Drowning and Burning: Two Paths to Spiritual Attainment

GA 266II — 5 March 1911, Hanover

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

Drowning - Burning

Quote of the day: Sunday.

During Rosicrucian training, Rosicrucian students are given two sayings to help them with their meditation. They are:

Beware of drowning in your esoteric quest.
Beware of burning in the fire of your own ego.

There are two paths to spiritual attainment: the outward and the inward.

Everything around us is like a veil, like a blanket covering the spiritual, which we must pierce in order to reach the spiritual behind it. But in which direction? This blanket surrounds us on all sides, above, below, in front, behind, to the right, and to the left.

And inwardly, everything we experience as joy and pain, etc., is like a veil, like a fog that obscures the spiritual within us, and this spiritual is the same thing we find when we pierce the outer blanket.

In order for humanity to continue to develop and attain the spiritual, there are always, from time to time, those who are more advanced than the current stage of human development allows, and who have messages to convey about states of human development that extend far into the future. Such advanced beings must exist in order to guide humanity forward. One such being was John, the writer of the Apocalypse. When he wanted to write the revelation of the future, he said to himself: if I write this book from the whole environment in which I now live, it will be influenced by the self that is in my body, by me, who am bound and connected with everything around me and with everything within me. I must free myself from all of this." He had to stand on a rock that served as a firm foundation on which he did not waver and was not influenced by anything that surged around him and within him. And on the evening of September 30, 395, he went to the island of Patmos at sunset, when the sun had already disappeared below the horizon but its effect could still be felt, and when the stars and the moon appeared. And there in the western sky was the constellation Virgo, illuminated by the glow of the setting sun; and below it, at its feet, was the moon. This image is reproduced in one of the seals: the Virgin with the radiant sun, the moon at her feet. All these seals are drawn from deep mystical connections.

In this one direction, John had pierced the veil that surrounds us, in the direction of the constellation Virgo. Thus, there are twelve constellations. Seven of them are good—those depicted on the seals; the other five are more or less dangerous.

Just as John chose this very specific point in time and space to detach himself completely from himself and everything temporal around him, so too must the Rosicrucian student find a firm foundation within himself, achieve it within himself. And this is best accomplished by allowing the theosophical teachings to work upon us.

By listening to theosophical ideas, our astral body expands and, as a result, our etheric body also expands. This is the effect on everyone who hears something about theosophy. But the effect on those who are inclined toward theosophy differs from the effect on those who are not inclined toward it. The former feel the expansion of the etheric body and fill it with theosophical teachings by accepting them. The latter feel a void in the etheric body due to the expansion because they do not accept these ideas and therefore do not fill the void. And then this void gives rise to doubt and skepticism. For the former, however, it is like pouring themselves out into the universe, which they must not allow to go too far. They then have a feeling of emptiness, of not feeling at home in these vast expanses, like a fish taken out of the water and unable to live in the air because its organs have not yet adapted to this changed element. When the theosophist surrenders himself and his astral body expands more and more, he loses himself in this unfamiliar, unknown realm. One must be careful not to drown. And this is possible by studying theosophy seriously, absorbing it and working it out, grasping it with feeling, not only with the mind and the will, but permeating it completely with feeling. Only with great seriousness can this be done. You have to gain a firm foothold within yourself—like John, when he wanted to write the Apocalypse and transported himself to the island of Patmos at sunset on September 30, 395.

Astronomically, the position of the stars—the sun, Virgo, and the moon—on that evening can be verified and has been verified. And from this, materialistic science draws the conclusion: therefore, the Apocalypse was written at that time. And then it says: science has determined this. This is how science determines things!

On the path inward, we find everything that lives in us in terms of joys and sufferings, pains and pleasures. But all this is only what clings to our lower, transitory ego. This whole world of desires surrounds us like a fog that obscures the spiritual. It prevents us from seeing and perceiving the spiritual. We must break through it in order to reach the spiritual. There are forces that approach esoteric students in order to make this fog even denser. This fog becomes denser and denser if we do not resist it. We must burn it so that we do not perish ourselves in the fire of our desires. If we do not overcome this fog, if we do not resist its ever-increasing density caused by the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces, then we are, as it is called in the occult, prisoners. There are indeed people in our time who enter life with great abilities, who very quickly reach certain levels, but then become completely enveloped in such a fog by the opposing forces that they cannot escape. This is called “occult imprisonment.”

Egoism is everything that makes up our world of desires. And only in deep humility can we overcome this egoism. What is the thought that can lead us to overcome egoism? The thought we discussed yesterday in the exoteric lecture, the thought that we have killed Christ. We are murderers, yes, we are. We can transform this fact, but only by making Paul's words true in ourselves, by letting them live in us: “Not I, but Christ in me.” We should not kill the divine within us through egoism, through a life of desire, etc., but we should let Christ live within us. With solemn seriousness, we must set about accomplishing this easy yet difficult task within ourselves.

We have come into being out of the divine. This is expressed in the Rosicrucian motto: Ex Deo nascimur. We should take all suffering upon ourselves, willingly and patiently, in the knowledge that we have killed Christ; we should surrender ourselves completely to him, die in him: In Christo morimur. Then we will be reborn through the Holy Spirit, we will awaken again: Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus.

Exoterically, this saying is different from esoterically. But the difference lies only in one word that is omitted. While we omit this word, while we do not utter it out of shy reverence for what it expresses, our feeling goes to what is left unsaid in shy reverence.

Exoterically:

Ex Deo nascimur
In Christo morimur
Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus

Esoterically:

Ex Deo nascimur
In - - - morimur
Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus

This reflects how man arose from the spiritual, how he was originally contained in the spirit:

In the spirit lay the seed of my body ...
In my body lies the seed of the spirit ...

Record B

Two sayings are given to Rosicrucian students to assist them in their meditations. They are as follows:

Beware of drowning in your esoteric striving

and secondly

Beware of burning at the stake of your own ego

There are two paths for the spiritually striving, the one outward and the one inward. It lies before our eyes like a veil, like a blanket that we must pierce in order to reach the spiritual realm behind it. But this veil does not surround us in just one direction; it surrounds us on all sides, above, below, to the left, to the right—the blanket must be pierced everywhere in order to reach the outside. The same veil, however, is found on the path inward.

Everything we experience in joy and suffering is like a fog around us that obscures the spiritual, the same spirituality that we find when we pierce the outer blanket. In order for humanity to continue its development toward the spiritual, there are from time to time people who are more advanced than the current stage of development allows, and who have messages to convey about times far into the future of human development. One such person was John, the writer of the Apocalypse. But before he wrote this revelation of the future state of humanity, he said to himself: Before I can do this, I must first completely remove myself from my present environment, in which I am influenced by my own self, which is enclosed in my body, by myself, who am connected and bound to everything that surrounds me. I must free myself from all of this." He had to stand on a rock that served as a firm foundation, on which he did not waver, on which he could not be influenced by anything that surged and lived around him and within him. And so, on the evening of September 30, 395, at sunset, he transported himself to the island of Patmos. When the sun had almost disappeared on the horizon, when the stars and the moon appeared, the constellation Virgo stood in the western sky, illuminated by the setting sun, with the moon below it, at its feet. This image, the Virgin with the shining sun, the moon at her feet, is reproduced in the one seal. Thus, all the seals are taken from deeply mystical contexts.

John had therefore pierced the outer covering in this direction, in the direction of the constellation Virgo. However, there are twelve directions, corresponding to the twelve constellations, seven of which are good and five of which are more or less dangerous. Just as John chose these very specific points in time and space in order to detach himself completely from himself and everything temporal that surrounded him, so must the Rosicrucian student find a firm foothold within himself and gain a firm foundation.

Everyone who listens to theosophical teachings feels an effect on the astral body and, through it, on the etheric body; an expansion of the etheric body occurs. This is the case with everyone; only the effect is different. In a person who feels attracted to theosophical teachings, the expanded etheric body is filled with the content of these teachings. Someone who feels repelled by theosophical teachings also feels the expansion of the etheric body, but because they cannot accept the ideas, a void arises, and through this void, doubt and skepticism arise. Those who are imbued with theosophical teachings may find that their expanded etheric body causes them to spill out too far into the universe. They then have a feeling of emptiness, of not feeling at home in these vast expanses, like a fish that comes out of the water onto land and cannot live there because its organs are not adapted to this changed element. One loses oneself in this unfamiliar, unknown environment. One must be careful not to drown. And only in this way can one protect oneself from taking theosophy seriously, from grasping it with feeling, not just with the mind, but from becoming completely imbued with it. One must gain a firm foothold within oneself, like John when he wanted to write the Apocalypse and transported himself to the island of Patmos on the evening of September 30, 395. This can also be verified astronomically, the position of the stars—the sun, Virgo, the moon—and it has been verified. And from this, materialistic science now draws the conclusion: So the Apocalypse was written at that time. And then it is said that science has established this. This is how science establishes things!

On the path inward, we find everything that lives in us in joy and suffering, in pain and pleasure. But all this clings only to our lower, transitory self. This whole world of desires surrounds us like a fog that obscures the spiritual, preventing us from seeing and perceiving the spiritual. We must break through it in order to reach the spiritual. There are forces that approach the esoteric student and make this fog even denser and denser. This fog around us becomes denser and denser; we must burn it if we do not want to burn through it, to perish in the fire of our own desires. If we do not overcome this fog, we are prisoners of the Ahrimanic and Luciferic forces in this fog. There are indeed people who enter life with great abilities, reach certain stages very quickly, but then become completely enveloped by opposing forces; this is called “being held in occult captivity.” Egoism is everything that makes up our world of desires. And only in deep humility can we overcome this egoism. What is the thought that can lead us to overcome egoism? The thought we discussed yesterday in the exoteric lecture, the thought that we have killed Christ. We are murderers—yes, we are. And we can only compensate for all this by living the Pauline word within ourselves, by letting it become truth within us. “Not I, but Christ in me.”

We do not want to kill the divine in us through egoism in our life of desire, but to let Christ live in us. — With painful seriousness, we must set about accomplishing this easy yet difficult task within ourselves. We have come into being from the divine. This is expressed in the Rosicrucian motto: E.D.N. — we should take all suffering upon ourselves, willingly, in the knowledge that we have killed Christ. We should surrender ourselves completely to Him, die in Him—I.C.M. Then we will be reborn through the Holy Spirit, reawakened—P.S.S.R. Esoterically, this saying is different from the exoteric one, but the difference lies only in one word that is omitted. While we did not utter the same words out of reverence for what they express, our feelings go to what is not spoken out of reverence.

This reflects how man arose from the spiritual, how he is originally contained in the spirit, as the masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings tell us in the saying: ...¹

Note C

The two paths that lead man into the spiritual world:

The first path is to go out into the macrocosm. The experience that man has in doing so is like drowning in fear, which is particularly strong for those who are not carefully prepared.

The second path leads down into one's own soul. It is the descent into the microcosm. There it is like burning in shame.