Karmic Relationships VIII
GA 240
24 August 1924, London
Lecture V
When we look back over the historical evolution of mankind and see how event follows event in the course of the ages, we are accustomed to regard these events as though we might find in more recent times the effects and results of earlier ages, as though we could speak of cause and effect in history in the same way as we do in connection with the external physical world.
We are however bound to admit that when we do look at history in this way, nearly all of it remains unexplained. We shall not, for example, succeed in explaining the Great War simply as an effect of the events that took place from the beginning of the century until the year 1914. Neither shall we succeed in explaining the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century out of the events that preceded it. Many theories of history are put forward but they do not carry us very far, and in the last resort we cannot but deem them artificial.
The truth is that the events in human history only become capable of explanation when we look at the personalities who play a decisive part in these events, in respect of their repeated lives on earth. And it is also true that when we have given attention to this study for a considerable time, when we have observed the karma of historical personages as it shows itself in the course of their lives on earth, then and only then shall we acquire the right mood of soul to go into the matter of our own karma. Let us then to-day study karma as it shows itself in history. We will take a few historical personages who have done something or other that is known to us, and see how this deed or course of action may be traced from that which was written into their karma from their earlier incarnations.
It will in this way become clear to us that the things that happen in one epoch of history have really been brought over by human beings from earlier epochs. And as we learn to take quite seriously—it is too often considered as mere theory—all that is said about karma and repeated earth-lives, as we come to place it before us in precise and concrete detail, we shall be able to say: All of us who are sitting here have been on the earth many times before and we have brought with us into this present earth-life the fruits of earlier earth-lives.
It is only when we have learned to be quite earnest about this that we have any right to speak of the perception of karma as something that we know. But the only way to learn to perceive karma is to take the ideas of karma and put them as great questions to the history of man. Then we shall no longer say: What happened in 1914 is the result of what happened in 1910, and what happened in 1910 is the result of what happened in 1900, and so on. Then we shall try instead to understand how the personalities who make their appearance in life themselves bring over from earlier epochs that which shows itself in a later one. It is only on this path that we shall arrive at a true and genuine study of history, beholding the external events against the background of human destinies.
History sets us such a number of riddles! But many a riddle is cleared up if we set about studying it in the way I have described. People appear sometimes quite suddenly in history, shooting in as it were like meteors. You examine their education and upbringing—it affords no explanation whatever. You examine the age to which they belong—again you can find no clue to the problem of their appearance in this particular time. Karmic connections alone will afford the true explanation.
I will speak of one or two such personalities who have lived in times not very far distant from our own, and whose lives readily suggest the double question: What were their circumstances in an earlier earth-life, and what have they brought over from that earlier life that has made them as they are now?
Or again, let us take the case of personalities of an earlier age, who lived a long time ago in the history of evolution. Here we are anxious to know when they came again to earth, and what sort of people they were in a later incarnation. If in an earlier life they attained to fame and renown, we ask ourselves: What did they become when they returned? We would like to be able to add other lives to the one of which we read in history; perhaps they were historical characters a second time, or perhaps renowned in some other way: in any case we would like to know the connections.
Now connections of this kind are exceedingly difficult to investigate. Let me begin by giving you an idea of how, when we want to research into karmic connections, we have to look at the whole human being and not merely at what often strikes us at first sight as being particularly characteristic.
I should like here to give an example which may seem rather personal. I once had a Geometry teacher whom I loved dearly. It was not difficult for me to love him because during my boyhood I was exceedingly fond of Geometry. But this teacher was really quite unusual. He had a peculiar talent for Geometry that fascinated me, although people who are never deeply impressed by other human beings might have thought him dry and uninteresting. Notwithstanding this somewhat prosaic nature, however, he was a man whose influence could have a strongly artistic effect upon one. I always had an intense desire to unravel the secret of this personality and I tried to apply the methods of occult research by which this end can be attained.
I spoke in Torquay, and will only now repeat in brief, of how, if one progresses in the development of the occult forces of the soul in the way I described in the lecture here a year ago [Man as a Picture of the Living Spirit. Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972.] and reaches the stage of empty consciousness, and if then this empty consciousness becomes filled with what resounds from the spiritual world, it is possible—if one adds to this experience such things as I spoke of in this morning's lecture—to have impressions, intuitions that are as exact as a mathematical truth and point from certain phenomena in the present life of an individual to an earlier life.
Now the wonderful way in which this teacher of mine worked in Geometry, his whole method of handling the subject, made me deeply interested in him. And this interest remained, even after his death at an advanced age. Destiny never brought me into actual contact with him again after I left the school in which he taught, but his personality stood before me in the spirit as a reality, until the day of his death and after his death; he stood there before me in particular clarity in all the detail of his bearing and actions.
Now what made it possible for me to receive out of his present life an intuition of his previous earth-life, or at any rate the previous earth-life of importance for him, was the fact that he had a club foot! One leg was shorter than the other.
When we remember that in the transition from one earth-life to another, what was head-organisation in the previous life becomes foot- or limb-organisation, and what was foot- or limb-organisation becomes head-organisation, then we shall readily understand that a bodily trait of this kind may have a certain significance, inasmuch as the life of the individual stretches across repeated earthly existences. This club foot enabled me to trace the individuality of my Geometry teacher back into the past. He was not a man of any renown but he was a person who made upon me at any rate and upon others too, a deep and lasting impression; he had an extraordinarily strong influence upon many lives. And I was able to discover, starting from the fact of his club foot, that a study of his personality led one back to the very same place in history where one has to look for Lord Byron.
Now Lord Byron too had a club foot. This is an external physical characteristic, but what is external and bodily in one life is, in another, a quality of soul-and-spirit; and this characteristic led me to recognise that the two personalities who were not now contemporaries (for my Geometry teacher lived later than Byron) had, in an earlier earth-life, been together. In the modern age they had lived as poet and geometrician, each a genius in his own line, the one becoming widely famous, the other making only upon a few individuals an intimate impression which influenced the shaping of their destinies. In an earlier life, however, in medieval times, they had been side by side; together they had listened to the legend of the Palladium, the holy treasure that had once been in Troy, had then come over with Aeneas and was regarded by Rome as the talisman upon which her fortunes depended. The Emperor Constantine afterwards took it across to Constantinople and the success and happiness of Constantinople in its history depended on this Palladium. The legend, looking prophetically into the future, went on to say that whoever acquires the Palladium, his shall be the rulership of the world.
This is not the time for me to enlarge upon the merits and content of the legend. I will only say that these two individuals who were at that time incarnated in what is to-day called Russia, undertook together, with warm enthusiasm, the journey to Constantinople in search of the Palladium. They were not able to obtain possession of it but they kept the enthusiasm alive in their hearts.
And now we can actually see how Lord Byron resolved to go in search of the Palladium in another guise when he took part in the Greek struggle for freedom. If you study carefully the life of Lord Byron, you will find that a great deal in this gifted poet is due to the fact that in an earlier earth-life he had been spurred on by enthusiasm for such an enterprise.
And again, as I look back upon my Geometry teacher with his modest, unassuming character, I can see how he owed his charm and endearing qualities in this life to the enterprise of that earlier time, although his part, then, had been a secondary one. Had he taken an equal share in it with the individuality who became Lord Byron, he would have been a contemporary of his again in the later life.
I bring this example before you in order that you may realise that we have to look at the whole human being if we want to investigate karmic connections; we have even, for example, to note bodily defects or deformities. If we find that a person has some distinguishing talent of a spiritual kind in one earth-life, let us say has been a great painter, we must not draw the abstract conclusion that he was a great painter in his former earth-life. What we see on the surface are only the waves thrown up by karma which flows in deeper waters below and has to do with body, soul and spirit. We must take the whole life into the horizon of our vision.
It will frequently happen that little characteristic actions of a person, such as the way he moves his fingers, will lead the way to karmic connections far sooner than any outstanding activities he may have undertaken and that are from every other aspect of more consequence. I once had the experience of being able to arrive at deep and intimate karmic connections in the case of a certain person by giving attention to quite an incidental peculiarity that made a strong impression upon me. He used to give lessons in a school, and on every occasion, before beginning his lesson, he took out his pocket handkerchief and blew his nose. He never by any chance began to teach without doing this. It was a deeply-rooted characteristic in him. The impression it made upon me was significant and I was able to read in it a pointer to important features of his former earth-life. It is in these signs that we have to find some significant trait in the person that will often take us back to the earlier incarnation.
And now I would like to show you how interesting from a historical point of view the question of karma becomes. Let us take a few concrete cases, for example, the case of Swedenborg, who appears in such a striking way in the 18th century. Last year I spoke of him in Penmaenmawr1See: Lecture 7, The Evolution of Consciousness. Rudolf Steiner Press, 1966. from quite a different standpoint. I spoke then of his spiritual qualities but I did not touch upon his karma.
Swedenborg is a very remarkable figure. Until he was more than 40 years old he was a great and notable scholar, of such repute that the Swedish Academy of Science is even now still occupied in bringing out the numerous scientific works he left behind—purely scientific works. When we know that Arrhenius, for example, has concerned himself with their publication, we shall conclude that they must be un-spiritual in the very highest degree. Otherwise Arrhenius would scarcely interest himself in them! Nobody could say that up to his fortieth year Swedenborg had anything whatever to do with spiritual matters in his knowledge and learning. Then, all of a sudden, he began—as the scientists put it—to go crazy, to give out imposing and magnificent descriptions of the spiritual world as he had seen it. It was something entirely new in Swedenborg's life, shooting in like a comet.
We ask ourselves: What can there have been in an earlier earth-life to produce such a result?
Or again, take a personality like Voltaire. I am choosing a few great personalities whose lives leave us with unanswered questions. Voltaire is one who may be called an absolutely incommensurable person. We are puzzled to know how this strange character, now scornful and contemptuous, now pious not to say unctuous, could grow up as a product of his age, or again how he could have the tremendous influence he did have upon it.
With what irony does destiny work! Voltaire had a deep influence upon the King of Prussia; and this connection between Voltaire and the King of Prussia was a most significant factor in the destiny of the spiritual life of Europe. One cannot help asking: What really lies behind all this in the deeper background of history?
We may take still a third case, and one not without meaning for our own day, when many things are thrusting themselves upon our notice from the background of existence. Take the case of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, who died in the 16th century. When we follow the remarkable destiny of the Jesuit Order that he founded, we are compelled to ask the question: What kind of life had Ignatius Loyola after he passed through the gate of death? And if he has come again, what part has he played in the more recent history of mankind? There you have questions which, if they can be answered, may well throw a light upon the background of very much that has happened in history.
Intuitive vision led one back, for example, to a soul who lived in the 5th century A.D., not long after St. Augustine, and who was educated in the schools of Northern Africa, as was St. Augustine himself. In these schools, the personality of whom I am speaking became acquainted with all that proceeded from the Manichean wisdom and from the wisdom of the East which had, of course, undergone such great changes in a later age. In subsequent wanderings he came across to Spain and there absorbed what may be called early Kabbalistic doctrine, teachings which open out a vista of great cosmic relationships. Education and experience thus equipped him with an extraordinary wide outlook, and at the same time with knowledge that sprang from two main sources—one already in decadence and the other just beginning to flourish. The result was to give him in one respect a deepened life of soul, but at the same time to leave him in uncertainty and doubt.
After many travels on earth, this personality passed at length through the gate of death; and at a definite point between death and rebirth his karma brought him in touch with a particular Genius, a particular spiritual Being belonging to the world of Mars.
You know that in the period between death and a new birth a human being builds up spiritually the karma he has afterwards to bring into physical embodiment in later earth-lives. Now not only do other human souls with whom he is karmically connected share in this work with him, but the Beings, too, of the various spiritual Hierarchies. These Beings have tasks to fulfil as the result of what a human soul brings over from earlier earth-lives. And so this soul of whom I am speaking was engaged in building up his karma for the next life on earth. Now it happened that through all he had received and done, through all he had thought and felt in earlier lives, especially in the life that was particularly significant and of which I have just given you a brief sketch, he was brought very near to a spiritual Being belonging to the world of Mars. He acquired thereby a strongly aggressive nature, but on the other hand also a wonderful gift of speech; for Mars Beings prepare from out of the cosmos all that belongs to speech and language and place it into the karma of human beings. Wherever artistic skill and fluency in speech show themselves in the karma of a human being, these are to be traced to the fact that his karmic experiences have brought him into the vicinity of Mars Beings.
The individuality of whom I am speaking had been in the company of one particular Mars Being—a Being who now began to interest me intensely when I had recognised him in connection with this soul. The individuality himself appeared again on earth in the 18th century, as Voltaire. Thus Voltaire bore within him from his earlier earth-life the learning of the schools of Northern Africa and of Spain, elaborated and transformed through the fact that the shaping of his karma had taken place with the help of this particular Mars Being.
When you consider Voltaire's great gift of language and on the other hand his instability in many things, when you consider his writings, not so much their content as his manner and habit of working, you will come to understand how it all follows quite naturally from the karmic influences I have described. And when we observe how Voltaire comes over from his earlier earth-life with his aggressiveness, his fluency of language, his power of satire, his only partially concealed lack of integrity, yet at the same time his genuine and ardent enthusiasm for truth—when we study all this in connection, first, with his former incarnation and then with his association with the Mars Being, the personality of Voltaire and still more from an occult point of view this. Mars Being, will begin to be of great interest to us.
It was my task at one time to follow this Mars Being and through this Being certain events on earth received great illumination. We meet in history with the remarkable figure of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Ignatius Loyola was, to begin with, a soldier. He was stricken with a severe illness and in the course of it was inwardly impelled to carry out all kinds of soul-exercises which were the means of filling him with such spiritual strength that he became able to set himself the task of rescuing the old Catholic Christianity from the spread of Evangelicalism. And thanks to the forces he had acquired through having a wounded leg—that is the interesting point—he succeeded in founding the Order of the Jesuits, which introduces occult exercises of the will in a most powerful manner into practical religious life. What we may think of this from other points of view is not here our concern. Ignatius Loyola, in establishing the Jesuit Order, sought to represent the cause of Jesus on earth on a grand scale, in a purely material way, through the training of the will.
Anyone who studies the remarkable life of Ignatius Loyola cannot fail to conceive a certain admiration for it. And now if we pursue the matter further with the occult insight of Intuition, we come to something very significant.
Ignatius Loyola was the means of starting the Jesuit Order which has done more than anything else to bring Christianity right down into the earthly, material life, accompanied, however, with a strong spiritual power. The Jesuit Order has one rule which goes altogether against the grain in men of the present age but which, notwithstanding, has contributed more to its effectiveness than any other factor. Besides the usual monastic vows, besides the exercises, besides everything else that a candidate has to undergo before he can become a priest, the Order of the Jesuits has in addition this rule, namely that there shall be unconditional subjection to the command of the Pope of Rome. Whatever the Pope orders to be done, it is never asked in the Jesuit Order what opinions there may be about it. It is simply carried out because the Jesuits are convinced that higher things of the Spirit make themselves known through the Pope and that it behoves them, in unconditional obedience to Rome, to carry out the commands of this higher authority. A doubtful and precarious rule: nevertheless it implies a great selflessness that is present in Jesuitism and again signifies a tremendous increase of strength, for everything a man does with intense energy, putting forth all his force and acting not on his own authority nor out of emotion—everything a man does in this way gives him extraordinary strength. It is a strength that moves, so to speak, in the lower clouds of material existence, but it is none the less a spiritual force. It is in truth a remarkable phenomenon.
And now, if we follow up these extraordinarily strange and imposing facts, we come to discover that the same Mars Genius who plays a part in the life of Voltaire, accompanied the life of Ignatius Loyola from the moment when he passed through the gate of death. The soul of Ignatius Loyola was perpetually under the super-sensible influence of this Mars Genius.
As soon as Ignatius Loyola had passed through death, things were immediately quite different for him than they are for other men. Other men do not at once lay aside the etheric body at death but only a few days later and have a brief retrospective vision of the past earth-life before entering upon the journey through the soul-world. In the case of Ignatius Loyola this retrospective vision lasted for a very long time. And by reason of the special kind of exercises that had been working in his soul, a close and intimate connection was able to be established between the soul of Ignatius Loyola and the Mars Genius. For a strong and active affinity, an elective affinity so to speak, existed between this Mars Genius and all that had gone on in the soul of the sick soldier, who through the injury to his foot had been forced to take to his bed and from being a soldier had become a man who could not use his leg. All these circumstances had had a deep and powerful effect upon Loyola and when we look at the whole man it becomes clear. These circumstances led Ignatius Loyola into connection with the Mars Genius whom I had learned to know on another path of investigation. And what took shape through this connection made it possible for Ignatius Loyola to have this significant retrospect of his life which continued on and on for a long time, whereas in the ordinary way it lasts for only a few days after death. Loyola was able thereby to establish a retrospective connection as it were with those who came after him in the Jesuit Order. He remained united with his Order in the retrospect of his own life.
To this connection with its founder are due the forces that held the Order together, the forces that determined its strange and abnormal destiny and can be seen in its subjection in unquestioning obedience to the Pope—in spite of the repeal of this rule by the Pope himself—and in spite of the persecutions that went on! But on the other hand all the things that the Jesuits themselves accomplished in the world are to be traced to the singular connection of which I have spoken.
Now this example, if we follow it further, can shed a wonderful light over certain historical events and connections. After Ignatius Loyola's death, his soul remained always in the vicinity of the earth—for one is near the earth so long as this retrospect lasts. Even if the retrospect is extended it cannot last many centuries for when it extends at all over any long period it is quite abnormal—but abnormal things do constantly occur in the great world-connections. And comparatively soon after his earth-life was over, Ignatius Loyola appeared again in the soul of Emanuel Swedenborg.
We have here arrived at a very astounding fact, but it is also extremely illuminating. Think of the light it sheds upon history! The Order of the Jesuits continues in existence ... but the one who held it together up to a certain moment of time has become an entirely different person ... he appears in the individuality of Emanuel Swedenborg. He became the spirit of Emanuel Swedenborg, and since that time the Jesuit Order has been guided by altogether different impulses from those of its founder. We may frequently see in history how in the course of karma the founder of some undertaking or movement, or the persons who are deeply united with it, become separated from the movement they have founded and the movement passes over to quite other forces. So we learn how little meaning there is from a historical point of view to trace back the Jesuit Order to Ignatius Loyola. External history does so. Inner knowledge can never do so, for it sees how the individualities separate themselves from their movements.
In its external course, many a phenomenon in history is traced back to this or that founder. If, however, we come to know the later earth-life of the founder of some undertaking we may find that he has long ago separated himself from it. A great deal of what is set down as history simply loses all meaning when we are able and ready to face the occult facts that stand behind the evolution of karma.
That is one thing that emerges. The other is as follows.
The soul of Ignatius Loyola, now the soul of Swedenborg, entered an organism that had acquired its quite unusual soundness of head through the fact of the injury to the leg from which Loyola had suffered in the former life. And this soul that had remained all the time in the vicinity of the earth, was not able, to begin with, to come down fully and completely into the new earthly incarnation. The body remained, up till the fortieth year, a remarkably healthy body with a sound and healthy brain, a healthy etheric body and a healthy astral body. With these sound and healthy organisations Swedenborg grew to be one of the greatest scholars of his time; but it was not until his early forties, when he had been through the period of the Ego-development and was entering on the development of the Spirit-Self, that he came under the influence of the Mars Genius of whom I have spoken. During the first forty years of Swedenborg's life this influence had been somewhat suppressed; but now he came directly under it and from this time on it is the Mars Genius that speaks through Emanuel Swedenborg, in all the spiritual knowledge he has of the universe.
And so in Swedenborg we have a man of genius, who gives us brilliant and magnificent description of the lands of the Spirits, albeit in pictures that are somewhat questionable. Thus has the mighty spiritual will of Ignatius Loyola found transformation.
It is always the case that if we follow up the real and actual karmic connections, we discover, as a rule, something that startles and astounds us. The ingenious speculations one so often hears about repeated earth-lives are ingenious speculations and nothing more. When investigation is really exact, the result is usually very startling, for the evolution of karma that moves forward from earth-life to earth-life is hidden deep, deep down below all that is experienced and lived out by man between birth and death.
I wanted to give you this example in order that you may see how deeply may be hidden that which flows in karma from earth-life to earth-life. You have seen it in a personality who is well known to us all. Only by investigating these hidden factors shall we arrive at the true explanations. And if you now study the life of Emanuel Swedenborg, knowing the connections of which I have told you, you will find how things become clear to you, one after another.
In the early years of this century I was several times in London. On the occasion of one of these visits I was prompted to make myself acquainted with an extraordinarily significant personality—to begin with, simply in his writings. And as in those days there were rather longer intervals between the journeys than there are now, I obtained from the Theosophical Library the books he had written—the books that is to say, of Laurence Oliphant.
Laurence Oliphant is a remarkably interesting and significant personality: he strikes you in this way directly you begin to study his writings. These books deal with the similarities to be found in different religions, with spiritual religions, and so forth; and all of them bear evidence of a deep understanding of how in the various processes of his body and soul, man is connected with the secrets of the universe. When you read Oliphant's writings you have the impression: Here is a picture of man in his earth-life that owes its inspiration to deep cosmic instincts. The processes of the earthly life of man that are connected with birth, embryonic life, descent and so forth, are described in such a way as to show how man, as microcosm, is wondrously rooted in the macrocosm.
Now I was very soon led in this study to a point where the figure of the dead Laurence Oliphant stood before me, but not in a form which suggested that I had here to do with the individuality as he was then living after death; it was rather that what was contained in these writings (which may be described as setting forth a kind of cosmic physiology, a cosmic anatomy) began to come alive, began to spiritualise; and a figure appeared, not all at once entirely clear, but unquestionably there before me on many different occasions. I was able to make occult investigations into the matter and I could never do otherwise than bring the figure into connection with what came to me from reading Oliphant. It was very often there before me. At first I was often unable to satisfy myself as to what this figure wanted, what its manifestations meant. The whole manner of its appearance however, left me in no doubt whatever that it was none other than the individuality of Laurence Oliphant; and it was likewise clear to me that this figure had had a long life in the time between death and a new birth—that is to say, the birth as Laurence Oliphant—probably only broken by one earth-life that was not very significant for the rest of the world. What might not then be hidden in the personality of Laurence Oliphant! In short, this appearance of the figure of Laurence Oliphant suggested significant questions of karma.
When I entered on an investigation of the karma, a spiritual Being became manifest who is engaged in the elaboration of human karma, in the same way as the Mars Being of whom I told you in connection with Voltaire and with Ignatius Loyola.
Now one may get to know such Genii in the most varied ways. They are especially present when it is a question of undertaking spiritual investigation into that which appears, primarily, in physical manifestation among men on earth. I was always drawn to this kind of research. My Philosophy of Spiritual Activity leads, as you know, to a treatment of the life of will from a cosmic standpoint. Such matters always interested me deeply. Then, again, the questions that now arise out of the tasks of the Anthroposophical Movement lead to investigations of karma—I do not say our task is exhausted in the investigation of karma for this can always only be a part of it—and the investigations of karma lead once more to Genii such as the Mars Genius of whom I have told you. These Genii are, however, also to be met with on the path of another kind of research to which I have alluded and the results of which appear in the book that Dr. Ita Wegman and myself have worked out together in the sphere of medicine.2Fundamentals of Therapy: an Extension of the Art of Healing through Spiritual Knowledge. Rudolf Steiner Press, 1967. When one seeks in this way for an Initiate-knowledge of nature, one comes in a similar way to Mercury Genii; these Mercury Genii approach one because they play a special part in the karma of human beings. When man is passing through the life between death and a new birth, he is first of all purged in respect of his moral qualities; this takes place under the influence of the Moon Beings. Through the Mercury Beings his illnesses are transformed into spiritual qualities. In the Mercury sphere the illnesses a man undergoes in life are transformed by the Mercury Genii into spiritual energies, spiritual qualities. That is an exceedingly important fact and one which leads further, namely to the investigation of questions of karma in matters that are in any way connected with disease.
Now the investigations which I described in Torquay led me into close contact with the spirit of Brunetto Latini, the teacher of Dante. When one penetrates into these spiritual worlds in the manner described, it also becomes possible to stand before individualities in the form in which they lived in a particular epoch. Thus one can stand face to face with Brunetto Latini, the great teacher of Dante in the 13th century. Brunetto Latini still possessed a knowledge whereby nature was seen, not in the abstraction of natural laws, but as under the influence of living spiritual Beings. On the way back to his native town of Florence from his post as Ambassador in Spain, Brunetto Latini heard all kinds of reports that troubled and disturbed him, and in addition he had a slight sunstroke. In this condition and under the influence, too, of the pathological disturbances, glimpses came to him of nature in her creative work, of cosmic creation, and of the connection of man with the planetary world. What he was able to see was wonderful and sublime and no more than a shadow-picture of it subsequently found its way into the great work of Dante—the Divine Comedy.
But now if we follow this Brunetto Latini, we find that in a critical moment, when the knowledge was like to suffocate him, when it seemed to him that he might go astray from true knowledge and fall into error—in this critical moment, Ovid became his guide, Ovid, the Roman author of the Metamorphoses which contain such wonderful visions of the old Greek age, though expressed in the prosaic, characteristically Roman style.
And so we meet the individuality of Ovid together with Brunetto Latini. If we have a true grasp of the connection we can see Brunetto Latini, in the pre-Dante time, actually together with Ovid. Ovid is with him. And now, precisely in connection with the scientific, medical researches of which I was speaking, Ovid revealed himself as Laurence Oliphant. The long life since the Ovid time, passing but once to earth again in the interval and then as a woman in an incarnation that had little significance for the world outside, came at length to this fulfilment. The content of the soul is transplanted into modern times, and Ovid appears again as Laurence Oliphant.
Nor is it Brunetto Latini alone but other personalities too of the Middle Ages who assert that Ovid was their guide. At first it sounds like a tradition that simply gets carried on. In reality, Ovid was the guide in the spiritual world for many Initiates, appearing again as Laurence Oliphant with his sublime treatment of physiology and pathology. This connection between Laurence Oliphant and Ovid is of most far-reaching import and is one of the most illuminating examples one could possibly find.
Zweiter Vortrag
Läßt man den Blick dahinziehen über die geschichtliche Entwickelung der Menschheit, so erscheinen Ereignisse nach Ereignissen im Laufe der Zeiten, und man ist in der neueren Zeit vielfach gewohnt worden, einfach die geschichtlichen Erscheinungen, die da auftreten, so zu betrachten, daß man in den späteren Zeiten die Wirkungen früherer Zeiten sucht, sogar von Ursachen und Wirkungen in der Geschichte redet, wie man in der äußeren physischen Welt von Ursache und Wirkung redet.
Wenn man so das geschichtliche Leben ins Auge faßt, wird man sich aber gestehen müssen, daß fast alles unerklärt bleibt. Es wird Ihnen nicht gut gelingen, zum Beispiel den Weltkrieg aus den Ereignissen vom Beginne des 19. Jahrhunderts bis 1914 wie eine Wirkung einfach herzuleiten. Es wird Ihnen nicht gelingen, die am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts ausbrechende Französische Revolution bloß aus dem hervorzuleiten, was vorher war. Mancherlei Geschichtskonstruktionen werden gemacht, aber man kommt mit ihnen nicht sehr weit, und man fühlt zuletzt doch, daß es künstliche Geschichtskonstruktionen sind.
Dasjenige, was im geschichtlichen Leben der Menschen vor sich geht, wird erst erklärlich, wenn man die geschichtlichen Persönlichkeiten, die eine bedeutsame Rolle spielen beim Zustandekommen der geschichtlichen Ereignisse, sich anschaut in bezug auf ihre wiederholten Erdenleben. Und erst wenn man eine Weile sich damit beschäftigt hat, das Karma solcher geschichtlichen Persönlichkeiten im Verlaufe der sich wiederholenden Erdenleben zu betrachten, dann wird man sich eine Seelenstimmung dafür aneignen, wie es um das eigene Karma steht. Deshalb wollen wir heute ein wenig geschichtliches Karma betrachten, Persönlichkeiten der Geschichte, die das oder jenes uns Bekannte getan haben, und dieses uns Bekannte dann herleiten von dem, was in ihrem Karma gewissermaßen geschrieben war aus der Wiederholung ihres Erdenlebens heraus. Dadurch werden wir zu der Anschauung kommen, daß die Dinge, die in einer Geschichtsepoche geschehen, von den Menschen aus früheren Zeitaltern herübergetragen werden. Und wenn wir uns mit vollem Ernste dasjenige, was oftmals in bezug auf Karma und wiederholte Erdenleben nur theoretisch angeschaut wird, ganz präzise und konkret vor Augen stellen, so werden wir uns ja sagen: Alle, die wir hier sitzen, waren oftmals auf der Erde da und tragen in das gegenwärtige Erdenleben die Ergebnisse früherer Erdenleben herüber.
Erst wenn wir dieses völlig ernst nehmen, können wir sagen, daß wir diese Anschauung vom Karma kennen. Aber lernen durch die Anschauung vom Karma kann man nur, wenn man das, was man als Ideen über das Karma aufnimmt, nun als große Frage ausbildet für das geschichtliche Leben. Dann sagt man nicht mehr: Das, was 1914 geschehen ist, ist die Folge von dem, was 1910 geschehen ist, das, was 1910 geschehen ist, ist die Folge von dem, was 1900 geschehen ist und so weiter. — Sondern dann sucht man zu begreifen, wie die Persönlichkeiten, die im Menschenleben auftreten, selber aus früheren Epochen in spätere Epochen hinübertragen das, was in Betracht kommt. Und erst auf diese Weise kann eine echte, wahre Geschichtsbetrachtung zustande kommen, wenn man die Hintergründe der Menschenschicksale sieht gegenüber den Vordergründen der Ereignisse, die einem äußerlich in der Geschichte entgegentreten.
Die Geschichte bietet ja so viel Rätselhaftes. Manches Rätselhafte aber klärt sich auf, wenn man eine solche Erklärung versucht, wie ich sie eben gesagt habe.
Sehen Sie, meine lieben Freunde, da treten oftmals Persönlichkeiten in der Geschichte auf, man möchte sagen wie Meteore. Man ist erstaunt darüber, daß sie in einer gewissen Zeit auftauchen. Prüft man ihre Erziehung, so kann man aus ihrer Erziehung nicht erklären, warum sie in dieser Weise auftreten. Prüft man ihr Zeitalter, kann man wiederum nicht erklären, warum sie in dieser Weise auftreten. Erst die karmischen Zusammenhänge bringen Aufklärung hinein.
Ich will auf einzelne solcher Persönlichkeiten hinweisen, bei denen man zweierlei Fragen gerne aufstellt, wenn sie Persönlichkeiten sind, die unserem eigenen gegenwärtigen Leben naheliegen, das heißt, wenn sie in noch nicht sehr lange verflossenen Zeitabschnitten gelebt haben. Dann frägt man wohl gerne: Wie hat es in ihrem vorigen Erdenleben ausgesehen? Was haben sie aus diesem vorigen Erdenleben herübergebracht, daß sie so geworden sind, wie sie geworden sind?
Und hat man es wiederum mit früheren Persönlichkeiten zu tun, die in weit zurückliegenden Zeiten der geschichtlichen Entwickelung gewirkt haben, dann möchte man doch gern wissen, wann sie wieder aufgetreten sind, als was sie wieder erschienen sind. Wenn gerade ein früheres geschichtliches Leben die betreffenden Persönlichkeiten berühmt gemacht hat, so frägt man sich: Als was sind sie wiedergekommen? Man will dann auf dieses ihr geschichtliches Erdenleben hin andere haben; vielleicht ist es wieder ein geschichtlich oder anderwärtig berühmtes — aber man möchte eben die Zusammenhänge kennenlernen.
Nun sind solche Zusammenhänge wirklich außerordentlich schwer zu erforschen, und deshalb möchte ich Ihnen zunächst einen Begriff davon geben, wie man, wenn man karmische Zusammenhänge erforschen will, auf den ganzen Menschen hinzusehen hat, nicht bloß auf das, was einem oftmals als besonders Sprechendes, Charakteristisches entgegentönt.
Da möchte ich ein Beispiel, das zunächst scheinbar persönlich klingen wird, anführen. Ich hatte einmal einen von mir sehr geliebten Geometrielehrer. Es war nicht schwer für ihn, von mir geliebt zu werden, weil ich Geometrie während meiner Knabenzeit außerordentlich liebte. Aber der Lehrer hatte wirklich viel, viel Eigentümliches. Er hatte eine spezifische Begabung in der Geometrie, die faszinierte, trotzdem er sehr leicht auf Menschen, die nicht tiefe Eindrücke von anderen Menschen empfangen können, einen trockenen, nüchternen Eindruck machte. Aber trotzdem er trocken und nüchtern war, konnte man durch die Wirkung, die von ihm ausging, zwar nicht Iyrisch, aber doch außerordentlich künstlerisch berührt sein.
Nun hatte ich immer das intensivste Bedürfnis, hinter das Geheimnis gerade dieser Lehrerpersönlichkeit zu kommen. Und ich versuchte dann anzuwenden jene Mittel okkulter Forschung, die in solchen Dingen zum Ziele führen können.
Ich hatte drüben in Torquay schon davon gesprochen und möchte hier nur wiederholen, daß, wenn man vorrückt in der Entwickelung der okkulten Kräfte der Seele, wie ich sie auch hier im Zweigvortrage vor einem Jahre beschrieben habe, und zu dem leeren Bewußtsein kommt, wenn sich dann das leere Bewußtsein erfüllt mit dem, was aus der geistigen Welt heraus tönt, und wenn man dann solche Dinge hinzufügt, wie ich sie heute vormittag dargestellt habe, man schon dahin gelangen kann, Impressionen zu haben, Intuitionen zu haben, die ganz exakt sind wie eine mathematische Wahrheit und die aus gewissen Erscheinungen im gegenwärtigen Leben eines Menschen auf das frühere Leben hinweisen.
Nun konnte ich durch die ausgezeichneten Geometrie-Absichten, möchte ich sagen, durch die Art und Weise, wie der Lehrer Geometrie behandelte, großes Interesse für diesen Lehrer fassen. Und dieses Interesse blieb mir, und die Persönlichkeit blieb vor mir stehen, blieb vor mir stehen auch, als sie im hohen Alter dann starb. Nur führte mich das Schicksal, nachdem ich die Schule, an der dieser Lehrer wirkte, verlassen hatte, nicht mehr mit dieser Persönlichkeit zusammen. Aber im Geiste, als Realität, stand diese Persönlichkeit bis zu ihrem Tode, und nach ihrem Tode ganz besonders deutlich vor mir, mit allen Einzelheiten ihres Tuns und Treibens.
Nun ergab sich mir eine Möglichkeit, aus dem gegenwärtigen Leben dieser Persönlichkeit die Intuition für das vorhergehende oder für ihr maßgebendes vorhergehendes Erdenleben zu bekommen aus der Tatsache, daß diese Persönlichkeit einen Klumpfuß hatte, den einen Fuß kürzer hatte, also mit einem kürzeren Fuß ging.
Wenn man bedenkt, daß beim Übergang von einem Erdenleben in das andere dasjenige, was im vorhergehenden Leben Kopforganisation war, Fußorganisation wird, und das, was vorher Fußorganisation, Gliedmaßenorganisation war, Kopforganisation wird — man kennt das aus meinen früheren Vorträgen -, dann wird man schon einsehen, daß solch ein äußerlich körperlich Auftretendes eine gewisse Bedeutung im Leben des Menschen haben kann, insofern dieses Leben wiederholte Erdendaseine umfaßt. Von diesem Klumpfuß aus konnte ich diese Lehrerpersönlichkeit zurückverfolgen. Und trotzdem sie, ich möchte sagen, als eine unberühmte Persönlichkeit dasteht — aber als eine Persönlichkeit, die in dem Kreise, in dem sie wirkte, wenigstens auf mich und auch auf andere einen intensiven Eindruck machen konnte und auch auf das Leben vieler Menschen in der Tat einen außerordentlich starken Einfluß hatte -, konnte ich verfolgen, wie die Betrachtung dieser Persönlichkeit zurückführte in dieselbe Region der geschichtlichen Entwickelung, wo man auch Lord Byron zu suchen hat.
Nun hatte Lord Byron auch einen Klumpfuß. Und diese Eigentümlichkeiten — scheinbar äußerlich, aber was in einem Leben äußerlich körperlich ist, ist in einem anderen Leben geistig-seelisch -, diese Eigenschaften, die führten dazu, zu erkennen, daß die beiden Persönlichkeiten, die jetzt nicht im gleichen Erdenleben lebten - mein Geometrielehrer mit dem Klumpfuß lebte später als Byron mit dem Klumpfuß -, daß die in einem früheren Erdenleben miteinander vereinigt waren. Also diese beiden: der eine als der geniale Dichter, der andere als der geniale Geometer, der eine zu weiter Berühmtheit kommend, der andere nur intimen Eindruck auf einzelne Menschen machend, aber schicksalbestimmend für manche Menschen, sie standen nebeneinander im früheren mittelalterlichen Erdenleben. Beide hatten sie miteinander gehört die Legende vom Palladium, das einstmals das Kleinod von Troja war, das heilige Kleinod, das dann mit Äneas herübergekommen ist, dann als Kleinod von Rom angesehen war, an dem das Glück von Rom hing und das dann von dem Kaiser Konstantin hinübergebracht worden ist nach Konstantinopel. Das Glück wiederum, das mit Konstantinopel geschichtlich verbunden war, hing an diesem Palladium. Und die Legende erzählt weiter, prophetisch in die Zukunft schauend: wer dieses Palladium erwirbt, der wird die Weltherrschaft in der Zukunft haben.
Über das Meritorische und das Inhaltliche dieser Legende mich auszulassen, ist hier keine Veranlassung. Ich will nur sagen, daß diese beiden Menschen, die dazumal im heutigen Rußland inkarniert waren, miteinander die enthusiastische Reise nach dem Palladium, nach Konstantinopel unternommen hatten, dort das Palladium nicht erobern konnten, aber ihren Enthusiasmus im Herzen behielten.
Und nun konnte man wirklich sehen, wie Byron in anderer Weise das Palladium als Teilnehmer an der griechischen Freiheitseroberung holen wollte. Und wenn man das Leben Lord Byrons durchprüft, wird man schon finden, wieviel bei dieser genialen Dichterpersönlichkeit davon abhing, daß sie eine solche enthusiastische Anregung in einem früheren Erdenleben durchgemacht hatte.
Und wiederum, wenn ich auf meinen Geometrielehrer zurückschaue: bei all den bescheidenen Eigenschaften, die er hatte, erschien es mir, daß er die reizenden, sympathischen Eigenschaften, die er entwickeln konnte, dieser Unternehmung von dazumal verdankte, wenn er auch an jener damaligen Unternehmung nur in zweiter Linie beteiligt war. Wäre er vollständig gleichbeteiligt gewesen mit Lord Byron, dann wäre er auch im späteren Leben sein Zeitgenosse geworden.
Dieses Beispiel führe ich an, damit Sie sehen, man muß auf den ganzen Menschen, zum Beispiel auch auf körperliche Fehler schauen, wenn man karmische Zusammenhänge erforschen will. Wenn man da findet, daß irgendeine Persönlichkeit eine hervorragende geistige Signatur in einem bestimmten Erdenleben hat, sagen wir ein großer Maler war, dann darf man nicht etwa daraus abstrakt schließen: das war auch in dem vorigen Erdenleben ein großer Maler. Was an der Oberfläche der Seele auftritt, das sind auch nur die Wellen, die vom Karma erst gewoben werden. Das Karma verfließt viel tiefer und hat es mit Leib, Seele und Geist des Menschen zu tun. Und man muß einen Blick haben für das gesamte Erdenleben.
Manchmal führt einen bei diesen Eigentümlichkeiten des menschlichen Lebens auf karmische Zusammenhänge die Art, wie jemand seine Finger bewegt, viel mehr, als irgendwie seine sonst maßgeblichen Betätigungsmöglichkeiten im Leben. Ich habe schon die Erfahrung einmal gemacht, daß ich bei einer Persönlichkeit auf intime karmische Zusammenhänge durch etwas Nebensächliches gekommen bin. Es machte mir bei dieser Persönlichkeit, die oft Unterricht zu erteilen hatte, einen tiefen Eindruck, daß sie jedesmal, bevor sie Unterricht erteilte, zuerst das Taschentuch herausnahm und sich die Nase putzte. Er fing niemals anders mit seinem Unterricht an, der betreffende Mann, es war eine tiefgewurzelte Eigentümlichkeit. In dem bedeutsamen Eindruck, den ich davon bekommen habe, konnte man dann eine Intention finden, um zurückzugehen auf wichtige Dinge, auf bedeutungsvolle Dinge im vorigen Erdenleben. Zeichen muß man finden, Zeichen, etwas am Menschen, was oftmals Bedeutsames bezeichnet: dann findet man zurück in die vorigen Erdenleben.
Nun, nachdem ich Ihnen dies gewissermaßen vor die Seele hingestellt habe, möchte ich Sie darauf aufmerksam machen, wie geschichtlich interessant die Frage nach dem Karma wird. Nehmen Sie nur einzelne konkrete Fälle. Nehmen Sie zum Beispiel den Fall: Im 18. Jahrhundert tritt in einer ganz merkwürdigen Weise Swedenborg auf. Ich habe im vorigen Jahr in Penmaenmawr von einem ganz anderen Standpunkte aus über die geistige Eigentümlichkeit von Swedenborg gesprochen, damals wohl aber sein Karma nicht berührt.
Swedenborg ist eine merkwürdige Persönlichkeit. Er wird mehr als vierzig Jahre alt und ist bis dahin ein außerordentlich großer, bedeutender Gelehrter, so bedeutend, daß er viele rein wissenschaftliche Schriften schreibt, die die Wissenschafter ganz gelten lassen; so bedeutend, daß jetzt sich noch die schwedische Akademie der Wissenschaften damit beschäftigt, die vielen Bände, die noch nicht herausgegeben sind, die im Nachlaß sind, herauszugeben - rein wissenschaftliche Schriften. Mit der Ausgabe dieser ganz exakt wissenschaftlichen Werke beschäftigt sich zum Beispiel Arrhenius, und man muß schon sagen, da muß etwas im höchsten Grade unspirituell sein, wenn sich Arrhenius dafür interessiert! Also niemand könnte dem Swedenborg nachsagen bis in sein vierzigstes Jahr hinein, daß er irgend etwas mit Spirituellem zu tun gehabt hätte in seinem Erkennen. Dann plötzlich fängt er an — wie die Wissenschafter sagen — verrückt zu werden, fängt plötzlich an, große, umfassende Beschreibungen der geistigen Welt zu geben, wie er sie gesehen hat. Wie etwas ganz Neues, kometenartig, tritt es auf in diesem Swedenborg-Leben. Man frägt sich: Ja, wie muß es da liegen mit einem früheren Erdenleben, daß das so herauskommen kann?
Wiederum ist eine Persönlichkeit da wie Voltaire - ich will einzelne jetzt anführen, die uns Fragen stellen können -, Voltaire, der auftritt als eine ganz, ich möchte sagen, inkommensurable Persönlichkeit. Man weiß zunächst gar nicht, wie dieser zum Teil spottende, zum Teil pietistisch mit allen Lebenssalben geschmierte Mensch aus seinem Zeitalter herauswächst und wiederum einen so riesigen Einfluß auf sein Zeitalter gewinnt.
Und wie ironisch wirkt da das Schicksal! Dieser Voltaire übt einen so großen Einfluß auf den preußischen König aus, es spielt sich so Bedeutsames im Schicksale des europäischen Geisteslebens ab durch diese Verbindung des Voltaire mit dem preußischen König! Man bekommt die Frage: Was liegt da eigentlich tiefer in den Hintergründen der historischen Entwickelung vor?
Und wiederum ein anderer Fall kann aufgeworfen werden, gerade in der heutigen Zeit, wo manches wiederum sehr aggressiv hervortritt aus den Hintergründen des Daseins: Betrachten wir eine solche Persönlichkeit, wie die des im 16. Jahrhundert verstorbenen Ignatius von Loyola, des Begründers der Gesellschaft Jesu, des Jesuiten-Ordens.
Wenn man das merkwürdige Schicksal des Jesuiten-Ordens nimmt, dann muß man doch die Frage stellen: In welcher Weise lebte, und falls er schon wiederum gekommen ist, lebt in der geschichtlichen Entwickelung Ignatius von Loyola fort, nachdem er für das Erdenleben durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen war?
Da haben Sie solche Fragen, die, wenn sie beantwortet werden können, doch gewiß geeignet sind, den historischen Hintergrund von manchem zu beleuchten, was geschehen ist.
Es führte zum Beispiel der intuitive Blick zurück zu einer Seele, die in der Zeit, die nicht lange auf Augustinus folgte, in nordafrikanischen Schulen ausgebildet wurde, ebenso wie Augustinus selbst. Diese Persönlichkeit, von der ich spreche als etwa dem 5. Jahrhunderte der christlichen Zeitrechnung angehörig, sie konnte in Afrika in jenen Schulen, die eben auch der heilige Augustinus durchgemacht hat, bekannt werden mit alldem, was aus der Manichäer-Wissenschaft hervorging, aus dem, was herrührte aus tief orientalischer, aber in der späteren Zeit veränderten Weisheit. Diese Persönlichkeit kam dann in ihrer weiteren Lebenswanderung herüber nach Spanien, nahm da dasjenige in sich auf, was man frühkabbalistische Lehre nennen könnte, kabbalistische Lehre, durch die man große Zusammenhänge in der Weltenordnung überblickt, so daß diese Persönlichkeit in Afrika, in Spanien ausgestattet werden konnte mit einem außerordentlich weiten Blick, aber zu gleicher Zeit mit einer Erkenntnis, die zum Teil schon in der Dekadenz, zum Teil erst im Aufblühen war, die also in einer gewissen Beziehung die Seele vertiefte und auch zu gleicher Zeit unklar ließ.
Diese Persönlichkeit kam dann, nachdem sie durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen war, vorher aber sich auch auf Reisen herumgetrieben hatte, in der Auswirkung ihres Karmas an einer bestimmten Stelle zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt in eine Berührung mit einem besonderen Genius, mit einer besonderen geistigen Wesenheit, die der Marswelt angehört.
Sehen Sie, es ist ja so, daß der Mensch in der Zeit zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt mit anderen Menschenseelen, mit denen er karmisch in Verbindung steht, sich sein folgendes Karma, das er sich einverleibt in den folgenden Erdenleben, geistig ausbaut. Aber nicht nur andere Menschenseelen nehmen an dem Ausbau dieses Karma teil, sondern auch Wesenheiten der verschiedenen geistigen Hierarchien, die gerade durch das, was die betreffende Seele herüberbringt aus früheren Erdenleben, Aufgaben bekommen. Und so war denn diese Seele, von der ich hier spreche, durch dasjenige, was sie in früheren Erdenleben, namentlich in dem Erdenleben, das maßgeblich war, das ich eben skizzierend beschrieben habe, aufgenommen, getan, gedacht, empfunden hatte, bei dem karmischen Ausbau des folgenden Lebens in die Nähe einer geistigen Wesenheit gebracht worden, die den Marswelten angehört. Da hatte sie erstens einen stark aggressiven Sinn bekommen, auf der anderen Seite aber auch eine ungeheureSprachgewandtheit, denn aus dem Kosmos heraus wird alles, was jemals in eineSprache eingeht, durch Marswesenheiten präpariert und den Menschen in ihr Karma gelegt. Was an Sprachgewandtheit, Sprachkunst, in des Menschen Karma auftritt, rührt immer davon her, daß die betreffende Persönlichkeit je nach ihren karmischen Erlebnissen in die Nähe von Marswesenheiten gekommen ist.
Diese Persönlichkeit, von der ich gesprochen habe, diese Individualität, die nun in die Nähe einer besonderen Marswesenheit gekommen war — welche Marswesenheit mich im höchsten Grade anfing zu interessieren, als ich sie im Zusammenhange mit dieser Menschenseele kennenlernte —, diese Individualität erschien dann im 18. Jahrhundert wieder als Voltaire. So daß Voltaire alles das, was ich Ihnen geschildert habe von den nordafrikanischen, spanischen Menschen, aus einem früheren Erdenleben in sich trug, es umgearbeitet so in sich trug, daß die Formung des Karma mit Hilfe dieses Marswesens, dieses besonderen Marsgenius geschehen war. Wenn Sie die große Sprachgewandtheit Voltaires nehmen, wenn Sie seine Haltlosigkeit in vielen Dingen nehmen, wenn Sie nicht so sehr den Inhalt dessen, was er schrieb, als vielmehr die ganze Haltung und den Habitus seines Wirkens nehmen, so werden Sie Stück für Stück begreiflich finden, daß Voltaire so wurde unter den Einwirkungen, die ich Ihnen als seine karmischen Einflüsse eben schilderte. Und wenn man nun sieht, wie sich Voltaire aus früheren Erdenleben herüberlebt mit seinem aggressiven Sinn, mit seiner Sprachgewandtheit, mit seiner Spottsucht über so vieles, mit seiner teilweise verhüllten Unaufrichtigkeit, wiederum aber mit einem großen Enthusiasmus für die weitere Wahrheit, wenn man das auf der einen Seite im Verhältnis mit früheren Erdenleben nimmt, auf der anderen Seite in Zusammenhang bringt mit dieser Marswesenheit, so fängt einen doch sowohl Voltaire, aber noch mehr von einem okkulten Standpunkte aus diese Marswesenheit zu interessieren an.
Dieser Marswesenheit nachzugehen, wurde für mich zu einer bestimmten Zeit eine bestimmte Aufgabe. Und durch diese Marswesenheit wurde das Folgende wiederum beleuchtet, was Erdenereignisse sind. Uns fällt in der Geschichte die merkwürdige Gestalt des Ignatius von Loyola auf, des Begründers der Gesellschaft Jesu: Ignatius von Loyola, der zunächst Kriegsmann ist, durch eine schwere Krankheit niedergeworfen wird und während dieser schweren Krankheit zu allerlei Seelenexerzitien getrieben wird, durch die er sich mit innerlicher spiritueller Stärke erfüllt, sich die Aufgabe stellen kann, das alte katholische Christentum gegenüber den sich ausbreitenden evangelischen Bestrebungen zu retten. Dieser Ignatius von Loyola, dem es gelingt, in sich selber mit Hilfe derjenigen Kräfte, die er gerade durch sein verwundetes Bein hatte - und das ist das Interessante —, den Jesuiten-Orden zu stiften, der in der stärksten Weise okkulte Willensexerzitien ins praktisch-religiöse Leben überführt, der in einer großartigen Weise im Grunde genommen — wie man sich sonst dazu stellen mag, das kommt gar nicht in Frage -, aber der in einer großartigen Weise auf eine rein materielle Art durch Willenstrainierung die Sache Jesu auf der Erde vertreten will und diesen Jesuiten-Orden stiftet.
Wer sich einläßt auf das Leben des Ignatius von Loyola, kommt schon zu einer gewissen Bewunderung dieses merkwürdigen Lebens. Und nun faßt man, wenn man gerade mit dem intuitiv-okkulten Blicke die Sache verfolgt, dann ein Bedeutsames auf.
Durch Ignatius von Loyola ist dieser Jesuiten-Orden entstanden, der das Christentum am meisten einsenkt in das irdisch-materielle Leben, aber es mit starker spiritueller Kraft einsenkt. Dieser Jesuiten-Orden hat ja eine Regel, die den modernen Menschen ganz abstößt, die aber in vieler Beziehung die größte seiner Wirksamkeiten bedeutet. Der Jesuiten-Orden hat außer den gewöhnlichen Mönchsgelübden, außer den Exerzitien, außer alledem, was die werdenden Jesuiten durchmachen müssen, um überhaupt Priester zu werden, auch noch die Regel, daß er sich bedingungslos dem Befehl des römischen Papstes unterwerfe. Was auch der römische Papst fordert, es wird nicht gefragt innerhalb des Jesuiten-Ordens, was man weiter darüber denken soll: es wird ausgeführt, weil man überzeugt ist, daß durch den römischen Papst höhere Dinge sich kundgeben und man im unbedingten Gehorsam gegen Rom den Befehl dieser höheren Macht auszuführen habe. Das ist, wenn auch eine bedenkliche Sache, doch eine Selbstlosigkeit, die im Walten des Jesuitismus vorhanden ist, die aber wiederum eine ungeheure Stärkung der Kraft bedeutet; denn alles, was ein Mensch so tut, daß er es mit ungeheurer Kraftanstrengung und Intensität in einem Dienste tut, nicht aus Emotion heraus, das gibt eine gewaltige Stärke. Diese Stärke bewegt sich sozusagen in der niederen Wolke des Materiellen, ist aber eine spirituelle Kraft. Es ist eben etwas ganz Eigentümliches.
Und nun kommt man, wenn man diese merkwürdigen, frappierenden, großartigen Erscheinungen verfolgt, darauf, daß dieser selbe Genius vom Mars, von dem ich Ihnen gesprochen habe, der dem Leben Voltaires zugrunde liegt, daß dieser selbe Genius es ist, der aus übersinnlichen Einflüssen heraus das Leben des Ignatius von Loyola begleitet hat von dem Punkte an, wo Ignatius von Loyola durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist. Immerfort stand Ignatius von Loyolas Seele unter dem Einflusse dieses Marsgenius.
Unmittelbar nachdem Ignatius von Loyola durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen war, war es bei ihm ganz anders als bei anderen Menschen. Andere Menschen haben, indem sie ihren Ätherleib nicht sogleich nach dem Tode, aber wenige Tage später ablegen, eine kurze Rückschau auf das Erdenleben, bevor die Wanderung durch die Seelenwelt anzutreten ist. Ignatius von Loyola hatte eine lange Rückschau. Gerade durch diese besondere Art von Exerzitien, die in der Seele des Ignatius von Loyola aufgestoßen sind, entstand nämlich eine besondere intensive Verbindung mit dem Marsgenius, weil eine Art Aktivität, eine Verwandtschaft, eine Wahlverwandtschaft bestand zwischen diesem Marsgenius und dem, was da in der Seele dieses kranken Kriegers vor sich ging, dieses Kriegers, der durch das Fußleiden auf das Bett geworfen war und von einem Krieger zu einem Menschen, der sein Bein nicht benützen konnte, geworden war.
Das alles hatte eben einen ungeheuer starken Einfluß, und wenn man den Blick auf den ganzen Menschen richtet, so sieht man das ein. Und das führte diesen Ignatius von Loyola in Zusammenhang mit diesem Marsgenius, den ich aber auf dem anderen Wege kennenlernte. Und das, was sich da bildete durch diesen Zusammenhang, das machte es möglich, daß nun für Ignatius von Loyola diese bedeutungsvolle Rückschau gar nicht aufhörte, die sonst die Menschen nur tagelang haben nach dem Tode; sie dauerte immer fort. In dieser Rückschau auf sein Erdenleben verblieb Ignatius von Loyola und konnte dadurch einen rückschauenden Zusammenhang für alle diejenigen übernehmen, die im Jesuiten-Orden nachfolgten. Er blieb verbunden mit seinem Orden in der Rückschau auf sein eigenes Leben.
In dieser Rückschau des Ignatius von Loyola selber bildeten sich die Kräfte aus, die den Orden zusammenhielten, diese Kräfte, die eben so abnorm waren, daß sie auch die abnormen Schicksale des JesuitenOrdens bedingten: so sich zu stellen unter den unbedingten Gehorsam des Papstes, trotz der Aufhebung des Ordens durch den Papst, trotz den vielen Verfolgungen wiederum! Aber auch das, was die Jesuiten selber in der Welt vollbrachten, das alles wurde durch diesen eigentümlichen Zusammenhang, den ich eben dargestellt habe, herbeigeführt.
Nun zeigt dieses Beispiel noch etwas anderes, etwas, was geradezu funkelnd Licht verbreitend ist über gewisse historische Zusammenhänge. Sehen Sie, nachdem Ignatius von Loyola gelebt hat, ist er ja eigentlich immer in Erdennähe geblieben, denn man ist in Erdennähe, wenn man diese Rückschau hat. Wenn sich diese Rückschau nun ausdehnt, so kann sie sich ja doch nicht über viele Jahrhunderte ausdehnen, denn eigentlich ist sie, wenn sie sich schon über lange Zeiträume ausdehnt, etwas ganz Abnormes — aber es treten eben immer abnorme Dinge im Weltenzusammenhang ein. Und da erschien verhältnismäßig kurz nach seinem Erdenleben Ignatius von Loyola wieder in der Seele von Emanuel Swedenborg.
Das ist etwas außerordentlich Frappierendes, aber zugleich auch etwas außerordentlich Aufklärendes. Denn nehmen Sie das funkelnde historische Licht, das da verbreitet wird: Der Jesuiten-Orden bestand weiter; aber derjenige, der ihn zusammengehalten hat bis zu einem gewissen Momente, der war ein ganz anderer geworden, der trat auf als die Individualität des Emanuel Swedenborg, so daß durch Emanuel Swedenborgs Vergeistigung der Jesuiten-Orden von ganz anderen Impulsen geleitet ist, als von denen seines früheren Stifters. Man sieht eben im geschichtlichen Werden die Stifter von irgendeiner Sache, diejenigen Persönlichkeiten, die tief verbunden waren mit einer Sache, wenn man den karmischen Verlauf verfolgt, sich von diesen Bewegungen trennen und diese Bewegungen an ganz andere Kräfte übergehen. So daß man lernt: es hat ja gar keinen historischen Sinn, vom heutigen JesuitenOrden so zu sprechen, daß man ihn zurückführt auf Ignatius von Loyola. Die äußere Geschichte tut das. Das innere Erkennen kann das gar nicht tun, weil man sieht, wie sich die Individualitäten trennen von ihren Bewegungen.
So wird manche historische Erscheinung nach dem äußeren Verlaufe auf diesen oder jenen Begründer zurückgeführt; kennt man aber das spätere Erdenleben des Begründers, weiß man, daß er sich längst von der Erscheinung, die er historisch begründer hat, getrennt hat, dann verliert die ganze Geschichte für vieles, so wie es dargestellt wird, einfach ihren Sinn, wenn man die okkulten Tatsachen, die dahinterstehen in der karmischen Evolution, wirklich treffen will. Das ist das eine.
Das andere ist dieses: Es trat nun die Seele des Ignatius von Loyola, des Swedenborg, in einen Organismus, der sich seine Kopfgesundheit, seine ungeheure Kopfgesundheit durch die Beinkrankheit des Ignatius von Loyola errungen hatte im vorigen Leben. Und so konnte zunächst diese Seele, die immer in der Nähe der Erde geblieben war, in den Erdenkörper, der ihr jetzt in Emanuel Swedenborg gegeben war, nicht untertauchen. Der Körper blieb so, daß Emanuel Swedenborg bis in seine Vierzigerjahre hinein nur eben einen außerordentlich gesunden Körper mit einem gesunden Gehirn, einen außerordentlich gesunden Ätherleib mit gesunder Organisation, einen gesunden Astralleib hatte, daß er aber, indem er bei diesen Organisationen die höchste Gelehrsamkeit seiner Zeit entwickelte, erst mit den Vierzigerjahren, nach der Ich-Entwickelung, als er hineinkam in die Entwickelung des Geistselbstes, unter einen Einfluß kam, der nur etwas zurückgedrängt war in den ersten vierzig Jahren des Lebenslaufs des Swedenborg; er kam unter den Einfluß jenes selben Marsgenius, von dem ich schon gesprochen habe; und dieser Marsgenius mit all dem, was er jetzt geistig vom Weltenall weiß, spricht. Denn der war es, der jetzt sprach durch Emanuel Swedenborg.
Und so tritt der glänzende, großartige, geniale Beschreiber des Geisterlandes - wenn auch in Bildern, die bedenklich sind - in Emanuel Swedenborg auf, indem sich das große spirituelle Wollen des Ignatius von Loyola in dieser Weise umgestaltet.
Es ist immer so: geht man den konkreten karmischen Zusammenhängen nach, so kommt in der Regel etwas Frappierendes heraus. Dasjenige, was man sehr häufig ausspintisiert über wiederholte Erdenleben, ist eben «ausspintisiert». Die Dinge, wirklich exakt erforscht, ergeben zumeist außerordentlich Frappierendes; denn das, was eigentlich als karmische Evolution sich fortbewegt von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben, das ist im Grunde unter all dem, was der Mensch zwischen Geburt und Tod auslebt, sehr, sehr verborgen.
Ich wollte Ihnen dieses Beispiel in einer Persönlichkeit, die man gut kennen kann, vorführen, damit Sie sehen können, wie verborgen dasjenige sein kann, was karmisch weiterfließt von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben. Erforscht man dieses Verborgene, dann ergeben sich aber eigentlich erst die wirklichen Erklärungen.
Sehen Sie sich einmal das Leben des Emanuel Swedenborg an, Sie werden überall Erklärliches über Erklärliches finden, wenn Sie die Zusammenhänge kennen, von denen ich Ihnen gesprochen habe.
Im Beginne dieses Jahrhunderts war ich ja mehrmals in London. Bei einem dieser Aufenthalte erhielt ich eine gewisse Orientierung, zunächst äußerlich literarisch, über eine außerordentlich bedeutsame Persönlichkeit. Und da damals während der Aufenthalte bei den Reisen doch größere Zwischenzeiten waren, als jetzt sind, ließ ich mir die Bücher aus der Theosophischen Bibliothek geben, die von dieser Persönlichkeit geschrieben sind: von Laurence Oliphant.
Laurence Oliphant ist ja tatsächlich eine außerordentlich interessante Persönlichkeit, eine Persönlichkeit, die einem sogleich eben als eine ganz bedeutende entgegentritt, wenn man ihre Bücher studiert. Die Bücher, welche über das Gleichartige in den verschiedenen Religionen handeln, über spirituelle Religionen und so weiter, diese Bücher zeugen alle von einer intensiven Kenntnis Laurence Oliphants des Zusammenhanges des Menschen in seinen verschiedenen Vorgängen, körperlichen und seelischen Vorgängen, mit den Geheimnissen des Weltenalls. Und man bekommt eigentlich, wenn man die Schriften von Oliphant liest, den Eindruck: Hier wird aus tiefen kosmischen Instinkten heraus der Mensch in seinem Erdenleben geschildert. Und wiederum, es werden die Vorgänge des menschlichen Erdenlebens, die zusammenhängen mit Geburt, Embryonalleben, Abstammung und so weiter so geschildert, daß sie in dem Lichte, in dem sie bei Laurence Oliphant erscheinen, zeigen, wie der Mensch als Mikrokosmos im Makrokosmos wunderbar drinnen wurzelt.
Nun führte mich das Studium von Oliphant sehr bald dazu, die Gestalt des verstorbenen Laurence Oliphant vor mir zu haben, aber viel weniger in solcher Art, daß mir scheinen konnte, man habe es mit der Individualität zu tun, wie sie jetzt lebt nach dem Tode; sondern aus dem Lebendigwerden, aus dem Spirituellwerden dessen, was in diesen, ich möchte sagen, kosmisch-physiologischen, kosmisch-anatomischen Schriften enthalten ist, kam eine nicht gleich ganz klare Gestalt heraus, die bei den verschiedensten Anlässen dann da war. Man konnte okkulte Untersuchungen auf diesem, auf jenem Gebiete machen: diese Gestalt, die ich nicht anders als in Zusammenhang mit dem bringen konnte, was mir aufgestiegen war aus der Lektüre von Laurence Oliphant, diese Gestalt war oftmals da; sie war eben da, sie stand da. Zunächst konnte ich mir oftmals nicht recht Rechenschaft darüber geben, was diese Gestalt wollte, was ihre Manifestationen bedeuten. Aber es zeigte sich eben aus der ganzen Art und Weise, wie diese Gestalt sich darlebte, von der ich genau wußte, sie ist Laurence Oliphants Individualität, daß diese Gestalt ein langes Leben gehabt hatte in der Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, das heißt eben der Geburt des Laurence Oliphant, wahrscheinlich nur einmal durch ein Erdenleben unterbrochen, das aber nicht sehr bedeutend war für die andere Welt. So daß viel stecken konnte in dieser Persönlichkeit Laurence Oliphant. Kurz, auf eine bedeutsame karmische Frage wies immer dieses Erscheinen der Gestalt des Laurence Oliphant hin.
Nun war da bei den karmischen Forschungen solch eine geistige Wesenheit aufgetreten, die an der Ausarbeitung von Menschenkarma beteiligt ist, wie diejenige, von der ich Ihnen gelegentlich Voltaires, gelegentlich Ignatius von Loyolas eben gesprochen habe als einem Marsgenius. Solche Genien kann man in der verschiedensten Weise kennenlernen. Solche Genien sind dann namentlich da, wenn es darauf ankommt, Forschungen anzustellen, die nun gerade dahingehen, dasjenige, was dem Menschen zunächst in der Erdenwelt physisch gegeben ist, spirituell zu erforschen.
Nun lag mir ja das immer nahe. Schon meine «Philosophie der Freiheit», die hier übersetzt ist in «Philosophy of Spiritual activity», führt ja in kosmische Betrachtungen des menschlichen Willenslebens hinein. Es lagen mir solche Dinge immer sehr nahe. Und die Fragen, die jetzt im Bereiche der Aufgaben der anthroposophischen Bewegung stehen, die führen ja, wenn sie sich auch darin nicht erschöpfen, wenn das auch nur ein Teil sein kann, sie führen ja auf karmische Untersuchungen. Und wieder, karmische Untersuchungen führen auf solche Genien, wie dieser Marsgenius ist, von dem ich gesprochen habe. Solche Genien treten einem aber auch entgegen, wenn man solche Forschungen anstellt, welche andeutungsweise von mir besprochen worden sind als demnächst erscheinend in dem Buche, das von Dr. Wegman und mir zusammen ausgearbeitet wird auf medizinischem Gebiete, das jetzt in seinem ersten Teile gedruckt ist. Wenn man in dieser Weise die initiierte Naturerkenntnis sucht, so kommt man in ähnlicher Weise auf Merkurgenien, die namentlich einem deshalb entgegentreten, weil im Karma der Menschen die Merkurgenien eine eigentümliche Rolle spielen. Wenn der Mensch durch das Leben zwischen dem’Tode und einer neuen Geburt geht, so wird er unter dem Einflusse der Mond wesen zuerst geläutert in bezug auf seine moralischen Qualitäten. Durch die Merkurgenien werden seine Krankheiten umgewandelt in spirituelle Qualitäten. So daß der Mensch dasjenige, was er an Krankheiten im Leben durchmacht, durch die Merkurgenien in der Merkursphäre umgewandelt bekommt in spirituelle Energien, Qualitäten. Das ist ein außerordentlich bedeutsamer Zusammenhang.
Dieser Zusammenhang führt dann aber weiter dahin, gerade nach der Seite, die mit dem Pathologischen irgendwie zusammenhängt, karmische Fragen zu untersuchen. Nun führten mich diejenigen Forschungen, welche ich gerade jetzt in Torquay beschrieben habe, dazu, in einer eingehenderen Weise solch einen Geist, wie Brunetto Latini, den Lehrer Dantes, kennenzulernen.
Man kann ja dadurch, daß man in diese geistigen Welten auf die geschilderte Weise eindringt, auch Individualitäten gegenüberstehen in der Gestalt, in der sie in einer bestimmten Zeit gelebt haben. Und so kann sich einem interessant gegenüberstellen im 13. Jahrhundert der christlichen Zeitrechnung Brunetto Latini, der große Lehrer Dantes, der noch eine Naturerkenntnis hatte, in der die Natur angesehen wurde nicht in solchen Abstraktionen wie heute in Naturgesetzen, sondern unter dem lebendigen Einflusse eben geistlebendiger Wesenheiten. Und Brunetto Latini, als er zurückkehrte von seinem Posten als spanischer Gesandter, fand ja auf dem Wege zurück nach seiner Heimatstadt Florenz allerlei bedrückende, aufregende Nachrichten, bekam aber außerdem einen leichten Sonnenstich. Und gerade unter diesem Zustande, unter dem Einflusse auch der pathologischen Aufregungen, die er durchmachte, hatte er Einblicke in Naturschaffen, kosmisches Schaffen, Einblicke in den Zusammenhang des Menschen mit der planetarischen Welt, die großartig sind und die, ich möchte sagen, nur wie im Schattenbilde dann untergetaucht sind in das gewaltige Werk der «Commedia» von Dante.
Aber wenn man nun diesen Brunetto Latini verfolgt, so sieht man, daß in einem entscheidenden Augenblicke, da wo die Erkenntnis ihn erdrücken will, wo es für ihn so scheint, als ob er aus einer wahren Erkenntnis in Irrtum abirren könnte, daß in diesem Momente Ovid sein Führer wird, Ovid, der alte römische Schriftsteller, der die Metamorphosen geschrieben hat, wo er, allerdings in nüchtern römischer Weise, in nüchtern latinischer Weise, großartige Einsichten der alten Griechenzeit aufgenommen hat.
Nun tritt einem dieser Ovid, die Individualität des Ovid im Zusammenhange mit Brunetto Latini auf. Hat man ihn innerlich ergriffen, diesen Zusammenhang, dann erscheint einem in der Vordanteschen Zeit Brunetto Latini wirklich mit der Individualität des Ovid zusammen. Ovid steht auch da. Und gerade im Zusammenhange mit naturwissenschaftlich-medizinischen Forschungen enthüllte sich dieser Ovid als Laurence Oliphant. Nach diesem langen Leben, zwischen der alten Ovid-Zeit, mit Übergehung des Christentums, nur einmal auf der Erde in einer für die Außenwelt unbedeutenden Inkarnation, in einer weiblichen Inkarnation, erscheint wiederum Ovid, umgesetzt in moderne Zeit in bezug auf seinen Seeleninhalt, als Laurence Oliphant.
Und nicht nur Brunetto Latini, auch andere Persönlichkeiten aus dem mittelalterlichen Geistesverlauf bringen immer wieder und wiederum vor, daß Ovid ihr Führer war. Das erscheint zunächst wie sich forterlebende Tradition, nicht wahr?
In Wirklichkeit, meine lieben Freunde, war der reale Ovid der Führer in der geistigen Welt für viele Initiaten, wie er dann als Laurence Oliphant in der großartigen kosmisch-anatomischen, kosmisch-physiologischen Anschauung wieder erschienen ist. Eines, ich möchte sagen, der glänzendsten und aufschlußreichsten Beispiele, ein Beispiel von ungeheurer Tragweite enthüllt sich durch diesen Zusammenhang zwischen Laurence Oliphant und Ovid.
Über diese Dinge werde ich dann in der nächsten Stunde weitersprechen.
Second Lecture
If one looks at the historical development of mankind, events appear after events in the course of time, and in recent times one has often become accustomed simply to look at the historical phenomena that occur in such a way that one looks for the effects of earlier times in later times, even speaking of causes and effects in history, just as one speaks of cause and effect in the external physical world.
If you look at historical life in this way, however, you will have to admit that almost everything remains unexplained. You will not succeed well, for example, in simply deducing the world war from the events from the beginning of the 19th century to 1914 as an effect. You will not succeed in deducing the French Revolution, which broke out at the end of the 18th century, merely from what preceded it. All sorts of historical constructions are made, but you don't get very far with them, and in the end you feel that they are artificial historical constructions.
That which takes place in the historical life of men only becomes explicable when one looks at the historical personalities, who play a significant role in the coming about of historical events, in relation to their repeated lives on earth. And only when one has spent some time contemplating the karma of such historical personalities in the course of their repeated earthly lives will one acquire a feeling for the state of one's own karma. That is why today we want to look at a little historical karma, at personalities of history who have done this or that known to us, and then derive this known to us from what was written in their karma, so to speak, from the repetition of their earth life. In this way we will come to the conclusion that the things that happen in an epoch of history are carried over by people from earlier ages. And if we take very seriously that which is often only considered theoretically with regard to karma and repeated earth lives, we will say to ourselves quite precisely and concretely: All of us sitting here have often been here on earth and carry over into the present earth life the results of earlier earth lives.
Only when we take this completely seriously can we say that we know this view of karma. But one can only learn through the view of karma if one now develops what one receives as ideas about karma as a great question for historical life. Then one no longer says: What happened in 1914 is the consequence of what happened in 1910, what happened in 1910 is the consequence of what happened in 1900 and so on. - But then one seeks to understand how the personalities who appear in human life themselves carry over from earlier epochs into later epochs what comes into consideration. And only in this way can a genuine, true view of history come about, when one sees the background of human destinies as opposed to the foreground of events that one encounters externally in history.
History offers so many mysteries. But some of the mysterious things become clearer if you try to explain them as I have just done.
You see, my dear friends, personalities often appear in history, one might say like meteors. One is astonished that they appear at a certain time. If you examine their upbringing, you cannot explain from their upbringing why they appear in this way. If you examine their age, you cannot explain why they appear in this way. Only the karmic connections can shed light on this.
I would like to point out a few such personalities with whom one likes to ask two questions if they are personalities who are close to our own present life, that is, if they have lived in periods of time that have not yet passed very long ago. Then one likes to ask: What was their previous life on earth like? What did they bring over from this previous earthly life that they have become what they have become?
And again, if you are dealing with earlier personalities who were active in times of historical development far in the past, then you would like to know when they reappeared, what they reappeared as. If an earlier historical life has made the personalities in question famous, one asks oneself: What did they reappear as? One then wants to have others based on their historical life on earth; perhaps it is again a historically or otherwise famous one - but one would like to know the connections.
Now such connections are really extraordinarily difficult to investigate, and therefore I would first like to give you an idea of how, if you want to investigate karmic connections, you have to look at the whole person, not just at what often strikes you as particularly telling, characteristic.
I would like to give you an example that may seem personal at first. I once had a geometry teacher whom I loved very much. It wasn't difficult for him to be loved by me because I loved geometry so much when I was a boy. But the teacher really had many, many peculiarities. He had a specific talent in geometry that was fascinating, even though he very easily made a dry, sober impression on people who cannot receive deep impressions from other people. But even though he was dry and sober, one could be touched by the effect he had, not lyrically, but still extraordinarily artistically.
Now I always had the most intense desire to discover the secret of this particular teacher's personality. And I then tried to apply those means of occult research that can lead to the goal in such matters.
I had already spoken of this over there in Torquay and would only like to repeat here that when one advances in the development of the occult powers of the soul, as I also described them here in the branch lecture a year ago, and comes to the empty consciousness, when the empty consciousness is then filled with that which kills from the spiritual world, what sounds out of the spiritual world, and if one then adds such things as I have described this morning, one can already arrive at having impressions, intuitions, which are quite exact like a mathematical truth and which point from certain phenomena in a person's present life to the previous life.
Now I was able to take a great interest in this teacher through the excellent geometry intentions, I would say, through the way the teacher treated geometry. And this interest remained with me, and the personality remained with me, remained with me even when he died in old age. Only, after I had left the school where this teacher worked, fate no longer brought me together with this personality. But in my mind, as a reality, this personality stood before me until her death, and particularly clearly after her death, with all the details of her actions and activities.
Now I had the opportunity to gain intuition from the present life of this personality for the previous life, or for its decisive previous life on earth, from the fact that this personality had a club foot, had one foot shorter, i.e. walked with a shorter foot.
If you consider that during the transition from one earth life to another, that which was head organization in the previous life becomes foot organization, and that which was previously foot organization, limb organization, becomes head organization - you know this from my earlier lectures - then you will already understand that such an outwardly physically appearing thing can have a certain significance in the life of the human being, insofar as this life comprises repeated earth lives. I was able to trace this teacher personality back from this clubfoot. And although he stands, I would like to say, as an unfamous personality - but as a personality who, in the circle in which he worked, was able to make an intense impression at least on me and also on others, and who indeed had an extraordinarily strong influence on the lives of many people - I was able to trace how the contemplation of this personality led back to the same region of historical development where one also has to look for Lord Byron.
Now Lord Byron also had a clubfoot. And these peculiarities - apparently external, but what is outwardly physical in one life is spiritual-mental in another life - these characteristics led to the realization that the two personalities who were not now living in the same life on earth - my geometry teacher with the clubfoot lived later than Byron with the clubfoot - were united with each other in a previous life on earth. So these two: the one as the brilliant poet, the other as the brilliant geometrician, the one achieving wide fame, the other making only an intimate impression on individual people, but determining the fate of some people, they stood side by side in the earlier medieval life on earth. They had both heard the legend of the Palladium, which was once the jewel of Troy, the sacred jewel that then came over with Aeneas, was then regarded as the jewel of Rome, on which the fortune of Rome depended and which was then brought over to Constantinople by the Emperor Constantine. In turn, the fortune that was historically linked to Constantinople was attached to this Palladium. And the legend continues, looking prophetically into the future: whoever acquires this palladium will have world domination in the future.
There is no need to go into the merits and content of this legend here. I will only say that these two people, who at that time were incarnated in what is now Russia, had undertaken the enthusiastic journey together to the Palladium, to Constantinople, were unable to conquer the Palladium there, but kept their enthusiasm in their hearts.
And now you could really see how Byron wanted to get the Palladium in a different way as a participant in the Greek conquest of freedom. And if you examine the life of Lord Byron, you will find how much of this brilliant poet's personality depended on his having undergone such an enthusiastic stimulus in an earlier life on earth.
And again, when I look back at my geometry teacher: with all the modest qualities he had, it seemed to me that he owed the charming, sympathetic qualities he was able to develop to this undertaking of that time, even if he was only secondarily involved in that undertaking. Had he been fully involved on an equal footing with Lord Byron, he would have become his contemporary in later life.
I give this example so that you can see that you have to look at the whole person, for example also at physical defects, if you want to investigate karmic connections. If you find that some personality has an outstanding spiritual signature in a certain earthly life, let us say that he was a great painter, then you must not draw the abstract conclusion that he was also a great painter in the previous earthly life. What appears on the surface of the soul is only the waves that are woven by karma. Karma flows much deeper and has to do with the body, soul and spirit of man. And you have to have an eye for the whole of life on earth.
Sometimes, with these peculiarities of human life, the way someone moves their fingers leads you to karmic connections much more than their otherwise decisive activities in life. I once had the experience of discovering intimate karmic connections with a personality through something trivial. It made a deep impression on me with this personality, who often had to give lessons, that he always took out his handkerchief and blew his nose before giving lessons. He never started his lessons in any other way, the man in question, it was a deeply rooted peculiarity. In the significant impression I got from it, one could then find an intention to go back to important things, to meaningful things in the previous life on earth. You have to find signs, signs, something on the human being that often signifies something significant: then you can find your way back to previous earthly lives.
Now that I have put this before your soul, so to speak, I would like to draw your attention to how historically interesting the question of karma becomes. Just take a few specific cases. Take this case, for example: In the 18th century, Swedenborg appeared in a very strange way. Last year in Penmaenmawr I spoke about the spiritual peculiarity of Swedenborg from a completely different point of view, but at that time I did not touch on his karma.
Swedenborg is a strange personality. He lived to be more than forty years old and was by then an extraordinarily great and eminent scholar, so eminent that he wrote many purely scientific writings which the scholars accepted in their entirety; so eminent that the Swedish Academy of Sciences is still engaged in publishing the many volumes which have not yet been published, which are in his estate - purely scientific writings. Arrhenius, for example, is working on the edition of these precisely scientific works, and it must be said that something must be highly unspiritual if Arrhenius is interested in them! So no one could say of Swedenborg until his fortieth year that he had anything to do with the spiritual in his cognition. Then suddenly he begins - as the scientists say - to go mad, suddenly begins to give great, comprehensive descriptions of the spiritual world as he saw it. Like something completely new, like a comet, it appears in this Swedenborg life. One wonders: Yes, how must it be with a previous life on earth that it can come out like this?
On the other hand, there is a personality like Voltaire - I will now mention a few who can ask us questions - Voltaire, who appears as a completely, I would like to say, incommensurable personality. At first, we don't even know how this partly mocking, partly pietistic man, smeared with all the ointments of life, grows out of his age and in turn gains such a huge influence on his age.
And how ironic is the effect of fate! This Voltaire exerts such a great influence on the Prussian king, such important things take place in the destiny of European intellectual life through this connection between Voltaire and the Prussian king! The question arises: What actually lies deeper in the background of historical development?
And yet another case can be raised, especially in the present day, where some things again emerge very aggressively from the background of existence: let us consider a personality such as that of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit order, who died in the 16th century.
If we take the strange fate of the Jesuit order, then we must ask the question: In what way did Ignatius of Loyola live, and if he has already come again, lives on in the historical development after he had passed through the gate of death for earthly life?
There you have such questions, which, if they can be answered, are certainly suitable to illuminate the historical background of many things that happened.
For example, an intuitive glance led back to a soul who, in the period not long after Augustine, was educated in North African schools, just like Augustine himself. This personality, of whom I speak as belonging to about the 5th century of the Christian era, was able to become acquainted in Africa, in those schools through which St. Augustine had also passed, with all that emerged from Manichaean science, from that which stemmed from deeply oriental wisdom, but which had changed in later times. This personality then came over to Spain in the further course of his life, and there he absorbed what might be called early Kabbalistic teaching, Kabbalistic teaching, through which one can see great connections in the world order, so that this personality in Africa, in Spain, could be equipped with an extraordinarily broad view, but at the same time with a knowledge that was partly already in decadence, partly only in blossoming, which thus deepened the soul in a certain respect and also left it unclear at the same time.
This personality then, after passing through the gate of death, but having previously traveled, came into contact with a special genius, with a special spiritual entity belonging to the Martian world, at a certain point between death and a new birth, as a result of its karma.
You see, it is the case that in the time between death and a new birth the human being spiritually builds up his subsequent karma with other human souls with whom he is karmically connected, which he incorporates in the following lives on earth. But not only other human souls take part in the development of this karma, but also beings of the various spiritual hierarchies, who receive tasks precisely through what the soul in question brings over from previous earth lives. And so this soul, of which I am speaking here, was brought close to a spiritual entity belonging to the Martian worlds in the karmic development of the following life through what it had absorbed, done, thought and felt in earlier earth lives, namely in the earth life that was decisive, which I have just described in outline. On the one hand, it had acquired a strongly aggressive sense, but on the other hand, it had also acquired a tremendous eloquence, because everything that ever enters into a language is prepared by Martian beings from the cosmos and placed in the karma of human beings. Whatever linguistic fluency, linguistic art, appears in a person's karma always stems from the fact that the personality in question has come into the proximity of Martian beings, depending on their karmic experiences.
This personality of which I have spoken, this individuality which had now come into the proximity of a particular Martian entity - which Martian entity began to interest me to the highest degree when I became acquainted with it in connection with this human soul - this individuality then reappeared in the 18th century as Voltaire. So that Voltaire carried within him everything that I have described to you of the North African, Spanish people, from an earlier life on earth, reworked in such a way that the shaping of karma had taken place with the help of this Martian being, this particular Martian genius. If you take Voltaire's great eloquence, if you take his unwaveringness in many things, if you take not so much the content of what he wrote as the whole attitude and habitus of his work, you will find it understandable bit by bit that Voltaire became so under the influences which I have just described to you as his karmic influences. And if you now see how Voltaire lives over from earlier earthly lives with his aggressive mind, with his eloquence, with his mockery of so many things, with his partially concealed insincerity, but again with a great enthusiasm for the further truth, if you take this on the one hand in relation to earlier earthly lives, and on the other hand in connection with this Martian being, then Voltaire, but even more so from an occult point of view, this Martian being begins to interest you.
Following this Martian entity became a certain task for me at a certain time. And through this Martian entity, the following was illuminated in turn, which are earthly events. We notice in history the strange figure of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus: Ignatius of Loyola, who was initially a man of war, was struck down by a serious illness and during this serious illness was driven to all kinds of spiritual exercises, through which he filled himself with inner spiritual strength and was able to set himself the task of saving the old Catholic Christianity from the spreading Protestant aspirations. This Ignatius of Loyola, who succeeded in founding the Jesuit order within himself with the help of the powers he had through his wounded leg - and that is the interesting thing - which in the strongest way transferred occult will retreats into practical religious life, who basically in a great way - how else one might think about it, that is out of the question - but who in a great way wants to represent the cause of Jesus on earth in a purely material way through training of the will and founds this Jesuit order.
Who gets involved in the life of Ignatius of Loyola, already comes to a certain admiration of this strange life. And now, if you follow the matter with an intuitive-occult eye, you grasp something significant.
Through Ignatius of Loyola, this Jesuit order came into being, which most of all imbues Christianity with earthly-material life, but imbues it with strong spiritual power. This Jesuit order has a rule that completely repels modern man, but in many respects it is the most effective of its activities. Apart from the usual monastic vows, apart from the Spiritual Exercises, apart from everything that the future Jesuits have to undergo in order to become priests, the Jesuit Order also has the rule that it submits unconditionally to the command of the Roman Pope. Whatever the Roman Pope demands is not asked within the Jesuit Order what one should think about it: it is carried out because one is convinced that higher things make themselves known through the Roman Pope and that one must carry out the command of this higher power in unconditional obedience to Rome. Although this is a questionable thing, it is a selflessness that is present in the practice of Jesuitism, but which in turn means a tremendous strengthening of power; for everything that a person does in such a way that he does it with tremendous effort and intensity in a service, not out of emotion, gives a tremendous strength. This strength moves, so to speak, in the lower cloud of the material, but is a spiritual force. It is something quite peculiar.
And now, if one follows these strange, striking, magnificent phenomena, one comes to the conclusion that this same genius from Mars, of which I have spoken to you, which underlies the life of Voltaire, that it is this same genius which, out of supersensible influences, accompanied the life of Ignatius of Loyola from the point where Ignatius of Loyola passed through the gate of death. Ignatius of Loyola's soul was always under the influence of this Martian genius.
Immediately after Ignatius of Loyola had passed through the gate of death, he was very different from other people. Other people, by shedding their etheric body not immediately after death, but a few days later, have a brief review of their life on earth before they begin their journey through the world of souls. Ignatius of Loyola had a long retrospective. It was precisely through this particular kind of retreat that arose in the soul of Ignatius of Loyola that a particularly intense connection with the Martian genius arose, because there was a kind of activity, a kinship, an elective affinity between this Martian genius and what was going on in the soul of this sick warrior, this warrior who had been thrown onto the bed by the foot ailment and had gone from being a warrior to a man who could not use his leg.
All this had a tremendously strong influence, and if you look at the whole person, you can see that. And that brought this Ignatius of Loyola into connection with this Marsgenius, whom I got to know the other way. And what was formed there through this connection made it possible that now for Ignatius of Loyola this meaningful retrospection did not stop at all, which otherwise people only have for days after death; it always continued. Ignatius of Loyola remained in this retrospective view of his life on earth and was thus able to assume a retrospective context for all those who followed in the Jesuit Order. He remained connected to his order by looking back on his own life.
In this retrospective view of Ignatius of Loyola himself, the forces were formed that held the order together, these forces that were so abnormal that they also determined the abnormal fate of the Jesuit order: to place themselves under the unconditional obedience of the Pope, despite the abolition of the order by the Pope, despite the many persecutions again! But also what the Jesuits themselves accomplished in the world was all brought about by this peculiar context that I have just described.
Now this example shows something else, something that sheds an almost sparkling light on certain historical connections. You see, after Ignatius of Loyola lived, he actually always remained close to the earth, because you are close to the earth when you have this retrospective view. If this retrospection extends, it cannot extend over many centuries, because if it extends over long periods of time, it is actually something quite abnormal - but abnormal things always occur in the world context. And then, relatively shortly after his life on earth, Ignatius of Loyola reappeared in Emanuel Swedenborg's soul.
This is something extraordinarily astonishing, but at the same time also something extraordinarily enlightening. For take the sparkling historical light that is spread there: The Jesuit Order continued to exist; but the one who had held it together up to a certain moment had become a quite different one, he emerged as the individuality of Emanuel Swedenborg, so that through Emanuel Swedenborg's spiritualization the Jesuit Order is guided by quite different impulses from those of its earlier founder. In the historical development one sees the founders of some cause, those personalities who were deeply connected with a cause, when one follows the karmic course, separate from these movements and these movements pass over to quite different forces. So that one learns: it makes no historical sense at all to speak of today's Jesuit Order in such a way that one traces it back to Ignatius of Loyola. External history does that. Inner cognition cannot do that at all, because you can see how the individualities separate from their movements.
So some historical phenomena are traced back to this or that founder according to the external course of events; but if one knows the later earthly life of the founder, if one knows that he has long since separated himself from the phenomenon which he historically founded, then the whole story, as it is presented, simply loses its meaning if one really wants to meet the occult facts which lie behind it in the karmic evolution. That is one thing.
The other is this: The soul of Ignatius of Loyola, of Swedenborg, entered into an organism that had acquired its head-health, its tremendous head-health, through the leg disease of Ignatius of Loyola in the previous life. And so at first this soul, which had always remained close to the earth, could not submerge into the earth body that was now given to it in Emanuel Swedenborg. The body remained in such a way that Emanuel Swedenborg, up to his forties, only had an extraordinarily healthy body with a healthy brain, an extraordinarily healthy etheric body with a healthy organization, a healthy astral body, but that he, by developing the highest erudition of his time in these organizations, only came under an influence in his forties, after the development of the ego, when he entered into the development of the spirit self, which was only somewhat pushed back in the first forty years of Swedenborg's life; he came under the influence of that same Marsgenius of whom I have already spoken; and this Marsgenius speaks with all that he now knows spiritually of the universe. For it was he who now spoke through Emanuel Swedenborg.
And so the brilliant, magnificent, ingenious describer of the spirit land appears in Emanuel Swedenborg - albeit in images that are questionable - in that the great spiritual will of Ignatius of Loyola is transformed in this way.
It is always like this: if one investigates the concrete karmic connections, something astonishing usually emerges. That which is very often spun out over repeated earth lives is just “spun out”. The things that are really precisely researched usually result in something extraordinarily astonishing; because that which actually moves on as karmic evolution from earth life to earth life is basically very, very hidden under everything that a person lives out between birth and death.
I wanted to show you this example in a personality that you can know well, so that you can see how hidden that which flows on karmically from earthly life to earthly life can be. If you investigate this hidden aspect, then the real explanations will actually emerge.
Just take a look at the life of Emanuel Swedenborg, you will find explanation upon explanation everywhere if you know the connections I have spoken to you about.
At the beginning of this century I was in London several times. During one of these stays, I received a certain orientation, initially outwardly literary, about an extraordinarily important personality. And since there were longer intervals between my travels than there are now, I had the books from the Theosophical Library given to me, which were written by this personality: Laurence Oliphant.
Laurence Oliphant is indeed an extraordinarily interesting personality, a personality who immediately strikes you as a very important one when you study her books. The books that deal with the similarities in the various religions, with spiritual religions and so on, these books all testify to Laurence Oliphant's intensive knowledge of the connection between man in his various processes, physical and spiritual processes, and the mysteries of the universe. And when you read Oliphant's writings, you actually get the impression that the human being in his life on earth is being described from deep cosmic instincts. And again, the processes of human life on earth, which are connected with birth, embryonic life, descent and so on, are described in such a way that, in the light in which they appear in Laurence Oliphant's work, they show how man as a microcosm is wonderfully rooted in the macrocosm.
Now the study of Oliphant very soon led me to have the figure of the deceased Laurence Oliphant before me, but much less in such a way that it could seem to me that one was dealing with the individuality as it now lives after death; but from the coming to life, from the spiritualization of what is contained in these, I would like to say, cosmic-physiological, cosmic-anatomical writings, a not immediately quite clear figure emerged, which was then there on the most diverse occasions. One could make occult investigations in this or that field: this figure, which I could not relate to anything other than what had arisen for me from reading Laurence Oliphant, was often there; it was just there, it was there. At first I often couldn't quite figure out what this figure wanted, what its manifestations meant. But it became clear from the whole way in which this figure lived, which I knew exactly to be Laurence Oliphant's individuality, that this figure had had a long life in the time between death and a new birth, that is, the birth of Laurence Oliphant, probably interrupted only once by an earthly life, but which was not very significant for the other world. So that there could be much in this personality of Laurence Oliphant. In short, this appearance of the figure of Laurence Oliphant always pointed to a significant karmic question.
Now there had appeared in the karmic researches such a spiritual entity, which is involved in the working out of human karma, like the one I have just spoken to you of occasionally Voltaire, occasionally Ignatius of Loyola, as a Martian genius. One can get to know such genii in the most diverse ways. Such genii are especially there when it is important to carry out research that is aimed at spiritually exploring that which is initially given to man physically in the earthly world.
Now this was always close to my heart. Even my “Philosophy of Freedom”, which is translated here as “Philosophy of Spiritual activity”, leads into cosmic considerations of human will life. Such things have always been very close to my heart. And the questions that are now part of the tasks of the anthroposophical movement, even if they do not exhaust themselves, even if they can only be a part of it, lead to karmic investigations. And again, karmic investigations lead to such genii as this Mars genius I have spoken of. But one also encounters such genii when one undertakes the kind of research that I have already hinted at as soon to be published in the book that Dr. Wegman and I are working on together in the medical field, the first part of which is now in print. If one seeks the initiated knowledge of nature in this way, one arrives in a similar way at Mercury genii, which one encounters in particular because the Mercury genii play a peculiar role in the karma of human beings. When man passes through life between death and a new birth, he is first purified with regard to his moral qualities under the influence of the lunar beings. Through the Mercury genii his illnesses are transformed into spiritual qualities. Thus the human being is transformed into spiritual energies and qualities through the Mercury genii in the Mercury sphere. This is an extraordinarily significant connection.
However, this connection then leads on to investigate karmic questions, especially on the side that is somehow connected with the pathological. Now the research that I have just described in Torquay led me to get to know such a spirit as Brunetto Latini, Dante's teacher, in a more detailed way.
By penetrating into these spiritual worlds in the manner described, one can also come face to face with individualities in the form in which they lived at a particular time. And so Brunetto Latini, the great teacher of Dante, who still had a knowledge of nature, in which nature was not seen in such abstractions as today in natural laws, but under the living influence of spiritual beings, can be interestingly confronted in the 13th century of the Christian era. And Brunetto Latini, when he returned from his post as Spanish envoy, found all kinds of depressing, exciting news on the way back to his home town of Florence, but also got a slight sunstroke. And it was precisely under this condition, under the influence of the pathological excitement he was experiencing, that he gained insights into natural creation, cosmic creation, insights into the connection between man and the planetary world, which are magnificent and which, I would like to say, were then only submerged, as if in shadow, in the mighty work of Dante's “Commedia”.
But if one now follows this Brunetto Latini, one sees that at a decisive moment, when knowledge wants to crush him, when it seems to him as if he could stray from a true knowledge into error, that at this moment Ovid becomes his guide, Ovid, the old Roman writer who wrote the Metamorphoses, where he has taken up, albeit in a sober Roman way, in a sober Latin way, great insights of the ancient Greek time.
Now this Ovid, the individuality of Ovid, appears to us in connection with Brunetto Latini. Once you have inwardly grasped this connection, then Brunetto Latini really appears to you together with the individuality of Ovid in the time before Ovid. Ovid is there too. And it was precisely in the context of scientific and medical research that this Ovid revealed himself as Laurence Oliphant. After this long life, between the old Ovid time, with the bypassing of Christianity, only once on earth in an incarnation insignificant for the outside world, in a female incarnation, Ovid appears again, transposed into modern times in relation to his soul content, as Laurence Oliphant.
And not only Brunetto Latini, but also other personalities from the medieval course of the mind repeatedly and in turn claim that Ovid was their guide. At first glance, that seems like perpetuating tradition, doesn't it?
In reality, my dear friends, the real Ovid was the guide in the spiritual world for many initiates, as he then reappeared as Laurence Oliphant in the magnificent cosmic-anatomical, cosmic-physiological view. One, I would say, of the most brilliant and revealing examples, an example of immense significance is revealed through this connection between Laurence Oliphant and Ovid.
I will talk more about these things in the next hour.