The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Notes from the estate of Elisabeth Vreede First degree

We live in a transitional age in which greater changes will take place than in any other transitional period. Things have happened in the supersensible world that the supersensible beings expect at least some people on earth to grasp and to build on in their work.

Man has not five but twelve senses. In addition to the five senses usually enumerated, there are seven more that do not open outwards but are situated internally; these are:

1. the sense of speech, by which we grasp the spoken word;
2. the sense of thought, by which we can connect concepts and thoughts with what we have heard;
3. the sense of self, by which we know that other people are also endowed with a self. We only experience our self internally, not with the help of that sense organ. These senses are located in the soft parts of the brain;
4. a sense of balance, by which we can consciously stand upright - in contrast to mechanical objects;
5. a sense of mobility, by which we perceive our movements, such as walking and so on;
6. the sense of life, by which we feel well or unwell, fresh or depressed;
7. the actual sense of touch, that is, the distinction between hard and soft and so on. This is not an external sense organ, because you only find the resistance that you have to overcome when touching the object. What is usually called the sense of touch also includes the sense of warmth, which is one of the external senses. This has its organ in the skin; the sense of hardness, however, has only an internal organ, not an external one like the skin.

Of the twelve senses, therefore, only five are turned outwards; these are hearing, sight, smell, taste and warmth. The twelve senses are related to the twelve signs of the zodiac. Just as the Sun is something quite different - when viewed occultly - when it is in a different constellation, so man is quite different depending on whether he is connected to one or other sense organ. When he sees, he is all color; when he hears, he is all sound, and so on. But just as the sun is ultimately something other than the signs of the zodiac, so man is inwardly something other than his senses.

The division of the senses into seven and five is like the division of the starry sky when the sun rises in Aries and seven constellations are above the horizon and five are hidden below the horizon. And just as two of these seven stand at the boundary points, half on and half below the horizon, namely Aries and Libra, so among the seven inner senses there are also two that stand on the boundary between the inner and the outer, namely the sense of balance and the sense of self, which nevertheless already relate our inner being to something else that is outside us.

The fact that there are five senses that are open to the outside world comes from Lucifer, from the Luciferic influence. Originally, all the senses were inner senses. That is why it is also said in the Bible: “Your eyes” - ears and so on - “will be opened.” Originally, the eyes were only intended to reflect that which was perceived spiritually in images that one would have seen inwardly. The ears were also intended only to inwardly transform sounds into what one would have heard as spiritual sounds.

This is how the Elohim wanted to make the human senses; and what we still have now as light generation in the eye itself - for example, through pressure on the eye or through imagination - these are the last remnants of what the Elohim wanted to make out of the eye. But when Lucifer opened human eyes, man would still have been unable to perceive the physical if Ahriman had not transformed the external world so that people could perceive the physical. He wove darkness into the light, creating colors that humans can now perceive, but only that, because humans cannot see light itself. He, Ahriman, placed sound in the air, so that one hears only a faint echo of the real sound through the vibrations in the air.

Now Lucifer and Ahriman are powerful spirits, but they now have under them hosts of less powerful beings, down to the smallest elemental beings, who work in a grain of sand. Among these are also the hosts of Mammon, against whom Michael has been fighting for eons. The Mammonite spirits work to attain all knowledge only through the senses and to register it with the mind that is bound to the brain. Since the fifteenth or sixteenth century, they have been active in modern natural science, and the fact that such spirits as Huxley, Darwin and Haeckel are materialists is because, before their last birth, they passed through a sphere in which the still unconquered hosts of Mammon exercised their influence. Since the last third of the nineteenth century, however, they have been defeated by Michael, who is working there as an emissary of Christ. He has pushed them out of heaven and thrown them down to earth.

That is what happened in the transcendental world and the transcendental beings expect that man will continue their work. For these mammonitic spirits are now on earth, and they are now fighting to gain control on earth after being defeated in heaven. When a person like Maack writes about xenology (the doctrine of the foreign) or allonomy (the doctrine of the other) and at the same time says that this “foreign” or “other” cannot be recognized - when he proposes to build a transcendental mechanics (which is the same as saying that in Cologne you want to eat with a spoon what is on a plate in Paris) is nothing more than the effect of these hosts of Mammon. From xenology to the Turkish war, there is a straight line.

Therefore, we are called upon to continue the work of Michael and not to let these spirits rule on earth.

Those who allow what has been said to sink in may gradually see small flames of realization. We no longer have the right to expect a great spiritual outpouring like the one at Pentecost, but we may consider ourselves in full humility as small flames in which the light is reflected. If it has been said of a certain Adyar event that it can only be compared to the Pentecostal outpouring, then that seems to us to be blasphemy. But we may hope that what once descended as the Holy Spirit will awaken in us the little flame that has been placed in us and will bring us the knowledge of the truth.

One of the most important guidelines that the masters of wisdom and of the harmony of feelings communicate to pupils through a teacher is: Learn to be silent and you'll get power; give up power and you'll get will; give up will and you'll get feeling; give up feeling and you'll get knowledge. An esoteric must place these occult propositions before his soul in all work and action, and then some day he'll experience that the four verses are true. One should note that the various forces can only be attained in sequence, so that one can never attain knowledge first and maybe then feeling and then will, and then power. For will arises from the renunciation of power, etc. We'll give an example from the life of a very rich Briton, Laurence Oliphant, who lived in the middle of the last century. He and his wife had a noble love for their poorer neighbors and moved by this feeling they gave most of what they had to them; and then they migrated to New York. There they made enough money to go to Mt Tabor near Haifa. Here a strange phenomena arose. Oliphant began to write some very interesting and strange books about Genesis that were some of the strangest things that were written about the Bible at the time. But he could only have these thoughts with the help of his wife. After she died Oliphant could only keep on working for a short time, and then the inspiration of his deceased wife no longer reached the physical plane. So this is an example of the validity of the second part of the verse just mentioned.

We're always surrounded by five ether streams in the world around us on earth. They're called earth, water, fire, air and thought ethers. These etheric streams are also active in man: earth ether from the head to the right foot, from there water ether to the left hand, from there fire ether to the right hand, from there air ether to the left foot, and then thought ether back to the head. This is the occultist's sacred pentagram, the symbol of man. Its point is directed upwards, which indicates that the spirit streams to man from the heights. The pentagram is present in many flowers and other things in nature. The sign of black magic is a pentagram with one point at the bottom, through which magicians attract bad forces from the earth and send them out of the two top horns into the environment by means of their bad will in order to use soul and nature forces for their own egotistical, evil purposes.

The cross sections of the five etheric streams and their connections with color, taste, and body regions are as follows:

We must find our way into life through learning. We shouldn't enter life with one-sided, critical views If we test everything that science, art and various world views offer us in accordance with the present state of science we'll find three threatening powers on our path, namely, doubt, superstition, and the illusion of personality. Don't avoid them, investigate them independently, for we shouldn't close ourselves off from modern science, neither from its inventions nor from its research results. It's even our duty to take them into account, although in our theosophical circle we receive a quite different teaching that's ridiculed and laughed at by science. From its standpoint science can't accept it, because it only knows matter and it can only connect its investigations with existing material and physical things. In doing justice to science we should let doubts about what we are taught here arise in us; we shouldn't be afraid of doubting, so that we arrive at inner clarity by ourselves. Thereby we wrestle through to occult teachings out of our own consciousness.

And what's meant by the conquering of superstition? We call the fetish that an African sees and reveres in his idol or block of wood superstition. It's superstition as long as he doesn't think of something spiritual that stands behind it. We can also speak of superstition when we see how modern savants build up a fetish in their hypotheses of atoms and molecules, which also remains hypothetical matter if one doesn't admit the existence of the spiritual that stands behind it. We shouldn't let this kind of superstition arise in us.

A third thing is added to doubt and superstition. This is the illusion of personality. These three forces that surge up and down in man want to control him. But if we have wrestled through to a knowledge of truth via strong doubts, and through superstition to a belief in the spirit that lies behind all matter, we'll also be able to overcome the illusion about our personality. This is often the most difficult one. Even if we sometimes feel that we're inwardly free men and that we think that we're confronting individuals and things in the world without prejudice, all too often this is only reflected to us by the illusion of our personality.

Attention must also be drawn to something else. Don't take our teachings to other kinds of social gatherings, only talk about them when you come together for that purpose. Don't argue about them with outsiders, and don't speak about them at mealtimes where only casual conversation is in order. It would be best to avoid gatherings where they only discuss everyday affairs. But if you must go to them because your position in life or other considerations force you to do so it'll be with a different attitude than before. Then you won't do it out of an inner pleasure, but as a duty so that you won't offend anyone through your nature. I'm not saying this to give a moral sermon, for I forbid absolutely nothing, but I must nevertheless tell you this.

Meditation has a technical part and one that's carried over into life, that is, the way a man thinks, feels and acts change through correct meditation.

Meditation requires patience and conscientiousness. What does a man do when he meditates? He imitates what divine spiritual beings in the higher hierarchies did millions of years ago, giving rise to our present earth. Everything around us is condensed thoughts of the Gods. The divine spiritual beings thought, and namely they thought rhythmically in cycles according to the principle that steady dripping hollows the stone.

What they thought frequently with brief intervals between has become harder earth substance, such as diamonds. It has a creative effect to imagine things that don't exist in the physical world, but thinking about existing things doesn't.

I'm an egoist. I'm not a Christian. These are two very fruitful sentences for meditation. A man must become acquainted with the monster that he is.

The meeting with the guardian of the threshold is something that's terrible for everyone. One can say this to an esoteric. The seeing of beautiful things and figures is astral maya, is Lucifer. The hearing of masters and the like is etheric maya, is Ahriman. One must investigate what one sees and hears there; then one will see the true state of affairs.

We get an increase in spiritual knowledge and forces through hard work at esoteric exercises such as the ones described in How Does One Attain Knowledge of Higher Worlds? and in other books. But we must heed certain practical hints that help us to get ahead.

A healthy condition of tiredness doesn't have to prevent us from carrying out concentration and mediation with great willpower. On the contrary. Nature does one part of the work for us, since it dulls the outer sense organs and lessens our ability to take in sense impressions. For the goal is to see without physical eyes, to hear without physical ears and to think without a physical brain. It's precisely when we are tired that we can illumine and warm our being with the luminous thoughts of meditation.

Abstention from alcohol is necessary, for this works on the ego that lives and works in the blood. Meditation pulls the spirit up and loosens its connection with the physical body; alcohol pulls it down and consolidates it in the same. Eating meat makes the spirit heavy. Eating plants makes greater demands on the physical body so that it's busy and can't hinder the spirit's work. But what else is brought about by abstention of fish and meat? The bad about eating meat is the lasting effect of hurting and killing animals. These martyred animals return in the form of creatures who turn their forces against the bodies of the descendents of those who once killed them. Bacteria are re-embodied tortured, killed and eaten animals.

Exercises bring about changes in an esoteric that he must pay attention to if he is to avoid injuries. Firstly, the intellect changes; the guidance of thought becomes different and so does judgment and memory. It becomes difficult for an esoteric to give logical and readily understandable reasons for his actions to an ordinary man. Such grounds aren't at all necessary, for at the decisive moment a real esoteric knows the right thing to do. But if he doesn't pull himself together and lazily avoids doing thought-control exercises, his thoughts may get confused.

Some immature people force their esoteric development and gain a certain power over others; but at the decisive moment they're stopped before they can do greater damage.

Secondly the way one speaks and makes gestures changes. A man must have himself under control so that his nervous system doesn't take over and he does all kinds of impermissible things.

Thirdly the physical body must not become injured by a forced, greedy tempo in esoteric development, otherwise an acute disease may set in, which however is curable and that warns the one who get it.

In the Hebrew mysteries, they spoke of four men who tried to go through the temple's portal—but only one got to it. Only one developed normally through particularly patient and consequent methods and reached the goal. The others who forced their esoteric development were harmed. This shows how necessary a rigorous execution of the accessory exercises is for the harmonizing and consolidating effect on man's whole being.

There are many powerful meditation materials, especially in the Bible. For instance, there's a description of creation's six days, the words at the beginning of John's Gospel, the appearance of Yahweh to Moses in the burning bush, the Gospel stories, “I am the light of the world,” and a particularly effective meditation is 1 Timothy 3:16 in the following translation: The mystery of God's path can be known. He who revealed himself through flesh, although in itself his being is spiritual, who is only fully knowable by angels, but could nevertheless be preached to heathens, who is alive in the faith of the world; he is raised to the Wisdom Spirits' sphere.

What bodhisattvas could give to men was inspired by Spirits of Movement. The lowest things that radiated from the Christ came from the sphere of the hierarchy of the Spirits of Movement. The Christ is above all hierarchies—he belongs to the Trinity.

Before we come to the matters of our deliberations today, let me recall a fact that must touch us particularly in this place, where, in addition to our German members, dear friends from abroad, especially from Holland, are also coming together. Among our friends from Holland, who have often been here in this area and especially in Cologne for such occasions, was a person who, after a long theosophical life, felt more and more deeply connected in recent years to that which, within our theosophical, spiritual current, blesses and warms us. Our dear friend Terwiel was often with us here in Cologne. His karma has willed that he had to leave the physical plane in the last few months. In the way we think of that change of life that takes place when a person leaves the physical plane, we remember our dear friend, so that we may keep that love for him, which we felt while we were allowed to see him here often, shake his hand and talk to him, this love for him also where he is now united with us in a different form. And the union that theosophical personalities have entered into truly does not change.

By translating many of our writings, our dear friend has rendered great and extensive services to the dissemination of our theosophical impulses in neighboring Holland. We remember him with love and loyalty, with the brotherhood inspired by our spiritual life, and our thoughts go out to him in love and loyalty, knowing that we will remain united with him for all time, now that we have gained the opportunity to join him. It is a deep need for me to remember in this hour the love and loyalty with which we remain united to our friend Terwiel.

And let me mention another similar fact. Among those who have left the physical plane in recent times is also a personality whom perhaps the numerous members who have not been connected with the Theosophical movement in Germany for long know only a little, but who have come to love and respect those who had to take care of the German movement in every way. The translator of a work into German – a work that has become extremely valuable for many Theosophists – our friend Baron von Floffmann has passed away at a ripe old age. He rendered great service to the German Theosophical movement with his beautiful, poetic translation of “Light on the Path”. We must remember with gratitude the man who translated this writing with such wonderful, poetic magic. Baron von Hoffmann left the physical plane in the last few days. We will also preserve love and loyalty for him in the spiritual world. With inwardness and solemnity, we remember these two personalities, and we want to rise from our seats as an expression of our loyal devotion.

*Script by Mabel Collins