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

GA 265 — Hildesheim

The Temple Legend

“The part that interprets the evolution of humanity in symbolic terms”, as taught in the first degree.
Text based on the original manuscript by Rudolf Steiner.

At the beginning of the evolution of the earth, one of the spirits of light or Elohim descended from the realm of the sun to the earthly realm and united with Eve, the primal mother of all that lives. From this union arose Cain, the first of the earth-dwellers. Thereafter, another of the Elohim, Jahve or Jehovah, formed Adam; and from the union of Adam and Eve arose Abel, Cain's stepbrother. The inequality of descent between Cain and Abel (sexual and asexual descent) caused discord between Cain and Abel. And Cain slew Abel. Abel had lost his connection to the spiritual world through sexual descent, Cain through the moral fall. Jehovah gave Seth, a substitute son, to Abel's parents as compensation. Two types of people descended from Cain and Seth. The descendants of Seth were able to see into the spiritual world in special (dream-like) states of consciousness. The descendants of Cain had lost this ability completely. They had to work their way up through the generations by gradually developing the human powers of the earth in order to regain their spiritual abilities.

One of the descendants of Abel-Seth was the wise Solomon. He had inherited the gift of dream-like clairvoyance; indeed, he had inherited it to a particular degree as a disposition; so it was that his wisdom was so widely known that it is symbolically reported of him that he sat on a throne of gold and ivory (gold and ivory symbols of wisdom).

From the line of Cain came men who, in the course of time, were increasingly concerned with the upward development of human powers on earth. One of these men was Lamech, the keeper of the T-books, in which, as far as was possible for human powers, original wisdom was restored, so that these books are incomprehensible to uninitiated people. Another descendant of the Cain humanity is Tubalkain, who made great progress in the working of metals, and even knew how to form metals into musical instruments in an artistic way. And as a contemporary of Solomon, Hiram Abiff or Adoniram, a descendant of Cain, lived who had advanced so far in his art that it bordered directly on the vision of the higher worlds, and for him there was only a thin wall to break through to initiation.

The wise Solomon conceived the plan of a temple, the formal parts of which were to symbolize the development of mankind. Through his dream wisdom, he was able to conceive the thoughts of this temple in every detail; but he lacked the knowledge of the earth forces for the actual construction, which could only be gained through the training of the earth forces in the Cain race. Therefore, Solomon connected with Hiram-Abiff. He now built the temple that symbolized the development of humanity.

Solomon's fame had reached as far as the Queen of Sheba, Balkis. One day she went to the court of Solomon in order to marry him. She was shown all the glories of Solomon's court, including the mighty temple. From the mental images she had formed up to that point, she could not comprehend how a master builder who had only human powers at his disposal could have accomplished such a thing. She had only learned that the leaders of workers, through the possession of atavistic magical powers, were able to gather sufficient crowds of workers to erect the old, mighty buildings. She demanded to see the strange, remarkable master builder. When he met her, his eye immediately made a deeply significant impression on her. Then he was to show her how he led the workers by mere human agreement. He took his hammer, climbed a hill, and at a sign with the hammer, large crowds of workers rushed to the scene. The Queen of Sheba realized that human powers could develop to such significance.

Soon afterward, the queen and her nurse (the nurse is symbolic of a prophetic person) were walking outside the city gates. They encountered Hiram Abiff. At the moment the two women saw the master builder, the bird Had-Had flew out of the air onto the arm of the Queen of Sheba.

The prophetic nurse interpreted this to mean that the Queen of Sheba was not destined for Solomon, but for Hiram Abiff. From that moment on, the queen thought only of how she could break off her engagement to Solomon. It is further related that now, “in her intoxication,” the engagement ring was pulled from the king's finger, so that the queen could now consider herself the bride destined for Hiram Abiff. (The significance of this feature of the legend lies in the fact that in the Queen of Sheba we see the ancient wisdom of the stars, which was connected with the ancient atavistic soul powers symbolized in Solomon. Occult legends express this in the symbols of female persons, and wisdom is that which can unite with the male part of the soul. The time of Solomon marks the epoch in which this wisdom is to pass over from the atavistic old forces to the newly acquired powers of the I on earth. The “ring” is always the symbol of the “I”. Solomon is still conceived as having a not fully human ego, but one that is only the reflection of the “higher ego” of the angels in the atavistic dream-clairvoyant consciousness. The “intoxication” indicates that this ego is lost again within the semi-conscious soul forces through which it was acquired. Hiram is only in possession of a real-human “I”.)

From this point on, King Solomon is seized by a violent jealousy against his master builder. Therefore, three treacherous companions find it easy to gain the ear of the king for an act by which they want to destroy Hiram Abiff. They are his opponents because they had to be rejected by him when they demanded the master's degree and the master's word, for which they are not ready.

These three traitorous fellows now decide to spoil the work for Hiram Abiff, which he is to accomplish as the crowning achievement of his work at the court of Solomon. This is the casting of the “Brazen Sea”. This is an artificial casting made of the seven basic metals (lead, copper, tin, mercury, iron, silver, gold) in such proportions that it is completely transparent. The thing was finished, except for one very last impact, which was to be made before the assembled court - also before the Queen of Sheba - and by which the still cloudy substance was to be transformed to complete clarity. Now the three treacherous journeymen mixed something wrong into the casting, so that instead of it clearing, sparks of fire sprayed out of it. Hiram Abiff tried to calm the fire with water. This did not work, but the flames leapt in all directions. The assembled people scattered in all directions. But Hiram Abiff heard a voice from the flames and the glowing mass: “Plunge into the sea of flames; you are invulnerable.” He plunged into the flames and soon realized that his path was heading towards the center of the earth. Halfway there, he met his ancestor Tubalkain. The latter led him to the center of the earth, where the great ancestor Cain was, in the state he was in before the sin. Here Hiram Abiff received from Cain the explanation that the vigorous development of human powers on earth would ultimately lead to the height of initiation, and that the initiation attained in this way would replace the vision of the Abel-Seth sons in the course of the earth, which would disappear. Symbolically, the power to confer the Mother Gift, which Hiram Abiff receives from Cain, is expressed by the statement that Hiram received a new hammer from Cain, with which he returned to the earth's surface, touched the Sea of Bronze, and thereby brought about its complete transparency. (This symbolism is given by that which, in appropriate meditation, elevates to the imagination the inner essence of human development on earth. The Iron Sea can be seen as a symbol of what man would have become if the three treacherous forces in the soul had not taken hold: doubt, superstition, and the illusion of the personal self. Through these forces, the evolution of mankind on earth has come to a display of fire in the Lemurian period, which cannot be dampened by the watery evolution of the Atlantean period. Rather, such an evolution of human forces on earth must take place that the original state is restored in the soul, which was present in Cain before the fratricide. The dream-like soul powers of the children of Abel-Seth cannot prevail against the powers of the earth, but only the descendants of Cain, who have come to full, real development of the ego.)

A further transcript of the Temple Legend
Text according to the original manuscript by Rudolf Steiner

[The first part is missing]

From this time on, Solomon became jealous of his master builder. Three treacherous journeymen, who in their vanity had demanded the master builder's word and degree from the master builder, whom he could not give them because they were still immature, supported him in this. They decided to take revenge in the following way.

Hiram Abiff was to perform the so-called Sea of Bronze as the crowning glory of his work at the court of Solomon. It was to be a wonderful metal casting in which all the metals of the earth were poured in such harmony that a magnificent, harmonious whole resulted. Everything about it was completed by Hiram Abiff, down to the last move. This was to be done at a special celebration. The entire court was assembled for the occasion, including the Queen of Sheba. At the decisive moment, the three treacherous journeymen added an unrighteous touch to the casting; and instead of the whole thing bringing itself to a harmonious conclusion, sparks flew out of the casting. Hiram Abiff tried to calm the flames by adding water. But then terrible masses of flames arose from the casting. Everything that had been gathered by people scattered. But Hiram Abiff heard a voice from the fire that told him: do not be afraid, plunge into the flames; you are invulnerable. He plunged into the sea of flames. He soon realized that his flight was to the center of the earth. Halfway there he met Tubalkain, who led him to his ancestor Cain in the center of the earth. Cain was in the form before the commission of sin. He gave Hiram Abiff a new T-sign and told him that with it he would restore the casting when he returned to the surface of the earth. And from him would come a race that would conquer Adam's children on earth and reintroduce the great service of fire, as well as lead mankind back to the divine word of creation.

There is also a deeper meaning in this part of the legend. Before man descended from the bosom of the deity into earthly embodiments, he was in a spiritual environment that he could perceive. He heard the divine creative word. He embodied himself in the metal masses, which were still liquid in the fire at that time. Before this happened, three companions could not harm him: doubt, superstition and the illusion of personal self. He could not have doubt about the spiritual world, because it was around him. He could not be overcome by superstition, because he saw the spiritual in its true form. But superstition consists in the mental image of the spiritual in the wrong form. The illusion of personal self could not affect him, because he knew himself in the general spirituality; he was not yet separated from this general spirituality by being enclosed in his body. If these three treacherous companions had not been on his heels, his body would have become a pure harmonious connection of substances. They mixed in the impact that made him forget the divine-spiritual creative word. The casting was destroyed by this. The descent of Hiram Abiff into the center of the earth then represents man's advance on the occult path. In this way mankind comes into possession of the T, the divine creative word, and gets to know human nature (Cain) as it was before the Fall and how it can create in purity.

Another imagination is the following:

The eye is the divine eye of power behind all transient existence, even behind the seven-part nature of man. One can form a mental image of this if one recalls the words of St. Augustine:

"Man sees things as they are.

They are as God sees them.

Human vision is passive; things must be there for a person to see them. God's vision creates things in the act of looking. The triangle around the eye is

spirit itself (manas)
spirit of life (budhi)
spirit man (atma)

The rays are the “I” - the upper trinity shines through the I into the lower members of human nature.

These are symbolized:

1. by the illuminated part of the clouds: the astral body
2. by the unilluminated part of the clouds: the etheric body
3. the surrounding darkness: the physical body.

The temple legend and this radiant eye should be a constant subject of meditation for the*. He should remember them again and again; see them as images (imaginations) in his mind. Then, if he devotes the necessary energy and patience to them, he will become aware that they awaken forces and abilities that were dormant in him, and by awakening them he can see into the higher worlds. For man does not attain to the supersensible organs of perception through tumultuous, external means, but through such intimate means as those mentioned, which are applied in inner, quiet soul work, inwardly restlessly and energetically.

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