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INITIATION
AND ITS RESULTS
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
THE WAY OF INITIATION
Of, How to attain Knowledge of the Higher "Worlds
By RUDOLF STEINER, Ph.D.
With a Foreword by ANNIE BESANT
and some Biographical Notes of the Author by
EDOUARD SCHUR£
FIRST IMPRESSION , December iqcS x ISOO ce/ies
SECOND IMPRESSION, May JQog, ISOO copies
TO BE OBTAINED FROM
THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, London, W.
OR FROM
Mr MAX GYSI, 5 Belstze Lane, London, N.W.
Price 3s. 6d. net ; postage 4-d. extra
SOME PRESS NOTICES
"This little book ('The Way of Initiation - ’) gives ’a singularly
interesting account of the personality and thought of a modern mystic and
occultist. . . . The chapters form the most lucid exposition of the purposes
and methods of occultism available to the lay reading public. ” — The
Manchester Guardian.
“ The Path of Disciplcship with its conditions is plainly set forth in brief
compass. It may be commended to those who wish to enlarge their
acquaintance with the things unseen." — Review of Reviews.
“We welcome ‘The Way of Initiation - ,* by Dr Steiner, written in
clear, precise, and. philosophical language, and excellently translated into
good, strong English by Mr Max Gysi. . . . To the orthodox and heterodox
thinker upon life in its highest sense we have no hesitation in recommending
this book.” — The Times of India.
“Among recent books of more than ordinaiy excellence, a volume
entitled 1 The Way of Initiation , 1 by Rudolf Steiner, Ph.D., strongly
commends itself to all who are earnestly seeking plain, practical advice and
luminous teaching concerning the course to he actually pursued so as to give
unmistakable insight into the real nature of the spiritual universe." — Light.
“ The book is safe and sound, and Mr Max Gysi has conferred a benefit
on us in bringing it within the reach of English-speaking students and
followers along the narrow path which leads to higher worlds.’’— The
Annals of Psychical Science.
... “ Dr Steiner sees that the Western disciple needs the Wisdom of the
West. ... It is distinctly a work of insight, and not of mere thought ; its
description of the facts of the inner world is marked by that vividness which
can be found in the writings of one who has seen, and nowhere else. Above all,
s ff, rln g ev * n ^ hcr ® 1 ‘ !snot informing.” — St Ethelburga's Leaflet,
*' cv » "• r* &Ot>b, D. U.
INITIATION
AND ITS RESULTS
A SEQUEL TO
« THE WAV OF INITIATION”
nv
RUDOLF STEINER, Ph.D.
TKAWJtATrD IHOM THE GERMAN 8r
CLIFFORD BAX
LONDON
THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY
igoq
FOREWORD
The widespread interest taken in the first
volume of this series (entitled “The Way
op Initiation”), and its success, have
encouraged me to place before English
readers, in the present volume, a translation
of the articles written by Dr. Steiner as a
sequel to the above series, and originally
published in Lucifer Gnosis (Nos. 20-28),
a theosophical magazine, published by
M. Altmann, Leipzig, and edited by Dr.
Kudolf Steiner. The same magazine is
now bringing out a scries of articles, en-
titled “ The Theory of Cognition accord-
ing to Occultism," which, when finished,
will conclude these very important com-
munications from a source of genuine
occult wisdom. When completed, I pro-
pose to publish them as a third volume of
this series.
vi
FOREWORD
To save disappointment to some readers
into whose hands this book may chance to
fall, let me frankly state at the outset that
neither this nor its companion volumes are
intended for people who deny the pos-
sibility of attaining knowledge by other
means than their physical organs of sense ;
the belief in, or at least the hypothetical
acceptance of the reality of the unseen
world and of forces not perceptible by our
physical senses is therein taken for granted.
Tor those unable to accept these premises
there exists a vast literature which, if
approached with an unprejudiced mind
and carefully studied, will convince them
of all that is here postulated.
These volumes might be called advanced
text-books of occultism, and those to whom
the subject is repellent had better not read
them, because they are written by an
occultist of a very high order for those
really interested in the subject, and
FOREWORD
vii
desirous of advancing in their self-develop-
ment to a point hitherto unnttainnblo by
them, sinco it has not until now been
deemed expedient openly to publish such
far-reaching revelations of the occult. Tlio
book is intended for thoso only who will
uso every power gained for tho helping of
their fellow-pilgrims, and who placo sclf-
sacrifico and unselfish devotion to tho
best interests of mankind above all other
virtues.
On tho other hand, there is a largo
number of peoplo, deeply interested in the
subject, who wero under tho impression
that/1 Iiero is only tho one occultism whoso,
borne is in tho East/and who now eagerly
welcomo a teaching, sprung from a Western
source, which shows them that they need
not go beyond Europe in their search oithor
for genuine occult knowledge, or for
teachers competent to instruct thoso
willing to fulfil the conditions necessary
FOREWORD
Vlll
for the safe treading of the narrow Path
leading up to the feet of the One JCni-
tiaton
"There are few leaders of thought at the
present day who have a larger following
than Dr. Steiner in the German-speaking
part of Mid-Europe, and I know of no
other teacher able to gather around him
from 400 to 500 cultured people who will
eagerly travel any distance and stay for
two or three weeks wherever he may
choose to lecture. During his recent
courses of addresses on the Apocalypse,
the Gospel according to St. John, “ From
Buddha to Christ,” on Cosmogony, etc.
etc., held in Berlin and B&le, in Christiania
and Budapest, in Munich and Pome — to
mention only a few of the cities visited by
this indefatigable worker for the good of
humanity, — students were gathered to-
gether from all parts of Europe ; from
Hammerfest in the North and Palermo in
FOREWORD
IX
the South, from Eastern Siberia, and from
France and Spain.
That we are living at present in a
wonderful time of transition, when
“ The old order changeth, yielding place to new,”
may be gathered from the fact that a very
large number of those most eager to
welcome these wonderful teachings are
recruited from highly cultured classes,
whose predecessors of but two decades
ago would have scolfed at tho whole
subject.
In conclusion, I should like to draw
attention to the close and wonderful
relation which the careful student may
trace between the exercises and “ trials ”
set forth in "The Way of Initiation”
and the means of vilification of the astral
organs (chakras) described in this volume.
After the success of the first volume, we are
satisfied that there is a widespread demand
X
FOREWORD
in English-speaking countries for the teach-
ings of Theosophy as enunciated by Dr.
Steiner, and we shall try gradually to make
accessible to English readers all the more
important works of this truly great Mystic
and Occultist.
For those who are fully satisfied with
the exoteric teachings of the day this
volume is not intended, but it is earnestly
hoped that it may bring Light and Peace
to serious seekers after truth.
MAX GYSI.
Belsize Lodge, Belsize Lane,
London, N.W.,
31s£ August 1909.
CONTENTS
FAOK
FOREWORD V
I. TUB ASTRAL CENTRES (CHAKRAS) . . 1
II. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ETHERIO BODY . 43
HI. DRBAM-LIFB 81
IV. THE THREE STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS . 100
V. THE DISSOCIATION OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
DURING INITIATION . . . . 119
VI. THE FIRST GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD , 145
VII. THE SECOND GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD
— LIFE AND DEATH
165
I
THE ASTRAL CENTRES
(CHAKRAS)
It is ono of tlio essential principles of
genuino occultism tlmt ho who devotes
himself to a study of it should only do
so with a complete understanding ; should
neither undertake nor practiso anything
of which ho does not realise tlio results.
An occult teacher giving a person cither
instruction or counsel will invariably
begin with an explanation of tlioso
changes in body, in soul, and in spirit, ,
which will occur to him who seeks for
tlio higher knowledge.
Wo shall consider hero some of these
1 5
(
2 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
effects upon the soul of the occult student,
for only he who is cognisant of what is
now to be said can undertake with a full
understanding the practices which will
lead to a knowledge of the superphysical
worlds. Indeed, one may say that it is
only such who are genuine occult students.
By true occultism all experimenting in the
f dark is very strongly discouraged. He
who will not undergo with open eyes the
period of schooling, may become a medium,
; but all such efforts cannot bring him to
clairvoyance as it is understood by the
occultist.
To those who, in the right way, have
practised the methods (concerning the
acquisition of superphysical knowledge)
which were indicated in my book, entitled
The Way of Initiation ,* certain changes
1 Tim Way of Initiation , or How to Attain Knoiuledge
of the Higher Worlds. By Rudolf Steiner, Ph.D. With
a foreword by Annie Besant, and some Biographical
THE ASTRAL CENTRES 3
occur in what is called “the astral body”
(the organism of the soul). This organism
is only perceptible to the clairvoyant.
One may compare it to a more or less
luminous cloud which is discerned in the
midst of the physical body, and in this
astral body the impulses, desires, passions,
and ideas become visible. Sensual
appetites, for example, are manifested
as dark-red outpourings of a particular
shape; a pure and noble thought is
expressed in an outpouring of reddish-
violet colour ; the clear-cut conception of
a logical thinker will appear as a yellow
figure with quite sharp outlines ; while the
confused thought of a cloudy brain is
manifested as a figure with vague out-
lines. The thoughts of people with views
that are one-sided and firmly fixed will
Not03 of the Author by Edouard ScburA Second
impression. 237 pp. Cloth. Crotra 8vo. 3s. 6d. net.
Postage 4d. extra.
% INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
appear sharp in their outlines, but im-
mobile ; while those of people who remain
accessible to other points of view are seen
to be in motion, with varying outlines.
The further the student now advances
in his psychic development, the more will
his astral body become regularly organised ;
in the case of a person whose psychic life
is undeveloped, it remains ill-organised
and confused. Yet in such an unorganised
astral body the clairvoyant can perceive
a form which stands out clearly from its
environment. It extends from the interior
of the head to the middle of the physical
body. It appears as, in a certain sense,
an independent body possessed of special
organs. These organs, which are now to
be considered, are seen to exist in the
following parts of the physical body : the
first between the eyes ; the second at the
larynx; the third in the region of the heart;
the fourth in what is called the pit of the
Tlir ASTRAL C! XTRRS
5
stomach ; while the fifth and sixth arc
situated m the abdomen Such forms
arc technical)} Known ns " wheels "
(chakras) or " lotus flowers " Hie} are
so called on account of their likeness to
wheels or flowers, but of course it should
bo clcarl) understood tint such an ex-
pression is not to be applied more literal)}
than when one calls the lobes of the lungs
tho “wings ’ .Tust ns even bod} Knows
that hero one is not reall} dealing with
“ wings," so must it be remembered that
m respect of tho " wheels ’ one is morel}
speaking figurativcl} Thoso "lotus-
flowers" are at present, in tho undo-
a eloped person, of dark colours and with-
out mot cmcnl — inert In tho clam 0} ant,
however, the} are seen to bo m motion
and of luminous colour In the medium
something similar happens, albeit in a
different way , but that part of tho subject
cannot now bo pursued an) further As
(
6 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
soon as the occult student begins his
practices, the lotus-flowers first become
lucent ; later on they begin to revolve.
It is when this occurs that the faculty of
clairvoyance begins. For these “flowers”
are the sense-organs of the soul, and their
revolutions make manifest the fact that
one is able to perceive in the superphysi-
cal world. No one can behold any super-
physical thing until he has in this way
developed his astral senses.
The sense-organ, which is situated in
the vicinity of the larynx, allows one to
perceive clairvoyantly the thoughts of
another person, and also brings a deeper
insight into the true laws of natural
phenomena. The organ situated near the
heart permits of a clairvoyant knowledge
concerning the sentiments of another
person. He who has developed it can
also observe certain of the deeper powers
in animals and plants. By means of the
TIIE ASTRAL CENTRES 7
organ that lies in the pit of the stomach
one acquires knowledge of tho capacities
and talents of a person : by this, too, ono
is enabled to see what parts in tho house-
hold of nnturo aro played by animals,
plants, stones, metals, atmospheric pheno-
mena, and so on.
Tho organ situated at tho larynx has
sixteen "petals" or "spokes”; that
which is in tho region of tho heart has
twelve; that which is in tho pit of tho
stomach has ton. Now certain activities
of tho soul aro connected with tho de-
velopment of these sense-organs, and ho
who practises them in a particular way
contributes somothing to tho development
of tho astral organs concerned. Eight of
tho sixteen petals of tho “ lotus ” hnvo
boon dovoloped already during an earlier
stago of human evolution, in a remoto past.
To this development tho human being
contributed nothing. Ho hold thorn ns
8 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
a gift of Nature, when he was yet in a
dreamy, dull state of consciousness. At
that stage of human evolution they were
already active. The manner of their
activity, however, was only compatible
with the dull state of consciousness
already mentioned. As consciousness
then grew brighter, the petals became
obscure and withdrew their activity. The
other eight can be developed by a person’s
conscious practice, and after that the
entire lotus becomes both brilliant and
active. The acquisition of certain capaci-
ties depends upon the development of
everyone of these petals. Yet, as already
shown, one can only consciously develop
eight of them; the other eight reappear
spontaneously. .
Their development is consummated in
the following manner. One must apply
. oneself with care and attention to certain
functions of the soul which one usually
THE ASTRAL CENTRES 9
exorcises in a careless manner and without
attention. Tliero are eight such functions.
The first depends on the manner in which
one receives ideas. People usually allow
themselves to be led in this respect by
chance alone. They hear this and that,
they seo ono thing and another, upon
which they baso their ideas. While this
is the caso tho sixteen potals of tho lotus
remain quito torpid. Only when ono
begins in this matter to tnko ono’s educa-
tion into one's own hands do they really
begin to bo effective. All conceptions
must be guarded with this end in view.
Every idea should liavo some significance.
Ono ought to seo in it a certain messago,
a fragment of knowledge concerning tho
things of tho outer world, and ono must
not bo satisfied with conceptions that have
no such significance. Ono should so
govern ono’s montal life that it becomes a
mirror of the outer world, and should
10 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
direct one’s energies to the expulsion of
incorrect ideas.
The second of these functions is con-
cerned, in a similar way, with the control
of the resolutions. One should only make
resolutions after a well-founded, full con-
s ideration of even the most insignificant
point s. All thought less deeds, all mean-
ingless actions Tshould be put far away
from the soul. For every thing one m ust
have well-considered grounds, and one
ought never to d o a thing for which there
is no real ne ed. __
The third function relates to speech.
The occult student should only utter what
is sensible and purposeful. AJ1 talking
for the sake of talking draws him away
from his path. He must avoid the usual
method of conversation, in which all manner
of things, unselected and heterogeneous,
are spoken of together. In accomplishing
this, however, he must not preclude him-
TIIF. ASTRAL CENTRES
1)
self from intercourse witli his fellows.
Precisely in such intercourse ought his
conversation to grow in significance. IIo
answers everybody, but ho docs so thought-
fully and after careful consideration of
the question. IIo never speaks without
grounds for wbat ho says. IIo seeks to
uso neither too many nor too few words.
Tlio fourth function is tho regulation of
outward action. Tho student seeks to
direct his actions in such a way that it fits
in with tho actions of his fellow-men nnd
with tho peculiarities of his environment.
Ho rejects all actions that are disturbing
to others or that are antagonistic to thoso
which are customary around him. IIo
tries so to act that his deeds may combino
harmoniously with his environment, with
his position in life, and so forth. Where
ho is caused to act by somo oxternal
suggestion ho considors carefully how ho
can best respond. Where he is his own
I
12 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
master, he considers the effects of his
methods of action with the utmost care.
The fifth activity here to be noticed lies
in the management of the entire life. The
occult student endeavours to live in con-
formity with both Nature and Spirit.
Never over-hasty, he is also never idle.
Indolence and superfluous activity lie
equally far away from him. He looks
upon life as a means for work and he lives
accordingly. He arranges habits, and
fosters health so that a harmonious life is ..
the outcome.
The sixth is concerned with human
endeavour. The student tests his capacities
and his knowledge and conducts himself
in the light of such self-knowledge. He
tries to perform nothing that is beyond his
powers; but also to omit nothing for
which they inwardly seem adequate. On
the other hand, he sets before himself aims
that coincide with the ideal, with the high
THE ASTRAL CENTRES
13
duty of a human being. Ho does not
merely regard himself half thoughtlessly
as a wheel in the vast machinery of man-
kind, but endeavours to comprehend its
problems, to look out beyond tho trivial
and the daily. Ho thus endeavours to
fulfil his obligations over better and more
perfectly.
The seventh chango in tho life of his
soul deals with tho effort to learn as much
from life as possible. Nothing passes
before the student without giving him
occasion to accumulate experience which
is of value to him for life. If ho has done
anything wrongly or imperfectly, it offers
an opportunity later on to make it corre-
spondingly either right or perfect. If he
sees others act, he watches them with a
similar intent. He tries to collect from
experience a rich treasure, and ever to
consult it attentively ; nor, indeed, will he
do anything without having looked back
(
14 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
over experiences that can give him help
in his decisions and actions.
Finally, the eighth is this : the student
must from time to time look inward, sink
back into himself, take careful counsel
with himself, build up and test the founda-
tions of his life, run over his store of
knowledge, ponder upon his duties, con-
sider the contents and aim of life, and so
forth. All these matters have already
been mentioned in The Way of Initiation
(see page 2) ; here they are merely re-
capitulated in connection with the develop-
ment of the sixteen-petalled lotus. By
means of these exercises it will become
ever more and more perfect, for upon such
practices depends the development of
clairvoyance. For instance, the more what
a person thinks and utters harmonises
with the actual occurrences of the outer
world, the more quickly will he develop
this faculty. He who thinks or speaks
*
THE ASTRAL Clj
anything that is untrue |
in the bud of the sixteen'^ 1 ! 1 01 ol " s ‘
Truthfulness, Uprightness, ° aest ^ nr f
in this connection formative’ ut a 50 100 >
Simulation, and Dishonest)! ar0 1 estruct1 ' 0
forces. The student must! raC0 S n,S0 1 iat
not merely “good intentior 1 aro HOe 0 >
but also actual deeds. If! 1 nn ’ or Ba J
anything which does not l iarmon,so wltl ‘
the truth, I kill something - mm - y a ~' a
organs, even 'althou g h I fi D ,0 ' 0 m i SD
tcrfplik or think from intf atlons er 80
good. It is here as with c " " 10
needs must burn itself if it , a 3 ,nt0 * ia
needimust bum itself if ,mu lu “
fire, even although this may] a '° occarre
from ignorance. The regil at '° n 0 1
above-mentioned activities 1° 1 0 f ou * In
the manner described, allow s 1 0 slxteon ‘
petalled lotus to ray forth in ! s P !endid ,mes
and imparts to it a defini te ™ ovemont -
Yet it must be remarked thi 1 1 e s 'S ns °f
clairvoyant faculty cannot ^PP oar before
t
16 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
a certain stage of this development is
reached. So long as it is a trouble to
lead this kind of life the faculty remains
unmanifested. So long as one has to
give special thought to the matters already
described, one is yet unripe. Only when
one has carried them so far that one lives
quite habitually in the specified manner
can the preliminary traces of clairvoyance
appear. These matters must therefore no
longer seem troublesome, but must become
the habitual way of life. There is no
need to watch oneself continually, nor to
force oneself on to such a life. Everything
must become habitual. There are certain
instructions by the fulfilment of which
the lotus may be brought to blossom in
another way. But such methods are
rejected by true occultism, for they lead
to the destruction of physical health and
to the ruin of morality. They are easier
to accomplish than those described, which
THE ASTRAL CENTRES 17
are protracted and troublesome, but the
latter lead to the true goal and cannot
but strengthen morality. (The student
will notice that the spiritual practices
described above correspond to what is
called in Buddhism “ the eightfold path.”
Here the connection between that path
and the upbuilding of the astral organs
must be explained.)
If to all that has been said there is
added the observance of certain orders
which the student may only receive orally
from the teacher, there results an accelera-
tion in the development of the sixteen-
petalled lotus. But such instructions
cannot be given outside the precincts of
an occult school. Yet the regulation of
life in the way described is also useful for
those who will not, or cannot, attach them-
selves to a school. For the effect upon
the astral body occurs in every case, even
if it be but slowly. To the occult pupil
<
(
18 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
the observance of these principles is in-
dispensable. If he should try to train
himself in occultism without observing
them, he could only enter the higher world
with defective mental eyes ; and in place
of knowing the truth he would then be
merely subject to deception and illusion.
In a certain direction he might become
clairvoyant ; but fundamentally nothing
but a blindness completer than of old
would beset him. For hitherto he stood
at least firmly in the midst of the sense-
world and had in it a certain support ; but
now he sees beyond that world and will
fall into error concerning it before he is
able to stand securely in a higher sphere.
As a rule, indeed, he cannot distinguish
error from truth, and he loses all direction
in life. For this very reason is patience in
such matters essential. It must always be
remembered that the occult teacher may
not proceed very far with his instructions
THE ASTRAL CENTRES ID
unless nn earnest desire for a regulated
development of tlio lotus • flowers is
already present. Only mero caricatures
of tlicso flowers cmdd be evolved if they
wero brought to blossom before they lmd
acquired, in a steady manner, tlioir appro-
priate form. For tlio special instructions
of tlio teacher bring about the blossoming
of the lotuses, but form is imparted to
them by the manner of life already outlined.
Tlio irregular development of a lotus-
flower has, for its result, not only illusion
and fantastic conceptions where a certain
kind of clairvoyance has occurred, but
also errors and lack of balanco in lifo itself.
Through such development one may well
becomo timid, envious, conceited, self-
willed, stiff-necked, and so on, while hither-
to one may have possessed nono of tlicso
characteristics. It has already beon said
that eight petals of tlio lotus were devel-
oped long ago, in a vory remote past, and
20 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
tliat these in tlie course of occult educa-
tion unfold again of themselves. In the
instruction of the student, all care must
now he given to the other eight. By
erroneous teaching the former may easily
appear alone, and the latter remain un-
tended and inert. This would be the case
particularly when too little logical, reason-
able thinking is introduced into the in-
struction. It is of supreme importance
that the student should be a sensible and
clear-thinking person, and of equal im-
portance that he should practise the
greatest clarity of speech. People who
begin to have some presentiment of super-
physical things are apt to become talkative
about such things. In that way they
retard their development. The less one
talks about these matters the better.
Only he who has come to a certain stage
of clearness ought to speak of them.
At the commencement of the instruc-
Tiir. actual cr.si
01
.stoiibbcd, ns
curiosity the
tions occult students nrc n'
n rule, to find lion - little
lonelier exhibits concerning 1 lclr
onces. It wore best of nil fof * 1(1,1 1 1
imminiicntivo
il should mv
ressftilorhow
wore to rvmnin ontirrly mice
nbout these experiences, mu
nothing further thim lmw snef
unsuccessful they find been in 1 l"' r onn '
mice of their exercises or in tl ,c0 . 1 ' cnn ! ice
of their instructions. The oc
cult lonelier
muting their
hns quite other mentis of ostii
progress than their own com/ ml " icnll0 , ll ‘''
onsiilerntion
Tiie eight petals now under o
always become n little linrdei lu ’ < 1 ir0 "e' 1
such communication whero 1 l0 J 0,, S' 1 l
really to grow- soft and supple', ^ 1 ll ' i '
tration shnll bo given to oxplj"" ' l18 ' not
taken from tho superphj’sicnl
world, but,
for the sake of clearness, fro" 1 or< '" mr '
life. Supposo that I hear " l” cc0
news and thereupon form i at T ° nco n "
opinion. In a littlo while * receive
(
f
22 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
some further news which does not har-
monise with the previous information. I
am constrained thereby to reverse my
original judgment. The result of this is an
unfavourable influence upon my sixteen-
petalled lotus. It would have been quite
otherwise if, in the first place, I had sus-
pended my judgment; if concerning the
whole affair I had remained, inwardly in
thought and outwardly in words, entirely
silent until I had acquired quite reliable
grounds for the formation of my judgment.
Caution in the formation and the pro-
nouncement of opinions becomes, by
degrees, the special characteristic of tbe
occult student. Thereby he increases
his sensibility to impressions and experi-
ences, which he allows to pass over him
silently in order to collect the largest pos-
sible number of facts from which to form
his opinions. There exist in the lotus-
flower bluish-red and rose-red shades of
TIFE ASTRAL CENTRES 23
colour which manifest themselves under
the influence of such circumspection, while
in the opposite case orange and dark red
shades would appear.
The twelvc-petallcd lotus which lies in
the region of the heart is formed in a
similar way. Half its pctnls, likewise,
were already existent and nctivo in a
remote stage of human evolution. Thcso
six petals do not require to bo especially
evolved in tho occult school : they appear
spontaneously and begin to rcvolvo when
wo set to work on tho othor six. In tho
cultivation of thcso, ns in tho previous
caso, ono has to control and direct certain
activities of tho mind in a special way.
It must bo clearly understood that tho
perceptions of each astrnl or soul-organ
bear a peculiar character. Tho twolve-
potalled lotus possesses perception ofquito
a different kind from that of tho sixteen
petals. Tho latter porcoivcs forms. Tho
(
(
24 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
thoughts of a person and . the laws under
which a natural phenomenon takes place
appear to the sixteen-petalled lotus as
forms — not, however, rigid, motionless
forms, but active and filled with life. The
clairvoyant, in whom this sense is well
evolved, can discern a form wherewith
every thought, every natural law, finds
expression. A thought of vengeance, for
example, manifests as an arrowlike, pronged
form, while a thought of goodwill fre-
quently takes the shape of an opening
flower. Clear-cut, meaningful thoughts
are formed regularly and symmetrically,
while hazy conceptions take on hazy out-
lines. By means of the twelve-petalled
flower quite different perceptions are
acquired. Approximately one can indi-
cate the nature of these perceptions by
likening them to the sense of cold and
heat. A clairvoyant equipped with this
faculty feels a mental warmth or chilliness
Tim ASTHAI, cn>fTHr.9
25
raying out from the forms discerned by
means of the sixteen-pctalled Don er. If a
clairvoyantlmd evolved the sixteen-pctalled
lotus, but not the lotus of twelve petals, ho
would only observe a thought of goodwill
as tho shape already described, while an-
other in whom both senses were developed
would also discern that outmying of tho
thought which one can only call a mental
warmth. It may bo remarked in passing
that in tho occult school one sense is never
evolved without tho other, so that what has
just been said should only bo regarded ns
having been stated for tho sako of clarity.
By the cultivation of tho twelvo-potnlled
lotus tho clairvoyant discovers in himself a
deep comprehension of nntural processes.
Everything that is growing or evolving
rays out warmth ; everything that is decay-
ing, perishing, or in ruins, will scorn cold.
Tho dovolopment of this sonso may bo
accelerated in tho following manner. Tho
2G INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
first requirement is that the student should
apply himself to the regulation of his
thoughts. Just as the sixteen-petalled lotus
achieves its evolution by means of earnest
and significant thinking, so is the twelve-
petalled flower cultivated by means of an
inward control over the currents of thought.
Errant thoughts which follow cacli other
in no logical or reasonable sequence, but
merely by pure chance, destroy the form
of the lotus in question. The more one
thought follows another, the more all dis-
connected thought is thrown aside, the
more does this astral organ assume its
appropriate form. If the student hears
illogical thought expressed, he should
silently set it straight within his own
mind. He ought not, for the purpose of
perfecting his own development, to with-
draw himself uncharitably from what is
perhaps an illogical mental environment.
Neither should he allow himself to feel
1
THE ASTRAL CENTRES 27
impelled to correct the illogical tliinldng
around him. Itather should ho quietly,
in his own inner self, constrain this whirl-
pool of thoughts to a logical and reason-
able course. And abovo all things ought
he to strivo after this regulation in tho
region of his oirn thoughts.
A second requirement is that ho should
control his actions in a similar way. All
instability or disharmony of action pro-
duces a witlioring offect upon tho lotus-
flower which is here in consideration. If
tho student has dono anything ho should
manage tho succeeding act so that it forms
a logical sequence to tho first, for ho who
acts differently from day to day will never
evolve this faculty or sense.
The third requirement is tho cultivation
of perseverance. The occult student never
allows himself to be drawn by this or that
influence aside from his goal so long as he
continues to believo that it is the right one.
28 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
Obstacles are for him like challenges to
overcome them and never afford reasons
for loitering on the way.
The fourth requirement is tolerance as
regards all persons and circumstances.
The student should seek to avoid all
superfluous criticism of imperfections and
vices, and should rather endeavour to com-
prehend everything that conies under his
notice. Even as the sun does not refuse
its light to the evil and the vicious, so he,
too, should not refuse them an intelligent
sympathy. If the student meets with
some trouble, he should not waste his force
in criticism, but bow to necessity and seek
how he may try to transmute the misfor-
tune into good. He does not look at
another’s opinions from his own standpoint
alone, but seeks to put himself into his
companion’s position.
The fifth requirement is impartiality in
one’s relation to the affairs of life. In this
I
Tin: ASTRAL CENTRES 29
connection wo speak of "tnist" nnd “fnitli."
Tlio occult student goes out to every per-
son and ever) - creature with this faith, and
through it he acts. IIo never says to him-
self, when anything is told to him, “ I do
not believe that, sinco it is opposed to
my present opinions." Far rather is
he ready at any moment to test nnd
rearrango his opinions nnd ideas. IIo
always remains impressionable to every-
thing that confronts him. Likewise does
ho trust in the efficiency of what ho
undertakes. Timidity nnd scepticism aro
banished from his being. If lie 1ms any
purpose in view, ho has also faith in its
power. A hundred failures cannot rob
him of this confidence. It is indoed that
" faith which can move mountains.”
The sixth requirement is the cultivation
of a cortain equanimity. The studont
strives to temper his moods, whether they
come laden with sorrow or with joy. Ho
80 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
must avoid the extremes of rising up to
the sky in rapture or sinking down to the
earth in despair, but should constantly
control his mind and keep it evenly
balanced. Sorrow and peril, joy and
prosperity alike find him ready armed.
The reader of theosophical literature
will find the qualities here described,
under the name of the “ six attributes”
which must be striven after by him who
would attain to initiation. Here their
connection with the astral sense, which
is called the twelve-petalled lotus, is to
be explained. The teacher can impart
specific instructions which cause the
lotus to blossom ; but here, as before, the
development of its symmetrical form
depends upon the attributes already men-
tioned. He who gives little or no heed
to that development will only form this
organ into a caricature of its proper shape.
It is possible to cultivate a certain clair-
THE ASTRAL CENTRES 31
voyanee of this nature by directing these
attributes to their evil side instead of to
the good. A person may be intolerant,
faint-hearted, and contentious toward his
environment; may, for instance, perceive
the sentiments of other people and either
run away from them or hate them. This
can be so accentuated that on account of
the mental coldness which rays out to him
from opinions which are contrary to his
own, he cannot bear to listen to thorn, or
else behaves in an objectionable manner.
The mental culture which is important
for the development of the ten-petalled
lotus is of a peculiarly delicate kind, for
here it is a question of learning to domin-
ate, in a particular manner, the very sense-
impressions themselves. It is of especial
importance to the clairvoyant at the out-
set, for only by this faculty can he avoid
a source of countless illusions and mental
mirages. Usually, a person is not at all
32 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
clear as to what things have dominion
over his memories and fancies. Let us
take the following case. Someone travels
on the railway, and busies himself with
a thought. Suddenly his thoughts take
quite another direction. He then recol-
lects an experience which he had some
years ago, and interweaves it with his
immediate thought. But he did not notice
that his eyes have been turned toward the
window, and were caught by the glance
of a person who bears a likeness to some-
one else who was intimately concerned
with the recollected experience. He
remains unconscious of what he has seen
and is only conscious of the results, and
he therefore believes that the whole affair
arose spontaneously. How much in life
occurs in such a way! We play over
things in our lives which we have read or
experienced without bringing the connec-
tion into our consciousness. Some one,
THE ASTRAL CENTRES 33
for instance, cannot bear a particular
colour, but bo does not realise tbat tbis is
due to the fact tbat tbo school-teacher
of whom he was afraid, many years
ago, used to wear a coat of that colour.
Innumerable illusions are based upon such
associations. Many things penetrate to
the soul without becoming embodied in
the consciousness. The following case is
a possible example. Some one reads in
the paper about the death of a well-known
person, and straightway is convinced tbat
yesterday he had a presentiment about it,
although he neither saw nor heard of any-
thing that could have given rise to such a
thought. It is quite true, the thought
that this particular person would die,
emerged yesterday “by itself,” only he
has failed to notice one thing. Two or
three hours before this thought occurred
to hint yesterday he went to visit an
acquaintance, A newspaper lay on the
34 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
table, but be clid not read it. Yet uncon-
sciously his eyes fell upon an account of
the dangerous illness in which the person
concerned was lying. He was not con-
scious of the impression, but the effects of
it were, in reality, the whole substance of
the “presentiment.”
If one reflects upon such matters, one
can measure how deep a source of illusion
and fantasy they supply. It is this that
he who desires to foster the ten-petalled
lotus must dam up, for by means of the
latter one can perceive characteristics
deeply embedded in human and other
beings. But the truth can only be
extracted from these perceptions if one
has entirely freed oneself from the delu-
sions here described. For this purpose
it is necessary that one should become
master of that which is carried in to
one from the external world. One must
extend this mastery so far that veritably
)
THE ASTRAL CENTRES 35
one does not receive those influences
which one does not desire to receive, and
this can only be achieved gradually by
living a very powerful inward life. This
must be so thoroughly dono that ono only
allows those things to impress ono on
which one voluntarily directs tho atten-
tion, and that one really prevents those
impressions which might otherwise bo
unconsciously registered. What is seen
must be voluntarily seen, and that to which
no attention is given must actually no
longer exist for oneself. The more vitally
and energetically the soul does its inward
work, the more will it acquire this power.
The occult student must avoid all vague
wanderings of sight or hearing. Tor him
only those things to which he turns his
eye or his ear must exist. He must
practise the power of hearing nothing
even in the loudest disturbance when he
wishes to hear nothing : he must render
V
3 G INITIATION AND ITS IU-SUl/i'S
his eyes unimpressionable to things which
he does not especially desire to notice.
He must he shielded as by a mental
armour from all unconscious impressions.
But in the region of his thoughts particu-
larly must he apply himself in this respect.
He puts a thought before him and only
seeks to think such thoughts as, in full
consciousness and freedom, he can relate
to it. Fancy he rejects. If he finds him-
self anxious to connect one thought with
another, he feels round carefully to dis-
cover how this latter thought occurred
to him. He goes yet further. If, for
instance, he has a particular antipathy for
anything, ho will wrestle with it and
endeavour to find out some conscious
connection between the antipathy and its
object. In this way tho unconscious
elements in liis soul become ever fewer
and fewer. Only by such severe self-
searcliing can the ten-petalled lotus attain
THE ASTRAL 'CENTRES 37
the form which it ought to possess. The
mental life of the occult student must bo
an attentive life, and ho must know how
to ignore completely everything which ho
does not wish, or ought not, to observe.
If such introspection is followed by a
meditation, which is prescribed by tho
instructions of the teacher, the lotus-
flower in the region of the pit of the
stomach blossoms in the correct way, and
that which had appeared (to the astral
senses already described) as form and heat
acquires also the characteristics of light
and colour. Through this are revealed,
for instance, the talents and capacities of
people, the powers and the hidden attri-
butes of Nature. The coloured aura of
the living creature then becomes visible ;
all that is around us then manifests its
spiritual attributes. It will be obvious
that the very greatest care is necessary
in the development of this province, for
38 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
the play of unconscious memories is here
exceedingly active. If this were not the
case, many people would possess the sense
now under consideration, for it appears
almost immediately if a person has really
got the impressions of his senses so com-
pletely under his power that they depend
on nothing but his attention or inattention;
Only so long as the dominion of the senses
holds the soul in subjection and dullness,
does it remain inactive.
Of greater difficulty than the develop-
ment of this lotus is that of the six-petal! ed
flower which is situated in the centre
of the body. For to cultivate this it
is necessary to strive after a complete
mastery of the whole personality by means
of self-consciousness, so that body, soul,
and spirit make but one harmony. The
functions of the body, the inclinations and
passions of the soul, the thoughts and ideas
of the spirit must be brought into com-
]
THE ASTRAL CENTRES 39
plete union with each other. The body
must be so refined and purified that its
organs assimilate nothing which may not
be of service to the soul and spirit. Tho
soul must assimilate nothing through the
body, whether of passion or desire, which
is antagonistic to pure and noble thoughts.
The spirit must not dominate tho soul
with laws and obligations like a slavo-
owner, but rather must tho soul learn to
follow by inclination and free choice those
laws and duties. The duties of an occult
student must not rule him as by a power
to which he unwillingly submits, but rather
as by something which he fulfils because
he likes it. He must evolve a free soul
which has attained an equilibrium between
sense and spirit. He must carry this so
far that he can abandon himself to the
sense because it has been so ennobled that
it has lost the power to drag him down.
He must no longer require to curb his
40 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
passions, inasmuch as they follow the good
by themselves. As long as a person has
to chastise himself he cannot arrive at a
certain stage of occult education, for a
virtue to which one has to constrain one-
self is then valueless. As long as one
retains a desire, even although one
struggles not to comply therewith, it
upsets one’s development, nor does it
matter whether this appetite be of the
soul or of the body. For example, if
some one avoids a particular stimulant for
the purpose of purifying himself by refining
his pleasures, it can only benefit him if his
body suffers nothing by this deprivation.
If this be not the case it is an indication
that the body requires the stimulant, and
the renunciation is then worthless. In this
case it may even be true that the person
in question must first of all forego the
desirable goal and wait until favourable
conditions — perhaps only in another life —
THE ASTRAL CENTRES 41
shall surround him, A tempered renun-
ciation is, under certain circumstances, a
much greater acquisition than the struggle
for something which in given conditions
remains unattainable. Indeed, such a
tempered renunciation contributes more
than such struggle to one’s development.
He who has evolved the six-petalled
lotus can communicate with beings who
are native to the higher worlds, though
even then only if their presence is mani-
fested in the astral or soul-world. In an
occult school, however, no instructions
concerning the development of this lotus-
flower would be imparted before the
student had trodden far enough on the
upward path to permit of his spirit
mounting into a yet higher world. The
formation of these lotus-flowers must
always be accompanied by entrance into
this really spiritual sphere. Otherwise
the student would fall into error and
42 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
uncertainty. He would undoubtedly be
able to see, but be would remain incap-
able of estimating rightly the phenomena
there seen. Now there already exists in
him who has learned to evolve the six-
petalled lotus, a security from error and
giddiness, for no one who has acquired
complete equilibrium of sense (or body),
passion (or soul), and thought (or spirit)
will be easily led into mistakes. Nothing
is more essential than this security when,
by the development of the six-petalled
lotus, beings possessed of life and inde-
pendence, and belonging to a world so com-
pletely hidden from his physical senses,
are revealed before the spirit of the
student. In order to ensure the necessary
safety in this world, it is not enough to
have cultivated the lotus-flowers, since
he must have yet higher organs at his
disposal.
TIIE CONSTITUTION OF THE
ETIIERIC BODY
Tnr. cultivation of tho astral body, as it
lias been described in tho foregoing
chapter, permits of a person perceiving
supersensnal phenomena, but bo who
Mould really find bis way about tho astral
world must not tarn - nt this stage of evol-
ution. The mere motion of tho lotus-
flowers does not really suffice. The
student should be able to regulate and
control the movement of his astral organs
independently, and with complete con-
sriou'tiess. Otherwise, he would become,
as it were, a plaything for external forces
44 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
and powers. If he does not wish to
become such, he must acquire the faculty
of hearing what is known as “ the inner
word,” and to effect this it is needful to
evolve not merely the astral but also the
etheric body. This is the fine body which
to the eyes of the clairvoyant appears as
a kind of wraith of the physical body. It
is to some extent a medium between the
physical and the astral bodies. If one is
equipped with clairvoyant powers, one can
quite consciously suggest away the physical
body of a person. On that higher plane
it is no more than what is ordinarily an
exercise of one’s attention. Just as a
person can withdraw his attention from
anything that is before him so that it does
not exist for him, so can the clairvoyant
blot out a physical body from his
observation so that it becomes, for him,
physically transparent. If he applies this
power to a human being who stands in
CONSTITUTION' OF ETHEIMC IIOHY 45
front of him, nothing remnini in liis soul-
sight except the ctheric hoily and the
astral body, which is greater than either of
the other two and interpenetrates them
both. The ctheric body has approxi-
mately the size nod form of the physical
body, so that it practically fills the same
space. It is an extremely delicate and
finely-organised vehicle 1 Its principal
colour is different fiom the set cti contained
in the rainbow. lie who is able to observe
it is introduced to a colour winch is not
observable by tho sense-perceptions It
can be compared to tho colour of a young
peach-blossom ns accurately ns to any. If
ono desires to contemplate tho ctheric
body alone, ono has to oxtingmsh one’s
1 I would request tho physicist not to resent tho
expression “etheric body” The uso of tho word
“ether” is merely an attempt to suggest tho fineness
of the phenomenon under consideration It has
practically no connection at all with tho hypothetical
ether of the physicist.
46 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
observation of the astral body by an
exercise of attention similar to that already
suggested. If one omits to do so, one’s
view of the etheric body is confused by
the complete interpenetration of the astral
body.
Now the particles of this etheric body
are in continual motion. Countless
currents pass through it in every direction.
By these currents life itself is supported
and regulated. Every body that has life,
including the animals and plants, possesses
such an etheric double. Even in minerals
there are traces of it perceptible to the
attentive observer. These currents and
movements are almost entirely in-
dependent of the human will and con-
sciousness, just as the action of the heart
or stomach in the physical body is in-
dependent of our will. As long as a
person does not take his development
(in the sense of acquiring supersensual
CONSTITUTION OF ETHERIO BODY 47
faculties) into his own hands, this in-
dependence remains. For his develop-
ment at a certain stage consists precisely
in adding to tho unconscious independent
outrayings and movements of tho etlieric
tody that by which tho individual is en-
abled to influence thorn in a conscious
manner by himself.
When his occult education has pro-
gressed so far that tho lotus-flowers
described in the foregoing chapters begin
to bestir themselves, then tho student is
given certain directions which lead to tho
evocation of particular currents and
movements within his ctheric body. Tho
object of these directions is to fashion in
tho region of the physical heart a kind of
centre from which these outrayings and
movements, with their manifold forms and
colours, may go forth. Tho centre is, in
reality, not merely a given point, but a
most complicated structure, a really
48 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
wonderful organ. It glows and shimmers
with all kinds of colour and displays forms
of the greatest symmetry — forms which are
capable of transformation with astonishing
speed. Other forms and outrayings of
colour proceed from this organ to the
other parts of the body, as also to those of
the astral body, which they entirely pervade
and illumine. The most important of
these rays move, however, toward the
lotus-flowers. They pervade each petal
and regulate its revolutions ; then, stream-
ing out at the points of the petals, they lose
themselves in the surrounding space. The
more evolved a person may be, the greater
becomes the circumference to which these
rays extend.
The twelve-petalled lotus-flower has
a peculiarly close connection with the
centre already described. The rays move
directly into it, and from it proceed, on the
one side, toward the sixteen-petalled and
CONSTITUTION 01 ETUI RIC 1101)1 19
tlie two petalled lotuses, and, on tlie other,
the loner, sido to tho lotuses or eight, of
six, and of four potals This is tho reason
avli} the a cry greatest caro must be gi\ cn
to tho development of tho twelve pctalled
lotus If any imperfection be thero
allou ed, the entire formation of tho avliolo
structure must remain disorderly IVoni
udiat has here been said, one may imagine
how delicate and mtimato is this occult
education, and hoar strictly ono has to
conduct oneself if oa cry thing is to bo
developed in tho propci nay It mil non
be quite evident that instruction concern-
ing the doaolopment of supcrsensunl
faculties can only bo giaon by ono nho
has already experienced oa cry thing avhich
he desires to awaken in another, and who
is unquestionably m a position
whether Ins instructions null be
with success
If tlie student folloavs out
50 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
prescribed for him in these instructions, he
introduces into his etheric body outrayings
and vibrations which are in harmony with
the laws and the evolution of the world
to which he belongs. Consequently, these
instructions are reflections of the great
laws which govern the development of the
world. They consist of special exercises
in meditation and in concentration, which,
if appropriately practised, produce the
results described. The content of these
instructions may only be imparted to the
individual during his occult education.
At certain periods these instructions must
entirely pervade his soul with their content,
so that he is inwardly, as it were, filled
with it. He starts quite simply with what
ia .necessary above all things, a deepening
and an interiorisation of the reasonable
and sensible thought of the head. This
thought is thus made free and independent
of all sense-impressions or experiences.
CONSTITUTION OF ETIinMC BODY 51
It is in a ccrtnin manner concentmlcil into
a point which is entirely m tlio power of
the inclin'd uni. Ily doing this n pro-
liminary centre for the rajs of the otheric
bodj is formed Tins centre is not jet in
tho region of tho heart, but m that of the
head, and it appears to tho clam 0) ant as
tho outgoing point of the \ ihrations Onlj-
that occult educational course is successful
which creates this centre first. If this
centra were from the outset transferred
to tho region of tho heart, tho clairvoyant
could doubtless obtain glimpses of tho
higher worlds ; but ho would yet lack any
truo insight into tho connection between
tlieso higher worlds and that of onr senses,
and this for tho individual at n certain
stago of tho world's evolution is an uncon-
ditional nocessitj-. Tho clairiojant must
not becomo a more enthusiast; ho must
retain his footing upon firm earth.
Tho contra in tho head, when it has
52 INITIATION AND ITS BESULTS
become duly settled, is then transferred
further down, that is to say, to the region
of the larynx. This change is again
induced by a particular exercise of concen-
tration. Then the characteristic vibrations
of the etheric body stream forth from this
point, and illuminate the astral space that
surrounds the individual.
A further exercise enables the student
to determine for himself the position of
his etheric body. Hitherto this position
depended upon the forces which came from
without or proceeded from the physical
body. By means of such development
the individual is able to direct the etheric
body to all sides. This faculty is effected
by outrayings which move approximately
along both' hands and are centred in the
two-petalled lotus that is situated in the
region of the eyes. As a result of all this,
the rays which flow forth from the larynx
are shaped into round forms of which a
CONSTITUTION Or midllO BODY 53
quantity proceed to the two-petnllcd lotus,
and from tlicro take their way as undulat-
ing currents along the hands.
One finds as a further development that
theso currents branch out, ramify in a
delicate manner, and become in a certain
senso liko wicker-work, so that the entiro
ctlicric body is enmeshed in a network.
Since hitherto the cthoric body has had
no closuro to externals, so that tho lifo-
currents of tho great ocean of life flowed
freely in and out, it now becomes necessary
that impacts from outsido should pass
through this cuticle. Thus tho individual
becomes sensitive to theso oxtemal
streams : they becomo perceptiblo to him.
Tho timo has now como to givo tho
completo systom of rays and vibrations
a centre in tho heart. That, again, is
accomplished by moans of a meditative
and concontrativo exerciso, and simultane-
ously the student attains the point at
54 INITIATION AND ITS EESULTS
which he can hear the “inner word.”
All things now acquire for him a new
significance. They become audible, as it
were, in their innermost nature; they
speak to him from their true being. The
currents already described place him in
touch with the interior of the world to
which they appertain. He begins to
mingle his life with the life of his environ-
ment, and can let it reverberate in the
vibrations of his lotus-flowers. Thus the
individual enters the spiritual world. If
he has come so far, he acquires a new
understanding of all that the great
teachers of humanity have uttered. The
sayings of the Buddha, for instance, now
produce a new effect upon him. They
pervade him with a beatitude of which
he had never dreamed before. For the
sound of the words now follows the move-
ments and rhythms which he has formed
within himself. He is now able to know
CONSTITUTION OF ETHERIC BODY 55
directly how a person like the Buddha
did not proclaim his own individual revela-
tions, but those which flowed into him
from the inmost being of all things. A
fact must here be explained which could
only be comprehended in the light of what
has already been said. The many repeti-
tions in the sayings of the Buddha are
not rightly understood by the people of
our present evolutionary stage. For the
occult student they are like something
upon which he may gladly let his inner
senses rest, for they correspond to certain
rhythmic movements in the etheric body.
Devotional musing on these, with com-
plete inward peace, creates a harmony
with these movements, and because they
themselves are echoes of certain universal
rhythms which also at particular points
repeat themselves and make regular
returns to their former modes, the indi-
vidual, listening to the wisdom of the
56 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
Buddha, puts himself into harmony with
the secrets of the universe.
In the theosophical handbooks we
meet with four attributes which must be
developed by the student on what is
called the probationary path, in order that
he may attain the higher knowledge.
The first is the faculty for discriminating
between the eternal and the temporal, the
true and the false, the truth and mere
opinion. The second is a right estimate
of the eternal and true as opposed to the
peiishable and illusory. The third faculty
is that of practising the six qualities
alieady mentioned in the foregoing
chapters : thought-control, control of
action, perseverance, tolerance, good faith,
and equanimity. The fourth attribute
necessary is the longing for freedom. A
mere intellectual comprehension of what
is included in these attributes is utterly
worthless. They must become so incor-
CONSTITUTION’ OF ETHERIC BODY 57
porated into tlio soul tlmt they endure
as inner habits. Let us take, for instance,
the first of these attributes — tho dis-
crimination between tho eternal and the
temporal. One must so educato oneself
that quite naturally one discriminates
in everything that confronts ono betwcon
its impermanent characteristics and tlioso
that will endure. This can only bo
accomplished if in one’s observation of
the external world ono continues again
and again to mako this attempt. At last
the gaze in quite a natural way discerns
what endures, just as hitherto it had satis-
fied itself with tho impermanent. "All
that is impermanent is only a parable " —
that is a truth which becomes an obvious
conviction for the soul. And so, too, most
it be with the others of tho four attributes
on the path of probation.
Now under the influence of these four
spiritual habits the etheric body actually
58 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
transforms itself. By the first — the dis-
crimination between the true and the
false — the centre already described is
formed in the head and that in the larynx
is prepared. The exercises of concentra-
tion, before mentioned, are above all
things essential to any true formation.
It is they that create, while the four
spiritual habits bring to fruition. If the
centre in the larynx has been prepared,
the free control of the etheric body, as
above explained, will follow, and its
separation, its network covering, be
produced by the correct estimating of the
eternal as opposed to the impermanent.
If the student acquires this jDOwer of
estimation, the facts of the higher worlds
will gradually become perceptible. Only
it must not be thought that one has
merely to perform those actions which
appear to be important when measured by
the intellect alone. The smallest action,
CONSTITUTION OF ETHERIC BODY 59
evory little thing accomplished, has some-
thing of importance in the vast household
of the world, and it is only necessary that
one should become conscious of this im-
portance. It is not a question of under-
estimating tho daily affairs of life, but of
rightly estimating them. Enough has
been said in tho previous chapter of tho
six virtues of which tho third attributo is
composed. Thoy are connected with tho
development of the twelvo-petalled lotus
in the region of the hoart, and this, as
already indicated, is associated with tho
life-current of the otheric body. Tho
fourth attributo, which is the longing for
freedom, serves to bring to fruition tho
otheric organ situated in tho heart. If
these attributes have become real spiritual
habits, the individual frees himself from
everything which only depends upon tho
capacities of his personal nature. Ho
ceases to contemplate things from his
60 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
own separate standpoint. The limits of
his narrow self, which fetter him to this
outlook, disappear. The secrets of the
spiritual world reveal themselves to his
inner self. This is liberation. For all
fetters constrain the individual to regard
things and beings as if they corresponded
to his personal limitations. From this
personal manner of regarding things the
occult student must become independent
and free.
From this it will be clear that the
writings which have proceeded from the
mighty sages can become effective in the
innermost deeps of human nature. The
sayings concerning the four attributes
are just such emanations of ‘"primeval
wisdom.” They can be found under one
form or another in all the great religions.
The founders of the great religions did not
give mankind these teachings from vague
feeling. They based them on much firmer
CONSTITUTION OF ETHERIC BODY 61
foundations, because they were mighty
Initiates. Out of their knowledge did
they shape their moral teachings. They
were aware how these would react upon
the finer nature of men, and desired that
the culture of these qualities should gradu-
ally lead to the organisation of that finer
nature. To live according to these great
religions is to work out one's own spiritual
perfection, and only in so doing can one
really serve tho world. Self-perfection is
in no wise selfish, for the imperfect man
is also an imperfect servant of humanity
and of the world. The more perfect one
becomes the more does one serve the
world. “If the rose adorns herself she
adorns the garden."
The founders of religions are therefore
the great magicians. That which comes
from them flows into the souls of men
and women, and thus with humanity the
whole world moves forward. The founders
62 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
of religions have consciously worked with
this evolutionary process of humanity.
One only understands the true meaning of
religious instructions when one realises
that they are the result of actual know-
ledge concerning the innermost depths of
human nature.
The leaders of religion were mighty
sages, and it is out of their knowledge
that the ideals of humanity have sprung.
Yet the individual comes nearer to these
leaders when he uplifts himself in his own
evolution to their heights.
If a person has evolved his etheric body
in the manner just described, an entirely
new life is opened up before him, and at
the proper period in the course of his
training he now receives that enlighten-
ment which adapts him to this new
existence. For example, he sees (by
means of the sixteen-petalled lotus) the
shapes of a higher world. He must then
CONSTITUTION OF ETHERIC BODY 63
realise how different are these forms when
caused by this or that object or being.
In the first place, he should notice that he
is able, in a certain manner, to influence
some of these forms very powerfully by
means of his thoughts and feelings, but
others not at all, or only to a limited extent.
One species of these figures will be altered
immediately if the observer thinks to
himself when they appear, “ that is beauti-
ful,” and then in the course of his contem-
plation changes his thought and thinks
"that is useful.” It is particularly
characteristic of the forms which come
from minerals or from objects artistically
made, that they possess the peculiarity of
changing under every thought or feeling
which is directed upon them by the
observer. In a lesser degree this is also
true of the forms that proceed from plants,
and to a still smaller extent of those that
are connected with animals. These forms
64 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
are full of life and motion, but this motion
only pertains to that part which is under
the influence of human thought or feeling,
and in the other parts it is effected by
forces upon which a person can exercise
no influence. Now there appears within
this whole world a species of forms which
are almost entirely unaffected by activities
on the part of human beings. The student
can convince himself that these forms
proceed either from minerals or artificial
shapes, and not from animals or plants.
In order to make these things quite clear,
he must now observe those forms which
he can realise to have proceeded from the
feelings, impulses, and passions of human
beings. Yet he may find that upon these
forms his own thoughts and feelings still
hold some influence, even although it
be comparatively small. There always
remains a residuum of forms in this world
upon which all such influences are less
CONSTITUTION or ETIIERIC BODY 05
and less effective. Indeed, this residuum
comprises n very largo proportion of tlioso
forms which aro usually discerned by tho
student at tho outset of his career. IIo
can only enlighten lumsclf concerning tho
nature of this species by observing himself.
He then learns that they wero produced
by himself, that what ho does or wishes
or wills finds expression in those forms.
An impulso that dwells in him, a dcsiro
that ho possesses, a purpose that ho
harbours, and so forth, nro nil manifested
in tlieso forms ; indeed, his wholo character
displays itself in this world of shapes.
By means of his thoughts and feelings a
person can oxerciso an influence upon all
the forms which do not como from him-
solf ; but upon thoso which aro sent into
tho highor world from his own boing ho
possesses no power when onco he has
created them.
How it follows from what has been said
5
66 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
that from this higher aspect of human
inner nature one’s own world of impulses,
desires, and conceptions is seen to express
itself in outward shapes, just like all other
beings or objects. To the higher know-
ledge the inner world appears as a part of
the outer world. Just as anyone in the
physical world who should be surrounded
with mirrors could look at his physical
form in that way, so, too, in a higher
world does the spiritual self of man
appear to him as an image reflected in
a mirror.
At this stage of development the student
has arrived at the point when he overcomes
the “illusion of the personal self,” as it
has been expressed in tlieosophical books.
He can now regard that inner personality
as something external to himself, just as
previously he recognised as external the
things which affected his senses. Thus
he learns by gradual experience to master
CONSTITUTION OF ETHERIC BODY C7
himself as hitherto he mustered the beings
around him.
If any one obtains a view into this higher
world before his nature has been sufficiently
prepared, ho stands before tho charactcr-
picturo of his own soul ns beforo an
enigma. There his own impulses and
passions confront him in the shapes of
animals or, moro seldom, of human beings.
It is truo that tho animal forms of this
world have never quito tho appearance of
tlioso in tho physical world, but still, they
possess a remote resemblance. By tho
inexpert observer thoy may easily bo
taken for tho same. When ono ontors
this world, ono must adopt an entiroly now
method of forming ono’s judgments. For,
seeing that those things which properly
pertain to tho inner nature appear as
external to onesolf, they aro only discorned
as the mirrored reflections of what thoy
really aro. When, for instance, ono por-
68 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
ceives a number, one must reverse it as
one would read what is seen in a mirror.
265 would mean in reality 562. One sees
a sphere as if one were in the centre of it.
One has therefore at first to translate
correctly these inner perceptions. The
attributes of the soul appear likewise as
if in a mirror. A wish that is directed
toward something outside appears as a
form which moves toward the person who
wished it. Passions that have their
habitation in the lower part of human
nature take on the forms of animals or of
similar shapes that let themselves loose
upon the individual. In reality these
passions are struggling outward ; it is in
the external world that they seek for
satisfaction, but this outward striving
appears in the mirrored reflection as an
attack upon the impassioned person.
If the student, before attaining the
higher vision, has learned by quiet, sincere
CONSTITUTION OF ETITEItlO BODY G9
examination of himself to realise his own
attributes, ho will then, at tho moment
when his inner self appears to him ns a
mirrored reflection outside, find courage
and power to conduct himself in tho right
way. Pcoplo who havo not practised such
introspection sufficiently to enablo them
to know their own inner natures will not
recogniso themselves in these mirrored
pictures and will mistalco them for some-
thing foreign. Or they may bccomo
alarmed at tho vision and say to them-
selves, becauso thoy cannot enduro tho
sight, that tho wliolo thing is nothing
but an illusion which cannot lead them
anywhere. In oithcr case tho person, by
his unseasonable arrival at a certain stage
in the development of his higher organisa-
tion, would stand disastrously in his own
way.
It is absolutely necessary that the
student should pass through this expori-
70 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
ence of spiritually seeing liis own soul if
he is to press onward to higher things.
For in his own self he then possesses that
spirituality by which he can best judge.
If he has already acquired a fair realisa-
tion of his own personality in the physical
world, and when the picture of that per-
sonality first appears to him in the higher
world, he is then able to compare the one
with the other. He can refer to the
higher as to a thing known to him, and in
this way can advance on firm ground. If,
on the contrary, he were confronted by
numbers of other spiritual beings, he
would be able to gain hardly any informa-
tion concerning their nature and attributes.
He would very soon feel the ground slip-
ping away from his feet. It cannot too
often be repeated that a safe entrance into
the higher worlds can only follow a solid
knowledge and estimate of one’s own
nature.
CONSTITUTION OK KTIlEltlO BODY 71
It is pictures, then. Hint the student
meets on his way up to tho higher worlds,
for tho realities which nro expressed by
these pictures nro really in himself. IIo
must soon bccomo sufficiently mnturo to
prevent himself from desiring, nt this first
stage, veritable realities, but to allow of
his regarding these pictures ns appropriate.
But inwardly ho soon learns something
completely now from his observation of
this picture-world. His lower self only
exists for him as mirrored pictures, yet in
tho midst of tlicso reflections appears tho
truo reality that is his higher self. Out
of tho pictures of tho lower personality
tho form of tho spiritual ogo becomes
visible. Then from tho latter threads
are spun to othor and higher spiritual
realities.
This is tho moment when tho two-
petalled lotus in tho region of tho oyos is
required. If this now begins to stir, tho
72 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
individual attains the power of setting his
higher ego in connection with spiritual,
superhuman entities. The currents which
flow from this lotus move so toward these
higher entities that the movements here
spoken of are fully apparent to the
individual. Just as the light makes
physical objects visible to the eyes, these
currents reveal the spiritual things of the
higher worlds. Through sinking himself
into certain ideas which the teacher im-
parts to the pupil in personal intercourse,
the latter learns to set in motion, and then
to direct the currents proceeding from this
lotus-flower of the eyes.
At this stage of development especially,
what is meant by a really sound capacity
. for judgment and a clear, logical training
is manifested. One has only to consider
that here the higher self, which had
hitherto slumbered unconscious and like
a seed, is born into conscious existence.
CONSTITUTION OF ETIIFRIC BODY 73 '
Ono is here concerned not with a figura-
tive, but with a voritablo birtli in tlio
spiritual world, and tho being now born,
tlio higher self, if it is to bo capnblo of
life, must enter that world with all tlio
necessary organs and conditions. Just as
nature takes precautions that a child shall
como into tho world with well-formed cars
and eyes, ono must take precautions in
the self-development of an individual, so
that his higher self shall enter existence
with tho necessary attributes. These
laws which have to do with tho develop-
ment of the higher organs of tho spirit
are no other than tho sound, rational, and
moral laws of tho physical world. Tho
spiritual ego matures in tbo physical self,
as the child in the mother’s womb. Tho
health of the child deponds upon tho
normal working of natural laws in tho
womb of the mother. Tho health of tho
spiritual self is similarly conditioned by
' 74 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
the laws of common intelligence and
reason that work in the physical life. No
one who does not live and think healthily
in the physical world can give birth to a
sound spiritual self. Natural and rational
life is the basis of all true spiritual evolu-
tion. Just as the child, when still in the
womb of the mother, lives according to
natural forces which after its birth it uses
with its organs of sense, so the higher self
in a human being lives according to the
laws of the spiritual world even during
its physical incarceration; and even as
the child out of a vague sensational life
acquires the powers above mentioned, so
can a human being also acquire the
powers of the spiritual world before his
own higher self is born. Indeed, he must
do this if the latter is to enter its world
as a completely developed being. It
would be quite wrong for anyone to say,
“I cannot follow the teachings of the
CONSTITUTION OF ETHERIO BODY 75
mystic and theosophist until X can see
them for myself,” for if lie should adopt
this view, he could certainly never attain
to genuine higher knowledge.
He would be in the same position as a
child in the mother’s womb who should
reject the powers that would come to him
' through the mother, and should intend to
wait until he could create them for him-
self. Even as the embryo of the child
learns in its dim life to accept ns right
and good what is offered to it, so should it
be with the person who is still blindfolded
in relation to the truths declared in the
teachings of mystic or theosophist. There
is an insight, based upon intuition of the
truth and a clear, sound, all-round critical
reason, concerning these teachings, that
exists before one can yet see spiritual
things for oneself. First, one must learn
the mystical wisdom, and by this very
study prepare oneself to see. A. person
76 INITIATION AND ITS EESULTS
who should learn to see before he has
prepared himself in this way would
resemble a child who was born with eyes
and ears but without a brain. The entire
world of sound and colour would widen
out before him, but he could make no use
of it.
That which before appealed to the
student through his sense of truth, his
reason, and his intelligence, becomes, at
the stage of ' occult education already
described, his own experience. He now
has a direct realisation of his higher self,
and he learns how this higher self is con-
nected with spiritual entities of a loftier
nature and how it forms a union with
them. He sees how the lower self
descends from a higher world, and it is
revealed to him how his higher nature
outlasts the lower. Now he can distin-
guish between what i&\ permanent in
himself and wbat is perishable, and this
CONSTITUTION OF ETHEKIO BODY 77
is nothing less tlmn tho power to under-
stand from his own observation the teach-
ings concerning tho incarnation of tho
higher self in tho lower. It will now
becomo plain to him that bo stands in n
lofty spiritual relation thereto, that his
attributes and his destiny nro originated
by this very rolation. IIo learns to know
the law of his life, his Karma. IIo per-
ceives that his lowor self, ns it nt present
shapes his destiny, is only one of tho
forms which can bo adopted by his
higher naturo. Ho discerns tho possi-
bility stretching boforo his higher self, of
working upon his own naturo so that ho
may become over more and moro perfect.
Now, too, ho can ponotrato into tho great
differences botweon human boings in
regard to their comparative perfection.
He will recognise that tlicro aro boforo
him people who havo already travorsod
the stages that still lie in front of him.
CONSTITUTION OF ETHEIUC BODY 77
is nothing less than tho power to under-
stand from his own observation tho teach-
ings concerning tho incarnation of tho
higher self in tho lower. It will now
beconio plain to him that ho stands in a
lofty spiritual relation thereto, that his
attributes and his destiny nro originated
by this very relation. Ho learns to know
tho law of his life, his Karma. Ho per-
ceives that his lower self, ns it at present
shapes his destiny, is only ono of tho
forms which can bo adopted by his
higher naturo. Ho discerns tho possi-
bility stretching beforo his higher solf, of
working upon his own naturo so that ho
may become over more and more perfect.
Now, too, ho can ponotrato into tho great
differences between human beings in
regard to theiv comparative perfection.
Ho will recognise that thero nro beforo
him peoplo who havo already traversed
tho stages that still lio in front of him.
78 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
He discerns that the teachings and deeds
of such people proceed from the inspira-
tion of a higher world. All this he owes
to his first glimpse into this higher world.
Those who have been called “the masters
of wisdom,” “ the great Initiates of h um an-
ity, ’ will now begin to appear as veritable
facts.
These are the treasures which the
student at this stage owes to his develop-
ment : insight into his higher self; into the
doctrine of the\incarnation of this higher
self in a lower ; into the laws by which life
in the physical worlchis regulated accord-
ing to its spiritual connections — in short,
the law of Karma; and, finally, insight
into the nature of the great Initiates.
Of the student who has arrived at this
stage it is said that doubt has entirely
vanished away. If fie has already acquired
a faith which is based upon reason and
sound thought, there now appears in its
CONSTITUTION OF KTI1EIUO BODY 79
place full knowledge and an insight which
nothing whatsoever can niako dim.
Religions liavo presented in tlicir cere-
monies, their sacraments, and their rites,
external visible pictures of the higher
spiritual beings and events. Nono but
thoso who liavo not penetrated into tlio
depths of tho great religions can fail to
notice this; but ho who 1ms seen for
himself theso spiritual realities will
understand tho great significance of each
outward and visiblo net. Thon for him
tho religious sorvico itself becomes a
representation of his own communion
with tho spiritual, superhuman world.
One often finds it said in theosophical
literature, oven if not qnito so plainly
expressed, that tho occult student at
this stage becomes “free from super-
stition." Superstition in its cssonco is
nothing but dependence upon outward
and visible actis, without insight into tho
80 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
spiritual facts of which they are the
expression.
It lias been shown how the student, by
arriving at this stage, becomes veritably a
new person. Little by little he can now
mature himself by means of the currents
that come from the etheric body, until he
can control the still higher vital element,
that which is called “ the fire of Kundalini,”
and by so doing can attain a completer
liberty from the bondage of his physical
body.
Ill
DREAM-LIFE
An intimation that tlio student has arrived
at the stage of evolution described in tlio
foregoing chapter is the cliango which
comes over his dream-life. Hitherto his
dreams wcro confused and haphazard,
but now thoy begin to assume a moro
regular character. Their pictures begin
to arrango themselves in an orderly way,
liko tbo phenomena of daily life. Ho
can discern in them laws, causes, and
effects. The contents of his dreams
will likewise change. While hitherto ho
discerned only the reverberations of daily
life, mixed impressions of his surround-
81 6
82 INITIATION AND ITS .RESULTS
ings or of his physical condition, there
now appear before him pictures of a world
with which he had no acquaintance. At
first, indeed, the general nature of his
dreams will remain as of old in so far as
the dream differentiates itself from waking
phenomena by presenting in emblematical
form whatever it wishes to express. This
dramatisation cannot have escaped the
notice of any attentive observer of dream-
life. For instance, you may dream that
you are catching some horrible creature
and experiencing an unpleasant sensation
in your hand. You wake up to discover
that you are tightly holding a piece of the
bed-clothes. The perception does not
express itself plainly, but only through the
allegorical image. Or you may dream
that you are flying from some pursuer and
in consequence you experience fear. On
waking up you find that during sleep you
had been suffering from palpitation of the
DKEAM-LIFE
83
heart. The stomach which is rcplcto with
indigestible food will cause uneasy dream-
pictures. ' Occurrences in tho neighbour-
hood of tho sleeping person may also
reflect themselves allegorically in dreams.
Tho striking of a clock may evoke tho
picture of soldiers marching by to tho
sound of their drums. Or a falling chair
can becomo the origin of n complcto dream-
drama in which the sound of falling is
translated into a gun report, and so forth.
The more regulated dreams of tho person
whoso ethcric body 1ms begun its develop-
ment have also this allegorical method of
expression, but they will cease to repeat
merely tho facts of tho physical environ-
ment or of tho sense-body. As these
dreams which owe tlioir origin to such
things becomo orderly thoy aro mixed up
with similar dream-pictures which aro the
expression of things and events in another
world. Here one has experiences that
84 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
lie beyond the range of one’s waking
consciousness. Now it must never be
fancied that any true mystic will then
make the things which in this manner he
experiences in dreams the basis of any
authoritative account of the higher world.
One must only consider suck dream-
experiences as hints of a higher develop-
ment. Yery soon, as a further result
of this, we find that the pictures of
the dreaming student are no longer, as
hitherto, withdrawn by the guidance of
a careful intellect, but are regulated
thereby, and methodically considered
like the conceptions and impressions of
the waking consciousness. The differ-
ence between this dream-consciousness
and the waking state grows ever smaller
and smaller. The dreamer becomes, in
the fullest meaning of the word, awake
in his dream-life : that is to say, he
can feel himself to be the master and
DUE AH- LIFE
85
leader of the pictures which then
appear.
During his dreams tho individual actually
finds himself in a world which is other
than that of his physical senses. But if
he possesses only unevolved spiritual
organs, he can rccoivo from that world
only tho confused dramatisations already
mentioned. It would only bo ns much at
his disposal as would bo tho sense-world
to a being equipped with nothing but tho
most rudimentary of eyes. In conscquonco
he could only discern in this world tho
reflections aud reverberations of' ordinary
life. Yot in dream ho can seo these,
because his soul interweaves its daily
perceptions as pictures into the stuff of
which that other world consists. It must
here be clearly understood that in addition
to the workaday conscious life one leads
in this world a second and unconscious
existence. Everything that one perceives
86 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
or thinks becomes impressed upon this
other world. Only if the lotus-flowers are
evolved can one perceive theseimpressions.
Now certain minute beginnings of the
lotus-flowers are always at the disposal of
anyone. During daily consciousness he
cannot perceive with them, because the
impressions made on him are very faint.
It is for similar reasons that during the
daytime one cannot see the stars. They
cannot strike our perceptions when
opposed by the fierce and active sunlight,
and it is just in this way that faint spiritual
impressions cannot make themselves felt
in opposition to the masterful impressions
of the physical senses. When the door of
outward sense is closed in sleep, these
impressions can emerge confusedly, and
then the dreamer remembers what he has
experienced in another world. Yet, as
already remarked, at first these experiences
-are nothing more than that which concep-
DREA.M-UFE
8 ?
tions related to tlie physical senses hare im-
pressed on the spiritual world. Only the
developed lotus-flowers make it possible
for manifestations which are unconnected
with the physical world to show them-
selves. Out of the development of the
etheric body arises a full knowledge con-
cerning the impressions that are conveyed
from one world to another. "With this
the student’s communication with a now
world has begun. He must now — by
means of the instructions given in his
occult training — first of all acquire a two-
fold nature. It must become possible for
him during waking hours to recall quite
consciously the beings he has observed in
dream. If he has acquired this faculty
he will then become able to make these
observations during his ordinary waking
state. His attention will have become so
concentrated upon spiritual impressions
that these impressions need no longer
88 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
vanish in the light of those which come
through the senses, but are, as it were,
always at hand.
If the student is able to do this, there
then arises before his spiritual eyes some-
thing of the picture which has been
described in a former chapter. He can
now discern that what exists in the
spiritual world is the origin of that which
corresponds to it in the physical world,
and, above all things, can he learn in this
world to know his own higher self, The
task that now confronts him is to grow, as
it were, into this higher self, or, in other
words, to regard it as his only true self,
and also to conduct himself accordingly.
He now retains, more and more, the con-
ception and the vital realisation that his
physical body and what hitherto he desig-
nated “ himself ” is only an instrument of
the higher self. He takes an attitude
toward his lower self, such as might be
dream-life
89
taken by some one limited to the world
of sense with regard to some instrument
or vehicle which serves him. Just as
such a person would not consider the
carriage in which he travelled to be him-
self, though he says “ I travel,” or “ I go,”
so, too, the developed person, when he says
“I go through the door,” retains in his mind
the conception, “ I take my body through
the door.” This must become for him
such an habitual idea that he never for a
moment loses the firm ground of the
physical world, that never a feeling of
estrangement in the world of sense arises.
If the student does not wish to become a
mere fantastic or vain enthusiast, be must
work with the higher consciousness, so
that he does not impoverish his life in the
physical world, but enriches it, even as the
person who makes use of a railway instead
of his own legs may enrich himself by
going for a journey.
90 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
If the student has raised himself to such
a life in the higher Ego, then — or still
more probably during the acquisition of
the higher consciousness — it will be re-
vealed to him how he may stir into life
what is called the fire of Kundalini which
lies in the organ at the heart, and, further,
how he may direct the currents described
in a previous chapter.
This fire of Kundalini is an element of
finer material which flows outward from
this organ and streams in luminous loveli-
ness through the self-moving lotus-flowers
and the other canals of the evolved etheric
body. Thence it radiates outward on the
surrounding spiritual world and makes it
spiritually visible, just as the sunshine
falling upon the surrounding objects
makes visible the physical world.
How this fire of Kundalini in the
organ at the heart is fanned into life
may only form the subject of actual
dream-life
91
occult training. Nothing can be said of
it openly.
The spiritual -world becomes plainly
perceptible as composed of objects and
beings only for the individual who in snch
a way can send the fire of Nundalini
through his etheric body and into the
outer world, so that its objects are
illumined by it. From this it will be seen
that a complete consciousness of an object
in the spiritual world is entirely depend-
ent upon the condition that the person
himself has cast upon it the spiritual light.
In reality the Ego, who has drawn forth
this fire, no longer dwells in the physical
human body at all, but (as has been
already shown) apart from it. The organ
at the heart is only the spot where the
individual from without enkindles that
fire. .If he wished to do this, not here but
elsewhere, then the spiritual perceptions
produced by means of the fire would have
92 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
no connection with the physical world.
Yet one should relate all the higher
spiritual things to the physical world
itself, and through oneself should let them
work in the latter. The organ at the heart
is precisely the one through which the
higher self makes use of the lower self as
his instrument and whence the latter is
directed.
The feeling which the developed person
now bears toward the things of the
spiritual world is quite other than that
which is characteristic of ordinary people
in relation to the physical world. The
latter feel themselves to be in a certain
part of the world of sense, and the objects
they perceive are external to them. The
spiritually evolved person feels himself
to be united with the spiritual objects
that he perceives, as if, indeed, he were
within them. In spiritual space he veri-
tably moves from place to place, and is
dheam-life
93
therefore spoken of in the language of
occult science as “ the wanderer.” He is
practically without a home. Should ho
continue in this mere wandering, he would
be unable to define clearly any object in
spiritual space. Just as one defines an
object or a locality in physical space by
starting from a certain point, so must
it also be in regard to the other world.
He must seek for a place there which
he practically completely explores, — a
place of which he spiritually takes
possession. This he must make his
spiritual home and set everything in
relation to it. The person who is living
in the physical world sees everything in
a like manner, as if he carried the ideas
of his physical home wherever he went.
Involuntarily a man from Berlin will
describe London quite otherwise than a
Parisian. Only there is a difference
between the spiritual and the physical
94 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
home. Into the latter you are born with-
out your own co-operation, and from it in
youth you have acquired a number of ideas
which will henceforth involuntarily give
colour to everything. The spiritual home,
on the contrary, you have formed for your-
self with full consciousness. You there-
fore shape your opinions when going out
from it in the full, unprejudiced light of
freedom. This formation of a spiritual
home is known in the speech of occult
science as “ the building of the hut.”
The spiritual outlook at this point
extends at first to the spiritual counter-
parts of the physical world, so far as these
lie in what we call the astral world. In
this world is found everything which in
its nature is akin to human impulse,
feeling, desire, or passion. For in every
sense-object that surrounds a person there
are forces which are related to these
human forces. A crystal, for instance, is
DEEAJI-UFE
95
formed by powers which, when seen from
the higher standpoint, are perceptible ns
akin to the impulso which acts in tho
human being. By similar forces tho sap
is drawn through the vessels of the plant,
the blossoms unfold, the seed-cases aro
made to burst. All these powers acquire
form and colour for tho developed spiritual
perceptions, just as tho objects of tho
physical world have colour and form for
physical eyes. At tho stage of develop-
ment here described the student no longer
sees merely tho crystal or the plant, but
likewise the spiritual forces behind them,
even as he does not now see the impulses
of animal or human being only through
their external manifestations, but also
directly as veritable objects, as in the
physical world he can see chairs and
tables. The entire world of instinct, im-
pulse, wish or passion, whether of a por-
son or of an animal, is there in the astral
9 G INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
cloud, in tlie aura with which the subject
is enwrapt.
Besides this, the clairvoyant at tin's stage
of his evolution perceives things that are
almost or entirely withdrawn from the
perceptions of sense. Bor example, he
can observe the astral difference between
a place which is for the most part filled
with persons of low development and
another which is inhabited by high-minded
people. In a hospital it is not only the
physical but also the astral atmosphere
which is other than that of the ball-room.
A commercial town has a different astral
air from that of a university town. At
first the powers of perceiving such things
will be but weak in the person who has
become clairvoyant. At first it will seem
to be connected with the objects con-
cerned, very much as is the dream-con-
sciousness of the ordinary person in rela-
tion to his waking consciousness, but
DREAM-LIFE
97
gradually lie will completely awaken on
this plane also.
The highest acquisition that comes to
the clairvoyant, when ho has reached this
degreo of sight, is that by which the astral
reaction of animal or human impulses or
passions is rovealed to him. A loving
action has quito a different astral appear-
ance from ono which proceeds out of
hatred. The sensual appetito gives rise
to a horrible astral imago, and the feoling
that is based on lofty things to one that
is beautifuL Theso correspondences or
astral pictures are only to bo seen faintly
during physical human life, for their
strength is much lessened by existence
in tho physical world. A wish for any
object displays itself, for instanco, as a
reflection of tho object itself, in addition
to that which the wish appears to be in
the astral world. If, however, that wish
is satisfied by the attainment of the
IV
THE THREE STAT £S OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
The life of man is passed in three states,
which are as follows : waking, dreaming
sleep, and dreamless deep sleep. One
may comprehend how •_ attain to a
higher knowledge of the spiritual worlds
by forming an idea of the changes in the
conditions that have to be undergone by
the aspirant to such knowledge. Before
a person has passed through the necessary
training, his consciousness is continually
broken by the periods of rest which
accompany sleep. During these periods
the soul knows nothing of the outer world
100
THREE STATES OF COHSCIOUSNESS 10
and nothing either of itself. Only s
certain times above the wide ocean <
unconsciousness there will arise dream
which are related to events in the outsid
world or to the conditions of the physic:
body. At first ono recognises in dream
only a special manifestation of the sleej
existence, and commonly men speak c
two states only — waking and sleepin;
From the occult standpoint, howeve
dreams have a special significanci
apart from both the other two state:
It has already been shown in a previou
chapter how changes occur in the dream
existence of the person who undertake
the ascent to higher knowledge. Hi
dreams loso their meaningless, disorderly
and illogical character, and begin graduall
to form a regulated, correlated world
With continued development this net
world, born of one’s dreams, will yieli
nothing to outer and phenomenal realities
102 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
not only as regards its inner truth, but
also in the facts which it reveals, for these
in the fullest sense of the word present a
higher reality. In the phenomenal world
especially there are secrets and riddles
hidden everywhere. This world reveals
admirably the effects of certain higher
facts, but he who limits his perceptions
to the senses alone cannot penetrate into
causes. To the occult student such causes
are partly revealed in the state already
described as being evolved out of his
dream-existence. To be sure, he ought
not to regard these revelations as actual
knowledge so long as the same things
do not reveal themselves to him during
ordinary waking life as well. But to that
he also attains. He acquires the power
to enter the state which he had first
evolved from his dream-life during the
hours of waking consciousness. Then the
phenomenal world is enriched for him by
Tintix s>tatis or casecioussrj® ion
something quite new. Just ns n person
who. though bom blind, undergoes nil
operation on his fight and finds everything
in his environment enriched by (lie new
testimony of visual perception, so docs the
person who lias become clairvoyant in
the above manner, regard the entire world
around him, perceiving in it new charac-
teristics, now beings, and now things. Iso
longer is it necessary that he should wait
for a dream in order that he may live in
another world, for ho can transport him-
self into the stato of higher perception at
any suitable time. This condition or stato
liaB an importance for him comparnhlo
to that of perception with open eyes ns
opposed to a blindfold state. One can
say quite literally that tho occult student
opens tho eyes of his soul and sees tilings
which must over remain veiled from tho
bodily senses.
This stato (which lias previously boon
104 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
described in detail) only forms the bridge
to a still higher stage of occult knowledge.
If the exercises which are assigned to him
should be continued, the student will dis-
cover at the appropriate time that the
vigorous changes hitherto mentioned affect
not only his dream -life, but that the trans-
formation extends even to what was before
a deep and dreamless sleep. He notices
that the utter unconsciousness in which he
has always found himself during this sleep
is now broken by conscious isolated ex-
periences. Out of the great darkness of
sleep arise perceptions of a kind which he
had never known before. Naturally it is
no easy matter to describe these percep-
tions, for our language is only adapted to
the phenomenal world, and in consequence
it is only possible to find approximate
words to describe what does not appertain
to that world at all. Still, one has to make
use of these words in describing the higher
Tnnr.r, status or cosscioussnss 105
worlds, and this can only lie done liy the
freo use of simile ; yet, seeing that every-
thing in the world is interrelated, sncli an
attempt can ho made. The things and
beings of the higher worlds are anyway
so distantly connected with those of the
phenomenal world that though in good
faith a portrayal of these higher worlds
in tho words usually descriptive of tho
phenomenal world may be attempted, ono
must always retain the idea that very
much in descriptions of this hind must
obviously partake of tho nature of similo
and imagery. Occult education itself is
only partially carried on by tho uso of
ordinary language ; for tho rest, tho
student learns in his ascent a special
symbolical language, nn emblematical
method of expression ; but nothing con-
cerning this can at present, and for very
good reasons, bo openly imparted. Tho
studont must acquiro it for himself in tho
106 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
occult school. This, however, need form no
obstacle to the acquisition of some know-
ledge concerning the nature of the higher*
worlds by means of an ordinary descrip-
tion, such as will here be given.
If we wish to give some suggestion
of the experiences mentioned above as
appearing from out of the sea of uncon-
sciousness during the period of deep sleep,
we may best liken them to those of
hearing. "We can speak of perceptible
sounds and words. If we may liken the
experiences of dreaming sleep to a certain
kind of seeing comparable to the percep-
tions of the eyes, the experiences of deep
sleep allow of similar comparison with
oral impressions. It may be remarked in
passing that of these two faculties that
of sight remains the higher even in the
spiritual worlds. Colours are there still
higher than sounds or words, but the
student at the beginning of his develop-
THREE STATES Or CONSCIOUSNESS 107
ment does not perccno tlicso lnglior
colours, but merely the inferior sounds
Only becauso tho individual, after his
general development, is already quahfiod
for the -world which reveals itself to him
m dreaming sleep does ho straightway
perceive its colours, but ho is still un-
qualified for tlio highor world which is
kindled in deep sleep, and in consequence
this world reveals itself to lnm at first as
sounds and words , later on ho can mount
up, here as elsewhere, to tho perception of
colours and forms
If the student now realises that he
passes through such experiences in deep
sleep, his next task is to make them as
clear and vivid as possible In the
beginning this is very difficult, for remem-
brance during the waking state is at first
extraordinarily scanty You know well on
waking that you have experienced some
thing , but as to its nature you remain
108 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
completely in obscurity. The most
important thing during the beginning of
this state is that you should remain peace-
ful and composed, and should not allow
yourself, even for a moment, to lapse into
any unrest or impatience. Under all
circumstances the latter condition is
injurious. It can never accelerate any.
further development, but in every case
must delay it. You must abandon yourself
calmly, as it were, to what is given to you :
all violence must be repressed. If at any
period you cannot recall these experiences
during the deep sleep, you should wait
patiently until it becomes possible to do
so, for such a moment will certainly some
day arrive. If you have previously been
patient and calm, the faculty of remem-
brance, when it comes, will be a securer
possession ; while, should it for once
appear, perhaps in answer to forcible
methods, it would only mean that for a
THREE STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 109
much longer period it would afterwards
remain entirely lost.
If the power of remembrance has once
appeared and the experiences of sleep
emerge complete, vivid, and clear before
the walcing consciousness, attention should
then be directed to what here follows.
Among these experiences, wo can clearly
distinguish two kinds. Tho first kind is
totally foreign to everything that one has
ever experienced. At first ono may take
pleasure in these, may let oneself be
exalted by them ; but after a while they
are put aside. They are the first
harbingers of a higher spiritual world to
which one only becomes accustomed at
a later period. The other kind of ex-
periences, however, will reveal to the
attentive observer a peculiar relationship
to the ordinary world in which he lives.
Concerning those elements of life on which
he ponders, those things in his environ-
110 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
ment which he would like to understand,
but is unable to understand with the
ordinary intellect, these experiences during
sleep can give him information. During
his daily life man reflects on that which
surrounds him and he arrives at concep-
tions which make comprehensible to him
the interrelation of things. He tries to
understand in thought what he perceives
with sense. It is with such ideas and
conceptions that the sleep-experiences
are concerned. That which was hitherto
merely a dark and crepuscular conception
now assumes a sonorous and vital character
which can only be compared to the sounds
and words of the phenomenal world. It
seems to the student ever more and more
that the solution of the riddle upon which he
ponders is whispered in sounds and words
that proceed from a finer world. Then
ought he to relate what has come to him
in this way with the matters of ordinary
THREE STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 111
life. “What was hitherto only accessible
to his thought has now become an actual
experience for him, living and significant
as can seldom, if ever, be the case with an
experience in the world of sense. The
things and beings of the phenomenal
world are shown thereby to be more than
merely what they seem to the perceptions
of the senses. They are tho expression
and the efflux of a spiritual world. This
spiritual world which lay hitherto obscuro
now reveals itself to the occult student in
the whole of his environment.
It is easy to see that the possession of
this perceptive faculty can only prove
itself to be a blessing if the soul-senses of
the person in whom they have been opened
are in perfect order, just as we can only
use our ordinary senses for the accurate
observation of the world if they are in -
a well-regulated condition. Now these
higher senses are formed by the individual
112 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
himself in accordance with exercises which
are given to him in the course of his occult
training. As much concerning these
exercises as may be openly said has been
already given in The Way of Initiation.
The rest is imparted by word of mouth in
the occult schools. Among these exercises
we find concentration, or the directing of
attention upon certain definite ideas and
conceptions that are connected with the
secrets of the universe ; and meditation, or
the living within such ideas, the complete
submerging of oneself within them in the
manner already explained. By concentra-
tion and meditation a person works upon
his own soul and develops within it the
soul-organs of perception. While he
applies himself to the practice of medita-
tion and concentration his soul evolves
within his body as the embryo child grows
in the body of the mother. When, dur-
ing sleep, the specific experiences above
THREE STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 113
described begin to occur, tbo moment of
birtb lias arrived for tlio full-grown soul,
who bas thereby bccomo literally a now
being brought by tbo individual from seed
to fruit. Instructions concerning tbo
subject of meditation and concentration
must therefore be very carefully prepared
and equally carefully followed out, since
they are the very laws which determine
the germination and evolution of tho
higher soul-naturo of tho individual;
and this must appear at its birth as a
harmonious and well-formed organism.
If, on tho contrary, thoro were some-
thing lacking in tbeso instructions, no
such being would appear, but in its
place one that was misbom from the
standpoint of spiritual matters, and in-
capablo of life.
That the birth of this higher soul-nature
should occur during deep sleop will not
seem hard of comprehension if we
8
114 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
consider that the tender organism, still
unable to withstand much opposition,
could hardly make itself noticed by a
chance apparition among the powerful,
harsh events of workaday life. Its activity
cannot be observed when opposed by the
activity of the body. In sleep, however,
when the body is at rest, the activity of
the higher soul, at first so faint and un-
apparent, can come into sight in so far as
it depends upon the perception of sense.
A warning must here again be given that
the occult student should not regard these
sleep- experiences as entirely reliable
sources of knowledge so long as he is not
in a position to transport himself to the
plane of the awakened higher soul during
waking-consciousness as well. If he has
acquired this power he is able to perceive
the spiritual world between and within
the experiences of the day, or, in other
words, can comprehend as sounds and
THREE STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 115
words the bidden secrots of Iris surround-
ings.
At this period of development we must
clearly understand that wo aro dealing, at
first, witli separato, moro or less uncon-
nected, spiritual experiences. We must
be on our guard against tbo erection of
any system of knowledge, whether com-
plete or only interdependent. By so
doing wo should merely confuso tbo soul-
world with all manner of fantastical ideas
and conceptions ; and thus we could very
easily weave a world which has really
no connection whatever with the true
spiritual world. The occult student must
practise continually the strictest self-
control. Tho right method is to grow
clearer and clearer in one’s realisation of
the separate and veritable experiences
which occur, and then to wait for the
arrival of new experiences, full and un-
forced in their nature, which will connect
116 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
themselves, as if on their own account,
with those that have already occurred. By
virtue of the power of the spiritual world
in which he has now once found his way,
and by virtue, also, of practising the
prescribed exercises, the student now
experiences an ever-enlarging, ever more
comprehensive, outspreading of conscious-
ness in deep sleep. Out of what was
erstwhile mere unconsciousness, more and
more experiences emerge, and ever fewer
and fewer become those periods in the
sleep-existence that remain unconscious. ■
Thus, then, do the separate experiences of
sleep continually close in upon each other
without this actual interlocking being
disturbed by a multitude of combinations
and inferences which would still arise
from the meddling of the intellect
accustomed to the phenomenal world.
The less one’s ordinary habits of thought
are mixed up in some unauthorised
THREE STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS 117
manner with these higher experiences,
tlio better it is.
If you conduct yourself rightly, yon now
approach nearer and nearer to that stage
of the way at which the entire slcop-lifo
is passed in complete consciousness. Then
you exist, when tho body is at rest, in a
reality as actual as is tho caso whilo you
aro awake. It is superfluous to remark
that during sleep wo aro dealing, at first,
with a reality entirely different from tho
phenomenal environment in which tho
body finds itself. Indeed wo learn —
nay, must learn if wo aro to keep
our footing on firm ground and avoid
becoming a fantastic — to relato tho higher
experiences of sloop to tho phenomenal
environment. At first, however, tho
world which is entored in sleep is a com-
pletely now rovclntion. In occult scicnco
the important stage at which conscious-
ness is retained interiorly through tho
118 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
entire sleep-life is known as the “con-
tinuity of consciousness .” 1
In the case of a person who has arrived
at this point, experiences and events do
not cease during the intervals when the
physical body rests, and no impressions
are conveyed to the soul through the
medium of the senses.
1 That which is here referred to is, at a certain
stage of development, a kind of “ideal,” the goal
which lies at the end of a long road. The next things
that the student learns are two extensions of conscious-
ness — first, into a soul-state wherein hitherto nothing
hut unregulated dreams were possible, and, secondly,
into another state wherein hitherto nothing was
possible except unconscious and dreamless sleep. He
then knows the three states, even if it remains im-
possible for him to refuse entirely all tribute to the
ordinary state of sleep.
TIIE DISSOCIATION
OF HUMAN PERSONALITY
DURING INITIATION.
Duiiing deep sleep the human soul docs
not register impressions through tho
medium of the physical senses. In tlint
state tho perceptions of tho external world
do not touch it. It is, in truth, outsido
tho coarser part of human nature, tho
physical body, and is only connected with
tho finer bodies — known ns tho astral and
etlicric — which escape tho observation of
tho physical senses. Tho activity of theso
finer bodies does not coaso in sleep. Even
as tho physical body stands in a certain
120 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
relation to the things and beings of its
own world, even as it is affected by these
and affects them, so is it also with the
soul in a higher world, but in this latter
case, experience continues during sleep.
The soul is then veritably in full activity,
but we cannot know of these personal
activities as long as we have no higher
senses, by means of which we may observe,
during sleep, what happens around us and
what we do ourselves, just as well as we
can use our ordinary senses in daily life
for the observation of our physical environ-
ment. Occult training consists (as has
been shown in the foregoing chapters) in
the upbuilding of just such higher senses.
By means of examples like that which
follows one can readily conceive how the
soul with its finer vehicles may continue
its activity during the intervals when the
physical body is at rest. It is no mere
nursery tale which will here be told, but
DISSOCIATION or PERSONALITY 121
a real case from life, which was observed
with all tlio means possessed by the
clairvoyant investigator and with all tho
care which it is incumbent upon him to
exercise ; nor is it related as a “ proof,”
but merely as an illustration . 1
A young man stood confronted by an
examination which would probably decido
his entire future life. For a long timo
previously, he had worked for it assidu-
ously, and consequently, on tho evening
1 It has been necessary to make this preamble, sinco
the superstitions followers of materialism, as soon as
they hear of any Buch story, immediately respond by
declaring that these cases prove nothing. They whittle
away everything of the kind as the result of delusion
and inaccurate observation. To them it should ho
remarked, by way of reply, that tho clairvoyant
investigator does not require such indirect proofs j ho
attains to a direct knowledge by means of the higher
sight. Nevertheless, facts of the kind related above
serve to illustrate what is meant. To establish their
truth other means exist than those which material! itic
learning will use in tho unimpeachable exposition of a
matter of ordinary fact.
122 INITIATION AND ITS KESTTLTS
before the examination, was exceedingly
tired. He was to appear before the
examiners punctually at eight in the
morning of the following day. He wanted
to have a night’s restful sleep before the
trial, but he feared lest, on account of his
exhaustion, he might not be able to wake
himself at the right hour. He therefore
took the precaution to arrange that a
person living in the next room should
wake him at six o’clock by knocking at
his door. Thus he was able to abandon
himself to sleep with an easy mind. On
the following day he awoke, not at the
call of his neighbour, but out of a dream.
He heard six sharp rifle-reports, and with
the sixth he was awake. His watch —
equipped with no alarum — stood at six
o’clock. He dressed himself, and after
half an hour his neighbour knocked him
up. In reality, it was only j ust then six
o’clock, for his watch, by some accident,
DISSOCIATION OF PERSONALITY 123
had gained half an hour in the night. Tho
dream which awakened him ' had timed
itself to the erroneous watch. What was
it, then, which happened here 1 Tho soul
of the young man had remained active
even during his sleep. Becauso ho had
previously formed a connection between
this activity of soul and tho watch at his
side, there had remained a connection
between the two for tho wholo of tho
night, so that on the next day tho soul
came, as it were, to the hour of six simul-
taneously with the watch. This activity
had impressed itself on the young man’s
consciousness through the pictorial dream
already described, which had awakened
him. One cannot explain it away by
reference to the increasing light of day or
anything similar, for the soul acted not in
accordance with the real time of day, but
with the erroneous watch. The soul was
active like a veritable watchman while
124 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
the physical person slept. It is not the
activity of the soul which is lacking in
sleep, but rather a consciousness of that
activity.
If, by occult training, the sleep-life of a
person is cultivated, in the way already
set forth in the previous chapter, he can
then follow consciously everything which
passes before him while in this particular
state; he can voluntarily put himself
en rapport with his environment, just as
with his experiences, known through the
physical senses, during the continuance
of the waking consciousness. Had the
young man in the above example been a
clairvoyant, he would have been able to
watch the time for himself during sleep,
and in consequence to have awakened
himself. .It is necessary to state here that
the perception of the ordinary phenomenal
environment presupposes one of the higher
stages of clairvoyance. At the beginning
DISSOCIATION or PERSONALITY 125
of his development at this stage, the
student only perceives tilings which
pertain to another world, without being
able to discern their relation to the
objects of his workaday surroundings.
That which is illustrated in such typical
examples of dream — or sleep — lifo is
repeatedly experienced by peoplo. Tho
soul lives on unintermittently in tho
higher worlds and is active within them.
Out of those higher worlds it continually
draws the suggestions upon which it works
when again in tho physical body, while tho
ordinary man remains unconscious of this
higher life. It is the work of the occult
student to make it conscious, and by so
doing his life becomes transformed. So
long as the soul has not the higher sight,
it is guided by foreign agencies, and just
as the life of a blind man to whom sight
is given by an operation becomes quito
different from what it was before, so that
126 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
lie can henceforth dispense with a guide,
thus also does the life of a person change
under the influence of occult training.
He, too, is now abandoned by his guide
and must henceforward guide himself.
As soon as this occurs he is, of course,
liable to errors of which his waking
consciousness had no conception. He
now deals with a world in which, hitherto
and unknown to himself, he had been
influenced by higher powers. These
higher powers are regulated by the
great universal harmony. It is from this
harmony that the student emerges. He
has now to accomplish for himself things
which were hitherto done for him without
his co-operation.
Because this is the case there will be
much said in the treatises which deal
with such things concerning the dangers
which are connected with an ascent into
the higher worlds. The descriptions of
DISSOCIATION OF PERSONALITY 127
these dangers which have sometimes been
givon are very apt to maho timid souls
regard this higher lifo only with horror.
It should hero be said that theso experi-
ences only occur if tlio necessary rules of
prudenco are neglected. On tho other
hand, if everything which a genuine occult
education imparts as counsel wero hero
given as a warning, it would ho manifest
that the ascent is through experiences
which in magnitude, as in form, surpass
everything that has been painted by tho
boldest fancy of an ordinary person ; yet
it is not reasonable to talk of possiblo
injury to health or life. Tho student
learns to recognise horrible threatening
forms that haunt every comer and cranny
of life. It is even possiblo for him to mako
use of such powers and boings who are
withdrawn from the perceptions of sense,
and the temptation to use theso powers
in the service of some forbidden interest
128 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
of his own is very great. There is also
the possibility of employing these forces in
erroneous ways, owing to an inadequate
knowledge concerning the higher worlds.
Some of these especially important events
(as, for example, the meeting with “ the
Guardian of the Threshold ”) will be
described further on in this treatise. Yet
one must realise that these hostile powers
are around us even when we do not know
anything about them. It is true that in
this case their relation to man is deter-
mined by higher powers, and that this
relationship only changes when he con-
sciously enters the world which was
hitherto unknown to him. At the same
time, this will enhance his existence and
enlarge the circle of his life to an
enormous extent. There is danger only if
the student, whether from impatience or
arrogance, assumes too early an independ-
ence in his attitude toward the experiences
DISSOCIATION OF PERSONALITY 129
of the higher -world — if ho cannot wait
until he acquires a really mature insight
into supcrpliysical laws. In this sphere
the words "humility" and “modesty”
are still less ' empty than in ordinary
life. If these, in tlio very best sense,
are the attributes of the student, he may
be sure that his ascont into the higher
life may bo achiovcd without any dangor
to what one usually means by health
and life. Abovo all things it is needful
that there should bo no disharmony
between theso higher experiences and
the events and demands of every-day
life. Tho student’s task throughout is
to search on earth, and ho who tries to
withdraw from tho sacred tasks of this
earth and to escape into another world
may be sure that ho never reaches his goal.
Yet what tho senses behold is only a
part of the world, and in spiritual regions
lie the causes of what are facts in the
9
130 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
phenomenal world. One should partici-
pate in the things of the spirit in order to
carry one’s revelations into the world of
the senses. Man transforms the earth,
by implanting in it that which he has
discovered in the spiritual world, and that
is his task. Yet, because the earth is
dependent upon the spiritual world —
because we can only be truly effective on
earth if we have part in those worlds
wherein lie concealed the creative forces —
we ought to be willing to ascend into those
regions. If a person enters on a course
of occult training with this sentiment, and
if he never deviates for a moment from
the directions already given, he has not
even the most insignificant of dangers to
fear. No one ought to hold back from
occult education on account of the dangers
that confront him ; rather should the very
prospect form a powerful inducement
toward the acquisition of those qualities
DISSOCIATION OF PERSONALITY 131
which must bo possessed by the genuino
occult student.
After these preliminaries, which ought
certainly to dispel all forebodings, let us
now describe one of these "dangers.”
It is true that very considerable changes
are undergone by tho finer bodies of the
occult student. These changes are con-
nected with certain evolutionary events
which happen within the three funda-
mental forces of the soul — the will, the
feelings, and tho thoughts. As regards
the occult training of a person these three
forces stand in a definite relation, regu-
lated by the laws of the higher world.
He does not will, nor think, nor feel, in
an arbitrary manner. If, for example, a
particular idea arises in his mind, then, in
accordance with natural laws, a certain
feeling is attached to it, or else it is
followed by a resolution of the will that
is likewise connected with it according
132 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
to law. You enter a room, find it to be
stuffy, and open the window. You hear
your name called, and follow the call.
You are questioned and you answer.
You perceive an ill-smelling object and
you experience a feeling of disgust. These
are simple connections between thought,
feeling, and will. If, however, the student
surveys human life, he will observe that
everything in it is built up on such con-
nections. Indeed, we only call the life of
a person “ normal ” if we detect in it just
that interrelation of thought, feeling, and
will which is founded on the laws of
human nature. We deem it contrary to
these laws if a person, for instance, takes
pleasure in an ill-smelling object, or if,
on being questioned, he does not answer.
The success which we expect from a right
education or a fitting instruction consists
in our presupposition that we can thereby
impart to our pupil an interrelation of
DISSOCIATION OF PERSONALITY 133
thought, feeling, and will that corresponds
to human nature. When we present to
a pupil any particular ideas, wo do so on
the supposition that tlioy will assimilato,
in an orderly association, with his feelings
and volitions. All this arises from tho
fact that in tho finer soul-vohicles of man
tho central points of tho threo powers,
fooling, thinking, and willing, aro con-
nected with each other in a dofinito way.
This connection in tho finer soul-voliiclcs
has also its analogy in tho coarse physical
body. There, too, tho organs of volition
stand in a certain orderly relation to thoso
of thinking and feeling. A definite
thought regularly ovokes a feoling or a
volition. In the courso of a person’s higher
development tho threads which connect
these threo principles with each other aro
severed. At first this rupturo occurs only
in regard to tho finor organism of tho soul ;
but at a still higher stage the separation
134 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
extends also to tlie physical body. In
the higher spiritual evolution of a person
his brain actually divides into three
separated parts. The separation, indeed,
is of such a nature that it is not per-
ceptible to ordinary sense-observation,
nor could it be detected by the keenest
physical instruments. Yet it occurs, and
the clairvoyant has means of observing
it. The brain of the higher clairvoyant
divides into three independent active
entities : the thought-brain, the feeling-
brain, and the willing-brain.
The organs of thinking, feeling, and
willing remain, then, quite free in them-
selves, and their connection is no longer
maintained by a law innate in them, but
must now be tended by the growing higher
consciousness of the individual. This,
then, is the change which the occult
student observes coming over himself —
that there is no longer a connection
DISSOCIATION OK PERSONALITY 135
between a thought and a feeling, or a
feeling and a volition, except when he
creates the connection himself. No
impulse drives him from thought to action
if he does not voluntarily harbour it. He
can now stand completely without feeling
before an object which, before his training,
would have fdled him with glowing love
or violent hatred ; he can likewise remain
actionless before a thought which hereto-
fore would have spurred him on to action
as if by itself. Ho can execute deeds by
an effort of will where not the remotest
cause would be visible to a person who
had not been through the occult school.
The greatest acquisition which the occult
student inherits is the attainment of
complete lordship over the connecting
threads of the three powers of the soul ;
yet simultaneously these connections are
placed entirely at his own responsibility.
Only through such alterations in his
136 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
nature can a person come into conscious
touch with certain superphysical powers
and entities. For between his own soul
and certain fundamental forces of the
world there are correspondences or links.
The power, for instance, which lies in the
will can act upon, and perceive, particular
things and entities of the higher world,
but it can only do so when dissociated
from the threads that link it with the
feelings and thoughts of the soul. As
soon as this separation is effected the
activities of the will can be manifested,
and so is it likewise with the forces of
thought and feeling. If a person sends
out a feeling of hatred, it is visible to the
clairvoyant as a thin cloud of light of a
special hue, and the clairvoyant can ward
off such a feeling, just as an ordinary
person wards off a physical blow that is
aimed at him. Hate is a perceptible
phenomenon in the superphysical world,
DISSOCIATION OF PERSONALITY 137
but tho clairvoyant is only able to perceive
it in so far ns lio can send out the forco
which resides in his feelings, just ns an
ordinary person can direct outwards tho
rcceptivo faculty of his eyes. What is
hero applied to hatred applies also to far
more important facts in tho phenomenal
world. Tho individual can como into
conscious communion with them by this
very liberation of tho elemental forces in
tho soul.
On account of this division of tho
thinking, feeling, and willing forces it is
now possiblo that a threefold error may
overtake tho development of a person who
has been disregardful of his occult instruc-
tions. Such an error might occur if tho
connecting threads wore severed boforo
the student had acquired so much know-
ledge of tho higher consciousness as would
enablo him to hold tho roins by which
to guido woll, such ns a freo, harmonious
138 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
co-operation of the separate forces would
supply. For, as a rule, the three human
principles at any given period of life are
not symmetrically developed. In one the
power of thought is advanced beyond
those of feeling and will; in a second,
another power has the upper hand over
its companions. So long as the connec-
tion between these forces — a connection
produced by the laws of the higher world
— remains intact, no injurious irregularity,
in the higher sense, can result from the
predominance of one force or another.
In a person of will-power, for instance,
thought and feeling work by those laws
to equalise all and to prevent the over-
weighty will from falling into a kind of
degeneration. If such a person, however,
should take up an occult training, the law-
given influence of thought and feeling
upon the monstrous, unchecked, oppressive
will would entirely cease. If, then, the
DISSOCIATION OK rr.HSONAI.ITY ISO
individual lias not carried his control of
the higher consciousness bo far that ho
can call up the desirable harmony for
himself, the will continues on its own
unbridled way and repeatedly overpowers
its possessor. Thought and feeling lapse
into complete debility ; and the individual
is whipped like a slave by his own over-
mastering will. A violent nnttiro which
rushes from one uncurbed action to
another is the result.
A second deviation ensues if feeling
shakes ofT its appropriate bridlo in tho
samo extreme manner. A person who
bows in adoration before another may
easily givo himself over to an unlimited
dependence, until his own thought and
will aro ruined. In plnco of tho higher
knowledge a pitiful vacuity and feebleness
would become tho lot of such a person.
Again, in a caso whero feeling largely
preponderates, n naturo too much given
140 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
over to piety and religious aspiration may
lapse into religious extravagance that
carries him away.
The third evil is found where thought
is too prominent, for then there may result
a contemplative nature inimical to life and
shut within itself. To such persons the
world only appears to have any significance
so far as it offers them objects for the
satisfaction of their limitless thirst for
wisdom. They are never impelled by a
thought either to a feeling or to a deed.
They are seen at once to be cold, unfeeling
folk. They fly away from every contact
with the things of ordinary life as from
something that stings them to aversion,
or that at least has lost all meaning for
them.
These are the three ways of error
against which the occult student should
be counselled : over-action, excess of feel-
ing, and a cold, unloving struggle after
DISSOCIATION OP PERSONALITY' 141
wisdom. Viewed from without — as also
from the materialistic medical standpoint
— tlio picture of an occult student upon
one of tlieso byways does not greatly
differ (especially in degree) from that of
a madman, or at least of a person suffering
from severe nervous illness. From all tliis
it will be clear bow important it is to occult
education tliat the tlireo principles of tlio
soul should throughout bo symmetrically
developed, before their innato connection
is severed and the awakened higher con-
sciousness enthroned in its place; for if
a mistako onco occurs, if one of these
principles falls into lawlessness, the higher
soul appears ns a thing misbom. Tlio un-
bridled forco then pervades the individual's
entiro personality"; and ono cannot expect
the balanco to bo restored for a long
time. That which seems but a harmless
characteristic so long as its possessor is
without occult training, — especially if ho
142 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
belongs to the willing, thinking, or feeling
type, — is so increased iii the occult student
that the more homely virtues, so necessary
for everyday life, are apt to be obscured.
A really serious danger is at hand when
the student has acquired the faculty of
calling up before him in waking con-
sciousness those things that he can
experience in the state of sleep. As long
as it is only a matter of illuminating the
intervals of sleep, the sense-life, regulated
according to common universal laws,
always works during the waking hours
towards restoring the disturbed equi-
librium of the soul. That is why it is so
essential that the waking life of an occult
student should in every respect be healthy
and systematic. The more he fulfils the
demand which is made by the external
world upon a sound and powerful type of
body, soul, and spirit, the better it is for
him. On the other hand, it may be very
DISSOCIATION OF PERSONALITY 143
bad for him if his ordinary waking life
acts so as to excite or irritate him ; if any
disturbing or hindering influence from
the external life occurs during the great
changes that are undergone by his inner
nature. He should seek for everything
which corresponds to his powers and
faculties, everything that puts him in an
undisturbed harmonious connection with
his environment. He should avoid every-
thing which upsets this harmony, every-
thing that brings unrest and fever into his
life. Regarding this, it is not so much a
matter of removing this unrest or fever in
an external sense, as of taking care that
the moods, purposes, thoughts, and bodily
health do not thereby undergo a continual
fluctuation. During his occult training
all this is not so easy for a person to
accomplish as it was before, since the
higher experiences, which are now inter-
woven with his life, react uninterruptedly
144 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
upon his entire existence. If something
in these higher experiences is not in its
place, the irregularity lurks perpetually
and is liable to throw him off the right
path at every turn. For this reason the
student should omit nothing which will
secure for him a lasting control over his
entire nature, nor should presence of mind,
and a peaceful survey of all possible
situations in life ever be allowed to desert
him. A genuine occult training, indeed,
itself engenders all these attributes, and
in the course of such training one only
learns to know these dangers at the
precise moment when one acquires the
full power to rout them from the field.
VI
THE FIRST GUARDIAN OF THE
THRESHOLD
Among tlio important experiences that
accompany an ascent into tlio higher
■worlds is that of “ Meeting with the Guar-
dian of the Threshold.” In reality thcro
is not only ono such Guardian, but two j
one known as "tlio Lesser,” tlio other
as “tho Greater." Tlio student meets
with the former when, in tho manner
described in tho last chapter, he begins to
loosen the connection between the voli-
tions, the thoughts, and the feelings so
far as they concern the etheric and astral
bodies. The meeting with tlio Greater
145 10
146 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
Guardian occurs when this loosening of
the links further extends to the physical
body (that is to say, the brain).
The Lesser Guardian of the Threshold
is an independent being. It did not
exist before the individual had arrived at
this particular point in his evolution. It
is the individual’s creation. Only one of
its essential functions can be here de-
scribed, — indeed it were no easy matter to
furnish a complete description.
First of all, let us present in narrative
form the meeting of the occult student
with the Guardian of the Threshold.
Only by means of this meeting does the
former become aware of the separation of
the threads that connected his thoughts,
his volitions, and his feelings.
A terrible spectral creature, in truth,
is this that confronts the student. The
latter needs all the presence of mind and
all the faith in the security of his way to
THE FIRST GUARDIAN 147
wisdom which ho could acquire during
his previous training.
Tho Guardian proclaims his significance
in something like these words: — “Hitherto,
powers which were invisible to you have
watched over yon. They worked so that
in the courso of your life your good deeds
brought their reward, your evil actions
their disastrous results. Through their
influence your character formed itself out
of your experiences and your thoughts.
They wero tho instruments of your fata
It was they that ordered tho mcasuro
of joy and pain which was meted out to
you in any one of your incarnations,
according to your conduct in earlier lives.
They ruled you by tho all-binding law of
Karma. Now they shall free you from
a part of their constraint, and a portion of
that which they havo accomplished for
you must you now accomplish for yoursolf.
In tho past you havo borno mnny hard
148 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS-
- blows from Fate. Did you not know
wherefore? Each was the effect of a
pernicious deed in a life gone by. You
found joy and gladness, and you partook
of them. They, too, were the fruits of
earlier deeds. In your character you
have many beautiful qualities, many ugly
flaws ; and both of these you have woven
for yourself out of your bygone experi-
ences and thoughts. Till now you did
not know of this ; only the effects were
revealed to you. But they, the Karmic
Powers, beheld all the deeds of your
former lives, all your obscure thoughts
and feelings; and thus have they deter-
mined what you now are and the manner
in which you now live.
“ But the hour has come when all the
good and the evil aspects of your bygone
lives shall be laid open before you. Till
now they were interwoven with your
whole being ; they were in you, and you
tiik nnsT ouatuhan l-to
could not sco them, even ns with physical
eyes you cannot see your own physical
brain. Now, however, they detach them-
selves from you ; they emerge from your
personality. They assume an indepen-
dent form which you can observe, even
as you observe the stones and flowers of
tho external world. And I — I am tlint
very being which has found for itself a
body wrought of your noblo and your
ignoblo deeds. My spectral robe is woven
according to tho entries in your lifo’s
ledger. Hitherto you have borne mo
invisibly within yourself, yet it was well
for you that this should be, for the wisdom
of tho destiny which was hidden oven
from yourself has therefore worked
hitherto toward tho extinguishing of tho
hideous stains that were upon my form.
Now tlint I have emerged, that hidden
wisdom also departs from you. It will
henceforth troublo itself no moro concern-
150 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
ing you. It will now leave the work in
your hands alone. It is for me to become
a complete and splendid being, if I am
not, indeed, to fall into decay. If this,
the latter, should occur, then should I
drag you also down into a dark and ruined
world. If you would avoid this, then let
your own wisdom become so great that it
can take over to itself the task of that
other wisdom which was hidden from you,
and is now departed. When you have
passed my threshold I shall never leave
your side for a single moment. From
henceforth, when you do or think anything
that is evil, you will straightway discern
your guilt as a hideous, demoniacal distor-
tion of this that is my form. Only when
you have made good all your bygone evil
deeds and have so elevated yourself that
further evil becomes a thing impossible to
you, — only then will my being be trans-
formed into glorious beauty. Then, too,
THE FIRST GUARDIAN 151
shall I again unite myself with you in ono
being for tlio helping of your further
activity.
"My threshold is constructed out of
every feeling of fear to which you aro still
accessible, out of every shrinking from tho
power which will take over to itself tho
complete responsibility for all your deeds
and thoughts. So long ns you liavo still
any fear of that self-government of your
fate, all that belongs to this threshold has
not yet been built into it ; and so long as
a singlo stono is there found missing, you
must remain standing as ono forbidden
entranco, or elso must you stumblo. Seek
not, then, to pass my threshold until you
feol yourself liberated from all fear, ready
for the highest responsibility.
“Hitherto I have only emerged from
your personality when Death recalled you
from an earthly life, but ovon then my
form was veiled from yon. Only tho
152 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
powers of destiny who watched over you
could behold me, and they were able, in
accordance with my appearance, to build
in you, during the interval between death
and a new birth, all that power and that
capacity wherewith in a new terrestrial
existence you could labour at the glorify-
ing of my form for the assurance of your
progress. It was on account of my im-
perfection, indeed, that the powers of
destiny were driven again and again to
lead you back into a new incarnation upon
earth. If you died, I was yet there ; and
according to me did the Lords of Karma
fashion the manner of your re-birth.
“ Only when through an endless proces-
sion of lives you have brought me to per-
fection shall you no longer descend among
the powers of death, but, having united
yourself absolutely with me, you shall pass
over with me into immortalitv.
“ Thus do I stand before you here to-day
THE FIRST GUARDI AH
153
visible, as I have always stood invisible
beside you in the hour of death. When
you shall have passed my threshold you
will enter those kingdoms which else
would have opened to you only at physical
death. You will enter them with full
knowledge, and henceforth, when you
wander outwardly visible upon the earth,
you will also move through the kingdom
of death, which is the kingdom of eternal
life. I am indeed the angel of Death;
yet at the same time I am the bringer of
an imperishable higher life. Through me
you will die while still living in your body,
to be reborn into an immortal existence.
“The kingdom that you now enter will
introduce you to beings of a superhuman
kind, and in that kingdom happiness will
be your lot. But the first acquaintance
to be made in that world must be myself,
I that am your own creation. Erstwhile
I lived upon your life, but now through
154 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
you I have grown to a separate existence
and here stand before you as the visible
gauge of your future deeds, perhaps, too,
as your constant reproach. You were
able to form me, but in so doing you
have taken up the duty of transforming
me.”
What has been here presented in a
narrative form one must not imagine to be
merely something allegorical, but realise
that it is an experience of the student
which is in the highest degree actual . 1
The Guardian will warn him not to go
1 It will be divined from the above that the
Guardian of the Threshold there described is an
(astral) form, such as is revealed to the awakened
higher sight of the occult student, and it is to this
superphysical “ meeting ” that occult science conducts.
It is one of the lesser magical performances to
make the Guardian of the Threshold visible on the
physical plane also. To make this possible it is
necessary to produce a cloud of smoke, consisting of
•fine substances, by means of some frankincense which
is composed of a number of ingredients in a particular
THE FIRST GUARDIAN
155
further if ho does not feel in himself tho
power necessary for tho fulfilment of
thoso demands which have been set forth
in the preceding speech. Although tho
form of the Guardian is so frightful, it is
yet nothing but the cfTect of tho student's
own past lives, his oun character, risen
out of him into an independent life. This
awakening is brought about by tho mutual
separation of the volitions, tho thoughts,
and tho feelings. It is an experience of
tho deepest significance when one feels
for tho first timo that one has producod a
commixture The <lc\ eloped power of tho magician
is then able to mould the emoho into shapo and to
animate its Bubstanco with tho still unbalanced Karma
of tho individual Ho who is sufficiently prepared
for tho higher vision no longer requires this pheno-
menal sight, while ho who Bees his Btill unbalanced
Karma, without adequato preparation, as a visible
living creature before las eyes, exposes lumsolf to tho
greatest danger of falling into evil byways Tho
Guardian of the Threshold has been romantically
depicted by Bulwer L) tton in Zanont
156 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
spiritual being. The next thing to be
aimed at is the preparation of the occult
student so that he can endure the terrible
sight without a vestige of timidity, and at
the moment of the meeting really feel his
power to be so increased that he can take
it upon himself to effect with full realisa-
tion the glorifying of the Guardian.
A result of this meeting with the
Guardian of the Threshold, if successful,
is that the next physical death of the
student is an event entirely different from
what death was before. He consciously
goes through the death whereby he lays
aside the physical body, as he lays aside
an outworn garment or one that is grown
useless on account of a sudden rent. This
— his physical death — is now only an
important fact, as it were, to those who
have lived with him, whose preceptions are
still restricted to the world of the senses.
, For them the occult student “ dies,” but
TUT. FIRST GUARDIAN 157
for himself nothing of importance in his
wliolo cmironment is changed. Tho
entire superplissical world into which he
steps already stood open to him before
death, and it is tho samo world that after
death confronts him.
Now, the Guardian of tho Threshold
is also connected with other matters
Tho individual belongs to a family, a
nation, a race His deeds in this world
depend upon Ins relationship to this
greater unit His indmdnal character is
likew isc connected w ith it. Tho conscious
deeds of a single person nro by no incans
tho sum of all ho must reckon with in
respect of Ins family, slock, nation, and
race. There is a destiny, as there is a
character, pel taming to tho family or tho
raco or tho nation. For tho person who
is restricted to his senses those things
remain ns general ideas, nml tho
materialistic thinker will regard tho
158 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
occult scientist contemptuously when he
hears that for the latter the family or
national character, the lineal or racial
destiny, becomes just as real a being as
the personality which is produced by the
character and destiny of the individual.
The occultist comes to know of higher
worlds in which the separated person-
alities are discerned as members, like the
arms, legs, and head of an individual; and
in the life of a family, of a nation, or a
race, he sees at work not only the separate
individuals, but also the very real souls of
the family, nation, or race. Indeed, in a
certain sense, the separate individuals are
only the executive organs of this family
or racial spirit. In truth, one can say that
the soul of a nation, for example, makes
use of an individual belonging to that
nation, for the execution of certain deeds.
The national soul does not descend to
sensible reality. It dwells in higher
THE FIRST GUARDIAN 159
worlds, and in order to work in tiro
physical world makes use of tlio physical
organs of a particular person. In a
higher sense it is as when an architect
makes use of a workman for executing
the details of a building. Every person
gets his work assigned him, in the truest
sense of the words, by the soul of the
family, the nation, or tbo race. Now the
ordinary person is by no means initiated
into the higher scheme of his work. Ho
works unconsciously toward the goal of
the nation or race. From the moment
when the occult student meets the
Guardian of the Threshold, he has not
merely to discern his own tasks os a
personality, butmust also work consciously
at those of his nation or his race. Every
extension of his horizon implies an ex-
tension of his duties. As a matter of fact,
the occult student joins a new body to
those finer vehicles of his soul. He puts
160 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
on another garment. Hitherto he went
through the world with those coverings
which clothed his personal it} 7 . That
which he must accomplish for his com-
munity, his nation, or his race, is managed
by the higher spirits which utilise his
personality. A further revelation which
is now made to him by the Guardian is
that henceforth these spirits will with-
draw their hands from him. He must get
quite clear of that union. Now, if he did
not develop in himself those powers which
pertain to the national or racial spirits, he
would completely harden himself as a
separate creature and would rush upon
his own destruction. Doubtless there
are many people who would say, “ Oh ! I
have entirely freed myself from all lineal
or racial connections ; I only want to be
man and nothing but man.” To these
one must reply, “ Who, then, brought you
to this freedom ? Was it not your family
THE FIRST GUARDIAN 1C1
who gave you that position in the world
where you now stand ? Was it not your
ancestry, your nation, your race, that lmvo
made you what you are? They havo
brought you up ; and if you are now
exalted above all prejudices, if you are
one of the light-bringors and benefactors
of your clan, or even of your race, you owe
that to their education. Indeed, when
you say of yourself that you are ' nothing
as a person,’ you owo the very fact that
you have so bcconto to tho spirit of your
community." Only tho occult student
learns what it means to bo cut off entirely
from tho family, tho clan, or tho racial
spirit IIo alone realises tho insignifi-
cance of all such education in respect of
tho life which now confronts him, for
everything that has gathered around him
falls utterly away when tho threads that
bind tho will, tho thoughts, and tho
feelings aro sundored. Ho looks back on
11
162 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
all the events of his previous education as
one must regard a house of which the
stones have fallen apart in pieces and
which one must therefore build up again
in a new form.
It is more than merely a figure of speech
to say that after the Guardian of the
Threshold has uttered his first communica-
tions, there rises up from the place where
he stands a great whirlwind, which ex-
tinguishes all those lights of the spirit
which had hitherto illumined the pathway
of life. At the same time an utter black-
ness engulfs the student. It is only broken
a little by the rays that stream forth from
the Guardian of the Threshold, and out
of that darkness resound his last admoni-
tions : — “ Step not across my threshold
before you are assured that you can
illuminate the blackness by yourself : take
not a single step forward unless you are
certain that you have a sufficiency of oil
THE FIRST GUARDIAN 1G3
in your lamp. The lamps of the guides
which hitherto you have followed will
now, in the future, be absent.” After
these words tlio student hns to turn round
nnd direct his gaze backward. The
Guardian of tho Threshold now draws
away a veil that beforo had hidden deep
secrots. Tho lineal, tho national, tho
racial spirits nro rovealed in their comploto
reality, and tlio student now secs clearly
how he had been guided so far, but it also
dawns upon him that henceforth he will
liavo no such guidance. This is n second
warning received at tho threshold from its
guardian.
No one can attain to this vision un-
prepared ; but tho higher training, which
generally makes it possiblo for a person
to press on to tho threshold, puts him
simultaneously in a position to find at
tho right momont tho necessary power.
Indeed, this training is of so harmonious
164 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
a kind, that the entrance into the new
life can be made to lose its exciting and
tumultuous character. The experience at
the threshold is, for the occult student,
attended by a foreshadowing of that bliss
which is to form the keynote of his newly
awakened life. The sensation of a new
freedom will outweigh all other feelings ;
and together with this sensation the new
duties and the new responsibilities will
seem as something which must needs be
undertaken by a person at a particular
stage in his life.
THE SECOND GUAItDIAN OF
TXIE THRESHOLD
MFE AXD DEATH
It has already been shown how impor-
tant for tho individual is tho meeting
with tho so-called Lesser Gunrdian of
tho Threshold, becauso ho then becomes
awaro of a suporphysical being which ho
has himself created. Tho body of this
being is constructed out of tho results —
hitherto imperceptible to him — of his
actions, feelings, and thoughts. It is
theso invisiblo forces that have becomo
tho cause of his destiny and his character.
It is then clear to tho individual that in
166 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
tlie past lie liimself laid the ground-plans
for the present. His nature now stands
revealed, to a certain extent, before him.
For instance, it comprises particular
inclinations and habits. He can now
understand why he has them. He has
met with certain blows of fate; he now
knows whence they came. He perceives
why he loves one and hates another ; why
he is made happy by this and unhappy by
that. By means of the invisible causes
the visible life is made comprehensible.
The essential facts of life, too, such as
illness and health, death and birth, unveil
themselves before his gaze. He observes
how he had woven before his birth the
causes which necessitated his return to
life. From thenceforth he knows that
being within himself which is constructed
in the visible world after an imperfect
manner, and which can only be brought
to perfection in the same visible world;
THE SECOND GUARDIAN 1G7
for in no other world is there the oppor-
tunity of working fit tho upbuilding of
that being. Further than this, ho secs
how death cannot sever him lastingly
from this world. For ho should say to
himself : “ Onco I camo for tho first timo
to this world bccauso X was n being that
needed tho life hero lived in order to
ovolvo those attributes which could not
bo developed in any other world. Ilero
must I remain until I have evolved in
myself whatever can hero bo attained. I
shall only become, at somo far-ofT timo,
a fit worker in another world if I have
developed in tho phenomenal world all
the qualities which pertain to it."
Among tho most important experiences
of tho Initiato is that which occurs when
ho first learns to know and to chorish tho
visible world at its true value ; and this
knowledge comes to him by his very
insight into tho suporphysical world. He
168 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
who cannot see there and who consequently
imagines that the superphysical worlds
are infinitely the more valuable, is likely
to under-estimate the worth of the
phenomenal world. He, however, who
has had that insight into the superphysical
worlds well knows that without his ex-
periences in the visible he would be totally
powerless in the invisible. If he would
really live in the latter he must possess
the faculties and instruments for that life,
and these he can only acquire in the
visible world. He must attain spiritual
vision if the invisible world is to become
perceptible to him; but this power of
vision in a "higher” world is gradually
developed through the experiences of
the "lower.” One can no more be
born into a spiritual world with spiritual
eyes, if one has not prepared them in
the world of sense, than a child could
be born with physical eyes if they had^
THE SECOND GUARDIAN 169
not already been formed in tlio mother’s
womb.
From this standpoint it will also be
obvious why tlio “ threshold ” to tlio super-
physical world is watched by a “ Guardian.”
In no case may a true vision of that splicro
bo granted to a person who 1ms not yet
acquired tlio necessary faculties. For this
reason, at each death a veil is drawn over
tlio realities of the other world when a
person enters it whilo still incapable of
working within it. IIo should only
behold them when ho is ripe for it.
When the occult student enters tho
superphysical world, lifo assumes quito a
new meaning to him, for in tho world of
sense ho discerns tho seed-ground of a
higher world ; so that in a certain senso
this “higher” will seem very defective
without tho “ lower.” Two outlooks aro
opened beforo him : tho first into tho
Past ; tho second into the Futuro.
170 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
He looks into a past when this visible
world was not. Long ago had he out-
grown the fancy that the superphysical
world had developed itself out of the
sense-world. He well knows that the
superphysical was the first, and that out
of it everything phenomenal has been
evolved. He sees how he himself, before
he came for the first time to this pheno-
menal world, belonged to a world superior
to the senses. Yet this, the pristine
superphysical world, needed to pass
through the physical. Without such a pas-
sage its further evolution would not have
been possible. Only when the beings of
the phenomenal world have developed
within themselves the faculties that cor-
respond to that world can the super-
sensual beings again move onward. These
beings are no other than men and women.
They have arisen, as they now live, from
an imperfect stage of spiritual existence,
THE SECOND GUARDIAN 171
and must in their own inner natnro bring
about its completion, whereby they will
then be fit for further work in the higher
world. Thus begins the outlook into the
future. It points to a higher stago in tho
snpersensual world. In this will appear
tho fruits which have been matured in tho
world of sense. The latter, as such, will
be superseded, but its experiences will bo
incorporated into a higher sphere.
Thus is rovealed tho raison d'etre of
illness and death in tho world of sense.
Death is nothing else than a sign that
tho formor superphysical world had
arrived at a point from which it could not
mako any further progress by itself. It
would necessarily liavo had to undergo
a universal death if it had not rocoivcd
a new life-impulse, and tho now life has
thus come down to battle with universal
death. Out of the remnants of a world
decaying and chilly, blossoms tho seed of
172 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
a new world. That is why we have death
and life in the world. Slowly things pass
over into each other. The decaying
portion of the old world still adheres to
the seeds of the new life, which indeed
arose out of it. The fullest expression of
this may be found among human beings.
Man bears as a covering that which he
has gathered about him in the old world,
and within this covering is formed the
germ of that being which in the future
will have life. He is therefore of a double
nature, mortal and immortal. In his end-
ing state he is mortal ; in his beginning
state immortal ; but it is only within this
twofold world, which finds its expression
in the physical, that he can acquire those
faculties which will conduct him to the
undying world. Indeed, his task is pre-
cisely to draw out of the mortal the fruits
of .the immortal. If he glances at his own
nature, which he himself has formed in
THE SECOND GUARDIAN 173
the past, he cannot but say : “ I have in
me the elements of a decaying world.
They are at work in me, and only little by
little can I break their power by means
of the newly created immortal elements.”
Thus man goes on his way from death to
life. He applies to life what he learns
through death. If in full consciousness
he could speak to himself in his death-
hour, he might say : “ Death is my teacher.
The fact that I am dying is a result of the
entire past wherein I am enmeshed. Yet
the soil of death has matured in me the seed
of what is deathless. This it is that I take
with me into another world. If it had
been a matter merely of the past, I should
not then have been born. At birth the
life of the past is closed. Life in the
sense-world is rescued from an all-con-
suming death by the new life-germ within.
The time between birth and death is only
an expression for as much as the new life
174 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
was able to rescue from the decaying past ;
and illness is nothing else than the effect
of that portion of the past which is
declining.”
In all that has here been said we find
an answer to the question, “ Why is it that
only little by little and through error and
imperfection may man work his way up to
the good and true ? ” At first his actions,
feelings, and thoughts are under the
dominion of the fading and the mortal.,
From this are shaped his physical organs,
and therefore these organs, and the forces
which act on them, are consecrated to the
perishable. The instincts, impulses, and
passions, or the organs which belong to
them, do not themselves manifest the
imperishable, but rather will that which
emerges from the work of these organs
become imperishable. Only when man
has worked out of the perishable every-
thing that is to be worked out, will he rid
Tun SKCOND GUARDIAN 175
himself of these principles from which ho
lms grown and which find their expression
in the physically perceptible world.
Thus, then, tho first Guardian of tho
Threshold stands ns tho replica of tho
individual in his double nature, wherein nro
mingled tho perishable and tho imperish-
able ; and it is then made clear to him how
much ho lacks beforo ho can attain tho
sublime form of light which may onco moro
inhabit tho puro spiritual world.
Tho degreo in which ho is enmeshed in
tho physical senso-nnturo will bo shown
to tho student by tho Guardian of tho
Threshold. This entanglement is ex-
pressed by tho oxistenco of instincts,
impulses, appetites, egotistical desiros, all
forms of selfishness, and so forth. It is
also expressed in tho connection with a
race, a nation, and so on; for nations and
races aro only so many different evolu-
tionary stages up to the puro humanity.
176 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
A race or a nation stands so much the
higher, the more completely it gives ex-
pression to its kinship with the type of
pure and ideal humanity, the more it has
worked through the physical and perish-
able to the superphysical and imperishable.
The evolution of the individual by means
of reincarnation in ever higher national
and racial forms is therefore a process of
liberation. Ultimately the individual will
appear in his harmonious perfection. In
a similar way the pilgrimage through ever
purer moral and religious conceptions is a
perfecting process. Every moral stage,
for instance, still retains, beside the ideal-
istic germ of the future, a passion for the
perishable.
Now in the Guardian of the Threshold,
above described, only the result of time
that has passed away is manifested, and
in the germ of the future is only that
which has been interwoven with it in this
THE SECOND GUARDIAN 177
bygone time. Yet it is for the individual
to bring into tbo supcrpliysical world of
tlio futuro everything that he can draw
forth from tho world of the senses. If ho
should only bring that which, coming from
tho post, is commingled with his counter-
part, ho would only partially have fulfilled
his earthly task. Therefore, after somo
time tho Greater Guardian of tho Thres-
hold is joined to tho lesser. Tho mooting
with tho second Guardian shall again bo
described in narrative form.
When tho individual has recognised all
thoso qualities from which ho 1ms to free
himself, his way is stopped by a sublime
and luminous form, whoso beauty it is quite
impossible to describo in human language.
This mooting occurs when tho oigans of
thinking, feeling, and willing havo so far
loosoned themsolvos, oven in their physical
connections, that tho regulation of their
reciprocal relations is no longer managed
12
178 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
by themselves, but by the higher conscious-
ness, which has now entirely separated
itself from' physical conditions. The
organs of thought, feeling, and will have
then become instruments in the power of
the human soul, who exercises his con-
trolling power over them from super-
physical regions. The soul, thus liberated
from all the bondage of sense, is now met
by the second Guardian of the Threshold,
who addresses him as follows : —
“You have freed yourself from the ,
world of sense. You have won the right
to settle in the superphysical world.
From this you can now work. For your
own part you no longer require your
physical embodiment. If you should wish
to acquire the faculties by which to dwell
in this higher world, you no longer need
to go back to the world of sense. Now
gaze at me ! Lo ! how immeasurably sub-
lime I stand, above all that you have at
THE SECOND GUARDIAN 179
present evolved out of yourself! You
have arrived at tho present stage of your
progress towards perfection through tho
faculties which you were ablo to devolop in
the sense-world whilo you were still con-
fined to it. Now, however, must a poriod
begin in which your liberated powers may
act yot further upon tho world of sonse.
Hitherto you have but freed yourself, but
now can you go forth as a liberator of all
your fellows. As an individual have you
striven until to-day, but now shall you
associate yoursolf with tho wholo, so that
you may bring not yourself alone into tho
suporphysical world, but all things else
that exist in the world of phenomena. It
shall be opon for yon to unite yoursolf
with my form, but I cannot bo blessed
where yot there is any one unredeemed !
As a separate freed-man you would liko
to enter at once into the kingdom of the
superphysical, but then would you have
180 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
perforce to look down on the still unliber-
ated creatures in the world of sense, and
you would have separated your destiny
from theirs. Yet you and they are all
linked with each other. It is necessary
that all of you should descend into the
world of sense in order that you may
draw out of it the powers that are needed
for a higher world. If you should separ-
ate yourself from your fellows, you will
have misused the powers which you have
only been able to develop in common
with them. Had they not descended, the
descent had been impossible for you ;
without them you had lacked the powers
that make up your superphysical exist-
ence. These powers for which you have
striven together with your fellows, you
must now in like manner share with them.
So long as you fail to apply every one of
your acquired powers to the liberation
of your companions, I shall obstruct your
THE SECOND GUARDIAN 181
entrance into tlio highest regions of tlio
superphysical world. With thoso powers
you have already won, you can stay in
the lower regions of that world ; but
before tlio gates of tho higher regions X
stand as one of tho cherubim with fiery
sword in front of Paradiso, to hinder your
entrance as long as you havo powors that
remain unapplied to tho world of sense.
If you rofuso to apply your powors in this
way, others will come who will do so ; and
then will a lofty suporpliysical world
receive all tho fruits of tho sonso-world,
but to you will bo denied tho very soil in
which you were rooted. Tho world en-
nobled will develop itself beyond you, and
you will be shut out therefrom. Then
would your path be the black path, while
those from whom you had severed your-
self go forward on the white way."
So speaks the Greater Guardian of
the Threshold soon after tho meeting
182 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
with the first watcher has taken place.
The Initiate, however, knows exactly what
lies before him if he should follow the
allurements of a premature abode in the
superphysical world. An indescribable
splendour proceeds from the second
Guardian of the Threshold; union with
him appears as a remote ideal to the
gazing soul, yet simultaneously comes the
certitude that this union will only be
possible if the Initiate has applied to the
task of redeeming and liberating this
world every power which has come to
him therefrom. If he resolves to fulfil
the demands of that luminous form, he
becomes one of those who lead humanity
to freedom. He brings his gifts to the
altar of mankind. But if he prefers his
own premature elevation into the super-
physical world, then will he be submerged
in the stream of human evolution. After
his liberation from the world of sense he
THE SECOND GUARDIAN 183
can win no now powers. If ho places his
work at the disposal of the world, ho must
renounce tlio prospect of acquiring any-
thing further for himself.
One cannot say that tho individual
would naturally cliooso the wkito path,
when so called upon to make his decision.
This depends entirely upon whether at
the time of making tho decision ho is so
oxalted that no touch of selfishness would
make the allurement of such beatitude
appear desirable. For these allurements
are tho strongest possiblo ; while, on the
other side, no specific allurements exist.
Nothing there evokes his egotism. That
which he obtains in tho higher regions of
the superphysical is nothing that comes to
him, but solely something which proceeds
from him — that is to say, the love of his
fellows. Nothing that egotism desires
is denied upon the black path. On the
contrary, the fruits of this way consist
184 INITIATION AND ITS RESULTS
precisely in the complete gratification of
egotism, and therefore if any one merely
desires bliss for himself, he would certainly
travel down that way, since it is the
appropriate path for him. No one, there-
fore, should expect the occultist of the
white path to give him instruction con-
cerning the development of his egotistical
self. The occultist has not the smallest
interest in the beatification of the
individual. Each can attain that for
himself. It is not the task of the white
occultist to accelerate it. He is only
concerned with the evolution and libera-
tion of all those beings who are human or
akin to the human. Therefore they give
instructions only as to how one may use
one’s powers in co-operation with that
work. Consequently, they place before
all other attributes those of selfless
devotion and self-sacrifice. They do not
actually refuse any one, for even the most
T11E SECOND GUARDIAN 185
egotistical can ennoble themselves ; but ho
■who merely seolis something for himself,
so long as he continues to do so will gain
nothing from tko occultist. Indeed, oven
if the latter did not refuse him help, ho
■would deprive himself of the natural
effects of that assistance. He who really
follows out the instructions of the good
occult teachers will understand the de-
mands of the Greater Guardian after he
has crossed the threshold; but ho who
does not follow these instructions cannot
hope ever to reach the threshold. Their
instructions lead to the good, or clso they
are without effect at all ; for to guide us to
egotistical beatitude and a mere existence
in the superphysical world is outside the
circle of their task. It is part of their
duty to hold back the student from the
celestial world until he can enter it with a
will devoted entirely to selfless labour.
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THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
was formed at New York, November 17th, 1875, and incorporated
at Madras, April 3rd, 1905. It is an unsectarian body of seekers after
Truth, striving to serve humanity on spiritual lines, and therefore
endeavouring to check materialism and revive religious tendency. Its
three declared objects are:
First. — To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of
Humanity, without distinction of race, creedrsex, caste or colour.
Second. — To encourage the study of comparative religion,
philosophy atfd science.
Third. — T o investigate the unexplained laws of nature and the
powers latent in mad.
Enquiries may be addressed to the Recording Secretary, Theosophical Society,
Adyar, Madras, S. India, or to the following General Secretaries :
1 America
2 Great Britain
3 India
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5 Scandinavia
6 New Zealand
7 Netherlands .
8 France
9 Italy
10^ Germany
ll" Cuba ,
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13 Finland
14 Russia
15 Bohemia
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pr. Weller Van Hook — 103, State Street, Chicago.
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Mr. Charles Blech — 59, Avenue de la Bourdonnais, Paris.
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Mr. Henri Dijkman — P.O. Box 644, Pretoria, Transvaal.