Esoteric Lesson

We must turn to the beginning of the Gospel of John for the answer: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God ... and the Word became flesh.” Through the Word becoming flesh, the method of teaching in the esoteric schools also changed. In pre-Christian times, the Word was not yet effective. Teaching was given in silence, and silently, in images, the disciple received the messages from the spiritual worlds through contemplation. He was led silently into a dark room, and in this place of silence the image of a winged old man appeared before him, pursuing a female figure shrouded in blue clouds, striving to unite with her. This image appears before the seer in the spiritual worlds when he observes an old man who has passed through the gates of death, living his life backwards in Kamaloka and striving to attain his higher self—the female figure shrouded in blue clouds—in order to unite with it and ascend to the higher worlds, to Devachan. The color blue always represents the striving toward higher things. When the disciple meditated on this image, which represents only the spiritual, the forces necessary to reach these higher worlds flowed to him.