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

GA 265a

Letter from Elisabeth Winkler to Johanna and Lina Arnold

Charlottenburg, February 9 [1913]

Dear Miss Arnold,

Thank you very much for sending me the Esoteric Lessons, and please do not be angry that the small enclosed package did not reach you before the general assembly. With the best will in the world, it was not possible for me, firstly because I wanted to look through the lectures again and add a few words; above all, I would have given myself both, but for a third reason, it could not be done: the accompanying Esoteric Lesson, which I was happy to enclose, could not be found; only yesterday did I discover it in an old envelope. Do you also find (in parentheses) that the Theosophical material is growing to such an extent that you have trouble accommodating it? Well, now that the annual meeting is over, I am sending you the promised five lectures with warm greetings. Please keep them for about four weeks, they need to be read several times; I would just like to have the Esoteric Lesson, intended for Miss Scholl, back after a week. Of course, everyone pays postage, we are Theosophists after all, and you can see that I am already asking you to send them twice.

Thank you very much for your kind inquiry after my return. It went quite well – in general, as exhausted as I felt in Cologne, here it was all over, I felt like a new person, very fresh and cheerful, and I also got through the lecture labyrinth of the last week excellently, although I had had the little Countess Hamilton as a guest since the 30th [January 1913], we went to bed late every night, and I also had school as a tiresome secondary occupation. Admittedly, I have to say that – unlike in previous years – I practiced resignation, which you will hear about in Lecture Three. From the outset, I reckoned that I would not be able to hear much, but perhaps that is why it turned out favorably. At an esoteric hour on Saturday, the doctor waited for me; he had told me to buy a car. I also heard most of the very delightful description of his life, which provoked more than one hearty laugh; [the lecture] will be published very soon, though I fear it will be abridged, omitting some art passages. It lasted about two and a half hours.

I heard two of Mrs. Wandrey's three lectures on “Faust.” She spoke very intimately, to many, I think, too highly, but she came across very well in her calmness and refinement. Otherwise she is no longer there for one personally, and that is difficult for me, since I used to have a very different relationship with her. I ask myself: must it be like this? And doesn't the doctor, who is a hundred times higher, condescend to everyone? Didn't Christ Jesus come especially for the lost sheep? Everything would have been fine in Cologne if I could have spoken to her once, as she promised me. I was tormented by something that had happened at home. Mrs. Wandrey knows my family very well and it would have been easy for her to help me calm down. It's all about being left to deal with it all on your own. I no longer have anyone, not in the exoteric or the esoteric, but maybe in a year or so I'll be ready to take that for granted.

To complete the picture I have given you of the annual conference, I would like to tell you that the cycle of four lectures was very beautiful. Number two delivered exactly what was said in an esoteric hour a year or two ago. Really, at the pace at which the doctor is now proceeding, one's breath can be taken away. Should I come to work out, they are happy to help you at times.

The conclusion was magnificent: as I said elsewhere, they said that we would be hated in the future, not only out in the world, but also among the pseudo-theosophists, so vigilance would be in order. And if one could understand our striving in the spiritual world as prayer, then one should not forget to precede the “pray” with the “watch”: “Watch and pray!”

What he achieved during those days, and how he achieved it – it is beyond me. You have to bear in mind that there were lectures every day from ten or half past ten until two o'clock and from a quarter to four or four until about six o'clock, and then his lecture was at eight o'clock.

I also heard a good lecture by Arenson; I don't know about all the others – Johannes-Bau Verein, Unger, Schröder, Peipers – but compared to the doctor, everything else seems so awful.

It just occurred to me that we might see each other as early as Easter. The writer of this intends to go to The Hague. The cycle begins on the 18th [March 1913] with two public lectures. On the 20th [March] the actual cycle begins; the theme is something like: Occult Effects on the Etheric and Astral Bodies and the I, and lasts until the 29th [March]. This suits me quite well, as I get vacation from March 19th until April 3rd. The trip costs 23 marks from here and takes twelve hours; the place is a bit expensive.

Vreedes are putting us up in a guesthouse where lodging including breakfast costs three marks. There is a good vegetarian restaurant. It would be very nice if you came.

I was very happy to hear that you, dear Miss Lina, have now also been accepted to the Esoteric School. The whole thing now makes sense.

I hope that your interview went as planned. I wish all three of you a good time and hope to see you again on Dutch soil!

With warm regards,

Your faithful Elisabeth Winkler

Dear Miss Johanna,

I will add for you that these days are now the Masonic [services]. Yesterday at five and eight o'clock for all degrees, separated due to lack of space, very serious, today only first degree initiations, tomorrow higher degrees.

Can the mind not stand still there? And now think of what the doctor said: people who are particularly committed to a belief and are therefore materialists feel absolutely uncomfortable in the life between death and new birth, they find no connection in the spiritual world, are angry and full of rage against the spiritual world.

Now we know that since the Mystery of Golgotha, the etheric body of Christ has been increasingly united with the Earth; it is visible in the vicinity of the Earth in luminous waves of light. These furious materialists of the nineteenth century launched an attack on this etheric body of Christ from the astral plane, so that a second Golgotha, a second crucifixion of Christ, took place, so to speak.

Isn't that terrible, moving? Finally, the doctor said: Since the sacred mysteries have been betrayed and desecrated by those pseudo-theosophists, a complete change of the ritual must be carried out on behalf of the wise masters of the East.