Esoteric Lessons for the First Class of the Free School for Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum by Rudolf Steiner Lesson One in Prague

Esoteric Lessons for the First Class

of the Free School for Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum

by Rudolf Steiner

Lesson One in Prague

From stenographic records not revised by the speaker. The original stenographic records for the two lessons in Prague were not preserved, nor were the blackboard drawings.

Translated by Frank Thomas Smith

Prague, April 3, 1924

My dear Friends,

Since the Anthroposophical Society has been re-founded in a new form during the Christmas Conference, what had been given in the old Anthroposophical Society as esoteric instruction in various groups shall now stream into the School for Spiritual Science, which shall be a kind of center for the whole anthroposophical movement within the Anthroposophical Society. Naturally, according to the nature of its activities, this School will be centered at the Goetheanum in Dornach; and there we will strive more and more and will finally achieve the form which is sought: that it be expanded to reach all the friends who belong to the anthroposophical movement the world over who cannot come to Dornach. And what I will tell you today in this lesson and in the next esoteric class, my dear friends, will be spoken within this School for Spiritual Science. As an introduction I wish to inform you about its constitution.

Those who decide, after having been members of the Anthroposophical Society for two years, to become members of this School, acquire certain obligations in a spiritual sense. And the leadership of the School will always endeavor, when issuing the membership cards, to ascertain whether the persons involved are able to take on such spiritual obligations.

When someone enters the Anthroposophical Society he or she at first presumes – and rightly so – that they will learn and experience Anthroposophy. They wish at first to become acquainted with Anthroposophy. And therefore since the Christmas Conference complete openness is the rule; also that the members of the Anthroposophical Society are not subject to obligations of any kind.

Nevertheless, whoever becomes a member of the Free School for Spiritual Science must keep in mind that this School for Spiritual Science is to be the source of anthroposophical life in the present and in the immediate future. Anthroposophical life is founded on what has always been called “secret knowledge” or “occult science”. This is not meant to imply that the world “occult” is to be understood as meaning that a small circle of people is doing things that the rest of the world may not know; rather it has always meant that what is taught in the Esoteric Universities has its source in the deepest hidden inner core of the human being, as opposed to what belongs to the outer world, in a certain sense outside the human body. And that has always been called “secret” or “occult” as opposed to “public”. Occult means that the knowledge designated as such is manifested in the deepest, occult inner being of the human being; and it must not lose its rightful place, its rightful appreciation, even its rightful image if it is profaned when it is made publicly accessible, as always happens when things are made widely accessible to the public, for we can then assume that these things are not received with the necessary earnestness and the necessary esteem.

The first thing that must be required of the person who undertakes this esoteric training is that he or she does so with the deepest earnestness. And the School for Spiritual Science also has this requirement. And it demands of its members that they be true representatives of the anthroposophical worldwide movement in all walks of life. So that this School, or its leadership, most be responsible for saying to anyone it does not consider to be a true representative that they can no longer be members of the School.

This is not a tyrannical regulation, my dear friends, it is rather one based on the principle: freedom for freedom. If the leadership of the School wishes to lead it in the proper way, then it must be able to say with whom it forms the School's content. And for this reason we must indicate the earnestness with which the person who wishes to approach the School grasps Anthroposophy as a worldwide movement.

In order the satisfy the needs of all those who come to it under the present conditions of civilization in order to enhance their spiritual life, the School has been divided into Sections. The indications I will give during this and the next lesson are meant to be within the General Anthroposophical Section, which I myself will lead, along with the Pedagogical Section.

Within the School for Spiritual Science we will also have a Section for the Arts of Speech and music, under the leadership of Marie Steiner; a Medical Section under the leadership of Dr. Ita Wegman; a Section of the Sculptural Arts under the leadership of Miss Maryon; we will also have a section dedicated to the fine arts – something practically ignored today to the detriment of civilization – under the leadership of Albert Steffen; then an Astronomical section led by Dr. Vreede; and a section for Natural Science led by Dr. Wachsmuth.

We have also recently established, due to necessity, something about which nothing can yet be said because it is in such ferment, but one which the School in the Goetheanum has the honest intention to deal with: a Youth Section has been founded based on what the youth of today is striving for, although young people can only express themselves unclearly about what they are seeking. Objectively considered, this is something quite new – to clarify, to make conscious what is cloaked in obscure feelings of lacking something. To raise all this to clear consciousness is what the Section – which I may now call the Section for Youth-Wisdom – is striving for.

The Free School for Spiritual Science wishes to offer esoteric life as an extension of what can be found in today's external culture – what the world longs for in the strongest way – without realizing that what is striven for is just what should live in the esoteric activity of our School for Spiritual Science.

We have no intention of imitating what today's external universities do in a different way. That happened when certain opinions – not influenced by me – were tried out in Dornach. I saw them from the beginning as not quite correct. But in these things we are obliged to accept what is striving for the light of day. So now that the trial has been made and it has become obvious that the objective cannot be reached in that way, the School should no longer give the impression that it is competing with what is done in typical universities, but that it give to humanity what it is not possible to receive in typical educational institutes; it should be something which humanity profoundly desires.

In this way, the Free School for Spiritual Science is meant to be a true center for what is experienced in the anthroposophical movement.

When I say that this School should be taken with the utmost earnestness, I would like to indicate at the same time that these words themselves are not taken seriously enough. Therefore I should like to emphasize it again. Not the person who considers the esoteric life that is to flow through this School as something that lives alongside his life, so to speak; not that person will be a member of this School in the right way, but only the person whose life is completely permeated with the truth that an internal connection between his life and the esoteric teaching that flows from this School must exist, will be a member in the right and proper sense.

Because, my dear friends, you will not judge this School correctly if you consider it to be the result of human arbitrariness. This School is a spiritual determination; it arose by listening to what the spiritual powers that guide the world consider to be what is correct for humanity in our times.

Do not therefore consider this School to be a human enterprise. Consider it, rather, as the institution which derives from the will of the spiritual beings who are near to the earth and who work for the welfare of humanity.

If you consider it to be the earthly reflection of a spiritual institution, then you understand it in the right way. And when you realize that he who speaks every word within this School feels responsible to none other than the spiritual powers who lead the anthroposophical movement, then will you feel correctly in this sense. So this School is an understanding between the spiritual powers responsible for the present evolutionary phase of humanity and those who seek membership in this School.

You stand so to speak, my dear friends, directly before the spiritual world when you become a member of this School. And the more intensively you comprehend this, the more you will carry within you what this School must be, what alone gives it a real meaning. Whoever knows that the spirit itself speaks through the School will surely find the necessary earnestness to follow what is happening here.

All that we do in Dornach in the School by and by – one cannot take the fifth step before the third one, but only by and by after the fourth – will be sent in the corresponding notifications to all the members of the School. So that over time by and by an inner contact will be established between each individual member, no matter where he may be, and what flows from this School in Dornach.

*

Our first consideration, my dear friends, will be directed to what the person meets who earnestly sets out on the path to esoteric knowledge.

Real knowledge, my dear friends! We must clearly realize that what we meet in the outer world are the tasks to fulfill in the physical earthly life between birth and death. And we would misunderstand ourselves and the gods if we disdained what we meet in the physical world between birth and death. Human beings should dedicate themselves to their tasks in the physical world. But what do we find in this physical world? We finds beauty, greatness, grandeur in all that we see in the wonderful formations of the mineral kingdom, which also forms the ground which we need in order to accomplish our earthly tasks. We find wonderful majesty in the vegetable kingdom; we find what we need in the animal kingdom, what is our own in the physical human kingdom. We find these things in the kingdoms of nature elevated to the sublime when we lift our gaze to the clouds, to the blue sky or to the stars, to the sun and the moon. To not find beauty, greatness and grandeur in all this would lead us along the wrong path in life.

To enter the esoteric does not mean denying all this beauty, greatness and grandeur which meets us. But no matter how far we go into the mineral world with its wonderfully formed crystal shapes, no matter how far we go into colorful world of vegetation from which the sunlight reflects on to us, no matter how far we also go in observing at what magically emanates in the animal word from the depths of nature's being, and how we admire the way in which the secrets of the world unite within this physical human form, what we feel in our profound inner being we do not find in all those kingdoms of form and color and life in this world. And finally the individual stands within this world and may say: I feel the greatness, the beauty and the grandeur of everything that unfolds out there in forms and in colors; but what I myself am must originate in another world.

It it just when one strongly feels the beauty, greatness and grandeur of the physical, sensory world and feels that he cannot find there what the best part of what he himself is, the more is he urged to where all esoteric teaching begins: he is urged towards the abyss beyond which lies the human being's true origin. He is urged towards that abyss from where he must see the frontier between the sensory world and the spiritual world; he is urged to a place at the abyss where he is shown a kind of bridge which leads over to a completely different world, at the entrance of which lies the threshold to knowledge and to the spiritual world.

And what I am to tell you now, my dear friends, are the messages from the figure which has always been called the Guardian of the Threshold in esoteric circles.

It stands there, that lofty figure – those who achieve initiation learn to recognize it – a being who is truly no less real than a physical human being on earth, who in its reality towers far above the physical person on earth.

But the person who at first receives the esoteric messages in the form of concepts and feelings in an unprejudiced way, must feel how this Guardian of the Threshold stands there reminding the seeker for knowledge what he must experience if he really wishes to enter the field of knowledge.

Why does the Guardian of the Threshold stand there? He stands there because true knowledge can only be achieved if we seek it with the correct, positive preparation and attitude. True striving for knowledge is not theoretical. True striving for knowledge is only achieved when the soul rises above what the sensory world offers.

He who approaches this knowledge too early and unprepared, without the correct attitude, will not achieve it in the right way. He will cause harmful effects to himself and to the world. Achievement of true striving for knowledge is to a large extent the case for those who seek the right path to the spiritual world as it will be taught in the three Classes of the School for Spiritual Science. This is also the case, although more in an inner soul sense, for those who wish to merely accept information about the spiritual world. [“soul” is meant here as a lower level of knowledge than the “spiritual” level. Trans.] There must be at least an echo, however, of what the candidate for initiation experiences during his encounter with the Guardian of the Threshold.

It is this experience we are going to talk about now. For whoever receives these informative messages and allows them to work on him with the appropriate earnestness in the right way by practice and feeling, finds in them the path leading over the Threshold and into the spiritual world.

So, my dear friends, let our souls experience now what the Guardian of the Threshold brings to our attention if we wish to advance from the apparent-knowledge on this side of the world to the true knowledge on the other side.

There he stands with his admonishing gaze. He speaks about how the world of the senses is beautiful and great and sublime. But he also speaks about how the human being cannot find in this beautiful and great and sublime world what he considers the most meaningful, the most essential part of him. He points, this Guardian of the Threshold, over the abyss which extends to the left and to the right of the Threshold, he points to another region, to the region of the spirit. There, however, deepest darkness reigns at first. And it must occur to the human being that in the deepest darkness in him caused by the sensory world's impressions lies the source, the origin of his own being.

And when translated from the spiritual language that the Guardian of the Threshold speaks, this is approximately what he says when the person approaches his earnest gaze:

Where on earthly ground, color on color
Life is manifest in creation;
Where from earthly matter, form on form,
The lifeless is given shape;
Where sentient Beings, strong in will
Warm themselves in joy of existence;
Where you, O man, your bodily being
derive from earth and air and light.

There your true being enters
Deep, night-cloaked, cold darkness;
You ask in the dark sweeping expanse
No longer, who you are and were and will be.
For your own being the day grows dimly
To the soul's night, to spirit-darkness;
And you turn with angst of soul
Toward the light that from darkness streams.

And from out the darkness you appear,
– you in image shape revealed –
Yet also a parable of you,
Earnest spirit-words in cosmic ether
Heard by your heart, imparting strength,

The Spirit-Messenger, who alone
Can light for you the way;
Before him the fields of sense widen,
Behind him yawn the abyss-depths.

And before his dark spirit-fields,
Hard by the yawning abyss of being,
Resounds his anciently potent creative words:
Behold, I am the only gate to knowledge.

My dear friends, When the Guardian of the Threshold draws attention to the enormous contrast that exists between what can be seen by the senses before contact with the Guardian of the Threshold and what can be deduced from the darkness that lies beyond the Threshold, and when the seeker begins trying to investigate the origin and source of his own being, then he is allowed to anticipate what awaits him – what awaits him when he becomes capable of living in that light which must first appear from out of the darkness on the other side of the abyss. And then the Guardian of the Threshold continues, his words resounding (I will bring these words written on a piece of paper the next time) the second time the Guardian indicates what the person may expect when he crosses over the Threshold and has developed the organ within his own illuminated interior in order to leave the darkness behind and approach what the Guardian of the Threshold now speaks:

From the distant beings in space
Who experience existence in light,
From the stages of the course of time,
Which finds expression in creating,
From the depths of heart-felt feeling
Where in the Self the world is fathomed:

They resound in the speech of the soul,
They gleam in the spirit-thoughts,
From divine curative powers,
In the cosmic formative forces
The undulating existential words:
O man, know thyself.

Thus the Guardian points to the spaces of existence where being is experienced in light, and those other spaces of existence where in the march of time the creative powers work from epoch to epoch; the depths of the human heart's feeling are pointed to, where the whole world presents itself as though in a mirror. In that these three worlds are pointed out – the world of space, the world of time, the world of heart-felt depths – the eternal existential words can resound from the world-creating powers: “O man, know thyself!”

Then the human being's inside aspect must be shown. But this aspect is not only in the human interior, but also in the entire world. What we bear inside us immediately goes forth and shapes itself in the exterior cosmic ether. Oh, the secret thoughts, the secret feelings and the desires and willing – they immediately go forth and take shape in the cosmic ether. So that in the outer world in the form of such shapes we see ourselves as we really are.

While seeing ourselves as we really are the Guardian of the Threshold resounds, explaining to a certain extent what we are. For why is the abyss there, dividing the sensory world from the spiritual world? It is there so that the forces arising within us may not accompany us over the Threshold. Such forces are within us which want to hold us back, not allow us to cross over the Threshold to true knowledge. There are such forces in our thinking; there are such forces in our feeling; there are such forces in our willing.

They are formless when we only have an idea of them. When we envision them though, these hindering, hampering powers which are in our thinking, feeling and willing – inscribed in the cosmic ether – then they appear as misshapen beasts. And whoever cannot see in this meaningful image of misshapen beasts what in his own inner self pulls him down, hindering the crossing the threshold, cannot truly know himself. The moment in life must come when we see before us the images of what lives in our thinking, feeling and willing as restraining forces. We may not have any illusions about this. With ordinary consciousness we usually do not know what we are like, and we do not take what we are seriously. The Guardian of the Threshold makes us conscious of this in the form of images, in the form of truth.

These are the words with which he explains the figures which will be engraved in the ether by the opposing forces in our will, feeling and thinking. The human being must stand horrified before these figures which he inscribes in the cosmic ether; and only then will he feel what he must overcome if he wants to progress toward true knowledge.

The Guardian of the Threshold speaks explaining the figures that rise up as figures in our thinking, feeling and willing:

Yes, you must beware of the abyss;
Otherwise its beasts will devour You
if you pass by me in haste.
Your cosmic age has placed them there
In you as enemies of knowledge.

Behold the first beast, the crooked back
The bony head, the scrawny body,
His skin is all a dullish blue;
Your fear of creative spiritual being
Begat the monster in your will;
Knowledge bravery alone will overcome it.

Behold the second beast, it bares
Its teeth in a warped face, scornfully it lies,
Yellow with gray spots is its body;
Your hate of spiritual revelation
Begat this weakling in your feeling;
Your flame for knowledge must subdue him.

Behold the third beast, with cloven muzzle,
Its eye is glassy, posture slouching,
Dirty-red its form appears to you;
Your doubts in the power of spiritual light
Begat this ghost within your thinking;
Your creative knowledge must make it yield.

Only when you've defeated the three
Will wings sprout upon your soul
To fly the abyss over,
Which separates you from the knowledge fields
To which your heart desires
To consecrate itself in healing.

Only when we have seen, shuddering, images of the opposing powers in our thinking, feeling and willing, does the strength arise from these negative forces enabling us to enter the true field of knowledge. And whoever does not want to see himself in the images of the three beasts which exist in human beings because he fears knowledge, hates knowledge and doubts knowledge, will never attain self-knowledge. Nor will he who hesitates, shuddering so to see himself, attain world knowledge.

Therefore, my sisters and brothers, these three beasts are placed once again before your souls as the Guardian speaks:

Yes, you must beware of the abyss;
Otherwise its beasts will devour You
if you pass by me in haste.
Your cosmic age has placed them there
In you as enemies of knowledge.

Behold the first beast, the crooked back
The bony head, the scrawny body,
His skin is all a dullish blue;
Your fear of creative spiritual being
Begat the monster in your will;
Knowledge bravery alone will overcome it.

Behold the second beast, it bares
Its teeth in a warped face, scornfully it lies,
Yellow with gray spots is its body;
Your hate of spiritual revelation
Begat this weakling in your feeling;
Your flame for knowledge must subdue him.

Behold the third beast, with cloven muzzle,
Its eye is glassy, posture slouching,
Dirty-red its form appears to you;
Your doubts in the power of spiritual light
Begat this ghost within your thinking;
Your creative knowledge must make it yield.

Only when you've defeated the three
Will wings sprout upon your soul
To fly the abyss over,
Which separates you from the knowledge fields
To which your heart desires
To consecrate itself in healing.

How the human being obtains the wings, how he finds the strength to defeat these three beasts, will be the subject of the next lesson, Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m.

And when these words in such a visibly horrible form have pointed toward our self-knowledge, when they have rung out, then once again – as if in perspective – what may be expected when the words “O man, know thyself!” are fulfilled. But only the first part can be given by observing the three beasts. The rest will be the subject of the next lesson.

Then the Guardian of the Threshold calls out once again:

From the distant beings in space
Who experience existence in light,
From the stages of the course of time,
Which finds expression in creating,
From the depths of heart-felt feeling
Where in the Self the world is fathomed:

They resound in the speech of the soul,
They gleam in the spirit-thoughts,
From divine curative powers,
In the cosmic formative forces
The undulating existential words:
O man, know thyself.

Finding & Embracing our Double

Reginald Machell 

IT is the Double that shields us from the otherwise penetrating blaze of purity, that in a higher form of passion is diffused and filtered by the host of past company we bring with us...

The phantom man is not to be despised inasmuch as it is what we have made it, and also from the viewpoint that all parts which comprise our being hold great and significant purpose....

If you consider the position of men and women who are growing in evolution, you will find that goodness may well be disproportionate and uncontainable to aspects of their fledgling egos. Too much of anything can bring about unbearable pressure from without and within, and this holds true also for even goodness as known to us by the actions of the spirit.

The body of the Double is astral indeed, although it is not the whole of our astral composure, yet it can most definitely walk about as whole when cleaved from the constitution of a man. As a ghost it can and does wander seeking out those things to which it is stimulated to - ever wanting of the world even after its connections have been severed from.

Depending upon the spiritual nature of the man from whom it has been made, it may be that it does disseminate quite rapidly. Or if it has been comprised and saturated with life during the incarnation and belongs to a temperament which lusts and leaks with habitual self-indulgence which lies contrary to creativity, sharing or life, then this shade of a man can wander quite strong in self, having had so much vitality poured into its nature whilst the man had lived, that it may then go on into perpetuation, hovering and leeching off those who hold to similar activity.

Our first consideration with this being is that it is foremostly impressionable to us and of our making and that we are indeed responsible in every way for it. It is the greater host to the community of lesser elementals which we carry; whilst at the same time it, unlike they, holds signatory and solitary being. The lesser elementals and thought-forms which flit around a man have a primary body which is shared amongst them and it is innocuous to good or to evil permutations. This primary body holds a group consciousness of kind, which experiences the impressions of the man collectively amongst other men concurrently.

Our Double however, holds an individuality which is its own insofar as it is distinct from our own spirit-beings and holds a degree of self-awareness which may one day work independently of the man to whom it is attached. The difficulty in concept here, is only that the Double referred to comprises an impermanent body which breaks down eventually after the soul of the man has retired from the Earth (usually this is so, but there are exceptions longstanding). Whilst also there is the being of the Double, who is as a deformed Angel that is committed to the individual and all of his story over the eons of lifetimes and has been scorned in nature, and like the knotted and twisty-gnarly tree of countless seasons of soul, bears all of the sins attributable to that man for which it follows.

Oh, what hideous spectre does pursue me!
All my years from Heaven to Earth and back again;
That gaze goes through me and I am shamed once more!
I have led this pitiable creature to Hell,
But it would not stay; saying:
"Do you not love me for what you have made of me?"
And of all the vile essences expressed in that accusation,
No truer judgment could set upon the jailer himself.
And once again I know my remorse.

These beings of remorse are the ongoing soul-natures which are ensheathed in astral passion, central to our Double's manifesting. They too have being and incarnating body - that of the astral substance in which we have clothed them.

The souls of Man have caused much pain to many kingdoms which support him. There are creatures dismissed into death for the purpose of sustenance; and this does not only occur with man as carnivore, but also Man in thought. His very processes impinge upon the sensitivities of beings who dwell in the neighboring etheric World, and then also into the higher realms as well. All of this must eventually turn around and change, when Man is then servant to the life he has expended on his account; and opportunities for such will arise and greet him, and the processes he goes by will be exchanged for a maturity of proper community.

Fundamental principles live themselves out in Man and must work their way through in every respect, in all of the layers of his behavior and design. These principles must make their shift from the core itself as it seems, and can only do so in the persistence of the ego's conscious demands to align with the truth of the spirit.

Love in actuality can be viewed, even in this system, as more of a philosophy. The fact that good and evil coexist has long been an argument for the placing of the shadow in relation to the light, and if for the exercise of thinking alone, there are points along these lines which can be seen to be reasonable. This may ennoble the active choice therefore for loving, inasmuch as it says that love itself is not obligatory and yet it overrides marvelously the discordant and fractured harmonies. (That sounds as though it is a contradiction, but it is no more a contradiction as is the coexistence of good and of evil, and we thought a fitting example, in truth.)

When you say that the likeness is disturbing because of the lack of discernment, this is highlighting one of the most interesting concerns any student or teacher could have. That we may have affection for an Anti-Christ because of his likeness to the Christ, and this is what brings us to him, leads us to ask if the differences between are separately important. Everything is less or more than it appears and it is the very task of the esotericist to learn to divine the properties and discover their intrinsic value as separate to each other. The power in this knowledge is in that we may now further question the apparent from the not-so-obvious realities; and may we be considered in our approach, to see if we have a light which is deflected or a look-alike that is only partly what we may think it to be, and partly perhaps that which we do not.

This study of men and their Double may bring with it a healing in relation to their fears. All experiences encountered within the world are known to Man because they have originated in a spiritual reality, with a similar experience beginning in the Heavens. Fear as it is within the higher man became known when he first felt separation from Father God. The separation itself was and wasn't so; and yet the fear struck at the heart and seized the consciousness because things were not fundamentally what they should be, and it came with the realization of this being so.

It is the fear that alerts us to the 'Uh oh' realization that change is moving upon us a little too rapidly to connect the past to the future with "I looked about and He was gone" - the fear in our soul is that we shall become Godless, because Godlessness to the Soul is death. The soul is in fear of its own end, and there is inbuilt the apprehensive knowledge of this possibility. How this is so cannot rightly be explained, simply because the Soul itself is intact and not given firsthand to the experience ordinarily.

But one may well imagine the horrors the soul may shudder with, when it suffers a loveless life as delivered it by the ego. As the ego advances it quite often is delirious and unempathetic to its encounters. When we first sensed our selves we then lost our sense of God in the strongest intuition, and then this followed through with regards to all other life to which He is apparent. This is one reason why love becomes our greatest savior, because the ego understands love and through it appeases others, our souls and our God; whilst naught else may bring them all together.

It is true to suggest that there are fears (such as this just mentioned) which live on in a man deep beneath his consciousness and have very early and unknown origins. It is interesting to watch a man in his emanations and activity when his consciousness is taken to trust and his thoughts and desires act out from an impulse which is from love before all else.

Any activity of ego can have the burden of the fear (all fears combined) within its structure. Even works which are self-pleasing (or perhaps what should be said is especially works which are self-pleasing) carry with them those fears that live both in higher reaches of self and also in double. However, when the ego is effaced with the action of one's loving occupation, attention, empathetic or sympathetic resonance and so forth, there is God working through them also to bring about the answer to the fear, the great fear, of Him having gone from their lives. So that when we experience the love beneficently, then to same measure we can say God is with us. The panic in the soul may well come from our own lovelessness, and so Man must learn to cease the search for self-indulgence alone, but seek more to fulfill and to love all else more perfectly.

The 'lower self' is a term usually used in direct relation to a specific example, and yet can be misleading if put to a schedule in blatant aspect. For example: the powers which converge around the organs and desires for reproduction are often alluded to as being incorporated within the 'lower self' or 'lower nature' or 'lower desires' whereas, those same powers are of the highest influence and principle working through Man.

The resources which pertain to the physical expression and psychic-astral vitalities can prove to incorporate a greater creativity in which God and Christ enter into Man. Such wholesome and high powers may also be left out of the process; and here the principle and example of the Double and J's remark about likeness is perfectly exampled, in that the physical act alone may well be mistaken for the godly, whilst the godly act may also be misnamed as being only that of the 'lower'. Man must align and synchronize all of his powers that they flow through from the very highest apex of his being into all that he does (and back again), for the powers not to be wasted, spilling over into that of the Double instead. From this you can see that the term 'lower' of itself is relative to that which we describe, and misleading if put to category. That which is divorced from the higher impulses can be confined to being an expression of just that alone, whilst what we may consider to be purely lower may indeed be a vehicle for the profound.

To answer an incidental question also along these lines, relative to what was just said: in the case of a man being influenced by alcohol whilst coupling, he is indeed divorced from the higher powers which perhaps could have become manifest (if also the true love was present). He is literally cut off at the waist (below both head and his heart) and the emanatory process astrally mimic less than the animals. This too falls under the activity of the Double, who is charged with vitality which promotes self-interred activity.

The interest the being of alcohol holds for the promotion of unredeemed Doubles is mainly in that of their likeness to him - a veritable Anti-Christian army, proud and assuming, ruthless in their desires, hollow in their beings, severed from the true heart and mind and their reaches.

There can be much envy which follows from the man who has lived the empty and hollow existence, inspired to hopefully contrast himself with how he could and should one day be; and although the envy is framed in a dark countenance, it comes with a wanting from a haphazard soul. This is the beginning perhaps to a change to be wrought within, for there are many promptings to self-improvement which bring about the necessary beginnings and willings for change.

Often we have stipulated that men should involve themselves in those things day-to-day which fulfill them and inspire them, and warm them to further life, for the consequence of this is that they will learn to lovingly appreciate this world and interact with all beings well because of it. Either we are discordant or harmonious; and in being discordant we are unproductive in the long run, being given to an artificial life which has only the veneer and appearance of living. The only reality is Love, and Man must learn to divine the true from the false accordingly.

-B.Hive 

Masters at Steiner's Esoteric Classes

First a prayer spoken by Dr. Steiner. Then a remark that the Masters are speaking through Dr. Steiner, that he is only the means of bringing the thoughts of the Masters to expression. Master Morya tells us about the goal of human evolution. He is the one who brings humanity its goals. Master Kuthumi is the one who shows us the way to the goals.

-July 9, 1904, Berlin, notes by Franz Seiler

The Mahatmas (Masters) have something to say to us today. The three duties of the esoteric pupil are named: overcome pride and vanity, live theosophy practically, represent theosophy to the world. Now Master Morya will speak. The Masters can be seen by us as ideals. They have attained what we must still attain to. Therefore, we can ask them about our further development. In us lie the powers, seed-like, that have grown to full blossom in the Masters.

-July 14, 1904, Berlin, notes from Franz Seiler

Necessity for the esotericist to understand the plan that humankind is unconsciously working through under the guidance of the White Lodge. In order to lead humanity to this knowledge of the moral, to reveal its laws so that a band of people arises that consciously works out of itself, the fourth Master, Christian Rosenkreutz, founded the Rosicrucian Order. The other intellectual education of the West requires a different teaching. In the East the spiritual teaching that was given to the Indians by the ancient Rishis continue to influence the folk. Christian Rosenkreutz and his seven pupils placed morality at the beginning of knowledge of the law, not in order for it to echo in human beings in the law given by the religions, but rather so that the law, recognized as such, awaken in every individual human being to individual life. The truth in the realm of morality and the good should arise within people as something felt and understood.

-November 10 or 11, 1905, Munich, notes from Eugenie Bredow

He spoke about the spirits of fire-mist, whose pupil was our Master; he spoke about the development of the human being to such a mighty being. He then spoke about Christmas and the importance of the festivals of the year; that at Christmas the Sun stood at its lowest point in the year and on the 25th began to ascend, and that in this night the Masters of the White Lodge had a conference, in which they sent out the power of the Sun of the coming year to those people who want entirely to devote themselves to them, to surrender entirely their personality and ask them for strength. If one celebrates Christmas this way, asks the Masters in this way, they send their strength into these people on this December 25, so that the power of the Master works through them. Then he spoke of the last incarnation of the Master Kuthumi and his attendance at universities in order to be able to interpret the great wisdom in other languages and in the modern spirit, that this incarnation had not been in a specific personality, but rather that his power had been at work here and there.

-December 13, 1905, Berlin, notes from Eugenie Bredow

There are two things he wanted to say to us today concerning mantras and concerning the most important rules that the lofty Master Morya would give to this pupils. There are nine characteristics that belong to the Masters: Truth, Wisdom, Immeasurability, Goodness, Illimitableness, Beauty, Peace, Blessing, and Integrity. From us he requires five things: Purification of our feelings, Purification of our love, Emptiness of our memories, Clarity of our understanding, Extinguishing or rousing of our will. The heart must be purified. Love must lose all that is unchaste and become divine. In order to become objective the memory must not hand onto anything that could awaken prejudices. Our understanding should be clear and our will, where it is selfish, should be extinguished, but where it serves as an instrument for the Master it should be roused.

-December 28, 1905, Berlin, notes from Eugenie Bredow

John the Baptist proclaimed Christ Jesus in the middle of the fourth sub-race. But the individuality of the Master Jesus is leading humanity from the fifth to the sixth sub-race – again to John the Baptist, the Waterman. Christ Jesus is the living Word. All the beings of nature stream together in the human being and create in him the Word. That is the “I” in the human being – Jesus Christ. Human beings become Christ when they experience inwardly that the whole world flows together in them, is one with them. Through the principle of brotherly love, the representative of which is the Master Jesus, the coming together of humanity into the sixth sub-race is brought about, which will grow into the future based on this principle of brotherly love. When the sixth sub-race achieves perfection, then the word Christ will be not only in a single individuality but in everyone, and the individual human beings then create together the letters of the word, the new Christ, who is the resurrected one in an entirely different sense. As an “I” his life descended into humankind already in the third root-race. Fully developed he arises the in the sixth root-race, in the totality of humankind.

K.H.

-February 12, 1906, Cologne, notes from Mathilde Scholl

As an introduction to the four masters who all work in our movement: Master Morya – Power, Master Kuthumi – Wisdom, Master Saint-Germain– One turns to him in difficulties of everyday life, Master Jesus– What is intimate in the human being.

-June 26, 1906, Berlin, notes from Eugenie Bredow

We, those of us in the esoteric school, belong to this dawning of the sixth day; we follow and serve the great Master, who is watching over its forming; our task is to create this spiritual body out of ourselves and to give birth to it.

-October 2, 1906, Berlin, notes from Marie Steiner

The four Masters told us again: Master Jesus was the “Unknown one from the Highlands” who came to Tauler, who taught the Gnostics, etc. We should always be getting to know the Masters better. Jesus was a chela of the third degree. When he was thirty years old the following occurred to him. He left his body and Christ took possession of this pure, noble body: the physical, etheric and astral body. He himself withdrew back to the astral plane, where he remained united with the brothers of the White Lodge and achieved the rank of Master himself. …Morya – his true name is only give to more advanced pupils – he strengthens the will. Kuthumi is the actual Master of Wisdom. Jesus, the leader of the church, works especially on the life of feelings. We can call upon them when we need them. All twelve Masters of the White Lodge have passed through the entire evolution of our Earth. They cannot work directly into the physical plane. We must lift ourselves up to them. Through the school they work upon us, and in us and through us. The mediator, the teacher of the school, is obligated to answer to no one except him in whose name he speaks.

-October 22, 1906, Berlin, notes from Amalie Wagner

He spoke from immediate knowledge of, and direct acquaintance with the great Masters above us, who guide our striving and our lives: Kuthumi, Morya, Jesus and Christian Rosenkreutz – the “Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings.”

-October 22, 1906, Berlin, notes from Ludwig Kleeborg

The esoteric brotherhood of the Rosicrucians is the nursery in which the human material for the coming age must be formed. In times of special darkness a specially bright light must constantly arise. Christ was born during the age of Oriphiel; when Oriphiel again comes into his regency (in a few centuries), then the spiritual light that was brought by Christian Rosenkreutz and is now spread must have created a multitude of clairvoyant people who are pioneers working consciously toward the goal. That will call into existence the separation into two main streams, a race of good people and a race of evil people. Good and evil are still relatively little differentiated. Our eyes also penetrate very little through the form of the flesh. Now it is a relatively short step from evil to good, from good to evil. If the forces of the masters, and those humans who join them with all their strength and will, and the powers of the gods of hindrance, also called Mammon (forces of Satan and the Asuras), and their human followers intervene increasingly powerfully in the life of humanity, then the good will be developed into a divine Good, and the evil into a something terrible – Antichrist. Then every one of us “world-helpers” will need all the power that can accrue to him or her through suffering and overcoming suffering, through evil and overcoming evil. The purpose of Theosophy, of Rosicrucianism, is to call people to this battle through such knowledge and to give them peace in the battle.

-November 1, 1906, Munich, notes from Therese Walther

That lofty spiritual individuality who recognized this was Christian Rosenkreutz. He was the one who, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, undertook the great work of uniting the spiritual culture of the East with that of the West. He has always lived among us and is still with us today as leader in the spiritual life. He brought the spiritual culture of the East, as it is represented in the Old and New Testaments as the highest blossom of Eastern wisdom, into intimate harmony with the wisdom that originated in Atlantis. Thus he gave us Christianity in the form in which it had been prepared and introduced by that mysterious “Unknown man from the Highlands” who came to Johannes Tauler. “Highlands” signifies the spiritual world, the kingdom of Heaven. The lofty spiritual being who was concealed in the “Unknown man from the Highlands” was none other than the Master Jesus himself, in whose body Christ once lived on Earth. He too is with us today. The Master Jesus and the Master Christian Rosenkreutz prepare for us two paths to initiation, the Christian-esoteric path and the Christian-Rosicrucian path. Both of these paths have existed since the Middle Ages. But the spiritual life has increasingly disappeared from human consciousness with the rise of materialism. At the end of the nineteenth century, materialism had become so powerful that humankind needed a new spiritual infusion if it was not to perish.

-June 1, 1907, Munich, notes from Anna Weissmann

There was a single personality who, because of her psychic constitution, was able to perceive the voice of the Master. This was H.P. Blavtasky. When she began her work not all esoteric traditions had been lost. There were, rather, in the West numerous Brotherhoods that had received [preserved] esoteric wisdom, but in a rigid, ossified form without vital life. When H.P. Blavatsky wrote her Isis Unveiled they vociferously claimed that this wisdom belonged to them, for many of the symbols and teachings were known to them and they sought to place hindrances in her path every way possible. Thus Blavatsky was harassed in the worst way possible in an attempt to prevent her from fulfilling her work in a Christian esoteric sense, as was her original intention. Indeed, at that time she had to suffer through terrible things. And those exoteric brotherhoods actually managed to bring things to the point where she had to clothe what she had to say in Eastern dress in her second work, The Secret Doctrine. Even today we are still accustomed to having most terms for esoteric connections in Eastern language. But this Eastern form of wisdom is nothing for us Western people. In can only hinder us and bring us back from our goals. The people who are to form the kernel for the following races are here in the West.

This should be given as a factual answer to what the voice of the Masters from the East made known a short while ago. Our Western Masters have also spoke, although less noisily. And we want to write deeply into our hearts what they said. The called upon us to work with them on the future evolution of humankind and to stand firmly and endure in all the battles that yet stand before us; to hold firmly to what we possess as a living, holy tradition. This call should always sound in our souls. However, no one should believe that there exist any disharmony between the Masters of the East and West.

The Masters always live in harmony. Nevertheless, in recent time a decisive change has taken place in regard for the esoteric school of East and West. Until now both schools were united in a great circle under a common leadership of Masters. Now, however, the western school has made itself independent and there now exist two school on the same level, one in the East and one in the West: two smaller circles instead of one great one. The eastern school is led by Mrs. Annie Besant and those who in their hearts feel themselves drawn to her can no longer remain in our school. Everyone should well consider for which path his or her heart longs. Two Masters stand at the head of our western school: the Master Jesus and the Master Christian Rosenkreutz. And they lead us on two paths, the Christian esoteric and the Christian Rosicrucian. The Great White Lodge guides all spiritual movements, and the Masters Jesus and Christian Rosenkreutz belong to it.

-June 1, 1907, Munich, notes from Anna Weissmann

Everything spoke in an esoteric lesson is given to us directly from the Masters, and he who speaks it is only an instrument of their intentions. The Masters are constantly speaking to human beings; only those who are prepared, whose souls are open so that the Masters can find access to them, can hear their voice. Esoteric work is of the greatest significance for the evolution of the world – but also for the human being who occupies the simplest social position.

-October 9, 1907, Berlin, notes from Mathilde Scholl and Lilla Harris

Who are the Masters? Human beings who have gone the path of human evolution, only faster than other people; human beings who have an earlier experience of spiritual development and can therefore be leaders. Such a personality was the “Unknown man from the Highlands,” who worked in various ways.

-November 23, 1907, Basel, notes from Alice Kinkel

Everything said to us in these lessons we are to regard as a message from the Masters that is entrusted to us. We can receive what is said to us in this way with the right attitude, but what we make of it depends upon our degree of development. When we are meditating, then our soul is in the world in which the Masters work, and it is united with the stream that the Masters are sending into the world. It then contributes to the overcoming of the death of humankind by life. When we close ourselves off from perception through the senses, the astral currents of the gods can flow in.

-October 25, 1908, Berlin, notes from Alice Kinkel

Outwardly and terms of content, esoteric contemplations need not differ very much at all from exoteric lectures. What is important is that one bears in mind that in esoteric lessons the Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings are speaking to us. We know that through these meditations our astral body undergoes colossal changes, that we ourselves transform our astral body, which until then was undivided and unordered, but nevertheless was a harmonious whole within itself. We create islands in it, distinct pockets, so to speak, through which we begin to form organs. These astral organs are the channels through which the Masters can send messages from higher worlds into evolution and foster it.

-November 8, 1908, Munich, notes from Mathilde Scholl

The venerable Zoroaster would not have been able to reflect upon what was given to him in moments of transcendence. He received at such times influences from the spirit of the Sun in a direct way; he saw Ahrua Mazda and in him the Christ. He prepared the impulse that Christ was to bring to the Earth. He initiated his pupil Moses in the following way: one day at noon when it was new Moon, he allowed Moses to see by means of a power that he sent to his head, the Moon spirit – the devachanic sounds of sunlight reflected. Hermes he initiated directly into the secret of the Sun spirit. He allowed him to see the Sun at midnight through the transparent Earth, after he had previously received from Zoroaster the power of the Sun spirit. The Osiris-Isis-Horus religion came from this. Zoroaster appeared again as Zarathos or Nazarathos and was the teacher of Pythagoras, who led the mysteries in the age of the Greeks as a final preparation for the appearance of Christ. The king under whom Zoroaster taught was later incarnated as Cyrus; and later in the Middle Ages Cyrus was again a king. Moses was initiated with the forces of the astral body; Jesus spoke through the “I” to us, which penetrates all three bodies. Zoroaster had given the forces of his own etheric body to Moses, those of his astral body to Hermes, and he gave his “I” to Jesus. As Zoroaster himself he worked through his physical body.

-December 21, 1908, Berlin, notes from Camilla Wandrey

Zoroaster – his earthly protector was king Vischtasp, who later, as Cyrus, spread and consolidated the teachings of Zoroaster. Nazaras or Nazaranos, Chaldean initiate, was the “I” of Zoroaster. He inspired Pythagoras, who thereby spread Christianity in Greece. Then the “I” of Zoroaster was incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth, who was for this reason able to receive Christ himself into his bodies. Zoroaster had his pupils: in Hermes his teaching reached as far as the astral body, in Moses as far as the etheric body, in Pythagoras as far as the physical body.

Hermes’ initiation happened at Christmas time, and he saw what was later to be given to humans in the mystery of Golgotha. He beheld the entire evolution of the planet and what was connected with it. Moses’ initiation went into his etheric body. Zoroaster could give him something from his own light-body. In bad weather, storm and fog he could only see the Sun weakly, but he could see the Moon clearly in its first quarter. For this reason Yahweh later appeared to him in the burning bush. Pythagoras’ initiation went into his physical body. He brought this to humanity in his propositions. The seven holy Rishis were led by Manu, each one of which was initiated in the mysteries of one of the planet; Zoroaster, however, was initiated in the mysteries of the Sun, the Christ himself.

-December 28, 1908, Berlin, Anonymous

Until approximately six hundred years after Christ the great teachers of the church, for example, Augustine, could regard the Christian truths only as a gift of grace. This is connected with the fact that they received copies of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth interwoven into their own etheric body. Their brain was not yet so far developed that they could understand this teaching with their intellect. Later these teachers received copies of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth interwoven into their astral body. Francis of Assisi had such an astral body. A process such as this interweaving is also always connected with outer phenomena of nature. As the little Thomas Aquinas lay in the crib and next to him his little sisters, lightning struck. It killed the little sister, but the bolt of lightning made Thomas’s astral body flexible for receiving the copy of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth.

-April 19, 1909, Dusseldorf, notes from Mathilde Scholl

The childhood of the great initiates differs little from the life of other children; perhaps there are only a few aspects that indicate the kind of spirit that lives in a child. They must learn and enrich their knowledge as others and only thus acquire what they were in previous incarnations. This was also the case with Christian Rosenkreutz. Perhaps it took many a miracle for him not to have recognized at the outset the significance of the event of Golgotha. That was because the “I” of Jesus was placed in him, as in Augustine the etheric body, and in venerable Francis Assisi the astral body. But because it was the “I” it first had to work its way through to knowledge in order to bring it to full effect. With it he had a high and important mission.

-May 27, 1909, Berlin, notes from Eugenie Bredow

GA265-08

Instruction lesson. Esoteric meetings with ritual should not be held during the 13 days between December 24 and January 6 because the Masters of the East retire into their sanctuary in this time in order to collect new forces for humanity for the following year.

Young People's Service- Rudolf Steiner

At the entrance to the consecrated room, the students — who may enter in pairs — are taken by the hand by the two celebrants, who say to each:

Remember the importance of this moment in your life.

When all have gathered before the altar, the service begins. The ministrants arrange themselves on the right and left.

Dear children! You are stepping into a new age. From childhood you are rising to adolescence. Your teachers guided you. Their concern was that the Spirit of God may shine in your thinking, give strength in your feeling, and act in your willpower. Your teachers wanted to show you the Christ who has died so that the souls of men can live, so that He may be: the guide on your life paths, the dispenser of existence's joys, the comforter in the sorrows of existence. 

The acting ministrant turns around and raises both arms to the image of Christ, including "For thou hast said". The palms are turned inwards.

Thou, light of souls. You guide us on our paths in life. Thou giver of existence's pleasures. Thou comforter in the sorrows of existence. To you I have spoken in supplication, when I craved light for these children's thinking, when I longed for strength for these children's feeling, when I sought for active-blessing for the willpower of these children. So send Your light, so give Your strength, so let Your blessing flow in this hour to those who were entrusted to us, and whom we now pass into life. So that they think through Your light, feel through Your power, work through Your blessing. In all their life on Earth up to the moments of death You guide them into the being of Soul.

The acting celebrant turns to the community. 1

For Thou hast said, Fatherly Foundation of the World: let the work of Your Son be manifest, so that through this work of Your Son You become manifest, too. You brought Him forth for the sake of spirits who dwell in fleshly human bodies so that He, in the future, may guide all who come to Him through You.

They will live in the future by the fact that their soul eye has been prepared to see You as the only true basis of the world2, and the creative Christ Jesus, whom you have sent to them- "Through me You were again visible in the essence of the world when the Earth clouded the revelation of You. Such was Your will, which worked through me."

"So then, Fatherly Foundation of the World, let now shine the revelation that was already within me, before You became known in the Earth. Through me became the Word, that reveals You, known in the souls of men who came to me through You. You being in them, through You they came to me, and they have absorbed the knowledge of You.3

"They have recognized that what I said to them was spoken by You through me unto them. Fatherly Foundation of the World, I implore You, may they who have come to You through me always be alive with You, as I am, and may they recognize Your revelation that You lovingly let shine before me since before the Earth began. Through me was made known the Word that reveals You, and I will carry this Word into the souls of men, so that the love You love me with in them be preserved, and thus may my eternal life preserve their lives forever." (John 7:1-26).

The celebrant turns back to the altar. Then he goes to each individual, takes he or she by the hand and speaks:

Here in this children's school you have been led by the spirit of Christ who overcame death, that the life of the human soul may be saved; so leads the spirit of Christ, your life forces, your soul powers, your spiritual goals through the great school of life.

The ministrant goes back to his place and tells about Easter (for example) in a short speech, which has approximately the following content:

Dear children! It was in Spring, when the Earth finds new life in her plants, that Christ passed through death on Calvary. HE died. But HE overcame death. Victorious over death, He lives with humanity; He lives in the people who seek Him, seeking with all their thinking, feeling and willing. And so each time that Spring brings the high festival of Easter, then — looking upon the new life of the Earth — the human being should commemorate the death and resurrection of Christ. Dear children, remember every year at this Easter season of the feast we celebrate with you today, and celebrate it every year anew, so that in you the thought will be animated by the death and resurrection of Christ, and of His dwelling in the souls of those who seek Him.

The speech may continue until the ministrant has said all he intends to convey to the children.
Songs, to be announced by the celebrant. He stands facing the community during the singing. Additionally, an unannounced piece of music may follow.

Dear children! Every Sunday I've sent you back, prompting you to remember what you have experienced here; now I release you with caring soul into life. The spirit of Christ be with you. Seek Him, and you will find Him: as your light, as your strength, as your prime leader4, and as your comforter.

The acting ministrant turns back to the altar.

Each child is released single, taken by the hand and told:

Remember the importance of this moment in your life. Forget it never, not in joy, not in sorrow.

-For students in grades 8-10.

It corresponds essentially to the Confirmation of the Christian Community, yet because there are many important differences we describe here the complete text of the Young People's Service, as it is celebrated by the Free Waldorf School. The Young People's Service, to explicitly emphasize, is no one-time act like the Confirmation, but rather will be attended by the students for about two years.

Footnotes:

1. The following is spoken by the ministrant on the left.
    
2.  In another version, "only cause of the world".
3.  In another version, "absorbed in himself through me the awareness of You." 
4.  In another version, "highest leader."

-The WORSHIP SERVICES of the CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY
& the WORSHIP SERVICES of the FREE WALDORF SCHOOL, Hischam A. Hapatsch

The German original:

Jugendfeier Sie entspricht im Wesentlichen der Konfirmation der Christengemeinschaft (s.S.50). Da es jedoch eine ganze Reihe wichtiger Unterschiede gibt, sei hier der Text der Jugendfeier vollständig in der Form wiedergegeben, wie ihn die Freie Waldorfschule feiert. Die Jugendfeier, das sei hier ausdrücklich betont, ist kein einmaliger Akt wie die Konfirmation, sondern wird von den Schülern etwa zwei Jahre lang besucht.


(Beim Eintritt in den Weiheraum wird jedem Schüler, wenn man will auch je paarweise durch zwei Ministranten, die Hand gegeben und zu ihm gesagt:) Gedenke der Wichtigkeit dieses Augenblickes in deinem Leben. (Wenn alle am Altar versammelt sind, beginnt die Handlung. Die Ministranten stellen sich rechts und links vor dem Altar auf.) Liebe Kinder! Gedenket der Wichtigkeit dieses Augenblickes in eurem Leben. Ihr tretet in ein neues Lebensalter. Von der Kindheit zur Jugend steiget ihr auf. Eure Lehrer haben euch geführt. Ihre Sorge war, daß der Gottesgeist leuchte in eurem Denken, krafte in eurem Fühlen, wirke in eurem Wollen. Den Christus, der gestorben ist, auf daß die Menschenseelen leben können, wollten euch weisen eure Lehrer, auf daß ER sei: der Führer auf euren Lebenswegen, der Spender der Daseinsfreuden, der Tröster im Daseinsleide. (Der Handelnde wendet sich um und erhebt beide Arme zum Christusbilde einschließlich "Denn du hast gesprochen". Die Handflächen sind dabei nach innen gewendet.) Du Licht der Seelen. Du Führer auf unseren Lebenswegen. Du Spender der Daseinsfreuden. Du Tröster im Daseinsleide. Zu dir sprach ich bittend: wenn ich Licht erflehte für dieser Kinder Denken, wenn ich Kraft ersehnte für dieser Kinder Fühlen wenn ich Wirken Segen erstrebe für dieser Kinder Wollen. So sende Dein Licht, so spende Deine Kraft, so lasse strömen deinen Segen In dieser Stunde auf die, die uns anvertraut waren, Und die wir jetzt übergeben dem Leben. Auf daß sie Denken durch Dein Licht, Fühlen durch Deine Kraft, Wirken durch Deinen Segen; in all ihrem Erdenleben bis in Todesaugenblicke Du sie führest in das Seelensein. (Der Handelnde wendet sich zur Gemeinde.) 4 Denn Du hast gesprochen, Väterlicher Weltengrund: lasse offenbar werden Deines Sohnes Schaffen, damit durch Deines Sohnes Schaffen auch Du offenbar werdest. Du hast ihn zum Schaffenden gemacht in allen fleischlichen Menschenleibern, daß er in der Zukunft lebend führe alle, die durch Dich zu ihm kamen. Sie werden in der Zukunft leben dadurch, daß ihr Seelenauge bereitet ist, Dich zu schauen als den wahrhaft Einigen Weltengrund5 und den schaffenden Christus Jesus, den Du zu ihnen gesandt hast. Durch mich wurdest Du im Erdensein wieder offenbar, als die Erde Deine Offenbarung umwölkte. Solches war Dein Wille, der durch mich wirkte. So auch, Väterlicher Weltengrund, lasse jetzt erstrahlen die Offenbarung, die durch mich schon ward, ehe Du in der Erdenwelt offenbar wurdest.- [sic] Durch mich ward das Wort, das Dich offenbart, in Menschenseelen offenbar, die durch Dich zu mir kamen. Du warst in ihnen, durch Dich kamen sie zu mir, und sie haben in sich genommen die Erkenntnis von Dir.6 Von ihnen ward erkannt, daß, was ich zu ihnen sprach, von Dir durch mich zu ihnen gesprochen ward. Väterlicher Weltengrund, das erflehe ich, daß sie, die durch mich zu Dir gekommen sind, immer sein mögen lebend bei Dir, wie ich bei Dir bin, und daß sie da schauen Deine Offenbarung, die Du liebend vor mir erstrahlen ließest, bevor die Erde noch war. Durch mich ward offenbar das Wort, das Dich offenbart und ich will tragen dies Wort in Menschenseelen, auf daß die Liebe, mit der Du mich liebest, in ihnen sich bewahre, und so auch mein ewiges Leben ihr Leben ewig bewahre. (Joh 7:1-26)

(Der Handelnde wendet sich zum Altar zurück. Dann begibt er sich zu jedem einzelnen, nimmt ihn oder sie bei der Hand und spricht:) Durch den Geist des Christus der den Tod überwand auf daß der Menschenseele das Leben ward gerettet, wurdest du geführt hier in dieser Kinderschule; so leite der Christusgeist deine Lebenskräfte, deine Seelenmächte, deine Geistesziele durch des Lebens große Schule. (Der Handelnde begibt sich an seinen Platz zurück und spricht über das Osterfest in einer kurzen Rede, die etwa den folgenden Inhalt hat:) Liebe Kinder! Im Frühling war's, wo die Erde in ihren Pflanzen neues Leben findet, da der Christus auf Golgatha durch den Tod ging. ER starb. Aber ER überwand den Tod. Als Sieger über den Tod lebet ER mit den Menschen; ER lebet in den Menschen, die ihn suchen, suchen mit all ihrem Denken, Fühlen und Wollen. Und jedesmal, wenn der Frühling das hohe Osterfest bringt, dann soll der Mensch, wenn er das neue Leben der Erde schaut, gedenken des Todes und der Auferstehung des Christus. Liebe Kinder, gedenket jedes Jahr zu dieser Osterzeit des Festes, das wir heute mit euch feiern und feiert es jedes Jahr neu, auf daß in euch der Gedanke belebt werde von dem Tode, der Auferstehung des Christus und von seinem Wohnen in den Seelen derer, die ihn suchen.

(Die Rede kann weiter ausgeführt werden durch alles, was der Handelnde den Kindern sagen möchte.) (Gesang; er wird vom Handelnden angekündigt. Er ist während des Gesangs der Gemeinde zugewendet; stattdessen kann ein nicht angekündigtes Musikstück folgen.) Liebe Kinder! Allsonntäglich habe ich euch entlassen, Euch auffordernd zu gedenken, was ihr hier erlebt habt; Jetzt entlasse ich euch mit sorgender Seele in das Leben. Der Christusgeist sei mit euch. Suchet Ihn, ihr werdet Ihn finden: als euer Licht, als eure Kraft, als euren Führer,7 als euren Tröster. (Der Handelnde wendet sich zum Altar zurück.) (Jedes Kind wird einzeln entlassen; man nimmt es an der Hand und spricht:) Gedenke der Wichtigkeit dieses Augenblickes in deinem Leben. Vergiß ihn nimmer, nicht in Freud' [sic] nicht im Leide. ——————

Fußnoten: 4 Das folgende liest der linke Ministrant. 5 andere Version: "Einzigen Weltengrund" 6 andere Version: "...in sich aufgenommen durch mich die Erkenntnis von Dir." 7 andere Version: "höchster Führer"