Introduction to the Basics of Theosophy

GA 111 — 29 March 1909, Rome

XXX. Introduction to Theosophy V

Today we want to talk about Christian initiation. But first we must clarify the principle of initiation so that we understand what we must do to attain it. My words will only be able to give a general overview, since it takes decades to fully comprehend it.

First, we see that there are three fundamental forces in human beings: Thinking, feeling, and willing. Each of these forces corresponds to a system, a path to initiation. We have the Indian path, which is connected with the development of the mind; the actual Christian path, which is connected with the development of the feelings; and finally, the Rosicrucian path, which is connected with the development of the will. Today, we want to consider the actual Christian initiation.

Let us think of the state of the human being when he is asleep, when the ego and the astral body are outside the physical body. Because the astral body has neither ears nor eyes, the human being perceives nothing during the night. Therefore, he must develop spiritual organs in his astral body. This is achieved through “purification” or “catharsis,” as it was called in ancient Greece. This is the first stage. In the second stage, the human being must imprint the perceptions of the astral body on the etheric body. Immediately after it is made, the perception is repeated like an impression in the etheric body.

In Christian initiation, in order to achieve this, the initiate had to evoke the most intense feelings within himself. These are not the feelings of everyday life, which do not relate to the astral body. They are much deeper feelings that have a powerful effect on the astral body when it is outside the physical body.

The first sensation that the initiate had to experience within himself came through the teaching of the master. He led him to a quiet, remote place and there he directed the student's attention to the peaceful nature, while saying to him: Look at this plant, how it has sunk its roots into the earth and pushed its stem upward with its leaves, flowers, and fruits — how did it do that? Through the forces it has drawn from the earth. So that if it could speak, it would say to the lifeless mineral soil: I rise above you, but I owe my life to you, and I bow down to you in gratitude. The candidate had to let this humble feeling of gratitude sink in for weeks and weeks.

Then the master proceeded to show him the animals, which in turn depend on the plant world for their food. The same relationship exists between the human kingdom and the animal kingdom and between humans themselves, so that a feeling of mutual gratitude connects all the kingdoms of nature. It was precisely this feeling that the candidate had to experience within himself.

At a certain point, the disciple has a vision that is always the same for all students. He sees what is described in the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. He sees Christ washing the feet of his twelve apostles. This bending of the higher toward the lower indicates that the higher cannot exist without the lower. The symptom that accompanies this vision is the sensation of flowing water running over the feet. This fact is the spiritual washing.

In this way, the student has become ready for the following sensation. The master tells him: You must fill your soul with all the pain of the world, every day and with increasing intensity. Then the disciple feels a stabbing pain for a while, because this feeling has become interwoven with his astral body. Then he has a vision of Christ being scourged; as an external symptom, he feels as if he himself were being scourged.

Then the astral comes toward him, and the disciple experiences a third feeling. The master tells him: You must experience within yourself as if the most sacred thing in the world for you is being trampled into dust. After weeks and months and sometimes years, the disciple experiences something like stings penetrating his head and sees Christ crowned with thorns.

Then comes the fourth stage, and the master says to the disciple: Until now you have called your body “I”; now you must learn to regard it as a mere tool. It should become like a foreign object to you, like an axe, and you must remain in this feeling even if it suffers some injury. The disciple must reach the point where he says: I am not going through the door, but I am carrying my body through it. This is easy to say, but it takes a lot of strength and perseverance to really experience it and put it into practice. The effect is that while the disciple is completely absorbed in the feeling of separation between himself and his body, he receives the five stigmata on his body, on his hands, feet, and one on his right side. However, one must be careful and [not attribute every such phenomenon to spiritual development], because the stigmata can also be caused by certain pathological conditions. At this point, one has a vision of Christ carrying his cross, and the disciple becomes the bearer of the cross through his bleeding wounds; the cross is his body, which he drags behind him through the world.

This is followed by an even higher stage, in which the person contemplates the crucified Christ and meditates so deeply on the crucifixion that he becomes blind and deaf to the outside world and feels as if he himself were crucified. In this way, he reaches the “mystical death,” the fifth stage. At this point, the whole world appears darkened to him, the ground disappears beneath his feet, he hears nothing more—it is the most terrible trial. The initiate experiences all pain, all vices, all sins. It is the “descent into hell.” And he realizes that, no matter how much suffering and pain there is in the world, there can always be more. Then comes an important moment: the darkness ceases and the spiritual world reveals itself. This is the “tearing of the veil.” At that moment, the candidate sees the deed of Christ for the first time, and only in this way, and in no other, can this deed be fully understood. This transition is experienced as a liberation and may also be described as such. The student learns the meaning of the words: “Die and become.”

From this moment on, the candidate has formed a clear concept of the justice that reigns in the moral world, just as equilibrium maintains the physical world, and he sees not only the effects but also the causes; he no longer resists “divine justice” in any catastrophe, such as the one that recently occurred in Messina, Reggio [Calabria], and so on, in which the earthquake destroyed both the guilty and the innocent. He recognizes that there is a constant balance in the world.

When the candidate looks back in time and considers, for example, the Atlantean catastrophe, which destroyed such an enormous number of people, he realizes that the present catastrophes are mere trifles in comparison, and that the principle of justice is in no way violated. The Atlanteans knew how to use the driving forces of nature, which are mysteriously connected to water and air. And because they did not use these forces for good, a devastating reaction was triggered in these two elements and the continent was flooded.

In our time, however, the cause of today's catastrophes is to be found elsewhere, namely in the materialistic way of thinking that is connected with fire and earth. The more people feel, think, and want in a materialistic way, the stronger the influence on these elements. This then causes earthquakes. And because people do not believe at all in the close connection between human actions and nature, even though it does exist, it has a repercussion not only on the individual but also on the whole of humanity. Hence the large number of personalities who are affected. Both the guilty and the innocent die in such catastrophes, but for the innocent it will be compensated in subsequent incarnations. In Atlantis, it was entire peoples who, through their misguided will, made bad use of their magical powers and brought about the aforementioned catastrophe.

We, on the other hand, no longer possess those magical powers; nevertheless, we cause tremendous upheavals through our thoughts and through the misuse of the forces of nature that we take possession of. From this we see that the concept of karma is the same as the concept of action—as it is called in Sanskrit—and one can just as well say karma as action. The law of karma shows man his position and his effect. The clairvoyant sees how those who have been affected together by the same catastrophe, when they reincarnate, come together in one and the same group of people and have the same ideal for the good of humanity.

Let us now return to the stages of initiation and consider the sixth stage. The student learns that everything that surrounds him outside his body belongs to his body, that is, minerals, plants, animals — in a word, the whole earth to which his consciousness extends. In this way, the feeling of separation is eliminated within him. He understands that this feeling is an illusion, that on the contrary he is connected to everything like a finger to the body, and that the ability to move freely on earth according to his will does not imply detachment from an inner connection with his surroundings. We are connected to our environment first and foremost through the functions of breathing and nutrition. This stage is referred to as the “burial.” Then the meaning of Christ's words, “He who eats my bread treads me underfoot,” becomes clear. These words must be taken literally, because everything on earth is the body of Christ. At this sixth stage, man is incorporated into Christ, buried in Christ. At that moment, he becomes an inhabitant of the spiritual world; he lives in it, and is only seemingly bound to his physical body.

The seventh stage cannot be described in human words, because only those who can think without the physical brain can conceive of it. It is the highest bliss, the inner “ascension.”.

By passing through the seven stages, the astral body of the initiate is completely transformed, and he attains “enlightenment.” The goal of this enormously difficult path is the knowledge of Christ. The candidate then sees in perfect light the truth of what happened in Palestine, which appears only vaguely in history. He is like someone who is in a dark room where he can see nothing, and suddenly a light reveals everything to his eyes.

From the first to the seventh step, it is a journey from darkness to ever brighter light, until the light reaches its highest intensity through the mission of Christ, who illuminates everything with his rays.