The Rudolf Steiner Archive

21. About Goethe and his Relationship to Rosicrucianism

[ 1 ] There are two ways to penetrate Goethe's Rosicrucian mystery: one exoteric and one esoteric or occult. The exoteric way is through the study of Goethe's poems, which are an outward expression of his Rosicrucian beliefs and knowledge.

[ 2 ] These include:

[ 3 ] 1. The poem “Secrets.” It depicts the mystery of the Lodge of the 12 with the 13th at the top. The content is an allusion to the experiences in the forecourt of the Rosicrucian Parzival initiation (Grail initiation).

[ 4 ] 2. The basis in “Faust.” Homunculus is the astral body; the journey to the “mothers” is the representation of the search for the “golden triangle” and the “lost word.”

[ 5 ] 3. The passages in “Wilhelm Meister” depicting the “wanderings and transformations of the soul” until the expansion of consciousness to cosmic vision (contemplation of cosmic processes. Macarius' vision is such contemplation).

[ 6 ] 4. The fairy tale of the green snake and the beautiful lily represents the alchemical initiation in the form established by Christian Rosenkreutz: that which is written in the correct script—not according to the flawed tradition of the lodges—is the 030 degree (vulgarly referred to in Masonic language as the 30th degree). This fairy tale contains in symbolic language all the secrets of this degree, just as the legend of Hercules contains all the secrets of the Royal Arch degree, which is written in the correct script as 013 degrees and is also called the 4th degree.

[ 7 ] 5. The poem “Pandora” also contains important information about Rosicrucian initiation.

[ 8 ] The means to penetrate Goethe’s Rosicrucianism through esoteric-occult paths are provided during the initiation into the true 020th degree, which—to conceal the secret—is also written as 6 3 degrees and read as 6 x 3 = 18th degree (Rose-Croix). There, it is revealed through occult means that Goethe received an initiation between his stays in Leipzig and Strasbourg, which, however, only gradually bore fruit within him and enabled him to fulfill a very specific Rosicrucian mission. One cannot write more about this; orally, one could say a few more things about it: even more so only in a true Rosicrucian lodge of the 6 3 = 6 x 3 = 18th degree.^{1This text exists only in the handwriting of Marie Steiner-von Sivers. It was presumably written down by Rudolf Steiner for Edouard Schuré around 1906, since this manuscript in Marie Steiner’s collection immediately follows a text written by Rudolf Steiner for Schuré in 1906, “Signs and Development of the Three Logoi in Humanity” (printed in “Nachrichten der Rudolf Steiner-Nachlaßverwaltung” No. 14, Michaelmas 1965, as well as in “The Apocalypse of John,” Bibliographic No. 104, 6th edition, GA 1979).}