The Rudolf Steiner Archive

1. On the So-Called Dangers of Occult Development

[ 1 ] When speaking of occultism or even of the occult development of human beings, one must first and foremost agree on how the pursuit of such matters relates to the actual theosophical work in the world. Since its inception, the latter has fulfilled its mission precisely by making a certain body of occult truths accessible to humanity. These truths about the supersensible worlds, which can be learned from Theosophical literature and lectures, are essentially ancient. But until the last third of the 19th century, it was neither customary nor necessary to publicly share these truths with the world in the form in which they exist today as Theosophical truths. The preservation of these truths was a matter for the so-called secret schools and secret societies.

[ 2 ] Anyone who wished to know anything about the ancient truths concerning the inner world had to be, as they say, an accepted disciple—a disciple of the great teachers of humanity; and there was no such thing as someone going out into the world, as we must do today, to share certain elementary truths with the world. Anyone who was admitted had to pass certain tests of character, intellectual ability, and other skills, and within the school there was a very strict hierarchy. It was impossible, for example, for someone who had just been admitted to be privy to the secrets of higher degrees; in short, everything was strictly regulated, and the outside world knew nothing of the existence of such a secret science, which is, after all, the only true occultism.

[ 3 ] Who were the people who received their training there? As a rule, they are completely unknown; one was a blacksmith, another a shoemaker, a court councilor, and a carpenter. People knew only the mental image that these individuals presented to the world; they did not know that these people were sages who could look deeply into the spiritual and supersensible world. This changed in the last third of the 19th century; today it is necessary that at least the elementary aspects of the occult sciences be communicated to the public through theosophical writings, lectures, and other means. We will see shortly that this is possible and why this is so.

[ 4 ] Now let us first take a look at that ancient era, which actually lasted until the 14th century and, to some extent, even into the last third of the 19th century. What is now taking place—the publication of certain fundamental teachings of occultism—was prepared by the occult movement founded in the 14th and 15th centuries by a highly exalted individual who became known to the world as Christian Rosenkreutz. What this Christian Rosenkreutz is, or who lies behind him, is known only to the initiates. Only one thing is certain: he is among the most advanced individuals of modern times, who had to shape the occult knowledge of the Middle Ages in such a way that it fits into modern life.

[ 5 ] In the last third of the 19th century, some were to go forth to proclaim to humanity what it must know today. Theosophy is nothing other than the elementary teaching of occultism.

[ 6 ] If we now look back to those distant times when occultism was practiced in secret, there were three ways in which a person could come into contact with the supersensible worlds: first, as an initiate; second, as a clairvoyant; third, as an adept. In ancient times, these were three strictly distinct categories, and if we are to understand at all what the occult development of the human being is all about, we must keep these three concepts clearly in mind.

[ 7 ] What is meant by a clairvoyant is actually well known. I expressly note that the clairvoyant is the more important of the two, because he possesses higher senses. It is very easy to explain what a clairvoyant is. Hidden abilities lie dormant in every human soul. These can be developed, and then a person can see into the world that is hidden from the ordinary senses. Such esoteric methods exist. When a person applies them to himself, he is not unconscious during sleep in the same sense as the ordinary person. They enable his astral body, when it projects itself outward with the “I,” to perceive the spiritual world around him. At first as a flood of light, as phenomena of light and color; then he begins to hear in the night.

[ 8 ] This is a real experience that a person has within themselves: that, in this transitional stage, they are surrounded by a spiritual world just as much as by the physical one. This is the beginning of true clairvoyance.

[ 9 ] Anyone who truly wishes to attain the level of clairvoyance must become capable of carrying over into their daytime consciousness what they initially see at night, for it would be only half the achievement if they could see into the astral world only at night. If they can truly attune themselves to seeing in human beings, animals, and so on not only what is perceptible to the physical senses, but also to perceive—as a radiant aura—what human beings and animals feel and experience, then the level of modern clairvoyance has been attained. Thus, the clairvoyant is the one who truly looks into the spiritual world and can speak of it. Suppose there were a region where no one had ever seen a railroad, and a person from there were to be moved to a place where railroads exist; then he would come to know them from his own experience. He could then return home and describe them from his own experience—in the same way, the clairvoyant can bear witness to the spiritual world.

[ 10 ] But someone who is such a clairvoyant is not yet what one might call an adept, nor is he what one calls an initiate. If such a person—who, following the examples above, has come to know a railroad through his own perception—now returns home, he will not be entrusted with building a locomotive. The same is true of the clairvoyant. He cannot yet accomplish what one who has practice and knowledge in the supersensible world can. Thus, the clairvoyant, who has merely seen what exists in the higher worlds, stands in relation to the adept.

[ 11 ] And yet another is the initiate. Here’s another comparison: Imagine a person who sees all colors and lights, and another who is very nearsighted. The first knows nothing at all about the laws of the world of light; the other, who cannot see far, knows all the laws very well—as a fully trained physicist, as a scientist. There are people who are highly initiated, even though they are not clairvoyant; at least this was true of all the ancient schools, though it is no longer the case to the same degree today. In the past, one could work in this way, for you must not forget that it is a long process to develop clairvoyance or to train an initiate. For some, many incarnations are necessary.

[ 12 ] Today, such collaboration between clairvoyants and initiates is no longer really possible; that is why the Rosicrucian School no longer keeps these things strictly separate. For today’s humanity has no concept of the selflessness that once characterized the secret schools. This kind of collaboration was particularly common in the Egyptian mystery schools. But this complete trust no longer exists today; modern humanity cannot even create a mental image of it. For this reason, the Rosicrucian schools have developed only initiates and clairvoyants up to a certain degree. On the other hand, one must be very cautious with the path of adeptship; it would only harm the world. For people are very reluctant to believe that spiritual forces are at work in everything. A storm would be unleashed, and the result would be that the preparatory understanding would be seriously jeopardized. First, clairvoyants and initiates must proclaim the occult knowledge, and only then will the adepts gradually emerge.

[ 13 ] What is an adept? There are adepts in all fields. Consider human beings themselves. By their very nature, human beings consist of the physical, etheric, and astral bodies, and the “I.” The various aspects of human nature develop in very different ways throughout the different stages of life. This is a very important topic. For the occultist, the human being is born repeatedly, first physically from the physical mother. Here, the physical body is enclosed within the physical womb; the various blood vessels and bodily fluids flow from the mother to the child. When the child is physically born, this physical womb is, as it were, detached from the child on all sides. This is the first birth. At this point, the etheric body has not yet been born. This second birth does not take place until the change of teeth in the seventh year of life. Until then, the etheric body is surrounded by the etheric sheath, which does not actually belong to the child’s specific etheric body. It is not until the seventh year of life that the etheric body is truly born. The sheath is cast aside, and the outward manifestation of this event is the emergence of the teeth that the person retains. As the teeth emerge, the clairvoyant sees the etheric body being born from its maternal sheath. Then, until sexual maturity, the human being is still enveloped by their astral mother, who is present from the very beginning and remains so, even after the age of seven. Then this astral mother is cast aside, and only now is the astral body born, just as the physical and etheric bodies were born earlier. A person’s attainment of sexual maturity signifies the birth of the astral body. It is not until between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-eight that the “I” is fully born.

[ 14 ] Once people come to understand how such a process unfolds, it will become clear what kind of influence it will have on education. I have described this in my booklet The Education of the Child from the Perspective of Spiritual Science. In this booklet, you will find all the guidelines that need to be taken into account in this regard. Now, you see, a teacher who has mastered this system would be an adept in the field of education. This practical work carried out from the spiritual worlds—that is adeptship. Up to the age of seven, a kind of consolidation of forms takes place in the human being. All the forms of the brain and the skeletal structure are established by the age of seven. They continue to grow afterward, but whatever is not present by the age of seven is irretrievably lost. Thus, what is irretrievable can be neglected in education. From that point on, the etheric body becomes free. So now you can see how the teeth a person develops are an expression of whether this consolidation and the formation of the etheric body—which is just being born at that time—are in the right balance with one another. The two things are interconnected: the development of the teeth and the development of the etheric body. Everything related to growth and reproduction depends on this. If one of these is not in order, neither will the other be. Here we can see how spiritual science explains the connection between the teeth and the etheric body. For example, women with poor teeth are more likely to be affected by childbed fever.

[ 15 ] There must be an element of the principle of consolidation and an element of the principle of softening; there must be harmony between the principle of consolidation and the principle of softening. Rickets, for example, occurs when the principle of softening is stronger. Now suppose the principle of solidification prevails; then the seeds are sown for tuberculosis and arteriosclerosis. The moment a person is able, through supersensible causes, to master the etheric body and the physical body, he is an adept in the field of child rearing, just as Paracelsus—who is not understood today—was an adept because he could see the invisible principles at every moment. Now you can form a mental image of what an uproar there would be if such teachings were presented at a university. Humanity must first be prepared little by little; then it will also come to demand of the spiritual leaders that they confirm their teachings with deeds from the spiritual world. The fact that there are initiates is connected to the fact that the spiritual world can be explored and discovered, according to its governing laws, through clairvoyance. But once it has been discovered and described, everything the clairvoyant recounts is comprehensible to ordinary human reason; and if anyone claims that he cannot understand it, the reason is not that he is not a clairvoyant, but that he is unwilling to apply ordinary human reason sufficiently.

[ 16 ] So one can be an initiate without being a clairvoyant, but one must then rely on the clairvoyant. And in a certain sense, the Theosophical Movement seeks to help in such a way that everything that is to be proclaimed must be obtained through clairvoyants. What, after all, is the goal with regard to the public? The aim is, in a certain sense, to turn them into initiates who understand without being clairvoyant themselves.

[ 17 ] This is the task of the Theosophical Movement; it is also the proper balance between the teachings that are proclaimed and the way they are conveyed to the general public. Now, this genuine penetration into the supersensory worlds is based on very specific methods. I have already spoken here specifically about the Rosicrucian method, so I will mention only a few points.

[ 18 ] If one wishes to lead a person up into the higher worlds, if one wishes to make him a clairvoyant, it is necessary that the powers already present within him—thinking, feeling, and willing—be developed first. This already encompasses much of what the initial elementary stages entail in terms of difficulties—the very difficulties people speak of when they wish to draw attention to the dangers. Clairvoyance is too appealing to certain people today, and those who hear about theosophy are eager to become clairvoyants. They are not very pleased when told that it is necessary to learn certain things before one can achieve this.

[ 19 ] The first thing a person must take into account is that they must train their thinking—train it thoroughly—and do so while still here, before they become a clairvoyant. It is extremely difficult today to explain clearly what is meant by training the thinking. For when you are able to look into the higher worlds by opening your higher senses, you will see that these worlds look very, very different from the mental images you have here. As a rule, someone who cannot yet look into them will hardly have any idea of what can be experienced there, of what the impressions are like—and even less so with regard to the world of clairaudience and the harmony of the spheres. One thing, however, remains the same across all worlds: logical thinking. If you have learned this here, it will be a reliable guide in the astral and spiritual worlds. The impressions are quite different, but the logic is the same; it only begins to change in the highest worlds.

[ 20 ] What is taught in theosophical works and books is thinking free from sensuality. If one does not embrace this, one exposes oneself to a certain danger. It is possible to enable someone to glimpse into the astral world, but one must not forget that, unless one stands firmly grounded in sound thinking, it is extremely difficult to distinguish truth from illusion there. And anyone who cannot make that distinction is, in fact, insane; they are not mentally sound and thus run the risk of losing their balance when the astral world comes crashing down upon them.

[ 21 ] One gradually learns to grasp the astral world by cultivating one’s feelings, and this is achieved through imagination. I want to show you how this approaches the human being, trains him, and leads him into the astral world. This happens when all the mental images that are otherwise presented as dogmas and abstract concepts are transformed into images for the human being, so that they appear visually. What we think, speak, and learn are abstract concepts; at first, they are mere speculation. This does not lead anyone into the higher worlds. Only when these concepts are transformed into images does a person gradually gain access to the higher worlds.

[ 22 ] How do thoughts transform into images? In the Rosicrucian School, the teacher tells the student: Look at the plant. Its root reaches down into the soil, the stem rises straight up, and at the top are the flower and the fruit. And now compare the plant to a human being. If one thinks superficially, one might be tempted to compare the flower to the human head, and what is at the bottom of the plant to the human feet. In truth, the head of the plant is the root, and what the plant chastely holds upward toward the light—the reproductive organs—is exactly the opposite in humans. The flower has turned these organs toward the light. Form a clear mental image of the whole situation; if you were to hold the plant’s reproductive organs not upward but toward the center of the earth, they would be permeated by desire and passion. Thus, in humans we have the inverted plant, which is, however, simultaneously permeated by desires and passions. Consequently, the human body is flesh, and the plant’s body—the chaste one—is a body not yet developed into flesh.

[ 23 ] And now look at the animal: It stands between the plant and the human. Plant, animal, and above them the human form the cross that runs through all of nature. Now the student is told: Look at the plant, how it turns its calyx upward, kissed by the sun, by the ray of light called the sacred lance of love. Human beings have had to exchange the plant’s body for flesh permeated by desire, but a lofty ideal stands before their eyes.

[ 24 ] Here we must consider the human heart and larynx. There are two kinds of organs in human beings: those that are in the process of becoming imperfect and will gradually fall away, and those that are still in the process of development. All the lower organs—the sexual organs—will fall away. The heart and larynx, on the other hand, are organs that will only reach their perfection in the future and will only find their full development in the future.

[ 25 ] I am speaking to you. My thoughts are within me. I clothe them in words. These words emerge from the larynx, producing sound vibrations, and through them my thoughts are communicated to your soul. The larynx is the apparatus that generates sound waves and conveys what is within the soul to the outside world. If someone could invent a device capable of solidifying these waves, then you could pick up my thoughts, my words. In the future, the larynx will not only produce words; it will one day be the creative, reproductive organ that brings forth beings similar to humans.

[ 26 ] In certain eras, the plant-like nature of human beings had not yet been permeated by the lustful qualities of the flesh. Precisely those organs that developed last from the animal nature are the first to disappear again; these are the reproductive organs. These had long existed as plant organs even when human beings were already present in the flesh. That is why images of hermaphrodites with plant-like organs can be seen in collections. When the Bible speaks of Eve’s fig leaf, this symbol is actually meant to signify that these organs were the last to develop in the flesh. This is how one must interpret the religious texts. The sexual organs are organs in decline; in contrast, the larynx is undergoing a complete transformation, and when humanity has once again become chaste, the larynx will turn once more toward the spiritual sun. The calyx of the plant evolved into the passion-filled form of the flesh, and once again the larynx will become a chaste, pure calyx, fertilized by the Spirit, held out to receive the holy lance of love. This is also the symbol of the Holy Grail, its lofty ideal.

[ 27 ] Compare this—try to sense all the shivers these images evoke; here is just one of the images given to the student of the Rosicrucians. And as you wander through them in this way, you will gradually realize that your feelings are becoming a reality for you. You will perceive that these feelings radiate light. It is always streaming forth, but the lower human being does not see it. The person who experiences this mystery of the imagination learns to see their feelings. That is the beginning.

[ 28 ] The path to clairvoyance is not magic, but rather an intimate process driven by the imagination. But one thing must be made clear here—for from the moment you begin to transform your inner life into light, you will see everything radiating out from within you—: A person must also be able to bear what they see there, and this requires a strength of character that very few can even begin to comprehend. For example, if you lie without being a clairvoyant, it is bad enough; but if you lie as a clairvoyant—and you see how the lie becomes visible and what it means on the astral plane—then you will understand why it is said that a lie is murder there. And that is how it is. Suppose you have witnessed an event, formed a mental image of it, and then tell something that is not true—that is, a fabrication. The correct radiation emanates from the object and the false one from you, and this collision is a terrible explosion; and every time you do this, you attach a horrific entity to your karma that you cannot get rid of until you have made amends for what you lied about.

[ 29 ] Anyone who wants to become clairvoyant must develop three virtues that are essential. First: self-confidence—he must be sure of himself. Second: self-knowledge—he must never shy away from seeing his own faults; and third: presence of mind. For many things will come to them on the astral plane—things that are always around us, but it is quite another matter to actually see them. That is why these qualities must be cultivated above all else, and it is actually nonsense when certain schools or societies turn people into clairvoyants without guiding them in this way.

[ 30 ] If, however, the student is influenced in a different way—namely, through what is called occult literature—he is led up into the spiritual Devachanic world, into the realm of hearing. There one must immerse oneself in those images one has of the course of human development. I would like to present one such image to your soul as an example.

[ 31 ] Think back to ancient times, when humankind first took on its present form. Back then, the Earth was a warm, glowing ball of fire, and all metals and minerals were molten within the incandescent Earth. A physicist would say: there could have been no humans then. — At that time, humankind descended from the Divine and took shape within the glowing masses. This transformation is a long process. If you could see what the seer perceives, you would see that he enveloped himself in the body of fire.

[ 32 ] Where, then, has the fire gone that once blazed on Earth? Where is it? — In your blood. All the warmth that has ever been and still is in humans and animals—that is the fiery heat of the Earth. And when you are able to transform your blood so that it glows—which will happen when the human larynx has been transformed into the Holy Grail—then humanity will once again radiate luminous energy. When a person now immerses himself in an image such as this one, he can attain the ability to see and to hear. I would like to draw your attention to the introduction to the Book of Revelation, which reads: “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.” These are images that have been used for training in the Rosicrucian schools. The clairvoyant must learn to decipher such images. The development of the Earth will be the Word, and the Word will be with humankind, and humankind will create humankind through the Word.