Evolution in the Aspect of Realities

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

LECTURE 1. Introductory Lecture. Art and Theosophy. Munich. The Mystery Plays. Theosophy must not be too easy. Christian Rosenkreutz. The Christian idea, having been kept alive in Western occult schools, is better understood in the West than in the East. Christianity cannot be understood unless the Resurrection is understood. Paul: ‘If Christ be not risen, then our preaching and our faith are vain.’ External intellect cannot understand the Resurrection. Orient cannot understand it. Blavatsky. Orientation only can go as far as Buddha and Bodhisattva. Jesus ben Pandira. Impossibility of reincarnation of Christ or of Buddha. Are we Rosicrucians?

LECTURE 2. Inner aspect of Saturn-Embodiment of Earth. — Akashic Record. Necessity for study of Old Saturn, which still continues. We cannot know our Ego without knowledge of Saturn, hidden by Guardian of Threshold. Everything from inner and outer world must be removed; then comes fear of abyss. Courage is required. Two requisites for approach. Karl Rosenkrantz. Hegel's ‘pure being.’ Man's two possibilities (a) Gospels and Golgotha inspiring courage and protection; (b) true theosophy or the rule of the Holy Spirit or cosmic thought in the world. We then learn Spirits of Will or Thrones, and thought becomes objective reality. They consist of courage. This is Saturn. First stages of Saturn: — no time, no before or after. Into the timeless sea of courage the Cherubim interact. Spirits of Will give their being to Cherubim and through this sacrifice Time is born as independent Beings called Archai or Spirits of Personality. The sacrifice of the Thrones is heat. Behind all heat is sacrifice. External heat is Maya. Second stage of Rosicrucian Initiation is the forming of ‘Imagination.’

LECTURE 3. Inner aspect of Sun-Embodiment of Earth. — Dr. Steiner's Occult Science only a preliminary sketch, by no means exhaustive. Cosmic heat manifestation of cosmic sacrifice. No one understands heat who cannot sacrifice himself and all he has and feel bliss in so doing. Self knowledge unattainable without self-surrender. Two opposite cosmic poles: devoted absorption in what is contemplated and self-willed assertion of individuality. Personal Will opposes the permeation of higher self with Wisdom. Prejudice destroys higher insight. Higher knowledge never gained by ordinary science. Man must learn to wait for Grace. The Beings who were inspired by the sacrifice of the Thrones are the Spirits of Wisdom, who shower upon us gifts of Grace. Thrones are cosmic sacrificers. Spirits of Wisdom are cosmic givers. The Sun is a swarm of Spirits of Wisdom. Air is their gift, of which the creation of an artist is the spirit counterpart. Giving implies acceptance, i.e., two actions out of which Time originates. The giving on Saturn and acceptance on Sun is the origin of Archangels. Acceptance is a reflecting back. Spirits of Wisdom give their virtue or grace from centre of Sun as air or incense and Archangels from outside reflect it back as light. Early and late are thus transformed into inner and outer, and Space originates, but only bi-dimensional. Archangels reflect what was previously there and hence are called ‘Arch-angeloi,’ rememberers, recording angels or messengers of the beginning. The Christ-Impulse. Spirits of Wisdom from Sun. The great Bestower: the Earth-Being. Leonardo's ‘Last Supper’: ‘This do in remembrance of Me.’

LECTURE 4. Inner aspect of Moon-Embodiment of Earth. (Part 1). — Behind all heat is sacrifice: behind all air is bestowal. On earth powerful deeds depend on strong will; in spirit regions the reverse. Spiritual results are gained from control of desires and renouncing all idea of satisfying them. False asceticism. Luciferic Beings bring free-will. Some Cherubim renounce sacrifice from the Thrones or Spirits of Will. The Sun's substance divided by this Act into clouds like Saturn's rings. Constant meditation required to understand this chapter. Time is continuous, including coming and passing away. Some Cherubim withdrew from subjection to time and the sacrifice of the Thrones and chose Eternity. Severance begun on Saturn and effected on Sun between Time and Eternity. All above repeated on Moon where resignation appears as fluidity. Wherever there is water there is divine renunciation. Some Cherubim having renounced sacrifice the substance of the sacrifice was seized by Luciferic spirits who stayed behind. Cherubim wanted opponents so that freewill might develop, and therefore renounced sacrifice from the Thrones. Abraham offers Isaac, sacrifice refused. Christ renounced His rights of summoning ‘hosts of angels,’ and allows Judas to enter His sphere. Leonardo's ‘Last Supper.’

LECTURE 5. Inner aspect of Moon-Embodiment of Earth. (Part 2). — Cain's sacrifice refused. Repressed longing. Wishes unattainable. The Beings whose sacrifice is refused are thrown back on themselves and the Ego originates. Beings begin to lead an egoistic one-sided existence, but Spirits of Movement restore balance by creating variety and multiplicity. Against dull egoism comes variety with fluidic ideas and picture consciousness, but the longing still exists. In our subconscious lies Moon-evolution. Moon is planet of longing; the flow of pictures must be redeemed by realities, so that Earth becomes Planet of Redemption. The craving for redemption is in our subconscious, and can be satisfied not by a never-ending succession of pictures, but once and for ever by the Universal Being. Those entering our movement have this longing. H. V. Kleist.

LECTURE 6. Inner aspect of Earth-Embodiment of Earth. — Physical and psychic phenomena only understood by getting to their realities in Spiritual world as above described, and this is done by Spiritual Science. All striving for human knowledge originates in ‘wonder’ followed by satisfaction. Man is first astonished at a thing and demands an echo of it in himself, which, if he cannot find, he rejects the whole. Recapitulation. Cain. These facts not grasped by ordinary reason. In the Beings who retained the sacrificial substance an alien stamp is imprinted from the beginning, and this alien substance is Death. Death is the exclusion of anything from its cosmic purpose. This was severed from its purpose by renunciation and is the fourth Element on Earth. The solid formed out of the fluidic. The simile of ice, cut off from its purpose. In our world of Maya, death is the only reality. Minerals, plants, animals, do not die as their individuality is on other planes; but man having developed his individuality so far that it descends into his physical being becomes subject to earth-existence. No other Being but man; and he dies because he has to acquire his Ego consciousness on Earth and thereby gains victory over death. This is done by the Mystery of Golgotha. Paul before Damascus. The Mystery of Golgotha must first be understood on the Physical Plane. The only way to understand such things is by frequent careful meditation.