The Rudolf Steiner Archive

4. Sign, Gesture, and Word

[ 1 ] Today I would like to delve a little deeper into the occult aspects of the reflections we engaged in here eight days ago. We saw, after all, that certain occult currents—which find expression in occult brotherhoods—can indeed be regarded as significant for human life. And you will have seen from the more outwardly focused discussions of the past hour that, in a very specific context in Western Europe—namely in the British Isles—such occult brotherhoods are used to achieve certain external goals. It is, first of all, necessary that anyone who approaches a contemporary movement of Spiritual Science with open eyes, so to speak, be able to assess such matters with a certain objectivity and a certain overview of the situation. Therefore, I would like to speak today about how the workings of such occult brotherhoods should be understood in the first place, so that we can see in what way they can become an instrument for certain other purposes and goals.

[ 2 ] It is, in essence, what is meant by “occult brotherhoods”—a rather complicated matter. But this complex matter is built everywhere upon a foundation that draws people in a certain direction by uniting them in a kind of cult, by passing on certain symbols to them, and by uniting them, so to speak, in a service that finds expression in certain symbols. There are many people today who, from the outset—based on a superficial, one might even say supposed knowledge, and on a supposed higher worldview—laugh at and scoff at all such brotherhoods that are built upon a certain symbolism. Short-sightedness regarding all matters of this kind is, after all, extraordinarily widespread in our time, and one could simply reply to those who lightly dismiss the significance of certain ceremonies and symbolic practices associated with certain occult brotherhoods simply reply that people—who, after all, were perhaps no less significant than they themselves are—these monists and other highly enlightened scoffers and critics, people such as Goethe, for example, placed great value on a certain immersion in such ceremonial and symbolic contexts. Goethe was well aware—and expressed this time and again in one way or another—of what he had gained from the fact that, in the course of his life, he was able to undergo not a formal school education but a later education connected with certain fraternal contexts, first and foremost with the monastic contexts of Freemasonry, of which Goethe was a member—a context that may have offered less to people less significant than Goethe, but which was able to offer Goethe an extraordinary great deal. One could at least raise such points against those who, from a superficial, so-called monistic worldview, laugh and scoff at such things. But if one wishes to understand the essence of these matters, one must be able to look deeper into them.

[ 3 ] We know, of course, that we are currently living in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. We have been living in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch since the beginning of the fifteenth century. It was preceded by the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, which began around the year 747 before Chaisti’s birth and did not actually end until the beginning of the fifteenth century. People today who are very wise, very intelligent—and that is, after all, almost everyone, isn’t it!—think to themselves: Well, what the human soul has experienced since the fifteenth century can’t be all that different from what the human soul experienced in the preceding two millennia, all the way back to the year 747 B.C. But even by looking at very external things, one can, if one wishes, show how fundamentally different the development of the human soul was in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch—that is, the post-Atlantean epoch that preceded our own. During this period—though, of course, this ability gradually diminished quite significantly as the fifteenth century A.D. approached—that is, from the eighth century B.C. to the fourteenth century A.D., human beings were such that their etheric body was much, much more receptive than it has been since the fourteenth century. It was far more capable of perceiving what was around it. And when the etheric body perceives, it perceives the elemental world; it does not merely perceive in the same way that the physical body perceives minerals, plants, animals, water, air, and so on, but it truly perceives that which lives as an elemental being within plants, animals, and minerals. While people in those centuries still spoke of goblins or gnome-like beings that they perceived in the mountains, or that came toward them from the crevices of the mines, people today say: Well, those are poetic depictions. — For the people of those centuries, these were not poetic depictions. Those people had, in fact, still known something of the existence of an elemental world behind the physical world.

[ 4 ] Since perhaps not everyone here has heard this, I would like to draw your attention once again to the fact that today it is even possible to prove, through external documents, that people knew something about the elemental world until relatively recently. This can be proven through external documents, and I would like to bring up this one document again—I believe I have already mentioned it here, but I would like to briefly mention it once more—which you can find in the Hamburg Museum: a painting in the Hamburg Museum. The painting depicts the Fall, that is, the event we read about at the beginning of the Old Testament. If a painter today depicts the Fall, well, doesn’t he depict it in such a way that he shows the Tree of Paradise standing upright, with Adam and Eve to the left and right—more or less beautiful, or mostly quite hideous, don’t you think?—and in the middle the serpent, a real serpent. But is that actually realistic, my dear friends? Can you call that realistic? After all, even if Eve wasn’t yet as clever and wise as women are today, you can’t very well expect even Eve to have been seduced by a real snake crawling on the ground into committing the monstrous act she was led to commit. So that can’t exactly be realistic.

[ 5 ] But now we know, of course, that the tempter was Lucifer. Lucifer is not a being that can be seen with today’s physical eyes; rather, one must see Lucifer with the awakened etheric body, through awakened clairvoyance. There he then reveals himself as the being who lagged behind during the lunar evolution. We essentially received our physical body as we have it today from the lunar evolution; only at that time it was not yet physically visible, but etheric. The modern human being, in regard to the head, is an imprint of what was already present as a head on the Moon. But the rest of the human body, which is attached to it, was not yet in its present form, but existed only as a serpentine extension: in what we now call the spinal cord. So that if one were to depict Lucifer as he was left behind from the lunar evolution, one would have to depict him with a human head and a spinal cord attached to it—that is, in the form of a serpent.

[ 6 ] This is exactly how the painter, Master Bertram, from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, depicted Lucifer in the painting in Hamburg—not as today’s painters do, but as it must be in the true sense of Spiritual Science. You can see it in the painting at the Hamburg Museum and convince yourself that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a painter still painted things as they truly are. It’s just that people today are too clever to truly grasp the significance of these documents. But this is a document that shows us that people truly still knew the elemental realm right up to the time we are always speaking of—a time that proves to be the very one in which people were still able to look into the elemental world.

[ 7 ] It was during this period—the fourth post-Atlantean epoch—that the symbols which form the foundation of the occult brotherhoods in question came into being. These symbols form the foundation because, for the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, they were something that people experienced as alive, something they were able to know as a living reality within themselves. I would like to clarify the idea of symbolism for you a bit more clearly through Goethe’s interpretation. Goethe attempted, in his own way, to make symbolism fruitful for outer life by telling himself: By immersing oneself in symbolism, one can gain much; one can truly advance one’s inner being through it. — That is why he wants—as you can read in his Wilhelm Meister—education to be guided in such a way that people grow up within a certain symbolism. Goethe wants people to learn something that, in fact, everyone should learn instead of some of the frivolities they learn in today’s high schools; he wants people to grow up within a certain symbolism. Above all, he wants them to learn through these symbols what he calls the “four forms of reverence” of the human being: reverence for the spiritual world; reverence for the physical world; reverence for every soul; and the reverence that can only be built upon these three forms of reverence: reverence for oneself. Most enlightened people today would, if necessary, understand the latter right from the start, wouldn’t they? But according to Goethe’s view, this reverence—which is, I would say, the one associated with the greatest dangers—should be built only on the foundation of the other three reverences.

[ 8 ] How does Goethe want reverence for the spiritual—that which is above—to take root in people? He wants people to learn a certain gesture: arms crossed over the chest, gaze turned upward. And in this posture, they are to cultivate a sense of reverence for that which, as the spiritual, can influence human beings. At a certain, still very youthful age, Goethe believes, one should combine this gesture with the development of the feeling of reverence for that which is above. Why does this have a certain significance? It has a certain significance because, when a person truly feels reverence for the spiritual, they cannot help but express this feeling of reverence for the spiritual. And even if he were to clasp his physical hands behind his back, his etheric hands would cross in front of him; and even if he were to turn his physical gaze downward as much as possible, his gaze—through his etheric eyes—would turn upward. This is the natural gesture for the etheric eyes—turned upward—and for the etheric hands—crossing in front—which the etheric body actually performs when this reverence for the spiritual is present; it simply cannot be otherwise; it goes without saying that the etheric body assumes this gesture. In the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, people knew this because they felt the movements of the etheric body within themselves, and when they were told to do this, they were told nothing other than: they should actively perform the physical gesture within themselves to a small degree so that they could feel and perceive the etheric gesture.

[ 9 ] Goethe thus sought a gradual immersion into spiritual life. He knew that this had significance: to truly live out those gestures that are connected to the soul’s immediate expressions. Likewise, he wanted people, when they cultivate reverence for the physical—for all that is earthly—to cross their hands behind their backs and cast their gaze downward. This was to be their second priority. Thirdly, the matter stands as follows: The outstretched hands, with the gaze turned to the left and right, were meant to instill in him reverence for every soul of the same kind. And then he can acquire that which can be reverence for his own soul.

[ 10 ] This direct knowledge—that these gestures, when correct, are not arbitrary but are connected to the human mind—has been largely lost to humanity since the fourteenth century. What follows from this? It follows that in the past, when people were taught such gestures—and even more complicated ones—they were taught only those that could easily be brought to life within them. Now, in our fifth post-Atlantean epoch, the point is that such simple gestures, as Goethe envisions them, could be taught very effectively to younger people in particular, provided the appropriate instruction is given. And that is also what Goethe wants.

[ 11 ] But the more complex sign language in “Sign, Gesture, and Word,” as it is practiced within the secret brotherhoods, could no longer be taught to people from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries onward in such a way that they still sensed something of reality. So the brotherhoods continued to develop, as they had existed in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, in which, among other symbolic elements, signs, gestures, and words were taught to people in three successive degrees. They continued. But they continued among souls of a different nature in recent centuries. There, too—let us stick to this most elementary aspect—signs, gestures, and words were taught. But people could no longer associate anything with signs, gestures, and words, because they could no longer visualize the corresponding element in the etheric body that is appropriate to the human soul. It was something external; for in the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, the emotional or intellectual soul was essentially developed within the human being. Now the consciousness soul began to take hold of human beings; that is to say, human beings began to rely on their intellect, which is bound to the physical brain. What might be called the “sensitivity of the etheric body” receded. But what is happening now? I ask you to listen very carefully to what must now occur.

[ 12 ] So consider this: Occult brotherhoods continue into this fifth post-Atlantean epoch. People continue to establish or maintain occult brotherhoods, into which they admit individuals whom they initiate into the corresponding symbols. These people learn certain signs by placing their bodies in specific positions, which signify a particular meaning. They learn certain hand gestures by grasping another’s hand in a specific way that is not the usual one. They learn to utter certain words that signify a very specific activity of the etheric body, and other things. I want to mention only this basic point. So people have been learning signs, handgrips, and words since the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. They are now of such a nature that their conscious soul is active. But signs, handgrips, and words do not affect this conscious soul; for it, they remain an external sign, something entirely external. But do not think that these things—signs, gestures, and words—do not affect the human etheric body when they are passed on to people! They do have an effect. Through signs, gestures, and words, a person takes in whatever is connected to signs, gestures, and words. Thus, when a number of people are taught signs, gestures, and words, their subconscious is thereby imbued with something they do not possess in their consciousness. Of course, one should not do at all what I have just described, but rather proceed along the path dictated by human development. And this consists in proceeding through the human intellect, so that one first presents to people what the intellect can grasp and what the intellect can learn: and that is the content of Spiritual Science. This content of Spiritual Science must first be grasped. One must first engage with it. One must therefore first be involved in some way in the Spiritual Science movement, and only after some time, having been involved in the Spiritual Science movement, can one be led to receive signs, hand gestures, and words. For one is then prepared to recognize something familiar in what one has at least understood. This is generally not done in occult fraternities. In occult fraternities, people are simply admitted to the first degree without having previously studied Spiritual Science or occultism in any way. Signs, handgrips, passwords, and various other symbols are imparted to them, and because they have not previously learned anything about the spiritual world, these symbols act upon their subconscious—that which is not connected to their consciousness.

[ 13 ] What is the consequence of this? The consequence is that, if one wishes, one can turn people into docile tools for all sorts of plans, quite naturally. For if you influence the etheric body without the person’s knowledge, you shut down the very forces that would otherwise be active in their mind—unless you then provide the mind with what today must be Spiritual Science. You shut those forces down, and you then turn such brotherhoods into a tool for those who wish to pursue their plans and goals. You can then somehow use such brotherhoods simultaneously to pursue whatever political goals you wish, or you can establish the dogma that “Alcyone” is the outer physical vehicle of Christ Jesus. And those who have been prepared in this way will make themselves into instruments to carry this out into the world. All one needs to do is be dishonest and unscrupulous in the appropriate way; then one can achieve all sorts of things in this manner by first creating instruments for oneself.

[ 14 ] And now—don’t you see, everything follows from true knowledge—anyone who knows how the fifth post-Atlantean epoch differs from the fourth post-Atlantean epoch—and this is something we say again and again—knows precisely why it must be so that one must first become acquainted with Spiritual Science before an introduction to symbolism can be given. Wherever a Spiritual Science movement is truly sincere, this sequence is naturally observed. For anyone who has even become acquainted with what is written, for example, in my Theosophy or in OccultScience, and has tried to understand it, will never be harmed by any transmission of symbols. Yet we see, in the most pronounced way, that in British countries, the teaching of symbolism is not preceded by any instruction that would explain it in any way. To explain does not mean simply saying, “This symbol means this, and that symbol means that,” for then one could feed anyone any old nonsense; rather, the instruction must be structured in such a way that the mysteries are first revealed through the course of Earth’s and humanity’s development, and then the symbolism is allowed to emerge from that. That is not how it is there; instead, the symbols are simply presented—indeed, not only are they presented in this way, but they are even presented in other ways as well, since the literature does not proceed as our Spiritual Science does, for example, but rather presents virtually everything symbolically.

[ 15 ] In many respects, the most outrageous nonsense regarding this occult literature has already been perpetrated in France by Eliphas Levi, whose books Dogma and Ritual of Higher Magic and The Key to Higher Magic certainly contain great truths alongside very dangerous errors; however, these are of such a nature that they cannot be fully grasped by the intellect, as is the case with our Spiritual Science, but must be understood in a symbolic manner. Read Eliphas Levi! Now you can read him without any danger, of course, because you are sufficiently prepared. Read Eliphas Levi’s Dogma and Ritual of Higher Magic, and you will see how the entire method of symbolism is different there. Yes, my dear friends, when one instructs people using nothing but symbols, as Eliphas Levi does in his Dogma and Ritual of Higher Magic, then—if one so desires—one essentially has them at one’s disposal for whatever one needs them for, for whatever one wishes to use them for.

[ 16 ] According to Eliphas Levi, the situation has become even worse because of Dr. Encausse—Papus—who has exerted such a devastating, fateful influence on the St. Petersburg court, where he has stayed time and time again, playing a very fateful political role there for decades. In Papus’s writings—as he calls himself—you will find certain occult secrets presented to humanity in a truly perilous and dangerous manner, so that those who allow Papus’s ideas to take hold of them cling with iron-willed fanaticism to what Papus gives them, once they have moved beyond the elements. The point is not to refute Papus, for—as paradoxical as it may sound—the worst part is that there are many very true things in Papus’s writings. But the way in which they are presented to people—that is what is so immensely dangerous: instilling into the souls of weak people what is written in Papus’s books—that is, conditioning them to render their minds completely dormant and to use them for whatever purpose one wishes. Such people, however, wield a certain influence in the present day. Anyone who has traveled widely and has had the opportunity to learn about such things knows that Papus has great influence everywhere. I was able to trace this influence throughout Bohemia and throughout Austria. In Germany, his influence is much less, but it was certainly present up to a certain point. Above all, however, he wields immense influence in Russia. Moreover, Papus achieves this influence through a certain dishonesty that is inherent in the whole matter.

[ 17 ] You see, the teachings of Jakob Böhme, which we have often discussed, were introduced to France in the eighteenth century by the so-called “Unknown Philosopher,” Saint-Martin, and there Saint-Martin rendered them in a very, very elegant style, so that when Saint-Martin’s works were retranslated into German, they were naturally much more readable for people than the works of Jakob Böhme, which, as is well known, are very difficult to read.

[ 18 ] I have a particularly charming memory connected specifically to the translation of the works of Saint-Martin, the “Unknown Philosopher.” Saint-Martin’s book, Des erreurs et de la vérité—this book on error and truth—has been beautifully translated into German by a charming German poet who is widely known. And in that respect, this is particularly interesting to me, because a small brochure of mine will be published shortly: “The Task of Spiritual Science and Its Development in Dornach,” in which I attempt to briefly and accessibly refute certain common misconceptions circulating about Spiritual Science. The essay, which will be published shortly, grew out of a lecture I gave in Switzerland, because there, in Dornach itself, a particularly intelligent Protestant pastor put forward all sorts of arguments. However, I did not ultimately wish to concern myself solely with such a pastor. But what he put forward is, in a sense, typical. People put forward all sorts of things, and so I was able—without specifically referring to the pastor—to refute these common misconceptions about our Spiritual Science, particularly regarding the Dornach building. In a lecture this pastor gave, he also cited a poem—I’ve spoken of it here before—by Matthias Claudius. He cited this poem, apparently with great pathos, quoting a stanza from it to show how little people should actually speak of such things as a secret science, for not even the moon could be understood. But if one simply continues reading this same poem by Matthias Claudius, the very next stanza proves that Matthias Claudius meant the exact opposite of what the pastor was implying. But the interesting thing is that the translator of Saint-Martin’s book Error and Truth is none other than Matthias Claudius himself—he was the one who translated Saint-Martin. So, my dear friends, you can imagine from such things what kind of people one is dealing with—those who confront us today, supposedly with what they call “good reasons”—and what kind of reasons one is actually dealing with. The topic of what kind of people we are dealing with today could, of course, be discussed in great detail. It is actually regrettable that one has to waste time refuting those who oppose us in this manner.

[ 19 ] But sometimes one hears even stranger things. There is one thing I would not want to withhold from you—something that has come to my attention since we last spoke here—because it is simply too interesting. As you all know—and as I mentioned again last time—out of a pure sense of truth, I could not and was not allowed to go along with what Mrs. Besant, the president of the Theosophical Society, was doing with her followers, many of whom she had prepared in the manner I described to you. I simply could not go along with that. I really had to speak out in the name of truth against this frivolous conception of Christ involving the Alcyone boy; I had to oppose it all the more when I saw how even learned people everywhere had fallen for that little book, which is said to originate from Alcyone—I believe it’s called At the Master’s Feet—and have presented it as one of the greatest phenomena of our time. But even in those circles, there was a sense that I was trying to do something in the service of truth. It was sensed. But on the other side, people said to themselves: Yes, truth—but is truth really such that one should oppose Mrs. Besant because she tells tall tales? And you see, I find in a pamphlet by our member E. von Gumppenberg, which will also be published shortly, a statement, a judgment about me quoted. This judgment about me is quoted verbatim. Mrs. von Gumppenberg follows up on another statement and then says: “This other statement brings to mind another judgment about Dr. Steiner that was once made by an Englishwoman. It says: ‘Good old Dr. Steiner—he’s just a philosopher. And that may be the reason why he takes the truth so seriously.’ So what if Mrs. Besant tells a little white lie? Don’t we all tell little white lies? You see, there’s really no other way. How would we get through life with strict truth? We can’t all be philosophers, after all. So let’s let the others tell their little white lies! We’ll only make ourselves miserable if we oppose it.

[ 20 ] My dear friends! I cannot help but consider a street robber to be a more decent person than someone who passes such a judgment on the truth. That is my entirely sincere opinion and feeling, even if the person passing such a judgment on the truth is strutting about in the most beautiful silk dresses—and the lady in question will surely have been wearing them! But such things show just how dangerous it is today not to take the truth seriously, especially when it comes to matters that are beyond immediate sensory perception.

[ 21 ] Now I said: Hypocrisy is also at work in the spread of the spiritual movement originating with Encausse and Papus; for people call themselves “Martinists.” One must truly come to the defense of the honest “Unknown Philosopher”—with his sincere quest for truth and with what he attempted to do in the service of the eighteenth century, as was necessary in the service of the eighteenth century—against the appropriation of his name by today’s Papusians.

[ 22 ] Now it is very important to know that every occult brotherhood is structured on the basis of three degrees. In the first degree, when the symbolism is used correctly—and by “correctly” I mean, of course, what I have just indicated for our fifth post-Atlantean epoch—the souls reach a point where they have a precise inner experience of the fact that there is a kind of knowledge independent of ordinary physical-sensory knowledge. And in the first degree, they must possess a certain amount of such knowledge, independent of the physical. Roughly speaking, everyone who is in the first degree today within the fifth post-Atlantean epoch should know what is written in my Occult Science. Everyone in the second degree should know—that is, know it as a living inner reality—what is written in the book: “How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?” And whoever is in the third degree and has already received the significant symbols—the sign, the handgrip, and the word—of the third degree knows what it means to live outside one’s body. — That would be the rule; that would be what is to be attained.

[ 23 ] This was in fact achieved to this degree in certain regions of Europe as late as the eighth and ninth centuries. For example, in Ireland, to a high degree, right up into the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries, individual personalities—and indeed a large number of them—fully achieved what I have just described; but this was also the case in other parts of Europe, just not in such large numbers as was the case with certain people in Ireland. Certain things were avoided, simply out of an inability to work toward a true Spiritual Science. This true Spiritual Science is, in fact, only now coming to meet us for many reasons. But occult fraternities, as I said, have always existed, and they work solely on the basis of symbolism. This is particularly significant when work based solely on symbolism takes place within a national community that has not yet, in fact, reached its full maturity. Hence, these abuses arose immediately when, under Empress Catherine—after Voltaireanism had suffered a setback—and under her successor in Russia, Paz/, and later rulers, an attempt was made to transplant certain secret brotherhoods from the West into Russia. This attempt, however, was carried out on a vast scale. And what happened at that time under the influence of the occult brotherhoods transplanted from the West to Russia has had a profound impact on the entire spiritual development of Russia ever since—an influence far greater than one can possibly imagine. Of course, such influence manifests itself in a wide variety of directions: the literary writer incorporates this influence into novels, the political writer into politics. But through certain channels that are always present, such influence always becomes significant for subsequent development. And in fact, everything of significance in Russia’s intellectual life up to the Ostoz can, in essence, be traced back to what took place during the period I have just mentioned—namely, the introduction of certain occult brotherhoods into Russia from Western Europe.

[ 24 ] Now, I told you: there is a certain foundation in place. This foundation is precisely what guides the occult fraternities through these three degrees. Certainly. But then there are people who advance to the so-called high degrees, to higher degrees. Well, that is certainly an area where an enormous amount of vanity creeps in, for there are fraternities in which one can rise to ninety or more than ninety degrees. Now just imagine what that means: to bear such a high degree of an order upon oneself! The so-called Scottish Rite system has thirty-three degrees—simply due to an error stemming from grotesque ignorance—and it is built upon the three degrees that proceed in the manner I have described. So there you have the three degrees, which, as you can see, have their profound significance. But these three degrees are followed by thirty more. Now you can imagine: if one already attains the ability in the third degree to experience, outside one’s body, what a lofty being one is—just imagine what it would be like to go through thirty more degrees after that. But it is based on a grotesque error in understanding. For in the occult sciences, numbers are interpreted differently than in the decimal system: it is interpreted such that one calculates not according to the decimal system, but according to the specific system of numbers that is currently relevant. So when one writes “33rd degree,” this actually means, according to the relevant system of numbers: 3 times 3—9. This played a major role for Blavatsky. In Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine, you’ll find a lengthy discussion of the number 777. People have come up with all sorts of theories about what this number 777 means. In reality, it is 343—namely, 7 times 7 times 7. In occultism, numbers are written in such a way that you must multiply the digits together. So if you want the actual number, you have to read 777 as follows: 7 times 7 = 49 times 7 = 343. Accordingly, 33 is 9 times 3. It’s only because people can’t read that they read 33 instead of 9.

[ 25 ] Well, yes, but let’s set aside these trivialities. There are still six degrees that build upon these three and can be counted as legitimate degrees. And when they are fully experienced, they yield something very significant. But, strictly speaking, they cannot be fully experienced in the present. It is simply impossible. They cannot be fully lived through because humanity in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch is not yet ready to truly experience all that needs to be experienced. For not enough has yet emerged from the spiritual worlds—I won’t say “knowledge,” but rather the application of knowledge. That will come later. It is only gradually emerging. Consider that we have been in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch since about the year 1413. It will be a long one, lasting approximately 2,160 years. It will therefore come to an end in the year 3,573. So we are really only at the beginning. Much, much will happen in the course of this fifth post-Atlantean epoch. And in line with what is happening there, the developments brought about by Spiritual Science must also take place. But all of this can only be revealed little by little. Certainly, we can outline the broad strokes today. We can also report on many details. But much, much more will come only when it has had to strengthen and consolidate itself in the face of resistance. And this resistance will grow ever greater and greater.

[ 26 ] We are living today—as you can see from what I have said in these lectures, and as you will see from many other things I can also mention to you—we are still living in relatively idealistic, spiritual times compared to what is yet to come. We are living at the end of the second millennium A.D. It won’t be long after the year 2000 before humanity will experience strange things—things that are only slowly taking shape today. The way things are going, the two poles—so to speak—that are rushing toward future development are preparing themselves from the East and from the West. More and more, a new way of thinking about human beings will take shape in the more eastern regions—but arising from the folk culture, of course, not from those circles that today lead the misguided people of Eastern Europe—and one must say: There will be a completely different way of thinking about human beings. We will arrive at this in a time that is, relatively speaking, not too far off. People will come to view the growing human being in a completely different way than they are inclined to view him today. When a child is born, people will try to ask: What might come to light in this child? We are dealing with a hidden spiritual being that gradually develops within this child. People will want to unravel the child’s mystery. At first, people will associate a kind of ritual with a child’s upbringing. This is already taking shape in the East. It will, of course, spread over to Europe. The result will be the development of immense respect for what is called genius—a search for genius. It goes without saying that all the pedagogical traditions must have died out by the time an age moving in this direction arrives—those pedagogical traditions that set the tone today, doesn’t it? This age is coming from that direction. But it will be the smaller part of humanity.

[ 27 ] The majority of humanity will be influenced by America, by the West, and that influence is heading toward a different kind of development. It is heading toward a development that today is only beginning to show itself in idealistic traces—as sympathetic beginnings in contrast to what is yet to come. One could say: The present is still in a fairly good position compared to what is to come, once Western development continues to bear fruit more and more. It won’t be long before the year 2000 is upon us; at that time, a kind of ban—not a direct one, but a ban of sorts—on all thinking will emanate from America, a law intended to suppress all individual thought. On the one hand, the first signs of this are already evident in what purely materialistic medicine does today—where the soul is no longer allowed to play a role, and where human beings are treated like machines based solely on external experimentation.

[ 28 ] But, my dear friends, please don’t misunderstand me, because even today, there is an enormous amount of sin being committed in this area, particularly from so-called spiritual quarters. For example, you might encounter people who come to you and say: “Yes, I’ve tried everything possible in conventional medicine, but I haven’t been healed. So I went to someone who treated me entirely through spiritual means.” — “Well, what did he do to you?” — “He told me there were evil spirits in my body, and that I first had to pray them out.” —“I had to ask—since that was, after all, the reason the person had come to me—‘And did that help you?’”—“No, it’s gotten much worse, much, much worse.”—“Well,” I said, “I beg you, just think for a moment about the situation you’ve been put in.” Don’t you think that man told you something incorrect? It’s quite true that there were certain spiritual beings within you that caused what is happening to you. But precisely because that man told you something true—something you had to acknowledge as true—that’s exactly why he had to harm you so much. Just think about it: A good-for-nothing cobbler’s apprentice ruins a machine. This cobbler’s apprentice is the real reason the machine isn’t working. That is the real cause. Well, how am I going to get the machine working again? According to your spiritual doctor’s method, I would now have to take the cobbler’s apprentice, give him a good beating, and then assume that once he runs off, the problem will be solved. Of course: after all, he told you that as soon as the evil spirits are gone, your machine will be in working order. But just as the machine isn’t fixed simply because the boy runs away—but rather must now be repaired with entirely different means related to the mechanics of the machine—so it is with you. Whether you drive the spirits away or not is ultimately just as insignificant for your recovery as if I were to beat the cobbler’s apprentice so that he runs away, or even if I were to let him just stand there and watch. I could even let him stand there and watch—I would still get the machine working again.

[ 29 ] Well, there is already a great deal of sin on the other side, because people today are not capable of thinking very clearly. People always say “either—or,” but that is not the point; the point is to truly understand things. One must simply know that there is something spiritual in everything material, and that only through the knowledge of the spirit can the material realm be healed. But the spiritual is to be eliminated from the entire world. That is one of the beginnings.

[ 30 ] One of the other beginnings: We already have machines today for adding and subtracting—don’t we? That’s very convenient; you don’t have to do the math anymore. And that’s how it’ll be with everything. It won’t take long—a few centuries—and then it’ll all be done; then you won’t need to think anymore, or ponder, but you’ll just push things around. For example, it says here: “330 bales of cotton, Liverpool”—today you still have to think about that a bit, don’t you? But then you’ll just press a button, and that’s the end of it. And to ensure that the solid structure of the future’s social fabric isn’t disrupted, laws will be enacted that won’t explicitly state, “Thinking is forbidden,” but which will have the effect of eliminating all individual thought. That is the other extreme we’re working toward. In contrast, life today isn’t all that unpleasant, after all. For as long as one doesn’t cross a certain line, one is still allowed to think today, isn’t that right? Of course, one mustn’t cross a certain line, but at least, within certain limits, one is still allowed to think. But what I have described is inherent in the development of the West, and it will come about through the development of the West.

[ 31 ] The development of the Spiritual Science must also be situated within this overall development. It must view this clearly and objectively. It must be clear that what appears today as a paradox will come to pass: around the year 2200 and a few years thereafter, a suppression of thought on the largest possible scale will begin throughout the world, on the broadest possible scope. And Spiritual Science must work toward this perspective. Enough must be discovered—and it will be discovered—to ensure that a corresponding counterbalance to these tendencies can exist in the development of the world.

[ 32 ] “Well,” I said, “we're only just getting started, and there's more and more to come. Certainly, to a certain extent—but only to a certain extent—the six higher degrees can actually be worked through today.” Well, instead of that, however, one can play a completely different game. Instead, one can play the game of having people go through the first three degrees merely symbolically. And there are, in fact, fraternities today in which nothing more than symbols are given. Yes, people are even proud that nothing more than symbols are given. They are initiated into the first degree, promoted to the second degree, to the third degree, and they actually learn only the symbolism, without absorbing anything related to Spiritual Science. And often, when you ask people whether they are really satisfied with learning certain ceremonies and gestures, learning signs, and seeing certain symbolic acts performed around them in the temple, many even say: “Oh yes, we’re just satisfied with that; then you don’t have to think anything special about these things, and everyone can have whatever interpretation they want.” — But the astral body instills true knowledge into the etheric body, and so in this way they produce people who possess comprehensive knowledge in their etheric body. And if you were to examine today’s—forgive the expression, but sometimes one must use apt terms—most narrow-minded old Freemasons, you would see that they possess, in their etheric body—not in their physical body, not in their conscious knowledge, but in their etheric body—an immense body of knowledge, especially if they have advanced to the third degree. They possess an immense amount of subconscious knowledge. This knowledge, which can be transmitted precisely through symbolism, can now be used in the manner indicated—both honestly and dishonestly. And you see, there are indeed the most diverse occult societies, which, I would say, can be divided into two poles. One pole has a secular-Christian character, while the other has an ecclesiastical-Christian character. Just as the Freemasons are to be counted among the secular-Christian symbolic brotherhoods, the Jesuits are to be counted among the ecclesiastical-symbolic societies. For the Jesuit, too, is guided through three degrees, is likewise imbued with symbolism, and it is precisely through this symbolism that he learns that immensely effective quality in his speech. That is why Jesuit preachers are so immensely effective—because they know how to structure a speech so as to have an impact specifically on the uneducated masses, and how to build up a certain intensity step by step. It is sometimes the case that this seems immensely trivial to the educated person, yet it is incredibly effective. For example, I once wanted to observe—from an occult perspective—the effect that occurs during an effective Jesuit sermon. I listened—this was many years ago now—to Father Klinkowström, one of the most effective Jesuit preachers, who wanted to explain to a gathered crowd—all uneducated people, of course—the necessity of Easter confession. Well, you see, he explained the necessity of Easter confession in roughly the following way. He wanted to clearly prove to these uneducated people—so that they would know it—that while they might not understand it, they would accept it as self-evident—that Easter Confession was not instituted by the Pope through his own arbitrary decision, but that it was instituted by higher, divine powers. And so he said:

[ 33 ] My dear Christians! Just imagine you see a cannon. At the cannon stands a gunner—holding the fuse—and the one giving the order. So, the cannon is about to be fired. Imagine, dear Christians, that the cannon is about to be fired! What happens when it’s time to fire? The gunner stands before his cannon, full of anticipation. What is he waiting for? For the command: “Fire!” He is waiting for that command: “Fire!” It lives within his soul. He knows full well: It must come. And then it will come: “Fire!” He fires the cannon. The cannon roars out. Create a mental image of these things, dear Christians. Think of the cannon as the embodiment of the customs surrounding Easter confession. Once upon a time, the laws—the commandments—regarding this Easter confession had not yet been given. But the cannon stood there. They were to be given. The Pope stood there as the gunner with the fuse. From heaven, beloved Christians, the command came: Fire! The Pope heard it—fuse! The cannon was fired! Easter Confession was here! — Is there not a perfect parallel to be drawn between this cannon and the giving of the commandment regarding Easter Confession? And yet there are unbelievers! There are unbelievers, beloved Christians, who claim that the Pope invented Easter Confession! You need only remember the cannon. At the command, “Fire!” it is fired. Would you ever say that this gunner, who fires the cannon at the command “Fire!”, invented gunpowder? Just as little, beloved Christians, can you say that the Pope invented Easter Confession. It was not the Pope who invented Easter Confession, nor was it the gunner who invented gunpowder!

[ 34 ] Everyone was convinced. The entire church was convinced. This is incredibly skillfully done, incredibly skillfully done through imagery. These people also progress through their three degrees in their own way. And of course, there are also various shades of this type, just as, on the other hand, not all occult brotherhoods are Masonic brotherhoods. There are even the Illuminati and the like right here in Germany.

[ 35 ] But now, on both sides, the three lower degrees are surpassed by the other three. These are the three upper degrees. Those who hold the higher degrees, and those who hold the particularly high degrees in certain brotherhoods—not all of them, of course, only certain ones—form a kind of community, so that it is, for example, entirely possible for a superior of a Jesuit community to belong to such a society. The Jesuits, of course, fight the Masonic communities with the utmost ferocity, and the Masonic communities fight the Jesuit communities with the utmost ferocity; but the superiors of the Masons and the superiors of the Jesuit community belong to the higher degrees of a particular brotherhood, forming a state within a state that encompasses the others. Imagine what one can accomplish in the world if one can operate in such a way that, on the one hand, for example, one is the superior of a Masonic community—which thus serves as an instrument for action—and one can coordinate with the superior of a Jesuit community to carry out a unified course of action that can only be undertaken if one has such an apparatus at one’s disposal: On the one hand, you unleash the Masonic brothers, who advocate for something with tremendous force through all channels. That must be advocated. But if you only unleash the bulls on one side, then, don’t you think, it won’t amount to anything. On the other side, you must have the cause fought for with the same fire, with the same enthusiasm. Just think what one can accomplish when one has such a mechanism at one’s disposal! For example, such a mechanism was used in a particularly effective way to set both the Jesuits and the Freemasons in motion at the same time, without either the Jesuit side or the Freemason side knowing anything about it, in a certain country that lies roughly in northwestern Europe, between the Netherlands and France. Particularly powerful effects emanated from there—not just recently, but over a long period of time—effects that made use of both currents and were capable of bringing about all manner of things.

[ 36 ] Time has moved on. In eight days’ time, my dear friends, I will guide you into even more specific areas of this field. Today, I also had to address the more abstract aspects of the matter. We needed this entire framework because, after all, it is only then that one can understand what can work in this way in the outer world in this field.