Differences Between Boys & Girls - Rudolf Steiner

We can then see, beginning at puberty, in the outer behavior of both girls and boys, something that often baffles their parents and teachers, something that contradicts their previous character: the teenagers’ loutish behavior (especially in boys, differently in girls). This behavior is caused by the feelings of the astral body (which encloses the not yet fully developed ego) as it struggles to experience a right relation to the physical body and, through it, to the whole of the environment. Because of the need to discover a relation between the objective and the subjective, this inner struggle is unavoidable. It expresses itself in a denial, as it were, of what the adolescent has so far developed. We sometimes do not recognize the teenagers—they are so different from what they used to be.

I need not go into detailed descriptions; we are all familiar with teenage behavior. But we must understand its nature, because of its significance for education.

What we see initially is that the astral body has a stronger influence in girls than in boys. Throughout life the astral body of women plays a more important role than that of men. The whole of the female organism is organized toward the cosmos through the astral body. Much of what are really cosmic mysteries is unveiled and revealed through the female constitution. The female astral body is more differentiated, essentially more richly structured, than that of the male. Men’s astral bodies are less differentiated, less finely structured, coarser. Girls between the ages of thirteen or fourteen and twenty or twenty-one develop in such a way that their egos are strongly influenced by what goes on in their astral bodies. We can see how the ego of a girl is, one could say, gradually absorbed by the astral body, with the result that during her twentieth and twenty-first years there is a strong counter-pressure, a strong effort to come to grips with the ego.

The process is essentially different in boys. Their astral bodies do not absorb their egos so strongly. Their egos are more concealed, are not as effective. The ego of the boy between the ages of thirteen or fourteen and twenty or twenty-one remains without the strong influence of the astral body. Because of this, because the ego of the boy is not absorbed by the astral body and yet lacks independence, boys at this age are less forward than girls. Girls are freer at this age, more at ease in their outer confrontation with the world than are boys. We can notice in those boys especially endowed with these qualities a reserve, a withdrawal from life, the result of this special relation between astral body and ego.

Certainly, boys are looking for friendship, for some connection. But they also feel the need to hide their thoughts and feelings. This is characteristic of boys whose egos are connected to their astral bodies in this way. Teachers who can empathize with this situation that is present in boys, who can meet it in a subtle, delicate way, will do much to help them. It is this manner of the teacher rather than a direct, crude approach that has a beneficial effect. The boy has a certain love of withdrawal into himself; if this love of withdrawing into himself is not present at this age in a boy we really ought to be cautious. A good teacher will notice this, and he or she will then take care. The teacher will reflect: “There is something I have to look for, something that isn’t quite right, something that could cause problems and abnormalities in later life.”

It is different with girls. With girls, there are delicate differences, for which it is necessary to develop a certain skill in observation. The girl’s ego is more or less absorbed by the astrality. Because of this, the girl lives less strongly in her inner being. She takes her ego-permeated astral body into her etheric body. Her etheric body—that is, her behavior, her outer mobility—is strongly affected. We can observe in real girls—that is, in girls whose egos are absorbed by their astral bodies, who develop in a healthy, correct way—a courageous, firm demeanor during this time. They accentuate their personalities, are self-assured, do not withdraw into themselves. It is natural for them to confront the world freely and unashamedly.

If this demeanor is accompanied by even faint egotistical feelings, it can express itself in showing off, in a wish to display character and personality. But it is characteristic for girls during this time to wish to confront the world in this free uninhibited way and to show their worth. Taken to an extreme, this wish can lead to coquetry and vanity, not only to the display of inner (soul) life but also to self-adornment with jewelry. It is extraordinarily interesting to observe how what later leads to an addiction to makeup and a trivial love of finery can show itself as a delicate aesthetic sense during this time. All this is certainly the outward expression of the special relation of the ego-permeated astral body to the etheric body: The girls walk differently, their posture changes, they hold their heads more freely. Again, taken to an extreme, they become supercilious, and so on. We should indeed observe these things artistically.


-Lecture 5, Education for Adolescents

Dr. Rudolf Steiner on Helena Petrovna Blavatsky by H.J. Spierenburg

Many members of the Theosophical Movement have in one way or another come into contact with the Anthroposophical Movement or allied organizations and persons such as the Steinerschools, anthroposophical physicians, manufacturers of medicines prepared according to anthroposophical principles, etc.

Moreover, it is generally known that those who founded the “Anthroposophische Gesellschaft” in 1913 were all members of the Theosophical Society (Adyar). Meanwhile we write 1985, i.e. 72 years later.

For some reason or another a fairly large number of groups have left the Theosophical Society (Adyar). However, all these newly formed organizations have the same basis as the Theosophical Society, i.e. the foundress of the Theosophical Movement: Madame H. P. Blavatsky. Most of the secessions were due to the fact that it was doubted whether the basis was

respected enough! There is, however, one exception, viz. the Anthroposophical Movement, the

founder of which, Dr. Rudolf Steiner, fully occupies the place which H.P.B. occupies in all

echelons of the Theosophical Movement.

The question that is put —and I suppose is answered —in the present article reads: What did

Dr. Steiner think of H. P. Blavatsky?

The data of Dr. Steiner’s statements mentioned in the present article are related to the titles

and numbers of the “Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe” given in the bibliography at the end of our

article.

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Dr Rudolf Steiner

Dr. Rudolf Steiner was born at Kraljevic (Croatia) on 27th February 1861. He studied at the

Technological University of Vienna and took his doctor’s degree at Rostock in 1891 on a thesis

entitled: Die Grundfrage der Erkenntnistheorie mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Fichte’s

Wissenschafts-Lehre.

From 1890 to 1897 he was a collaborator in the Goethe-Schiller Archiv at Weimar, and

edited Goethe’s scientific works.

The contacts he had made with theosophists since 1899 and the lectures he had delivered for

the German Branch of the Theosophical Society (Adyar) resulted in his being asked to become

Secretary-General of the German Branch. He accepted this position in 1902. On May 10th 1904

Dr. Annie Besant appointed him Arch-Warden of the Esoteric School in Germany and Austria,.

A facsimile of this appointment is included in the Gesamt-Ausgabe-Nr. 264: Zur Geschichte und

aus den Inhalten der ersten Abteilung der Esoterische Schule 1904–1914, Dornach 1984, p. 26.

A difference of opinion with Dr. Besant on the planned role of Krishnamurti as “world

teacher” finally led to the formation of the “Anthroposophische Gesellschaft”.The first few designs for the Goetheanum at Dornach (Switzerland) were made in 1913. This

(first) Goetheanum was ready for occupation in 1920. Dr. Steiner founded the so-called “Freie

Waldorfschule” at Stuttgart in 1919. On New Year’s Eve 1922–23 the Goetheanum was burned

down. A new Goetheanum was built in accordance with Dr. Steiner’s architectonic principles,

but it was only finished after his death. He died at Dornach on March 30th, 1925.

The Literary Legacy

Dr. Steiner left an amazing number of texts. In addition to some ten books, not including the

Goethe editions, he wrote a few hundred articles for period-

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icals, made designs for sculptures and lay-outs, painted meritoriously, designed

eurythmics,

applied his knowledge of the “Geisteswissenschaften” to the investigation of diseases and

homoeopathic medicines, and between the year 1900 and 28th September 1924 he gave some six

thousand lectures, five thousand of which have been preserved in the form of shorthand reports

or notes.

H.P.B’s etheric body

The particular faculties which H.P.B. possessed were attributed by Dr. Steiner to her Russian descent. On 11-04-1912 he said in Helsinki to a party of Russian listeners that the body in which

the individuality who in that incarnation was called H.P.B. was locked up, could only originate

from Russia. On 28-03-1916 he repeats this statement, but goes into the matter more deeply.

There he says that the way in which the spiritual and the physical co-operate in Russians

absolutely differs from what is customary elsewhere in the world. From this milieu H.P.B. came

forth, though she cannot be regarded as 100% Russian. At any rate—says Dr. Steiner—this

makes it understandable that with her the activities of etheric body, more particularly the

activities relating to insight (”Erkenntnis”), far exceeded those of the physical body. Thus—says

Dr. Steiner—she is someone who could gain numerous experiences in her etheric body, which of

course is something quite different from obtaining insight through the intellect.

H.P.B’s nativity

Dr. Steiner’s ideas about the doctrine of cycles are quite different from those of H.P.B. Thus,

in Zürich Steiner says on 06-11-1917 that in the year 1841 something peculiar had happened. In

the spiritual worlds a battle had started between spirits of darkness and spirits of light, whichcontinued until the autumn of 1879. The battle was fought about the question whether from the

spiritual worlds a quantity of knowledge should be prepared which was to be given to humanity in the third part of that century.

This battle ended in 1879, with the victory of the spirits of light. Dr. Steiner also sees a strong

relationship between this battle and the so-called utilitarianism of the 19th century. Utilitarianism

is based on the principle that the correctness or incorrectness of an action is determined by the

good or evil effects which result from it. On 07-10-1916 he relates this utilitarianism with

H.P.B.’s horoscope: “ . . . when in the middle of the 19th century the utility principle caused a

crisis in the development of Europe, the personality Madame Blavatsky was born, whose natural

gift enabled her to reveal a great deal from the spiritual worlds to humanity. One who would like

to consider this point from an astrological point of view might make the following experiment:

he could investigate the moment which the utility crisis in the 19th century had reached its

culmination and draw a horoscope of it. If he should take H.P. Blavatsky’s horoscope, he would

come to the conclusion that these are the same.”

Theosophists will know that H.P.B. ‘s horoscope has been published in H.P. Blavatsky’s

Collected Writings, vol. 1, p. lxxiv.

Commotion in the Occult Fraternities about H.P.B.’s Birth

Dr. Steiner holds the view that the so-called “higher degrees” of freemasonry may be

regarded as the “outside aspect” of the real occult fraternities. He says this on 28–03–1916.

Already in the early phase of his career, i.e. on 23–10–1905, he points out the fact that H.P.B.

was a member of a lodge with these “higher degrees”, while he speaks with praise of the

signatory of H.P.B. s diploma, the well-known John Yarker. This will indicate to the reader what

Steiner means when he speaks of occult fraternities.

According to Dr. Steiner H.P.B.’s birth caused great commotion among the members of the

occult fraternities. On 18–03–1916 he speaks about this point and

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says that the conclusion was reached that H.P.B. possessed powers which were described as

faculties which will belong to future humanity. Literally he says: “There arose lively interviews

in the Anglo-Saxon orders .... Those who were the genuine guardians of those orders said to

themselves: ‘It must be significant that exactly at this moment such a personality has come from

the easterly portion of humanity. This has to be investigated and we need to take a stand.’ This

led to the actual question: ‘How can that which through strong psychic faculties might betray

certain deep secrets to the world, be channelled in such away that this Russian futurity elementconnects itself with the essence of Anglo-Saxondom? – Binding Blavatsky’s properties direct to

the essence of Anglo-Saxondom became the object to be attained. One wanted at least to make

an attempt to attain above all that through the psychic qualities of Blavatsky only those occult

dogmas should be given to the world which had been chosen by the occidental orders .... At first

matters proceeded as planned, so to say. Indeed, Blavatsky began to acquaint herself with the

spiritual life of Central Europe.”

H.P.B. in Paris

In a letter to the Russian Prince Dondoukoff-Korsakoff (H.P.B. Speaks, vol. II, Adyar

1951,

p. 23) H.P.B. says that in 1873 the Mahatma K.H. ordered her to Paris. Writing to Mr. A. P.

Sinnett (The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett, London 1925, letter LXI, p. 153–4) she

says that she stayed there with her cousin Nicolas Hahn (Nikolay Gustavovich von Hahn) at No.

11 Rue de l’Université. She told Col. Olcott that she intended to stay there some time (H. S.

Olcott, Old Diary Leaves, vol. I, 2nd ed., reprint Adyar 1974, p. 20). In Paris she makes the

acqaintence of a physician, Mrs. Dr. L. M. Marquette, who later wrote a letter to Olcott, which he

published in his Old Diary Leaves (as above, p. 27–8). In this letter, Dr. Marquette writes that

she associated with H. P. B. every day;

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further that the latter passed her time with writing and painting, and seldom left her

room.

Among H. P. B.’s regular visitors were the Leymaries, a well-known French spiritualist couple.

Contrary to what H. P. B. says, Dr. Marquette mentions the Rue du Palais as her address; she

calls H. P. B.’s cousin her brother, and in addition relates that the latter’s friend, a certain Mr.

Lequeux, also lived in the house. This is all we know about H. P. B.’s three months’ stay in Paris

in 1873. At the moment there are no other known sources.

However, Dr. Steiner is able to tell us much more about this period, viz. in his lectures of 12–

03–1916, 18–03–1916, 28–03–1916, 19–11–1916 and 26–12–1916. The following compilation

has been taken from Dr. Steiner’s statements made in the lectures referred to.

After she had worked under very competent leadership for some time, and had developed in

herself much that led to the desired end, the matter was guided in such a way that in Paris she

joined an order with high degrees, which, however, was dependent on the British occult

movements. There she was to be manipulated in such a way that her soul would express only

what they wanted. However, this was like a dagger-stab to her. They wanted to use her only as a

highly developed medium. But H. P. B. was such a strong personality that the whole plan failed.

At a certain moment H. P. B. was visited by an American, who had intended to use for himself

what he had come to know as a member of the occidental fraternities. He revealed to her the

objective of these fraternities, viz. to employ spiritualism in an attempt to convince humanity ofthe existence of the spiritual worlds. This attempt was well meant—says Dr. Steiner—but was

based on a mistake since the public drew quite different conclusions from spiritualism.

However all this may be, for H. P. B. the revelation led her to make demands. Nevertheless

she made such conditions that it was impossible to meet her requirements. Dr. Steiner even says

literally: “... the results of which would be that the entire history of France would have taken a

different turn.” He adds

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that if those demands had been complied with, this occult fraternity would have signed its

own death-sentence, in any case would have eliminated itself.

It was a result of all this—says Dr. Steiner—that membership was denied her. Thereupon she

went to America.

H. P. B. in America

Dr. Steiner describes three events in detail, viz.:

- H. P. B. with the fraternities;

- the replacement of the Mahatmas K. H. and

- H. P. B.’s occult captivity,

in nine lectures: 01–08–1915, 11–10–1915, 17–10–1915, 12–03–1916, 18–03–1916, 28–03–

1916, 07–10–1916, 09–12–1916 and 26–12–1916.

A problem is posed by the fact that the sequence of events related in the lectures changes

continually, while he yet recounts them as if one occurrence had proceeded from the previous

one. This may also have been: due to inaccuracies on the part of the stenographers. We simply do

not know.

Another problem lies in the fact that the writing of Isis Unveiled does not fit into the series of

events mentioned, though this writing had covered many years.

In our comment on H. P. B.’s short stay in Paris we have summed up all that is known. And

that is not much! But we know a great deal about the years that H. P. B. spent in America. There

are diaries, articles in the periodicals, newspaper reports, hundreds of dated letters and many

personal testimonies. In some cases we know what H. P. B. did from day to day.

The events related by Dr. Steiner are stated below in the order which as it were necessarily

arises from the occurrences documented, while–e.g.–the writing of Isis Unveiled has been fitted

in.

With the Fraternities in America

After a stay of about three months in Paris,[166]

H. P. B. arrived in the port of New York on 7th July 1873, where she went—as she herself

writes—by order of the same authority—the Mahatma K.H.—who sent her to Paris months

before (see The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett, London 1925, letter LXI, p.154; H. S.

Olcott, Old Diary Leaves, vol. I, 2nd, ed., reprint Adyar 1974, p. 20; A. P. Sinnett, Incidents in

the Life of Madame Blavatsky, London 1886, reprint 1976 N. Y., Arno Press, p. 175; and The

Path, vol. IX, February 1895, p. 385.

In his lecture given on 11–10–1915 Dr. Steiner says that there has possibly been a form of

contact between Col. Olcott and H. P. B. when the latter (still) belonged to an American Lodge,

but he is not sure about it. However this may be, we know that the recorded meeting between H.

P. B. and Col. Olcott took place on October 14th 1874 at Chittenden, Vermont (see Old Diary

Leaves, as above, p. 15, and H. S. Olcott, People from the other World, Hartford (Conn.) 1875,

reprint Rutland (Vermont) 1972, p. 293–306). From these sources it follows logically that H. P.

B.’s contacts with the occult fraternities must have occurred between July 1873 and October

1874.

H. P. B.’s contacts with the fraternities are described by Dr. Steiner in his lectures of 11–10–

1915, 17–10–1915, 12–03–1916, 18–03–1916, 28–03–1916 and 26–12–1916. Here he says

among other things: “... in America she was actually admitted in an occult fraternity and as a

result she obtained considerable insight into the objects which such occult fraternities pursue, and

also into those which on no account strive for the welfare of humanity.... She communicated

with American spiritualists who wanted to do away with the teaching of reincarnation.

Mediumship was the means to attain this.... Such a field of activity was not in Blavatsky’s

nature.

Therefore she was expelled from this fraternity, the reason given being: An attack on the

constitution.”

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Colonel H. S. Olcott

In his Old Diary Leaves (as above, p. 4) Col. Olcott describes how, together with a friend he

saw H. P. B. for the first time, while she was having a meal in the company of another lady. The

first thing that struck him was the flaming red Garibaldi blouse she was wearing. It was so

conspicuous in the local surroundings that he said to his friend: “Good gracious! look at that

specimen, will you.” As mentioned before, this was on 14th October 1874.

Dr. Steiner knew Col. Olcott—who died on February 17th 1907 —personally. On the

occasion of the approaching White Lotus Day on May 8th, Dr. Steiner spoke about the

Presidentfounder on the 05–05–1909. He said that if an inhabitant from Mars should have come

down who accidentally had observed Olcott and the Theosophical Society, he would have

recognized Olcott as the natural President even without knowing anything about the constitution

in force. He says literally: “The Theosophical Society has been lucky in having such an excellentfounder in Col. Olcott. And things will go ill in the T. S. when one day the spirit, so to say,

which had flowed into it through Olcott, will no longer be operative.” Years later, on 18–11–

1916, Steiner says in Dornach: “... parenthetically it may be remarked that those who read Max

Eyth (Hinter Pflug und Schraubstock, 2 vols, 2nd. ed., Stuttgart 1899) may also learn something

quite different, something which may for instance be interesting for theosophists to know about

matters relating to the life of the first President of the T. S., Olcott. This is quite evident from

Max Eyth, who was in America when Olcott made a mess of it.”

The Replacement of the Mahatma K. H. and the Role of John King

Dr. Steiner discusses this subject in his lectures of 01–08–1915, 11–10–1915, 17–10–1915,

12–03–1916, 28–03–1916, 07–10–1916 and 26–12–1916.

Firstly Dr. Steiner explains the technique which is used to make someone believe that he is in

contact

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with a Mahatma, after which he states the reason behind it: “... there appear imposters

who

want to promulgate a one-sided world-view and thereby make use of a mediumistic personality..,

such as the one who has taken the place of the Master K.H. ...”

About the beginning of those events Dr. Steiner says: “After a Mahatma who is indicated by

the letters K. H. had exercised a beneficial influence on her for a considerable time, he was—

owing to a number of machinations—replaced by another....” In another lecture: “About this

time H. P. B. started to co-operate with a person possessing an enormous organizing ability... viz.

Olcott.... Then—in a certain sense under the mask of a previous individuality—a person entered

the spiritual horizon of H. P. B. who was actually the carrier of what one wanted to be introduced

into the world from India... under the mask of... the Mahatma K. H. You probably know that

Olcott has written a great deal about this Mahatma K. H., including the fact that in 1874 this

Mahatma K. H. gave his opinion about the individuality which resided in him. He said that in

fact his name was John King and that he had possessed the personality of a pirate who had been

famous in the 17th century.... Further, Col. Olcott expressed himself in a curious manner about

this John King. He says that probably one has not at all to deal with the pirate’s spirit, but with

the creation of an order which exists as a visible order amidst physical humanity, while for

results it is dependent on the invisible.” As source Dr. Steiner mentions Olcott’s book People

from the other World (Hartford (Conn.) 1875, reprint Rutland (Vermont) 1972.)

As regards the above statement by Dr. Steiner that the Mahatma K. H. is reported to have said

that he was actually John King, I venture to maintain here that such a passage does very definitely

not occur in Olcott’s books!On p.454 of Olcott’s book may be found his supposition that the outbreak of spiritualistic

phenomena in America is under the control of an Order… nothing else! H. P. B. herself says

that she met the Mahatma K. H.

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for the first time in 1868 and lived for a short time in his sister’s house at Tzi-gadze (see The

Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett, London 1925, letter LXI, p. 153, letter XCV, p. 215;

The Path, vol. IX, January 1895, p. 299; The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, letter CXL, ed.

London-New York 1923, p. 478–9, ed. Adyar 1962, p. 470–1).

If we start from the supposition that Dr. Steiner is right, then H. P. B. worked under the

guidance of the ‘real K. H.’ from 1868 to 1874.

In the theosophical literature John King is an undigested lump. We must admit this. Thus, in

a letter to General Lippitt (H. P. B. Speaks, vol. I, Adyar 1950, p. 84–5) H. P. B. says: “I know

John for 14 years. Not a day but he is with me.” This letter bears the date June 12th 1875;

according to H. P. B. herself she met John in 1861, i.e. seven years before she met the Mahatma

K. H.! On the other hand she says in 1884 that she had never heard the name John King before

1873, further that a portrait which she had painted in an extraordinary way (see H. P. B. Speaks,

vol. I, opposite p. 78) and which she had represented as a picture of John King, was actually the

Mahatma Hilarion whom she had known since 1860 (see Collected Writings, vol. VI, p. 271 and

the compiler’s remark on p. 280).

In the same place she says that John King should be regarded as a generic name for more

than one spirit and that she had known more than one John King. A riddle which has as yet not

been solved.

However all this may be, we are concerned here with the remarks made by Dr. Steiner, and

he has told us that the Mahatma K. H. was replaced by someone else in 1874. About this person

he says: The latter had deserted one of the occult fraternities in whose higher degrees he had

been initiated, so that he was in a position to remain in the background as a ‘Mahatma’ and attain

the goals in view through Blavatsky.

The Theosophical Society

As is known both in theosophical and anthropos-

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ophical circles the Theosophical Society was founded in New York by H. P. Blavatsky, H. S.

Olcott, W. Q. Judge and thirteen others on November 17th 1875.

On 10–06–1904 Dr. Steiner says: “Nostradamus... wrote a number of prophetic stanzas....

These Centuries by Nostradamus include the following: ‘When the 19th century will have cometo an end, one of the Brother’s of Hermes will come from Asia to unite humanity again.’ – The

Theosophical Society is only a fulfilment of this prophecy by Nostradamus.” (Nostradamus’s

French text in Century 10.75 reads: Tant attendu ne reviendra jamais, Dedans l’Europe, en Asie

apparoistra, Unde la ligue yssu du grande Hermes, Et sur tous Roy des Orients coistra.

Translated: So long expected shall never come, Into Europe, in Asia shall appear, One issued of

the line of the great Hermes, and shall be over all the Kings of the Orient.).

“Isis Unveiled”

The compiler of H. P. B.’s Collected Writings, Boris de Zirkoff, has given in his edition of

Isis Unveiled, vol. I, p. (1)–(61), a historic account of the writing of Isis which contains all

relevant material. In this history Mr. de Zirkoff included a letter by H. P. B. (on p. (33)), the

original of which is in Adyar, and in which she says: “Isis was the first work with the exception

of a few articles.., that I ever wrote in English in all my life and it was mostly dictated by K. H.

(Kashmiri) as you know.” It was also the Mahatma K. H. who wrote that the (definitive)

commission to H. P. B. to write Isis Unveiled was given in a year after the founding of the

Theosophical Society (see The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, letter LII, ed. London-New

York 1923, p. 289, ed. Adyar 1962, p. 285). The present article, under the heading ‘H. P. B. in

America’, already states that Dr. Steiner mentions in an erratic order a number of events which

happened in America. For instance, in the lecture given on 12–03–1916 he says that the

Mahatma K. H. was replaced after Isis had been written. Now Isis appeared in

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1877, whereas the passages dealing with John King in Olcott’s People from the other World,

which Dr. Steiner relates to this matter in his lecture of 11–10–1915, refer to 1874 (this date he

mentions himself also in this lecture), while Olcott’s book was published in 1875. The burning

question now is: Who largely dictated Isis Unveiled? Was it the real or unreal K. H.? On 25–

04– 1906 Dr. Steiner replies to a question: “First a European was her guide, thereupon an

Egyptian, and after that she wrote Isis Unveiled.”

H. P. B.’s occult captivity

Dr. Steiner speaks about H. P. B.’s so-called occult captivity in the following lectures: 11–

10–1915, 12–03–1916, 18–03–1916, 28–03–1916 and 26–12–1916.

In this lecture of 28–03–1916 Dr. Steiner says: “Then recourse was had to a device that is

very, very seldom used: one availed oneself of this device to put in occult captivity, as it is

called, this dear, poor Blavatsky, who—as you know—had already been used as a puppet by

diverse powers which influenced her. Occult captivity implies that care is taken that everything

which is evolved by the soul concerned does not pass beyond a certain sphere and thereafter isthrown back. This is achieved by a certain form of ceremonial magic.... This was decided on in

1879 at a meeting of occultists from various countries.”

As the reason for such action Dr. Steiner in the other lectures mentions the fact that she

would then be unable to betray particular secrets.

The Mahatma Letters

In the book H. P. B. Speaks (vol. I, p. 140) already referred to before, we read that the

Mahatma Serapis (the Egyptian, as Dr. Steiner said) commissions H. P. B. on 14th November

1878 to go to India. She leaves with Olcott on 19th December of the same year from New York

harbour. They reach Bombay on February 16th 1879. Now we have heard already that the occult

captivity was decided upon in 1879. In his lecture of

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18–03–1916 Dr. Steiner says that she was in Asia at the time, whereas in his lecture of 26–

12–1916 he mentions that this captivity lasted for years. Every theosophist knows that the

famous letters to A. P. Sinnett were written between 1880 and early 1886. Now these letters

formed the source for Sinnett’s books The Occult World (1881) and Esoteric Buddhism (1883).

Hence, these letters must have been written during H. P. B.’s occult captivity! On 11–10–1915

Dr. Steiner says: “... it is this John King (so the one who personated the Mahatma K. H.) who, by

means of the precipitation process, produced the letters for Sinnett’s books, both the first book

The Occult World and the second Esoteric Buddhism.”

What did Dr. Steiner think of H. P. B.?

The present article could easily be prolonged five times. However, it should be regarded as an

impulse to a further study. The foregoing has given the reader an idea of what Dr. Steiner

thought about the person of H. P. B., and only a small portion of the available material has been

used. The question to what extent H. P. B.’s and Dr. Steiner’s teachings diverge has not been

asked. The investigation into the similarities and differences between Theosophy and

Anthroposophy has not yet begun.

_____________________________

(Bibliography; continued from next page but one.)

Other volumes from the ‘Gesamtausgabe’ in which H. P. B. is regularly discussed:

No. 245 Anweisungen für eine esoterische Schulung (Aus den Inhalten der “E. S.”).No. 262 Rudolf Steiner/Marie Steiner-von Sivers: Briefwechsel und Dokumente 1902–

1925.

No. 264 Zur Geschichte und aus den Inhalten der ersten Abteilung der E. S. 1904–1914.

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Bibliography of Dr. Steiner’s works

Lectures in which H. P. B. is mentioned, stating the place, date, number of the cycle of the

lectures (‘Gesamtausgabenummer’) and the title of the cycle.

Berlin, 23–10–1905, No. 93 Die Tempellegende und die goldene Legende.

Leipzig, 25–04–1906, No. 97 Das christliche Mysterium.

Berlin, 07–05–1906, No. 96 Ursprungsimpulse der Geisteswissenschaft.

Stuttgart, 24–08–1906, No. 95 Vor dem Tore der Theosophie.

Stuttgart, 30–08–1906, No. 95 Idem.

Dusseldorf, 12–04–1909, No. 110 Geistige Hierarchien und ihre Widerspiegelung

in der physischen Welt.

Berlin, 05–05–1909, No. 284 Bilder okkulter Siegal und Säulen.

Karlsruhe, 08–10–1911, No. 131 Von Jesus zu Christus.

Stuttgart, 15–10–1911, No. 284 Bilder okkulter Siegal und Säulen.

Stuttgart, 16–10–1911, No. 284 Idem

Berlin, 23–10–1911, No. 133 Der irdische und der kosmische Mensch.

München, 25–02–1912, No, 143 Erfahrungen des Uebersinnlichen.

Helsinki, 11–04–1912, No. 158 Der Zusammenhang des Menschen mit der

elementarischen Welt (Das russische Voldstum).

Helsinki, 12–04–1912, No. 136 Die geistigen Westenheiten in den

Himmelskörpern und Naturreichen.

Helsinki, 13–04–1912, No. 136 Idem.

Helsinki, 14–041922, No. 136 Idem.

Keulen, 08–05–1912, No. 143 Erfahrungen des Uebersinnlichen.

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Munchen, 16–05–1912, No. 143 Idem.

Dornach, 01–08–1915, No. 162 Kunst und Lebensfragen im Lichter der

Geisteswissenschaft.Dornach, 11–10–1915, No. 254 Die okkulte Bewegung im neunzehnten

Jahrhundert und ihre Beziehung zur Weltkultur.

Dornach, 17–10–1915, No. 254 Idem.

Dornach, 18–10–1915, No. 254 Idem.

Stuttgart, 12–03–1916, No. 174b Die geistige Hintergründe des Ersten

Weltkrieges.

München, 18–03–1916, No. 174b Mitteleurope zwischen Ost und West.

Berlin, 28–03–1916, No. 167 Gegenwärtiges und Vergangenes im

Menschengeiste.

Dornach, 07–10–1916, No. 171 Innere Entwicklungs impulse der Menschheit.

Dornach, 19–11–1916, No. 172 Das Karma des Berufes des Menschen in

Anknüpfung an Goethes Leben.

Dornach, 27–11–1916, No. 172 Idem.

Dornach, 09–12–1916, No. 173 Zeitgeschichtliche Betrachtungen (Erster Teil).

Dornach, 26–12–1916, No. 173 Idem (Erster Teil).

Dornach, 30–01–1917, No. 174 Idem (Zweiter Teil).

Dornach, 10–06–1923, No. 258 Die Geschichte und die Bedingungen der

Anthroposofischen Bewegung im Verhältnis zur

Anthroposofischen Gesellschaft.

Dornach, 12–06–1923, No. 258 Idem.

Torquay, 20–08–1924, No. 243 Das Initiaten Bewusstsein.

Torquay, 21–08–1924, No. 243 Idem.

[p. 172]

Other volumes from the ‘Gesamtausgabe’ in which H. P. B. is regularly discussed:

No. 245 Anweisungen für eine esoterische Schulung (Aus den Inhalten der “E. S.”).

No. 262 Rudolf Steiner/Marie Steiner-von Sivers: Briefwechsel und Dokumente 1902–

1925.

No. 264 Zur Geschichte und aus den Inhalten der ersten Abteilung der E. S. 1904–1914.

Dr. Rudolf Steiner on the Mahatmas, Part 1, by H. J. Spierenburg

The present article is to be regarded as a continuation of the article “Dr. Rudolf Steiner on Helena Petrovna Blavatsky”. All Rudolf Steiner’s remarks have been quoted from the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe (GA = Complete Works). However, here they are given in chronological order, so that the development of the subject of the present article in the Anthroposophical Movement becomes evident in a way different from what has been the case in the articles and books so far published by the representatives of this Movement.The data of Dr. Steiner’s statements in the present article are related to the titles and numbers of the Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe, given in the bibliography at the end of our article, in the next issue.

1889

Steiner’s Mein Lebengang (My Life), chapter IX, makes it clear that he had contacted the theosophists in Vienna as early as 1889.

1897

The above contacts did not make him a theosophist. In Das Magazine für Literatur for September 4th he writes among other things that the theosophists lack all insight into the depth of occidental science, but that the way in which they speak about the highest forms of knowledge, which they do not possess, has an alluring influence on many contemporaries.

1900–1901

In the winter season of 1900–1901 Dr. Steiner gives a series of lectures in the library of Count and Countess Brockdorff, which also served as a library for the theosophists meeting in Berlin. These lectures were published in 1901 (Die Mystik im Aufgange des neuzeitlichen Geisteslebens und ihr Verhältnis zu modernen Weltanschauung). The booklet shows that no specifically theosophical subjects were dealt with.

1901

On April 13th he writes to Marie von Sivers – later Marie Steiner – a letter of thanks for sending him a copy of the Theosophical Review. This shows that he was “at work on” theosophy at the time.

1901-1902

During the winter of 1901-1902 Dr. Steiner again gives a series of lectures in the library of the Brockdorffs. They were published in 1902 (Das Christentuin als Mystische Tatsache und die Mysterien des Altertums). Neither does this booklet contain any specifically theosophical subjects.

1902 On January 17th Dr. Steiner becomes chairman of the Berlin Lodge of the “Deutsche Theosophische Gesellschaft” (German Theosophical Society). This is also the date on which he may be considered a member of the Theosophical Society (Adyar).

Together with Marie von Sivers he attends the European Theosophical Congress, held from July 1st to11th, where he meets prominent theosophists including Col. Olcott, Dr. A. Besant and Bertram Keightley. On August 16th Steiner writes to Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden that he believes that “the movement introduced by H. P. Blavatsky and Annie Besant can advance much further than H. P. Blavatsky and Annie Besant. . . .” Here we see that already at this stage he had important contacts with theosophists.

This is also evident from a letter which he writes to Marie von Sivers (August 20th): “The Secret Doctrine [213] has duly arrived and lies on my desk; it is very useful in my relevant studies, and I consult it continually”.

On October 8th Dr. Steiner delivers his first lecture on theosophy during a meeting of the “Giordano Bruno Bund” held in Berlin, entitled: Monismus und Theosophie. An account of it was published in the Berlin Freidenker (Freethinker), which is now contained in the Gesamtausgabe.

On 19th October Dr. Besant—who had come to Berlin especially for this purpose—handed over to the German Department a charter signed by Col. Olcott. On this day Dr. Steiner was elected Secretary General.

On October 23rd Steiner becomes a member of the Esoteric School, which at the time is still managed directly from Dr. Besant’s office in London.

1903

On May 1st Dr. Steiner writes to Mathilde Scholl: “It would be wonderful if the new E. S. members in Germany would unite in one way or another. We need this in Germany, for the E. S. must become the soul of the Theosophical Society.”

In a review of Dr. Besant’s Esoteric Christianity, which appeared in the August issue of Luzifer, Steiner writes: “In harmony with all those who want to try to open the spiritual eye for such insights it is Annie Besant, the soul of the Theosophical Movement, who speaks about a ‘hidden aspect of the religions’.”

In the September number of Luzifer Dr. Steiner writes a laudative review of C. W. Leadbeater’s The Astral Plane. He points to the fact that Leadbeater’s booklet gives an explanation of “... the communion between those who have been initiated into the high forms of knowledge, the so-called adepts, and their pupils.”

In the November number of Luzifer he writes: “... the doctrines of karma and reincarnation must be supported by scientific facts ... this is the task of the sub-races to which the present inhabitants of Europe and America belong ... without this basis the members of these races can never obtain real insight [214] into occult science. He who only repeats what he has heard from the oriental teachers cannot become an anthroposophist within the European-American civilization.” (It will be evident that in this context the word “anthroposophist” has a different meaning from that used by Steiner in later years.) During a lecture delivered in Berlin on December 21st he says: “In the same way that a higher animal excels a worm, do the rishis, the Masters, excel humanity . . . What is highly esteemed in the West—knowing for the sake of knowing—is not what the adepts, the great Masters, of the East strive after. They aspire to knowledge which can help humanity, which can conduct it to the point where the destiny of humanity and the harmony of the world are in agreement with each other.”

On December 24th he writes to Günther Wagner: “On page 42 (vol. I) The Secret Doctrine says about Stanza 1.6 (Dzyan); ‘Out of the Seven Truths and Revelations, or rather revealed secrets, four only have been handed to us, as we are still in the Fourth Round. . . ‘. Now during fruitful meditation these four secrets produce the fifth. Let me for the time being say that theosophy, i.e. that portion of theosophy which has been included in the esoteric sections of The Secret Doctrine, is composed of parts of the fifth truth. An indication of the solution may be found in the letter by Master K. H. reproduced by Sinnett, which begins with the words: ‘Of course I have read every word you write’. In The Occult World this is stated on page 126 (9th ed., London 1969; The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, London 1923, p. 22, ed. Adyar 1962, do.). All I can do now is to assure you that, in the words of K. H. (on the same pages): ‘When science will have learned more about . . . how the impress of leaves comes originally to take place on stones . . .’ the fifth secret is concealed in an occult way.”

1904

In an undated manuscript (included in GA No. 264, pp. 152–3, and probably written at the end of 1903 or [215] the beginning of 1904) Dr. Steiner announces: ‘A clean life, an open mind, a pure heart. . . etc.’ This will recall the words from the Preliminary Memorandum, now published in vol. XII of H. P. B.‘s Collected Writings, p. 503.

On May 10th Dr. Besant appoints Dr. Steiner head of the E. S. in Germany and Austria in the following letter:

To all members of the E. S. in Germany and Austria. I hereby appoint Dr. Rudolf Steiner as Arch-Warden of the E. S. in Germany and the Austrian Empire, with full authority, as my representative, to call meetings of the School, to organize groups and appoint Wardens, and to do all else necessary for the welfare of the School, remaining in direct communication with myself. Annie Besant.

On May 14th Steiner writes from London to Doris and Franz Paulus: “In connection with our esoteric work in Germany I had to visit our spiritual leader Mrs. Besant the last few days to obtain from her the full authorization for everything I am going to undertake in this field. For you may be assured that in the esoteric sphere each indication, each word of advice is given in the most careful way and under the actual guidance of the great spiritual leaders of humanity. Do not doubt that sooner or later meditation will be the means to find the way to these leaders yourself. Whoever has experienced what I have experienced can speak as I do. I only ask you to meditate the next few weeks on the parts of The Voice of the Silence which precede the seven voices. In the coming days I will interpret these seven voices under authorization, and you will receive one of the first copies of this interpretation (see GA No. 245, pp. 147–162). This will be much more valuable for you than if I had given it to you two weeks ago, and then without full authorization. For it is only in the last few days that my esoteric work has undergone a complete consecration. You have more than once asked me who I am. There will once come a time to discuss this subject. At this [216] moment I only want to tell you that I have reasons to assume that you once rendered me a great service in a former life. Do not misunderstand me. Even in the case of spiritual perceptions mistakes are not excluded.

However, I am not accustomed to live amidst illusions. In the spiritual domain I am one of the those who is considered careful, even matter-of-fact. In a previous life, hundreds of years ago, someone was instrumental in detaching me from a certain family circle, which was necessary in connection with the profession which I followed at the time, viz. that of a catholic priest. These were times when the church had not yet become completely degenerated, as is the case now. It was you who at the time produced the evidence of being completely unprejudiced, a fact which also now strikes me as something great in you. Yet you created the circumstances of your present life.”

On May 18th he writes to Mathilde Scholl: “You have made further progress and will continue to do so.

"In these terms I spoke to Mrs. Besant also about you, for the chief object of my visit to London was to speak to Mrs. Besant about the E. S. and her commission in Germany. Mrs. Besant has already been able to appoint me Arch-Warden of the E. S., the intention being that what I do should be considered as done by herself. In my future discussions with her I will suggest to actually admit you to the ‘first-degree’ of the School. In this connection I will send you the ‘regulations’ of the ‘first degree’ in a few days’ time, so that you can let me know our opinion about it.—In the first place I must tell you that through their admission to the ‘first degree’ the E. S. members come into a really occult relationship with the spiritual current originating from the Masters, and that in course of time—maybe slowly—you will become conscious of it.

On July 9th an ‘Esoterische Stunde’ (Esoteric Service, probably the first). Notes on this service taken by Franz Seiler, one of the attendants, have been preserved. They include the following: “Firstly a prayer is said by Dr. Steiner. Thereupon [217] he draws attention to the fact that the Masters speak through Dr. Steiner, that now he is the mouthpiece of the Masters. The Master Morya explains the aim of human development. It is he who guides humanity to its destination. The Master Koot Hoomi is the one who indicates the way that leads to this aim.”

In this same handwriting there are notes of the meeting held on July 14th, which say: “Now the Master Morya will speak. We may regard the Master as an ideal; they have already attained what we still have before us. Therefore we can ask them questions about our further development There lie within us, but as yet in the form of a germ, the forces which have reached perfection in a Master.”

Within the Theosophical Movement one knows the story of the portraits of the Mahatma M. and K. H., which were painted by Hermann Schmiechen in 1884. The story may be found in Olcott’s Old Diary Leaves, vol. III, ed. 1904, p. 155–7; ed. 1972, p. 162–4; and in The Word, vol. XV, July 1912, p. 200–6. The originals are at Adyar, and have never been photocopied as far as we know. However, the painter made some copies, of which photos exist. These have a few times been published in books, such as Manly Hall’s The Phoenix, Los Angeles 1960, p. 116–7, size 25 x 20 cm, which are of a reasonable quality. Hella Wiesberger, who edited GA No. 264, relates in p. 266: “. . . Herman Schmiechen later joined the German Department and also painted for Rudolf Steiner copies, which were at the beginning shown in ‘Esoteric Services’. Marie Steiner remembered that these pictures played a large role and that they emitted a powerful radiation. In a letter dated September 29th, 1948, she writes: ‘I have myself experienced that many a one lost his speech on looking at them and was absent-minded and confused. But these pictures were shown only in strict secrecy or during esoteric meetings . . .’.”

On August 14th Steiner writes to Michael Bauer: “I would like to tell you something more about the [218] nature of the (Esoteric) School. You know that the relationship between our revered Masters and the Theosophical Society was such that they gave the theosophical impulse to H. P. B., but left it to her to decide on the way in which to realize the Movement on the physical plane. In that way the Theosophical Society was founded by H. P. Blavatsky and (H. S.) Olcott in 1875. This event is in no way concerned with our occult school, just because it is an ‘occult’ school. It was founded by the Masters themselves, and is conducted by these Masters. Now the Theosophical Society receives a living stream of knowledge from this occult school.

Ever further lead the practices which are prescribed by the school to come to know the Master. As long as H. P. Blavatsky lived on this earth she was the head of the school. At the moment it is Annie Besant. Within Germany, Austria and the German-speaking part of Switzerland, the direction of the school has been allocated to me.”

On August 29th he repeats in a letter to Mathilde Scholl: “Annie Besant is the Messenger of the Masters.”

In the September number of Luzifer-Gnosis he writes: “The great teachers of the East have initiated H. P. Blavatsky into the secrets of how to search for wisdom.”

On December 8th Dr. Steiner makes a statement which has an important bearing on our article: “From the middle ages up to our modern epoch there have been great sages, in Europe too, and also certain Fraternities, among which those of the Rosicrucians must again be mentioned. The materialistic age had little use for these Rosicrucian Fraternities. And thus it happened that in the early part of the 19th century the last Rosicrucians joined the Eastern Brothers, who at the time gave the (theosophical) impulses.”

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1905

In a letter of January 2nd to Anna Wagner Steiner repeats his view on the relation of Masters to the Theosophical Society and to the E. S.: “You know that behind the whole Theosophical Movement are highly developed beings whom we call ‘Masters’ or ‘Mahatmas’. These exalted beings have already covered the way which humanity as such still has to go. They now work as the great ‘teachers of wisdom and harmony of human feelings’. At the moment they are active on the higher planes, to which the rest of humanity will advance in the course of the coming periods of development, the so-called rounds. On the physical plane they work through ‘messengers’ who have to follow their orders, of whom H. P. Blavatsky was the first, i.e. the first within the Theosophical Movement. The Masters never found an external organisation or society, nor do they intend to do so. The Theosophical Society was called into being by the founders (H. P. Blavatsky, Olcott and others) to promote the Masters’ work on the physical plane. Yet these Masters themselves never exerted any influence on the Society. As to its nature and guidance on the physical plane, it is, unlike the ‘Esoteric School’, entirely the work of men. This school was founded by the Masters themselves and is under their direction. Everything which flows to the Theosophical Movement in knowledge and force derives from this school. Its members undergo their probation and ultimately come into contact with the exalted ones themselves. How long this will take naturally depends on the members. In fact nobody can do more than promote the work of the Masters in entire dedication. H. P. Blavatsky was the first ‘head of the school’ to be called upon by the Masters. The present head is our beloved, highly esteemed Annie Besant . . .”

On January 9th he writes to Marie von Sivers: “My dearest, let us not lose courage: as long as we are in contact with the great Lodge, no evil can actually happen to us, whatever takes place seemingly. It is only by our courageous perseverance that we can be [220] assured of the help of the exalted Masters.”

Theosophists will know that as a result of a remark made by the Mahatma K. H. in one of his letters to A. P. Sinnett about a discussion he he had with G. T. Fechner (The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, letter no. 9, 1923 ed., pp. 44–5; 1962 ed., do) an examination was carried out into the presence of the Mahatma K. H. in Leipzig. The relevant material may be found in The Theosophist, November 1929, The Canadian Theosophist, August 1936, The Occult Review, April 1937, The Theosophical Forum, January 1937 and in Mary K. Neff’s booklet The Brothers of H. P. Blavatsky, Adyar 1932. All later publications only repeat these data. On this subject Dr. Steiner speaks in an esoteric meeting held on December 13th. The relevant notes by Eugenie von Bredow read as follows: “Then he (Dr. Steiner) spoke about the latest incarnation of the Master K. H. and the latter’s visits to universities, with the object of thus promulgating the high wisdom also in a different language and in a more modern way; however, this incarnation did not take place in a particular individual, but his force was active in places.” The next day or possibly two days later he expressed his doubt whether K. H. had in actual fact studied at a European university. For he seems to say: “If this were necessary to learn to wield European notions, he would then also have to master Chinese to be able to do his work in China.”

The reader will by now have understood that there is a large amount of material available, but space in an article like the present one, is naturally limited. Now that we have built up a notion about Steiner’s view of the Mahatmas, we will extract from later items only the principal points.

1906 On January 29th Dr. Steiner says in Berlin: “The . . . influences which radiated from the occult brotherhoods lost more and more of their significance in the course [221] of the 19th century, the age of materialism. The occult fraternities had withdrawn themselves. The great Masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings retreated to the East, as the technical saying is; they ceased working in the West . . .”

On June 26th Steiner says at an esoteric meeting: “. . . four Masters cooperate in our (Theosophical) Movement:

– Master Morya: Power

– Master Koot Hoomi: Wisdom

– Master Saint Germain: To him one applies in the case of difficulties in daily life – Master

- Jesus: The intimate aspects of man.

On October 22nd an E. S. meeting was held of which the following notes were made: “Jesus was a chela of the third degree. When he was thirty he left his body and Christ took possession of this pure, noble vehicle, i.e. the physical, the astral and etheric body. He himself withdrew in the astral world, where he remained united with the Brothers of the White Lodge and there became a Master. Morya—real name is communicated only to the more advanced pupils—strengthens the will. Koot Hoomi is the Master of Truth proper. Jesus, the leader of his church, especially affects the feelings . . . the great Masters . . . Koot Hoomi, Morya, Jesus and Christian Rosenkreuz (according to other statements by Steiner the same as Saint Germain)—the Masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings.”

1907

Around this time Steiner suggested the following diagram (GA No. 264, p. 205):

– Koot Hoomi: Inspirer of the transition from Egypt to the Greek era

– Hilarion: Inspirer of Light of the Path; inspires the Greek era

– Jesus of Nazareth: Inspires the transition from the Greek to the Germanic era – Saint Germain: Inspirer of the Germanic civilization

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– Morya: Inspirer of the Germanic civilization.

In theosophical circles one knows the events that took place in the months preceding the death of Col. Olcott. Full particulars may be found in J. Ransom’s A Short History of the Theosophical Society, Adyar 1938, pp. 366–371. In early January Steiner writes a letter to Col. Olcott from which we extract the following: “The undersigned, in his quality of General Secretary of the German Department, cannot take notice of the statement that Mrs. Besant has been nominated by order of the high Masters. However important the appearance of the high Masters may be for esotericists, the management of the Theosophical Society is not one of their tasks. The undersigned considers the nomination of Mrs. Besant as willed by the President-Founder. Whether or not the latter has received advice from the high Masters is a private matter as far as the exoteric society is concerned.”

On February 25th he writes to Marie von Sivers:

. . . you will no doubt agree with me that it goes beyond all bounds to think that an administrative measure respecting the Society could be railroaded through an appeal to the Masters . . .

On March 12th he writes to the members of the German Department: “The President-Founder claims that certain Masters, who in theosophical circles are habitually indicated by the names M. and K. H., have appeared to him and given him certain hints. The question whether these hints were actually given or not, is an esoteric matter. It would have been more correct to ignore this point in the administrative sphere. For from whom Olcott accepts advice with respect to his succession is nobody’s business but Olcott’s.”

On March 26th he writes to Anna Minsloff in Russia: “The issue is not whether Mrs. Besant will be chosen or not, but whether she can relate this choice to the exalted Masters or not. This is a matter which may lead to considerable confusion, and which in the future may cause the rupture of the last link between the [223] Masters and the Society. For the Masters will probably not concern themselves at all with an organization in which they are said to play a role, as is asserted from Adyar at the moment.”

In May the European Congress of theosophists was held in Munich, where Besant and Steiner had an interview together. Peace was probably concluded there. In a letter to Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden dated June 7th (published in Emil Bock, Rudolf Steiner, Studien zu seinem Lebensgang und Lebenswerk, Stuttgart 1961, p. 196) Annie Besant writes:

Dear Dr. Hübbe-Schleiden, Dr. Steiner’s occult training is very different from ours. He does not know the eastern way, so cannot, of course, teach it. He teaches the Christian and Rosicrucian way, this is very helpful to some, but is different from ours. He has his own School, and his own responsibility. I regard him as a very fine teacher on his own lines, and as a man of real knowledge. He and I work in thorough friendship and harmony, but along different lines.

Yours very sincerely, Annie Besant.

-Article appeared in the Theosophical History magazine 

Refined Sensibilities Whereby the Inner Tolerance & Outer Resistance Have Been Compromised by an All Too Swift Development

Development of any kind is rarely manifest in equal apportions of progressiveness. Nature spurts and spills, with shoots and runners, propelling into life when the decision is so made. We go from 'nothing', to bud, to blossom, and each stage is so very distinct it may almost appear unrelated to the preceding one. Coming in from a spiritual design, out from the originating realms, much appears 'all of a sudden' with all episodes clearly contrasting one another as they further the reality. Of course much time aforehand may well contribute to the eventuality we experience; however, even that time is not equally represented.

There is nothing equal about development, and for that matter, there are no in-betweens (unless you count those periods of 'non-being' when manifestation is withdrawn entirely).

Further to this, in certain conditions both without and within, an individual may be subjected to an accelerated stride of new attainment. This is not uncommon amongst those who have re-entered upon the path and come to realize their inner preferences there. Phenomenally a man need not awaken into the spiritual work at any particular age, especially when karmic duties have called his attentions within the worldly activities requiring him to participate to the very fullest aforehand. It may well be that much later in life he consciously begins to 'catch up' to those inner knowings he worked for in previous lifetimes, and then seemingly 'all of at once' he has changed remarkably.

In reaction to this spirituality now come upon them, there is also a quickening of perception, as well as the subliminal material now conversing along with the awakened inner sensibilities. New experiences rush in to greet this consciousness, as the ego also extends its call out into the world to truly know it - wishing to investigate and cohabit with substance, fellow and god.

This is a special time therefore of compromise occurring, when the mainframe constitution accordingly reacts to the now new tensions straining to meet with the excessive life. Conjunctures are responsive all over the being; comprehension is attempted, signatures are sought after, curiosity enlivens and then, understandably, it stops. 

It is a magnetic anomaly, yet also an astral gastritis. Too much too quickly and we begin to evacuate even before the necessary processing. We can see individuals who have gone from mundane to enlivened and then into nihilism resulting ... and from this position there can be then two ways to go.

If the enlivening was self-earned then the man or woman will begin to reassert themselves in relation to the spirituality, and the 'coldness' to the world will thaw with the warmth of their true inner life restabilizing itself once again in respect to its natural audacities.

If the enlivening was artificially induced then the indifference will continue. 

-Mr & Mrs B.Hive

Beings of Complicity Complicating Religiosity with Pseudo-seriousness

Wherever there is a body of men working together there are also the beings who oversee that one body, and come to rely energetically upon the efforts of that group. With spiritually placed organizations there can be very protective beings who begin their wardship as faithful, deliberate hosts. They attend and cooperate at gatherings, they inspire a like-mindedness and shadow feeling of fellowship; they may become great and useful providers of much truth shared and experienced (partially creating the spiritual realities they promulgate). 

However, such beings do not encompass the human empathies. They may be very powerful and persuasive as far as their divine knowledge is inspiring (there are dark path entities also, but we are speaking of the goodly variety) and yet, because they are limited to a 'higher' perspective as it were, they are all too distant from the condition of men. 

Now in Anthroposophy there can be such a dedication to the leading being of the inner society that the very sensitive of individuals who are pouring themselves into the work are becoming responsive to its 'higher nature' in such a way that they are divorcing out from the world in general. This is not to say that they are no longer effectual within their lives and loves etc. But it can be seen in countenance and attitude that many are disabled from some aspects of individual character, replacing it with an assumed sense of divinity. 

This being is not that of Dr. Rudolf Steiner, and nor is it the Elijah Spirit* which he himself has emulated. It does not belong with the Rosicrucian stream (a rowdy bunch at best); and in principle does not belong with the future episodes ahead of Man as entertained by Christ. 

This can be proven in respect firstly to the exclusive nature of the Society Being, as promulgated by its recipients. Formally it is an entified organization, and this being was called in during the first gatherings of the Esoteric Section with the precise purpose of setting such ordinances in place, and keeping them there.

This detachment may well be preferred and chosen by those who participate. It is not, in itself, irrevocable, and in many respects it affords a great comfort for those sensitive individuals who are trying to make their way in the world, negotiating the many forces within. 

In relation to point one, it can be understood how rapidly a soul can wish for some stability to invisibly set their axis upon, that the influx of new experiences and information can cause an ancillary need which may then be answered by the providence of that governing angel whose wings we may ride upon with inspiration, with such divine love akin to its kind.

A. Rosenkrantz 

This is no criticism but comment, to say also that the Man-Wisdom Anthroposophia, is coincidentally supported and maintained with an invisible presence which is not of Man. We do not believe that the strength of this being's effect was predecided. It is noble, it is determined, but limited in conveying much of the human condition as it exists today about the Globe.

Seriousness and gaiety do go hand in hand. The very lightness of spirit pertains to gravity as known. The better informed an individual is, the more capable he is of true seriousness. Experience, study, empathetic reasonings and resultant love, all bring the ego of Man closer to the reality without. This knowing of reality, in turn, makes a man strong. Such strength then offers

• resistance (when chosen);
• discrimination (re-identifying)
• and comprehension (an expanded consciousness).

We are better equipped with our humanity if we are understanding it. We are less likely to shy away from those aspects which appear overwhelming to our inner sensibilities if we have won some resistance, discrimination and mindfulness about ourselves.

It would be perilous to believe ourselves and solely ourselves, to be so strong or comprehensive so as not to need the assistance and guidance of the higher beings in all that we do. It would be equally misplaced if we bethought ourselves tough enough to resist the many incoming forces and entities that would try us tomorrow, were it not for the protection of Christ and His emissaries. 

But what we are saying here is that the emphasis within the operating consciousness of the Society can prove itself too persuasively geist-like, rather than of Man. 

-Mr & Mrs B.Hive

[*Elias Artista: Elijah the Artist: 

Nothing is concealed that shall not be revealed. There are many more secrets concerning the transmutation, though they are little known, for if they are revealed to someone their fame is not immediately common. With this art, the Lord bestows the wisdom to keep it secret until the advent of Elias Artista. Then shall be revealed what has been concealed.
- Paracelsus, Book Concerning the Tincture of Philosophers]

Connecting Through Prayer

A primitive man used to receive prayers that he said in the evening before going to sleep, and in the morning after waking up, and that was good, for he strengthened his soul with spiritual forces as he prepared his soul for higher worlds, and after he left them, he again permeated his soul with higher forces, and as it were, sucked out soul forces from spiritual worlds.

The mineral, plant and animal kingdoms below man are permeated with spiritual forces that always become renewed; the same is true of the four elements fire, water, air, and earth. Things are different with men. If a man doesn't connect himself with these spiritual forces, he doesn't receive them. If he goes to sleep without preparation he doesn't get any forces in the worlds he enters then. No matter how learned, scientific and high-ranking a materialist is, if he goes into spiritual worlds unprepared in the evening, he stands far below a simple primitive man who has already connected himself with them through his prayer. 

Man has increasingly forgotten prayer in our materialistic age with its very admirable scientific achievements. He goes to sleep and wakes up with his everyday thoughts. But what does he do thereby? Something happens through this omission. He kills some of the spiritual life and forces on the physical plane each time.


-Rudolf Steiner - Notes from an esoteric lesson

Invisible Creatures of the Elements by Manly P. Hall

Paracelsus gained enduring distinction as a patron of forlorn causes. He advanced and defended beliefs, opinions, and doctrines unpopular in his own day and even less acceptable to the mind of the 20th Cen- tury. 16th Century Europe is now regarded as superstition-ridden, and doctrines then held as valid subjects for scientific consideration have been totally rejected, or at least allowed to languish in dignified oblivion. As we have noted before, Paracelsus chose to gather his friends and ac- quaintances from among the peasantry. He liked to visit hermits living in huts and caves, and to explore the myths and legends of the gypsies, alchemists, herbalists, and even magicians and sorcerers. He was con- vinced that the folk-beliefs flourishing in isolated regions had valid origin and meaning for those who had the wit and wisdom to examine them * 46 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus with open and charitable attitudes. We are inclined today to agree with Paracelsus, accepting ancient symbols and ideas not as mere inventions, fabrications, or delusions, but as revealing the deeper phases of human consciousness, much as we regard dreams and visions as testimony to the inner life of the individual. All over the world, people of every race and class, and belonging to many levels and degrees of intelligence, have affirmed the reality of creatures in nature other than those with which we are commonly acquainted. The mythologies of the Persians, Mongolians, Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, and Egyptians, abound with accounts of spirits, benevolent or malevolent, who occasionally involve themselves in the affairs of ordinary mortals. The Greeks had their nymphs and dryades , sprites of fountain and forest. The ancient Druids had their tree-spirits, inhabiting the sacred groves, and the Teutonic tribes never questioned the reality of the Nibelungen folk — gnomes and earth-dwarfs who guarded lost treasures. Although Paracelsus never reached Ireland, he would have found there the same respect for leprechauns, who pegged shoes in forest glades, and fairies, like the airy people o $ A Midsummer Night's Dream, who held court in meadows, and whose dances caused fairy rings of bright flowers. Of course, Paracelsus did not actually invent his explanations relat- ing to elementals and elementaries. He merely adapted them from the writings of the Egyptians and other learned nations of the ancient world. On one occasion, Socrates, desiring to discourse with his disciples, chose a certain shaded and secluded place because the spirits that inhabited it would contribute to the dignity and richness of the occasion. Iamblichus, in his work on the Mysteries, mentions attending spirits, some of which are associated with a person from his birth and become his protectors. This concept, which returns in Christian theology as the Guardian Angel, is not regarded as contrary to the doctrines of the Church. Paracelsus was a devout man, and drew much of his inspiration from the Bible and early commentaries thereon. He was therefore not a stranger to the Scriptures or the miracles and mysterious appearances • 47 • Manly Palmer Hall which they set forth. He came to the conclusion that the subject of sub- mundanes, or nonhuman beings in nature, did not conflict with the orthodox inclinations of pious persons. In the Archidoxis, he tells us that there arc two kinds of substances in nature — two kinds of bodies — which he quaintly describes when he says “there is a flesh from Adam and there is also a flesh that is not from Adam.” He goes on to say that Adamic flesh is composed of the mingling of the four basic elements that were known to the ancients. We must bear in mind that our modern theory of elements is far more complicated than the older concept. The four elements of the ancients were earth, water, fire, and air, and the flesh of Adam is composed of a mingling of these four elements. Thus, in the human body, there is a physical or mineral part, a vegetative or humid part, a fiery' principle, sustaining warmth and motion, and an airy or gaseous principle, often related to the structure of the intellect. Thus the human body is made up of solids, liquids, gases, and a fiery principle. Some of the Cabalists held that the four rivers described in Genesis as flowing out of the Garden of Eden, represented the streams of energy sustaining the four primordial elements. These elements, again, were sy'mboiized by the four fixed signs of the zodiac: Taurus the Bull, repre- senting earth; Scorpio the Scorpion, representing water; Leo the Lion, representing fire; and Aquarius, sometimes called the Water-bearer, an electrical kind of fluid associated with the spirit of air. These elements later became identified with the four corners of the world, and in Chris- tianity, with the four Apostles or Evangelists — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In art, these Evangelists were often pictured accompanied by the fixed signs of the zodiac. Man, descending from Adam and receiving his body from the Adamic flesh, iives in four elementary spheres at the same time. He has dominion over these elements, with the power to control, integrate, and arrange them, and he also possesses within himself what is called in alchemy the quintessence, or the fifth essence. This is a psychic spiritual energy, superior to the elements, by the agency of which these elements can be bound and unbound, held together in conformity with the laws • 48 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus governing the human creation. This quintessence, or fifth power, was known to both the Pythagoreans and the Paracelsians as the soul, which permeated the flesh of Adam, ensouled him, so that he became indeed a living being. Paracelsus explains that we come to know the elements because we have a certain experience of them through our sensory perceptions and our intellectual powers. We know that the earth extends beneath our feet; we can touch solid substances and know them to have structure, weight, shape, and size. Bodies grow from the earth, and the more corporeal parts of these bodies are of the earth-earthy, like the trunk of a tree or the bones of animals. Such forms belong to the physical element of earth; they are derived from it, and ultimately they return to it again. Man is also sustained and supported by liquids, which together the ancients called the water element. The human being can live much longer without food than without water. Yet this very water which preserves him, and of which his body is largely composed, can also destroy him; that is, he can drown or become dropsical in his own flesh. Man must also possess the principle of heat or fire in order to exist, and Paracelsus believed that the heat-radiating center in the body was the liver. Without heat, man must die, but with too much heat, he can also be consumed. So fire is both a friendly and a dangerous element. The last of these elements its air, and without this, man can survive only a few moments. He discovers his indebtedness when he climbs to a high altitude and experiences difficulty because of the rarified atmosphere. He lives within air as the fish lives within water, and the pressure of air upon his body is likewise essential to his survival. Paracelsus resolved to explore the mysteries of these four elements, through the cooperation of which man lives and moves and has his be- ing: He decided that these elements are not merely substances heaped together, or stratified, or aggregated for the simple convenience of man. Each has an existence apart from man. Every element has its own bound- aries, its own laws and rules, and each contributes to the maintenance of compound structures because of an internal virtue or energy-factor. . 49 • Manly Palmer Hall Such elements, therefore, are indeed rivers of life, and man, in order to retain his physical economy must preserve the balance of these elements in his body at all times, which he does by means of nutrition and even the introduction of talismans and magical formulas. Elements are not always visible, nor is man able to solve their mystery completely by merely observing their effects in his own life. Fire, for example, is a spontaneous element arising here, disappearing there, blazing forth from the volcano or from the striking of flint and steel. A fire may disappear, burn out, leaving only cold embers, but the principle or spirit of fire remains, and it may be conjured into manifestation by those requiring its assistance. Each of the elements, in the Paracelsian theory, is actually a kind of a world — a sphere interpenetrating the spheres of the other elements, yet possessing qualities of its own. Thus there are four spheres: earth the most visible, physical and fixed; water — physical but mutable; fire — sometimes visible in combustion, and more mutable; and finally air — usually invisible, and to be discovered, as in the case of wind, when it causes some physical thing to move, like the swaying of branches or the filling of a sail. All physical elements are therefore two-fold, possessing a causal nature, essentially invisible, and a nature according to effect or consequence, usually visible to some degree. Paracelsus explained that these spheres of the four elements are subject to a certain kind of scientific analysis, if man possesses internal faculties beyond the objective sense perceptions. Man, by virtue of his own constitution, lives in a world of three dimensions, but he is surrounded by a universe in which there are an infinite number of dimensions beyond human experience. A dimension is more than a mere division or expression of extent and expanse. The element spheres expand into dimensions beyond us, and are finally lost to our comprehension in the concept of space, which is actually the reservoir of dimension. There are forms in nature which are not three- dimensional or two-dimensional or one-dimensional, as we apply such terms. There are also forms in which there are many more dimensions than we have ever recognized. Paracelsus further believed that man • 50 • 1 The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus possesses powers and latent faculties by which it is possible for him to gradually become aware of a many-dimensioned universe. This will mean the ultimate conquest of space through the realization that there is no such thing as space, but merely an infinite expanse of unfolding areas of visible or invisible, known or unknown life, energy, and substance. There is no vacuum in the universe, and the nearest thing to a vacuum, according to Paracelsus, was the brain of one of his fellow professors at Basel University. Man, on certain occasions, may be able to break through some of the dimension-binders which hold his consciousness in psychological re- straint. This can occur in sleep or in the dream state. Paracelsus belonged to that group of philosophers who maintained that our comparative ignorance on the subjective side of our own lives was due mostly to our hypnotic addiction to objectivity. The consciousness of the small child, not having been adversely conditioned by what we call the reasonable, retains faculties by which he may penetrate some of the dimensional boundaries and become aware of invisible creatures, or participate in experiences which are not of this world. Later, however, ridicule and the pressure of common opinion contribute to the loss of the extra faculties and their perceptions. To make his point as simple as possible, Paracelsus devotes some consideration to the element of water. We all know that the seas and oceans, rivers and streams, and even the old family rain barrel, are worlds populated with living things, whose ways of life differ from our own, but are well adapted to the element in which they exist. Visible water is only a small part of the liquid element. The whole sphere of water, visible and invisible, terrestrial and sidereal, may therefore also be a habitable region. Could we see this region, it might unfold as a varied and wonderful landscape. There could be rocks composed only of the humid principle; mountains and valleys, plants and animals, some resem- bling human beings, others without any correspondence in our mortal experience. Actually, all this wonderful world is differentiated within one substance only. It is not a compound, but this does not mean that • 51 • Mar.lv Palmer Hall it cannot support or advance the destinies of the creatures developing within it. If nature produces a sphere, or plane of substance or activity, it does not leave this creation lifeless and forlorn. Every dimension of environment sustains living things, even as the visible earth sustains its diversity of flora and fauna. Thus there is a two-fold world of earth — one visible, and the other invisible; and the same is true of water, of fire, and of air. These elements are also worlds, and these worlds are inhabited. The creatures of such invisible planes are called by the Paracelsian mystics elemental. This is because each is composed of a single element, with both the advantages and disadvantages of an uncompounded con- stitution. All elementals differ from human beings in two respects: first, they have a body composed of only one element; and second, they do not have a soul, because the soul itself arises in compound bodies and cannot find a habitation appropriate to itself in forms composed of single elements. Actually, in the case of elementals, spirit, soul, and body, are not differentiated because these creatures have not been individualized as man has been. Being thus undifferentiated, they do not possess moral natures; that is, they are amoral; they are neither good nor bad. In this, they resemble animals. They do not worship, nor do they fear any evil. They are not frightened by death, nor are they constituted for immortal- ity. They have an existence without conflict. Because there is no stress or pressure, as must exist in compound beings, their constitutions are not subject to wear or exhaustion. These elemental beings can therefore exist for a very long time in comparison to man, and when their existence ends, they dissolve again into the substance from which they came. Because all four elements are material but not physical, their cor- responding beings are also essentially material, though not physical, as we understand that term. They are subject to the laws of generation, and attain a certain gradual evolution within the elemental field to which they belong. By their constitution, however, the growth which they attain advances the element itself rather than the nature of the separate beings. • 52 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus Paracelsus, following the concepts of Greece, Egypt, India, and China, divided elemental beings into four groups. Of these, he considered the earth-spirits, or the gnomes, to be those most closely associated with matter; the water-spirits, he calls undines, or nymphs; the fire-spirits, salamanders; and the air-spirits, sylphs. Paracelsus also indicates that the elementals not only live within their particular elements, but are the administrators of the processes associated with the elements. In other words, we seem to perceive a certain intelligence operating in the relation- ships of elements and creatures. We observe the growth of metals in the earth, and how fishes have a certain instinctive knowledge of the rules governing their own existences. This is likewise true of animals, birds, and of the larger expressions of elements in storms, the formations of clouds, whirlpools, eddies, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. It is scarcely necessary for us to enlarge the stories relating to elemen- tals. We can, however, summarize the Paracelsian concept. Elementals are divided into races and groups. They have their homes; they are ruled over by kings and princes; they perform innumerable tasks, busying themselves in their world as we busy ourselves with the problems of our dimension and existence. Occasionally, these elementals come into our own sphere of awareness because our natures include the substances within which the elementals exist. Legends like the story of Undine, the beautiful accounts of the Greek nymphs, and of gnomes revealing their treasures to mortals for whom they have a friendship, are regarded by us as pure fiction, but Paracelsus recommended that the subject be given further examination. In his philosophy, Paracelsus also differentiated an entirely different group of invisible creatures, referring to them as elementaries. At first, the terms might seem confusingly similar. We must remember that an elemental is a natural creature derived from the flesh that is not the flesh of Adam, and belonging to the orderly procedure of creative processes in the universe. By contrast, the elementary is an artificial being, created in the invisible worlds by man himself. In harmony with more recent findings, Paracelsus noted that most elementaries seem to be of an evil • 53 • Manly Palmer Hall or destructive nature. They are generated from the excesses of human thought and emotion, the corruption of character, or the degeneration of faculties and powers which should be used in other, more construc- tive, ways. A good example of the Paracelsian elementary is the incubus. This is a kind of demon which exists because when God created Adam, he breathed into him the divine power. Man is therefore a creator, not merely in the terms of the perpetuation of the species, but especially in terms of the imagination. Man is creative in arts, sciences, and philoso- phies, but his creative powers are not only external, but also internal. Because he lives, man bestows life, and he can generate creatures from his thoughts and emotions, even as from his flesh. The power to create is the power of vibration, by which anything is set into a peculiar motion. This motion is itself immortal, and contributes its own power to other things forever. The invisible progeny of man include thought-forms and emotion-forms. These are like infants, especially in their beginnings, for they depend upon their creator for their nutrition and survival. Later, however, if the forces which generate them continue to operate, these thought and emotion-forms gain strength, finally attaining a kind of independence which is their immortality. Having thus become even stronger than their creator, these thought or emotion-forms will turn upon the one who fashioned them, often causing in him a terrible habit and destroying his health and happiness. Man may also create by the power of his speech. Among Orientals, addicts to hashish and other drugs have reported their ability, while under the influence of these narcotics, to see words coming out of the human mouth. These words appear as luminous forms or patterns. Paracelsus tells us substantially the same thing. Entities thus created by thought, emotion, or the spoken words, are further sustained by the continual flowing of energy from the person. If such support is not sufficient a kind of vampirism sets in, and the elementary, like a parasitic plant, drains the energy of the human body to support its own growth. It becomes a psychic tumor, surviving at the expense of the organism to which it is attached. • 54 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus Much of the information gathered by Paracelsus relating to the incubus is interesting from a psychological standpoint. We know that the human psyche can become ridden with pressure-centers or pressure- patterns which we call fixations, complexes, phobias, and the like. We know that these negative psychic formations are nourished by the continual repetition of the attitudes which caused them. We say that negative attitudes become habitual, by degrees taking over and destroying the mental and emotional integrity of the individual. A fixation, well nour- ished by attitudes suitable for its perpetuation, intensifies, becoming actually avaricious and resolved to dominate or possess the entire life of its unhappy victim. This again suggests the Paracelsian analogy between the incubus and the parasite. Just as a beautiful orchid, or the mistletoe plant, lives partly from the air and partly from the tree to which it is attached, so the incubus, or the phobia, is an unlawful being, surviving not because its roots are in nature, but at the expense of another living organism whose vital forces will be vampirized. Modern thinking, therefore, sheds a light upon the concept of elementaries, extending beyond the basic research of Paracelsus. We observe today the tremendous increase in mental pathology. We know that attitudes which become more and more fixed lead to what science calls a state of obsession. Paracelsus used the term obsession to signify possession by an entity. Today the term is used to signify possession by an abnormal attitude. What is the fact of this matter? Is it possible that the abnormal attitude has gradually become an entity? We may prefer not to assume such a belief, but how can we completely explain the pe- culiar and continuous undermining of the consciousness and morality of a human being? Once a destructive attitude has come into posses- sion of a life, the person is gradually devoured by that attitude, which appears to become more and more possessive. Many persons under psychological obsession resist treatment, as though some foreign creature were fighting for its own survival in them. Often, indeed, in a mental illness, the patient, instead of desiring to recover, becomes defensive of his ailment, defending abnormalcy more courageously than he would ever defend normalcy. • 55 • I I Manly Palmer Hull Much has also been written on the subject of vampires, the mysterious | undead who live upon the blood of the living and can be destroyed only j when a stake is driven through their hearts. In Paracelsian psychology, the vampire also plays an interesting role. There seems to be an analogy I with what might be termed collective manias. To become a vampire, we | must first be the victim of a vampire. This evil creature can function only at night, and must sleep forever in its own earth. Many psychological j ailments seem to be communicated by the pressures of one person ad- > versely influencing the life of another. We have great psychoses, shared j by multitudes of persons, such as fear of war, crime, sickness, poverty, and death. Once we have been attacked by these fears, we become like j them. We perpetuate negative thought and emotion-forms, preserving our own bad habits by causing others to share them. Destructive thought- patterns therefore organize into groups, and in each of these groups, there are millions of persons exemplifying the same destructive and morbid tendencies. These, according to Paracelsus, result in collective thought- forms, which will become attached to persons who make themselves available through a basic kind of negation. The individual then simply becomes receptive to the pressures of his world, allows these pressures to move in, until he finally becomes another unit in the pressure-group, adding his negative influence to the already tragic condition. In the Paracelsian doctrine, there is, however, a solid sense of jus- tice. In order to be a victim of elementaries of any kind, the individual must be potentially given to excessive attitudes or destructive habits. The kindly person, fully occupied in useful endeavors, will not open his nature to infection or contagion. Actually, the elementary is closely associated with imagination, which can be a distorting and deforming force in the life of the individual. In the aloneness of his private living, the melancholy person becomes filled with self-pity, deludes himself, convinces his mind that he is the victim of injury or neglect, and finally prepares his nature for the development of one of these psychic entities. Recovery must therefore be a reversal of process, in which faith, friend- ship, understanding, tolerance, and good humor break the vicious circle and deprive the obsession of its needed nutrition. . 56 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus Out of his philosophy of elementaries, Paracelsus came to the conclusion that a very large part of what we consider to be physical disease, results from psychic parasites generated by wrong thought and emotion. He did not go so far as to insist that attitudes are the sole cause of sickness, but he regarded them as extremely important factors. Furthermore, wrong attitudes will reduce the probability of recovery, and leave the patient without the proper energy for the reorientation of his career. Gradually, the obsessing entity or elementary sets up physical equivalents in the body, which symbolize the state of the soul and the interior sickness of the mind and heart. Paracelsus was enough of a psychologist to recognize that the black magician of medieval sorcery is simply the black psychic side of ourselves. The dishonest person seeking to gain by unlawful ends certain securi- ties or advantages normally reserved for those of proper attainments, becomes a kind of sorcerer who, with spells and incantations, tries to fulfill his own selfishness. Thus, a person living an apparently respectable life, but inwardly filled with hatreds, morbid emotion, and destructive attitudes, is creating another being within his own magnetic field — a kind of second and negative self. This is suggested in the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In the Paracelsian period of human activity, it was believed that certain persons had attendant demons, or familiar spirits, who served their bidding for a time and then claimed the immortal soul of the magician. This is the Mephisto who attached himself to Faust, as the result of what has been called the Faustian complex. This Mephisto is ever whispering in our ear that we may do as we please, regardless of consequences, and we agree because we desire to agree; but if we follow this course and listen to this demoniacal voice, our satanic imp will ultimately carry us away to his own infernal region. Contrary to general opinion, Paracelsus did not believe that our private elementaries, demons, and vampires, could go out from us and hurt the persons we hate or wish to injure. The elementary cannot ex- ist except within the energy-field of its own creator. Destructive emo- tions or hatreds, therefore, can never escape from us, but having been * 57 • I Manly Pd mer Hail generated and allowed to flow into the energy-field, they return to us j again in the forms of various disasters. The hate we turn upon another | strengthens only the power to hate in ourselves. For this reason, the [ doctrine is soundly ethical. Our own evil destroys us, usually so slowly 1 and mysteriously that we do not understand the procedure. We are I reminded always that evil is its own punishment, even as good is its own greatest reward. Paracelsus also had another theory which perhaps will seem incred- \ ible to us, yet it deals with a subject which we have never satisfactorily solved. This has to do with the problem of germs, bacterial organisms, and viruses — those microforms of life that are so dangerous to the health of ordinary mortals. Paracelsus believed that the germ, or its equivalent, is a psychic entity created by creatures possessing mental and emotional powers. He pointed out that epidemical disease usually accompanies out- breaks of destructive human intensity. War, for example, is nearly always accompanied by a plague, and also by violent seismic disorders. By this way of thinking, the Swiss Hermes points out the danger of overloading those processes of nature by means of which physical, emotional and mental pollution is neutralized or overcome. We are now [ concerned with water pollution and with the pollution of air, as in the smog problem. Paracelsus believed that the psychic fields of the world, which must absorb the psychic toxins arising from the negative dispo- sitional characteristics of mental and emotional creatures, can become J so polluted that they can no longer cleanse themselves with sufficient [ rapidity. The result is the rise of psychic toxin in the energy field of the planet. Invisible Creatures of the Elements Paracelsus gained enduring distinction as a patron of forlorn causes. He advanced and defended beliefs, opinions, and doctrines unpopular in his own day and even less acceptable to the mind of the 20th Cen- tury. 16th Century Europe is now regarded as superstition-ridden, and doctrines then held as valid subjects for scientific consideration have been totally rejected, or at least allowed to languish in dignified oblivion. As we have noted before, Paracelsus chose to gather his friends and ac- quaintances from among the peasantry. He liked to visit hermits living in huts and caves, and to explore the myths and legends of the gypsies, alchemists, herbalists, and even magicians and sorcerers. He was con- vinced that the folk-beliefs flourishing in isolated regions had valid origin and meaning for those who had the wit and wisdom to examine them * 46 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus with open and charitable attitudes. We are inclined today to agree with Paracelsus, accepting ancient symbols and ideas not as mere inventions, fabrications, or delusions, but as revealing the deeper phases of human consciousness, much as we regard dreams and visions as testimony to the inner life of the individual. All over the world, people of every race and class, and belonging to many levels and degrees of intelligence, have affirmed the reality of creatures in nature other than those with which we are commonly acquainted. The mythologies of the Persians, Mongolians, Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, and Egyptians, abound with accounts of spirits, benevolent or malevolent, who occasionally involve themselves in the affairs of ordinary mortals. The Greeks had their nymphs and dryades , sprites of fountain and forest. The ancient Druids had their tree-spirits, inhabiting the sacred groves, and the Teutonic tribes never questioned the reality of the Nibelungen folk — gnomes and earth-dwarfs who guarded lost treasures. Although Paracelsus never reached Ireland, he would have found there the same respect for leprechauns, who pegged shoes in forest glades, and fairies, like the airy people o $ A Midsummer Night's Dream, who held court in meadows, and whose dances caused fairy rings of bright flowers. Of course, Paracelsus did not actually invent his explanations relat- ing to elementals and elementaries. He merely adapted them from the writings of the Egyptians and other learned nations of the ancient world. On one occasion, Socrates, desiring to discourse with his disciples, chose a certain shaded and secluded place because the spirits that inhabited it would contribute to the dignity and richness of the occasion. Iamblichus, in his work on the Mysteries, mentions attending spirits, some of which are associated with a person from his birth and become his protectors. This concept, which returns in Christian theology as the Guardian Angel, is not regarded as contrary to the doctrines of the Church. Paracelsus was a devout man, and drew much of his inspiration from the Bible and early commentaries thereon. He was therefore not a stranger to the Scriptures or the miracles and mysterious appearances • 47 • Manly Palmer Hall which they set forth. He came to the conclusion that the subject of sub- mundanes, or nonhuman beings in nature, did not conflict with the orthodox inclinations of pious persons. In the Archidoxis, he tells us that there arc two kinds of substances in nature — two kinds of bodies — which he quaintly describes when he says “there is a flesh from Adam and there is also a flesh that is not from Adam.” He goes on to say that Adamic flesh is composed of the mingling of the four basic elements that were known to the ancients. We must bear in mind that our modern theory of elements is far more complicated than the older concept. The four elements of the ancients were earth, water, fire, and air, and the flesh of Adam is composed of a mingling of these four elements. Thus, in the human body, there is a physical or mineral part, a vegetative or humid part, a fiery' principle, sustaining warmth and motion, and an airy or gaseous principle, often related to the structure of the intellect. Thus the human body is made up of solids, liquids, gases, and a fiery principle. Some of the Cabalists held that the four rivers described in Genesis as flowing out of the Garden of Eden, represented the streams of energy sustaining the four primordial elements. These elements, again, were sy'mboiized by the four fixed signs of the zodiac: Taurus the Bull, repre- senting earth; Scorpio the Scorpion, representing water; Leo the Lion, representing fire; and Aquarius, sometimes called the Water-bearer, an electrical kind of fluid associated with the spirit of air. These elements later became identified with the four corners of the world, and in Chris- tianity, with the four Apostles or Evangelists — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In art, these Evangelists were often pictured accompanied by the fixed signs of the zodiac. Man, descending from Adam and receiving his body from the Adamic flesh, iives in four elementary spheres at the same time. He has dominion over these elements, with the power to control, integrate, and arrange them, and he also possesses within himself what is called in alchemy the quintessence, or the fifth essence. This is a psychic spiritual energy, superior to the elements, by the agency of which these elements can be bound and unbound, held together in conformity with the laws • 48 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus governing the human creation. This quintessence, or fifth power, was known to both the Pythagoreans and the Paracelsians as the soul, which permeated the flesh of Adam, ensouled him, so that he became indeed a living being. Paracelsus explains that we come to know the elements because we have a certain experience of them through our sensory perceptions and our intellectual powers. We know that the earth extends beneath our feet; we can touch solid substances and know them to have structure, weight, shape, and size. Bodies grow from the earth, and the more corporeal parts of these bodies are of the earth-earthy, like the trunk of a tree or the bones of animals. Such forms belong to the physical element of earth; they are derived from it, and ultimately they return to it again. Man is also sustained and supported by liquids, which together the ancients called the water element. The human being can live much longer without food than without water. Yet this very water which preserves him, and of which his body is largely composed, can also destroy him; that is, he can drown or become dropsical in his own flesh. Man must also possess the principle of heat or fire in order to exist, and Paracelsus believed that the heat-radiating center in the body was the liver. Without heat, man must die, but with too much heat, he can also be consumed. So fire is both a friendly and a dangerous element. The last of these elements its air, and without this, man can survive only a few moments. He discov- ers his indebtedness when he climbs to a high altitude and experiences difficulty because of the rarified atmosphere. He lives within air as the fish lives within water, and the pressure of air upon his body is likewise essential to his survival. Paracelsus resolved to explore the mysteries of these four elements, through the cooperation of which man lives and moves and has his be- ing: He decided that these elements are not merely substances heaped together, or stratified, or aggregated for the simple convenience of man. Each has an existence apart from man. Every element has its own bound- aries, its own laws and rules, and each contributes to the maintenance of compound structures because of an internal virtue or energy-factor. . 49 • Manly Palmer Hall Such elements, therefore, are indeed rivers of life, and man, in order to retain his physical economy must preserve the balance of these elements in his body at all times, which he does by means of nutrition and even the introduction of talismans and magical formulas. Elements are not always visible, nor is man able to solve their mystery completely by merely observing their effects in his own life. Fire, for example, is a spontaneous element arising here, disappearing there, blaz- ing forth from the volcano or from the striking of flint and steel. A fire may disappear, burn out, leaving only cold embers, but the principle or spirit of fire remains, and it may be conjured into manifestation by those requiring its assistance. Each of the elements, in the Paracelsian theory, is actually a kind of a world — a sphere interpenetrating the spheres of the other elements, yet possessing qualities of its own. Thus there are four spheres: earth the most visible, physical and fixed; water — physical but mutable; fire — sometimes visible in combustion, and more mutable; and finally air — usually invisible, and to be discovered, as in the case of wind, when it causes some physical thing to move, like the swaying of branches or the filling of a sail. All physical elements are therefore two-fold, possessing a causal nature, essentially invisible, and a nature according to effect or consequence, usually visible to some degree. Paracelsus explained that these spheres of the four elements are subject to a certain kind of scientific analysis, if man possesses internal faculties beyond the objective sense perceptions. Man, by virtue of his own constitution, lives in a world of three dimensions, but he is surrounded by a universe in which there are an infinite number of dimensions beyond human experience. A dimension is more than a mere division or expression of extent and expanse. The element spheres expand into dimensions beyond us, and are finally lost to our comprehension in the concept of space, which is actually the reservoir of dimension. There are forms in nature which are not three- dimensional or two-dimensional or one-dimensional, as we apply such terms. There are also forms in which there are many more dimensions than we have ever recognized. Paracelsus further believed that man • 50 • 1 The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus possesses powers and latent faculties by which it is possible for him to gradually become aware of a many-dimensioned universe. This will mean the ultimate conquest of space through the realization that there is no such thing as space, but merely an infinite expanse of unfolding areas of visible or invisible, known or unknown life, energy, and substance. There is no vacuum in the universe, and the nearest thing to a vacuum, according to Paracelsus, was the brain of one of his fellow professors at Basel University. Man, on certain occasions, may be able to break through some of the dimension-binders which hold his consciousness in psychological re- straint. This can occur in sleep or in the dream state. Paracelsus belonged to that group of philosophers who maintained that our comparative ignorance on the subjective side of our own lives was due mostly to our hypnotic addiction to objectivity. The consciousness of the small child, not having been adversely conditioned by what we call the reasonable, retains faculties by which he may penetrate some of the dimensional boundaries and become aware of invisible creatures, or participate in experiences which are not of this world. Later, however, ridicule and the pressure of common opinion contribute to the loss of the extra faculties and their perceptions. To make his point as simple as possible, Paracelsus devotes some consideration to the element of water. We all know that the seas and oceans, rivers and streams, and even the old family rain barrel, are worlds populated with living things, whose ways of life differ from our own, but are well adapted to the element in which they exist. Visible water is only a small part of the liquid element. The whole sphere of water, visible and invisible, terrestrial and sidereal, may therefore also be a habitable region. Could we see this region, it might unfold as a varied and wonderful landscape. There could be rocks composed only of the humid principle; mountains and valleys, plants and animals, some resem- bling human beings, others without any correspondence in our mortal experience. Actually, all this wonderful world is differentiated within one substance only. It is not a compound, but this does not mean that • 51 • Mar.lv Palmer Hall it cannot support or advance the destinies of the creatures developing within it. If nature produces a sphere, or plane of substance or activity, it does not leave this creation lifeless and forlorn. Every dimension of environment sustains living things, even as the visible earth sustains its diversity of flora and fauna. Thus there is a two-fold world of earth — one visible, and the other invisible; and the same is true of water, of fire, and of air. These elements are also worlds, and these worlds are inhabited. The creatures of such invisible planes are called by the Paracelsian mystics elemental. This is because each is composed of a single element, with both the advantages and disadvantages of an uncompounded con- stitution. All elementals differ from human beings in two respects: first, they have a body composed of only one element; and second, they do not have a soul, because the soul itself arises in compound bodies and cannot find a habitation appropriate to itself in forms composed of single elements. Actually, in the case of elementals, spirit, soul, and body, are not differentiated because these creatures have not been individualized as man has been. Being thus undifferentiated, they do not possess moral natures; that is, they are amoral; they are neither good nor bad. In this, they resemble animals. They do not worship, nor do they fear any evil. They are not frightened by death, nor are they constituted for immortal- ity. They have an existence without conflict. Because there is no stress or pressure, as must exist in compound beings, their constitutions are not subject to wear or exhaustion. These elemental beings can therefore exist for a very long time in comparison to man, and when their existence ends, they dissolve again into the substance from which they came. Because all four elements are material but not physical, their cor- responding beings are also essentially material, though not physical, as we understand that term. They are subject to the laws of generation, and attain a certain gradual evolution within the elemental field to which they belong. By their constitution, however, the growth which they attain advances the element itself rather than the nature of the separate beings. • 52 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus Paracelsus, following the concepts of Greece, Egypt, India, and China, divided elemental beings into four groups. Of these, he considered the earth-spirits, or the gnomes, to be those most closely associated with matter; the water-spirits, he calls undines, or nymphs; the fire-spirits, salamanders; and the air-spirits, sylphs. Paracelsus also indicates that the elementals not only live within their particular elements, but are the administrators of the processes associated with the elements. In other words, we seem to perceive a certain intelligence operating in the relation- ships of elements and creatures. We observe the growth of metals in the earth, and how fishes have a certain instinctive knowledge of the rules governing their own existences. This is likewise true of animals, birds, and of the larger expressions of elements in storms, the formations of clouds, whirlpools, eddies, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. It is scarcely necessary for us to enlarge the stories relating to elemen- tals. We can, however, summarize the Paracelsian concept. Elementals are divided into races and groups. They have their homes; they are ruled over by kings and princes; they perform innumerable tasks, busying themselves in their world as we busy ourselves with the problems of our dimension and existence. Occasionally, these elementals come into our own sphere of awareness because our natures include the substances within which the elementals exist. Legends like the story of Undine, the beautiful accounts of the Greek nymphs, and of gnomes revealing their treasures to mortals for whom they have a friendship, are regarded by us as pure fiction, but Paracelsus recommended that the subject be given further examination. In his philosophy, Paracelsus also differentiated an entirely different group of invisible creatures, referring to them as elementaries. At first, the terms might seem confusingly similar. We must remember that an elemental is a natural creature derived from the flesh that is not the flesh of Adam, and belonging to the orderly procedure of creative processes in the universe. By contrast, the elementary is an artificial being, created in the invisible worlds by man himself. In harmony with more recent findings, Paracelsus noted that most elementaries seem to be of an evil • 53 • Manly Palmer Hall or destructive nature. They are generated from the excesses of human thought and emotion, the corruption of character, or the degeneration of faculties and powers which should be used in other, more construc- tive, ways. A good example of the Paracelsian elementary is the incubus. This is a kind of demon which exists because when God created Adam, he breathed into him the divine power. Man is therefore a creator, not merely in the terms of the perpetuation of the species, but especially in terms of the imagination. Man is creative in arts, sciences, and philoso- phies, but his creative powers are not only external, but also internal. Because he lives, man bestows life, and he can generate creatures from his thoughts and emotions, even as from his flesh. The power to create is the power of vibration, by which anything is set into a peculiar motion. This motion is itself immortal, and contributes its own power to other things forever. The invisible progeny of man include thought-forms and emotion-forms. These are like infants, especially in their beginnings, for they depend upon their creator for their nutrition and survival. Later, however, if the forces which generate them continue to operate, these thought and emotion-forms gain strength, finally attaining a kind of independence which is their immortality. Having thus become even stronger than their creator, these thought or emotion-forms will turn upon the one who fashioned them, often causing in him a terrible habit and destroying his health and happiness. Man may also create by the power of his speech. Among Orientals, addicts to hashish and other drugs have reported their ability, while under the influence of these narcotics, to see words coming out of the human mouth. These words appear as luminous forms or patterns. Paracelsus tells us substantially the same thing. Entities thus created by thought, emotion, or the spoken words, are further sustained by the continual flowing of energy from the person. If such support is not sufficient a kind of vampirism sets in, and the elementary, like a parasitic plant, drains the energy of the human body to support its own growth. It becomes a psychic tumor, surviving at the expense of the organism to which it is attached. • 54 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus Much of the information gathered by Paracelsus relating to the incubus is interesting from a psychological standpoint. We know that the human psyche can become ridden with pressure-centers or pressure- patterns which we call fixations, complexes, phobias, and the like. We know that these negative psychic formations are nourished by the continual repetition of the attitudes which caused them. We say that negative attitudes become habitual, by degrees taking over and destroying the mental and emotional integrity of the individual. A fixation, well nour- ished by attitudes suitable for its perpetuation, intensifies, becoming actually avaricious and resolved to dominate or possess the entire life of its unhappy victim. This again suggests the Paracelsian analogy between the incubus and the parasite. Just as a beautiful orchid, or the mistletoe plant, lives partly from the air and partly from the tree to which it is attached, so the incubus, or the phobia, is an unlawful being, surviving not because its roots are in nature, but at the expense of another living organism whose vital forces will be vampirized. Modern thinking, therefore, sheds a light upon the concept of elementaries, extending beyond the basic research of Paracelsus. We observe today the tremendous increase in mental pathology. We know that attitudes which become more and more fixed lead to what science calls a state of obsession. Paracelsus used the term obsession to signify possession by an entity. Today the term is used to signify possession by an abnormal attitude. What is the fact of this matter? Is it possible that the abnormal attitude has gradually become an entity? We may prefer not to assume such a belief, but how can we completely explain the pe- culiar and continuous undermining of the consciousness and morality of a human being? Once a destructive attitude has come into posses- sion of a life, the person is gradually devoured by that attitude, which appears to become more and more possessive. Many persons under psychological obsession resist treatment, as though some foreign creature were fighting for its own survival in them. Often, indeed, in a mental illness, the patient, instead of desiring to recover, becomes defensive of his ailment, defending abnormalcy more courageously than he would ever defend normalcy. • 55 • I I Manly Palmer Hull Much has also been written on the subject of vampires, the mysterious | undead who live upon the blood of the living and can be destroyed only j when a stake is driven through their hearts. In Paracelsian psychology, the vampire also plays an interesting role. There seems to be an analogy I with what might be termed collective manias. To become a vampire, we | must first be the victim of a vampire. This evil creature can function only at night, and must sleep forever in its own earth. Many psychological j ailments seem to be communicated by the pressures of one person ad- > versely influencing the life of another. We have great psychoses, shared j by multitudes of persons, such as fear of war, crime, sickness, poverty, and death. Once we have been attacked by these fears, we become like j them. We perpetuate negative thought and emotion-forms, preserving our own bad habits by causing others to share them. Destructive thought- patterns therefore organize into groups, and in each of these groups, there are millions of persons exemplifying the same destructive and morbid tendencies. These, according to Paracelsus, result in collective thought- forms, which will become attached to persons who make themselves available through a basic kind of negation. The individual then simply becomes receptive to the pressures of his world, allows these pressures to move in, until he finally becomes another unit in the pressure-group, adding his negative influence to the already tragic condition. In the Paracelsian doctrine, there is, however, a solid sense of jus- tice. In order to be a victim of elementaries of any kind, the individual must be potentially given to excessive attitudes or destructive habits. The kindly person, fully occupied in useful endeavors, will not open his nature to infection or contagion. Actually, the elementary is closely associated with imagination, which can be a distorting and deforming force in the life of the individual. In the aloneness of his private living, the melancholy person becomes filled with self-pity, deludes himself, convinces his mind that he is the victim of injury or neglect, and finally prepares his nature for the development of one of these psychic entities. Recovery must therefore be a reversal of process, in which faith, friend- ship, understanding, tolerance, and good humor break the vicious circle and deprive the obsession of its needed nutrition. . 56 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus Out of his philosophy of elementaries, Paracelsus came to the conclusion that a very large part of what we consider to be physical disease, results from psychic parasites generated by wrong thought and emotion. He did not go so far as to insist that attitudes are the sole cause of sickness, but he regarded them as extremely important factors. Furthermore, wrong attitudes will reduce the probability of recovery, and leave the patient without the proper energy for the reorientation of his career. Gradually, the obsessing entity or elementary sets up physical equivalents in the body, which symbolize the state of the soul and the interior sickness of the mind and heart. Paracelsus was enough of a psychologist to recognize that the black magician of medieval sorcery is simply the black psychic side of ourselves. The dishonest person seeking to gain by unlawful ends certain securi- ties or advantages normally reserved for those of proper attainments, becomes a kind of sorcerer who, with spells and incantations, tries to fulfill his own selfishness. Thus, a person living an apparently respectable life, but inwardly filled with hatreds, morbid emotion, and destructive attitudes, is creating another being within his own magnetic field — a kind of second and negative self. This is suggested in the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In the Paracelsian period of human activity, it was believed that certain persons had attendant demons, or familiar spirits, who served their bidding for a time and then claimed the immortal soul of the magician. This is the Mephisto who attached himself to Faust, as the result of what has been called the Faustian complex. This Mephisto is ever whispering in our ear that we may do as we please, regardless of consequences, and we agree because we desire to agree; but if we follow this course and listen to this demoniacal voice, our satanic imp will ultimately carry us away to his own infernal region. Contrary to general opinion, Paracelsus did not believe that our private elementaries, demons, and vampires, could go out from us and hurt the persons we hate or wish to injure. The elementary cannot ex- ist except within the energy-field of its own creator. Destructive emo- tions or hatreds, therefore, can never escape from us, but having been * 57 • I Manly Pd mer Hail generated and allowed to flow into the energy-field, they return to us j again in the forms of various disasters. The hate we turn upon another | strengthens only the power to hate in ourselves. For this reason, the [ doctrine is soundly ethical. Our own evil destroys us, usually so slowly 1 and mysteriously that we do not understand the procedure. We are I reminded always that evil is its own punishment, even as good is its own greatest reward. Paracelsus also had another theory which perhaps will seem incred- \ ible to us, yet it deals with a subject which we have never satisfactorily solved. This has to do with the problem of germs, bacterial organisms, and viruses — those microforms of life that are so dangerous to the health of ordinary mortals. Paracelsus believed that the germ, or its equivalent, is a psychic entity created by creatures possessing mental and emotional powers. He pointed out that epidemical disease usually accompanies out- breaks of destructive human intensity. War, for example, is nearly always accompanied by a plague, and also by violent seismic disorders. By this way of thinking, the Swiss Hermes points out the danger of overloading those processes of nature by means of which physical, emotional and mental pollution is neutralized or overcome. We are now [ concerned with water pollution and with the pollution of air, as in the smog problem. Paracelsus believed that the psychic fields of the world, which must absorb the psychic toxins arising from the negative dispo- sitional characteristics of mental and emotional creatures, can become J so polluted that they can no longer cleanse themselves with sufficient [ rapidity. The result is the rise of psychic toxin in the energy field of the planet. As all creatures inhabiting this planet must derive their energies and life substances from this field, its pollution causes widespread low- ering of vitality and morality. When this occurs, the general health and optimism of the race are afflicted. People complain of intangible ills, and are inclined to a common morbidity or to the neglect of activities which are healthful and psychically normal and sustaining. Paracelsus therefore believed that the solution to the problem of health was the realization that only the wise and the good can be happy • 58 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus and well. This does not mean that Paracelsus himself was never ill. He realized that he lived in a society which made freedom from sickness almost impossible. He believed, however, that we could minimize our dangers through the cultivation and preservation of defensive vitality. We can keep our psychic nature free from elementaries, and protect our energy fields from the parasitical attitudes which drain our vital resources. In early works on medicine, it is often noticed that representations of diseases are in the form of clouds of demon-like insects. These attack the sick man from all directions, and most certainly represent the evils in his own nature contributing to his discomfort. Paracelsus was a minister of good will among men. He believed that it was the duty of the human being to establish constructive relationships with the intelligent universe existing around him. Nature is by essential purpose kindly and benign, and has provided man with innumerable resources and opportunities, but through the perversion of his power, and the pollution of his mental-emotional life, man has created a situa- tion which has caused him to assume that the world is evil. If, however, he establishes harmonic sympathies with universal life, he will make friends he knows not of. We are reminded of the story of the kindly peasant to whom the earth-dwarfs cheerfully revealed their treasure. Even as the incubus is the product of man’s destructive emotion, so there is a guardian angel, generated from good thoughts and right emotions. There are good spirits to attend the good man, because he has created them, and they serve him gladly. He is rewarded according to the merit of his deeds, and if he finds depletion and depression invading his life, he should realize the strange chemistry of the elements and principles upon which he depends for existence. Through the proper use of his faculties, man builds a wonderful armor of protection around his life.

All creatures inhabiting this planet must derive their energies and life substances from this field, its pollution causes widespread low- ering of vitality and morality. When this occurs, the general health and optimism of the race are afflicted. People complain of intangible ills, and are inclined to a common morbidity or to the neglect of activities which are healthful and psychically normal and sustaining. Paracelsus therefore believed that the solution to the problem of health was the realization that only the wise and the good can be happy • 58 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus and well. This does not mean that Paracelsus himself was never ill. He realized that he lived in a society which made freedom from sickness almost impossible. He believed, however, that we could minimize our dangers through the cultivation and preservation of defensive vitality. We can keep our psychic nature free from elementaries, and protect our energy fields from the parasitical attitudes which drain our vital resources. In early works on medicine, it is often noticed that representations of diseases are in the form of clouds of demon-like insects. These attack the sick man from all directions, and most certainly represent the evils in his own nature contributing to his discomfort. Paracelsus was a minister of good will among men. He believed that it was the duty of the human being to establish constructive relationships with the intelligent universe existing around him. Nature is by essential purpose kindly and benign, and has provided man with innumerable resources and opportunities, but through the perversion of his power, and the pollution of his mental-emotional life, man has created a situa- tion which has caused him to assume that the world is evil. If, however, he establishes harmonic sympathies with universal life, he will make friends he knows not of. We are reminded of the story of the kindly peasant to whom the earth-dwarfs cheerfully revealed their treasure. Even as the incubus is the product of man’s destructive emotion, so there is a guardian angel, generated from good thoughts and right emotions. There are good spirits to attend the good man, because he has created them, and they serve him gladly. He is rewarded according to the merit of his deeds, and if he finds depletion and depression invading his life, he should realize the strange chemistry of the elements and principles upon which he depends for existence. Through the proper use of his faculties, man builds a wonderful armor of protection around his life.