The Rudolf Steiner Archive

One must repeatedly let what one had heard in esoteric classes pass before one's soul, and only then will one gradually get out the forces that are hidden in what's given. In this way one learns to distinguish between thoughts that work productively in one's soul and those that are unproductive since they only reflect on things that are already given. If one looks at a watch one can make its whole construction and how it's kept in motion clear in one's thought. But they are unproductive thoughts. The one who first invented a watch had productive thoughts. Most of our scientific thinking is unproductive. But when we occupy ourselves with what's given to our thinking in esoteric classes we occupy ourselves with productive thoughts, and that's a source of strength for our soul. Such thoughts must pass through our soul in the right order. Just as nothing could exist in an organism if a leg was attached where an arm was supposed to be, so everything in our thinking must be consequent. Let's place such a thought structure before our soul today.

One says a lot about wisdom. But wisdom isn't what's often called wisdom today. One gets smart through experience, but wisdom is the force that streams into us from the spiritual world and then streams out again. Wisdom also comes from the mouth of babes. When what streams out comes more from the feeling, it's wisdom, but when it stimulates a man into action so that productivity predominates, it's love. But one has to know what love really is. Someone may feel sympathy for a man's misfortune, but that isn't real love. Sympathy only becomes love if one steps in and helps him. Wisdom and love make up the I. The I is love and wisdom that have become will. This is the higher triad. When it's reflected somewhat lower I, love and wisdom become thinking, willing and feeling, respectively. Reflected even further down they become the four temperaments. Men have composite temperaments, but angels only have one each. The first kind of angels are those who work the choleric temperament into men. Such people like to do things. Sanguine angels inject men with a temperament that makes them receptive to all sublime and beautiful things, although such men aren't very active. They get enthused easily but don't stick to anything very long.

Phlegmatic angels influence men so that they're not interested in what others have created. They do not leave such a creation the way it is, they repeatedly change it, they make everything flowing and indefinite. This is already expressed in the word phlegma, which means slime. Phlegmatics can't make decisions and resolutions and so they're always missing opportunities. Their bodies have soft and indefinite forms, they walk softly as they weave back and forth. And yet such people can also be choleric in their insistence on particular foods that they like. Melancholic angels work on a man so that he sees everything in himself, he's only occupied with himself, he does nothing for progress. So he doesn't enjoy creation and becomes dull and dark. One must judge all characters on the basis of what the individual does for the whole's progress. If one reflects these qualities even further down then choleric corresponds to fire, air to sanguine, phlegmatic to water, and melancholic to earth—there everything becomes rigid and solid.

One should hold such figures before one repeatedly. They make it possible that our soul organism is built up in the right way. One must think through such figures clearly. Our inner life can't be strengthened by thoughts that oscillate back and forth. The soul gets stronger if one places such forms before one's spiritual eye.

Foreign beings can't press into a being that's enclosed by a skin. So man's astral body was a zero, a nothing for other beings. Through the fact that the astral body had separated from the whole astral matter and had surrounded itself with a skin it had become a one, and people described this by putting a one in front of the zero: 10 Then they added the six and five that refer to the Venus and Jupiter stages of evolution that gives rise to the mystical number 1065 that is mentioned in Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine (Vol. 1, Dzyan iv).

When a pupil becomes clairvoyant he sees rats, mice and other parasitic animals. Beings with beautiful human faces but crippled feet come to tempt him. The snake is a symbol for the astral body. One should use the shining staff with a black snake and a brightly shining, glittering snake to banish the beings that want to drag one down. Sphinxes and cherubs are good pictures to see.

The physical body doesn't belong to us, it's an optical illusion. It's formed by streams that go out from Thrones. Imagine brooks that flow together; a whirlpool arises where they meet. Likewise the physical body arises where streams from Thrones come together. The black cross represents the lower animal part of man that must be overcome. The seven red roses must sprout and flower out of it. A beautiful story tells us that when Christ hung on the cross, bees came and drew honey from his bleeding wounds, as from red roses otherwise. The blood's composition had changed through the sacrifice and had become like the sap of red roses.

All battles here on earth are only a weak copy of the Gods' battles.

One often hears Theosophists say that there are dangers connected with occult development. But it should be emphasized that one mustn't be kept from treading an occult path because one has a feeling of fear For someone who gets indications from a proper esoteric school and follows them correctly will also develop properly. The main thing is to awaken the right seriousness in one and to permeate oneself completely with the things one learns in esoteric classes.

It's always good for an esoteric to tell himself that he still has a long way to go. One may have grasped something with one's intellect a while back and yet not have arranged one's life in accordance with the knowledge gained. As an example of this, we can give the statement that should be familiar to all theosophists: “Everything that surrounds us is maya.” There are people who find this very enlightening but don't apply it. They let pains and joys work upon them without telling themselves: If everything is maya, then the cause of my pain is also maya.

But it's good that this is so, for if a man would take this statement into his feeling too soon, he might not be able to stand the shock that he would get, thereby. This requires a strong force that must gradually develop, and namely in that a man tries to see the truth in this statement through little everyday things around him rather than through big events in his life. We know that everything that surrounds us looks different than it really is. For instance, let's take a red object. Through what do we see the red color? Through the fact that light falls on it. If the object is in the dark, it doesn't look red. But when light shines on it, a red color arises because the object absorbs all the other colors that light produces and only reflect the red color it can't use, that it doesn't want or like. So it shows what it isn't in its interior.

Now, can a man press into this interior and get to know the true nature of things? He can only do this on a meditative path. If a man sticks to a view or idea he's also being confused by maya. But he usually also does something else. If a color approaches him, let's say a red one, it has an effect on his feeling. He has a freshening feeling when he looks at red. A blue mixed with a little violet will put him in a devotional mood. A man has these feelings in himself and he feels that they are true. The objects that induce these feelings may be maya, may arise and pass away, but the feelings remain the same. Someone can go out into a forest, hear a rustling and be frightened by it because he imagines that it's coming from a snake, whereas it was caused by the wind. Further on he can hear rustling again that is really coming from a snake this time. His fright is the same in both cases, but one time the cause was a deception.

But how do we arrive at the true nature of things through our feelings? When we look at the way plants sprout, shoot and put out vernal flowers, how are we supposed to see the truth behind the maya that they stretch out to us? There is a moment in the life of a plant when it shows us something of its inner nature, and that's when it begins to die. And when does this happen? At fertilization time. Up till then the plant used all of its forces to push back what it doesn't want, but now it has received something from outside, and it turns its life around, as it were. It loses its rejection power and withdraws into itself, it now turns the force that it used outwards inwards. Can we awaken a feeling in us that is like this process in a plant's soul life? When would we like to withdraw into our interior? When do we lose the power to ward off outer things? When we feel shame. If we awaken this feeling without outer cause and look at a fertilized plant, we'll become aware that the very same feeling lives in the plant, that it lives in it so intensely that it makes it die. In the fall a feeling of enormous shame runs through plants. A red rose is a quite special example of this.

Now which color would we use for the feeling of dying, for withdrawal from the outer things to the spirit? Black, and that's why we have the black cross on which red roses bloom. Black, charcoaled wood in which all outer things have died is an expression to us of the fact that the spirit reveals itself behind all dying things. Goethe once spoke of the color that the earth would have to have when it's dying at the end of the present cycle and passes over into a spiritual realm as it's fertilized by the spirit. It would have to “glow in flaming red.” This remark arises from keep knowledge. For when the earth is mature enough to be fertilized by the spirit how could the earth do anything else than to glow in deep shame?

If we awaken feelings in us that are induced by outer things in this way we'll get closer to the truth behind these things. We can also awaken pictures and feelings in us without any outer cause, can create ideas and feelings only in us. Then we're together with a world in us that wasn't produced by any outer cause, and thereby we can find the path to absolute truth. This should happen in our meditations. If we look at the sun and meditate on its vitalizing influences, we always have an outer inducement for the meditation. But if we take the words: In pure rays of light … etc. and awaken to an idea of light in us, and then imagine that it's the garment of the godhead, then we've recreated something in us that's not connected with anything external. And then when we awaken a feeling of love for all beings in the next lines, we'll permeate ourselves with this feeling, and it'll become a strong germinating force in us.

Before we begin today's esoteric study, let's direct a prayer at the Spirit of Thursday. For an esoteric should increasingly acquire real modesty and humility so that he doesn't turn to the highest Godhead with his affairs, but consider that between it—which we can't get an inkling of with the greatest human intellect—and us, all the great hierarchies are present.

Great embracing Spirit,
In your light radiates the earth's life,
My life's in yours.
You are.
My soul works in yours.
With your leader I tread my path.
I live with him.
His being is an image of my own being.
You are.
The leader's being in my soul finds you, embracing Spirit.
Blissfulness is mine out of your beings' breath.
You are.

Great embracing Spirit
May my I raise itself from below upward,
May it get an inkling of you in the all-embracing.
May the spirit of my being be illumined
By the light of your messengers.
May the soul of my being be enkindled by the fire flames of your servants.
May the will of my I grasp
Your creatorword's force.
You are.
May your being permeate my will
That my I be grasped by an understanding of your light's shining,
Your life's love-warmth
And your being's creator words.
You are.

We'll elucidate our meditations from another side today. An esoteric wants to try to approach the Christ Spirit more intensively and to connect himself more closely with him through his meditations than he could through exoteric Christianity. The entry of the Christ principle into our earth evolution was such an incisive event even for outer history that we calculate our division of time in accordance with it. Back when Zoroaster saw the figure of the approaching Sun Spirit in the sun he gathered pupils around him to make them into servants of the great Ahura Mazdao, and he prepared himself ever more to take this Sun Spirit into himself.

When the earth with all of its beings looks up to the sun, it must tell itself that it can't do what the sun can, namely, send out light. It would be a dark, black body if the sun's light didn't permeate it and it couldn't reflect it. Since the Christ became the spirit of the planet earth through the Event of Golgotha, he's in the force that sprouts up through the earth's cover of green plants.

The masters of wisdom and of the harmony of feelings give us the great world truths in symbols, and here it's mainly the rose cross which—when it's reflected in us—can awaken and strengthen the power of the Christ-spirit in us. In our last esoteric class, we saw that a red cross brings a feeling of shame to expression in its red color. Now we know that all colors produce their counter color in us, which for red is green. So the sight of the black cross awakens the white, radiant sunlight of Christ in us, and the red roses stimulate a force so that green life can sprout out of the Christ-force's bright light. If we imagine a rose cross with this feeling and let it live in us like this, we share in one part of our earth's force, of our earth spirit, of the Christ-spirit.

As esoterics, we must always try to think good thoughts about things that seem to be maya to us. We must be permeated by the feeling that a spark of this force slumbers in everything, which can break forth at some point to outshine all evil things. We should also have the complete trust that all good and positive things on earth will and must be victorious.

Notes B, extract:

The cross is the highest of all symbols. One can get the whole of world history out of it, and even natural science could be built up out of it … In my essay The Education of the Child, it was pointed out that red has a calming effect inwardly. One would be able to see that the soul is then immersed in green … Living, sprouting, shooting green is the working of the Christ-spirit in the earth. The earth is permeated with it, as it were, and it's literally true that we on earth are walking on Christ's body. And the green is his etheric body.

By meditating the rose cross, it also becomes light in us, and the Christ-force will awaken the working of green in our soul, which was also awakened in the earth by this same force. And when this force works in us, we'll then feel a great confidence growing in us that pure love must overcome all evil and that truth can be found. For us this lies in the words: In pure rays of light …

Prayer to the spirit of Wednesday:

Great embracing Spirit,
In the knowledge of your being is world knowledge that is to become mine.
You are.
I want to unite my soul with you.
May your cognizing leader illuminate my path.
Feeling your leader, I tread the path of life.
Your leader is the sun of life.
He lived in my longing.
I want to take his being into mine.
You are.
May my force take the leader's force into itself.
Blissfulness moves into me.
The blissfulness in which the soul finds the spirit.
You are.

Great embracing Spirit
May my I raise itself from below upward,
May it get an inkling of you in the all-embracing.
May the spirit of my being be illumined
By the light of your messengers.
May the soul of my being be enkindled by the fire flames of your servants.
May the will of my I grasp
Your creatorword's force.
You are.
May your being permeate my will
That my I be grasped by an understanding of your light's shining,
Your life's love-warmth
And your being's creator words.
You are.

Last time we saw that the symbols we're given can and should work o us in our meditations. To round off these three esoteric lessons, we'll speak about the wrong paths that we can get on as esoterics.

In ordinary exoteric life, we have all possible terms for qualities that we know are good or bad. These terms are often inadequate and one-sided for an esoteric, for every quality has two sides, good and bad, and one of an esoteric's main tasks must be to keep the right balance. He must constantly be on guard and be watching himself in general. Human qualities are such that a man can control them very well with his ego if they stay in the right balance. But if he lets any one become too intensive, the ego can get under the control of this quality. This isn't very dangerous in an exoteric; he's always brought back into equilibrium by the spirit of everyday affairs. But things are different with an esoteric. A quality that he allows to control him can get him into all possible dangers. Something like that can even become a disease of the physical body in his present life. Let's make this clear to ourselves by an example.

Who doesn't know ill feelings and discords. We've all been subjected to them But an esoteric must try to combat them with his ordinary ego For if he lets ill feelings master him, something happens to him. He succumbs to the wrong spirit of heaviness. Such spirits of heaviness really exist. A spirit of heaviness belongs to the archai, and he's the one who brings us back into our physical body when we wake up in the morning. This falls into his sphere of activity, and that's good and right for us. But some of these spirits overstep their sphere and want to work in the realm of the Spirits of Form. They're the ones who take over an esoteric's etheric body when he gives in to ill feelings and who work on it so that he succumbs to hypochondria. This then becomes manifest physically in diseases of the intestinal tract. This can also be said in exoteric lectures, but in our esoteric lessons we should always remember that we receive direct messages from the master who intended them especially for esotericism.

Another quality against which an esoteric should especially be on his guard and should be on the lookout for s that he doesn't succumb to it, is vanity, pride. We're often not aware of how much we've already succumbed to it and so must especially watch it. Many people imagine that they would like to help out of a “love for mankind.” But if one tells them that they can only achieve this through constant, diligent learning, one notices that they don't want this; they would like to start doing things right away, without thinking how much harm they can do through the wrong help. That's a very dangerous vanity to which all of those benefactors and confused fanatics have succumbed who preach their world view with nice words and unclear phrases, for they think that it's their mission to do this.

So what happens if an esoteric doesn't' suppress this vanity? He succumbs to Spirits of Light and namely to the regular, good ones who are recruited from hosts of Wisdom Spirits, but to ones who work down into the realm of the Spirits of Movement Good Spirits of Light have the task of leading a man into the spiritual world when he goes to sleep, to guide him into it so that he's unconscious when he gets there. But if an esoteric wants to accelerate his development in an irregular way without learning what he must know about spiritual worlds, then one of the other spirits of light overpowers him and influences his etheric body in such a way that the brain is affected by it. The result is confusion, fanaticism, and eventually insanity.

Anyone who succumbs to the spirit of heaviness only harms himself, and one should try to help him in every way, for we should love each man and not just mankind. But one who succumbs to the Spirits of Light can harm everyone with his confused fanaticism. Therefore, we should repeatedly ask whether the reasons we want to develop ourself are really selfless ones; we shouldn't get tired of learning, for the more we learn, the easier it is to become modest.

We shouldn't get scared if we feel the spirit of heaviness on waking in the morn, so that we feel exhausted and our limbs feel so heavy that we can hardly move them. This is a passing stage and a sign that we've gotten past the improper stage of hypochondria. And anyone who has the feeling that it's hard for him to keep his feet on the ground at certain times, doesn't have to be upset, for he has passed the stage of fanaticism, and the phenomenon is just a regular one in his development. A man's soul is kept in balance by the spirit of gravity and the Spirit of Light, and esoterics should always try to maintain this equilibrium.

We're referred to this balance by a master of wisdom in the prayer that we say at the close and which contains all the wisdom of the world that will be revealed to us evermore:

In the spirit lay the germ of my body.
And the spirit has imprinted in my body
The eyes of sense,
That through them I may see
The lights of bodies.
And the spirit has imprinted in my body
Reason and sensation
And feeling and will,
That through them I may perceive bodies
And act upon them.
In the spirit lay the germ of my body.
In my body lies the germ of the spirit.
And I will incorporate into my spirit
The super-sensible eyes
That through them I may behold the light of spirits.
And I will imprint in my spirit
Wisdom and power and love,
So that through me the spirits may act
And I become a self-conscious organ
Of their deeds.
In my body lies the germ of the spirit.