Meditation, Astral Protection, and Divine Consciousness

GA 266I — 8 March 1909, Munich

Esoteric Lesson

Recording A

In today's lesson, we will repeat much of what we discussed last time [on January 7], while also introducing new material and examining some topics from a different perspective. The esoteric lesson is, so to speak, a ladder that leads us upward through our meditation by repeatedly clarifying, emphasizing, and impressing upon us the attitude with which the masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings have given us these meditations and with which we are to carry them out.

We know that the meditations are, in a small way, a faint reflection of an initiation, the initiation that all of us who have entered the esoteric path will one day attain and undergo. The meditations originate from the forces that want to advance development and which we commonly call the “good” forces.

For certain reasons, opposing, hindering forces are woven into the world plan that want to hold back development. Since we want to advance more quickly through our meditations in order to help promote the development of humanity, meditation is precisely the field in which hindering forces try to interfere in every way possible: with beginners, by reminding them of the everyday events of the last few days; in advanced meditators and those who have attained clairvoyance, by bringing images of animals and seductive figures into their field of vision. These images, which resemble all beings of the physical plane—for example, rats and mice—originate from a sub-physical realm.

The astral and devachanic worlds are higher than the physical world. However, there is also a sub-physical world, and it is precisely from this world that images creep in for meditators who have attained clairvoyance. The less the beings we see resemble those of the physical plane, the more they resemble what we call sphinxes, seraphim and cherubim, the more certain we can be that we are seeing high, good beings and that we are on the right path with our meditation.

We already mentioned the remedy for the aforementioned temptations in the last lesson: the caduceus, the staff of Mercury entwined with snakes.

Every being that has a life of its own is enclosed in a skin. There is no such thing as a being without skin. Thus, not only our physical body, but also our astral body has a skin. This skin has certain peculiarities. It varies in strength in people with different characters. A dependent, weak-willed person has a fragile, cracked, very thin astral skin that is prone to tearing, hence the need for attachment and devotion in such people, their frequent desire to dissolve into the universe. An independent, strong-willed person has a strong, robust astral skin. In all people, however, this skin wears out during the course of the day, that is, it gets holes, tears, and shreds and hangs around the astral body in the view of the seer. This tearing of the astral skin is the cause of the feeling of fatigue and sleepiness.

When we fall asleep, the ego and the astral body detach themselves from the physical body and the etheric body and return to the bosom of the deity who wove the astral body. The astral body draws new forces from the deity to form a new skin. It is now of immense value to us and to the progress we wish to make if we consciously embark on this very real process, that is, if we tell ourselves as we fall asleep that we are returning to the deities from whom we came, who created us. Therefore, the moment of falling asleep should be sacred to us.

The snakes on the caduceus symbolize the regeneration of the astral skin. The snake is known to be a creature that sheds its skin, and the white snake is the symbol of life reborn in a new skin. This symbol should make us realize that our astral body is clothed in new, young skin every morning. These symbols did not arise from speculation and were not given to us so that we might indulge in speculation about them, but so that we might let them live in our souls.

We can visualize the caduceus before each meditation, in the evening and in the morning, and also use it during meditation to ward off the evil influences discussed.

We spoke last time about how, over time, the meditator who is completely absorbed in his meditation, detached from everything connected with the physical, etheric, and astral bodies, all desires, excitements, distractions, etc., everything that belongs to the moment, a feeling of fragmentation, of dissolving into the universe, of being torn apart, and that this feeling is correct because it arises from the fact that in meditation we surrender ourselves to the powerful beings who created us.

On Saturn, our physical body came into being when the Thrones poured themselves out, as it were, and gave themselves up. Through this emanation, our physical body came into being as a secretion of heat that was structured within itself.

On the Sun, the spirits of wisdom gave themselves to create our etheric body, while new hosts of thrones created organs in our physical body that we would one day use on the Moon.

On the moon, the spirits of movement joined them and created our astral bodies, while new rows of thrones and spirits of wisdom worked new organs into our physical and etheric bodies.

Here on earth, the spirits of form created our ego; and we give ourselves to all these hosts in meditation. We feel ourselves dissolving into them, and we are allowed to do so, but only with full consciousness. If we feel our consciousness waning, losing it completely, this is a sign that evil forces have intervened; and the more we give in to this feeling of powerlessness, the more life forces they will draw from us. We will emerge from meditation weakened instead of strengthened. Someone who repeatedly experiences this unconsciousness can become ill and miserable, and the result is a feeling of perpetual fatigue and listlessness. For the evil powers love people who progress through meditation more than ordinary people, and they attach themselves more intensely to them in order to corrupt them.

Those who have advanced to the stage of seeing and have attained the state of complete absorption in meditation see all the heavenly realms that created them; sees how his physical body, his etheric body, and his astral body disappear and merge into them, and he must experience this with the intense feeling: Die and become; with the full awareness that his lower self is dying in order to attain a new consciousness in higher worlds.

For these meditators, a cliff on which they can fail is the figure of the tempter who approaches them to whisper that these heavenly worlds are their own creations, that they can rule in them as they please. But anyone who gives in to the feeling that even the slightest thing in these worlds belongs to them will go astray.

This temptation is magnificently described in the Bible, in the temptation of Jesus Christ; and on a small scale, almost all meditators have to go through it. The symbol that helps us in this temptation is the Rosicrucian cross: The black cross, the sign of death, the seven red roses, the sign of new life sprouting from the flowing blood of the dying Savior. There is a wonderful legend that tells that when the Savior died, bees came and sucked his pure, chaste blood as they usually suck the red rose petals.

The red roses are, in the deepest sense, the symbol of the holy blood of Christ. Whoever places this black wooden cross with the seven blooming dark red roses before his soul, the evil powers must depart from him. Therefore, let it live within you after every meditation. It is a symbol from which we can draw infinite strength.

Those who victoriously overcome all these dangers, who during meditation forget everything that belongs to their physical, etheric, and astral bodies and immerse themselves only in the deity, will attain what is called peace of mind.

But do not imagine the voluptuous peace that we know as physical rest. In this case, nothing physical has a say. We can only form a concept of this peace of mind through an image.

Let us imagine the immense expanse of a calm sea, and then let us imagine the same sea in a violent storm with towering waves—this is difficult for modern man in his present state of development—and let us imagine ourselves on a sinking ship in the midst of this storm, facing inevitable death. To feel nothing at such a moment—no terror, no fear of death—nothing but the wonderful beauty of the unleashed elements, the grandeur of creation—those who can do this know what peace of mind is.

We should let such images and thoughts live within us in all their grandeur and abundance as often as possible. And we will feel how we are one with creation, how fear and terror of its elements and outbursts disappear, and we will draw strength from all the obstacles that life throws in our way.

Record B

How to bring down from the spiritual world such formulas as those for the spirit of the day. By concentrating on the heart, one obtains the formula for Sunday.

What are we striving for with esotericism? We are striving for the connection of the self with the truth. Before we sought esotericism, we only had the connection of the self with the Maya of the sensory world.

Everything that does not fit into the spiritual world must be removed from us if we want to enter this spiritual world. This is the work of beings from the Luciferic hosts, whose names are: Samael, Azazel, Azael, Mehazael.