The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The undersigned are obliged to inform you that the Executive Council, in extraordinary session on December 8, 1912, has passed the resolution set out below. This decision has not been taken because of any existing differences of opinion or divergent standpoints, which may of course be represented in the Theosophical Society, but solely because the way in which the leadership of the “Star of the East” has related to the German Section appears to the latter to be completely incompatible with the first paragraph of the Constitution of the Theosophical Society. If it were to be said, for example, that the German Section excludes certain opinions and points of view, this must be dismissed from the outset as incorrect.

The above-mentioned decision reads: The Executive Board of the German Section of the Theosophical Society regards affiliation with the Order of the Star of the East as incompatible with membership of the Theosophical Society and requests members of the Star of the East to resign from the Theosophical Society.

The executive committee of the German section will be forced to expel members who do not comply with this request from the German section.

On behalf of the executive committee of the German section of [the] TG.

The General Secretary.
The Secretary.

Translated by Marie Steiner for the thirty-seventh Anniversary and Convention of the T.S., 1912

To the President, TS: - The undersigned has the honour to present herewith the annual report of the Theosophical Society in Germany.

This year also our work has gone along the same lines and in the same manner, as since the foundation of the German Section. In the various Lodges, to which 3 new ones have been added, the work was done in such a way that knowledge, as well as the deepening and ennobling of life, have been aspired to. And one can distinctly see how the public lectures, as well as the other activities emanating from our Society, find an ever-growing wider comprehension in broader circles of the population. New Lodges have been founded in Augsburg, Erfurt and Hamburg. One Lodge dissolved. The total number of Lodges is now 55, and there are besides 4 (or 3) Centres. 293 members entered during the year; 14 died, 90 have resigned or dropped; 29 have gone over to other Sections; the net increase being thus 160.

The lecture-work of Dr. Rudolf Steiner went on this year as in former years. Lecture-series were held by him in Hannover, Helsingfors, Norrköping, Stockholm, Christiania, Munich and Bâle. Single lectures were given by him in most of the Lodges of our Section and were also held abroad. Dr. Carl Unger’s work for the building up of a philosophical foundation of the Theosophical work has been vigorously continued. His efforts too were directed in the same direction as before. Herr Adolf Arenson and Fräulein Toni Völker work with devotion in Stuttgart and its environment. So do Fräulein Stinde and Baroness Gumppenberg in Munich, Michael Bauer in Nürnberg, Frau Wolfram in Leipzig, Frl. Scholl in Cöln, Frau Wandrey in Hamburg. All these unwearingly affective members try to serve in the most intense manner the ideal of strengthening Theosophical knowledge and Theosophical life. At present the number of members that have entered into the ranks of those that have put their work into the Service of our cause by lectures, effective service of humanity and other different ways, is very large, and it is not possible even to name each single one in this report. Dr. Peiper’s activity as healer and lecturer in Munich, Frl. Stinde and Countess Kalckreuth’s unwearying activity for the spreading of spiritual life in the lower classes of the population, the activity in word and deed of Herr Walther, Frau v. Reden, Frl. Vreede, Herr v. Rainer, Frau ReifBusse and many others, have helped in the most different directions to deepen our thoughts, and to implant them in an effective way into the life of the soul and also into practical life.

The fertility of our work on the line of mystery-representations in Munich showed itself this year not only through the ever-increasing number of visitors, but also in that we were allowed to offer besides the repetition of the mysteries already performed, «The Holy Drama of Eleusis» by Eduard Schur&, «The Portals of Initiation» and «The Probation of the Soul» by Rudolf Steiner, a fourth performance of a similar kind, «The Guardian of the Threshold». Of those that are active in this work and have already been named formerly in his report, of Frl. v. Sivers, Frl. Waller, Herr Doser, Herr Seiling, Dr. Peipers and many others, of Baroness Eckhardstein as artistic moulder of the scenic pictures, of our painters Herr Hass, Herr Linde, Herr Volkert, as shapers of the decorative work, of them all I will only say, that with the increase of work, their devotion and self-surrender have increased.

On the whole it may be said, that our work progresses in the line designated by the fact, that within our field of activity a great number of persons have found in Theosophy the inmost impulse of their life.

We send our best greetings to the President and to the brothers in India.

Dr. Rudolf Steiner,
General Secretary.

The Theosophical Society. German Section.

To the esteemed members of the German Section of the Theosophical Society.

Dear friends!

The undersigned take pleasure in inviting you to the eleventh general assembly of the Theosophical Society, to be held in Berlin on February 2, 1913.

The proceedings will be as follows:

Saturday, February 1, 3:00 p.m. (Motzstraße 17) regular board meeting; 8:00 p.m. social gathering at the branch, Geisbergstraße 2.

Sunday, February 2, 10:00 a.m. (architect's house,

Wilhelmstraße 92/93) the business part with the following program will take place:

1. Opening of the meeting by the Secretary General.

2. Reports of the Secretary General, Secretary, Treasurer, Secretary and the auditors.

3. Possible discussion of pending matters.

4. Motions from the floor. 5. Reports from the representatives of the branches. 6. Miscellaneous.

On Sunday, February 2nd, at 4 p.m. (Architect's House, Wilhelmstraße 92/93), there will be a factual-theosophical part with the following program:

Free lectures and discussion by members. (Ms. Wandrey, Ms. Wolfram, Mr. Daeglau, Dr. Unger, among others, have announced lectures so far. Further lecture registrations from members are requested.

Sunday, February 2nd, at 7 p.m., social gathering of members at the architect's house (Wilhelmstraße 92/93).

Monday, February 3rd: Possible continuation of the factual-theosophical part, which will be announced on Sunday.

Members are requested to notify Miss Marie v. Sivers, Berlin Wilmersdorf, Motzstraße 17, of their attendance at the General Assembly immediately upon receipt of this invitation.

Proposals for the General Assembly and registrations of individual members for lectures, addresses, etc. are requested (to the address of the General Secretary) by January 25, 1913.

Hoping to welcome as many of our dear members as possible on the days mentioned above,

The Theosophical greeting

The Secretary: Marie v. Sivers.
The General Secretary: Dr. Rudolf Steiner.

Dear Friends!

You will be receiving application forms from the Anthroposophical Society in the next few days. Although many members have already registered for this society, and there are bound to be some already registered among you, everyone who seeks admission to the Anthroposophical Society, including those already registered, must complete an application form. On behalf of the Central Executive Council, I kindly request that you take care of this admission formalities. The previous executives of our lodges can carry out such admissions and put their names as trusted third parties in the appropriate place on the form. Those to be admitted who have previously been members of the Theosophical Society are to pay only 2 marks as their first annual contribution and no admission fee upon their admission to the Anthroposophical Society. Those individuals who join the Anthroposophical Society without having previously belonged to the Theosophical Society pay a 5-mark admission fee and a 6-mark annual contribution. A corresponding portion of the latter will be given to the group to which the individual belongs. We are sending the statutes at the same time.

Please send all completed admission forms with the appropriate fees to [Marie von Sivers' handwriting] Marie von Sivers, Berlin W[ilmersdorf], Motzstraße 17; from there the admission tickets will be sent.

On behalf of the Central Council of the Anthroposophical Society

Marie v. Sivers

To our theosophical friends!

Please find enclosed a membership form for the Anthroposophical Society, along with a copy of the draft statutes. If you intend to become a member of the Anthroposophical Society, we request that you fill out the form and send it to us with the name of the person you wish to appoint as your representative. We will then send you your membership card. Those individuals who are already members of the Theosophical Society pay only a reduced annual fee of two marks and no entrance fee. Individuals who wish to join the Anthroposophical Society but are not members of the Theosophical Society pay a five-mark entrance fee and a six-mark annual fee, of which a corresponding amount is allocated to the working group to which the entrant joins. We ask that the annual membership fee be enclosed with the admission form and that both be sent to Miss Marie von Sivers, Berlin Wilmersdorf, Motzstraße 17.

On behalf of the Central Committee
Marie v. Sivers

Anthroposophical Society (Theosophical Society).

Dear Members of the Anthroposophical Society.

Dear Friends!

The Central Council of the Anthroposophical Society takes pleasure in inviting you to the first General Assembly to be held on February 3, 1913 and on the following days.

The first item on the agenda will be:

Monday, February 3, 3:30 p.m. (Architects' House, Wilhelmstraße 92/93) there will be a lecture by Dr. Rudolf Steiner on the following topic:

The Essence of Anthroposophy.

On this and the following days there will also be: Free lectures and discussions by members (registrations for these are requested as soon as possible). On the evenings of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, there will be a lecture cycle by Dr. Rudolf Steiner on:

The Mysteries of the Orient and of Christianity.

(Further details will be announced at the meeting).

On Thursday evening at 8 p.m., there will be a public lecture by Dr. Steiner.

Members are requested to notify Miss Marie v. Sivers, Berlin Wfilmersdorf, Motzstr. 17, of their attendance at this General Assembly immediately upon receipt of this invitation.

Registrations for speeches etc. by individual members are requested to be sent to Miss v. Sivers.

Hoping to be able to welcome as many of our dear members as possible on the days mentioned above,

with warm Theosophical greetings
On behalf of the Central Board
Marie v. Sivers

Anthroposophical Society (Theosophical Society)

Dear Members of the Anthroposophical Society.

Dear Friends!

The Central Council of the Anthroposophical Society takes pleasure in inviting you to the second general meeting to be held on January 18 and the following days of 1914.

The proceedings will be as follows:

Saturday, January 17, 3 p.m. (Motzstr. 17): ordinary board meeting;

8 p.m. social gathering at the branch office at Geisbergstraße 2.

Sunday, January 18, at 10 a.m. (architect's house, Wilhelmstr. 92/93), the business part will take place with the following program:

1. Opening of the meeting by the central committee.

2. Reports of the board members and the auditors.

3. Motions from the floor.

4. Reports from the representatives of the branches.

5. Miscellaneous.

On Sunday, January 18, at 4 p.m. (Architect's House, Wilhelmstr. 92/93), there will be a factual-theosophical part with the following program:

1. Free lectures and discussions by members. (Mr. Bartsch, Mr. Daeglau, Dr. Sexauer, Mr. Arenson, Dr. Unger, Mr. M. Bauer, Mr. J. v. Rainer, Ms. Wolfram, Mr. W. Selling and others have announced lectures so far).

2. Sunday, January 18th, 6 p.m., social gathering of members at the architect's house (Wilhelmstraße 92/93).

Sunday, January 18th, 8 p.m., the JohannesBauverein will hold its general assembly.

Monday, January 19, at 10 a.m. and again in the afternoon, the factual-theosophical part (free lectures by members) will continue.

Monday, January 19, 7 p.m., continuation of the general assembly of the Johannes-Bauverein. This will be followed by a concert for the benefit of the Johannes-Baus. Tuesday and the following days of the week, the factual-theosophical part can be continued as needed and desired.

A series of lectures by Dr. Steiner is planned for the evenings of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. (Topic: Human and Cosmic Thought).

For information about the apartment, please contact: Mrs. Clara Walther, Miss Emmy Ehmek, Mr. Wilhelm Selling, Berlin Wilmersdorf, Motzstraße 17.

Members are requested to notify Miss Marie von Sivers, Berlin Wilmersdorf, Motzstraße 17, of their attendance at the General Assembly as soon as they receive this invitation.

Proposals for the General Assembly and registrations of individual members for lectures, speeches, etc. are requested by January 12, 1914.

Hoping to welcome as many of our dear members as possible on the days mentioned above,

With theosophical greetings
On behalf of the Central Committee
Marie von Sivers.

Dear Friends.

Unfortunately, the Central Board has been obliged to state, for the protection of the spiritual property of our movement, that a longer stay of Mr. Haugen in the Anthroposophical Society is not compatible with the principles and aims of our movement. Anyone who is truly willing to embrace the teachings of our movement knows that one cannot rely on purely psychic powers today.

Of course, the Anthroposophical Society will never feel called upon to sit in judgment on the behavior of its members, which it must respect as a private matter in the strictest sense of the word. Such was not the case with Mr. Haugen. The measure that was taken had to be carried out because his behavior, stepping completely out of the sphere of the private, took on the character of psychic acts that are in contradiction to the basic principles of the Anthroposophical Society.

Even if the Society always refrains from observing such behavior in narrower circles, it could not remain silent in this case, because Mr. Haugen's behavior took on such proportions that it gradually gave the entire Society a contradictory character and could have a highly detrimental effect. Mr. Haugen was using the framework of the society for practices that are not compatible with it.

One cannot blame the members if they do not always immediately see the full significance of such behavior; however, the leadership of the Society must endeavor to express its will unequivocally in such cases, so that members are not hampered in their judgment by the Society seemingly condoning the behavior by tolerating what is incompatible with it. To accomplish this, there was no other way than for the Central Board to declare that a personage acting as Mr. Haugen does could not be a member of the Society. Such a measure is not considered a punishment, but only a detailed statement of the fundamental principles of the Society in a particular case. It is necessary to realize that any other measure would truly be a penalty; this, however, is nothing more than a declaration by the Society of its recognized principles.

The Central Committee hopes that this highly unwelcome measure will be spared it in the future, because if members become more careful in their judgments on such matters, the Society will be what it should be: a place where personalities like Mr. Haugen can develop quietly as ordinary members, without being driven to acts that cannot be approved by the nimbus that a false judgment casts around them.

With warm regards
the Central Board
of the Anthroposophical Society.

To turn our minds to thoughts connected with the Whitsun festival seems to me less appropriate during these grave days¹ than would have been the case in earlier years. For mankind is passing through fateful ordeals and at such times it is not really fitting to call up feelings of inner warmth and exhilaration. If our feelings are right and true we can never for a single moment forget the suffering that is now so universal, and in a certain sense it is actually selfish to wish to forget it in order to give ourselves up to thoughts that warm and uplift the soul. It will therefore be more fitting to-day to speak of certain matters bearing on the needs of the age, for our recent studies have shown very clearly that many of the reasons for the sufferings of the present time lie in the prevailing attitude to the spiritual, and that it is vitally urgent to work for the development of the human soul in order that mankind may go forward to better days. Nevertheless I want at least to start with thoughts which will bring home to us the meaning of a festival such as Whitsun.

There are three festivals of main importance in the course of the year: Christmas, Easter, Whitsun. Everyone who has not become indifferent, as is the case with the majority of our contemporaries, to the significance of such festivals in the evolution of the world and of humanity will at once perceive the contrasts between these three festivals, for the difference in the kind of experiences associated with each is expressed in their outer symbolism. Christmas is a festival connected above all with the joys of childhood, a festival in which a part is usually, if not always, played by the Christmas Tree brought into the house from snow-clad nature outside. Our thought also turns to the Christmas Plays so often performed among us and which for centuries have brought uplift to the simplest human hearts at this season by reminding them of the great and unique event in earth-evolution when Jesus of Nazareth, or, to be quite exact, Jesus who came from Nazareth, was born in Bethlehem. The festival of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth is a festival connected with a world of feeling engendered by the Gospel of St. Luke, by those parts of the Gospel which make the most general appeal to simple hearts and are the easiest to understand. It is therefore a festival of universal humanity, intelligible, to a certain extent at least, even to the child and to men who have preserved a childlike quality of heart and mind. Yet it brings to such childlike hearts something great and mighty which then becomes part of their consciousness.

The Easter festival, although it is celebrated during the season when nature is waking to life, leads our minds to the portal of death. By contrast with the tenderness and universal appeal of the Christmas festival, the festival of Easter contains something infinitely sublime. If human souls are able to celebrate the Easter festival truly, they cannot fail to be aware of its transcendent majesty. It brings the sublime conception of the Divine Being who descended into a human body and passed through death. The whole riddle of death and the preservation in death itself of the eternal life of the soul—this is the great vista presented by the Easter festival.

These times of festival can be experienced in their depths only when we recall many things made real to us by Spiritual Science. Think only of how closely connected with all the festivals celebrated in the world in commemoration of the births of saviours are the thoughts arising from the Christmas festival. We are reminded, for example, of the Mithras festival celebrating the birth of Mithras in a cave. All these things are evidence of an intimate connection with nature. That Christmas is a festival linked with nature is symbolised in the Christmas Tree, and the birth, too, leads our minds to the workings and powers of nature. But because the birth of which Spiritual Science has so many things to say is that of Jesus of Nazareth, it is a birth fraught with infinite significance. And remembering that the Spirit of the earth wakens in winter, is most active during the season when outer nature appears to lie sleeping in a mantle of ice and snow, we can feel that the Christmas festival leads us into elemental nature herself, and that the lighting of the Christmas candles is a symbol of how the Spirit is awakening in the wintry darkness of nature.

If we would relate the Christmas festival to the life and being of man, we can do so by remembering that man is also connected with nature when he has separated from her spiritually, as he does in sleep, when in his ego and astral body he has gone into the spiritual world. His etheric body remains bound, supersensibly, to the physical body, and represents the part of man's being which belongs to elemental nature, to that elemental nature which wakens to life within the earth when the earth is shrouded in the ice of winter. It is far more than an analogy, indeed it is a profound truth to say that in addition to everything else, the Christmas festival is a token that man has in his being an etheric, elemental principle, an etheric body through which he is linked with elemental nature.

If you think, now, of all that has been said in the course of many years about the gradual darkening and decline of man's forces, you will realise how closely all the forces in the human astral body are connected with the death-bringing processes. The fact that we have to develop the astral body during our life, and that in the astral body we have to receive the spiritual, means that, in doing so, we bring the seeds of death into our being. It is quite incorrect to believe that death is connected with life in an external sense only, for the connection is most inward and fundamental. Our life is as it is only because we are able to die in the way we do. But this is bound up with the whole development of man's astral body. Again it is more than an analogy when we say: The Easter festival is a symbol for everything that has to do with the astral nature of man, with that principle of his being which, whenever he sleeps, leaves the physical body together with him and enters the spiritual world whence descended that Divine-Spiritual Being Who in Jesus of Nazareth actually passed through death. If one were speaking in an age more alive to the spiritual than is our own, what I have just said would be recognised as reality, whereas in our days it is taken merely as symbolism. It would then be realised that the purpose of instituting the Christmas and Easter festivals was to provide man with tokens of remembrance that he is connected with spiritual nature, with that nature that brings death to the physical, and to provide him with tokens reminding him that in his etheric body and astral body he is himself a bearer of the spiritual.—In our days these things have been forgotten. They will come to light again when humanity has the will to acquire understanding of spiritual truths such as these.

But now, besides the etheric body and the astral body, we bear within us as that which is supremely spiritual, our Ego. We know something of the complex nature of the Ego. We know especially that it is the Ego which passes from incarnation to incarnation, that the inner forces of the Ego build themselves up and shape themselves to that form which we carry forward into our being in each new incarnation. In the Ego we rise again from death to prepare for a new incarnation. It is by virtue of the Ego that we are individuals. If we can say that the etheric body represents in a certain sense that which is akin to birth and is connected with the elemental forces of nature, that the astral body symbolises the death-bringing principle that is connected with the higher spirituality, so we can say that the Ego represents our continual rising again in the spirit, our resurrection into the spiritual realm which is neither nature nor the world of stars, but pervades them all. And just as the Christmas festival can be connected with the etheric body and the Easter festival with the astral body, so the Whitsun festival can be connected with the Ego. This is the festival which, representing the immortality of the Ego, is a token of the fact that we, as men, do not share only in the universal life of nature, do not merely undergo death, but that we are individual immortal beings, rising ever and again from death.

And how beautifully this comes to expression when the Christmas thought, the Easter thought and the Whitsun thought are carried further! The Christmas festival is directly connected with earthly happenings, with the winter solstice, the time when the earth is shrouded in deepest darkness. In celebrating the Christmas festival we follow as it were the law by which earth-existence itself is governed; when the nights are longest and the days shortest, when the earth is frost-bound, we withdraw into ourselves and seek for the spiritual that is now alive within the earth. The Christmas festival is linked with the Spirit of the earth; it reminds us ever and again that we belong to the earth, that the Spirit had perforce to come down from cosmic heights and take earthly form in order to be a child of earth among the children of earth.

The Easter festival has a different setting. You know well that Easter is determined by the relation of the sun to the moon on the first Sunday after the first full moon of spring, the first full moon after the 21st March. The Easter festival, therefore, is fixed according to the relative position of the sun to the moon. In a wonderful way, then, the Christmas festival is linked with the earth, and the Easter festival with the cosmos. At Christmas we are reminded of what is most holy in the earth, at Easter of what is most holy in the heavens. But the thought underlying the Christian festival of Whitsun is associated in a most beautiful way with what is even above the stars—the universal, spiritual, cosmic fire which individualises and in the fiery tongues descends upon the Apostles. It is the fire that is neither heavenly alone nor earthly alone; it is the all-pervading fire which individualises and passes into each single human being. In very truth the Whitsun festival is linked with the whole universe. Just as the Christmas festival is connected with the earth and the Easter festival with the stars, so is the Whitsun festival directly connected with man, with individual man, inasmuch as he receives the spark of spiritual life out of the whole universe. What is bestowed upon mankind in general through the descent to the earth of the Being who was both God and Man, is made ready for every individual human being in the fiery tongues of Pentecost. These fiery tongues represent what lives alike in man, in the stars, in the world.

And so for those who are seeking for the spiritual, this festival of Whitsun has a meaning and content of special profundity, calling ever and again for perpetual renewal of the spiritual quest.

In our days it is necessary that these thoughts of the festival should be taken in a deeper sense than at other times. For how we shall emerge from the grievous events of this age will depend very largely upon how deeply men are able to experience these thoughts. That souls will have themselves to work their way out of the present catastrophic conditions is already beginning to be realised here and there. And those who have come to Spiritual Science should feel with even greater intensity the need of the age for new strength to be infused into the spiritual life, the need to surmount materialism. This victory over materialism will only be possible if men have the will to kindle the spiritual world into living activity within them, to celebrate the Whitsun festival inwardly and with true earnestness.

• 1. Berlin, 1916.

You will remember that I have spoken of the meaning of the Christmas Festival in its connection with the evolution of races, or, better said, the epochs of civilisation, and indeed the significance of the Festival lies in this very connection both in respect of the past and of the future.

I want to speak to-day about a Festival to which in modern times less importance is attached than to the Christmas Festival itself, namely, the Festival of the Three Kings, of the Magi who came from the East to greet the newly born Jesus. This Festival of the Epiphany (celebrated on the 6th of January) will assume greater and greater significance when its symbolism is understood.

It will be obvious to you that very profound symbolism is contained in the Festival of the Three Magi from the East. Until the 15th century, this symbolism was kept very secret and no definite indications were available. But since that century some light has been thrown on the Festival of the Magi by exoteric presentations. One of the Three Kings—Caspar—is portrayed as a Moor, an inhabitant of Africa; one as a white man, a European—Melchior; and one—Balthasar—as an Asiatic; the colour of his skin is that of an inhabitant of India. They bring Myrrh, Gold and Frankincense as offerings to the Child Jesus in Bethlehem.

These three offerings are full of meaning and in keeping with the whole symbolism of the Festival celebrated on the 6th of January. Exoterically, the date itself throws some light; esoterically, the Festival is pregnant with meaning. The 6th of January is the same date as that on which, in ancient Egypt, the Festival of Osiris was celebrated, the Festival of the re-finding of Osiris. As you know, Osiris was overcome by his enemy Typhon: Isis seeks and eventually finds him. This re-finding of Osiris, the Son of God, is represented in the Festival of the 6th of January. The Festival of the Three Kings is the same Festival, but in its Christian form. This Festival was also celebrated among the Assyrians, the Armenians and the Phoenicians. Everywhere it is a Festival connected with a kind of universal baptism—a rebirth from out of the water. This in itself points to the connection with the re-finding of Osiris.

What does the disappearance of Osiris signify? It signifies the transition from the epoch before the middle of the Lemurian race to the epoch after the middle of that race. Before the middle of the Lemurian race, no human being was endowed with Manas. It was not until the middle of the race that Manas came down as a fertile seed into men. Manas (Spirit-Self) was now disseminated among men and in each single individual a grave was created for Manas—for the dismembered Osiris. The Divine Manas was disseminated and thereafter dwelt in men. In the Egyptian Mystery-language, the bodies of men were called the ‘graves of Osiris’ Manas was fettered until it was freed by the new revelation of Love.

What is the new revelation, the new manifestation of Love? The descent of Manas somewhere around the middle of the Lemurian epoch, was accompanied by the penetration into mankind of the principle of desire, or passion. Before that time there had been no desire-principle in the real sense. The animals of the preceding epochs were cold-blooded; even man himself at that time, had no warm blood. In the Old Moon period and, correspondingly, in the Third Earth-Round, men may be likened to fishes, in the sense that their own warmth and the warmth of their environment were equal in degree. Of this epoch the Bible says: ‘The Spirit of God brooded over the waters.’ The principle of Love was not within the beings, but outside, manifesting as earthly Kama (that is to say, earthly passion or desire). Kama is egotistic love. The first bringer of Love free of all egoism is Christ Who appeared in the body of Jesus of Nazareth.

Who are the Magi? They represent the Initiates of the three preceding races or epochs of culture, the Initiates of mankind up to the time of the coming of Christ, the Bringer of the Love that is free of egoism—the resurrected Osiris. The Initiates—and so too the Three Magi—were endowed with Manas. They bring gold, frankincense and myrrh as their offerings. And why are their skins of three colours: white, yellow and black? One is European—his skin is white; one is Indian—his skin is yellow; one is African—his skin is black. This indicates the connection with the so-called Root Races. The remaining survivors of the Lemurian race are black; those of the Atlantean race are yellow; and the representatives of the Fifth Root Race, the Post-Atlantean or Aryan race, are white.

Thus the Three Kings or Magi are representatives of the Lemurians, the Atlanteans and the Aryans. They bring the three offerings. The European (Melchior) brings gold, the symbol of wisdom, of intelligence which comes to expression paramountly in the Fifth Root Race. The offering of the Initiate representing the Fourth Root Race (Balthasar) is frankincense, connected with what was intrinsically characteristic of the Atlanteans. They were united more directly with the Godhead, a union which took effect as a suggestive influence, a kind of universal hypnosis. This union with the Godhead is betokened by the offering. Feeling must be sublimated in order that God may fertilise it. This is expressed symbolically by the frankincense, which is the universal symbol for an offering that has something to do with Intuition.

In the language of esotericism, myrrh is the symbol of dying, of death. What is the meaning of dying and of resurrection, as exemplified in the resurrected Osiris? I refer you here to words of Goethe: “So long as thou hast it not, this dying and becoming, thou'rt but a dull guest on the dark earth.” Jacob Boehme expresses the same thought in the words: “He who dies not ere he dies, perishes when he dies.” Myrrh is the symbol of the dying of the lower life and the resurrection of the higher life. It is offered by the Initiate representing the Third Root Race (Lemurian). A deep meaning lies in this. Jesus of Nazareth is a very highly developed individuality. In the thirtieth year of his life he gives up his own life to the descending Christ, the descending Logos. All this the Magi foresaw. The great sacrifice made by Jesus of Nazareth is that he gave up his ‘ I ’ to make way for the Second Logos. There is a definite reason for this sacrifice. Not until the Sixth Root Race will it become possible, and then only gradually, for the human body to receive into itself the Christ Principle from childhood onwards. Only then, in the Sixth Root Race, will mankind have reached such maturity that the body will not need years of preparation but will be able from the beginning, to receive the Christ Principle. In the fourth sub-race of the Fifth Root Race it was necessary for a body to be prepared for thirty years. (In the Northern regions we find something similar, in that the personality of Sig was so prepared that he could place his body at the disposal of a higher Being, and, in fact, did so). In the Sixth Root Race it will be possible for a man to place his body at the disposal of a sublime Being, as did Jesus of Nazareth when Christianity was founded. At the time of the founding of Christianity it was still necessary for an advanced individuality to sacrifice his own ‘ I ’ and send it into the astral realm, in order that the Logos might dwell in the body. This is an act upon which light is shed by the last words on the Cross. What other meaning could these words contain: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” These words give expression to the mystical fact then consummated. At the moment of Christ's death, the Divine Being had departed from the body, and it is the body of Jesus of Nazareth that utters these words—a body so highly developed that it could voice the reality. And so these words give expression to an event of untold significance. All this is represented by the myrrh. Myrrh is the symbol of sacrifice, of death, the sacrifice of the earthly in order that the Higher may come to life. In the middle of the Lemurian epoch, Osiris came to his grave; Manas drew into human beings. Men were educated under the guidance of the Initiates until the principle of Love (Budhi) could shine forth in Christ Jesus. Budhi is the heavenly Love. The lower, sexual principle is ennobled through the Christ Love. Kama is purified in the fire of the Divine Love.

Melchior is the representative of the principle of wisdom, of intelligence—the task of the Fifth Root Race. This is symbolised by his offering—gold.

The principle of sacramental offering is represented by the frankincense. This offering symbolises the principle that was dominant in the Fourth Root Race, the Atlantean. The task of Christianity is fulfilled in the Sixth Root Race, when material existence will be fraught with sacramentalism and sacramental deeds. Sacraments have very largely lost their meaning to-day; the feeling of their significance has disappeared. But this feeling will be kindled to life again when the higher man is born. It is this that is symbolised by the frankincense.

In the Lemurian Race, Osiris meets his death, in the Sixth Root Race, Osiris is resurrected.

Thus the offerings made by the Three Kings indicate the connection of the Festival with the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Root Races. By what are the Three Holy Kings guided, and whither are they led? They are guided by a Star to a grotto, a cave in Bethlehem. This is something that can be understood only by one who has knowledge of the so-called lower, or astral mysteries. To be led by a Star means nothing else than to see the soul itself as a Star. But when is the soul seen as a Star? When a man can behold the soul as a radiant aura. But what kind of aura is so radiant that it can be a guide? There is the aura that glimmers with only a feeble light; such an aura cannot guide. There is a higher aura, that of the intelligence, which has, it is true, a flowing, up-surging light, but is not yet able to guide. But the bright aura, aglow with Budhi, is in very truth a Star, is a radiant guide. In Christ, the Star of Budhi lights up—the Star which accompanies the evolution of mankind. The Light that shines before the Magi is the soul of Christ Himself. The Second Logos Himself shines before the Magi and over the cave in Bethlehem.

The grotto or cave is the body wherein dwells the soul. The seer beholds the body from within. In astral vision, everything is reversed—for example, 365 instead of 563. The human body is seen as a cave, a hollow. In the body of Jesus shines the Christ Star, the soul of Christ. This must be conceived as a reality, taking place in the astral world. It is an enactment of the Lesser Mysteries. There, in very truth, the Christ Soul shines as an auric Star, and it is by this Star that the Initiates of the three Root Races are led to Jesus in Bethlehem.

The Festival of the Three Kings is celebrated every year on the 6th of January, and its significance will steadily increase. Men will understand more and more what a Magi is, and what the great Magi, the Masters, are. And then understanding of Christianity will lead to understanding of spiritual science.