The Ego's Journey: From Physical Embodiment to Spiritual Transformation

GA 266I — 4 July 1909, Kassel

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

1. Dr. Steiner begins the lesson by pointing out that there are not two opposing schools of esoteric training within the Theosophical Society. He has emphasized this many times before. However, this rumor keeps resurfacing, and statements are circulated that suggest that such an opposition between the two schools of esoteric life, as they currently exist within the Theosophical Society, actually exists. This opposition is therefore categorically denied. The actual state of affairs is that at the Munich Congress, the relationship between Annie Besant's school and that of Dr. Steiner underwent a change in that Dr. Steiner, the former head of the Esoteric School, is no longer subordinate but has been made an associate. The subordination was transformed into cooperation. Therefore, these two schools now exist side by side, supporting each other, but are far from fighting each other.

2. About the exercises, how they must be carried out: with seriousness, perseverance, and punctuality. What is their purpose? Their purpose is to awaken the powers that lie dormant within human beings. Where are these powers located? In the astral body, etheric body, physical body. On the value and meaning of symbols! Symbols are images of processes and relationships in the spiritual world. When we apply them to ourselves, we transfer processes and relationships from the spiritual world to our own being. Symbols must therefore be used in such a way that, in the course of the exercises, we realize them within ourselves, that we take them into our being.

3. About the I. In earlier times, the human I still lived somewhat outside the physical body. In Atlantean times, this was ...¹ the case, and even today there are still a few individuals whose ego has not been completely drawn into the physical body. At that time, human beings were clairvoyant, but they could not distinguish themselves from external things; they merged with them. In the post-Atlantean era, development proceeded toward transferring this ego into the physical body. The point is between the eyebrows.

4. From there, the ego must now work its way back into the spiritual world. This also happens in the course of evolution. First, humans transform part of their astral body, creating manas, the spirit self; then they transform part of their etheric body, creating buddhi, the life spirit; and finally, they transform part of their physical body into atma, the spirit human. In this way, the ego works through all three realms.

5. How the development took place: After the initiates had already been prepared in Atlantis, the best were chosen during the destruction of the Atlantean continent to serve as the tribe for the formation of the new race. They were led to [Asia], to the Gobi Desert, where they received the training necessary to become the progenitors of the fifth race [post-Atlantean humanity]. However, they were still very similar to the Atlanteans in their view of the world and the outside world. They did not yet distinguish so much between the outside world and their own world. They still flowed together with the outside world; they lived even more with the gods. Only later did the distinction arise, and they began to differentiate in such a way that they perceived the outside world as Maya, as illusion. This duality then became particularly pronounced in Persia. They distinguished between good and evil, Ahura Mazdao and Ahriman. Then it continued through the Chaldean-Egyptian-Babylonian period, then through the Greek-Roman period and into our own time.

6. In the course of this time, the etheric body of the human being has drawn itself more and more into the whole body and especially into the head. Originally, human beings saw beings and things blurred in all possible shades of color and figures. In the further course of time, these became clearer and clearer, the contours became sharp and distinct, as it appears in our time in the human faculty of perception.

7. The further development now proceeds in such a way that, with this sharpness of perception, we regain the old areas of consciousness and live our way back into the realms that human beings used to experience in their consciousness. In order to achieve this, special exercises are performed by all those who want to develop more quickly. One such exercise is the one I am now going to show you:

This means that you must first place a point of light outside your head, about 20-30 cm above it. Then you must draw the point of light into yourself between your eyebrows and let it flow through your entire body. = Eyebrows. Once it [what you have absorbed] is inside, the exercise involves projecting what you have absorbed back out in a creative form, self-creatively. This is then the imaginative insight: self-created plastic images in the spiritual world.

Record B

The One (unity) in the Three (triunity) creates (works) measure, number, and proportion.

The One is the revelation of the Absolute, of divine being!

The three represented by the eyebrows.

Measure is the temple of God in the human spirit.

Absolute unity works through the trinity within, creating measure, number, and proportion.

With this symbol, I must think of my higher self outside of myself, how it acts on the trinity: my thinking, feeling, and willing. Creative like the divine self, it should act and transform these three forces.

Record C

Absolute unity works through the inner trinity: measure, number, and weight (proportion).

We all want to ascend to the higher worlds; symbols are what make the path easier for us, and the more my true self is involved, the more powerful they are.

With this symbol, I must think of my higher self outside of myself; I must learn to view myself objectively, like an object—a table or something similar. Like the divine self that created me, I must then act upon my soul forces—the intellectual, emotional, and character forces— creative like the divine self, it should act and transform them; and they should penetrate my inner being, the temple of my body, which, like every temple, only much more complicated, has been constructed according to measure, number, and proportion, in two streams that I imagine passing through my eyebrows (the 3).

When I meditate on this, stimulating my thinking, feeling, and willing, powerful forces awaken within me. But six conditions must first be fulfilled. Man must have acquired:

1. Control of thoughts,
2. Initiative in actions,
3. Serenity,
4. Positivity,
5. Impartiality of judgment,
6. Repetition and connection of all in a harmonious manner.

In another, otherwise identical template, the following sentence follows:

Once my lower self has been strengthened through these exercises, it can begin its journey into the higher worlds; this symbol will help it to do so.