The Rudolf Steiner Archive

2. About the Knights Templar

[ 1 ] An initiate is one who is capable of interacting with other individualities on a personal level. The fourth stage of the path of knowledge is initiation. One cannot speak of the nature of the initiate.

[ 2 ] To understand Western intellectual culture, we must make a few observations. The starting point for our discussion today will be the event that Tauler experienced in the Middle Ages. He preached captivatingly as a Christian. One day, a figure came to him who seemed to want to listen to him. However, he soon proved to be greater than Tauler. He said, “This sermon is merely conceptual; it is merely intellectual knowledge, a matter of memory.” Through practice, however, [Tauler] soon reached a point where he preached differently—where he spoke through the Spirit. This layman walked alongside the Master, Jesus of Nazareth.

[ 3 ] Christianity arose from a circle that had its roots in Eastern sources. The Knights Templar had a home where Solomon’s Temple once stood. This is merely an external detail. One can, in fact, distinguish between an exoteric aspect, an esoteric aspect, and a secret teaching. The Knights Templar sought to give Christian life a completely new direction. Their rituals were concealed within a completely secret form of worship. They differed significantly from what was then considered Christian worship in the West. They were founded on an oath placed in the hands of a Christian patriarch. It was a movement that could even be regarded as anti-Christian. The worship of Christ as God was to be discarded. This reflects the Knights Templar’s emphasis on their faith in John the Baptist. It was a revival of what had existed within Christianity as part of the Gnostic school.

[ 4 ] In what way, then, did the Order of the Knights Templar represent a new direction in Christianity, a revival of the ancient teachings? Jesus has accompanied the development of culture to this very day. — “I will remain with you until the end of the world.”

[ 5 ] Just as today, it was impossible to learn anything about the true nature of Christianity through study. The most comprehensive studies on Christianity have been conducted. This is astonishing. One need only pick up Pfleiderer’s work. Yet this can offer no satisfaction to those who stand on the foundation of Christianity. Historical facts are of no help to us. It is a matter of seeing Jesus face to face, of a direct, life-giving influence. There must be a small circle that knows the truth not only through book learning, but through direct experience. The Knights Templar said to themselves: We can only be initiated into the mysteries through the Chela who was left to us.

[ 6 ] No one can skip any of these stages. There are four stages. “I baptize you with water, but one will come who will baptize with fire and the Spirit.” Baptism with water is associated with the person of John the Baptist.

[ 7 ] A large part of Goethe’s esoteric knowledge can be traced back to Rosicrucian teachings. Not only the outward aspect of this knowledge, but also the stream of mystical truths has endured. With Swedenborg, there is a danger of being easily dismissed as a charlatan. But before he arrived at his mysticism, he stood at the pinnacle of the science of his time. The Academy of Sciences collected Swedenborg’s scholarly writings. This movement also had a great influence on Goethe. Swedenborg was under the influence of a current within Atlantic culture. This influence can only be a very peculiar one, and one can see how difficult these mystical matters are for those who strive to make sense of them. The influence of this Atlantic school of thought may be characterized as follows:

[ 8 ] The Atlanteans inhabited a land that stretched between Africa, Europe, and America. It had already perished many thousands of years before our era. Plato still speaks of a final remnant, the island of Poseidonis, which is said to have sunk about ten thousand years before our era. For the mystical researcher, the fact of the Atlanteans’ existence is established. This fourth race had particularly developed a spiritual faculty that has receded into the background among us in favor of another faculty. Memory was their primary faculty. It is less important to us what they looked like in terms of their physical appearance. It fell to our fifth race to develop the intellect. The Atlanteans did not calculate or think as we do. Our way of calculating and thinking is a product of the fifth human race. Another mental faculty will replace the intellect again in the future. The Atlanteans never formed the judgment that 2 × 2 = 4. Such a judgment did not exist at that time. People remembered that 2 × 2 = 4 had been accepted in the past. They also knew general principles, but they were unable to classify certain types of animals. General judgments did not emerge until the fifth race.

[ 9 ] Here we see how one ability is overshadowed by another. The keen sense of smell possessed by certain animals is later overshadowed by human intellect. This Atlantean culture has been preserved in today’s spiritual development. Certain influences flow into our cultural life. Examples of this are Leadbeater and Swedenborg. However, this influence is always somewhat chaotic. Since the eighteenth century, there has been a very intense influence from this Atlantean lodge within our Western development. Many people are under this influence without even realizing it. The influence acts on the subconscious. Certain currents can always exert an influence on the subconscious. This can be observed in somnambulists. Many people who advocate certain ideas today are unaware that they are under this influence.

[ 10 ] What did the Order of the Knights Templar introduce into Western thought? They broke with Christianity. Astrology then emerged among them. Within the Order of the Knights Templar, we find a complete system of astrology. They now turn their gaze upward toward the world of the stars, toward the great interconnections of the universe, away from Jesus. Thomas Aquinas [in the thirteenth century] foreshadowed Copernicus, as did Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa [in the fifteenth century].

Two things should be noted:
1. A grand plan has been devised, and the Theosophical Society operates under its influence.
2. Religions share a common core of truth.

[ 11 ] This is expressed in the second point of the Theosophical Society’s program. The teaching that the Earth revolves around the Sun can also be found in the works of Cusanus and, later, Copernicus. This last point has emerged through a long process of development. Western culture sprang from the same source from which Gnostic knowledge had originally sprung.

[ 12 ] A comparison: I have a child to raise until adolescence. I do not want him to acquire knowledge too early that strengthens the intellect but does not sufficiently refine the character. Certain truths are left untouched at that stage. Once the mind has been properly purified and refined, one then approaches it with the truths of nature. The same is true on a larger scale in nature. First comes the development of the emotional side, and then that of the intellectual faculties. The development of literature is subject to the same influence.

[ 13 ] We have a mystical tradition and a scientific tradition. The former includes the well-known great mystics, while the latter includes natural scientists such as Lamarck, Darwin, Copernicus, and so on. These two traditions continue to coexist today. A unification has not yet been achieved.

[ 14 ] Reincarnation and karma are presented in the Bible as self-evident truths. The higher soul of humankind was the central theme of all wisdom religions. The Mysteries were primarily concerned with nurturing this higher soul. This higher soul was now to take a back seat so that the lower soul could undergo development. The lower soul, too, was to attain a higher religious culture. The more one set aside the development of the higher soul, the more surely this ennoblement of the individual personality was achieved. It is necessary to give humanity a new direction from this theosophical perspective.

[ 15 ] The materialist mindset has gained significant influence and has also had a profound impact on moral life. This can be seen in statements such as the following: “The tragedy of Hamlet is nothing more than a byproduct of what Shakespeare ate.”—In the long run, there is no morality in the materialist worldview. That is why the Theosophical Movement became necessary. In the past, worldviews were still possible on a materialist basis. Today, in light of scientific research, this is no longer the case.

[ 16 ] As long as Christianity was concerned solely with the sanctification of the individual, there was no need to consider the greater truths and the higher life of the soul. This is closely connected to what I have said about the mysteries. Upon closer examination, you will see that Christianity sought to popularize the mysteries. This is evident from many sayings: “Blessed are those who believe without seeing,” “Blessed are those who beg for the Spirit,” and so on. What lay within the Mysteries was to be handed down to humanity bit by bit.

[ 17 ] The mystery trial was carried out in several stages:

— The first stage was the purification of the personality, the purification of the astral body. Pythagoras, too, subjected his students to a preparatory, purifying process.
— Then he taught them about the nature of the external world.
— Then he instructed them on reincarnation and karma, the law of the moral world order.

[ 18 ] This process then also became external, historical; it became a mystical fact within historical development itself:

- Until the twelfth century, Christianity was the process of purification for humanity of the fifth race.
— This is followed by instruction on the nature of the external world. For humanity, this process takes centuries.
— Then comes instruction on reincarnation and karma. The development of the individual is repeated in the development of humanity.

[ 19 ] The repetition of the mystery process can be found in the Theosophical movement.