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Lectures to the First Class
Volume II
GA 270

28 June 1924, Dornach

Lesson XVI

My dear friends,

We will again start by letting the words resound from the cosmos near and far, which can be heard by everyone who correctly understands the world. But before doing so, because again many new members of the esoteric school are present, I must say at least a few words about the meaning of this school.

I will put it briefly. This School must be recognized as one which brings down its information from the spiritual world to human souls. Therefore, what lives here in the School and what is brought to human souls are to be perceived as communications from the spiritual world itself. From this you will understand that membership in the School must be regarded as serious in the highest degree.

This seriousness has only become possible because of the Constitution which the Anthroposophical Society received during the Christmas Conference. Since then the Anthroposophical Society as such is an openly public institution, but at the same time one through which an esoteric breath flows, which has been better received than the former exoteric one.

So nothing more is expected from the members of the Anthroposophical Society than that they feel themselves to be receivers of anthroposophical wisdom. And, of course, what is generally expected of decent people in life.

But membership in the School implies even more, that the member recognize the serious conditions for membership—namely the basic condition that anyone who wishes to belong to the School should present himself in life in such a way that he is in every respect a representative of anthroposophy before the world.

To be a representative of anthroposophy before the world necessarily means that whatever he or she does in connection to anthroposophy, be it ever so remotely connected, also be with the approval of the leadership of the School, that is, with the esoteric Executive Committee at the Goetheanum. Thus through the School a real stream can enter the anthroposophical movement, which today is represented by the Anthroposophical Society.

Therefore, it is necessary that membership in the School be understood in such a way that the member feels in his whole being that he is a part of what is being done and revealed from here in the Goetheanum. Such a condition should not be taken as a restriction on human freedom, my dear friends, for membership in the school rests on reciprocity. The leadership of the School must be free to give what it has to give to whom it considers right to do so. And the fact that no one is obliged to be a member of the School, but that it depends on his free will to be a member, means that the leadership may also place conditions on membership without anyone claiming that his free will is in any way infringed upon. It is a free agreement between the leadership of the School and those who wish to be members.

Furthermore, in order that the School really be taken seriously, it cannot be otherwise than that the leadership exercise its right to revoke a membership whenever it considers necessary because of certain events. And, my dear friends, that the leadership of the School takes this seriously is shown by the fact that since the relatively short time the School has existed, sixteen members already had to be suspended for shorter or longer lengths of time. And I must again emphasize that this measure will have to be strictly adhered to in the future, regardless of the personalities involved, because we will be entering ever more deeply into esoteric matters.


* * *


And now the words will be spoken which are always spoken at the beginning of our deliberations, reminding us of the admonitions which resound from all the events and beings of the world to all those who have the heart to understand them: the admonition to self-knowledge, which is the true foundation of world knowledge.


O man, know thyself!
So resounds the Cosmic-Word.
You hear it strong in soul,
You feel it firm in spirit.

Who speaks with cosmic might?
Who speaks in depth of heart?

Does it work through distant radiant space
Into your senses' sense of being?
Does it ring through weaving waves of time
Into your life's evolving stream?

It's you yourself who,
In feeling space, in experiencing time

Create the Word, feeling foreign
In space's psychic vacancy,
Because you lose the force of thought
In time's destructive flow.


My dear friends, we have advanced, in respect to what has been sent to us from the spiritual world in the form of mantras, to the mantric verses which correspond to the esoteric situation in which we feel ourselves: first of all, in meditation we imagine the being standing at the abyss of existence speaking to us.

Let us imagine it once more, for we cannot recall it to our souls too often. We see before us everything belonging to the kingdoms of nature. We observe the glorious heavenly bodies; we see the floating clouds; we see the wind and the waves, the thunder and lightning. We see everything from the humblest worm to the sublimest revelations in the glittering stars. Only a false asceticism, unrelated to true esotericism, could in any way despise this world that speaks to the senses. The person who wishes to be truly human can do nothing other than intimately relate to the sense-perceptible life, from the humblest creature to the majestic, divinely glittering stars.

We must never despise the grandeur and awesome beauty of all that surrounds us, which we must acknowledge; we must go forward step by step in the world and be able to appreciate what our eyes see, what our ears hear, what the other senses perceive, what we can grasp with our reason. However, a moment comes as you look around at the expanse of space, at the interweaving of time, that despite all the grandeur and awesome beauty in your surroundings, you cannot find there what the inner nature of your being is. So you must say to yourself: the inner source of my being is to be sought elsewhere. The very power of such a thought affects us.

What follows for the soul can only be expressed in imaginative thoughts. At first these imaginative thoughts lead us to a wide field in which everything earthly and sense-perceptible is spread out before us. We find it to be radiant with the sun, we find it to be shining light. But as we look all around us we find our own self nowhere. Then we gaze before us and see that this sunny field, which is grandiose and beautiful and sublime to the senses, is blocked by a dark, night-bedecked wall. We see ourselves entering deeply into the darkness. We intuit that perhaps there in the darkness is our self's true origin; but we cannot see into it.

And as we follow the path forward, the abyss of existence, the threshold to the spiritual world, appears before us. We must cross over this abyss. The Guardian stands there warning us that we must be mature in order to cross over the abyss, for with our thinking, feeling and willing habits which correspond to the physical sense-perceptible world, we cannot cross over the abyss of existence into the spiritual world in which our real self originated.

The Guardian of the Threshold is the first spiritual being we encounter. Every night we are in this spiritual world when we sleep. But it is like darkness around our I and our astral body, because we can only enter this spiritual world when sufficiently mature. The Guardian of the Threshold protects us from entering immaturely. But now as we encounter him he sends us his grand admonishments. And the admonishments are contained in the mantric verses which until now have formed the content of these esoteric lessons.

Those of you who do not yet have these mantric verses can obtain them from other members of the School. But the following procedure must be observed: not the person who is to receive the verses asks for permission, but the one who gives them.

These verses have not only shown us how our hearts are to react if we wish to cross over the abyss of existence, they have also shown us what our souls will feel once we have overflown the abyss and gradually sense—not yet see, but sense—how the darkness, which was at first night-bedecked, gradually becomes lighter. At first we feel becoming lighter, and we feel that the elements—earth, water, air, fire—are different on the other side, that we are living in another world. And the world in which we recognize our own being, and therewith the true form of the elements, is indeed another world.

During the last lesson we considered the meditation with which we were to imagine how the Guardian stands before the abyss of existence; now we are already beyond it, first we feel—not yet see—how the darkness becomes lighter. The Guardian speaks to us, after he had previously made clear to us how we should comport ourselves in relation to the four elements. He tells us how these four elements change for us. He then asks questions.

Who answers? The hierarchies themselves answer these questions. From one side the third hierarchy—Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai—from the other side the second hierarchy, from a third side the third hierarchy.

The third hierarchy—Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai—answers when the Guardian of the Threshold asks what becomes of the earth's solidity. The second hierarchy—Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes—answers when the Guardian of the Threshold asks us what becomes of the water's formative force, which acts in us and gives us our inner configuration. And the first hierarchy—Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim—answer when the Guardian asks us what becomes of our breathing, of the air's stimulating power, which awakens us from dull plant-like existence to sentient-feeling existence.

Such mantras are to penetrate our souls, our hearts, to the extent that we feel ourselves to be within the situation. The Guardian of the Threshold poses the testing, admonishing questions. The hierarchies answer.

The Guardian:
What becomes of the earth's solidity, which supports you?

Angeloi:
Feel as we feel in your thinking.

Archangeloi:
Experience, as we experience in your feeling.

Archai:
Perceive, as we perceive in your will.


The Guardian:
What becomes of water's formative force, which penetrated you?

Exusiai:
Learn the spirit cosmic creating in the human body creating.

Dynamis:
Feel the cosmic life of spirit in the human body's life.

Kyriotetes:
Will the spirit's cosmic working in the human body's being.


The Guardian:
What becomes of the air's stimulating power, which awakened you?

Thrones:
Knowingly grasp inner being in your divine cosmic being.

Cherubim:
Warm your inner life in divine cosmic life.

Seraphim:
Awaken inner light in your divine cosmic light.


These, my dear sisters and brothers, are the admonishing words coming from the communion of the Guardian of the Threshold together with the hierarchies, which bring our souls ever forward if we experience them more and more in the right way.

In this way, we are doing what is appropriate for human beings of today and the future, what in the ancient holy mysteries meant that the student was being guided to the essence of the elements: earth, water, air.

But warmth, which is also an element, pervades everything: in the solid earth element, which supports us, is warmth; in the element of water, which forms us as humans, which gives form to our organs, causing them to develop and grow, warmth is also present; and in the element of air, by which the Jehovah-spirits once breathed into humanity its soul, through which man is even today awakened from his dull, plant-like existence, warmth is present. Warmth is everywhere. We must recognize it as the all-pervading element. We must immerse ourselves in it as the all-pervading element: Yes, we feel so close to it.

We feel far from the solid earth element, though we still feel the earth's support. We even feel far from the water element. The air element maintains a more intimate relation to us. When the air element does not fill us with regularity, when we have too much breath in us, or too little, our inner life indicates how the air-element is connected to us. Too much breath awakens fear in the soul. Too little causes fainting. Our soul is embraced by the air element.

We feel ourselves most intimately united with the warmth element. We ourselves are what is warm or cold in us. In order to live we must generate a certain amount of warmth. We are intimately close to the warmth element. If we want to be closer to it, then not only one hierarchy can speak, then the reminding words must resound together from various hierarchies.

Therefore, when the Guardian of the Threshold asks questions of us concerning the warmth element, the answers from the cosmos are different. The Guardian asks the question:

What becomes of fire's purification, which enkindled your I?

We already know this question; it is the question about our entrance into the element of warmth, or fire. But now the answer does not come from one hierarchy or from a rank of one of the hierarchies, but the answer comes in choir from the Angeloi, the Exusiai, the Thrones; secondly the Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubim answer the Guardian's question; and thirdly Archai, Kyriotetes, Seraphim answer. Thus the three answers about the general nature of warmth resound from the choir-like words of the three hierarchies.

Therefore, we are to imagine that when we hear the Guardian of the Threshold's warning reminders, the answers, which resound from our I, but which are stimulated by the hierarchies—come from all sides: first Angeloi, Exusiai, Thrones; secondly speak the Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubim; and thirdly speak Archai, Kyriotetes, Seraphim. All three hierarchies always speak: a rank from each of the three hierarchies always speaks. Thus the answers comes to us from the cosmos.

The Guardian speaks:
What becomes of the fire's purification, which enkindled your I?

Angeloi, Exusiai, Thrones:
Awaken in the cosmic etheric vastness the flaming script of life.

From all three hierarchies we are reminded that everything which happened to us during earthly life is recorded in the cosmic ether and we see it recorded there when we have passed through the gate of death. Once we have passed through the gate of death, looking back at our earthly life, but also gazing out at the etheric vastness, what we have done and accomplished in thoughts, feelings and deeds during earthly life is recorded. It is your life's flaming script.

Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubim—answer in us:
Create the soul's atoning forces in circling waves of time.

We are admonished during the second stage we go through after passing through the gate of death, where we experience in reverse, in mirror images—that is, in its just atonement—what we have done here on earth. If we have harmed another human being in any way, we experience in the reverse stream of time what the other felt because of us. As I have said, the Archangeloi, Dynamis and Cherubim admonish us in this second stage, which we pass through between death and a new birth.

What our karma works through during the third stage—what happens when as souls we cooperate with other human souls and with the beings of the higher hierarchies

—the Archai (primal powers), Kyriotetes and Seraphim admonish us:
Ask help from the redemptive eternal force of spirit.

We must feel ourselves completely within this situation: the speaking Guardian of the Threshold—his earnest gesture toward us, his admonishment. And from the cosmic vastness, resounding, grasping our heart—what connects us with the riddle of life.

[The fourth part of the mantra is written on the blackboard.]

The Guardian speaks:
What becomes of fire's purification, which enkindled your I?

Angeloi, Exusiai, Thrones:
Awaken in the cosmic etheric vastness the flaming script of life.

Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubim—they answer in us:
Create the soul's atoning forces in circling waves of time.

Archai, Kyriotetes, Seraphim:
Ask help from the redemptive eternal force of spirit.


What previously stood before us like a black, night enclosed darkness, is not yet illuminated by light for the soul's eye. But we have the feeling that while we are standing within this black, night enclosed darkness, wherever we reach out we begin to feel a glimmering light. And we find ourselves in the situation where we know that we ourselves are within this glimmering light. We feel ourselves moving toward the Guardian of the Threshold. We had only seen him as long as we were in the field of the senses. Then we stepped into the darkness and heard his questioning, admonishing words.

But these admonishing, questioning words had led us to where we now feel something like a mild weaving, moving light. In this weaving, moving light we make our way to the Guardian of the Threshold seeking help. It is a unique experience: not yet light, but the light is making itself felt; in this felt light the Guardian of the Threshold, manifesting himself, as though he were becoming more intimate with us, as though he were leaning more to us now, as though we were also stepping closer to him.

And what he now says seems as though in [earthly] life a person is whispering something confidential in our ear. And what were at first admonishing, earnest words, trumpet-like, powerful, majestic, from all sides of the cosmos coming to our hearts, continues now as an intimate conversation with the Guardian of the Threshold in weaving, moving light. For now it is as though he no longer just speaks to us, it is as though he whispers to us:

Has your spirit understood?

Our inner self becomes warm when the Guardian of the Threshold says in confidence: “Has your spirit understood?” Our inner self becomes warm. It experiences itself in the warmth. And this inner self feels obliged to answer with devotion, quietly and humbly. Thus we imagine it in meditation:


The cosmic spirit in me
It held its breath within
And may its presence still
Illuminate my I.


[Der Weltengeist in mir
Er hielt den Atem an
Und seine Gegenwart
Mög' erleuchten mein Ich.]


Our I does not answer the question “Has your spirit understood?” with pride and arrogance: “I have understood”, but the I feels: divine being streams through the innermost essence of the human being; it is divine breath in man which quietly lingers and prepares us for understanding.

[The first part of the new mantra is written on the blackboard.]

The Guardian:
Has your spirit understood?

The I:

The cosmic spirit in me
It held its breath within
And may its presence still
Illuminate my I.


Secondly, the Guardian in confidence asks:
Has your soul apprehended?

The I answers:
The cosmic souls in me
Lived in the council of stars
And may their harmonies
Resounding create my I.


Again it is not proudly that the I is tempted to answer when the Guardian asks: Has your soul apprehended? Rather is the soul becoming aware that in it speaks the cosmic souls of the beings of the higher hierarchies, and that in what they say not an individual entity is present, but an entire council, a consultative meeting, as if the planets of a planetary system were circling and contributing their respective illuminating forces. Thus do the cosmic souls send their concise suggestions. Our soul hears and hopes that from the harmonies the I will be so formed that the I in the human being is an echo of the cosmic harmonies which arise when cosmic souls take council among each other—like the planets in the solar system—and their advice and harmonies resound in the human soul.

[The second part of the mantra is written on the blackboard.]

The Guardian:
Has your soul apprehended?

The I:
The cosmic souls in me
Lived in the council of stars
And may their harmonies
Resounding create my I.


And the third confidential question which the Guardian directs to the person in this situation is this:

Has your body experienced?

The soul feels that in this body the cosmic forces—which are everywhere—are concentrated in one point in space. But these cosmic forces do not appear now as physical forces. The soul has long since become aware of how these forces, which from outside appear as active physical forces, as gravitational, electrical, magnetic forces, as warmth forces, as light forces, when they are active in the human body are moral forces, are transformed into will-forces. The soul feels the cosmic forces as those which constitute eternal universal justice throughout the succession of earth lives. The soul feels them to be like forces of judgment which weave in the verdicts of karma and therewith the I itself.


When the Guardian asks in confidence:
Has your body experienced?

The human being feels obliged to answer with devotion to universal justice:

The cosmic forces in me
They judge the acts of men
And may their words of verdict
Guide the I in me.


[The third part of the mantra is written on the blackboard.]

The Guardian:
Has your body experienced?

I:

The cosmic forces in me
They judge the acts of men
And may their words of verdict
Guide the I in me.


Thus after having experienced the metamorphoses of the cosmic elements together with the Guardian of the Threshold and the hierarchies, the soul answers the Guardian's three questions with inner devotion; interwoven with what has been poured into it, the soul has advanced somewhat in answering the riddle of the words: “O man, know thyself!”

And today we will compare the opening words after having been filled with the element of warmth in devotion to the spiritual content of the cosmos, feeling how we have advanced further in following the great admonishment: “O man, know thyself!” We will see how we, as human beings, stand between the resounding of the demand for self-knowledge from all the cosmic events and beings, and the mantric verse, which has been contemplated in today's lesson:


O man, know thyself!
So resounds the Cosmic-Word.
You hear it strong in soul,
You feel it firm in spirit.

Who speaks with cosmic might?
Who speaks in depth of heart?

Does it work through distant radiant space
Into your senses' sense of being?
Does it ring through weaving waves of time
Into your life's evolving stream?

It's you yourself who,
In feeling space, in experiencing time

Create the Word, feeling foreign
In space's psychic vacancy,
Because you lose the force of thought
In time's destructive flow.


What becomes of fire's purification, which enkindled your I?
Awaken in the cosmic etheric vastness the flaming script of life.
Create the soul's atoning forces in circling waves of time.
Ask help from the redemptive eternal force of spirit.


Has your spirit understood?

The cosmic spirit in me
It held its breath within
And may its presence still
Illuminate my I.


Has your soul apprehended?

The cosmic souls in me
Lived in the council of stars
And may their harmonies
Resounding create my I.


Has your body experienced?

The cosmic forces in me
They judge the acts of men
And may their words of verdict
Guide the I in me.



Sechzehnte Stunde

Meine lieben Freunde! Wir beginnen wiederum damit, dass wir das Wort an uns erklingen lassen werden, das bei richtigem Verständnisse der Welt jeder Menschenseele aus allem, was da ist in den Nähen und in den Weiten des Kosmos, erklingen kann. Ehe aber dieses Wort zu unseren Seelen sprechen soll, muss ich, da heute wiederum eine größere Anzahl von neu in die esoterische Schule hier aufgenommenen Mitgliedern hier ist, wenigstens mit ein paar Worten noch einmal andeuten, was der Sinn dieser Schule ist.

Es handelt sich durchaus darum - ich werde es heute ganz kurz andeuten -, dass diese Schule angesehen werden muss als eine solche, welche ihre Mitteilungen an die menschlichen Seelen aus der geistigen Welt herunter vermittelt; sodass dasjenige, was hier in der Schule lebt, was hier in der Schule herangebracht wird an Menschenseelen, anzusehen ist als Mitteilung aus der geistigen Welt selbst. Sie werden daraus erkennen, dass die Zugehörigkeit zur Schule im höchsten Grade als etwas Ernstes angesehen werden muss.

Solcher Ernst, wie er durch diese Schule durchgehen muss, er ist ja erst möglich geworden durch die ganze Konstitution, welche die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft seit der Weihnachtstagung erhalten hat. Seit dieser Weihnachtstagung ist ja die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft als solche eine durchaus öffentliche Angelegenheit, aber zugleich eine öffentliche Institution, durch die als solche ein esoterischer Zug geht, jener esoterische Zug, dem ja die Herzen heute wirklich mehr entgegenkommen, als sie dem mehr exoterischen Zug vorher entgegengekommen sind.

Aber zugleich wird ja von den Mitgliedern der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft nicht eigentlich etwas anderes verlangt, als dass sie sich fühlen als Zuhörer der anthroposophischen Weisheit. Und im Übrigen wird nur dasjenige verlangt, was von jedem sozusagen anständigen Menschen im Leben verlangt werden kann.

Die Zugehörigkeit zur Schule aber bedingt umso mehr, dass das Mitglied der Schule anerkennt die Bedingungen, die ernsten Bedingungen dieser Schule. Und die Grundbedingung ist eben diese, dass jeder, der der Schule zugehören will, in seinem Leben darstellen sich soll so, dass er nach allen Seiten hin in jeder Einzelheit ein Repräsentant der anthroposophischen Sache vor der Welt ist.

Repräsentant sein der anthroposophischen Sache vor der Welt macht natürlich auch notwendig, dass man mit Bezug auf alles dasjenige, was man selber in irgendeinem Zusammenhange - wenn das auch ein entfernterer Zusammenhang ist - in der anthroposophischen Sache tut oder tun will, dass man für alles dergleichen sucht den Zusammenhang mit der Leitung der Schule, das heißt mit dem esoterischen Vorstand am Goetheanum. Es handelt sich also durchaus darum, dass durch die Schule ein realer Zug hineinkommen soll in die anthroposophische Bewegung, die heute durch die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft repräsentiert wird.

Daher ist es schon notwendig, dass die Zugehörigkeit zur Schule eben so aufgefasst wird, dass der der Schule Angehörige Anthroposophie in seinen ganzen Menschen, in sein ganzes Wesen aufnimmt, aber sich auch fühlt als ein Glied desjenigen, was hier vom Goetheanum als eine reale Strömung ausgehen will. Dass solche Forderungen gestellt werden, kann ja nicht, meine lieben Freunde, als eine Beeinträchtigung der menschlichen Freiheit angesehen werden; denn die Zugehörigkeit zu der Schule beruht auf Gegenseitigkeit. Die Leitung der Schule muss Freiheit darinnen haben, demjenigen das zu geben, was sie zu geben hat, dem sie es zu geben für richtig hält. Und da man nicht Mitglied der Schule zu sein braucht, sondern, es durchaus im freien Willen stehen muss, Mitglied der Schule zu werden, so muss schon auch die Leitung der Schule ihre Bedingungen stellen können, ohne dass irgendjemand davon sprechen könnte, dass dadurch sein freier Wille irgendwie beeinträchtigt werde. Es ist ein freies Abkommen zwischen der Leitung der Schule und demjenigen, der Mitglied sein will.

Damit aber auf der andern Seite der Ernst der Schule wirklich auch ernst aufgefasst wird, kann es gar nicht anders sein, als dass immerhin die Leitung der Schule es als ihr Recht in Anspruch nimmt, die Mitgliedschaft wieder aufzuheben, wenn sie das für notwendig halten muss durch irgendwelche Geschehnisse. Und, meine lieben Freunde, dass die Leitung der Schule das streng nimmt, das bezeugt die Tatsache, dass nun seit dem verhältnismäßig kurzen Bestand der Schule sechzehn Mitglieder der Schule aus derselben ausgeschlossen werden mussten für Zeit, für kürzere oder längere Zeit. Und ich betone noch einmal: Diese Maßregel wird müssen - weil wir ja immer tiefer und tiefer in das Esoterische hineinkommen -, diese Maßregel wird müssen unbedingt in der Zukunft streng eingehalten werden, ganz gleichgültig gegenüber dem Persönlichen desjenigen, den sie trifft.


Und jetzt seien die Worte gesprochen, die immer am Anfange dieser unserer esoterischen Auseinandersetzungen gesprochen werden, mahnend an diejenige Mahnung, die aus allen Vorgängen und aus allen Dingen der Welt und Wesenheiten der Welt an den Menschen erklingt, der das Herz hat, sie zu verstehen; jene Mahnung zur Selbsterkenntnis, die die wahre Grundlage der Welterkenntnis ist:

O Mensch, erkenne dich selbst!
So tönt das Weltenwort.
Du hörst es seelenkräftig,
Du fühlst es geistgewaltig.

Wer spricht so weltenmächtig?
Wer spricht so herzinniglich?

Wirkt es durch des Raumes Weitenstrahlung
In deines Sinnes Seinserleben?
Tönt es durch der Zeiten Wellenweben
In deines Lebens Werdestrom?

Bist du es selbst, der sich
Im Raumesfühlen, im Zeiterleben
Das Wort erschafft, dich fremd
Erfühlend in Raumes Seelenleere,
Weil du des Denkens Kraft
Verlierst im Zeitvernichtungsstrome.

Meine lieben Freunde, wir sind vorgedrungen in demjenigen, was uns aus der geistigen Welt zukommen soll als mantrische Sprüche, bis zu jenen mantrischen Sprüchen, die wir in der esoterischen Situation drinnen fühlen. Diese esoterische Situation besteht ja darinnen, dass wir uns im Meditieren vorstellen, wie zunächst diejenige Wesenheit zu uns spricht, die da steht am Abgrunde des Seins.

Stellen wir uns also noch einmal vor, denn wir können das nicht oft genug vor unsere Seele rufen: Der Mensch sieht um sich herum alles das, was zunächst im irdischen Dasein in den Reichen der Natur um ihn herum ist: Er sieht hinauf zu den erhabenen Sternen; er sieht die ziehenden Wolken; er sieht alles dasjenige, was um ihn herum ist in Wind und Welle, in Blitz und Donner; er sieht alles von dem niedrigsten Gewürm bis hinauf zu den erhabensten Offenbarungen in der funkelnden Sternenwelt. Nur eine falsche Askese, die nicht in einer wahren Esoterik gesucht werden darf, könnte irgendwie diese zu den Sinnen sprechende Welt verachten. Der Mensch, der ein rechter Mensch sein will, er kann nicht anders als zu empfinden in intimster Weise alles sinnlich und verstandesmäßig Wirkliche vom niedersten Gewürm bis zu den majestätischen, göttlich-gewaltigen, funkelnden Sternen.

Allein, es kommt dann der Augenblick, der den Menschen in tief innerster Seele ergreifen kann, der Augenblick, in dem er sich sagen muss: Groß und gewaltig und schön und herrlich und majestätisch ist alles dasjenige, was du um dich herum siehst. Du sollst es nicht verachten. Du sollst es anerkennen. Du sollst Schritt für Schritt vorwärtsdringen in der Welt, um immer mehr und mehr von demjenigen sehen zu können, was deine Augen schauen, was an deine Ohren klingt, was die übrigen Sinne wahrnehmen können, was du mit dei nem Verstande ergreifen kannst. Aber, indem du so herumschaust in den Raumesweiten, herumschaust in dem Wellenweben der Zeit, wirst du trotz alles Gewaltigen, Schönen und Erhabenen in deiner Umgebung in diesem Gebiete nicht dasjenige wahrnehmen, was das innerste Wesen deines Seins selber ist. Und du wirst dir sagen müssen: Der innerste Quell deines Seins ist woanders zu suchen. - Da wird uns die Macht eines solchen Gedankens ergreifen können.

Dasjenige, was nun weiter folgt für die Seele, es ist nur au zudrücken in imaginativen Vorstellungen. Diese imaginativen Vorstellungen, sie führen uns zunächst wie auf ein weites Feld, in dem ausgebreitet ist alles Irdische, Sinnesmäßige. Wir finden es sonnenbeglänzt, wir finden es leuchtend hell; aber wir schauen ringsherum und finden nirgends unser eigenes Wesen. Da blicken wir vor uns hin. Und begrenzt ist dieses sonnenbeglänzte Feld, in dem alles Schöne und Große und Erhabene für die Sinne ist, in dem wir nicht selber sind, aber es ist begrenzt durch eine finstere, nachtbedeckte Wand. Tief in die Finsternis ahnen wir hinein. Wir ahnen in die Finsternis hinein, dass dort vielleicht die Helligkeit ist, dass dort unser wahres Wesen urständet; aber wir können nicht hineinschauen.

Und indem wir den Weg bis dahin verfolgen, tut sich vor uns auf der Abgrund des Seins, der da ist die Schwelle zur geistigen Welt. Wir müssen diesen Abgrund erst übersetzen. Da steht der Hüter, der uns ermahnt, dass wir reif sein müssen, um den Abgrund zu übersetzen. Denn mit demjenigen, was unsere Gewohnheiten, unsere Denk-, Gefühls- und Willensgewohnheiten in der physischsinnlichen Welt sind, kommen wir nicht hinüber über diesen Abgrund des Seins in die wahre geistige Welt, in der unser wirkliches Wesen urständet.

Es ist die erste Geistgestalt, an die wir herantreten, der Hüter der Schwelle. Wir sind jede Nacht, in der wir schlafen, drinnen in dieser geistigen Welt. Sie ist aber als Finsternis um unser Ich und unseren astralischen Leib, weil wir nur reif eintreten können in diese geistige Welt. Der Hüter der Schwelle bewahrt uns davor, unreif einzutreten. Jetzt aber, wo wir vor ihn hintreten, sendet er uns seine großen Ermahnungen. Und diese Ermahnungen sind uns entgegengetreten in den mantrischen Sprüchen, die bisher den Inhalt dieser esoterischen Stunden gebildet haben.

Diejenigen, die diese mantrischen Sprüche noch nicht haben, werden sie ja bekommen können von Mitgliedern der Schule. Jedoch muss dabei die Gepflogenheit eingehalten werden, dass nicht derjenige, der die Sprüche empfängt, sondern derjenige, der sie gibt, anfrägt darum, ob er sie geben kann.

Diese Sprüche, sie haben uns nicht nur gezeigt, wie wir unser Herz erhalten sollen, wenn wir hinüberkommen wollen über den Abgrund des Seins, sie haben uns auch schon gezeigt, wie wir selber in unserer Seelenverfassung uns finden, wenn wir den Abgrund überflogen haben und allmählich verspüren zunächst - nicht schon schauen, sondern verspüren -, wie die Finsternis, die uns zuerst nachtbedeckt entgegengestarrt hat, allmählich hell wird. Zuerst fühlt man, dass sie hell wird, und man fühlt, dass die Elemente - das Irdische, das Wässrige, das Luftige, das Feurige - anders werden da drüben, dass wir in einer anderen Welt leben. Und die Welt, in der wir unser eigenes Sein und damit die wahre Gestalt der Elemente erkennen wollen, sie ist eine andere Welt.

Das letzte Mal trat diejenige Meditation vor unsere Seele, nach der wir uns vorzustellen haben, wie der Hüter steht am Abgrunde des Seins, wir schon drüben sind jenseits dieses Abgrundes, erst fühlen - noch nicht schauen -, wie die Finsternis sich lichtet. Da spricht der Hüter zu uns - nachdem er ja schon vorher uns klargemacht hat wie wir uns zu den vier Elementen verhalten sollen -, es spricht der Hüter zu uns, wie sich nun diese Elemente für uns verändern. Er stellt Fragen an uns.

Wer antwortet? Es antworten auf diese Fragen die Hierarchien selber. Von der einen Seite her die dritte Hierarchie - Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai -, von der anderen Seite die zweite Hierarchie, von einer dritten Seite her die erste Hierarchie.

Die dritte Hierarchie - Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai - antwortet, wenn uns der Hüter der Schwelle frägt, was aus der Erde Festigkeit wird. Die zweite Hierarchie - Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes - antwortet, wenn uns der Hüter der Schwelle frägt, was aus des Wassers Bildungskraft wird, die in uns wirkt und die uns eigentlich unsere innere Gestaltung gibt. Und die erste Hierarchie - Throne, Cherubine, Seraphine - antwortet, wenn uns der Hüter frägt, was aus unseres Atems, aus der Lüfte Reizgewalt wird, die uns eigentlich erweckt aus dem dumpfen Pflanzendasein in empfindend-fühlendes Dasein.

Und solche mantrischen Sprüche haben ja so an unsere Seele, an unser Herz zu dringen, dass wir uns drinnen fühlen in der ganzen Situation: Der Hüter der Schwelle stellt die prüfend-mahnende Frage an uns; die Hierarchien antworten.

Der Hüter: Was wird aus der Erde Festigkeit, die dich stützte?

Angeloi: Empfinde, wie wir in deinem Denken empfinden.

Archangeloi: Erlebe, wie wir in deinem Fühlen erleben.

Archai: Schaue, wie wir in deinem Wollen schauen.

Der Hüter: Was wird aus des Wassers Bildekraft, die dich durchdrang?

Exusiai: Erkenne Geistes-Welten-Schaffen im MenschenKörper-Schaffen.

Dynamis: Erfühle Geistes-Welten-Leben im MenschenKörper-Leben.

Kyriotetes: Wolle Geistes-Welt-Geschehen im MenschenKörper-Sein.

Der Hüter: Was wird aus der Lüfte Reizgewalt, die dich erweckte?

Throne: Ergreife wissend Innen-Sein in deinem GottesWelten-Sein.

Cherubine: Erwarme am Innen-Leben in deinem GottesWelten-Leben.

Seraphine: Erweck’ in dir Innen-Licht in deinem GottesWelten-Licht.

Das, meine lieben Schwestern und Brüder, sind die aus der Gemeinschaft des Hüters der Schwelle mit den Hierarchien hervorgehenden Mahnworte, die unsere Seele allmählich weiter und immer weiterbringen, wenn wir sie in der richtigen Weise immer wieder und wieder erleben.

Wir machen in der Art, wie es für den heutigen Menschen und für den Menschen der Zukunft sein muss, dasjenige durch, was in den alten heiligen Mysterien bezeichnet worden ist damit, dass der Schüler sagte: Er würde geführt in die Wesenheit der Elemente Erde, Wasser, Luft.

Aber die Wärme, die auch ein Element ist, sie durchdringt alles: Im erdigen Elemente, das als Festes uns Menschen stützt, im erdigen Elemente ist die Wärme; im wässrigen Elemente, das als Menschen uns bildet, das unsere Organe in Konturen gestaltet, sie ins Werden und Weben und Wachsen bringt, in diesem wässrigen Elemente lebt auch das Wärmeelement; und in dem luftigen Elemente, durch das einstmals die Jahve-Geister eingehaucht haben dem Menschen sein seelisches Wesen, durch das heute noch der Mensch sein seelisches Wesen aus dem dumpfen pflanzlichen Dasein heraus erweckt, lebt die Wärme. Die Wärme lebt allüberall. Wir müssen sie kennenlernen als das allwaltende Element; wir müssen in sie untertauchen als in das allwaltende Element. Wir fühlen uns ihr ja auch nahe.

Fern fühlen wir uns - wenn wir auch die Stütze der Erde empfinden - dem festen Erdenelemente. Fern fühlen wir uns noch dem Wasserelemente. Das Luftelement drängt schon zu einem intimeren Zusammensein mit uns. Wenn das Luftelement nicht ganz regelmäßig uns ausfüllt- wenn wir zu viel des Atems in uns haben oder wenn wir zu wenig des Atems in uns haben -, zeigt sich in unserem Innenleben an, wie das Luftelement mit uns verbunden ist. Zuviel des Atems in uns erweckt in der Seele Angst und Ängstlichkeit. Zuwenig des Atems in uns erweckt in der Seele Ohnmacht. Mit dem Luftelemente wird schon unsere Seele ergriffen.

Mit dem Wärmeelemente fühlen wir uns ganz intim vereint. Was in uns warm oder kalt ist, sind wir selber. Wir müssen, um zu leben, eine bestimmte Wärme in uns herstellen. Dem Wärmeelement stehen wir intim nahe. Wollen wir uns ihm nähern, dann kann nicht bloß eine Hierarchie sprechen, dann müssen zusammenklingen die Mahnworte der verschiedenen Hierarchien.

Daher richtet der Hüter der Schwelle auch Mahnworte an uns, Mahnfrage an uns, bezüglich des Wärmeelementes. Aber die Antwort, die aus dem Weltenall, aus dem Kosmos tönt, ist jetzt anders. Der Hüter der Schwelle stellt seine Frage:

Was wird aus des Feuers Reinigung, die dir das Ich entflammte?

Wir kennen schon die Frage; es ist nun die Frage unseres Hineinführens in das Element der Wärme oder des Feuers.

Aber dann antwortet nicht eine Hierarchie oder eine Wesensordnung aus einer Hierarchie, sondern es antworten im Chore die Angeloi, die Exusiai, die Throne; als Zweite auf die Frage des Hüters antworten Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubine; als Dritte antworten Archai, Kyriotetes, Seraphine. Sodass die drei Antworten erklingen aus dem chormäßigen Zusammensprechen der drei Hierarchien wegen des Allgemeinen des Wärmeelementes.

Wir haben uns also vorzustellen, dass, indem wir so aufsteigen zu der Mahnfrage des Hüters der Schwelle über das Wärmeelement, dass in diesem Augenblicke die Antworten, die aus unserem Ich heraus klingen, aber angeregt werden durch die Hierarchien, diese Mahnantworten erklingen, so, dass von allen Seiten her zuerst sprechen Angeloi, Exusiai, Throne; als Zweite sprechen Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubine; als Dritte sprechen Archai, Kyriotetes, Seraphine. Immer sprechen alle drei Hierarchien: eine Wesensordnung aus den drei Hierarchien spricht immer. So tritt kosmisch an uns heran dasjenige, was mit dieser Frage verbunden ist.

Der Hüter spricht: Was wird aus des Feuers Reinigung, die dir das Ich entflammte?

Angeloi, Exusiai, Throne: Erwecke dir in Weltenätherweiten die Lebensflammenschrift.

Es ermahnen uns alle drei Hierarchien, daran zu denken, wie alles dasjenige, was während des Erdenlebens an uns herantritt, eingetragen ist in dem Weltenäther und wir es eingetragen erblicken in dem Weltenäther, wenn wir durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind. Da stehen in Geisteswelten - nachdem wir durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, zurückblickend auf unser irdisches Leben, aber auch hinblickend auf die ätherischen Weltenweiten -, da ist eingeschrieben dasjenige, was wir an Gedanken, Gefühlen und Taten vollbracht haben während des Erdenlebens: Es ist eine, deine Lebensflammenschrift.

Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubine, sie antworten in uns:
Erschaffe dir in Zeitenwellenkreisen die Seelensühnekräfte.

Wir werden ermahnt an das zweite Stadium, das wir durchmachen, nachdem wir durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, wo wir rückwärts erleben, wo wir alles dasjenige im Spiegelbilde durchmachen - das heißt in seiner gerechten Sühne -, was wir hier im Leben vollbracht haben. Haben wir uns gegen irgendeinen Menschen in dieser oder jener Weise benommen, wir erleben dann in einem Rückwärtsgehen im Zeitenstrome dasjenige, was der andere durch uns erlebt hat. So wie ich es ausgedrückt habe, so ermahnen uns Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubine an dasjenige, was dieses zweite Stadium ist, das wir durchmachen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt.

An dasjenige aber, was dann im dritten Stadium unser Karma ausarbeitet, an dasjenige, was geschieht, indem wir zusammenarbeiten als Seelen mit anderen Menschenseelen und mit den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien, daran mahnen uns Archai - Urkräfte -, Kyriotetes und Seraphine:

Erbitte dir in ew’gen Wesentaten die Geisterlösermächte.

Wir müssen uns so drinnen fühlen in dieser Situation: den sprechenden Hüter der Schwelle, seine ernste Gebärde nach uns hinbreitend, uns mahnend. Und aus den Weltenweiten, zu uns herübertönend, unser Herz ergreifend dasjenige, was uns mit den Rätseln des Lebens verbindet. [Der vierte Teil des Mantrams wird nun an die Tafel geschrieben; siehe Seite 804]

Der Hüter spricht: Was wird aus des Feuers Reinigung, die dir das Ich entflammte?

Angeloi, Exusiai, Throne:

Erwecke dir in Weltenätherweiten die Lebensflammenschrift. Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubine:

Erschaffe dir in Zeitenwellenkreisen die Seelensühnekräfte. Archai, Kyriotetes, Seraphine:

Erbitte dir in ew’gen Wesentaten die Geisterlösermächte.

Dasjenige, was vorher vor uns stand wie eine schwarze, nachtbedeckte Finsternis, es ist noch nicht für das Seelenauge von Licht durchhellt. Aber wir haben das Gefühl, weil wir ja drinnenstehen in dieser schwarzen, nachtbedeckten Finsternis, dass überall, wo wir hinfühlen, wir glimmendes Licht zunächst fühlen. Und wir befinden uns in der Lage, uns selber drinnen zu wissen in diesem glimmenden Lichte, das wir nur fühlen. Wir fühlen uns hin zu dem Hüter der Schwelle. Gesehen haben wir ihn ja eigentlich nur, solange wir drüben waren im Sinnesfelde. Denn wir traten zunächst ein in die Finsternis und hörten sein mahnendes, fragendes Wort.

Dieses mahnende, fragende Wort hat uns aber dahin geführt, dass wir jetzt fühlen etwas wie webendes, wirkendes Licht, mildes, webendes, wirkendes Licht. Hilfesuchend im webenden, wirkenden Licht wenden wir uns an den Hüter der Schwelle. Und es ist ein eigentümliches Erleben: Hell noch nicht, aber die Helligkeit fühlen lassend; in dieser gefühlten Helligkeit der Hüter der Schwelle, sich offenbarend, wie wenn er jetzt intimer würde mit uns, wie wenn er jetzt mehr sich neigen würde zu uns, wie wenn wir ihm auch jetzt nähertreten würden.

Und was er nunmehr spricht, es wirkt so, wie im Leben etwas wirkt, das ein Mensch einem vertraulich leise ins Ohr sagt. Und es setzt sich fort dasjenige, was zuerst als mahnendes, ernstes Wort deutlich erklungen hat vom Hüter der Schwelle her; was posaunenartig, mächtig, majestätisch von allen Seiten aus dem Kosmos an unser Herz herangetreten ist, das setzt sich fort in einem intimen Gespräche im webend-wirkenden Lichte mit dem Hüter der Schwelle; denn jetzt ist es, als ob er nicht mehr spräche zu uns, als ob er zu uns raunte:

Hat verstanden dein Geist?

Und unser Inneres wird warm ob dieser vertraulichen Sprache des Hüters der Schwelle, wenn er sagt: «Hat verstanden dein Geist?» Unser Inneres wird warm. Es erlebt sich in der Wärme. Und es fühlt sich gedrungen, dieses Innere, zu antworten. Andächtig antwortet es - so haben wir es meditativ in der Vorstellung -, andächtig antwortet es, still, bescheiden:

Der Weltengeist in mir

Er hielt den Atem an
Und seine Gegenwart
Mög? erleuchten mein Ich.

Nicht antwortet stolz und hoffärtig unser Ich auf die Frage «Hat verstanden dein Geist?»: «Ich habe verstanden», sondern das Ich fühlt: Göttliches Sein durchströmt das innerste Wesen des Menschen, göttlicher Atem im Menschen ist es, der still anhält und vorbereitet zum Verstehen. [Die erste Strophe des neuen Mantrams wird nun an die Tafel geschrieben; siche Seite 805:]

Der Hüter: Hat verstanden dein Geist?

Ich:
Der Weltengeist in mir
Er hielt den Atem an
Und seine Gegenwart
Mög? erleuchten mein Ich.

Und als Zweites frägt der Hüter vertraulich: Hat begriffen deine Seele?

Das Ich antwortet:
Die Weltenseelen in mir
Sie lebten im Sternenrat
Und ihre Harmonien
Mögen klingend schaffen mein Ich.

Es ist wiederum nicht etwa eine stolze Antwort, zu der sich das Ich versucht fühlt, wenn der Hüter frägt: «Hat begriffen deine Seele?», sondern die Seele wird sich bewusst, dass in ihr sprechen die Weltenseelen, die Seelen der Wesen der höheren Hierarchien, und dass in dem, was sie sprechen, nicht ein Einzelnes lebt, sondern ein ganzer Rat, eine beratende Versammlung, die so ist, wie wenn Sterne eines Planetensystems kreisen und gegenseitig sich ihre Leuchtekräfte zusenden. So senden sich die Weltenseelen ihre Ratschlüsse zu. Das vernimmt die eigene Seele. Und aus den Harmonien hofft die Seele, dass das Ich klingend erschaffen werde, sodass das im eigenen Menschenwesen wesende Ich ein Widerklang ist jener Weltenharmonien, die entstehen, wenn - wie im Planetensystem wandelnde Sterne - die Weltenseelen im Weltengeistesforum miteinander ratschlagen und Harmonien dieses Rates durch die Menschenseele erklingen.

[Die zweite Strophe wird nun an die Tafel geschrieben]

Der Hüter: Hat begriffen deine Seele?

Ich:
Die Weltenseelen in mir
Sie lebten im Sternenrat
Und ihre Harmonien
Mögen klingend schaffen mein Ich.

Und die dritte vertrauliche Frage, die der Hüter an den Menschen richtet in dieser Situation, sie ist die:

Hat erlebt dein Leib?

Die Seele fühlt, dass in diesem Leibe leben die Weltenkräfte, wie sie überall sind, konzentriert an einer Stelle des Raumes. Aber diese Weltenkräfte, sie erscheinen jetzt nicht als physische Kräfte. Die Seele ist längst gewahr geworden, wie diejenigen Kräfte, die draußen als wirkende, physische Kräfte erscheinen, als Schwerkräfte, als elektrische, magnetische, als Wärmekräfte, als Lichtkräfte, wie diese Kräfte, wenn sie im Menschenleibe wirken, moralische Kräfte sind, in Willenskräfte sich umwandeln. Die Seele empfindet die Weltenkräfte als diejenigen Kräfte, welche die ewige Weltengerechtigkeit konstituieren durch die Reihe der Erdenleben hindurch. Wie richtende Kräfte empfindet die Seele das, richtende Kräfte, die in ihren Wahrspruchworten das Karma weben und damit das eigentliche Ich. Wenn der Hüter der Schwelle traulich frägt:

Hat erlebt dein Leib?

fühlt der Mensch sich gedrungen, demutvoll zu antworten, aber hingegeben an die Weltengerechtigkeit:

Die Weltenkräfte in mir
Sie richten Menschentaten
Und ihre Wahrspruchworte
Mögen lenken mir das Ich.

[Die dritte Strophe wird nun an die Tafel geschrieben]

Der Hüter: Hat erlebt dein Leib?

Ich: Die Weltenkräfte in mir
Sie richten Menschentaten
Und ihre Wahrspruchworte
Mögen lenken mir das Ich.

So wird die Seele, nachdem sie mit dem Hüter der Schwelle und den Hierarchien zusammen erlebt hat die Umwandelung, die Metamorphose der Weltenelemente, so wird die Seele auf diese drei Fragen des Hüters hin innerlich andächtig antworten; verwebt mit der eigenen Wesenheit dasjenige, was sich in sie ergossen hat; ist wiederum ein wenig weitergekommen in der Beantwortung des Rätselwortes: «O Mensch, erkenne dich selbst!»

Und nun wollen wir heute einmal vergleichen das Anfangswort und dasjenige, zu dem wir - uns einfühlend in das Wärmeelement dann zu uns selbst kommen in andächtiger Stimmung gegenüber dem geistigen Inhalt des Kosmos; dann wieder fühlend, wie wir so weitergeschritten sind in der Befolgung der großen Mahnung: «O Mensch, erkenne dich selbst!» Wir werden sehen, wie wir als Menschenwesen mitten drinnenstehen zwischen diesem Ertönen der Aufforderung zur Selbsterkenntnis aus allen Vorgängen und allen Weltenwesen heraus und dem mantrischen Gespräch, das gerade durch die heutige Stunde vor unsere Seele getreten ist:

O Mensch, erkenne dich selbst!
So tönt das Weltenwort.
Du hörst es seelenkräftig,
Du fühlst es geistgewaltig.

Wer spricht so weltenmächtig?
Wer spricht so herzinniglich?

Wirkt es durch des Raumes Weitenstrahlung
In deines Sinnes Seinserleben?
Tönt es durch der Zeiten Wellenweben
In deines Lebens Werdestrom?

Bist du es selbst, der sich
Im Raumesfühlen, im Zeiterleben
Das Wort erschafft, dich fremd
Erfühlend in Raumes Seelenleere,
Weil du des Denkens Kraft
Verlierst im Zeitvernichtungsstrome.

Was wird aus des Feuers Reinigung, die dir das Ich entflammte?

Erwecke dir in Weltenätherweiten die Lebensflammenschrift.

Erschaffe dir in Zeitenwellenkreisen die Seelensühnekräfte.

Erbitte dir in ew’gen Wesentaten die Geisterlösermächte.

Hat verstanden dein Geist?

Der Weltengeist in mir
Er hielt den Atem an
Und seine Gegenwart
Mög? erleuchten mein Ich.

Hat begriffen deine Seele?

Die Weltenseelen in mir
Sie lebten im Sternenrat
Und ihre Harmonien
Mögen klingend schaffen mein Ich.

Hat erlebt dein Leib?

Die Weltenkräfte in mir
Sie richten Menschentaten
nd ihre Wahrspruchworte
Mögen lenken mir das Ich.

Sixteenth Hour

My dear friends! We will begin again by letting the word resound within us, which, with a proper understanding of the world, can resound in every human soul from all that exists in the vicinity and in the vastness of the cosmos.

But before this word speaks to our souls, since today there are again a large number of new members who have been admitted to the esoteric school, I must at least indicate once more in a few words what the purpose of this school is.

It is certainly the case – I will indicate this very briefly today – that this school must be regarded as one which conveys its messages to human souls from the spiritual world; so that what lives here in the school, what is brought here in the school to human souls, can be regarded as a message from the spiritual world itself. You will recognize from this that belonging to the school must be regarded as something extremely serious.

Such seriousness, as it must pervade this school, has only become possible through the entire constitution that the Anthroposophical Society has received since the Christmas Conference. Since that Christmas Conference, the Anthroposophical Society as such has been a thoroughly public affair, but at the same time a public institution through which an esoteric current flows, that esoteric current which hearts today are truly more receptive to than they were previously to the more exoteric current.

But at the same time, nothing else is really required of the members of the Anthroposophical Society other than that they feel themselves to be listeners to anthroposophical wisdom. And apart from that, only what can be required of every decent person in life is required.

Belonging to the school, however, requires all the more that the member of the school recognize the conditions, the serious conditions of this school. And the basic condition is precisely this: that everyone who wants to belong to the school should present themselves in their life in such a way that they are, in every detail and in every respect, a representative of the anthroposophical cause before the world.

Being a representative of the anthroposophical cause before the world naturally also requires that, with regard to everything one does or wants to do in any connection with the anthroposophical cause, even if it is a more distant connection, one seeks the connection with the leadership of the school, that is, with the esoteric executive committee at the Goetheanum. It is therefore essential that the school should bring a real impetus to the anthroposophical movement, which is represented today by the Anthroposophical Society.

It is therefore necessary that membership of the school be understood in such a way that those who belong to the school take in anthroposophy with their whole being, but also feel themselves to be a part of what is intended to emanate from the Goetheanum as a real current. That such demands are made cannot, my dear friends, be regarded as an impairment of human freedom, for membership of the school is based on reciprocity. The school's management must have the freedom to give what it has to give to those to whom it considers it right to give it. And since one does not have to be a member of the school, but must become a member of the school of one's own free will, the school's management must also be able to set its conditions without anyone being able to say that this somehow impairs their free will. It is a free agreement between the school's management and those who wish to be members.

However, in order for the seriousness of the school to be taken seriously, the school administration must reserve the right to revoke membership if it deems this necessary due to certain circumstances. And, my dear friends, the fact that the school administration takes this seriously is evidenced by the fact that, in the relatively short history of the school, sixteen members have had to be expelled from the school for a period of time for shorter or longer periods of time. And I emphasize once again: this measure will have to be strictly adhered to in the future, because we are going deeper and deeper into the esoteric, regardless of the personal circumstances of those affected.


And now let the words be spoken that are always spoken at the beginning of our esoteric discussions, reminiscent of the admonition that resounds from all events and all things in the world and from the beings of the world to those who have the heart to understand them; that admonition to self-knowledge, which is the true foundation of knowledge of the world:

O man, know thyself!
Thus sounds the word of the world.
Thou hearest it soul-powerful,
Thou feelest it spirit-mighty.

Who speaks so world-powerful?
Who speaks so heartfelt?

Does it work through the vast radiance of space
Into the experience of being in your mind?
Does it sound through the waves of time
Into the stream of becoming in your life?

Is it you yourself who,
In the feeling of space, in the experience of time,
Creates the word, feeling yourself alien
In the emptiness of space,
Because you lose the power of thought
In the stream of time's destruction.

My dear friends, we have advanced in what is to come to us from the spiritual world as mantric sayings, to those mantric sayings that we feel within us in the esoteric situation. This esoteric situation consists in the fact that in meditation we imagine how first of all the being that stands at the abyss of being speaks to us.

So let us imagine once again, for we cannot call this to mind often enough: human beings see around them everything that is initially in earthly existence in the realms of nature around them: they look up at the sublime stars; he sees the passing clouds; he sees everything that is around him in wind and waves, in lightning and thunder; he sees everything from the lowest vermin to the most sublime revelations in the sparkling world of stars. Only a false asceticism, which must not be sought in true esotericism, could somehow despise this world that speaks to the senses. The person who wants to be a true human being cannot help but feel in the most intimate way everything that is sensually and intellectually real, from the lowest vermin to the majestic, divinely powerful, sparkling stars.

But then comes the moment that can touch a person in the depths of their soul, the moment when they must say to themselves: Everything you see around you is great and powerful and beautiful and glorious and majestic. You must not despise it. You should acknowledge it. You should advance step by step in the world in order to see more and more of what your eyes see, what your ears hear, what your other senses perceive, what you can grasp with your mind. But as you look around the vastness of space, look around the waves of time, you will not perceive, despite all the mighty, beautiful, and sublime things in your surroundings in this realm, that which is the innermost essence of your being itself. And you will have to say to yourself: The innermost source of your being is to be found elsewhere. - The power of such a thought will be able to seize us.

What now follows for the soul can only be expressed in imaginative ideas. These imaginative ideas first lead us as if to a wide field in which everything earthly and sensual is spread out. We find it sunlit, we find it brightly lit; but we look around and find nowhere our own being. We look ahead of us. And this sunlit field, in which everything beautiful and great and sublime is for the senses, in which we ourselves are not, is limited, but it is limited by a dark, night-covered wall. Deep in the darkness we sense something. We sense in the darkness that perhaps there is brightness there, that our true essence is there; but we cannot see into it.

And as we follow the path to that point, the abyss of being opens up before us, which is the threshold to the spiritual world. We must first cross this abyss. There stands the guardian who warns us that we must be ready to cross the abyss. For with what our habits, our habits of thinking, feeling, and willing are in the physical-sensory world, we cannot cross this abyss of being into the true spiritual world, where our real being originates.

The first spiritual figure we approach is the Guardian of the Threshold. Every night when we sleep, we are inside this spiritual world. But it is like darkness around our ego and our astral body, because we can only enter this spiritual world when we are mature. The Guardian of the Threshold protects us from entering immaturely. But now, as we stand before him, he sends us his great admonitions. And these admonitions have come to us in the mantric sayings that have formed the content of these esoteric lessons so far.

Those who do not yet have these mantric sayings will be able to obtain them from members of the school. However, the custom must be observed that it is not the person receiving the sayings, but the person giving them, who asks whether he may give them.

These sayings have not only shown us how to preserve our hearts when we want to cross the abyss of being, they have also already shown us how to find ourselves in our soul state when we have flown over the abyss and gradually begin to feel - not yet seeing, but feeling - how the darkness that first stared at us, covered in night, is gradually becoming light. First, we feel that it is becoming light, and we feel that the elements - the earthly, the watery, the airy, the fiery - are becoming different over there, that we are living in a different world. And the world in which we want to recognize our own being and thus the true form of the elements is a different world.

Last time, the meditation presented to our soul was one in which we had to imagine how the Guardian stands at the abyss of being, while we are already on the other side of this abyss, first feeling – not yet seeing – how the darkness is lifting. Then the Guardian speaks to us — after he has already made it clear to us how we should relate to the four elements — the Guardian speaks to us about how these elements are now changing for us. He asks us questions.

Who answers? The hierarchies themselves answer these questions. On one side, the third hierarchy—Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai—on the other side, the second hierarchy, and on a third side, the first hierarchy.

The third hierarchy—Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai—answers when the Guardian of the Threshold asks us what becomes of the earth's solidity. The second hierarchy—Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes—answers when the Guardian of the Threshold asks us what becomes of the formative power of water, which works within us and actually gives us our inner form. And the first hierarchy – Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim – answers when the Guardian asks us what becomes of our breath, of the stimulating power of the air, which actually awakens us from a dull plant-like existence to a sentient, feeling existence.

And such mantric sayings must penetrate our soul, our heart, so that we feel ourselves inside the whole situation: the guardian of the threshold asks us the testing, admonishing question; the hierarchies answer.

The guardian: What becomes of the firmness of the earth that supported you?

Angeloi: Feel as we feel in your thinking.

Archangeloi: Experience as we experience in your feeling.

Archai: See as we see in your willing.

The Guardian: What will become of the formative power of water that permeated you?

Exusiai: Recognize the creation of spirit worlds in the creation of the human body.

Dynamis: Feel the life of spirit worlds in the life of the human body.

Kyriotetes: Will the events of spirit worlds in the being of the human body.

The Guardian: What becomes of the stimulating power of the air that awakened you?

Thrones: Knowingly grasp inner being in your God-world being.

Cherubim: Warm yourself to inner life in your God-world life.

Seraphim: Awaken within yourself the inner light in your God-world light.

These, my dear sisters and brothers, are the words of admonition that emerge from the communion of the Guardian of the Threshold with the hierarchies, which gradually carry our soul further and further when we experience them again and again in the right way.

We go through what has been described in the ancient sacred mysteries in the way that is necessary for the people of today and for the people of the future, when the disciple said that he would be guided into the essence of the elements earth, water, and air.

But warmth, which is also an element, permeates everything: in the earth element, which supports us humans as a solid foundation, there is warmth; in the water element, which forms us as human beings, shapes our organs, brings them into being and weaves and grows them, in this water element the element of warmth also lives; and in the air element, through which the Yahweh spirits once breathed the soul into man, through which man still awakens his soul from the dull plant existence, warmth lives. Warmth lives everywhere. We must get to know it as the all-pervading element; we must immerse ourselves in it as in the all-pervading element. We also feel close to it.

We feel distant from the solid earth element, even though we feel the support of the earth. We also feel distant from the water element. The air element already urges us toward a more intimate union with it. When the air element does not fill us quite regularly—when we have too much breath in us or when we have too little breath in us—our inner life reveals how the air element is connected to us. Too much breath in us awakens fear and anxiety in the soul. Too little breath within us awakens powerlessness in the soul. The air element already has a hold on our soul.

We feel very intimately united with the heat element. What is warm or cold within us is ourselves. In order to live, we must create a certain warmth within ourselves. We are intimately close to the heat element. If we want to approach it, then it is not just one hierarchy that can speak; the admonitions of the various hierarchies must resound together.

Therefore, the Guardian of the Threshold also addresses admonitions to us, admonishing questions to us, concerning the element of warmth. But the answer that resounds from the universe, from the cosmos, is now different. The Guardian of the Threshold asks his question:

What will become of the purification of fire that the I kindled in you?

We already know the question; it is now the question of our introduction into the element of warmth or fire.

But then it is not a hierarchy or an order of beings from a hierarchy that answers, but the Angeloi, the Exusiai, the Thrones answer in chorus; second to answer the Guardian's question are the Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubim; third to answer are the Archai, Kyriotetes, Seraphim. So that the three answers resound from the choral interplay of the three hierarchies because of the generality of the element of warmth.

We must therefore imagine that, as we ascend to the guardian of the threshold's admonitory question about the element of warmth, the answers that sound from our ego, but are inspired by the hierarchies, resound at this moment, so that from all sides first the Angeloi, Exusiai, and Thrones speak; second, the Archangels, Dynamis, and Cherubim speak; third, the Archai, Kyriotetes, and Seraphim speak. All three hierarchies always speak: an order of beings from the three hierarchies always speaks. Thus, that which is connected with this question approaches us cosmically.

The guardian speaks: What will become of the purification of fire that your ego ignited?

Angels, Exusii, Thrones: Awaken in the expanses of the world ether the writing of the flame of life.

All three hierarchies admonish us to remember how everything that approaches us during our earthly life is recorded in the world ether, and we will see it recorded in the world ether when we have passed through the gate of death. There, in the spiritual worlds—after we have passed through the gate of death, looking back on our earthly life, but also looking toward the etheric expanses of the world—there is inscribed what we have accomplished in thoughts, feelings, and deeds during our earthly life: it is your life flame script.

Archangeloi, Dynamis, Cherubim, they answer within us:
Create the powers of soul atonement in the waves of time.

We are reminded of the second stage we go through after passing through the gate of death, where we experience everything backwards, where we go through everything we have accomplished here in life in a mirror image – that is, in its just atonement. If we have behaved in a certain way toward another person, we then experience in a backward movement in the stream of time what the other person experienced through us. As I have expressed it, the Archangels, Dynamis, and Cherubim remind us of this second stage that we go through between death and a new birth.

But Archai (primordial forces), Kyriotetes, and Seraphim remind us of what our karma works out in the third stage, of what happens when we work together as souls with other human souls and with the beings of the higher hierarchies:

Ask for the powers of the spirit liberators in eternal deeds.

We must feel ourselves to be in this situation: the speaking guardian of the threshold, his serious gesture reaching out to us, admonishing us. And from the vastness of the worlds, resounding to us, touching our hearts, that which connects us to the mysteries of life. [The fourth part of the mantra is now written on the board; see page 804]

The guardian speaks: What will become of the purification of fire that the I ignited in you?

Angeloi, Exusiai, Thrones:

Awaken in the vastness of the world ether the writing of the flame of life. Archangels, Dynamis, Cherubim:

Create in the circles of time waves the powers of soul atonement. Archai, Kyriotetes, Seraphim:

Invoke the powers of spiritual liberation in eternal deeds.

That which previously stood before us like a black, night-covered darkness is not yet illuminated by light for the soul's eye. But because we stand within this black, night-covered darkness, we have the feeling that wherever we reach out, we first feel a glimmering light. And we find ourselves in a position of knowing ourselves to be inside this glimmering light that we can only feel. We feel ourselves drawn to the guardian of the threshold. We only really saw him while we were over there in the sensory field. For we first entered the darkness and heard his admonishing, questioning words.

But these admonishing, questioning words have led us to now feel something like a weaving, active light, a mild, weaving, active light. Seeking help in the weaving, active light, we turn to the guardian of the threshold. And it is a peculiar experience: not yet bright, but allowing us to feel the brightness; in this felt brightness, the Guardian of the Threshold reveals himself, as if he were now becoming more intimate with us, as if he were now leaning more toward us, as if we were now approaching him.

And what he now speaks has the same effect as something in life that a person says confidentially and quietly in your ear. And what first sounded clearly as a warning, a serious word from the Guardian of the Threshold, continues; what has approached our hearts from all sides of the cosmos like a trumpet, powerful and majestic, continues in an intimate conversation in the weaving light with the Guardian of the Threshold; for now it is as if he no longer speaks to us, as if he whispers to us:

Has your spirit understood?

And our inner being is warmed by this confidential language of the guardian of the threshold when he says: “Has your spirit understood?” Our inner being is warmed. It experiences itself in the warmth. And it feels compelled, this inner being, to respond. It responds reverently—so we imagine in our meditation—it responds reverently, quietly, modestly:

The world spirit within me

He held his breath
And his presence
May enlighten my self.

Our self does not respond proudly and arrogantly to the question “Has your spirit understood?” with “I have understood,” but rather the self feels: Divine being flows through the innermost essence of the human being; it is the divine breath in the human being that pauses silently and prepares for understanding. [The first verse of the new mantra is now written on the board; see page 805:]

The Guardian: Has your spirit understood?

I:
The world spirit within me
Held its breath
And its presence
May enlighten my self.

And secondly, the guardian asks confidentially: Has your soul understood?

The self replies:
The world souls within me
They lived in the Council of Stars
And their harmonies
May create my self with sound.

Again, it is not a proud answer that the self feels compelled to give when the Guardian asks, “Has your soul understood?” but the soul becomes aware that the world souls, the souls of the beings of the higher hierarchies, speak within it, and that what they speak is not the voice of an individual, but of an entire council, an advisory assembly, which is like the stars of a planetary system orbiting and sending their light to one another. In this way, the world souls send their council decisions to one another. The soul hears this. And from the harmonies, the soul hopes that the I will be created in sound, so that the I that exists in its own human being is an echo of those world harmonies that arise when—like stars moving in the planetary system—the world souls deliberate with each other in the world spirit forum and the harmonies of this council resound through the human soul.

[The second verse is now written on the board]

The Guardian: Has your soul understood?

I:
The world souls within me
They lived in the Council of the Stars
And their harmonies
May create my self resoundingly.

And the third confidential question that the Guardian addresses to the human being in this situation is this:

Has your body experienced?

The soul feels that the forces of the world live in this body, as they are everywhere, concentrated in one place in space. But these forces of the world do not now appear as physical forces. The soul has long since become aware of how those forces that appear outside as active, physical forces, as gravitational forces, as electrical, magnetic, thermal, and light forces, are moral forces when they act in the human body, transforming themselves into forces of will. The soul perceives the world forces as those forces that constitute eternal world justice throughout the series of earthly lives. The soul perceives them as judging forces, forces that weave karma in their prophetic words and thus the actual self. When the Guardian of the Threshold asks trustingly:

Has your body experienced?

the human being feels compelled to answer humbly, but devoted to world justice:

The world forces within me
They judge human deeds
And their words of truth
May guide my self.

[The third stanza is now written on the board]

The Guardian: Has your body experienced?

I: The world forces within me
They judge human deeds
And their words of truth
May guide my ego.

Thus, after experiencing the transformation, the metamorphosis of the world elements, together with the Guardian of the Threshold and the Hierarchies, the soul will respond reverently to these three questions from the Guardian; interwoven with its own being is that which has poured into it; it has once again come a little further in answering the riddle: “O man, know thyself!”

And now let us compare the opening words with those to which we come—empathizing with the element of warmth, then coming to ourselves in a reverent mood toward the spiritual content of the cosmos; then feeling again how we have progressed in following the great admonition: “O man, know thyself!” We will see how we as human beings stand in the midst of this call for self-knowledge from all processes and all world beings and the mantric conversation that has just come before our soul in today's lesson:

O man, know thyself!
So sounds the word of the world.
You hear it with the power of your soul,
You feel it with the power of your spirit.

Who speaks so powerfully?
Who speaks so heartfelt?

Does it work through the vast radiance of space
In the experience of your mind?
Does it sound through the waves of time
In the stream of your life?

Is it you yourself who,
In the feeling of space, in the experience of time
Creates the word, feeling yourself foreign
In the emptiness of space's soul,
Because you lose the power of thought
In the stream of time's destruction.

What becomes of the purification of fire that the I ignited in you?

Awaken in the vastness of the world ether the writing of the flame of life.

Create in the circles of the waves of time the powers of soul atonement.

Ask in eternal deeds for the powers of spirit redemption.

Has your spirit understood?

The world spirit within me
He held his breath
And his presence
May enlighten my self.

Has your soul comprehended?

The world souls within me
They lived in the council of the stars
And their harmonies
May create my self with sound.

Has your body experienced?

The world forces within me
They judge human deeds
And their words of truth
May guide my self.