Background to the Gospel of Mark. Lecture 10.
Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, June 10, 1911:
Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, June 10, 1911:
It is easy to see how the conceptions of spiritual science that have been voiced
for some years within our circle, and in the German section generally, are
spreading more and more in the world, that understanding of them is beginning to
find its way into the hearts and souls of our contemporaries. It is naturally
not possible, although it might be a help to present-day understanding, to speak
casually of introducing the ideas, feelings, and knowledge of our spiritual
movement into the modern world. Many of you might be glad to know how the
spiritual nourishment you have received has affected other souls at the present
time. It is only on certain occasions that we can speak of the spread of our
spiritual ideas, but it may fill you with a certain satisfaction to know that we
can see again and again how in different countries and in different hemispheres
the spirit which inspires us is gaining a footing — more in one place, less in
another. When I was in Trieste a short time ago trying to arouse some
comprehension of our point of view, I could see how the ideas we hold were
gaining ground. And when from that southern city I passed northward to
Copenhagen, where in a recent course of lectures I tried to arouse some
interest in the hearts of my hearers, it could be seen there also how the spirit
we cherish under the symbol of the Rose Cross is entering into them more and
more. Taking together these separate facts one sees that a need and a longing
for what we call “spiritual science” does exist at the present time.
That we should
not carry on any agitation or propaganda is a fundamental principle of our
spiritual movement; we should rather listen attentively to what of the great
wisdom of the world the hearts and souls of the men of today require so that
they may have both the possibility and the certainty of life. We may therefore
add to the thoughts put forward in a general lecture like this, one more: that
we consider it a kind of duty at the present time to make of these spiritual
thoughts nourishment for other souls. This depends upon the whole manner in
which we enter into the life of our time.
You have
doubtless already accepted sufficient of the great law of karma to know that it
is not a matter of chance when an individual feels constrained at a certain
point of time to assume a physical body and come down in the physical world. All
the souls gathered here have felt a longing to assume a physical body at the
turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, because they desired to
experience in their own souls all that was being prepared and carried out in
their physical environment at this time.
Let us now
consider our own age as it appears spiritually to souls which, like our own,
are born in it. Things were very different in the spiritual world, as well as in
the external world, at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to
what they were even fifty or sixty years earlier.
The person who
is making progress — and you are all in this position — is trying to learn
something of the spirit, and of the spiritual guidance of the world; of what
fills surrounding space as the creatures of the different kingdoms of nature,
and of what enters into our own souls. For the past half century souls longing
for the spirit found extraordinarily little true spiritual nourishment where
they hoped to find it. This longing for the spirit exists deep within the souls
of all men; it is easily silenced, for it does not speak loudly, but the longing
is there, and each one — whatever he is, or does in life — can receive true
spiritual nourishment. Whatever department of science people take up today,
they only learn from it external material facts which serve to further the
progress of civilization in a bright and clever way, but they learn nothing of
what is revealed to man through the spirit. Whether he works as an artist or in
some practical walk of life, he finds little of what he has need, nothing that
can enter his soul, his head, or his hands, to give him power and impulse for
his work, and also assurance, solace, and power in life. At the beginning of the
nineteenth century people had already come to the conclusion that in the near
future little of this would be found. Many a one said to himself in the first
half of the nineteenth century when some remnants of the old life still remained
even if in another form: “There seems to be something in the air; it is as if
the ancient treasures of the spirit that have come down to us from olden times
were disappearing. It is as if the expected advance in culture of the nineteenth
century had entirely wiped out the spiritual communications that have been
handed down to us from ancient times.” Many such voices were heard in the first
half of the nineteenth century. To show what I mean I will mention but one
example. There was a man living at that time who knew the old kind of Theosophy
well; he knew also that this old form would completely disappear in the course
of the nineteenth century, yet he was firmly convinced that a future was coming
when the old Theosophy would surely return. The passage I am about to read was
written in the year 1847, when the first half of the nineteenth century was
drawing to a close. He who wrote it was a thinker such as is no longer met with
today, for he was still conscious of the last echoes of those ancient
communications which have long since been lost to us:
What Theosophy really desires is often difficult to discover from the older theosophists, and this is even less clear today, because on its present path theosophy can attain to no scientific existence, and therefore cannot have any great results. It would be most premature to conclude from this that it is a passing phenomenon without scientific justification. History loudly proclaims the opposite. It tells how it can never get to the bottom of this mysterious phenomenon which breaks out unnoticed again and again, and whose changing forms are preserved by the links of a never-dying tradition. At all times there has really been little that has connected this vital, speculative need with vital religious needs. It is only for these last that theosophy exists. The main thing is, if it might one day become really scientific, and produce clearly defined results, so that it would become popular and come to be accepted generally, and in this way bequeath these truths to others who are unable to travel the path on which alone they could discover them for themselves. But all this rests within the womb of the future which we have no wish to anticipate; for the present we are thankful for the beautiful writings of Oetinger, which can certainly reckon on a large circle of sympathizers. [ 1 ]
From this we see
how the theosophic spirit was regarded in 1847 by a man like Richard Rothe of
Heidelberg.
What kind of
spirit is the theosophic spirit really?
It is a spirit
without which true culture would never have taken place. When we think of what
is greatest in this, we think of the spirit without which there would have been
no Homer, no Pindar, Raphael, or Michelangelo, without which there would have
been no deep religious feeling in man — neither spiritual life nor external
culture. Everything a man creates must be created by the spirit; if he thinks he
can produce anything without it, he is unaware that his whole spiritual
endeavor would in that case fail for a certain time. The less spiritual the
source from which anything comes, the sooner it dies. Anything having enduring
worth must have its source in spirit. The smallest creative act, even in
everyday concerns, has an eternal value and connects us with what is eternal;
for everything done by man is under the guidance of spiritual life. We know that
theosophical life as cultivated by us is founded in Rosicrucianism, and it has
often been explained that since the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries
the Masters of Rosicrucian wisdom had been preparing what has come to pass since
the end of the nineteenth century and will go on further into the twentieth.
What was indicated by Rothe as a “future” he hoped and longed for has already
become “present” for us today, and will continue to become so more and more.
This had long been in preparation by those who allowed this spiritual influence
to pour, at first unconsciously, into mankind.
What in a
special sense we have called the “Rosicrucian path” has been consciously
accepted within our theosophical movement since the twelfth, thirteenth, and
fourteenth centuries, and what the spirit has imprinted as science on the people
of Europe has since then flowed into our hearts.
Can we form an
idea from what has taken place in our civilization of how this spirit works?
I have said that
since the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries it has “worked”
as the true Rosicrucian spirit, but it was always there, and has only assumed
this last form since the dates mentioned. This spirit that is active at present
as the Rosicrucian spirit goes back to very early ages of humanity. Its
mysteries existed in Atlantis. The activity it has recently developed, becoming
ever more and more conscious, streamed not so very long ago in an unconscious
way into the hearts and souls of men. Let us try to form some idea of how this
spirit entered man unconsciously.
We meet together
here, and our studies show us how the human soul has developed in this or that,
till it has gradually attained to a region where it understands spiritual life,
where it may even perhaps see spiritual life. Many of you have striven for years
to fill your souls with thoughts and ideas which can set the spiritual life
before your eyes. You know the way we regard the secrets of the world. I have
often explained the different stages of development the soul passes through, and
how it rises to higher worlds. You know that we have to distinguish a higher
from a lower part of the self; that man has come over from other planetary
conditions and has experienced the Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions. During these
his physical body, etheric body, and astral body were formed; he then entered on
his earthly development. You know that something dwells within us that passes
through its training here so as to rise to higher conditions. You have heard
that certain beings remained behind on the Moon as Luciferic beings, and these
later approached the human astral body as tempters, giving to humanity in this
way what they had to give. Then we have often spoken of how man has to overcome
certain things in his lower self, that he has to conquer them before he can
enter those spheres to which his higher self belongs — that in order to reach
these higher regions he has to fulfill the saying of Goethe:—
Und so lang du das nicht hast
Dieses Stirb und Werde,
Bist du nur ein trüber Gast
Auf der dunklen Erde.
“So long as thou
hast not experienced death and becoming, thou art a gloomy (sorry) Guest upon a
dark Earth.”
We have also
said that the human evolution possible today, and that can give us power,
certainty, and real content in our lives, is only to be attained when we learn,
for instance, of the manifold natures of man, and that this man is not put
together in any chaotic manner, but consists of physical body, etheric body,
astral body, and ego. This must not be accepted merely as words, but by
describing different temperaments, by studying the education of man, we have
presented clear conceptions of these things, showing how up to his seventh year
he is concerned with the development of the physical body, up to his fourteenth
year with that of the etheric body, and up to his twenty-first year with the
astral body. And we learnt from our studies dealing with the mission of truth,
of devotion, of anger and so on that what we describe as physical body, etheric
body, and astral body, feeling-soul, rational-soul, and consciousness-soul are no
abstract ideas, but that they impart life to our whole mental outlook, making
everything around us clear and full of meaning. [ 2 ]
It is possible
by such ideas to gain understanding of the secrets of the world. And if there
are many who consciously or unconsciously persist in their materialistic
opinions, there is also a certain number of souls who feel it as a necessity of
existence to listen to such statements as we are able to give. Many of you would
not have shared in what has been practiced here for years if it were not a
necessity of your life. Why are there souls present today who understand the
views and ideas evolved here, and who conduct their lives in accordance with
them? Because, as you have been born into the world with longings such as I have
described, so your forefathers (which means many souls present here today) were
born in past centuries into other surroundings and into another world than that
of the nineteenth century. Let us look backwards to the sixth and seventh, or to
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when many who are here now were
incarnated, and let us see what these souls experienced at that time.
There was no
theosophical society in those days where people discussed things as we do here,
but souls then heard something quite different from the people about them. Let
me try to call up before you what these souls heard. They did not travel from
place to place in order to hear lectures on spiritual science, but they heard
rhapsodists who passed from village to village, from place to place, declaring
things concerning the spirit. What did these people say? Let us recall a single
instance of this. People did not then say:“We have a Theosophy, a teaching
concerning the lower and higher ego, that deals with the different members of
man's being and so on,” but rhapsodists traveled through the land, men who were
called by the spirit to declare somewhat as follows (I am now repeating some
of the things that were spread abroad through Middle and Eastern Europe at that
time):
There was once a
king's son. He rode forth and came presently to a deep ditch; he heard moaning
proceeding from it. He followed the course of the ditch to discover the cause
of the moaning, and there he found an old woman. He left his horse, descended
into the ditch, and helped the old woman out. He then saw that she could not
walk, for she had injured her leg, so he asked her how this accident had come
about. She then told him: I am an old woman and I must rise early, soon after
midnight, in order to go to the town to sell eggs. On the way I fell into this
ditch.” The king's son said: “Thou canst not now reach thine own dwelling. I
will set thee on my horse and take thee there.” This he did. The old woman
said: “Although of noble birth, thou art a kind and good man, and because thou
hast helped me, thou shalt receive a reward from me.” He now guessed that she
was something more than an old woman. Then she said: “Because of the kindness
thou hast shown me thou shalt receive the reward that thy good soul deserves.
Dost thou desire to marry the daughter of the flower-queen?” “Yes,” he said.
Then, she continued: “To do so thou hast need of what I can easily give thee.”
And she gave him a little bell, saying: “When this is rung once the king-eagle
will come with his hosts to help thee, whatever the position in which thou mayst
be; when thou ringest twice the king of the foxes with his pack will come to
help thee, wherever thou art; and if thou ringest thrice the king of the fishes
will come with his hosts and will help thee wherever thou art.”
The king's son
took the little bell and returned home and said that he was going to seek the
daughter of the flower-queen, and rode forth. He rode a long, long time and no
one could tell him where the daughter of the flower-queen dwelt. His horse was
by this time worn out and broken down, so that he had to pursue his wanderings
on foot. He met an old man and asked him where the dwelling of the
flower-queen's daughter was. “I cannot tell thee,” said the old man. “Go on
further and ever further, and thou wilt find my father, and he will perhaps tell
thee.” So the king's son went on further, and at last found a very ancient
primeval man of whom he asked if he could tell him where the flower-queen dwelt
with her daughter. Then the old man said to him: “The flower-queen dwells afar
in a mountain that thou canst see in the distance from here. She is, however,
watched over by a savage dragon. Thou canst not reach her, for the dragon never
sleeps in these days; there is only a certain time in which he sleeps, and this
is his waking time. But thou must go still further to another mountain: there
lives the dragon's mother. Through her thou will reach thy goal.” Courageously
he went on. He reached the first mountain, then the second mountain; there he
found the dragon's mother, the archetype of all ugliness. But he knew it
depended on her whether he would find the daughter of the flower-queen or not.
He then saw near the first, seven other dragons who all desired to watch over
the flower-queen and her daughter, who had long been held prisoners and who were
to be liberated by a king's son. He said to the dragon's mother: “Oh, I know
that I must be thy bondsman if I am to find the flower-queen!” “Yes,” she
answered, “thou must be my bondsman, and thou must do me a service that is not
easy. Here is a horse: thou must lead him out to pasture the first day, the
second, and the third day. If thou bringst him home safe, then on the third day
perhaps thou mayst attain thy desire. But if thou dost not bring him safe home,
the dragon will eat thee — we shall all eat thee.” The next morning he was given
the horse. He tried to lead it to the pasture, but soon the horse escaped from
him. He sought it but could not find it, and was most unhappy. He remembered the
little bell the old woman had given him. He drew it forth and rang it once. Then
many eagles appeared, led by the king-eagle. They found the horse, and he was
able to lead it back to the mother dragon. She said: “Because thou hast brought
it back I will give thee a mantle of copper; with it thou canst take part in the
ball that is to be given tonight in the circles of the flower-queen and her
daughter.”
On the second
day he was again to take the horse to the meadow. It was given to him, but soon
it escaped again, and nowhere could he find it. So he drew forth the little bell
again and rang it twice. Immediately the king of the foxes appeared with a large
following. They found the horse, and he was able to restore it to the dragon's
mother. She then said to him: “Today thou shalt receive a silver mantle with
which thou canst again attend the ball that takes place tonight in the circle of
the flower-queen and her daughter.” At the ball the flower-queen's daughter said
to him: “Demand on the third day a number of these horses: with them thou canst
rescue us and we shall be united.” On the third day the horse was again handed
over to him so that he could take it to the pastures. At once it escaped again,
for it was very wild. He drew forth his little bell and rang it three times. The
fish-king then appeared with his following. They found the horse and he took it
back a third time. He had successfully performed his task. The dragon mother
then gave him as recompense a mantle of gold as his third covering; with it he
could take part on the third day at the ball at the flower-queen's dwelling.
Besides this he was able to bring as a fitting present to her those horses that
he had taken care of. With them he could carry the flower-queen and her daughter
to their own fortress. And round this fortress which all the others wished to
steal from her they allowed a thick hedge of bushes to grow so that the fortress
could not be taken.
Then the
flower-queen said to the king's son:“Thou hast won my daughter; thou shalt
have her by and by, but only on one condition. Thou shalt only have her for half
the year; the other half she must withdraw from the surface of the Earth so that
she may be with me; only thus is it possible for thee to be united with
her.”
In this way he
won the daughter of the flower-queen and lived with her always for half the
year; during the other half she was with her mother. This and other stories
entered into very many souls. They listened to them, but did not interpret them
allegorically after the manner of the strange theosophists of recent times; for
these things have no value as symbolic or allegoric statements. No! people
accepted them because they found pleasure and joy in them; they felt warm life
flow through their souls when they listened to such tales.
There are many
souls living now who heard such tales and accepted them with joy. And when
received in this way they continued to live within these souls: they turned into
thought-forms, into feelings and perceptions; thus they became something
different than they were before. This produced results, it imparted powers to
such souls, and these powers were changed, they were transformed into something
else. Into what were they changed?
They were
changed into that which lives in men's souls today as longing for a higher
elucidation of these same secrets, a longing for theosophy. The rhapsodist did
not tell of people who strove toward their higher self, and to attain it must
conquer the lower self which held them down, but they told of a king's son who,
as he rode forth through the world, found an old woman in distress, and did a
good and kindly deed! Today, we say: People must do good deeds, deeds of love
and sacrifice. At that time men spoke in images. Today we say: Men must feel
within such sympathy for the spirit that they divine something of the spiritual
world, something that connects them with it, and enables them to develop forces
that can put them in touch with it. In earlier times men were told in parables
of the old woman who gave the king's son a bell. Today they are told: Man has
taken all the other kingdoms of nature into himself: what lives scattered in
them is united harmoniously in him. But he must understand how something lives
in him which lives in all surrounding nature, that he can only overcome his
lower nature when this is brought into right relationship with himself so that
it can help him.
We have often
spoken of the evolution of man through the Saturn, Sun, and Moon epochs: how he
left the other kingdoms of nature behind him, retaining the best out of each, so
that he might rise to something higher. By what means has he evolved? By means
of that which Plato uses as a symbol — the horse; on this he rides forward from
incarnation to incarnation. At that time the image of the bell was used; it was
rung to summon the kingdoms of nature through their representatives — the
Eagle-king, Fox-king, and Fish-king — so that he who was to become the ruler of
these kingdoms might be brought into right relationship with them.
The soul of man
is untamed, and only when love and wisdom control it is it brought into the
right relationship. At one time this was brought to man's notice in pictures;
his soul was guided so that he could understand what today is told us
differently. At that time he was told: When you ring the bell once the
Eagle-king comes, when you ring it twice the Fox-king comes, and when you ring
it three times the Fish-king; these brought back the horse. This means the
storms which rage in the human soul must be recognized, and when we recognize
them we can free it from the lower disturbances and bring it into order.
Man must learn
to know how his own passions — anger and so on — are connected with his
development from one seven years to another seven; he must learn to know the
threefold nature of the human sheaths. In former days we were presented with a
wonderful picture. Every time the king's son rang the bell — that is, when by his
own power he had subdued one of the kingdoms — he acquired a covering, a
sheath.
Today we say:
We study the nature of the physical body. At that time an image was used: the
dragon-mother gave the man a mantle of copper. Today we say: We study the
nature of our etheric body; then it was said: The dragon-mother gave him a
silver mantle. Again we say: We learn to know our astral body with all its
surging passions. At that time they said: The dragon-mother gave him on the
third day a golden mantle.
What we learn
today concerning the threefold sheath-nature of man was brought to people at an
earlier day through the image of the copper, silver, and golden mantles. And to
the souls that then received the thought-form of the copper, silver, and golden
mantles, we say today: What brings you understanding of the dense physical
body is related to the other bodies as copper ore is to silver and gold. Today
we say: Backward Luciferic beings of seven different kinds remained behind on
the Moon and worked upon the human astral body. The rhapsodists said: When the
king's son came to the mountain where he was to be united with the
flower-queen's daughter, he met seven dragons who would have devoured him if he
had not accomplished his day's task. We know that if our evolution is not
carried out aright it is owing to the power of the seven different kinds of
Luciferic beings. Today we say: In carrying out our spiritual development we
find our higher self. Formerly, people were presented with a picture. The king's
son, they were ,united himself with the flower-queen's daughter. We say: The human soul must attain to a certain rhythm.
In one of the
earlier lectures in this course I said: When an idea rises in a man's soul he
must allow it time to mature; he will then observe a certain rhythm. After seven
days the idea has entered deeply into his soul; after fourteen days, the idea
now being more mature, is able to lay hold of the outer astral substance, and to
allow itself to be “baptised by the universal spirit”; after twenty-one days it
has matured still further, and only after four times seven days does it reach
the stage where he can give it to the world as his own personal gift. What I
have described is an inner rhythm of the soul.
A man can only
create successfully when he has no desire to impart hurriedly to the world what
has chanced to come to him, but knows that the orderliness of the external
universe must enter in his soul. We must live so that we repeat the macrocosm
microscopically in ourselves.
These pictures
which were told everywhere — and hundreds of them could be cited — stimulated
the powers of the human soul by means of thought-forms, so that such souls are
today ripe enough to listen to the other form of instruction, the form
cultivated in spiritual science. But the longing for this had first to become
very strong. All the conscious striving of men's souls had first to disappear
from the physical plane. Then with the coming of the second half of the
nineteenth century materialistic culture arose, and all was desolation as
regards spiritual life. But the longing, on the other hand, grew ever greater
and greater the more the ideal of a future spiritual movement grew. There were
but few remaining in the first half of the nineteenth century who felt, as in a
faint memory, and experienced in silent martyrdom, how the ideas which were once
perceived, discussed, and developed still existed; but were in decline.
In 1803 a man
was born in whose soul some echo of the wisdom of an earlier day still remained.
Something dwelt in him that was closely related to our theosophical ideas. His
soul was filled with longing to solve the secrets of spiritual science — his
name was Julius Mosen. His life could only be preserved by spending the greater
part of it in bed. His soul no longer suited his body, for owing to the way he
had grasped these things, yet was unable spiritually to enter further into them,
he had drawn his etheric body out of his physical body, and consequently he had
become an invalid. He had, however, risen spiritually to considerable heights.
In the year 1831 he wrote a remarkable book called “Ritter Wahn.” He knew of a
wonderful legend in Italy about the Knight Wahn, and when studying it he said to
himself: Something of the spirit of the universe lives in this legend; this
saga has arisen in the way it has, these pictures have been formed as they are,
because those who formed them were filled with the living spiritual guidance of
the world. What was the result? In 1831 he wrote a most wonderful dramatic work.
It has naturally been forgotten — as everything is that originates in this way
from greatness of spirit. Ritter Wahn sets out to conquer death. On the way he
meets with three old men. It occurred to Julius Mosen strangely enough to
translate the name of one of the old men, it Mondo, as Ird (Earth), for he knew
something special lay in translating it thus into German. The name of the three
old men whom Ritter Wahn met when he set out to conquer death were Ird, Zeit,
and Raum — earth, time and space. The three could not help him, for they were
subject to death. Ird (earth) is that which is subject to the laws of the
physical body, and therefore to death; Zeit (time), the etheric body, is
transient; and the third, the lower astral body, which gives us the impression
of space, is also subject to death. Our individuality passes from incarnation to
incarnation, but that by which we are fixed within our three sheaths, according
to this Italian legend, is Ird, Zeit, and Raum (earth, time and space). What is
the Ritter Wahn? — Illusion.
We have often
spoken of what enters us as maya. We ourselves are it; we who go on from
incarnation to incarnation look out on the world, and are confronted with the
great illusion. Each one of us is a “Ritter Wahn” and each one goes forth, if we
live in the spirit, to conquer death. In this life we meet the three old men,
our sheaths. They are very old. The physical body has existed since the age of
Saturn, the etheric body since the Sun-age, the astral body since the Moon-age,
and that which dwells in man as the “I” has been united with him since the
coming of the Earth-age. Julius Mosen represents this in such a way that the
soul, by which Ritter Wahn would conquer death, first storms out into the world
as a rider, thus employing the Platonic image which was prevalent all over
Central Europe and far beyond it. So Ritter Wahn rides forth, and would conquer
heaven with the aid of materialistic thoughts — as people do who trust to the
senses — thereby remaining entangled in delusion and maya.
But when at
death they enter the spiritual world, what happens is beautifully described by
Julius Mosen — life is not exhausted; souls long to return to Earth to carry out
their further development. Ritter Wahn comes down to Earth again. And as he sees
the beautiful Morgana, the soul as it is stirred by everything earthly — just as
was the flower-queen's daughter — and revealing its union with everything that
can only come to man through earthly schooling, there when united with the
beautiful Morgana, when again united with the Earth, death falls away from him.
This means he passes through death in order to raise his own soul (represented
by Morgana) ever higher, to purify and develop it further in each
incarnation.
From images like
these, which bear the stamp of many centuries, ideas enter into man and are
aided by artists like Julius Mosen. They sprang in his case from a soul too
great to live healthily in a body belonging to the age of materialism that was
approaching; therefore, owing to the greatness of his glowing soul, he suffered
a silent martyrdom. This was in the year 1831. All these thoughts lived in the
soul of a man in the first half of the nineteenth century. They must rise again,
but now so that they will kindle human powers, human forces. Yes, they will rise
again. This gives us some understanding of what is meant when we speak of a
theosophical spirit, the spirit of Rosicrucianism, which must enter into
mankind.
We now divine
that what is cherished in our movement has existed always. We fall into the
illusion of Ritter Wahn if we imagine anything can prosper without active
cooperation of this spirit.
Whence came the
rhapsodists of the seventh to the twelfth century; the men who wandered through the
world giving rise to thought-forms so that souls might comprehend things
somewhat differently? From what center
did they come? Where had they learnt how to present such pictures to the souls
of men? They learnt this in those temples which we recognize as the schools of
the Rosicrucians. The rhapsodists were pupils of the Rosicrucians. Their
teachers told them: You cannot go forth today and speak to mankind in ideas
as will be done later; today you must speak to them of the king's son, of the
flower-queen, of the three mantles. By this means thought-forms are built up
which will live in men's souls, and when these souls return they will understand
what is necessary for them for their further progress.
Spiritual
centers are continually sending their messengers out into the world, so that in
every age that which lives in the depths of the spirit may be brought near to
the souls of men.
It is a trivial
point of view when people think they can construct such tales as I have been
describing from fancy. Ancient legends which express the spiritual secrets of
the world arise because the men who compose them have harkened to and been
purified by those who impart these secrets; the whole form of the legends is
constructed in accordance with these spiritual secrets. The spirit of all
humanity — both of the Microcosm and the Macrocosm — lives in them.
The rhapsodists
were sent to spread their meaningful legends through the world from the same
temples whence originates the special knowledge of today — knowledge that,
entering into men's hearts and souls, makes the culture they demand possible. In
this way the spirit that is deeply implanted in humanity passes on from epoch to
epoch. And in this way the great beings, who in pre-Christian times instructed
individualities within the holy temples concerning the things they had brought
over with them from earlier planetary conditions, strengthened this teaching by
introducing into it the Christ so that their work might continue in accordance
with this superlative being — the Christ who had now become the great leader and
guide of mankind!
When I tell you
that the tales which have endured for so many centuries and called forth
thought-forms in Western culture came from the same source, and expressed the
same things — only in pictures — that we tell the world today concerning the
Christ; you will realize how in the time following the Mystery of Golgotha the
spiritual guides of humanity did in fact further arid support the teaching of
Christ in their centers of learning. All spiritual guidance is connected with
the Christ. When we are aware of this connection we catch a glimpse of the light
we must have, and must make use of, more especially in respect of the things our
souls longed for when they came into incarnation in the nineteenth century. If
we allow those forms to affect us which can inform us regarding the longings of
earlier days, we feel we can rely upon our souls and can say: Those others
waited so that we might accomplish what they longed for. What spirits like
Julius Mosen had longed for, because they felt within them all that the
messengers of the Holy Temples had related in countless pictures, so as to
prepare souls for times to come — what these souls longed for is set forth in the
words of Richard Rothe, who, when speaking of theosophy in 1847 at Heidelberg,
says: “Would that one day it might become really scientific, and produce
clearly defined results, so that it might become popular and be generally
accepted; for only in this way can it bequeath those truths to others who are
unable to travel the path on which alone they could discover them for
themselves.”
In those days
Rothe felt this longing — not only for himself but for his contemporaries — he
found resignation in saying: “All this lies as yet within the womb of the
future which we have no wish to anticipate!” Those who knew the secrets of the
Rosicrucians did not speak in 1847 so that these could be perceived in an
external way. But what rests within the womb of the future comes to life when a
sufficient number of souls are found who realize that knowledge is a duty. We
dare not give back our souls unevolved to the Spirit of the Universe, for in
that case we would have deprived the Spirit of something He had implanted in us.
When souls are found who realize what they owe to the Spirit of the Universe
because of their strivings to solve the secrets of the world, they will have
fulfilled the hopes cherished by the best men of an earlier age. These men
looked to us who were to come after them and said: “Once this knowledge
becomes scientific it must become popular and lay hold of men's hearts.”
But such hearts
must first exist, they must be there! This depends on those who have joined our
spiritual society realizing: “I must gain spiritual illumination, I must learn
the secrets of existence!” It depends on each separate soul within our society
whether the longing I have described is to be but a vain dream of those who
hoped for the best from us, or a worthy dream that we can realize for them.
When we perceive
the emptiness in modern science, in art, and in social life, we feel there is no
need to be lost in this desert — we can get out of it. An age has once more come
round in which the Holy Temples speak, not now merely in images and parables,
but in truths, which, though still regarded by many as theoretical, will become
ever more and more a source of life, and will pour living sap into the souls of
men.
Each one can
determine with the best powers of his soul to receive this living sap into
himself.
These are the
thoughts we would impress on your souls at the present time, being the sum of
all we have received concerning the true meaning of the spiritual guidance of
mankind. When we allow such thoughts to work within our souls we have a lively
stimulus for future endeavor, and we see how much of constructive force they
contain that is quite independent of the actual words with which these thoughts
have been expressed.
However
imperfect my words may be, it is the reality that matters, not the way the
thoughts are expressed, and this reality can live in every soul. For the sum of
all truth dwells in each separate soul like a seed which can blossom when this
soul accepts it.
Notes:1. From the introduction by Richard Rothe to “The Principles of Theosophy according to Frederick Cristopher Oetinger,” Tubingen, 1847.
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