The Rudolf Steiner Archive

22. Theosophy and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

[ 1 ] As you saw in the announcement, we will hold a weekly meeting every Monday. This is to be considered a meeting of the Besant Branch. Please take note of the details on the invitation. Due to last year’s activities, the venue has become too small. It is by no means our intention to be exclusive or to hold these Monday meetings solely for the branch. We would like to expand the group, but on the other hand, it seems somewhat unfair to the members if non-members are allowed to attend throughout the year without prior permission—especially this year, when even more intimate matters might be discussed at these Monday meetings than last year. We are delving deeper and deeper into the subject. The other meetings will then be held at the Architektenhaus. This year, particular attention will be paid to highlighting the significance of theosophy and its importance for the present day. I will speak about important issues as they relate to current affairs. Next Thursday I will speak about Haeckel’s “Riddle of the World,” then about our global situation, and then about the question of inner development. The series will conclude with a reflection on Christmas.

[ 2 ] I have just completed an extensive lecture tour. Such a tour is not only instructive for the person undertaking it, but it can also be instructive for the widest possible circle of those interested in theosophy. I visited St. Gallen, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Frankfurt am Main, Kassel, and Weimar. In most of these places, I was able to give a public lecture and, in the days that followed, have a discussion with those listeners who were particularly interested. We do not yet have branches in all of these places. But what does not yet exist may yet come to be. We do not wish to proceed in a stormy, agitational manner. Those who join the Theosophical Society should do so because they feel an inner urge to do so. Therefore, it will be good to promote Theosophy as much as possible and to explain to the audience what it is all about. I am convinced that those who are destined to participate will come. I have observed that there is a great longing for what the Theosophical Society has to offer humanity. The Theosophists within it are, in the deepest sense, responsive to what people today desire and need. On the other hand, there is a certain despondency, a certain set of prejudices that people harbor, which prevent them from engaging with Theosophy right away. Much must be overcome. This is evident on a journey such as this, where one encounters a wide variety of attitudes. Despite all the despondency, such a journey still leaves a certain sense of satisfaction. One sees living in people’s hearts that which must live if we are to move toward the future that the Theosophical Movement strives to achieve.

[ 3 ] So, without any set agenda, let us touch upon a few questions that may be of particular interest to us. One need only take a look at the current state of the world to realize at every moment just how necessary Theosophy and the Theosophical endeavor are today. One can look to all corners of the world; everywhere one sees peoples and social classes engaged in a fierce struggle for existence. Races are pitted against one another in conflict, nations are at war with one another, and different social classes within individual countries stand in sharp opposition to one another. In contrast, we have little else but our first principle: to establish the foundation of a universal brotherhood, without distinction of race, gender, social class, or creed. That is a powerful principle—so people say. Many, however, invoke what Schopenhauer already said: Preaching morality is easy, but establishing it is difficult. The Theosophical Movement is not a doctrine, nor is it a system of reasoning. It differs from other movements of the modern era in that it is real life. And the teachings we disseminate are not the main thing. For us, it is not the teachings that matter. They are all merely a means to life. And whatever teachings are proclaimed in the various branches or at the movement’s public events—whether we believe these teachings or not, whether we can repeat them or not—that is not what matters. What matters is that these teachings are something entirely different from other teachings of contemporary science or even from the teachings of traditional concepts of the Logos. As long as theosophical teachings are the same as other dogmas, other doctrines, and other sciences, they are not what they are meant to be. They become what they are meant to be only when they are profound, when they penetrate the soul like a magnetic force and work within it. This is not a lodge where one merely teaches about reincarnation and karma, about the worldview, about the origin of humanity and the human purpose, and where beautiful phrases are coined; rather, it is a lodge where these ideas flit vividly through the room and take hold in the deepest recesses of the heart, so that a person feels these teachings to be intimately connected with their innermost being, as if these teachings were emerging from within them. When these things become so powerful that a person becomes not only wiser but also a better person, then that is the right path.

[ 4 ] This difference will not be immediately understood by many. Many today present themselves as teachers of ethics, moral philosophy, or a creed, or as educators. We hear talk of monistic teachings, of a renewal of this or that doctrine—all these teachings present themselves in a way that differs profoundly from what the theosophical teacher intends, from what we in the theosophical movement intend at all. All others preach or proclaim their supposed truths; they step forward and say, “This is our creed, this is our opinion, this is the truth, in my view.” No theosophical lecturer could step before an audience in this manner. It is not a matter of opinion. We carry within us the awareness that the truth is within ourselves, that it lives in every human heart, that we do not have to bring it in, but at most have to bring it out—that we inspire our fellow human beings. Thus, what is said contains what is necessary for the bond that unites Theosophical members. What is discussed in the branch is meant to be a spark that kindles the inner life in our souls. We draw forth from the spiritual world, from the supersensible realm, the great laws that have shaped the world and brought forth humanity—the great laws according to which the wise teachers and masters instructed our ancestors millennia ago and continue to instruct us today. We bring these great laws to light, and they are at the same time what carries us forward, what gives us security, courage, and hope for life. These laws are meant to permeate the spaces in which we live. And as we feel these laws, we come to understand the world and ourselves. Then, in the most ordinary things we do, we should allow these laws to influence our daily activities. In this way, the members of the Theosophical Society will be like leaven; they will be like a new spirit everywhere out there—and when that is the case, we will know that the Spirit is something true and real.

[ 5 ] Anyone who comes here just to hear teachings comes in vain, for he does not have the right attitude. And that is what matters in relation to the Spirit. What matters is that whoever comes here knows that the Spirit is a reality, a truth—that I do not become healthy or sick merely because of [a] medicine, or merely because of the weather, but that what our body and our very reality are stems just as much from what I think, feel, and will—that health can come only from a Spirit that has a healing effect. Even more important than our thoughts being true is that our thoughts be healthy. You will not be able to notice tomorrow or the day after tomorrow that what is done in the Theosophical Lodge is a source of health. If you think incorrectly in the world, then at the very same time—not tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but certainly someday—you will bring illness into the world. All evil stems from untruth, from an incorrect inner life. This connection will become clear to you in next Monday’s lecture. To give humanity a new health, a new harmonious life—that is our primary goal. Therefore, our thoughts are not merely teachings but forces; they do not merely enlighten but also heal and harmonize—healing the body and fostering just and social human coexistence. Whoever grasps this so deeply has grasped the core of the Theosophical Movement. Anyone who merely asks how this or that works knows nothing of Theosophy. But the one who knows Theosophy is the one who, when sitting together with others in the branch and allowing the great ideas of the world order to flow through his soul for an hour, makes himself a sounding board for a new, healthy, and harmonious life. Now, esteemed attendees, the fact that such a life does indeed spring forth and exist within the Theosophical Movement is evident in certain manifestations. We began by stating: Morality cannot be preached; it must be justified. Yet it seems that the Theosophical Society has already achieved something that corresponds to and serves the principle of the brotherhood of nations. It was a beautiful moment at the opening of this year’s Congress. It had been decided that each delegate would give a short address in their native language. There stood people side by side who, in the external political sphere, are locked in fierce conflict with one another. A prelude to what can become reality when spiritual life takes hold of the souls unfolded there at the opening of the London Congress. Speeches could be heard in the following languages, as a symbol of our principle: Dutch, English, Swedish, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Finnish, and Russian. There you have a symbol of the fact that the same will and the same feeling flow through the various languages. This is the life to which the Theosophical Movement has brought us during its thirty years of existence. There was one of the most beautiful, one of the most wonderful moments at this convention—not during the convention itself, but on the evening before—for some members who had gathered here over the course of the summer. They were invited to attend a meeting of the Blavatsky Lodge. There, Annie Besant gave a lecture on the requirements of discipleship. As you know, discipleship is indeed something very lofty. That evening was less about discussing the requirements of discipleship in general than about allowing the greatest of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s disciples to speak out once and for all about the critical minds. Let me preface the actual subject with a few words. I need only mention here that everything the Theosophical Society is owes its existence to the foundational works of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. None of the disciples would presume to claim to have fully grasped what lived within Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Anyone who delves deeply into the teachings of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky will see more and more that they are entering unfathomable depths, and that at that time the truth flowed through this unique personality, just as it has flowed only through the greatest religious founders and leaders of humanity. I can understand that, at first, when one approaches Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s works, one believes one has understood certain things. This can happen to anyone. But then there comes a time when one realizes that the content of *The Secret Doctrine* contains writings on spiritual life that no one—without exception—since Helena Petrovna Blavatsky has ever fully grasped again. You could hear these very words from Mrs. Annie Besant at any time.

[ 6 ] Even for the greatest minds of humanity, there is the possibility of never coming to a standstill. At least, no one has yet found the end point. The deeper one goes, the deeper the fundamental sources of truth are discovered. This is what ultimately brings those who have the will to penetrate into a spiritual connection with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky is still connected to the Theosophical Movement today. She remains a source of support for the Theosophical Society to this day. If we have a legitimate reason to turn to her, she will help. One need only look back at what she has done historically. Take a look at her writings. There you will find things about which some scholars say: “This could have been cobbled together from all the books in the world.” Yes, but no one has ever gathered together what exists in various places around the globe. Some things are found in the most hidden places, in places that had never before been accessible to any other soul; exact quotations from writings that no human eye has seen for centuries can be found in Blavatsky’s writings. She wrote so many of them in [Würzburg], while the books [in reality] were in the Vatican.

[ 7 ] Certainly, she has made mistakes as well. But if you examine them, you will find that the mistakes stem from something specific, namely a certain uncertainty in reading that always arises when one has to read by feel in the astral light. We do not live solely in the physical world; we also live in the higher worlds. We see not only the physical but also the spiritual. We perceive not only physically but also spiritually, and in that realm one can even read books kept in the Vatican in Rome; yet one can easily misread them—one might easily read “136” instead of “631.” Where errors have been made, it becomes evident that they have always been made in this manner. Any objection raised against the true value, the greatness, and the significance of this personality will be easily refuted by anyone who truly engages with it. But it seems that, despite everything, not many are willing to delve into these depths of the matter; otherwise, it would not have been possible for minor errors by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in recent times—here and there, even in the English “Vâhan”— —that Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was sometimes passionately agitated, used harsh, impassioned language, or smoked cigarettes. The question was raised as to whether someone who smokes cigarettes and can sometimes become agitated could truly be a great person. This prompted Mrs. Besant’s lecture on Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Now this greatest disciple of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky spoke from her own personal experience. Everyone who was present will have sensed that something powerful emerged from within; everyone must have felt that something profound was alive there. She explained that there may be people who have not gone astray—but [she also] asked whether they possess the great qualities of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Certainly, there are also many who do not smoke cigarettes, but do they possess the great qualities of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky? The sun also has sunspots, but these do not illuminate the Earth. It is the light that has a warming and life-giving effect. Whoever desires this, whoever wishes to achieve what Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was able to be for humanity, must also be able to overlook this—and be content with the greatness and Powers that lie within it. Then he will draw ever deeper and deeper toward the impersonal source of wisdom, truth, and life.

[ 8 ] What mattered was that these words sprang from a deeply sincere experience, and they came from a person who herself admitted that evening that [Helena Petrovna Blavatsky] was, for her, the Bringer of Light herself. Then came the beautiful, profound words in which Annie Besant—as everyone could sense— what in complete harmony with all the disciples of the great teacher Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, at the forefront of whom she placed those who said that one should bear in mind that the disciple—the beginner, above all—before he can comprehend the greatness of the Great Ones, harms himself if, through hasty, unwise criticism, he blocks his own path to these Great Ones. To have such a disposition, to enter into such a state of mind, to truly carry within oneself the sense of what is right in the face of the Great—that is the gain of life; that is the beginning of the highest spiritual knowledge. No one needs to revere anyone else; anyone may criticize the world as much as they want, but in doing so, they harm themselves most of all—especially when they seek to attain knowledge. Then they place the greatest obstacles in their own path.

[ 9 ] Here is something that must not be misunderstood. Theosophical writings often state: “Do not criticize; seek first to understand before forming your own judgment.”—And this is taken to mean that it is a rule for everyone. The Theosophical Society does not require anyone to follow such a rule. But there is something else one must know, and that is that one must be in this state of open-minded acceptance if these truths are to flow into us. One cannot want one thing without the other, and whoever wants one thing without the other is like someone who has a glass rod and wants it to become electrified. If he wants it to become electrified, he must rub it. If he does not want to rub it, it will not become electrified. Whoever desires knowledge should and must be in this frame of mind. One cannot achieve one without the other. It is a contradiction in terms to want to achieve one without the other.

[ 10 ] One simply has to understand the Theosophical view correctly. It is nothing more than a narrative. Nothing is ever demanded of any members. That is something we are very far removed from—especially those who know what really matters in the Theosophical Movement. We are not required to believe in any authority, nor are we expected to engage in any kind of personality cult. The higher the status of those to whom it is directed, the less a personality cult is expected. All talk against the cult of personality is talk against things that do not exist. The great moment I wanted to characterize was that of seeing a personality looking upward. And the entire lecture was a looking upward. That was what was significant about it.

[ 11 ] I wanted to highlight these two points because they symbolically illustrate some of the enrichment of life that one can experience today within the Theosophical Society. There are two things that will become increasingly important. The first is the realization of our first principle: to establish the core of a brotherhood of humanity, to lay the foundation for a great core of humanity; and the second is to learn to revere without blind faith in authority or a cult of personality—to learn to revere out of freedom and out of knowledge. To offer reverence as a gift that is free, without compulsion. This can be achieved. We have come this far in the past thirty years. When we do this, it is as if a spirit of a different kind were passing through the room and filling everyone. Little by little, the Theosophist comes to realize that this is something far more real than what can be grasped with the hands. At the entrance to the Theosophical Society, every member should be struck by the thought: Here you are entering a society that believes in the truths and realities of the spirit, a society that believes that spirit lives within you. This is connected to the phenomenon of the center of our society.

[ 12 ] We acknowledge the great advances in external life; we are not reactionaries; we know what it means—as an achievement of external science—that in the eighteenth century, in one of the major cities, 77 out of every 1,000 people died, whereas now only 22 out of every 1,000 die. We know what it means that our industry has conquered the globe. In contrast to all these achievements, there is one thing within this modern science that claims authority—something you will encounter time and again—and that is a sense of uncertainty regarding the great questions about the divine, regarding the great questions about the immortal powers within human beings. And there you hear from those who are the most learned, the most scientific: We know nothing; we cannot know anything. And that is only natural, for it is inherent in the current state of development. But what kind of knowledge have we acquired? To truly understand what is meant by this, we must look back a little into history.

[ 13 ] Anyone who studies cultural history today from an academic perspective is told that there were originally primitive, uneducated, and uncivilized peoples. They still live in certain parts of the world. We are descended from them. We will not examine whether this is actually the case. But when we examine the religious mental images, the legends and myths—these sacred texts—we stand there, bewildered, as we gaze into the profound wisdom of which these myths and legends are the expression. Even among the seemingly wildest peoples, we can glimpse the deepest wisdom in their legendary imagery. We do not bring this wisdom into them. Anyone who contemplates them will find that it takes far greater art to bring this wisdom into them than to extract it from them. Those peoples did not know our intellectual methods or our instruments. It is almost a miracle that the mystery of matter is presented in a manner similar to how science presents it to us today. But now read a lecture on the structure of the brain delivered at a meeting of natural scientists. Everything will seem chaotic to you compared to the ancient wisdom. There is a difference between how we think today and how our ancestors thought. What does modern man say? “I have devised the truth.”—Our ancestors would have referred you to your teachers, to ever higher and higher teachers. A spirit of the deepest humility pervaded everything—a humility that is willing to listen, that acknowledges that humanity is in a process of development, that knowledge and wisdom, too, are evolving, and that if I wish to know what I cannot know on my own, I must look to other teachers. We should not accept knowledge based on authority; no, once we have heard the truth and knowledge, we can find it for ourselves as well.

[ 14 ] It is true that the individual cannot know anything about things that go beyond the tangible. If we wish to know anything about this, we must turn to teachers who have kindled the light within themselves so that they can show us what it is like in the worlds that extend beyond the physical world. They will introduce us to the principle of the teacher.

[ 15 ] Modern humanity, with all its science, what has it achieved? It has been able to build the outer house and bring about the greatest conceivable progress in the outer sensory world. But one thing must be borne in mind. Consider that all of science and culture have brought us to the point of making our Earth a veritable palace for humanity living on it. Yet they also teach us something else: namely, that this physical Earth will no longer exist, because all the greatness and infinity that material culture has achieved will vanish, will disintegrate into its atoms. What does this physical science teach us? What will become of all that humanity has been here and all that it has achieved? “I do not know,” this science—which is limited solely to this Earth—must say. Only those who have experienced more than what pertains to the Earth can know anything about this question—and they do not speak of it in such terms. We must turn to the great teachers. Therefore, theosophical teaching ultimately leads to the great Masters and teachers of the human race. Then one reaches the point of realizing that a certain kind of human knowledge is vain. But there are human beings who have transcended that perspective and have attained something that will still exist long after the Earth has crumbled to dust. We must find the path to the higher individualities who speak to those who are willing to listen. The Master does not speak to the arrogant, but only to those who are truly humble in the highest sense—those who make themselves vessels and instruments of the Master.

[ 16 ] The Master speaks of this in the highest sense. Did the founder of the Theosophical Society, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, also possess this humility? How easily she could have said: “What is written in my books comes from my own knowledge.”—But she always referred to those who stood behind her, to the enlightened guides and Masters of Wisdom. Thus, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky possessed that great humility.

[ 17 ] There are many, however, who do not want to hear about the so-called higher worlds and who wish to avoid the Theosophical Society precisely because it speaks of a Devachan plane and an astral plane. But what matters is not whether one shies away from or fears these things, but whether they are true. The Masters have told us more about these things because we need them in life. Certainly, one can learn a great deal through external observation of life; the intellect can tell us a great deal. The intellect can also grasp moral teachings. From a conventional standpoint, one can moralize about envy, cowardice, lying, and so on. But envy, cowardice, and lying are, in truth, phenomena observed in the higher worlds. In the physical world, lying is a relatively minor offense. But it is nothing compared to what it is on the astral plane. The moment you tell a lie, you bring about something that is like the destruction of a living being. You then carry this killing with you. It mingles with your own astral body. What we otherwise come to know about the lie only as an external phenomenon, we then come to know in its living reality. There, what is sensory here becomes spiritual. Today we need to be reintroduced to the spirit, to first sense it, and then be led to certain knowledge. This is the life that must pulse through the Theosophical Movement. If this life does not flow through the Theosophical Movement, then it will not achieve what it is destined to do. These guiding Masters, all our beautiful teachings, and our theories are in vain if there are not, here and there in the world, a number of people who come together in the spirit we have described—in the spirit where, even as they step through the door, they say to themselves: “Here, life is lived solely in the awareness that the Spirit is a reality.” - If this spirit fills every listener, then our branch has a purpose; then you yourselves are the source of something alive. When we are together in the awareness of the truth of the Spirit, that awareness becomes a force, and as many as possess this awareness form a receptor, like an electrical receptor. And when, whether through anyone, thoughts are expressed that are in harmony with the harmonious laws of the universe and are grasped by all the souls within us, forming a focal point, then they radiate from there throughout the entire city and influence the entire city—if we possess the consciousness of the Spirit. My words have no meaning unless there are people who receive them in this way and carry them out into the world. That is why we come together in the Society. Only when we possess this consciousness are we truly a Theosophical Society. Our gatherings are meant to bring about this: that this consciousness becomes ever more intense, ever stronger, and more powerful within us; that through faith in and knowledge of the Spirit—and through the Spirit—we truly manifest a force. It really does not matter that we read books or listen to teachings; what matters is that we accept and internalize this awareness of the Spirit. And only when as many branches as possible possess this awareness of the Spirit will there truly be a Theosophical Society. Until then, there is not. It is not the doctrine, not the dogma, but the awareness of the Spirit that matters.