{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 56/1907-11-28/p015","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"The details will be presented in the following lectures. Today, we need only point out the enormous difference that has taken place in humanity over the course of a few centuries. We need only mention one thing that has had a profound impact on human development: the art of printing. Just think how people lived in terms of their souls and their spiritual education before the art of printing, how communication took place between those who knew something and those who wanted to learn something before books existed, and how today the communications of science and scholarship reach every soul through thousands upon thousands of aids, through popular writings and newspaper articles. And if you imagine this further, you will be able to picture that things look different in souls today, and you will not think that what lives in souls in terms of feelings, thoughts, and impulses has no influence on life as a whole. Those who believe that everything that is manifest is an imprint of the spiritual will say to themselves that people today have different physical and social needs than in times past. In the past, it was possible for individuals to know something about certain events, about truth and wisdom. Today, however, what was once the principle of initiation must be made accessible to everyone. Out of a sense of duty to humanity, the strict secrecy and seclusion of earlier times has been broken, so that today we not only speak about what can be said from the standpoint of spiritual research about the higher worlds, but also, in a certain way, at least in elements, about how human beings themselves can ascend to these worlds, how they can complete the first stages of initiation. From the outset, however, it must be pointed out that no one should believe that the principle of initiation is to be taken lightly and with little seriousness because today, basically, the first stages of initiation are accessible to everyone. These first stages, as you will hear, can be completed by anyone in any situation in life. But then higher and higher stages begin, up to what can truly be called an initiate in the true sense of the word.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Initiation or Consecration","site_heading":null,"date":"1907-11-28","location":null,"word_count":370,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/56/1907-11-28/p015","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"eLib2015","book_title":"Knowledge of Soul and Spirit","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA056/English/eLib2015/19071128p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/56/1907-11-28/p015"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/56/1907-11-28/p015","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 56/1907-11-28/p015","passage_number":15,"text":"Das Genauere wird in den folgenden Vorträgen zur Darstellung kommen. Wir brauchen heute nur auf den gewaltigen Unterschied hinzuweisen, der sich im Verlaufe weniger Jahrhunderte in der Menschheit vollzogen hat. Nur eines brauchen wir zu erwähnen, was tief eingegriffen hat in die menschliche Entwickelung: die Buchdruckerkunst. Denken Sie einmal, wie die Menschen in bezug auf ihre Seele, in bezug auf ihre geistige Bildung gelebt haben vor der Buchdruckerkunst, wie die Mitteilung war zwischen denjenigen, die etwas wußten, und denen, die etwas lernen wollten, bevor es Bücher gab, und wie heute die Mitteilungen der Wissenschaft und der Gelehrsamkeit durch tausend und aber tausend Hilfsmittel, durch populäre Schriften und Zeitungsartikel zu jeder Seele dringen. Und wenn Sie sich das weiter ausmalen, dann werden Sie sich ein Bild machen können, daß es in den Seelen heute anders ausschaut, und nicht meinen, daß das, was an Empfindungen, Gedanken und Impulsen in den Seelen lebt, keinen Einfluß auf das Leben im ganzen hätte. Derjenige, der glaubt, daß alles Offenbare ein Abdruck des Geistigen ist, wird sich sagen, daß die Menschen heute andere körperliche und soziale Bedürfnisse haben als in den verflossenen Zeiten. Früher war es möglich, daß einzelne Menschen über gewisse Ereignisse, über die Wahrheit und über Weisheit etwas gewußt haben. Heute aber muß dasjenige, was das Prinzip der Einweihung war, jedermann zugänglich gemacht werden. Aus einer Pflicht gegenüber der Menschheit wurde die strenge Geheimhaltung und Abgeschlossenheit früherer Zeiten durchbrochen, so daß heute nicht nur über dasjenige gesprochen wird, was vom Standpunkte der Geistesforschung über die höheren Welten zu sagen ist, sondern auch in einer gewissen Weise wenigstens in den Elementen gesprochen wird über die Art, wie der Mensch selbst in diese Welten hinaufkommen, wie er die ersten Stufen zur Einweihung absolvieren kann. Von vornherein muß aber darauf aufmerksam gemacht werden, daß niemand glauben soll, daß deshalb das Prinzip der Einweihung leicht und mit geringem Ernst zu nehmen sei, weil heute im Grunde genommen die ersten Stufen der Einweihung einem jeden zugänglich sind. Diese ersten Stufen sind, wie Sie hören werden, verhältnismäßig für jeden und in jeder Lebenslage zu absolvieren. Aber dann beginnen immer höhere Stufen bis hinauf zu dem, was man überhaupt erst, im wahren Sinne des Wortes, einen Eingeweihten nennt.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":367,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/56/1907-11-28/p015"}],"english":["GA 56/1907-11-28/p015"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":367,"en_words":370,"ratio":1.01,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.03,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":8289,"original_word_count":8015,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"eLib2015","book_title":"Knowledge of Soul and Spirit","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA056/English/eLib2015/19071128p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 56/1907-11-28/p015"],"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."}}