Secret Incarnations of St. Germain as Compiled by John Barnwell

Compiled by John Barnwell

After reading Douglas Gabriel’s post on the Secret Incarnations of St. Germain, the aspirant may want further insight into the indications that Rudolf Steiner and his pupils gave regarding St. Germain’s incarnations. This compilation of Steiner lectures are supplemental materials for advanced students of the Masters and Avatars series posted at OurSpirit.com.

Unless indicated, all lectures and books are from Rudolf Steiner. Biographical content from Wikipedia.

Cain

The son of Adam and Eve: (Genesis 4:1-26)

According to the Christian Community priest Uwe Lemke, Rudolf Steiner gave the following indications on the Adam & Eve family:

Adam – Elijah-Naboth – John the Baptist
Eve – Balkis the Queen of Sheba – the Virgin Mary (Solomon Mary)
Cain – Hiram Abiff, – Lazarus – Saint John the Divine
Abel – King Solomon – Mary Magdalene

The Temple Legend, The Contrast between Cain and Abel, Lecture 2, Berlin, June 10, 1904.

    The male, the more material race, was represented in Cain, the female, the more spiritual, in Abel-Seth. The one who creates things for himself, that is Cain. Cain lays the foundation of zither playing and other arts (Genesis 4, 21–22).

Cain makes a different claim. He turns to God with the products of his own intelligence. That is something quite foreign to the nature of God, because it is something which man has achieved out of his own freedom. Cain is the type of man who aspires to the arts and sciences. The smoke from Cain’s offering is rejected and remains on the earth. What is independently produced remains on the earth, like the offering of Cain. Cain was the one who became a tiller of the soil and transformed it. This outward difference in the generations would not have come about in man if a part of humanity had not descended onto the physical plane.

Now man is fully united with the earth so that there is a contrast between Cain and Abel, a contrast between the Sons of God and the sons of the physical plane, between the Abel-Seth generation who are the Sons of God and the Cain generation, the sons of the physical plane. But there still remain some Sons of God. Not all of those belonging to the Abel line were eradicated. And now we see what took place when to the question: ‘Where is Abel, thy brother?’ Cain answered: ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ No man would have said that previously. That can only be said by an understanding which reacts as though acoustically [?] to the spiritual. Now the principle of struggle, of opposition, is added to the principle of love; now egoism is born: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

The Temple Legend, Concerning the Lost Temple and How it is to be Restored, In Connection with the Legend of the True Cross, or Golden Legend. Lecture 11, Berlin, May 15, 1905. 93

This Temple Legend is as follows: Once one of the Elohim united with Eve, and out of that Cain was born. Another of the Elohim, Adonai or Jehovah-Yahveh, thereupon created Adam. The latter, for his part, united with Eve, and out of this marriage Abel was born. Adonai caused trouble between those belonging to Cain’s family and those belonging to Abel’s family, and the result of this was that Cain slew Abel. But out of the renewed union of Adam with Eve the race of Seth was founded.

    Thus we have two different races of mankind. The one consists of the original descendants of the Elohim, the sons of Cain, who are called the Sons of Fire. They are those who till the earth and create from inanimate nature and transform it through the arts of man. Enoch, one of the descendants of Cain, taught mankind the art of hewing stone, of building houses, of organizing society of founding civilized communities. Another of Cain’s descendants was Tubal-Cain, who worked in metal. The architect Hiram-Abiff was descended from the same race.

Abel was a shepherd. He held firmly to what he found, he took the world as it was. There is always this antithesis between people. One sticks to things as they are, the other wants to create new life from the inanimate, through art. Other nations have portrayed the ancestor of these Sons of Fire in the Prometheus saga.

    It is the Sons of Fire who have to work into the world the wisdom, beauty and goodness from the all-embracing universal thought, in order to transform the world into a temple.

King Solomon was a descendant of the lineage of Abel. He could not build the temple himself; he lacked the art. Hence he appointed the architect Hiram-Abiff, the descendant of the lineage of Cain. Solomon was divinely handsome. When the Queen of Sheba met him, she thought she saw an image of gold and ivory. She came to unite herself with him.

Jehovah is also called the God of created form, the God who turns what is living into a living force, in contrast with that other Elohim who creates by charming life out of what is lifeless. To which of these does the future belong? That is the great question of the Temple Legend. If mankind were to develop under the religion of Jehovah all life would expire in form. In occult science, that is called the Transition to the Eighth Sphere.

    But the point in time has now arrived when man himself must awaken the dead to life. That will happen through the Sons of Cain, through those who do not rely on the things around them, but are themselves the creators of new forms. The Sons of Cain themselves frame the building of the world.

When the Queen of Sheba saw the temple and asked who the architect was, she was told it was Hiram. And as soon as she saw him, he seemed to her to be the one who was predestined for her. King Solomon now became jealous; and indeed, he entered into league with three apprentices who had failed to achieve their master’s degree, in order to undermine Hiram’s great masterpiece, the Molten Sea. This great masterpiece was to be made by casting it. Human spirit was to have been united with the metal. Of the three apprentices, one was a Syrian mason, the second was a Phoenician carpenter, and the third was a Hebrew miner. The plot succeeded: the casting was destroyed by pouring water over it. It all blew apart. In despair the architect was about to throw himself into the heat of the flames. Then he heard a voice from the center of the earth. This came from Cain himself, who called out to him: ‘Take here the hammer of the world’s divine wisdom, with which you must put it all right again.’ And Cain gave him the hammer. Now it is the spirit of man which man builds into his astral body, if he is not to let it remain in the condition in which he received it. This is the work which Hiram now had to do. But there was a plot against his life. We shall proceed from there next time.

The Temple Legend, Concerning the Lost Temple and How it is to be Restored, In Connection with the Legend of the True Cross, or Golden Legend. Lecture 13, Berlin, May 29, 1905

We must therefore picture — quite in the sense of this legend — that up to the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth, there were two tendencies: the one, that built the earthly temple, that had its impact on the doings of men, so that at a later time the Divine Word that had come to earth through the Christ Jesus, could be received. A dwelling had to be prepared for the appearance of the Divine Word on earth. Next, the Divine itself should for a while develop itself upwards over the course of time as a kind of parallel tendency to the second current. Hence a distinction is made between the sons of men, the descendants of Cain, who were to prepare the worldly aspect, and the sons Abel/Seth, who cultivated the divine aspect, until the two streams could be united with each other, Christ Jesus united these two streams. The Temple had first to be built outwardly, therefore, until, in the shape of Christ Jesus, He should arrive Who was able to raise it up again in three days.

On the one hand, then, we have the current of the Sons of Cain, and on the other that of the Abel/Seth line, both of which are preparing the development of mankind, so that the Son of God can then unite the two sides, and make the two streams into one. This finds expression in the holy legend in a profound way.

Tubal-Cain

A descendant of Cain, the son of Lamech and Zillah, and the brother of Naamah: “…instructor of every artificer in brass and iron” (Genesis 4:22)

The Temple Legend, The Essence and Task of Freemasonry from the Point of View of Spiritual Science, Lecture 7, Berlin, December 2, 1904. GA 93

Thus we find two kinds of human being characterized in Cain and Abel. The one consists of those who accept what God has prepared for them. The others — the free humanity — are those who till the soil and labor to win living products out of what is lifeless. Those who regard themselves as Sons of Cain are they who understand the Temple Legend and wish to live by it. Out of the race of Cain spring all those who are the creators of the arts and sciences of mankind: Tubal-Cain who is the first true architect and the God of smithies and working tools; and also Hiram-Abiff, or Adonhiram, who is the hero of the Temple Legend. This Hiram is sent for by King Solomon, famous for his wisdom, who belongs to the race of Abel, those who receive their wisdom from God. Thus this contrast appears once more at the court of Solomon — Solomon the wise, and Hiram the independent worker, who has achieved his wisdom through human striving.

The Temple Legend, Freemasonry and Human Evolution, Lecture 17, Berlin, October, 23 1905

Thus, during the Old Covenant, the Sons of Cain were building the Three-tiered Temple. In all this, since it is made up of our outer institutions — in which you can include our dwellings and tools, the social and political organs, the system of morals — is the building of the Sons of Cain that serves the lower members of man’s nature.

Now there is a very interesting and important legend in which these truths are symbolically expressed for the Freemasons. That is the Temple Legend. And the reason for it is as follows: The Bible itself, the Old Testament, derives from the female, the intuitive wisdom, and bears its stamp. The Old Testament is female wisdom. Male wisdom was not able to attain to intuition. It confined itself to building and work. It took stones and constructed buildings. It took metals and made implements. The Temple Legend puts it thus:

    One of the Elohim impregnated Eve and Cain was born. Afterwards, another of the Elohim, Jehovah, also known as Adonai, created Adam. And Adam begat Abel by Eve. This legend counterposed the wisdom of Cain and the Biblical wisdom, so that, by the beginning of the fourth Post-Atlantean epoch, we have two opposing currents: the Bible, representing womanly wisdom, and the Temple wisdom as its opposing male counterpart. Already, in pre-Christian times, what the man wisdom wanted stood in opposition to the female wisdom. Moreover, Cain slew his brother Abel. That too comes into the Temple Legend. Jehovah caused strife between the race of Cain and the race of Abel, and Cain killed Abel. What was the consequence of the appearance of this Cain wisdom? The outcome of it all was that the fruitfulness that propagated itself through its own wisdom was killed. By killing Abel the male knowledge in Cain killed the possibility of self-propagation that had been brought into being by the gods. That means it is because knowledge has been transferred to the man, that the Abel in man has been killed.

    That is a process in man himself. Through male knowledge the creative force, the Abel within, has been killed. There now stand in hostile opposition to one another, the descendants of Cain and the race of those who were put in the place of Abel, the descendants of Seth. The descendants of Cain are those who use their masculine wisdom to build up the external world; the passive wisdom is applied to external construction. The divine wisdom does not stream down into it. Out of what is free, it must build in the world. It has no divine intuition. Through trial, through experience, results the harmonizing of the purely mineral products of the earth.

   Thus Tubal-Cain is born out of the race of Cain and thus, later on, will Hiram-Abiff or Adon-Hiram be born from the same lineage.

Among the Abelites, you find the strongest representative in Solomon. During the third cultural epoch all the representatives of the Abel line were priests. The ancient priestly wisdom was the intuitive wisdom which formerly worked in woman as the power of fertilization, but was then transformed, at a higher level, to spiritual wisdom. Out of this priestly wisdom came the Bible; in this way the Bible came to be a feminine wisdom. This feminine wisdom is able to make great revelations about the Divine; and to say how this relates to the angels and spirits. The business of the Sons of Cain is to shape the earth. Thus the original father of all smiths is indeed Tubal-Cain. Therefore Solomon had to send for Hiram-Abiff, who could build the Temple for him. He built it for King Solomon, the inheritor of the ancient priestly wisdom; for him, for Solomon, who transformed this priestly wisdom into external power. Kingship, as an outward institution, derives from the rule of the priests.

Thus Solomon sent for Hiram-Abiff. And thus Solomon’s Temple was built. But now the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon’s court and a kind of betrothal was celebrated there between the two. Now the temple was shown to the queen, and she desired to be introduced to the builder of this marvelous temple. When she was introduced to Hiram-Abiff, something quite special happened in her. A glance from Hiram-Abiff fell on her, and that worked in her like fire. And then a second thing happened, as follows: She wanted to see the workers and to be shown how all this was accomplished on the physical plane, so Hiram-Abiff took the Tau Symbol, held it aloft and the workers all came streaming together like ants. Through this she was so impressed that she deserted Solomon [for Hiram].

Some of Hiram’s apprentices, whom he had refused to make into Masters, came to Solomon’s aid. Now they sought to spoil Hiram’s masterpiece, the casting of the Molten Sea. Instead of it coming out as a work of art, streams of fire spurted out in every direction. Hiram-Abiff tried to quench it all with water, but all he achieved by this was a complete wreck. A rain of fire sprayed down on everything, including Hiram-Abiff. A voice called to him, however, not to be afraid, for out of this would come his greatest success. Then he was led by a figure to the center of the earth. There he met Cain himself, to whom he had been led by Tubal-Cain, who founded the art of metal-working. Here an important wisdom was revealed to him. He was told: Now know the true Jehovah, who is the cause of your being here. Jehovah hates the Sons of Fire, and wants to destroy them; he wants to destroy his own creation. But you need have nothing to fear. To you will be born a son, whom you will not yourself see, but from whom shall spring a race, out of which a new fire worship will develop on the earth. With the hammer which Tubal-Cain gave him, he was able to complete the projected Molten Sea, thereby rising still further in the Queen of Sheba’s affections.

During a walk, a bird appeared in the air, showing her the mystical Tau sign. From this the Queen’s nurse realized that the wisdom of the future was hidden under this sign of the Tau. During a feast, at which Solomon became intoxicated, the Queen of Sheba took the betrothal ring back from his hand. Hiram-Abiff was however set upon by the apprentices and killed. He was only just able to write the secret word on a golden triangle and hide it. It was later retrieved and enclosed in a stone shaped in the form of a cube. The Ten Commandments are inscribed on this stone that conceals the hidden word.

Name Unknown Incarnation

In the court of the Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut along with Senenmut (Manu) (1508–1458 B.C.) ????  There are no further specifics on Christian Rosenkreutz but Ehrenfried Pfeiffer commented on the incarnation of the “Mother Lodge of Humanity” into her court. It is curious that some Rosicrucians mention the founding of the Rosicrucian Order by Thutmosis III in 1489 B.C., we could speculate he was Rosenkreutz, but it would only be speculation.

Baron de Weeterode, in a letter dated 1784, and quoted by Thory (Act. Lat., i., 336), gives another mythical account. He says: “The disciples of the Rose Croix came, in 1188, from the East into Europe, for the propagation of Christianity after the troubles in Palestine. Three of them founded in Scotland the Order of the Masons of the East (Knights of the East), to serve as a seminary for instruction in the most sublime sciences. This Order was in existence in 1196. Edward, the son of Henry III, was received into the society of the Rose Croix by Raymond Lully [Ramon Llull]. At that time only learned men and persons of high rank were admitted.

Their founder was a seraphic priest of Alexandria, a magus of Egypt named Ormesius, or Ormus, who with six of his companions was converted in the year 96 by St. Mark. He purified the doctrine of the Egyptians according to the precepts of Christianity, and founded the society of Ormus, that is to say, the Sages of Light, to the members of which he gave a red cross as a decoration. About the same time the Essenes and other Jews founded a school of Solomonic wisdom, to which the disciples of Ormus united themselves. Then the society was divided into various Orders known as the Conservators of Mosaic Secrets, of Hermetic Secrets, etc.”

Joshua

Joshua or Hoshea the son of Nun: c. 1500–1390 B.C. While Joshua is not clearly identified in the Bible as a Widow’s Son, he is said to have been “Hoshea the son of Nun” (Numbers 13:8), whom “Moses called Joshua” (Numbers 13:16), both such names being variants of the name “Jesus,” meaning “salvation.”

The Battle for the Soul, Bernard Lievegoed, Chapter 4, page 63.

“Ehrenfried Pfeiffer has told me that Rudolf Steiner said that Joshua was an incarnation of Christian Rosenkreutz.”

According to the Hebrew Bible, Joshua was one of the twelve spies of Israel sent by Moses to explore the land of Canaan. (Numbers 13:1-16), and after the death of Moses, he led the Israelite tribes in the conquest of Canaan, and allocated the land to the tribes. According to Joshua 24:29, Joshua died at the age of 110.
Hiram Abiff

“The Son of the Widow”: Master Builder of the Temple of Solomon (c. 940 B.C.)
Hiram Abiff (also Hiram Abif or the Widow’s son) is the central character of an allegory presented to all candidates during the third degree of Freemasonry. Hiram is presented as the chief architect of King Solomon’s Temple, who is murdered in the Temple he designed by three ruffians during an unsuccessful attempt to force him to divulge the Master Masons’ secret passwords. The themes of the allegory are the importance of fidelity, and the certainty of death.

The Temple Legend, Freemasonry and Human Evolution II, Lecture 18, Berlin, October 23, 1905, GA 93

Freemasonry thus created the Temple Legend as an answer to the Bible Legend. This was to be the sword of battle against the priesthood. We therefore want to bring this Temple Legend before your soul. It has the following content:

In the beginning one of the Elohim created Cain by uniting himself with Eve. Another Elohim, Yahveh, countered by creating Adam, who united with Eve, as a result of which Abel was born. Cain killed Abel and Jehovah therefore made the race of Cain subject to the race of Abel.

That means that originally the worldly wisdom rebelled against the priestly wisdom and was defeated; for the Abel fine was continued in Seth and all worldly wisdom was made subservient to the priestly wisdom.

Next, it is related how the descendants of Cain conquered the world, how they developed the arts. Music, arts and sciences were cultivated by them. Tubal-Cain (Genesis 4:21–22), the master of brass and ironwork, Jubal, from whom the pipers and violinists descend, and Hiram, the builder of Solomon’s Temple (I Kings 7:13) are numbered among the descendants of Cain.

So, with Hiram, we have arrived at the transition from the third to the fourth Post-Atlantean epoch, when priestly rule turned into rule by kings. Kingship results from God’s grace, as represented by King Solomon. Solomon’s power was not sustained by work done on the physical plane, but was the manifestation of God’s grace. Priestly wisdom was turned into rule by kings. This was thus regarded as the successor to priestly rule, which was now unable to do — from its own resources — what was necessary for the progress of mankind on earth. The one who was to build the Temple had to be enlisted from among the descendants of Cain, because he would possess the autonomously worked out thinking.

The legend goes on to relate that Balkis, the Queen of Sheba, was betrothed to King Solomon. She visited him and was astounded at the Temple building — as he was at her wisdom. She wanted to see the master builder himself, for she could not conceive how such a wonderful building could result from human wisdom. Hiram came and made a forceful impression on her, simply by his glance alone. Next she asked to see those who worked on the Temple as well. When Solomon said this was impossible, Hiram made the mystical Tau sign in the air and all the workers streamed together immediately. In the mystical Tau sign lie the forces which the Sons of Cain use to work on the physical plane.

Three of Hiram’s apprentices are discontented because he did not promote them to the Master’s Degree. They conspire to hurt him. They want to spoil his masterpiece. Now he intends to make the Molten Sea; this is a major work of art, to be cast out of a fluid element, out of molten brass. This is a symbol of the Great Work of Art for which the entire mineral kingdom must be re-cast; which is the task of our Manvantara. The three apprentices do the following: they wreck the casting of the Molten Sea. Hiram tries to put this right by pouring water on the casting; everything then flies apart in a shower of fiery rain. As Hiram, in despair, gives himself up for lost he is led to the center of the earth by a figure whom he recognizes as Tubal-Cain. There he is told that Jehovah, or Adonai, is nothing else than an enemy of the Sons of Fire; he wants to destroy the Sons of Fire. Hiram, however, would have a son, whom he would indeed never see, but who would start a new race on earth. Tubal-Cain then gave him a hammer with which he can complete the casting of the Molten Sea. However, the three apprentices murder him. Before his death, he breathes out a word, which he inscribes on a golden triangle, and buries. No one understands the word; it is the Lost Word of the Freemasons. Hiram is buried and an acacia twig is planted on his grave. The triangle is dug up again, but no one knows its worth. It is buried again and a cube set up, on which the Ten Commandments are inscribed.

Now what is meant by ‘Jehovah hates the Sons of Fire?’ These are the people who were born by means of the single sex. In them wisdom is mingled with Kama, the earthly kamic fire [the astral body]. Those who have devoted themselves to the female priesthood are the sons of Abel. Hiram was promised: ‘You will have a son who will found a new race. However, you will not know him.’ This new race must come when the Lost Word regains its power, and is installed in a new way. The occult tradition which is embodied in Freemasonry works to bring about the re-establishment of the Lost Word. It works to enable the introduction of the active into the passive male element; so that it can regain the procreative force in the spirit, to turn what is passive into something active, so that the Sons of Cain can produce out of themselves.

The following tradition developed: the female was the primeval force. This gave the world everything that was in the world as wisdom. Now there is an occult connection between the power of speech and the power of sexual production. The Word has made everything. Originally it lived in man. Then man lost it. He can no longer create independently because he no longer has the Word. Only someone who was present at the Creation can know it. Tubal-Cain knew it and gave it to Hiram. Whoever wants to regain the power of procreation must gain possession of the Word. The truly creative power must unite itself with the Word. The Word will bring forth the man of the future; for the son of Hiram really will be seen. Fire, the Divine Power, will then establish itself in a new way. A new race will replace the old. In the ancient Hebrew language there is a Word, a Mantram, which, it is said, will create the world if uttered sufficiently strongly. Man will thus beget spiritual man by means of speech itself once the Word has developed sufficiently.

The power of speech changes at man’s puberty. This was regarded as a portent of the new Son of Hiram (II Chronicles 2:13). The ideal which the Freemasons had set themselves was therefore to bring about the procreation of this son from the male sex which is to result from the power of the larynx. Everything which subsequently appeared on the earth in physical form had its origin in the spirit. In the very beginning, the only things to work on earth were those which had resulted from the Divine Spirit. There then appeared, on the one hand, the female image-wisdom of the priests, and on the other, the imageless wisdom of Cain. Now it is interesting that when an image-content was sought for the wisdom of Cain, the male wisdom then borrowed from the female wisdom; the Temple Legend and the entire content of Freemasonry derives from the old priestly wisdom, from the revelation from above.

Hosea

In the Hebrew Bible, Hosea, son of Beeri, was an 8th-century BC prophet in Israel who authored the book of prophecies bearing his name. He is one of the Twelve Prophets of the Jewish Hebrew Bible, also known as the Minor Prophets of the Christian Old Testament. Hosea is often seen as a “prophet of doom,” but underneath his message of destruction is a promise of restoration.

The Talmud claims that he was the greatest prophet of his generation. The period of Hosea’s ministry extended to some sixty years and he was the only prophet of Israel of his time who left any written prophecy.

One of the early writing prophets, Hosea used his own experience as a symbolic representation of God and Israel: God the husband, Israel the wife. Hosea’s wife left him to go with other men; Israel left the Lord to go with false gods. Hosea searched for his wife, found her and brought her back; God would not abandon Israel and brought them back even though they had forsaken him.

The Book of Hosea was a severe warning to the northern kingdom against the growing idolatry being practiced there; the book was a dramatic call to repentance. Christians extend the analogy of Hosea to Christ and the church: Christ the husband, his church the bride. Christians see in this book a comparable call to the church not to forsake the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians also take the buying back of Gomer as the redemptive qualities of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

The Temple Legend, The Mystery Known to Rosicrucians, Lecture 5, Berlin, November 4, 1904. GA 93

That is the course taken by mankind’s evolution during the fourth and fifth Post-Atlantean epochs when seen esoterically. The temple of mankind’s earthly culture, the great Temple of Solomon, has already been built, but what is to crown it must still remain a secret. That could only be brought into being by an initiate. That initiate was misunderstood, betrayed, killed. The secret may not yet be revealed. It remains the possession of a few initiated Christians. It is sealed up in the casting of the Molten Sea and in the Golden Triangle. It is the same as the secret belonging to Christian Rosenkreutz, who was present in a very highly evolved reincarnation prior to the birth of Christ [Hosea], and who gave utterance to a remarkable saying at that time.

Let me describe in a few words how this Christian Rosenkreutz came to repeat a certain saying at the time of the outbreak of the French Revolution. He said: ‘For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.’ This was said by him long before it was said by Hosea and written down. It stems, however, from Christian Rosenkreutz.

Eleazar

Martyred during the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, c. 175 BC–164 B.C. (2 Maccabees). See: Emil Bock, Caesars and Apostles: Hellenism, Rome and Judaism.

Eleazar was a priest in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament), the second Kohen Gadol (High Priest), succeeding his father Aaron after Aaron’s death. He was a nephew of Moses and after the death of his older brothers Nadab and Abihu, he and his younger brother Ithamar were appointed to the charge of the sanctuary. His wife, a daughter of Putiel, bore him Phinehas, who would eventually succeed him as Kohen Gadol.

As the Israelites moved through the wilderness during the Exodus journey, Eleazar was responsible for carrying the oil for the lampstand, the sweet incense, the daily grain offering and the anointing oil, and also for oversight of the carriage of the Ark of the Covenant, table for showbread, altar and other Tabernacle fittings which were transported by the Kohathite section of the Levite tribe.

On Mount Hor he was clothed with the sacred vestments, which Moses took from his father Aaron and put upon him as successor to his father in the high priest’s office, before Aaron’s death. Eleazar held the office of high priest for more than twenty years.

Lazarus/St. John the Divine

Lazarus, John 1:1-1 (Incarnated at the Turning-Point-Of-Time)

An Esoteric Cosmology, The Gospel of St. John. Paris, France, May 25 to June 14, 1906. GA 94

The Raising of Lazarus may be regarded as a moment of transition from the ancient initiation to the Christian initiation. In the fourth Gospel no mention is made of John himself until after the story of the death of Lazarus. “The disciple whom Jesus loved” is he who passed through the stages of death and resurrection in initiation and who was called to new life by the voice of Christ Himself. John is Lazarus who came forth from the tomb after his initiation; he lived through the death undergone by Christ. Such is the mystic path concealed in the depths of Christianity.

Several Incarnations as a Martyr

As told by Rudolf Steiner to Friedrich Rittelmeyer (from: Bernard Lievegoed):

“Know that a few of the later incarnations of Christian Rosenkreutz had all been martyred incarnations. This individuality was thus the ‘imitatio Christi,’ the following of Christ was accomplished to the utmost.”

Mystery Stream in Europe and the New Mysteries, Bernard C. J. Lievegoed, Anthroposophic Press, 1982.

We come now to factual information Rudolf Steiner mainly communicated in talks. Hiram became Lazarus, who was raised by Christ and who, after this first fully Christian initiation, was “he whom Christ loved best.” He was the Apostle John, the only one who could stand beneath the cross and with full consciousness experience the mystery of physical death and later, resurrection. He was the writer of the Gospel of St. John and the Apocalypse; he was also the founder of Christian communities. Afterward, this high individuality went through a number of incarnations. Dr. Rittelmeyer, the founder of the Christian Community, said that they were all incarnations of martyrdom. He called him the greatest Christian martyr of all time! He had to undergo many times self-chosen, violent, physical death.

Charibert von Laon

Charibert von Laon (born ca. 690 A.D., died after 747 A.D.) was maternal grandfather of Charlemagne and founder of the Brotherhood of the Holy Grail. He was represented as Floris in the medieval tale: “Floris and Blancheflour.”

Esoteric Lesson of August 27, 1909, Munich. Manuscript from Camilla Wandrey.

Charlemagne, who came from the East – he was the reincarnation of a lofty Indian adept – was an instrument of the spiritual individuality symbolized by the name Titurel. Flor and Blanchflor, called rose and lily, are called the parents of Charlemagne in a spiritual sense.

Prester John

Son of Feirefis, the brother of Parzifal in the 9th century

The Spiritual Origins of Eastern Europe and the Future Mysteries of the Holy Grail, by Sergei O. Prokofieff, Temple Lodge Publishing: London, 1993 (pg. 108)

To this it should be added that the name of the last bearer of the Grail–Prester John, who is depicted in so vague and mysterious a way in the legends and stories, is an indication that this name must have been that which was used in the Middle Ages to refer to the subsequent activity amongst mankind of the one who at the Turning-Point of Time was the ‘beloved disciple’ of Christ Jesus and the author of the most profound of the Gospels. In later centuries, and especially after 1250, features of the central individuality of Christian esotericism–who subsequently became known in the outer world under the name of Christian Rosenkreutz–can increasingly be distinguished in the figure of Prester John.

Youth with the Twelve Wise Men

Approximately 1250 A.D.

The Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz, The Dawn of Occultism in the Modern Age, Lecture 1, January 27, 1912. GA 130

   It was known to the College of the twelve wise men that a child was to be born who had lived in Palestine at the time of Christ and had been present when the Mystery of Golgotha had taken place. This Individuality possessed great powers of heart and a quality of deep, inward love which circumstances had since helped to unfold in him. An Individuality of extraordinary spirituality was incarnated in this child. It was necessary, in this case, for a process to be enacted which will never be repeated in the same form. The following does not describe a typical initiation but is an altogether exceptional happening. It was necessary for this child to be removed from the environment into which he was born and to be placed in the care of the Twelve at a certain place in Europe. But it was not the external measures adopted by the twelve wise men that are of essential importance; what is important is the fact that the child grew up with the Twelve around him, and because of this, their wisdom was able to stream into him. One of the Twelve, for example, possessed the Mars-wisdom and therewith a definite quality of soul — a mood-of-soul tempered by the form of culture standing under the influence of Mars. The forces of the Mars culture endowed this soul with the faculty, among others, of presenting the occult sciences with fiery enthusiasm and ardor. Similar planetary influences were also at work in other faculties distributed among the Twelve.

The development of the child’s soul proceeded harmoniously under the influences pouring from the twelve wise men. And so the child grew up, under the unceasing care of the Twelve. Then, at a certain time, when the child had grown into a young man of about 20, he was able to give expression to something that was a kind of reflex of the twelve streams of wisdom — but in a form altogether new, new even to the twelve wise men. The metamorphosis was accompanied by violent organic changes. Even physically the child had been quite unlike other human beings; he was often very ill and his body became transparent, as though filled with light. Then there came a time when for some days the soul departed altogether from the body. The young man lay as if dead … And when the soul returned it was as though the twelve streams of wisdom were born anew. He spoke of new experiences. There had come to him, from the Mystery of Golgotha, an experience similar to that of Paul before Damascus. Thereby it was possible for all the twelve world-conceptions, religious and scientific — and fundamentally there are only twelve — to be gathered together, synthesized in one. The twelve basic world-conceptions were gathered together into one whole which could do justice to them all.

It remains now to be said that the young man died very soon afterwards. His life on Earth had been brief. His mission had been to create a synthesis of the twelve streams of wisdom in the sphere of thought and to bring forth the new impulse which he could then bequeath to the twelve wise men who were to carry it further. A great and significant impetus had been given. The name of the Individuality from whom this impulse originated was Christian Rosenkreutz. The same Individuality was born again in the fourteenth century and this earthly life lasted for more than a hundred years. In the new earthly life he brought to fruitfulness, in the outer world too, all that he had lived through in that brief space of time. He traveled all over the West and over practically the whole of the then known world in order to receive anew the wisdom which in the previous life had quickened in him the new impulse — the impulse which, as a kind of essence, was to filter into the culture of the times.

Ramon Llull

Ramon Llull (c. 1315) was a Catalan of the Third Order of Saint Francis who was a philosopher, logician, Franciscan tertiary and Majorcan writer. He is credited with writing the first major work of Catalan literature. Recently surfaced manuscripts show his work to have predated by several centuries prominent work on elections theory. He is also considered a pioneer of computation theory, especially given his influence on Gottfried Leibniz.

Within the Franciscan Order he is honored as a martyr. He was beatified in 1857 by Pope Pius IX. His feast day was assigned to 30 June and is celebrated by the Third Order of St. Francis.

Following his epiphany Llull became a Franciscan tertiary (a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis), taking inspiration from Saint Francis of Assisi. After a short pilgrimage he returned to Majorca, where he purchased a Muslim slave from whom he wanted to learn Arabic.

For the next nine years, until 1274, he engaged in study and contemplation in relative solitude. He read extensively in both Latin and Arabic, learning both Christian and Muslim theological and philosophical thought.

Between 1271 and 1274 he wrote his first works, a compendium of the Muslim thinker Al-Ghazali‘s logic and the Book on the Contemplation of God, a lengthy guide to finding truth through contemplation.

In 1274, while staying at a hermitage on Puig de Randa, the form of the great book he was to write was finally given to him through divine revelation: a complex system that he named his Art, which would become the motivation behind most of his life’s efforts.

The Secret Stream Christian Rosenkreutz and Rosicrucianism, Hidden Centers of the Mysteries in the Middle Ages. Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophic Press, 2000.

Ramon Lull shows himself to be preeminently a personality who, under the influence and inspiration of the very initiate [Christiann Rosenkreutz] of whom I have spoken to you as the “student,” resolved to use all his power to bring about a renewal in his own time of the way that the mysteries of the Word, or Logos, lived among humankind in ages past. He determined to do this by means of that self-knowledge for which, as I have been telling you, so powerful an impulse was working in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It is in the light of this resolve that we should read his so-called Ars Magna.

And so Ramon Lull came to see that one must look for the secret of speech for in ourselves – by diving down, as it were, from the speech organs into the whole organism of the human being – and then in the cosmos; for the whole human organism can be explained and understood only through the cosmos. This was by no means fully clear to Ramon Lull; with him it was more of an intuitive “divining.” Intuitive perceptions of this nature led him to find certain geometrical figures, whose points and sides he named with the letters of the alphabet. And he was quite sure that when one experiences an impulse to draw lines in the figures – diagonals, or instance, across a pentagon, uniting the five points in different ways – then one has to see in the lines different combinations of sounds; and these combinations of sounds express certain secrets of the World-All, the cosmos. Thus did Ramon Lull look for a kind of renaissance of the secrets of the Logos, as they were known and spoken of in the ancient Mysteries. He was trying to find again the solution of the riddle of the Cosmic Word. We must trace the rise of the Rosicrucians to such efforts to find knowledge.

Charles IV

Rudolf Steiner called Charles IV, “The last initiate on the throne of the emperors.”

There is the chapel of King Wenceslas in Castle Karlstein that is extensively noted in “The Christian Rosenkreutz Anthology,” by Paul Allen and Carlo Pietzner.

Emperor Charles IV (May 14th, 1316 –Nov. 29th, 1378), born Wenceslaus, was the second King of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and the first King of Bohemia to also become Holy Roman Emperor.

He was the eldest son and heir of King John of Bohemia. Charles inherited the County of Luxembourg and the Kingdom of Bohemia from his father. On 2 September 1347, Charles was crowned King of Bohemia.

On 11 July 1346, prince-elector selected him King of the Romans and crowned on 26 November 1346 in Bonn. In 1355 he was crowned King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor. With his coronation as King of Burgundy in 1365, he became the personal ruler of all the kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire.

The reign of Charles IV was characterized by a transformation in the nature of the Empire and is remembered as the Golden Age of Bohemia. He promulgated the Golden Bull of 1356 whereby the succession to the imperial title was laid down, which held for the next four centuries. He also organized the states of the empire into peace-keeping confederations.

He assured his dominance over the eastern borders of the Empire through succession treaties with the Habsburgs and the purchase of Brandenburg. He also claimed imperial lordship over the crusader states of Prussia and Livonia.

Prague became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire during the reign of Charles IV. High Gothic Prague Castle and part of the cathedral of Saint Vitus by Peter Parler were also built under his patronage. The first flowering of manuscript painting in Prague dates from Charles’ reign. In the present Czech Republic, he is still regarded as Pater Patriae (father of the country).

Charles’s imperial policy was focused on the dynastic sphere and abandoned the lofty ideal of the Empire as a universal monarchy of Christendom. He concentrated his energies chiefly on the economic and intellectual development of Bohemia, where he founded the university in 1348 and encouraged the early humanists.

Christian Rosenkreutz (1378-1484)

First receives his name Christian Rosenkreutz and founds the Rosicrucian Brotherhood amongst the followers of the Twelve Wise Men. (Note: Charles IV dies in 1378, the year given for the birth of Christian Rosenkreutz.)

The Friend of God From the High Lands: His Life According to the Records of the St. John’s Hospice, the ‘Green Island,’ in Strasbourg, Wilhem Rath, trans by Roland Everett, Hawthorn Press, Stroud, 1991.

You see, this is where you have the change to Rosicrucianism. It is the same thing pointed to in Goethe’s poem The Mysteries. Since that time Christian Rosenkreutz has become the leading personality in the spiritual life of the West. Both he and the Master Jesus, “the Friend of God from the High Lands,” have been incarnated in every century since then. They incarnate in turns every century, and from that time the Master Jesus has worked in the same way as Christian Rosenkreutz.

In a chapel high in the Alps, the Twelve Leaders of the Western Mysteries come together in a council which began on Good Friday 1380. This is recounted in the last secret letter of “the Friend of God from the High Lands” (Master Jesus) to his pupil Rulman Merswin, who had founded a Friends of God monastic retreat, on the border of France and Germany. “The Friend of God from the High Lands” was the spiritual mentor mentioned by Johannes Tauler.

The House of the Order of St John of Jerusalem, on the island just to the east of the center of Strasbourg, called ‘The Green Isle’, was destroyed in the year 1633. It was founded in 1367 as a lay monastery by Rulman Merswin, a merchant banker and religious writer, and was soon incorporated into the Order of St John of the Knights Hospitaller. It grew into a large monastic complex. In the late medieval period it became a principle seat of learning for southern Germany, and had an unparalleled collection of manuscripts and early printed books. These were destroyed, with only a few exceptions, in the fire of 1870.

The Temple Legend, The Mystery Known to Rosicrucians, Lecture 5, Berlin, November 4, 1904. GA 93

At the beginning of the fifteenth century a personality appeared in Europe who had been initiated into certain secrets in the East. This was Christian Rosenkreutz. By the time this incarnation of Christian Rosenkreutz had come to an end, he had initiated about ten other people into such matters as he himself had learned through initiation — in so far as this was possible among Europeans at that time. This small brotherhood called itself ‘Fraternitae Rosae Crucis’, the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross. This small group of people then gave a certain legend to a larger, more exoteric fraternity, through whom it then became generally known to the world.

Christian Rosenkreutz himself had revealed certain deep secrets of the Mysteries to those people who were sufficiently prepared to receive them. But, as I said, there were not more than ten in this small circle, consisting of initiated Rosicrucians. What was taught by Christian Rosenkreutz could not be imparted to many people, but it was embodied in a kind of myth. This is the approximate content:

There was a time when one of the Elohim created a human being whom he called Eve. That Elohim united himself with Eve and she gave birth to Cain. After this, another Elohim, named Yahveh, created Adam. Adam also united himself with Eve and from this union came Abel.

Thus we see that Cain is a direct descendant of the gods, but Abel is a descendant of Adam and Eve who are human. The sacrifices which Abel made to Yahveh were pleasing to him, but the sacrifices brought by Cain did not please him because the birth of Cain was not ordained by him. The result was that Cain committed fratricide. He killed Abel and for this he was excluded from communion with Yahveh. He went away into distant lands and founded his own race there.

Adam again united himself with Eve and from this union came Seth, also mentioned in the Bible, who took over the role of Abel. Thus we have two generations of mankind: the race of Cain, who was a descendant of Eve and one of the Elohim, and the other race which had human parentage and was brought into existence at the command of Yahveh. Among the descendants of Cain are all those who have been creators of art and science, as, for instance, Methuselah, the inventor of the Tau script, and Tubal-Cain, who taught the use and working of metal ores and iron. In this line of descent, stemming from the Elohim, were all those who trained themselves in the arts and sciences.

Hiram also descended from the race of Cain, and he was the inheritor of all that had been learned by the others of his line in technology and art. He was the most significant architect we can imagine.

   Out of Seth’s line came Solomon, who excelled in everything which came from Yahveh. He was endowed with the wisdom of the world and all the attributes of calm, clear, objective wisdom. This wisdom can be expressed in words which go straight to the human heart and can uplift a person, but it is unable to produce anything tangible of a technical nature, in art or science. It is a wisdom which is a directly inspired gift of God and not attained from below through human passions welling up from the human will — that would be the wisdom pertaining to the sons of Cain, a legacy of the other Elohim, not Yahveh. They are the hardworking industrious ones who seek to accomplish everything through their own efforts.

Solomon now decides to build a temple and calls upon Hiram, the descendant of Cain, to be his master builder. It was at the time when Balkis, the Queen of Sheba, was visiting Jerusalem because she had heard of the wisdom of Solomon. And she was certainly impressed and charmed by the exalted and clear wisdom and beauty of the King when she first arrived, and when he made love to her she consented to be his bride. Now she heard about the temple which was being built and she desired to make the acquaintance of the master builder, Hiram. When she first met him she was captivated merely by his glance. As a result, a certain mood of jealousy arose between Hiram and Solomon and the latter wished to do something or other against Hiram, but he was dependent upon him for the completion of the temple.

Now came the following: The temple was almost complete. Only one thing was still lacking, which was to have been Hiram’s masterpiece; that was the Molten Sea, which was to represent the ocean cast in bronze and was to have adorned the temple. All the necessary mixtures of ores had been prepared by Hiram in a most wonderful manner, ready to be cast. Now, however, three apprentices got to work, whom Hiram had found so lacking in skill that he had been unable to promote them to become masters. They had therefore sworn to be revenged on him and desired to prevent the casting of the Molten Sea. A friend of Hiram, who got to know about these plans, confided them to Solomon, so that he should prevent their realization. But Solomon, through jealousy, did nothing to stop them, because he wished to destroy Hiram. The result was that Hiram had to look on while the whole casting disintegrated due to the addition of a wrong ingredient in the mixture by the three apprentices. He tried to quench the bursting flames by pouring water over them, but this only made matters worse.

Just as he was on the point of despairing about the work ever being completed, Tubal-Cain, his ancestor, appeared to him and told him that he should not hesitate to cast himself into the fire, as he was invulnerable to the flames. Hiram did as he was advised and came to the center of the earth. He was led by Tubal-Cain to Cain, who there resided in a condition of pristine divinity. Hiram was thus initiated into the Mystery of Fire and into the secret of bronze casting, receiving from Tubal-Cain a hammer and a Golden Triangle which he was able to carry with him as a pendant round his neck. Then he returned and was able to complete the casting of the Molten Sea and to put everything in order again.

   Hereupon the Queen of Sheba consented to become Hiram’s bride. He, however, was set upon by the three apprentices and murdered. But before he died, Hiram managed to throw the Golden Triangle into a well. As no one knew where he had disappeared, a search was made. Even Solomon was afraid and was anxious to find out what had happened. It was thought that the ancient Master Word could be betrayed by the apprentices, and therefore another one was devised. The first word to be spoken when Hiram was discovered should be the new Master Word. At last Hiram was found and was able to utter a few last words. He said: ‘Tubal-Cain had promised me that I shall have a son who will be the father of many descendants who will people the earth and bring my work — the building of the Temple — to completion.’ Then he pointed to the place where the Golden Triangle was to be found. This was then collected and brought to the Molten Sea and both were preserved together in the Holy of Holies. They are only to be discovered by those who can understand the meaning of the legend of the Temple of Solomon and its Master Builder Hiram.

Now we shall proceed from the recounting of the legend itself to its interpretation. We are dealing, therefore, with two races of mankind: with those who, like Solomon, are in possession of divine wisdom and with those of the Race of Cain, who are conversant with fire and know how to make use of it. This fire is not physical fire, but the fire of wishes, desires and instincts which bums in the astral world.

Who, then, are the Sons of Cain? In the sense of this legend, the Sons of Cain are the sons of those Elohim who, during the Moon Epoch, were a little retarded in their role of Elohim. We are dealing with Kama, astrality, during the Moon Epoch. This Kama, or fire, was penetrated with wisdom at that time. But there were two kinds of Elohim. The one kind of Elohim did not remain static with the union of wisdom and fire; they went further. And during the creation of man they were no longer filled with desires and so they were able to endow their creation with calm and clear wisdom. That is the essential Jahve — or Jehovah — religion, the wisdom of which is quite without personal desire. The other Elohim, those in whom wisdom was combined with the fire of the Moon Epoch, created the Sons of Cain.

Therefore, in the case of the Sons of Seth, we find representatives of the religious type of human being with detached wisdom, and in the case of the Sons of Cain, we find those who possess an impulsive nature, who are capable of flaring up and showing enthusiasm for wisdom. These two types are creative within all races of mankind and in all periods of history. Out of the desire life of the Sons of Cain, all arts and the sciences originate; out of the Seth-Abel current, all detached piety and wisdom, lacking enthusiasm, has its origin.

A higher kind of piety is thereby being prepared among those who are of the pious type, the Sons of Wisdom. This new kind of piety can also develop enthusiasm. It is Christian piety, which was prepared during the fourth Post-Atlantean cultural epoch. This whole stream is not yet in a position to unite with the Sons of Cain, however; they remain adversaries. Were Christianity to take hold of human beings too quickly, they would certainly become filled with love, but the individual human heart would not become involved. It would not be a piety springing from freedom. Christ would not be born within man as his brother, but only as the ruler. It is therefore necessary that the Sons of Cain are active throughout the whole of the fifth Post-Atlantean period. They are active in their initiates who build the temple of all mankind, constructed out of worldly art and worldly science.

Before the outbreak of the French Revolution a personality appeared to Madame d’Adhemar, the lady-in-waiting of Marie-Antoinette, who prophesied all the important events of the coming strife, in order to warn against them. It was the Count of St. Germain, the same as he who, in a former incarnation, had founded the Rosicrucian Order [Christian Rosekreutz]. He subscribed to the view that mankind at that time must be led in all tranquillity from a worldly view of life to a truly Christian culture. Worldly powers, however, desired to gain freedom for themselves by material violent means. Christian Rosenkreutz foresaw the French Revolution as a necessary consequence of this, but warned against it. He, Christian Rosenkreutz, in his incarnation in the eighteenth century [St. Germain], as guardian of the innermost secrets of the Molten Sea and the Golden Triangle, appeared with the warning that mankind should develop slowly. But he also saw what was to happen.

That is the course taken by mankind’s evolution during the fourth and fifth Post-Atlantean epochs when seen esoterically. The temple of mankind’s earthly culture, the great Temple of Solomon, has already been built, but what is to crown it must still remain a secret. That could only be brought into being by an initiate. That initiate was misunderstood, betrayed, killed. The secret may not yet be revealed. It remains the possession of a few initiated Christians. It is sealed up in the casting of the Molten Sea and in the Golden Triangle. It is the same as the secret belonging to Christian Rosenkreutz, who was present in a very highly evolved reincarnation prior to the birth of Christ [Hosea], and who gave utterance to a remarkable saying at that time.

Let me describe in a few words how this Christian Rosenkreutz came to repeat a certain saying at the time of the outbreak of the French Revolution. He said: ‘For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.’ This was said by him long before it was said by Hosea and written down. It stems, however, from Christian Rosenkreutz.

To begin with, Christianity is bound up with the purely materialistic culture of the fourth and fifth epochs, and the true Christianity of the future, which possesses the secret of the Molten Sea and the Golden Triangle, only exists secretly. This Christianity has another symbol — no longer that of the crucified Son of God, but the Cross encircled by roses. This will become the symbol of the new Christianity of the sixth Post-Atlantean epoch. Out of the Mystery of the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross will arise the Christianity of the sixth cultural epoch, which will recognize the significance of the Molten Sea and the Golden Triangle.

Hiram is the representative of the initiates among the Sons of Cain belonging to the fourth and fifth epochs. The Queen of Sheba is the soul of humanity — every female character denotes the soul in esoteric terminology. She has to choose between the detached piety which does not concern itself with worldly conquest, and the masterful wisdom which is achieved through the overcoming of earthly passions and desires. She [Queen of Sheba] is the representative of the true human soul, taking her position between Hiram and Solomon and uniting herself with Hiram in the fourth and fifth epochs, because he is still engaged in building the Temple.

The Molten Sea is what is created when the appropriate amounts of water and molten metal are cast. The three apprentices do it wrongly, and the casting is destroyed, but when the mysteries of fire are revealed to Hiram by Tubal-Cain, he is thereby enabled to unite water and fire in the proper way. This brings the Molten Sea into being. This is what the secret of the Rosicrucians is. It is brought about when the water of calm wisdom is united with the fire of the astral world, with the fire of passion and desire. A union must be brought about which is ‘of bronze’, that is to say, is lasting and durable. It must endure into the next epoch, when the secret of the sacred Golden Triangle is added to it; the secret of Atma, Buddhi and Manas. This Triangle, with all which it entails, will form the content of the renewed Christianity of the sixth cultural epoch. That is being prepared by the Rosicrucians and then what is symbolized by the Molten Sea will be united with a knowledge of reincarnation and karma. That is the new occult teaching which will be united again with Christianity. The higher self of man, composed of Atma, Buddhi and Manas, will become an open secret when the man of the sixth epoch has become ripe enough to receive it. Christian Rosenkreutz will then no longer be required to give warning, but everything which signified strife on the outer plane will be resolved in peace through the Molten Sea and the sacred Golden Triangle.

That is the course which world history will take in the future. What was disseminated by Christian Rosenkreutz in the Temple Legend through the Brotherhood, the Rosicrucians have made into their task: to teach not merely religious piety, but also science in an external way; not merely knowledge of the outer world, but knowledge of spiritual forces, too, and from both directions to go forward into the sixth Round of evolution.

Comté de Saint Germain (c. 1712-1784)

The Temple Legend, The Essence and Task of Freemasonry from the Point of View of Spiritual Science, Lecture 3, Berlin, December 16, 1904. GA 9

Now the French Revolution certainly proceeded from such things as this. There is a well-known story contained in the writings of the Countess d’Adhémar. It related that, before the outbreak of the French Revolution, the Countess d’Adhémar, one of the ladies-in-waiting to Marie-Antoinette, received a visit from the Count of St. Germain. He wanted to be presented to the Queen and to beg audience of the King. Louis XVI’s minister, however, was the enemy of the Count of St. Germain, who therefore was not allowed into the King’s presence. But he described to the Queen with great accuracy and detail the major perils which were looming ahead. Regrettably, however, his warnings were ignored. It was on that occasion that he uttered the great saying which was based on truth: ‘They who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind’ and he added that he had uttered this saying millennia previously, and it had been repeated by Christ. Those were words which were unintelligible to the ordinary person.

But the Count of St. Germain was right. I will only add a few more touches which are quite correct. In books about the Count of St. Germain you can read that he died in 1784 at the court of the Landgrave of Hessen, who later became one of the most advanced German Freemasons. The Landgrave nursed him until the end. But the Countess d’Adhémar recounts in her memoirs that he appeared to her long after the year 1784, and that she saw him six more times long after that. In reality he was at that time, in 1790, with some Rosicrucians in Vienna and said, which is perfectly true, that he was obliged to retire to the Orient for the span of 85 years, and that after that time people would again become aware of his activity in Europe. 1875 is the year of the founding of the Theosophical Society. These things are all connected to each other in a certain way.

In the school founded by the Landgrave of Hessen, also, there were two main concerns: the Philosopher’s Stone and the Knowledge of the Pentagram. The Freemasonry founded by the Landgrave of Hessen at that time continued to exist in a rather diluted form. In fact, the whole of Freemasonry, as I have described it, is called the Egyptian rite, the rite of Memphis and Misraim.   The latter traces its origin back to King Misraim who came from Assyria — from the Orient — and, after the conquest of Egypt, was initiated into the Egyptian mysteries. These are indeed the mysteries which originate from ancient Atlantis. An unbroken tradition exists from that time. Modern Freemasonry is only a continuation of what was established then in Egypt.

The Temple Legend, The Essence and Task of Freemasonry from the Point of View of Spiritual Science, Lecture 3, Berlin, December 16, 1904. GA 9

Now the French Revolution certainly proceeded from such things as this. There is a well-known story contained in the writings of the Countess d’Adhémar. It related that, before the outbreak of the French Revolution, the Countess d’Adhémar, one of the ladies-in-waiting to Marie-Antoinette, received a visit from the Count of St. Germain. He wanted to be presented to the Queen and to beg audience of the King. Louis XVI’s minister, however, was the enemy of the Count of St. Germain, who therefore was not allowed into the King’s presence. But he described to the Queen with great accuracy and detail the major perils which were looming ahead. Regrettably, however, his warnings were ignored. It was on that occasion that he uttered the great saying which was based on truth: ‘They who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind’ and he added that he had uttered this saying millennia previously, and it had been repeated by Christ. Those were words which were unintelligible to the ordinary person.

But the Count of St. Germain was right. I will only add a few more touches which are quite correct. In books about the Count of St. Germain you can read that he died in 1784 at the court of the Landgrave of Hessen, who later became one of the most advanced German Freemasons. The Landgrave nursed him until the end. But the Countess d’Adhémar recounts in her memoirs that he appeared to her long after the year 1784, and that she saw him six more times long after that. In reality he was at that time, in 1790, with some Rosicrucians in Vienna and said, which is perfectly true, that he was obliged to retire to the Orient for the span of 85 years, and that after that time people would again become aware of his activity in Europe. 1875 is the year of the founding of the Theosophical Society. These things are all connected to each other in a certain way.

Name Unknown: Incarnation in the Carpathian Mountains

The Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz, September 27, 1911. GA 13

Today (In the 2nd half of the 19th century into the beginning of the 20th century) Christian Rosenkreutz is incarnated.

Rudolf Steiner’s Core Mission,” by T.H. Meyer, pg. 113

Rudolf Steiner spoke of how ‘M’ told him to study Fichte, so that would be the Master Jesus who ‘pointed him towards Fichte.’ In Fichte can be found the presentation of man as Thinking, Felling and Will, the foundation of Rudolf Steiner’s teaching.

The Secret Stream Christian Rosenkreutz and Rosicrucianism, Rudolf Steiner and Rosicrucianism. Christopher Bamford, Anthroposophic Press, 2000.

Rudolf Steiner himself speaks of two initiatory encounters that in the light of this collection take on special meaning. The first is with the herb gatherer Felix Koguski and the other with the Master “M.,” traditionally taken to be Christian Rosenkreutz. For instance, in the so-called “Document of Barr,” the autobiographical account penned for the French author and spiritual writer, Édouard Schuré, Steiner states (he is writing of his young adulthood): “During that period [when, besides his official studies he is intensively reading German idealist philosophy] I gained a complete understanding of the concept of time. This knowledge was in no way connected with my studies and was grounded in the spiritual life. I understood that there is a backwards evolution, the occult-astral, which interferes with the forward one. This knowledge is the precondition for spiritual clairvoyance. Then came the acquaintance with the agent of the M… I did not meet the M. immediately, but first an emissary who was completely initiated into the secrets of plants and their effects and with their connection with the cosmos and human nature…

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John Barnwell – YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu2IWjZgLA5NRE4ok1oDg3Q