Karmic Relationships II
GA 236
10 May 1924, Dornach
Lecture VIII
To-day we shall begin a series of studies which will throw light on the unfolding of human karma from the side of the external bodily form as we encounter it in the physiognomy, the play of gestures, in all the external manifestations of the human being in the physical world. For in considering individual karmic connections, I have already drawn attention to the fact that it is precisely by observing apparently insignificant trifles in the human being that karmic connections may be perceived. It is also a fact that the external appearance of the human being gives in many respects a picture of his moral and spiritual tenor in his previous earthly life, or in a series of previous lives.
Along these lines certain types of human beings can be observed, and it will be found that a certain type leads back to a definite attitude and behaviour in one of the previous earthly lives. In order to avoid vague abstractions, let us consider examples.—Suppose, for instance, some human being's life on earth has been spent in occupying himself very closely with the things which confronted him in life; he has had intimate and real interest for many things, not passing by or missing anything about men, things or phenomena of the world. You will certainly have opportunity to observe this in human beings in the present life.
We may meet people who have a better knowledge—let us say—of the statesmen of ancient Greece than of the statesmen of our own time. If they are asked about somebody such as Pericles, Alcibiades or Miltiades, they know all about them, because they learnt it at school. If they are questioned about a person of the same kind belonging to the present day, they can hardly give any information. But the same thing exists in the sphere of the ordinary observation of life. In this connection I have often mentioned details which have certainly seemed strange to those who imagine that they are standing at the highest peak of idealism. There are men, for instance, who, in talking to you in the afternoon, will tell you that they saw a lady in the street in the morning. When you ask them what sort of dress she was wearing, they do not know! It is really incredible, but it is a fact—there are such people.
Now of course, such a thing can be interpreted in all sorts of different ways. It can be said: This is a case of such lofty spirituality that a man who happens to find himself in these circumstances considers it much too trifling to take notice of such things. But this is not a sign of a really penetrating spirituality. It may be lofty spirituality, but loftiness alone is not the point; what really matters is whether the spirituality is penetrating or superficial. There is not, in this case, any penetrating spirituality, because, after all, what a human being needs in the way of clothing is quite significant, and in a certain sense it is just as significant as, for instance, the type of nose or mouth he has. Again, there are human beings who are attentive to everything in life. They judge the world according to what they experience from it. Others go through the world as if nothing in it were of the slightest interest to them. They have taken in everything only as a kind of dream which quickly flows away again.
These are—I might say—two polar opposite types of human beings. But however you may judge of it, my dear friends, whatever opinion you may have about whether a man is at a high or low level because he does not remember the dress worn by the lady he saw in the morning—that is not the point. Today we want to discuss what influence this has on the karma of the human being. It actually makes a great difference whether a man pays attention to things in life, whether he takes interest in every detail, or whether he does not pay attention to things. Details are of enormous importance for the whole structure of spiritual life—not because they are details, but because a detail like the one mentioned points to a very definite constitution of soul.
There was a professor who always lectured extremely well and who, all the time he was lecturing, stared at one point—the upper part of the chest of someone in the audience; his eyes were riveted on this particular point. He never lost the thread of his lectures, which were always admirable. But one day he did lose the thread; he kept on looking and then turning away. Afterwards he went to the person in the audience and asked: “Why did you sew on the button that had always been missing? It has made me lose my head!” He had always been looking at the place of the missing button and this gave him concentration. Always to be looking at the place where a button is torn off or not, seems trifling, but as a matter of fact, so far as the inner attitude of soul is concerned it is significant whether such a thing is done or not. And when it is a question of observing the lines of karma, it is of extraordinarily great importance.
Let us therefore look a little more closely at these two types of human beings of whom I have been speaking. You need only remember what I have frequently told you about the passing over of the human being from one incarnation into the other. In earthly life man has his head, and he has, as well, the rest of his body. This part of his body, outside the head, contains a certain concatenation of forces. The physical body of the human being is finally given over to the elements. The physical substance, of course, is not carried over from one earthly life into the other. But the concatenation of forces which a man has in his organism, apart from his head, is carried through the life between death and a new birth and becomes the head of the next earthly life, whereas the head of the present incarnation has been formed out of the limb-system and the rest of the organism of the previous earthly life. Thus the non-head nature—if I may coin this expression—of the one earthly life transforms itself into the head of the following earthly life. The head is always the product of the non-head nature of the preceding earthly life. This holds good for the whole concatenation of forces in the constitution of the human being.
When somebody goes through life with great attentiveness to everything, he must, in the nature of things, move about a great deal. Human beings who lead an entirely sedentary life are very difficult to study to-day from the point of view of karma, because there was no such mode of life in earlier times. It remains to be seen what men with an exclusively sedentary mode of life will be like in the next earthly life, for sedentary existences have become customary only in this age. But when, in earlier times, a man was attentive to the things in his environment, he always had to go to them; he had to make his limbs mobile, to bring his limbs into activity. The whole body was active, not only the senses which belong to the head-system. Everything in which the whole body takes part, when the human being is attentive and observant, passes over into the structure of the head of the next earthly life, and has a definite effect. The head of the human being in the next earthly life is so constituted that he has then a very strong urge to send into the rest of his organism such forces as cause the forces of the earth to work very strongly into his organism. In the first seven years of life, everything contained in the organism, muscles, bones, etc., is formed from out of the head. The head sends out these forces. Every bone is shaped as it must be shaped, by means of the head. If, because of the type of incarnation which I have described to you, the head has the tendency to develop a strong relationship to the forces of the earth, what happens then? Then by the grace of the head—if I may put it so—the earth-forces are very much favoured during the formation of the human being in the embryonic period, but also, especially, in the life up to the change of teeth. The forces of the earth are very strongly propagated by the head. The result is that in such a human being there is a special development of everything that depends upon the forces of the earth. He gets big bones, strong bones, extremely broad shoulder-blades, for instance, and the ribs are well developed. Everything bears the stamp of good development.
But now, all that is connected with the carrying over of the faculty of attention from the past into the present earthly life, with the way the organism is formed—all this, it is true, proceeds spatially from the head, but nevertheless, in reality, from the soul and spirit. For in all these formative forces the soul and spirit participate; from such forces we can always look to the soul and spirit. In such human beings the head has become related to the earth as the result of the conditions in the previous earthly life which I have described. We can see this in the brow, which is not particularly lofty—for lofty brows are not allied to the earth—but it has definition, strength, and similar characteristics.
So we see that the human being develops in such a way that his bones are strongly formed. And the strange thing is: when these forces that are allied to the earth work forcefully over from the previous earthly life, the hair grows very quickly. In observing children whose hair grows very quickly we must always connect this with their powers of attention in the previous earthly life. It is a fact that out of his moral and spiritual attitude in any one incarnation the human being forms his body in the next earthly life.
Now we shall always find confirmation of how the forces of the soul and spirit participate in this shaping of the human being. A man whose karma it is, in the next earthly life, to have strong bones, well developed muscles, as the result of attentiveness to life—such a man, we shall see, goes through life with courage. Through this attentiveness he has also acquired the natural force belonging to a courageous life.
In times when men ceased to describe successive earthly lives, they still had the knowledge that really exists only when repeated earthly lives are taken into account. This was still so in the days of Aristotle. Aristotle has described this beautifully in his Physiognomics. He was still able to show how the external countenance is connected with the moral attitude, the moral tenor of a man.
And now let us think of cowards, faint-hearted men. They are those who took no interest in anything during the previous earthly life. You see, the study of karma has a certain significance for taking one's place in life in connection with the future. After all, it is only a craving for knowledge that we satisfy—though not only this craving—when we trace back a present earthly life to earlier lives. But if we go through our present earthly life with a certain amount of self-knowledge, then we can prepare for the next earthly life. If we drift superficially through life, without taking interest in anything, then we can be sure that we shall be a coward in the next earthly life. This is because a detached, inattentive character forms few links with its environment, and consequently the head-organisation in the next life has no relation with the forces of the earth. The bones remain undeveloped, the hair grows slowly: very often such a person has bow-legs or knock-knees.
These are things which in a very intimate way reveal the connection between the spirit and soul on the one side and the natural-physical on the other. Yes, my dear friends, from the very details of the shape of the head and of the whole structure of the human being, we can as it were look over into the previous earthly life.
These things are not said, however, in order that the observation itself shall be made through them. All the observations of which I have told you here, as a preparation for studies of karma, have not been made in an external, but in an entirely inner way, through spiritual-scientific methods. But precisely these spiritual-scientific methods show that the human being in his external form cannot be studied as is done in modern physiology and anatomy. There is really no sense in simply becoming familiar with the organs and their interconnections. For the human being is a picture. In part he is the picture of the forces holding sway between death and a new birth, and in part a picture of his previous earthly life. There is no sense in working at physiology and anatomy as they exist to-day, where the human being is taken and one organ after another in him is studied. The head, for instance, is much more closely connected with the previous earthly life than with the body which the human being receives in his present earthly life.
We can therefore say: certain physical processes are to be understood only when we look back to previous earthly lives. A man who learnt to know the world in a previous earthly life has quick-growing hair. A man who learnt to know little of the world in a previous life, has slow-growing hair. The hair grows very slowly; it lies along the surface of the body; whereas those who interested themselves intensely in life during a previous earthly life, who interested themselves all too intensely and poked their noses into everything, have loose, straggly hair. This is an absolutely correct connection. The most manifold bodily configurations can be referred back to experiences in one of the preceding earthly lives. This holds good into the very details of the constitution.
Take for instance, a man who ponders much in one incarnation—who thinks and ponders a great deal. In his next incarnation he will be a thin, delicately made man. A man who ponders little in one earthly life, but lives a life more concerned with grasping the outer world, tends, in the next life, to accumulate a good deal of fat. This, too, has a significance for the future. Spiritual “slimming cures” cannot well be managed in one earthly life; for this one must resort to physical cures—if indeed they are of any help! But for the next earthly life it is certainly possible to undergo a “slimming cure” if one ponders and thinks a great deal, especially if one thinks about something that calls for effort, of the kind I described yesterday. It need not be meditated, but simply pondered about a great deal, with the willingness to make many inner decisions.
There is an actual connection of this kind between the spiritual and moral way in which a man lives during one earthly life, and his physical constitution in the next earthly life. This cannot be emphasised sufficiently.
Take another case. Suppose, for instance, that in one earthly life a man is a thinker. I do not mean a professor—(this is not a joke!)—but a man who, possibly, walks behind a plough and who yet can think a great deal. It does not matter at all in what circumstances of life a man thinks, for he can be a real thinker when he follows a plough or is engaged in a handicraft of some sort. But because in his thinking the forces which fall away when earthly life comes to an end are mainly engaged, and he leaves unused those which are carried over into his next incarnation and take part in the building up of his head, such a man will appear again in a new earthly life with soft flesh, with delicate soft flesh.
The peculiar point, however, is this.—When a man thinks a great deal, then, in his next earthly life, he will have a good skin; the whole surface of the body, the skin of the body, will be very well constituted. Again, when you see people whose skin has spots, for instance, then you can always infer from this that they did little thinking in their past life. (Of course, one needs other grounds for this inference as well; it is not possible to deduce with absolute certainty from one symptom. Nevertheless, in general, the indications which I have given to-day about the inter-connection of the soul and spirit with the physical are correct). When you see people with some impurity in their skin, you can always conclude that they did little thinking in their past earthly life. People with many freckles have certainly not been thinkers in a previous earthly life.
These are the things which show at once that Spiritual Science does not pay attention merely to spiritual abstractions, but also to the working of the spiritual in the physical. I have often emphasised that what is harmful about materialism is not that it pays attention only to matter; the harmful element, the tragedy of materialism, is that it cannot really know anything about matter, because it does not recognise the spiritual workings within matter.
It is precisely in the study of the human being that attention must be paid to matter, for in matter, above all in the human form, in the whole human being, the working of the spiritual is expressing itself. Matter is the outer revelation of the spiritual.
You can glean from the “Leading Thoughts” which have lately appeared in the News Sheet issued with the periodical Das Goetheanum, that the head of man is observed in the proper way only when Imaginative cognition is applied even to its external appearance. For the human head in its formation, in the formation of the ears, particularly also in the formation of the nose and eyes, is actually according to the pattern of Imagination. It consists of outwardly visible Imaginations.
This is also connected with the life of the human being. There are human beings in whom the lower part of the trunk is longer than the upper part; that is to say, the part from the lowest point of the trunk up to the breast is longer than the part from the centre of the chest up to the neck. If the part from the centre of the chest to the neck is shorter than the lower part of the trunk, then we have to do with a human being who, in the life between death and a new birth, has made the ascent to the mid-point very quickly. He passed through this period very quickly. Then he descended slowly and comfortably to the new earthly life.

Where, on the other hand, the upper part from the neck to the middle of the chest is longer than the lower part from the middle of the chest to the end of the trunk, we have to do with a human being who passed slowly and sedately as far as the middle of his life between death and new birth, and then descended more quickly into earthly life.
In the physiognomy, indeed, in the proportions of the trunk, we find the after-effect of the way in which the human being passed through the first period of his existence between death and a new birth, in comparison with the latter period.
Truly, what is physical in the human being is through and through a copy of the underlying spiritual. This has a consequence in life. For those who have the long lower trunk and short upper trunk are of a type showing from the outset that they need a great deal of sleep; they like to have long sleep. (The diagram is, of course, rather exaggerated). With the other type, who have the short lower trunk and long upper trunk, this is not so; they do not need so much sleep.
Thus, according to whether a human being needs sleep or not, which again expresses itself in the proportions of his trunk, you can see whether he has gone through the first part of the life between death and a new birth quickly or slowly, and also whether he has gone quickly or slowly through the second part of this life.
But this again is connected with the previous incarnation. Take the case of a man who was dull—not so much in disposition as because of his education and his mode of life. I do not mean that he was altogether lacking in interest, but he was dull; he could not really do anything properly, he never set about getting a real grip of things; he may have been attentive enough to poke his nose into everything, but it did not go beyond curiosity and a superficial understanding. He remained dull. Such a man has no interest for the first part of his life between death and a new birth. He develops an interest only when he has left behind the midnight summit of this life and begins his descent.
On the other hand, a man who is accustomed to penetrate everything both with his mind and with his feeling—he takes great interest in the first half, in the ascent, and then quickly completes the descent. Thus again it can be said: When you meet a man who is a sleepy-head, then this is to be traced to a dull life, such as I have described, in the previous incarnation. A man who is not a sleepy-head, who may even have to do something in order to go to sleep—we know there are books which can be used for the purpose of sending one to sleep!—a man who needs these things has not been dull, but attentive; he has been active with his mind and his feeling.
We can go further. There are men ... how shall I speak of them? Let us say they are ready eaters; they are fond of eating. Others are not so fond of eating. I do not want to say gluttonous people and non-gluttonous people for this would hardly be in place in a serious study. But I will say: there are people who are fond of eating and there are others who are less fond of it. This too is connected in a certain sense with what the human being experiences in his passage between death and a new birth, before and after the midnight summit of existence. The middle point here is the midnight summit of existence.
There are human beings who, as I will put it, ascend very high into the spiritual, and there are others who do not rise so high. Those who ascend very high will eat in order to live. Those who do not rise so high will live in order to eat.
These are certainly differences in life, and if we look at the way in which a man behaves in such actions as are connected with the fostering or non-fostering of his physical existence, we can say that here is something which enables us to perceive how his karmic life is flowing over from a previous existence.
Those who have acquired powers of observation in this direction perceive, for instance, in the way a man takes something at table, in the way he helps himself, a gesture which points very strongly indeed to the way in which the past earthly life is shining over into the present.
To-day I am speaking of the physical. To-morrow I shall speak more about the moral sides, but the physical must certainly be kept in mind, otherwise the opposite will become less intelligible. Men who help themselves vehemently, who when they so much as take a pear into their hands at table do it—well, with enthusiasm—are those who clung more to the trivialities of life in the previous incarnations who could not rise above trivialities; who were stuck in habit, convention, etc., unable to get a moral grasp of life. This, too, has great practical significance. As we are not used to such considerations, these things will often seem curious and we laugh about them. But they are to be taken with the deepest seriousness, for you see, there are in society to-day certain classes of people who spend their time and energy in the trivial customs of life; they do not willingly make anything their own which goes beyond the ordinary, habitual customs of life.
Nor must these things be applied merely to modes of behaviour. They can likewise be applied, for instance, to speech. There are languages in which you cannot say anything arbitrarily because everything is strictly prescribed in the construction of the sentence; the subject cannot be put in another place, and so on. There are other languages where the subject may be placed wherever you like, and the predicate too. These languages are of such a character that they help human beings to individual development.
This is only an example of how trivial habits are acquired, and how the human being cannot get out of triviality. An earthly life spent in such triviality leads to one in which the human being is gluttonous. He does not rise high enough in the life between death and a new birth—he becomes gluttonous.
In our day the time should dawn when men no longer reckon only with one earthly life, as was the case in the materialistic epoch of evolution, but take into account the whole of earthly evolution, in the knowledge that what is done and achieved by a man in one earthly life is carried over into the next earthly life; that what happens in one epoch is carried over into another by human beings themselves. As this awareness has to come, it is necessary that such knowledge should find a place in the education of growing children as well as of adults.
I should like to speak of two more types. There is a type of human being who can take everything seriously, and here I do not mean merely the external kind of seriousness. There may quite well be thoroughly serious people, who may even have a strongly tragic vein in their souls, but who all the same can laugh. For if a man is not able to laugh, if everything goes by him—and there are countless things in life to make one laugh—if he lets everything go by and cannot laugh at anything, then he must be dull. After all, there are things to laugh at! But a man may be able to laugh heartily at something that is funny, and still be, fundamentally, a serious man.
Then there is another type of person who does nothing but laugh, whom everything incites to laughter, who laughs when he is telling anything, whether or not it happens to be funny. There are people whose faces distort into laughter the moment they begin to relate anything, and who speak of even the gravest matter with a kind of grin, with a kind of laughter. I am describing extremes here, but these extremes exist.
This is a fundamental trait of the soul. We shall see tomorrow how it has its moral side. To-day I shall deal mainly with the physical side. This trait, in its turn, leads back to the karmic stream of evolution. A man who has a trait of gravity in his life, even if he can laugh too, has strong, steady forces working out of his previous incarnation into his present earthly life. In meeting a serious man of this kind, a man who has an understanding for the grave side of life, who stops to observe the grave side of life, we can say: one can feel in this man that he is bearing in his being and nature his past earthly life. A serious conception of life arises when the past earthly lives continue working, working on in the proper way. On the other hand, a man becomes an incessant chatterbox, laughing even when he is talking of the gravest matters, when past earthly lives are not working on in him. When a man has gone through a series of earthly lives—or at least through one—in which he has lived as if half asleep, then, in his next earthly life, he becomes a person who is never serious, who is unable to approach the things of life with the necessary seriousness. Thus from a man's attitude it can be seen whether he has spent his past earthly lives to good purpose, or whether he has more or less slept through them.
All this leads us to realise how false it is to take a mechanical view of a human being when he comes before us in his human guise, or even to see no further than the stereotyped pattern of his organism. This is quite wrong. The human being in his form, and right down into his possibilities of movement, must be regarded as an image of the spiritual world.
First of all there is the head-organisation. This is essentially determined by the previous earthly lives. We observe a human head in the right way when we learn to know all there is to be learnt about Imaginative ideation. Here, in connection with the human head, and nowhere else, we can apply, in the sense-world, Imaginative ideation, which is otherwise used for gazing into the spiritual world. We must begin with Imagination if we wish to look into the spiritual world. Then, first of all, the spiritual-etheric pictures of the spiritual beings appear before us. In the physical world, with the exception of the human head, there is nothing that is reminiscent of Imagination. But in the human head, right into its inner organisation, right into the marvellous structure of the brain, everything is really a physical mirror-image of the Imaginative.
Then, proceeding further, you may begin to study in the human being something that is really much more difficult to observe, although it is generally thought to be easy—that is, to gain an understanding of how the human being takes breath, how he sets his rhythmic system in movement, and how the breath leads over into the blood circulation. This tremendously living play, which penetrates the whole body, is far more complicated than it is thought to be. The human being takes in the breath, the breath transforms itself into blood circulation, but on the other side the breath again passes over into the head and is related in a definite way to the whole activity of the brain. Thinking is simply a refined, delicate breathing. The blood circulation, again, passes over into the impulses of the movements of the limbs.
This rhythmic system of the human being does not express itself in a static condition but in a continuous mobility, and this difference must be clearly observed. The head of man is best studied by considering it as a self-contained formation at rest; by studying its interior, the various parts of the brain, for instance, and how one part lies alongside another. Nothing can be known about the head if, say, the blood circulation in the head is studied by means of anatomy or physiology; for what the blood circulation achieves in the head is not connected with the head itself; it is connected merely with what the head needs from the rhythmic system. What can be seen when a portion of the cranial bone is raised, and the circulation exposed, is not really connected with the head. The head must be studied as an organ which is at rest, and where one part lies alongside another.
This method is not applicable to the rhythmic system, which has its seat in the breast. Everything there must be studied in its mobility, in the mobility of the blood circulation, of breathing, of thinking, of self-movement. This process can even be traced much farther into the physical.
Consider the breathing process as it passes over into the blood-process, and thence works over also into the brain. Carbonic acid is formed in the first place: that is to say, an acid is formed in the human organism. But when the breathing process passes over into the brain and into the nervous system, salt substances are formed out of the acids; salt substances are deposited.
Thus we may say: when the human being thinks, solids are precipitated. In the circulation, we find fluidity. In the breath, the gaseous. And in the principle of mobility when this passes over into movements, we find the fiery. The material elements are contained in all this, but the elements in mobility, in a constant state of arising and passing away. This process cannot really be grasped by sense-observation. Those who set out to grasp it, anatomically, by means of sense-observation, never really understand it; much must be added out of the inner creative force of the spirit if this process is to be understood. If we listen to explanatory discourses on the rhythmic process, as they are given in ordinary lectures on anatomy and physiology, we feel that it is all very remote from reality. (Those of you who have had this experience will be able to substantiate what I am saying). Yes, whoever listens to all this with an unbiased mind, and then watches the audience, actually feels as if the barrenness offered to the listeners must cause their very death; as if they must remain fixed to the desks, unable to move, unable even to crawl away! For this system of circulation ought to be described with such living vitality that the hearers, being continually carried from the sensible into the super-sensible, from the super-sensible back again into the sensible, enter into a kind of musical mood during the description.
When this is done, the human being develops inner habits of soul through which karma can be understood. We shall speak of that tomorrow. But what we have here is a sense-picture of Inspiration. Whereas in the study of the head we have a sense-picture of Imagination, so we have a picture of Inspiration in a study of the rhythmic system of the human being, if this study has the right character.
We pass now to the metabolic-limb system. In what modern anatomy and physiology have to say of the metabolic-limb system, we do not come to the forces of this system, but only to what falls away and is discarded by it. Everything that in the modern view is the content of the metabolic-limb system does not belong at all to the real human structure and organisation, but is expelled. The content of the bowels is only the extreme instance. Whatever else is physically perceptible in the metabolic-limb system does not belong to the human being but is deposited by him; some of it remains within him for a longer time, some for a shorter time. The content of the bowels remains a short time; what is deposited by the muscles, nerves, etc. remains longer. Any physical substance that can be found in the metabolic-limb system does not belong to the human being; it is excretion, deposit. Everything that belongs to the metabolic-limb system is of a super-sensible nature. So that in studying the metabolic-limb system of man we have to pass over to what has a purely super-sensible existence within the physical.
We must therefore picture the metabolic-limb system in such a way that physical arms, etc., are in reality spiritual, and within this spiritual the Ego unfolds.—When I move my arms or my legs, deposits are continually taking place, and these deposits are observed. But they are not the essential. You cannot refer to the physical when you want to explain how the arm or the hand grasps something; you must refer to the spiritual. The spiritual that runs all along the arm—that is the essential in the human being. What you perceive is merely a deposit of the metabolic-limb system.

How, then, can we even start on a study of karma if we believe that what we see in the metabolic-limb system is the human being? The human being is not this at all. We can only start on a study of karma when we know what the human being really is. We must include something that is to be found, certainly, in the sense-world, but which is, nevertheless, a super-sensible picture of Intuition.
And so, my dear friends, you can say: A study of the head is an Imaginative process, projected into the sense-world; a study of the rhythmic system must be truly Inspired, though active in the realm of sense-observation, within the sense-world; a study of the metabolic-limb system must be Intuitive, a super-sensible activity in the sense-world.
It is very interesting to find that in the study of the human being we have images for Intuition, Inspiration and Imagination. In a proper study of the metabolic-limb man we can learn what Intuition really is in the super-sensible. In a proper study of the rhythmic man we can learn what Inspiration really is in the super-sensible. In a proper study of the head we can learn what Imaginative observation is in the super-sensible.
Study of the Head: Imaginative, projected into the sense-world.
Study of the Rhythmic System: Inspired, working in the sense-world.
Study of the Metabolic-Limb System: Intuitive, supersensibly in the sense-world.
This is what is indicated in the latest ‘Leading Thoughts’, and it is something which everyone who carefully studies the existing Lecture-Courses can indeed find for himself.
To-day, my dear friends, we have tried to consider karmic connections in relation to the physical. To-morrow we will pass on to a closer study of karmic connections in relation to the moral and spiritual nature of man.


Achter Vortrag
Wir werden heute eine Art von Betrachtung anstellen, die von der Außenseite her in die Entwickelung des Karma des Menschen hineinweist. Von der Außenseite, sage ich, das heißt von der Seite der menschlichen äußeren Gestaltung, wie sie uns in der Physiognomie des Menschen entgegentritt, in dem Gebärdenspiel, in alldem, was die äußere Offenbarung des Menschen und der physischen Welt ist. Denn ich habe ja schon bei der Betrachtung einzelner karmischer Zusammenhänge darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie gerade durch die Betrachtung von scheinbar geringfügigen Kleinigkeiten am Menschen man karmische Zusammenhänge beobachten kann. Und so ist es auch, daß das Äußere des Menschen ja vielfach ein Bild von dem gibt, wie der Mensch in seinem moralischen Verhalten, in seinem geistigen Verhalten in einem vorigen Erdenleben oder in einer Reihe von vorigen Erdenleben war. Man kann in dieser Richtung geradezu gewisse Typen von Menschen betrachten, und man wird dann gerade durch die Betrachtung dieser Typen von Menschen finden, wie ein gewisser Typus auf ein ganz bestimmtes Verhalten in irgendeinem der vorigen Erdenleben zurückgeht.
Um nicht im Abstrakten herumzusprechen, nehmen wir die Sache durch Beispiele. Sagen wir zum Beispiel, jemand habe ein Erdenleben damit verbracht, daß er sich mit den Dingen im Leben, die an ihn herangetreten sind, recht genau beschäftigt hat, daß er für vieles ein intimes, ein gutes Interesse hatte, daß er an nichts vorbeigegangen ist, weder an Menschen noch an Sachen noch an Erscheinungen vorbeigegangen ist. Sie werden ja auch Gelegenheit haben, im gegenwärtigen Leben das an Menschen beobachten zu können.
Man kann Menschen kennenlernen, die, sagen wir zum Beispiel, die alten griechischen Staatsmänner besser kennen als die gegenwärtigen Staatsmänner. Wenn man sie nach irgendeinem wie Perikles oder Alcibiades oder Miltiades und so weiter frägt, dann wissen sie Bescheid, weil sie das in der Schule gelernt haben. Wenn man sie um irgend etwas frägt, was in der Gegenwart in ähnlicher Weise vorgeht, dann wissen sie kaum Bescheid.
Das kann man aber auch in bezug auf die ganz gewöhnliche Lebensbeobachtung finden. Ich habe ja auch in dieser Beziehung schon manches angeführt, was gewiß denen, die oftmals glauben auf der höchsten Spitze des Idealismus zu stehen, sonderbar vorkommt. Ich habe zum Beispiel angeführt, daß es Menschen gibt, Männer, die einem etwa erzählen, wenn man am Nachmittag mit ihnen spricht, sie hätten am Vormittag eine Dame auf der Straße gesehen. Wenn man sie frägt, was sie für ein Kleid angehabt habe, so wissen sie es nicht! Es ist schließlich unglaublich, aber es ist wahr: es gibt solche Menschen.
Nun, nicht wahr, man kann solch einer Sache die verschiedensten Auslegungen geben. Man kann sagen: Der Mensch ist von so hoher Geistigkeit, daß es ihm eben, wenn er in dieser Lage ist, viel zu unbedeutend erscheint, auf so etwas achtzugeben. Aber das ist nicht von einer wirklich durchdringenden Geistigkeit. Es mag von einer hohen Geistigkeit sein, aber auf die Höhe allein kommt es nicht an, sondern es kommt auf die Eindringlichkeit oder Oberflächlichkeit der Geistigkeit an. Von einer eindringlichen Geistigkeit ist es eben nicht, weil es ja schon ganz bedeutsam ist, was der Mensch zu seiner Einhüllung gebraucht, und in einem gewissen Sinne ist das ebenso bedeutsam, wie zum Beispiel, was er für eine Nase hat, oder was er für einen Mund hat. Es gibt eben Menschen, die haben für alles im Leben Aufmerksamkeit. Sie beurteilen die Welt nach dem, was sie von der Welt erfahren. Andere Menschen, die laufen so durch die Welt, wie wenn sie gar nichts interessierte. Sie haben alles, was an sie herankommt, nur wie eine Art Traum aufgenommen, der gleich wiederum verrinnt.
Dies sind zwei, ich möchte sagen, polarische Gegensätze von Menschen. Aber wie man das nun auch beurteilen mag, meine lieben Freunde, ob Sie nun von einem Menschen, der nicht weiß, was die Dame, die er am Vormittag gesehen hat, für ein Kleid angehabt hat, glauben, daß das hoch oder niedrig ist, darauf kommt es nicht an, sondern wir wollen heute besprechen, was das für einen Einfluß auf das Karma des Menschen hat. Und es macht eben einen großen Unterschied, ob ein Mensch für die Dinge des Lebens aufmerksam ist, sich für alles einzelne interessiert, oder ob er unaufmerksam für die Dinge des Lebens ist. Gerade Einzelheiten sind für das ganze Gefüge des geistigen Lebens ungeheuer bedeutend, nicht wegen dieser Einzelheiten, sondern weil eine solche Einzelheit auf eine ganz bestimmte Seelenverfassung hinweist.
Denken Sie nur an den Professor, der immer sehr schön vorgetragen hat und dabei immer auf einen Punkt gesehen hat, nämlich auf die obere Brusthälfte eines Hörers immer starr die Augen hingerichtet hat. Er ist niemals aus dem Konzept gekommen, sondern hat immer recht schön vortragen können. Eines Tages kam er aus dem Konzept: er guckte hin, er mußte immer wieder weggucken — und nachher ging er hin zu dem Hörer und fragte: Warum haben Sie sich nun den Knopf, der immer abgerissen war, angenäht? Das hat mich ganz aus dem Konzept gebracht! — Er hatte immer auf den fehlenden Knopf hingesehen, das hatte ihm Konzentration gegeben. Es ist unbedeutend, nicht wahr, ob man auf einen abgerissenen Knopf sieht oder nicht sieht; aber für die ganze Seelenverfassung ist es bedeutend, ob man das tut oder nicht. Und wenn man die karmischen Linien beobachten will, dann hat das schon eine außerordentlich große Bedeutung.
Also betrachten wir zunächst einmal diese zwei Menschentypen, von denen ich gesprochen habe. Sie brauchen sich nur an das zu erinnern, was ich öfter über das Hinübergehen des Menschen von einem Erdenleben in das andere gesagt habe: Es ist ja so, daß der Mensch in einem Erdenleben einen Kopf hat, dann die übrige Gestalt, und dasjenige, was übrige Gestalt ist, außer dem Kopfe, das hat einen gewissen Kräftezusammenhang. Der physische Leib des Menschen wird den Elementen übergeben. Die physische Substanz trägt natürlich der Mensch nicht von einem Erdenleben ins andere herüber. Aber den Kräftezusammenhang, den ein Mensch in seinem Organismus hat außer dem Kopf, den trägt er durch das Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, und das wird der Kopf des nächsten Erdenlebens, während der Kopf des gegenwärtigen Erdenlebens sich aus dem Gliedmaßensystem und dem übrigen Organismus des vorigen Erdenlebens gebildet hat. So verwandelt sich immer, wenn ich den Ausdruck gebrauchen darf, das Außerkopfliche von einem Erdenleben hinüber in den Kopf des anderen Erdenlebens. Und der Kopf ist immer das Ergebnis des Außerkopflichen vom vorigen Erdenleben. Das gilt nun für den ganzen Kräftezusammenhang in der Gliederung der menschlichen Wesenheit.
Wenn jemand mit großer Aufmerksamkeit durch das Leben ging und er nicht gerade eine ausschließlich sitzende Lebensweise hatte — und solche Menschen sind sehr schwer heute karmisch zu beobachten, weil es die in früheren Zeiten ja gar nicht gegeben hat; wie Menschen mit einer ausschließlich sitzenden Lebensweise sich in dem nächsten Erdenleben ausnehmen werden, das muß man erst abwarten, denn solche Erdenleben, wo man nur sitzt, gibt es ja eigentlich erst in der Gegenwart -, nun also, wenn der Mensch aufmerksam auf die Dinge seiner Umgebung wurde, mußte er ja immer zu diesen Dingen gehen, er mußte seine Glieder regsam machen, seine Glieder in Tätigkeit bringen. Der ganze Körper kam in Tätigkeit, nicht nur die Sinne, die zu dem Kopfsystem gehören, sondern der ganze Körper kam in Regsamkeit, Das, was da der ganze Körper mitmacht, wenn der Mensch aufmerksam ist, das geht hinüber in die Kopfbildung des nächsten Erdenlebens, und das hat eine ganz bestimmte Wirkung. Es wird dann der Kopf des Menschen im nächsten Erdenleben so, daß er einen sehr starken Drang hat, solche Kräfte in den übrigen Organismus, der dann im nächsten Erdenleben sich angliedert, hineinzuschicken, daß die Kräfte der Erde sehr stark auf diesen Organismus wirken.
Und nun müssen Sie bedenken: Wenn das, schematisch gezeichnet, der Kopf des Menschen ist, und das die übrige Organisation ist, so wird ja in den ersten sieben Lebensjahren alles, was in dieser übrigen Organisation ist, Muskeln, Knochen und so weiter, vom Kopfe aus gebildet. Der Kopf schickt diese Kräfte hinein. Jeder Knochen ist so gebildet, wie er vom Kopf aus gebildet werden soll. Wenn nun der Kopf durch die Art des Erdenlebens, wie ich es geschildert habe, die Tendenz hat, eine starke Verwandtschaft zu den Kräften der Erde zu entwickeln, was geschieht dann? Dann werden, ich möchte sagen, durch die Gunst des Kopfes die Erdenkräfte bei dem Aufbau des Menschen schon im Embryonalleben mehr protegiert, aber namentlich auch in dem Leben bis zum Zahnwechsel. Die Kräfte der Erde werden vom Kopfe sehr, sehr stark protegiert, und die Folge ist, daß ein solcher Mensch alles das in besonderer Ausbildung bekommt, was von den Kräften der Erde abhängt. Das heißt, er bekommt große Knochen, starke Knochen, er bekommt zum Beispiel außerordentlich breite Schulterblätter, die Rippen sind gut ausgebildet. Alles trägt den Charakter des gut Ausgebildeten. Aber in alledem sehen Sie, wie da die Aufmerksamkeit im vorigen Erdenleben herübergebracht wird in das gegenwärtige Erdenleben, wie da der Organismus gebildet wird. Alles das geht ja zwar räumlich vom Kopfe aus, aber eigentlich doch von der Seele und vom Geiste. Denn an all diesen Bildekräften sind Seele und Geist beteiligt, und wir können daher von so etwas immer auf das Seelisch-Geistige sehen. Daher ist es, daß wir bei solchen Menschen sehen: der Kopf ist erdverwandt geworden durch die Umstände im vorigen Erdenleben, wie ich sie geschildert habe. Das können wir der Stirne absehen, sie ist nicht besonders hoch — denn hohe Stirnen sind nicht erdverwandt -, aber sie ist scharf und stark ausgebildet, und dergleichen Dinge mehr.

Also wir sehen, der Mensch entwickelt sich so, daß seine Knochen kräftig ausgebildet werden. Und das Eigentümliche ist: Wenn stark herüberwirken solche erdverwandten Kräfte aus dem früheren Erdenleben, dann wachsen die Haare sehr schnell. So daß wir bei Kindern, deren Haare sehr schnell wachsen, immer das in Zusammenhang bringen müssen mit ihrem Aufmerksamkeitsleben im vorigen Erdendasein. Es ist schon so, daß sich der Mensch aus seinem moralisch-geistigen Verhalten in irgendeinem Erdenleben seinen Körper im nächsten Erdenleben formt.
Dagegen werden wir immer bestätigt finden, wie das Geistig-Seelische an dieser Bildung des Menschen beteiligt ist. Bei einem solchen Menschen, dessen Karma so ist, wie ich es geschildert habe — daß er aus einem besonderen starken Hang zur Aufmerksamkeit für das Leben im nächsten Erdenleben starke Knochen bekommt, wohlausgebildete Muskeln bekommt -, bei einem solchen Menschen werden wir sehen, daß er mutig durchs Leben geht. Er hat sich durch das auch zur gleichen Zeit, ich möchte sagen, das Natürliche, die natürliche Kraft eines mutvollen Lebens angeeignet.
Nun ist es schon einmal so, daß man in der Zeit, in der man abging von der Beschreibung der aufeinanderfolgenden Erdenleben, aber noch die Kenntnisse hatte, die man eigentlich nur hat, wenn man auf wiederholte Erdenleben hinblick, was zum Beispiel in der Zeit des Aristoteles noch der Fall war. Aristoteles konnte in seiner «Physiognomik» noch wunderbar schildern, wie die äußere Gesichtskonfiguration mit der moralischen Haltung, mit der moralischen Verfassung eines Menschen zusammenhängt.
Dagegen betrachten wir einmal Feiglinge, furchtsame Menschen. Es sind solche, die im vorigen Erdenleben sich für nichts interessiert haben. Sie sehen, das Karmabetrachten hat auch eine gewisse Bedeutung für die Hineinstellung in das Leben mit Bezug auf die Zukunft. Es ist ja schließlich eine Befriedigung der Wißbegierde, aber nicht allein der Wißbegierde, wenn wir das gegenwärtige Erdenleben auf die früheren zurückführen. Denn wenn wir unser gegenwärtiges Erdenleben mit einiger Selbsterkenntnis nehmen, so können wir uns vorbereiten für das nächste Erdenleben. Huschen wir so oberflächlich durch das Leben, indem uns nichts interessiert, dann können wir sicher sein, daß wir im nächsten Erdenleben ein Furchthase werden. Das aber kommt wiederum dadurch zustande: indem sich die wenig teilnahmsvolle Wesenheit des unaufmerksamen Menschen wenig mit der Umgebung verbindet, so bekommt die Kopforganisation im nächsten Leben keine Verwandtschaft mit den Erdenkräften. Die Knochen bleiben unentwickelt, die Haare wachsen langsam; der Mensch hat sehr häufig O- oder X-Beine.
Das sind solche Dinge, die durchaus den Zusammenhang zwischen dem Geistig-Seelischen auf der einen Seite und dem Natürlich-Physischen auf der anderen Seite sehr intim zeigen. Ja, meine lieben Freunde, man kann bis in die Einzelheiten der Konfiguration des Kopfes, an dem ganzen Menschen hinüberschauen in die vorigen Erdenleben.
Diese Dinge sagt man aber nicht, um gerade an ihnen die Beobachtung zu machen. Alle die Beobachtungen, die ich Ihnen mitgeteilt habe zur Vorbereitung der Karmabetrachtungen, die sind ja nicht auf äußerliche Weise, sondern durchaus auf innerliche Weise durch geisteswissenschaftliche Methoden zustande gekommen. Aber gerade diese geisteswissenschaftlichen Methoden zeigen, wie der Mensch äußerlich eigentlich gar nicht so hingenommen werden darf, wie ihn die heutige Physiologie und Anatomie nimmt. Daß man einfach die Organe kennenlernt und ihren gegenseitigen Zusammenhang, das hat im Grunde genommen gar keinen Sinn. Denn der Mensch ist ein Bild. Zum Teil ist er ein Bild dessen, was die Kräfte sind zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, zum Teil ein Bild seines vorigen Erdenlebens, und es hat gar keinen Sinn, Physiologie oder Anatomie so zu treiben, wie sie gegenwärtig getrieben werden: daß man nur den Menschen nimmt, wie er dasteht, und dann eins nach dem anderen, was an ihm ist, betrachtet. Denn der Kopf zum Beispiel steht viel mehr im Zusammenhang mit dem vorigen Erdenleben, als er mit dem Körper, den der Mensch in diesem Erdenleben bekommt, im Zusammenhang steht.
So daß man also sagen kann: Gewisse physische Prozesse versteht man erst, wenn man auf die vorigen Erdenleben zurückschaut. Ein Mensch, der die Welt kennengelernt hat in einem früheren Erdenleben, bei dem ist es halt so, daß er schnell wachsende Haare hat. Ein Mensch, der die Welt wenig kennengelernt hat in einem vorigen Erdenleben — Sie können es beobachten -, bei dem entwickeln sich ganz langsam wachsende Haare. Die liegen dann an die Oberfläche des Körpers an, währenddem diejenigen, die sich am intensivsten interessiert haben in einem vorigen Erdenleben, die sich überintensiv interessiert haben, die ihre Nase in alles hineingesteckt haben, struppiges Haar haben. Das ist ein ganz richtiger Zusammenhang. So können wir die mannigfaltigsten Körperkonfigurationen auf Erlebnisse in einem der vorigen Erdendaseine zurückbeziehen. Das geht wirklich bis auf die Einzelheiten der Konstitution. Nehmen wir zum Beispiel einen Menschen, der in einem Erdenleben viel sinnt, viel nachsinnt. Ja, sehen Sie, der wird im nächsten Erdenleben ein schmächtiger, magerer Mensch sein. Wer in irgendeinem Erdenleben wenig nachsinnt, sondern mehr so im Erfassen der Außenwelt lebt, der ist im nächsten Erdenleben veranlagt, viel Fett anzusetzen. Das hat wiederum eine Bedeutung für die Zukunft. Man kann geistige Magerkuren nicht für das eine Erdenleben gut durchführen, da müssen schon physische Kuren eventuell, wenn sie helfen, zu Hilfe kommen; aber für das nächste Erdenleben kann man ganz entschieden dadurch eine Magerkur machen, daß man viel sinnt, daß man also viel nachdenkt, namentlich über solches viel nachdenkt, was einem Mühe macht, von der Art, wie ich es gestern geschildert habe. Es braucht nicht Meditieren zu sein, sondern es braucht einfach viel Nachsinnen, viel Willen zu sein, innere Entscheidungen zu treffen. Es ist wirklich ein solcher Zusammenhang zwischen der geistig-moralischen Art, wie der Mensch in einem Erdenleben lebt, und seiner physischen Konstitution in seinem nächsten Erdenleben. Das kann man nicht genügend betonen.
Nehmen Sie andere Fälle. Nehmen Sie zum Beispiel den Fall, daß in einem Erdenleben ein Mensch, sagen wir, so lebt, daß er ein Denker ist. Darunter verstehe ich nicht einen Professor - es ist gar nicht scherzhaft gemeint -, sondern ich verstehe darunter einen Menschen, der meinetwillen hinter dem Pflug gehen kann und dennoch viel denken kann. Es kommt gar nicht darauf an, in welcher Lebenslage man denkt, sondern Denker kann man wirklich auch dann sein, wenn man hinter dem Pflug geht oder sonst irgendein Handwerk besorgt. Aber ein solcher Denker wird dadurch, daß er im Denken hauptsächlich dasjenige beschäftigt, was ja mit dem Erdenleben abfällt, und daß er unbeschäftigt läßt, was in die nächste Inkarnation die Kräfte hinüberschickt und an der Kopfbildung teilnimmt, ein solcher Mensch wird in einem neuen Erdenleben auftreten mit einem weichen Fleisch, mit zartem, weichem Fleisch. Aber das Eigentümliche ist dieses: Wenn er viel denkt, so wird in seinem nächsten Erdenleben seine Haut sehr wohlgebildet sein, die ganze Oberfläche des Körpers, die Haut, wird sehr wohlgebildet sein. Und wiederum, wenn Sie Menschen finden, deren Haut zum Beispiel Flecken zeigt, Leute mit unreiner Haut, so können Sie von da aus immer schließen — es müssen natürlich andere Gründe dazukommen, man kann nicht aus einem Merkmal gleich ganz unbedingt schließen, aber im allgemeinen sind doch die Angaben richtig, die ich heute über den Zusammenhang des Seelisch-Geistigen und des Physischen mache -, daß das Menschen sind, die in einem früheren Erdenleben wenig gedacht haben. Leute also mit viel Sommersprossen waren ganz gewiß nicht Denker in einem vorigen Erdenleben.
Das sind die Dinge, die zugleich zeigen, wie gerade Geisteswissenschaft sich nicht nur um das Abstrakt-Geistige kümmert, sondern auch um das Wirken des Geistigen im Physischen. Ich habe es ja oft betont, es ist nicht so stark schade, daß der Materialismus bloß auf die Materie hinschaut, sondern schade ist es, die Tragik des Materialismus ist es, daß er von der Materie nichts wissen kann, weil er das geistige Wirken in der Materie nicht erkennt. Man sollte gerade bei der Menschenbetrachtung erst recht auf die Materie sehen, denn in der Materie drückt sich, gerade bei der Menschengestalt, beim ganzen menschlichen Wesen das Wirken des Geistigen aus. Die Materie ist die äußere Offenbarung des Geistigen.
Sie können es schon in den «Leitsätzen» sehen, die zu allerletzt jetzt gegeben worden sind in dem Mitteilungsblatt, das dem «Goetheanum» beigelegt ist, daß das Haupt des Menschen, der Kopf, nur richtig betrachtet wird, wenn man die imaginative Erkenntnis schon auf das ÄAußerliche anwendet; denn der menschliche Kopf in seiner Gestaltung, in Ohrengestaltung, namentlich dann aber auch in Nasen-, Augengestaltung, er ist eigentlich nach dem Muster der Imagination gegeben. Er besteht aus äußerlich sichtbaren Imaginationen.
Das gilt aber auch von der Art, wie der Mensch gebaut ist. Es gibt Menschen, welche den unteren Teil des Rumpfes länger haben als den oberen Teil, also vom unteren Anfang des Rumpfes bis zur Brust länger haben, und dann den oberen Teil, von der Brustmitte bis zum Hals, kürzer haben.
Ist dieser Teil von der Brustmitte bis zum Hals kürzer als der untere Teil des Rumpfes, so hat man es mit einem Menschen zu tun, welcher in der Zeit zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt ein solches geistiges Leben durchgemacht hat, daß er sehr schnell den Aufstieg im Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt bis zu der Mitte durchgemacht hat. Da ist er sehr schnell gegangen. Dann geht er langsam und behaglich herunter zum neuen Erdenleben.

Hat man es aber zu tun mit einem Menschen, dessen oberer Teil vom Hals bis zur Brustmitte länger ist als der untere Teil von der Brustmitte bis zum Ende des Rumpfes, dann hat man es mit einem Menschen zu tun, der langsam, bedächtig bis zur Mitte gegangen ist in dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt und dann schneller hinuntergeht zum Erdenleben. So daß man also in der Physiognomie, ja in den Maßen des menschlichen Mittelkörpers, die Nachwirkung von der Art und Weise hat, wie der Mensch die erste Hälfte des Durchganges vom Tod zu einer neuen Geburt durchmachte gegenüber der zweiten Hälfte.
Es ist wirklich das, was am Menschen physisch ist, durchaus ein Abbild desjenigen, was dem Menschen geistig zugrunde liegt. Und das hat nun eine Folge für das Leben. Denn wenn Sie die Menschen nehmen, a mit kurzer Oberbrust und langer Unterbrust, und die Menschen, b mit langer Oberbrust und kurzer Unterbrust - es ist natürlich extrem gezeichnet -, so ist es so: Diese Menschen hier mit langem Unterrumpf und kurzem Oberrumpf, das sind solche, die vom Anfange an zeigen, daß sie sehr schlafbedürftig sind. Das ist bei den anderen nicht der Fall; die sind weniger schlafbedürftig. Sie sehen also an einem Menschen, je nachdem er schlafbedürftig ist oder nicht, was sich wiederum in den Maßen seines Mittelleibes ausdrückt, ob er schneller oder langsamer durchgegangen ist durch die erste Hälfte des Lebens zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, beziehungsweise schneller oder langsamer durch die zweite Hälfte durchgegangen ist.
Aber das hängt ja wiederum mit dem vorigen Erdenleben zusammen. Ein Mensch, der im vorigen Erdenleben, nicht durch Anlage, sondern mehr durch Erziehung und durch sein Leben, stumpf war für das Leben, nicht so sehr, daß er sich nicht interessiert hat, der aber stumpf war — er konnte eigentlich nichts richtig, er ging nicht darauf aus, die Dinge richtig zu begreifen, er konnte dabei sogar aufmerksam sein, seine Nase überall hineinstecken, aber es blieb bei der Neugierde und bei einer oberflächlichen Erfassung, er blieb stumpf -, ein solcher Mensch hat dann kein Interesse an der ersten Hälfte des Lebens zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Er bekommt erst Interesse, wenn es über die Mitternachtshöhe des Lebens hinausgegangen ist und er heruntersteigt.
Dagegen ein Mensch, der sich angewöhnt, mit seinem Verstande überall einzudringen, auch mit seinem Gemüte überall einzudringen, ein solcher Mensch bekommt großes Interesse für die erste Hälfte, für den Aufstieg, und macht schnell den Abstieg durch. So daß man wieder sagen kann: Wenn einem ein Mensch im Leben entgegentritt, der eine Schlafratte ist, dann ist das zurückzuführen auf ein solches stumpfes Leben im vorigen Erdenleben. Ein Mensch, der regsam ist, der keine Schlafratte ist, der meinetwillen sogar nötig hat, erst irgend etwas zu tun, damit er einschläft — es gibt ja Bücher, nicht wahr, die man als Schlafmittel benützen kann -, also ein Mensch, der das nötig hat, der ist nicht stumpf gewesen, sondern regsam gewesen, mit seinem Verstande, mit seinem Gemüte eindringlich regsam gewesen.
Man kann weitergehen. Es gibt Menschen — ja, wie soll ich sie nennen? Sagen wir, sie sind Gernesser, sie essen gerne; andere essen nicht so gerne. Ich will nicht sagen, gefräßige Menschen und nichtgefräßige Menschen, nicht wahr, das schickt sich nicht in ernster Betrachtung; aber ich will also sagen, es sind Menschen, die gerne essen, und solche, die weniger gerne essen.
Auch das hängt in einer gewissen Weise mit dem zusammen, was der Mensch beim Durchgang durch das Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt vor und nach der Mitternachtshöhe des Daseins erlebt. Die Mitte ist die Mitternachtshöhe des Daseins.
Da gibt es Menschen, welche, ich möchte sagen, sehr hoch hinaufsteigen in das Geistige, und Menschen, welche nicht sehr hoch hinaufsteigen, für die eben die Mitternachtshöhe nicht so hoch ist. Solche Menschen, die sehr hoch hinaufsteigen, die werden essen, um zu leben. Solche Menschen, die nicht hoch hinaufsteigen, die leben, um zu essen.

Damit sind schon Unterschiede im Leben angegeben. Und man kann sagen, die Art und Weise, wie ein Mensch sich verhält gerade bei solchen Verrichtungen, die mit der Förderung oder Nichtförderung seines physischen Daseins zusammenhängen, aus denen kann man ersehen, wie sein karmisches Leben aus einem früheren Erdendasein herüberkommt.
Wer sich Beobachtungsfähigkeit nach dieser Richtung angeeignet hat, der sieht einfach in der Art und Weise, wie sich jemand bei Tisch etwas nimmt, also im Zugreifen, eine Geste, die ganz besonders stark zurückführt auf die Art und Weise, wie das vorige Erdenleben herüberleuchtet.
Ich rede heute vom Physischen; ich will dann morgen mehr von den moralischen Seiten reden, aber man muß das Physische durchaus auch ins Auge fassen, sonst wird das Gegenteil weniger verständlich werden. Die Menschen, die furchtbar vehement zugreifen, bei denen man sieht, wenn sie nur eine Birne anfassen beim Essen, so tun sie das mit Begeisterung — solche Menschen, das sind diejenigen, die im vorigen Erdenleben sich mehr an die Trivialitäten des Lebens gehalten haben, die nicht hinaus konnten über die Trivialität des Lebens, die festgehalten worden sind in dem, was nicht aufsteigt bis zum moralischen Erfassen des Lebens, was im Gewohnheitsmäßigen, im Konventionellen sitzen bleibt und so weiter. Auch das hat wiederum eine große Bedeutung für die Lebenspraxis selber. Die Dinge erscheinen uns ja heute, weil wir ungewohnt sind solcher Betrachtungen, oftmals sogar kurios, und wir lachen darüber. Aber sie sind im allertiefsten Ernst zu betrachten, denn Sie sehen, es gibt ja heute gewisse Gesellschaftsklassen, die gehen ganz in den trivialen Gewohnheiten des Lebens auf; die eignen sich eigentlich nicht gerne irgend etwas an, was aus den gewöhnlichen, gebräuchlichen Lebensgewohnheiten herausgeht.
Man darf dies übrigens nicht bloß, meine lieben Freunde, so auf den Habitus des Benehmens anwenden, sondern man kann es zum Beispiel auch auf die Sprache anwenden. Es gibt Sprachen, bei denen darf man gar nichts willkürlich sagen, weil alles streng vorgeschrieben ist im Satzgefüge; man darf das Subjekt nicht an einen anderen Ort stellen und so weiter. Es gibt Sprachen, bei denen kann man das Subjekt hinstellen, wo man es hinstellen will, und das Prädikat auch; die haben dann in sich die Anlage, daß sich die Menschen innerhalb solcher Sprachen individuell entwickeln können.
Nun, das ist nur ein Beispiel, wie stark triviale Gewohnheiten angeeignet werden und der Mensch nicht hinaus kann aus der Trivialität. Ein Erdenleben, das in solcher Trivialität verbracht wird, führt in ein nächstes hinein, in dem man gefräßig ist. Man steigt dann nicht hoch genug hinauf in dem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt - man wird gefräßig.
Da nun heute die Zeit anbrechen soll, wo die Menschen wirklich nicht nur, wie das in der materialistischen Epoche der menschlichen Entwickelung der Fall ist, mit dem einen Erdenleben rechnen, sondern wo die Menschen auf die ganze Erdenentwickelung hinsehen und wissen, daß dasjenige, was in einem Erdenleben von einem getan und vollbracht wird, hinübergetragen wird in ein nächstes Erdenleben, daß die Menschen selber aus einer Epoche in die andere das Geschehen hinübertragen, da, wo dieses Bewußtsein auftreten soll, ist es schon notwendig, daß selbst in die Erziehungsprinzipien sowohl der aufwachsenden Kinder wie der Erwachsenen solche Dinge hineingenommen werden.
Nun möchte ich noch auf zwei Menschentypen aufmerksam machen. Es gibt einen Menschentypus, der kann alles ernst nehmen, und dabei meine ich nicht bloß das äußere Ernstnehmen. Man kann sich ja durchaus ernste Menschen denken, die sogar viel Tragisches in ihrer Seelenverfassung haben und die dennoch lachen können, denn wenn man gar nicht lachen kann - und es gibt doch lächerliche Dinge im Leben —wenn alles an einem so vorübergeht, daß man nicht lachen kann, dann muß man auch stumpf sein. Also man kann schon lachen. Aber trotzdem man ein Mensch ist, der über Lächerliches gut lachen kann, kann man doch in der Grundverfassung seiner Seele ein ernster Mensch sein.
Aber dann gibt es den anderen Typus von Menschen, der überhaupt nichts tut als lachen, den alles zum Lachen reizt, der, wenn er etwas erzählt, dabei lacht, ganz gleichgültig, ob es komisch oder nicht komisch ist. Man kann Menschen kennenlernen, die, wenn sie anfangen zu erzählen, gleich das Gesicht zum Lachen verzerren und selbst die ernsteste Sache in eine Art von Grinsen, in eine Art von Lachen kleiden. Es sind das Extreme, die ich schildere, aber die gibt es, diese Extreme.
Sehen Sie, dieses ist ein Grundzug der Seele. Wir werden morgen sehen, wie das seine moralische Seite hat. Ich will heute hauptsächlich die physische Seite berühren. Das führt wiederum zurück auf die karmische Entwickelungsströmung. Ein Mensch, der einen ernsten Zug in seinem Leben hat, wenn er auch lachen kann, bei dem wirken starke Kräfte, solide Kräfte, möchte ich sagen, aus dem vorigen Erdenleben in dieses Erdenleben herüber. Wenn man einem solchen ernsten Menschen begegnet, einem Menschen, der Sinn hat für ernste Seiten des Lebens, der stehenbleibt in der Betrachtung der ernsten Seiten des Lebens, nachdenklich wird über die ernsten Seiten des Lebens, dann kann man sagen: Diesem Menschen kann man es anfühlen, daß er sozusagen in seinem Wesen seine früheren Erdenleben trägt. Man wird ernst in seiner Lebensauffassung dadurch, daß die früheren Erdenleben nachwirken, richtig nachwirken. Man wird ein ewig mit dem Munde tänzelnder Schwätzer, der selbst bei den ernstesten Sachen, wenn er sie erzählt, lacht, wenn die früheren Erdenleben nicht nachwirken. Wenn der Mensch durch eine Reihe von Erdenleben oder wenigstens durch ein Erdenleben gegangen ist, in dem er wie ein halb Schlafender gelebt hat, da wird er dann im nächsten Erdenleben ein solcher, der den Ernst nicht bewahren kann, der an die Dinge des Lebens nicht mit dem nötigen Ernst herangehen kann. So daß man aus der Art, wie sich ein Mensch verhält, sehen kann, ob er seine vorigen Erdenleben wohl angewendet hat, oder ob er sie mehr oder weniger dumpf verschlafen hat.
All das führt aber dazu, sich zu sagen: Man darf gar nicht den Menschen, so wie er uns entgegentritt als Mensch, mechanisch oder auch nur nach dem Muster des gewöhnlichen Organismus betrachten. Das darf man nicht tun, sondern man muß den Menschen in seiner Gestalt und bis in seine Bewegungsmöglichkeiten hinein als ein Bild der geistigen Welt betrachten.
Da hat man zunächst die Hauptesorganisation. Diese Hauptesorganisation ist im wesentlichen durch die früheren Erdenleben mitbedingt. Und wir können schon sagen: Am richtigsten betrachten wir ein menschliches Haupt, wenn wir all das lernen, was man lernen kann über das imaginative Vorstellen. Sonst nirgends, nur dem menschlichen Haupte gegenüber kann man das imaginative Vorstellen in der Sinneswelt anwenden, das, was man sonst immer braucht als imaginatives Vorstellen, um in die geistige Welt hineinzuschauen. Man muß mit der Imagination ja anfangen, wenn man in die geistige Welt hineinschauen will; da erscheinen einem zuerst die geistig-ätherischen Bilder der geistigen Wesenheiten. In der physischen Welt gibt es außer dem menschlichen Kopf nichts, was an Imaginationen erinnert, aber am menschlichen Kopf, bis in seine innere Organisation, bis in den Wunderbau des Gehirnes ist eigentlich alles ein physisch-sinnliches Abbild des Imaginativen.
Wenn Sie weitergehen, dann kommen Sie dazu, etwas am Menschen zu betrachten, was eigentlich viel schwieriger zu betrachten ist - man macht sich es nur gewöhnlich leicht -, das ist, eine Auffassung davon zu gewinnen, wie der Mensch seinen Atem aufnimmt, wie er also sein rhythmisches System in Bewegung setzt, wie er den Atem dann überführt in die Blutzirkulation. Dieses ungeheuer lebendige Spiel, das den ganzen Körper durchsetzt, ist sogar viel komplizierter, als man denkt, denn zunächst ist es ja so, nicht wahr: der Mensch nimmt den Atem auf (Zeichnung, gelb), der Atem setzt sich um in die Blutzirkulation (rot), aber auf der anderen Seite geht der Atem wieder über in das Haupt, und er steht in einer gewissen Beziehung zu der ganzen Tätigkeit des Gehirnes (grün). Es ist das Denken einfach ein verfeinertes Atmen. Und wiederum geht die Blutzirkulation über in dasjenige, was die Impulse der Bewegungen der Gliedmaßen sind (blau-grün).

Wenn man dieses rhythmische System des Menschen, das sich ausdrückt nun nicht in einer ruhigen Lage, sondern in einer immer fortdauernden Beweglichkeit, wenn man dieses rhythmische System des Menschen nimmt, muß man diesen Unterschied genau beachten. Den Kopf des Menschen betrachtet man ja am besten dadurch, daß man ihn als abgeschlossene, ruhige Gestaltung betrachtet, daß man auch sein Inneres, zum Beispiel das Gehirn, partienweise betrachtet, wie eine Partie neben der anderen ruht. Über den Kopf erfährt man nichts, wenn man zum Beispiel die Blutzirkulation im Kopfe durch Anatomie oder Physiologie kennenlernt; denn das, was die Blutzirkulation im Kopfe vollbringt, bezieht sich gar nicht auf den Kopf, das bezieht sich bloß auf das, was der Kopf an Rhythmus braucht. In dieser Beziehung ist der Kopf genauso wie die Blutzirkulation. Das, was man sehen kann, wenn man einen Teil des Knochengerüstes vom Kopfe abhebt und da die Zirkulation anschaut, das bezieht sich gar nicht auf den Kopf, der Kopf muß als ruhendes Organ betrachtet werden, wo eines neben dem anderen liegt.
Das kann man nicht, wenn man auf das rhythmische System übergeht, das vorzugsweise in der Brust lokalisiert ist. Da muß man alles in der Regsamkeit betrachten, in der Regsamkeit der Blutzirkulation, des Atmens, des Denkens, des Sich-Bewegens. Es ist dieser Prozeß sogar bis ins Physische hinein noch viel weiter zu betrachten.
Betrachten Sie den Atmungsprozeß. Indem er in den Blutprozeß übergeht, dann auch ins Gehirn hinüberspielt, bildet sich Kohlensäure, also ein Säure im menschlichen Organismus. Indem aber der Atmungsprozeß ins Gehirn, in das Nervensystem überhaupt hinüberspielt, bilden sich aus den Säuren Salze; da lagern sich Salze ab.
So daß man sagen kann: Indem der Mensch denkt, sondert sich Erdiges ab. Im Kreislauf selbst lebt Flüssiges. Im Atem lebt Gasförmiges. Und in dem Bewegen, wenn das übergeht in die Bewegungen, da lebt Feuriges. Es sind die Elemente in all dem enthalten, aber die Elemente in Regsamkeit, in fortwährendem Entstehen und Vergehen. Diesen Prozeß, den kann man eigentlich nicht durch sinnliches Anschauen erfassen. Diejenigen, die ihn in der Anatomie durch sinnliches Anschauen auffassen wollen, die verstehen ihn eigentlich nie. Man muß viel dazu tun können aus der inneren produktiven Kraft des Geistes, um diesen Prozeß zu verstehen. Wenn man die Auseinandersetzungen, die sich auf den rhythmischen Prozeß beziehen, in den gewöhnlichen Anatomie- und Physiologievorträgen hört, dann ist es wirklich so, daß man aus der toten Beschreibung, die da gegeben wird - diejenigen, die das durchgemacht haben, werden das bezeugen können -, eigentlich das Gefühl hat, daß das weit von der Wirklichkeit entfernt ist. Ja, wer unbefangenen Sinnes sich das anhört und dann die Zuhörer dabei ins Auge faßt, der hat eigentlich das Gefühl, daß diese Zuhörer durch die Ode, die sie da empfangen, eigentlich alle absterben müßten, sitzenbleiben müßten auf den Bänken, gar nicht mehr weiter könnten, nicht mehr kriechen könnten. Denn es müßte gerade dieses Zirkulationssystem nach allen Seiten hin in regster Lebendigkeit geschildert werden, so daß der Mensch immer vom Sinnlichen ins Übersinnliche übergeht, vom Übersinnlichen wieder ins Sinnliche zurückgeht und in eine Art musikalischer Stimmung bei diesem Schildern hineinkommt.
Dann, wenn man so etwas hat, dann kommt man auch in innere Seelengewohnheiten hinein, durch die das Karma zu verstehen ist. Wir werden darüber morgen zu sprechen haben. Aber das, was man da hat, das ist dann ein sinnliches Abbild der Inspiration.
Wie man also bei der Hauptesbetrachtung ein sinnliches Abbild der Imagination hat, so hat man in der Betrachtung des rhythmischen Systems des Menschen, wenn diese Betrachtung regelrecht gemacht wird, ein Abbild der Inspiration.
Und geht man über auf das Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem - ja, an dem, was heute in Anatomie und Physiologie betrachtet wird vom Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem, hat man ja nicht die Kräfte dieses Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystems, sondern nur dasjenige, was herausfällt, was abgeworfen wird. Alles, was im Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem Inhalt ist der heutigen wissenschaftlichen Betrachtung, gehört gar nicht zum Aufbau und zu der Organisation des Menschen, sondern ist herausgeworfen — der Darminhalt ist nur das Extremste -, aber überhaupt alles, was im Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem physisch wahrnehmbar ist, gehört nicht zum Menschen, sondern ist abgesondert vom Menschen, nur daß das eine länger, das andere kürzer liegenbleibt. Der Darminhalt bleibt kürzer übrig; das, was sich in Muskeln, Nerven und so weiter absondert, bleibt länger übrig. Aber zum Menschen gehört das, was im Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem physisch-sinnlich nachgewiesen werden kann, nicht, sondern ist Ausscheidung, Ablagerung. Dagegen ist alles das, was zum Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem gehört, von übersinnlicher Art. So daß man beim Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem, wenn man eine Menschenbetrachtung anstellt, übergehen muß zu dem, was rein übersinnlich im Sinnlichen drinnen lebt.
Man muß also das Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem beim Menschen sich so vorstellen, daß physische Arme und so weiter in Wirklichkeit geistig sind und in diesem Geistigen das Ich entwickeln. Wenn ich meine Arme, meine Beine bewege, werden fortwährend Ausscheidungen gemacht, und diese Ausscheidungen sieht man. Aber die sind nicht das Wesentliche. Sie können, wenn Sie das Greifen des Armes, der Hand erklären wollen, sich nicht berufen auf das Physische, sondern Sie müssen sich auf das Geistige berufen; auf das, was da längs des Armes geistig ist, auf das kommt es an beim Menschen. Das, was Sie sehen, ist bloß Ausscheidung in bezug auf das Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem (siehe Zeichnung, dunkle Schraffierung: das Sichtbare; helle Schraffierung: das «Geistige»).

Ja, wie soll man denn überhaupt eine karmische Betrachtung anstellen, wenn man glaubt, das, was man im Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem sieht, das sei der Mensch? Das ist er ja gar nicht. Man kann erst eine karmische Betrachtung anstellen, wenn man weiß, was der Mensch ist. Und dasjenige, was man da in der Betrachtung haben muß, das ist ein Jetzt allerdings in der Sinnenwelt befindliches, trotzdem aber noch übersinnliches Abbild der Intuition.
So daß Sie, meine lieben Freunde, sagen können: Kopfbetrachtung ist eigentlich imaginativ projiziert in die Sinneswelt. Rhythmische Menschenbetrachtung muß eigentlich inspiriert sein, wirksam innerhalb der Sinnesbeobachtung, wirksam in der Sinnenwelt. Betrachtung des Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßenmenschen muß intuitiv, übersinnlich in der Sinneswelt sein.
Das ist sehr interessant, denn man hat in der Menschenbetrachtung Bilder für Intuition, Inspiration und Imagination. Und man kann lernen an einer regelrechten Betrachtung des Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßenmenschen, was eigentlich im Übersinnlichen die Intuition ist. Man kann lernen an einer regelrechten Betrachtung des rhythmischen Menschen, was im Übersinnlichen die Inspiration ist. Man kann lernen an einer ordentlichen Kopfbetrachtung, was im Übersinnlichen eine imaginative Betrachtung ist.
Kopfbetrachtung: imaginativ, projiziert in die Sinneswelt. Rhythmische Betrachtung: inspiriert, wirksam in der Sinneswelt. Betrachtung des Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßenmenschen: intuitiv, übersinnlich in der Sinneswelt.
Das ist dasjenige, was in den «Leitsätzen» des letzten Mitteilungsblattes angedeutet ist und was durchaus jeder, der nun wirklich emsig die bisherigen Zyklen betrachtet, eigentlich selber finden kann.
Nun haben wir heute, meine lieben Freunde, versucht, die karmimischen Zusammenhänge in bezug auf das Physische zu betrachten. Wir wollen dann morgen dazu übergehen, die karmischen Zusammenhänge in bezug auf das Moralisch-Geistige des Menschen näher ins Auge zu fassen.


Eighth Lecture
Today we will make a kind of observation that points from the outside into the development of man's karma. From the outside, I say, that is, from the side of the human outer form as it confronts us in the physiognomy of man, in the play of gestures, in all that is the outer manifestation of man and the physical world. For I have already pointed out in the consideration of individual karmic connections how karmic connections can be observed precisely through the observation of seemingly minor details in the human being. And so it is that the outward appearance of the human being often gives a picture of how the human being was in his moral behavior, in his spiritual behavior in a previous earth life or in a series of previous earth lives. One can look at certain types of people in this direction, and by looking at these types of people one will then find how a certain type goes back to a very specific behavior in one of the previous earth lives.
In order not to talk in the abstract, let us take the matter by way of example. Let us say, for example, that a person has spent an earth-life in which he has dealt quite closely with the things in life that have come to him, that he has had an intimate, a good interest in many things, that he has passed nothing by, neither people nor things nor phenomena. You will also have the opportunity to observe this in people in the present life.
You can get to know people who, for example, know the ancient Greek statesmen better than the present statesmen. If you ask them about someone like Pericles or Alcibiades or Miltiades and so on, they know it because they learned it at school. If you ask them about anything that's going on in the present in a similar way, they hardly know anything about it.
But this can also be found in relation to the quite ordinary observation of life. I have already mentioned a number of things in this connection which certainly seem strange to those who often believe themselves to be at the highest pinnacle of idealism. I have mentioned, for example, that there are people, men, who, when you talk to them in the afternoon, tell you that they saw a lady in the street in the morning. If you ask them what kind of dress she was wearing, they don't know! After all, it's unbelievable, but it's true: there are people like that.
Well, isn't it true that you can give such things all kinds of interpretations? One can say: man is of such high spirituality that when he is in this situation it seems far too insignificant for him to pay attention to such things. But this is not of a truly penetrating spirituality. It may be of a high spirituality, but it is not the height alone that matters, but the penetrating or superficiality of the spirituality. It is not of a penetrating spirituality, because it is already quite significant what a person uses to envelop himself, and in a certain sense this is just as significant as, for example, what kind of nose he has or what kind of mouth he has. There are people who pay attention to everything in life. They judge the world by what they experience of the world. Other people walk through the world as if nothing interested them at all. They have only absorbed everything that comes their way like a kind of dream that immediately fades away.
These are two, I would say, polar opposites of people. But however you may judge this, my dear friends, whether you believe that a person who does not know what kind of dress the lady he saw that morning was wearing is high or low, that is not the point, but what we want to discuss today is what influence this has on a person's karma. And it makes a big difference whether a person is attentive to the things of life, whether he is interested in all the details, or whether he is inattentive to the things of life. Particular details are tremendously important for the whole structure of spiritual life, not because of these details, but because such a detail points to a very specific state of soul.
Just think of the professor who always gave a very beautiful lecture and always focused on one point, namely the upper half of a listener's chest. He never lost his train of thought, but was always able to present quite beautifully. One day he lost his train of thought: he looked, he had to keep looking away - and afterwards he went up to the listener and asked: Why did you sew on the button that was always torn off? That really threw me for a loop! - He had always looked at the missing button, it had given him concentration. It's insignificant, isn't it, whether you look at a torn button or not; but it's important for the whole state of your soul whether you do or not. And if you want to observe the karmic lines, then it has an extraordinarily great significance.
So let us first look at these two types of people I have spoken about. You need only remember what I have often said about man's passing over from one life on earth to another: It is indeed the case that a human being has a head in one earthly life, then the rest of his form, and that which is the rest of his form, apart from the head, has a certain connection of forces. The physical body of the human being is handed over to the elements. Of course, man does not carry his physical substance over from one life on earth to another. However, the connection of forces that a person has in his organism apart from the head, he carries through the life between death and a new birth, and this becomes the head of the next earth life, while the head of the present earth life has formed from the system of limbs and the remaining organism of the previous earth life. In this way, if I may use the expression, the extra-mental part of one earthly life is always transformed into the head of the other earthly life. And the head is always the result of the extra-mental from the previous earth life. This now applies to the entire interrelationship of forces in the structure of the human being.
If someone went through life with great attention and did not have an exclusively sedentary way of life - and such people are very difficult to observe karmically today, because they did not exist in earlier times; It remains to be seen how people with an exclusively sedentary way of life will turn out in the next earthly life, because such earthly lives, where one only sits, actually only exist in the present - well, when man became attentive to the things of his surroundings, he always had to go to these things, he had to make his limbs active, bring his limbs into activity. The whole body came into activity, not only the senses, which belong to the head system, but the whole body came into activity, what the whole body participates in, when man is attentive, that goes over into the head formation of the next life on earth, and that has a quite definite effect. The head of the human being in the next earthly life then becomes such that it has a very strong urge to send such forces into the rest of the organism, which then attaches itself in the next earthly life, that the forces of the earth have a very strong effect on this organism.
And now you must consider: If this is, schematically drawn, the head of the human being, and this is the rest of the organization, then in the first seven years of life everything that is in this rest of the organization, muscles, bones and so on, is formed from the head. The head sends in these forces. Every bone is formed in the way that it should be formed from the head. Now if the head, through the way of life on earth, as I have described, has the tendency to develop a strong relationship to the forces of the earth, what happens then? Then, I would say, through the favor of the head, the earth forces are more protected in the development of the human being already in embryonic life, but especially in the life up to the change of teeth. The forces of the earth are very, very strongly protected by the head, and the result is that such a human being gets everything in special development that depends on the forces of the earth. This means that he will have large bones, strong bones, for example, extraordinarily broad shoulder blades and well-developed ribs. Everything bears the character of the well-formed. But in all of this you can see how the attention in the previous life on earth is brought over into the present life on earth, how the organism is formed. All of this emanates spatially from the head, but actually from the soul and the spirit. For soul and spirit are involved in all these formative forces, and we can therefore always see from such things to the soul-spiritual. Hence it is that we see in such people: the head has become earth-related through the circumstances in the previous life on earth, as I have described them. We can see this in the forehead, it is not particularly high - for high foreheads are not earthbound - but it is sharp and strongly developed, and things like that.

So we see that man develops in such a way that his bones become strong. And the peculiar thing is that when such earth-related forces from the earlier life on earth have a strong influence, then the hair grows very quickly. So in the case of children whose hair grows very quickly, we must always associate this with their life of attention in their previous earthly existence. It is indeed the case that a person forms his body in the next earthly life from his moral-spiritual behavior in one earthly life or another.
On the other hand, we will always find confirmation of how the spiritual-soul is involved in this formation of the human being. In such a person whose karma is as I have described - that he gets strong bones and well-formed muscles from a particularly strong tendency to pay attention to life in the next earth life - we will see that he goes through life courageously. At the same time, he has also acquired, I would say, the natural, the natural strength of a courageous life.
Now it is already the case that in the time in which one departed from the description of successive earth lives, one still had the knowledge that one actually only has when one looks at repeated earth lives, which was still the case, for example, in the time of Aristotle. In his “Physiognomics”, Aristotle was still able to describe wonderfully how the external facial configuration is connected with the moral attitude, with the moral constitution of a person.
On the other hand, let's look at cowards, fearful people. These are people who were not interested in anything in their previous life on earth. As you can see, karma viewing also has a certain significance for the attitude towards life with regard to the future. After all, it is a satisfaction of the thirst for knowledge, but not only of the thirst for knowledge, when we relate the present life on earth to previous lives. For if we take our present earthly life with some self-knowledge, we can prepare ourselves for the next earthly life. If we scurry through life in such a superficial way, with nothing of interest to us, then we can be sure that we will become a fearful hare in the next earthly life. But this, in turn, is due to the fact that the inattentive person's uninvolved being connects little with the environment, so the head organization in the next life has no relationship with the earth forces. The bones remain undeveloped, the hair grows slowly; the human being very often has bow legs or knock-knees.
These are things which show very intimately the connection between the spiritual-mental on the one hand and the natural-physical on the other. Yes, my dear friends, you can see into the details of the configuration of the head, of the whole human being, into the previous lives on earth.
But these things are not said in order to make observations about them. All the observations that I have shared with you in preparation for the karma observations have not come about in an external way, but rather in an internal way through spiritual scientific methods. But it is precisely these spiritual-scientific methods that show how the human being must not really be taken externally in the way that modern physiology and anatomy take him. The fact that one simply gets to know the organs and their mutual connection is basically meaningless. For the human being is an image. He is partly an image of what the forces are between death and a new birth, partly an image of his previous life on earth, and it makes no sense at all to practise physiology or anatomy in the way they are practised at present: that one only takes the human being as he stands and then looks at what is in him one by one. For the head, for example, is much more connected with the previous earthly life than it is with the body that the human being receives in this earthly life.
So that one can say: Certain physical processes can only be understood when one looks back to previous earth lives. A person who has become acquainted with the world in a previous earthly life has hair that grows quickly. A person who has had little experience of the world in a previous earthly life - you can observe this - will develop very slowly growing hair. They then lie against the surface of the body, whereas those who were most intensely interested in a previous life on earth, who were over-intensely interested, who stuck their nose into everything, have shaggy hair. That is quite a correct connection. So we can relate the most varied body configurations back to experiences in a previous earthly existence. This really goes down to the details of the constitution. Let us take, for example, a person who ponders a lot in an earthly life. Yes, you see, in the next earthly life he will be a slender, lean person. Someone who does not ponder much in any one earthly life, but lives more in grasping the outside world, is predisposed to put on a lot of fat in the next earthly life. This in turn has significance for the future. One cannot carry out spiritual leanness cures well for one earthly life, physical cures may have to come to the rescue if they help; but for the next earthly life one can very definitely do a leanness cure by thinking a lot, that is, by thinking a lot, especially about those things that give one trouble, of the kind I described yesterday. It does not need to be meditation, but simply a lot of thinking, a lot of will to make inner decisions. There really is such a connection between the spiritual and moral way a person lives in one earthly life and his physical constitution in his next earthly life. This cannot be emphasized enough.
Take other cases. Take, for example, the case where in one earth-life a man lives, let us say, in such a way that he is a thinker. By this I do not mean a professor - it is not meant at all facetiously - but I mean a man who can walk behind the plow for my sake and yet can think a great deal. It doesn't matter in which situation in life you think, you can really be a thinker even when you're walking behind the plow or doing some other craft. But such a thinker will appear in a new life on earth with a soft flesh, with tender, soft flesh, because he mainly occupies himself in thinking with that which falls away with earthly life, and leaves unoccupied that which sends its forces over into the next incarnation and takes part in the formation of the head. But the peculiar thing is this: If he thinks a lot, then in his next earthly life his skin will be very well formed, the whole surface of the body, the skin, will be very well formed. And again, if you find people whose skin shows spots, for example, people with blemished skin, you can always conclude from this - of course there must be other reasons, you cannot necessarily conclude from one characteristic, but in general the statements I am making today about the connection between the spiritual and the physical are correct - that these are people who have thought little in a previous earthly life. So people with many freckles were certainly not thinkers in a previous earthly life.
These are the things that also show how spiritual science is not only concerned with the abstract-spiritual, but also with the working of the spiritual in the physical. I have often emphasized that it is not so much a pity that materialism only looks at matter, but it is a pity that the tragedy of materialism is that it cannot know anything about matter because it does not recognize the spiritual working in matter. It is precisely when we look at human beings that we should really look at matter, for it is in matter that the working of the spiritual is expressed, especially in the human form, in the whole human being. Matter is the outward revelation of the spiritual.
You can already see in the “Guiding Principles”, which have now been given most recently in the bulletin enclosed with the “Goetheanum”, that the head of man, the head, is only correctly considered when imaginative cognition is already applied to the external; for the human head in its form, in ear form, but especially then also in nose and eye form, it is actually given according to the pattern of the imagination. It consists of externally visible imaginations.
This also applies to the way a person is built. There are people who have the lower part of the torso longer than the upper part, i.e. longer from the lower beginning of the torso to the chest, and then have the upper part, from the middle of the chest to the neck, shorter.
If this part from the middle of the chest to the neck is shorter than the lower part of the torso, then you are dealing with a person who has gone through such a spiritual life in the time between death and a new birth that he has very quickly gone through the ascent in life between death and a new birth up to the middle. There he has gone very quickly. Then he descends slowly and comfortably to the new life on earth.

But if you are dealing with a person whose upper part from the neck to the middle of the chest is longer than the lower part from the middle of the chest to the end of the torso, then you are dealing with a person who has gone slowly, deliberately to the middle in the life between death and a new birth and then descends more quickly to earth life. So that in the physiognomy, indeed in the dimensions of the human mid-body, one has the after-effect of the way in which the human being went through the first half of the passage from death to a new birth compared to the second half.
That which is physical in man is really a reflection of that which underlies man spiritually. And this has a consequence for life. For if you take people a with short upper chests and long lower chests, and people b with long upper chests and short lower chests - it is of course extremely marked - it is like this: These people here with long lower chests and short upper chests are those who show from the beginning that they are very much in need of sleep. This is not the case with the others; they are less in need of sleep. So you can see in a person, depending on whether he is sleep-deprived or not, which in turn is expressed in the dimensions of his middle body, whether he has passed through the first half of life between death and a new birth more quickly or more slowly, or whether he has passed through the second half more quickly or more slowly.
But this in turn is connected with the previous life on earth. A person who in the previous life on earth, not through disposition but rather through education and through his life, was dull for life, not so much that he was not interested, but who was dull - he could not really do anything right, he did not set out to grasp things properly, he could even be attentive, stick his nose in everywhere, but it remained with curiosity and with a superficial grasp, he remained dull - such a person then has no interest in the first half of life between death and a new birth. He only becomes interested when it has gone beyond the midnight height of life and he descends.
In contrast, a person who gets into the habit of penetrating everywhere with his intellect, also penetrating everywhere with his mind, such a person becomes very interested in the first half, in the ascent, and quickly goes through the descent. So that one can say again: If you meet a person in life who is a sleeping rat, then this is due to such a dull life in the previous life on earth. A person who is lively, who is not a sleepyhead, who for my sake even needs to do something first so that he falls asleep - there are books, aren't there, that can be used as sleeping pills - so a person who needs this has not been dull, but has been lively, has been insistently lively with his mind, with his spirit.
You can go further. There are people - yes, what should I call them? Let's say they are gluttons, they like to eat; others don't like to eat so much. I don't want to say gluttonous people and non-gluttonous people, don't I, that's not appropriate in serious contemplation; but I do want to say that there are people who like to eat and those who don't.
This is also connected in a certain way with what man experiences in the passage through life between death and a new birth before and after the midnight height of existence. The middle is the midnight height of existence.
There are people who, I would like to say, ascend very high into the spiritual, and people who do not ascend very high, for whom the midnight height is not so high. Such people who ascend very high will eat in order to live. Such people who do not ascend high will live to eat.

This already indicates differences in life. And one can say that the way in which a person behaves, especially in such activities that are connected with the promotion or non-promotion of his physical existence, can be seen from how his karmic life comes over from a previous earthly existence.
Whoever has acquired the ability to observe in this direction will simply see in the way someone takes something at the table, i.e. in the way they reach for it, a gesture that leads back particularly strongly to the way in which the previous earthly life shines through.
I am talking about the physical today; tomorrow I will talk more about the moral aspects, but the physical must also be taken into consideration, otherwise the opposite will become less understandable. The people who grasp terribly vehemently, where you can see that if they only touch a pear when eating, they do so with enthusiasm - such people are those who in the previous earthly life kept more to the trivialities of life, who could not go beyond the triviality of life, who were held fast in that which does not rise to the moral comprehension of life, which remains in the habitual, in the conventional and so on. This, too, has great significance for the practice of life itself. Because we are unaccustomed to such observations, things often seem strange to us today and we laugh about them. But they must be viewed in the utmost seriousness, because you see, there are certain social classes today who are completely absorbed in the trivial habits of life; they don't really like to acquire anything that goes beyond the usual, customary habits of life.
By the way, my dear friends, you can't just apply this to the habitus of behavior, but you can also apply it to language, for example. There are languages where you are not allowed to say anything arbitrarily because everything is strictly prescribed in the sentence structure; you are not allowed to put the subject in a different place and so on. There are languages where you can put the subject wherever you want, and the predicate too; they have the inherent ability for people to develop individually within such languages.
Well, this is just one example of how strongly trivial habits are appropriated and how man cannot escape triviality. An earthly life spent in such triviality leads into the next, in which one is gluttonous. One then does not ascend high enough in the life between death and new birth - one becomes gluttonous.
Since the time is to dawn today when people really do not only count on one earth life, as is the case in the materialistic epoch of human development, but when people look at the whole earth development and know that what is done and accomplished in one earth life is carried over into the next, that what is done and accomplished in one earthly life is carried over into the next earthly life, that people themselves carry over events from one epoch into the next, where this awareness is to occur, it is already necessary that such things are included even in the educational principles of both growing children and adults.
Now I would like to draw attention to two types of people. There is one type of person who can take everything seriously, and I don't just mean taking things seriously from the outside. You can certainly think of serious people who even have a lot of tragedy in their mental state and who can still laugh, because if you can't laugh at all - and there are ridiculous things in life - if everything passes you by in such a way that you can't laugh, then you must also be dull. So you can laugh. But even if you are a person who can laugh at ridiculous things, you can still be a serious person in the basic constitution of your soul.
But then there's the other type of person who does nothing but laugh, who is made to laugh by everything, who laughs when they tell a story, regardless of whether it's funny or not. You can meet people who, when they start talking, immediately contort their faces into laughter and dress up even the most serious thing in a kind of grin, in a kind of laughter. These are the extremes I'm describing, but they do exist, these extremes.
You see, this is a basic trait of the soul. We will see tomorrow how this has its moral side. Today I mainly want to touch on the physical side. This again leads back to the karmic current of development. A person who has a serious streak in his life, even if he can laugh, has strong forces, solid forces, I would say, coming over from the previous earthly life into this earthly life. If you meet such a serious person, a person who has a sense for the serious aspects of life, who stops to contemplate the serious aspects of life, who becomes thoughtful about the serious aspects of life, then you can say: You can feel that this person carries his previous earthly life in his being, so to speak. One becomes serious in one's view of life through the fact that the earlier earth lives continue to have an effect, a real effect. One becomes an eternally mouth-dancing chatterbox, who laughs at even the most serious things when he tells them, if the earlier earth lives do not continue to have an effect. When a man has passed through a series of earth-lives, or at least through one earth-life in which he has lived like a half-asleep person, then in the next earth-life he becomes one who cannot maintain his seriousness, who cannot approach the things of life with the necessary seriousness. So that one can see from the way a person behaves whether he has made good use of his previous earth lives or whether he has more or less slept through them.
But all this leads us to say to ourselves: We must not look at man as he appears to us as man, mechanically or even according to the pattern of the ordinary organism. We must not do this, but must regard the human being in his form and down to his possibilities of movement as an image of the spiritual world.
There one has first of all the main organization. This main organization is essentially determined by the earlier lives on earth. And we can already say that the most correct way to view a human head is to learn everything that can be learned through imaginative representation. Nowhere else, only in relation to the human head, can one apply the imaginative representation in the sense world, that which one otherwise always needs as imaginative representation in order to look into the spiritual world. You have to start with the imagination if you want to look into the spiritual world; the spiritual-etheric images of the spiritual beings appear to you first. In the physical world, apart from the human head, there is nothing reminiscent of the imagination, but in the human head, right down to its inner organization, right down to the miraculous structure of the brain, everything is actually a physical-sensual image of the imaginative.
If you go further, then you come to consider something in the human being that is actually much more difficult to consider - it is only usually made easy - that is to gain an understanding of how the human being takes in his breath, how he sets his rhythmic system in motion, how he then transfers the breath into the blood circulation. This tremendously lively game, which permeates the whole body, is actually much more complicated than you might think, because at first it is like this, isn't it: the human being takes in the breath (drawing, yellow), the breath is transformed into blood circulation (red), but on the other hand the breath passes back into the head, and it has a certain relationship to the whole activity of the brain (green). Thinking is simply refined breathing. And again, the blood circulation merges into what are the impulses of the movements of the limbs (blue-green).

If you take this rhythmic system of the human being, which expresses itself not in a resting position but in an ever-continuing mobility, if you take this rhythmic system of the human being, you must pay close attention to this difference. The best way to look at the human head is to consider it as a self-contained, calm formation, to look at its interior, for example the brain, part by part, as one part rests next to the other. One learns nothing about the head if, for example, one gets to know the blood circulation in the head through anatomy or physiology; for what the blood circulation in the head accomplishes does not relate to the head at all, it merely relates to what the head needs in terms of rhythm. In this respect, the head is just like the blood circulation. What you can see when you lift a part of the skeleton from the head and look at the circulation does not relate to the head at all, the head must be regarded as a resting organ where one lies next to the other.
You can't do that if you move on to the rhythmic system, which is preferably localized in the chest. Everything must be considered in terms of regularity, in terms of the regularity of blood circulation, breathing, thinking and movement. This process can even be considered much further into the physical realm.
Consider the breathing process. As it passes into the blood process and then into the brain, carbonic acid is formed in the human organism. But as the respiratory process passes into the brain, into the nervous system in general, salts are formed from the acids; salts are deposited there.
So that one can say: When man thinks, earthy substances are separated. Liquid lives in the circulation itself. The gaseous lives in the breath. And in the movement, when it passes over into the movements, there lives the fiery. The elements are contained in all of this, but the elements are in motion, in continuous creation and decay. This process cannot actually be grasped through sensory observation. Those who want to grasp it in anatomy through sensory perception never really understand it. One must be able to do a great deal from the inner productive power of the spirit in order to understand this process. If you listen to the arguments relating to the rhythmic process in the usual anatomy and physiology lectures, then it really is the case that from the dead description given there - those who have been through it will be able to testify to this - you actually have the feeling that it is far removed from reality. Yes, anyone who listens to it with an unbiased mind and then looks at the listeners actually has the feeling that these listeners should actually all die from the ode they are receiving, should remain seated on the benches, should not be able to go any further, should no longer be able to crawl. For this very system of circulation would have to be portrayed in all directions with the liveliest vitality, so that man would always pass from the sensual to the supersensible, from the supersensible back to the sensual and enter into a kind of musical mood during this portrayal.
Then, when you have something like this, you also enter into inner soul habits through which karma can be understood. We will talk about this tomorrow. But what you have there is a sensual image of inspiration.
Just as one has a sensual image of the imagination in the main contemplation, so one has an image of inspiration in the contemplation of the rhythmic system of the human being, if this contemplation is done properly.
And if we move on to the metabolic limb system - yes, in what is considered today in anatomy and physiology of the metabolic limb system, we do not have the forces of this metabolic limb system, but only that which falls out, that which is thrown off. Everything that is the content of the metabolic-limb system in today's scientific view does not belong to the structure and organization of the human being, but is thrown out - the intestinal contents are only the most extreme - but in general everything that is physically perceptible in the metabolic-limb system does not belong to the human being, but is separated from the human being, only that one remains longer, the other shorter. The intestinal contents remain for a shorter time; that which is secreted in muscles, nerves and so on remains longer. But that which can be physically and sensually detected in the metabolic limb system does not belong to the human being, but is excretion, deposition. On the other hand, everything that belongs to the metabolic limb system is of a supersensible nature. So that in the case of the metabolic-limb system, if one makes a human observation, one must pass over to that which lives purely supersensibly within the sensory.
So you have to imagine the human metabolic-limb system in such a way that physical arms and so on are in reality spiritual and develop the ego in this spiritual. When I move my arms, my legs, excretions are constantly being made, and these excretions can be seen. But they are not the essential thing. If you want to explain the grasping of the arm, of the hand, you cannot refer to the physical, but you must refer to the spiritual; it is what is spiritual along the arm that matters in man. What you see is merely excretion in relation to the metabolic limb system (see drawing, dark shading: the visible; light shading: the “spiritual”).

Yes, how are we supposed to make a karmic observation if we believe that what we see in the metabolic limb system is the human being? That is not what he is. You can only make a karmic observation when you know what the human being is. And that which one must have in contemplation is a reflection of intuition that is now in the sense world, but nevertheless still supersensible.
So that you, my dear friends, can say: Head contemplation is actually imaginatively projected into the sense world. Rhythmical observation of man must actually be inspired, effective within sense observation, effective in the world of the senses. Observation of the metabolic limb man must be intuitive, supersensible in the sense world.
This is very interesting, because in the observation of man we have images for intuition, inspiration and imagination. And you can learn what intuition actually is in the supersensible by observing the metabolic limb man. You can learn from a proper observation of the rhythmic human being, which is inspiration in the supersensible. You can learn from a proper contemplation of the head, which is imaginative contemplation in the supersensible.
Head contemplation: imaginative, projected into the sensory world. Rhythmic contemplation: inspired, effective in the sensory world. Contemplation of the metabolic limb man: intuitive, supersensible in the sensory world.
This is what is indicated in the “Guiding Principles” of the last newsletter and what anyone who really diligently observes the previous cycles can actually find for themselves.
Now today, my dear friends, we have tried to look at the karmic connections in relation to the physical. Tomorrow we will then move on to look more closely at the karmic connections in relation to the moral-spiritual aspects of the human being.

