V
Occult
Schools in the 18th and First Half of the 19th Century
We have seen how the old knowledge that was once acquired by means
of instinctive clairvoyance gradually faded into a kind of evening
twilight. It is difficult to find any trace of that old wisdom in
modern times, particularly after the eighteenth century, for what I
have told you is really true, namely that in recent times what has
persisted — or rather, to put it more correctly, what has only
recently made its appearance, is the external observation of Nature,
Logic, the sequence of abstract thoughts. But neither with external
observation of Nature nor with the mere sequence of abstract logical
thoughts can a bridge be built for man whereby he may attain to
reality. Much of the ancient wisdom has nevertheless maintained a
sort of existence in traditional form and may be found even as late
as the middle of the nineteenth century. And in order that we may
orientate ourselves rightly to the important subjects with which we
shall have to deal, I should like today to speak further about some
of the ideas that were still to be found in the first half of the
nineteenth century and are really survivals of the ancient wisdom.
I relate these things to
you in order that you may see how in a time that does not lie so very
far back, the whole manner of thinking was nevertheless entirely
different from what it is today. As I said before, it is exceedingly
difficult to arrive at these things, for it is single individuals —
living all alone, or having around them at the most a small circle of
pupils — who carried on the ancient wisdom, preserving it in
secret, often without themselves understanding its wonderfully deep
foundation. A similar picture has really to be made of the conditions
as they were in still earlier times, for it is quite certain that the
two characters who are familiar to you under the names of Faust and
Paracelsus encountered in the course of their wanderings such lonely
individuals — cave-dwellers of the soul we may call them —
and learned a great deal from them; learned from them what they
themselves afterwards developed and elaborated through an inner
faculty of their own, a faculty that was in their cases, too, of a
rather instinctive nature.
What I am now going to
relate to you was however much later, it was in the early decades of
the nineteenth century. Once more we find a small group — call
it a school if you will — a lonely school of Central Europe.
There, in this little circle, was to be found a deep and penetrating
teaching concerning Man. A long time ago, on a spiritual path, I
became aware that at a certain place in Central Europe there existed
such a small company of men who had knowledge. As I have said, I
learned to know of it on a spiritual path; I was not able at that
time to make observations in the physical world, since I was not then
in the physical world, but in a spiritual way it became known to me
that a little company of this kind existed.
I should, however, not
speak of what was taught within this little company, had not the
essence of what was hidden in it subsequently again disclosed itself
to research made independently through Spiritual Science; I should
not speak of it, had I not myself, so to speak, found the things
anew. For it is just in the refinding that one obtains the right
orientation to the wisdom that has survived from olden times, and
that is truly overpowering in its greatness. From this little company
of which I speak, a tradition goes right back in history, back
through the whole of the Middle Ages into the times of antiquity that
I described to you in the lectures given at the Christmas Meeting,
the times, that is to say, of Aristotle. The tradition does not,
however, come directly from Greece; it comes from Asia, by way of
what was brought over to Asia from Macedonia by Alexander.
Within this little company
is known and taught in all exactness a deep and penetrating teaching
concerning Man, in respect especially of two human faculties. We may
see there a spiritual scientist — he may truly be so called —
who is a fully developed Master, instructing his pupils. The symbols
by which he teaches them consist in certain geometrical forms, let us
say for example a form such as this — (Two intersecting
triangles) — and at the points are generally to be found some
words in Hebrew. It was impossible to find any direct connection with
such symbols, one could do nothing with them directly. And the pupils
of this master knew through the instructions they received that what,
for example, Eliphas Levi gives later on, is in reality nothing more
than a talking around the subject, for the pupils were at that time
still able to learn how the true meaning of such symbols is only
arrived at when these symbols are rediscovered in the nature and
being of the human organisation itself.
We find in particular one
symbol that played a great part for this little company of men. You
get the symbol when you draw apart this “Solomon's Key,”
so that the one triangle comes down and the other is raised up. The
symbol thus obtained played, as I said, a significant part even as
late as the nineteenth century, within this little community or
school.
The Master then made the
members of his little circle of pupils take up a certain attitude
with their bodies. They had to assume such a position that the body
itself as it were inscribed this symbol. He made them stand with
their legs far apart, and their arms stretched out above. Then by
lengthening the lines of the arms downwards, and the lines of the
legs upwards, these four lines came to view in the human organism
itself. A line was then drawn to unite the feet, and another line to
unite the hands above. These two joining lines were felt as lines of
force; the pupil became conscious that they do really exist. It
became clear to him that currents pass, like electro-magnetic
currents, from the left fingertips to the right fingertips, and again
from the left foot to the right foot. So that in actual fact the
human organism itself writes into space these two intersecting
triangles.
The next step was for the
pupil to learn to feel what lies in the words: “Light streams
upwards, Weight bears downwards.” The pupil had to experience
this in deep meditation, standing in the attitude I have described.
Thereby he gradually came to the point where the teacher was able to
say to him: “Now you are about to experience something that was
practised over and over again in the ancient Mysteries.” And
the pupil attained then in very truth to this further experience,
namely that he experienced and felt the very marrow within his bones.
You will be able to obtain
some feeling for these things if you will bring what I am saying into
connection with something I said to you only yesterday. I told you
then, in another connection, that if men continue only to think so
abstractly as has become the custom in the course of time, then this
living in abstract thoughts remains something external; man as it
were externalises himself. It is the exact opposite that occurs when,
in this way, a consciousness of the bones from inside is attained.
But now there is something
else that will help you to come to an understanding of the matter.
Paradoxical as it may sound, it is yet true that such a book as my
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity
cannot be grasped by mere
Logic, it must be understood by the whole human being. And in point
of fact you will not understand what is said in that book concerning
Thinking, unless you know that in reality man experiences Thought by
means of the inner knowledge and feeling of his skeleton. A man does
not really think with the brain, he thinks with his skeleton, when he
thinks in sharply defined thoughts. And when thought becomes
concrete, as is the case in the
Philosophy of Spiritual Activity,
then it passes over into the whole human being.
But now the pupils of this
Master went further still; they learned to feel the inside,
the inner nature, of the bones. Therewith they were able to
experience a last example of what was practised in manifold ways in
the ancient Mystery Schools, they learned to experience symbols by
making their own organism into these symbols; for only so can symbols
be really and truly experienced. Explanation and interpretation of
symbols is really nonsense; so too is all theorising about symbols.
The true attitude to symbols is to make them and actually experience
them. It is the same as with fables and legends and fairy tales. —
These should never be received merely abstractly, one must identify
oneself with them. There is always something in man whereby he can
enter into all the figures of the fairy tale, whereby he can make
himself one with the fairy tale. And so it is with these true symbols
of olden times, which come originally from spiritual knowledge; I
have expressed it by writing these words in your own language.
In modern times there is
little sense if Hebrew words are written, words that are no longer
fully understood; for then the man who reads them is not inwardly
quickened to life, he has not an inward experience of the symbol,
rather he is cramped by it. It is as though his bones were broken.
And that is what really happens — spiritually of course —
when one studies seriously such writings as those of Eliphas Levi.
Thus, then, did these
pupils learn to experience the inside of their bones. But, my dear
friends, when you begin to experience the inside of the bones, you
are really no longer in your body. If you hold something in your
finger a few inches in front of your nose, the object you are holding
is not in you; just as little is what you experience within your
bones really in you. You go inwards, it is true, but nevertheless you
go out of yourself. And this going out of oneself, this going to the
Gods, this going into the spiritual world, is what the pupils of that
lonely school learned to grasp and understand. For they learned to
know the lines which from the side of the Gods were drawn into the
world, the lines that were drawn by the Gods to establish and found
the world. They found in one direction, namely through Man, the path
to the Gods.
And then the teacher put
into words what the pupil was experiencing. — He expressed it
in a sentence that will naturally appear ludicrous and paradoxical to
many people today but that holds nevertheless, as You will be able to
recognise, a deep truth: —
Behold the man of bone,
And thou beholdest Death.
Look within the bones
And thou beholdest the Awakener —
that is, the Awakener of man in the Spirit, The Being who brings man into
connection with the world of the Gods.
Now in the time of which we
are speaking, not very much could be attained on this path; something
however could be attained. Something of the teaching concerning the
evolution of the Earth through different metamorphoses became clear
to the pupils. Through being able to place themselves into the
Spirit-being of Man, they learned to look back into Atlantean times
and even farther. As a matter of fact very many things that were not
in those times written down or printed but were related by word of
mouth concerning the evolution of the Earth, had their origin in a
knowledge and insight that came about in this way.
Such was one of the teachings given in this school.
Another teaching is also
very interesting. This teaching brought to light in a practical
manner the higher position of Man in respect to the animals. Facts
that we put to practical use in various ways and that are of great
value to us, were known and understood even as late as the nineteenth
century by men who based their knowledge on good old traditions of
knowledge and insight. We are proud today that we have police-dogs
who are able to track out all kinds of wrongdoing in life. This
practical use had not been thought of in olden times. But the faculty
of dogs, for example, in this direction was even better known than it
is today. Man had insight to perceive around the human being, a very
fine substance, finer than anything that can be seen or smelt or
sensed in any way. And it was known that there is a fine fluid
belonging also to the world as a whole. It was recognised as a
special differentiation of warmth-currents, in union with all manner
of other currents, which were looked upon as electro-magnetic; and
the scent of the dog was connected with these currents of warmth and
electro-magnetism. The pupils of that little school of which I have
been telling you, had their attention drawn to the same kind of
faculty in other animals too. It was shown to them how this sense for
a fine fluid flowing through the world was present in a very great
many animals. And then it was pointed out to them how that which in
the case of the animal develops downwards in the direction of the
coarse and material, develops in man upwards into a quality of soul.
And now we come to something taught in this school that is of the
very greatest interest. It was taught by reference to facts of
external anatomy, but a deeply spiritual truth was indicated. It was
said to the pupil: “Behold, Man is a Microcosm; he imitates in
his organism what takes place in the great structure of the
Universe.” Nor was Man regarded as a microcosm, as a little
world, only in respect of the processes that go on within him. What
shows itself plastically in man, in plastic forms and structures —
this too was referred back to processes in the external world.
Thus, profound and solemn
attention was given in this school to the passage of the Moon through
First Quarter, Full Moon, Last Quarter, New Moon; they learned to
watch how the Moon in this way goes through twenty-eight to thirty
phases. They watched out in the Cosmos the passage of the Moon
through her phases. They watched the Moon as she moves within her
orbit. They saw how she describes her twenty-eight to thirty curves
or turns and they understood how Man has in his spinal column these
twenty-eight to thirty vertebrae and how the development of the
spinal column in the embryo corresponds with the movements and forces
of the Moon. They saw in the form and shape of the human spinal
column the copy of the monthly movement of the Moon. And in the
twenty-eight to thirty nerves that go out from the spinal column into
the whole organism, they saw a copy of the streams that the Moon
sends down continually upon the Earth, sending them down at the
various stages of her path in the heavens. Actually and literally, in
these continuations of the vertebrae they saw a reflection of the
inpouring of the Moon-streams. In short, in what the human being
bears within him in the nerves of the spinal marrow together with the
spinal marrow itself, they saw something that unites him with the
Cosmos, that brings him into living connection with the Cosmos.
All this that I have
indicated to you was presented to the pupil. And he was then made to
observe something else. It was said to him: “Look at the optic
nerve: watch how it goes from the brain across into the eye. You will
see that in the course of its passage into the eye it is divided into
very fine threads. How many threads? The threads that go from the
optic nerve into the inside of the eye are exactly as many in number
as the nerves that go out from the spinal marrow; there are
twenty-eight to thirty of them. So that we may say, a spinal marrow
system in miniature goes from the brain through the optic nerve into
the eye.”
Thus has Man — so
said the teacher to his pupils — thus has man received this
thirty-membered system of nerves and spinal marrow from the Gods, who
in primeval antiquity formed and shaped his existence; but Man
himself has fashioned, in his eye, in his sense-world-beholding eye,
a copy of the same; there, in the front of the head-organism he has
fashioned for himself a copy of what the Gods have made of him.
After this, the pupil's
attention was directed to the following. The organisation of the
spinal marrow stands, as we have seen, in connection with the Moon.
But on the other hand, through the special relationship that the Moon
has to the Sun, we have a year of twelve months; and from the human
brain twelve nerves go out to the various parts of the organism, the
twelve chief nerves of the brain. In this respect, Man, in his head
organisation, is a microcosm, in respect, namely, of the relationship
between Sun and Moon. In the whole form and figure of Man is
expressed an imitation of the processes out yonder in the Cosmos.
Again, the pupil was taught
to observe something more. He has seen how in the optic nerve,
through the way the optic nerve is split up into thirty divisions,
Man imitates the Moon system of the spine. And he has seen how twelve
nerves go out from the brain. But now again, when the particular part
of the brain that sends the olfactory nerve into the nose is examined
the fact is disclosed that, there, in that little portion of the
brain the whole big brain is imitated. Just as in the eye the system
of nerves and spinal marrow is imitated, so in the organ of smell the
whole brain is imitated, inasmuch as the olfactory nerve enters the
nose in twelve divisions, in twelve strands. So that Man has an
actual, miniature human being in front, here, in his head. And then
the pupil was made to observe that anatomically this miniature human
being is no more than a mere indication. Things grow different; only
the most minute anatomical investigation could avail here; although
on the other hand, as it were in compensation, they express
themselves especially strongly in the astral body. Having however
only bare indications of them, they cannot be made use of in ordinary
life. Yet we can learn to do so. And even as the pupil was shown how
to experience the inside of his bones, so was he shown how to
experience, in a really living way, this particular part of his
being.
And here we come to
something that is in truth more akin to the whole Western outlook
than are many other things that come over to us from the East. For
the East too speaks of this concentration on the root of the nose,
this concentration on the point between the eyebrows. (This is how
the exact spot is defined.) But in truth this concentration is a
concentration on the miniature man that is situated in this spot and
can be grasped astrally. A meditation can actually be so formed as to
enable one to apprehend something in the region like a miniature man
in embryonic development. The pupil in that school received this
guidance: he learned to apprehend, in intensely concentrated thought,
a kind of embryonic development of a miniature human being.
By this means did the
pupils who had the faculties for it, develop the two-petaled
lotus-flower. [Footnote: see
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment
by Rudolf Steiner] And then it was said to them:
The animal develops this faculty downwards, to the fluid of warmth
and of electro-magnetism. Man on the other hand develops into the
astral what has its place here in the head and nose. At first sight
it appears to be merely a sense of smell, but the faculty, the
activity of the eye plays over into it. Man develops this into the
astral. He acquires the faculty whereby he is able, not merely to
follow that fluid as do the animals, but to evoke continual
interchange with the astral light, and to perceive by means of the
two-petaled lotus-flower what he is continually writing into the
astral light his whole life long. The dog scents only that which has
remained, that which is there present. Man has a different
experience. Inasmuch as he moves with his two-petaled lotus-flower,
even when he cannot perceive with it, he is forever writing
everything that is in his thoughts into the astral light; and now he
acquires the faculty that enables him to follow what he has written;
and to perceive at the same time something else, namely, the true
difference between Good and Evil.
In this manner echoes of
ancient primeval treasures of wisdom were still present, of which the
rudiments were still taught in later days, even practically. And we
can see how very much has been lost under the influence of the
materialistic streams that began to work so forcibly about the middle
of the nineteenth century. For such things as I have been indicating
to you were still, to a certain degree at least, experienced and
known in certain circles, isolated and hermit-like though they were.
And in the most varied domains of life knowledge was still derived
from such hidden sources, knowledge that was later entirely
disregarded, and that many today long to find again. But on account
of the crude methods that prevail in our time, external cognition
cannot regain it.
Now together with all else
that was taught to the pupils of that little circle, there was one
special and definite teaching. It was shown to the pupil how when he
makes use of the organ that is really an organ of smell raised up
into the astral light, then he learns to know the true substance of
all things, he learns to know Matter. And when he comes to a
knowledge of the inside of his bony system, and thereby learns to
know the true and authentic World Geometry, to know the way in which
the forces have been inscribed into the world by the Gods, then he
learns to understand the Forms that work in the things of the
world. Thus if you would learn to know Quartz in its substance —
so it was said to the pupil — then look at it in the
two-petaled lotus-flower. If you would learn to know its crystal
form, how the substance is given shape and form, then you must
apprehend this form out of the Cosmos with the power of apprehension
that you can gain by living experience of the inside of the bony
system.
Or again, the pupil was
taught as follows. — If you use your head-organ, then you learn
to know how a plant is fashioned in respect of Substance. If
You learn to experience the inside of your bony system, then you
learn to know how a certain plant grows, why it has this or
that form of leaf, this or that arrangement of its leaves, why it
unfolds its blossoms in this or that manner.
Everything that is Form had
to be understood in the one way, everything that is Substance in the
other way. And it is really interesting to find, when we go back to
Aristotle, how he makes this distinction in respect of everything
that exists, the distinction between Form and Substance. In later
times, of course, it was taught in a merely abstract way.
In the stream that came
from Greece to Europe the abstractness with which these things
were set forth in books was enough to drive one to despair; this went
on throughout the Middle Ages, and in still more recent times has
gone from bad to worse. But if you go back to Aristotle, you find
that, with him, Forms really lead back to the experience I described,
you find with him the true insight into things that is able to see in
every head that which he calls the Matter or Substance in the things.
This insight possessed by Aristotle was the aspect of his teaching
that was carried into Asia.
But now the inner knowledge
— that is to say, the knowledge that is in accord with the
Akashic Records — the inner knowledge of the philosophy taught
in Greece, points us to something of which I could naturally only
give quite an external indication in my
Riddles of Philosophy,
where I showed how Aristotle held the view that in Man, Form and
Matter flow into one another; in Man, Matter is Form and Form Matter.
You will find this where I am speaking of Spirit in
Riddles of Philosophy.
Aristotle himself, however,
taught it in quite a different way. Aristotle taught that when you
approach the minerals, you experience in the first place their Form
by means of the inside of the bones of the lower leg, and you
experience their Substance in the organ of the head. The two
are far apart. Man holds them apart, Form and Substance; in the
mineral kingdom itself they come together in crystallisation. When
man comes to an understanding of the plant, then he experiences its
Form by means of his experience of the inside of the thigh-bone, its
Substance once more by means of the organ of the head, the
two-petaled lotus-flower. The two experiences have already come a
little nearer. And when man experiences the animal, then he feels the
animal in its Form through the experience he has of the inside of the
bones of the lower arm, and again he feels its Substance through the
organ of the head — this time the two are very near together.
And if now man experiences Man himself, then he experiences the Form
of Man through the inside of the upper arm that is connected with the
brain by way of the speech formation. I have often spoken of this in
my introductory words on Eurhythmy. There the two-petaled
lotus-flower unites with what goes from the inside of the upper arm
to the brain. And particularly in speech we experience our fellow
human being no longer divided as to Form and Content, but as one
in Form and Content.
This teaching still
survived in all its concreteness in the time of Aristotle. And as we
have said, a trace of it can still be found as late as the nineteenth
century. But there we come to an abyss. In the ‘forties of the
nineteenth century these things were utterly and completely lost. And
the abyss lasted until the end of the nineteenth century when the
coming of the Michael Age gives the possibility for these truths to
be found again. When, however, men step over this abyss, they are
really stepping over a threshold. And at the threshold stands a
Guardian. Men were not able to see this Guardian when they went past
him between the years 1842 and 1879. But now they must, for their own
good, look back and take note of him. For to continue not heeding him
and to live on into the following centuries without heeding him would
bring terrible trouble upon mankind.
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