The Rudolf Steiner Archive

17. Freemasonry and Human Development I

[ 1 ] I have asked you to come to a small discussion on occult questions because it must be considered that anyone who participates in the theosophical movement must be clear not only about the external things that are expressed in programs, but also about what this theosophical movement can lead to. Now, the occult currents that live in the Theosophical Movement are indeed related in a certain way to earlier occult currents. One of these in particular, which still reaches into the present, is the one we will take up today: Freemasonry.

[ 2 ] You know that in Freemasonry, at least until the end of the 17th century, it was strictly frowned upon to have any female members. There was a good reason for this at the time. For once the reason why Freemasonry did not have female members ceases to exist in the evolution of the world, the time will also come when the work of Freemasonry on the physical plane will be replaced by theosophical work. For the time being, theosophical work is preparatory work. Men and women will participate equally in theosophical work.

[ 3 ] If I were to briefly explain why women should be excluded from Freemasonry, I could only say that one does not reveal one's secrets to one's enemy; one does not send him one's battle plan. That is not done in warfare. And it will become clear to us that Freemasonry, in a certain sense, is opposed to the female world.

[ 4 ] Freemasonry is the continuation of ancient secret societies and brotherhoods. Such secret societies, at least in the form in which they survive in Freemasonry, originated at the very beginning of the fourth subrace of our fifth root race, that is, the same subrace from which Christianity later sprang.

[ 5 ] You know that the external composition of the Bible can only be traced back a few centuries before the birth of Christ, and rightly so. But the biblical revelation had been tradition for thousands of years before that. In earlier times, it was not customary to write such things down, but to pass them on by word of mouth. Therefore, it makes sense to assume that the secrets entrusted to Moses by the priesthood were not written down until later.

[ 6 ] Now, the time when the Bible appeared as a document in world history also coincides with the external composition and appearance of what is called the Masonic legend.

[ 7 ] In world evolution, it must always be regarded as a law that what happened earlier is repeated briefly later. Every human being repeats in the womb the stages that the race has already gone through. Every planet repeats in its early stages the stages of development it has already gone through. What was there before is always repeated briefly. The same is true of the races. Therefore, the first, second, and third sub-races of our fifth root race are repetitions of earlier earthly conditions, only on a certain higher plane. What developed from the Lemurian race through Atlantis was repeated on a certain higher plane in our three sub-races. So we have a repetition of what previously existed in the Lemurian epoch on a lower plane. Before dual sex appeared, this was a kind of double sex; a single sex, inasmuch as both sexes were represented in the individual being. Then came the separation into the two sexes. So male and female first became male and female. Something similar is now repeating itself in the spiritual realm in our root race. In fact, the knowledge, the wisdom that was characteristic of ancient, pre-Vedic India had something masculine-feminine and thus something that was completely independent of any duality, of any external principle. Then came the culture of the second subrace. This is a spiritual culture that is dualistic in the most eminent sense. Hence the emergence of dualism: Ormuzd and Ahriman, good and evil. All this mixes into the knowledge.

[ 8 ] Now let us try to understand how this came about. It came about because, before there were male and female sexes, there was a dual sexuality within the individual. We must now ask: What was it in the individual that was fertilized and what was it that fertilized? In ancient Greek mythology, Zeus is depicted with powerful female breasts. This expresses a truth that was known in the ancient mysteries and which the documents also teach us, namely that the sex—if I may call it that—that immediately preceded ours did not outwardly resemble the male sex, but rather the female sex. So before the external separation, we had both sexes in one individual who was outwardly—in physical expression and in all feeling and being—female. At the origin of the human race, we are therefore dealing with a dual-sexed individual inclined toward the female side. The male sex emerged later. Now we must be clear that in this individual, which had both sexes within itself, there was also a fertilizing, male seed. The female had the male within herself. If we realize that the female had the male within herself, then we can also imagine, according to our usual scientific concepts, that reproduction was assured. Let us note that this was accomplished by the female at that time.

[ 9 ] Now the time came when things were to diverge. What was the nature of the fertilizing element in the female, that which fertilized the female nature on the physical plane? That which acted on the female as seed was the male, and that was the spiritual, the wisdom. The woman provided the substance, the spirit provided the form. Formation on the physical plane is wisdom realized. Wisdom was at work in the woman. Now the two differentiated themselves, in that the two things that had previously worked together appeared as two separate poles. What had previously been compressed into a single organ of the human being separated, and this gave rise to a duality in human formation. This duality arose in such a way that, in the first instance, fertility, the possibility of the female egg reproducing itself, ceased in one individual. The female egg lost the possibility of being fertilized from within its own body. Thus, we are dealing with a female that has become infertile and a spiritual element that stands above it. The separation of the two sexes occurred through the splitting off of the physical organs, and the possibility of fertilization is now provided by the other sex. Two individuals arise, one with physical femininity and the other with physical masculinity: wisdom has a feminine character in men and a masculine character in women.

[ 10 ] The separation is a precise process that can be traced. However, we must content ourselves with hints here. We are therefore dealing with male-colored wisdom in women and female-colored wisdom in men. This female-colored wisdom is passive, suited to receiving, hearing, seeing, and taking in what is around us. Male-colored wisdom, active wisdom, brings forth. Hence we have a twofold wisdom: feminine wisdom, which is active and naturally also transferred to men, so that there are also enough men who take on feminine wisdom. Below, the gender progresses, and above we are dealing with an active intuition that comes from women and a passive knowledge that is decidedly masculine in character.

[ 11 ] This is represented in the ancient mystery teachings as the contrast between the sons of Abel, or sons of God, and the sons of Cain, or sons of man. Abel represents the active feminine intuition. Therefore, he is incapable of taking in anything from outside that needs to be processed. He takes in the divine that flows through him, that flows into his intuition. This is symbolized by the “shepherd”: he nurtures and cares for life, just as intuition nurtures the divine life of wisdom. Cain has the masculine wisdom that takes in from outside. It takes hold of the earth in order to plow; the material is outside. He becomes the “farmer.” What does this wisdom of Cain, this science of Cain, accomplish, since as a passive science it is only receptive? What does it accomplish?

[ 12 ] There is a very interesting and important legend in which these truths are symbolically expressed for Freemasonry. This is the Temple Legend. And there is a reason why it exists.

[ 13 ] The Bible itself, the Old Testament, emerged from feminine, intuitive wisdom and bears its fundamental character. The Old Testament is feminine wisdom. Masculine wisdom did not lead to intuition. It limited itself to building and working; it took stones and made buildings, it took metals and made tools. The Temple Legend depicts this as follows:

[ 14 ] One of the Elohim fertilized Eve, and Cain was born. Afterwards, Jehovah—another of the Elohim, also called Adonai—created Adam. And Adam begot Abel with Eve. This legend now contrasts Cain's wisdom with biblical wisdom, so that at the dawn of the fourth subrace we have two opposing currents: the Bible as feminine wisdom and the 'temple wisdom' as the masculine opposition to it. What man [masculine wisdom?] wanted was already opposed to feminine wisdom in pre-Christian times. What follows is that Cain kills his brother Abel. This is also in the Temple legend. Jehovah caused strife between Cain's family and Abel's family, and Cain killed Abel. That means nothing else ... [Here follow some very unclear sentences in the postscript.

[ 15 ] What was the consequence of the emergence of this wisdom of Cain? The consequence was that the fruitfulness that propagated itself through its own wisdom was killed. By killing Abel, Cain's male knowledge killed what had been brought forth by the gods: the possibility of self-propagation. That is, by passing on to man the knowledge that kills Abel within him, the male knowledge kills Abel.

[ 16 ] This is a process within man himself. Through male knowledge, the creative power, Abel, is killed. Now the descendants of Cain and the descendants of Seth, who took Abel's place, stand in opposition to one another. The descendants of Cain are those who use their male wisdom to build the outer world; passive wisdom is used to build the outer world. Divine wisdom does not flow down upon them. From the open air, they must build walls around the world. They have no divine intuition. Through trial and error, through experience, the purely mineral products of the earth are brought together. Thus Tubal-Cain is born of this line of Cain, and thus Hiram-Abiff or Adon-Hiram is later born of this line.

[ 17 ] I have reserved the right ...^{1See under Notes.}

[ 18 ] Among the Abelites, you will find the strongest representative in Solomon. In the third sub-race, they all had their representatives in the priests. The ancient priestly wisdom was intuitive wisdom. This wisdom, which previously worked in women as fertilization, was transformed on a higher level into spiritual wisdom. And from this priestly wisdom, the Bible emerged. In this way, the Bible became a female wisdom. This female wisdom is capable of giving great revelations about the divine; of telling how things are with angels and spirits. It is the task of the sons of Cain to create on earth. That is why Tubal-Cain is the forefather of blacksmiths. Therefore, Solomon must call upon Hiram-Abiff, who can build him the temple. He builds the temple for King Solomon, the successor to the ancient priestly wisdom, for Solomon, who transforms priestly wisdom into external power. The kingship as an external institution emerged from the priestly rule.

[ 19 ] So Solomon sent for Hiram-Abiff. And so the Temple of Solomon is built. But then the Queen of Sheba arrives at the court of King Solomon, and a kind of engagement is celebrated between the two. She is also shown the temple, and she asks to meet the architect of this magnificent temple. When she meets the architect of this magnificent temple, something very peculiar happens to her. Hiram Abiff cast a glance at her, and this had a fiery effect on her. And the second thing that happened was this. When she wants to see the workers and how everything is going on the physical plane, Hiram Abiff takes the sign of the tau, holds it up in the air, and the workers all run together like ants. This causes her to renounce Solomon. Some of Hiram Abiff's journeymen, whom Hiram did not want to make masters, came to Solomon's aid. And they now wanted to prevent Hiram's masterpiece, the casting of the bronze sea. Instead of a work of art being created, streams of fire now flowed in all directions. Hiram tried to dampen the whole thing with water, but this only caused even more confusion. A rain of fire sprays down and everyone enters. Hiram Abiff too. But a voice calls to him not to be afraid, for this will result in his greatest success. Now he is led by a figure to the center of the earth. There he meets Cain himself, to whom he has been led by Tubal-Cain, the creator of blacksmithing. There an important piece of wisdom is revealed to him. He is told: Now recognize the true Jehovah, who is the cause of your existence. But Jehovah hates the sons of fire and wants to destroy them; he wants to destroy his own creation. But you have nothing to fear. A son will be born to you, whom you will not see yourself, but from whom a race will come forth, from which a new fire worship will arise on earth. With the hammer given to him by Tubal-Cain, he is then able to complete the planned Sea of Bronze and thereby gain even more favor with the Queen of Sheba. While out walking, a bird appears in the air, displaying the mystical sign of the Tau. The queen's nurse recognizes that the future of wisdom is hidden under this sign of the Tau. At a feast where Solomon had become intoxicated, the Queen of Sheba pulls the betrothal ring from his hand. Hiram Abiff, however, is attacked and killed by the journeymen. He is only able to write the hidden word on a golden triangle and hide it. It is later sought and enclosed in a cube-shaped stone. On this stone, which conceals the hidden word, are written the Ten Commandments.

[ 20 ] This is the wisdom of the temple, which the male science has opposed to female wisdom. These are things that only need to be explained, that only need to be examined for their occult content in order to recognize their deep meaning.

[ 21 ] Imagine that Hiram Abiff is led to the forefather of his lineage. There he receives an instruction: he is told that Jehovah is an enemy of the sons of fire. Who are the sons of fire? They are those who could only come into being through the separation of the sexes, through the influence of the physical man on a physical woman. Fire is the active power of the male seed. In the male seed, fire lives in an occult sense. Jehovah had to create this fundamental force so that the sex could be propagated. Jehovah created the sons of fire, which was only possible because of this fire. Therefore, he is the enemy of the new. It was he who perpetuated the old way of reproduction. What was created was therefore a means of escape, and so he turned again to the priests and made them his proclaimers. He had his power and the glory of his own wisdom proclaimed through the wisdom of the priests. Through the wisdom of the priests, the wisdom of Jehovah was proclaimed.

[ 22 ] Hiram-Abiff is therefore called upon to take over the Brazen Sea, that is, the transformation of the mineral kingdom through art. He is also told that a son will be born to him who, even though he cannot see him himself, will bring forth a new race. This son is nothing other than the new race that will one day take the place of the old, the present one; the new race in which it will no longer be necessary for both sexes to unite with each other, but rather procreation can be effected by a single human individual. This points to a distant future. The old female culture was replaced by the male culture. The female as a physical form will die out. Then the male must have a power within itself to produce an individual from itself. And where does this power reside?

[ 23 ] In the past, male and female were in one individual. And when these two separated, the present individual emerged. The upper part emerged. What is [today] the upper part was then united with the sexual organs. What is today the sexual organ is half of the [creative] power of that time. Therefore, the power that resides in the larynx is the other half. Language still produces nothing today. It must first be permeated by the wisdom of Cain and then produce something. When humans have attained the power to expand their larynx to such an extent that their words become creative, so that they can bring forth their own kind through their words, then all productive power will pass to the male sex. What was once created by the gods will then pass to humans. When was the word lost? When dual sexuality arose. It is buried, hidden. The sons of Cain only had it with their forefather. Hiram Abiff should at least have received the prophecy about it. But he was killed immediately afterwards.

[ 24 ] The word is buried, but it is there. If it were not buried, man would be self-creative, as Elohim is self-creative. Therefore, the “word” in Freemasonry is not the right one, but the wrong “word.” The right word is hidden. The Ten Commandments are engraved on the stone that contains the hidden word. What are the Ten Commandments? They are the laws of the moral world order. They maintain external relations as they are now under the influence of people of both sexes. Such commandments are not necessary when there are no longer two sexes. It is the human order that has arisen under the influence of the two sexes.

[ 25 ] Thus, in Freemasonry, we have the preservation of the memory of the lost word, which is to be attained within those who work in Freemasonry, and which can only be attained when passive male wisdom awakens activity within itself. That is why Freemasonry says: Everything that is not produced by our own science spread throughout the world still originates from the ancient times of female priesthood. We do not want to merely take this over [overcome it?], but also begin a new vortex of existence; we ourselves must give intuition to the male Cain knowledge. This would be impossible if men were deprived of their power by making women privy to the secret. The moment one spoke in front of women, the whole thing would have to be ineffective.

[ 26 ] It was therefore necessary that the entire female sex be excluded from Freemasonry. This is related to the fact that the organ of speech is connected with sexuality. This is why men also undergo a mutation when they reach sexual maturity. This mutation is nothing other than the expression of the ancient connection between the organ of speech and the sexual organs. Now you will also understand what the Freemason says: only men are called upon to utter the lost word and to recast it; only the male-built larynx is capable of saying and knowing what can be achieved again through the lost word. If we understand it this way, we will comprehend that women were not allowed to utter the new word. It is comical to see scholars cite as a reason that women are not accepted because they gossip. The female larynx has remained a vestigial organ. It is the male larynx, however, that is developing into the organ of the future.

[ 27 ] You see that these are deep and significant connections, and that the term “Mason” must be taken in the most literal sense possible. That is why, in Greek and Roman times, the Masons were the builders of what was intended to express beauty. Cathedrals, temples, and other important buildings were constructed by these master builders.

[ 28 ] The fact is that, of course, part of what has been achieved by the Masonic Order had to be taken from the ancient wisdom of the priests. So you have again a mixture of feminine wisdom and masculine striving. Basically, the secret of Freemasonry is that which has not yet been revealed, that which does not yet exist, that which cannot be revealed because it does not yet exist. It is that which will be revealed when words acquire the power to create.

[ 29 ] These are a few words that will clarify the concept of Freemasonry to the occultist. Until well into the 18th century, people knew that things were this way. Only when they lost their connection to the higher worlds did they also lose awareness of what they had lost in Freemasonry. And yet, this was not entirely the case. Masonry was watered down, and people said they no longer knew its meaning. But it must be clear that everything that exists as symbols originates from the ancient wisdom of the priests, and that what is contained in the symbols must first come out. The true feminine wisdom is gradually being lost. That is why the so-called high degrees, the keepers of feminine wisdom, have been made to disappear. All that remains is what is called Johannine Masonry, which deals only with worldly things and understands only those.

[ 30 ] But this is also quite natural, for with the development of materialism, priestly wisdom had to be lost. What can happen now? The old wisdom is gone. We are supposed to live in the outer world. What is the consequence of this? That something better can only come in again when a wisdom arises that is once more genderless, no longer connected with female and male wisdom, no longer with female biblicalism, no longer with male temple legend. We encounter this wisdom in theosophy. In this wisdom, both sexes understand each other. The man who is in the woman works on the woman, and that which is again genderless works on the man. In the knowledge of the higher plan, the masculine and the feminine meet. It is therefore quite natural that the actual occult foundation was brought about as Freemasonry and that a new approach was made. This is called a “vortex”:

[ 31 ] This is how things are really intertwined in our time. We must think of this as intertwined. Therefore, Theosophy has not based itself on biblical legends or temple legends, but has sought the core of wisdom in everything that must be restored, genderless. Now you see how Theosophy is the peacemaker, the bringer of harmony.

[ 32 ] How is this put together in our root race? Our root race repeats what was already there before. It brought the opposite of what was already there in the Lemurian era to clear expression in the spiritual realm. Opposition had to arise because the female sex was earlier and is in a descending line, while the male sex is in an ascending line and seeks within itself the seed power that the female has within her. If we remain in the lower regions, we must distinguish precisely through occultism: those who are racially Atlantean do not need to be soul-wise Atlanteans as well. Thus, the soul is not bound to the sex. The souls of the female sex move through until they can inhabit the bodies that men have made for themselves and a sex will exist on earth.

[ 33 ] As long as men were still in opposition to the female, they had to remain silent. The connection between the sexes was prepared by the founding of the adoption lodges in the 18th century. The first was founded in 1775. A form of Masonry was practiced there that had different symbols from male Masonry. However, because such adoption lodges of male Freemasons also admitted women, the connection between the sexes was prepared. The founder of our society was also a member of such an adoption lodge. So the thing that must be called the beginning of Theosophy also plays a role here. Theosophy is therefore a world task that is connected with occult currents and must work from within Freemasonry. It could even be revived and help us.

[ 34 ] But the deeper idea is that in the field of theosophy, this one-sided male striving must be overcome. Throughout the Middle Ages, there was already a magnificent preparation for the spiritual creation of the other sex in man. Through concentration within himself, man first creates as a thought what will later arise in him as being. This is why the cult of Mary arose throughout the Middle Ages as a preparation for this. This is nothing other than the concentration for the creation of the feminine in the masculine, while in women the cult of Jesus serves the same purpose. The cult of Mary has its origin in this foundation.

[ 35 ] Now you will understand what confusion must have arisen when an order appeared that broke with all this and wanted to recapture feminine wisdom. It is about the domination of the world, which is to be conquered. If anyone wants to leave the old wisdom as it is, he must conquer the world for the old forces. Such an order exists: it is the Jesuit order. It has consciously set itself this task. That is why Jesuits and Freemasons are so sharply opposed to each other.