The Rudolf Steiner Archive

8. A Few Thoughts on the Rosicrucian Mystery: “The Gate of Initiation”

The sun's light floods
The vastness of space,
The birds' song resounds
Through the realms of air,
The blessing of plants germinates
In the earthly realm,
And lifts human souls
In gratitude
Toward the spirits of the world.

[ 1 ] As those of you who took part in the performance of the Rosicrucian Mystery Play in Munich know, this children’s song served as an introduction to the content of that mystery play. In this session, certain aspects of Spiritual Science will unfold before us, building upon what lies within this Mystery—or, one might say, what has come to life through it.

[ 2 ] It is, if I may say so, a long intellectual process that has led to this mystery. When I reflect on it or take stock of it, its origins, so to speak, go back to the year 1889. It is not merely a matter of approximation, but with a precision observable in such matters, that twenty-one years lead me back to the very seed of this Rosicrucian mystery. And I can trace with great precision the paths these seeds have taken over these three times seven years—and, I may well say, without any particular intervention on my part, since they have led a life of their own during these three times seven years. It is so remarkable to trace such seeds on their path to what one might call a form. They make their way through what one might call a descent into the underworld. It takes them seven years to descend there. Then they return, and this ascent takes them another seven years. They have then arrived back where they were, essentially, in relation to the human being when they began their descent, and then travel for seven years in the opposite direction—one might say, toward the heights. That adds up to two times seven plus seven years, which is twenty-one years. Only then, with some prospect that what is meant by these seeds might actually take on a tangible form, could one approach the process of shaping them. And if I were not aware that a distinct organism—one that has truly lived a life of three times seven years—exists within the Rosicrucian mystery, I would not dare to speak of it in any further detail. As it is, however, I feel not only justified—which would be out of the question—but in a certain sense obligated to speak also of that which is not only between the lines, not only in the characters, not only in the what and how, but which also, in many aspects of this very Rosicrucian mystery, I would not even say “lives,” but “must live.”

[ 3 ] I have already mentioned here and there since the Munich performance of this Rosicrucian Mystery—and this is indeed true—that regarding many, many things in the realm of the esoteric and the occult no longer need to be spoken of by me, that no further lectures on my part would be necessary if all of this were to take effect upon the souls of my dear friends and many other people directly from the Rosicrucian Mystery itself, from what lies within it. And in the kind of language typically used in lectures, I would have much, much to say—not just for days, weeks, or months, but for years on end—if I were to put into words what should be and can be said through the Rosicrucian Mystery. All the things that you—and when it comes to occult matters, it is certainly justified to speak this way—find in a sort of stammering language in the treatise “How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?”, which contains a description of the path upward into the higher worlds—all of this, combined with what was permitted to be stated in a different form in “Outline of Esoteric Science”—is, in essence, far more intense, more true to life, and more real—because it is far more individual—in the Rosicrucian Mystery. In a work such as, for example, “How Does One Gain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?” one can only present what is to be said about human development in such a way that it is, so to speak, applicable to every human individual who sets out, in a certain way, to direct their steps upward into the higher worlds—to every human individual. As a result, despite all its concreteness, such a text nevertheless takes on an abstract character—one might say, a semi-theoretical character. For we must hold fast to this one thing: Development is not development in and of itself! — There is no development in and of itself, no development in general; there is only the development of this or that person, or the third, the fourth, or the thousandth person. And as many people as there are in the world, so many processes of development must there be. Therefore, the truest description of the occult path of knowledge must, in general, have a character that, in a certain sense, does not coincide with individual development. If one wishes to truly portray development as it is perceived in the spiritual world, this can only happen by depicting the development of a single human being—by translating into the individual what is true for all human beings. If the treatise “How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?” contains, so to speak, the beginning of the mystery of every human being’s development, then the Rosicrucian Mystery contains the mystery of the development of a single individual, Johannes Thomasius.

[ 4 ] Thus, there was a long path from all that constitutes the occult laws of development down to a single, truly real human being. And in this process of development, along this path, something contained in the “insights into the higher worlds”—and which can become theory there—had to be almost completely reversed. If it is not to become theory—and especially if it is to become art—it must be completely reversed. For the laws of art are very special indeed. And just as there are laws of nature, so there are laws of art that cannot be handled with ordinary human consciousness; for then the result is merely something akin to a straw-man allegory. The laws of art must be applied just as nature itself applies its laws when it brings into being a human being, an animal, or a plant. If what we can know about the world is viewed from one direction—that is, as we look into the world and it reveals its laws and secrets to us—then what must come to light in art, and in every art form, is something that must be imbued into the artwork in question from the other side, through the opposite sense. Therefore, the worst possible interpretation of a work of art would be one that sought to introduce concepts, ideas, and laws—which we know from elsewhere—into a work of poetry. And anyone who were to introduce abstract or symbolic concepts into any work of art would not be making an artistic contribution. Consequently, one of the worst approaches to works of art from the past—in which genuine occult power was at work, such as in Faust—would be to search for concepts and ideas we are already familiar with within those works. Such a bad habit once ran rampant in the theosophical movement in the most dreadful manner. Yes, I still remember, for example, something that took place last year when we performed Schure’s drama The Children of Lucifer, how the author of this drama—who is an artist in the best sense of the word—was horrified when someone approached him with the question: Does this character represent “Atma,” does that figure represent “Budhi,” this one “Manas,” this one “Kama Manas,” and so on? — This kind of allegorization would be impossible in an artistic process. Therefore, it must also be impossible in an explanation or interpretation. That is why it can also be said that one should not even consider asking: What, for example, is Johannes Thomasius in the anthroposophical concept? — There is only one answer to this question: as the central figure of this drama, he is nothing other than Johannes Thomasius. He is nothing other than this living figure of Johannes Thomasius, into whom nothing other than the mystery of the development of a single human being—namely, Johannes Thomasius—has been imbued. - As soon as one speaks of the individual characters in general terms, something is left out. What is left out is what is hinted at in the words of the drama in the lines: “Here in this circle, a knot is forming from the threads that karma spins in the unfolding of the world.” — No development takes place at any point in human existence without the threads that Karma spins in the unfolding of the world becoming knotted all around that development. And no individual development can be depicted without showing everything that is taking place in the occult environment—that is, in the physical environment, but as seen through the forces that lie behind the physical environment. Therefore, Johannes Thomasius must be placed within the human environment from which his development springs—the real, physical world of humanity.

[ 5 ] And that is probably why the drama had to have a two-part introduction. The first part shows how the world appears to the outside world—the world in which, for Johannes Thomasius, the threads that Karma weaves in the becoming of the world come together. One might ask: Did this have to be shown—did it have to be shown, specifically in the “Prelude,” how this world looks from the outside? — It had to be shown. And it would not have been complete if it had not been shown. It had to be shown because the world in which karma weaves its knots is different, for example, in the fifth millennium B.C., different three hundred years before our era, yet different again one thousand years since the beginning of our era, and different still in our present time. The exoteric outer world, too, is always different, and it is connected to its karma—to what becomes the environment for the one who is developing. Thus the circle is drawn from the outside in. And within that circle is the smaller circle in which Johannes Thomasius himself stands. That is the second point. In the outer world, there are trivial ripples; in the smaller circle, there are waves that surge high. But they can only manifest in their surging intensity within the soul of Johannes Thomasius himself. That is why we are first led to the physical plane. The physical plane is shown to us in such a way that, so to speak, the threads are pointed out that spin karma everywhere within the physical plane.

[ 6 ] Anyone who looks into any physical circle with an occult eye will find everywhere that threads run from person to person, intertwining in the most remarkable ways. There are people who, on the surface, seem to have little to do with one another in life. Yet it is between soul and soul that the most important, the most essential threads are spun. All of this becomes intertwined. And all of this must be revealed little by little in such a way that, so to speak, a clear indication is given of a particular knot. At other times, it can only be shown subtly, only by implication, because it is still in the process of becoming. These various nuances had to be touched upon where the matter plays out on the physical plane, where we are in a purely physical environment, where people from the most diverse circles of interest come together. Outwardly, they talk about this and that. But as they speak outwardly, they are manifestations of karma. All the people we first encounter on the physical plane are karmically connected to one another. And that is the essential point: how they are karmically connected. There is not a single contrived case; everything has an occult basis. They are all threads that can come to life. And these threads are very strange.

[ 7 ] You can get a sense of how peculiar these connections are when you juxtapose figures such as Felix Balde and Mrs. Balde on the one hand, and Capesius and Strader on the other. What they say in their words is not the most important thing; what matters most is that these particular people are the ones saying it. And these characters are living people, not fictional characters. I know them very well, for example. By “know,” I don’t mean they’re invented, but that they are real and alive. They are real, and especially the character of Professor Capesius, who has grown so dear to my heart, is a character drawn from real life. And it is our world. That is why the strange event represented by the seer Theodora—who can temporarily see into the future and foresees the strange event that will occur before the end of the 20th century as the next Christ event—had to be woven into the story. This is something that can be interpreted karmically. It would be incorrect to interpret other events with the same clarity. Then the karmic connection that exists between Mrs. Balde and Professor Capesius is hinted at in the peculiar connection that Mrs. Balde’s fairy tales have to Capesius. Karmic threads are hinted at, which arise in Strader’s heart toward the seer Theodora because he is particularly moved by her. All of these are threads that lie occultly behind what takes place outwardly on the physical plane. These threads are spun by karma as if toward a single point. That single point is Johannes Thomasius. There they meet. And within the narrative on the physical plane, a light shines forth in the soul of Johannes Thomasius—a light that stirs up terrible waves within his soul, yet at the same time kindles his esoteric development as a very specific, individual process: the intersection of his own karma with world karma. Thus we see the impact that what exists around him on the physical plane has on him; how the Great One within his soul—the Unconscious—strives upward toward the higher worlds.

[ 8 ] Now, this journey into the higher worlds must not begin without guidance. It must be steered and guided. It is here that the one you have seen described as the true leader of this circle—but at the same time as the one who understands the workings of the worlds, as the one who sees through the knot that karma weaves in the unfolding of the worlds—it is here that Benedictus steps in. And he becomes the leader. The karma at work within Johannes ‘Thomasius—which might have continued for millennia or even countless millennia—is kindled at a very specific moment by a karmic connection between Benedictus and Johannes ‘Thomasius, which is quietly revealed in the scene in the meditation room. There we stand at the point where a human being, destined by karma for evolution, strives upward into the higher worlds. And so that he does not strive upward as a blind man, he is guided in the right way by Benedictus. What this means will become clear once some of the relevant passages have been read aloud.

This was followed by a recitation of the scene mentioned above: Scene 3; Benedictus, John, Mary, and the Child.

Maria:	I bring you the child; It needs a word from your lips.
Benedictus:	My child, from now on You shall come to me every evening, To receive the word, That shall fill you, Before you enter the realm of sleep. Is that what you want?
Child:	I want it so very much.
Benedictus:	Fill your heart this evening, Until sleep enfolds you, With the power of this word: “The powers of light Carry me into the house of the Spirit.”

(Mary leads the child out.)

Maria:	And now that this child’s destiny Is to unfold in the future In the shadow of your fatherly grace, May I, too—who have become his mother, If not by blood ties, Then surely by the forces of fate. You showed me the way, Along which I was to guide him From that day on, when he was found By his unknown mother And left at my doorstep. And, working wonders, All the rules revealed themselves In my foster child, By which I was permitted to guide him. All the powers came to light, That were sprouting in his body and soul. It became clear how your guidance Had sprung from the realm That this child’s soul harbored, Before it built the shell of its body. As he grew, we saw the hope of humanity, Which shone brighter with each new day. You know how difficult it was for me To first win the child’s affection, He grew up in my care, And at first, nothing more than habit Bound his soul to mine. He stood by me, sensing That I provided what it needed For the well-being of its body and the growth of its soul. The time came when In the child’s heart there arose Love for its caregiver. An external event brought about this change. The seer entered our circle. The child loved to be around her, And many a beautiful word It learned under her enchanting spell. Then came a moment when enthusiasm Seized our wondrous friend, And our child could see The glowing light in her eyes. Shaken to the very core of its being The young soul felt itself. In its terror, it came to me. From that hour on The child was warmly devoted to me in love. But ever since conscious feeling Received the gifts of life from me, And not just instinct alone, Ever since this young heart trembled more warmly, As soon as his gaze lovingly met mine, Your treasures of wisdom lost their fruitfulness. Much had to wither away, What had already ripened within the child. I saw reappear in that being What had proved so terrible in the friend. I am becoming more and more of a dark enigma to myself. You cannot shield me from life’s anxious question: Why do I ruin friend and child, When, with love, I attempt the work To perform upon them, Which the guidance of the spirit Lets me recognize as good in my heart? You have often pointed me toward the lofty truth, That illusion spreads across the surface of life, Yet I must have clarity, If I am to endure this fate, Which is cruel and works evil.
Benedictus:	Here, within this circle, A knot is forming from the threads, That Karma spins in the becoming of the worlds. O friend, your sufferings Are links in a knot of fate, In which the deeds of the gods intertwine with human life. When, on the soul’s pilgrimage I had reached that stage, Which granted me the dignity, To serve with my counsel in the spirit realms, Then a divine being approached me, Who was to descend into the earthly realm, To inhabit a human’s physical form. This is what human karma demands At this turning point in time. A great step in the course of the worlds Is possible only when gods Bind themselves to the human lot. Spiritual eyes can unfold, Which are to sprout in human souls, Only when a god has planted the seed Within a human being. It was now entrusted to me To find that human being, Who was worthy to receive the divine seed force Into his soul. Thus I had to unite a heavenly deed With a human destiny. My spiritual eye searched. It fell upon you. Your life’s journey had prepared you to be a mediator of salvation. In many lifetimes you had acquired a receptivity to all that is great, that which animates the human heart. The noble essence of beauty, the highest demand of virtue, you carried them as a spiritual heritage in your tender soul. And what your eternal Self brought into existence through birth, it became ripe fruit in your young years. You did not ascend too soon to steep spiritual heights. And so you did not develop a longing for the realm of the spirit, before you had fully grasped the innocent joys of the senses. Your soul learned to recognize anger and love, When every impulse of its thought Was still far from the spirit. To enjoy nature in its beauty, To pluck the fruits of the arts, You sought these as the riches of your life. You were allowed to laugh cheerfully, As only a child can laugh, One that has yet to experience The shadows of existence. You learned to understand human happiness And to lament suffering in those times, When not even your ancestors had the faintest inkling To inquire about the roots of happiness and suffering. As the ripe fruit of many lives, Earthly existence enters the soul, Which displays such a disposition. And its childlikeness is a blossom, Not the root of its being. Only this soul was I permitted to choose As a mediator for God, Who was to attain the power to act Through our human world. And now understand that your being Must transform itself into a counter-image, Pouring out from you into other beings. The Spirit within you works in all things, That which, for the realm of eternity, Can ripen as fruit within the human being. Therefore, it must slay much, That which belongs only to the realm of temporal existence. Yet its sacrifices of death Are seeds of immortality. To the higher life must grow That which blossoms from lower death.
Mary:	So this is how it is with me. - - - You give me light, Yet light that robs me of the power to see And tears me away from myself. If I am but a mediator of a spirit And not my own being, Then I will no longer tolerate The form within me, Which is a mask and not truth.
Johannes:	O friend, what has come over you! The light in your eyes is fading, Your body is turning into a column, I take your hand, It is so cold, It is as if dead.
Benedictus:	My son, you have undergone many trials, At this hour you face the greatest of them all, You behold your friend’s physical form, Yet before my very eyes Her true self soars into the realms of the spirit.
John:	Oh, look! Her lips are moving. She speaks— — —
Mary:	You gave me clarity, Yes, clarity that in darkness Envelops me on all sides. I curse your clarity, And I curse you, Who fashioned me into an instrument Of the wild arts, Through which he seeks to deceive mankind. Not for a single moment until now Have I been able to doubt your spiritual greatness, But now this one moment is enough To tear every belief from my heart. I must recognize that they are beings of hell, The spirits to whom you are devoted. I had to deceive others, Johannes: Because you deceived me first! I will flee from you to distant lands, Where no sound of yours can reach me, And yet close enough, That my curses may reach you! The fire of my own blood, You have stolen it from me, To give to your false god, What must be mine. O this fire of my blood, May it burn you! I had to believe In deceit and delusion. And for that to become possible, You first had to Turn me myself into an illusion! I often had to witness How the effect of my being Was transformed into its opposite. So let what was love For you now be transformed Into the fire of wild hatred. I will search all worlds For that fire, Which can consume you. I flee—oh—
Johannes:	Who speaks in this place? I do not see my beloved! I see a hideous being.
Benedictus:	My beloved’s soul soars in the heights, She left her mortal image Behind in this place for us alone. And where a human body Is forsaken by the spirit, there is space that The adversary of good seeks, To enter the realm of visibility. He finds a physical shell, Through which he can speak. Such an adversary spoke, Who seeks to destroy the work entrusted to me, Which is my responsibility For the future of many people And also for you, my son. And if I could regard those curses, Which our friend’s shell has just uttered, As anything other than the wiles of the tempter, You must not follow me. The adversary of Good was at my side; And you, my son, Have seen the fall into darkness, What is temporal in that being, Toward whom all your love shines. Because spirits have so often Spoken to you from their mouths, The karma of the worlds did not spare you From hearing even the prince of hell Through them. Now you must first seek them out And recognize the core of their being. She shall be your model of that higher human being, To which you are to rise. Her soul soars into the spiritual heights, Where human beings find the archetype of their being, Which is grounded in itself. You shall follow her into the realm of the spirit, And you will behold her in the Temple of the Sun. Here it takes shape In this circle, a knot formed from the threads, Which Karma spins In the becoming of the worlds. My son, since you have held fast thus far, You will press onward as well. I see your star in full splendor. There is no room in sensory existence For the struggles that people wage, Those who strive for initiation. Whatever mysteries sensory existence holds, To be solved by reason, Whatever such existence engenders in human hearts, It may arise through love or hate And discharge itself, however terrifying: For the seeker of the spirit, it must become A field upon which he can, uninvolved Cast his gaze from the outside. For him, powers must unfold That are not to be found in this field. You had to struggle through a trial of the soul, Which can only be undergone by one Who finds himself prepared For such powers, Which belong to the spiritual worlds. And had you been found by these powers Unripe for the path of knowledge, They would have had to paralyze your feelings, Before you were allowed to know What has now become known to you. The beings who gaze into the foundations of the worlds, They guide people, Who strive toward the heights, First to that summit, Where it may become apparent, Whether they have been given the strength, To consciously behold spiritual existence. Those people who possess such powers, They are released from the world of the senses; The others must wait. You have preserved your true self, my son, When forces from on high shook you, And when spiritual powers Enveloped you in dread. And your true self fought its way through with strength, even as doubts gnawed within your own breast and sought to cast you into the dark depths. You have been my true disciple only since that moment of profound significance, when you were on the verge of despairing of yourself, when you gave yourself up as lost, and yet the strength within you held you fast. I was allowed to give you treasures of wisdom, Which gave you the strength, To hold onto yourself, Even when you yourself did not believe in yourself. It was the wisdom, Which you attained, More faithful to you than the faith, That was given to you. You have been found to be mature. You may be released. Your friend has gone on ahead, You will find her in spirit. I can still show you the way: Ignite your soul’s full power With words that, through my mouth, Give the key to the heights. They will guide you, even when nothing guides you anymore, what the eyes of the senses can still perceive. May you receive them with a full heart: The weaving essence of light, it shines through the vastness of space, to fill the world with Being. The blessing of love, it warms the succession of times, To summon the revelation of all worlds. And messengers of the Spirit, they unite The weaving essence of Light With the revelation of the soul; And when man can unite with both His own self, He lives in the heights of the Spirit. O Spirits, whom man can behold, Enliven the soul of our son. Let it shine within him, That which can illuminate His soul with the light of the Spirit. Let it resound within him, That which can awaken His Self to the Spirit’s joy of becoming.

Voice of the Mind: (behind the scenes):

His thoughts rise Into the primal depths of the world. What he thought of as a shadow, What he experienced as a phantom, Rises above the world of forms, From whose abundance People, in their thinking, Dream in shadows, From whose abundance People, in their seeing, Live in phantoms.

(The music begins as the curtain slowly falls.)

[ 9 ] These were the sounds with which our dear friend Arenson musically expressed what rises in the poem as an echo from the higher worlds into the soul of Johannes Thomasius, after he had proven himself capable, through the great experience presented in the meditation room, of truly ascending into the higher worlds—that he had emerged from this experience as a mature soul. In the words that bring the recitation to a close, we see something that resounds in a thoroughly real way from the spiritual world into a soul that, to a certain degree—if we may put it that way—has passed the test. The essence of the matter is sometimes quietly hinted at in words that contain more than one might at first suppose.

[ 10 ] One must first realize that a knot is being woven from the threads of world karma, a knot that presents Johannes Thomasius with a fact of the most magnificent and powerful kind in its effect at a sacred site. What is actually happening?

[ 11 ] Johannes Thomasius witnesses a soul—to which he is karmically connected in a wondrous way, as will later become apparent in the Devachan scene—ascend into the spiritual worlds right before his eyes. It is a moment of world-historical significance when such a soul ascends into the spiritual worlds. Of course, it is not possible now to point out everything connected with such a moment. But it is an entirely real fact, known to anyone familiar with the occult life in all its tremendously powerful, luminous, and shadowy aspects. And such a person also knows what then happens in the physical world when the upheaval occurs: that a soul vanishes into the spiritual worlds—not through the calm course of its own karma, but challenged by world karma—and ascends directly into the spiritual world. These are moments that are important for the evolution of humanity. But these are also the moments in which real, actually existing tempting forces—which look into our physical world from the spiritual world just as the good forces do—gain the power to turn abandoned physical shells into the scene of their wiles and power of temptation. These are the points of attack; there they are, as it were, unleashed. And then the circumstances arise in which maya reveals itself in the most dreadful way. Faced with the minor deceptions of karma, a person who may not be very far along cannot resist temptation; but faced with the major deceptions of karma—when it presents something that, at a certain stage of development, one can no longer fully believe could be true—a soul that has not passed through certain abysses of life recoils in horror. One can have a mental image of some saying they, too, could have endured what took place in the meditation room. But they should only be placed there just once! Reality is something quite different from what we think. In reality, other forces are at work. Anyone who does not believe this should simply create a mental image of themselves as if they had ever had a real experience of a human body that has been abandoned by its soul. People are familiar only with human bodies that are animated by a soul. There are simply other forces at work there. And in order to withstand these forces, Johannes Thomasius had to be led precisely to this point in the karma of the world.

[ 12 ] Now there are two aspects to this. Johannes Thomasius first had to go through what is commonly called the Kamaloka. This is the world in which what we ourselves are appears to us, so to speak, as in a mirror image. This, too, is something that sounds much easier than it actually is when it occurs in reality. And when it does occur in reality, it is not an image confined to space that tells us what it is, but rather it whispers to us from all corners of the world. Then the whole world is us. That is why, in the scene depicting how Johannes Thomasius descends into the depths of his soul—where he is among rocks and springs—you hear that it is not some single reflection he conjures up that speaks to him from his soul, but rather it resounds to him from everything around him—from rocks and springs, from the entire surroundings. And indeed, in such a moment, the words that pass so tamely through world theories, through philosophical and Spiritual Science works, become terrible forces. For they resound from the whole world, as if reflected from every direction in infinite space and catching themselves in the individual events of nature. “O human being, know thyself!” Thus do they resound when they are heard, after having lived in the soul for years and years. Then the soul stands in its solitude, in its great desolation, facing itself. Nothing is there but the world. But this world is the soul itself. And within this world lies what the soul itself is; it also contains what constitutes its karma—everything it has done. — In a poem, only individual elements can be singled out. An old deed—the abandonment of a personality—comes to the fore. But it appears before Johannes Thomasius’s soul in all its vividness. I can cite only a few words.

[ 13 ] In this context, Johannes Thomasius loses what he must lose: his confidence in himself, in his own strength, and even in his ability to find healing in solitude for what causes him such immense torment on the physical plane when he perceives it from beyond the physical plane. Hence these words, which I ask you to take exactly as they are meant to be taken—as words that shatter the soul and fill it completely. When Johannes Thomasius hears the words “O human being, know thyself!” from all worlds, his soul responds as if his ego were not present:

For years now I have heard them,
These words so rich in meaning.
They resound to me from air and water,
They ring out from the depths of the earth,
And just as, mysteriously, within the tiny seed
The structure of the giant oak takes shape,
So, ultimately,
Is enclosed within the power of these words,
That which, from the nature of the elements,
From souls and spirits,
From the passage of time and eternity,
Is comprehensible to my mind.
The world and my own individuality,
They live in these words:
O man, know thyself!

But the response is a powerful one: “O man, know thyself!” Then one’s entire inner world is turned upside down:

And now! — it becomes
Terribly alive within me.
Darkness weaves around me,
Darkness yawns within me;
It resounds from the darkness of the world,
It echoes from the darkness of the soul:
O human, know thyself!

(It resounds from springs and rocks: O man, know thyself!)

[ 14 ] You must imagine the self moving in step with the process of the world. Otherwise, we simply stand there, passing through the hours without observing what is taking place. We do not know this; we believe ourselves to be within our inner selves. But this takes place in a state of awareness. In this awareness, it follows all the elemental forces, moves with the passage of the day, and transforms into night.

I follow the Earth on its orbit.
I roll in the thunder,
I twitch in the lightning.

[ 15 ] All of this gives him the impression: I am. — That is the moment when the “I am” becomes the demon of one’s own soul. Before that, all human self-assertion falls silent. And no sooner has one tried to utter it—the “I am”—than one’s own soul says:

...Oh, it has already vanished
I feel at one with my true self.

[ 16 ] Then one's own essence manifests itself in a limited way, in a limited form:

I see my physical form;
It is a foreign being separate from me,
It is far away from me.
Then another body floats toward me.

[ 17 ] Now he can speak not only with his own mouth, but with the mouth of another person. There is the person to whom he has done wrong:

He brought me bitter sorrow;
I trusted him so completely.
He left me alone in my grief,
He robbed me of the warmth of life
And cast me into the cold earth.

[ 18 ] Now back to our own bodies:

The one I left behind, the poor one,
I was her myself.
I must endure her torment.
Insight has given me the strength
To carry my self into another’s self.

[ 19 ] This marks the beginning of a journey that is further characterized by the words intended to suggest, at the end of this scene, how the world and how loneliness affect us. In the world, everything that flows in from the outside has the most terrible effect. From within, that which comes from within has such an effect that solitude becomes the most populous place there can be. This is a test designed for the purpose implied in the words that have been read to you:

The beings who gaze into the depths of the worlds,
They guide people,
Who strive for the heights,
First to that summit,
Where it may become apparent,
Whether they have been given the strength
To consciously perceive spiritual existence.
Those who possess such powers
Are released from the world of the senses;
The others must wait.

[ 20 ] At the very moment we are facing here, consciousness would be lost, and Johannes Thomasius would be cast back into the sensory world if he had not stood his ground in the scene I have described, where he faces his own self. Two things came into play here: His own self, as far as he is aware, has little strength, which robs him of self-confidence. But what is the eternal “I” within him—of which he is not yet aware—possesses great strength. This sustains him and enables him to overcome what he experiences in the meditation room as the disembodiment of Mary. Then he need only be guided upward through the words of Benedictus, through the power of those words.

[ 21 ] And in the words that have been read to you, you must see a mystery of words. What is meant by this cannot simply be written down, as so many other things can. In these lines, in fact, lie cosmic forces—right down to the individual sounds. And those sounds cannot really be changed. These words truly open a gateway to the spiritual world. That is why these words must indeed be taken exactly as they have just been spoken here. Something like this cannot be put together in just any way, such as these lines:

The weaving essence of light, it shines
Through the vastness of space,
To fill the world with Being.
The blessing of love, it warms
The succession of times,
Calling forth the revelation of all worlds.
And messengers of the Spirit, they unite
The weaving essence of Light
With the revelation of the soul;
And when a human being can unite
With both, his own Self,
He lives in the heights of the Spirit.

[ 22 ] Only then can what is meant to resonate from the other world find its way into the soul. But all of this, as I said, consists only of isolated hints.

[ 23 ] Then Johannes Thomasius is truly taken up into the spiritual world. However, he cannot ascend directly into the spiritual world, where everyone must go. He must pass through the astral world. In the fourth image, you see a depiction of the astral world as Johannes Thomasius himself must experience it, given his specific individual circumstances. It is not a general description of the astral world, but a depiction of this world as Johannes Thomasius must experience it, illustrated through specific examples. This astral world is different from the physical world. There, it is possible for us to see a person we encounter as they were several decades ago, or to see a young person as they will be in the future. These are all realities. In your soul, you are still today the same person you were as a three-year-old child. What you see in the astral world is not at all what the outer, physical image of a human being reveals. The physical image of a person conceals at every moment what was true before and what will be true afterward. Above all, our gaze into the astral world must enable us to overcome the first maya of the sensory world and see through time in its illusory power. That is why Johannes Thomasius sees the person he came to know as Capesius on the physical plane in the astral world as he was as a young man, and the person he came to know in the physical world as Strader, he sees as he will be as an old man. What does this mean? Johannes Thomasius knows Strader as he is now in the sensory world, with the forces that are currently present in his soul on the physical plane. But within him lies the precondition for what he will become decades from now. One must also recognize this if one wishes to truly know a person. Thus, time tears itself apart. Time is truly a rather elastic concept when one ascends into the higher worlds. Johannes Thomasius knows the older Capesius and the younger Strader from the physical world. Now they stand side by side in the astral world: the younger Capesius and the older Strader. Here, time is not stretched forward or backward, but rather one is depicted in his youth and the other in his old age. This is an entirely real fact.

[ 24 ] But connected to this is something else that is actually evident and which people today treat with childish derision: that our soul experiences are even more than we usually think of them; that nothing evil or good is experienced in the soul without consequence—for example, when we think evil thoughts or even just unjust ones—that this radiates into the depths of the world and radiates back, and that our soul experiences are connected to the elemental forces of nature. This is not a metaphor. In the occult sense, it is a reality—as when, for example, Capesius is led before the Spirit of the Elements, who guides every human being into existence. It is indeed the case that Capesius also stands before that which is connected to this Spirit of the Elements. And connected to this is the fact that whenever we experience anything in our souls, it is linked to the elemental forces of nature. It becomes clear to Johannes Thomasius that Capesius, in the depths of his soul—and Strader as well—can stir up the opposing forces of the elements. Therefore, in this world, lightning and thunder follow what they themselves experience in their souls—whether in pride or arrogance, in error or in truth or falsehood. In the physical world, what a person harbors in their soul in the form of error or falsehood is something most remarkable. For example, a person stands before us; error and falsehood dwell in their soul, yet they may stand before us completely innocently. But the moment the astral gaze is directed toward them, storms rage—storms that are otherwise only depicted in the most terrifying outbursts of the earthly elements. Johannes Thomasius must experience all of this. And also what may already reveal itself to him in the astral world—the strange connections that he had not yet recognized when they confronted him on the physical plane.

[ 25 ] The terms found in this Rosicrucian mystery are not random. Terms such as “the other Mary” and so on all point to specific relationships, so that the one Mary and the other Mary are not merely the two Marys, but present themselves to all other persons as “the Marys.” And the “other Mary,” the mysterious figure of nature, reveals to Johannes Thomasius that soul which lives beneath the ordinary, conscious soul, and which remains utterly inaudible and imperceptible as long as the human being lives only in the physical world. But you must not regard these relationships and figures as symbols. In all this, the other Mary is once again, just like the first Mary, an absolute, real figure—a reality. And they are to be taken only for what they are.

[ 26 ] Everything Johannes Thomasius experienced has passed before the eyes of his soul. He has experienced the astral world. He can now bring this to his consciousness, as he says:

So in the realm of the soul
I find once more the people I know:
The man who spoke of Felicia’s stories—
Only here could I see him,
As he was in his youth;
And the one who, as a young man
Had chosen to become a monk
Appeared to me as an old man.
The Spirit of the Elements was with them.

[ 27 ] Johannes Thomasius has gone through all of this, which, so to speak, obliterates the passage of time before his eyes. And what has he now matured to do? He has matured to cast his gaze into the astral world. Is the astral world free from error? No, it is not. In this astral world, however, one thing can become a certainty for the human being. And one thing becomes a certainty for the human being in the astral world—provided he enters it with a pure heart, without guilt—namely, that there is a higher world that shines into the astral world just as the astral world shines into the ordinary physical world. The only question is whether one can see it as it really is. The people who wander about in that world are themselves merely a kind of illusion, so that each of them has something behind them that leads them into the higher world—something that sets them apart from something entirely different, something they may have been in times long or not so long past, and something they will become in the future. But certain illusions do not reveal the astral world, with which we are deeply intertwined in the sensory world. For example, they do not reveal the relationship between the great forces of existence—the relationship between will, love, and wisdom. This is so difficult to recognize in its truth that it remains veiled in the astral world for a long, long time. It is not so easy to get to the bottom of this. And there, conditions that are errors in the sensory world continue into the astral world.

[ 28 ] This interplay—which, too, can only be hinted at here—of will, wisdom, and love takes place in the physical world through human beings. In the higher worlds, it takes place through those beings who send their powers here when, on the physical plane, the powers of the occult entities enter human souls. This is accomplished by the Initiates in those temples where human representatives stand for the individual world powers—in those temples where human beings have already progressed to the point of renouncing the desire to embody the entire human being at once, and where they limit themselves to embodying a single power. There the representatives then reign. But where the human being looks into the astral world, that sacred place appears to him—where the representatives of the powers of Will, Wisdom, and Love are present—precisely in an image filled with maya. And there a terrible web is spun between the illusions of the sensory world and the astral world.

[ 29 ] And now I would have to speak for weeks on end if I were to explain the nature of that manifestation of the higher powers which presents itself as the Initiate for the powers of the will—the one who confronts Johannes Thomasius on the physical plane and actually appears to be a trivial figure on that plane. This may raise the question: Are the primal forces of the will to work through such a person? — And yet they do. But one can understand that it is precisely through a person who may be less developed that the aspect of such power intended to be a revelation of the powers of the will can penetrate, just as the ray of wisdom can enter through a person like Benedictus. For one must understand the following: If we now have here a flower that has blossomed and grown wonderfully, and we place a seed beside it, then it may be that the seed, when it has fully grown, will produce an even more beautiful flower. One might already consider the flower to be very perfect, but in truth, in terms of cosmic reality, the seed is something far more perfect. Thus we have, on the one hand, Benedictus, the great bearer of wisdom, and on the other, the person who, on the physical plane, behaves in a peculiar way toward everything spoken of in connection with the spiritual worlds, rejecting it all in a peculiar manner. When he hears people in his circle speaking of the spiritual worlds, he says, like someone who wants to hear nothing about them: “I cannot find the bridge that could truly lead from ideas to deeds!” He is a person who finds what leads to deeds somewhere else entirely, and for whom talk of the spirit is nothing but empty words. To this person, just as he now lives on the physical plane, you could recount all the most beautiful aspects of Spiritual Science—yet to him they are empty words. And what is valuable to him is when the wheels of the machines turn. And when he hears from the other Maria about the spiritual power that has connected with her and kindled within her the powers of feeling and love to perform this or that deed, he is once again the one who rejects all of that and simply says: “That’s because she has a good heart!” - He remains entirely on the physical plane and is, in a sense, a trivial figure of the physical plane, but he is an energetic, dynamic man of strong will. That is why he says:

When this woman of goodness accomplishes so much,
The drive to do so
Lies in her warm heart.
It is certainly necessary for a person,
After having worked hard,
To find inspiration in ideas,
But only the discipline of the will
In union with skill and strength
In every genuine life’s work
Help humanity move forward.
When the whirring of wheels
Rings in my ears,
And when the hands of contented people
Turn the cranks,
Then I feel the forces of life.

[ 30 ] This is the man of will, the man of action. And even if you were to talk to him for days on end about the spirit, he would say: “You can’t even turn a single crank with that, and what would people eat?” — So you can turn cranks all day long, and when you have a free hour, you can talk about the spirit for amusement! These are the seed forces that have not yet sprouted. But they are good forces. They are forces that are very important and that shine into the world through the powers of will. One must not take a theoretical approach when people hear about spiritual worlds and interpret them differently, for it is terribly difficult to make headway there. Anyone who does not understand that the seed must be seen as a counter-image to the kinds of people just described will experience an illusion such as that depicted in the underground temple. This is an astral maya. While what Johannes Thomasius experiences in the scene with Capesius and Strader—where he sees them at different stages of life—is reality, the fifth image depicts a maya, a Fata Morgana of the spiritual world, which must first be taken on by the soul and worked through. Therefore, you must regard the fifth image as something justified solely by the fact that reality immediately intermingles with the maya.

[ 31 ] This entire scene would contribute nothing at all to the development of Johannes Thomasius if it did not relate to the astral experience in the same way that the concepts and ideas of the physical world relate to our understanding of the world. What science is to the physical plane, the Maya Temple is to the astral world. Just as a concept is not something one can eat, so too is the Maya Temple not something real that is rooted in the spiritual world. But concepts must live in the world so that an understanding of the world can truly take hold. And only in this way can something from another world come into play, which now provides Johannes Thomasius with profound enlightenment once again, as he now recognizes how a certain knot in world karma is being spun by the fact that Felix Balde has realized he should not bury the treasures of his soul in solitary wanderings through the world, but must carry them to the temple.

[ 32 ] Only then does Johannes Thomasius have the opportunity to so to speak, to perceive much more real conditions in the spiritual world—including, among others, those of a more subtle and intimate nature, such as the intrusion of the astral world into the physical world, which occurs when something like the inspiration of a person such as Capesius takes place through someone who does not actually know how much he holds within his soul. In the mystery, Mrs. Balde does not know this. In a person who possesses intellect and acts from the intellect, everything passes through the intellect. What can give us a knowledge of power regarding the world does not lie within the intellect at all. All of that lies outside the intellect. In a person who possesses great intellect, a force coming from the spiritual world can pass through the intellect and then move on. Then he will be able to speak of the spiritual world in beautiful “theories.” But the intellect makes no difference to the inner occult level, to the content of the soul. Thus, what comes from theories can enter the soul without passing through the intellect and thus reach a person who is receptive to the Source and can draw upon what, for example, Capesius describes on the physical plane. This is demonstrated when he describes what this woman—who lives alone with Felix Balde—actually means to him, when he says that he enjoys listening to her speak, and that she then expresses the deepest, most ancient wisdom. It is important that we fully grasp what Capesius is saying. On the physical plane, there is a woman whom he enjoys listening to, who speaks with her mouth words that are full of occult sources. She cannot put it into specific words. But when it reaches Capesius’s ears, he can say:

I must touch upon it,
If I am to tell of it,
A thing that truly seems more wondrous to me
Than much of what I have heard here,
Because it speaks more deeply to my soul.
I could hardly, in any other place,
Bring these words from my lips,
That come so easily to me here.
There are times for my soul,
When it feels drained and empty.
It seems to me then as if the source of knowledge
Had run dry within me;
As if I could find no word
Worthy of being
Heard.

[ 33 ] Such a thing exists. People like that, no matter how much they know, feel as if they can't go on any longer.

When I feel such spiritual desolation,
Then I take refuge in the refreshing,
peaceful solitude of these good people.

[ 34 ] Now his own soul is opening up, because there lies the gateway into the occult world for him.

And Ms. Felicia tells
In wonderful images
Of beings who dwell in the land of dreams
And in the realms of fairy tales
Lead colorful lives.
It is the tone of her speech
Like the ballads of old.
I do not ask where she gets her words from.
Then I think of only one thing with clarity,
How new life flows into my soul,
And how, as if by magic,
All my spiritual numbness is cast aside.

[ 35 ] Johannes Thomasius observes this phenomenon on the physical plane, but he must first look into the astral world to understand it. In the astral image, therefore, Mrs. Balde appears to him exactly as he now sees her in her physical form. And she presents to the Spirit of the Elements one of her fairy-tale images, just as she has told Capesius hundreds of them. But now the interplay begins with what is taking place beneath the threshold of consciousness.

[ 36 ] She tells Capesius the fairy tales. And when she has told him one that she herself does not understand, the powers within his soul are awakened, dispelling his spiritual paralysis, and then he can once again tell his listeners a story. That sounds quite different from what Mrs. Felicia told. Secret forces are at work within Capesius as well. If one traces them, one finds their origin in the astral world. There one can observe how they give rise to countercurrents. And just as Mrs. Felicia’s words evoke such an echo in Capesius’s soul, these forces evoke a similar response wherever elemental powers are present. Something similar exists for our brain as well. A small spirit dwells within our brain, one that perhaps conceives the most wondrous things. If we seek how it relates to the macrocosm, we find, for example, the Earth’s brain. It thinks thoughts on a scale entirely different from those that appear in the small human brain. Within his own brain, a person sometimes fails to see what he is actually asserting. But it looks grotesque when it is reflected in the giant Earth-brain. That, too, must be reflected. Hence the relationship that exists between German, who appears on the physical plane, and then as the spirit of the Earth-brain. One could speak at length about that as well. But if one were to see with the astral eye what is happening in that lonely little cottage when Mrs. Felicia tells her fairy tales, and if one were then to look all the way up to the Spirit of the Earth’s Brain, one would see many a secret—for example, how this Spirit of the Earth’s Brain is an ironist, sometimes a mocker. And it must be inclined toward mockery, for it has much to laugh about when it comes to what people do.

[ 37 ] Artistically speaking, it makes sense that, at the very moment he is out of place, he also takes on the role he so often has to play and reveals his true form. So, following the scene in which Mrs. Balde has told one of her fairy tales to the Spirit of the Elements, we see an unusual effect on the Spirit of the Earth’s Brain, who translates the fairy tale into entirely different words. Mrs. Balde recounts:

Once upon a time, there was a being,
That flew from east to west
Following the sun’s path.
It flew over lands and across seas;
From its lofty height,
It watched the comings and goings of humans.
It saw how people love one another
And how, filled with hatred, they persecute one another.
Nothing could hinder the being
In its flight;
For hatred and love create
The same thing, always, a thousandfold.
But above a house,
There the being had to pause.
Inside was a weary man.
He pondered human love
And also pondered human hatred.
His musings had already
Etched deep furrows into his face.
They had bleached his hair.
And in the midst of his sorrow
The being lost its sun-guide
And remained with that man.
It was still in his room
When the sun set,
And when the sun rose again,
Then the being was once again
taken up by the spirit of the sun. —
And once again it saw people
spending their time on earth
in love and hate.
And when it came a second time,
following the sun over that house,
its gaze fell
upon a dead man.

[ 38 ] And the spirit of the Earth’s brain echoes this back, quite unjustifiably, of course:

Once upon a time, there was a man,
Who journeyed from east to west;
Driven by a thirst for knowledge,
He traveled across land and sea.
Guided by his own rules of wisdom,
He observed the ways of humanity.
He saw how people loved one another
And yet pursued one another with hatred.
At every moment, the man saw
The limits of his wisdom.
Yet just as hatred and love
Have always ruled the earthly world,
It could not be reduced to any law.
He recorded many thousands of individual cases,
But the big picture eluded him.
The dry-minded researcher
Encountered a being of light on his path;
Existence was hard for this being,
For it was in constant struggle
With a dark, shadowy form.
“Who are you, then?”
So asked the dry-minded researcher.
“I am love,”
said one being;
“In me, behold hatred,”
said the other.
The man no longer heard
the words of these beings.
From then on, as a deaf researcher,
the man journeyed from east to west.

[ 39 ] These are indeed experiences of the astral world. Johannes Thomasius must go through them in order to ascend into the spiritual world.

[ 40 ] And for today, I will just briefly say that, for Johannes Thomasius, a real connection with the spiritual world—one that has already been established in the physical world—is necessary in order to ascend into the spiritual world itself. And this is, as you will hear later, the connection arising from that karma encompassing all incarnations, which is revealed only through devachanic vision. But the devachanic elements must truly be at work there. Therefore, I ask you to bear in mind that everything lives within the weaving and life of the devachanic sea. There, one cannot merely describe; one can only ever hint at this or that in an approximate way. But if one wishes to describe it truly, one must go further. One should not presume to know anything when speaking of higher worlds and using the terms “feeling soul,” “intellectual soul,” and “consciousness soul”—which are meant to correspond to Philia, Astrid, and Luna. These three figures are by no means personifications of those three soul members or symbols for them. If you listen to the vowels with which these three figures characterize their own activities, and if you listen to what lives within the vowels, you can trace how, in the sequence of the individual vowels and the individual words, what is given can be understood in a completely different way than as the soul of feeling, the soul of understanding, and the soul of consciousness. And if you remove any one element, it is no longer the whole. Therefore, it is important to listen closely to the words in order to gain an understanding of the devachanic element of the consciousness soul—for example, when Luna says the words:

I want to warm the substance of the soul
And I want to strengthen the ether of life.
They shall condense,
They shall sense one another,
And, existing within themselves,
Sustaining themselves,
So that you, beloved sister,
For the seeking human soul,
May create the certainty of knowledge.

[ 41 ] In the flow of the words used to describe the Devachan lies that which cannot otherwise be expressed. This must also be taken into account. For when one speaks of higher worlds, one is compelled to express this in multiple ways. And what I could never explain theoretically about the soul of feeling, the soul of understanding, and the soul of consciousness—you can discern this, if you are willing to understand, from what is contained in the characterizations of the three figures: Philia, Astrid, and Luna. But you will understand well that these three are not symbols or allegories for the soul of feeling, the soul of understanding, and the soul of consciousness. If you ask yourselves, “What are these three?”—the answer is: They are living beings: Philia, Astrid, and Luna people. This must always be kept in mind.

[ 42 ] How karma ultimately intertwines and manifests itself in the image—which Johannes Thomasius experiences as a microcosm within the human soul—was fully revealed in the final scene of the Munich performance. The individual characters stood in their respective places according to how karma works. Those who were closer to a particular character occupied their places accordingly. If you imagine this reflected in reality within the soul of Johannes Thomasius, then you have roughly what is contained in this scene of the seventh tableau—the realm of the spirit—something that is very difficult to put into words.

This was followed by Marie von Sivers (Marie Steiner) reciting the seventh scene, with music by Adolf Arenson introducing and concluding the performance.