The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Text from Rudolf Steiner's original manuscript ¹
Notebook archive number 612

All metal objects of value, determined by the conditions of the external world, are taken from the person to be initiated: jewelry, money, etc. This removes him from the context of the physical world and its laws. He must feel detached from the value that his own soul does not give him.

Then the person to be initiated is led to the gate, accompanied by the person acting as his guide. Before reaching the gate, a bandage is tied before his eyes. Upon the knock of the initiating personality (..-² ) the following conversation ensues between the initiating personality and the personality received in the inner room:

Question: Who knocks ardently at our door?

Answer: A free man (a free woman) who wants to be admitted to the mystical temple of wisdom, beauty and strength, to sacrifice and serve the spirit in communion with the older brothers of humanity.

Question: What is his (her) name?

Answer: Name.

Question: Who vouches for him (for her)?

Answer: The names of two guarantors.

Question: Are all conditions fulfilled?

Answer: They are fulfilled.

The recipient: He (she) enters.

The initiate is led by the introducer in spirals into the “room of self-knowledge”. Here he is addressed by an older initiate in the following way:

So, we are at the right place. I come from the universe of Canis Major. I met this soul on the way that leads from the north. She has discarded her body. She has arrived at the gate of death. $o listen, soul, now to the spirit, which wants to and can lead you to your full human dignity. Since you are no longer afflicted with senses and a mind that draws its strength from a body, your gaze no longer encounters the things and occurrences in your surroundings through which the spirit, which I have had to fight since the beginning of the earth, robs you of your freedom and only wants to make you a serving member of its own being. In your environment, nothing lives of its creation, which you always had to encounter in the sense body when you turned your gaze outwards. So my opponent instilled his essence into your soul; you were not yourself; you were filled with his essence within. Now you can draw everything you experience from within yourself; now you can be master, sole master in the world, which creates itself from within you. Only now will you know yourself completely, will you live in your human dignity. So feel yourself. Be yourself. When you fully understand yourself, you cannot help but find your home in the world to which I have led you. So, self-aware, you penetrate from my opponent's creation into your own world, here where everything is silent around you.

There is complete silence for a while. Silent calm reigns... This is interrupted after some time by heavy knocks (.. -).

The mystic who has just spoken continues:

My opponent, whom I have been fighting since the beginning of the earth, is approaching. He wants to oust me from this place. It is he who wants to make your soul a limb of his being. If you follow him, you will lose your human dignity. You will become a slave to his being. But for now I must give way to him. Do not fall for him, soul!

The mystic who performs the service at the altar of the East now begins to speak:

I have recognized in you, O soul, that the temptations of the spirit that has been fighting me since the beginning of the earth have given you a tendency towards his words. He was able to make you feel that it was good for your human dignity to follow him. I, the Spirit of the East, am now standing here before you. My opponent has now had to give way for me. Around me stand the judges of the terrible court of the dead. I ask them: What should be done with the soul, at the bottom of which I see an inclination towards the spirit that has been fighting me since the beginning of the earth?

The surrounding mystics answer:

You have to bring this soul to hell.

The servant-mystic of the East:

You bring this soul to hell.

Then the one to be received is led again in a spiral circle into a room that represents hell. One hears the clanking of chains and the locking of a door when the one to be received arrives in the room.

The mystic from the East now speaks:

You soul, you are in the place where the longing of your soul can be fulfilled. You are in your own world. Henceforth you will never again come across a creation with your gaze that does not originate from your own soul. You will live entirely in your own world and will be able to be the sole master in it. But know that you will live in your isolated world for all eternity. But you will never be able to find anything, not even anything of all that has become dear and precious to you in the world into which I have led you. For all eternity you will not learn anything about beings that you have grown fond of, that you would have liked to help. They will never be able to learn anything from you. In all future time you will know nothing but only yourself. And so also recognize the silence, the loneliness, which will surround you endlessly from the outside. And know that the further you will only live in yourself, the more dreadful your life will be. You will look into an empty future eternity, in which you will be able to enjoy nothing but only your own being! This life with a view into eternity will become more terrible the more you live towards it. Your inclination towards my opponent has condemned you to this; the judges of my terrible court of the dead have only put into words what your soul has condemned itself to. But I may, by virtue of the grace that also radiates from the East, now show you once more what you have gone through on earth. Perhaps your soul will develop a different inclination when you, armed with insight into everything that my opponent promised you and what I have to impose on you here, see once again what you have become. Therefore I will guide you through your earthly past and show your soul what my messengers from the east have granted you during your earthly course so that you could become what you are now. I have sent them, these wise messengers of mine; now they may once more bring to your ears what they have accomplished in you during your earthly course.

Again the chains are heard to clink violently, and the lock (of hell) opens with a loud noise.

A mystic appointed for this purpose calls out the words:

The journey backwards through life is now to begin. While the person being initiated is led back through the spiral paths, the mystic who has already spoken the last words says the following:

1. Man walks through his whole life in darkness; only the knowledge of the spirit can snatch him from darkness.

2. If the soul is driven to the spirit only by curiosity or a thirst for knowledge, it will not find the spirit. For only those beings find the spirit who recognize that they do not belong to themselves, but to the world, and who therefore feel the duty within themselves to make themselves as perfect as possible as a member of the world as a whole. Duty of knowing the spirit: you shall feel it.

3. If you do not want to penetrate so deeply into human souls that all earthly differences disappear before your gaze, and you see all people as they present themselves without differences, one like the other, you cannot come to knowledge; for this is attained only by the one who sees all people as equal, without the differences that the world, steeped in darkness, has imprinted on them.

4. If the soul is not inclined to hold up her weaknesses and errors in clear observation, she will not find the way to spiritual knowledge; for every unrecognized error is an obstacle that stands in the way of knowledge.

After the candidate has heard these four sentences during his spiral walk, a staircase is placed in his path, which he has to climb. Having reached the top step, he is made to fall down on the other side. During this ascent and fall, the following words are spoken by the appointed mystic:

You also sought to find the light for your soul on your previous path; but you climbed the heights of the path of life in darkness. This ascent makes you visually aware of your ascent in darkness. You can only reach the heights of life by following the light received from the spirit; without it you must fall, as you are falling now.

After this, the person to be initiated is led to the two pillars that are located at the entrance to the room that symbolizes the ancient Atlantic land. The person to be initiated is placed in front of these pillars; and the appointed mystic speaks the following:

You have traveled backwards through the incarnations you have lived through since the great Atlantic catastrophe with the gaze of your soul. Now you have arrived at the epoch of this catastrophe. You stand at the Pillars of Hercules, which once led from the east to the northwest into the old Atlantic land. Consider that you have gone through further previous incarnations in this Atlantean land. You lived through these under completely different conditions than the later ones in the post-Atlantean time. The Atlantean land was shaped in such a way that the ground was filled with dense water fog vapors. Within the constant water fog, you lived in a completely different human form than later in the post-Atlantean time. In this time, the air had become free from the constant water vapor. Accordingly, the whole perception and experience of man had changed. The post-Atlantic time is the air test of humanity; the process of incarnations of the Atlantic time is the water test of humanity. During the test of the air, the messengers of the good spirit from the East have allowed the simple but deeply meaningful principles you have heard to flow into all the life of your soul. These principles are the impulses that lead all souls to good, which the wise men of the East always saw before them as if written in gold in the spiritual writing of the world; through them they wanted to lead your soul to salvation. But my opponent, who fights against me, has mixed his impulses into everything that was permeated by these impulses, and these impulses have always implanted corruption instead of salvation. If you could now turn your gaze towards the east and the reality would appear to you in the spirit, you would see my eagle in the bright heights, which wanted to bring you the wisdom of the east. But beneath him you would see my opponent's vulture, which has so influenced your thinking that wisdom must become a consuming power for you, and destroy you by wasting your strength to the extent that you sought to attain wisdom by earthly thinking.

If you could turn the gaze of your soul towards the south, you would see in the heights of light my angel, who was to bring your feeling the revelation of beauty; but my opponent points you to the owl below, which must add to the revelation of spiritual beauty the forces that, when your soul dwells outside the body at night while you sleep, implant in it the urge which rebels against beauty and wants to lead your feelings away from the revelation of the spiritual. If you could turn the soul's gaze to the west, you would see in the light heights my lion, as the messenger who could have endowed your soul with the power that comes from the spirit and that would make you spiritually strong; but below my lion you would see my opponent's black raven, which implants in your soul the urge to always cover up spiritual power with physical strength.

Thus, by going through the post-Atlantic incarnations, your soul could never have received unmixed, unmixed, what the wise messengers of the progressing world spirits wanted to give you. They received it mixed with the disastrous gifts of my opponent, who has been fighting me since the beginning of the earth.

After this, the mystic who has led the person to be received into the “space of self-knowledge” enters again. He speaks the following:

You have entered the time of the Atlantic catastrophe, in which you are wandering backwards with your soul's gaze. This is the time when the spirit, which I have had to fight since the beginning of the earth, cannot completely silence me. So now I can also tell your soul what you have received from me in your post-Atlantic incarnations. Without me you would never have attained the knowledge that your mind acquired by freely observing the creatures and events on earth. For He, who directs the cosmic order I am fighting against, wanted to instill His wisdom alone into your mind; He wanted to live in your thinking, feeling and willing. Only He Himself wanted to live in you; you were to represent only Him in your life. Your speech was to resound with His glory alone. I have so permeated your speech with My Being that you can express your impulses of thinking, feeling and willing in speaking. I have caused my brother, who, like me, has been fighting that other spirit since the beginning of the earth, to enable you to preserve in writing on earth what could only live under the other spirit's sole guidance in the words he had permeated, and what would have to perish with the word. So judge what has made you what you are in the course of the post-Atlantic incarnations. Judge what you would be today without speech, which can express not only the supersensible but also, through me, the sensible, without writing. I am the Bringer of Earthly Culture; without me you would be the image of a divine spirit; but not a freer, self-representing earthman.

After this has been spoken, the other mystic who spoke before this last one appears again. This one now says the following:

I will now lead your soul through the Pillars of Hercules into the ancient Atlantic land. There you will see in soul pictures what you have experienced in your Atlantean incarnations, but which you have completely forgotten, while you have become accustomed to looking at earthly conditions in the way that was made possible for you by my opponent's influence. It was only in the post-Atlantean and final Atlantean periods that his influence became noticeably greater. Before that, mine prevailed in your soul. You were closer to my nature in the water-mist life than later. Thus you will be able to gauge from what entered your life at that time what he is to you; and what the spirit I serve can be to you. - For your perception at that time, wisdom spoke from all things and processes of the three realms of nature immersed in the water mist. At present, your soul only recognizes articulate, meaningful language from the mouths of humans. The source, the waves of water, the leaves of the forest trees swirling in the wind do not speak meaningful language. But they did in the ancient Atlantean times. And your soul was able to commune with all the beings of nature. It was still close to the “wisdom of the world” at the time of the test of humanity's ability to live in harmony with the water. And when the soul went within, when it withdrew its attention from what all things expressed, then, too, when man withdrew into solitude, where things did not speak, the soul heard a fundamental or intermediate tone that resounded through everything. When the soul heard this sound, then with the sound all the warmth of the world's existence streamed into it, and the light of the world-creative powers streamed into it. The soul was filled with the all-pervading wisdom. It said, intuitively sensing what was there: “The great spirit speaks.” The soul became devout and reverent when it felt the “great spirit” flowing within it. Thus spoke the great spirit......; and as in an echo, the soul spoke with the great spirit in adoration and worship;......; so was the dialogue of the soul with the great spirit in the old Atlantean times:...... ..... ..... Your soul has forgotten this dialogue; I have reminded her of it.

But now, through your journey through life on earth, you are gradually arriving at the place where the spirit was very close, which the other has been fighting since the beginning of time. I have placed this temple room in this place, which can only be reached through the depths of the soul. When the bandage is removed from your eyes, you will be surrounded by images that show your soul what surrounded you at the moment you stepped out of the spiritual world into an earthly incarnation for the first time. You will be able to “choose” again. When your soul chose for the first time, it incorporated into its developmental impulses those of my adversary. Thus the secrets of spiritual existence had to be veiled from it.

The person to be initiated is now led into the actual temple room, which is made completely dark at this moment. The Mystos, who serves the altar of the East, now speaks the words of consecration, which are intended to make the soul aware of the direction of its journey through space and time.

These words are followed by those which the soul should feel within itself in order to know how to feel correctly towards the essence of the first degree:

I vow and promise that I will keep myself in the spirit of the first occult degree without duplicity, weakness, or ambiguity, and that I will also keep myself in this spirit with respect to outsiders of this degree. Should I not conduct myself in the spirit of what I promise myself, then what I myself must then allow through full awareness will be fulfilled in my soul................³

The mystic serving the altar of the East continues:

You soul, bear in mind that you have left behind, at the gates of this room, everything that receives its value from the external world, in which my opponent also works with me. Here you can achieve nothing through all this; only your soul can work here, which makes use of nothing of all this for its work. What can serve you for work here is expressed in the symbolic garment that is now being put on you by my helpers.

The symbolic garment of the first degree is put on the person to be initiated.

In the completely dark room, a light is now lit. The mystos standing at the side of the one serving at the altar of the East receives this light in his hand and stands close in front of the person to be initiated. Behind him stands another designated mystos.

The mystos in the East speaks:

What is the soul seeking in this room?

The surrounding mystics answer in chorus:

The light of the spirit.

The mystic in the east says:

The light of the spirit will appear to this soul when it will penetrate through the right attitude into everything that speaks to it here.

In this moment, the mystic standing behind the person to be received removes the bandage from the eyes of the person to be received; the light only remains for moments; then it goes out of the mystic carrying it.

The person being initiated is in the completely dark room.

This is immediately followed by the opening ceremony associated with the lighting of the lights in the east, south and west. - - - ³

After this, the symbolic signs and words are explained and communicated, which the person to be initiated should become aware of in the sense of processes in the etheric body of man, so that he can feel himself to be a member of the first degree through their communication.

Then the person to be initiated is led before the altar of the East by two designated mystics. The mystic serving the East mimes the... sign; two mystics of the higher degrees join him; they cross their sword-like symbols above the forehead of the person to be initiated: the mystic of the East speaks:

In the name of the wise masters of the East and by the power with which I serve them, I inscribe you in the book of the first degree of those who strive for the light of eternal mysticism.

The candidate is led by the appointed mysts to the place assigned to him.

The ceremony is now interrupted and an instruction ceremony is inserted. During this, a teaching mystic imparts to the person to be initiated:

1. the legend, which interprets the evolution of humanity in symbolic terms.⁴

2. A sign of the occult writing.⁵

After this instruction, the ceremony is resumed to end with the same three symbolic conclusions that conclude all the ceremonies of the first degree.

• 1. The various dots in the text correspond to the original manuscript.
• 2. ..- = short-short-long.
• 3. See the explanation on page 245.
• 3. On page 153.
• 4. The Temple Legend
  According to Rudolf Steiner's lecture in Berlin on November 4, 1904, the legend goes back to Christian Rosenkreutz, the founder of Rosicrucianism in the 14th/15th century. However, he did not explain how the original Rosicrucian legend became the basis for the entire Freemasonry, but he did remark in his lecture Berlin, November 11, 1904, that Freemasonry had joined forces with the Rosicrucians. This probably also explains the term “Rosicrucian-Masons” in certain ritual texts by Rudolf Steiner.
  In Masonic literature, the origin of the Temple Legend is generally placed in the early 18th century because it first appeared in literature at that time. Although it is assumed that it must have been part of the ideas of Freemasonry at an earlier time, this has not been proven by documentation. There is no unequivocal version of the wording. In the various traditions, there are always variants.
  It first became known outside of Freemasonry in the 19th century, once through the literary adaptation by Gérard de Nerval (pseudonym for Gérard Labrunie, Paris 1828–1858), which appeared in mid-19th century in Paris and was translated into German by Manfred Krüger (“Die Geschichte der Königin aus dem Morgenland und von Soliman, dem Fürsten der Genien”, Stuttgart 1967), and by Charles William Heckethorn in his work “Secret Societies of all Ages and Countries”, London 1875, first German translation “Geheime Gesellschaften, Geheimbünde und Geheimlehren”, Leipzig 1900. The version contained in this work was used by Rudolf Steiner in the lectures of the volume “The Legend of the Temple and the Golden Legend” (GA 93).
  In 1923, in connection with the esoteric lessons for the “Wachsmuth-Lerchenfeld Group”, Rudolf Steiner suggested to the two participating writers Kurt Piper and Albert Steffen that they artistically interpret the legend. Before Rudolf Steiner's death (March 1925), Albert Steffen's drama “Hieram and Solomon” was created, in which he also incorporated parts of the Golden Legend. It was first published in 1925 in the weekly journal “Das Goetheanum”. In 1935, Marie Steiner's production of the play premiered on the stage of the Goetheanum; in 1937, it was performed at the World's Fair in Paris as a guest performance at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Kurt Piper created a cycle of poems based on the legend, “Kain und Abel-Seth. Mysterienlegende in 10 Tafeln am Grabe Rudolf Steiners”, published in the monthly journal “Die Drei” 6. Jg. 1926/27, 1. Heft.
• 5. A note from Marie Steiner reads: “Now it is my responsibility to communicate the sign, grip and word of the first degree. - The sign, grip and word are not only identifying marks; they not only have a deep symbolic meaning, but also a magical effect and magical value. An old masonic saying rightly says: To him who knows the sign, grip and word, the temple is built; but he who does not recognize them remains eternally blind in life.

Text based on the original manuscript by Rudolf Steiner
Notebook Archive number 613

The person to be initiated is led to the gate of the “enlightenment room” by the mystic appointed for this purpose. A knock is heard (..-..-..-).¹ The following conversation takes place between the leading mystic standing outside and the recipient standing inside:

Who is knocking?

A member of the first degree of this occult current, who may be promoted to the second degree.

What is his name?

Is it said: Brother (sister) ------ Are all conditions met?

They are fulfilled (or the master has granted a dispensation).

Then the door is opened and the person to be initiated is led to a brightly burning fire in the “enlightenment room”. At the same time, a specially designated mystic stands and speaks the following words [as Lucifer]:

Look into this fire. Just as you see it and as it is well known to you, I have made it. The spirit of the East, which I have had to fight since the beginning of time, wanted it differently. It wanted to impress its properties of the elemental realm on it alone. There it must consume all affects, passions, drives that only deviate a little from the straight line of the general world order. If you were to plunge your finger into it now, it would have the same effect on the substance of your soul as it has on your physical body. It would exist only for that purpose if it were directed according to the original intentions of this spirit. But I have purloined it from him. I have condensed it from its elemental form to its physical density; thereby it has become the beneficent element in the physical cultural development of mankind, which it has thereby also become for you, soul. Consider what you would have become as a human being through the development of the earth without fire. When you understand this, you will also know what I am to you and how you must hold to me if you do not want to be unfaithful to your humanity, lose it.

Consider thus: it was not wantonness in me that rebelled against the general world order, which was predetermined before my intervention, but also a sacrifice that I made for your humanity. I made myself an opponent of this world order for the sake of your dignity, took everything upon myself for your sake that my opponent had to impose on me because of my deed.

After this, the initiate is led before a second altar-like structure, at which he initially sees nothing. The mystic appointed for this purpose speaks [as Ahriman] the following:

Consider, O soul, what the spirit of the East, which I have had to fight since the beginning of time, alone would and could have made you. It wanted to implant its essence into your soul. It wanted to fill your soul completely with this essence. I had to thwart that. Through my deed, in your earthly orbit your senses encounter the manifold beings of the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms, they encounter the elements of air, water and earth that I have drawn together, they encounter the physical corporeality of the sun and moon, and the splendor of the vast starry sky. What comes to you in the physical world in the way of diversity in wisdom, beauty and strength could not reveal itself to you if I had not intervened in the general order of the world. The whole world around you would have to be under my opponent's sole control, and would be nothing but an infinite mirror in which you would only see yourself as an image of his nature. Wherever you looked, whether up or down, right or left, forward or backward, you saw nothing but this:

In this moment, a mirror is held before the initiate, in which he sees his own face. The words are spoken:

Know thyself.

After this, the person being initiated is led into the “Room of the East”. Here, his gaze is directed towards the east, and the mystic serving in the east speaks the following:

My strong opponent just stood before your soul's gaze. He can always approach the human soul when evolution passes through its intermediate states from cycle to cycle. In the vision of your soul, you were confronted with the beginning of your evolution on earth when you had led your life backwards at your initiation into the first degree. Then you could recognize how you entered into an earthly incarnation for the first time from spiritual heights and spiritual surroundings. That was a transitional period of development. My powerful opponent spoke to your intellect. If you allow this understanding of yours to take effect, his words cannot help but appear true to you. You cannot refute his words; and if I were to approach you with a rational refutation alone, I too could not invalidate what he said. Because at the place where he stood and at the other place where you now stand, the sole validity of intellectual consideration ends. You will find the possibility to find your way here if you can understand what you will now hear from me. Has my opponent spoken to you? Has he convinced you, since he has now convinced your soul? Understand: everything that has taken place here physically is only an appearance. He stood before you in the physical image; you listened to him in your physical image. And yet it is all only an appearance. He did not speak to you at all. He only spoke to that part of your being that he has gradually planted in your soul since the beginning of the earth. He has only spoken to that in you which is himself.

He has only convinced himself in you.

Consider this, and you will find the possibility of understanding me too, who wants to speak to that part of your being that is not him.

But his words are more appealing to you than mine. He speaks to you of what you already are, what you want to recognize as your own being; I have to speak to the part of you that you are yet to become; before you can understand me, I have to demand that you recognize yourself through inner soul-strengthening in the part of your being that you are, but of which you do not yet know. I must demand of you that you first work at it. So then, understanding, ascend to yourself, and you will find me in you.

Before the one to be initiated there stands a staircase, by which he must ascend.⁴ During the ascent the mystic serving the East utters the following words:

Form
Power
Number
harmony
word
thought
I

seek in you the power of these words in their seven-stage sequence, and you will find in the inner strengthening of your soul the key that shows you the way to the second of the occult degrees.

Then the same mystic continues:

Consider, O soul, that if you understand what has now been presented to you, you will be equipped with a new understanding of the world, an understanding that is not only valid in the sphere of the activity of the senses, but also where spirits associate with spirits.

Understand this language and you can become a comrade of spiritual beings from a disciple of the spiritual world.

After this, the opening of the act is performed with the opening process of the first degree.

Now follows the communication of the sign, grip and word in the sense of inner moving forces of the etheric body to the person being initiated.

Then the symbolic clothing in the sense of the second degree is put on.

After this, the mystic in the East speaks:

All those who have been aware of the significance of this occult degree since ancient times have made a vow to their soul:

I vow and promise that I will treat the secrets of this second of the occult degrees in my soul without weakness, ambiguity, or duplicity, and that I will keep them from all outsiders and only those belonging to the first degree. Should I break this my vow, then I will permit that...

Thereupon the person to be initiated is led to the altar of the East by two specially designated mystics. Two mystics of the higher degrees approach from the left and right; they cross their symbolic swords above his forehead.

The mystic of the East speaks:

I.N.D.W.E.A.D. [In the name of the wise masters of the East and by the power of compulsion], by which I serve them, I inscribe you in the book of the second degree of those who strive for the light of eternal mysticism.

The ceremony is now transformed into an instruction ceremony. During the ceremony, a teaching mystic presents one of the means – a legendary imagination, for example – that are suitable for making the path of the second degree possible through application in meditation of the soul.

Then follows the threefold conclusion of the entire ceremony in the symbolism of the second degree.

• 1. According to a participant's note, the knocking signal was given once for the 1st, twice for the 2nd and three times for the 3rd.
• 4. See page 420.
• 5. The wording of the opening and closing ceremony can be found on pp. 153ff.

Text based on the original manuscript by Rudolf Steiner
Note sheets, archive numbers 6981 to 6987

I. Introduction

The third degree is attained by anyone who has acquired a sense of the fact that the inner experiences of the human being can be viewed from a point of view outside the human being in the same way as the facts of nature are otherwise viewed from a point of view within the human being. For a point of view outside the human being, the previous external world ceases to function as a perceptual world. It becomes an inner experience, as thoughts, feelings and impulses of the will are before. And a completely new outer world opens up before the human being. An outer world that appears as the expression of the thinking, feeling and willing of spiritual beings, which the human being now experiences as being within himself, just as he previously experienced his thinking, feeling and willing within himself. “I am” – which was previously only a mere point of thought – becomes a rich inner experience in which spirit-beings unfold their activity in organic interaction. This activity starts from a multiplicity and is directed towards a unity as its goal; and this goal is – the human being. The human being gets to know himself from an external point of view. To do this, it is necessary that he develops a feeling for what his experience is like when it is not his experience, but when it reveals itself in the ongoing process of nature. “Memento mori” contains the reference to a shift in consciousness. Through this shift, a feeling arises in the soul of what it can be like when the whole presence of its experience becomes the past, becomes memory. Another presence now lives in the soul. And just as in ordinary life consciousness feels itself as subject and an external world as object, so now consciousness arises as experience, for which a new presence is subject and ordinary human life as past is object. This switch in consciousness can be schematized in the following way:

The verbal formulation of the soul's orientation towards this shift in consciousness can be schematized in the following sentences:

1. Consider the end
2. Think of death
3. Think how all corporeality is transitory.

These three sentences are in reality not graspable at all by consciousness I. They can only make sense for this consciousness if it wants to deceive itself about its own experience.

For 1. this consciousness I cannot consider its own end. Such a thought can only be conceived when, in truth, thought is thought without words. In the face of experienced thought, the demand: “Consider the end” is as senseless as this: pluck out your eye so that you can hold it up in front of you and look at your own eye.

2. “Think of death”: death concludes thinking as it is for consciousness I. The demand is therefore completely senseless for this consciousness: do not think yourself thinking. Consciousness I can believe it is thinking when it imagines it still has an object of thought, even when it stops thinking.

3. “Think how all corporeality is transitory.” This means for consciousness I “Do not think.” For consciousness I cannot “think” without corporeality. With the thought of corporeality, thinking itself disappears.

Thus, when a person hears these three demands made of himself, he must, if he remains prudent, say to himself: here one speaks in a way that is impossible for my consciousness I. Here my consciousness I has no possibility of understanding. If he has now digested the impressions of the second degree, he makes the following demands on his thinking: This thinking wants an experience with every thought. It does not allow itself to think when the thought cannot be an experience. It says to itself: how should I think the end, when I cannot experience the end mentally with the end of thinking? How am I to think of death, since I could only see death in dying thought? How am I to think of the transience of the corporeal, since I must think with the corporeal; so without the corporeal my thinking passes away?

Those who have not experienced the second degree can believe that they can think the above three sentences with the consciousness I, because this consciousness is accustomed to separating the thought from the being of the thought. In this way, this consciousness allows itself to think even where it no longer experiences the being of the thought. Therefore, this consciousness I does not know the inner experience that a thought, through its own nature, makes itself an unthought and thereby splinters into infinitely small fragments of thought into nothingness. But this must be how it is for consciousness I when it has gone through the second degree and hears the three sentences, which for consciousness I can only be thought thoughtlessly, but not lived thought.

Thus man stands before the end of consciousness I. He has measured out this consciousness. Before, it was a point from which rays seemed to go out in all directions, that is, it seemed to itself that thinking had no end in any direction.

Now thinking grasps itself as consciousness I as a circle that is closed in itself. And that must be broken through if further progress is to occur.

The preceding passage characterizes the state of mind in which what is the content of the introduction to the third degree must be taken up.

The opening is made as for Gr. 3.¹

Then:

The inductee is led through the gate. First he hears:

"Memento mori.

Then, as he is led further into the room, which is so dark that he cannot see clearly what is inside,

“Consider the end.”

Then:

“Think of death.”

Then:

“Think that everything physical about you is transient.”

When the person being initiated hears these words, he is led forward in an arc and turned so that he does not see the coffin-like device along which he is being led. At the gate, a pointed object is placed on his chest (a copper rod with a point) and he is admonished: “What is going to happen now, you shall not only hear and understand, but experience it in the deepest part of your soul.”

Now the person to be initiated stands with his back to the coffin so that he cannot see it.

The Servant of the East now speaks. While up to now the one who stands by the Servant of the East speaks.

The Servant of the East:

“When Hiram Abiff had completed the construction of his temple, he was to go inside to see if everything was in order. He did this. When he had seen everything, he wanted to go back outside. He sought the western gate to exit. But there stood one of three conspirators. These three were conspiring because the Master had not been able to give them the Master word and the Master degree, for he found them not ripe enough. One of the conspirators in the West - (he is to be represented by the Servant of the West) - struck the Master Hiram Abiff with a straight edge on the left temple, so that the blood flowed down the Master's shoulder through the wound. (This act is symbolically performed by the Servant of the West.) - The Master then sought to leave by the southern gate. But there stood the second of the conspirators. He demands - (as was also the case with the first) - a degree and word from the Master, which the latter cannot give him. Then the second conspirator raised a ladle and struck the Master on the right temple, so that blood ran down his right shoulder. (The action is symbolically performed by the Servant of the South.) Thereupon the Master sought to reach the open air by the third of the gates. Then the same procedure was repeated with the third conspirator. He demanded the word and the grade, which the Master could not give him. Thereupon the third conspirator struck him on the forehead with a measuring rod, so that the Master fell down. But before he expired (the event is symbolized by the Servant of the East) he could throw the golden triangle, on which was written the ancient Master word, into a deep well near the gate, so that the word was lost. Then Master Hiram Abiff passed away. You yourself are Hiram Abiff. It is your soul. Thereupon the three traitors took the body, carried it away and buried it in a lonely place. As now happens to you.

A symbolic burial is now performed – vicariously by the servant of the West – in a black robe; the servant of the South – in a red robe; the servant of the East – in a white robe or robe.

When the person to be initiated is now lying in the coffin,

a tolling of the bell ²

then (by the servant of the East) the words:

"The master's soul now takes its way back through the earth times through the spirit world. It hears the music of the spheres. It hears it at the time when, in the course of the world, the earth broke away from the sun and moon and became a world body. The master's soul was already there. You hear the beat now, you will hear it in full reality in the future. And your soul goes further back in the course of the world. To where the earth, sun and moon were still connected. Your soul was there.

(Three chimes sound.)

So you hear the sound of the spheres. You will actually hear it again in the future. And further back your soul goes in the course of the world. To where the Earth was still the Sun. Where it was surrounded by planets, a planet among planets, forming the seven with them – you hear this in the sound of the spheres.

(Seven chimes ring out.)

You will hear this again in reality one day. And further back your soul goes in the course of the world. To the point when the Earth was Saturn, surrounded by the twelve starry powers. It was the great midnight hour of existence, when eternity passes into time.

(There are heard the twelve strokes of the clock.)

Thou hearest it, the great midnight hour of existence. Thou shalt hear it in reality in the days to come.

When this was spoken, he who stood to the left of the Servant of the East, took up the word, saying:

"When Solomon's companions saw that Hiram Abiff was not present, they sent twelve of their number to seek the Master. They found a freshly dug grave mound in a lonely place, which they recognized by a cassia branch on it.“ ³

(This branch was placed on the coffin after the burial.)

“They dug for it.”

(A procession is now made around the coffin by those present.⁴ The following is spoken by the assistant to the servant in the east:

“Like Hiram, may he be reborn.”

(As it was dark before, the south is illuminated.

“Like Hiram, may he be victorious over death.”

(The west is illuminated.

“Like Hiram, may light shine for him from the east.”

(The east is illuminated.)

(Now the coffin is opened. The servant of the east takes the hand of the initiate.) He speaks:

"With the master's lion's grip I lift you from your grave.” ⁵

Then:

“I find you in such a state that the bones of your body have become loose.” Then the initiate is whispered in the ear:.....

Then the servant of the servant in the East says:

"What you have now symbolically gone through should one day pass through your soul in this way. But you should keep it in your deepest memory. It should be recalled again and again in your meditation. It is not by brooding over this pictorial experience that it can work in your soul, but by pictorially renewing the process again and again in your memory and living entirely in it. The image will have the power to help you find the way to see the things of the world, your own life and all life from the point where the spirit stands, not the body. You have felt the grasp – this will be repeated. – You have heard the word – (this will be whispered into the ear again – syllable by syllable: first syllable into the left ear – then the second syllable from the other into the right ear of the first – then the third syllable again into the other ear of the other from the first – then completely from the other to the first.)

Receive the sign as well.

As a special admonition is added:

"Do not understand with the head the deeply significant image in which you yourself were interwoven and [in] which you are to be interwoven many times more in memory; understand it with your whole being, so that it becomes part of that being of yours; so that you can get to know the feeling that results when you are completely one with it and still live and breathe in it for a while, even though it has already been allowed to fade from your consciousness. Then the picture will have achieved its purpose for you, that you experience what it is to recognize things and yourself and all life from the point of view of the spirit."

Then a teaching brother will give a speech, which is not meant to be an interpretation of the image of initiation, but to suggest thoughts that will guide the soul in the same direction as the image. It should be included in this speech that the soul was already aware of the essence of world evolution before the present solar system was formed. That this solar system was formed by the high cosmic powers for the further development of particular human powers. How man, as a spiritual being in the solar system, can feel connected with Christ without arrogance, is characterized.

Then with the ceremony of the third degree the act concludes.

• 1. A participant's note reads: Knock 3 times. 1. Who knocks? 2. A sister (brother) of the second degree who wishes to be admitted to the third degree. Are all conditions met? The Grand Master has granted him a dispensation.
• 2. By striking a sounding plate (after a participant has recorded it).
• 3. Is considered a symbol of immortality.
• 4. See the participants' notes on page 200.
• 5. Regarding the symbol of the lion, it says in the lecture Berlin, February 16, 1905, that the “human principle, which initially strives in selfhood, is represented in alchemy as a lion, which, freed from selfhood, desires and passions, may unite with the lily (the spiritual). See also the lecture in Berlin, March 2, 1915.

Text according to Marie Steiner's original manuscript

This was the journey through life. You have been led symbolically along a path that you will know later in reality. We have taken the starting point from the point where you stood before you sought admission to this community. It is the present time in which you live. From there you have stepped back through long periods of time, through times and races in which your souls, which now dwell in your bodies, were embodied in other bodies of other times, other peoples. We now live within the present race. It was preceded by the Greco-Latin race, the Egyptian-Babylonian-Assyrian race, the ancient Persian race and the Indian race. In all these races your souls were embodied. And now you stand between two columns, the columns of Hercules. If you had once walked through them from east to west, you would have come to the ancient Atlantean land that was washed away by the great flood, which is preserved in the legends and myths of the various peoples as the Flood. Even then your souls were already embodied in Atlantean bodies. But they were in completely different living conditions, as the conditions on the earth around you were quite different from the later ones. Rain and sunshine were not distributed in the air as they were after the flood, but the air was still filled with dense, heavy masses of water mist. This had the effect that the life of the soul became quite different after the flood. Man understands the omniscience of nature around him when the air is permeated by water, by the waters of wisdom. Then the trickling of the spring, the rustling of the trees in the forest, the rushing of the water waves, the rolling of the thunder are not inarticulate sounds to him, but wisdom-filled expressions of the spirit that floods reality. Only when the water recedes from the air must man hear the laws and commandments of his actions, the rules of social interaction with others through the mediation of the human mouth. Commandments and laws did not exist until the post-Atlantean period. Everything that happens to you here has a deeply symbolic meaning. The fact that you have been led backwards means that you have now symbolically traveled the route backwards, which in reality your souls have traveled forwards through the races and times mentioned earlier. And you have been led blindfolded, because the greater part of humanity has passed through this time in darkness. But it has been led by the more developed individualities, by the wise masters of the East. The great principles that have reached your ears during this symbolic journey have shone before them as if in golden letters. The wise masters of the East have guided mankind according to these principles: Man walks his whole life in darkness, only knowledge can lead him to the light. Those who are driven to knowledge only by curiosity can never come to knowledge, for mere curiosity is not satisfied by knowledge. He who makes a distinction between man and man cannot attain knowledge, for he who wants to advance to true knowledge must not make a distinction between man and man. He who does not want to look his faults and errors in the eye in full self-knowledge cannot come to knowledge of the world, for only he who first enlightens himself about his faults and errors can come to knowledge of the spiritual.

The journey through life now continues through the two columns of Hercules into the ancient Atlantean land.

You must now imagine that you are in the old Atlantean land, where your souls were embodied in the old Atlantean bodies. You have to imagine that you are surrounded on all sides by dense, heavy masses of water mist. This causes everything around you to speak an articulate language, like the human mouth later on. At that time your souls could understand the wisdom that spoke from the trickling of the springs, from the rushing of the water waves, from the whispering of the wind in the forest, and when your soul wanted to know in the morning what it had to do, it did not need to listen to a law or commandment from the mouth of man, but it listened to the language of the elements and heard the wise commandments. And when she wanted to know the great events of existence, the rolling of the thunder told her. Everything, everything spoke a clearly audible language. And when the soul became completely still within itself, when it diverted its attention from the trickling of the springs, the rushing of the water waves and the whispering of the wind in the forest, then the soul heard a basic or intermediate tone that resounded through everything, everything. She either heard it when she was quiet within herself or when she went out into solitude where nothing else could be heard. She could hear it everywhere in old Atlantis, in the north, south, east and west. And when she heard it, she felt that the great spirit was speaking to her, the great spirit that flowed through everything, the great spirit that reigned in the waters of wisdom. And so the soul heard the sound of the great spirit: Tao - and then the soul became silent and reverent and prayerfully returned the sound to the great spirit: Tao. So the soul spoke to the great spirit T T (louder) T T (quieter) and the soul not only felt this sound - it felt in deep wisdom all the showers of the world flowing through it.

Sitting in the chamber of reflection and in hell is symbolically called the earth test, because the soul in its present material existence should know itself to be firmly connected with the center of the earth. The following walk through the anhydrous air is a symbolic reminder of humanity's test in the air, and now you are symbolically reminded of humanity's great water test during the Atlantean period. All religions and worldviews that were built on occult wisdom have retained the memory of this great water test of humanity in the symbol of the water baptism or water test. And because man is to meet the same points again step by step on his ascent in bright light clarity, such confessions and worldviews symbolically perform the baptism of water when they are accepted into their community. For again man is to be led through the occult path to the point where he hears wisdom from the elements around him. This communion shall lead you to such oneness with the communion of the waters. Therefore I have to perform this symbolic water baptism on you as a sign of admission into our community.

I baptize you with the water of wisdom as a sign of acceptance into our covenant.

(Lights)

The journey through life has come to an end.
(seated on chair)

You must make it clear to yourselves that you are to be led up again through the occult path to the bosom of the Godhead from which you have descended. This ascent is linked to certain conditions which man must fulfill. He must disregard everything that brings him forward in his striving in the outer world. Descent, blood relations, rank, titles and dignities, money and goods and possessions bring him forward. All this is worthless on the occult path. For everything that comes from lineage, blood relations, money, goods and possessions ends with this ... Eternal is only what you strive for through the powers of your own soul - your poor soul, as we say. Therefore, in the circle of your sisters and brothers, you must think of yourselves as naked and bare in the face of everything that serves external striving. You should be clothed only with the symbolic garment of the mason, whose deep meaning will be revealed to you later. The venerable sister will put the symbolic garment of the mason on those who are to be newly received.

Now the time has come when you will see for the first time in the circle of sisters and brothers. As a sign that you consciously want to take all the steps up to the bosom of the Godhead in light clarity that you have descended on your previous earthly pilgrimage

What do these women and these men wish

Light

----------- ------------- ---------

(formulas --- prayer etc.)

The general vow

Now you have to take the special vow for the first degree of occult mason here at the altar of the East.

Bending your left knee on this step, your right knee at a right angle, your hand on this sacred document of the human race, the open Gospel of St. John, you repeat to me the vow of the first masonic degree: --

The realities of the macrocosm are the consonants of various feelings ¹

The enclosing, which is open to one side: b

One must learn to feel how the different vowels that are in the human being enclose themselves in the external. - Learning to feel the vocalization of one's own inner self and adapting it in various ways to the outer world.

Vowels

Sun	i	|
Moon	a	ᐯ
Venus	e
Mercury	o
Mars	u	Faust
Jupiter	ö	(
Saturn	ü	sharp placement of the hands

The vowels provide everything we need to know about human beings. They provide the inner key to the macrocosm.

The giving - bestowing - warming
The receiving - reflecting
The resting, suffering, melancholic
The powerful, leading, guiding
The passionate, conquering, aggressive
The loving, mild, tender
The mediating, conciliatory

i - striving for the divinity
ei - holy fear of the deity
a - sublimity of the deity
ä - somewhat less sublime
o - embracing the deity
ö - fear of embracing

Transcript of the opening ceremony for the fourth degree ¹

Text according to Rudolf Steiner's original manuscript;
from “Grand Master: Give me the sign”
according to the original manuscript by Marie Steiner.
Note sheet archive number 6970/71

IV. Degree

Question: How is this high chapter prepared?

Answer: By seeing that all doors are carefully closed and that neither seculars nor apprentices, journeymen nor Johannite masters are present.

Order: This is to be carried out.

Michael: With the most respectful greeting, I bring word that the chapter is fully covered.

Grand Master: As everything is ready, the chapter is opened.

Dialogue

Grand Master: Points with his sword in the four directions

Michael: The Grand Master has opened the chapter by invoking the 4.

Grand Master: Write the 4

Grand Master: Give me the sign.

Michael: (Right thumb on forehead, right hand up, face towards the sky)

Grand Master: Give me the holy word.

Michael: Adonai

Grand Master: Give me the password.

Michael: Cavaret

Grand Master: What do you understand as a Knight of the High 4th Degree?

Michael: To strip the cassia branch.

Grand Master:What does this mean?

Michael: To dissolve the coarse matter into the finest parts.

Grand Master: What is the one column to you now?

Michael: The sun.

Grand Master: What is the other column to you?

Michael: The moon.

Grand Master: Why is this?

Michael: Because the sun and moon together form the Cassia branch, i.e. they divide the fine matter into coarse matter.

Grand Master: What is your salvation now?

Michael: To obey the high masters of pre-humanity.

Grand Master: What are you therefore?

Michael: Frater latae observatiae.

• 1. Original manuscript does not exist. Text from a handwritten copy by Berta Reebstein, Marie Steiner's secretary, in a notebook containing only copies of Rudolf Steiner's original texts.
• 1. Nothing exists of the admission ritual.

Text based on the original manuscript by Marie Steiner
Note sheet Archive number 6971/72

Royal Arch 5th degree

Grand Master: My venerable brothers, may our soul be filled with what the 6th day of creation has done to the 5th. Your duty?

Michael: To see if the doors are closed on all sides, the high chapter covered, no profane, no Johannesmaurer and no Wartemaurer are present.

Grand Master: Fulfill your duty.

Michael (does so): I announce to the honorable Grand Master that the high chapter can work in the deepest secret, under full cover.

Grand Master: What is the goal of our work?

Michael: In the 4

Grand Master: What are the 4?

Michael: Learn to be silent and you will acquire power. Give up power and you will acquire might. Give up might and you will acquire will. Give up will and you will acquire knowledge.

Grand Master: Where do you arrive at through these 4?

Michael: To the realization of the 7

Grand Master: Draw the 7

Michael: (draws)

Grand Master: Where do you see the 7 realized?

Michael: In the 4

Grandmaster: Name the 4

Michael: The astral, the animal, the vegetable, the mineral.

Grandmaster: What binds the 4?

Michael: The lost word binds the 4

Grand Master: How do you know the lost word? Michael: Under the sign

Grand Master: Draw it.

Michael:

Grand Master: Give the chapter sign

Michael: (gives it)

Grand Master: What is the grip?

Michael: Into the four.

Grand Master: The sacred word?

Michael: I am that I am. Yahweh.

Grand Master: The chapter password?

Michael: Ressurrectus.

Grand Master: What is your assignment?

Michael: To form the mercurial soul in pure salt through the purifying sulfur fire.

Handwritten note by Rudolf Steiner
Note sheet archive number 6974

Where do you come from?

From the lodge of St. John.

What happens in the lodge of St. John?

A temple of virtue is built there and prisons for vices are dug there.

What do you bring from there?

Welfare, progress, and goodwill for all mankind.

What do you intend to do here?

To conquer my passions, subjugate my will and make new progress.

Take your place, my B., and be welcome in this place, where the rays of your light are consciously received.

Individual texts by Rudolf Steiner in the handwriting of Marie Steiner-von Sivers

Wisdom should have guided you while you were building this temple, which is an earthly image of the spiritual life stream. This wisdom is now a water of light to guide you, as your soul unfolds the seeds of wisdom.

Beauty should adorn your work while you were building this temple, which is an image of self-limiting form-creating: this beauty is now a releasing salt for you, as your soul dissolves the covers of your spirit seed.

Strength should have carried out your work as long as you were building this temple, which is an image of the creative powers of existence: the fire of creation, to which the ashes of your body will return, is this strength in the future, as your spirit unites with the world spirits to create the great temple of being.

Brothers of the past, your wisdom penetrated the waters of the elemental kingdom and gave our sister an earthly shell so that she could reveal in the world what her soul had accepted under your wise guidance in prehistoric times.

Brothers of the present, our sister sought to come into your wise guidance so that your thoughts of God might be revealed in her part.

Brothers of the future, you will incorporate our sister's soul into your plan of construction, so that she may continue to flow in your strength, in the body of your great soul.

And you, sister, who have joined us in our striving for the vision of the heights of eternal light, your powers that flow into another form of being, let them flow into our work, work with us in the sanctuary of spiritual life: but we are inseparable in our souls from yours.

One, united, unity.

Prepared by silence, it is spoken with the mantle of that which has been received from above.

To make himself the bearer of wisdom, the$* [Rosicrucian] Mason vows to his God in the soul of his spirit. He beholds a temple of this God in the human form of his being. He vows to make himself the builder of this temple. He will think nothing that might be shameful to wisdom. The watchword floats before his eyes:

My thoughts shall seek thee everywhere, divine spirit.

The Mason [Rosicrucian] will make himself the servant of Beauty; he pledges himself to Beauty, because only in her bosom can the life of God flourish in his soul. The Mason [Rosicrucian] avoids an appearance that contradicts reality; he seeks true embodiment in the appearance of reality. His breathing in his breathing the watchword:

My speech shall reveal you, divine soul.

The + [Rosicrucian] Mason wants to make fortitude his covering; he praises fortitude because only through its fire can the God in his heart mature. The Mason seeks to flee from languor, which only hinders all progress; he seeks fortitude, which, with a sharp, two-edged sword of fire, prepares the way for all advancement. The watchword beats in his heart:

My heartbeat shall confirm you, divine will.

I

The earth's soil bears me;
The earth's air envelops me;
Around me I see the rocks of the mountains;
Around me the plant cover of the earth blossoms;
In the animal kingdom there is feeling,
Which, as in a thousand individual forms,
my own being's abundance.
I feel the power to shape myself ever higher,
only this noble striving makes a human being.

II

He is born of the earth's soil.
He is animated by the earth's air.
He is related to the rocks of the mountains,
His existence is interwoven with the plant cover,
The realm of the animals carries his spirit power;
But as if in a harmonious miracle
Earth, rocks, life are joined in him.
The earth's soil will sink beneath him.
The circle of the air will be the bearer of death.
The mountains' rocks will fall,
The plants will wither,
The animals' life will be stunned.
But he will bear the fruit of being earth
To create new worlds in a distant time.
To feel this goal's eternal value
Creates wisdom in every thought,
Receive beauty in every breath of life,
Strengthen fortitude in every beat of the blood.

We, wise M.d.O. [Masters of the East], present ourselves before you in spirit with purified desire, that the center of the heart may be silent in the expression of the outer self and burn with the fire of a new inner self. Let the fundamental fires germinate in us, melting and uniting the elements of the temple, which shall be a worthy dwelling for your divine being. ¹

The old temple will give birth to the new.

The three may create a new chariot from our signs.

The three may make Audhumla fertile.²

The following spoke, sitting amidst the stars of wisdom:

The time will come when man's intelligence and sensuality will become desolate and formless. And the power of the flesh will be barren and the daughter of the brain will be lame. And what has been founded among men by thinking and feeling will dry up like the sea dries up in scorching heat. But the revelation of the stars of wisdom will flourish. Mine is what you have kept as silver, what you have kept as gold – so says He who sits in the midst of the stars of wisdom.

The revelation of the new temple will shine forth more brightly than the first, and the I will have found itself in the I.

The initiate at the gates: M.M. Remember that you must find your way in fields where you have never been:

West = Ahriman: He wants to be you.
South = Lucifer: He wants to be you.
East = gold. A

Hand over your sources

1. 3. 7. 12.

Water

In nomine Elohim et per spiritum aquarum viventium, sis mihi in signum lucis et sacramentum voluntaris.

Smoke

Per serpentum aneum sub quo cadunt serpentes ignei, sis mihi.

Hauch

Per firmamentum et spiritum vocis, sis mihi.

Erde

In sale terrae et per virtutem vitae aeternae, sis mihi.

Sylphs

Spirit of light, spirit of wisdom, whose breath determines the form of all things – reach through to us.

Undines

King of the sea, who holds the keys of heaven, we call upon you – –

Salamander

Immortal, eternal, uncreated father of the world

Invisible king, lead us to clarity.

Handwritten note by Rudolf Steiner
from notebook Archive number 611

Green the Earth Mother rises
With the bright colors of flowers
The spirit of the sun will cover up
What springs from the soil in a living way.

Dress is what springs from the earth
Coat is what the spirit of the sun creates
It holds the soul within it alive
The soul is permeated by the spirit with power.

Spirit you become sisters, you brothers
Look only when you hear,
What to tell your being innermost
Has the word of the wise of the East.

Take the word of the spirit.
Those who have served him from the beginning
will send you their strength
through the wisdom, the beauty and strength.

• 1. “Chariot” may refer to Ezekiel's vision of the divine throne chariot, “Merkabah”, with which a special secret doctrine was associated in Jewish mysticism.
• 2. Audhumla = in Norse mythology, the cow that arose from the primeval ocean; see lecture Berlin, October 7, 1907.

according to the records of the participants

If you approach me with a true yearning for knowledge,
I will be with you.
I am the germ and the source of your visible world,
I am the sum of the light in which you live spiritually,
I am the ruler of space,
I am the creator of the cycles of time,
Fire, air, light, water and earth obey me.
Feel me as the immaterial origin of all material

And because I am without a husband on earth, call me “Maja”

Second step:
I am Isis
I am the daughter of Saturn
I am the sister of Osiris
I am the disciple of Hermes
The god Mercury
I am the mother of Horus
Who was born
With his head under Sirius.

From a lecture in Berlin, January 2, 1906

If you want to understand and delve into today's culture, you will find that it falls into three areas: the area of wisdom, the area of beauty and the area of strength. These three words contain the full scope of spiritual culture. Hence they are also called the three columns of human culture. They are the same as the three Kings in Goethe's “Fairytale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily”: the Golden, the Silver and the Bronze King. This is why Freemasonry is called the “Royal Art”. Today these cultural areas are separated from each other. Wisdom is essentially contained in what we call science; beauty is essentially incarnate in what we call art; and what, in Masonic terms, is called strength is contained in the structured, organized social coexistence of people in the state. The Mason unites all of this as the relationship of the will to these three elements: wisdom, beauty, strength.

(...) When those who really understand something about it talk about these ideals, they are talking about something very specific; something so specific that it relates to the course of events in the coming centuries in the same way that the idea of a master builder who is building a factory relates to that factory when it is built.

From a lecture in Bremen, April 9, 1906

Freemasonry is everything that is done with the help of wisdom, beauty and strength. This refers to the proper construction of the temple of the earth, not just the inner man. We build on the inside and on the outside. Above all, the mason endeavors to bring himself to the point where he is a worthy co-worker in the construction of man (and the earth). The meaning of life on earth is that we transform our planet, rework it. More and more, human labor is intervening in our earth.

What will the earth become? A structure that man will complete. And it is the duty of every human being to contribute to this structure. Three forces must be built into the temple, otherwise chaos will result. The columns on which this temple rests are wisdom, beauty and strength.

Wisdom, when he ennobles his spirit; beauty, when he ennobles his mind; strength, when he ennobles his will.

Therefore, these three columns are considered the foundation of all work.

From a teaching in Hanover, Christmas 1911

Wisdom, Beauty, Strength are actually present only in the spiritual world; down here, only their reflection is to be found. Whoever utters the words Wisdom, Beauty, Strength should be mindful that he is thereby uttering a creed. “I believe in an astral world,” he says when he utters the word ‘wisdom’; ‘I believe in a lower Devachan’ when he utters the word ‘beauty’; ‘I believe in an upper Devachan’ when he utters the word ‘strength’. The reflection of wisdom down here is truth, that of beauty down here is piety, and that of strength down here is virtue.

Instruction lesson in Hanover, Christmas 1911, notes in a different hand.

In all mystery centers, the disciple spoke these words as his creed: wisdom, beauty, strength.

From a teaching session in Munich, December 12, 1906

With our prayer “Brothers of the Past...” we show that we are connecting with the work of the Brothers of the Past, the Brothers of the Present and the Brothers of the Future, the Mahatmas.

From an instructional lesson in Hanover, Christmas 1911

We should know and feel within the walls of our temple that with these symbols surrounding us, the forces of the wise masters of the East are flowing in upon us. When we look up to those who have guided the whole evolution of humanity from the very beginning of the world, through the evolution of Saturn, Sun, Moon, to the evolution of the earth, to our present time, we turn in prayer, seeking help for our present evolution, to those we call “Brothers of the Past”. And so we pray: “Brothers of the past...”. When we look up to those who are currently guiding us spiritually, we pray: “Brothers of the present...”. And those who will be the guides of humanity in the future, we address as “Brothers of the future...”.

From the instruction session in Hanover, December 31, 1911

The wise masters of the East are beings who belong to the three higher worlds and who work in the past, present and future, as it were, and whom we imagine to be above us when we say our prayers. From the instruction session in Munich, September 5, 1912

The first prayer distinguishes us from all other such endeavors that rely on documents or on a traditional wisdom. We do not refer to anything of the sort; we only tie in with the work that has been done, with what has actually been achieved.

In the near future, among other things that will be undertaken against us, our occult movement will also be tried to be discredited and vilified, so we should know this, to which we are joining. In the spiritual realm, there is a community like ours, but it has only as much justification as there are souls who profess it as the truth. And anyone who does not like something about it does not need to be part of it. We do not claim to be an order, a Rosicrucian movement or anything of the kind, but our aim is to represent the truth in such a way that we do not claim wisdom as our own, but we do want to appropriate the work that has flowed from it as wisdom.

Wisdom is there. There was an ancient store of wisdom belonging to humanity, as shown in the “Dwellers in the Threshold” by the Grand Master [1st picture]. And how one has to relate to it, that is, how one advances in the occult life, is shown to us by Maria in the second scene with Thomasius. It would be more convenient to give a prescription for all, but it had to be shown in our Western movement how persons of the special kind of a Thomasius, Strader, Capesius and a Maria go the initiation way.

“Compasses and Rule” means: We adopt your customs.

Such prayers contain in their words everything we need, as do the “Mysteries Dramas”. Every word is there in its place and full of occult meaning. Nothing, nothing is set and said for a reason other than its spiritual meaning and power, as it is.

The opponents of the spiritual, such as Haeckel, carry the spiritual deeply hidden within themselves and their rage and anger is actually directed against themselves. Because they cannot access their subconscious soul life in life, they show themselves quite differently towards the spiritual after death and are most easily quoted, for example, in spiritualistic séances.

Nietzsche is very interesting in this respect. He had a hard time letting go of his material part. That is why he presented such a strange sight to the seer, even in his illness: the man Nietzsche, this strange personality, lying on the sofa and the aura around him.¹ The split of the ego is expressed in such personalities: while the consciousness is materialistic, the subconscious is spiritual.

“Brothers of the Future”: We don't have a name either, because Lucifer is the inspiration for every external foundation of an association or society.

From a lecture in Bremen, April 9, 1906

To be an apprentice means to make up for what our brothers have achieved in the distant past; to be a journeyman means to be allowed to live with the older brothers of humanity; to be a master means to be allowed to work on the building of the temple.

From a lecture in Berlin, January 29, 1906.

As I have often said, it was not by chance that the Theosophical Society was founded in the last third of the 19th century. The way in which it seeks the spiritual differs significantly from other endeavors that also strive to obtain proof of the immortality of man. There is a great diversity in the search for the eternal as it is found in the Theosophical Society and the search for the eternal in other spiritual currents. In truth, the theosophical movement is nothing more than the popular expression of the secret fraternities of the past millennia that have secretly embraced the world. I have already mentioned that the most outstanding and greatest of these brotherhoods in Europe was founded in the 14th century as the Rosicrucian Brotherhood. This Rosicrucian Brotherhood is actually the source and the starting point for all the other brotherhoods that have preserved European culture. In these brotherhoods, occult wisdom was cultivated in strict secrecy. If I were to characterize for you what the people united in these various brotherhoods wanted to achieve, I would have to tell you that the high and exalted teachings and work of wisdom cultivated in these occult brotherhoods, of which the Rosicrucian Brotherhood was the most outstanding, brought people to the point where they became aware of their own eternal essence. They brought man to the point where he found the connection with the higher world, with the worlds that lie above us, and looked to the guidance of our older brothers, to the guidance of those who live among us and have attained a level that you will all attain at a later time. We call them the older brothers because, ahead of the general development, they have reached this high point earlier: thus the certainty of the eternal essence of the being, the awakening of it, so that man can see the eternal as the ordinary man sees the world of the senses. To achieve this, one must emulate the older brothers who live among us everywhere. These elder brothers or masters, the great guides of humanity, have always been the supreme directors and supreme directors of the occult sublime wisdom through which man becomes aware of his eternal essence.

• 1. Refers to Rudolf Steiner's impression when he was able to visit the sick Nietzsche. See “My Life”, GA 28.