The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Theosophy and Rosicrucianism I

[ 1 ] The purpose of these lectures is to provide an overview of what is commonly referred to as Theosophy. This Theosophy must become, in the broadest sense, a new cultural impulse; it is something humanity has long yearned for, and it must provide an answer to the burning question that humanity is asking from all sides. Yet in our present time, it is still often viewed not only as something to be refuted, but as something questionable, even as something crazy—like the daydreams of a few fanciful minds.

[ 2 ] Of course, if you ask these dreamers themselves what they want from theosophy and what they hope to gain from it, the answer is quite comprehensive. Above all, what is regarded today as fanciful is seen by those who have recognized it as the lifeblood of their being as something that will surely have immense significance for human feeling, thinking, willing, and acting within twenty to fifty years.

[ 3 ] There is nothing into which this theosophy could not shine as an impulse, nor into which it would not be called to shine.

[ 4 ] It is well known that there are a wide variety of issues today: health, social, women’s, and educational issues. There is an even greater abundance of answers. However, if one objectively examines all these questions and their answers, one comes to the realization that, while the questions are indeed posed correctly by our contemporary culture—they are posed by the circumstances of our time—the answers to these questions cannot simply be provided by our time.

[ 5 ] It becomes clear to anyone who closes their eyes and ears to the issues of our time that obstacles stand in their way everywhere. A time will come when people will realize that there are many more questions: the reality of humanity’s internal and external strife, of pain and suffering, and of dashed hopes in every sphere raises these questions. Only Theosophy is capable of providing the answers.

[ 6 ] The number of people who hang their heads—who do their duty but do not know why they are doing all this work, and in whom this restless state of mind manifests itself to the point of despair, even affecting their physical health in the form of neurasthenia—is growing ever larger.

[ 7 ] All of this is merely to be touched upon here. The main idea should come to the forefront of our minds: Theosophy is not something meant to take root in the minds of a few idlers who have nothing better to do, but rather it is meant to be applied to practical life.

[ 8 ] Admittedly, the Theosophical Society, too, has had to endure its growing pains and all sorts of trials during its thirty years of existence, which have cast doubt on its significance; but it will overcome these difficulties and demonstrate what it is capable of achieving. Theosophy must become an all-encompassing endeavor, a universal cause, because it is meant to provide answers to the questions that are, after all, the fundamental questions of all existence, and to point out how modern humanity should understand these questions—to understand why religions and sciences exist in the world at all. Whatever we do, it ultimately comes back to certain fundamental questions if there is to be art, science, and practical action, and these fundamental questions must be resolved in some way. All religions were attempts to provide answers to these questions—answers that were, however, always adapted to the intellect and cultural level of the peoples.

[ 9 ] Theosophy does not seek to be a religion; it has nothing to do with a sect; it does not engage in agitation.

[ 10 ] Religion, as you know, is as old as human endeavor. When we examine the various religions among different peoples, we come to the conclusion that all these different religions have sought to answer the following questions: First, what is the essential nature of human beings? Second, what is humanity’s purpose? Third: What lies beyond this physical existence?

[ 11 ] With regard to these questions, we people of today, in particular, have gone through a strange period that has led many to lose their way when it comes to religion. Let us ask ourselves: How many people are there today who probably need religion but cannot have it? Some of us can still look back to times when religion was truly a lived experience, when religion still held much greater significance—indeed, to a far greater degree than is the case even today for certain individuals of a particularly religious disposition. In the latter, there still remains something of that warm feeling that has endured through the millennia. The need, the longing for what is called the spiritual world—that is, the longing for religion—still exists today; indeed, among the most genuine souls, this longing for fulfillment has even grown ever stronger. Such a person will say: “When I was a child, I still had the true faith. But then things changed.” That was when I became acquainted with so-called science and its facts, and since these, for example, tell a completely different story of how the world came into being, I was forced to deeply doubt what I had believed as a child! — And then came the other thing: a deeply sorrowful mood in life, where the soul feels as if it were torn apart, where the soul gazes desolately at the world and receives no clarification regarding this inner conflict. Hence the conflict between religious longing and the soul’s satisfaction, hence today’s tragedy. But perhaps what is taking root in these souls is still the better alternative, better than the other: namely, that people no longer ask questions at all, that they have completely weaned themselves from questioning, that they become superficial and merely drift through everyday life.

[ 12 ] Is it the fault of religions that things have turned out this way? No! It is plain as day that this is not the case; for every religion—yes, even the ancient myths and legends—has the means to lead the heart back and to revive every soul, if only it is willing. Who would have believed that such powerful impulses could arise from the ancient myths—which had seemed to have died out for millennia and led an almost hidden, unknown existence—as they do in the dramas of Richard Wagner?

[ 13 ] A new religion does not need to be established, for the time for that has passed; but a new attitude toward it on the part of humankind, a new understanding, has become necessary. What has changed is the human spirit, the human soul, the human heart.

[ 14 ] If we try to put ourselves in the context of the human soul’s evolutionary process, we will come to realize in the course of these lectures that our souls have been here on the physical plane many times before, and that they have only gradually developed to the stage they are at today. This may seem bizarre to you at first, but all of our souls have heard the profound truths—as they are presented to us today—many times in their past lives.

[ 15 ] For example, here you will learn about the doctrine of reincarnation; but just as you are listening to me today, your souls once listened to those druids who lived and taught right here in our region. Even these ancient Druid teachers cultivated the doctrine of reincarnation within close-knit circles—this ancient wisdom concerning the mysteries of life. They went out to those who felt within their souls a need for deeper understanding. But if those ancient teachers had spoken back then as I speak today, your souls would not have been able to understand it at all, for the human spirit had not yet developed enough for that. Back then, logical thinking did not yet exist for the human spirit. What did exist, however, was the ability to comprehend through images. And that is why these teachers expressed themselves in images, and these images are what you know today as legends and myths. Had our souls not heard these teachings back then, we would not be able to understand them today if the truth were taught to us in a new form.

[ 16 ] In this way, the soul makes tremendous progress over the course of millennia, constantly taking on new forms; and that is why the truth must also be presented to it and proclaimed to it in ever-changing forms. I would like to give you a second example.

[ 17 ] Let us go back in human evolution to the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Babylonians. When they were the pioneers of civilization, they did not regard the sun and the stars as purely physical bodies. When a materialistic astronomer looks at the celestial bodies today, he sees in them nothing but physical bodies, and nothing else. For him, the Earth is also just such a physical celestial body, on which human beings scuttle about like a mosquito on our hand.

[ 18 ] The situation was quite different for the ancient Egyptian astronomers. When an ancient Egyptian astrologer looked at a star, he did not think of it as a purely physical body; rather, the star meant something entirely different to him than it does to people today. For example, when he spoke the name Mercury, he did so with reverence. He did not think at all of addressing the physical celestial body, any more than you would think of addressing a body made of papier-mâché. Everything the eye saw was, for that time, merely the outward expression of something spiritual. Thus, for the ancient astronomers, the physical star Mercury was the expression of the spirit of Mercury. You must grasp this not with the intellect but with the heart; otherwise, you will have no concept of the inner life of such an astronomer. There was nothing that was not, for him, the expression of something spiritual. He said: “Everything is spirit, and I, as spirit, am a part of this spirit.”

[ 19 ] You must keep this feeling in mind. The sages of earlier times—one must understand them; one must understand what they knew about the processes of the spiritual realm. And whoever immerses themselves in this feeling knows how infinitely sublime this view is compared to our materialistic view today. One must first understand the sages of that time; one must fathom what they knew about the processes of the spiritual realm; only then does one realize how immense the difference is, and how infinitely significant those ancient teachings of wisdom were. This may seem ridiculous to the materialistic mindset of our time, which knows only the purely physical conception of astronomy, but it is SO.

[ 20 ] How is it, then, that human beings have now lost their sense of the spiritual life that underlies all physical life? And why did this have to happen?

[ 21 ] Let’s turn our attention to what surrounds us in our immediate vicinity. If you were to compare what surrounded people at every turn back then with what surrounds them today, you would find that back then, people possessed only the most meager means to eke out a living on this earth; yet they had a greater sense of the spiritual. This sense of the spiritual world had to recede in order to give people the opportunity to attain their present dominion over the earth. All our advances in technology and industry were made possible only by our worldview, which has become materialistic, and by the very fact that the spirit—the supersensible world—receded. Thus, at the expense of spiritual insight, humankind has, over the course of the last few centuries, gained dominion over the physical world. It is an eternal law of humanity that abilities acquired in one area can only be gained through the retreat of abilities in another area. For example, humanity could never have created today’s transportation systems if other abilities had not taken a back seat. In order to acquire everything that surrounds us today, the sense for the spiritual had to take a back seat. Thus, in order to conquer the physical world, that which once filled humanity had to recede.

[ 22 ] Around the 16th century, we see people losing their connection to the spiritual world, and we see how a materialistic mindset takes hold of humanity. And anyone who believes that they themselves are not right in the midst of this materialism is mistaken.

[ 23 ] The task of spiritual science is not to negate anything; it does not criticize the flawed world of today. Rather, it shows that the descent into the material world was a necessity. The broad horizon of humanity’s spiritual life had to recede for so long; and this is also connected to the fact that the old way of understanding spiritual matters has been lost. The truths were present in those ancient, earlier forms. But how they can be made accessible to people’s understanding today—that is what spiritual science seeks to show. That is what matters to it. Thus, theosophy is nothing other than an instrument for making the deepest truths comprehensible to the modern human spirit, for grasping them in their depths.

[ 24 ] Today, we must once again draw attention to the spirit. We must not simply stop at saying how “wonderfully far” we have come. The truth is always accessible, and it can be understood in various ways.

[ 25 ] Let us turn our gaze back to ancient India, to Egypt, to Greece, and to the time of the founding of Christianity: it is always the same ancient truths that appear in various forms. There have always been leaders of humanity who have ensured that, at certain times, the truths that had faded with the declining cultures were communicated anew to humanity. Among these leaders are all the great founders of religions.

[ 26 ] Even before the dawn of our modern era, before Copernicus and that 16th century, steps had already been taken in Europe to lay the foundations for a new way of proclaiming the truth. Around the time of that 16th century, there were some people who understood how to interpret the signs of the times. As early as 1459, a higher spiritual individuality—known in the outer world as Christian Rosenkreutz—founded, together with a very small group of people, a secret school dedicated to the cultivation of wisdom—not a new wisdom, but the ancient wisdom in a form that people now needed. This is the wisdom of the Rosicrucians, which was first cultivated at that time. As I said, it is nothing new; it is the ancient wisdom, but in the form that present-day humanity needs.

[ 27 ] How, then, does this wisdom of the Rosicrucians relate to Christianity? There is no difference at all between genuine Christian teaching and that of the Rosicrucians. One need only understand Christianity at its core, and then one has the theosophy of the Rosicrucians. There is no need to found a new religion; rather, one must understand Christianity as the early Christians did. Very few people, however, still know anything about the mysteries of early Christian development. Even official theology no longer has any understanding of them. There we find Paul himself as the deepest connoisseur of Christian mysteries, who taught those mighty truths that were to guide humanity for millennia. This Paul had founded a school in Athens, whose head was Dionysius the Areopagite. This Dionysius was a true disciple of Paul.

[ 28 ] Those teachings of Dionysius have always been alive and have always been taught, especially to those who were to carry the living Word of Christ out into the whole world. If people had remained at that stage of Dionysius’s teachings, there would have been no need for a new form. But a new era dawned, and with it the necessity to teach in such a way that Christianity would stand firm, so that no science could raise any objection to it. This is the aim of Rosicrucian theosophy. Therefore, Rosicrucian theosophy is the form of religion that is appropriate for us today.

[ 29 ] Only those who truly understand Christianity can have any inkling of what its eternally living essence is.

[ 30 ] If we were able today to hear from all sides here what this Rosicrucian theosophy has to say about true Christianity, the scientific facts would not contradict the events described there. The point is that religion cannot be found to be in contradiction with scientific facts, and that these scientific facts must be brought into harmony with it.

[ 31 ] What, then, does this Rosicrucian theosophy have to offer us? Insight into higher worlds—that is, those worlds to which human beings will still belong once our physical bodies have decayed; insight into life, insight into the nature of death and human evolution. In this way, it will provide people with a renewed sense of certainty regarding religious truths and religious life.

[ 32 ] No one should say: “I stand firmly on the ground of the old teachings, and these are enough for me. What do I care about the doubters!” — There is no judgment more selfish or more unchristian than this. For what may still be possible today—that a number of people are still held back by the old religions—will no longer be possible in the not-too-distant future. Anyone who is able to look into what the great social waves are now about to set in motion will not judge in this way; they will see that the proclamation of “Theosophy” is not something to be disputed. Anyone capable of thinking knows that spiritual science exists to answer the most pressing questions, and that it is indeed capable of providing an answer to every question. After all, one can, in principle, prove anything and dispute everything, but that is not the point: one cannot argue about a remedy; what matters is solely the success one achieves with it. And it is exactly the same with spiritual science. Humanity needs spirituality as a remedy, and only when this remedy flows in can humanity’s healing take place. It is a factor in development and a source of life for our culture.

[ 33 ] External institutions are not enough; without exception, they are focused solely on the physical and corporeal. The healing of the soul and the spirit is what Theosophy strives for. Spiritual science is not something arbitrary; it is demanded by the times and their problems. Everything it tells us is the collective teaching of those who have conducted research in this field.

[ 34 ] Spiritual science leads us into higher worlds that the physical eye cannot see, but in which the causes of the effects in this physical world lie. It will bring us knowledge of the eternal in human nature, of the essential core within each of us, and of the spiritual worlds and their hierarchies. And as we come to know these, we will come to know the purpose of humanity. It is the true essence of human nature that should occupy us. We will come to know worlds that exist but cannot be grasped by our merely physical senses. Some might say: What you’re telling us is all well and good, but we can’t possibly know anything about it. — Fichte has already provided the answer to this objection. Imagine you are the only sighted person in a world of people born blind, and you tell them about colors; they, too, will say: “That’s all nonsense you’re talking about—it doesn’t even exist.” — But if those born blind could be successfully operated on, they would experience precisely this world of colors and light.

[ 35 ] The same applies to the objection mentioned above. Anyone who raises such an objection is simply taking the same standpoint as someone born blind. Therefore, no one should say, “That doesn’t exist.” For no human being has the right to speak of “limits of knowledge,” as Du Bois-Reymond did in his day. There are as many worlds as there are organs with which to perceive them—an infinite number of worlds; we simply cannot perceive them yet because we do not yet have the organs for it. The world is infinite not only in terms of space but also in intensity: there is a world for every sense. For now, they are unfathomable to us, but they are there; they are right where we ourselves are. We simply need to have our eyes opened to them, for they are right in our midst.

[ 36 ] Christ’s words: “Do not seek the Kingdom of God, for the Kingdom of God is within you,” are to be understood quite literally. Spiritual science also speaks of the spiritual worlds in exactly this sense. And there have always been initiates who knew the ways and means of entering these realms of heaven. All religions speak of them. Spiritual science is merely the means by which this fundamental truth of all religions is revealed to us once again. Everything we see and perceive around us here is a consequence and effect of what takes place in the spiritual worlds. Everything that manifests itself on Earth is merely an expression of what is active and alive in the spiritual worlds.

[ 37 ] Official Christianity has long since lost the ability to understand the depths of religious texts. Thus, spiritual science had to take on the task of providing the key to these forgotten treasures of knowledge and, in doing so, offering a remedy to humanity, which stands at a crossroads. Yet it knows no fanaticism; it merely narrates, clearly explains the nature of the human being, and reveals what his destiny is after death, showing how his soul develops outside the physical body. It describes what takes place in the higher worlds, speaks of the stages of development of the Earth and the other planets, and sheds light on humanity’s path of life, both past and future. It points out what a person will have to go through until they reach the human goal.

[ 38 ] We want to seek to grasp the nature of the human being and of those worlds from which he originates. This is the realm of knowledge to which spiritual science leads us.

[ 39 ] One might now object: But all of this is only for the so-called seer, who is already able to look into the spiritual worlds. What good does that do us? After all, they are not accessible to us!

[ 40 ] One might respond: It is true that there are some methods of training that are suitable only for the spiritual researcher and that make such an objection seem justified. But the path of Rosicrucian training is different. To penetrate the spiritual worlds, one does indeed need the eye of the seer and the ear of the initiate, but to comprehend them, ordinary logic is sufficient. Everything the spiritual researcher says is accessible to the logical mind; ordinary, sound human reason is enough to grasp these things. Those who cannot do so simply lack logic. Certainly, the eye of the spiritual researcher is needed to uncover spiritual mysteries. But to comprehend what is described in the spirit of Rosicrucianism, ordinary logic suffices.

[ 41 ] Anyone who cannot grasp this must not attribute his failure to his education. His lack of understanding is not due to the fact that he is not a seer, but rather to his lack of sound judgment and consistent thinking. However, many are unfamiliar with logic. For example, a musician of our time says that reflection is a troublesome thing. — Even our scholarly world thinks only to a limited extent. But when a person applies their intellect correctly, they will come to grasp even the higher wisdoms and truths and bring them to life within themselves. And if you ask further: What good does that do us? — the answer is: Nothing of greater significance can be given to us than the knowledge of spiritual science. It is through this that we first become true human beings, and through this we also attain, even in the present, a contented heart and a soul that finds harmony with itself.

[ 42 ] You won’t get very far with mere platitudes; you must take the quest for knowledge seriously and immerse yourself in the hardships and problems of life. You must constantly strive to move from one realm of spiritual life to another: then an understanding of the whole of world and human development will well up from within. And the overwhelming grandeur of this process not only moves our hearts; it awakens new abilities within us and equips us to handle the tasks of daily life. For spiritual science gives rise to immediate strength—something that becomes an inalienable asset and transforms us into creative human beings.

[ 43 ] Only when you come to know the spiritual world can you also understand the material world. Spiritual science is not something for eccentrics, but rather something for the most practical of practitioners.

[ 44 ] All existence is spirit. Just as surely as ice is water, so too is matter spirit. Whether mineral, plant, animal, or human, they are all spirit in condensed form.

[ 45 ] In this sense, Rosicrucian theosophy guides us toward an understanding of the spiritual foundations of the world. It does not turn us into loners, but rather into friends of existence, for it does not look down on everyday life, nor does it alienate us from our earthly duties; rather, it connects us to them. It spurs us on to active work, because it knows that every action, just like every being, is an expression of the spirit.