Karmic Relationships III
GA 237
6 July 1924, Dornach
III. The Spiritual Foundations of Anthroposophical Endeavor
We have seen how the study of karma, wherein the destiny of man is contained, leads us from the affairs of the farthest universe—from the worlds of the stars—down to the tenderest experiences of the human heart, inasmuch as the heart is an expression of all that man feels working upon him during life,—of all that happens to him in the whole nexus of earth-existence. When we try to arrive at our judgments through a deeper understanding of the karmic connections, we are driven again and again to look into these two domains of world-existence which lie so far removed from one another. Indeed we must say: Whatever else we may be studying,—be it Nature, or the more natural configuration of human evolution in history or in the life of nations—none of these leads us so high up into cosmic realms as the study of karma. The study of karma makes us altogether aware of the connections between human life here upon earth and that which goes on in the wide universe. We see this human life taking its course on earth, unfolding till about the 70th year of life, when in a certain connection it attains its limit. Whatever lies beyond this is in reality a life given by grace. What lies below this limit stands under karmic influences, and these we shall now have to study.
It is possible, as I have often mentioned from varied points of view, to put the length of human life on earth at about 72 years. Now 72 years, seen in relation to the secrets of the cosmos, is a remarkable number, the true significance of which only begins to dawn upon us when we consider what I may call the cosmic secret of human earthly life. We have already described what the world of the stars is from a spiritual point of view. When we enter on a new earthly life, we return, so to speak, from the world of stars to this life on earth.
At this point once more it is astonishing how the ancient ideas—even if we do not take our start from tradition—simply emerge again of their own accord when we approach these domains of life with the help of modern spiritual science. We have seen how the various planetary stars and fixed stars take part in human life and in all that permeates this human life on earth. If we have before us an earthly life that has taken its full course,—one that does not come to an end all too soon, but that has passed through half at least of the allotted earthly time,—then in the last resort we find this truth once more: The human being, inasmuch as he comes down from cosmic spiritual spaces into an earthly life, comes always from a certain star. We can trace the very direction of it, and it is not unreal—on the contrary, it is most exact, to say:—‘The human being has his star.’ If we take what is experienced beyond all space and time between death and a new birth, and translate this into its spatial image, we can say: Every man has his star, which determines what he has attained between death and a new birth.
He comes from the direction of a certain star. We may indeed receive into our minds this conception. The whole human race inhabiting the earth is to be found on the one hand by looking round about us upon earth, passing through these many continents, finding them peopled by the human beings who are now incarnated. And the others who are not on the earth, where in the universe shall we find them? Whither must we look in the great universe if we would turn our soul's gaze to them,—assuming that a certain time has elapsed since they went through the gate of death? The answer is: We look in the true direction when we look out upon the starry heavens. There are the souls—or at least the directions which will enable us to find the souls—-who are spending their life between death and a new birth. We see and comprehend the entire human race that inhabits the earth, when we look upward and downward.
Those alone who are now on the way thither or returning thence, we find in the planetary region. But we can certainly not speak of the midnight hour of existence between death and a new birth, without thinking of some star which the human being as it were indwells between death and a new birth (albeit we must always bear in mind what I have said about the beings of the stars).
Then, my dear friends, we shall approach the cosmos with this knowledge. Away there are the stars, the cosmic signs from which there shines and lightens down upon us the soul-life of those who are between death and a new birth. And then we become aware that we can look also at the constellations of stars, saying to ourselves: ‘How is all this, that we behold in cosmic spaces, connected with the life of man?’ We look up with a new fulness of heart and mind to the silvery moon, the dazzling blaze of the sun, the twinkling stars at night-time, and we feel ourselves united even humanly with all of these. This is what Anthroposophy is to attain at last for the souls of men: they shall feel themselves united even in a human way with the whole cosmos. It is at this point that certain secrets of cosmic existence first begin to dawn upon us.
The sun rises and sets; the stars rise and set. We can trace how the sun sets, for example in the region where there are certain groups of stars. We can trace what is now called the apparent course of the stars, circling round the earth. We can trace the course of the sun. In 24 hours, the sun circles around the earth—‘apparently’ as we say nowadays,—and the stars too circle around the earth. So we say: but it is not quite correct. For if again and again we attentively observe the course of stars and sun, we perceive at length that the sun does not always rise at the same time in relation to the stars. It grows ever a little later. Day after day it arrives a little later at the place where it was on the previous day in relation to the stars. These spaces of time, by which the sun remains behind the stars in their course, add up till they become an hour, two hours, three hours, and at length a day. Thus at length the time approaches when we can say: The sun has remained behind the star by a whole day.
Now let us assume: Someone was born on the 1st of March in a particular year. And, let us say, he lived till the end of his 72nd year. He always celebrates his birthday on the 1st of March, for the sun says: His birthday is on the 1st of March. And he can celebrate it so, for throughout the 72 years of his life (though it progresses in relation to the stars) the sun shines forth ever and again in the neighbourhood of the star that shone when he came down to earth. But when he has lived for 72 years, a full day has elapsed. He has arrived at an age in life when the sun leaves the star into which it entered when he began his life. At his birthday now he is beyond the 1st of March. The star no longer says the same as the sun; the stars say it is the 2nd of March; the sun says it is the 1st. The human being has lost a cosmic day, for it takes just 72 years for the sun to remain behind a star.
During this time which the sun can spend in the region of his star, a man can live on earth. Then (under normal conditions) when the sun is no longer there to comfort his star for his life on earth, when the sun no longer says to his star: ‘He is down there, and I from myself am giving thee what he—this human being—has to give to thee; and for the time being, as I cover thee, I am doing for him what thou dost for him between death and a new birth,’ when the sun can no longer speak thus to the star, the star summons the man back again.
Thus you perceive the processes in the heavens immediately connected with human existence upon earth. In the mysteries of the heavens we see the age of man's life expressed. Man can live 72 years, because in this time the sun remains a day behind. After that time the sun can no longer comfort the star which it could comfort while it stood before and covered it. The star has become free again for the soul-spiritual work of man within the cosmos.
These things cannot be understood in any other way than with reverence,—with that deep reverence which was called in the ancient Mysteries ‘the reverence for that which is above.’ For this reverence leads us ever and again to see what happens here on earth in connection with what is unfolded in the sublime, majestic writing of the stars. It is indeed a limited life men lead today, compared to what was still existing at the beginning of the 3rd Post-Atlantean epoch. They did not merely base their reckoning, their understanding of man, on that which describes his steps upon the earth; they reckoned with what the stars of the great universe are saying about the life of man.
Once we are attentive to such connections and able to receive them with reverence into our souls, then too we know: ‘Whatever happens here on earth has its corresponding counterpart in the spiritual worlds.’ In the writing of the stars is expressed the kind of connection that exists between what happens here, and what happened (to speak from the earthly point of view) ‘some time ago’ in the spiritual world. In truth our every reflection upon karma should be accompanied by holy reverence and awe before the secrets of the universe.
In such a mood of reverence, let us approach the studies of karma which we are to make here during the near future. To begin with let us take this fact: Here are sitting a number of human beings, a section of what we call the Anthroposophical Society; and though one of us may be united with this Anthroposophical Society by stronger links, and another by less strong, it is in all cases part of a man's destiny—and the destiny that underlies these things is powerful—it is a part of his destiny that he has found his way into the Anthroposophical Society. Moreover, it lies inherent in the spiritualisation which must come over the Anthroposophical Society since the Christmas Foundation Meeting:—We must become ever more conscious of the spiritual, cosmic realities that underlie such a community as this Society. For out of such a consciousness the individual will then be able to take his true stand in the Society. Hence you will understand—along with all the other responsibilities resulting from the Christmas Foundation Meeting—that we must now begin to say something too about the karma of the Anthroposophical Society. It is very complicated, for it is a karma of community,—a karma that arises from the karmic coming-together of many single human beings. Take in its true and deep meaning all that has been said in these lectures and all that results from the many relationships that have been unfolded here; then, my dear friends, you will yourselves perceive that what is taking place here in our midst—where a number of human beings are led by their karma into the Anthroposophical Society—has been preceded by many and important events which happened to these very human beings before they came down into this present earthly life—events moreover which were themselves the after-effects of what had taken place in former lives on earth.
Let your thought dwell for a moment on the great vistas that are opened up by such an idea as this. Then you will realise how this thought may by and by be deepened till there emerges the spiritual history that stands behind the Anthroposophical Society. But this cannot be accomplished all at once. It can only enter our consciousness slowly and gradually; then only will it be possible to build even the conduct and action of the Anthroposophical Society on the foundations which are actually there for anthroposophists.
It is of course Anthroposophy as such which holds the Society together. In one way or another, everyone who finds his way into the Society must be seeking for Anthroposophy. And the preceding causes are to be sought for in the experiences which were undergone, by the souls who now become anthroposophists, before they came down into this earthly life.
At the same time, if we look out into the world with a clear perception of what has happened hitherto, we are also bound to admit: There are many human beings whom we find here or there in the world today, and of whom—looking at their connection with their pre-earthly life—we must say that they were truly pre-destined by their pre-natal life for the Anthroposophical Society; and yet, owing to certain other things, they are unable to find their way into it. There are far more of them than we generally think.
This must bring still nearer to our hearts the question: What is the pre-destination that leads a soul to Anthroposophy?
I will take my start from extreme examples, which are all the more instructive in showing how the karmic forces work. In the Anthroposophical Society the question of karma does indeed arise before the individual in a more intensive way than in other realms of life. I need only say the following: The souls who are incarnated in a human body now,—to begin with we cannot possibly follow them back far enough to assume that they experienced directly in their past earthly lives anything that could lead them, for example, to Eurhythmy (to take this radical instance from within the Anthroposophical Movement). For Eurhythmy did not exist in the times when the souls who now seek for it were incarnated. Thus the burning question arises: How comes it that a soul finds its way into Eurhythmy out of the working of the karmic forces?
But so it is in all the domains of life. Souls are there today, seeking the way to that which Anthroposophy can give them. How do they come to unfold all the pre-dispositions of their karma from past earthly lives, precisely in this direction which leads them to Anthroposophy?
In the first place there are some souls who are driven to Anthroposophy with strong inner intensity. The intensity of these forces is not the same in all. Some souls are driven to Anthroposophy with such inward intensity that it seems as though they were steering straight towards it without any by-ways at all, finding their way directly into one domain or another of the anthroposophical life.
There are a number of souls who steer their cosmic way in this sense for the following reason: In past centuries, when they had their former life on earth, they felt with peculiar intensity that Christianity had reached a definite turning-point. They lived in an age when the main effect of Christianity was to pass over into a more or less instinctive human feeling. It was an age when Christianity was practised in a perfectly natural and simple way but quite instinctively; so that the question did not really occur to the souls of men: Why am I a Christian? Such souls we find especially if we turn our gaze to the 13th, 12th, 11th, 10th, 9th, and 8th centuries after Christ. There we find Christ-permeated souls, who were growing and evolving towards the age of Consciousness (the age of the Spiritual Soul), but who, since this age had not yet begun, were still receiving Christianity into the pure Mind-Soul. On the other hand, with respect to the worldly affairs of life, they already experienced the dawn of what the Spiritual Soul is destined to bring.
Thus their Christianity lived in a way unconsciously. It was in many respects a deeply pious Christianity, but it lived, if I may say so, leaving the head on one side and entering straight into the functions of the organism. Now that which is unconscious in one life becomes a degree more conscious in the next life on earth: and so this Christianity which had not become fully clear or self-conscious, became at length a challenge and a question for these human souls: ‘Why are we Christians?’
The outcome was (I am speaking in an introductory way today, hinting at matters which will be spoken of more fully afterwards) the outcome was that in the life between death and a new birth these souls had a certain connection once more in the spiritual world, especially in the first half of the 19th century. In the first half of the 19th century there were gatherings of souls in the spiritual world,—souls who took the consequences of the Christianity they had experienced on earth, finding it again in the radiance, in the all embracing glory of the spiritual world. Above all in the first half of the 19th century, there were souls in the life between death and a new birth who strove to translate into cosmic Imaginations what they had felt in a preceding Christian life on earth. The very thing that I once described here as a great cult or act of ritual was there enacted in the Supersensible. A large number of souls were gathered in these mutually-woven cosmic Imaginations, in these mighty pictures of a future existence, which they were to seek again in an altered form during their next life on earth.
But in all this was also interwoven all that had taken place between the 7th and 13th or 14th centuries A.D. by way of dire and painful inner conflicts, which were indeed more painful than is generally thought. For the souls to whom I now refer had undergone very much during that time; and all that they had thus undergone, they wove it into the mighty cosmic Imaginations which were woven together by a large number of souls in common, during the first half of the 19th century.
The great cosmic Imaginations that were thus woven were shot through on the one hand by something that I cannot otherwise describe than as a kind of longing and expectant feeling. Working out these mighty Imaginations, the souls experienced within them a concentrated feeling, gathered from manifold experiences, a concentrated feeling within their disembodied souls. It was a feeling which I can describe somewhat as follows: ‘In our last life on earth we inclined towards the living experience of Christianity. Deeply we felt the Mysteries which tradition had preserved for all Christians, telling of the sacred and solemn happenings in Palestine at the beginning of the Christian era. But did He really stand before us in all His glory, in His full radiance?’ The question arose out of their hearts. ‘Was it not only after our death that we learned how Christ had descended from cosmic heights, as a Being of the Sun, to the earth? Did we really experience Him as the Being of the Sun? He is here no longer, He is united with the earth. Here we can only find what is like a great cosmic memory of Him. We must find our way back again to the earth, in order to have the Christ before our souls.’
A longing for Christ accompanied these souls from that time forth, when with the Spirit-Beings of the Hierarchies they wove the mighty and sublime cosmic Imaginations. This longing went with them from their pre-earthly life into the present life on earth.
This can be experienced with overwhelming intensity by spiritual vision when it observes what was taking place in mankind, incarnate and discarnate, in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. And as I said, all manner of things were mingled into these impressions. For we must remember that in their Christian experience the souls who are now returning had shared in all that was taking place as between those who were striving for Christianity and those who still stood within the old Pagan consciousness,—which was frequently the case during the centuries to which I just now referred. In these souls therefore, many of those influences are present which make it possible for man to fall a victim to the temptations of Lucifer on the one hand and Ahriman on the other. For in karma, Lucifer and Ahriman are weaving, no less than the good gods: this we have already seen.
All that was thus interwoven, and that works itself out karmically today, must be followed out in detail, if we would really penetrate the spiritual foundations of anthroposophical striving. If the Christmas Foundation Meeting is to be taken in real earnest, the time has now come when we must draw aside the veil from certain things. Only they must be taken with the necessary earnestness.
Let us begin, as I said, with a radical instance; and while we discuss the following, let there hold sway in the background, for the rest of this hour, all that has now been said.
From the pre-earthly into this earthly existence, through their education, through all that they experience on earth, human souls find their way. They seek and find their way into the Anthroposophical Society, and remain in it for a time. But there are isolated cases among them, where, having shown themselves zealous, nay over-zealous members of the Anthroposophical Society for a while, they become the most violent opponents. Let us observe the working of karma in an extreme case of this kind.
A person comes into the Anthroposophical Society. He proves a very zealous member, yet after a time he somehow manages to become not only an opponent but a maligner among opponents. We must admit, it is a very strange karma.
We will consider a single case. There is a soul. We look back into a past life on earth, into a time when old memories from the ages of Paganism still lingered on, enticingly for many people. It was a time when men were finding their way on the one hand into a Christianity that spread out with a certain warmth and fire, and yet, for many of them, with a certain superficiality.
When such things are spoken of, we must always remember that we have to begin somewhere or other, at some particular earthly life. Every such earthly life leads back to earlier ones in turn; therefore there will always be some things that remain unexplained—things to which we simply refer as matters of fact. They are of course the karmic consequences of still earlier events, but we have to begin somewhere.
In the period to which I have just referred we find a certain soul. We find him, indeed, in a way that very nearly concerned myself and other present members of this Society. We find him as a would-be maker of gold, in possession of writings, manuscripts which he is hardly able to understand but interprets in his own way and then makes experiments in accordance with the instructions, though he has no real notion what he is doing. For it is by no means a simple matter to look into the spiritually chemical relationships, if we may call them so. Thus we see him as an experimenter, with a little library containing the most varied instructions and recipes going far back into Moorish and Arabian sources. We see him unfolding this activity in an almost out-of-the-way place, though visited by many inquisitive persons. At length, under the influence of the practices in which he engages without understanding, he gets a strange physical debility,—a disease attacking especially the larynx,—and (this being a masculine incarnation) his voice becomes hoarser and hoarser till it has almost vanished.
Meanwhile the Christian teachings are spread abroad; they are taking hold of men on all hands. This man is filled on the one hand with the greedy longing to make gold, and, with the making of gold, to attain many other things attainable at that time if one had been successful in making gold. On the other hand Christianity comes near to him, in a way that is full of reproaches. There arises in him what I may perhaps describe as a kind of Faustian feeling, though not altogether pure. Strong becomes the feeling in him: ‘Have I not really done an awful wrong?’ By-and-by under the influence of such reflections the conclusion grows upon him, living with scepticism in his soul: ‘Your having lost your voice is the divine punishment, the just punishment, for meddling with unrighteous things.’
In this situation of his inner life, he sought out the advice of human beings who have also become united at this present time with the Anthroposophical Society, and who were able at that time really to play a helpful part in his destiny. For they were able to save his soul from deep and anxious doubt. We can really speak of a certain ‘salvation of the soul’ in this case. But all this took place under such conditions that he experienced it with feelings which remained to some extent external, no matter how intense they were. He was overwhelmed on the one hand with a sense of gratitude toward those who had saved his inner life. But on the other hand—unclear as it all was—an appalling Ahrimanic impulse became mingled with it. After the strong inclination towards unrighteous magic practices, and with his present feeling—which was not quite genuine—of having entered into Christian righteousness, an Ahrimanic trait became mixed up in all these things. For in effect the soul was brought into confusion; things were not really clear, and the result was that he brought an Ahrimanic trait into his gratitude. His thankfulness was transformed into something that found an unworthy expression in his soul, and that appeared to him in this light, during his life between death and new birth. It came before him especially when he had reached that point which I described, in the first half of the 19th century. There he had to live through it again; and he experienced the deep unworthiness of what his soul had evolved in that former life, by way of gratitude which was superficial, external, nay even cringing.
We see this picture of Ahrimanised gratitude mixed up in the cosmic Imaginations of which I spoke. And we see the soul descend from that pre-earthly existence into a new earthly life. We see him descend on the one hand with all those impulses that entered into him from the time when he was seeking to make gold,—the materialistic corruption of a spiritual striving. On the other hand we see evolving in him under the Ahrimanic influence something which is distinctly to be perceived as a sense of shame,—shame at his gratitude improperly expressed and superficial.
These two currents live in his soul as he descends to earth. And they express themselves in this way: The soul of whom I am speaking, having become a person again in earthly life, finds his way to those others who were also with him in the first half of the 19th century.
To begin with, a kind of memory arises in him of what he lived through in the Imaginative picture of the unworthy external gratitude. All these things become unfolded now, almost automatically. Then there awakens what is living there within him,—what I described as a sense of shame at his own attitude which had been unworthy of a man. This takes hold of his soul, but, influenced as it is by Ahriman (through the karma of former epochs too, of course), it finds vent as an appalling hatred against all that he had at first espoused. The sense of shame against himself becomes transformed into a wild and angry opposition. And this again is united with dreadful disappointment that all his old subconscious cravings have been so little satisfied. For they would have been satisfied if anything had arisen now, similar to what was contained in the old, improper art of making gold.
You see, my dear friends, here we have a radical example showing how such things turn inward. We have traced the strange mysterious by-ways of such a thing as this: the connection of a sense of shame with hatred. Such things must also be discovered in the connections of human life if we would understand a present life from its preceding conditions.
When we consider such things as these, a certain measure of understanding is indeed poured out over all that takes place through human beings in the world. Then indeed great difficulties of life begin, when we take the thought of karma in real earnest. But these difficulties are meant to come, for they are founded in the real essence of human life. Such a Movement as the Anthroposophical must indeed be exposed to many things, for only so can it evolve the strong forces which it needs.
I gave you this example first, so that you might see how we must seek—even for negative things—the karmic relationships with the whole stream of destiny which is causing the Anthroposophical Movement to arise out of the preceding incarnations of those who are joined together in this Society.
So, my dear friends, we may hope that there will awaken in us by-and-by an entirely new understanding of the essence of this Anthroposophical Society. We may hope to discover, as it were, the very soul of the Anthroposophical Society with all its many difficulties. For in this case too, we must not remain within the limits of the single human life, but trace it back to what is now being—I cannot say re-incarnated—but re-experienced in life. In this direction I wanted to begin today.
Dritter Vortrag
Wir haben gesehen, wie die Betrachtung des Karma, in dem das menschliche Schicksal eingeschlossen ist, führt von den weitesten Verhältnissen des Weltenalls, von den Sternenwelten, bis hinein in die intimsten Erlebnisse des menschlichen Herzens, insofern dieses Herz ja ein Ausdruck ist für alles das, was der Mensch im Leben auf sich wirken fühlt, was mit ihm im Zusammenhange des Erdendaseins vorgeht. Wir werden immer wiederum, wenn wir gerade aus einem tieferen Verständnis der karmischen Zusammenhänge heraus zum Urteilen kommen wollen, aufgefordert, nach diesen beiden so entfernt voneinander liegenden Gebieten des Weltendaseins hinzuschauen. Man muß eigentlich sagen: Was man sonst auch betrachtet, sei es die Natur, sei es die mehr natürliche Konfiguration der Menschheitsentwickelung in der Geschichte oder das Völkerleben, es führt alles nicht so hoch hinauf in kosmische Gebiete wie gerade die Karmabetrachtung. Diese Karmabetrachtung, sie macht uns überhaupt aufmerksam auf die Zusammenhänge des menschlichen, hier auf der Erde vollbrachten Lebens mit dem, was in den Weltenweiten vorgeht. Wir sehen dieses menschliche Leben auf der Erde, wenn es in gewissen Zusammenhängen seine Grenze erreicht, sich entfalten bis etwa zum siebzigsten Jahre. Was darüber hinaus ist, ist eigentlich ein gnadevoll geschenktes Leben. Was darunter ist, steht unter karmischen Einflüssen; die werden wir noch zu betrachten haben.
Aber man kann — das haben wir ja schon öfter von verschiedenen Gesichtspunkten aus in den mannigfaltigsten Betrachtungen berührt — ein menschliches Erdenleben auf etwa zweiundsiebzig Jahre rechnen. Zweiundsiebzig Jahre ist nun auch, vor dem Hintergrund der Geheimnisse des Kosmos gesehen, eine merkwürdige Zahl, deren Bedeutung einem eigentlich erst dann so richtig aufgeht, wenn man, ich möchte sagen, das kosmische Geheimnis des menschlichen Erdenlebens in Betracht zieht. Wir haben ja geschildert, was die Sternenwelt vom geistigen Gesichtspunkte aus eigentlich ist. Wir kommen sozusagen, wenn wir in ein neues Erdenleben eintreten, aus der Sternenwelt in dieses Erdenleben zurück. Und da fällt einem auf, wie sich alte Anschauungen, auch wenn man traditionell gar nicht an sie anknüpft, einfach wieder ergeben, sobald man mit Hilfe der heutigen Geistesforschung sich dem entsprechenden Gebiet naht. Wir haben ja gesehen, wie die verschiedenen Planetensterne, wie die Fixsterne teilnehmen am menschlichen Leben, an dem, was das menschliche Leben durchdringt und durchzieht hier auf Erden. Letzten Endes, wenn wir ein ausgelebtes Erdenleben vor uns haben, das nicht gar zu sehr steckenbleibt in den unteren Grenzen, das wenigstens die Hälfte der Erdenzeit durchlebt, kann man sagen: der Mensch, indem er von geistig-kosmischen Weiten heruntersteigt zu einem irdischen Dasein, kommt immer von einem bestimmten Sterne her. Man kann diese Richtung verfolgen, und es ist nicht unsachlich, sondern im Gegenteil recht exakt, wenn wir davon sprechen, der Mensch habe einmal «seinen Stern». Ein bestimmter Stern, ein Fixstern, ist die geistige Heimat des Menschen.
Wenn man dasjenige, was ja außer Raum und Zeit erlebt wird zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, umsetzt in seine räumliche Bildlichkeit, dann muß man dazu kommen, sich zu sagen: Jeder Mensch hat seinen Stern, der bestimmend ist für das, was er sich erarbeitet zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, und er kommt aus der Richtung eines bestimmten Sternes her. — So daß wir schon in unser Gemüt die Vorstellung aufnehmen können: Wenn wir das gesamte Menschengeschlecht betrachten, das die Erde bewohnt, so finden wir, wenn wir hier auf der Erde Umschau halten und die Kontinente durchgehen, diese Kontinente bevölkert von den Menschen, die gegenwärtig inkarniert sind. Die anderen Menschen — wo finden wir sie im Weltenall? Wohin haben wir zu schauen im Weltenall, wenn wir den Seelenblick zu ihnen hinwenden wollen, nachdem sie dort eine bestimmte Zeit hindurch zugebracht haben nach dem Durchschreiten der Pforte des Todes? Wir schauen in die richtigen Richtungen, wenn wir hinschauen zum Sternenhimmel. Das sind die Seelen — wenigstens sind das die Richtungen, die uns die Seelen finden lassen -, die sich zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt befinden. Wir überschauen das ganze Menschengeschlecht, das die Erde bevölkert, wenn wir hinauf- und hinunterschauen.
Nur diejenigen, die eben auf dem Gange dahin oder auf dem Gange daher sind, finden wir in der planetarischen Region. Wir können aber nicht über die Mitternachtsstunde des Daseins sprechen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, ohne an einen Stern zu denken, den dann gewissermaßen, aber mit Berücksichtigung dessen, was ich über Sternenwesen gesagt habe, der Mensch bewohnt zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Wenn man mit einem solchen Wissen an den Kosmos herantritt, meine lieben Freunde: da draußen sind die Sterne, Weltenzeichen, aus denen uns entgegenschimmert und entgegenglänzt das Seelenleben derjenigen, die zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt sind — dann werden wir aufmerksam darauf, daß wir ja auch die Konstellation der Sterne daraufhin ansehen können, uns fragend: Wie hängt das alles, was wir in den Weltenweiten schauen, mit dem Menschenleben zusammen? — Wir lernen dann anders, gemütvoll hinaufschauen auf den silberglänzenden Mond, auf die blendende Sonne, auf die nächtlicherweile funkelnden Sterne; denn wir fühlen uns mit alledem auch menschlich vereint. Und das ist etwas, was durch Anthroposophie für Menschenseelen errungen werden soll: daß sich diese Menschenseelen mit dem ganzen Kosmos auch menschlich vereint fühlen. Aber dann auch gehen uns erst gewisse Geheimnisse des Weltendaseins auf.
Meine lieben Freunde, die Sonne geht auf und unter, die Sterne gehen auf und unter. Wir können verfolgen, wie die Sonne, sagen wir, untergeht in der Gegend, wo bestimmte Sterngruppen sind. Wir können jenen scheinbaren, wie man heute sagt, Gang, den die Sterne machen bei ihrem Umkreise um die Erde, verfolgen; wir können den Gang der Sonne verfolgen. Wir sagen heute, im Laufe von vierundzwanzig Stunden sei es so, daß die Sonne die Erde umkreist — scheinbar natürlich alles —, daß die Sterne die Erde umkreisen. So sagen wir, aber das ist ja nicht ganz richtig gesprochen. Wenn wir immer wieder und wiederum aufmerksam Sternengang und Sonnengang beobachten, so kommen wir dahinter, daß die Sonne im Verhältnis zu den Sternen nicht immer zur selben Zeit aufgeht, sondern immer ein klein wenig später; jeden Tag ein klein wenig später kommt sie an den Ort, an dem sie am vorhergehenden Tag im Verhältnis zu den Sternen gewesen ist. Und dann summieren sich diese Zeitstrecken, um die die Sonne immer zurückbleibt hinter dem Sternengang, summieren sich, werden eine Stunde, werden zwei Stunden, werden drei Stunden und werden schließlich ein Tag. Und der Zeitpunkt rückt heran, wo wir sagen können: die Sonne ist hinter dem Stern um einen Tag zurückgeblieben.
Und nun nehmen wir an, irgend jemand sei meinetwillen am ersten März irgendeines Jahres geboren, habe gelebt bis zum Ablauf des zweiundsiebzigsten Lebensjahres. Er feiert seinen Geburtstag immer am ersten März, weil die Sonne sagt, am ersten März sei dieser Geburtstag. Er kann ihn auch so feiern, denn die Sonne erglänzt durch die zweiundsiebzig Jahre hindurch, wenn sie auch weiterrückt im Verhältnis zu den Sternen, doch immer in der Nachbarschaft jenes Sternes, der geleuchtet hat, als der Mensch auf der Erde angekommen ist.
Wenn der Mensch aber zweiundsiebzig Jahre gelebt hat, dann ist ein voller Tag abgelaufen, und er kommt in seinem Lebensalter an einer Stelle an, wo die Sonne den Stern verlassen hat, in den sie gerade eingetreten ist, als er sein Leben angetreten hat. Und er kommt bei seinem Geburtstag über den ersten März hinaus: der Stern sagt nicht mehr dasselbe, was die Sonne sagt. Die Sterne sagen, es sei der zweite März, die Sonne sagt, es sei der erste März: der Mensch hat einen Weltentag verloren, denn es sind gerade zweiundsiebzig Jahre, daß die Sonne um einen Tag hinter dem Stern zurückbleibt.
Und während dieser Zeit, während sich die Sonne im Bereiche seines Sternes aufhalten kann, kann der Mensch auf der Erde leben. Dann, unter normalen Verhältnissen, wenn die Sonne nicht mehr seinen Stern beruhigt über sein irdisches Dasein, wenn die Sonne nicht mehr zu seinem Stern sagt: der ist unten, und ich gebe dir das, was dir dieser Mensch zu geben hat, von mir aus, während ich nun vorläufig, dich zudeckend, mit ihm dasjenige mache, was du sonst mit ihm machtest zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, wenn die Sonne das nicht mehr zum Stern sagen kann, fordert der Stern den Menschen wiederum zurück.
Und da haben Sie die Vorgänge am Himmel als unmittelbar zusammenhängend mit dem menschlichen Dasein auf der Erde: Wir sehen in den Geheimnissen des Himmels das Lebensalter des Menschen ausgesprochen. Der Mensch kann zweiundsiebzig Jahre leben, weil die Sonne in dieser Zeit um einen Tag zurückbleibt. Dann kann sie also einen Stern, den sie vorher beruhigt hat, indem sie sich vor ihn gestellt hat, nicht mehr beruhigen, so daß der wieder frei geworden ist für die geistig-seelische Arbeit des Menschen im Kosmos.
Diese Dinge können eigentlich nicht anders begriffen werden, als wenn sie mit Ehrfurcht begriffen werden, mit jener Ehrfurcht, welche die alten Mysterien die Ehrfurcht vor dem Oberen genannt haben. Denn diese Ehrfurcht vor dem Oberen leitet uns immer wieder und wieder an, dasjenige, was hier auf Erden geschieht, im Zusammenhange zu sehen mit dem, was in der gewaltigen majestätischen Sternenschrift sich abspielt. Und es ist eigentlich doch ein recht eingeschränktes Leben, das die Menschen heute zum Beispiel führen, gegenüber dem Leben, das noch im Anfange der dritten nachatlantischen Periode geführt wurde, wo man überall beim Menschen gerechnet hat nicht nach demjenigen, was bloß seine Schritte auf der Erde verzeichnet, sondern nach dem, was über das Menschenleben die Sterne des Weltenalls sagen.
Sehen Sie, ist man einmal aufmerksam auf solche Zusammenhänge und ist man in der Lage, in seiner Seele solche Zusammenhänge mit Ehrfurcht aufzunehmen, dann wird man sich auch sagen können: Was immer hier auf der Erde vorgeht, hat ja sein Korrelat, sein Gegenbild in den geistigen Welten. Und in der Sternenschrift drückt sich aus, wie der Zusammenhang ist zwischen dem, was hier vorgeht, mit dem, was — wenn wir vom Erdengesichtspunkt aus sprechen — eine ziemliche Zeit vorher in der geistigen Welt sich abgespielt hat. Und eigentlich muß jede karmische Betrachtung in solch scheuer Ehrfurcht vor den Weltengeheimnissen angestellt werden.
Nun nähern wir uns einmal in solch scheuer Ehrfurcht einigen karmischen Betrachtungen, die in der nächsten Zeit hier gepflogen werden sollen. Nehmen wir einmal zunächst das eine: Hier sitzt eine Anzahl von Menschen, ein Ausschnitt aus dem, was man die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft nennt. Immerhin, ob der eine nun mit stärkeren, der andere mit schwächeren Banden vereinigt ist mit dieser Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft, es gehört schon zum Schicksal des Menschen, bei manchen zum grundlegenden, intensiven Schicksal, seinen Weg in die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft gefunden zu haben. Und es liegt nun einmal in jener Vergeistigung, welche die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft finden soll seit der Weihnachtstagung, nun auch immer bewußter und bewußter zu werden über dasjenige, was geistig-kosmisch einer solchen Gemeinschaft zugrunde liegt, wie es die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft ist. Dann kann auch aus diesem Bewußtsein heraus der einzelne in dieser Gesellschaft darinnenstehen.
Deshalb kann es immerhin begreiflich sein, daß mit jenen Verantwortlichkeiten, die sich ergeben aus der Weihnachtstagung her, nun auch damit begonnen wird, etwas über das Karma der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft zu sprechen, über dieses recht komplizierte Karma; denn es ist ja ein allgemeines Karma, das aus dem karmischen Zusammenflusse vieler einzelner Menschen entsteht. Und wenn Sie alles das in seinem wahren Sinn und in seinem tiefen Sinn nehmen, was im Verlauf dieser Karmavorträge gesagt worden ist und was auch aus anderen Zusammenhängen hervorgeht, die hier betrachtet worden sind, dann werden Sie ja darauf kommen, meine lieben Freunde, daß dasjenige, was sich hier abspielt, indem eine Anzahl von Menschen durch ihr Karma in die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft hereingeführt werden, sein Vorgeschehen, so will ich es nennen, hat in einem Geschehen, das sich abgespielt hat mit diesen Menschen, bevor sie in das irdische Dasein eingetreten sind, und das wieder die Nachwirkung ist von Ereignissen, die sich in vorigen Erdenleben abgespielt haben.
Wenn Sie nun zunächst nur einmal den Gedanken schweifen lassen über alles das, was durch eine solche Idee angeregt wird, dann werden Sie sagen: Es kann dieser Gedanke allmählich dahin vertieft werden, daß die Geschichte geistig erscheint, die hinter der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft steht. Nur kann das nicht im Fluge geschehen, sondern es kann nur langsam und allmählich zum Bewußtsein kommen, damit es so zum Bewußtsein komme, daß auch das Tun der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft sich errichte auf den Untergründen, die durchaus für die Anthroposophen vorhanden sind.
Und nun, sehen Sie, zunächst ist es ja Anthroposophie, welche die Gesellschaft zusammenhält, Anthroposophie als solche. Und Anthroposophie muß doch in irgendeiner Weise von demjenigen, der sich in der Gesellschaft einfindet, gesucht werden. Das hat seine Vorgeschehnisse in dem, was erlebt worden ist - wir wollen es zunächst nur bis dahin verfolgen -, bevor die Seelen, die eben Anthroposophen werden, in das irdische Dasein heruntersteigen.
Wenn aber dann mit einer gewissen Durchschau auf das, was da eigentlich sich vollzogen hat, das Auge hinblickt auf die Welt, dann muß heute das Folgende gesagt werden: Es gibt in der Welt heute viele Menschen, die man da oder dort findet und von denen man, wenn man ihren Zusammenhang mit ihrem vorirdischen Dasein ins Auge faßt, eigentlich sagen muß: sie sind durch dieses vorirdische Dasein für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft bestimmt gewesen und können durch gewisse Ereignisse nicht den Weg in dieselbe finden. — Viel mehr solcher Menschen, als man denkt, gibt es. Das aber legt uns erst recht herzlich die Frage auf: Welches ist die Vorbestimmung, welches ist die Prädestination, die eine Seele an die Anthroposophie heranführt?
Sehen Sie, ich möchte zunächst von extremen Fällen ausgehen, welche lehren können, wie das Karma gerade bei einer solchen Sache spielt. In der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft entsteht ja wirklich, man möchte sagen, in einer intensiveren Weise für den einzelnen Menschen die Frage nach dem Karma als auf einem anderen Gebiete. Ich will nur auf das Folgende hinweisen: Nehmen Sie einmal an, daß die Seelen, die gegenwärtig in einem Menschenleibe inkarniert sind, zumeist nicht so weit, man kann schon sagen überhaupt nicht so weit, zurückführen, daß sie zunächst irgend etwas erlebt haben können in verflossenen Erdenleben, was sie -— nehmen wir ein radikales Beispiel — innerhalb der anthroposophischen Bewegung zur Eurythmie hinführt; denn diese Eurythmie hat es ja nicht gegeben in denjenigen Zeiten, in denen die Seelen verkörpert waren, die heute Eurythmie suchen.
Da entsteht die brennende Frage: Wie kommt eine Seele dazu, den Gang nach der Eurythmie hin zu machen aus karmischen Untergründen heraus? Aber so ist es ja mit allen einzelnen Gebieten des gesamten Lebens: Seelen finden sich heute, welche nach dem, was Anthroposophie gibt, den Weg suchen. Wie kommen sie dazu, dasjenige, was die Vorbedingungen ihres Karma in den vorigen Erdenleben sind, gerade nach der Richtung zur Anthroposophie hin zu entfalten?
Nun sind da zunächst solche Seelen, die mit einer gewissen inneren starken Intensität zur Anthroposophie hingetrieben werden. Diese Intensität ist ja nicht bei allen gleich, aber es gibt Seelen, die mit einer starken inneren Intensität hingetrieben werden zur Anthroposophie, daß es einem so vorkommt, als wenn sie geradezu ohne Seitenpfade, in aller Geradheit zur Anthroposophie hinsteuern und in irgendein Gebiet des anthroposophischen Lebens hineinmünden.
Da gibt es eine Anzahl von Seelen, die aus dem Grunde zu einem solchen weltenkosmischen Steuern in ihrer Seele kommen, weil sie in besonderer Stärke empfunden haben in abgelaufenen Jahrhunderten, in denen sie ihr voriges Erdenleben durchgemacht haben, daß das Christentum an einem bestimmten Wendepunkt angekommen war. Sie haben in einem Zeitalter gelebt, wo das Christentum vorzugsweise dazu geführt hatte, in ein mehr oder weniger instinktives menschliches Fühlen überzugehen, wo das Christentum zwar mit einer Selbstverständlichkeit, aber mit einer instinktiven Selbstverständlichkeit geübt wurde, wo die Seelen eigentlich nicht die Frage aufgeworfen haben: Warum bin ich ein Christ? - Und wir kommen, wenn wir den Blick zurückwenden auf das 13., 12., 11., 10., 9., 8. Jahrhundert der nachchristlichen Entwickelung, insbesondere auf solche Seelen, die durchchristet waren, die hereinwuchsen in das Bewußstseinszeitalter, die aber das Christentum noch vor dem Bewußstseinszeitalter in die reine Gemütsseele hinein voll aufgenommen haben, denen aber schon in bezug auf die mehr weltlichen Angelegenheiten dasjenige erglänzte, was die Bewußtseinsseele bringen soll.
Was da, ich möchte sagen, unbewußt gelebt hat, so daß es gewissermaßen mit Umgehung des Kopfes dazumal in die Verrichtungen des Organismus hineingegangen ist, was da gelebt hat in vieler Beziehung als ein frommes Christentum, aber ein Christentum, das über sich selber nicht zur Klarheit kam, das stellte an diese Menschen die Forderung - denn, was unbewußt ist in einem Erdenleben, wird um einen Grad bewußter im nächsten Erdenleben -, die Frage aufzuwerfen: Warum sind wir Christen?
Das aber führte dazu - ich spreche heute einleitungsweise die Dinge zunächst andeutend, sie sollen weiter ausgeführt werden -, daß solche Seelen nun auch in dem Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt vorzugsweise in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts in der geistigen Welt einen Zusammenhang hatten, Und es gab Seelenvereinigungen in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts in der geistigen Welt, die die Konsequenzen des Christentums zogen, das sie hier auf Erden erlebt haben, in dem Glanze und in dem umfassenden Schein, in der umfassenden Offenbarung der geistigen Welt. Gerade in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts gab es Seelen in dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, die dahin drängten, in kosmische Imaginationen umzusetzen, was sie in einem christlichen vorangehenden Leben gefühlt haben. Und gerade das, was ich hier einmal als einen Kultus beschrieben habe, das spielte sich da im Übersinnlichen ab. Und eine große Anzahl Seelen war versammelt in diesen gemeinsam gewobenen kosmischen Imaginationen, in diesen mächtigen Bildern eines Zukunftsdaseins, das dann in veränderter Gestalt gesucht werden sollte während des nächsten Erdendaseins.
Aber da hineinverwoben war alles dasjenige, was an schweren inneren Kämpfen, die viel schwerer waren, als man gewöhnlich denkt, sich abgespielt hat zwischen dem 7. und 13., 14. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert. Die Seelen derjenigen Menschen, die ich meine, haben gerade in dieser Zeit manches durchgemacht. Und alles, was sie da durchgemacht haben, woben sie hinein in jene mächtigen kosmischen Imaginationen, die in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts von einer größeren Anzahl von Seelen gemeinschaftlich gewoben wurden.
Alles das, was da an kosmischen Imaginationen gewoben wurde, das ist durchspielt auf der einen Seite von etwas, das ich nicht anders beschreiben kann denn als eine Art von sehnendem, erwartungsvollem Gefühle. All dieses Ausarbeiten von mächtigen kosmischen Imaginationen wird erlebt von diesen Seelen so, daß sie ein verdichtetes, aber aus mannigfaltigen Einzelheiten heraus verdichtetes Gefühl in ihren Seelen, in ihren entkörperten Seelen haben; es ist das Gefühl, das ich etwa in der folgenden Art beschreiben kann: Wir haben unten im letzten Erdendasein die Hinneigung zu dem Christus erlebt. Wir haben tief die Geheimnisse empfunden, welche die Tradition aufbewahrt hatte für die Christen, an das heilig-ernste Geschehen, das sich in Palästina im Beginne der christlichen Zeitrechnung abgespielt hat. Aber hat Er denn in aller seiner Glorie, in all seinem Glanze vor unserer Seele gestanden, dieser Christus? Diese Frage ging aus den Gemütern hervor. Sie sagten: Haben wir es nicht nur nach unserem Tode vernommen, wie der Christus aus kosmischen Höhen als Sonnenwesen auf die Erde heruntergestiegen ist? Haben wir ihn als Sonnenwesen erlebt? Hier ist er nicht mehr: Er ist mit der Erde vereint; hier gibt es nur etwas wie eine weltenkosmische Erinnerung an ihn. Wir müssen wieder zu der Erde den Weg finden, um den Christus vor unserer Seele zu haben. Christus-Sehnsucht begleitete diese Seelen — aus dem Weben von großen, majestätischen, kosmischen Imaginationen, die mit den Geistern der oberen Hierarchien gewoben wurden; diese Sehnsucht begleitete diese Seelen aus dem vorirdischen Dasein in das irdische herein.
Das ist etwas, was mit einer hinreißenden Intensität erlebt werden kann für den geistigen Blick, der das Geschehen in der verkörperten und nichtverkörperten Menschheit beobachtete im Laufe des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Und da mischte sich eben das Mannigfaltigste in diese Eindrücke hinein. Denn gerade dadurch, daß die Seelen, die jetzt wiedererscheinen, mitgemacht haben in ihrer Christus-Empfindung all das, was sich abgespielt hat zwischen denen, die nach dem Christentum strebten, und denen, die noch drinnenstanden in den Vorstellungen des alten Heidentums, wie es ja zumeist der Fall war in den Jahrhunderten, auf die ich hingedeutet habe, gerade dadurch liegt für diese Seelen ja wirklich vieles von dem vor, was in der Seele die Möglichkeit herbeiführt, auf der einen Seite den Versuchungen Luzifers, auf der anderen Seite den Versuchungen Ahrimans zu verfallen. Und im Karma weben Ahriman und Luzifer geradeso wie die guten Götter. Das haben wir ja schon gesehen.
Nun, was alles einverwoben ist in dasjenige, was heute in seiner karmischen Auswirkung sich abspielt, das muß im einzelnen verfolgt werden, um wirklich die geistigen Untergründe des anthroposophischen Strebens zu verfolgen. Und es ist, wenn die Weihnachtstagung ernst genommen wird, auch durchaus der Zeitpunkt da, wo von gewissen Dingen der Schleier sozusagen hinweggezogen werden darf. Nur müssen die Dinge mit dem nötigen Ernste aufgefaßt werden.
Beginnen wir einmal, wie gesagt, mit einem radikalen Fall. Lassen wir das, was eben gesagt worden ist, in der heutigen Stunde im Hintergrunde walten, indem wir das Folgende besprechen.
Wir sehen, wie sich aus dem vorirdischen Dasein in das irdische Dasein herein durch ihre Erziehung hindurch, durch das, was sie auf der Erde erleben, Menschenseelen finden, die den Weg in die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft herein suchen, die auch eine Weile in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft sind. Unter ihnen kann sich der Fall ereignen, daß, gerade nachdem eine solche Seele eine Zeitlang sich als ein eifriges, vielfach sogar übereifriges Mitglied der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft zeigt, sie dann später zum allerheftigsten Gegner wird. Sehen wir uns an einem solchen extremen Fall das Karma einmal an.
Nehmen wir einmal diesen extremen Fall: Jemand tritt herein in die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft, er erweist sich als ein eifriges Mitglied; nach einiger Zeit bringt er es zustande, nicht nur Gegner zu werden, sondern vielleicht beschimpfender Gegner - im Grunde genommen ein sehr, sehr merkwürdiges Karma.
Betrachten wir einen einzelnen Fall. Da ist eine Seele. Wir schauen zurück in ein voriges Erdendasein. Wir schauen dabei zurück in die Zeit, wo alte Erinnerungen aus der Heidenzeit her, berückend für die Leute, dagewesen sind, und wo die Leute sich hineingefunden haben in das, was ja in jener Zeit sich, ich möchte sagen, mit Wärme als Christentum ausgebreitet hat, was aber von vielen Menschen doch auch mit einer gewissen Oberflächlichkeit aufgenommen wurde.
Wenn solche Dinge besprochen werden, muß man sich ja immer klar sein, daß man sozusagen irgendwo anfangen muß bei einem Erdenleben. Jedes Erdenleben führt ja wiederum auf frühere zurück, so daß natürlich ungeklärte Reste da sind, auf die man als bloße Tatsachen hinweisen kann. Sie sind ja wieder die karmischen Folgen von früheren; aber man muß doch irgendwie anfangen.
Nun kann man eine solche Seele schauen, wie sie gefunden wird gerade in jener Zeit - und zwar gefunden wird auf eine Art, die mir und anderen hier in der Gesellschaft recht nahegegangen ist -, gefunden wird in jener Zeit, auf die ich hingedeutet habe, als eine Art verfehlter Goldmacher, im Besitze von Schriften, Manuskripten, die sie kaum verstehen konnte, die sie in ihrer Art ausdeutete, und dann experimentierte sie nach den Vorschriften, ohne eigentlich eine Ahnung zu haben von dem, was sie da machte. Denn in die geistig-chemischen Zusammenhänge hineinzuschauen, ist ja keine einfache Sache. Und so sehen wir einen solchen Experimentator mit einer kleinen Bibliothek der mannigfaltigsten Vorschriften, die weit hineinführen bis in arabisch-maurische Zusammenhänge, und sehen, wie an fast abgelegener Stätte, aber einer Stätte, die besucht wird von vielen Neugierigen, dieser Mensch seine Tätigkeit entfaltet. Er kommt dazu, sich ein eigentümliches Leiden heranzuzüchten unter dem Einflusse dieser unverstandenen, verständnislos geübten Tätigkeit, ein Leiden, das namentlich seinen Kehlkopf ergreift - es ist eine männliche Inkarnation -, so daß die Stimme allmählich umflort und immer umflorter wird und zuletzt kaum mehr da ist.
Nun sind die christlichen Lehren verbreitet, sie ergreifen ja die Menschen überall. Da ist auf der einen Seite die Gier in diesem Menschen, das Goldmachen zu erreichen, und mit dem Goldmachen manches andere, was man hätte erreichen können, wenn es in der damaligen Zeit gelungen wäre; auf der anderen Seite das Herandringen des Christentums an ihn in einer Weise, die eigentlich voll von Vorwürfen ist. Etwas von einer, ich möchte sagen, nicht ganz gereinigten Faustischen Stimmung entwickelt sich. Stark wird das Gefühl: Hast du nicht doch furchtbar Unrecht getan? Und nach und nach bildet sich nun dennoch unter dem Einflusse solcher Gedanken die skeptisch in der Seele lebende Anschauung heraus: Daß du deine Stimme verloren hast, das ist die göttliche Strafe, die gerechte Strafe dafür, daß du dich an unrichtiges Zeug herangemacht hast.
In dieser Seelenlage suchte der Betreffende den Rat von Menschen auf, die jetzt auch mit der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft sich verbunden haben, die dazumal in sein Schicksal so eingreifen konnten, daß sie gewissermaßen seine Seele retteten aus diesen tiefen Zweifeln heraus. Man kann schon sprechen von einer Art Rettung der Seele. Aber das alles vollzog sich unter solchen Nebenereignissen, daß der Betreffende doch in einem starken, nur äußerlich bleibenden Fühlen dieses durchlebte. Auf der einen Seite wurde er überwältigt von einer Art Dankgefühl gegenüber denjenigen, die ihn seelisch errettet hatten; auf der anderen Seite mischte sich gerade in diese Unklarheit ein furchtbar ahrimanischer Impuls hinein durch dasjenige, was hier eingetreten war: nach einer starken, nach dem Unrecht-Magischen hin gehenden Neigung ein nicht ganz echtes Sich-Erfühlen in der christlichen Gerechtigkeit; in das alles mischte sich ein ahrimanischer Zug hinein. Weil es Unklarheit über die Seele verbreitete, so kam der Betreffende dazu, in seinen Dank einen ahrimanischen Zug hineinzubringen, und der Dank wurde umgewandelt in etwas, was in der Seele einen unwürdigen Ausdruck fand und dem Betreffenden wieder vor die Seele trat, als er in dem Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt namentlich an derjenigen Stelle angekommen war, die ich bezeichnet habe als die erste Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. So daß er da durchlebte, was die Seele dazumal an äußerem, veräußerlichtem, ich möchte sagen, kriechendem Dank entwickelte, daß er dieses in der ganzen Menschenunwürdigkeit wieder da durchlebte.
Und so sehen wir gerade dieses Bild des ahrimanisierten Dankes hineingemischt in die kosmischen Imaginationen, von denen ich gesprochen habe. Und wir sehen, wie diese Seele hinuntersteigt aus dem vorirdischen Dasein in das irdische Dasein, auf der einen Seite mit all denjenigen Impulsen, die ihr gekommen sind aus ihrer Zeit des alten Goldmachen-Wollens, der Vermaterialisierung des geistigen Strebens, während auf der anderen Seite sich unter ahrimanischem Einfluß etwas entwickelt, was deutlich wahrzunehmen ist als Schamgefühl über den unrechtmäßig veräußerlichten Dank. Diese zwei Strömungen leben in der Seele beim Heruntersteigen, und diese zwei Strömungen drücken sich dadurch aus, daß die betreffende Persönlichkeit, als sie wieder Persönlichkeit geworden ist im irdischen Leben, den Weg sucht zu denjenigen hin, die da waren, wo auch diese Seele war in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts.
Nun entsteht zunächst etwas wie eine Erinnerung an das, was durchlebt worden ist in der Bildgestaltung des unrechtmäßigen, des veräußerlichten Dankes — das alles spielt sich, ich möchte sagen, wie automatisch ab —, und es erwacht dann dasjenige, was da drinnen lebt, was ich geschildert habe als Schamgefühl über die eigene Menschenunwürdigkeit. Das ergreift diese Seele. Da dies aber ahrimanisiert ist — auch aus dem Karma früherer Zeiten heraus selbstverständlich —, gießt es etwas aus wie einen furchtbaren Haß auf all dasjenige, dem man sich zunächst zugewendet hat.’ Und das gewendete Schamgefühl verwandelt sich, transformiert sich in eine wütende Gegnerschaft, gleichzeitig vereinigt mit der ungeheuren Enttäuschung darüber, daß das Unbewußte so wenig seine Befriedigung gefunden hat. Es hätte diese Befriedigung gefunden, wenn irgend etwas Ähnliches eingetreten wäre, wie es in der unrechtmäßigen Goldmacherkunst lag.
Sehen Sie, meine lieben Freunde, da haben wir ein Beispiel, wie sich nun in einem radikalen Falle die Dinge innerlich wenden; wie wir die merkwürdigen, mysteriösen Wege von so etwas wie dem Zusammenhang von Schamgefühl und Haß in einem früheren Dasein aufsuchen müssen, wenn wir aus den Vorbedingungen heraus ein gegenwärtiges Leben verstehen wollen.
Sehen Sie, wenn man solche Dinge so betrachtet, dann gießt sich allerdings etwas von Verständnis über all dasjenige aus, was in der Welt durch Menschen vorgeht, und dann beginnen große Schwierigkeiten des Lebens, wenn man es mit dem Karmagedanken ernst nimmt. Aber diese Schwierigkeiten sollen kommen, denn sie sind im ganzen Wesen des Menschenlebens begründet. Und eine solche Bewegung wie die anthroposophische muß eben vielem ausgesetzt sein, weil sie nur dadurch jene starke Kraft entwickeln kann, welche ihr notwendig ist.
Ich habe dieses Beispiel zuerst angeführt aus dem Grunde, damit Sie sehen, daß auch sozusagen das Negative wird gesucht werden müssen im karmischen Zusammenhange mit dem ganzen Schicksale, das die anthroposophische Bewegung erstehen läßt aus den vorangegangenen Inkarnationen der in ihrer Gesellschaft Vereinigten, und demjenigen, was jetzt geschieht.
So, meine lieben Freunde, kann gehofft werden, daß ein ganz neues Verständnis nach und nach erwacht für das Wesen der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft, daß sozusagen die Seele der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft mit all ihren verschiedenen Schwierigkeiten erforscht werden kann. Denn auch da muß man nicht bloß beim einzelnen Menschenleben bleiben, sondern zurückgehen auf dasjenige, was sich eigentlich, man kann da nicht sagen, wieder verkörpert, aber wieder erlebt. Und damit wollte ich heute beginnen.
Third Lecture
We have seen how the contemplation of karma, in which human destiny is enclosed, leads from the widest conditions of the universe, from the starry worlds, right into the most intimate experiences of the human heart, inasmuch as this heart is an expression of everything that man feels working on him in life, what happens to him in the context of earthly existence. Again and again, if we want to come to a judgment from a deeper understanding of the karmic connections, we are asked to look at these two areas of world existence, which are so far apart from each other. One must actually say: Whatever else one looks at, be it nature, be it the more natural configuration of human development in history or the life of nations, none of it leads as high up into cosmic realms as the karmic view. This view of karma draws our attention to the connections between human life here on earth and what is happening in the wider world. We see this human life on earth, when it reaches its limit in certain contexts, unfolding until about the age of seventy. What is beyond that is actually a graciously given life. What is below that is subject to karmic influences; we will still have to consider these.
But one can - we have already touched on this several times from different points of view in the most diverse considerations - reckon a human life on earth to be about seventy-two years. Seen against the background of the mysteries of the cosmos, seventy-two years is a strange number, the significance of which only really becomes clear to us when we consider, I would say, the cosmic mystery of human life on earth. We have already described what the starry world actually is from a spiritual point of view. When we enter a new life on earth, we return, so to speak, from the starry world to this earthly life. And it is striking how old views, even if they are not traditionally linked to them, simply reappear as soon as we approach the relevant area with the help of modern spiritual research. We have seen how the various planetary stars, how the fixed stars participate in human life, in what permeates and pervades human life here on earth. At the end of the day, if we have a fully lived earthly life before us that does not get stuck too much in the lower limits, that lives through at least half of earthly time, we can say that man, by descending from spiritual-cosmic expanses to an earthly existence, always comes from a certain star. One can follow this direction, and it is not unobjective, but on the contrary quite exact, when we speak of man once having “his star”. A certain star, a fixed star, is the spiritual home of man.
If one translates that which is experienced outside of space and time between death and a new birth into its spatial imagery, then one must come to say to oneself: Every human being has his star, which is decisive for what he works out between death and a new birth, and he comes from the direction of a certain star. - So that we can already take the idea into our minds: If we look at the entire human race that inhabits the earth, then if we look around here on earth and go through the continents, we find these continents populated by the people who are currently incarnated. The other people - where do we find them in the universe? Where do we have to look in the universe if we want to turn our soul's gaze towards them after they have spent a certain amount of time there after passing through the gate of death? We look in the right directions when we look up to the starry sky. These are the souls - at least these are the directions that allow us to find the souls - that are between death and a new birth. We survey the entire human race that populates the earth when we look up and down.
Only those who are on the way there or on the way there are to be found in the planetary region. But we cannot speak of the midnight hour of existence between death and a new birth without thinking of a star which man then inhabits, so to speak, between death and a new birth, but taking into account what I have said about star beings. If one approaches the cosmos with such knowledge, my dear friends: out there are the stars, signs of the world, from which the soul life of those who are between death and a new birth shimmers and shines towards us - then we become aware that we can also look at the constellation of the stars, asking ourselves: How is all that we see in the realms of the world connected with human life? - We then learn to look up differently, comfortably, at the shining silver moon, at the dazzling sun, at the stars twinkling at night; for we also feel humanly united with all this. And this is something that anthroposophy is meant to achieve for human souls: that these human souls also feel humanly united with the whole cosmos. But only then do certain secrets of world existence become clear to us.
My dear friends, the sun rises and sets, the stars rise and set. We can follow how the sun, let's say, sets in the area where certain groups of stars are. We can follow the apparent course, as we say today, that the stars take in their orbit around the earth; we can follow the course of the sun. Today we say that in the course of twenty-four hours the sun orbits the earth - apparently everything, of course - and that the stars orbit the earth. So we say, but that is not quite right. If we again and again attentively observe the course of the stars and the course of the sun, we come to realize that the sun does not always rise at the same time in relation to the stars, but always a little later; every day a little later it comes to the place where it was the day before in relation to the stars. And then these stretches of time, by which the sun always lags behind the course of the stars, add up, become an hour, become two hours, become three hours and finally become a day. And the time approaches when we can say: the sun has lagged behind the star by one day.
And now let us assume that someone was born for my sake on the first of March of some year and lived until the end of his seventy-second year. He always celebrates his birthday on the first of March because the sun says that this birthday is on the first of March. He can also celebrate it in this way, because the sun shines through the seventy-two years, even if it moves further in relation to the stars, but always in the neighborhood of the star that shone when man arrived on earth.
But when man has lived seventy-two years then a full day has expired and he arrives in his age at a place where the sun has left the star into which it just entered when he started his life. And he arrives at his birthday beyond the first of March: the star no longer says the same thing that the sun says. The stars say it is the second of March, the sun says it is the first of March: man has lost a world-day, for it is just seventy-two years that the sun lags behind the star by one day.
.And during this time, while the sun can stay within the range of his star, man can live on earth. Then, under normal conditions, when the sun no longer reassures his star about his earthly existence, when the sun no longer says to his star: he is below, and I give you what this man has to give you, from me, while I now do with him for the time being, covering you, what you would otherwise do with him between death and a new birth, when the sun can no longer say this to the star, the star demands man back again.
And there you have the processes in the heavens as directly connected with human existence on earth: we see the age of man expressed in the mysteries of the heavens. Man can live for seventy-two years because the sun lags behind by one day during this time. So it can no longer calm a star that it has previously calmed by placing itself in front of it, so that it has become free again for the spiritual-soul work of man in the cosmos.
These things cannot really be understood in any other way than when they are understood with reverence, with that reverence which the ancient Mysteries called the reverence for the Superior. For this reverence for the Superior guides us again and again to see that which happens here on earth in connection with that which takes place in the mighty majestic starry script. And it is actually quite a limited life that people lead today, for example, compared to the life that was still led at the beginning of the third post-Atlantean period, where people everywhere reckoned not according to what merely recorded their steps on earth, but according to what the stars of the universe say about human life.
You see, once you are attentive to such connections and are able to take in such connections with reverence in your soul, then you will also be able to say to yourself: Whatever happens here on earth has its correlate, its counterpart in the spiritual worlds. And the star script expresses the connection between what is happening here and what - if we speak from the earthly point of view - took place quite some time before in the spiritual world. And actually, every karmic observation must be made in such timid reverence for the secrets of the world.
Now let us approach some of the karmic observations that are to be made here in the near future with such reverence. Let us take one thing first: A number of people are sitting here, a section of what is called the Anthroposophical Society. After all, whether one is united with stronger or weaker ties to this Anthroposophical Society, it is part of a person's destiny, for some it is a fundamental, intense destiny, to have found their way into the Anthroposophical Society. And it is part of the spiritualization that the Anthroposophical Society is to find since the Christmas Conference to become more and more conscious and aware of that which spiritually and cosmically underlies such a community as the Anthroposophical Society. Then the individual can also stand within this society out of this awareness.
Therefore it is understandable that with those responsibilities that arise from the Christmas meeting, we now also begin to speak about the karma of the Anthroposophical Society, about this quite complicated karma; for it is a general karma that arises from the karmic confluence of many individual people. And if you take everything that has been said in the course of these karma lectures in its true sense and in its deep meaning, and what also emerges from other contexts that have been considered here, then you will come to the conclusion, my dear friends, that what is taking place here, that what is taking place here, in that a number of people are being led into the Anthroposophical Society through their karma, has its precedent, as I will call it, in an event that took place with these people before they entered earthly existence, and which is again the after-effect of events that took place in previous earthly lives.
If you now just let your thoughts wander over everything that is stimulated by such an idea, then you will say: This thought can gradually be deepened so that the history appears spiritually, which stands behind the Anthroposophical Society. But this cannot happen in a flash, it can only come to consciousness slowly and gradually, so that it comes to consciousness in such a way that the activity of the Anthroposophical Society is also built on the foundations that are certainly present for the Anthroposophists.
And now, you see, first of all it is anthroposophy that holds the Society together, anthroposophy as such. And anthroposophy must be sought in some way by those who find themselves in society. This has its antecedents in what has been experienced - we will only follow it up to that point for the time being - before the souls who become anthroposophists descend into earthly existence.
But when the eye then looks at the world with a certain insight into what has actually taken place, then the following must be said today: There are many people in the world today who can be found here or there and of whom, if one considers their connection with their pre-earthly existence, one must actually say: they were destined for the Anthroposophical Society through this pre-earthly existence and cannot find their way into it through certain events. - There are many more such people than one might think. This, however, raises the question for us: What is the predestination, what is the predestination that leads a soul to anthroposophy?
You see, I would like to start with extreme cases that can teach us how karma plays a role in such matters. In the Anthroposophical Society the question of karma really does arise, one might say, in a more intensive way for the individual than in any other field. I would just like to point out the following: Suppose that the souls who are presently incarnated in a human body do not, for the most part, lead back so far, one could say not so far at all, that they can first of all have experienced something in past lives on earth that leads them - let us take a radical example - to eurythmy within the anthroposophical movement; for this eurythmy did not exist in those times in which the souls were incarnated who today seek eurythmy.
There arises the burning question: How does a soul come to take the path towards eurythmy out of karmic backgrounds? But it is the same with all the individual areas of life as a whole: souls are found today who seek the path to what anthroposophy gives. How do they come to unfold that which is the precondition of their karma in previous lives on earth, precisely in the direction of anthroposophy?
First of all there are those souls who are driven towards anthroposophy with a certain inner intensity. This intensity is not the same for everyone, but there are souls who are driven towards anthroposophy with such a strong inner intensity that it seems as if they are heading straight towards anthroposophy without any side paths and flow into some area of anthroposophical life.
There are a number of souls who come to such a world-cosmic direction in their souls because they have felt with particular strength, in the centuries that have passed since they lived their previous life on earth, that Christianity had reached a certain turning point. They lived in an age where Christianity had led to a more or less instinctive human feeling, where Christianity was practiced as a matter of course, but with an instinctive matter of course, where the souls did not actually raise the question: Why am I a Christian? - And when we turn our gaze back to the 13th, 12th, 11th, 10th, 9th, 8th century of post-Christian development, we come in particular to those souls who were christed, who grew into the age of consciousness, but who fully absorbed Christianity into the pure soul of the mind even before the age of consciousness, but for whom that which the soul of consciousness is supposed to bring already shone forth in relation to more worldly matters.
What there, I would like to say, lived unconsciously, so that it went into the workings of the organism, so to speak, bypassing the head, what there lived in many respects as a pious Christianity, but a Christianity that did not come to clarity about itself, that made the demand on these people - because what is unconscious in one earth life becomes one degree more conscious in the next earth life - to raise the question: Why are we Christians?
But that led to it - I speak today by way of introduction first suggesting the things, they are to be further developed - that such souls now also had a connection in the life between death and a new birth preferably in the first half of the 19th century in the spiritual world, And there were soul unions in the first half of the 19th century in the spiritual world, which drew the consequences of Christianity, which they experienced here on earth, in the splendor and in the comprehensive shine, in the comprehensive revelation of the spiritual world. Especially in the first half of the 19th century, there were souls in the life between death and a new birth who urged to translate into cosmic imaginations what they had felt in a previous Christian life. And precisely what I once described here as a cult took place in the supernatural. And a large number of souls were gathered in these cosmic imaginations woven together, in these powerful images of a future existence that would then be sought in a different form during the next earthly existence.
But interwoven into this was everything that took place between the 7th and 13th, 14th century AD in the form of severe inner struggles, which were much more severe than one usually thinks. The souls of the people I am referring to went through a lot during this time. And they wove everything they went through into those powerful cosmic imaginations that were woven together by a large number of souls in the first half of the 19th century.
All of the cosmic imaginations that were woven there are played out on the one hand by something that I cannot describe in any other way than as a kind of longing, expectant feeling. All this working out of mighty cosmic imaginations is experienced by these souls in such a way that they have a feeling in their souls, in their disembodied souls, which is condensed, but condensed out of manifold details; it is the feeling which I can describe in something like the following way: In our last earthly existence we experienced the inclination towards Christ. We deeply felt the mysteries that tradition had preserved for Christians, the sacred and serious events that took place in Palestine at the beginning of the Christian era. But did He, this Christ, stand before our souls in all His glory, in all His splendor? This question arose from the minds. They said: "Did we not only hear after our death how the Christ descended to earth from cosmic heights as a solar being? Did we experience him as a solar being? He is no longer here: he is united with the earth; here there is only something like a world-cosmic memory of him. We must find our way back to the earth in order to have the Christ before our soul. Christ-longing accompanied these souls - from the weaving of great, majestic, cosmic imaginations woven with the spirits of the upper hierarchies; this longing accompanied these souls from the pre-earthly existence into the earthly one.
This is something that can be experienced with a ravishing intensity for the spiritual gaze that observed the events in embodied and non-embodied humanity in the course of the 19th and 20th century. And there the most diverse things were mixed into these impressions. For it is precisely because the souls who are now reappearing have participated in their perception of Christ in all that has taken place between those who strove for Christianity and those who were still caught up in the ideas of the old paganism, as was mostly the case in the centuries to which I have alluded, it is precisely because of this that much of what causes the possibility of falling prey to Lucifer's temptations on the one hand and Ahriman's temptations on the other is really present for these souls. And in karma, Ahriman and Lucifer weave just like the good gods. We have already seen that.
Now, all that is interwoven into that which is taking place today in its karmic effects must be pursued in detail in order to really trace the spiritual underpinnings of anthroposophical striving. And if the Christmas Conference is taken seriously, it is also the time when the veil can be lifted, so to speak, from certain things. But things must be taken with the necessary seriousness.
As I said, let's start with a radical case. Let us leave what has just been said in the background for today's lesson by discussing the following.
We see how human souls find their way from the pre-earthly existence into the earthly existence through their upbringing, through what they experience on earth, who seek the way into the Anthroposophical Society, who are also in the Anthroposophical Society for a while. Among them it can happen that, just after such a soul has for a time shown itself to be an eager, often even over-zealous member of the Anthroposophical Society, it then later becomes the most vehement opponent. Let us take a look at karma in such an extreme case.
Let us take this extreme case: someone enters the Anthroposophical Society, he proves to be an eager member; after some time he manages to become not only an opponent, but perhaps an insulting opponent - basically a very, very strange karma.
Let's look at a single case. There is a soul. We look back to a previous earthly existence. We are looking back to the time when old memories from pagan times were there, enchanting for people, and where people found their way into what, I would like to say, spread with warmth as Christianity at that time, but which was also received by many people with a certain superficiality.
When such things are discussed, one must always be aware that one has to start somewhere, so to speak, with an earthly life. Every life on earth leads back to earlier ones, so that of course there are unexplained remnants that can be pointed to as mere facts. They are again the karmic consequences of earlier ones; but one must begin somehow.
Now one can look at such a soul as it is found just in that time - and indeed is found in a way that was quite close to me and others here in society - is found in that time, to which I have pointed, as a kind of misguided gold-maker, in possession of writings, manuscripts, which it could hardly understand, which it interpreted in its way, and then it experimented according to the regulations, without actually having an idea of what it was doing. Because looking into the spiritual-chemical connections is not an easy thing to do. And so we see such an experimenter with a small library of the most diverse regulations, which lead far into Arab-Moorish contexts, and see how this person develops his activity in an almost remote place, but a place that is visited by many curious people. He comes to cultivate a peculiar suffering under the influence of this misunderstood, uncomprehendingly practiced activity, a suffering that takes hold of his larynx in particular - it is a male incarnation - so that the voice gradually becomes florid and ever more florid and finally is hardly there any more.
Now the Christian teachings are widespread, they take hold of people everywhere. On the one hand, there is the greed in this man to make gold, and with the making of gold many other things that could have been achieved if it had been possible at that time; on the other hand, there is the approach of Christianity to him in a way that is actually full of reproach. Something of a, I would say, not quite purified Faustian mood develops. The feeling becomes strong: haven't you done something terribly wrong? And yet, little by little, under the influence of such thoughts, the skeptical view that lives in the soul emerges: That you have lost your voice is divine punishment, the just punishment for having set out to do wrong things.
In this situation of the soul, the person concerned sought the advice of people who were now also connected with the Anthroposophical Society, who were then able to intervene in his fate in such a way that they rescued his soul from these deep doubts. One can already speak of a kind of salvation of the soul. But all this took place in the midst of such side events that the person concerned lived through it with a strong feeling that only remained on the outside. On the one hand, he was overwhelmed by a kind of feeling of gratitude towards those who had saved him spiritually; on the other hand, a terribly ahrimanic impulse mingled with this very obscurity through what had occurred here: after a strong inclination towards the unjust-magical, a not quite genuine feeling of Christian righteousness; an ahrimanic trait mingled with all this. Because it spread obscurity over the soul, the person concerned came to bring an ahrimanic trait into his thanksgiving, and the thanksgiving was transformed into something that found an unworthy expression in the soul and again came before the soul of the person concerned when he had arrived in the life between death and a new birth, especially at that point which I have described as the first half of the 19th century. So that he lived through what the soul then developed in external, externalized, I would like to say, creeping gratitude, that he lived through it again in all its human unworthiness.
And so we see this very image of ahrimanized gratitude mixed into the cosmic imaginations I have spoken of. And we see how this soul descends from the pre-earthly existence into the earthly existence, on the one hand with all those impulses that have come to it from its time of the old desire to make gold, the materialization of spiritual striving, while on the other hand something develops under ahrimanic influence that can be clearly perceived as a feeling of shame over the unjustly externalized gratitude. These two currents live in the soul as it descends, and these two currents express themselves in that the personality in question, when it has become a personality again in earthly life, seeks the path to those who were there, where this soul was in the first half of the 19th century.
Now something like a memory of what has been lived through in the image of the unlawful, the externalized gratitude - all this takes place, I would like to say, as if automatically - and then that which lives inside, which I have described as a feeling of shame about one's own human unworthiness, awakens. This seizes this soul. But since this is ahrimanized - also from the karma of earlier times, of course - it pours out something like a terrible hatred for all that to which one has first turned. And the turned feeling of shame transforms itself, transforms itself into an angry antagonism, at the same time united with the tremendous disappointment that the unconscious has found so little satisfaction. It would have found this satisfaction if anything similar to that which lay in the unlawful art of gold-making had occurred.
You see, my dear friends, here we have an example of how things turn inwardly in a radical case; how we must seek out the strange, mysterious ways of something like the connection between shame and hatred in a previous existence if we want to understand a present life from the preconditions.
You see, if you look at such things in this way, then something of understanding pours out over all that goes on in the world through people, and then great difficulties of life begin if you take the idea of karma seriously. But these difficulties are to come, for they are rooted in the whole nature of human life. And a movement such as the anthroposophical movement must be exposed to many things, because only in this way can it develop the strong power that is necessary for it.
I have given this example first for the reason that you may see that the negative, so to speak, will also have to be sought in the karmic connection with the whole destiny which the anthroposophical movement allows to arise from the previous incarnations of those united in its society, and that which is happening now.
So, my dear friends, it can be hoped that a completely new understanding of the nature of the Anthroposophical Society will gradually awaken, that the soul of the Anthroposophical Society with all its various difficulties can be explored, so to speak. For here too we must not remain merely with the individual human life, but go back to that which is actually, one cannot say re-embodied, but re-experienced. And that's where I wanted to start today.