Mystery Knowledge & Mystery Centres

GA 232 — 7 December 1923, Dornach

7. The Mysteries Of Hibernia I

In the last lecture I spoke to you about the Ephesian Mysteries of Artemis, in order to draw attention to certain connections between knowledge that has come to light during the course of evolution and the knowledge that can be acquired today through clairvoyant insight into the spiritual world.

In order to supplement themes we have already studied, I want to speak today of other Mysteries which can also be said to stand at the starting-point of modern spiritual life. Although these Mysteries had taken over a great deal from earlier spiritual Movements in which the primeval wisdom of humanity was still contained, they were nevertheless an effective impulse in the spiritual Movement of the modern age.

I propose to speak to you about the influential Mysteries once centred in the troubled island of Ireland to the West of England, and mentioned in my Mystery Plays.¹

Speaking comparatively, it is much more difficult than in other cases to approach these ancient Hibernian Mysteries in what I have called in many of my writings, the Akashic Record. It is much more difficult for later vision to find in that eternal Record the pictures of these Mysteries which have remained there, than those of other Mystery centres, for in trying to approach the Hibernian Mysteries the impression is that the pictures contain extraordinarily powerful forces which repel and thrust one back. Even if the pictures are approached with a certain courage of vision—a courage which in other cases meets with less resistance than is experienced here—the opposition is so intense that it may give rise to a kind of stupefaction. Knowledge of what I am about to describe to you is therefore fraught with hindrances, as you will realise during the next lectures.

Naturally, in the Hibernian Mysteries too there were Initiates who had preserved much of the ancient wisdom of mankind and who, stimulated and inspired by this wisdom, were able to achieve a degree of seership themselves. There were also pupils, candidates for Initiation, who by the special methods in vogue there, were to be prepared to approach the secrets of the Cosmic Word. Now the preparation given to those who were to be initiated in Hibernia, was twofold. Firstly, all the difficulties attendant upon the acquisition of knowledge were brought home to the pupils; they were made inwardly aware of everything that can be called anguish on the path of knowledge which does not yet penetrate into the depths of existence but which consists in exerting to the utmost possible extent all the powers of the soul belonging to ordinary-level consciousness. The pupils were compelled to experience every doubt, every torment, every inner struggle with its frequent aberrations, being deceived by no matter how excellent logic or dialectic—all this they had to endure and to experience the difficulties that make themselves felt when one has actually attained knowledge and then wishes to bring it to expression. It will be clear to you that there are two aspects here: to have struggled to attain a truth and then to bring it to expression, to formulate it in words. Indeed when the path of knowledge has been earnestly followed, there is always the feeling that what can be compressed into words is something that is no longer absolute truth, something that surrounds the truth with all kinds of stumbling-blocks and pitfalls.

The pupil was made acquainted with experience undergone only by one who has valiantly and genuinely struggled to attain knowledge.

Secondly, the pupil was led to experience in his life of soul how little everything that may become knowledge on the ordinary path of consciousness can, in the last resort, conduce to human happiness, how little human happiness can be promoted by logic, dialectic or rhetoric. On the other hand, it was also made clear to the pupil that if a man is to maintain his bearings in life, he must also approach those things which can in a certain way bring him joy or happiness. And so on the one side the pupil was driven to the verge of an abyss, and this always caused him to doubt: should he wait until a bridge was built by which he could cross it? He had already been so deeply initiated into the doubts and difficulties connected with the attainment of knowledge that when at last he was guided from these preparatory stages to the actual approach to the cosmic secrets, he had come to this resolution: if it needs must be I will forgo even knowledge; I will deny myself everything that cannot contribute to true human happiness.

In these ancient Mysteries, individual pupils were subjected to such severe tests that they came to the point where, in the most natural and elementary way, they developed feelings which ordinary pedantic reason regards as baseless. But it is easy to say: nobody would wish to forgo knowledge; it goes without saying that one wants to gain knowledge, however great the difficulties may be.—That, of course, is the attitude of people who do not know what the difficulties are and who have not been deliberately led to experience them, as was the case with the pupils in the Mysteries of Hibernia. On the other hand it is also easy to say: we will deny ourselves both inner and outer happiness and tread a path of knowledge only. But to one who knows the truth of these things, both declarations, so often made, appear utterly superficial.

When the pupils had been prepared to the appropriate degree, they were led before two gigantic statues, two enormous, majestic statues. One of them was majestic by reason of its external, spatial dimensions, while the other, of equal size, was impressive because of its special character. The former statue was a male figure, the other, a female figure. The intention was to make the pupils aware of the approach of the Cosmic Word. In a certain way the two statues were to be the letters by means of which the pupils were to begin to decipher the Cosmic Secret confronting humanity.

One pillar-statue, the male figure, was made of a substance that was elastic throughout. It could be indented anywhere by pressure. The pupils were exhorted to press and so make indents all over this statue. This revealed that it was inwardly hollow. It was really only the ‘skin’ of a statue, but made of an elastic material so that wherever it was indented the form was immediately restored. Above this statue, above its head, which seemed to be particularly characteristic of the whole figure, was something which seemed to resemble the Sun. The whole head was of such a nature that the pupils could see that it was meant to be something like an eye of the soul; as such it was intended to be a microcosmic representation of the whole Macrocosm. This manifestation of the Macrocosm was meant to be expressed in this colossal head by the Sun.

(Dr. Steiner here made sketches on the blackboard.) The immediate impression given by the male statue was this: the Macrocosm works through the Sun and fashions the human head which has knowledge of the impulses of the Macrocosm and forms itself inwardly and outwardly in accordance with these macrocosmic impulses.

In the case of the other statue, the pupil’s eyes fell, to begin with, upon something that seemed to be composed of luminous bodies radiating inwards, and in this framework the pupil saw a female form which was everywhere under the influence of these rays. And the feeling came to him that the head was produced out of the rays. The form of the head itself was somewhat indistinct. This statue was composed of a different material; it was plastic, not elastic, and extremely soft. The pupil was exhorted to press this statue too. Wherever he pressed it, the indent remained. Each time the pupil was tested before these statues, the pressure marks he had made were repaired before the next test. So that whenever the pupils were taken to the ceremony in front of this statue, it was again intact. The statue made of elastic substance always returned of itself to its original form.

With the second statue the impression was received that it was entirely under the influence of the Moon-forces which permeate the organism and enable the head to emerge. These experiences made a most profound impression upon the pupils. As I said, the form of the female statue was always restored. From time to time, at not very long intervals, a group of pupils would be led to this statue, and to begin with absolute silence reigned. The pupils were led to the statue by those who were already initiated, and were left there. The door of the Temple was closed and the pupils were left in isolation.

Then came a time when each pupil was taken in separately and exhorted first of all to touch the one statue and feel its elasticity and then the other in order to feel its plasticity in which the indentation remained. He was then left quite alone with the impressions which, as I have said, worked with such suggestive power upon him. Through everything he had previously undergone along the path I have described to you, he experienced all the difficulties of knowledge, the difficulties also of bliss—as I must call it. Such experiences mean far more than can be expressed in the mere words in which I am describing them—such experiences meant that the pupil passed through a whole gamut of feelings. And as a result, when he was led before the two statues he was filled with the most intense longing to penetrate what appeared to him as a tremendous riddle; he longed intensely that his soul might in some way solve this riddle, might discover what this enigma meant. On the one hand the enigma itself lay in the fact that he was being compelled to undergo such experiences; and on the other hand there was the enigma of what was contained in the statues themselves, and in the question of his attitude towards them. All this made a deep impression upon the pupils. And as they confronted these statues, in their souls they faced something like a tremendous question. In their souls they appeared to themselves as a colossal question. Their reason questioned, their hearts questioned, their will questioned, their whole being questioned.

The man of today can still learn from these experiences which in earlier times were presented visually; nowadays they cannot and need not be so presented for the purpose of Initiation. He can learn how wide a gamut of feelings must be passed through in order to come near the truth which then leads to the Cosmic Mysteries. For although it is right for the pupil of today to develop along an inner path that is not dependent upon visual perception, nevertheless he must still pass through the same gamut of feelings, must experience them through intense meditative effort. So the scale of feelings to be lived through today can be ascertained from knowledge of the experiences undergone in the ancient rites by those who were to be initiated.

The Hibernian pupils then lived through a certain period of probation during which their experiences on the path of ordinary knowledge and of happiness were to be combined with what had now arisen within them as a great question.

And now, when the effects of this were inwardly experienced by the pupils, cosmic secrets relating to the Microcosm and the Macrocosm were expounded to them as far as was possible in those days, also something of what had formed the content of the Artemis Mysteries of Ephesus and already touched upon in these lectures. Part of this was presented to the pupils during their time of probation. But now, in consequence of this, the great question that had arisen in their souls was still further intensified. The result of the stupendous inner deepening experienced and endured by the individual pupil was that he was led to the threshold of the spiritual world. He entered the region experienced by the soul when it feels: Now I am standing before the Power which guards the Threshold.

In ancient times there were many different kinds of Mysteries, and individuals were led in a variety of ways to the experience arising when the feelings are compressed into words such as these: Now I am standing at the Threshold of the spiritual world. I know why this spiritual world is guarded from everyday consciousness and I realise the essential nature of its Guardian Power, the Guardian of the Threshold.

When this time of probation was over, the pupils were again led to the statues. And then a most remarkable impression came to them, an impression that stirred the very depths of their being. I can only give you an idea of this impression by rendering in modern German the utterance that it was customary to make in the language of that ancient time.

When the pupils had reached the stage I have described, each one singly was again conducted to the statues. But now the initiating priest remained in the temple with him. And after the pupil had been able to listen in deep silence to what his own soul could tell him after all his preparations and trials—and this listening lasted for a considerable time—he saw the initiating priest rising as it were above the head of the one figure. The Sun seemed to have receded and in the space now intervening between the statue and the Sun, the head of the priest appeared, as though covering the Sun; [the other stood below]. The statues were of an enormous height, so that the priest appeared small in comparison; his head alone showed above the statue and covered the Sun. Then, as though resounding from musical harmony—for the ceremony began with music—the words of the Initiator rang out. In the state in which the pupil now found himself, it seemed to him as though the words which sounded from the lips of the Initiator were spoken by the statue itself. And the words were these:

I am the image of the World,
Behold, how I lack Being.
I live in thy Knowledge,
I now become in thee Avowal.

This too, as you may imagine, made a profound impression upon the pupil, for he had been prepared to experience the power confronting him in the figure of this statue, which said of itself:

I am the image of the World,
Behold, how I lack Being.
I live in thy Knowledge,
I now become in thee Avowal.

The difficulties accompanying the ordinary path of knowledge had prepared the pupil to see in this image something that released him from these difficulties, although he could not conquer his doubts in regard to knowledge itself. Indeed he had reached the point of feeling that he was incapable of conquering it. Because of all the experiences he had undergone, he was inwardly prepared to cling to this image with his whole soul, to live with the Cosmic Power symbolised by it, to surrender himself to it. He was ready to do this because what came from the lips of the priest made the statue seem to be the lettering which conveyed to him the meaning contained in these four lines.

When the priest had withdrawn the pupil was once again left alone in absolute silence, and after some time another Initiator entered. He then appeared above the second statue. And again, resounding as though in musical harmony, came the voice of this second Initiator, speaking the words I can render somewhat as follows:

I am the image of the World,
Behold, how I lack Truth.
If thou wilt dare to live with me,
I will be thy Comfort.

And now the pupil, who after all his preparation had been led to know inner happiness, inner fulfilment—instead of ‘happiness’ (Gluck) which does not give the right meaning in German, I should rather say ‘joyful inner fulfilment’— now that he had experienced all this, when he heard these words sounding from the second statue he felt inwardly urged to regard the Cosmic Power which spoke through the statue as the Power to which he would surrender his whole being.

Again the Initiator disappeared, and again the pupil was left alone. And during this lonely silence, each one—at least it seems to be so—each one felt something which may perhaps be expressed in the following words: I stand at the threshold of the spiritual world. Here, in the physical world, man speaks of something called ‘knowledge’, but it has no value in the spiritual world. And the fact that here, in the physical world, man has difficulties with it is only the physical reflection of the worthlessness of the knowledge that can be acquired in this world concerning the supersensible, spiritual world.—And in the same way the pupil felt: Many things tell us in the physical world that we must forgo inner fulness of joy and take an ascetic path in order to come into the spiritual world. But that is illusion, deception. For that which appears in this statue expressly says of itself: Behold, how I lack Truth.

Thus on the threshold of the spiritual world the pupil almost came to the point of feeling that joy and happiness of soul must be achieved by excluding what here, in the physical world, is longed for as Truth by feeble human striving fettered to the physical body. The pupil was already aware that the world on yonder side of the Threshold must be very different from the world on this side and that many things of value on this side are worthless over yonder; that even Knowledge and Truth have altogether different appearances beyond the Threshold.

All such feelings and perceptions to some extent awakened consciousness in the pupil that he had left behind him many of the deceptions and disenchantments of the physical world. But there were also feelings that from time to time had the effect of burning flames. The pupil felt as though he were being consumed by inner fire, were being inwardly destroyed. His soul vacillated from one feeling to the other and back again. He was tested on the scales of knowledge and of joy. And during these experiences it seemed to him as though the statues themselves were speaking. He had now himself achieved something like perception of the inner Word, and hence the statues themselves seemed to be speaking. The first statue said:

I am Knowledge.
But what I am is not real being.

And then the pupil had a feeling that rayed out sheer fright. The feeling was that ideas are only ideas and that there is no real being in them. The pupil felt that if the human head is strenuously exerted, ideas will certainly come, but nowhere is there any real being. Ideas are only appearance, they have no being.

And then the other statue seemed to speak. It said:

I am Phantasy,
But what I am has no Truth.

Thus the two statues stood before the pupil, the one impressing upon him what ideas are without being, and the other, what the pictures of phantasy are without truth.

I beg you to take these things as they should be taken, for there is no question of dogma here or of formulating sentences to express items of knowledge in a particular way; it is a matter of describing the experiences undergone by the pupils in the sacred sanctuaries of Hibernia. It is not the actual content of these sentences that should be taken as the announcement of a truth but the object is to place on record what the pupils of Hibernian Mysteries experienced in the process of their Initiation.

All these experiences were lived through by each individual pupil in absolute isolation. The experiences became so intense that his power of sight ceased to function and after a time he no longer saw the statues. But at the place to which his gaze had been directed he read as though written in flames, something that was not physically there but that he nevertheless perceived with utmost clarity. Where he had previously seen the head of the statue of Knowledge, he read the word ‘SCIENCE’ and where he had seen the head of the other statue, he read the word ‘ART’.

After this he was led out of the temple and again beside the exit stood the two Initiators. One of them took the pupil’s head in his hands and turned it towards something to which the other Initiator was pointing: this was the Figure of Christ. The priest who directed his gaze to this Figure then spoke these words of admonition:

Take the Word and the Power of this Being
Into your heart

And the other priest said:

And receive from Him
What the two statues wished to give you:
Science and Art.

Such were the first two acts in the Hibernian Initiation and in this way the pupils in Hibernia were guided to perception of the essence and nature of Christianity. The experience impressed itself deeply into the souls and hearts of the pupils and now they could start on their future path of development. What can be said about this we shall be studying in connection with other matters during the next few days.