I.
THEOSOPHY AND ROSICRUCIANISM
The aim of these lectures
[Note 1]
is to give a survey of
what we are accustomed to call theosophy. Theosophy must
become a new impulse of culture in an encompassing way. For a
long time humanity has been yearning for it, and from many
aspects it is called upon to give an answer to the burning
questions now advanced by men. At the present time, however,
theosophy is to a great extent something which people not
only wish to oppose, but something which they look upon as
questionable, even as mad, like the dreams of certain
fantastic brains.
Of course, if
they were to ask these dreamers what THEY seek through
theosophy and what they expect from it, their answer will be
a rather wide one. Those who have recognised the vital
essence of theosophy, which modern people take to be mere
dreams, look upon theosophy as something which in a few
decades will have an immense significance for human thought
and feeling, and for man' s will and actions.
There is
nothing into which theosophy cannot shed its light as an
impulse, nothing into which it is not called upon to
shine.
It is a well
known fact that at the present time there are many problems,
hygienic, social or pedagogical problems, or women's
suffrage, and even greater is the number of answers supplied
to these questions. But if we investigate all these questions
and answers in an objective way, we come to the conclusion
that modern civilisation puts the questions rightly —
for they are determined by the conditions of our time —
but that our modern epoch is not able to supply the answers
to these questions without further ado. One who shuts his
eyes and ears to the problems of our time, will continually
encounter obstacles along his path. A time will come when men
will realise that they must face many other problems too:
these problems arise out of the inner, and outer strife of
humanity, out of all the pains and sufferings and out of the
shattered hopes in every field. But only theosophy is able to
supply an answer.
Ever greater
grows the number of people who despondently bow their heads,
who fulfil their duty, but do not know the reason for their
work and whose nervous state of mind often culminates in
despair, and even affects their physical health, ending in
neurasthenic conditions.
Let us only
allude to these things, for the fundamental idea which should
rise up before us is that theosophy is not something which
takes hold of the minds of a few lazy people, who have
nothing better to do, but theosophy must penetrate into
practical life.
During the
thirty years of its existence, the Theosophical Society
[Note 2]
of course had to pass through
many things and many an illness of childhood, which made
people question its significance! But it will extricate
itself from these illnesses and show what it is capable of.
Spiritual science must become an all-encompassing concern, a
universal task, because it must supply the answer to
questions which are, after all, the fundamental questions of
all existence, and it must point out the way in which modern
men should grasp these questions and why religions and
sciences exist at all. Whatever we do, and if art, science
and practical activities are to exist at all, we must go back
to certain fundamental questions, and these must in some way
or other be solved. All religions were attempts to give an
answer to such questions, an answer which was always in
keeping with the intellectual and cultural stage of different
peoples.
Theosophy does
not wish to be a religion, it has nothing to do with sects
and it does not agitate.
Religion, as
you know, is as old as human endeavor. If we gain an insight
into the different religions of different nations, we come to
the conclusion that all these religions endeavoured to supply
an answer to the questions: What is, in the first place,
man's essential being? Secondly, what is his task and goal?
and thirdly, what reaches beyond physical existence?
In regard to
these questions, a strange epoch lies behind modern humanity,
one which called into life many a doubt in religion. Let us
ask: How many people are there to-day who need religion, but
who are not able to have it? Some of us can look back into
times when religion was still a truly experienced life, when
it still counted far more, indeed in a much higher measure,
than is the case to-day with single religiously disposed
natures. These natures still possess something of that warm
feeling which existed throughout thousands of years. The
longing, the need for what we call the spiritual world, or
the longing for religion, still exists to-day; indeed, among
the most truth-loving natures this longing has even grown.
Such a person may say to himself: When I was a child, I still
had true faith. But then things changed: I become acquainted
with so-called science and with its facts, and since science
speaks in quite a different way, for instance, concerning the
origin of the world, I seriously began to doubt that which I
once believed in my childhood. And there followed a deeply
sad mood in life; the soul felt as if it were torn and
devastated, and when it looked out into the world, no light
was shed upon the inner contrasts. This explains the torn
state of mind swaying between religious longing and
satisfaction of the soul, and it also explains the tragedy of
modern man, But the strife of such souls is perhaps better
than the other condition: namely, to ask nothing at all, to
lose the habit of asking questions, to become superficial and
just allow oneself to be driven along by ordinary life.
Is it the fault
of religion that things have come to such a pass? No! It is
plainly evident that this is not so, for every religion, even
the ancient myths and legends, have means and ways to lead
the heart once more towards the spiritual world to reanimate
the soul, if the soul is willing.
Who would have
thought that such mighty impulses from the ancient myths,
which had apparently died out thousands of years ago, leading
an almost hidden, unknown existence, could rise to new life,
as is the case in Richard Wagner's dramas?
It is not
necessary to found a new religion; the time for this has
past. What is needed now, is a new attitude towards religion,
a new understanding of religion! What has changed, is the
human spirit, the human soul, the human heart!
If we immerse
ourselves in the development of human souls, we shall find in
the course of these lectures, that human souls have already
lived many times upon the physical plane, and that they
gradually developed, until they reached the present stage, At
first, this may sound strange, yet during past lives our
souls have frequently heard the deep truths which will be
explained in to-day's lecture.
The teaching of
reincarnation will, for instance, be advanced; but your souls
have listened, as they are listening to me now, to the Druids
who lived and taught particularly in this region. These
druidic teachers of ancient times already taught the truth of
reincarnation to a smaller circle; they cultivated this
primordial wisdom concerning the riddles of life. They went
out to those whose souls thirsted for a deeper knowledge. But
if these teachers of ancient times had spoken as I am
speaking to you now, your souls could not then have
understood them, for at that time the human spirit had not
yet reached the present stage of development. Logical thought
did not as yet exist in the human spirit. Man possessed
instead the possibility of grasping truths in the form of
images. These teachers therefore spoke in the form of images,
and these images are known to us to-day in the form of
legends and myths. If in the past our souls had not heard
these teachings, we could not understand the spiritual truths
to-day, when they are taught to us in a new form.
The soul thus
makes enormous progresses through thousands of years; it
continually takes on a new shape and therefore truth must be
presented in a constantly new form; it must ever again be
proclaimed anew. Let me give you a second example.
Let us go back
into, the evolution of humanity as far as the ancient
Egyptians, Chaldeans and Babylonians. When these peoples were
the bearers of culture they did not look upon the sun and the
stars as mere physical bodies. To-day, when a materialistic
astronomer contemplates the heavenly bodies, he only sees in
them physical bodies, and nothing besides. Even the earth is
to him a physical body in the world's spaces, and man crawls
about upon it, like the gnat upon our hand.
But it was
otherwise among the ancient Egyptian astronomers. When the
ancient Egyptian astrologer looked upon a star, he did not
think of a purely physical body, for the star meant to him
something quite different than it does to modern men. When he
pronounced, for instance, the name of Mercury, he uttered it
with veneration. It never passed through his mind to address
the physical heavenly body, just as you would not dream of
addressing a body made of cardboard. Everything which the eye
perceived was at that time the expression of something
spiritual. For the ancient astronomer, the physical star
Mercury was therefore the expression of the Spirit of
Mercury. You must not grasp this intellectually, but with
your feeling, for otherwise you cannot understand what lived
in the soul of such an astronomer. Everything in the world
was to him the expression of something spiritual. He said:
Everything is Spirit, and I, as a spirit, am a part of this
Spirit.
You should bear
in mind this feeling of the sages of ancient times; we should
endeavour to understand them, and grasp what they knew
concerning the processes which took place in the spiritual
spaces. Those who immerse themselves in this feeling, know
how immensely superior is this conception to our modern
materialistic one! It is necessary to understand the sages of
olden times; we should find out what they knew concerning
that which took place in the spiritual spaces of the
universe, for then we begin to notice the tremendous
difference between their conception and our modern one, and
the enormous significance of those ancient teachings of
wisdom! This may seem ridiculous to the materialistic sense
of our time, which is only acquainted with the purely
physical conception of astronomy — yet it is so.
How did it come
about that man has now lost the understanding for the
spiritual life which lies at the foundation of all physical
existence? Why had this to occur?
Let us turn our
gaze to our immediate surroundings. Were you able to compare
man's present environment with that which once surrounded him
at every step, you would find that at that time man only
possessed the most necessary means of subsistence; but he
had, on the other hand, more comprehension for spiritual
things. This comprehension for the spiritual world had to
withdraw in order to give man the possibility to acquire his
present dominion over the earth. Every technical and
industrial progress of the present time could only be
achieved through a world-conception which had become
materialistic, through the fact that the spirit, the
super-sensible world, withdrew. At the cost of spiritual
contemplation man gained, in the course of the last
centuries, his rule over the physical world. It is a
primordial, eternal law of humanity that capacities acquired
in one sphere, can only be gained by the withdrawal of others
upon another sphere. For instance, man could never have
called into life the possibilities of travel and
communication had other capacities not withdrawn. The sense
for spiritual things had to withdraw, in order that
everything which now surrounds us might arise. All that once
filled the human soul had to withdraw, to render possible the
conquest of the physical world.
Thus we see
that around the 16th century men lost the vision of the
spiritual world, and we see how the materialistic conception
took hold of humanity. Those who believe that they themselves
do not live in the very midst of such materialism are greatly
mistaken.
It is not the
task of spiritual science to deny or renounce things; it does
not intend to criticise the bad world of to-day; but it
wishes to indicate the necessity of man's descent into
matter. The great horizon of spiritual life had to withdraw
from humanity while this descent took place, and this
explains why man lost the old way of comprehending spiritual
things. The truths exist in their old, earlier forms.
Spiritual science can show how those truths can be rendered
accessible to modern men. This is its chief aim. Consequently
theosophy is merely the instrument whereby the deepest truths
can be rendered accessible to the modern human spirit, in
order that they may be grasped in their full depth.
To-day it is
once more necessary to draw attention to the Spirit. We
should not content ourselves with pointing out the
“magnificent progress” of modern times! Spiritual
truth is always accessible to us, and we must comprehend it
in different ways.
If we turn back
to ancient India and Egypt, and to ancient Greece at the time
when Christianity arose, we always come across the same
ancient truths, in different forms. There were always leaders
of humanity who took care that the truths which had paled
with the decay of civilisations should, at given times, be
communicated anew. All the great founders of religion can be
found among such leaders.
Before the dawn
of our modern epoch, before the time of Copernicus and the
16th century, care was taken also in Europe to establish the
foundation for a new way of proclaiming spiritual truths.
Around the 16th century, lived certain people who were able
to interpret the signs of the times. As early as 1459, a
higher spiritual individuality, known in the external world
as Christian Rosenkreutz, founded, with quite a small number
of men, an occult school for the cultivation of wisdom, of
ancient wisdom, but in a form suited to modern men. This is
the wisdom of the Rosicrucians, cultivated for the first time
around 1459. As stated, this wisdom is nothing new; it is the
ancient primeval wisdom, but in a form suited to modern
men.
What is the
connection between this Rosicrucian wisdom and Christianity?
There is no difference between the genuine Christian
teachings and those of the Rosicrucians. If we grasp
Christianity in its essence, we obtain the theosophy of the
Rosicrucians. It is not necessary to found a new religion,
but Christianity should be grasped in the way in which the
early Christians grasped it. Only a few people still know
something concerning the mysteries of the early Christian
development. Even official theology has not the slightest
idea of this. We come across St.Paul, as a man who had a deep
knowledge of the Christian mysteries, who taught those mighty
truths which were to guide humanity throughout thousands of
years. At Athens, St. Paul had founded a school, whose leader
was Dionysios thc Areopagite. Dionysios was a genuine
disciple of St. Paul.
The teachings
of Dionysios have always remained alive, and they have always
been taught, particularly to those who had to bring Christ's
living Word out into thc world. Had men stopped at Dionysios'
standpoint, no new form would have been required. But the new
era dawned, and with it arose the necessary of proclaiming
these truths in such a way that no science could raise any
objection against them. This is the aim of the Rosicrucian
theosophy. Rosicrucian theosophy is therefore that form of
religion which is suited to our time.
Only those who
understand Christianity in the right way, can have an idea of
its living content.
If we were in
the position to hear from every side that which Rosicrucian
theosophy had to say in connection with true Christianity, we
would discover that scientific facts do not contradict these
descriptions. The chief thing to bear in mind is that there
should be no contradiction between religion and scientific
facts, and that these scientific facts should harmonise with
religion.
What does the
Rosicrucian theosophy wish to give us? The knowledge of
higher worlds, that is to say, of the worlds to which man
will belong, when his physical body shall have decayed. It
gives him the knowledge of life, the knowledge of the true
nature of death and of human development. In this way, it can
give him new strength in regard to religious truths and
religious life.
No one should
say: I stand firmly upon the foundation of the ancient
teachings, and these suffice for me ... What do I care for
those who doubt! — No opinion can be more selfish or
un-Christian that this! It is still possible to-day for a
certain number of men to live upon the foundation of old
religions, but in a not too distant future this will no
longer be possible. Those who have an insight into that which
great social upheavals throw up to the surface, cannot judge
in this way. They will realise that it is not possible to
quarrel over the fact that theosophy must be proclaimed.
Thinking men
know that spiritual science exists in order to supply an
answer to the most burning questions, and that it is actually
able to reply to all these questions. After all, one can
prove or disprove anything, but this is not the essential
point: It is impossible to quarrel over a REMEDY; the
essential point is the success which we achieve with it. It
is exactly the same with spiritual science. Humanity needs
spirituality as a remedy, and it can only recover from its
illnesses if this remedy streams into it. It is an
evolutionary factor of our civilisation, and a giver of
life.
Our modern way
of living does not suffice, for it is directed exclusively
towards physical-bodily things. The aim of theosophy is the
health and recovery of Soul and Spirit. Spiritual science is
nothing arbitrary; our present time and its problems call for
it. All that it tells us, constitutes the teaching of thoso
men who were able to make investigations in this sphere.
Spiritual
science leads us into higher worlds, into which no physical
eye can look, and which contain the causes of the effects to
be found in the physical world. It will bring us knowledge of
the external part of human nature, of every individuals
essential being, the knowledge of the spiritual worlds and
their hierarchies.
As we learn to
know these, we also learn to know man's mission and
significance. What we should endeavour to grasp is the true
essence of human nature. We shall learn to know worlds which
exist, but which cannot be perceived through our ordinary
physical senses. Some might say: What you are telling us is
very fine, but we cannot really KNOW anything about it.
— Fichte has already supplied an answer to this
objection. Imagine that you were to enter a world of
blind-born men, as the only one endowed with sight, and that
you were to describe colours to these blind men ...
These men will say: You are telling us nonsense; colours do
not exist. But if the blind could be operated on, so as to
give them the power of sight, they would be able to
EXPERIENCE this world of colours and of light.
The same
argument applies to the above objection. Those who raise it,
adopt the same standpoint of the blind. No one should
therefore say: Such things do not exist ... For no man
has the right to speak of “limits of knowledge”,
as did Du Bois-Reymond. As many worlds exist, as there are
organs able to perceive them, and this is an infinite number
of worlds! We are unable to perceive them to-day, because we
still lack the organs of perception. The world is not only
spatially infinite, but also intensively infinite: These is a
world for every organ of sense. These worlds are still
inaccessible to us yet they exist, — they exist, where
we ourselves exist. The only thing needed is that our eyes
should be opened, for these worlds are in our very midst.
The words of
Christ: “Do not seek the Kingdom of God, for the
Kingdom of God is in your midst”, should be taken
literally. Also spiritual science speaks in this sense of the
spiritual worlds. There have always been initiates who knew
how to enter these kingdoms of heaven. Every religion speaks
of these kingdoms. Spiritual science is but the means of
disclosing anew this fundamental truth contained in every
religion: Whatever we see and perceive round about us, is but
the result and the effect of what takes place in the
spiritual worlds. Whatever manifests itself upon the earth,
is but the development of that which works and lives in the
spiritual worlds.
Official
Christianity has long ago lost the capacity of understanding
the depths of religious documents. Spiritual science
therefore had to take over the task of supplying the key to
the forgotten treasures of knowledge, thus offering humanity,
which is standing at the parting of thc roads, the remedy
which it needs. Yet spiritual science does not know
fanaticism; it simply relates and clearly sets forth man's
being; it indicates his destiny after death, and how his soul
develops outside the physical body. It describes that which
takes place in the higher worlds; it speaks of the
evolutionary stages of the earth and of the other planets,
and it throws light upon the life-path trodden by man so far,
and upon his future path. It points to that which man must
still pass through, in order that he may reach his goal.
We shall try to
grasp man's being and the nature of the worlds from which he
comes. This is the sphere of knowledge to which spiritual
science leads us.
Now we might
object that all this only exists for the so-called
clairvoyant seer, who is able to look into the spiritual
worlds. Of what use is it to us, for these worlds are not
accessible to us!
To this
objection we can reply: There are, to be sure, certain
methods of training which are only suited to the spiritual
investigator, which make the above objection seem justified.
But the path of Rosicrucian training is a different one. The
clairvoyant eye and the ear of an initiate are of course
needed if we wish to penetrate into the spiritual worlds, but
our ordinary logic suffices to understand them. All that the
spiritual investigator describes to us, is accessible to our
logical reason; our sound common sense suffices for the
comprehension of such things. Those who cannot grasp them,
simply lack logical power. For the discovery of spiritual
mysteries the clairvoyant eye of the spiritual investigator
is of course needed, but our ordinary logic suffices in order
to understand the things described in Rosicrucianism.
Those who
cannot understand these things, should not ascribe their lack
of understanding to the Rosicrucian training. Their failure
does not depend upon the fact that they are not clairvoyant,
but because their understanding is not sound and their
thought is not consistent. Many people have no idea of logic.
There is a modern musician, for instance, who even said that
it is a mistake to think over things ... Even our
scientists do not think beyond a certain limit. But if we use
our understanding in the right way, we are able to grasp
spiritual truths and spiritual wisdom, and they can become
alive within us. If you keep on asking: Of what use are these
things to us? I can give you the following reply: —
Nothing can be given to us which is of greater importance
than the knowledge of spiritual science! This alone
transforms us into real human beings and gives us, even at
the present time, a contented heart and a soul that has
reached harmony.
With more words
we do not proceed far in this field, for the striving after
knowledge is an earnest matter and we must immerse ourselves
in the necessities and problems of life. We must endeavour to
pass on courageously from one sphere of spiritual life to the
other, for this will give us an insight into the whole
evolution of the universe and of man. The overwhelming
greatness of these events will not only take hold of our
hearts, but awaken new capacities within us; which render us
more capable to face the tasks of everyday life. Direct
forces stream out of spiritual science, and these become a
treasure which cannot be lost and which transforms us into
creative man beings.
You will
understand the physical world, only if you learn to know the
spiritual world. Spiritual science is not meant for cranks,
but for the most practical of the practical!
Every form of
life is spiritual. Even as ice is condensed water, so matter
is condensed spirit. Mineral, plant, animal, or man —
each is a condensed form of the spirit.
In this sense,
the Rosicrucian theosophy will lead us to understand the
spiritual foundations of the world. It does not change us
into brooding egotists, but into lovers of life, for it does
not dospise ordinary life, nor estrange us from our earthly
tasks, but it unites us with them. It stimulates us to
diligent activity, for it knows that every action, as well as
every Being, is an expression of the Spirit.
Notes:
Note 1. From greatly
abbreviated notes unrevised by the lecturer. Copyright
reserved.
Before the
founding of the Anthroposophical Society, in Sept. 1912,
Rudolf Steiner used to speak to theosophical audiences,
but as an independent spiritual investigator, who always
maintained his own standpoints.
Note 2. Soon after these
lectures, in 1911, the German Section of the Theosophical
Society left the Theosophical Society, which was drifting
into a course of which they could not approve, and
founded the Anthroposophical Society.
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