# Gospel of John

*between approx. 1906 and 1923*

Appendix: Two exercises for the Christian Gnostic path

In the evening:

1.) Review

2.) Transform the Gospel of John into images

3.) Meditation:

> In the beginning was the Word  
> And the Word was with God  
> And God was the Word

In the morning:

1.) Repeat the image from the evening

2.) Meditation:

> And let the Word be in me  
> And let the Word be in my soul  
> And let my will be from the Word.

In the morning:

The first seven sentences of the Gospel of John

> In the beginning was the Word  
> And the Word was with God  
> And the Word was God.  
> This was in the beginning with God.  
> There it was, where everything came into being,  
> And nothing came into being  
> Except through the Word.
> In pure rays of light  
> Seek, waiting soul  
> Divinity.

Evening: Review.

> Divinity  
> Searching soul waiting  
> In pure rays of light.

(Peace of mind). —

Evening:

> In the beginning was the Word  
> And the Word was with God  
> And God was the Word  
> And the Word,  
> Let it live in your heart,  
> In the heart of your being,  
> In your self.

In the morning:

> In your self,  
> In the heart of your being  
> Let the Word live,  
> The word of the spirit.  
> And the Word was with God  
> And the Word was God.  
> In the beginning was the Word.

Evening: ![267-22](images/267-22.webp) ![267-23](images/267-23.webp) Appendix External:  
One feels as if one's feet are surrounded by water. Internal:  
One experiences the vision of washing one's own feet. One feels a burning sensation all over the skin. One sees oneself being scourged. One feels pain in the head. One sees oneself wearing the crown of thorns. The stigmata redden during meditation. You see yourself crucified. ===

> In the beginning was the Word of time  
> And the Word of time was with God  
> And a god was the word of time  
> And the word of time  
> It lives in you.

Morning:

> And the word of time  
> It lives in me.  
> And a god was the word of time  
> And the Word of Time was with God In the beginning was the Word of Time.

Evening:

1.) Review 5-6 minutes

2.)

In the beginning was the Word  
And let the word be in me And let the word work in me And let the word carry me  
In spiritual worlds  
In the depths of my soul.

Morning: 🕈

Be my image  
Of myself.  
In the depths of my soul  
Strong spiritual powers  
Like bright rose stars  
On black cross wood.

Evening:

Review.

My soul lifts itself  
To worlds wide  
My soul deepens  
Into the depths of my heart  
And seek to experience  
Worlds wide  
In the depths of my heart

🕈

(Soul peace)

In the morning:

In the beginning was the Word  
And the Word was with God  
So let the Word be in me  
And my soul with the Word

🕈

(Peace of mind)

Evening:

1.) Review

2.) Transport yourself to a moonlit night room; feel the following:

> In the beginning was the Word  
> And the Word became wisdom  
> And dwells in my head  
> And the Word is Christ  
> And dwells in my heart.

In the morning:

Transport yourself to the sunlit daytime space; feel the following:

> It dwells in my soul  
> The word, which is Christ;  
> It dwells in my spirit  
> The word, which becomes wisdom;  
> The beginning and end of things:  
> That is the wise love of Christ.

In addition: the 6 exercises.

In the beginning was the Word ...

In the morning: Setting sun

Cross with stars rising

Christ says: My word dwells in your heart

Evening:

Rising sun

Me speaking to Christ: Let your word dwell in my heart.

In the beginning was the Word ...

Evening: Review of the day's events.

Mental image of the rising sun; feel as if Christ is speaking from it:

> In the beginning was the Word  
> And the Word was with God  
> And God was the Word  
> Hear the Word  
> So you will hear  
> Your own inner self  
> Your deepest essence

After this: Wait with an empty but alert consciousness.

In the morning:

Mental image of the setting sun. Leaves behind the Rosicrucian cross.

The seven roses sound:

> Your deepest essence 7  
> Within yourself 6  
> You hear it 5  
> It sounds to you in the word 4  
> And one God was the Word 3  
> And the Word was with God 2  
> In the beginning was the Word 1

After this: Wait with an empty but alert consciousness.

As supplementary exercises:

> Concentration of thought  
> Initiative in action  
> Equilibrium between pleasure and pain  
> Positivity  
> Impartiality  
> Harmonization of these 5 qualities.

Evening: Review of the day's events. 3-4 minutes

Stand on a hill. Sun at its zenith. Feel that the sun is sounding. Further feeling that Christ is speaking from the sun, so that it sounds through you:

> In the beginning was the Word  
> And the Word was with God  
> And God was the Word  
> And the Word was  
> The core of your own being  
> When you say I  
> The Word speaks within you.

After this: Wait with an empty but alert consciousness.

In the morning: Standing on a hill. The sun is at its nadir. You have the feeling that it is sounding beneath the earth:

> Does the word speak within you  
> So it is I  
> The core of your own being  
> That is the word  
> And one God was the word  
> And the word was with God  
> In the beginning was the word.

After this: Wait with an empty but alert consciousness. —

Auxiliary exercises:

> 6 exercises  
> Concentration of thought  
> Initiative in action  
> Equilibrium between pleasure and pain  
> Positivity  
> Impartiality  
> Harmonization of these 5 qualities.

In the morning:

Chapter 8 of the Gospel of John, verses 12–59.[^1]

In the evening:

> I will be devout and reverent  
> Before the spiritual beings  
> Who in the darkness of night  
> Protect my soul.
> Day 1, several times: Peace be with me  
> 2nd day, frequently: I will do what I must with love  
> 3rd day, frequently: God with my life

*Two exercises for the Christian Gnostic path of training*

Only the following two exercises are available for this path of training. It is not known whether any others were given, but this is not very likely, as this path is hardly feasible under today's cultural conditions because it requires an almost complete withdrawal from life. (See, for example, GA 95 and 99).

*Christian Gnostic Meditation.*

I. Early in the morning, immediately after waking up, when no other impressions have yet entered the soul, one seeks to free the consciousness completely from all memories of everyday life, one seeks to divert one's attention from all external perceptions. Then, when one has attained this inner silence, one allows only the following to live in the soul:

The first five verses of the Gospel of John. —

II. Then, during the first fourteen days, one attempts every day to bring one's entire past life before one's soul in order to get to know oneself completely in this way.

After these fourteen days, you go through the entire Gospel of John, so that for seven days you live each day in one chapter.

So in the first seven days: Chapter 1 from sentence 6 to the end, in the second seven days: Chapter 2, and so on.

When you reach the 13th chapter, try to experience the following during the

washing of the feet: the feeling that every higher being owes its existence to those below it and must therefore bow down to them in humility.

Flagellation: the feeling that one can stand upright in the face of the flagellation of life, i.e., in the face of all suffering and pain.

Crowning with thorns: the feeling that one must stand upright, even in the face of all scorn and ridicule.

Crucifixion: the feeling that one's own body is something foreign that one carries and to which one is bound from outside.

Mystical death: one experiences the veil that still covers the spiritual world, but then also how it tears apart and one looks into the spiritual world. In the process, one learns to see the reasons for evil and the evils themselves: descent into hell.

Burial: One feels at one with all beings on earth, with the earth itself. One is immersed in it.

Resurrection: Can only be experienced because the words of ordinary language are insufficient to describe it.

III. Then one calls the figure of Christ Jesus before one's soul and passes over to the mental image in which one has long been immersed:

> I, in Your Spirit.

Evening:

Review of the whole day's life.

I and III are the same every day; only II changes every 7 days, as described.

After completing cycle II, one begins again from the beginning and so on.

After a longer period of time, one may experience the inner and outer symptoms indicated in the description of Christian development:

It is necessary to meditate every morning for a year in the following manner:

I. Month: complete half-hour immersion in the words of John 1:1-2  
II. likewise 1:3  
III. likewise 1:4  
IV. likewise 1:5  
V. likewise 1:6  
VI. likewise 1:7-8  
VII. likewise 1:9  
VIII. likewise 1:10  
IX. likewise 1:11  
X. likewise 1:12  
XI. likewise 1:13  
XII. likewise 1:14

This is to be followed by further meditation throughout all the weeks of the year:

I. Day (Sunday): complete quarter-hour contemplation of: 1. Genesis 1:1-5  
II. Monday: Genesis 1:6-8  
III. Tuesday: Genesis 1:9-13  
IV. Wednesday: Genesis 1:14-19  
V. Thursday: Genesis 1:20-23  
VI. Friday: Genesis 1:24-31  
VII. Saturday: Genesis 2:1-3

The times given in these and all exercises are to be understood as not being regulated by the clock, but by the feeling one acquires of time. The content of all the Bible verses that belong to the above meditation should be transformed into an image as much as possible and visualized. For example, John 1:1-2: The image of an enormous sphere; within this sphere, all substance is in such motion that it forms itself according to the meaningful meaning of the “divine word” resounding through it. In my lectures, I provide the building blocks in the esoteric Christian tradition that can lead the soul to transform the words of the Bible into the correct, authentic images. These building blocks should be adhered to as much as possible.

After the above morning meditation, the following should be followed by at least a quarter of an hour of deep meditation every day:

"I try to understand: that Christ was, in the first third of cosmic evolution, the leader of a host of spirits, in whose bosom I was unconscious; that in order to attain consciousness, I had to separate myself from this host of spirits until, through Yahweh's preparation, my soul was ready to consciously receive the Christ forces; now I can receive them when I direct my spiritual gaze to the incarnate Christ and take his being into my being."

It should be remembered that the nature of Christ is described in the Gospel of John.

Throughout the day, the soul should be immersed in the four parts of the Mass:

* * *

I. Gospel, whereby one must imagine that through it “God's Word” comes to human beings through the intellect.

II. Offertory, whereby one must imagine that one voluntarily offers to God that which one already has within oneself from God's nature. III. Transubstantiation, whereby one must imagine that the sacrificed humanity is transformed into something truly divine.

IV. Communion, whereby one thinks of oneself as united with God.

If the Mass is attended with these thoughts in true priesthood, then what is indicated here is accomplished magically.

* * *

In the evening, one should acquire the seven qualities of the Christian mystic in the following manner:

1. Feeling of genuine humility: everything higher owes its existence to what is lower: plants to stones, animals to plants, higher humans to lower humans. Image: Washing of the feet: Christ bending down toward the apostles.

2. Feeling of forbearance: I will endure all the pains and sufferings of life with patience. Image: Flagellation.

3. Feeling of fortitude: I will stand upright, even if the most sacred things about me are denigrated. Image: Crowning with thorns.

4. Feeling of independence from the body. Image: Carrying the cross: (I will carry my body as something foreign, like the wood of the cross).

5. Feeling of mystical death: (I want to learn to live in that part of me which is not flesh, over which death has no power). Image: Hanging on the cross.

6. Feeling of being buried and of resurrection. (I consider the whole earth as my body).

7. This feeling of ascension follows naturally from the previous ones; there are no human words to express it.

After this, in the evening: review the experiences of the day. Do this in reverse order, beginning with the last experience of the evening and ending with the first experience of the morning.

* * *

External rules: Practice abstinence as much as possible: every abstinence from a desire that leads to no longer desiring a previously desired object brings one step closer to knowledge.

The exercises are continued until new ones are given; however, after some time, the practitioner should report to me what he feels compelled to do.

Study is necessary: everything that can lead to a deeper understanding of cosmic evolution and the nature of man.

---

[^1]: Another exercise, archive no. 6804, reads: “Every evening: meditate on a sentence from John, chapter 8, verses 12–59.”