43. The Spiritual Guidance of Man and Humanity III

GA 246/1911-06-07/p057 ·1911-06-07 · English High

Record: listeners' notes. Written from listeners' notes, summaries, or memory rather than a shorthand transcript. The wording is the note-taker's as much as Steiner's: weigh a single striking phrase here far more cautiously than the same phrase in a stenographic volume, and do not rest an argument on one word. Evidence: «Nach zum Teil bruchstückhaften Mitschriften» (From transcripts that are in part fragmentary). The publisher's description of the volume, as mirrored on AnthroWiki (GA 246), which also speaks of "fragmentarischen Hörernotizen und Vortragszusammenfassungen". The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one.

One who looks into the spiritual world is called a “clairvoyant” in esoteric language. But just being clairvoyant is not enough; he would see but not be able to distinguish. What he must be in addition to a clairvoyant is an “initiate”. Initiation brings the ability to distinguish between the different types of entities. So someone can theoretically be clairvoyant for the higher worlds, but does not need to be an initiate. In ancient times, the distinction between entities was not particularly important, for when the old students of occultism had brought their pupils to clairvoyance, the danger of error was not very great. Now, however, the possibility of error is very great. Therefore, in the guidance of mankind, care must be taken that the principle of initiation is always added to the principle of esotericism. Man must, to the extent that he becomes clairvoyant, become able to distinguish between the particular kinds of entities.

Read this passage in another edition

DEoriginalENEnglish

Raw JSON: /v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1911-06-07/p057.json
Cite: GA 246/1911-06-07/p057 · edition English