The Rudolf Steiner Archive

First Lecture

[ 1 ] This series of lectures is intended to address questions in the field of spiritual science that have a profound impact on life. From the various presentations that have been given over time, we are well aware that spiritual science is not meant to be an abstract theory, nor a mere doctrine or teaching, but a source of life and vitality, and it fulfills its purpose only when, through the insights it is able to offer, something flows into our souls that can make life richer and more comprehensible, and our souls more capable and energetic. If, however, one who professes this worldview of ours holds before oneself the ideal just described in a few words and then looks around a bit in the present to see to what extent one is able to put into practice in this life what flows from theosophy, one might perhaps arrive at a rather disheartening impression. For if one looks impartially at everything the world today thinks it “knows,” what drives people in our present time to these or those feelings or actions, one might say that all this is so infinitely far removed from theosophical ideas and ideals that the theosophist has no possibility whatsoever of intervening directly in life with what he acquires from the sources of spiritual science. — Yet that would still be a rather superficial view of the situation, superficial for the reason that such a view would not take into account what we must deduce from our own worldview by telling ourselves: “Once those forces we absorb through Theosophy become strong enough, they will also find a way to intervene in the world; but if nothing were ever done to make these forces stronger and stronger, their intervention in the world would simply be impossible.”

[ 2 ] But there is something else that can, so to speak, offer us comfort, even if such a reflection might otherwise leave us feeling desolate, and this is precisely what we are to take away from the reflections in this series of lectures: reflections on what is called human karma and karma in general. For with every hour we spend here, we will see more clearly how we can never do enough to bring about the possibility of intervening in life with theosophical powers, and how, if we seriously believe in and hold fast to karma, we must assume that karma itself will assign to us what we will sooner or later have to do in order to develop our powers. We shall see: If we believe we cannot yet apply the powers gained from our worldview, then we have simply not made these powers strong enough for them to bring about the effect that karma will also enable us to intervene in the world with these powers. Thus, these lectures should not merely contain a body of knowledge about karma, but with each passing hour they should increasingly awaken trust in karma—the certainty that when the time comes, whether tomorrow, the day after, or many years from now, our karma will bring us tasks to perform, insofar as we, as adherents of our worldview, have duties to fulfill. Karma will present itself to us as a teaching that not only tells us how this or that behaves in the world, but which, through the insights it brings us, can at the same time bring us satisfaction and elevation in life.

[ 3 ] However, if karma is to fulfill such a task, it is necessary for us to examine the law in question in somewhat greater depth—that is to say, in terms of how it extends throughout the world. To do this, however, I must resort to something I do not usually employ in my spiritual scientific reflections: namely, providing a definition, an explanation of the term. I do not usually do this, because such explanations of terms generally do not accomplish much. In our discussions, we generally begin by presenting facts, and when these facts are grouped and arranged in the appropriate way, the concepts and ideas emerge of their own accord. However, if we were to take a similar approach for the comprehensive questions we will be discussing in the coming days, we would need far more time than is available to us. Therefore, for the sake of understanding, it is necessary this time that we provide, if not a definition, then at least a kind of description of the concept that will occupy us for some time. After all, definitions serve only the purpose of reaching an understanding of what is meant when one uses or utters this or that word. In this spirit, a description of the concept of “karma” will be provided so that we know what we are talking about when the term “karma” is used in these lectures.

[ 4 ] Based on various reflections, each of us has likely already formed our own understanding of what karma is. A rather abstract concept of karma is probably that which defines it as the “spiritual law of causality”—the law according to which certain effects follow certain causes that lie in spiritual life. But this is too abstract a concept of karma, because it would be, in part, too narrow, and in part, far too broad. If we wish to understand karma at all as a law of causality, we must place it alongside what we otherwise refer to in the world as the law of causality, the law of cause and effect. Let us first agree on what we generally mean by the law of causality in the broader sense, where we are not yet speaking of spiritual facts and spiritual events.

[ 5 ] Today, external science so often emphasizes that the true significance of this science lies in the fact that it is based on the comprehensive law of causality, that it traces every effect back to its corresponding cause. However, people are far less clear on exactly how this tracing of effects back to causes takes place. For even today, in books that believe themselves to be well-informed and to clarify concepts in a truly philosophical manner, you will still be able to find statements such as: “An effect is that which follows from a cause.” But when one says that an effect follows from a cause, one is completely missing the point of the facts. For if we consider, for example, the warming sunbeam that strikes a metal plate, so that this metal plate has thereby become warmer, then we will speak of cause and effect in the outside world. But will we ever be able to say that the effect—the warming of the metal plate—follows from the cause of the warm sunbeam? If the warm sunbeam already contained this effect within itself, the fact would not exist, since the warm sunbeam does not warm a metal plate at all unless it meets it. For an effect to follow a cause in the world of phenomena, in the lifeless world that surrounds us, it is always necessary that something meet the cause. And without something meeting the cause, there can never be any question of an effect following a cause. — It is not superfluous for us to preface our discussion with such a remark, which may sound rather philosophical and abstract; for if one wishes to make fruitful progress in theosophy, one must accustom oneself to grasping concepts with great precision and not as carelessly as they are sometimes grasped in other sciences.

[ 6 ] However, no one should speak of karma if an effect were to occur merely in the same way that it does when a warming ray of sunlight heats a marble slab. Although causality is present—the connection between cause and effect—we would never arrive at a proper understanding of karma if we spoke of it only in this context. We cannot, therefore, speak of karma when an effect is merely connected to a cause.

[ 7 ] We can now go further and develop a somewhat more sophisticated understanding of the relationship between cause and effect. For example, if we have a bow, draw it, and then shoot an arrow with it, then an effect has occurred as a result of drawing the bow. We are just as little permitted to apply the term “karma” to this effect of the shot arrow in connection with its cause as we are to what has just been said. But if we consider something else in this process, we come close to karma in a certain sense, even if we still do not grasp the concept of karma: namely, when we consider that the bow, if drawn often enough, becomes slack over time. Thus, through what the bow does—what happens to it—there will not merely be an effect that manifests outwardly, but there will be an effect that returns to the bow itself. Through the continuous drawing of the bow, something happens to the bow itself. Something that happens through the drawing thus falls back, so to speak, onto the bow itself. An effect is thus achieved that falls back onto the object from which this effect itself was caused.

[ 8 ] This is already part of the concept of karma. Without an effect being produced that rebounds upon the thing or being that brings it about—without this characteristic of the effect’s rebound upon the causing being—the concept of karma is inconceivable. So we are already getting a little closer to the concept of karma insofar as it becomes clear to us that the effect caused by a thing or being must rebound upon that thing or being itself. Nevertheless, we must not call the bow’s loss of tension due to constant drawing the karma of the bow, and we must not do so for the following reason: If we have drawn the bow quite frequently for about three to four weeks, and it has become slack after four weeks, then we are actually dealing with something quite different in the slack bow than we were four weeks ago with the taut bow; the bow has become something else; it has not remained the same. So if the repercussive effect is such that it thoroughly transforms the thing or being into something else, then we cannot yet speak of karma. We may only speak of karma when the effect that rebounds upon the being strikes the same being upon rebounding, or when the being has at least remained the same in a certain sense.

[ 9 ] And so we have come a step closer to understanding the concept of karma. But if we wish to describe the concept of karma in this way, we essentially end up with only a rather abstract notion of it. Nevertheless, if we wish to grasp this concept abstractly, we will hardly be able to define it any more precisely than by expressing it in the manner we have just done. There is only one thing we must add to the concept of karma: If the effect that rebounds upon the being occurs at the very same moment—that is, if the cause and the rebounding effect take place simultaneously—then we can hardly speak of karma. For in this case, the being from whom the effect emanates would, in essence, wish to bring about the effect directly; would thus presuppose this effect; would see through all the elements leading to this effect. If that is the case, we do not speak of karma. For example, we will not speak of karma when we have a person before us who performs a certain act with which he intends this or that, and when then—in accordance with his intention—this or that effect, which he has just willed, occurs. This means that there must be something between the cause and the effect that eludes the being’s immediate awareness when the cause is brought about, so that the connection between cause and effect does exist, but is not actually intended by the being itself. If this connection is not intended by the being that causes it, then the reason why a connection exists between cause and effect must lie elsewhere than in the intentions of the being in question. That is to say, this reason must lie in a certain lawfulness. It is therefore part of karma that the connection between cause and effect is a lawful one that transcends what the being immediately intends.

[ 10 ] We have thus gathered together several elements that can help us understand the concept of karma. But we must incorporate all these elements into the concept of karma and not stop at an abstract definition. Otherwise, we will not be able to understand the manifestations of karma in the various spheres of the world. We must now first seek out these manifestations of karma where karma first confronts us: in the individual human life.

[ 11 ] Can we find something like this in an individual human life, and when can we find it—that is, what we have just described through our explanation of the concept of karma?

[ 12 ] We would find something like this, for example, if an experience were to enter our lives in which we could say to ourselves: This experience that is occurring for us is connected in some way to an earlier experience in which we ourselves were involved, one that we ourselves brought about. Let us try—initially purely through observation of life—to determine whether such a thing exists. So let us now adopt the standpoint of external observation alone. Anyone who does not make such observations can never come to recognize a lawful connection in life; they can no more do so than someone who does not observe the collision of two billiard balls can come to know the law of elastic collision. Observation of life can indeed lead us to the perception of a lawful connection. Let us immediately single out a specific connection for this purpose.

[ 13 ] Let us suppose that a young person, at the age of eighteen, had been thrown off the career path that had seemed to be laid out for him up to that point by some unforeseen event. Let us assume that this person had been pursuing a course of study up to that point, had prepared himself through that study for a profession such as might result from such a course, and that he had now been thrown out of it—for example, due to a misfortune befalling his parents—and driven into the merchant’s trade at the age of eighteen. Anyone who observes such cases in life with an unbiased eye—with the same perspective one might use in physics to observe the phenomenon of elastic balls colliding—will then find, for example, that the experiences of the merchant’s trade into which the young person has been driven initially have a stimulating effect, that he carries out his duties within it, learns something, and perhaps even becomes quite capable. But one can also observe that after some time something quite different also sets in: a certain weariness, a certain dissatisfaction. Such dissatisfaction will not set in immediately. If the career change has taken place by the age of eighteen, the next few years may pass quietly. But perhaps around the age of twenty-three, it will become clear that something is taking root in the soul, something that appears inexplicable. If one then investigates further, one can often observe, when the case is clear, that the weariness five years after the career change finds its explanation in the thirteenth or fourteenth year. For we will very often have to look for the causes of such a phenomenon approximately the same span of time before the career change as after which an event occurred, as we have just described. It may be that the person in question, during his or her thirteenth year—that is, five years before the career change—took something into his or her emotional world that granted him or her a certain inner contentment. Let us assume that the career change had not taken place; then what the young person had become accustomed to in the thirteenth year would have played out in later life and borne this or that fruit. But then came the career change, which initially interested the young person and captured their soul. What entered their inner life as a result pushed back what had been there before. This can be suppressed for a certain time, but as it is suppressed, it gains a special power precisely within; there it accumulates, so to speak, inner tension. It is similar to when we squeeze an elastic ball: we can press it to a certain limit, then it offers resistance; and when it is caused to spring back, it will spring back with all the greater force the more we have squeezed it beforehand. Experiences such as those just described, which a young person has absorbed in the thirteenth year of their life and which have then become entrenched until the change of profession, can also be suppressed in a certain way; but then, after some time, a resistance makes itself felt in the soul. And then one can see how this resistance has become strong enough to now manifest itself in its effects. Because the soul lacks what it would otherwise have had if the career change had not occurred, what has been suppressed asserts itself and now comes to the fore in such a way that dissatisfaction and weariness with what the environment offers set in.

[ 14 ] So here we have a case where the person in question experienced something, did something between the ages of thirteen and fourteen, and later did something else—namely, changed careers—and we see how these causes play out in such a way that their effects later recur, striking back at the same being. In such a case, we would first have to apply the concept of karma to the individual life of the human being. — But one should not now object: We have, however, encountered cases where something like this did not manifest at all! — That may be so. But it would not occur to any physicist, when investigating the laws of a falling stone that falls at this or that speed, to say that the law is incorrect if the stone were, for example, knocked off course by a blow. One must learn to observe correctly and exclude those phenomena that do not belong to the formation of the law. Certainly, such a person, who—if nothing else were to happen—at the age of twenty-three would find the impressions of his thirteenth year to be a burden, would not come to feel this burden if, for example, he had married in the meantime. But then we would be dealing with something that has no bearing on the determination of the fundamental law. What matters, however, is that we find the correct factors that can lead us to a law. Observation in itself is nothing at all; only systematic observation brings us to the knowledge of the law. Now, however, it is also a matter of conducting such systematic observations in the right way if we wish to study the law of karma.

[ 15 ] Let us suppose that, in order to understand karma for an individual, a person suffers a severe blow of fate at the age of twenty-five, causing him pain and suffering. If we simply make our observations in such a way that we say, “This severe blow of fate has just struck this person’s life and filled it with pain and suffering”—that is, if we stop at mere observation—we will never come to recognize the karmic connection. But if we proceed further and consider the life of such a person, who experienced such a stroke of fate at the age of twenty-five, in his fiftieth year, then we may arrive at a perspective that we can express something like this: The person we are observing here has become a diligent and energetic individual who stands firmly in life; now let us look further back into his life. At the age of twenty—we then find—he was still a good-for-nothing and wanted to do absolutely nothing; at the age of twenty-five, the severe blow of fate struck him. Had this blow not struck him—we can now say—he would have remained a good-for-nothing. Thus, the severe blow of fate was the reason why, at the age of fifty, we have before us an energetic and capable man.

[ 16 ] This fact teaches us that we are mistaken if we regard the misfortune of the twenty-fifth year as a mere effect. For when we ask, “What caused it?”, we cannot stop at mere observation. But if we do not regard such a blow as an effect and place it at the end of the phenomena that preceded it, but rather if we place it at the beginning of the subsequent events and regard it as a cause, then we learn to recognize that we can indeed change our emotional judgment, our intuitive judgment, quite significantly in relation to this stroke of fate. We may be sad if we regard it merely as an effect—that this blow has struck this person. If, on the other hand, we regard it as the cause of something that follows, then we may perhaps be glad and feel joy about it. For it is thanks to this stroke of fate—so we can say—that the person in question has become a decent human being.

[ 17 ] Thus we see that our perceptions can change significantly depending on whether we view a fact of life as an effect or as a cause. It is therefore not irrelevant whether we regard something that befalls a person in life as a mere effect or as a cause. Of course, if we make the observation at the very moment when the painful event has occurred, we cannot yet perceive the immediate effect. But if we have formed the law of karma from similar observations, then this law of karma itself can tell us: Perhaps an event is painful now because it confronts us merely as the effect of what preceded it; but it can also be viewed as the starting point for what follows. Then we can say: We sense that here the starting point is the cause of effects that cast the matter in a completely different light! Thus the law of karma itself can be the source of comfort. That comfort would not exist if we were to accustom ourselves to placing an event only at the end and not at the beginning of a series of phenomena.

[ 18 ] It is therefore essential that we learn to observe life systematically and to relate things to one another as cause and effect. If we conduct such observations in a truly thorough manner, we will discover patterns in individual human lives that unfold with a certain regularity, and other patterns that appear irregular to us in this life. Thus, those who observe human life—and not merely as far as the nose can reach—can uncover remarkable connections within it. Unfortunately, however, the phenomena of human life are observed today only over short periods of time, scarcely spanning a few years; and people are not accustomed to connecting what occurs after a greater number of years with what might have existed as a cause earlier on. Therefore, few people today will be found who bring the beginning and end of human life into a certain connection. Nevertheless, this connection is extraordinarily instructive.

[ 19 ] Let us suppose that we have raised a child during the first seven years of his life in such a way that we did not do what usually happens—that is, we did not proceed from the belief that if a person is to become a decent human being in life, he must be this way or that way, and must absolutely conform to our ideas of what a decent human being is. For in such a case, we would want to drill into the child as precisely as possible everything that, in our view, is needed to make them a decent person. But if we start from the realization that one can be a decent person in many different ways, and that we need not yet have any idea of what kind of decent person the child, as they are still growing up, is meant to become according to their individual disposition, then we will say: Whatever concepts I may have of a decent person, the person who is to emerge from this child must come into being by drawing out the best qualities from within them—which I may first have to solve as a puzzle! And one will therefore say to oneself: What does it matter that I am bound by this or that commandment and the like? The child itself must feel a need to do this or that! If I want to develop the child according to its individual aptitudes, I will try to develop and bring out those needs that are inherent in it, so that above all a need for the actions arises, and the child thus performs the actions out of its own need. — We see from this that there are two very different methods of influencing a child in the first seven years of its life.

[ 20 ] If we now observe the child’s subsequent life, it will take a long time before we see what the most pronounced effect will be of what we have instilled in the child in this way during the early years. For observation of the course of life reveals that the actual effects of what has been planted as causes in the child’s soul do not manifest until the very end, that is, in old age. A person can retain a lively spirit within them until the end of their life if we have raised them as a child in the manner just described: that is, by taking into account their inner life, everything that is alive within them. If we have drawn out and brought to development the inner forces present within them, then we will see the fruits emerge in old age in the form of a rich inner life. In contrast, in a withered and impoverished soul—and consequently also, as we shall see later, in the physical infirmities of old age, since a withered soul also affects the body—we see the consequences of what we did wrong to the person in early childhood. Here we see something that, in a certain sense, presents itself regularly in human life—so that it applies to every human being—as a relationship of cause and effect.

[ 21 ] We could also identify such connections for the middle stages of life, and we will draw attention to them later. — The way we treat a person from the age of seven to fourteen manifests its effects in the penultimate stage of life. Thus we see cause and effect playing out cyclically, as in a circle. The causes that were present earliest appear as effects latest. But not only are such effects and causes present in the individual human life; alongside the cyclical course, a linear one also runs parallel.

[ 22 ] In our example of how the thirteenth year can influence the twenty-third, we have seen how cause and effect are interrelated in human life in such a way that what a person has experienced within themselves gives rise to effects that then recur to affect that same human being. This is how karma unfolds in the individual human life. However, we will not arrive at an explanation of human life if we seek connections between cause and effect only within this single human life. We will discuss in the coming hours how to further substantiate and elaborate on the idea that has now been introduced. For now, we shall merely point to something that is already known: that spiritual science shows how this human life between birth and death is a repetition of earlier human lives.

[ 23 ] If we now seek out the defining characteristic of life between birth and death, we can describe it as the extension of one and the same consciousness—at least in essence—throughout the entire period between birth and death. If you recall your earlier stages of life, you will say: There is a point in time that does not coincide with my birth, but lies somewhat later, where my memories of life begin. All people who are not initiates will say this; and they will then speak of their consciousness extending only that far. Basically, in the period from birth to death, we are dealing with something very peculiar regarding the beginning of these life memories, and we will return to this later; it will shed light on significant matters for us. But if we do not take this into account, we can say: Characteristic of life between birth and death is that a consciousness extends over this time.

[ 24 ] Even if a person, in ordinary life, does not seek out the causes of something that befalls them in later life in earlier stages of life, they could still do so if only they were attentive enough to everything and were to investigate everything. They could do so with the consciousness available to them as the consciousness of memory. And if, through memory, they were to attempt to visualize the connection between the past and the present in a karmic sense, they would arrive at the following conclusion.

[ 25 ] He would say, for example: I see that certain events that have happened to me would not have occurred if not for this or that having happened in an earlier phase of my life. — He might say: “I must now atone for what my upbringing has done to me.” — But even if he merely recognizes the connection between what was not his own sin, but rather what was sinned against him, and later events, that alone will be a help to him. He will more easily find ways and means to make amends for the wrongs that have been done to him. The recognition of such a connection between causes and effects in the individual stages of our lives—which we can overlook through our ordinary consciousness—can already be of the greatest benefit to us in life. Indeed, if we acquire this insight, we may perhaps be able to do something else as well. — However, if a person has reached the age of eighty and then looks back to find the causes of events in their eightieth year in their earliest childhood, it may be quite difficult for them to find remedies to compensate for what has been done to them, and if they then allow themselves to be instructed, it will no longer help all that much. But if they allow themselves to be instructed beforehand and look back at the wrongs committed against them, and, let’s say, take precautions against them as early as their fortieth year, then they may still have time to take certain countermeasures.

[ 26 ] We see, then, that we should not limit ourselves to learning only about the most immediate aspects of life karma, but should instead learn about karma and the lawful interrelationships that karma implies in general. This can be beneficial to our lives. — But what does a person do in their fortieth year to prevent the consequences of certain sins—sins committed against them, for example, in their twelfth year, or sins they themselves committed? They will try to make amends for what they have sinned or what has been done to them, and do everything possible to prevent the effect that would otherwise occur. In a certain sense, he will even replace the necessary effect that would occur without his intervention with another. The realization of what happened in the twelfth year will lead him to a specific action in the fortieth year. He would not have performed this action if he had not recognized that this or that had occurred in the twelfth year. What, then, has the person done by looking back on his past life? Through his consciousness, he himself has caused a specific effect to follow a cause. He has willed the effect that he has now brought about. — This shows us how our will can intervene in the line of karmic consequences and create something that takes the place of karmic effects that would otherwise have occurred. If we consider such a situation where our consciousness quite deliberately brings about a connection between cause and effect in the course of life, we will say to ourselves: In such a person, karma or karmic law has entered into consciousness; he has, in a certain sense, brought about the karmic effect himself.

[ 27 ] But let us now assume that we base a similar consideration on what we know about a person’s repeated earthly lives. The consciousness we have just spoken of—which, with the exception mentioned, extends to our life between birth and death—arises from the fact that the human being can make use of the instrument of the brain. When the human being passes through the gate of death, a different kind of consciousness emerges, one that is independent of the brain and bound to essentially different conditions. And we know that for this consciousness, which lasts until the new birth, a kind of review takes place of everything the human being has accomplished in the life between birth and death. In the life between birth and death, the human being must first form the intention to look back upon any sins that have been committed against him if he is to truly introduce the karmic effect of these sins into his life. After death, as the human being looks back on their life, they see the sins or actions they have committed. At the same time, they see what these actions have done to their soul or from their soul. There the human being sees how, by performing a certain action, their value has either decreased or increased. If, for example, we have caused another person some suffering, our worth has thereby diminished; we have, so to speak, become less valuable, have become more imperfect by causing that suffering to the other person. When we now look back after death, we look back on numerous such instances in which we say to ourselves: We have thereby become more imperfect. But it follows for the consciousness after death that the strength and the will arise within it, when it has the opportunity again, to do everything to regain the value it has lost—that is, the will to make amends for all the suffering it has inflicted. Thus, between death and rebirth, the human being takes up the tendency, the intention, to make amends for the evil they have done, so that they may once again attain the state of perfection that they are meant to have as a human being and which has been prevented by the corresponding deed.

[ 28 ] Now the human being re-enters existence. His consciousness changes once again; he has no recollection of the time between death and rebirth, nor of how he formed the intention to make amends for something. But this intention remains within him. And even if he does not know: “You must do this or that to make up for this or that!”—he is nevertheless driven by the power within him to some action that serves as a balancing force. And now we can imagine what happens when, for example, something very painful befalls a person in their twentieth year. With the consciousness they possess between birth and death, they will be weighed down by their pain. But if he were to remember the intentions he took on in the life between death and new birth, then he would also feel the force that drove him to the place where he could suffer this pain, because he sensed that he could only regain the degree of perfection he had forfeited—and which he is meant to regain—by enduring this pain. So even if ordinary consciousness says: The pain is there; you are suffering from it! — and considers only the pain in its effect, for the consciousness that also surveys the time between death and new birth, the very seeking out of pain or some misfortune might lie in the intention.

[ 29 ] This is indeed what we see when we view human life from a higher perspective. There we can see that events of fate occur in human life which do not appear as effects of causes within the individual life course, but which are caused by a different consciousness—namely, a consciousness that lies beyond birth and that extends our life into earlier times than those that have elapsed since our birth. If we grasp this idea precisely, we will say: We have, first of all, a consciousness that extends over the time between birth and death, which we shall call the consciousness of the individual personality, and we shall designate as the individual personality that which exists between birth and death. Then we see how a consciousness can operate beyond birth and death, of which the human being knows nothing in his ordinary consciousness, but which can operate just as this ordinary consciousness does. We have therefore first described how a person takes on their own karma and, for example, balances something out in their fortieth year so that the causes from their twelfth year do not affect them. In doing so, they take karma into their individual personality consciousness. If, on the other hand, a person is driven somewhere where they may suffer pain in order to balance something out, to become a better person, this also comes from within the person; only it does not come from the individual personality consciousness, but from a more comprehensive consciousness that encompasses the time between death and new birth. Let us call that aspect of the human being encompassed by this consciousness the “individuality” of the human being; and let us call this consciousness—which is thus continually interrupted by the personality consciousness—the “individual consciousness,” in contrast to the individual personality consciousness. Thus we see karma at work in relation to the individuality of the human being.

[ 30 ] However, we would still not understand human life if we were to follow only the sequence of phenomena, as we have done up to now, by focusing solely on those causes and effects that lie within the human being for the sake of the human being itself. We need only bring a simple case to mind—one that is to be presented merely to make it more vivid—and we will immediately see that we do not understand human life if we consider only what we have just said. —Let us take an inventor or discoverer, for example Columbus or the inventor of the steam engine or any other. In the discovery lies a specific action, a specific deed. If we consider this deed as the person performed it, and then seek the cause of why the person performed it, we will always find causes that lie in the direction we have just indicated. Why Columbus, for example, sailed to America, why he conceived this intention at a specific moment—we will find the causes for this in his individual and personal karma. But we may now ask ourselves: Must this cause be sought only in personal and individual karma? And must the deed be regarded solely as an effect for the individuality that was active in Columbus? — The fact that Columbus discovered America had a specific effect on him. Through this, he rose, he became more perfect. This will be evident in the further development of his individuality in the next life. But what effects did this deed have on other people? Should it not also be regarded as a cause that intervened in countless human lives?

[ 31 ] However, this is still a rather abstract view of such a matter, which we can grasp much more deeply if we consider human life over long periods of time. Let us suppose we examine human life as it unfolded during the Egyptian-Chaldean era, which preceded the Greco-Roman era. If we examine this era in terms of what it gave to humanity and what people experienced at that time, something highly peculiar becomes apparent to us. If we compare this epoch with our own, we will recognize that what is happening in our own age is connected to what took place during the Egyptian-Chaldean cultural period. The Greek-Latin age stands between the two in this context. Certain things would not be happening in our time if certain things had not happened in the Egyptian-Chaldean culture. If modern science has achieved this or that result, this certainly also stems from forces that have developed and unfolded from the human soul. But the human souls that have been active in our time were also incarnated in the Egyptian-Chaldean era and absorbed certain experiences there, without which they could not accomplish what they accomplish today. Had the students of the ancient Egyptian temple priests not absorbed Egyptian astrology regarding the connections of the heavens, they would not have been able to penetrate the mysteries of the world in their own way later on, and the forces that have now led humanity out into the spaces of the heavens would not have been present in certain souls of our time. How, for example, did Kepler come to his discoveries? He came to them because a soul lived within him that had absorbed the forces for those discoveries during the Egyptian-Chaldean epoch, which it was then able to make in the fifth epoch. It fills us with a certain inner satisfaction when, in individual minds, memories emerge, as it were, in such a way that the seeds of what they are now doing were sown in the past. One of the minds that has accomplished great things in the exploration of the laws of the heavens, Kepler, says of himself: “/p”

[ 32 ] “Yes, it is I; I have plundered the golden vessels of the Egyptians to build a sanctuary for my God from them, far from the borders of Egypt. If you forgive me, I shall rejoice; if you are angry, I shall bear it;—here I cast the die and write this book for readers both of today and of the future—what does it matter? And if it must wait a hundred years for its reader: God himself has waited six millennia for the one who will recognize his work.”

[ 33 ] This is a memory that surfaces sporadically in Kepler, recalling what he absorbed as a seed of what he was able to accomplish in his personal existence as Kepler. Hundreds of similar examples could be cited. — But here we see something more than merely the fact that something emerges in Kepler that is the effect of experiences from a previous earthly life. We see something emerging that appears to be the lawful effect for all of humanity of something that was, in turn, significant for humanity in an earlier time. We see how a human being is placed in a position to accomplish something for all of humanity. We see that not only in individual human life, but throughout all of humanity, there are connections between causes and effects that extend over vast periods of time. And we can infer from this that the individual law of karma will intersect with the laws we might call the karmic laws of humanity. Sometimes, however, this intersection is not very transparent. Consider what would have become of our astronomy if the telescope had not been invented at a specific time in the past. Trace the history of our astronomy back, and you will see that an infinite number of things depend on the invention of the telescope. Now it is well known that the telescope was invented because children once played with lenses in an optical workshop, and through a “coincidence,” so to speak, they arranged the optical lenses in such a way that someone later realized: This could result in something like a telescope. — Think how deeply you must search to reach the individual karma of the children and the karma of humanity that led to the invention of the telescope at a specific moment! Try to think this through, and you will see how, in a remarkable way, the karma of individual personalities and the karma of all humanity intersect and interweave! Then you will say to yourself: One would have to conceive of the entire development of humanity differently if this or that had not occurred at a specific time.

[ 34 ] The question is usually quite pointless: What would have become of the Roman Empire if the Greeks had not repelled the Persian invasion during the Persian Wars at a certain point in time? But the question is not pointless: How did it come to pass that the Persian Wars unfolded in precisely this way? — Anyone who explores this question and seeks an answer will see that certain specific achievements in the East came about only because there were certain despotic rulers who sought only their own personal gain and, to this end, allied themselves with the sacrificial priests and so on. The entire state apparatus of that time was necessary so that something could be created in the East, but this apparatus also brought about all the harm that subsequently occurred. And it is connected to this that a different kind of people—the Greeks—were able to repel the Eastern attack at the crucial moment. When we consider this, we will ask: What of the karma of the individuals who worked in Greece to repel the Persian attack? — There we will find much that is personal in the karma of the people concerned; but we will also find that personal karma is linked to the karma of the people and of humanity, so that it is justified to say: The karma of humanity as a whole has placed precisely these specific individuals in this place at this time! — We see here the interplay of the karma of humanity with individual karma. And we will have to ask ourselves further how these things interact. But we can go even further and consider another connection.

[ 35 ] From the perspective of spiritual science, we can look back to a time in Earth’s evolution when there was no mineral kingdom on our planet. Earth’s evolution was preceded by the Saturn, Sun, and Moon phases, during which there was no mineral kingdom as we understand it. It was only on Earth that our present-day minerals arose in their present forms. However, because the mineral kingdom separated itself in the course of Earth’s evolution, it exists as a distinct kingdom for all subsequent eras. Previously, humans, animals, and plants had evolved in such a way that there was no underlying mineral kingdom. In order for the other kingdoms to achieve later progress, they had to separate the mineral kingdom. But having separated it, they can only develop as they do on a planet that has a solid mineral foundation. And nothing will ever arise other than what came about under the condition that the formation of a mineral kingdom took place. The mineral kingdom is there, and all subsequent destinies of the other kingdoms depend on the formation of the mineral kingdom, which once took shape in our earthly existence in a distant past. Thus, with the fact of the mineral kingdom’s formation, something has occurred that all subsequent earthly development must reckon with. What follows from the formation of the mineral kingdom will be fulfilled in all other beings. Here we have, again in later ages, the karmic fulfillment of something that happened earlier. On Earth, what has been prepared on Earth is fulfilled. There is a connection between what happened earlier and what happened later, but also a connection that has repercussions for the being that caused it. Humans, animals, and plants have excreted the mineral kingdom, and the mineral kingdom now has repercussions for them. Here we see that it is possible to speak of a karma of the Earth.

[ 36 ] And finally, we can highlight something for which the foundations can be found in the general discussion in *Outlines of Esoteric Science*.

[ 37 ] We know that certain beings have remained behind at the stage of the Earth’s ancient lunar evolution, and that these beings have remained behind in order to impart very specific qualities to human beings on Earth. But it is not only beings that have remained behind from the Earth’s ancient lunar era, but also substantialities. Beings have remained at the lunar stage who, as Luciferic entities, influence our earthly existence. Through this fact of their remaining and their influence on our earthly existence, effects are brought about in earthly existence for which the causes were already laid down in lunar existence. But something similar also takes place on a substantial level. — When we look at our solar system today, we find it composed of celestial bodies that perform movements that recur regularly and exhibit a certain inner coherence. But we find other celestial bodies that, while they also move with a certain rhythm, break through, so to speak, the ordinary laws of the solar system—namely, the comets. Now, the substance of a comet is not one governed by laws such as those that exist in our ordinary, regular solar system, but by laws such as those that existed in the ancient lunar existence. In fact, the laws of the ancient lunar existence have been preserved in the cometary existence. I have mentioned on several occasions that spiritual science has demonstrated these laws before confirmation from the natural sciences has occurred. In 1906, I drew attention in Paris to the fact that during the ancient lunar existence, certain compounds of carbon and nitrogen played a role similar to that played today on Earth by compounds of oxygen and carbon—namely, carbonic acid, carbon dioxide, and so on. These latter compounds have a deadly quality. Cyanide compounds, hydrocyanic acid-like compounds, played a similar role during the ancient lunar existence. This fact was pointed out by spiritual science in 1906. It was also pointed out in other lectures that the cometary existence introduces the laws of the ancient lunar existence into our solar system, so that not only have the Luciferic beings remained behind, but also the lawfulness of the ancient lunar substance, which acts irregularly within our solar system. And it was always said that cometary existence must still contain something like cyanide compounds in the comet’s atmosphere. Only much later, after this had been proclaimed by spiritual science—only this year—has the cyanide spectrum been found in cometary existence through spectral analysis.

[ 38 ] Here is one piece of evidence in response to those who say: “Show us how spiritual science can actually lead to discoveries!” — There are many such examples; they simply need to be observed. Thus, something from our former lunar existence continues to influence our present earthly existence.

[ 39 ] Now let us ask ourselves: Can we claim that external sensory phenomena are based on something spiritual?

[ 40 ] For those who are committed to spiritual science, it is clear that behind everything that is sensually real there also lies a spiritual reality. If something substantial from the old lunar existence influences our earthly existence, if the comet shines upon our earthly existence, then there is also a spiritual force at work behind it. And we could even specify which spiritual aspect, for example, is revealed through Halley’s Comet. Halley’s Comet is the outward expression—every time it enters the sphere of our earthly existence—of a new impulse toward materialism. This may seem superstitious to the modern world. But people need only reflect on how they themselves attribute spiritual effects to constellations of the stars. Or who would not say that the Eskimo is a different kind of human being than, for example, the Hindu, because in the polar regions the sun’s rays strike at a different angle? Everywhere, natural scientists also attribute spiritual effects in humanity to constellations of the stars. — Thus, a spiritual impulse toward materialism runs parallel to Halley’s Comet. This impulse can be demonstrated: The appearance of Halley’s Comet in 1835 was followed by that materialistic current of the times which can be described as the materialism of the second half of the previous century; its earlier appearance was followed by the materialistic Enlightenment of the French Encyclopedists. That is the connection.

[ 41 ] In order for certain things to occur in earthly existence, their causes had to be established earlier, outside of earthly existence. And here we are even dealing with a matter of world karma. For why were spiritual and substantial elements eliminated on the ancient Moon? So that certain effects could radiate back to those beings who had cast them out. The Luciferic beings were cast out and had to undergo a different development so that free will and the possibility of evil could arise on Earth for the beings who are here. Here we have something that goes beyond the karmic effects of our earthly existence: a glimpse of world karma.

[ 42 ] Today we have been able to speak about the concept of karma, about its significance for the individual personality, for individuality, for all of humanity, within the effects of our Earth and beyond it—and we have also discovered something we can refer to as world karma. Thus we find the law of karma, which we can call a law of the connection between cause and effect, but in such a way that the effect rebounds upon the cause and that, in rebounding, the essence has been preserved, has remained the same. We find this karmic law everywhere in the world, insofar as we regard the world as a spiritual one. We sense that karma will manifest itself in the most diverse ways across the most varied fields. And we sense how the various karmic currents—personal karma, human karma, Earth karma, world karma, and so on—will intersect, and that it is precisely through this that we will gain the insights we need to understand life. And life can only be understood in its individual aspects if we can discern the interplay of the most diverse karmic currents.