EURYTHMY, THE OCCULT ORIGINS
THE OCCULT ORIGINS OF EURYTHMY
The practice of the alphabet letters was developed by Johann Baptist Kerning, pseudonym of Johann Baptist Krebs. Krebs lived from 1774-1851, he studied Catholic theology in Konstanz and Freiburg, but then chose a musical career as an opera singer at the Stuttgarter Hofoper. Eventually he worked for the opera as a director and vocal teacher as well. For the foundation of the Loge "Wilhelm zur aufgehenden Sonne" (Wilhelm at the rising sun) which he founded in Stuttgart, Krebs requested permission from the king by letter, which was granted to him. Through him many contacts from the theater world became a member of the lodge. Krebs was the grand master: this theologian and vocal artist understood the essence of Freemason teachings through the mystical approach.
His method influenced personalities in various Freemason-, Rosicrucian- and Theosophical circles.
Weinfurter (1861-1942), a student of this practice, refers to Kerning (Freiburg i. Breisgau, 1976. Bietigheim 1930). Weinfurter developed the method of starting in the outer regions of the body and then progressing towards the center of the bones, the spine and chakra's and not like the other students of the Christian mystic Alois Mailander (1844-1905) and his successor Meyrink (1868-1932) who started in the center right away. Weinfurter also replaced certain practices with the body by imagination more than by physical movement.
Friedrich Eckstein (1861-1939), founder and president of the theosophical society in Vienna, was initiated in this method by one of Kernings students. Eckstein was a central figure in the Viennese circle of occultists, who practiced Kernings method.
Carl Kellner (1851-1905) was another central figure in this circle of practitioners of the Kerning method, who were students of the Christian mystic of the Golden Rosecross (neo-rosicrucians) Alois Mailander (1855-1923) as well. Together with Theodor Reuss (1855-1923) and Franz Hartmann (1838-1912), Kellner initiated the foundation of a Freemasonry College, the "Academia Masonica" in Berlin. Kellner saw the highest degrees of Freemasonry as the keepers of the secret doctrine. France and Scotland had such a "Supreme Council of Rites". Kellner became the honorary grand master general, a kind of priestly position as a teacher, Reuss became the grand-master of the Berlin location. The lodge to be erected became the "Ordens Tempel des Ostens", the OTO, where Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) became grand-master after Kellner's early death in 1905 and after Reuss handed over the position to him.
Carl Kellner and Friedrich Eckstein linked the teachings of Kerning with the Indian yoga of Vivekananda and the core concepts of Raja Yoga. Practice of the Pranayama fitted into the mystical approach of "breathing" the letters. The Yoga literature was translated and made accessible in the time of the Theosophical Society. It is striking that Kerning already knew these teachings of yoga, with its energy centers and channels in the body, while nothing had been translated in his time.What actually was translated, as Baier describes in his research article about Occult Vienna ((Baier, 2020) was a part of the Upanishads by Anquetil-Duperron (1731-1805) called the Oupnek’hat, describing the technique of closing off all sensory entrance gates into the body in order to “protect the lamp in the vessel of the body”. This text was discussed by Joseph Görres in his Mythengeschichte der Asiatischen Welt (1810). Kerning was thereby informed and found the method not fitting for western practitioners, being less flexible in their bodies to put them into these positions. Furthermore he commented the same goal could be achieved by closing off sensory input of some entrance gates and by concentration on the inner light inside the body; namely by breathing techniques, concentration and meditation on the inner movement and character of the speech sounds. He had found this out in his own way of practicing with sound and breath. Further Kerning compared the technique of mantra recitation in the eastern systems with the christian church faters practice to feel and think words within themselves. (Baier 2020)
In addition Kerning also knew the mystical teachings of the Kabbalah, dealing with speech sound, especially in the text "Jezirah" (for which I am indebted to a communication by Eric Dilloo)
Lateron Rudolph von Sebottendorf (1875-1945) saw correpondences with the Sufi-and mystical Islam tradition of the Middle East. Sebottendorf, a German occultist and freemason was interested in Blavastki's ideas, he lived in Istanbul many years and converted to the Islam. He started the Thule party in Germany, a precursor for the later national socialist party. He played a dubious role during the second world war, was an informant for the Germans as well as for the British. At the end of the war when Germany capitulated he took his life.
It requires more study of Kernings work to ascertain the influences of Middle Eastern mysticism. One can cautiously conclude that the cultures of the east had an influence on Persian and Middle Eastern mystical practices, by way of the silk trade routes. Religions and philosophies traveled along with trade goods. There has been a reciprocal influence between these cultures over the centuries.
The doctrine of the energy centers and pathways in the subtle body was thus used by the freemason Kerning and must have been present in the ideas of the alchemists about a path of transformation in the body's substances. The knowledge of the chakra's and pathways in the subtle body stems from the yoga tantra. As Kerning formulates his experience: He saw the commonality in the different cultures and found his own way and method by practicing. He had found a more universal route, present in all old cultures, making use of language sound.
A statement by Kellner about the teaching of Kerning bears witness to his experience and insight into the essence of the secret doctrine: "Krebs who published on this subject in the 1850 's under the pseudonym Kerning ... represents the best ever written about yoga practices in German language, although in a form that might not be to everyone's taste. "
And Karl Beier (Vienna, 2018): "Krebs (Kerning) has laid the foundation for modern body-oriented yoga practice" (Allthough the modern body oriented practice often is no longer designed and used for inner transformation, rather for health purposes than for spiritual growth).
The Kerning circle of the Viennese occultists around Eckstein practiced this special kind of yoga with the letters of the alphabet in combination with Raja Yoga and Christian mysticism of the rosicrucian Alois Mailander. He would have been analfabhethic and had received the whole transmission orally from his teacher Prestel. The initiations were not written down by Mailander, but in an indirect manner his student and initiated successor Gustav Meyrink (1868-1932) wrote about them in his esotheric mystical books.
Mailander pointed his students to the philosophy and exercises by Kerning as a way to prepare themselves for the initiations. (Rolf Speckner, Friedrich Eckstein als Occultist Langfassung, 2014 Internet publication on Academia). Mailander himself did not teach the letter practice; he based his work on Jacob Boehme (1575-1624) theologist and mystic and on Paracelsus (1493-1541) doctor and alchemist.
This way the students of Mailander, who became part of the lodge Oriental Templar des Ostens (OTO) in Berlin, combined the teachings of Kerning with the European mystical tradition of inner alchemy.
They brought about some changes in the original teaching of Kerning, by practicing no longer in all organs, but more in the centers along the spine in the seven zones of the body, the heart being a central organ. The whole amalgam of teachings ended up in the OTO.
In addition to the interlocking triangles of the elements, a snake was added, going in and out of the body, connecting the three zones of the heart, head, and lower body. The division of the body into zones, originating from the Jewish mystical tradition, was combined by them with Eastern yoga, Kernings method of letter practice and Mailanders Christian mystical teachings. These additions and their integration one can recognize in the later created anthroposophy. Namely: metabolic pole, rhythmic system (of blood circulation and lungs around the heart) and nerve-sense pole in the head, connected by a lemniscate: "the snake". In this three-way division is the opposite pair of elements of rising fire from the metabolism to blood and air and the cooling down from the head downwards to water and earth. This is part of the original doctrine of the elements in Hindu Tantra . Students of Alois Mailander's school, who succeeded him, took the Kundalini energy of the Raja Yoga, coiled like a snake at the base of the spine as the starting point of the letter practice and no longer the feet as Kerning originally taught. In bringing in this new aspect, the original method changed: the Kundalini practice of inner fire is related to the aims of accessing the energy streams in the whole body, albeit it is not identical. In the east the yoga of inner heat, Tummo, is a separate line of practice from the other types of related practices such as Phowa, Tsa Lung Thrul Khor, all making use of the pranic body in a different manner, with their own purposes, making use of different elemental qualities and speech sound energies. These practices are all transmitted from teacher to student personally and orally, for good reasons, as doing them the wrong way can harm a students health. The warning to only practice this with guidance of an experienced practitoner is valid up until today.
Kerning was focussed on breathing through the whole body in its vertical position and making use of the rising energy streams leading upward from the feet and legs. His final goal was the development of the resurrection body within the physical body by alchemical transformation of the subtle pranic body, working inside of the material body. Transformation into the enlightened body, had been the old alchemical way. The road to this was the use of the energy streams present in the vowels, as well as the formative and creative forces present in the consonants, together making the human being an embodiment of speech as the creative word was.
Rudolf Steiner became a student of Eckstein and by Eckstein heard of Blavatsky's "Geheimlehre" (Occult Science, published in 1888). Steiner was initiated in the circle of practitioners of Kernings teaching by Eckstein. According to his teacher Eckstein, Steiner would have achieved exceptional results. (Sauerwein, 1932, Rolf Speckner, internet publication). The transmission through Eckstein to Steiner seems to have been more the original practice from Kerning. This can be concluded from the practice of eurythmy Steiner developed later, where the inclusion of the feet was essential in the curative form, the pedagogical form and in the stage art.
Steiner himself planned to place this doctrine of Kerning with its letter mysticism in his intended highest class of the esoteric school, as a practice of an inner alchemy with regulated breathing (Steiner 1905, Dornach, 2018). By such practices, according to Steiner, in the future humans could build their own body by breathing in oxygen, extracted from the air and convert it into carbon for the physical body, like plants can do.
Indeed certain yoga techniques teach how to extract nourishment from the etheric elements, in order to be able to stay in remote mountain retreats for a long time without much material food and a risk of starvation. (Another example is the regulation of body temperature making it possible to sleep outside in the cold without much shelter). At the same time these practices are transformative exercises opening etheric channels and centers, making spiritual experience possible. Not so long ago for westerners, who were not advanced and went out alone in the mountains without a teacher's permission, their retreat ended in a disaster with dehydration, illness and death of one person. It is an advanced level of yogic practice.
WHAT IS THIS ORIGINAL METHOD OF THE LETTER PRACTICE?
A number of translated statements from Kernings work, worded by Karl Kolb, his student:
An "Ur religion" (A primal religion). The cause of creation is God, his power is the creative word. One can get to know the power of creation by "thinking" letters (breathing, visualizing, inner hearing ). Every force is a movement in space and time, also in matter and form. The Letters are the elements of thought, they are the essence of power. The original form, the character of the spirit, is embedded in the letters. What a person experiences in the world and in nature is present in the living forms of speech. The Vowels are the streams of life, the consonants are the individualization.
The father principle is the space; the son is the word, the power and the movement; the spirit is the individual character in the movement.The "archetypal religion" is learning to think, feel, will the letters as elements of thinking.
The archetypal forms are straight line (I), angle (A) and circle (O). The world is built with these archetypal forms. "Lernet in the Füßen Buchstaben denken". (Learn to think letters in the feet). First the feet, then the rest of the body follows automatically.
Creation through movement, through speech and word is the life force, the light. The light that illuminates all is not the Christ personality, but something universal, of which the Christ is a representative. "He who believes in an inner life, by absorbing the powers of speech and thereby forming himself a new spiritual body, gives the word the power to become a child of God, like the Christ is."
From Kolb's anonymous text "The Rebirth, the Inner True Life" (Kolb, 1857). The wordings may be originally Kernings, published by his pupils after his death in 1851.
The anonymous publication was received as an anti-clerical book, because Kolb reproached the church to only teach dogma's and to not promote an inner life as a source of faith. Only learning dogma's with the head (intellectually) would be harmful for children's development. The letter practice should be taught to children in schools from the age of 7 onward, one hour a day. With feet, hands, the whole body, the children should be made familiar with the living word. Kolb made the connection of will, thinking and feeling with the father, the son (the word) and the spirit respectively.
Kolb gave many quotes from the sacred scripture of the Bible to show the correspondence between Christian faith and the method of Kerning's learning with the alphabet. He wanted to prove faith and science can meet on common ground and do not have to be opposed to each other as different approaches.
The book contains three chapters, always supported by many Bible quotes.
Part 1 is called "The theory of life".
What is the cause of all things? The creator who breathed life into matter. The ego of man is the connection between the material body and the mind. The 9 Vowels and 16 Consonants are the indivisible elements of nature, with which life and all forms are built. The mind can understand the creation of the world, by developing its language, and that is how thinking comes into being. In this way the mind itself can become a part of the creative divine principle.
Part 2 is about the means to develop an inner life, here the actual letter practice is discussed.
Part 3 are mainly Bible quotes used as evidence for this method of developing higher qualities in one's own mind, such as clairvoyance, clear hearing, and prophetic consciousness. Here it is substantiated that one should not take the figure of Christ as a living historical figure, but as a radiating example of the possibility present in every individual to develop these qualities in themselves. Every individual is a potential son of God, in which the Christ qualities in the resurrected (reborn) speech body can live within the physical body. This is the rebirth the Rosicrucians and Alchemists worked on: the philosopher's stone.
The physical body is seen as the virgin, the mother who carries the conception of the rebirth. But man must make the effort by practicing to complete the purification process within himself, namely by ascending with the element fire and transform his life force (ethereal body) level after level, in order to bring about this rebirth of a spiritual man within himself. It is formulated as freeing the life force from its connection with the physical body, in order to use these forces for the build up of a new and indestructible body. The latter is also called the rebuilding of the (inner) temple.
Somewhere in chapter 2 about the language is also the staggering statement: "Since of all developed languages, the German language only has a developed archetypal language, the Germans must become the rulers of the world as soon as they recognize this power in their language ". This was said before two world wars raged through Europe, with all its consequences. (And the Germans did not become the rulers of this world, although Germany certainly is an important country in today's Europe).
The primordial language may designate the runic script, used by another student of Mailander, Franz Hartmann, as a letter practice. The body movements and postures were not based on the normal alphabet letters, but on the Germanic runes.
Kernings method may be best described in the "Letterbook" (from 1857) ascribed to his pupil Kolb.
Kernings letter mysticism was extended by the group of Viennese occultists around Friedrich Eckstein, with Mailanders teachings about the working of the elements forming the body: namely the element water flowing downwards towards the earth, fire ascending upwards to the air element. The first is called baptism with water, the second baptism with fire in the rituals of these Freemasons and Rosecrucians. The letterpractice is a mystical practice of baptizing with fire. The opposing element pair is contained and held together by our bodily form: represented by two triangles that interlocked with their angels. The eurythmy exercise "heaviness weighs down (water)- light streams upward (fire)" was performed by the Freemasons in Mailanders school with the body standing in these positions: downward triangle with legs spread apart and upward arms raised in a triangle. The two triangles overlap in the center of the body. The later eurythmy exercise "weight goes downward, light streams upward", the first position in the bottom row below, is one of the six body positions drawn by Agrippa von Nettesheim, given as meditation in postures for eurythmists by Steiner: I think speech, I speak, I have spoken, I seek myself in the spirit, I feel myself wihin myself, I am on the way to the spirit to myself. Practiced at the start of any eurythmy class in speech-eurythmy
Eastern Yoga, Buddhism, Theosophy and Anthroposophy most often mention the whole range of earth, water, fire, air and akasha, the elements becoming increasingly thinner. The contrast of space, emptiness or akasha and densification in material form of the earthly body, are the two opposites and complementary realities. From the empty space the materialization of the human living form is created by means of the indivisible language sounds. In that process the elements follow the formative powers of the sounds.
This variant of yoga strives after the return from the existing creation of the body through the elements and through language to the creative formative forces. The ascending force of fire is used to release the forming forces that work within the material body and to build up, as it were, a new and indestructible body called "the temple". The meaning of Christs words: I will build this tempel up again in three days after it is destroyed, is about rebuilding the destroyed material body into an indestructible body of light. In Buddhist teaching called the "diamond body", spoken of in the diamond sutra. This is the way of the Vajra, the lightning flash. It is this Vajrayana alas, that has been in the news negatively because of abuse scandals. The higher and more esoteric the teachings, the less students can understand with their normal thinking, the more their own thinking can be set aside, opening the doors to dependency and misuse. (One should never give up one's sound normal way of thinking, rather start a few steps "lower" and still understand the way one is on: remaining the master of ones own mind).
This new body is built by practicing the letters inside of the physical body. One focuses on the breath-body, on the prana, the life force, to which one has access through the physical body and breathing. All letters in all organs of the body become "thinking and feeling", breathing in and out, working with movement, breath, concentration and body positions. Thus one can transform the pranic body into a vehicle for the mystical experience. "Breathe in Vowels", then syllables and words, the same with the consonants, the (I) consciousness is clothed in language sounds.
In addition to the aforementioned exercises, Kerning also knew a form of meditation based on the investigation and application of the special powers of letters and phonemes (vowels as well as consonants). He assigned this area of advanced research and practice to what he called the secret doctrine, Kabbalah or philosophy of nature: “The elementary teachings of Kabbalah are concerned with the forms of the letters, how they present themselves to the ear, feeling, and eye” (Kerning 1912: 73).92 He combined the visualisation of letters and the silent murmuring of the assigned sounds with the concentration on certain parts of the body to awaken the powers of the letters in the body. An example: 1. One stretches the index finger upwards, as if to command silence, and practices this until one sees and feels the letter I in it. […] 2. Once the first letter, the I, is felt in this way, one forms the square with the index finger and the thumb and continues until one sees and feels the letter A in this sign. 3. Once one is certain of the matter, so that one can clearly perceive and feel the I and A within the sign in question, one places them on the throat to communicate them to the whole body (Kerning 1912: 125). (Baier 2020)
One goes through a number of phenomena starting with the generation of heat. Through the fire one can then ascend from the feet through seven zones of the body. In each area, one practices until the result occurs, that heat is generated before moving to the next area of the body. In every respect a true variant of the principle of yoga, working with the inner fire. Starting in the perifery, moving to the inner core of the body. In the end one is to come to the center of the bones. One speaks of the narrow road, of the "razors edge", which one takes as a route in this way, not entirely risk-free. The ascending fire channel, the sun pathway, in contrast to the cooling moon pathway, is equally not without danger in yoga. One can think of the sorcerer's apprentice who releases energies that are too strong, that can destroy and are no longer manageable. The prana, breathing, is the key to knowing how one can come down with the cooling element if the ascending fire is too strong. But one must have learned something about that before unleashing these energies. It was a matter of proceeding slowly! Eckstein taught Sauerwein that one should become aware of the ethereal currents within the physical body by breathing the sounds. Extend the etheric body over the physical body. (Sauerwein, 1932). Or rather extend your awareness of these ethereal streams in the body.
When one made progress with this sound yoga, the sound was extended to syllables, whole words and finally whole sentences, which were repeated internally like a mantra. The whole body and the whole person merged into language sound, became living language. The soul lived in the vocals and the embodiment and form were the consonants. The etheric body was awakened in this way, transformed into the body of the rebirth. The result would be prophetic speech, clairvoyance, clear hearing, clear feeling. (As indeed through the practice of yoga one ascends to the "siddhis").
The prophetic word came into being when one was purified to the chakra in the throat, the "seeing" and "hearing" as the development of transformation reached the level of the center above the eyebrows. From heart Anahata chakra, to Vishudda (throat) and Ajna (forehead) chakra. (The highest chakra of enlightenment, Sahasrara in the crown of the head was not found in this tradition). One went as far as the enlightened speech body and not towards the total dissolution of the individual in unification with the divine. They were convinced of a kind of spiritual reincarnation principle, in which the minds of ancient prophets and initiates worked through the present person: the so-called "prophetic speaking".
Mailander is said to have spoken with the spirit of John the Baptist in his speeches. This seems to our modern notion as something of a temporary taking over by another personality. The current understanding of these things is: Either one has developed a level of insight oneself, making what one preaches correspond to what older initiates spoke, or one is temporarily possessed by a different spirit and then one can wonder what kind of achievement this is in ones own development. (Is someone then a medium?). How to distinguish oneself from the shaman for so-called "more primitive" cultures, (which did not yet have the same level of rational thinking that we modern people use), is the next question. For example, the flow of words in the lectures from Steiner's clairvoyant imagination does not give rise to the idea that another personality spoke through Steiner. Rather, the impression arises that Steiner himself had his own experiences and is looking for ways to tell others about it with many complicated wordings, as if he was afraid that things could not be understood too directly and clearly. Steiner did not want his lectures to be understood on a normal intellectual level, but intended to awaken a more imaginative and higher way of thinking in his audience for the contents he communicated. In fact they could not be captured and communicated in normal thinking. He wanted people to think along with him this way, to open them to another level of perception. Where does ones own thinking ends and where does one adopt someone elses? Alas this can lead to the same trap as in Vajrayana, namely to give up on ones own mind, needing to be developed after listening to a teacher. It is essential to return to a meditation practice of ones own. Without being firmly rooted in the individual, developed out of ones own source, coming to ones own conclusions, like a scientist proceeding, checking, the esoteric knowledge will not be "owned". It is meditation experience first and then working it out in understanding. Not listening to someone elses experience and then going to understanding immediately, without the practice that should come in between of these two moves. All wise teachers will say: do not accept my words, without verifying for yourself. It is not a matter of believing, it is a matter of becoming ones own master of the mind. In Buddhism there is this drastic command: "If you meet the Buddha destroy him!" (Do not see this development in someone outside of yourself. Exactly the same message Kerning gave, only look into your own mind.)
Steiner did have the theory of historical personalities whose etheric-, astral-, and I- bodies could be transmitted to others throughout history. Which in a sense also implies a kind of partial reincarnation in the present living person, of an earlier historical figure. Strange constructions that do not correspond at all with the inner transformation in the present living individuality. (One has to do it oneself in the current incarnation and one does not get it like a present). Perhaps this was developed by Steiner from the school of Mailander and the tradition of the Rosicrucians who in their initiations transferred such bodies to their students as "etheric link". This can be read as a connection with and not as a completely transferred "body" of a previously initiated personality. An "empowerment" or "blessing" is not a complete takeover by the achievements of another developed individual.
Either one reincarnates and has to live up to the achievements of a previous life, in the present life and continues what was achieved in a previous incarnation, or one is still a beginner, it does not matter. One can be greatly helped by encountering advanced practitioners and have them as a teacher in this life. One can certainly also learn in traditions of what old masters achieved, in writings or through oral tradition, but just inheriting something is another point. Then one would be (partly) taken over by previous incarnations of other historical figures, which is contrary to the way of inner transformation. Every individual remains a unique person. Either one remembers in the present life, who one was in a previous life, or one acquires a degree of development in the present life, but inheriting a piece from another individual remains a strange theory.
The Viennese occultists of the theosophical society around Friedrich Eckstein embraced the Kerning method in addition to their study and deepening in the practice of eastern yoga forms as were known in theosophy. A very special variant of practicing arose in these circles. An amalgam of Freemason and Rosicrucian tradition with Indian Yoga and Christian mysticism. (Baier, Maas and Preisendanz, 2018). For this last element, in addition to Kernings teaching, who himself was no longer alive but the teaching was continued by his students Kolb and Weinfurter, there existed the living teacher and mystic who taught a practice of inner transformation: Alois Mailander, the absolutely secret incarnation in the line of rosicrucians.
N.B. No direct indication that this personality was seen as a reincarnation of a historical figure Christian Rosenkreuz, as Rudolf Steiner made of it with his transferable bodies of initiates. A subject in itself to what extent those transferable etheric-, astral- and ego-bodies are correct. There are initiations and blessings in which higher teachers give a kind of empowerment to others, who thereby receive an extra boost in their own development (called transmission). This own development taking place entirely through one's own work, within one's own individual line of development through the incarnations. It is striking how individually different masters can be within a transference line: each has developed his/her own qualities within the same method. One never has the feeling of meeting another masters personality within the current teacher. The principle of inner alchemy within one's own personality is the way; it can not come from outside! One must completely transform it inside ones own being, out of one's own free will. It is a point of discussion to what extent the legendary figure of Christian Rosenkreuz was actually reincarnated. In addition, it was a time of many esoteric schools, all kinds of clairvoyants, and there were at the same time others who thought they were Christian Rosenkreutz! (Just as in ancient times, many Messiahs roamed around in the time of Christ, but only the latter became a leading example for humanity).
Whether Rudolf Steiner received this entire conglomerate of mystical doctrine, theosophy, Indian yoga doctrine and letter practice entirely through his regular contacts with his teacher Eckstein, or whether Rudolf Steiner also had contact with Mailander himself is a matter of discussion. If he did, he never mentioned it and left no trace that can prove it, apart from the content of anthroposophy having many elements of Mailanders teaching. All these teachings ended up in the OTO of which Steiner became the leader. (See the website of the Pansophers for a number of interesting articles about Rudolf Steiner's relationship with the Rosicrucian teachings: pansophers.com/alois mailander).
In any case, a teacher "M" is mentioned by Steiner, which was also the name of Mailander: he was referred to as "the M". The circle of Viennese occultists had vowed to keep the identity of this teacher secret. The secrecy aimed at protecting this person against too much attraction of masses of people coming and possibly negative influences. Many have been inspired through this pure source: Carl Weinfurter, Carl Kellner, Gustav Meyrink and Franz Hartmann. Blavatsky and Hubbe-Schleiden (the president of the theosophical society in Berlin) would have been expelled, in the case of Blavatsky because she remained too much attached to the Indian systems, Hubbe-Schleiden for reasons that he did not engage sufficiently in the practice and the teacher did not agree. This group of freemasons and rosicrucians eventually turned their back on Steiner when he wanted to make everything public (with the exception of the identity of his teacher).
The personality of the teacher was certainly kept secret by Steiner, not his teaching.
This must be one of the reasons of the secrecy, or even lack of knowledge in the present anthroposophical society. The history of Steiners sources is not open to investigation. It is now up to others outside of the society to make this history accessible.
There have been more sources from which Steiner drew and put together his anthroposophical philosophy, which were also not mentioned, while there was no obligation of confidentiality.
In any case, many elements from the above-mentioned methods of Kerning and Mailander can be recognized in Steiner's lectures and can certainly be found in the pedagogy of the Waldorf schools: Learning with the whole body and not just with the head. Stamping and clapping the numbers in arithmetic counting, geometrical figures in the eurhythmy, the eurhythmy itself par excellence, reciting texts and poems in the classroom.
The actual Kerning letter practice was intended for the highest degrees of initiation in the lodge, for Steiner's intended third class, which was in the end not realized because of his early death in 1925. (Steiner, GA 267).
What remained as a form of practice was the eurythmy, the letter practice wrapped in an art form. (Steiner, 1927)
SUMMARY ABOUT THE METHOD
It is important that all sounds are performed with the whole body as a form of yoga, letter yoga, and mantra yoga. accompanied by the breath, called "thinking," (rather concentration and visualization). Going to a part of the body in thoughts and performing the sound, the posture and movement of the body with the breath and inner hearing. The goal was to completely immerse oneself in this practice of sound, movement, breath, concentration, color and quality of the sound, thus becoming an inner felt and moved sound body. However, not immediately the entire body, but slowly building up (by staying for many weeks in a certain area of the body), starting at the feet, slowly moving towards the head. Eventually through all seven zones of the body. For the arms it started in the fingers, then the whole hand, the forearm, upper arm, chest, neck, eyes and crown. The reason for this build-up was that if one reached his goal in the most peripheral part of the feet, the following areas would follow more easily.
In curative eurythmy it is taught that performing sounds with the extremities has the maximum effect on the whole body. Sounds in the fingers and hands work like the Mudras, the most refined gestures the mind can express in the body, finer than a word or language. A mudra represents the attitude of soul and spirit.
The sound gestures for I, A and O with the fingers were placed in the Freemason rituals on relevant body zones, energy centers (chakra's), accompanied by certain yogic eye directions and eye movements. (gaze directions; the movement of the eyes can control the energy flows of the etheric body and thus determine the kind of visionary experiences and insights in meditation). What one sees and experiences is evoked and produced by movement streams in the etheric body: in rituals it is evoked through hand gestures and eyes, while the rest of the body lays still, does not move in deep meditation and concentration. Mention is made of the body placed in a coffin. It seems to call on the experience of dying and resurrecting the ethereal body. (described in my blog "reflections on consciousness" about ecstatic death as the starting point of the initiatory experience).
The energy flows are responsible for the perception of ourselves as a light body. (Lebensgeist, Sambhogakaya).
It goes without saying that these rituals were not a beginner's degree of initiation, but for the advanced students, who had done their basic homework with the letter practice.
The Buddhist practice with breath and visualization (Tsa lung and tantra practices) speaks of the rider, the horse and the path. The rider is the spirit that moves, rides on the breath along the paths of the energy streams in the body.
Weinfurter (1976) writes: one can learn and read everything about the violin, but still not make music with it. This requires a build-up of practicing. Closer to home for anthroposophy: one can study all the books and read endlessly Steiners lectures, one will not learn any eurythmy with it, because it requires a four-year, nowadays even five-year, intensive training, with many hours on the feet and moving every day. Without practice people get nowhere, the intellect is not the right starting point. Thinking alone does not help, one has to do something with the whole body. It is advisable to learn these letterpractices from an experienced teacher, and not from a book or a video on you tube only. It is important to seek a life transmission of how to do it.
Perhaps here some illuminating vision in Buddhism:
1) Philosophy and debate: 700 incarnations through study and thinking (according to Kolb the level of the soul power Feeling).
2) Mantra yoga, speech, movement, postures, breath, visualizations, the creative and active element (tantra, the path of transformation): 70 lives needed. (connected to thinking/imagination)
3) Dzogchen: in one life towards the goal, called the steep road. By decision of will.
The one way is not better than the other, because everyone is on their way and one has to keep doing what one feels at home with. As long as people know what the possibilities and the outcome of that method are. The second route eventually leads to the transformed speech body, the glory of the enlightened human being, sambhogakaya. (Kolb connected this with the principle of the Son, the word)
The steep road leads to the Dharmakaya, the transformed mind. People turn to space, to the akasha element. The emptiness and all containing space, in which everything is potentially present, before things arise from it through the creative activity of the mind. Nothing to be seen here, except emptiness. The eye never sleeps Zen Buddhists say, even emptiness can be observed in one's own mind. Anything is possible to "come down into manifestation at action level" in the world, through the will to proceed, taking the decision to create (action). The center is in the crown, where consciousness opens to the space. (Kolb makes the connection here with the Father principle). The father god of the Christian trinity corresponds to the dharmakaya, which is depicted in dark indigo blue: immaterial as form, one with space. This transparent form encompasses the universe, all space, is like the spirit floating above the waters before there was light, in the void, before creation came into existence.
As soon as there is light, activity and movement, there is the creative word.
The many living beings that arise, with their own inner life, are a reflection, a separate and closed individual being, which can become aware of the greater state of unity and connectedness through practice. From the point of view of consciousness, the dharmakaya is a state of consciousness of emptiness, the sambhogakaya of creative activity, and the nirmanakaya the state of consciousness in incarnated individual existence.
The difference in emphasis between the story of creation in the Bible and the Buddhist vision is based on a description of 1) a world in which the divine consciousness is present in the Bible and 2) a man, a potential Buddha and an individual in which these states of consciousness can be realized. It is just how one wants to look at it: something more external or something internal in one's own mind, both are aspects of the same mind.
A central exercise of the Freemasons: The sound I, a straight line up (the fire), the sound A an angle down (the water) and the sound O, a circle that encompasses everything and holds it together in one form: the eurhythmy exercise I A O.
These three sounds were performed with the fingers in freemasonry. Kerning extended this into a practice for the whole body. He was an opera singer! The voice needs more than just the speech organs, it needs all that is underneath as a living organism, the breath and body awareness to fully devellop, the awareness of space.
The original letter practice is most recognizable in the later developed curative eurythmy, concentrating the effect of sounds in the body.
The opposite direction was taken with the art eurythmy: not directed inward into the body, but outward into space, consciousness was oriented towards the macrocosm of planets and zodiac. The entire space was moved with language (and music) sound. The body being part of this moving space.
Rudolf Steiner is said to have made statements about eurythmy such as: Someday people will fight for admission, to get in and see a eurythmy performance. Or it will become as popular as football is now. We have not come that far today; eurythmy as an art form still provokes resistance. "Yes beautiful" sometimes, "but floating". One hears a lot: "superfluous if you want to listen to music, you don't have to see it at the same time". Or: "Old-fashioned, outdated theater".
Steiner had a vision with his externalization in an art of something coming out of the secret doctrine: making it accessible to all people. Apparently no one needed to know where this came from, even the eurythmists themselves did not know this origin. On the contrary, one should not, in particular, pay attention to any inner images that may arise during practice of eurythmy, one had to continue to focus outward in space. Steiner even lashed out about a German mystica, as if her visions would have been nothing but repressed sexuality!
Today, this principle is strictly guarded in art eurythmy, no mystical or occult tendencies, out of fear it would cause the art form to be lost again in the introspective state of the mind.
Can one not move in a physical way while being absorbed within? In the Eastern martial arts, this technique of concentration, control of the body and movement is refined into a mastery. In the eurythmy, which moves rapidly and fluidly into space as an expression of the ethereal flowing element, such absorbed moments in an individual will occasionally occur, as a unity of consciousness and movement. One will only observe brief moments, flashes, after which the presence of mind resumes in order to remain in a dualistic manner in the performance. The spectator who is physically passive in his seat will be moved, as is the case with all theatrical performances. As a form of cathartic therapy this took place in Greek drama, leading to a purification of the soul. In the eurythmy, a being moved by the etheric world will take place. This is experienced as less dramatic and emotional and sometimes boring to look at. Actually a shame, because experienced internally in meditation, this kind of perception of the ethereal is the opposite of boring!
Rather experienced as miraculous! (In old texts: "Emaho!"meaning: listen to this miracle! and then followed an account of the visionary experience. These days one keeps silent about ones inner miracles).
The externalization in art, on the other hand, makes it less glorious. Because of this, the writer agrees wholeheartedly with Eckstein's objections at the time, more than 100 years ago: it should not be externalized. (to make deep secrets profane). The positive thing now is that it is a solid path of practicing. It is (my personal opinion) more fruitful to learn to do eurythmy than to look at it in a performance.
Even the quotation from the book of 1857 could be rewritten with this formulation: "Because the eurythmists have a developed primordial language, if they become aware of it, the eurythmists could become the leaders of the inner world of the people" (in its original formulation: the rulers of the world).
At least they currently have the best method for developing the inner word. The other known method is mantra meditation.
It is true that everything one has learned to do externally in space on the flowing sounds in the ether, without anything missing, if internalized in consciousness (without moving externally, sitting still, standing or lying down, in meditation), is what one can learn in other meditation systems with mantra meditation, breath, visualization and so on. One will therefore immediately recognize the meditation systems from other cultures in all their aspects, since one has ones own internal experience as a frame of reference. People may first see cultural differences, different images, different methods, different mantra, different language, but as soon as they start doing it, the universal principle will be seen at the level of experience. Whether they will practice the Indian, Chinese, Japanese or western variants of meditation training, a thorough personal experience is the best possible preparation.
All visionary experience comes from those energy flows in the body, everything is originally life energy, transformed sexual energy, this also applies to sensory perception and the stream of thoughts. "From somewhere" comes the movement, the energy. A mystic having visions is by far not producing a hysterical phenomenon. The sexual energy is only one of the forms of expression, visions are another, speech is another. And thinking, so cherished, is yet another form. We do not call the much-heard clairvoyant "Geistesschau" a form of repressed sexuality, although the life energy is just as much the basis for it.
Meditation is a practice to learn about the mind, to direct ones gaze in opposite direction, in order to see this process of continuously "reproducing", multiplying (in great speed without our control), to stop going outward and perceive the source of all this movement in the self.
What one can do with these energy streams, how one can handle them determines the type of visionary experience they bring and what learning one can receive from them. Although they are archetypal, there may be differences on an individual level. One will hardly ever see exactly the same vision as described in a textbook, or as it is depicted and described in a text by Steiner. There will be enough agreement to be able to "place" and process one's own experience, to understand what it is that one perceives. It is as individual as a dream interpretation can be: there are certain archetypal images in the flow of the story, but what do these mean for the individual, what is this spirit working out with them?
What about the esoteric doctrine within anthroposophy, now that there is no esoteric school with this core practice? And now that the eurythmy, having it all, is only assigned the role of an artistic side branch?
And would not the so-called third class for the most advanced students have been what it already was within the enclosure of the lodges? What, then, was the purpose of wanting to make everything accessible to everyone in a popular form, if the essence had to take place again in isolation? In a kind of separate class for the most advanced pupils? As if the application in art was only a kind of public billboard to interest people in the esoteric backgrounds.
An "intermediate level" has emerged between the publicly accessible exterior and the closed circle, namely the tools for working with the doctrine in various work areas: bio dynamic agriculture, pedagogy and heil-pedagogy, therapies, medicine and so on. In the process of working with Steiner's indications one can learn a lot. However it is not the same as an intensive self-transformation through meditation and initiations.
Rudolf Steiner did not come to it in his lifetime, so it will have to be solved in a different way and by other personalities. Inside or outside the existing current frameworks. It doesn't really matter. Or rather: the individual members will have to decide for themselves how they want to proceed. Not everyone will be ready to transform themselves so drastically. Fear to do something the wrong way in anthroposophy blocks any action to develop something.
Imagine people would not encounter the kind of images in themselves that Steiner had, but a personal individual variant? Imagine people finding their own clarity, their own experiences? Then there will be a variety of personalities with insights and meditative experience. That should not be a problem if variations occur within the universal nature of a spiritual teaching. At the same time one could no longer pretend to have something unique, but to acknowledge the cross-connections with other (spiritual) teachings, for example also the teachings from which Steiner derived and extended his anthroposophy. One then must give up the distinctive consciousness of having something better and join the larger community of mankind without rankings about who has the best living tradition or the best prophet. So it remains an individual responsibility of people how and where they want to do something in that direction. Spiritual development never benefits from fear of losing something, nor with pride, thinking that one already has it. It remains an individual responsibility how and where to undertake it.
If one understands the necessity and the usefulness of doing so, then much has already been gained, because simply continuing to read and study will not do much for the time being. The personal experience with meditation cannot be skipped, not at the modest beginners level and certainly not at the advanced level. It requires a coming down from intellectual understanding and starting from the bottom up, as just knowing intellectually from reading does not count, so it will be experienced as being set back in who one thought one was. However, people will get a lot in return from their own living experience.
Steiner did not train a spiritual teacher to be his successor. There are many good spiritual teachers outside of anthroposophy, it doesn't really matter because the secret doctrine is universal, there is nothing specifically anthroposophical about it. A meditation practice will always be connected to that which is universal in anthroposophy and not be at odds with it. So actually there are no reasons not to go somewhere in apprenticeship, after carefully searching for the right person per individual! A teacher is something personal; by definition, it cannot be a certain "anthroposophical" meditation teacher. The teacher is an individual who remains hidden from the individual for so long, until he has arrived at the right point with his own "work" to find the teacher. One can do preliminary work at home, with the help of a simple instruction from Steiner or others. There are plenty of manuals with methods, there are also plenty of beginner courses. In Buddhism they say: the teacher only appears when one is ready.
The mere thought it should be a specific "anthroposophical" teacher is a hindrance to find somebody at all and radically go for individuation! To throw away all preconceived ideas and believe in oneself is the only right attitude. (In the zodiac the sign of Widder: Entschluss. Decision is the beginning).
If one is looking for a good psychotherapist, exactly the same applies: not every individual has the click that one needs to examine one's inner self. It is even necessary that the person does not come from a known network, but from outside, somewhere in the big world without any connection to ones own network. No neighbor, close friend, or member of the same association. No, a stranger!
Both types of guides are temporarily "mother of the soul", as long as one wants to go through a certain process. As unique as the mother-child relationship, such relationships are irreplaceable: there is only one of them. Such a relationship must be built, constructed from the total not knowing of the other. Just like the idea behind priesthood, where the person should stand apart from the normal ties. (not regarding here the many abuses, from which one can learn that such a personality must be weighed and tested with extreme care before one is certain that it is all right). Likewise, one must not embark on a spiritual path out of a position of weakness and mental need for help, opening the door to dependent relationships, then psychotherapy is a better route.
A spiritual teacher rather has independent people who have a mind of their own, who can even have all kinds of criticism if necessary, as long as they start practicing and investigate the teaching. Such a teacher-personality is not dependent at all on having followers. They also test the pupil carefully before determining their strategy.
IMAGES
The sketches by Rudolf Steiner for the eurhythmy figures made of wood plywood, serve as study material in the relationship of the colors to each other. The garment has the color of the movement, the veil of the feeling, the character of the sound are the places in the body where the consciousness of the sound is activated in the physical body. (It is difficult to find out on the internet who has the copyright for these images).
LITERATURE
Anonymous. Die Wiedergeburt, das innere wahrhaftige Leben, Oder wie wird der Mensch seelig? In Uebereinstimmung mit Aussprüchen der heiligen Schrift und den Gesetzen des Denkens beantwortet von einem Freimaurer. Nurnberg, 1857. Nabu Press, 2011.
Open Library, document from 1857 known as "the letterbook" toegeschreven aan Karl Kolb, (student van J.B. Kerning).
Baier, K. Maas, Ph.A., Preisendanz, K (eds). Yoga in Transformation, Wiener Forum für Theologie und Religionswissenschaft Band 16, Viennese University Press, Vienna, 2018. Hoofdstuk 9 Karl Baier, Yoga in Viennese occult culture, pg 387.
Baier, K. Occult Vienna: From the Beginnings until the First World War. 2020, Hans Gerald Hoedl, Astrid Mattes & Lukas Pokorny, eds., Religion in Austria, Vol. 5, Vienna: Praesens
Görres, Joseph. 1810. Mythengeschichte der asiatischen Welt. Erster Band: Hinterasiatische
Kerning, J. B. 1912. Briefe über die königliche Kunst. Als Handschrift gedruckt. Herausgegeben von Gottfried Buchner. Lorch: Renatus Verlag. Kerning, J. B. 1914a. Schlüssel zur Geisterwelt, oder die Kunst des Lebens. Nicht modernisierte Originalausgabe. Lorch: Verlag von Karl Rohm.
Kerning, J. B. 1914a. Schlüssel zur Geisterwelt, oder die Kunst des Lebens. Nicht modernisierte Originalausgabe. Lorch: Verlag von Karl Rohm.
Kerning, J. B. 1914b. Wege zur Unsterblichkeit auf unleugbare Kräfte der menschlichen Natur gegründet. Nicht modernisierte, unverkürzte Ausgabe im Originaltext. Lorch: Verlag von Karl Rohm.
Kerning, J. B. 1917. Kernings Testament. Veröffentlicht durch Kama, censor of the R.O.O.o.S.B.a.S. [Gustav Meyrink]. Second edition [same year as the first edition]. Leipzig: Verlag von Max Altmann. Republished 2003 in Rarissima 1. Seltenste Dokumente der Esoterik aus 4 Jahrhunderten, ed. F. W. Schmitt. Sinzheim: AAGW, pp. 155–179.
Kerning, Johann Baptist. 1920. Christentum oder Gott und Natur nur Eins durch das Wort. Lorch: Verlag von Karl Rohm.
Kerning, Johann Baptist. 1922. Die Missionäre oder: Der Weg zum Lehramte des Christentums. Second edition. Lorch: Verlag von Karl Rohm.
pansophers.com/alois mailander, author Ricard Cloud.
rolf-speckner.de/freimaurerei.
Rolf Speckner, Friedrich Eckstein als Occultist, Langfassung, 2014 Internet publication on Academia
Sauerwein, J. A glimpse of the beyond, uit "Memoiren", Basler Nachrichten, 1932
Steiner, R. Eurythmie als sichtbare Sprache, Ein Vortragszyklus gehalten vom 24 Juni bis 12 Juli 1924 im Goetheanum. Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag, Dornach, 1927
Steiner, R. (Manuscript uit ca 1905, Druk GA 267 2018) Übungen mit Wort und Silben Meditationen zur entwicklung höheren Erkenntnis Kräften, 1904-1924. Dornach, Rudolf Steiner Verlag. GA 267
Weinfurter, Karl. Der Brennende Busch. Der entschleierte Weg der Mystik. Bietigheim, 1930
Weinfurter, K. Der Königsweg. Der goldene Pfad der praktischen Mystik. Hermann Bauer Verlag, Frieburg i. Breisgau, 1976.
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