Lessons for the Participants of Cognitive-Cultic Work 1906–1924

GA 265a — 16 April 1908

The Importance of Developing the Right Mental Images

Notes by Lonise Boese

Much is sinned against the truth in our materialistic time. False feelings are instilled in children at school; and these false feelings and mental images about the things we experience daily have devastating effects. They are the greatest obstacles to occult development. Not a step does a person take in the street without being met by a host of such wrong thoughts and feelings from his fellow human beings, buzzing around him and mixing with his aura.

Consider, for example, the orthodox belief in the infallibility of today's science. In the past, the Ptolemaic system of the world was accepted, today it is the Copernican system. In the future, the former will be recognized again. People in the past knew more about the real facts than our scholars would like to admit. Namely, on the astral plane, the Ptolemaic system applies. The Earth does not rotate elliptically around the Sun, but the Sun moves in a certain direction, let's say a straight line, and our planet spirals around it, so that it behaves something like this:

The initiates always knew this and expressed it in the staff of Mercury.

Now, in the course of 3000 years from now, the starry sky will look very different. At the time of the Chaldeans, the star figures also appeared different than they do today. From the movement of the heavenly bodies, the ancients read something meaningful for the course of human development. These sparkling inscriptions in the starry sky revealed important secrets to them.

Let us take a piece of the sky of modern astronomy. Each star of these figures, which we call Aries, [Andromeda], Draco, Pisces, will move in different directions, so that their image will change.

Therefore, we must also try to bring our concepts closer to the truth and to gain correct mental images from what surrounds us.

Just as it is true that Jesus really showed himself after the resurrection, it is also true that he remained invisible to those who did not recognize him. Mary Magdalene took him for the gardener. The spiritual eyes must be opened to see Jesus. He can actually be here; if you do not have the purified faith that allows you to see into the higher worlds, you will not recognize him, like Thomas.

We should celebrate the Feast of Pentecost with such feelings that the spirit descends upon us, filling us with the divine. To do this, we must awaken and invigorate the unshakable faith in the spiritual within us.