# Supplements to Member Lectures

## GA 246 — 8 April 1911, Bologna

### 40. Transformations of the Horizon of Consciousness

Doctor Steiner introduces the lecture by speaking of the founding of the lodge in Bologna by Miss von Sivers, who drew on the experience gained here when the first German lodge was founded soon afterwards in Berlin. He then speaks of the spread of Theosophy in all countries and of the growing desire to expand knowledge beyond the limits of the senses. Our normal organization does not allow us to see beyond the physical, and we must develop spiritual organs in order to see the spiritual beyond the physical. We can look into the light for as long and as often as we like without seeing what manifests itself in the light; however, if we contemplate the light in such a way that, for example, we immerse ourselves again and again in [the sentence] “In the pure rays of light shines the divinity of the world”, we combine with the physical contemplation a spiritual one, which, with constant repetition, will exert certain effects on our spiritual body.

As constant dripping hollows out the stone, so constantly repeated meditation imprints a form in the etheric body. It is like the imprint of a seal in sealing wax. In this comparison, the seal corresponds to the astral body modeled by the spiritual exercises and the sealing wax to the etheric body. The imprint is made when the astral body reconnects with the etheric and physical body in the morning. (The following is transcribed verbatim):

One of the first experiences that the exercises result in is the perception of this immersion of the astral body into the physical body. It becomes perceptible as a penetration of currents into the individual physical organs, a life and weaving and circling descends into the body. With constant repetition of the exercises, one day you will have the experience of seeing the spiritual world emerge from the veil of the physical world. However, this seeing with the spiritual eyes opening up is not the same as our ordinary seeing, in which we perceive the physical forms in front of us and around us. We see the spiritual world reflected in us, as if we were looking into a mirror and perceiving the objects. When we look spiritually, we use the etheric body like a mirror in which we see the reflection of the macrocosm.

We then see the whole spiritual world with its higher beings and spiritual realities reflected in our etheric body. But we need not think that the clairvoyant will suddenly see the full truth clearly before his eyes: only a pure, clear mirror gives us a true image - and so does the etheric body. The degree of its purity determines the degree of accuracy of the spiritual vision. What obscures the mirror in us are the habits and feelings that we work into ourselves in every earthly life. We must therefore first free ourselves from them. And the occult exercises enable us to do this. We learn to lose the connection with the physical world and to isolate ourselves from the effects of physical life. Only then does the consciousness of the spiritual world awaken in all its fullness.

The first experience on entering the new world is the fear of the unknown; a fear of a different nature to that which we feel on the physical plane, for the sensations are transformed in the shearer and his fear is like a numbness before the immense foreign world that surrounds him.

This highly important experience on the path of initiation is called in occult language "the encounter with the great Guardian of the Threshold. The disciple suddenly becomes aware of what he could be and what he is not, and this awareness of his smallness and imperfection in relation to the incomprehensible greatness and perfection of what is revealed to him shatters him, so to speak. This encounter has serious dangers for the unprepared. To avoid them, we have to develop two things in ourselves: Humility and knowledge.

Ignorance and especially overconfidence have a devastating effect on perception. If we are full of ourselves and believe ourselves to be great and highly developed, we can of course experience the encounter with the Guardian, but we will suddenly find ourselves confronted with an enormous world full of distorted, distorted forms. Our egoistic feelings will cloud our view, and this clouding must be described as terrible. A world of horrible caricatures surrounds the self-absorbed person. Everything appears ugly and horrible. He sees the angels and other higher beings as hideous grimaces and animal forms.

It is therefore necessary that we learn to distinguish between the true and the false, between the true being and the false form that our clouded gaze imprints on it. Even Jesus of Nazareth, in whose life we can follow the development of humanity from stage to stage, had to go through the experience of clouded vision and then later move on to the unclouded vision of truth in its purest form. Through his embodiment, he was surrounded by human characteristics that are connected with the physical body. In the Gospel of Mark we find a passage that describes the process just discussed in a form that is easily understood by occultists: Christ, it says, went into the wilderness and was with the animals. And immediately afterwards it is written: And the angels ministered to him. - The animals are nothing other than the images of the pure angelic figures, clouded and distorted by human characteristics.

We have discussed one consequence, the transformation of sensations and vision in unprepared and immature people. There is, however, another consequence for him: without seeing, he can be plunged back into his old humanity, into old habits and mistakes. The addiction to pleasures, passions, pride and whatever other mental imperfections he has will then appear in him in a stronger form than before. Egoism, self-conceit and arrogance are like walls around him, he is really locked up in his old evil qualities. In occult language, this state is called “the occult prison”. The fallen person then sees a false world, i.e. his own, around him and projects it out into the macrocosm. If this fall occurs at a lower level, it is not as disastrous as when it strikes a person who has already progressed. Hence we find so many different descriptions of the other worlds, written by occultists who see nothing but their own world - the truth remains hidden for them behind the false forms which they themselves have formed, their imperfection causes them to see only subjective things and take them for objective.

This circumstance could intimidate the unseeing and they could ask: Who am I supposed to believe, since I cannot control and distinguish the true from the false? This danger of falling into false doctrines does not even exist for the layman if he only approaches the matter with unbiased logic. Our logic, which is inherent in every normal and healthy mind, is completely sufficient to distinguish the falsifications from the truth. What is dangerous in occultism is blind faith. Nowhere is it more disastrous than in this particular field.

Just as easily as the gullible accept everything, humanity often misjudges geniuses. We should therefore examine and only accept what our logic allows us to recognize as correct and good.

The Gospel also gives us an example of what has just been described. It is the process of baptism, when Christ enters Jesus of Nazareth and sinks into his humanity. He, the God, buries himself in a physical body, permeating every one of his atoms. He sees man around him and his world. This is how we feel when we see ourselves around us and believe we see the macrocosm in all its glory! We first have to be shattered by the world that opens up to us in order to realize that the world we see is false and that the stones are not bread. The Gospel of Matthew describes how Christ sees this illusory world and overcomes it in his encounter with the demon. He is not deceived and rejects the illusion. If we do not want to err, we must transform our morality, and this transformation must extend to the intellectual world within us.

What has been said so far shows us the one way in which we can attain knowledge. There are many difficulties to overcome, and we must never disregard strict self-control! But those who strive forward with patience and perseverance and a firm will will reach their goal. And when we do this, we are doing nothing other than our duty, because as images of God we have the duty of knowledge in order to become true images of God one day! - We have only two choices to make: To become the image of God or the distorted image (caricature) of God. Our path, however, is that of perfection.

Humanity is already beginning to recognize this sacred duty. Above all, the urge for greater knowledge is palpable. Therefore, he who understands Theosophy correctly says: Theosophy should not only, but it must be carried out into the wide world, for it corresponds to all that mankind needs, and only it is capable of widening the field of knowledge and bringing man to man and bringing [men] closer to each other in their innermost essence.

The whole world will receive Theosophy (even if not always under the name, because the name is not important), and [Theosophy] will heat humanity like a stove, because it is like the firewood that creates warmth, warmth of the soul, that is, love. This is the task of Theosophy: not to satisfy curiosity, but to spread it in such a way that it awakens love. It is therefore our duty to act in this sense.