Meditation, Symbols, and the Freedom of the I

GA 266I — 3 March 1909, Berlin

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

During our meditation, we should have the attitude that we are surrounded by spiritual powers and surrender ourselves to them in inner contemplation, for all those who belong to a true esoteric school are under the guidance of the Masters of Wisdom and the harmony of feelings. At the moment of meditation, we should detach ourselves completely from the events of the day, from the physical world in general, and through contemplation or inner absorption, if we are able to do so, we will attain the ability to fill our soul with content. We should then create the content ourselves; what the teacher gives us is to be regarded as a seed. He tells us objectively about the higher worlds, and we should feel this in meditation and bring what he has told us to life. The teacher never wants to interfere in the ego of another. In fact, no one should interfere in the ego of another.

During meditation, the student will encounter certain temptations that he must overcome. To help him do so, he should place the following two symbols before his soul as aids when he falls into temptation. If the student, who is still at the beginning of his training, thinks again during meditation about the events of the day or about his surroundings, which distracts him from his concentration, he should place the caduceus before his soul, this ancient symbol, the shining staff with the dark snake and the light snake:

What does this symbol represent? All living things, down to the lowest form of life, are enclosed in a skin, and so, visible to the clairvoyant, our astral body is enclosed in a skin during waking hours. However, as our energies are depleted, the skin becomes tattered and torn, and when the astral body is completely tattered and torn, we fall asleep. When we return to the spiritual worlds during sleep, this skin is repaired. We should therefore stand before our soul every evening and ask to return to the spiritual worlds, our home. The Pythagorean numbers always contained such wisdom, and zero always represented this skin. We come from the physical world with nothingness into the spiritual world. There is nothing within this zero that is of value to the spiritual worlds.

When the advanced occultist loses consciousness or when his limbs become stiff, he should place the Rosicrucian cross before his soul, the symbol of “die and become.” The more advanced student, who already has some insight, faces greater challenges and temptations than the one who is just beginning. All sorts of ugly figures appear to him, trying to distract him, even illusions in venerable guises, telling him: I will give you all this. And if he does not resist these temptations, he can find himself in great danger. Here too, the Rosicrucian symbol, the black wood of the cross with the red roses, which represent the blood flowing from the wounds of the Savior on Golgotha, is the surest means of resisting these temptations.

In the life of every occultist, no matter how varied his experiences may be, there is one experience that everyone has if he is patient and perseveres, and that is the feeling of being fragmented, of being divided into different currents. We know that on Saturn the Thrones, on the Sun the Spirits of Wisdom, on the Moon the Spirits of Movement, and on Earth the Spirits of Form guided our development. On Saturn, the Thrones guided our blood; on the Sun, the Spirits of Wisdom guided our glandular system; on the Moon, the Spirits of Movement guided our nervous system. The student now feels divided between all these currents. There is then a danger that the student will lose himself completely and not find his way back, and this is where it is necessary to imagine the Rosicrucians.

Through proper contemplation and meditation, the student is then overcome by a feeling of security, calm, and peace. Not a peace that consists only of tranquility, but a peace that can only be found in the higher worlds and that would only be attainable here if we could imagine it as follows: a raging, stormy sea, whose substance is the same as when it lies calm and smooth. If a person were standing on a wreck in the middle of this raging, stormy sea and could forget himself so completely not to fear death or for his own life, but instead, in the midst of this turmoil and danger of death, could be completely absorbed in the sublime, magnificent sight of the roaring, stormy sea and feel only the beauty and grandeur of this sight, then at that moment he would have the peace that is found in the spiritual worlds.

In the spiritual world, this peace is possible; here it is not possible, except when a person can completely forget himself in ecstasy, opening his soul so wide that the peace of the spiritual world flows into him.

All designations for Christ that are different from “I am” are incorrect. We can never speak of “He.”

Mystical: Father - Son - Holy Spirit
Moorish: Power - Effect — Being
Gnostic: [information not noted]
Alchemical: Sulfur - Mercury - Salt

Record B

And finally, let the disciple hold fast in his soul: Always preserve the freedom and independence of the I. That is our highest good! And looking up to Christ, let us always stand in our soul: Christ is the archetype of the I; let my I strive to become an image of this archetype. And this archetype cannot be designated by any other name than “I am.”

Everything that the “Masters” — the leading spirits of humanity — have given from their millennia-old experience in a rightly existing esoteric training never touches upon this independence of the student who entrusts himself to them. The teacher never gives the student anything from outside as something finished, but everything he gives, he hands over to the free will of the student. Everything is like a seed that is placed in the student's soul so that it can unfold its effectiveness there. “Becoming” is placed in the human being's own hands. The impulse is given to the I, and the I must develop it from its own inner strength, which must be kindled. It is therefore a kind of impurity when the occult teacher reveals his own feelings to the student. He gives facts about the spiritual world. Let the student kindle his own feelings from these facts! And let his soul blossom from them, just as a flower blossoms from a seed!

And on his esoteric path, let a vow always be awake in his soul; let him always keep it awake in his soul: I will never hurt another human being, neither in words nor in deeds, nor even in thoughts. We must not allow ourselves any excuses! We must be as strict as possible with ourselves and as lenient as possible with others. Hatred must also disappear completely from within us—not by merely suppressing it, for that would only cause it to transform into fear. Fear is always suppressed hatred. Hatred must be transformed, not suppressed. And transformed hatred is then love in our soul.

All hatred is destructive, but love is constructive and creative in the human soul.