Personal Ego Eclipsed

In the twelfth lecture of St. John Dr. Steiner says that when a person is illuminated with the Holy Spirit according to esoteric Christianity, "he speaks forthwith in a different manner."

"How does he speak? When he speaks about Saturn, Sun and Moon, about the different members of the human being, about the processes of cosmic evolution, HE IS NOT EXPRESSING HIS OWN OPINION. His views do not at all come into consideration. When such a person speaks about Saturn, it is Saturn which is speaking through him. When he speaks of the Sun, the Spiritual Being of the Sun speaks through him."

[All these beings speak through him.]

"HE IS THE INSTRUMENT. His personal ego has become eclipsed, which means that at such moments it has become impersonal and it is the Cosmic Universal Ego that is using his ego as its instrument through which to speak."

-Gospel of John lectures- Rudolf Steiner

So isn't Dr. Steiner speaking of himself here?
His personal ego had "become eclipsed". This is not to be confused with a surrendering of the ego as in trance mediumism.

Cosmopolitanism

Spiritual beings who are the direct followers of the Archangels wanted to spread uniformity over the whole of mankind. If this were given free rein mankind would have been one "indistinguishable species". Other beings had the task of spreading differentiation among mankind so that this wouldn't occur. With the coming of Michael in the nineteenth century, this period of differentiation came to an end.

"These spiritual beings who had to be fought by the Archangel Michael being a time spirit, have always affected the life and evolution of mankind; during the past millenia, prior to the middle of the nineteenth century, their task in the spiritual world was to create differentiation among human beings. ...."

"These spiritual beings, however, against whom the Michaelic principle had to fight, had the task of spreading differentiation among mankind, to split humanity into races and peoples; to bring about all those differences that are connected with the blood and with the nerve temperament. This had to happen. They may be called Ahrimanic beings, and we must realize that the Ahrimanic principle was a necessity in the course of mankind's evolution.

"Now a time of great significance arrived in the evolution of mankind beginning with the forties of the nineteenth century. The time arrived WHEN THE DIVIDED HUMAN RACE HAD TO BE FORMED INTO A UNITY.

"You see, the cosmopolitan views which, to be sure, sometimes turned into cosmopolitan slogans in the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth century, are simply a reflection of what occurred in the spiritual world. The tendency exists in mankind to wipe out the various differences which were fostered by the blood and nerve temperament. It is not a tendency of the spiritual worlds to create further differences among mankind, but it is a tendency of the spiritual worlds to pour a cosmopolitan element over mankind."

Signs of the times, Michael's Battle and its Reflection on Earth, Lecture 2, Rudolf Steiner.

Rudolf Steiner GA 180, 1918 Jan 5:

"...chauvinism is the remnant of an impulse that once was lived in a very different way......what does the national feeling full of passion show, from which powers does it spring? - From sexuality, only in a different form".

 

'But always when an age of Michael dawns, a longing begins to arise in mankind to overcome racial distinctions and to spread through all the peoples living on the Earth the highest and most spiritual form of culture produced by that particular age. Michael's rulership is always characterised by the growth of cosmopolitanism, by the spread of a spiritual impulse among peoples who are ready to receive it, no matter what language they speak. Of the seven Archangels who send their impulses into the evolution of humanity, Michael is always the one who gives the cosmopolitan impulse — and at the same time the impulse for the spreading of whatever is of most intrinsic value in a particular epoch.'

- Rudolf Steiner, Karmic Relationships, VI: Lecture VIII
Arnhem, 19th July, 1924

Dr.Felkin & Edith Maryon

Dr. Robert Felkin, an original member of the Golden Dawn - later to form the Stella Matutina offshoot - was a student of Dr. Steiner. He worked in a different way from Steiner, but some of his students became anthroposophists. Steiner had given written instructions to Felkin regarding his Rosicrucian ritual work.

A famous member of the Stella Matutina was one Edith Maryon, a very talented sculptress, who at one time saved Steiner's life when he fell from some scaffolding.

The anthroposophical work in Havelock North, New Zealand, was seeded from Dr. Felkin's group (who arrived there first and set up a temple- the "first in the Southern Hemisphere".)

"Ara ben Shemesh. This was a discarnate Arab who claimed affiliation with the desert-temple visited by Father Christian Rosenkreutz on his Middle Eastern pilgrimage. Felkin, realising a magical sodality's need for contact with the inner planes, accepted Ara ben Shemesh as his teacher and the latter's 'Sun-Masters' as his Secret Chiefs. [Ben shemesh encouraged Felkin to keep learning under Steiner.]
"He and his wife undertook several journeys on the Continent with this end in view and their contacts with Rudolf Steiner there coloured henceforward the égégore of all Stella Matutina Lodges in varying degrees. A cognate quest also undertaken by them was the search for Christian Rosenkreutz's tomb described in the Fama Fraternitatis; but this proved a wild goose chase."

Robert Felkin

"On yonder hill you will pitch your tent' prophesied the daughter of Golden Dawn founder Robert Felkin to Herbert Sutcliffe, as she pointed out towards Te Mata Peak. It was about 1940 and he was staying at her home, Whare-Ra [Matutina Temple], in Havelock North..... "Peloha's grounds with its large citrus orchards and organic gardens made the property almost self-sufficient. By the late 1980s, after the deaths of Dr Sutcliffe and his wife, Peloha was no longer economic to run and was sold to Weleda, makers of herbal and homeopathic medicines in the Steiner tradition."

Maryon was obviously talented - more talented than Dr. Steiner in the art of sculpture (much to the chagrin of some anthroposophists). I once heard John Wilkes talk on this. He had prepared an exhibition at the Goetheanum, placing the marquettes for the "Representative of Man" sculpture with Edith Maryon's being the first. Some misguided enthusiast changed them around to make Steiner's models the first in line!

May Morning- Edith Maryon

Rudolf Steiner & Freemasonry

 

Theosophical Society Basement Hall in Stuttgart, Germany. Dedicated by Steiner, 1911

Rudolf Steiner gave lectures on Masonry in 1905. He made it clear then, that he was speaking as a non-Mason, but in November of that year, he and Marie von Sivers, received a warrant, a diploma, to practice the higher degrees of Masonry:

24th November 1905: Rudolf Steiner and Marie von Sivers each pay 45 Marks to Theodore Reuss for their membership in Memphis-Misraim.

The following day, 25th November 1905: Steiner writes to Mrs. von Sivers: "Yesterday, you have seen how little has remained from the former esoteric institutions" and he plans to use "the medium of the religion" in its sensual-beautiful form: Religion as "subsequent experience of science and art." (Nevertheless, the later developed Anthroposophical Society is not a body of beliefs - which would have gone against Steiner's expressed intentions, but a body of ideas.)

30th November 1905: "[Theodore] Reuss is not a man who can be trusted ... We have to deal with "a framework" only and not with more [substance] in the reality. Presently nothing at all is behind the thing. The occult powers COMPLETELY withdrew themselves from it."

2nd January 1906: For the first time, Steiner gives a lecture to men AND women at the same time and calls "Masonry" (by which he possibly means the irregular AASR and Memphis Misraim rite) "a caricature" "with snoozing forces to be woken up again"; which is "our work to do". Steiner considers it as his "duty to save the Misraim-Dienst for the future." The Misraim-Dienst is to combine Terrestrial with Celestial, Visible with Invisible and to again renew the Eleusinian Mysteries.

3rd January 1906: Reuss signs a contract with Steiner making the latter a 30°, 67° and 89°, for Berlin. His Misraim-Service is now called "Mystica Aeterna". Marie von Sivers is authorized for the accommodation of women. "The exaggerations of the male culture must be back-drawn by the occult forces of the woman" (according to Steiner). "
[John Yarker disagreed with Reuss and Encausse's activities in France, and nominated George Lagrèze in their place on the 9th of September 1909]."

The Seal of the Rite of
Memphis & Misraïm

"According to legend the Memphis Rite is supposed to have originated with a man called Ormus, who was converted to Christianity by St. Mark in the year 46. It is said that the Crusaders carried this masonic knowledge with them from the Holy Land and founded a Grand Lodge in Scotland in the twelfth century. The legend derives the name Misraim from Mizraim, one of the sons of Ham. He came to Egypt, possessed himself of the country and called it after his name (Misraim or Mizraim — an old name for Egypt).

The teaching about Isis, Osiris, Typhon, etc., is supposed to have come from him, cf. Schuster: Die geheimen Gessellschaften, Verbindungen und Orden (Volume 2, Leipzig 1906). According to Heckethorn: (Secret Societies, Book 8, Chapter 20), the Egyptian masonry was founded by Cagliostro. The Rite of Misraim is attributed  to a foundation in Milan of 1805, i.e., ten years after the supposed death of Cagliostro, which foundation was laid by several masons ‘who had been refused admission into the Supreme Grand Council.’ The Rite of Memphis is said to be a copy of the Rite of Misraim and was founded in Paris in 1839. It is supposed to have been combined with the Misraim Rite towards the end of the nineteenth century, since when it has been known as the ‘Memphis-Misraim Rite.’
- John Yarker  

During a Mystica Aeterna class Rudolf Steiner said, "For the world at large, our occult stream has until now borne the name of Freemasonry, because from an occult standpoint one should always - if possible - link onto what exists. But as regards our temple this name will from now on fall away, and our arrangements will be called 'Misraim Dienst.' ...The term Freemasonry should now finally disappear, and as far as the outer world and all arrangements on a Freemasonic basis are concerned, Freemasonry is thus not present in our movement." 

It is an occult fact that the new is grafted on to the old, and this is what Steiner was looking to do. "The new moss grows at the foot of the ancient tree."

Now how do we know that the above is correct?- because Steiner says so in his autobiography:

"Some years after the beginning of the activity in the Theosophical Society, Marie von Sievers and I were entrusted by certain persons with the leadership of a society similar to others which have been maintained in preservation of the ancient symbolism and cultural ceremonies that embody the "ancient wisdom." I never thought in the remotest degree of working in the spirit of such a society. Everything anthroposophic should and must spring from its own sources of knowledge and truth.....

"And so wherever possible I also favored the linking of the newly given to the historically existent. I therefore took the diploma of the society referred to, which belonged to the stream represented by [John] Yarker. It had the forms of Free Masonry of the so-called high degrees; but I took nothing else – absolutely nothing – from this society except the merely formal authorization, in historic succession, to direct a symbolic-cultural activity.

"Everything set forth in content in the "ceremonies" which were employed in the institution were without historic dependence upon any tradition whatever. In the formal granting of the diploma only that was fostered which resulted in the symbolizing of anthroposophic knowledge.

"And our purpose in this matter was to meet the needs of the members. In elaborating the ideas in which the knowledge of spirit is given in a veiled form, the effort is made to arrive at something which speaks directly to perception, to the heart; and such purposes I wished to serve. If the invitation from the society in question had not come to me, I should have undertaken the direction of a symbolic-cultural
activity without any historic connection.

"But this did not create a "secret society." Whoever entered into this practice was told in the clearest possible manner that he was not dealing with any "order," but that as participant in ceremonial forms he would experience a sort of visualization, demonstration of spiritual knowledge."

end of quote

John Yarker

Dr. Steiner mentions John Yarker in his Temple Legend as well:"There is a man at the head of the American Misraim movement, whose significant character constitutes a sure guarantee of constancy in the advance. This is the excellent Freemason, John Yarker."

John Yarker was indeed a powerful learned man- you can find some of his articles online.

Rudolf Steiner was a Rosicrucian- this he admitted when asked. Also, in the Theosophical days he titled his teachings "Rosicrucian Spiritual Science" and greeted the audience "My Dear Rosicrucian Friends".

For more consult:

Freemasonry and Ritual Work: The Misraim Service: Texts and Documents from the Cognitive-Ritual Section

References: Peter Koenig's site

Christian Brotherhood

From the Anthroposophical viewpoint, 20th century socialism and communism were both "in a hurry", because they are both impulses supplanted from the future and forced on societies in an unhealthy way.

In the Christian socialism of the future, every human being who can say "not I but Christ in me" has not the desire to guard his own little stack at the expense of others. Need, not greed, becomes the the overriding principle. The carrot and stick approach of individual greed, will be replaced by an impulse of love.

In fact, it won't be just material goods that are shared, Dr. Steiner also speaks of the possibility of us taking on the karma of others.

This is really Rudolf Steiner's teaching on the matter, but there are those who want to extend past impulses into the future where they do not belong. These folk are just as bad as the Marxists and others who wanted to force future impulses on an unprepared humanity. Marx (according to Steiner) had a big chip on his shoulder remaining from his previous incarnation. His argument with unfairness seemed to extend from man up to God as well.

Our true position now lies between strength in our selfhood and understanding our place in the collective. If we confine ourselves to self we can become raving egotists/meglomaniacs. If we deny our I Am, and dissolve into group mind, we commit a crime against ourselves, and Christ.

Rudolf Steiner repeatably told us that the coming race was one of Christian Brotherhood:

"But from a small colony in the East [in footnote: The Slavonic peoples] there will be developed, as though from a seed, new life for the future. The economic needs of existence will then be separated from work: there will be no more personal possession, everything will be owned in common. One will no longer work for one's personal existence, but will do everything as an absolute offering for humanity."

- Rudolf Steiner, Foundations of Esotericism, lecture 8, Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1983, p. 232.

Ahrimanic Socialism cannot be conflated with Christian Socialism as outlined by Rudolf:

"An impulse in life can be harmful by itself, but can be beneficial in co-operation with other impulses..."

"One direction is to symbolize for us the socialism to which modern mankind is striving - not just current Lenin socialism. The second line is to symbolize what I have often characterized as to you as freedom of thought, and the third direction is Spiritual Science.
THESE THREE THINGS BELONG TO ONE ANOTHER; THEY MUST WORK TOGETHER IN LIFE.

"If socialism, in the crude materialistic form in which it appears today, attempts to force itself upon mankind, it will bring the greatest unhappiness upon humanity. It is symbolized by Ahriman...."

"If the false freedom of thought, which wants to stop short at every thought and make it valid, seeks to force itself, then harm is again brought to mankind. This is symbolised in our Group by Lucifer. But you cannot exclude neither Lucifer or Ahriman from the present day, they must be balanced through Pneumatology, through Spiritual Science, which is represented by the Representative of Mankind...."

-Ancient Myths their Meaning; Their Meaning & Connection with Evolution, Lecture 5, 11th January 1918.