Prayer, Spiritual Preparation, and Esoteric Development

GA 266II — 16 June 1910, Oslo

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

Exoterically, theosophy is knowledge. What we learn in the exoteric lectures, we as esotericists should take into our feelings, will, and thinking in such a way that we can then radiate it back into exoteric life. That is esoteric work. And what happens through this work? How can we carry a very simple theosophical truth directly into life, for example, that of falling asleep and waking up: how the physical and etheric bodies remain behind when we fall asleep, while the ego and the astral body go into the spiritual worlds? In the past, primitive humans were given prayers to say in the evening before falling asleep and in the morning after waking up, and that was good, because it strengthened his soul with spiritual forces by preparing his soul for the higher worlds before he went there and, after leaving them, permeating his soul once again with the higher forces, drawing soul forces out of the spiritual worlds, so to speak.

The three realms below man, the mineral, plant, and animal realms, are permeated by spiritual forces that are constantly renewing themselves, as are the four elements, fire, water, air, and earth. With humans, it is different. If they do not connect themselves with these spiritual forces, they do not receive them. If they fall asleep without having prepared themselves, they receive no supply of spiritual forces in the worlds they then enter. The materialistic person, no matter how learned or scientifically advanced, when he enters the spiritual worlds unprepared in the evening, stands far below the simple, primitive person who has already connected with them through prayer. In our materialistic age, whose scientific achievements are so infinitely admirable, people have increasingly forgotten how to pray. He falls asleep and wakes up with his everyday thoughts. But what does he do with them? For something happens as a result of this omission. Each time, he kills something of the spiritual life, of the spiritual forces on the physical plane.

Man enters the spiritual worlds unconsciously. If, for example, he falls asleep at eleven o'clock in the evening—unprepared—and awakens at midnight in the spiritual worlds, he would be completely disoriented, would feel as if he were spread out over infinite spaces, as if he had lost his center. He would be what we call in ecstasy, “beside himself” in the true sense of the word. This ecstasy was artificially induced in the ancient Druidic mysteries in order to allow the student to consciously experience the higher worlds. However, so that the student would not lose himself, would not lose his ego, twelve helpers had to stand by his side who, at the moment when the ecstasy set in, poured all the power of their pure egos into him. So much power was needed to prevent this dissolution!

This Druidic initiation was the outer path [merging with the macrocosm], while the inner path was pursued in the ancient Egyptian mysteries. The initiate had to search for the path through the lower astral for three and a half days, that is, descend into his own inner being, and twelve pure priests had to stand by him so that all the lower instincts, desires, and passions that lay dormant deep within his being and would (otherwise) only slowly take effect in the course of his incarnations (in the normal course of development) would not take hold of him and gain power over him.

Unheard-of vices would have been awakened in him if the twelve priests had not protected him from them through their purity. Today, the two paths mentioned would no longer be possible, because modern man would rebel against such interference in his ego, against the paternalism imposed on his instincts, desires, and passions.

The Rosicrucian School combines both paths and at the same time allows man complete freedom. Through the meditations given to him, he must acquire for himself the powers that were formerly bestowed by the helpers. Through this work on himself, the esotericist increases the spiritual powers that are necessary for humanity. He fights against the desolation that will come about through the terrible materialism in which people have simply forgotten their connection with the spiritual worlds, forgotten how they can draw strength from them. When the time comes that souls become increasingly desolate, empty, and desperate, it will be the task of esotericists to let their spiritual powers work in a living way. They will maintain the cheerful balance of their souls under all blows of fate and thereby allow happiness to flow into the rest of humanity, thereby alleviating their soul pains. People will experience these soul pains as torments, as a consequence of the achievements of materialistic science. Today, many means have been found to anesthetize physical pain, to make it disappear. But in reality, it has not disappeared. Even exoteric science teaches us that no force is lost, and so the force of pain is not lost either, but simply manifests itself in other areas. The pain returns in later incarnations as soul torments. People will have to go through intense soul pain, and esotericists will then use the spiritual forces they bring down from the heights to alleviate these torments. Each of us, however unconscious we may have been when we entered the path of esotericism, has made this decision to intervene and help alleviate the suffering of humanity.

Record B

In earlier, less materialistic times, prayer was a customary activity before going to sleep and upon waking up. Humanity has little idea of the harm it is doing to itself by completely abandoning this habit. Through prayer, people drew strength from the spiritual world upon waking up for their daily life, and in the evening, through prayer, they took the strength they had gathered during their daily life with them into the spiritual world. This is also the purpose of our exercises today, so that our strength for the spiritual may grow more quickly and we may learn to use it consciously.