71. EL, Kassel, 12-11-'10
In our
esoteric classes we've often spoken of the paths that an
esoteric in the old mystery schools had to tread. At that time a man,
as it were, inverted his soul and spiritual qualities more rapidly
through certain methods, for he was physically and psychically more
robust then. He had a stronger soul, and since this is the architect
of the physical body, the latter was also stronger. These were
pre-historical times. Men were less complicated and more uniform at
that time. Humanity sprang out of the lap of the Gods, and after they
had gradually lost their old clairvoyance on their path through
matter it's a man's task to raise himself to spirituality
again by taking in the Christ impulse, and filled by this, to unite
himself with the Godhead.
Men
have become ever weaker in body, soul and spirit through increasing
materialism, and one can no longer subject the present more delicate
constitutions to the trials that pupils in the ancient mysteries
underwent. Back then, a candidate for initiation mainly worked at
quickly getting to know how untenable egoism and fear are and at
putting them aside. One can't judge what egoism really is
without ordinary concepts connected with the physical plane.
The
candidate for initiation was put into a sleep and his soul was then
shown what it had elaborated in the spiritual world until then. His
ego was then as it were, sucked up by the macrocosm, and it saw that
it was a nothing. Of course this standing before nothingness as
before a dark abyss aroused feelings of fear, and he had to get over
this. After going through these trials he was either unfit for outer
life since he realized that all perishable things were nothing, or he
remained strong and decided to use this incarnation to develop as
much as possible so that he could some day get to know higher
worlds.
A
modern shouldn't be grabbed so robustly. If an ordinary modern
says that the ground is shaking under his feet, he's already
saying a lot. He will always try to stand fast. He doesn't want
to jump over the abyss. He must let the ground slip out from under
him. For if he wants to press into spiritual worlds the concepts he
formed here on the physical plane don't help him at all.
He's not allowed to take any of them with him. The only things
he may keep are the capacity to make concepts, a sense for truth, and
logic. The capacity to form new concepts and a sense for the new
truths that he'll get to know.
The
masters of wisdom and of the harmony of feelings send us an analogy
to elucidate this matter. It's as if we saw all the objects in
our room in a mirror and we would then go behind the mirror to find
their reality there. We would see that there's nothing behind
it. Here we must let concepts about higher worlds flow into us from
higher beings and we must work at ourselves so that we form such
concepts. But after we've acquired some through serious and
honest work, we must step before the mirror again, make a bold
decision, and destroy it. Then darkness and nothingness will yawn
towards us. But if we endure steadfastly, light will shine up out of
the darkness and reveal an entirely new world to us.
Our
esoteric work consists in gradually raising our astral and etheric
bodies to spiritual heights. But the lower parts of both bodies
remain behind in the physical body. The ego lays a peculiar role
between these two parts that have, as it were, been torn apart.
Through the fact that we've become so firmly attached to
material things, it's as if it were chained to the lower parts
and is their slave. Thereby peculiar phenomena arise. The astral body
that's left to itself may have had certain vices that we could
easily control when its better part was still connected with it, but
now such qualities grow enormously and a man often feels like a
sensualist. If the ego was united with the higher parts, it would
control the lower ones from there and therewith all drives, desires
and passions. Then the higher parts would also not be unconscious, as
they are when the ego is in the lower ones. Because the higher bodies
leave the lower ones the latter often become weak. The physical body
then tends to get diseases. But this is a temporary condition. For
when the higher parts have taken enough forces out of higher worlds,
they'll work in a harmonizing and healing way on the lower ones
again With respect to these irregular phenomena in his lower bodies
an esoteric must tell himself: I will stand fast; I will go on my way
to the spiritual world come hell or high water.
If he
sets up a center against his error, he will also master them. Art is
supposed to help us in these battles. All true art was given to us
for this. An art that doesn't elevate us can't subsist;
it's no true art. When artists will know art's mission,
when art is permeated by theosophy, it'll become what it should
be for us.
When
the Gods created man, they gave him defects so that he could test his
strength on them. We should thank the Gods for our defects, for
combating them makes us strong and free. But we shouldn't love
the defects for even a moment. We couldn't thank Gods who made
us pure and without defects, because they would have made us into
weaklings. We should tell ourselves: And even the world was full of
devils we still come from God, Ex Deo nascimur. If we fight
seriously and constantly try to get into spiritual worlds,
we'll feel that the lower, defective part of us dies. In
Christo morimur. And then we'll awaken consciously in
higher worlds: Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus.
There's an exoteric and an esoteric version of this verse. Used
esoterically, the naming of the most sacred name, if it happens
unworthily, can unleash earthquakes, storms, lightning and other
tremendous events in nature, for if they're wrong even our most
hidden thoughts have a destructive effect in spiritual worlds.
That's what's meant in the first mystery drama where it
says that “Spirits must break worlds if your temporal creating
is not to bring destruction and death to the eternities” that
is, to repair the damage that men have done with their thoughts.
Therefore the esoteric version of this verse is:
Ex Deo nascimur,
In … morimur,
Per Spiritum Sanctum revisiscimus.
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