13 ways of looking at my guru. The 13th in the circle of the 12: Christian Rosenkreutz

 

Rudolf Steiner, from "Rosicrucian Christianity," a lecture given September 27, 1911:

"If you imagine a young man who is very pious and who devotes all his time to fervent prayer to God, then you can have a picture of this thirteenth individuality. He grew up entirely under the care and instruction of the twelve, and he received as much wisdom as each one could give him. He was educated with the greatest care, and every precaution was taken to see that no one other than the twelve exercised an influence on him. He was kept apart from the rest of the world. He was a very delicate child in that incarnation of the thirteenth century, and therefore the education that the twelve bestowed upon him worked right into his physical body....

Whilst the spiritual forces of the thirteenth increased beyond measure, his physical forces drained away. It came to the point when he almost ceased to have any further connection with external life, and all interest in the physical world disappeared. He lived entirely for the sake of the spiritual development which the twelve were bringing about in him. The wisdom of the twelve was reflected in him. It reached the point where the thirteenth refused to eat and wasted away.... After a few days the body of the thirteenth became quite transparent, and for days he lay as though dead. The twelve now gathered around him at certain intervals. At these moments all knowledge and wisdom flowed from the their lips. While the thirteenth lay as though dead, they let their wisdom flow toward him in short prayer-like formulae. The best way to imagine them is to picture the twelve in a circle around the thirteenth. This situation ended when the soul of the thirteenth awakened like a new soul. He had experienced a great transformation of soul. Within him there now existed something that was like a completely new birth of the twelve streams of wisdom, so that the twelve wise men could also learn something entirely new from the youth. His body, too, came to life now in such a way that this revival of his absolutely transparent body was beyond compare. The youth could now speak of quite new experiences.... In the course of a few weeks the thirteenth reproduced all the wisdom he had received from the twelve, but in a new form. This new form was as though given by Christ Himself....

The thirteenth died relatively young, and the twelve then devoted themselves to the task of recording what the thirteenth had revealed to them....We have to see the occult process in such a way that the fruits of the initiation of the thirteenth remained as the residue of his etheric body, within the spiritual atmosphere of the Earth. This residue inspired the twelve as well as their pupils who succeeded them, so that they could form the occult Rosicrucian stream. Yet it continued to work as an etheric body, and it then became part of the new etheric body of the thirteenth when he incarnated again.

The individuality of the thirteenth reincarnated as early as halfway through the fourteenth century. In this incarnation he lived for over a hundred years. He was brought up in a similar way, in the circle of the pupils and successors of the twelve, but not so secluded as in his previous incarnation.... This is the individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz. He was the thirteenth in the circle of the twelve."