The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture XV

[ 1 ] Everything taught in Theosophy today was also part of the Rosicrucian schools in the 14th century. But the inner training of the Rosicrucian movement was strictly occult. In such occult training, very little attention is paid to language or the manner of expression. Within the world of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries lived a group of simple people who were not known as scholars nor did they hold any special social status, but who carried on the occult tradition of the Rosicrucians. There were never very many of them. There were never more than seven true initiates at any one time; the others were secret disciples of various degrees. The Rosicrucians were the emissaries of the White Lodge. In truth, it was from them that events of global significance emanated. Everything important that happened during this period ultimately traces back to the Lodge of the Rosicrucians. Outwardly, entirely different people shaped the history of Europe, but from an inner perspective, these were the instruments of occult individualities. Even Rousseau and Voltaire were such instruments of the occult individualities standing behind them. These occult individualities could not appear under their own names. The inspiration they imparted to other people as they carried out their mission could, outwardly, be very simple and unremarkable. Sometimes a brief encounter with such a simple man provided the opportunity to give the instruments of the occult individualities the right impulse. Occult powers also stood behind the great statesmen up until the French Revolution. Then they gradually withdrew, for people were to become masters of their own destinies. For the first time, people spoke as human beings in the speeches of the French Revolution.

[ 2 ] The inner life remained within the occult schools. In the schools of the Rosicrucians, those teachings were imparted that are now known as the elementary part of theosophy. The occult brotherhoods provided the impetus for every major discovery; only then did the events unfold out in the world. Voltaire was a spirit driven, in the most eminent sense, by forward-looking brotherhoods, for his essential purpose was to set people on their own feet. Others were in the service of brotherhoods that held back progress; Robespierre, for example, in his later years. Everything that appears prematurely gives rise to an opposing force on the physical plane... (Gap in the text.)

[ 3 ] In the Rosicrucian schools, therefore, the same teachings were imparted as are now taught through Theosophy. Only, in the outside world, there was no mention of Theosophy. In the actual secret schools, importance is attached to language only when one wishes to instruct the world. The secret student himself must learn to use the symbols and signs. But in order to make themselves understood by the world, the initiates also have only the language that the outside world uses. When knowledge was still kept entirely secret, there was a certain system of symbols, and anyone who wished to be initiated had to learn the language of symbols. No importance was attached to verbal expression. Even back then, all the teachings existed; but sometimes the appropriate expressions were lacking. Such expressions, however, do exist for occult teachings in the Eastern method of instruction, which still originates from the very oldest Indians who received instruction from the ancient rishis. These Indian expressions have not yet been influenced by the materialistic age. The words coined by the Indians are still full of the magic of the sacredness of the primordial language. Nevertheless, Indian culture is something we in Europe cannot make use of.

[ 4 ] What is true for the Indian people is not necessarily true for Europe. Initially, an influence from India was necessary because Europe itself had not developed sufficient means of expression to introduce the teachings. There are still some things that even we must describe using Indian terms. But everything that appears in the occult teachings today was also present among the Rosicrucians in the Middle Ages and at the beginning of the modern era. Even back then, they had the right terms for the essential points that matter. They could not speak openly of reincarnation and karma at that time; however, they were able to unconsciously incorporate these truths into European culture. Paracelsus and other mystics did not speak of reincarnation. That was only natural. They could not speak of it. But for everything relating to the earthly life course between birth and death, they had extraordinarily apt expressions and terms in the West; they did not, however, have them for the intermediate state between two incarnations. One point was strongly emphasized at that time: that physical life is important for the development of the organs of the higher bodies. When we pursue the sciences, when we develop close spiritual friendships—all of this serves to cultivate forces that will one day function as spiritual organs.

[ 5 ] It has always been summarized in three uniform concepts how, from the outside, the education of the physical plane is to affect human beings in their various bodies. These three aspects were called: wisdom, beauty, and power or strength.

[ 6 ] When students were instructed in the more exoteric Rosicrucian schools, in the outer courtyard, they were told: “You are to be workers of the future.” - There was no mention of reincarnation. But a person would continue to work even if he were not to incarnate here in the physical world again. What was to manifest in the future as organ-forming was implanted within him. The student was told: “Lead a life of wisdom, beauty, and power out there in everyday life, and then you will develop in your higher bodies such organs that are for the future.” — Among Freemasons today, the Johannite Masons still speak of how important wisdom, beauty, and power are, but they no longer realize that through these, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I, along with their organs, are developed.

[ 7 ] When a Masonic master builder constructed a cathedral or a church in the Middle Ages, his name was of no importance whatsoever. He remained in the shadows. For the same reason, the author of the *Theologia deutsch* is not named. He calls himself “the Frankfurters.” No scholar has been able to identify the author’s name. The aim of these people was to work outwardly on the physical plane and to leave no trace of their names, but certainly to leave a record of their activities on the physical plane.

[ 8 ] Let us suppose that someone provided the plan and the inspiration for the construction of a great cathedral. He knew that the cathedral’s forms would create within it an organ for the future. All such works will remain connected in their effects to the innermost depths of the soul. As a rule, however, the external works also remain long enough for the one who created them to rediscover and recognize them when he returns. Beneath the pulpit one usually finds a small image of the architect; by this he recognizes himself. This is the bridge that is built from one incarnation to the next.

[ 9 ] Through wisdom, the etheric body was to be formed; through beauty—which included piety—the astral body; and through power, the true self. Human beings were to become a self-denying reflection of the external world. In ancient India, people knew nothing of this yet. Brahmanism strove for the perfection of the inner Self... (gap in the text; see note on p. 279).

[ 10 ] ... but right in the middle of our post-Atlantean cycle, those religious teachers appeared who emphasized the renunciation of the self. Buddha had already taught this. But this was cultivated even further in the West through Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism. They sought the perfection of the “I” in the form that also exists in the external world, not so much in the form that lives within, as was practiced in India. In this sense, the Western occultist said to himself: Your “I” is not only within you, but in the world around you. The gods have raised you above the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms, but you create three kingdoms for yourself: the three kingdoms of wisdom, beauty, and power. These constitute the higher human being.

[ 11 ] Man said to himself: I stand here as the culmination of an era in which the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms have given themselves up for me; for this reason, self-consciousness—the “I”—has emerged. And just as the “I” has been shaped by the other realms, it must now itself shape the realms of wisdom, beauty, and strength, in order to climb even higher through them toward a complete transformation of our etheric, astral, and “I” bodies. These three realms are the realms of science, art, and inner strength—which encompasses everything that the will brings to life. In these three elements, the medieval esotericist saw the means for the further development of humanity. The transformation of the world is not to be left to blind chance, but rather the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms are to be transformed according to these three principles of wisdom, beauty, and strength. When the Earth becomes astral once more, everything will have been transformed according to these three principles. Thus, the Freemasons of the Middle Ages and all esotericists built and constructed in accordance with these three principles.

[ 12 ] In Indian esotericism, a distinction is made between twelve forces that draw human beings back into physical existence. The first of these forces is: Avidya = ignorance. Avidya is what draws us back into physical existence, for the simple reason that we have only fulfilled our mission on Earth once we have extracted all knowledge. Conversely, we have not completed our earthly mission as long as we do not yet know everything that we are meant to extract as knowledge from physical existence.

[ 13 ] According to Avidya, the next thing that draws us back is everything on Earth that is contained within us because we have created it ourselves and therefore it is part of our organization. For example, if a mason has worked on a cathedral here, it has become a part of himself. These two things then attract each other. Whatever has an organizing tendency for its creator—whether it be the work of Leonardo da Vinci or the smallest work here—forms an organ within the human being, and that is why he returns. All of this together—everything that a person has done—is called samskara, or organizing tendencies that build up the human being. That is what draws him back as the second factor.

[ 14 ] Now comes the third point. Before a human being entered into any incarnation, he knew nothing of an external world. Self-awareness began only with the first incarnation; before that, a human being had no self-awareness. He first had to perceive external things on the physical plane before he could develop self-awareness. Just as what a human being has done draws him back to the physical plane, so too does knowledge of things draw him back. Consciousness is a new force that binds him to what is here. This is the third factor that draws a person into a new earthly life. This third factor is called: Vijnana = consciousness.

[ 15 ] Up to this point, we have remained very much within the human soul. The fourth element to emerge is that which confronts consciousness from the outside—that which existed even before the human being came into being, but which he has only come to know through his consciousness. This existed prior to his earlier existence, but it only becomes accessible after his consciousness has unlocked it. It is the separation between subject and object, or, as the Sanskrit scholar says, the separation between name and form = namarupa. Through this, the human being has arrived at the external object. This draws him back as a fourth element—for example, the memory of a being to which he has become attached.

[ 16 ] The next is what we form as a concept based on an external object; for example, the image of a dog is a mere concept, but to the painter it is the essence. It is everything that the mind makes of the thing: Shadayadana.

[ 17 ] Now we descend even further into the earthly realm. This concept leads us to what we call contact with existence = Sparsha. Whoever clings to an object is on the level of Namarupa. Whoever forms mental images is on the level of Shadayadana. But whoever distinguishes between the pleasant and the unpleasant will prefer the beautiful to the ugly. This is called contact with existence = Sparsha.

[ 18 ] However, there is something else besides this contact with the outside world: what stirs within us as an inner sensation. Now I myself take action, connecting my sensation to one thing or another. This is a new element. It draws a person further in; it is called vedana = sensation.

[ 19 ] Through vedana, something entirely new now arises: the thirst for existence. The forces that draw a person back into existence awaken more and more within him. The higher forces compel more or less all human beings; they are not individual. Ultimately, however, entirely personal forces emerge that draw him back into the earthly realm. This is the eighth: Trishna = thirst for existence.

[ 20 ] Even more subjective than the thirst for existence is something called upadana = delight in existence. In upadana, humans share something in common with animals; they simply experience it in a somewhat more spiritual way, and it is the human’s task to spiritualize this coarse element of the soul.

[ 21 ] Then comes individual existence itself—the entirety of the previous incarnation, if he was ever here before: Bhava = individual existence, the power of the entire totality of the previous incarnation. The previous incarnation draws him into existence.

[ 22 ] This brings us back to the stages of the nidanas up to the stage of individual birth. The esotericist now distinguishes two additional stages that extend beyond the period of individual existence. He identifies a preliminary stage that impelled birth before the human being had ever incarnated. This is called: Jati = that which, before birth, impelled birth.

[ 23 ] Being thrust into birth is also connected to something else. In fact, at birth we are already endowed with the seed of decay—the striving to escape from individual birth. We are interested in seeing our earthly existence disintegrate once more so that we may be liberated, grow old, and die = Jaramarana. These are the twelve nidanas, which act like ropes and pull us back into existence again and again. (Nidana means “rope” or “noose.”) There are three groups that belong together:

first group	second group	third group
Avidya	Shadayadana	Upadana
Samskara	Sparsha	Bhava
Vijnana	Vedana	Jati
Namarupa	Trishna	Jaramarana

[ 24 ] The soul has three components: the consciousness soul as the highest component, followed by the intellect soul and the sensation soul. The first group of nidanas, from avidya to namarupa, clings to the consciousness soul; the second group clings to the intellect soul; and the third group, from upadana to jaramarana, clings to the feeling soul.

[ 25 ] Vijnana is the defining characteristic of the conscious soul; Shadayadana is that of the intellectual soul, and the latter four are associated with the sensory soul. These last four are present in animals just as they are in humans.