The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture Five

[ 1 ] One should be aware from the outset that, prior to the wider dissemination of the Secret Science—that is, for about ten years—certain theosophical literature has propagated erroneous ideas about the goal pursued by the Secret Science. It has been claimed that the goal sought is the subjugation of the body through asceticism. The idea has been spread that external reality is an illusion that must be overcome. Reference has been made to the Indian concept of māyā. This is more than just an exaggeration. Rather, it is a genuine theoretical error that is contradicted both by science and by the practice of the occult science.

[ 2 ] How much more accurate, then, is the Greek metaphor that compares the soul to a bee. Just as the bee swarms out of the hive and gathers nectar to distill it and make honey, so too does the soul, springing from the Spirit, penetrate external reality and gather its fruits to bring them back to the Spirit.

[ 3 ] Esoteric science is not about despising reality, but about understanding and making use of it. The body is not a garment, but the instrument of the soul. Esoteric science is not a science that suppresses the body; rather, it teaches us to use it for higher purposes. Would one have understood the nature of a magnet if one had simply described it as a piece of horseshoe? No. But one understands it when one says: This is a piece of iron that possesses the power to attract other pieces of iron. — Visible reality is entirely permeated by a deeper reality that the soul seeks to penetrate in order to master it.

[ 4 ] Higher wisdom was preserved for thousands of years as a profound secret within the occult brotherhoods. One had to belong to them in order to learn even the most basic principles of occult science. And to join them, one had to pass tests and take an oath not to misuse the revealed truths. But the conditions of human nature—especially those of human intellectual consciousness—have changed completely, ever since the 16th century and particularly over the past hundred years, under the influence of scientific discoveries. Through science, a certain number of truths from the realm of nature and the sensually perceptible—which were once known only to the initiates—have become common knowledge. What science knows today was once a mystery. The initiates have always known what, in time, all people were meant to know. That is why they were also called prophets.

[ 5 ] It must be added that Christianity brought about a major change in initiation. According to Jesus Christ, initiation is no longer the same as it was before. We can only understand it if we take human nature into account and recall at this point what the seven constituent parts of the human being are.

[ 6 ] The seven constituent elements of the human being are:

[ 7 ] First, the physical body. This is the human being visible to the physical eye, the natural human being, the only one that science knows well today. The purely physical human being corresponds to the mineral world. It is a synthesis of all the physical forces of the universe.

[ 8 ] Second, the etheric body. How can it be understood? We know that hypnosis awakens a different state of consciousness, not only in the hypnotized subject but also in the hypnotist, who can suggest anything he wants to his subject. He can make her believe that a chair is a horse, but he can also suggest to her that the chair isn’t there or that there is no one in a room full of people. The initiate can apply this ability to himself at will and cause himself to “suggest away” the physical body of the person standing before him. He then perceives, in place of the physical body, not a void, but the etheric body. This body is similar to the physical body, yet somewhat different from it. It borrows its form from the physical body but extends somewhat beyond it. It is more or less luminous and fluid. Its organs appear as currents of various colors, and in place of the heart we find a veritable tangle of forces, a vortex of currents. The etheric body is thus a real, etheric double of the physical body.

[ 9 ] Human beings share this body with plants. It is not the product of the physical body, as empiricists might believe, but rather, on the contrary, it is the builder of the entire physical organism. For both plants and human beings, it is the force of growth, the force of rhythm, and the force of reproduction.

[ 10 ] Third, the astral body. It does not have the same form as the etheric and physical bodies. It takes on an egg-shaped form and hovers above the physical body like a cloud, an aura. The astral body can appear in all the colors of the rainbow, depending on the passions that animate it. Every passion has its astral color. Furthermore, the astral body is, in a sense, the synthesis of the physical and etheric bodies, in the following way: The etheric body always has a character opposite to the sex of the physical body. A man’s etheric body is of the female sex, while a woman’s is of the male sex. The astral body is hermaphroditic in both men and women. In this respect, it is therefore a synthesis of the other two bodies.

[ 11 ] Fourth, the “I”—Manas in Sanskrit, Jehovah in Hebrew—is the rational and conscious soul; it is the indestructible human individuality that holds within itself the knowledge of the structure of the other components of being. It is the ineffable “I,” which is both human and divine. It is the unity of the four elements that Pythagoras revered under the sign of the Tetragrammaton.

[ 12 ] Human evolution consists in the transformation of the lower physical members into spiritualized bodies with the help of the ego. The physical body is the oldest and, consequently, the most perfected member of modern human beings. The task of the current phase of human evolution is the transformation of the astral body.

[ 13 ] In the civilized type of the human race, the astral body is divided into two parts: a lower and a higher one. The lower part remains chaotic and dark, while the higher part is luminous and already permeated by the forces of Manas—that is, orderly and regular.

[ 14 ] Once the initiate has purified his astral body of all animal passions and made it perfectly luminous—which is the first phase of his initiation—he has reached the stage of catharsis, or purification. Only then can he work on his etheric body and, through it, imprint his seal upon the physical body. The astral body has no influence on the physical body in and of itself. It must act through the etheric body.

[ 15 ] The student’s task, then, is to achieve the transformation of the astral body and the etheric body, and consequently to attain complete mastery over the physical body. In this way, he becomes a master and transforms the three lower aspects of his nature into the three higher ones:

Fifth: Manas.
Sixth: Budhi.
Seventh: Atma.

[ 16 ] Here we encounter a wonderful law of human nature, which shows that the “I” and the Manas are at the center of human development. The dominion that the Manas exercises downward over the astral and etheric bodies is transmitted upward—that is, to the members of the higher, divine human being—through the acquisition of new abilities.

[ 17 ] For example, the influence of Manas on its etheric body is transformed into light and power for its mental nature: Budhi. The influence it exerts on its physical body is transformed into light and power for its divine spirit: Atma.

[ 18 ] Thus, the entire process of human evolution culminates in the transformation of the lower aspects of the being by the higher Self. And the task of our present stage of development is the transformation of the astral body, which goes hand in hand with the mastery of the emotional life and its purification.

[ 19 ] The astral body of modern humans is dark in its lower part and light and colorful in its upper part. The lower part has not yet been transformed by the ego; the upper part has been permeated and transformed by it. When a person has fully worked through his astral body, it is said that he has transformed it into Manas.

[ 20 ] Only then does the work on the etheric body begin. It is important to understand that what occurs in the astral body is temporary. What takes place in the etheric body, however, leaves a lasting imprint there and is also imprinted on the physical body like a seal.

[ 21 ] Higher initiation consists in controlling all the processes of the physical body, in mastering them completely, so that one has them under one’s control at will.

[ 22 ] As the initiate reaches this point, he possesses Atma, becomes a magician, and gains power over nature.

[ 23 ] The difference between Eastern and Western initiation lies in the method by which the teacher guides the student in working on his or her etheric body. To understand this clearly, it is necessary to consider the various states of the human being during sleep and while awake.

[ 24 ] During sleep, the astral body is partially separated from the physical body and inactive, while the etheric body continues its vegetative functions.

[ 25 ] At the moment of death, the etheric body and the astral body separate completely from the physical body. The etheric body, as the repository of memory, holds the recollection of one’s life, so that at the moment it detaches itself, the dying person sees their life unfold as if in a single tableau. Once separated from the physical body, the etheric body becomes much more active, because it is no longer disturbed by its connection to the physical.

[ 26 ] The Oriental initiation consisted in separating the student’s etheric and astral bodies from him during a lethargic state that usually lasted three days. During this period, the Hierophant guided the student’s etheric body, imparted certain impulses to it, instilled his wisdom into it, and transmitted it as a powerful and indelible impression.

[ 27 ] Upon awakening, the initiate found this wisdom within himself, because the etheric body contains the human memory; and he preserved this wisdom—it was that of the occult teaching, but imprinted with the indelible, personal mark of the hierophant. After this initiation, it was said of the one who had undergone the initiation that he had been born twice.

[ 28 ] This approach was taken because it would have been difficult to convey the higher truths in any other way.

[ 29 ] The situation is different with Western initiation. It differs from Eastern initiation in that one takes place during sleep and the other while awake; that is to say, it avoids the separation between the etheric body and the physical body. In Western initiation, the initiate remains independent, and the teacher is merely a guide. The Western teacher seeks neither to rule nor to convert, but only to recount what he has seen.

[ 30 ] What, then, is the proper way to listen to him?—In reality, there are three ways of listening: listening by submitting to the Word as an infallible authority; listening by rebelling against what one hears; and finally, simply listening without servile or blind faith—without systematic opposition, so to speak—by simply allowing the ideas to take effect and observing their results. This is how the student’s attitude toward the teacher must be in Western initiation.

[ 31 ] As for the teacher, he knows that in order to be the master, he must be the servant. For him, it is not a matter of molding his student’s soul in his own image, but of sensing its mysteries and unraveling them. What he teaches is not a doctrine of faith—or rather, it is a doctrine that has value only insofar as it serves inner development. Any truth that is not at the same time a life force is a barren truth. That is why it is necessary for every thought to find its way into the soul. It does not do so unless it is permeated by feeling; otherwise, it is a stillborn thought.