# Theosophy Based on the Gospel of John

## GA 94 — 4 November 1906, Munich

### Sixth Lecture

We concluded yesterday by trying to shed light on what is narrated in the Gospel of John about the wedding at Cana, and we emphasized the particular importance of the fact that it says “the mother of Jesus was there”. John never refers to her as Mary, nor does he refer to himself as John, but only as “the disciple whom the Lord loved.” We saw that the wedding in Galilee refers to the connection between people beyond the barriers of blood. Furthermore, where the crucifixion of Christ is described, it says: “And standing beside the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.” According to the account of the writer of the Gospel of John, the mother of Jesus was therefore not called Mary, because otherwise two sisters would have had the same name. Attention is also drawn to the words: “Woman, behold your son! After that, he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. Today we want to bring the building blocks for the correct understanding of the following. Let us remember once again that John, or rather the writer of the Gospel of John, was an initiate; that a truly initiated person wrote this gospel, one who saw heaven open and had precise knowledge of the astral and devachanic worlds. John also indicates how to attain such a state: through meditation on the opening words. If you let these words live again and again in your soul, they will become magic words through which you will gradually ascend to an understanding of the Gospel of John. John wants to tell us: If you want to go the Christian way, then you must lift yourselves up to the devachan in the way I am telling it here, and then the deeds of Christ Jesus and everything that is connected with him and has happened to him will appear to you as I am presenting them to you. The Gospel of John wants to be a book of life that presents experiences from one's own body. We cannot understand the gospel until we no longer see the events as mere historical facts, but as things that were seen by John with higher vision and his mind. The wedding at Cana is also a real event, but the facts become symbols. The ordinary person views this wedding with its wine miracle differently than an awakened person like John. To the latter, it becomes the prophetic prediction for the entire future course of human development, everything that was to come about through Christ.

We are now living in the fifth sub-race of the fifth main race. What took place in Palestine falls within the fourth sub-race, the Greco-Latin race. The Jewish people emerged from the third sub-race, preparing for their mission in Egypt, whence they had come. Jesus was one of them. The third main race now extends into the fourth, the fourth into the fifth, the fifth into the sixth. Thus we have to distinguish three epochs. In the esoteric language they are called three days of creation.


But on the third day there was a wedding at Cana: the writer of the Gospel of John sees there that which will only happen in the future, in the sixth race: the marriage of Manas, which expresses itself in the law, with Budhi, the grace, the joy, the great marriage of the whole manasic element with Budhi. This can only happen when the task of Christianity has been completely solved. “He who does not forsake father and mother and brother and sister for my sake cannot be my disciple,” that is, love must be taken out of narrow communities and made into universal human love; it must turn from what is blood-related to what is spiritually related. So in the wedding at Cana we have visualized that which is to come to pass in the future. It is no mere accident that it says, “And on the third day,” for that is to be taken literally as the Day of the World. Every number, every word, everything in the Gospel of John is highly significant.

One is actually amazed when most theologians address Jehovah as the “Father” of Christ. In Luke, it is stated plainly and clearly where the archangel Gabriel announces the birth of Jesus to Mary (Sophia): “Do not be afraid, you have found favor with God; the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you...” and never anything else. So the Father of Christ is the “Holy Ghost.” This is not just according to the Gospel of John, but to an ancient tradition. Christ says, “I and the Father are one.” I and the Holy Ghost are one, does that mean.

Now the question arises: Who was the mother of Jesus? To recognize this, knowledge of the nature of initiation is necessary. Only then will we clearly see that we are dealing here with processes in higher worlds. At the same time, this will prepare us to understand the Gospel of John from the 13th chapter onwards.

At this point, we will now insert the teaching on initiation in some detail. For this is not only about the Gospel of John, but about theosophy. The teaching of the initiations teaches us about the “Mother of Jesus”, what she is and what the “Holy Spirit” is. Today, there is often the misconception that there is only one way to initiation. This is not correct. There is only one view from the mountain, but different paths can lead to the summit. The same applies to the truth. There are different paths to it as well. Which path is the most suitable for you depends on where you are on the mountain. The “mountain” was always the expression for the ascent, for example the summit of the mountain at the feeding of the five thousand.

There are three different paths to initiation, corresponding to the sub-eras of our main era. The sub-eras do not simply follow one another in time, but live side by side for a long time. The difference is much stronger internally than externally. For example: an Indian today can still more easily than a European immerse himself in his sympathetic nervous system by disconnecting his thinking. If a European, especially a man, wanted to follow the Oriental path, he would need strong means to loosen up his entire bone structure and physical constitution, which would not be possible without lasting damage, just to make the physical possible. Therefore such an attempt is not at all advisable for the European, and to achieve a good result with it is almost impossible. Initiation itself is nothing other than a complete transformation of the inner nature. For the present-day European, the Rosicrucian path, which has been cultivated since the 14th to 15th century, is the best.

The three paths of initiation are as follows: the Indian-Oriental yoga path, the Christian-Gnostic path until the 15th century, and the Christian-Rosicrucian path since the 15th century. The first is not for Europeans. The second is suitable for people of the middle zone, it is accessible to us, but the Rosicrucian path, which was taken from the 14th century onwards, is more appropriate. The Christian-Gnostic path does bring truth for the individual, but the disciple will not be able to consistently carry it out in modern life and provide answers to the manifold objections of today's science and culture, as he is able to do with the help of the Rosicrucian path.

The oriental yoga path has a series of stages for which one must first prepare. The seven steps can be practiced in parallel, but the person must strictly place himself under a so-called guru. The guru is aware of the state of his inner development. The Indian path goes straight up into the astral world. In the beginning, the student is very helpless there, hence the strict submission to the guru, because he lacks the ability to correct his own errors when perceiving facts that are in stark contradiction to one another.

The first stage is Yama, that is, refraining. In the physical world, the student's perceptions and assertions are corrected by the physical world, reality corrects him. But it is no longer so in the astral world. There the impressions rush in on him in images and colors, in forms and figures, which are in constant change and ceaseless motion. In addition, what one's own soul thinks and wills also becomes entities, and the student is then not yet able to distinguish his own and other astral beings. Therefore, in the astral world, he must have direction from within in order to stand securely. For how does this world appear? With a plant, for instance, it rises like a violet flame. The properties of things dissolve into colors, stand out from the things, the astral space is filled with colors, properties and sounds surging to and fro. These colors and sounds must go to the astral beings and fill them. Then some elemental spirit will appear to you in a bright yellow color. To be able to distinguish and to know what it is, certainty is necessary. In moments when these elemental spirits want to guide you to something, strong forces arise in man's inner nature: the person's own soul expresses itself in this, and therefore they drive him where the soul wants to go. In order to guide the helpless disciple correctly, he must live in the soul of the guru, see with his eyes, hence the necessity of the strict authority of the guru. In everything he undertakes, for example even buying a house, the disciple has to ask the guru. - In practicing Yama, one must practice refraining. One must refrain from: killing, stealing, lying, coveting, the consumption of alcoholic drinks and debauchery. These demands are much more difficult for a European to fulfill than it appears, because under the current time, life and cultural conditions in Europe, it is hardly possible to know whether the student can fulfill these conditions. For example, he kills with every breath if he does not regulate his breathing. He has his money in a bank or in some company: what does he know about what happens to it? The concept of “omission” must be very strictly defined for the student, because the point is that no one should be harmed by us at all. The only possibility for partial compliance with these conditions is to become more and more frugal.

The second stage, Niyama, prescribes observing cult symbols. Indian training strictly requires the student to take part in ceremonies and submit to a ritual. In doing so, one must visualize what one is going through internally. An example of such a ritual is given in the Catholic sacrifice of the Mass, which, with its four parts, is the expression of what also took place in the ancient mysteries. It consists of the gospel (the proclamation), the sacrifice of the lower self, the transformation into the higher self, and communion: union with the divine. What really happens on the astral plane happens there in the image on the physical plane. It is important to see this in pictures. They absorb the picture, and one night the astral world can absorb the student and become a force within him. First see in pictures what is to take place on the higher planes.

The third step, Asana, is the correct bodily posture. Today's European man of culture has hardly any idea of the importance of the correct bodily posture. There are powerful currents continually flowing through the world and through the human body, and these ether currents are of great influence on man. This was known in ancient India, as well as how much depends on the correct bodily posture for the student. The animal has a horizontal position in relation to the earth's axis, the plant a vertical one. If we draw a line from the flower through the root, we meet the center of the earth. In the plant we have the image of what is shown to us in the structure of the human being, only in reverse; what corresponds to the human head is found at the bottom in the root, and the plant holds its reproductive organs up to the sun in chastity. The horizontal position of the animal and the upright position of man and plant form a cross, hence Plato's saying: “The soul of the world is crucified on the body of the world.” Just as these lines run in the cosmos, so the currents run through all the organs. The Indian yoga student had to place his limbs in a certain direction so that the world currents could work in him; this is not possible for the European human being.

Fourthly: Pranayama. This is the teaching of correct breathing. Man actually kills all the time through his breathing process. We inhale oxygen, mix it with blood and exhale carbonic acid, which is toxic to humans and animals. We would die if the plants did not breathe the carbonic acid, retained the carbon and exhaled the oxygen again. This cycle is of the utmost importance and makes the existence of humans and animals possible in the first place.

> Human: plant  
> animal: breathes in oxygen, breathes out  
> breathes out carbonic acid: carbonic acid, and builds up its body from  
> breathes in oxygen: carbon.

Pranayama, the rhythmic breathing process, is supposed to gradually overcome the killing process. Man will not only expand his consciousness, but his whole life. There is carbon in the blood, which burns with the inhaled oxygen to form carbonic acid, which is excreted; the plant separates the components, it breathes out oxygen, and man absorbs it. And so the cycle begins anew. In the future, man will carry out the cycle within himself. When man is able to build his own body out of carbon, then he will have attained his future state. Carbon, coal, corresponds to what the occult literature called the philosopher's stone, lapis philosophorum. Those who are familiar with Rosicrucianism know what is meant by the saying that man will build a transparent body for himself out of carbon, just as a diamond is formed from coal. That will happen.

In the future, man will be able to remodel his blue blood through the lymph glands, which will then play a very important role, and use it, as they do now with the useful red blood, to shape his body. The pineal gland will in the future be an internal apparatus for the process of converting used blood into usable blood.

Closely connected with this is the rhythm of breathing. The breathing process therefore holds the future transformation of the human organism. At the moment when man works his way down into his lower bodies, he ascends to higher planes.

Five: Pratyahara, that is right living. Man must become capable of living purely within the soul; he must be able to have perceptions within that are completely independent of the outer world. The ideal of meditation is to be able to become blind and deaf to one's surroundings.

Sixth: Dharana, the collection of thoughts, complete mastery within one's imagination, so that a person has no impressions other than those they want. If they can then take only one out of a series of ideas and live in it for a long, long time, then this process, in which they remain at rest with their whole consciousness, is called Dhyana.

Seventh: When this is achieved, one must let go of even this one image, while remaining conscious with one's entire soul. One retains the form of the image, without content. With this, the student has reached the highest level, Samadhi, the complete absorption in a thought. Now the spiritual world can flow into him.

Through Indian yoga training, one reaches the same level in occult development as through the Christian-Gnostic path. Even today there are people who follow the Christian-Gnostic path. In this path, one distinguishes seven stages.

First: the washing of feet. The disciple must develop a very definite feeling over a long period of time, and this must live in the soul: the law must become clear to him that no ascent of one is possible without the descent of another. For every initiate there are so many criminals. When one attains more knowledge and insight, it is his first duty to reach down and pull the others up after him. This applies to nature as well as to man. The plant would say to the earth: Thou lifeless earth, in humility — this must be the basic mood of the disciple — I bend down to you, for I owe my existence to you. Christ Himself sets us an example of this in the washing of the feet, in which He shows us the feeling of the innermost humility. If the disciple develops this feeling within himself, two experiences occur to him, an outer symptom and an inner astral experience. The outer symptom is: the disciple has the very definite sensation of water washing around his feet; he perceives the state of a foot washing. Internally, the Christian disciple experiences the image of this as a real vision.

Secondly: the scourging. Pain and torment come upon the person, which want to crush him. He must say to himself: You must learn to endure all this with dignity. When this has been practiced long enough, two symptoms arise again. The outer one: stabbing pains all over the body, as if from scourging. This is proof that the exercise has worked into the etheric body. The inner, astral experience is the image of the scourging.

Three: The Crowning with Thorns. The disciple must learn to bear the scorn and derision with which his innermost being is assailed. Headaches lasting for weeks are the outer symptom for this; inwardly it is the astral picture of one's own crowning with thorns.

Fourth: the carrying of the cross and crucifixion. One's own body becomes something alien. It becomes like a piece of wood, like the cross that Christ carried. The personal must completely fade away. The disciple must become free of his body, completely free. Internally, he experiences the image of the crucifixion; externally, the stigmata appear at the points of Christ's wounds. The side wound appears on the right side of the chest.

Five: mystical death. This is a very high level of experience, an extremely significant one. The realization dawns that all the contemplation of things was an illusion. Terrible darkness pours into the room, the whole world sinks away. One comes to know only one thing: the true nature of all evil, all the torments and sufferings of this world. This is the descent into hell. Once you have gone through this exhaustively, the moment comes when the curtain tears. You now see a new aspect of the world, you see the world from the other side.

Sixth: the entombment. Everything in the world becomes part of the student, as if belonging to his own body. He becomes one with the earth, the whole earth becomes the body that one has. One is laid in the earth, and the earth covers one.

Seven: Resurrection and Ascension. This ascent can no longer be described in words of human language and its glory can hardly be imagined.

Now today we only want to give the scheme of the third type of initiation, the Christian-Rosicrucian schooling, which is the most favorable for the modern man. Only when we have grasped this type can we comprehend what takes place in man at initiation and what St. John, or rather the writer of the Gospel of St. John, describes. The Rosicrucian path also has seven steps:

> First: study.  
> Second: imagination.  
> Third: Learning the Occult Scripture.  
> Fourth: Rhythm of Life.  
> Fifth: Correspondence of Microcosm and Macrocosm.  
> Sixth: Contemplation, Inner Religious Contemplation in the Macrocosm.  
> Seventh: Bliss.

This is the third way to reach the mountaintop. A real event that you will find described in the Gospel of John is the descent of the Spirit as a dove upon Jesus. This also refers to the higher birth, where that is received which is called the Son of Man. The Gospel of John 1:18 also contains something mysterious: “God has never seen anyone with his eyes. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father of the world, has become the guide to this vision.” This is to be taken literally. The Gospel of John contains the expression of astral writing. You know that on the astral plane everything is reversed, so you have to learn to read in reverse.