Seven secrets of life

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The figure Abyssi Duplicatae or «Des doppelt flüchtig und fixen Abgrundes» from the Aurea catena Homeri (1723). The following saying serves as an explanation:

One abyss the other calls out,
Together they make a hard strife:
The fleeting shall become quite fixed,
Water and vapour turn to earth.
Heaven itself must be earthly,
Or else no life will enter the earth.
The highest shall be the lowest,
The lowest shall become the highest fine.
That which is fixed shall become quite fleeting,
The earth shall be water and vapour.
The earth must fly up to the sky,
Heaven must crawl into the centre of the earth.
Thus heaven and earth must be reversed,
Let the lowest become the highest.
The fleeting dragon kills the fixed one,
The fixed one kills the fleeting one.
So it must come to be revealed in the day,
The quintessence, and what it can do.

There are Seven Secrets of Life. Rudolf Steiner often discussed individual ones, but rarely presented all seven in context. In the Paris lecture of 13.6.1906 it is said:

„There are seven secrets of life which have never yet been spoken of outside the occult brotherhoods. Only in the present epoch is it possible to speak of them exoterically. They are also called the seven "inexpressible" or "unspeakable" secrets.

These are the secrets:

  1. The Secret of the Abyss.
  2. The Secret of the Number. (One can study it in Pythagorean philosophy).
  3. The Secret of Alchemy. (This can be understood through the works of Paracelsus and Jakob Böhme).
  4. The Secret of Birth and Death.
  5. The Secret of Evil, which the Apocalypse deals with.
  6. The Secret of the Word, the Logos.
  7. The Secret of Godliness; it is the most profoundly hidden.” (Lit.: GA 246, p. 253/GA 094, p. 111[1])

Literature

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.

References

  1. The original paper by Edouard Schuré is in French. Instead of "unspeakable" it says "nameless" mysteries in GA 94, which is a translation error. Moreover, in the 4th secret, birth is not mentioned.