The Karma of Vocation
GA 172
13 November 1916, Dornach
Lecture V
From these reflections on the segment of human life that is formed by, or associated with, a vocation, you will have seen that it is difficult to explain these things because they bring so much into consideration. We must bear in mind that everything that is brought into a life through the laws of destiny, of karma, depends on many factors, and the very multiplicity of life rests upon just this truth.
A special comment is in order here if, in the word vocation, we subsume individual human elements from a life's destiny. In other words, what is called the vocation of an individual must not be confused with what we designate, in the broadest sense, as his official position. It is obvious that all sorts of confusion would result if we directed our attention to what someone represents in his or her official position and subject this to the point of view of vocational life represented here. The very fact that people frequently have to follow their vocation within an official position causes the most complex external factors to have a bearing on their lives, and other karmic threads may, after a fashion, also weave into their vocational karmas.
To be sure, we are living today in a period that is being slowly transformed, but the things we must mention here relative to vocational karma are by no means the sole determinants in placing a person in this or that position in life. We know that today vocational karma is crossed in many ways by the karma of entire ranks and classes of human beings. The ambition, vanity, and prejudice of an individual, as well as the people around him, have a bearing on the many factors that influence the way he or she occupies a position in life within a group. All of them work into vocational karma from without and render it possible for ahrimanic influences to mingle continually in human activity. Someone in a certain position in life, who, through all sorts of means that are well-known and need not be mentioned, has become, let us say, a minister or councilor of state, does not necessarily have the mission (vocation) to occupy this post. Such a person may hold a high position, yet his or her mission may be that of a clerk, but we need not suppose that for this reason the position cannot be occupied. It is the peculiarity of our time that the materialistic interpretation of the basic assumptions, justifiable as they may be in themselves, has brought forward such a theory of life as that of the “selection of the fittest.” Even Oskar Hertwig, the student of Haeckel70 Oskar Hertwig (1849–1922) was an anatomist who served as the director of the Anatomical-Biological Institute in Berlin from 1888 through 1921. His book Das Werden der Organismen. Eine Widerlegung von Darwins Zufallstheorie [The Development of Organisms. A Refutation of Darwin's Theory of Chance] appeared in 1916. has criticized such an interpretation by pointing out that this age of ours which has produced such a doctrine clearly selects the least fit for the most important positions, and this to an extent that is unparalleled when compared to the total scope of life in other ages. We are not simply deprecating our own times in a pessimistic way and referring to the good old times that are past, but we stand here in the presence of an actual fact. The very people who take pride now in the theory of the selection of the fittest are the ones who in reality yield to the tendency of choosing the least qualified people for the seemingly most important places in life.
This is a bitter truth today. Yet, it would be recognized if the present age were not entirely under the influence of the most far-reaching faith in authority, stupor of opportunism, and dominated by what is called public opinion, which a philosopher of the nineteenth century termed “private foolishness.” To repeat, people would see what is of real importance here if it were not for the immense influence of present public opinion that flows from such muddy sources. We must, therefore, understand that our age has to be educated to a stronger grasp of life through learning to see that we are immersed in one-sidedness, in the selection of the worst. This must come to pass in spite of so-called public opinion and its hero worship of the least qualified people.
Official positions are often filled by Ahriman-Mephistopheles and, as the Faust unfolds, you can see how Mephistopheles attends to his official responsibilities. Faust was able to free himself from Mephistopheles only at the end of his life. He comes now to the King's palace and produces paper money—an invention of extraordinary importance for the last century. But it is Mephistopheles who really invents it. Faust is then guided into the ancient world by Homunculus, who had come into existence through the help of Mephistopheles. He even becomes a commander-in-chief and conducts wars, but in the presentation used by Goethe in this act, we can see that, in reality, Mephistopheles carries on these wars. In the end we see how Faust gradually frees himself from Mephistopheles. Even though Faust, after he has abandoned the professorship he previously held, simply roams about the world without having definite official position; we must say that Mephistopheles stands beside him in the way in which the Mephistophelian force plays into the life of humanity. This is one thing we must pay attention to.
A second fact is equally important. It is extremely difficult to properly investigate what really works in man's nature in the course of karmic evolution. Indeed, we may say that in this area, too, scientific development has arrived at a point where it must be replaced by spiritual scientific observation. It is precisely in dealing with the life of the soul that scientists make the most terrible blunders. Indeed, we observe that there is a perverted scientific school of thought that ventures to confront soul life by trying to observe it in a scientific way, admitting that it is not to be found in consciousness but that much of it rises up into consciousness from the unconscious or subconscious that lies below the threshold. In previous discussions we have presented concrete examples of soul life that really lie in the subconscious and rise up into consciousness like the clouds of smoke that are produced when bits of paper are burned in the region of a solfatara.71 Solfatara is the vulcanic sulfurgas well near Pozzuoli. To be sure, a great deal lies below in the depths of consciousness.
We may say, then, that for a proper understanding of things some psychologists already presume it to be necessary to posit the presence or absence of an obscure, unconscious capacity in the soul. Since, however, they are not yet willing to adjust to a more comprehensive spiritual scientific conception of the world, they can produce only a caricature. A person holding the point of view of scientific psychology looks upon a human life as it has developed. To be sure, it is no longer supposed that what the soul feels and wills, what causes it happiness or unhappiness, joy or pain, depends only on what it has retained in consciousness. The effort is made now to quiz the soul to draw out of it what it has passed through in joy, sorrow, disillusionment in life and other things that have been forgotten. What has been forgotten, however, has not disappeared, so it is said, but has burrowed into the subconscious.
Especially the unsatisfied and subsequently suppressed appetites of an earlier time are said to agitate in the subconscious. Let us take the specific case of a woman in her thirtieth year. When she was sixteen, she fell in love, developing a genuinely erotic passion, which, so this scientific school says, would have led her life astray if she had surrendered to it and if it had been fulfilled. Under the influence of her education and the advice of her elders, however, she suppressed it—swallowed it, to use a trivial expression—down into her soul. She lives on and fourteen years pass. She is perhaps now married in keeping with her position in life. So far as her daily thinking and feeling are concerned, the matter is long forgotten; but what is forgotten has not disappeared. The content of the soul is not exhausted in what it knows, this school of thought would claim, and in the depths of her soul this incident is still present. But in spite of being outwardly happy, this lady suffers from an indefinable tendency toward pessimism, a partial weariness of life, from nervousness or neurasthenia, or something of the kind, and these symptoms are then diagnosed as an expression of her suppressed anxiety about the incident earlier in her life. The effort is then made to introduce this kind of psychology into the science of healing, to cure such souls through questioning. The patients are told that such experiences still reside in the deepest regions of the psyche, apparently forgotten by the upper level of consciousness, and that they must be drawn to the surface. If, under the influence of a skillful interrogator who, according to the views in vogue, must be a psychologist, they are thus brought to the surface, and if the person comes to understand the matter, then things will be better. Actual “cures” are frequently achieved by these means, although in most cases patients only seem to be cured. To what extent they are apparent cures, however, we can explain on some other occasion. This, then, is one example of how scientists try to penetrate the depths of the soul's life.
Another example has to do with a man thirty-five or forty, who is suffering from a certain weariness of life, from a certain vacillation in life. Neither he nor those about him know why, least of all he himself. Someone who deals with such a “science of the soul,” as we have explained, then burrows into the forgotten subterranean soul life of this man and brings to light the fact that the plan he had for his life when he was about sixteen was wrecked. He then had to turn to a different plan, one that was unrelated to the other. Certainly he seems to have been content in what he felt, thought, and willed from one day to another, but this is not the entire life of the soul; the shattered plan of life still continued to be a living force in the deepest crevices of the soul.
In this case, too, the “experts” believe the man can be cured when, through questioning, this shattered plan of life is discovered and the person can come to an understanding of it through his questioner. It is also supposed that there is much in the depth of the soul that the consciousness knows nothing of. In short, the conclusion has been reached that consciousness represents only a small part of what comprises the life of the soul. But what people are now trying to find on the bottom of the soul's life is really some sort of soulless sediment. A theologian recently called it somewhat coarsely—“the bestial slime at the bottom of the soul.” That is to say, disillusionments, suppressed appetites, ruined life plans, “the bestial slime at the bottom of the soul,” all come from the lower depths of the soul life. This refers to everything that is rooted in the life of the flesh, the blood, the animalistic; it does not come from the soul's depths in a conscious way because consciousness would, and actually does, resist all this.
There is certainly some truth in this theory of the “bestial slime at the bottom of the soul.” How often in life do we hear our consciousness say: “I really want only one thing; I would like to experience this or that, which is why I turn to this or that person.” But the slime at the bottom begins to work, and it may be only bestial appetites that are at play, disguised by what the consciousness says. It is further maintained by this “scientific” school that these unconscious regions also harbor everything that is derived from the connection of the individual with race, nation and all sorts of other historical residues that play their roles unconsciously in the soul, while the consciousness itself is behaving quite differently. In view of all that is brewing in the world today, one couldn't even say that these things cannot be confirmed by examples from all over the world. How could one deny that many people today speak of lofty ideals regarding the rights and freedom of a people while all that is really active in their souls is what burrows in the bottom slime, deriving from the connections psychoanalysis seeks to analyze.
Then the theological psychoanalysts—and I do not know how they and the scientific psychoanalysts reason with each other—also include the demonic as part of the subconscious life of the soul—in other words, that which emerges from still greater depths, the utterly irrational, as it is said. The theological psychoanalysts take great satisfaction especially in the thought that unknown demons work in the subconscious soul in order, for example, to change people into gnostics or theosophists. They think that when the soul has been psychoanalyzed, when we have penetrated its deepest regions where the “primeval slime” lies, a demonic teaching such as that of gnosis can be discovered there, or a demonic teaching such as that of psychoanalysis—excuse me, not psychoanalysis, which according to the view of these men and women is not to be found there, but theosophy and other things also mentioned in this connection. Well, I really did not want to enter into a criticism of psychoanalysis, but my purpose in explaining all this is to indicate that something in these psychonanalytical endeavors forces contemporary research into contact with what lies, works and weaves below the conscious part of the soul. Nonetheless, the most perverted findings must result from these endeavors because of the preconceptions of scientists and their unwillingness to take account of spiritual scientific investigations in this field. What they are able to discover in the life of the soul can only be analyzed in the right way with the knowledge that human life proceeds through repeated lives on earth. Yet the psychoanalysts attempt to explain what exists at the bottom of the soul on the basis of a single life on earth, and it is not surprising that the picture they paint is so highly distorted.
One who finds, for example, ruined life plans at the bottom of the soul must first investigate the significance of such a ruin in the total human life that passes through repeated lives on earth. He or she would then perhaps discover that certain aspects of such a total human life are also active in the subconscious and, as a matter of destiny, have actually hindered that particular life plan from coming to fruition. Such an individual would then observe that this ruined life plan in the depths of the soul is destined, not simply to cause illness in this incarnation, but also to be carried through the portal of death as a force in the life between death and a new birth, playing its true role only in the next life on earth. It may, indeed, be a necessity that such a ruined life plan should at first be preserved in the depths of the soul where it may be strengthened and thereby enabled to gain its true form between death and a new birth so that it may take on the shape predestined for it in the next earthly life; this it could not have done in this present earthly life because of other characteristics in the soul's life.
So the “bestial slime at the bottom of the soul”—as I have said, the expression is disagreeable—is there, to be sure; but bear in mind what I have said regarding the relationship between the head and the rest of man's organism. His body is connected with his earthly life—indeed, with his present incarnation in many respects—whereas his head is the result of earlier stages of the evolution of the earth and is connected especially with his preceding incarnations. When you take this into consideration, you will understand that from the rest of the organism, in accord with the role that it plays in the entire karmic connection, much works upward that must possess a different stage of maturity from what comes from the head and nervous system. But one who merely analyzes the slime at the bottom in the psychoanalytic way is utterly misled. He is like a person who wishes to know what kind of grain will grow in a particular soil before grain has been grown there. In analyzing the soil he finds a certain manure with which it has been fertilized. So he says, “Now I know the manure from which the next crop of grain will grow.” The grain does not by any means grow from the manure, in spite of the fact that it must be there! The essential thing is what is planted in this mud at the bottom. This is often predestined to exert its influence through the portal of death into the next development on earth. What is needed is not to investigate the bestial bottom slime, but what is planted in this muddy substance as the seed of the soul.
So-called psychoanalysis makes possible investigations in the very region where present preconceptions are working in a disastrous fashion; we are dealing here with a field from which present thinking tends strongly to take its directions, since it is not content with what conscious experiences give to the soul. The general area in which research ought to be done is no longer in dispute, but because people who cannot understand spiritual science have no true guidelines for their investigations, they burrow aimlessly in the fields assigned them through their official connections or their own agitation. They do this in the most unskillful manner, placing everything in a false position because they do not know better. Their research would yield the proper results only if they were able to follow the true karmic threads, as I have indicated at least suggestively through reference to one thing and another. This psychoanalysis is terribly unsound, especially when it stirs up the region of the elemental. Yet it is of great importance to investigate fine and intimate formations of the threads reaching into the future destiny of a human being. What takes place in a person's conscious life from waking until sleeping reveals little of those forces that continue to work as a karmic stream through various incarnations. What we experience consciously during our waking life belongs largely to the present incarnation. It is well that it is so because we should be industrious in our present incarnation. But much that will be carried through the portal of death as a germ formed from the experiences of our present incarnation—the incidents through which we have passed, the proficiencies achieved—all this plays a significant role in our life from the moment of falling asleep to that of waking, and this often influences our dreams. We must learn, however, to judge the formation of dreams in the right way. When people say that they are reminiscences, this is often true, but they do not act in the stream of our karma in a linear fashion. In fact, they often act in such a way that their significance is the exact opposite of what they are represented to be. I will give you an example from literature in order to bring out clearly what I wish to say.
The aestheticist Theodor Vischer72 Friedrich Theodor Vischer (1807–87) spelled his last name with a V, not an F, and Steiner stresses that fact in his lecture. included in his novel Auch Einer a clever little story that I will introduce here because I am speaking of vocational life in a more comprehensive way, that is, including everything that is connected with one's occupation. So I will give an illustration of this. In Vischer's novel, there is a conversation between a father and his son. They are walking together and, after the father has questioned his son about all sorts of things, the boy says, “Just think, the teacher told us that we should always ask what a person's occupation is because to have a proper occupation is important. In this way it is possible to learn whether or not the person is respectable and whether he has a good soul life.” “I see,” says the father. “Yes, indeed, and after the teacher told us this I had a dream in which I was walking by the lake over there and in my dream I asked the lake what sort of occupation it had, and the lake answered, ‘I have the occupation of being wet.’ ” “Is that so?” says the father.
This is a most clever anecdote and one that reveals that the person who thought it out had much knowledge of life. The father said, “Is that so?” because he naturally did not wish to confuse his son and tell him what a stupid thing the teacher had said. But that father no doubt had his thoughts on the subject. He really should have enlightened his son in a more intelligent way than the teacher had done, and should have said to him, “We should not form our judgments so superficially. It might well be that a person would be wrong as to what a respectable occupation is and might falsely consider a man to be disreputable; he might also be disadvantaged in some way.” In short, the father would have had to correct his son, but in this particular case it was not necessary. The boy was still young, and his dream could still work in a favorable manner on him. This dream worked in his subconscious, but in such a way as to erase the stupidity of the teacher from his soul. Thus, the dream took on a form in the boy's subconscious, which is cleverer than the superficial consciousness, in such a way that a breath of ridicule was spread over the stupidity of the teacher. The lake said its occupation, its vocation, was to be wet. This is something that will work in a wholesome way in expelling the harmful influences of such teaching. Here the dream is a reminiscence that comes the very next night, but it also serves as a corrective in life. In fact, the astral body often works in this way, and we might find, together with the residue remaining in the soul from living experiences, particularly from wrongful instruction, that a corrective is also present in the subconscious forces of the soul. This often produces its influence even in the same incarnation in young people. Above all, however, its influence is carried through the portal of death and continues further. This constitutes a means of self-correction in man, and we must pay attention to this fact.
In mentioning these things I simply wanted to indicate how much there is in a human soul and how this forces its way from one incarnation into the next. We have to do with a whole complex of forces that project from one incarnation into another. Now we must consider what relationship exists between this complex of forces and the human being insofar as his life flows along between birth and death. Here he or she is really an instrument with four strings—physical, etheric, astral bodies, and ego—on which this bow of karmic forces plays its tune. The individual life comes into being according to the measure in which one or the other—the etheric body, the astral body, or the etheric together with the ego—is swept by the bow of karma, if you allow this comparison with a violin. The tones of these four strings of life may interplay in many ways, making it difficult to speak of and decipher, not in mere empty abstractions but in lithic detail, the individual life-melodies of human beings. Thus, it is possible to decipher them only when one is able to see how the bow of karma plays upon the four strings of a human being. However, general points of view come into consideration here, and to these we must turn our attention.
If we observe a human being in those years when, as explained in my brochure Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy, the physical body and especially the etheric body are primarily coming into development, if we observe the development of children from approximately the seventh to the fourteenth years, we shall note that just at this time certain characteristics appear in them that are especially typical of this period. Certain things consolidate themselves in a way, although many things overlap one another so that much that appears during the first seven years can be more thoroughly and profoundly observed only between the seventh and the fourteenth. It will be found that something appears in a more definite way in the developing child that we may call, in a sense, the inner peculiarities that are consolidated through the character and demeanor of the corporeality. This is so, however, only insofar as they come to expression in the posture and gestures of the physical being, and in the entire bearing of his life. I refer to what is there taking solid form; not all, to be sure, but a great part of what causes a human being to be stocky and short, or to have a taller body that causes him or her to walk in a particular way such as with a firm step or a dancing gait, to mention radical contrasts. As I have said, not all, but a great part of what thus appears in the developing child is derived from karma and is the effect of the vocation of his preceding incarnation. Mistakes are often made when no attention is paid to what I have just said; that is, when, to appear clever, an effort is made to determine what a child's vocation will be from his manner and bearing. He would thus, however, mistakenly be given a vocation similar to that of his previous incarnation, and this would be detrimental to the child.
When this period of a child's life ends, or even before that time because, as I have said, things overlap one another, then the astral body manifests itself in a special way by working back on what had been developed previously. If one realizes this and has derived it from spiritual science, it can then be observed also on the physical plane. In accordance with other karmic forces, the astral body works back in such a way that it transforms what had resulted from the purely vocational karma during the seventh to the fourteenth years. In other words, two antagonistic forces struggle with each other in the child. One group of forces gives him form; these come more from the etheric body. The other group, coming more from the astral body, works against these and in part paralyzes them, so that he is compelled to transform what has been forced upon him by the vocational karma of his previous incarnation. In other words, we may say that the etheric body works in a formative way; that is, what is manifested as the bearing of the physical body, as one's carriage, is derived from the etheric body. The astral body works in a transforming way. Through the interplay of these two forces, which are really in bitter conflict with each other, much comes to expression that has to do with the working of vocational karma.
This now works together with other karmic currents, however, since we must also consider the physical body. With it, what comes primarily into consideration during the first period of life is how the human being has placed himself in the world by means of his karma. Even the kind of physical body we have depends upon this since, by reason of our karma, we place ourselves in a certain family in a specific nation. Thus, we receive a definitely formed body, but this is not all. Just think how much depends on the course of our life and on the situation into which we have entered by placing ourselves in a certain family. By that fact alone the basis is given for much in our life. As a matter of fact, during the first seven years in which the physical body is especially developing, forces are active in it—or we had better say around it—that are derived not from our vocation and all that was related to it in our previous incarnation, but from the way in which we have lived with others in previous incarnations. By this I mean how we stood in this or that relationship with this or that person during a preceding incarnation, not in any particular part of our life—this belongs to another field—but throughout our entire lifetime. Our souls work on this because they are profoundly affected by the relationships we had with human beings, and we bear with us what evolves from this process through the portal of death. Because of these forces, we bring it about that we place ourselves again in a certain particular family and situation in life. So we may say that what actually places our physical body here, in a sense, and works through it, also determines our situation in life. This continues to work further, of course, through the following lives, and meets its counterbalancing force through the ego. The ego works in a dissolving way upon life situations, but it also works in conflict with what is already determined in them. We may, therefore, say: Physical body, creative of the life situation; ego, transformative of the life situation. Through the united action of these two in this struggle, another current of karma takes hold of life since two forces are omnipresent in an individual: those that tend to keep him in a particular situation, and those that tend to disengage him from it.

That is to say, 1 and 4 work in a primary way upon one another, as do 2 and 3; but all four also work in the most manifold ways upon each other. The way we enter into relationships with new human beings during our life according to our karma depends upon the connection of 1 and 4 with each other. But this is to be traced back, in turn, to our relationships in earlier lives. The way we find our relationships in our daily work, our vocation, is connected with 2 and 3 and their reciprocal action upon each other.
I ask that you reflect upon all this for the present. We shall continue this study.
Fünfter Vortrag
Sie werden aus den Betrachtungen gerade eines solchen Einschlages in das menschliche Leben, wie es der Beruf ist oder alles das, was damit zusammenhängt im Leben, ersehen haben, daß es schwierig ist, diese Dinge auseinanderzusetzen, weil außerordentlich viel dabei in Betracht kommt. Wir müssen dabei bedenken, daß alles das, was durch den Verlauf der Schicksalsgesetze, des Karmas in das Menschenleben hineingeführt wird, von sehr vielen Faktoren abhängt und daß gerade darauf die Mannigfaltigkeit des menschlichen Lebens beruht, daß so viele Faktoren ins Spiel kommen. Eine besondere Bemerkung muß gemacht werden,wenn unter dem Wort Beruf einzelnes Menschliche aus dem Lebensschicksal zusammengefaßt wird. Man soll nämlich das, was als Beruf des Menschen bezeichnet werden kann, nicht verwechseln mit demjenigen, was man als Amt des Menschen im weitesten Sinne bezeichnet. Denn selbstverständlich würde man sogleich in mancherlei Verwirrungen hineinkommen, wenn man sein Augenmerk auf das richten würde, was der cine oder der andere Mensch in seinem Amte vorstellt und dies unter den Gesichtspunkt rücken würde, der hier für das Berufsleben in Anspruch genommen worden ist. Gerade dadurch, daß der Mensch vielfach - nicht immer - seinen Beruf in einem Amte auszuführen hat, kommt es ja, daß. die mannigfaltigsten äußeren Faktoren wiederum hereinspielen können in das menschliche Leben und daß sich gewissermaßen mit dem Berufskarma andere karmische Fäden verspinnen.
Wir leben ja heute noch in einer Zeit, die zwar langsam in einer gewissen Umgestaltung begriffen ist, in der es aber doch in vieler Beziehung noch so ist, daß durchaus nicht allein maßgebend sind die Dinge, die wir jetzt anzuführen haben für das Berufskarma, um einen Menschen an diese oder jene Stelle im Leben zu versetzen. Wir wissen, daß heute noch in vieler Beziehung das Berufskarma durchkreuzt wird von dem Karma ganzer Stände, Klassen und so weiter, daß innerhalb von Menschengruppen in der Art, wie jemand auf seinen Platz im Leben gestellt wird, Ehrgeiz, Eitelkeit, Vorurteile von ihm selbst und anderen mitwirken, und viele andere Faktoren. Alle diese Faktoren, die da gewissermaßen von außen hereinwirken in das Berufskarma, machen es möglich, daß sich in den Verlauf des menschlichen Wirkens fortwährend ahrimanische Einflüsse hineinmischen. Ein Mensch, der auf einen bestimmten Posten im Leben gestellt ist, der also Minister oder Staatsrat oder etwas Ähnliches geworden ist durch mancherlei Dinge, die ja bekannt sind, die man nicht aufzuzählen braucht, ein Mensch, der auf einen solchen Posten gestellt worden ist, braucht durchaus nicht den Beruf zu diesem Posten zu haben. Er kann auf einem hohen Posten stehen und sein Beruf kann nur der einer Schreiberseele sein; vielleicht nicht einmal das. Man darf aber dann nicht glauben, daß sein Posten nicht ausgefüllt wird. Gerade das ist ja das Eigentümliche unserer Zeit, die in der materialistischen Ausdeutung der berechtigten darwinistischen Grundlagen solch eine Lebenslehre heraufgebracht hat wie die von der «Auslese der Besten», die Oscar Hertwig, Haeckels Schüler, nunmehr schon so kräftig tadelt, — daß diese Zeit, welche diese Lehre heraufgebracht hat, zu gleicher Zeit ganz deutlich, viel mehr als das jemals im ganzen Lebenszusammenhange in irgendeinem anderen Zeitalter der Fall war, gerade die Schlechtesten auswählt. Hier braucht man nicht auf dem Standpunkt zu stehen, daß man nur seine Zeit wie ein Pessimist abkanzelt und sich auf die gute alte Zeit beruft, sondern hier steht man wirklich auf dem Grund einer Tatsache: Auf der einen Seite tut man sich zugute mit der Lehre von der Auslese der Besten; aber diese Zeit, die sich mit dieser Lehre etwas besonders zugute tut, ist beherrscht in ihrer Realität, in ihrer Wirklichkeit von der Tendenz, gerade die Schlechtesten auszuwählen für die scheinbar wichtigsten Lebensposten.
Das ist eine bittere Wahrheit für die Gegenwart, die aber erkannt werden würde, wenn nicht diese Gegenwart durchaus unter dem Eindrucke eines möglichst weitgehenden Autoritätsglaubens und einer möglichst weitgehenden Opportunitätsduselei stünde, und wenn nicht das,was man heute öffentliche Meinung nennt - öffentliche Meinungen sind ja nach der Ansicht eines Philosophen des 19. Jahrhunderts private Torheiten -, herrschte. Man würde, sage ich, das, um was es sich handelt, einsehen, wenn man nicht so sehr unter dem Eindrucke der heute aus so schlammigen Quellen heraus gespeisten öffentlichen Meinung stünde. Darüber also muß man sich klar sein, daß unsere Zeit vor allen Dingen erzogen werden muß zu einer intensiveren Lebensauffassung dadurch, daß man einsieht, daß Einseitigkeit, die Auslese der Schlechtesten, da ist, wenn auch diese Schlechtesten angebetet werden von der genannten öffentlichen Meinung.
Die Ämter werden vielfach ausgefüllt von Ahriman-Mephistopheles, und Sie können ja gerade an dem Fortgange der «Faust»-Handlung sehen, wie Mephistopheles sein Amt versieht. Erst am Schlusse seines Lebens wird es dem Faust möglich, sich von Mephistopheles zu befreien. Faust kommt an den Kaiserhof. Er macht sogar eine für die letzten Jahrhunderte außerordentlich wichtige Erfindung; er erfindet nämlich das Papiergeld. Aber eigentlich erfindet Mephistopheles das Papiergeld. Dann wird wiederum Faust hingeleitet in die antike Welt durch den Homunkulus; aber durch die Beihilfe des Mephistopheles kommt der Homunkulus zustande. Faust wird sogar Feldherr, führt Kriege, aber man kann gerade an der Darstellung, die Goethe in diesem Akte zustande bringt, ersehen, daß eigentlich Mephistopheles diese Kriege führt. Zum Schlusse erst sehen wir, wie Faust sich allmählich befreit von Mephistopheles. Wenn Faust auch gewissermaßen nur durch die Welt schweift, ohne ein bestimmtes Amt zu haben, nachdem er seine Professur verlassen hat, die er vorher innehatte, so muß man doch sagen: Die Art und Weise, wie Mephistopheles an seiner Seite steht, die ist schon so, wie vielfach heute die mephistophelische Kraft in das Leben der Menschheit hereinspielt. Das ist das eine, das beachtet werden muß.
Etwas anderes, das beachtet werden muß, das ist, daß es außerordentlich schwierig ist, in der menschlichen Natur das richtig zu erforschen, was eigentlich im Verlauf der karmischen Evolution wirkt. Man kann sogar auf diesem Gebiete sagen, daß auch da die naturwissenschaftliche Entwickelung zu dem Punkte hingelangt, der ersetzt werden muß durch geisteswissenschaftliche Betrachtung. Allein gerade indem die naturwissenschaftliche Betrachtungsweise sich auf das seelische Leben einläßt, macht sie die fürchterlichsten Irrtümer. Wir sehen ja, wie es heute eine verkehrte wissenschaftliche Richtung gibt, welche sich an das menschliche Seelenleben heranwagt und dieses naturwissenschaftlich betrachten will, welche auch zugibt, daß dieses menschliche Seelenleben nicht bloß verläuft in demjenigen, was im Bewußtsein vorhanden ist, sondern daß unter der Schwelle des Bewußtseins, wie man sagt, im Unbewußten oder Unterbewußten, vieles liegt, das heraufschlägt in das Bewußtsein. Wir haben bei früheren Betrachtungen konkrete Dinge angeführt, die wirklich im Unterbewußtsein liegen und die heraufschlagen in das Bewußtsein wie dieRauchwolken auf dem Gebiete einer Solfatara, wenn man da anfängt, Papierstückchen abzubrennen. Vieles ist allerdings in den Tiefen des Bewußtseins da unten. So daß man sagen kann: Es ahnen schon einige Leute, die heute Seelenkunde betreiben wollen, daß man dunkle, unbewußte Seelenfähigkeiten und Seelenunfähigkeiten zur Erklärung des Seelenlebens ins Feld führen muß. Allein da diese Anschauungen sich durchaus noch nicht zu einer umfassenderen geisteswissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung bequemen wollen, so können sie auch nur Verkehrtes zutage fördern. Man schaut, wenn man auf diesem Gesichtspunkt naturwissenschaftlicher Seelenkunde steht, sich ein Menschenleben an, wie es sich entwickelt hat. Man ist allerdings schon davon abgekommen zu glauben, daß das, was eine Seele fühlt und will, womit sie glücklich oder unglücklich, freudevoll oder schmerzvoll ist, nur von dem abhängt, was sie selber unmittelbar im Bewußtsein bewahrt hat. Man versucht nun die Seele zu katechisieren, versucht zum Beispiel herauszukriegen aus den Seelen, was sie einmal durchgemacht haben, durchgemacht haben an Freuden, an Leiden, an Enttäuschungen im Leben, die sie für ihr gewöhnliches Vorstellungsvermögen vergessen haben. Allein, was vergessen ist, sagt man sich, das ist deshalb nicht verschwunden; im Unterbewußten wühlt es.
Insbesondere wühlen in diesem Unterbewußtsein Begierden, die man früher einmal gehabt hat, die nicht befriedigt worden sind, die man zurückgedrängt hat. Sagen wir einen konkreten Fall: Man hat es zu tun mit einem weiblichen Wesen im dreißigsten Jahre. Im sechzehnten Jahre habe sie sich verliebt, habe da eine recht erotische Begierde entwickelt so sagt diese naturwissenschaftliche Richtung -, aber diese erotische Begierde würde zu irgendeinem Lebensabwege geführt haben, wenn sie sich hingegeben hätte dieser erotischen Begierde, wenn sie erfüllt worden wäre. Sie hat sie unter dem Einflusse der Erziehung, unter dem Einflusse des elterlichen Zuredens zurückgedrängt, sie hat sie, wie man trivial sagen kann, seelisch hinuntergefressen. Sie lebt weiter. Es sind schon vierzehn Jahre seit jener Zeit verflossen. Sie hat vielleicht nun standesgemäß geheiratet. Für das, was sie täglich denkt und fühlt, ist es längst vergessen, aber was vergessen ist, ist nicht verschwunden. Die Seele erschöpft sich nicht in demjenigen, was sie weiß. In den Untergründen des Seelenlebens ist das noch immer vorhanden, und es kommt in der Weise zum Ausdruck, daß die betreffende Dame dann, trotzdem sie äußerlich glücklich ist, an einer undefinierbaren, pessimistischen Anwandlung leidet, an einem partiellen Lebensüberdruß oder dergleichen, daß sie, wie man sagt, nervös ist, neurasthenisch oder eben so etwas dergleichen. Man sucht dann diese Art von Seelenkunde in die Heilwissenschaft hineinzutragen, und man versucht dann, solche Seelen zu heilen, indem man sie katechisiert, indem man sagt: Solche in den Untergründen des Seelenlebens hausenden Erlebnisse, die scheinbar vergessen sind für das Oberbewußtsein, müssen heraufgeholt werden. Werden sie heraufgeholt und setzt man sich unter dem Einflusse eines günstigen Katecheten — der natürlich nach heutigen Anschauungen ein SeelenArzt sein muß - auseinander mit der Sache, dann wird es besser. - Man erlangt auch Heilungen auf diesem Wege, die ja oftmals sogar mehr oder weniger Heilungen sind, obwohl es in der Mehrzahl der Fälle nur Scheinheilungen sein werden; doch inwieferne es Scheinheilungen sind, können wir ja bei einer anderen Gelegenheit auseinandersetzen. Das ist so eines, was man da unten sucht in den Tiefen des Seelenlebens.
Ein anderes: Wir haben es zu tun mit einem fünfunddreißig- oder vierzigjährigen Mann, der an einer gewissen Lebensmüdigkeit leidet, an einer Lebensunentschlossenheit. Er weiß nicht warum, und seine Umgebung weiß nicht warum; er weiß es am allerwenigsten. Derjenige, der mit solchen Dingen, wie angedeutet worden ist, mit solcher Seelenwissenschaft sich zu tun machen will, versucht nun wiederum in den vergessenen, aber nicht verschwundenen Untergründen des Seelenlebens dieses Menschen zu wühlen und bringt herauf, daß der Betreffende vielleicht in seinem fünfzehnten, sechzehnten, siebzehnten Lebensjahre diesen oder jenen Lebensplan gehabt hat, der gescheitert ist. Er mußte sich dazumal einem anderen Lebensplan zuwenden, der diesem früheren Lebensplan nicht entspricht. Er hat allerdings scheinbar sich damit abgefunden in dem, was er täglich fühlt und denkt und will; aber das ist nicht das ganze Seelenleben, was man so bewußt denkt und fühlt und will, sondern in den Untergründen lebt als Kraft dieser gescheiterte Lebensplan weiter.
Man glaubt nun wiederum, heilen zu können, wenn man katechisierend heraufbekommt diesen gescheiterten Lebensplan und der Betreffende sich mit seinem Katecheten auseinandersetzen kann. Man denkt aber auch, vieles andere ruhe da unten in den Tiefen der Seele, ohne daß das Bewußtsein davon weiß. Kurz, man ist darauf gekommen, daß das Bewußtsein ein kleiner Kreis ist, das Seelenleben ein größerer Kreis, daß das Bewußtsein nur einen Teil des Seelenlebens umfaßt. Man sucht nun aber auch das, ich möchte sagen, Unseelische auf dem Grunde des Seelenlebens, wie sich erst jüngst, wie es scheint, ein Theologe wenig geschmackvoll ausgedrückt hat: man sucht den «animalischen Grundschlamm» der Seele. Also Enttäuschungen, unterdrückte Begierden, gescheiterte Lebenspläne, den «animalischen Grundschlamm» der Seele, das heißt alles dasjenige, was in dem animalischen Leben wurzelt, welches sozusagen aus dem Fleisch, aus dem Blute, aus dem Animalischen kommt und nicht auf bewußte Weise - denn das Bewußtsein, das würde sich natürlich dagegen wehren, wehrt sich auch — heraufkommt aus dem Grunde des Seelischen. |
Wahr ist ja manches an dieser Theorie von dem «animalischen Grundschlamm». Denn wir sehen es vielfach im Leben, wie das Bewußtsein sich sagt: Ach, ich will ja nichts anderes als das: ich will dies oder jenes erfahren, daher wende ich mich an diesen oder jenen Menschen. — Aber dann wirkt der «animalische Grundschlamm» des Seelenlebens, und es sind vielleicht nur animalische Begierden, die verbrämt, maskiert werden durch das, was das Bewußtsein sagt. Ferner wird von dieser «wissenschaftlichen» Richtung behauptet — «wissenschaftlich» muß man dabei schon in Gänsefüßchen sagen, wobei es ja auch meistens Gänserichfüßchen sind -, daß in diesen unbewußten Regionen auch das gefunden werde, was herrühre aus dem Zusammenhange des Individuums mit der Rasse, mit der Nation, mit allerlei anderen historischen Residuen, die unbewußt spielen in der menschlichen Seele, während das Bewußtsein sich ganz anders verhält. Man kann nicht einmal sagen angesichts desjenigen, was heute durch die Welt braust, daß diese Dinge nicht durch weit über die Welt sich breitende Beispiele belegt werden können. Wer würde heute nicht sehen müssen, wie mancher Mensch für Recht und Freiheit der Völker in seinen Worten hohe Ideale aufstellt, während in seiner Seele wirklich nur das tätig ist, was, den Grundschlamm der Seele durchwühlend, aus den Zusammenhängen kommt, die in der angedeuteten Richtung die Psychoanalyse eben analysiert, analysieren will wenigstens.
Dann - und ich weiß nicht, wie sich nun die naturwissenschaftlichen Psychoanalytiker auseinandersetzen mit den theologischen Psychoanalytikern, die es ja auch gibt — rechnen namentlich die theologischen Psychoanalytiker zu dem Unterbewußtsein im Seelenleben auch das Dämonische, das, was also aus noch weiteren Untergründen, aus ganz irrationalen Untergründen, wie man sagt, heraufkommt. Insbesondere tun sich theologische Psychoanalytiker viel darauf zugute, daß unbekannte Dämonen wirken im Unterbewußtsein der menschlichen Seele, um zum Beispiel die Menschen zu Gnostikern, zu Theosophen zu machen. Denn, wenn man die Seele psychoanalysiert, wenn man hinunterdringt bis zu den Untergründen, wo auch der Urschlamm ist, findet man dies. Und eine dämonische Lehre ist Gnosis, eine dämonische Lehre ist Psychoanalyse - pardon, nicht Psychoanalyse. Die ist nach Ansicht dieser Männer und Frauen — denn Frauen nehmen auch schon teil an diesen Dingen - nicht dabei, sondern 'Theosophie und andere Dinge, die dabei auch aufgezählt werden. Nun, ich will mich heute nicht auf eine Kritik der Psychoanalyse einlassen, sondern ich will mit dem, was ich auseinandergesetzt habe, nur andeuten, daß in dieser psychoanalytischen Richtung gewissermaßen etwas liegt, wodurch die gegenwärtige Forschung hingestoßen wird zu dem, was unter dem bewußten Seelenteil liegt, was da wirkt und webt. Aber da sich aus den naturwissenschaftlichen Vorurteilen heraus gerade auf diesem Gebiete das Allerverkehrteste ergeben muß, da man sich auf geisteswissenschaftliche Untersuchungen vorläufig auf diesem Gebiete nicht einlassen will, so wird man niemals einsehen, daß dasjenige, was man da findet im Seelenleben, durchaus nicht in der richtigen Weise analysiert werden kann, wenn iman nicht weiß, daß das Menschenleben in wiederholten Erdenleben abläuft. Denn man sucht ja in der Psychoanalyse alles das, was auf dem Grunde der Seele ist, aus dem einen Erdenleben nur zu erklären. Kein Wunder, daß man es dann in viel schiefe Lichter stellen muß.
Derjenige, der zum Beispiel auf dem Grunde der Seele gescheiterte Lebenspläne findet, der müßte erst untersuchen, was solches Scheitern eines Lebensplanes im Gesamtleben des Menschen, das durch wiederholte Erdenleben geht, für eineBedeutung hat. Er würde dann vielleicht finden, daß auch im Unterbewußten ruhend gewisse Seiten dieses Menschenlebens wirksam sind, welche gerade schicksalsmäßig verhindert haben, daß der betreffende Lebensplan zur Ausführung gekommen ist, und dann würde er bemerken, daß dieser gescheiterte Lebensplan, der da noch in den Untergründen der Seele ist, nicht bloß bestimmt ist, den Menschen für diese Inkarnation krank zu machen, sondern bestimmt dazu ist, durchgetragen zu werden, wenn dieses Leben zu Ende ist, durch die Pforte des Todes, zur Kraft zu werden in dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, um im nächsten Erdenleben erst die rechte Rolle zu spielen. Für solch einen gescheiterten Lebensplan kann es gerade notwendig sein, im Leben zunächst in den Untergründen der Seele bewahrt zu werden, damit er sich erkraften, sich steigern kann und dann die richtige Gestalt gewinnen kann zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, damit er die ihm vorbestimmte Form annehmen kann im nächsten Erdenleben, die er vermöge anderer Eigenschaften im Seelenleben eben nicht hat annehmen können in diesem Erdenleben..
Und was den sogenannten — wie gesagt, der Ausdruck ist wenig geschmackvoll — animalischen Grundschlamm des Seelenlebens betrifft: Gewiß, er ist da; aber erinnern Sie sich an das, was ich ausgeführt habe über die Beziehung zwischen dem Haupte des Menschen und dem übrigen Organismus. Der übrige Organismus hängt gerade mit dem Erdenleben des Menschen, ja in vieler Beziehung mit seiner gegenwärtigen Inkarnation zusammen, während das Haupt ein Ergebnis früherer Erdenplanentwickelung ist und vor allen Dingen auch zusammenhängt mit seinen vorhergehenden Inkarnationen. Wenn Sie sich das überlegen, werden Sie begreifen, daß aus seinem übrigen Organismus, nach seiner Rolle, die er spielt im ganzen karmischen Zusammenhang, vieles heraufwirkt, was einen anderen Reifezustand haben muß als dasjenige, was aus dem Haupte des Menschen, aus dem Kopf und seinem Nervensystem entspringt. Aber derjenige geht ganz fehl, der zunächst in Psychoanalyse nur den Grundschlamm analysiert, denn wer den animalischen Grundschlamm analysiert, ist in derselben Lage wie ein Mensch, der wissen will, was für eine Getreideart auf einem bestimmten Boden wachsen wird, wenn sie noch nicht gewachsen ist; da analysiert er den Boden und gräbt hinein, findet einen gewissen Mist, mit dem gemistet ist. Nun sagt er: Ja, jetzt kenne ich den Mist, aus dem wird nächstens das Getreide herauswachsen. — Das Getreide wächst gar nicht aus dem Mist heraus, trotzdem der Mist da sein muß! Es handelt sich darum, was in diesem Grundschlamm eingebettet ist; und das, was in diesem Grundschlamm eingebettet ist, das ist vielfach dazu bestimmt, durch die Pforte des Todes hinüberzuwirken in die Entwickelung des nächsten Erdenlebens. Nicht darum handelt es sich, den animalischen Grundschlamm zu untersuchen, sondern dasjenige, was als seelischer Keim in diesem animalischen Grundschlamm eingebettet ist.
Es gibt gerade die sogenannte Psychoanalyse Gelegenheit, so recht zu studieren, wo die Vorurteile der Gegenwart verhängnisvoll wirken, weil man es da mit einem Gebiet zu tun hat, nach dem hindrängt das Denken der Gegenwart, das sich nicht befriedigen darf mit dem, was der Seele bloß die Erfahrung gibt, was also der Seele die Erfahrung des Bewußtseins ist. Hingedrängt wird man schon zu dem Orte, wo man untersuchen soll. Aber nunmehr wühlen diejenigen, die keine Richtlinien haben zu untersuchen, weil sie Geisteswissenschaft nicht verstehen können, in den Gebieten, die ihnen von Amts wegen oder durch ihre Agitation zugeteilt sind, in der ungeschicktesten Weise, indem sie alles an falsche Stellen rücken, weil sie nicht verstehen, die Dinge eben an die richtigen Stellen zu rücken. Das würde man nur können, wenn man In der Lage wäre, den wirklichen karmischen Faden zu verfolgen, wie ich es Ihnen jetzt wenigstens andeutungsweise gerade mit dem einen und mit dem anderen gezeigt habe. Vor allen Dingen erweist sich diese Psychoanalyse so furchtbar ungesund, wenn sie schon im Elementaren herumwühlt, in demjenigen Gebiet, das aber wichtig ist, wenn man den fortlaufenden Schicksalsfaden des Menschen in seinen feinen, intimen Gestaltungen erforschen will. Das, was im bewußten Seelenleben des Menschen sich abspielt vom Aufwachen bis zum Einschlafen, zeigt eigentlich wenig von dem, was als karmische Strömung weiterwirkt durch die Inkarnationen. Was wir im wachen Leben bewußt erleben, das gehört zum großen Teil herein in die gegenwärtige Inkarnation, und es ist gut so, denn der Mensch soll in der gegenwärtigen Inkarnation tüchtig sein. Aber vieles von dem, was durch die Pforte des Todes getragen wird als Keim, der sich gebildet hat aus den Erlebnissen, Erfahrungen, Ertüchtigungen der gegenwärtigen Inkarnation, das spielt eine große Rolle in unserem Leben vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen, und das spielt vielfach in die Träume hinein. Nur muß man die Gestaltung der Träume in der richtigen Weise beurteilen können. Wenn man sagt, Träume sind Reminiszenzen, so ist das oftmals richtig, aber sie wirken in anderer Weise in unserer karmischen Strömung als in einer geraden Weise. Sie wirken nicht in gerader Weise, sie wirken oftmals dadurch, daß sie in der Kraftrichtung das Entgegengesetzte bedeuten von dem, wie sie sich kundgeben. Ich will ein Beispiel aus der Literatur geben, um daran zu erörtern, was ich sagen will.
Der V-Vischer - V-Vischer heißt er, weil man ihn nicht mit F, sondern mit V schreibt -, der Ästhetiker, der den Roman «Auch Einer» geschrieben hat, hatte in «Auch Einer» eine kleine nette Erzählung, die ich aus dem Grunde anführe, weil ich ja in weiterem Umkreise über das Berufsleben, also über das spreche, was mit des Menschen Beschäftigung zusammenhängt. So will ich auch ein solches Beispiel anführen, das mit der Beschäftigung zusammenhängt. Da führt der V-Vischer ein Gespräch an zwischen einem Vater und seinem Sohne. Die gehen zusammen, und der Sohn erzählt dem Vater, nachdem ihn der Vater um Verschiedenes gefragt hat: Sieh einmal, der Lehrer hat uns gesagt, man solle immer beim Menschen sich erkundigen, was er für eine Beschäftigung hat, denn darauf komme es an, daß einer eine ordentliche Beschäftigung hat, daran erkenne man, ob er überhaupt ein ordentlicher Mensch ist, ob er eine ordentliche Seele ist. - So! sagt der Vater. — Ja, und nachher, nachdem der Lehrer uns das in der Schule gesagt hat, da träumte mir, ich ginge an den See da drüben, und da habe ich im Traum den See gefragt, was er für eine Beschäftigung hat, und da sagte der See: Ich habe die Beschäftigung, naß zu sein. - Na ja! sagt der Vater.
Es ist eine sehr geistvolle Erzählung, eine Erzählung, die viel Lebenskenntnis verrät von dem, der sie ersonnen hat. Denn der Vater hat: Na ja! gesagt aus dem Grunde, weil er selbstverständlich seinen Sohn nicht verderben wollte und ihm nicht sagen wollte, was für eine Dummheit da der Lehrer gesagt hat. Aber er wird sich schon etwas gedacht haben, der Vater. Er hätte eigentlich nun den Sohn in gescheiterer Weise aufklären müssen als der Lehrer, er hätte sagen müssen: Man muß nicht in einer so oberflächlichen Weise urteilen. Es könnte daran liegen, daß man zum Beispiel ein falsches Urteil habe über eine ordentliche Beschäftigung und deshalb den Menschen für einen unordentlichen Menschen halte; oder der Betreffende könnte durch etwas anderes gehindert sein. Kurz, der Vater hätte den Sohn belehren sollen. Er hat ihn in diesem Falle nicht zu belehren gebraucht, denn da wir es mit einem noch jungen Menschen zu tun haben in dem Sohne, so kann noch in günstiger Weise der Traum wirken. Denn der Traum, der dem Sohne ja zum Bewußtsein gekommen ist, der ist als Kraft wirklich statt einer Belehrung da. In dem Unterbewußtsein wirkt dieser Traum, aber dieser Traum wirkt so, daß er die Torheit, die der Lehrer angerichtet hat mit seinem Unterricht, ausmerzt aus der Seele. Deshalb hat sich der Traum im Unterbewußtsein, das gescheiter ist als das Oberbewußtsein, bei dem Sohne so gestaltet, daß gewissermaßen ein Hauch des Lächerlichen sich durch den Traum ausbreitet über die Torheit des Lehrers. Der See sagt, es sei seine Beschäftigung, sein Beruf, daß er naß sei. Das ist etwas, was heilsam wirken wird, was austreiben wird all die schädlichen Folgen, die durch eine solche Lehre entstehen können. Da ist der Traum eine Reminiszenz — gleich in der nächsten Nacht folgt der Traum als eine Reminiszenz —, aber er ist zu gleicher Zeit ein Lebenskorrigierer. Und so wirkt in der Tat das Leben des astralischen Leibes vielfach, und man - würde finden neben den Resten dessen, was in der Seele vorhanden ist aus der Lebenserfahrung, vor allen Dingen manchmal. aus einer verkehrten Lebenserziehung heraus, daß ein Korrigierer in den unterbewußten Seelenkräften vorhanden ist, der manchmal schon wirkt noch in derselben Inkarnation, wenn er eintritt bei einem jungen Menschen, der aber vor allen Dingen durch die Pforte des Todes getragen wird und weiterwirkt. Da besteht wirklich eine Art Selbstkorrigierer des Menschen. Das müssen wir durchaus ins Auge fassen.
Ich wollte durch alle diese Dinge nur aufmerksam darauf machen, was alles in der Seele des Menschen ist und sich so von einer Inkarnation in die andere hereindrängt. Wir haben es mit einem ganzen Kraftkomplex zu tun, der aus einer Inkarnation in die andere hineinspielt. Nun müssen wir bedenken, welches Verhältnis besteht zwischen diesem Kraftkomplex und dem Menschen, insofern sein Leben verfließt zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode. Da ist der Mensch tatsächlich, ich möchte sagen, ein Instrument mit vier Saiten, auf dem gespielt wird von dem genannten karmischen Kraftkomplex. Physischer Leib, Ätherleib, Astralleib und Ich sind die vier Saiten, das Karma spielt darauf. Je nachdem mehr oder weniger das eine oder das andere, der Ätherleib, der Astralleib, oder der Ätherleib mit dem Astralleib zusammen, der physische Leib mit dem Astralleib zusammen, der physische Leib mit dem Ich zusammen gewissermaßen von dem Bogen des Karma gestrichen wird -— wenn wir uns den Vergleich mit einer Violine erlauben, die auch vier Saiten hat -, entsteht das individuelle menschliche Leben. In der mannigfaltigsten Weise können diese vier Saiten des menschlichen Lebens durcheinanderspielen. Daher ist es so schwierig, wenn man nicht in allgemeinen leeren Abstraktionen, sondern im Konkreten reden will, die einzelnen Lebensmelodien der Menschen zu entziffern, weil man sie nur dann entziffern kann, wenigstens fruchtbar entziffern kann, wenn man gewissermaßen es schauen kann, wie der Fiedelbogen des Karmas auf den vier Saiten des Menschen spielt. Dabei kommen allerdings allgemeine Gesichtspunkte in Betracht, die aber berücksichtigt werden müssen.
Wenn man einen Menschen betrachtet in denjenigen Lebensjahren, in denen im Sinne meines kleinen Büchelchens «Die Erziehung des Kindes vom Gesichtspunkte der Geisteswissenschaft» vorzugsweise zur Entwickelung kommen physischer Leib und namentlich der Ätherleib, wenn man die Entwickelung eines Kindes betrachtet vom siebenten bis zum vierzehnten Jahre ungefähr — ungefähr, denn alles das ist annähernd -, dann wird man finden, daß gerade in dieser Zeit bei dem Kinde gewisse Eigentümlichkeiten hervortreten, die diese Lebensperiode besonders auszeichnen. Man wird bemerken, daß sich in dieser Zeit, in einer gewissen Weise allerdings, gewisse Dinge konsolidieren. Manches tritt Ja schon, weil die Dinge sich durcheinanderschieben, auch in den ersten sieben Lebensjahren auf, aber genau, tiefer beobachtbar ist es erst vom siebenten bis vierzehnten Lebensjahre ungefähr. Man wird finden, daß in einer bestimmteren Weise dasjenige im werdenden Menschen hervortritt, was man nennen kann die durch die Körperlichkeit, durch die ganze Art des Sich-Gebens — aber insofern, als dieses Sich-Geben in der Haltung, in der Gestenhaftigkeit der Körperlichkeit, in der ganzen Lebenshaltung zum Ausdruck kommt - gewissermaßen konsolidierten inneren Eigentümlichkeiten. Was sich da konsolidiert, allerdings nicht alles, aber ein großer Teil desjenigen, was da macht, daß ein Mensch sogar gedrungene Gestalt hat, daß er kurz ist, kürzere oder längere Figur hat, daß er in einer gewissen Weise auftritt, festen Tritt oder tänzelnden Schritt hat, um radikale Gegensätze zu sagen, kurz, das, was mit dem Körperlichen der Lebenshaltung zusammenhängt, ist hier gemeint. Wie gesagt, nicht alles, aber ein großer Teil desjenigen, was so in dem werdenden Menschen auftritt, das ist herrührend aus den Karmawirkungen des Berufes der vorhergehenden Inkarnation. Man macht nun sehr häufig, indem man das, was ich eben gesagt habe, nicht beachtet, Fehler, indem man gescheit sein will, den Menschen beachtet in seiner Haltung, und aus dem, wie er sich gewissermaßen hält und gibt, irgend etwas für seinen Beruf bestimmen will. Da würde man den Fehler machen, den betreffenden Menschen in einen ähnlichen Beruf hineinstellen zu wollen, wie er ihn in der vorhergehenden Inkarnation gehabt hat. Das würde aber nicht heilsam sein für den betreffenden Menschen; denn man sieht in dieser Zeit die Wirkungen der vorhergehenden Inkarnation.
Und wenn nun diese Lebensperiode zu Ende ist, oder schon vorher die Dinge, wie gesagt, schieben sich ineinander -, da tritt der Astralleib in einer ganz besonderen Weise auf, und dieser Astralleib - wenn man die Sache weiß, wenn sie aus der Geisteswissenschaft herausgeholt ist, so kann sie auch äußerlich auf dem physischen Plan beobachtet werden -, der wirkt zurück auf das, was sich vorher ausgebildet hat. Er‘ wirkt zurück in einer solchen Weise, daß er umbildet nach anderen karmischen Kräften das, was sich aus dem reinen Berufskarma vom siebenten bis zum vierzehnten Jahre ergeben hat. Es sind also im Menschen hier zwei miteinander im Kampfe befindliche Kräfte, Die einen gestalten ihn; die kommen mehr aus dem Ätherleib. Die anderen wirken diesen Kräften entgegen und paralysieren sie zum Teil, so daß der Mensch durch diese anderen mehr aus dem Astralleb kommenden Kräfte dazu getrieben wird, umzugestalten das, was ihm aufgedrängt hat das Berufskarma aus der vorhergehenden Inkarnation. Wir können also sagen: Der Ätherleib wirkt gestaltend - denn das, was als Haltung im physischen Leib im Sich-Geben auftritt, das rührt aus dem Ätherleib her -, der Astralleib wirkt umgestaltend. Durch das Spiel der beiden Kräfte, die da wirklich, man möchte sagen, arg im Kampfe miteinander liegen, wird vieles ausgedrückt für das Wirken des Berufskarmas.
Das wirkt aber nun zusammen mit anderen karmischen Strömungen, denn wir haben ja auch den physischen Leib zu betrachten. Für den physischen Leib kommt für die erste Lebensepoche vor allen Dingen in Betracht, wie der Mensch durch sein Karma sich hineinstellt in die Welt. Schon was wir für einen physischen Leib haben, hängt ja davon ab, denn wir stellen uns durch unser Karma in eine bestimmte Familie hinein, die einer bestimmten Nation und so weiter angehört. Dadurch bekommen wir einen ganz bestimmt gearteten Leib. Aber nicht nur, daß wir einen ganz bestimmt gearteten Leib bekommen, sondern wieviel, denken Sie, hängt ab von dem Verlauf unseres Lebens, von der Situation, in die wir uns hineinbegeben, indem wir uns in eine bestimmte Familie hineinstellen. Damit ist ja schon der Ausgangspunkt für unendlich vieles in unserem Leben gegeben. Und in der Tat, wirksam im physischen Leib, um den physischen Leib könnte man besser sagen, sind in der Zeit, in der sich der physische Leib besonders entwickelt, in den ersten sieben Lebensjahren, Kräfte, welche herrühren jetzt nicht aus ‘dem Beruflichen und Berufsmäßigen der vorhergehenden Inkarnation, sondern herrühren von dem, wie wir mit Menschen in der vorhergehenden Inkarnation zusammengelebt haben, indem wir in dieser oder jener Beziehung zu diesen oder jenen Menschen gestanden haben nicht in irgendeinem Lebensteil — das kommt auf ein anderes Gebiet -, sondern das ganze Leben hindurch. Das wird verarbeitet. Tiefe Beziehungen bilden sich ja heraus zu unserer Seele, indem wir zu Menschen in Beziehungen treten. Das tragen wir durch die Todespforte, und durch diese Kräfte bewirken wir, daß wir uns wieder in eine bestimmte Familie, in eine bestimmte Lebenssituation hineinstellen. So daß wir sagen können: Dasjenige, was schon gewissermaßen unseren physischen Leib hineinstellt, durch unseren physischen Leib wirkt, das ist das, was die Lebenssituation gestaltet. Das wirkt natürlich weiter durch das folgende Leben, und das erlangt jetzt die Gegenkraft durch das Ich. Das Ich wirkt auslöschend auf die Lebenssituationen, aber es wirkt im Kampfe mit dem, was determiniert in der Lebenssituation. So daß man sagen kann: Physischer Leib: Lebenssituation schaffend; Ich: Lebenssituation umschaffend. Durch das Zusammenwirken von diesen beiden, durch einen Kampf, den diese beiden bewirken, wird eine andere Karmaströmung ins Leben eingreifen. Denn immer ist vorhanden im Menschen das, was ihn in einer bestimmten Situation erhalten will, und das, was ihn herausheben will aus der bestimmten Situation.
1. Physischer Leib: Lebenssituation schaffend
2. ÄÄtherleib: Gestaltend
3. Astralleib: Umgestaltend
4. Ich: Lebenssituation umschaffend.
Ich möchte sagen: In primärer Weise wirken also 1 und 4 und 2 und 3 aufeinander; aber in der mannigfaltigsten Weise wirken diese Saiten auch sonst wiederum zusammen. Die Art und Weise, wie wir nach unserem Karma mit neuen Menschen in einem Leben in Zusammenhang treten, hängt ab von 1 und 4 in ihren Zusammenhängen. Das führt aber auch zunächst wieder zurück auf unsere Lebenszusammenhänge in früheren Leben. Die Art und Weise, wie wir den beschäftigungsgemäß beruflichen Lebenszusammenhang finden, das hängt zusammen mit 2 und 3 und ihrem gegenseitigen Aufeinanderwirken.
Ich bitte Sie nun, dies zunächst sich zu überlegen. Wir werden in dieser Betrachtung nächstens fortfahren.
Fifth Lecture
From your observations of the impact that a profession has on human life, and everything connected with it, you will have seen that it is difficult to separate these things, because there are so many factors to consider. We must bear in mind that everything that is brought into human life through the course of the laws of destiny, of karma, depends on a great many factors, and that it is precisely this diversity of factors that gives rise to the diversity of human life. A special remark must be made when the word “profession” is used to summarize individual human beings from their life destiny. For one should not confuse what can be called a person's profession with what is meant by a person's office in the broadest sense. For it would naturally lead to all sorts of confusion if one were to focus one's attention on what one person or another represents in his office and view this from the perspective that has been adopted here for professional life. It is precisely because human beings often – though not always – have to carry out their profession in an office that the most diverse external factors can in turn play a role in human life and that, in a sense, other karmic threads are woven together with the professional karma.
We still live in a time that is slowly undergoing a certain transformation, but in many respects it is still the case that the things we are about to mention are by no means the only decisive factors in the professional karma that places a person in this or that position in life. We know that even today, in many respects, professional karma is thwarted by the karma of entire social classes and so on, that within groups of people, ambition, vanity, prejudices of one's own and of others, and many other factors play a role in determining one's place in life. All these factors, which in a sense act from outside upon professional karma, make it possible for Ahrimanic influences to continually interfere in the course of human activity. A person who has been placed in a certain position in life, who has become a minister or a state councilor or something similar through various things that are well known and need not be enumerated, a person who has been placed in such a position does not necessarily have the profession for that position. He may hold a high position and his profession may be only that of a clerk; perhaps not even that. But one must not believe that his position is not being filled. This is precisely what is peculiar to our time, which, in its materialistic interpretation of the justified Darwinian principles, has brought forth such a doctrine of life as that of the “selection of the best,” which Oscar Hertwig, Haeckel's student, now so vigorously criticizes—that this time, which has brought forth this doctrine, at the same time quite clearly, much more than was ever the case in the whole context of life in any other age, selects precisely the worst. Here one need not take the stand of a pessimist who merely disparages his own age and invokes the good old days, but here one really stands on the basis of a fact: On the one hand, people take credit for the doctrine of the selection of the best; but this age, which takes particular credit for this doctrine, is dominated in its reality, in its actuality, by the tendency to select precisely the worst for the seemingly most important positions in life.
This is a bitter truth for the present, but it would be recognized if the present were not so thoroughly under the influence of the most far-reaching belief in authority and the most far-reaching opportunistic sentimentality, and if what is today called public opinion—public opinions are, after all, private follies in the view of a 19th-century philosopher—did not prevail. I say that we would understand what is at stake if we were not so influenced by public opinion, which today is fed from such muddy sources. We must therefore be clear that our age needs above all to be educated to a more intensive view of life, by realizing that one-sidedness, the selection of the worst, exists when even these worst are worshipped by the aforementioned public opinion.
The offices are often filled by Ahriman-Mephistopheles, and you can see how Mephistopheles performs his office in the course of the Faust plot. Only at the end of his life is Faust able to free himself from Mephistopheles. Faust arrives at the imperial court. He even makes an invention that is extraordinarily important for the last few centuries; namely, he invents paper money. But it is actually Mephistopheles who invents paper money. Then Faust is led back into the ancient world by the homunculus; but it is with the help of Mephistopheles that the homunculus comes into being. Faust even becomes a military commander and wages wars, but it is clear from Goethe's portrayal in this act that it is actually Mephistopheles who wages these wars. Only at the end do we see how Faust gradually frees himself from Mephistopheles. Even if Faust, in a sense, only wanders through the world without having a specific position after leaving his professorship, one must still say that the way Mephistopheles stands by his side is already like the way the Mephistophelean force plays into the life of humanity today. That is one thing that must be noted.
Something else that must be noted is that it is extremely difficult to investigate correctly in human nature what actually works in the course of karmic evolution. One can even say in this area that scientific development has reached a point where it must be replaced by spiritual scientific observation. But precisely because the scientific approach involves itself with the soul life, it makes the most terrible errors. We see today how there is a perverted scientific direction which ventures to approach the human soul life and wants to view it scientifically, which also admits that this human soul life does not merely proceed in what is present in consciousness, but that beneath the threshold of consciousness, as they say, in the unconscious or subconscious, there lies much that breaks up into consciousness. In earlier considerations, we have cited concrete things that really lie in the subconscious and rise up into consciousness like clouds of smoke in the area of a solfatara when one begins to burn pieces of paper there. Much is indeed present in the depths of consciousness down there. So one can say that some people who want to study the soul today already suspect that dark, unconscious soul abilities and soul incapacities must be brought into play to explain the life of the soul. But since these views are not yet ready to form a comprehensive spiritual-scientific worldview, they can only bring to light what is wrong. From the standpoint of scientific psychology, one looks at a human life as it has developed. However, one has already abandoned the belief that what a soul feels and wants, what makes it happy or unhappy, joyful or painful, depends only on what it has immediately preserved in consciousness. One now tries to catechize the soul, trying, for example, to find out from souls what they have once gone through, what joys, sufferings, and disappointments in life they have forgotten because of their ordinary powers of imagination. But what is forgotten, one says to oneself, has not disappeared; it lurks in the subconscious.
In particular, desires that one once had, that were not satisfied, that were suppressed, rumble in this subconscious. Let us take a concrete case: we are dealing with a female being in her thirties. At the age of sixteen, she fell in love and developed a rather erotic desire, according to this scientific school of thought, but this erotic desire would have led her astray if she had given in to it, if it had been fulfilled. Under the influence of her upbringing and her parents' persuasion, she suppressed it; she, as one might trivially say, ate it away in her soul. She continues to live. Fourteen years have passed since that time. She may now have married according to her station in life. What she thinks and feels every day has long been forgotten, but what is forgotten has not disappeared. The soul is not exhausted by what it knows. It is still present in the depths of the soul, and it expresses itself in such a way that, despite outward appearances of happiness, the lady in question suffers from an indefinable, pessimistic mood, a partial weariness of life or something similar, so that she is, as one says, nervous, neurasthenic, or something of the sort. People then try to apply this kind of psychology to medicine and attempt to heal such souls by catechizing them, saying: Such experiences dwelling in the depths of the soul, which seem to have been forgotten by the conscious mind, must be brought to the surface. If they are brought up and one sits down under the influence of a favorable catechist — who, according to today's views, must of course be a soul doctor — and deals with the matter, then things get better. - Healing can also be achieved in this way, which is often more or less healing, although in the majority of cases it will only be apparent healing; but to what extent it is apparent healing is something we can discuss on another occasion. This is something that is sought in the depths of the soul.
Another example: We are dealing with a thirty-five or forty-year-old man who suffers from a certain weariness of life, from indecisiveness. He does not know why, and those around him do not know why; he knows it least of all. Those who want to deal with such things, as has been suggested, with such soul science, now try to dig into the forgotten but not disappeared depths of this person's soul life and bring up that the person in question may have had this or that life plan in his fifteenth, sixteenth, or seventeenth year, which failed. At that time, he had to turn to a different life plan that did not correspond to his earlier one. He seems to have come to terms with this in what he feels, thinks, and wants every day, but that is not the whole soul life, which is what one consciously thinks, feels, and wants; rather, this failed life plan continues to live on as a force in the background.
One now believes that healing is possible if one can catechize this failed life plan and the person concerned can come to terms with his catechist. But one also thinks that much else lies there in the depths of the soul, without the consciousness knowing about it. In short, one has come to the conclusion that consciousness is a small circle, the life of the soul a larger circle, and that consciousness encompasses only a part of the life of the soul. But now people are also searching for what I would call the non-soul at the bottom of the soul life, as a theologian recently expressed it in a rather tasteless way: they are searching for the “animalistic sludge” of the soul. In other words, disappointments, suppressed desires, failed life plans, the “animalistic sludge” of the soul, that is, everything that has its roots in animal life, which comes, so to speak, from the flesh, from the blood, from the animal, and does not arise consciously—for consciousness would naturally resist this, and does resist it—from the depths of the soul.
There is some truth in this theory of the “animalistic sludge.” For we see it many times in life how consciousness says to itself: Oh, I want nothing else than this: I want to experience this or that, therefore I turn to this or that person. — But then the “animalistic sludge” of the soul life takes effect, and perhaps it is only animalistic desires that are embellished and masked by what consciousness says. Furthermore, this “scientific” school of thought claims — “scientific” one must say in quotation marks, although they are mostly goose feet — that in these unconscious regions one also finds what arises from the connection of the individual with the race, with the nation, with all kinds of other historical residues that play unconsciously in the human soul, while consciousness behaves quite differently. In view of what is sweeping through the world today, one cannot even say that these things cannot be proven by examples spreading far and wide across the world. Who would not see today how many people profess high ideals for the rights and freedom of peoples in their words, while in their souls there is really only that which, stirring up the fundamental sludge of the soul, comes from the connections which psychoanalysis analyzes, or at least seeks to analyze, in the direction indicated?
Then – and I do not know how scientific psychoanalysts deal with theological psychoanalysts, who also exist – theological psychoanalysts in particular include the demonic in the subconscious of the soul, that which arises from even deeper, completely irrational sources, as they say. Theological psychoanalysts in particular pride themselves on the fact that unknown demons are at work in the subconscious of the human soul, for example to turn people into Gnostics or Theosophists. For when one psychoanalyzes the soul, when one penetrates down to the depths where the primordial mud is, one finds this. And a demonic teaching is Gnosticism, a demonic teaching is psychoanalysis — pardon me, not psychoanalysis. According to these men and women — for women also take part in these things — it is not psychoanalysis, but “theosophy and other things that are also listed in this connection. Now, I do not want to engage in a critique of psychoanalysis today, but I want to use what I have discussed to suggest that there is something in this psychoanalytical direction that pushes current research toward what lies beneath the conscious part of the soul, what works and weaves there. But since scientific prejudices inevitably lead to the most erroneous conclusions in this particular field, and since people are not yet willing to engage in spiritual scientific research in this area, they will never realize that what they find in the soul life cannot be analyzed correctly unless they know that human life is repeated over and over again. For in psychoanalysis, one seeks to explain everything that lies at the bottom of the soul solely from one earthly life. No wonder, then, that one must cast it in such a distorted light.
For example, someone who finds failed life plans at the bottom of the soul would first have to investigate what significance such a failure of a life plan has in the overall life of a human being who goes through repeated earthly lives. He would then perhaps find that certain aspects of this human life are also at work in the subconscious, which have fatefully prevented the life plan in question from being carried out, and then he would notice that this failed life plan, which is still in the depths of the soul, is not merely destined to make the person sick in this incarnation, but is destined to carried through when this life is over, through the gate of death, to become a force in the life between death and a new birth, in order to play the right role in the next earthly life. For such a failed life plan, it may be necessary to be preserved in the depths of the soul during life so that it can gather strength, grow, and then take on the right form between death and a new birth, so that it can take on the form predestined for it in the next earthly life, which it was unable to take on in this earthly life due to other characteristics in its soul life.
And as for the so-called — as I said, the expression is not very tasteful — animalistic sludge of the soul life: certainly, it is there; but remember what I have said about the relationship between the head of the human being and the rest of the organism. The rest of the organism is connected precisely with the earthly life of the human being, indeed in many respects with his present incarnation, while the head is a result of earlier earthly development and is connected above all with his previous incarnations. If you consider this, you will understand that much arises from the rest of the organism, according to the role it plays in the whole karmic context, which must have a different state of maturity than that which arises from the human head, from the brain and its nervous system. But those who initially analyze only the basic sludge in psychoanalysis are completely mistaken, for those who analyze the animalistic basic sludge are in the same position as a person who wants to know what kind of grain will grow on a certain soil before it has grown; he analyzes the soil and digs into it, finds a certain kind of manure with which it has been fertilized. Now he says: Yes, now I know the manure from which the grain will soon grow. — The grain does not grow out of the manure, even though the manure must be there! What matters is what is embedded in this basic slime; and what is embedded in this basic slime is often destined to work through the gate of death into the development of the next earthly life. It is not a matter of investigating the animalistic ground slime, but rather that which is embedded in this animalistic ground slime as a spiritual germ.
Psychoanalysis provides an opportunity to study precisely where the prejudices of the present have a disastrous effect, because it deals with a field that the thinking of the present is eager to explore, thinking that is not satisfied with what experience alone gives the soul, that is, with the soul's experience of consciousness. One is already driven to the place where one is supposed to investigate. But now those who have no guidelines for investigation, because they cannot understand spiritual science, are digging in the areas assigned to them by officialdom or by their agitation, in the most clumsy way, putting everything in the wrong place because they do not understand how to put things in the right place. This would only be possible if one were able to follow the real karmic thread, as I have just shown you, at least in outline, with one example and another. Above all, this psychoanalysis proves to be so terribly unhealthy when it delves into the elementary, into the area that is important if one wants to explore the continuous thread of human destiny in its subtle, intimate formations. What takes place in the conscious soul life of human beings from waking to falling asleep actually reveals little of what continues to work as a karmic current through the incarnations. What we consciously experience in our waking life belongs largely to the present incarnation, and that is good, for human beings should be efficient in their present incarnation. But much of what is carried through the gate of death as a seed formed from the experiences and training of the present incarnation plays a major role in our life from falling asleep to waking up, and this often plays into our dreams. However, one must be able to judge the formation of dreams in the right way. When we say that dreams are reminiscences, this is often true, but they work in our karmic stream in a different way than in a straightforward manner. They do not work in a straightforward manner; they often work by meaning the opposite of what they appear to be in the direction of their force. I will give an example from literature to illustrate what I mean.
The V-Vischer – he is called V-Vischer because his name is spelled with a V instead of an F – the aesthete who wrote the novel Auch Einer (One Too) had a nice little story in Auch Einer, which I am quoting because I am talking in a broader context about professional life, that is, about what is connected with human occupation. So I would also like to give an example that has to do with occupation. The V-Vischer recounts a conversation between a father and his son. They are walking together, and after the father has asked his son various questions, the son says: “Look, the teacher told us that we should always ask people what they do for a living, because it is important for a person to have a proper occupation; that is how you can tell whether he is a decent person, whether he has a decent soul.” “Really?“ says the father. ‘Yes, and afterwards, after the teacher told us that at school, I dreamed that I was walking to the lake over there, and in my dream I asked the lake what it does, and the lake said, ’My job is to be wet.'” “Well, well,” says the father.
It is a very witty story, a story that reveals a great deal about the life experience of the person who thought it up. The father said, “Well, yes!” because he naturally did not want to spoil his son and did not want to tell him what a stupid thing the teacher had said. But the father must have had something in mind. He should have explained it to his son in a more intelligent way than the teacher had done. He should have said: “You mustn't judge in such a superficial way. It could be, for example, that you have a false idea of what constitutes a proper occupation and therefore consider the man to be disorderly; or the person in question may be prevented from doing something else. In short, the father should have taught his son. In this case, he did not need to teach him, because we are dealing with a young person in the son, so the dream can still have a favorable effect. For the dream that has come to the son's consciousness is really there as a force instead of a lesson. This dream has an effect in the subconscious, but it works in such a way that it eradicates from the soul the folly that the teacher has caused with his teaching. That is why the dream has taken shape in the subconscious, which is more intelligent than the conscious mind, in such a way that a touch of ridicule spreads through the dream about the folly of the teacher. The lake says that it is his occupation, his profession, to be wet. This is something that will have a healing effect, that will drive out all the harmful consequences that can arise from such teaching. The dream is a reminiscence—the dream follows as a reminiscence the very next night—but at the same time it is a life corrector. And so the life of the astral body has many effects, and one would find, alongside the remnants of what is present in the soul from life experience, above all sometimes From a wrong upbringing, there is a corrector present in the subconscious soul forces, which sometimes still works in the same incarnation when it enters a young person, but which is carried through the gate of death and continues to work. There really is a kind of self-corrector in human beings. We must definitely take this into account.
Through all these things, I only wanted to draw attention to everything that is in the human soul and thus pushes its way from one incarnation to another. We are dealing with a whole complex of forces that plays into one incarnation from another. Now we must consider the relationship between this complex of forces and the human being, insofar as his life flows between birth and death. The human being is, I would say, an instrument with four strings, on which the aforementioned karmic force complex plays. The physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I are the four strings, and karma plays on them. Depending on whether one or the other, the etheric body, the astral body, or the etheric body together with the astral body, the physical body with the astral body, the physical body with the ego, are strung together by the bow of karma, so to speak — if we may use the analogy of a violin, which also has four strings — and this produces individual human life. These four strings of human life can play together in the most varied ways. This is why it is so difficult to decipher the individual melodies of human life if one wants to speak in concrete terms rather than in general abstractions, because one can only decipher them, at least in a fruitful way, if one can see, as it were, how the bow of karma plays on the four strings of the human being. However, general points of view must be taken into account.
When one considers a human being in those years of life in which, according to my little book “The Education of the Child from the Point of View of Spiritual Science,” the physical body and especially the etheric body develop, if one considers the development of a child from about the seventh to the fourteenth year — approximately, for everything is approximate — then one will find that certain characteristics emerge in the child during this period that particularly distinguish this stage of life. One will notice that during this period, in a certain way, certain things consolidate. Some things already appear during the first seven years of life, because things are shifting around, but it is only from about the seventh to the fourteenth year that this can be observed more precisely and deeply. One will find that what emerges in the developing human being in a more definite way is what can be called the inner peculiarities that are consolidated through physicality, through the whole manner of self-expression — but insofar as this self-expression is expressed in posture, in the gestural nature of physicality, in the whole attitude toward life. What consolidates there, not everything, but a large part of what makes a person have a stocky build, be short, have a shorter or longer figure, appear in a certain way, have a firm gait or a dancing step, to mention radical contrasts, in short, what is connected with the physicality of the attitude towards life, is meant here. As I said, not everything, but a large part of what appears in the developing human being originates from the karmic effects of the profession in the previous incarnation. Very often, by ignoring what I have just said, people make the mistake of wanting to be clever, observing people in their behavior, and trying to determine something about their profession from the way they carry themselves and present themselves. One would make the mistake of wanting to place the person in question in a profession similar to the one he had in his previous incarnation. But that would not be beneficial for the person concerned, because in this period one sees the effects of the previous incarnation.
And when this period of life comes to an end, or even before, as I have said, things begin to merge together, the astral body appears in a very special way, and this astral body—if one knows the matter, if it has been brought out of spiritual science, it can also be observed externally on the physical plane—has a retroactive effect on what has been formed previously. It acts back in such a way that it transforms, according to other karmic forces, what has resulted from the pure professional karma between the ages of seven and fourteen. So there are two forces in conflict within the human being. One shapes him; these forces come more from the etheric body. The other forces counteract these forces and partially paralyze them, so that the human being is driven by these other forces, which come more from the astral body, to transform what has been imposed on him by the professional karma from his previous incarnation. We can therefore say that the etheric body has a formative effect, for what appears as posture in the physical body in the act of giving oneself arises from the etheric body, while the astral body has a transforming effect. Through the interplay of these two forces, which are really, one might say, in fierce conflict with each other, much is expressed about the working of professional karma.
But this now interacts with other karmic currents, for we must also consider the physical body. For the physical body, the most important factor in the first stage of life is how the human being places himself in the world through his karma. Even the physical body we have depends on this, because through our karma we place ourselves in a particular family that belongs to a particular nation and so on. This gives us a body of a very specific nature. But it is not only that we receive a body of a very specific nature; how much we receive depends on the course of our life, on the situation we place ourselves in by entering a particular family. This already provides the starting point for an infinite number of things in our life. And in fact, effective in the physical body, or rather, one could say, around the physical body, during the time when the physical body is developing particularly rapidly, in the first seven years of life, are forces that do not originate from the professional and occupational aspects of the previous incarnation, but rather from how we lived together with people in the previous incarnation, by having been in this or that relationship with these or those people, not in some part of life—that comes into a different area—but throughout the whole of life. This is processed. Deep relationships form with our soul as we enter into relationships with people. We carry this through the gate of death, and through these forces we cause ourselves to place ourselves again in a certain family, in a certain life situation. So we can say: That which already, in a sense, places our physical body within us and works through our physical body is what shapes our life situation. This naturally continues to work through the following life, and now it gains its counterforce through the I. The I has an extinguishing effect on life situations, but it works in struggle with what is determined in the life situation. So we can say: the physical body creates the life situation; the ego transforms the life situation. Through the interaction of these two, through a struggle between them, a different karmic current will intervene in life. For there is always something present in the human being that wants to keep him in a certain situation, and something that wants to lift him out of that situation.
1. Physical body: creating the life situation
2. Etheric body: shaping
3. Astral body: transforming
4. I: transforming the life situation.
I would like to say: In a primary sense, 1 and 4 and 2 and 3 interact with each other; but these strings also interact with each other in the most diverse ways. The way in which we come into contact with new people in a life according to our karma depends on 1 and 4 in their interrelationships. But this also leads us back to our life circumstances in previous lives. The way in which we find our professional life context in terms of our occupation is related to 2 and 3 and their mutual interaction.
I would now ask you to think about this first. We will continue with this consideration shortly.