The Principle of Spiritual Economy
GA 109
21 January 1909, Heidelberg
1. The Principle of Spiritual Economy in Connection with Questions of Reincarnation: An Aspect of the Spiritual Guidance of Mankind
We shall discuss a few intimate questions of reincarnation that can be examined only in a circle of well prepared anthroposophists. By this we mean not only that they should be well prepared in theoretical knowledge but also that they have developed their sensitive faculty by working with others in a branch. For we all remember that our perceptions and sensibilities for truth have changed by virtue of this collaboration. What today we do not merely believe but perceive as truths that are beyond the realm of faith used to be incredible to us in earlier days and today still appears as fantastic nonsense or reverie to outsiders. Thus it is an indication of advancement if people have become accustomed to really living in these perceptions for only then can they begin to consider special questions. Much of what will be mentioned here seems to be remote, and yet even though we will first have to go back to far-distant periods of human evolution, all these things have an enlightening effect on our understanding of life and its phenomena. We must start by putting before our souls how the process of reincarnation takes place in general.
When human beings pass through the portal of death, they first have certain experiences. Their first experience is the feeling that they are growing larger or that they are growing out of their skin. This has the effect of the human being attaining another perception of things than was the case earlier in physical life. Everything in the physical world has its definite place—either here or there—outside the observer, but that is not so in this new world. There, it is as if the human being were inside the objects, extended with or within them, whereas earlier he or she was only a separate object in its own place. The second experience after death consists of a human being's attaining a “memory tableau” of the life just completed, so that all events in it recur in comprehensive memory. This process lasts a definite amount of time. For reasons that cannot be stated here today, the duration of this memory is shorter or longer, depending on the individual. In general, the duration of this state can be determined from the length of time each human being was able to stay awake during the past life, continuously and without once succumbing to the forces of sleep. Supposing that the outer limit for a person's staying awake continuously had been forty-eight hours, then the memory tableau after death will also be forty-eight hours. And thus, this stage is like an overview of the past life.
Then the etheric body leaves the astral body, in which the ego is living. All three had been connected from the time they left the physical corpse, but now the etheric body separates itself from the other two and becomes an etheric corpse. However, today's human beings do not lose their etheric body completely but take an extract or excerpt along with them for all the times to follow. So in this sense the etheric corpse is cast off, but the fruit of the last life is carried along by the astral body and by the ego. If we want to be quite precise, we will have to say that something is taken along from the physical body as well: a kind of spiritual abstract of this body—the tincture medieval mystics spoke about. However, this abstract of the physical being is the same in all lives; it merely represents the fact that the ego had been embodied. On the other hand, the essence of the etheric body is different in all lives, depending on what one has experienced in a life and on the degree of one's progress in it.
There follows the condition of what is called kamaloca, the time of weaning the soul from the effects of physical, sensuous existence, which lasts about a third of the time of a person's physical life. After the etheric body has been cast off, the astral body still contains all the passions, desires, and so on that it had at the end of life; they must be lost and purified, and that is kamaloca. Then the astral body is cast off and here, too, the fruit, the astral essence, is taken along; but the rest—the astral corpse—dissolves into the astral world. The human being now enters devachan where he or she prepares in the spiritual world for a new life in the future. Here human beings live with spiritual events and beings until they are again called into the physical world, be it because the karma of a person demands it or because an individual is needed on the physical earth.
This is a general description of the process. However, life in the spiritual realm progresses steadily in that the future joins itself to the past, and coming events are shaped with the help of past events. If one considers the details of this process, there is much among the wondrous things that become apparent, which is not contained in a simple presentation of the process of reincarnation. It is, after all, clear that great differences exist when one looks at the course of human development and that the extracts or abstracts of their bodies can have different values depending on the kinds of fruit they were able to extract from life. And when we remember that there are great leaders of humanity, initiates who lead other human beings into the spiritual worlds, then we have to ask ourselves this question: What causes the accomplishments of the initiates to be preserved for the future? External history is, of course, incapable of providing an answer to this question. What we have to do is scrutinize the reincarnation of the initiates and then apply the results of our investigation. We will begin with the oldest initiates.
Before humanity inhabited the continents as we know them today, the physiognomy of the earth was quite different. The area that is today covered by the Atlantic Ocean used to be the continent of Atlantis, which was destroyed by great catastrophes, as is reported by many peoples in their “saga of the great flood.” The Atlanteans—and that is we ourselves—had their great leaders and initiates, and even in those days there existed places of instruction or schools where the initiates taught. The existence of these schools can be verified today by clairvoyant investigation. A good name for these schools where the leaders taught and lived is the word “oracle.” the most important leader lived in one of the largest and most important oracles—the Sun Oracle. His main task consisted of revealing the secrets of the SUN—not the physical, external sun, but the real SUN. The latter consists of spiritual beings who make use of the physical sun much in the same way as human beings make use of the earth. To perceive and reveal the inner secrets of this Sun-existence was the task of the Great Sun Oracle. For it, sun light was not something physical, but rather every ray of sunshine represented the deed of the spiritual beings who reside on the sun. These great beings were exclusively on the sun during the time of ancient Atlantis. Later, when the great Being who was to be called the Christ united with the earth, this was no longer the case. Therefore, one can also call the Sun Oracle the Christ Oracle. The unification of the Christ-Being with the earth took place when the blood flowed from the wounds of Jesus Christ at Golgotha. That is when His essence united with the atmosphere of the earth, as can be perceived even today in clairvoyant retrospection. That is how the Christ-Being came down from the Sun to earth. When the light of spiritual illumination fell on Saul-Paul near Damascus, Paul beheld the Christ that was united with the earth and knew immediately that it was He who had shed His blood at Golgotha.
The sun oracle of ancient Atlantis had already prophesied the coming of Christ, of the Sun-God. To be sure, he was named the Christ only much later, but we can still say that the Sun Oracle is the Christ Oracle. These oracles had many successors in later periods, such as the Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Vulcan oracles, each with its great mysteries and teachings. Toward the end of the Atlantean era a group of advanced human beings was formed in the vicinity of what is today Ireland. The Great Leader chose a few from their midst who should carry on cultural life when the impending catastrophe would finally take place. However, enormous migrations had taken place a long time before to the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, which were beginning to rise out of the sea. Many successors of the old oracles came into being on these continents, but not without gradually losing the significance of the old oracles. The Great Leader, however, chose the best people in order to lead them into a special land. They were plain and simple people who were different from most other Atlanteans in that they had almost completely lost their clairvoyance. You will remember that the majority of the Atlanteans were clairvoyant. When they fell asleep at night, they did not lose consciousness, but rather the sense world disappeared and there arose in its place the spiritual world in which they were the companions of divine-spiritual beings. The advanced people in Atlantis had begun to develop their intellect, yet they were simple people who possessed inner warmth and were deeply devoted to their leader. He took this select group East to the center of Asia, where he founded the center of the post-Atlantean culture. After the group had arrived in central Asia, it was kept in isolation from the human beings who were unsuited to the task. The descendants of this group were educated with special care, and only they developed the qualities necessary to make them great teachers.
All this happened in a mysterious way. It was the task of the Manu, the Great Leader, to make the necessary preparations for preserving for the new race everything that was good in the Atlantean culture and thus to lay the foundation for the progression of a new culture. The sages living in the smaller oracles were unable to devote themselves to this task because only the Manu had preserved from the great initiates of the oracles that which we call the etheric body. As we have seen, this etheric body normally dissolves as the second corpse, but in certain cases it was preserved. The greatest of these sages in the oracles had worked so much into their etheric bodies that the latter had become too valuable simply to be dissipated into the general etheric world. Therefore, the seven best etheric bodies belonging to the seven greatest initiates were preserved until the Manu had developed the seven most outstanding people from his group in such a way that they were suited to absorb the preserved etheric bodies. Only the etheric body of the Great Initiate of the Christ Oracle was, in a certain sense, treated differently from the others. And so the seven sages, or Rishis, who had received the seven etheric bodies of the greatest initiates, went to India, where they became the founders and great teachers of Indian culture.
This very ancient, holy culture of the pre-Vedic era originated from the seven Rishis who bore the preserved etheric bodies of the initiates of the various oracles, such as Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and so on. In a way, a copy of those initiates, a repetition of their capabilities, came to be at work in these Rishis, even though they were plain and simple people when seen from the outside. Their significance was not evident from their external appearance, nor was their intellect commensurate with the loftiness of their prophecies. Possessing their own astral bodies and egos but being endowed with the etheric bodies of those great sages, these Rishis were not scholars and did not rank so highly in terms of their power of judgment as did many of their contemporaries, or even as many people in our times. But in inspired ages they were, in a way, seized upon by these oracle beings whose etheric bodies became active in them. In that sense they were only instruments through whom that ancient wisdom was proclaimed—those Vedas that are far too difficult, if not incomprehensible, for human beings in our age. And this is how the old wisdom of the ancient oracles was revealed, with the exception of the Sun, or Christ, Oracle which could not be completely revealed in such a way. Only a faint reflection of the Sun-wisdom could be transmitted because it was so lofty that even the Holy Rishis could not grasp it.
We can see here that reincarnation does not always proceed as smoothly and in such general ways as is often supposed. Rather, if an etheric body is especially valuable, it is—to express it metaphorically—preserved like a mold that can be imprinted on human beings of later ages. Such an occurrence is not all that rare, and many a plain person can have an extremely valuable etheric body that is preserved for later use. Not all etheric bodies dissolve after death, but some of those that are especially useful are transferred to other human beings. But the “I” of the individual receiving the etheric or astral body is not at all identical with the ego of the donor. Disregarding this fact can easily lead to great misconceptions on the part of someone who investigates a human being's past with faulty clairvoyant methods. It is for this reason that the occult theories about the earlier lives of human beings are often completely wrong, just as it would be wrong to say that the seven Rishis had the same egos as the initiates whose etheric bodies they had received.
Only when we know such things can we gain clarity about much that is important in human evolution, such as the preservation of human achievements for nature's economy. It is through the transmission of these seven etheric bodies that the highest values of the Atlantean culture were saved and preserved for posterity.
Let us discuss another example, which could not be mentioned earlier, and look at the ancient Persian time, the period of Zarathustra's culture.1The “original” Zarathustra (or Zoroaster) Rudolf Steiner refers to in these lectures is not the historical religious teacher and prophet of ancient Persia whose dates are ca. 628–551 B.C., but the prophet who, according to early Christian tradition and according to Plutarch was born about 6400 B.C. He gave the impulse for the founding of the second post-Atlantean epoch. We consider it an important period because it was the first post-Atlantean time in which greater emphasis was placed on the conquest of the physical world. During the Indian epoch, the longing for the spiritual realm dominated the thinking of human beings. Most of them considered the spiritual world as being real and felt like strangers in the physical realm, which to them was transitory, illusory, maya.2The term maya in the Hindu Veda means magic power, but in Mahayana Buddhism it denotes illusion or non-reality; and this is how Steiner uses the term. This consciousness changed in the prehistoric Persian culture through the teachings of Zarathustra, that is to say the teachings of the original and first Zarathustra, because there were many Zarathustras after him. His task as a leader was to draw the attention of human beings to the physical plane, to make inventions, manufacture instruments and tools, and thus to conquer the physical world. This was necessary because human beings had to become acquainted with the physical world as something that was important to them. However, the tempter within a human being tells him or her that the physical is the only reality and that there exists nothing beyond the earthly realm. This belief, Zarathustra teaches, is false because behind the physical there is the spiritual world, just as the physical sun is for us the external sign of the great Sun-Being, of the Spiritual-Divine, of the Great Aura, of Ahura Mazdao, of Ormuzd. These names designate a Being that is now physically invisible and lives far away from the earth on the sun. But, as goes Zarathustra's teaching, some day this Being will reveal Itself; later It will make Its appearance on earth, just as It is now present on the sun.
Zarathustra initiated his most intimate students into these mysteries, but the most profound teachings he imparted to two of them. The first one was primarily instructed in everything that concerns human judgment, such as natural science, astronomy and astrology, agriculture, and other disciplines. All this knowledge was transmitted to this one disciple by a secret process of communication between the two. This prepared the disciple in such a way that in the following reincarnation he was able to carry the astral body of his teacher; and he was reincarnated as Hermes,3Historical scholarship usually considers Hermes as a mythical figure in ancient Egypt, but Steiner thinks he was a living prophet who appeared about 4200 B.C. when the sun moved into Taurus. According to historical speculation the so-called Hermetic books—metaphysical pronouncements about the community of all beings and things—were authored by the Egyptian god Thoth (the Thrice Great), whose name was often translated into Greek as Hermes Trismegistus. the great teacher and sage of the Egyptian Mysteries. Born with Zarathustra's astral body, Hermes became the bearer of the great wisdom.
The second intimate disciple was instructed in the subject matters that express themselves especially in the etheric body and are deeper in substance. This disciple received in the following incarnation the etheric body of Zarathustra. The stories about this in religious documents are comprehensible only through these explanations. At his reincarnation, the student had to be animated in a very special way, that is the etheric body had to be strong before the astral body could be awakened. That could be achieved through the circumstances surrounding the birth of this reincarnated disciple, who was none other than Moses. The fact that he was placed into a box made of bulrushes that was allowed to float on the water and so on had the purpose of awakening completely the etheric body of the child. That enabled Moses to survey in his memory times long past, to pictorially record the genesis of the earth, and to read in the Akasha Chronicle.4The “Akasha Chronicle” is an occult “script” containing the complete story of the universe. Occultists of all ages have tried to “read” it by freeing themselves from the limitations of time and space. Rudolf Steiner had refined his spiritual faculties to such a degree that he was able to read the “Akasha Chronicle.” To understand his work, it is necessary to assume that he did possess this capacity. For a thorough description of the nature of the Akasha Chronicle, see Rudolf Steiner, Cosmic Memory, pp. 38–41. And, thus, one sees that these things are at work behind the scenes, as it were, and that through this process everything valuable is preserved and re-utilized.
There are other examples from later times, for example Nicholas of Cusa (Cusanus),5Nicholas of Cusa (1401?–1464) was a German humanist, scientist, and philosopher of the highest rank who became Bishop of Brixon in 1450. His astounding achievements in science included a theory that the Earth revolves on its axis around the sun and that the stars are different worlds. a curious personality of the fifteenth century. Here we can see the interesting case of how the research of this man, as it were, laid the groundwork for the entire body of the teaching of Copernicus,6Polish-born Nicholas Copernicus (1473–1543) was the founder of modern astronomy. His main work on the orbits and revolutions of heavenly bodies, completed in 1530, but not published until 1543 when he was on his deathbed, expressed his views on the structure of the physical universe. who lived in the sixteenth century. To be sure, this body of teaching is not yet quite as ripe in Cusa's books as in those written by Copernicus, but they contain all the essential ideas, a fact that confounds most traditional scholars. The fact is that the astral body of Cusa was transferred to Copernicus even though the ego of the latter was different from that of Cusa. This is how Copernicus received the foundation and all the preparations for his own doctrine.
Similar cases occur often. What is especially valuable is always preserved; nothing vanishes. But this fact also enhances the possibility of error in any attempt to establish correspondences, especially when people attempt to investigate the earlier lives of a human being with the help of a medium in séance. The transfer of an etheric or astral body to a human being in more modern times usually happens now in such a way that an astral body is transferred to a member of the same language group, whereas an etheric body can be transferred to a member of another language group.
When a pioneering personality dies, his or her etheric body is always preserved, and occult schools have always known the artifical methods by which this was accomplished. Considering now another characteristic case, we can say that it was important for certain purposes in the more modern age that the etheric body of Galileo7Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) was the great Italian astronomer, mathematician, and physicist who laid the foundations of modern experimental science. The time of his death in the text (toward the end of the seventeenth century) is an error in transcription. should be preserved. He was the great reformer of mechanical physics whose accomplishments were so tremendous that one can say many of the purely practical accomplishments of the modern age would not have come about without his discoveries, for all technical progress rests on Galileo's science. The tunnels of St. Gotthart or Simplon have become possible only because Leibniz,8Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646–1716) was the famous German philosopher, mathematician, and statesman who invented calculus independent from Newton and is widely regarded as the founder of symbolic logic. His philosophical achievements include the Theodicy and the famous Monadology. Newton,9Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) was the great English mathematician and physicist whose works marked a turning point in modern experimental science. Few people know that in the later years of his life Newton spent much of his time in the study of theology and alchemy. and Galileo developed the sciences of integral and differential calculus, mechanics, and so on. With regard to Galileo, it would have been a waste in nature's economy had his etheric body, the carrier of his memory and talent, been lost. And that is why his etheric body was transferred to another human being: Michail Lomonosov,10Michail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1712–65) was perhaps the most outstanding scientist, scholar, and writer of eighteenth-century Russia. who came from a poor Russian village and was later to become the founder of Russian grammar and classical literature. Lomonosov, however, is not the reincarnated Galileo, as might be supposed as a result of superficial investigation.
And thus we see that there are many such cases and that the process of reincarnation is not so simple as most people of our time think. If, therefore, people investigate earlier incarnations with the help of occult methods, they have to exercise much greater caution. In many instances, it is nothing but childishness if people state or imagine they are the reincarnated such and such, perhaps Nero, Napoleon, Beethoven, or Goethe. Such silly things must, of course, be rejected. But the matter becomes more dangerous when advanced occultists make mistakes in this regard and imagine that they are the reincarnation of this or that man, when in fact they carry only his etheric body. Not only is this an error that is regrettable in itself, but the human being coming to these conclusions would live under the influence of this mistaken idea, and that would have nearly catastrophic consequences. The result of such an illusion would be that the whole development of the soul proceeds in the wrong direction.
We have seen not only that the egos are capable of reincarnation, but that the lower members of the human constitution in a certain sense undergo a similar process. The result of this is that the whole configuration of the process of reincarnation is much more complicated than is usually supposed. And thus we see that the ego of Zarathustra was reincarnated as Zarathas—Nazarathos, who in turn became the teacher of Pythagoras.11Pythagoras (c. 582–c. 507 B.C.) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and mathematician of whose personal life traditional science knows little. He migrated from his native Samos to Gotona and established a mystery center. The followers of Pythagoras believed, among other things, in the transmigration of souls. On the other hand, Zarathustra's astral body reappeared in Hermes and his etheric body in Moses. Therefore, nothing is lost in the world; everything is preserved and transmitted to posterity, provided it is valuable enough.
Komplizierte Fragen Der Wiederverkörperung.
Wodurch Bleibt Das, Was Die Eingeweihten Errungen Haben, Für Die Zukunft Erhalten?
Es sollen einige intime Fragen der Wiederverkörperung besprochen werden, welche nur in einem Zweige von vorbereiteten Anthroposophen erörtert werden können. Damit ist nicht bloß gemeint, daß solche Anthroposophen theoretisch vorbereitet sein sollen, sondern daß sie durch ihr Mitarbeiten in einem Zweige ihr Empfindungsvermögen herangebildet haben. Denn wir alle erinnern uns, daß durch dieses Mitarbeiten Veränderungen vorgegangen sind in unseren Empfindungen und Gefühlen für die Wahrheit. Was wir heute nicht nur glauben, sondern als über allem Glauben stehend [als wahr] betrachten, das war auch uns früher unglaubhaft und ist heute noch phantastisch, Unsinn, Träumerei für die Fernstehenden. Daß man sich also gewöhnt hat, wirklich in diesen Anschauungen so zu leben, das ist das Zeichen des Vorgerückteren, und dieser kann dann herantreten an die Betrachtung spezieller Fragen. Manches, was hier gesagt wird, scheint fernliegend; und doch sind alle diese Dinge aufklärend für das Leben und seine Erscheinungen, obwohl wir zunächst weit zurückgehen müssen in ferne Perioden der Menschheitsentwickelung. Wir müssen davon ausgehen, uns vor die Seele zu stellen, wie der Vorgang der Reinkarnation sich im allgemeinen darstellt.
Wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes geht, so hat er zunächst bestimmte Erlebnisse. Das erste Erlebnis besteht darin, daß er das Gefühl hat, als ob er größer würde, als ob er hinauswüchse aus seiner Haut. Er bekommt dann eine andere Anschauung von den Dingen als vorher im physischen Leben. In der physischen Welt hat jedes Ding seinen bestimmten Platz, hier oder dort, außerhalb des Beobachters. In dieser neuen Welt aber ist das anders. Da ist es, als ob der Mensch [in den Dingen] darinnen sei, als ob er mit oder in den Dingen ausgedehnt wäre, während er früher nur ein Glied an seinem Platze war. Das zweite Erlebnis besteht darin, daß der Mensch ein Erinnerungstableau seines verflossenen Lebens hat, daß alle Ereignisse des Lebens in umfassender Erinnerung auftreten. Dies dauert eine ganz bestimmte Zeit. Aus Gründen, die heute nicht angegeben werden können, ist diese Zeit länger oder kürzer, je nach dem Individuum. Im allgemeinen kann man die Dauer dieses Zustandes daran bestimmen, wie lange der Mensch in seinem verflossenen Leben sich wach erhalten konnte, ohne vom Schlaf bezwungen zu werden. Angenommen, er habe als äußerste Grenze für die Dauer des Wachbleibens die Zeit von achtundvierzig Stunden gehabt, dann dauert auch nach seinem 'Tode das Erinnerungstableau achtundvierzig Stunden. Also diese Stufe ist wie ein Überschauen des letzten Lebens.
Dann tritt der Ätherleib heraus aus dem Astralleibe, in welchem das Ich lebt. Bisher waren alle drei verbunden, nachdem der physische Leichnam verlassen worden war; nun tritt auch der Ätherkörper aus und wird zum ätherischen Leichnam. Jedoch wird bei keinem heutigen Menschen der Ätherleib vollständig abgelegt, sondern der Mensch nimmt von seinem Ätherleibe einen Extrakt oder Auszug für die ganze folgende Zeit mit. Also der Ätherleichnam wird abgelegt, aber die Frucht des letzten Lebens wird von Astralleib und Ich mitgenommen. Wenn man ganz genau sprechen will, so muß man sagen, daß auch vom physischen Leibe etwas mitgenommen wird: eine Art geistigen Auszug dieses Leibes — die Tinktur der mittelalterlichen Mystiker. Aber dieser Auszug des Physischen ist in allen Leben gleich, er repräsentiert nur das Faktum, daß das Ich verkörpert war. Die Essenz des Ätherleibes dagegen ist in allen Leben verschieden, je nach den darin gesammelten Erfahrungen, je nachdem man viel oder wenig vorwärtsgekommen ist.
Darauf folgt nun der Kamalokazustand, die Zeit des Abgewöhnens vom physischen, sinnlichen Leben, welche etwa ein Drittel der physischen Lebenszeit dauert. Wenn der Ätherleib abgelegt ist, so hat der Astralleib noch alle die Leidenschaften, Begierden und so weiter, welche er am Ende des Lebens hatte; diese müssen nun abgewöhnt, geläutert werden, und das ist Kamaloka. Dann wird auch der Astralleib abgelegt. Auch da wieder wird die Frucht, die Astralessenz mitgenommen, das übrige, der Astralleichnam, zerfließt in die astralische Welt. Und nun tritt der Mensch ins Devachan ein, wo er sich in der geistigen Welt vorbereitet für ein neues, künftiges Leben. Hier lebt er mit geistigen Ereignissen und Wesenheiten, bis er wieder hereingerufen wird in die physische Welt, sei es, weil sein Karma es so bedingt, sei es, weil er auf der physischen Erde gebraucht wird.
Dies ist eine allgemeine Schilderung des Vorganges. Aber das Leben im Geistigen schreitet beständig vorwärts, dadurch daß das Zukünftige sich angliedert an das Vergangene, daß das Kommende sich aufbaut mit Hilfe des Früheren. Wenn man darauf eingeht, wie dies im einzelnen geschieht, so enthüllen sich wunderbare Dinge, vieles, was in der einfachen Darstellung des Reinkarnationsvorganges nicht enthalten ist. Es ist ja klar, daß es große Unterschiede in dem Gange der Entwickelung der Menschen gibt, daß auch die Auszüge oder Extrakte ihrer Körper von ganz verschiedenem Werte sein werden, je nachdem sie diese oder jene Früchte aus dem Leben herausgezogen haben. Und wenn wir uns erinnern, daß es große Führer der Menschheit, Eingeweihte gibt, welche andere Menschen in die geistigen Welten einführen, so müssen wir uns fragen: Wodurch bleibt das, was die Eingeweihten errungen haben, für die Zukunft erhalten? - Die äußere Geschichte kann darüber natürlich keine Auskunft geben. Wir müssen die Wiederverkörperung der Eingeweihten näher betrachten, und zwar zunächst der ältesten Eingeweihten, um dann die Resultate anzuwenden.
Ehe die Menschheit die jetzigen Kontinente bewohnte, war die Physiognomie der Erde eine ganz andere. Es existierte da, wo heute der Atlantische Ozean ist, der Kontinent Atlantis. Dieser wurde dann durch große Katastrophen, die in der Sintflutsage der Völker enthalten sind, vernichtet. Die Atlantier - also wir selbst — hatten ihre großen Führer und Eingeweihten, und es gab schon zu jener Zeit Lehrstätten oder Schulen, in denen die Eingeweihten lehrten. Sie können heute hellseherisch erforscht werden. Wir sehen dann, daß es eine Anzahl solcher Stätten gab, in denen die Führer lehrten und lebten. Ein guter Name für dieselben ist «Orakel». Eines der größten und wichtigsten Orakel war das Sonnenorakel. In diesem lebte der bedeutsamste Führer. Seine Hauptaufgabe bestand darin, Offenbarungen über die Geheimnisse der Sonne zu geben; nicht der physischen — denn das ist nur die Außenseite -, sondern der wirklichen Sonne. Diese wirkliche Sonne besteht aus geistigen Wesenheiten, die sich der physischen Sonne bedienen, wie die Menschen sich der Erde bedienen. Die inneren Geheimnisse dieses Sonnendaseins zu schauen und zu offenbaren, das war die Aufgabe des großen Sonnenorakels. Für dieses war das Sonnenlicht nicht einfach etwas Physisches, sondern jeder Sonnenstrahl ist die Tat der geistigen Wesenheiten, welche auf der Sonne ihren Schauplatz haben. Diese großen Wesenheiten waren zur Zeit der alten Atlantis noch ausschließlich auf der Sonne. Später änderte sich dies, indem die große Wesenheit, welche später Christus genannt wurde, sich mit der Erde vereinte. Man kann daher das Sonnenorakel auch das Christus-Orakel nennen. Die Vereinigung der Christus-Wesenheit mit der Erde geschah, als auf Golgatha das Blut des Christus Jesus floß. Da vereinte sich sein Wesen mit der ‚Atmosphäre der Erde, wie dies heute noch im hellseherischen Rückblick wahrgenommen werden kann. So kam die Christus-Wesenheit von der Sonne auf die Erde. Als bei Damaskus das Licht der geistigen Erleuchtung auf den Saulus-Paulus fiel, da sah Paulus den mit der Erde vereinten Christus und wußte zugleich, daß er es war, der auf Golgatha sein Blut vergossen hatte.
Auf den kommenden Christus wies schon das Sonnenorakel der alten Atlantis. Es prophezeite das Kommen des Sonnengottes, der zwar erst viel später als Christus bezeichnet wurde, aber wir können trotzdem das Sonnenorakel als Christus-Orakel bezeichnen. Diese Orakel hatten viele Nachzügler in späteren Zeiten, es gab Saturn-, Jupiter-, Mars-, Venus-, Merkur-, Vulkanorakel, jedes mit seinen großen Geheimnissen und Lehren. Gegen Ende der atlantischen Zeit entwickelte sich in der Nähe des heutigen Irland eine Schar von Vorgeschrittenen, aus deren Mitte sich der größte Führer eine Anzahl auserwählte, um durch sie die Kultur fortzusetzen, wenn die sich vorbereitende Katastrophe eintreten würde. Unterdessen hatten schon vor langen Zeiten große Wanderungen stattgefunden in die sich hebenden Länder von Europa, Asien und Afrika, und in diesen entstanden viele Nachfolger der alten Orakel, aber immer mehr an Bedeutung abnehmend. Der große Führer aber wählte die Besten aus, um sie in ein besonderes Land zu führen. Sie waren schlichte, einfache Leute und unterschieden sich von den meisten andern Atlantiern dadurch, daß sie die Hellsichtigkeit fast ganz verloren hatten. Die Mehrzahl der Atlantier war ja noch hellsichtig. Wenn sie nachts einschliefen, wurden sie nicht bewußtlos, sondern die Sinnenwelt verschwand, und an ihrer Stelle baute sich auf die geistige Welt, in der sie dann Genossen der göttlich-geistigen Wesen waren. Die Fortgeschrittenen aber hatten angefangen, den Intellekt zu entwickeln. Aber sie waren schlicht, tief warm von Gemüt, tief anhänglich an ihren Führer. Mit ihnen zog er nach dem Osten, nach dem Inneren von Asien und gründete dort das Zentrum für die nachatlantische Kultur. Ferngehalten wurde dort die Schar von den andern Lebenden, welche für diese Aufgabe ungeeignet waren. Die Erziehung der Nachkommen wurde ganz besonders sorgfältig gepflegt. Erst bei diesen Nachkommen bildete sich das aus, wodurch sie zu großen Lehrern wurden. Auf geheimnisvolle Weise wurde das erreicht. Vorbereitet wurde [so], was nötig war, um alles Gute der atlantischen Kultur herüberzuretten in die neue Rasse, um eine neue, fortschreitende Kultur einzuleiten. Das war die Aufgabe des Manu, des großen Führers; denn die Weisen, welche an den kleineren Orakeln lebten, konnten dies nicht tun. Es war durch den Manu von den großen Orakelweisen dasjenige aufbewahrt worden, was wir den Ätherleib nennen. Während dieser Ätherleib sonst, wie wir sahen, als zweiter Leichnam sich auflöst, wurde er in gewissen Fällen aufbewahrt. Die größten dieser Orakelweisen hatten in ihren Ätherleib so viel hineingearbeitet, daß er zu wertvoll war, um in die allgemeine Ätherwelt aufzugehen. Deshalb wurden die sieben besten Ätherleiber der sieben größten Weisen aufbewahrt, bis der Manu die sieben Besten aus seiner Schar so weit ausgebildet hatte, daß sie für diese Ätherleiber geeignet waren. Nur der Ätherleib des großen Eingeweihten des Christus-Orakels wurde in gewisser Beziehung verschieden behandelt von diesen andern. Diese sieben Weisen also, die sieben großen Rishis, welche die sieben Ätherleiber der größten Eingeweihten empfangen hatten, diese gingen nach Indien und wurden dort die großen Gründer der indischen Kultur, die sieben großen Lehrer.
Diese uralte, heilige Kultur der vorvedischen Zeit stammt von den sieben Rishis, welche die aufbewahrten Ätherleiber der Orakeleingeweihten des Venus-, Mars-, Jupiterorakels und so weiter trugen. In ihnen wirkte sozusagen ein Abdruck jener Eingeweihten, eine Wiederholung von deren Fähigkeiten. Äußerlich waren sie ganz schlicht und einfach. Ihre große Bedeutung war nicht äußerlich erkennbar. Auch ihr Intellekt stand nicht auf der gewaltigen Höhe ihrer Prophetien. Sie waren nicht Gelehrte, sie standen nicht so hoch in der Urteilskraft wie manche andere, tiefer sogar als viele heutige Menschen. Ihr Astralleib und Ich war ja das ihrige, nur der Ätherleib war ihnen von jenen großen Weisen gegeben. Aber in inspirierten Zeiten wurden sie von diesen Orakelwesen gleichsam ergriffen; der Ätherleib war dann tätig, sie waren dann nur Instrumente, durch welche jene uralte Weisheit verkündet wurde - Veden -, welche für den heutigen Menschen viel zu schwer, ja unverständlich ist. So offenbarte sich die alte Weisheit der alten Orakel. Nur das Sonnen- oder ChristusOrakel konnte auf diesem Wege nicht ganz offenbart werden. Ein Abglanz nur der Sonnenweisheit konnte überliefert werden, denn sie war so hoch, daß auch die heiligen Rishis sie nicht erreichen konnten.
Hier sehen wir, daß die Reinkarnation nicht immer und allgemein so glatt vor sich geht, wie man vielfach annimmt, sondern wenn ein Ätherleib besonders wertvoll ist, so wird so etwas wie ein Modell, um es bildlich auszudrücken, aufbewahrt und dann einem späteren Menschen gegeben. Und dieser Fall ist nicht so ganz selten. Mancher schlichte Mensch kann einen sehr wertvollen Ätherleib haben, und dieser wird aufgespart. Es lösen sich nicht alle Ätherleiber einfach wieder auf, sondern die besonders brauchbar sind, die werden auf andere Menschen übertragen. Und zwar ist es durchaus nicht dasselbe «Ich», welches diesen erhaltenen Ätherleib oder Astralleib wieder erhält, sondern ein anderes Ego, welches mit dem Ich, welches vorher den Ätherleib hatte, gar nichts zu tun hat. Dies gibt leicht Anlaß zu großen Täuschungen, wenn die Vergangenheit eines Menschen mit unvollkommenen hellseherischen Mitteln erforscht wird. Daher sind oft die okkulten Theorien über die früheren Leben von Menschen ganz verkehrt, wie es ja auch ganz verkehrt wäre zu sagen, daß die sieben Rishis dieselben Iche seien wie die Eingeweihten, deren Ätherkörper sie haben.
Vieles aber in der menschlichen Entwickelung wird erst klar, wenn man solche Dinge weiß; dann erst wird es erklärlich, wie das einmal Errungene aufbewahrt wird und dem Haushalte der Natur erhalten bleibt. So konnte das Höchste der atlantischen Kultur uns gerettet werden durch die Übertragung dieser sieben Ätherleiber.
Es soll hier noch ein anderes Beispiel angeführt werden, über welches früher nicht gesprochen werden konnte. Gehen wir zurück auf die altpersische Zeit, die Periode der Zarathustra-Kultur. Wir sehen eine wichtige Periode in ihr, weil sie die erste nachatlantische Zeit ist, in der die physische Welt mehr erobert wurde. In der indischen Zeit ist noch die Sehnsucht nach dem Geistigen überwiegend. Die geistige Welt war jenem Menschen die wirkliche, er fühlte sich ein Fremdling im Physischen, das Irdische ist vorübergehend, illusorisch, Maja. In der vorgeschichtlichen persischen Kultur wurde dies anders durch die Lehren des Zarathustra, das heißt des eigentlichen oder ersten Zarathustra, denn es gab deren viele. Seine Aufgabe als Führer bestand darin, die Menschen auf den physischen Plan hinzuweisen, Erfindungen zu machen, Instrumente und Geräte herzustellen, um diese physische Welt zu erobern. Dies war nötig. Der Mensch mußte ja das Physische als etwas für ihn Wichtiges kennenlernen. Aber der Verführer, der sagt ihm, daß das Physische das einzige sei, daß es nur das Irdische gäbe. Und da lehrt Zarathustra, daß dies falsch ist, daß es hinter allem Physischen das Geistige gibt, so wie die physische Sonne uns das äußere Zeichen ist der großen Sonnenwesenheit, des Geistig-Göttlichen, der großen Aura, Ahura Mazdao, Ormuzd. Diese Wesenheit ist jetzt physisch unsichtbar und jetzt fern von der Erde auf der Sonne. Aber, so sagt Zarathustra, einmal wird sie offenbar werden; später einmal wird sie auch auf der Erde erscheinen, so wie sie jetzt auf der Sonne ist.
In diese Geheimnisse weihte er seine intimsten Schüler ein, und namentlich zweien derselben gab er die tiefsten Lehren. Den einen bildete er vorzüglich aus in bezug auf alles, was die Urteilskraft betrifft, in den Wissenschaften, Astronomie und Astrologie, in Ackerbau und anderem. Alles dies übertrug er auf diesen einen Schüler, und zwar wurde dies ermöglicht durch einen Vorgang oder Prozeß zwischen ihnen, welcher ein Geheimnis ist. Dadurch wurde der Schüler so vorbereitet, daß er in der folgenden Verkörperung den Astralleib des Lehrers tragen konnte. Dieser wiederverkörperte Schüler mit dem Astralleib seines Lehrers ist Hermes. Hermes war der große Lehrer und Weise der ägyptischen Mysterien. Mit Zarathustras Astralleib wird Hermes geboren; dadurch wird er zum Träger der großen Weisheit.
Der zweite intime Schüler wurde unterrichtet in den Dingen, welche sich besonders im Ätherleib ausprägen, also tiefere Eigenschaften. Dieser Schüler empfing in der folgenden Verkörperung den Ätherleib des Zarathustra. Die religiösen Urkunden erzählen darüber Dinge, welche erst durch diese Erklärungen verständlich werden. Der Schüler mußte bei seiner Wiedergeburt in ganz besonderer Weise aufleben, der Ätherleib mußte stark sein, ehe der Astralleib auflebte. Dies wird erreicht mit dem, was mit der Geburt des Moses - denn er ist der wiedergeborene Schüler - verbunden war. Daß er in ein Kästchen gepackt in das Wasser gelegt wurde und so weiter, das hatte den Zweck, den Ätherleib als Kind völlig zu erwecken. Dadurch wurde Moses befähigt, über weit vergangene Zeiten im Gedächtnis zurückzuschauen, die Genesis der Erde in Bildern niederzuschreiben, in der Akasha-Chronik zu lesen. So sieht man gleichsam hinter den Kulissen diese Dinge wirken, durch welche alles Wertvolle aufbewahrt und verwendet wird.
Es gibt auch andere Beispiele aus späteren Zeiten. So lebte im 15. Jahrhundert eine merkwürdige Persönlichkeit: Nikolaus von Kues Cusanus. Wir sehen hier den merkwürdigen Fall, daß dieser Mann in seinen Forschungen die ganze Lehre des Kopernikus im 16. Jahrhundert sozusagen vorbereitet hat. Sie ist zwar in seinen Büchern noch nicht so richtig reif wie bei Kopernikus, aber sie ist doch darin in allem Wesentlichen enthalten, eine Tatsache, welche der gewöhnlichen Forschung ganz unerklärlich ist. Tatsächlich ist der Astralleib des Cusanus auf den Kopernikus übertragen worden, obwohl das Ich des Kopernikus ein ganz anderes war als das des Cusanus. Dadurch erhielt Kopernikus die Grundlagen, alle Vorbereitungen seiner Lehre.
Ähnliche Fälle kommen öfter vor. Immer wird das besonders Wertvolle erhalten, nichts vergeht. Aber Verwechslungen kommen dadurch natürlich oft vor, besonders auch, wenn die früheren Leben eines Menschen vermittels spiritistischer Medien erforscht werden sollen. Die Übertragung vom Äther- oder Astralleib auf spätere Menschen geschieht jetzt gewöhnlich so, daß, wenn ein Astralleib übertragen wird, er innerhalb desselben Volkes - sprachlich - bleibt; ein Ätherleib kann aber in ein anderes Volk gehen.
Ein anderer charakteristischer Fall ist der folgende. Wenn eine bahnbrechende Persönlichkeit stirbt, so wird stets der Ätherkörper erhalten. Dafür gibt es künstliche Methoden, die in den Geheimschulen immer bekannt waren. So war es für gewisse Zwecke der Neuzeit wichtig, daß der Ätherkörper des Galilei aufbewahrt wurde. Er war der große Reformator der mechanischen Physik, er hat Ungeheures geleistet, ja man kann sagen, daß ohne seine Entdeckungen viele rein praktische Errungenschaften der Neuzeit gar nicht möglich gewesen wären, denn alle Fortschritte der Technik beruhen auf der Wissenschaft Galileis. Ein Gotthard- oder Simplontunnel sind nur möglich geworden dadurch, daß Leibniz, Newton, Galilei die Wissenschaften der Integral- und Differentialrechnung, der Mechanik und so weiter ausgearbeitet haben. Es wäre also auch in bezug auf Galilei eine Verschwendung im Haushalte der Natur gewesen, wenn sein Ätherleib, der 'Träger seines Gedächtnisses und seiner Fähigkeiten, verlorengegangen wäre. So wurde dieser Ätherleib auf einen andern Menschen übertragen. Aus einem armen Bauerndorf ging dieser hervor und wurde später der Schöpfer der russischen Grammatik, der klassischen Literatur: Michail Lomonossow. Aber dieser ist nicht der wiedergeborene Galilei, wie eine oberflächliche Forschung vielleicht finden könnte.
So finden wir also, daß solche Fälle vielfach vorliegen, und daß der Vorgang der Wiederverkörperung nicht so einfach ist, wie man meist annimmt. Daher muß auch viel größere Vorsicht angewendet werden, wenn Menschen mit okkulten Mitteln ihre früheren Inkarnationen erforschen. In vielen Fällen ist es ja nichts als Kinderei, wenn Leute angeben oder sich einbilden, sie seien der wiedergeborene so und so, vielleicht Nero, Napoleon, Beethoven oder Goethe. Das ist natürlich albern und verwerflich. Aber die Sache ist viel gefährlicher, wenn vorgeschrittene Okkultisten in dieser Beziehung Fehler machen, sich vielleicht einbilden, sie seien die Wiedergeburt von diesem oder jenem Manne, wenn sie in Wirklichkeit nur dessen Ätherkörper haben. Dann ist dies nicht nur ein Irrtum - der ja an und für sich bedauerlich ist -, sondern der Mensch lebt dann unter dem Einfluß dieser falschen Idee, und dies hat geradezu verheerende Wirkungen. Die ganze Seelenentwickelung nimmt einen falschen Gang durch diese Illusion.
Wir sehen also, daß nicht nur die Iche sich wiederverkörpern, sondern daß auch die niederen Glieder in einem gewissen Sinne einen ähnlichen Vorgang durchmachen. Dadurch bekommt der Gesamtvorgang der Wiederverkörperung eine viel kompliziertere Gestaltung, als man gewöhnlich annimmt. So sehen wir, daß das Ich des Zarathustra sich wiederverkörpert als Zarathas-Nazarathos, welcher der Lehrer des Pythagoras wurde. Sein Astralleib tritt wieder auf in Hermes und sein Ätherleib in Moses. Nichts also geht verloren in der Welt, alles wird aufbewahrt und übertragen, wenn es nur wertvoll genug ist.
Complex questions of reincarnation.
How can what the initiates have achieved be preserved for the future?
We will discuss some intimate questions of reincarnation that can only be discussed in a branch of prepared anthroposophists. This does not merely mean that such anthroposophists should be theoretically prepared, but that they have developed their sensitivity through their collaboration in a branch. For we all remember that through this collaboration changes have taken place in our feelings and emotions for the truth. What we now not only believe, but regard as standing above all belief [as true], was also unbelievable to us in the past and is still fantastic, nonsense, and a dream for those who are far away. The fact that we have become accustomed to really living in these views is the sign of the more advanced, and the more advanced can then approach the consideration of special questions. Some of what is said here seems far-fetched; and yet all these things are enlightening for life and its manifestations, even though we must first go back far into distant periods of human evolution. We must start from the premise of placing ourselves before our soul as the process of reincarnation generally presents itself.
When a person passes through the gate of death, they first have certain experiences. The first experience is that they feel as if they are growing larger, as if they are growing out of their skin. They then gain a different view of things than they had before in physical life. In the physical world, every thing has its specific place, here or there, outside the observer. In this new world, however, it is different. It is as if the person is inside [the things], as if they are extended with or within the things, whereas before they were only a member in their place. The second experience consists in the fact that the person has a tableau of memories of their past life, that all the events of their life appear in comprehensive memory. This lasts for a very specific period of time. For reasons that cannot be explained today, this period is longer or shorter depending on the individual. In general, the duration of this state can be determined by how long a person was able to remain awake in their past life without being overcome by sleep. Assuming that the maximum time a person can remain awake is forty-eight hours, then the tableau of memories also lasts forty-eight hours after death. This stage is like an overview of the last life.
Then the etheric body emerges from the astral body in which the ego lives. Until now, all three were connected after the physical corpse had been left behind; now the etheric body also emerges and becomes the etheric corpse. However, in no human being today is the etheric body completely discarded, but rather the human being takes an extract or essence from their etheric body with them for the entire time that follows. So the etheric corpse is discarded, but the fruit of the last life is taken along by the astral body and the I. To be completely accurate, one must say that something is also taken from the physical body: a kind of spiritual extract of this body — the tincture of the medieval mystics. But this extract of the physical is the same in all lives; it only represents the fact that the I was embodied. The essence of the etheric body, on the other hand, is different in all lives, depending on the experiences gathered in it, depending on how much or how little progress has been made.
This is followed by the Kamaloka state, the time of weaning from physical, sensual life, which lasts about one third of the physical lifetime. When the etheric body is discarded, the astral body still has all the passions, desires, and so on that it had at the end of life; these must now be weaned away, purified, and this is Kamaloka. Then the astral body is also discarded. Here, too, the fruit, the astral essence, is taken along, while the rest, the astral corpse, dissolves into the astral world. And now the human being enters Devachan, where he prepares himself in the spiritual world for a new, future life. Here he lives with spiritual events and beings until he is called back into the physical world, either because his karma requires it or because he is needed on the physical earth.
This is a general description of the process. But life in the spiritual world progresses constantly, in that the future is linked to the past, and what is to come is built up with the help of what has gone before. If we go into how this happens in detail, wonderful things are revealed, many things that are not contained in the simple description of the process of reincarnation. It is clear that there are great differences in the course of human development, that the extracts or essences of their bodies will also be of very different value, depending on whether they have drawn this or that fruit from life. And when we remember that there are great leaders of humanity, initiates who introduce other people into the spiritual worlds, we must ask ourselves: How is what the initiates have achieved preserved for the future? External history cannot, of course, provide any information about this. We must take a closer look at the reincarnation of the initiates, beginning with the oldest initiates, in order to then apply the results.
Before humanity inhabited the present continents, the physiognomy of the Earth was completely different. Where the Atlantic Ocean is today, there once existed the continent of Atlantis. This was then destroyed by great catastrophes, which are recorded in the flood legends of various peoples. The Atlanteans – that is, we ourselves – had their great leaders and initiates, and even at that time there were places of learning or schools where the initiates taught. These can be researched today through clairvoyance. We then see that there were a number of such places where the leaders taught and lived. A good name for these is “oracles.” One of the largest and most important oracles was the Sun Oracle. The most important leader lived there. His main task was to give revelations about the secrets of the sun; not the physical sun, for that is only the outer aspect, but the real sun. This real sun consists of spiritual beings who use the physical sun as humans use the earth. To see and reveal the inner secrets of this solar existence was the task of the great sun oracle. For him, sunlight was not simply something physical, but every ray of sunlight is the deed of spiritual beings who have their theater on the sun. At the time of ancient Atlantis, these great beings were still exclusively on the sun. Later, this changed when the great being who was later called Christ united with the earth. The sun oracle can therefore also be called the Christ oracle. The union of the Christ being with the Earth took place when the blood of Christ Jesus flowed on Golgotha. There, his being united with the atmosphere of the Earth, as can still be perceived today in clairvoyant retrospect. Thus the Christ being came from the sun to the earth. When the light of spiritual enlightenment fell on Saul-Paul at Damascus, Paul saw Christ united with the earth and knew at the same time that it was he who had shed his blood on Golgotha.
The sun oracle of ancient Atlantis already pointed to the coming Christ. It prophesied the coming of the sun god, who was not called Christ until much later, but we can nevertheless refer to the sun oracle as the Christ oracle. These oracles had many followers in later times; there were Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Vulcan oracles, each with its own great mysteries and teachings. Towards the end of the Atlantean era, a group of advanced individuals developed near present-day Ireland, from among whom the greatest leader chose a number of people to continue the culture through them when the impending catastrophe would occur. Meanwhile, long ago, great migrations had taken place to the rising lands of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in these lands many successors to the ancient oracles arose, but they became increasingly less important. The great leader, however, chose the best of them to lead to a special land. They were simple, unassuming people and differed from most other Atlanteans in that they had almost completely lost their clairvoyance. The majority of Atlanteans were still clairvoyant. When they fell asleep at night, they did not lose consciousness, but the sensory world disappeared and in its place arose the spiritual world, in which they were then companions of the divine-spiritual beings. The more advanced ones, however, had begun to develop their intellect. But they were simple, deeply warm-hearted, and deeply devoted to their leader. With them he moved eastward, to the interior of Asia, and there he founded the center for post-Atlantean culture. The group was kept away from the other living people, who were unsuitable for this task. The education of the descendants was cultivated with particular care. It was only in these descendants that the qualities developed which enabled them to become great teachers. This was achieved in a mysterious way. What was necessary was prepared in order to carry over all that was good in the Atlantean culture into the new race, so that a new, progressive culture could be initiated. This was the task of the Manu, the great leader, for the wise men who lived at the lesser oracles could not do this. It was preserved by the Manu from the great oracle sages, what we call the etheric body. While this etheric body otherwise dissolves as a second corpse, as we have seen, in certain cases it was preserved. The greatest of these oracle sages had worked so much into their etheric bodies that they were too valuable to be absorbed into the general etheric world. Therefore, the seven best etheric bodies of the seven greatest sages were preserved until the Manu had trained the seven best of his followers to such an extent that they were suitable for these etheric bodies. Only the etheric body of the great initiate of the Christ Oracle was treated differently from the others in a certain respect. These seven sages, the seven great Rishis, who had received the seven etheric bodies of the greatest initiates, went to India and became the great founders of Indian culture, the seven great teachers.
This ancient, sacred culture of the pre-Vedic period originated with the seven rishis who carried the preserved etheric bodies of the initiates of the Venus, Mars, Jupiter oracles, and so on. In them, so to speak, there was an imprint of those initiates, a repetition of their abilities. Outwardly, they were very simple and unassuming. Their great significance was not outwardly apparent. Nor was their intellect on the same lofty level as their prophecies. They were not scholars, they were not as highly regarded for their judgment as some others, even deeper than many people today. Their astral body and ego were their own, only the etheric body was given to them by those great sages. But in inspired moments they were seized, as it were, by these oracle beings; the etheric body was then active, and they were merely instruments through which that ancient wisdom—the Vedas—was proclaimed, which is far too difficult, indeed incomprehensible, for people today. This is how the ancient wisdom of the ancient oracles was revealed. Only the Sun or Christ Oracle could not be fully revealed in this way. Only a reflection of the wisdom of the Sun could be handed down, for it was so high that even the holy Rishis could not attain it.
Here we see that reincarnation does not always and generally proceed as smoothly as is often assumed, but when an etheric body is particularly valuable, something like a model, to express it figuratively, is preserved and then given to a later human being. And this case is not so rare. Some simple people can have a very valuable etheric body, and this is saved. Not all etheric bodies simply dissolve again, but those that are particularly useful are transferred to other people. And it is by no means the same “I” that receives this preserved etheric body or astral body, but a different ego that has nothing to do with the “I” that previously had the etheric body. This easily gives rise to great deception when a person's past is investigated with imperfect clairvoyant means. Therefore, occult theories about people's past lives are often completely wrong, just as it would be completely wrong to say that the seven Rishis are the same egos as the initiates whose etheric bodies they have.
However, much in human development only becomes clear when one knows such things; only then does it become understandable how what has once been achieved is preserved and remains part of the household of nature. Thus, the highest achievements of Atlantean culture were saved for us through the transmission of these seven etheric bodies.
Another example should be given here, which could not be discussed earlier. Let us go back to ancient Persian times, the period of the Zarathustra culture. We see an important period in it because it is the first post-Atlantean period in which the physical world was more conquered. In the Indian period, the longing for the spiritual still prevailed. The spiritual world was the real world for those people; they felt like strangers in the physical world, which they saw as temporary, illusory, Maya. In prehistoric Persian culture, this changed through the teachings of Zarathustra, that is, the actual or first Zarathustra, for there were many of them. His task as a leader was to point people to the physical plane, to make inventions, to manufacture instruments and tools to conquer this physical world. This was necessary. Man had to learn to recognize the physical as something important for him. But the tempter tells them that the physical is the only thing that exists, that only the earthly exists. And Zarathustra teaches that this is wrong, that behind everything physical there is the spiritual, just as the physical sun is the outer sign of the great sun being, the spiritual-divine, the great aura, Ahura Mazdao, Ormuzd. This being is now physically invisible and far away from Earth on the sun. But, says Zarathustra, one day it will become apparent; later on, it will also appear on Earth, just as it is now on the sun.
He initiated his most intimate disciples into these mysteries, and to two of them in particular he gave the deepest teachings. He trained one of them excellently in everything concerning the power of judgment, in the sciences, astronomy, and astrology, in agriculture, and other things. He transferred all this to this one disciple, and this was made possible by a process or procedure between them, which is a secret. This prepared the disciple so that in his next incarnation he could carry the astral body of his teacher. This reincarnated disciple with the astral body of his teacher is Hermes. Hermes was the great teacher and sage of the Egyptian mysteries. Hermes is born with Zarathustra's astral body, thereby becoming the bearer of great wisdom.
The second intimate disciple was taught the things that are particularly expressed in the etheric body, i.e., deeper qualities. In his next incarnation, this disciple received the etheric body of Zarathustra. The religious documents tell us things that can only be understood through these explanations. The disciple had to revive in a very special way at his rebirth; the etheric body had to be strong before the astral body could revive. This was achieved through what was connected with the birth of Moses, for he is the reborn disciple. The fact that he was placed in a box and laid in the water, and so on, had the purpose of completely awakening the etheric body as a child. This enabled Moses to look back in memory to times long past, to write down the Genesis of the earth in pictures, to read in the Akashic Records. Thus one sees, as it were, behind the scenes, the workings of those forces through which everything of value is preserved and used.
There are other examples from later times. In the 15th century, there lived a remarkable personality: Nicholas of Cusa. Here we see the remarkable case that this man, in his research, prepared the entire teaching of Copernicus in the 16th century, so to speak. Although it is not yet as mature in his books as it is in Copernicus, it is nevertheless contained in all its essentials, a fact which is completely inexplicable to ordinary research. In fact, the astral body of Cusanus was transferred to Copernicus, although Copernicus' ego was completely different from that of Cusanus. This gave Copernicus the foundations, all the preparations for his teachings.
Similar cases occur frequently. What is particularly valuable is always preserved; nothing is lost. But of course, this often leads to confusion, especially when the previous lives of a person are to be investigated through spiritualistic mediums. The transfer from the etheric or astral body to later human beings now usually happens in such a way that when an astral body is transferred, it remains within the same people—linguistically speaking; but an etheric body can go to another people.
Another characteristic case is the following. When a pioneering personality dies, the etheric body is always preserved. There are artificial methods for this, which have always been known in the secret schools. For certain purposes in modern times, it was important that Galileo's etheric body be preserved. He was the great reformer of mechanical physics; he accomplished tremendous things. One can even say that without his discoveries, many purely practical achievements of modern times would not have been possible, because all advances in technology are based on Galileo's science. The Gotthard and Simplon tunnels were only made possible by Leibniz, Newton, and Galileo, who developed the sciences of integral and differential calculus, mechanics, and so on. It would therefore have been a waste in the economy of nature if Galileo's ether body, the “carrier of his memory and abilities,” had been lost. So this ether body was transferred to another human being. He came from a poor farming village and later became the creator of Russian grammar and classical literature: Mikhail Lomonosov. But he is not the reincarnated Galileo, as superficial research might suggest.
We thus find that such cases are numerous and that the process of reincarnation is not as simple as is generally assumed. Therefore, much greater caution must be exercised when people use occult means to investigate their previous incarnations. In many cases, it is nothing but childishness when people claim or imagine that they are the reincarnation of so-and-so, perhaps Nero, Napoleon, Beethoven, or Goethe. This is, of course, silly and reprehensible. But the matter is much more dangerous when advanced occultists make mistakes in this regard, perhaps imagining that they are the rebirth of this or that person, when in reality they only have their etheric body. Then this is not only a mistake – which is regrettable in and of itself – but the person then lives under the influence of this false idea, and this has downright devastating effects. The entire soul development takes a wrong turn because of this illusion.
We see, then, that not only do the egos reincarnate, but that the lower members also undergo a similar process in a certain sense. This gives the entire process of reincarnation a much more complicated form than is usually assumed. Thus we see that the ego of Zarathustra reincarnates as Zarathas-Nazarathos, who became the teacher of Pythagoras. His astral body reappears in Hermes and his etheric body in Moses. Nothing is lost in the world; everything is preserved and transferred, provided it is valuable enough.