The First Goetheanum
by
Rudolf Steiner
Translated from the German by Frank Thomas Smith
Lesson Seven
Dornach, April 11, 1924
My
dear friends,
Quite a large number of new members of this School are present,
and I am therefore obliged to again say a few words about its
principles.
First if all, this School represents the impulse of the
anthroposophical movement which was renewed here during the
Christmas Conference at the Goetheanum. Previously there were
several esoteric circles. All these esoteric circles must be
gradually absorbed into this School, because with the Christmas
Conference a new spirit was introduced into the
anthroposophical movement insofar as it streams through the
Anthroposophical Society.
I
have repeatedly spoken - also outside [Dornach] - about what
the difference is between the anthroposophical movement before
the Christmas Conference and the one we now have since
Christmas. Previously the Anthroposophical Society was a kind
of administrative body for anthroposophical teaching and
content. Within the Anthroposophical Society, Anthroposophy
was, so to speak, cultivated. Since Christmas anthroposophy is
not only cultivated, it is also carried out; meaning that
everything which passes through the Anthroposophical Society as
activity, as thought, is anthroposophy itself.
The
renewal which has taken place must be clearly grasped, my dear
friends, and above all it must be grasped with deep
earnestness. For a distinction exists between the
Anthroposophical Society in general and this Esoteric School
within the Anthroposophical Society. The Anthroposophical
Society will, as a matter of course and according to the
principle of openness, not be able to demand anything more from
the members than that they honestly recognize what
anthroposophy is and that they are in a certain sense listeners
to what anthroposophy says; and that they receive from it what
their hearts, their souls can make of it.
It
is different as far as the School is concerned. Those who
become members of this School declare that they want to be true
representatives of the anthroposophical movement. In this
Esoteric School, which will gradually be expanded to include
three classes, the same freedom must of course apply as it does
to every member of the Anthroposophical Society; but freedom
must also apply for the Executive Council at the Goetheanum
which is responsible for this School. In this case, it means
that only those who are recognized by the School as true
members can be recipients of what the School teaches.
Therefore, whatever a member of the School does should have the
effect of reflecting on anthroposophy in the world; and it must
belong to the competence of the Executive Council to remove a
member if it considers that he cannot be a representative of
the anthroposophical movement. The relationship must be
mutual.
Therefore, more and more a serious, in a certain sense strict
spirit will have to be utilized in the management of the
School. Otherwise the anthroposophical movement cannot advance
if we do not feel that the School is like building a rock to
support anthroposophy. It is going to be very difficult and the
members of this School must know that they must adapt to those
difficulties. They are not merely anthroposophists, they are
members of an Esoteric School.
And
it must be an inner obligation to consider the Executive
Committee, as it is presently constituted, as an esoteric
entity. This is not generally understood. So something must be
done to bring it to the members' attention. It is saying much
that an Executive Committee has been esoterically formed.
Furthermore, all those who consider themselves to be legitimate
members of this School see the School as not having been
founded by men, but in fact by the will of the world's
presently reigning spiritual powers; something which has been
instituted from the spiritual world and which intends to act
accordingly; which feels responsible to the spiritual world
alone. Therefore, anything which indicates that a member is not
taking the School seriously must lead to the cancellation of
that person's membership.
It
is a fact that negligence has entered into the Anthroposophical
Society to a marked degree in recent years. That it ceases is
one of the tasks for the members of this School. We want to
feel responsible even for the words we speak. Above all we
should feel responsible that every word we speak is tested to
the extent that we know it is true. For untruthfulness, even
when derived from what is called good intentions, is
destructive in an occult movement. There must be no illusions
about this; it must be completely clear. It is not a question
of good intentions, which are often taken very lightly, but of
objective truth. Among the first duties of an esoteric student
is that he does not merely feel obliged to say what he thinks
is true, but that he feels obliged to determine that what he
says is really objectively true. For only when we serve the
divine-spiritual powers - whose forces stream through this
School - in the sense of objective truth, will we be able to
steer through all the difficulties which will assail
anthroposophy.
What I will now say is within the circle of the School, and
what is said within the circle of the School remains within the
circle of the School. We may not forget that many people are
saying something like the following. Certain influential
persons are saying: Those who represent the principles of the
Roman Church will do everything in their power to make the
individual states of the former German Empire independent and
out of them - I am only reporting - with the exception of the
predominance of Prussia, to reestablish the Holy Roman Empire,
which of course, when it is established by such prominence,
will spread its power over the neighboring regions. Then - they
say - we will need to completely destroy from the roots up the
most dangerous, the worst movements. And, they add, if the
reestablishment of the Holy Roman Empire is not successful, and
it will be successful, but if not, we will find other means to
completely destroy from the roots up the most resisting, the
most dangerous movements of the present, and they are the
anthroposophical movement and the movement for Religious
Renewal [Christian Community].
I
quote almost verbatim. And you can see that the difficulties
are not less, but every week greater, that what I say is well
founded. I wish today to speak from the heart to those who
consider their membership in this School with heartfelt
seriousness. Only by such earnestness as members of the School
can we construct the necessary foundation for navigating
through the future difficulties.
You
can see from this that anthroposophy - the movement for
religious renewal is only a branch of it - is taken more
seriously by the opposition than by many of the members.
Because when one can learn that the Holy Roman Empire, which
fell in 1806, is to be reinstated in order to eliminate such a
movement, that means that it is taken very seriously indeed.
What is important is whether a movement is founded from the
spirit and not, my dear friends, how many members it has, but
which force is instilled in it directly from the spiritual
world. The opponents see that it contains a strong inner force;
therefore, they choose sharp, strong rather than weak means [to
combat it].
*
The
considerations of these Class lessons, my dear friends, have
been primarily concerned with what can be told about the
encounter with the Guardian of the Threshold, the encounter
which is the first experience towards the attainment of real
and true supersensible knowledge. Today I would like to add
something to what has already been considered.
It
is not possible to claim that the encounter with the Guardian
of the Threshold has been successful until one has experienced
what it means to be outside the physical body with the human I
and the astral body. Because when the human being is enclosed
within the physical body, the only things he can perceive in
his surroundings are those which he perceives with the
instruments of his physical body. And through the instruments
of the physical body only the sensible world can be perceived -
which is a reflection of a spiritual world, one which does not,
however, reveal to the senses what it is a reflection of.
Generally speaking, it is not difficult for a person to leave
the physical body. He does so every time he falls asleep. He is
then outside the physical body. But when he is asleep outside
the physical body his consciousness is suppressed to the point
of being unconscious. Only illusory - or perhaps even not
illusory - dreams rise up from this unconsciousness. But
through the attainment of higher knowledge leaving the physical
body takes place in fully conscious deliberateness, so that
when outside the physical body the person perceives his
surroundings exactly as he perceives the physical world with
his senses when within the physical body. He perceives the
spiritual world while outside the physical body.
But
the human being is at first unconsciously asleep. Under normal
circumstances he is not aware of what he could see when outside
the physical body. And the reason for this is that he is
protected from approaching the spiritual world unprepared.
If
he is sufficiently prepared, what happens then? When he is at
the abyss between the sensory world and the spiritual world,
the Guardian of the Threshold extracts his true human essence -
assuming he is prepared as described in the previous lessons -
which can then fly over the abyss with the means indicated in
the mantric verses. And then from beyond the threshold he can
behold his own sensory physical being.
That is the first powerful impression of true knowledge, my
dear friends, when the Guardian of the Threshold can say to the
human being: See, that is how you are over there, as you appear
in the physical world; here with me you are as your inner being
really is.
And
now meaningful words sound out again from the Guardian of the
Threshold - that the person is called upon, now that he is on
the other side of the abyss, how differently he sees himself on
the other, physical side. He sees himself differently. He sees
himself as a tripartite being. He sees himself as a tripartite
being which expresses itself psychically in thinking, feeling
and willing. In reality they are three humans: the thinking
one, the feeling one, the willing one, which exist in every
person and are only held together in one by the physical body
in the physical world. And what the person sees there resounds
from the lips of the Guardian of the Threshold in the following
way:
O see the three
They are the one,
When you in earthly life
the human form have got.
Or
also “human imprint”; one must translate the words
from the occult language.
O see the three
They are the one,
When you in earthly life
the human imprint bear.
Experience the head's cosmic form
Feel the heart's cosmic pulse
Think the limbs' cosmic force
They are the three
The three, which as the one
In earthly being live.
[The
mantra is written on the blackboard:]
O see the three
They are the one,
When you in earthly life
the human imprint bear.
Experience the head's cosmic form
Feel the heart's cosmic pulse
Think the limbs' cosmic force
They are the three
The three, which as the one
In earthly being live.
The
Guardian of the Threshold is indicating here how the Three -
which separate from each other once the person leaves the
physical body - how the Three look in relation to the physical
body. The vision is directed to the physical body, to the
head, heart and limbs, and the Guardian of the Threshold says:
If you observe the human head in its true cosmic significance,
it is a mirror image of the heavenly universe. You must look
into the distance, where the universe seems to reach its
boundary. (In reality it is bounded by the spirit, not as it
naively appears physically to be.) In looking up you must
recall that your round head is a true image of the heavenly
universe. And we add here, being conscious of the mantric
words:
“Experience the head's cosmic form”
The
sign is added here [in front of the above line]:
which encourages us to pause at this line of the mantric verse
in order to envision the upward direction to the cosmic
vastness, and of course that direction is always upward from
anywhere on the earth.
“Feel the heart's cosmic pulse”
Through this cosmic-heavenly place the cosmic rhythm resounds
as cosmic music. When we hear the human heart beating it seems
as if this human heart were only beating as a result of the
human organism's interior processes. In reality what beats in
the heart is the counterpoint of the cosmic rhythm which has
circulated not only for thousands but for millions of years.
Therefore, pause again - the Guardian of the Threshold says -
at the words “Feel the heart's cosmic pulse”, and
feel what works in the heart upward as well as downward.
[The
corresponding sign is drawn:]
The triangle pointing downward combines with the one
pointing upward.
“Think the limbs' cosmic force”
This cosmic force is the one concentrated from below by gravity
and other earthly forces. In our thinking - which as earthly
thinking is only capable of understanding the earthly - we must
look downward to grasp what streams out from the earth to work
in man. Now we pause again at “Think the limbs' cosmic
force” in the triangle pointing downward:
And we
will feel the Guardian's words as they should affect the human
heart, the human soul today if one activates this mantric verse
in the appropriate way.
O see the three
They are the one,
When you in earthly life
the human imprint bear.
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Experience the head's cosmic form.
The
verse is spoken while making the sign before the head:
Feel the heart's cosmic pulse
One
speaks the verse while making the sign before the breast:
Think the limbs' cosmic force
One
speaks the verse while making the sign pointing downward:
They are the Three
The Three, which as the One
In earthly being lives.
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And
you should then try, after letting these mantric verses work on
the soul, to make the senses subdued, close the eyes, hear
nothing with the ears, perceive nothing and have darkness
around you for a while, so that you are living totally in the
atmosphere through which these words pass. And in this way you
will transport yourself to the sphere in initiation which in
all reality can be realized during the encounter with the
Guardian of the Threshold. This is one of the ways by which one
can take the first step beyond the threshold.
But
we must let the Guardian's next words work upon us with great
earnestness. These words indicate that once we have crossed the
threshold everything is different from the sensory world. In
the sensory world we think that the site of thinking and mental
images is the human head. And so it is, for the sensory world.
But this thinking in the head is always mixed a little bit with
willing, something which is also perceptible for normal
consciousness. Because when we move from one thought to another
we must use the will just as we use it when moving an arm or a
leg, or when willing in general. But it is a fine, delicate
willing which transfers one thought to another. When we are in
the sensory world the whole extent of thinking and a small
amount of willing are bound together in the head. As soon as we
cross over the Threshold and encounter the Guardian it is the
reverse: a small amount of thinking and much widespread willing
is bound to the head. And in this willing, which otherwise
sleeps in man, we sense the spirit which forms the head from
out of the cosmos, the heavens, as it's spherically-shaped
mirror image in all its details.
Therefore, once we have crossed beyond the threshold, the
Guardian calls out the following words:
[The
new mantra is written on the blackboard.]
The head's spirit,
You can will it
And
now we see that willing is something quite different from what
it previously was. Previously the senses were the transmitters
of sense-impressions, and one was not aware that the will goes
through the the eyes, through the ears, that the will goes
through the sense of warmth, and through every other sense as
well. Now we see that everything the eye experiences as
multiple colors, what the ear hears as multiple sounds, what
man perceives as warmth and cold, as rough and smooth, smells
and tastes etc., is all will in the spiritual world.
[writing continues:]
And willing provides you with
The senses' multiple heaven-weaving
If
on seeing the head from the other side of the threshold one
recognizes how will goes through the head and how the senses
represent will, then he will realize how the heart contains the
soul and how one can feel the soul within the heart just as he
can will the head's spirit when observing the head. And now we
know that when thinking is not considered as a function of the
head, but as a function of the heart, of the soul, we realize
that thinking does not belong to an individual, but to the
world; then one experiences cosmic-life, the music of the
spheres.
[The
second verse is written on the blackboard.]
The heart's soul,
You can feel it;
And feeling provides you with
Thinking's germinal-waking cosmic-life.
You live in the shining.
not in the unsubstantial shining, but the shining where the
essence of the world appears.
The head's spirit,
You're able to will it;
And willing provides you with
The senses' manifold heavenly weave.
summing up in the line:
You weave in wisdom.
Summing up what pertains to the heart's soul and feeling in the
line:
You live in the shining.
Just as you recognize the senses as will, you also recognize
thinking as feeling in respect to cosmic being, when you
consider the Three, which only in the sensory world are
One.
And
thirdly the Guardian of the Threshold adds:
[The
third verse is written on the blackboard.]
The limbs' strength,
You can think it.
Now
we have a complete reversal. Whereas normally we consider
thinking to be concentrated in the head, here [in the first
verse] it is the will, as I previously explained, that is
concentrated in the head. Feeling stays in the heart, where it
is also felt to be in the sensory world; for the inner force of
the heart goes over to the spiritual world.
The limbs' strength,
You can think it.
Now
thinking is brought directly into connection with the limbs,
the opposite of the sensory world.
[Writing continues.]
And thinking gives you
Human striving's goal oriented will;
thus, willing becomes thinking,
You strive in virtue.
Thus, we have the complete reversal in the spiritual world as
revealed to us by the Guardian of the Threshold. Whereas we
normally differentiate willing, feeling, thinking from below
upward in man, on the other side [of the threshold] we
differentiate man as a Three: will above in the head, feeling
in the middle, thinking below at the limbs.
We
realize then how willing, concentrated in the head, is the
weaving cosmic wisdom in which we live; how feeling is the
cosmic shining in which all the spirit-beings glow; and how
thinking, observed in the limbs, is human striving, which can
be lived as human virtue. And the Three appear before spiritual
vision thus:
The head's spirit
The heart's soul
The limbs' force
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The
mantric verse is built thus. And we must be aware of this inner
congruence, and also aware that if we let this mantric verse
work on us the following will penetrate our being:
Heavenly weaving
Cosmic living
Human striving
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[These
three lines are underlined in yellow.]
These then are the Guardian of the Threshold's words which
accompany our spiritual vision of the Three, which derive from
the One, when we cross over into the world beyond the
threshold:
The head's spirit,
You can will it;
And willing provides you with
The senses' manifold heavenly weave.
You weave in wisdom.
The heart's soul,
You can feel it;
And feeling provides you with
Thinking's germinal-waking cosmic-life.
You live in the shining.
The limbs' strength,
You can think it.
And thinking gives you
Human striving's goal oriented will;
You strive in virtue.
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These are the sensations which must flow through the soul if
real knowledge is to be obtained; these are the admonitions
which the Guardian of the Threshold lets resound at the moment
when he also tells us:
Come in
The gate is open;
You will become
A real human.
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[Written on the blackboard:]
Come in
The gate is open;
You will become
A real human.
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Those are the words which for thousands and thousands of years
have resounded at all the gates to the spiritual world,
admonishing and yet encouraging:
Come in
The gate is open;
You will become
A real human.
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Just imagine, my sisters and brothers, that you say to
yourselves for the first time: I want to take the Guardian of
the Threshold's words seriously; I recognize that I was not yet
a human being; I recognize that I will become one through
insight into the spiritual world.
Imagine, my dear sisters and brothers, you say the second time:
Oh, I didn't take the words seriously enough the first time; I
must admit that I need not one, but two of the stages from
where I am now in order to become a true human being.
And
imagine you say the third time: I recognize that I need three
of the stages from the point where I now stand, at which I am
not a true human, in order to become a true human being.
The
first admonition, which you give to yourself, is earnest. The
second admonition is more earnest. But the third admonition
must bear the most earnest impression of all. And if you can
awaken this threefold admonition of earnestness from the depths
of your souls, then you will have an inkling of what it means
to become a true human being through knowledge. And then you
will return to the first admonition - as we will also do now -
as a transforming verse in our souls.
O see the three
They are the one,
When you in earthly life
the human imprint bear.
Experience the head's cosmic form
Feel the heart's cosmic pulse
Think the limbs' cosmic force
They are the Three
The Three, which as the One
In earthly being live.
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Thus, my sisters and brothers, has it resounded in the hearts
of all who have striven for knowledge ever since there have
been human beings on the earth.
There has been a pause in the striving since the dawn of the
fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch. According to the will of
the divine-spiritual entities who guide humanity, the pause has
come to an end. Now it is up to you to make human hearts open
again in a worthy way to what the wise guides of humanity raise
up to the vision of what works in the world as spirit, what as
spirit works in the world in humanity, as the crown of
existence.
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