The Rudolf Steiner Archive

This is presumably a transcription by Rudolf Steiner, but there is no original for it. The text is based on a handwritten template with the note “F.M.”

Man is born of the Godhead. Sublime spiritual entities were active in his construction, cosmic forces were at work, and so he was built out of the cosmos, he emerged from the cosmos.

The first state of evolution, in which the influence of those cosmic forces can be indicated, was that which is called the ancient Saturn state. Then these forces began to work in space and in time, so that ancient Saturn came into being in space and the evolution of ancient Saturn took place in time. At that time there was no solar system with planets, there was only a body of warmth, surrounded by the twelve signs of the zodiac, which poured their forces into this body of warmth, as if from the circumference into a common center. From this center other forces counteracted them, but the forces acting into it were stronger, and thus the tendency towards the centripetal arose in this development. When the present-day minerals on our earth are observed from the spiritual point of view, the same effect can be found in them, only that here one has to do with solid earthly matter. Coming from different sides, far away from the world, spiritual forces have an effect on a common point in space, and the stone or mineral arises in this center. From this point, forces come to meet this effect, but the incoming forces are strongest. Thus, through the influence of the twelve constellations from the surrounding area on a point in space, the first embodiment of the present earth as a ball of heat, as the old Saturn, arose at that time. Because these forces were superior to those acting towards the center, further condensation and a kind of fragmentation occurred. During the further development, several points formed in the one center, and so finally the whole planet consisted of nothing but such points of force, which were formed by the action of cosmic forces or spiritual beings in the cosmos. In these centers themselves spiritual beings were again active, they animated them and formed them so that they could become the basis for what later became man. Then man was already endowed with the powers which, continuing to work in the future, could give him the physical body that he now inhabits as a self-aware earthly human being. Then he also received the disposition for what he, as a spiritual being, will later develop through his own efforts. The germ for life in the physical and in the spiritual was laid on old Saturn; a physical and a spiritual center was predisposed for the human being. When this development had progressed to a certain point, the spiritual forces withdrew their effect, a kind of planetary night, a state of rest, occurred, and when the next day arrived, the earth emerged in its new embodiment as the old sun.

The process of evolution continued. Taking up the preceding Saturn condition, everything repeated itself under different conditions, and then something new was added. The centers that had arisen on the old Saturn emerged again in the old sun condition. Due to the still-operating centripetal forces, the old sun was more compressed as a heavenly body than the old Saturn. It had become more condensed and was also less extended in space. As a physical center it did not need to pour out its forces into space; it could gather itself more and keep something for itself as its own inner strength of its nature. This it could reveal in such a way that it could send something towards the influence of the zodiac that came out of itself in the light that it radiated into its surroundings. It was precisely through the condensation in relation to the physical that the possibility arose to give something of oneself that worked spiritually. It was the same with the individual centers on the old sun. Through their own power they could radiate something of themselves, it became possible to spread their being into the surroundings, which can be described as growth in the light. In our present-day development on earth, a similar force is at work in the plant kingdom, only that it takes place in dense earthly matter. Just as today's plants grow out of their seeds towards the sunlight, so on the old sun there arose a growth, a spreading out and a coming forth into the light from the centers into the environment. Not only did the forces of the twelve constellations act on the old sun from the surrounding area, but it itself sent something in return to these forces in the radiating light. And out of it, in the form of a germ, grew those planets that we know today under different conditions in our physical solar system. Just as the seven colors can reveal themselves out of the white light through a refraction of rays, so too, in those days, these planets were forming in the sun itself as radiant points of light.

In turn, spiritual beings were active at the centers and formed them in such a way that they became the basis for what man today knows as his life body or etheric body. Man was also given the basis for what he will later acquire as the spirit of life. The principle of growth and expansion was developed in both the physical and spiritual centers of the human being during the ancient solar evolution, because just as the etheric body provides the possibility of growth for the physical body, so the life spirit is what can be called the environment, the surroundings of the spiritual center of the spiritual man, in which he reveals himself.

The centripetal force that was active in the Saturn development continued to operate in the old solar state. This resulted in condensation, so that the ball of heat had become a ball of gas. Through this force, the living beings also divided and became different from each other. Through the centrifugal force, however, the sun radiated and the living beings were also able to step out of their particular form and grow.

After this development had been going on for some time, there was another period of rest, during which the cosmic forces withdrew their activity. Then the earth emerged from the cosmic night in its new embodiment as the old moon, and what had existed in the two previous stages of development was repeated under different conditions. The solidification, the contraction of the world body and of the individual centers or bodies of the living beings continued, and thus a stronger manifestation of inner forces became possible. The centripetal and the centrifugal forces both worked and sought to come to a settlement. This created powerful vibrations. On the one hand, the effect of the centripetal force was evident in the compaction of the old moon and in the individual centers, which became more and more separated from their environment. On the other hand, the centrifugal force found expression in the possibility of revealing more and more spiritual forces from the centers into the environment. These two forces worked together in such a way that they led to a crisis during the evolution of the old moon. A kind of split occurred in the world body. One part of the old moon, in which the centrifugal forces exerted their influence in particular, separated from the other part, in which the centripetal forces remained active in particular. This resulted in one cosmic body sending its forces outwards in particular and revealing itself in its environment, radiating its spiritual power as light, as the sun, and another cosmic body that was subjected to further condensation and on which the further development of those living beings took place that later became earth humans, as the old moon.

Through this contraction, the bodies of the living beings became more and more dense and more dependent on themselves, and the possibility arose for stronger inner forces to reveal themselves. This enabled the living beings to resonate with what was acting on them from the outside, so that they could respond in a certain way. A sound then arose that emerged from the beings' inner selves and was a repetition of the sound that came to them from their environment. The old moon had become a watery ball due to further compression and the bodies of the living beings had also compressed. From the sun, light radiated continuously to the moon, and those forces that strove for spiritualization and refinement of matter were contained in it. In the finer part of the old moon, which had separated out as the sun, spiritual [forces] had gone along with it, leaving the coarser part behind. From the outside, this spiritual essence acted on the part striving for condensation, radiating light and life into it. The coarser part revolved around this source of light as the old moon. It was the same with the individual centers on the old moon. During the separation, the part that was to become more spiritual and in particular developed the centrifugal force within itself went with the sun, and the part that was to become more dense and developed the centripetal force within itself remained with the old moon and condensed into a watery state. The bodies of the living creatures were on the old moon, while the spiritual that animated them was outside these bodies on the sun, radiating its light from there into these bodies. In the animal kingdom, as it is revealed today in the evolution of the earth, something can be found that corresponds to this effect, only it is adapted to the earth conditions. In the animal, the actual spiritual that animates the animal's physical body cannot be found in the animal itself. There is a spiritual center outside of the animal forms, from which life is radiated into the animals. On today's Earth it is the case that a whole animal species is animated by a common spiritual essence, in such a way that one can think of this spiritual essence as a center and the animal species as a periphery that surrounds this point and receives life from it. Thus the old moon orbited its sun and was animated from this spiritual center. Through the fact that these spiritual powers had separated from the moon and worked in from the outside, as the moon revolved around the sun, movement arose during the development of the moon and this also asserted itself for the individual centers. Spiritual beings in turn formed these in such a way that they became capable of being, in potential, that which man today knows as his astral body. In the human astral body, the sensations and feelings that are stimulated in him by the environment are in constant motion. With these feelings and perceptions, he answers the sound that comes to him from the outside world. During the development of the moon, the spiritual link was also established in him that makes spiritual understanding possible, resonating in spirit with world wisdom, so that the human being feels connected to it. Just as man lets the current of surging sensations flow through his astral body, holds it within himself and sends something in return, so that he can consciously react to it, so the light of world wisdom flows into his spiritual self, and it is possible for him to absorb this light within himself and consciously reflect it back. Through the fact that the old moon had split as a world body, so that there were two world bodies influencing each other, movement came into being and with it conscious feeling. The influences went from one world body to the other. The effects of the sun on the moon were felt as forces coming from outside, and so it was with the moon's effects, which followed the sun. Where the sun's forces met the moon's forces, a conscious experience was evoked. A kind of congestion occurred, and a boundary arose where the incoming force met the force coming to meet it. For every living being on the moon there was a limit to the field in which it could consciously experience something; there the possibility ceased to reveal its powers further outwards, and it met the incoming forces with its own power. The living beings that later became human beings on earth had consciousness during the early development of the moon; they did not yet have self-consciousness, because they were still completely absorbed in their environment. They had no experiences of their own and could only let what was revealed to them from the outside world resonate within them.

When the development of the moon had reached a certain degree of maturity, the spiritual powers that had brought it about withdrew. The powers of the sun and the moon neutralized each other, and the sun and the moon gradually reunited and entered into a state of rest. Then the earth emerged from this planetary night as a new world body. At first the earlier developmental stages were repeated under new conditions. The earth went through a period when, in physical terms, it was a body of heat like the old Saturn was back then. The individual centers gradually formed again under the effect of the centripetal force. Then came a time when the Earth became a ball of gas and the centrifugal force exerted influence, as it did at that time on the old Sun. The centers began to radiate again; that was the solar condition on Earth. After that, there was a repetition of the moon condition on earth. Then the sun separated from the other part of the world body, leaving behind the earth, in which the moon forces had remained. Those forces that strove for spiritualization had gone with the sun. From there they radiated light and life into the world body, which now condensed further. The planets also went with the sun, and only the lunar forces remained connected to the earth. In the individual centers, it was also the case that a part striving for spiritualization had gone with the sun and from there radiated its power, while the coarser part remained on earth. A state then occurred in which what had taken place on the old moon was repeated. The earth and the bodies of the living beings became more and more dense. The centripetal forces were predominant. But then a new phase occurred, which arose from the fact that in this earth development not only the old moon had remained, as it was during the old moon development, but that a new force, the actual earth force, had been added. This earth power worked in such a way that it revealed itself as a connecting power between the sun and moon forces, which it could bring into harmony and balance. When the condensation continued, because only the lunar forces were still connected to the earth, this earth force brought about a kind of balance by separating from the lunar forces. With these forces, the earth left the moon behind and remained so for itself between the two forces of the sun and the moon, the impulses striving for spiritualization and those for condensation. It is influenced by both, carries both within itself, and maintains its own equilibrium through its own power. A similar power can be demonstrated in the I of the present-day human being, for just as the earth is the mediator between the forces of the sun and the moon, so the I in man is the connecting link between the spiritual and the material, through which both can unite in him. The earth is also placed in space in such a way that the moon, with its freezing influence, and the sun, from which the spiritual light flows to it, move around it. As if enclosed in a shell, the earth is surrounded by the moon's forces; the sun's forces come to it from a more distant center, far above this shell. In the same way, the human ego is embedded in its sheaths, but from outside the spiritual light radiates to it from the realms of the cosmos.

In the two forces that interacted during the development of the moon, a third force had become active, which revealed itself by interacting with the other two in a perpendicular direction. This caused a new movement in general, which can be called proper motion. In the evolution of the earth, the physical expression of this can be found in the rotation of the earth around its own axis. On the old moon, the two forces, where they met, created a kind of consciousness through the accumulation. Now, through their meeting with this third force, a double congestion arose and thus the general consciousness was limited and closed off, so that it became dependent on itself. This allows it to deepen into self-awareness, in that it can grasp itself, so that the germ of ego consciousness is laid. The same forces were at work on the bodies of living beings, and each of these bodies then became more dependent on itself. They acquired a movement of their own, like the earth had, and it was precisely through this movement that further solidification occurred. The bodies became more self-contained, so that an inner life of their own became possible within these bodies. The further condensation of the bodies was no longer caused merely by the forces of the moon, as it had been before, but by their own motion, by the forces of the earth itself. These earthly forces were the sum total of all that had gone before in the three earlier stages of development and had transformed itself into the fourth, the actual state of the earth.

Again, it was spiritual entities that made this self-awareness possible for man by working during the evolution of the earth in such a way that they could give him the disposition for self-awareness, so that man could learn to say “I” to himself. Man himself inhabited the physical center (or body) on earth, and under the guidance of the higher beings, it was gradually developed into the physical human body as it appears today. The inner power, which was the predisposition for self-awareness, could only come to fruition in a physical body that was independent and separate from the environment. The physical human body gradually developed in this way; but the predisposition for the ego was already imprinted on the human being earlier. Just as the sphere of heat of the old Saturn condensed to become a ball of gas as the old sun, but then was able to radiate its own spiritual power as light into the universe, and how then in the old moon development further condensation occurred to the watery, on the other hand also the revelation of the more inner forces became possible in the sounding and in the movement, so in the earth development occurred a further condensation up to the earthy state and thereby was possible a further revelation of inner forces, which showed themselves as life, inner own life in the earthy. On ancient Saturn everything was contained in the dark ocean of heat; on the ancient Sun everything radiated in the light; on the ancient Moon everything vibrated with sound; and on the Earth everything lives its own inner life.

When the repetition of the earlier planetary developmental states occurred, the earth was initially in a fiery state; man lived in the element of fire and his physical body also consisted of this element. At that time, man mainly developed his will and through this he was able to influence that element. Even then, the disposition for self-awareness was imprinted on him. Later he walked the earth in the element of air, and his body was also in a gaseous state. And there came a time when he lived in watery vapor, and his body was also suited to this element of water. At that time he mainly developed feelings and was thus able to influence the elements. During this time, the human ego did not yet live in the physical body. It was outside of this body, although it was connected to it. It was only in the period called the post-Atlantean period that the physical body was further condensed into the actual earthly element and it became possible for the human ego to dwell in the physical body. Only then did man actually live on earth. Then he was able to develop thinking and thereby influence the earthly itself.

Thus man has developed into what he is today. He is born of the Godhead, he is woven into the great web of the world, and all the powers work together so that he may be built out of the great cosmos. For his sake the whole solar system was formed, it was transformed into the four phases that we call embodiments of the earth: as old Saturn, old sun, old moon and as the earth itself. Numerous beings had to sacrifice themselves so that he could become. Man sees some of these beings around him embodied in the lower natural kingdoms on earth, others he feels as forces working within him. There had to be beings that, through the three previous embodiments of the earth and on the earth itself, still repeated the Saturn level; there had to be other beings that, during the development of the earth, repeated the sun level, and others that repeated the moon level, so that they could live and work in the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms on earth. Thus there are beings that work within the human being as they did on the old moon, the old sun and the old Saturn. Just as little as man could live and be physically on earth without the three lower natural realms, he can develop as a self-aware being without these retarded forces or beings within him. Man perceives the effect of those beings that remained on the lunar level as inhibiting forces in his astral body, which express themselves in desires and affects that are of a lower nature and that also operate in the animal kingdom. The beings that remained on the solar level operate in his etheric body as inhibiting forces that bind him to habits and acquired ways of thinking. This effect contains something of the plant-like nature. For just as the plant, in its growth, always puts forth new leaves, always repeating the same process until, through the astral body, a change is brought about in the flower, so the habits and adopted ways of thinking, in a continuous repetition, continue to have an effect in man, and something new must also be brought about there through the forces of the astral body, through feelings and sensations. The beings that remained at the Saturn level and work within the human being pour their forces into the physical body as inhibiting forces, causing separation from the environment and a feeling of standing for and on one's own. This causes the person to feel like a personal center and to be stimulated to want, think and feel only for himself, using his environment as an end to this. There is a similarity here with the power that works in the mineral kingdom towards the centre, where the physical mineral is then formed through solidification, for this power also creates a solidification and enclosure in man, by hurling him back on himself. Just as these forces once worked on the old Saturn, the old sun and the old moon, they now work within man and he carries them within him as inhibiting and at the same time promoting forces, as the earth also carries them within itself.

When man in the post-Atlantean era begins to live on earth in his physical body with his sense of self, then from that point on until our time he goes through different cultural periods and in each of these cultural periods he undergoes a certain development. Thus, in the first culture, the ancient Indian culture, the etheric body is particularly worked on, in the second, the ancient Persian culture, the sentient or astral body, in the third, the Egyptian-Chaldean culture, the sentient soul, and in the fourth, the Greek-Latin culture, the intellectual soul of man. During this fourth cultural period, when man had sunk deepest into matter, so that his view of the spiritual world was completely closed, something very special occurred that must be described as the greatest, most important event in the evolution of the earth.

When the sun separated from the earth and the moon, the forces striving for spiritualization went with it and radiated light and life into the earth from there. But something was taken from the earth that was initially connected to it. The evolution of the earth could proceed to a certain point without these forces and precisely because these radiated light and life into it from outside. It was the same with the beings that lived on earth as human beings. They were able to develop their own inner life to a certain degree, but they too had lost a spiritual element when the sun separated. When man had developed to become what he could become as an earthly human being, when he had built up his physical body with the help of the higher beings so that he could become a temple for a divine spiritual being, then God also descended and inhabited this temple. The spiritual powers of the Sun united with the Earth again and through this, mankind was also given the opportunity for further development in the spirit. Numerous divine spiritual beings had sacrificed themselves so that man could come into being and develop; many cosmic powers had been built up in him. Now the time had come when the greatest sacrifice was to be made for humanity, when the highest spiritual being, God Himself, who reflected His spiritual life in the powers of the sun, descended to Earth to live in a human body and let His powers flow into the Earth. Then the powers of the sun were given to Earth and a spiritual imprint was made on everything that lived on Earth. From being a self-conscious earthly human being, the human being could now rise to become a self-aware spiritual being. His mortal ego became an immortal core that lives in the spiritual sunlight.

Something similar happens in the development of the individual and of all humanity as a whole as in the development of the earth. After the physical birth, the human being goes through a birth of his ether body and his astral body, only then is he independent of his environment and can he further develop the I within himself. He then develops his sentient soul, his mind soul, in which the I is particularly expressed, and his consciousness soul, in which the I rises above itself to develop the spirit self. Just at the time when humanity was developing the mind soul, in the Greco-Latin cultural period, that link in which the I can particularly express itself, the I of humanity receives a new spiritual impulse as God descends to earth and lives in the midst of humanity. Only then could humanity rise to the higher spiritual life. Mankind on earth was able to rise above itself, and the human ego was given the opportunity to develop into a divine ego.

Just as the individual human being is first born in relation to his physical body, later in relation to its etheric body and astral body, and only then does the I come into its own in him, so the earth was first born out of the cosmos in relation to the physical as old Saturn, then ethereally as old Sun, then astral as old Moon, and only in the state of the earth could the development of the I take place. Thus it can be thought of: ancient Saturn as an expression of the birth of the cosmic human being, the macrocosm on the physical plane; the evolution of the sun as the period during which the etheric body is formed in the macrocosm; the evolution of the moon as the formation of the astral body; and the earth as the developmental period of the mighty, powerful world-I. In the midst of this development, the cosmic higher I descends from spiritual spheres and connects with the further development of the earth. The spirit of the macrocosm descends into the world I.

In this way, cosmic development is mirrored in man and finds its expression in him. It is only on earth that he is born out of the cosmos as a self-aware being, and it is part of his further development that he learn to understand the spiritual impulse given to him, so that he may relive within himself what the world spirit has exemplified to humanity on earth.

Like a blossom opening on the plant of the human race, a human individuality opened itself to the spiritual sunlight, long before these solar forces had united with the earth again. Thus it knew what a great event in the evolution of the earth was about to take place and how it was to be brought about through a mediator who, having grown out of humanity, would surrender his whole being to the sunlight so that it could take complete hold of him. He was to sacrifice his own nature so that the exalted being of the sun might reveal itself in him on earth. As a seed, that individuality held this knowledge within itself. And when the time had come, a human being grew out of humanity, towards the spirit of the sun, like a living flower. It was able to absorb the spiritual powers of the sun by sacrificing its three bodily veils to the great spirit, so that it could descend and live in a human body on earth. Just as a plant begins to die after fertilization, so this body was dedicated to death when this event took place. And when the blood flowed from the wounds of this body on Golgotha, the seed of that flower sank into the earth as a new impulse for spiritual life, which was to develop further in humanity. Thus this impulse was placed in every human being like a spiritual germ, which continues to unfold within him when the human soul is stimulated to allow a flower to grow out of itself through new sensations and feelings, which can be fertilized by the spiritual sunlight. The same process takes place spiritually in the soul as occurs in the physical plant form when, in a kind of sense of shame, the plant withdraws into itself and begins to wither. In the same way, the human soul, when the light of the spirit has descended upon it, feels a deep sense of shame at its own imperfection, and this feeling causes it to turn inward. Once man has felt this spiritual light in his soul, it shines into his inner being and he learns to see himself as he really is. Then he takes the path he would otherwise have to take when he leaves his physical body at death. He descends into these veils, as a personal human being he begins to die. Man dies as an individual personality and gradually lives into the great cosmic being. Thus he can say: “In Christ I die”. With the new spiritual impulse, the human being first descends into his astral body. There, those beings who work as beings remaining on the lunar level come to meet him. They show themselves in all feelings, impulses and sensations that are of a lower nature. They are one step below the development of the I, in that they belong to the development of the moon. Therefore, they are not imbued with the conscious power of the ego and are of an animalistic nature. Everything that works in the human astral body as subconscious, unbridled feelings and sensations, finds there a world that presents itself to him as an external world. By consciously confronting his own inner world, he acquires the power to overcome these beings, to release them from his inner being and gradually transform them. Deeper still, man descends into his inner being, into the etheric body. There he finds a world that he has formed through his way of thinking in relation to what he has acquired from his environment in terms of traditions and habits. Beings that remained on the stage of the sun are active in the etheric body; they hinder his development in terms of conscious, free and independent thinking. These too will gradually be released and transformed by the spiritual impulse that he has received, to become beings of light and wisdom. If the human being then descends further into his physical body, he finds a whole world of forces at work in his will, as if he were a being left behind on the level of Saturn. They solidify his will in relation to the personal and direct it towards the personal center. He can also redeem these beings through the light of the spirit, which flows into his inner being from a center that lies outside his personality and with which he nevertheless feels intimately connected. Thus, the human being in his bodily sheaths initially experiences himself as the being to which he has developed so far. A new center has emerged for him, from which he can observe himself. He knows that the evolution of the three bodily sheaths into which he has had to descend belongs to earlier evolutionary states of the earth, and that he must therefore find in his soul the power that is to be developed in particular during the evolution of the earth and has been deposited in the soul. It is this power that makes him a self-conscious ego-being, so that he can consciously descend into himself. The plant seed gradually develops into the plant form and matures into an independent being within this form. The human being passes through the gate of death with his body still alive, by making himself independent of his bodily coverings. Then he finds within himself the spiritual germ that was placed in his soul through the Christ impulse. The Christ light shines out from his own being, and just as the ripe seed sinks into the earth after the plant has died, so this spiritual germ falls out of the narrow personality and sinks into the great light of the world. Then the light that has united itself with the earth since the event at Golgotha will shine out of the earth towards man. Then he can say to himself: In Christ I die, but reborn I will come to a fuller existence. And he feels and experiences within himself the meaning of the words: He who will lose his life for my sake shall keep it.

Just as man is born out of the macrocosm as a microcosm, as a self-aware I-being, he in turn goes back the way by gradually living himself back into the macrocosm with his I-consciousness. The spiritual powers have gradually withdrawn from man, after they had brought him all their offerings, so that he may now find his own way to spiritual ascent, so that he may consciously and voluntarily re-enter the spiritual realm.

Man first experiences these spiritual beings by feeling a close connection with the great Earth Mother, from whom he was born as an individual human being, but to whom he belongs and with whom he was much more intimately connected during his earlier stages of development. He experiences these states as the evolution of the old Saturn, the old sun and the old moon. Man descends into his own inner being and experiences the beings there that work in his three sheaths: in his astral body, etheric body and physical body. Then he finds the actual center of his own being, and the light of Christ radiates towards him. Then it also enters those stages of the evolution of the earth in which the three covers, the astral body, the etheric body and the physical body of the earth, were formed and experiences the spiritual beings that are connected with this evolution and pour their powers into it. Then the human soul progresses further and experiences the spiritual power that has sunk into the earth during its evolution as the light of Christ.

The entire cosmic evolution, in which man is interwoven, presents itself as a mighty tableau. It all takes place around him, this entire evolution lives and moves within him. He feels like a focal point where the beings and forces that are active in that evolution meet. The forces flow in and out of him; he himself is the product of those forces. In these effects he finds a firm center, like an inner center around which everything is grouped, and this center is the Christ-being, the center of macrocosmic and microcosmic development. Like a new center, from which everything flows out, to which everything flows, the source of all life, of all development, radiates towards him as the divine spirit, which stands behind all things, which worked before the things were. And just as he feels embedded in earthly evolution as an earthly man, so he recognizes himself as a spiritual being in this divine source of all life. In the soul lives the power of Christ, in the self-conscious spiritual core lives the power of the I. Beyond the veils of the body lives the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of all things, as a higher power of the I, which is the true, imperishable center of all being.

When man recognizes himself as a spiritual being in this All-Spirit, he can feel the meaning of the words from the Rosicrucian saying: “In the Holy Spirit I shall be reborn,” for as a new being he stands face to face with his earlier self, a being that must first acquire the qualities and abilities it needs in this spiritual life, just as a child must learn to use its bodily organs in the physical world. And again, this spiritual being must experience within itself the three spiritual powers that reveal themselves in the cosmic evolution as feeling, thinking, and willing, as love, wisdom, and power. Just as the child first learns to stand and then to walk, so must man learn to find direction and path in the spiritual world. This can only be acquired through feeling, by lovingly confronting everything. Then he must learn to recognize the truth by learning to understand the world wisdom that resounds in him, by allowing the sounds from the spiritual world to resound within him and intuiting their meaning, just as a child learns to understand language. Then he gradually learns to recognize true life in the spirit by experiencing within himself a center from which his own impulses of will and life emanate, so that he can reveal himself in speech and in his being. Therefore, Christ Jesus speaks the words: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” No one can penetrate to the true spiritual source of all being, to the Father, if he has not developed these three powers in his spirit and combines them in the right way.

The development of man is represented in the symbol that belongs to the deeply significant Rosicrucian motto, in the black cross with the red roses. Man feels this symbol as something living, in which live and weave the spiritual forces that have built it up just as he is born out of the Godhead. But then he knows that further development of his soul is possible through the exertion of his own powers. He knows that not only must his blood become pure like the red sap of the roses, but that the black cross must also be transformed by purifying his nature of the veil and growing beyond the merely personal when he surrenders himself to something infinitely greater. Then he dies in Christ, and before his soul the dark, black cross is transformed into a luminous, radiant cross. The red roses expand into an infinite circle as the soul becomes more and more at home in the macrocosm until it perceives itself as this circle. In the all-embracing macrocosm, the human being then experiences himself in a new existence.

Then, in a mysterious way, the colors of the symbolum change, the roses turn green, the cross turns white. The soul can only sense the full significance by feeling the power that streams towards it. As if from higher spiritual spheres, the soul beholds and recognizes this holy symbol. It appears strict and powerful, as an invitation to constant work, so that the great ideal may one day be attained, which every single person can realize when they are reborn in the Holy Spirit.

No explanations of this mantram have been handed down from the Theosophical working context. But in the lecture Leipzig, October 13, 1906, the following remarks were made that relate to the content of the mantram:

I spoke to you earlier about the fact that forces lie dormant in every human being that can be developed and that elevate him to a higher level of existence. Just as the physical world is perceived through physical organs, so the supersensible world can be perceived through supersensible organs. At that time, the means by which man can make himself see were given, albeit in fragments. Today, in order to lead over to our subject, we want to mention certain means that are used in inner schooling.

At each stage, new instructions are to be followed. What is discussed today is not enough on its own, but it is part of the process. On the path to becoming a disciple, an instruction is given that aims to help people develop a very specific relationship with the supersensible world, a moral relationship. At the first stage, the human being must realize that just as he is a sentient being, so too are animals sentient beings. However, just as the human being has an individual soul, so the animal groups have a generic soul. Thus, all lions, all sharks, all frogs, and so on together have a soul. In other words, while the human being has the soul within, the animal souls, which are, as it were, the psychic connecting threads of the animals, extend into the astral world, and there are the community souls of the animal groups. When a person is hurt, he feels it alone. But if you hurt the lion, the group soul, which does not live on the physical plane but on the astral plane, feels it.

The training is now aimed at developing a relationship, a relationship of feeling, with the animal souls on the astral plane. Here is an example of this: in some areas, the ancient Germans revered the horse. They planted a horse skull as a symbol on their houses. The choice of such a symbol shows that they had a very specific relationship with the horse. Where did this come from? The horse only came into being at a very specific time. In the middle of the Atlantean era, this species of animal appeared, of course, little by little. This coincided with the development of wisdom. Even if man did not make this particularly clear to himself in terms, he had a comparatively attraction to the horse like the lover to the beloved. Even today, the Arab has a special relationship with his horse. Some indications can be found in mythology. Thus, the cleverness of Odysseus devised a wooden horse. In this sense, man will develop a feeling for the generic soul of the various animals. When this becomes conscious, then the relationship to the astral plane begins to emerge.

In this way, a moral relationship with the plant world can also arise. The occultist not only sees the beauty of the plant, but also feels something like a smiling or sad countenance. There is a great deal to be gained from this moral feeling. If you develop such a moral relationship, you will enter into a relationship with the lower region of the Devachan plan.

You can also develop a fine sense for the dead stone world. Rocks have a group soul on the Devachan plan, just as animals have a group soul on the astral plan. The souls of minerals live in Devachan. That is why they are not accessible to humans. Just as the fly that walks over our hand has no idea that there is a soul behind it, so people do not know that stones have souls.

If stones have souls, then you will also understand how a moral relationship with them can arise. A human or animal body has desires, passions and instincts. The body of a plant has no more desires, but it still has instincts. The body of a stone has neither desire nor instinct, and so it presents us with an ideal for human beings, in that our instincts should be spiritualized. And in the distant future this will be achieved: human beings will have bodies without desires or instincts. One day man will be like a diamond; he will no longer have inner urges, but these will then be outwardly controlled.

The stone already represents this chastity today; it is desireless matter. The occult disciple must already now develop this desirelessness within himself. In this sense, the stone is above animal, plant and human. An old Rosicrucian formula begins with the words: “I have laid the eternal creative word in the stone.” Chaste and virginal, the stone preserves this creative word in the depths of physical existence.

If one can develop such a feeling for the stone into a spiritual experience, one becomes clairvoyant in the highest parts of Devachan.

The most detailed explanation available is provided by the answer to a question about Freemasonry and its purpose in one of the lectures for the workers on the Goetheanum building. Therefore, this answer to a question from the lecture Dornach, June 4, 1924 is presented here:

Today's Freemasonry is, one might say, only a shadow of what it once was. I have already spoken here on various occasions about the fact that in the very early days of human development there were no schools like those of today, nor churches like those of today, nor art institutions like those of today. In the ancient mysteries, as they were called, there was the school, the art institution and the religion at the same time. This only diverged later. So that it actually became so for our Central European regions, one could even say, only in the 11th, 12th century; in former times the monasteries were, I would say, a memory of the old times. But in very ancient times it was the case that school, church and art institutions were one and the same. It was the case that in the mysteries everything that was practiced there was taken much more seriously than it is taken today, for example, in our schools and also in our churches.

The fact of the matter is that in those days it took a long time to prepare before one was allowed to learn. Today, basically, whether or not you can learn something is decided by a principle that has nothing to do with learning. Isn't it true that today the only thing that really matters is whether or not the person in question can afford the money to learn! Of course, this has nothing to do with the abilities of the person in question. And it was quite different in the old days. From all of humanity, those who were the most capable were selected – and people had a better eye for this than they do today. Of course, because people are selfish, the system fell into decline almost everywhere; but originally, the principle was to select those who had abilities. And only then were they entitled to learn spiritually – not simply through drilling and training and elements, as taught today, but they were able to learn spiritually.

This spiritual learning, however, is linked to the fact that in preparation one learns to develop very specific abilities. You only have to consider that in ordinary life, when you touch something, you actually have a rough sensation of it; and the most that people achieve today is that they can sometimes distinguish substances from one another in their sensation, that they feel things in this way and distinguish something in their sensation. But people today are actually quite rough in their perception - I mean, in their purely physical perception; they distinguish between warmth and cold. At most, people who depend on it can develop a finer sense of perception. The blind, for example. There are blind people who learn to feel the letter forms when they run their fingers over the paper. Each letter is, after all, slightly engraved on the paper. If the feeling in the fingers is developed finely, one can already feel the letters somewhat. These are the only people today who learn to feel something more subtly, to perceive something more finely. As a rule, sensitivity is not developed at all, but one learns an enormous amount if one develops feeling, and especially feeling in the fingertips and in the fingers, very finely. Today, people distinguish between heat and cold not only by feeling. Yes, they can do that today because they can read the thermometer; the subtle differences in heat and cold become visible to them. But the thermometer was only invented over time. Before that, people only had their feelings. In the mystery preparations, feelings were particularly developed in the fingers and fingertips. And it was so that one learned to feel in the finest way.

So who was it in the mysteries who was the first to be prepared to feel very finely? Well, the other people could not feel so finely. Now suppose there was a mystery somewhere else. People traveled a lot in ancient times; they traveled almost as much as we do, and sometimes we are amazed at how fast they traveled. They didn't have railroads; but they traveled because they were nimble, could walk faster, got less tired, walked a little better, and so on. And now they met on the way, such people. Yes, when two such people, who could feel subtly, shook hands, they noticed that about each other, and it was said: They recognize each other by their finer feeling. That is what is called the grip - the grip when one gripped the other in ancient times and one noticed that he had a finer feeling.

Now, gentlemen, consider the second point: when it was recognized that someone had a fine perception, then one went further, because one learned even more. In ancient times, people did not write as much as they do today; they actually only rarely wrote down the very, very most important things. However, there was already a kind of correspondence in ancient times; but this correspondence was also more in all sorts of signs. And so many signs were created for all sorts of things. It was also the case that people who did not belong to the mysteries, who were not the wise men, as they were called, only traveled in a smaller area when they traveled; they did not get very far. But the scholars, the wise men, traveled a great deal. They should have known not only all languages, but all dialects. Of course, it is difficult even for a North German to speak Swiss German. But for these people, in addition to the language they spoke, there were certain signs for all the things that interested them in the mysteries. They made signs. So, for example, let us say that the usual gesture that one already has in one's mind was further developed: I understand -; or: That is not something you are telling me -; or: We understand each other well. - One drew the cross into it. So that there was a fully developed sign language precisely among the ancient sages, and one put everything one knew into such signs. So you can see: all the people who were in the high schools of the time, in the mysteries, had certain signs for everything. Let's say, for example, that they wanted to record these signs; then they painted them on. This is how the painted signs came about.

It is interesting that there are still certain writings today that clearly show that they have emerged from the signs. This is, for example, the old script of the Indians, the Sanskrit script. In this script, it can be seen everywhere that everything has emerged from the curved and the straight line. Curved lines: dissatisfaction with something, antipathy; straight lines: sympathy. Just think about it: someone knows that straight lines mean sympathy and that curved lines mean antipathy. Now I want to tell him something. I also have my sign for that. He wants to tell me something; that can go quite well at the beginning, but later the story can go badly. You see, it's still going well; later he draws a wavy line: it can go badly. And so they had certain signs for everything. Those who were initiated used these signs to communicate with each other. So the sign was the key to the mystery.

Now, in the past, people saw something very special in words. You see, when a person speaks words today, they actually no longer have any idea what the words actually are. But you can still feel something that is already inherent in the sounds. You will easily be able to feel when someone is in a certain situation in life and they start: A - that has something to do with wonderment. A - the letter A is wonderment. Now take the letter R: it contains the rolling, radiating: R = radiating. A = wonderment, R = rolling, radiating.

Now, however, we know what we just said about the sun's rays. But even if the sun's rays are apparent, if they are not reality, it looks as if they are flowing. Now imagine someone wants to say: There is something up there that throws something at me here on earth, which, when it appears to me in the morning, causes amazement. He expresses the amazement with A, but that it comes from above, with R; he expresses that with: RA. Yes, that is what the ancient Egyptians called the sun god: Ra! Each of these letters contains a feeling, and we have combined the letters into words. So there was a very broad sense to it. Today, this is long forgotten. You can feel something like this in different things. Take, for example, I. This is something like a quiet joy; you come to terms with what you experience and perceive: I. That is why laughter is also expressed with hihi. This is a quiet joy. In this way, each letter has a specific meaning. And there is a knowledge through which one can literally form words if one has an understanding of the sounds that are within the words.

Now you will say one thing, gentlemen: yes, then, if that were the case, there could actually only be one language! Originally there was also one language among humanity; when one still had a feeling for these sounds, these letters, there was only one language. The languages then became different when people scattered. But originally people sensed this, and in the mysteries it was taught correctly how to sense sounds, letters, and how to make words. Therefore there was a language of its own in the mysteries. This language, they all spoke among themselves. They did not speak the dialects among themselves, but this language, everyone understood it. If one said Ra, the other knew that this is the sun. If someone says, for example, E - just feel it: I recoil from something, it doesn't suit me; E = I have a slight fear, something like dread! Now take L: that is like something that is fading away, like something flowing, and EL, yes, that is something that flows towards you and makes you recoil, makes you afraid. Thus in Babylon El = God was called. Thus everything was designated according to this principle. Or take the Bible: when you say: O - that is amazement, sudden amazement, which one cannot overcome. With A - there is a feeling that one likes, an amazement that one likes; O - there one wants to shrink back; H, Ch is the breath. So that one can say: O = recoiling amazement; H = breath; I = one points to it, one is pleased about it, it is quiet joy = I. And M, that is: one wants to go into it oneself. You feel when you pronounce M: M - the breath goes out, and one feels that one is literally running after the breath; M is therefore: going away. Now we put it all together: El, we have already seen that, is the spirit that comes in the wind, El; O = that is the retreating amazement, H = the breath; so that is already the finer spirit that works as breath; I is the quiet joy; M - that is the devotion. There you have Elohim, with which the Bible begins; there you have these sounds in it. So that one can say: What are the Elohim? The Elohim are beings in the wind that one is somewhat afraid of, that one somewhat shies away from, but that through breathing give joy to people, that in devotion give people joy: Elohim. And so originally, in the words, according to the sounds, according to the letters, one studies what the words actually mean. Today people no longer feel what it is actually like.

What is the plural of <501>Wagen here in Switzerland? Do we say: <501>Wagen or do we say: <501>die Wägen? (Answer: <501>die Wagen!) ¹ We still say <501>die Wagen. So there it is already blurred; the original would be: the car, the cars! With the plural we have that in the most diverse way; for example, we have: the brother, the brothers. But that is also the case in Switzerland! They don't say: the brothers? So: the brother, the brothers. Or do we say: the wood, the woods. You probably don't say: the woodworkers. The wood, the woods. You see, gentlemen, when the plural is formed, the umlaut is formed: a in ä, u in ü, o in ö. Why does that happen? Yes, the umlaut expresses that the thing becomes unclear! When I see one brother, he is clearly there as a person; when I see several brothers, it becomes unclear, and I have to distinguish one from the other, and if I cannot do that, it becomes unclear. You have to look at one after the other. The lack of clarity is indicated everywhere by the umlaut. So wherever there is an umlaut in a word, something is unclear.

There is something in language by which one can actually recognize the whole person; there is the whole person. And so people also expressed how certain meanings already lay within the letters that were written down, within these signs. A was always astonishment. When the old Jew wrote down x like this, he said to himself: Who is astonished in the world? The animals are not really surprised, only man. That is why he called man in general: wonder. When he wrote down his Aleph, the x, the Hebrew A, then that also meant man.

And so it was that each letter also meant a specific thing or being. All this was known again to the people who were in the mysteries. So if one was traveling and met another who shared their knowledge, they would recognize each other by the word. So you can say: In the old days, it was the case that people who had studied, who knew a lot, recognized each other by touch, sign, and word. Yes, but, gentlemen, there was something in it! All learning was really contained in these signs, gestures and words. For by learning to feel, one learned to distinguish objects. By having the signs, one had an imitation of all that was natural secrets. And in the word one came to know the inner man. So that one can say: in the grip one had perception; in the sign one had nature, and in the word one had the human being, his inner amazement or his shrinking back, his joy and so on. One had nature and man, and reproduced them in sign, grip and word.

Now, in the course of human development, what emerged on the one hand was divided into the university and later schools, and on the other hand into the churches and art. None of the three understood what was originally present; and grip, sign and word were completely lost. Only those who had then realized: Gosh, those old sages, they had a certain power because they knew that! That is a justified power that a person has when they know something, because it benefits their fellow human beings; if no one knew how to make a locomotive, humanity would never have one! So when someone knows something, it benefits people; that is a justified power. But later on people simply appropriated the power by copying the outward signs. Just as these or those signs once meant something in the past and later on the meaning was lost, so all that has lost its meaning. And then, I might say, by aping the old mysteries, all kinds of things were formed in which you only have the outward form. What did people do? They no longer had the subtle perception, but they agreed on a sign by which they would recognize each other. They shake hands in a certain way, by which one knows: he belongs to this order. They recognized each other by the handshake. Then they make another sign in some way. The sign and the handshake are different, depending on whether one is in the first, second or third degree. People then recognize each other by that. But there is nothing more to it than just a sign of recognition. And in the same way, they have certain words for each degree that they can pronounce in certain Masonic lodges; let us say, for example, for the first degree – if you want to know what the word is: Jachin. It is known that he has learned the word Jachin in the Masonic lodge, otherwise he would not be in the first degree. That is only a password. And in the same way he then makes the sign and so on. Now, actually this kind of Freemasonry only developed when everything else from the mysteries had been forgotten; and individual old things that were no longer understood were imitated. So that what Freemasonry has adopted of the cult is mostly no longer understood by Freemasons today; they also do not understand the sign, grip and word, because they do not know what it is all about. They do not know, for example, that when they pronounce the word of the second degree: Boas, that the B is as much as a house; © is, as I told you, this restrained amazement; A: that is the pleasant amazement; $ is the sign for the snake. With that you have expressed: We recognize the world as that which is a great house, built by the great architect of the world, at which one must marvel both fearfully and pleasantly, and in which there is also evil, the snake. Yes, people knew about such things in ancient times; they looked at nature and saw these things, they looked at people and saw these things. Today, in certain Masonic orders, those who have taken the second degree pronounce the word “Boaz” without realizing what it means. Likewise, didn't they, when in the third degree people put their fingers on the pulse, then it was really a realization that the person in question had a fine perception. You could tell by the way the finger was placed on the pulse. That later became the sign for the third degree. Today people only know when someone comes and takes the hand like that: that's a Freemason. So in these things there is actually something ancient, venerable, great, something in which all earlier learning lay; now this has been completely transferred into formulas, into the void. So that today the Freemasons have such things; they also have ceremonies, a cult: that is still from the times when everything was also shown in a cult, in ceremonies, so that it was more forceful on people. The Freemasons still do that today. So in this inward relationship, the Masonic order really no longer has any significance.

But for many people, it was terribly boring to go through with such covenants when they were established, because it actually degenerated into a kind of gimmick. So something was needed that would be poured into Freemasonry. And that is why the Freemasons became more or less political, or again spread more or less religious Enlightenment teachings. The un-enlightened Roman doctrine was administered by Rome. The doctrine that confronted Rome was then spread by Freemasonry. Therefore, Rome, the Roman cult and Freemasonry are the very greatest opponents. This is no longer connected with what the cult, sign, grip and word were in the case of the Freemasons, but that just came in between. In France, the union was not called a union, but “Orient de France”, because everything was taken from the Orient - “Grand Orient de France”, that is the great French Masonic union. The other signs, grips and words are only there to keep the people together, that is what they recognize each other by. The joint worship is where they come together under particularly solemn circumstances; just as others come together in the church, so these Freemasons come together under ceremonies that come from ancient mysteries. That is what keeps the people together.

It was also common, especially in Italy at certain times, when political secret societies were formed, to recognize and come together under certain ceremonies, signs and grips. Political alliances and political associations have always been linked to this ancient mystery knowledge. And today, it is again quite remarkable: if you go to certain Polish and Austrian areas today, you will find posters; on these posters are strange signs and strange letters that then combine into words; at first you don't know what the poster means – but such a poster, which is posted everywhere in Polish and Austrian areas today, is the outward sign of a league that is formed by certain nationalist groups among the youth. The same things are being done there. It is actually widespread, and people know very well that the symbol also has a certain strong power. There are associations, the German-Volkists, for example, who have an old Indian symbol: two intertwined snakes, or also, if you will, a wheel that has then been transformed into the swastika. They have it as their emblem today. And you will often hear that the swastika is adopted as a symbol by certain chauvinistic nationalistic circles. This is because of the tradition that the ancients expressed their rule through such symbols. And that is how it has always been on a large scale in the Freemasons' Federation. The Freemasons' Union actually exists to keep certain people together, and it does this through ceremonies, signs, grips and words. And then it pursues secret goals by keeping certain secrets among all those who are connected under these ceremonies, signs, grips and words. Of course, secret aims can only be pursued if they are not known to all; and so it is with the Masonic associations that they often pursue political or cultural and similar aims.

But now you can say one more thing, gentlemen. You see, the people who are connected in Masonic associations are by no means to be challenged because of that, but sometimes they have the very best and noblest intentions; they are only of the opinion that you cannot win people over to something other than through such alliances, and therefore most Masonic associations also have the purpose of practicing charity on a large scale. That is nice, to practice charity and humanity. This is also something that is practiced on a large scale by these associations. Therefore, it is no wonder that the Freemason can always point out that an awful lot of extraordinary humanitarian and charitable work is founded and established precisely by the Masonic associations. You just have to say to yourself: In this day and age, all such things are actually no longer in keeping with the times. Because, what do we have to reject most of all today? We have to reject isolation. This also soon leads to the emergence of a spiritual aristocracy, which should not exist. And the democratic principle, which must be applied more and more, is something that the Masonic Alliance and the closed priesthoods are completely opposed to. So that one can say: It is already the case that anyone who can still understand today what is contained in some Masonic ceremonies for the first, second and third degrees, can recognize in what the Freemasons themselves often do not understand that they often go back to very old wisdom; but this is not the main significance. The great significance is that today many Masonic associations, alliances, are actually home to many political or other social charitable endeavors. But the Catholic Church and the Freemasons fight each other tooth and nail. However, this has only emerged over time.

Now, it is of course very easy to mistake such things. And this has also occurred: the Freemasons have a certain garment for their ceremonies; for example, they have a apron made of lambskin, the lambskin apron. Some have said: Freemasonry is nothing more than a play on the masonry trade because the mason has an apron. But that is not true. And the apron that is there is there for a reason – and it has always been originally made of lambskin, not just gradually becoming so – to show that the one who is in such covenants should not be an angry fellow in terms of the passions; so the genitals should be covered with his apron, and that is the sign for it. So it was something that expressed the human character in signs. And so it is with very many signs that also lie in clothing.

Then there are also higher degrees where a garment similar to that of a priest is worn; there every single detail has a meaning. For example, I told you that man has not only a physical body but also an etheric body. And just as the priest has a white linen garment, a shirt-like robe, to express the etheric body, so too certain high degrees of the Freemasons have such a garment, and for the astral body - it is colored - there is a toga, an outer garment; all this expresses it. And the mantle, which was then connected to the helmet, expressed the power of the ego.

All these things lead back to old, very ingenious and significant customs that have lost their meaning today. If someone likes Freemasonry, they should not treat what I have said as disparaging. I just wanted to explain how it is. Of course, a Masonic order can exist that unites exceptionally good people and so on. And in today's world, something like that can be particularly important. Really, what most people learn today when they become doctors or lawyers does not touch their hearts. And that is why many lawyers and doctors become true Freemasons, because at least they have the solemnity of the old ceremonies and something that they can no longer think much about, but which is still something: sign, grip and word, but which indicates that man does not live only in the external material.

From the instruction session in Berlin, December 16, 1911

The sign, grip and word are not just mere identifying marks, but have a deep occult value.¹

The sign in which the right angle is formed between the thumb and the flat of the hand has to do with the hand as an organ of cognition. It was already mentioned in the last cycle that hands and feet are organs of knowledge and that they are better than the brain.²

The physical brain has, as it were, crystallized out of the etheric body, just as ice crystallizes out of water. We can sense an intimate connection between these two “brains” and how the physical brain is actually a kind of mirror apparatus for what is going on in the etheric brain. This is particularly noticeable when one is making a great effort with things that relate to the physical plane, or when one wants to evoke memories in oneself: whether one is aware of it or not, the etheric body is always affected, but especially the physical brain, which lies like a block in the etheric brain and prevents it from following the mobility of the etheric brain. One then feels very clearly that it is not the ether brain that tires; that could evoke thoughts and memories for all of eternity, but the physical brain cannot keep up, it seems like a foreign body in the etheric body. As a result, one feels the fatigue of the physical brain all the more. And even if one could continue to think with the ether brain, one would still make oneself ill; the normal connection would be broken, the physical part would become as dead. It is impossible to break the parallelism between the physical and ether brain to any great extent.

In our brain, we therefore have a very faithful expression of the ether brain in its functions and processes. In the case of the hands of the human etheric body, the connection with the physical organs is different. Just as with the brain, certain etheric processes of the etheric body correspond to the hands, but there is a far greater difference between the physical hands and their function and what corresponds to them in the etheric body than between the physical head and the corresponding etheric part of it. What the hands do is much more of a purely sensory activity, and what the ether organs of the hands can do finds very little expression in what the physical hands do. These etheric hands are real spiritual organs in the elementary or etheric body. A much higher, more intuitive spiritual activity is performed by the [etheric] organs that underlie the hands and find only a limited expression in the hands of the physical body. These etheric organs already lead into the supersensible world and can make observations in it. Somewhat paradoxically, one could say that the human brain is the most unsuitable organ for perceiving the world; the hands - taken etherically - are much more significant and skillful organs of perception than the brain. On the path to initiation, one does not learn very much by learning to move from the use of the physical brain to that of the etheric brain.

What the hands have to do can be found in the connection with the lotus leaves in the heart area, which radiate their forces in such a way that they go from the heart to the hands, thus making the ether hand the organ of spiritual knowledge. Learning to understand these differences gives an idea of how to immerse oneself in initiation. What is important is not to feel how the physical brain fills the etheric brain, but to feel how completely different organs can arise in the human being. What was initially present in the physical human being, such as the hands, is transformed into the inner human being, so that he can experience different things with them.

When we place our hands on our larynx, with the thumb of our right hand by our ear and the flat of our hand under our chin at the level of our larynx, we exclude the etheric currents of the head and shape the rest of our organism into an organ of knowledge.

In this way, knowledge is spiritualized, and if you stand upright in this position, it is a tool to help you absorb knowledge in a spiritual way. The larynx is connected to the thinking that a person developed during the moon phase. Brain thinking is an earthly product and can only touch the world of the senses, not the world of the spirit.

With the grip, in which we form a right angle with the thumb, we also perform something very significant. It eliminates something in the relationship between people that happens in the most brutal way in our materialistic time. We make the currents finer and thus transform our relationship to the outside world. When we touch a certain point on the upper hand with the bent thumb, the two currents unite, and through this we can bring about a beneficial, far-reaching influence for good. There are no causes in the material world; these only live in the supersensible world. Here there are only signs. We should get to know these in our temple, so that we learn to apply and use them in a good sense. Stupid anatomy - as foolish as it may sound, it is still true, even though in our time anatomy must be granted its right to exist - says that the heart pumps the blood. But in reality the blood is driven by currents in the etheric body. The heart is only the sign that the etheric currents come together at that point. For example, our muscles are a sign of the movement that actually originates in the astral body as a tone. Without the muscles, we would know nothing of the movement; they reflect the movement to us. Our whole body is a mirroring apparatus in each of its parts.

The sacred word [JACHIN] is not pronounced, but spelled, as discussed in the recording. It is a word from the original language, and anyone who exchanges it with another person in thought can use it to transfer healing powers from one person to another. When someone is overcome by suffering, or when we meet someone who is struggling with a severe indisposition or illness, we ask ourselves the question: Do you know the sacred word? We direct it to the other person in our thoughts, while imagining that the other person is giving the answer – all in our minds, of course – and thus we exchange the letters and the two syllables with them. In this way, the current passes from one larynx to the other and one can influence people in the most favorable way, without their freedom being compromised.

The sign regulates the relationship of the person to the outside world; the grip regulates the relationship from person to person; and the word has a healing and salvific effect on our fellow human beings.

From the instruction hour in Berlin, February 6, 1913

What we do and think as human beings here, and the movements we make, is what the gods used to do to create this world of ours. The seeds of the future are to be sown through the work and ritual in our M.E. lodges. Magic is not something that performs arbitrary acts or strange customs, but magic is that which prepares the future of humanity and the world.

• 1. This answer is wrong; in Swiss German it is “Wäge”, as Rudolf Steiner assumed.
• 1. The sign and grip were different for each degree; they have not been authentically handed down. In the notes from the instruction session in Munich on September 5, 1912, it says that at the initiation into the first degree, it was said: “The sign of the first degree will in the future be the expression for self-knowledge or for what is meant by ‘know thyself’.” The “word” for the first was Yakin, for the second Boaz, for the third Mah ben-on. For more on the sign, grip and word, see “The Present and the Past in the Human Spirit” (Lecture 4), CW 167.
• 2. See “Excursions into the Realm of the Gospel of Mark” (Lecture 7), CW 124.

Instruction lesson in Cologne, May 12, 1913

Those who were present at the ceremony of the coffin when they were initiated into the third degree cannot absorb its meaning within themselves if they imagine the temple in which we find ourselves as if it were an ordinary temple on earth and the symbols as if they were made of earthly objects. We should form a mental image of the temple as being, as it were, separate from the earth, just as a vacuum is created in a glass container when we pump all the air out of the container from below with an air pump; there is air all around, but all the air has been sucked out of the glass container. Or we can also say that it is as if a piece were taken out of the earth and this were completely isolated from the rest of the earth - meant symbolically, of course. So too the east, west and south in our temple are meant spiritually. Everything that belongs to our temple is supernatural, and the activities in it must be regarded as supersensible.

What is the meaning of the death we undergo during the recording? When the Elohim decided to create man at the beginning of the evolution of the Earth, it was their intention to make man entirely in their own image, so that each member of the human nature would correspond to one of the Elohim. They wanted to see their own reflection in humanity. This did not happen on Earth as we know it, however, but in a sphere that we would now have to draw around the Earth, like the ring of Saturn around Saturn. From outer space, the Elohim acted on this sphere and mirrored themselves in the humanity they had created. And the humans, in turn, looked down to a point in the center of the sphere and saw themselves mirrored there. That's you - they could say to themselves. If Lucifer had not appeared, it would have remained so forever. Human beings would have experienced eternal youth, and the consciousness they would have had of themselves would have been the consciousness of what they saw of themselves on earth as the “You are.”

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But when Lucifer emerged with his activity, he also wanted to be reflected in humanity, and he did so by entering into the innermost being of man and radiating himself from there. Instead of the beautiful and sublime in which man had hitherto seen himself, now emerged the ugly and the shapeless. Like the snake coiled around the tree in the story of paradise, so was the reflection of Lucifer. To prevent man from seeing himself in the ugliness of Lucifer, the Elohim compressed the sphere and threw the humans onto the earth.

The human being would have remained an infant forever, for the constructive powers of the Elohim are still active in the infant. Man would have taken in nourishment by absorbing the substance of plants and animals, which were very different then than they are now. Man would never have progressed beyond the consciousness of an infant.

To enable human self-awareness, the Elohim have placed death in all earthly processes. Everything on earth has thus been subjected to death, and now these forces work in such a way that through the destruction they carry within them, they also give the strength to overcome that destruction and thus to attain a higher state. Our concept of death, like almost everything on the physical plane, is the opposite of the true concept. Only through death is it possible for us to return to the relationship we once had with the gods and the spiritual world. Something in us must die before we can find the right connection again. And the symbol of the coffin can only be understood if we grasp it in this sense.

Through our thinking, we continually kill certain parts of our brain. Thus, everything a person does after infancy involves a killing. The symbol of the coffin means that we should be mindful that all life is connected with death. Even our food is not a process of building up our body, but a process of destruction, because none of the nutrients are absorbed into the body, but they only have a healing effect when the forces of death act on them and destroy the food we eat. If this does not happen, then our organism suffers; in this way, the whole purpose of nutrition is contrary to what science thinks about it. It serves to stimulate those forces that destroy the nutrients and thus build up the human being. It is the same with healing herbs: only when they are able to invoke the destructive powers of death, when these can thus destroy the remedy, can it work as a remedy. And it is precisely because of this that chemical, metallic remedies work so powerfully, because they bring about the process of destruction most quickly and most easily.

And how would it have been with the Mystery of Golgotha if man had not descended to earth and had not had to learn death there? The mystery would have taken place all the same, and that on earth, and man would have watched from his sphere, and that which would have come to destruction there, that would have given man the consciousness of himself. He would no longer have said: You are, but: I am, and so man would have come to his self-consciousness in a supersensible way. Through the effect of Lucifer, the descent of the Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha were delayed by a whole period of development (from the fourth to the fifth age), and it will therefore take us just as long before we have gained the right understanding for it (namely in the middle of the sixth age).

We know that a new possibility has opened up for people for about three decades with the appearance of Michael. Before that, from the 15th century onwards, the archangel Gabriel was at work, and he worked on our brains in such a way that we were enabled to form mental images about nature, which we could transform into science. Our minds were guided to form mental images of nature, and based on these, we constructed laws that we believed to be the true laws. Gabriel is the archangel who acts on the reproductive powers and on the infant. His influence in the 15th and 16th centuries consisted in the fact that part of these powers seized the brain and built an organ in it through which the laws of nature could be absorbed by humans - not formed from within, as one believes, but absorbed from without. Just as the infant cries, so man has cried the laws of nature out into the world, with just as little awareness of their actual inner nature as the infant is aware when it cries.

Now Gabriel has been replaced by Michael, and his task is to give us mental images of the supersensible that carry within them the true and the eternal. And theosophy is the tool that helps us to transform our thinking so that we can find these mental images within us and use them to rise above the earth again. Michael's powers are connected to the powers of the sun; they transform the organ in the brain so that flashes of light can arise in a person, showing him the deeper meaning behind natural laws. This experience can come to a person at any time. The age in which we live is an age of waiting. We should adopt the attitude that we can wait for the higher mental images to come to us, which will bring us the knowledge of the eternal.

From the lecture in Stuttgart, June 14, 1921

You see, in his temporal life between birth and death, the human being is constituted in such a way that he has within him the forces that continually kill him. These are the forces that solidify him, that are effective in the development of the bone system, and that in their morbid development lead to sclerosis, gout, diabetes, and so on. Man has these forces within him, I would say, as the forces of solidification. That is one thing; the other system of forces that man has within him is that which continually rejuvenates him. It is the system of forces that is particularly expressed when one falls prey to pleurisy, to feverish illness, to everything that burns man. In the anthroposophical worldview, I have called the solidifying forces Ahrimanic forces, and the forces that lead to fever, which are therefore warming forces, Luciferic forces. Both forces must be kept in perpetual equilibrium in the human being. If they are not kept in balance, they will lead the person to some kind of destructive extreme, physically, mentally and spiritually. If the feverish forces are not kept in constant physiological balance by the solidifying (salting) forces, the person will inevitably develop a sclerosis or fever. If a person only develops the powers of understanding, if he tends towards intellectualism, he falls prey to the Ahrimanic; if he only develops the fiery elements, the passionate, the emotional, then he falls prey to the Luciferic. And so the human being is always caught between two polarities and must maintain his balance.

But think how difficult it is to maintain this balance. The pendulum that should be in balance always tends to swing in one direction or the other. There are these three tendencies in man: the tendency towards balance, the tendency towards warmth and the tendency towards solidification. He must maintain himself upright; so that one can symbolically see man as a being who is constantly seeking to maintain himself upright against the three forces that are constantly endangering his life.

This is represented by the third degree of Freemasonry, in which man is represented as being threatened by three unruly powers which approach him, which threaten his life; and in the contemplation of this threefold danger, in which man stands - which is symbolically represented in such a way that the Mason to be initiated into the third degree (it is done in various ways, the simplest form is as follows: a man is paraded in a coffin, three assassins creep up who want to kill him) is taught an awareness that man is in danger of death at every moment and must rise up - in this investiture, in a real cultic act, in a real ceremony, man experiences symbolically something important that is connected with life. And so it really is that one must try to get to know life, then the symbols arise out of life. Freemasonry actually has its dark sides in the fact that these symbols are used, cultic acts are performed - in the Blue Masonry in the first three degrees, in the high-grade Masonry there are many other things - and that this ceremonial is drawn from ancient traditions but is no longer understood. There is no longer any connection with the origins, which I wanted to explain to you in a brief sketch. People only look at the ceremony and that is what is dangerous: they get stuck on the ceremony, they are not guided into the ceremony in order to arrive at the spiritual through the ceremony.

From a teaching session in Berlin, February 10, 1913

The human being is connected to the self in thirty-three ways. We have to overcome this self through our I. This self is anchored in the human body in the 33 currents in the spinal cord. The seer sees how currents emanate from the etheric and astral bodies, which can then express themselves in the movements of the limbs, which are half held back in the speech organs, in the larynx, and there form the sound and are then rigidly held back in the human head, brain and skull, cerebral lobes. The brain: the symbols for it in the Lodge...

Beginning with the left hand: J – striving outwards.

The sound J – fix the right eye on an indeterminate point.

Stretching = A – both eyes to infinity.

Enclosing = O – look firmly at a specific point.

Crossing = E – place your right hand over your left hand, and cross your right foot over your left foot, just as the optic nerves are crossed in the human head.

Cupped hand = AO - bend the body in a semicircle.

Fist or clenched hand = U

You should not carry out the movements, but inhibit the movement, press the limbs firmly against the body, but feel the same as if you were carrying out the movements.

We are the lost word of creation ourselves.

The Holy Word is to be used only in the sign.

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Where are we?

In the sign of the four.

Name the four:

Earth, Water, Air, Fire.

The four are also understood by the four sentences that are always spoken in

the lodge and that we know:

Learn to be silent and you will have power.
Give up power and you will have will.
renounce volition and you will have feeling;
renounce feeling and you will have cognition.

The four added up make seven: salt, sulfur, mercury,

Now the holy word is broken down again into the four:

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One column is the sun, the other the moon; both

From a teaching session in Munich, December 12, 1906

Every object that can be seen in the lodge has its meaning; every word that is spoken, every ritual that is practiced has its meaning, which points to a process in the evolution of the world. (...) The Lodge itself is the Temple of the World.

From Instruction Lesson Berlin, December 16, 1911

When we are together in an occult temple, we should be aware that we are in a very special place that completely isolates us from the outside world. It is a sacred place where every object in it has a special and occult significance. (...) Every object in a complete temple not only has a special significance, but it must also be there and has the purpose of stimulating and effecting that which makes it possible to draw the stream of those entities to our temple, which we call the wise masters of the East. They then pour this stream out upon us and thus we are enabled to receive those spiritual teachings that are necessary for human development. Without such reception nothing could be done for the spiritual development of humanity. From here, what has been received should flow forth to other people.

From a teaching session in Berlin, December 17, 1911

It has been said many times that the symbols and rituals of our temple are not created arbitrarily, but have a deep connection with cosmic constellations and correspond to laws that can only be revealed to us slowly and gradually. They are handed down from century to century from the mysteries of the most ancient times so that they can serve as the right channels for the spiritual currents that the wise masters of the East pour over us. It is therefore impossible to explain or understand them in an esoteric way.

From a teaching session in Cologne, May 12, 1913

Everything that belongs to our temple is unearthly, and the activities in it must be considered supersensible.

From a teaching session in Kassel, May 10, 1914

The temple is a reflection of both man and the world. All these relationships are expressed in it.

From a teaching session in Basel, June 1, 1914

The temple is meant to represent the sacrifice that the spirits want to make. The sacrifice must be, without sacrifice there is no becoming, no progress. We want to sacrifice our intellect and offer it to the Christ, that the Christ may also add it to the wreath of pearls that the Christ can wind out of the sacred sacrifices he has brought for the evolution of humanity. ¹

• 1. In the very fragmentary notes from this instruction session, it is stated beforehand that “a human faculty has reached a particularly important point in our time: human thinking. An infinite amount for the development of humanity will depend on how we humans use this faculty. For mankind is faced with the ever-increasing danger of losing its intellect to Ahriman if it does not learn to use its thinking properly. Regarding the words “We want to sacrifice our intellect,” cf. the introduction to this volume on page 25f. 1

From the instruction session in Munich, December 12, 1906

The master's place is in the east (Jupiter – wisdom). In the south is glory, piety, beauty (Venus). In the west is Vulcan, strength.

From an instruction session in Cologne, May 12, 1913

In our temple, the east, west and south are meant spiritually.

From the instruction lesson in Cologne, May 10, 1914) ^{1The three altars also symbolize the three possible paths into the spiritual world, cf. on this, for example, Cologne, November 30, 1906, and in the “Chymischen Hochzeit Christiani Rosenkreutz anno 145” it is stated that four paths are open, but that no mortal is allowed to reach the goal on the fourth. If, according to the notes of a participant, a fourth altar stood in the north during the ritual for the elevation to the third degree, then this was probably in the sense of Goethe's “Fairytale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily” and in Rudolf Steiner's first mystery drama “The Portal of Initiation”, where in the underground temple this fourth king, standing in the north, collapses as the temple rises into the light of day.}

From the east, the powers of the mind of the earth flow in. From there, the sacred powers of the mind flow through the earth. These are reflected in the altar (of the east); that is the head of the earth. If we turn to the south, the sacred powers of the heart, the powers of love and devotion of the earth, radiate from there. From the west, the sacred will of the earth pours into the earth, flowing through the limbs, from which actions flow.

When we form a mental image of our temple in meditation, we should remember that the altar of the east represents the head, the altar of the south the heart, and the altar of the west the limbs of the earth, and we should feel how in the east the powers of the intellect, in the south the powers of the heart and of love, and in the west the powers of will flow and converge in the center of the temple. Then we will turn to these altars and ask that these powers may flow into us and flood and empower us.

From the instruction hour in Berlin, December 16, 1911.

The three lights that now burn symbolize the three higher principles that shine in the darkness in our higher being. They also represent the wisdom, beauty and strength whose words (names) were pronounced when the lights were just lit on the altars of the east, south and west. We will find the light of wisdom if we always strive for truth in our thinking, if we learn to recognize that a new kind of thinking should arise in us, that world thoughts live in our thoughts. We should become aware that it “thinks in us” and that what is thought in us are revelations of spiritual entities that want to bring us wisdom. From the astral world, living, weaving, moving wisdom flows to us, and by letting wisdom permeate our thinking, we can catch the wisdom of those spiritual entities and our soul will attain wisdom.

Beauty flows into us when we acquire true piety. When our soul can open in admiration and devotion to the beauty that is around us, this beauty becomes for us the expression of spiritual beings who want to reveal their language with it and make themselves understood to us. Only heartfelt, true piety can reveal true beauty to us. For you all know that in the spiritual (astral) world, devils can show themselves in the guise of angels under the mask of beauty. But you also know that this is only possible if our soul is not permeated by that purity which is coupled with heartfelt devotion. In the lower Devachan, those beings can be found who send their beauty down to us in truly beautiful images and forms.

Strength or power flows down upon us from the higher Devachan and will strengthen our inner being if we transform our power into virtue, into active virtue. True, active virtue arises when we transform all the qualities that stand out in our lower nature through the power of our will, so that they become forces that can work as spiritual forces in the world.

From the instruction session in Berlin, December 17, 1911

We see here the flames on the altars, which represent wisdom, beauty and strength. These are very deep symbols that we can also find in the human being.

Where can we find wisdom in the human form? It cannot be found on the outside, it is hidden within the form in such a way that it is not currently adapted to the present stage of development, so that the form does not form a cohesive whole. Wisdom can be depicted as follows:

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It is different with beauty, which finds its full expression in human hands when they are raised in an outstretched position, with the head forming the center. In the hands one finds the symbol of beauty and this is represented as follows:

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The purpose of the hand is to be beautiful, not to be strong; the arm may be strong and muscular, but at the bottom it tapers into the beauty-tending form of the human hand.

Strength is found in the opposite of the hands, in the feet. No one who is an occultist will see anything beautiful in the feet, and anyone who wants to see something beautiful in them in their ordinary lives will see nothing but a caricature of beauty. The feet represent power or strength; they must be able to carry the whole body. This is represented as follows:

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Thus we find in the human form these three important symbols, which in occultism are called the “three world mothers”, which Goethe also calls so in his “Faust”.

From the instruction session in Hanover, December 31, 1911

One of the most important symbols is represented by the three flames that stand on the altars of the East, the West and the South, and to which our attention should be drawn first. In them we should see the symbols of wisdom, beauty and strength, but we should not understand them to mean worldly wisdom, worldly beauty and worldly strength.

Wisdom is not to be found in the physical plane. Anyone who is involved in the occult life should make up their mind never to pronounce the word “wisdom” and to think of it as the worldly wisdom that we encounter in the external sciences, for example, or that is generally associated with learning. A learned person is not wise; a wise person does not need to be learned, and may even be a very naive person; but a wise person is the one who keeps wisdom in his heart, who speaks and feels as it were from his heart: I see my God at work in every petal; a person who senses and perceives his God in all of creation and feels connected to creation and the divine. But it should be borne in mind that this does not mean that one should be a pantheist to do so; one must form a much more intimate mental image of such a sage, an inexpressible feeling of being sheltered in the divinity of the world, which gives him peace and bliss in his being.

We must acquire such wisdom for ourselves, it must permeate our entire being so strongly that it is no longer possible for us to think that we are not always and forever surrounded and cared for by the spirit of the world, so that inner peace and security can no longer leave us.

Such perceptions and feelings will flow into us from the astral world, which consists of living, flowing, moving wisdom, which forms the background, the source of the nature that surrounds us and permeates the entire physical world. From there we must draw the strength to become wise. It cannot be found in the physical world itself.

The beauty symbolized by the second flame also has nothing in common with the beauty in the world; it does not refer to any worldly object. To glimpse something of this beauty, we must turn our gaze to the starry night sky and immerse ourselves in it, so that we feel, as it were, that spiritual beings rule behind it. A deep, heartfelt devotion should fill us with this. Or, when we experience a sunset and feel how the radiant orb sinks slowly below the horizon in a purple glow, so that the shadows grow longer and longer and finally the whole of nature around us is shrouded in darkness, then again, a deep, heartfelt devotion should permeate our being and identify so strongly with the divine power in our soul that the inner sun will shine and shine in our soul, as the midnight sun can shine into the dark Christmas days for the student of occultism, and the spiritual beings can be seen in their sublime beauty, in all their majesty. We must think in this sense when we speak of beauty, and these thoughts should transform the concept of beauty.

Beauty can be found in the lower Devachan; from there it streams down upon us from the beings in beautiful images and forms. But on this plane one also still finds ugliness, and precisely in that which on earth is often called “beautiful”. We find every lie there as something ugly. We can even find beauty in this world, but it is only based on illusion, on delusion. We find, for example, beautiful figures and forms there, even angelic figures, which have been created by black magicians, with which they envelop themselves as with a veil to hide their own selfish goals. One can have come quite far in the esoteric life and deal with magical arts or black magic in a particular life, then such people can show themselves in the lower devachan plan in such angelic forms, wrapped in a veil of beautiful garments. So there is no absolute, true beauty in this realm, and only genuine, heartfelt devotion can reveal the true devachanic beauty to us.

The third flame symbolizes power, again not what we know as power in the physical world; but this power from the higher devachan is to flow into the physical world and unfold there in man as “active virtue”. This is the virtue that consists in continually allowing our personality to recede, that we fight our ambition, especially when it expresses itself in that we want to shine with our gifts. This virtue should make us aware that we rest in the Godhead, that we are only a small part of the true, great perfection, so that we feel how all vanity and pride are unreal, so that it would be foolishness to want to be proud of something.

Particularly at the beginning of their occult path, people often become haughty or vain and proud. For example, when they start to notice small successes in themselves, they soon feel superior to others. But that is not the way to achieve active virtue. Those who seek to share their knowledge or powers with others, to teach what they have received as higher teachings, and who then allow themselves to be venerated by those to whom they impart knowledge, will not find the way either. These vices are great obstacles which man himself places in his own way. But also those who thus offer homage place these obstacles in the way of the esotericist. By combating these vices in the physical world and constantly guarding against falling prey to them by practicing “active virtue,” the power found in the higher Devachan as a sum of high spiritual beings will flow into us as spiritual power and strengthen our inner being.

Higher Devachan Power

Lower Devachan Beauty

Astral world Wisdom

Man in truth True piety

Physical world in thought Piety

From a teaching session in Munich, December 12, 1906

The gong represents the primal sound of nature: Tao.

From a teaching session in Basel, September 1912

T is not the name of God, but it signifies the presence of God.

From lecture in Berlin, November 16, 1905

(...) If we look across to Asia, we find at first the still existing remains of an ancient religion, which in fact can no longer be understood as a religion in our present sense. We find this religion in the remarkable culture of the Chinese. I am not speaking of the religion of Confucius, nor of that which spread as Buddhism in India and China, but I would like to speak of the remains of the ancient Chinese religion, the Tao religion. This is the religion that refers man to Tao. Tao is translated as the goal or the way. But one does not get a clear mental image of the essence of this religion if one simply adheres to this translation. For a large part of humanity, the Tao expresses and has expressed for millennia the highest that human beings could aspire to, that they imagine the world, all of humanity, will one day arrive at: the highest that human beings carry within themselves and that will one day develop from the innermost human nature as a mature flower. Tao signifies a deep, hidden source of the soul and a lofty future at the same time. Not only is Tao uttered with shy reverence, but it is also thought of with reverence by those who know what it is about. The Tao religion is based on the principle of evolution, and it says: What is around me today is a stage that will be overcome. I must realize that this development in which I find myself has a goal, that I will develop towards a lofty goal and that a power lives in me that spurs me on to reach the great goal of Tao. When I feel this great power in me and I feel that all beings are heading towards this goal with me, then this power is the steering power that blows towards me from the wind, sounds from the stone, shines towards me from the lightning, and sounds from the thunder, and sends me its light from the sun. In plants, it appears as a growth force; in animals, as sensation and perception. It is the force that will bring forth form after form again and again, until that sublime goal is reached, through which I know myself to be one with all of nature, which flows out of me and into me with every breath, which is the symbol of the highest evolving spirit, which I perceive as life. I feel this power as Tao. - In this religion, there was no mention at first of a god in the hereafter; there was no mention of something outside the world, but of something through which one can find strength for the progress of mankind.

Tao was felt most strongly at that time, when man was still connected to the divine source, especially among the population of Atlantis. These our ancestors did not yet have such a highly developed mind, such intelligence as today's humanity. But instead, they had a more dream-like consciousness, a more instinctively arising imaginative life and a little calculating mental life. Imagine the dream life, but intensified so that it is meaningful and not chaotic, and think of a human race from whose soul arise images that announce the sensations that are in one's own soul, that reflect everything that is around us externally. We have to imagine the soul world of these prehistoric men quite differently from our own. Today, man strives to form thoughts and mental images of the world around him that are as precise as possible. Prehistoric man, on the other hand, formed symbolic, allegorical mental images that appeared full of life within him. When you meet a person today, you try above all to get an idea of whether he is a good or an evil person, a clever or a stupid person, and you try to get an idea that corresponds to the external person in as dry a way as possible. This was never the case with the primeval man of Atlantis. He had an image, not a concept. When he met an evil person, a dull and dark image arose. But the perception did not become a concept. Nevertheless, he judged and behaved according to this image. When he had a bright and beautiful image before him, which stood before his soul as a dream, then he knew that he could trust such a being. And he was afraid of an image when it arose in him in black, red or brown colors. The truths did not appear rationally or intellectually, but as inspiration. He felt as if the Deity working in these images were within himself. He spoke of the Deity that revealed Itself in the blowing of the wind, in the rustling of the forest, and also in the images of the inner life of the soul when he was impelled to look up to a lofty future for humanity. And that is what he called Tao.

Modern man, who has taken the place of this primeval humanity, relates to the spiritual powers in a different way. He has lost the power of direct vision, which in some respects is duller and dimmer than ours, but has gained the stage of development of intellectual and mental images, which in some respects is higher and in some respects lower. Thus, the modern man stands higher than the primitive man because he possesses a keen, penetrating mind; but he no longer feels the living connection with the divinely active Tao forces of the world. Thus he has the world as it reveals itself in his soul, and on the other hand the powers of the mind. The Atlantean felt the images that lived within him. Today's man hears and sees the outer world. These two things, outer and inner, stand opposite each other, and he no longer feels how a bond goes from one to the other. That is the great meaning of the development of mankind. Ever since the land masses rose again after the floods of the oceans had submerged the continents, mankind has longed to rediscover the bond between what it feels and perceives within and what presents itself to it outside in the sensory world. This is the origin of the word religare = religion. It means nothing other than to reconnect what was once connected and is now separated, to reconnect the world and the self. The various forms of religious belief are nothing more than the means, the ways taught by the great sages, to rediscover this connection. They are designed to be so diverse in order to be understood by people at every level of culture in this or that form. ...

Instruction Lesson, Berlin, October 2, 1910

Ahriman prevents us from seeing anything other than how we see it today. For example, we see only the exterior of plants, the leaves, the cells and so on, but not the life force within. What is given in the lodge is intended to help overcome this veil of Ahriman.

There is no point in space where there are no forces at work in man. Now something grotesque must be said, which can only be said in a community like this one, where everything is considered sacred: There is nothing that varies so much from person to person as the brain. It is said that there are no two leaves on a tree that are the same. The brains of human beings are even more diverse. Seen clairvoyantly, the etheric brain contains many, many luminous spots, and these are different in all people. If one could photograph these luminous spots, which of course is not possible because they are in the etheric, one would recognize in the picture thus obtained the starry sky - without the planets. The brain is shaped like a hemisphere. If you could get close enough, you would find each of these constellations of glowing dots in the starry sky in different people.

The human brain is its most distinguished part. It is connected by spiritual forces with the uppermost part, so to speak, of the universe. Further down we come to the signs of the zodiac. These are connected with the twelve nerve cords of the sense organs. The higher the origin of the forces, the more varied is their effect; the nearer to the earth their starting-point, the more uniform is their effect. With the sun, it does not matter to us whether it is stationary or moving; for us human beings it matters that it sends us its forces from the east, then from the south, and then from the west. And we saw yesterday, when we discussed the altars, how it affects us. From the east: wisdom, which created us; from the south: beauty, in which everything reveals itself; from the west: the power, the strength with which we are now to continue to work in life.

All parts of our physical body are formed out of the higher forces. One of the most wonderful parts is the human eye (the eye is drawn on the board). Atma, Budhi and Manas have worked on it. We must know that their forces lie hidden in the eye. (These three forces are represented in the triangle.) What can we do with the eye? We can move it to the right, to the left, up, down. We can do this with our I. It works from the outside on the eye. This is indicated in these rays that go out from the triangle. But what does it fall on? On the veil that Ahriman has spread over everything. This is represented in the cloud lines. We have incorporated the astral body on the moon, behind which Ahriman is at work. So these cloud lines signify the astral body. In the etheric body, work has already been done on the sun so that the eye could one day become such a tool. The further away from the spiritual, the denser the body. The dense clouds indicate the etheric body. And in the physical body, too, work has already been done on Saturn to make it into an eye. The physical body is the densest, darkest part of the human being; here in the drawing, the dark black of the board.

If we often bring this picture before our soul, it will awaken soul forces. The human eye actually looks like this drawing (eye with the triangle). It has only become somewhat different through the skeleton. The form has grown somewhat.

We should allow everything we receive in the lodge in terms of symbols and teachings to take effect on our soul. But we cannot do this if we do not feel that we have become a different person through our initiation into the Temple. We must face life differently. This picture, the triangle with the eye, has an effect on us at night, but so does everything we see in the colorful chaos around us, for example, all the objects in a department store, the hideous posters on the advertising pillars, and so on. And if we let all this have the same effect on us as before, the effect of the symbols is simply lost.

When we absorb all these symbols and teachings with enthusiasm, it is the best in us that speaks. When we return to our external life and let the chaos of impressions rush in on us as before, then a discord arises in us. It will then seem to us as if it had been blind faith in authority that we had submitted to in the temple, while it was the best in us that felt that way – we just don't know that then. And so the conflicts arise to which many are subject.

The lady of the world should not remain a lady of the world in the same sense. If she has to live the life of a lady because of her social position or for other reasons, then she must do it. But she should not do it in the same way, with the same feelings. If she has to take part in coffee klatches, then she should do it out of conviction that she has an obligation to do so, of course. Theosophy should not turn us away from life, but should make us suitable for it – but she should do it with different feelings.

This is not the place for a moralizing lecture, but what I want to get at is this: everyone must make it their duty not to talk about Theosophy at such gatherings and so on and so on. Not at meals, not on ordinary occasions - and eating is an ordinary occupation - talk about Theosophy. In a word: do not gossip about Theosophy everywhere you meet, because then it becomes gossip. If you want to talk about it, then only when you come together specially for that purpose. Theosophy should be a sacred thing to us, and that is how it should be treated, and not in passing.

The ceremonies that have been performed so far, with the exception of the two columns, can be understood by those of the first degree. What follows now, the conclusion, can only be understood after a long time.