The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Report by Richard Bresch, “Der Vâhan,” Volume IV, Nos. 5 and 6, November and December 1902.

After preliminary discussions had already taken place between individual delegates on the evening of October 18, the negotiations began at half past twelve on schedule in the hall of the Theosophical Library and former apartment of Count Brockdorff, who had moved to Meran, [Berlin] Charlottenburg, KaiserFriedrich-Str. 54a. They were introduced by an appropriate address by the chairman, Dr. Steiner. Those who understand the signs of the times cannot fail to see that we are on the threshold of a new intellectual epoch, that a new turning point is in preparation, one that is just as important and significant as those in the times of Augustine or in the 16th century, a change in which Germany in particular is destined to play a very great role; German science has the most important task in the face of materialism, and only hand in hand with it will we be able to work...

The ten lodges included in the section charter were represented as follows:

They initially agreed that, in accordance with the statutes of the European section, the Berlin lodge, with more than 25 members, should have three votes in voting, but all other lodges should only have two votes. It is not the place here to go into detail on the individual paragraphs of the new statutes, since the latter are expected to be published separately soon. It should only be noted here that, in order to ensure that as many lodges as possible are represented on the board, it was decided to elect ten additional members to the board, in addition to the four members living in or near Berlin, in accordance with the statutes of the European section, for a total of fourteen members. Dr. Steiner was elected as Secretary General, Mrs. von Holten as Treasurer, Julius Engel, Miss von Sivers and Mr. Rüdiger (Charlottenburg) as residents of Berlin and its surrounding areas, and in addition Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden, Ludwig Deinhard, Günther Wagner, Bernhard Hubo, Adolf Kolbe (Hamburg), Bruno Berg, Dr. Noll (Kassel), Oppel (Stuttgart), Richard Bresch were elected. All were elected for three years. The accounting year ends on September 30, and it was decided not to request a refund of any dues already paid to London for the current year, so that for the accounting year that has already begun, the dues set at three marks for each member are now to be collected from the branches and delivered to the new treasurer. The general assembly, which apart from extraordinary ones should take place annually, is to meet on October 19. In addition to the lodge delegates, only the general secretary and treasurer have voting rights at the assembly. The journal Dr. Steiner intends to publish under the name Lucifer, the first issue of which will appear around January 1903, is intended to reveal and collect all the threads and guidelines that lead from nature, art, philosophy, science and social life to the spiritual, thus leading to theosophy. This undertaking was welcomed by all as a thoroughly purposeful, equally arduous and meritorious one; a separate section organ should not exist, but the “Vâhan” should also publish the section news.

Written congratulations were received from the Italian section, a telegraphic message from the French section, and verbal congratulations were offered by the Scandinavian section, through a gentleman present from Denmark, and by the British section, through Mrs. Besant. In addition, several telegrams of congratulations were received from individual members.

The negotiations lasted until the next day, because Mrs. Besant's arrival at seven o'clock at the Friedrichstraße station was expected. She had come to Berlin from London especially for this occasion, thereby demonstrating the great importance she and the British Section attach to the formation of the German Section. Her presence during these days in Berlin has significantly increased their importance and we German Theosophists are grateful to her. The train pulled into the station right on time and was greeted by a short but warm welcome from about 25 members.

The next day, Dr. Steiner welcomed Mrs. Besant as she entered the hall during the proceedings and she was given a standing ovation; she attended the proceedings for about half an hour. After the latter had been brought to a satisfactory conclusion thanks to Dr. Steiner's skillful and tactful leadership, she presented the charter of the German Section to him as the General Secretary and, after a break during which the kind and generous hospitality of Fräulein von Sivers also took care of the physical needs of the participants, she gave a speech in front of 50 to 60 people. She explained how the European (now British again) section had previously included the lodges of all European nations, but how cumbersome and complicated its administration had been as a result, a situation that could only be provisional, of course, until one by one the national sections stand on their own two feet and break away from the parent section; this is how the Scandinavian, Dutch, French and Italian sections came into being, and it is a source of particular satisfaction to her that the German Theosophical work is now also being tackled by Germans in the German way. All nations are different and each nation practices Theosophy in its own way, but the nations are like the notes of a harmony, each contributing its part to the great harmony, their combination forming the harmony, realizing the universal brotherhood, so the German Theosophical work is also a necessary part of the global Theosophical movement. The theosophical movement needs the German spirit, needs the cooperation of the German people, in order to be enriched by it. Ms. Besant then explained the difference between the Theosophical Society and other societies (see February “Vâhan”, p. 129), and that the current merger of lodges into a section is comparable to the formation of a vessel made of clay, thus creating a reservoir for divine life from which the latter can flow over humanity. Compared to the religious foundations of earlier times, each with a great teacher who transmitted this divine life, the Theosophical Society represents a significant step forward. It is not a new religion, but strives for the great unity of all religions. However, as the divine life flows into the reservoir and the privilege is received, the responsibility for the members also increases, and harmonious cooperation is an indispensable requirement. If in everyday life, every gain and progress is sought only for one's own personal advantage, then this must now change. It is necessary to purify oneself and to let go of all personal desires and dislikes. Only then does one become a Theosophist, rather than just a member of society. But by considering that although there is one life in all, it manifests itself differently in each, and each person sees the truth only from a different point of view, in a different way. One person may have poetic gifts, another organizational abilities, a third intellectual, oratory or literary talents. The secret of success lies in the cooperation of all, in mutual tolerance, appreciation and support.

Dr. Steiner's lecture on practical karma studies formed the conclusion of the evening, but we must refrain from going into this here.

Many members enjoyed the stimulating company at the vegetarian restaurant opposite the Central Hotel until late in the evening.

On Tuesday, October 21, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., Mrs. von Holten invited members to her hospitable, elegant home, and the time flew by in lively conversation when the time came to leave for Charlottenburg via the new elevated railway or underground railway, where, in the already used rooms, Mrs. Besant answered a wide range of questions in front of around 50 members:

Regarding Christian Science, she said that a distinction is made between Christian and mental healers. The former deny all illness, saying that only God possesses reality and everything else is unreal, an illusion. The latter, however, recognize the illness and thus take a more rational approach. They seek to restore harmony (health) by using the right will and thinking to counteract the disharmony caused by wrong thinking. However, there is a danger with all such healings that, although the evil is removed from the lower level, it is instead drawn up into higher ones, from where it would then have to descend again in a different, worse form; physical ailments should therefore only be treated with physical means. Healing through prayer, etc., should actually only be done by those who have vision. They see what is missing and observe the effect of their actions. When the saints perform healings, they act from the vision that the karma of the sick person has taken effect, and they then restore the desired harmony by means of their own life energies.

Furthermore, the question was asked: How does Jesus eating fish with his disciples square with the commandment of pure food? According to the Holy Scripture, Jesus also ate fish after appearing to his disciples. Is the astral body even capable of ingesting food? Answer: The latter suggests that the passage is to be understood symbolically. For the Christian as well as for the sacred scriptures of the East, three interpretations are possible at the same time. The first is that one is dealing with historical or factual information intended to teach morals and ethics to the masses of people; the second is for the more developed, the intellectual, and the third is the deepest, mystical. The more developed person, like the present questioner, finds an inner contradiction in the sayings, which urges him to seek a higher explanation; in the occult sense, fish signify esotericism; so if Jesus ate fish with his disciples, it means that he instructed them in secret knowledge. Incidentally, however, the saint could also enjoy impure food without harm, since he knew how to render the harmful juices harmless or to excrete them, as the legend of St. Sankharacharya proves, to whom one of his disciples had reproached him for eating impure food. The next day they came to a blacksmith's shop, where the teacher took a glowing piece of iron and wanted to give it to the disciple. But when the disciple recoiled, he was taught that he, the teacher, could also enjoy impure food 'without harm, but the disciple could not. - In response to the question, “What karma does one incur who neglects his family in favor of his theosophical work?” The answer was that everyone has to do their duty where their karma has placed them, so that everyone has to take care of their family first and foremost.

Question: Did the martyrs incur their terrible suffering in a past life or not?

Answer: The martyrs usually take on such suffering of their own free will for the good of humanity, thereby benefiting from an opportunity for faster progress that presents itself to them, or creating good karma for the future.

Question: Lazarus is said to have been resurrected four days after Christ's death. Shouldn't the body have begun to decompose after four days, and is resurrection still possible?

Answer: First of all, we have no proof that it would really have happened that way. If decomposition had already occurred, revival to physical life would no longer be possible. The magnetic connection between the astral and physical bodies must still be present, otherwise it would be impossible even for a saint to call someone back to life. However, this connection could still be present weeks after the apparent death.

Question: If this connection can exist for such a long time, can it not often happen that people are buried alive?

Answer: We want to hope and wish that this does not happen so often, but the possibility should not be ruled out. Indeed, changes in the position of the corpses have been observed in graves, and cases of reawakening have been proven. In any case, the short time period prescribed in France before burial is not to be approved.

Question: Is it right to be cremated after death?

Answer: She (Besant) has always held the view that the best form of burial is cremation because it is the quickest and most thorough way to sever any connection with the physical world. Another question concerned the spiritual tidal wave that descends from higher planes every century, which retreats from the physical plane at the end of the century. Mrs. Besant confirmed this information, but the retreat of the tidal wave is no reason to stop the theosophical work afterwards, otherwise the next spiritual tidal wave would have to start all the more deeply.

A question regarding mantras was answered as follows: even the ignorant person who recites a mantra achieves some effect, however small. However, they are far more effective when they are recited competently with conscious will and knowledge. - Mention was also made of the recent claim by a London sectarian clergyman to be the incarnate Jesus, who should be treated with caution; but the fact that Jesus, as he once did to his disciples, can still show himself in the astral to a circle of his followers today, at least the possibility cannot be denied, only the utmost purity of the aspirations of such followers would be an indispensable prerequisite.

Finally, Mrs. Besant also refuted the oft-repeated accusation against the law of karma that it prevents all charity and compassion. Anyone who, on the pretext that suffering is the karma of the person in need of help, fails to take advantage of an opportunity to help a person in need, does not consider that he was chosen by karma as the instrument to provide relief in the emergency. If he fails to do so, he too will be left in the lurch when he encounters a similar emergency. The law of karma, however, will then seek and find another agent to fulfill its purpose, which cannot remain unfulfilled or be broken.

In the evening, Mrs. Besant finally gave the public lecture at the Hotel Prinz Albrecht, which was attended by about 400 people. It was introduced by an address by Dr. Steiner: Many would have been surprised, he said, when he publicly confessed to Theosophy in the Giordano Bruno Federation about 14 days ago. But just as Giordano Bruno, relying on Kepler's discoveries, demanded the recognition of a new worldview, so today Theosophy brings a new worldview and we stand today, just as we did then, at a world-historical turning point. Today, the German Section has been founded and for this reason the most outstanding representative in the Theosophical movement has come here to speak the first words publicly. Mrs. Besant's lecture on Theosophy, its meaning and purpose, was as follows:

In the last 100 years, Mrs. Besant began her public lecture on Theosophy, the world has become smaller for us, because we can see it more easily and more completely, but on the other hand it also seems larger to us when we consider what research has painstakingly brought to light. Countries and peoples have grown closer; we cross the oceans with ease in all directions; what used to take years now takes weeks or months, what used to take days now takes minutes or hours. But not only spatial distances are shrinking, but also temporal ones. While 100 years ago, only a few thousand years of human history could be looked back on, today we are able to look further and further back. The old buildings and other remains of long-gone civilizations are coming to light, lost nations and dead languages are being awakened, so that they come to new life and activity before our eyes. We see them before us in their customs and habits, and written records even tell us about their religious beliefs. Comparing the otherwise so different traditions of the most diverse peoples, we were astonished to find that all the religions of the extinct peoples agreed on the main points, and that they must therefore have a common root. From the bosom of the earth, from graves and ancient ruins, writings are emerging that confirm this. In Mexico, ancient monuments bear witness to a long-vanished civilization that had amazed the first Spanish settlers to arrive there. Around the Mediterranean basin, in Central Asia, Macedonia, among the ancient Etruscans, etc., writings were found in graves that revealed the same thoughts about nature, the human spirit, and its eternal duration . Even among the Chaldeans, Persians and other nations, comparative mythology has found the same terms for certain principles. Nowhere did it find a religious doctrine that was completely different from the others, but everywhere the same doctrines, the same ethics, the same symbols; so the question arose as to the root cause of this striking similarity. Many researchers have indeed tried to explain this similarity by saying that the religions and the first crude concepts of God among savages arose out of fear of the forces of nature and of death, and thus arose everywhere from the same motives and gradually developed and refined with increasing intelligence and culture. The most important thinkers outside the church were those who held this view, among them in particular Huxley. They called it agnosticism, that is, the opinion that we humans cannot know anything about religion and transcendental things and that in this regard everything is merely a matter of faith and feeling. But experience does not agree with this view, for instead of gradually developing and perfecting religions, we find that there are always highly perfect, pure, highly spiritual religions founded from the outset, which only degenerate and materialize over time – in other words, precisely the opposite process. From the ancient scriptures, especially those of the Indians, it can be seen that the concepts of God, the afterlife, eternal justice, etc., become ever more refined and elevated the further back in time we reach, instead of becoming coarser and cruder.¹

In the [Upanishads], for example, which are thought to have been written around 5000 BC, we find the most exalted concepts of God and the human spirit, which even our greatest philosophers lag behind, as Schopenhauer, for example, acknowledged when he said that the [Upanishads] had enlightened his mind and would be his comfort in death. Since religions have not developed from savagery and ignorance, but rather, as far back as history goes, were founded by sages such as Laotse, Zoroaster, Moses, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed, Theosophy answers the question about the reason for the agreement shown by all religions, even those of the distant past, : There is a brotherhood of divine men who have risen far above the development of ordinary men; this brotherhood sends from time to time a brother, who, be it as a king or as a leader and teacher, protects, supervises, teaches and educates a particular people or a particular race. All these masters have proclaimed the same truths to the world, and history teaches that each new religion is followed by a new era of development. All the main ideas of the old religions reappear in the modern religions. The idea of the further development of one and the same human entity over many lives (reincarnation) was also found among the Hebrews and in early Christianity; later, in the sixth century AD, however, it was declared heresy and only survived in a few sects. But religion does not necessarily have to be based on such a divine teacher, that is, on belief in an authority; it can also be a form of knowledge, a realization. Man is able to separate himself from his bodies and enter the higher planes of consciousness. This has long been scientifically proven. Christianity, Islam, and many mystics up to the present day testify to this possibility. We see evidence e in somnambulism, telepathy, suggestion, hypnotism, in all kinds of clairvoyance [and so on], so that even the most stubborn skeptics can no longer close their minds to these facts. Of course, they try to discredit such manifestations by saying that they only occur in cases of hysteria, nervous disorders, and thus in a pathological state.² occurred.

Well, I am not saying that it is so, but even if it were the case that only people with extremely fine nerves could leave their bodies, this would not be a testimony against the existence of this fact. Lombroso, an Italian psychiatrist, says that genius and madness live very close to each other. Even if he is right, it is still fortunate for humanity that there are such geniuses who make us happy through their creations. Or do you think that the beef-eating, beer-drinking, muscle-bound average man would be more likely to produce such works of art? Consider our great geniuses, a genius like Beethoven, a sculptor like Michelangelo, a Goethe, a Shakespeare! Where did they get their great ideas? Did they not get them by seeing them in spirit at a higher level? How many messages have been given to us by people who have seen and heard things in a trance or in ecstasy! In this state, the spiritual person leaves his body, slips out of his shell, as it were, and can then rise to a higher level than the physical one, where he sees and has clairvoyance. This ability can also be acquired through practice and a certain training; that which sees or recognizes there is our spiritual essence and since this is an outflow of the one great life that lives in all, it can also not only recognize this unity in all, consider it true in theory, but when man is first can take his consciousness uninterruptedly over into his temporal day-consciousness, he sees, knows and feels this unity, the one life that pulsates in all, and understands his brother, because he feels with him, thinks with him and loves him, not as another, but as a part of his own self. Because he now understands everyone, he also embraces everyone with the same love. We should all learn this knowledge. Theosophy gives us the opportunity to do so; it offers us its treasures.

Once we all have this level of knowledge and understanding, then everyone will also respect the differences of others. Hatred and antagonism, however, as they still prevail today between nations - the Frenchman hates the Englishman, the Englishman the German, the German the Frenchman and so on - are based on the fact that each nation regards its relationship with every other nation through the prism of its self-created thought and feeling, and in the light of eternal reality, all these antagonisms between nations, like individuals, are foolishness and folly; there should only be one competition between them, namely, which nation will earn the greatest merit for the good of the whole. The time will come when everyone recognizes the tone and color that is expressed in every nation and every individual, when everyone grasps the harmony that flows from these tones and colors, rejoices in them, finds in them a complement to own tone and color; this harmony of tones and colors will lead us to that eternal blessed peace, as it will arise from the divine wisdom, theosophy, in the future.

So much for Mrs. Besant's public lecture, which visibly made a deep and lasting impression on the audience, even those who understood little English; there was nothing sensational, theatrical, nothing screaming, intrusive; in short, powerful, powerfully emphasized sentences gave even the non-understanding the impression of the dignified, the momentous. Mrs. Besant spoke with perfect rhetoric, despite the severe fever that she had recently overcome, without a trace of fatigue, without faltering even once, without once correcting a word or changing a phrase she had begun, and the last sentence of her speech came across as freshly as the first. Dr. Steiner took it upon himself to interpret the main ideas of this lecture for the non-English-speaking audience, not literally, but in his own way. However, a reproduction of his remarks would have to repeat too much of the above, which is why it must be omitted here.

So in those memorable days in Berlin, we finally found the long-awaited union, so that the next day I felt solemn and could easily have been persuaded that Berlin had put up the festive flags not for the Empress, but for our Section. After all, the stagnation and faltering of the Theosophical movement in Germany, the splintering into illegitimate offshoots, has now been prevented as far as possible, and we have created a viable organizational basis for fruitful growth, planted a healthy seed in fertile soil. The real work, however, the growth itself, is only just beginning, even if we have all the necessary virtues and abilities among us.

• 1. This is confirmed, among others, by Max Müller in his Essays on the Science of Religion (p. 40ff.), where he says: “Monotheism preceded polytheism, and through the polytheistic fog in the Vedas, the memory of the One Infinite God breaks through.” Furthermore, von Spiegel, one of the first experts on Persian religion, when he expresses himself in his “Eranische Altertumskunde”, vol. II, preface, about the former as follows: “Contrary to my earlier view, I now no longer believe that the Eranian religion emerged from polytheism in such a way that the multiplicity of the Göuer was reduced to a duality and finally arrived at monotheism. It seems more correct to me that a vigorous monotheism preceded dualism.” And the ‘Germania’ of Nov. 5th. also says in an article ‘Original Polytheism’: ”The original religion, it may once have existed, but it must have left some traces, some afterglow, in the oldest religions. These traces must be followed up if one wants to research the developmental history of religion. What do the oldest religions of the Chinese, Egyptians, and Indo-Europeans teach in their written monuments about an original polytheism? Not the slightest thing. On the contrary. The further research advances into the distant past, the more it is able, through the most diverse discoveries, to examine the earliest germs of religion, the more the picture of a primeval humanity that pays homage to the most desolate fetishism and most excessive polytheism proves to be a magnificent humbug.... History has advanced to the most distant times. It knows of peoples who, from the most ancient times to the present, have worshiped many gods in all parts of the world. In these long centuries, it should be possible to find some evidence of a transformation from polytheism to monotheism, even if it is only a very weak beginning. Why are no such facts taught? Quite simply because there are none.
• 2. However, today's doctors are very good at distinguishing between epilepsy and ecstasy; this is shown in a posthumous work by Prof. Kußmaul that appeared in the “Deutsche Revue”. The claim that many of the greatest men in world history, such as the apostle Paul, suffered from epilepsy, is refuted here. In the case of Mohammed, it seems that he suffered from a non-epileptic, catatonic nervous condition. He dictated the suras of the Koran during his seizures, which is not consistent with the nature of epileptic seizures. Kußmaul demands that scientific pathology must place strict demands on the diagnosis of epilepsy. D.R.

Written Report by Rudolf Steiner “Der Vâhan”, Volume V, No. 1, July 1903

On July 3, 4 and 5, the thirteenth annual meeting of the British Section of the Theosophical Society was held in London. Linked to this general assembly was a meeting of the general secretaries of the British, Dutch, French, Italian and German sections to discuss the way in which the annual meetings of the “Association of European Sections” should be organized in the future. One of these sections will invite the representatives of the others to visit it each year; the section extending the invitation and the location of the meeting will be decided upon for the following year. The details of this were discussed in a preliminary meeting on July 3. It was agreed that at the annual meeting the general secretaries would give reports on the progress of the Theosophical movement in their countries and that common matters would be discussed. The closer contact of the members of the Theosophical movement in the different countries will be sought at these meetings, so that the great international principle of the Theosophical movement will become more and more effective. At the same time, it was decided to collect the reports on the movement given by the general secretaries in annual communications. Van Manen of the Dutch section was elected editor of these communications. Following the kind invitation from the general secretary of the Dutch section for next year, it was decided to accept and to choose Amsterdam as the location for the next annual meeting. On the evening of July 4, the general secretaries of the above-mentioned sections gave speeches in which they pointed out the progress of the Theosophical movement in the individual countries. Dr. Rudolf Steiner, the General Secretary of the German Section, was able to point to less success due to the short existence of our section; he spoke of the special tasks that the German national spirit presents to the Theosophical movement and of the hopes and prospects that we may have if we make the seeds of Theosophy fruitful in German intellectual life. - Both the preliminary discussion and the meeting itself were personally led by the President of the Theosophical Society, who was present in London. - This was also the case for the meetings of the British Section itself, which held a business meeting on July 4 and organized speeches on July 5. From the business meeting, it should be emphasized that the representatives of the foreign sections, including Dr. Rudolf Steiner from our German Section, gave welcoming speeches and that Bertram Keightley, the former General Secretary of this Section, was re-elected, but in such a way that Mrs. Hooper was appointed to independently manage the affairs as Deputy General Secretary for the duration of his stay in India.

President H. S. Olcott opened the meeting on July 5 with an address in which he spoke about the founding, goals and tasks of the Theosophical Society, and in which he particularly pointed out that no belief in dogma would be promoted by the “Theosophical Society,” that unity should be sought in the various creeds, so that the element of brotherly love in the broadest sense would be instilled into humanity through the Society. — Bertram Keightley spoke about the “Coming Psychic Wave.” He pointed out the interest that is currently being shown from a wide variety of quarters in certain psychic phenomena and powers. But this interest is mostly directed towards the personal, as for example in “Christian Science”. The theosophical movement, on the other hand, emphasizes the impersonal, the selfless; under its influence, the “psychic wave of the present” alone can take on a promising character for the future. - Finally, G. Mead expounded the “Christ-Mystery in the Earliest Christianity.” He emphasized that, in his opinion, the universal-human character of Christ, born in the depths of the soul, had greater significance for the early days of Christianity than the facts that a later time placed at the starting point of Christianity.

Report of a lecture by Rudolf Steiner, “Luzifer” No. 5/1903

The following is a brief excerpt of what Dr. Rudolf Steiner (as General Secretary of the German Section of the Theosophical Society) said on July 3 of that year in London at the first meeting of the Federation of European Sections of the Theosophical Society (see issue 3 of Luzifer, p. 126): The European sections have agreed to meet annually for the common cultivation of the Theosophical movement. On these occasions, the individual contributions that the various regions of Europe are able to make to our great international task will come together, and the representatives of the individual sections will take the stimulus of the congresses back to their home countries to continue to work there. Our German section is not even a year old. It is therefore natural that it can only point to limited successes in the past . But it may be said that we have the best hopes for the future of Theosophy in Germany. For the whole essence of the German national spirit is one that is drawn to Theosophy. Where German intellectual culture has produced its most beautiful blossoms, there a hidden, but no less effective theosophical attitude has always been present among the bearers of this culture. For not only did the deep mysticism of a Meister Eckhart and Tauler, of a Valentin Weigel, Jakob Böhme, Angelus Silesius and of the secret mystical societies arise from this attitude and way of thinking; but also the world views of our more recent German thinkers, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, rest on this foundation. And what was expressed by these outstanding personalities has its roots in the depths of the German national soul. That is why the greatest of the newer German poets, Goethe, was imbued with such an attitude, with such a way of thinking. Goethe can only be fully understood when one sees through the theosophical way of looking at things, which is not to be discovered on the surface but in the depths of his creations. This side of Goethe's work has remained almost completely misunderstood. Once it is understood, what Goethe created will become an important promoter of the theosophical movement in Germany. Goethe's entire view of nature is based on theosophical principles. Much of what he, according to his own saying, “has hidden in his ‘Faust’” are theosophical truths. And in addition, he summarized his world view in his deeply symbolic fairy tale of “the green snake and the beautiful lily”. This fairy tale is almost the “secret revelation” of Goethe. It must be read as one reads esoteric writings, its meaning must be studied as one studies the meaning of secret representations of deeply hidden truths. Until one has done this, one does not know the whole of Goethe. Under the influence of such study, a new light is thrown on many other aspects of Goethe's life and work; and above all, it is proved that in Goethe the Germans have a theosophical poet. And one looks to Novalis, whose “magical idealism” is also theosophical; finally, one looks to Schelling, who in the 1840s appeared at the University of Berlin with his views, gained through long, deep research, in his lectures on “The Philosophy of Mythology” and “The Philosophy of Revelation”. Only one thing is missing in all these theosophical efforts of the Germans: a deeper understanding of the great world laws of reincarnation and karma. For even if Jean Paul advocated the doctrine of re-embodiment out of his intuition, it has never been organically connected with the currents mentioned earlier. The theosophical movement will incorporate these comprehensive truths into German culture. In this way it will bring the Germans closer to their great personalities, indeed to their own national soul; and Theosophy itself will experience the most beautiful fertilization from this side. As true as it is that German life has much to expect from Theosophy, it is equally true that it has much to contribute to the Theosophical world movement.

Report by Richard Bresch, “Der Vâhan”, Volume V, No. 5, November 1903

Berlin, Motzstr. 17, Sunday, October 18, 11 a.m. preliminary discussion. Eight lodges are represented: Berlin, Charlottenburg, Hamburg, Hannover, Leipzig, Lugano, Stuttgart and Weimar. After Dr. Steiner had read out some letters of congratulations and welcome, he proceeded to discuss the events of the past year. The behavior of the lodges in Düsseldorf and Kassel is distressing. Due to various unfortunate circumstances, they have ceased their meetings and become dormant branches. However, all activity has by no means ceased there, and there is justified hope that a revival or awakening will succeed. What is missing in Düsseldorf and Kassel is a suitable personality who, as a spiritual pacemaker, has enough intelligence and willingness to make sacrifices to lead the whole, to impress upon the members the duties that arise from the new knowledge, and to encourage them to further progress with ever new material. The founding of the Weimar Lodge, in the city of muses so significant for Germany's intellectual life, and the almost perfect Nuremberg Lodge, in the emporium that was no less important in Germany's early history, is gratifying. Dr. Steiner recommends that where the formation of lodges is not possible, at least “centres” should be formed. In all sections of the population, the reluctance and prejudice against Theosophy are very strong and its disdain is encountered at every turn; nevertheless, Dr. Steiner cannot adopt the policy advocated by some of spreading Theosophy without using its name, could not be adopted by him. He considered it more appropriate to proclaim it loudly and to blaze a trail for it with perseverance, strength and dignity. He then spoke about his trip to London for the annual meeting of European general Secretaries, where he made a point of learning about the experiences of the other sections so that he could apply them in Germany as far as possible. Mrs. Besant takes a lively interest in our section and fully approves of what has happened so far; in England, great expectations are being placed on our movement in Germany. He has even found so much material support from the English side that next year he will be able to attach himself an assistant in the person of Miss von Rosen, who, under his (Dr. Steiner's) direction and responsibility, would take care of the correspondence, which he has been forced to neglect so far, and thus remedy a situation that is so painfully felt in all lodges. Otherwise, matters of an internal nature were discussed that do not belong in public.

At half past five, Dr. Steiner gave the announced lecture on occult historical research, which was attended by an audience of 40 to 50 people. The speaker said the following: After the Theosophical Society was founded in 1875, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, with the help of her teachers, began to work on the mighty work that we know as “The Secret Doctrine” and in which a treasure of the deepest knowledge has been left to us. This work consists of two parts, the cosmological and the anthropological, the first of which deals with the development of the universe and the second with that of man. In the course of time, this work will be supplemented by a third part, which will deal with what profane science calls “history”. Historical research must, for better or for worse, be content with the facts that take place on the physical plane; on the other hand, theosophy, which goes directly back to the causes, finds the answer to all those questions that secular science has so often and so in vain tried to solve.

If we follow the historical facts, we encounter three things: just as the acting human being is enveloped in a three-part system - the physical, the mental and the spiritual being - so too are historical facts subject to such a tripartite division. The external actions that take place before our senses are in the physical; in the soul lies the center where pleasure and displeasure, sympathy and antipathy prevail, and in the spiritual we find the realm where the events of history arise. Here we have to look for the true causes of everything that happens on earth, here the leading figures of history consult each other face to face with the great and invisible leaders of humanity. Only when we explore the intention that drove them to act do we understand the often inexplicable facts of history.

For example, in the fifteenth century there lived a Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa (Cusanus), who had deep scientific insights. Long before Copernicus, he had recognized and taught the double movement of the earth, without being understood by his contemporaries. It was a kind of preparation for what Copernicus (born 1473) was able to communicate to a more insightful generation (sixteenth century). Occult researchers now unanimously teach (and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky also openly stated and hinted at it in the third volume of the “Secret Doctrine”) that Copernicus was none other than the reincarnated Cardinal Cusa, who in this way brought his work to completion. Thus tasks are set and solved; the soul that prepares something great comes back later to fulfill and complete its mission.

The speaker gave two more examples to illustrate the way in which occult historical research works in its difficult field, how it connects seemingly unrelated facts in an explanatory way; and with these examples he at the same time gave a picture of the supplement to the “Secret Doctrine” that was once to be expected: rounds and races were the subjects of the parts published so far; the third part, the occult research of history, will deal with reincarnation.

Finally, Dr. Steiner spoke at length about the Theosophical movement. This, he emphasized, is also an enormous necessity in the occult sense; there are many reasons for this, one of the most important of which is as follows:

A secret is handed down to each human race; we are in the fifth race and with the fifth secret, and the latter cannot be pronounced today, but we are gradually living into it. Paul, who was an initiate, already hints at what it is, but it will only be revealed in the course of our race's development. Premature divination of this secret by purely intellectual abilities would mean an indescribable danger for humanity. Since such divination has almost occurred twice already and will happen again in the foreseeable future, the great teachers of humanity have brought about the theosophical movement. Humanity is to be prepared for the great truth. Theosophy is working towards a certain point in time; a core is to be formed that understands this truth when it emerges undisguised one day - a core that grasps it correctly and uses it not as a curse but as a blessing for humanity. The earlier races were formed from an already existing one, by the selection of suitable individuals or families and the continuation of these by the Manu in suitable deserted landscapes.¹

This process is no longer feasible in today's globalized world, but it is no longer necessary either; it has been replaced by education through the cosmopolitan International Theosophical Society, which forms this core.

So much for Dr. Steiner.

Only a few points from the discussion that followed his lecture can be highlighted here. It was emphasized how few people have real experience regarding the decisive facts of the world view, e.g. regarding the biogenetic law in Germany only about 20; witnesses of the occult facts are even fewer by nature. Incidentally, it is hardly a mere coincidence that in 1875, the year in which the nature of the fertilization process, and thus the origin of the personality, was revealed to us by science, the Theosophical Society was founded, which teaches us about our individuality. The monistic or materialistic view of Ernst Haeckel was discussed in detail, the importance of his scientific research was emphasized and appreciated, but the low value and superficiality of his speculative philosophical and especially religious remarks were also emphasized. The monistic way of thinking is very close to Theosophy and much of what Haeckel writes reads like the basics of Theosophy. Only the thinking habits of our time, mass suggestion, prevent the breakthrough of the theosophical worldview.

In order to easily, smoothly and effectively refute all objections of natural scientists to the existence of the soul (independent of the physical body), Mr. Hubo recommended two of du Prel's works that had also appeared in Reclam's Universal Library: “The Riddle of Man” and “The Monistic Doctrine of the Soul”; these writings are in that respect a veritable arsenal full of weapons that every theosophist should always have at hand. Finally, attention was drawn to the highly questionable nature of those writings on the effects of personal magnetism (Törnbock) that have recently come to us from America (New York Institute of Science) with the usual publicity. These writings should only be given to those who are absolutely morally stable and are therefore quite capable of causing untold harm under the guise of science.

Monday, October 19, at ten o'clock in the morning: business general assembly. In order to establish a connection and communication between the branches, it was decided to publish a monthly hectographed correspondence sheet, to be produced at headquarters and sent free of charge. Furthermore, when notifying the names of all members to headquarters, the date of admission and the names of the two sponsors or guarantors should be added if possible. It was recalled that when each member joins the Society, in addition to the annual subscription of three marks, they must pay five marks admission fee in accordance with the Constitution. The income of the Section in the past year amounted to 332.70 Marks, of which one-fourth is to be remitted to Adyar in November, as per the Constitution. Expenditure amounted to 34.40 Marks. Miss Motzkus and Mr. Seiler were appointed as auditors. Privy Councillor Lübke and Miss Mathilde Scholl were elected to replace the outgoing board members Bruno Berg and Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden. The members of the board can express their will or vote in writing, but cannot be represented in person. Miss von Sivers is given the title “secretary”. Furthermore, the statutes of our German section were definitively established; however, since they will soon appear in print, there is no need to go into them further here. The first general assembly concluded with a vote of thanks to Dr. Steiner, Ms. von Sivers and Ms. von Holten for their knowledgeable and dedicated work. I am convinced that we can be thoroughly satisfied with the way the assembly went and with the results. In any case, the foundation for a prosperous future has now been laid.

• 1. Readers will find more details about this in the essay by A. P.Sinnett, “The Beginnings of the Fifth Root Race”, which begins with this number.

Originally appeared in “Lucifer” No. 6/1903

Dr. Rudolf Steiner spoke on this topic at the annual meeting of the German Section of the Theosophical Society on October 18, 1903. A very brief summary of his remarks is given here. Through the founder of the Theosophical Society, we have been given the “Secret Doctrine,” in which the foundation for a solution to the great riddles of existence is laid on two sides. In a comprehensive theory of the origin of the world (Cosmogenesis), the plan is shown according to which the scene has developed out of the spiritual primal powers of the universe, on which man is responsible for his earthly change. From a second volume (Anthropogenesis) we see which stages man himself has gone through until he became a member of the present race. It will depend on the development of the theosophical movement, on when it will have reached a certain state of maturity, in which time the same spiritual forces that have given us the great truths of the first two volumes will also give us the third. This will contain the deeper laws for what the so-called “world history” offers us on the outside. It will deal with “occult historical research”. It will show how the destinies of nations are fulfilled in the true sense, how guilt and atonement are linked in the great life of humanity, how the leading personalities of history arrive at their mission and how they fulfill it. Only he who knows how the great trinity of body, soul and spirit intervenes in the wheel of becoming can see through the development of humanity. Above all, one has to realize how physical existence in the broadest sense is conditioned by the great cosmic natural forces, which take on a particular form in the characters of races and peoples and in what is called the “spirit” of an age. One will see how the material basis comes about, which expresses itself in the fact that people represent certain types (peoples, ages) in which they resemble one another. The generic characters will be more clearly illuminated here, which they cannot receive from the cultural history that is focused on the merely superficial. It will be understood how the influence of the soil, the climate, the economic conditions and so on actually takes place on people. - Then the question will be addressed as to what role the personal element in the true sense plays in history. The drives, instincts, feelings and passions come from this personal element. And they can only be understood if one is familiar with the influence of the world that is called astral or psychic (soul-like) in the one that takes place before our physical senses and our mind. This part of occult history will throw light on what is usually attributed to the arbitrariness of individual personalities. And one will understand the interaction of individual personality, nation and age. The enlightening light will be thrown into world history from the astral field. Thirdly, it will be revealed how the total spirit of the universe intervenes in the destinies of men, how the life of this total spirit pours into the higher self of a great leader of mankind, and in this way communicates itself through channels of this higher life to all mankind. For that is the way this higher life takes: It flows into the higher selves of the leading spirits, and these communicate it to their brothers. From embodiment to embodiment, the higher selves of human beings develop and learn more and more to make their own selves missionaries of the divine plan for the world. Through occult historical research, one will recognize how a human leader develops to the point where he can take on a divine mission. One will see how Buddha, Zarathustra, and Christ came to their missions. The lecturer illustrated these general statements by suggesting some examples of how we can imagine the development of great leaders of humanity through their reincarnation.

The annual meeting of the German Section of the Theosophical Society was opened on the morning of October 18, 1903 by an executive committee meeting, attended by the executive members Dr. Rudolf Steiner (secretary-general), Fräule von Sivers (Berlin), Julius Engel (Charlottenburg), Richard Bresch (Leipzig), Bernhard Hubo (Hamburg), Mrs. von Holten (Berlin), Günther Wagner (Lugano) and [Adolf] Kolbe (Hamburg). Internal section matters were discussed and it was decided to bring about a closer exchange of ideas and communication between the individual branches by creating a small organ for this purpose, only for the branches and their affairs. Fräulein von Sivers was elected secretary of the section and the appointment of Fräulein von Rosen as assistant to the section, which has been made possible by the loving support of our English brothers, was confirmed. On Sunday evening, the lecture on “Occult Historical Research” took place. It was followed by a discussion of important theosophical questions (for example, the position of so-called monism in relation to theosophy, the use of psychic powers in life, and so on), in which the following participated: Günther Wagner (Lugano), Richard Bresch (Leipzig), Bernhard Hubo (Hamburg), Julius Engel (Charlottenburg), Arenson (Stuttgart) and Rüdiger (Charlottenburg). At the general meeting on Monday, October 19, the following were present in addition to the above-named representatives from outside: Frau Geheimrat Lübke (Weimar), Arenson (Stuttgart), Fischer (Hannover). The business of the section was conducted. The following should be mentioned: Frau Helene Lübke (Weimar) and Fräulein Mathilde Scholl (Cologne) were elected to replace two former members of the board. It was reported that a new branch had been formed in Weimar and that the formation of others was to be expected. Miss Klara Motzkus (Berlin) and Mr. Franz Seiler (Berlin) were elected as auditors.

Report by Rudolf Steiner, “Lucifer-Gnosis”, no. 13/1904

From June 19 to 21, the Federation of European Sections of the Theosophical Society held its congress in Amsterdam [...]. The members of the Dutch section had the task of taking on all the work to be done at the venue. And they took on this truly difficult task in a way that must ensure them the full recognition and warmest thanks of the European sections, which were their guests this time. They knew how to organize the three-day proceedings in the most dignified and substantive way, interspersing the actual Theosophical meetings with artistic performances that included musical and declamatory performances. These performances were not organized with outside artists, but by the members of the Dutch section themselves. It is only with heartfelt satisfaction that one can look back on what was offered there. It has testified to the tireless work and successful propaganda of the great spiritual movement in Holland. It already has almost 800 members there.

The proceedings of the congress will now be outlined in a few strokes. - Annie Besant chaired the meeting. She returned to Europe a few weeks ago from an eighteen-month stay in India. It was good that she was able to lead the work of the assembly. Everyone who understands the true meaning of the important spiritual movement embodied in the Theosophical Society knows this. After the death of H. P. Blavatsky, the spiritual leadership of the Society passed to Annie Besant. This must be counted as a good karma for the Society. In everything that comes from this woman lives the power by which the Society must be guided if it is to fulfill its mission. This mission consists in elevating the present civilization to a spiritual life. This civilization has achieved unspeakable things in intellectual and material cultural work. It has enormously expanded the horizons and outer work of humanity and will continue to expand them. But spiritual deepening was bound to suffer. The nineteenth century lacked spiritual direction, it lacked the spiritual life that gave impulses to earlier great epochs of human development. That was the necessary fate of cultural development. For when man's strength is particularly expressed in one direction, it must withdraw from its activity in the other. At present, however, we have again reached the point where spiritual life must be brought into our culture if it is not to become completely externalized, and if humanity is not to lose touch with spiritual experiences. This mission of the Theosophical Society is now fully expressed in everything Annie Besant does and says. The highest task of our time is the innermost impulse of her own soul. Knowledge and will, insight and ideal of our time are united in Annie Besant, to be fertilized by her own highly developed spiritual life as a force emanating from her and to communicate as such to her fellow human beings. Wherever she speaks, the spirit of the audience is raised to the heights of divine knowledge and their hearts are filled with enthusiasm for the spiritual currents of humanity. And so it was when she gave her magnificent opening address at the Amsterdam Congress. She set out the conditions under which the work of the Society must be carried out. The question of the “why” and “wherefore” of the assembly was answered by her in broad strokes. She described the theosophical movement as part of the great spiritual movement that is taking hold of the whole world today. The spiritualization of the whole civilization must be achieved. A glance at this civilization teaches this. In the material, this civilization lives itself out. In a science that seeks to understand the material, in an industry and technology that serves the outer life, in a traffic that makes the material interests of the whole earth more and more common. But all this lacks the spiritual. Our knowledge is a mind knowledge, our commercial prosperity promotes external well-being. But this science on the one hand and material prosperity on the other are only an external form of culture, not its inner life. To everything we have conquered, we must add heart and soul. We must again incorporate the divine ideal into our will; then all externals will no longer be an end in themselves, but only the outer garment, only the form of civilization. The spirit must fill the body of our culture if it is to endure. And to fill this body with the spirit, the theosophical movement has been brought into being. It starts from the oldest thoughts of mankind, from that wisdom which in primeval times raised our race to its present level of consciousness, and which was always effective in all great progress. These thoughts, this wisdom are as old as humanity itself. Only their forms must change according to the different needs of different times. Theosophy does not ascribe the origin of wisdom to an external, accidental development. Rather, it derives it from the brotherhood of the great leaders of humanity. These are the beings who have already in the past reached the high degree of perfection towards which the average human being in the future is striving. Such advanced brothers of the human race use their degree of perfection to help the rest of humanity to progress. Their work is done in secret. It must be done in secret because it is too high to be understood by the masses. They are the guides of divine ideals. From time to time they send their messengers into the world to give it great cultural impulses. The great world religions owe their origin to such impulses; all cultural achievements owe their foundations to them. One such impulse has been sent into the world in recent times, leading to the founding of the Theosophical Society by H. P. Blavatsky and H. S. Olcott. It aims to bring humanity back to the realization that thought is greater than expression, spirit greater than outer form. It seeks to show that science must regain knowledge not only of the sensual but also of the supersensible worlds, that the heart should not cling only to material goods but should open itself to the divine ideal. Above and beyond all the benefits that the individual can derive from our present means of culture stands the general spiritual upliftment of all mankind. All the prosperity for which humanity strives should be sought only to build a dwelling for the spirit on this earth. And this dwelling is only worthy if it is suffused with beauty. But beauty is only possible if it emanates from the spirit. Our material civilization cannot have true art unless it conquers true faith. From the art of the Middle Ages, the faith of medieval humanity shines out to us. Its painters allowed themselves to be inspired by the religious feeling that lived in their hearts. The content of faith gave meaning and significance to the lines and colors of the artists. Theosophy wants to bring to bear a new body of thought, appropriate to the imagination of contemporary humanity. And the new body of thought will be the creator of a new art. That is the task of our time. All nobler spirits feel this. The striving towards it is noticeable everywhere. The Theosophical Society wants to be the leader, the vanguard of this movement. It wants to inspire individual men and women for this goal, which is currently felt so clearly. And with that, it unites the striving for tolerance, for universal love of humanity. These have always been the forces from which the great advances of humanity have emerged. What individual cultural movements strive for, the theosophical current seeks to form into a great unity. It seeks to overcome narrow-mindedness and intolerance. For only in united striving can humanity today achieve its goal. The Theosophical Society does not exist for the selfish pursuit of its members. It is a mistake to join it for the purpose of furthering one's own development. It wants to be there for humanity, it wants to work in its service. One should become a member of the Society only to be a channel through which flows knowledge that promotes human progress. The Society does not grow when its membership increases daily, but when these members grow in confidence and insight into their lofty task with each passing day. The justification of the [Theosophical] Society lies in the change that has taken place in the way people think over the last thirty years. Today, people no longer look down on those who no longer focus solely on the material side of culture. The heart begins to expand, and people have an interest again in those who aspire to the spirit. Our materialism became so powerful because our devotion had become so weak. But the person who is unable to look up to the spiritual heights in adoration closes himself off. Devotion, however, opens the heart and mind. We rise to that which we behold in devotional love and high esteem. The call for such deepening has gone out to those who have united in the Theosophical Society; they are to be good helmsmen for the path that is mapped out for present civilization.

The individual sections were represented by their general secretaries: the English section by Bertram Keightley, the Dutch section by W. B. Fricke, the French section by Dr. Th. Pascal, the German section by Dr. Rud. Steiner. Unfortunately, the general secretary of the Italian section, Decio Calvari, could not be present. Johan van Manen conducted the business of the congress and also gave his report at the meeting on the morning of June 19. His work deserves special mention. He had an enormous workload during the preparations for the meeting and during the meeting itself. One could only admire the willingness to make sacrifices, the prudence and the energy of this member of the Theosophical Society.

On the evening of the 19th, a public lecture was held. Annie Besant spoke about “New Psychology”. She outlined the change that has taken place in the last forty years in the prevailing views on the nature of the mind.

Forty years ago, materialism in men like Büchner and Vogt could claim that the brain secretes thoughts like the liver secretes bile. Since then, people have abandoned the belief that the nature of the mind can be known by studying the workings of the brain. Today we know that such a process would be the same as trying to penetrate the secrets of a Mozart or Beethoven creation by studying the hammers and keys of a piano. The phenomena of dream life have been studied, and those phenomena of consciousness that occur in abnormal states of the physical body have been studied in depth. This has led to the conviction that the spiritual is an independent entity in man, and that the way in which it manifests itself in the ordinary state is only one of its forms. Only this form, this mode of expression, is conditioned by the physical structure of the human senses and the human brain. It must be the nature of the spirit to manifest itself through other instruments in a different way. In this way, experimental science has confirmed the fundamental truth of all deeper religious worldviews, that the spirit in human day-consciousness has only one of its revelations. It has shown that through certain processes (in trance and so on) forms of consciousness arise in man in which he is quite different from his so-called normal consciousness. This also justifies the scientific approach of not seeking the truth only through the form of consciousness that we experience in everyday life, but also by elevating ourselves to higher forms of consciousness in order to get to know the higher worlds.

The other works of the congress were dealt with by forming departments according to the subject matter of the lectures presented. It became clear how Theosophy has already extended its work to all branches of modern spiritual life and also to social ideals. The Theosophists seek to bring the suitability of their goals to bear in all branches of culture, and they also seek the sources everywhere in order to integrate their thoughts and ideals into the aspirations of the present. The individual departments were as follows: 1. Science; 2. Comparative Religion; 3. Philology; 4. Human Brotherhood; 5. Occultism; 6. Philosophy; 7. Theosophical Method of Work; 8. Art.

In the scientific section, a paper by Dr. Pascal on the “Nature of Consciousness” was read first. The author had subtly succeeded in combining the basic theosophical ideas with modern concepts. Ludwig Deihard (Munich) followed with a suggestion. He pointed to the various states of consciousness that have been established experimentally (multiplex personality), explained them lucidly and called on those who had developed higher states of consciousness within themselves to also put their experiences at the service of the basic theosophical concepts (reincarnation and karma). This was followed by a stimulating discussion of the “Development of a Second Personality” by Alfred R. Orage (Leeds). The two presentations followed on nicely from what Annie Besant had presented in her lecture on “the new psychology”. From the proceedings of this section, it can only be stated that Emilio Scalfaro (Bologna), Arturio Reghini (Italy) and Mrs. Sarah Corbett (Manchester) delivered papers on important questions of space, matter and other topics. The abundance of what was presented can hardly be covered in a short summary, especially since lectures were held simultaneously in different rooms and it was only possible for individuals to attend a part of them. The works will also be published in a detailed congress report (yearbook of the congress) and will thus be accessible to everyone. Therefore, only a few of them will be reported on here. In the section on comparative religion, the following was presented: “The Religion of the Future - a View of Vaishnavism” by Purnendu Narayana Sinha (India).

In the section on “human brotherhood”, there was a treatise on the communal life among so-called primitive peoples by Mme Emma Weise (Paris). Works of this kind are important for the theosophist because they point to a time when the principle of brotherhood was a natural law of the soul in human tribes. Progress has necessarily led to separation and to selfishness. But this is only a transitional epoch. Seclusion must give way to selfless devotion, to ethical brotherhood, again, at a higher level, to what was once innate in man at a lower level. The social coexistence of people was the subject of the lectures by D. A. Courmes (Paris) and $. Edgar Aldermann (Sacramento, Cal.).

In the “Occultism” section, Annie Besant spoke about the “Essence of Occultism”. She pointed out H. P. Blavatsky's saying that occultism is the study of the universal world spirit in all of nature. The occultist recognizes that everything that can be perceived in the world is based on a universal spirit; and that the world of appearances only gives the forms, the expressions of this hidden (occult) world spirit. We find this conviction expressed in all major world religions, and occultists find the real foundations of religions confirmed by their own experience. The intellectual science can only recognize the outside of the world. It speaks of forces and laws. The occultist sees behind these forces and laws. And he then perceives that these are only the outer shell for living entities, just as the human body is the shell for the soul and spirit. From the lower forms that lie behind the forces of nature, to the exalted world spirits, which he addresses as logoi, the occultist pursues the spiritual realm according to his ability. But in order to recognize this world as a reality, he must go through a careful training. He must achieve two things. First, he must expand his consciousness so that it can encompass higher worlds, just as the ordinary conscious mind dominates the physical world. Second, he must develop higher senses that can perceive in these worlds, just as eyes and ears perceive in the physical world. The first goal, the expansion of consciousness, depends on man learning to control his thoughts. In ordinary life, man is controlled by his thoughts. They come and go, dragging the consciousness hither and thither. The occultist must be master of the course of his thoughts. He regulates their course. It is in his power to decide which thoughts to admit and which to reject. This goal can only be achieved through the most diligent self-education. Once you have prepared yourself in this way, you can begin to develop the higher senses. As long as a person is still under the influence of his passions, desires and instincts, the possession of higher senses can only be harmful to him. A pure, selfless life is a matter of course for the occultist. The personal desires he cherishes of his own accord take shape in the higher worlds. Man himself is the author of these forms. If he begins to see these forms, he is exposed to the danger of mistaking his own personal creations of desire and longing for objective realities. These products of his body of desire and longing are hidden from the average person. If they are not to become the source of serious errors and illusions for the developed higher senses, they must fade from view. The occultist must personally be without desire. There is a further danger that man may mistake the fragments of higher worlds that present themselves to his open eyes for exhaustive realities. The occultist must learn to recognize all this. What particularly hinders the development of occult abilities is the haste and rush with which some disciples want to advance. These stem from personal impatience and restlessness. But the occultist must develop complete inner calmness and patience. He must be able to wait until the right moment of inspiration has come. He must wait patiently until he is given what he should not take in greed. He must do everything to enable the voices from the spiritual world to speak to him at the right moment; but he must not have the slightest belief that he can force these voices. He who is lifted up in pride because he believes he knows more than others cannot become an occultist. This is why occultists speak of the heresy of separatism. If a person wants something for himself, if he does not want to possess everything in community, then he is immature for occultism. Every separation, every striving for personal self-interest, even if it is of the highest spiritual nature, kills the occult senses. The dangers of the occult path are great. Only patience and selflessness, willingness to make sacrifices and true love can make the occultist.

A letter from Leadbeater, which was intended for this section, included, among other things, interesting explanations about the astral forms that are evoked by musical works of art. One can characterize a sonata by Beethoven or a piano piece by Mozart by the architecture that the clairvoyant can perceive in the astral space.

In the “Philosophy” section, Dr. Rudolf Steiner gave a lecture on “Mathematics and Occultism”. He assumed that Plato demanded a mathematical education from his students, that the Gnostics referred to their higher wisdom as mathesis and that the Pythagoreans saw the basis of all being in number and form. He explained that they all did not have abstract mathematics in mind, but that they meant the intuitive insight of the occultist, who perceives the laws in the higher worlds with the help of a spiritual sensation that presents in the spiritual what music is for our ordinary sensual world. Just as air, through vibrations that can be expressed in numbers, arouses musical sensations, so the occultist, if he prepares himself by knowing the secrets of numbers, can perceive spiritual music in the higher worlds, which, when a person is particularly highly developed, intensifies to the sensation of the music of the spheres. This music of the spheres is not a figment of the imagination; it is a real experience for the occultist. By incorporating the arithmetics into his own being, by permeating his astral and mental body with the intimate sense that is expressed in the numerical relationships, man prepares himself to let hidden world phenomena have an effect on him. In modern times, the occult sense has withdrawn from the sciences. Since Copernicus and Galileo, science has been concerned with conquering the physical world. But it is in the eternal plan of human development that physical science should also be able to find access to the spiritual world. In the age of physical research, mathematics has been enriched by Newton and Leibniz's analysis of the infinite, by differential and integral calculus. Those who seek not only to understand in the abstract, but to experience inwardly what a differential really represents, will gain a view that is free of sensuality. For in the differential, the sensual view of space itself is overcome in the symbol; for moments, human cognition can become purely mental. To the clairvoyant, this is revealed by the fact that the thought form of the differential is open to the outside, in contrast to the thought forms that a person receives through sensory observation. These are closed to the outside. Thus, through the analysis of the infinite, one of the paths is opened by which the higher senses of the human being open to the outside. The occultist knows what happens to the chakra between the eyebrows when he develops the spirit of the differential within himself. If the mathematician is a selfless person, he can lay down what he has achieved in this way on the general altar of human brotherhood. And the seemingly driest science can become an important source for occultism.

In the same section, Gaston Polak (Brussels) spoke about symmetry and rhythm in man. It was interesting to hear these discussions about the way in which the human being can fit into the general great laws of the world. A paper by Bhagavän Däs (Benares) on the “Relationship between Self and Not-Self” was read. Since this paper will soon be available in book form, a summary can be dispensed with here, which would also be rather difficult due to the subtle form of the thought processes.

In the section on the “method of theosophical work”, the remarks of Mrs. Ivy Hooper (London) were of great importance. She emphasized that the essential thing for the theosophist is not the dogmatic forms in which the spirit, the spiritual life is expressed, but this spirit, this life itself. It is commendable that this has been stated with such clarity. We can express the spirit with both Christian and Oriental symbols if we only preserve this spirit. Where Christian symbolism is better understood, the Theosophist may make use of it. For one can be a good Theosophist without knowing anything of the dogmas in which spiritual wisdom was necessarily taught in the beginning. The Theosophical Society is meant to be the bearer of this wisdom, but it should change the forms according to necessity. Buddhist formulas and oriental dogmas must not be confused with the theosophical spirit. Theosophy has no dogmatics. It only wants to be spiritual life.

A section on “Art” showed how the Theosophical worldview can also bring light to this area. Jean Delville (Brussels), for example, developed something spiritual in his lecture on the “Mission of Art”. Ludwig Deinhard (Munich) took this opportunity to present a treatise by the German painter Fidus, in which the latter expresses his Theosophical view of the secrets of art.

On Tuesday afternoon, with a brief address by Annie Besant and expressions of thanks to our Dutch Theosophists from the attending General Secretaries, the congress concluded. That evening, Dr. Hallo gave a public lecture on the human aura, illustrated with slides.

An exhibition of works of art of particular interest to Theosophists had been organized and could be viewed during the entire duration of the congress.

London was chosen as the venue for next year's congress.

Report by Ludwig Deinhard “Der Vâhan”, Volume VI, No. 1, July 1904

It may have been twelve or fourteen years ago that a book anonymously published under the title “Rembrandt as a Tutor” was the subject of discussion in all of our literary circles. In this book, which quickly went through several editions, it was recommended to Germans in all keys that they should take their Low German compatriot, the ingenious Dutch master, as their model in every respect. I would like to tie in with this book, or at least with its title, which some readers of this magazine will certainly still remember, when I report on my impressions of the conference there today after returning from Amsterdam. Let us strike the name Rembrandt from this title – for unfortunately I must not mention him here, as much as it may annoy anyone coming from Amsterdam – and let us instead insert the three words: Our Dutch Colleagues, then the above book title would be changed to: Our Dutch Colleagues as Educators. As educators for what, you may ask, and my answer is: as educators for organizing fruitful congresses within the Theosophical movement. A few words about this first.

With at least as much justification as was used to recommend that Germans emulate Rembrandt, one can today advise every European section of the Theosophical Society to take its Dutch sister section as a model in organizing and holding a European Theosophical Congress. What are the qualities that make our Dutch colleagues particularly well suited for this task?

In the farewell words that Mrs. Besant addressed to them as President of the Amsterdam Congress, she said: “It may be that our Dutch brothers call their own a small country. But it is certain that they have a very broad heart. And it is better to have a small country and a broad heart than a large country and a narrow heart.” But our colleagues in Holland have, in addition to the quality of heart that Mrs. Besant praises, something else that makes them particularly qualified for the above task: namely, an amazing talent for languages, which developed early on and was vigorously cultivated, making their role as congress hosts exceptionally easy, enabling them to communicate fluently with every foreign congress guest in their national language.

If the Amsterdam Congress was characterized by an exceptionally warm atmosphere from start to finish, this prevailing mood was further enhanced and intensified by the introduction of a new and invigorating element.

“The element of aesthetics, of beauty in nature,” said Mrs. Besant in her presidential address, “into the theosophical movement is one of the main tasks of this congress. A theosophist can be just as much an artist as a thinker. Our movement, which is destined to permeate the entire spiritual life of the civilized world, will surely also be called upon to give rise to a new direction in music and the visual arts.

This new aspect of the theosophical movement, the aesthetic element, was indeed what gave the Amsterdam Congress its special character. Vocal concerts alternated with organ concerts, and at the end, works of Dutch poetry, such as those of a Multatuli, were also recited. In addition, members of the Theosofische Vereeniging organized an exhibition of all kinds of art objects, paintings, sculptures and arts and crafts, such as embroidery, precious book bindings, etc., which for the most part immediately revealed the circles of thought in which their creators live. And the credit for bringing this new aspect, this new conception into the theosophical movement, belongs to none other than our colleagues in the Netherlands.

It will probably be necessary to preface the report on the congress negotiations with a few words about the Dutch section, which held its annual meeting on June 18 under the chairmanship of its dynamic and experienced General Secretary W. B. Fricke. It currently has 727 members, of whom 130 joined last year. The propaganda trip undertaken last year by Johan van Manen, Honorary Secretary of the Congress, to the Dutch colony of Java, where he gave no fewer than fifty lectures over a period of six months, also deserves special mention. The headquarters of the section is located in one of the most beautiful districts of Amsterdam and comprises three houses (Amsteldijk Nos. 76, 79 and 80) with spacious reading rooms, an assembly hall, an office, apartments and a large garden.

A total of around 600 people attended the congress, including about 150 foreigners, with the British Section, represented by its General Secretary B. Keightley, sending the largest contingent. The German Section was represented by our General Secretary Dr. Steiner and about a dozen members. Likewise, the General Secretary of the French Section, Dr. Pascal, had appeared with a large number of French Theosophists. Neighboring Belgium was even more strongly represented. Whether members had also appeared from Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Russia and so on, eludes my judgment.

The congress opened in the magnificent and spacious concert hall of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. The section meetings took place in smaller rooms in the same building.

The speeches and lectures by Mrs. Besant, delivered with her well-known mastery, naturally constituted the main interest of the entire congress. The understanding of these lectures is supported by the powerful spiritual energy emanating from the speaker, by the strong mental vibrations that radiate from her. Ms. Besant pronounces each of her words with extraordinary clarity, making her easy to understand even for non-English listeners who would otherwise not be able to follow an English speech well. I do not wish to omit this point here, as it is important for Mrs. Besant's lecture tour of Germany planned for next September to be aware of this, so that no one is deterred from attending these lectures for the obvious reason that they do not understand English well. Since Mrs. Besant will only be giving public lectures in a few major German cities, it should be noted here that it is undoubtedly worthwhile to make a small journey to hear this speaker, who is admired throughout the world and whose writings are also becoming increasingly popular in Germany.

On Sunday, June 19, at 10 o'clock in the morning, the congress was officially opened. First there was a choral piece sung by ladies, then speeches by W. B. Fricke, Annie Besant and J. van Manen. This was followed by a public lecture by Mrs. Besant at 8 o'clock in the evening in a church-like building intended for “de vrije Gemeente” (the free community). She spoke about “the new psychology”, under which title she presented the research results of the Society for Psychical Research, the interesting psychological studies by Professor Pierre Janet and Colonel A. de Rochas in Paris, and finally touched on the question of survival after death and re-embodiment.

On Monday, June 20th, and Tuesday, June 21st, the section meetings took place. Unfortunately, the progress of these meetings was continually delayed by the fact that the lectures given were still being summarized in Dutch and sometimes in English. The program provided for the following section divisions:

A. Brotherhood; B. Comparative Religion; C. Philosophy; D. Science, including Occult Psychology; E. Art; F. Propaganda and Methods; G. Occultism.

The papers on the above subjects, called for by the Congress Committee, formed the material presented at the section meetings. Since only a few of the authors of these works appeared in person, most of these treatises had to be read by the chairpersons or at least summarized. The official report of the congress committee, which is expected to be published in a few months, will contain all of these works in full, of which only the content or even the title can be given here.

Discussed in Section A:

1. Emma Weise (Paris) on the topic: Fraternity as found in the totemic laws of primitive races. Mme Weise is of the opinion that the customs of the totemic religions of certain primitive races prove that they form a well-thought-out religious system created for the purpose of protecting primitive races from destruction, and that this system cannot be considered the product of these races themselves. It can be concluded from this that the primitive human races of prehistoric times had teachers of great wisdom who, by setting up these far-sighted and subtle precepts, guided the development of the individual personalities - which, of course, is in line with the teachings of Theosophy.

2. Commander Courmes (Paris): Le droit de suffrage dans les nations. This essay points out that the individuals forming a nation are souls or individualities at extremely different stages of development and that this great diversity should also be taken into account when granting the right to vote. However, it will be very difficult to establish a criterion of development that could be applied in practical life, which the author also seems to recognize.

3. S. Edgar Aldermann (Sacramento, Cal.): Practical Brotherhood. A defense of democracy as the only possible and desirable basis for building true brotherhood.

Section B

1. Purnendu Narayana Sinha (India): The religion of the future - An aspect of Vaishnavism. Vaishnavism is based on the idea of awakening and strengthening the feeling of love as the surest way to religious development. This requires a systematic cultivation of associations based on love, which are to be extended to embrace all of humanity. Excerpts from numerous Sanskrit scriptures from Vaishnava literature are cited to support this view.

2. C. Jinarajadasa (Milano): The Bhagavad Gita. A critical examination of this ancient Indian didactic poem in terms of its age, language and content.

3. D. van Hinloopen Labberton (Buitenzorg): Gazzhali's “Kitab Tasaoep”. Gazzhali, who lived around 1400 AD, is considered the founder of orthodox Islamic mysticism. His moral teachings were published in Dutch India in numerous editions. They correspond in many respects with the teachings of today's theosophy.

Section C

1. Dr. R. Steiner (Berlin): Mathematics and Occultism. According to the Gnostics, the Mathesis, the knowledge, is that pure wisdom according to the pattern of mathematics. The Gnostics did not demand that one should become a mathematician in order to become an occultist, not actual mathematics, but a mathematics-like knowledge. They demanded that one should become free in one's own being from what clings to the ordinary person, from all covetousness, all that is emotional.

2. Bhagavän Däs (Benares): The relation of the self and the not-self. The well-known author of “The Science of the emotions” here contrasts Hegel's threefold stage of world knowledge with that ancient Indian world knowledge, which is expressed in the combination of the three letters a, u and m.

3. Gaston Polak (Bruxelles): Symetrie et rythme dans la nature. The investigation of the world as perceived by the senses, in as far as it is within the bounds of natural science, shows phenomena of symmetry and rhythm in all fields. The purpose of this well-thought-out work is to demonstrate the same phenomena in the field of the life of the mind and spirit. The teaching of reincarnation also contains such a rhythm.

4. Decio Calvari (Roma): Un filosofo ermetico italiano del Secolo XVII.

5. G.R.S. Mead (London): As above so below.

These last two papers were only read in the title.

Section D

1. Dr. Th. Pascal (Paris): Conscience, subconscience et superconscience. The Secretary General of the French Section gives here a clear summary of the present-day psychological views on conscience, which, according to him, only finds a truly satisfactory explanation in the doctrine of reincarnation.

2. Ludwig Deinhard (Munich): “Multiplex Personality”, a suggestion. The suggestion of the speaker is that he asks the members of the Theosophical Society who are endowed with supernormal abilities to examine the interesting phenomena of the “multiplex personality” more closely, since the fact of re-embodiment can be directly proven from these, as the latest research by A. de Rochas has shown.

3. Ludwig L. Lindemann (Köln): Zwei psychische Erfahrungen. Was only read in the title.

Likewise, [the] speaker is unfortunately not able to provide more detailed information about the following three papers. They all relate to the fourth dimension.

4. Emilio Scalfaro (Bologna): Spazzio, forme e materia a più dimensioni.

5. Arturo Reghini (Italia): II mecanismo della visione e la quarta dimensione.

6. Mrs Sarah Corbett (Manchester): Regular four-dimensional hypersolids.

7. Dr. Viriato Diaz-Perez (Madrid): El termino «Anitos» (Una clave para la mitologia arcaica filipina). The author claims that the word “Anitos”, used in the Philippines, means “ghost” or “spectre” and contains an ancient linguistic root that can be regarded as a relic of the lost Atlantis.

8. Alfred R. Orage (Leeds): The development of a secondary personality. The author provides a valuable contribution to the illustration of known psychic phenomena such as attention, absent-mindedness, and bad mood, and reveals the relationship that exists between the process of falling asleep and the appearance of a second personality.

9. Samuel van West (Haarlem): Criminality and Karma. The author demonstrates that the concepts of karma and reincarnation necessarily follow from the results of current criminal anthropological research (Lombroso's school).

10. Dr. Jules Grand (Paris): The respective roles of the different kingdoms of nature in terms of human nutrition. A defense of vegetarianism based on the physiology of plants, animals and humans.

Section E

1. Jean Delville (Brussels): The mission of art.

2. Mrs Margaret Duncan (Manchester): A plea for symbolism in art.

3. Mme Amélie André (Paris): Application de quelques enseignements théosophiques à l'art du chant.

4. Fidus-Höppener (Berlin): Theosophy and Art. The author of this paper is the much-mentioned and admired former illustrator of the “Sphinx,” Fidus, who was actually the first artist to put his crayon at the disposal of the Theosophical movement.

Section F

Mrs. Ivy Hooper (London): The faith to come. The speaker, a poetess of theosophical novellas esteemed in England and known to the readers of the “Theosophical Review” under the pen name Michael Wood, understands by the faith to come a Christianity freed from today's dogmatism and imbued with esoteric views.

Section G

1. Annie Besant: Occultism. The speaker here outlines the development of the “would-be occultist”, that is, the one who wants to become an occultist. “Through deep study and continued contemplation,” she said, “he must practice his mental powers and strive to gain control over them. Until he has achieved this, his intellect is useless for occult research. For he will wander about, dragging his owner with him, until he drags him down into a state of degradation, driven by what attracts and repels him, and which should leave the true occultist completely untouched. He recognizes the workings of the Divine Spirit in all Nature, and nothing can repel him. But before the stage of the true occultist can be reached, life must be purified. No one who is not completely pure, who is not able to lead a completely unselfish life, should dare to approach occultism; for every fault and weakness he possesses will otherwise be fanned into new life. All these defects will assail him and prepare pitfalls for him everywhere and at every opportunity. And as long as he has not learned to control his senses and emotions, the finer bodies, in which he will have to work because they are so much lighter and so much more agile than the physical body, will expose himself and those close to him to the most terrible temptations and dangers."

2. C. W. Leadbeater: Occultism. A presentation by this well-known Theosophist from California of the impressions that the astral seer receives when certain compositions by Beethoven, Wagner, Schumann, etc. are performed. These remarks by Leadbeater concluded the Section meetings.

The Congress was closed on Tuesday evening at five o'clock, just as solemnly and ceremoniously as it had been opened. Once again, there was singing by a ladies' choir, followed by speeches of thanks from the various general secretaries, each in their own language. The location of next year's congress (London) was then announced, and Mrs. Besant gave a closing speech.

At eight o'clock in the evening, a public lecture was held again in 'de vrije Gemeente', which was given by the Dutch physicist Dr. J.J. Hallo. He spoke about the human aura, which he demonstrated with the help of slides that were based on Leadbeater's well-known work.

On Wednesday afternoon, the congress participants met at the headquarters to bid each other farewell.

In the above, I have tried to sketch an approximate picture of the Amsterdam Congress in the briefest terms possible. However incomplete this account may be, it may perhaps give some readers the impression that the claim made by the author of this report at the beginning – the claim that the representatives of Theosophy in all countries could learn a thing or two from their colleagues in the Netherlands in terms of how to organize fruitful congresses – was not as completely unjustified as it might have seemed to the reader at first glance. This congress was fruitful in that it gave the Theosophical movement a new aspect, one might perhaps say a new face - a face whose features may in future appear more appealing to many than has been the case so far, once the idea of beauty has now transfigured them.

But I would like to end with a word that came from Mrs. Besant's mouth during her first address, a word that perhaps has a greater significance for the German Section of the Theosophical Society than for any other section. It was: “The Theosophical movement approaches science and says to it that it may open its heart to further possibilities than it has done so far.”

Certainly, the Theosophical movement does this. Only, so far, science has remained deaf to all the movement's coaxing. It may fall to the German Section to pave the way for the necessary mutual understanding in this regard, in other words to establish the desirable relationship between science and theosophy, in a manner similar to that in which the Dutch Section successfully strived between art and theosophy at the Amsterdam Congress. This is because in no other country in the world does science represent such an important and decisive cultural factor as it does here in Germany.

My dear Theosophical friends,

If the Theosophical movement is to achieve the great goals it has set itself, then it must, above all, assert its first principle everywhere and realize its first principle in all its endeavors. As is well known, this is to form the core of a general human brotherhood without distinction of race and so on. But then, if this principle is paramount to us, then differences between peoples and nations can only be an expression of what animates people in their innermost thoughts.

We must seek out everywhere the people we want to unite with us in brotherhood. With this principle in mind, the Theosophical Congress in London two years ago decided to propose the introduction of an annual congress of the European sections of the Theosophical Society. This year, the first European congress of the various sections of the continent that truly deserves this name has been convened.

Thus, from June 19 to 21, the European sections of the Theosophical Society were united in Amsterdam for the purpose of to be laid down on the common altar in a free exchange of ideas for inspiration, and on the other hand, to bring the common work that is being done here and there in the service of the general public to the attention of the assembled. Both were achieved by the extraordinarily efficient and energetic approach of our Dutch brothers, so that the congress took an extraordinarily dignified course.

The Congress showed how deeply the Theosophical idea has already taken root in those gathered there. Five European sections have indeed united to form the so-called Federation. These are the sections from which the Theosophical movement initially emerged. First the English, second the French, third the Italian, fourth the Dutch and finally fifth the German section, which has only existed for two years.

Our esteemed Annie Besant has taken over the chairmanship of this congress. She recently returned to Europe from India, where she has spent most of her time working. It was wonderful that she was able to chair this congress. All those who have inwardly grasped the task and mission of the Theosophical movement know that their ideal is embodied in the personality of Annie Besant. When Mrs. Blavatsky died, the spiritual leadership passed to Annie Besant, and she was the most suitable person to take over this leadership. Everything that must live in Theosophy lives in her. She unites the ideal of the will, the enthusiasm of feeling and at the same time the scientific direction of our movement. And all this is immersed in what constitutes the basic element, in spirituality, regardless of whether Annie Besant is discussing a scientific, an agitative or an occult topic.

In the views, only the outer form of expression for the innermost part of her soul is embodied. And that is the task that the Theosophical movement has set itself, to immerse all branches of human activity today, all impulses of the will and all scientific ideals in spirituality, to bring everything out of the dead. This spirituality speaks for itself when Annie Besant speaks to us. It was therefore a solemn moment when she opened the congress in Amsterdam, when she explained the 'why and wherefore' of the movement.

She said, roughly, the sense, not the wording: The task of the Theosophical movement is the spiritualization of our entire culture, our entire civilization. If we survey the last decades of our culture, we see that it has reached an infinite height in the most diverse points. We see that science, that the external material life, has reached such a summit as has never been the case before. We see how the horizons of the nations have expanded infinitely, we see that these nations have made the whole world the dwelling place of the nations. This outer material life can only be the outer expression of the inner life of culture, of the inner life of civilization, of the very soul of human development and progress. And to impress this soul of human development and progress on the outward, splendid aspects of our culture is the task of the Theosophical movement. It has been justified by the developments of the last thirty years in the evolution of our culture. We see everywhere that our civilization has changed in the last thirty years. We see that nobler spirits are striving out of purely material culture, out of intellectual science, out of the luxury to which material culture has risen. Thus we see that the yearning for spirituality runs through our entire time. This ideal is not limited to our Theosophical movement alone. It also lives in those who know nothing or want nothing to do with the theosophical movement. The theosophical movement wants to be nothing more than something that must happen in our time. Thus, in our society, there are women and men who want to show that they are touched by the fact that there is soul and spirit, that there is spirituality. To this end, the theosophical movement turns to the most ancient thoughts of humanity, to those that have given great impetus to all civilizations and cultural advances at all times since humans have existed on earth. It does not address these thoughts in an abstract, lifeless form, but in a living form. These thoughts did not arise by chance in this or that head. They have been instilled from time to time by the great leaders of humanity, instilled by those leaders who, in their own development, have outstripped our entire race, who have already achieved today, or rather, some time ago, what the masses will only achieve in a distant future. Such advanced brothers were always in possession of great, moving thoughts. And they have preserved these in the so-called occult brotherhoods. They have handed them down to the human race, graded according to the needs of the time and the peoples. As a rule, these brothers have remained in hiding. But they have sent their messengers where it was necessary; to this or that people, to this or that time. And from these messengers arose the great civilizing movements, the world religions, the great spiritual and material movements, which are said to be the expression of the souls of the people.

In the last third of the nineteenth century, such a wave was to pour forth again. It was to convey something of the ancient wisdom again. And what it conveys is contained in what the Theosophical Society has been teaching since its founding by Olcott and Blavatsky. That is what we have to incorporate into our culture, that is what offers the source for the spiritual civilization of humanity. Those who are inspired by these thoughts and want to work for the development of all of humanity based on these thoughts are worthy members of the Theosophical Society. If we win the souls of humanity, our culture will also present the right view from the outside. Everything has gone astray. Take a single trait: beauty. Beauty can only be present in culture if it contains true belief in the highest ideals of humanity. See why the true painters of the Middle Ages have had such a great effect, and you will find that they have kept their ideals secret in their works, which then speak for them. When we come to such true faith, to such wisdom, a divine light will also arise from our art. This is one of the tasks that the Theosophical Society will fulfill. And there are many such tasks. The Theosophical Society is not there to instruct individuals, to perfect individuals, but to educate them to be willing to make sacrifices, to be of service. Not the one who wants to perfect himself is a true member of the Theosophical Society, but the one who puts all his strength, his whole being, at the service of humanity.

Such a speech, which contained much wisdom, and the words of Annie Besant had cast a solemn atmosphere over the whole congress. If I am to describe the course of the events that followed this speech, which took on a more communal character, I have to say that the individual sections were represented by their general secretaries. The English section was represented by Mr. Keightley, the French by Mr. Pascal, the Italian was not represented, the representative could not be present; the German by Dr. Steiner.

Our theosophical brother in Holland, Mr. van Manen, managed the preparatory work and the work during the congress, so that the external management can indeed be called exemplary.

On the evening of that day – it was Sunday – Annie Besant gave a second speech, a speech about the new psychology. This speech was public, open to everyone, and held in the Free Church in Amsterdam. If in the morning one had the opportunity to see the spiritual life springing from the mind and idealism of Annie Besant, in the evening one had the opportunity to admire the whole scientific sense of this spiritual leader of the Theosophical movement. I can only hint at the ideas she expounded.

Those who can remember back to the time about forty years ago, to the course of the soul development theory, will remember the materialistic high tide. There was a saying by Karl Vogt, which roughly translates as: This is how the brain sweats out thoughts, just as the liver sweats out bile.

In this age of materialistic science, there were attempts to regard thought, spirit and soul as mere products of the outer mechanism of the body, attempts to explain thought in much the same way as the turning of the hands of a clock is explained by the mechanism of the clockwork. This view has undergone a fundamental change in the last forty years. It has been found that it is just as impossible to explain the mind from the nervous system as it is to explain a work of art by Mozart or Beethoven from the keys or strings of the piano. It has been recognized, scientifically recognized, that this is impossible. This was recognized by the experimental method itself. It has been found that when the brain is in a different state than during everyday life, it is not without all consciousness, but shows a different kind of consciousness, a different form of mental and spiritual phenomena. These states have been observed in dream life and then also in abnormal personalities, and it has been concluded that what we call soul has a very different expression in the brain mechanism. It has been found to manifest itself in a different way in the dream life and in yet another way in trances, somnambulism and so on. This has led to the realization of the great independence of the spirit in relation to the brain mechanism. French researchers have recognized that one and the same human individual shows completely different conditions in everyday consciousness when we interact with him than when we observe him in an abnormal state of the brain. There is a personality who has the pseudonym Leonie. During her examination, it was found that she has three states of consciousness: in one state she is a personality who tends to antipathy, while in the other state of consciousness she shows completely different characteristics. And a third state could also be induced in her. This justifies one of the basic convictions of all religious systems, that the mind has only one tool in the brain mechanism and that what it accomplishes in it is only one form of expression, and that the mind therefore has an independence from this form of expression. This justifies the theosophical aspiration to seek the truth not only with the help of the brain, but also with the help of such states in which certain personalities can place themselves.

This was a lecture by Annie Besant, which essentially shows the difference between what is established on our lecterns and what the theosophical worldview represents. It is precisely from such lectures that it becomes clearer and clearer that our culture and civilization of today will culminate in what the theosophical worldview proclaims. In this sense, it is an advanced post, and Western civilization will follow it.

For the next two days, the work was divided into so-called departments. A large number of lectures were announced, from all parts of the world. There were different rooms for the lectures, in order to cover all the material. It became clear that the various representatives of the Theosophical worldview have pursued their ideals everywhere. The work of Theosophical students already extends to all sciences, to art and to social life. And here it has become clear how sources can be drawn from all branches of contemporary culture, flowing together into the great stream to which our theosophical movement belongs. It was also possible to see how the theosophical movement has a fertilizing effect. What otherwise seemed to us to be without content appeared to us here in a light in which even those who do not belong to the theosophical movement will soon be drawing their insights.

The departments were: firstly, the department of science; secondly, the department of comparative religious studies; thirdly, the department of philology; fourthly, the department of general human brotherhood; fifthly, the department of occultism; sixthly, the department of philosophy; seventhly, the department of methods of theosophical work. In these seven departments, the work of the Theosophical Society was carried out in the following days.

Allow me to sketch out just a few of the achievements. Since the talks were held in different rooms, I cannot talk about everything.

An interesting lecture was given by Dr. Pascal on the nature of human consciousness, and it was precisely in this lecture that modern thinking, modern scientific view, gradually wants to embrace the theosophical concepts and ideas, as it tries to express the concepts, ideas and truths that are the content of ancient wisdom in a modern way.

In the second presentation, our Munich member Ludwig Deinhard gave a stimulating talk. Following on from Annie Besant, he tried to provide a suggestion and first spoke about the multiple personality. This is precisely the multiple personality that we encounter in appearances, as they occur to us through the medium Leonie. There we are dealing with three states of consciousness, including one that is quite different from the ordinary consciousness of the medium Leonie. The experimenter himself said that a medium in such a state remembers things from her youth, of which she otherwise has absolutely no memory. The medium also shows memory for the past, which did not take place in this present life, but must have taken place in another, previous life. This is a reference to reincarnation. Deinhard tried to explain this personality; and those members of society who enjoy a higher state of consciousness should take the opportunity to follow these points of view, which are being taken up by modern psychology, in their higher consciousness, so that we can establish a kind of harmony between what modern science is doing and what the mystic endowed with clairvoyance is able to experience within himself.

Following this discussion, another one took place about double consciousness, about the second self, which our member [Orage from Leeds] held.

Then a series of other lectures followed, which dealt with the important question of the fourth spatial dimension. These are particularly important because this question must be thoroughly studied by researchers at some point. We have particularly interesting and instructive literature. There are books today about things that were laughed at not too long ago. In the explanations about space and the fourth dimension, we have a guide to how people can directly form a real idea through external experiments of what Hellscher actually calls four-dimensional space. This is a guide to give even the everyday person an idea of it. Until now, only mathematicians could gain such an insight. But here you have the opportunity to gain such an insight through ingenious models. When I have made the models myself in the fall, I will give you a series of lectures here to show you how to gain such an insight directly from the model. That was the scientific part.

The second department was that of comparative religions. Here, an Indian lecture on the future of religions was particularly significant.

This was followed by the third department on philology. There were some very interesting papers that could give us important insights into the development of various concepts. I cannot go into details here. The yearbook will provide more information about these lectures.

Then the fourth department spoke about the idea of brotherhood. And then the fifth department about occultism. Mrs. Annie Besant gave another speech. She talked about the nature of occultism. I can only briefly touch on the content of this extremely important speech. The speaker started from a saying of Mrs. Blavatsky, who said that occultism is the realization that the universal spirit of the world has brought forth all things, that we must seek an expression, an outward form of a universal spirit in all things, and that he who seeks this universal spirit and finds the methods and means to find this spirit is an occultist. This is what occultism is in abstract form, but it is not so easy to state exactly what the essence of occultism is in detail. Man sees around him material things, which he sees ruled by forces that we call natural forces: electricity, heat, light, and so on. Then he sees the phenomena controlled by the laws of nature, by the law of gravity, by the law of attraction and repulsion, by the law of causality, by the laws of life. Material forces and laws are what ordinary science is able to convey to us about the world. The occultist differs from the ordinary scientist in that something else dawns on him about the forces and something else about the law. Through the methods he is able to apply, he comes to see and perceive that which is hidden behind the forces in the world, that which is occult. And when he perceives what is hidden behind the forces, then these are not again forces, not such things as can be perceived by the ordinary, everyday consciousness, but they are beings, beings of a higher nature, which belong to the so-called higher worlds. The occultist rises from the nature of the forces to the nature of the beings, from the nature of the forces to the creative beings. He arrives there through direct vision. He recognizes the Formers of the world. The forces which the ordinary man sees as means of expression are only the outer projections, the outer shadow and reflection of these Formers of the world. And where ordinary science fails, the occultist ascends to Beings of an even more exalted nature, to Beings that extend from the Formers of the world up to the so-called Logoi. These are for the occultist what is hidden behind what science calls laws. The scientist recognizes the material forces, the material laws, the occultist sees the higher beings, the creative entities, whom he gets to know as the agents and shapers of the forces of nature. He gets to know the most exalted Logoi, which only externally reveal themselves in the existence of the laws of the world that permeate the celestial spaces. In order for the occultist to arrive at these insights, he must undergo careful training and manifold tests. They consist of two things: first, to expand the consciousness of the person, to broaden the horizon beyond this sensual, physical world; and secondly, to develop senses that can perceive those higher worlds just as the outer eyes and ears perceive the outer physical world.

Before a person can seek to expand their consciousness, they must exercise careful control over their thoughts. Without this, no step forward can be taken in occultism. The everyday person is ruled by his thoughts, but the occultist must rule his thoughts. Before you have managed to prevent any thought, any movement, any emotion from creeping into your consciousness, before you can summon and control them, we cannot gain access to occultism. Complete control of the thoughts, which makes man the master of them, is necessary. If man were to enter the occult fields without this control, he would suffer great disadvantages. The ordinary power is just enough to hold thoughts together. If man were to enter the occult with only this power of thought, it would be destroyed by the forces that assail it in the astral. When man has achieved complete control over his thoughts, when no emotion has access to him anymore, then he can develop the higher senses, the senses for higher perception. This is again a training full of tests. Here we are confronted with all the dangers that the occultist is well aware of. He whose sense is awakened in the spiritual realm knows that he is first tormented in the most terrible way by his own desires and passions. Desires, lust and pain are constantly flowing out. We see them and mistake them for objective entities. The difficulty is to distinguish them from the truly objective things. This is something we learn only through careful and strict training.

Another danger is that hostile forces threaten us and we are exposed to them. We must also learn to avert this danger. Furthermore, we must learn not to mistake the individual grimaces and fragments that present themselves to us for exhaustive reality. The strictest training is required here so that a person can stand on firm ground when he leaves the world, namely the physical world. Above all, the occultist must have eradicated all personal desires and passions within himself. He must want nothing for himself. He must put everything at the service of a great cause, which only he knows and which he may not even be able to express. When he has become desireless in this sense, then, when his consciousness is expanded and his senses developed, something will approach him that is called the voice of the Master. This does not approach us until we have learned to distinguish it from the other voices. When he is ready, he can go through the narrower gate, then he is ripe for initiation. Only those who really go through such a path are occultists. To them the exalted divine beings reveal themselves, which in the lower world present themselves only as laws.

This third lecture was an extraordinary complement to the first two. If I may say that in the first lecture the mind was uplifted to enthusiasm, that in the second lecture there was knowledge that enlightens, so I may also say that in the third lecture, where Annie Besant spoke about occultism, she sanctified the will, this root of being.

After this lecture we had the reading of a lecture by Leadbeater about occultism. I will only emphasize one point. It was said that experiments have been carried out to see what effect musical forms have in the astral realm. If you play a piece of music by Mozart or Beethoven in a room, then if you have astral hearing and vision, you can see the forms in the astral world in which the one or other work of art is expressed. The lines and forms of a wonderful piece of architecture are reflected in the lines and forms of a musical work of art in the astral realm. This astral architecture of music was particularly explored in America.

The next day, Tuesday, we still had to complete the scientific department and the department for methods of work. In the scientific department, I talked about mathematics and [occultism]. I tried to show how it came about that Plato demanded a mathematical course from his students on the basic concepts of mathematics before admitting them to

why the Gnostics called mathematics “mathesis” and why Pythagoras sought the essence of the world, insofar as it can be known by man, in numbers. I have tried to show that what was taught in those ancient times is by no means the abstract mathematics of today, but that in mathematics they had an immediate, intuitive perception, just as the person who hears a piece of music does not mathematically calculate the tone relationships, but perceives them in a sea of tones; in the same way, the occultist perceives these things. The ancients called it music of the spheres. In their intuition, the sensually pure, mathematical view allows a higher kind of intuitive music to arise. He perceives the three kinds of occult knowledge that are equally present in the occultist: the material, the intellectual, and the perception of great musical relationships that are based on numbers and numerical relationships. Only someone who knows what the Gnostics meant by mathesis can form a concept of this. A turning point occurred with the discovery of infinitesimal and integral calculus since Newton. Since then, one can calculate with infinitely small and infinitely large quantities. The ordinary mathematician cannot enter into this infinitely small and this infinitely large. Only those who know and are able to bring it to life within themselves can understand it. They can then also free themselves through a mathematical means. And so, as a mathematician, he can find access to the occult worlds and make a contribution to them. I then showed how, in the time when Plato's and Pythagoras' music of the spheres had been lost and Galileo and Newton were exerting their influence, the world of the senses was conquered, the physical laws of nature were discovered, mathematics became different and people took possession of mathematics itself. In the past, finite mathematics was known. Since Newton and Leibniz, we have had the mathematics of infinity. Those who study it arrive at occult, intuitive vision. They arrive at turning back, at moving upwards. They become free from everything that speaks to them in the sensual-material world. And something very peculiar enters their astral body. Those who truly grasp mathematical concepts, grasp them in a living way, their thought forms become completely different. Every thought-form that is influenced by sensuality seems to be closed off as if with a breath. Then it rebounds from the outside. But if it is free of sensuality, the thought-form opens up and then envelops every thing with its thought-form. Everything that is antipathetic has been transformed into something sympathetic. In this way you have become an occultist. This is a contribution, an attempt to come from a particular branch of science to occultism.

Then a Frenchman spoke about the rhythm in the world and [Bhagavän Däs, Benares, read a paper about the relationship between self and non-self]. Fichte, Schelling and Hegel are a closed book for modern science itself. It would be satisfying if our very powerful German philosophy were to be transformed by the ingenious thinking of India.

From the department on the methods of the theosophical work, the lecture given by Misses [Hooper, London] must be emphasized, which is appealing because of a certain turnaround in the external way in which this entity represents theosophy in the world. Those who heard my report on the London Theosophical Congress will recall that I had to mention that Christianity was almost completely rejected there. This rejection of Christianity has now given way to a complete understanding of it, so that we are learning not only to speak in Indian and Muslim terms, but also to endeavor to reveal the infinitely deep core of truth of the Bible, of the Old and New Testaments. And then something emerged of which the more recent times knew little until today. It turned out that the Bible is a deeply esoteric scripture and that the deepest truths on which it is based are also the expression of the theosophical truths. Those who understand what is hidden in this book must marvel and admire the occult, and they must say to themselves: Only now do I recognize what the Bible is. Mrs. Hooper must have been moved by such feelings when she said, “The core has always been the same, but the forms have changed.” We find in the Bible and in Christianity symbols of such depth and such conciseness and forcefulness that we can speak entirely from the Bible when we advocate the Theosophical teachings. Now, during the Theosophical Congress in Amsterdam, we have been able to observe how there is already a current within the Theosophical movement towards the revival of the Gospel of John. I will talk about this again next Monday.

The congress was closed on Tuesday afternoon. Mrs. Annie Besant was able to sum up in a few concise words what we had all felt during these days of the congress, that our Dutch brothers, who have made such great strides in the Theosophical movement, had indeed made every effort to make this congress a worthy one, that they had proceeded judiciously and energetically.

The Dutch may be a small country, but they have a big heart, and it is better to have a small country and a big heart than the other way around.

In the evening there were more thanks and a lecture about the aura. Between the individual events there were also artistic performances. All the choir members and declaimers were taken only from members of the Theosophical Section in Holland, so that we have to say about the Dutch that the members have made gratifying progress in recent years. We can therefore say that this congress was an extraordinarily dignified expression of the Theosophical movement and that we look forward with great enthusiasm and interest to the reunion in London. The symbol of the movement came to me in a small experience. We visited the house where Spinoza was born. It is a small house. There is no plaque, no memorial. On the other hand, it is a house of squalor. One could say that this is irreverent. I had a different thought. Nothing of the temporal reminds us of the great spirit of Spinoza. The eternal lies in the progress of the spirit.

After an absence of eighteen months, our esteemed Annie Besant returned to Europe in May from the scene of her work in India to spend a few months among us in Europe working to spread the theosophical teachings and theosophical life.

As you all know, we will also have an opportunity to hear Annie Besant here in Berlin in a few days. When Annie Besant comes to Europe, even if it is only for a short time, it is a celebration for the members of the Theosophical Society on our continent and in England. It is a celebration especially for those who, out of full knowledge and insight, appreciate the greatness and significance of this unique personality. There are many people in Europe who are attached to this personality with a love built on knowledge and insight.

In the arena of her activity, where she is mostly active now, Annie Besant is particularly well understood. One understands why Annie Besant is so extraordinarily well understood and loved in India. You understand it when you read the words, which are on the one hand full of deep wisdom and on the other hand full of strength, in the lecture that Annie Besant gave two years ago at the annual meeting of the Theosophical Society in England and which is now also available in print. The lecture that Annie Besant gave at the time on the task of her own, the English people, in India was – if I may use the worn-out word – it was an act. For it was based on what I would call the deepest historical insight into the needs, the true, heartfelt needs of a people.

Annie Besant, if I may say so, spoke to the conscience of her compatriots at the time. And they were words of love - because only words of love can come from true theosophy - but at the same time they were words that sound quite different from what England, what English imperialism, is still doing in India today. They were words that were entirely appropriate for a theosophist.

What Annie Besant called for was nothing less than a modern fulfillment of what Christians call the miracle of Pentecost. You all know that this Pentecost miracle expresses in a powerful symbolism that at that time the apostles, the messengers of Christianity, began to speak in all tongues. They began to speak in all tongues for the reason that this is necessary for someone who wants to bring the message of the divine world order into the world. God speaks to all hearts. But only with one's own tongue can a member of a nation hear the divine word. If you go to a nation and try to interest them in the spirit of divine wisdom or to teach the spirit of human comfort, then you must, above all, be understood by that nation. You must speak in the tongue of that nation. You must take the words, the ideas, the feelings in which you express yourself from this people. The Theosophist sets himself the goal of respecting and appreciating the peculiarities of each people if he wants to contribute to the spread of human and divine wisdom.

And that is what Annie Besant demands of her people with such fervor, one might say, when she says: If you go to this country, then do not be strangers, not rulers, not conquerors, but loving friends who want to learn the language – at least the spiritual language – of the one to whom you want to speak, to whom you want to convey a culture other than your own.

You see, that is the understanding that Annie Besant has been showing the Indian people for years, the active understanding that has led her to work in India for the benefit of the education of this people, for the development of the extraordinarily high spiritual culture to our present day there. Because she knows how to speak to each person in his own tongue, in the sense of the symbolic miracle of Pentecost, and because the Indian people in particular have an understanding of it, Annie Besant is so very much loved there. Those who understand this spirit of genuine theosophical sentiment in the West as well, who do not just know it intellectually, but have grasped it with the depth of their hearts, so that it is the very principle of their lives, are equally devoted to Annie Besant, and for them Annie Besant is currently the soul of the theosophical movement. She is because the spiritual life, which the theosophical movement wants to bring to modern humanity, flows through each of her words, can be felt in each of her words, so that each of her words, although it comes from a complete mastery of all present sciences, at the same time sinks deeply into the hearts of her listeners, can sink deeply into their hearts.

Now, esteemed attendees, Annie Besant may be called the soul of the theosophical movement, and we may greet it with particular satisfaction that this year's season, our work this year, may begin with the work of Annie Besant within our section.

I would like to say that the theme of Annie Besant's lecture in Berlin next Friday is indicative of the whole task of the Theosophical movement and of the importance of the Theosophical Society in our time. The theme is “The New Psychology”, the new doctrine of the soul. We will prepare ourselves for the lecture, which is to be a celebration for us, by realizing what this lecture, in the sense of the Theosophical movement, is actually supposed to convey. Psychology, as you know, is the study of the soul. A “new psychology” is what will be discussed here. The word “new” indicates that we are dealing with a doctrine that was not there before. And if it was not there, then in relation to which doctrine of the soul is the one that Annie Besant is talking about a new doctrine of the soul? That we can speak today of a new doctrine of the soul is something that is connected with the whole task, with the whole meaning of our Theosophical movement. And probably if we could not speak today of a new doctrine of the soul, the Theosophical movement would not have attained any importance, would not have solved its task in such a way, as is already the case today to a high degree.

What was the old doctrine of the soul? We shall understand this if we look back half a century in the development of our cultural life. What I am about to say applies not only to Germany, but to all civilized countries. If we look back to the middle of the nineteenth century, we find that peculiar thoughts about the nature of the soul and the nature of the human spirit prevailed at that time. At that time, so-called materialism was at its peak. Those who had the ear of their contemporaries, such as Ludwig Büchner, Vogt, Moleschott and others, spoke for materialism. The words spoken by the natural scientists Vogt in Germany and Clifford in England resounded throughout the world: “Thoughts are secreted by the brain just as bile is produced by the liver.” So that was the time when people wanted nothing to do with a special soul. Those who wanted nothing to do with a special soul were those who placed the physical above the soul, those who wanted nothing to do with it were those who believed at the time that they were at the cutting edge of science. The flowering of science in the modern age had just begun.

If we take a look at the science of more recent times, we have to say that tremendous developments and discoveries were made in the world at that time. The new science of life was invented under the microscope. It was at that time that people first looked through the microscope at the smallest living creatures, the so-called cells. The doctrine of the origin of the earth, which we now call geology, was still very young. The gale-force winds of Darwinism swept through the educated world. Discovery followed discovery, and the discoveries in the scientific field meant that our external life was changing as industry made its great conquests in the field of natural science, of natural forces. Man had completely settled in the physical world. He had celebrated his great triumphs in the physical world. At the same time, this was the epoch in which man – at least the man who had immersed himself in it – became disoriented about the truths of thousands of years, by denying what the fathers and the fathers of our fathers had regarded as the principle of their existence, as the support of their lives.

We may say that not all of the educated, perhaps only a small number of them, had embraced this materialistic worldview. But that is not the point in the development of the human race. What matters is not whether only a few or the masses grasp some new idea, but whether that idea has the potential to be absorbed into the development of culture, whether it is suitable for being absorbed into the hearts of people, into the minds of those who reflect. There have always been only a few in the world who were knowledgeable. Go back to ancient times and you will always see that there were only a few spiritual leaders. And it is true that the spiritual possessions of the spiritual leaders later become the almost universal possessions of a large part of humanity. Go back to the times when Christianity spread, when the gospel that we call Christian first came into the world, and of which we must say that at first only a few people adhered to it. Then more and more people did so, and later there were millions. And if you go back to the time of the dawn of new eras, to the time of humanity's scientific discoveries, and do some research, you will find that only a few people believed in what are now scientific facts that are common knowledge to countless people – our views of the starry sky, for example, the so-called Copernican worldview. Look at how few people confessed to this belief centuries ago. You will see that there were only a few. And then the current flooded into the minds of a large number of people. This is the case with ideas that have the power to fill people's hearts. With them, it does not matter whether they are initially held by a few or a large number. What matters is who they are held by. Whether they are those who are at the summit of the times or not.

If you follow the times and go back to the first decades of Christianity, you will find that a large number of people, namely the best within European culture, who were at the height of their time in terms of spirituality, were seized by the principles of Christianity. And if you go back to the sixteenth century, you will find that a large number of people, inspired by the few, were convinced by the ideas that Copernicus, Galileo, Giordano Bruno and others brought into the world. They are the leaders of humanity, and the question is whether these leaders of humanity will find the ear of their contemporaries. It was an important question in the mid-nineteenth century as to whether the few whose convictions found expression in the words “The brain sweats out thoughts as the liver does bile” would find the ear of their contemporaries. It was, I say, a big question. For those who spoke in this way, we must realize, were not the worst of their age in those days. They were the ones who spoke from erudition, from science. And science itself had taken on a form that was quite capable of instilling such views in the hearts of many. You can imagine what would happen if, instead of the spiritual, the spiritual world view, the purely materialistic doctrine I have mentioned were to become common knowledge among mankind. Anyone who has an inkling of the devastating effects that the materialistic doctrine would have to wreak on humanity, anyone who is able to observe how the destructive, devastating forces of human nature are connected with this world view in particular, also knows that there was a danger within our education, within our development at that time; but they also know that it is people themselves who are leading history.

Our revered first teacher, Mrs. Blavatsky, once said in her “Secret Doctrine” - and it is a profound truth: Certainly, what is necessary happens in the world. And when an age needs a teaching, a wisdom, a truth, then it will come. But people are called upon to receive it. Although the higher forces must flow into human nature, human resistance, the destructive, evil forces of human nature, can delay the inflow of the higher forces for a long time. Man is not a weak-willed tool of the divine world order, but through thought and human feelings, this divine world order speaks. If we realize this, then we must say to ourselves: Much depends on how humanity in the second half of the nineteenth century positions itself in relation to the materialistic world view, and what it will say to those who are at the height of the materialistic world view. It was close – and the one who cannot observe the times cannot imagine how close it was – that the materialistic worldview would have completely found the ear of its contemporaries. In 1875, that stream of spiritual wisdom was sent into the world, that stream of spiritual wisdom that comes from the same beings from whom spiritual wisdom has spread through all times.

Our first teacher, Mrs. Blavatsky, was commissioned to make herself the mouthpiece for this spiritual wisdom, and those who listened to the messenger of higher beings, to Mrs. Blavatsky, were the first to vigorously counteract the materialistic flood. But do not think that the stream I spoke of was only active within what we call the Theosophical movement or Theosophical Society. Oh no, in the last third of the nineteenth century a mighty spiritual wave began to sweep over all of civilized humanity. Everywhere, the longing arose to recognize the spirit again. Everywhere, the longing arose to gain clarity in the face of the materialistic shaping of science. Only the standard-bearers, the pioneers of this spiritual direction, wanted to be theosophists. Look at all countries and see how all countries long for a new spiritual life, and how this spiritual life lives as a longing in all souls that often deal with the riddles of human life. This longing lives in people who today can call themselves the best of culture, and more than anything else lives in this urge for a new idealism, for a new spirituality. This spiritual wave has also had an effect in science, and there has been a mighty change in science, especially in recent years. Whoever knows that what is decided by the so-called authorities is only a relatively small wave, but one that spreads in all directions and affects humanity, and who also knows how the materialistic movement was aroused at the time, also knows what significance this new wave will have for humanity. Mankind must surely look up to those who have the opportunity to study science and truth. Where should the ordinary person turn when they ask: What is the smallest living thing? They can only turn to science. What priests were in the broadest sense in the past, men of science have become for modern, cultured humanity. But with the psychology that Vogt expresses with the words “The brain sweats out thoughts like the liver sweats out bile,” science, which is at the cutting edge today, has broken thoroughly.

Those who fifteen years ago proclaimed with certainty materialistic science, who denied any life that extends beyond birth and death, precisely those who, just fifteen years ago, did this but seriously engaged with science, who did not remain with prejudices and opinions, who developed further, it is precisely they who today speak a completely different language.

Those who once said that man descended from the mere animal, that the human soul is nothing more than an expression of the mechanically acting organism, just as the activity of a machine is an expression of the mechanical nature of that machine, those who spoke or speak like that, are no longer considered by the truly insightful to be at the level of science. Those who have developed further have at least come to the one thing, they have come to admitting: With materialistic science, there can be no question of attaining the soul, of knowing about the soul, of real psychology. Take a look around Germany. Natural scientists who have done their studies in the last fifteen years and are beginning to talk about these questions: how cautiously they speak compared to the materialistic certainty that could be heard fifteen years ago. Compare what was said about Darwin in the past with what is being said about him today. There is a tremendous difference. And if you look at books that come from infinite erudition, such as those by [Fresnel] – I could also name some German naturalists in this field – you will see the turnaround that has occurred in scientific thinking. Fifteen years ago, you could still hear the same mechanical science at work in the laboratory and the dissecting room, examining tissues under the microscope, and so on. It cannot provide any insights into the soul. Laplace, who originated the doctrine of the movement of the heavenly bodies, once made a remarkable statement to the great Napoleon. Napoleon said: “I find that in your explanations about the movement of the heavenly bodies, there is no God.” To which Laplace replied: “I don't need this hypothesis!” Just as Laplace, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, believed that he did not need the “God” hypothesis, so science believes that it does not need the soul hypothesis. It says: We have examined and dissected the brain, and we have not found a soul.

Today, only a natural scientist whose insights are outdated would say this. No natural scientist at the cutting edge of his or her field would say this. Today, the natural scientist who is not yet ready to embrace the new paths of a new soul doctrine will at least cautiously say: My science must stop at the problems of the soul, at the riddles of life.

That is what the natural scientists say: it is agnosticism, that is, non-science or non-knowledge. For many, this is a buzzword. The conviction that materialistic science must be modest and must be agnostic with regard to the higher realms of existence is becoming more and more widespread. From this you can see that the psychology of fifty years ago, which is not a psychology at all but a denial of everything spiritual, is on the way to being completely overcome.

But this materialistic doctrine of the soul has brought us one thing: for centuries and millennia there was a doctrine of the soul that priests taught and that comforted people when they were dying. At that time, many people were able to doubt this doctrine of the soul and they believed that they had to doubt it in honest conviction because, in their opinion, their research demanded it. Certainly, the eternal truths proclaimed by the religions of all times are unshakable, they stand firm. They have not been shaken, not even by the fact that individual people have lost their way with them. It is no proof that the materialistic doctrine of the soul has spread, that at that time this doctrine of the religions did not have the power to bring about the conviction of its truth. But the spirit had become weak, especially in the inquisitive and striving seekers of truth. And because it had become weak, the spirit, through the floods of new physical truths that had befallen it under the splendor of the new cultural achievements, because it had achieved another, external, physical greatness, therefore it lagged behind in spiritual life, therefore it could not comprehend the truths in the old form. A new form for the teaching of the soul has therefore become necessary. And a completely new method of research has also become necessary. And while the natural scientists I have been talking about have become more modest over the last fifteen years, while they have moved towards non-knowledge, towards agnosticism, others are working on developing a new teaching of the soul.

They are working on it and investigating what does not present itself to external research, what only presents itself to the spiritual and soul view. Thus we see that within the last twenty years a new psychology has flourished, quite independently of all occultist movements. We see that within the circles of scholars, natural scientists, researchers, a new psychology is emerging. And while the Theosophists want to be the pioneers and standard-bearers for a spiritual deepening of humanity, here you see the work beginning from a completely different side. You see how the same results are being sought on a much larger scale, which the Theosophical Society wants to bring to the world. The spiritual forces work uniformly. Do not imagine that it is other forces than the spiritual beings who stand behind the Theosophical movement that are inspiring modern scholars to a new psychology. These beings choose many paths. They choose them unconsciously in human terms in order to advance humanity in the knowledge of the spirit and in the study of the soul. One of the paths that runs parallel to Theosophy is the path that the new psychology is taking. The theosophist already knows where this new psychology will lead in years to come. He knows that it is a tributary that will flow into the great stream of spiritual movement, which is represented by the theosophical teaching and by the theosophical life. In full foresight of what must come, and in order to truly bring humanity to an understanding of what must come, the theosophical movement has been called into the world by beings who transcend far beyond the measure of what the most highly educated person can achieve within our culture. Anyone who does not believe in all modesty that his wisdom is the sum of all wisdoms, that his judgment represents the highest judgment, will soon be able to observe that there are other people besides him who have more wisdom and more judgment, and he will listen to these personalities, will let himself be taught by them. When he gains some insight, he will come to say to himself: I still have the way to go that others have already gone. The more insight a person gains, the more humble he becomes in this regard, the more clearly he realizes how much he still has to learn, and the more likely he is to find those who have something to teach him from their spiritual heights, which he has not yet reached. If someone believes that they cannot learn anything from anyone, it is a sure sign that they have not progressed very far. The more advanced a person is, the more he comes to the certain knowledge that people are at different stages of development, and that there have always been those who have been spiritual guides to humanity and who have progressed further in their development than their fellow brothers, the most advanced brothers. They are the ones who are most difficult to understand, indeed, to be recognized, by their less developed fellow brothers. It was from such highly developed entities, difficult to understand and recognize, that the great spiritual stream emanated in 1875, which, with the help of the Theosophical movement, poured out over humanity, which longed for it.

People often ask why these highly developed entities do not show themselves, why they only make themselves felt to a limited extent. The answer can be found in one of the most profound works produced by the Theosophical movement, in the small booklet, which, however, encompasses a world of wisdom, in “Light on the Path”. What is said there, that the guiding beings, these highly developed individualities that tower far above their fellow human beings, can be there, yes, can be in the midst of a crowd without being recognized, that they can be in St. Petersburg, in Berlin, in London, in Paris, without anyone - except for a very few - knowing about it. This is literally true. There are reasons, certain reasons, why the advanced leader of humanity must

remain hidden. We cannot deal with such reasons today. But it is necessary for the highest teachers to build a kind of wall around themselves, and that only those who are prepared by a suitable way of life should have access to them. Such entities were and are continually the source of the movements we call theosophical. Such entities, in their infinite benevolence, also have great power, and much of what happens in humanity comes from these beings without humanity suspecting it.

When we speak of new currents in spiritual life, of a new psychology, which seems to be apart from the great theosophical stream, it is only seemingly so. The same entities and forces are at work there too, and they speak the language that can be understood in the circles of scholarship, in the circles of scientific research. For the observation of the miracle of Pentecost, of speaking in all tongues, is the principle of the theosophist, that is what completely fulfills him. That is why it speaks to each race, each people and each tribe in its own language. That is why it speaks in the language of the Hindus in India and in other tongues in other places, to the hearts of people who are accustomed to thinking and speaking in scientific terms, these beings are also able to speak to them in their language. And gently and mildly and slowly, Theosophy will also guide science in its paths.

This is the perspective for the future. The theosophist knows that what is to be will be. He knows that even though we have to speak of it today as a very young plant, he knows that this new teaching of the soul will grow into a mighty light in a short time, that it will radiate and fill people with a completely new consciousness of the times.

This new psychology has been established by the scholars and will continue to be developed by the scholars. But if we want to learn about its significance and its mission in the future, then we must hear about this new psychology from the theosophists, and our dear and esteemed Annie Besant will speak about the significance and essence of this new psychology in Berlin on Friday. You see how a single act of a theosophist is connected with the whole task of theosophy, and how in turn the whole task of theosophy is connected with the task of our time. We do not believe that the theosophical movement is called upon to explore the souls of people for new truths, as is happening in the field of new psychology, nor do we believe that these truths can be found in ancient wisdom. We are clear about one thing: wherever new life is sprouting in the present, wherever something new is emerging, it needs to be imbued with a spiritual breath, to be directly revitalized with new spiritual life. And this spiritual life, this breath, which should blow through the souls and hearts of our present-day humanity, this direct life in the face of the new truths, is what the theosophical movement wants to bring.

You will hear about the new truths in a new form from all lecterns and from all sides in the future. The theosophical movement wants to give the deepest life, which must permeate it, the soul itself of this new spiritual life. And he who is imbued with this life, who is imbued with this attitude, wants that all our new souls striving for truth be inspired, that what we explore from a warm heart penetrates into hearts, so that it gives us strength to live and comfort for our gaze into the farthest future for that which would have to remain a dead letter, dead science, if it remained merely scientific, the one who wants to bring it to life, he is a theosophist. For those who hear the inner voice speaking in quiet moments, for such men and women, the Theosophical Society is only the outer instrument. It does not depend on whether something is more or less good or bad in the Theosophical Society. It is built on human weakness and with human judgment, like all human institutions. The greatest masters themselves, who have brought us the theosophical wisdom, who speak to those who imbue the theosophical movement with life, cannot deal with external social foundations. They leave that to those who carry out their orders, who place themselves in their service as their messengers. It is not the external framework that matters. But we want to preserve it precisely because we do not overestimate it and because we need it, and because we would be disturbed and prevented from working if we did not have this external framework as an all-encompassing one that covers Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Australia. We want to draw attention to the fact that it is not this framework, but the spirit that humanity needs, and that through the theosophical movement flows to those who want it.

Thus, a society in which Theosophists are gathered is something different from a society in which others are gathered in the present time, something essentially different. Everyone seeks out societies, geographical, anthropological, philological, philosophical, and so on. They find that all cultural products must spread through society. But one thing is different in the theosophical movement. Where theosophists are united, they do not all want to be united by common truths, not all by common convictions, by dogmas, they want to be united in that which cannot be grasped by the mind, not by the intellect, but by the heart, the heart that comprehends and is filled with wisdom, which is at the same time the heart that loves. The theosophists want to be filled with a common spiritual life. When they are united, this common spiritual life should flood their souls. And wherever there is a theosophical lodge, wherever more or less theosophical personalities of the present have united, they want to form a center where they gather these powers of soul and spirit, this power from which this spiritual life then radiates in all directions. Every meeting and every branch should be such a center, and something invisible should radiate out from it. What matters in these gatherings is not what this or that person says, whether he is more or less learned, not whether he is this or that, but whether those who are gathered are filled with this true spiritual life that radiates from their center, so that the humanity of the present can grasp it more and more. What matters is not what I say here, not my words, but each and every one of us who is gathered here. What passes through all our souls at the moment we have gathered here is what matters. It is only by chance that one person speaks and only by chance that one person puts into words what needs to be said. What one person says is no more important than what is going on in the souls of the others, in the eyes of those who lead the theosophical movement. What is important is the spiritual life, which should flourish in all souls at this moment and radiate out to the rest of the world, to the present-day human civilization. That is the true teaching of our society. That is what is embodied in our Annie Besant, and that is why we can call her the soul of the Theosophical Society. That is why she embodies the task of the Theosophical Society before the others. That is why what she does is specifically Theosophical work. And if today we have tried to immerse ourselves for an hour in the spirit of the Theosophical Movement and in the task of the Theosophical Society, if we have tried to understand what will be embodied for all of us in the near future, as if alive, next Friday and Sunday, then this task of ours should stand before our soul, shining before us as the best Theosophical light in the present. Hopefully we will get beyond the preparations to what it has to say to us about important questions of the present in the theosophical movement.

The annual meeting was opened at around half past three by the First Chairman, Dr. Rudolf Steiner. After reading the minutes of the previous year's annual meeting, to which no objections were raised, Dr. Steiner took the floor again to give a brief review of the year's events. He gave a brief summary of the following:

Relocation of lectures from Wilhelmstr. 118 to the architects' house. The rooms are more pleasant and more worthy of the Theosophical cause. Nevertheless, there has been no increase in attendance.

Monday members' evenings: the Monday meetings would like to develop into real members' evenings, at which there should be lively discussion and real interaction between members.

Visit and lecture by Mrs. Annie Besant: “What has been said here is to be understood as a kind of business report, because the Theosophist cannot speak of success or non-success, cannot merely focus on the increase in membership. The Berlin audience has responded in various ways to this significant rally. I would like to report on just one fact that will show, in a flash, how the Theosophical movement is viewed in many significant places in Berlin. The chairman of the Giordano Bruno League, Mr. Wolfgang Kirchbach, took a stand against Theosophy in his lecture introducing the winter of 1904/5, which is characterized in the League's communications with the following words: [gap in the transcript]

These words show very clearly how little one knows about Theosophy and how reluctant one is to deal with its teachings. However, one would not be mistaken in assuming that this statement characterizes the position of the leaders almost without exception, but not that of the members.

Ms. von Sivers then reported on membership trends. Despite a great deal of activity, the number of members in the branch has grown relatively little. Last year, the Berlin branch had 58 members. Today, the number of members is 88, so there has been an increase of 30 members (14 women, 16 men).

This was followed by the cash report by Fräulein von Rosen. On [gap in transcript] 1903, the Berlin branch had a balance of 576.67 marks. The cash balance on October 20, 1904, was 653 marks, which is 76.33 marks more.

The income consists of:
Cash balance 1903: 576.67 Marks
Membership fees: 626.45 Marks
[Gap in the transcript): 691.56 Marks
Total: 1894.68 Marks

Expenses amounted to 1241.68 Marks,
therefore cash balance as of October 20, 1904: 653 Marks.

Last year, the library's cash balance was...

received in lending fees: Mark...
received in subscriptions: Mark...
together
[numbers missing from transcript]

Spent:

1. for renting the room: 300 Marks
2. book purchases: 218.66 Marks
[so together 518.66 marks]

Therefore, this year a shortfall of 124.15 marks.

It should be noted that the rent is paid until May 1905, when the shortfall would be only 24.14 marks as of October 1.

Account of the lecture by Mrs. Annie Besant. When Miss von Sivers wanted to hand in the account, the chairman Dr. Steiner noted that this was a matter for the Section, because Mrs. Annie Besant had donated the proceeds to the Section treasury.

This concluded the reports.

In response to Dr. Steiner's question as to whether there were any comments or questions to be made about the reports, Mr. Krojanker requested the floor and asked the following question regarding the library: “Who owns the library? The Berlin branch, the German Section or someone else?” To which Dr. Steiner replied: “The library is a separate entity and was originally founded as a kind of annex to the ‘German Theosophical Society’. Then a library fund was formed from voluntary donations and from the proceeds of a lecture by Emanuel Reicher, and at the same time the library was emancipated from the DTG. Supervision, administration and ownership were transferred to a committee. The Berlin branch has neither income nor expenses related to the library. The library was given to us privately. I would have put things in order, but I was unable to find a way and an authority or agency to deal with."

Julius Engel added the following to this report: ”Originally, the library belonged to the DTG; then came Emanuel Reicher, from whose lecture the library received a large sum of money. Since Reicher did not want to join the Theosophical Society and did not want to give lectures in favor of the library under the name of a Theosophical library, the name of the library was changed to: “Library for Comparative Religious Studies” and the ownership and administration was transferred to a commission that at that time consisted of Count and Countess Brockdorff, Krecke, Reicher, Hübbe-Schleiden."

Miss Motzkus also noted that the room for the library had been rented in order to have a home of their own. Miss von Sivers replied, “Yes, if we had our own headquarters, that would be possible, but not if we were in private rooms.”

Finally, the assembly agreed to appoint a commission to examine the facts and documents, after whose report further steps would be taken.

The following were elected to the examination commission: Mr. Krojanker, Mr. Engel, Mr. [Quaas.

Furthermore, Mr. Krojanker proposed: to award Dr. Rudolf Steiner 300 marks for the lectures he gave in the past year (1903). After Dr. Steiner had handed over the chair to the second chair, Miss von Sivers, because it was a personal matter for him, he took the floor to speak about this request as follows: “It would be more in line with the theosophical way of thinking if you did not provide the amount as a fee for lectures, but perhaps for the purpose of being able to do more effective propaganda for Theosophy, so that if something should be done sometimes, I would have 40 to 50 marks at my disposal without having to be given special compensation for it. Besides, I also have concerns of principle. It is common practice in the Theosophical Society that the most important officials, but especially those who work for the content of the movement (speakers, general secretaries), are not actually remunerated by the Society or the branches. For these reasons, I cannot accept a fee for the lectures.

Hlerr] Werner: “Little is known about our society; much more extensive propaganda should be carried out. If you want to accommodate the chairman with good advice, then that is small-minded. Dr. Steiner's work should not be paid for at all. [illegible] You must not curtail his wings in any way, and therefore I request that the chairman be given a free hand with regard to propaganda and financial matters.

Mr. Krojanker replied that there was a misunderstanding here. Nobody wanted to tie Dr. Steiner down, but rather to free him from the burden of subordinate work and to enable him to dispose of limited amounts of money more freely.

Elections:

Board: Mr. Kiem is unanimously elected to the board in place of the previous treasurer, Miss von Rosen; Miss Schwiebs is elected as a trusted representative in place of Baron von Reisner, who is ill.

Executive Committee: Baron von Reisner is replaced by Miss Frölich. The committee itself elects its chair and secretary. Mr. Krojanker will convene the first meeting.

Auditors: The following were appointed as auditors: Mr. Tessmar, auditor, and Mr. Georgi. The following were elected as delegates to the General Assembly of the German Section: Mr. Kiem, Mr. Krojanker and Mr. Seiler, in addition to the First Chairman, Dr. Steiner, and the Second Chairman, Miss von Sivers.

Book sale: The ladies Frölich, Mücke, [Voigt] agreed to help out.

Proposal for the section's general assembly:

Since Mrs. von Holten has resigned from her post as treasurer, a new treasurer must be elected. The Berlin branch proposes: Miss von Sivers as cashier, Mr. Seiler to keep the books.

Dr. Steiner then took the floor again to explain his position in more detail: “The Theosophical Society,” he continued, “is not in the same position as any other society with regard to such matters. Another society would be able to accept Krojanker's proposal. But with the Theosophical Society it is necessary to note the following: we are dealing with two different things; we have to distinguish between the Theosophical Society and the occult movement to which we belong. For me, the situation is that on the one hand I belong to the Berlin branch of the Theosophical Society and speak for members of the Berlin branch, but on the other hand I am part of an occult movement and speak as an occultist in all matters. There is no way to make any advance arrangements through the association for what I do at this point.

The Theosophical Society cannot easily be associated with the occult movement. It may be the case that the Society decides on a lecture cycle that I, as an occultist, cannot give for some reasons that often cannot even be explained. Although it is not likely that obstacles will arise in the relations between the Theosophical Society and the occult movement on which it is based, this circumstance must always be taken into account. On the other hand, it is also desirable for the members of the Berlin branch to be active in propaganda.

Mr. Werner requests that his motion be voted on first, as it is the more extensive one. It reads: To grant the board of directors, or rather Dr. Steiner, complete freedom of disposal. The meeting, however, considers Krojanker's motion to be the more extensive one and adopts it without further objection. The wording was: In addition to the freedom of disposal, Dr. Steiner is also to be given 300 marks for his personal disposal.

Lectures:

Krojanker: “It is necessary to distinguish between lectures held for the Berlin branch and those organized by Dr. Steiner himself. Only the former can be considered here. If the results were not very favorable, it is mainly because the arrangement was not handled very well. It seems better to me that the Berlin branch be given more autonomy in this regard, that is, that the board or the executive committee be consulted when arranging lectures, and that they then carry out the propaganda for the lectures. Tickets could be sold long before the event begins; the distribution of tickets could be handled in a more business-like manner. Then one would no longer be so dependent on how many happen to come up from the street. The individual measures should be discussed and decided in advance by the Executive Council or Executive Committee, and then the propaganda should be carried out with the help of all available resources. The members would then have to get tickets and try to find accommodation for them.

Private study groups:

Dr. Steiner is quite in agreement that groups and study courses should be formed among the members, in which more experienced Theosophists can sometimes participate.

Congress:

Miss von Sivers pointed out that the possibility existed of the General Theosophical Congress being transferred to Berlin, that a great deal of money would then be needed and that it might be a good idea to start collecting in good time.

Dr. Steiner replied: “As long as we don't have 700 members, we can't take on the congress. Besides, it has to be a theosophical congress. The presentations must not cause the participants' heads to turn in circles; a form must be found that does not contain such an abuse.

There were around 50 people in attendance, including Mr. Julius Engel as a guest. The meeting ended at half past six.