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

GA 265a — 24 September 1912, Basel

The Square, Tao, Dawn, Jachin, and Boaz

Notes from Alice Kinkel Notes from various hours of the first, second, and third degree

When we turn the right angle, this significant sign, and then feel the repulsion of the forces in the etheric body, as well as in the thumb that was bent in this position, we begin to sense the forces that are at stake here.

Every word of the legend and every object in this room is of the highest importance: the image of the divine eye, the three candelabras, the carpet - everything, everything has significance.

In the current that is represented here, we have the transition of leadership and culture from the East to the West.

If we want to become discouraged, we have to realize how small and insignificant our own concerns are compared to the concerns the gods have for humanity.

The divine eye, that is, his image.

is not the name of God, but it means the presence of God.

is the divine as it flows in the universe.

is the divine as man becomes aware of it within himself.

Recordings B from the estate of Elisabeth Vreede

It is understandable that people strive to enter the spiritual world. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, this was very difficult, which is why we find so few direct communications from the spiritual world from that time. In our time and since the last third of the nineteenth century, however, it has been even more difficult to make the leap that takes a person out of their physical body and into the spiritual world. But once they have made it, it is easier to experience a lot in the spiritual world today than it was in the past.

In exoteric life, a person goes through the world and looks at water, for example. He can then describe it purely externally as a composition of hydrogen and oxygen and the like. But the esotericist, who begins to have some experience in the spiritual world, can feel the true nature of water quite differently. We know that the plant has an etheric body and is also surrounded by the astral. Water does not have an etheric body like plants, but consists of a vast number of elemental beings that permeate the water and actually constitute the water.

When an esotericist sees water rise in the form of fog vapor, or when he sees water being heated, he notices how these elemental entities are paralyzed, even killed. When the water cools down again, or when the rising mist forms clouds, from which lightning strikes and rain falls to the earth, he sees these entities revive and even reform. When they become sluggish or die off due to warming or vaporization, the elemental beings release seeds that in turn sprout when they cool down or condense. The countless births of elemental beings are associated with rain pouring down on the earth.

Therein also lies the secret of healing through water. Where warm water is used, there is the need to anesthetize, to neutralize the effect of the elemental beings. When cold water is used, the underlying need is to feel the stimulation of the life of all these emerging beings.

In the rising fog, the clairvoyant sees dying; as they become lighter to the physical eye, they become darker to the spiritual eye. And when lightning strikes the rain cloud and the rain pours down, the clairvoyant sees it as light pouring onto the earth. This is what the ancients experienced when they drank the Soma; they were in contact with the elemental world and saw the rain streaming down to earth like light.

Man breathes in and out air in such a way that for ordinary perception the inhaled air is the living air and the exhaled air is the killing air. But spiritually considered, inhalation is the death of the elemental beings of air, and with exhalation they come to life again. In the respiratory organs are the speech organs. Man uses these to express his soul or even just for ordinary conversation, but this is only so in a materialistic age. In the age that preceded the materialistic one, the speech organ was also a perception organ; it not only expressed what was in man, but while it pronounced the vowels A, I, U, man sensed the teeming elemental world around him. So too when he pronounced the word “Tao”; then he knew of the great spirit. This word, which was at the same time a spiritual perception, has been lost since the respiratory and speech organs became more independent from each other than they were back then.

Not only do we have a respiratory process in the lungs, but also in the eyes. Only that there is no air inhaled and exhaled, but warmth. When we see a red color, warmth is inhaled (red, orange, yellow). If a cold color such as blue, indigo or violet is perceived, then the eye [exhales]. That which underlies the eyes ethereally – just as air underlies the physical lungs – is warmth and is inhaled and exhaled. Basically, every sense organ is a respiratory organ.

Higher beings, who stand directly above man, have neither such eyes nor such language as man. They direct warmth somewhere, and a color lights up at that point. They express their essence in this way, and this is how they talk to each other. Anyone who has ever perceived colors in this vivid form feels pain when they see the solid colors that adhere to physical objects, just as the whole physical world initially pains them. The pain only stops when one learns to perceive colors morally. Then one perceives punishment for selfishness in red and the reward for overcoming selfishness in blue. Then the colors begin to speak a language that will also be the future language of people.

As people approach the Jupiter existence, their speech will increasingly become a form of perception; then the processes of breathing and speech will no longer be as separate as they are today. Vision and the sensation of warmth will also merge. It was necessary for the development of the independent self that these processes were separate for a time. If this had not happened, then the human being would always have perceived what was happening in his environment, but would not have come to self-awareness.

In the future, people will begin to feel a connection between the spoken word and colors. They will feel green when talking about unimportant things; yellow will arise when speaking selfishly; red will be there when fighting egoism.

This unity of the organs can basically only be achieved by understanding the mystery of Golgotha. Only that can enable us to feel the whole of nature morally. If you then look up at the clouds and see lightning shooting out of them, you will be able to see Christ in them in his etheric form. With the “clouds”, that is, with the elements, he comes in his spiritual form. This vision will occur to every person at some point, sooner or later. Only the Father knows the day and hour, as the Gospel says.

Recordings C by Alice Kinkel

Water is teeming with elemental spirits; when water is heated by fire, the elemental beings die.

People love cold water – for treatment and exercise – because they want to be stimulated by quite a few elemental spirits (when using cold water). When the water is heated, the elemental spirits die, but they deposit their germs in the water during heating, and when the water is then cooled, these germs come to life.

When fog or water vapor rises, the elemental beings withdraw from the earth.

When lightning strikes, fire is driven out (from the clouds). And then, when the rain pours down, the clairvoyant sees the rain streaming onto the earth like flowing light: a birth of numerous elemental spirits takes place.

We distinguish between coarser and finer breathing processes in humans: the larynx, skin breathing, speech and seeing. The human eyes are organs that also carry out breathing processes.

When we feel warmth, it is like inhaling red, orange, yellow (the opposite of what we experience in everyday life); blue and indigo are what we exhale, these are cold colors. If we experience colors in this clairvoyant way, they can cause us pain, these outer colors and the world.

The color red is felt like punishment for evil, which should be overcome; yellow indicates the selfishness of man, and blue indicates the heavenly, which we envision.

The human lungs are the organs with which we breathe air in and out; when we breathe in, we kill the elemental spirits; when we breathe out, we revive them.

Our eyes are also respiratory organs. They breathe out warmth and light; and that is what we then see as color in the objects and surfaces that the eye can see.

We will then experience the elemental world (as clairvoyants) in the flickering colors. We have to learn (recognize) how the gods speak. The gods speak in colors. We should gradually develop a sense for this language so that when we speak more for entertainment, we feel immersed in green; in yellow when we say very selfish words; in elemental red as a punishment for evil; and in blue when we turn to the spiritual. The elemental spirits thus admonish us to use language properly.

The Christ will later be seen in lightning and thunder, in the clouds of heaven; and so it will be when we first see him.

Water is water for the ordinary person, but for the esotericist it becomes a certainty that it is permeated and animated by elemental spirits. When there is fog or mist, the esotericist should feel that the elemental spirits withdraw from the earth. When water vapor rises, the clouds become darker and darker for the clairvoyant until they are completely black (these are the elemental spirits). Physically, however, the clouds appear light.

Holy service or esotericism gradually leads to vision. Only a few are called by grace, as elect, to see through Christ; the others must develop this through meditation and holy service. Day and hour for each one only the Father knows, but it will come for everyone.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.