From
stenographic notes not revised by the speaker. Translator
unknown.
We have seen how the study
of karma, wherein the destiny of man is contained, leads us from
the affairs of the farthest universe — from the worlds of
the stars — down to the tenderest experiences of the human
heart, inasmuch as the heart is an expression of all that man
feels working upon him during life, — of all that happens
to him in the whole nexus of earth-existence. When we try to
arrive at our judgments through a deeper understanding of the
karmic connections, we are driven again and again to look into
these two domains of world-existence which lie so far removed
from one another. Indeed we must say: Whatever else we may be
studying, — be it Nature, or the more natural configuration
of human evolution in history or in the life of nations —
none of these leads us so high up into cosmic realms as the study
of karma. The study of karma makes us altogether aware of the
connections between human life here upon earth and what happens
in the wide universe. We see this human life taking its course on
earth, unfolding till about the 70th year of life, when in a
certain sense it reaches its limit. Whatever lies beyond this is
in reality a life given by grace. What lies below this limit
stands under karmic influences, and these we shall now have to
study.
It is possible, as I have
often mentioned from varied points of view, to put the length of
human life on earth at about 72 years. Now 72 years, seen in
relation to the secrets of the cosmos, is a remarkable number,
the true significance of which only begins to dawn upon us when
we consider what I may call the cosmic secret of human earthly
life. We have already described what the world of the stars is
from a spiritual point of view. When we enter on a new earthly
life, we return, so to speak, from the world of stars to this
life on earth.
At this point once it is
again astonishing how the ancient ideas — even if we do not
take our start from tradition — simply emerge again of
their own accord when we approach these domains of life with the
help of modern spiritual science. We have seen how the various
planets and fixed stars take part in human life and in all that
permeates this human life on earth. If we have before us an
earthly life that has taken its full course, — one that
does not come to an end all too soon, but that has passed through
half at least of the allotted earthly time, — then in the
last resort we find this truth once more: The human being,
inasmuch as he comes down from cosmic spiritual spaces into an
earthly life, comes always from a certain star. We can trace the
very direction of it, and it is not unreal — on the
contrary, it is most exact, to say: — ‘The human
being has his star.’ If we take what is experienced beyond
all space and time between death and a new birth, and translate
this into its spatial image, we can say: Every man has his star,
which determines what he has attained between death and a new
birth.
He comes from the direction
of a certain star. We may indeed receive into our minds this
conception. The whole human race inhabiting the earth is to be
found on the one hand by looking round about us upon earth,
passing through these many continents, finding them peopled by
the human beings who are now incarnated. And the others who are
not on the earth, where in the universe shall we find them?
Whither must we look in the great universe if we would turn our
soul's gaze to them, — assuming that a certain time has
elapsed since they went through the gate of death? The answer is:
We look in the true direction when we look out upon the starry
heavens. There are the souls — or at least the directions
which will enable us to find the souls — who are spending
their lives between death and a new birth. We see and comprehend
the entire human race that inhabits the earth when we look upward
and downward.
Those alone who are now on
the way there, or are returning, we find in the planetary region.
But we can certainly not speak of the midnight hour of existence
between death and a new birth without thinking of some star in
which the human being dwells between death and a new birth
(although we must always bear in mind what I have said about the
nature of the stars).
Then, my dear friends, we
shall approach the cosmos with this knowledge. Far away are the
stars, the cosmic signs from which there shines down upon us the
soul-life of those who are between death and a new birth. And
then we become aware that we can look also at the constellations
of stars, saying to ourselves: ‘How is all that we behold
in cosmic spaces connected with the life of man?’ We look
up with a new fullness of heart and mind to the silvery moon, the
dazzling blaze of the sun, the twinkling stars at night-time, and
we feel ourselves united humanly with all of these. This is what
Anthroposophy is to attain at last for the souls of human beings:
they shall feel themselves united in a human way with the whole
cosmos. It is at this point that certain secrets of cosmic
existence first begin to dawn upon us.
The sun
rises and sets; the stars rise and set. We can trace how the sun
sets, for example, in the region where there are certain groups
of stars. We can trace what is now called the apparent course of
the stars, circling round the earth. We can trace the course of
the sun. In 24 hours the sun circles around the earth —
‘apparently’ as we say nowadays, — and the
stars also circle around the earth. So we say: but it is
not quite correct.
For if again and again we attentively observe the course of stars
and sun, we perceive at length that the sun does not always rise
at the same time in relation to the stars. It grows ever a little
later. Day after day it arrives a little later at the place where
it was on the previous day in relation to the stars. These spaces
of time, by which the sun remains behind the stars in their
course, add up till they become an hour, two hours, three hours,
and at length a day. Thus at length the time approaches when we
can say: The sun has remained behind the star by a whole day.
Now let us assume: Someone
was born on the 1st of March in a particular year. And, let us
say, he lived till the end of his 72nd year. He always celebrates
his birthday on the 1st of March, for the sun says: His birthday
is on the 1st of March. And he can celebrate it so, for
throughout the 72 years of his life (though it progresses in
relation to the stars) the sun shines forth ever and again in the
neighbourhood of the star that shone when he came down to earth.
But when he has lived for 72 years, a full [cosmic]day has
elapsed. He has arrived at an age in life when the sun leaves the
star into which it entered when he began his life. At his
birthday now he is beyond the 1st of March. The star no longer
says the same as the sun; the stars say it is the 2nd of March;
the sun says it is the 1st. The human being has lost a cosmic
day, for it takes just 72 years for the sun to remain behind a
star.
During this time which the
sun can spend in the region of his star, a person can live on
earth. Then (under normal conditions) when the sun is no longer
there to comfort his star for his life on earth, when the sun no
longer says to his star: ‘He is down there, and I myself am
giving you what he — this human being — has to give
to you; and for the time being, as I cover you, I am doing for
him what you do for him between death and a new birth,’
when the sun can no longer speak thus to the star, the star
summons the person back again.
Thus you perceive the
processes in the heavens immediately connected with human
existence upon earth. In the mysteries of the heavens we see the
age of man's life expressed. Man can live 72 years, because in
this time the sun remains a day behind. After that time the sun
can no longer comfort the star which it could comfort while it
stood before and covered it. The star has become free again for
the soul-spiritual work of man within the cosmos.
These things cannot be
understood in any other way than with reverence, with that deep
reverence which was called in the ancient Mysteries ‘the
reverence for that which is above.’ For this reverence
leads us ever and again to see what happens here on earth in
connection with what is unfolded in the sublime, majestic writing
of the stars. It is indeed a limited life people lead today,
compared to what was still existed at the beginning of the 3rd
Post-Atlantean epoch. They did not merely base their reckoning,
their understanding of man, on what describes his steps upon the
earth; they reckoned with what the stars of the great universe
are saying about the life of man.
Once we are attentive to
such connections and able to receive them with reverence into our
souls, then too we know: ‘Whatever happens here on earth
has its corresponding counterpart in the spiritual worlds.’
In the writing of the stars is expressed the kind of connection
that exists between what happens here, and what happened (to
speak from the earthly point of view) ‘some time ago’
in the spiritual world. In truth our every reflection upon karma
should be accompanied by holy reverence and awe before the
secrets of the universe.
In such a mood of
reverence, let us approach the studies of karma which we are to
make here during the near future. To begin with let us take this
fact: Here are sitting a number of human beings, a section of
what we call the Anthroposophical Society; and although one of us
may be united with this Anthroposophical Society by stronger
links, and another by less strong ones, it is in all cases part
of a person's destiny — and the destiny that underlies
these things is powerful — it is a part of his destiny that
he has found his way into the Anthroposophical Society. Moreover,
it lies inherent in the spiritualisation which must come over the
Anthroposophical Society since the Christmas Foundation Meeting:
We must become ever more conscious of the spiritual, cosmic
realities that underlie such a community as this Society. For out
of such a consciousness the individual will then be able to take
his true stand in the Society. Hence you will understand —
along with all the other responsibilities resulting from the
Christmas Foundation Meeting — that we must now begin to
say something too about the karma of the Anthroposophical
Society. It is very complicated, for it is a karma of community,
a karma that arises from the karmic coming-together of many
single human beings. Take in its true and deep meaning all that
has been said in these lectures and all that results from the
many relationships that have been unfolded here; then, my dear
friends, you will yourselves perceive that what is taking place
here in our midst — where a number of human beings are led
by their karma into the Anthroposophical Society — has been
preceded by many and important events which happened to these
very human beings before they came down into this present earthly
life — events, moreover, which were themselves the effects
of what had taken place in former lives on earth.
Let your thoughts dwell for
a moment on the great vistas that are opened up by such an idea
as this. Then you will realise how this thought may gradually be
deepened until there emerges the spiritual history that stands
behind the Anthroposophical Society. But this cannot be
accomplished all at once. It can only enter our consciousness
slowly and gradually; then only will it be possible to build even
the conduct and action of the Anthroposophical Society on the
foundations which are actually there for anthroposophists.
It is of course
Anthroposophy as such which holds the Society together. In one
way or another, everyone who finds his way into the Society must
be seeking for Anthroposophy. And the preceding causes are to be
sought for in the experiences which were undergone by the souls
who now become anthroposophists before they came down into this
earthly life.
At the same time, if we
look out into the world with a clear perception of what has
happened hitherto, we are also bound to admit: There are many
human beings whom we find here or there in the world today, and
of whom — looking at their connection with their
pre-earthly life — we must say that they were truly
predestined by their pre-natal life for the Anthroposophical
Society; and yet, owing to certain other things, they are unable
to find their way into it. There are far more of them than we
generally think.
This must bring still
nearer to our hearts the question: What is the predestination
that leads a soul to Anthroposophy?
I will
take my start from extreme examples, which are all the more
instructive in showing how the karmic forces work. In the
Anthroposophical Society the question of karma does indeed arise
before the individual in a more intensive way than in other
realms of life. I need only say the following: The souls who are
incarnated in a human body now, — to begin with we cannot
possibly follow them back far enough to assume that they
experienced directly in their past earthly lives anything that
could lead them, for example, to eurythmy, for eurythmy did not
exist in the times when the
souls who now seek for it were incarnated. Thus the burning
question arises: How does a soul find its way into eurythmy out
of the working of the karmic forces?
But
so it is in all the domains of life. Souls are here today seeking
the way to what Anthroposophy can give them. How do they come to
unfold all the predispositions of their karma from past earthly
lives, precisely in this direction which leads them to
Anthroposophy?
In
the first place there are some souls who are driven to
Anthroposophy with strong inner intensity. The intensity of these
forces is not the same in all. Some souls are driven to
Anthroposophy with such inward intensity that it seems as though
they were steering straight towards it without any by-ways at
all, finding their way directly into one domain or another of
anthroposophical life.
There
are a number of souls who steer their cosmic way in this sense
for the following reason: In past centuries, when they had their
former life on earth, they felt with peculiar intensity that
Christianity had reached a definite turning-point. They lived in
an age when the main effect of Christianity was to pass over into
a more or less instinctive human feeling. It was an age when
Christianity was practiced in a perfectly natural and simple way
but quite instinctively; so that the question did not really
occur to the souls of men: Why am I a Christian? Such souls we
find especially if we turn our gaze to the 13th, 12th, 11th,
10th, 9th, and 8th centuries after Christ. There we find
Christ-permeated souls, who were growing and evolving towards the
Consciousness-Soul age, but who, since this age had not yet
begun, were still receiving Christianity into the pure
Sensibility [Gemüt] Soul. On the other hand, with respect to
the worldly affairs of life, they already experienced the dawn of
what the Consciousness-Soul was destined to bring.
Thus
their Christianity lived in a certain sense unconsciously. It was
in many respects a deeply pious Christianity, but it existed, if
I may say so, leaving the head on one side and entering straight
into the functions of the organism. Now that which is unconscious
in one life becomes a degree more conscious in the next life on
earth; thus this Christianity, which had not become fully clear
or self-conscious, became at length a challenge and a question
for these human souls: ‘Why are we Christians?’
The
outcome was – I am speaking in an introductory way today,
hinting at matters which will be spoken of more fully afterwards
– the outcome was that in the life between death and a new
birth these souls had a certain connection once more in the
spiritual world, especially in the first half of the 19th
century. In the first half of the 19th century there were
gatherings of souls in the spiritual world, souls who took the
consequences of the Christianity they had experienced on earth,
finding it again in the radiance, in the all embracing glory of
the spiritual world. Above all in the first half of the 19th
century there were souls in the life between death and a new
birth who strove to translate into cosmic imaginations what they
had felt in a preceding Christian life on earth. The very thing
that I once described here as a great ritual was enacted
supersensibly. A large number of souls were gathered in these
interwoven cosmic Imaginations, in these mighty pictures of a
future existence, which they were to seek again in an altered
form during their next life on earth.
But
in all this was also interwoven all that had taken place between
the 7th and 13th or 14th centuries A.D. by
way of dire and painful inner conflicts, which were indeed more
painful than is generally thought. For the souls to whom I now
refer had undergone very much during that time; and all that they
had thus undergone they wove into the mighty cosmic imaginations
which were woven together by a large number of souls in common
during the first half of the 19th century.
The
great cosmic imaginations that were thus woven were shot through
on the one hand by something that I cannot otherwise describe
than as a kind of longing and expectant feeling. Working out
these mighty imaginations, the souls experienced within them a
concentrated feeling, gathered from manifold experiences, a
concentrated feeling within their disembodied souls. It was a
feeling which I can describe somewhat as follows: ‘In our
last life on earth we inclined towards the living experience of
Christianity. Deeply we felt the Mysteries which tradition had
preserved for all Christians, telling of the sacred and solemn
happenings in Palestine at the beginning of the Christian era.
But did He really stand before us in all His glory, in His full
radiance?’ The question arose out of their hearts. ‘Was
it not only after our death that we learned how Christ had
descended from cosmic heights, as a Being of the Sun, to the
earth? Did we really experience Him as the Sun-Being? He is here
no longer, He is united with the earth. Here we can only find
what is like a great cosmic memory of Him. We must find our way
back again to the earth, in order to have the Christ before our
souls.’
A
longing for Christ accompanied these souls from that time forth,
when with the Spirit-Beings of the Hierarchies they wove the
mighty and sublime cosmic imaginations. This longing went with
them from their pre-earthly life into the present life on earth.
This
can be experienced with overwhelming intensity by spiritual
vision when it observes what was taking place in mankind,
incarnate and discarnate, in the course of the 19th and 20th
centuries. And as I said, all manner of things were mingled into
these impressions. For we must remember that in their Christian
experience the souls who are now returning had shared in all that
was taking place between those who were striving for Christianity
and those who still stood within the old pagan consciousness, —
which was frequently the case during the centuries to which I
just now referred. In these souls therefore, many of those
influences are present which make it possible for man to fall a
victim to the temptations of Lucifer on the one hand and Ahriman
on the other. For in karma, Lucifer and Ahriman are working, no
less than the good gods: this we have already seen.
All
that was thus interwoven, and that works itself out karmically
today, must be followed out in detail, if we would really
penetrate the spiritual foundations of anthroposophical striving.
If the Christmas Foundation Conference is to be taken in real
earnest, the time has now come when we must draw aside the veil
from certain things. Only they must be taken with the necessary
earnestness.
Let
us begin, as I said, with a radical instance; and while we
discuss the following, let there hold sway in the background, for
the rest of this hour, all that has now been said.
From
the pre-earthly into this earthly existence, through their
education, through all that they experience on earth, human souls
find their way. They seek and find their way into the
Anthroposophical Society, and remain in it for a time. But there
are isolated cases among them, where, having shown themselves
zealous, nay over-zealous members of the Anthroposophical Society
for a while, they become the most violent opponents. Let us
observe the working of karma in an extreme case of this kind.
A
person comes into the Anthroposophical Society. He proves a very
zealous member, yet after a time he somehow manages to become not
only an opponent but a maligner among opponents. We must admit,
it is a very strange karma.
We
will consider a single case. There is a soul. We look back into a
past life on earth, into a time when old memories from the ages
of paganism still lingered on, enticingly for many people. It was
a time when people were finding their way on the one hand into a
Christianity that spread out with a certain warmth and fire, and
yet, for many of them, with a certain superficiality.
When
such things are spoken of, we must always remember that we have
to begin somewhere or other, at some particular earthly life.
Every such earthly life leads back to earlier ones in turn;
therefore there will always be some things that remain
unexplained — things to which we simply refer as matters of
fact. They are of course the karmic consequences of still earlier
events, but we have to begin somewhere.
In
the period to which I have just referred we find a certain soul.
We find him, indeed, in a way that very nearly concerned myself
and other present members of this Society. We find him as a
would-be maker of gold, in possession of writings, manuscripts
which he is hardly able to understand but interprets in his own
way and then makes experiments in accordance with the
instructions, though he has no real notion what he is doing. For
it is by no means a simple matter to look into the spiritually
chemical relationships, if we may call them so. Thus we see him
as an experimenter, with a little library containing the most
varied instructions and recipes going far back into Moorish and
Arabian sources. We see him unfolding this activity in an almost
out-of-the-way place, though visited by many inquisitive persons.
At length, under the influence of the practices in which he
engages without understanding, he gets a strange physical
debility, — a disease attacking especially the larynx, —
and (this being a masculine incarnation) his voice becomes
hoarser and hoarser till it has almost vanished.
Meanwhile
the Christian teachings are spread abroad; they are taking hold
of people everywhere. This man is filled on the one hand with the
greedy longing to make gold, and, with the making of gold, to
attain many other things attainable at that time if one had been
successful in making gold. On the other hand Christianity comes
near to him in a way that is full of reproaches. There arises in
him what I may perhaps describe as a kind of Faustian feeling,
though not altogether pure. Strong becomes the feeling in him:
‘Have I not really done an awful wrong?’ By-and-by
under the influence of such reflections the conclusion grows upon
him, living with scepticism in his soul: ‘Your having lost
your voice is the divine punishment, the just punishment, for
meddling with unrighteous things.’
In
this situation of his inner life, he sought out the advice of
human beings who have also become united at this present time
with the Anthroposophical Society, and who were able at that time
really to play a helpful part in his destiny. For they were able
to save his soul from deep and anxious doubt. We can really speak
of a certain ‘salvation of the soul’ in this case.
But all this took place under such conditions that he experienced
it with feelings which remained to some extent external, no
matter how intense they were. He was overwhelmed on the one hand
with a sense of gratitude toward those who had saved his inner
life. But on the other hand — unclear as it all was —
an appalling Ahrimanic impulse became mingled with it. After the
strong inclination towards unrighteous magical practices, and
with his present feeling — which was not quite genuine —
of having entered into Christian righteousness, an Ahrimanic
trait became mixed up in all these things. For in effect the soul
was brought into confusion; things were not really clear, and the
result was that he brought an Ahrimanic trait into his gratitude.
His thankfulness was transformed into something that found an
unworthy expression in his soul, and that appeared to him in this
light, during his life between death and new birth. It came
before him especially when he had reached that point which I
described, in the first half of the 19th century. There he had to
live through it again; and he experienced the deep unworthiness
of what his soul had evolved in that former life, by way of
gratitude which was superficial, external, nay even cringing.
We
see this picture of Ahrimanised gratitude mixed up in the cosmic
Imaginations of which I spoke. And we see the soul descend from
that pre-earthly existence into a new earthly life. We see him
descend on the one hand with all those impulses that entered into
him from the time when he was seeking to make gold, the
materialistic corruption of a spiritual striving. On the other
hand we see evolving in him under the Ahrimanic influence
something which is distinctly to be perceived as a sense of
shame, shame at his gratitude improperly expressed and
superficial.
These
two currents live in his soul as he descends to earth. And they
express themselves in this way: The soul of whom I am speaking,
having become a person again in earthly life, finds his way to
those others who were also with him in the first half of the 19th
century.
To
begin with, a kind of memory arises in him of what he lived
through in the imaginative picture of the unworthy external
gratitude. All these things become unfolded now, almost
automatically. Then there awakens what is living there within
him, — what I described as a sense of shame at his own
attitude which had been unworthy of a man. This takes hold of his
soul, but, influenced as it is by Ahriman (through the karma of
former epochs too, of course), it finds vent as an appalling
hatred against all that he had at first espoused. The sense of
shame against himself becomes transformed into a wild and angry
opposition. And this again is united with dreadful disappointment
that all his old subconscious cravings have been so little
satisfied. For they would have been satisfied if anything had
arisen now, similar to what was contained in the old, improper
art of making gold.
You
see, my dear friends, here we have a radical example showing how
such things turn inward. We have traced the strange mysterious
by-ways of such a thing as this: the connection of a sense of
shame with hatred. Such things must also be discovered in the
connections of human life if we would understand a present life
from its preceding conditions.
When
we consider such things as these, a certain measure of
understanding is indeed poured out over all that takes place
through human beings in the world. Then indeed great difficulties
of life begin, when we take the thought of karma in real earnest.
But these difficulties are meant to come, for they are founded in
the real essence of human life. Such a movement as the
Anthroposophical one must indeed be exposed to many things, for
only so can it evolve the strong forces which it needs.
I
gave you this example first, so that you might see how we must
seek — even for negative things — the karmic
relationships with the whole stream of destiny which is causing
the anthroposophical movement to arise out of the preceding
incarnations of those who are joined together in this Society.
So,
my dear friends, we may hope that there will awaken in us
by-and-by an entirely new understanding of the essence of this
Anthroposophical Society. We may hope to discover, as it were,
the very soul of the Anthroposophical Society with all its many
difficulties. For in this case too, we must not remain within the
limits of the single human life, but trace it back to what is now
being — I cannot say re-incarnated — but
re-experienced in life.
Thanks
to the Rudolf Steiner Archive.
Continued
in the next issue of SouthernCrossReview.org
Home
|