The Sun Archive
The Search for the Spirit and the Mysteries
The Masters, Initiates, Bodhisattvas, & Buddhahood
Throughout human history, which began eons ago under the guidance of God and divine leaders who do not incarnate in the physical world, spiritual leaders have guided, shaped, and transformed humanity with a plan to reach a goal of human evolution. This plan is true freedom, the balancing of one's karma, and to exist in alignment with the spiritual principles. The earth-planet is a school, and these leaders incarnate to teach and inspire humanity to a higher calling.
These highly advanced souls are intimately connected with humanity and guide human evolution from one century to the next. In the cosmos, there are nine known ranks of higher spiritual beings as confirmed by Anthroposophy and an early mystic known as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-Dionysius_the_Areopagite), and many do not incarnate in the physical world. However, there are highly developed spiritual leaders who incarnate in the physical world and guide humanity as bridges and messengers to the divine. These leaders have become spiritual masters; yogis, "gurus", etc. While these terms are certainly misused in today's world, the ancient reference to this individuals are as "initiates."
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This group of highly developed individuals form a spiritual collegium. The highest council is a council of 12 masters who follow the path of the 13th disciple; the Christ. This collegium has its seat in the spiritual worlds. This council, of the most highly developed masters, communicates with humanity by sending individuals into the physical world to guide humanity at specific points of history. These mission are in alignment with the needs and requirements of humanity, which evolve and change over time. These missions often require tremendous sacrifices. They not only teach, depending on the requirement of the moment, but they also bring transformative forces within themselves which are given to humanity in order to transform it. They work from both the physical and spiritual worlds.
These highly ennobled individuals have chosen to lay their own egotism and self-interest aside, and embark upon the path of initiation to raise their consciousness and being to the highest level possible. In light of human evolution, there are two streams of human activity. The gradual holistic path, which is a longer and gradual journey, and an expedited path. The expedited path is the path of the initiate. In the ancient world, these leaders were trained at mystery centers where others, who had attained higher levels of initiation, could guide them in an informed way. Their destinies were to become helpers in whatever way was deemed fit by the collegium which works hand-in-hand with the spiritual hierarchies including Angels, Archangels, and higher ranks of divine beings.
This path of transformation is the far more difficult as it requires commitment, guidance, and a path through the mysteries which which requires service to humanity. It can only occur over many lifetimes. These lifetimes are planned hundreds, if not thousands, of years in advance. "The last shall be first, and the first shall be last." In other words, those who approach the threshold of transformation follow the path of service to the Christ, the world, and humanity. In doing so, they commit to reaching the threshold in order to turn around, and help humanity. The gift of this journey is knowledge, wisdom, and vision into the spiritual worlds in order to be a messenger and helper to the world.
The initiate develops a mature faculties, and a disposition, that follows them from one lifetime to the next. All human beings follow the same process, but the initiate has developed a disposition that has stripped away all illusions from their being and perception. In doing so they attain to a perceptive continuity, in an informed way, between repeated incarnations. One of the great gifts of initiation is the recovery of memory and a vision of the past, the present, and the future upon which spiritual amnesia can be overcome. This is a gradual path for everyone. The initiate must return to the physical world, just like every human being, and build themselves up again.
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"Spiritual science points to the fact that there are highly developed individuals called the “initiates.” In every age there have been secret schools where it was taught how, through exercises in meditation and concentration, a person could reach higher stages of development. Such exercises lead to insight that cannot be attained by means of the five senses and the intellect.
Inner meditative work enables the soul to become free of the senses; something occurs in an individual that is comparable to what happens in someone born blind and whose sight is restored. An inner process takes place through which the spiritual eyes and ears are opened. The whole of humanity will reach this stage, but only after long periods of time."
-Rudolf Steiner, Supersensible Knowledge, GA 55, IV. The Origin of Evil, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA055/English/AP1987/19061122p02.html
"The earth—like every other planet—is under the guidance of a high spiritual power, and this power manifests itself through the Sons of God in a manner appropriate for the people concerned. It is manifested through a group of initiated people who through their development have become peers of the Sons of God. They are all co-workers in the great divine plan of saving the earth from darkness, isolation, and the rule of material and diabolic forces. Every initiate takes part in this work..." -Elizabeth Haich, Initiation, Chapter 33
”...that the so-called masters are great inspirers for us - nothing more - great inspirers in spiritual realms. However, their development goes far beyond what is offered by popular culture. They are great inspirations for us; but they do not demand faith in any authority, not faith in any dogma. They appeal to nothing but one's own human insight and provide guidance on how to develop the powers and abilities that lie in every human soul, through certain methods, in order to ascend to the higher realms of existence.”
-Rudolf Steiner, Preliminary Remarks to Part I — GA 264. The History and Content of the Esoteric School I — Rudolf Steiner Archive
"...the Masters, as a rule, are not personages known to history; they sometimes incarnate [embody] themselves, when it is necessary, in historical personalities, but this is in a certain respect a sacrifice. The level of their consciousness is no longer compatible with any work for themselves—and preservation of a name does after all involve work for oneself."
-Steiner, Rudolf. Evolution and Involution as they are Interpreted by Occult Societies - Vol. 93. The Temple Legend (1985) - Rudolf Steiner Archive
Sometimes, as was the case with Dr. Rudolf Steiner, a public mission is was undertaken by the these leaders. Some of these leaders have been canonized as Saints while others, such as Gautama Buddha, have founded spiritual movements and religions. These missions are always intended to teach humanity and lead us along to the divine path of redemption and transformation. As a rule, these individuals lead private lifetimes. There names, deeds, and sacrifices are unknown to history and have evolved over time as humanity as evolved. Some are well known publicly but the true nature of their roles was, and many times remains, a secret. Dr. Rudolf Steiner, found of Anthroposophy, was a genuine spiritual initiate of the 20th century who revealed the names and mysterious missions of many of these leading personalities who have shaped and guided humanity and continue to do so today. This group of people consists of both men and women who live in all cultures of the world.
Dr. Rudolf Steiner mentioned some of these thought and spiritual leaders by name including, but not limited to, Christian Rosenkreutz, Gautama Buddha, Zarathustra, Moses, Hermes, St. Francis of Assisi, Johann Wolfram von Goethe, Joan of Arc, Thomas Aquinas, St. Odilia, St. Augustine, St. Patrick, St. Columba, and others. These leaders are more than just spiritual teachers; they bring real spiritual forces into the world and release them as spiritual impulses. While names and appellations may change from one sphere to the next in the physical world, these transformative forces originate from, and bequeathed to humanity by, the Christ. Hence the phrase, "Not I, but Christ in me." On its own, the human ego can accomplish nothing of a true spiritual nature. All human beings are sustained and informed by hidden forces which permeate each living being, down the atom, from the spiritual worlds. These forces originate from the eternal father who is the "Glory of the Lord."
The great spiritual leaders, who most often remain anonymous, have been known by a variety of names including “Initiates,” "Masters", and “Messengers." In the East, they are sometimes referred to as "Gurus" and "Yogis"; terms which have become sensationalized. The Christian Bible referred to three of the initiates at the birth of the Jesus, who traveled afar from the East, as "Magi". Jesus was the greatest of all initiates who developed himself to such a high degree that he became the carrier for the Christ in the world. The resurrected Lazarus (who was present at the Crucifixion and later authored the Book of John and The Book of Revelations), the 12 apostles, and others who followed Jesus during his life, in light of Anthroposophy, were initiates or leading spiritual teachers of the world.
"Let us ask: What is an initiate? In all ages of the post-Atlantean human evolution, an initiate has been a person who could lift himself above the outer physical sense-world and have his own personal experiences in the spiritual worlds, a person who could experience the spiritual worlds just as the ordinary human being experiences the physical sense-world through the outer senses, eyes, ears, etc. Such an initiate becomes then a witness of those worlds and their truths." -Rudolf Steiner, Lecture XI, Christian Initiation, The Gospel of John, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA103/English/AP1962/19080530p01.html
"...to the path of initiation there belongs a certain preparation, as should be understandable to everyone. In our time this requires us to go deeply, in a real and not merely theoretical way, into the true, genuine spiritual science which, at least in our present time, must always be the point of departure, if we wish to understand what the way of initiation is. Regarding the essence of initiation it would be well to give a few introductory remarks in a certain direction.
You see, initiation is the highest which man can achieve in the course of the Earth-evolution, for it leads man to a certain understanding, to a real insight into the secrets of the spiritual world. What occurs in the spiritual worlds is really the content, the object, of initiation, and a real knowledge, an immediate perception, of events in the spiritual worlds is attained on the path of initiation. When initiation is characterized in this way, something very special must strike everyone who lets this characterization work on his soul. This is really to say, fundamentally, that initiation is — allow me the expression — a super-religious way.
The religions which in the course of human epochs have spread over the surface of the earth, and which still prevail among men, all of these, in so far as they are great religions, and in so far as we study them at their points of origin, were originally founded upon initiation, by initiates. They have flowed out of what great initiates have been able to give to men. But the religions were given in such a form that, in their contents, men received what was suitable to the time in which they lived, to the race to which they belonged, even to the region of the earth in which they lived."
-Rudolf Steiner, GA 143, The Three Paths of the Soul to Christ, II. The Path of Initiation
17 April 1912, Stockholm
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA143/English/AP1942/19120417p01.html
"...in the individuality of Gautama Buddha, something had lived which could appear in the world only on the basis of a long development. This individuality went through many incarnations, achieved higher and higher grades of evolution, and finally came so far that in the 29th year of his life as Gautama Buddha, he was able to rise from Bodhisatva to Buddha, was able to rise in such a way that he need never more return to a physical body. How did that which flows out from this individuality come into being? Every unprejudiced mind can feel what speaks out of the Buddha, can feel all that first came about and developed through the Bodhisatva in earth evolution after developing through many incarnations."
-Rudolf Steiner, The Three Paths of the Soul to Christ, GA 143, Lecture I. The Path through the Gospels and The Path of Inner Experience, 16 April 1912, Stockholm, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA143/English/AP1942/19120416p01.html
"Christ works as a macrocosmic Power and is not a teacher like the other teachers of humanity. He has united Himself with the Earth, as a reality, as power, as very life.
The loftiest teachers of the successive epochs are the Bodhisattvas who already in the pre-Christian era pointed to Christ in His full reality of being; again in the post-Christian era they point to Him as a Power Who is now united with the Earth. Thus the Bodhisattvas work both before and after Christ's physical life on Earth. He who was born as the son of a King in India, 550 years before Christ, lived and taught for twenty nine years as a Bodhisattva, and then ascended to the rank of Buddha; thereafter he was never again to appear on the Earth in a body of flesh but from then onwards he worked from the spiritual world.
When this Bodhisattva had become Buddha, he was succeeded by the new Bodhisattva whose mission it is to lead mankind to an understanding of the Christ Impulse. All these things had come to pass before the appearance of Christ on the Earth."
- Rudolf Steiner, The Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz, GA 130.V. The Christ Impulse as Living Reality, 18 November 1911, Munich https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA130/English/RSP1950/19111118p01.html
The initiates are led and guided by a Collegium, or Council, of 12 Masters. They are referred to in the East, and Anthroposophy, as "Bodhisattvas." A Bodhisattva is a master-initiate who has achieved his or her initiation repeatedly over the course of many lifetimes an reached higher, but the not the highest, degrees of attainment. Once a Bodhisattva completes his or her stream of activity, which occurs over long periods of time in the physical world, then they ascend to the next stage which Dr. Steiner referred to as "Buddha". A Buddha no longer incarnates in the physical world and influences humanity from the spiritual spheres. he 12 Bodhisattvas, in light of Anthroposophy, draw their purpose, forces, and mission, which evolves over time, from HE who is sometimes referred to as 13th disciple; the Christ who incarnated in Christ-Jesus.
"A survey of the whole of Earth evolution would reveal that there are twelve such Bodhisattvas. They belong to that great community of Spirits which from time to time sends one of the Bodhisattvas to the Earth as a special emissary, as one of the great Teachers. A Lodge of twelve Bodhisattvas is to be regarded as the Lodge directing all Earth evolution.
The concept of ‘Teacher’ familiar to us at lower stages of existence can be applied, in essentials, to these twelve Bodhisattvas. They are Teachers, the great Inspirers of one portion or another of what mankind has to acquire." -Rudolf Steiner, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA114/English/RSP1964/19090921p01.html
Initiates, just like people, are born into the world in each century with specific spiritual missions. While personal missions typically characterize the average human being, these spiritual leaders take on much larger tasks for the whole world. They incarnate to bring transformative forces and impulses into the world as humanity evolves and changes. Their tasks extend far beyond the path of mere egotism; that is not present in these individuals. Their missions always serve a broader and higher purpose for the world and humanity. Some of the names of high initiates were revealed by Dr. Steiner throughout his works and lectures including Christian Rosenkreutz; founder and leader of the Rosicrucian stream which, in modern times, has become sensationalized.
Other names of great spiritual leaders mentioned and elaborated upon by Dr. Rudolf Steiner who have brought spiritual impulses, and changes, to humanity includes Manu, Zarathustra, Buddha, Moses, Baldur, Orpheus, Parsifal, King Arthur, and Hermes. These individuals worked, and continue to work, through streams of activity that carried spiritual impulses to humanity.
While each of us is on a unique path of change, whatever it may be and in whatever venue and at whatever pace, there is an ongoing process is at work for the human being for change through repeated lifetimes. However, a person can also deliberately undertake a more difficult path that serves a higher purpose, once a seeker becomes aware of the ideal and process of "initiation."
In her book "Initiation" by Elizabeth Haich, there is a reference to initiation as the "artless art."
"Talent without diligence and diligence without talent is not art. But if you combine your talent with diligence, that is real art! You have talents which you simply allow to lie idle: the ability to express the spirit. Practise, practise, practise ... and you will become an artist in the kingly art which stands above all other art: in the artless art!'"
-Elizabeth Haich, Initiation, Chapter 20, "The Ayur-Vedas"
“…we want to see clearly that there are differences among the beings who occupy leading positions in the human evolution of the earth. We have to distinguish such leading individualities in the course of human evolution who, as it were, developed from the beginning with humanity on this earth as it exists, but with the important distinction that they progressed more rapidly. We might put it this way: If we go back in time…we find the most varied stages of development among the human beings then incarnated. All the souls incarnated at that time have been repeatedly reincarnated…
The speed with which these souls developed varied. Some souls are alive that developed relatively slowly as they went through various incarnations; they still have long distances to traverse in the future. But then there are also those souls who have developed rapidly and who, one might say, have utilized their incarnations in a more productive way.
They are now on a high plane of soul-spiritual development, one that will be reached by normal human beings only in the far-distant future. But as we dwell on this sphere of soul life, we can nevertheless say this: No matter how advanced these individual souls may be, however far they may tower above normal human beings, yet within our earthly evolution they have made a journey similar to the rest of humanity, except that they have advanced more rapidly.” -Steiner, Rudolf. The Principle of Spiritual Economy, Lecture 2, Christianity in Human Evolution: Leading Individualities and Avatar Beings, Berlin, February 15, 1909. https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/19090215p02.html
-“The primary field of activity of the Bodhisattva is to engage as a bridge between the spiritual worlds and the physical world as great teachers who bring transformative impulses to humanity. Each of the 12 leaders necessarily incarnate periodically for a specific purpose. At a certain point, however, the Bodhisattva transcends to “Buddhahood” and influences humanity from the spiritual worlds only and ceases to incarnate in the physical world. As long as a Bodhisattva holds this office he devotes himself first and foremost to the task of teaching; for, as we have heard, when he attains the rank of Buddhahood he does not again descend to incarnation in a physical body. A Bodhisattva is a teacher until he becomes Buddha; from then onwards he is a power, an organizing, life-bestowing power.” -Steiner, Rudolf. The Gospel of Matthew, Berne, September 5, 1910, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA123/English/RSPC1946/GosMat_index.html
-“A survey of the whole of Earth evolution would reveal that there are twelve such Bodhisattvas. They belong to that great community of Spirits which from time to time sends one of the Bodhisattvas to the Earth as a special emissary, as one of the great Teachers. A Lodge of twelve Bodhisattvas is to be regarded as the Lodge directing all Earth evolution. The concept of ‘Teacher’ familiar to us at lower stages of existence can be applied, in essentials, to these twelve Bodhisattvas. They are Teachers, the great Inspirers of one portion or another of what mankind has to acquire.” - Steiner, Rudolf. The Gospel of Luke, Lecture 7, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA114/English/RSP1964/19090921p01.html
-“The Bodhisattvas succeed one another in the evolution of humanity as great Teachers and must not be confused with the One who is the very source of their teachings, from whom they receive what it is their mission to impart to the several epochs. We must picture a 'college' of Bodhisattvas and at its center the living source of the teachings. This living source is none other than He whom we are accustomed to call ‘Christ’. It is from Christ that all the Bodhisattvas receive what they have to impart to men in the course of the ages.” - Steiner, Rudolf, The Gospel of St. Matthew, Lecture Five, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA123/English/RSP1965/GoMatt_index.html
-"Generally speaking, it will be difficult for the feelings and perceptive faculties of men at the present time to have even an inkling of what lies behind this mystery. The mission of the Bodhisattva who became Buddha was to incorporate into humanity the principle of compassion and love. Twelve such Beings are connected with the Cosmos to which the Earth belongs. The Bodhisattva who became Buddha in the fifth/sixth century B.C. is one of these Twelve, all of whom have specific missions: Just as the mission of this particular Bodhisattva was to bring to the Earth the teaching of compassion and love, the other Bodhisattvas too have their missions which must be fulfilled in the different epochs of Earth evolution.
Gautama Buddha's connection with the mission of the Earth is especially close inasmuch as the development of the moral sense is precisely the task of our own epoch — from the time when the Bodhisattva appeared five to six centuries B.C. to the time when the Bodhisattva who succeeded him in that office will live on Earth as the Maitreya Buddha. That is how Earth evolution advances; the Bodhisattvas descend and have to incorporate into evolution from time to time what constitutes the object of their mission.
A survey of the whole of Earth evolution would reveal that there are twelve such Bodhisattvas. They belong to that great community of Spirits which from time to time sends one of the Bodhisattvas to the Earth as a special emissary, as one of the great Teachers. A Lodge of twelve Bodhisattvas is to be regarded as the Lodge directing all Earth evolution. The concept of ‘Teacher’ familiar to us at lower stages of existence can be applied, in essentials, to these twelve Bodhisattvas. They are Teachers, the great Inspirers of one portion or another of what mankind has to acquire.' -Rudolf Steiner, The Gospel of St. Luke, Lecture 7, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA114/English/RSP1964/19090921p01.html
-"What man can accomplish to-day by means of his own capacities, he had at one time to be taught — as a child is taught by its parents or teachers — by Beings who though incarnated among men were more highly developed by virtue of their spiritual faculties and could hold converse in the Mysteries with divine-spiritual Beings even loftier than themselves. Individualities who, though themselves incarnated in physical bodies, could have intercourse with still higher, non-incarnated Individualities, existed at all times. For example, before men acquired the faculty of logical thinking by means of which they themselves are able to think logically to-day, they were obliged to learn from certain teachers.
These teachers themselves were not able to think logically through faculties developed in the physical body itself, but only through their intercourse in the Mysteries with divine-spiritual Beings in higher realms. Such teachers proclaimed the principles of logic and morality from revelations they received from higher worlds in times before men themselves were able, out of their own earthly nature, to think logically or discover the principles of morality.
The Bodhisattvas are one category of Beings who, though incarnated in physical bodies, have inter-course with divine-spiritual Beings in order to bring down and impart to men what they themselves learn from their divine Teachers. The Bodhisattva is a Being incarnated in a human body, whose faculties enable him to commune with divine-spiritual Beings.
When the Earth was still in early stages of development, even before the Atlantean and Lemurian epochs, the Bodhisattva who was incarnated and became Buddha six hundred years before our era, was assigned a task which he never abandoned. From epoch to epoch, through every age, his work was to impart to Earth evolution as much as the beings concerned enabled it to receive. For each Bodhisattva there comes a time when, with the mission entrusted to him in the primeval past, he reaches a definite point — the point when what he has been able to let flow into humanity ‘from above’ can become a faculty of man's own.
A human faculty to-day was once a faculty of divine-spiritual Beings brought down to man from spiritual heights by the Bodhisattvas. Hence there comes a time when a spiritual emissary such as a Bodhisattva can say; ‘I have accomplished my mission. Humanity has now received that for which it has been prepared through many, many epochs.’ Having reached this point, the Bodhisattva can become ‘Buddha’.
That is to say, the time has come when he, as a Being with the particular mission to which I have referred, need no longer incarnate in a human physical body; he has incarnated for the last time in such a body and need not incarnate again as a spiritual emissary in the above sense."
-Rudolf Steiner, The Gospel of St. Luke, Lecture 2, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA114/English/RSP1964/19090916p01.html
-"What man can accomplish to-day by means of his own capacities, he had at one time to be taught — as a child is taught by its parents or teachers — by Beings who though incarnated among men were more highly developed by virtue of their spiritual faculties and could hold converse in the Mysteries with divine-spiritual Beings even loftier than themselves. Individualities who, though themselves incarnated in physical bodies, could have intercourse with still higher, non-incarnated Individualities, existed at all times. For example, before men acquired the faculty of logical thinking by means of which they themselves are able to think logically to-day, they were obliged to learn from certain teachers.
These teachers themselves were not able to think logically through faculties developed in the physical body itself, but only through their intercourse in the Mysteries with divine-spiritual Beings in higher realms. Such teachers proclaimed the principles of logic and morality from revelations they received from higher worlds in times before men themselves were able, out of their own earthly nature, to think logically or discover the principles of morality.
The Bodhisattvas are one category of Beings who, though incarnated in physical bodies, have inter-course with divine-spiritual Beings in order to bring down and impart to men what they themselves learn from their divine Teachers. The Bodhisattva is a Being incarnated in a human body, whose faculties enable him to commune with divine-spiritual Beings.
When the Earth was still in early stages of development, even before the Atlantean and Lemurian epochs, the Bodhisattva who was incarnated and became Buddha six hundred years before our era, was assigned a task which he never abandoned. From epoch to epoch, through every age, his work was to impart to Earth evolution as much as the beings concerned enabled it to receive. For each Bodhisattva there comes a time when, with the mission entrusted to him in the primeval past, he reaches a definite point — the point when what he has been able to let flow into humanity ‘from above’ can become a faculty of man's own.
A human faculty to-day was once a faculty of divine-spiritual Beings brought down to man from spiritual heights by the Bodhisattvas. Hence there comes a time when a spiritual emissary such as a Bodhisattva can say; ‘I have accomplished my mission. Humanity has now received that for which it has been prepared through many, many epochs.’ Having reached this point, the Bodhisattva can become ‘Buddha’.
That is to say, the time has come when he, as a Being with the particular mission to which I have referred, need no longer incarnate in a human physical body; he has incarnated for the last time in such a body and need not incarnate again as a spiritual emissary in the above sense."
-Rudolf Steiner, The Gospel of St. Luke, Lecture 2, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA114/English/RSP1964/19090916p01.html
On Mystery Centers: The Training Academies for Initiates in the Ancient World.
In the ancient world before the Event of Golgotha in 33AD, individuals who were sufficiently prepared and ready for the great challenge of spiritual initiation were trained in what is referred to as "Mystery Centers" in Anthroposophical literature. These facilities existed in every culture in the world typically through temples such as Eleusis, Somathrace, the Great Pyramids of Egypt which were connected to separate facilities for education, and Delphi. Each region and culture of the world contained Mystery Centers of a peculiar cultural character that as temples and academies. Training was intellectual, moral, physical, and spiritual. These academies were similar to universities in the modern world with teachers and a path of education that followed a curriculum tailored for the individual. It was a curriculum, however, that extended beyond intellectual testing.
A path was revealed to the candidates at these small academies, each of which had a unique cultural character across the world, where they could cultivate and develop a genuine perceptive ability, and expanded faculty, so they could create and rely on an individual bridge to the spiritual worlds. They were spiritual teachers and messengers and were looked upon as such by the masses. Gaining entrance into these academies was a challenging proposition and most who applied and/or were admitted to these academies, which were well-known in the ancient world, frequently failed their examinations and rigorous tests; both spiritual and intellectual. Karmic histories, for example, were examined through supersensible means and the student was placed before a series of challenges intended to transform the soul. Moral testing and catharsis was a key aspect of training in the mysteries.
The hidden aspects of human existence were revealed only to those candidates for spiritual initiation who went through long, arduous, planned, and challenging cycles of discipline, training, and preparation at special training facilities and temples that were designed specifically for the purpose of expedited spiritual education and transformation. If the candidate failed the tests or was unprepared, the outcome could be a diminution and contraction of consciousness, insanity, or perhaps even death. If the candidate returned successfully to his or her body after the 3 ½ day "temple sleep" period where the candidate slept in a sleep-like condition in a tomb that imitated the death experience that each person passes through at the end of our lives, he or she awakened as a transformed individual with greatly expanded faculties, insights, and capabilities that far exceeded those who lived otherwise traditional lives. This temple sleep period no longer applies in the modern world due to the changes brought about the Event of Golgotha in 33AD.
The knowledge accumulated by the student, or neophyte, was both scientific and spiritually founded. Thus, some students who were trained in the mysteries such as Pythagoras, who received his training at an Egyptian and Chaldean Mystery centers according to Dr. Steiner, fulfilled broader missions on behalf of humanity, and shared their knowledge. Others pursued unique paths, but Pythagoras' teaching task, which occurred through the Greeks, was through mathematics. These leaders, or "initiates", walked and lived the ennobled path of service to the world.
“If we were to speak of the nature of the Mysteries and their Initiates in the language of current thought, we should say that the Mysteries are schools for the training of those faculties which enable the soul of man to have actual vision of the spiritual worlds. They are schools, where in a methodical and systematic way, man's soul is so guided and trained that he can finally perceive the higher worlds with spiritual eyes and ears.
Although modern scholarship knows little of the Mysteries, they are nevertheless still in existence today and are the means whereby man can be led consciously to the spiritual worlds. And the whole content of Spiritual Science, everything that is communicated in Spiritual Science, is, in its essence, Mystery-wisdom.” -Rudolf Steiner, The European Mysteries and their Initiates, GA57, May 6, 1909. Berlin. From: Anthroposophy: A Quarterly Review — Michaelmas 1929 No. 3 Vol. 4.
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"It is not easy for our present consciousness to form a true conception of these ancient Mysteries and their Initiates, for the nature of our education and the knowledge resulting therefrom does not conduce to an understanding of the nature of Initiation — far from it! If we were to speak of the nature of the Mysteries and their Initiates in the language of current thought, we should say that the Mysteries are schools for the training of those faculties which enable the soul of man to have actual vision of the spiritual worlds.
They are schools, where in a methodical and systematic way, man's soul is so guided and trained that he can finally perceive the higher worlds with spiritual eyes and ears. Although modern scholarship knows little of the Mysteries, they are nevertheless still in existence today and are the means whereby man can be led consciously to the spiritual worlds. — And the whole content of Spiritual Science, everything that is communicated in Spiritual Science, is, in its essence, Mystery-wisdom.
Through all the ages there have been centers for developing the faculty of fully conscious clairvoyance and the aim of the present lecture is to give a cursory survey of the European Mysteries. The man who so trains his soul that he can perceive in higher worlds, is an Initiate.” -Steiner, Rudolf. The European Mysteries and their Initiates, GA57, May 6 ,1909. Berlin.
Although not perceptible to most of us today, the Christ Event, in light of Anthroposophy, transformed the physical and spiritual worlds forever. More and more people will begin to have spiritual experiences with the Christ and the spiritual worlds as human beings hearts begin to have thoughts. The most common experience today about the world of the spirit can be found in the near-death experience. These experiences are an invaluable source of information. -Refer to https://www.sunarchive.org/near-death-experiences for more information.
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The mission of the current world age, in light of the mission of the Archangel Michael (1), is rise to divinity and ascend above matter and the limitations of the 5-senses which can perceive only the outer world. A seeker must turn within. Part of the Michael Mission is to find the good path between the heart and the mind and to pursue clear thinking, unafraid of materialistic influences, which inevitably lead a person down false paths and a threshold which cannot be crossed. One should not abandon scientific thinking and rely purely on faith nor must a seeker ever turn away from the learning. We need to acquire fresh knowledge based on the age in which we live. However, we must be aware of the the flaws of materialistic thinking devoid of the inner path and recognition of spiritual ideas. The spirit path embraces all aspects of life; natural and spiritual. It rises above matter, yet recognizes that spirit works within matter. It recognizes a path to inner spiritual attainment through meditative exercises and education.
The initiates were, and are, individuals who have reached the highest stages of spiritual evolution amongst humanity in both spiritual and intellectual terms. They are thousands of years in advance of the average human today in terms of spiritual development. They are the bridges, and leaders, of humanity who most often work anonymously in all cultures of the world for truly beneficial and altruistic purpose in alignment with the Christ mission. They serve to bring the truths of the spirit into the world over the course of human history and will do so into the future. They work through all people and guide persons along the path of human transformation in the proper way; that which is in alignment with the Christ Force which guides us to evolve over time.
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(1) Refer to the articles "Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts" on the Mission of the Archangel Michael in the current world age. These articles can be found for free here at rsarchive.org.
https://rsarchive.org/Books/GA026/English/RSP1973/GA026_index.html
Selected References/Further Reading
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-Rudolf Steiner, From Jesus to Christ, GA 131, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA131/English/RSP1973/FJ2C73_index.html
-Rudolf Steiner, Christianity As Mystical Fact, GA 8, https://rsarchive.org/Books/GA008/
-Rudolf Steiner, Esoteric Lessons, GA 266, Lesson 6, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA266/English/UNK1998/19040000e01.html
-Rudolf Steiner, On The Gospel of St. John, GA 90b https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/OnJohn_index.html
-Rudolf Steiner, The Gospel of St. Luke, GA 114 https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA114/English/RSP1964/GosLuk_index.html
-Rudolf Steiner, The Gospel of St. Mark, GA 139 https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA139/English/AP1986/GosMrk_index.html
-Rudolf Steiner, The Gospel of St. Matthew, GA 123 https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA123/English/RSP1965/GoMatt_index.html
-Rudolf Steiner, Initiation, Eternity and the Passing Moment
GA 138, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA138/English/AP1980/IniPas_index.html
-Rudolf Steiner, Fundamentals of the Science of Initiation, GA 191, 17 October 1919, Dornach https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/SciIni_index.html
-Rudolf Steiner, Old and New Methods of Initiation, GA 210, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA210/English/RSP1991/ONMIni_index.html
-Rudolf Steiner, Rosicrucianism and Modern Initiation, GA 233a, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA233a/English/RSP1965/RosIni_index.html
-Rudolf Steiner, Esoteric Christianity and the Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz, GA 130 https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA130/English/RSP1984/EsoChr_index.html
-Rudolf Steiner, The Mission of Christian Rosenkreutz, GA 130 https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA130/English/RSP1950/ChRose_index.html
-Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy, GA 9, https://rsarchive.org/Books/GA009/
-Rudolf Steiner, Occult Science, GA 13, https://rsarchive.org/Books/GA013/
-Elizabeth Haich, Initiation, https://www.amazon.com/Initiation-Elisabeth-Haich/dp/0943358507 *Note: This book is available as a free download on the "Free Works" page of this website. Available for free here: https://houseoftruth.education/files/pdf/Elisabeth_Haich_Initiation.pdf