Inner and Outer Paths to Spiritual Knowledge

GA 266II — 12 February 1911, Munich

Esoteric Lesson

It is important for modern people to be aware of what they are doing when they enter an esoteric life, and what changes are taking place within them.

We have often heard that there are two paths that lead us to the spiritual worlds: one is when a person descends deep into their inner being to find connection with God, and the other is when they strive outward into the macrocosm. We have within us the powers we seek, which are outside of us, which created us, and we seek them not because we do not have them, but because we do not recognize them. In theosophy, we learn both paths, which are meant to balance each other, because modern humans are no longer suited to follow only one path. Both paths have their dangers, which we will discuss later, and both are very difficult. We enter the inner path in our meditations, in inspiration; the outer path in imagination and through the thorough study of theosophical teachings about world development. Through this study, not only is our intellect developed, but our feelings are also influenced, and we will notice that after years of thorough study of these ideas, we have become completely different people. Theosophy has an effect on people, whether they are receptive to it or not. Modern people can be divided into two categories: those who seek Theosophy, to whom it gives what they have been striving for, and those who do not know what to make of it and are hostile towards it. Since November 1879, a small group of people have become ready to accept theosophical teachings; but it is only a small group, while other modern people are still unable to accept the teachings, considering them to be dreams, fantasies, or even taking offense at them.

The etheric body of those people who are receptive to theosophical teachings is set into gentle vibrations when they allow these teachings to work upon them. On the other hand, those who give themselves completely to the spirit of the times, who are completely absorbed in the external world, experience an expansion and dilution of their etheric body. And when such a person hears about the spiritual teachings of theosophy, it is as if the wind were blowing through a narrow opening in the etheric body, manifesting itself internally as fear but appearing externally as doubt. Such a person notices only the doubts; but these are the expression of fear and anxiety, both of which have entered his diluted etheric body as if into a vacuum and make themselves felt to the consciousness as doubts. We cannot help such a person who behaves so rejectingly at first. It is better to leave them alone with Theosophy for the time being. But when the opportunity arises, we should quietly introduce theosophical ideas according to the principle: “Constant dripping wears away the stone.” For we have only about 400 years left to make these teachings accessible to all people in the guise of Theosophy. And so that everyone has the opportunity, those who have resisted it in their present incarnation will be reborn in the next 400 years. But then there must also be a corresponding group of people who represent Theosophy in the right way.

Long before the events of Golgotha, human beings could only follow one path, the path inward. In ancient India and Egypt, people descended into their inner selves. If they had wanted to enter the macrocosm, they would have lost themselves in it, standing before darkness and emptiness, for human beings were different then in the entire constellation of their bodies in relation to one another.¹

Gradually, however, it became necessary for humanity to follow both paths, the inner and the outer, at the same time, and therefore the secret schools of the Rosicrucians appeared in the 11th and 12th centuries and taught both paths.

The writer of the Apocalypse showed us the outer path for the first time. He shows us how we must detach ourselves completely from the person in order to follow it. In an unassuming way, he says that he was carried away in spirit to the island of Patmos. But this has a very specific meaning. In order to follow this outer path, that is, to find union with the divine in the macrocosm, it is necessary to choose a fixed point from which to concentrate. Thus, John the Theologian spiritually calculated the constellation that the stars would have on September 30, 395, and from this point he had his visions. On this September 30, 395, the sun stood in the constellation Virgo, that is, in front of it; the moon was below it. We have expressed this image in one of the seven seals. This point in time can also be calculated exoterically. Scholars have done so and concluded that the Apocalypse was written around this time by John Chrysostom, who was alive at that time. In reality, however, we are touching on a great mystery here, for the Apocalypse was of course written much earlier, and the writer merely placed himself in the year 395.

Both paths now harbor dangers that the esotericist must be aware of. Even the esotericist who accepts theosophical teachings will be assailed by multitudes of doubts, for this is natural and also better than blindly accepting everything without thinking. But he must, of course, overcome these doubts, and his powers will grow as a result.

A second danger that the esotericist can encounter on this outer path is instability. Each of us who is seriously engaged in the study of world evolution will have felt how interests that previously occupied us intensely are fading away, how we no longer have a foothold in anything earthly. Therein lies the danger, not that we become aware of our lack of stability, but that this presents itself to us in the form of a high ideal that we strive for, a mission that we have to fulfill. But if we see through this and recognize it as our disguised lack of stability, this insight will enable us to make great progress on the right path.

When we descend into our inner being, two dangers also threaten us. By immersing ourselves in our inner being, we can achieve a certain voluptuousness, a feeling of comfort in the divine within us, and thereby fall into a subtle egoism that leads us to turn away from everything that surrounds us and should still interest us.

The second danger is that people mistake what they encounter when they penetrate the spiritual world through their inner being for a revelation of the spiritual, when it may in fact be nothing more than their own sensations.

The mystics of the Middle Ages did not yet have theosophical teachings. We find them nowhere in their writings. Their union with the divine is like a form of neo-Buddhism. They do not yet need the outer path.

The saying: Ex Deo nascimur. In Christo morimur is also used in mysticism in the form: “In Christ we live.”