UPPER MAN 1 Upright Position ^ 2 Direction forwards _ 3 Symmetry ` 4 Upper Arm f 5 Elbow g 6 Lower Arm h 7 Hands i MIDDLE MAN 1 Head and Feet, Twins ` 2 Breast enclosure a 3 Interior, Heart b 4 The second Interior part of man c 5 Balance d 6 Organs of Reproduction e 7 Thigh f LOWER MAN 7 Feet i 6 Leg h 5 Knee g 4 Thigh f 3 Organs of Reproduction e 2 Balance d 1 Kidneys, Solar Plexus c
Man in the Light of Occultism, Theosophy, and Philosophy. Lecture 6 of 10
Rudolf Steiner, Christiania [Oslo], Norway, June 8, 1912:
My dear friends,
It will perhaps surprise you that in the course of these lectures we should devote so much time to considering the nature of what is after all the external part of man, his form and figure. If, however, you want to penetrate further into the knowledge which true occultism can give, you cannot omit from your study of man the aspects with which we are now dealing. Call to mind how often in the course of your studies you have met with the thought that in his outer form and figure man is a temple of the Godhead. So he is, and this is what we have all the time in mind while we study as it were the building stones of the temple, as we began to do yesterday and shall still continue doing for a little while. We shall see that when we take the trouble to search in the human figure for the hidden secrets of the spiritual world, we arrive in this way at knowledge that is of the utmost importance for the human heart and soul.
Yesterday we studied man in his twelve members. Now, these twelve members appear at first sight to form a unity. They are, however, in reality not a unity, and it is important to recognize this. For, the moment we are awake to the fact that the external unity of the human form is only apparent, the moment we realize that the whole form and figure of the body, as we see it and can have knowledge of it here in earthly life, is but a semblance — in that moment we can also begin to understand how it is with the I, the center point of man's consciousness.
We saw yesterday how this ego of ours is snatched away from us every night, and how it can therefore only be for man a picture; for no reality could be torn from him in this way in the night. Every night something of man's ego (which otherwise goes with him through the whole of Earth life) is withdrawn; and the divine powers have so ordered things that precisely what man loses in this way is given to him in the external body; it is attached instead to the body. This is how it comes about that man is able to look upon his body as a unity. In reality it is no unity. In reality it is composed of members that are built up together in a most complicated manner.
We are here approaching one of the most important mysteries of man's being, that will lead us to delve deep into the primal secrets of existence.
One of these mysteries we touch already in the external world; and it will be important for us also to take the road from without inwards in order to receive out of this consciousness the idea that has no object. Man as we see him in the world consists of three parts, and we are dealing all the time with an appearance if we simply treat these three parts of man as a unity. For man's form, which yesterday we saw to be composed of twelve members, is really divided into three, and we must learn to understand how man has in him, as it were, three men. Let us now place before us these three men in succession.
Yesterday, when we recounted in order
the members of man's form, we began with what we called his upright
posture; and then we went on to speak of how man is orientated in a forward
direction — to express it better, for the act of speaking. We have, therefore,
as second member the forward direction, the direction for speaking. The
third, you will remember, was symmetry. Taking for the moment just these
three members of man's nature, we have there one part of the human form as we
behold it externally in space.
Let us now see whether we cannot, by
following a purely external perception, find something else to which we can
apply the word symmetry — and which in its external appearance offers to a
careful observation many interesting problems. By symmetry we mean, of course,
that man's form shows a two-sided development. This quality of symmetry is
present in all the organs of the head, but as we go downwards from the head we
come to a part of the human figure where it is even more particularly in
evidence. You will remember that we gave to “upright posture” the name of Aries
and the Sign ^, and to “orientation to the
formation of sound” the name Bull (Taurus) and the Sign _, and to “symmetry” the name Twins (Gemini) and the
Sign `. These are the names given to the first three members of
man's organism. Then we come to something which seems to follow as a kind of
continuation of the head and manifests in quite a special way the property of
symmetry. I mean the arms and hands. It is to these that I will ask you now to
give your consideration.
Man's arms and hands attach
themselves to the head part of man in such a way as to prefigure in a striking
manner what we have in the lower man as thigh, leg, and foot. If you consider the
animal kingdom you will at once be struck with the similarity of these last
organs with those which in man, as arms and hands, are different. You will be
able to make very important observations by devoting careful study and thought
to the difference there is in man between arms and legs, and between hands and
feet, in contradistinction to those animals that stand nearest to him.
Let us now take the names we employed yesterday for the legs and feet and apply them in a corresponding manner to the arms and hands, which are joined on to the head and which — as quite a superficial observation will enable you to see — have spiritual connection with the whole thought world of the head. You will not find it unreasonable or inappropriate if we now apply to these arms and hands that are connected with the head the same terms that we used yesterday for legs and feet, and name this symmetrically extended continuation of the head in the following way. First we have, as fourth member, the upper arm, and to this we give the same designation as we gave to the thigh — Archer (Sagittarius)
Let us now take the names we employed yesterday for the legs and feet and apply them in a corresponding manner to the arms and hands, which are joined on to the head and which — as quite a superficial observation will enable you to see — have spiritual connection with the whole thought world of the head. You will not find it unreasonable or inappropriate if we now apply to these arms and hands that are connected with the head the same terms that we used yesterday for legs and feet, and name this symmetrically extended continuation of the head in the following way. First we have, as fourth member, the upper arm, and to this we give the same designation as we gave to the thigh — Archer (Sagittarius)
f.We note a
difference between the elbow and the knee, there being no development in the
elbow to correspond to the kneecap, but in spite of this the similarity is
sufficiently obvious. And so we give to the elbow the sign and the name we gave
to the knee, — Goat (Capricorn) and
g. We allot to
the lower arm the same sign as we took for the leg, the sign of Waterman
(Aquarius) h, and the hands are denoted
with the same sign as we gave to the feet — the sign of Fishes
(Pisces) i. And now if we take these
members of man's nature all together, by themselves, comprising as they do the
whole head and arms, we have a seven-membered man. That is an important
perception. When you reflect on how this complete sevenfold man receives
nourishment — the nourishment is of course brought up to it from the rest of man
— then the idea will not be utterly grotesque if we imagine for a moment that
this sevenfold man might receive its nourishment from without, like a plant
which finds nourishment prepared for it in the world outside, and merely
receives it and works upon it. We could quite well imagine that the same thing
happened for this sevenfold man, and that it did not get whatever it needs for
the maintenance of the brain and so forth from the other parts of man's nature,
but instead directly from the external world. This sevenfold man would then be
directly and immediately linked with the external world.
It is essential for the occultist to
come to an understanding of this sevenfold man if he is to raise himself in a
right way to the level of a higher consciousness. What we have just been
describing must at some time find place in his mind — this possibility of a
sevenfold man, from which one thinks away all the remaining parts and members of
the present-day human being.
Let us now go on to consider the
second man. We shall best understand the second man if we pursue the following
train of thought. The essential organ of the head is, as you will easily see,
the brain. Now, man has something else in his form that is similar to the brain.
It differs from the brain of the head in what is apparently a detail, but really
a point of great significance. Man has actually something like a second brain:
it is the brain of the spinal cord, which is enclosed in the spinal column.
I will ask you to dwell for a little
on this thought. Try to imagine that the spinal cord is nothing else than a
strange and peculiar brain. It is quite possible to feel it as a brain that has
been elongated and has become like a slender staff — just as we can also see
the brain as an inflated spinal cord. It will help us here if we picture man
assuming for the moment the same posture in the world as the animals still have
today — that is to say, with his spine not vertically upright but parallel with
the surface of the Earth. Then you would have a brain that has simply been
pulled out into the form of a staff. And now observe the human being as you
would then have him before you, parallel with the surface of the Earth, his back
lying horizontal in space. In this position the spinal cord can very well pass
for a kind of brain. And now we note something very strange and remarkable —
namely, that we have again appendages right and left, though of course
exceedingly different from the arm appendages we had before. But imagine a
condition where man had not developed symmetry as far as he has today (when the
two arms are very nearly alike) but here one arm had experienced a peculiar
development of its own which distinguished it very clearly from the other. In
the present day there is even a tendency — and it is a foolish one! — to discard
righthandedness and cultivate an equal left- and right-handedness. But imagine now
that the left arm were on the contrary to grow into a completely different
organ; then it will not seem to you impossible or absurd to refer in the way we
shall now do to two other appendages.
Consider the human being in this
position, with his spinal column above, lying horizontal, and joined on to it on
one side the head and on the other side the feet. You have there before you two
appendages, as you had previously in the arms. You can regard the head as one
arm and the two feet together as the other arm. At first hearing, it sounds very
strange: but when you reflect that in the lower animal kingdom forms occur which
are not very different from what I have described, the idea will perhaps not
strike you as so grotesque after all.
As a matter of fact, this idea must
find place in our mind, if we are to have understanding of the whole being who
is in truth a three-membered being. Then we can actually say that we have here
appendages — only unsymmetrically formed; twins, shall we say, that are not
alike. In effect, we come to perceive that we have before us something like a
repetition of the first sevenfold man.
Let us begin then by assigning to
this horizontal man the two dissimilar Twins. For we can again call the two side
appendages Twins (Gemini). In the horizontal man, head on the one side and feet
on the other belong together; they are arranged in a mutual relationship, and we
denote them in this connection with the name Twins (Gemini).
And now we must go back to what we
have seen to be a brain. Remember what we said before. We only get the picture
of man at which we're now looking by turning him. We have before us the middle
part of man, the body as such. This we must regard as a world enclosed in
itself, and moreover as a world which we are thinking of as containing within it
the second man. Thus we have the covering-in or the enclosing of this second
man, and within, above, a kind of brain. The enclosure — the shroud or
encasement, as it were — we designate as Crab (Cancer). The whole enclosure of
the breast takes on quite a new character through the fact that we have turned
man in order to obtain a correct picture of it.
Now let us see what members we can
find within this enclosure of the breast. We have only to follow the members as
we took them in their sequence yesterday, as far as the place where it ceases to
be possible still to reckon them as part of the breast or middle man. There is
no question about the whole interior, to which we gave the name of Lion
(Leo)
b and which is concentrated in the heart. This is the
third member. Then you will remember we saw how man is really divided within
into two members, an inner content that is enclosed by Crab (Cancer) a and an inner content that is enclosed by the wall of the
abdomen. Anatomically man's body is quite exactly divided off by the diaphragm
into an upper and a lower cavity; what is below the diaphragm has also to be
reckoned in with the middle man. We call it by the name Virgin (Virgo) with the
sign c.
We come then to the place of balance, where man begins to be no longer shut away within his own form but to open himself to the world outside. When he uses his legs he is making contact with what is outside him. The place of balance is the boundary where the entirely “within” comes to an end. This fifth member is called Scales (Libra) and is given the sign
d.
From the whole way in which the organs of reproduction are placed in man, you will see they must obviously be counted in with the middle man; and so we have, as sixth member, the reproductive organs, Scorpion (Scorpio) with the sign
e.
And now nothing remains to be done but to define the appendage that forms the second of the Twins. If you consider what the thigh is for man, and observe how its movement is conditioned by the nature of the middle man (for the thigh is closely connected with the whole muscular system of the middle man), you will see that we must reckon it also as a member. As far as the knee, man is middle man; the forces of middle man enter into the thigh and extend to the knee. Moreover, we have already included the thigh as one of the Twins. The head on one side and the thigh on the other constitute the pair of Twins. The thigh, then, we denote with the sign
f and we call it Archer (Sagittarius).
When you go further and consider the feet, you find that whereas the thigh still preserves an intimate connection with the middle man, knee and leg and foot require the support of the earth. The thigh, it is true, uses this support, but the leg and the foot are only there at all because man has to stand firm and upright on the Earth. In the thigh we have still to do with a continuation of the middle man. If it were not adapted to the other members of leg and foot, the thigh would, in fact, be able to assume a different form and enable man to be a creature of the air. Quite different organs might then be developed beyond it, appropriate for swimming or flying. These would be set in motion by means of the thigh, but everything else about them would have to be adapted to their purpose.
You see, therefore, that the remaining parts of man's form do not require to be reckoned in with the middle man, so that we have now again a sevenfold man. It is the second. If you look at the difference between the two, you will find it is quite astounding. In the first seven-membered man we have, to begin with, all the important sense organs, situated in the head. And when we count in with this first sevenfold man, as indeed we must, the arms and hands, then we have included in it organs that have a distinctive quality which none but a purely external and materialistic observation could fail to recognize. For the organs we call arms and hands would, if we studied them seriously, reveal in a high degree the sublime significance of the nature of man.
If we wanted to speak of art
in Nature — and the whole of what man rightly regards as the Temple of God is
wonderfully imbued with Nature's art! — we could find no better expression of it
than in the marvellous construction of man's hands and arms. Take the
corresponding organs in other creatures that are related to man. Look, for
instance, at the wings of a bird — an animal far removed from man. The wings
are the fore-limbs of the bird, they are comparable with what we have in man as
hands. The bird could not fly without wings. Wings are organs that are useful
and necessary for its existence — in the fullest sense, organs of utility. The
human hand is not in the same sense an organ of utility at all. True, we can
develop it to become so, but it requires development. We cannot fly with it, nor
swim with it, and it is even clumsy at climbing, at which the fore-limbs of the
ape — the animal that is most nearly related to man — are very clever. We might
almost say that, looked at purely from the standpoint of utility, there is very
little meaning or purpose in the form of the hands. If, however, we observe all
that man has to do in the course of evolution with his hands, we find them to be
most precious possessions. When it is a matter of bringing to outward expression
what the mind and spirit are able to achieve, then the hands show their value.
Think of the most simple and
elementary movements of the hand. Does not the hand, when it accompanies the
word with gesture, turn into a most expressive organ? In all the different
movements and positions of the hand do we not often see revealed something of
the inner character of the human being? Suppose for a moment that the hands were
adapted for purposes of climbing or swimming; or suppose man needed his hands to
help him move about on the Earth. The world might be so ordered that we did not
have to learn to walk, but made use of our hands to help us. For note, we have
to learn to walk by making movements that are quite unsuited for the
purpose — pendulum-like movements with both legs. We do not generally remark how
ill-adapted for the end in view are the movements of the leg; there is no single
animal that does not have its legs much more usefully placed and adjusted than
man has! And as for our hands, they have nothing whatever to do with this realm
of our existence. But now suppose it were not so, suppose man found it easier,
more natural, to move about with the help of his hands. In that case you would
have to think away the whole of human culture! What does an artist not do with
his hand? All art would be simply non-existent, had the hands been organs of
utility.
This is a fact that has to be brought
home to the aspirant after occultism, — that in arms and hands we have wonderful
organs deeply and strongly connected with the spiritual life that is lived by
man on Earth. When we consider how man has a sense contact with the external
world in his head where the sense organs are chiefly localized, and then works
with the external world by means of his hands, when we consider how he can
prepare in his head what he then shows to the external world with his hands and
bequeaths to it as art and culture — then we begin to see the true character of
this first sevenfold man. It is the essentially spiritual man, it is man in his
connection with the external world. If we look at these seven members and see
how they form a self-contained whole then we behold how in this sevenfold man
the Earth process becomes conscious for man. This first seven-membered man is
thus to be regarded as the spiritual nature of the human being; it is the
spiritual being of man, in so far as he is Earth man.
Let us now look at the second man.
The fact that the middle man has Twins which show such totally different
developments on the two sides gives it a double relation with the outside world
It is connected with the outside world on the one hand through the head — for
it has knowledge in the head; and on the other hand, through the fact that man
is a creature that moves about on Earth and can direct his motion from within.
Finally it is also connected with the outside world by means of the reproductive
organs which make possible the physical continuity of man. Were it not for these
three members — the Twins on the two sides, with the reproductive organs —
there would be no connection with the outside world. These three members in the
middle organism enable man to have connection on the one hand with the Earth
process and on the other hand with the continued evolution of Earth man, with
the sequence of the generations and the reciprocity of sex.
When, however, we turn to those
middle members that we denote with the words Cancer, Leo, Virgo, and Libra, we
find that they are only there for the inner man himself — I mean of course
“inner” in the bodily sense. This bodily inner nature of man has, it is true,
continuations in two outward directions in what are for it the Gemini; but for
the rest it is entirely occupied with the inner organism For man's inner
organism it is of the very greatest significance that he has a heart, but it is
of very little interest for external nature, and of just as little interest that
he has an abdomen.
We have, therefore, three members
that are of importance for external Earth nature and four others that serve
especially man's own inner organism. While the head man lives essentially in
the outside world, by virtue of the senses as well as by virtue of the mechanism
of arm and hand, here we have paramountly a life inside the organism.
Far-reaching differences thus exist between these two men, the middle man and
the head man.
We must now pass on to consider a
third man. To enable us more easily to form a mental picture of this third man,
we will take it in the reverse order, beginning from the other end. We shall
find that this third man separates itself off from the other two in a perfectly
natural and obvious manner.
Let us begin with the seventh member,
the feet. We know from yesterday's lecture that we confer upon the feet the name
of Fishes (Pisces) and the Sign
i. The human form is here
wholly adapted to the outside world. If you think it over a little you will find
there is no question about it. For it is essentially the form of the foot that
makes it possible for man to be a creature who moves about on the Earth.
Everything else required for walking man has to learn. It is in right accordance
with nature that man has to place upon the Earth the broad sole of his
foot, so that the extended surface of the foot is not directed inwards but to
the Earth. And now since what we call the leg belongs to and corresponds to this
foot nature, we must reckon as sixth member the leg, to which we give the name
Waterman (Aquarius) and the Sign h.
We come then to the fifth member, the
knee, which is here to be regarded in no other way than as forming a necessary
mechanical resting place for the thigh. Because man has to bring his whole
middle man into connection with the lower man — the foot and leg — therefore
must there be this partition at the knee. Think how difficult it would be to
walk if the lower leg and foot were not separated off in this way. Walking would
be a still more difficult matter than it is if leg and thigh were made of one
single piece! If we did not need to walk, the middle man would not concern us.
As it is, however, we need the middle man and consequently also require the knee
as connecting member. We call it Goat (Capricorn) with the Sign
g. This is the fifth member.
The fourth, the thigh, we have
already considered and we have seen that it belongs to the middle man. The thigh
would have to be there even if man had another kind of movement. If, for
instance, he were to fly or swim, he would still need the thigh, though it might
have to assume another form. If man is to be able to walk on the Earth, not only
must the foot and leg and knee be adapted to the ground but also the thigh must
be in right relation and proportion to these members. It must be so formed as to
correspond in the right way to the three lower members, You will recognize this
when you observe that in so far as the thigh is in correspondence with the
middle organs it is of the same kind in birds, in four-footed animals, and in
man; in man it is only differently developed. Thus, the thigh belongs to man in
so far as he has an animal nature. We give it the name of Archer (Sagittarius)
and the Sign
f.
It can easily be seen that the organs of reproduction are on the one hand formed from within, and on the other hand in their functions are adapted to the work outside. Let me say in passing, we must speak of these things quite objectively, and consider aspects of them that can only be considered when the subject is treated with scientific seriousness. The reproductive organs are adapted to external nature in the sense that they relate one sex to the other. The organ of the male is not only formed from out of the middle man, but it is also given an outward direction and its form adapted to the reproductive organ of the female. We have, therefore, to speak of the reproductive organs as the third member, which we name Scorpion (Scorpio) and denote by the Sign
e.
We come next to what is called the
Scales (Libra), the place of balance in man. The external form of the region of
balance is sufficient evidence that we have here a member of the middle nature
of man. Bear in mind that it is because man has become upright that he had to
have here this organ of balance. It must be developed in such a way as to enable
him to become an upright being. Compare the region of balance in a four-footed
animal with the same in man, and you will recognize that this member of balance
is different according as the upper part of the body has an upward direction or
rests horizontally on the legs and feet. Thus, the place where the balance is
situated and which we designate as Libra has to be reckoned as the second member
of the lower man.
And now we come to something that
cannot but meet with misunderstanding on the part of present-day science. We
have so far considered a sixfold man; we have studied the third man beginning
from below upwards and found in him these six members. When we considered the
other two, the first and the second sevenfold man, we took as our starting-point
in each case a brain. In considering the head, we began with the brain and that
led us to the arms and hands. Then we learned to see a second brain, a brain
that is like an elongated staff but yet is truly brain: the spinal cord. As
you will know, the difference between the spinal cord and the brain of the head,
though apparently only small, is really very great. The spinal cord is the
instrument for all movements that man is obliged to perform; the
movements that we call involuntary movements are controlled by the spinal cord.
When, on the other hand, we employ the instrument of the brain, thought inserts
itself between perception and movement. In the spinal cord all connection with
thought is lacking. There movement follows directly on perception. In the case
of the animal the spinal cord plays a greater part than it does in the case of
man, and the brain a lesser part. Most animals perform their actions quite
involuntarily. Man, however, by virtue of his superior brain, wedges in thinking
between perception and movement; consequently his deeds show a voluntary
character.
Let us now try to picture the third
man in such a way that in it too we discover a kind of brain. As you know, there
is in man a third system of nerves, distinct from those of the brain and of the
spinal cord. It is the sympathetic nervous system, the so-called solar plexus,
situated in the lower part of man and sending its fibers upwards, parallel with
the spinal cord. It is a nervous system that is separate from the other two and,
in relation to the brain proper, may be regarded as a peculiar, undeveloped
brain, When we follow the human form upwards beyond Libra we find this
remarkable sympathetic nervous system, the solar plexus, extended like a brain
of the third man. With the special organs we have already enumerated there is
thus connected also what we have to regard as a kind of third brain: the solar
plexus.
Now, a vital connection exists — and
this is what external science cannot but find difficult to accept — between the
solar plexus and the kidneys. As the substance of the brain in the head and the
fibers of the nerve tracks belong together, so do the kidneys belong to the
brain of the abdomen, the solar plexus. In fact, the solar plexus and the
kidneys form, together, a peculiar kind of subordinate brain. Reckoning this
brain as part of the lower man, we can designate it with the term Virgin
(Virgo)
c. We have therefore now our
seventh, or rather our first, member, made up of the connection of solar plexus
with kidneys; and at this point we reach the termination above of the third
sevenfold man.
Man is thus found to be threefold in
his composition. These three men work into and with one another, and no
understanding of the nature of the human being is possible until one knows that
in him three human beings are in reality active. Three sevenfold men work
together in man.
The last-named brain takes
extraordinarily little interest in the external world. Its sole purpose is to
maintain man's inner parts in an upright position. All the rest of the organs in
the lower man are adapted to the external world — although in quite a different
manner from the head man. Man's relation in his head to the external world is
expressed in the fact that he re-forms the Earth world to a world of human
culture. On the other hand, in the outer as well as the inner organs of the
lower man we have to do with something that belongs to and serves the human
being himself. It is only because we do not take the trouble to think accurately
on these matters that we fail to observe the enormous difference there is
between these three men within the whole human being.
Occultism has always given the name
of Mysterium Magnum, the Great Mystery, to the wonderful secret of man's nature,
the outer aspect of which we have here been considering. This aspect of the
Mysterium Magnum is visible in the external world; only, we are not as a rule in
a position to understand it, because we do not from the outset distinguish, in
what appears to be a unity, a three times sevenfold being.
We may now pass on to consider the
other aspect of this mystery. We spoke earlier of the ego nature of man, and we
said how it has the appearance of being a unity. We saw also how this unity is
continually being broken, continually being interrupted by sleep. If you will
read Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment you will find a
remarkable fact described, how when the disciple of occultism takes the step
that leads him out of his ordinary consciousness a strange thing happens with
his ego, with his consciousness. He is divided into three members, and so
effectually that he is overpowered by these self-dependent members within him —
the thinking soul, the feeling soul, and the willing soul. In ordinary life these
three things — thinking, feeling, and willing — are united in the ego-nature, in
the ego-consciousness. In our ordinary everyday consciousness they play into one
another. As soon, however, as we take one step towards a higher consciousness,
thinking, feeling, and willing fall apart. This is a fact to which the aspirant
after occultism must give heed. When he passes out beyond his consciousness, he
finds himself divided into three, he finds his ego unity split up into a
thinking man, a feeling man, and a willing man.
There you have the other aspect of
the Mysterium Magnum. When man takes the plunge, as it were, when he really
steps right over the bounds of his consciousness, then his ego unity divides
into three, just as the apparent unity of the external human figure, as soon as
we come to study the body more closely, divides into three — into three
seven-membered men.
Thus our inner ego-nature, no less
than our external form, is a unity that is divisible into three. Outer man
divides into the seven-membered head man, the seven-membered middle man, and the
seven-membered foot man. Correspondingly, the inner ego of the human being
divides, as soon as it takes the first step into the occult realm, into three
parts or members — the thinking man, the feeling man, and the willing man, who
stand each over against the other in complete independence. That is the second
aspect of the mystery.
Both of these facts must be
recognized by the disciple of occultism when he takes the first step into a
higher consciousness. (We shall speak further tomorrow about the meeting with
the Guardian of the Threshold.) For as consciousness is then divided into three
parts, so too if we go forward in the right way, we learn to perceive in the
manifest external form of man a three times sevenfold being. We have here two
aspects of a many-sided and many-membered mystery — the Mysterium Magnum. Of
other aspects we shall have to speak later. For the moment we have indicated the
very first and most elementary beginnings of this great and wonderful mystery.
This is why, when you come to a particular stage in occult development, you are
met on all sides with the formula (expressed in many different ways): The great
secret is — “Three are one and one are three.” For the occultist this formula
signifies what I have here described to you; herein it has its full and true
meaning. Only when people misunderstand it and make it into a materialistic
dogma is its true meaning lost. If, however, you will take it in the sense I
have explained, it can be a right symbol for the truths with which we have been
dealing today. The formula becomes then an expression of the Mysterium Magnum.
If we want to find our way aright into the realm of occultism — and this is what
we are attempting here, in many connections — then we must learn to understand
this mysterious and apparently contradictory formula: Three are one and one are
three. To the mediaeval disciple of occultism again and again were the words
spoken: “Give heed to what is said to thee; so mayst thou understand the mystery
of how the Three can be at the same time One, and the One at the same time
Three.”
UPPER MAN 1 Upright Position ^ 2 Direction forwards _ 3 Symmetry ` 4 Upper Arm f 5 Elbow g 6 Lower Arm h 7 Hands i MIDDLE MAN 1 Head and Feet, Twins ` 2 Breast enclosure a 3 Interior, Heart b 4 The second Interior part of man c 5 Balance d 6 Organs of Reproduction e 7 Thigh f LOWER MAN 7 Feet i 6 Leg h 5 Knee g 4 Thigh f 3 Organs of Reproduction e 2 Balance d 1 Kidneys, Solar Plexus c
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment