Rosicrucian Esotericism
GA 109
3 June 1909, Budapest
1. Rosicrucian Esotericism
My task in these lectures will be to give you a picture of the theosophical conception of the world based upon the so-called Rosicrucian method. Please do not misunderstand this statement by expecting an historical account of Rosicrucianism. The expression “Rosicrucian method” is intended only to imply that theosophy will be presented in accordance with the method always adopted in the Mystery Schools of Europe since the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and called Rosicrucian training.
You know that theosophy is the truth that was imparted to mankind in ancient times in order that there might be formed in hearts everywhere a basic fount of human knowledge. But the further back we go into the past, the greater was the secrecy in which this knowledge was held. What was the reason for such secrecy? In the course of these lectures I shall return to the question why this universal wisdom was communicated in secret schools and centers to individuals who were destined not only to learn but to undertake training that transformed their souls to such an extent that they developed clairvoyance and insight into higher worlds. Such individuals were then sent out as emissaries, charged with guiding and leading others. But progress consists in the fact that more and more human beings become capable, through their power of judgment and intellect, of grasping this wisdom. Hence it has become necessary for what was formerly kept secret gradually to be made publicly known.
In the course of the nineteenth century, as the result of external conditions that we shall come to know, it became necessary to allow a great deal, indeed, a very considerable amount, of knowledge of occult science to make its way into the open for the sake of the well-being and progress of humanity. In the nineteenth century the Guardians of this knowledge said to themselves that in earlier times the communications of spiritual teaching made to human beings in the religions or by other means, were able to satisfy their needs in regard to eternal truths. But the needs of humanity change. So these Guardians of the primeval wisdom were obliged to realize that in the future there would be an increasing number of human beings whose souls could no longer be satisfied by the old forms of communicating spiritual truth.
Such people can find satisfaction in anthroposophy. This new form of communication springs from observation of a need of humanity in the modern age. The Guardians of the secret knowledge were naturally aware that such conditions were inevitable in the future, but not until a certain point of time was it necessary to make actual preparation for the influx of this wisdom into humanity and to emphasize that these secrets must also be grasped by the general intelligence prevailing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
This was realized in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. There were few at that time who were aware of this starting point of preparation in Europe. The first Rosicrucians were those who gathered around a significant individuality known as Christian Rosenkreutz. It was he, Christian Rosenkreutz, who could affirm with the most convincing clarity, “From the Mysteries we have received a treasure-store of knowledge and wisdom of the super-sensible. If we adhere to this, we may hope in the future, too, to succeed in doing what was done in the past, namely, to send out individuals trained in our schools to instruct others when they have learnt and discerned the secrets of the primeval wisdom.”
This old method of promulgating the primeval wisdom was to continue, but preparation was to be made for something else as well. He, Christian Rosenkreutz, spoke as follows. He said, “A far greater number of human beings who long for the primeval wisdom will come to us and we could communicate it to them in the form in which we now possess it. But its acceptance demands belief in and recognition of our authority in a high degree—an attitude that will progressively disappear from mankind. The more men's power of judgment increases, the less will be their belief in those who teach them. Belief and trust were preconditions for the earlier form of communication.”
At the present time one would have to say, “People will come who wish to test for themselves what is communicated to them. They will insist that they wish to apply to what is told them the same logical intellect that is used for observation of the material world. They admit that something in addition to this intellect is necessary for investigation of the spiritual world, but for all that they insist upon testing things by means of this intellect.” Hence, at the beginning of our epoch it was necessary to clothe the primeval wisdom in new forms. The work of the Rosicrucians was to give expression to the primeval wisdom in a form enabling it to be acceptable to the modern mind and the modern soul.
What is theosophy when presented according to the Rosicrucian method? Theosophy in itself is always and everywhere the same. A Rosicrucian theosophist today is a theosophist of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the forms it takes, its wisdom is adapted exactly to what human beings desire and need to understand. What is the specific characteristic of our time? The course of the evolution of humanity was such that men were obliged to become ever more familiar with outer, physical reality. Look back into olden times, for example into the ancient Egyptian culture, and you will realize with what simple measures and forces men worked, erected their buildings, satisfied their personal needs. Then think of our modern life with all its ingenious gadgets for physical comfort. What tremendous spiritual force and mental activity are expended on the physical needs of daily life! This, of course, was necessary, because the specific task of the Western world was so to shape external culture and gain such control of outer nature that the physical plane came truly under the control of the human spirit. A world such as our own needs measures different from those current in antiquity to be capable of imbibing the wisdom guarded in the secret schools.
On the other hand, when we compare the knowledge possessed by the Chaldeans and their grasp of spiritual realities with our present knowledge, the Chaldeans admittedly tower heavens high above us. Today we admire a Copernicus, a Galileo and what is recorded by external science, but this is all child's play compared with the wisdom of the ancient Chaldeans. To the modern researcher the planet Mars, for example, is an objective body whose course and movement can be measured. But the Chaldeans knew as well what forces and entities are connected with Mars, what divine will governs all this, what connection there is between these forces and man. The mystery and sway wielded by these spiritual forces were known to the Chaldeans. That is why the modern researcher is so powerless in face of the inner character of this ancient Chaldean culture. External means for its investigation are at his disposal but there are no longer any inner means. Theosophists and Rosicrucians, however, have the spiritual, esoteric possibilities for penetrating into the spirit of that ancient culture.
The great scientific authorities, of whom we read that they excavate clay cylinders and fragments covered with inscriptions of the ancient Babylonian wisdom, stand before these objects like three-year-old children facing some electrical apparatus. The researcher does not know what to make of what he excavates from such ancient sites, so penetrating, so unbounded was the spiritual knowledge current in that era. But to produce by means of the intellect and the external devices of our civilization what we justifiably admire today as evidence of the great progress made during recent centuries—this was first possible for modern science. Such an era, however, needs a different kind of thinking and perception in order to understand the spiritual. At this point, perhaps, a warning may be given. People speak so much today about higher or lower degrees of evolution, arguing about whether Buddha or Christ is the greater. But that is not the essential. Whether the Assyrian wisdom or our own is the higher is not important. We are living in the present, materialistically-minded age and the inflow of spiritual knowledge into our culture is needed in order that mankind's longing for such knowledge may be satisfied. It is the Rosicrucian wisdom that gives this knowledge to modern man in the form suitable for him. What is being said here may possibly seem rather daring, but please accept it now for what it is and later on it will become clear. As a matter of fact, Rosicrucian wisdom has been more greatly misunderstood than anything else in the world.
As time went on, the great individuality who was Christian Rosenkreutz foresaw what demands of understanding would be made by rationalistic thought and he realized that already in that period it had become necessary to promulgate all spiritual knowledge in the form demanded by the modern age. We must realize that for the Rosicrucians it was much more difficult than for any similar movement of an earlier period, because their initial activity in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries took place at the time when materialism was approaching apace. All modern achievements such as steam engines, telegraphy and so on were bound to place human beings firmly on the physical plane. The Rosicrucians were obliged to work for an era when men's thinking would be guided by mathematical principles. They were obliged to make their preparations with this in view and hence were entirely misunderstood. For this reason one cannot be informed truly about Rosicrucianism by what is said about it in public. Nothing of what was cultivated in true Rosicrucianism is to be found in literature. The deepest spiritual truths cultivated by the Rosicrucians were interpreted in such a mistaken way as to suggest that spiritual phenomena can be produced in alchemists' cellars with the help of retorts and so forth! This conception of alchemy gave rise to the materialistic caricature of Rosicrucianism that is presented in literature today. The task of the Rosicrucians was to formulate a science by means of which they would be able to let their wisdom flow gradually into the world.
From all this you will realize that when we present theosophy to people today it must be Rosicrucian theosophy. By using an older terminology we could win over a certain number of people, but they would necessarily be individuals who are connected with every fiber of their being with the modern world and its culture. There are egoists who withdraw from the tasks of the present age. We, however, wish to take modern life and its forms of expression seriously. We must accept our epoch as it actually is but endeavor to influence it spiritually. This is the conception that Rosicrucian theosophy must have of its task.
In the course of this Congress there will have been opportunity for you to realize what a fruitful effect theosophy can have, for example, in the sphere of medicine. Suppose medicine continues to develop along materialistic lines. If you could see forty years ahead you would be horrified by the brutality of the procedures to be adopted by medicine, by the forms of death with which medical science will set out to cure human beings. How does medical science today investigate the effects of its remedies? By means of the human material it finds in the hospitals and elsewhere; therefore, by outer observation. But spiritual wisdom, by its very nature, penetrates into the inner relationships of the spiritual, knows what in the physical world corresponds to the spiritual. A completely new creation of all medical science will proceed from what is called Rosicrucianism. But that is only one domain.
Compare the complicated conditions of our existence today with those of the ancient Chaldeans. Think what an amount of intellectual energy and what complicated cooperative measures are essential to enable a check issued in New York to be cashed in Tokyo. An era of this character, which has spread such culture over the globe, needs methods of spiritual activity different from those of earlier epochs. Occultists are aware of this. Modern thinking is simply unable to cope with and master the chaos of outer conditions and tasks in which man is becoming so deeply involved. Thinking itself will become rigid. Today we are living in an age of transition but thinking will soon no longer be sufficiently fluid and flexible to grapple with and transform the complicated conditions of life.
Why do we promulgate theosophy? In order to achieve practical effects. Theosophical thoughts make thinking more elastic, more flexible, enable a more rapid survey of far-reaching circumstances. Rosicrucianism has therefore to fertilize every domain of life. To realize the practical effect of theosophy you may turn to my essay, The Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy. It is impossible for you to under-stand its content without Rosicrucian theosophy, which must not remain theory but become a helping hand in practical life. This element is simply not present in the earlier forms of theosophy. The role of Rosicrucian theosophy or occultism is to satisfy the spiritual longings of men and to enable spirit to flow into the daily round of their duties. Rosicrucian theosophy is not there for the salon or for the hermit, but for the whole of human culture.
Wisdom is always and forever one. But just as the individual man lives and evolves to further and further stages, so too does humanity as a whole. For this reason the forms of the wisdom revealed to men must change in order to be in keeping with the course of their evolution. The great teachers of humanity are working among us today, as always. We, too, who are present here as souls, were incarnated in earlier times, have lived through all the periods of evolution, the Greco-Latin, the Egypto-Chaldean and epochs still further back in time, in order to benefit from constantly new achievements and acquire constantly new knowledge. Think of a soul in an Egyptian incarnation, surrounded by the gigantic pyramids and mysterious sphinxes. What a different effect all this had upon the soul from what surrounds it today! For as long as the earth has something new to display—and the earth is forever making progress—for so long does the soul undergo constantly new experiences.
The soul does not incarnate on the earth in order to please the gods, but in order to learn! The face of the earth was quite different when the soul incarnated for the first time and will again be different when the final incarnation is reached. We return to this earth when, and not until, there is something new to be learned here. That is why the interval between two incarnations is lengthy. Only think how greatly Northern Europe, merely as landscape, differed from what it is today at the time when Christ was on the earth. We do not come to the earth twice without being able to learn something new. Everything in the world is in process of evolution, but evolution means the elaboration and later manifestation of the new.
Not only men but all beings evolve. We have to seek the way to beings who are at stages of evolution higher than that reached by man, although in this life he comes into relation with them in many ways. These beings are also subject to the law of evolution and just as our souls were different thousands of years ago, so, too, in earlier epochs, were the beings now revealing themselves. They also are perpetually learning. When we are speaking of one of the higher beings who has descended to our world in order to reveal to us with the resources of the spirit the mysteries of the higher worlds, we must affirm that that is a sublime art that must be mastered. Even a god has to master it.
Human beings of today must be addressed differently from those who were living ten thousand years ago. The higher beings, like men, undergo evolution, and what I have said during this Congress about the event of Damascus indicates how they evolve. A man with spiritual vision sees not only the outer environment but also everything that belongs to the spiritual aura of the earth. Just as human beings are surrounded by an aura, so, too, are the cosmic bodies. A clairvoyant is eventually able to perceive the aura of a cosmic body. What a clairvoyant would have seen in the earth's aura two thousand years ago would be quite different from what would have been seen a thousand years ago and different again from what would be seen by one who has developed clairvoyance today. Just as the picture of outer nature changes, so, too, does the picture of the spiritual world into which vision penetrates.
I shall now refer to an event of which I shall speak again later on, namely, the event of the burning thorn bush and the proclamation from Sinai. What happened to Moses at that time? His clairvoyant power had developed to a certain stage and he beheld the super-sensible reality in the physical phenomenon. An individual who was not clairvoyant would simple have seen a happening in nature. Moses, however, beheld in the burning thorn bush the Being who proclaimed Himself as “I AM the I AM.” He knew that this Being was there in very truth, that the fire was not only outer fire but harbored a spiritual reality. A Being belonging intimately to the whole further evolution of humanity, who announced His name as the “I AM the I AM,” had revealed Himself to Moses. What was it that was now known to all the pupils of Moses? In the Mystery Schools of that era they had learned that the same Being who had revealed Himself on Sinai would one day come down to the earth, live in a human body, and speak for three years in a man, Christ Jesus. This was known to the initiates. It was also known to Saul, who later became Paul. But he said to himself, “This Being exists in very truth and will come down to the earth. But I cannot conceive that the Being who revealed Himself in the burning thorn bush as Jehovah could suffer the shameful death on the Cross.” What was it that eventually convinced Saul? The event of Damascus! At the moment when he became clairvoyant and the earth's aura was visible to him, when in that aura he beheld the Christ, the living Christ, who revealed Himself as the same Being who had died on the Cross, at that moment Saul became Paul.
But that vision could not previously have been possible. Earlier than two thousand years ago Christ was not yet present in the earth's aura but He was still visibly present in the sun. Zarathustra beheld the sun surrounded by an aura he called Ahura Mazdao, the great Aura of Ormuzd. But this Being had descended, had first revealed Himself to Moses in the burning thorn bush and had then lived on earth as a man in the body of Jesus of Nazareth. Hence Christ could say of Himself, “I am the Light of the World.” Before then, nobody could have spoken these words, because the Light of the World had not previously been present in any being.
We will study these themes until they are fully understood. Today, however, it will merely be indicated that it was not possible for the Christ Being always to reveal Himself as He did, for example, in the case of Paul. The Christ Being had first to muster the necessary power, to develop it to the point where this revelation was possible. Earlier than two thousand years ago this could not have taken place. Each soul, in each incarnation, makes progress. This is what has happened in the case of leading individualities. We must realize that Christ has not always been the same and in His distinctive ways of working we must recognize how He, too, advances from one evolutionary stage to another. It gives rise to an overwhelming feeling of exultation when a man is made aware that just as in the case of his own soul and its incarnations and progress, the spiritual beings also reach higher and higher stages and become more and more powerful. This realization gives one a living feeling of evolution. It is an essential part of Rosicrucian esotericism to show how a being such as Christ has worked both in the past and at the present time, in Moses and in Paul, and to see from this how even a Being of such sublime eminence makes progress. This gives a rise to an intimate concept of evolution.
Now let us think of a child. He is born, sees the light of the world—this is the usual expression—and in the very first years of life changes particularly quickly. Compared with the later epochs of life it is then that the course of evolution is the most rapid. Materialistic science itself could make many relevant discoveries here. When the brain is examined, which is possible by external means, it can be observed how on the top of a child's head at the place that remains soft for a considerable time, the skull bones do not close immediately and the brain itself takes shape only gradually. The function of articulation is to pro-duce an instrument for a power of which the child will only later be capable, namely, the power to think, to correlate his perceptions. A clairvoyant sees how during the very first weeks and months after birth the child is surrounded by intensely active, powerful forces belonging to the etheric body, the second member of man's constitution. We know that in an adult human being of today the dimension of this etheric body is practically the same as that of the physical body, but in a young child it still extends far beyond the physical body, especially around the head. The activity of the forces, which to a clairvoyant seems to be like a play of light, is particularly strong here. It is wonderful to see how certain forces surge up from the body below and then stream from the nape of the neck in all directions, wherever hair appears; the forces radiate in a living play of light to become an astral-etheric radiance in the child's etheric body, a radiance that fades away in the course of time. In this radiance lie the forces that create the connective tissues in the brain. The brain is formed out of spiritual substance after the child has been born. Forty to fifty streams of forces can be seen working together. The body of light is composed of these streams. A wonderful spectacle is presented by a child during the first weeks of life. This body of light gradually presses into and is then within the child's brain. To begin with, the etheric body was outside the child, surrounding the head, and was entirely primitive. This was surrounded by a body of light from which the etheric body gathered forces, and now it penetrates gradually into the child's head and remains there as the complicated etheric organism.
What is so wonderful about the process of evolution is that everything physical is produced from the spiritual, formed by the spiritual, which we then receive into ourselves. The psyche has itself fashioned the dwelling place in which it subsequently resides. So we see that what takes place in the microcosm, the little world, in the brain of a human child, also takes place in the macrocosm, the great world. Now think of an outstandingly advanced individuality, such as Jesus of Nazareth, in whose body Christ lived as soul for three years. Just as in a child the etheric body itself prepares the physical brain into which it subsequently passes, so, too, had Christ previously prepared the abode in which He was to dwell. He had to accomplish this by His own activity. To begin with He was only outwardly connected with the earth, which could not yet have received Him. The most highly evolved souls had, however, worked at the earth in such a way that the Christ was able to draw nearer and nearer, and He Himself had participated in this work. Who, then, had so transformed the body of Jesus of Nazareth and finally brought it to the stage where it was able to receive the Christ? The Christ Himself had done this! To begin with He had worked upon the body from outside and was subsequently able Himself to pass into the human being concerned.
What takes place in the microcosm also takes place in the macrocosm, and it is because the beings above us also develop that evolution is possible. It was only because Christ could reveal Himself supersensibly that He became the planetary Spirit of the Earth. The microcosmic invariably tallies with the macrocosmic.
I have not been able today to present even the first chapter of Rosicricianism to you. All I have done is to indicate how a man of the present age should learn to think and perceive. The true meaning of the mandate, “Know thyself!” lies in our following in this way the evolution of the cosmos. Where is our self? Certainly not in us alone! To think that would be egoistic. The self is formed out of, born out of the whole universe and our own ascent leads us finally to merge in the whole cosmos. The aim of self-knowledge is to give man his place in the great world in order to reveal to him there the true meaning of the word, self-knowledge.
Die Theosophie des Rosenkreuzers
Es wird in diesem Zyklus meine Aufgabe sein, Ihnen ein Bild theosophischer Weltanschauung darzulegen, und zwar soll dieses vom Gesichtspunkte der sogenannten Rosenkreuzermethode aus gegeben werden. Und ich bitte Sie, diese Bezeichnung: «Rosenkreuzermethode» nicht dahin mißzuverstehen, daß etwa gesprochen werden soll über eine geschichtliche Entwickelung des Rosenkreuzertums, daß eine historische Darstellung darüber gegeben werden soll. Die Bezeichnung «Rosenkreuzermethode» soll nur sagen, daß Theosophie dargestellt werden soll nach jener Methode, nach der sie immer in den Geheimschulen Europas dargestellt worden ist seit dem 13. und 14. Jahrhundert, und die man eben die Rosenkreuzerschulung nennt.
Sie wissen, daß 'Theosophie dasjenige ist, was sich in alten Zeiten als Wahrheit über die Menschheit ergossen hat, um in den Herzen überall einen Grundstock menschlicher Erkenntnis zu bilden. Je weiter wir aber zurückgehen, je geheimer werden diese Erkenntnisse gehalten. Warum? Ich werde in diesen Vorträgen darauf noch zurückkommen, warum diese universelle Weisheit einzelnen, die reif dazu befunden wurden, in geheimen Schulen und Pflegestätten mitgeteilt worden ist. Einzelnen, die nicht nur zu lernen, sondern etwas mit sich vorzunehmen hatten, was ihre ganze Seele umwandelte, so daß sie hellsichtig wurden. Dadurch erhielten sie Einsicht in höhere Welten. Und solche wurden dann hinausgeschickt, gleichsam als Sendboten, die berufen waren, die andern zu lenken und zu leiten. Nun besteht aber der Fortschritt darin, daß immer mehr Menschen da sind, die durch ihr Urteil und durch ihren Verstand fähig sind, diese Weisheit zu begreifen. Daher ist es notwendig geworden, daß immer mehr von dem öffentlich bekanntgegeben wird, was früher geheimgehalten wurde.
Im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts wurde durch äußere Verhältnisse, die wir noch kennenlernen werden, die Notwendigkeit herbeigeführt, eine große Menge, eine bedeutende Summe von Erkenntnissen der Geheimwissenschaft zum Heil und Fortschritt der Menschheit in die Öffentlichkeit einfließen zu lassen. Im 19. Jahrhundert sagten sich die Hüter dieses Wissens: In früheren Zeiten haben die Mitteilungen über geistige Dinge, wie sie in den Religionen oder anderswie an den Menschen herangekommen sind, genügt, um die Bedürfnisse des Menschen in bezug auf das Ewige zu befriedigen. Doch die Bedürfnisse der Menschheit ändern sich. - Und so mußten diese Hüter der Urweltweisheit erkennen, daß immer mehr Menschen in der Zukunft da sein werden, deren Seelen nicht mehr befriedigt werden können durch die alten Formen der Mitteilung geistiger Belange. Für solche nun ist es möglich, in der Theosophie Befriedigung zu finden. Es entspringt die Theosophie, diese neue Form der Mitteilung, der in der neueren Zeit beobachteten Wahrnehmung eines Menschheitsbedürfnisses. Die Hüter des geheimen Wissens haben natürlich gewußt, daß solche Zeiten kommen würden, aber erst in einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt war es nötig, die Vorbereitung zum Einfließenlassen dieser Weisheit zu treffen und sich zu sagen: Wir müssen Sorge tragen, daß diese Geheimnisse auch von dem Verstande des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts erfaßt werden können. — Dies geschah im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert. Sehr wenige waren es damals, die dieses Zeitpunktes der Vorbereitung innerhalb Europas gewahr wurden. Es waren die ersten Rosenkreuzer, diejenigen, die sich geschart haben um eine bedeutsame Individualität, die unter dem Schlagnamen «Christian Rosenkreutz» bekannt ist. Christian Rosenkreutz, er war es, der sich im deutlichsten Sinne sagen konnte: Wir haben in den Mysterien ein Wissen, einen Weisheitsschatz erhalten von dem Übersinnlichen. Lassen wir es dabei bewenden, so dürfen wir hoffen, daß wir auch in Zukunft das machen können, was bisher geschehen ist: daß wir einzelne, in unseren Schulen herangereifte Menschen, wenn sie die Geheimnisse der Urweltweisheit gelernt und geschaut haben, hinausschicken, um andere zu belehren. Diese alte Methode der Verbreitung der Urweltweisheit soll fortgesetzt werden, aber es muß noch anderes vorbereitet werden. - Er war imstande, sich sagen zu können: Eine weit größere Menge von Menschen wird kommen, die verlangen wird nach der Urweltweisheit. Wir könnten sie in der Form mitteilen, die wir jetzt dafür haben. Doch um sie so anzunehmen, dazu gehört ein hoher Grad des Glaubens und der Anerkennung unserer Autorität, der aber immer mehr und mehr in der Menschheit verschwinden wird. Je mehr die Urteilskraft in den Menschen wachsen wird, desto weniger werden sie den Lehrern so wie früher glauben. - Für die frühere Form der Mitteilung war Glauben und Vertrauen die Voraussetzung. Jetzt mußte man sich sagen: Es werden Leute kommen, die selbst werden prüfen wollen dasjenige, was ihnen mitgeteilt wird. Diese werden sagen: Wir wollen denselben logischen Verstand, den wir bei Betrachtung der Sinneswelt gebrauchen, anwenden bei dem, was ihr uns sagt. Zugegeben, daß zum Erforschen des Geistigen auch noch etwas anderes notwendig ist als dieser Verstand, so wollen wir doch mit demselben prüfen. - Deshalb war es im Beginn unserer Zeit[epoche] notwendig, die Urweltweisheit in neue Formen zu gießen. Das war die Arbeit der Rosenkreuzer: die Urweltweisheit so zu gestalten, daß sie nach und nach die Anpassung finden konnte an den modernen Geist und die moderne Seele.
Was ist Theosophie nach Rosenkreuzermethode? Theosophie an sich ist immer und überall dasselbe. Ein Theosoph nach Rosenkreuzerart ist heute ein Theosoph des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Seine Weisheit ist in ihren Formen genau dem angepaßt, was heute die Menschen verstehen wollen und was sie haben müssen. Was ist das Spezifische unserer Zeit? Der Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung war ja so, daß die Menschen immer mehr und mehr sich befreunden mußten mit der äußeren physischen Wirklichkeit. Blicken Sie zurück in alte Zeiten, zum Beispiel auf die alte ägyptische Kultur, mit welch einfachen Mitteln und Kräften die Menschen arbeiteten, ihre Bauwerke selbst aufführten, ihre persönlichen Bedürfnisse befriedigten. Schauen Sie sich dagegen unser heutiges Leben an, mit seinem ganzen raffinierten Aufwand von Arbeitsleistung für das physische Behagen. Welch eine ungeheure Summe von Geisteskraft und Gedankenarbeit wird da für tägliche physische Bedürfnisse verschwendet! Es war natürlich nötig, ja geradezu die Aufgabe der westlichen Welt, die äußere Kultur so zu gestalten, die äußere Natur so zu beherrschen, daß der physische Plan wirklich vom Menschengeist beherrscht wird. Eine solche Welt, wie die unsrige es geworden ist, braucht andere Mittel, um die Weisheit der Geheimschulen aufnehmen zu können, als jene alte Zeit. Wenn wir dagegen das Wissen der Chaldäer und ihre Erkenntnisse in bezug auf spirituelles Wissen vergleichen mit unserem heutigen Wissen, dann stehen allerdings die Chaldäer turmhoch über uns. Wir bewundern heute einen Kopernikus, einen Galilei, das, was die äußere Wissenschaft zu verzeichnen hat, aber das ist alles Kinderspiel gegenüber der alten Weisheit der Chaldäer. Für den heutigen Forscher ist der Planet Mars zum Beispiel ein äußerer Körper eben, dessen Gang und Bewegung man bemessen kann; die Chaldäer aber wußten dazu noch, welche Kräfte und Wesen mit dem Mars zusammenhängen, welcher göttliche Wille das alles lenkt, welcher Zusammenhang zwischen diesen Kräften und dem Menschen besteht. Das Geheimnisvolle, das Walten dieser geistigen Kräfte war ihnen kund. Deshalb ist der heutige Forscher so hilflos gegenüber dem inneren Wesen dieser alten chaldäischen Kultur. Die äußeren Mittel zu ihrer Erforschung, die hat er, die inneren aber nicht. ’Theosophen und Rosenkreuzer haben die spirituellen inneren Mittel, um in ihren Geist einzudringen.
Die großen Namen unserer wissenschaftlichen Autoritäten, von denen man heute liest, wie sie die Tonzylinder und -scherben ausgraben, auf denen die alte babylonische Weisheit eingeprägt ist, sie stehen dem gegenüber wie ein dreijähriges Kind vor einem elektrischen Apparat. Der Forscher weiß nicht, was anfangen mit dem, was er da ausgräbt: so gewaltig, so weit hinausdringend war damals das spirituelle Wissen. Der äußeren Wissenschaft aber war es erst möglich, mit dem Verstande und durch die äußeren Mittel unserer Kultur das zu schaffen, was wir heute - und mit Recht - als die großen Kulturfortschritte der letzten Jahrhunderte bewundern. Eine solche Zeit aber braucht eine andere Art des Denkens, des Empfindens, um das Geistige zu verstehen. Hier darf vielleicht eine Warnung eingeflochten werden. Man spricht heute so viel von höheren oder tieferen Entwickelungsgraden. Man streitet sich herum, ob der Buddha oder der Christus größer sei. Aber das ist ganz gleichgültig. Darauf kommt es nicht an. Nicht, ob die assyrische höher oder unsere Weisheit tiefer steht, ist wichtig. Wir leben in der materialistisch gesinnten Gegenwart und wir brauchen das Einfließen des spirituellen Wissens in unsere Kultur, damit das Sehnen der Menschheit darnach befriedigt werde. Und in solcher Art, wie der heutige Mensch dieses Wissen braucht, gibt es ihm die Rosenkreuzerweisheit. Das, was hier gesagt wird, klingt vielleicht etwas gewagt, aber bitte, nehmen Sie es jetzt hin, später wird sich das alles klären. Ist doch die rosenkreuzerische Weisheit mehr mißverstanden worden als irgend etwas anderes in der Welt.
So wie die Dinge sich abspielten, geschah es, daß einst die große Individualität des Christian Rosenkreutz voraussah, welche Forderungen des Verständnisses tatsächlich von seiten der rationalistisch denkenden Menschen kommen würden, und wie es schon damals notwendig geworden war, alles geistige Wissen in eine Form zu gießen, die sich zu dem gestalten würde, was die Forderung der heutigen Zeit ist. Wir müssen uns klarmachen, daß die Rosenkreuzer es viel schwerer hatten als irgendeine ähnliche Bewegung von früher, denn ihr anfängliches Wirken im 13. und 14. Jahrhundert fiel in die Zeit des immer näher herankommenden Materialismus hinein. Alle die modernen Errungenschaften, wie Dampfmaschinen, Telegraph und so weiter mußten den Menschen vollends auf den physischen Plan herausstellen. Die Rosenkreuzer hatten zu arbeiten für ein Zeitalter, das mathematisch denken muß. Sie mußten in diesem Sinne ihre Vorbereitungen treffen, mußten daher auch am meisten mißverstanden werden. Über Rosenkreuzerei können Siesich deshalbauch nicht unterrichten durch das, was öffentlich darüber bekanntgegeben wird. Nichts von dem, was im Rosenkreuzertum gepflegt wurde, ist eigentlich in dieser Literatur zu finden. Die tiefsten spirituellen Wahrheitsinhalte der Rosenkreuzer wurden so aufgefaßt, als ob man Spirituelles in alchimistischen Küchen mit Retorten und so weiter zubereiten könne. Durch diese Auffassung der Alchimie kam jenes materialistische Zerrbild des Rosenkreuzertums zustande, wie es heute geboten wird. Vorzubereiten hatten die Rosenkreuzer eine Wissenschaft, durch welche sie nach und nach ihre Weisheit in die Welt einfließen lassen konnten.
Aus alledem ersehen Sie, daß, wenn wir den heutigen Menschen Theosophie vortragen, wir ihnen Rosenkreuzertheosophie vortragen müssen. Mit der Anwendung älterer Formen könnten wir einige Menschen gewinnen, aber das müßten Menschen sein, die nicht mit allen Fasern ihres Seins mit der heutigen Welt und Kultur zusammenhängen. Es gibt solche Egoisten, die sich der Gegenwartsaufgabe entziehen; wir wollen diese Gegenwart und ihre Formen aber ernst nehmen. Wir müssen unser Zeitalter so nehmen, wie es ist, aber geistig auf es einzuwirken suchen. In diesem Sinne hat die Rosenkreuzertheosophie ihre Aufgabe aufzufassen.
Im Laufe der Verhandlungen des Kongresses haben Sie ja Gelegenheit gehabt zu sehen, wie fruchtbar diese Theosophie zu wirken vermag; zum Beispiel wie sie eingreift in die Medizin. Lassen Sie nur die Medizin sich so materialistisch weiterentwickeln: wenn Sie vierzig Jahre voraussehen könnten, Sie würden erschrecken, in welch brutaler Weise diese Medizin vorgehen wird, bis zu welchen Formen des Todes die Menschen von dieser Medizin da kuriert würden. - Wie erforscht denn die Medizin heute die Wirkung ihrer Heilmittel? Nun, an dem Menschenmaterial, das sie in den Spitälern und anderwärts findet, also durch äußerliche Beobachtung. Spirituelle Weisheit aber ist eine solche, die in die inneren Zusammenhänge des Geistigen hineinwirkt, die weiß, was im Physischen dem Spirituellen entspricht. Eine völlige Neuschöpfung alles medizinischen Wissens wird ausgehen von dem, was man Rosenkreuzerei nennt. Dieses ist aber nur ein Gebiet. Vergleichen Sie unsere komplizierten Lebensbedingungen von heute mit denen der alten Chaldäer. Denken Sie, welch eine Summe von Verstandeskraft und Kombinationsvermögen aufgewendet wird, um einen Scheck, den man in New York ausstellt, in Tokio einzulösen. Eine so geartete Zeit, die eine solche Kultur mit solchen Mitteln über den Erdball hin gesponnen hat, die braucht andere spirituelle Methoden als frühere Zeiten. Der Okkultist weiß dieses. Es reicht einfach das heutige Denken nicht aus, um das Chaos der äußeren Verhältnisse und Aufgaben, in die der Mensch immer mehr hineingeraten wird, zu bezwingen. Das Denken wird erstarren. Heute stehen wir in einer Übergangszeit, aber bald wird das Denken nicht mehr flüssig und geschmeidig genug sein, um die komplizierten Verhältnisse einzufangen und umzugestalten. Warum wir also Theosophie verbreiten? Um praktische Wirkungen zu erzielen. Theosophische Gedanken machen das Denken elastischer, flüssiger, ermöglichen raschere Überschau über größere Zusammenhänge. So hat das Rosenkreuzertum alle Gebiete des Lebens zu befruchten. Damit Sie sehen, wie praktisch Theosophie wirkt, nehmen Sie das kleine Heftchen, das ich über «Die Erziehung des Kindes vom Gesichtspunkte der Geisteswissenschaft» geschrieben habe. Das darin Enthaltene können Sie einfach ohne Rosenkreuzertheosophie nicht wissen. Nicht Theorie soll sie bleiben, sondern ein Handanlegen an das praktische tägliche Leben soll sie werden. Suchen Sie das in den früheren Formen der Theosophie: es ist einfach nicht da. Die Rosenkreuzertheosophie ist da, um des Menschen geistige Sehnsuchten zu befriedigen, und auch um den Geist einfließen zu lassen in die täglichen Verrichtungen. Rosenkreuzertheosophie ist nicht da für den Salon oder den Einsiedler, sondern für die ganze Menschheitskultur.
Die Weisheit ist immer eine. Doch so, wie der einzelne Mensch lebt und sich immer weiter entwickelt, so auch die Menschheit als Ganzes. Und darum müssen die Formen der ihnen offenbarten Weisheit, dem Entwickelungsgange der Menschen entsprechend, sich ändern. Die großen Lehrer der Menschheit wirken unter uns heute wie immer. Wir auch, die wir jetzt als Seelen hier gegenwärtig sind, waren schon früher verkörpert, sind durch alle Entwickelungsperioden hindurchgegangen, die griechisch-lateinische, die ägyptisch-chaldäische, und weiter abwärts in der Zeit, um immer neue und neue Errungenschaften aufzunehmen, um immer Neues zu lernen. Denken Sie sich eine Seele, die verkörpert war, als die gigantischen Pyramiden, die geheimnisvollen Sphinxe sie in Ägypten umgaben! Wie anders wirkte das auf diese Seele als dasjenige, was sie heute umgibt. Solange die Erde Neues bieten kann - und die Erde schreitet dauernd fort -, so lange nimmt auch die Seele immer wieder Neues auf. Die Seele ist nicht zum Vergnügen der Götter auf der Erde verkörpert, sondern um zu lernen. Anders sah die Erde aus, als die Seele sie in ihrer ersten Verkörperung betrat, anders wird sie ausschauen in ihrer letzten. Erst dann kommen wir auf diese Erde wieder, wenn wir Neues auf ihr lernen können; darum ist die Zeitdauer zwischen den Verkörperungen so groß. Nehmen wir nur an, wie anders das nördliche Gebiet von Europa ausgeschaut hat als heute, allein nur landschaftlich, zu der Zeit, als der Christus hier auf der Erde wandelte. Nicht zweimal betreten wir die Erde, ohne Neues lernen zu können. Alles in der Welt ist in Entwickelung. Entwickelung aber heißt, jeweilig später Neues zu verarbeiten und darzuleben.
Aber nicht nur die Menschen, sondern alle Wesen entwickeln sich. Wir werden hier den Pfad zu suchen haben zu Wesenheiten, die auf höheren Stufen stehen als der Mensch, doch tritt der Mensch vielfach schon in diesem Leben zu ihnen in Beziehung. Auch diese höheren Wesenheiten unterliegen dem Gesetze der Entwickelung, und wie unsere Seelen vor Jahrtausenden anders waren, so auch die sich offenbarenden Wesen in früheren Zeiten. Auch sie lernen fortwährend. Und wenn wir von einem der höheren Wesen sprechen, die zu uns heruntergestiegen sind, um uns mit den Mitteln des Geistes die Geheimnisse der höheren Welten zu verkündigen, so müssen wir uns sagen: das ist eine erhabene Kunst, die muß man erlernen. Sogar wenn man ein Gott ist, muß man das lernen. Denn anders muß man sprechen zu den Menschen von heute, anders zu denen, die vor zehntausend Jahren gelebt haben. Die höheren Wesen machen ebenso ihre Entwickelung durch wie die Menschen. Und was während der Kongreßverhandlungen von mir über das Ereignis von Damaskus gesagt worden ist, zeigt, wie höhere Wesen sich entwickeln. Nehmen Sie an, es wäre einer hellsehend gewesen zweitausend Jahre vor der Erscheinung des Christus Jesus. Ein geistig Schauender sieht ja nicht nur die äußere Umwelt, sondern auch alles das, was zur geistigen Sphäre der Aura der Erde gehört. Wie die Menschen von einer Aura umgeben sind, so sind es auch die Weltenkörper. Und den Geist eines Weltenkörpers, man lernt ihn sehen. Ein geistig Schauender vor zweitausend Jahren hätte etwas ganz anderes in der Erdenaura gesehen als einer vor tausend Jahren und als einer, der heute hellsehend geworden ist. Geradeso wie das Bild der Natur äußerlich, so ändert sich auch um uns das Bild der geistigen Welt, in die man hineinschaut.
Von einem Ereignis will ich sprechen, auf das ich später noch zurückkommen werde: vom brennenden Dornbusch und der Verkündigung auf dem Sinai. Was heißt das? Was ist da mit dem Moses vorgegangen? Seine hellseherische Kraft hatte sich bis zu einem gewissen Punkte entwickelt, und er hat das Übersinnliche in dem Sinnlichen wahrgenommen. Der Nichthellseher hätte da einfach ein Naturereignis wahrgenommen. Moses aber sah in dem brennenden Dornbusch dasjenige Wesen, das sich ihm ankündigte als der «Ich bin der Ichbin!» Und er hat gewußt, daß dieses Wesen da ist, daß jenes Feuer nicht nur äußeres Feuer war, sondern daß dahinter sich Geistiges verbirgt. Ihm hat sich da ein Wesen geoffenbart, das innig mit der ganzen ferneren Menschheitsentwickelung verbunden ist, das sich den Namen gab: «Ich bin der Ich-bin.» Was wußten nun alle Moses-Schüler? Sie haben es in den damaligen Mysterienschulen gelernt: Dasselbe Wesen, das sich auf dem Sinai geoffenbart hat, das wird heruntersteigen auf die Erde und wohnen in einem Menschenleib und drei Jahre in einem Menschen sprechen, und dieser Mensch wird sein der Christus Jesus. Das wußten die Eingeweihten. Das wußte auch der Saulus, der später ein Paulus wurde. Aber er sagte sich: Gewiß, dieses Wesen gibt es, und es wird auf die Erde herabsteigen. Aber ich kann mir nicht vorstellen, daß es durch den schmachvollen Tod am Kreuze endigen wird, jenes Wesen, das sich im brennenden Dornbusch als Jahve geoffenbart hat. - Was konnte ihn nun überzeugen? Das Ereignis von Damaskus. In dem Augenblicke, da er hellsehend wurde und die Erdenaura für ihn sichtbar ward und er darinnen den Christus schaute, den lebendigen Christus, der sich ihm zeigte als derselbe, der am Kreuze gestorben ist, da wurde Saulus zum Paulus.
Das aber konnte man erst zu jener Zeit sehen. Früher, vor zweitausend Jahren, da war der Christus noch nicht in der Erdenaura, da war er noch in der Sonne sichtbar. Zarathustra sah die Sonne von einer Aura umgeben: Ahura Mazdao nannte er sie, die große Aura des Ormuzd. Dieses Wesen aber ist heruntergestiegen, hat sich erst dem Moses im brennenden Dornbusch geoffenbart und hat dann als Mensch unter uns gewohnt in dem Leibe des Jesus von Nazareth. «Ich bin das Licht der Welt», konnte der Christus daher von sich sagen. Vorher hätte keiner so sprechen können, weil das Licht der Welt vorher in keinem gelebt hat.
Diese Dinge wollen wir ausarbeiten bis zu ihrem vollen Verständnis. Heute aber soll nur angedeutet werden, daß das Christus-Wesen sich nicht immer so offenbaren konnte wie zum Beispiel im Falle von Paulus. Die Christus-Wesenheit mußte sich das erst erwerben; sie mußte ihre Kraft so weit entwickeln, daß sie sich in solcher Weise offenbaren konnte. Vor zweitausend Jahren wäre ihr das noch nicht möglich gewesen. Es macht jede Seele in jeder Verkörperung Fortschritte. Das ist wichtig, darauf kommt es bei den führenden Individualitäten an. Wir müssen erkennen, daß der Christus nicht immer derselbe ist, wir müssen ihn in seinen spezifischen Wirkungsweisen erkennen, darin, wie auch er fortschreitet von Entwickelung zu Entwickelung. Und es ist für den Menschen ein überwältigendes Gefühl der Erhebung, wenn er erkennt, wie - gleich seiner Seele und deren Inkarnation und Fortschritten - auch die geistigen Wesenheiten immer höher und höher steigen und immer mächtiger und mächtiger werden. Das gibt das lebendige Gefühl für die Entwickelung. Es kommt gerade in der Rosenkreuzertheosophie darauf an, zu zeigen, wie ein solches Wesen, wie der Christus, gewirkt hat einst und jetzt, wie bei Moses und bei Paulus, und daran zu sehen, wie auch ein solches Wesen fortschreitet. Das gibt einen intimeren Begriff von der Entwickelung.
Betrachten wir einmal ein Kind. Es wird geboren, es erblickt, so heißt der technische Ausdruck, das Licht der Welt, es verändert sich, und gerade in den allerersten Lebenswochen verändert es sich besonders schnell, es geht da der Entwickelungsgang gegenüber späteren Epochen am schnellsten vor sich. Die äußere materialistische Wissenschaft kann sogar da vieles feststellen. Sie kann zum Beispiel beobachten, wenn sie das Gehirn untersucht — das ist mit äußeren Mitteln festzustellen -, wie beim Kinde da oben am Kopf, an der Stelle, die lange Zeit noch weich bleibt, die Schädelteile sich erst später zusammenschließen und das Gehirn sich allmählich gestaltet. Gliederung und Verbindung hat die Aufgabe, ein Instrument zu bilden für das, was das Kind erst später können wird: denken; es soll Wahrnehmungen verbinden. Der Hellscher sieht nun an dem Kinde, wie es in den allerersten Tagen und Wochen der Entwickelung umgeben ist von mächtig wirkenden Kräften, die dem zweiten Wesensteil des Menschen, dem Ätherleibe, angehören. Wir wissen, daß dieser beim heutigen Menschen etwa dieselbe Größe hat wie der physische Leib, beim Kinde aber noch sehr weit über den physischen Leib herausragt, besonders am Kopf. Und da ist nun auch dieses Arbeiten der Kräfte, das wie ein Lichtspiel sich ausnimmt für den Hellseher, besonders lebhaft. Es ist wunderbar anzusehen, wie gewisse Kräfte aus dem Körper von unten heraufschießen, wie es dann von oben herunterstrahlt, vom Genick, von allen Seiten her und da, wo sich die Haare wirbeln, in ein lebendiges Spiel der Kräfte ausstrahlt, zu einem astralisch-ätherischen Lichtspiel wird im Ätherleib des Kindes, das sich dann mit der Zeit immer mehr verliert. In diesem Lichtspiel liegen die Kräfte, die jene physischen Verbindungsglieder im Gehirn schaffen. Das Gehirn wird erst in der Zeit gestaltet, wenn das Kind schon geboren ist, und zwar aus einer geistigen Substanz heraus. Vierzig bis fünfzig Kräfteströme können Sie da zusammenarbeiten sehen - aus ihnen ist der Lichtkörper zusammengesetzt -, ein wunderbares Schauspiel, wenn Sie so das Kind in den ersten Lebenswochen beobachten. Allmählich dringt dieser Lichtkörper in das Gehirn des Kindes hinein, ist dann drinnen. Erst war der Ätherleib des Kindes draußen, er umgab den Kopf, war ganz primitiv; ihn umgab ein Lichtkörper, aus dem er Kräfte sammelte, und nun geht er allmählich in den Kopf des Kindes hinein, sitzt da drinnen als der komplizierte Ätherorganismus. Das ist das Wundervolle an der Entwickelung, daß alles Physische aus der geistigen Welt heraus konstruiert ist, aus dem Geistigen heraus gearbeitet ist, welches wir dann selbst aufnehmen. Das Seelische hat sich zuerst die Behausung ausgearbeitet, in der es dann wohnt. So sehen wir, wie es in der kleinen Welt geschieht, im menschlichen Gehirn des Kindes; so ist es auch in der großen Welt. Schauen Sie auf eine besonders vorgeschrittene Individualität wie die des Jesus von Nazareth, in dessen Leib drei Jahre lang als Seele der Christus gewohnt hat. Geradeso wie beim Kinde der Ätherleib sich das physische Gehirn selbst zubereitet, um dann später dahineinzuziehen, so hat sich der Christus auch zuvor die Stätte zubereitet, darinnen er wohnen konnte. Das mußte er aber erst sich erarbeiten. Erst hat er sozusagen nur äußerlich mit der Erde zusammengehangen, sie hat ihn aber noch nicht in sich aufnehmen können. Die Besten aber haben an ihr so gearbeitet, daß der Christus ihr immer näher und näher kommen konnte, und er selbst, der Christus, hat dabei mitgeholfen. Wer hat denn den Körper des Jesus von Nazareth so umgestaltet und zuletzt soweit gebracht, daß er den Christus aufnehmen konnte? Der Christus selber hat das getan. Erst hat er von außen an ihm gearbeitet und nachher konnte der Christus selbst in den Menschen einziehen.
Gleiches geschieht in der kleinen Welt wie in der großen. Und nur dadurch, daß diese Wesen, die über uns stehen, sich auch entwickeln, ist überhaupt Entwickelung möglich. Erst dadurch, daß der Christus sich übersinnlich zeigen konnte, ist er der planetarische Geist der Erde geworden. Das Mikrokosmische entspricht immer dem Makrokosmischen.
Nicht einmal das erste Kapitel des Rosenkreuzertums konnte ich heute vor Sie hinstellen, sondern nur erst die Art und Weise charakterisieren, wie der Mensch der Gegenwart denken und empfinden lernen soll. Denn die wahre Bedeutung des «Erkenne dich selbst» liegt darin, daß wir in dieser Weise die Weltenentwickelung verfolgen. Wo ist unser Selbst? Doch nicht in uns allein. Das zu denken wäre egoistisch. Es ist herausgebaut und herausgeboren aus dem ganzen Weltenall und auch unser Aufstieg soll uns dazu führen, in dem ganzen Kosmos aufzugehen. Hineinstellen will die Selbsterkenntnis den Menschen in die ganze Welt, um ihm da zu zeigen den wahren Sinn des Wortes: Selbsterkenntnis.
The Theosophy of the Rosicrucians
In this cycle, it will be my task to present to you a picture of the theosophical worldview, and this will be done from the perspective of the so-called Rosicrucian method. And I ask you not to misunderstand this term, “Rosicrucian method,” to mean that we are going to talk about the historical development of Rosicrucianism or give a historical account of it. The term “Rosicrucian method” simply means that theosophy will be presented according to the method that has always been used in the secret schools of Europe since the 13th and 14th centuries, and which is called Rosicrucian training.
You know that “theosophy” is what poured forth in ancient times as truth about humanity in order to form a foundation of human knowledge in hearts everywhere. But the further back we go, the more secret these insights are kept. Why? I will return to this in these lectures, why this universal wisdom was imparted to individuals who were found to be ready for it in secret schools and places of care. Individuals who not only had to learn, but also had to undertake something that transformed their whole soul so that they became clairvoyant. This gave them insight into higher worlds. And such individuals were then sent out, as messengers, so to speak, who were called to guide and lead others. Now, however, progress consists in the fact that there are more and more people who, through their judgment and understanding, are capable of comprehending this wisdom. It has therefore become necessary that more and more of what was formerly kept secret be made public.
In the course of the 19th century, external circumstances, which we will learn about later, made it necessary to make a large amount, a significant sum of knowledge from the secret science available to the public for the salvation and progress of humanity. In the 19th century, the guardians of this knowledge said to themselves: In earlier times, the messages about spiritual things, as they came to people through religion or in other ways, were sufficient to satisfy human needs in relation to the eternal. But the needs of humanity are changing. And so these guardians of ancient wisdom had to recognize that in the future there would be more and more people whose souls could no longer be satisfied by the old forms of communicating spiritual matters. For such people, it is now possible to find satisfaction in Theosophy. Theosophy, this new form of communication, springs from the perception of a human need observed in recent times. The guardians of secret knowledge knew, of course, that such times would come, but only at a certain point in time was it necessary to make preparations for allowing this wisdom to flow in and to say to themselves: We must ensure that these secrets can also be grasped by the minds of the 19th and 20th centuries. This happened in the 13th and 14th centuries. Very few people in Europe were aware of this moment of preparation at that time. They were the first Rosicrucians, those who gathered around a significant individual known by the pseudonym “Christian Rosenkreutz.” It was Christian Rosenkreutz who was able to say in the clearest sense: “We have received knowledge in the mysteries, a treasure of wisdom from the supersensible world.” Let us leave it at that, and we may hope that in the future we will be able to continue doing what we have done until now: sending out individuals who have matured in our schools, once they have learned and seen the secrets of the ancient wisdom, to teach others. This ancient method of spreading the ancient wisdom should be continued, but other things must also be prepared. He was able to say to himself: A far greater number of people will come who will demand the wisdom of the primordial world. We could impart it to them in the form we now have for it. But to accept it in this way requires a high degree of faith and recognition of our authority, which will disappear more and more from humanity. The more people's power of judgment grows, the less they will believe teachers as they did in the past. - Faith and trust were prerequisites for the earlier form of communication. Now we had to say to ourselves: People will come who will want to examine for themselves what is communicated to them. They will say: We want to apply the same logical mind that we use when observing the sensory world to what you tell us. Admittedly, something else is necessary to investigate the spiritual world besides this mind, but we want to test it with the same mind. That is why it was necessary at the beginning of our era to cast the ancient wisdom into new forms. That was the work of the Rosicrucians: to shape the ancient wisdom in such a way that it could gradually adapt to the modern spirit and the modern soul.
What is Theosophy according to the Rosicrucian method? Theosophy itself is always and everywhere the same. A Rosicrucian theosophist today is a theosophist of the 19th and 20th centuries. His wisdom is adapted in its forms precisely to what people today want to understand and what they need to have. What is specific to our time? The course of human development has been such that people have had to become more and more familiar with the outer physical reality. Look back to ancient times, for example to ancient Egyptian culture, and see with what simple means and forces people worked, built their own structures, and satisfied their personal needs. Compare this with our life today, with all its sophisticated efforts to achieve physical comfort. What an enormous amount of mental energy and thought is wasted on daily physical needs! It was, of course, necessary, indeed the very task of the Western world, to shape the outer culture and master the outer nature in such a way that the physical plane is truly dominated by the human spirit. A world such as ours has become needs different means to absorb the wisdom of the secret schools than those ancient times. If, on the other hand, we compare the knowledge of the Chaldeans and their insights into spiritual knowledge with our knowledge today, then the Chaldeans tower above us. Today we admire Copernicus, Galileo, and the achievements of external science, but all this is child's play compared to the ancient wisdom of the Chaldeans. For today's researchers, for example, the planet Mars is simply an external body whose course and movement can be measured; but the Chaldeans also knew what forces and beings were connected with Mars, what divine will guided it all, and what connection existed between these forces and human beings. The mystery, the working of these spiritual forces, was known to them. That is why today's researchers are so helpless in the face of the inner nature of this ancient Chaldean culture. They have the external means to investigate it, but not the internal ones. Theosophists and Rosicrucians have the spiritual inner means to penetrate their spirit.
The great names of our scientific authorities, whom we read about today excavating clay cylinders and shards on which ancient Babylonian wisdom is engraved, stand before them like a three-year-old child before an electrical apparatus. The researcher does not know what to do with what he excavates: so vast, so far-reaching was the spiritual knowledge of that time. But it was only possible for external science, with the intellect and the external means of our culture, to achieve what we today—and rightly so—admire as the great cultural advances of the last centuries. Such a time, however, requires a different way of thinking and feeling in order to understand the spiritual. Perhaps a word of warning should be added here. Today, there is much talk of higher or lower degrees of development. People argue about whether Buddha or Christ was greater. But that is completely irrelevant. It does not matter. It is not important whether Assyrian wisdom is higher or ours is deeper. We live in a materialistic age and we need spiritual knowledge to flow into our culture so that humanity's longing for it can be satisfied. And the Rosicrucian wisdom gives people this knowledge in the way that people today need it. What is being said here may sound a little daring, but please accept it for now; everything will become clear later. After all, Rosicrucian wisdom has been misunderstood more than anything else in the world.
As things unfolded, it happened that the great individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz foresaw what demands for understanding would actually come from rational-minded people, and how it had already become necessary at that time to cast all spiritual knowledge into a form that would develop into what is required today. We must realize that the Rosicrucians had a much more difficult time than any similar movement in the past, because their initial work in the 13th and 14th centuries fell into a time when materialism was rapidly advancing. All the modern achievements, such as steam engines, the telegraph, and so on, had to bring people completely down to the physical plane. The Rosicrucians had to work for an age that had to think mathematically. They had to make their preparations in this sense, and therefore had to be misunderstood the most. That is why you cannot learn about Rosicrucianism from what is publicly known about it. Nothing of what was cultivated in Rosicrucianism can actually be found in this literature. The deepest spiritual truths of the Rosicrucians were interpreted as if spiritual things could be prepared in alchemical kitchens with retorts and so on. This view of alchemy gave rise to the materialistic caricature of Rosicrucianism that is presented today. The Rosicrucians had to prepare a science through which they could gradually impart their wisdom to the world.
From all this you can see that when we present theosophy to people today, we must present them with Rosicrucian theosophy. By using older forms, we might win over some people, but these would have to be people who are not connected with the present world and culture with every fiber of their being. There are egoists who shirk the task of the present, but we want to take the present and its forms seriously. We must accept our age as it is, but seek to influence it spiritually. It is in this sense that Rosicrucian theosophy must understand its task.
During the course of the congress, you have had the opportunity to see how fruitful this theosophy can be; for example, how it intervenes in medicine. Just let medicine continue to develop in such a materialistic way: if you could look forty years ahead, you would be horrified at the brutal methods this medicine would employ, at the forms of death to which people would be cured by this medicine. How does medicine today research the effects of its remedies? Well, on the human material it finds in hospitals and elsewhere, that is, through external observation. Spiritual wisdom, however, is such that it works into the inner connections of the spiritual, knowing what corresponds to the spiritual in the physical. A complete re-creation of all medical knowledge will come from what is called Rosicrucianism. But this is only one area. Compare our complicated living conditions today with those of the ancient Chaldeans. Think of the amount of intellectual power and combinatorial ability that is required to cash a check issued in New York in Tokyo. A time of this nature, which has spun such a culture across the globe with such means, requires different spiritual methods than earlier times. The occultist knows this. Today's thinking is simply not enough to overcome the chaos of external circumstances and tasks into which human beings will increasingly find themselves. Thinking will become rigid. Today we are in a transitional period, but soon thinking will no longer be fluid and flexible enough to grasp and transform the complicated conditions. So why do we spread Theosophy? To achieve practical results. Theosophical thoughts make thinking more elastic and fluid, enabling a quicker overview of larger contexts. In this way, Rosicrucianism has the power to enrich all areas of life. To see how practical theosophy is, take the little booklet I wrote on “The Education of the Child from the Point of View of Spiritual Science.” You cannot know what is contained in it without Rosicrucian theosophy. It should not remain theory, but should become a practical guide to everyday life. Look for this in earlier forms of theosophy: it is simply not there. Rosicrucian theosophy is there to satisfy the spiritual longings of human beings and also to allow the spirit to flow into daily activities. Rosicrucian theosophy is not there for the salon or the hermit, but for the whole of human culture.
Wisdom is always one. But just as the individual human being lives and continues to develop, so does humanity as a whole. And that is why the forms of wisdom revealed to them must change in accordance with the course of human development. The great teachers of humanity are working among us today as they always have. We too, who are now present here as souls, were incarnated in the past and have passed through all periods of development, the Greek-Latin, the Egyptian-Chaldean, and further back in time, in order to take on ever new achievements and to learn ever new things. Imagine a soul that was embodied when the gigantic pyramids and mysterious sphinxes surrounded it in Egypt! How different that must have been for that soul than what surrounds it today. As long as the earth has something new to offer—and the earth is constantly progressing—the soul will continue to take in new things. The soul is not embodied on Earth for the amusement of the gods, but in order to learn. The Earth looked different when the soul entered it in its first embodiment, and it will look different in its last. Only then will we return to this Earth, when we can learn something new on it; that is why the time between embodiments is so long. Let us just imagine how different the northern part of Europe looked at the time when Christ walked here on Earth, even if only in terms of the landscape. We do not enter the Earth twice without being able to learn something new. Everything in the world is in development. But development means processing and living out what is new at each stage.
But it is not only human beings who develop; all beings do. Here we will have to seek the path to beings who stand on higher levels than man, but man already enters into relationship with them in many ways in this life. These higher beings are also subject to the law of development, and just as our souls were different thousands of years ago, so too were the beings who revealed themselves in earlier times. They too are constantly learning. And when we speak of one of the higher beings who has descended to us to reveal the secrets of the higher worlds by means of the spirit, we must say to ourselves: this is a sublime art that must be learned. Even if one is a god, one must learn this. For one must speak differently to people today than to those who lived ten thousand years ago. Higher beings undergo the same development as human beings. And what I said during the congress proceedings about the event in Damascus shows how higher beings develop. Suppose someone had been clairvoyant two thousand years before the appearance of Christ Jesus. A spiritual seer does not only see the external environment, but also everything that belongs to the spiritual sphere of the Earth's aura. Just as human beings are surrounded by an aura, so are the world bodies. And one learns to see the spirit of a world body. A spiritually perceptive person two thousand years ago would have seen something completely different in the Earth's aura than someone a thousand years ago or someone who has become clairvoyant today. Just as the external image of nature changes, so too does the image of the spiritual world that we see when we look into it.
I want to talk about an event that I will come back to later: the burning bush and the proclamation on Mount Sinai. What does this mean? What happened to Moses? His clairvoyant power had developed to a certain point, and he perceived the supersensible in the sensible. Someone without clairvoyance would have simply perceived a natural event. But Moses saw in the burning bush the being who announced himself as “I am who I am!” And he knew that this being was there, that this fire was not only external fire, but that something spiritual was hidden behind it. A being revealed itself to him that was intimately connected with the entire future development of humanity, and that gave itself the name: “I am that I am.” What did all of Moses' disciples know? They had learned it in the mystery schools of that time: the same being that had revealed itself on Mount Sinai would descend to earth, dwell in a human body, and speak through a human being for three years, and this human being would be Christ Jesus. The initiates knew this. Saul, who later became Paul, also knew this. But he said to himself: “Certainly, this being exists, and it will descend to earth. But I cannot imagine that it will end in the shameful death on the cross, that being who revealed itself as Yahweh in the burning bush.” What could convince him? The event at Damascus. At the moment when he became clairvoyant and the earth's aura became visible to him, and he saw within it the Christ, the living Christ, who showed himself to him as the same who died on the cross, Saul became Paul.
But this could only be seen at that time. Earlier, two thousand years ago, Christ was not yet in the earth's aura; he was still visible in the sun. Zarathustra saw the sun surrounded by an aura: he called it Ahura Mazdao, the great aura of Ormuzd. But this being descended, first revealed itself to Moses in the burning bush, and then lived among us as a human being in the body of Jesus of Nazareth. “I am the light of the world,” Christ could therefore say of himself. Before that, no one could have spoken like that, because the light of the world had not lived in anyone before.
We want to work out these things until we understand them fully. Today, however, we will only hint that the Christ being could not always reveal itself as openly as in the case of Paul, for example. The Christ being had to earn this first; it had to develop its power to such an extent that it could reveal itself in this way. Two thousand years ago, this would not have been possible. Every soul makes progress in every incarnation. This is important; it is what matters in leading individualities. We must recognize that Christ is not always the same; we must recognize him in his specific modes of activity, in the way he also progresses from development to development. And it is an overwhelming feeling of exaltation for human beings when they recognize how, just like their souls and their incarnations and progress, spiritual beings also rise higher and higher and become more and more powerful. This gives a living sense of development. In Rosicrucian theosophy, it is particularly important to show how such a being as Christ has worked in the past and in the present, as with Moses and Paul, and to see how such a being also progresses. This gives a more intimate understanding of development.
Let us consider a child. It is born, it sees, as the technical term has it, the light of the world, it changes, and especially in the very first weeks of life it changes particularly quickly; the process of development proceeds most rapidly there compared to later epochs. External materialistic science can even ascertain many things there. For example, when examining the brain—which can be determined by external means—it can observe how, in the child's head, in the area that remains soft for a long time, the parts of the skull first join together and the brain gradually takes shape. Structure and connection have the task of forming an instrument for what the child will only be able to do later: thinking; it is intended to connect perceptions. The clairvoyant now sees in the child, in the very first days and weeks of development, how it is surrounded by powerful forces that belong to the second part of the human being, the etheric body. We know that in modern humans this body is about the same size as the physical body, but in children it still extends far beyond the physical body, especially at the head. And it is here that the workings of these forces, which appear to the clairvoyant as a play of light, are particularly vivid. It is wonderful to see how certain forces shoot up from the body from below, how they then radiate down from above, from the neck, from all sides, and where the hair swirls, radiating into a living play of forces, becoming an astral-etheric play of light in the etheric body of the child, which then gradually disappears over time. This play of light contains the forces that create the physical connections in the brain. The brain is only formed after the child is born, out of a spiritual substance. You can see forty to fifty streams of energy working together—the light body is composed of these—a wonderful spectacle if you observe the child in this way during the first weeks of life. Gradually, this light body penetrates the child's brain and is then inside it. At first, the child's etheric body was outside, surrounding the head, and was very primitive; it was surrounded by a light body from which it gathered forces, and now it gradually enters the child's head and sits there as the complex etheric organism. That is the wonderful thing about development, that everything physical is constructed out of the spiritual world, worked out of the spiritual, which we then take in ourselves. The soul first worked out the dwelling place in which it then lives. So we see how it happens in the small world, in the human brain of the child; so it is also in the large world. Look at a particularly advanced individuality such as Jesus of Nazareth, in whose body the soul of Christ dwelt for three years. Just as in the child the etheric body prepares the physical brain for itself so that it can later move into it, so Christ also prepared the place in advance where he could dwell. But he had to work for this first. At first, he was connected to the earth only externally, so to speak, but the earth was not yet able to take him in. However, the best among us worked on the earth so that Christ could come closer and closer to it, and Christ himself helped in this process. Who transformed the body of Jesus of Nazareth and ultimately brought it to the point where it could receive Christ? Christ himself did this. First he worked on him from outside, and afterwards Christ himself was able to enter into the human being.
The same thing happens in the small world as in the large. And it is only because these beings above us also develop that development is possible at all. It is only because Christ was able to reveal himself supersensibly that he became the planetary spirit of the earth. The microcosmic always corresponds to the macrocosmic.
I could not even present the first chapter of Rosicrucianism to you today, but only characterize the way in which people of the present day should learn to think and feel. For the true meaning of “Know thyself” lies in our following the development of the worlds in this way. Where is our self? Not in us alone. To think so would be selfish. It is built out of and born out of the entire universe, and our ascent should also lead us to merge with the entire cosmos. Self-knowledge wants to place human beings in the whole world in order to show them the true meaning of the word: self-knowledge.