The Rudolf Steiner Archive

16. 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 questions in connection with Freemasonry. This will take place, in accordance with ancient occult custom, separately for gentlemen and ladies. The lecture for gentlemen will take place at ten o'clock, and for ladies at half past eleven. You may ask why this custom exists, which will only be overcome in the theosophical worldview. This will become clear from the content of the lectures, and I would like to take the liberty of noting that tomorrow evening the Besant Branch will hold its regular meeting at eight o'clock.

[ 2 ] Now I would like to speak about the relationship between occultism and the theosophical movement and some other related questions. It has often been discussed whether the theosophical movement, especially as expressed in the Theosophical Society, is an occult movement, or whether one must disregard all occultism in the theosophical movement.

[ 3 ] 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 in the Theosophical Society. Occult societies have existed at all times. These had one thing above all else: namely, that through the very nature of their striving, they had a kind of hierarchical structure. This means that the members of such a society, such a brotherhood, were arranged according to degrees. Each degree, from the first up to the ninetieth degree, 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 this we must talk about the tasks of such occult brotherhoods. My esteemed friends who have heard me speak about such things before will understand me all the better today. Occult brotherhoods are brotherhoods of leaders of humanity. Their task is to prepare the things of the future. Everything that is to happen in the future is already being prepared in the present, finds expression in the present as an idea, as a plan, and is then realized in the future. Even if you look at the development of the human race on the outer physical plane, you will find that things that later came to fruition germinated much earlier as ideas in the minds and souls of leading personalities and individuals and struggled to find expression. Take the steam engine, for example: if you trace the matter back, you will find how the steam engine developed from the simplest facts; how the cooking pot filled with boiling water already contains the idea of the steam engine, which then continues from this simplest form to the most complicated mechanism.

[ 5 ] But these are trifles compared to the great edifice of humanity that we have before us. The most important things presuppose much greater and much more significant perspectives. They presuppose that what is to happen in the distant future is already being prepared in a certain way today. How can such a thing happen? By having it in our power today to put into the world the forces that are to be effective in the future. Everything that will happen here on the physical plane in the future is already being prepared much earlier than it happens here on the physical plane, on the astral plane and on the devachan plane; so that distant, future events can actually be traced in terms of their power in the higher planes and worlds. But human beings cannot effectively influence the future unless they prepare for this influence out of knowledge of the forces at work. Human beings are self-conscious creatures and must take their destiny into their own hands. That is why there have always been advanced brothers of our human race who can see not only on the physical plane but also on higher planes.

[ 6 ] Let us try to understand what it means to foresee on higher planes. Suppose you have a pond of water. You can foresee that when the temperature drops, the pond will freeze over and that skaters and so on will be able to skate 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 if one follows the events on the astral plane, one can indeed see, with the help of astral events, what will be there later, as it were, in a condensed form. And so, from astral events, one can see what will later appear condensed on the physical plane. Physical events are nothing other than condensed events that have previously taken place in the higher worlds.

[ 7 ] An example: throughout ancient times there were mysteries. These had the task of taking in individual human beings and initiating them into the secrets of existence, or — as John the Apocalyptic says — of showing them what was to happen “soon,” that is, in the future. In such temple sites, those students who were to be admitted to the first degree were taught. There were also lessons for higher and higher developed students. The first stage was for those concerned to purify their astral body. This consisted in their not merely adopting the ordinary bourgeois ethics. Bourgeois ethics were taken for granted; what was considered here had to be followed in strict fulfillment of duty. When the student then rose more and more to higher ideals, ascended from the passions and drives of ordinary life to desires that stood above all the pettiness of human beings, and purified his desires and aversions so that the great, world-encompassing concerns of the human race became his own, when he felt compassion and empathy beyond himself, then he was on the way to accomplishing what was called the purification of the astral body. Then he was also allowed to intervene in the denser bodies. He was allowed to work on his etheric body; he was allowed not only to transform the soft, pliable, and malleable astral matter in his spirit and soul bodies, but he was also allowed to work into his etheric body. Then he was what is called a chela. Such a chela is someone who not only recognizes higher duties, who has not only purified himself to the point of making human duties his own, but has gone so far that he has grown beyond the lower and higher affairs of individual peoples, even of individual creeds. His gaze is directed toward the life of all humanity. And through the now thoroughly organized etheric body, he becomes a participant in the great affairs of the earth's construction. For this to happen, the following had to take place.

[ 8 ] The chela had to paralyze all the forces that prevented him from working on his etheric body. When you have a human being before you, he has a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. The chela has purified his astral body and is allowed to work into his etheric body. You will understand why the human being must carry out this purification of his astral body. What happens when the astral body is purified? What penetrates the etheric body? That which is predisposed in the astral body. The things that live in the astral body press themselves into the etheric body. As long as you work on the astral body, you can keep reworking the errors: the astral matter is thin and soft; you can keep bringing it back into balance. But once a person has begun to develop the etheric body as a chela, these qualities press into the etheric body, and this is much more permanent. By making the earthly flaws permanent, the person would become a dangerous member of humanity. Hence the constant emphasis on the necessary purification. This etheric body is impressed by the forces acting upon it. If you imagine it separate from the physical body, it has a completely different elasticity. When it is inside, it holds the body in shape; but as long as it remains there, it is initially too weak to press in what has passed through the catharsis as astrality.

[ 9 ] That is why the following had to be done throughout antiquity. First, the forces preventing the elasticity of the etheric body had to be removed. This was done by bringing the entire physical body into a lethargic state. The person lay there, and the etheric body was taken 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. The person concerned was placed in a lethargic state for three to three and a half days. And then he could work on the etheric body. And then, after he had shaped the etheric body in accordance with the astral body, he returned to the physical body. Then he had awakened the inner life within himself, then he was a resurrected person, and he was given a new name.

[ 10 ] This was an action 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 knew about it. Now imagine it condensed, brought down to the physical plane, so that something has happened with this event that previously only took place on the astral plane. It is comparable to having a piece of ice where you used to have water. Many such astral events must coincide and flow together in order for physical condensation to become possible. Through the appearance of Christ, what had often taken place in the mystery centers on the astral plane now happened on the physical plane, and thus the mystery of Golgotha became historically possible; it could be brought down to the physical plane. From 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 here? — 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 to the physical plane. What people think about it, however, is the most ineffective thing in the process, because it exists only on the physical plane. It is different when something is brought to this idea that also comes from the higher spheres. Take, for example, the teaching of Pythagoras' music of the spheres, as he taught it to his disciples. Philosophers seek to present Pythagoras' occult music as a very simple system. The intellect can grasp this quickly. But it was important to him that the student only came to this when his mind and mood were prepared for it. It is also impossible to explain the deeper meaning of Raphael's Sistine Madonna to someone who has no sense of images that originate in the astral realm. The feeling, the mind must climb up to it. What otherwise leaves one cold in the idea appears here in the picture 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! Through the thoughts winding themselves around the element of the divine, the thought is brought into contact with divine influence. Such training is therefore a matter of gradually preparing people to approach the great world idea and to receive it. Then, as they penetrate these great world ideas, they gradually connect with that effective but otherwise occult force which has already prepared the future for the physical plane in the astral world. If the leading brother has pupils who are attached to such spiritually inspired ideas, then these become a force that also helps him in his work for the outer world; the great spiritual centers of spiritual activity arise. 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 to indicate in a few words how we came to this task.

[ 12 ] We stand within the great root race of humanity that has populated this earth since the ground we now inhabit rose from the floods of the sea. Since the Atlantean race gradually began to 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 sub-race of the great Aryan root race. The first subrace lived in ancient India in the distant past. And today's Indians are descendants of that first subrace, whose spiritual life still exists in the ancient Vedas of the Indians. The Vedas, however, are only echoes of the ancient Rishi culture. At that time, there was no writing; there was only tradition. Then came the second, third, and fourth subraces. The fourth sub-race adopted 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 sub-race lived under different conditions than we do and were also fundamentally organized differently. Even today's descendants, the modern Indians, are organized very differently than our European peoples. Occultists who study these differences find that in the ancient Indian people, the etheric body is much less bound to the physical body, is not 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 views. The more easily the etheric body can be influenced by the astral body, the easier it is to influence the etheric body with images, without abstract concepts. This makes it easier for those undergoing yoga training in the astral realm to connect with higher realms through visualizations. These influence the etheric body, which is still soft. There is no need to work with strict concepts; instead, with the simplest images, one can work on the soul of an Indian person, and he will be able to reach very high stages of development.

[ 14 ] The human race has changed through the 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 in order to influence the etheric body. We cannot resort to half-dreamlike ideas. We must subject everything to sharp concentration, work on our inner being through strong spiritual concentration on the pure supersensible, not merely through pictorial concepts. Such an idea, which brings about a strong concentration of our inner being, can then have a much more powerful effect on the etheric body bound to the physical body. In order for the astral body to be able to act on the etheric body, it had to be outside the etheric body in earlier times. Now, however, the etheric body can also be influenced from within the physical body by the astral body. If we were to perform the same experiment that was common in the ancient mystery centers and induce lethargy, we would be able to influence the etheric body. But when the earthly consciousness, the mobility of thinking, returned, it 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 become different today; it is now more an inner one.

[ 15 ] And so you can also see how, in the course of time, great differences arise in the successive occult schools. The yoga system of the Indians is something different from the training of the Rosicrucians. The Rosicrucian training is calculated for what I have now explained to you. In addition, something else comes into play. In order for such progress to take place at all, it was necessary to influence the power of the intellect. Much more than in the past, the intellect was strained, which then, through the power of inner concentration, was able to develop its ability to be carried over to the comprehension of the supersensible. In recent times, therefore, much more had to be taught in concepts; emphasis had to be placed on the training of the intellect and on abstract powers of imagination.

[ 16 ] Compare the changes in culture from ancient India to our time. In ancient India, there was a high level of intuition and little external influence from civilization; now, in our time, it is the opposite. This causes the position of occultism to gradually become quite different; it causes much of what was previously kept secret to become common knowledge today. Many, many such insights and concepts were previously preserved within occult brotherhoods, and people only gained access to these things when they had transformed their whole heart. Today, the occultist no longer has this in his hands. He must now recognize much of what was previously reserved for later stages of training as already revealed by 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 had to be gradually brought out onto the physical plane.

[ 17 ] Even what is taught in elementary schools today would lead us away from the spiritual if occult background knowledge were not added from another source. In earlier times, the student knew that behind what he received as teaching material in school and in the world of scholarship there was something higher, and that he himself might one day attain this higher knowledge. He knew that he was a member of a spiritual organism. Today, in the democratic world, many concepts are accepted that do not lead to such insight. Therefore, the tip of the pyramid had to be added to the structure of external democratic knowledge, as it were. The elementary knowledge of the forces hidden in the world had now been given. What was still missing was the tip that would lead to a spiritual worldview. And in order 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 mysteries progressed further and further, certain brotherhoods decided to reveal to the world as much of the secrets 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 are 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, not an occult brotherhood, for it is built on a democratic foundation, where each member is equal to the others. But it is something else entirely to understand the task of the Theosophical Society. The task of the Society is on the physical plane. If one wants to fully understand this, one must be able to look up into the higher worlds. But it is not a question of the theosophist already being able to look up into the higher worlds, but rather 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 expression. It is one thing for a society to be an occult brotherhood, and quite another to say: We are not an occult brotherhood, but in our society occultism is discussed.

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

[ 20 ] And materialistic external culture is only the imprint of the materialistic inner attitude of human beings. Since 1850, a purely materialistic urban culture has been spreading in civilized countries. We see the great things it has achieved on the physical plane, but we also see what it has not been able to achieve. In the arts, for example, it has not produced any truly new styles, with one exception: the style of the department store. This is something that is true inwardly in relation to our outer civilization. Everything else that has been adopted from ancient times has no connection to the present. Only when we have formed a society whose members are imbued with a spiritual power 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. Let theosophy live in the souls of human beings, and it will flow out again as style, as art, from the souls; it will also be there for our eyes and ears. The world will once again be able to be an outer expression of the spiritual, if it is already being lived out today in such a society.

[ 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 come together to shape a future culture. In our souls, the forces are being prepared that will transform the world in such a way that it will become a physical imprint of our present moods and outlook on life. Everything that is revealed and manifests itself today was once occult. Just as electricity is an obvious force today, 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 our human body was prepared from forces in our environment, so today a higher body is being prepared within us, a body of the future; but only in a distant time will this body of the future be ours.

[ 22 ] Let us trace our path of development a little way back. What was there once? A dull human consciousness—surrounded by a world that looked different from ours—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 kind. Everything was merely reflected in the consciousness that arose in human beings. And how did today's physical organs come into being? Through the working of those forces on human beings. Just as the animals in the dark caves of Kentucky lost their sight because they did not need it, so the external forces also organized what we have as eyes and ears. These have been formed by the forces of sound and light and developed out of 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 works of culture that convey beauty and truth to us, will become imprinted in our higher members of being. And when these unfold into a life of their own, then what lives as beauty and truth in the outer 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 look at the world from this point of view, the human inner life 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 gather that what once created the world, what has worked and exerted its power in the world, was previously taken up by our inner being. What is within me today was once outside of me: that is the basic idea of occult training. Before our physical body existed, our etheric body was already present. Our etheric body, in turn, is a structure that has been formed by our astral body. And this is the starting point of yoga training. Those who engage in yoga training descend into their etheric body and know that they find in the etheric body the power that once, millions of years ago, built them up. Slowly, the physical body has lifted itself out of the foundation of the etheric body.

[ 23 ] I can only describe in broad strokes how the descent into the etheric body takes place. There are certain currents in the etheric body that are the precursors of the physical organs. The nerve strands of the sympathetic system, which run down the back, and the nerve nodes of the sympathetic nervous system are parts that were formed in etheric form in ancient times. 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 had the potential for a physical nervous system, a structure developed that enables us to develop internal body heat and produce warm blood. This is again a later formation from the etheric body, which was then already strongly influenced by the forces of the astral body. And from what we subsequently find as the basis of the brain, the spinal cord developed in turn out of the etheric body, as the other pole of the etheric body, which developed on one side into the brain and on the other side into the inner blood warmth. This happened in the past. Not only the forces of nature worked on this formation of the human being, but also higher spiritual beings.

[ 24 ] When the yogi descends step by step into this etheric body, he penetrates into the times of the past, where his spiritual form of origin was influenced by these forces and beings and brought forth what lives in us today. When the human being has descended in this way into life, he can reach that point again during his descent. He descends from the head down into the lower regions that were built up in the most ancient times, and then back up into his head. This is a description of the occult path of knowledge, albeit a sparse one. More can be given in the occult schools. In this way, the student of mystery wisdom 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 exercise 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 again, he descends, taking the world force with him into the sea of the past. Ascending in an upward line, he can then gradually retrace the path he has taken. Slowly and gradually, the human being learns to descend into the sea of his formative forces, and finally he reaches a point near the origin. This must have been the experience of the first humans who gained sight and were able to look out into the universe. Then the student realizes the confluence of the I with the great world-I. And now he must learn to say to the little I: I am not you.

[ 25 ] It is an important moment when he realizes what this means: I am not you. — This is a moment when one begins to understand that there are higher forces in nature than thinking, that there is something beyond oneself that cannot be expressed with the thoughts of the present, but which causes that when two people who can speak about the same thing, the speech of one is clear but dull, while that of the other is pulsating with the warm light that the future will create.

[ 26 ] When the student has reached this point, he can learn in a different way than he has been able to learn up to now. He experiences something very special. A spiritual being appears to him in the supersensible world: he encounters the individuality that was once connected with him. It is a great and important mystery that certain stages of our existence repeat themselves. We consciously ascend from the manas to the higher forces. We once descended from spiritual worlds, and at that time the same being sank something into us, which we now encounter again at the stage corresponding to that point in the past where it was with us then. It is the teacher, the so-called guru. We met him for the first time then; now we meet him again when we can consciously grasp what he has sunk into our souls and we have received unconsciously. And if we descend further, we meet the spirits who helped build us eons ago. We meet 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 dusk, and so on. All this presents itself to our spiritual sense during this descent into the universe, on this pilgrimage. And this alone makes it possible for us to glimpse the future, to anticipate what is to happen “soon,” as the apocalypticist says.

[ 27 ] This is the task of occultism. It must be solved because this solution is necessary. There are enough movements that are idealistic, that are ethical. But the movement called theosophy differs from others in that occultism consciously has a voice in this movement.

[ 28 ] This clarifies the relationship between occultism and theosophy. The Theosophical Society can never want to be an occult brotherhood. What must give it the strength to fulfill its task, what must give it life, can only be things that flow from occultism. Therefore, the Theosophical Society will flourish if there is understanding for the cultivation of occult teachings and occult life. This is not a demand that the members themselves should be occultists. But if the Theosophical Society should forget that this blood pulsates within it, then it may be an interesting society, but it will not accomplish what was intended for it by the exalted powers that stood at its starting point.

[ 29 ] Those who understand this will never want to take away the occult character of the Theosophical Society. However, those who stand in this way in the Theosophical Society will be placed in an ambivalent position. They will have to listen to the side from which the occult truths flow to us, and on the other side, they will have to pay attention to the outer exoteric life of the Society. These things must be strictly separated from each other; they must never be mixed together. But when speaking of the outer Theosophical Society, one must not speak of the occult personalities who stand at its starting point. The powers that live on the higher planes and outside the physical body for the sake of human evolution never interfere in these matters. They never give anything other than impulses. When we work objectively for the spread of the Theosophical Society, the great individualities we call Masters are always at our side; we may turn to them and let them speak through us. When it comes to spreading occult life, the Masters speak. When it is only 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. Let me express the difference between what goes as an inner spiritual current and what is lived out through the individual personalities in the best way I can: When it comes to spiritual life, the Masters speak; when it comes to mere organization, error is possible, for then the Masters are silent.