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

GA 265a — 31 December 1911, Hanover

Truth in Thought, True Piety, Active Virtue

Note A.

It has already been pointed out that in the days from December 24 to January 6, no occult meetings can take place in which the ritual is used. During the momentous thirteen days which close with the spiritual birth of the Christ, the wise Masters withdraw from the East in order to gather the strength which they radiate over Humanity during the rest of the year and which for us is the Wisdom we have to follow.

It has also been said many times that the symbols you see in our temple and the rituals performed in it do not arise out of nothing, but that they are deeply connected to cosmic constellations and regulated by laws that will be revealed in more detail later. They have been handed down to us from century to century from the mysteries of ancient times, so that they can form the right channels for the spiritual currents that the Masters of the East send down to us. They cannot therefore be explained or understood in any exoteric way. The wise Masters of the East are Beings belonging to the three higher worlds, working as it were in the past, in the present and in the future, and whom we can visualize in our mental image as above us when we utter our prayer. - The prayer follows: “Brothers of antiquity...”

One of the most important symbols is the three flames that stand on the altars of the East, West and South and to which our attention should be drawn first. In them we should see the symbols of wisdom, beauty and strength, but we should not understand them to mean worldly wisdom, worldly beauty and worldly strength. Wisdom is not to be found on the physical plane, and anyone who is involved in the occult life should make up his mind never to pronounce the word “wisdom” and think of it as the worldly wisdom that presents itself in the external sciences, for example, or that which is referred to as general knowledge. A learned person is not wise; a wise person does not need to be learned, and may even be a very naive person, but a wise person is one who keeps wisdom in his heart, who speaks and feels from his heart, as it were: I see my God at work in every petal – a person who senses and perceives his God in all of creation and feels connected to creation and the divine. But bear in mind that this does not mean that one should be a pantheist to do so; one must have a much more intimate mental image of such a person, an inexpressible feeling of being sheltered in the divinity of the world, which gives him peace and bliss in his being.

We must acquire such wisdom for ourselves, it must permeate our entire being so strongly that it is no longer possible for us to think that we are not always and forever surrounded and cared for by the spirit of the world, so that inner peace and security can no longer leave us.

Such perceptions and feelings will flow into us from the astral world, which consists of living, flowing, moving wisdom, which forms the background, the source of the nature that surrounds us, and which permeates the entire physical world. It is from there that we must draw the strength to become wise. It cannot be found in the physical world itself.

The beauty symbolized by the second flame also has nothing in common with the beauty in the world; it does not refer to any worldly object. To glimpse something of this beauty, we must turn our gaze to the starry night sky and immerse ourselves in it, so that we feel, as it were, that spiritual beings rule behind it. A deep, heartfelt piety should fill us with this. Or, when we experience a sunset and feel how the radiant orb sinks slowly below the horizon in a purple glow, so that the shadows grow longer and longer and finally nature all around is completely shrouded in darkness, then again a deep, and so strongly identify with the divine power in our soul that the inner sun will shine and radiate in our soul – just as the midnight sun can shine into the dark Christmas days for the student of occultism and the spiritual beings can be seen in their sublime beauty, in all their majesty. In this sense, we must think when we think and speak about beauty, and these thoughts, as discussed here, should transform the concept of beauty.

Beauty can be found in the lower Devachan, and there it flows down upon us from the beings in beautiful pictures and forms. But on this plane one also still finds the ugly, and that is precisely in what is often called “beautiful” on earth. We find every lie there as something ugly, and we can even find something beautiful in this world that is based only on illusion and delusion. For example, we find beautiful figures and forms there, even angelic figures created by black magicians, who thus envelop themselves as if in a veil to hide their own selfish goals. One can have come quite far in the esoteric life and in a certain life deal with magical arts or black magic; then such people can show themselves in the lower Devachan plan in such angelic forms, wrapped in a veil of beautiful garments. So there is no absolute, true beauty in this realm, and only genuine, heartfelt devotion can reveal the true devachanic beauty to us.

The third flame symbolizes power – again, not what we know as power in the physical world, but this power is said to flow from the higher devachan into the physical world and develop in people as “active virtue”. This is the virtue that consists in continually allowing our personality to recede, in fighting our ambition, especially when it expresses itself in wanting to shine with our gifts. It is this virtue that should make us aware that we rest in the Godhead, that we are only a small part of the true, great perfection, so that we feel how all vanity and pride are unreal, so that it would be foolish to want to be proud of something.

Particularly at the beginning of their occult path, people often become haughty or vain and proud; for example, when they start to notice small successes in themselves, they soon feel superior to others. But that is not the way to achieve active virtue. Nor will he find the way who seeks to impart his knowledge or powers to others, if he wants to teach what he has received of higher teachings himself, and if he then allows himself to be venerated by those to whom he imparts something. These vices are great obstacles which man himself places in his own way. But also those who offer such adoration place these obstacles in the way of the esotericist. By combating these vices in the physical world and constantly guarding against falling prey to them by practicing “active virtue,” the power found in the higher Devachan as a sum of high spiritual beings will flow into us as spiritual strength and strengthen our inner being.

Notes B by Unknown

The reason why in the days from December 24 to January 6 (the day of Epiphany) there is no ceremony at the meetings of our occult brotherhood is that those whom we call the wise masters of the East withdraw to the sanctuary during this time to gather forces there, which are then given to all of humanity as well as to our occult fraternity in a new strength.

When we see ourselves surrounded by all the symbols that confront us in our Masonic temple, we should always remember that we are not dealing with imaginative things, but with something very real. We should remember that through these symbols the powers of the wise masters of the East flow to us.

When we look up to those who have guided us from the beginning of the world through the Saturn, Sun and Moon periods, we turn to those whom we call the Brothers of Antiquity and pray: “Brothers of Antiquity”.

Then we look up to those who guide our present development, and so we call upon them: “Brothers of the Present”.

And those who will be the guides and leaders of humanity in the times to come, we address as brothers of the future and pray: “Brothers of the Future”.

As we now offer our prayer, and indeed already before that, we turn our gaze to the three lights that are lit on the three altars: on the altar of the East, from which we shall receive wisdom, on the altar of the South, from which we shall receive beauty, and on the altar of the West, from which we shall receive strength. Let us now take a moment to consider the three words “Wisdom, Beauty and Strength” in their actual meaning. These three words were known in all mysteries and it was known that all progress is based on them, but the one who uttered them knew that their true meaning cannot be found in the physical plane. What we feel here are only mirror images that are reflected back to us from the spiritual world. Wisdom can only be found on the astral plane, beauty on the lower devachan, strength on the higher devachan.

What we find as wisdom on the astral plane is reflected for us as truth; the beauty that can only be found in the lower devachan is reflected for us as true piety and the strength in the higher devachan as active virtue. We should therefore get into the habit of using the word wisdom only in its true sense, as the truth of thinking; what is usually called wisdom in relation to external knowledge is not wisdom. A wise person is one who looks at the world and feels the God in every plant, every flower petal, not in a pantheistic sense, but feels the rule and work of the world spirit. This can be done even by the most naive mind, and only a person who feels this way can truly be called wise.

If we now bear in mind that we are always surrounded by this world spirit, then we also know that we stand before this world spirit as we really are, not as we want to appear before the world through dishonesty and untruthfulness. In the higher worlds, there is nothing that can hide our vices from us. There we stand completely abandoned by everything we have surrounded ourselves with here as deception; lies and dishonesty have no access to the higher worlds. These words do not even exist there because the qualities are simply not present.

And if a person were really so bad that he did not bring a single good quality from his past life on earth, he would not even be able to enter the lower Devachan, but would have to reincarnate as soon as possible.

Therefore, before a person can enter the higher worlds, he must discard all his vices when passing through Kamaloka. There he must discard everything that is false, insincere, and so on; he cannot take any of that with him, because only good is accepted in the higher worlds, because there is no evil there. When he returns to a new incarnation, he takes up all his passions and faults again as his karma, which he must shed in a new incarnation.

Beauty is what radiates down to the physical plane as true piety. When we look up into the night sky, we should not only see the stars as such, but we should sense in them the divine spiritual beings that are hidden behind them. A feeling of deepest piety should permeate us. And when we watch a sunset, we should think that as the sun goes down, another sun, a spiritual sun, may arise in this darkness, one that shines and glows more brightly than the physical sun that has just disappeared before our eyes, the midnight sun.

We must feel and sense this in every moment. This is what radiates from the spiritual world as true piety, which lives up there as beauty. This beauty is hidden from us as if behind a veil; we do not see it until we are prepared for it, until we have abandoned our vices. For example, lying would appear here as ugliness, and everything we perceive as beauty or believe we see before we are fully worthy to enter the sphere of beauty, what we see as angelic figures, as beautiful, sublime images, all this is deception. We only come to true beauty through true piety.

But it may happen that a person in the period between death and a new birth has, due to special circumstances, been allowed to see this beauty, even though he himself was not pure. From that he has received great strength, so much so that in a new incarnation he is able to weave a garment for himself that surrounds him with radiant beauty. He can do that, but it is not true, it is a lie. He then appears before the eyes of the world in this radiant garment, but anyone who can see behind it knows that it is the work of the devil. This really happens, and there are many such people.

What shines down as strength onto the physical plane is understood there as what is called morality and virtue. Only those who have developed these qualities can hope to penetrate into the higher Devachan. The higher worlds reject everything that does not belong there. All the egoism, ambition, vanity, anxiety and fear that we bring with us cannot enter there, and man must learn to understand that these qualities mean great foolishness on the higher planes.

Nevertheless, there is a certain difficulty for those who are already a little more developed, so that they can and may receive occult truths and share them with their fellow human beings. Very easily, a feeling of personal veneration and worship arises among their listeners, and this can lead to these qualities, which they thought they had discarded, awakening anew in them despite their earlier higher level. Everyone must free themselves from this, then the recognition from the earlier worlds will radiate down as strength.

So when we pronounce the three words “wisdom, beauty, strength”, we must get into the habit of feeling them as forces that radiate down from higher planes and are reflected on the physical plane. And we must develop through truth and piety and virtue, then we will find these again in the spiritual worlds as wisdom, beauty and strength.

When the student in the mysteries uttered these three words, he thereby expressed his creed, which was as follows: I know that behind the physical world there is a spiritual one, but that wisdom can only be found in the astral plane. I know that behind the physical world there is a spiritual one, but that beauty can only be found in the lower Devachan. I know that behind the physical world there is a spiritual one, but that strength can only be found in the higher devachan plan.

So we now ask those whom we address as the brothers of the past, present and future to light the lamps of their wisdom, beauty and strength in us and so invoke them:

Brothers of the past...
Brothers of the present...
Brothers of the future...

C. Notes from the estate of Elisabeth Vreede

If we now move from the form of these symbols to their meaning for our inner being, then we must not think of worldly wisdom, worldly beauty or worldly strength when we hear the words “wisdom”, “beauty” and “strength”.

Wisdom cannot be found on the physical plane. Here everything is Maya, and in reality, man sees everything upside down here. If one were to believe that wisdom could be found somewhere on the physical plane, one should always be aware that it only appears to be wisdom on the outside, but is not wisdom in reality. Where we think we see life, there is decay; where there seems to be decay, there new life is hidden. And so we can never meet wisdom in that which presents itself to us on the physical plane. Everyone who is involved in the occult life should make it a point never to utter the word “wisdom” in ordinary life without considering that they only understand worldly wisdom, for example, the wisdom that we encounter in science or that which is generally referred to as erudition. A learned person is therefore not wise; a wise person does not need to be a scholar, and can even be a rather naive person who is far removed from all learning. A wise person is one who carries wisdom in his heart, who recognizes the wisdom that governs everything around him.

We can form a mental image of such a person looking at a green, juicy plant leaf; then, at the moment he looks at it, he would have the sensation that it is growing beyond itself, that it has the potential (ability?) within itself to become something completely different. The green plant leaf later becomes the colored petal of a flower; he sees in it the sprouting, sprouting life that wants to go beyond itself, and then he also feels sprouting life within himself. But suppose he sees a barren tree bark; then he would only be able to grow together with it by being overcome by something like a deathly mood. A learned person would be able to admire this bark; a wise person sees the dying of the tree in the bark. The wise person sees creation and decay everywhere, and in his heart he carries the feeling that tells him: I see my God reigning in every petal, I experience my God in all creation, and I feel inseparably connected to this God. One should not think that such a sage must be a pantheist; one should imagine a much more intimate connection between this sage and his God, an inexpressible feeling of being sheltered in the divinity of the world, a feeling that gives him peace and bliss in his being. (The archetype of Felix Balde has evidently been described.)

This is the wisdom we should acquire, which should permeate our entire being in such a way that it becomes impossible for us to imagine ourselves for even a moment outside the world spirit, but we are then aware of being surrounded and protected by the world spirit. Inner peace and inner security can no longer leave us. We feel that we are standing in it forever.

Such feelings should flow into us from the astral world, for there we find the living, ruling wisdom that forms the soil and the source of the surrounding nature and permeates the whole sensual world.

He who aspires to become true in thought, who in everything he does or wills, rises to the ruling, active wisdom, in order to draw the truth from it, will receive the power from the astral world and become wise.

The beauty symbolized by the second flame has just as little in common with worldly beauty as wisdom has with the wisdom of the world. This too does not refer to any worldly object.

Continuation of the postscript:

Especially at the beginning of their esoteric journey, people often become proud and vain, for example when they start to notice small successes in their exercises, when images from the imaginative world begin to appear. Then they soon believe themselves to be superior to others, and they are inclined to talk about it to others. But nothing can hinder our progress as much as the lack of the ability to remain silent. Not being able to remain silent about one's exercises, not being able to talk about them where it is not appropriate, not being able to remain silent about secrets that have been shared with us means killing something in our etheric body. We kill the forces with which we had counted on to help us move forward, and we then have to renounce further progress.

But this is not the way to achieve “active virtue” when one begins to share one's knowledge with others. If someone begins to teach what he himself has received in the way of higher knowledge, and he allows himself to be approached by the worship that others offer him, then active virtue would turn into vice and hinder his progress. But also those who pay homage, who are so quick to put people on a pedestal, or who believe that they occupy a place of honor by practicing this or that activity, are also obstacles in the way of progress for the true esoteric. We should constantly face such vices, and we should always be on our guard against them by practicing and permeating ourselves with active virtue. Then the forces that can be found in the higher devachan as the high spiritual beings can flow down to us, and our inner being can be strengthened.

In the astral world, we find wisdom when we appropriate truth in thought. In the lower devachan, we encounter beauty. And in the higher devachan, we find exalted beings who will give us the strength to realize active virtue on the physical plane.