The Rudolf Steiner Archive

20. Germanic and Indian Esoteric Teachings

[ 1 ] One of the principles of the Theosophical Society is to identify and compare the core truths of the various religious beliefs of all peoples and all ages. The question is posed: What can we gain from such a comparison? Even conventional materialistic research has noted a peculiarity in the worldviews of different eras and peoples. A remarkable convergence was found among the most diverse worldviews and religious beliefs. The ancient Egyptian, Indian, and Germanic worldviews—and, upon closer examination, even the religious concepts of indigenous African peoples—share the same fundamental ideas. In the past, people did not even dare to explore foreign religions. Now, however, people are more open-minded in this regard. There is now a field of religious studies dedicated to comparing the various religious beliefs of all peoples and eras. Materialist religious studies, however, have failed to understand what they have discovered. It claims that peoples in the past worshiped the forces of nature because they feared them, and so on, and that is why they prayed to them. People sought childlike notions behind the beliefs of ancient peoples. It was thought that religions had emerged from the childlike imagination of the people; they were said to represent nothing more than the various stages of worldview; now we have advanced to a mature age in which we truly know something about these things. — Such a notion cannot arise when one considers two facts. The first fact is that peoples do not invent gods for the forces of nature. Scholarly circles had no idea whatsoever of the workings and aspirations of the folk soul; from their ivory towers, they judged this entirely wrongly. Thus, many folk tales have been interpreted in a completely erroneous manner. There is an Indian legend about the god Indra, who steals the cows from the ... [gap]. This has been explained as follows: Indra, the sun, wrests the cows—the dawn—from the enemy force, darkness. Anyone who has ever gained an understanding of the true workings of the folk soul cannot accept that the folk soul would have devised such a thing. Even in Buddha, certain scholars saw nothing more than a purely figurative representation of the sun. Thus, people have believed that religious concepts contain symbolic expressions of the folk imagination.

[ 2 ] Only those who view mythologies superficially can overlook the profound wisdom expressed within them; only they can fail to recognize that something far deeper lies hidden there than mere poetic imagination or folk imagination. True spiritual research knows that there have always been exceptional individuals who stood higher than other people. Such exalted individuals included, for example, Buddha, Pythagoras, Moses, and the greatest initiate, Jesus Christ. These are individuals who are far ahead of other human beings; it is such individuals who, through their own direct perception, know the higher worlds and possess experience of what lies hidden beyond the physical world. They themselves know the spiritual world. They have brought a portion of the truth to the peoples among whom they lived. Wisdom is the same in all ages. But it must be conveyed differently to different peoples at different times. The great leaders, the initiates of humanity, preserve what is true and clothe it in concepts that a particular people can understand at a specific period of time. The various religions are the one truth, adapted to different peoples according to their gifts and their distinctive characteristics.

[ 3 ] The collective wisdom, which we also call the Esoteric Doctrine, is expressed in a wide variety of religious beliefs. To understand why one people holds certain beliefs and another holds different ones, we must come to know the distinctive characteristics of these peoples. We must examine the distinctive characteristics of the ancient Germanic peoples and the Indian peoples.

[ 4 ] First, we will provide a brief outline of the Esoteric Doctrine preserved by the initiated leaders of humanity. The fundamental tenet of the esoteric teachings shared by various peoples is that human beings are dual beings, consisting of a spiritual-soul aspect and a physical-bodily aspect, and that the spiritual-soul aspect is called upon to elevate, ennoble, purify, and spiritualize the physical-bodily aspect. Schiller speaks of the purification of the lower parts of the human being in his Letters on the Aesthetic Education of the Human Race. There he discusses how the entire development of the human being consists in purifying and refining the lower nature. The entire development of the human being consists in ascending to ever higher and higher stages in this process of purification. This view links the Esoteric Doctrine with a very specific conception of the relationship between the human being and the world. All mysticism refers to the human being as the microcosm in comparison to the macrocosm, the greater world. Now, anyone who surveys the kingdoms of nature and then examines the powers, abilities, and qualities of the human being will find that the human being is a confluence of all the forces that exist out there in the world. Paracelsus said: “When you look out into nature, you see letters everywhere, and the human being is the word composed of these letters.” Schiller wrote to Goethe about his conception of humanity: “I see how you draw upon all of nature to explain humanity. You seek out the parts everywhere in order to explain humanity from the totality of phenomena.” All the essences of the individual forces of nature have converged in the human being; this is how the Esoteric Doctrine portrays humanity.

[ 5 ] The very essence of the human being is also a reflection of that cosmos. The struggle between the lower and higher natures within the human being is a reflection of the great cosmos. The human being is a battleground where the spiritual struggles against the physical. This is also true out in nature. Yet the human being is still in the midst of that struggle. He looks back on a time when he was still fully immersed in the struggle, and toward a future in which he will have overcome it. The spiritual—the forces invisible to the physical eye—battles against the physically visible world. This struggle is depicted in various ways in the Esoteric Doctrine among the most diverse peoples. Everywhere among the peoples one finds tales of the struggle between spiritual and natural forces. Out in the world, the struggle has already been decided. There, the lower kingdoms of nature have been left behind by the struggle. When human beings have cast off their lower nature in the future, they will have achieved what the gods have already achieved. The kingdoms of nature are traces left behind by the gods. Human beings look up to the divine beings, who offer a picture of what human beings will one day become. The gods are humanity’s elder brothers. Humanity is on the path to becoming a god. Out in the world, humanity also sees the overcoming of the lower nature by a higher one. This is expressed in the ancient legends and myths through certain images common to many of them. In ancient India, we find the god Dhyans; in modern India, the god Indra. He overcomes the serpent. In Germanic mythology, we find the god Dhin or Dhinz. It is told that he vanquished a dragon in ancient times. The gods Wotan, Wille, and Weh overcame the giant Ymir and formed the microcosm from him. The ancient gods Wotan, Wille, and Weh have emerged from what remains in nature. Another concept of the secret doctrine is that human beings are the younger brothers of the gods, and that those who are initiates come closer to the gods. They have passed through certain stages on the path to becoming gods. — The various mythologies have regarded nature as the traces left behind by the gods. This secret doctrine found different expressions depending on the varying dispositions of the peoples. The Germanic peoples had a very special way of expressing this.

[ 6 ] To understand how the ancient Germanic peoples arrived at their beliefs, one must delve deeper into their way of life. Nor did the ancient Germanic peoples simply make up their legends, as scholars have traditionally believed. German scholarship, in particular, could have provided a solid foundation for a correct understanding. There is one work that represents a thorough study of legends: The Riddle of the Sphinx by Ludwig Laistner. He used to share the view held by the old German scholars of mythology—that people symbolized natural phenomena. In his work The Riddles of the Sphinx, he succeeded in getting to the bottom of the legends that are still alive among the people today. There is a widespread legend, the legend of the Noon Woman. If a farmer, instead of going home at noon, remains out in the field, the Noon Woman appears to him and asks him three questions. Anyone who cannot answer these questions is killed by the Noon Woman. In certain regions, it is said that one can only ward her off by reciting the Lord’s Prayer. Ludwig Laistner has demonstrated that this legend is nothing more than a reflection of what actually happens to a person when he remains in the fields past noon. While sleeping there, he enters a state in which his surroundings appear to him in the form of the Noon Woman.

[ 7 ] Dreams are symbolic. The ticking of the clock next to our bed may be symbolized as the clopping of horses' hooves. Even when a dream involves an external sensory event, it is still symbolic. This is the distinctive feature of dream experiences: they are symbolic.

[ 8 ] Everything in the world has evolved, including consciousness. Our current waking consciousness has evolved from a kind of somnambulistic consciousness. Everything has come into being gradually. Thus, today’s consciousness has emerged from a certain clairvoyant consciousness. Some organs that once served a purpose now exist only as vestiges. The dream is also a vestigial state. It is the last remnant of an earlier so-called astral consciousness. In the clairvoyant, clairvoyant consciousness develops out of dream consciousness. He attains a consciousness that is not only physical consciousness but also spiritual consciousness. Somnambulists seek to dampen ordinary physical consciousness in order to induce what is known as trance consciousness. With the emergence of waking consciousness, people have lost astral trance consciousness. In the past, people needed a somnambulistic, clairvoyant consciousness. In the future, the former clairvoyant consciousness will return; it will then be developed alongside waking consciousness. People who have developed their intellect to a lesser degree often still possess traces of the old clairvoyant consciousness. It is not uncommon for people in rural areas to have a clairvoyant consciousness.

[ 9 ] If we were to go far back in time, we would find people there who still made very little use of their senses, but who still possessed the ancient Atlantean clairvoyant consciousness. They knew that the gods are nothing more than creations of the ancient astral consciousness. The collective soul has preserved remnants of the astral consciousness. Germanic mythology is an expression of spiritual and soul experiences. Our ancestors still possessed a spiritual consciousness. The Germanic peoples preserved their astral experiences in their mythology. The Germanic people saw in the astral world the struggle of the gods against the lower forces of nature. The entire body of Germanic mythology comprises narratives of experiences within the astral world. The decline of the ancient clairvoyant humanity is depicted in the legend of Baldur. Baldur once had a dream that his death was imminent. All creatures swore an oath not to harm him. But Loki used the mistletoe—which had been forgotten when the oath was taken—and had Hödur, the blind Hödur, kill Baldur with the mistletoe. Humanity, which has become blind to the spiritual world, is Hödur. His ancestor, with the ancient somnambulistic consciousness, is Baldur. He can only be killed by that which belongs to him—the mistletoe, which dates back to an earlier epoch of evolution. At that time, there was a mineral kingdom on Earth that was half-vegetal; within it, plants grew as if in a living being. The mistletoe is a remnant of that former plant kingdom, capable of growing only on another living plant.

[ 10 ] The ancient Germanic peoples came to realize that the spiritual world is also a world of light, one that humans, however, cannot perceive. Baldur is a being of light from this spiritual world. He can perceive the astral world. Hödur, on the other hand, is the new human being who cannot see the astral world. Germanic mythology also expresses the idea that humankind is the younger brother of the gods. Germanic mythology tells us how Wotan hung from the gallows tree of the cross for nine days and nine nights, and that Mimir gave him a drink. This is reminiscent of Jesus Christ. The crucifixion is also depicted here as a symbol. Wotan is portrayed here as an initiate. The story then recounts how Wotan crawls through the crevices of the earth as a serpent and reaches Gunnlöd, the Valkyrie. He remains there for three days and three nights. She offers him the drink of wisdom. The initiate remained in a state of lethargy in the cave for three days and three nights. There, he was to unite with his higher soul. The higher consciousness of human beings has always been depicted as something feminine. The feminine represents the higher consciousness that a person attains when entering the realms of the spiritual world.

[ 11 ] The story of Wotan—adapted to the capabilities of humanity at that time—is told by all initiates. Gunnlöd is the Valkyrie. She represents higher consciousness. This is also referred to as the Valkyrie in other Germanic legends. Siegfried, too, attains the Valkyrie when he attains his higher consciousness. — This depiction of the Valkyrie Gunnlöd takes us deep into Germanic mythology. The Germanic peoples were a warlike people who placed the greatest value on bravery. A warrior who fell on the battlefield was led to Valhalla by the Valkyrie. Whoever had fallen on the battlefield reached the higher part of his soul. This came to meet him in the form of the Valkyrie. The person who passed through the gate of death had to unite with the Valkyrie. That is why Wotan lingered with Gunnlöd. In Germanic legend, every initiate was imagined as someone who becomes united with the Valkyrie.

[ 12 ] It is said that Siegfried wore the cloak of invisibility. The initiate is, in a certain sense, hidden. People do not recognize the initiate. Through the cloak of invisibility, he is hidden from people. Siegfried is an initiate; he unites with the Valkyrie Brunhild. He becomes invulnerable, like all initiates. Yet he remains vulnerable only where he bears the cross, between his shoulder blades. A greater initiate is promised, one who will be invulnerable even there. Because the ancient Germanic peoples had long preserved their astral concepts, the secret teachers were able to impart the teachings into their astral consciousness.

[ 13 ] Almost all Asian peoples are descended from the ancient Atlanteans. Their ancestors came from Atlantis. The ancestors of the ancient Germanic peoples, too, had come from Atlantis. They had remained in Europe, while another group had migrated on to Asia. Those who had advanced further had first developed sensory consciousness and intellectual consciousness. There they already lived with advanced spiritual concepts. Hence, the urge arose in India to take an artificial path in order to penetrate into the other worlds. To do this, the Indians needed an artificial path. This is what is called yoga; it is a specific training that leads from the sensory world to the spiritual world. A yogi is a person who seeks to find the way back to the spiritual world. Thus, in India, the terms emerged that the intellect devised for the artificial clairvoyance developed through yoga training. The Germanic peoples also possessed astral vision. In India, artificial clairvoyance developed on the one hand, and intellectual philosophy on the other. Those who no longer possess astral vision need external symbols and rituals, such as those found in Indian symbolism. These are sensory expressions of the spiritual worlds. In India, what later blossomed most magnificently in Christianity also began to develop. Germania, too, had been guided toward Christianity. In Siegfried, people saw an initiate who was invulnerable except for one spot. Kriemhild fastened the cross to that spot. This is an image that prophetically points to the future of Germania. Here is the spot where the cross—which renders one invulnerable—will lie. Thus, the ancient legend points here to Christianity, which made this spot invulnerable.

[ 14 ] Because the Germanic world felt such a kinship with what came over through Christianity, that is why Christianity found such a warm reception there. Within Europe, there was no need for Indian philosophy at all. We could do without it entirely. What is gained from a proper immersion in the Germanic myths of the gods must seem even more profound.

[ 15 ] These concepts will come alive again when that which still lives—albeit veiled—in the soul of the people is brought to life. This treasure will be unearthed; then we will understand, in a unique way, what our European ancestors have to say to their descendants.

[ 16 ] Theosophy is intended to form a brotherhood encompassing all of humanity and to ensure that people carry forward into the future what they have learned from the past.