At important turning points, the times require the wisdom of different traditions to be synthesized in order to realize the next stage in the greater development of humanity.
If each individual continues to deepen the path in their own tradition until the primordial source becomes recognizable, the common ground also becomes visible.
The availability of spiritual texts from ancient sources right up to the present day continues to increase. A seeker is faced with an abundance, that can certainly trigger feelings of being overwhelmed. But isn’t there an Ariadne’s thread, a compass that can guide through this?
It seems that this abundance of writings from East and West is due to the digitalization of recent years, and to some extent this is certainly true.
But if we really look at history, there has always been an exchange between spiritual traditions, much more intense than perhaps assumed. The necessary journeys may have taken a long time, but they took place.
It is known that in ancient Alexandria, Indian and even Chinese traditions were able to exchange ideas with the philosophy and spirituality of the cultures around the Mediterranean and fertilized each other. Conversely, Christian writings were found, when caves that had been sealed for centuries were opened in China.
It is also known that Nagarjuna (2nd century), the great Indian master, dealt with Aristotle – that Aristotle thus had a significant influence on Buddhist teachings.
Zen Buddhism originated in China. The teachings spread to Japan – and changed. A few decades ago, Zen Buddhism spread from Japan to the Western world – and it changed. From the Western world, it is having an effect back on Zen Buddhism in Japan and China, and this is causing another change.
There is an old saying: “We find each other, we connect through what is the same in us. But we grow together through our differences.”
The melting pot between Christianity, Islam and Judaism in Andalusia in the Middle Ages had far-reaching consequences well into the Renaissance. In this “rebirth” of culture, Marsilio Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, to name just two examples, assumed that all spirituality is based on common, universal truths – and that these could therefore be found by those seeking wisdom. One of the many consequences of this was the founding of the Academy in Florence, where this synthesis of all religions was explored.
Can we feel the energy released by such a “fusion”? And what does this mean for our times? Are we not in great need of such a “rebirth” of culture today? Many of the old ways cannot simply be continued, and this situation challenges us. Something absolutely new is needed – it is also important not to forget that this new must stand on the shoulders of the old in order to be stable.
Something new – and here a synthesis of all religion and spirituality – will always come up against persistent forces that want to keep the specific religion and spiritual direction “pure”.
We shall see that the core of these conservative, preservationist forces also has its justification – as well as the urge from deep within to constantly see everything in a new light, to discover everything over and over again. They are two poles of a single dynamic force.
Let us look at an example of such a synthesis of the innermost forces, the innermost essence of different traditions – which worked together to make possible a development whose result was greater than their sum.
Let us imagine the initiation event of Christian Rosenkreuz as described by Rudolf Steiner. We can take his report literally to mean that this actually took place – or we can also understand it as a metaphor, as an image of the forces at work in individual people and also in humanity as a whole. Both perspectives are equally valid for the effectiveness and development of our souls.
And let us consider the relevance of this event especially today – for us – and for the world and humanity in these times.
Rudolf Steiner explains (Neuchâtel, September 27, 1911 First lecture – selection):
The origin of the Rosicrucian current dates back to the thirteenth century.
In one place in Europe a highly spiritual lodge was formed, a college of twelve outstanding individuals who had absorbed the whole sum of the spiritual wisdom of ancient times and of their own time –[ …] twelve outstanding spirits who united to promote the progress of mankind.
Seven members of the Collegium of the Twelve were able to look back on the seven currents of the old Atlantean developmental epoch of humanity and on what lived on as these seven currents. Of these seven individualities, each could only ever make one current fruitful for the time then and now.
These seven were joined by four other[ …] personalities – who could look back on what mankind had acquired from the[ …] wisdom in the four post-Atlantean cultural periods.
A twelfth was the most intellectual of them, who had to cultivate the external sciences in particular.
These twelve individualities[ …] worked together to form an overall picture. A starting point for a new culture[ …] in the middle of the thirteenth century.
However, the starting point of a new culture was only possible because a thirteenth [as a disciple] entered the midst of the twelve.
He was an individuality who had been incarnated at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. In subsequent incarnations he had prepared himself for his mission through a humble mind, through a fervent life devoted to God.
He was a great soul, a pious, deeply mystical man who was born with these qualities and had not just acquired them.
Each individual [of the Twelve] worked his way into only one part of Christianity.
Their aim was to unite the various religions into one large entity.
They were convinced that all spiritual life was contained in their twelve currents –
and everyone worked on the student to the best of their ability.
Their aim was to achieve a synthesis of all religions, but they were aware
that this goal could not be achieved through any theory, but through the impact and actual experience of spiritual life. And this required an appropriate education of the thirteenth.
While the spiritual powers of this thirteenth [ in this education] increased to infinity, his physical powers declined completely.
He lived only for spiritual development, for which he received inspiration from the Twelve.
In him was a reflection of the wisdom of the Twelve.
Then an event occurred that could only happen once in history.
It was one of the events that can occur when the macrocosmic forces – because of the fruits that such an event is supposed to produce – work together.
After a few days, the body of this thirteenth became completely transparent, and he was as if dead for days. The twelve now gathered around him at certain intervals.
All knowledge and wisdom flowed from their mouths in those moments.
In short formulas that were like devotional prayers, they let their wisdom flow to the thirteenth, while the thirteenth lay there, as if dead.
It is best to imagine the twelve in a circle around the thirteenth. This state ended with the soul of this thirteenth awakening like a new soul.
He had experienced a great transformation of his soul.
There was something in her, like a completely new birth of the twelve wisdoms, so that the twelve wise could also learn something completely new from the young man.
But his body was also enlivened in such a way that nothing can compare to this enlivenment of the completely transparent body.
The young man could now talk about completely new experiences.
Over the course of a few weeks, the Thirteenth returned all the wisdom he had received from the Twelve, but in a new form.
This new form was as if given by Christ himself.
What he revealed to them was what the Twelve called true Christianity, the synthesis of all religions.
As a result of the Rosicrucian work [ in the following time] the etheric body of Christian Rosenkreutz became stronger and more powerful from century to century.
All the powers of the wonderful etheric body of the individuality of the thirteenth century had remained intact. And this same subtle etheric body again illuminated and radiated from the spiritual world through the new embodiment of Christian Rosenkreutz, the individuality in the fourteenth century.”
Thus, a great power emanates from the etheric body of Christian Rosenkreutz, which can have an effect on our soul and our spirit.
It is our task to get to know these forces. And it is to these forces that we appeal as Rosicrucians. […] You can rest assured that your smallest soul work will be there for eternity.
The following incarnation of Christian Rosenkreuz is described in the Fama Fraternitatis from 1614.
In a way, the initiation event is repeated – now depicted in a journey around the Mediterranean. Here, too, there is a deepening and a realization of the Christ-impulse through an encounter with the deepest spiritual paths of the world at that time.
Christian Rosenkreuz intended to go to Jerusalem to deepen his Christian faith. But he never arrived there, instead he first went to Damascus, then to Damcar, on to Egypt and finally to Fez in Morocco. These were all strongholds of spirituality at the time.
Christian Rosenkreuz travelled through the entire known world and, over the course of five years, absorbed all the wisdom of the time – from all known traditions.
After returning to Europe, he took on disciples and the actual work of the Rosicrucians began.
At important turning points, the times require the wisdom of different traditions to be synthesized in order to realize the next stage in the greater development of humanity. This is shown by the initiation event of the Christian Rosenkreuz, as described by Rudolf Steiner.
The ways of the “Collegium of the Twelve” had different forms of expression, but the essence of their ways arose from the unity of the same origin. On the basis of their origin in the absolute, they were able to work together – despite their continuing differences.
It can be very inspiring to ask ourselves what this means for us today. Are we not also in a situation today in which a great diversity of traditions and spiritual teachings meet? Aren’t we facing problems in many areas that we can only solve together – and isn’t spiritual division one of them?
Can we recognize the primordial ground from which everything emanates and develops into the diversity of paths and the necessary differentiation?
Can we recognize and appreciate other paths – and still walk our own spiritual path with sincerity?
We are one in the depth of being. When we look at the external forms and at our beliefs and identifications with a respective interpretation of a tradition, we find it difficult to come together. But if each individual continues to deepen the path in their own tradition until the primordial source becomes recognizable, the common ground also becomes visible.
The core of the preserving, conservative forces is the “not wanting to be distracted” in their deepening. And that is necessary.
In the Gospel according to Mary Magdalene, a scripture from the 2nd century, this is expressed in the following words – and they mean an important protection of the individual consciousness from being flooded with too many different spiritual teachings:
Peace be with you! Strive for my peace. Beware lest anyone lead you astray with the words: Look here, look there! For the Son of Man is within you. Follow him!
When something of this depth actually opens up, we can recognize: This foundation is the foundation of everyone and everything.
The polarity, the duality between the focus on being grounded in one’s own path – and on opening up to new influences dissolves. Both are there at the same time.
We then know who we really are – and do not need an illusory identity that arises from self-chosen identifications. It is then possible to rest in a “knowing not-knowing”. It is not easy to find this space, which is free of concepts, including even spiritual concepts.
All appearances can then be seen as aspects of a deeper reality. On the surface the phenomena appear seemingly separated – and seen from the depths, the innermost being, which is like light, there is oneness which includes differentiation.
This new consciousness recognizes directly, at “first hand”, what is written in the Corpus Hermeticum:
The finest of matter is the air,
the finest in the air is the soul,
the finest of the soul is the nous [the spirit-soul],
the finest of the nous is God.
From this perspective, which is the perspective from the innermost core, there are only different states of compaction – no more separation, but rather the diversity of differentiations, the unfolding of the One.
And let us see it before us: through this vision, a path opens up, a possibility to go back, which is at the same time a going into the new – from essence to essence to essence.
The closer we get to the innermost essence, the more the true common ground becomes apparent, the more the possibilities of fruitful interaction between different traditions become apparent.
William Blake (1757-1827) seems to point to the fundamental unity of all things, when he says:
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the Palm of your Hand
And Eternity in an Hour.
