# Supplements to Member Lectures

## GA 246 — 1 June 1910, Copenhagen

### 30. Inauguration of the Steiner Lodge

My dear theosophical friends!

Those people who have joined the Theosophical movement are like a shoot on the old tree of human development. The difficulty of the task they have set themselves is to understand and assimilate the great theosophical ideals which are to be [put forward] here and to unite these great ideals. Like a branch, this impulse has grown out of the trunk of Western ideals, and here it is important to raise the question of how we, as a new shoot, relate to the branch that has been growing for more than thirty years. On this occasion, it is best to look at the great world leaders and then look back at what our particular mission is and should be.

The new Western movement came to Europe thirty years ago through Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, who, together with the first President Olcott, did a tremendous amount of work in preparing the vessel to pour into it what was to be poured into it.

No new sources that emerge later, either from the East or the West, will be able to diminish what Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Olcott have accomplished. We must now recognize what they wanted to bring, but it can be interpreted in different ways. How to explain their work and in what way to continue what they started is the question we have to answer.

In the course of the next three days we will see that people needed a new impulse in the last third of the last century. Many searching souls would have withered away if they had not received the spiritual help and insight of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. If we are to speak without exaggerated enthusiasm, and only wish to see the fact of what she means, it is through the peculiar qualities of her personality that she has attained this mighty sum of knowledge which has flowed to her. If the highest intelligence were applied, only a small part of that of which she was an instrument could be described, and it would otherwise have had to come to us by other means. This shows us that a human brain was not capable, through normal talent, of producing that which was to be recognized here.

What has been said in her “Isis” and the “Secret Doctrine” is so sublime that no human being has been able to rise to this point of view, but its surroundings must be recognized by those who know this spiritual life. It has created a new teaching which has a new power and such knowledge that it is capable of influencing and inspiring man, a mighty new power. Added to this is a new fact. This new teaching can be a great blessing for mankind, but it can also pose a great danger. People need a new force if they want to move forward, but there is a danger in it because man is weak, and because the new can easily become a sum of dogmas, and these can become a source of disagreement instead of cooperation. Many new teachings have already caused this and will continue to do so in the future. What [Helena Petrovna Blavatsky] wanted was to prevent strife and fragmentation.

What was the nature of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's quality to prevent us from this? This is something that has not been properly recognized. She speaks so truly to us because the greatest teachings, which could not come in any other way, have flowed to us through her. In “Isis” one finds much that is contrary to science, but not to thought, [one finds] many contradictions which must be examined. Why do her writings contain contradictions that need to be examined? Because those who want to understand for themselves and not just parrot them must say to themselves: Not irrefutable dogmas, but something to think about, which can have an inspiring effect, can be found in her writings. Anyone who wants to read them can see that they challenge criticism. It is therefore a fact that one should not blindly respond to all the contradictions that are present in the writings, but one must look at Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in such a way that she represented the vessel for all the great things that were to be given, through which the spiritual life flowed into the new culture. She herself stood on this level of the greatest humility and sacrifice. Everything she gave led her back to the masters of wisdom. She was the prism through which everything radiated, she said herself, and the new revelation emerged through her with a humility hardly ever seen before - an impersonal teaching. In this way one can be protected against a dogmatic belief, and one should learn to direct this to the supersensible currents.

In this teaching we should regard the personality as a tool of the spiritual world. We let it work on us, but our sound reason, the need for truth and the feelings of the heart must work together. No instruments should be used, and nothing should be built on one's own personality. This is how she teaches. She wants to challenge criticism to deal with it. No one will be able to understand the great personality without criticism. We must seek to find the spiritual and recognize reality. That is why it was possible for different people to find each other and work together under the sign of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. [What came through Helena Petrovna Blavatsky] was too great to be grasped by one person. But just as the refracted rays unite in the prism, so they gathered here in the sign of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. The tremendous power of “Isis” and the “Secret Doctrine” - even if they are one-sided - give people the greatest instrument. And should it not be able to satisfy, we must understand that we must pour into the movement that which must always flow in. That is why it was the right current when Western Theosophy came along. One cannot diverge in the realization of the higher, but only in the starting point. This was the case in oriental theosophy, although it was not intended to be so.

Western theosophy builds on its own human authority and freedom. It is the task of the Western Theosophical School to help achieve this under the symbol of the Rose Cross in its true meaning, so that the teachings flowing from the Holy Grail can be shown as observations of spiritual scientific research. Take these and test them in life, the deeper they are tested, the truer they will prove to be - the holy Rishis, Hermes, Moses, the Mystery of Golgotha, the whole knowledge of the Gospels. We owe what has happened in the last few years to the Rosicrucians or the Holy Grail. Do you think that what is said about Moses, Zarathustra, Krishna and the Rosy Cross is true or untrue - check the facts. Examine the history of primeval times and the Mystery of Golgotha. What do the external facts say? The more precisely you know the historical facts, the more deeply you will recognize that they are truths that can be disputed today, but in millennia science will prove them. They are truths that are reported. - You can only feel that now. Science will not be able to find the difference between the outer and the inner. In a hundred years or more, in two hundred years, you will be able to.

Rosicrucianism will already be felt by the heart, and many will have to recognize it out of necessity. Those who have been seeing in the spiritual world for centuries need not look to any authority; in time what is communicated will necessarily coincide with what the natural scientist and the spiritual researcher see; they will both become the truest apostles. Thus shall we consider the currents [with which we hereby inaugurate this] Lodge.

If we understand what the Rosicrucians bring in this way, we shall easily be able to lead this Lodge into the great stream of humanity. One should not enter into conflict with others, but seek that which warms the heart and gives strength to work into the future. This requires fire and enthusiasm. The symbol of the rose cross has one characteristic. It promises us that spiritual life will flow in and that dogmas will not dominate the subject matter. The Rose Cross promises life, new life. Everything that is formed from a book, an opinion or a speech continues to grow into new life, which, like the plant, germinates again and again and grows constantly. This is how it should grow, and when a new revelation comes, it emerges in a new form. This is what the Rosicrucian mystery promises: a spiritual life that is formed from transformed soul life. It emerges as love, as creative activity in our lives. It is transformed into striving power, it is transformed into love, and real brotherhood arises in us. People fight each other because they have different wills. The inner is the cause of the outer. If we cannot love a brother because he has a different opinion, then we cannot work on the big questions. You have to understand, otherwise there is no love. True love must be so great that it can encompass everything and understand all opinions.

We must all live under the sign of humility and overwhelming love - the black cross with the red roses. We then see that a human opinion is not entirely wrong and also not entirely right, is more one-sided than logical, like various instruments, we see this when we look at it from a wide horizon. Even the most sacred can be misunderstood if it is fitted into a narrow human mind. The general current works against the rose cross, for it is necessary, if one wants to ascend to the highest, to see humility in the black cross and sacrifice in the roses; it is difficult because certain natures shrink from the love of the red roses. The red cloak of Jesus will also have a frightening effect on many. The baseness of human nature feels repelled. The bull is repelled by the red. It is against his nature.

The fullness of life can only be understood if one is imbued with true brotherly love. This should be said today in response to the kind words addressed to me. On this point, it must be said that being named after someone who is still alive will bring hatred and disputes. These things will happen. We must be clear that we will not pursue personal goals with such a name, otherwise it can easily be misunderstood. This name must not reflect on other areas. The more thoroughly you will forget this name, the more beneficial it will be to the cause, but never will your work be forgotten by me.

This is the gift you can give me. We must learn that everything is impersonal and understand that the first duty is to make our promise to cooperate in the great spiritual progress and to make our hearts strong. Then we will always truly find the Mighty One who works and blesses our work. I myself will not undertake anything within the theosophical movement that is not in harmony with the masters of wisdom and the harmony of sentiments. Truly such a promise will have a soothing and warming effect on us. We will feel that the heart will be warmed by this way of working and by the creation of a new center for these currents. All human work is a perfecting of the spirit and will inspire us through the masters of wisdom and the harmony of feelings. It is important how we think so that the powers that strive forward can guide us.

These words are spoken out of this spirit. Over the next few days this will become even clearer in the symbol of the Rose Cross. We want to work more and more towards this symbol in this spirit. May what is characterized here apply to each individual as well as to the whole Lodge.

Let us invoke the power and the spirit that are to form the starting point for our work. So may these words be spoken to you.