The Rudolf Steiner Archive

22. Christian Initiation and Rosicrucian Training

[ 1 ] If yesterday we discussed a topic that pertains more to the outer, exoteric aspect of spiritual science, today we may offer some reflections on the inner, esoteric aspect of spiritual science.

[ 2 ] When, as is our task today, one speaks to a large or even smaller audience about the results of research into the supersensible, the question is soon asked: How do we know this? How can one come to experience something oneself with regard to the higher worlds? — This is a very legitimate question. However, one must be clear that one cannot embark on this path of personal observation too soon—certainly not before becoming acquainted with the key ideas of spiritual science. One must already have gained some familiarity with the general ideas and concepts of the anthroposophical worldview. One must have tried to gain the intuition—which dawns on every human being—that there is truth in anthroposophy. Finally, one must have tried to grasp, through human logic, the inner coherence of the spiritual scientific teachings.

[ 3 ] Today, in principle, there is really nothing to be said against someone who feels a desire to ascend on their own to the levels of higher knowledge. Certainly, some people speak at great length about the dangers and all the obstacles that stand in the way of occult development—as the inner development of the human being is called. Much is said about Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga, but this is mostly of theoretical value. If the process is carried out correctly, and if the person guiding such inner development is truly called to do so, then there is actually no danger. Everything simply has to be done correctly; that is what matters. A lecture such as today’s is not intended to provide instructions—this should be particularly emphasized—for these must be given explicitly from person to person. Whoever gives them assumes a great responsibility, and whoever receives them must be certain that the chosen one truly deserves their trust. This trust is something that must absolutely be present.

[ 4 ] The occult or inner development of the human being thus gradually leads the individual up to the levels of self-knowledge. I would now like to outline the essentials of inner development—as I have already said, for informational purposes, not as a guide.

[ 5 ] When someone has reached the summit of knowledge—when someone stands at the very top of the mountain—they have an unobstructed view in every direction. This is true in physical life, and it is true in knowledge as well. As long as one is not at the top—as long as one is still on the path—one does not have that unobstructed view. The higher one climbs, the more one comes to know, but a large part remains hidden by the mountain. This image of the mountain fits very well with inner development. Everyone who wishes to ascend the steps of higher knowledge must also start from a point that is suitable for them. This means that people on Earth are different from one another, differing also in their physical, etheric, and astral constitutions. The outer nature of a Hindu, a person from the Near East, a European, or an American differs from one another far more than the non-occultist can imagine. What is beneficial for a Hindu nature in terms of exercises for inner development cannot simply be expected of a Western nature. It was therefore a mistake to transplant the Eastern yoga teachings to Europe. This caused a great deal of harm. The much softer body of a Hindu can be developed quite differently from the European organism, which has been made much harder—if I may say so—by civilization. Thus, human natures are much more diverse than you can imagine. An anatomist cannot tell you anything about this, but anyone who, as a clairvoyant, casts a glance into the inner self knows how enormously different these natures are.

[ 6 ] Today’s humanity can be divided into three types: First, there are still those for whom the Eastern yoga initiation is essentially suitable; then there are those for whom the Christian-Gnostic path is possible; and finally, there are those—and this is the case for the vast majority—for whom the path known since the 14th century as the Rosicrucian path is suitable. Mind you, these paths do not lead to different insights, for when one is at the summit, all things are the same. But the paths are—and must be—different.

[ 7 ] On the Christian-Gnostic path, one can achieve many things; one can attain the highest insights. The Rosicrucian path, however, is suited to modern people because they may find themselves in situations where, precisely because they live within our present-day world, doubts arise and disturbances set in—which they must overcome for their own sake and for their work in the world. This is possible only through inner training based on the Rosicrucian method, which is the right one for the Western world.

[ 8 ] I would just like to mention a few aspects of Christian-Gnostic initiation so that you can see that this is still a field about which there is much to learn today. I will then move on to the Rosicrucian training without further ado. We will not discuss the Eastern yoga path any further today.

[ 9 ] The Christian path is laid out in a text that is scarcely understood outside occult circles. The Gospel of John fully outlines the correct path of Christian initiation.

[ 10 ] The Gospel of John is one of the most profound writings in the world, but one must know how to read it correctly—that is, one must not believe that reading alone is sufficient or correct. It is a book of life. Above all, you must realize that even the very first words were not written merely to be read, nor for philosophical speculation; they were written for meditation. However, one must approach them in the right way—not through the usual translation, but by drawing from the very essence of the German language—so that the first verses of the Gospel of John are rendered in such a way that not only the meaning of the sentences but also their sound value is preserved. For in true occult life, what is known as the sound value of words also comes into play.

[ 11 ] Meditation consists of inner contemplation of certain formulas, phrases, or even words; however, meditation—which is an important means of development—is not merely a philosophical or intellectual contemplation of what an occult teacher gives you, but rather a deep immersion into the very essence of the sound. If you were to reflect on a sentence given to you by a teacher, you could only produce thoughts that you already possess. But you are meant to receive something new—that is the point. Meditative sentences are phrases that unlock the gateway to the spiritual world for you, based on centuries of experience. It is known that every letter and every phrase has an effect on the soul. Therefore, you must meditate on the first phrases exactly as they are written. Correctly translated, they read:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

And the light shone in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

He came as a witness, to bear witness to the light, so that through him all might believe.

He was not the light, but a witness to the light. For the true light, which enlightens every person, was to come into the world.

It was in the world, and the world was made through it, yet the world did not recognize it.

It came to individual people (it came even to the “I”-people), but the individual people (the “I”-people) did not receive it.

But those who did receive it were able, through it, to be revealed as children of God.

Those who trusted in his name were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we heard his teaching—the teaching of the Father’s only Son, filled with devotion and truth.

[ 12 ] If we could talk at length, I could tell you a great deal about these first sentences. What I am now briefly telling you about this Christian initiation is something that hundreds upon hundreds of people have gone through. It has become a practical experience for thousands. I simply want to give you a glimpse of some of the stages of Christian initiation.

[ 13 ] The student was told at first: “For weeks, months, and years to come, you must first allow these opening verses of the Gospel of John to live in your soul for a certain time each morning. Throughout this time, you must turn your attention away from everything happening around you. You must become blind and deaf to everything around you, and these words must rise up in your soul, as if you were hearing them, day after day, over and over again.

[ 14 ] This exercise initially has a specific effect on the soul. It brings about a transformation whereby such a person sees how his dreams suddenly become regular, how they take on regular forms. And then comes the moment when the person knows that they are not in a world of dreams. Instead, they know: Now you have a new reality around you—the imaginative, the astral. Just as one sees trees and bushes around oneself in ordinary consciousness, so one now sees the experiences of that world. They emerge step by step, and then one knows what they mean. At first as dream images, then more and more as living waking visions, the student sees the first twelve chapters of the Gospel of John before them.

[ 15 ] After this experience, the teacher of Christian initiation says to the student: “Now you must prepare yourself for the experience of the thirteenth chapter. Imagine a plant! This plant grows out of the mineral kingdom. If it could think and feel, it would have to say to the mineral kingdom: “I grow out of you; though you are a lower kingdom than I am, I could never live without you.” And gratefully, it would have to bow toward the mineral kingdom and say: “Thank you, stone! I owe my entire existence to you.” — Likewise, the animal would have to speak to the plant. And human beings would have to bow down toward the lower kingdoms of nature and feel the same way. And everyone who has climbed higher on the social ladder would have to bow down toward those below them and say: “Without you, I could not live.”

[ 16 ] The student must practice immersing himself completely in this for weeks and months on end. Then two symptoms arise, the same for everyone. At first, he experiences both the outer and the inner symptom as a very specific reality. He sees himself as the Thirteenth, washing the feet of the Twelve. Christ Jesus sought to make this great truth clear to the Twelve through the washing of their feet. This wondrous spiritual experience comes upon the person during initiation. It can even manifest as external symptoms. The student experiences something that feels as if he were dipping his feet in water. No one need fear this; it will soon pass.

[ 17 ] When the student is ready, the teacher comes and says: “Now you must enter a different sphere of feeling. Life brings suffering and pain from all sides.” You must put yourself in a state where you face all suffering and all pain—no matter where in the world they come from—as an upright human being, so that they cannot affect you. You must persevere in these matters for weeks and months. — Then there comes a point when an astral symptom occurs. The student sees himself in a vision of the scourging, and a similar sensation arises throughout his entire body; though it passes again, it has the effect of permeating the student’s entire body with this sensation. In this way, he has prepared himself to stand upright amid the lashes of life.

[ 18 ] For the third stage, he receives the following instruction: Now you must put yourself in the position of imagining how you would feel if you not only had to endure pain and suffering, but also if what is most sacred to you were to be showered with scorn and ridicule. You must be able to stand firm through your inner strength; you must have such a center within yourself that you can stand upright. Then a new vision arises: The student sees himself crowned with thorns. As an outward symptom, he experiences a kind of headache that radiates into his limbs, indicating that this great experience has taken hold.

[ 19 ] Then comes the fourth stage. The physical body must become like an external object for the student. Most people perceive it as the “I.” The body must become like a piece of wood, like something external. The student must get into the habit of saying, instead of “I am coming through the door,” “I am carrying the body through the door.” The body must become completely objective to him. When the student has lived within this state for weeks and months, he then has a vision, an astral experience: he sees himself crucified. This is the fourth station. And as an external symptom, the stigmata appear for a short time during meditation on the hands, feet, and the right side—not the left, as is commonly assumed. They show how this degree of development has worked its way into the physical body.

[ 20 ] Then come stages that we can no longer speak of, because we have no words for them. The fifth stage is the mystical death, where the student first experiences what it is like as if something were standing between him and reality, like a black curtain. Until the realization dawns on him, he feels something like a sense of being lost, a kind of utter solitude. The physical world is as if it had sunk into nothingness, and like an impenetrable black curtain, it lies before the eye of the soul. This is a moment that everyone who walks this path of initiation must experience. One becomes acquainted with all that can lie at the bottom of the soul as truly great suffering and pain, and with all the evil that exists in the world. This is the descent into hell. Then it seems to the student as if the curtain were torn apart, and he sees into the other world.

[ 21 ] This is followed by the burial, an experience in which one feels at one with the planets, and the seventh stage, which cannot be described, because only those who can detach their thoughts from their brains can have even a faint inkling of it. It is the Ascension.

[ 22 ] Through this description of Christian initiation, I wanted to help you understand what it entails. It is a path marked by great self-denial. It can take place in complete silence, and there are some among you who have gone through all of this. It happens, as it were, between the lines of life, and the more serious it is, the less visible it is to the outside eye.

[ 23 ] If a person wishes to be prepared against everything that may come from the outside, he must undergo the Rosicrucian initiation. Much of what you read about this in books might lead you to view the Rosicrucians as charlatans, for that is how they are often portrayed by scholars.

[ 24 ] Since the 14th century, the true Rosicrucians have recognized one another by a secret sign. Outsiders, however, were not to be told what the essence of Rosicrucianism consisted of. It must have been only at a certain point in the 19th century that even the most basic elements of Rosicrucian initiation began to be revealed. Only gradually is humanity maturing to the point where it may learn about these matters. Why this must be so, and why the higher mysteries must still be kept hidden, is something we cannot discuss further today.

[ 25 ] The Rosicrucian initiation also has seven stages, namely: First, the study—the Rosicrucian study; second, the acquisition of imaginative knowledge; third, the mastery of occult writings; fourth, the search for the Philosopher’s Stone; fifth, the experience of the connection between the microcosm and the macrocosm; sixth, immersion in the macrocosm; and seventh, godliness.

[ 26 ] I would like to point out once again that only rough outlines can be provided, and nothing more.

[ 27 ] Study is not learning as it usually takes place; rather, one must come to realize that there exists a form of human thought that is still fluid and genuine, in which a person excludes all sensory perceptions from their surroundings. Western thinkers deny that such a form of thinking exists. They say that one can only think if a remnant of sensory perception is still contained within the thought. These gentlemen simply do not know that others have been able to do so, and they refuse to believe it because they themselves cannot think in this way. One must learn to forget everything, to disregard everything that externally affects the senses, without, however, remaining an empty vessel. This is possible when one immerses oneself in a pure, senseless content of thought, such as that contained in the communications of the spiritual researcher, and reflects on what unfolds from there. I have followed this path in my writings; I have written them in such a way that, as with a living being, one part grows out of the other, one thought emerges organically from the next. One devotes oneself selflessly to the thought, and an inner separation occurs. Whoever wishes to ascend higher must read spiritual scientific communications in this way. Those who do not wish to ascend higher may read them as an ordinary book. The former is the case because, through higher knowledge, a person enters other worlds. You now live on the physical plane—the word “level” should be discarded, for it gives rise to most errors. The English word “plan” should not be translated as “level”; just as a blueprint for a house has nothing to do with a level, it should be called a “plan.” So you enter different planes, different worlds. First you live here in the physical world, then you enter the astral, imaginative world. This is a world that can be described as follows: Imagine a plant, green, with a red flower. Through certain exercises, you gain the ability not only to see what your senses perceive, but also to perceive how, as it were, a cold, flame-like formation rises from the plant. You perceive floating colors. In this way, you come to perceive beings that you cannot perceive with your external senses. Everything evaporates from the surface of things and becomes the expression of purely astral processes. This world is far more real than our sensory world, for our sensory world is created out of it—the spiritual world. This physical world is a condensed form of the astral. For the true occultist, matter is condensed spirit that we can dissolve again. Our entire sensory world is a condensed astral phenomenon.

[ 28 ] Behind this astral world lies yet another world, which I can best describe by showing you how a person comes to experience it. When a person does the exercises I have described in my writings, their dreams begin to become more orderly. Try to immerse yourself in the nature of dreams for a moment. What is a dream? I will cite a few examples—taken from real life, since I will not present any others.

[ 29 ] Someone dreamed that he had caught a tree frog and was holding the corner of his bedsheet in his hand. While awake, he would have recognized that the fact underlying the dream was that he was holding the corner of his bedsheet in his hand. The dream symbolizes this event. - Another example: Someone dreams that he is in a dim, black cellar full of cobwebs. He wakes up with a headache. — Entire dramatic sequences can be dreamed in this way. A student is standing at the door of the lecture hall. Another student coming in bumps into him, and—as he continues dreaming—a pistol duel ensues. The shot rings out—and the chair next to the bed has fallen over. This small event has found symbolic expression in the entire “dream plot.” A farmer’s wife dreams that she is going to town, enters the church, where the pastor is preaching about sublime things. Just at a particularly sublime moment, the pastor transforms: he looks as if he’s growing wings, and suddenly begins to crow. At that moment, the farmer’s wife wakes up, because the rooster is crowing outside. This act of the rooster’s crowing has been symbolically transformed in the dream.

[ 30 ] The dream is such a creator. All of this is chaotic. However, life enters this world, and everything becomes harmonious and orderly when you attain, to a certain extent, the certainty that a reality exists there. This is how it begins, and later on, what is perceived in the dream world is carried over into ordinary life. In fact, something emerges that can be called “the continuity of consciousness.”

[ 31 ] Human beings also experience dreamless sleep. At the next stage of their development, Rosicrucian students learn to perceive the beings and processes around them while asleep: From the darkness of dreamless sleep, the revelations of the spiritual world resound. This is the next world, the Devachanic world. The Pythagorean schools called this world the world of spherical music: the spiritual world resounds. If you truly wish to learn about Devachan, it can only be described to you as a resounding world. Goethe, who was initiated into Rosicrucian wisdom to this degree, was aware of this fact: “The sun resounds in the ancient way.” This is either nonsense or a higher wisdom. The physical sun does not resound; the spirit of the sun is a real, resounding being. And Goethe remains true to this image; read in the second part of Faust: “Resounding to the ears of the spirit / The new day is already born.” He wrote this because what the Pythagoreans called the “music of the spheres” was a truth for him. I can only hint at all of this. All things will speak to us; a new revelation is emerging.

[ 32 ] These are the levels that the Rosicrucian student can attain through his exercises. The worlds are always completely different, and anyone who knows only the physical world cannot conceive of what he might experience in other worlds. Only one thing remains the same across all worlds, and that is logical thinking. Perceptions are quite different in the astral and devachanic worlds, but the laws of thought are the same in all three worlds. Therefore, the Rosicrucian student must first learn this way of thinking so that he does not stray from the sure path.

[ 33 ] The second stage is the acquisition of imaginative knowledge. I can only tell you a few things here to explain what is meant by this. When you see a tear rolling down a cheek, you conclude that there is sadness in the soul. When you see a person’s face as serene, you conclude that their soul is serene. You do this in relation to other people. Anyone who wishes to ascend to imaginative knowledge must do so in relation to the whole world. For them, the life of plants, animals, and stones must become an expression of the world soul’s physiognomy. Some things must be like serenity; others, like the beading tears of the Earth Spirit. This must become a reality for human beings. Just as we read a person’s physiognomy in their face, so must the entire Earth become an expression of the Earth’s spiritual soul for us. There is much to experience there. This is connected to the mystery of the Holy Grail, the ideal of the medieval Rosicrucian disciple.

[ 34 ] Let’s take an example. There stood the Rosicrucian student facing the teacher, who set an exercise for him. What I now present as a form of dialogue was never actually spoken as a conversation, but what is contained within it has been practiced; it has been experienced. It is entirely true and absolutely correct in every detail. The student comes to the teacher, and the teacher says to him: Look at the plant! It stretches its roots into the ground, it grows upward, opens its calyx upward—within it lie the organs of fertilization and reproduction. Chaste, noble, and pure, it allows itself to be kissed by the sunbeam and the light—the sacred lance of love—which, as a sunbeam, pierces the plant’s calyx and draws forth what is inherent in the plant’s reproductive organs. You would be mistaken if, comparing the plant to a human being, you were to think that the flower is the head and the root the feet. The root is the head and the flower is the lower part. The human being is an inverted plant.

[ 35 ] Thus, the occultist sees in man the inverted plant and in the plant the inverted man, with the animal standing right in the middle. Look at the plant: it corresponds to the downward-pointing beam of the cross; the animal corresponds to the horizontal beam; and man corresponds to the vertical, upward-pointing beam. - This is the original meaning of the cross: it is the symbol of the plant, the animal, and the human being as the three kingdoms of nature. That is why Plato writes that the world soul is crucified on the body of the world. - And now the teacher continued to the student: Look at the human being, the human being in the flesh! What is this human flesh? Compare it with what is contained in the plant. The plant’s matter is chaste and pure. Human flesh is permeated by desire and passion. The human being stands higher on the ladder of evolution, but in doing so has also taken on desire and passion. - And a future form of humanity dawned in the intuition of the occult student, in which human flesh will once again be pure and chaste, like the chaste calyx of a flower that stretches forth with its reproductive organs toward the sacred lance of love that is the sunbeam. Then his creative powers will strive toward the spirit as purely as the plant today strives toward the light with its “lance of love.” Whoever strives for this seeks a transformation of the flesh. Thus, the great ideal was presented to the disciple’s gaze: that humanity will one day be as pure and chaste as the plant. This ideal is called the Holy Grail. This is one of those images that speak to the heart and the whole soul. It is not through thoughts that the student could ascend, but through images that affect the whole soul and stir the heart and the emotions. Only then can imaginative knowledge be attained.

[ 36 ] The third stage is the mastery of occult writing. There is something in the world that, in occult life, is called the vortex. This vortex is present everywhere in nature and in the spiritual world. Imagine looking up at the Orion Nebula, which forms a strange spiral. If you were a seer, you would see that one vortex winds out like a six, followed by a second one that is darker. These two vortices interlock. This also occurs in the spiritual world.

[ 37 ] We live in the era following the Great Atlantean Flood. Before that time, our ancient ancestors lived—people of a completely different kind. Today, people imagine that the people back then were just like they are now. However, the external physical conditions were quite different. Atlantis, for example, was a land that was always dark, shrouded in thick fog. It is important for you to know this. Ancient German mythology has preserved the memory of this in the words Nifelheim, Nebelheim, and Nibelungen. In keeping with these conditions, human society was organized quite differently. Likewise, the Atlanteans had a completely different culture. You would get an idea of this if I could describe to you in detail how people back then perceived articulated sounds in all things. There were no moral precepts. If someone wanted to know how to behave toward his neighbor, he could not turn to any authority: he listened to the waves and knew.

[ 38 ] This was a culture of which every trace seems to have vanished. It has perished. When did this happen? We can see it in the sky. About eight centuries before the birth of Christ, the sun rose in the constellation of Aries. It moves through a constellation over the course of about 2,160 years. Around the year 800 B.C., the sun entered the constellation of Aries, or the Ram. Humanity felt that the new constellation had brought them the new fertility of spring, the new goodness. Therefore, we see that they considered the Ram or the Lamb to be important. Much points to this, for example, the legend of the Argonauts, in which the Golden Fleece plays such a role. Even Christ is called the Lamb of God. The symbol to which worship was offered was the lamb. In earlier times, the sun was in the constellation of Taurus, hence the veneration of the bull in Egyptian and Persian cultures. Even earlier, the sun passed through the constellation of Gemini. This corresponds to the major role that duality plays in the Persian doctrine of Ormuzd and Ahriman. Traces of this can even be found in ancient Germanic culture. Before that, the sun passed through the constellation of Cancer. This was the period following the onset of the Atlantean flood. A spiritual upheaval had taken place.

[ 39 ] You can still see this constellation, represented by the occult symbol of Cancer, in the calendar today. Humans are familiar with many such symbols. In truth, these are nothing more than representations of the original forces of nature. If you train your mind to understand the occult symbols, you will strengthen your will through the occult script. You will come to know the paths followed by the spiritual beings underlying nature. Symbolic signs, such as the pentagram or the hexagram, are a faint echo of these. One occult symbol you often read about is the swastika. The sheer number of outlandish explanations surrounding it is unbelievable. In truth, it is nothing other than the symbol for the astral sense organs—the wheels or lotus flowers—several of which are located in the astral body: in the heart, in the throat, and between the eyebrows. When the latter wheel begins to turn, astral vision begins. The symbol for this astral organ of perception is the swastika.

[ 40 ] The fourth stage is what is known as the preparation of the Philosopher’s Stone. It truly exists. In fact, at the end of the 18th century, a man who had heard something “loud” but not “crashing” provided a rather beautiful description of the Philosopher’s Stone in a magazine. The author himself simply didn’t realize how well he was describing it. At that time, certain information from the occult school was revealed through a particular process, and someone then happened to describe the Philosopher’s Stone. This is actually something everyone is familiar with—something many people hold in their hands every day without having the slightest idea of what it is. To help you understand what is meant, let’s take a brief look at it together. Think about human respiration. A person inhales oxygen, thereby transforming their blue blood into red blood; they exhale carbon dioxide, so that they expel toxic substances with every breath. Plants, on the other hand, absorb the carbon dioxide that humans and animals exhale, retain the carbon, and use it to build their bodies. They release the oxygen back into the air so that humans can breathe it in again. This is a cycle. Occultists have attached great significance to this process. If you excavate a plant in the form of coal today, you can see how the plant has built up its body from carbon. Humans take in oxygen, transforming their blue blood into red; plants take in carbon dioxide, release oxygen, and humans take it in again.

[ 41 ] Let us now clarify what happens through a specific regulation of the breathing process in Rosicrucian training. How and in what way this takes place can only be determined on a person-to-person basis, but we can speak of its success. “Constant dripping wears away the stone,” as the proverb says. So it is with the process I am now describing. The occult student receives instructions from the teacher on how to perform his breathing exercises from the spirit. It is, therefore, an instruction to regulate the breathing process in a specific way, thereby creating the possibility that human consciousness may gradually expand to encompass something of which the human being is otherwise unaware—something that otherwise takes place in the plant. The plant now forms a whole with the student. Normally, a person exhales carbon dioxide and inhales oxygen. The student must now take this into his or her consciousness. In the process of breathing, he consciously experiences the transformation of carbon into oxygen, of blue blood into red blood. He learns to carry out within himself what he would otherwise leave to the plant. Now he is able to build up his own body. He learns this through regular breathing. He has acquired the ability to carry out the plant process within himself. Now you have the actual process through which the human being learns to purify his flesh physically as well. The alchemy of the human body is contained within this process. It brings about the transformation of the human being into the bearer of a pure, chaste incarnation, comparable to that of a plant. The student has an awareness of the High, the Bright; he knows that he had to pass through the flesh only as a means to an end. This is the transformation of coal into a diamond. You will now understand what the rhythmic regulation of the breath means in Rosicrucian training and in what sense people have spoken of a Philosopher’s Stone. The regulated breathing process is the path to the Philosopher’s Stone.

[ 42 ] These are only hints, but you will understand that behind the search for the Philosopher’s Stone lies something profound, something that relates to the transformation of all humanity, so that human beings become different from what they are today—both they and the entire Earth. The powers of the soul must be so great, strong, and steadfast—morally great—that human beings can draw even the flesh into the process of redemption. We must redeem everything around us, all creatures.

[ 43 ] The fifth step is to delve into the connection between the microcosm and the macrocosm. A great occultist of the Middle Ages—whose works one must first learn to read—used a beautiful image to illustrate the relationship between the macrocosm and the microcosm. Paracelsus said: “You see the individual letters there. Man is the word composed of letters. Thus, one must see a human being spread out throughout all of nature, and nature itself composed within man.” — Paracelsus, for example, called the choleric patient “Arsenicus” because the same forces are at work within him as in arsenic.

[ 44 ] But it goes further than that. When a person concentrates very intensely on a very specific part of their inner being—namely, the point between the eyebrows (which, of course, is only a point of reference)—they have a very specific experience that leads them into the inner happenings of the greater world. These correspond, in fact, to what is contained microcosmically between the eyes. Thus, the correspondence between the macrocosm and the microcosm must be experienced step by step. Through immersion in his inner self, the student must come to know the outer world.

[ 45 ] On the sixth and seventh levels, the Rosicrucian student becomes one with the entire world. He attains a true understanding of what exists out there in the world. To the same extent, his feelings and his entire soul merge with the external world. This is the state known as godliness. Then the earthly body becomes his own body. With this, what is called “merging with the universe” is achieved. — It is a long path of specific spiritual training. Whoever has undergone it becomes a messenger of the spiritual world who speaks from experience.

[ 46 ] Anyone can follow this path today—in principle, certainly anyone. For some, it takes a long time; for others, a shorter time. One of the greatest theosophists, the late Subba Rou, said the following about the time—a subject about which so many questions are asked: It is true that one person has needed seventy incarnations, another seven incarnations, yet another seventy years or even seven years; there have been some who achieved it in seven months, and some who achieved it in seven days, depending on the karma from past earthly lives. — When one begins to walk the path, one must have patience and perseverance and be fully aware that one is exposed to great dangers if one has not first undergone proper character training. Consider this through a parable: Take a green liquid made by mixing a blue one and a yellow one. If you now add a chemical agent, you will be able to separate the blue liquid from the yellow one. Previously, you could not discern the properties of the two now-separated liquids. Now their properties become apparent. So it is with human beings. The higher and the lower are intermingled. The lower is protected by the higher forces mixed in from exerting its full intensity. Now you separate the parts through your exercises. One may observe that someone who was previously reasonably decent becomes malicious and devious and brings out entirely different negative traits. One must be clear about this. Such a danger can be prevented under all circumstances if certain preliminary exercises are performed, through which the student is grounded in a certain inner moral character.

[ 47 ] First, he must develop the ability to exercise strict control over his thoughts. He must practice keeping a single thought at the center of his inner life for a long time; the more intensely, the better. The practitioner must stay focused on the object and link all thoughts to it. This exercise must be performed daily for at least five minutes. The more, the better—but one must not overdo it.

[ 48 ] Second, the action must be initiated by the student. This involves the student performing an action every day entirely on his or her own initiative. It is sufficient if the action is very small and insignificant, such as watering flowers. After some time, the student takes on another action.

[ 49 ] Third, one must become the master of pleasure and pain. The “ecstatic joy one moment, deep sorrow the next” must come to an end. This makes one more refined and receptive, but one must be the master oneself—not the emotions.

[ 50 ] Fourth, positivity is necessary. A Persian legend about Jesus Christ will explain what this means. Christ was walking along the road with some of his disciples. There, lying by the roadside, was a dead dog that had already begun to decompose. The disciples turned away and said, “How ugly this animal is!” But Christ stopped and said, “Just look at what beautiful teeth this animal has!” — Thus, even in the ugliest things there is beauty to be sought and found; even in the worst, there is good; and even in the smallest, there is greatness. The positive quality must be sought everywhere.

[ 51 ] Fifth, one must cultivate absolute open-mindedness toward all new impressions—open-mindedness to the highest degree. People tend to say: “I’ve never heard that before, never seen that before—I don’t believe it!” — To the greatest extent possible, one must break the habit of speaking of impossibilities. One must have a space in one’s heart where, for example, one leaves open the possibility that the church tower really is leaning when someone says it is. At the very least, one must consider what one hears to be possible.

[ 52 ] The sixth stage consists of harmonizing the five qualities.

[ 53 ] Then the student has developed such a strong inner nature that he is protected against what occult training might otherwise do to him. One must not dismiss this occult training by saying, “I only want to derive ethical benefit from it.” — If one wishes to penetrate the higher worlds, one must follow the path indicated. The path of the highest knowledge is at the same time the path of the highest compassion. One must arrive at compassion through knowledge, not through empty phrases. All those who stand by full of compassion cannot help with a broken leg, except for the one who knows what to do and does it correctly. If one merely preaches in theosophy, it is like standing in front of the stove and saying to it, “Your duty is to warm the room.” — It is the same when one tells people to practice brotherly love. Just as one must put wood in the stove and light it, so one must give people that which unites souls in the great brotherhood, and that is knowledge. True knowledge is the fuel for the great brotherhood of humanity. Today is the age of materialism, which has led to people becoming separated.