The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Notes by Alice Kinkel

The exoteric Christianity that is out there is not the real thing at all; to know this and to feel it in one's soul is important. Contemporary Christianity is only a distortion of true Christianity.

To become personally blessed is what people want today, that is what they want in exoteric Christianity, but in doing so they become highly selfish.

Watch and pray, that you do not fall into temptation. (That was the theme of the hour).

The souls who lived on earth in the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th centuries after Christ were embodied on earth at the time of Christ or directly afterwards. We were together with these souls in Devachan. We lived in the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th century after Christ.

This strong egoistic drive of wanting to become personally blissful, we brought with us into this incarnation. We must practice self-knowledge.

Strictly confidential

Notes by Alice Kinkel

During a very serious address, Dr. Steiner said that in the name of the Zeitgeist, he had to tell us that materialism would become so great in the near future that soullessness would become, perhaps in a relatively short time, much closer than we think, so great that in about a hundred years' time souls will be able to remain in the body for a maximum of thirty years, and then Ahriman and Lucifer will take possession of the body.

We are then to animate these bodies from the spiritual world instead of Lucifer and Ahriman.

Notes by Alice Kinkel For all degrees

The macrocosmic and microcosmic zodiac.
The macrocosmic and microcosmic planetary system.
The macrocosmic and microcosmic relationship between the sun, moon and earth.
The sun alone, macrocosmically and microcosmically.
The content of the lesson culminates in the drawing.
The signs of the zodiac act on the physical body, on our twelve senses.
We have seven upper or light senses and five lower or dark senses; these latter extend from hearing to smelling.
The planets act on the etheric body.
The relationship between the sun, moon and earth acts on the astral body. The sun alone acts on the ego.

The seven upper or light senses and the five lower or dark senses:

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Sun

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Notes B from the estate of Elisabteh Vreede first degree

We should become more and more aware that we are the complete image of the macrocosm in our essence, that we are a small world, a microcosm. The wise masters of the East have again given the task of making this truth clear. (The five and the twelve senses are explained again, as they were on May 12 in Cologne.) The five are the dark senses, because through these - the senses usually so-called - man completely steps out of his soul-spiritual. All these senses have flowed into man from the macrocosm, and that from the twelve signs of the zodiac, mediated by the influence of the sun on each of the different signs. One can make this clear by means of a drawing.

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The sense of self corresponds to Gemini because in this sense one has to take a twofold approach. One has to step out of one's own self and into another self. The sense of touch corresponds to Cancer because, with this sense, one turns inward, as it were. The sense of touch serves to perceive the resistance that objects exert on us. The objects themselves are neither heavy nor light, but the pressure that we have to overcome causes us to perceive them as heavy or light. The sense of life corresponds to Leo, under whose influence it is completely. When the Sun combines with the forces of Leo, we feel a sense of vitality. (Sense of movement – Virgo has been omitted.) The sense of balance is associated with Libra; this sense definitely determines the ability to find the right position in three-dimensional space. The sense of smell (Scorpio) is the most dangerous sense when we try to relate it to spiritual entities, because it immediately brings us into the realm of black magicians. (The sense of taste – Sagittarius was ignored.) The sense of warmth (Aquarius) is like flowing water that rises and falls in waves and fills everything. We feel the warmth rising up and permeating everything within us. The sense of hearing is connected with the sign of Pisces, and the occultists of earlier times gave this sign the name of Pisces also for the reason that Pisces are deaf and everything must be represented in reverse on the physical plane. - Sense of speech - Aries; sense of thought - Taurus.

When man was created, the powers came from the twelve signs, and we were connected to these powers. They were also the tools of the gods, who could hear, see and so on with the help of these powers. Now man has wrested himself from these powers, and he now stands on his own. This means that he can go arbitrarily from one sign to another, while the sun, which has not wrested itself free, has to go through the signs one after the other. If the gods on earth want to give or hear, they have to work through these powers.

Just as the twelve signs of the zodiac have brought about our twelve senses through the sun, so have the seven planets, as they relate to the signs of the zodiac and the sun, helped to create living human beings by giving us that which flows into our etheric body. If we had not moved away from the planets, we would now feel these forces at work within us. They are drawn here within a loop for the reason that in reality the course of the planets is not as astronomy has conceived it, as a great circle around the sun. Only later will astronomy come up with the more correct movements.

Besides the twelve and the seven, we also have a trinity in our astral body, which is indicated by the relationship between the sun, moon and earth. That we are human beings with intellect, feeling and will stems from this. The power of thought comes from the sun, the power of feeling from the moon and that of will from the earth. Only earthly people can have mind, feeling and will in such a way, arising from the mutual state of these three bodies. In their narrow-mindedness, scientists may talk about Martians as if they were similar to humans; only on Earth can these three forces be found in the way they are through the relationship of the Earth to the Sun and Moon.

And our ego finds itself in the sun, in unity; the certain independence that the sun has from the other planets is brought about by our ego.

If we learn to combine all this in meditation, so that we connect with all these forces that work in us, it can mean a powerful jolt in our esoteric life.

In a retrospect let's place ourselves into what was experienced in such a way that we rightly feel the difference between the soul experience and the real experience in the outer world. The relation between the memory of a landscape and the direct perception of the same with open eyes is the same relation as between memory and retrospect.

Memory gradually disappears in an initiate and is replaced by direct perception of what one wants to remember. One must place a picture of the day's experiences before one, quite exactly and clearly of all details, blouse, face, etc., and so look at the happenings in a picture, how people spoke, what was done, etc. It's very important to recall the little experiences that didn't interest one so much, that are hard for one to remember, because this generates inner forces. Imaginative force is created via the ability to imagine pictures. The clarity of the pictures is the important thing and not the completeness of the experiences. No muscle must be tensed in all of this work. Just as light first created the outer eyes, and the body was stimulated from outside to form other organs, so the astral body's organs are formed through the imagining of pictures.

In the subsidiary exercises we must begin with thinking, and persist until the proper feeling sets in; we must then pour this into our body and do this exercise for a month or more before passing on to the second one, etc. The pouring in gives the astral body consistency, a firm shape, backbone. The more uninteresting the object the better it is for the exercise, for then it's hard to stay focused on it for five minutes. The second is initiative in actions. It must be an action that one must force oneself to do. Thirdly the overcoming of pleasure and displeasure, that is, one should feel joy or sorrow but not let oneself by controlled by them. Fourthly, look for positivity in everything. Fifthly, open-mindedness with regard to all experiences. Sixthly, repeat all five exercises rhythmically. Do each of the subsidiary exercises until one can pour the feeling arising from it into the body and experience it. Only then go on to the next month.

The meditation that was given to you as your first morning work was intended to be an awakener of forces.

A lily is the visible expression of a word that was once spoken by the creator. Much depends on which words and vowels one speaks, which thoughts and feelings one sends out, because they will become visible during the Jupiter Venus, etc., earth conditions. The mineral, plant and animal kingdoms here on earth are likewise the expression of what Moon dwellers once said and thought. That's why mantras and the words of meditations have the letter sequence and the word sounds that they do, because they only have their effect in that particular sequence. What we do and create will be visible on Jupiter, for instance Koeln Cathedral will be visible as a larger formation, Raphael's paintings will surround Jupiter like clouds or a mirage. Our music will resound as music of the spheres over there on Jupiter.

In our exercises we must think that the Gods have something like this in mind for us; that's the purpose of the exercises, and the formula “In the spirit lay the germ of my body ...” explains this to us. The old adepts expressed this briefly in the sacred word AUM. A is the past that sounds loud and clear. U is a dull vowel and represents the present. It has something of the clarity of the past and of the freedom of action of the present in it. M is the indefiniteness of the future, to which every vowel or this or that action can still add something. A correct retrospect awakens a great force in the soul, that a man needs once he can ascend to the astral plane. Thought control is supposed to lead to mastery of thoughts. Initiative in actions is supposed to give rise to an urge for activity and work that that one hadn't felt otherwise. Meditation should be the first work of the day in the morning.

It's very important for moderns to get a strong dose of esoteric life. Plagues, epidemics and wars would rage among men in a terrible way if the wise masters hadn't decided to give mankind a deepening in the spiritual realm.

There have always been three kinds of esoterics who were developed in initiation schools: initiates, clairvoyants and adepts. In ancient times it often happened that initiates had a full understanding of spiritual truths and laws, although they weren't clairvoyant. Others in the same brotherhood were clairvoyant but couldn't understand what they saw, so the initiates explained it to them. Today there's less of a separation between clairvoyance and initiation. Whereas adepts were able to put what the clairvoyant saw and initiates explained to practical use. Adeptship must retreat almost entirely today. Our egotistical age can't make proper use of such high capacities. The highest adepts often only work into peoples' fates twice in two hundred years. Their strength is saved for special occasions. For men aren't yet mature enough for certain things. It would only have a harmful effect if one wanted to give them out. Even you, my brothers and sisters, couldn't receive some of the highest truths. If I would tell you such a truth this room would be empty in a few minutes. Even people who have reached a certain stage in esoteric training can't stand certain truths. And yet these are the very highest truths, and your training will eventually enable to you to receive them. But one who receives them too soon loses all support in life. Imagine that a narrow plank is laid over a deep abyss. How many of you would be able to walk over it without getting dizzy? Certainly not all. But if someone painted a path as wide as this plank on the floor of a room it would be easy to walk along the strip without going off to the left or right. And yet he's doing the same thing he'd have to do to walk the plank or strip on the ground. The strip's continuation is the physical world, the world of the senses. It gives men certainty, since it continually corrects wrong thoughts, feelings, etc. Now imagine that the physical world's barriers had fallen so that a man really floats in air without outer support. This is an experience that everyone must go through at some point.

You all know that the heart is just at the beginning of its development and that it will later be a very important organ One doesn't have to accept this on faith for simple observation and reflection lets one see this. It's the greatest riddle for modern scientists that the involuntary heart muscle is transversely striped just like the voluntary muscles this tells us that the heart will be a voluntary muscle in the future.

We speak of reincarnation and the law of karma. One can tell oneself: I don't believe in reincarnation, but I can assume that it exists. I'll act as if my assumption is true and wait to see what comes of it. A man who thinks and acts like this will make amazing discoveries. In everything that happens to him he'll think: I caused this in a past life and now bear the consequences of my own deeds. If such a man unconsciously did something foolish and he's punished for it, he'll think: I'll make myself aware of this foolishness, so that I can see that I was the one who brought on these ugly consequences. This is the real meaning of: Whoever hits you on the right cheek, turn the other one to him also.

Anyone who succeeds in looking for the cause of everything that hits him in himself has accomplished a great deal. One who does this will soon notice that it brings him forward, that he begins to loosen karmic chains and increasingly gets control of his life. Such a man treads his life's path freely and surely. One can verify all theosophical teachings in the same way. So let's all try to bring ever more spirituality into life and make the light and life that the great masters stream into us alive. You should all realize that the battles theosophy and especially esotericism will have to fight with the outer world will get ever bigger. There it's a matter of standing fast and being silent, my sisters and brothers, and stand fast, as you look at your goal and at the great masters who stand by us.