Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
2a. Aphorisms from a Lecture to Members Given in London on August 24th, 1924
[ 1 ] In the present stage of its evolution the human consciousness unfolds three forms, the waking, the dreaming, and the dreamless sleeping consciousness.
[ 2 ] The waking consciousness experiences the outer world through the senses, forms ideas about it, and out of those ideas can create such as portray a purely spiritual world. The dreaming consciousness develops pictures in which the outer world is transformed, as, for instance, when the sun shining on the bed is experienced in dream as a conflagration in all its details. Or a man's own inner world may appear before him in symbolic pictures, as, for instance, the throbbing heart in the picture of an over-heated oven. Memories also re-appear transformed in the dream consciousness. What these memory pictures contain is not borrowed from the world of the senses, but from the spiritual world. However, it is not possible through the memory pictures to penetrate with understanding into the spiritual world, because they are just too dim to rise into the waking consciousness, and because what little may be perceived cannot be really understood.
[ 3 ] But it is possible in the moment of waking to grasp so much of the dream world as to become aware that it is the imperfect copy of a spiritual experience which has happened in sleep, but which for the most part evades the waking consciousness. In order to comprehend this, it is only necessary to shape the moment of waking in such a way that the outer world is not conjured all at once before the soul, but that the soul, without as yet regarding the outer world, feels itself surrendered to what has been experienced within.
[ 4 ] In the dreamless sleep consciousness the soul passes through experiences which mean nothing more for the memory than an indifferent period of time between falling asleep and waking.
These experiences may be spoken of as non-existent, until the way into them has been opened up through spiritual scientific investigation. But if this takes place, if the Imaginative and Inspired consciousness described in anthroposophical literature be developed, then out of the darkness of sleep the pictures and inspirations belonging to the experience of previous lives on Earth make their appearance. It then becomes possible to survey also the content of the dream consciousness. This cannot be grasped by the waking consciousness; it has to do with the world in which man dwells as a disembodied soul between two earthly lives.
[ 5 ] If one learns to know what is hidden behind the dream- and sleep-consciousness in the present age, then the way is clear to the understanding of the forms of human consciousness in past ages. One cannot, however, arrive at this by means of outer investigation; for evidence received from the outer world shows only the after-effects of the experiences of human consciousness in prehistoric times. Anthroposophical literature gives information as to how, by means of spiritual investigation, one may attain to the vision of such experiences.
[ 6 ] It is found by means of spiritual research that in ancient Egyptian times man possessed a dream-consciousness which was much more like the waking consciousness than it is at the present day. The memory of the dream experiences passed into the waking consciousness, and the latter provided not only the sense impressions that can be grasped in clearly outlined thoughts, but in addition to these the Spiritual that is at work in the world of the senses. Man's consciousness thereby lived instinctively in the world he had left when he incarnated on the Earth—the world he will re-enter when he passes through the gate of death.
[ 7 ] Inscribed monuments and other records preserved from ancient times give to those who penetrate them with an impartial mind, clear evidence of a consciousness of this kind, belonging to an age of which no outer relics exist.
[ 8 ] In ancient Egyptian times the sleep-consciousness contained dreams of the spiritual world, just as the sleep consciousness of the present day contains dreams originating from the physical world. [ 9 ] But among other peoples we find in addition another kind of consciousness. The experiences undergone during sleep passed over into the waking consciousness in such a way that there was an instinctive vision of repeated earthly lives. The traditions regarding the knowledge of repeated earthly lives possessed by ancient humanity originate from these forms of consciousness.
[ 10 ] In the developed Imaginative consciousness we find again the dream-consciousness which in ancient times was dim and instinctive, only in the Imaginative consciousness it is fully conscious, like our waking life. [ 11 ] And through the Inspired knowledge we become aware of the pre-historic instinctive insight which still saw something of the repeated earthly lives.
Modern writers of works on the history of humanity make no note of this transformation in the forms of human consciousness. They would like to believe that on the whole the present forms of consciousness have existed as long as humanity has been on the Earth. [ 12 ] And what, in spite of this, does point to other forms of consciousness, viz., the myths and fairy-tales, they would prefer to look upon as the result of the poetic fantasy of primitive man.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 13 ] 88. In the waking day-consciousness man experiences himself, during the present cosmic age, standing in the midst of the physical world. This experience conceals from him the presence, within his being, of the effects of a life between death and birth.
[ 14 ] 89. In dream-consciousness man experiences, in a chaotic way, his own being unharmoniously united with the spiritual being of the world. The waking consciousness cannot seize the real content of the dream-consciousness. To the Imaginative and Inspired Consciousness it is revealed how the Spirit-world through which man lives between death and birth is helping to build up his inner being.
[ 15 ] 90. In dreamless sleep-consciousness man experiences, all unconsciously, his own being permeated with the results of past earthly lives. The Inspired and Intuitive Consciousness penetrates to a clear vision of these results, and sees the working of former earthly lives in the destined course—the Karma—of the present.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 16 ] 91. The Will enters the ordinary consciousness, in the present cosmic age, only through Thought. Now in this consciousness we always have to take our start from something sense-perceptible. Thus, even of our own Will, we apprehend only what passes from it into the world of sense-perceptions. In the ordinary consciousness it is only by observation of himself in thought that man is aware of his Will-impulses, just as it is only by observation that he is aware of the outer world.
[ 17 ] 92. The Karma that works in the Will is a property belonging to it from former lives on Earth. This constituent of the Will cannot therefore be apprehended with the ideas of our ordinary sense-existence, which are directed only to the present earthly life.
[ 18 ] 93. Because they are unable to take hold of Karma, these ideas refer what is unintelligible to them in man's impulses of Will to the mystic darkness of the bodily constitution, whereas in reality it is the working of past earthly lives.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 19 ] 94. With the ordinary life in ideas transmitted through the senses, man is in the physical world. For this world to enter his consciousness, Karma must be silent in his thinking life. In his life of ideation, man as it were forgets his Karma.
[ 20 ] 95. In the manifestations of the Will, Karma works itself out. But its working remains in the unconscious. By lifting to conscious Imagination what works unconsciously in the Will, Karma is apprehended. Man feels his destiny within him.
[ 21 ] 96. When Inspiration and Intuition enter the Imagination, then, beside the impulses of the present, the outcome of former earthly lives becomes perceptible in the working of the Will. The past life is revealed, working itself out in the present.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 22 ] 97. For a cruder description it is permissible to say: Thinking, Feeling and Willing live in the soul of man. For greater refinement we must add: Thinking always contains a substratum of Feeling and Willing; Feeling a substratum of Thinking and Willing; Willing a substratum of Thinking and Feeling. In the life of thought, however, Thinking predominates; in the life of feeling, Feeling predominates; and in the life of will, Willing predominates over the other contents of the soul.
[ 23 ] 98. The Feeling and Willing of the life of Thought contain the karmic outcome of past lives on Earth. The Thinking and Willing of the life of Feeling karmically determine the man's character. The Thinking and Feeling of the life of Will tear the present earthly life away from Karmic connections.
[ 24 ] 99. In the Feeling and Willing of Thinking man lives out his Karma of the past; in the Thinking and Feeling of Willing he prepares his Karma of the future.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 25 ] 100. The thoughts of man have their true seat in the etheric body. There, however, they are forces of real life and being. They imprint themselves upon the physical body, and as such ‘imprinted thoughts’ they have the shadowy character in which the everyday consciousness knows them.
[ 26 ] 101. The Feeling that lives in the Thoughts comes from the astral body, and the Willing from the Ego. In sleep the human etheric body is certainly irradiated with the world of his Thoughts, but man himself does not partake in it. For he has withdrawn, with the astral body the Feeling of the Thoughts, and with the Ego their Willing, out of the etheric and the physical.
[ 27 ] 102. The moment the astral body and Ego loose their connection during sleep with the Thoughts of the etheric body, they enter into connection with ‘Karma’—with the beholding of the events through repeated lives on Earth. To the everyday consciousness this vision is denied, but a supersensible consciousness can enter into it.
Aphorismen Aus einem am 24. August in London gehaltenen Mitgliedervortrag
[ 1 ] Das menschliche Bewußtsein entwickelt im gegenwärtigen Weltstadium seiner Entwickelung drei Formen, das wachende, das träumende und das traumlos schlafende Bewußtsein.
[ 2 ] Das wachende erlebt die sinnenfällige Außenwelt, bildet über diese Ideen und kann aus diesen Ideen heraus solche gestalten, welche eine rein geistige Welt abbilden. Das träumende Bewußtsein entwickelt Bilder, welche die Außenwelt umformen, zum Beispiel an die in das Bett scheinende Sonne das Traumerlebnis einer Feuersbrunst mit vielen Einzelheiten knüpfen. Oder es stellt die menschliche Innenwelt in symbolischen Bildern vor die Seele, zum Beispiel das stark pochende Herz im Bild eines überheizten Ofens. Auch die Erinnerungen leben umgestaltet im Traumbewußtsein auf. Dazu kommen Inhalte solcher Bilder, die nicht der Sinneswelt entnommen sind, sondern der geistigen, die aber nicht die Möglichkeit bieten, in die geistige Welt erkennend einzudringen, weil ihr Dämmersein nicht ganz in das Wachbewußtsein sich heben läßt, und weil, was in dieses herüberspielt, nicht wahrhaft ergriffen werden kann.
[ 3 ] Es ist aber möglich, von der Traumwelt unmittelbar im Erwachen so viel zu erfassen, daß man gewahr wird, wie sie der unvollkommene Abdruck eines geistigen Erlebens ist, das den Schlaf erfüllt, aber dem Wachbewußtsein sich zum weitaus größten Teile entzieht. Es ist nur nötig, um das zu durchschauen, den Augenblick des Erwachens so zu gestalten, daß dieses nicht mit einem Schlage die Außenwelt vor die Seele zaubert, sondern daß die Seele, ohne noch nach außen zu schauen, sich dem innen Erlebten hingegeben fühlt.
[ 4 ] Das traumlose Schlafbewußtsein läßt die Seele Erlebnisse durchmachen, die in der Erinnerung nur als unterschiedsloses Einerlei der Zeit-Erfüllung erscheinen. Man wird von diesen Erlebnissen so lange als von etwas gar nicht Vorhandenem sprechen können, solange man nicht durch geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung in sie eindringt. Geschieht dies aber, entwickelt man auf die in der anthroposophischen Literatur gegebene Art das imaginierte und inspirierte Bewußtsein, dann treten aus der Finsternis des Schlafes die Bilder und die Inspirationen von Erlebnissen früheren Erdendaseins hervor. Und dann kann man auch den Inhalt des Traumbewußtseins überschauen. Er besteht in einem vom Wachbewußtsein nicht zu ergreifenden Inhalt, der in diejenige Welt verweist, in welcher der Mensch zwischen zwei Erdenleben als unverkörperte Seele verweilt.
[ 5 ] Lernt man kennen, was für die gegenwärtige Weltenphase das Traum- und das Schlafbewußtsein verbergen, dann wird der Weg eröffnet auf die Entwickelungsformen des menschlichen Bewußtseins in der Vorwelt. Man kann dazu allerdings nicht durch die äußere Forschung gelangen. Denn die erhaltenen äußeren Zeugnisse bringen nur Nachwirkungen von vorgeschichtlichen Erlebnissen des menschlichen Bewußtseins. Die anthroposophische Literatur bringt Aufschlüsse darüber, wie man durch geistige Forschung zur Anschauung von solchen Erlebnissen gelangen kann.
[ 6 ] In der alten Zeit Ägyptens findet diese Forschung ein Traumbewußtsein, das dem Wachbewußtsein viel nähersteht, als das jetzt beim Menschen der Fall ist. Die Traumerlebnisse strahlten erinnerungsgemäß in das Wachbewußtsein herüber; und dieses lieferte nicht bloß die in scharf konturierte Gedanken zu fassenden Sinneseindrücke, sondern verbunden mit diesen das Geistige, das in der Sinneswelt wirkt. Dadurch stand der Mensch mit seinem Bewußtsein instinktiv in der Welt darinnen, die er bei seiner Erdenverkörperung verlassen hat und die er wieder betreten wird, wenn er durch die Todespforte geschritten sein wird.
[ 7 ] Die erhaltenen Schrift-Denkmäler und anderes geben dem, der unbefangen in ihren Inhalt eindringt, deutliche Nachbilder eines solchen Bewußtseins, das einer Zeit angehört, aus der äußere Denkmäler nicht vorhanden sind.
[ 8 ] Das Schlafbewußtsein der ägyptischen Urzeit enthielt Träume der geistigen Welt in einer ähnlichen Art, wie das gegenwärtige Träume aus der physischen Welt enthält.
[ 9 ] Bei ändern Völkern findet man aber noch ein anderes Bewußtsein. Der Schlaf strahlte seine Erlebnisse in das Wachen herüber, und zwar so, daß in diesem Herüberstrahlen eine Anschauung der wiederholten Erdenleben instinktiv vorhanden war. Die Traditionen von der Erkenntnis der wiederholten Erdenleben durch die Urmenschen entstammen diesen Bewußtseins-Formen.
[ 10 ] Man findet, was in alten Zeiten an Traumbewußtsein dämmerhaft instinktiv vorhanden war, in der entwickelten imaginativen Erkenntnis wieder. Nur ist es bei dieser vollbewußt wie das Wachleben.
[ 11 ] Und man wird durch die inspirierte Erkenntnis ebenso die vorzeitliche instinktive Einsicht gewahr, die noch etwas von den wiederholten Erdenleben sah. Auf diese Verwandlung der menschlichen Bewußtseinsformen geht die heutige Menschheitsgeschichte nicht ein. Sie möchte gerne glauben, daß im wesentlichen die gegenwärtigen Bewußtseinsformen immer vorhanden waren, solange es eine Erdenmenschheit gibt.
[ 12 ] Und was doch auf solche andere Bewußtseinsformen hinweist, die Mythen und Märchen, möchte man als den Ausfluß der dichtenden Phantasie des Urmenschen ansehen.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 13 ] 88. Im wachen Tagesbewußtsein erlebt sich im gegenwärtigen Weltenalter der Mensch als innerhalb der physischen Welt stehend. Dieses Erleben verbirgt ihm, daß innerhalb seiner eigenen Wesenheit die Wirkungen eines Lebens zwischen Tod und Geburt vorhanden sind.
[ 14 ] 89. Im Traumbewußtsein erlebt der Mensch in chaotischer Art das eigene Wesen mit dem Geisteswesen der Welt unharmonisch vereint. Das Wachbewußtsein kann den eigentlichen Inhalt dieses Traumbewußtseins nicht ergreifen. Es enthüllt sich dem imaginativen und inspirierten Bewußtsein, daß die Geistwelt, die der Mensch zwischen Tod und Geburt durchlebt, an dem Aufbau seines Innenwesens beteiligt ist.
[ 15 ] 90. Im traumlosen Schlafbewußtsein erlebt der Mensch ohne eigene Bewußtheit das eigene Wesen als durchdrungen mit den Ergebnissen vergangener Erdenleben. Das inspirierte und intuitive Bewußtsein dringt zur Anschauung dieser Ergebnisse vor und sieht das Wirken voriger Erdenleben in dem Schicksalsverlauf (Karma) des gegenwärtigen.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 16 ] 91. Der Wille tritt in das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein im heutigen Weltalter nur durch den Gedanken ein. Dieses gewöhnliche Bewußtsein kann aber nur an das sinnlich Wahrnehmbare anknüpfen. Es ergreift auch an dem eigenen Willen nur das, was von diesem in die sinnliche Wahrnehmungswelt eintritt. Der Mensch weiß in diesem Bewußtsein von seinen Willensimpulsen nur durch die vorstellende Beobachtung seiner selbst, wie er von der Außenwelt nur durch Beobachtung weiß.
[ 17 ] 92. Das Karma, das im Willen wirkt, ist eine ihm aus vorangegangenen Erdenleben anhaftende Eigenschaft. Diese kann daher nicht durch die Vorstellungen des gewöhnlichen Sinnesseins, die nur auf das gegenwärtige Erdenleben hin orientiert sind, erfaßt werden.
[ 18 ] 93. Weil diese Vorstellungen das Karma nicht erfassen können, verweisen sie das ihnen an den menschlichen Willensimpulsen entgegentretende Unverständliche in das mystische Dunkel der Körperkonstitution, während es die Wirkung vorangegangener Erdenleben ist.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 19 ] 94. Mit dem gewöhnlichen Vorstellungsleben, das durch die Sinne vermittelt wird, steht der Mensch in der physischen Welt. Um diese in sein Bewußtsein aufzunehmen, muß das Karma im Vorstellungsleben schweigen. Der Mensch vergißt gewissermaßen als Vorstellender sein Karma.
[ 20 ] 95. In den Willensoffenbarungen wirkt das Karma. Aber die Wirkung bleibt im Unbewußten. Durch das Erheben dessen, was im Willen unbewußt wirkt, zur Imagination, wird das Karma ergriffen. Man fühlt in sich sein Schicksal.
[ 21 ] 96. Tritt Inspiration und Intuition in die Imagination ein, dann wird im Willenswirken außer den Impulsen der Gegenwart das Ergebnis voriger Erdenleben wahrnehmbar. Das vergangene Leben erweist sich in dem gegenwärtigen als wirksam.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 22 ] 97. Eine gröbere Darstellung darf sagen: in der Seele des Menschen leben Denken, Fühlen und Wollen. Eine feinere muß sagen: Denken enthält immer einen Untergrund von Fühlen und Wollen, Fühlen einen solchen von Denken und Wollen, Wollen einen von Denken und Fühlen. Im Gedankenleben ist nur das Denken, im Gefühlsleben das Fühlen, im Willensleben das Wollen gegenüber den anderen Seeleninhalten vorherrschend.
[ 23 ] 98. Das Fühlen und Wollen des Gedankenlebens enthalten das karmische Ergebnis voriger Erdenleben. Das Denken und Wollen des Gefühlslebens bestimmen auf karmische Art den Charakter. Das Denken und Fühlen des Willenslebens reißen das gegenwärtige Erdenleben aus dem karmischen Zusammenhange heraus.
[ 24 ] 99. Im Fühlen und Wollen des Denkens lebt der Mensch sein Karma der Vergangenheit aus; im Denken und Fühlen des Wollens bereitet er das Karma der Zukunft vor.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 25 ] 100. Die Gedanken haben ihren eigentlichen Sitz im ätherischen Leib des Menschen. Aber da sind sie lebendig-wesenhafte Kräfte. Sie prägen sich dem physischen Leibe ein. Und als solche «eingeprägte Gedanken» haben sie die schattenhafte Art, in der sie das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein kennt.
[ 26 ] 101. Was in den Gedanken als Fühlen lebt, das kommt vom astralischen Leib, was als Wollen, vom «Ich» her. Im Schlafen erstrahlt der Ätherleib des Menschen durchaus in dessen Gedankenwelt; nur der Mensch nimmt nicht daran teil, weil er das Fühlen der Gedanken mit dem Astralleib, das Wollen derselben mit dem «Ich» aus dem ätherischen und physischen Leib herausgezogen hat.
[ 27 ] 102. In dem Augenblicke, in dem während des Schlafes der astralische Leib und das Ich das Verhältnis zu den Gedanken des Ätherleibes lösen, gehen sie ein solches zu dem «Karma», zur Anschauung der Geschehnisse durch die wiederholten Erdenleben hindurch ein. Diese Anschauung ist dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein versagt; ein übersinnliches Bewußtsein tritt in sie ein.
Aphorisms from a lecture given by members in London on August 24
[ 1 ] Human consciousness develops three forms in the present world stage of its evolution, the waking, the dreaming and the dreamless sleeping consciousness.
[ 2 ] The waking consciousness experiences the sensory external world, forms ideas about it and can create from these ideas those that depict a purely spiritual world. The dreaming consciousness develops images that reshape the external world, for example linking the dream experience of a conflagration with many details to the sun shining into the bed. Or it presents the human inner world to the soul in symbolic images, for example the strongly pounding heart in the image of an overheated oven. Memories are also reshaped in the dream consciousness. In addition, there are contents of such images that are not taken from the sensory world, but from the spiritual world, but which do not offer the possibility of penetrating the spiritual world in a recognizing way, because their dimness cannot be completely lifted into the waking consciousness, and because what plays over into this cannot be truly grasped.
[ 3 ] But it is possible to grasp so much of the dream world immediately upon waking that one becomes aware of how it is the imperfect imprint of a spiritual experience that fills sleep but eludes waking consciousness for the most part. In order to see through this, it is only necessary to shape the moment of awakening in such a way that it does not suddenly conjure up the outside world before the soul, but that the soul, without looking outwards, feels devoted to what is experienced within.
[ 4 ] The dreamless sleep consciousness allows the soul to undergo experiences that appear in memory only as an indiscriminate monotony of time fulfillment. One will be able to speak of these experiences as something that does not exist as long as one does not penetrate them through spiritual scientific research. But if this happens, if one develops the imagined and inspired consciousness in the way given in the anthroposophical literature, then the images and inspirations of experiences of earlier earthly existence emerge from the darkness of sleep. And then one can also survey the content of dream consciousness. It consists of a content that cannot be grasped by the waking consciousness, which refers to the world in which the human being dwells between two earthly lives as an unembodied soul.
[ 5 ] If one learns what the dream and sleep consciousness conceal for the present world phase, then the path is opened to the developmental forms of human consciousness in the pre-world. However, one cannot arrive at this through external research. For the external testimonies that have been preserved only bring the after-effects of prehistoric experiences of human consciousness. The anthroposophical literature provides information on how one can arrive at an understanding of such experiences through spiritual research.
[ 6 ] In ancient Egypt, this research finds a dream consciousness that is much closer to the waking consciousness than is the case with humans today. The dream experiences radiated through memory into the waking consciousness; and this not only provided the sensory impressions that could be grasped in sharply contoured thoughts, but connected with these the spiritual that works in the sensory world. Thus man stood with his consciousness instinctively in the world which he left during his incarnation on earth and which he will enter again when he has passed through the gate of death.
[ 7 ] The surviving scriptural monuments and other things give those who penetrate their contents impartially clear afterimages of such a consciousness, which belongs to a time from which there are no external monuments.
[ 8 ] The sleep-consciousness of Egyptian prehistoric times contained dreams of the spiritual world in a similar way as the present one contains dreams from the physical world.
[ 9 ] A different kind of consciousness is found among different peoples. Sleep radiated its experiences into waking life in such a way that in this radiation there was an instinctive perception of repeated earthly lives. The traditions of the recognition of repeated earth lives by primitive man originate from these forms of consciousness.
[ 10 ] The dream consciousness that was dimly and instinctively present in ancient times is found again in developed imaginative cognition. Only with this it is fully conscious like waking life.
[ 11 ] And through inspired cognition one also becomes aware of the premortal instinctive insight, which still saw something of the repeated earth lives. Today's human history does not address this transformation of human forms of consciousness. It would like to believe that essentially the present forms of consciousness have always been present as long as there has been an earthly humanity.
[ 12 ] And what nevertheless points to such other forms of consciousness, the myths and fairy tales, one would like to regard as the outflow of the poetic imagination of primitive man.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 13 ] 88 In the waking day-consciousness man experiences himself in the present world-age as standing within the physical world. This experience conceals from him that the effects of a life between death and birth are present within his own being.
[ 14 ] 89. In dream consciousness man experiences his own being united in a chaotic way with the spiritual being of the world. The waking consciousness cannot grasp the actual content of this dream consciousness. It reveals itself to the imaginative and inspired consciousness that the spirit world, which man experiences between death and birth, is involved in the construction of his inner being.
[ 15 ] 90. In dreamless sleep consciousness, man experiences his own being as permeated with the results of past earthly lives without his own consciousness. The inspired and intuitive consciousness penetrates to the contemplation of these results and sees the work of previous earth lives in the course of destiny (karma) of the present one.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 16 ] 91 Will enters into ordinary consciousness in the present world age only through thought. This ordinary consciousness, however, can only connect with the sensually perceptible. It only grasps what enters the world of sensory perception through its own will. In this consciousness, man knows of his volitional impulses only through the imaginative observation of himself, just as he knows of the outside world only through observation.
[ 17 ] 92. The karma that works in the will is a quality inherited from previous lives on earth. Therefore, it cannot be grasped through the concepts of ordinary sense being, which are only oriented towards the present earthly life.
[ 18 ] 93 Because these conceptions cannot grasp karma, they relegate the incomprehensible that confronts them in the human will impulses to the mystical darkness of the body constitution, while it is the effect of previous earth lives.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 19 ] 94. With the ordinary conceptual life, which is mediated through the senses, man stands in the physical world. In order to absorb this into his consciousness, karma must be silent in the imaginative life. Man forgets his karma, so to speak, as an imaginer.
[ 20 ] 95 Karma works in the revelations of the will. But the effect remains in the unconscious. By raising that which works unconsciously in the will to the imagination, karma is grasped. One feels one's destiny within oneself.
[ 21 ] 96. If inspiration and intuition enter the imagination, then the result of previous lives on earth becomes perceptible in the working of the will in addition to the impulses of the present. The past life proves to be effective in the present one.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 22 ] 97 A coarser representation may say: in the soul of man live thinking, feeling and willing. A finer one must say: thinking always contains a background of feeling and willing, feeling a background of thinking and willing, willing a background of thinking and feeling. In the life of thought, only thinking is predominant over the other contents of the soul, in the life of feeling it is feeling, and in the life of will it is willing.
[ 23 ] 98. The feeling and willing of the thought life contain the karmic result of previous earth lives. The thinking and willing of the emotional life determine the character in a karmic way. The thinking and feeling of the life of will tear the present earthly life out of the karmic context.
[ 24 ] 99. In the feeling and volition of thinking, man lives out his karma of the past; in the thinking and feeling of volition, he prepares the karma of the future.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 25 ] 100 Thoughts have their actual seat in the etheric body of the human being. But there they are living, essential forces. They imprint themselves on the physical body. And as such "imprinted thoughts" they have the shadowy nature in which they are known to the ordinary consciousness.
[ 26 ] 101 What lives in the thoughts as feeling comes from the astral body, what lives as volition, from the "I". In sleep, the etheric body of the human being certainly shines in his world of thoughts; only the human being does not participate in it, because he has drawn the feeling of the thoughts out of the etheric and physical body with the astral body, the volition of the same with the "I".
[ 27 ] 102 At the moment when, during sleep, the astral body and the ego dissolve the relationship to the thoughts of the etheric body, they enter into such a relationship to the "karma", to the view of events through the repeated earth lives. This view is denied to the ordinary consciousness; a supersensible consciousness enters into it.