37. The Dangers of Initiation

GA 68a/1907-12-19/p023 ·1907-12-19 · English MediumMedium alignmentSome paragraph re-numbering between this translation and the German original — the locus may slip by a paragraph or two.
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How should this be understood? Let us take an example. Someone is asked to sacrifice all their cash. One person sacrifices fifty pfennigs, another twenty thousand marks. But both sacrifice everything they have. If these sacrifices are to help, then it is clear that twenty thousand marks will help much more than fifty pfennigs. So one must compare the sacrifice of a personality who has nothing within him, who perhaps has no particular ego at all, with the sacrifice of a personality who has accumulated within himself enormous energy and strength. What good does it do humanity to sacrifice a human being who is still nothing? The personality must first make itself strong and energetic; it depends on how it is sacrificed, not what is sacrificed. Man must know that egoism is a healthy force; it drives man to obey the sentence:

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Cite: GA 68a/1907-12-19/p023 · edition English