The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. The Theosophical Congress in Amsterdam

Report by Rudolf Steiner, “Lucifer-Gnosis,” No. 13/1904

[ 1 ] From June 19 to 21, the Federation of European Sections of the Theosophical Society held its convention in Amsterdam [...]. The members of the Dutch Section were tasked with handling all the work required at the venue. And they undertook this truly challenging task in a manner that must earn them the full recognition and warmest thanks of the European Sections, who were their guests on this occasion. They knew how to organize the three-day proceedings in the most dignified and substantive manner; and to intersperse the actual theosophical meetings with artistic performances featuring musical and recitation acts. These performances were not staged with outside artists, but were organized by the members of the Dutch Section themselves. One can look back on what was offered there with nothing but deep satisfaction. It bore witness to the tireless work and the successful promotion of the great spiritual movement in the Netherlands. This movement already has nearly 800 members there.

[ 2 ] Let us now briefly outline the proceedings of the congress. — Annie Besant presided. She had returned to Europe just a few weeks earlier from an eighteen-month stay in India. It was wonderful that she was able to lead the proceedings of the assembly. Anyone who understands the true meaning of the important spiritual movement embodied in the Theosophical Society knows this. After the death of H. P. Blavatsky, the spiritual leadership of the Society passed to Annie Besant. This must be counted as good karma for the Society. In everything that emanates from this woman lives the power by which the Society must be guided if it is to fulfill its mission. This mission consists, after all, in elevating the present civilization to spiritual life. This civilization has, indeed, accomplished the unspeakable in terms of intellectual and material cultural work. It has immensely expanded humanity’s horizons and outward activities and will continue to expand them even further. Spiritual deepening, however, was necessarily left behind in the process. The nineteenth century lacked a focus on the spiritual; it lacked the spiritual life that had provided the impetus for earlier great epochs of human development. This was the inevitable fate of cultural development. For when human energy is particularly directed toward one aspect, it must necessarily draw something away from its activity in another. At present, however, we have once again reached the point where spiritual life must be introduced into our culture, lest it become entirely externalized and humanity lose its connection with spiritual experiences. This mission of the Theosophical Society is now fully expressed in everything Annie Besant does and says. The highest task of our time is the innermost impulse of her own soul. The knowledge and will, the insight and ideal of our time are united in Annie Besant, so that, enriched by her own highly developed spiritual life, they radiate from her as a force and, as such, communicate themselves to her fellow human beings. Wherever she speaks, the spirit of her listeners is lifted to the heights of divine knowledge, and their hearts are filled with enthusiasm for the spiritual currents of humanity. And so it was when she delivered her magnificent opening address at the Amsterdam Congress. She set forth the principles under which the Society’s work must be carried out. She answered, in broad strokes, the questions of “why” and “for what purpose” the gathering had been convened. She described the Theosophical Movement as part of the great spiritual movement that is sweeping the entire world today. The spiritualization of the entire civilization must be achieved. A glance at this civilization teaches us that. This civilization expresses itself in the material realm—in a science that seeks to comprehend the material, in industry and technology that serve external life, and in commerce that increasingly unites the material interests of the entire world. But all of this lacks the spiritual. Our knowledge is intellectual knowledge; our commercial prosperity promotes external well-being. But this science, on the one hand, and material prosperity, on the other, are merely an external form of culture, not its inner life. To everything we have achieved, the heart and life must be added. We must once again incorporate the divine ideal into our will; then everything external will no longer be an end in itself, but merely the outer garment, merely the form of civilization. The spirit must fill the body of our culture if it is to endure. And to fill this body with the spirit, the Theosophical Movement was brought into being. It springs from the oldest thoughts of humanity, from that wisdom which in primeval times raised our race to its present level of consciousness, and which has always been at work in all great advances. These thoughts, this wisdom, are by their very nature as old as humanity itself. Only their forms must change according to the varying needs of different eras. Theosophy does not attribute the origin of this wisdom to some external, random development. Rather, it traces it back to the brotherhood of humanity’s great leaders. These are the beings who have already attained in the past the high degree of perfection toward which the average human being is striving in the future. Such advanced brothers of the human race use their degree of perfection to help the rest of humanity progress. Their work is done in secret. It must be done in secret, for it is too lofty to be understood by the masses. They are the guides of divine ideals. From time to time, they send their messengers into the world to impart great cultural impulses to it. The great world religions owe their origins to such impulses; all cultural achievements owe their foundations to them. One such impulse has been sent into the world in recent times and has led to the founding of the Theosophical Society by H. P. Blavatsky and H. S. Olcott. It seeks to restore humanity’s awareness that the Spirit is greater than the expression of thought, greater than the outer form. It seeks to show that science must reclaim not only knowledge of the sensory worlds but also that of the supersensory worlds; that the heart should not cling solely to material goods but should open itself to the divine ideal. Above any benefit that the individual may derive from our present cultural resources stands the general spiritual uplift of all humanity. Whatever prosperity humanity strives for, it should strive for it solely to build a dwelling for the spirit on this earth. And this dwelling is worthy only if it is illuminated by beauty. But beauty is possible only if it radiates from the spirit. Our material culture cannot have true art unless it regains true faith. The faith of medieval humanity shines out at us from the art of the Middle Ages. Its painters were inspired by the religious sentiment that lived in their hearts. The content of that faith imparted meaning and significance to the artists’ lines and colors. Theosophy seeks to bring to the fore a new body of thought, appropriate to the imagination of present-day humanity. And this new body of thought will be the creator of a new art. This is a task of our time. All noble spirits sense this. The striving toward it is evident everywhere. The Theosophical Society seeks to be a leader and a vanguard in this movement. It seeks to inspire individual men and women toward this goal, which is so clearly felt at present. And in doing so, it unites the pursuit of tolerance and universal love for humanity. These have always been the forces from which humanity’s great advances have emerged. What individual cultural movements strive for, the Theosophical movement seeks to unite into a great whole. It aims to overcome narrow-mindedness and intolerance. For only through united effort can humanity today achieve its goal. The Theosophical Society does not exist for the selfish pursuits of its members. It is a mistake to join it for the purpose of one’s own advancement. It seeks to serve humanity; it seeks to work in its service. One should become a member of the Society solely to be a channel through which knowledge flows that promotes the progress of humanity. The Society does not grow when its membership increases daily, but when, with each passing day, the members’ confidence and understanding of its noble mission deepen. The justification for the [Theosophical] Society lies in the change that has taken place in human thinking over the last thirty years. Today, people no longer look with scorn upon those who no longer direct their gaze solely toward the material aspect of culture. The heart is beginning to expand, and there is once again room in people’s hearts for those who strive toward the spirit. Our materialism became so powerful because our devotion had become so meager. But the person who is unable to look up adoringly toward the spiritual heights closes himself off. Devotion, however, opens the heart and mind. We rise to that which we regard with devoted love and high esteem. The call for such deepening has gone out to those who have united in the Theosophical Society; they are to be good helmsmen for the path that has been charted for our present civilization.

[ 3 ] The individual sections were represented by their general secretaries: the English section by Bertram Keightley, the Dutch section by W. B. Fricke, the French section by Dr. Th. Pascal, and the German section by Dr. Rud. Steiner. Unfortunately, the general secretary of the Italian section, Decio Calvari, was unable to attend. - Johan van Manen presided over the proceedings of the Congress and also presented his report during the morning session on the 19th [of June]. His efforts deserve special mention. An immense workload had been placed upon him both during the preparations for the meeting and during the meeting itself. One could not help but admire the self-sacrifice, prudence, and energy of this member of the Theosophical Society.

[ 4 ] On the evening of the 19th, a public lecture was held. Annie Besant spoke about the “New Psychology.” She outlined, in broad strokes, the shift that had taken place over the past forty years in prevailing views regarding the nature of the mind.

[ 5 ] Forty years ago, materialism, as embodied in men like Büchner and Vogt, went so far as to claim that the brain secretes thoughts just as the liver secretes bile. Since that time, people have abandoned the belief that the nature of the mind can be understood through the study of the brain’s mechanisms. We now know that such an approach would be akin to attempting to penetrate the secrets of a musical composition by Mozart or Beethoven through the study of a piano’s hammers and keys. People have studied the phenomena of dream life and have delved into those manifestations of consciousness that occur during abnormal states of the physical body. This has led to the conviction that the spiritual is an independent entity within the human being, and that the way it functions in the ordinary state is merely one of its forms. Only this form, this mode of expression, is conditioned by the physical structure of the human senses and the human brain. It must be inherent to the nature of the spirit to function in other ways through other instruments. Experimental science has thus confirmed the fundamental truth of all deeper religious worldviews: that the spirit has only one of its manifestations in human waking consciousness. It has shown that through certain processes (such as trance and so on), forms of consciousness arise in human beings in which they are entirely different from what they are in their so-called normal consciousness. This also provides scientific justification for not seeking the truth solely through the form of consciousness that is available to us in everyday life, but rather for elevating ourselves to higher forms of consciousness in order to come to know the higher worlds.

[ 6 ] The remaining business of the congress was conducted by forming departments based on subject matter, in which relevant lectures were given. This demonstrated how Theosophy has already extended its work to all branches of modern intellectual life, as well as to social ideals. The Theosophists seek to demonstrate the validity of their goals in all branches of culture, and at the same time they seek sources everywhere to integrate their ideas and ideals into the aspirations of the present. The individual departments were as follows: 1. Science; 2. Comparative Religion; 3. Philology; 4. Fraternity of Man; 5. Occultism; 6. Philosophy; 7. Theosophical Method of Work; 8. Art.

[ 7 ] In the scientific section, a paper by Dr. Pascal on the “Nature of Consciousness” was first read aloud. The author skillfully integrated the fundamental ideas of theosophy with modern mental images. This was followed by a presentation by Ludwig Deinhard (Munich). He pointed to the various states of consciousness (multiple personality) that have been experimentally established, explained them with clarity, and called upon those who have developed higher states of consciousness within themselves to also place their experiences in the service of the fundamental theosophical principles (reincarnation and karma). This was followed by a stimulating discussion on the “Development of a Second Personality” by Alfred R. Orage (Leeds). Both presentations tied in beautifully with the points raised in Annie Besant’s lecture on “The New Psychology.” From the proceedings of this section, it can only be noted that Emilio Scalfaro (Bologna), Arturio Reghini (Italy), and Mrs. Sarah Corbett (Manchester) presented papers on important questions concerning space, matter, and other topics. The rich variety of what was presented cannot be fully covered in a brief report, especially since lectures took place simultaneously in different halls and it was only possible for individuals to attend a portion of them. The papers will, of course, be published in a detailed conference report (Yearbook of the Congress) and will thus be accessible to everyone. Therefore, only a few points will be reported here. In the section on comparative religion, the following paper was presented: “The Religion of the Future—A Vaishnavite Perspective” by Purnendu Narayana Sinha (India).

[ 8 ] In the section on “Brotherhood of Man,” there was a treatise on communal life among so-called “primitive peoples” by Mme Emma Weise (Paris). Works of this kind are important to theosophists because they point back to conditions in which the principle of brotherhood operated as a spiritual law of nature among human tribes. Progress was bound to lead to separation and selfishness. However, this represents only a transitional epoch. Separation must, through selfless devotion and ethical brotherhood, once again bring about—on a higher level—what was once innate to humankind on a lower level. The presentations by D. A. Courmes (Paris) and $. Edgar Aldermann (Sacramento, Cal.) dealt with the social coexistence of human beings.

[ 9 ] In the “Occultism” section, Annie Besant spoke about the “Nature of Occultism.” She referred to H. P. Blavatsky’s statement that occultism is the study of the universal world spirit in all of nature. The occultist recognizes that everything perceptible in the world is underlaid by a universal spirit; and that the world of phenomena merely provides the forms and modes of expression of this hidden (occult) World Spirit. We find this conviction articulated in all the great world religions, and occultists find the true foundations of religions confirmed by their own experience. Rational science can perceive only the outer surface of the world. It speaks of forces and laws. The occultist looks beyond these forces and laws. And he then perceives that these are merely the outer shell for living entities, just as the human body serves as a shell for the soul and spirit. From the lower formers who lie hidden behind the forces of nature all the way up to the exalted world spirits, whom he addresses as Logoi, the occultist explores the spiritual realm to the extent of his ability. But in order to recognize this world as a reality, he must undergo a careful course of study. He must achieve two things. First, he must expand his consciousness to such an extent that it can encompass these higher worlds, just as the ordinary conscious mind governs the physical world. Second, he must develop the higher senses, which can perceive in these worlds just as eyes and ears perceive in the physical world. The first goal—the expansion of consciousness—depends on the individual learning to master his thoughts. In ordinary life, a person is controlled by his thoughts. They come and go, dragging consciousness this way and that. The occultist must be master of the course of his thoughts. He directs their course. It is up to him to decide which thoughts he will admit and which he will reject. This goal can be achieved only through the most meticulous self-discipline. Once one has prepared oneself in this way, one can proceed to develop the higher senses. As long as a person remains under the influence of his passions, desires, and instincts, the possession of higher senses can only be harmful to him. A pure, selfless life is a matter of course for the occultist. The personal desires one harbors of one’s own accord take shape as forms in the higher worlds. The individual himself is the creator of these forms. If he begins to see these forms, he runs the risk of mistaking his own personal creations of desire and craving for objective realities. These products of his body of desire and craving remain hidden from the average person. If they are not to become a source of serious errors and illusions for the developed higher senses, they must be removed from view. The occultist must personally be free of desire. Another danger lies in the fact that a person may mistake the fragments of higher worlds that present themselves to his open eyes for exhaustive realities. The occultist must learn to recognize all of this. What particularly hinders the development of occult abilities is the haste and rush with which some students seek to advance. These stem from personal impatience and restlessness. The occultist, however, must develop complete inner calm and patience. He must be able to wait until the right moment of inspiration has arrived. He must wait patiently until he is given what he must not take out of desire. He must do everything so that the voices from the spiritual world can speak to him at the right moment; yet he must not harbor even the slightest belief that he can force these voices to appear. Anyone who elevates himself in pride because he believes he knows more than others cannot become an occultist. That is why occultists speak of the heresy of separatism. If a person wants something for himself, if he does not wish to possess everything in community, then he is not ready for occultism. Any separation, any pursuit of personal self-interest—even if it is directed toward the highest spiritual realm—kills the occult senses. The dangers of the occult path are great. Only patience and selflessness; a willingness to sacrifice and true love can make one an occultist.

[ 10 ] A letter from Leadbeater, which has been included in this section, contained, among other things, interesting remarks about the astral forms evoked by works of musical art. One can characterize a Beethoven sonata or a Mozart piano piece by the architecture that a clairvoyant can perceive of it in the astral realm.

[ 11 ] In the “Philosophy” section, Dr. Rudolf Steiner gave a lecture on “Mathematics and Occultism.” He assumed that Plato required his students to have a background in mathematics, that the Gnostics referred to their higher wisdom as “mathesis,” and that the Pythagoreans saw numbers and forms as the foundation of all existence. He explained that none of them had abstract mathematics in mind, but rather the intuitive perception of the occultist, who perceives the laws of the higher worlds through a spiritual sensibility that creates a mental image in the spiritual realm of what music is to our ordinary sensory world. Just as the air, through vibrations that can be expressed in numbers, stirs musical sensations, so too can the occultist—when prepared through knowledge of the mysteries of numbers—perceive spiritual music in the higher worlds, which, in the case of a particularly highly developed human being, intensifies into the perception of the music of the spheres. This music of the spheres is not a figment of the imagination; for the occultist, it constitutes a real experience. By incorporating mathematics into his own being, by permeating his astral and mental bodies with the intimate sense that expresses itself in numerical relationships, the human being prepares himself to allow hidden world phenomena to take effect upon him. - In more recent times, the occult sense has withdrawn from the sciences. Since Copernicus and Galileo, science has been focused on conquering the physical world. But it is part of the eternal plan of human development that this physical science, too, may find access to the spiritual world. In the age of physical research, mathematics has been enriched by Newton’s and Leibniz’s analysis of the infinite, through differential and integral calculus. Anyone who seeks not only to understand abstractly but also to experience inwardly what a differential truly represents cultivates a perception free from sensory perception. For in the differential, the sensory perception of space is overcome even symbolically; human cognition can, for a moment, become purely mental. This is revealed to the clairvoyant by the fact that the thought-form of the differential is open to the outside, in contrast to the thought-forms that a person receives through sensory perception. These are closed off from the outside. Thus, through the analysis of the infinite, one of the paths is opened through which the higher senses of human beings open outward. The occultist knows what kind of process takes place in the chakra situated between the eyebrows when he develops the spirit of the differential within himself. If the mathematician is a selfless person, he can offer what he attains in this way upon the universal altar of human brotherhood. And even the seemingly driest of sciences can become an important source for occultism.

[ 12 ] In the same session, Gaston Polak (Brussels) spoke about symmetry and rhythm in human beings. It was interesting to hear these discussions about how the human being can be integrated into the general, overarching laws of the world. A treatise by Bhagavän Däs (Benares) on the “Relationship Between Self and Non-Self” was read aloud. Since this treatise will soon be available in book form, we will refrain from providing a summary here, which would in any case be quite difficult due to the subtle nature of the line of reasoning.

[ 13 ] In the section on the “Method of Theosophical Work,” the remarks by Mrs. Ivy Hooper (London) were of great importance. She emphasized that what is essential for the theosophist is not the dogmatic forms in which the Spirit and spiritual life are expressed, but rather this Spirit and this life itself. It is commendable that this has been stated with such clarity. We can express the Spirit through Christian symbols just as well as through Eastern ones, provided we preserve that Spirit. Where Christian symbolism is better understood, the Theosophist may make use of it. For one can be a good Theosophist without knowing anything of the dogmas through which spiritual wisdom was necessarily taught in the beginning. The Theosophical Society should be the bearer of this wisdom; but it should adapt its forms as necessity dictates. Buddhist formulas and Eastern dogmas must not be confused with the theosophical attitude. Theosophy has no dogma. It seeks only to be spiritual life.

[ 14 ] A section on “Art” has shown how the Theosophical worldview can shed light on this field as well. Jean Delville (Brussels), for example, presented insightful ideas in his lecture on the “Mission of Art.” On this occasion, Ludwig Deinhard (Munich) presented a treatise by the German painter Fidus, in which the artist expounds on his theosophical view of the mysteries of art.

[ 15 ] On Tuesday afternoon, the Congress concluded with a brief address by Annie Besant and words of thanks to our Dutch Theosophists from the General Secretaries in attendance. That same evening, Dr. Hallo gave a public lecture on the human aura, illustrated with photographs.

[ 16 ] An exhibition of works of art of particular interest to Theosophists had been organized and was open to the public throughout the entire duration of the congress.

[ 17 ] London was chosen as the venue for next year's convention.