Factors of Karma, Deficiencies in Psychoanalysis
GA 172
13 November 1916, Dornach
Translator Unknown
From our Studies of such an impulse in human life as is contained in man's calling or vocation and in all that is connected with it, you will have seen how difficult it is to make these matters clear. For in effect, so many things are here involved. We must bear in mind that all that is introduced into our life through the law of Destiny or Karma depends on countless factors. To this, indeed, the manifold nature of human life is due. In describing certain human aspects of our life's destiny by the word ‘calling’ or ‘vocation’ one remark must perhaps be made, namely this: We ought not to confuse what we may describe as man's calling or vocation with what is commonly spoken of as his office or position in the widest sense of the term. For it goes without saying, much confusion would arise, if, having in mind what one man or another represents in his official position, we applied to this the points of view which have here been brought to bear on the vocational life. Frequently, though by no means always, man has to pursue his vocation in some official position, and many an extraneous factor comes into play at this point in human life, mingling other Karmic threads with that one which we may call the ‘Karma of vocation.’ We are living in a time which is slowly undergoing a certain transformation. Nevertheless, in our time, the aspects we are here outlining for the ‘Karma of vocation’ are by no means exclusively predominant in placing a man into this or that position in life. As you are well aware, the Karma of vocation is still cut across in many ways by the Karma of classes, social castes, etc. Within such groupings, ambitions, vanities, the prejudices of himself and other people, and many other factors too, help to determine how a man is placed in his official post. All these things, entering into the Karma of vocation as extraneous factors, make it possible for Ahrimanic influences constantly to interfere with the true course of human activity. A man who has been placed at a certain post in life—who has become a Cabinet Minister for instance, or a Privy Councillor or the like (through circumstances which are well enough known, and need not be gone into here)—such a man need not by any means have the corresponding vocation. He can occupy a high position and yet his vocation may only be that of a ‘pen-pusher’—perhaps not even that. Nor must you imagine that the position then remains unoccupied. That is just the peculiarity of our time. In its materialistic interpretation of the just foundations of Darwinism, it has evolved such a theory of life as the ‘Selection of the Fittest,’ which is now being criticised so vehemently by Haeckel's pupil, Oskar Hertwig. (Our standpoint need not be that of the pessimist who adversely judges his own time and constantly refers back to the ‘good old days.’ We simply take our stand on the real facts.) While on the one hand the people of this age pride themselves on the ‘Selection of the Fittest,’ this age in its reality is dominated by the very opposite tendency—that of selecting the worst, the un-fittest, for the very posts in life which one would think the most important. Bitter as it may be for our time to hear it, this truth would be admitted, were it not for the fact that our time is impressed with a far-reaching belief in authority, combined with the greatest possible opportunism and slackness. I say again, it is a bitter truth, which would be recognised were it not for the prevalence of what is called ‘public opinion.’ (Public opinions, according to a 19th century philosopher, are private stupidities.) We should recognise the fact to which I here refer, were we not so much impressed by the public opinions with which we are fed to-day from such unclean sources. On this we must be clear, our age needs above all to be educated to a more intense grasp of life. The prevalent one-sidedness—the selection of the un-fittest—must be recognised for what it is, albeit these ‘un-fittest’ are overwhelmed with adulation by the aforesaid ‘public opinion.’
The offices are occupied, in fact, only too frequently by Ahriman-Mephistopheles. And you may well see from the further course of Goethe's Faust how Mephistopheles fulfils his office. Not until the end of his life does it become possible for Faust to free himself from Mephistopheles. Faust comes to the imperial court. He even makes an invention—most important for the last few centuries. He invents paper-money. Mephistopheles is the real inventor. Afterwards, Faust is conducted into the world of classical antiquity by Homunculus. Homunculus himself, once more, is brought into being with Mephistopheles' assistance. Faust even becomes a military commander and conducts wars. But from Goethe's manner of description in this act especially, we see that it is really Mephistopheles who conducts them. Only at the very end do we see Faust gradually free himself from Mephistopheles.
Though Faust is roaming through the world without any definite position—having vacated his professorship—nevertheless, we must admit, the whole way in which Mephistopheles stands at his side is not unlike the way the Mephistophelean forces frequently play into the life of mankind to-day.
That is the one thing which must be borne in mind, but there is another thing as well. It is by no means easy rightly to discover in human nature what it is that really works in Karmic evolution. Here, too, the development of natural science has reached a point, which must be attained once more by spiritual-scientific study.
Notably when it tries to enter into the life of the soul, the natural-scientific way of thought makes the most ghastly errors. Witness the rise to-day of a mistaken school of science, which ventures to approach the human life of soul, studying it in the spirit of mere natural science. This school of thought admits that the life of the soul does not merely take its course as it appears to man's present consciousness. It admits that much is there beneath the threshold of consciousness—or as they say, in the unconscious or subconscious—beating-up into the conscious life.
In former lectures we have mentioned specific things which are truly there in the subconscious, and surge up into consciousness like the clouds of smoke which arise in the Solfatara country when one sets a light to a piece of paper. Much indeed is present down below in depths of consciousness.
So we may say: There are those today, who, wishing to pursue a science of the soul, already divine the fact that dark unconscious faculties of soul—and failings of soul—must be included for any true explanation. But as these schools will not yet admit a comprehensive spiritual-scientific world-conception, they can only bring to light mistaken notions. Those who take this standpoint of a purely natural-scientific psychology, observe a human life,—how it has evolved. They have indeed departed from the belief that what a soul feels and wills, wherewith it is happy or unhappy, filled with joy or grief, depends only on what the soul itself has preserved in the immediate consciousness. So now they try to catechise the soul. Somehow they try to get out of human souls the joys and pains, the disappointments of life which they have some time undergone and in their every-day power of thought have forgotten. What is forgotten, so these theorists declare, has not therefore vanished. It is still burrowing on in the subconsciousness.
Cravings, above all, are burrowing in the subconsciousness—cravings which at some earlier time of life remained unsatisfied or were repressed. Take a concrete instance—it is a woman in her 30th year. At the age of 16 she fell in love. She evolved a strongly erotic craving (so says this school of science), but this craving, if she had given herself up to it—if it had been fulfilled—would have led into some bye-way of life. Influenced by education, by the exhortation of her parents, she repressed it. To put it tritely, she ‘swallowed it down’ in her soul's life. Then she lived on. Fourteen years have passed. Perhaps she has married meantime according to her station. For her daily thoughts and feelings it is long forgotten. But the forgotten has by no means disappeared. The soul is not exhaustively contained in what it knows. In the underlying levels of consciousness the thing is still there, and presently it finds expression. For though the lady in her outer life is happy, she suffers from an indefinable, pessimistic leaning, a partial weariness of life or something similar. She is, as they say, ‘nervous,’ neurasthenic, or the like.
Now they seek to introduce this kind of psychology into medical science. They try to cure such souls by catechising them. Such experiences, they say, abiding in the hidden depths of the soul's life and for the surface consciousness apparently forgotten, must be drawn forth. If this be done—if under the influence of a good catechiser (who must of course, after the prevailing notions of to-day, be a physician) the patient gets to grips with the thing—then it will all grow better.
Cures are indeed effected in this manner. Often indeed they are more or less real cures, though in the majority of cases they will prove to be only semblances of cures. (We can explain how this is on some other occasion.)
That is one kind of thing they seek for, down in the depths of the soul's life. Here is another: It is a man of 35 or 40, suffering from a certain weariness of life, a morbid indecision. He does not know why, and the people around him do not know why. He knows it least of all. One who busies himself with the aforesaid ‘science of the soul,’ will try in this case too, to rummage in the forgotten though not vanished depths of the inner life, and will elicit the fact that in his 15th, 16th or 17th year, may be, the man had this or that plan in life, which plan fell through. He was obliged to turn to another plan of life—not according to the one he cherished. In all that he daily feels and thinks and wills, he has apparently been reconciled to the change. But what a man consciously feels and thinks and wills is not the entire life of the soul. In hidden depths the disappointed plan lives on as a real force.
Once more, these people believe that they can effect a cure by catechising and bringing the disappointment to the surface, giving the man an opportunity to discuss the whole matter with his catechiser.
But there are many other things besides, which they believe are resting there in the soul's depths without man's consciousness being aware of it. In short, they have perceived the fact that consciousness is a small circle and the soul's life a far larger circle of which the consciousness comprises only a little part. Not only so, they also look in the very depths of the soul's life for something else which is not of the soul—which, it appears, a theologian recently described—with questionable taste—as ‘the animal slime at the bottom of the soul.’ Thus they find disappointments, suppressed craving's, broken plans of life and finally the ‘animal slime at the very bottom of the soul,’ which means: all that is rooted in life, coming, so to speak, from flesh and blood, from the hidden animal nature, and rising from the soul's foundation in an unconscious way (for the consciousness would naturally rebel against it and does indeed rebel).
There is of course some truth in this theory of the ‘animal slime.’ We often see it happening in life:—Consciousness says to itself, ‘I want nothing more; I want to discover this or that. Therefore I turn to this or that person.’ But the ‘animal slime’ is really at work, for it may well be animal cravings which are only camouflaged and masked by what the consciousness declares.
Moreover this school of science (‘science,’ I say, with a grain of salt) has conjectured that in these same unconscious regions we shall also find what comes from the individual's connection with race and nation, with all manner of historic residues which play their part in the human soul unconsciously, while consciousness behaves quite differently. In view of what is now surging through the world, we cannot even deny that these things are apparently confirmed by multitudinous examples. For who will fail to see how many a man declares by word of mouth lofty ideals of ‘right and freedom for the nations,’ while in his soul's reality that alone is active, which, stirring the slime in the soul's depths, arises out of such connections as the Psycho-analyst would analyse—or pretend to analyse—in the above directions.
Moreover, the theologians among the Psycho-analysts especially, include in the subconscious regions of the soul's life the ‘demonic’ element which, they allege, arises from still more hidden depths—from the mysterious depth of the ‘irrational.’ I am unaware how the natural scientists and the theologians among Psycho-analysts come to terms with one another. But the latter class too undoubtedly exists, and they especially are fond of saying that unknown demons are at work in the subconscious in the human soul, so as to make men Gnostics for example, or Theosophists. ‘Psycho-analyse the soul and penetrate to the foundations where the primeval slime resides and you will find it. Gnosis is a demonic teaching, likewise Psycho-analysis’ ... no, I beg your pardon, not Psycho-analysis. Psychoanalysis, according to these men and women (for ladies, too, are taking part in these things) Psycho-analysis is not included in the black list, but Theosophy and other things.
I do not wish to enter now into any detailed criticism of Psycho-analysis. I only wish to have pointed out that in the Psycho-analytic school we have the evidence, how modern research is driven to observe what works and weaves beneath the conscious portions of the soul. But the prevailing scientific prejudices can only result in the most wrong conclusions on these matters. Meanwhile these people are quite unwilling to consider the investigations of Spiritual Science. Consequently they will not discover how impossible it is truly to analyse what they find in the soul's life, so long as they are unaware that man's existence takes its course in repeated lives on Earth. For in their Psycho-analysis they try to explain, what is there at the bottom of the soul, out of one Earth-life only. No wonder they are then obliged to place it frequently in a distorted light.
For example, suppose we find disappointed plans of life, deep down within the soul. We ought first to consider what kind of meaning this wrecking of a plan in life may have for the human being's existence as a whole, which goes on through repeated lives on Earth. Then perhaps we shall discover that there are also working in the man's subconsciousness certain aspects of his life, which, by a true working of destiny, have prevented the fulfilment of his plan. And then we shall observe that the disappointed plan, which is still there in the soul's depths, is not merely destined to make the man ill in this incarnation, but to be carried through the gate of death when this life is at an end, and to become a potent force in the life between death and new birth. For only in the next life will it play its proper part. It may indeed be necessary for such a broken plan of life to be preserved and nurtured to begin with, in the depths of the soul, so that it may be strengthened and enhanced. Then between death and a new birth it will be able to rise to its true stature, till in the next life on Earth it assumes its predestined form, which, on account of other qualities within the soul, it was not able to assume in this life.
Then as to the so-called ‘animal slime at the bottom of the soul's life’ (though, as I said, the expression is by no means in good taste), undoubtedly such a thing is there. But I beg you to remember what I have explained, of the relation between the head of man and the remainder of his organism. The latter is in many respects connected with man's earthly life, his present incarnation, while the head is the result of former planes of evolution of the Earth itself, and is, moreover, related to the man's former incarnations. If you consider this, then you will understand how many things are working upward from the remainder of the organism (by virtue of the part it plays in the whole karmic connection)—things which are at a different stage of maturity than that which comes from the human head and from the nervous system. But the Psycho-analyst, who to begin with only ‘analyses’ the ‘slime,’ will go completely wrong. Analysing this ‘animal slime,’ as they call it, he is like a man who wants to know what kind of corn will grow on a given soil. He analyses the soil. He digs and finds a certain manure, with which the field was manured. He says, Now I know the manure, and out of this the corn will presently spring forth. But the corn does not grow from the manure, albeit the manure is necessary. The point is, what is imbedded in the basic slime; for that which is imbedded in it is generally destined to work on through the gate of death, into the next evolution on the Earth. It is not a question of investigating the animal slime itself. The point is, what is imbedded in it as a real ‘seed of the soul.’
Psycho-Analysis, so called, gives ample opportunity to observe how perilous are the prejudices of the present time. True, it is entering a realm to which the thought of our time is tending. For the soul can no longer rest satisfied with what the surface experience of consciousness provides. So do the men of our time find themselves driven to the very quarters where they should indeed investigate; but as they cannot understand spiritual science they have no guiding lines for such investigation. Therefore they rummage about in the most clumsy way in these realms which are assigned to them by their profession, or by their own agitations. They put everything in the wrong place, not knowing how to put in it the right. For this they could only do, if they were able to follow up the real Karmic threads as I have tried to indicate them now, in the one case and in the other. Above all when Psychoanalysis begins to burrow in the elemental realms, it proves itself appallingly unsound.
Nevertheless, the desire to pursue the continuous thread of destiny into its finer and more intimate ramifications is important. That which goes on in the conscious life of a man's soul, from the time he awakens until he falls asleep again, reveals very little of the Karmic stream which works on and on through his incarnations. What we experience consciously in waking life largely belongs to the present incarnation, and it is good so. For in the present incarnation man should be healthy and efficient. On the other hand, much of what is carried through the gate of death—as a seed which grows out of our experiences and trials and faculties acquired during the present life—plays a great part in our life from our falling asleep to our awakening, and very largely finds its way into our dreams. We must only be able to estimate the dream-formations truly. We say, Dreams are reminiscences,—and so they often are. But in the stream of our Karma they do not work in a simple and straightforward way. In their inherent forces they often signify the opposite of what appears upon the surface. Let me give you an example from literature to explain what I now mean.
Vischer, the aestheticist, tells a pretty little story in his book, Auch Einer. I quote it here because I am now speaking in a wider sense of the vocational life and all that is connected with it. Vischer relates a conversation between a father and his son. They are going for a walk together, and after the father has asked him many things the boy tells the following story: ‘Teacher told us one should always find out what kind of a job a man has. A man should have a proper occupation. By that you can recognise whether he is a sound and good man altogether.’ ‘Oh,’ said the father. ‘Yes, and after teacher had told us that in school, I dreamt I was walking past yonder lake, and in the dream I asked the lake what kind of a job it had. And the lake said: My job is to be wet.’ ‘Hm,’ said the father.
A witty story, revealing some knowledge of life in him who thought it out. The father said ‘Hm’ because he did not wish to spoil the boy. He did not wish to tell him what nonsense his teacher had been talking. No doubt he kept his thoughts to himself. He should have enlightened his son more wisely than the teacher. He should have said, One must not pass judgments in such a superficial way, for it may well be that one's judgment of what constitutes a ‘decent and proper occupation’ is mistaken, and one will thus be led to misjudge one's fellow-men. Or again, the man's career might somehow have been marred. In short, the father should have instructed the son. But in this case he did not need to do so. For in the young human being the dream can still work helpfully. The dream, which in this instance came to the boy's consciousness, is there as a real inner force, in place of such instruction. In the sub-consciousness the dream is working. And it works in such a way as to expunge from the soul the nonsense which the teacher created by his foolish teaching. This explains the forming of the dream in the boy's sub-consciousness, which is wiser than the surface consciousness. It spreads an atmosphere of laughable absurdity over the teacher's foolish exhortations. The lake says, ‘It is my job to be wet.’ That will work wholesomely. It will drive away the noxious effects to which such teaching might otherwise give rise.
In this case the dream is indeed a reminiscence; it follows in the very next night. But at the same time it is a corrector of life. Indeed the life of the astral body frequently works in this way. Beside the relics of what is there in the soul from the experiences of life, we should frequently find this factor. Especially where a mistaken education is at work, we can frequently detect in the sub-conscious forces of the soul this ‘corrector,’ who often works even in the same incarnation, especially in young human beings. But above all, this corrector is carried through the gate of death and there works on. There is really a kind of self-corrector in the human being. This must be borne in mind.
With all these things I only want to point out how much there is in the soul of man, pressing on from one incarnation to another. There is a whole complex of forces, working across from one incarnation to another. We must now consider what is the relation between this complex of forces and the human being of the present, inasmuch as his life continues between birth and death.
In this respect man is really a four-stringed instrument, on which the above-named ‘complex of Karmic forces’ plays. Physical body, etheric body, astral body and Ego are the four strings, and Karma plays on them. According as the one or the other string is played on more or less intensely by the bow of Karma (if we may retain this analogy of the violin which also has four strings), so does the individual life arise. It may be more the etheric body or the astral body, or the etheric and the astral together, or the physical and the astral together, or the physical body and the Ego. In the most manifold ways, the four strings of human life can play together. Therefore it is so difficult if we desire to speak not in general and vague abstractions but in reality. It is so hard to decipher the several melodies of a man's life, for we can only decipher them if we are able to behold how the fiddle-bow of Karma plays on the four strings of Man.
Consider the human being in those years of life when the physical body and especially the etheric body are developing (as indicated in my little book Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy)—from the seventh to the fourteenth year—all these things are approximate. During this time we shall find certain peculiarities emerging, which distinguish this period of life especially. Certain things, we shall observe, are in a way consolidated during this time. True, many of these things already emerge in the first seven years of life—for all these things merge into one another. But it is only between the seventh and about the fourteenth year that we can observe it deeply and accurately. Certain inner characteristics become consolidated in the growing human being, expressing themselves through the corporeality, through the whole conduct and appearance as it expresses itself in the tenure of the body, in the gestures, in the behaviour as a whole. What is thus consolidated (not all, but a great part of it) causing the human being to be short and thickset, or to have shorter or longer fingers, or to tread in a certain way—with a firm step in one case, tripping it lightly in another (to describe the radical contrasts)—in short, all that is connected with the bodily aspect of deportment, is here intended. As I said, not all, but a great part of what thus appears in the growing human being comes from his Karma. It is the effect of his vocation in the former life on Earth. People who do not observe what I have now said, often make a great mistake, especially when they try to be clever, observing the child's behaviour, and wishing somehow to determine his occupation in this life from the way he deports himself. In this way it is easy to make the mistake of wishing to place him into a similar vocation to what he had in his preceding life on Earth. And that would not be wholesome for him. What we observe in this period of life are the effects of the former incarnation; and when this period is at an end, or even before (as I said, these things merge into one another), the astral body emerges in a very peculiar way, and reacts on what has been developing hitherto. Once we are aware of these facts as derived from spiritual science, we can observe them even outwardly on the physical plane. The astral body reacts. According to quite other Karmic forces, it transmutes that which resulted from the pure ‘Karma of vocation’ between the seventh and fourteenth year. Thus there are two forces in the human being in conflict with one another. The one set of forces mould and form him; these arise more from the etheric body. The others, counteracting and partly paralysing the former, come more from the astral body. Through these latter forces, man is impelled to transform what was stamped upon him by his vocational Karma of the former incarnation. We may say therefore: The working of the etheric body is formative. (All that appears as gesture, posture and deportment in the physical body comes from the etheric.) The working of the astral body is transformative. And in the interplay of the two forces, which are very decidedly in conflict with one another, much of the working of the Karma of vocation finds expression.
This, however, is woven together with other Karmic streams. For we must also bear in mind the physical body. As to the physical body, it is especially important to observe in the first epoch of life how the human being places himself through his Karma into the world. The kind of physical body we have depends on this. For by our Karma we place ourselves into a certain family, belonging to a certain nation and so forth. Thus we get quite a definite kind of body. But not only so. Think how much the course of our life depends on the situation into which we place ourselves, in that we enter a certain family. This already gives the starting-point of infinitely much in our life.
In effect, notably in the first seven years of life, when the physical body is developing, forces are working in (or rather, about) the physical body—forces which come not from the vocational aspect of our former incarnation, but from the way in which we lived with other human beings. In our former incarnation we stood in this or that relation to this or that human being. (I mean now, not in a particular part of our life—for that belongs to a different chapter—but throughout our life.) All this we assimilate. We carry it through the gate of death, and through these forces we bring ourselves once more into a certain family, a certain situation or set of circumstances. Thus we may say: That which places our physical body into life and works on through our physical body—that is what shapes the situations of our life. (It goes on working, of course, through our succeeding lives.) And now it receives a counter-force through the Ego. The Ego works so to annul the given situations of our life. It battles against all that determines our circumstances. Thus we may say: The physical body works so to create life's situation; and the Ego works to re-create it. In the working together of these two-battling one with another—another stream of Karma enters our life. For? there is always present in man on the one hand what strives to maintain him in a certain situation, and on the other, what strives to lift him out of it. Thus I would say, primitively speaking, 1 and 4, and 2 and 3, work upon one another. (See the diagram at the end.) And in manifold other ways the four strings play together. The way we come into connection with fresh human beings in a given life according to our Karma, depends on 1 and 4 and their connections. And this leads back in turn to our relationships of life in former lives. The way we find our connections in calling, work and occupation depends on 2 and 3 and on their mutual interplay.
To begin with I beg you to consider these things well. We shall then continue in the next lecture.
1. |
Physical body: |
{ |
Creating our life's situation. |
} |
|
2. |
Etheric body: |
Forming. |
} |
||
3. |
Astral body: |
{ |
Transforming or re-forming. |
||
4. |
Ego: |
Re-creating our life's situation. |
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.