{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 173c/1917-01-20/p033","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"It is only a small number of people in each case who understand all these things. For as a rule these societies are organized in such a way that the ceremonial magic they practise influences only those who are unaware of the implications, merely desiring to make contact with the spiritual world by means of symbolic ceremonies. There are many such people. And those who have this desire are by no means necessarily the worst. They are accepted as members of the circle of ceremonial magic among whom there are then a few who simply use the rest of the members as instruments. Therefore one should beware of all secret societies administered by so-called higher grades whose aims are kept hidden from the lower grades. These administrative grades usually comprise those who have been initiated to a stage at which they only have a vague idea of what I have just been explaining to you. They comprise those who are to work positively in connection with certain goals and aims which are then realized by the wider group of those who have been merely inveigled into the circle of ceremonial magic. Everything these people do is done in such a way that it leads in the direction required by the higher grades but is strengthened by the forces which come from ceremonial magic.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture XXI","site_heading":"Ceremonial Magic, Dead Souls, and Ahrimanic Immortality","site_heading_note":"A heading the site wrote for this unit from a summary of it; not in the edition, and not the words of Rudolf Steiner or of the translator. Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote it.","date":"1917-01-20","location":null,"word_count":223,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/173c/1917-01-20/p033","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"RSP1988","book_title":"The Karma of Untruthfulness II","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA173c/English/RSP1988/19170120p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"no_translator_named","note":"Neither the lecture's own page nor rsarchive's lecture list names a translator for it. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/173c/1917-01-20/p033","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"stenogram","scope":"volume","note":"Shorthand transcript taken during the lecture — the strongest kind of lecture record in this corpus.","evidence":"Diese dreibändige Ausgabe wurde auf der Grundlage der stenografischen Nachschriften vollständig neu bearbeitet.","evidence_translation":"This three-volume edition was completely re-edited on the basis of the shorthand transcripts.","evidence_source":"The publisher's description of GA 173a-c, as mirrored on AnthroWiki (GA 173a-c). The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one."},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1917-01-20","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 173c/1917-01-20/p026","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/173c/1917-01-20/p026"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":358,"en_words":351,"ratio":0.98,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 173c/1917-01-20/p026","passage_number":26,"text":"Es ist immer nur eine kleine Anzahl von Menschen, die mit all diesen Dingen vertraut sind, denn solche Gesellschaften sind in der Regel so organisiert, daß die zeremonielle Magie namentlich auf diejenigen wirken soll, die ahnungslos sind, auf Menschen, die ein gewisses Bedürfnis haben, mit der geistigen Welt in Beziehung zu treten durch allerlei symbolische Handlungen. Solcher Menschen gibt es viele. Es sind wahrhaftig an sich nicht die schlechtesten Menschen, die das erreichen wollen. Solche Menschen werden nun in den Kreis der zeremoniellen Magie hereingenommen, und eine kleine Anzahl setzt sich dann zusammen, die eigentlich nur sich der andern, die in den Kreis der zeremoniellen Magie hereingesponnen sind, als Instrumente bedienen. Daher sollte man vorsichtig sein gegenüber allen sogenannten okkulten Gesellschaften, welche sogenannte höhere Grade verwalten, deren Ziele für die untern Grade ein Geheimnis bleiben. Diese Verwaltungsgrade umfassen in der Regel diejenigen, die eigentlich erst soweit eingeweiht sind, daß sie eine Ahnung haben von demjenigen, was ich Ihnen jetzt gesagt habe, sie umfassen diejenigen, die in positiver Weise bewußt wirken sollen, welche gewisse Ziele und Richtungen angeben, die dann verwirklicht werden dadurch, daß man das Gros der andern hat, die in den Kreis der zeremoniellen Magie nur eingesponnen sind. Alles, was diese Leute tun, wird so getan, daß es in der von den oberen Graden gewollten Richtung geschieht, aber verstärkt durch die Kräfte, die aus der zeremoniellen Magie kommen. Wer sich ein wenig Einblick verschafft in die ungeheuer große Zahl von solchen Gesellschaften des Westens, welche zeremonielle Magie treiben, der kann dann auch eine Ahnung bekommen, welches ungeheuer wirksame Instrument für weitgehende Weltenpläne solche Gesellschaften sein können. Denn das Wesentliche besteht ja, wie Sie gesehen haben, darin, daß ein gewisses Hereinwirken des Spirituellen in das Physisch-Sinnliche, wie es in früheren Zeiten richtig war, in unsere Zeit heraufgenommen wird, während in unserer Zeit das Richtige ist, daß der Mensch in der geschilderten Weise entgegenkommt den Toten, so daß man sich gewissermaßen mit den Toten auf halbem Wege begegnet. In der Ihnen angedeuteten Stimmung wird hier ein Weg gesucht, der für frühere, atavistische Zeiten der Weg war und der in die Gegenwart durch das Medium der zeremoniellen Magie hereingenommen wird.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":358,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/173c/1917-01-20/p026"}],"english":["GA 173c/1917-01-20/p033","GA 173c/1917-01-20/p034"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":358,"en_words":351,"ratio":0.98,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.0,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5322,"original_word_count":5331,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"not_established","translator":null,"identified_edition":"RSP1988","book_title":"The Karma of Untruthfulness II","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA173c/English/RSP1988/19170120p01.html","evidence":null,"reason":"no_translator_named","note":"Neither the lecture's own page nor rsarchive's lecture list names a translator for it. No translator is established for this lecture: nothing at the level of the lecture names one. Do not attribute this English to a translator, and do not borrow a credit from another lecture of the volume. Cite the German for anything load-bearing.","warning":"No translator is recorded for this edition. An unattributed translation cannot be weighed as a witness: you cannot tell which hand made the choices in it. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 173c/1917-01-20/p026"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"medium","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}