The Rudolf Steiner Archive

19. Some Things about Karma, Reincarnation, and Initiation

[ 1 ] We have seen how the Atlanteans were still at home in the spiritual world with their consciousness, how it was actually day for them there and so-called night here in the physical world. Then we followed the descent of humanity into the post-Atlantean era through the various cultural epochs until the Greek-Latin period, until the appearance of Christ Jesus on earth.

[ 2 ] Now let us look once more at our own time, the fifth cultural epoch. Due to its intelligence, which is directed solely toward the physical plane, modern humanity has descended far below the level of the descent that occurred in the other great cultures. Materialism has led to an enormous expenditure of intellectual energy and mental work, which serves only to create physical comfort. The typical feature of our time has crystallized, for example, in the department store. The culture of the present works only for the physical plane, but with a refinement that has never before been achieved. It is therefore clear to the occultist why, especially in our time, the contrast between religion and science, which finds expression in the most diverse movements, is so great and the gulf between them so wide. A conflict between religion and science – from which art also suffers – always arises when the level of culture declines. We can see this in contemporary science, which has become completely entangled in material and abstract thinking. Philosophy is not something absolute, but something that has had to arise and change in the course of human development from certain preconditions. Before there was a philosophical way of looking at things—which only began in the 6th century BC with the Greeks—there was a type of knowledge that was drawn from mystical wisdom. This wisdom had its source in an inner experience of the soul in which the secrets of world events were revealed. When the ancient ability of intuitive vision was lost in the human soul, the intellectually oriented observation of sensory and soul perceptions arose. However, in the early days, philosophers still knew about this through their inner vision, which was still possible for them, or through the transmission of ancient mystery knowledge, and they combined it with the intellectual ability that was now emerging. Pythagoras and Plato still had their sources in seership. It was Aristotle who first worked out pure thinking techniques and established logic. Aristotelianism remained dominant throughout the Middle Ages and flourished in early scholasticism. Gradually, however, a gulf opened up between knowledge and faith. A divide arose between reason and its technique of thinking on the one hand, and supersensible truth on the other, which found its ultimate expression in Kant. In Kant and his philosophy we have one of the dead ends into which material thinking has led. And Kant was, unfortunately, the one who fertilized all of modern philosophy. However, the spiritual researcher does not point to such facts in order to criticize modern science. He shows them in order to shed light on the path that can lead out of the ossification of thought. There is only one way to do this: science, art, and religion, the three branches of culture, must be reunited and interpenetrate each other; they must radiate spiritual life. And it is the task of Western theosophy to achieve this. It must bring peace between the two aspects of the soul itself, which can no longer unite faith and knowledge within itself. Even in our material world, nothing happens that the spiritual does not work on. The spiritual is always the creator of the physical. In James's much-discussed philosophical school of pragmatism, we find something that can only be described as pseudo-spiritualism, which takes a materialistic view of the spiritual. At least he also produced some good things.

[ 3 ] Our age attaches tremendous and decisive importance to hereditary predisposition. From the point of view of spiritual science, which regards the physical as a consequence of the spiritual, it must also be said with regard to hereditary predisposition that in the pathological phenomena attributable to it, the spiritual is inhibited by the physical and cannot come to expression. But the spirit has only descended into physical matter; it will ascend again once it has gathered its experiences in the physical world. Everything in the world is in a state of development, including the physical human being and his organs. We know that the physical human body contains organs that no longer have any function today; they are organs of the past, the rudiments of which we carry within us. Likewise, we have the predispositions for organs of the future, which are today in a state of transition or transformation. We mention above all the human heart. It is an organ that has striated muscles. The heart is a crux for the anatomy of materialistic science, because it is an involuntary organ and, instead of longitudinally striated muscle fibers, it has transversely striated muscle fibers, like all voluntary organs of the human being. It is precisely what science does not suspect, an organ of the future and on its way to becoming a voluntary organ of the human being. In the initiated, it is already developed today. The same is true of the larynx: it too is an organ of the future. The deep mystery of procreation is connected with it. This is evident in the present day at the time of puberty when the voice breaks. In the future, human beings will speak their own language, and the larynx will become a creative organ. Shaping the inner, soul-spiritual in material forms is the future of humanity. Humanity is on the path to spiritualizing itself in order to work ever more consciously on the transformation of its bodies. We should draw the strength for this task in the future from a spiritual worldview. We should also be filled with joy and strength at the thought of becoming co-workers in this magnificent evolution.

[ 4 ] Let me say a few words here about the two great world laws of karma and reincarnation. These two laws did not yet exist on the old moon. It was only with the incorporation of the I on Earth, beginning in the middle of the Lemurian epoch and continuing until about the middle of the Atlantean epoch, that we can speak of the beginning of reincarnation as we know it today. For animals, whose ego is the group soul, there is no reincarnation even today. We find the connection between an animal species and the corresponding ego in the astral world. For the group soul of lions, for example, the death of a lion here on the physical plane means as much as it would mean to you if you cut off a fingernail. Such an animal, a lion, is first an astral formation that extends down from the group soul like a strand; it descends to the physical plane, condenses, and after the death of the individual lion, this astral formation returns to the astral plane. The group soul draws it back in like a limb. On the old moon, it was the same process that took place with the human soul. It was a limb of its group soul and returned to its womb. It was, as the Bible puts it, safe in the bosom of Father Abraham. It was only during the Lemurian period that the words reincarnation and karma began to have meaning, and they will one day cease to have meaning. Then human beings will enter permanently into a spiritual world where they will continue their work. When human beings have developed the impulse of brotherhood within themselves, for example, then racial evolution will cease; it will have been overcome. In the sixth culture, human beings will already understand better how to organize themselves; the concept of race will no longer apply. From within, from the spiritual realm, people will organize themselves, and no longer from without, through physical connections. And in the seventh culture, which will mirror the Indian culture, there will once again be a caste system, but it will be voluntary. Everything in evolution is constantly changing, but steady progress can be observed. The Atlantean epoch, the middle of our Earth's development, shows us the important point marked by the now complete entry of the I into the physical human body. It begins in the middle of the Lemurian epoch, after the departure of the Moon from the Earth. Humanity then develops further and further, and when the concept of brotherhood is practically realized on Earth, the races will be overcome. Karma will also be overcome.

[ 5 ] What is the law of karma? It is the tendency to make up in one of the next incarnations what was bad in one of the previous ones. A distinction must be made between karma that works internally and karma that works more externally. The internal karma includes the formation of character, qualities, and habits. The more external karma includes the conditions of life into which one is placed, family, people, and so on. Let us take a closer look at how karma works in physical life. For example, what appears in one life as an impulse, desire, or idea appears in the next life, or in one of the next lives, as a habit. And good habits will result in a beautiful and well-formed, healthy physical body in the next life; a bad habit will appear as an illness or a predisposition to illness in another life. Thus, the causes of illness are to be found in the inclinations and habits of previous lives. The fate of human beings, on the other hand, is the result of their previous actions. Those who give much love in one life will have the characteristic in another of remaining young for a long time, even outwardly. Those who harbor many feelings of hatred in one life will age early in another. People who abandon themselves to a sluggish, normal life that works against spirituality are neglecting something for their later lives that will be difficult for them to make up for.

[ 6 ] Now let me add a few words about initiation. The leadership of humanity has always drawn from its sources. The great individuals who presided over the mysteries, whom we call the Masters, were the ones who guided and directed humanity. To understand this better, let us consider the principle of initiation. One can only really speak of an initiation being granted to human beings since the time of the Atlantean catastrophe. For initiation has also undergone a development, changing not only in its outer forms but also in accordance with the needs of human beings.

[ 7 ] Why does the human being not perceive any sensory impressions during sleep, even though he is surrounded by a world of the senses? Because their intellect does not work at night. When a person is asleep in bed, their physical and etheric bodies remain behind, while their astral body and I-consciousness detach themselves and enter the spiritual world. But why do they perceive nothing of the spiritual world surrounding them, into which the astral body and I-consciousness enter during the night? Because the astral body of the ordinary human being, which leaves the physical body at night, has no astral sense organs and therefore cannot perceive anything astral. Through initiation or training, the chaotic astral mass that is the astral body of the average human being becomes organized so that it gradually acquires organs and can then perceive at night. In normal life, human beings are not yet strong enough to form organs in their astral body. In order to be able to do this, the power within human beings must be significantly strengthened. This is achieved through very specific exercises of meditation and concentration and other 'instructions'. The student must devote themselves to very specific ideas in their emotional and mental life, choosing things that correspond little or not at all to reality. Ideas that represent external things are not suitable for forming the organization of the astral body. But if you imagine a structure such as the Rosicrucian cross, the black cross with the seven red roses, then if you practice this exercise with the necessary energy and patience, after a longer or shorter period of time, depending on your level of development, you will experience something through it. You will thereby transform your astral body and incorporate organs into it. These must not be merely abstract ideas, but must be accompanied by the right feelings and sensations. Only then will you achieve the right results.

[ 8 ] We must distinguish between three types of initiation, all three of which lead to the same goal. There are three paths to choose from, depending on the individuality of the person. One initiation is that of wisdom: this corresponds to Indian or Oriental training. The second, that of feeling, is Christian. Only a few people can still follow this path today, because it requires a very strong power of devotion and piety. The first path, the Indian one, is associated with great dangers for European Western bodies and is therefore not the right one. The third path of initiation is Rosicrucian training, the path of initiation of thought and will. It leads to a connection with the forces of the other paths of initiation. The conclusion is the same for every initiation, but the initiation itself must adapt in the course of development to the respective needs of the souls and the possibilities offered by the human body.

[ 9 ] The student of the old initiation had to lie in the grave for three and a half days and was as if dead. His etheric and astral bodies were outside and experienced the spiritual world. The hierophant supervised the process and called the neophyte back to life. After his awakening, he was a witness to the spiritual world. This is the form of the old initiation; today it is no longer necessary in this way. The Christian and Rosicrucian initiations have such a powerful effect on human beings that they can achieve what was supposed to be achieved in the old initiation through the emergence of the higher members of the human being from the physical body, namely, that impressions from the spiritual world are imprinted on the astral body and the etheric body without that three-and-a-half-day lethargy. Modern initiation, if we want to call it that, brings about, after the purification or catharsis of the astral body has been accomplished, those effects that lead to real visions and result in experiential knowledge of the spiritual world, for the impressions received by the soul in the spiritual world are then imprinted on the astral body and etheric body. This is what is called enlightenment in occult development.