Supplements to Member Lectures

GA 246 — 24 January 1907, Berlin

6. The Rosicrucian Initiation

We spoke last time about the Oriental-Indian and Christian-Gnostic initiations and today we want to take a look at the European-Rosicrucian initiation.

Occult training is not a general training: The development of the individual is only possible by responding to his individuality. The disciple must have come so far that he no longer feels the need to criticize. Therefore, he must first learn what he needs to know about the existence of hierarchies in the spiritual worlds. There is no democratic principle here. The disciple must either follow the rules or refrain from training. These things have not been invented, they have not been tried and tested by a few, but by many, and have been shaped by the Rosicrucian knowers according to the state of development of the human being today.

The first stage is study. Oriental training demands the strictest submission to the authority of the teacher. There is a personal emotional relationship between the individual and the teacher. The student not only believes in the teacher's words, but also takes an intimate interest in the teacher's person. The Rosicrucian student should also find the right path in outer life, which differs from the other methods. This training is not only about moral action and knowledge, but also about a power based on trust. For this relationship to occur, study must precede it. The elementary teachings of spiritual science form a good basis. If one frees oneself from suggestions, the sensual mind can see the truth of the teachings of spiritual science. If the tautness of the guidance is to be removed, the pupil must develop a secure way of thinking. Thinking remains with the student, perception changes. Only on the Buddha plane does thinking also change. Study is therefore the first stage.

The second stage is imagination. Everything transient is only a simile - the student must feel this everywhere. He must feel the illusion of the limited world. The outer world must appear to the pupil as a parable. The rose is a symbol of beauty, the autumn crocus symbolizes melancholy. And so it is with all plants.

The third stage is the reading of occult scripture. Instruction in the occult scriptures draws attention to the fact that the world is filled with currents that flow in different directions. Scripture depicts such currents of the world in their lines. The vortex, for example, is represented by such a drawing:

Of this vortex, one current is red, the other blue. They also represent arterial and venous blood. Another important symbol is the serpent staff, the staff of Mercury.

[The Greek letter Epsilon, our E,] originated from this. Writing the characters in the dust, as Christ Jesus did in the biblical story of the adulteress, means as much as: Jesus used the mystical sign to put the accusation of the crowd into the right form.

The fourth stage is the attainment of the rhythm of life. The timetable of our schools today is perhaps the only rhythm of contemporary cultural life. The original rhythm has had to become chaos so that man can create a new rhythm by his own efforts. Breathing in a certain way is an effort to bring rhythm into oneself.

The fifth stage is the correspondence between microcosm and macrocosm. For example, if a person concentrates on the eye with a certain mental image, he can let the experiences of the cosmos pass through his soul. The ego once sank into the human being. The etheric head moved into the physical head in such a way that two points touched and connected with each other. One point is between the eyebrows, at the root of the nose, the other is at the gap that closes in the child's skull.

The sixth stage is that of contemplation. The higher self speaks to us from the spiritual power of Jupiter and Venus. There are Theosophists who speak of this higher self as their higher self. But this is an ideal that has not yet been reached.

The seventh stage is godliness. It also manifests itself outwardly as the flowering of the purified inner life.

What happens to a person when he has climbed these seven steps? He has then transformed the four limbs of the human being. When the spiritual disciple has passed through these stages, he is admitted to the higher initiations. The initiate must gain complete power over his spiritual qualities. He must reach the point where he can consciously change his movements, his writing and his gait. When he has transformed his etheric body, it becomes buddhi. When he has transformed his movements, he has already developed Atma. The spiritual disciple begins to consciously take this work into his own hands. He can then press what he has thus acquired in the soul into the etheric body. The refinement of all that the astral body contains is a tremendously important moment. It cannot cast off its desires in any Kamaloka.

The initiate was put into a lethargic sleep [in the pre-Christian initiation]. Something similar to falling asleep took place. When falling asleep, the astral body emerges from the physical body and the etheric body. During the initiation sleep, however, the astral body and etheric body emerged from the physical body, which then lay there as if dead, like someone lying in a grave. On his flight into the spiritual world, the hierophant gave him the following words to accompany his awakening: “My God, my God, how you have transfigured me!” - The Holy Spirit, hovering in the ether as a dove above the physical body, is the image of this mystery. You have placed this mystery into the world in the Gospel of John.

The resurrection of Lazarus is an initiation. “John” means: the one who proclaims the buddhi. The names of the apostles arise from their relationship to Christ Jesus, which is highly interesting. When the sun was in the sign of Leo, the heart was formed. As each organ came into being with a new constellation, twelve powers were also formed in man. Accordingly, we also have twelve apostles around the representative of humanity. And Judas Iscariot brings death. In the Gospel of John, the mother of Jesus is actually called Sophia, Wisdom.

When John Lazarus was awakened, he spent three days in an initiatory sleep: that is when he saw through the spiritual world. John is the heart, Peter is the earth, the rock; Judas Iscariot is the representative of egoism and the bringer of death.

The cloak, which cannot be divided at the crucifixion, symbolizes the indivisible circle of air.

Another profound passage in the Gospel of John is: “Whoever eats my bread tramples me underfoot.” The moral upliftment of humanity results in a physical transformation of the earth. The significance of Christianity is so great because the physical, physiological and moral are intertwined in it.

Jesus wrote the guilt of the adulteress into the earth with his finger. In doing so, he indicated that all human guilt is recorded in the Akashic Records. What is formed from this in the Akashic Records is connected to the Christ. The Father judges no one: He has handed over all judgment to the Son. The Son represents the earth karma, the Christ is the finalization and final redemption of karma.