THE SECRET LODGES OF THE
WEST
and their sinister plans
with the world population
Is the political world
development controlled by secret occult lodges in the West? Are
these lodges also interested in manipulating culture, religion,
feelings and instincts in the average human being?
Why a secret conspiracy?
People have an unquenchable
fervor for conspiracy theories, for speculations about some secret
elite or another, whose clandestine activities are the very causes
of much that appears wrong, unjust, intimidating, and suppressive
in the global community. For this reason, everything that is
not wide open for public scrutiny is perceived as highly suspect,
from the Freemasons and the Vatican to national intelligence
services and closed city council meetings.
Revelations do however tend
to disappoint us because they don't satisfy our expectations,
which tend to be apocalyptic. One discovers corruption and abuse
of power, but rarely confirmations of the more advanced theories
that have been elaborated for years, even decades. A classic
example is the assassination of president John F. Kennedy in
1963. The Oliver Stone movie JFK reflected a view held
by many people, that a carefully planned coup d'etat involving
the most powerful agencies and offices in the United States was
behind the act, plus an equally well coordinated and murderous
cover-up after the fact. When the secret parts of the Warren
report were finally published because of the pressure generated
by Stone's film, the real reason why those pages had been kept
secret by the FBI was their desire to conceal their own ineptitude.
They might have prevented the tragedy by paying just a little
attention to the writing on the wall, the many hints and warnings
that were simply flushed down the toilet.
Later on, an interview with
a former Russian KGB agent revealed that much of the evidence
against the CIA and the FBI that had been used by Stone, had
actually been planted by Soviet intelligence for the explicit
purpose of throwing suspicion in that direction.
So the JFK assassination still
remains an unsolved mystery, leaving us back to square one. This
demonstrates not only that there are riddles we don't know the
answers to, but that there may be many equally valid theories.
And the JFK assassination is, after all, an exoteric mystery,
not an esoteric (occult) one. The latter type is in a class all
by itself, and the more advanced occult mysteries, especially
the conspiratorial ones, involve an entirely different kind of
time frame, and they involve concepts, struggles, and purposes
that require a great more effort to grasp than when we're dealing
with exoteric conspiracies.
Personally, I will venture
the claim that the need for advanced or apocalyptic conspiracy
theories is due to subconscious instincts - instincts that are
endeavoring to tell us that somebody, preferably a superintelligent
elite, is manipulating society and its evolution in a manner
that is harmful to the gullible majority. This is apparently
a persistent suspicion flickering in the depth of our souls.
We are facing the challenge of arriving at conspiracy theories
that are more enduring and sustainable than those that have dissapointed
us in the past.
The problem with most conspiracy
theories is that they've been much too simple, short sighted,
and materialistic. Others have been of a strict sectarian nature.
American protestants have been leading the pack in the latter
case. Occult conspiracy theories in this vein have flourished
mostly in fringe, kooky evangelical church gatherings. In these
circles, conspiracies consist of incomprehensible combinations
of e.g. cannabis, Buddha, Satan, Charles Darwin, the Pope, Illuminati,
and alternative medicines. UFO's keep repeating themselves as
part and parcel of a pattern typical of most contemporary theories.
With this point of departure,
I would like to introduce and recommend a lesser known conspiracy
theory that has several advantages. First off, it has not been
disprovable to date in spite of having been presented almost
a century ago. Secondly, it stretches so far into the future
that if the predicted consequences in question should fail and
thus disprove the whole thing, this will happen long after our
own lifetime. Thirdly, the theory is very demanding in terms
of intellectual and cognitive capacities on behalf of the reader
- an absolute precondition for making an advanced, superintelligent
elite credible.
Islam and occult history
There can be little doubt that at the time
this is being written (May 2003), Muslim aggression against the
West is a major problem. There are other problems, of course,
such as the military-industrial complex represented by the Pentagon,
against which president Eisenhower uttered a historic warning
in his 1961 farewell speech. It is interesting to note that after
the Muslim attack against Manhattan on September 11, 2001, this
very military-industrial complex has become more powerful than
ever, literally taking over the entire U.S. foreign policy, plus
a great deal of domestic issues in the name of homeland security.
In other words, the threat of militant, explosive Islam on the
one hand, and the rise of military authority in the West on the
other, are interactive and interdependent. In this article, we
shall endeavor to do some digging behind this mystery of modern
terror and warfare and try to suggest a theory about who the
so-called "movers and shakers" may be.
When we try to understand Islam, its origin,
and its role in contemporary world events, it is frustrating
that Rudolf Steiner says so very little about this religion (in
his 6000 lectures and 50 written books). On the other hand, he
says a few things about "Arabism" prior to the prophet
Mohammed, and about the role of this impulse in modern times,
without mentioning Islam specifically.
When the Christian church came to power in
Rome and transformed the empire into a theocracy, a hierarchy
based on priesthood, a very brutal campaign was launched to stamp
out heresy in any shape or form. One of the consequences was
the total destruction of the irreplacable library in Alexandria.
The fanatical church fathers also attacked every remnant of Greek
wisdom, including the works of Aristotle.
I have written an article about this topic
based upon a play by Eduard Schurè entitled Children
of Lucifer .
At the time in question, an academic center
had emerged in Jundi-Shapur in Persia. This academic center was
very advanced and - judged by today's values - way ahead of its
time with regard to science, knowledge, learning etc. - in other
words, intellectual skills that evolved in Europe a millennium
later, in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Athenian philosophers
who were cast out by Justinian were welcomed at this Persian
academy by Khusraw I (531-78), who had modelled it on the great
Academy at Alexandra. The same curriculum was followed, and a
vast body of knowledge was gradually accumulated.
In the eighth century the wealth and power
of Harun Al-Raschid procured Greek manuscripts, many of which
were medical, from the Roman Empire and these were translated
into Syriac and Arabic. According to Rudolf Steiner, whose interpretation
of history is supported by T. Whittaker in his book "The
Neoplatonists" (Cambridge, 1928), these Greek texts travelled
some roundabout ways through such translations: From Greek to
Syriac, from Syriac to Arabic, and finally back into Europe from
Arabic to Latin. In other words, the works of Aristotle, that
later became the indispensable key to Biblical understanding
for medieval theologians, were banned from Europe, then translated
into Syriac and into Arabic. Texts undergo a certain transformation
when translated through several languages in this manner, and
in this case, the Aristotelian texts aquired a more materialistic
hue in their Arabic clothing.
According to Rudolf Steiner's occult history
model, a spiritual impulse or social structure has a progressive
influence when it emerges and remains active at its proper time
in evolution (when spiritual evolution proceeds according to
the blueprint designed by the progressive higher hierarchies).
If such spiritual impulses or social structures emerge too early
(when humanity is not yet sufficiently mature), or continue to
be active long after their "justified" epoch, these
forces become destructive and pave the way for evil.
The Muslims conquered Jundi-Shapur in 636
AD and took over the university and the hospital. Greek knowledge
and wisdom came to Arabia through several channels. Christian
writers, scientists, and scholars were carriers of these literary
treasures to the Arab peoples of Persia and Iraq. Then the Arabs
worked directly with the original Greek sources and edited what
they had learned previously. There was also another channel coming
indirectly through India with knowledge originating at Alexandria.
De Lacy O'Leary has written a book about this:
"How
Greek Science Passed to the Arabs".
Steiner claims that the scoop of Greek wisdom
to the academic center in Jundi-Shapur served the efforts of
"opposing powers" (dark forces), and in this context
he speaks about the mystical number in the Apocalypse of St.
John, 666, which at that time represented the very year AD when
the opposing powers had planned to capture the spiritual evolution
of humanity through the premature emergence of intellectual knowledge
in Jundi-Shapur and Bagdad - a mode of cognition that humanity
would not be sufficiently mature to handle until almost a millennium
later.
In the context of anthroposophically oriented
occult history, concepts like "maturity" have a special
meaning. The goal of humanity is to evolve individual self-dependence,
social fraternity, understanding of the spiritual, the divine,
etc. It is difficult to claim, for instance, that humanity was
mature enough to handle the discovery of atom-splitting in the
1940's. When the intellect, which entails science and technology
etc., evolves significantly faster than soul-spiritual abilities,
this discrepancy may result in catastrophic consequences. According
to Steiner, the emergence of Islam acted as a buffer, an intervention,
against the most hazardous aspects of Arabic materialism.
Steiner claimed that when the prophet Mohammed
proclaimed his revelation, which he did indeed receive from the
archangel Gabriel, and established the Muslim religion, this
was a spiritual impulse that intervened against the intentions
of the dark powers and contributed to the spiritualization of
Arab culture. For this reason, the claim may be made on behalf
of anthroposophy that Islam was right at the time in that region,
and that the revelation from Gabriel to the prophet was genuine.
As already mentioned, exploration of Islam is almost conspicuously
lacking in Steiner's works, although he has a great deal to say
about Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity. It is important
to note, however, that Steiner's Weltanschauung rests upon the
notion that all religions are true in the sense that they originate
from higher powers. On the other hand, it must also be understood
that all such religions may become corrupted and falsified beyond
recognition, especially when they continue to be active far beyond
their "justified" epochs.
Let us move on to the next act in this drama:
The battle of Europe between Christianity and "Arabism".
Islam confronted Christianity in Spain, and the
exoteric (secular) reason for the end of Islamic rule in
Spain was divisions among Muslim rulers.
The Roman Catholic Church still regards Thomas
Aquinas (1225-74) to be its leading theologist and philosopher.
Averroës was a contemporary of Aquinas with considerable
influence on the spiritual evolution in Europe at that time.
He represented the Greek-inspired Arabism by setting out to prove
with razor-sharp logic that the Aristotelian method was incompatible
with Christian theology, and that Christianity was, ipso facto,
unscientific and absurd. Thomas Aquinas endeavored to prove the
opposite. He succeeded in demonstrating that the philosopher
Aristotle and his method held the very key to comprehending Biblical
texts, including the Gospels, and that there was none of the
discrepancy alleged by Averroës. In this way, it was Thomas
Aquinas who prevented the invasion of Arabic materialism into
Europe through Averroës.
To sum up the above in a nutshell: Theological
control had reigned in Europe for six centuries after every vestige
of paganism had been cleansed out by the church fathers. Then
philosophy began to raise its head. The Crusaders had made contact
with the culture of the Eastern Empire in Byzantium and the Arabs
were bringing back Greek learning through Spain, with a pantheistic
version of Aristotle which challenged the Christian faith.
http://archaeology.about.com/library/glossary/bldef_jundishapur.htm
Jundi-Shapur
Definition: Legendary town in the Susiana Plain of Iraq, built
in the Sasanian period by Shapur I by Roman laborers, and so
the town reflects a Roman plan. Also said to have had the first
medical academy in the world, built during the 4th century AD.
What I have described above is the spiritual
drama between Christian and Arabic thinking, between Thomas Aquinas
and Averroës.
The anthroposophical theory of evolution should
be understood in the following way: The materialism that was
dangerous and harmful in the fourteenth century and earlier,
has become a necessity in our present time. It should also be
pointed out that in the context of Steiner's Christology, the
Being called Ahriman or Satan ("The World Prince" in
the New Testament), is the origin of our intellect, which is
in turn the key to our self-dependence through thinking. (See
my short article, Anarchosophy
and Anarchism. A deeper exploration of the topic may be found
in the following lectures by Rudolf Steiner: Exoteric
and Esoteric Christianity and The
Ahrimanic Deception.)
Rudolf Steiner in hot waters
The background for the anthroposophical
conspiracy theory that will be presented in this article begins
not in Jundi-Shapur or Baghdad fifteen
hundred years ago, but with the organized opposition to Rudolf
Steiner and his work as lecturer and occultist a century ago.
This opposition increased considerably after the first world
war, when Steiner spoke about the threefold social order after
being asked to speak about politics because of the chaos reigning
in Europe at that time, when the allied powers of the West made
comprehensive and fateful decisions above the heads of the common
peoples.
Guenther Wachsmuth, in his book, The Life
and Work of Rudolf Steiner, refers in several places to the scurrilous pamphlets
and brochures directed against Steiner in connection with his
lecturing activity: "One group of opponents asserted that
he was a monistic materialist; others that he was a onesided
spiritualist; one that he was a Jesuit; others that he was an
anti-Jesuit; one that he was anti-Christian, others that he was
Christo-centric. One said he was a Jew, others that he was anti-Semitic;
one that he was non-German, others that he was a Pan-Germanist;
one that his teaching came from ancient India, others that he
was anti-Indian and purely occidental; one that he preached a
"mystical egoism," others that his striving was for
the "conscious complete abandonment of the personality";
one that he had "stripped from the conception of reincarnation
its moral seriousness," others that: "It is clear that
the decisive motives in this idea of reincarnation are moral."
Some said that he had not "himself exercised the perception
of higher worlds"; others that "Steiner is a seer",
a "clairvoyant, an intuitive knower, a person possessing
supersensible vision.""
Wachsmuth also quotes from
a passage in a "so-called astrological magazine," in
which the writer spoke of "spiritual sparks hissing"
against the Goetheanum, and that "Steiner will have need
of some of his cleverness, will need to work in a pacifying way,
if a real spark of fire is not one day to bring about an end
to the magnificence of Dornach." In Dornach near Basel in
Switzerland stood Steiner's architectural masterpiece Das Goetheanum,
and this was the headquarter for all anthroposophical activity.
The propaganda against Steiner
reached a climax in 1922, when he participated in an East-West
congress in Vienna with plenty of media coverage. The British
newspaper The Patriot wrote an editorial September 14
1922 with a warning against "The Subterranean War".
The auther called himself G.G. (or Dargon), "a writer who
has made a study of secret societies." His alleged intention
was "to give a general and historical view of that complex
of subversive organisation which is working for the destruction
of Christianity, of Civilisation, and of the British Empire.
The writer, who is a true Briton and a good patriot, has one
purpose only - to warn the British public of the unsuspected
danger which, as he believes and we believe also, imminently
threatens it."
In his article, "G.G."
asserts that Steiner is a right wing Jew who is practicing communist
propaganda in direct contact with the Soviet government in Moscow,
commercial activities etc. together with The Irish Republican
Army, that his goal is to undermine the discipline in allied
armies, and that his list of members include many famous politicians,
scientists, university professors, and scholars in France, Germany,
America, and England etc. This article was also distributed on
English panphlets with the title, The Secret Machinery of
Revolution. Rudolf Steiner translated a passage into German
in a lecture given in Dornach on June 16th 1923, less than six
months after the burning of the Goethanum on New Year's eve 1922.
After reading it out, he pointed out that he was planning a tour
in England for two months later, and that the pamphlet demonstrated
that the opposition was well organized.
It became common knowledge
that Steiner's opponents were responsible for the arson, and
that these people were probably connected with certain occult
lodges that had reacted against Steiner because he had allegedly
made public some "occult secrets", i.e. strictly guarded
information about the evolution of the planets and of man's inner
nature.
An odd phenomenon related
to this fire is the fact that it appears to have affected Steiner's
health. He was 61 years old and exceptionally strong and healthy.
After the fire, one noticed that all his movements appeared strained
with effort. In September 1924 he became seriously ill and died
six months later. It is common knowledge that when the arson
took place, Steiner's health suffered a severe attack at the
same time, and it is tempting to assume, if the suggestion that
organized occultists are capable of strange things, that Steiner
died from an advanced, fatal attack by his opponents.
The primal motive these opponents
had (apart from all the hatred), was to stop Steiner's habit
of making public occult secrets. But when we read his description
of activities attributed to so-called secret lodges during and
after the first world war, it becomes clear that if there was
only a hint of truth in his pronouncements about the power and
influence of these circles, he must have been aware that he took
an enormous risk by speaking out as boldly as he did.
When Rudolf Steiner was forced
to handle the problems that ensued from slander and attacks,
he did so according to certan occult codes, i.e. some kind of
hidden laws for so-called righthanded occultists. "Righthanded"
in the occult sense of the word, means that one's supersensible
capacities are acquired through selfless love and self-sacrifice,
in contradistinction to the "lefthanded" occult techniques
that strengthen the powers of egoism. For Steiner, non-resistance
against transgressions and abuses was the principle he adhered
to when he decided that no effort should be made to catch the
arsonist.
The Anthroposophical Conspiracy
Theory
Steiner alleged that the political
development of the world was controlled by small, secret circles
in England capable of manipulating the instincts, thoughts, and
feelings of the politicians, and of the general public as well.
After the first world war had broken out, he began to say a great
deal about these mysterious power centers of the West. In his
opinion, these occultists were responsible for the outbreak of
the war by lulling the European politicians to sleep and at the
same time creating confusion among the European peoples by whipping
up their nationalistic, hostile instincts. For this reason, he
frequently reminded his audiences that "present-day events"
forced him to reveal information about these lodges and their
activities. In 1915 and 1916 he showed a map, and he insisted
that he was able to prove that this very map, which showed the
frontiers of Europe almost exactly as they were drawn after the
armistice in 1918, had existed in England in the 1890's.
The anthroposophical conspiracy
theory is tremendously interesting for several reasons. One such
reason is the fact that the British parliamentary system with
the ballot box etc. has evolved into a blueprint for all political
systems in the world. Another reason is that it provides a unique
explanation why English is the leading world language. Furthermore,
the theory is fascinating even almost a century later because
it claims that our hidden masters possess advanced occult knowledge
what the future evolution of humanity is concerned, and that
their plans are tremendously long-sighted, reaching into a very
distant future. For this reason, the theory is very applicable
to the status quo of today.
Islam's original cultural
setting and historical role in the West have been mentioned because
of the geopolitical and socio-political status quo at the beginning
of the twenty-first century. The content of Rudolf Steiner's
message below will make clear the possible connection between
Islamic terror and the activities of Anglo-American secret lodges.
The following quote, with
my editorial notes, has been excerpted from a lecture given by
Rudolf Steiner on December 1, 1918, entitled The Mechanistic,
Eugenic and Hygienic Aspects of the Future. It is important
to remember that the message was given orally, and that Steiner
had a habit of repeating things from time to time when the subject
matter was demanding or heavy to digest. The reader should also
be aware that he spoke to a "prepared" audience, i.e.
anthroposophists who had been listening to his lectures for years.
For this reason, I have inserted some comments and explanations
in appropriate places.
We begin our quote where Rudolf
Steiner is speaking about the political map:
"You
will recall that I drew a map here two years ago that is now
becoming a reality, and I did not show this map only to you.
I presented the map at that time to explain how the impelling
forces are moving from a certain side, since it is a law that,
if we know these impelling forces, if we take cognizance of them,
if we grasp them in our consciousness, they may be corrected
in a certain way and given a different direction. It is important
that this should be comprehended.
"But no one in a responsible
position has taken cognizance of these things, or taken them
earnestly in the real sense of the word. Present events certainly
show that they should have been taken earnestly.
"Now the fact that must
be taken into consideration in connection with these things is
that, in regard to certain fundamental laws of world evolution,
nothing is actually known in a comprehensive way such that this
knowledge is brought into external application anywhere except
within certain secret societies of the English-speaking peoples.
This is something that is important to observe. Secret societies
among other peoples are fundamentally only a matter of empty
phrases. Secret societies among the English-speaking peoples,
on the contrary, are sources from which truths are acquired in
certain ways by means of which things can be guided politically.
I may speak of them some time, but it would take us too far afield
today. Thus we may say that those forces flowing from these secret
societies into the politics of the West move actually in accordance
with history. They reckon with the laws of historic evolution.
It is not necessary that in external matters everything shall
be correct even to the dotting of the last "i". What
matters is whether the person proceeds in accordance with historic
evolution in an objective sense, or whether he proceeds as a
dilettante following his arbitrary notions.
"The politics of Central
Europe, for example, were predominantly amateur politics, utterly
without relation to any historical law. The politics that were
not amateurish, that followed the facts - or, if I may use a
crass expression, professional politics - were those of the English-speaking
peoples, the British Empire and its annex, America. This is the
great difference, and this is the significant point that must
be clearly seen. Its importance lies in the fact that what was
known in those circles is actually flowing into the world of
reality. It also flows into the instincts behind those persons
who occupy positions as political representatives, even if they
act only out of political instincts. Behind these are the forces
to which I am now referring. You need not inquire, therefore,
whether Northcliff or even Lloyd George is initiated to one degree
or another into these forces. This is not what counts. The decisive
question is whether or not there is a possibility that they may
conduct themselves in accordance with these forces. They need
to take up in their instincts alone what runs parallel with these
forces. But there is such a possibility; this does happen, and
these forces act in the general direction of world history. This
is the essential point, and it is possible to act successfully
within the interrelationships of world history only when one
really takes up into one's knowledge what is going on in the
manner of the world. Otherwise, the other person, who is acting
knowingly in accordance with world history, or causing such action,
always has the power, while the one who knows nothing of it is
powerless. It is in this way that power may master powerlessness.
This is an external occurence. But the victory of power over
powerlessness in these things depends, in the last analysis,
upon the difference between knowing and not knowing. It is this
that must be clearly grasped."
This lecture was given at
the end of 1918, i.e. shortly after the Communist revolution
in Russia. Steiner alleged that the secret lodges of the West
had turned Russia into a theater for their social experiments,
and it looks as if the political development in the East was
a very important factor as to why Steiner felt compelled to speak
about these lodges and their activities:
"It
is important also to see that the chaos now in its initial stages
in Central Europe demonstrates how terrible everything was that
pretended to bring political order into this chaos but has now
been swept away. But what is now happening in Central and Eastern
Europe demonstrates that nothing but dilettantism permeates public
life in this region. In the West, among the English-speaking
population of the world, there is dominant everywhere by no means
dilettantism, but - if I may be permitted to use a crass expression
- an expert consideration of these things.
"This is what will determine
the form of the history of the coming decades. No matter what
lofty ideals may be set up in Central and Eastern Europe, no
matter how much good will may be manifested in one or another
set of programs, nothing will be accomplished in this way if
people are not able to take their departure from the motive forces
that are derived in the same or even in a better way from the
other side of the threshold of consciousness, just as the motive
forces of the West, of the English-speaking peoples, are taken
in the last analysis from the other side of the threshold of
consciousness."
By "the threshold of
consciousness", Steiner meant that somebody who is initiated
in the occult sense, possesses powers of cognition, or states
of consciousness, reaching beyond sleep and death, i.e. to "the
other side of the threshold". An initiate like this retains
his waking day-consciousness when he leaves his body during "sleep".
It is obvious that this kind of initiation can be severely abused.
If it is true that multiple initiated persons conspire to abuse
power with global political consequences, there may be cause
for alarm. In Steiner's opinion, however, the identity of the
conspirators was less important than how the effects of their
activities were handled:
"Those
friends who have heard these things discussed that I have presented
to you for years precisely as I am doing today, have always made
a mistake in this connection and it is generally difficult to
persuade even our best friends to abandon it. This is the mistake
of thinking, "But what good does it do to say to people
that one thing or another has its origin in certain secret centers
of the West? Surely it is necessary to convince them first that
there are such secret societies." It has often been thought
that the most important thing would be to awaken the conviction
that such secret societies exist, but this is not what should
receive primary consideration. You will meet with little response
if you undertake to convince statesmen of the calibre of a Kuhlman,
let us say, that there are secret societies in possession of
such impelling forces, but that is by no means the important
point. Indeed, it is a blunder when this is considered fundamental.
"Within those societies
dealing with such occult truths as have a bearing upon reality,
the principle was observed, for example, that after the Empire
of the Russian Czar had been overthrown for the benefit of the
Russian people, a political course would have to be pursued that
would provide an opportunity to undertake social experiments
in Russia. People will not undertake them in Western countries
because in those regions they are not considered advantageous
or desirable.
"What has been developed
in Russia is, fundamentally, only a realization of what has been
purposed in the West. The fact that up to the present time only
unskillful socialistic experiments are carried out by non-Englishmen,
that things come to realization by all sorts of roundabout paths,
is so well-known by these societies that they suffer no serious
headaches because of them. They know that the important thing
is to bring these countries to the point where socialistic experiments
become unavoidable. If these are then conducted in connection
with ignorance of the nature of a social order, one then actually
forms the social order related to these lands and makes oneself
the director of the socialistic experiment."
Rudolf Steiner died in 1925, i.e. before the
Nazis came to power in Germany. It is however tempting to speculate
whether German national socialism was some kind of social experiment
as well, staged by the secret lodges of the West. It is clear
from several of Steiner's statements that he viewed Germany as
especially challenged and threatened by the powers that be. When
he says below that "The real being of the German people
cannot perish," this illustrates that Germany was completely
on the defensive and in the claws of hidden manipulators:
"You
see, the holding back of a certain kind of occult knowledge that
is carefully practiced in these centers gives rise to enormous
power. The opposite side cannot save itself in any way from this
power except by acquiring this knowledge and confronting this
power with it.
"In this field there
can be no discussion of guilt or innocence. Here we must speak
simply of the inevitable, of things that must come to pass because
they already exist under the surface, because they are at work
in the realm of forces that are not yet phenomena. They are already
forces, and will become phenomena.
"Surely I need scarcely
emphasize that I hold fast to what I have always asserted. The
real being of the German people cannot perish. This real being
of the German people must search for its path but it is important
that it shall be able to find its path, that it shall not follow
false roads in its search, and shall not search in ways where
there is no knowledge. Do not interpret, therefore, what I shall
now say in such a sense as to make it in the least contradictory
of what I have asserted over a period of years. Things always
have two sides and what I have indicated to you is, in large
measure, a matter of the will. It is possible for this to be
paralyzed if forces are brought into play also from the opposite
side but these forces rest upon knowledge, not upon an amateurish
lack of it.
"You see the essence
of the thing is that if no resistance is raised from the East,
and by the East I mean the whole region lying from the Rhine
eastward even into Asia, British world domination will develop
after the destruction of the Roman-Latin French element in the
way intended by those forces that I have indicated once more
today, as I have frequently done already, as lying behind their
instincts.
"The really important
fact is that in groups in the West who keep their knowledge secret
the greatest pains are taken to see that things shall develop
in such a way as to insure under all circumstances the mastery
of the West over the East. Whatever people may say today on the
basis of their consciousness, the goal striven for is to establish
a caste of masters in the West and a caste of economic slaves
in the East, beginning with the Rhine and extending eastward
all the way into Asia. This does not mean a caste of slaves in
the ancient Greek sense, but a caste of economic slaves organized
in a socialistic way to take up all sorts of impossibilities
in the social structure that then shall not be applied among
the English-speaking peoples. The essence of the matter is to
make the English-speaking peoples into a population of masters
in the world."
According to Rudolf Steiner,
these secret plans are so long range and sophisticated that they
appear to be incalculable at first glance, rendering the motives
puzzling. We are not only talking about some of these efforts
by obscure groups requiring many generations to produce the desired
results. The initiates of the secret lodges also work on the
basis of the theosophical-anthroposophical theory of evolution.
Steiner's theory of the threefold social order was based upon
a threefolding in man's inner being that had unfolded in modern
times as a result of comprehensive development through thousands
of years. A more advanced aspect of this conspiracy theory is
the idea that higher intelligences or cosmic beings stand behind
such projects with the initiates as their servants, who empower
themselves through their relationships to these higher intelligences
- relationships that assume a religious character, given the
circumstance that their secret sciences also function as a kind
of religion. This is useful to keep in mind when we continue
with Steiner's lecture:
"Now
this is rightly thought out from that side in the most comprehensive
sense. I now reach the proper place for the explanation of something
that I beg you really to receive in full awareness of the fact
that if such assertions are made today, they are made under the
pressure and urgency of contemporary events and must really not
be received except in an earnest sense. What I am here asserting
is most carefully kept secret by the centers in the West to which
I have often referred. It is considered obvious in the West that
the people of the East shall not be permitted to know anything
of these matters that these Western persons possess in the form
of knowledge, as I have already said, through methods I may later
discuss. They possess these things as knowledge in such a way
that, since the others are not to know of them, world mastery
shall be established through their help. This is the only possible
method for attaining their ends.
"Beginning with this
fifth post-Atlantean epoch [i.e.. the
cultural epoch beginning in the fifteenth century A.D. and ending
some time in the fourth millennium A.D.], definite forces will become prominent in the evolution
of humanity. Human evolution is, of course, moving forward. Within
the limits of the brief span of time that comes under the survey
of anthropology or history in the field of external materialistic
science, it is never possible to form a judgement regarding the
forces manifest in the evolution of humanity. Little in the external
process of development has undergone any change within this limited
span of time. On the basis of this knowledge no one knows, for
example, how utterly different things looked, even in the second
[post-Atlantic] epoch [the ancient Persian
epoch before the third millennium B.C.], not to mention the first [post-Atlantic
epoch, i.e. the ancient Indian epoch that may reach as far back
as almost ten thousand years B.C.] or others [Atlantean and Lemurian
epochs] still farther
back. This can be known only through spiritual science. Only
through spiritual science, likewise, is it possible to indicate
the forces that will develop in future in a wholly elemental
manner out of the nature of man. The fact that such forces, which
will transform life on earth, will develop out of the human being
is known in those secret centers. It is this that is concealed
from the East by people in the West who intend to retain it themselves.
It is known, moreover, that these capacities, possessed by man
today only in their very first beginning, will be threefold in
their nature. They will evolve out of the nature of man in the
same way in which other capacities have come into existence in
the course of humanity's evolution.
"This threefold capacity,
of which every knowing person within these secret circles speaks
- these three capacities that will evolve in human nature, I
must make intelligible to you in the following way. First, there
are the capacities having to do with so-called material occultism.
By means of this capacity - and this is precisely the ideal of
the British secret societies - certain social forms at present
basic within the industrial system shall be set up on an entirely
different foundation. Every knowing member of these secret circles
is aware that, solely by means of certain capacities that are
still latent but evolving in man, and with the help of the law
of harmonious oscillations, machines and mechanical constructions
and other things can be set in motion.
"These things are at
present in process of development. They are guarded as secrets
within those secret circles in the field of material occultism.
Motors can be set in motion, into activity, by an insignificant
human influence through a knowledge of the corresponding curve
of oscillation. By means of this principle it will be possible
to substitute merely mechanical forces for human forces in many
things. The possibility will thus come about of rendering unnecessary
nine-tenths of the work of individuals within the regions of
the English-speaking peoples. Mechanistic occultism will not
only render it possible to do without nine-tenths of the labor
still performed at present by human hands, but will give the
possibility also of paralyzing every uprising attempted by the
then dissatisfied masses of humanity.
"The capacity to set
motors in motion according to the laws of reciprocal oscillations
will develop on a great scale among the English-speaking peoples.
This is known in their secret circles, and is counted upon as
the means whereby the mastery over the rest of the population
of the earth shall be achieved even in the course of the fifth
post-Atlantean epoch."
As previously mentioned, the
fifth post-Atlantean cultural epoch began in the fifteenth century
A.D. and will last until some time in the fourth millennium A.D.
In other words, we're talking about a kind of occult conspiracy
whose aims and purposes reach 1500 to 2000 years into the future.
Steiner continues:
"Something
else is known also in those circles. It is known that there are
two other capacities that will likewise develop. One, which I
shall venture to call the eugenic capacity, will evolve primarily
among the people of the East, of Russia and the Asiatic hinterland.
It is also known in those secret circles of the West that this
eugenic occultism will not evolve out of the inborn potentialities
of the English-speaking peoples, but only of the inborn potentialities
belonging precisely to the Asiatic and the Russian populations.
These facts are known in the secret circles of the West. They
are taken into account and are looked upon as constituting certain
motive forces that must become active in future evolution.
"By the eugenic capacity
I mean the removal of the reproduction of human beings from the
sphere of mere arbitrary impulse and accident. Among the peoples
of the East there will gradually develop a brilliantly clear
knowledge as to how the laws of population, the laws of peopling
the earth, must run parallel with certain cosmic phenomena. From
this information they will know that, if conception is brought
about in accord with certain constellations of the stars, opportunities
will thus be given for souls that are either good or evil in
their natures to obtain access for earthly incarnation. This
capacity will be acquired only by those individuals who constitute
the continuation as races, the continuation in the blood stream,
of the Asiatic population. They will be able simply to see in
detail how what works today chaotically and arbitrarily in conception
and birth can be brought into harmony with the great laws of
the cosmos in individual concrete cases. Here abstract laws are
of no avail. What will be acquired is a concrete single capacity
in which it will be known in individual cases whether or not
a conception should occur at a particular time.
"This knowledge, which
will make it possible to bring down from the heavens the impelling
forces for the moralizing or the demoralization of the earth
through the nature of man himself, this special capacity evolves
as a continuation of the blood capacity in the races of the East.
What evolves as a capacity there I call eugenic occultism. This
is the second capacity - the capacity that will prevent the evolution
of humanity as regards conception and birth from taking its course
according to arbitrary impulses, and more or less accidentally.
I beg you to consider the enormous social consequences, the enormous
social motive forces that enter here! These capacities are latent.
It is well known in those secret circles of the English-speaking
peoples that these capacities will evolve among the peoples of
the East. They know that they themselves will not possess these
capacities within their own potentialities bestowed upon them
through birth. They know that the earth could not reach its goal,
could not pass over from earth to Jupiter - [Jupiter
is the designation for the next manvantara, i.e. incarnation,
of our planet, after the pralaya or 'period of sleep' preceding
it in accordance with the rhythmic planetary evolution, or cosmic
breathing, that is depicted in the Vedic scriptures of ancient
India] - indeed, they
know that the earth would within a relatively short time diverge
from the path leading to its goal if only the forces belonging
to the West should be employed. It would gradually come about
that only a soulless population could evolve in the West, a population
that would be as soulless as possible. This is known. For this
reason these people endeavor to develop within their own circles,
through their capacities, mechanistic occultism. The endeavor
is also made to establish a mastery over those peoples who will
develop eugenic occultism. The English-speaking occultists know
that they cannot depend upon the bodies that come out of the
fundamental character of their own people, and so they strive
to possess the mastery of a people who will provide bodies with
the help of which the evolution of the earth may be carried forward
into the future.
"I must speak to you
also regarding a third capacity, which is latent today but which
will evolve. This is what I venture to call the hygienic occult
capacity. Now we have all three: the materialistic occult capacity,
the eugenic occult capacity, and the hygienic occult capacity.
This hygienic occult capacity is well on its way and will not
be long, relatively speaking, in arriving. This capacity will
come to maturity simply through the insight that human life,
in its course from birth to death, progresses in a manner identical
with the process of an illness. Processes of illnesses are, in
other words, only special and radical transmutations of the quite
ordinary, normal life process taking its course between birth
and death, except that we bear within ourselves not only the
corces that create illness but also those that heal. These healing
forces, as every occultist knows, are precisely the same as those
that are applied when a person acquires occult capacities, in
which case these forces are transmuted into the forces of knowledge.
The healing power innate in the human organism, when transmuted
into knowledge, gives occult forms of knowledge.
"Now, every knowing person
in the Western circles is aware that materialistic medicine will
have no basis in the future. As soon as the hygienic occult capacities
evolve, a person will need no external material medicine, but
the possibility will exist of treating prophylactically in a
psychic way to prevent those illnesses that do not arise through
karmic causes because karmic illnesses canot be influenced. Everything
in this respect will change. This seems at present like a mere
fantasy, but it is actually something that will soon come about.
Now, the situation is such that these three faculties will not
come into existence equally among all the peoples of the earth.
Indeed, you have already seen the differentiation. This differentiation
has to do, naturally, only with the bodies and not with the souls,
which always pass, of course, from race to race, from people
to people. But with the bodies this differentiation has much
to do. From the bodies of the English-speaking peoples the possibility
of developing eugenic occult capacities in the future through
birth can never arise. It is precisely in the West that these
will be applied, but the manner in which they will be applied
will be that a mastery will be established over the Eastern lands,
and marriages will be brought between people of the West and
people of the East. Thus use will be made of what can be learned
only from the people of the East.
"The potentiality of
hygienic occult capacities is present in special measure among
the people of the Central countries. English-speaking people
cannot acquire the hygienic occult capacities through their inborn
potentialities, but they can acquire these capacities in their
development in the course of time between birth and death. These
can become acquired characteristics during that time. In the
case of the population occupying the area approximately eastward
from the Rhine and all the way into Asia, these capacities will
be present on the basis of birth. The population of the Central
countries cannot acquire the eugenic occult potentialities through
birth, but may acquire them in the course of their lives if they
become apprentices of the people of the East. It is in this way
that these capacities will be distributed. The people of the
East will have not the least capacity for material occultism;
they will be able to receive this only when it is given to them,
when it is not kept secret from them. It will always be possible
to keep it secret, especially when the others are so stupid as
not to believe in things that are asserted by a person who is
in a position to see into them. In other words the people of
the East and those of the Central countries will have to receive
material occultism from the West. They will receive its benefits,
its products. Hygienic occultism will develop primarily in the
Central countries, and eugenic occultism in the Eastern lands.
It will be necessary, however, for intercommunication to exist
between people. This is something that must be taken up into
the impelling forces of the social order of the future."
And then Steiner describes
what should be striven for in our globalized community, and the
dire consequences of failure:
"It
makes it imperative for people to see that they will be able
to live in the future throughout the world only as total human
beings. If an American should wish to live only as an American,
although he would be able to achieve the loftiest material results,
he would condemn himself to the fate of never progressing beyond
earthly evolution. If he should not seek social relationships
with the East, he would condemn himself to being bound within
the earthly sphere after a certain incarnation, haunting the
sphere of the earth like a ghost. This earth would be drawn away
from its cosmic connections, and all these souls would have to
be like ghosts. Correspondingly, if the people of the East should
not take up the materialism of the West with their eugenic occult
capacities that pull down the earth, the Eastern man would lose
the earth. He would be drawn into some sort of mere psychic-spiritual
evolution, and he would lose the earthly evolution. The earth
would sink away under him as it were, and he would not be able
to possess the fruit of the earthly evolution.
"Mutual confidence among
men in a profound inner sense is what must come about. This is
manifest through their remarkable future evolution."
A little later on in the lecture,
Steiner brings up a topic that is especially fascinating: Hatred
against the West among people in the East. In the closing decades
of the twentieth century and at the dawn of the twenty-third
century, we have become acutely aware of this hatred through
the actions of Al Qaida, especially the World Trade Center attack
in New York City on September 11, 2001. It is therefore incumbent
upon us to pay close attention to what Steiner said about hatred
against the West in the East 80 years ago:
"Just
consider that I have told you that three kinds of occult capacities
will evolve and will intertwine over the entire earth, differentiated
according to different peoples, in harmony with those of the
West, of the Central countries, and of the East. I have said,
indeed, that they will so intertwine that the people of the West
will possess the potentialities of material occultism from birth,
but will be able to acquire hygienic occultism; that those of
the Middle countries will possess through birth primarily the
potentiality for hygienic occultism, but will be able to acquire
for themselves - if it is given to them - a material occultism
from the West and a eugenic from the East; that those of the
East will possess from birth the potentiality for eugenic occultism,
but will be able to acquire for themselves from the Middle countries
hygienic occultism.
"These capacities appear
differentiated, distributed among the humanity of the world,
but at the same time in such a way that they intertwine. Through
this intertwining will the future social bond of community life
be determined throughout the world. But there are hindrances
against the development of these capacities. These hindrances
are manifold in character, and their action is really complicated.
"For example, in the
case of the people of the Central countries and the Eastern lands
it is an important hindrance to the evolution of these capacities,
especially their evolution in a knowing way, when strong antipathies
against the people of the Western countries are active within
them. Then these things cannot be viewed objectively. This is
a hindrance in the evolution of these capacities.
"But the potentiality
of developing another occult capacity is also even strenghtened
in a certain way if it is developed out of a certain instinct
of hatred. This is a strange phenomenon. We often ask ourselves,
and we are dealing here with something that must be considered
quite objectively, why such senseless abuse has been practiced
in the Western countries. This also comes out of the instinct
leading toward these capacities. For what constitutes the profoundest
impelling forces in Western occultism is fostered by nothing
more powerfully than by the development of feelings that are
untrue but are sensed as in some way holy, and that can represent
the people of the East and especially those of the Central countries
as barbarians. the potentialities of material occultism, for
example, are fostered by the attitude of mine constituting the
so-called crusading temperament in America. This consists in
the feeling that America is called to spread over the whole earth
freedom and justice and I know not what other beautiful things.
Of course, the people there believe that. What I am saying here
has nothing to do with fault finding. The people believe that
they are engaged in a crusade, but this belief in something false
constitutes a support working in a certain direction. If a person
should consciously make an untrue statement, he would not have
this support. For this reason, what is now happening is tremendously
helpful on the one side and a hindrance on the other in the development
of those capacities that we must assert to be still latent at
the present time in the case of most individuals who bear within
themselves the will toward evolution in the future and are destined
to influence profoundly the social structure of humanity.
"Just think how everything
that is happening at the present time is rendered luminous and
transparent with understanding and insight when you fix your
attention upon those backgrounds, and realize clearly that the
subconscious instincts dealt with in our reflections lie back
of everything that is constantly uttered today in a conscious
way.
"The most important fact
in this connection, however, is that it is precisely the English-speaking
peoples who, by reason of quite special evolutionary processes,
possess occult centers where these things are known.
"It is also known what
capacities they will possess in future as members of the English-speaking
population, and what capacities they will lack. They know how
they must arrange the social structure in order that they may
be able to subject to their purposes what is deficient in them.
"It is the instincts
that work in the direction of such things, and these instincts
have already exerted their influence. They have exerted an enormous
influence, a highly significant influence.
"One especially useful
means that can be set in motion by Western occultism when things
are to be directed into the wrong channels consists in so influencing
the East that it shall continue to hold fast in the future to
its ancient inclination toward the development of religion alone
without science. The leaders of Western secret circles will take
pains to see that nothing shall exist in their own regions constituting
mere religion or mere science, but that there shall be a synthesis
of both, the reciprocal influence of knowledge and faith. They
will also take pains to see that this science shall worl only
in secret, that it shall permeate, for example, only the more
important affairs of humanity and the political guidance of the
world through the achievement of world dominion by the British.
Contrariwise, if the East refrains as completely as possible
from permeating religious conceptions with science, this will
be enormously helpful in the spread of this world dominion.
"Now just consider how
everything Russian favors precisely this Western effort. The
aspiration to be pious still continues in Russia, but not an
aspiration to permeate the content of this piety with a science
of the spirit. The aspiration remains in a certain way within
an unclear mysticism, which would constitute an excellent means
for supporting the dominion over the East that is willed by the
West.
"From another point of
view, what is undertaken is to render science, which belongs
to the earth, as theistic as possible. Just here the future of
the English-speaking peoples has been most fruitful in recent
times. They have achieved something tremendous by spreading throughout
the world, in a fundamental sense, their scientific trend, that
is, science void of religion, atheistic science. This has become
the ruling power over the whole earth. Goetheanism, which is
the opposite of this, quite consciously its opposite, could not
develop, could not develop even in the country of Goethe himself.
It is an almost unknown affair in Goethe's own land! The dominating
intellect in science today is kept completely harmonious with
what is intended to become publicly manifest as the external
expression of that science practiced by those circles in secret.
They are, however, practiced there as a synthesis between science
and religion. Thus there is atheistic science for the external
world, but for the inner circles that are to guide the course
of world events there is a science that also constitutes religion,
and a religion constituting science.
"The East can be kept
in hand best of all if a religion without science can be manifested
there. The Central countries can be kept in hand best if there
can be grafted upon them a science void of religion, since religion
cannot be grafted upon them. These things are aided in full consciousness
by those who constitute the knowing ones within the circles we
have mentioned, and instinctively by the others. Since the ruling
powers of the Central countries, surviving from ancient times,
have been swept away, there is nothing at present in the Central
countries that can be put in their place. This makes it extraordinarily
difficult, too, to form a correct judgement of the whole state
of things at present in its world-historical setting. The whole
world has been occupied with the question of guilt and of causes
in connection with this war catastrophe."
Here we interrupt our edited
excerpt from Rudolf Steiner's lecture, because from this point
on, he goes into a comprehensive analysis of the outbreak of
the first world war and its causes. In other lectures, he spoke
about considerably deeper and more fateful and dramatic ends
and means pursued by the secret lodges of the West.
Tarjei Straume
The complete original text
from which the above excerpts have been taken (12 lectures from
November 29 and December 1, 1918): GA (=Gesamtausgabe) #186:
Die Soziale Grundforderung unserer Zeit In reänderter Zeitage:
December 1, 1918: Die Entwickelung mechanischer, eugenetischer
und hygienischer okkulter Fähigkeiten in der Zukunft.
Three consecutive lectures
by dr. Steiner about the sinister activities of secret Western
lodges are available online through this link.