The Rudolf Steiner Archive

16. The Relationship Between Occultism and the Theosophical Movement

[ 1 ] I would like to announce once again,^{1Following the General Assembly of the German Section of the Theosophical Society.} that I shall take the liberty of giving a lecture tomorrow morning on certain current occult issues related to Freemasonry. And this will take place, in accordance with the old occult custom, separately for gentlemen and ladies. 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 now I would like to discuss the relationship between occultism and the Theosophical Movement, as well as some other related questions. It has been discussed time and again 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.

[ 3 ] The Theosophical Movement as such, insofar as it finds expression 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 the very nature of their endeavors entailed a kind of hierarchical structure. This means that the members of such a society, such a 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.

[ 4 ] I can only hint at why this is so in very general terms. 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 evolution of the human race on the outer, physical plane, you will still find that things which were later realized first took root much earlier as ideas in the minds and souls of leading figures and individuals, 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 evolves from this simplest form into the most complex mechanism.

[ 5 ] But these are trifles compared to the great work 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 prepared today. How can this happen? By having the power today to instill into the world the forces that are to become effective in the future. Everything that will happen here on the physical plane in the future is already being prepared much earlier than it occurs here on the physical plane—on the astral plane and on the Devachan plane—so that distant, future events can indeed be traced, in terms of their power, 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 forces at work. 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 the human race who can see not only on the physical plane but also on higher planes.

[ 6 ] 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 might be on it. In a similar way, 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 exist at a later time, as it were, as a condensation 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.

[ 7 ] An example: Mysteries existed throughout antiquity. Their purpose was to accept individual people and initiate them into the mysteries of existence, or—as John the Apocalyptic says—to reveal what is to happen “soon,” that is, in the future. In such temple complexes, those disciples who were to be admitted to the first degree were instructed. There were also teachings for disciples of higher and ever higher levels of development. The first stage involved the participants purifying their astral bodies. This entailed more than merely adopting ordinary civic ethics. Moral ethics were taken for granted; what is under consideration here had to be followed with strict fulfillment of duty. When the student then rose more and more toward higher ideals, ascending from 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. Then he was also permitted to intervene in the denser bodies. He was permitted to work on his etheric body; he was permitted not only to transform the soft, supple, and pliable astral matter in his spirit and soul bodies, but he was also permitted to work into his etheric body. Then he was what is called a chela. Such a Chela is one who not only recognizes higher duties, who has not only carried out the purification to the extent that he has made human duties his own, but has progressed to the point where he has transcended the lower and higher concerns of individual peoples, and even of individual creeds. His gaze is directed toward the life of all humanity. And through his now fully organized etheric body, he becomes a participant in the great affairs of Earth’s development. For this to happen, the following had to take place.

[ 8 ] The chela had to neutralize all the forces that hindered him from working on his etheric body. When you look at a person, he has a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. The chela has purified his astral body and is now able to work into 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. The elements 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 repeatedly restore it to balance. But once a person, as a chela, has begun to develop the etheric body, these qualities become imprinted upon the etheric body, and this body is far more enduring. By making earthly flaws permanent, a 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 possesses 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 that which has passed through the catharsis as astrality.

[ 9 ] Therefore, throughout antiquity, the following had to be done. First, one had to remove those forces that impeded the elasticity of the etheric body. 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 forces. This is the burial rite. 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.

[ 10 ] That 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. 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 one day 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 could be brought down onto the physical plane. Through this example, we learn to understand how the future is actually prepared in occult brotherhoods.

[ 11 ] If we now ask ourselves: What is actually happening there? — the answer is: Certainly, in thought, in the idea, one can grasp a great deal. But the idea has no reality. The idea is nothing other than what is brought down from the higher planes onto the physical plane. But what a person thinks about it is the least effective part of the process, because it exists only on the physical plane. It is different when this idea is met with something that also originates from the higher spheres. 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 soul, his mood, was prepared for it. In the same way, it is impossible to explain the deeper meaning of Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna” to someone who has no sense for images derived from the astral realm. The feeling, the soul, must climb up toward it. That which otherwise leaves 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 opened to divine influence. Thus, such training is concerned with gradually preparing the human being to approach the great world-ideas and to receive them. Then, as he penetrates these great world-ideas, he gradually connects them with that active yet otherwise occult force which, in the astral realm, has already been preparing the future for the physical plane. If the leading fellow human being perhaps has students with him who are devoted to such spirit-imbued ideas, then these students become a force that also helps him advance in his work for the outer world; thus arise the great spiritual centers of spiritual activity. You see, then, 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 indicate how we came to this task of ours.

[ 12 ] We belong to the great root race of humanity that has populated this Earth ever since the land we inhabit today rose from the waters 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 yet; 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.

[ 13 ] The ancient Indians of the first subrace 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. Any occultist who 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. This is related to the fact that the Indian race can easily transfer something from the astral body to the etheric body, 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, without abstract concepts. This makes it all the easier for those undergoing yoga training in the astral realm to connect with the higher realms through visualizations. These visualizations affect the etheric body, which is still malleable. There is no need to work with strict concepts; rather, one can work on the soul of an Indian person using extremely simple visualizations, and he will be able to reach very high stages of development.

[ 14 ] The human race has changed through the various subraces. 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 mental 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 earlier times, for the astral body to be able to influence the etheric body, it had to be outside the etheric body. Now, however, the etheric body can be influenced by the astral body even while it remains 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 more of an inner one.

[ 15 ] And so you can also see how, over time, major differences arise among the successive occult schools. The Indian system of yoga is different from the Rosicrucian training. 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; through the power of inner concentration, it can then develop the ability to be guided toward perceiving 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.

[ 16 ] Compare the changes in culture from ancient India to the present day. In ancient India, there was a high degree of intuition and little outward influence from civilization; now, in our time, it is the other way around. This means that the position of occultism is also gradually becoming quite different; it means that much of what was once kept secret has now become common knowledge. Many, many such insights and concepts were once 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 reckon with this. And so many truths that were taught in the occult schools have gradually had to be brought out into the physical plane.

[ 17 ] Even what is taught in today’s elementary schools would lead us away from the spiritual realm, were it not for the addition of occult elements from another source. 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. Therefore, 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. And 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 lying behind it as was necessary to bring the knowledge of the outer world into harmony with the comprehensive occult knowledge of the brotherhoods.

[ 18 ] Here we arrive at the point where we can see the connection between the Theosophical Movement and the “Theosophical Society” with occultism. The Theosophical Society is not an occult movement, nor is it an occult brotherhood, for it is founded on democratic principles, where 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 mission, 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.”

[ 19 ] Today, when essentially all of humanity is looking longingly toward the higher worlds without finding the paths to them, an even greater portion of occult knowledge must be made accessible to the public. 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.

[ 20 ] And materialistic external culture is merely a reflection of the inner mindset of people that 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 not produced any truly new style, with one exception: the style of the department store. This is something that is internally true in relation to our external civilization. Everything else that has been carried over from ancient times has no connection to the present. 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 spheres of life. Let theosophy live in people’s souls, and it will once again flow forth from those souls as style and as art; it will be there for our eyes and ears as well. The world will once again be able to serve as an outward expression of the spiritual, if it is already being lived out in such a society today.

[ 21 ] In this sense, the Theosophical Society could serve to shape the culture of the future. When we are together, we must be clear that we are like cells that must unite to shape a future culture. Within our souls, those forces are being prepared which will in the future transform the world so that it becomes 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 now a manifest force, so was it 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 our human body 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 become our own.

[ 22 ] Let us trace our path of development back a little. What was there once? A dull human consciousness—surrounded by a world that looked different from our own—which was like a dreamlike mirror. People had 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. The 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 aspects 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 now perceive are building blocks for the organization of a higher future. If we view the world from this perspective, then the inner life of the human being takes on a completely different meaning. We are thus faced with a fact that can help us understand, in a simple way, what is called yoga or inner training. From the words I have spoken, you will be able to discern that what once created the world—what worked and exerted its power in the world—was formerly absorbed by our inner being. What is within me today was once outside of me: that 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 path 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.

[ 23 ] 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 nerve tracts of the sympathetic nervous system, which extend 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 ancient times. This is a process that took place in time immemorial. Then, as human beings progressed further and further, there came a time when, within this body—which now contained within itself the potential for the physical nervous system—the structure emerged that enables us to generate internal body heat and produce warm blood. This, in turn, is a later formation arising 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 emerged—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 the formation of the human being.

[ 24 ] When the yogi descends step by step 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 gave rise to 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 again into his head. This is a description of the path of occult knowledge, albeit a brief one. Further details can be provided in the occult schools. In this way, 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 “I.” Only then can he make the ascent into the universe. Once more he descends, taking the world force with him, into the sea of the past. Moving upward in an ascending line, he can then gradually retrace in detail the path he has thus traveled. Slowly and gradually, the human being learns to descend into the sea of his formative forces, and ultimately he reaches 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. Then the student experiences the confluence of the “I” with the great World-I. And now he must learn to say to the small “I”: “I am not you.”

[ 25 ] It is a crucial moment when he realizes what this means: I am not you. — This is a moment when one begins to grasp that there are forces in nature greater than thought, that there is something beyond oneself that cannot be expressed with the thoughts of the present, but which causes the speech of one person—even when two people are discussing the same thing—to be clear yet dull, while the other’s is pulsing with the warm light that the future will create.

[ 26 ] When the student is ready, he can learn in ways different from those available to him until now. He experiences something very special. A spiritual being appears to him in the supersensible world: he encounters the very 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 imprinted 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 implanted in our souls and what we unconsciously received. 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 warmth, 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; it enables us to foresee what is to happen “soon,” as the apocalyptic writer says.

[ 27 ] 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.

[ 28 ] 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 come only 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 to say that members themselves must be occultists. But if the Theosophical Society were to forget that this blood pulses within it, then it might be an interesting society, but it will not accomplish what was intended for it by the sublime powers that stood at its inception.

[ 29 ] 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 conflicted position. 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. But nor 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 humanity’s 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 are always at 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 concerns only the organization of 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. Let me express the difference between what is known as the inner spiritual current and what is manifested through individual personalities in the way that perhaps best captures it: When it comes to spiritual life, the Masters speak; when it comes to mere organization, error is possible, for then the Masters remain silent.