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

GA 265

Ritual Text for Promotion to the Second Degree

Text based on the original manuscript by Rudolf Steiner
Notebook Archive number 613

The person to be initiated is led to the gate of the “enlightenment room” by the mystic appointed for this purpose. A knock is heard (..-..-..-).¹ The following conversation takes place between the leading mystic standing outside and the recipient standing inside:

Who is knocking?

A member of the first degree of this occult current, who may be promoted to the second degree.

What is his name?

Is it said: Brother (sister) ------ Are all conditions met?

They are fulfilled (or the master has granted a dispensation).

Then the door is opened and the person to be initiated is led to a brightly burning fire in the “enlightenment room”. At the same time, a specially designated mystic stands and speaks the following words [as Lucifer]:

Look into this fire. Just as you see it and as it is well known to you, I have made it. The spirit of the East, which I have had to fight since the beginning of time, wanted it differently. It wanted to impress its properties of the elemental realm on it alone. There it must consume all affects, passions, drives that only deviate a little from the straight line of the general world order. If you were to plunge your finger into it now, it would have the same effect on the substance of your soul as it has on your physical body. It would exist only for that purpose if it were directed according to the original intentions of this spirit. But I have purloined it from him. I have condensed it from its elemental form to its physical density; thereby it has become the beneficent element in the physical cultural development of mankind, which it has thereby also become for you, soul. Consider what you would have become as a human being through the development of the earth without fire. When you understand this, you will also know what I am to you and how you must hold to me if you do not want to be unfaithful to your humanity, lose it. Consider thus: it was not wantonness in me that rebelled against the general world order, which was predetermined before my intervention, but also a sacrifice that I made for your humanity. I made myself an opponent of this world order for the sake of your dignity, took everything upon myself for your sake that my opponent had to impose on me because of my deed.

After this, the initiate is led before a second altar-like structure, at which he initially sees nothing. The mystic appointed for this purpose speaks [as Ahriman] the following:

Consider, O soul, what the spirit of the East, which I have had to fight since the beginning of time, alone would and could have made you. It wanted to implant its essence into your soul. It wanted to fill your soul completely with this essence. I had to thwart that. Through my deed, in your earthly orbit your senses encounter the manifold beings of the animal, plant and mineral kingdoms, they encounter the elements of air, water and earth that I have drawn together, they encounter the physical corporeality of the sun and moon, and the splendor of the vast starry sky. What comes to you in the physical world in the way of diversity in wisdom, beauty and strength could not reveal itself to you if I had not intervened in the general order of the world. The whole world around you would have to be under my opponent's sole control, and would be nothing but an infinite mirror in which you would only see yourself as an image of his nature. Wherever you looked, whether up or down, right or left, forward or backward, you saw nothing but this:

In this moment, a mirror is held before the initiate, in which he sees his own face. The words are spoken:

Know thyself.

After this, the person being initiated is led into the “Room of the East”. Here, his gaze is directed towards the east, and the mystic serving in the east speaks the following:

My strong opponent just stood before your soul's gaze. He can always approach the human soul when evolution passes through its intermediate states from cycle to cycle. In the vision of your soul, you were confronted with the beginning of your evolution on earth when you had led your life backwards at your initiation into the first degree. Then you could recognize how you entered into an earthly incarnation for the first time from spiritual heights and spiritual surroundings. That was a transitional period of development. My powerful opponent spoke to your intellect. If you allow this understanding of yours to take effect, his words cannot help but appear true to you. You cannot refute his words; and if I were to approach you with a rational refutation alone, I too could not invalidate what he said. Because at the place where he stood and at the other place where you now stand, the sole validity of intellectual consideration ends. You will find the possibility to find your way here if you can understand what you will now hear from me. Has my opponent spoken to you? Has he convinced you, since he has now convinced your soul? Understand: everything that has taken place here physically is only an appearance. He stood before you in the physical image; you listened to him in your physical image. And yet it is all only an appearance. He did not speak to you at all. He only spoke to that part of your being that he has gradually planted in your soul since the beginning of the earth. He has only spoken to that in you which is himself. He has only convinced himself in you. Consider this, and you will find the possibility of understanding me too, who wants to speak to that part of your being that is not him. But his words are more appealing to you than mine. He speaks to you of what you already are, what you want to recognize as your own being; I have to speak to the part of you that you are yet to become; before you can understand me, I have to demand that you recognize yourself through inner soul-strengthening in the part of your being that you are, but of which you do not yet know. I must demand of you that you first work at it. So then, understanding, ascend to yourself, and you will find me in you.

Before the one to be initiated there stands a staircase, by which he must ascend.² During the ascent the mystic serving the East utters the following words:

Form
Power
Number
harmony
word
thought
I

seek in you the power of these words in their seven-stage sequence, and you will find in the inner strengthening of your soul the key that shows you the way to the second of the occult degrees.

Then the same mystic continues:

Consider, O soul, that if you understand what has now been presented to you, you will be equipped with a new understanding of the world, an understanding that is not only valid in the sphere of the activity of the senses, but also where spirits associate with spirits. Understand this language and you can become a comrade of spiritual beings from a disciple of the spiritual world.

After this, the opening of the act is performed with the opening process of the first degree.

Now follows the communication of the sign, grip and word in the sense of inner moving forces of the etheric body to the person being initiated.

Then the symbolic clothing in the sense of the second degree is put on.

After this, the mystic in the East speaks:

All those who have been aware of the significance of this occult degree since ancient times have made a vow to their soul: I vow and promise that I will treat the secrets of this second of the occult degrees in my soul without weakness, ambiguity, or duplicity, and that I will keep them from all outsiders and only those belonging to the first degree. Should I break this my vow, then I will permit that...

Thereupon the person to be initiated is led to the altar of the East by two specially designated mystics. Two mystics of the higher degrees approach from the left and right; they cross their symbolic swords above his forehead.

The mystic of the East speaks:

I.N.D.W.E.A.D. [In the name of the wise masters of the East and by the power of compulsion], by which I serve them, I inscribe you in the book of the second degree of those who strive for the light of eternal mysticism.

The ceremony is now transformed into an instruction ceremony. During the ceremony, a teaching mystic presents one of the means – a legendary imagination, for example – that are suitable for making the path of the second degree possible through application in meditation of the soul.

Then follows the threefold conclusion of the entire ceremony in the symbolism of the second degree.