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

GA 265

Was Rudolf Steiner a Freemason?

by Marie Steiner

Rudolf Steiner's work¹ points out that in ancient times there were mysteries, initiations through which human souls were elevated to participate in spiritual life. The impulses that originated there led to the great ancient cultures that are known to us today. There, secret knowledge was cultivated, the science of the spirit, which was in full bloom in those times and had the polytheistic religions as its outer expression. The advisors of the kings and the great leaders destined to form new cultures emerged from them. Within the becoming and passing away and clashing of peoples, their wisdom treasures formed the unifying bond. The results of each culture were guarded and preserved for the progress of humanity and passed on from generation to generation. They formed a second current alongside that which flowed directly from spiritual sources, but which faded from the consciousness of the majority of people to the same extent that knowledge of physical things gained in scope and precision. The soul lost the memory of its origin. There came a time when not only a single nation, but all of humanity would have fallen into decadence if the Christ event had not taken place.

Presenting the significance of the Christ event for the revival of humanity in its entirety is the task to which Rudolf Steiner dedicated his life. To do this, he had to draw on all the knowledge that human beings have acquired to date, and shine a light into all areas of this knowledge, the revealed and also the secret ones. The secret included the forgotten old mysteries: here, in a figurative sense, the debris under which they lay had to be cleared away, just as archaeologists do at the ancient buried temple sites. Above all, however, it was important to salvage the living substance that still permeated the mystery knowledge, which was based on ancient tradition but was increasingly ossifying or decaying in its human representatives. Ancient wisdom, without revival through the impact of Christianity, without an understanding of this greatest of mysteries, could only lead to aberrations over time.

Rudolf Steiner had a comprehensive insight into these interrelationships through the spiritual science he philosophically founded and organically developed. That is why he considered it his task in our time to make his knowledge accessible to them when he was approached by such circles, whether they are traditionally or newly inspired, who cultivate ancient secret science. He never sought out such circles, but where they asked for enlightenment and instruction, he did not refuse to give it to them. This was his service to humanity.

He initially rejected the efforts of representatives of the Theosophical Society, who would have liked to see him in their ranks, because the Theosophical Society worked in a one-sided orientalizing direction and in many cases in a scientifically dilettantish or psychically phenomenalist direction. In particular, however, it lacked the foundations for the knowledge of true Christian esotericism. It was only when the German Theosophists wanted to found an independent section under his leadership and thus also on the basis of Western Christian esotericism that he felt obliged not to withdraw this request.

When, after a number of years, Annie Besant, who later became president of the Theosophical Society, tried to prevent this work for a living Christianity, the Anthroposophical Society was founded and separated from the Theosophical Society. Rudolf Steiner describes the details of this process in his autobiography, “My Life Course”.

The other proposal came from the side that traditionally cultivates medieval Christian esotericism based on the ancient wisdom of the mysteries. It emphasizes the fact that its historical continuity goes back to the times when occult knowledge was cultivated in the ancient Egyptian temples. In the course of the centuries, these circles, with their many ramifications, took up whatever seemed spiritually appropriate and beneficial to them from the most diverse mystical currents, especially through the impulses of the Crusades, the masons' guilds, etc. They preserved themselves under various names as freemason federations, orders of illuminati, etc. But in the course of time the majority of them increasingly distanced themselves from their original knowledge and goals, then fell prey to rationalism and often to atheism, and gradually became associations that were partly political, partly commercial, and partly charitable. The disappointment grew ever greater for those who allowed themselves to be admitted to these associations in order to gain knowledge from the spirit there. Again and again, such disappointed people approached Rudolf Steiner to tell him that only now, through his publicly advocated spiritual science, had they found access to what was behind the symbols that no one understood. Many complained that they were serving falsehood by reciting traditional formulas that professed belief in a divine spirit, but were completely skeptical about their content. And one could encounter a great longing to experience something of the seriousness that must once have been associated with the old cultic customs. Freemasonry revealed itself as a declining tradition of the past, whose outer organism could be seized by opposing forces, and indeed had already been to a large extent.

But that which had remained true in these millennia-old endeavors, their spiritual content, which could not be killed, could and had to continue to serve the renewal of humanity in a transformed form. This was the task that Rudolf Steiner saw himself confronted with when a proposal was made to him from within those circles to found an independent organization by means of a historically and legally documented link. This proposal was made by a spiritually striving person who had come to believe that Rudolf Steiner knew more about spiritual matters than all of them put together. The proposal was then formalized by a party that was certainly more concerned with practical benefits and had a highly indifferent attitude towards spiritual matters. It was not Rudolf Steiner's task to snoop into this man's past, as it was not his intention to maintain relations with him. Not only the titled representatives of secret societies, but also those of ecclesiastical and other institutions often prove to be unworthy of their office. The fact that, as can now be seen from their writings, the various Masonic orders do not recognize each other is something that they probably have in common with other human institutions, and which requires a great deal of time and effort and also legal sophistry to investigate. Rudolf Steiner, however, had to take into account what is of decisive importance for every representative of spiritual truths: historical ties to an ancient and venerable spiritual current, even if its forms change over time, in order to protect it from decadence as far as possible. Its truth content could, if he agreed, be awakened to new life and, corresponding to the cognitive powers of the time, made subservient to the progress of humanity. In the language of the consciousness soul, the old symbols could revive and take hold of all of humanity in the possibilities of revelation through art.

Rudolf Steiner set one condition. He would carry out the historical-legal connection within the degree offered to him, through which he was allowed to continue the work independently, but that should exhaust the relationship. Not a single further claim could be made, neither in terms of collaboration nor in terms of human, social or organizational relationships. Nothing but an external, in no way binding formality should be carried out, not a single joint activity should take place! The newly founded and completely independent group, which was made up of those Theosophists who longed to approach this kind of Western esotericism, was introduced to the old symbols, first in their pictorial meaning, then more and more in their inner essence, until they had been digested in consciousness. In this way they were rescued from the mystical twilight and made accessible to artistic and scientific life. When war broke out in August 1914, Steiner dissolved the working group that had come together under the name Mystica Aeterna, and tore up the document that had been drawn up for it.² They never met again in this way.

This is a precise explanation of the apparent contradiction that some people claim that Rudolf Steiner was a high-ranking Freemason, while others claim that he never belonged to the Freemasons at all. Rudolf Steiner never had any connection with the Freemasons. He is completely foreign to these communities and is even strongly opposed by them, because from the beginning of his theosophical-anthroposophical work, he had revealed in his teachings what they regard as their secrets, which give them weight and prestige. He reveals esoteric knowledge because humanity needs it, because it is a need of the time. But at the same time, he unlocks the understanding for it. In order to legitimately fill the old symbols with new life in a formally constituted working group that ties in with the historical current, he carried out an external contract and stood completely apart from any contact with Freemason brothers. Thus the term 'high-grade brother', which the enemies like to throw around, has been de facto misleading ever since it was no longer possible for them to make him a Jew. Since Rudolf Steiner had no connection whatsoever with any Masonic order, but this term is intended to create the impression that he belonged to these organizations, the aim is to create a misleading impression. The aim of this deception is to prevent people from engaging with the spiritual science founded and developed by Rudolf Steiner. If they were to do so, the contrast to Freemasonry would soon become apparent. Rudolf Steiner, realizing that the spiritual nature of today's human beings can no longer inwardly affirm the mystery and that the mystery must be revealed, set forth his spiritual science in full public view.

In it, he has made possible a true understanding of Christianity and provided the way and the method by which the human being of today can fulfill his life's duties through an understanding of spiritual facts. How this spiritual science of Rudolf Steiner, which is not cultivated in secret circles and from a power-political point of view, but in full public view, is received in the consciousness of the present, will be of decisive importance for the destiny of the next era.

Marie Steiner,
née v. Sivers

Three Additional Versions of the essay “Was Rudolf Steiner a Freemason?”

I

It is very difficult to assert that Dr. Steiner had nothing to do with the Masonic movement. Dr. Steiner himself says that on page... of his “Life Course”.

The Masonic movement itself is a movement that has splintered into many organizations and fallen into decadence. It originally emerged from those currents that were still connected to the ancient wisdom of the mysteries. The original stream has been diverted into many tributaries and canals. They have all undergone their various fates and have partly strayed quite far from their original goal, the pursuit of knowledge.

Dr. Steiner's endeavor has now been to uncover the pure sources of the esoteric teachings again, to let them flood before our soul's gaze in their historical course, to free them from the debris that has gradually settled in them, to show how, despite debris and periodic cloudiness, the pure original forces have again and again sought new paths to give their invigorating, progress-inducing effect to humanity. Rudolf Steiner places the Mystery of Golgotha at the center of humanity's spiritual-historical development, with the power that we know from his writings and lectures. All ancient mystery wisdom tended towards this climax; all subsequent mystery wisdom, revived and reborn through this power current, wrestled for the means, prepared the paths by which not only the yearning of the heart of humanity could be satisfied in a religious way, but also the understanding of the Christ impulse within humanity could gradually be developed.

Rudolf Steiner devoted his life to this task to the highest degree. He worked creatively and impulsively in all three areas, which used to be a unity in the time of the cultures inaugurated by the mysteries: the religious, the artistic, and the scientific. He gave advice and support to all people who sought it in these areas, without distinction of the social context from which they might have come. Many earnestly striving Freemasons were delighted to recognize that in the Anthroposophy represented by Rudolf Steiner a light was given that opened up an understanding for much of what was offered to them in their lodges in the form of images and signs as a traditionally adopted ritual. They began to understand better what might be meant by this. There were also those who suffered greatly from the temptations that some organizations had fallen into, to which their destiny had led them. They looked around for help. Out of such an impulse, a request was made to Rudolf Steiner to attempt to found an organization that could work out the pure basic principles of esoteric striving, free of all the accumulated confusion of the centuries. The way in which this came about resulted from the existing conditions, which were so very unsatisfactory. When organizations go to rack and ruin, the fault lies with the inadequacy of the people working in them, especially those placed at their head. This was the case here in a rather alarming way, and Rudolf Steiner wanted nothing to do with associations that were under such leadership.

That was the condition he set when he agreed to make a historically documented connection, by which he undertook to make financial contributions in return for absolute freedom and independence in the organization of a work that aimed to gradually lift the obscuring veils from the symbolic customs, which were now to be grasped by the forces of clear consciousness. Thus he did what he was constantly doing through his Anthroposophy: in the gradual removal of mystical veils and in the solid building up of the powers of the mind, which, through reason, increase to wisdom, he carried out the duty of the present-day human being to gain knowledge.

In doing so, he did something that he considered his duty to humanity. For him, it was a new burden, an offering. But every sacrifice also has its positive effect in the spiritual sense, in that new sources of knowledge open up to those who willingly take on the burden. And perhaps Rudolf Steiner would not have been able to utter many a word of warning, deeply rooted in truth, about the dangers of today's secret organizations if he had not included this, albeit from afar, in his general study of contemporary social phenomena. It led him to emphasize even more sharply and clearly than before that secret societies could no longer exist today, that the present state of development of humanity could no longer tolerate them.

Like every science, spiritual science also requires a gradual build-up, a step-by-step development of the powers of reason in order to lead to spiritual knowledge. In this sense, one cannot expect the beginner and the novice to have an understanding of the higher levels of knowledge. They must gradually open up to his consciousness, like the higher areas of mathematics, which are also still a secret to the beginner.

Rudolf Steiner's work is a public offering to humanity that leads step by step to higher knowledge. It lies spread out before us in his writings, lectures and artistic creations and has nothing to do with secret organizations, not even with masonic ones. The explanations he gave of time-honored signs and symbols have long since been superseded by the spiritual research results that he left behind in countless works for the human mind and for the human ego, which is called upon to be alert and wants to be alert.

II

Anyone who would take the trouble to study Rudolf Steiner's works without prejudice will soon see that here knowledge of spiritual things is being revealed that truly needs seek no other sources than those that open up to the inner self. He had assimilated school and university knowledge in a comprehensive way. Knowledge about the manifold conditions of life and its social interrelationships was brought by the alert eye for the things of life and the many relationships in which life placed him. They approached him, he did not seek them, did not need to seek them, because they were sought after him, because he had more to give than others, and because he gave with love, never with arrogance or reserve. He did not reject anything that approached him; even if it was inferior, “he alone weighed the good in souls and let evil find its atonement in the course of world justice”.³ But he drew a sharp line at the effectiveness of evil and did not allow it to undermine the circles he was responsible for.

This attitude of mind explains, on the one hand, his tremendous forbearance and mildness, his willingness to help and his unconditional compassion, and, on the other hand, his ironclad rejection of all persistently harmful elements.

This is my attempt to explain why he did not immediately turn out anyone who was morally displeasing to him and did not allow any leeway for his influence. On the contrary, he tried to lead astray the erring and keep the right path by positive action. That was why he took upon himself the life of the Theosophical Society and why he did not reject the offer, made to him on the basis of his higher knowledge, to found an independent branch of high-grade Freemasonry. The Grand Master of that order made a thoroughly fatal impression; with him one could have nothing to do other than pay the usual fees in those circles. It was a short ceremony, after which the certificate was issued, which Rudolf Steiner tore up at the beginning of the war.

Perhaps this only paper connection gave him the opportunity to better understand many things inwardly, which he then repeatedly expressed in his lectures as a warning and to steer the formation of judgment in the right direction. Outwardly, he never had any connection with any order; there was never a joint meeting, never a joint discussion. Therefore, it is an objective untruth when, in a book such as... by Huber⁴, and in inflammatory writings of a lower caliber, the connection between Rudolf Steiner and Freemasonry is pointed out in a tendentious way. All the grand titles are listed. Well, he did not strive for them; it is the custom of masons to bestow the most supreme, most sovereign, most illustrious, etc. titles upon themselves; this is part of the tradition, the convention, and is in itself comical today, especially since for most only this empty shell remains. But that is precisely why a serious person and a person who knows is concerned about saving the core, which is being crushed and petrified by this shell. For Rudolf Steiner, only the core matter was important. That is why he was also completely indifferent to the extent to which the various orders recognized each other or not; whether the one offering him the certificate was a so-called secondary organization, a lodge in the shadows, or not. He wanted nothing to do with any organization. This was the strict condition to which Mr. Reuss, adorned with many titles, submitted. Rudolf Steiner knew before anyone else that the time of medieval and modern masonry had passed. He came before the world with the unveiling of occult truths because man needs them and because working in secret has led to abuses. But there is a power in the time-honored symbols, and they need not be abandoned because of outward decadent phenomena. They can be saved and preserved for humanity through art, for example. This is what Rudolf Steiner did. In his mystery poems, in his building, in some of the works of his students, this metamorphosis has become life and thus been made fruitful for humanity. This is the eternal value of the truths that must be saved from the decay of the outer form. Continuity in change. This is the justification for Rudolf Steiner's approach, which he faced as a duty.

The tendentious nature of the lies associated with this smear campaign is obvious. The Masons may have a legitimate reason from their point of view to fight against Dr. Steiner and have done so with all their might. The turning of the tables, perhaps also due to their hand, is a clever maneuver that may serve a variety of dark purposes. We do not need to shy away from the full light in this matter.

III

If anyone has recognized and stated at the right time that the time for Freemasonry is over, it is Rudolf Steiner. Not only does his life's work, Anthroposophy, bear witness to this, not only does he express it artistically in his drama (the representatives of the occult society hand over their symbols and step down),⁵ But in the first days after the outbreak of the world war, he tore up the preserved document as a sign and confirmation of his opinion that the days were over when Freemasonry could still be recognized. In order to be right in his conscience about such a rejection, he had a duty not to avoid contact with it. And how brief was this contact – soon dismissed when it revealed itself in all its hollowness. Such statements are not intended to affect the estimable members in the ranks, who – – – [the text breaks off here].