The Heart's Path: Esoteric Training and Spiritual Independence

GA 266II — 24 August 1910, Munich

Esoteric Lesson

This is only a preparatory lesson for the one that will follow next Friday.

First, invoke the spirit of the day (Wednesday's verse; with a longer postscript). Anyone who enters esoteric training must be clear about what they are doing. Everything we are and do as human beings is connected through karma; we are placed in the whole of earthly existence by divine guiding beings. Everything we think, feel, and want in terms of the greatest, most sublime beauty and the highest morality is still linked to general development. But with the single decision to enter esoteric training, we take a step out of this general development guided by higher beings. In doing so, we begin something completely new. Through esoteric training, we develop from beings guided by spiritual-divine beings into independent companions of these creative spirits.

On earth, human beings consist of this fourfold nature: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I, which are held in harmony by the higher beings. When we follow up our decision to enter esoteric training with action, we begin to work independently on the transformation of these individual bodies. This happens through the exercises and spiritual exercises that are given to us. They gradually affect our etheric body in such a way that it loosens itself from the solid structure of the physical body. However, this influence does not act directly on the etheric body, but from the astral body, on which we first act through our exercises. Through the regular daily or weekly repetition of exercises and images that we allow to work on our soul, we first work into the astral body.

In the meditation verses, every sound has its meaning, every word, every sequence of sounds, every sequence of concepts; they work through regular repetition in complete self-forgetfulness. When we wake up in the morning, we sometimes have a faint memory of the spiritual world, the world from which power flows to us through our exercises; and one of the most beautiful experiences of the esoteric student is this faint memory of that world from which we have drawn strength, in which we were at the sources of power. If someone has had to let a loved one go, it is possible that something of that person flows into the esoteric student's memory of the spiritual world. And those who experience this should regard it as a special blessing! - After some time of meditation, we notice that we have changed; we no longer commit certain acts of unkindness that used to slip out; we adopt a much finer logic. We feel that we have become better. We are becoming better.

But by placing ourselves outside the ordinary and familiar framework, we lose the support provided by convention and tradition. We become freer within ourselves, but this initially brings out our bad sides; only then do we realize how bad we are. We are really much worse than we generally assume!

Difficult, terrible hours come for every esoteric seeker; then it is good to have a foothold. We find this foothold in the New Testament; there we find advice for every case, for every situation, support in every weakness; we only have to look for it. And if we cannot find it, we should take comfort in the conviction of our own weakness, that we cannot yet find what is right, but that it is surely there in the Testament.

When clairvoyance begins, delusions can easily occur. One thinks one sees something external, and it is one's own inner self that is reflected there. It is even worse with sounds that one thinks one hears; beings that want to pull one down deceive the meditator in this way.

For the esoteric seeker, it is not only necessary to meditate and pray, if “pray” is understood in the best sense, but also to be vigilant, to be on guard against evil influences that want to interfere where an independent transformation of the bodies is taking place. An occult saying against all deception is: “All paths to the spiritual world go through the heart.” During meditation, one can feel how lines go from every point of the outer physical body to a center point. This center point is the heart. As they continue, these lines go in the opposite direction into the spiritual world. It is like feeling Christ within oneself. This kind of phenomenon is real.¹

Each of our limbs is related to an image of the zodiac; thus, forces flow down from the image of the lion into our heart. Powers also flow into our hearts from the sun. The fire spirits also have an effect on our hearts. All three are often taken as symbols of the heart: the lion, the sun, and the flame. Like the heart, every limb of the human being is related to powers outside ourselves; we have grown out of and are embedded in the whole world.

If we allow this fact to truly live in our souls, then we will also understand the saying in the right way:

The seed of my body lay in the spirit ...