{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p028-p037","extent":"range","passage_number":28,"through":37,"paragraph_count":10,"first_locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p028","last_locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p037","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"title":"2. Initiation and Mysteries","date":null,"location":null,"alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":null,"publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Articles/GA034/English/SOL2024/02_Initiation_and_Mysteries.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.05,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":10760,"original_word_count":10252,"may_be_abridged":false},"site_heading":null,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p028-p037","json_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p028-p037.json","lecture_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries#p028","word_count":3395,"quote_safe":true,"passages":[{"passage_number":28,"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p028","text":"Through the sense of sight, humans perceive nature in a hundred shades of light and color. It is the rays of sunlight that are reflected by objects, causing their light and shadow effects. Although the perception of sunlight in this way is a daily habit of the eye, the eye cannot look with impunity into the source of light, into the sun itself; it is blinded by the direct rays of the sun. What corresponds in its effects to the everyday function of the eye becomes a cause of pain when it itself affects the sense of sight as a cause. Those who know how to apply this image in the *right* way to the spiritual life of human beings understand why those who “know” speak of the *dangers* of initiation into the mysteries. These dangers are very real; but the words of those who speak of them must not be understood literally in the sense in which we speak of dangers in ordinary life. -— Human intellect and reason are just as unaccustomed to seeing the *sources* of truth in the whole world as the eye is to looking directly at the sun. Just as the eye perceives the effects of light as corresponding to itself, so intellect and reason perceive the effects of eternal wisdom in the phenomena of nature and in the course of human history. And just as the eye becomes powerless in the face of the source of light, so does human understanding in the face of the original sources of wisdom. This understanding fails at first. One need only compare what happens to human beings with the fact that the eye is blinded by the sun. Because man is accustomed to seeing in nature and spiritual life only the reflection of truth, not truth itself, he is powerless when it confronts him. Accustomed to grasping only the crude reality that surrounds him every day, he perceives the revelations of higher wisdom as illusion, as the product of unreal fantasy. They cannot tell him anything. They are airy constructs to him, blurring when he tries to grasp them. For he wants to grasp them in the same way he is accustomed to grasping the things of ordinary reality. This reality draws him to itself with a thousand bonds. He knows what it can promise him; he has learned to appreciate it a thousand times over. Those who see here in the right light understand what religious legends mean when they speak of the *tempter* who promises all the glories of *this world* to those who want to enter the path of higher enlightenment. If the power to resist this tempter is not awakened in them, then they will inevitably fall prey to him. And this *hints* at something of what is meant by the *dangers* of the “threshold” that must be crossed if the “path” of wisdom is to be entered. No one can enter this path who wants to use their spiritual eye, their mind, and their reason only as they are used in everyday life. As a transformed being, as one whose spiritual eye has been strengthened, man must cross the threshold. And in our present age it is difficult to strengthen the eye in this way. For our science has trained this eye to see only what is tangible. In order to make its conquests in the realm of the external forces of nature, this science *had to* dull the eye to the spiritual powers of existence. This should not be misunderstood as a *reproach*. Anyone who wants to understand the mechanism of a clock certainly does not need to explore the thoughts of the clock's inventor: they can stick to what they have learned in physics. They can understand the clock from its mechanism alone. But no one can understand how the forces and things that interact in the clock are originally joined together unless they seek the spirit that joined them and investigate the reasons why they are joined. The natural scientist can only understand nature correctly if he first seeks the forces of its action within nature itself. If he claims that they have assembled themselves, he is like someone who thinks that the clock made itself. Superstition is not to seek the spirit behind things, but to blindly transfer it into the things themselves. The superstitious person is not like someone who seeks the inventor of the clock, but like someone who suspects that there is a spirit *in* the clock itself that moves the hands forward. Only if one misunderstands those who seek the spirit in the existence of the world can one lump them together with those who are rightly accused of superstition and who are today just as rightly regarded as troublemakers because they endanger the blessings that our scientific culture has created. (Those who see impartially will know who is meant in *both* directions.)","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":820,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p028","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":null,"publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Articles/GA034/English/SOL2024/02_Initiation_and_Mysteries.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p028"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","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."}},{"passage_number":29,"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p029","text":"Anyone who enters the “threshold” to higher insight must, if he is to succeed in his progress, be endowed with the power that leads to the perception of the *real* where the ordinary mind and everyday reason perceive fantasy and illusion. For it is the permanent and eternal that appears to the eye attuned to the transitory and temporal as illusion and fantasy. Therefore, nothing can help a person when he is led to the sources of eternal wisdom with his ordinary mind. That is why the first step in initiation in the mysteries is not the imparting of new knowledge, but the complete transformation of the human powers of cognition. With subtle insight, Édouard Schuré characterizes in his book “The Great Initiates” the path of those striving for “knowledge” through the mysteries: “Initiation was a gradual introduction of the human being towards the dizzying heights of the spirit, from which life is dominated.” And further on, we are told: “To achieve mastery, the ancient sages said, man needs a complete transformation of his physical, moral and intellectual being. This transformation is only possible through the simultaneous exercise of will, intuition and reason. Through their complete harmony, man can expand his abilities to incalculable limits. The soul has dormant senses. Initiation awakens them. Through deep study and constant diligence, man can come into conscious relationship with the secret forces of the universe. Through an amazing effort, he can reach immediate spiritual perfection, can open the paths to it and make himself capable of directing himself there. Only then can he say that he has conquered fate and that he has conquered his divine freedom from there. Only the initiate can become an initiator, prophet and theurgist, that is, a seer and creator of souls. For only he who shows himself the way can show it to others: only he who is free can liberate.“ (”The Great Initiates”, page 124.)","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":319,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p029","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":null,"publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Articles/GA034/English/SOL2024/02_Initiation_and_Mysteries.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p029"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","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."}},{"passage_number":30,"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p030","text":"This is how we must understand the task of the mysteries, insofar as their first stage is concerned. It was not just a matter of a new science, but of *creating new powers of the soul*. Man had to become *another* person, a '\"transformed being, before he was led into the spiritual sun, to the source of wisdom.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":58,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p030","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":null,"publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Articles/GA034/English/SOL2024/02_Initiation_and_Mysteries.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p030"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","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."}},{"passage_number":31,"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p031","text":"Those whose powers are not steeled when they cross the threshold will not feel the reality of the eternal, spiritual powers that confront them. Instead of connecting with a higher world, he falls back into the lower one. *This danger* is faced by anyone who seeks the sources of wisdom. If a person succumbs here, then he has temporarily killed the seed of eternity within himself. This seed was previously dormant within him. But even as a dormant seed, it was that which ennobled and transfigured the transitory, lower nature. Naively and unconsciously, man lived with his inclination towards higher spirituality. The unsuccessful attempt at initiation has killed the slumbering inclination. Nothing remains for man but the urge to live in the transitory, to live in the realm *of this world* alone. Because he has felt the divine-spiritual as an illusion, he *worships* the sensual-material. Thus, at the “threshold”, man can lose his most valuable part, his immortal part. This is the danger, which is analogous to the blinding of the eye in the above picture.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":176,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p031","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":null,"publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Articles/GA034/English/SOL2024/02_Initiation_and_Mysteries.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p031"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","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."}},{"passage_number":32,"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p032","text":"It is clear that those who were responsible for the initiation in the mysteries, out of a sense of responsibility, made the highest demands on the disciples. For these demands had to have the effect of steeling the spiritual forces in the sense described. *Schuré* describes the sequence of initiation as it was practiced in the school of Pythagoras (582-507 BC). This description is inspired by a genius for art and mystical depth. — With reference to this description, we will speak of these stages here. Only those were admitted to initiation who, by the nature of their intellectual, moral and spiritual being, offered the certainty of success. For these, the time of *preparation* then began. They became *listeners* for several years. In our time, when everyone believes that they are entitled to a critical, discerning judgment if they have learned something, or even – perhaps even more – if they have learned nothing, it is not easy to give a sympathetic idea of this long audience. This listener was required to *maintain absolute silence*. The silence was not meant to be external. It was a silence of judgment. One had to absorb completely without prejudice, without spoiling this impartiality by premature examination. The wise knew, and the listeners had confidence. They were not allowed to examine for the time being. For the knowledge that they received was to make them ready for examination. How can someone really *learn* if he wants to immediately examine what he is learning? With this view of silent learning, the Pythagoreans have honored a principle that alone can lead up the steps of knowledge. Those who have traveled the path of knowledge know this. They can only feel pity for those who block their path to knowledge by premature judgment and criticism. Our time is completely filled with this immature critical spirit. One need only look around at what is being said by our speakers and what is being written by our writers. If only a little Pythagorean spirit could be found in our time, much more than nine-tenths of what is spoken would remain unsaid, and just as much of what is printed would remain unprinted. Anyone who has made a few observations or formed a few concepts today believes that he is entitled to pass judgment on the most essential things. But such a right is only given to those who have understood how to withhold their judgment for years and to listen impartially to what the wise men of mankind have said. Examine everything and keep the best is a deceptive principle in the soul of those who are not mature enough to examine. Our judgment is nothing, absolutely nothing, before the truth, as long as we have not had it examined by the truth itself. Instead of saying: I will examine everything and keep the best, many should say: I will let the truth examine me; and if I am good enough for it, then it may keep me. He who has not practiced for years in the way of clinging, of living in, of unreserved devotion to the judgment of the wise leaders of mankind, his judgment is nothing but smoke and mirrors.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":534,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p032","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":null,"publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Articles/GA034/English/SOL2024/02_Initiation_and_Mysteries.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p032"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","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."}},{"passage_number":33,"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p033","text":"This is certainly an unsympathetic principle in our age of “enlightenment”, public criticism and the journalist spirit. But the Pythagorean listeners lived according to it.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":25,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p033","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":null,"publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Articles/GA034/English/SOL2024/02_Initiation_and_Mysteries.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"not_checkable","note":"This passage or its German counterpart is too short to compare (a heading or a fragment)."},"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."}},{"passage_number":34,"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p034","text":"Once the student had attained the necessary maturity, the “golden day” dawned, when *revelations* about the essence of nature and the human spirit began. The laws of physical and spiritual existence were gradually revealed to him. Those who try to grasp these laws with their everyday, unrefined intellect will understand nothing of them. Goethe once pointed out what is important here. When he had devoted himself to the study of the plant world in Italy and Sicily and had formed his now much discussed but little understood views on the “primordial plant”, he wrote to Germany that he wanted to make a journey to India, not to discover anything new, but to look at what had been discovered in his own way. It is not a matter of knowing the laws that rational botany has brought to light, but of penetrating into the inner essence of plant life with the help of these laws. One can be a learned professor of botany and understand nothing of this life. Our scholars have some particularly remarkable views on this matter. They either believe that it is impossible to penetrate into the inner nature of things, or they claim that our research has not yet progressed “that far”. They do not suspect that, while they can indeed increase our knowledge in a most beneficial way through this research of the senses and the intellect, a completely different way of thinking is necessary for the exploration of the “inner nature” than they are developing. They want to know nothing about the inventor of the clock, studying it according to the principles of physics. Because they cannot find a little spirit in the clock that drives the hands forward, they either deny the spirit that put the wheels together, or they claim that it is either completely inaccessible to human knowledge or “until now”. Anyone who speaks of the *spirit* in nature is accused of fantasizing with words alone. Well, it is not his fault that the accusers hear mere words. The Pythagorean disciples were introduced to the spirit of nature in the second stage of their instruction.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":353,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p034","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":null,"publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Articles/GA034/English/SOL2024/02_Initiation_and_Mysteries.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p034"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","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."}},{"passage_number":35,"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p035","text":"Once they had passed this stage, they could be led to the “great” initiation. Now they were ready to absorb the *secrets* of existence. Their spiritual eye was now sufficiently strengthened for this. They now learned not only the spirit in nature, but also the *intentions* of this spirit. From this point on, the nature of the mysteries can no longer be discussed in the proper sense, but only figuratively, because our language is completely adapted to the intellect and has no words for the higher form of knowledge that is being considered here. So I ask you to understand the following. Above all, man learned to look beyond his personal life. He learned that this life of his is the repetition of earlier lives on a new plane of existence. He was able to convince himself that that which is rightly called the soul often incarnates and reincarnates, and that he must regard the abilities, experiences and actions of this life of his as the effects of causes lying in his earlier lives. It also became clear to him that the deeds and experiences of his present life would have their effects in a future existence. Since the intention is to speak in detail about the great laws of “reincarnation” and “world lawfulness”, or “reincarnation” and “karma”, in this journal, we will stop here with these hints. These truths could become as convincing to the student of the mysteries as the truth that “two times two is four” is to the ordinary person, because he was ripe for them on the third step. But even on this step one can only have a completely certain *judgment* of these insights, because only on this step is one able to understand their meaning correctly. Even today, as at all times, these ideas are criticized a great deal. But what is criticized is only the arbitrary thoughts of the critics themselves; and these are quite without importance. - Incidentally, it should be admitted that many supporters of the idea of reincarnation have no better ideas about it than its opponents. Of course, it is not to be claimed here that everyone who defends these teachings today understands them. Among these defenders, too, there are many who are too lazy or too self-confident to learn in silence before they teach.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":387,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p035","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":null,"publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Articles/GA034/English/SOL2024/02_Initiation_and_Mysteries.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p035"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","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."}},{"passage_number":36,"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p036","text":"Even if this was not the case with the Pythagoreans, other mysteries did have a stage of actual mystical initiation following the “great” initiation of revelation. It was the stage in which not only perception and thinking, but all of life expanded beyond the immediate human personality. Here the disciple became not only a sage, but a seer. He now not only perceived the essence of things, but experienced it with them. It is very difficult to give a mental image of what this is all about. The seer does not merely perceive things, but feels in things; he does not think about nature, but steps out of himself and thinks in nature. — The theosophist knows this process and speaks of it as the opening of the astral senses. — The intellectual person passes by the seers; to him they must be fanatics, if not something worse. Those who have a sense for their gifts listen to them with reverent awe, for they feel that it is no longer a human personality speaking through them, but living wisdom itself. They have sacrificed their personal inclinations, sympathies, and opinions so that they could lend their mouths to the eternal Word through which “all things are made.” For where human opinion still speaks, where inclinations and interests come into play, eternal wisdom is silent. And when it reaches the ears of those who have no feeling for it, it appears as personal human speech, even though divine power may always lie within it. But people could learn to hear from the seers themselves, for the seer is silent in his human personality when the voice of truth speaks to him. His judgment is silent, his interests and inclinations lie before him as meaningless to him as the table that stands before him is meaningless; he is wholly devoted to inner hearing.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":310,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p036","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":null,"publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Articles/GA034/English/SOL2024/02_Initiation_and_Mysteries.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p036"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","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."}},{"passage_number":37,"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p037","text":"Only the seer shall ascend to the next stage, which the ancients called that of the theurgist, and which in the English language can be indicated by describing it as that in which a “complete reversal of human abilities” takes place. Powers that otherwise only flow into human beings now flow out from them. In certain areas where man is merely a servant, he becomes a ruler whose abilities are “turned around.” And since only the seer is able to judge the scope and mode of action of such powers, man will abuse these powers if he comes into possession of them without having attained the purity of the seer. And this “wisdom without purity” is possible through a certain chain of circumstances that cannot be discussed here. — Schur speaks excellently of higher initiation with reference to the Pythagoreans: \"... At the summit, the earth disappeared like a shadow, like a dying star. From there, the heavenly vistas opened up — and the ‘viewpoint of height’, the ‘epiphany’ of the universe, unfolded like a wonderful whole. The purpose of the teaching was not to let people lose themselves in contemplation or ecstasy. The teacher had led his disciples into the unpredictable regions of the cosmos, he had immersed them in the abysses of the invisible. The true initiates had returned to earth from their terrible journey better, stronger, and more steeled for the trials of life ... The initiation of intelligence was followed by that of will, the most difficult of all. For it was a matter of admitting the disciple into the truth, into the depths of life ... At this level, man became an adept and possessed sufficient energy to acquire new powers and abilities. The inner powers of the soul opened up, and the will radiated into others. — Everything that man accomplishes before reaching this stage has its causes in regions that are completely unknown to him. The theurgist's gaze sees into these regions; and he *consciously* allows what usually slumbers *unconsciously* in the deepest shafts of the soul to radiate from himself. He stands face to face with the guide who previously guided him invisibly “from behind.” Armed with such thoughts, one should read sentences such as the following from the ancient book of wisdom “Mundakopanishat”: “When the seer sees the golden-colored Creator, the Lord, the Spirit, whose womb is Brahman, then, having cast aside merit and lack of merit, spotless, the sage attains the highest union.”","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":413,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p037","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":null,"publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Articles/GA034/English/SOL2024/02_Initiation_and_Mysteries.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p037"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","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."}}],"witnesses":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"first_passage":1,"last_passage":43,"passage_count":43,"word_count":10252},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"first_passage":1,"last_passage":43,"passage_count":43,"word_count":10760,"completeness":{"ratio":1.05,"band":"comparable","note":null}}],"aligned_witness":{"status":"aligned","lang":"de","edition":"original","confidence":"high","passages":[{"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p028","passage_number":28,"text":"Durch den Sinn des Auges vernimmt der Mensch die Natur in hundertfältigen Licht- und Farbenschattierungen. Es sind die Strahlen des Sonnenlichtes, die, von den Dingen zurückgeworfen, deren Lichtschattierungen bewirken. Ist auf diese Art die Wahrnehmung des Sonnenlichtes eine tägliche Gewohnheit des Auges, so vermag das Auge doch nicht ungestraft in den Quell des Lichtes, in die Sonne selbst zu schauen; es wird durch die unmittelbaren Sonnenstrahlen geblendet. Was in seinen *Wirkungen* dem alltäglichen Beruf des Auges entspricht: das wird der Anlaß eines Schmerzes, wenn es als *Ursache* selbst den Sinn des Sehens trifft. - Wer dieses Bild in der *richtigen* Art auf das Geistesleben des Menschen anzuwenden weiß, der versteht, warum diejenigen, die da «wissen», von *Gefahren* der Einweihung in die Mysterien sprechen. Diese Gefahren sind durchaus vorhanden; nur dürfen die Worte dessen, der von ihnen spricht, nicht buchstäblich in dem Sinne verstanden werden, wie man im gewöhnlichen Leben von Gefahren spricht. -— Des Menschen Verstand und Vernunft sind ebensowenig daran gewöhnt, die *Quellen* der Wahrheit in dem Weltganzen zu schauen, wie das Auge unmittelbar in die Sonne zu sehen vermag. So wie dieses die Wirkungen des Lichtes als das ihm Entsprechende empfindet, so Verstand und Vernunft die Wirkung der ewigen Weisheit in den Erscheinungen der Natur und in dem Verlauf der Menschengeschichte. Und wie das Auge ohnmächtig wird dem Lichtquell gegenüber, so wird menschliches Verständnis den Urgquellen der Weisheit gegenüber. Dieses Verständnis versagt zunächst. Man muß nur dasjenige, was mit dem Menschen da geschieht, in der rechten Art mit der Tatsache vergleichen, daß das Auge von der Sonne geblendet wird. Weil der Mensch daran gewöhnt ist, in Natur und Geistesleben nur den Abglanz der Wahrheit, nicht diese selbst zu schauen, steht er dieser ohnmächtig gegenüber, wenn sie ihm entgegentritt. Gewöhnt, nur die derbe Wirklichkeit zu fassen, die ihn alltäglich umgibt, empfindet er die Offenbarungen höherer Weisheit als Illusion, als Gebilde unwirklicher Phantastik. Sie können ihm nichts sagen. Sie sind ihm Luftgebilde, verschwimmend, wenn er sie ergreifen will. Denn er will sie *so* ergreifen, wie er gewohnt ist, die Dinge der gewöhnlichen Wirklichkeit zu ergreifen. Diese Wirklichkeit zieht ihn mit tausend Banden an sich. Was *sie* ihm versprechen kann, das kennt er, das hat er tausendfältig schätzen gelernt. - Wer hier im rechten Lichte sieht, der versteht, was religiöse Legenden meinen, wenn sie von dem *Versucher* sprechen, der denen alle Herrlichkeiten *dieser Welt* verspricht, die den Pfad höherer Erleuchtung betreten wollen. Ist in ihnen nicht die Kraft erweckt, diesem Versucher zu widerstehen: dann verfallen sie ihm unbedingt. Und damit ist etwas *angedeutet* von dem, was mit den *Gefahren* der «Schwelle» gemeint ist, die überschritten werden muß, wenn der «Pfad» der Weisheit betreten werden soll. — Keiner kann auf diesen Pfad gelangen, der sein geistiges Auge, seinen Verstand und seine Vernunft, nur so gebrauchen will, wie sie im Alltagsleben gebraucht werden. Als ein Verwandelter, als einer, dessen Geist-Auge stark gemacht ist, muß der Mensch die Schwelle betreten. - Und es ist in unserem gegenwärtigen Zeitalter schwer, das Auge also zu stärken. Denn dieses Auge ist gerade durch unsere Wissenschaft nur auf das Handgreifliche eingestellt. Um ihre Eroberungen auf dem Gebiete der äußeren Naturkräfte zu machen, *mußte* diese Wissenschaft das Auge abstumpfen für die geistigen Gewalten des Daseins. Man mißverstehe dies nicht dadurch, daß man es als einen *Vorwurf* deutet. Wer den Mechanismus einer Uhr verstehen will, braucht gewiß nicht die Gedanken des Erfinders der Uhr zu erforschen: er kann sich an dasjenige halten, was er in der Physik gelernt hat. Er kann die Uhr aus ihrem Mechanismus selbst verstehen. Aber niemand kann verstehen, wie die Kräfte und Dinge, die in der Uhr zusammenwirken, ursprünglich gefügt sind, der nicht den Geist sucht, der sie gefügt hat, und die Gründe erforscht, warum sie gefügt sind. Der Naturforscher vermag die Natur nur richtig zu verstehen, wenn er zunächst die Kräfte ihres Wirkens in ihr selbst sucht. Behauptet er, daß sie sich selbst zusammengefügt haben, so gleicht er dem, der da meinen kann, die Uhr habe sich selbst verfertigt. Aberglaube ist nicht, hinter den Dingen den Geist zu *suchen*: sondern ihn blindlings in die Dinge selbst zu verlegen. Der Abergläubische gleicht nicht dem, der zur Uhr den Erfinder sucht, sondern dem, der *in* der Uhr selbst einen Geist vermutet, der die Zeiger vorwärts bewegt. - Nur wenn man diejenigen so mißversteht, die nach dem Geist in dem Weltendasein suchen, kann man sie zusammenwerfen mit denen, die man mit Recht des Aberglaubens beschuldigt, und die man heute mit ebensolchem Rechte als Störenfriede betrachtet, weil sie die Segnungen gefährden, die unsere wissenschaftliche Kultur geschaffen. (Wer unbefangen sieht, wird wissen, wer nach *beiden* Richtungen hin gemeint ist.)","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":769,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p028"},{"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p029","passage_number":29,"text":"Wer die «Schwelle» zur höheren Einsicht betritt, muß, wenn ihm der Fortschritt gelingen soll, mit der Kraft ausgestattet sein, die zum Empfinden des *Wirklichen* da führt, wo der gewöhnliche Verstand und die alltägliche Vernunft Phantastik und Illusion wahrnehmen. — Denn es ist das Dauernde und Ewige dort, wo dem auf das Vergängliche und Zeitliche eingestellten Auge nur Illusion und Phantastik erscheinen. Nichts kann es daher dem Menschen helfen, wenn er mit seinem gewöhnlichen Verstande vor die Quellen der ewigen Weisheit geführt wird. Deshalb ist in den Mysterien die erste Stufe der Einweihung nicht die Vermittlung neuen Verstandeswissens, sondern völlige Umwandlung der menschlichen Erkenntniskräfte. Mit feinsinniger Einsicht charakterisiert daher Édouard Schuré in seinem Buche «Die großen Eingeweihten» den Weg der durch die Mysterien zum «Wissen » Strebenden: «Die Einweihung war eine stufenweise Hinführung der menschlichen Wesenheit gegen die schwindelerregenden Gipfel des Geistes hin, von denen das Leben beherrscht wird.» Und weiter wird uns gesagt: «Um die Meisterschaft zu erreichen, sagten die alten Weisen, hat der Mensch eine gänzliche Umgestaltung seiner physischen, moralischen und intellektuellen Wesenheit nötig. Diese Umgestaltung ist nur möglich durch gleichzeitige Übung des Willens, der Intuition und der Vernunft. Durch ihre vollständige Übereinstimmung kann der Mensch seine Fähigkeiten bis zu unberechenbaren Grenzen erweitern. Die Seele hat schlafende Sinne. Die Einweihung erweckt sie. Durch vertieftes Studium, durch konstanten Fleiß kann der Mensch in bewußte Beziehung zu den geheimen Kräften des Universums gelangen. Durch eine erstaunliche Anstrengung kann er bis zur unmittelbaren spirituellen Vollkommenheit gelangen, kann sich die Wege dahin öffnen und sich fähig machen, sich selbst dahin zu richten. Dann allein kann er sagen, daß er das Geschick besiegt hat, und daß er von da aus seine göttliche Freiheit erobert hat. Nur der Eingeweihte kann Einweiher, Prophet und Theurg werden, das heißt sehend und Schöpfer von Seelen. Denn nur wer sich selbst die Wege weist, kann sie andern weisen: der allein kann befreien, der frei ist.» («Die großen Eingeweihten », Seite 124.)","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":322,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p029"},{"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p030","passage_number":30,"text":"So muß man die Aufgabe der Mysterien verstehen, insoferne deren erste Stufe in Betracht kommt. Nicht bloß um eine neue Wissenschaft handelte es sich, sondern um das *Schaffen neuer Seelenkräfte*. Ein *anderer* mußte der Mensch werden, ein ‘“ Verwandelter, bevor er in die Geistessonne, zu dem Quell der Weisheit geführt wurde.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":51,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p030"},{"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p031","passage_number":31,"text":"Wessen Kräfte nicht gestählt sind, wenn er die «Schwelle» betritt, der empfindet nicht die Wirklichkeit der ewigen, geistigen Gewalten, die ihm da entgegentreten. Statt sich zu verbinden mit einer höheren Welt, fällt er in die niedere zurück. *Dieser Gefahr* ist ausgesetzt, wer nach den Quellen der Weisheit sucht. Erliegt hier der Mensch, dann hat er den Ewigkeitskeim in sich vorläufig ertötet. Dieser Keim schlummerte vorher in ihm. Aber auch als schlummernder war er dasjenige, was die vergängliche, niedere Natur adelte und verklärte. Naiv, unbewußt lebte der Mensch mit seiner Anlage zur höheren Geistigkeit. Durch den mißglückten Einweihungsversuch ist die schlummernde Anlage erstorben. Nichts ist dem Menschen geblieben als der Trieb, in dem Vergänglichen zu leben, dem Reiche *dieser Welt* allein zu leben. Weil er das Göttlich-Geistige als Illusion empfunden hat, *vergöttert* er das Sinnlich-Stoffliche. So kann an der «Schwelle» dem Menschen sein Wertvollstes, sein unsterblicher Teil verloren gehen. Dies ist die Gefahr, die analog der Blendung des Auges in obigem Bilde ist.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":162,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p031"},{"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p032","passage_number":32,"text":"Es leuchtet ein, daß diejenigen, denen in den Mysterien die Einweihung oblag, aus dem Bewußtsein ihrer Verantwortung heraus, an die Jünger die höchsten Anforderungen stellten. Denn diese Anforderungen mußten zur Stählung der geistigen Kräfte in dem geschilderten Sinne wirken. *Schuré* schildert die Stufenfolge der Einweihung, wie sie in der Schule des Pythagoras (582-507 v.Chr.) gepflogen war. Von genialischem Künstlersinn und mystischer Tiefe ist diese Schilderung eingegeben. — Mit Anlehnung an diese Darstellung sei hier von diesen Stufen gesprochen. — Nur diejenigen wurden zur Einweihung zugelassen, die durch die Beschaffenheit ihres intellektuellen, moralischen und geistigen Wesens die Sicherheit des Erfolges boten. Für diese begann dann die Zeit der *Vorbereitung*. Sie wurden während mehrerer Jahre *Hörer*. In unserer Zeit, in der ein jeder sich zum kritischen, prüfenden Urteil berechtigt glaubt, wenn er einiges gelernt hat, oder auch - vielleicht noch mehr — wenn er nichts gelernt hat, ist es gar nicht leicht, einen sympathischen Begriff von dieser langen Hörerschaft zu geben. Diesem Hörer war *absolutes Schweigen* geboten. Das Schweigen war nicht äußerlich gemeint. Es war ein Schweigen des Urteils. Man mußte völlig unbefangen aufnehmen, ohne sich diese Unbefangenheit durch vorzeitige Prüfung zu verlegen. Der Weise wußte, und die Hörer hatten Vertrauen. Prüfen durften sie vorläufig nicht. Denn das Wissen, das sie empfingen, sollte sie ja erst reif zur Prüfung machen. Wie soll jemand wirklich *lernen*, der sogleich prüfen will, was er lernt. — Mit dieser Anschauung von schweigendem Lernen haben die Pythagoreer einem Grundsatz gehuldigt, der allein die Stufen der Erkenntnis hinaufführen kann. Wer den Erkenntnisweg gegangen ist, weiß das. Er hat nur Mitleid für diejenigen, die sich durch vorzeitiges Urteilen und Kritisieren den Erkenntnisweg verbauen. Unsere Zeit ist ganz erfüllt von diesem unreifen kritischen Geist. Man braucht sich nur in dem umzuschauen, was von unseren Rednern geredet, was von unseren Schriftstellern geschrieben wird. Wäre nur ein wenig pythagoreischer Geist in unserer Zeit zu finden, so bliebe wohl viel mehr als neun Zehntel von dem ungesprochen, was gesprochen wird, undebensovielvon demungedruckt, was gedruckt wird. Wer heute ein paar Beobachtungen gemacht, ein paar Begriffe sich gebildet hat, der glaubt sich über die wesentlichsten Dinge zu einem Urteil berechtigt. Aber solches Recht hat nur der, welcher verstanden hat, jahrelang sein Urteil zurückzuhalten, und unbefangen hinzuhören auf das, was die Weisen der Menschheit gesagt haben. Prüfet alles, und das beste behaltet, ist ein trüglicher Grundsatz in der Seele dessen, der nicht reif zur Prüfung ist. Unser Urteil ist so lange nichts, gar nichts vor der Wahrheit, so lange wir es nicht haben von der Wahrheit selbst prüfen lassen. Statt zu sagen: ich prüfe alles, und will das beste behalten, sollten viele sagen: ich will mich von der Wahrheit prüfen lassen; und wenn ich gut genug bin für sie, dann mag sie mich behalten. Wer nicht Jahre hindurch sich geübt hat in der Anschmiegung, im Einleben, in der rückhaltiosen Hingabe an das Urteil der weisen Führer der Menschheit, dessen Urteil ist Schall und Rauch.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":488,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p032"},{"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p033","passage_number":33,"text":"Dies ist gewiß ein unsympathischer Grundsatz in unserem Zeitalter der «Aufklärung», der öffentlichen Kritikasterei und des Journalistengeistes. Aber ihm gemäß lebten die pythagoreischen Hörer.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":24,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p033"},{"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p034","passage_number":34,"text":"Hatte der Hörer die notwendige Reife erlangt, so kam für ihn der «goldene Tag», mit dem die *Offenbarungen* über das Wesen der Natur und des Menschengeistes begannen. Es wurde ihm die Gesetzmäßigkeit des körperlichen und seelischen Daseins allmählich klar gemacht. Wer mit dem alltäglichen, ungeläuterten Verstande diese Gesetzmäßigkeit erfassen will, begreift nichts von ihr. —- Goethe deutete einmal auf das, worauf es hier ankommt. Als er sich in Italien und Sizilien eifrig dem Studium der Pflanzenwelt hingegeben und seine heute viel besprochenen, aber wenig verstandenen Anschauungen über die « Urpflanze » sich gebildet hatte, schrieb er nach Deutschland, daß er eine Reise nach Indien machen wolle, nicht um Neues zu entdecken, sondern das Entdeckte nach seiner Art anzuschauen. Es kommt eben nicht darauf an, die Gesetze zu kennen, welche dieVerstandes-Botanik zuTTage gefördert hat, sondern darauf, mit Hilfe dieser Gesetze in das innere Wesen des Pflanzenlebens einzudringen. Man kann ein gelehrter Professor der Botanik sein, und nichts von diesem Leben begreifen. Unsere Gelehrten haben da allerdings besonders merkwürdige Auffassungen. Sie glauben entweder, in das Innere der Natur könne man überhaupt nicht dringen; oder sie behaupten, unsere Forschung sei eben noch nicht «so weit». Sieahnen nicht, daß sie durch diese Forschung der Sinne und des Verstandes zwar in segensteicher Weise unsere Kenntnisse immer vermehren können, daß aber zur Erforschung des «Inneren» eine ganz andere Denkweise nötig ist, als sie entwickeln. Sie wollen von dem Erfinder der Uhr nichts wissen, indem sie nach den Grundsätzen der Physik die Uhr studieren. Weil sie in der Uhr kein kleines Geistchen finden können, das die Zeiger vorwärts treibt, leugnen sie entweder den Geist, der die Räder gefügt, oder sie behaupten: er sei dem menschlichen Erkennen entweder ganz, oder «bis heute» unzugänglich. Wer von dem *Geist* in der Natur spricht, wird beschuldigt, bloß mit Worten zu phantasieren. Nun, er kann eben nicht dafür, daß die Anschuldiger bloße Worte hören. Die Pythagoreer-Schüler wurden auf der zweiten Stufe ihres Unterrichtes in den Geist der Natur eingeführt.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":327,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p034"},{"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p035","passage_number":35,"text":"Hatten sie diese Stufe überschritten, dann erst konnten sie zur «großen» Einweihung geführt werden. Jetzt waren sie reif, die *Geheimnisse* des Daseins in sich aufzunehmen. Ihr geistiges Auge war jetzt genügend dazu gestärkt. Sie lernten nunmehr nicht bloß den Geist in der Natur, sondern auch die *Absichten* dieses Geistes [kennen]. — Von da ab kann über das Wesen der Mysterien nicht mehr im eigentlichen Sinne, sondern nur noch bildlich gesprochen werden, weil unsere Sprache ganz dem Verstande angepaßt ist und gar keine Worte für die höhere Erkenntnisart hat, die hier in Betracht kommt. So bitte ich denn auch das Folgende zu verstehen. - Vor allen Dingen lernte der Mensch über sein persönliches Leben hinausschauen. Er erfuhr davon, daß dieses sein Leben die Wiederholung früherer Leben auf neuer Daseinsstufe ist. Er konnte sich davon überzeugen, daß dasjenige, was man im rechten Sinne Seele zu nennen berechtigt ist, sich oftmals verkörpert und wiederverkörpert, und daß er die Fähigkeiten, Erlebnisse und Handlungen dieses seines Lebens als Wirkungen von Ursachen aufzufassen hat, die in seinen früheren Leben liegen. Auch wurde ihm klar, daß die Taten und Erlebnisse seines gegenwärtigen Lebens in einem zukünftigen Dasein ihre Wirkungen nach sich ziehen werden. — Da die Absicht ist, über die großen Gesetze von «Wiederverkörperung» und « Weltgesetzmäßigkeit», oder «Reinkarnation » und «Karma» in dieser Zeitschrift ausführlich zu sprechen, so sei hier bei diesen Andeutungen stehen geblieben. — Diese Wahrheiten konnten für den Mysterienschüler so zur Überzeugung werden, wie für den gewöhnlichen Menschen die Wahrheit «zweimal zwei ist vier», weil er dazu reif war auf der dritten Stufe. Aber man kann auch auf dieser Stufe nur ein völlig sicheres *Urteil* über diese Erkenntnisse haben, weil man erst auf ihr ihren Sinn richtig zu verstehen in der Lage ist. — Es wird auch heute wie zu allen Zeiten an diesen Vorstellungen viel herumkritisiert. Was da aber kritisiert wird, sind nur die willkürlichen Gedanken der Kritiker selbst; und die sind ganz ohne Belang. - Im übrigen soll aber durchaus zugestanden werden, daß viele Anhänger der WiederverkörperungsIdee auch keine besseren Vorstellungen von ihr haben, als deren Gegner. — Es soll hier natürlich nicht behauptet werden, daß heute jeder diese Lehren versteht, der sie verteidigt. Auch unter diesen Verteidigern gibt es viele, die durchaus zu bequem oder zu - selbstbewußt sind, um schweigend zu lernen, bevor sie lehren.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":386,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p035"},{"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p036","passage_number":36,"text":"Wenn nun vielleicht auch nicht bei den Pythagoreern, so gab es doch in andern Mysterien nach der «großen» Offenbarungs-Einweihung die Stufe der eigentlichen *mystischen Einweihung*. Es war diejenige, in der sich nicht allein Anschauung und Denken, sondern das *ganze Leben* über die unmittelbare menschliche Persönlichkeit hinaus erweiterte, Hier wurde der Jünger nicht nur ein Weiser, sondern ein *Seher*. Er nahm nun nicht nur das Wesen der Dinge wahr, sondern er erlebte es mit ihnen. Es ist sehr schwierig, eine Vorstellung von dem zu geben, um was es sich da handelt. Der Seher empfindet nicht bloß die Dinge, sondern er empfindet *in* den Dingen; er denkt nicht *über* die Natur, sondern er tritt aus sich heraus, und denkt *in* der Natur. — Der Theosoph kennt diesen Vorgang und spricht von ihm, indem er ihn das Öffnen der astralen Sinne nennt. — Der Verstandesmensch geht an den Sehern vorbei; sie *müssen* ihm Schwärmer, wenn nicht etwas Schlimmeres sein. Wer Sinn für ihre Gaben hat, der hört auf sie mit frommer Scheu, denn er empfindet, daß aus ihnen nicht mehr eine menschliche Persönlichkeit spricht, sondern die *lebendige* Weisheit selbst. Sie haben ihre persönlichen Neigungen, Sympathien und Meinungen hingeopfert, damit sie ihren Mund leihen konnten dem ewigen Worte, durch das «alle Dinge gemacht sind». Denn wo noch menschliche Meinung spricht, wo Neigungen und Interessen in Betracht kommen, da schweigt die ewige Weisheit. Und dringt sie an die Ohren derer, die keine Empfindung dafür haben, dann erscheint sie als persönliches Menschenwort, wenn göttliche Kraft auch immer in ihr liegen mag. - Von den Sehern selbst könnten aber die Menschen *hören* lernen, denn der Seher ist schweigsam in seiner menschlichen Persönlichkeit, wenn der Wahrheit Stimme zu ihm spricht. Sein Urteil - schweigt, seine Interessen und Neigungen liegen vor ihm, so bedeutungslos für ihn, wie der Tisch, der vor ihm steht, bedeutungslos ist, er ist ganz nur dem inneren *Hören* hingegeben.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":314,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p036"},{"locus":"GA 34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p037","passage_number":37,"text":"Nur der Seher soll zur folgenden Stufe emporsteigen, welche die Alten die des Theurgen nannten, und die in der deutschen Sprache dadurch angedeutet werden kann, daß man sie als die bezeichnet, auf der eine «vollständige *Umkehrung* der menschlichen Fähigkeiten» stattfindet. Kräfte, die sonst nur in den Menschen einströmen, die strömen jetzt von ihm aus. Auf gewissen Gebieten, in denen der Mensch bloß Diener ist, wird derjenige Herrscher, dessen Fähigkeiten «gewendet» sind. Und da nur der Seher die Tragweite und Wirkensart solcher Kräfte zu beurteilen in der Lage ist, wird der Mensch diese Kräfte dann mißbrauchen, wenn er in ihren Besitz gelangt, ohne die Reinheit des Sehers erlangt zu haben. Und diese « Weisheit ohne Reinheit» ist durch eine gewisse Verkettung von Umständen, die hier nicht zu erörtern sind, möglich. — In ausgezeichneter Weise spricht Schur& von der höheren Einweihung mit Bezug auf die Pythagoreer: «... Auf dem Gipfel verschwand die Erde wie ein Schatten, gleich einem sterbenden Stern. Von da aus eröffneten sich die himmlischen Aussichten — und es entrollte sich, wie ein wunderbares Ganzes, der ‹Gesichtspunkt der Höhe›, die ‹Epiphanie› des Universums. Der Zweck der Unterweisung war nicht, den Menschen aufgehen zu lassen in Kontemplation oder Ekstase. Der Lehrer hatte die Jünger in die unberechenbaren Regionen des Kosmos geführt, er hatte sie getaucht in die Abgründe des Unsichtbaren. Von der furchtbaren Reise waren die wahren Eingeweihten auf die Erde besser zurückgekommen, kräftiger und gestählter für die Prüfungen des Lebens ... Auf die Einweihung der Intelligenz war diejenige des Wollens gefolgt, die schwierigste von allen. Denn es handelte sich darum, den Jünger aufzunehmen in die Wahrheit, in die Tiefen des Lebens ... Auf dieser Höhe wurde der Mensch Adept, und besaß eine genügende Energie, um in den Besitz neuer Kräfte und Fähigkeiten zu kommen. Die inneren Kräfte der Seele öffneten sich, und der Wille strahlte in die andern.» — Zu allem, was der Mensch vor Erreichung dieser Stufe vollbringt, liegen die Ursachen in Regionen, die ihm vollkommen unbekannt sind. Des Theurgen Blick sieht in diese Regionen; und *bewußt* läßt er von sich ausstrahlen, was in dem Menschen gewöhnlich in den tiefsten Schachten der Seele *unbewußt* schlummert. Er steht Auge in Auge gegenüber dem Führer, der ihn vorher unsichtbar «von hinten» geleitet hat. Mit solchen Gedanken gerüstet, soll man Sätze lesen, wie den folgenden aus dem alten Weisheitsbuch «Mundakopanishat»: « Wenn der Seher den goldfarbenen Schöpfer sieht, den Herrn, den Geist, dessen Schoß Brahman ist, dann, nachdem er Verdienst und Mangel an Verdienst weggeworfen hat, fleckenlos, erreicht der Weise die höchste Vereinigung.»","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":421,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/34/02_initiation_and_mysteries/p037"}],"beads":[{"from":[28],"to":[28],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[29],"to":[29],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[30],"to":[30],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[31],"to":[31],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[32],"to":[32],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[33],"to":[33],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[34],"to":[34],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[35],"to":[35],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[36],"to":[36],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[37],"to":[37],"confidence":"high"}],"note":"Paired by the paragraph aligner; each language numbers its own paragraphs. A bead at either end of the span can carry text beyond it (the `from` numbers show what each bead covers)."}}