The Rudolf Steiner Archive

One who understands the working of these numbers

When something was supposed to be given to a Rosicrucian pupil through which he could elevate himself, then the above verse and figures were placed before his soul. These figures are nothing abstract but must be permeated with one's feeling and intellect if one wants to understand them. If this happens in the right way the pupil experiences truths that are of the greatest importance for his further development. The point is the point of life from which all evolution proceeds. All life proceeds from a unity and goes over into manifoldness. Plurality springs from unity.

Everything that's around us on earth comes from man. Nature is a spread out, dismantled man. Mineral, plant and animal are found in him. All qualities that a man has are found scattered in the kingdoms of nature. Man is the crown of creation. All existing things come from man.

In the second row we see how evolution proceeds in large numbers. But plurality must bring it about that a unity arises again from it. This happened in the middle of the Atlantean race when man acquired his I. Man was still relatively simple then. Today he's already much more complicated.

In the third row we see symbols for earth, water, air and fire. The first element is contained most purely in carbon today. Man exhales carbon dioxide; this is taken in by plants and is found solidified in coal and diamonds.

The second element, water, isn't found on earth in its original condition—it's what we call oxygen. People used to drink oxygen like we drink water today. If we only had carbon and oxygen on earth we'd get old very fast. Oxygen has the ability to let everything live very rapidly and to constantly renew things.

That's why the third element, air, had to be added. It's the present nitrogen, which dampens life. Without nitrogen's influence there would be no consciousness; astrality couldn't become manifest.

The fourth element is fire. Fire plays a big role in occultism. It's the warmth element. All four elements intermingle. We maintain our own warmth with the help of fire. Self-consciousness wouldn't be possible without it. We have the physical expression of our I, blood, through it. A combustion process takes place. Thereby man has become a being with self-consciousness, as can be seen from the first symbol in the fourth row: the sulfur process. The second symbol consists of the moon, sun and the ego as an appendix. The third symbol signifies the division of the physical and etheric bodies that were originally similar; then the physical body condenses and the finer etheric body remains outside, surrounding it. This is similar to what happens when salt is dissolved: first there's a milky fluid from which salt precipitates, leaving the finer water above: the salt process. The hexagram in the fifth row represents the double nature of man that is intertwined, and the last upside down Venus is man's “I” that surpasses all other creatures.

You'll remember the esoteric saying that stood on one of our columns at the Munchen congress:

In pure thoughts you find the self
That can maintain itself.

The truth in this verse makes up a large part of esoteric life. One can divide everything that a man thinks and feels today into two areas. By far the most of what men think and feel is stimulated by outer perceptions. Thoughts and feelings are ignited by things. In principle it makes no difference whether you see a streetcar and let your thoughts be stimulated by this or if an astronomer looks through a telescope and calculates a planet's path on the basis of these observations with the help of the arc of a circle. All thoughts that are stimulated from outside hinder the astral body's development. The astral body is active all night long. All the thoughts that a man thought during the day come to it. And since these are mostly thoughts that arose through stimulation from outside, they burden it. Only the part of the astral body that preserved its harmony through the fact that it's born out of higher worlds works on the restoration of the worn out physical and etheric bodies. Only thoughts that aren't stimulated from outside work as forces in the astral body to promote and purify it.

Where do these thoughts come from? They come from divine creator beings. It's very important for an occult pupil to know about the thoughts of these spiritually creative beings. These beings had the present world in them as thoughts before they created it. The very first thing that was in them was will; the will to act was there first. This stimulated them to have feelings. And from feelings arose the thought by which they solidified and created things. Thus the world was built according to thoughts.

Today the carrying out of a human deed occurs in the reverse order. The thought is there first—stimulated by an outer object; this arouses a feeling, and only then does a man's will principle step in to bring about a deed.

All real esoteric life can only develop by taking in the thoughts of these divine creator spirits, the thoughts before the creation of things. Most people devote themselves entirely to exoteric life and try to suppress all esoteric life. Thereby they're holding up human progress. They're enemies of further development and they rigidify men. Only esoteric truths promote human evolution.

Now it's a law of occultism that every esoteric truth is used up after awhile. And mankind's leaders must see to it that a new one is proclaimed. So what do we need a new truth for, some say. They want to stop all esoteric progress. It's the task of all true occultists to see to it that thinking is kept alive and in flux. This is attained by taking in the thoughts of divine creator beings. These thoughts work at night in the astral body and work into the etheric body. And when the work of these thoughts in the astral body becomes ever stronger and more active with respect to the etheric body, then that moment approaches that must come sooner or later for every pupil where he becomes aware of spiritual worlds, where thoughts become impressed in the etheric body like a seal in wax.

One of these thoughts is in the Rosicrucian verse that we spoke of last time. Today we'll look at this verse from a somewhat different viewpoint. We know that Saturn existed first. Its matter wasn't even gaseous, it was a warmth matter. A man with present-day senses would not have seen Saturn; he would only have felt warmth if he was at the place where Saturn stood. A Saturn man consisted of warmth mater. The atmosphere of Saturn was fiery-bloody. Man didn't have any blood yet, but the first germ of his later blood lay in the atmosphere around him. Man's physical parts were only germinally present.

If one looks at how after a pralaya old Saturn changed into old Sun with the spiritual gaze that moves over the planets one notices that Saturn's warmth atmosphere condenses into air. Man gets an etheric body on the Sun. He is a shining being. Spiritual beings work through the Sun's astral atmosphere upon the etheric body, ignite it and thereby make it shine. One calls this the sulfuric process. Something quite similar arises today in thinking. When our fiery blood runs into nerve masses there's a combustion process and things light up.

When the Sun passes over to the Moon, air condenses to water. The Moon's body is a water body. We notice something very strange about this water body. Single water drops change their position in an extremely lively manner and race around with inner mobility. In some respects one can compare this property of the water drops with mercury. That's why one calls this principle that's added on the Moon the mercurial principle. The parts are put together into forms by sounds, somewhat like Chladni's sound figures. First two came together, then two pairs made four, etc., just as one still finds in new plant, animal and human forms. That's the female principle. The male principle only arose later from pure earth forces.

When the moon passed over to the earth, water condensed to earth. The precipitating salt process took place on the earth for the first time through the interaction of fire and water. Man arose from female and male and began to dissolve things again through thinking so that evolution could continue. Man received the erring I on earth.

Now if we look at this evolutionary series we see the four elements fire, air, water, earth as in the third line of the verse (2–12):

... see the three
salt, mercury and sulfur,
two arise from sun and moon (male and female)
From this grows the Son of Man
The crown of creation.

Understood like this, the Rosicrucian verse gains meaning.

Self-knowledge is the thirst and main thing in esoteric training. The teacher says: Imagine that you saw your own mirror image. You'll see a distorted image if the mirror is poor, and a correct one if it's good. If you want to see yourself the way you are, you must make the mirror nice and clear.

One who lets himself be torn back and forth by his desires and wishes, who can't make his own decisions, who follows that other people tell him, is like a boat in a sea that's being driven up and down by waves and winds. But a man who controls his wishes and desires, who doesn't let himself be influenced by other people is like a man who gets a strong and sure grip on the rudder and guides the boat to the goal through wind and weather.

People who drink alcohol have a different effect on us than men who drink milk. We're exposed to all kinds of streams that go through space. We're not free if we let these streams influence us. Let's make this clear through four people. A is one you call a sensitive man who quickly understands everything around him. But he himself is weak; nothing original comes from his soul. He's connected with B who has dispositions for a certain form of insanity, although it doesn't break out because of his robust peasant nature. C is a strong spiritual person, a genius. D is like A, sensitive and receptive. The kind of insanity that's concealed in B breaks out in the sensitive A; it's not his insanity, but B's. Sensitive D doesn't take in B's insanity, but C's geniality. D seems to be a clever, genial man, but he's just a reflection of C's cleverness; he can speak brilliantly about everything, but he can't make a single correct judgment by himself. A strong, independent personality might not seem to be very brilliant and might only make a few, hesitant judgments, but he makes them by himself, out of inner deliberation and strength. Such a man would certainly seem to be more valuable than D. An esoteric pupil should free himself from all outer influences, not by fleeing the world, but by making the true man, the spiritual or higher I, independent. We really have not just four but five members, namely, physical, etheric and astral bodies, a sheath ego and behind that the real I, the true man. We pour all influences from the outer world into this sheath ego; they tear and pull us back and forth. All influences that go from man to man in the way just indicated hit the sheath ego. We must try to strengthen the true, real I that far surpasses the other one. Then we're immune to outer influences.

How do we do that? In good Rosicrucian schools pupils were given a symbol like this. And the teacher says:
You won't be able to apply the method that you get through this sign for everything that happens to you during the day, especially in these hectic times, but you should do it once in a thousand cases. For that time conjure up this form before your spiritual eye so that you stand before it when you're supposed to make a decision. Think that “order me” stands written along the one line. Then let everything that can be said in favor of the deed in question run through your soul. Everything must be well and consequently thought out. A fact that follows from the preceding one must be thought through factually until the goal of your resolve stands clearly before your soul at the end of the line. Then think of the other line. What's written on this is: “forbid me.” Here you must line up all the facts that speak against the decision. This must happen just as clearly and matter-of-factly as before, without sympathy or antipathy. Then let your gaze move along the upright that's not written on. Imagine that your real I, not the sheath I, is standing there. Then wait quietly and compare the facts that are there on the lines “order me” and “forbid me” by looking from one to the other. And then the right decision will arise in you and this will have been given to you by your real I.

You must do something similar when you have to make a judgment. The “right” is written on one line and “wrong” on the other. Your higher I stands at the uninscribed line. It's unmoved by the streams that go through space, whether they come from other people or other spiritual beings. This true, independent inner I, uninfluenced by the sheath's ego, then tells you the right judgment, if you listen silently and in complete inner quiet and seclusion to what it tells you.

Such forms and lines come from the spiritual realm The masters of wisdom and of the harmony of feelings gave them to us because they know that they work in the spiritual element in us. A form like this awakens the true I in a man and lifts it out of consciousness into consciousness. The Gods once created man out of forms, numbers and lines—or measure, number and weight, as one says in occultism. Numbers, lines and forms influence men. This is known by black magicians. They use them to make men dependent. They know how to use forms, numbers and lines to make men slaves of their will impulses. White magic makes a man independent. Its goal is to raise the higher man, the inner ruler, into a man's consciousness and to thereby make a man into a free, strong, independent being.

Today desire goes out of the astral body, interest lies in the I, and pleasure is in the etheric body. Previously interest was in the astral body, desire was in the etheric body and pleasure was in the physical body; this was in the Lemurian epoch when there was no disease, food flowed in and out, and egoless people without interest in outer things changed bodies like clothes. Pictures arose in the astral body that told a man what was good or harmful for him. He was interested in the pictures that arose within him and this interest remained when he changed bodies. This was a permanent astral consciousness. This changed when the I that had been in the spiritual world sank into man and permeated him more and more. Interest moved into the I. The I drew interest up to itself, it drew everything up to its own realm. Thereby it tied itself off from the Gods, and the result was death. Everything that doesn't happen for the whole but for a single something that's separated from the whole, and therefore is egoism, finally leads to the destruction of this single thing, to death.

Rosicrucianism calls this interest that goes out from the ego estimatio. We must raise our interest to the astral plane again; whereby we gain imaginatio. When desire is brought back into the etheric body we attain incantatio or inspiratio. And by putting pleasure back into the physical body we get intuitio.

When we no longer follow personal interests in our actions, when we do what we have to do in such a way that we follow the inner necessities that a rightly understood law of karma places on us, when we give our deeds to the outer world with inner equanimity and in accordance with this law, then we overcome estimatio through our own higher I who is then the doer. And when bound by the strength of this I we no longer let ourselves be driven by the streams and influences that storm in on us from the outer world we can then make right judgments about the outer world and we gather wisdom from it. It reveals its inner nature to us when we stand before it with equanimity, and when we think and act in such a way that we know: All of my thoughts, feelings and deeds influence the whole, nothing exists for itself; I want to give everything to humanity, let everything be dedicated to the service of mankind. When this lives in a pupil as the basic feeling, he then develops Buddhi, the Christ principle. Thus he lets the higher triad arise from the given figure: Manas, Buddhi, Atman.

Impatience slows development of the organs one needs to see into higher worlds. For many pupils already have spiritual organs developed before they know about them or know how to use them. It's like a sleeper who hears nothing because the ego and astral body have left his ears.

When we look at a rose its red color, form, etc. has a destructive effect on our retina. The rose sensation runs along our nerves and has a destructive effect on them. The astral body throws what the retina receives into the etheric body that thereby gets many impressions from outside daily.

What tears down the physical body builds things up in the etheric body. The latter builds itself up through impressions and experiences from outside. The astral body is also destroyed by outer impressions and then the I is supposed to build things up again. The astral body is harmoniously organized when it comes to a new incarnation and is then made disharmonious. That's the occult explanation for the fact that most children cry after they're born. Their astral body feels that entry into life destroys its harmony and it feels this as pain. This harmony can only be restored by the I, through the creation of thought pictures that the I throws into the etheric body via the astral body, and that are viable. Most of the impressions that we send to our etheric body in ordinary life are worthless as far as their vitality is concerned. We should create mental images that are clear and rightly structured and therefore are able to live. For instance, what the eyes receive from outside they throw onto the etheric body, on which the picture arises. The I then works on the etheric body from the other side via the astral body by forming a thought in this that it throws on the etheric body as an impression; and the main thing is that they should be the right, viable thoughts. These viable thoughts form our spiritual organs that'll make us clairvoyant. Just as Gods created our physical body harmoniously so that each organ and limb is at the right place, so we must form our astral and etheric bodies harmoniously and make our thoughts viable. This doesn't have to take long. An experienced esoteric often only needs a minute to harmonize his impressions again. One creates such organ-forming, vital impressions in one's etheric body through meditation, by immersing oneself in certain concepts, in eternal thoughts.

For instance, it's important for every pupil to meditate on the wisdom concept. This doesn't mean that he should form a firmly outlined, intellectual definition of wisdom. He should have mobile views about it that are easy to change. Wisdom and cleverness or erudition are very different things. Some beings don't think and yet are very wise. They execute plans very wisely, although they were created by other beings. There are also men who aren't clever or erudite but are wise. Now if one meditates on the wisdom concept in the right way some wisdom will flow into us, enlightenment from higher worlds will come to us.

A second concept that one should meditate on is love. What the average person calls love is often nothing but crass egotism. True love is always productive, as when an artist devotes himself creatively to his work. The Gods created our earth out of love as they devoted themselves entirely to the creation that they sweat out of themselves, as it were. What can unite love and wisdom is that I that always works at itself, that must always be egofied anew, as Fichte puts it. One only understands Fichte's philosophy rightly if one sees that the I must always create itself anew, must know itself anew. That's also what Meister Eckhart means when he says: What good is it to be a king if one isn't aware that one is one.

All things on higher planes throw shadows onto lower ones, and so I, wisdom and love work as thinking, feeling and willing on the next, lower plane. One who thinks intentively about it will realize that the I is changed into thinking, wisdom passes over into feeling, and productive love becomes will, that is the impulse to creativity, to devotion. To complement these three points and the triangle it's good to meditate on four other points and a square. Choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic and melancholic beings create an etheric body for a man when he presses towards a new incarnation. Each man gets something from each of these beings, although one or the other usually predominates. This dominant temperament becomes manifest in a man's whole behavior, especially when he is young. For instance, phlegmatic beings are enemies of the philistine, petty things that a man would get into if he got too much from the melancholic beings. Choleric beings also become manifest in fire, sanguine ones in air, phlegmatics in water and melancholic beings in earth. Our earth is the outer expression for melancholy that has become physical. If one meditates on all of this one will someday lose consciousness of the outer world and will then know what eternity is and that birth and death are only changes. The etheric body will light up from the other side through the I and we'll see the effects of the eternal, live thoughts that we imprinted on it, namely, the clairvoyant organs that we can now use. If we're impatient and try to speed up this process the I illumines the etheric body, but we only see the outer impressions that were put into it, distorted pictures that are often horrible, or else beautiful, deceptive pictures. Therefore it's advisable to use the greatest care and patience in creating well formed, proper spiritual organs, for we're creating our future, our new earth with them. The Gods meditated our present planet, and what we create should be just as full of wisdom.

Every perusal of art also strengthens clairvoyant organs. For instance, when we look at a statue it's good to feel the forms and lines in one's thoughts. This strengthens our creative capacities.

Every esoteric who's trying to develop himself inwardly must know about his connection with spiritual powers who live in the surrounding world and who stream in and out of him continually. When we look at a human being we first have his physical body. It's due to the working of spiritual beings that the physical body is put together the way it is. Archai work in the earth, water, air and fire elements. They stream in and out of his physical body. Likewise archangels are at work in his etheric body, and angels in the astral body. The sentient soul that developed out of the latter is worked on by the Exusiai. Dynamis work on the intellectual soul and Kyriotetes on the consciousness soul. Even high beings work on man's higher members: Seraphim on spirit self, Cherubim on life spirit and the Thrones on spirit man.

When an esoteric pupil wanted to know the essence of Christian teachings he had to look at this picture of man shaped like a tree that's rooted in the spirit. That's why they meant by Buddha sitting under the bodhi tree, or Nathaneal sitting under the fig tree. The world ash Yggdrasil is also a depiction of this tree.

The forces that work on the physical body are Archai. There's four kinds of these beings. They're not incorporated in physical bodies, they only have a corporality down to the ether. These are the four kings who work on man in the ether. Man owes his physical body to these beings who live in the ether. If one thinks of ever finer substances from solids to fluids, gases, warmth and ethers, one is getting the wrong idea about ethers for they are quite different from physical substances.

One should look upon the four forces in ether that work on man's physical body as the four temperaments. The substances of the four beings are the four temperaments. Beings who are incorporated in the choleric temperament work in man's warmth element, those in sanguine in his air, phlegmatic in water, and ones who are incorporated in the melancholic temperament work in his solid or earthy things. The melancholic temperament enables a man to form firm concepts that remain the same, so that if he thinks horse today it will remain the same concept for him tomorrow. Whereas the phlegmatic temperament keeps concepts fluid so that he can always take in new things. When a man thinks, his thoughts are firmer parts of the uniform mass of his aura. In some people thought forms tend to stay firm; in others they're constantly changing. If a man's forms of thoughts are flexible, new thoughts can press into them and the two understand each other very well. An esoteric must cultivate this flexibility of thought forms. This is of great importance for him. That a man can do this is based on phlegma. It's a mistake to say that a man has this or that temperament because he has this or that physical body. His physical body was formed out of the temperaments by the spirits who work in him.

Many people think that they're working for the good of mankind from morn till eve, but this is questionable. A clairvoyant can see that efforts coming from materialistic thinking have the wrong effect, and it may lie in some people's karma that they should wait until they can do certain things. Then a higher being can whisper such a task in his ear, so that it's not induced by outer circumstances. Life is a destructive process for someone who only devotes himself to outer sense impressions. A meditating esoteric doesn't let his life be determined by outer circumstances as much. One who makes repeated meditational efforts isn't exposed to astral confusions at night and makes himself ready to receive the instructions of spiritual beings. And it's very necessary that we be instructed in this way. For since 1879 we've entered a new stage of human evolution. Gabriel worked on the development of a new organ in man's brain by regulating human births (1525–1879). A 16^th century man would not have understood our present theosophy. It's up to archangel Michael to stimulate men to use their newly acquired organ, that degenerates if a man doesn't use it. Such a man comes under the influence of Michael's opponent, Mammon or Beelzebub. This is the God of hindrances, who wants to prevent men from making progress. The bacteria that arise under his influence can give rise to terrible epidemics and strange nervous diseases; children could be born with a ruined nervous system. After Michael's reign comes Oriphiel who gives the divine wrath that should only be used by highly developed people. Jesus drives the merchants out of the temple.

Although one can't eat one's way into the spiritual world, eating the wrong things can make spiritual development difficult or impossible.

Alcohol only arose after the Atlantean epoch to help men to become individualized. It closes man off from his higher capacities and encloses him in himself. That's why alcohol was used in the Dionysian mysteries. But now all civilized people have reached that stage so that alcohol is an unnecessary evil today. Through its use one loses the ability to get along with others and to understand them. Alcohol is especially harmful for esoterics since its use changes all developed higher forces into forces of the personal ego, repeatedly locks it into itself, and tears the astral body apart through the opposing streams of the higher and lower I forces. The principle through which everyone can consciously attain his individualization was brought through the coming of Christ to the earth. That's why Christ Jesus says: I am the true vine.

By consuming alcohol one prepares a fertile soil for hosts of spiritual beings, just as a dirty room gets filled with flies.

The meat (but not milk and eggs) that we eat is permeated by the animal's astral body, and so our astral body has to work to digest it. This takes it away from its real task of creating pictures. Also at night it's held fast by the etheric body so that it can't leave it properly. This hinders it from its nightly task of restoring vital forces. Vegetarian food that consists of physical and etheric things support the creation of large, comprehensive pictures and so gives a greater insight that lets one oversee things better without much deliberation. The greater force doesn't exhaust us, but summons spiritual forces.

Vegetarian food is excellent for doctors and lawyers who will find it easier to see through their patients or their clients' affairs, but it's not the right thing for bankers, industrialists, salesmen and others who have a lot of calculating, for one loses the ability to make physical combinations. People who inherited a body that can't stand vegetarianism should not undertake an esoteric training.

The jogging, exercising and bathing that are often recommended are wrong for an esoteric; they pull him down into his physical body. He should try to move his limbs as little as possible.

A budding esoteric doesn't need faith, but only confidence in his teacher, as is true for any kind of instruction, and he needs his healthy human intellect. This will lead him to the conviction that masters of wisdom must exist since it would be illogical to assume that evolution stopped with us, although this in itself wouldn't tell him who or what these masters are. But his teacher knows who they are. A pupil can assume that basic truths like karma and reincarnation are true on a trial basis. Then he can find out for himself whether they're true. When something happens to him he'll tell himself that he must have caused it, and he'll act accordingly. That's why Jesus says that if someone strikes you on one cheek you should offer him the other one also, because if he hits you there too he's making bad karma good. A meditant should do six subsidiary exercises:

1. Think about a simple object for at least five minutes. Hold it fast in thoughts without going over to other things. One can prepare for this by familiarizing oneself with the object first. After a few days one can choose another object. This exercise arouses a feeling of firmness in the pupil as it activates the chakram between his eyebrows. One should send this feeling through the brain and down the backbone.

2. Do an unimportant thing every day at a certain time. This exercise also gives firmness.

3. Develop equanimity, that is, one shouldn't fluctuate between rejoicing to heaven and despairing to death. A joke can be enjoyed just as much if one doesn't laugh boisterously at; one can bear a pain better if one doesn't wallow in it too much. This gives one a feeling of quiet calm that one lets stream from the heart to the arms, and out through the hands.

4. See the beautiful and true elements in all things. Christ Jesus admired the beautiful teeth in a rotting dog, where his disciples only saw ugliness. One can discover at least a small kernel of truth and something beautiful in everything. If one does this exercise for some time it gives one a feeling of great joy.

5. Always be open to new things. One should never say: I never heard of that, that can't be, or I don't believe that. One should always leave the possibility open that one can learn something from everything that people say. Thereby one can learn from children, animals and everything else. This gives one the feeling that one could also perceive things while one is partly outside one's body.

6. This exercise is a combination of the preceding ones, so that one can combine two and two or any way one wants. By doing this, one gets the feeling that one has grown beyond the limits of one's skin.

Vegetarianism without spiritual striving leads to disease. It's not a matter of back to nature but of through nature to the spirit.

It's true that meditation and concentration exercises will be the main thing for our spiritual striving, but when the elaboration of the astral body begins, the food that an esoteric eats will be of some importance.

It's especially important to avoid alcohol in every form. The bad effect of alcohol on the brain function has been scientifically shown, and knowledge of spiritual things is made completely impossible through its use. It's inadvisable to eat meat and fish.

Mushrooms are very harmful; they contain hindering lunar forces, and everything that arose on the old Moon signifies rigidification. Likewise legumes aren't very advisable because their nitrogen pollutes the etheric body. Proteins make mastery of sexual passions difficult. Sugar promotes independence, and should be avoided by egotistical people. People who tend towards envy, deceit and bad will should avoid cucurbits and vine plants in general. The sweet, intoxicating aroma of melons darkens clear, intellectual consciousness and should be avoided by emotional people. Apples intensify the urge to dominate in some people and often lead to rudeness and brutality. The high iron content in cherries and strawberries isn't good for everyone.

If someone wants to undergo training in thinking, he mainly needs a well-constructed, healthy brain apparatus. Since present-day parents seldom give their children such well-built brains, one needs help to strengthen one's brain apparatus. And here it's mainly filberts that supply the brain-building substance. All other nuts are of less value and peanuts should be avoided altogether. Milk butter is the best fat. Coffee supports logical thinking, but doesn't make one a logical thinker by itself. Drinking too much coffee leads to hysteria in people who don't think much. One can get good ideas by drinking tea or by doing special exercises.

It's especially important for an esoteric to lead a life of moderation. An ancient sage said: Moderation purifies feelings, awakens ability, cheers one up and strengthens memory; the soul loses most of its earthy weight and thereby enjoys greater freedom. A man wouldn't be able to generate productive thoughts if he ate too much and too often, because his forces would be used in digestion, and there wouldn't be any left for thinking. Schiller, Shakespeare and many other writers lived on very little food. The mind is never so clear as after long fasting. The greatest saints lived on fruit, bread and water, and no miracles were ever done on a full stomach.

When a man works on himself he harmonizes his temperaments, but until then a melancholic pupil should eat fruit, so that its sun forces permeate the solidifying and rigidifying element in melancholics. Phlegmatics shouldn't eat black roots because they would only increase his inner love of ease. Whereas a sanguine would benefit by eating root vegetables. One could almost say: A sanguine must be fettered to his physical body by food, otherwise he might fly away. The ego is predominant in cholerics, so they should avoid hot spices and stimulating food.

A master doesn't need solid food, and temperaments no longer influence or control him. He uses the choleric temperament to do his magic deeds, he lets the things of the physical world pass by him like a sanguine, he'll behave like a phlegmatic in his enjoyment of life and he'll brood about his spiritual findings and experiences like a melancholic. But it'll take us awhile to get that far, so we should try to bring our whole life into harmony with our spiritual striving. You only get as much out of life as you put into it.

Before Christ came to earth and became a man so much darkening had taken place that even masters in physical life no longer had the clear knowledge of super-sensible things that they had previously. After Christ became flesh things brightened up slowly. That's why some initiates didn't have a clear idea of the importance of the Mystery of Golgotha, and this was true of a great initiate who had known practically all the spiritual things that a man could know in his Egyptian initiation.

First higher beings reveal something to mankind's great initiates, and then the latter must pass this on as teachings. And no one can arrive at knowledge unless what was already revealed is first given to him as a teaching. That's quite impossible. That's why in esoteric schools they always taught things that can let a pupil come to knowledge. That's why teachings that can be given publicly are given in theosophy to give those who long for it a chance to arrive at a knowledge of truth, to get to Christ.

The childhood of great initiates differs little from that of other men, although a few points might indicate what kind of spirit lives in the child. They have to learn and enrich their knowledge like others an thereby reacquire what they had been in earlier incarnations. This was also the case with Christian Rosenkreutz. Some men may have been surprised that he didn't see the importance of the Event of Golgotha right away. This was because the ego of Christ Jesus had been placed in him, just as the etheric body in Francis of Assisi. But since it was the ego it first had to work through to knowledge to then become fully effective. Therewith he had a high and important mission.

The true and only name of Christ is “I am”; anyone who doesn't know and understand this and calls him something else doesn't know anything about him at all. I am is his only name.