The Guardian of the Threshold: Dangers and Safeguards in Esoteric Development

GA 266II — 14 April 1912, Helsinki

Esoteric Lesson

Those who begin esoteric exercises should not expect visions to appear immediately. It can happen, but it is not the usual thing, nor is it desirable. The normal course of events is that first the emotional and mental world of the student of occultism must be brought into harmony with the spiritual world, and only when this has happened and the esotericist feels in harmony with the sea of the spiritual world does he see light formations rising from this sea and taking on specific shapes.

However, it may also be that the esotericist immediately begins to experience visions. These are then a consequence of his previous life, where he was either also an esotericist or was under the influence of a religion that—as was the case with all ancient religions—worked with ceremony and cult. The visions are then something atavistic and are a great danger, because they appear violently and overwhelm the esotericist; for they have arisen, as it were, without his intervention. It is therefore better if they do not occur. The esotericist should rather pay attention to the changes that are taking place in his own soul life. Last time, we already talked about one of these changes, namely that through the exercises, thoughts become so much more powerful and could have so much more influence on other people that, if they are not completely correct and pure, they are taken away from us by the guardian of the threshold and we are led into unconsciousness so that we do not harm others or ourselves. Now the effects of the exercises will be described in a slightly different way.

The first thing is that thoughts become looser, that is, whereas previously a certain perception was always immediately followed by a certain thought, and this thought automatically led to other thoughts, this no longer happens in the same way. The esotericist no longer feels so secure and immediate in his judgments and connections between thoughts. What used to give thoughts and judgments their certainty came from education, social circumstances, and the environment, that is, from the angels, archangels, and spirits of the personality that are at work in all cultural circumstances. People are gradually detaching themselves from these; their angels, their guides, no longer give them thoughts and judgments so directly and unconsciously. However, if this loosening of thoughts were to go too far for people, it could become dangerous for them. That is why the guardian of the threshold intervenes and prevents this from progressing. The preventive measure against this is to acquire an absolute love of truth, which does not allow anything to arise, even in thought, that has the possibility of being untrue.

The second concerns our feelings and impulses of the will. The esotericist also sees these changing; he feels that he has less control over them than before. Whereas he may have been more cautious in the past, he now senses how a feeling, an impulse of the will, reacts immediately to something that affects him. This too must not go too far; if it does, the guardian of the threshold will not allow us to pass into the spiritual world for our own sake.

The third thing is that the wrong attitudes that the esotericist can develop not only affect his soul, but also have an effect on his physical body. When perversions continue to work unconsciously at the bottom of the soul, they become even more harmful than when they manifest themselves in a tangible illness that can be healed by physical means. That is why the guardian of the threshold sends us some minor illness in such cases, which we should regard as a sign, a warning of what is at work in our soul. Serious illnesses must not arise in a well-guided esoteric development, otherwise the esoteric student would be too severely affected. In ancient times, when souls were still more robust and only people with great inner strength and courage were accepted as students of occultism, these dangers were also greater and often went to extremes, that is, the loosening of the mind went to the point of madness, the lack of control of feelings and impulses of the will went to the point of insanity and destruction, and illnesses led to death. This is what is expressed in the story from the ancient Hebrew mysteries, which is given to every esotericist as a warning: Of the four rabbis who sought to enter the “Garden of Maturity.” The first went mad, the second destroyed everything in his rage, the third died, and only the fourth was allowed to pass and entered the spiritual world.