Self-Knowledge and the Guardian of the Threshold

GA 266III — 9 February 1920, Dornach

Esoteric Lesson

I would like to begin with an introduction. This call (to participate in the esoteric teachings that have been promised) has once again confirmed how little this movement is taken seriously, even by long-standing members. Immediately after the call was issued, there were all kinds of discussions, and what emerged is something that should not have happened. As long as members continue with their criticism of every action taken by higher authorities, as long as there are members who repeatedly introduce completely foreign personalities, not out of interest in the movement, but out of some personal interest, it will not be possible to present the great spiritual truths that must now be spoken. If you have been in the movement for seven years and have taken in the teachings, then major changes should have taken place in your view of life, so that you no longer apply the same criticism as before, where completely different actions are supposed to result. Many of our members have been with us for more than seven years, and there is no sign of a change in their judgments. This transformation should be expressed in every behavior, in every action. Instead of this happening, everything remains the same. If more criticism were directed at spiritual science and more trust were placed in the personalities who have been put in place to carry out this or that work, the movement would be in a better state. Instead, one experiences a belief in authority in abundance. Just think of the many who have fallen away, how they were previously adored and revered! Healthy criticism would have been more appropriate in these cases. Falling away from the movement should actually be impossible, and it is the strongest proof of the lack of seriousness that still prevails among us. And this seriousness cannot be felt deeply enough when we look at the catastrophic events of our time.

It has been said repeatedly in the exoteric lectures that our head is doomed to decay and death, and that the living stream that can revive the dead flows up from the rest of the human being. But for this to happen, human beings must not reject what descends from the spiritual world and can unite with the living stream. Otherwise, this living stream must descend again, and the head with the brain remains a dead organism.

Humanity as a whole is something different from the individual human being. Humanity belongs to the Earth organism and participates in the karma of the Earth; the individual human being has his own karma. This must be clearly distinguished. Humanity as such is today experiencing the encounter with the guardian of the threshold, and the crossing of the threshold has already begun in recent years. This is also the beginning of the division of humanity, and this is precisely the critical point at which we have now arrived. The forces that used to flow from spiritual beings into humanity are now exhausted; we are on our own and must now draw these forces up from our subconscious. The mystery of Golgotha would have been in vain if people did not use these inner forces but rejected them. That would result in the complete destruction of Earth's development. The souls would still descend into the bodies, but they would leave them after the age of thirty-three if they had not absorbed the spiritual stream through their bodies in earlier years. Such thirty-three-year-olds—those who have absorbed the stream—should teach the younger ones so that the seed for understanding the mystery of Golgotha may already be sown in youth. And as for those who die before the age of thirty-three, provision will also be made for them.

If this does not come to pass, soulless bodies will walk the earth, capable only of functioning with an automatic mind. Soulless people have already appeared during the catastrophe of war, and there will be more and more of them unless the spirit that is now pressing down is absorbed. These soulless people are welcome prey for demonic beings, who will use this automatically functioning mind for their own purposes. Unless a small number of people allow themselves to be penetrated by the meaning of the terrible things that have now been said, unless the necessary seriousness can be mustered, the further development of humanity will be impossible.

I will give you some provisions that will be of great help to you in meditation in bringing to your consciousness the many secrets that lie in what has been said [It was written on the board and could be copied:]

If one thoroughly penetrates these words, one comes to higher knowledge.

Feeling is a reflection of dreaming, and dreaming is also reflected in feeling.

Regarding the given saying: Conscious: only thinking, therefore imagining is written on the left. The others are still acting unconsciously (sleeping, dreaming in wanting and feeling).

First, the three middle mantras I think ... I feel ... I want ... were written on the board; then (next to I feel ...) I dream ... (next to I want ...) I sleep ...

Dr. Steiner said: In feeling, one still dreams; in willing, one is still asleep; it is only in thinking that anything is possible (imagining), which is why he wrote it on the left next to I think ... .

At the beginning and end, Rudolf Steiner said: O man, know thyself ...