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

GA 265

“The stones are mute...”

No explanations of this mantram have been handed down from the Theosophical working context. But in the lecture Leipzig, October 13, 1906, the following remarks were made that relate to the content of the mantram:

I spoke to you earlier about the fact that forces lie dormant in every human being that can be developed and that elevate him to a higher level of existence. Just as the physical world is perceived through physical organs, so the supersensible world can be perceived through supersensible organs. At that time, the means by which man can make himself see were given, albeit in fragments. Today, in order to lead over to our subject, we want to mention certain means that are used in inner schooling.

At each stage, new instructions are to be followed. What is discussed today is not enough on its own, but it is part of the process. On the path to becoming a disciple, an instruction is given that aims to help people develop a very specific relationship with the supersensible world, a moral relationship. At the first stage, the human being must realize that just as he is a sentient being, so too are animals sentient beings. However, just as the human being has an individual soul, so the animal groups have a generic soul. Thus, all lions, all sharks, all frogs, and so on together have a soul. In other words, while the human being has the soul within, the animal souls, which are, as it were, the psychic connecting threads of the animals, extend into the astral world, and there are the community souls of the animal groups. When a person is hurt, he feels it alone. But if you hurt the lion, the group soul, which does not live on the physical plane but on the astral plane, feels it.

The training is now aimed at developing a relationship, a relationship of feeling, with the animal souls on the astral plane. Here is an example of this: in some areas, the ancient Germans revered the horse. They planted a horse skull as a symbol on their houses. The choice of such a symbol shows that they had a very specific relationship with the horse. Where did this come from? The horse only came into being at a very specific time. In the middle of the Atlantean era, this species of animal appeared, of course, little by little. This coincided with the development of wisdom. Even if man did not make this particularly clear to himself in terms, he had a comparatively attraction to the horse like the lover to the beloved. Even today, the Arab has a special relationship with his horse. Some indications can be found in mythology. Thus, the cleverness of Odysseus devised a wooden horse. In this sense, man will develop a feeling for the generic soul of the various animals. When this becomes conscious, then the relationship to the astral plane begins to emerge.

In this way, a moral relationship with the plant world can also arise. The occultist not only sees the beauty of the plant, but also feels something like a smiling or sad countenance. There is a great deal to be gained from this moral feeling. If you develop such a moral relationship, you will enter into a relationship with the lower region of the Devachan plan.

You can also develop a fine sense for the dead stone world. Rocks have a group soul on the Devachan plan, just as animals have a group soul on the astral plan. The souls of minerals live in Devachan. That is why they are not accessible to humans. Just as the fly that walks over our hand has no idea that there is a soul behind it, so people do not know that stones have souls.

If stones have souls, then you will also understand how a moral relationship with them can arise. A human or animal body has desires, passions and instincts. The body of a plant has no more desires, but it still has instincts. The body of a stone has neither desire nor instinct, and so it presents us with an ideal for human beings, in that our instincts should be spiritualized. And in the distant future this will be achieved: human beings will have bodies without desires or instincts. One day man will be like a diamond; he will no longer have inner urges, but these will then be outwardly controlled.

The stone already represents this chastity today; it is desireless matter. The occult disciple must already now develop this desirelessness within himself. In this sense, the stone is above animal, plant and human. An old Rosicrucian formula begins with the words: “I have laid the eternal creative word in the stone.” Chaste and virginal, the stone preserves this creative word in the depths of physical existence.

If one can develop such a feeling for the stone into a spiritual experience, one becomes clairvoyant in the highest parts of Devachan.