The Rudolf Steiner Archive

5. Initiation

[ 1 ] Some topics that are unpopular today and are merely tolerated had to be touched upon during our winter lectures on the science of the spirit. However, it can be said that hardly any topic is as unpopular and as little tolerated as the one that is to be the subject of our discussion today: initiation.

[ 2 ] When we speak of the spiritual, higher worlds—as we are to do throughout this series of lectures—the question will naturally arise: How does a person come to knowledge and understanding of these higher worlds? Today’s reflection on initiation is intended to provide at least a preliminary answer—for only the full series of lectures this winter can offer a complete answer. In doing so, we must take as a given the two fundamental principles of all spiritual science, which we have already touched upon in the very first of these lectures: The first is the realization that behind and beyond our world—which is perceptible through the senses and comprehensible by ordinary reason—there exists another world, or even a series of other worlds: supersensible, superphysical worlds, as we have called them. The second insight is that these worlds, which exist beyond our sensory, visible world, can gradually become accessible to human beings, so that it is possible for them to perceive them through their own development. Naturally, this means that spiritual science provokes opposition from the very outset from all those whom we have referred to in the previous lectures as the “we” people and the “one” people of the present. “We” people are those who, when speaking about these matters, most frequently use the phrases: “One” cannot or “we” cannot know. — This establishes from the outset a kind of epistemological absolutism, a kind of infallibility on the part of the speaker in question, who makes himself and what he can perceive the standard by which all human knowledge is measured. Spiritual science stands on the exact opposite point of view. It holds that human beings possess abilities and powers of perception that lie dormant within them and can be developed higher and higher. Admittedly, it is quite correct when someone says that they cannot perceive certain higher worlds. But at the same time, it must be said that these higher worlds cannot be penetrated precisely by the very powers of cognition that the speaker refers to, and that, logically, no one has the right to say: “My powers of cognition are the only ones that exist; what I perceive represents the limit of all possible knowledge.” — For in doing so, one rejects the human capacity for development and denies from the outset that human beings can ascend to higher and ever-higher levels. Yet the belief that they are capable of this is the fundamental conviction of every person who views the world with an open mind, and especially within our German educational tradition, it is easy to bring oneself to acknowledge this principle.

[ 3 ] Goethe repeatedly expressed and emphasized, in a wide variety of beautiful sentences and turns of phrase, the very thing that forms the basis of a way of thinking that leads to initiation. Let us—we will return to this in the course of today’s reflections—place at the beginning of today’s lecture that phrase with which Goethe, in the deeply contemplative fragment “The Mysteries,” alludes to that inner human power that strives ever farther and farther, ever higher and higher—a power that is indeed constrained by our surroundings and hindered at every moment by what is imposed upon us from the outside, from all sides, as the sensory realm, as a restraining force—yet which nevertheless possesses a means of attaining inner knowledge and an understanding of the world. In this poem, “The Mysteries,” Goethe speaks of a special initiation of the Rosicrucians, thereby alluding to the principle of initiation in profound words:

For all power surges forward into the vastness,
To live and act here and there;
Yet from every side, the current of the world
Holds us back and constricts us, sweeping us away;
Amid this inner storm and outer strife
The spirit hears a word that is hard to understand:
From the power that binds all beings,
The person who overcomes himself is set free.

[ 4 ] It is entirely in keeping with Goethe’s way of thinking to seek this human capacity—which can be developed into higher powers of cognition—and to seek ways and means to attain a truly objective wisdom that looks into the inner, that is, the spiritual essence of things. This is characteristic of his way of thinking when we listen to him as he most intimately expresses his perspective on knowledge. There we find many indications that clearly express this to us.

[ 5 ] At the beginning of his Theory of Colors, this much-misunderstood work—the time has not yet come to understand this work by Goethe; perhaps it will come in time, when the perspectives I mentioned in my lecture “Natural Science at a Crossroads” gain traction—Goethe says that the eye is formed “by light for light.” He says that it was originally an indifferent organ, insensitive to light. Through light, it was transformed into the organ that can now see light and perceive illuminated, light-filled objects. Thus, in Goethe’s sense, we must think of what I have said in the context of spiritual science: that in distant primeval times, human beings did not have eyes capable of perceiving light, and that the eyes emerged from organs of an entirely different nature. And what force was it that brought about this transformation? Light itself! It conjured forth the eye, which had become light-sensitive. At the same time, Goethe suggests that there may be other, unknown, and unrecognized abilities within human beings which, when developed, open up a new world just as the eye, when awakened, opens up the world of light and color. And in no other sense do we speak in spiritual science of the higher, supersensible worlds.

[ 6 ] It is precisely in the spirit of the statement by Johann Gottlieb Fichte, the great thinker, that we speak of such supersensory perceptions. Fichte says: If a single sighted person were to go among people who are all blind and tell them about light and colors, they would probably take him for a fantasist. Likewise, what he, Fichte, had to say to his listeners at that time was intended only for a faculty that had yet to emerge—and which, on a higher level, could be compared to the faculty of a person born blind who, before surgery, had known the world only through touch, but afterward saw it glow with colors and light. Thus, through the development of powers lying dormant within human beings, it is possible to awaken abilities to perceive new forces and objects in the environment that can be perceived only through spiritual faculties. It is not in an illogical sense, but in this thoroughly logical sense, that spiritual science speaks of higher worlds.

[ 7 ] Anyone who doubts the higher worlds stands on the same level of judgment as one who was born blind and says: “There is no world of light and colors because I cannot see it.” — No one can make a true judgment about its possibility. But as for its reality, only the one who knows it can decide. It is not the one who knows nothing about a matter who must decide on it, but only the one who knows something about it. Thus, in fact, only the principle of experience, of lived experience, can decide on what is called initiation.

[ 8 ] But does that mean it is unnecessary to talk about these things? No, it is not unnecessary; for in what sense does the one who communicates about such higher worlds speak? He speaks about them because he knows that purely through these communications, purely through this knowledge, the abilities and powers slumbering within all human beings—the abilities and powers to truly penetrate these worlds—can be awakened. And the one who resists receiving news of these worlds is like someone who would once have resisted participating in the evolution from the stage of human organization where eyes had not yet developed to the emergence of those organs with which human beings can see the sun. Such a person might also have said: Why should I allow something to develop within me so that I can perceive the sun and the light? Before that, he did not know the sun or the light. Only through an external force that approaches us can the inner seed within the human being develop. Only when we can freely open our souls to the messages about the higher worlds do we receive the initial impetus to develop the higher powers that ultimately make us seers, initiates.

[ 9 ] The principle of initiation has been discussed throughout all periods of human development. However, the relationship to public activity was different from what it must be in our age. Whether we look back to the ancient Indian, Chaldean, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Greco-Roman cultures, or trace our way through the Middle Ages, through the 16th and 17th centuries up to our own time, there have always been initiates and disciples of the initiates. It was simply not discussed publicly. Initiated! What was that? There is a difference between an initiate, a clairvoyant, and those who apply higher powers in the service of the physical world. But we will not delve into these finer distinctions today. A clairvoyant is someone who can look into the supersensible worlds; for such a person, the worlds that are hidden from the ordinary person are revealed, perceptible worlds. Why was initiation into such higher worlds conducted, so to speak, in secret? Why was it not spoken of publicly in earlier times? Next time we will speak of the dangers of initiation. Today we shall merely point out that a certain danger indeed lurks for human beings at the boundary between the sensibly perceptible world and the invisible, supersensible world, and that the one who is to become an initiate must first overcome this danger. This danger consists in the fact that, at the boundary between the physical and the supersensible worlds, it is extraordinarily difficult to distinguish illusion from reality, dreams from reality, and visions from true perception. Here, in this realm, it is very easy to confuse one’s own fantastical creations of the soul with what is real, objective, and true. Various qualities—which will be discussed below—are required to maintain a cool head, inner security, courage, perseverance, and energy at this very boundary; for if a person were to lose clarity at this boundary regarding what is illusion and what is reality, then he would have lost his reason, and he would be a fool rather than an initiate.

[ 10 ] Now, when most people hear about such things, they certainly feel an immense longing, a veritable fervor, to catch even a glimpse of the higher worlds. However, most people do not possess the same level of perseverance and willpower—and above all, the strength—to overcome everything necessary to eliminate the dangers that have been alluded to. Therefore, it has always been necessary to first assess the people admitted to initiation in terms of their intellect, their spiritual and moral capacities, and their sensibilities. Only those who could pass the test before the discerning gaze of the initiate could be admitted to initiation. These had to be individuals who, by virtue of their entire life situation, were capable of truly submitting themselves to that which enabled them to distinguish between illusion and truth, vision and reality at the boundary between the physical and spiritual worlds.

[ 11 ] The question may now arise: Why, if they have been able to remain silent for so long, do those who know something about these matters not remain silent today as well? Why is the principle of strict seclusion regarding initiation into the higher worlds not upheld today? Why is it being violated? There is a good reason for this. Humanity is moving forward. It has taken on different forms in the various epochs of its development. And history, too, is far more diverse in its structure and stages of development than the layperson believes. Those who are unfamiliar with these matters imagine that people today are the same as they were centuries ago. Even those who have studied history and anthropology tacitly hold the same view. In fact, people from different centuries—who appear to be the same in terms of external anatomy and physiology—differ quite greatly from one another. The differences usually do not lie in the gross aspects, and external anatomy and physiology know nothing at all about where they do lie. Humanity is advancing, and in our era we have arrived at a form of the human spirit and soul in which the knowledge of the world’s mysteries—the insights, concepts, and ideas that lead us into the depths of things, which were otherwise always preserved in the so-called secret schools—is needed for the common good and the progress of humanity.

[ 12 ] The details will be covered in the following lectures. Today, we need only point out the enormous change that has taken place in humanity over the course of a few centuries. We need mention just one thing that has had a profound impact on human development: the art of printing. Just think about how people lived—in terms of their souls and their spiritual education—before the invention of printing; how communication took place between those who knew something and those who wanted to learn, before books existed—and how today the messages of science and scholarship reach every soul through thousands upon thousands of resources, through popular writings and newspaper articles. And if you imagine this further, you will be able to picture that things look different in people’s souls today, and you will not think that the feelings, thoughts, and impulses alive within them have no influence on life as a whole. Anyone who believes that everything manifest is an imprint of the spiritual will realize that people today have different physical and social needs than in times past. In the past, it was possible for individual people to know something about certain events, about truth, and about wisdom. Today, however, what was once the principle of initiation must be made accessible to everyone. Out of a sense of duty toward humanity, the strict secrecy and isolation of earlier times have been broken, so that today we speak not only of what can be said about the higher worlds from the standpoint of spiritual research, but also, in a certain sense—at least in the basics—of how human beings themselves can ascend into these worlds and how they can complete the first stages of initiation. From the outset, however, it must be emphasized that no one should believe that the principle of initiation is to be taken lightly or with little seriousness simply because, in essence, the first stages of initiation are now accessible to everyone. These first stages, as you will hear, can be completed relatively easily by anyone in any situation in life. But then come ever higher stages, leading up to what is, in the true sense of the word, called an initiate.

[ 13 ] It is my task first to define this term. What is an initiate? If I assume that there are ever higher and higher worlds beyond our sensory world, then an initiate would be someone who has insight into these higher worlds. The training for initiation consists of a person receiving the means and instructions for developing their spiritual eyes and ears so that they can see into this spiritual world, just as they see into the physical world with their physical organs.

[ 14 ] Essentially, all of this is merely preparation for the actual initiation. The one who becomes a student of initiation receives certain instructions from his teacher on how to develop the abilities that lie dormant within him. All of this is aimed at a point that, in the highest sense of the word, leads a person into a provisional depth of the universe—into a center from which the rays of world-creation and universal law emanate. Such a thing exists. This mystery could even be expressed in words, and yet it is not spoken of. Please allow me to make this allusion from the outset, for although it may sound mysterious, anyone who reflects on it will find that even the way in which such a thing is expressed is very significant for the sensibility one must acquire in order to understand the principle of initiation.

[ 15 ] The student is prepared to receive the mystery of the world, which could be spoken if it were permitted to be spoken. The initiate is the one who knows a certain mystery that is of the utmost importance for human life. It is a mystery because, if it were spoken of in the context of everyday life, it would appear foolish, crazy, absurd, or paradoxical. Well, that would be the least of it. But there are other reasons why the one who could speak the mystery is nevertheless not permitted to do so. The reason is so profound that this secret, which marks the completion of certain stages of initiation, could not be wrested from anyone—absolutely no one—who knows it, not even if they were tortured and tormented. This is a secret that can never be forced out of him. For this secret is not passed from person to person by being communicated in words; rather, the essence lies in bringing the student to the point where, through the guided development of his own abilities and powers, he is able to solve the riddle lying behind the matter from within himself, so that, as it were, the student stands before the teacher with that shining eye from which it is announced: “I have found it!”

[ 16 ] Training here means: a path toward self-discovery. A large part of what a person must achieve in order to penetrate the higher worlds lies precisely in that great and powerful sensation that takes hold of the soul when, after being led upward into the higher abilities and stages of development, the soul awakens and feels as if reborn. It is like how, at a lower level, a person born blind—who until then could only grope around—gradually begins to perceive light and color, brilliance and forms emerging from the deep darkness after an operation. Only when this relationship between teacher and student exists is the relationship a healthy one. It is built upon the highest thing that can exist between human beings: freedom. There must be a relationship in which there is no—absolutely no—unwarranted influence on the part of the teacher, because everything that is to be developed is drawn out from within the student himself.

[ 17 ] Now that we have characterized in this way the state of mind that should govern the principle of initiation, let us examine in a little more detail what is called the development of the faculties that lie dormant within the human being. We will begin with what is most obvious and proceed to what is more remote. Three faculties are already present to the ordinary observer: thinking, feeling, and willing—thought, feeling, and will. This is what you find in the human soul. Such is the level of the average person. All three faculties are capable of development. First, thinking: even if this thinking is developed to the finest and most intimate degree, it cannot, of course, lead a person beyond this physical world. Nevertheless, thinking is the first stage of development when it comes to transcending the physical world. This is an apparent contradiction, but one that will resolve itself for us immediately. I will shortly speak of those principles of initiation that were customary in the secret schools over the course of the last few centuries and which, today, may be communicated to the public in their most basic form by those who know something of them.

[ 18 ] The first thing the student must develop is thinking free from the senses. What does thinking free from the senses mean? When a person observes the world around them through their senses, they form mental images of the world—ideas of the world—in their mind. These mental images and ideas make the world comprehensible to them. But none of this constitutes thinking free from the senses. Even though modern science, out of a certain inner weakness, often refuses to acknowledge a different kind of thinking, there is indeed another kind of thinking that has its source solely within the human being, in the human soul. It is just that modern people know very little about the vast majority of this non-sensory thinking, and when something of it does reach them, they reject it and refuse to accept it.

[ 19 ] For human beings can have thoughts not only based on the sensory world—on what they see, hear, smell, and taste—but they can also have thoughts that spring from an inner force within themselves, which can never be stimulated by anything external. Even philosophers still do not recognize this today. I can provide the proof. A branch of science that is not widely known to the general public—mathematics, specifically geometry—can provide it. No one can see a real circle in the external world; no one can see in the external world what the law of nature dictates: 2 × 2 = 4. But through pure inner meditation, without counting beans, one can discover that 2 × 2 = 4, or one can construct the circle through inner intuition, such that the circumference is always the same distance from the center. What did the great Plato write about his school? He said that no one could be admitted without knowledge of geometry. This did not mean that one had to know all of geometry, but rather that one possessed a corresponding sense for it. If we were to reproduce only the outer circle in our concepts, we would never be able to form a true circle. But we can form a circle in our minds, and in this way the laws of the circle shape us. Thus, we must work out the circle from within our own minds. This is what was called “sensory-free thinking” in the secret schools. Mathematics is not popular, and yet it is the only form of sensory-free thinking practiced in our schools. Most people, however, will laugh at you if you say that there are other concepts—besides those of space, number, and figures—that can be discovered purely through the mind. People disregard and despise the philosophers and thinkers who have claimed that human beings can construct a system of ideas that is in harmony with the world.

[ 20 ] The one who, within our German education and culture, has established such ideas—devoid of sensuality—for realms other than spatial structures in geometry is, once again, Goethe; and what Goethe accomplished with the archetype of plants, the primordial plant, and the archetype of animals, the primordial animal, is a marvelous, a monumental achievement of humanity’s spiritual life. What kind of thoughts are these? Goethe himself seeks to clarify them in his own way. Many have written about them. But most of it is nonsense, because most people lack the capacity to understand how a mentally constructed circle—whose laws we can grasp—relates to the circle drawn on a blackboard, which is nothing more than a collection of chalk particles. Yet this is precisely how what Goethe calls the “primordial plant” relates to the plant that is perceptible to the external senses. Out there are the various plants—so Goethe thought—one looks one way, another looks another. But within us lives an inner spiritual power through which we are able, from within ourselves, to arrive at the concept of the primordial plant. Botanists have thought that Goethe meant an imperfect plant. That is nonsense! He meant the plant as perceived spiritually! That is what I have attempted to reconstruct in one of my books as this “primordial plant,” just as one constructs the circle in the mind. Goethe’s primordial plant contains—if one is able, in the mind, to conjure up all possibilities from it—all possible plants; his primordial animal contains all possible animals. What Goethe created there is a spiritual organic whole. It gives us the ability to create in the mind that which cannot appear to our senses. Here, however, we are proceeding from a profound, significant spiritual fact. And Goethe proceeded from this fact, from which what he found as the “primordial plant” was bestowed upon him. For him, this was not a mere idea, but rather the creative force within all plants. The “primordial animal” was, for him, the creative force within every animal.

[ 21 ] The conversation I have often cited—the one Goethe and Schiller had about plants right at the beginning of their acquaintance, as they were leaving a lecture by the Natural History Society in Jena—has become famous. Schiller said then that it was unsatisfying to view living things in such a way that one could not see their interconnectedness. Goethe replied that there could indeed be another way, one in which one could see the commonality—the spiritual bond that holds everything together. Goethe describes the conversation to us, and how he then took his pencil and, with a few characteristic strokes, sketched the image of his “primordial plant.” Schiller, the speculative poet, then said: “But that is not a fact; it is an idea, not reality.” — “Then,” said Goethe, “if that is an idea, I see ideas out there with my own eyes!” — “In the plant lies the life-creating force.” Because of the profound insight that Goethe’s spirit had into such a being, it was possible for that which creates in all animals and plants to be awakened within his spirit. There is a secret bond between the human inner being and that which is spread throughout the entire animal and plant world. When a human conjures up the primordial plant within himself, he conjures up that form according to which the plants were created. In this way, we perceive ourselves as spiritual participants in the creations of nature. For Goethe, this is an immersion into things and a conjuring forth into his own spirit of the spirit that lives within them. This is what Goethe presents to humanity.

[ 22 ] One can also attempt the same thing in higher realms. A German philosopher did so—not sufficiently, but in a principled and immensely profound way that has not been understood. If a certain anecdote that is told were true, it would bear witness to this fact in all its depth! The much-maligned Hegel is said to have remarked: “Only one person has understood me, and even he misunderstood me.” Hegel attempted to create concepts free from sensuality that capture what lives in the human environment and in human history. Hegel’s *Philosophy of History* has now been published in Reclam’s Universal Library, in which he provides a broad overview of the entire history of the world. Much of it is incorrect; much of it is, unfortunately, as one-sided as only Hegel could be, so that the book can serve only as a point of departure. However, it will serve well as a means of discovering the principle. Hegel strove for thinking free from sensibility, so that he allows everything to unfold within his own spirit—which is the same spirit that has guided humanity. Anyone who wishes to do this needs a more intimate knowledge of the spirit of humanity and of peoples than Hegel could possess. Consequently, everything appears abstract, gray, and logical in the negative sense; yet the ideas are spirited and stimulating. And here one must say: What is wrong there can be of far greater benefit to humanity than even the greatest amount of truth that is trivial.

[ 23 ] Just as one can think and create in mathematics without relying on the senses, and just as one can do so in history, so my *Philosophy of Freedom* is intended to provide, for the inner development of the human being with his or her full cognitive capacity, a picture of how this can be grasped through thinking that is free from the senses. This is a book like an organism, in which one sentence follows another—a book of thought that moves forward within itself and is self-contained. In it, I have sought to show how a person who wishes to gradually move from the sensory realm into the supersensory realm must cultivate their thinking. Today, however, there are easier means—namely, those provided by spiritual science. What we can read in the works of spiritual science about the various constitutional elements of the human being, about reincarnation and karma, life after death, and the development of human races and cultures—and which we will discuss further—is something you cannot perceive with your senses, but rather something you can grasp if you are at all open to human understanding. What spiritual science offers is thinking free from the influence of the senses, as was once taught in the mystery schools, and as a person must possess before they can look into the spiritual worlds. Exploring what exists in the spiritual worlds requires clairvoyance and initiation. But anyone who has, in a certain sense, acquired the ability to convey these messages can serve as a bridge. In this way, anyone can convince themselves through comprehensive logical thinking and sound judgment that these things are true. The exploration of the spiritual worlds requires clairvoyance, while the comprehension of higher wisdom requires only sound reason and logic.

[ 24 ] However, many people today are more or less obsessed with materialistic thinking or with that delusion of infallibility stemming from positivist science. This is, after all, pure fantasy. If only people knew that, deep down, they live solely under the influence of suggestion, that they do not know what is real and what is not! Although they refuse to acknowledge the infallibility of the Pope, they consider themselves to be infallible. Those who take the standpoint of science are the most intolerant of all today. He regards the scholar of the spiritual sciences as a fool, and himself? Well, as an infallible human being! The world inaccessible to the senses can be communicated only through thinking free from sensuality. Therefore, the first training is the training of thought, which alone makes it possible to develop thinking and lead it to a true insight into the spiritual worlds.

[ 25 ] The second is the cultivation of feeling. No one should cultivate feeling until they have developed thinking free from sensuality to a certain level. Anyone who knows what these higher worlds are like will tell you this: When you ascend to the higher worlds that lie above our physical world, you enter the astral world and then the spiritual, or devachanic, world. There, the impressions are entirely different from what a person who knows only the physical world can imagine. Even though all experiences are different, one thing remains constant: logic, sound thinking. A person who cultivates sound thinking—who is a reasonable, well-grounded individual—will not lose their way when they ascend into the worlds beyond the physical world, which hold surprise after surprise for them. The one who cultivates within themselves this way of thinking—which springs from the inner wellspring of the soul and is self-assured—has a sure guide even across that boundary where it is difficult to distinguish between the physical and the superphysical. With sound thinking, one can cross the abyss that opens up there. If one sets out without sound thinking and says: “You give me only thoughts; but within me lives the power of a god—why should I not be able to ascend into the higher worlds?”—then I can only reply: Those who speak this way have no idea what it is like in the higher worlds, where we are not guided by the external world, where we must have the guide within us if we are not to go astray.

[ 26 ] The development of feeling takes place with the help of imagination in the school for initiates. The student first creates a pictorial conception of the world; then he must contemplate the world in quiet reflection, guided by Goethe’s maxim: “All that is transitory is but a parable.” I would like to show you, using an example I have given several times before, how one guides those who strive for spiritual development into the depths of things, and how one teaches them to cultivate their feelings through imagination. If you wish to grasp the development of beings with your thinking and remain at the level of thought, you will never be able to take a proper step beyond this sensory world. You can acquire the most diverse concepts—such as how lower beings evolve ever higher toward humanity; you can even take the theosophical doctrine of evolution, describing how the Logos poured forth and formed increasingly complex forms and worlds: plants, animals, humans, and human kingdoms—and how all these differentiations came into being, through evolution and involution, and so on. These are teachings you find in theosophical books—beautiful and interesting concepts. But you cannot enter the higher worlds by this path. You can form ideas through them—the analogies are drawn from higher worlds—but you can never actually enter those worlds with them. For that, you need imagination. This is not something imagined. It is something brought forth by a creative power and does not merely take shape in concepts—so that these concepts, like Goethe’s “primordial plant” and “primordial animal,” correspond to external realities—but rather, images are formed that correspond to something much deeper, that correspond to the Spirit which creates behind these things.

[ 27 ] I would like to present, in the form of a dialogue, what has always been taught to initiates in such secret schools. I am telling you this to clarify the principle and method of initiation. What I am expressing in just a few words takes a long time to cover during the training. The dialogue I am describing never actually took place; but what it represents has always taken place in every school of the spirit. The student is told: Look at the plant whose root points into the earth, whose stem, leaves, and flowers grow upward, and compare it to the human being. You would be making the wrong comparison if you were to equate the head with the flower and the foot with the root.” — As an aside, I would like to say that even the man who laid the foundations for modern natural science in such a magnificent way arrives at this view. He compares the root to the human head and sees in the plant an inverted human and in the human an inverted plant. — The root is the head that the plant extends toward the center of the Earth, just as a human being can extend his head—which he holds in the opposite direction—toward the sun or the celestial forces of the universe. That which the plant possesses as its reproductive organ—the flower, from which the seed of a new plant emerges—it turns chastely toward the sunbeam, which in the medieval secret schools is called “the holy lance of love,” which touches the ovary and, after fertilization, conjures forth the new plant seed, causing the plant to grow in that direction. The human being is exactly the opposite. He extends his reproductive organs toward the center of the Earth, while his head reaches out into space. In between, the student is told, is the animal, which makes a half-turn so that its spine is horizontal. Look at the plant, the animal, and the human, and you will understand Plato’s statement that the World Soul is nailed to the cross of the world. By “world,” Plato means plant, animal, and human. It is the plant that stands vertically; opposite it is the human being, who turns his gaze with his head out into the free ether of the world; and the crossbeam is the animal. This is the archetypal form of the cross, which was known in ancient times and in all the mystery schools.

[ 28 ] Now tell the student the following: Imagine the plant in its pure, chaste substance. Human beings stand on a higher level than plants. You can learn more from the lectures I have given in the past. The plant resembles a sleeping human being. As it stands before us, it has a physical body and an etheric body, or life body. In the case of a sleeping human being, only the physical body and the etheric—or life—body lie in bed. As a sleeper, the human being is actually outside the physical and etheric bodies. That which thinks and feels within them, and experiences pleasure and pain, is switched off during sleep. The plant, therefore, possesses a consciousness that we recognize as “sleep consciousness” and can also describe as such.

[ 29 ] What does the development along the horizontal line toward a complete reversal signify? It signifies that human beings have attained their present clear daytime consciousness. Through their passage through the animal kingdom, human beings have become beings with clear daytime consciousness. In exchange, they have had to forfeit something else. Look at the plant: it is not permeated by the body of desire, by the astral body. The plant substance has a physical body and an etheric body. Human beings must pass through the animal realm and incorporate instincts, desires, and passions. Human beings have ascended to a higher level by incorporating the nature of desire into the plant body.

[ 30 ] Now, spiritual science presents him with a great ideal—a real ideal. This spiritual science shows human beings how they can gradually develop within themselves the power that leads back to the purification and cleansing of their desire-driven nature—a power that will guide them to a place where, while retaining their present state of consciousness, they will once again live in pure, chaste body, on higher stages of development—stages of future development—where he will have overcome what he necessarily had to take into himself during the passage to the higher stages. What the teacher presented to the student was a real ideal for the future: You will regain your plant nature! And he was given the means to attain it. He was told that all of humanity will one day return to this stage, where human beings will have developed the purely spiritual power from within themselves. Then they will no longer be bound to the nature of desire, nor will they hold up a desire-driven reproductive organ against the spiritual ray of the sun. This organ, which humankind will then have attained—and which was presented as a real organ, even though it is a spiritual organ that will be held up to the spiritual sunbeam in the future—is called the Holy Grail in the initiatory training.

[ 31 ] And now imagine the difference between the dry, abstract concepts presented to you in mathematics or in idealistic writings, and this imagination, in which we ascend through the animal realm to humanity and on up to further future stages of humanity. When we hold such a vision of the future before our soul, then—if we are at all capable of it—we will not only think about the spirit but also feel and sense it, accompanying this vision with our feelings and sensations. We will not only see this development in our minds; we will feel and sense it. This development in the universe will appear vast and mighty to us when we grasp it in this way through imagery, rather than through abstract concepts. In this way, the entire universe all around them, with all its mysteries, was revealed to the initiates. This engaged not only their thinking but also their feelings and sensibilities. It was as if their entire soul were stepping out and immersing itself in everything around them. Just as Goethe’s “archetype” creates within us something that lives in all plants and animals, so too is it when our developed feeling rises up from within us, as if we were sensing the world soul that flows as a force through all beings.

[ 32 ] Thus, everything around the student came alive for him; it became imagination. Wherever he walked—through hallways and fields—the images worked upon his soul. This unleashed an inner strength within him, and he gradually began to see beyond the beings and beyond the things. When one tells the story this way, it seems almost unbelievable. When the student was guided by the teacher into the imaginative realm of the world, he was not only introduced to thinking but also led into the feelings and impulses that welled up from the soul of the Creator of the World. He was introduced to a world of essences. And the journey then continues from the development of feeling to the development of will.

[ 33 ] Just as feeling is developed through images, so is the will developed through the symbols of occult writing. This will is the deepest aspect of the hidden power. This will becomes, as it were, a skeletal framework through which the human being projects himself into the outer world. If you recall the images from the Munich Congress—the pillars and seals—they serve to train the will. You have reproduced this in the portfolio we published as “Images of Occult Seals and Pillars.” I would like to explain the principle behind these occult seals and pillars and describe their significance for initiation. Each of the seals represents what you can find in the “Apocalypse” or the “Revelation of St. John.” In this portfolio, you will find symbols. Each symbol has a powerful, impelling effect on the human being. On the first seal, you will find a human figure; the feet are as if made of molten brass, and a fiery sword emerges from the mouth. I will not describe the rest in further detail. Anyone who delves deeply into this seal will see that this very seal, particularly through this contrast, bestows something wondrous upon them. In the final lecture of this winter series on “The Sun, Moon, and Stars,” we will hear that spiritual science also takes us back to states of the Earth when it was in a molten state, and that—in contrast to materialistic science—humanity already existed at that time. Spiritual science itself can raise the objection that human beings could not have lived in a molten state. Human beings themselves were formed from molten mass at that time. This beginning of the Earth is represented to us by the molten metal feet. A later future state is represented to us by the fiery sword that comes out of the mouth, which reappears in all myths. I can only hint at what is at stake here. You will see how spiritual science is deeply connected to the innermost core of the world.

[ 34 ] When we speak today: How does communication take place when I speak to you? What I speak are, first and foremost, my thoughts. These take on sounds that cause the air to vibrate. This sets the air in this hall in motion. The vibrations of the air reach your ear, reach your soul, and communicate with your soul. My words live here in this room in specific forms of vibration. If you could see them, you would see very specific vibrations whenever I utter the word “soul.” Just as human beings today are capable of shaping the air and bringing what lives in their souls into being through vibrating air, so too will they be capable of forming organs. There are organs in the human being that are at the beginning of their development, and organs that are at the end. At the beginning of their development are the larynx and the human heart. I know that what I am saying here is something monstrous to positive science, for these two are, after all, regarded as mechanical devices—the heart as a pump. Yet it is precisely the theories of the heart and blood circulation that will undergo significant transformations in the not-too-distant future. It will be discovered that blood circulation originates from something entirely different than the heart, and that the heart moves only as a result of blood circulation. When a person feels shame, they turn red; they blush. This is an effect of the blood. In the future, the heart will be a voluntary muscle, and it is preparing to become one.

[ 35 ] There is something here that will literally shape the future of humankind in an external, physical sense. For conventional anatomy and physics, the heart is a crux. It has the configuration of a voluntary muscle, even though it is not yet a voluntary muscle. A voluntary muscle has striated muscle fibers. The heart has such striated fibers, even though it is not yet voluntary. However, it is on its way to becoming a voluntary muscle.

[ 36 ] The larynx, too, will have a different function in the future. It will be the human reproductive organ. The larynx, which today produces the words of the soul, will later take on the task of reproduction. The fire principle is speech, and the fire principle of speech will be a creative principle; hence the sword in the mouth. This fiery sword stands in an intimate relationship with the world forces. When a person immerses themselves in its image, it strengthens their willpower. All this can only be expressed in this way. Whoever does so will experience it. He will then not only intuit, think, and feel, but will penetrate into things with the powers of his will. This is the path through the occult scriptures.

[ 37 ] One can therefore specify quite concretely how one should develop thinking, feeling, and willing. Once the powers lying dormant within the human being have been awakened, thinking, feeling, and willing become very specific organs—those organs that are today called the eyes of God, the spiritual eyes. From these arise the spiritual eyes that reveal to us the world of flowing spiritual light and its colors, as well as the spiritual forces behind our physical world. The trained powers of the will become the spiritual ears of which Goethe, who was deeply initiated into these matters, also speaks:

The sun resounds in the ancient way
A contest of song in the spheres of the brotherhood,
And its prescribed journey
It completes with a thunderous roar.

[ 38 ] And Goethe captures the essence of it. When one is introduced to the higher spiritual world, it is through the ear. Upon entering the spiritual realm, one is immediately told: “The new day is already born in sound for spiritual ears.” To those who believe they understand and know Goethe, but who say this is nonsense and demand an explanation that cannot reasonably be expected of the poet, the answer is: No, one cannot expect a poet like Goethe to have written nonsense: “The sun resounds...” is nonsense only if applied to the physical world.

[ 39 ] We have seen, then, that the principle of initiation is based on bringing forth very specific forces that lie dormant within the human being, so that these forces may lead the person into the spiritual world that surrounds them. What, then, is it that brings these forces out of the human being? We must explain this in the spirit of Goethe. Once upon a time, there was a sensory organ—an indifferent organ within the human body—that was bathed in light. The light transformed it into an eye, so that the human being could see the colors and forms around them through the eye. This is how the eye came into being. Unknown and unrecognized organs, which people are unwilling to acknowledge, lie dormant within human beings. But there are other worlds around us as well, besides the world of light and colors. Just as the eye of a blind person was awakened to sight, so too are the spiritual ears and eyes developed through clairvoyance and clairaudience, enabling human beings to look into the surrounding spiritual world.

[ 40 ] Today, human beings have attained self-awareness within themselves. They have become capable of relating everything back to themselves. But by developing their spiritual eyes and ears, by following the principle of initiation, they plunge back into the outer world. They find their higher self in this world. We must not say that we find the divine and the spiritual within ourselves. That is an incorrect expression. “Know thyself!” is an ancient saying. But one must understand it in the same way that the ancient Adam knew his wife. He impregnated her. So it is with the organs as well. Impregnate yourself; let yourself be impregnated by the world. — Thus, what human beings are meant to achieve is the development of the powers slumbering within them... What Goethe says is true:

Were it not for the sun-like eye,
it could never behold the sun;
were God’s own power not within us,
how could the divine delight us!

[ 41 ] Certainly, the power of the sun lies within us, and the eye does not create the divine being, nor does it create the sun; rather, it sees them after it itself has been created.

[ 42 ] This is the way in which we can develop higher powers and penetrate ever more deeply into the world. Then the outer world no longer appears to us as something that hinders and constrains us, but as that which reveals true, genuine, and spiritual reality to us. Then harmony is established with the force that strives forward and ever forward. Harmony is established between the human being and the world. Through this, we overcome the lower self that looks out into the sensory world. We attain the higher self, the higher “I” of the human being, which is spread throughout the entire universe. This is what Goethe means when, in the poem “The Mysteries,” he alludes to the principle of initiation with the words with which we wish to conclude—words that show how, through self-overcoming, the human being flows out of and into the feeling that surges through the world, into the spiritual essence of the world, into the will of the world spirits pulsing through the world:

For all power surges forward into the vastness,
To live and act here and there;
Yet from every side, the current of the world
Restricts and hinders us, sweeping us along;
Amid this inner storm and outer strife,
The spirit hears a word that is hard to understand:
From the power that binds all beings,
The person who overcomes himself is set free.