The Rudolf Steiner Archive

21. On Goethe and His Relationship to Rosicrucianism

[ 1 ] There are two ways to delve into Goethe’s Rosicrucian mystery: one exoteric and one esoteric or occult. The exoteric approach involves studying those of Goethe’s poems that are an outward expression of his Rosicrucian beliefs and his knowledge of the subject.

[ 2 ] These include:

[ 3 ] 1. The poem “Secrets.” It depicts the mystery of the Lodge of the 12, with the 13th at its head. The content alludes to the experiences in the forecourt of the Rosicrucian Parcival Initiation (Holy Grail Initiation).

[ 4 ] 2. The basis in Faust. The homunculus is the astral body; the journey to the “Mothers” represents the search for the “golden triangle” and the “lost word.”

[ 5 ] 3. The passages in Wilhelm Meister that depict the “journey and transformation of the soul” up to the expansion of consciousness into cosmic vision (contemplation of cosmic processes; Makarien’s vision is such contemplation).

[ 6 ] 4. The fairy tale of the green serpent and the beautiful lily depicts 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 030th degree (commonly referred to as the 30th degree in Masonic terminology) . 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 correct script as the 013th degree and is also called the 4th.

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

[ 8 ] The means to penetrate Goethe’s Rosicrucianism through esoteric and occult channels 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 × 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; verbally, one could say a few more things about it: even more so only in a true Rosicrucian lodge of the 6 3 = 6 × 3 = 18th degree.^{1This text exists only in the manuscript 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 that of a text written by Rudolf Steiner for Schuré in 1906, “Signs and Development of the Three Logoi in Humanity” (reprinted in “News from the Rudolf Steiner Estate Administration,” No. 14, Michaelmas 1965, as well as in “The Apocalypse of John,” Bibliographic No. 104, 6th edition, GA 1979).}