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Karmic Relationships V
GA 239

31 March 1924, Prague

Lecture III

In the lecture yesterday I spoke of certain aspects of karma operating through the earthly lives of men, and of the forming of destiny, and I shall try to-day to give you an idea of how destiny actually takes shape.

When a man passes through the gate of death he comes into a spiritual world that is not, so to speak, more devoid of happenings and beings than our physical world, but infinitely richer. Understandable as it may be that it is never possible to do more than describe one phenomenon or another from the wide orbit of this spiritual world, the different descriptions given will have conveyed some idea of the infinite richness and manifoldness of man's life between death and a new birth. Here on the Earth, where our life between birth and death runs its course, we are surrounded by the several kingdoms of nature: by minerals, plants and animals, and by the physical human kingdom. Apart from the human kingdom, we rightly consider that the beings comprised in these other kingdoms belong to a rank below that of man. During his earthly existence, therefore, man feels himself—and rightly so—as the highest being within these kingdoms of nature. In the realm into which he enters after death, exactly the opposite is the case: man feels himself there to be the lowest among orders of Beings ranking above him. In Anthroposophical literature I have, as you know, adopted for these Beings the names used in olden times to designate the higher Hierarchies. The first is the Hierarchy immediately above man, linked with him from above as the animal kingdom on Earth is linked with him from below. This is the Hierarchy of the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai. Then, above this Hierarchy, comes that of the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, and then the highest Hierarchy of all—the Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim. There are nine ranks, three times three ranks of Beings higher than man. Between each group of three higher ranks (ranging from below upwards) there is a parallelism with the three lower stages (ranking from above downwards) of animal, plant, mineral.—Only by including all these ranks have we a complete picture of the world to which man belongs.

Human existence may also be characterised by saying that at physical birth or conception man passes from a purely spiritual existence into the realm of the natural orders of animal, plant, mineral; when he passes through the gate of death he enters the realm of Beings ranking above him. Between birth and death he lives in a physical body which connects him with the kingdoms of nature; between death and a new birth he lives in a ‘spirit body' which connects him with the Beings of the higher Hierarchies. Here on Earth our attention is directed, first and foremost, to our environment; we feel on a level with this world and from the Earth we look upwards to the Heavens, to the realm of spirit—whatever may be the designation used in the different religions. From the Earth man looks upwards with his longings, with his piety, with his highest aspirations in earthly existence. And in trying to envisage the spiritual realm above him, he uses imagery borrowed from the earthly world, he pictures what is above him in forms derived from earthly existence. In the life between death and a new birth it is the opposite: his gaze then is directed downwards from above. You may say, “But this means that his gaze is directed to an inferior world.” That is not the case, for the earthly world presents a quite different aspect when seen from above. And precisely in the study of karma it will become clear to us how different happenings on the Earth appear when seen from above.

Having entered the spiritual world through the gate of death, we come, first of all, into the realm of the lowest Hierarchy: Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. We feel linked with this next higher Hierarchy and we are aware that just as in the earthly realm everything around us means something to our senses, what the spiritual realm contains means something to the innermost core of our soul. We speak of minerals, of plants, of animals, inasmuch as we see them with our eyes and touch them with our hands, inasmuch as they are perceptible in a material sense. Between death and a new birth we speak of Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, inasmuch as these Beings have a connection with the innermost core of the soul. And passing on through the long existence spent between death and a new birth, we learn gradually to become part of the life of the Beings of the next higher Hierarchy who are concerned with us and with one another. These Beings are as it were the link connecting us with the spiritual outer world. During the first period of life between death and a new birth we are also very deeply occupied with ourselves, for the Third Hierarchy has to do with our own inner life and being. But then, after a certain time, our gaze widens: we come to know the spiritual world outside us, the objective spiritual world. Our leaders here are the Exusiai, the Dynamis, the Kyriotetes. They bring us into connection with the spiritual outer world. Just as here on Earth we speak of what is around us—mountains, rivers, forests, fields, whatever it may be—so do we speak in yonder world of that to which the Beings of the Second Hierarchy lead us. That is now our environment. But this environment is not a world of objects like the Earth; everything lives and has being, lives as spiritual reality. Nor in this life between death and a new birth do we come to know Beings only; we come to know their deeds as well, we feel that we ourselves are participating in these deeds.

But then a time comes when we feel how the Beings of the Third Hierarchy—Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai—and the Beings of the Second Hierarchy—Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes—are working together with us at what we ourselves are to become in the next earthly life. A mighty, awe inspiring vista opens before us. We behold the activities of the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai and we perceive how these Beings act in relation to one another. Pictures come to us of what is proceeding among these Beings of the Third Hierarchy; but all these pictures are related to ourselves. And gazing at these pictures of the deeds of the Third Hierarchy, it dawns upon us that they represent the counterpart, the counter image of the attitude of soul, of the inner quality of mind and heart that characterised us in the last earthly life. We now no longer say in terms of an abstract idea of conscience, “You were a man who acted unjustly to this person or that, whose thoughts were unjust.” No, in the majestic pictures of the deeds of the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai, we behold the fruits of our attitude of mind and heart, of our life of soul, of our mode of thinking, in the last earthly life; we perceive images of this in what the Beings of the Third Hierarchy are doing. Our attitude, our feelings towards other individuals, towards other earthly things, are now outspread in the spiritual sphere of the Universe. And we become aware of what our thinking and our feeling signify. Here on the Earth this inner activity manifests in Maya, as if it were enclosed within our skin. Not so in the life between death and a new birth. The manner of its appearance then is such that we know that whatever thoughts, feelings or sentiments we unfold are part of the whole world, work into and affect the whole world.

Echoing the East, many people speak of Maya, of the illusion of the external world; but it remains an abstract thought. Studies like those we have been pursuing make us aware of the deep import of the words: “The world surrounding us is Maya, the great illusion.” We realise, too, what an illusory view prevails of the life of soul. We think that this is our affair and ours alone, for the truth is revealed only during our existence between death and a new birth. We perceive then that what seemed to be enclosed within us forms the content of a vast and majestic spiritual world. As our life after death continues, we observe how the Beings of the Second Hierarchy, the Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes, are connected with the faculties we have acquired in earthly life as the fruits of diligence, activity, interest in the things and happenings of the Earth. For having cast into mighty pictures our interest and diligence during the last earthly life, the Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes then proceed to shape images of the talents and faculties we shall possess in our next earthly life. In the images and pictures fashioned by the Beings of the Second Hierarchy we behold what talents and faculties will be ours in the next incarnation.

The course of this life continues and when the middle point of time between death and a new birth is about to be reached, something of particular importance takes place. From our habitations here on Earth—especially in those moments when as we look upwards to the firmament of heaven the stars send down their shimmering radiance—we feel the sublimity of the heavens above us. But something of far greater splendour is experienced as we gaze downwards now—from the realms of spirit. For then we behold the deeds of the Beings of the First Hierarchy, of the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones working in mutual interrelationship. Mighty pictures of spiritual happenings are revealed to us as we gaze downwards—for our heaven now lies below. Just as in physical existence on Earth we gaze at the starry script above us, so when we look downwards from the realm of spirit we behold the deeds of the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. And in this spiritual existence we are aware that what is proceeding among these Beings, revealed in sublime, majestic pictures, has something to do with what we ourselves are and shall become. For now we feel that what is taking place there among the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones reveals the consequences which our deeds of the previous earthly life will have in the earthly life to come. We perceive how in earthly life we behaved in this way to one individual, in that way to another individual, how we were compassionate or pitiless, whether our deeds were good or evil. Our attitude and disposition are the concern of the Third Hierarchy, our deeds of the First Hierarchy, the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. Then, in the cosmic memory now alive in us, there arises a shattering, awe inspiring realisation of our deeds and actions between birth and death in the last earthly life. Down below we behold the deeds of spiritual Beings, of Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones. What are they doing? They show us, in pictures, what our experiences with individuals with whom we had some relationship in the previous incarnation will have to become in the new relationship that will be established in order that mutual compensation may be made for what happened between us in the previous life. And from the way in which the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones work in cooperation, we realise that the great problem is there being solved. When I have dealings with an individual in some earthly life, I myself prepare the compensatory adjustment; the work performed by the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones merely ensures that the compensation will be made, that it will become reality. And it is these Beings who also ensure that the other individual with whom I shall again make contact is led to me in the same way as I am led to him. It is the majestic experiences arising from the pictures of the deeds of the higher Hierarchies which are recorded by the Moon Beings and subsequently inscribed by them in our astral body when the time comes for the descent to another earthly existence. Together with us in the life between death and a new birth, these Moon Beings witness what is happening in order that the adjustment of the previous earthly life may take place in a subsequent life.

This, my dear friends, will give you an inkling of the majesty and grandeur of what is here revealed, as compared with the sense world. But you will realise, too, that the things of the sense world conceal far, far more than they actually make manifest.

Having lived through the region of the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, man passes to still other realms of existence. More and more the longing arises in him for a new incarnation in which compensation can be made for what he did and experienced in his previous earthly life.

Anthroposophy has failed in its purpose when it remains a mere collection of ideas and conceptions, when people speak abstractly of the existence of karma, of the way in which one incarnation works over into another. Anthroposophy is only fulfilling its real purpose when it speaks not only to the head but awakens in the heart a feeling, a discernment, of the impressions that can be received in the super-sensible world through the Beings of that world. It seems to me that nobody with an unprejudiced, receptive mind can listen to such communications about the super-sensible world as I am now giving, without being inwardly stirred. We ought to be able to realise that although here on Earth we live through the whole gamut of human experiences, from deepest suffering to supreme happiness, what we are able to experience of the spiritual world should affect us far more potently than the most intense suffering or the highest happiness. We can only have the right relationship to the spiritual world when we admit, “In comparison with earthly sufferings or earthly happiness, what we are able to experience of the truths and beings of the spiritual world remains shadowy”—as indeed it does to those who merely listen to information about Initiation science. But to Initiates themselves it is far from shadowy. We should also be able to say, “I can feel how deeply what is here imparted about the spiritual world would affect the soul, if the soul had only sufficient strength and energy.” A man should ascribe it to earthly weakness if he is incapable of experiencing every degree of feeling, from fiery enthusiasm to deepest suffering, when he hears about the spiritual world and the Beings of that world. If he ascribes to his own weakness the fact that he is unable to feel these things with due intensity, then the soul has gone some way towards establishing the true and right relationship to the spiritual world.

When all is said and done, what value is there in spiritual knowledge if it cannot penetrate to the concrete facts or indicate what is really taking place in the spiritual world! We do not expect our fellow men on Earth to talk about a meadow in the way that pantheists or monists or would-be philosophers talk about the Godhead; we expect a detailed description of the meadow. And the same applies to the spiritual world. It must be possible to describe the concrete details. People to-day are still unaccustomed to this. Many who are not out and out materialists will accept generalities about the existence of a spiritual world and so forth. But when this spiritual world is described in detail they often become indignant because they will not admit that it is possible to speak in this way of the Beings and happenings of the spiritual world. If human civilisation is not to fall into chaos, more and more will have to be said about the realities of the spiritual world. For earthly happenings too remain obscure when people have no understanding of what lies behind them.

In this connection, my dear friends, there is something in the destiny of the Anthroposophical Society that strikes a note of tragedy. But if the necessary understanding for these things becomes more widespread, at any rate among Anthroposophists themselves, there is justification for hoping that good may develop out of the tragedy, that from the Anthroposophical Society there may go forth a quickening of the civilisation that is so obviously heading for the chaos of materialism. But if that quickening is to be a reality, something must be understood which at the beginning was not understood—which can more easily be understood to-day because more than two decades of effort have passed since the founding of Anthroposophical work.

At the beginning, as you know, the Anthroposophical Movement was within the Theosophical Movement. When we founded in Berlin the Section from which the Anthroposophical Society eventually developed, I wanted at our first gathering to strike a kind of keynote for what ought really to have followed. And now that we have tried through the Christmas Meeting at the Goetheanum to reorganise the Anthroposophical Society, I am able to speak about a certain fact to which probably very little attention has been paid hitherto. Nor could it have been otherwise here, because as far as is known to me none of our friends from Bohemia was present at the time. I gave a first lecture which was similar in character to the lectures given later on to the Groups. This first lecture had an unusual title, one which might at the time have been considered rather daring. The title was: “Studies of the practical working of karma.” (Praktische Karmaübungen.) My intention was to speak quite openly about the way in which karma works.

Now the leading lights of the Theosophical Movement who at that time regarded me as something of an intruder, were present at the meeting and they were convinced at the outset that I was not qualified to speak of inner, spiritual matters. At that period the leading lights of the old Theosophical Movement were always reiterating: “Science must be upheld, account must be taken of modern science. ...” Well and good—but nothing much came of it. Things have now been set on the right path but only the very first steps have been taken; nor will anything essential have been achieved until we have advanced beyond these first steps. And so what was intended in those early days all became rather theoretical. “Studies of the practical working of karma” were announced but nobody at that time would have understood their import, least of all the leading lights of the Theosophical Society. It therefore remained a task which had to be pursued under the surface as it were of the Anthroposophical stream, performed as an obligation to the spiritual world. But to-day—and how often it has been so during the development of the Anthroposophical Movement—I am reminded of the title of what was to have been the first Anthroposophical Group lecture: “Studies of the practical working of karma.” I can also remember how shocked the leading lights of the Theosophical Society were by such a presumptuous title.

But time marches on and more than two decades have elapsed since then—much has been prepared, but this preparatory work must also have its results. And so to-day these results must become reality. “Studies of the practical working of karma” which one desired—rather boldly—to begin at that time, must be actually undertaken. Such indeed was the aim of our Christmas Meeting: to bring real and living esotericism into the Anthroposophical Movement. This must be taken in all earnestness. By formalism alone the Anthroposophical Movement will have no regenerating effect upon our civilisation. In the future we must not shrink from speaking quite openly about the things of the spiritual world.

I want to begin to-day to speak of spiritual realities underlying earthly happenings and the life of humanity on Earth. Within the whole process of earthly evolution stands the Mystery of Golgotha—the Event which imbued this evolution with meaning. To deeper observation, everything that preceded this Event was in the nature of preparation. And although on account of the shortcomings of men and the influence of the Luciferic and Ahrimanic Powers from the spiritual side, the impediments to progress are more in evidence than the progress itself, it is nevertheless true that since the Mystery of Golgotha everything proceeding from the physical and spiritual worlds alike has come to pass for the sake of bringing man further along the path of world evolution as a whole. The gifts of Christianity to humanity will—if men prove worthy to receive them in their deeper, spiritual significance—be revealed only in times to come. But the essential impulse—and this applies, as well, to everything that Anthroposophy can achieve—lies in the Mystery of Golgotha.

We know that the influence of the Mystery of Golgotha made its way, to begin with, across the South of Europe and on into Middle Europe. But I do not want to speak of that to-day. I want you to think of how Christianity spread across the North of Africa into European civilisation. You know that some six hundred years after the founding of Christianity through the Mystery of Golgotha, a different religious stream—the stream of Mohammedanism—spread across from Asia. In contrast to Christianity, the spiritual life that is connected with the name of Mohammed expresses itself more in abstractions. In Christianity there are many more direct descriptions of the spiritual world than there are in Mohammedanism. But it has been the destiny of Mohammedanism to absorb much ancient science, much ancient culture. We see how Mohammedanism comes over from Asia and spreads in the wake of Christianity. It is an interesting spectacle. We see the stream of Christianity flowing towards the North, reaching Middle Europe; we see, too, how Mohammedanism twines as it were around this Christian stream—across North Africa, Spain and on into France.

Now it is quite easy to realise that had Christianity alone been at work, European culture would have taken a quite different form. In an outer, political sense it is of course true that Europe repulsed the waves of Mohammedanism—or better said, of Arabism. But anyone who observes the spiritual life of Europe will realise, for example, that our modern way of thinking—the materialistic spirit on the one side and science with its clear cut, arabesque like logic on the other—would not have developed had Arabism not worked on, despite its setbacks. From Spain, from France, from Sicily, from North Africa, mighty and potent influences have had their effect upon European thinking, have moulded it into forms it would not have assumed had Christianity alone been at work. In our modern science there is verily more Arabism than Christianity!

Later on, as a result of the Crusades, much Eastern culture—by then, of course, in the throes of decadence—came directly to the ken of the European peoples. Many of the secrets of Eastern culture found their way to Europe through this channel. In Western civilisation, above the stratum of Christianity, lie those elements of oriental spiritual life which were absorbed into Arabism. But you see, none of this is really understandable when perceived only from the outside; it must all be perceived from within. And from within, the spectacle presented to us is that although wars and victories brought about the suppression of Arabism and the bearers of Mohammedanism, the Moors and so forth, nevertheless the souls of these people were born again and continued to work. Nothing whatever can be gained from abstract accounts of how Arabism made its way to Europe from Spain; insight can only arise from a knowledge of the inner, concrete facts.

We will consider one such fact. At the time of Charles the Great in European history—it was at the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th centuries—Haroun al Raschid1Haroun al Raschid, 764–809. was living over in Asia, in Baghdad, in an entourage of brilliant oriental scholarship. Everything then existing in the way of Western Asiatic learning, indeed of Asiatic learning in general, had been brought together at the Court of Haroun al Raschid. True, it was all steeped in Mohammedanism, but everything in the way of culture—mathematics, philosophy, architecture, commerce, industry, geography, medicine, astronomy—was fostered at this Court by the most enlightened men in Asia. People to-day have little conception of the grandeur and magnificence of what was achieved at the Court of Haroun al Raschid. First and foremost there was Haroun al Raschid himself—not by any means a ruler of mediocre intelligence or one who merely for the sake of self glorification called to his Court the greatest sages of Western Asia, but a personality who in spite of unwavering adherence to Mohammedanism was open and receptive to everything that oriental civilisation had to offer. At the time when Charles the Great was struggling with difficulty to master the rudiments of reading and writing, much brilliant learning flourished at the Court of Baghdad. The conditions in which Charles the Great lived are not comparable in any way with those brought into being by Haroun al Raschid.

This was at a time when many regions of Western Asia and wide territories in Africa had already adopted Mohammedanism, and the brilliant learning cultivated at the Court of Haroun al Raschid had spread far and wide. But among the wise men at that Court—men deeply versed in geography, in nature lore, in medicine and so forth—was many a one who in still earlier incarnations had belonged to ancient Mystery Schools. For men who were Initiates in an earlier life do not always give direct evidence of this in another incarnation. In spite of having been an Initiate in earlier Mysteries, it is only possible for a man in any given epoch to absorb the spirituality and develop the constitution of soul which the body of that particular epoch allows. Seen in its essential nature, the life of the soul does not tally with the intellectual ideas of the psyche in man prevailing at the present time. The soul lies at a far deeper level than is usually imagined.

Let me give you an example. Think of a personality like Ernst Haeckel.2Ernst Haeckel, 1834-1919. The first impression one gets of him is that his view of the world is coloured by materialism, that he expounds a kind of mechanism by which the life of nature and also the life of soul is determined, that in his invectives against Catholicism he is sometimes fascinating, sometimes fanatic, and sometimes, too, lacking in taste. One who is cognisant of the threads connecting the different earthly lives of a human being will pay little attention to these traits; he will look at the deeper qualities of soul. Nobody who in trying to observe the actual manifestations of karma allows himself to be blinded by Haeckel's most striking external characteristics will be able to discover his previous incarnation. In order to find Haeckel's previous incarnation attention must be paid to the way and manner in which he expounded his views. The fact that Haeckel's erudition bore the stamp of materialism is due to the age in which he lived; that, however, is unimportant; what is important is the inner constitution and attitude of soul. If this is perceived by occult sight, then in the case of Haeckel the gaze is led back to Pope Gregory VII,3Gregory VII, Pope from 1053 to 1085. the former Abbot Hildebrand—actually one of the most impassioned advocates of Catholicism. If one compares the two personages, knowing that both come into the picture here, one will perceive that they are the same and also learn to recognise the unessentials and the essentials in respect of the great affairs of humanity as a whole. The theoretical ideas themselves are by no means the prime essential; they are only essential in this abstract, materialistic age of ours. Behind the scenes of world history it is the quality, the modus operandi, of the soul that is all important. And when this is grasped it will certainly be possible to perceive the similarity between Gregory VII and his reincarnation as Haeckel.

Insight of this kind has to be acquired in studying the concrete realities of karma, and if it is to mean anything to us to be told that at the Court of Haroun al Raschid, for example, there were men who, although their physical bodies and education make them appear outwardly to be typical products of the 8th and 9th centuries, were nevertheless the reincarnations of Initiates in ancient Mysteries. When the eye of spirit is directed to this Court, a certain personality stands out in bold relief—one who was a deeply discerning, influential counsellor of Haroun al Raschid, and for that epoch a man of great universality. A remarkable destiny lay behind him. In a much earlier incarnation, and in the same region afterwards ruled over by Haroun al Raschid, but inhabited, then, by quite different peoples, he had participated in all the Initiations which had there taken place, and in a later incarnation, as a different personality, he had striven for Initiation with deep and intense longing, but was unable to achieve it because at that time destiny prevented it. Such a personality lived at the Court of Haroun al Raschid but was for this reason obliged to conceal deep down in his inner life what lay within him as the fruits of the earlier incarnation as an Initiate. The inability to achieve Initiation occurred in a later incarnation and after that came the incarnation at the Court of Haroun al Raschid. And at this Court, for the reason that in those times Initiations in the old sense were no longer possible—this personality was one who out of a strong inner impulse and with powerful and sound imagination, organised and vitalised everything that was cultivated at this Court. Scholars, artists, a whole host of poets, representatives of all the sciences, were to be found there; moreover Baghdad itself at that time was the centre of the very widespread scientific and artistic activity prevailing in the empire of the Caliphs. The organisation of it all was the work of this personality—a personality endowed with great powers of initiative. Such individuals invariably play a significant role in the onward march of civilisation.

Let us think of Haroun al Raschid himself. If with occult sight one discerns the qualities of soul he possessed and then tries to discover whether he has since reincarnated, one finds that Haroun al Raschid continued to be associated with and to carry further what he had instituted on Earth; having passed through the gate of death he participated, spiritually, in the earthly evolution of mankind; from the spiritual world his influence was considerable but he himself assimilated a great deal. And then, in the form appropriate to the epoch, this personality came again as Lord Bacon of Verulam,4Bacon of Verulam, 1561–1626. the founder of modern science. From England, Bacon of Verulam. gave a strong impetus to European thinking. You may say: but what a different personality from Haroun al Raschid! ... Nevertheless it is the same individuality. The outward differences are a matter of the external world only. We see the soul of Haroun al Raschid after death moving across from Asia and then, from the West, influencing the later civilisation of Europe, doing much to lay the foundations of modern materialism.

The other personality—he who had been not only the right hand but the very soul of Haroun al Raschid's Court and had had that strange spiritual destiny—this personality took a different path. Far from seeking a life of outward brilliance, the urge in this soul after death was to unfold a rich inner life, a life of deep inwardness. Because this was so, there could be no question of taking a path leading to the West. Think again of Haroun al Raschid and his Court—outward brilliance and magnificence, inner consolidation of the fruits of civilisation, but at the same time the impulse to externalise everything contained in Mohammedanism. This was bound to come to expression in a subsequent incarnation. The wide and all embracing application of scientific method had to come to the fore—and so indeed it did. The outward brilliance that had characterised the Court of Haroun al Raschid came to clear expression in Bacon himself.

The other personality who had been the very soul of the Court in Baghdad was of a deeply inward nature, closely related to what had been cultivated in the ancient Mysteries. This could not come to expression—not at any rate until our own time when, since Kali Yuga is over and the Michael Age has begun, it is possible once again to speak openly of the spiritual. Nevertheless it was found possible to pour what had been received from the Mysteries in such volume and with such vital power into civilisation that its influence was profound. Something of the kind may be said in connection with the other personality whose development in the spiritual world after death was such that finally, when the time arrived for a new incarnation, he could not land, so to speak, in the Western world where materialism had its rise; he was led, inevitably, to Middle Europe and was able there to give expression to the impulse deriving from the ancient Mysteries but conforming with the altered conditions of the times. This personality lived as Amos Comenius.5Amos Comenius, 1592–1671. And so in the later course of world history these two souls who had lived together at the Court of Baghdad took different paths: the one as it were circling the South of Europe in order, from the West, as Bacon of Verulam, to become the organising genius in modern literature, philosophy and the sciences; the other taking the overland path—as did the Crusades—towards Middle Europe. He too was a great and gifted organiser but the effects of what he achieved were of an entirely different character. It is a wonderful and deeply impressive spectacle—there they were, Amos Comenius and Bacon of Verulam, having taken different paths. The fact that the period of their lives did not exactly coincide is connected with world karma, but ultimately—if I may express it in a trivial way—they met in Middle Europe. And a great deal that is needed in civilisation would become reality if the esoteric influences contained in the work of Amos Comenius were to unite with the power achieved by the technical sciences founded through Bacon of Verulam. This outcome of the paths taken by two souls who in the 8th and 9th centuries worked at the Court of Haroun al Raschid is one of the most wonderful illustrations of how world history runs its course. Haroun al Raschid makes his way across Africa and Southern Europe to England, whence his influence works over into Middle Europe; Amos Comenius takes the path which brings him to Middle Europe, and in what develops from his achievements there he meets the other soul.

Only when history is studied in this way does it become reality. What passes over from one epoch of world history so into another does not consist of abstract concepts; it is human souls themselves who carry onward the fruits of each epoch. We can only understand how what makes its appearance in a later epoch has come over from an earlier one, when we perceive how the souls themselves develop onwards from one epoch to the next. The distinction between what is called ‘Maya' and inner reality must everywhere be taken earnestly. Perceived in its outward aspect only, history is itself Maya; it can only be rightly understood by getting away from the Maya and penetrating to the truth.

We will continue these studies in the next lecture to Members. May the right kind of understanding be forthcoming as we now pursue the task inaugurated by the Christmas Foundation Meeting: to make into a reality what was announced at the very beginning, perhaps rather naively, as ‘Studies of the practical working of karma.' After preparation that has been going on for decades now, a genuine study of karma and of its manifestations will certainly be possible in the Anthroposophical Society without causing misunderstanding and apprehension.

Dritter Vortrag

Ich habe gestern auf einiges hingewiesen, was mit dem fortlaufend durch die menschlichen Erdenleben bindurchgehenden Karma, der Bildung des menschlichen Schicksals, zusammenhängt. Nun möchte ich heute eine Vorstellung erwecken, wie die Schicksalsbildung sich eigentlich vollzieht. Wir müssen uns klar darüber sein, daß der Mensch, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes tritt, in eine geistige Welt kommt, in eine geistige Welt, die nicht etwa an Ereignissen, an Wesenheiten ärmer ist als unsere physische, sondern unendlich viel reicher. Und so verständlich es auch sein kann, daß man immer nur das eine oder das andere schildern kann aus dem weiten Umkreis dieser geistigen Welt, so wird doch andererseits wiederum auch aus den verschiedenen Schilderungen, die gegeben werden, ersichtlich sein, wie unendlich reich, mannigfaltig das Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt von dem Menschen verbracht wird. Hier im Erdengebiet, in dem wir das Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod zubringen, sind wir ja umgeben von dem, was wir als die verschiedenen Reiche der Natur ansehen: von dem mineralischen, dem pflanzlichen, dem Tierreich, dem physischen Menschenreich. Diese Reiche, außer dem Menschenreich, sehen wir — und zwar mit Recht — so an, daß sie Wesenheiten in sich schließen, welche der Rangordnung nach unter dem Menschen stehen, so daß sich der Mensch während seines Erdendaseins als gewissermaßen das höchste Wesen innerhalb dieser Wesensreiche fühlen kann. In dem Reich, das der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes hindurchgehend betritt, ist das genaue Gegenteil der Fall. Der Mensch empfindet sich dort als dasjenige Wesen, das sich als unterstes in der Rangordnung anschließt an Wesenheiten, die ihm, dem Menschen, übergeordnet sind. Sie wissen ja, ich habe als Bezeichnung für diese Wesenheiten in der anthroposophischen Literatur die Namen der über dem Menschen stehenden Hierarchien aufgenommen und habe unterschieden, nach einer Terminologie, die nun schon einmal aus älteren Zeiten da ist, zunächst diejenige Hierarchie, welche unmittelbar über dem Menschen steht, die sich also an den Menschen nach oben so anschließt, wie sich nach unten im Erdenbereich die Tierheit an ihn anschließt. Das ist die Hierarchie, welcher Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai angehören. Dann kommt nach dieser Hierarchie, weiter nach oben gehend, die Hierarchie, welche die Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes umschließt. Dann die höchste Hierarchie, die oberste, die Throne, Cherubim, Seraphim. Wir haben neun Rangordnungen, dreimal drei Rangordnungen über dem Menschen. Je drei zusammen können wir parallelisieren, wenn wir von unten nach oben gehen, mit dem, was wir haben, wenn wir nach unten gehen, als Tiere in drei Stufen, Pflanzen in drei Stufen nach unten, Mineralien in drei Stufen nach unten. Damit aber haben wir erst die vollständige Welt desjenigen gegeben, dem der Mensch angehört.

Man könnte das Menschendasein auch so schildern, daß man sagt: Der Mensch tritt mit der physischen Geburt, der physischen Empfängnis aus einem rein geistigen Dasein in den Bereich der Naturordnungen des Tierischen, Pflanzlichen, Mineralischen; und der Mensch tritt, indem er durch die Pforte des Todes hindurchgeht, in das Reich der über ihm stehenden Wesenheiten. Das eine Mal lebt der Mensch in einem physischen Leib, der ihn verbindet mit den Reichen der Natur; das andere Mal, zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt, lebt der Mensch — wenn ich mich des Ausdruckes bedienen darf - in einem Geistleibe, der ihn aber ebenso verbindet mit den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien. Hier im Erdenbereich wenden wir uns zunächst an dasjenige, was im Umkreis um uns ist; wir fühlen das gewissermaßen auf gleichem Niveau mit uns stehend und blicken von dem Erdenbereich aus zum - wie es nun in den verschiedensten Anschauungen genannt wird - Himmelsgebiet, zum Geistgebiet auf. Der Erdenmensch blickt aufwärts mit seinen Ahnungen, mit seinem religiösen Frommsein, mit demjenigen, was für sein Erdendasein das Allererstrebenswerteste ist. Und wenn er sich eine Vorstellung machen will von dem, was da oben im geistigen Reich ist, da bildet er sich ja wohl Gestaltungen aus, die von dem Irdischen entlehnt sind, er stellt in irdischer Weise dasjenige vor, was oben ist. Wenn der Mensch dann im Leben zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt lebt, ist es umgekehrt. Der Mensch weist nach unten, wenn er dasjenige bezeichnen will, worauf sein Blick gerichtet ist. Sie werden vielleicht sagen, meine lieben Freunde: Ja, dann weist aber der Mensch gerade auf das weniger Wertvolle. Das ist aber nicht so. Sondern von oben angesehen ist dasjenige, was hier im Erdenbereich ist, ja ganz anders, als es hier im Erdenbereich ist. Und gerade bei der Karma-Betrachtung kann es uns so recht verständlich werden, wie anders dasjenige, was auf der Erde vorgeht, von oben angesehen, ist, als es sich hier im Erdenbereich selbst für den Menschen ausnimmt.

Wenn wir durch die Pforte des Todes zunächst die geistige Welt betreten, kommen wir ja zuerst in den Bereich der untersten Hierarchie, der Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. Wir fühlen uns gewissermaßen angeschlossen an dasjenige, was als nächste Hierarchie über uns steht, und wir merken: Geradeso wie im Erdenbereich dasjenige, was um uns ist, für die Sinne seine Bedeutung hat, so hat das, was im geistigen Bereich ist, für das Innerste der Seele seine Bedeutung. Wir sprechen von Mineralien, von Pflanzen, von Tieren, insoferne wir sie mit Augen sehen, mit Händen greifen können, insoferne sie überhaupt für uns sinnlich wahrnehmbar sind; und wir sprechen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt von Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, insoferne diese Wesenheiten mit demjenigen, was das innerste Wesen der Seele ist, Zusammenhang haben. Und wir lernen allmählich, indem wir weiterschreiten in dem langen Leben, das wir zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt verbringen, uns einfügen in dasjenige, was die Wesenheiten der nächsthöheren Hierarchie sind, die mit uns und miteinander zu tun haben. Diese verbinden uns gewissermaßen mit der geistigen Außenwelt. Wir sind auch zunächst im Leben zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt recht stark mit uns selbst beschäftigt, denn mit unserem Inneren hat die dritte, die unterste Hierarchie zu tun. Dann aber wird nach einiger Zeit unser Blick erweitert, wir lernen die geistige Welt außer uns, die objektive geistige Welt kennen, Da sind unsere Führer die Wesenheiten der Exusiai, Kyriotetes, Dynamis. Sie bringen uns zusammen mit demjenigen, was die geistige Außenwelt ist. Und ich möchte sagen, so wie wir hier auf der Erde sprechen von dem, was uns umgibt: Berge, Flüsse, Wälder, Wiesen und so weiter, so sprechen wir dort von dem, an das uns die Wesen der zweiten Hierarchie heranbringen. Das ist dort unsere Umgebung. Aber diese Umgebung ist nicht in demselben Sinne gegenständlich wie die Erde, sondern diese Umgebung ist wesenhaft, alles lebt, und lebt auf geistige Art. Wir lernen gewissermaßen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt nicht nur Wesenheiten, Dinge kennen, sondern wir lernen Wesenheiten und ihre Taten, die sie untereinander tun, kennen, fühlen uns selber eingesponnen und hingegeben an diese Taten.

Dann aber kommt eine Zeit, in der wir fühlen, wie die Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie, Angeloi, Archangeloi und Archai, und die Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie, Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, mit uns zusammen an demjenigen arbeiten, was aus uns im nächsten Erdenleben werden soll. Und da eröffnet sich uns in diesem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt eine erschütternde, gewaltige Perspektive. Da schauen wir an das Treiben der dritten Hierarchie, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, schauen, wie sie sich zueinander verhalten. Bilder bekommen wir von demjenigen, was unter den Wesen dieser dritten Hierarchie vorhanden ist; aber diese Bilder erscheinen uns alle so, daß sie einen Bezug zu uns haben. Und uns geht auf, wenn wir anschauen dasjenige, was da als Bilder der Taten der dritten Hierarchie erscheint, daß es das Gegenbild ist von dem, was wir als Gesinnung, als innere Gemütsverfassung in dem letzten Erdenleben gehabt haben. Wir sagen uns jetzt nicht mit abstrakten Gewissensvorstellungen: Du bist ein Mensch gewesen, der unrecht gehandelt hat an diesen oder jenen Menschen, der unrecht gedacht hat, nein, sondern wir sehen an dem, was Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai tun, wie sie in mächtigen Bildern vor unserem Blicke erscheinen, was aus dem wird, das wir in uns als Gemütsstimmung, als Seeleninhalt, als Denkweise im letzten Erdenleben getragen haben; da sehen wir, wie es Bild wird in dem, was die Wesenheiten der dritten Hierarchie tun. Ausgebreitet in der weiten Welt ist dasjenige in der geistigen Sphäre, was wir an Gesinnungen gegenüber anderen Menschen, gegenüber anderem Irdischen entwickelt haben. Und wir werden dasjenige gewahr, was wir denken, fühlen, empfinden. Hier auf der Erde erscheint es in der Maja, als ob es eingeschlossen wäre in unserer Haut; im Leben zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt ist es anders. In dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt erscheint es so, daß wir nun wissen: Dasjenige, was wir in unserem Inneren an Gedanken, Empfindungen, Gesinnungen-entwickeln, das gehört der ganzen Welt an, das wirkt in die ganze Welt hinein.

Dem Orient nachgesprochen reden gar viele Menschen von der Maja, von der Illusion der äußeren Welt, die uns umgibt; aber es bleibt ein abstrakter Gedanke. Wenn man Betrachtungen anstellt wie jene, die durch unsere Seelen haben ziehen können, dann wird man gewahr, wie ernst es ist mit dem Worte: Diese Welt, die uns umgibt, ist Maja, ist die große Illusion, — und wie illusorisch die Anschauung ist von dem, was in unserer Seele vorgeht. Wir glauben, damit allein sein zu können. Die Wahrheit erscheint uns erst, wenn wir das Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt durchleben. Da sehen wir das, was scheinbar in uns ist, den Inhalt einer weit ausgebreiteten, mächtigen, geistigen Welt bilden. Dann leben wir weiter und merken, wie die Wesen der zweiten Hierarchie, Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, zusammenhängen mit demjenigen, was wir uns hier auf der Erde angeeignet haben durch Fleiß, Betriebsamkeit, durch Interesse, das wir gehabt haben für die Dinge und Vorgänge der Erde. Denn unseren Fleiß, unser Interesse im letzten Erdenleben bilden zunächst in mächtigen Bildern diese Wesenheiten: Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, sie gestalten die Bilder von unseren Begabungen, von unseren Fähigkeiten in unserem nächsten Erdenleben. Wir schauen, was wir an Begabungen, Fähigkeiten im nächsten Erdenleben haben werden, an den Bildern, welche entrollen die Wesenheiten der zweiten Hierarchie.

Und dann geht das Leben weiter. Wenn es schon in die Nähe der Mitte zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt kommt, dann tritt etwas Besonderes ein. So wie wit auf der Erde hier stehen — besonders in jenen Augenblicken, wo wir aufblicken ins Weltenall, wenn die funkelnden Sterne uns entgegenleuchten -, da empfinden wir oben die Erhabenheit des himmlischen Weltenbereiches; etwas viel Großartigeres empfinden wir nach unten schauend, wenn wir im Geisterreich sind. Denn da sehen wir, wie in merkwürdiger Weise die Wesenheiten der ersten Hierarchie: Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne in gegenseitiger Beziehung Taten verrichten. Mächtige Bilder geistigen Geschehens zeigen sich uns jetzt, wenn wir den Himmel, der nach unten liegt denn das ist dann unser Himmel — betrachten. Wie wir jetzt im physischen Erdenleben die Schrift der Sterne nach oben blickend betrachten, so sehen wir, wenn wir dann nach unten blicken, die Taten der Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne. Und dasjenige, was zwischen ihnen vorgeht, was sich in erhabenen und großartigen Bildern enthüllt, von dem fühlen wir in diesem geistigen Dasein, wie es etwas zu tun hat mit dem, wie wir selber sind und sein werden. Denn jetzt fühlen wir: Dasjenige, was da geschieht unter den Seraphim, Cherubim, Thronen, das zeigt uns, welche Folgen unsere Taten aus dem vorigen Erdenleben im nächsten Erdenleben haben werden. Wir schauen, wie wir uns zu dem einen Menschen so, zu dem anderen Menschen anders im Erdenleben verhalten haben, wie wir Mitgefühl oder Mitleidslosigkeit entwickelt haben, gute oder böse Taten verrichtet haben. Die Gesinnung hat mit der dritten Hierarchie zu tun, die Taten aber mit der ersten Hierarchie, Seraphim, Cherubim, Thronen. Dann tritt erschütternd vor unserer Seele wie in einem jetzt kosmisch in uns wirkenden Gedächtnis dasjenige auf, was wir im letzten Erdenleben getan haben zwischen Geburt und Tod. Dann blicken wir hinunter, die Taten der Geistigkeit erblickend. Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne, was tun sie? Sie zeigen uns im Bilde dasjenige, was wir mit den Menschen, mit denen wir im vorigen Erdenleben zusammengelebt haben, als eine Folge des neuen Zusammenseins werden erleben müssen zum Ausgleich dessen, was im vorigen Erdenleben zwischen uns erfolgt ist. Und wir begreifen an der Art, wie Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne miteinander zusammenwirken, daß das große Problem da gelöst wird. Wenn ich mit einem Menschen in einem Erdenleben zu tun habe, so bereite ich mir den ganzen Ausgleich selber vor; und nur daß er, der Ausgleich, eintrete, daß er Wirklichkeit werde, das arbeiten Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne dann aus. Und sie bringen es in Einklang damit, daß auch der andere, mit dem ich wieder etwas zu tun haben werde, in der gleichen Weise zu mir geführt wird, wie ich zu ihm. Was in erhabener Weise in den Bildern der Taten der höheren Hierarchien erlebt wird, das ist ja dasjenige, was dann verzeichnet wird von den Mondenwesen, und von den Mondenwesen dann eingetragen wird beim Herabsteigen in unseren astralischen Leib. Mit uns zusammen, die wir zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt sind, schauen diese Mondenwesen dasjenige, was geschieht, damit der Ausgleich mit dem vorigen Erdenleben stattfinde in einem nächsten Erdenleben.

Sie ahnen aus diesem, meine lieben Freunde, was ich Ihnen in solcher Weise sagen kann, wie großartig und gewaltig gegenüber der sinnlichen Welt das ist, was sich da enthüllt. Aber Sie sehen auch, wie wirklich dasjenige, was uns in der sinnlichen Welt entgegentritt, viel, viel mehr verhüllt, als es offenbart.

Dann geht eben der Mensch dem weiteren Leben entgegen, wenn er durch die Region der Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne durchgegangen ist, und geht dann weiteren Regionen entgegen. Immer mehr und mehr tritt in ihm die Sehnsucht nach einer neuen Verkörperung auf, in der er den Ausgleich finden kann für dasjenige, was er im vorigen Erdenleben durchgemacht hat.

Anthroposophie, meine lieben Freunde, ist nicht das Rechte, wenn sie bloß eine Summe von Ideen und Begriffen ist, wenn man bloß in einer abstrakten Weise davon redet, daß es ein Karma gibt, daß so und so von einem Erdenleben zum anderen hinüber gewirkt wird, sondern Anthroposophie wird eigentlich im Grunde genommen erst das Rechte, wenn sie nicht bloß zu unserem Kopf spricht, sondern in unserem Herzen eine Empfindung, eine Wahrnehmung davon erweckt, welche Eindrücke wir in der übersinnlichen Welt durch die Wesenheiten dieser übersinnlichen Welt empfangen können. Denn es scheint mir, daß kein Mensch, der einen offenen, empfänglichen Sinn hat, Mitteilungen empfangen kann über die übersinnliche Welt, wie ich sie jetzt geschildert habe, ohne daß die ganze Skala der Empfindungen in dieser Seele erregt wird. Und eigentlich sollte es ja so sein, daß wir uns sagen: Ja, hier auf der Erde machen wir manches durch, von dem tiefsten Schmerz bis zur höchsten Lust, zum freudigsten Glück, die ganze Skala des menschlichen Empfindens; aber dasjenige, was wir erfahren können von der geistigen Welt, sollte eigentlich auf uns intensiver wirken als der tiefste Schmerz, die höchste Lust auf uns wirken kann. Und wir stellen uns nur dann in der richtigen Weise zur geistigen Welt, wenn wir sagen: Es bleibt allerdings schattenhaft gegenüber dem großen Schmerz oder der großen Freude, die wir auf der Erde empfinden, was wir gegenüber den Tatsachen und Wesenheiten der geistigen Welt empfinden. Nicht bleibt es schattenhaft für den Eingeweihten, aber es bleibt schattenhaft für den, der nur die Kunde von der Einweihungswissenschaft bekommt. Doch man sollte sich dann auch sagen: Eine Ahnung bekomme ich dennoch, wie tief und intensiv das, was da mitgeteilt wird von der geistigen Welt, eigentlich auf die Seele wirken müßte, wenn sie nur stark und kräftig genug dazu wäre. Der Mensch sollte es eigentlich nur seiner irdischen Schwäche zuschreiben, daß er nicht vom höchsten Enthusiasmus bis zum tiefsten Schmerz alle Intervalle des Empfindens durchmachen kann, wenn er hört von demjenigen, wie die geistige Welt und ihre Wesenheiten sind. Wenn der Mensch die Tatsache, daß er das eben nicht in der richtigen Weise empfinden kann, seiner Schwachheit zuschreibt, dann ist auch schon etwas von der rechten Art, sich zur geistigen Welt zu stellen, von der Seele erreicht. Denn, sehen Sie, was hat denn schließlich alles geistige Erkennen für einen Wert, wenn es nicht eingehen kann auf die konkreten Tatsachen, wenn es nicht hinweisen kann darauf, was denn eigentlich geschieht innerhalb der geistigen Welt! Hier auf der Erde verlangen wir ja auch nicht, daß die Menschen von einer Wiese so sprechen, wie die Pantheisten oder Monisten oder abstrakten Philosophlinge über die Gottheit sprechen, sondern man verlangt, daß man die Wiese in ihren Einzelheiten beschreibt. So ist es ja auch gegenüber der geistigen Welt. Auch da muß man einen Sinn dafür haben, die konkreten Einzelheiten anzugeben. Das ist dem Menschen heute noch ungewohnt. Wenn man im allgemeinen von Geistigkeit redet, daß es eine geistige Welt gibt und so weiter, so nehmen das viele, die nicht starre Materialisten sind, hin. Aber wenn man diese geistige Welt im einzelnen beschreibt, da werden die Menschen oft wütend, weil sie nicht gelten lassen wollen, daß man konkret im einzelnen über die Wesenheiten und Geschehnisse der geistigen Welt sprechen kann. Es muß aber immer mehr und mehr, wenn nicht die menschliche Zivilisation in das Chaos verfallen soll, es muß immer mehr real von der geistigen Welt gesprochen werden. Denn auch die Erdenereignisse bleiben dunkel, wenn man dasjenige, was sie verhüllen, nicht kennenlernt.

Und in dieser Beziehung, meine lieben Freunde, ist ja wirklich schon im Schicksal der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft etwas gelegen, was einen manchmal tragisch berührt! Aber wenn das nötige Verständnis für diese Dinge sich verbreitet, wenigstens innerhalb des Kreises der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft, so kann man ja hoffen, daß aus der Tragik sich dasjenige entwickelt, was sein muß, daß von der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft wirklich ausgeht eine Befruchtung der ja deutlich in das Chaos des Materialismus hingehenden äußeren Zivilisation der Menschheit. Aber dann muß etwas verstanden werden, was in ihr eben anfangs nicht verstanden worden ist, aber jetzt leichter verstanden werden kann, da ja zwei, mehr als zwei Jahrzehnte anthroposophischer Arbeit seit der Begründung der anthroposophischen Richtung verflossen sind.

Sie wissen ja, die anthroposophische Bewegung war im Beginne im Schoße der theosophischen Bewegung. Und als wir in Berlin diejenige theosophische Sektion begründeten, aus der dann die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft heraus sich entwickelt hat, da war unsere erste Versammlung so, daß ich in der Tat damals, ich möchte sagen, eine Art Ton angeben wollte für dasjenige, was eigentlich geschehen sollte. Und ich darf jetzt, wo wir durch die Dornacher Weihnachtstagung am Goetheanum den Versuch gemacht haben, die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft zu reorganisieren, ich darf auf eine Tatsache, die vielleicht recht wenig beachtet worden ist, hinweisen. Hier kann sie ja nicht beobachtet worden seiri, weil von unseren böhmischen Freunden niemand anwesend war, soviel mir bekannt ist. Ich habe dazumal einen ersten Vortrag von der Art, wie sie später den Zweigvorträgen entsprachen, gehalten; der trug einen sonderbaren Titel, einen Titel, den man damals als ein großes Wagnis bezeichnen konnte, er trug den Titel: «Praktische Karmaübungen.» Und ich hatte eigentlich vor, ganz unbefangen über die Wirkungsweise des Karma zu sprechen.

Nun waren auf der Versammlung zunächst die Koryphäen der vorangegangenen theosophischen Bewegung, die mein Dasein dazumal als das eines Eindringlings empfunden haben und die von vorneherein überzeugt waren, daß ich eigentlich keine Berechtigung habe, über etwas Inneres, Geistiges zu sprechen. Und so hat es sich gegeben, daß in der damaligen Zeit diese Koryphäen der vergangenen theosophischen Bewegung immer wieder betont haben: Wissenschaft muß sein, der Wissenschaft der Gegenwart muß Rechnung getragen werden; die Sache ist nun auf gutem Wege, aber nur die ersten Schritte sind gemacht. Wenn man von diesen ersten Schritten weitergeht, kommt man erst zu dem, was sein soll. - Das ist schön, aber dabei kam nichts Besonderes heraus. Und so ist dann dasjenige, was dazumal beabsichtigt war, zu einer ziemlich theoretischen Sache geworden. Die «Praktischen Karmaübungen» waren angekündigt, aber kein Mensch hätte dazumal etwas von dem verstanden, am wenigsten die Koryphäen der Theosophischen Gesellschaft. Und so blieb dann das eine Aufgabe, die gewissermaßen unter der Oberfläche der anthroposophischen Strömung gepflegt werden mußte, die zunächst mit der geistigen Welt abgemacht werden mußte. Aber heute — und wie oftmals während der Entwickelung der anthroposophischen Bewegung - muß ich gedenken jenes Titels, den eigentlich der allererste anthroposophische Zweigvortrag haben sollte: «Praktische Karmaübungen.» Ich kann mich auch erinnern, wie erschrocken die Koryphäen damals gewesen sind, daß so ein verwegener Titel dazumal erschien.

Nun, sehen Sie, seither sind mehr als zwei Jahrzehnte hinuntergegangen, die Zeit läuft, es ist manches vorbereitet worden; aber diese Vorbereitung muß auch eine Wirkung haben. Und daher muß es heute möglich sein, daß eine solche Wirkung eintritt, daß in gewisser Beziehung die «Praktischen Karmaübungen » auftreten können, mit denen man - etwas kühn zu Werke gehend - dazumal beginnen wollte. Und sehen Sie, das wollte ja gerade unsere Weihnachtstagung: das wirklich kraftvolle Esoterische in die ganze anthroposophische Bewegung hineinbringen. Und damit muß Ernst gemacht werden. Denn mit dem bloß Formalistischen wird unsere anthroposophische Bewegung doch nicht reorganisierend auf unsere Zivilisation wirken. Deshalb soll in der Zukunft nicht davor zurückgeschreckt werden, in aller Offenheit über die Verhältnisse der geistigen Welt zu reden.

Nun möchte ich heute mit einigem beginnen, was als Geistiges zugrunde liegt dem Erdengeschehen, der Erdenmenschheit. Sehen Sie, wit haben in der ganzen Erdenentwickelung stehend dasjenige, was sich vollzog als das Mysterium von Golgatha. Ich habe ja oftmals darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie durch das Mysterium von Golgatha die Erdenentwickelung eigentlich erst ihren Sinn bekommen hat, wie alles dasjenige, was dem Mysterium von Golgatha vorangegangen ist, gerade einer tieferen Betrachtung wie eine Vorbereitung zum Mysterium von Golgatha erscheint. Und wenn auch seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha durch die Schwäche der Menschen und von der geistigen Seite her durch die ahrimanischen und luziferischen Mächte die Hindernisse zunächst noch auffälliger sind als der Fortschritt der Menschheit, so ist seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha dennoch von der physischen und geistigen Welt ausgehend alles geschehen, um den Menschen weiterzubringen in der gesamten Weltenentwickelung. Dasjenige, was das Christentum der Menschheit gebracht hat, wird, wenn die Menschheit sich würdig erweist, es in seiner geistigen Vertiefung aufzunehmen, sich erst in der Zukunft erweisen, Aber der Impuls auch zu alledem, was Anthroposophie bewirken kann - liegt im Mysterium von Golgatha.

Nun wissen wir, wie dieses Mysterium von Golgatha seine Wirkung zunächst geäußert hat über den Süden von Europa hinüber nach Mitteleuropa hinein. Doch ist das nicht dasjenige, was ich heute betrachten möchte. Ich möchte, daß Sie einen Blick werfen auf die Art, wie das Christentum über Nordafrika sich hereinverbreitet hat nach der europäischen Welt. Nun aber wissen Sie, daß ja mehr als ein halbes Jahrtausend nach der Begründung des Christentums durch das Mysterium von Golgatha sich eine andere religiöse Strömung von Asien herüber verbreitete: die mohammedanische. Diese mohammedanische Geistesart, die an den Namen des Mohammed anknüpft, sie erweist sich gegenüber dem Christentum als etwas, was mehr in Abstraktionen lebt als das Christentum. Das Christentum enthält, möchte ich sagen, viel mehr von unmittelbarer Schilderung der geistigen Welt als der Mohammedanismus. Aber der Mohammedanismus, er hat das Schicksal gehabt, vieles von alter Wissenschaft, alter Kultur in sich aufzunehmen. Und so sehen wir denn, wie gewissermaßen dem Christentum nachfolgend von Asien herüber sich später der Mohammedanismus ausbreitet. Es ist interessant, diese eigentümliche Ausbreitung zu verfolgen. Wir sehen, wie etwas weiter nach Norden die Strömung des Christentums geht, die dann nach Mitteleuropa kommt, und wie der Mohammedanismus gewissermaßen umklammert diese christliche Strömung über Nordafrika, Spanien bis Frankreich hinein; so umgabelt er dieses Christentum.

Nun kann man leicht einsehen, daß die europäische Kultur eine ganz andere geworden wäre, wenn das Christentum allein gewirkt hätte. In äußerer politischer Beziehung, da hat allerdings die europäische Kultur den Mohammedanismus - vielleicht besser gesagt den Arabismus - zurückgeschlagen. Allein wer das geistige Leben Europas ansieht, der kann zum Beispiel wissen, daß wir unsere gegenwärtige Weltanschauung - von der einen Seite den materialistischen Geist, von der anderen Seite die Wissenschaft mit dieser Schärfe des Denkens, mit einer arabeskenhaft entwickelten Logik, mit alledem, was eben diese Wissenschaft ist - nicht hätten, wenn nicht, trotzdem der Arabismus zurückgeschlagen worden ist, derselbe weiter gewirkt hätte. Und von jenem Spanien aus, ja noch von Frankreich, von dem Süditalien vorgelegenen Sizilien, von Afrika aus sind mächtige Einflüsse gekommen, welche die Denkformen Europas beeinflußt haben, die alles anders gestaltet haben, als es sonst geworden wäre, wenn bloß das Christentum gewirkt hätte. In unserer Wissenschaft ist mehr Arabismus als Christentum!

Nun hat später noch ein anderer Weg sich eröffnet: derjenige der Kreuzzüge, wo die Europäer direkt die allerdings schon in Dekadenz begriffene morgenländische Kultur kennengelernt haben. Vieles gerade von den Geheimnissen der morgenländischen Kultur hat er ihnen gebracht, so daß gerade in der abendländischen Zivilisation über der Schicht des Christentums dasjenige liegt, was vom Orientalismus durch den Arabismus durchgegangen ist. Aber sehen Sie, das alles wird eigentlich nicht verständlich, wenn man es nur von außen anschaut. Das alles muß von innen angeschaut werden. Von innen angeschaut nimmt es sich so aus, daß ja allerdings durch Kriege, durch gewonnene Schlachten der Arabismus zurückgedrängt worden ist, daß die Araber, die Träger des Mohammedanismus, die Mauren und so weiter zurückgedrängt worden sind. Aber die Seelen dieser Leute verkörperten sich ja wieder, kamen wieder und wirkten weiter. Und man hat gar nichts davon, wenn man in abstrakter Weise schildert, wie der Arabismus von Spanien nach Europa gekommen ist; man hat erst etwas an Einsicht, wenn man die inneren konkreten Tatsachen kennt.

Nehmen wir eine solche Tatsache. Da lebte in der Zeit, wo in der europäischen Geschichte von Karl dem Großen die Rede ist, in Asien, in Bagdad in einem wunderbaren Glanz, in großartiger orientalischer Bildung Harun al Raschid vom achten ins neunte Jahrhundert herüber, wie ja auch Karl der Große. An Harun al Raschids Hofe war alles, was dazumal an vorderasiatischer, überhaupt an asiatischer Bildung vorhanden war, zwar getaucht in Mohammedanismus, aber es war alles, was an Bildung gegeben war, vorhanden: Mathematik, Philosophie, Architektur, Handel, Industrie, Geographie, Medizin, Astronomie, alles wurde von den erleuchtetsten Geistern Asiens am Hofe des Harun al Raschid betrieben. Heute haben die Menschen wenig Begriffe davon, wie gewaltig und großartig das war, was am Hofe Harun al Raschids getrieben worden ist. Da ist zunächst Harun al Raschid selber: nicht ein unverständiger Herrscher, der nur heranzog die großartigsten Weisen Vorderasiens, um zu glänzen, sondern eine Persönlichkeit, zwar in religiöser Beziehung ganz hingegeben dem Mohammedanismus, aber offen und frei für alles dasjenige, was orientalische Zivilisation brachte und hatte. Während Karl der Große notdürftig schreiben und lesen gelernt hat, war ein viel größerer Glanz am Hofe von Bagdad, ja es war gar nicht zu vergleichen mit Karl dem Großen, was eben dort von Harun al Raschid geleistet worden ist.

Es war auch die Zeit, in welcher ein großer Teil der damaligen vorderasiatischen Welt schon dem Mohammedanismus erobert war, ein großer Teil von Afrika, und überallhin wurde getragen dasjenige, was in so glanzvoller Weise am Hofe Harun al Raschids gewirkt hatte. Aber unter denjenigen, welche Träger von Geographie, Naturforschung, Medizin am Hofe von Harun al Raschid waren, befand sich so mancher, der in einer noch früheren Inkarnation Angehöriger einer alten Mysterienschule gewesen war. Denn die Menschen werden, auch wenn sie früher Eingeweihte waren, nicht immer wiederum so geboren, daß gleich bemerkt wird, daß sie in einem früheren Leben Eingeweihte gewesen sind. Man kann ja in jedem Zeitalter, auch wenn man ein Eingeweihter in früheren Mysterien war, nur diejenige Geistigkeit annehmen, nur zu derjenigen Seelenverfassung kommen, die einem der Leib gestattet, die in einem bestimmten Zeitalter sein kann. Wenn man auf das eigentliche Seelische hinschaut, so deckt es sich nicht mit den dialektisch-logischen Vorstellungen, die man von dem Seelischen im Menschen hat. Das Seelische ist eigentlich viel tiefer gelegen, als man es gewöhnlich auffaßt.

Ich will Ihnen ein Beispiel sagen. Denken Sie einmal an eine Persönlichkeit wie Ernst Haeckel. Bei ihm fällt zunächst auf, daß seine Weltanschauung materialistisch gefärbt ist, daß er eine Art von Mechanismus nicht nur der Natur, sondern auch des Seelenlebens vertreten hat, daß er in wuchtigen Hieben auf den Katholizismus loshaut, daß er da manchmal entzückend, manchmal fanatisch, aber manchmal auch geschmacklos ist. Derjenige, der die Zusammenhänge der verschiedenen Erdenleben beim Menschen ins Auge faßt, wird nach diesen Eigenschaften am allerwenigsten hinschauen, sondern er wird hinschauen auf die tieferen Eigenschaften der Seele. Kein Mensch, der sich blenden läßt von dem, was an Haeckel zunächst auffällt, kann, wenn er praktische Karmamethoden entwickeln will, auf Haeckels vorige Inkarnation kommen. Denn wer auf Haeckels vorige Inkarnation kommen will, der muß hinschauen auf die Art, wie Haeckel dasjenige vertrat, was er als Anschauungen hatte. Es ist aus der Zeit zu erklären, in der Haeckel gelebt hat, daß er gerade diese materialistische Bildung hatte. Das aber ist das Unwesentlichste, es kommt auf das innere Seelengefüge an. Und kann man dieses innere Seelengefüge fassen und hat man das okkulte Schauen, dann führt der Blick zurück - zum Beispiel gerade bei Haeckel - zu Papst Gregor VII., dem ehemaligen Mönch Hildebrand, der gerade einer der kräftigsten, intensivsten Vertreter des Katholizismus war. Derjenige, der dann die beiden Gestalten vergleicht und weiß, daß es sich um diese beiden Gestalten handelt, der wird schon das Ähnliche herausfinden, der wird auch den Blick dafür bekommen, was in bezug auf die großen Angelegenheiten der Menschheit das Unbedeutende und was das Bedeutende ist. Die theoretischen Ideen sind gar nicht das Wesentliche. Die theoretischen Ideen sind nur in unserer theoretischen, materialistischen, abstrakten Zeit das Wesentliche. Hinter den Kulissen der Weltgeschichte ist dasjenige, was die Seele in ihrer Art ist, das Wesentliche. Wer das durchschaut, wird schon die Ähnlichkeit zwischen Gregor VII. und seiner Wiederverkörperung als Haeckel herausfinden können.

Solche Anschauungen muß man sich erst aneignen, wenn man auf das konkrete Karmawesen eingeht, und wenn einem das etwas soll sagen können, daß zum Beispiel am Hofe Harun al Raschids Menschen lebten, welche eben äußerlich, weil ihnen so der physische Körper und die Erziehung gegeben waren, sich im Sinne des achten bis neunten Jahrhunderts ausnahmen, die aber die Wiederverkörperungen von alten Eingeweihten in Mysterien waren. Wenn man den geistigen Blick hinrichtet auf diesen Hof Harun al Raschids, dann fällt einem ganz besonders eine Persönlichkeit auf, die ein gründlicher, intensiv wirkender Ratgeber Harun al Raschids und für die damalige Zeit ein universeller Geist war, ein Geist, der diese Merkwürdigkeit hinter sich hatte, daß er in einer vorigen Inkarnation an allen Einweihungen in derselben Gegend, in der Harun al Raschid herrschte - als aber noch ganz andere Völker dort waren - teilgenommen hatte, und der in einer späteren Inkarnation als eine andere Persönlichkeit mit aller inneren Sehnsucht nach einer Initiation gestrebt hat, sie aber nicht erreichen konnte, weil das Schicksal ihn nicht dazu kommen ließ, damals eingeweiht zu werden. Eine solche Persönlichkeit lebte am Hofe Harun al Raschids, die daher dasjenige im tiefsten Inneren verbergen mußte, was aus der früheren Einweihungsinkarnation in ihr war. Das Nichterreichen-Können lag in einer späteren Inkarnation, dann kam diejenige, die am Hofe Harun al Raschids war. Und am Hofe Harun al Raschids wurde diese Persönlichkeit — weil ja dazumal nicht mehr im alten Sinne Initiationen möglich waren - einfach eine Persönlichkeit, die aus einem mächtigen Drange, aus einer mächtigen Phantasie, einer exakten, logischen Phantasie wirkte, ungeheuer anregend wirkte auf . alles, was an diesem Hofe gepflegt worden ist, und der Organisator an diesem Hofe war. Es lebten da alle möglichen Gelehrten, Künstler, ein ganzes Heer von Dichtern war ja am Hofe Harun al Raschids, es lebten Vertreter aller Wissenschaften da. Außerdem war Bagdad dazumal eben der Mittelpunkt für alles weit ausgedehnte wissenschaftlich-künstlerische Treiben, das in dem Kalifenreiche vorhanden war. Und was da zu organisieren war, ging eigentlich alles mit von dieser Persönlichkeit aus, einer Persönlichkeit von hoher Initiative. Nun, solche Individualitäten haben doch eine große Bedeutung im weiteren Fortgang der Menschheitsentwickelung.

Sehen wir uns jetzt die Persönlichkeit Harun al Raschids selber an. Wer mit einem okkulten Blick diese Persönlichkeit in ihrer Seelenhaftigkeit erfassen und sie dann wieder aufsuchen kann, und sucht, ob sie sich wieder verkörpert hat, der findet, daß diese Persönlichkeit Harun al Raschids ja in der Tat eine solche war, die weiter verbunden war mit demjenigen, was sie auf der Erde gestiftet hat, es weitergetragen hat, indem sie durch des Todes Pforte gegangen ist, die weitergegangen ist auf geistige Art mit der Erdenentwickelung der Menschheit, die von der geistigen Welt aus vieles beeinflußt hat, aber auch selber viel wieder aufgenommen hat. Und dann erschien sie wiederum eben in der Art, in der sie erscheinen konnte dem Zeitalter nach: es erschien diese Persönlichkeit als Lord Baco von Verulam, der der Begründer der neueren Wissenschaftlichkeit war. Baco von Verulam hat ja geradezu dem neueren europäischen Denken von England aus einen großen Anstoß gegeben. Sie können sagen: Ja, er unterscheidet sich mächtig von der Persönlichkeit Harun al Raschids! Aber es ist doch dieselbe Individualität! Denn dasjenige, was eben äußerlich als Unterschied auftritt, gehört der Äußerlichkeit an. Und so sehen wir gewissermaßen die Seele Harun al Raschids von Asien herüber sich nach dem Tode weiterentwickeln, um vom Westen herüber in der Art, wie es eben geschehen konnte, sogar vieles vom neueren Materialismus begründend, auf die neuere europäische Zivilisation zu wirken.

Die andere Persönlichkeit, die nicht nur die rechte Hand, sondern die Seele des Hofes Harun al Raschids war, die jenes merkwürdige Schicksal in geistiger Beziehung hatte, diese Seele machte einen anderen Weg. Dieser Seele lag wenig daran, als sie durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen war, noch einen äußeren Glanz auszuleben. Diese Seele hatte vielmehr den inneren Drang, sich recht innerlich auszuleben. Darum konnte sie gar nicht einen Weg machen, der sie in der nächsten Inkarnation hinüber nach dem Westen geführt hätte. Beachten Sie nur, wie es mit Harun al Raschid war: ungeheurer Glanz, innerliche Gediegenheit der Zivilisation am Hofe Harun al Raschids, aber zu gleicher Zeit der Drang, alles zu veräußerlichen, was im Mohammedanismus gegeben war. Das mußte sich in einer nächsten Inkarnation ausleben. Die weite, umfangreiche Wissenschaftlichkeit mußte zum Vorschein kommen. Sie kam zum Vorschein. Es drängte sich dasjenige, was äußerer Glanz am Hofe Harun al Raschids war, bei Baco selber ans Tageslicht.

Die andere Persönlichkeit war zwar die Seele am Hofe Harun al Raschids, aber eine sehr innerliche Persönlichkeit. Sie stand ja sehr nahe demjenigen, was in den alten Mysterien gepflegt worden ist. Nun konnte man dieses nicht ausleben, wenigstens nicht bis in unsere Zeit, wo das Kali Yuga abgelaufen ist und die Michaelszeit beginnt, wo es wieder möglich geworden ist, ganz unbefangen vom Geistigen zu sprechen. Man konnte aber, was man so aufgenommen hatte, in einer umfassenden, energischen Weise so in die Zivilisation hineingießen, daß es von einer intensiven Wirkung werden konnte. So etwas geschah mit der anderen Persönlichkeit. Die entwickelte sich, nachdem sie durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen war, so in der geistigen Welt, daß sie zuletzt, als sie wieder auf der Erde erschien, ich möchte sagen nicht im Westen landen konnte, wo der Materialismus herkam, sondern in Mitteleuropa landen mußte und dort ausleben konnte dasjenige, was aus den alten Mysterien stammte, aber angepaßt werden mußte den geänderten Zeitverhältnissen. Aus dieser Persönlichkeit wurde die des Amos Comenius. Und so könnte man sagen, daß diese zwei Seelen, welche am Hofe Harun al Raschids gelebt haben, in der folgenden Zeit so durch die Weltgeschichte gegangen sind, daß sie zwei verschiedene Wege gegangen sind. Die eine, möchte ich sagen, den Süden Europas umsäumend, um vom Westen aus Organisator der neueren Geschichte, Philosophie, der Wissenschaften zu sein, als Baco von Verulam; die andere nahm, ich möchte sagen, den Landweg, jenen Weg, den auch die Kreuzzüge genommen haben; er nahm den Weg nach Mitteleuropa. Auch er wurde ein großer Organisator, aber man sieht seiner Organisation an, wie sie anders wirkte. Und in der Tat, ein großartiges Schauspiel, ein gewaltiges Schauspiel ist es, daß, allerdings zu etwas verschiedenen Zeiten - man darf das nicht mißverstehen, aber das war mit dem weltgeschichtlichen Karma verbunden - Amos Comenius und Lord Baco von Verulam lebten, daß sie verschiedene Wege genommen haben. Aber dann war es so, daß sie sich doch in der letzten Zeit wiederum, wenn ich mich des trivialen Ausdruckes bedienen darf, in Mitteleuropa getroffen haben. Und vieles von dem, was die Zivilisation finden muß, mußte ja in dieser Weise in der Zivilisation sich vollziehen, daß dasjenige, was in esoterischer Beziehung in dem Wirken des Amos Comenius liegt, sich verbindet mit der Kraft, die in die Technik eingezogen ist, sich verbindet mit allem, was liegt in demjenigen, was durch Baco von Verulam begründet worden ist. Aber es ist eines der wunderbarsten Beispiele der Weltgeschichte, dieses Ausgehen von zwei Seelen, die im achten bis neunten Jahrhundert gewirkt haben am Hofe Harun al Raschids. Harun al Raschid selber, der gewissermaßen geht über Afrika und Südeuropa nach England, um von England zu wirken nach Mitteleuropa herein; Amos Comenius, der nach Mitteleuropa herüberkommt, um in dem, was er ausbildete, sich mit dem anderen zu begegnen.

So, meine lieben Freunde, wird geschichtliche Betrachtung eigentlich erst Realität. Denn was von einer Epoche der Weltgeschichte in die andere Epoche geht, das geht ja nicht in abstrakten Begriffen, fliegt ja nicht in abstrakten Begriffen hinüber, sondern die Menschenseelen sind es selber, die hinübertragen dasjenige, was geschehen ist. Wir verstehen erst, wie in der folgenden Zeit dasjenige entsteht, was sich aus der früheren Zeit entwickelt, wenn wir verfolgen, wie die Seelen sich hinüberentwickeln von einem Zeitalter in das andere. Wir müssen überall Ernst machen mit dem, was man Maja nennt, und der innerlichen Wirklichkeit. Auch Geschichte ist Maja, wenn man sie nur von außen betrachtet; man begreift sie erst, wenn man von der Maja zur Wahrheit geht.

Möge nun - wir wollen ja diese Betrachtungen in der nächsten Mitgliederversammlung fortsetzen -—, meine lieben Freunde, es in der richtigen Weise aufgefaßt werden, wenn jetzt, inauguriert durch die Weihnachtstagung, an die Verwirklichung dessen gegangen wird, was ganz im Anfang - vielleicht mit einiger Naivität - angekündigt wurde als «Praktische Karmaübungen». Nach einer jahrzehntelangen Vorbereitung wird aber wohl innerhalb der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft eine wirkliche geistige Betrachtung auch über den Karmagedanken, über praktische Karmaübungen ertragen werden können, ohne daß daraus Mißverständnisse und Verirrungen im Leben erwachsen.

Third Lecture

Yesterday I referred to a number of things that are connected with karma, the formation of human destiny, which is continuously bound through human lives on earth. Today I would like to give you a mental image of how destiny is actually formed. We must be clear about the fact that when man passes through the gate of death he enters a spiritual world, a spiritual world that is not poorer in events and beings than our physical world, but infinitely richer. And as understandable as it may be that one can only ever describe one or the other of the wide range of this spiritual world, it will, on the other hand, also be apparent from the various descriptions that are given how infinitely rich and varied life is spent by man between death and a new birth. Here on earth, where we spend life between birth and death, we are surrounded by what we regard as the different kingdoms of nature: the mineral, the vegetable, the animal kingdom, the physical human kingdom. We regard these kingdoms, apart from the human kingdom, - and rightly so - as including beings which, in order of rank, are below man, so that man, during his earthly existence, can feel himself to be, as it were, the highest being within these kingdoms of beings. In the realm which the human being enters through the gate of death, the exact opposite is the case. There man feels himself to be that being which, as the lowest in the hierarchy, joins beings that are superior to him, the human being. As you know, in the anthroposophical literature I have used the names of the hierarchies above the human being to designate these beings and have distinguished, according to a terminology that has been around from older times, first of all that hierarchy which stands directly above the human being, that is, which connects itself upwards to the human being in the same way as the animal kingdom connects itself downwards to him in the earth realm. This is the hierarchy to which Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai belong. Then after this Hierarchy, going further upwards, comes the Hierarchy which embraces the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. Then the highest hierarchy, the supreme, the thrones, cherubim, seraphim. We have nine orders of rank, three times three orders of rank above man. Three together we can parallelize, if we go from the bottom upwards, with what we have when we go downwards, as animals in three stages, plants in three stages downwards, minerals in three stages downwards. With this, however, we have only given the complete world of that to which man belongs.

Man's existence could also be described by saying: With physical birth, physical conception, man enters from a purely spiritual existence into the realm of the natural orders of the animal, vegetable and mineral; and man, by passing through the gate of death, enters the realm of the beings above him. At one time man lives in a physical body, which connects him with the kingdoms of nature; at another time, between death and a new birth, man lives - if I may use the expression - in a spiritual body, which also connects him with the beings of the higher hierarchies. Here in the earth realm we first turn to that which is around us; we feel it to be on the same level with us, so to speak, and look up from the earth realm to the heavenly realm - as it is now called in the most diverse views - to the spiritual realm. The earthly man looks upwards with his premonitions, with his religious piety, with that which is the most desirable for his earthly existence. And when he wants to form a mental image of what is up there in the spiritual realm, he forms shapes that are borrowed from the earthly, he imagines in an earthly way that which is above. When man then lives in life between death and a new birth, it is the other way round. Man points downwards when he wants to designate that towards which his gaze is directed. You may say, my dear friends: Yes, but then man points to that which is less valuable. But that is not the case. Rather, seen from above, what is here in the earthly realm is quite different from what is here in the earthly realm. And it is precisely when we look at karma that we can really understand how different that which takes place on earth, seen from above, is from how it appears to man here in the earth realm itself.

When we first enter the spiritual world through the gate of death, we first come into the realm of the lowest hierarchy, the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai. We feel connected, so to speak, to that which stands above us as the next hierarchy, and we realize: Just as in the earthly realm what is around us has its meaning for the senses, so what is in the spiritual realm has its meaning for the innermost part of the soul. We speak of minerals, of plants, of animals, in so far as we can see them with our eyes, grasp them with our hands, in so far as they are at all perceptible to us through the senses; and between death and a new birth we speak of Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, in so far as these entities have a connection with that which is the innermost being of the soul. And we gradually learn, as we progress through the long life that we spend between death and a new birth, to integrate ourselves into that which the beings of the next higher hierarchy have to do with us and with each other. They connect us, so to speak, with the spiritual outer world. In the life between death and a new birth we are also initially very much occupied with ourselves, for the third, the lowest hierarchy has to do with our inner being. But then, after some time, our view is broadened, we get to know the spiritual world outside us, the objective spiritual world, where our guides are the entities of the Exusiai, Kyriotetes, Dynamis. They bring us together with that which is the spiritual outer world. And I would like to say, just as we here on earth speak of what surrounds us: Mountains, rivers, forests, meadows and so on, so there we speak of that to which the beings of the second hierarchy bring us. That is our environment. But this environment is not objective in the same sense as the earth, but this environment is essential, everything lives, and lives in a spiritual way. In a way, between death and a new birth we not only get to know entities, things, but we get to know entities and the deeds they do among themselves, we feel ourselves spun in and devoted to these deeds.

But then comes a time when we feel how the beings of the third hierarchy, Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai, and the beings of the second hierarchy, Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, work together with us on what we are to become in the next life on earth. And in this life between death and a new birth, a shattering, tremendous perspective opens up to us. We look at the goings-on of the third hierarchy, Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, see how they relate to each other. We get pictures of what is present among the beings of this third hierarchy; but these pictures all appear to us in such a way that they have a relation to us. And we realize, when we look at what appears as pictures of the deeds of the third Hierarchy, that it is the opposite image of what we have had as an attitude, as an inner state of mind in the last life on earth. We do not now say to ourselves with abstract ideas of conscience: You have been a man who has acted unjustly towards this or that man, who has thought unjustly, no, but we see from what the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai do, how they appear before our eyes in mighty images, what becomes of that which we have carried within us as a mood of mind, as soul-content, as a way of thinking in the last life on earth; there we see how it becomes an image in what the entities of the third Hierarchy do. Spread out in the wide world is that in the spiritual sphere which we have developed in our attitudes towards other people, towards other earthly things. And we become aware of what we think, feel and sense. Here on earth it appears in the Maja, as if it were enclosed in our skin; in the life between death and a new birth it is different. In the life between death and a new birth it appears in such a way that we now know: That which we develop within ourselves in terms of thoughts, feelings and attitudes belongs to the whole world, it has an effect on the whole world.

According to the Orient, many people speak of the maja, of the illusion of the outer world that surrounds us; but it remains an abstract thought. If one makes observations such as those that have been able to pass through our souls, then one realizes how serious it is with the words: This world that surrounds us is Maja, is the great illusion, - and how illusory the view is of what goes on in our soul. We believe we can be alone with it. The truth only appears to us when we live through life between death and a new birth. Then we see what is apparently within us as the content of a vast, powerful, spiritual world. Then we live on and realize how the beings of the second Hierarchy, Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, are connected with that which we have acquired here on earth through diligence, activity, through the interest we have had in the things and processes of the earth. For our diligence, our interest in the last life on earth is initially formed in powerful images by these entities: Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, they form the images of our talents, of our abilities in our next life on earth. We look at what talents and abilities we will have in our next earthly life, at the images that the beings of the second hierarchy unroll.

And then life goes on. When it comes close to the middle between death and a new birth, then something special happens. As we stand here on earth - especially in those moments when we look up into the universe, when the twinkling stars shine towards us - we feel the sublimity of the heavenly world realm above; we feel something much grander looking down when we are in the spirit realm. For there we see how the beings of the first hierarchy: seraphim, cherubim, thrones perform deeds in a strange way in mutual relationship. Mighty pictures of spiritual happenings now show themselves to us when we look at the heaven that lies below - for that is then our heaven. Just as we now look upwards at the writing of the stars in our physical life on earth, so when we look downwards we see the deeds of the seraphim, cherubim and thrones. And that which takes place between them, which reveals itself in sublime and magnificent images, we feel in this spiritual existence how it has something to do with how we ourselves are and will be. For now we feel: What happens among the seraphim, cherubim and thrones shows us what consequences our deeds from the previous earthly life will have in the next earthly life. We see how we have behaved towards one person in one way and towards another person in another way in our earthly life, how we have developed compassion or lack of compassion, how we have performed good or evil deeds. The attitude has to do with the third hierarchy, but the deeds with the first hierarchy, seraphim, cherubim, thrones. Then that which we did in our last life on earth between birth and death appears before our soul as if in a memory that is now cosmically active in us. Then we look down and see the deeds of spirituality. Seraphim, cherubim, thrones, what do they do? They show us in image that which we will have to experience with the people with whom we lived together in the previous life on earth as a consequence of the new life together in order to compensate for what took place between us in the previous life on earth. And we understand from the way in which seraphim, cherubim and thrones work together that the great problem is being solved. When I have to deal with a person in an earthly life, I prepare the whole balance myself; and only that it, the balance, occurs, that it becomes reality, that is what seraphim, cherubim, thrones then work out. And they bring it into harmony with the fact that the other, with whom I will again have something to do, is also led to me in the same way as I am led to him. What is experienced in a sublime way in the images of the deeds of the higher hierarchies is that which is then recorded by the lunar beings and then entered by the lunar beings when they descend into our astral body. Together with us, who are between death and a new birth, these moon beings see what happens so that the balance with the previous earth life takes place in the next earth life.

You can guess from this, my dear friends, what I can tell you in such a way, how great and mighty in comparison with the sensual world that is what is revealed there. But you can also see how that which confronts us in the sensual world really conceals much, much more than it reveals.

After passing through the region of the seraphim, cherubim and thrones, the human being moves on to the next life and then moves on to other regions. More and more the longing for a new embodiment arises in him, in which he can find compensation for what he has gone through in the previous life on earth.

Anthroposophy, my dear friends, is not the right thing if it is merely a sum of ideas and concepts, if one merely speaks in an abstract way of the fact that there is a karma, that such and such is worked over from one earth life to another, but anthroposophy actually only becomes the right thing when it does not merely speak to our head, but awakens in our heart a feeling, a perception of what impressions we can receive in the supersensible world through the beings of this supersensible world. For it seems to me that no man who has an open, receptive mind can receive communications about the supersensible world, as I have now described it, without the whole gamut of sensations being aroused in this soul. And actually it should be so that we say to ourselves: Yes, here on earth we go through many things, from the deepest pain to the highest pleasure, to the most joyful happiness, the whole scale of human feeling; but that which we can experience from the spiritual world should actually have a more intense effect on us than the deepest pain, the highest pleasure can have on us. And we only relate to the spiritual world in the right way when we say that what we feel towards the facts and beings of the spiritual world remains shadowy compared to the great pain or the great joy we feel on earth. It does not remain shadowy for the initiate, but it remains shadowy for those who only receive the knowledge of initiation science. But then you should also say to yourself: I nevertheless get an idea of how deeply and intensely what is communicated from the spiritual world should actually affect the soul, if only it were strong and powerful enough. Man should actually only attribute it to his earthly weakness that he cannot go through all intervals of feeling from the highest enthusiasm to the deepest pain when he hears about what the spiritual world and its beings are like. If a person ascribes the fact that he cannot feel this in the right way to his weakness, then the soul has already achieved something of the right way of relating to the spiritual world. For, you see, what is the value of all spiritual cognition if it cannot deal with the concrete facts, if it cannot point out what is actually happening within the spiritual world! Here on earth we do not demand that people speak of a meadow in the same way that pantheists or monists or abstract philosophers speak of the Godhead, but rather that they describe the meadow in its details. It is the same with the spiritual world. There, too, one must have a sense for giving the concrete details. This is still unfamiliar to people today. When one generally speaks of spirituality, that there is a spiritual world and so on, many who are not rigid materialists accept this. But when this spiritual world is described in detail, people often become angry because they do not want to accept that it is possible to speak concretely in detail about the entities and events of the spiritual world. But more and more, if human civilization is not to fall into chaos, there must be more and more real talk about the spiritual world. For even earthly events remain dark if one does not get to know that which they conceal.

And in this respect, my dear friends, there really is something in the fate of the Anthroposophical Society that is sometimes tragically touching! But if the necessary understanding of these things spreads, at least within the circle of the Anthroposophical Society, then one can hope that out of the tragedy will develop what must be, that from the Anthroposophical Society will really emanate a fertilization of the outer civilization of humanity, which is clearly heading towards the chaos of materialism. But then something must be understood that was not understood in the beginning, but can now be understood more easily, since two, more than two decades of anthroposophical work have passed since the foundation of the anthroposophical movement.

You know that the anthroposophical movement began in the bosom of the theosophical movement. And when we founded the Theosophical Section in Berlin, out of which the Anthroposophical Society then developed, our first meeting was such that I did indeed want to set a kind of tone for what was actually to happen. And now that we have made an attempt to reorganize the Anthroposophical Society through the Dornach Christmas Conference at the Goetheanum, I may point out a fact that has perhaps received very little attention. It cannot have been observed here because, as far as I know, none of our Bohemian friends were present. At that time I gave a first lecture of the kind that later corresponded to the branch lectures; it had a strange title, a title that at that time could be described as a great risk, it was entitled: “Practical Karma Exercises.” And I had actually intended to speak quite impartially about the workings of karma.

Now the luminaries of the preceding theosophical movement were at the meeting, who at that time perceived my existence as that of an intruder and who were convinced from the outset that I actually had no right to speak about something inner, spiritual. And so it happened that at that time these luminaries of the past theosophical movement repeatedly emphasized: Science must be, the science of the present must be taken into account; the matter is now well on the way, but only the first steps have been taken. If one continues from these first steps, one arrives at what should be. - That's nice, but nothing special came out of it. And so what was intended at the time has become a rather theoretical matter. The “Practical Karma Exercises” were announced, but no one would have understood anything about them at the time, least of all the luminaries of the Theosophical Society. And so it remained a task that had to be cultivated to a certain extent beneath the surface of the anthroposophical current, which first had to be agreed with the spiritual world. But today - and as often during the development of the anthroposophical movement - I must remember the title that the very first anthroposophical branch lecture should actually have: “Practical Karma Exercises.” I can also remember how shocked the luminaries were at the time that such an audacious title appeared.

Now, you see, more than two decades have passed since then, time is running out, many things have been prepared; but this preparation must also have an effect. And therefore it must be possible today for such an effect to occur that in a certain respect the “Practical Karma Exercises” can occur, with which one wanted to begin - somewhat boldly going about it - at that time. And you see, that is precisely what our Christmas Conference wanted: to bring the truly powerful esoteric into the whole anthroposophical movement. And we must take this seriously. For our anthroposophical movement will not have a reorganizing effect on our civilization with mere formalism. Therefore, in the future we should not shy away from speaking openly about the conditions of the spiritual world.

Now I would like to begin today with some of the underlying spiritual aspects of earthly events, of earthly humanity. You see, in the entire development of the earth we have that which took place as the Mystery of Golgotha. I have often drawn your attention to the fact that it was through the Mystery of Golgotha that the earth's development actually first acquired its meaning, that everything that preceded the Mystery of Golgotha appears to a deeper contemplation as a preparation for the Mystery of Golgotha. And even if, since the Mystery of Golgotha, through the weakness of mankind and from the spiritual side through the Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers, the obstacles are at first even more conspicuous than the progress of mankind, since the Mystery of Golgotha everything has nevertheless happened from the physical and spiritual world to bring man further in the entire development of the world. That which Christianity has brought to mankind will, if mankind proves itself worthy to receive it in its spiritual deepening, only prove itself in the future, But the impulse also to all that anthroposophy can bring about - lies in the Mystery of Golgotha.

Now we know how this Mystery of Golgotha first expressed its effect over the south of Europe into Central Europe. But that is not what I want to look at today. I would like you to take a look at the way Christianity spread into the European world via North Africa. Now you know that more than half a millennium after the foundation of Christianity through the Mystery of Golgotha, another religious current spread from Asia: the Mohammedan one. This Mohammedan way of thinking, which is linked to the name of Mohammed, proves to be something that lives more in abstractions than Christianity. Christianity, I would say, contains much more of a direct description of the spiritual world than Mohammedanism. But Mohammedanism has had the fate of absorbing much of ancient science, ancient culture. And so we see how Mohammedanism later spread from Asia, following Christianity, so to speak. It is interesting to follow this peculiar spread. We see how the current of Christianity goes a little further north, which then comes to Central Europe, and how Mohammedanism to a certain extent embraces this Christian current via North Africa, Spain to France; in this way it surrounds this Christianity.

Now it is easy to see that European culture would have been quite different if Christianity had been the only influence. In external political terms, however, European culture has beaten back Mohammedanism - or rather Arabism. But anyone who looks at the intellectual life of Europe can know, for example, that we would not have our present worldview - on the one hand the materialistic spirit, on the other hand science with its sharpness of thought, with its arabesque-like logic, with all that this science is - if Arabism had not continued to work despite having been beaten back. And from that Spain, indeed from France, from Sicily in the south of Italy, from Africa, powerful influences have come which have affected the forms of thought in Europe, which have shaped everything differently than it would otherwise have been if only Christianity had been at work. There is more Arabism than Christianity in our science!

Now another path opened up later: that of the Crusades, where Europeans became directly acquainted with Oriental culture, although it was already in a state of decadence. It brought them many of the secrets of Oriental culture, so that in Western civilization, above the layer of Christianity, lies that which has passed from Orientalism through Arabism. But you see, none of this is really comprehensible if you only look at it from the outside. All this must be looked at from within. Looking at it from the inside, it appears that Arabism has been pushed back through wars, through battles won, that the Arabs, the bearers of Mohammedanism, the Moors and so on have been pushed back. But the souls of these people re-embodied themselves, came back and continued to work. And you gain nothing by describing in an abstract way how Arabism came from Spain to Europe; you only gain some insight when you know the inner concrete facts.

Let's take one such fact. At the time when Charlemagne is mentioned in European history, Harun al Rashid lived in Asia, in Baghdad, from the eighth to the ninth century, in a marvelous splendor, in magnificent oriental education, just like Charlemagne. At Harun al Rashid's court, everything that was available at that time in terms of Near Eastern and Asian education in general was immersed in Mohammedanism, but everything that was available in terms of education was there: Mathematics, philosophy, architecture, trade, industry, geography, medicine, astronomy, everything was practiced by the most enlightened minds of Asia at the court of Harun al Rashid. Today, people have little idea of how powerful and great what was done at the court of Harun al Rashid was. First of all, there is Harun al Rashid himself: not an incomprehensible ruler who only brought in the greatest sages of the Near East in order to shine, but a personality who, although completely devoted to Mohammedanism in religious terms, was open and free to everything that oriental civilization brought and had. While Charlemagne learned to read and write in a makeshift manner, there was a much greater splendor at the court of Baghdad, indeed, what Harun al Rashid achieved there could not be compared to Charlemagne.

It was also the time when a large part of the Near Eastern world at that time had already been conquered by Mohammedanism, a large part of Africa, and everywhere that which had worked so brilliantly at the court of Harun al Rashid was carried. But among those who were the bearers of geography, natural science and medicine at the court of Harun al Rashid, there were many who had been members of an ancient mystery school in an even earlier incarnation. For people, even if they were initiates in the past, are not always born again in such a way that it is immediately noticed that they were initiates in a previous life. In every age, even if one was an initiate in earlier Mysteries, one can only assume that spirituality, only come to that state of soul which the body allows one to have in a certain age. If one looks at the actual soul, it does not coincide with the dialectical-logical mental images that one has of the soul in man. The soul is actually much deeper than is usually understood.

I will give you an example. Think of a personality like Ernst Haeckel. The first thing that strikes you about him is that his worldview is materialistically colored, that he advocated a kind of mechanism not only of nature but also of the life of the soul, that he lashed out at Catholicism with powerful blows, that he was sometimes delightful, sometimes fanatical, but sometimes also distasteful. The person who looks at the connections between the different lives on earth in human beings will look least of all at these qualities, but will look at the deeper qualities of the soul. No one who allows himself to be blinded by what is initially striking about Haeckel can, if he wants to develop practical karma methods, come to Haeckel's previous incarnation. For whoever wants to come to Haeckel's previous incarnation must look at the way Haeckel represented what he had as views. It can be explained by the time in which Haeckel lived that he had precisely this materialistic education. But that is the least important thing, it depends on the inner soul structure. And if you can grasp this inner soul structure and if you have the occult vision, then the view leads back - for example, especially with Haeckel - to Pope Gregory VII, the former monk Hildebrand, who was one of the strongest, most intense representatives of Catholicism. The person who then compares the two figures and knows that these two figures are involved will find out what is similar, he will also gain an insight into what is insignificant and what is significant in relation to the great affairs of mankind. Theoretical ideas are not the essential. Theoretical ideas are only essential in our theoretical, materialistic, abstract time. Behind the scenes of world history, what is essential is what the soul is in its own way. Anyone who understands this will be able to see the similarity between Gregory VII and his reincarnation as Haeckel.

Such views must first be acquired when one goes into the concrete karma being, and if this is to tell one anything, that for example at the court of Harun al Raschid there lived people who just outwardly, because the physical body and the education were given to them, were in the sense of the eighth to ninth century, but who were the reincarnations of old initiates in mysteries. If one directs one's spiritual gaze to this court of Harun al Rashid, then one notices one personality in particular who was a thorough, intensely active advisor to Harun al Rashid and a universal spirit for that time, a spirit who had this peculiarity behind him, that in a previous incarnation he had participated in all initiations in the same region, in which Harun al Rashid ruled - but when there were still quite different peoples there - and who, in a later incarnation, had striven as another personality with all his inner longing for initiation, but could not achieve it because fate did not allow him to be initiated at that time. Such a personality lived at the court of Harun al Rashid, who therefore had to hide deep down what was in him from the earlier initiation incarnation. The inability to achieve lay in a later incarnation, then came the one that was at the court of Harun al Rashid. And at the court of Harun al Rashid this personality - because at that time initiations were no longer possible in the old sense - simply became a personality who acted out of a powerful urge, out of a powerful imagination, an exact, logical imagination, had a tremendously stimulating effect on everything that was cultivated at this court, and was the organizer at this court. All kinds of scholars and artists lived there, there was a whole army of poets at the court of Harun al Rashid, representatives of all the sciences lived there. Moreover, Baghdad was the center of all the extensive scientific and artistic activity that existed in the caliph's empire. And everything that had to be organized there actually came from this personality, a personality of great initiative. Well, such individualities are of great importance in the further development of mankind.

Let us now look at the personality of Harun al Rashid himself. Whoever can grasp this personality in its soulfulness with an occult gaze and then seek it out again and see whether it has embodied itself again, will find that this personality of Harun al Raschid was indeed one that was further connected with what it had created on earth, that carried it on by passing through the gate of death, that went on in a spiritual way with the earthly development of mankind, that influenced much from the spiritual world, but also took up much again itself. And then she appeared again in the way in which she could appear according to the age: this personality appeared as Lord Baco of Verulam, who was the founder of the newer science. Baco of Verulam actually gave a great impetus to modern European thought from England. You can say: Yes, he is very different from the personality of Harun al Rashid! But it is the same individuality! For that which appears outwardly as a difference belongs to externality. And so we see, as it were, the soul of Harun al Rashid developing further from Asia after his death, in order to have an effect on the newer European civilization from the West in the way it could just happen, even founding much of the newer materialism.

The other personality, who was not only the right hand, but the soul of the court of Harun al Rashid, who had that strange fate in spiritual terms, this soul took a different path. This soul, when it had passed through the gate of death, had little interest in living out an external splendor. Rather, this soul had the inner urge to live out its inner life. That is why it could not take a path that would have led it over to the West in the next incarnation. Just consider how it was with Harun al Rashid: tremendous splendour, inner solidity of civilization at the court of Harun al Rashid, but at the same time the urge to externalize everything that was given in Mohammedanism. This had to be lived out in the next incarnation. The broad, extensive scientificity had to emerge. It came to light. That which was the external splendor at the court of Harun al Rashid came to light in Baco himself.

The other personality was indeed the soul at the court of Harun al Rashid, but a very inner personality. It was very close to what was cultivated in the ancient mysteries. Now this could not be lived out, at least not until our time, when the Kali Yuga has come to an end and the Michael period begins, when it has once again become possible to speak of the spiritual in a completely unbiased way. But one could pour into civilization in a comprehensive, energetic way what one had absorbed in this way, so that it could have an intensive effect. This is what happened to the other personality. After passing through the gate of death, it developed in the spiritual world in such a way that when it finally reappeared on earth, it could not land in the West, where materialism came from, but had to land in Central Europe, where it could live out what came from the ancient Mysteries, but had to be adapted to the changed conditions of the time. This personality became that of Amos Comenius. And so one could say that these two souls, who lived at the court of Harun al Raschid, went through world history in the following period in such a way that they took two different paths. One, I would say, skirted the south of Europe in order to be the organizer of modern history, philosophy and science from the west, as Baco of Verulam; the other, I would say, took the land route, the route that the Crusades also took; he took the route to Central Europe. He also became a great organizer, but you can see how his organization worked differently. And indeed, it is a great spectacle, a tremendous spectacle, that Amos Comenius and Lord Baco of Verulam lived at somewhat different times - one must not misunderstand this, but it was connected with world-historical karma - that they took different paths. But then it so happened that in recent times they met again, if I may use the trivial expression, in Central Europe. And much of what civilization must find had to take place in civilization in this way, that what lies in the esoteric relationship in the work of Amos Comenius combines with the power that has entered into technology, combines with everything that lies in what was founded by Baco of Verulam. But it is one of the most wonderful examples of world history, this emergence of two souls who worked at the court of Harun al Rashid in the eighth to ninth centuries. Harun al Rashid himself, who, as it were, went via Africa and southern Europe to England, in order to work from England into central Europe; Amos Comenius, who came over to central Europe in order to meet the other in what he was training.

This, my dear friends, is how historical observation actually becomes reality. For what passes from one epoch of world history to another does not pass over in abstract concepts, does not fly over in abstract concepts, but it is the human souls themselves that carry over what has happened. We only understand how that which develops from the earlier time comes into being in the following time when we follow how the souls develop from one age into the next. We must everywhere take seriously what is called Maja and the inner reality. History, too, is maja if you only look at it from the outside; you only understand it when you go from maya to truth.

May it now be understood in the right way, my dear friends - we want to continue these reflections at the next general meeting - if now, inaugurated by the Christmas conference, we set about realizing what was announced at the very beginning - perhaps with some naivety - as “Practical Karma Exercises”. After decades of preparation, however, it will probably be possible within the Anthroposophical Society to endure a real spiritual reflection on the idea of karma, on practical karma exercises, without misunderstandings and aberrations in life arising from this.