Introduction to the Basics of Theosophy

GA 111 — 2 October 1907, Hanover

XII. Training for Rosicrucians I

The first step of the Rosicrucian training, which we have already considered, was study; the second is imagination. It is imperative that we clothe our thoughts in figurative representations. The purpose of the lectures was not to present the development in an abstract way, but to depict it by looking at images.

Plants occupy a certain place in the universe; with their roots they follow the force of attraction that emanates from the center of the earth. They open their flowers chastely to the sunlight. The animal, with its horizontal backbone, stands in the middle. Man is the transformed plant, he carries his head up, his reproductive organs bashfully turned towards the earth. Plato said: When evolution moves upwards, creatures turn back; the soul of the world is crucified on the cross of the world. In plants, the sacred love lance, the kiss of sunlight, brings forth the blossom; chastely it opens to the sun.

The animal body is permeated by desire, which is why it turns around. The human being has the task of purifying his flesh. The flesh is the plant body permeated by desire. The Cup of Amfortas represents man, which opens upwards again to receive the sunbeam. The larynx is the chalice that will open upwards through the lance of Saint Amfortas when the word itself becomes creative. The legend of the Holy Grail represents the development in a profound way.

In the time of the ancient Atlanteans, nature expressed itself in images. This wisdom in images has been drained away with the waters and vanished into the air. It was dissolved into the blanket of fog.

The dew pearls on the meadow flowers in the morning; it is the condensed, hidden wisdom that has been precipitated. It is the ancient sign of the cross. Crux in Latin. Rosae Crux is the emblem of the Rosicrucians.

Through thinking, we come from the world of the senses into the absolute world. Theosophy is truth and science; it unites in itself pure thinking, as far as it is occultally hidden in the world. We must learn to watch our thinking; by letting the thoughts sprout out of the other, we are led to self-developing thinking.

In the Apocalypse of John, thoughts are condensed into images. The seals signify images related to other worlds. They are formed from the deepest occultism.

The Alpha and the Omega. The seer John describes the beginning and the end of human development, guided by the twenty-four elders.

The earth was in the beginning a fiery matter, and in the end it will be so again. Man will be mighty through his larynx. He will call all things into existence through his word, as all things have come forth through the word. Thus the sun gods spoke the words: “In the beginning was the word!” Things came into being. Man will spiritualize and be creative.

When all was formless, God spoke the word into it. The sword is the symbol of the creative sun god.

In the volcanic state, man will hammer and forge his new world in the fire.

Man of the past can be compared to the animal of today. It still has a single group soul. The ego of the animals on the astral plan:

Man also used to have a group soul. Leo, Taurus, Aquila and Man are the individualized group souls of the Apocalypse. The “Lamb” is the sign for the individual soul. The seer sees the group souls on the astral plane. The trumpets of which John speaks come from the Devachan, which is still higher. The seer describes human development in powerful images. He marks each stage of this development with a seal. The four horses represent the four stages of human intelligence. These are all things that have been thoroughly examined in occult science.

When we go out of ourselves and strive for the sun, then the etheric body is related to the sun, wisdom does not penetrate it from the outside, it has absorbed it as a book. Man is then master of the world, he becomes a being of the sun.

We usually think of space as having three dimensions. In its original state, space was transparent, so we have to imagine a vapor-like state. Beings came into being through the condensation of matter present in space. In the astral world there are already four major and five to six counter-dimensions. By purifying his nature, man sheds the lower self. The symbol for this is the staff of Mercury. The coiling serpents become the World Spiral and the Cup of the Holy Grail.

The dove is the symbol of spiritual fertilization. This is expressed in the Rosicrucian motto: E.D.N. – From God we are born – 1.C.M. – in Christ we died, P.S.S.R. – in the Holy Ghost we rose.

The leaves of the plants are arranged in such a way that they face each other in a spiral. There we have the Mercury staff again.

The wavy line represents how the forces meander through the external world.

The return from the created world to the creating one is represented by the sacred triangle.