Hortus Conclusus

The Book On Man:

Within those highest spheres of the spiritual world of phenomena, where spiritual mankind propagates itself for the first time as phenomenon – yet here still as spiritual phenomenon – , ‘man’ and ‘woman’ remain closely united in the original unity of their bipolar perception of ‘I’.

With every subsequent propagation, however, the spiritual worlds into which this first spiritual phenomenon of man continues to propagate itself become, as it were, ‘more condensed’ and poorer in original given ‘light’, – yet always the closest union of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ remains as a common bipolar phenomenon.

Having finally reached its, so to speak, ‘densest’ manifestation of spiritual phenomenon, – only  faintly lit by original  given ‘light’, spiritual man now discovers within these realms, so far from his first propagation, for the first time the worlds of physical creation.

But here it is that the feminine pole within him is overwhelmed by a novel sensation: – fear.

It is fear of those monstrous powers which spiritual man, at one in his bipolarity, had hitherto still commanded; but now he sees them at work in a new form so foreign to him that he no longer dares command them here and so loses his power…

Yet behind the work of those powers which now appear threatening to him he perceives – a new world with living beings, all of which originate from his own power in the highest spiritual phenomenon: – the world of physical-sensory perception, – of phenomenon which experiences itself physically.

Fear of powers that can no longer be mastered, and attraction emanating from the forms of the physical world finally cause the feminine pole of the spiritual phenomenal man through an act of will – to break the wall which until that moment had separated him from the physical-sensory cosmos.

Knowledge of the newly discovered opportunity for self-experience in unfamiliar ways forcibly overwhelms him and trembling with desire within himself, it results in his tearing away from the present phenomenal form: – in the union with the earthly animal, – in exactly the same way that a flash of lightning tears itself away from a cloud to unite with the earth. –

There are countless ‘earths’ in cosmic space on which spiritual man must now experience himself within the body of an animal: – the physical body  of the animal whose surviving remains are found on this planet from times when it did not yet carry spiritual man within it, even if it may now be described as ‘primeval man’. –

With this tearing away from the world of spiritual appearance and the new attachment to the animal body, the ‘fall’ from exalted illumination is now finally completed.

Spiritual man, hitherto ‘man’ and ‘woman’, – united in the same perception of ‘I’ and continuing to propagate in all other spiritual worlds – is now broken into two. For in the world of physical appearance the poles ‘man’ and ‘woman’ are of necessity separated from each other, since this world only exists in the continuous ‘tension’ resulting from the separateness of the two original poles.

It is initially the feminine pole in the spiritual phenomenal man which causes this ‘fall’ and covets existence in animal form. – However, in spiritual realms nothing can continue to exist where only one of the two poles of ‘man’, – ‘woman’, would be effective. Thus the male pole must follow the ‘fall’ at the same time.

The animal form the female pole immediately finds in its ‘fall’, – a form already ‘created’ from spiritual men’s earliest propagation, – compels the masculine pole to covet the same form for itself.

“That the sons of the Gods saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and took them wives of all which they chose.” –

(The daughters of the Gods had already here become ‘daughters of the earth! – The sons of  the Gods followed suit! – –)

In this way we could describe in earthly terms the ever recurring process which eventually enslaves spiritual man to the manifestation belonging to the world of physical-sensory phenomena.

Nothing else has happened here than a change in the form of perception, willed initially by the feminine pole. This immediately breaks into two the previous union of poles and causes them to fall apart into one independently existing feminine pole and one independently existing masculine pole, – corresponding to the gender separation within the earthly human animal which can only be maintained in this divided state.

The myth of the Garden of Eden has ‘Eve’ tempted by the ‘serpent’, and she in turn tempts ‘Adam’. Although this myth as we know it today may not have been handed down to us in its original form, it nevertheless clearly demonstrates that one initiated in an eternally recurring process, sought to convey  to later generations that knowledge, symbolically concealed within an account couched in the language of his times, in as far as his symbolic language would be recognised.

Those who can interpret the words of this initiate will also find the further consequences for ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in their divided state on earth described in words this wise man has the ‘Lord’ speak to ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’, words which assign the measure of the consequence of guilt with significant differentiation.

In the continually recurring process of the ‘fall’ – in every individual  fall – it is the ‘feminine’ pole, by nature passive, which first succumbs to ‘original guilt’ through fear, and first gives way to the  attractive forces of the physical world.

Yet the masculine pole is in no way free of guilt, – as though it were merely the ‘victim’ of its union with the feminine pole!

The ‘guilt’ of the ‘masculine’ pole lies in the abdication of its active resistance within bipolar common life at the moment the feminine pole was threatened by fear and attraction.

Thus it is that the two poles exchange roles: – a spiritual perversion by which the feminine pole takes on the active, and the masculine pole the passive attitude, making the ‘fall’ into the physical phenomenal world inevitable.

Yet decisive as ‘original guilt’ is only the positive act of will within the feminine pole. –

Therefore, in the myth of the ‘fall of man’, the ‘curse’ which afflicts mankind is in the ‘woman’, – promising the woman in the earthly form physical pain, fear and distress such that cannot be spared the physical animal body, and that continual struggle with the elusive ‘serpent’ of physical sensory perception.

For the ‘man’ this form of perception itself is devalued by the curse put upon it.

He is promised only the toil and torment which is bound up with existence in the physical form of perception.

Thus, further on in the myth, we find the words of the ‘Lord’ to the ‘woman’ in man:

“Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee!” – –

How often have these words been misused to condone the repression of feminine individuality by citing them to justify the unconditional domination of the husband in marriage, supposedly granted in the text!

Yet no bemused or enraged scorn can wipe away the powerful truth to which the initiate considered he had given significance and emphasis by putting them into the mouth of the ‘Lord’ as a command given to man and woman. –

Indeed, we find something quite different here than what those imagined, who sought to derive from this only slightly veiled revelation of the truth, a welcome divine justification for the rights of the man to dominate the woman!

The path is shown here which one day will lead to the reunification within the realm of the spirit of the two poles divided on earth; this can only take place with the dissolution of that spiritual perversion of the poles which once was a precondition for the ‘fall’!

We refer here to the spiritual law which can only make use of the man on this earth if it needs human antennae to allow the ‘glad tidings’ from eternal   man to be received again by earthly man lost in ‘darkness’, and to transmit to him the powers he needs to find his way back to the ‘light’! – –

Man and woman within this world of earthly phenomena still carry within them the last traces of the erstwhile bond of the poles.

Within earthly woman there still remains something akin to a ‘memory’ that she once also found her ‘I’ spiritually in the ‘male’: – in a masculine pole – ; earthly man can still discover within himself the same trace of his former union with the ‘female’: – with a feminine pole…

All striving for union of the soul between man and woman on earth is based upon what remains known of woman in man, and of man in woman. –

Even the ineffable power of sexual attraction between specific individuals of both genders existing in the worldly animal could not take effect within earthly man, had not specific resistance within the soul been virtually eliminated by a ‘memory’ of the soul – a last intuition – of former polar union. –

No ‘understanding’ of the soul between man and woman in the earthly body would be possible without the continuous influence from its former union with man in the woman, – and without what continues to be active in the man from the feminine pole, erstwhile united with it. – –

Not all spiritual phenomenal ‘men’ are subjected to the ‘fall’: – to that breaking into two.

From those who are not broken into two, living in the spiritual region of the earth – those who have not fallen – continues to emanate the glowing, love-inspired will to save which knows only one goal: – to lead those fallen into the physical-sensory phenomenal form back to their original spiritual state.

It is these ‘not broken into two’, and they alone, who on earth make those, already committed before their birth, into the ‘awakened ones’ who are called masters of cosmic knowledge.

Those who have not fallen choose for themselves with certainty those men from mankind on earth in whom they recognise the spiritual which once had committed itself to them: – those menwho can become ‘sons’ and ‘brothers’ to them, – and perfect them into ‘Luminaries’ of eternity.

These invisible, bipolar men of spiritual  phenomenal form live – as I have previously testified – here in the spiritual region of this earth under the exalted, love-filled guidance of one of the originally propagated spiritual ‘men’, – one of those who are most highly exalted and always remain within the pure spirit, never wanting to continue to propagate themselves even into worlds of the spiritual phenomenon. –

According to eternal spiritual law, only the masculine pole of spiritual man who experiences himself here on earth within the animal body is capable of entering consciously the spiritual region of the earth where the ‘not broken into two’ live as helpers to earthly men.

Therefore a woman of this earth: – the embodiment of the feminine pole of spiritual man, – could never be perfected into a master of cosmic knowledge; similarly it is impossible for a genuine master to make a woman, through spiritual transference, into his adopted ‘son’ in the spirit or to initiate her properly. For all these forms of spirituality, active, enclosed within itself, and wrested from the arbitrary, presuppose the active spiritual pole in earthly man.

The ‘woman’, as the separate, passive, feminine pole of the spiritual phenomenal man, now bears the consequence in her earthly life of the impulse of her will to take on embodiment in the physical world, through which the separation of the poles ‘man’ and ‘woman’ had to occur of necessity.

Indeed, the earthly incarnated feminine pole of spiritual man can also be ‘raised’ during life on earth into the spiritual region of the earth, – yet only passively as suits its nature, without attaining consciousness in that region. This, however, does not in any way exclude the reception of spiritual influences through the spiritual effect of masculine polarity.

The male on earth, however, – as the incarnation of a masculine spiritual pole – retains his active spiritual power also in the animal body, even if it can only be released from its latent state, – either fully or partially – in the rarest of cases as I have already spoken of.

Yet this release is only possible through releasing helpers, those ‘not broken into two’ who are within the spiritual region of the earth, who can be actively experienced by the masculine polar spirit in a fully awakened or at least partly receptive  consciousness. –

But since also the active masculine pole of the spirit, despite its complete, partial or only temporary ‘awakening’ effected by the helpers, could not be conscious there without the compensation of feminine polarity, a ray of the feminine polar nature enters him from the heights of unformed eternal spirit, from the ‘First Light’ which is ‘man’ and ‘woman’, merges with its ‘I’ and brings about its necessary spiritual perfection.

I hardly think that the poet was ignorant of this process when he found the words:

“The eternal feminine draws us upwards”…

Yet the eternal masculine is quite capable of raising the feminine polar spirit into spiritual regions, though it is not possible to make it conscious there during its earthly incarnation.

Through the act of will which strove for the world of physical sensory phenomena and the resulting reversal of its spiritually given passive nature into purest activity, the feminine pole of spiritual man forfeited itself the power which could have liberated it from the chosen form of perception.

The power paralysed through this act of the will can not be revived during life on earth.

Yet those, who became ‘bridge builders’ to the ‘not broken into two’ in the spiritual realm of the earth as masters of cosmic knowledge, seek to liberate both man and woman from their earthly servitude…

They can accomplish this if they firstly succeed in motivating earthly man, male or female, to seek to fully unite the powers of his soul with his spiritual ‘I’.

Only then can the ‘living God’ ‘beget’ himself anew in the man of this earth. –

Only then will the ‘Jacob’s ladder’ be set up once more upon which ‘the angels’ ascend and descend, and which reaches from this earth into the eternal ‘First Light’ whence the spiritual in earthly man originates.

The paths I show you are closed off to neither woman nor man.

But in addition, I speak of a path upon which at times a man is called to walk, but never a woman.

I speak of active, conscious entry into the spiritual region of our earth during the life of man on earth as a possibility offered to the man – albeit in vary rare instances.

Woman – indeed I mean every woman who knowingly or intuitively walks upon paths like the ones I show – will one day attain the power to raise herself consciously into the spiritual world after a useful earthly life through one of those masters whom the ‘eternal feminine’ had ‘drawn’ upwards to the earth’s spiritual region from where they bring help, remaining close to the earth after the death of their earthly body.

The exalted path of woman, which is not exclusively reserved for woman, is thereby an indirect path, yet leads, however, just  as the direct path of man, accessible to only a few, eventually back to the spiritual unification of ‘man’ and ‘woman’, and thus to self-conscious life in those worlds of spiritual ‘phenomena’ far higher than the ‘world beyond’, – in which each human spirit – even without any striving – will immediately find himself after the death of his earthly body: – beyond the form of perception belonging to external physical senses.

Yet earthly woman would seek in vain here on earth one of the masters of cosmic knowledge, so that he might procure for her during this earthly life access into the world of the spirit.

Even those holy women who once rendered service to the Master, as described by the Evangelists, only found in him the helper who was able to open to them the kingdom of the spirit once he had himself discarded the earthly body, after they had completed their life on earth.

Before that they did not ‘recognise’ him and thought he was the ‘gardener’ of earthly gardens…

It was a hard saying this Master of cosmic knowledge once uttered to his own mother:

“Woman, what have I to do with thee?!” – –

Yet this saying is uttered by the earthly phenomenon of every one who is united with the spirit and applies to every woman seeking help on earth in her earthly form; this help can only be given by one working in the realm of the essential spirit when he himself has cast off this earthly body.

“Once I am lifted from the earth, I will draw all men unto me!” –

Primeval earthly instincts belonging to feminine yearning have all too often led the souls of women seeking their master onto erroneous paths where deceptive illusion resulting from the splitting of her own soul’s powers caused her to find the supposed ‘master’; but he was nothing other than the spawn of extravagant imagination…

All too often has earthly ‘woman’ in reality yearned for earthly ‘man’, while being pious in the belief that she was striving for an opposite pole in spiritual life, whether be called ‘Krishna’ or ‘Jesus’.

Whether the ‘soul’s beloved’ is embraced in the utmost passion of devotion, or whether with the thirst of compassion the life and sufferings of the intended are shared in fear and trembling, – we are always dealing with a feverish delusion here, caused by a split of the soul, however sublime and moving are the expressions of this illusion, the illusory experience still shakes the foundations of the victim’s physical being. However, through this upheaval powers within the invisible physical world are often released which would truly be shunned in horror, were one to know their works and nature. – –

Only when earthly woman is once again free of the earthly body she once strove to obtain, – only after an earthly life directed at the attaining of being in the spirit once more, in a spiritual form with well united powers of the soul, filled with her ‘living’ God, – –  only then can she expect a master to approach her in spiritual form. He will then return to her what once she had to leave behind as the feminine pole of spiritual man, – at the place where her power was paralysed through the misdirection of her striving…

Then she will certainly be able to find her spiritual opposite pole with which she was once united; now reunited forever she will represent the ‘perfected’ spiritual man, – consciously experiencing herself within his ‘I’ and at the same time, within the same ‘I’, her masculine opposite pole of spiritual man.

And yet the same thing applies for the male, unless through his ‘spiritual lineage’: – those powers of the soul from early times which united in him as a result of his committing himself spiritually as a helper of those Luminaries within the First Light, –  he bore from his birth the suitability within him to enable him to be perfected as a master of cosmic knowledge, or unless he at least awoke here on earth to the extent that it was possible for a master to adopt him as a spiritual ‘son’ and to initiate him by conveying to him the capacity for spiritual experience.

But even those born to be masters, or adopted as spiritual ‘sons’, can only genuinely use the spiritual possibilities given to them if they truly and unhesitatingly fulfil those things imposed on them by their spiritual teachers. –

The hierarchy of the spirit recognises no arbitrariness!

‘Man’ and ‘woman’, inasmuch as they are physically embodied here on earth, stand precisely at the place which they are capable of occupying; every human being will only be granted what he has made himself capable of receiving spiritually. – –

If I speak here of the ‘path of woman’, then I must tell the woman as earthly phenomenon of another particular difference of her path, even on that stretch which is accessible to man and woman in the same way.

The man who embarks on the ‘path’ will undoubtedly approach his goal more quickly if his attitude remains active, always ‘reaching out’ for the goal he would attain.

Instead of this, I counsel woman to adopt the attitude of faithful yearning – an attitude which strives towards the goal and yet does not ‘reach out’ for it, but rather allows itself to be led passively towards it.

This counsel flows from ancient practical knowledge; following it – when understood correctly – can make the attainment of the goal much easier for both man and woman…

The ‘path of woman’ is, like that of man, a path leading back to the original condition in the world of spiritual phenomena, before man plunged his spiritual senses into the physical senses of the animal, thereby rendering them incapable of perceiving the spiritual.

By converting her spiritually given passive nature into active striving, the feminine pole itself has paralysed and even annulled the power of its original source. –

For it one day to be regained it is necessary willingly to readopt that original form of striving.

The ‘living’ God wants to be born both in man and woman of this earth, – here during this very life on earth! –

The ‘path’ I have shown in its diverse forms in the first of these three books, ‘The Book of the Living God’, is a path for all men on earth, be they ‘male’ or ‘female’. What I have said about exalted spiritual guidance, the voice of the guide, the nature of the help given by those masters working in the spirit, is equally valid for ‘male’ and ‘female’.

Let no one be deceived and think that I want to demonstrate in my books only the possibilities of spiritual development of the chosen ones, – only the path of ‘disciples’ and spiritual ‘initiates’, or even the path of masters of cosmic knowledge!

The things I show and must show about those kinds of paths – indicating them from a distance – are always described in a way that leaves no room for doubt.

I have said often enough that these most arduous paths are not for the many; they are only accessible to those born unto them…

Here I have had to speak of many things common to man and woman, because there is no other way to show in what way the path of woman differs from the not communal path which is only open to man if he is a ‘Luminary’ of the First Light or called to be a disciple.

If the path of woman here on earth can not reach those sublime heights the man who is born to be a master of purest knowledge can ascend to, evenduring his earthly life, the path of woman reaches nevertheless in the end the same goal: – conscious being in the phenomenal world of the spirit: – the new birth of spiritual phenomenal man who is ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in most blessed union and eternally inseparable in the common bipolar experience of ‘I’. –

Everything spiritual which the male can attain will one day through the male become attainable again to the woman also.

Then it will be the masculine pole of spiritual man which draws the feminine behind it, just as the feminine pole had once drawn the masculine into the life of physical sensory perception…