The
Heindel — Steiner
Connection
by
Charles Weber
Site
Search:
Table of Contents
All organizations face the prospect of entropy, of becoming ingrown, increasingly conservative,
tradition-bound, preoccupied with rules, dogmatic and rigid—until they are no longer able to
respond to and manifest their founding impulse. The Rosicrucian Fellowship needs to remain
sensitive and compliant to the creative impulses of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of living Truth.
Our earnest hope is that this Study will help counter the tendency to organizational entropy by promoting a recovery of the open receptive conditions that prevailed at the time of the Fellowship’s inception. ... more »
Section 1
Particularly among Heindel “loyalists” one may encounter views about Steiner that are cited as grounds for rejecting any value his teachings may have for students of Rosicrucian esoteric Christianity, and thus, members of the Rosicrucian Fellowship. We sincerely hope to minimize the concern some Heindel devotees might feel in providing this material and advancing this connection by citing Heindel’s own deeply-held belief that Truth is one, but its manifestations and purveyors are manifold. It is not the messenger we seek but the message. So we hasten to say that Fellowship teachings are, for the most part, not from Max Heindel, but through him. Likewise, Rudolf Steiner is not sourcing or generating truths of spiritual science, but transmitting them. His achievement, as Max Heindel’s, is in attaining to the level where both can serve humanity in their respective and mutual capacities as self-conscious channels for the flow of esoteric truths from the higher worlds, albeit through the lens and language of their individual personalities. ... more »
Let us get specific. We shall first review the claims of Steiner’s critics to see if they have a basis in fact.
At the urging of a close friend, Max Heindel went to Germany in 1907 to investigate Steiner, but “after he had attended some of Dr. Steiner’s classes and lectures, he became disheartened and restless, for what was being taught he already knew.”— Memoirs of Augusta Foss Heindel, p. 3
If this report by Heindel’s wife is true, how does one explain the similarity, and at times congruence,
between most of the text of The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception and Steiner’s books and lectures already in print by the time of Heindel’s visit? (The reader is directed to the collation of selected texts of both authors in Section 2, beginning on page 54.) If the above statement is true, why does Heindel dedicate the first edition of the Cosmo “To my valued friend, DR. RUDOLPH STEINER, in grateful recognition of much valuable information received”? (Capital letters and spelling of the first name are in the original.)
Is the “valuable information” in the Cosmo? We need not merely wonder. Aside from Heindel’s implying that it is, a survey of the accompanying references shows a recurring parallelism and equivalence between Heindel texts and pre-existing Steiner material. One must take Heindel’s dedicatory statement at face value; otherwise, we must equally doubt the truth and accuracy of the Cosmo itself.
... more »
“[T]his book itself is personal instruction. In earlier times there were reasons for reserving such personal instruction for oral teaching; today we have reached a stage in the evolution of humanity in which spiritual scientific knowledge must become far more widely disseminated than formerly. It must be placed within the reach of everyone to a quite different extent from what was the case in older times. Hence the book replaces the former oral instruction.”— Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment, written in 1904 (hereafter KHWA), Appendix, fourth paragraph. Also see The Way of initiation or How to Obtain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, an early version of the first half of KHWA, which includes an informative article by Édouard Schuré on “The Personality of Rudolf Steiner and His Development.” The book Initiation and Its Results corresponds to the second half of KHWA.
... more »
“My first lecturing activity [1902] within the circles which had grown out of the Theosophical Movement had to be planned according to the temper of mind of these circles. Theosophical literature had been read there, and people were used to certain forms of expression for certain things. ... more »
Steiner has been alleged to be a proponent of theosophical ideas as they are expounded by Madame
Blavatsky and her successor Annie Besant. Consequently, so goes this line of argument, Steiner is tied in with Eastern religion, even negative clairvoyance. Nothing could be further from the truth. Again, let the source material speak for itself on these three points: Steiner’s relation to (a) Theosophy, (b) Eastern religion, and (c) the kind of clairvoyance he used to obtain his information.
... more »
Heindel loyalists, perhaps fearful that his stature will be compromised if his Western orientation is not clearly established, are quick to look upon Steiner’s theosophical associations as somehow invalidating his relevance to their spiritual interests. But they best tread lightly here, for while, by his own words, Steiner never subscribed to the theosophical teachings as disseminated by Helena Blavatsky, and exclusively taught the results of his own spiritual research, which could be characterized from the outset (1902) as Rosicrucian Christianity, Max Heindel, to the end of his life, was highly praising of Blavatsky’s work. In his early book, Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine,56 Heindel describes the Russian-born clairvoyant as “a worthy messenger of the Masters,” whose Secret Doctrine “is one of the most remarkable books in the world.” In the Cosmo, Heindel sought to show how “two such valuable works” as The Secret Doctrine and Sinnett’s Esoteric Buddhism could be reconciled (p. 270 ff). But surely, this is not a concern of the Elder Brother, for both these works pertain to Eastern occultism. Nor, as certainly, did the Elder Brother praise these works for Heindel’s edification and promotion.
... more »
“Its [the Theosophical Society’s] main task is to bring healing to humankind, not to enable one or another person to acquire knowledge of this or that fact. To know that reincarnation and karma are facts — I mean, to merely know this — is not the essential thing; the essential thing is that these thoughts become one with our blood and life, a part of our inner spiritual being, for they are healthful things. ... There is only one proof of the teachings of Spiritual Science, and that is life itself. Spiritual-scientific doctrines will show themselves to be true if a healthy life grows up under their influence.” — Lecture, Berlin, January 29, 1906 (tenth paragraph — wording has been modified in the later online version)
... more »
“Its [the T.S.] continued fruitful development in western countries is dependent completely on the extent to which it shows itself capable of assimilating the principle of western initiation among its influences. For the eastern initiations must of necessity leave untouched the Christ as the central cosmic factor of evolution. But without this principle, the theosophical movement will have no decisive influence on western cultures, which trace their beginnings back to Christ’s life on Earth. If taken on their own, the revelations of oriental initiation would have to stand aside from the living culture in the West in a sectarian manner. They could only hope for success within evolution if the principle of Christianity were to be eradicated from western culture. But this would be the same as eradicating the essential meaning of the Earth, which lies in the recognition and realization of the intentions of the living Christ. To reveal these intentions in the form of complete wisdom, beauty and activity is, however, the deepest aim of Rosicrucianism. ... it should be understood that the introduction of a correct esotericism in the West can only be of the Rosicrucian-Christian type, because this latter gave birth to western life and because by its loss mankind would deny the meaning and the destiny of the Earth. The harmonious relationship between science and religion can flower only in this esotericism.” — Letter to Édouard Schuré, author of
The Great Initiates, September, 1907, C&D (italics in the original, scroll to p. 18)
... more »
“There are three different kinds of initiation, all of which lead to the same goal. There are three paths, the choice of one of which depends upon a man’s individuality. One initiation is that of wisdom; it is the fitting goal for Indian and Oriental training. This path is fraught with great dangers for European and Western bodies and is therefore not the right one. The second initiation is based upon the life of feeling; it is the fundamentally Christian path. Only few individuals can still take this path because it demands a strong power of devotion and piety. The third path of initiation is the Rosicrucian training, the path of the initiation of thinking and of will. It leads to union with the forces of the other paths.
... more »
“The present task of spiritual knowledge is to bring the experience of ideas, in full clarity of mind, into connection with the spiritual world by means of the will to knowledge. The cognizing human being then has a content of mind which is experienced like that of mathematics. He thinks like a mathematician. But he does not think in numbers or in geometrical figures. He thinks in pictures of the world of spirit. In contrast to the ancient waking-dream cognizing of the spirit, it is a fully conscious standing — within the spiritual world.
... more »
“And when we come face to face with the Guardian of the Threshold, we feel (and this is a truly shattering experience) as though we are restrained, or transfixed. This is because all of the magnetic forces that limit us to personal interests now have the strongest influence. Only when we have progressed enough — when we have learned from this icy solitude that we have the capacity to make universal interests our own — may we pass the Guardian of the Threshold. ... We can now acknowledge, Yes, I may pursue my own interests, because they are now cosmic interests, the interests of all human beings. ... Through such experiences, we may come to understand (and thus take seriously) the fact that personal interests must be transformed into universal interests if we want to see the true reality of the spiritual world.” — ibid, p. 115 (sixth paragraph, online text is modified). Surely, first-hand experience must be speaking here.
... more »
“For anyone who does not stand in living reality within the world of spirit, as I do, such a submergence into a certain trend of thinking signifies a mere activity of thought. For one who experiences the world of spirit, it signifies something essentially different. He is brought into contact with Beings in the world of spirit who desire to make such a trend of [materialistic] thinking the sole prevailing one; there one-sidedness in thinking does not lead merely to abstract error; there spiritually living intercourse with Beings is what in the human world constitutes error. I spoke later [in his life] of Ahrimanic Beings when I desired to point in this direction. For these, it is absolute truth that the world must be a machine. They live in a world that borders directly upon the sense world. ... He who seeks for knowledge of spirit must experience these worlds [of ‘demonic Powers’]; for him a mere theoretical thinking about them does not suffice. At
that time I had to save my spiritual perception by inner battles. These battles were the background of my outer experience.” — The Course of My Life, p. 275 (third and fifth paragraphs, from book)
... more »
Another claim of those who dismiss or deprecate the value of Steiner’s clairvoyant investigations is that he continued to subscribe to the “Eastern guru” concept. There is no basis in fact for this claim. The contrary is the case. While initially, Steiner referred to the Teacher as “Guru” and “Master”, since these were terms familiar to his first public, the theosophists, he emphasized that in the West “the Guru is only the friend and adviser of the pupil, for by training his reason, the pupil will be training the best Guru for himself.”— At the Gates of Spiritual Science (hereafter GSS), fourteen lectures, Lecture 12, “Occult Development,” 1906, p. 116 (next to last paragraph)
... more »
“Thou wilt some day be able to unite with me [the Greater Guardian], but I cannot be blessed so long as others remain unredeemed. As a separate freed being, thou wouldst fain enter at once the kingdom of the supersensible; yet thou wouldst be forced to look down on the still unredeemed beings in the physical world, having sundered thy destiny from theirs, although thou and they are inseparably united. ... To separate thyself from thy fellows would mean to abuse those very powers which thou couldst not have developed save in company with them. ... Thou must now share with thy fellows the powers which, together with them, thou didst acquire. I shall therefore bar thine entry into the higher regions of the supersensible world so long as thou hast not applied all the powers thou hast acquired to the liberation of thy companions. With the powers already at thy disposal thou mayst sojourn in the lower regions of the supersensible world; but I stand before the portal of the higher regions as the Cherub with the fiery sword before Paradise, and I bar thine entrance as long as powers unused in the sense-world still remain in thee. And if thou dost refuse to apply thy powers in this world, others will come who will not refuse; and a higher supersensible world will receive all the fruits of the sense-world, while thou wilt lose from under thy feet the very ground in which thou wert rooted. The purified world will develop above and beyond thee, and
thou shalt be excluded from it. Thus thou wouldst tread the black path, while the others from whom thou didst sever thyself tread the white path.” — KHWA (paragraph, “Thou hast ...”)
... more »
Only unfamiliarity with the work of Steiner could give rise to the erroneous notion that he was not an
Initiate of high degree. Why is this significant? In one sense, it’s not. We judge the merit of a man and the truth of his words according to what our own discernment and inner sense tell us. But those who insist on qualifications extrinsic to the thing itself, who do not fully trust to their own inner sense of truth, require additional authority. Yet Heindel tells us that only an Initiate knows another Initiate. So what would be the use of ranking a person’s spiritual level but to appeal to a subtle or conspicuous form of sensationalism, to provide a frisson of starstruckness and thereby enfeeble one’s own rational, common sense faculties? However, we will cite, in this context, several passages that give additional insight into Steiner’s high degree of spiritual development.
... more »
The persevering critic of Steiner may yet have some misgivings. For instance, there may be some lingering doubts about Steiner’s religious status. Was he a hard-core occultist, all will-to-master with no reverence or devotion? How Christian was he? The answer to these questions would depend on whose understanding of Christianity one is referring to. An entirely sufficient answer, however, can be given simply by perusing the extensive list of books, articles, and lectures (see pages 115-117) devoted wholly, or largely to a consideration of the meaning and value of the Being and activity of the Christ, as detailed by Steiner over a twenty-five-year period.
... more »
We arrive at what may be the crucial part of our Study. Steiner critics may persist: “Even if, in light of the marshaled evidence, we consent to the truth of the foregoing, the Rosicrucian Fellowship is Rosicrucian. Its teachings bear, through an Elder Brother of the Rosicrucian Order, the imprimatur of that Brotherhood and its authority [assuming the authenticity of the transmission]. And Steiner — he was a theosophist [as was Heindel], and then an anthroposophist. You can’t mix apples and oranges. His teachings conflict with Max Heindel’s.” Do they? Numerous pages of comparative quotes have been provided in this Study (see Section 2, beginning on p. 54) to show the striking equivalence between the teachings disseminated by these two individuals. And a substantial portion of Steiner’s teachings were publicly in place several years before Heindel published his Cosmo, which is comprised mostly of those very teachings. So we might recall the line from Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name? A rose is as fair by any name.” The substance of Steiner’s teaching is Rosicrucian; it must be if the very material he made public appears later in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception — or is that book “theosophy,” in the universal sense of being the wisdom of God? Or is it anthroposophical, in that it treats of the wisdom of Man (Anthropos), Man who has the entire Cosmos factored in him, as the name “Son of Man,” designating Christ Jesus, indicates? Heindel has affirmed that the teachings from the Elder brother “corroborated the teachings of Dr. S. along main lines.” (see pages 126-127).
... more »
That Steiner spoke at times as an intermediary for high Initiates, who he called the “Masters of Wisdom and the Harmony of Sensation and Feeling,” is well documented. These beings “stand in direct relationship to the forces of the higher hierarchies” (1915 Düsseldorf Lecture, last para.) and, as we shall see, included Jesus and Christian Rose Cross. Of the rules for esoteric development given in Steiner’s 1904 publication Knowledge of Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, he says, “the guiding spirits of evolution have given permission for the publication of these rules,” but “the most important rules can only be disclosed by word of mouth.” — 1904 lecture, “The Inner Development of Man,” tenth paragraph from end, also H&C, p. 38
... more »
“In the evening, before going to sleep, we should prepare ourselves to enter the spiritual worlds, yet not by egotistic petitions for happiness and so on, but by a mood of gratitude that we shall again be taken into the bosom of the Spiritual Beings. Here the practice of retrospection16 plays a great role. The day is to come again before us in picture form, yet in the reverse order of its events, that is, in a backward direction. And with each experience that we had in the day we must ask ourselves: Did I do that right, could I not have done it still better? It is very important to learn to look on ourselves as a stranger, as if we observed and criticized ourselves from outside. We must try to get as clear a picture as possible of the day’s events. It is far more important to be able to remember little details than striking events. ... These details require a great effort, but that is just what strengthens the forces of the soul. ... This retrospection is the means by which spiritual pictures are created and taken over with us into the spiritual world. That it must be taken in the backward direction is connected with the passage of time in the spiritual world which moves
in a direction opposite to the order in the physical world. By our usual thinking forward, we set ourselves, as it were, against the spiritual worlds and repulse them.” — Advice given in 1905, Guidance in Esoteric Training, pp. 155-156 (Complete source is omitted from this online version; one must obtain the book.)
... more »
Many Fellowship students know that both the original cross planted on Founder’s Day (October 28,
1911 — at which Heindel surmised the presence of Christian Rose-Cross and saw “the Elder Brother who has been the inspiration of this movement and is [clairvoyantly] visible to at least some of us” — see images I-F and I-G in Mt. Ecclesia’s Rose Cross Circle, and the cross in the emblem on a flag displayed on top of the original Administration Building, were black. Public misinterpretation of this black cross necessitated changing its color to white. Also, because “the gloom of death [is] often associated with the black cross.”
... more »
In the early part of the fifteenth century Christian Rosenkreuz went to the East to find a balance
between the initiations of the East and the West. One consequence of this, following his return,
was the definitive establishment of the Rosicrucian stream in the West. In this form Rosicrucianism
was intended to be a strictly secret school for the preparation of those things which would become
the public task of esotericism at the turn of the 19th century, when material science would have
found a provisional solution to certain problems.
These problems were described by Christian Rosenkreuz as:
1) The discovery of spectral analysis, which revealed the material constitution of the cosmos.
2) The introduction of material evolution into organic science.
3) The recognition of a differing state of consciousness from our normal one through the
acceptance of hypnotism and suggestion.
... more »
The Rosicrucian way to truth is not through creed or dogma; whoever or whatever be the authority, we subject all we hear and read to the same common-sense scrutiny and interior tribunal, else we walk the Seth path, the path of passive acceptance. In principle, we do not believe a statement true because Heindel or Steiner says it is true. Equally, we do not presumptively believe it false. We suspend judgment, listen, weigh, measure, compare, and reflect, holding truth-decisions in abeyance until objective information can be interiorly confirmed.
... more »
In light of Steiner’s ability to function consciously in the higher worlds and to be able to draw down
its content for our earth-bound comprehension, what do we make of the following statement: “It is
impossible to penetrate into any domain of the spiritual world without a link having first been made
with what has already been fathomed by the Elder Brothers of humanity.”? — ibid, Lecture 2 (third paragraph). All spirit world researchers are indebted to its first explorers and metaphysical “mappers”, the Guardians of Truth.
... more »
Rosicrucianism teaches a future form of Christianity. “In the Rosicrucian sense, Christianity is at once the highest development of individual freedom and universal religion. There is a community of free souls. The tyranny of dogma is replaced by the radiance of divine Wisdom, embracing intelligence, love and action. The science which arises from this cannot be measured by its power of abstract reasoning but by its power to bring souls to flower and fruition. That is the difference between ‘Logia’ and ‘Sophia,’ between science and divine Wisdom, between Theology and Theosophy. In this sense, Christ is the center of esoteric evolution of the West.” — EC, Lecture 1, 1906, pp. 20-21 (last 3 paragraphs)
... more »
“[Eastern] occult brotherhoods actually succeeded in forcing her [H.P. Blavatsky] to present what she had to offer in her second work, The Secret Doctrine, in an Eastern guise. We are still accustomed to receiving most of our occult terminology in Eastern language. But this Eastern form of truth is not for us Western peoples. It can only restrict us and divert us from our goal ... [A]n incisive change has occurred lately regarding the Esoteric Schools of the East and of the West. ... Now, however, the Western School has become independent. ... The Eastern School is being led by Mrs. Annie Besant, and those who feel more attracted to her in their hearts can no longer remain in our school. ... At the head of our Western School there are two Masters: the Master Jesus and the Master Christian Rosenkreuz. And they lead us along two paths: the Christian and the Christian-Rosicrucian way. The Great White Lodge leads all spiritual movements, and the Master Jesus and the Master Christian Rosenkreuz belong to this Lodge. We stand at the dawning of the Sixth Day of Creation. We have to develop the sixth and seventh cultural epochs out of ourselves. The future in its rising light is already present within us. Apprehending this, receive into
yourselves what the Master Christian Rosenkreuz has spoken ...”
... more »
“I have already emphasized on another occasion the difference between founding [done by humans] and conferring [a giving from above]; this was some time ago. It was not understood then and hardly anyone has given it a thought since. For that reason those spiritual powers known to you under the sign of the Rose-Cross ceased to disseminate the knowledge of this difference. But the attempt must be made again....For this reason it is now announced that those who come forward in an appropriate manner will be entrusted with a way of working together that, in the way it is presented, can be directly attributed to the individuality we have known since earliest times in the West as Christian Rosenkreuz ... What could be imparted until now concerns one section, one branch of this endowment — specifically, the artistic representation of Rosicrucian occultism.
... more »
What then is this Rosicrucian path? How is it characterized and practiced? This essay does not allow for an in-depth study of the Rosicrucian path of Initiation. Rudolf Steiner has described this path and we commend those interested in such knowledge to his expositions. However, since the Fellowship is Rosicrucian, the reader of this Study may benefit from the following brief description of the seven stages of the Rosicrucian path of Initiation (“The sequence in which the student passes through these preliminary stages of Rosicrucian training depends on the student’s personality.”):
... more »
Moreover, this candidate, the same person who Max Heindel visited and with whose teachings he was allegedly disappointed — “for this man had little to give him, and ... what he gave out was not new to him” — this same person, Rudolf Steiner, is described on the title page of the Cosmo’s first edition (see p. 125 for facsimile) not only as Max Heindel’s “valued friend,” but as the source of “much valuable information received.” And where is this information? In the Cosmo. How can we be sure? It is clearly demonstrated in the next section of this Study, which shows the close similarity, and in some cases virtual identity, between Steiner’s already-existing body of public information and the Cosmo’s content. The interested reader’s further independent inquiry can only reinforce the perception of this commonality. Steiner may well have been receiving some instruction from Rosicrucian sources during the years prior to Max Heindel’s visit to Germany in 1907. But more definitely, we may say that Steiner was directly accessing those supersensible domains where this knowledge is archived in living form, for he stated on many occasions (some cited in this Study) that all of the occult information he imparted resulted from his own research in the higher worlds.
... more »
We in turn ask, “Are these the Elder Brother’s Teachings or Max Heindel’s understanding of the
Teachings?” In principle, Heindel doesn’t have to completely understand the last jot and tittle of the
Teachings to receive and disseminate them. In this instance, he is primarily serving as an amanuensis. On the other hand, he simultaneously received indubitable confirmation of the words’ full meaning because the Teacher was able to project his ideas through thought transference. Having Jupiter consciousness, his thoughts were “quite [inwardly] visible to the hearer” and there is “no misconception as to what is meant by the words spoken.” Moreover, “a little assistance from the Brothers that night [of Heindel’s initiation] enabled me to contact the fourth region, where the archetypes are found, and to receive there the teaching.” So why is Heindel making disclaimers for the Elder Brother? Is this appropriate? On the other hand, Heindel reminds us that with thought archetypes “there is borne in upon one an instant conception of the whole idea, much more luminous than can be given by the reciter in words.” There is the near insuperable difficulty in translating supersensible experiences into physical world concepts and earthbound languages. The two dimensions are literally worlds apart.
... more »
We in turn ask, “Are these the Elder Brother’s Teachings or Max Heindel’s understanding of the
Teachings?” In principle, Heindel doesn’t have to completely understand the last jot and tittle of the
Teachings to receive and disseminate them. In this instance, he is primarily serving as an amanuensis. On the other hand, he simultaneously received indubitable confirmation of the words’ full meaning because the Teacher was able to project his ideas through thought transference. Having Jupiter consciousness, his thoughts were “quite [inwardly] visible to the hearer” and there is “no misconception as to what is meant by the words spoken.” Moreover, “a little assistance from the Brothers that night [of Heindel’s initiation] enabled me to contact the fourth region, where the archetypes are found, and to receive there the teaching.” So why is Heindel making disclaimers for the Elder Brother? Is this appropriate? On the other hand, Heindel reminds us that with thought archetypes “there is borne in upon one an instant conception of the whole idea, much more luminous than can be given by the reciter in words.” There is the near insuperable difficulty in translating supersensible experiences into physical world concepts and earthbound languages. The two dimensions are literally worlds apart.
... more »
One may fairly ask what business a book devoted to transmitting the Teachings of an Elder Brother of the Rose Cross has to do with reporting scientifically inadmissable anecdotes (Mr. Roberts’
“remarkable” story), citing dubious materialistic experiments to weigh the soul (actually, and if at all,
the two lower ethers of vital body), or using data issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Does
a work that purports to set forth high spiritual truths given to the writer compromise the integrity and purity of those Teachings by mixing them with such secular material? Which is the Elder Brother’s donation and which is the author’s own contribution? Which sources are supersensible and which are purely mundane? Does one want to put the U.S.D.A. and Dr. McDougall on the same level with the Elder Brother? Is the claim for the supersensible provenance of the Teachings sullied by such inclusions? We trust not. But we are encouraged to believe Heindel when he says that he also received “much valuable information” from Steiner, since his sources are manifold and heterogeneous.
... more »
Were we to ignore all of the forgoing information and give credence to the statement that Steiner failed the test given by the Elder Brothers, should we not, nevertheless, esteem this individual whom the Brothers instructed for “several years”? Should not the Elder Brothers “first choice” for disseminating the Teachings be deemed worthy of our serious consideration? Are the Elder Brothers not reliable judges of a person’s character and level of spiritual development? Is not Steiner at least as qualified to merit our attention as the hundreds of people, including this writer, whose opinions and thoughts have been featured in the Rays magazine, and The Rosicrucian Fellowship’s other, more enduring, publications (including those of Prentiss Tucker, Elman Bacher, Theodore Heline (Dead Sea Scrolls and Capital Punishment), Annet C. Rich, Robert Lewis, Esme Swainson, Corinne Heline, the many authors of the seven volumes of Aquarian Age Stories for Children, the anonymous author of Etheric Vision and What It Reveals, the many authors of the New Age Vegetarian Cookbook)?
... more »
“[A] rightly composed Anthroposophical [Rosicrucian] book should be an awakener of the life of the
spirit in the reader, not a certain quantity of information imparted. The readings of it should not be
mere reading; it should be an experiencing with inner shocks, tensions, and solutions. ... I am aware
how far removed is that which I have given in books from calling forth by its inner forces such an
experience in the mind of the reader. But I know also that with every page my inner battle has been to reach the utmost possible in this direction. In the matter of style, I do not so describe that my subjective feelings can be detected in the sentences. In writing, I subdue to a dry, mathematical style what has come out of warm and profound feeling. But only such a style can be an awakener; for the reader must cause warmth and feeling to awaken in himself. He cannot simply allow these to flow into him from the one setting forth the truth, while the clarity of his own mind remains obscured.” — The Course [Story] of My Life, pp. 330-331 (last two paragraphs — The book’s original text is given here and varies from the digital version.)
... more »
So deep runs Steiner’s respect for the inviolability of individual human will that not an iota of
persuasion in the form of emotional fervor is permitted to intrude upon the cognizing consciousness.
As nearly as possible, he strips the personal element from what he writes so that the “facts” can speak for themselves, and the reader is completely free to make of them what he will. It is clear that more involvement by the reader is required to ensoul the content of teachings so imparted. For some, this requirement is too burdensome. But having one’s soul fire lit by external means produces only a temporary effect and inclines one to be spiritually indolent and to neglect the need for complete self-reliance. Heindel is correct in stating that, ultimately, no books, be they his own or others’, can accomplish what only individual effort can attain. Moreover, this accomplished teacher cautions, “So long as you run after outside teachers, myself or anyone else, you are simply wasting energy.”
... more »
To enforce an embargo on further disclosures from Steiner’s trove of wisdom teachings is irrational
and counter-productive to our mission. The Cosmo itself testifies to what we have benefited from — teachings coming directly from Steiner or from a source shared by both Initiates. If we refuse to open our eyes and minds to this vast storehouse of Rosicrucian Teachings, Teachings not currently known by most Fellowship members, we reject the assistance and wisdom proffered by Christian Rosenkreuz himself, for Rudolf Steiner was perhaps the most public and accomplished messenger and pupil of this lofty Individuality. Making such a statement does not detract from Max Heindel’s exceptional achievements or lessen the esteem we have for him. How can it? His light shines as brightly as ever. He knows, and he would want us to know, that he and Steiner, and other Christian esotericists are all servants of the same and one living Word, the Christ. (Who is an esotericist? See here, 2nd paragraph.)
... more »
The Rosicrucian Path is the path of the delving, thinking, mindful Christian. We share our knowledge,
first- and second-hand, for the upliftment, enlightenment, and healing of our fellows. This is not the Max Heindel Fellowship, nor would he approve of the quarantine on spiritual truths that has existed here. There was a veritable ferment of ideas existing at Mt. Ecclesia during the time Heindel was alive. The early Rays (before it was so named in 1915, it was called the Echoes) testifies to this fact. At that time, it contained studies in Egyptology, Mithraism, Gnosticism, the Kabbalah, Swedenborg, Masonry, Magic, and the Grail legends, among many other topics. And Heindel was the editor! Let, then, his example serve us as a model for the inclusivity of our interests. He did not spoon-feed his readers and stand over them like an Old Testament naysayer. But now we’ve dogmatized our source and fettered the spirit of the Fellowship’s founding impulse.
... more »
Section 2
Steiner and Heindel
Texts Compared
In this section we collate a selection of passages drawn from Steiner books and lectures with their
counterparts in the Cosmo and other Heindel books. No Steiner texts will be cited that are dated later than 1907 to early 1908, the period during which Heindel visited Steiner. (In his dedication withdrawal statement — see page 126 of this Study — Heindel informs us that he assimilated Steiner material from November 1907 through March 1908.) This comparison traces the patrimony of Western Wisdom Teachings. These Teachings are the inheritance of humanity. Essentially, it is the message we are interested in, not the messenger. There has been no attempt to make this collation inclusive. Such an undertaking would entail a study many times the size of this presentation. Also, for practical purposes, we have, with a few exceptions, omitted collating longer passages, but they are numerous. In fact, what Heindel often refers to in a paragraph or page, Steiner may elaborate in full lectures, cycles, or books.
... more »
Collation of Other Heindel Books
and Corresponding Steiner Texts
Here follow parallels between Max Heindel’s book of twenty lectures and Steiner teachings made public and in print no later than 1907. In the few instances where Steiner lectures given in 1908-09 are cited, the purpose is to establish that he was already in possession of these clairvoyantly confirmed disclosures before the Cosmo’s first edition was published at the end of 1909, as well as Heindel’s later books.
... more »
Further Comparisons Between
Steiner Printed Material
(Through 1907)
and Heindel Books
“When we read in the fifth chapter of Genesis that Adam lived for 900 years and all the patriarchs
lived for centuries, it [means that] ... the blood which coursed in their veins was transmitted directly
to their descendants, and this blood contained the pictures of the family, for blood is the storehouse
of all experiences.” — p. 49; see also Cosmo, p. 354 (paragraph beginning, “By means of this ...”)
... more »
“As for the vivisectionist’s purgatory [“occupies the three lower Regions of the Desire World], we have seen some cases compared with which the orthodox hell with its devil and pitchfork is a place of mild amusement. Yet there are no exterior agents of outraged nature to punish such an one — only the agonies of the tortured animal contained in his life panorama reacting upon him with threefold intensity.” — p. 80
... more »
“When the vital body is born at the age of seven a period of growth begins and a new motto, or rather a new relation, is established between parent and child. This may be expressed by the two words authority and discipleship ... and as memory is a faculty of the vital body, it can now memorize what is learned. It is therefore eminently teachable.” — p. 145
... more »
“Let us compare man with a flower that we may know the great import and significance of this emblem. ... Man is passionate in love, and he turns the generative organ toward the earth and hides it in shame because of this taint of passion. The plant knows no passion, fertilization is accomplished in the most pure and chaste manner imaginable, therefore it projects its generative organ, the flower, toward the sun ... This was the mystery of the Grail Cup; this is the emblematic significance of the Cup of Communion ... [and] brings to him who truly drinks thereof eternal life.” — pp. 51-52
... more »
Steiner’s fondness for alluding to Goethe’s scientific work and citing his poetry and drama can be
attributed in part to the fact that he was chosen to serve as an editor of two German editions of
Goethe’s complete works. He therefore spent almost seven years (1883-1890) at the Goethe-Schiller
archives in Weimar fulfilling this assignment, with emphasis on the natural science section. It is clear
that Heindel has shared in this material, inasmuch as Goethe and his writings are disproportionately
referred to and drawn upon in Heindel’s books, and the quoted passages are the same as those which had already been highlighted by Steiner in his books and public lectures.
... more »
“[I]n moments of deadly danger the etheric body is loosened, and, with its memories, it detaches itself from the brain, and a man's whole life flashes before his soul.” “For instance, a man who is drowning, or falling from a great height, when death seems imminent, may see his whole life before him in this way.” — Gates, Lecture 3, paragraph beginning, “A similar loosening ...”
... more »
“[O]nly if he separated it into two sexes could Jehovah sustain the human race. Two opposing factions resulted, Freemasonry and priestly rule, which were symbolized by Cain and Abel [scroll half-way down]. ... Freemasonry thus created the Temple Legend as an answer to the Bible legend. This was to be the sword of battle against the priesthood. ... In the beginning, one of the Elohim created Cain by uniting himself with Eve. Another Elohim, Yahveh, countered by creating Adam, who united with Eve, as a result of which Abel was born. ... [T]he descendants of Cain conquered the world ... Music, arts and sciences were cultivated by them. ... Tubal-Cain ... Jubal ... and Hiram, the builder of Solomon’s Temple, are numbered among the descendants of Cain. ... Solomon’s power was not sustained by work done on the physical plane, but was the manifestation
of God’s grace. ... Three of Hiram’s apprentices are discontented because he did not promote them to the Master’s Degree. They conspire to hurt him. They want to spoil his masterpiece. Now he intends to make the Molten Sea ... Hiram ... is led to the center of the earth by ... Tubal-Cain [who] ... gave him a hammer with which he can complete the casting of the Molten Sea. ... So we have two modern currents. ... one order having a cross without roses, and the other, which reveres the roses on a new cross, which must come. These are the Rosicrucians.” — TL, Lecture 18, “Freemasonry and Human Evolution II”, October 23, 1905, pp. 246-263
... more »
“The continent of Atlantis was destroyed by a series of deluges, as a consequence of which the terrestrial atmosphere cleared. Then and only then [appeared] the blue sky, the storm, rain, the rainbow. That is why the Bible says that when Noah’s Ark had come to rest, the rainbow, the ‘bow in the cloud,’ was a new token of alliance between God and Man” — EC, Lecture II, 1906, p. 23 (para. beginning, “Nifelheim ...”)
... more »
“The ray of Uranus [ruler of the pituitary body] is gradually forging a second spinal cord ... This work has been completely accomplished by the Adepts.” — pp. 345-346
... more »
“The word Freemason is derived from the Egyptian phree messen, ‘Children of Light.’” — p. 75
... more »
The following list of books and lectures can only partially convey an idea of the extent to which Steiner’s Rosicrucian wisdom teachings are informed by the cosmic impact of the Christ Being on, and the Christ-giving to, human evolution. To compile anything approaching a complete list of relevant texts would entail citing most of Steiner’s public offerings, as they all are conditioned and ensouled by Christ-consciousness.
... more »
Section 3
Further Considerations
The results of our inquiry have led us to conclude that Max Heindel, according to his own dedicatory
words to the first edition of the Cosmo, obtained a substantial amount of esoteric information from
Rudolf Steiner, which he incorporated in the Cosmo and, perhaps to a lesser degree, other subsequently published Fellowship books. This material was most likely ratified by the Elder Brother who became Heindel’s Teacher, for the very reason that Steiner’s Teacher was, on occasion, Christian Rosenkreuz. It would not be entirely correct to say, however, that the “apparition” who came to Heindel’s room in Germany had a “much more far-reaching [solution to the riddle of the universe] than any publicly known teaching” (Teachings of an Initiate, p. 101). This statement is not true, simply because much of the occult information contained in the Cosmo was, as this Study has taken pains to show, already in the public domain, albeit a very select one, one to which Heindel had at least some access, as a narrative shall presently indicate, and as the Cosmo-Steiner text parallels confirm. That is, if the Cosmo embodies the Brother’s “far-reaching solution,” it simply endorses the value of Steiner’s esoteric teachings, publicly in place by the time the reported transmission to Heindel occurred; for, in terms of content, the two expositions are comparable, and, in many instances, identical.
... more »
Persons familiar with the work of both Initiates quickly recognized the similarity between the Cosmo
and Steiner teachings, and this observation gave rise to a rumor that plagiarism 69 was involved. In fact, Steiner himself makes such an allegation in a Leipzig lecture given on June 10, 1917, the relevant text of which is given on the next page. The lecture was addressing difficulties in the Anthroposophical Society and cited the need for “positive, virile judgment,” without which Steiner posed the genuine possibility of dissolving the Society. “Spiritual science would be quite able, after all, to exist without the Society. Arrangements necessary for lectures could be made by a few friends in each town, without any Society at all. Anthroposophy, therefore, must not be identified with the Anthroposophical Society.”
... more »
“This man Grashof attended every lecture that he possibly could. He borrowed notes made by the
members and copied them all. And what people were unwilling to give him he extracted through the
intermediary of the person who had introduced him [Dr. von Brandis, the person to whom Heindel co-dedicated the Cosmo’s first edition]. Then, after a time, he returned to America, whence he had come, and wrote a book, compiled from everything he had heard in the lectures and found in the books and had also amassed from unpublished lectures. But he made no mention of this. [In fact, he did!] He wrote a preface to his book in which he said: ‘I heard this and that from Dr. Steiner but felt that I was not ready for it. [Quite to the contrary.] Then I was ordered to go to a “master” (a Master in the Transylvanian Alps of course!) and from this Master I learned the deeper truths that I still lacked.’ The “deeper” and “higher” in this book is copied down from my lectures and books and from notes made by other members.
... more »
Prior to Vollrath’s translation and publication of the Cosmo, Steiner’s regular publisher had been
approached for the same purpose. Steiner refers to this in a letter to his wife January 28, 1911: “Altmann [his publisher] writes that he has been offered the translation of Max Heindel’s book. I will have to explain the situation to him. It really is true that some of the things which happen cause feelings which one could do without.” — C&D, p. 115 (in book but not shown; another rendition is given here)
... more »
At the same time, when others copied his work, they were not necessarily aware of Steiner’s main
objective in making his material available. He wrote and spoke in such a way that the content of his
delivery was “designed to be taken up in inner experience.... [A] rightly composed Anthroposophical
book should be an awakener of the life of the spirit in the reader, not a certain quantity of
information imparted. The reading of it should not be mere reading; it should be an experiencing with inner shocks, tensions and solutions” (ibid, p. 330, second to last paragraph). His aim was not to give information about the worlds of spirit in the same way that textbooks present facts relating to the physical world. Rather it was to plant seeds for spiritual growth in the reader and listener, to prompt inner movements of the soul, to encourage the development of individual supersensible faculties by transmitting leading thoughts and organizing them in a manner that demonstrated how non-sensed-based thinking was to proceed and eventually issue in visionary experience.
... more »
We introduce another document at this point, which reflects the surprise and confusion that must arise when avid readers of Western Wisdom literature encounter the books of both Heindel and Steiner. The purpose of this Study is to make sense of their shared objective and to come to conclusions that will do justice to our two benefactors’ intentions and best serve our own spiritual needs.
... more »
When the clairvoyant gives birth to visions of the higher worlds in a body comprised of words drawn
from the physical world, much spiritual travail and mental labor are involved. And the issue has
something of the clairvoyant’s own soul in it, even as it carries a totally objective truth. But from Max Heindel’s point of view, once the truth is given, there is another responsibility — to make it known, to share it, to use it. Given its value, how can one not disseminate it as widely and as zealously as possible?
... more »
For Heindel’s labor of love, he got not a word of thanks. One might ask, however, why he should have expected a word of thanks. Surely pique at not receiving a note of appreciation for his monumental undertaking wouldn’t, in itself, have occasioned such a venting of spleen. The material contained in this Study shows that Heindel’s allegations are without substance. But pejorative statements like these have been credulously absorbed and have negatively influenced certain members of the Rosicrucian Fellowship who have not sought to determine their validity and have thus perpetuated errors and expressed unwarranted ill-will towards him who was the source for much that is contained in their beloved Cosmo.
... more »
Clearly, there were moments of all-too human — and not exactly laudable — expression of personal feelings and misgivings by both Steiner and Heindel. While these rare manifestations are curious and potentially polarizing, we should resist the impulse to form alliances and partisan groups based on our reading of these expressions. We do not like to see our heroes show their foibles and frailties. We would prefer to purge the historical ledger of such blemishes, or at least to justify them out of existence. But, in all honesty, we cannot. Humans are human and have lapses. Let us be rid of the sad need to have to defend a person’s occasional failure or flaw. A Christian is not wholly Christ-like but striving to be like Christ.
... more »
During January, February and March 1908, the Elder Brother, whom the writer now knows and
reveres as Teacher, came at times, clothed in his vital body and enlightened the writer on various
points. In April and May, after unwittingly passing a test, the writer was invited to journey to the
estate on which is found the Temple of the Rosy Cross.
There he met the Elder Brother in his dense body; there he was given the far-reaching, synthetic
philosophy embodied in the present work — which in the opinion of many old students in England, on the Continent, and in America, embodies everything that has been taught in public or
esoterically in the past, besides much more that has never before been printed.
... more »
If some Rosicrucian Fellowship students have previously harbored reservations about the
appropriateness or relevance of Steiner’s writings, surely now those doubts may be dismissed, for
Heindel, not to mention the Elder Brother, implicitly sanctions their value. The reason for his
dedication remains in effect — much valuable information had been received and continues to resonate, “along main lines,” with the Brother’s transmission. But in deference to Steiner, to
prevent Cosmo readers from assuming that the book is an authoritative statement of Steiner’s
teachings, Heindel withdrew the dedication.
... more »
In the final analysis, we feel that mapping out the transmission lines by which the Fellowship
obtained its original body of teachings is somewhat of a side issue, a diversion of our energies and
primary needs. For whatever be the actual channel(s), whatever be the claims for authenticity or
exclusivity, each of us will have to prove all things for ourselves, and then hold fast to that which we
find good and true. That is why Paul’s words begin and end (only in) the Cosmo’s first and second
editions. To accept a teaching solely on the authority of its alleged provenance is a practice unsuited
to the needs of our time and runs counter to our calling and obligation to be self-reliant in all matters, particularly as they pertain to confirming truth. It is emphatically an individual responsibility.
... more »
Addenda
A typewritten copy of the Cosmo exists. This text antedates the printed galley proofs and
consequently, the first edition proper. This typewritten version shows Heindel’s extensive hand-
written corrections. The dedication page at this time is different from that of the first edition. A
facsimile is here reproduced. (The background shows a proposed design for the book’s cover — a serpent entwined around the cross.) On this page Heindel dedicates the Cosmo “to my esteemed teacher and valued friend Dr. Rudolf Steiner and to my more than friend Dr. Alma von Brandis in grateful recognition of the inestimable influence for soul-growth they have exercised in my life.”
... more »
Dr. von Brandis was an osteopath who had been a fellow member of the Los Angeles chapter of the
Theosophical Society when Heindel was its vice-president. Heindel’s strong personal feeling (“more
than friend”) for von Brandis caused his soul body to separate for the first time from his ailing
physical body to travel from Los Angeles to the port of San Pedro to see her off (we presume
unbeknownst to her!) on a steamer. This incident is referred to in 2 Q&A, p. 413, but is more fully
described in the January 1916 Rays (p. 18), wherein Heindel reports on his first conscious out-of-
the-body experience, which was “caught by a camera.” Because he was feeling “particularly
lonesome and intently desirous of seeing our [the author is using the editorial we] friend, suddenly,
as if by magic, we found ourself standing outside the bed looking at the poor wasted body...” von
Brandis became a student of Steiner’s teachings and encouraged Heindel to visit Germany, ultimately financing his journey and securing his access to some of the non-public esoteric meetings.
... more »
The third section of The Heindel-Steiner Connection considers Heindel’s statement of withdrawal of
the Cosmo’s dedication to Steiner, which appeared in the book’s second edition. In that statement (p. 127) Heindel uses the word “plagiarist,” because he had already (1910) received comments regarding the similarity between the Cosmo’s contents and Steiner’s books and lectures. Subsequently, the term (“plagiarism”) is also used by Steiner on several occasions. An additional instance occurred in October 1913 in Oslo, where Steiner gave five lectures under the title of The Fifth Gospel. The fifth lecture contains his remarks on this issue:
... more »
Some Steiner critics feel that he does not meet their criteria for a sufficiently Western orientation, that he intermingles Eastern influences. More than a passing familiarity with his work proves the contrary (see below, for examples). These critics would do well to consider the five pages in the Cosmo (pp. 270-275) that Heindel devotes to explaining how Blavatsky’s “unexcelled” Secret Doctrine and A.P. Sinnett’s Esoteric Buddhism, “two such valuable works,” though “differing (and seemingly contradictory) ... “may be reconciled.” These works are “valuable” for whom? Apparently, for the author. Apparently also for the reader of the Cosmo, else Heindel would have made no mention of them, certainly not praised them. But they have an Eastern slant, do they not? After all, Sinnett’s book is on Buddhism, not Christianity. Yet Heindel finds value in it. Steiner, on the other hand, maintains that “every amalgamation of western knowledge with eastern esotericism can only produce such unproductive mongrels as Sinnett's ‘Esoteric Buddhism’ (C&D, p. 19). In his diagram on page 186, Steiner illustrates how Sinnett, and Theosophy in general, overlook the crucial contribution of Christ and Christianity to human and world evolution.
... more »
Additional Text Collations — 1
Here follow additional instances showing the similarity between Heindel’s writings and what Steiner
had already made public prior to 1908. These quotes supplement Section 2 of the original Study — pp. 54-115
... more »
If Steiner speaks and writes from the Rosicrucian perspective, giving only first-hand information gleaned from the spirit worlds, are not his offerings of interest and potential value to students of the Rosicrucian Fellowship? Much material was given in the original Study (see pages 27-35) identifying Steiner’s Rosicrucian focus, which we summarize and supplement below. Firstly, let Heindel himself tell us who belongs to the School of the Rosicrucians: “Generally speaking,
it may be said that all the people of the Western World belong to the Western Wisdom School of the
Rosicrucians.” — 2 Q&A, p. 500. Presumably, this generalization would include Steiner.
... more »
Since some prejudices die hard, there may yet be some people who continue to doubt the centrality of the Rosicrucian perspective in Steiner’s teaching. After all, they may contend, he used the term ‘Anthroposophy’, which he defined as “a scientific exploration of the spiritual world.” In response to these persons we quote from a recent publication of the Anthroposophic Press, which publishes Steiner’s complete works and many other books by numerous authors along Rosicrucian/Anthroposophic lines.
... more »
“It has also happened that Occult Brotherhoods made proposals to me of one kind or another. A certain highly respected Occult Brotherhood suggested to me that I should participate in the spreading of a kind of occultism calling itself ‘Rosicrucian’, but I left the proposal unanswered, although it came from a much respected Occult Movement. I say this in order to show that we ourselves are following an independent path.” Nonetheless, this independent path was essentially Rosicrucian, as Steiner himself maintained.
... more »
The stated objective of this Study and its Addenda is to show the merit of returning to the more open-minded editorial and wisdom-exchange policy that existed while Max Heindel was living, and to propose additional sources for expanded Western Wisdom study. Though Rudolf Steiner’s contribution to esoteric knowledge is vast and specifically Rosicrucian, there is much else that Heindel thought students would find instructive. His interests were broad indeed. Consider what he deemed to be admissible contents for the Rays magazine while he was its Editor (until Jan 1919):
... more »
Charles Leadbeater was a controversial figure in the Theosophical Society. He possessed some degree of negative clairvoyance and was a commanding presence and effective lecturer. It was in this latter capacity that Heindel was first introduced to occult truths. One day in late December 1903, while walking the streets of Los Angeles, Heindel noticed a sign over Blanchard Hall announcing a lecture on reincarnation by Charles Leadbeater. Heindel attended the lecture and first met Augusta Foss, who was an usher. On the basis of hearing this and subsequent lectures by Leadbeater, Heindel went through a dramatic conversion experience.59 In a letter dated January 13, 1904, Heindel wrote Leadbeater a letter, the text of which appeared in the April, 1949 issue of The Theosophist (pp. 17-19), under the title, “How Max Heindel Came to Theosophy,” and herewith follows:
... more »
November 1917. “The Sufi Mystics.” Heindel introduces this article by saying that “the reports of those who have studied them [the Sufis] all laud their transcendent spirituality.” They are not Rosicrucian, but they have wisdom, for all that, and Heindel believes the reader will “undoubtedly profit” from reading about these wise men. He adds: “There is a striking analogy between the Sufis in their relation to Mohammedanism and the medieval Alchemists in their relation to the then dominant church. Both Sufis and the Alchemists had the leaven of truth and both were forced to hide it under symbols and signs.”
... more »
Additional Text Collations — 2
“Observe the femur ... This bone carries the entire weight of the body. On the outside it is built of a thin layer of compact bone, strengthened on the inside by beams and cross-beams of cancellated bone, in such a marvelous manner that the most skilled bridge or construction engineer could never accomplish the feat of building a pillar of equal strength with so little weight. The bones of the skull are built in a similar manner, always the least possible material is used and the maximum of strength obtained.” — pp. 76-77
... more »
In the scheme of Heindel’s universalist approach to knowledge, what is the relative merit of the
information Rudolf Steiner has to offer? Surely an individual who is one of the Western world’s few
advanced positive clairvoyants, a Christian and a self-professed exponent of the Rosicrucian path to
spiritual attainment, deserves at least the exposure given to the hundreds of contributors to the Rays magazine and the authors of Fellowship books not written by Heindel.
... more »
Heindel and Steiner Diagram
and Chart Comparisons
Steiner’s many impromptu illustrations were drawn on the spot and lecture specific, so they couldn’t be elaborate or look finished. Since they were copied “as is” to the printed version and then circulated, they would have been available for Heindel’s study, and, if not copied, their form would still have been imprinted in his memory. Mrs. Mary Rath Merrill and her daughter, both artists, drew the diagrams for Heindel while he was giving the Rosicrucian Christianity Lectures in Columbus, Ohio.
... more »
“The group-spirits of the three lower kingdoms are variously located in the higher Worlds ... the dense vehicles of all kingdoms correspond to the shell of the snail, which is crystallized from its juices, the snail representing the spirit; and the juices of its body in their progress towards crystallization representing the mind, desire body and vital body. These various vehicles were emanated by the spirit from itself for the purpose of gaining experience through them. It is the spirit that moves the dense body where it will, as the snail moves its house, and not the body that controls the movements of the spirit. ...
... more »
“The consciousness of the entire mineral world is in the highest regions of the Mental World ...
The consciousness of stones is such that if we wished to seek its focus, we should find it as a
kind of Sun-atmosphere. When on the Earth we work upon the mineral world; when we break
stones, each single action is in a certain relationship to this Sun-atmosphere. There one perceives
the work that man does here. Thus we have a range of beings on the physical plane whose
consciousness however lies on different planes.” — Foundations of Esotericism, Lecture XXVII
1905 (paragraphs beginning, “The concept of consciousness ...”)
... more »
“[M]an, the Ego, the Thinker, has descended into the Chemical Region of the Physical
World. Here he has marshaled all his vehicles, thereby attaining the state of waking consciousness. He is learning to control his vehicles. The organs of neither the desire body nor the mind are yet evolved. The latter is not yet even a body. At present it is simply a link, a sheath for the use of the Ego as a focusing point. It is the last of the vehicles that have been built. The spirit works gradually from finer into coarser substance, the vehicles also being built in fine substance first, then in coarser and coarser substance. The dense body was built first and has now come into its fourth stage of density; the vital body is in its third stage and the desire body in its second, hence it is still cloud-like, and the sheath of mind is filmier still.
... more »
More illustrations may be found in a “Schematic Survey of the Stages of World Evolution,” including
a remarkable inverted tree of consciousness, ramifying into seven septenary Kingdoms — three Elemental and one each of the Mineral (whose nadir of materiality is reached at phase 25), Plant, Animal and Human Kingdoms, where the spiritual zenith is reached in phase 49.
... more »
Heindel expounds on the content of the above table in “The Seven Days of Creation,” (pp. 411-420)
... more »
“In the fourth Round the Sun and Moon came forth again as one body, and now the
Earth began to form itself. At this point an important event occurred: an encounter of the Earth with
the planet Mars. The planets interpenetrated, the Earth going through Mars. At that time Mars
possessed a substance, iron, which the Earth lacked, and Mars left this iron in the Earth in a vaporous form. But for this occurrence, the Earth would have had to remain as it was, possessing only what was already there. Man would have risen as far as the animal kingdom, as it then was; he would have breathed warmth, but he would never have acquired warm blood, for there is iron in the blood. In fact, according to occult science, the Earth is indebted to Mars to such an extent that the first half of its evolution is called Mars. Mercury has equal significance for the second half; the Earth entered into a connection with Mercury and is still closely related to it. Hence in occult science the terms Mars and Mercury are used instead of Earth.
... more »
“The Rosicrucian speaks of the Earth Period as Mars-Mercury. The great creative Day of Manifestation is embodied in the names of the days of the week, for our weekdays have been
named after the evolutionary stages through which the virgin spirits pass in their pilgrimage through
matter.
... more »
“It is to the original Semite civilization that we owe everything that has existed up till
the present time. But now there begins a new impact with the Slavonic Peoples which will lead into
the future [the Sixth Epoch, “New Galilee”]. A kind of break with the past will be brought about by
a people who will introduce a new impulse into the world. This is working as hidden spirituality out
of the Russian peasantry. It will form the second part of the coming spiral. At the present time, a
certain culture is in process of destruction and a new one is being prepared. It is being prepared in
the West and will come to fruition in the East. But the Old must activate the New. Wherever in our
time we have new impulses, these are germinal, awkward, unskillful. On the contrary the Old is
clear-cut, but has a critical, destructive character. It was the Semitic Race which gave birth to the
bearers of the Old Culture, who are the bearers of what spirals within the spiral. ...
... more »
“Every being possesses consciousness. This is also true of the plant, but its
consciousness lies on the devachanic plane, on the mental plane. A diagram of the consciousness of
the plant would have to be done in the following way:
“The plants can also speak and answer us, only we must learn to observe them on the mental plane.
There they tell us their own names.” —FE (tenth paragraph)
... more »
“The Fifth Root-Race is that in which Manas [hereafter, ‘Mind’ will be substituted for ‘Manas’] develops on the physical plane. In the Old Indian civilization man lived in a condition
corresponding to Mind in a kind of deep trance-like state. There the primeval wisdom was revealed
to the ancient Indians by the Rishis. The second revelation took place with the Persians in a condition similar to our deep sleep. ...
... more »
The third layer is a circle of inverted consciousness. All sorrow appears there as joy. And all joy is
experienced as sorrow. Its substance, composed of vapors, is related to our feelings in the same
negative manner as the second layer is in regard to life. If we now abstract these three layers by means of our thinking, we would then find the earth in the condition in which it was before the separation of the moon. If one is able by means of concentration to attain a conscious astral vision, one would then see the activities in these two layers: the destruction of life in the second and the transformation of feelings in the third.
... more »
In Letters to Students, Max Heindel writes that the “reason so few have anything to say about the
earth’s inner constitution” is due to the fact that such knowledge presumes Initiation. “Such penetration is the Path of Initiation.” And in the Cosmo he writes that “to investigate completely the secrets of our physical planet, one must have passed through the nine lesser Mysteries and the first of the Great Initiations.”
Steiner made this investigation and accomplished such a penetration. He correlates the Seven Stages of Christian Initiation — 1) Washing of the Feet 2) the Scourging 3) the Crowning with Thorns 4) Carrying the Cross 5) the Mystic Death, which includes the Descent into Hell 6) Entombment and 7) Resurrection — with the ability to enter the first seven strata of Earth (seventh paragraph).
... more »
Atomistic Stratum: This is the name given by the Rosicrucians to the eighth layer of the Earth, which
is the expression of the World of Virgin Spirits. It seems to have the property of multiplying many
fold the things in it; this applies, however, only to those things which have been definitely formed.
An unshapen piece of wood, or an unhewn stone has not existence there, but upon anything which
has been shaped, or has life and form (such as a flower or a picture), this stratum has the effect of
multiplication to an astonishing degree.
... more »
“When the clairvoyant examines a plant he finds that the part visible in the physical world is nothing but a combination of the physical and etheric bodies of the plant. ... To the opened eyes of the clairvoyant the plant is surrounded by a glow, and this comes from astral substances. It is this also which cooperates in the development of the flower. While the plant grows from leaf to leaf through the influence of the etheric body, its growth terminates above in a flower through being surrounded by astral substance. ... The individual plants grow out of the Earth like the fingernails out of our organism. Inside the Earth, many plant-Egos are together. Not every plant has an Ego, but whole groups of plants share a common Ego. ... The group-I of the plants, their group spirit, which lives in the lower devachan [Region of Concrete Thought], is localized in the centre of the Earth.” — Lecture, February 2, 1908 (for both illustration and text)
... more »
“The group-spirit of the mineral has it slowest vehicle in the Region of Abstract Thought. ... The group-spirits of plants are at the center of the Earth. They are ... in the Region of Concrete Thought, which interpenetrates the Earth, as do all the other Worlds. From these group-spirits flow streams or currents in all directions to the periphery of the Earth, passing outward through the length of plant or tree. ... The plant is sustained by the spiritual currents of the Group-Spirit in the center of the earth, which enter into it by way of the root. ... The animal spine is in a horizontal position and through it play the currents of the animal group-spirit which encircle the Earth [and emanating from the Desire World].” — pp. 85-86
... more »
With the Incarnation, Crucifixion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, His resulting status is
described in Ephesians, where God, in “the exceeding greatness of his power” raised Christ “from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.”
... more »
Steiner takes the zodiacal influences on Earth development a step further. His supersensible research discerns angelic spheres of influence for each planet, according to the above diagram, created by the above-cited Roy Wilkinson, with the following synopsis drawn from Steiner’s lectures on the subject:
“[T]he cosmos is full of perceptible beings and within the planetary orbits are the spatial dwellings of the Hierarchies. The Moon orbits the Earth, and, taking the Earth as centre and the circular path of the Moon around it, one can visualize a sphere in space. This is interpenetrated by the spheres of which other planets form their orbits.
“Thus there are a series of concentric spheres and it is here that the various higher beings have their
habitations. The orbits mark out the limits of the realms of rulership of each member of each Hierarchy.
... more »
In Heindel’s account of Cosmogenesis, the angelic host largely responsible for Earth and man’s creation during each Period worked in the Globe that bears that Period’s name, and is correlated with the seven weekdays. Thus the Lords of Will (also called “Lords of Flame”, and “Thrones”) were principally active during the Saturn Period, denoted in ‘Saturday’. The Lords of Wisdom, later assisted by the Cherubim, were the principal creative agents during the Sun Period and reflected in ‘Sunday’. Thereafter, and briefly:
... more »
While studying this section, the reader may be reminded that Heindel’s “much valuable information
received” from Steiner (see page 125) included not only text, but explanatory illustrations, such as what is herein being presented. Also see this fine illustration, titled “The Light of the World,” which correlates the Trinity with the Hierarchies, as they are mediated by the Mysteries and manifest as: Soul Qualities, Principles, Human Aspects, Ethers and Threefold Society.
... more »
[T]he eastern initiations must of necessity leave untouched the Christ as the central cosmic factor
of evolution. But without this principle the theosophical movement will have no decisive
influence on western cultures, which trace their beginnings back to Christ's life on Earth. If taken
on their own, the revelations of oriental initiation would have to stand aside from the living
culture in the West in a sectarian manner. They could only hope for success within evolution if
the principle of Christianity were to be eradicated from western culture. But this would be the
same as eradicating the essential meaning of the Earth, which lies in the recognition and
realization of the intentions of the living Christ.
... more »
The Person and ongoing love sacrifice of Christ are at the heart of, and largely account for, Rudolf
Steiner’s twenty-five years of public ministry. All he wrote and spoke, beginning with Christianity as
Mystical Fact, was conditioned by his Christ-consciousness. The reader may may refer to pp. 24-27 and pp. 115-117 in this Study for patent instances of Steiner’s Christocentrism.
... more »
The evolution of our planetary system is expressed in the order of the weekdays. One only has to
remember clearly that on an esoteric level the Earth must be replaced by the two planets Mars and
Mercury [considered as evolutionary terms]. For the first half of Earth development from the beginning to the middle of the Atlantean age (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and half the 4th race) is related esoterically to Mars and the second half (last half of the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Races) to Mercury. When the beings who had developed on the Moon appeared out of the darkness of pralaya (Heindel’s cosmic night between two days or phases of manifestation), the basis of the following parts of the human being had been developed:
... more »
Heindel’s masterful Diagram 5 does not take an historic approach to the creation of the human physical and supersensible bodies; thus it makes no reference to the sevenfold Earth embodiments. Steiner’s above sketch — for that is what it is — was made for his life partner, Marie von Sivers, in 1905 for her private use. It omits, in this instance, any allusion to the central role played by the mind as the focus for spiritual development; yet repeatedly in his books and lectures Steiner stressed that rigorous thinking and absolute control of the mind are essential for self-transformation. He studied intensively in the field of thermo-dynamics and recommended the study of mathematics to strengthen non-sense-based thinking, for which see pp. 11, 12, 38, 50 and 200.
... more »
Rudolf Steiner as Seer
Since the purpose of this Study is to propose and give abundant proof that Rudolf Steiner was and is
an eminently qualified exponent and exemplar of Rosicrucian teachings and that his writings are
worthy to be studied by the serious Fellowship student, its main thrust is to identify some of those
writings. However, with respect to this section on seership, we may briefly note that Heindel was at
least a third-degree initiate, which enabled him to experience the content of the “Third Heaven,” or
the Region of Abstract Thought. Thus he had already received the second initiation, enabling him to
navigate in the “Second Heaven,” or Region of Concrete Thought. His first initiation gave him the
ability to investigate the “First Heaven,” which is the higher region of the Desire World. These
dimensions of the spirit world are described in Teachings of an Initiate (pp. 149-162), Rosicrucian
Mysteries (pp. 77-83) and in Ger Westenberg’s biography of Max Heindel.
... more »
To live in the sense of these great religions [given by the “great initiates”] means to work for the
attainment of personal spiritual perfection. Only by so doing can man become a servant of the
world and of humanity. Self-perfection is by no means self-seeking, for the imperfect man is an
imperfect servant of the world and of humanity. The more perfect a man is, the better does he serve
the world. ‘If the rose adorns itself, it adorns the garden.’” The teachings of these great initiates
“can only be understood if it be remembered that they are the product of knowledge of the
innermost depths of human nature. The great initiates knew, and it is out of their knowledge that
they shaped the ideals of humanity. And man approaches these great leaders when he uplifts
himself, in his own development, to their heights. [ — KHWA (2 paragraphs beginning, “It will ...”)]
... more »
[T]he reality of the spiritual world was to me as certain as that of the physical. I felt the need,
however, for a sort of justification for this assumption. I wished to be able to say to myself that
the experience of the spiritual world is just as little an illusion as is that of the physical world.
With regard to geometry I said to myself: “Here one is permitted to know something which the
mind alone, through its own power, experiences.” In this feeling I found the justification for the
spiritual world that I experienced, even as, so to speak, for the physical. And in this way I talked
about this. I had two conceptions which were naturally undefined, but which played a great role
in my mental life even before my eighth year. I distinguished things as those “which are seen”
and those “which are not seen.” ... I myself can look back quite objectively upon the childlike
unaided manner in which I confirmed for myself by means of geometry the feeling that I must
speak of a world “which is not seen.” Only I must also say that I loved to live in that world. For
I should have been forced to feel the physical world as a sort of spiritual darkness around me
had it not received light from that side. [pp. 11-12 ]
... more »
In my own soul I lived in a world that bordered on the outer world, but it was always necessary
for me to step across a boundary if I wished to have anything to do with the outer world. I was in
the most vital intercourse with others, but in every instance I had to pass from my world, as if
through a door, in order to engage in this intercourse [p. 168]. This made it seem to me as if each
time that I entered into the outer world I was making a visit. Yet this did not hinder me from
giving myself up to the most vital participation with one whom I was thus visiting; indeed, I felt
entirely at home while on such a visit. ... I felt at home only in the spiritual world of my perception,
and I could feel “as if at home” in every other.] ... But one becomes conscious of the “being of
the outer world” if one can with love yield oneself up to it and yet must always turn back to the
inner world of the spirit. But one also learns in this process really to live in the spiritual. The
various intellectual “standpoints” repudiate one another; spiritual vision sees in them simply
“standpoints.” Seen from each of these, the world appears differently. It is as if one should
photograph a house from various sides. [pp. 169-170]
... more »
Over and over again, in order that I might through meditation attain to a right relationship to the
world, I held these things before my mind: “There is the world full of riddles. Knowledge would
draw near to these. But for the most part it seeks to produce a thought-content as the solution
of a riddle. But the riddles” — so I had to say to myself — “are not solved by means of thoughts. These bring the soul along the path toward the solutions, but they do not contain the solutions. In the real world arises a riddle; it is there as a phenomenon; its solution arises also in reality. Something appears which is being or event, and this represents the solution of the other.”
... more »
For one who did not stand in living reality within the world of spirit, such a sinking of himself
into a certain course of thought signified a mere activity of thought. For one who experiences the
world of spirit, it signifies something quite different. He is brought into contact with Beings in the
world of spirit who desire to make such tendencies of thought the sole predominant ones. Their
one-sidedness in thinking does not merely lead to abstract error; there is a spiritual and living
intercourse with a being which in the human world is error. Later I spoke of Ahrimanic beings
when I wished to make reference to this. For these it is an absolute truth that the world must be
a machine. They live in a world which touches directly upon the sense-world.
... more »
At the time when I made the statements concerning Christianity so opposed in literal content to
later utterances, it was also true that the real content of Christianity was beginning germinally to
unfold within me as an inner phenomenon. About the turn of the century the germ unfolded more
and more. Before this turn of the century came this testing of the soul here described. The
evolution of my soul rested upon the fact that I stood before the mystery of Golgotha in most
inward, earnest joy of knowledge [p. 264].
... more »
“We do not attain to the Beings of the higher Hierarchies if we are not in a position worthily to
confront the Imagination and Inspiration which has been described, and to bear seeing its opposite
picture; that is, the possibilities in the depths of human nature when it was cast down from the
Spiritual into the physical world. If we refuse to look upon the twofold picture of Cain and Abel
below— our own self, and the representative of our Higher Self — the mediator between our self and the higher Hierarchies— we cannot ascend. But when we are able to cultivate within our self the feeling indicated here, we then experience our Self, and this provides the entrance to the higher orders of the Hierarchies.” — EED, Lecture VIII (last part of last paragraph)
... more »
Generally, with respect to teaching and learning, each of us knows from personal experience,
especially during our formative years, that we learned most not from what our teachers directly taught, but from their very persons, their whole manner of being and self-presentation. It was who they were that taught us. So it was with those who encountered Rudolf Steiner. And while the teachings of Christ Jesus were significant, it was his own Person that illumined and enlivened his words. It was his very Self that was the heart and soul of what he taught and embodied — which was as strongly communicated when he was silent, for he was the Word made flesh (see illustrations on pp. 3, 12, 38, 46, 78), and is the Word from the beginning — "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”
... more »
In all of Germany, arguably the person most qualified to assess the powers and person of Rudolf Steiner was Friedrich Rittelmeyer (also see here), a prominent Lutheran minister who approached the occultist and his teachings with considerable skepticism, scientific rigor, a keen mind and a fine ability to articulate his thoughts and observations. The Rays Magazine featured excerpts from Rittelmeyer’s Meditation — Letters on the Guidance of the Inner Life in twenty consecutive issues, beginning with a Sep/Oct 1999 article and concluding with the Nov/Dec 2002 issue. We will be quoting at length from his book Rudolf Steiner Enters My Life because it gives the most complete and affecting insights into the breadth and depth of this Christian’s life and soul, as well as his incomparable ability to experience and document the higher spirit worlds. It also vividly narrates the account of this neophyte’s (Rittelmeyer’s) soul conversion, transformation and spiritual regeneration over the course of many years. It might be called “The journey of a soul to supersensible enlightenment.”
... more »
[W]hereas in the TS the Masters were only referred to as the "Masters of Wisdom," Rudolf Steiner
spoke of them as "The Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Sensations and Feelings," or
sometimes "of the Feeling-Life of Humanity," because they possessed not only a high degree of
wisdom, but also a "limitless source of human love" (From the letter to Amalie Wagner on August
2, 1904). This aspect points, as everything of his does, to the central theme of his spiritual
knowledge — the unique significance of the Christ-Principle for the whole of the development of humanity and Earth. For him Christ was the Master of all Masters, and the "Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Sensations and Feelings" were those who "stand in direct relationship to the forces of the higher hierarchies" (lecture given in Düsseldorf, June 15, 1915), and who have comprehended the fact that "the progress of humanity depends upon the understanding of the great significance of the event of Golgotha" (“The Deed of Christ and the Opposing Spiritual Powers: Lucifer, Ahriman, Mephistopheles, Asuras,” Berlin, March 22, 1909).
... more »
“Whereas ... Rudolf Steiner took personal responsibility for the supersensible knowledge he gave in
public, this did not apply in the same way to the Esoteric School. He stated that the School stood under the direct guidance of the Masters and that therefore all that flowed through it must emanate only from the Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Sensations arid Feelings, and from no other source. The chief obligation of the pupils of the School was to apply all the common sense they had to what was taught them and to ask themselves if it was a reasonable path to follow. [H&C, p. 40]
... more »
Heindel’s Letters to Probationers — 1911 to 1918 Inclusive — which, to this day, is available only to those students who have taken the vow of probationership in the etheric presence of an Elder Brother, to whom they are thus attuned — and remain so, as long as they faithfully perform their daily exercises, confirm that they have not eaten flesh foods, imbibed alcohol,80 nor smoked, and continue to send in their monthly reports to Headquarters, as well as their annual self-assessment letter. Such an access restriction has not been placed on Steiner’s esoteric communications, which are publicly available, not only in H&C but also as 51 Esoteric Lessons Vol 1 (1903-1909), 68 Esoteric Lessons Vol 2 (1910-1912), 38 Esoteric Lessons Vol 3 (1913-1914), 9 Esoteric Lessons Vol 1 (1924) and 19 Esoteric Lessons Vol 2 (1924).
... more »
“In times to come and into the next millennium things will be quite different, Humankind will extract
the forces from flowing water and use them [hydroelectricity, including dams and tidal turbines]. They will gather the mighty power from the Sun's rays in huge mirrors and will know how to make use of them [solar capture technology]. They will learn to handle the forces inside the Earth that derive from a mighty spiritual being, and are presently displayed as volcanic eruptions. People will invent the most wonderful machines to channel all these released energies into the service of humanity. They will even gain control over the forces of magnetism of the whole Earth-planet, for the Earth is only a large magnet ... in times to come it will be possible for human beings to make the Earth rotate on its axis.” (One is reminded of Heindel’s prediction that eventually humanity will be able to “float the Earth.”)
... more »
“The next incarnation is anything but obscure, it is the great Scholastic, Thomas Aquinas10 [referred to in Steiner’s letter to Dr. Paulus], who develops thinking to its greatest refinement. Aquinas died contemplating these fundamental questions, “How does Christ engage with human thinking? How can it be Christianized? How does Christ Himself lead His own human thinking up to the sphere where Man can unite with what is otherwise only the spiritual content of faith?” (See Steiner’s The Redemption of Thinking, three lectures on Thomas Aquinas and Augustine given in Dornach, May 22-24, 1920.)
... more »
“With the above questions at heart, the entelechy incarnates as Rudolf Steiner, and answers the
[Aquinas] questions. In part, he accomplished this by reversing the direction leading down to earth life that Aristotle instituted by establishing natural science. Steiner brings about this reversal by creating spiritual science, a free investigation of spiritual reality with the use of higher states of
consciousness.”
... more »
“But we can ask ourselves the following question: ‘Where did these three Wise Men subsequently stay? What will become of their wisdom?’ And we should remind ourselves that cultures rising and passing away here on Earth bear a seed that can be fructified by the Christ Impulse, and will come to a new blossoming in the epochs following the Mystery of Golgotha. What was offered to the Jesus Child by the three Magi from the East as the germ of a new culture will be reawakened by Christ. It contains the forces that will truly permeate these later epochs with the Christ Spirit. Everything pertaining to the store of wisdom contained in the third post-Atlantean epoch will be reawakened by the Christ. to fructify our fifth epoch. The second epoch — that of Zarathustra — will be reawakened to bring a true understanding of the Christ in the sixth epoch. And the first epoch — the Ancient Indian epoch — will experience a reawakening in the seventh epoch with the help of the Christ power.
... more »
“[N]ow, if he so wills, man can come to know Christ, he can gather all wisdom to this end. What does
he achieve thereby? Something of untold moment! When a man knows Christ, when he absorbs the
wisdom which begets insight into what Christ truly is; then he redeems himself and the Luciferic
Beings through this knowledge of Christ. Were man merely to say: I am content with the fact that
Christ appeared and to allow myself to be redeemed by Him unconsciously — then he would contribute nothing to the redemption of the Luciferic Beings. These Luciferic Beings who have brought man freedom, also make it possible for him, if he so wills, to turn it to account in order to understand Christ. Then the Luciferic Spirits are cleansed and purified in the fire of Christianity and the wrong done to the earth by them is changed into blessing. Freedom has been attained; but it will also be carried into the spiritual sphere as a blessing. That man is capable of this, that he is capable of understanding Christ, that Lucifer, resurrected in a new form, can unite with Christ as the good Spirit — this, as prophecy still, was told by Christ Himself to those around Him, when He said: ‘Ye shall be illumined by the new Spirit, by the Holy Spirit’! This ‘Holy Spirit’ is none other than the Spirit through whom man can apprehend what Christ has wrought. Christ desired not merely to work, but also to be apprehended, to be understood. Therefore the sending of the Spirit by whom men are inspired, the sending of the ‘Holy spirit,’ is implicit in Christianity.”
... more »
“[I]n every sequence of a planetary chain [seven progressing manifestations or embodiments of the same “planet” — as our present Earth’s inception was in its ‘Saturn’ period and it will consummate its cosmic Day of Manifestation in its seventh or ‘Vulcan’ Period], we have twelve exalted leading spirits, not seven. ... These beings are beyond our conception and therefore it is not a question of something proceeding out of nothing else, but of their relationship to one another — it is beyond time.” [The number seven relates to time — planetary movements; the number twelve relates to space — the celestial zodiac.]
... more »
Question: Do the various Masters constitute different "parts," so to speak, of a single being, so that this being contains twelve different Masters within itself, seven of which are physically incarnated and five remain in the spiritual world?
... more »
“We are not concerned here with physical death, but with the following: Physical death is only an
apparent occurrence for those who have understood the Philosopher's Stone for themselves, and
have learned to isolate it. For others it is a real happening, which signifies a great division in their
life. For those who understand how to use the Philosopher's Stone, death occurs in appearance only.
It does not constitute even a decisive turning point in life, but is, in fact, only there for the others
who can observe the adept and say that he or she is dying. The adept, however, does not really die.
It is much truer to say that the person concerned has learned to live without the physical body — has, during the course of life, learned to let all those things gradually take place within that happen suddenly in the physical body at the moment of death. In the body of the person concerned, everything has already taken place that otherwise occurs at death. Death is then no longer possible, for this person has long ago learned to live without the physical body. The adept lays aside the physical body in the same way that one takes off a raincoat, and puts on a new body just as one puts on a new raincoat” — The Temple Legend, pp. 103-104 (paragraph beginning, “The Philosopher’s Stone ...” — There is some variance between book text and the online versions ).
... more »
A Spiritual Genealogy
“When a person enters the astral world, he finds himself in a region from which he can rise a step
further into a still higher world — the mental, or devachanic world. This entry into the devachanic world can only be gained at the expense of the complete extinction, the death of the lower nature. He must go through the three days of death and then be awakened. Once he has attained vision of the astral plane and the pictures of the astral plane have confronted him, he is mature and ready to receive knowledge on the mental or devachanic plane. It is possible then to describe the awakening on the devachanic plane. To find oneself on the higher plane with conscious clarity of thought, this is the awakening of Lazarus.
... more »
Too much emphasis on the inner life can easily lead to a hardening of the I-organization. One may
rise to great heights and yet remain within it. To express this fact, all esoteric training has an
important saying: Everything that is not done for the sake of your immortality contributes to that
immortality. — H&C, p. 176
... more »
Endnotes
“The right progress will come about more as one acquires the mood: ‘take everything that comes
with calmness and resignation.’ One should not force anything but wait in patience for what comes.
... [Y]ou should really become a member of the "first degree" of the School. ... [M]embers of the
ES, through their acceptance into the ‘first degree,’ enter into real occult communication with the
spiritual current that emanates from the Masters, and that in the course of time this will become
more and more conscious to you — if perhaps only slowly. I can fully vouch to the ‘Blessed
Masters’ for your having reached the stage of being accepted. ... Above all else, do not allow
yourself to be scared by such things as, according to your letter, you have experienced. Such things
are the reactions on the etheric, and through that on the physical body, caused by the astral body
being occupied in meditation. What you see are primarily physical-etheric processes, partly caused
by your own physical organs. The causes lie in your astral body, which has become aroused by the
meditation. That will all be overcome, and in its place true spiritual experiences will be born in
you. Everything must simply be endured. In calmness.” — Letter to Mathilde Scholl, May 18, 1904, H&C, pp. 62-63. Concerning Mathilde’s experience (“a test”), Steiner counsels a concerned friend.
... more »
“... Now, however, the Western School has become independent, and there are two comparable
Schools: one in the East, the other in the West—two smaller circles instead of the one large one.
The Eastern School is being led by Mrs. Annie Besant, and those who feel more attracted to her
in their hearts can no longer remain in our School. ... At the head of our Western School there
are two Masters: the Master Jesus and the Master Christian Rosenkreutz. And they lead us along
two paths: the Christian and the Christian-Rosicrucian way. The Great White Lodge leads all
spiritual movements, and the Master Jesus and the Master Christian Rosenkreutz belong to this
Lodge. ... We stand at the dawning of the Sixth Day of Creation. We have to develop the sixth
and seventh cultural epochs out of ourselves.
... more »
In the old Saturn aeon, the seed of the physical body and Atma (Divine Spirit) were created. This is
the Father. In the old Sun aeon, the seed of the etheric body and Buddhi (Life Spirit) were added.
This is the Son. On the old Moon, the seed of the astral (desire) body and Manas (Mind) were added.
This is the Holy Spirit. At Golgotha the Son Christed the human I, entered and regenerated the Earth
and reversed its developmental trajectory.
... more »
Through the work in the physical and the etheric we create the soul. Through the work in the physical and astral we awaken and elaborate Manas [Mind], developing the higher I. Through the work in the Etheric and Astral we create Buddhi [Life Spirit], wisdom. Through conscious and concerted work in a, b and c we create Atma [Ego], the resurrection or spirit body.— Source (of preceding text)
... more »
From the “third Revolution of the Moon Period, until the latter part of the Atlantean Epoch, evolving life passed through four great stages of animal-like development before reaching the human stage. These steps of the past correspond to four stages yet to be passed through, and to the four initiations.
“Within these four stages of consciousness previously passed through, there are altogether thirteen steps, and from man's present state to the last of the Great Initiations there are also thirteen initiations — the nine degrees of the lesser mysteries and the four Great
Initiations.
... more »
Below (see diagram) is a facsimile of the Cosmo’s dedication page in its draft phase (including this color illustration for the cover), showing both Heindel’s affectional (Re: von Brandis – “my more than friend”) and laudatory (Re: Steiner — “my esteemed teacher and valued friend”) comments on the assistance he received, not only in bringing this work to fruition, but also “in grateful recognition of the inestimable influence for soul growth they have exercised in my life.” At this point in the manuscript’s journey toward publication, the word “teacher” appears — in fact, Steiner is both “valued” and “esteemed” — a term Heindel soon used to refer to the Elder Brother (though “perhaps mistakenly”) who taught him, even as did Steiner, who also contributed to Heindel’s “soul growth.” But only von Brandis receives that tribute in the book’s First Edition.
... more »
Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom provides “a philosophic basis on which to approach spiritual science. It presents the wide range of human standpoints [see linked list at left, where each viewpoint is correlated with a sign of the zodiac], often masquerading under such strange philosophical names, in a way that leaves the reader free of attachment to any particular approach and able to let the various concepts speak for themselves, as though each were a photograph of one and the same object taken from many different angles.”
... more »
The 12 zodiacal Idea-force-fields and the 7 worldview soul moods (or cognitive faculties) through
which they may be experienced, delineate a unitary Cosmos in which humankind is its
seed-ground, vital reflection, and eventual transformer, as man transmits to the very celestial hierarchiesthat conceived them — by giving of his spiritual substance, as a mother feeds and fortifies the child in her womb — reciprocal, epigenetic impulses for the further development of these same creative spirits.
... more »
After the introduction, 12 views are presented of the introduction. They follow the same order in
each chapter and are numbered in the book’s various translations that appear as topic headings.
They begin with the view of 1) Materialism, then 2) Spiritism 3. Realism 4. Idealism 5.
Mathematism 6. Rationalism, 7. Psychism, Pneumatism 8, Monadism 9, Dynamism 10,
Phenomenalism 11, and Sensationalism 12. More worldview descriptions.
... more »
“[I]n the end there will be the Word, and creation is a realization of the Word ... man ... will have advanced to that form which was on Saturn, to fire matter. Thus the creative power at the beginning of the world's evolution unites with our own creative power at the end of the world's evolution. ... Arild Rosenkrantz version
... more »
See here for photographs of and video links to the remarkable carved and sculpted all-wood columns, capitals, bases, architraves, western and eastern domes, and windows of the first Goetheanum, all of which were destroyed by arson in in 1922. Fortunately, the monumental statue of The Representative of Man) was rescued. Text for the audio displays by left-clicking the CC tab. Also view these related images, beginning with Figure 731. See the Arild Rosenkrantz drawing Anthropos, which pays tribute to and is based on Steiner’s colossal wood sculpture.
... more »
Steiner delivered several lectures in October, 1907 on the subject of chaos, gas and cosmos. Here
follow excerpts from an October 19, 1907 lecture given in Berlin on “Chaos and Cosmos”:
“Chaos is not a state which has existed in the past and has now entirely disappeared. It is all
around us at the present moment. Were it not that old forms — having outlived their usefulness — are constantly being resolved back into that Chaos, which is also as constantly giving birth to new forms, there could be no progress; the work of evolution would cease and stagnation would prevent the possibility of advancement. ...
... more »
“The evolution of our planetary system is expressed in the order of the weekdays. One only has
to remember clearly that on an esoteric level the Earth must be replaced by the two planets Mars
and Mercury. For the first half of Earth development from the beginning to the middle of the
Atlantean age (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and half the 4th race) is related esoterically to Mars and the second
half (half 4th, 5th, 6th 7th Race) to Mercury. When the beings who had developed on the Moon
appeared out of the darkness of pralaya [Cosmic Night, into the] (1st cycle of the Earth), the basis
of the following parts of the human being had been developed: 1. The physical body (from
Saturn), 2. The etheric double (from the Sun), 3. The sentient body (from the Moon). Following
the predispositions which had been developed on the Moon it was now possible — without
external influences — for the sentient soul also to develop during the first half of the Earth (1st, 2nd, 3rd cycle) and merge with the sentient body. ...
... more »
“Steiner explicitly stated in his Temple Legend [and elsewhere] that Christian Rosenkreutz was
an incarnation of John [the Evangelist], and furthermore that Saint Germain was another one of
his incarnations. Consider the implications. For Rosicrucians in Germany, it was known that
Alois Mailander spoke in the voice of John, giving Rosicrucian sermons and prophecies to those
gathered outside the weaving factory. When we look at Steiner's view of the C.R.C.-as-John
incarnations, and knowing that Mailander was Brother John returned, we can easily see how
Steiner claimed initiation by C.R.C. directly. [When Friedrich Rittelmeyer “personally asked
Steiner (in 1915) if he still saw the M occasionally, Steiner replied, ‘I have no need of that.’
According to Rittlemeyer ‘He felt secure because he was able to establish a spiritual connection
at any time, without any physical presence.’ — Friedrich Rittlemeyer, Rudolf Steiner Enters My
Life] This direct contact with C.R.C. would later be utilized by Steiner as an important channel
for communicating a Rosicrucian transmission to other Rosicrucian bodies. Here we see the
entrance of what became known as the Etheric Link. ...
... more »
See illustration.
... more »
This website is offered to the public by students of The
Rosicrucian Teachings, and has no official affiliation with any organization.
