Christian Rosenkreutz – Some Contemplations

 

CHRISTIAN ROSENKREUTZ – Some contemplations

CONTENTS
Introduction
The First Initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz
The Second Initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz
Memory and Christian Rosenkreutz
The Etheric, Memory and the Akasha
The Akasha – the Scribes
The Rosicrucian Stream – Post-Christmas Foundation Meeting Lectures.
Raisings by the Christ and Christian Rosenkreutz the Akasha
Christian Rosenkreutz, the 2nd Initiation & the Akasha
Michael and the Akasha of the Trinity
Christian Rosenkreutz, the Archangels and Michael

Introduction
We come to hear about Christian Rosenkreutz as soon as we enter into the School of Michael. For those with a more direct connection with the Rosicrucian stream, this being, Christian Rosenkreutz, or Christian of the Rose Cross, is well known. There will be some who are diligent in looking into what Rudolf Steiner has said about Christian Rosenkreutz. Here, my concern is that few have done this, so I share in hopes of stimulating an interest. For this reason, I will try to share what I can at this time, in hopes that Christian Rosenkreutz will become better known in the membership of the School of Michael.

I am influenced very much by the connection I have had and have with Ehrenfried Pfeiffer. I say it this way as I often have the impression that in dealing with this subject, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer is very much present in consciousness as I try to think about such matters. Therefore, what I say here, I actually say in memory of Ehrenfried. He, for the most part, is known as a Rosicrucian in a number of Anthroposophical circles, but as I am learning, he is actually quite a hidden soul for many. There are those who are still alive and cherish his memory, while a very few still have not so much good to say about him. The book by Alla Selawry has made an impression on some, but for the most part his activity within the Anthroposophical Movement and the School of Michael is not so well known. This may in itself speak to his Rosicrucian association where there is not the effort to make an appeal to the public in an outer way. Rather, the true Rosicrucian is aware that the real working into the world has to take account of the next step in existence, that is, into the ether world.

My earliest connection with Ehrenfried made me conscious of Christianity of another order, the significance of St. John, the School of Michael, and the stream of the Rose Cross. This goes back to 1953. However, already in 1947 and 1948 I was introduced to the lectures by Rudolf Steiner on the Gospel of St. John through my father, Fritz Scharff and Margaret Deussen. With these lectures, I began my concerns for this stream which has been identified as Johanian-Rosicrucian Christianity. So what is shared here does have a history. In a way, some may consider that what I share is highly theoretical, but it has taken years to come to what will be shared.

The First Initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz
Let me begin with the detailed revelation of the first initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz in 1248. As will be seen, there have been previous initiations, but it is this one that is a good starting point. Rudolf Steiner tells of this initiation occurring somewhere in Europe. Obeying occult laws he was not free to say where. Such a place of initiation can be considered to be sacred, and if I understand, can remain so for centuries. In this place somewhere in Europe a young child was raised. He was raised in an absolutely unique fashion. Rudolf Steiner has indicated that this was an experiment, but one that only the spiritual world is allowed to make. To prepare for this initiation, the child concerned was raised by a group of twelve highly developed initiates. The initiates have a very important orientation in their back ground. First they are vitally linked with the Sun-Mysteries of Atlantis and then with the progression of these Mysteries into our time. In Atlantean times, the mysteries were connected with the forming, molding, and activating of the etheric body for the seven cultures or rather the seven races of Atlantis. This permitted human souls to incarnate into physical bodies and at the same time, by incarnating, participate in the Fall. That is, the incarnating human being was permitted to enter a physical body at this time in evolution, when in fact, the original plan was for man only to incarnate as far as the etheric body. Thus man incarnated and fell into matter which had fallen out of the living ether domain and into the domain of sub-earthly forces. Matter had fallen at the hand of Ahriman with his hosts. With this fall of matter, man then became able to take a step into this matter and participate in the “Fall”.

As this Fall took place, the Sun-mysteries came into existence to assure that from this fallen state, man could again rise. Man could be raised, and this was the purpose of the Sun-mysteries – to enable man to over time ascend into an ethereal existence, taking his experiences of the Fall along. The experiences of the Fall were to furnish a basis for the birth and individuation of the ego, and at the same time, permit this to occur in freedom. Man was to become an individual and at the same time, one who could do so out of freedom. For this the Sun Mysteries were instituted out of the spiritual world. We can also say that here began the work of Christ in pre-earthly deeds. We have often heard of these deeds as the redemption of the senses, life processes, and the soul. At the same time, we also heard of another trinity of pre-earthly deeds. Here we can contemplate walking, speaking, and thinking. The Sun Mysteries can be associated with these deeds and more.

We considered the working of Manu, the great Sun initiate. We have been able in this contemplation to consider how almost all of creation, the world and man, because of the working of Manu, is permeated by the element of light. In this light, man can find a deeper source of existence which is woven into matter, all that lives and all that is sentient. Manu, the Great Sun Initiate, works so that the lofty light of the sun-ether works as a wisdom element in all that has been created. This is not to say that there is no creation in which this wisdom does not exist. For, in fact, we have in our times been creating substances which are lightless and lifeless. We need only think of plastics and radioactive wastes. Here man is at work creating substances which are devoid of the light which Manu instilled into all that was created. The Great-Manu helped the light of existence to be placed in the created world and then went on to help that man could find his way to this light. To help man find his way to this light, Manu led a group of men out of Atlantis to a center in Asia, to a cultural center that unfolded in the Gobi desert.

In order that man could find his way to the light that indwells all of existence, this light had to come into man himself. This was the purpose of the Atlantean mysteries where the etheric of the seven races was placed into man. Man could then access this light later on. What was needed was a special development. To this end seven great initiates had to work during the Atlantean evolution so that later each of the seven races could surface the light for a deeper soul life. This was done in order that man could find a deep inwardness, an access to his ego, and to freedom. The penetration of all existence with ether in the form of wisdom, we learn from spiritual science, took place during the old Moon evolution. However, this wisdom-ether was taken hold of by Lucifer on old Moon and then given over to Ahriman in Lemuria during Earth evolution. The incursion of Lucifer and Ahriman into evolution brought about the Fall of matter and then man. Because of this Fall, the work of these Great Sun Initiates had to come about. Care was taken out of sanctuaries of the spiritual world that man could find his way to the light and wisdom in creation. In order for this to occur, the etheric make up of men had to be tended in a very special way. Races had to be constituted and a physical organization formed so that the etheric of the organization could become available for soul life. An analogy might be to consider how the life of the leaf of a plant has to be taken hold of by the higher membering of the plant so that a flower can form from the leaf. There has to be light and life in the leaf in order for the flower, the next higher state of the leaf, to unfold colors and fragrances. A light and life indwells the plant so that a higher form of plant can come into existence. This finer existence is color, fragrance, fine oils, and rarefied pollen. In the same way, the human etheric organization has to form so that it can be withdrawn from the organization to serve the soul. The soul of man is to the body, as the flower is to the leaf of the plant organism. The life of the human organism has to be able to be lifted out of the organism to serve the soul, as, for example, in the case of being able to do mathematics. Thus, the possibility of mathematics has to be laid into the human organism, and this depends upon the configuration of the etheric body.

A particular configuration had to be laid into the etheric organization of the Atlantean races so that later it could be recovered for the sake of being able to do mathematics. Actually varied types of ether organizations had to be laid into the human organism so that soul activity of the most varied kind could be evolved later on by withdrawing the etheric from the physical organism. Here the mathematical process is used as an example. We know that one stream from Atlantis was worked into by Melchizedek. Melchizedek initiated Abraham so that he could become the father of mathematics. Both worked with and into the Moon-Mars race of Atlantis to give rise to this possibility of mathematics.

I have not yet been able to trace out the various soul activities that were evolved out of Atlantean-racial workings of the Sun-Mysteries. Rudolf Steiner has given the example of mathematics for us to follow. We can, however, think that the mathematical example can be considered in relation to all of the races, where different soul faculties could be evolved to meet the evolution of man as a kingdom. Thus each race will have had a particular etheric organization given to it to serve the manifold soul activities needed by mankind as a whole.

With this slight detour, we can come back to our consideration of the leaders of the Atlantean races. There were seven, each working with the Intelligences of the seven planets which, for the first time, took their current spatial orientation as we now have them. Only in the time of Atlantis did time and spatial existences come to be as they are now. Rudolf Steiner tells us that it was Manu who gathered the seven ether organizations from the great Atlantean initiates and took them with him to the cultural evolutionary center in the Gobi desert. Through this act, Manu was beginning a transformation of the etheric, which was at work racially, to begin to work culturally. This meant that men could begin to gain a relation with one another, not only through race, but through culture. Culture then means a raising of ether forces out of the realm of race and into the soul where soul activity can replace racial activity.

The seven initiates, who created the seven ether bodies during Atlantis, appear at the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz in the thirteenth century. The ether bodies of these seven initiates were given to the seven Holy Rishis to inaugurate the first cultural evolutionary epoch which we know as the Indian Cultural Epoch. Other-world tendency and inwardness of this culture can be explained by the working of the ether organizations of the seven initiates. Something of the world of the Gods is given into the souls of those who founded the Indian epoch. These men were known as the Rishis. From all the indications we have from Rudolf Steiner, it is the etheric bodies which birth this culture and give it its characteristic.

Now it is not the etheric bodies that are at work in the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz, but the initiates themselves that work into the astral organization of Christian Rosenkreutz. They work on the astral body of Christian Rosenkreutz in such a way that the ego of this young man can be imprinted into the etheric body. The ego of this young man, was a replica of the ego of the Christ. These initiates permit the work of this ego by giving what is needed into the astral body. The astral in turn could be imprinted into the etheric organization so that the young man could have experiences of illumination. The initiates have to provide that there is a soul working which permits the activity of the ego and, at the same time, permits this to occur when the soul is in the body. The soul activity, that is the activity of the astral and the ego, have to be such that the life forces of the body are not withdrawn too rapidly so that this individual dies. The initiates who work into the astral body of Christian Rosenkreutz have to mold its working so that all life forces are not drained from the physical body and thereby result in the death of the young man. Those who form the etheric of man’s organization during Atlantis, now work into the astral of Christian Rosenkreutz so that his astral does not destroy the etheric. At the same time, the ego of this being, Christian Rosenkreutz, can unite the workings of these seven so that the seven which worked racially, work now in the soul-astral of Christian Rosenkreutz, so that he can transform the seven to a oneness, or better said a wholeness.

Something of man before the Fall can now come into being in the soul of Christian Rosenkreutz. He could give back what he had been given but in synthesized form, in a new form penetrated, as it were, by a Christic element of a vast and universal nature. A new man appeared in the soul of Christian Rosenkreutz.

This new man, born in the soul of Christian Rosenkreutz, united and synthesized what had been poured into him by the initiates of the past, but also by one of the future, that is Mani. His initiation, as noted, was a step from racial evolution to cultural evolution for the sake of man’s future. Christian Rosenkreutz, at the same time, was able to bring back something of what had been given into his astral body, taken into the spiritual world in his states of torpor, and then bring back the spiritual content for imprinting into his ether body. Very new content could stream back to his initiators who would later, in his next initiation, have to be able to translate spiritual content for the sake of mankind, opening the door of the spiritual world for men of the future. For racial evolution to become cultural evolution, five initiates of post-Atlantis joined the seven initiates who had guided the racial evolution of Atlantis. Other initiates had to come to work into the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz. The initiate from the Indian epoch had to be active, as well as the initiate from the Persian, the Egyptian, the Greco-Latin and the fifth post-Atlantean cultural epochs. It is not so easy to follow through who these initiates were. We can consider the Holy Rishis as one, then perhaps Zarathustra, followed by Hermes, then possibly Mani. Christian Rosenkreutz becomes the initiate of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch. The reason for placing Mani here is that Rudolf Steiner tells that Mani took part in this initiation.

If we look at this process from the star world, then we can say the being of Christian Rosenkreutz has placed into his soul, his astral body, the working of the Sun-mystery, as his ego produces a wholeness. This wholeness is a new synthesis for the future – to the time of the sixth post- Atlantean epoch. The synthesis leads us to a time period which in the star world is measured by the procession of the Sun through the equinox. Thus we are contemplating an impulse of 25,920 years in entering the soul of this being. This impulse, we are told, did affect his life forces. We are told that Christian Rosenkreutz became transparent through this initiation and lay in a state of decreased consciousness to, at times, bring forth mighty imaginations for those who were the initiators. At the same time, earthly nourishment came almost to an end with the result that he lay at the brink of death. We can think that he was nourished in soul and spirit. This, however, also used life forces so that they had to serve the spirit, thus the delicate state, and at the same time, the evolving transparency of the physical. One can say that his very flesh was being astralized.

With this set of circumstances, we are told that Christian Rosenkreutz lived for six years, from fourteen to twenty and then died. Here we see an early death, one which does not go on to later years, but transforms the astral so that the whole of mankind’s cultural evolution is placed into the astral organization and synthesized by the ego. This means that the human souls to follow will have the possibility to evolve through culture, overcoming race as well as religious differences. The ego of man can encompass the whole of earthly evolution so that he does not destroy the physical and life processes of the human organism, but can take a spiritual path in peace, not trying to destroy what has arisen through the culture of men. The racial impulse is overcome and identity is with culture, with spiritual life and not race.

The path inculcated in this initiation can be called the path through inspiration. This is addressed in the first lecture which Rudolf Steiner gave on the Rosicrucians after the Christmas Foundation Meeting. Here he spoke of the path of knowledge which led, on the one hand, to revelation and on the other, the path that led to Nature. In this lecture he notes that the path of Ramon Llull  encompassed both. In our consideration so far we have but spoken to the path of Revelation. This path, a path into the spiritual world through culture, is given with the first initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz.

The Second Initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz.
We are now easily led to take up the second initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz. This initiation is detailed in a very mysterious way in the Chymical Wedding by Valentin Andreae. For most, this book is sealed with many seals. Only by working with it again and again can one gain some inkling of what it is all about. Here we will not go into the Wedding itself, but try to continue a line of consideration which deals more with the being of Christian Rosenkreutz rather than the details of initiation.

We are told that this initiation occurred in 1459, at a time when the age of the consciousness-soul had set in. The initiation is said to have taken place over a period of seven days. At the time, Christian Rosen- kreutz was eighty five years of age, and he lived until 106 years. We are told that he lived somewhere in Europe and traveled over the whole of the Middle East, even into the Far East on a pilgrimage to gain knowledge. He was given indications earlier in life that he would undergo an initiation. Rudolf Steiner tells us that he had the Pauline Damascus experience while traveling in the Holy Lands. However, we come to see that his initiation is still not complete. He has more to accomplish than to know that the Christ lives. I do not say this to minimize the experience, but to point to the fact that the Pauline experience is not an end but a beginning, and this is taken up by Christian Rosenkreutz.

If we survey the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz in this fifteenth century incarnation, we can see why the seven days are required. This is the first time that we are given an initiation where the time taken for initiation is given, not only the steps. For the most part we know of the seven steps of the Yoga initiation, or the seven stages of the Christian initiation. However, here we are introduced to the seven days of initiation. This may appear in other initiations but I am at this time not aware of this process in time. It is just this time element that is so important. Here we have not to speak of space but of time. We learn of the traversing of the planetary world in the course of the initiation, but of greatest import is the time element. Here days are crucial. Time is crucial. In our present cultural epoch time is of utmost import, particularly for the scientists of our time. We today emphasize time when we consider the activities of evolution. In fact, I wonder if the concept of evolution is a gift of Christian Rosenkreutz to our science.

What can be found is that the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz accords with the seven days of the week. But these days also accord with the days of evolution of our planetary system. His initiation is, in a way, the initiation into planetary history, not so much human history. Here he does not just go back to Atlantis but he goes back to the beginning. That is, he goes way back to Saturn. His initiation goes to Saturn-day. He begins his initiation on the Saturday before Easter Sunday. He then pro- gresses through the days of the week or also to be said, he progresses through the entire evolution of the earth. Saturn, Sun, Moon, Mars-Mercury(earth), Jupiter and Venus evolutions all have to be taken into consideration. Now the orientation is not the soul as much as it is the bodily, nature condition of man. This is not a path to revelation, but a path through Nature. We begin in the “beginning” and progress through time changes, not entirely through consciousness changes, to consider what happens to the evolution of earth and Nature in the process. Materiality, the body of man becomes important. At the same time we are dealing with memory. This is known as cosmic memory.

In the initiation of the thirteenth century, there is an amalgamation of cultural impulses which culminate in the soul of a single individual, that is the soul of Christian Rosenkreutz. The cultural impulses give rise to a gradual individuation process which is the hallmark of the impulse brought by the Great Sun-Initiate, Manu. The cultural impulse from the time of Atlantis sought to individuate the more selfless souls within the Atlantean racial development. The initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz unites and recreates in a new way what the many cultures of mankind had brought forth and would bring forth in the process of human evolution. This lays the task to help individuate, but at the same time lays the basis for uniting within the single soul, of those who strive through the Rosicrucian initiation, the manifold activities of this cultural evolution. This means that a human being, in taking the path resulting from the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz, can become a true individual and at the same time unite the manifoldness of culture in the world.

With the second initiation, which occurred in the fifteenth century, it is not the single individual who unites human culture within his being, but the single individual becomes able to unite with the evolution of the earth from its onset to its ultimate destiny. In order for this to occur, it was necessary for Christian Rosenkreutz to undergo an initiation which could permit him, as an individual, to experience the origin of this world, which means the beginning of earth evolution. At the same time he, in his initiation, had to be able to follow this process, this evolution, through the course of time. This initiation then is not so oriented to the memory of the individual but the memory of the earth, its origin and its evolution.

As we know, the week of Easter has to do with Crucifixion and Resurrection. Death and new life stand in stark reality during this time of the year. We can say that death is overcome, and this is what is the basis of the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz. For a moment let us not direct our consciousness to the individual who dies and resurrects. With this initiation, let us focus on the earth. If we take this point of view, then we can say that the earth is born, goes through a death process, and then is brought to a new life. If this does not occur, then we can only speak of the birth and death of our earth. If we look at the first initiation we come to the individual. The earth, in a way, is not the central matter. With this second initiation, we come to consider the earth, its past and its future, not only the individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz. This second initiation places the first initiation into the entire evolutionary process of the earth. The future of the individual and the earth are no longer separate. When we consider the incarnation, the death and the resurrection of the Christ, the dimension that is continually pointed to by Rudolf Steiner is the Mystery of Golgotha, the penetration of the earth with the blood of the Christ. In this way we could say that the earth does not fall away from human evolution. The integrity of the individual is assured by the initiation of the thirteenth century, but this integrity is associated with the evolution of the whole world, and this appears as the significance of the second initiation in the fifteenth century.

With the second initiation, Christian Rosenkreutz can come to live into the process where human and cosmic evolution are entwined. With this initiation, Christian Rosenkreutz experiences how man is the goal of cosmic evolution, but how this same evolution depends on man for its future. It is the Christ who exemplifies this process, and it is a Christian initiation that Christian Rosenkreutz goes through. The activity of the Christ being in the evolution of man and the cosmos – this is what Christian Rosenkreutz comes to experience.

Those who take the time to work through the Chymical Wedding will not find it easy to follow the direction set forth here. All is given in very puzzling and strange pictorial descriptions which can leave one wondering what this has to do with the individual, evolution, and the Christ. It takes much effort to come to a cosmo-individual Christian perspective from this treatise. Needed is much from Anthroposophy and a real interest in trying to evolve a sense for esotericism. Repeated efforts and long years of consideration are necessary while careful immersion into Occult Science, Theosophy, and the Christological lectures by Rudolf Steiner have been necessary, at least for me, to make this initiation meaningful. If one contrasts the Chymical Wedding with Occult Science the difference is impressive. With the latter, it is possible to experience very carefully sculpted thought forms. Totally different thought forms and ideas are to be found in the Chymical Wedding. Much is rather simple pictorial descriptions in the Chymical Wedding. One can walk along with Christian Rosenkreutz in the Chymical Wedding and have experiences, but then, one does not know what one is experiencing without the extensive knowledges given by Rudolf Steiner. In our day, the picture experience path of initiation, without thought forms to go along with the pictures, is unknown to most. The imaginations needed for esoteric unfolding in our day ask for much more thought content, meaning.

It seems to me that working with these apparent simple pictures in the Chymical Wedding is not a waste of time. To begin with, the pictures and their sequence are totally foreign to the modem mind. Thus one can be introduced to a region of existence in the soul which is not the usual. This foreign quality can be a positive experience for anyone who seeks for something different from what can be gained from the outer life of our day. For we who are the children of our time this is not such a bad experience. Today it is the sense life that overwhelms our soul. A few can manage to immerse themselves in thought with such intensity that the sense life can be supplemented by a rich inner activity and life. However, many today look not for ideas, the province of the thinker, but look for pictures. Our culture is rich in furnishing pictures, but the pictures are for the most part given to the passive soul and not to the soul who is seeking higher life. The pictures in the Chymical Wedding are concerned with higher life and depend on the activity of the reader-striver to become intensely active. Taken together with Rudolf Steiner’s Occult Science and Theosophy, the making of pictures for higher life is supported in work with this initiation as given in the Chymical Wedding. What appears as a cosmic process in Occult Science and Theosophy, given with carefully carved thoughts, is through the Chymical Wedding transformed into mighty pictures of a cosmo-human proportion. This is particularly the case with the sixth day, in the tower on Jupiter, where we come to see the creation of man. Assuredly each will find different experiences depending on personal inclination. However, the richness of pictorial soul life is astonishing. Then in returning to Occult Science or Theosophy, one can find oneself richly rewarded for the effort with the Chymical Wedding.

The following of the Christian thread through the Chymical Wedding is more difficult. To find the thread requires a continual effort to seek how Rudolf Steiner has given occult and esoteric indications in regard to the Christ and the Mystery of Golgotha. With this effort arises a Christianity that is in the works of Rudolf Steiner, and is the esoteric stream of the Christ working. All too easily, some can say that what one tries to find in the Chymical Wedding has nothing to do with the Christ, even if some are familiar with what Rudolf Steiner has given on the subject of the Christ. However, it is just the Chymical Wedding which helps to find the esoteric in the Christ Mystery. Again it can be said that different individuals will experience differently. Be that as it may, my experience is that very few bother with the Chymical Wedding and relatively few are familiar with the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz. This is said because so much of what is esoteric in the School of Michael is intimately connected with the work of Christian Rosenkreutz.

Memory and Christian Rosenkreutz
So far we have considered two initiations of Christian Rosenkreutz. The first is in the 13th century, the second is in the 15th century. The first is related to the unfolding of the individual through cultural evolution, and the second is more related to cosmic evolution, though the individual is included. What becomes so important is to discover a further mystery involved with these two initiations. This mystery is the mystery of memory. Just as we as humans need the usual memory to experience continuity, so this is the same for the earth in the cosmos. Our earth needs cosmic memory for a continuity. If man is to look deeper and seek for a connection from one life to another, then he also needs a memory, but one that is now cosmic as well. Both earth and man need cosmic memory. That the earth should or does have more than one life is the mystery which most who approach occult science find startling. We hear of Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions which preceded our evolution. In a way we can say that these are reembodiments of our earth. In working with Anthroposophical Spiritual Science we can hear of sleep states between embodiments, as if sleep is part of a reembodiment process. In this way it is possible to consider a little longer sleep as an activity from one life to another, be it the period from one life to another for man, or for the earth. In both cases, if there is to be a memory of a previous existence, a cosmic memory is necessary.

Again, if there is to be a continuity from one sleep to another or from one life to another, then a memory process is needed. If in daily life this memory process fails us, then we become lost and confused. Our ordinary memory is important for us to be able to say “I” to ourselves and sense something there. The same could be said to be the case for man from one life to another, or for the earth from one embodiment to another. What is needed is to be able to come to the memory of man as an individual and earth as an individual in the universe. The earthly memory of man has to be transformed to come to the memory of a previous life. The same can be said for the earth. Both will need a book of life which is of different material than what we have as books today. Essential in this initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz is the finding of this book of life. Today this book of life for man and the earth is a central issue in science. This problem is taken up in the considerations of evolution. There is no evolutionary memory in usual science, but in occult science there is the concern for cosmic memory, for the unfolding of the universe, as well as man. The initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz is very much concerned with this memory. Central to this memory is the unfolding of the etheric in man and the universe.

The Etheric, Memory and the Akasha
We can carry our line of thought further by considering that it takes the etheric to support memory. Ether working is necessary for memory. Something of a soul activity of man from one life to another or for the earth from one embodiment to another has to be imprinted into the etheric somewhere in order for memory to come into existence. In the case of our earthly memory, we can study how memory is the transformation of biological activity. We are told in spiritual science that those forces which are responsible for our teething, become the basis for memory, for learning, for intellectual memory. The growth and extrusion forces of our teeth are freed for memory when we shed our teeth. Growth forces are metamorphosed for the sake of our soul. The Waldorf School curriculum is built upon this insight by Rudolf Steiner.

What is the etheric which underlies man’s life from one incarnation to another or earth’s life from one embodiment to another? How is this important for Christian Rosenkreutz? Why did he need initiations so close together. Christian Rosenkreutz has initiations in times close to one another. How could he or Rudolf Steiner come to cosmic memory or the process of reincarnation if there is no such memory, and where is the etheric?

Let me try to share a few thoughts to try to take hold of these questions. First, let us turn to man. Memory comes into existence through the soul imprinting its activity in the etheric of the organism. The imprinting is a complicated process usually requiring three journeys into the spiritual world with sleep. What is carried in the soul, in the astral-ego organization, is worked into by spiritual beings of the hierarchies. A certain order and form comes into the soul through this sleep activity. This is an activity in the ether of the cosmos, extending for the most part out to the sphere of Mars. Once this ordering has taken place, what exists in the soul can then be imprinted into the etheric of the organism that has been freed. Rudolf Steiner tells that our organs are covered by an etheric which serves this memory formation process and the memory. This, of course, is an over-simplification, but it is graphic for gaining some sense of this process. Thus, our earth memory is within our organism and is somewhat free of our organic functions.

Now where can we look for the memory of man, from one life to another. Where in the world can the memory of man, from one life to another be kept? Here we need to take a look at the ether world which lies all around us. We, in looking up to the blue of the heavens, are looking into ether. That which is solid, liberates ether when liquid is formed. That which is liquid, liberates ether when the airy is formed. That which is airy, liberates warmth-ether when the warmth state is arrived at. This all lies before our eyes when we look up at the blue of the heavens.

If we consider mankind as a whole, it is possible to see that a segment of mankind evolves through time and can be followed by what we call cultural periods. The cultural periods, in turn, are a result of the working of the sun in relation to the zodiac. In this working lie activities which, when looked at carefully, can be found to be worked into by the Christ. The cultural periods can be found to be influenced by different spiritual beings. But, as the sun moves in relation to the animal circle, doors to very lofty worlds are opened. Here it is possible to see the activities of the Christ working into the lower hierarchical worlds, working to bring a Christic impulse into this evolution. It is very important to consider that this is not the only cultural process that occurs on the earth where there are so many different cultural evolutions taking place. Most of the latter cultural developments are from the past, are remnants from old cultures.

The cultural periods which have to do with the Christ, are very much concerned with the progressive individuation and freeing of man. The sun progression in relation to the zodiac takes place in the ether cosmos where we move when we move out into the cosmos in perceiving the blue of the heavens. It is in this ether, this cosmic ether, that we have to look. Here the memory of the cultural periods come into existence as a trans- formation in the cosmic ether, just as we have considered in relation to man. The cosmic ether that is important for the unfolding of a culture, that is at work in the process, is liberated to a certain extent to form memory. The teeth of cultural evolution can be thought to be the creations of man, that then fall to dust as it were. What is it that man uses to create. He uses matter, but the states of matter of the earth. This is true whether he builds a house of brick, grows a field of corn, herds a herd of sheep or creates the many art forms that are possible. Whatever is of the four states of matter are changed through man’s creative activity. In the process, ether forces that determine the states of matter are liberated. We can think of the teeth of cultural evolution as the transformation of the states of matter and the liberation of ether forces in the process. Man comes to bring about a memory process within himself, but he also comes to free ether forces which are returned to the cosmos. It is into this freed ether of the cosmos that man, in his sleep journey, brings his soul content to be imprinted into the ether of the cosmos. Here in the cosmic ether there is not an imprinting but a scribing. Our earthly soul activities are scribed into this cosmic ether.

Our memory of cultural periods, which has to do with the individuation of man, is recorded in the ethers which are liberated from the activity of forming states of matter. Just as today we can scribe memory into silicon, into substance, so too we can scribe into the etheric that is freed by dint of cultural evolution connected with human individuation. This freed ether forms the basis for a domain known as the astral plane of existence. It is into this domain that we enter upon dying or enter on a spiritual path. As just noted, the course of the sun, the activity of the Christ and the working of the hierarchical world is all part of this complicated process.

During the Persian period man’s deeds were written into the ether that forms solid matter, that is life-ether. Man at that time was evolving his sentient body. During this time man began to work the solid earth, began a culture of the earth, agriculture. Before this time, during the Indian epoch, man was not yet individuated. It appears that man’s activities and the script resulting from his activities tended to merge more with the general ether. With the Egyptian period then, man could have his deeds of soul written into the ether that forms the watery state, and in this case, be liberated from the watery state by the deeds of the soul. We can assume that the cultural deeds are not those of compacting matter further and further but rarefying matter, as for example in agriculture or the other forms of culture – that is art forms.

In the Egyptian Cultural period, it is the sentient-soul that is active in man, in evolving man. These are, as noted, cultures that have been guided by the Sun-Being, as the Sun progresses through the Zodiac. As time went on, we have to add more and more cultural tendencies that did not only come from the sun. Thus came the impulses from the western mysteries which were not sun oriented. The Hebrew cultural impulse, though sun related, has to be seen as very much moon influenced and directed. With the Egyptian cultural period, it is the ether of the watery state that is liberated.

With the Greek cultural period, we come to the unfolding of the intellectual soul. This activity of man is written into the ether which is liberated when the airy state passes into that of the warmth state.

Finally it is in the time of consciousness-soul that the activities of man are written into warmth-ether. It is the deed and also the secret of Christian Rosenkreutz that he came to know how to write into this warmth-ether. To do so he had to come to be able to distinguish warmth as matter and warmth as ether. This was the great discovery of Christian Rosenkreutz from his second initiation as best as I can tell. When one comes to the warmth-ether in the cosmos, one passes from the upper reaches of the astral plane into a more pure ether working, where the ether is no longer bound to conditions of matter. The more pure ether, the ether that is freed from the forming of the states of matter, becomes the ether that serves the soul which is free of the body. Ether freed from the states of matter, becomes the ether that comes to serve the soul in cosmic memory. We spend a third of our life in sleep, in working to place our earthly life into the memory substance of the cosmos, ether substance.

As one progresses from life-ether, to chemical-ether, to light-ether, one then comes to warmth-ether. These ethers can be thought of as forming the states of matter, but when free in the cosmos, serve the soul after death.

It is now possible to consider that another step can be taken, which is to progress to pure ether. This is not an ether that has had anything to do with earth evolution and man’s activity on earth. Now man can enter a domain where his soul-life is free of the physical. To enact this activity is called free spiritual activity. This is a thinking activity, but one that is as much willing as thinking. The activity is not bodily dependent, but coincides with an activity of the cosmos where previous activities of evolution took place, evolutions that preceded Earth evolution itself. At the same time, a future lies in this pure ether of the cosmos.

At the time of Christian Rosenkreutz’s initiation, the coming to the pure ether did not take place as it can today through pure spiritual activity. Needed was the evolution of the sciences. In the time of Christian Rosenkreutz, the pure ether was attained in a state that was not yet totally clear, as our thinking consciousness can be today. Today we can, as a result of the evolution of human consciousness through the sciences, come to the world of pure ether, to the domain of cosmic memory of earth evolution. Here man has not been active as he was not yet born as an ego being. Today it is in this province of the ether world that we can begin to build new organs for perceiving. Pure spiritual activity, a slight metamorphosis of pure thinking, helps configure the organs in this domain for the perception of what lies here in cosmic memory. Here in the domain of the pure ether, the evolution of the organ, known as the two petaled lotus, can take place. This was not possible in the time of Chri tian Rosenkreutz and his two initiations.

The possibility to come to this knowledge of the ether world and to construct new cognitional organs was laid in the first initiation and the second initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz. It could not be realized, as it can today. The foundation was laid through these two initiations. The first initiation had much to do with individual memory. The second had much to do with cosmo-planetary evolutional memory. It is the second initiation that has so much to do with the pure ether world. The beginning of unfolding the organ of the two petaled lotus, we can consider started with the first initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz, where new organs for knowledge become evident to him. The carrying of this activity into the cosmos appears to have unfolded somewhat with the second initiation. It is this second initiation, at eighty-five years of age, when Christian Rosenkreutz lived until 106 years of age, that the secret of the workings of the pure ether of the cosmos seem to become important. We can think that one hundred years of human ether body working came into play. This is the same time period that it generally takes man to ascend after death to the Midnight hour of existence. The human ether and the cosmic ether, including the pure ether, become important for the second initiation.

Again, when we consider man’s earthly existence, his memory of earth life is scribed into the freed ether in the domain that we call the astral world, the elemental world. It is the astral plane of the ether world. When a soul enters the pure ether domain, then it is the planetary evolutions of our earth that can be considered. In pure thinking, with pure spiritual activity, we come into this higher ether world. With the initiation process, we build organs for cognition in this domain. The step is from the astral plane of the ether world to the lower Devachanic plane of this ether world. As we enter into the Devachanic, our personal, individual memory is put aside, and world evolutionary memory can come into focus. We have to search in one direction of existence for the memory of the individual – the astral plane of existence. In the case of our earth, we have to search in another domain of existence. Here we now have to look to the ether of the Devachanic world. This domain we can speak of as the realm of spirit-land. Here we find regions, continents, oceans, and atmos- pheres. Here lies the basis for the memory of earth evolution. As the solidity of the continents is freed when oceans form, a region of devachanic ether is created. This forms the continental region of devachan. Only a seventh of the surface of our globe is solid, it is continually going into a condition of the oceanic. The same can be said of the oceanic, when it rises into the atmospheric domain of existence. And finally, as the atmospheric ascends to the warmth of the thermosphere, beyond the atmosphere, we then can consider the region of pure ether warmth of Devachan.

Into these ethers of Devachan, the life of our earth and its kingdoms is written as a script which can be read with the proper organs and the proper skills. First the proper organs have to be formed and then the ability to use the organs of cognition have to be acquired. Only then can we come to know the past and the evolution of our earth. This Devachanic world we can call the domain of the formed, Rupa Devachan. Here higher spiritual activity is needed than in the region of the lower astral world. It is in this Devachanic world that man comes to witness the beginnings of the earth and man himself. He comes to appreciate the coming into being of the earth, earth evolution and as well, man. The secret of the world and man come to view, and this is what we can find in the pictures in the Chymical Wedding.

Within Devachan, it is possible to rise into even higher regions. The higher regions are call Devachan without forms, that is Arupa Devachan. Here man comes into existence as a creative being. From Devachan, it is possible to ascend to a yet higher region of existence. We can ascend with yet a higher faculty of cognition. This higher region is known to us as the domain of the Trinity – the kingdom of God. It is in this domain, that man comes to seek his higher being amid the existence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

If it were as simple as this, higher life would not be such a strain. Such a sharing is one of presenting a semi-intellectual scheme. However this scheme, though intellectual, gives a needed anchor for such a difficult subject, a subject that is rarely talked about or considered.

These regions of existence are not only in the far reaches of the cosmos, but lie hidden within man and in nature, within the earth and its kingdoms. This hidden aspect of the Trinity is also presented in the Chymical Wedding and can be traced through the thousands of lectures by Rudolf Steiner. A brief comment can be made to focus this revelation of the highest in man and nature, by pointing to the threefolding of man and the threefolding of the social order as a direct following of the domain of the Trinity into man and nature (earth).

The Akasha – the Scribes
To conclude this section on the two initiations of Christian Rosenkreutz, it might be of help to consider who the beings are who create and write in the book of life for man and the earth. First we can mention that the book of life is known for the most part as the Akasha, the akashic substance and script. Rudolf Steiner uses this term throughout his “spiritual science”, even though the term originated in the east and was used extensively in theosophical circles.

From Rudolf Steiner we can learn that it is with the extraction of the Moon from the Earth by Jehovah that lofty spiritual beings of the rank of angels and very advanced men, avatars, went with the Moon. It is they who take hold of the ether and man’s deeds to write the deeds into the book of life. When the deeds correspond with a purity necessary for the further advancement of the evolution of the individual, then the deed becomes a permanent part of the ether world. Here the script of human deeds, leading to individuation, are written. We can consider that the Transfiguration Scene with Peter, James, and John points to this region of human memory, cosmic memory. These three look to the scribes and the judges of this region of the ether akashic world. In this akashic world, we see Christ with Elijah and Moses. In the past, Elijah and Moses were the scribes and the judges. They judged what should be entered into the book of life of men. They are the ones who are the judges of man’s deeds until the coming of the Christ. Now it is the Christ who takes this on. I surmise that it is such mighty beings as Elijah and Moses who do the writing, are the scribes.

In the case of the Akasha of earthly evolution, I conjecture that it is the hosts gathered around the Christ that scribe into the Akasha of the higher Devachanic world. Here I am inclined to place the activities of the Christian initiates who, in the past, worked for the individuation of man, e.g. – the twelve who initiated Christian Rosenkreutz. It is they who work in the higher ether domain of the Sun. Here we might consider a kind of Mother Lodge of existence. We can think for a moment on the Mothers of Jesus as pointing to this region. Here we have the Mother Lodge of existence, and we can look to the Mothers of the Jesus found in the Christian testaments. However, I will not pursue this further here as I wish to keep this open for now. This region has to be considered so that the work of Christ as the Judge of Karma can be brought into relation with the evolution of the earth and the entire planetary-star world. My surmise, at the moment, is that the Christ came to work in the lower astral world so that this memory could be brought in relation to the memory of our earth. This was and is needed, for a continuity of consciousness from one life to another for man.

The Rosicrucian Stream – Post-Christmas Foundation Meeting Lectures.
I would like now to take up the work of Christian Rosenkreutz after the second initiation. This is pointed to by Rudolf Steiner, in particular, in the lectures after the Christmas Foundation Meeting, in the beginning of 1924. There he begins with the activity of Raimundus Lullus. (editor – Raymond Lull 1235-1315) He does not say directly that Christian Rosenkreutz is at work in Lullus’ initiation, but I am inclined to think this. Already the mighty ether organization of Christian Rosenkreutz is at work in the evolution of esoteric Christianity in the West. Here the theme of Revelation and Nature is sounded. It may be appropriate to see the two initiations of Christian Rosenkreutz in the light of these two basic tendencies in Western spiritual life. The first initiation might be considered from the perspective of revelation and the second from the perspective of Nature. Rudolf Steiner points to Revelation and Nature in this first lecture, and then speaks of Lull. My line of thought as just shared goes in this direction. Themes of youth and age are also spoken to and then the cosmic geometry of speech. The work of Lull is seen in the 12th century in the time when old initiations were waning, but I gather it is just into these older initiations that Christian Rosenkreutz had to work, his ether radiations had to penetrate.

At this point I would like to suggest that as Rudolf Steiner gave this particular set of lectures, he was speaking to the very souls who had reincarnated from the times that were being considered. That is, Lullus and all the others mentioned in the lectures, were sitting in the audience. Thus Rudolf Steiner was trying to awaken memories of those who had come to join him in this new work for the sake of mankind. Perhaps we can consider Zeylmans, Pfeiffer, and Lehrs.

Next in this cycle which Rudolf Steiner gave right after the Christmas Foundation Meeting, he takes up the Brothers of the Common Light. Here I assume Comenius was at work, and again Christian Rosenkreutz works into this group of human souls. A brief consideration of Raymond of Sabunde (editor – circa 1385 – 1436) follows. Now we are in the 14th century. Now a soul at work with philosophy and alchemy is addressed and again the working of Christian Rosenkreutz can be considered. There follows a description of the brilliant Pico della Mirandola whose relation with the stars is highlighted. Here the limits of knowledge becomes an emphasis as the light of the spiritual world had already faded in the thirteenth century. With the consideration of Mirandola, we are led into the fifteenth century. Again the working of Christian Rosenkreutz can be assumed in the life of this soul. Even if higher life is renounced by Mirandola, we might assume that it exists, working in a less conscious way into this soul. This permits the sense of the Fall of man to come to the fore.

As we look to the succeeding centuries, 16th, 17th, and 18th, we hear that healers, herbalists, physicians, and simple men were called to work with Christian Rosenkreutz, but unknown to the world. As we hear at the end of the Chymical Wedding, the Rosicrucian impulse lives to care for the poor, heal the ill, and help educate the ignorant. My sense is to see these souls as called by Christian Rosenkreutz by the method of being rescued from death (Possibly by new ether forces being insinuated into the ether body of the individual rescued – like the daughter of Jairus). This means to me that a soul would have died, but then underwent an infusion from the ether body of Christian Rosenkreutz, and so could go on in life to serve out of the spirit. I am inclined to see the Call of Christian Rosenkreutz as a new form of “raising” as we encounter in the life and deeds of the Christ.

In the 18th century we hear of the incarnation of Christian Rosenkreutz as the Count of St. Germain. We have heard repeatedly by outer history that the Count made every attempt to save Europe from the Thirty Years War.

Thus we can follow a continual working of Christian Rosenkreutz, thanks to these lectures of Rudolf Steiner. However, what should be noted is the strong inclination in those spoken about, to have a very considerable bent to know. They are not the usual mystic. They are the ones who are with Christian Rosenkreutz, but as well follow a path that can then come to meet with the impulse which originated with Aristotle. It is in the fifth lecture that Rudolf Steiner gives us a very direct indication of his relation with the Rosicrucian stream. He tells that he came upon a small group of Rosicrucians in what appears as his prebirth state. In this condition he became aware of the working of this group, the one where the pupils were trained in the hexagram or the “Key of Solomon” and the training in relation to the bony system and the nerve-sense system of man. Here Rudolf Steiner indicates that the Aristotelian impulse was still alive and working, but is another form than could be found in the Greek time. This working, I gather, is of the utmost import as it points to the work of the Aristotelian-Michaelic impulse entering into the Rosicrucian stream. In a way we might say that here Rudolf Steiner, in his prebirth condition, comes to see the impulse that he can take into life. Needed is the modem union of the Aristotelian impulse, the Michaelic impulse, with the Rosicrucian stream.

In the next lecture, Rudolf Steiner gives the limitation of the Rosi- crucian training in the time of Christian Rosenkreutz’s second initiation. What is not said directly, but gently implied, is that now it is possible to come to Michael, following the Rosicrucian impulse by taking up modem science and the scientific thinking of modem times. This opens the door to consider the domain of the Akasha which I shall take up later.

Raisings by the Christ and Christian Rosenkreutz
Next I should like to turn to the Christian teachings and then take up a possible view of the being of Christian Rosenkreutz at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. I do this since we have the indication that Christian Rosenkreutz was incarnated at the time of Christ and took part in these events. We are told, as we have already indicated, that he took on a replica of the ego of the Christ. For this to occur, I assume there was a most intimate relation with the working of the Christ at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. After much pondering, the following is the way that I now try to think on Christian Rosenkreutz in the time of Christ. For some it may appear intellectually contrived, but this view is not one which was suddenly or easily arrived at. What is shared is not done in a dogmatic way so that anyone who wants to question should feel free to do so.

To approach this mystery of the being of Christian Rosenkreutz, I would turn to the “raisings” found in the Luke and John Gospels. Let us look at each, one at a time. The first is found in the eighth chapter of Luke. Here we are introduced to a circumstance where the son of a widow has apparently died. We are told that the son is a youth and the setting is Nain. Thus this young man is known as the “Youth of Nain”. I am inclined to consider that this is a young soul in the sense indicated by Rudolf Steiner. We can learn from spiritual science that this is the same being who died in a forced initiation effort during Egyptian times. This young man comes to us as the “Youth of Sais” from Egyptian times. He, without appropriate training, tried to lift the Veil of Isis and lost his life in the process. We can learn further that this same being incarnated in the fourth century as Mani and then in the ninth century as Parsifal. It is this being that comes to work into Christianity, struggling with the problems of evil and the secret of the Holy Grail as taken from the Mystery of Golgotha. Here is a stream and an impulse which comes into existence to help man work into the future with an immense intensity, working for an esoteric Christian impulse. Many speak of the Mani impulse in relation to the tender and the gentle aspects of his being. I would like to point to his role in relation to the arts as I have done in discussing his relation to Manu.

Let us turn to the St. John Gospel, to its center, where we find the raising of Lazarus. Many are familiar with this raising, not so much with the raising of the Youth of Nain. With Lazarus, we come to a being whom the Lord loved. This is a being the Christ loved. We come to see a man who was ill and died, began even to show evidence of bodily decomposition. However, this is a condition needed for the incarnation of the soul-spirit of Elijah. I am inclined to seek for the departure of the Lazarus soul at this time. This departure is consistent with the same process indicated in the case of Zarathustra stepping out of the body of the Solomon Jesus and into the Nathanic Jesus. The soul-spirit of the Nathanic Jesus departed to make way for the soul of Zarathustra. I am assuming something similar with Lazarus. We are told that with the raising of Lazarus, Lazarus becomes Lazarus John. This is the birth of the Evangelist John. We could, as well, consider that the Elijah soul became a kind of over-soul of the Lazarus being, but I would rather seek for a departure of this being who lived in Lazarus. The reason will become clear in a moment.

Now let us return to the Luke Gospel and to the ninth chapter. Here we find another raising. There is something very singular about this raising. It occurs in relation to a healing. We first hear of a woman with an issue of blood for a period of twelve years. This means that there is a certain hypertrophy of ether forces in the life of this individual. This is healed through the woman touching the garment of the Christ. One can think that by touching the garment of the Christ, an ego impulse passes over to the woman, and this stays the flow of the blood. It is the activity of an ego to bring about the cessation of bleeding. The ether forces, involved with bleeding, are brought into order and the excess forces taken hold of. At the very next moment of this healing, we hear of the daughter of Jairus who has died. She has died at twelve years of age. She has died just as the astral forces are born into her life. She suffers not from excess ether forces, but excess astral forces. The astral forces overcome her life forces. Here we have something of a mirroring of the slaying of Abel by Cain. Thus the child dies, or is overcome by intense astral forces which drain off the ether organization of the child. Now through the spoken word, the Christ raises the child. Again the ego of the Christ has to work, has to be strengthened while performing an initiation. And here it is that I have the question if it is not the soul-spirit of Lazarus who comes to indwell this organism. The soul-spirit steps out of the body of Lazarus, whose origin goes back to Adam, the first man, a being that the Christ loves. This soul-spirit of Lazarus then steps into the organism of the daughter of Jairus. An ego impulse is brought to this Lazarus soul-spirit, a Christ ego impulse. As this occurs, something of the excess ether flows from the woman with the issue of blood. In turn something of the excess astral of the young girl flows over to the woman ill with a lack of astral forces. Here the Christ comes to mediate the astral and etheric, bringing about a healing of the slaying of Abel by Cain. As this occurs, we can further ponder that the soul-spirit being of Lazarus is none other that of Hiram. The Adam soul, through the raising of the Daughter of Jairus, steps from Lazarus over to the Daughter and to this being the higher impulse of Hiram can now enter. This is made possible by the Christ.

With this complex set of circumstances having been elaborated, and hopefully all will sense the need for great thoughtfulness here, the complexity can grow even further. To increase the complexity, I would next try to follow the just mentioned healing and raising into the two  initiations of Christian Rosenkreutz. I would seek for the circumstances around the Daughter of Jairus in the first initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz, in the thirteenth century. The healing of the woman with the issue of blood I would try to follow to the second initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz in the fifteenth century. In both cases I would seek the working of the Christ ego principle, in the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz. So let us move on.

If we look at the first initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz, we are told of a most unusual circumstance. We are told that never before had such a circumstance been created. Twelve men, twelve initiates gathered around a young child and raised this child. In the process they permitted his development to proceed so that at fourteen years of age they could one by one place the spiritual content of the initiations of the past into his soul. The initiations of the seven Atlantean racial epochs were insinuated into his soul. The four post-Atlantean cultural epoch initiations were, as well, and then the fifth was as added. These initiations can be thought of as constituting Christian initiations. This gave the boy a tremendous astral content, which on the one hand could become ego content, but on the other hand could be imprinted into the etheric of the boy. A kind of educational process was being undertaken. With the tremendous content from the astral organization that was forming, according to the racial and then cultural epochs, this content could then be placed into the etheric of the boy. The boy, in turn, could give back this content out of a Christic ego impulse. This gave a whole new content for the great initiates of the various time periods. A Christic, but at the same time a fresh and synthesized content, was given forth. As this process unfolded, the forces of the ether body were used up, and the astral organization worked further into the physical body. The result is that the physical body became astralized, that means transparent and a near death circumstance eventuated. The result was that the boy could not eat, as the content given into the soul pressed back the digestive activities and brought forth the activities of the sense and the nerve. The content of the soul was to become more and more objective as it passed the door of the senses and not the digestive system. Again the result was the possibility for this spiritual content to become sense related. The boy lay near death, a state that I would like to think resembled the state of the daughter of Jairus, a twelve year old maiden.

It might be possible that the daughter of Jairus took in so much spiritual content in the presence of the events of the Mystery of Golgotha that she went into an initiation trance. Such trances had been unfolded for some centuries in the mysteries of that part of the world. What ever the case, we can consider that the Christ ego impulse came to transform this soul condition. I would try to think that the Christ ego force organized the astral organization of this girl, which was in chaotic process, swimming in the soul-spiritual world. The result is that she could live on, though we hear no more of her in outer history.

My line of consideration is that in this event lay the basis for the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz in the thirteenth century. Whether this is exactly the same ego as the ego of Christian Rosenkreutz can be questioned. It is quite possible for the raising of the daughter to serve as a prototype within the domain of the Akasha. I assume that such events, which are enactments of the Christ, are scribed into the Akasha where they can serve as an archetype. We can think of the Christ ego at work organizing the astral of the daughter. This astral can then be imprinted into the etheric of the girl, which in turn serves as prototype in the Akasha. Quite a similar process can be considered with the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz. The very active astral body of Christian Rosenkreutz came into being by the activities of the great initiates. This was, in a way too much activity for the etheric of the 14 year old Christian Rosenkreutz, but did not go so far as the daughter of Jairus. The result was an intensely strong etheric organism coming into existence. A death condition was not created, but one that came quite close. This etheric organization had to be able to carry all that had been created out of race and culture, while anticipating the future. Prospective new cultures had yet to come forth. It was for this future that Christian Rosenkreutz was initiated. What was brought by the initiates, could be synthesized by the ego of the child to be imprinted into the etheric body. This ether then could at death be taken into the cosmos to serve as a prototype in the Akasha. This is an akashic prototype that is created for the future of mankind. With this prototype in the Akasha, other men coming into incarnation could use this prototype or archetype. Now other men could create such an ether organization in the process of incarnating.

In this initiation of the thirteenth century, we are seeing the first creation of a human etheric organization that has within it the sequence of racial and cultural evolutionary epochs. In the case of Christian Rosenkreutz he then was able to live only for another six or seven years. His initiation takes mankind up to the twenty-first year. This is where the ego of every man can begin to be born. For this to pass further into human life, into further life periods, another initiation is needed. Needed to carry the impulse of the Christ is an etheric body that can carry all the life epochs which belong to man, that is up to the seventieth year and perhaps beyond.

The first initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz lays the basis for the second, just as the raising of the daughter of Jairus is associated with the woman with an excess of ether forces. The second initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz occurs within a human being whom we can assume had a great deal of ether forces. Christian Rosenkreutz lived to be 106 years of age in this incarnation and was initiated at the age of 85. His life spanned the same time that it takes man to ascend after death to the Midnight hour of existence. This ether, this strong ether, is necessary to be able to undergo an initiation that can take on the processes of cosmic evolution, which come to man after the age of 21. In this second initiation Christian Rosenkreutz was able to take into his soul what had been the spiritual activities of the “seven” days of creation. As with Moses, this is an initiation of great magnitude and requires a mighty ether body. In the case of Moses, we hear that it took the ether body of Zarathustra for Moses to be able to take in the days of creation. However, Moses only goes back to late Lemuria, early Hyperborea. With Christian Rosenkreutz, it is necessary for him to be able to go all the way back to Saturn and then to advance to Vulcan. Needed is a strengthening of the etheric organization which already had become very strong in the first initiation. Something of the extensive ether forces of the woman with the issue of blood can be contemplated here.

During the seven days of the second initiation, my surmise is that now the ether organization of the Resurrected Christ plays into the Christic ego of Christian Rosenkreutz. Now the Being who is at the center of the Twelve Bodhisattvas works into and through the ego of Christian Rosenkreutz. Now the twelve Bodhisattva impulses work into the ego of Christian Rosenkreutz as the Christ has risen, has Resurrected. Through the bodhisattvaic impulse, now the Christ working in the cosmos can be placed into the astral organization of Christian Rosenkreutz, to be imprinted in his initiation, in his illumination. Something of this process was at work in the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. The Christ was able to organize the excess ether forces, chaotic ether forces, which in turn aided in the raising of the daughter while permitting the older woman to become a true human being. The woman does not bleed away, but lives now for the world. Again we do not hear about this woman. However, the activity of these two souls, an older woman and a young girl, can be considered the Rose process that adorns the Cross. The ether and astral come into harmony with the woman and the young girl. Perhaps we can consider the same with the two initiations of Christian Rosenkreutz. I gather, in terms of Rosicrucian process, the activities of these two initiations can be called the rose process. It is the woman, with her ether organization and evolving astral-soul life that points to a rose process. It may be that we cherish the rose because of this process. Rudolf Steiner has pointed to the female process as the basis for the rose of the Rose Cross.

Thus we have traversed the terrain between the Mystery of Golgotha and the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz or better said, the initiations which can be seen as one, in a way. I am inclined to see Christian Rosenkreutz as one being arising out of the healing and raising. In this way, the events of Palestine can be seen as laying a basis for these two initiations. The Mystery of Golgotha becomes a uniting element in the processes of initiation. Old initiations have to pass into new ones.

In the initiation of the fifteenth century, I have just pointed to the realm of the Bodhisattvas. Christian Rosenkreutz was very much associated with the domain of the Bodhisattvas. I have heard one or two speak of Christian Rosenkreutz as a Bodhisattva. I, however, would not like to and rather seek to consider how he was able to incorporate the Bodhisattvaic impulse into his soul. Perhaps he could say, “not I but the Bodhisattva in me”. We hear from Rudolf Steiner how close Christian Rosenkreutz was to the Buddha so that he could send Buddha to Mars in the seventeenth century. We are told of meetings of a college where Scythianus, Zarathustra, and Buddha gathered with Christian Rosenkreutz to work together for Christic spiritual life. I should like to extend this working of Christian Rosenkreutz with the Bodhisattvas to include Jeshu ben Pandira. This is because in lectures given by Rudolf Steiner, the future Buddha, the Maitreya Buddha is spoken to in lectures on Christian Rosenkreutz or subjects which ally themselves with such considerations. As we know from Rudolf Steiner, Jeshu ben Pandira lived one hundred years before the Mystery of Golgotha. He was the spiritual leader of the Essenes and was the inspirer of Matthew of the Matthew Gospel. Pandira has been mixed up with the Christ who incarnated one hundred years later and was crucified. Rudolf Steiner tells that the Theosophists mixed up this Jeshu ben Pandira with the Jesus in whom the Christ incarnated. Pandira was stoned and crucified and so the mix-up is partially understandable, but not correct Whatever the case, the being of Pandira is one who in the next thousands of years will work that we may come to have a better comprehension of the deeds of the Christ. Though the Maitreya Buddha we will come, in the next thousands of years, to fathom more appropriately what the Christ has meant, means and will mean for man, the cosmos and the spiritual world. Thus it is that we can bring this bodhisattvic being into the life of Christian Rosenkreutz, but we can as well, the working of Rudolf Steiner. We need not mix up this being with either Rudolf Steiner or Christian Rosenkreutz, as such bodhisattvaic beings can be incorporated into an egoness which is of a Christic nature.

To conclude this section on the raisings, I would like to again point to three soul-spiritual beings. Again, we know from Rudolf Steiner’s investigations that the Youth of Nain is the same being as the Youth of Sais and Mani-Parsival. Rudolf Steiner also tells that the being of John the Evangelist is the same as the being of Elijah. What is being placed here for consideration is that Christian Rosenkreutz may possibly be traced to the soul-spirit of Lazarus, not the bodily nature, and that the soul-spirit of the daughter of Jairus, after her raising, might be related to the being of Hiram, who can be traced back to Cain. We have here considered that the healing of the woman with the issue of blood and the raising of the daughter of Jairus is a beginning of the resolution of the murder of Abel by Cain. For this reason Christian Rosenkreutz can be related to the Temple legend, the Temple building by Solomon. All of this need not be taken dogmatically, but can be thought about since it asks for a very different consideration of history, but more a different consideration of the make up of man. The events of initiation also have to be considered in a mobile and fluid way so that man can be seen with a membering that is far more alive and mobile than might be considered from a purely intellectual point of view.

Christian Rosenkreutz – the Second Initiation & the Akasha
Let us move on to another subject. In the sixth lecture given after the Christmas Foundation Meeting, a major subject is that of the Akasha. This is a subject that seems to have avoided the attention of many. I have never read anything in English about the subject from the hands of an Anthroposophist, though it may exist. I say this because it is always good to compare ones researches with that of others, and this I have not been able to do. Thus again, as with the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz, what I will now share should be taken up thoughtfully and with careful consideration.

I would like to take up the subject of the Akasha by looking at memory. Here the memory is not that of the uneducated, but the memory as is cultivated out of the Waldorf curriculum. The memory upon which I would like to focus is the memory evolved out of the karma of education, out of the karma of teacher and child. The memory of the educational process within the Waldorf school is one that is created to be able to support intellectual activity. This is a memory created out of a learning which has to come to receive the results of the intellectual life demanded by the science of our day. This memory in the Waldorf curriculum is developed out of the metamorphosis of those forces freed from the construction of our teeth. The Waldorf teacher cultivates a memory which involves the growth forces of the teeth which have been metamorphosed to become the basis for recollection. The curriculum, of course, takes up mankind’s cultural spiritual history so that the evolving student has in memory what was placed in the ether of Christian Rosenkreutz in the first initiation. These are raised forces. The educational activity of the Waldorf school seeks to raise forces out of the organic processes to serve soul life such as memory.

At the same time, the Waldorf teacher has to work so that a proper sleep can evolve. Here that which has been placed into the soul, the higher member of the child, is taken to the cosmos. There the lofty spiritual beings, known as the first leaders of mankind, write this soul spiritual activity into the ether of the cosmos. Thus the activities of the learner are written into the cosmic ether during the first seven years of schooling.

At the same time that the memory is being cultivated for many things, particularly the history of mankind, the child is being introduced to mathematics. Here the forces connected with the limb are being raised. What goes into the structuring of our bony system is lifted out of the growing limb as it ceases to grow. These forces are now used not so much for memory, but for doing the processes of mathematics. Here it is more the mathematical processes that are being addressed, not so much the number beingness. This mathematical unfolding begins in early schooling and progresses through high school when bone growth of the limbs comes to completion about the eighteenth year. This is a raising process, just as is the case of memory formation. In both cases, there is a raising process so that which is physical drops to the background and forces are freed for soul-spiritual activity. All of this is inscribed by mighty spiritual beings into the ether of the cosmos. We can think that this goes on for the first twenty-one years of life before the human ego has begun to be born.

Now let us begin to look at the ether of the cosmos. This is needed in order for us to gather some sense of the cosmic ether book of life, or the Akasha. Let us begin by our standing on the solid earth. We do this every time we stand. We can also enter into the watery when we swim, but we do this when we begin to walk. We only begin to sense the watery of walk when we swim, though we actually enter into the watery as soon as we lift an arm or a leg. So we know that there is a watery condition. When we breathe, and if we develop a little sensitivity, we come to know the airy of the world. We breathe with the airy. And so, finally we come to sense our self, and we do this when we contrast our warmth with the ambient warmth. We gain a certain self-fullness because we are continually regulating our warmth in relation to the warmth around us. As we know when it gets too warm, we then have more and more difficultly maintaining consciousness. We, therefore, are continually at work with warmth and only become conscious of this when we develop cold out of inner activity. This we do when we think. By thinking very hard, when we think with the sweat of our brow, then we grow physically cool, and develop a sensitivity for warmth. This way we come to know a soul warmth in distinction to the condition of warmth. This distinction is important for the pursuit of modem spiritual science. This warmth of soul is one that can be self-generated and comes to give one a sense of existence that is very different from the self-existence which is given by the stimulus of outer warmth, or better said, outer cold.

With every human deed, we can transform the solid to the watery, the watery to the airy, the airy to the warmth. At each step, the forces that maintained the more solid or the more condensed state are liberated. From the solid the life-ether can be liberated. From the watery, chemical-ether can be freed, from the airy, light-ether can be disassociated and from the warmth, warmth-ether. That which is freed as ether, is the basis for soul life on earth. Our thinking, feeling and willing live in raised or freed ethers. There is a solid of our earth, there is a watery, there is an airy and a warmth. From all of these states, the etheric can be freed and is freed, by a continual process of earth life. Here plant life is of the greatest import, transforming the states of earth matter into less and less dense states liberating the etheric. We can then think of the earth embedded in a large aura of ether that is freed, and this ether forms the basis for an existence which we know as the astral world or the astral plane. It is into this freed ether from the earth that the deeds of man, as an evolving earthly cultural being, are written. The scribes of this process are those who went with the moon when Jahve extracted the moon from the earth. At that time, mighty advanced soul-spirits went along with the exit of the moon. This I have already tried to speak to.

I have asked myself who these beings could be. In answer, I have turned to the Transfiguration Scene found in the Gospel of St. Luke, and this I have shared already. Peter, John, and James accompany Christ to a mountain top, accompany Christ into the astral world which is so alive on a mountain top. There on the mountain top, in the astral world, the three disciples witness those who are scribes and keepers on this plane of akashic ether. The three apostles there witness the Christ with Elijah and Moses. These three are keepers or leaders of the keepers and the scribes in the book of life or the Akasha. In the past, in relation to the Christ mystery, it was Elijah and Moses who were the keepers, with their hosts. This was a time when men were not so individualized. However, to serve the further evolution of man, Christ enters this sphere. This is both a raising, but more the world where we are resurrected after we die. This is now not a raising, but the preparation for resurrection. Thus I have come to look for the great leaders of man, who guided man in very ancient times and went with the moon at the time of its exit. It is there that the Christ joins these great leaders as He progresses to incarnate and then return to this world, the astral plane of ether existence. Here we plant our earthly deeds, and the Christ lives there, helping that our deeds can then be rectified in the light of human and world evolution. But for this to be  understood, we need now to progress to world evolution and not just man’s evolution.

As already noted several times, in order to look to the world book of memory for man’s deeds as an individual, we have had to take up the four states of matter. When the forces that bring about the states are freed, then we have freed ether which can serve as a basis for a script, as paper serves as a script for writing in ordinary life. We have considered how freed ether can serve the soul in memory and mathematical soul activity. Next we have to turn to an etheric which can serve as a record book for earth and cosmic evolution. To find this ether, it is necessary to look to large masses of substance accumulation. Here we have to look to continents, oceans, atmospheres, and thermospheres. Now it is not a state of matter that is involved alone, but large masses of each state of matter. If we turn to continents we have solid, but in large mass. The same is for the other large mass existences. It is man who walks the solid, swims the watery, breathes the airy and exists in the warmth. It is, however, much higher beings who walk, swim, breathe and experience self-existence in the case of large masses of the four elements. Now we have to speak of beings who have kingdoms as their manifestation. In the case of the solid continent we come to the Spirits of Will and the mineral kingdom. In the case of the oceanic watery, we come to the Spirits of Wisdom of the plant kingdom. With the airy-atmospheric, we come to the Spirits of Motion of the animal kingdom. As we know, each kingdom evolves and also do the large masses of solid, watery, airy and warmth. The solid land masses give way to the watery, the watery to the airy and the airy to the warmth. At each step, ether forces are again liberated, and now the liberated ether is of a higher nature because loftier beings are involved. The result is a domain in the world that we call the world of lower heaven, lower Devachan. There the freed ether from the changes of large physical masses pass into a realm where spiritual beings, closer to the domain of God, are at work. The ether that underlies their work is of a higher order than that of the ether of the astral plane or astral world.

Once more we can consider that the deeds of our angel colleagues can be inscribed in a book of life, an Akasha, a chronicle. In this chronicle, we can read the life of the events which are related to the coming into being of this world and its evolution. We can ask, who is it that chronicles these events, which are the deeds of lofty spiritual beings. I cannot speak to the chroniclers here, as with the lower Akasha, as I have not yet found the indications from Rudolf Steiner’s research. At this time, I postulate that it is the Christ and his hosts, as He is the center and the pivot around which the entire evolution of our earth takes place. He can be considered the Keeper of the Book, and the One who helps to unseal this book with seven seals (as we hear from the Apocalypse). Here, Christ may not act alone, but he is the center around which the events of the cosmos revolve. Here we speak of the Christ in an astral form, we speak of him as he approaches the world of the stars. In this high domain of existence, we come to know of the Christ as the Lamb of God. It is in this domain that he, in his work in the lower astral-elemental world, can act as a Judge, a Judge (a Spiritual Being who holds scales) of man’s earthly karma. In this way, He can help that each can come to an insight of the sins, errors, and evils perpetuated in life. These have to be seen in the light of the cosmos and cosmic evolution, not just personal karma.

Thus we can contemplate that the Akasha of individual-personal deeds are taken into the Akasha of the astral world. The processes of racial and cultural evolution are very determinative in the life of man. His deeds are therefore inscribed in this lower astral world from the deeds of race and culture. At the same time, the deeds of lofty beings are inscribed in a higher ether where the domain of “heaven” begins. Here man can inscribe only if he, in his life, performs deeds which are usually within the province of the hierarchical world. In the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz, we identified the first initiation with what has to do with the evolution of race and culture. The second initiation can be associated more with cosmic processes, and therefore, with the higher Akasha in lower heaven.

Michael and the Akasha of the Trinity.
There remains a domain of the Akasha which is yet to be described. This is where man takes on the tasks of higher spiritual beings and scribes into God’s domain itself. Then man has to act in accord with the principles which belong to that which we call the all-human. The Archai passed through the stage of the human, the Archangels and the Angels as well. Now it is possible for man to pass through the human stage where man can become an angel identified with the province of God. Man then has to come to angel status, has to take on tasks befitting of the angel world. For this to happen he has to find his way into the kingdom of God. As we have found, this kingdom has come to earth through the Son, born of this domain of God.

It is here on earth that man has to find the all-human which links him with this world of God. It is through the Son that this can come about. In this world, we can think of an ether, an ether which is the ground ether of the world. We can call this Mother-ether, or better. Mother Substance of existence of worlds, as it is the very life out of which worlds are bom. Here man can write and does so with the help of one of the mightiest of angels known in evolution. This angel is called Michael and appears in his splendor in the sixth seal of the Apocalypse. Here man can rise even higher than the Akasha of lower heaven. He can give over deeds which befit the all-human to have them placed into the book of worlds, the loftiest of the akashic spheres. I am not at all dogmatic in this consideration but place it as a result of work into this domain of the spirit. It is this ether that has to be penetrated in order to be able to carry one’s being from one life to another.

Thus we can consider the elemental world, the world of the elements and try to seek the free ether that can be made into a book of life for the individual. Here culture is important and the mighty beings of the moon are the scribes. This aspect of Akasha development I am inclined to relate to the first initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz. Christian Rosenkreutz thus can give a way to this domain of existence, as he went through an initiation that opens the door to this region of the book of man’s life. The second initiation we might relate to being able to establish a relation with the book of life of planetary evolution. Here we can seek a door through the sun and rise into an Akasha that is more related to the domain of heaven, or as known in eastern wisdom as the lower devachanic regions. Here Christian Rosenkreutz was able to rise to higher reaches of angel beingness, but as we hear he could not come into the realm of Michael with clear day-consciousness. He could come to the book which records the deeds of the hierarchies, but there is yet a higher realm that remains. This last realm is the one that is all-human and is the sphere where the beginning of cosmic evolution and human process lies. Here we can seek the beingness that underlies the all-human. This region belongs to that known by the Gnostics as the world of the Sophias. To come to this realm, a tremendous degree of abstraction is needed, and this requires the abstraction developed by science and then transformed by a thinking which lies within the domain of the great Prince of spiritual thinking, that is Michael. It is this being that Rudolf Steiner came to serve and in turn,  Michael then also serves Rudolf Steiner. This activity of abstract thinking is transformed through pure spiritual activity. This brings the human soul into the realm that is usually designated as the sphere of the Trinity.

In order to come into this region, it is necessary to rise into ether spheres that are loftier and loftier. However, when one comes to the Akasha related to the Trinity, this has to be found within the earth itself. The earth, the physical earth, has to become transparent, as was the case in the old Persian initiation. The Sun at Midnight is, on the one hand, a human condition which arises by being able to perceive the working of the spiritual world into the organism when man is in sleep, and at the same time, the becoming transparent of the physical of the earth so that a Sun condition of the earth, the Venus condition of the earth, comes into view. As we know silica can be transparent to light and can become glowing. And as well, when carbon becomes truly refined, we then have the diamond and radiant carbon. Both of these substances point to earth matter which becomes transparent. With gold, also substantial, we can see the gleam of its metallic nature, but it can also be made transparent with hammering into the form of a leaf. Here with these three we have the mineral, the mineral-metal and the organic (carbon) all of which can become transparent. These transparencies point to the future which is our subject here, but also indicate that another physical condition is needed for the approach to the realm of the Trinity, that is God’s domain. Not only another condition of matter is needed, but another state of consciousness, where matter is seen in relation to light. Here light and darkness have their consideration, and one is led into the world of color when the light of thinking meets with the darkness of substantiality that comes to be of the most refined condition, the condition of warmth. Here we are led to color but also to that province where the light of the ether is transformed to warmth-ether, and physical substance becomes pure warmth. These two warmths become the great enigma in the consideration of materiality in relation to the domain of the Trinity.

Anyone who finds these contemplations difficult can be easily understood. What here is under consideration is one of the central issues struggled with in Rosicrucian science and is known in Anthroposophical Spiritual Science as the nature of living matter. Here past and future merge for new creation, in relation to God. Very difficult issues lie hidden here. However, these are essential issues for the spiritual striver who seeks to follow the working together of Christian Rosenkreutz and Rudolf Steiner with Michael. Here is where the work of the School of Michael begins. This is why, for me, Rudolf Steiner gave these lectures on Christian Rosenkreutz and Rosicrucianism after the Christmas Foundation Meeting.

Christian Rosenkreutz, the Archangels and Michael
As we draw our considerations to a close here, I would like to tackle one more thematic consideration. This is the consideration of Christian Rosenkreutz in relation to Michael and the archangels who serve esoteric and exoteric Christianity. In lectures that Rudolf Steiner gave on the folk souls of nations, he spoke of the archangels who sacrificed for the sake of the Christ. He tells how the folk-soul of Greek times stayed behind instead of becoming a time spirit, stayed behind to not assume the rank of an archai. This sacrifice was made in order that Christianity could be served in an exoteric way. The unfolding of outer religious activity, with churches and religious partakers, with religious hierarchy and cult, all this was assisted by this archangel. We can think of St. Peter as working with this Archangel. Something of the impulse of St. Paul as well.

Another archangel, who served as the folk-spirit of the Celtic peoples also made a sacrifice and stayed behind to work for the esoteric evolution of Christianity. In this work we have to consider the impulse of the Knights of the Round Table, the Grail stream, and the working of Christian Rosenkreutz and then Rudolf Steiner.

These two archangels then are important in the unfolding of the whole of Europe. And here I have for some years considered that there is an Archangel who actually overlooks the unfolding of Europe so that Europe can become the domain in which esoteric Christianity can evolve. The many different peoples of Europe need some direction or else the whole will fall into petty struggles and wars, as has happened since the time of Christ. To help in the evolution of Europe, we could look to an Archangelic being, which is known as Europa. My sense is that this is the Being who is referred to in the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz as found in the Fama of the Rosicrucians. I would be inclined to see this Archangel and the archangels of exoteric and esoteric Christianity working together for the sake of Christian evolution as this part of the world process. My sense is that Christian Rosenkreutz might not have been able in clear consciousness to lead his pupils to Michael, but to Europa they could be led.

The reason for contemplating this last theme is to look at the Rosicrucian impulse as it lives today. The terrible wars that have plagued Europe, and now eastern Europe, take on a very definite meaning in the light of these contemplations. What can be thought is that the archangels of the peoples of Europe and eastern Europe are at war with one another, with men as pawns. The nationalism of the European countries has to be overcome in order that a degree of peace can come about. Not to consider nationalism as a spiritual affair, may be one of the sad stories of our day, and this we can easily consider from the lectures given on the folksouls, as well as lectures given at the outset and later with World War I. The unity is to be found through a spiritual impulse. The being of Europa has to come to have an identity. It is this being who, in turn, can lead to a loftier being, that is the Archangel Michael. It is the latter that has to oversee the entire globe where the threefolding of human kind becomes important. The reality of the Trinity in man, threefold man, and the threefolding of the whole of mankind, both these threefoldings need to be realized in order to find a social order. This is an order that belongs to all mankind, is all-human, belongs to God and is the work of an Anthroposophist. For this, Christian Rosenkreutz and Rudolf Steiner are busily at work as I try to contemplate these two world giants in the light of the present.

Paul W. Scharff MD.