LECTURE FIVE
It is very
difficult indeed to speak about the so-called “Eighth
Sphere” which was referred to openly for the first time
by Mr. Sinnett — one cannot say that he gave
“information” about it for what he said was a
fallacy.
[note 1]
You can certainly realise
why it is difficult to speak about this subject, for again it
must be emphasised that our language has been coined for the
outer, material world, and the Eighth Sphere was regarded as
a secret matter until it was mentioned by Sinnett.
Consequently
there are not many words that can be used for characterising
the Eighth Sphere. The fact that all mention was avoided for
so long will also enable you to realise what is involved when
one speaks of it. You will therefore have to take the
aphoristic remarks I shall make today as a kind of
introductory exposition, given with the object of throwing
out certain indications which, to begin with, can be only a
small contribution to the subject. It is to be hoped,
however, that there will be opportunities for saying more at
some later time. On the basis of what was said in the last
lecture and also, to some extent, on earlier occasions, I
shall try to characterise what is called the “Eighth
Sphere” in order that we may have a foundation for
describing the development of the spiritual Movement in the
nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth.
You will have
realised from the lecture yesterday that the Eighth Sphere
cannot be anything that belongs to the material world, for I
have shown you that the greatest fallacy in Sinnett's
statement is that the physical Moon is directly connected
with the Eighth Sphere; and I tried to make it comprehensible
that the actual foundation of the error consists in the fact
that this pointed to something material and physical.
From this you
will be able to conjecture, even if not fully to understand,
that what is called the Eighth Sphere can have nothing
directly to do with anything within the material world
— that is to say, what can be perceived by man's
senses and thought out on the basis of sensory perception has
no part in the Eighth Sphere. So it will be useless to look
for the Eighth Sphere anywhere in the material world.
You now have
indications by means of which some approach can be made in
thought to a conception of the Eighth Sphere. I have said
that the Eighth Sphere has something to do with the residue
left from the Old Moon and its evolution. So much you can
gather from the studies we have pursued in the course of
time. I tried to make it clear in the lecture yesterday that
on the Old Moon, man's natural mode of perception was
visionary and imaginative in character, so that any
substantiality to be discerned in the Eighth Sphere must be
found with this kind of vision. That is to say: it must be
presumed at the outset that the Eighth Sphere is found by way
of visionary Imaginations.
How was it
that the expression “Eighth Sphere” came to be
used? — You know that human evolution takes its course
through the seven spheres of Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth,
Jupiter, Venus, Vulcan. We will conceive that besides these
seven spheres there is still something else which lies
outside them and yet is in some way related to the Earth.
Here, then, we have a sphere, visible only to
visionary-imaginative clairvoyance, which stands there as an
Eighth Sphere over and above the seven which constitute the
domain of the ordered and regular evolution of mankind. All
such sketches are, of course, purely diagrammatic; one is
obliged to draw separately spheres which can only be observed
each within the others. For you will certainly have realised
from our studies that as long as a man is within the material
world, makes his observations through the senses and thinks
with the intellect, he is standing in the Fourth Sphere, the
Earth Sphere. If he develops his faculties of soul
sufficiently to be able to see the Third Sphere, the Moon
Sphere, then he takes a far flight—but not in the
spatial sense. He observes, not from another place, but
physically speaking, spatially speaking, from the same place.
These seven spheres ought therefore in reality to be drawn
within one another. They are successive stages and states of
evolution and, fundamentally, such a diagram is of no other
value than as if one were to say: human beings develop from
birth to the seventh year in a first stage, from the seventh
to the fourteenth year in a second stage, and so on. The
being who has developed from the first to the seventh year
cannot be thought of as separate from the being who is
developing from the seventh until the fourteenth year.
Neither is it correct to think of the seven successive
spheres or stages of the Earth's evolution as separate
from each other.
This will
give you an inkling that the Eighth Sphere is to be observed
within the Earth Sphere. It cannot properly be drawn either
above or below; to depict the reality it would have to be
sketched into the Earth Sphere. I have often given a crude
example to express what is here meant. Just as the physical
air is around us, so is the Spiritual around us; we have to
look for the Spiritual within what is actually physical in
our environment. Hence it must be presumed that just as the
spiritual is round about us, so we must also look for the
Eighth Sphere in our environment. This means that an organ
enabling man to perceive the Eighth Sphere would have to be
developed, just as his physical senses enable him to perceive
the material Earth. He could then experience the Eighth
Sphere quite consciously; but unconsciously he is always
within it just as we are always within the air, even if we
are not aware of it. And if we have developed an organ for
experiencing the Eighth Sphere, we are conscious of it around
us. So that if the Eighth Sphere is to be described, it must
obviously be described as a realm in which we are living all
the time.
Now, as I
said, all that I can do in these introductory studies is to
give some general information—the rest will emerge as
we proceed. First of all, you can understand that what is
around us as the Eighth Sphere is accessible to
Imaginative-visionary clairvoyance. To develop Imaginative
clairvoyance without perceiving something of the Eighth
Sphere is impossible. The reason why it is so difficult to
speak of matters such as the Eighth Sphere is because really
clear and discriminative clairvoyance is possessed by so very
few. In the Eighth Sphere we have to do with Imaginations,
and what constitutes the essential nature of Earth-evolution
— that is to say, the Fourth Sphere — is not
present in the Eighth Sphere. The essential nature of the
Fourth Sphere is constituted, as I indicated yesterday, by
the mineral impregnation of this world-body. That we are able
to live on the Earth is due to the fact that this Fourth
Sphere has been mineralised: we live in a mineralised
environment; what is perceived through the physical senses
can be co-ordinated by the intellect. But we must conceive
that the mineral element is totally absent from the Eighth
Sphere.
When we
eliminate the mineral element in thought, all that remains is
a later stage of the Old Moon evolution, for whence could
anything else originate ? But evolution proceeds; something
that is perceptible through Imaginative, visionary
clairvoyance but could be nothing else than a residue of the
Old Moon—that would be no Eighth Sphere. All that could
be said would be that something has been left behind by the
Third Sphere.
In order to
have some inkling of facts relating to the Eighth Sphere, let
us keep the following in mind. In the course of its regular
evolution, the Third Sphere became the Fourth Sphere; that is
to say, a transition of the third elemental kingdom —
for that is what we must call it — to the mineral
kingdom took place. The mineral element was added. Otherwise
we should have to conceive of the Old Moon as a sum-total of
substantiality, imaginatively perceptible! It must therefore
be assumed that the regular progression from the Old Moon to
the Earth, from the Third Sphere to the Fourth Sphere,
consists in what was formerly only imaginatively perceptible
becoming materially perceptible, that is to say becoming
mineralised. As the Eighth Sphere there remains, to begin
with, the Old Moon element, but owing to a particular
happening this Old Moon element undergoes a change. What took
place in order that the Fourth Sphere might be able to arise
from the Third is clearly described in the book Occult
Science, where it is said that to the activities of the
Spirits of Movement are added those of the Spirits of Form
under whose guidance the whole process of the transformation
takes place.
[note 2]
We can therefore say
that the Fourth Sphere arises out of the Third through the
fact that the Spirits of Form add their activities to those
of the Spirits of Movement.
If the
Spirits of Form had achieved everything that their own nature
desires and moreover is able to achieve, when the mission of
Sphere Three was fulfilled in the Cosmos, Sphere Four would
have arisen quite naturally from Sphere Three. That is
obvious. But we know that Luciferic and Ahrimanic spirits are
at work — and they hold back for themselves something
of the Old Moon substantiality, wrest it away, as it were,
from the Spirits of Form. The fact that Lucifer and Ahriman
do so is indicative of their essential nature. Thus as Sphere
Three is advancing to a further stage, something is wrested
from the Spirits of Form by Lucifer and Ahriman; into this
part that is wrested away, Lucifer and Ahriman penetrate,
instead of the Spirits of Form. The activities of Lucifer and
Ahriman are added to those of the Spirits of Movement and, as
a result, Eight arises out of Three. (Note by translator: The
Eighth Sphere out of the Third Sphere.)
Something
else, then, must be there, not merely the Old Moon, and this
“something else” which comes into being as well
as Sphere Four is constituted by the fact that mineral
substantiality, as it comes into being, is wrested away at
the moment of the birth of the Fourth Sphere. Thus when the
mineral comes into existence out of the Imaginative
substantiality, it is snatched by Lucifer and Ahriman and
made into Imagination. Instead of an Earth arising from the
remaining Old Moon substantiality, a cosmic body takes shape
whose birth is due to the fact that the substantiality
wrested from the Earth is made into what has come over from
the Old Moon.
Now recall
how I have described the conditions pertaining to the Old
Moon, in the book
Occult Science.
In the Old Moon
there was as yet nothing mineral. Had mineral substance been
present, that world-body would have been an Earth, not Moon.
Sphere Four comes into being through the birth of the mineral
element. In that Lucifer and Ahriman approach, snatch mineral
substantiality out of Sphere Four and infuse it into Sphere
Three, the Old Moon is recapitulated, but now with
materiality that belongs properly to the Earth.
Mark this
well: instead of pure Imaginations being there, the
Imaginations are densified by the infusion of a mineral
element that has been wrested from the Earth. Densified
Imaginations are thus created. We are therefore drawn into a
world of densified Imaginations which are not lunar in
character because they have been densified by materiality
belonging to the Earth. They are ghosts, spectres —
that is to say, behind our world there is a world of spectres
created by Lucifer and Ahriman.
Let me
express it schematically, as follows: On the Old Moon certain
pictures were present. These should have passed over to the
Earth as something everywhere perceptible. But Lucifer and
Ahriman retained them for themselves. Lucifer and Ahriman
wrested from the Earth certain of its constituents and made
them into Imaginations, so that these Earth-substances
became, not Earthly formations, but Moon formations. Into our
Fourth Sphere, therefore, there has been instilled a sphere
that is really a Moon-sphere, but is filled with Earthly
substantiality and is therefore a bogus creation in the
Universe. To the seven Spheres, an Eighth, created in
opposition to the progressive Spirits, has been added. The
necessary consequence of this is that the Spirits of Form
must do battle on the Earth for every morsel of
substantiality capable of mineralisation, lest it should be
wrested from them by Lucifer and Ahriman and borne into the
Eighth Sphere.
In truth,
therefore, our Earth —the Fourth Sphere — is
simply not what it appears outwardly to be. Were it really to
consist of atoms, all these atoms would still be impregnated
by formations belonging to the Eighth Sphere — which
are perceptible only to visionary clairvoyance. These
formations are present everywhere; so too is the spectre-like
content of the Eighth Sphere which can therefore be perceived
just as actual spectres are perceived. All earthly being and
existence are involved here. Lucifer and Ahriman strive
unceasingly to draw from the Earth's substances
whatever they can snatch, in order to form their Eighth
Sphere which then, when it is sufficiently advanced, will be
detached from the Earth and go its own way in the Cosmos
together with Lucifer and Ahriman. Needless to say, the Earth
would then pass over to Jupiter as a mere torso. But man, as
you realise, has his established place in the whole of
Earth-evolution, for he is mineralised through and through.
We are permeated by the mineralising process which is itself
drawn into this battle, so that morsels of this substance can
be continually wrested from it. Therefore we ourselves are
involved in the battle. Lucifer and Ahriman battle against
the Spirits of Form, with the aim of wresting mineral
substance from us everywhere.
But the
strength of the process varies in the different regions of
our organism. We are diversely constituted; some of our
organs are more perfect than others. The most perfect of all
is our organ of thinking, the brain and the skull, and there
the battle of which I have spoken is the most vehement,
precisely because this human head, this human brain, is
fashioned as it is; and it is so fashioned because at this
place in our body, Lucifer, and Ahriman too, have been the
most successful in wresting mineral substance from us.
Physical substance there is more spiritualised than anywhere
else. The formation of our skull is due to the fact that it
is there that most has been wrested from us. Hence it is
precisely through the head that we can emancipate ourselves
from our organism to the greatest extent. We can soar upwards
in thoughts, we can distinguish between the good and the
evil. And for that very reason, Lucifer and Ahriman have
there been the most successful in wresting away
substantiality; in the so-called noblest organ of man they
have been able to wrest away the greatest amount of
mineralised substantiality. This alchemy by which mineral
substance is sent over into the Eighth Sphere is taking place
all the time behind the scenes of our existence. — To
begin with, I am simply communicating information;
corroborations will emerge more and more clearly as our
studies proceed.
If everything
were to run without a hitch for Lucifer and Ahriman, if they
were everywhere able to wrest as much as they wrest from the
organ of the head, Earth-evolution would soon reach a point
where Lucifer and Ahriman could succeed in destroying our
Earth and in leading over all evolution of worlds into the
Eighth Sphere, so that Earth-evolution as a whole would take
a different course. Hence Lucifer endeavours to unfold his
greatest strength of all at the place where man is the most
vulnerable, namely, in his head. The stronghold which it is
easiest for Lucifer to capture is the human head; and
everything that is similar to the head in respect of the
distribution of the mineral element, so that it can be drawn
out in the same way, is equally exposed to the danger of
being despatched into the Eighth Sphere. No less a prospect
looms as a consequence of this intention of Lucifer and
Ahriman than that the whole evolution of humanity may be
allowed to disappear into the Eighth Sphere, so that this
evolution would take a different course.
That, you
see, was the intention of Lucifer and Ahriman from the
beginning of Earth-evolution — to let the whole of this
evolution disappear into the Eighth Sphere. It was therefore
necessary that a counterweight should be created by those
Spirits who belong to the Hierarchy of the Spirits of Form.
The outer counterweight they created consists in this: into
the “space”, as it were, of the Eighth Sphere
something was inserted which works against this Eighth
Sphere. To present this correctly, we must show the Earth
here, and the Eighth Sphere here (see diagram). The Eighth
Sphere belongs to our physical Earth in the sense indicated.
We are surrounded everywhere by the Imaginations into which
the aim is that mineral materiality shall continually be
drawn. There lies the reason for the sacrifice made by Jahve
or Jehovah — the precipitation of substance far denser
than the other mineralised substance. This was established by
Jahve as Moon, as the counteracting agent. It was substance
of extreme density — and this density was described by
Sinnett as substance of a far denser physical-mineral
character than exists anywhere on the Earth. Hence Lucifer
and Ahriman cannot dissolve it away into their world of
Imaginations. And so this Moon circles around as a globe of
dense matter, solid, dense, indestructible. If you read
carefully enough you will find that even the descriptions of
the Moon given by physicists tally with this. Everything that
was available on the Earth was drawn out and placed there in
order that there should be enough physical matter incapable
of being wrested away. When we look at the Moon, we see there
in the Universe a substance far more intensely mineralised,
far physically denser, than exists anywhere on the Earth.
Jahve or Jehovah, then, must be regarded as that Being who
even in the physical domain has ensured that not all
materiality can be drawn away by Lucifer and Ahriman. And
then, at the right time, equal care will be taken by the same
Spirit that the Moon shall re-enter the Earth when the Earth
is strong enough to receive it, when the danger is averted by
the development that has meanwhile taken place.
[note 3]
This applies
to the external, physical-mineral domain. But in the human
domain too it was necessary that a counterweight should be
created to the intention aimed at the human head. Just as in
the outside world materiality had to be densified so that
Lucifer and Ahriman cannot dissolve it by their alchemy, so
in the human being something had to be set over against the
organ that can most easily be attacked by Lucifer and
Ahriman. Jahve had therefore to take care, just as he had
done in respect of the mineral domain, that not everything
can succumb to the attacks of Lucifer and Ahriman.
Care had to
be taken that not everything in man proceeding from the head
can become the prey of Lucifer and Ahriman; that not
everything shall depend upon head-activity and the activity
of the outward-turned senses, for then Lucifer and Ahriman
would have been victors. It was necessary that a
counterweight should be created in the domain of earthly
life, that there should be in the human being something
entirely independent of the head. And this was achieved
through the work of the good Spirits of Form, who implanted
the principle of Love into the principle of heredity
on Earth. That is to say, there is now operative in the human
race something that is independent of the head, that passes
from generation to generation and has its deepest foundations
in the physical nature of man.
Everything
that is connected with propagation and with heredity,
everything that is independent of man in the sense that he
cannot penetrate it with his thinking, everything that is the
gift of the Moon in the celestial firmament—that, in
man, is what has proceeded from the principle of Love
permeating the process of propagation and heredity. Hence the
violent battle which persists through history, the battle
waged by Lucifer and Ahriman against everything that comes
from this domain. Lucifer and Ahriman want to force on man
the exclusive sovereignty of the head, and they launch their
attacks by way of the head against everything that is purely
natural affinity. For whatever is hereditary substance on the
Earth cannot be wrested away by them. What the Moon is in the
heavens, heredity is in men on the Earth below. Everything
that is grounded in heredity, everything that is not charged
with thought, that is connected intrinsically with physical
nature — that is the Jahve-principle. The
Jahve-principle unfolds its greatest activity where nature is
working as nature; it is there that Jahve has outpoured in
greatest measure the Love that is his natural attribute, in
order to create a counterweight to the lovelessness, the mere
wisdom, of Lucifer and Ahriman.
It would be
necessary to go very thoroughly into matters recently
presented from quite different points of view, in order to
show how in the Moon and in the process of human heredity,
barricades have been created against Lucifer and Ahriman by
the Spirits of Form. If you think more deeply about these
matters, you will find that something of immense importance
is contained in the indications given.
Now in order
to reach at least some measure of understanding, the subject
must also be approached from a rather different standpoint.
If you remember what is said in the book
Occult Science
about the evolution of man through the Old
Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon stages, you will realise that in
these stages there can be no question of freedom. In
those other stages man is enclosed in a web of
necessity. In order that he might be ripe for
freedom, the mineral nature had to be incorporated into him;
he had to become a being permeated with the mineral element.
Hence man can be educated for freedom only within the
earthly-material world.
This by
itself indicates the tremendous significance of the
earthly-material world. That which must be acquired by
mankind — freedom of the will — can be acquired
only during Earth-evolution. In the Jupiter, Venus, and
Vulcan stages men will need this freedom of will. Therefore
when we consider the question of freedom, we are in a realm
of great importance; for we know that the Earth is the
begetter of freedom precisely because it is the Earth that
impregnates man with the physical-mineral element.
From this you
will understand that what stems from the free will must be
kept within the realm of Earth. To Spheres Three,
Two and One, it is impossible to apply anything that stems
from the principle of freedom. But the endeavour of Lucifer
and Ahriman is to drag the free will of man, and whatever
stems from it, into the Eighth Sphere. This means that man is
perpetually exposed to the danger of having his free will
wrested from him and dragged by Lucifer and Ahriman into the
Eighth Sphere.
This happens
if the element of free will is transformed, for example, into
visionary clairvoyance. When this is the case, a man is
already in the Eighth Sphere. This is a matter of which
occultists are so reluctant to speak, because it is an awful,
terrible truth. The moment the free will is transformed into
visionary clairvoyance, what unfolds in the human being
becomes the booty of Lucifer and Ahriman. It is immediately
captured by them and thereby spirited away from the Earth.
You can see from this how, through the shackling of free
will, the spectres of the Eighth Sphere are created. Lucifer
and Ahriman are engaged perpetually in shackling man's
free will and in conjuring all sorts of things before him in
order to tear away what he makes out of these things and let
it disappear in the Eighth Sphere.
When
clairvoyance in all kinds of different forms develops in
naive, credulous, superstitious people, it is often the case
that their free will has been sacrificed. Then Lucifer
instantly seizes hold of it, and whereas these people imagine
they have had an experience of immortality, the truth is that
in their visions they see a part, or a product, of their
souls being wrested away and prepared for the Eighth
Sphere.
You can
imagine from this how deep was the concern of those who,
having compromised by agreeing that by way of mediumship all
kinds of truths relating to the spiritual world should be
given to the public, then found the mediums believing that
the dead were speaking to them. But the occultists then knew
that what takes place between mediums and living men is that
the stream of free will is passing into the Eighth Sphere.
Instead of a link being formed with the Eternal, the mediums
were testifying precisely to what was continually
disappearing into the Eighth Sphere.
From this you
will realise that Lucifer and Ahriman have an avid desire to
bring as much as possible into the Eighth Sphere. Although
Goethe mixed Lucifer and Ahriman together, he has
nevertheless correctly described how a soul is wrested away
from the clutches of Mephistopheles-Ahriman! It would be the
richest prize for Lucifer and Ahriman if they could ever
succeed in capturing a whole soul for themselves; for thereby
such a soul would disappear into the Eighth Sphere and be
lost from Earth-evolution. The greatest victory for Lucifer
and Ahriman would be if one day they could claim that
countless numbers of the dead had passed into their sphere.
That would be their greatest victory. Moreover there is a way
of achieving it. Lucifer and Ahriman may say: human beings
long to know something about the life between death and a new
birth. If, therefore, we tell them that they are learning
something from the dead, they will be satisfied and will
direct their feelings towards the realm from which
announcements are made to them as coming from the dead. If
therefore we desire that the hearts and minds of men shall be
guided towards the Eighth Sphere, let us say to them: we are
telling you something that comes from the dead. We shall
capture men by alleging that the dead are in our domain.
This devilish
plan — for here we have indeed to do with the devil
— was put into effect by Lucifer and Ahriman when it
had occurred to occultists to endeavour to accomplish
something through mediumship. Lucifer and Ahriman inspired
the mediums through whom they arranged the whole business, in
order that people might be guided to the realm whence the
dead were alleged to be speaking. Lucifer and Ahriman could
then lay hold of their souls. The occultists were alarmed
when they saw what course things were taking and they took
counsel among themselves as to how to steer away from it.
Even those who belonged to the left wing realised what was
happening, and they said: we will do something different! An
opportunity then presented itself through the appearance of a
remarkable personality, namely H. P. Blavatsky. Now, after
the plan had been seen through and the occultists on the
Earth no longer lent their hands to it, Lucifer and Ahriman
were obliged to pursue their aim in a different way.
Materialism
had come upon the scene in the natural course of the
Earth's evolution. Therefore in order to reckon with
the mineralised process of evolution, it was necessary that
men's attention should be focussed entirely on material
things. That is materialism pure and simple! The occultists
who had special aims of their own, said: Well and good, we
will rely upon materialism. If, however, we take materialism
in its purely earthly form, man will inevitably discover one
day through his thinking that atoms do not exist — so
that will not be very fertile soil. But human thinking can
certainly be perverted if materialism is made
occult. The best way of doing this is to present the
Sphere that had to be created as a counterweight to the
Eighth Sphere as the Eighth Sphere itself! If people can be
led to believe that the materiality created as a
counterweight to the Eighth Sphere is the Eighth Sphere
itself, that will outstrip every conceivable earthly
materialism! And earthly materialism was indeed outstripped
in the assertion made by Sinnett. Materialism is there
imported into the realm of occultism; occultism there becomes
materialism. But sooner or later men would have been bound to
discover this. H. P. Blavatsky, who had deep insight into
this phase of the Earth's evolution, divined something
of what was happening, after she had seen through the tricks
of that strange individuality of whom I spoke in the last
lecture, and she said to herself: This cannot go on as it is;
it must be changed! But she said that under the influence of
the Indian occultists who belonged to the left wing. She
realised that things must change but that something not
easily detectable must be created. In order to create
something herself that would outstrip Sinnett's
assertion, she acceded to the proposals of the Indian
occultists who were inspiring her. These occultists, being
adherents of the left path, had no other aim than the
promotion of their own special interests — Indian
interests. They had in mind to establish all over the Earth a
system of wisdom from which Christ, and Jahve too, were
excluded. Therefore something whereby Christ and Jahve were
eliminated would have to be interpolated.
The following
method was then adopted. It was said: Lucifer is in truth the
great benefactor of mankind. (Of Ahriman there was no
mention; so little was known of him that one name was used
for both.) Lucifer brings to men everything they have gained
through the head: science, art, in short, all progress. He is
the true Spirit of Light; it is to him that men must adhere.
And Jahve — what has he done, in reality ? He has
established in men the principle of physical heredity! He is
a Moon God who has introduced elements pertaining to the
Moon. Hence the statement in
The Secret Doctrine
that men should not adhere to Jahve, for he is only the Lord
of materiality, of all the lower, earthly impulses; the true
benefactor of mankind is Lucifer. This shimmers through the
whole of
The Secret Doctrine,
and is, moreover,
clearly stated there. And so for occult reasons H. P.
Blavatsky was prepared in such a way as to become a hater of
Christ and Jahve. For in the occult domain such an utterance
signifies exactly the same as Sinnett's statement that
the Moon is the Eighth Sphere.
It is through
knowledge alone that an approach can be made to these things
— verily through knowledge alone. Therefore when we
began the periodical
Lucifer-Gnosis,
the first
article was necessarily on the subject of Lucifer, in order
that he should be rightly understood, in order that it should
be realised that inasmuch as he brings about head-activity,
he is a benefactor of mankind. But the counterweight must
also be there: Love must be there as the
counterweight. This was stated in the very first article of
the periodical, because at this point it was essential to
intervene.
As you see,
things were complicated. Fundamentally, what it was desired
to achieve through H. P. Blavatsky was that men should be
misled into believing in the Eighth Sphere. They could most
easily be misled into this belief by something false being
presented to them as the Eighth Sphere. Naturally, people
were led to the spiritual world, for Blavatsky's
Secret Doctrine
has this great merit, that through
it men's minds were directed to the spiritual world.
But the path followed was in pursuance of special interests,
not the interests of the evolution of humanity in general.
All these things must be kept strictly in mind if we are to
be quite clear as to which is the healthy path. We must not
accept empty words without verification if we desire to hav e
genuine occultism; we must resolve to see things clearly.
Particularly at the present point of time in our development
it has been necessary for me to give certain indications
about these things, indications which can be supplemented at
some other time by matters of even greater significance. I
had to give these indications because, if you keep them
rightly in your minds, you will see how our ship has been
steered from the beginning of our Movement — steered in
such a way that account has been taken of all the false paths
that can be pursued and of all those things that were a
menace to the spiritual development of humanity.
Indications
of a path into the spiritual world must not be given blindly,
above all not as the result of rapturous fanaticism. That is
why the exhortation has again and again had to be made among
you, my dear friends, that it is urgently necessary not to
allow yourselves to be duped by what leads to the Eighth
Sphere. And if again and again it has been said that more
caution should be exercised in the domain of visionary
clairvoyance, that validity should be ascribed only to that
clairvoyance which, in leading into the higher worlds,
excludes Lucifer and Ahriman — then it will be seen
that everything capable of bringing the soul into connection
with the Eighth Sphere must be rejected. If the tendency to
shackle the free will and remain in the domain of visionary
clairvoyance comes into evidence time and again, this is a
sign that opposition is being put in the way of the clear-cut
endeavour of our Movement, owing to the propensity to fetter
the free will in visionary clairvoyance.
How happy
some people would have been if only they could have shackled
the free will! This was a symptom of how many of the traits
prevailing in the other Movements spoken of here were being
imported into our own Movement. It was not from Blavatsky,
nor was it from outside, but by our Members themselves that
breaches were constantly being made in what it is our aim to
achieve. Such breaches were and are being made because
announcements of visionary clairvoyants are greeted with
rapturous wonder! This was an expression of perverse love for
the Eighth Sphere. When one or another person has insisted:
Dr. Steiner has said that such and such ought to be done,
then this means that such and such a person wants to deliver
up the free will to foreign influence, to let this will be
determined, not by himself, but by someone else; he wants to
make someone else responsible for instilling into the
physical world a willingness to allow the free will to be
fettered. Whenever people give way to fatalism instead of
making decisions through their own power of judgment, they
show their inclination to the Eighth Sphere. And everything
that passes in this way into the Eighth Sphere disappears
from Earth evolution, does not go forward in the right way
with Earth evolution.
We have come
to a point where it behoves us to pay heed to these things
— that is why they have been brought forward. We have
come to a point where we must pay attention to the needle in
the scales which oscillates all the time between the exoteric
and the esoteric. The principle in esotericism observed among
us is that, fundamentally speaking, the occult life in its
reality cannot be expressed by means of words. Things are
said sometimes in an esoteric, sometimes in an exoteric form,
and these are, as it were, two different dialects of one
inexpressible language. And if in his arrogance a man wants
to substitute the exoteric for the esoteric, he forgets that
they are two dialects of an inexpressible language and that
everything depends upon how he is able to hold the balance
between the two. But what still remains between the two must
be regarded as an inexpressible language—there is
always something that cannot be directly expressed.
If, as in the book
Occult Science,
certain exoteric (sic) matters
are publicised, care must be taken that in such a publication
everything is put in such a way that it is within the grasp
of the contemporary culture prevailing in the non-occult
world outside. When it is said that something should remain
esoteric, this simply means that it should remain within the
circle of those who participate in everything that is
presented in the sphere of esotericism. If things go wrong
here, the esoteric is carried into the exoteric and then one
is always facing a danger. This happens whenever anything
that should be kept within a limited circle is carried out
into the world so that there is no possibility of keeping up
with it. ... During the years we have been pursuing our
studies of Spiritual Science I have endeavoured to develop
things in such a way that it can be clear to everyone who
really goes into them that they are intelligible even before
clairvoyance is attained. I have been at pains to make public
nothing that cannot be comprehensible in its own domain. It
follows therefore that only those who are willing to see
human beings pass into the Eighth Sphere can have any valid
objection to this spiritual-scientific Movement. When I made
public the most delicate facts of all about the two Jesus
children, opposition arose from a quarter which understood
nothing at all and still places its faith in mediumship;
whereas one who studies the Bible deeply enough today can
grasp the circumstances which confirm the statement about the
two Jesus children. We must therefore take our stand on the
principle of following attentively what is brought forward,
but not allowing it to be said that it is accepted among us
out of belief in authority. Never should the phrase be heard
that truths are accepted simply because I have voiced them!
We should sin against the truth were we to say any such
thing. One thing or another may be grounded on confidence;
but that can never be made into a principle. Someone else may
perhaps be better able to tread the path; but the rule to
which every individual should adhere is this: not to
accept things on authority, but to put them to the
test.
It is by
testing that confirmation will be found. Whenever the word
“confidence” has been used among us it has been a
danger signal; it has been a sign that we have entered a
period when dangers threaten us. The attitude hitherto
prevailing among us must cease, for Spiritual Science is
grounded, not upon authority, but upon knowledge. The time
for being easy-going about presenting Spiritual Science is
over. Enemies will be on the look-out everywhere and we shall
have much to combat; we shall have to make ourselves equal to
the battle, and whenever confused minds feel compelled to
throw themselves into the combat this will make it especially
possible for the forces working against our
spiritual-scientific Movement to develop.
These things
must be regarded as resulting from the nature of the subject
itself. We shall have to resolve to take account of all of
them. For Movements with a particular bias find acceptance
and adherents simply because there are always groups of human
beings here and there whose interests are suited by
one-sidedness. Humanity consists, does it not, of groups of
human beings. If, now, an occultist attaches himself to a
group, he finds it a means of support, he has a foothold from
which he can start, because this group helps him. Therefore
everyone who starts from a one-sided, biassed outlook may
expect some measure of agreement and good-will. But he who
starts from truth itself has, to begin with, all humanity
against him. Truth has to conquer its domain with complete
disinterestedness. That is why, at bottom, nothing is more
hated than the truth, the unvarnished truth. And so there may
be many adherents here and there who actually cherish hatred
deep down within them. No wonder that this hatred sometimes
cuts through the force that builds a wall against it —
cuts through this force because the hatred has been
accumulating for so long. Such hatred is far more widespread
than is imagined and it is a factor that must be reckoned
with. Wherever truth is trying to assert itself endeavours
are made to transform and re-cast it in such a way that it
can somehow serve the opposing Powers. And various endeavours
cropping up among us at the present time must be regarded as
an effort to distort truth as presented here and apply it in
a different sense. The craftiest way of doing this is to
declare: the teaching itself is good, the
teacher—worthless. The teaching is stolen from the
teacher and efforts are made to apply it to some other aims.
— What Lucifer and Ahriman would love to do is to be
able to take the wisdom of the Gods lock, stock and barrel
and transfer it to the Eighth Sphere.
Endeavours
such as those I have mentioned are directed to changing a
Society in which freedom can prevail into a Society of
slaves. That is the method which can serve Ahriman, for he
sets out to make such activities useful to himself. —
That is the more esoteric side of the matter, which we must
now also consider with the necessary earnestness from the
exoteric aspect—in the other dialect.
I would beg
you not to lose sight of the fact that we are standing at a
crucial point in the development of our Spiritual
Science.
Notes:
1.
See notes at end of this
lecture.
2. See
pp. 128-9 et seq in the 1962-3 edition.
3. See
Lecture by Rudolf Steiner:
“From the Departure of the Moon to the Return of the Moon,”
given in Dornach, 13th May, 1921. Printed in
The Golden Blade, 1960.
NOTES
BY TRANSLATOR
As the
literature which contains much direct confirmation of what is
said by Dr. Steiner is not always readily available and may
be unfamiliar to readers of these lectures, the following
notes and quotations may be helpful.
(1) The very
wide circulation of Sinnett's
Esoteric Buddhism
is indicated by the fact that by the year 1884
(that is, only a year after publication) it was already in
its third edition. There have been eight editions in all.
(2) The
“Eighth Sphere”: In
The Secret Doctrine,
Volume I, page 186, Sinnett's statement that the Eighth
Sphere is the Moon is criticised by Madame Blavatsky who
says, however, that it is to be hoped that the
“mistaken” notions of which this is one may be
corrected in later editions of the book. She was obviously
referring to the first edition, as was C. J.
Harrison in his statement contained in
The Transcendental Universe
(see note below). In the third edition of
Esoteric Buddhism,
however, the corresponding
passage is identical with that in the eighth edition, and
while not specifically mentioning the Moon, implies it so
specifically that nothing has really been done in the way of
correction.
The passage in
Esoteric Buddhism
is as follows (Pages 104 and 105, third edition, also eighth edition,
pages 117 and 118):
“Kama
loca may be permanently inhabited by astral beings, by
elementals, but can only be an antechamber to some other
state for human beings. In the case imagined, the surviving
personality is promptly drawn into the current of its future
destinies, and these have nothing to do with this
earth's atmosphere or with Devachan, but with that
‘Eighth Sphere’ of which occasional mention will
be found in older occult writings. It will have been
unintelligible to ordinary readers hitherto why it was called
the ‘Eighth Sphere’ but since the explanation,
now given out for the first time, of the sevenfold
constitution of our planetary system, the meaning will be
clear enough. ... It will readily be guessed that the only
sphere connected with our planetary chain, which is lower
than our own in the scale, having spirit at the top and
matter at the bottom, must itself be no less visible to the
eye and to optical instruments than the earth itself, and as
the duties which this sphere has to perform in our planetary
system are immediately associated with this earth, there is
not much mystery left now in the riddle of the Eighth Sphere,
nor as to the place in the sky where it may be sought. ...”
Most
interesting references are to be found in C. J.
Harrison's The Transcendental Universe (a book
containing lectures given by him in the year 1893 before the
“Berean Society” which was “an association
of students of theoretical occultism”.) The following
extracts are taken from pages 1o8, 109:
“...
It will be my duty to explain, to the best of my ability,
certain facts in connection with a mystery known as the
Mystery of the Eighth Sphere. ... Now I am well aware that
there are many occultists who say the subject ought not to be
brought before the public at all, and object to the very name
being mentioned, ... In reply to such persons it is due to
myself to say I am breaking no oath, and violating no
confidence. These lectures were advertised in the public
journals, and all who choose to attend them are welcome. I
regret to be obliged to differ from many persons, whom I hold
in the highest respect, as to whether or not the times are
ripe for mentioning these subjects. They have been mentioned
— prudently or imprudently — and are familiar to
all who have taken an interest in the Theosophical Movement ...
The first person, however, to profane the mysteries
(albeit unconsciously) was Mr. Sinnett, the author of
Esoteric Buddhism,
a book which made considerable
sensation when it came out, but which contains nothing new
that is true, and nothing true that is new. As he was the
first to make public the information that there is an
“eighth sphere” and a mystery connected with it
of which he is ignorant, it may be as well to say that both
these statements are true. But when he proceeds to say that
the Eighth Sphere is the Moon, he gives utterance to one of
those half-truths that are more misleading than falsehoods ...
Readers of
Esoteric Buddhism
will remember that man is said
therein to evolve on seven planets; three of which (including
the Earth) are visible, and the other four composed of matter
too attenuated to be visible. Also that there is an eighth
planet, the moon, in which matter “asserts
itself” yet more strongly than on the earth. Anything
more utterly misleading it is impossible to conceive. Madame
Blavatsky, who knew very well that this kind of thing was
sure to be exposed sooner or later, has in her Secret
Doctrine corrected some of the errors, but as she has not
chosen to elucidate any portion of the mystery except such as
suit her purpose, and as she is destitute, moreover, of the
literary gifts of her disciple, her teaching in respect to
the Seven Planets and the Eighth Sphere will be
“caviare to the General”, who will continue to
regard Mr. Sinnett's explanation as the genuine
“Esoteric Buddhism” ...”
(3) In
Lecture II, Dr. Steiner refers to the ”occult
imprisonment” to which H. P. Blavatsky was subjected.
He also refers to this in Lecture V of the Course
Things of the Present and Past in the Spirit of Man.
The following
is quoted from Harrison's
The Transcendental Universe, page 36:
“...
What is occult ‘imprisonment’, and why was it
inflicted on Madame Blavatsky?
There is a
certain operation of ceremonial magic by means of which a
wall of psychic influences may be built up around an
individual who has become dangerous, which has the effect of
paralysing the higher activities, and producing what is
called the ‘repercussion of effort’, and the
result is a kind of spiritual sleep characterised by
fantastic visions. It is an operation seldom resorted to even
by Brothers of the Left, and in the case of Madame Blavatsky
was disapproved of by almost all European occultists.
On the American brotherhoods alone rests the
responsibility for what has since happened. ...”
|