The History of the German Section of the Theosophical Society 1902-1913

GA 250 — 7 June 1906, Berlin

29. Discussion about the Leadbeater case to the German participants at the Theosophical Congress

[Rudolf Steiner:] “The first condition for an occultist who acquires powers to lead others is a willingness to make sacrifices. The good that such a self-sacrificing occultist has done cannot be erased. It continues to have an effect, it remains. And it would be highly unchristian and even more untheosophical to judge a fallen occultist without love. Every person who joins the Theosophical Society must be able to count on brotherly feelings. Those who join the Society only to learn have the wrong idea. Those who give their best to help their brothers and thereby support the brotherly spirit have correctly recognized the purpose of the Society.

Now there is the case of a member who has done a lot of good being rejected. What is it that rejects?

It is very difficult to talk about this matter in public. It is a matter of opinions here. By doing things that are not approved by ordinary morality, Leadbeater had the ideal in mind of counteracting precisely this sexual evil. He thought he had done nothing wrong, he saw the matter as a remedy.

One cannot say: “Leadbeater does not want to improve.”

The Society has excluded him. In doing so, it has set itself up as a judge of an idea. In so doing, it has acknowledged its own infallibility. During the congress, there was some talk about common sense. Here, an occult case has been brought before the forum of “common sense”. This means that any occultist could be brought before this forum.

The case has been created and society must see how it deals with it.

Dr. Steiner: “We have only been informed of the fact. We have no right to judge the actions of others; if we do that, we make heretics. Everyone should answer for their own actions.

The exoteric leadership of the Society has only to occupy itself with administrative matters. The rest they have to place in the hands of those who stand behind them. They should not exercise police power.

If they want to start judging the faults of the members, they are beating their own faces. There are seemingly quite harmless things, but they are not as harmless as they seem. These include, for example, the ladies' coffee klatch and the gentlemen's early or evening drink. This is where lust is encouraged. And those affected are, to a certain extent, committing fornication on the astral plane. They are performing a veritable witches' sabbath there. Certain astral beings feed on this gossip.

Only the intention of the culprit determines the difference between white and black magic.

The question at issue here is: Did the culprit act out of lust for his own sake?

Kieser, Stuttgart: “How did Leadbeater behave during the interrogation? Did he confess?”

Miss Bright: “Yes. He fully confessed it and retired from the Society for the good of the Society. He does not want to attach his karma to that of the Society, so he resigns. He has firmly declared that he did not do it to satisfy his lust.”

Dr. Steiner: “So Leadbeater acted in good faith. If the method he used to fight the evil is wrong, it shows in the fruits it produces. If it is right, that can also only be recognized by the fruits.

A similar case is celibacy. Society has no right to judge occult matters. If it does so, it makes itself into a sect that establishes dogmas. The dogma is the establishment of a doctrine whose meaning is not understood. The Trinity, for example, is a dogma as long as it is not understood. If one understands it, it ceases to be a dogma.

The things that are in question here have always been practiced in occult societies. Occultism is the wisdom of the future. Through the heroism of the occultists, they often prepare a tragic end. The occultist lives the morals of the future and that is not understood by his fellow human beings.

This case will become clearer to us if we consider the evolution of man. Wisdom teaches us to look from the bottom up, from man to God. There we saw a whole hierarchy of spiritual beings, a hierarchy, a spiritual state. In this hierarchy, the occultist occupies a very specific place; it is not appropriate for a less developed person to accuse an occultist, because that would be like accusing the gods. The gods have brought illness and sin into the world. Where there is much light, there is also much black shadow. Therefore, the gods could not bring us good without also causing evil. To look for the shadow in the light is nonsense; but the shadow is the consequence of the light. Man first had to emerge completely onto the physical plane before he could become self-aware on the higher planes. First he should explore the physical plan independently. Once in ancient Greece, man was not yet independent, he did not yet feel as an individual, that only developed in Rome. So three to four hundred years before Christ, the Romans developed this sense of independence. We actually owe independent thinking to the ancient Romans. But the decline of sexual morals is connected to the development of thinking. All this is known to the occultist, and we have high occultists to thank for the institution of prostitution. We have to tie in with this if we don't want to go around blindfolded in the world.

A large percentage of humanity is afflicted with sexual vices. That is a fact and there is little that can be done about it. Anyone who thinks that moral sermons can remedy the evil is mistaken. The occultist knows that other things are needed to do so. Even if these things stink, they are necessary and we cannot completely escape them, just as we cannot escape the stench of the faeces we ourselves secrete. Man must go through the swamp. The only question is whether he will wallow in the mud like a pig or whether he will go into the mud to transform it, as it is well known that the most beautiful scents can be developed from feces. Anyone who undertakes this for humanity is acting in an apocalyptic sense. He anticipates something that humanity as a whole will only come to in later times. What he wants to accomplish in view of the future, he must carry out in a physical body that, especially in his brain, does not offer him the necessary conditions to carry out what he has already anticipated in spirit before the rest of humanity. He is crucified in the flesh. He has skipped a step and his physical body does not offer him the necessary conditions.

Let the matter speak as it speaks through the personality. Let it not become a dogma that can be discussed. The interdependence of people, who are all working at different levels of humanity, means that when one person falls, many fall with him.

The point here (with Leadbeater) is that something has happened with the best, noblest of intentions that is incompatible with the current order of things.

Question: “What should we say about this case when we are asked?”

Dr. Steiner: “Right and wrong can only be distinguished according to the attitude from which an act is done.

The higher beings send us teachings through society. Those who do not want them have no place in society. When a teacher falls, we do not want to sing dirges because of it; we need not fear. There are still more suitable teachers to lead the good cause to victory. It depends on the person, not on the idea he has; not on the organization of society, but on the spiritual individuality of the person in whom we have or have no trust."