Awareness - Life - Form
GA 89
3 April 1905, Berlin
About the book of ten pages
The last time we met I told you that we need to use allegory if we are to put things clearly in occultism.111Lecture of 27 March 1905 on symbols reflecting original wisdom. The world we have around us has only been like this for a relatively short period of time. Our forebears lived under utterly different conditions in Atlantean and Lemurian times. Today people cannot have any idea of this. However, if we want to understand today’s world rightly, we must rise to the concepts and ideas... [gap in notes]. Speech and language is not very old; it only developed in Atlantean times. Our Lemurian forebears did not have speech, they had a kind of singing, producing sounds with great magical powers. They might perhaps sound unarticulated to people today, but went beyond anything we can find in the highest animals today as far as beauty and melodiousness were concerned. These sounds could make flowers grow faster, for instance, or set dead objects in motion. We cannot compare them with our ordinary speech today. We are therefore unable to speak in our language of something which is among the most sublime things.
In the occult schools people therefore always used an allegorical language and alphabet. Those allegorical signs are regular formulas which one must first learn to understand. One formula, for example, is the book of ten pages. What is this book of ten pages?
The book of ten pages is something very real. Its content is great, and the formulas only appear to be simple. It is something very real for the occult student, but it is read in a different way from other books, where the human being, with his ordinary understanding, must create a word from letters and a sentence from words. The occult investigator thinks differently. His thinking grasps wholes, getting a complete overview of major complexes; it is empirical living experience, a vision of higher realities. People develop a common idea on the basis of individual details. The occult investigator gains an intuitive idea all at once from inner experience and does not have to depend on learning many individual details. It is just the way someone being able to have the ‘lion idea’ once they have seen a lion, for instance.
The occult investigator thus also gains the concept of astral and mental spirits in one go, for he sees these things together. There are archetypes for all things of the spirit. Just as a painter may have a particular intuitive image in his head and is able to paint a hundred pictures based on it, so there are archetypal images for all things on the higher planes, and clairvoyants see them. Reading the archetypes of things, in the spiritual ground and origin, is in occult terms called ‘reading in the book of ten pages’. People were able to read in this book of ten pages in every occult school; everyone was able to read in it even at the time when humanity did not yet have the vestment of a physical body.
Let us go back to Lemurian times when the human being vested himself in physical matter. He then lived in ideas that were all images. He did not see these outside but inside himself; he would feel a degree of warmth, or bright colour images arising in his soul as he approached another human being, for instance. It was like a lively dream, in images, but not conscious. Only the teachers and leaders of humanity had a real overview of the things which others only felt surging up and down in a twilit soul. Their vision was not limited, everything lay spread out before them as in a tableau; they only had to turn their attention to it. This is the idea of that all-encompassing oneness which presented itself to the initiate and the occult student. Today we cannot see everything at once because we use our senses as instruments of perception. People would have seen no difference between New York and Berlin at that time, for instance. Anyone who sees things outside his physical body, finds that spatial differences present themselves only through the senses. The whole of modem science consists of individual details which are put together. Anything that happens in the world of the spirit is not discovered bit by bit. Once a particular level of higher insight has been gained, it all lies open before one.
There are ten levels, and they are the ten pages of the book. Let me give you an idea of them.
What does it say on the first page? There is a lot there, but it has to be gained through living experience. Think of a flower. If we planted it this year, we’ll see that it has produced a root, and that stem, branches, leaves and flowers develop and finally the seed which we put in the soil again. We don’t see anything of the plant in the seed, but it is there inside it, contracted into a point. Look at a tulip, how it is contracted to a point and then spreads out again. We see essential tulip nature alternate between tremendous expansion and contraction into point-nature, as if squeezed together to make a nothing. This is something we can see everywhere in the world, in nature and in the human being. A whole solar system will also unfold, go through a sleep state, and then wake up again. In theosophy, we call the two states manvantara = expansion, and pralaya = shrink down to a point. There is no difference for external perception between seed of solar system and of flower; they do not exist in that case. Our present cosmic system will also contract to such a point one day; but the whole of life will be condensed in this, and it will well forth again from it. If we enter in our minds into this manifold life of the cosmos condensed to a point, we have an idea of the divine creative power which creates out of nothing. Anyone wishing to penetrate the secrets of the universe must learn to concentrate his thoughts in a point, not a dead but a living point which is nothing and everything at the same time. It is not easy to enter into this general dormant state of nature which is zero life and at the same time also all life; one must have felt, thought and willed it. One must have thought this through before one is able to read the remaining pages.
Reading the first page is to grasp this oneness of time, space and energy and immerse oneself in it. A truly wonderful description is given in a verse in the Dzyan book.112Verse I, in H. P. Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine.
The second page shows us the duality everywhere in the world. You find this wherever you go in the natural world—light and shade, positive and negative, male and female, left and right, straight and not straight, good and evil. Duality is deeply rooted in the nature of all evolution, and anyone who wishes to understand nature must be very clear in his mind about this duality. We only come to understand the world when we see the duality in our own lives. The occult student must make it an obligation for himself to learn to think in such dualities. He should never think of only the one, but always the two together. If he thinks of his relationship to the divine principle, for instance: ‘a divine I lives in me’, this is only one thing, and a second thing belongs to it: ‘and I live in the divine I.’ Both are true. The occult student must say to himself: ‘The human being is a sensual nature but he will be a spiritual entity; I was a spiritual entity once and had to become a sensual one.’
We can only perceive all truth if we make it an inner obligation never to think of just one but always of two. People who learn to think in such dualities are thinking in the right, objective way.
This is reading the second page in the book of ten pages. You will find this duality presented many times in the mythology of ancient Germanic gods and also in Gnostic works.113See G. R. S. Mead, note 81. Some crude ideas have ... [gap in notes], seeing above all the duality between the male and female principle and ascribing everything to it. In reality, however, the male and female principle is just a special case of a much higher duality. To make this special case the explanation for everything is to blindfold yourself, to shut out the spiritual reality and cling to the lowest aspect.
The third page presents the triad. Threefold ideas may be found anywhere. The human being is threefold, consisting of body, soul and spirit. Gnostics speak of Father, Word and Spirit. In Egyptian culture we have the three deities Osiris, Isis and Horus. The triad holds an important secret. Anyone who gets in the habit of translating duality into the triad gains something that leads to understanding the whole world. To think the world through in its threefold nature is to penetrate it with wisdom.
Fourth page. Pythagorean square. I perceive the human being as fourfold, consisting of body, soul and spirit, with the fourth principle, self-awareness, dwelling within them. Pythagoras therefore said ... [gap in notes]. Human nature which is at a lower level develops higher nature out of itself. This is the secret of the four evolving from the three. We find this fourfold nature in all entities. To the all-encompassing eye of the great initiate who surveys all periods of time, all entities are alike. The human being is a fourfold entity living on the physical plane. The lion does not live on the physical plane with its fourfold nature; here it has only its threefold nature—physical body, ether body and astral body; its I, as fourth principle, lives in the world of the spirit.
Higher nature only appears as sensual nature on a lower level. When human beings will be able to govern their physical bodies in every fibre, they will be atman; when they govern the ether body they will be budhi; when they govern the astral body, manas. That is fourfold nature: the three principles of lower nature which will one day be transformed into higher nature. Four-foldness is to be found in all entities existing in this world. To the eye of the great initiate who surveys all periods of time, all entities are alike, only different to [gap in notes]. How does a lion differ from a human being? To the human eye, a lion is lower than a human being, and this is because human beings have limited vision. They live on the physical plane today, whereas the lion has left its spirit in the mental and its soul in the astral sphere.
| Human being | Lion |
|---|---|
| 4 mental | 4 I (comes from world of spirit) |
| 3 astral | 3 astral |
| 2 etheric | 2 etheric |
| 1 physical | 1 physical |
Plants and minerals also have fourfold nature. The plant has only its physical body and ether body on the physical plane. Plants and minerals have the other parts of their fourfold nature in the world of the spirit. But human beings, animals, plant and minerals all have fourfold nature. The student of occultism must always live this inwardly if he wants to read the fourth page. Fifth page.
On reading the fifth page, everything becomes manifest which the human being projects into the world like a shadow image. This is more than just four-foldness. He begins to venerate. It is called ‘idolatry’. The human being is able to think and form ideas. When he begins to reflect on things, he ascribes divine causes to them. Myths arise in which the human being relates the supersensible to the sensible. The world of myth and legend presents ancient cultures in many different ways. The whole process lies open before the initiate, and the moment comes when he begins to perceive the thread which runs through all myths.
The horse, for instance. What is its meaning? It is an entity which has remained behind on a particular level, whilst the physical human being has gone beyond this in his evolution. There was, however, a moment in Hyperborean times when the human being had first of all to develop the potential for intelligence. Potentials evolve a long time in advance. I have told you that all higher development has a price, and this is that something else remains behind. If one wants to rise, another has to go down. At that time, when the human being developed the potential for intelligence, this was only possible because human nature eliminated something which later developed the horse nature. The horse evolved in Atlantean times, and human beings instinctively knew that their evolution was connected with the horse. Later this instinct became a myth. The Atlanteans had instinctive awareness of their intelligence being related to the horse, and the horse was therefore venerated as a symbol of intelligence during the first post-Atlantean period. Intelligence had to evolve in the early post-Atlantean periods. In Revelation, horses appear therefore when the seven seals have been removed. Ulysses invented a wooden horse.
Three things are needed if we want to understand myths. Firstly the myth must be taken literally, secondly it must be taken in an allegorical sense—which happens in religions—and thirdly we have to take them literally again in a higher sense. When this marvellous connection presents itself to the intuitive eye it is called ‘reading the fifth page’.
Sixth page. This contains the secrets of what human beings perceive to be the supersensible and which they seek. The ideals human beings create out of their own nature appear on this sixth page, for instance the great ideals of freedom, equality and brotherhood. On this sixth page, human nature comes together with something which does not yet exist, something human beings must struggle to gain—going beyond themselves in their activity and active will. ‘I love someone who asks the impossible.’ One learns to look to future states of humanity, to see the seeds of the future in the present. An initiate can read the sixth page the way John described the future states of humanity in Revelation.
Seventh page. The student comes to understand the secret and significance of the figure seven. Things evolve in seven stages because the three, on which the seven is based, is repeated, and they themselves are the seventh. The human being must learn to say to himself: ‘I am threefold, from this three a higher three must arise; that is the six.’ Starting from the three, he returns to a higher three, which is the six. He himself is the seventh. To understand this process is to read the seventh page.
We will speak of the eighth, ninth and tenth pages the next time.114Rudolf Steiner never spoke of the 8th, 9th and 10th pages as he then went on a lecture tour and had to give a public lecture in Hamburg the following Monday. Below is Saint-Martin’s description of the book of ten pages.
‘These unutterable benefits were connected with the possession and understanding of a most precious book, one of the gifts humanity had received as part of existence. Although this book had only ten pages, it held all insights and all knowledge of what has been, what is and what will be, and human beings were able at that time to read in all ten pages of the book at once, taking it all in with just one look.
In his case, the book was still there for him, but he had lost the ability to read it easily, and could no longer get to know all its pages at once, but only one after the other. Yet he will never be wholly restored to his rights until he has studied them all; for although each of these ten pages contains specific knowledge belonging to that page only, they are nevertheless interrelated in such a way that it is impossible to have one of them perfectly in mind unless one has learned to know them all; and although I said that human beings could no longer read them except one after the other, each of their steps would lack certainty unless they had gone through them all in one, above all the fourth, which is the point of unification for them all.
This is a truth to which people have paid little heed, and yet it would be infinitely necessary for them to take them to heart and understand them; for they are all born with the book in their hand; and since the study and understanding of this book is the mission they must fulfil, we can judge how important it is for them not to take a wrong step with this.
However, they have been utterly remiss in this point; you find hardly any who may have noticed the essential connection between the ten pages of the book, so that they are inseparable in all ways. Some have stopped half-way, others on the third page, others on the first; hence atheists, materialists and deists have come forth; some had an inkling of the connection, but they did not understand the important distinction which had to be made between each of these pages, taking them to be all the same and of one kind, being pages of the one book.
What has been the consequence of this? It is this. Those who limited themselves to the one part of the book beyond which they did not have the courage to go, nevertheless maintained that they spoke according to the book, thinking to themselves that they understood it; and led astray by this, they considered themselves infallible in their doctrine, doing everything possible to make the world believe this. But these isolated truths, cut off from all nourishment, soon wilted in the hands of those who had thus isolated them, and nothing remained for these ignorant people but a vain spectre of knowledge, something they could not pretend was something solid or the truth unless they resorted to deceit.
This is indeed the source of all the errors we will have to examine in this treatise, and all the errors we have already touched on concerning the two opposite principles, the natural world, the laws of bodily entities, the different abilities of human beings, and the principles and origin of their religion and worship.
It will also be apparent to which part of the book the errors mainly relate; however, before we come to this, let us first consider the idea we must have to this incomparable book in its fullness, and to this end refer fully to the different kinds of knowledge and the different qualities of which each of its pages holds the knowledge.
The first had to do with the general principle, or the centre, from which all central points flow without cease.
The second with the occasional cause of the universe; of the dual bodily law on which it is based; with the law which is understood in two ways and functions in time; with the dual nature of the human being; and altogether with everything made up and evolved from two actions.
The third with the foundation of the body; with all the results and productions of all kinds; and here we have the number of the immaterial spirits that do not think.
The fourth with everything which is active; with the principle of all languages, both in time and outside time; with religion and worship; and here we have the number of the immaterial spirits that do think.
The fifth with idolatry and decay.
The sixth with the laws of generation and development in the temporal world, and with the natural division of the circle by the radius.
The seventh with the cause of the winds and with ebb and flood; with the geographical measure of man; with his true insight, and with the source spring of his intelligent or sensual productions.
The eighth with the temporal number of the element which is the only support, the only strength and the only hope of man, that is with the real, physical entity that has two names and four numbers, in so far as it is both active and intelligent, and extends its action over the four worlds. It was also concerned with justice, and the whole of legislative power; which encompasses the rights of princes and the authority of generals and judges.
The ninth with the evolution of the physical human being in the woman’s womb, and with the resolution of the general and specific triangle.
The tenth finally was the way and the complement of the nine that went before. It was without doubt the most essential and really the page without which none of those that went before would be known; for if you arrange all ten in circumference, in their numerical order, you find the most relationship between it and the first, from which all flows; and if you want to judge its importance, you must know that the originator of things is invincible exactly because of this page, for it is a barricade of wagons around him which no entity can cross.
Since this work therefore contains all knowledge which the human being may seek and the laws set for him, it is evident that he will never be able to gain any insight, nor ever fulfil his true mission unless he draws on this source; we also know now the hand which must guide him there, and that, if he is not able to walks the steps to this fruitful source by himself, he may nevertheless be certain to get there if he forgets his will and lets the will of the active and intelligent cause take effect, the cause which alone must act for him.’ The book of ten pages is an allegory, summing up in a few words what would otherwise need many words to describe. The principle of comprehensive life in abbreviation. Paracelsus said that a physician must read the whole of nature, he must pass nature’s examination, finding the word from the individual letters and not gain his wisdom only from books.115See the lecture given in Berlin on 26 April 1906 [in German] in GA 54.
In our time, the spiritual principle had to move into the background; this had to be so that the great conquests of the physical plane would be possible, and perfection could be achieved in controlling the world perceived through the senses. Now the time approaches when humanity needs to go more deeply into the spiritual again. At present human beings are rushing towards a stage on the physical plane that could not be borne if spiritual life did not develop again. An image of how necessary it is for humanity to deepen their spirituality: You know the tremendous advances made for example in the theory of electricity. A tremendous power lives in these energies, and this means there is a possibility that humanity will abuse them. Humanity will master terrible powers which will be put into effect on the physical plane, and this in the not too far distant future.116See also the lectures given in Berlin on 9, 16 and 23 December 1904, in The Temple Legend (note 22). They will be able, for instance, to cause detonations, explosions by remote control, with no one able to determine the originator. Humanity will have power. Woe, however, if they have not reached a high moral level and use those terrible powers for other than only good purposes! The masters who guide humanity foresaw that this time would come. It is the mission of theosophical teaching to prepare hearts and minds for what is coming, to warn them, and to show them the way and the goal.
Über das zehnblättrige Buch
Ich habe Sie das letzte Mal darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß man, um im Okkultismus sich klar aussprechen zu können, eine sinnbildliche Ausdrucksweise notwendig hat. Das, was uns heute umgibt, ist erst so seit einem gewissen Zeitraum, der doch eigentlich kurz ist, denn unsere Vorfahren während der atlantischen und der lemurischen Zeit haben ja unter ganz anderen Verhältnissen gelebt. Der heutige Mensch kann sich davon keinen Begriff mehr machen. Dennoch müssen wir, wenn wir das, was heute ist, richtig verstehen wollen, uns zu jenen Begriffen und Ideen erheben ... [Lücke in den Aufzeichnungen].
Die Sprache ist noch nicht sehr alt, sie bildete sich erst bei den Atlantiern aus. Unsere lemurischen Vorfahren hatten noch keine Sprache, sie hatten eine Art Gesang, Laute von großer magischer Kraft, die wie ein Zaubermittel waren und dem heutigen Menschen vielleicht unartikuliert vorkommen würden, die aber an Schönheit und Wohlklang alles übertrafen, was wir heute bei den höchsten Tieren finden können. Diese Laute hatten die Kraft, zum Beispiel Blumen schneller wachsen zu lassen oder tote Gegenstände in Bewegung zu bringen. Mit unserer heutigen gewöhnlichen Sprache können wir das nicht vergleichen. Deshalb können wir mit unserer Sprache nicht bezeichnen, was zu den höchsten Dingen gehört.
In den okkulten Schulen hat man sich darum immer einer allegorischen Sprache und einer allegorischen Schrift bedient. Diese allegorischen Zeichen sind ständige Ausdrucksformeln, die man erst verstehen lernen muß. Eine Formel ist zum Beispiel die des zehnblättrigen Buches. Was ist dies zehnblättrige Buch?
Das zehnblättrige Buch ist etwas Wirkliches, Reales. Ein großer Inhalt ist in diesem Buch gegeben, nur scheinbar einfach sind die Formeln. Etwas ganz Wirkliches ist es für den Geheimschüler, aber es wird ganz anders gelesen als ein gewöhnliches Buch, denn der Mensch mit seinem gewöhnlichen Verstande muß sich aus Buchstaben ein Wort und aus Worten den Satz bilden. Das Denken des Geheimwissenschafters ist ein anderes, es ist ein solches, das Einheiten ergreift, große Zusammenhänge auf einmal überschaut, es ist durchlebte Erfahrung, ein Schauen von höheren Wirklichkeiten. Der Mensch macht sich einen gemeinschaftlichen Begriff aus Einzelheiten. Der Geheimwissenschafter bekommt einen intuitiven Begriff auf einmal durch innere Erfahrung und ist nicht darauf angewiesen, soundso viele einzelne Erfahrungen zu machen. Es ist so, wie ein Mensch, der zum Beispiel einen Löwen gesehen hat, sich den Begriff «Löwe» machen kann.
So bekommt der Geheimwissenschafter auch den Begriff von astralen und mentalen Wesenheiten auf einmal, weil er die Dinge auf einmal schaut. Für alle geistigen Dinge gibt es Urbilder. So wie der Maler ein bestimmtes intuitives Bild im Kopfe haben und nach diesem Bild hundert Bilder malen kann, so gibt es auf den höheren Planen für alle Dinge Urbilder, die der Hellseher schaut. Das Lesen in den Urbildern der Dinge, in den geistigen Urgründen, nennt man im Okkultismus: Das Lesen im zehnblättrigen Buche. In jeder Geheimschule konnte man in diesem zehnblättrigen Buche lesen. Auch damals, als die Menschheit noch nicht mit einem physischen Leibe bekleidet war, konnte jeder in diesem Buche lesen.
Versetzen wir uns in die lemurische Zeit, in der der Mensch sich umkleidete mit einer physischen Hülle. Damals lebte er in Vorstellungen, die ganz bildlich waren. Nicht außen sah er Bilder, sondern in seinem Innern; in seiner Seele fühlte er, zum Beispiel wenn er sich einem anderen Menschen näherte, eine gewisse Wärme oder etwas wie helle Farbbilder aufsteigen. Es war wie ein lebhafter Traum, bildhaft, doch nicht bewußt. Nur die Lehrer und Führer der Menschen konnten alles auf einmal überschauen, was die anderen nur in Dämmerdunkel auf- und abwogen fühlten in der Seele. Ihr Schauen war nicht begrenzt, alles lag vor ihnen ausgebreitet wie ein Tableau; nur die Aufmerksamkeit brauchten sie darauf zu wenden. Dies ist die Vorstellung von jener allumfassenden Einheit, die sich den Eingeweihten und dem Geheimschüler bietet. Heute können wir nicht alles zugleich sehen, weil wir mit unseren Sinneswerkzeugen wahrnehmen. Einen Unterschied zum Beispiel zwischen New York und Berlin hätte man damals nicht gesehen. Wer außerhalb seines physischen Leibes sieht, bemerkt, daß Raumesunterschiede sich ihm nur durch seine Sinne darstellen. Die ganze heutige Wissenschaft besteht darin, daß sie sich aus Einzelheiten aufbaut, die zusammengefügt werden. Aber dasjenige, was in der geistigen Welt vorgeht, entdeckt man nicht nach und nach, sondern, wenn man eine gewisse Stufe der Erkenntnis erlangt hat, liegt alles offen da.
Nun gibt es zehn Stufen, das sind die zehn Blätter des zehnblättrigen Buches, die ich Ihnen nun zunächst andeuten will.
Was steht auf dem ersten Blatt? Es enthält ungeheuer viel, aber man muß es erleben. Denken Sie sich eine Blume. Wenn wir in diesem Jahr eine Blume gepflanzt haben, so sehen wir, wie sie Wurzel getrieben hat, Stengel, Zweige, Blätter, Blüten sich entwikkeln und zuletzt das Samenkorn, der Keim, den wir wieder in die Erde legen. In diesem ganz kleinen Keim sehen wir nichts mehr von der Pflanze, aber sie ist in ihm enthalten, bis auf einen Punkt zusammengezogen. Sehen wir eine Tulpe an, wie sie in einen Punkt zusammengedrängt ist und wie sie sich wiederum ausbreitet. Wir sehen da das Wesen der Tulpe abwechseln zwischen großer Ausdehnung und einer Zusammenziehung ins Punktuelle, wie in ein Nichts zusammengedrängt. Dieses Sich-Ausbreiten und Sich-in-ein-Punktuelles-Zusammenziehen können wir in der ganzen Welt verfolgen, in der Natur und im Menschen. Auch ein ganzes Sonnensystem entfaltet sich, geht durch einen Schlafzustand, um wieder zu erwachen. Diese beiden Zustände nennt man in der Theosophie Manvantara = Sich-Ausdehnen, und Pralaya = In-einenPunkt-Zusammenschrumpfen. Es ist kein Unterschied für die äußere Wahrnehmung zwischen Keim von Sonnensystem und Blume; sie sind für den äußeren Sinn nicht vorhanden. Unser gegenwärtiges Weltensystem wird auch einmal zu einem solchen Punkte sich zusammenziehen; in diesem Punkt aber wird dann das ganze Leben zusammengedrängt sein, und es wird wieder aus ihm herausquellen. Versetzt man sich in dieses in einen Punkt zusammengedrängte mannigfache Leben der Welt, so hat man einen Begriff von der göttlichen schaffenden Kraft, die aus dem Nichts heraus schafft. Derjenige, welcher die Geheimnisse des Weltalls durchdringen will, muß lernen, seine Gedanken auf einen Punkt zu konzentrieren, aber nicht auf einen toten Punkt, sondern auf einen lebendigen Punkt, der zugleich nichts und alles ist. Es ist nicht leicht, sich in dieses allgemeine Schlafen der Natur zu versetzen, das ein Null-Leben, zu gleicher Zeit aber auch ein All-Leben ist; man muß es gefühlt, gedacht und gewollt haben. Nur wer dies durchdacht hat, kann die übrigen Blätter lesen.
Diese Einheit der Zeit, des Raumes und der Kraft zu erfassen, versinken darin, das ist das Lesen des ersten Blattes. In einer Strophe des Dzyanbuches finden Sie eine wunderschöne Beschreibung.
Das zweite Blatt zeigt uns In aller Welt die Zweiheit. Überall, wo Sie in der Natur hingehen, finden Sie die Zweiheit: Licht und Schatten, positiv und negativ, männlich und weiblich, links und rechts, gerade und ungrade, gut und böse. Die Zweiheit ist tief begründet in der Natur alles Werdens, und wer die Natur verstehen will, muß sich diese Zweiheit in seinem Geiste ganz klarmachen. Erst wenn wir die Zweiheit im eigenen Leben sehen, kommen wir zum Verstehen der Welt. Der Geheimschüler muß sich zur Pflicht machen, in diesen Zweiheiten denken zu lernen. Er darf nie nur das eine denken, er muß immer beides miteinander denken. Wenn er zum Beispiel an sein Verhältnis zum Göttlichen denkt: In mir lebt ein göttliches Ich -, so stellt dieser Satz nur eines dar, zu dem als ein zweites gehört: und ich lebe in dem göttlichen Ich. Beides ist wahr. Der Geheimschüler muß sich sagen:
Der Mensch ist ein sinnliches Wesen, aber er wird sein ein geistiges Wesen; ich war einst ein geistiges Wesen und mußte ein sinnliches Wesen werden.
Nur dann kann man alle Wahrheit erkennen, wenn man sich die innere Pflicht auferlegt, nie in einer Einheit, sondern immer in der Zweiheit zu denken. Wenn der Mensch lernt, in diesen Dualitäten zu denken, dann denkt man erst richtig und sachgemäß.
Das ist das Lesen der zweiten Seite, des zweiten Blattes in dem zehnblättrigen Buche. In den alten deutschen Göttermythen und auch in gnostischen Büchern finden Sie diese Zweiheit wiederholt dargestellt. Gewisse rohe Vorstellungen haben sich ... [Lücke in den Aufzeichnungen] und sehen namentlich die Dualität zwischen dem Männlichen und dem Weiblichen und führen alles auf diese Dualität zurück. Aber in Wahrheit ist das Männliche und das Weibliche nur ein Spezialfall für eine viel höhere Zweiheit. Und diesen Spezialfall zur Erklärung von allem zu nehmen, heißt, sich vor der geistigen Wirklichkeit die Augen zu verbinden und am Niedrigsten zu kleben.
Das dritte Blatt stellt die Dreiheit dar. Dreigliedrige Vorstellungen sind überall anzutreffen: Ein dreigliedriges Wesen ist der Mensch; er besteht aus Leib, Seele, Geist. Die Gnosis spricht von Vater, Wort und Geist. Ein Dreigliedriges tritt uns im Ägyptischen entgegen in den Gottheiten Osiris, Isis, Horus. Die Dreigliedrigkeit schließt ein wichtiges Geheimnis in sich. Wer sich gewöhnt, die Zweigliedrigkeit hinüberzuführen in die Dreigliedrigkeit, gewinnt eine Handhabe, die ihn zum Verstehen der ganzen Welt führt. Die Welt in ihrer Dreigliedrigkeit durchdenken, heißt: sie mit Weisheit durchdringen.
Viertes Blatt: Pythagoräisches Quadrat. Der Mensch steht vor mir als Vierheit: er besteht aus Körper, Seele, Geist, und darin lebt das vierte, das Selbstbewußtsein. Daher sagt Pythagoras ... [Lücke in den Aufzeichnungen]. Die niiedrigerstehende Natur des Menschen entwickelt aus sich heraus die höhere. Das ist das Geheimnis der Vierheit, die sich aus der Dreiheit entwickelt. Diese Vierheit trifft man bei allen Wesen an. Die Wesen sind für den umfassenden Blick des großen Eingeweihten, der alle Zeiträume überschaut, alle gleich. Der Mensch ist eine Vierheit, die auf dem physischen Plane lebt. Der Löwe lebt nicht mit seiner Vierheit auf dem physischen Plan; hier hat er nur seine Dreiheit: physischer Leib, Ätherleib, Astralleib, sein Ich lebt in der geistigen Welt als sein Viertes.
Die höhere Natur erscheint nur auf niederer Stufe als die sinnliche Natur. Wenn der Mensch bis in die Fasern hinein seinen physischen Leib wird beherrschen können, wird er Atma werden; wird er den Ätherkörper beherrschen, so wird er Budhi sein, wird er den Astralkörper beherrschen, wird er Manas sein. Das ist die Vierheit: die drei Glieder der niederen Natur, die einst zur höheren Natur umgewandelt sein werden. Die Vierheit ist bei allen Wesen vorhanden, die auf der Welt anzutreffen sind. Für das Auge des Sehers, der große Zeiträume überschauen kann, sind alle Wesen gleich, nur für ... [Lücke in den Aufzeichnungen] verschieden.
Wodurch unterscheidet sich ein Löwe von einem Menschen? Vor dem menschlichen Auge ist ein Löwe niedriger als ein Mensch, weil der Mensch einen begrenzten Blick hat. Er lebt heute auf dem physischen Plan, während der Löwe seinen Geist im mentalen und seine Seele im astralen gelassen hat.
| Human being | Lion |
|---|---|
| 4 mental | 4 Ich (kommt aus der geistigen Welt) |
| 3 astral | 3 astral |
| 2 etheric | 2 etheric |
| 1 physical | 1 physical |
Auch die Pflanze und auch das Mineral haben ihre Vierheit. Die Pflanze ist nur mit dem physischen Leib und dem Ätherleib auf dem physischen Plan. Pflanze und Mineral haben die anderen Teile ihrer Vierheit in der geistigen Welt. Aber eine Vierheit haben Menschen, Tier, Pflanze und Mineral. Diese muß der Schüler des Okkultismus immer innerlich miterleben, wenn er das vierte Blatt lesen will.
Fünftes Blatt: Beim Lesen des fünften Blattes enthüllt sich alles dasjenige, was der Mensch aus sich herausprojiziert, wie ein Schattenbild in die Welt wirft. Das ist mehr als die bloße Vierheit. Er fängt an zu verehren. Man nennt das Idolatrie. Der Mensch ist ein denkendes, ein vorstellendes Wesen. Wenn er anfängt, über die Dinge nachzudenken, schreibt er ihnen göttliche Ursachen zu. Mythen entstehen, in denen der Mensch das Übersinnliche in Zusammenhang bringt mit dem Sinnlichen. Die Welt der Mythen und Sagen stellt in mannigfacher Weise die Kulturen der alten Völker dar. Dieser ganze Prozeß liegt vor dem Eingeweihten, und es kommt der Moment, wo er anfängt, den Faden zu begreifen, der sich durch alle Mythen zieht.
Das Pferd zum Beispiel, was bedeutet es? Es stellt ein Wesen dar, das auf einer gewissen Stufe zurückgeblieben ist, über die der physische Mensch in seiner Entwicklung hinausgeschritten ist. Aber es gab einen Moment in der hyperboräischen Zeit, da mußte der Mensch zuerst die Anlage zur Klugheit entwickeln. Anlagen entwickeln sich lang vorher. Nun habe ich Ihnen gesagt, daß alle Höherentwicklung erkauft werden muß dadurch, daß ein anderes zurückbleibt. Wenn eines steigen will, muß das andere sinken. Damals, als der Mensch die Anlage zur Klugheit entwickelte, war das nur dadurch möglich, daß die Menschennatur das aus sich heraussonderte, was dann im späteren Verlauf die Pferdenatur entwikkelte. In der atlantischen Zeit entwickelte sich das Pferd und der Mensch hatte einen Instinkt dafür, daß seine Entwicklung zusammenhing mit dem Pferd. Dieser Instinkt wurde in der späteren Zeit zur Mythe. Der Atlantier hatte ein instinktives Bewußtsein von der Verwandtschaft seiner Klugheit mit dem Pferd, und daher wurde in der ersten Epoche der nachatlantischen Zeit das Pferd als Symbol der Klugheit verehrt. Die ersten nachatlantischen Epochen hatten die Klugheit auszubilden. Deshalb werden in der Apokalypse, als die sieben Siegel abgenommen sind, Pferde vorgeführt. Odysseus ersinnt ein hölzernes Pferd.
Zum Verständnis der Mythen ist dreierlei notwendig: Zuerst muß man die Mythe dem Buchstaben nach nehmen, zweitens sie sinnbildlich auffassen — das geschieht in den Religionen -, drittens muß man sie in einem höheren Sinne wieder wörtlich verstehen. Wenn dieser wunderbare Zusammenhang vor dem intuitiven Auge auftritt, heißt das: das Lesen des fünften Blattes.
Sechstes Blatt: Dieses enthält die Geheimnisse über das, was der Mensch als das Übersinnliche erkennt und zu dem er hinstrebt. Die Ideale, die der Mensch aus seiner Natur selbst heraus schafft, sind auf diesem sechsten Blatt verzeichnet, zum Beispiel die großen Ideale Freiheit, Gleichheit und Brüderlichkeit. Das Zusammenschließen der menschlichen Natur mit etwas, was noch nicht da ist, was sich der Mensch erst erringen muß, ist auf diesem sechsten Blatt, das Schaffen, das Wollen über sich selbst hinaus. «Den lieb ich, der Unmögliches begehrt». Der Mensch lernt hinschauen auf Zukunftszustände der Menschheit, er lernt zu sehen die Keime der Zukunft in der Gegenwart. Der Eingeweihte kann in dem sechsten Blatt so lesen, wie Johannes in der Apokalypse die Zukunftszustände der Menschheit beschrieben hat.
Siebentes Blatt: Da lernt der Schüler das Geheimnis und die Bedeutung der Siebenzahl verstehen. Die Dinge entwickeln sich in der Siebenzahl, weil die Drei, von der sie ausgeht, noch einmal wiederholt wird, und selbst sind sie das Siebente. Der Mensch muß lernen, sich zu sagen: Ich bestehe aus der Dreiheit, aus ihr soll hervorgehen eine höhere Dreiheit; das ist die Sechsheit. Ausgehend von der Dreiheit, kehrt er zurück zu einer höheren Dreiheit, der Sechsheit. Er selbst ist der Siebente. Diesen Vorgang verstehen, heißt das siebente Blatt lesen.
Vom achten, neunten und zehnten Blatt wollen wir das nächstemal sprechen. Eine Allegorie ist das zehnblättrige Buch, es faßt in wenigen Worten zusammen, was man sonst lange beschreiben müßte. Abbreviatur von dem, was umfassendes Leben hat.
Paracelsus sagt: Der Arzt muß die ganze Natur lesen, er muß in der Natur Examen gehen, und aus den einzelnen Buchstaben zusammenfassen das Wort und nicht die Weisheit nur aus Büchern schöpfen.
In unserer Zeit mußte das Spirituelle zurücktreten; das mußte so sein, um die großen Eroberungen des physischen Planes möglich zu machen, um vollkommen zu werden in der Beherrschung der Sinneswelt. Jetzt ist der Zeitpunkt nahe, wo die Menschheit wiederum sich spirituell vertiefen muß. Der Mensch eilt gegenwärtig auf dem physischen Plan einem Stadium zu, das nicht ertragen werden könnte, wenn nicht das spirituelle Leben sich wieder entwickelte. Ein Bild, wie nötig der Mensch es hat, sich spirituell zu vertiefen: Sie kennen die ungeheuren Fortschritte zum Beispiel der Elektrizitätslehre; mit diesen Kräften ist eine ungeheure Kraft verknüpft, die es möglich machen wird, daß der Mensch diese Kräfte mißbraucht. Der Mensch wird, und zwar in nicht allzuferner Zeit, Herr sein über furchtbare Kräfte, die er auf dem physischen Plan wird wirken lassen. Er wird zum Beispiel Detonationen, Explosionen an entfernten Orten erzeugen können, ohne daß jemand imstande sein wird, den Urheber zu erkennen. Macht wird die Menschheit haben. Und wehe, wenn der Mensch dann moralisch nicht auf der Höhe steht und diese furchtbaren Kräfte nicht nur und ausschließlich zu guten Zwecken gebraucht! Diese Zeit haben die Lenker der Menschheit, die Meister, vorausgesehen, und es ist die Mission der theosophischen Lehre, die Gemüter vorzubereiten auf das Kommende, sie zu warnen, ihnen den Weg und das Ziel zu zeigen.
About the Ten-page Book
Last time, I pointed out to you that symbolic language is necessary in order to express oneself clearly in occultism. What surrounds us today has only been so for a certain period of time, which is actually quite short, because our ancestors during the Atlantean and Lemurian periods lived under completely different conditions. People today can no longer conceive of this. Nevertheless, if we want to understand what is happening today, we must rise to those concepts and ideas ... [gap in the notes].
Language is not very old; it only developed among the Atlanteans. Our Lemurian ancestors did not yet have language; they had a kind of song, sounds of great magical power, which were like a magic potion and would perhaps seem inarticulate to modern humans, but which surpassed in beauty and melodiousness everything we can find today among the highest animals. These sounds had the power, for example, to make flowers grow faster or to set dead objects in motion. We cannot compare this with our ordinary language today. Therefore, we cannot use our language to describe what belongs to the highest things.
In occult schools, allegorical language and allegorical writing have therefore always been used. These allegorical symbols are constant expressions that must first be learned to understand. One such expression is that of the ten-petaled book. What is this ten-petaled book?
The ten-petaled book is something real, something tangible. This book contains great content, but the formulas are only seemingly simple. It is something very real for the secret student, but it is read very differently from an ordinary book, because people with their ordinary minds must form words from letters and sentences from words. The thinking of the secret scientist is different; it is one that grasps units, surveys large contexts at once; it is lived experience, a vision of higher realities. Man forms a collective concept from details. The secret scientist gains an intuitive concept at once through inner experience and does not need to have so many individual experiences. It is like a person who has seen a lion, for example, and can form the concept of “lion.”
In this way, the secret scientist also gains the concept of astral and mental beings at once, because he sees things at once. There are archetypes for all spiritual things. Just as a painter has a certain intuitive image in his mind and can paint a hundred pictures based on this image, so there are archetypes for all things on the higher planes, which the clairvoyant sees. Reading the archetypes of things, the spiritual origins, is called in occultism: reading the ten-leafed book. In every secret school, one could read this ten-leaf book. Even back then, when humanity was not yet clothed in a physical body, everyone could read this book.
Let us transport ourselves back to the Lemurian era, when humans clothed themselves in a physical shell. At that time, they lived in a world of images that were entirely pictorial. They did not see images externally, but internally; in their souls, they felt, for example, when they approached another person, a certain warmth or something like bright color images rising up. It was like a vivid dream, pictorial, but not conscious. Only the teachers and leaders of the people could see everything at once, which the others could only feel in the twilight of their souls. Their vision was not limited; everything lay spread out before them like a tableau; they only needed to turn their attention to it. This is the idea of that all-encompassing unity that presents itself to the initiated and the secret student. Today, we cannot see everything at once because we perceive with our sensory tools. For example, a difference between New York and Berlin would not have been seen at that time. Those who see outside their physical body notice that differences in space are only represented to them through their senses. All of today's science consists of building up details that are then put together. But what goes on in the spiritual world is not discovered bit by bit; rather, once a certain level of knowledge has been attained, everything lies open before us.
Now there are ten levels, which are the ten leaves of the ten-leaf book, which I will now begin to outline for you.
What is written on the first leaf? It contains an enormous amount, but one must experience it. Think of a flower. When we planted a flower this year, we saw how it took root, how the stem, branches, leaves, and blossoms developed, and finally the seed, the germ, which we put back into the earth. In this very small germ, we no longer see anything of the plant, but it is contained within it, contracted to a single point. Let us look at a tulip, how it is compressed into a point and how it spreads out again. We see the essence of the tulip alternating between great expansion and contraction into a point, as if compressed into nothingness. We can observe this spreading out and contracting into a point throughout the world, in nature and in human beings. Even an entire solar system unfolds, goes through a state of sleep, and then awakens again. In theosophy, these two states are called Manvantara = expansion, and Pralaya = contraction into a point. There is no difference in external perception between the seed of a solar system and a flower; they do not exist for the external senses. Our present world system will also shrink to such a point one day; but in this point, all life will then be concentrated, and it will spring forth from it again. If one imagines oneself in this manifold life of the world compressed into a single point, one has a concept of the divine creative power that creates out of nothing. Those who want to penetrate the mysteries of the universe must learn to concentrate their thoughts on a point, but not on a dead point, rather on a living point that is at once nothing and everything. It is not easy to put oneself in this general sleep of nature, which is a zero-life, but at the same time also an all-life; one must have felt it, thought it, and wanted it. Only those who have thought this through can read the remaining pages.
To grasp this unity of time, space, and power, to sink into it, that is the reading of the first leaf. In a stanza of the Dzyan book you will find a beautiful description.
The second leaf shows us duality in all the world. Wherever you go in nature, you will find duality: light and shadow, positive and negative, male and female, left and right, even and odd, good and evil. Duality is deeply rooted in the nature of all becoming, and anyone who wants to understand nature must make this duality clear in their mind. Only when we see duality in our own lives can we come to understand the world. The secret student must make it his duty to learn to think in these dualities. He must never think only one thing, he must always think both together. For example, when he thinks of his relationship to the divine: “A divine self lives within me” — this sentence represents only one thing, to which a second belongs: “and I live in the divine self.” Both are true. The secret student must say to himself:
Human beings are sensual beings, but they will become spiritual beings; I was once a spiritual being and had to become a sensual being.
Only then can one recognize all truth, when one imposes on oneself the inner duty to never think in terms of unity, but always in terms of duality. When man learns to think in these dualities, then he thinks correctly and appropriately.
This is the reading of the second page, the second leaf in the ten-leaf book. In the old German myths of the gods and also in Gnostic books, you will find this duality repeatedly depicted. Certain crude ideas have ... [gap in the notes] and see in particular the duality between the masculine and the feminine and trace everything back to this duality. But in truth, the masculine and the feminine are only a special case of a much higher duality. And to take this special case to explain everything means to blindfold oneself to spiritual reality and to cling to the lowest level.
The third sheet depicts the trinity. Threefold concepts are found everywhere: human beings are threefold beings, consisting of body, soul, and spirit. Gnosticism speaks of the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. We encounter a threefold concept in Egyptian mythology in the deities Osiris, Isis, and Horus. The threefold nature contains an important secret. Those who accustom themselves to transforming duality into triality gain a tool that leads them to understanding the whole world. To think through the world in its triality means to penetrate it with wisdom.
Fourth sheet: Pythagorean square. Human beings stand before me as a fourfold entity: they consist of body, soul, spirit, and within them lives the fourth, self-consciousness. Therefore, Pythagoras says ... [gap in the notes]. The lower nature of human beings develops the higher nature from within itself. This is the secret of the fourfold entity that develops from the threefold entity. This fourfold entity is found in all beings. To the comprehensive view of the great initiate, who surveys all periods of time, all beings are the same. Man is a fourfold being living on the physical plane. The lion does not live with its fourfold nature on the physical plane; here it has only its threefold nature: physical body, etheric body, astral body; its I lives in the spiritual world as its fourth nature.
Higher nature appears only at a lower level than sensual nature. When human beings are able to control their physical body down to its very fibers, they will become Atma; when they control their etheric body, they will become Budhi; when they control their astral body, they will become Manas. This is the fourfold nature: the three members of the lower nature, which will one day be transformed into the higher nature. The fourfold nature is present in all beings that can be found in the world. To the eye of the seer, who can see across great periods of time, all beings are the same, only different for ... [gap in the records].
How does a lion differ from a human being? To the human eye, a lion is lower than a human being because humans have limited vision. They live today on the physical plane, while lions have left their spirit in the mental plane and their soul in the astral plane.
| Human being | Lion |
|---|---|
| 4 mental | 4 I (comes from the spiritual world) |
| 3 astral | 3 astral |
| 2 etheric | 2 etheric |
| 1 physical | 1 physical |
Plants and minerals also have their fourfold nature. Plants are only on the physical plane with their physical body and etheric body. Plants and minerals have the other parts of their fourfold nature in the spiritual world. But humans, animals, plants, and minerals all have a fourfold nature. Students of occultism must always experience this inwardly if they want to read the fourth leaf.
Fifth leaf: When reading the fifth leaf, everything that humans project out of themselves is revealed, like a shadow image cast into the world. This is more than mere four-foldness. He begins to worship. This is called idolatry. Man is a thinking, imagining being. When he begins to think about things, he attributes divine causes to them. Myths arise in which man connects the supersensible with the sensible. The world of myths and legends represents the cultures of ancient peoples in many ways. This whole process lies before the initiate, and there comes a moment when he begins to grasp the thread that runs through all myths.
The horse, for example, what does it mean? It represents a being that has remained at a certain stage that physical man has outgrown in his development. But there was a moment in the Hyperborean epoch when man first had to develop the capacity for intelligence. Capacities develop long before. Now I have told you that all higher development must be purchased by something else remaining behind. If one wants to rise, the other must sink. At that time, when human beings developed the capacity for intelligence, this was only possible because human nature separated from itself what later developed into the nature of the horse. In the Atlantean epoch, the horse developed, and human beings had an instinctive sense that their development was connected with the horse. This instinct became a myth in later times. The Atlanteans had an instinctive awareness of the relationship between their intelligence and the horse, and therefore, in the first epoch of the post-Atlantean period, the horse was revered as a symbol of intelligence. The first post-Atlantean epochs had to develop intelligence. That is why horses are presented in the Apocalypse when the seven seals are removed. Odysseus devises a wooden horse.
Three things are necessary for understanding myths: First, one must take the myth literally; second, one must understand it symbolically — as is done in religions; third, one must understand it literally again in a higher sense. When this wonderful connection appears before the intuitive eye, it means reading the fifth leaf.
Sixth leaf: This contains the secrets of what humans recognize as the supernatural and to which they aspire. The ideals that humans create from their own nature are recorded on this sixth leaf, for example, the great ideals of freedom, equality, and brotherhood. The union of human nature with something that is not yet there, something that man must first achieve, is on this sixth leaf: creation, the will to transcend oneself. “I love him who desires the impossible.” Man learns to look at the future states of humanity; he learns to see the seeds of the future in the present. The initiate can read in the sixth leaf how John described the future states of humanity in the Apocalypse.
Seventh leaf: Here the student learns to understand the mystery and meaning of the number seven. Things develop in the number seven because the three from which they originate is repeated once more, and they themselves are the seventh. Man must learn to say to himself: I consist of the trinity, from which a higher trinity shall emerge; that is the sixfold. Starting from the trinity, he returns to a higher trinity, the sixfold. He himself is the seventh. To understand this process is to read the seventh leaf.
We will talk about the eighth, ninth, and tenth leaves next time. The ten-page book is an allegory; it summarizes in a few words what would otherwise take a long time to describe. It is an abbreviation of what has comprehensive life.
Paracelsus says: The physician must read all of nature, he must take exams in nature, and from the individual letters he must summarize the word, and not draw wisdom only from books.
In our time, the spiritual had to take a back seat; this had to be so in order to make possible the great conquests of the physical plane, in order to become perfect in the mastery of the sensory world. Now the time is near when humanity must once again deepen spiritually. Humanity is currently rushing toward a stage on the physical plane that could not be endured unless spiritual life were to develop again. An illustration of how necessary it is for man to deepen spiritually: you are familiar with the tremendous advances in electrical science, for example; these forces are associated with an enormous power that will make it possible for man to misuse them. In the not too distant future, human beings will be masters of terrible forces that they will be able to wield on the physical plane. For example, they will be able to cause detonations and explosions in distant places without anyone being able to identify the perpetrator. Humanity will have power. And woe betide us if humanity is not morally up to the task and does not use these terrible forces solely and exclusively for good purposes! The leaders of humanity, the masters, have foreseen this time, and it is the mission of theosophical teaching to prepare minds for what is to come, to warn them, to show them the way and the goal.