The Rudolf Steiner Archive

11. Occult Teaching

[ 1 ] So far, we have considered the laws of the world, the course of the world and destiny, and human development. These were facts that we could not grasp with our hands, but could comprehend with our reason. We now come to esoteric training. There are three distinct types: the school of yoga, the Christian-Rosicrucian training, and Christian training.

[ 2 ] As we have seen, the secret schools can produce clairvoyants, initiates, and adepts. It would be wrong to speak of adepts in our materialistic age; people would consider it foolish. It is looked down upon as something childish. People believe that anything beyond the five senses has nothing to do with true science, and they suspect dangers everywhere in esoteric training. With proper guidance from a teacher of the occult, all dangers are avoided. The training provides a bridge to the higher worlds, to invisible spheres.

[ 3 ] Our times are calling with particular urgency for something from higher worlds to flow into spiritual and scientific culture, so that it does not become stagnant. Occultism regards the dogmas and theories put forward by some scholars as harmless, because they are limited to a narrow field. Worse is materialism, which seeks to reduce everything to money. Even archaeological excavations provide only a limited perspective, yet occult truths emerge from these excavations and throughout the natural sciences. Rather than theosophists fighting against science, it is beneficial for them to study the natural sciences from an occult perspective; one can then see, for example, what a naturalist like Haeckel has accomplished.

[ 4 ] Misunderstanding has also crept into religion through feeling and will. It is hard to imagine today the pious reverence with which people regarded the mystery of the Transubstantiation of the Eucharist up until the twelfth century. The words “This is my body, this is my blood” were a spiritual truth to them. Through the transformation into the material, the bread becomes flesh. The mystery of the Eucharist came to be understood in material terms, and the Catholic Church became entrenched in dogma. Natural science would not be materialistic today if materialism had not first found its way into religion.

[ 5 ] What thoughts, feelings, and sensations mean to the individual become, for a people, the karma of humanity as a whole. If materialism were to continue in this way, it would not be long before nervous disorders broke out epidemically, just as there are already many children suffering from nervous disorders.

[ 6 ] Theosophy does not arise from caprice; it has a mission to fulfill: to become a remedy against the scourge of mental illness. It is necessary to make people capable of this task by strengthening the spirit. Even a small group can be a blessing. A few will be the bringers of healing. Only a few people can bear to learn the truth.

[ 7 ] Human beings must learn to keep silent about what they experience. All spiritual knowledge arose from the secret teachings; human beings can now once again embark on this ascent into higher worlds.

[ 8 ] Human beings are of a composite nature; they live in the sensory world and in their inner world. The soul-body is based on thinking, feeling, and willing, as well as on perceptions and ideas. Delight, joy, pleasure, and pain are transformed through thinking into feeling and willing. Thinking is the simplest; the world puts thinking in its proper place, and here there is still the greatest harmony. Through thinking, human beings learn to distinguish between feelings. In pure thought—for example, in mathematics—feelings are so thoroughly refined that people no longer argue about the content. Occult training begins after thinking, with the recognition of feelings. If one has the purest thoughts, then one is aware of the feelings in the depths of the soul. Willing arises from even deeper sources. Feelings lie deep within the soul and are connected to the hidden worlds. It is necessary to train the mind for intimate matters, to direct it toward supersensory things; this is achieved through concentration.

[ 9 ] Through meditation, one learns to approach thoughts concretely, not abstractly. Thinking is applicable to the physical world. Only a trained esoteric researcher can explore the hidden realm. Our emotional world is a part of the astral world; it is a faint reflection of it. Until one’s feelings are trained, one cannot act in higher worlds; by regulating them, one avoids being consumed by sympathy and antipathy.

[ 10 ] This training must be supplemented by the training of the will. The will is related to the mental world, feeling to the astral world, and thinking to the physical world. Through secret magical training, one penetrates into the spiritual world.

[ 11 ] Truth is ancient and eternal. However, it adapts to the stages of development. In the fifth post-Atlantean age, one cannot attain it in the same way as the Indian rishis did. The secret schools originated as early as the time of the Atlanteans and in the middle of our era, the fourth cultural period. The Christian mystery schools were reformed by Christian Rosenkreutz, the Knight of the Rosy Cross; there, one could learn what the Philosopher’s Stone is.

[ 12 ] Christian training is more difficult to apply than Rosicrucian training, but the latter does not contradict the former. Christian training was not familiar with the ideas through which we understand life today. Christian-Rosicrucian training provides guidelines for entering higher worlds in a way that is appropriate to our times.

[ 13 ] It is based on the three fundamental human faculties: thinking, feeling, and willing. Through their thinking, human beings must stand firmly grounded in reality. With a solid foundation in thinking, the higher world flows securely into the lower one. Anyone who embraces Theosophy takes the first step. For the time being, one cannot see the facts with the eyes or hear them with the ears, but one can grasp them with the intellect. We must always use our intellect and have patience. The clairvoyant shows what must be done; through practice, one will find his teachings to be true. That which does not prove itself is fanciful. If one lives, on a trial basis, as the law of karma requires, one has indirect proof of its correctness. Thoughts that are not grounded in the eternal laws have no value. We must regard what befalls us through karma as if we had inflicted those actions upon ourselves [...]. We can best put ourselves in the context of karma by repeating those actions.

[ 14 ] In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ Jesus refers to karma: “If anyone strikes you,” and “Give him your cloak as well as your tunic,” and so on. One understands what theosophy is when one delves deep enough.