saw only these evil beings. The only means of salvation was the
cultivation and development of the ego. The starting point for this
was what took place in the baptism by John in the Jordan. What was the
experience of one thus baptised? He experienced in the first place the
physical process of immersion in the water, which caused the
separation of the astral and etheric bodies from the physical body.
This enabled him to perceive that a crisis was at hand in the world of
the demons. And those who had been baptised knew: We must change our
hearts! The time is at hand when the spirit is to stream directly into
the ego. Such a man felt that these terrible astral beings were within
him, always penetrating into him.
Something had to come that transcends the astral, and this is the ego.
Through the ego it will be possible for communities of human beings to
gather together in freedom of soul, communities no longer determined
by ties of blood. And now picture to yourselves a man possessed by
demons of the most evil kind who know that they are facing a crisis.
Picture to yourselves again that to such a man there comes One Whose
mission it is to oppose the demons. What must the demons feel? They
must feel ill at ease to the highest degree! And so indeed it was: in
the presence of Christ Jesus the demons were ill at ease.
Rosicrucianism has within it the impulse by which the demons may and
must be countered. Through this impulse the ego is to become supreme
but in this respect little progress has yet been made.
Returning to the point at which the lecture began, it is not difficult
to realise that it will be harder for us as Anthroposophists to make
our voice heard in the world than it will be for any others. The
adherents of other views of the world will have less persecution to
suffer than Anthroposophists. For nothing makes men more uneasy than
to describe to them the true nature of the Christ. But our conviction
is based upon the results of genuine occult science, and this
conviction must be sustained with all the strength of which we are
capable.
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