The Rudolf Steiner Archive

17. The Relationship Between Occultism and the Theosophical Movement

[ 1 ] I would like to announce once again that I will be giving a lecture tomorrow morning on certain current occult issues related to Freemasonry. And this will take place according to the old occult custom, with separate sessions for men and women. The lecture for gentlemen will take place at 10:00 a.m., and the one for ladies at 11:30 a.m. You may ask why this custom persists, one that will only be overcome within the Theosophical worldview. This will become clear from the content of the lectures, and I would also like to note that tomorrow evening the Besant Branch will hold its regular meeting at 8:00 p.m.

[ 2 ] So I would like to speak about the relationship between occultism and the Theosophical Movement, as well as some other related questions. There has been much discussion about whether the Theosophical Movement—particularly as it is expressed in the Theosophical Society—is an occult movement, or whether one must disregard all occultism within the Theosophical Movement. The Theosophical Movement as such, insofar as it is expressed in the Theosophical Society, cannot be an occult movement. An occult movement has different prerequisites than those that can be expressed within the Theosophical Society. Occult societies have existed throughout history. Above all, they required one thing: namely, that they were, by the very nature of their endeavors, a kind of hierarchical organization. This means that the members of such a society or brotherhood were organized into degrees. Each degree, from the first all the way up to the ninetieth, had its own specific task. Within each degree, there were very specific tasks. No one could be promoted to a higher degree until they had fulfilled the tasks of the lower degree.

[ 3 ] I can only hint, in very general terms, at why this is so. For we must first discuss the tasks of such occult brotherhoods. My dear friends, who have heard me speak about such matters on previous occasions, will understand me all the better today. Occult brotherhoods are guiding brotherhoods of humanity. Their task is to prepare the way for the future. Everything that is to happen in the future is already being prepared in the present; it finds its expression in the present as an idea, as a plan, and is then realized in the future. Even if you observe the development of the human race on the outer, physical plane, you will still find that things which were later realized first sprouted as ideas much earlier in the minds and souls of leading figures and individualities, striving to find expression. Take the steam engine, for example: if you trace its history back, you will see how the steam engine developed from the simplest of facts; how even a cooking pot filled with boiling water contains the idea of the steam engine, which then progresses from this simplest form to the most complex mechanism. But these are trifles compared to the great edifice of humanity that lies before us. The most important matters require much broader and far more significant perspectives. They require that what is to happen in the distant future be, in a certain sense, already being prepared today. How can such a thing happen?

[ 4 ] By having the power in our hands today to release into the world the forces that are to take effect in the future. Everything that will happen here on the physical plane in the future is already being prepared much earlier on the astral plane and the Devachan plane; so that, in terms of their power, distant future events can indeed be traced on the higher planes and worlds. But human beings cannot effectively influence the future unless they prepare for this influence based on their knowledge of the active forces. Human beings are self-aware creatures and must take their destiny into their own hands. That is why there have always been advanced members of our human race who can see not only on the physical plane but also on higher planes.

[ 5 ] Let’s try to understand what it means to foresee on higher planes. Suppose you have a pond filled with water. You can foresee that, as the temperature drops, the pond will freeze over, and that skaters and others may be on it. Similarly, we are dealing with the relationship between the so-called astral plane and the physical plane—that is, our world. For when one observes the processes on the astral plane, one can indeed, with the help of astral events, see what will later manifest, as it were, as a densified version of those events. And so, from astral events, one can discern what will later appear in condensed form on the physical plane. Physical events are nothing other than such condensed events that previously took place in the higher worlds.

[ 6 ] An example: Mysteries existed throughout antiquity. Their purpose was to accept individuals and initiate them into the mysteries of existence, or—as John the Apocalyptic says—to reveal what is to happen “soon,” in the future. When we enter such a temple, we find that instruction is taking place there for those students who are admitted to the first degree. We also find instruction for students who are more highly developed, and increasingly so. The first stage involved the participants purifying their astral bodies. This consisted not merely in adopting ordinary civic ethics. Moral ethics were a prerequisite; what is at issue here had to be followed with strict fulfillment of duty. When the student then rose more and more toward higher ideals, rising above the passions and drives of ordinary life to desires that stand above all that is petty in human nature, and purified his desires and aversions to such an extent that the great, universal concerns of the human race became his own—when he felt compassion and empathy beyond himself—then he was on the path to accomplishing what was called the “purification of the astral body.”

[ 7 ] Then he was allowed to intervene in the denser bodies; he was allowed to work on his etheric body; he was allowed not only to reshape the soft, supple, and pliable astral matter in his mental and soul bodies, but he was also allowed to work into his etheric body. Then he was what is called a chela.

[ 8 ] Such a chela is one who not only recognizes higher duties, who has not only undergone purification to the point of making human duties his own, but has progressed to the point of transcending the lower and higher concerns of individual peoples, and even of individual faiths. His gaze is directed toward the life of all humanity. And through his more fully organized etheric body, he becomes a participant in the great affairs of the Earth’s development. For this to happen, the following had to occur.

[ 9 ] The chela had to neutralize all the forces that hindered him from working on his etheric body. When you look at a person, they have a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. The chela has purified his astral body and is now able to work on his etheric body. You will understand why a person must carry out this purification of his astral body. What happens, then, when the astral body is purified? What enters the etheric body? That which is inherent in the astral body.

[ 10 ] The forces that dwell in the astral body imprint themselves upon the etheric body. As long as you are working on the astral body, you can continually correct these flaws: astral matter is thin and malleable. You can restore balance to it again and again. But once a person, as a chela, has begun to develop the etheric body, these qualities become imprinted upon it, and the etheric body is much more permanent. By making earthly imperfections permanent, the person would become a dangerous member of humanity. Hence the constant emphasis on the necessity of purification. This etheric body is influenced by the forces acting upon it. If you imagine it separate from the physical body, it has a completely different elasticity. When it is contained within the physical body, it holds the body in its form; but as long as it remains there, it is initially too weak to absorb into itself what has passed through the catharsis as astrality. This is why the following had to be done throughout antiquity.

[ 11 ] First, the forces preventing the etheric body from becoming elastic had to be removed. This was accomplished by inducing a lethargic state in the entire physical body. The person lay there, and the etheric body was drawn out of the physical body. The physical body then lay there as if dead, and the etheric body was shaped according to its own powers. This is the “entombment.” The person in question was placed in a lethargic state for three to three and a half days. And then he was able to work on the etheric body. And then, after he had shaped the etheric body to correspond with the astral body, he returned to the physical body. Then he had awakened the inner life within himself; then he was a resurrected being, and he received a new name. This was an event on the astral plane. Everything I have described took place on the astral plane; the physical body had nothing to do with it.

[ 12 ] This event was repeated in all the ancient mysteries. Every initiate was familiar with it. Now imagine it condensed, brought down to the physical plane, so that something has happened with this event that previously took place only on the astral plane. It is comparable, for example, to having a piece of ice where there used to be water. Many such astral events must coincide and converge so that physical condensation may eventually become possible. Because the appearance of Christ brought about on the physical plane what had previously taken place time and again on the astral plane in the mystery temples, the Mystery of Golgotha became historically possible. It was able to be brought down to the physical plane. Through this example, we learn to understand how the future is actually prepared in occult brotherhoods.

[ 13 ] If we now ask ourselves, “What is actually happening there?”, the answer is this: Certainly, in thought, in the idea, one can grasp a great deal. But the idea has no reality. An idea is nothing other than what is brought down from the higher planes onto the physical plane. What a person thinks about it, however, is the least effective part of the process, because it exists only on the physical plane. The situation is different when this idea is met with something that also originates from the higher spheres.

[ 14 ] Take, for example, Pythagoras’s teaching on the music of the spheres, as he taught it to his students. Philosophers seek to present Pythagoras’s occult music as a very simple system. The intellect can grasp this quickly. But what mattered to him was that the student should only come to it when his mind and mood were prepared for it. For someone who has no sense of images derived from the astral realm, it is also impossible to attempt to explain the deeper meaning of Raphael’s Sistine Madonna: the feeling, the mood, must rise up within him. That which would otherwise leave one cold as an idea appears here in the painting, artistically alive, as the divine world-idea—as that according to which the divine forces created the world—and a simple line becomes something sacred! As thoughts entwine themselves around the element of the divine, the thought is met with divine influence.

[ 15 ] Such training, then, is about gradually preparing people to approach the great world ideas and to learn how to receive them. Then, as they delve into these great world ideas, they gradually connect them with that effective—though otherwise occult—force which, in the astral realm, has already been preparing the future for the physical plane. If the guiding brother has students with him who are devoted to such spirit-imbued ideas, then they become a force that also helps him move forward in his work for the outer world; thus arise the great spiritual centers of spiritual activity.

[ 16 ] So you see that what I have called occultism actually has a great deal to do with the progress of humanity. And in our time, we have a particularly important task. Let us try, in just a few words, to hint at how we came to this task of ours.

[ 17 ] We belong to the great root race of humanity that populates this Earth. Ever since the land we inhabit today rose from the floods of the sea, ever since the Atlantean race began to gradually disappear, the great Aryan root race has been the dominant one on Earth. When we look at ourselves, we here in Europe are the fifth subrace of the great Aryan root race. The first subrace lived in the distant past in ancient India. And today’s Indians are descendants of that first subrace, whose spiritual life still survives in the ancient Vedas of the Indians. The Vedas, however, are merely echoes of the ancient Rishi culture. At that time, there was no written language; there was only tradition. Then came the second, third, and fourth subraces. The fourth sub-race embraced Christianity. Then we see that around the middle of the Middle Ages, the fifth sub-race formed, to which we and the neighboring peoples belong. The ancient Indians of the first sub-race lived under different conditions than we do and were, in essence, organized differently as well. Even their present-day descendants—the modern Indians—are organized quite differently from our European peoples. Anyone who, as an occultist, examines these differences will find that in the ancient Indian people, the etheric body is much less bound to the physical body; it has not become so deeply immersed in the physical body, but is much more easily influenced by the astral body.

[ 18 ] This is related to the fact that the Indian race can easily transfer something from the astral body to the etheric body, and that this Indian race can easily work into the etheric body. This means nothing other than that, through occult training, Indians can more easily attain certain higher insights. The more easily the etheric body can be influenced by the astral body, the easier it is to affect the etheric body through images rather than abstract concepts. This makes it all the easier for those undergoing yoga training in the astral realm to establish a connection with the higher realms through visualizations. These visualizations act upon the etheric body, which is still malleable. There is no need to work with strict concepts here; rather, one can work on the soul of an Indian person using the simplest of visualizations, and he will be able to reach very high levels of development.

[ 19 ] The human race has changed over the course of its various sub-races. Today, our etheric body is much more strongly influenced by the physical body than was the case with the ancient Indians. And so it is that we must work much more intensely and inwardly to influence the etheric body. We cannot resort to half-dreamlike imaginings. We must subject everything to intense concentration, working on our inner being through strong spiritual concentration on the purely supersensible, not merely through pictorial concepts. Such a visualization, which brings about a strong concentration of our inner being, can then have a much more powerful effect on the etheric body, which is bound to the physical body. In order for the astral body to influence the etheric body, it used to have to be outside the etheric body. Now, however, the etheric body can be influenced by the astral body even while it is within the physical body. If we were to perform the same experiment that was customary in the ancient mystery schools and induce lethargy, we would be able to influence the etheric body. But if earthly consciousness and the agility of thought were to return, they would immediately erase what the astral body had imprinted on the etheric body. We must strongly influence the etheric body if we want it to retain what we have imprinted on it. The occult task has changed today; it is now a more inner one.

[ 20 ] And so you can also see how, over time, significant differences arise among the successive occult schools. The Indian system of yoga is different from the Rosicrucian training. The Rosicrucian training is based on what I have just explained to you. In addition, something else comes into play: in order for such progress to occur at all, it was necessary to work on the power of the intellect. Much more than in the past, the intellect was engaged, enabling it—through the power of inner concentration—to develop the capacity to be led across to the comprehension of the supersensible. In more recent times, therefore, teaching had to rely much more on concepts; emphasis had to be placed on the training of the intellect and on abstract imagination. Consider the changes in culture from ancient India to our own time. In ancient India, there was a high degree of intuition and little outward manifestation of civilization. Now, in our time, the opposite is true. As a result, the position of occultism is gradually becoming quite different. This means that much of what was once kept secret has now become common knowledge. Many, many such insights and concepts were formerly preserved within the occult brotherhoods, and a person could only gain access to these things once they had transformed their entire heart. Today, the occultist no longer has control over this. He must now recognize that much of what was formerly reserved for later stages of training has already been revealed through the culture of the outer world. The initiate into the mysteries must take this into account. And so many truths that were taught in the occult schools have gradually had to be brought out into the physical plane.

[ 21 ] Even what is taught in today’s elementary schools would lead us away from the spiritual realm, were it not for the occult underpinnings that come into play from another direction. In earlier times, the student knew that behind what he received as curriculum in school and in the scholarly world there was something even higher, and that he himself might one day be able to attain this higher knowledge. He knew that he was a member of a spiritual organism; today, in the democratic world, many concepts are adopted that do not lead to such insight. The “tip of the pyramid,” so to speak, had to be added to the structure of external democratic knowledge. The elementary knowledge of the forces hidden in the world had now been provided. What was still missing was the tip leading to a spiritual worldview. To provide this, a worldwide movement had to be founded. The Theosophical Movement was conceived as such. Therefore, as the popularization of the previously hidden wisdom had progressed further and further, certain brotherhoods decided to reveal to the world as much of the mysteries underlying it as was necessary to bring the knowledge of the outer world into harmony with the comprehensive occult knowledge of the brotherhoods.

[ 22 ] Here we arrive at the point where we can see the connection between the Theosophical Movement and the Theosophical Society and occultism. The Theosophical Society is not an occult movement, nor is it an occult brotherhood; it is founded on democratic principles, whereby every member is equal to the others. However, how one should understand the mission of the Theosophical Society is another matter. The Society’s mission lies on the physical plane. To fully grasp this, one must be able to look up into the higher worlds. But the point is not that the Theosophist is already able to look up into the higher worlds; rather, the point is that occult forces are also developed within the movement so that the Theosophical Society can be a place from which occultism can radiate and come to the fore. It is one thing for a society to be an occult brotherhood, and quite another for it to say: “We are not an occult brotherhood, but within our society, occultism is once again being discussed.”

[ 23 ] Today, when essentially all of humanity is looking longingly toward the higher worlds without finding the paths to them, it is necessary to popularize an even greater portion of occult knowledge. And this is the task of occultism within the Theosophical Society. Spiritual movements have always had a stimulating effect on the development of culture, even on the physical plane. Their outward expression is nothing other than the earthly realization of what had been prepared spiritually. What else is it, for example, when we consider the works of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci? In these works, they have conjured up something spiritual on the wall through colors and forms: the image is permeated by what first lived as the spiritual in the artist’s soul. The spiritual precedes that which later appears as its expression in the material world.

[ 24 ] And materialistic external culture is merely a reflection of the inner mindset of human beings, which has become materialistic. Since 1850, a purely materialistic urban culture has been spreading throughout civilized nations. We see the great achievements it has made on the physical plane; but we also see what it has been unable to accomplish. In the arts, for example, it has produced no truly new style—with one exception: the style of the department store. This is something that is inwardly true in relation to our external civilization. Everything else that has been carried over from earlier times has no connection to the present age. Only when we have formed a society whose members are moved by a spiritual force—such as that which once lived in Christianity, and which still lives as a longing in the best Christian souls and can be regained—will we once again have a spiritual culture. And such a culture will once again produce artists in all areas of life.

[ 25 ] Let Theosophy live in the souls of human beings, and it will once again flow forth from those souls as a style, as art; it will be there for our eyes and ears as well. The outer world will once again be able to serve as an expression of the spiritual, which is already being lived out in such a society today. In this sense, the Theosophical Society could contribute to the shaping of future culture.

[ 26 ] When we are together, we must realize that we are like cells that must unite to shape a future culture. Within our souls, the forces are being prepared that will one day transform the world in such a way that it will become a physical imprint of our present moods and outlooks on life. Everything that is revealed and manifests itself today was once occult. Just as electricity is an obvious force today, so it was once an occult force. And what is still occult today is destined to become a driving force for the future. Just as, millions of years ago, this human body of ours was formed from forces present in our environment, so today a higher body—a body of the future—is taking shape within us; yet only in the distant future will this body of the future be ours.

[ 27 ] Let’s trace our path of development back a little. What was there once? A dull human consciousness. All around, the world—which looked different from ours—was a dreamlike mirror. People possessed a dreaming consciousness. And even as the development of their community progressed, they had no parliaments based on the exchange of opinions; they had nothing of the sort. Everything was merely reflected in the consciousness that arose within the human being. And today’s physical organs: How did they come into being? Through those forces working upon human beings. Just as the animals in the dark caves of Kentucky lost their sight because they had no need for it, so too did the external forces organize what we know as the eye and the ear. These were formed by the forces of sound and light and developed from within our organism. From what now lives within us, our spiritual organism will develop in the future. Those things that stand before us as expressions of our spiritual culture—the churches and so on, the cultural works that convey beauty and truth to us—will be imprinted upon our higher members of being. And when these eventually unfold into a life of their own, then what lives as beauty and truth in external culture will rise up within us. What our eyes and ears perceive now are building blocks for the organization of a higher future. If we view the world from this perspective, then the human inner life takes on an entirely different meaning.

[ 28 ] We are thus faced with a fact that can help us easily understand what is called yoga training or inner occult training. From the words I have spoken, you will be able to gather that that which once created the world, that which worked and exerted its power in the world, was [later] absorbed into our inner being. What is within me today was once outside of me: this is the fundamental idea of occult training. Before our physical body existed, our etheric body was already present. Our etheric body, in turn, is a structure that was formed by our astral body. And this is the starting point of yoga training. Anyone who embarks on the training of yoga descends into their etheric body and knows that in the etheric body they will find the power that once, millions of years ago, built them up. Slowly, the physical body has emerged from the foundation of the etheric body.

[ 29 ] I can describe only in broad strokes how the descent into the etheric body takes place. There are certain currents in the etheric body that serve as precursors to the physical bodily organs. The nervous system, the nerve tracts, the sympathetic nervous system that extends all the way to the back, and the nerve ganglia of the sympathetic nervous system—these are parts that were formed in the etheric realm in time immemorial. This is a process that took place in ancient times. Then, as human beings progressed further and further, there came a time when, within this body—which now contained the potential for the physical nervous system—a structure emerged that enables us to generate internal body heat and produce warm blood. This, in turn, is a later formation from the etheric body, which by then was already strongly influenced by the forces of the astral body. And from what we subsequently find to be the foundation of the brain, the spinal cord developed—again from the etheric body, as the other pole of the etheric body, which developed on one side into the brain and on the other into the body’s internal blood warmth. This took place in the past. Not only the forces of nature but also higher spiritual beings were at work in this formation of the human being.

[ 30 ] When the yogi gradually descends into this etheric body, he penetrates into the times of the past, when his original spiritual form was influenced by these forces and beings and brought forth that which lives within us today. Once a person has descended into life in this way, he can reach that point once more during the descent. He descends from the head downward into the lower realms that were formed in the most ancient times, and then back up into his head. This is a description of the occult path of knowledge, albeit a brief one. Further details can be provided in the occult schools.

[ 31 ] Thus, the student of the wisdom of the mysteries developed the ability to look back into earlier times; then comes the time when he can undertake the occult pilgrimage. He achieves this through a specific practice by which he overcomes his personal self and thereby ceases to be the small, bound ego. Only then can he complete his ascent into the universe. Once more he descends, taking the world force with him, into the sea of the past, in an ascending line. As he gradually ascends, he can then trace in detail the path he has thus traveled. Slowly and gradually, human beings learn to descend into the sea of their formative forces, and ultimately they reach a point that lies near the Origin. This must have been the experience of those human beings whose eyes first opened to direct their gaze into the cosmos.

[ 32 ] Then the student comes to realize the merging of the “I” with the great “I” of the world. And now he must learn to say to the small “I”: “I am not you.” It is an important moment when he comes to understand what this means: “I am not you.” This is a moment when one begins to understand that there are forces in nature higher than thought, that there is something beyond oneself that cannot be expressed with present-day concepts, yet which causes the speech of two people discussing the same subject to be, in one case, clear but dull, and in the other, pulsing with the warm light that will shape the future.

[ 33 ] When the student is ready, he can learn in ways different from anything he has experienced so far. He experiences something very special. A spiritual being approaches him in the supersensible world. He encounters the very same individuality with which he was once connected. It is a great and important mystery that certain stages of our existence repeat themselves. We consciously ascend from Manas to the higher forces. We once descended from spiritual worlds, and at that time the same being implanted something within us that we now encounter again at the stage corresponding to that point in the past when it was with us. It is the teacher, the so-called guru. We met him for the first time back then; now we meet him again when we are able to consciously grasp what he imprinted upon our souls and what we unconsciously received.

[ 34 ] And as we descend further, we encounter the spirits who helped shape us eons ago. We encounter the twelve spirits: the spirits of will, the spirits of wisdom, the spirits of form, the spirits of movement, the spirits of personality or egoism, the spirits of fire or heat, the spirits of twilight or twilight, and so on. All of this presents itself to our spiritual sense during this descent into the universe, on this pilgrimage. And that alone enables us to glimpse the future; that enables us to foresee what is to happen “shortly,” as the Apostle says.

[ 35 ] This is the task of occultism. It must be solved because this solution is necessary. There are plenty of movements that are idealistic and ethical. However, the movement known as Theosophy differs from others in that occultism consciously plays a role within it. This clarifies the relationship between occultism and theosophy. The Theosophical Society can never aspire to be an occult brotherhood. The strength it needs to fulfill its mission, the life it needs to thrive—these can only come from the wellspring of occultism. Therefore, the Theosophical Society will flourish when there is an understanding of the cultivation of occult teachings and the occult way of life. This is not yet a demand that the members themselves should be occultists. But if Theosophy were to forget that this life force pulses within it, then it may be an interesting society, but it will not accomplish what was intended for it by the sublime powers that stood at its inception.

[ 36 ] Anyone who understands this will never wish to strip the Theosophical Society of its occult character. Yet anyone who holds this view within the Theosophical Society finds themselves in a dilemma. They will have to turn their ear toward the source from which the occult truths flow to us, while at the same time directing their attention to the Society’s outward, exoteric life. These matters must be strictly separated from one another; they must never be mixed together. Nor, however, should one, when speaking of the outward Theosophical Society, speak of the occult personalities who stand at its source. The forces that dwell on the higher plane—and who, for the sake of human evolution, live outside the physical body—never interfere in these matters. They never provide anything other than impulses. When we work objectively for the expansion of the Theosophical Society, the great individualities we call Masters always stand by our side; we may turn to them and allow them to speak through us. When it comes to the dissemination of occult life, the Masters speak. When it is merely a matter of organizing the Society, they leave that to those who live on the physical plane. That is the difference between the occult current and the framework of the Theosophical Organization.

[ 37 ] Let me explain the difference between what is known as the inner spiritual current and what manifests itself through individual personalities in the way that perhaps best captures this distinction: When it comes to spiritual life, the Masters speak; when it comes to mere organization, error is possible, for there the Masters remain silent.

From the Q&A section

What role does memory play in occult training?

[ 38 ] Memory is one of the things that must be sacrificed during occult training. However, during the ascent, everything that was lost during the descent is regained. As you develop occultly to a higher level, you will no longer have any memory at all. Memory has evolved into something else. You can read about this in *Luzifer* issues No. 14 and 15. That is when true reading of the past begins. First on the astral plane and then in the Akashic Records. What the student has lost in memory is then replaced by the ability to read. He will no longer know when Caesar was born, but he will be able to trace back all the events up to that time.

How should the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount be interpreted?

[ 39 ] The Sermon on the Mount is a teaching by Christ to his disciples. First, one must understand what it means to “be on the mountain.” There, Christ Jesus explained the great connections of the world to his disciples. It is immensely interesting from an occult point of view. In the occult world, everything initially appears to us as a mirror image. You see your own passions reversed. The animal within a person confronts him as a wild beast. It is the outpouring of one’s own passion, which returns to him in the mirror image. Therefore, we may say that a person necessarily evokes, through himself, the mirror image of his actions on the higher plane. The number 126 appears as 621. That this is so was stated by Christ to his disciples in the Beatitudes. “To become blessed” means to draw closer to the soul. The “Holy Spirit is the Spirit that heals.” The first sentence, if we translate it correctly, would read something like this:

Blessed are those who beg for the Spirit, for they will find the Kingdom of Heaven within themselves. [Mt 5:1]

[ 40 ] And furthermore:

Whoever is persecuted for my sake will find the Kingdom of Heaven within themselves. [Mt 5:6]

[ 41 ] Then something emerges from within toward the outer world, and in the outer world it meets it again as a reflection. A good Greek translation conveys all of this clearly. However, the true meaning can only be understood through occult knowledge.

What is the difference between a person who is highly developed in the occult and one who is less developed in the occult?

[ 42 ] The difference is merely a matter of time. Why did the highly evolved beings of earlier times attain such spiritual greatness? Because they traced their origins back to earlier stages of the world’s creation. The occultist speaks from experience, and beyond a certain point, man can say nothing. Beyond that, there is only speculation. Only at the end of all things will it be possible to speak of those things that transcend the end of all things.

Are there also dangers associated with occult pursuits?

[ 43 ] Yes, there are dangers involved in occult pursuits. Above all, one must be vigilant and alert—not in a mediumistic state. The occultist enters no realm of higher life except with clear consciousness, so that he moves through it just as he walks in the physical world. I must not lose my physical consciousness. If I do, that is when the danger begins. I must not receive anything while in a dull state of consciousness, but only in a state of completely clear consciousness. People who enter twilight states, trances, and mediumistic states must be careful not to approach their teachers in any way other than with complete freedom. Overall, the development does not consist of the student turning toward the astral plane; rather, the methods ensure that one enters the astral plane only when one is capable of having higher experiences there—that is, when one is no longer exposed to all those confusing impressions.

[ 44 ] A person who is on the physical plane lives in his “I” on the Devachan plane. The goal must be for a person to retain this life on the Devachan plane just as he retains his physical life, so that the following does not occur.

[ 45 ] Suppose a person suddenly gains the ability to see on the astral plane. This would confuse him, since he is accustomed to having only the external world penetrate his consciousness. His “I” cannot be present because it is unaccustomed to living on the astral plane; it is only accustomed to connecting with the world through the physical senses. If you place a person unprepared into the astral world, he is exposed to all manner of dangers. He must be able to reconnect with the world; he must have a foothold from which to proceed. Gaining this foothold means “building a hut.” In the Transfiguration scene, Christ led the disciples into the Devachan plane, and there, as is well known, the disciples said: “Let us build huts here.”

[ 46 ] If astral power is developed before a mental foundation has been established, it is possible that the disciple may expose himself to all kinds of impulses and passions. The new method is intended to prevent this.

The question is raised about the occult side of Christianity and whether black magic is possible in this context.

[ 47 ] It is true: what is called Christian development is not identical with occultism, nor is it identical with Eastern philosophies. The matter appears even more profound when one considers the occult aspect of Christianity. Christianity emerged in the fourth sub-race. The fact that it came into the world in the form it took has deep significance. But it need not remain that way. Like every spiritual movement, this Christianity took on a particular form at the dawn of the fourth sub-race.

[ 48 ] I would just like to briefly describe how this emerges. Transport yourself back to ancient India and to the people who were the bearers of the ancient Zoroastrian culture. Then to the era of Semitic culture—the Jews, the Hebrews—and then we see the fourth human race emerging. It was the Greco-Latin culture that developed in Southern Europe. The emergence of the Greco-Latin race is expressed in the art of antiquity, for example in the Laocoön Group. If you look at this Laocoön Group, you will see Laocoön struggling with the snakes. Laocoön was an ancient priest in Troy. And the culture of ancient Troy was still a priestly culture. As is well known, Anchises fled after the fall of Troy. Then a priestly colony was founded in Italy: Alba Longa. Alba Longa also means “the long chasuble,” the garment of a priestly culture. Alba Longa was founded for a new priestly culture, as an offshoot of the ancient Trojan one. The serpent winds itself around the priest. This is a symbol of the overcoming of the priesthood, which has nothing to do with cunning, but only with spirituality. This is depicted in the Laocoön Group before us. It is a great testament to the transition from the third to the fourth sub-race.

[ 49 ] There is a law in the occult that states—and I cannot prove this today—that in a race where the leading individuals nourish their physical bodies—that is, the instrument of the spirit—with alcoholic or similar beverages, it is simply impossible to attain knowledge of the higher aspects of the human being. There are only two possibilities here: either knowledge of the higher worlds and no alcohol, or alcohol and development on the physical plane with the prospect that there may be other planes, into which one is, however, unable to look. That is why all ancient cultures were influenced by the idea of reincarnation. Even the slave who worked on the Egyptian pyramids knew the truth of reincarnation. He knew that one day he, too, would occupy the position from which he was now commanded to obey. Christianity served to educate humanity about the importance of the physical plane. The fifth subrace was then prepared through the culture of authority. How does this fifth subrace prepare itself externally? By taking a completely different direction, particularly in the mysteries. Before Dionysus, there was no concept of the later sacrifice. There were the ablutions, and the water itself was the sacrifice. With Dionysus, the god of becoming becomes active. The culture of the ram or lamb emerges. Homer. Christ is the individuality that descends from the highest regions. He already embodies physically today what other human beings will also embody in the very distant future. If you wish to contemplate Christ, he is best described in the Gospel of John, the beloved disciple. “The Word became flesh,” it says there. Humanity will one day become the Word, and this Word lives in the flesh in Christ. If you consider this Christ in the fourth sub-race, he could say one thing: “I am, in a certain sense, deeply connected to this sub-race, this fourth one, but at the same time I am also growing out of this fourth sub-race.” I represent that which will appear again and again in the future. In this way, he is connected to human development, to the earthly wave of evolution that comprises the fourth and fifth sub-races, and will then comprise the sixth sub-race. From there, he looks upon everything that develops as material life on Earth.

[ 50 ] This is part of the life of Christ; and how did this body become a member of the fourth subrace? Through the emergence of a culture that severed the doctrine of reincarnation. Christ did, in fact, teach his disciples about reincarnation. For they themselves asked him, “Shouldn’t that happen only after Elijah has appeared again?” Then he said, “He has already appeared. John was Elijah, but they did not recognize him.”

[ 51 ] We therefore regard Theosophy as the fulfillment of Christianity. It teaches what Christianity has only hinted at. The ancient sacrifices were water sacrifices. The sacrifices of the fourth subrace are wine sacrifices. And Christ turns water into wine. This is to be understood in a physical and material sense. Christian monks are allowed to drink wine. They are not forbidden to drink wine. This makes Christianity a different kind of development. Christian development must entrust itself entirely to the Guide. The disciple is not permitted to see for himself—and is thus not permitted to have drunk wine. This is also the case with the Lord’s Supper.

[ 52 ] What, then, is present there? The body of the entire Earth is present in Christ. He can say, “This is my body.” And what is the blood? It is that which will directly give rise to the passions in the time to come. It is the lifeblood of the Dionysian culture. Wine is the astral element—in its all-encompassing individuality, in concentrated physical form. I can only hint at all this now. Consider the individualities that have grown out of the Christian life: this applies to them. They surrender themselves to the one who guides them, because for a time they walk solely on the physical plane. This is Christian occult development.

[ 53 ] But there is also such a thing as Christian black magic. It truly exists and plays a certain role. Perhaps it will be possible to provide more specific information about this during our conversation. Let us take a fully developed occultist of the old world—one in whom the light has shone from the very beginning—and then the modern occultist, who stems from the Rosicrucians and is now developing. This is the one in whom the light is present, where one develops with a certain level of consciousness and entrusts oneself to the guide. It is wakefulness that is at stake when one wishes to develop occultly.

Can you tell us more about Noah and the Flood?

[ 54 ] The question regarding Noah is connected to my most recent occult research. No one will find anything in *Luzifer* that I did not already know at the time I wrote those articles. But now I know a little more about it. The climatic conditions have now become clear and vivid to me. I have come to understand something that I would have mentioned back then if I had understood it at the time. I interpreted the passage about Noah allegorically back then. To me, it was a symbol of a profound spiritual meaning. But now I know that this rainbow in the Bible corresponds to a literal fact. Climatic conditions were different in ancient Atlantis. The distribution of air and water was different. It is no coincidence that German legend speaks of “Nebelheim” (Land of Mist). There is no rain there yet. The distribution of water in the atmosphere is different, and different cloud formations exist, so that one finds that the formation of a rainbow was not yet possible in ancient Atlantis. Such conditions only became possible when Atlantis was flooded and the new continents rose.

[ 55 ] Now we are given a hint as to how the rainbow arose from the Flood. Noah is the biblical representative of a certain tribe that originally originated in Atlantis. We are speaking of the Proto-Semites. All subraces are, in a certain sense, descended from them. We know this, of course, from theosophical literature. So in a certain sense, it is true that everyone descends from the Proto-Semitic race. The fourth subrace, which emerged from the one that existed at that time, is rooted in the Proto-Semites, so that the one tribe—which is presented to us in the Bible as Noah’s—is particularly characterized by its wine-drinking.

How is the formation of races related to Germanic mythology?

[ 56 ] There was a center in the Gobi Desert. From there flowed the northern cultural current, which had a tragic character. It is reflected in *The Nibelungen* and in *Götterdämmerung*. “Druid” means “oak.” The arrival of Christianity represents one of the expectations found in all Nordic mysteries. This is expressed through a symbolum. Certain truths are conveyed to the initiated through specific symbols. What was it that had to be brought, what was foretold by the ancient Druid priests? It was the cross.

[ 57 ] Now there is a Nordic initiate to whom all these things can be traced back. His name is Sieg. All the names such as Siegfried, Sieglinde, Siegmund, and so on trace back to this Sieg. This Nordic initiate found expression in the later figure of Siegfried. He is portrayed as an initiate. This is evident from the fact that he was invulnerable due to the dragon’s blood, yet he remained vulnerable at a specific point on his shoulder blade. And it was taught: Another will yet come who will also overcome this vulnerable spot. From the fertilization of the fourth subrace with what had remained and come over from earlier times, the fifth subrace developed. This gave rise to the founding of the fifth subrace.