The Rudolf Steiner Archive

4. Rosicrucians, Count St. Germain, French Revolution

[ 1 ] Next Friday, we will discuss the processes that precede human birth. For occult research, the states that the human being must undergo before birth are also important. We will then also address questions regarding the union of the human “I” with its prepared human physical body and various other questions related to the manifestations of time.

[ 2 ] Today I would like to say a few words about the relationship of our Theosophical Society [to other spiritual movements]. As the Theosophical Society, we differ quite significantly from all previous endeavors. Last time we saw how the esoteric teachings were handled in the Pythagorean School, and I pointed out that in this Pythagorean School we have something that the Esoteric Doctrine taught in secret. In terms of doctrine, we have something in common with this Pythagorean School.

[ 3 ] And then we have something similar again with those who existed at the time of [early] Christianity. The Theosophical Society is concerned with the teachings as we find them in Gnosticism.

[ 4 ] The Theosophical Society, however, differs in essence from any kind of secret society. It is true that we gather in large numbers within the Theosophical Society, as in the time of Christ, rather than in small, hidden circles, as was the case with the Pythagorean School. But we can point out even more similarities.

[ 5 ] I have already mentioned the Rosicrucians and the Knights Templar. Their situation was different, for they were true secret societies organized according to a hierarchical principle. The Rosicrucians addressed only a select few. They never gathered in larger groups. Today I would like to give you an idea of how the Rosicrucians operated. They existed in their original form until the end of the 18th century, when the strangest spiritual movements emerged, forcing them to change their form. Christian Rosenkreutz was incarnated as Count Saint Germain at that time. From the thirteenth century until the French Revolution, the Rosicrucians were known only to one another. Only someone who was a Rosicrucian himself could recognize another. It was impossible for a Rosicrucian to be recognized from the outside. Rosicrucians could hold the most inconspicuous secular positions. Many leaders in the education system held positions that allowed them to exert a strong influence without being recognized. Yet they had also withdrawn outwardly from the legislative and administrative spheres, and were thus highly effective.

[ 6 ] In truth, the Rosicrucian is connected only to his spiritual brothers. He acts solely from the spiritual sphere, from which humanity is governed. It is important to bear in mind here that it is not the word alone that has an effect. Influences from the spiritual sphere flow into human life in a wide variety of ways. Only those who can access the spiritual source truly know what this is all about. It is generally assumed today that history develops from external events, but there are countless other channels that are completely hidden and have a powerful impact on human life.

[ 7 ] How, then, does the Theosophical Society differ from these earlier movements? Today, facts are emerging from the outside world that make it necessary for Theosophy—the theosophical truths—to be communicated to the world. Bit by bit, humanity’s secret knowledge will be made accessible in the future. Thus, there are already parts of this earlier secret knowledge that have appeared or are appearing in public. They were discovered either through external natural science or, for example, through history in connection with certain essays, such as those published in the “Revue Bleu.”

[ 8 ] The published historical facts are roughly as follows: There are records concerning Queen Marie-Antoinette kept by the Countess d’Adh&mar. These are accounts from a close friend of Queen Marie-Antoinette of France, who lived near the queen as a lady-in-waiting. I will merely outline what is contained in these records. On the eve of the Revolution, a gentleman sent word to this lady-in-waiting. It was the Comte de Saint Germain; he requested an audience with the king and asked the lady-in-waiting to arrange one for him. Maurepas was a minister and was determined to prevent such an audience with Louis XVI. Thus, the Count of Saint Germain discussed matters pertaining to the royal house and the entire French nation with the queen’s lady-in-waiting and asked her to relay the conversation to the queen. — This is the first account of the events.

[ 9 ] The confidante presented the matter to Queen Marie-Antoinette. The queen granted the lady-in-waiting an audience with Count Saint Germain. Thus, in the presence of the Countess d’Adhemar, a conversation took place between the Queen and Count Saint Germain, during which he pointed out the perilous situation in which France found itself at that time. He then went on to say: “If my warnings are not heeded, I will be gone before three generations have passed.”

[ 10 ] Prime Minister Maurepas, however, subsequently made any further contact with Count Saint Germain impossible. In July 1789, Count Saint Germain returned to Paris once more to speak with the queen’s confidante during a rendezvous in a church. During this conversation with the confidante, he not only spoke of events pertaining to the coming years, but also predicted things for decades to come. “He who sows the wind shall reap the whirlwind.” He had already uttered these words long before the time when Christ walked the earth. This man, who appeared at that time as Count Saint Germain, was none other than the founder of Rosicrucianism, Christian Rosenkreutz himself. We are dealing here with a man who can live entirely in the mental world, entirely in the world of thought. Thoughts exist not only in the present but also in the past, and thus thoughts will become deeds in the future.

[ 11 ] In the last lecture on the occult, I described how the theurgist gains insight into the depths of the world’s movement. The theurgist’s expanded vision offers a much deeper insight; it penetrates the intentions behind the guidance of the world. Count Saint Germain was able to see the deepest driving forces within the movement of the world. He clearly stated this at the time, and it can be found in the records of Countess d’Adhemar. What he showed her then was that things must happen as the great plan of the world intends, in accordance with the great purposes.

[ 12 ] The Count of Saint Germain referred to here is a human individuality that was completely fused with another personality also connected to the French Revolution: the daimon of Count Cagliostro. All the external events that unfold before everyone’s eyes, however, are nothing other than what is happening internally. But there is also something else underlying this matter. It was, as it were, a symptom of a non-physical story.

[ 13 ] If we correctly recognize the facts of life today, we will see that the causes that led to the French Revolution back then are still at work today. People today pay no attention to such facts [—that Christian Rosenkreutz, in his incarnation at that time as Count Saint Germain, said in Paris in 1775: ‘A century will pass before I reappear’—and] ‘If people do not listen to me, I will not reappear before three generations have passed.’ This is what Count Saint Germain had said in mid-1789.

[ 14 ] What subsequently took place in France [during the French Revolution] after Count Saint Germain’s warnings were ignored had, however, long been in the works [within the secret societies].

[ 15 ] The revolution arose from the call for the rights of the individual. (The four lower principles.) The urge for freedom belongs to the lower Manas. The course of events thus unfolded according to an inner plan. But that man wanted to bring to humanity, in a peaceful manner, the goods that subsequently had to be won through bloodshed. The circumstances at court did not allow for his advice to be heeded. The external course of events was now compelled to take the other path—that is, the bloody one. The encyclopedists, the Enlightenment thinkers, played a part in the revolution. Those who consider only the sensory, as is done in the *Système de la Nature* [by Paul Henri Thiry d’Holbach], have only Maya in their field of vision. Goethe described it as a hollow piece of work, stemming from purely physical, sensory interests. Thinking, feeling, and acting have been entirely materialized in this work.

[ 16 ] We see, then, that contemporary science has already become entirely materialistic with regard to the natural and cultural sciences. It has inevitably come to be this way. Our feelings, too, have become just as materialistic. When we look at materialistic historical thinking today, we see that human beings are so completely dependent on the prejudices of their own time. The historian is virtually compelled to project these prejudices of his own time back onto earlier eras. If one is able to recognize this in the right way, it is downright outrageous to see the notions one encounters about life in centuries past. This being burdened by the prejudices of one’s own time means that today no one can any longer put themselves in the shoes of the feelings and desires of the thirteenth century. But back then, everything was completely different. The judgments one encounters today are usually made without any expertise whatsoever. They are based solely on the most superficial historical grounds. No consideration is given at all to the principle that everything changes in the course of human development.

[ 17 ] What is considered “right” today will be recognized by future generations as “wrong.” This also applies to spiritual movements. What was still acceptable to the Rosicrucians of the Middle Ages would be completely unacceptable today. People today not only demand more; they also demand something different. It is impossible today to work in the same way that the Rosicrucians did in earlier centuries. Yet those who wish to help people progress today are the disciples of those who, in earlier centuries, insisted that the human intellect should judge all things.

[ 18 ] Let’s go even further back in human development: When Christianity was first established, it was still possible to appeal to people’s emotions. Back then, one could rely on “faith.” Today, however, we can no longer appeal to that kind of “faith.”

[ 19 ] The unfolding of history was brought to life by the Rosicrucian disciples of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We are [indeed] merely paying tribute to our age when we now appeal to reason. It is very important to always keep in mind: We give, but it is always our contemporaries who make the demands.

[ 20 ] A truth—so it is generally assumed—is easy to grasp. But is that really the case? Although the intellect can understand everything, it is otherwise the most powerless when it comes to truly intervening in inner processes. The intellect can never comprehend from within. The intellect always understands things only from the outside. What is happening in research today? Animals and plants are being chemically analyzed. Scientists have discovered how substances interact with one another and how digestion works. What happens in this research? Things are organized through thinking and combined by the intellect. That is what the intellect does. But by approaching the facts of life in this way—by organizing and combining—the intellect has simultaneously driven life out of everything. Intellectual science has “come a long way.” It has achieved astonishing things. We, of course, fully acknowledge this.

[ 21 ] In 1875, Haeckel’s students [Hertwig] and Strasburger researched the connection between cells and shed light on the process of fertilization. Today, external science even understands how the personality is formed. The birth of the personality was glimpsed in 1875. But science had to pass over the higher individuality.

[ 22 ] But if we look further back into the past, we see that earlier centuries still perceived the core of the human being. And they also spoke of this core. Modern science, however, has completely severed the human being from his spiritual sources. Natural science will say only that material feeling and volition live within the human being. Material causes are sought in everything, and these form the foundation for later generations.

[ 23 ] But if one wishes to grasp the truth, the spiritual must be added to our understanding today. The teachings of reincarnation and karma, and the interconnection of destinies, are part of this. The intellect, in its descending phase, is completely powerless. Only in its ascending phase will the intellect become productive again. The people of earlier times did not possess intellect alone. The higher soul forces will flow from the thoughts arising from the teachings of reincarnation and karma.

[ 24 ] I intend to speak to the members soon about the circumstances surrounding the origins of Christianity. It will be necessary for us to gain a clear understanding of the founding of Christianity. I will attempt to explain Christianity in the form it took when it first emerged at that time.