Lucifer and Ahriman: Protecting the Esoteric Path

GA 266III — 6 October 1913, Oslo

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

What we all want to achieve is to find entry into the spiritual world. We all see before us—or at least sense—a gate with a threshold; to reach it, we are given certain exercises to perform. Nevertheless, the path is difficult and full of obstacles. It leads through a sea of sadness, and much patience is needed to keep from growing weary along the way.

Who creates these obstacles? Firstly, our own nature, and secondly, Lucifer and Ahriman seek to place obstacles in our path.

Both are effective on earth, an effectiveness that could lead to good if they limited themselves to doing what they are supposed to do, namely living in the effects of the sensory world. But they are not content to remain in the spiritual realm to which they belong, sending their effects down to the physical plane, but they also want to rule on earth with their ego consciousness. We know that human beings attain their ego consciousness on earth, the angeloi attain it in the elemental world, and the archangeloi in the astral world. Lucifer and Ahriman therefore want to penetrate into the ego consciousness of human beings.

Ahriman is the lord of death, as conditioned by human nature. There is no life in stone; it belongs to him. But now Ahriman wants to extend his power to what passes through the gate of death, to what belongs to the spiritual world. Therefore, he teaches modern humans, materialists and monists, the lie that there is no eternity, that the soul is contained in the physical body and ceases with it. Ahriman can approach humans because they are afraid. If it is only normal fear, which humans can easily bring themselves to recognize, then it is still manageable; but it becomes serious when this fear lies dormant in the depths of the subconscious. Such people fall prey to Ahriman. This fear is present in all followers of materialistic science — however little they would believe it if someone told them — and indeed in all people who have no connection to the spiritual world.

Goethe has Mephisto say quite correctly:

“The little people never feel the devil,
even when he has them by the throat.”

Just go into a laboratory where many people are working, and you will see how strongly their etheric bodies are impregnated with Ahriman. The clairvoyant sees in them exactly the same forms that he sees in the etheric body of a human being filled with fear. When a person walks through a room in which there is a mirror, he sees his image, but it can only be there because the person himself is there. So on earth, too, there is only his mirror image; but Ahriman seeks to teach him that it is reality.

How can one protect oneself from Ahriman? By being content with what one has been given:

Rejoice in what you have been given;
gladly do without what you have not been given!

Then Ahriman cannot touch us. One should not be without desires, an ascetic who flees the world, but neither should one be full of joy [alone]; rather, one should maintain a balance between the two; this is the right attitude for the esotericist.

Lucifer could also do a lot of good if he limited himself to his domain, which is to lead people to self-awareness. Lucifer stands behind all art, behind true free science. But he tempts people to excessive self-confidence, to self-aggrandizement.

Let me give an example. Let us imagine an artist who creates a statue. As long as it is meant to be a reproduction, everything is fine. But if he wants to be the creator himself, to be God himself, if he demands, for example, that the statue should walk—he breaks it and really imagines that it walks—then Lucifer is behind it.

Lucifer is at work in the naturalistic-realistic dramas being created today. Lucifer strides across the stage. A hundred years ago, Schiller was able to put words into the mouth of his “Tell” that no human being has ever spoken. For him, as he often said, art was a gift from heaven. Today, Gerhard Hauptmann manages to remove everything from “Tell” that is incompatible with his realistic views.

The only counteraction we have against Lucifer is deepest humility and self-modesty.

How many people say to themselves in the evening, when they look back on their day's work, that it was the gods who guided their actions and deeds! Most believe that they can be proud of what they have accomplished themselves. If we nurture the spirit of humility and modesty within ourselves, we protect ourselves from Lucifer. If we develop contentment within ourselves, Ahriman cannot touch us.

Record B

Those who follow this saying will succeed in keeping Ahriman at bay: “Rejoice in what you have been given; do not desire what you have not been given.” —

Taking the right stance toward Lucifer, the esotericist says: “Practice self-knowledge by looking at your deeds and not imagining God within you.” - Man sees only a reflection of himself on earth. Man is a spiritual being; by seeing his reflection on earth, he comes to his self-awareness. He has to get to know his self on earth. Lucifer and Ahriman make the mistake of carrying their self onto the physical plane instead of just its effects. One must not stop at imagination, but learn to read it.

Ahriman has influence in the physical world wherever one recognizes only the physical-sensory world, and the state in which the physical and etheric bodies are found is clearly visible to the clairvoyant; it is the state that is otherwise found in people who feel fear. Ahriman deceives us in our seeing, therefore reading must become seeing. Lucifer tempts us to seek God within ourselves, to consider ourselves the Lord God. We can protect ourselves from this through humility and modesty.

Esotericists must learn two things:

1. Meditate faithfully.
2. Be patient.

In the elemental world, Ahriman is also the tempter. The visions of the elemental world should therefore be described as follows: “I feel myself in a world of warmth, etc., there is nothing solid there, rivers, etc.”; no, one should not say it like that; one must learn to read this, and then one can say that this is the old Saturn evolution.

Every being has its own world in which it must experience its self.

The angel veils his face before becoming human. Angels experience their self in the elemental world. Archangels experience their self in the astral world, but their effects reach down to the physical world. Blood symbolizes the human self. Those who cannot see blood in themselves or in others cannot bear their own ego; not even in symbol, in expression, can such people bear their own ego; they faint when they see blood. Does man know his “ego”? No, man today cannot bear his own ego at all. Man numbs himself and does not want to go through this. He does not want to get to know his own ego.

When we experience the Rosicrucian symbol as an image, we must learn to read it; we must not stop at the image of the black wood of the cross; the occult word belongs to it. When we look at the blue filling the space, we must say to ourselves that there is something behind the blue. We may penetrate it, and an angel will appear to us. We can also say that behind the blue lies red, and behind that lies passion; we must penetrate it, and the devil will appear (reference to Lucifer in “The Awakening of the Souls,” Devachan scene, midnight scene; clothed only in a red ribbon [?]). The etheric body of human beings is not the same size in all countries. The etheric body becomes larger the further north one travels from Berlin, and it becomes smaller the further south one travels, and smaller and smaller the further east one travels.