Theodor Reuss' O.T.O. Rituals edited by P.R. Koenig Lecture for the IVth Degree (fragment only)
With our last work we started to contemplate the visible and the invisible worlds. In that I told you the parable of a young man who wanted to become wise and who asked a wise hermit: "Master, what do I have to do to become wise?" whereupon the wise man dived him into water and told him: "If you want to become wise then the urge to become so must be as strong as the need for air when you were under water." I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed because I expected from you Knights of St. Andrew a certain wish and need for wisdom. But until today, I did not receive one single report about following the given instructions for one single day. - When I was young, the successes I achieved in the school of silence, were such that I could have written not only a short report, but a whole book. Possibly one has to look for a fault on my side, because I should not have lectured these instructions to you but given them into the hands of each personally. These instructions as step 1, are given to you for only 14 days.
The primary purpose of Freemasonry, especially of High Degree Freemasonry, is not to build large organisations and bodies in order to get powerful (and this power is often executed in a way that is contrary to the basic principles of true and genuine freemasonry); but to follow the example of our ancestors, to study and research the secrets of nature, and to recognise the truth and the Deity. Just for this reason, we have united only the Craft Masonry into a World Body, but not the High Degrees. The chapters and areopages of the high degrees are the place where a Mason can evaluate his knowledge and his learning of the Royal Art; and where he is not hindered by the works of organisation and material questions. Let us dedicate ourselves to inner knowledge and development in our chapters; only then will we learn to esteem the value of the high degrees. Today, I will proceed to penetrate into the secrets of nature and to lecture about the visible and invisible worlds.
The universe distinguishes 7 peculiar worlds or states of matter, thus: 1) the world of God 2) the world of the primary spirits 3) the world of the divine spirit 4) the world of the spirit of life 5) the world of the mind 6) the world of desire 7) the physcial world. Each of these worlds itself distinguishes again 7 other regions, e.g. we can recognise in the physical world the earth or matter, water or fluid matter, air or gas-like matter, and four kinds of aether (world aether). About these I will speak again later. The three worlds of our planet are the physical or the material world, the world of desire and the world of the mind. These three worlds, although each separated from each other, seep through each other in order that we can recognise these three worlds everywhere. It is only 20 years ago that the excellent scientists of modern material science have labelled alchemists and astrologers as swindlers, or at least as dreamers; despite just these ... © P.R. Koenig 1996 / 2000