Rosicrucian Wisdom E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 370

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

These inspirational lectures offer a compelling introduction to a modern path of spiritual development rooted in esoteric Christianity. Rather than drawing solely from historical traditions, Steiner presents a renewed spiritual science – anthroposophy – based on firsthand research. Rudolf Steiner outlines the Rosicrucian path as a spiritual approach suited to the consciousness of our time – one that engages both the heart and the intellect while remaining deeply practical. He guides us through seven stages of initiation, exploring the evolution of human consciousness, karma, reincarnation, and the hidden dimensions of Christian mysteries. At the centre of this path lies a profound understanding of Christ as a cosmic being, whose sacrifice at Golgotha represents a pivotal moment in both human and cosmic history. Steiner emphasizes that spiritual knowledge should not remain abstract or purely contemplative. Instead, it should enter into daily life, transforming thought, feeling and action. He discusses essential spiritual truths including the law of destiny, life after death, and methods for developing spiritual vision. Themes such as spiritual alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone are presented with clarity and insight. This powerful series of lectures is widely regarded as one of Steiner's most concise presentations of his esoteric worldview. The new revised edition includes an introduction by Brien Masters, editorial notes and an index. Fourteen lectures, May–June 1907, Munich, GA 99

Leseprobe

ROSICRUCIAN WISDOM

Fourteen Lectures given in Munich between 22 May and 6 June 1907

TRANSLATED BY JOHANNA COLLIS

INTRODUCTION BY BRIEN MASTERS

RUDOLF STEINER

Rudolf Steiner Press

Hillside House, The Square

Forest Row, RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2025

Originally published in German under the title Die Theosophie des Rosenkreuzers (volume 99 in the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe or Collected Works) by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach. Based on shorthand notes that were not reviewed or revised by the speaker. This authorized translation is based on the seventh German edition (1985), edited by Paul Gerhard Bellmann

Published by permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach

© Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Rudolf Steiner Verlag 1985

This translation © Rudolf Steiner Press 2025

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ISBN 978 1 85584 680 7

eISBN 978 1 85584 711 8

Cover by Morgan Creative

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Printed and bound by 4Edge Ltd., Essex

CONTENTS

Introduction, by Brien Masters…

LECTURE 1

MUNICH, 22 MAY 1907

The New Form of Wisdom

The history of Rosicrucianism. The work of Christian Rosenkreuz since 1459. Lessing’s Education of the Human Race. Goethe’s initiation. Relative positions of teacher and pupil in Rosicrucian wisdom. Relationship of spiritual wisdom to general culture. The sevenfold human being. Tasks of the Rosicrucian.

Pages 1-10

LECTURE 2

MUNICH, 25 MAY 1907

The Ninefold Constitution of the Human Being

Survey of the nature of the human being. The original members of the human being and their transformation by the ego. The sevenfold and the ninefold human being.

Pages 11-20

LECTURE 3

MUNICH, 26 MAY 1907

The Elemental World and the Heaven-World. Waking Life, Sleep and Death

Waking Life, Sleep and Death Work of the astral body during waking and sleeping; its connection with the physical world and the cosmic astral ocean. The astral body as the builder of the ether and physical bodies. Conditions after death. The four regions of Devachan.

Pages 21-28

LECTURE 4

MUNICH, 28 MAY 1907

Descent to a New Birth

Encountering the Akashic Record. The human being in Devachan after death. Formation of the new astral body and of the corresponding new ether and physical bodies. Preview of the next life.

Pages 29-37

LECTURE 5

MUNICH, 29 MAY 1907

Communal Life between Death and a New Birth into the Physical World

Bonds of friendship and love as the basis for the life of souls in Devachan. Integration of the human being in the physical world after a new birth. The period immediately following conception; further development of the human embryo. The Platonic cosmic year. Male and female incarnations. The common karma of humanity.

Pages 38-46

LECTURE 6

MUNICH, 30 MAY 1907

The Law of Destiny

The law of karma as a cosmic law and its meaning in human life. The Akashic Record and the shaping of human destiny. How karma works from one incarnation to the next. Demons, spectres, phantoms and spirits as entities created by human beings. Spiritual science as a medicine for humanity.

Pages 47-57

LECTURE 7

MUNICH, 31 MAY 1907

The Technique of Karma

Experiences of souls after death. Karma and heredity. How the law of karma works. The law of karma as a stimulus for activity. Earlier incarnations of Earth, and human development.

Pages 58-67

LECTURE 8

MUNICH, 1 JUNE 1907

Human Consciousness in the Seven Planetary Incarnations

Incarnations. Three past states of consciousness, the present state, and three future states of consciousness.

Pages 68-76

LECTURE 9

MUNICH, 2 JUNE 1907

Planetary Evolution I

The Saturn and Sun incarnations of Earth and the evolution of the human being.

Pages 77-86

LECTURE 10

MUNICH, 3 JUNE 1907

Planetary Evolution II

The Moon incarnation of Earth, and the human being.

Pages 87-96

LECTURE 11

MUNICH, 4 JUNE 1907

The Evolution of Humanity on the Earth I

Recapitulation of Saturn, Sun and Moon incarnations. Departure of the moon. Incorporation of the ego. Breathing with lungs. Mars passing through the earth. Earth and human being in Lemurian and Atlantean times.

Pages 97-107

LECTURE 12

MUNICH, 4 JUNE 1907

The Evolution of Humanity on the Earth II

Remnants and peculiarities of former androgynous states. Separation of the sexes. Our Atlantean forebears. Stages of post-Atlantean evolution.

Pages 108-118

LECTURE 13

MUNICH, 5 JUNE 1907

The Future of Humanity

Overcoming egoism. Task of the bond of brotherhood: to unite riven humanity through unified spiritual wisdom. Metamorphosis of the physical body and reproduction. Future Jupiter and Venus stages. The good and the evil race of the future.

Pages 119-131

LECTURE 14

MUNICH, 6 JUNE 1907

The Nature of Initiation

The seven stages of the Christian and Rosicrucian paths of initiation.

Pages 132-145

Notes

Rudolf Steiner’s Collected Works

Significant Events in the Life of Rudolf Steiner

Index

INTRODUCTION

THE term Rosicrucianism is by no means foreign to the broad spectrum of spirituality today. In this course of lectures, given comparatively early in the lecturing phase of his career, Rudolf Steiner introduces those aspects of Rosicrucianism on which spiritual science (one of Steiner’s terms for the body of research that resulted from his work) has light to shed and with which it is intricately connected.

Though containing a wealth of insight into the spiritual content of Rosicrucian wisdom and practice, it seems fair to describe what is contained in this volume as only an introduction, if one bears in mind Steiner’s contention that, if the fullness that lies behind such spiritual wisdom were to be described extensively, a ‘new language’ would have to be ‘invented’. This was clearly not Steiner’s immediate task: indeed, his vocabulary and syntax can be followed with lucidity by the kind of mind for which such ideas are entirely new, or by those who consider themselves as mere beginners on the inner path of development. At the same time, fourteen lectures make a sizeable volume when transcribed in this way, so that when one has finished reading the last page, there can be little doubt qualitatively that the whole must be reflected fully—if not contained—in this ‘introductory’ part.

What might the most intrinsic components of that ‘whole’ be? Since Steiner is not writing a systematic survey of Rosicrucian wisdom, ideally each person would need to crystallize this from the lecture course for themselves. An Introduction such as this may serve, however, to enable the reader, the enquirer or the student to be able to embark on this crystallization process more effectively—rather in the sense that a good guide will enable the visitor to gain a fuller experience, say, of Botticelli’s Primavera than would otherwise be gained from the necessarily brief visit to the Uffizi that most hectic tourist schedules in Florence permit.

Which leads us directly into one of the components of the spiritual stream of Rosicrucianism with which Steiner is concerned. It is a body of knowledge (or even mode of living) ideally suited to the ‘busy’ person whose life nevertheless is self-motivated by a wish or resolve to find practical ways of alleviating world problems—solving them might be too presumptuous a claim, though it is obviously what ultimately needs to come about.

Though Steiner deals elsewhere with the historical background that is directly concerned with the being of Christian Rosenkreutz, the individuality after whom Rosicrucianism is named, here it is clearly not his immediate concern. However, in the last lecture, he does point out that the spiritual source from which all later esoteric training derives can be traced back to the Athenian teacher, and pupil of St Paul: Dionysius the Areopagite. Corroboratively, a hint of this occurs in I Cor.: 6-7, in which Paul speaks of ‘Theosophia’, the wisdom of God, the same term having been used in the original German title (and in the title of the earlier translation of the lectures into English): Die Theosophie des Rosenkreuzers, a term which was superseded for Steiner by ‘anthroposophy’ when he distanced himself from certain ideas being promulgated by leading theosophists in the years shortly after this lecture course took place. ‘Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that came to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before this world unto our glory’. (The King James version, my emphasis).

This aspect of Rosicrucianism, however, its esoteric training (‘hidden wisdom’ as the translation puts it), is not one that Steiner is content merely to make passing reference to: in so far as it is possible to go into such detail he describes the seven stages on this inner path. Furthermore, he makes it abundantly clear that the training is distinct from what he calls the Christian path, a fact which could, in the first place, be of central importance for many people today—the distinction notwithstanding all that he had to divulge about the Christ Being on numerous occasions elsewhere or, perhaps even more paradoxical, his allusion to the Pauline roots of esoteric training.

This is not the place to rehearse the seven stages, let alone expand on them. Suffice it to say, however, that, as the first stage is designated study, one could consider the whole ‘book’ as an example of how to set about placing one’s first footstep upon this path. Not that Steiner fences in a number of fields of study and sets about devoting one lecture to each of them. Despite the helpful titles to each lecture and the build up of the body of knowledge that results, Steiner’s style of lecturing—which makes it so refreshing for the modern thinker—is one in which he ranges freely around his core theme. This may well be the result of having to give the listener access to concepts for which the ‘new language’ has not been invented. Do we not find poets constantly attempting something similar through the use of metaphor and imagery?—though frequently they may have to stop short at, as well as coin, language that does little more than offer a peephole of a perspective towards the ineffability that they divine, however strong their divining might be?

Perhaps this mode of ‘study’ could best be exemplified by looking at the problems of the day to which Steiner alludes—though he does so seemingly with little more than passing reference—by seeing, in view of his contention that modern Rosicrucianism is a way of bringing spiritual wisdom into the service of practical life, in what ways he addresses the problems. Not that Steiner has quick-fix solutions to offer. Nor that he structures the lecture course into compartments that neatly consider each problem in turn. His aim rather is to open up the broad horizon of Rosicrucian wisdom, culminating, as already mentioned, in the final lecture in which he speaks about the inner path of one who would seek further for solutions to the problematic situations that life presents, where individuals may earnestly feel drawn towards making a contribution out of themselves.

The problems which Steiner cites are: education, the social question, medicine, food and women’s rights. For some, these may come as a surprise: it was still only 1907! Could the shortlist of priorities, given slightly updated wording, be so very different at the turn of the millennium, 93 years* and two world wars later? There surely cannot be many editions of the New York Times that are silent even on one of these counts. Yet it does not at all come across that Steiner was assuming airs of prophecy. There is no suggestion that unless the Rosicrucian approach be considered and taken practically into account the problems that at present gnaw into the heart of society will not retreat. Nonetheless, not only have they not retreated, but one can experience them advancing on several fronts, sometimes, nay frequently, drastically.

Hence is to be found, passim throughout all fourteen lectures, the Rosicrucian approach to each of these pressing questions with which humanity wrestles. The approach presents, as might be expected, a common method for each situation, at least at the outset, which could be summarized as follows: to look comprehensively at the phenomena; to identify which of these are particularly significant; to remain ‘passive’ as far as feelings are concerned (feelings will play their part later); to allow the phenomena to impress themselves upon one’s inner being—to let them ‘speak’; and from this to research the relative field of wisdom from which a solution will need to be drawn; and, when this field is sufficiently and assuredly within sight, and one’s feelings of conviction and compassion also having achieved the necessary degree of objectivity, then to determine the best way to act.

It would be naive to think of the healing of society’s ills as anything other than a very long haul and requiring a commensurately long-term commitment. Nor is this the place to do more than mention the value—indeed, often the necessity—of shorter-term ‘plasters’ that are often called for when the immediacy of a situation cannot humanly wait for the long-term solution. Here again, the Rosicrucian path offers consolation: the first step towards acquiring the necessary wisdom in action being study, one can, if one is so minded, begin with deliberation at once, and at each stage of progress a proportionately valuable harvest may be reaped.

This brings us back again to the lectures as a whole, themselves more than a glimpse into the Rosicrucian treasure-chest of spiritual knowledge that Steiner begins to open up—the nature of the child’s incarnating as a vital part of the background to the educational question; the course of human evolution as part of the background to the social question and the steps needed to move towards global ‘brotherliness’, understanding and tolerance; the complex constitution of the two sexes as part of the background to the feminist question (with all its repercussions that transpired as the century advanced); and so on.

So much for the main substance that the lectures provide for all, though no doubt individual readers will come across ‘cherries in the cake’ that are a particular delight or that lead to particularly awakening insights: e.g. that the heart muscles are structured in the same way as those used for voluntary acts; that the spread of spiritual knowledge can of itself provide the foundation for love in the future; that the fidgetiness, so prevalent in the modern classroom, has roots in the past (as well as all that is laid at the threshold of many modern lifestyles); that the mythologies of past cultures derive from a form of consciousness that is essentially different from the one we exercise in our mundane life today, but one that would have future significance if we could regain it, not by reverting to an earlier state, but by extending what we have so far achieved on this long—and humanly precarious—‘road to freedom’. And there is, of course, much more.

The knowledge of ‘higher worlds’ can often seem to have little relevance when one is embroiled in the crammed craziness of the rushhour, in coping with the rising tide of legislation, in the trauma of a divorce case, in one’s adolescent’s drug problems, in the GM tugof-war going on behind officially required labelling, small-printed somewhere amongst all the glittering packaging of the supermarket, in the flickering TV images of forlorn refugees in so many parts of the globe, in the soul-searing reports one reads of the acts of porn-polluted paedophiles, etc. A considerable volume of ‘virtual’ space could be increasingly jammed with these and other realities (sic) that continuously beset us.

But it is contrary to the Rosicrucian way to go into any sort of ascetic retreat in the face of personal trials or world disasters, on however large or small a scale they may be. For those concerned with seeking solutions to current problems—or simply with achieving compassionate insight, if that seems as much as can be done at present—this course of Rudolf Steiner’s lectures opens up the way to new resources and potential.

Brien Masters

Winter Solstice 1999

*This introduction was written in 1999.

LECTURE 1

The New Form of Wisdom

THE title of this course of lectures has been announced as ‘Theosophy according to the Rosicrucian Method’. By this is meant the wisdom that is primeval, yet ever new, expressed in a form suitable for the present age. The mode of thought we are about to study has existed since the fourteenth century AD. In these lectures, however, it is not my intention to speak of the history of Rosicrucianism.

As you know, a certain kind of geometry which includes, for instance, the Theorem of Pythagoras, is taught in elementary schools today. The rudiments of geometry are learnt quite independently of how geometry itself actually came into being, for what does the pupil who is learning the rudiments of geometry today know about Euclid? Nevertheless it is Euclid’s geometry that is being taught. Not until later, when the substance has been mastered, do students discover, perhaps from a history of the sciences, something about the form in which the teaching that is accessible even in elementary schools today originally found its way into the evolution of humanity. As little as the pupil who learns elementary geometry today is concerned with the form in which it was originally given to humanity by Euclid, as little need we concern ourselves with the question of how Rosicrucianism developed in the course of history. Just as the pupil learns geometry from its actual tenets, so shall we learn to know the nature of this Rosicrucian wisdom from its intrinsic principles.

Those who are acquainted merely with the outer history of Rosicrucianism, as recorded in literature, know very little about the real content of Rosicrucian theosophy or wisdom. Rosicrucian wisdom has existed since the fourteenth century as something that is true, quite apart from its history, just as geometrical truths exist independently of history. Only a fleeting reference, therefore, will here be made to certain matters connected with the history of Rosicrucianism.

In 1459 a lofty spiritual individuality, incarnate in the human personality who bears in the world the name of Christian Rosenkreuz, appeared as the teacher of a small circle of initiated pupils. In 1459, within a strictly secluded spiritual brotherhood, the Fraternitas Rosae Crucis, Christian Rosenkreuz was raised to the rank of Eques lapidis aurei, Knight of the Golden Stone. What this means will become clearer to us in the course of these lectures. The exalted individual who lived on the physical plane in the personality of Christian Rosenkreuz worked as leader and teacher of the Rosicrucian stream ‘again and again in the same body’, as esotericism puts it. The meaning of the expression ‘again and again in the same body’ will also be explained when we come to speak of the destiny of the human being after death.

Until far into the eighteenth century, the wisdom of which we are speaking was preserved within a secret brotherhood, bound by strict rules which separated its members from the exoteric world.

In the eighteenth century it was the mission of this brotherhood to allow certain esoteric truths to flow, by spiritual ways, into the culture of Central Europe. That is why we see flashing up in an exoteric culture many things that are clothed, it is true, in an exoteric form, but which are, in reality, nothing else than outer expressions of esoteric wisdom.

In the course of the centuries a good many people have endeavoured, in one way or another, to discover the Rosicrucian wisdom, but they did not succeed. Leibniz, for example, tried in vain to get at the source of this wisdom.1 Yet Rosicrucian wisdom did light up like a flash of lightning in an exoteric work which appeared when Lessing was approaching the close of his life.2 I refer to Lessing’s Education of the Human Race. Reading between the lines—if we are esotericists—we can recognize by its singular ending that it is an external expression of Rosicrucian wisdom.

This wisdom lit up in outstanding grandeur in the man in whom European culture, and indeed international culture, was reflected at the turn of the eighteenth century—in Goethe.3 While he was still comparatively young, Goethe had come into contact with a source of Rosicrucianism and he then experienced, in some degree, a very remarkable and lofty initiation. To speak of initiation in connection with Goethe may easily be misleading, so it is appropriate to mention something extraordinary that happened to him during the period after he had left Leipzig University and before he went to Strasbourg. He underwent an experience that penetrated very deeply into his soul and expressed itself outwardly in the fact that during the last period of his stay in Leipzig he came very near to death. As he lay desperately ill he had a momentous experience, passing through a kind of initiation. He was not actually conscious of it at first but it worked in his soul as a kind of poetic inspiration, and the process by which it flowed into his various creations was most remarkable. It flashes up in his poem entitled ‘The Mysteries’, which his closest friends considered to be one of his most profound creations.4 This fragment is indeed so profound that Goethe was never able to recapture the power to formulate its conclusion. The culture of the day was incapable of giving external form to the depths of life pulsating in this poem. It must be regarded as coming from one of the deepest founts of Goethe’s soul, and is a book with seven seals for all his commentators. As time went on the initiation worked its way increasingly into his awareness and finally, as he grew more conscious of it, he was able to produce that remarkable prose-poem known as ‘The Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily’—one of the most profound writings in all literature.5 Those who are able to interpret it rightly, know a great deal of Rosicrucian wisdom.

At the time when Rosicrucian wisdom was intended to flow gradually into the general life of culture, it happened, in a manner of which I need not speak further now, that a kind of betrayal took place. Certain Rosicrucian conceptions found their way into the world at large. This betrayal on the one hand, and on the other the fact that it was necessary for nineteenth-century Western culture to remain for a time on the physical plane, uninfluenced by esotericism—these two facts made it imperative that the sources of Rosicrucian wisdom, and above all its great founder, who since its inception had been constantly on the physical plane, should apparently withdraw. Thus during the first half and also during a large part of the second half of the nineteenth century, little of Rosicrucian wisdom could be discovered. Only now, in our own time, has it become possible to make this Rosicrucian wisdom accessible again and allow it to flow into general culture. If we think about this culture we shall discover the reasons why this had to be.

I will now speak of two characteristics of Rosicrucian wisdom which are important in connection with its mission in the world. One has to do with people’s whole attitude towards this Rosicrucian wisdom—which is not the same thing as the esoteric form of Christian-Gnostic wisdom. We must touch briefly upon two facts pertaining to the spiritual life if we are to be clear about the fundamental character of Rosicrucian wisdom. The first of these is the relationship of the pupil to the teacher; and here again there are two aspects to consider. We shall speak, first, of what is termed ‘clairvoyance’, and secondly, of what is called ‘belief in authority’. ‘Clairvoyance’—the term is really inadequate—comprises not only spiritual seeing but also spiritual hearing. These two faculties are the source of all knowledge of the world’s hidden wisdom, and true knowledge of the spiritual worlds can come from no other source.

In Rosicrucianism there is an essential difference between discovering spiritual truths and understanding them. Only those who have developed spiritual faculties in a fairly high degree can themselves discover a spiritual truth in the higher worlds. Clairvoyance is the necessary prerequisite for discovering a spiritual truth, but only for discovering it. For a long time to come, nothing will be taught exoterically by any genuine Rosicrucianism that cannot be grasped by the ordinary, logical intellect. That is the essential point. The objection that clairvoyance is necessary for understanding the Rosicrucian form of wisdom is not valid. Understanding does not depend upon the faculty of seership. Those who are incapable of grasping Rosicrucian wisdom with their thinking have simply not developed their logical reasoning powers to a sufficient extent—that is all. Anyone who has absorbed all that modern culture is able to give, who is not too lazy to learn and has patience and perseverance, can understand what a Rosicrucian teacher has to impart. Those who have doubts about Rosicrucian wisdom and who say that they cannot grasp it, must not blame this on their inability to rise to higher planes. The fault lies in their unwillingness either to exert their reasoning powers sufficiently or to put experiences gained from general culture to adequate use.

Just think of the tremendous popularization of wisdom that has taken place since the appearance of Christianity down to the present day, and then try to picture Christian Rosicrucianism as it was in the fourteenth century. Think of the relation of a human being, then living in the world, with his teachers. It was only possible to work by means of the spoken word in those days. On the whole we fail to appreciate what tremendous development has taken place since that time. Think only of what has resulted from the invention of printing. Think of the thousands and thousands of channels through which, thanks to that invention, the highest achievements of culture have been able to flow into civilization. From books down to the most trivial newspaper article, you can perceive the innumerable channels through which countless ideas flow into life. These channels have only been open for humanity since that time, and they have had the effect of making the Western intellect assume quite different forms. The Western mind has worked quite differently since then, and the new form of wisdom had necessarily to reckon with this fact.

A form had to be created which would be able to stand its ground in face of all that flows into life along these thousands of channels. Rosicrucian wisdom can hold its own against any objection, whether popular or highly scientific. Rosicrucian wisdom contains within itself the sources which enable it to counter every objection made by science. A true understanding of modern science, not the dilettante understanding to be found even among university professors, but understanding that is free from abstract theorizing and materialistic conjectures and is founded firmly upon facts and does not go beyond them, can find from science itself the proofs of the spiritual truths of Rosicrucianism.

A second point concerning the relationship between teacher and pupil in Rosicrucianism is that the relationship of the pupil to the ‘guru’ (as the teacher is called in the East) is fundamentally different from that prevailing in other methods of initiation. In Rosicrucianism this relationship cannot in any way be said to be based upon belief in a superior authority. Let me make this clear to you by an example drawn from everyday life. The Rosicrucian teacher wants a relationship with his pupil which is like that of a mathematics teacher with his students. Can it be said that students of mathematics look up to their teacher simply out of a belief in authority? No! And can it be said that students of mathematics do not need the teacher? Some people may argue that they do not, because they may have discovered how to teach themselves from good books. However, that situation differs from the one in which a student and teacher sit face to face. In principle, of course, self-instruction is possible. Equally, every human being, provided he reaches a certain stage of clairvoyance, can discover spiritual truths for himself, but this would be a much more lengthy path. It would be senseless to say: My own inner being must be the sole source of all spiritual truths. If the teacher knows mathematical truths and imparts them to his pupils, the pupils no longer need to have a ‘belief in authority’ for they grasp these truths through the correctness inherent in them, and all they need do is understand them. So is it with all esoteric development in the Rosicrucian sense. The teacher is the friend, the counsellor, one who has already lived through esoteric experiences and now helps the pupils to do so themselves. Once someone has had these experiences there is as little need for him to accept things on authority as there is in mathematics for him to accept on authority the statement that the three angles of a triangle add up to 180 degrees. In Rosicrucianism there is no ‘authority’ in the ordinary sense. It is simply a question of what is required for shortening the path to the highest truths.

That is the one side of the question; the other is the relation of spiritual wisdom to culture in general.

These lectures will show you that it is possible for truth to flow directly into practical life. We are not setting up a system that is applicable in theory only; we are speaking of teachings which can be put to use in practical life by anyone who desires to know the deeper foundations of present-day worldly knowledge, and which allow spiritual truths to flow into everyday life. Rosicrucian wisdom must not stream only into the head, nor only into the heart, but also into the hand, into our manual skills, into our daily actions. It does not take effect as sentimental sympathy; it is the acquisition, by strenuous effort, of faculties enabling us to work for the well-being of humanity. Suppose some society were to proclaim human brotherhood as its aim and were to do no more than preach brotherhood. That would not be Rosicrucianism, for the Rosicrucian says: Imagine someone lying in the road with a broken leg. If fourteen people stand around him in pity but not one of them is able to help, the whole fourteen together are of less importance than a fifteenth who comes, perhaps without any sentimentality at all, but is able to, and actually does, deal with the broken leg.

The attitude of the Rosicrucian is that what counts is knowledge able to take hold of and intervene effectively in life. Rosicrucian wisdom considers that repeated talk about pity and sympathy has an element of danger in it, for continual harping on sympathy denotes a kind of astral sensuality. Sensuality on the physical plane is of the same nature as, on the astral plane, the constant wish to feel but never to know. Knowledge that is capable of taking effect in practical life—not, of course in the materialistic sense, but because it is brought down from spiritual worlds—this is what enables us to work effectively. Harmony flows of itself from the knowledge that the world must progress; and it flows all the more surely because it arises quite naturally out of knowledge. You could say of someone who knows how to deal with a broken leg but does not do so that he neglects the sufferer because he dislikes people. Such a thing would be possible in the case of knowledge pertaining only to the physical plane. But it would not be possible for spiritual knowledge. There is no spiritual knowledge that would refrain from entering into practical life.

This, then, is the second aspect of Rosicrucian wisdom, namely, that although it can be discovered only through the powers of clairvoyance, it can be understood by normal human reason. It may seem strange to say that in order to have experiences in the spiritual world you must become clairvoyant, but that you need not be clairvoyant in order to understand what the clairvoyant sees. A seer who returns from the spiritual worlds and tells of what is going on there—bringing people knowledge that is necessary for humanity at the present time—can be understood if those who listen are willing to understand, for human beings are constituted in a way that makes it possible for them to understand.

We shall begin by studying the sevenfold nature of the human being according to Rosicrucian teaching. We shall consider the whole of human nature as we see it before us; we shall learn to understand the nature of the physical body about which so many think they know everything while in fact they know nothing. As little as we can see the oxygen in water but must separate it from the hydrogen in order to recognize it, as little do we see the real physical human being when we look at someone standing before us. The human being is a combination of physical body, ether body, astral body and the other higher members, just as water is a combination of oxygen and hydrogen. The being before us is the sum total of all these members. If we are to see the physical body alone, the astral body must have separated from it: this is the condition in dreamless sleep. Sleep is a kind of higher chemical separation of the astral body, together with the higher members of our nature, from the etheric and physical bodies. But even then it cannot be said that we have the real physical body before us. The physical body is alone only at death, when the ether body too has left it.

This has a direct and concrete bearing. I will make it clear to you by means of an example. Think of some particular part of the astral body. In the remote past, the pictures which the human being perceived in dim, shadowy clairvoyance worked very differently than do mental images today. These pictures were impressed, first of all, into the astral body. Let us suppose that at one time pictures of the three dimensions of space—length, breadth, depth—were impressed into the astral body. This picture of three-dimensional space, which was once impressed into the astral body through the old, dim clairvoyance, was carried over into the ether body. Just as a seal is pressed into liquid sealing wax, so did the astral picture impress itself into the ether body, which in turn moulded the forms of the physical body. Thus the picture of three-dimensional space built an organ in a particular area of the physical body. Originally there was a picture in the astral body of the three perpendicular directions of space; this picture impressed itself, like a seal into wax, into the ether body and a certain part of the ether body moulded an organ in the interior of the human ear, namely the three semi-circular canals. You all have them within you; if they are in any way impaired you cannot orientate yourself within the three directions of space: you get giddy and cannot stand upright. Thus are the pictures of the astral body connected with the forces of the ether body and the organs of the physical body.

The whole way that the human physical body is shaped is nothing else than a product of the pictures of the astral body and the forces of the ether body. Hence those who have no knowledge of the astral and ether bodies cannot understand the physical body. The astral body is the predecessor of the ether body and the ether body is the predecessor of the physical body. This is how complicated these things are.

The three semi-circular canals are a physical organ, just as is the nose. All noses differ from one another although there may be a resemblance between the noses of parents and children. If you were able to study the three semi-circular canals inside the human ear, you would find differences and resemblances just as in the case of noses, for these canals may resemble those of one’s mother or father. What is not inherited is the innermost spirit, the eternal core which passes through successive incarnations. Individual talents and capacities are not determined by the brain. Logic is what it is: it is the same in mathematics, in philosophy, or in practical life. Differences in capacity only appear when logic is applied in areas involving particular physical organs; where knowledge depends, for instance, upon the functioning of the semi-circular canals in the ear. Mathematical talent will be particularly marked when these organs are highly developed. An example of this is the Bernoulli family which produced a succession of fine mathematicians.6 An individual may possess great incipient talent for music or some other art, but if he is not born into a human body that has inherited the requisite organic structures, he cannot bring these talents to expression.

So you see, the physical world cannot be understood without knowledge of how it is constituted. The Rosicrucian does not consider it his task to withdraw in any way from the physical world. Certainly not! For what he has to do is to spiritualize the physical world. He must rise to the highest regions of spiritual life and with the knowledge there obtained labour actively in the physical world, especially amongst human beings.

This is the Rosicrucian attitude—the direct outcome of Rosicrucian wisdom. We are about to study a system of wisdom which will enable us to understand even the smallest things; and we shall not forget that the smallest thing in the world can be of importance to the greatest, that the smallest thing, in its rightful place, can lead to the highest of goals!

LECTURE 2

The Ninefold Constitution of the Human Being

IN the previous lecture we spoke of the kind of relationship Rosicrucianism adopts towards the human being and culture in general. Although actual knowledge concerning the higher worlds can be discovered only by the seer, by more highly developed spiritual faculties, nevertheless the Rosicrucian method is such that the wisdom it imparts can be understood by the logical intellect. The knowledge itself is discovered by a seer with higher faculties, but normal human reason is capable of comprehending it. Let it not be imagined, however, that what it is possible to say in a single lecture can hold its own against all criticism; this could only be so if the statements were put to the test by all the means accessible to the human mind. In the last lecture we also spoke about another characteristic of Rosicrucianism, namely that this method aims at carrying spiritual science into practical life. That is why things are expressed here in such a way that they can be made an integral part of life. Here, too, you must have patience, for initially it will seem as though many things are inapplicable in practical life. But when you are able to survey the whole, you will realize that what I have said is true. The Rosicrucian method of investigation is able to impart wisdom that can take effect in life.

First of all we will consider the several members of which the human being consists. Only by advancing step by step and omitting nothing shall we be able to get a view of the organic whole. We shall also study the destiny of the human soul after death and the human being in waking consciousness, in sleep and in death. We shall have to consider what is accomplished by human beings between death and a new birth. It is a widespread view that they are inactive after death, but the contrary is the case. They have to be intensely active, to create, to perform work that is important for the cosmos. We shall also have to speak of reincarnation and karma, of destiny in human evolution, of how humanity developed in times gone by and of evolution in the future.

Today it will be my task to give a brief description of the constitution and nature of the human being. We must realize that the nature and being of man appear far more complex to spiritual perception than to ordinary sense-perception, which is interwoven with intellect and can only observe a very small portion of human nature as a whole. From the esoteric point of view, the physical body as we see it before us is permeated by the ether and astral bodies. These three bodies are united, and only when the other two are removed do we have the real physical body before us. The physical body is that member which the human being has in common with the whole of physical nature consisting of minerals, plants and animals.

The only correct view of the physical body is to say that it corresponds with the extent of the human being’s kinship with the surrounding mineral kingdom. But you must realize that this member of the human being is the one that can least of all be conceived of as separate from the cosmos. The forces working in the physical body pour in from the cosmos. Think of a rainbow. If a rainbow is to appear, there must be a particular combination of sunlight, rainclouds and so on. The rainbow cannot be absent if this combination between sunlight and rainclouds exists. The rainbow is therefore a consequence, a phenomenon brought into being from without. The physical body too is, in a way, a pure phenomenon. You must look in the whole surrounding universe for the forces which hold the physical body together. Where can we find, in their true form, these forces that cause the physical body to have the appearance it has? The answer leads us into higher worlds, for in the physical world we see the physical body as a phenomenon only. The forces that give rise to this phenomenon lie in a very lofty spiritual world. We must therefore give some study to worlds that exist as truly as the physical world exists.

When spiritual researchers speak of higher worlds they mean worlds that are around us all the time, only the senses for perceiving them must be opened just as the eyes must be opened for the perception of colours. When certain senses of the soul, senses that lie a degree higher than the physical senses, are opened, the world around us is pervaded by a new revelation known as the astral world. Rosicrucian theosophy or wisdom calls this world the Imaginative World—but ‘Imaginative’ here denotes something much more real than that word normally implies. There is a constant flowing and ebbing of pictures; colours that are otherwise chained to objects are involved in myriad transformations within the astral world. In the movement that has linked itself with Rosicrucianism this world is also called the ‘elemental world’. These three expressions therefore—Imaginative world, astral world, elemental world—are interchangeable.