Three Types of Esotericists and Spiritual Development
GA 266I — 15 September 1907, Stuttgart
Esoteric Lesson
There are those among you who have been practicing occult exercises for years, and those who are just beginning. What is to be said today is important for all of you. You must remember that the personality speaking to you is merely the mouthpiece of those high individualities whom we call Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings.
With regard to the esotericism you all strive for, you must be very clear about the following: It is extremely important that humanity receive a strong impact of esoteric life at the present time. Epidemics, epidemics of madness, terrible wars would rage among people in a terrible way with the prevalence of materialism if, according to the decision of the wise masters, humanity did not receive a deepening in the spiritual realm. Nevertheless, even though the spread of spiritual life is absolutely necessary, even though there must be far more esotericists today than there have been in the past (there have always been esotericists), it would be completely wrong to try to promote esotericism. There must be esotericists, but not all people should be esotericists. A very simple example can clarify this. Everyone needs shoes, and therefore it is necessary that there are shoemakers. However, it would be completely wrong to conclude from this that all people must become shoemakers. Similarly, not all people must become esotericists. However, all those who want to become esotericists are given the task of spreading theosophy in this or one of their next incarnations and promoting the spiritual life of human beings.
There have always been three types of esotericists. They could be trained in three different ways in the schools of the initiated. The three types of training are:
- Initiation
- Clairvoyance
- Adeptship
In earlier times, these three types were quite sharply separated from one another. To understand this, let us again take an example from everyday life. Imagine a country where there are no railways and no locomotives, and then imagine that a resident of this country travels to another distant country where such locomotives and railways exist. This person is now an initiate with regard to locomotives and railways, and when he returns home, he can tell his compatriots about what he has seen. But just because he has seen locomotives and railroads and can talk about them does not mean that he is now able to build railroads. To become an engineer, he must first undergo a long period of study. It is just the same with initiates and adepts. The initiate has wandered into a foreign land, the higher worlds; he knows what it looks like there and can tell about it, but in order to become an adept, that is, to be able to use the spiritual powers he has seen at work, he must first undergo a long, long period of training in the spiritual world. For some initiates, it takes a long series of incarnations before they attain adeptship, for the forces of the spiritual world are more difficult to handle than those of the physical world.
In the past, initiates and adepts in esoteric brotherhoods complemented each other beautifully in their work. Today, for example, an engineer who knows exactly how a machine must be built does not necessarily have to be able to build the machine himself. He has workers for that. And the workers who know how to build a machine excellently do not need to know exactly the laws according to which it is constructed. Thus, someone could be an initiate and see and understand the forces and laws of the spiritual world in their workings, but he could not intervene in these forces himself and create something out of them.
A second type of esoteric were the clairvoyants. Today, they can no longer be distinguished as clearly from the initiates as in earlier times. At that time, however, clairvoyants formed a special group among esotericists. You can all well imagine that there can be very intelligent and learned people who are nevertheless quite short-sighted. Someone can even know the laws of optics very well and still be short-sighted, so that he has to rely on those who see well when conducting his experiments. He can then explain to them afterwards what they have seen, because they themselves might not be able to understand it without him. It is just the same with initiates and clairvoyants. The initiate does not have to be a clairvoyant, and the clairvoyant does not have to be an initiate from the outset. Especially in the ancient times we are now talking about, it was very common that some people could not be made clairvoyant. They then became initiates, that is, they gained full insight and understanding of the spiritual truths and laws, but could not see them. Now, in the same brotherhood as them, there were others who were clairvoyant without being able to understand what they saw. They told the initiates what they saw, and the initiates explained it to them.
The adepts, as the third type of esotericists, were then able to put into practice what the clairvoyants had seen and the initiates had explained.
There was a wonderful interaction in these oldest brotherhoods. There was mutual love and tolerance, a trust so great that it is no longer possible today, indeed that very few people can even imagine. Our time is far too selfish, loveless, and distrustful for such a thing to be possible. Today, therefore, an initiate is always clairvoyant to a certain degree, and vice versa; indeed, it is not possible to educate people differently today.
However, it is also deeply rooted in our current circumstances that adeptship must almost completely withdraw. Our selfish age is incapable of making proper use of such high abilities. No one in our time holds back more than the adepts. And even if they wanted to intervene in the fate of human beings, they often cannot, although they have the power to do so and could impart so much blessing to humanity.
Especially in the field of medicine, which is most deeply mired in materialism, adepts often have to watch with bleeding hearts (if this were still possible at such a high stage of development) as many thousands of poor sick people languish without help. But even if an adept were to come forward to help a sick person, what he would have to do would be so contrary to the spirit of the times that he would find himself in the madhouse the next day, at the very least, and the doctors of the whole world would rise up against him.
In spiritual life, it is generally the case that the highest adepts and initiates are the most reserved. The highest adepts often intervene in the fate of peoples only twice in a few hundred years. Their power is, as it were, reserved for very specific occasions. There are certain things for which humanity is not yet ready. If one were to give them to humanity, they could only be harmful. Yes, there are certain highest truths that even you, my sisters and brothers, cannot yet receive. If I were to reveal such a truth to you, this room would be empty within a few minutes. Certain truths are simply too much for people today to bear, even if they have already reached a certain level in esoteric training. And yet these are precisely the highest truths, and your development has the purpose of enabling you to receive them one day. But those who receive them too early simply lose all their footing in life. Imagine a narrow footbridge over a deep abyss. How many of you would be able to cross it without feeling dizzy? Certainly not all of you. Now, if someone measures out a narrow strip on the floor of a room, the width of the footbridge, and marks it with paint, everyone will easily walk across it without feeling dizzy or straying to the right or left of the strip. And yet he is doing nothing other than what he would have to do on the narrow footbridge over the abyss. It is the continuation of the floor to the right and left of the narrow strip that gives him security. The narrow footbridge or the strip on the floor is what we humans walk on. The continuation of the strip is the physical world, the world of the senses. It gives people security because it constantly corrects our false thoughts, feelings, etc. Now imagine that the barriers of the sensory world have fallen, and people are actually floating in the air without any external support. This is an experience that everyone must go through at some point.
In our time, it is so urgently necessary that more and more theosophy flow into life, and this will happen more and more in the coming years. You will notice this especially in your immediate surroundings. People will hunger for theosophy as they do for their daily bread. The truths, as they are spread according to the Rosicrucian method, can be completely understood by the ordinary mind. People who cannot understand the theosophical teachings simply do not want to strain their minds enough.
You all know that the human heart is only at the beginning of its development and will be an extremely important organ in the future. However, no one needs to accept this fact on good faith; simple observation and reflection make this clear. We distinguish between smooth and striated muscles in the human body. All muscles that humans can activate voluntarily are striated, while all involuntary muscles are smooth. Now, however, it is a great mystery to modern science that the heart is striated like the voluntary muscles, even though it is an involuntary muscle. This must tell us that if the heart is not a voluntary muscle now, it will be one in the future. And so it is. In the future, every human being will be able to move their heart at will, just as they move their arm muscles today.
But many people are not entirely wrong when they refuse to accept certain truths from the outset. It is very important to make these things understandable to people. Let us try to clarify how one can prove theosophical truths for oneself. We are talking about the doctrine of reincarnation and the law of karma. Now, credulous people come along and say: the doctrine of reincarnation seems very credible and understandable to us, because it can solve all the mysteries of life. When you look into life and see how a child is born in the gutter and is predestined from birth to become nothing and spend its life in misery and wretchedness, and when you see another child being born in a palace, surrounded from the first day by loving care and endowed with all intellectual gifts, then the doctrine of reincarnation can provide a good explanation by saying that both children laid the foundation for their present life in a previous incarnation. But then the thoughtful come and say: Just because your doctrine of reincarnation can provide a beautiful explanation for many of life's mysteries, we do not believe in it, for an explanation is not proof. People who speak like this are quite right. For I cannot consider a worldview to be correct simply because it is convenient for me. Nevertheless, if they seriously wanted to, these people could provide themselves with the most excellent proof of the doctrine of reincarnation. Let us say to ourselves: I will assume that reincarnation exists. I don't believe it, but I can assume it for the sake of argument. I will therefore behave as if my assumption were true and wait to see what happens. - People who think and act in this way will have astonishing experiences. In everything that happens to them, they will think: I myself laid the foundation for this in a previous life and am now bearing the consequences of my own actions. - If such a person once unconsciously commits a folly and punishment befalls him, he will think: Now I will consciously repeat this folly so that I can see that it was I who laid the cause for these ugly consequences. For if I myself am the cause, then now that I am consciously committing this mistake, the same consequences must also occur. - This is the true meaning of the Bible verse: “If someone strikes you on the left cheek, offer him the right cheek as well.”
Those who manage to find the reason within themselves for everything that happens to them achieve a great deal. Those who do so will soon notice how it brings them forward, how they begin to break free from karmic chains and take more and more control of their lives. Such people walk their path through life freely and confidently. In a similar way, all theosophical teachings can be proven true for oneself. So let us all strive to bring the spiritual into our lives more and more and to let the light and life that the great masters pour into us become alive within us. And you should all be clear that in the future, the struggles that theosophy, and especially esotericism, will have to face with the outside world will become increasingly fierce. It is important to stand firm and remain silent. Working quietly is often the greater work. Learn to be silent, my sisters and brothers, and stand firm, keeping your eyes fixed on your goal and on the great masters who stand by us.