Threefold Love and the Law of Periodicity

GA 266II — 16 December 1912, Bern

Esoteric Lesson

Recording A

Never before has the battle against occult forces been as fierce as it is today. Although it has been fought with blood and fire, never has the battle been as intense as it is now. The sisters and brothers can do much to mitigate this battle, which is caused solely by envy. You can do a lot if you do not speak of me as a leader, as is often the case on every occasion. In your hearts you can be certain, you know where you stand, but outwardly you should not speak of this matter.

[For example:] We have a fact, an event in our life. This event passes. Then life goes on for a while, and then this event repeats itself.

As we can see from this diagram, the circles become larger each time. In ordinary human life, we can observe that people strive to rid themselves of ambition and vanity, as well as comfort and laziness. In ordinary life, we may have already achieved a certain victory over these faults and then move on a step further in our lives. Then suddenly, after going through a period of esoteric development, these faults reappear before us and, as we can see from the diagram, to a much greater extent than the first time. Now we can try again to overcome this vanity, this ambition, and so on, until they confront us again in ever greater measure. But you can also stand still, not overcome them, and then you will bring this vanity and so on into your esoteric life as poison. The threefold power will be a good means of overcoming these mistakes.

When we get up in the morning, when our ego and astral body slip back into our etheric body and physical body, consciousness arises from the shock that occurs when they slip back in. Without this etheric and physical body, there would be no consciousness in this world. However, these two parts, which we use for consciousness, do not belong to us; they were inherited from our ancestors. So when we wake up, we may also think that these parts, which we have only received as a free gift, could one day be taken away from us. And then we can understand the words that the wise men always spoke in the morning: “I thank you, God, for enabling me to wake up again,” and so on. That which enables us to submerge ourselves in the physical body again in the morning is God the Father. And we have the power to feel gratitude for this submergence into the physical body by uttering the words: “I am woven.” These words are a very powerful mantra. And a great feeling of gratitude must fill us when we say them: “It weaves me.” Every time we say them, we have a great source of strength. But those who cannot generate a great feeling of gratitude within themselves should not say them. Every morning when we wake up, our first thought should be a prayer of thanks to God the Father, who enables us to return to this physical body.

But we have something else. When a person has passed through one life, something will happen to them in the spiritual world. In pre-Christian times, they encountered something different than in Christian times. That has changed. Consciousness comes about through the shock experienced when slipping into the physical body, which awakens consciousness. After death, we have no physical body, and the ego has no consciousness [without it]. But that which preserves consciousness for the ego is the power of the Son, whom we can encounter after death in the spiritual world. And here, too, we have a powerful mantra. That means: it has an effect on me. We should say it with devotion and reverence and thus preserve our consciousness between death and new life.

But then we must also pass over into the spiritual worlds, where we will be awakened again by the Holy Spirit who guides us there. And here we have the mantra: It thinks me. This must be spoken with deep piety. And so we have hope, love, and faith.

The threefold love will then awaken in human beings: love for truth, love for life, love for creativity.

We encounter love for truth quite often. Love for life somewhat less so. Love for life will place every human being in the right position in relation to other human beings. For how can one truly love life without loving other human beings? But to give in to someone out of passion in everything is not to love life. For only when one does not let everything that is wrong go out of good nature is it love of life; sometimes, out of love, one must not give in to everything. — The third love is very difficult to find: love of creation. We should love all creation and creativity. And yet how does man turn against everything creative! Yes, if, for example, one finds it useless to create spaces such as those that now surround us, one turns against creative love.

What is it that prevents us from loving the truth? It is vanity. And who can still be vain who cultivates the love of truth! We must cultivate the love of truth more and more. Through love for life, we develop compassion within ourselves, empathy for all life. And through this love, egoism melts away. Those who have true love for all life cannot persist in egoism. Love for creation, for creativity, eliminates all laziness, all complacency.

And so we can say: I love truth, I love life, I love creativity. We can say: I love truth through the Father who weaves within me. I love life through the Son who works within me. I love creativity, which thinks through the Holy Spirit within me. Or we can say: We are born in God the Father. In Christ we die, and through the Holy Spirit we will rise again. Ex Deo nascimur. In Christo morimur. Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus. Through the Father Spirit we are born into this physical body, through the Son we die, and the Holy Spirit gives us the certainty of resurrection.

And so let us speak the words that have been given to us from the truth:

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

Record B

The law of periodicity or circular motion. About ambition and vanity, comfort and laziness.

The law of circular motion, of periodicity, exists for the greater world and is also decisive for human beings.

Today we want to talk about four characteristics that can be found to a greater or lesser extent in every human being: ambition and vanity, comfort and laziness.

These characteristics recur periodically, with increasing intensity, and must be fought against again and again.

It may be that someone has fought these characteristics for a while and has also worked quite well esoterically for a time and has made progress. Now he thinks he has overcome ambition and vanity, laziness and complacency, but then they suddenly reappear with increased force. The law of periodicity comes into effect. Now it is necessary to overcome them again with increased strength. It is necessary to watch over the soul incessantly, and this can only be done effectively if one takes in one of the aspects of the Godhead or the divine Trinity; these are the three aspects: the impulse of the Father God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit.

Thus, as the Father principle, we have the creative, the act of creation, which is connected with the waking and sleeping, falling asleep and waking up of human beings.

When we wake up, we find what the Father principle has given us, namely our physical and etheric bodies, and we become conscious of them when we immerse ourselves in them upon waking up.

The Son principle is the principle of life; it is connected with life and death.

The impulse of the Holy Spirit is the impulse of truth and is expressed in ???

Thus we have expressed the threefold love in the three aspects of the Godhead:

1. Love for truth; whoever has it, the Holy Spirit lives in them.
2. Love for all living things, compassion for all that lives, that is the Son principle.
3. Love for the creative, for the Father.

This principle is still the least developed in humanity, and it must be said that all hatred and enmity come from the fact that this principle is furthest from man.

We are now given the three mantras for our use. It weaves me; it works me; it thinks me.

It thinks me, that is the angel in me.

It weaves me, the spirits of movement are at work in us.

It works me, the spirits of will are sending down their powers.

We should say the first mantra like a prayer when we wake up.

It weaves me, the Father principle lives in it for us, may these words fill us with a feeling of gratitude.

It works me is the Son principle. The feeling for this is devotion and surrender.

It makes me think of the Holy Spirit. The feeling of piety should permeate us.

E.D.N. - I.C.M. - P.S.S.R.

1. To be casual and comfortable means not to love the creative principle.

2. To be selfish means not to have love for the life of the Son.

3. Not loving the truth means not loving the principle of the Holy Spirit.

Our ego dies in the spiritual world when we pass through death, but when we immerse ourselves in the spiritual world in Christ, we will awaken in the Holy Spirit.

Thus, the original prayer of humanity is our Rosicrucian motto:

Ex Deo nascimur
In Christo morimur
Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus