The Rudolf Steiner Archive

42. On the Seven-Year History of the German Section of the Theosophical Society

My dear friends!

[ 1 ] The very reflections that are to begin this evening for our Berlin branch may provide an opportunity to preface this with a brief introduction, in order to once again take up a point that has been repeatedly mentioned and strongly emphasized in recent weeks, and especially during our General Assembly. We are now in the eighth year—that is, following the conclusion of the seventh year—of our German Section, and it has been pointed out that what might be called the cyclical movement of events and facts over time does not stem from some fanciful theory, but is based entirely on facts of reality; and that one understands such a matter in a deeper sense only if one then applies it to the life in which one is directly immersed. For each of you, the Theosophical Movement—by virtue of your having joined it—is, in a certain sense, your own affair; and therefore each of you should consider such a cyclical course of this matter for yourselves—and, one might say, consider it in a practical way. One can learn a great deal from such a matter. It has been repeatedly emphasized that, in the development of the human being in individual life, the period around the age of seven—when the teeth begin to change—is important and decisive in many respects. Anyone who has viewed life within our German Section only superficially—not to mention that everything there is to say about it becomes all the more vivid and intimate upon deeper reflection—may now truly say: This first cycle of our theosophical work can quite rightly be compared to the individual development that a child undergoes from birth through the change of teeth, until it receives its second, permanent set of teeth. For anyone who truly wishes to observe the events will not be able to help but conclude that the very overview we were able to gain during the days of our General Assembly has revealed that we are dealing with various feverish symptoms caused by this “teething” process in the present weeks and months. We are even dealing with quite severe feverish symptoms, and there is absolutely no denying that quite a few teeth—which have now grown in after the first baby teeth fell out—have bitten down quite forcefully, and that this is by no means over yet. What I am now saying about the biting and the various other symptoms has a deep and profound significance. Everyone should realize that the Theosophical Movement has another seven years ahead of it, and that these seven years, in a certain sense, represent a growing into what, when the time comes, will be called the “rebellious years.” All these things can be shaped in one way or another through a good education in the individual. In the Theosophical Movement, if we take our cause seriously and with dignity, this education must, for the most part, be a serious process of self-education—a taking charge of the individual souls on the part of the participants in the Theosophical Movement. And it will be necessary to examine certain matters in the future more closely than they have been examined thus far. In practice, indeed, certain matters have not been fully taken into account over the past seven years; however, matters that are necessary for fruitful further development should certainly be taken into account.

[ 2 ] For example, one should bear in mind that in Theosophical wisdom there are, first and foremost, the major guidelines that one must master initially. To ensure that newcomers and recent arrivals can always assimilate these guiding principles—and thus thoroughly master them for themselves, perhaps in less time than others who have been participating in theosophic life for seven years—care will always be taken to ensure that a course covering these principles is offered. If one understands the essence of mastering these guidelines in the true, genuine sense of the word, then one will also understand, on the one hand, where the subsequent deepening should lie—after one has mastered these guidelines—for those who wish to work seriously within the Theosophical Movement. But one will also find the proper relationship to the first guidelines as well as to what is given later. This is something one should acquire through an appropriate sense of feeling. What the first guidelines provide is truly a grand plan of world wisdom. If you take in that configuration, that systematic structure of the human being as presented in my *Theosophy*, it depends on how the individual reader or listener relates to it—whether they receive merely abstract knowledge in such a matter, or whether they receive a warm, meaningful wisdom. The entire book *Theosophy* contains, if you will, abstract, cold, conceptual knowledge, and it also contains, if you will, the warmest, deepest, most soul-penetrating, and most vibrant wisdom. And self-education and self-knowledge are the only things that can lead one to realize that it depends entirely on the reader whether what is absorbed is abstract, dry knowledge or warm, meaningful wisdom that penetrates deep into the heart, brings order to all of life, sets tasks for life, and offers comfort in the most difficult situations of fate.

[ 3 ] Anyone who isn’t too lazy can find answers for themselves in such a book for every situation in life. It often happens that someone comes to me, with the best of intentions, and says, “Oh, tell me what my faults are; I’d so much like to get rid of them.” Yet they fail to consider that the answer to this very question is something everyone can always find for themselves in the available Spiritual Science literature, and that it is of far greater value for them to find this answer on their own than to have it answered for them by someone else. Sometimes, instead of asking such a question and wanting it answered personally, it would be much, much better if the person in question were to pick up *Theosophy*, read half a page of it, and then penetrate the matter with his own genuine thoughts.

[ 4 ] So it is by no means excessive to revisit these guiding principles and foundations of the theosophical worldview time and again, and to make them your own. Only then, when you do this, will you be able to gain the proper perspective on everything that follows. Then you will be able to understand that, in a certain sense, it was indeed necessary to move from these guiding principles and foundations to what has been presented at the branch meetings over the course of the last few years: it is necessary to fully immerse oneself in it. On the other hand, however, it is also true that, in the last three years, after the foundational principles had been laid down, I have in fact said nothing new regarding the deeper truths. As necessary as it was to penetrate all of this intensively, these were—in contrast to what was said in the foundational principles and guidelines—further elaborations for life, which we have considered from every angle; they were lights meant to be shed on the various areas of life. Four lectures have been given at the Architektenhaus in recent weeks: “The Mission of Spiritual Science Then and Now,” “The Mission of Anger,” “The Mission of Truth,” and “The Mission of Devotion.” Anyone who has truly studied the book *Theosophy* would have found that everything said there is already contained within it: There are four squares there that have now been colored in with different hues. It is absolutely necessary to carry out this coloring within each individual soul; for it would be the most mistaken and incorrect thing to imagine that, simply because everything is contained in *Theosophy*, one should remain stuck with *Theosophy* for the rest of one’s life. But one finds the proper relationship to these further explanations in practical life when one has fully internalized what has been said there. For someone who has fully internalized what is said in *Theosophy*, it may be that they say to themselves: “Now I have worked for four years to fully internalize those fundamental principles of Theosophy.” And now it is so strange what has been going on within me! If I had heard a lecture four years ago like the one on ‘The Mission of Anger,’ I could of course have understood it as well, but I see that there are different kinds of understanding.” This is the case with such matters, which truly have substance. There is one level of understanding that might be held by someone hearing these lectures for the first time, who has no idea that “Theosophy” even exists. Then there is a second level of understanding held by someone who has made Theosophy their own, and that person might make a strange discovery in the process. They might say to themselves: “Four years ago, this would have seemed difficult to me; some things would have been foreign to me, and it would have seemed to me that some of the turns of phrase used here wouldn’t quite make sense to me. And now, after I have truly taken in this matter of the feeling soul, the intellectual soul, the conscious soul, and so on, I listen to these four lectures much as I previously read a novella that spoke to my soul in a way that was very easy to understand.”

[ 5 ] This should simply be stated as what a genuine internalization of “Theosophy” can and certainly will bring about if it is worked through in the proper way. If, however, after picking up the book and going through it once or twice, someone then concludes: “These are dry debates, the kind found in any science,” then they have never overcome the discomfort of asking themselves: “Is it really not my fault that I can see nothing in it but a science? That I cannot see what can emerge from it like sparks of fire?” - This is how we must view these things. We must not believe that it is, in a certain sense, humiliating for us in our later years to tell ourselves: I must truly learn the principles and fundamentals correctly, exactly as they are presented here. - For it is immensely important that we realize that things are not stated in a particular way simply because it occurred to the author in question, but because they are written with an inner necessity in every detail. The present age, with its shabby literature, has absolutely no concept of the great responsibility with which the book was written. It would be a great act of self-education if, within the Theosophical Movement, we were gradually to accustom our hearts to sensing something of this responsibility. Believe me, it is not a matter of indifference if, in such a book—written with a sense of responsibility toward the spiritual worlds—a predicate happens to precede the subject, or if “was” is chosen instead of “is.” Or if, in any other way, a sentence is constructed one way or another, there are good reasons for it. And our current shabby literature—which believes one can write down whatever comes to mind and that it makes no difference whether one uses this or that word—has absolutely no concept of that profound sense of responsibility one must have toward these matters. Today, everything is cobbled together however people see fit. It is essential to craft every sentence correctly. And if there is no exact word in the language for a concept, then in a book such as *Theosophy*, one must use a word in the first half-line that approximates the correct meaning, and—so that the concept comes across correctly—use a corresponding word in the second half-line, so that the two words balance each other out and the message can have an effect on the soul.

[ 6 ] A book such as *Theosophy* cannot be even remotely compared to any book in the external literature. For that will be the most beautiful, the highest fruit of the Theosophical Movement when a feeling awakens in the soul through that self-education. Then one also gains a sense that the vast majority of what is printed today—with the exception of mere reports of events concerning social conditions—would actually be better left unprinted, because it is not fully developed, because it is by no means ready to flow from one soul to another.

[ 7 ] We should develop a sense of this and a truly dignified and serious attitude toward it. It would be unfortunate if theosophists were to approach what is presented in *Theosophy* with exactly the same mindset as they use when approaching anything else in the external literature. Perhaps you recall that I elaborated on the system of the arts here a few days ago in a very particular style. Do you think that was just a whim? If you believe that, you would be completely mistaken. It is not at all a matter of delivering this lecture in this particular form, but rather that what had to be said necessarily arose of its own accord in every single sentence and every turn of phrase; and any other way of speaking about it could never have conveyed what was said in this very lecture. Here, as everywhere else, incidentally, the “how” was of the utmost importance. And if you rephrase the ideas presented there, they are no longer the same; they become something entirely different.

[ 8 ] Thus, it is always necessary for the serious theosophist to return to the original guiding principles and foundations, and it is precisely by making these guiding principles and foundations his own that he gains the opportunity to advance further and further. Anyone who had internalized these guiding principles and foundations during the first four years of our Spiritual Science movement here—in the way we have attempted to develop them over those four years— whoever had assimilated them in such a way that they were alive within him three years ago, that they were present within him, would have discovered in the three years that followed that what was further elaborated was no longer new, but rather [a development] toward practical application in all areas of life. He would have noticed that he absorbs this with complete ease, without difficulty in understanding and without misjudging the necessity of how one thing or another is to be understood. But he would have had another remarkable feeling after another three years… that is, today. He would have given himself the opportunity to say today: “I have, without even realizing it, entered into a completely new life of the soul: Now I know what spiritual life is. Now I know that I was previously under a misconception when I formed a mental image that I could attain spiritual life in any other way than by gaining it through the contemplation of the worlds and thereby allowing the slumbering powers—at least on the first level—to be awakened within me! Four and three are once again significant within a seven-year cycle: That is why, within our movement, the first four years were devoted to working on the guidelines and blueprints, and in the last three years, only what is more important in terms of the actual content of life than the foundation itself was incorporated into what had been laid out in the general blueprint. But in order to attain this, it is necessary to have made the foundations and guidelines one’s own.

[ 9 ] And this should be said above all today to the dear members of our Berlin branch, which, as one of the oldest branches, can in a certain sense serve as a leader. It should once again be particularly emphasized to all those who are involved here and there in the formation of new branches; for these matters are not undertaken arbitrarily, but rather because they are meant to serve as models for the establishment of new branches: It is extremely important to constantly remind oneself that it is not right to offer people, as it were, the very thing that is meant to be a further development; rather, those who are to enter spiritual life on the theosophical path must be able to do so simply by thoroughly, earnestly, and respectfully internalizing the guidelines in their souls.

[ 10 ] If seven years ago we had begun our work with a small or larger group of such people who had the deepest longing for the spiritual world—and if these people—whether ten or one thousand five hundred—had been driven by this longing at the same time due to some event, and if this group had embraced the guidelines with devotion, and then, over the course of three years, had instilled into those guidelines what has been given over the past three years as guidance for practical living—then we would now be in a position where, after most of our dear friends have heard, through the reflections based on the Gospel of John, something about the foundations of Christianity and the nature of Christ, after most of them had also taken in—at least in brief review—the fundamental facts connected to the Gospel of Luke, and because they had made their own the guiding principles and foundations of “Theosophy,” and had now integrated all that has been worked out with what was mentioned in lectures touching on the most diverse chapters of life—such as upbringing, illness, and moral principles—if all that were the case, and if we had now crowned what was already there with the fact that we have now taken in those significant perspectives that were expressed in reference to the Gospels of John and Luke, then we would now be poised to approach the contemplation that points to the Gospel of Mark, and we would ultimately be able to ascend to the contemplation of the Gospel of Matthew. Then we would begin to have a sense of who Christ Jesus is. Now, of course, this cannot be the case in such a way, for things in life cannot be so perfect. Since we were not, after all, a small group that worked for these seven years in complete isolation from all distracting circumstances, it has happened time and again that one person or another, after having taken in what was said in the lectures on the Christ-Essence with regard to the Gospel of John, believed that he now knew what Christ Jesus is. For one could easily believe that, simply because the Christ has been discussed, one now knows what it is all about. Then the Gospel of Luke was discussed, and again someone might think: “Now the lecturer has already said all sorts of things; over the past three years he has spoken so much about Christ in connection with the Gospel of John, and he has also spoken about the first thirty years in connection with the Gospel of Luke—now one can surely form a picture of the thirty-three years of Christ Jesus’ ministry on earth...” If that were the case, then it would not have been necessary to give the world the Gospels of Mark and Matthew as well.

[ 11 ] If you wish, above all, to consider the mindset from which these reflections were made in connection with the Gospels of John and Luke—if you wish to take these mindsets into account—then they can only be characterized as follows: these reflections were spoken from a perspective that essentially states the following: “What we call the Christ-Jesus Being is—insofar as human understanding can even grasp it in our present time—so great, so all-encompassing, and so mighty that any reflection cannot presume to say, in any one-sided way, who Christ-Jesus was, and what significance his Being holds for every individual human spirit and for every individual soul; that would have appeared in our reflections as a lack of reverence toward the greatest problem in the world that exists. Respect and reverence—these are the words that describe the attitudes from which our reflections have been offered. Reverence and respect, which might be expressed in the following sentiment: Try not to place too high a value on human understanding itself when you face the greatest problem. Try never to overestimate anything that even the most advanced Spiritual Science can offer you, no matter how high it may ascend, when it comes to facing the greatest problem of life. And do not believe that a human word would suffice to say anything other than what characterizes this great and formidable problem from one perspective.