Here again, however, there is the possibility of a one-sidedness, which may prevent the pupil from going forward in the way he should. For at some moment he may quite rightly feel that according to the measure of his powers he can answer for himself even questions of the highest order. Thus at every turn moderation and balance play an essential part in the life of the soul.
Many more qualities of soul could be cited that may with advantage be fostered and developed, if the pupil is seriously wanting to work through a training for Inspiration; and in connection with every one of them we should find that emphasis is laid on the supreme importance of moderation and balance. These attributes of soul help the pupil to understand the exercises that are given for the attainment of Inspiration, and also make him capable of carrying them out.
The exercises for Intuition demand from the pupil that he let disappear from consciousness not only the pictures to which he gave himself up in contemplation in order to arrive at Imaginative cognition, but also that meditating upon his own activity of soul, which he practiced for the attainment of Inspiration. This means that he is now to have in his soul literally nothing of what he has experienced hitherto, whether outwardly or inwardly. If, after discarding all outward and inward experience, nothing whatever is left in his consciousness that is to say, if consciousness simply slips away from him and he sinks into unconsciousness then that will tell him that he is not yet ripe to undertake the exercises for Intuition and must continue working with those for Imagination and Inspiration. A time will come however when [pg 349] an effect will linger in the consciousness which can just as well be made the object of meditation, as were before those outer and inner impressions. This something is, however, of a very special nature, and in comparison with all previous experiences, it is something absolutely new. When it occurs, we recognize it as something we have never known before. It is a perception, just as an actual sound is a perception, that strikes upon the ear; yet it can enter the consciousness only through intuition, just as the sound can only enter the consciousness by way of the ear. Thus with intuition, the last remnants of the physical and sentient are stripped from man's impressions, while the spiritual world begins to expand before the understanding in a form that has nothing in common with the characteristics of the world of the physical senses.
Imaginative cognition is attained by developing the lotus flowers within the astral body. Through those exercises undertaken for the attainment of inspiration and intuition, particular movements, formations and currents which were previously absent, now appear in the human etheric or vital body. These are the very organs which enable man to “read the secret script,” and bring that which lies beyond it within his reach. For to the clairvoyant, the changes which occur in the etheric body of a person attaining to inspiration and intuition appear in the following manner. Near the physical heart a new center is forming in the etheric body, which [pg 350] develops into an etheric organ. From this organ, movements and currents flow toward different parts of the human body, in the most varied manner. The most important of these currents approach the lotus flowers, pass through them and their separate petals, and thence direct their course outward, pouring themselves into outer space in the form of rays. The more developed a person is, the greater will be the circumference around him in which these rays become discernible. This centre near the heart is not, however, formed at the very beginning, under correct training. It is first prepared. A temporary center is first formed in the head: this then moves down to the region of the larynx and is finally transferred into the region of the heart. Under an irregular course of development it would be possible for the organ in question to develop near the heart at the outset. In that case the student, instead of arriving in due course at adequate, tranquil clairvoyance by regular means, would run the risk of turning into a visionary and dreamer.
Subsequent development enables the occult student to render these currents and organized parts of this etheric body independent of his physical body and to use them independently. The lotus flowers then serve him as instruments by which to move his etheric body. Yet, before this can take place, certain currents and radiations must come into action around his entire etheric body, surrounding this, as it were, with a fine network, thus encasing it as though it were a separate entity. When this has [pg 351] taken place, the movements and currents of the etheric body can without hindrance touch the outer psycho-spiritual world and unite with it so that outer psycho-spiritual occurrences and inner ones (those within the human etheric body) blend into one another. When this comes to pass, the moment has arrived when man can consciously experience the world of inspiration. This cognition takes place in a manner different from cognition of the physical sense-world. In this latter, we become aware of the world by means of our senses and form our ideas and concepts from these perceptions. But in the case of cognition through inspiration, this is not so.
What is thus perceived is instantaneous; there is no thinking after the perception has taken place. That which in the case of physical sense-cognition is only afterward gained through the concept, is, in the case of inspiration, simultaneous with the perception. One would therefore become merged with the surrounding psycho-spiritual world, and be unable to differentiate oneself from it had not the fine network above alluded to been previously formed in the etheric body.
When exercises for intuition are practiced, they not only affect the etheric body but extend their influence to the supersensible forces of the physical body. But it must not, of course, be imagined that effects are brought about in the physical body which are discernible to ordinary sense-observation, for these effects the clairvoyant alone is able to judge, and they have nothing to do with external powers [pg 352] of perception. They come as the result of a ripened consciousness, when this latter is able to have intuitional experiences, even though it has divested itself of all previous inner and outer experiences. The experiences of intuition are, however, subtle, delicate and intimate, in comparison with which the physical body, at its present stage of development, is coarse. For this reason, it offers a positive hindrance to the success of any exercises for attaining intuition. Nevertheless, should these be pursued with energy and perseverance, and with the requisite inner calm, they will ultimately overcome those powerful hindrances of the physical body. The occult student will become aware of this when he notices how, by degrees, particular actions of his physical body which hitherto had taken place without his own volition, now come under his control. He will also become aware that for a brief time he will feel the need, for instance, of so regulating his breathing (or some similar act) as to bring it into a kind of harmonious accord with whatever is being enacted within his soul, be it exercises or other forms of inner concentration.
The ideal development would be that no exercises should be done by means of the physical body but that everything which has to take place within it should result only as a consequence of exercises for intuition. As, however, the physical body offers such powerful impediments, the training may permit of some alleviations. These consist in exercises which affect the physical body; yet everything in [pg 353] this domain that has not been directly imparted by the teacher, or those having knowledge and experience of these things, is fraught with danger. Such exercises, for instance, include a certain regulated process of breathing to be carried out for a very short space of time. These regulations of the breathing correspond in quite a definite way to particular laws of the psycho-spiritual world. Breathing is a physical process, and when this act is so carried out as to be the expression of a psycho-spiritual law, physical existence receives the direct stamp, as it were, of spirituality, and the physical matter is transformed.
For this reason occult science is able to call the change due to such direct spiritual influence, a transmutation of the physical body, and this process represents what is called “working with the philosopher's stone” by him who has a knowledge of these matters. He who knows these things, frees himself indeed from those concepts which have been limited by superstition, humbug and charlatanry. The significance of the phenomena does not become less to him who knows, just because, as a spiritual investigator, all superstition is foreign to him. When he has acquired a concept of a significant fact, he may be allowed to call it by its correct name although that name has been fixed upon it as a result of misunderstanding, error and nonsense.