# The History of the Esoteric School 1904–1914, Volume Two

## GA 265

### Notes for the Fourth Degree

The realities of the macrocosm are the consonants of various feelings[^1]

The enclosing, which is open to one side: b

One must learn to feel how the different vowels that are in the human being enclose themselves in the external. - Learning to feel the vocalization of one's own inner self and adapting it in various ways to the outer world. Sun i | Moon a ᐯ Venus e ![Sun16](images/Sun16.png) Mercury o ![circle16](images/circle16.png) Mars u Faust Jupiter ö ( Saturn ü sharp placement of the hands

Vowels

The vowels provide everything we need to know about human beings. They provide the inner key to the macrocosm.

The giving - bestowing - warming ![Sun16](images/Sun16.png)  
The receiving - reflecting ![Moon16](images/Moon16.png)  
The resting, suffering, melancholic ![Saturn16](images/Saturn16.png)  
The powerful, leading, guiding ![Jupiter16](images/Jupiter16.png)  
The passionate, conquering, aggressive ![Mars16](images/Mars16.png)  
The loving, mild, tender ![Venus16](images/Venus16.png)  
The mediating, conciliatory ![Mercury16](images/Mercury16.png)

i - striving for the divinity  
ei - holy fear of the deity  
a - sublimity of the deity  
ä - somewhat less sublime  
o - embracing the deity  
ö - fear of embracing

*Transcript of the opening ceremony for the fourth degree*[^2]

*Text according to Rudolf Steiner's original manuscript;  
from “Grand Master: Give me the sign”  
according to the original manuscript by Marie Steiner.  
Note sheet archive number 6970/71*

IV. Degree

Question: How is this high chapter prepared? ![Four Elements](images/265-05.webp)

Answer: By seeing that all doors are carefully closed and that neither seculars nor apprentices, journeymen nor Johannite masters are present.

Order: This is to be carried out.

Michael: With the most respectful greeting, I bring word that the chapter is fully covered.

Grand Master: As everything is ready, the chapter is opened.

Dialogue

Grand Master: Points with his sword in the four directions

Michael: The Grand Master has opened the chapter by invoking the 4.

Grand Master: Write the 4

Grand Master: Give me the sign.

Michael: (Right thumb on forehead, right hand up, face towards the sky)

Grand Master: Give me the holy word.

Michael: Adonai

Grand Master: Give me the password.

Michael: Cavaret

Grand Master: What do you understand as a Knight of the High 4th Degree?

Michael: To strip the cassia branch.

Grand Master:What does this mean?

Michael: To dissolve the coarse matter into the finest parts.

Grand Master: What is the one column to you now?

Michael: The sun.

Grand Master: What is the other column to you?

Michael: The moon.

Grand Master: Why is this?

Michael: Because the sun and moon together form the Cassia branch, i.e. they divide the fine matter into coarse matter.

Grand Master: What is your salvation now?

Michael: To obey the high masters of pre-humanity.

Grand Master: What are you therefore?

Michael: Frater latae observatiae.

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[^1]: Original manuscript does not exist. Text from a handwritten copy by Berta Reebstein, Marie Steiner's secretary, in a notebook containing only copies of Rudolf Steiner's original texts.

[^2]: Nothing exists of the admission ritual.