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Karmic Relationships IV
GA 238

7 September 1924, Dornach

Lecture II

As I have said, theoretical explanations about karma and repeated earthly lives cannot but remain unliving and inadequate, until our thought in this direction really flows into our understanding of the life around us. We must contemplate life itself in the light of karma and repeated earthly lives. But such a contemplation requires the very greatest earnestness, for it may indeed be said that the temptation is very great for man to spin out all manner of ideas about karmic connections and repeated earthly lives. The temptation is great; the source of illusions in this sphere is exceedingly great. And indeed, real investigations in this sphere can be made only by one to whom the spiritual world has in a sense been opened through his own soul-development.

Hence it must also be said that in these matters especially the investigator must rely on those foundations of conviction in his audience which may follow from other things he has brought to light. Indeed we ought not to have any confidence in one who begins without more ado to speak about repeated earthly lives in detail. What is derived from such occult depths as these must be confirmed and supported by the fact that many other things have already been produced which give a real basis for confidence in the spiritual investigator.

Now I think I may say that in the twenty-three to twenty-four years during which we have cultivated Anthroposophy, enough occult material has been gathered to warrant the description at this present time even of these bold researches into karma and repeated earthly lives, for the benefit of those who may have gained true confidence through the other realms of spiritual life which have been unfolded before them in the course of time. True, many are present here to-day who have been in the society for a comparatively short time. But the evolution of the society would be made impossible if we always had to begin at the beginning for those who enter newly; and on the other hand, to our great joy and satisfaction, large numbers of our oldest Anthroposophical friends have come here at this busy time when so many lecture-courses are to be given. Many Anthroposophists are gathered here who have witnessed nearly the whole period of Anthroposophical development and as time goes on opportunities must be created in the Anthroposophical Society for those in the earlier stages of membership to be properly introduced to all that must now be cultivated for the further course of the society's development.

I had to make these preliminary remarks, because what I shall say to-day will be given more in the form of a simple communication, and much of it may well appear exceedingly bold. It will however form the starting-point for what will follow in the succeeding lectures.

A human life after all only appears in its true nature when we consider how it passes through repeated lives on earth. Serious and responsible research in this domain is however by no means easy, for the results we gain do in a certain way contradict our habitual ideas on the subject.

At first sight, when considering the life of a man on earth with all the contents of his destiny, most people will be struck by those events of destiny which are connected with his outer profession or inner calling, with his social position and the like. As to the essential content of his earthly life, a human being will naturally appear to us in the light of these characteristics, nor need they by any means be superficial, for they may signify much for his inner life of soul. Nevertheless, to look into those depths in which repeated lives on earth are seen, it is necessary to look aside from many of these obvious and outer things that stamp themselves upon the destiny of a human being in his earthly life.

In effect, we must not imagine that the outer or inner calling of a man has a very great significance for his karma that passes through repeated lives on earth. True, even if we take a comparatively external and typical calling, that of a civil servant for example, we can conceive how much it is connected, even outwardly, with his destiny. Nevertheless, for the deepest relationships of karma or destiny those things that we can describe in a man as proceeding from his external calling are sometimes of no significance at all. And so it is with inner callings too. How easily we are tempted, in the case of a musician, to think that at any rate in one former earthly life he was, if not a musician, an artist of some kind. But it is by no means always so. Nay, I must go farther—it is so only in the rarest cases. For when we investigate these things in reality, we find that the continued thread of karma or destiny goes far deeper into the inner being of man and is little connected with his outer profession or inner calling. It is far more concerned with the inner forces of soul and resistances of soul, with moral relationships which can, after all, reveal themselves in any and every calling whether it be an outer or an inner one.

For this very reason, the investigation of karma—of the thread of destiny—requires us to concentrate on circumstances in the life of a human being which may often appear outwardly trivial or of small importance. In this connection I must refer again and again to a fact that once occurred to me.

I had to investigate the karmic connections of a certain human being. He had many characteristics in this his present life. He had a certain task in life, he had indeed his profession. But to intuitive vision, from all that he did out of his profession, or that he did as a philanthropist and the like, no indication of his former earthly lives could be found. Not that these things were unconnected with his former lives on earth, but for spiritual vision they gave no clue. One could penetrate no farther when concentrating on these facts of his profession or of his philanthropic work. On the other hand, curiously enough, a quite unimportant peculiarity of his life gave a result. He frequently had to lecture. Every time before he began he quite habitually took out his pocket handkerchief and blew his nose! I often heard him lecture, and without exception whenever he began to speak (I do not mean when he began to speak in conversation, but whenever he had to speak continuously) he first took out his pocket-handkerchief and blew his nose. Now this gave a picture from which there radiated out the power to look into his former lives on earth.

I give this as a particularly grotesque example. It is not always so grotesque; but the point is, we must be able to enter into the whole human being if we wish to look in any valid way into his karma.

You see, from a deeper point of view, the special calling of a man is, after all, something that results from education and other circumstances. On the other hand, it is deeply connected with his inner spiritual configuration if every time before he begins to make a speech he simply cannot help taking out his pocket-handkerchief and blowing his nose! That is a thing far more intimately connected with the being of a man. Still, I admit, this is a radical and extreme example. It is not always quite like this. I wanted only to awaken in you the idea that for the investigation of karma, that which lies on the obvious surface of a man's life is as a rule of no use. We have to enter into certain intimate features of his life—I do not mean into things that one pries into unjustifiably—but into the finer qualities and characteristics that nevertheless appear quite openly.

Having said this by way of introduction, I will now relate a certain instance perfectly frankly and straightforwardly, and of course with all the reservations which are necessary in the case. I mean with the reservation that everyone is free to believe or disbelieve what I now say, though I must assure you that it is based on the deepest and most earnest spiritual-scientific research.

These things do not by any means come to one if one approaches them with the deliberate intention to investigate, like a modern scientist in his laboratory. In a certain way, researches on karma must themselves result from karma.

I had to mention this fact at the end of the new edition of my book Theosophy, for among the various strange requirements that have been made of me from time to time during my life, this too occurred not long ago.—It was suggested that I should submit myself to examination in some psychological laboratory, so that they might ascertain whether the things I have to say on spiritual science are well founded. It is of course just as absurd as if someone were to produce mathematical results and, instead of testing their accuracy, you were to challenge him to submit to an examination in a laboratory, to see whether or not he was a real mathematician. Absurdities of this kind go under the name of scholarship to-day and are taken seriously by learned people!

I said quite definitely at the close of the new edition of my Theosophy, that experiments in this spirit can of course give no result. And I also mentioned that all the paths of approach which lead to the discovery of a certain occult result must themselves be prepared in a spiritual, in a super-sensible way.

Now I once had occasion to meet an eminent doctor of our time, who was well known to me by reputation and especially by his literary career. I had a very high regard for him. You see, I am mentioning the karmic details which led to the investigation, the results of which I shall now describe. The investigation itself took a very long time and only reached its conclusion during the last few weeks. Only now has it reached a stage which enables me conscientiously to speak of it. I am mentioning all these details in order that you may see some at least of the inner connections, though of course not all of them.

Thus I made the acquaintance of this doctor, a man of our own day. When I met him I was in the company of another person whom I had known very well for a long time. This other person had always made, I will not say a deep, but a very thorough impression on me. He was exceedingly fond of the society of men who were interested in occultism in the widest possible range, though an occultism somewhat externally conceived. He was fond of relating the views of his many acquaintances on all kinds of occult matters, and especially on the occult connections of what the modern artist should strive for, as a lyric and epic poet, or as a dramatist. Around this person there was what I might call a kind of moral, ethical aura. I am applying the word ‘moral’ to all that is connected with the soul-qualities under the command of the will.

I was paying a visit to him, and in his company I found the other man first mentioned, whom I knew by reputation and respected very highly for his literary and medical career. Everything that took place during this visit made a deep impression on me and impelled me to receive the whole experience into the realm of spiritual research.

Then a very remarkable thing happened. By witnessing the two persons in the company of one another, and by the impression which my new acquaintance made on me—(I had known him for a long time as an eminent literary and medical man and had a great regard for him, but this was the first time that I saw him in the flesh)—by these impressions I gained certain perceptions. To begin with however, it enabled me, not to investigate in any way the connections in life and destiny of my new acquaintance. On the contrary, my seeing them together shed light as it were upon the other one, whom I had long known. And the result was this.—He had lived in ancient Egypt, not in his last, but in one of his former lives on earth. And (this is the peculiar thing) he had been mummified, embalmed as a mummy. Soon afterwards I discovered that the mummy was still in existence. Indeed a long time afterwards I saw the actual mummy. This, then, was the starting-point. But once the line of research had been kindled in connection with the person whom I had long known, it shed its light still farther, and eventually I was enabled to investigate the karmic connections of the other man, my new acquaintance, the doctor. And the following was the result.

As a general rule one is led from one earthly life of a human being to the preceding one. But in this case intuition led far back into ancient Egypt, to a kind of chieftain in ancient Egypt. It was a chieftain who in a certain sense, indeed in a very interesting way, possessed the ancient Egyptian Initiation, but had become somewhat decadent as an Initiate. In the further course of his life, he began to take his Initiation not very seriously, indeed he even treated it with a certain scorn. Now this man had a servant, who in his turn was extremely serious. This servant was of course not initiated; but both of them together were given the task of embalming mummies and procuring the substances for this purpose, which was no easy matter.

Now especially in the more ancient periods of Egypt, the process of embalming mummies was very complicated and demanded an intimate knowledge of the human being, of the human body. Nay more, of those who had to do the embalming—if they did it legitimately—deep knowledge of the human soul was required. The chieftain of whom I spoke had been initiated for this very work, but he gradually became, in a manner of speaking, frivolous in relation to this, his proper calling. So it came about that in the course of time he betrayed (so they would have put it in the language of the Mysteries) the knowledge he had received through his Initiation to his servant, and the latter gradually proved to be a man who understood the content of Initiation better than the Initiate himself. Thus the servant became the embalmer of mummies, and at length his master did not even trouble to supervise the work, though of course he still took advantage of the social position, etc., which this honourable task involved. But at length his character became such that he no longer enjoyed great respect, and he thus came into various conflicts of life. The servant, on the other hand, worked his way up by degrees to a very, very earnest conception of life, and was thus taken hold of, in a remarkably congenial way, by a kind of Initiation. It was no real Initiation, but it lived within him instinctively. Thus a large number of mummies were mummified under the supervision and co-operation of these two people.

Time went on. The two men passed through the gate of death and underwent the experiences of which I shall speak next time—the experiences in the super-sensible which are connected with the development of karma or destiny. And in the Roman epoch they both of them came back to earthly life. They came back at the very time when the dominion of the Roman Emperors was founded, in the time of Augustus—not exactly, but approximately, in the time of Augustus himself.

I said above that this is a matter of conscientious research, no less exact in its methods than any researches of physics or chemistry, and I should not speak of these things unless for some weeks past it had become possible for me to speak of them so definitely.

The chieftain, who had gradually become a really frivolous Initiate, and who, when he had passed through the gate of death, had felt this as an extraordinarily bitter trial of earthly life, experiencing it in all the bitterness of its effects—we find him again as Julia, the daughter of Augustus. She married Tiberius, the step-son of Augustus, and led a life which to herself seemed justified but was considered, in the Roman society of that time, so immoral that at length both she and Tiberius were banished.

The other man—the servant who had worked his way from the bottom upwards nearly to the grade of an Initiate—was born again at the same time, as the Roman historian Titus Livius, or Livy.

It is most interesting how Livy came to be an historian. In the ancient Egyptian times he had embalmed a large number of mummies. The souls who had lived in the bodies of these mummies—very many of them—were reincarnated as Romans. And certain ones among them were actually reincarnated as the seven Kings of Rome. For the Seven Kings were no mere legendary figures. Going back into the time when the chieftain and his servant had lived in Egypt, we come into a very old Egyptian epoch. Now through a certain law which applies especially to the reincarnation of souls whose bodies have been mummified, these souls were called back again to earth comparatively soon. And the karmic connection of the servant of the chieftain with the souls whose bodies he had embalmed was so intimate, that he had to write the history of the very same human being whom in a previous life he had embalmed, though naturally, he also included the history of many others whom he had not embalmed. Thus Titus Livius became an historian. Now I would like some, indeed as many of you as possible, to take Livy's Roman History, and, with the knowledge that results from these karmic connections, to receive a real impression of his style. You will see that his peculiar penetration into the human being and his tendency at the same time towards the style of the myth, is akin to that intimate knowledge of man which an embalmer could attain.

We do not perceive such connections until the corresponding researches have been made. But once this has been done, a great light is shed on many things. It is difficult to understand the origin of the peculiar style of Titus Livius, who as it were embalms the human beings whom he describes. For such is his style. Real light is thrown upon it when we point to these connections.

Thus we have the same two people again as Julia and Titus Livius. Then Julia and Livy passed once more through the gate of death. The one soul had had the experience of being an Initiate to a considerable degree, and having then distorted his Initiation by frivolous conduct. He had discovered all the bitterness of the after-effects of this in the life between death and a new birth. He had then undergone a peculiar destiny in his new life on earth as Julia, of which life you may read in history. The result was, that in his next life between death and a new birth (following on the life as Julia) he conceived a strong antipathy to this his incarnation as Julia. And in a curious way this antipathy of his was universalised. For spiritual intuition shows this individuality in his life between death and a new birth as though perpetually crying out: “Would that I had never become a woman! It was the evil that I did in yonder life in ancient Egypt which led me thus to become a woman.”

We can now trace the life of these two individualities still farther. We come into the Middle Ages. We find Livy again as the glad poet and minstrel in the very centre of the Middle Ages. We are astonished to find him thus, for there is no connection between the external callings. But the greatest possible surprises that a human being can possibly have are those that result from a real study of successive lives on earth. The Roman historian, with his style that proceeded from a knowledge of man acquired in embalming mummies, with his style so wonderfully light—we find him again as the poet Walther von der Vogelweide. His style is carried upwards, as it were, upon the wings of lyric poetry.

Walther von der Vogelweide lived in the Tyrol. He had many patrons; and among his many patrons there was one very peculiar man, who was on familiar terms with alchemists of every kind, for there were scores of alchemists at that time, in the Tyrol. This man was himself the owner of a castle, but he frequented all manner of alchemists' dens and hovels. In so doing he learned extraordinarily much, and (as happened in the case of Paracelsus too) by spending his time in the dens of alchemists he was impelled to study all occult matters very intensely, and gained an unusually intense feeling for occult things. He thus came into the position of rediscovering in the Tyrol what was then only known as a legend, namely, the Castle in the Mountain—the Castle in the Rocks—(which indeed no one would have recognised as such, for it consisted of rocks, it was hollowed out of the rocks)—I mean, the Castle of the Dwarf King Laurin. The daemonic nature in the district of the Castle of the Dwarf King Laurin made a profound impression on him. Thus there was a remarkable combination in this soul—Initiation which he had carried into frivolity, annoyance at having been a woman and having thus been drawn into the sphere of Roman immorality and, at the same time, Roman cant and hypocrisy about morals; and lastly, an intimate knowledge, though still only external, of all manner of alchemical matters, which knowledge he had extended to a clear feeling of the nature-daemons and of other spiritual agencies in nature.

These two men—though it is not recorded in the biography of Walther, nevertheless it is the case—Walther von der Vogelweide and this other man often came together, and Walther received many an influence and impulse from him.

Here we have an instance of what is really a kind of karmic law. We see the same people drawn together again and again, called to the earth again and again simultaneously, complementing one another, living in a kind of mutual contrast. It is interesting once more, to enter into the peculiar lyrical style of Walther. It is as though at last he had grown thoroughly sick of embalming dead mummies and had turned to an entirely different aspect of life. He will no longer have anything to do with dead things, but only with the fullness and joy of life. And yet again, there is a certain undercurrent of pessimism in his work. Feel the style of Walther von der Yogelweide, feel in his style the two preceding earthly lives: feel too, his restless life. It is extraordinarily reminiscent of that life which dawns upon one who spends much of his time with the dead, when many destinies are unburdened in the soul. For such indeed was the case with an embalmer of mummies.

Now we go on.—My further researches into this karmic chain led me at length into the same room where I had visited my old acquaintance, whom I had recognised as an Egyptian mummy. And now I perceived that this very mummy had been embalmed by the other man whom I now met in his room. The whole line of research led me back to this same room. In effect, I found the soul who had passed through the servant of the old Egyptian embalmer, through Titus Livius, through Walther von der Vogelweide—I found him again in the doctor of our time, in Ludwig Schleich.

Thus astonishingly do the connections in life appear. Who, with the ordinary consciousness alone, can understand an earthly life? It can only be understood when we know what is there in the foundations of a soul. Theoretically, many people know that deep in the foundations of the soul there are the layers of successive earthly lives. But it becomes real and concrete only when we behold it in a specific instance.

Then inner vision was directed out of this room once more. (For in the case of the other man, who had been mummified by this one, I was led to no more clues—at any rate to no important ones.) On the other hand I now perceived the further soul-pilgrimage of the old chieftain, of Julia, of the discoverer of Laurin's Castle. For he came back to earth as August Strindberg.

Now I would like you to take the whole life and literary work of August Strindberg and set it against the background which I have just described. See the peculiar misogyny of Strindberg, which is no true misogyny, but proceeds from quite different foundations. Look, too, at all the strange daemonic elements that occur in his works. See his peculiar attraction to all manner of alchemistic and occult arts and artifices. And at length, look at the adventurous life of August Strindberg. You will find how well it stands out against the background which I have described.

Then read the Memoirs of Ludwig Schleich, his relations to August Strindberg, and you will see how all this arises once more against the background of their former earthly lives. Indeed, from the Memoirs of Ludwig Schleich a very remarkable light may suddenly arise, a light truly astonishing. For the man in whose company I first met Ludwig Schleich—the man of whom I said that in his ancient Egyptian life he was mummified by Schleich—it is he of whom Schleich himself tells in his Memoirs that he led him to Strindberg. In a past life, Strindberg and Schleich had worked together upon the corpse. And the soul who dwelt in that body, led them together again.

Thus, all that we have to explain to begin with about repeated earthly lives and the karmic connections in general, becomes real and concrete. Only then do the facts that appear in earthly life become transparent. A single human life on earth is an entire mystery. What else can it be, until seen against the background of the former lives on earth?

My dear friends, when I explain such things as these I always have an accompanying feeling. If these things which it has become possible to set forth since the Christmas Foundation Meeting are to be regarded in a true sense they demand real earnestness in the listener. They demand an earnest spirit. They require us to stand with real earnestness in the Anthroposophical Movement. For they might easily lead to all manner of frivolities. But they are brought forward here because it is necessary for the Anthroposophical Society to-day to take its stand on a basis of real earnestness and to become conscious of its tasks in modern civilisation.

Having thus laid the foundation, I wish to speak in the next lecture about the karma of the Anthroposophical Society. And in the following lecture which I shall then announce, I shall pass on to describe what these studies of karma may become for the human being who wishes to understand his own life in its deeper meaning.

Zweiter Vortrag

[ 1 ] Vorgestern sprach ich davon, daß ja das theoretische Auseinandersetzen über Karma und wiederholte Erdenleben nur etwas Unlebendiges bleiben müsse, wenn man nicht die Betrachtung, die in dieser Richtung orientiert ist, auch wirklich in die praktische Lebensauffassung einführt, das heißt das Leben betrachtet in dem Sinne von Karma und wiederholten Erdenleben. Die Betrachtung, die hier gemeint ist, ist aber eine solche, die mit dem allergrößten Ernst angestellt werden muß. Denn man kann schon sagen: Die Versuchung der Menschen, über allerlei karmische Zusammenhänge, über allerlei Dinge, die mit den wiederholten Erdenleben zusammenhängen, sich Ideen zu bilden, diese Versuchung ist sehr groß, und die Quelle der Illusionen auf diesem Gebiete ist eine außerordentlich große. Und es kann ja auch eine Untersuchung nach diesen Richtungen erst wirklich angestellt werden, wenn die geistige Welt durch Seelenentwickelung in einem gewissen Sinne für den Untersuchenden aufgeschlossen ist.

[ 2 ] Dann allerdings werden aber auch von den Zuhörern gerade für solche Untersuchungen diejenigen Gründe der Überzeugung beansprucht, welche folgen können aus alledem, was sonst im Lauf der Betrachtungen eines solchen Untersuchens zutage tritt. Man sollte eigentlich nicht irgendwelches Vertrauen haben zu demjenigen, der ohne weiteres beginnt, über wiederholte Erdenleben zu sprechen, sondern es muß schon das, was aus solchen okkulten Tiefen herausgeholt wird, dadurch bekräftigt werden, daß manches andere zunächst vorliegt, was das Vertrauen begründet.

[ 3 ] Nun denke ich, daß im Laufe der dreiundzwanzig, vierundzwanzig Jahre, in denen Anthroposophie gepflegt worden ist, genügend okkultes Material zusammengetragen worden ist, so daß heute Ergebnisse auch dieser gewagten Forschung über Karma und wiederholte Erdenleben vor denjenigen Zuhörern entfaltet werden dürfen, die das Vertrauen durch die anderen Gebiete des Geisteslebens, die im Laufe der Zeit entrollt worden sind, gewonnen haben können. Allerdings sitzen hier gerade in dieser Zeit viele, welche verhältnismäßig kurze Zeit erst in der Gesellschaft sind. Allein es würde ja eine Unmöglichkeit für die Entwickelung der Gesellschaft bedeuten, wenn man sozusagen für die Neueintretenden beim Anfang beginnen würde; denn auf der anderen Seite haben wir ja die große Freude und Befriedigung, daß gerade während dieser vollbesetzten Kursuszeit auch eine große Anzahl der ältesten anthroposophischen Freunde hier erschienen sind, Anthroposophen, die fast die ganze anthroposophische Entwickelung miterlebt haben. Und es müssen ja im Laufe der Zeit die Gelegenheiten geschaffen werden, daß in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft diejenigen, die mehr im Anfänglichen ihrer Mitgliedschaft stehen, herangeführt werden können an das, was im Verlaufe der Entwickelung der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft eben gepflegt werden muß.

[ 4 ] Ich muß das aus dem Grunde voranschicken, weil ich gerade die Betrachtungen, die ich heute als Ausgangspunkt für manches, was in den nächsten Vorträgen folgen wird, mehr als Mitteilung hinstellen werde, weil manches darinnen ist, das wirklich recht gewagt erscheinen wird. Aber, meine lieben Freunde, es erscheint eben das menschliche Leben doch erst in seinem rechten Lichte, wenn man es seiner Wahrheit nach als durchgehend durch wiederholte Erdendaseine ins Auge faßt. Nur, das Forschen, das ernste, seiner Verantwortung sich bewußte Forschen auf diesem Gebiete ist durchaus nicht leicht. Denn Ergebnisse, die auf diesem Gebiete gewonnen werden, widersprechen eigentlich in einer gewissen Art den Vorstellungen, die man sich gewöhnlich macht.

[ 5 ] Es ist ja so, daß, wenn jemand ein menschliches Erdenleben mit seinen Schicksalsinhalten betrachtet, ihm diejenigen Schicksalsschläge auffallen, die er zunächst aufzufassen vermag, die zusammenhängen mit dem, was Beruf, äußerer oder innerer Beruf ist, die mit der sozialen Stellung zusammenhängen und dergleichen. Es erscheint leicht ein Mensch in bezug auf den Inhalt seines Erdenlebens mit Eigenschaften, die durchaus nicht äußerlich zu sein brauchen, die schon etwas für das Innerste seines Seelenwesens bedeuten können; aber in jenen Tiefen geschaut, in denen die wiederholten Erdenleben geschaut werden müssen, ist es doch notwendig, von vielem abzusehen, was äußerlich dem Schicksal eines Menschen in einem Erdenleben den Stempel aufdrückt.

[ 6 ] So darf man sich namentlich nicht vorstellen, daß für das durch die verschiedenen Erdenleben durchgehende Karma der äußere oder innere Beruf eine große Bedeutung habe. Man stelle sich nur vor, wie schon ein verhältnismäßig äußerlich charakterisierter Beruf — sagen wir der Beruf eines Beamten oder dergleichen — mit dem Schicksalsmäßigen des Menschen auch äußerlich zusammenhängt. Aber für die eigentlichen karmischen, für die eigentlichen Schicksalszusammenhänge braucht das, was man von diesem äußeren Beruf aus charakterisiert, gar keine Bedeutung zu haben. Ebenso ist es mit dem inneren Beruf. Wie leicht ist man versucht, bei einem Musiker daran zu denken, daß er wenigstens in einem früheren Erdenleben, wenn nicht wieder ein Musiker, so ein Künstler war. Es ist durchaus nicht immer, es ist sogar in den seltensten Fällen so, wenn man die Dinge wirklich erforscht. Denn das fortlaufende Karma, der fortlaufende Schicksalsfaden, der geht viel mehr in das menschliche Innere und kümmert sich wenig um äußere und innere Berufe, sondern viel mehr um die inneren Seelenkräfte und Seelenwiderstände, um die moralischen Zusammenhänge, die sich schließlich in jedem äußeren und inneren Berufe kundgeben können.

[ 7 ] Das aber macht es auch, daß die Erforschung des Karma, die Erforschung des Schicksalsfadens notwendig erscheinen läßt, auf Umstände im Leben eines Menschen hinzusehen, die zuweilen sogar nebensächlich erscheinen. Ich muß da immer wieder und wieder eine Tatsache erwähnen, die mir im Leben entgegengetreten ist.

[ 8 ] Ich sollte nachforschen über die karmischen Zusammenhänge eines Menschen, der mancherlei Eigentümlichkeiten im Leben gehabt hat, der seine Aufgabe im Leben, seinen Beruf eben gehabt hat. Aber es ergab sich dem intuitiven Blick aus all dem, was er aus seinem Beruf heraus ausführte, was er zum Beispiel als Menschenfreund und dergleichen ausführte, nicht ein Hinweis auf seine früheren Erdenleben. Nicht als ob das alles nicht zusammenhinge mit den früheren Erdenleben; aber für das Anschauen ergab sich eben nicht ein Hinweis. Man konnte nicht durchkommen aus dem Anschauen dieser aus dem Beruf oder aus der Menschenfreundlichkeit folgenden Tatsachen. Dagegen ergab sich kurioserweise bei dieser Persönlichkeit gerade aus einer nebensächlichen Eigentümlichkeit des Lebens etwas. Er hatte vorzutragen, und immer, bevor er anfing vorzutragen, mußte er ganz gewohnheitsmäßig das Taschentuch herausnehmen und sich die Nase putzen. Ich habe ihn oft vortragen gehört und nie etwas anderes erlebt, als daß, bevor er zu sprechen, zusammenhängend zu sprechen begann, er das Taschentuch herausnahm und sich die Nase putzte. Er tat es nicht in der Konversation, aber er tat es immer, wenn er genötigt war, in Zusammenhängen zu sprechen. Das ergab ein Bild, von dem aus nun ausstrahlte die Fähigkeit, in frühere Erdenleben zurückzuschauen.

[ 9 ] Ich führe das als ein besonders groteskes Beispiel an. Die Beispiele sind nicht immer so grotesk; aber man muß eben die Fähigkeit haben, auf das Ganze eines Menschen einzugehen, wenn man überhaupt in einer gültigen und geltenden Weise auf das Karma hinschauen will. Sehen Sie, zum Beispiel einen gewissen Beruf zu haben ist für einen tieferen Blick doch mehr oder weniger etwas, was aus der Erziehung und so weiter kommt. Dagegen hängt es schon mit der inneren geistigen Konfiguration des Menschen zusammen, wenn er gar nicht anders kann, als bevor er eine Rede beginnt, das Taschentuch herauszunehmen und sich die Nase zu putzen. Es ist das viel intimer an das Wesen des Menschen gebunden. Aber es ist das eben ein radikales, ein extremes Beispiel. Die Dinge sind nicht immer so. Aber ich möchte dadurch eben eine Vorstellung hervorrufen davon, daß einem in der Regel für die Karma-Untersuchung das, was an der Oberfläche des Lebens eines Menschen liegt, gar nichts nutzt, daß man auf gewisse Intimitäten sich einlassen muß, aber auf solche, in die man sich nicht erst hineindichtet auf unrechtmäßige Weise, sondern die offen im Leben daliegen.

[ 10 ] Nachdem ich diese Einleitung vorausgeschickt habe, möchte ich nun unverhohlen mit dem beginnen, was ich zu sagen habe, natürlich mit all den Reserven, die in einem solchen Falle immer da sein müssen, mit den Reserven nämlich, daß jeder das, was ich zu sagen habe, glaube oder auch nicht glaube, aber auch mit der Versicherung, daß der Sache, die ich auseinandersetzen werde, der allertiefste Ernst des geisteswissenschaftlichen Forschens zugrunde liegt.

[ 11 ] Solche Dinge treten auch nicht auf, wenn man mit der Absicht, so zu forschen, wie es ein heutiger Laboratoriumforscher tut, an die Forschung herantritt; sondern Forschungen über Karma müssen sich selber in einer gewissen Weise aus dem Karma ergeben. Ich habe das ja am Schlusse der Neuauflage meiner «Theosophie» erwähnen müssen, aus dem Grunde, weil ja unter den mancherlei merkwürdigen Zumutungen, die im Laufe des Lebens an mich gestellt worden sind, auch die ist, daß ich mich irgendwelchen psychologischen Laboratorien stellen soll, damit die Leute da erforschen können, ob die Dinge begründet sind, die ich über Geisteswissenschaft sage. Das ist natürlich ebenso lächerlich, als wenn irgend jemand mathematische Ergebnisse lieferte und man nicht diese mathematischen Ergebnisse nachprüfte, sondern ihn aufforderte, sich in einem Laboratorium untersuchen zu lassen, um dadurch darauf zu kommen, ob einer ein richtiger Mathematiker ist oder nicht. Aber dergleichen Lächerlichkeiten sind ja heute Gelehrsamkeit, werden ernsthaftig gefordert. Daß bei solchen Versuchen selbstverständlich nichts herauskommen kann, ich habe es ausdrücklich am Schlusse der Neuauflage meiner «Theosophie» erwähnt und habe auch erwähnt, daß alle Wege, die zu einer solchen Sache führen müssen — zu einer Erforschung eines konkreten okkulten Resultates —, selber auf geistig-übersinnliche Weise vorbereitet sein müssen.

[ 12 ] Es bot sich mir einmal Gelegenheit, einen modernen Arzt zu treffen, der mir seinem Renommee, seiner schriftstellerischen Laufbahn nach sehr gut bekannt war und der von mir sehr geschätzt wurde. Ich erwähne also hier in diesem Falle die karmischen Details, die zu der entsprechenden Forschung führten. Sie hat lange Zeit in Anspruch genommen und wurde erst in den letzten Wochen abgeschlossen, ist erst jetzt so, daß — wenn man ein gewissenhafter Mensch ist — man davon redet. Ich erwähne also alle Details, damit Sie eben mancherlei — natürlich nicht alles — von dem sehen, wie die Dinge zusammenhängen.

[ 13 ] Also einen solchen modernen Arzt lernte ich kennen, und zwar so, daß er, als ich ihn kennenlernte, zusammen war mit einer anderen Persönlichkeit. Diese andere Persönlichkeit kannte ich schon längere Zeit sehr genau; sie machte auf mich stets einen, ich möchte nicht sagen tiefen, aber gründlichen Eindruck. Einen gründlichen Eindruck aus dem Grunde, weil diese Persönlichkeit außerordentlich gern zusammen war mit Menschen, die sich im weitesten Umfange gerade mit einem etwas äußerlich aufgefaßten Okkultismus befaßten. Diese Persönlichkeit erzählte aber auch außerordentlich gern von dem, wie sich viele ihrer Bekannten eben äußern über allerlei Okkultes, namentlich auch über allerlei, was aus dem Okkulten heraus zusammenhängt mit dem, was etwa der heutige Künstler als Lyriker, als Epiker, Dramatiker anstreben soll. Und es umschwebte diese Persönlichkeit eine Art, ich möchte sagen, von moralischer Aura. Ich gebrauche das Wort «moralisch» für alles das, was mit den vom Willen beherrschten seelischen Eigenschaften zusammenhängt. In der Gegenwart dieser Persönlichkeit, welche ich eigentlich besuchte, fand ich nun den andern, den ich seiner Schriftstellerlaufbahn nach, seiner ärztlichen Tätigkeit nach kannte und sehr schätzte. Und was sich da abspielte während dieses Besuches, das hinterließ wirklich einen tiefen Eindruck, der dazu anregte, das Ganze in das Gebiet der geistigen Forschung aufzunehmen.

[ 14 ] Da ergab sich denn etwas sehr Merkwürdiges. Durch diejenige Anschauung, die ich durch das Zusammensein der zwei Persönlichkeiten gewinnen konnte, und auch durch den Eindruck, den diese andere Persönlichkeit auf mich machte, die ich lange aus ihrer Schriftstellerlaufbahn, aus ihrer ärztlichen Tätigkeit kannte, die ich schätzte und die ich hier zum erstenmal äußerlich sah, durch alles das erhielt ich die Kraft, zunächst zwar nicht diese Persönlichkeit, die ich neu kennenlernte, irgendwie ihren Lebens- und Schicksalszusammenhängen nach zu prüfen, aber sie strahlte gewissermaßen auf den andern, den ich schon lange kannte, Licht hinüber, und es ergab sich, daß der andere — nicht in seinem letzten, aber in einem früheren Erdenleben — im alten Ägypten gelebt hat und, was das Eigentümliche ist, im alten Ägypten mumifiziert worden ist, einbalsamiert worden ist als Mumie.

[ 15 ] Nun ergab sich sehr bald auch, daß diese Mumie noch existierte. Ich habe sie auch später irgendwo gesehen, aber viel später. Das war zunächst der Ausgangspunkt. Aber indem die Forschung entzündet war an dieser Persönlichkeit, die ich lange kannte, strahlte sie gewissermaßen weiter aus, diese Forschung, und es ergab sich die Möglichkeit, im Schicksalszusammenhange des Mannes der neuen Bekanntschaft nun zu forschen. Und da ergab sich dann das Folgende.

[ 16 ] Während man nun sonst sehr leicht von einem Erdenleben eines Menschen auf das letzte zurückgeführt wird, führte hier die Intuition zurück weit ins alte Ägypten und stellte klar vor das Seelenauge zwei Persönlichkeiten: eine Art Häuptling im alten Ägypten, welcher in einem gewissen sehr starken Sinne die alte ägyptische Initiation innehatte, aber etwas dekadent geworden war als Initiierter, der anfing, die Initiation im Laufe seines Lebens nicht mehr sehr ernst zu nehmen, sogar mit einem gewissen spottenden Benehmen diese Initiation zu behandeln. Der Häuptling hatte aber einen Diener, der außerordentlich seriös war. Der Diener war natürlich nicht initiiert; aber beiden wurde die Obliegenheit, Mumien zu balsamieren und dazu die Stoffe von ziemlich weit her zu besorgen.

[ 17 ] Nun war ja das Geschäft der Mumien-Einbalsamierung namentlich im älteren Ägypten ein außerordentlich kompliziertes und erforderte intime Kenntnisse der menschlichen Wesenheit, des menschlichen Leibes. Aber es wurden auch von denen, die rechtmäßig Mumien einbalsamieren sollten, tiefe Kenntnisse über die menschliche Seele gefordert. Der Häuptling, der zu diesem Geschäfte eigentlich initiiert worden war, lief nach und nach in eine Art Frivolität ein gegenüber seinem eigentlichen Berufe. So kam es, daß er diejenigen Dinge, die er durch eine Art Initiation empfangen hatte, nach und nach, man würde in der Mysteriensprache sagen: verriet an seinen Diener, der sich als ein Mensch entpuppte, der den Inhalt der Initiation allmählich besser verstand als der Initiierte. Und so wurde der betreffende Diener Mumien-Einbalsamierer, während der andere zuletzt nicht einmal mehr zuschaute, aber selbstverständlich alles, was damit zusammenhing in bezug auf Stellung und soziale Haltung, für sich in Anspruch nahm. Dieser andere wurde nach und nach auch so, daß er kein sehr großes Ansehen mehr genoß und dadurch in mancherlei Lebenskonflikte hineinkam. Der Diener aber, der sich eigentlich nach und nach zu einer sehr, sehr ernsten Lebensauffassung heraufarbeitete, wurde geradezu ergriffen, merkwürdig kongenial ergriffen von einer Art Initiation, die keine wirkliche war, die aber so instinktiv in ihm lebte. Und so wurde denn eine ganze Reihe von Mumien unter der Aufsicht und Mittat dieser beiden Leute eben einbalsamiert.

[ 18 ] Die Zeit verging. Die beiden Menschen gingen durch die Pforte des Todes, machten diejenigen Erlebnisse durch, von denen ich dann das nächste Mal sprechen möchte, die im Übersinnlichen mit der Entwickelung des Karma, des Schicksals zusammenhängen, und wurden dann beide wiederum ins Erdenleben versetzt in der Römerzeit, und zwar gerade um die Zeit, als die römische Kaiserherrschaft begründet worden ist: in der Zeit des Augustus; nicht genau, aber etwa im Zeitalter des Augustus.

[ 19 ] Wie gesagt, es ist gewissenhafte Forschung, die so exakt ist, wie nur irgendeine physikalische oder chemische Forschung sein kann. Ich würde von diesen Dingen nicht sprechen, wenn nicht eben seit Wochen die Möglichkeit gegeben wäre, über diese Dinge in so bestimmter Weise zu sprechen. Nun findet man den einen, den Häuptling — der nach und nach eigentlich ein frivoler Initiierter geworden ist, das aber, nachdem er durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen war, empfand als eine außerordentlich bittere Erdenprüfung mit allen Nachwirkungen einer solchen Empfindung einer bitteren Erdenprüfung —, man findet ihn wieder als Augustus’ Tochter Julia, die des Augustus Stiefsohn Tiberius heiratet und die ein Leben führt, das vor ihr selber natürlich gerechtfertigt erschien, das aber innerhalb der römischen Gesellschaft dazumal als ein so unmoralisches angesehen worden ist, daß sie verbannt worden ist. Der andere, der Diener, der sich hinaufgearbeitet hatte fast zum Initiierten, aber von unten auf, wird wiedergeboren in dieser Zeit als der römische Geschichtsschreiber Titus Livius.

[ 20 ] Nun ist aber das Interessante, wie Titus Livius zur Geschichtsschreibung kommt. Er hat eine ganze Anzahl Mumien einbalsamiert in alter ägyptischer Zeit. Die Seelen, die in den Körpern dieser Mumien waren, gerade diese Seelen waren vielfach als Römer, namentlich als die sieben römischen Könige inkarniert — denn die sieben römischen Könige hat es gegeben. Wir kommen, wenn wir in die Zeit gehen, wo die beiden, der Häuptling und sein Diener, inkarniert waren, in sehr alte ägyptische Zeit zurück. Und durch ein gewisses Gesetz, das gerade für die Wiederverkörperung von Seelen, deren Leiber mumifiziert sind, gilt, wurden verhältnismäßig bald diese Seelen wiederum zur Erde gerufen. Aber die karmische Verbindung des Dieners des Häuptlings, von dem ich gesprochen habe, mit diesen Seelen, deren Körper er einbalsamiert hat, ist eine so intime, daß er gerade von ihnen die Geschichte schreiben muß — natürlich muß er auch das andere dazunehmen, was er nicht einbalsamiert hat —, aber gerade die Geschichte derjenigen Menschen muß er schreiben, die er einbalsamiert hat. So wird Titus Livius zum Geschichtsschreiber.

[ 21 ] Nun möchte ich nur, daß möglichst viele von Ihnen die römische Geschichte des Titus Livius nehmen und den Stil des Titus Livius mit dem Wissen, das sich hier aus dem karmischen Zusammenhange heraus ergibt, auf sich wirken lassen. Sie werden sehen, daß das merkwürdig menschlich Eindringliche und zu gleicher Zeit nach dem Mythus Hinneigende im Stil des Titus Livius hindrängt nach jener Menschenkenntnis, die sich ein Einbalsamierer erwerben kann. Auf solchen Zusammenhang kommt man erst, wenn man solche Forschungen anstellt. Aber dann ergibt sich eben das, was plötzlich Licht über irgend etwas verbreitet. Man kann sich schwer den Ursprung des Stils des Titus Livius, diesen merkwürdigen Stil, mit dem Livius als Historiker die Menschen, die er beschreibt, einbalsamiert — denn so ist er zuletzt, dieser Stil —, man kann sich schwer den Ursprung dieses Stils denken. Es wird ein Licht geworfen auf diesen Stil, wenn man auf solche Zusammenhänge hinweist.

[ 22 ] Nun, sehen Sie, haben wir die beiden Persönlichkeiten wieder als Julia und Titus Livius. Als Julia und Titus Livius gehen sie nun wiederum durch die Pforte des Todes. Alles das, was die eine Seele erlebt hat: eigentlich ziemlich stark eine Art Initiierter zu sein, es aber in die Frivolität verzerrt zu haben, die Bitterkeit der Nachwirkung in dem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt erfahren zu haben, dann als Julia das eigentümliche Schicksal — lesen Sie es nach — erfahren zu haben, alles das ergab für das nächste Leben, das auf das Julia-Leben folgte zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, eine starke Antipathie gegen die Julia-Inkarnation, die sich in einer merkwürdigen Weise universalisierte. Man kann in der Intuition diese Individualität in dem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt finden, wie wenn sie fortwährend schrie: Ach, wäre ich niemals ein Weib geworden, denn zu diesem Weibsein hat mich geführt dasjenige, was ich dazumal im alten Ägypten vollbracht habe!

[ 23 ] Man kann nun diese Individualitäten verfolgen. Man kommt ins Mittelalter herein: Man findet Titus Livius wieder als sangesfrohen Dichter in der Mitte des Mittelalters. Man ist erstaunt, ihn so zu finden, denn die äußeren Berufe hängen gar nicht zusammen. Aber die größten Überraschungen, die einem Menschen werden können, sind eben diejenigen, die sich aus der Betrachtung aus einander hervorgehender Erdenleben ergeben. Man findet den römischen Geschichtsschreiber — mit dem aus der Kenntnis des menschlichen Wesens durch das Mumifizieren hervorgegangenen Stil — in der weiteren Ausbildung dieses Stiles, der eine große Leichtigkeit hatte und der jetzt wie hinaufgetragen wird in lyrischer Leichtigkeit, man findet den Titus Livius wieder als Walther von der Vogelweide.

[ 24 ] Walther von der Vogelweide, der sich aufhält in Tirol, manchen Gönner hat, hat nun auch unter diesen einen bestimmten Gönner, der ein ganz merkwürdiger Mensch ist. Ein Mensch, der mit allen möglichen Alchimisten, die es dazumal zu Dutzenden und aber Dutzenden in Tirol gab, auf du und du stand, der Schloßherr war, der sich aber überall — man würde sagen, wenn man in der modernen Schauspielkunstsprache sprechen würde, in allerhand alchimistischen Schmieren herumtrieb, dabei aber ungeheuer vieles erfuhr und lernte; der unter anderem gerade aus diesem heraus, wie es ja später bei Paracelsus auch in einer ähnlichen Art der Fall war, aus seinem Herumbummeln in alchimistischen Schmieren den Impuls bekam, alles Okkulte intensiv zu verfolgen. Ungeheuer intensiven okkulten Sinn bekam er, und dadurch kam er in die Lage, etwas in Tirol wiederzufinden, was eigentlich damals auch nur sagenhaft bekannt war, nämlich die Burg, die Bergburg, die Felsenburg, die von jemandem anderen gar nicht hätte erkannt werden können, weil sie eben nur noch in Felsen bestand — sie war aus Felsen gebildet, mit einer Höhlung hinein —, die Burg des Zwergkönigs Laurin. Und auf diese Persönlichkeit machte die Dämonennatur der Gegend der Burg des Zwergkönigs Laurin einen ungeheuer tiefen Eindruck. So daß in dieser Seele Merkwürdiges vereint ist: Initiation bis zur Frivolität getrieben, Groll darüber, Frau gewesen zu sein und dadurch in die römische Sittenlosigkeit und zugleich in die römische Heuchelei über Sitte hineingetrieben worden zu sein, und intime Kenntnis, aber äußere Kenntnis, von allerlei Alchimistischem; dabei aber wiederum diese erweitert zu einem freien Sinn über Naturdämonen und überhaupt über das Geistige in aller Natur. Und beide — wenn das auch nicht in der Biographie Walthers steht, so ist das doch der Fall — beide, Walther von der Vogelweide und dieser Mann, kamen damals recht oft zusammen. Walther von der Vogelweide hat manchen Impetus, manchen Einfluß von diesem Manne erfahren.

[ 25 ] Nun, sehen Sie, hier verfolgen wir zu gleicher Zeit — was ja sozusagen karmisches Gesetz ist —, wie die Persönlichkeiten immer wieder zueinander hingezogen werden, wie sie immer wieder und wiederum gleichzeitig, sich ergänzend, sich in Gegensätzen auslebend, auf die Erde hierher berufen werden. Und es ist ja wiederum interessant, eben zu sehen den eigentümlichen lyrischen Stil des Walther, der wirklich, ich möchte sagen, sich so ausnimmt, wie wenn ihm das Einbalsamieren nun gründlich verleidet wäre und er nach der ganz anderen Seite des Lebens, nach der Seite des Lebens, wo man es mit nichts Totem, sondern mit dem vollen fröhlichen Dasein zu tun hat — aber auch wiederum mit einem Stich sogar ins Pessimistische —, sich wendet. Fühlen Sie den Stil Walthers von der Vogelweide, und fühlen Sie die beiden vorhergehenden Erdenleben in diesem Stil drinnen. Fühlen Sie auch das unruhige Leben des Walther von der Vogelweide: Es erinnert ungeheuer an jenes Leben, das einem aufgeht, wenn man so lange mit den Toten zusammen ist und viele Schicksale sich in der Seele abladen, wie das bei einem Mumieneinbalsamierer der Fall war.

[ 26 ] Und nun im weiteren. Sehen Sie, die weitere Verfolgung dieser karmischen Kette führte mich wiederum in dasselbe Zimmer — aber jetzt nur intuitiv, im Geist —, in dem ich in der Anwesenheit eines alten Bekannten von mir, den ich aber auch als Mumie wußte — und jetzt wußte ich: als Mumie einbalsamiert von dem andern —, gewesen war, führte mich also die ganze Linie wiederum in dieses Zimmer. Und ich fand die Seele, die durch den alten ägyptischen dienenden Einbalsamierer, durch Titus Livius, durch Walther von der Vogelweide gegangen war, in dem modernen Arzt Ludwig Schleich wieder.

[ 27 ] So ergeben sich in überraschender Weise die Zusammenhänge im Leben. Wer begreift denn überhaupt mit dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein ein Erdenleben! Es ist ja nur zu begreifen, wenn man weiß, was auf dem Grunde einer Seele ist. Theoretisch wird es von vielen gewußt, daß da aufeinanderfolgende Erdenleben abgelagert sind auf dem Grunde der Seele. Aber real, konkret wird das ja erst, wenn man es eben auch wirklich im konkreten Fall beschaut.

[ 28 ] Der Blick wurde wieder herausgeführt aus diesem Zimmer, denn die andere Persönlichkeit, die da als eine von dem anderen Mumifizierte vorhanden war, ergab zunächst keine weiteren, wenigstens nicht sehr erheblich weiteren Spuren. Dagegen ergab sich jetzt auch der Seelenweg des alten Häuptlings, der Julia, des Entdeckers von Laurins Zauberschloß: das ist August Strindberg.

[ 29 ] Nun bitte ich Sie, das ganze Leben und die Dichtung August Strindbergs zu nehmen und sie auf dem Hintergrunde zu sehen, den ich eben geschildert habe. Schauen Sie sich den eigentümlichen Frauenhaß von Strindberg an, der eigentlich keiner ist, weil er aus allerlei anderen Untergründen hervorgeht. Schauen Sie sich alles das an, was dämonisch durch die Dichtungen Strindbergs geht. Schauen Sie sich die Vorliebe für alle möglichen alchimistischen und okkulten Künste und Künsteleien bei August Strindberg an — und schauen Sie sich schließlich das abenteuerliche Leben August Strindbergs an! Dann werden Sie schon finden, wie gut sich dieses Leben von dem geschilderten Hintergrunde abhebt.

[ 30 ] Und lesen Sie dann die Memoiren von Ludwig Schleich, seine Beziehungen zu August Strindberg, so werden Sie sehen, wie das wiederum sich auslebt auf dem Hintergrunde von den früheren Erdenleben! Aber es kann da aus den Memoiren von Ludwig Schleich ein Licht aufflackern, ein ganz merkwürdiges Licht, ich möchte sagen, ein bestürzendes Licht. Die Persönlichkeit, bei der ich Schleich getroffen habe, von der ich so gesprochen habe, daß sie ja von Schleich selber im alten Ägypterleben mumifiziert worden ist, diese Persönlichkeit ist ja dieselbe, von der Schleich in seinen Memoiren erzählt, daß sie ihm Strindberg gebracht hat, wiedergebracht hat. An der Leiche haben sie zusammen gearbeitet: diese Seele, die in diesem Körper war, die hat sie wieder zusammengebracht.

[ 31 ] Sehen Sie, so werden die Dinge, die zunächst theoretisch erörtert werden können über wiederholte Erdenleben und das Karma, konkret. Dann aber wird wirklich dasjenige, was im Erdenleben sich darstellt, erst durchsichtig. Was ist so ein einzelnes menschliches Erdenleben in seiner vollen Unbegreiflichkeit, wenn es nicht auf seinem Hintergrunde der früheren Erdenleben geschaut werden kann!

[ 32 ] Meine lieben Freunde, wenn ich solche Dinge erörtere, habe ich außer der Erörterung noch eine Empfindung. Diese Dinge, die seit der Weihnachtstagung zu erörtern möglich geworden sind, diese Dinge erfordern, wenn sie im richtigen Sinne angesehen werden wollen, bei den Zuhörern wahrhaftigen Ernst, ernste Gesinnung und ein seriöses Drinnenstehen in der anthroposophischen Bewegung, denn sie können sehr leicht zu allen möglichen Frivolitäten führen. Aber die Dinge werden vorgebracht, weil es heute notwendig ist, daß die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft auf die Basis des Ernstes gestellt werde und sich ihrer eigenen Aufgabe innerhalb der modernen Zivilisation bewußt werde.

[ 33 ] Daher möchte ich, nachdem ich in dieser Weise den Grund gelegt habe, in der nächsten Stunde, die am nächsten Mittwoch um halb neun Uhr stattfinden soll, über das Karma der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft sprechen, um dann in der weiternächsten Stunde, die ich noch ankündigen werde, überzugehen zu demjenigen, was solche Karmabetrachtungen für den Menschen werden können, der sein eigenes Leben seinem tieferen Sinne nach betrachten will.

Second Lecture

[ 1 ] The day before yesterday I spoke of the fact that the theoretical discussion of karma and repeated earthly lives must remain only something inanimate if one does not really introduce the consideration that is oriented in this direction into the practical conception of life, that is, if one does not consider life in the sense of karma and repeated earthly lives. The consideration meant here, however, is one that must be approached with the utmost seriousness. For one can already say: The temptation of people to form ideas about all kinds of karmic connections, about all kinds of things that are connected with repeated earth lives, this temptation is very great, and the source of illusions in this area is an extraordinarily great one. And an investigation in these directions can only really be undertaken when the spiritual world has been opened up to the investigator in a certain sense through soul development.

[ 2 ] Then, however, the listeners will also claim those reasons of conviction for such investigations which can follow from everything else that comes to light in the course of the observations of such an investigation. One should not actually have any confidence in the person who begins to speak about repeated earth lives without further ado, but what is brought out of such occult depths must be confirmed by the fact that there are many other things that justify the confidence.

[ 3 ] Now I think that in the course of the twenty-three or twenty-four years in which anthroposophy has been cultivated, sufficient occult material has been gathered so that today results of this daring research on karma and repeated earth lives may be unfolded before those listeners who may have gained confidence through the other areas of spiritual life that have been unrolled in the course of time. However, there are many here at this time who have only been in society for a relatively short time. But it would mean an impossibility for the development of the Society if we were to start at the beginning, so to speak, for the newcomers; for on the other hand we have the great joy and satisfaction that a large number of the oldest anthroposophical friends, anthroposophists who have experienced almost the entire anthroposophical development, have appeared here during this full course period. And in the course of time opportunities must be created in the Anthroposophical Society so that those who are more at the beginning of their membership can be introduced to what must be cultivated in the course of the development of the Anthroposophical Society.

[ 4 ] The reason why I have to say this first is that the considerations I am presenting today are more of a starting point for some of the things that will follow in the next lectures, because there is much in them that will really seem quite daring. But, my dear friends, human life only appears in its true light when its truth is seen as a continuous process of repeated earthly existence. But research in this field, serious research that is aware of its responsibility, is by no means easy. For results that are obtained in this field actually contradict in a certain way the mental images that one usually forms.

[ 5 ] It is indeed the case that when someone looks at a human life on earth with its contents of destiny, he notices those strokes of fate which he is able to grasp at first, which are connected with what is profession, outer or inner profession, which are connected with the social position and the like. With regard to the content of his life on earth, a man easily appears with qualities which need not at all be external, which can already mean something for the innermost part of his soul being; but seen in those depths in which the repeated earth lives must be seen, it is nevertheless necessary to refrain from much that outwardly stamps the destiny of a man in an earth life.

[ 6 ] In particular, one must not imagine that the outer or inner profession has any great significance for the karma passing through the various earth lives. Just imagine how even a relatively externally characterized profession - let us say the profession of a civil servant or the like - is also externally connected with the destiny of man. But for the actual karmic, for the actual connections of destiny, what one characterizes from this external profession need have no significance at all. It is the same with the inner profession. How easily one is tempted to think of a musician that he was at least in a previous earthly life, if not a musician again, then an artist. This is not always the case, in fact it is rarely the case if you really investigate things. For the ongoing karma, the ongoing thread of destiny, goes much more into the human inner being and cares little about outer and inner professions, but much more about the inner soul forces and soul resistances, about the moral connections that can ultimately manifest themselves in every outer and inner profession.

[ 7 ] But this also makes it so that the study of karma, the study of the thread of destiny, makes it necessary to look at circumstances in a person's life that sometimes even seem secondary. I have to mention again and again a fact that I have encountered in my life.

[ 8 ] I should investigate the karmic connections of a person who has had many peculiarities in life, who has just had his task in life, his profession. But the intuitive eye did not find any indication of his earlier earthly lives from everything he did in his profession, for example as a philanthropist and the like. Not as if all this was not connected with his earlier earthly lives, but there was not a hint for the eye. One could not get away with looking at these facts, which were the result of his profession or his philanthropy. On the other hand, curiously enough, in the case of this personality, something emerged from an incidental peculiarity of life. He had to speak, and always, before he began, he had to take out his handkerchief and blow his nose. I often heard him speak and never experienced anything else than that before he began to speak coherently, he took out his handkerchief and blew his nose. He did not do it in conversation, but he always did it when he was compelled to speak in context. This created an image from which now radiated the ability to look back into previous earthly lives.

[ 9 ] I cite this as a particularly grotesque example. The examples are not always so grotesque, but one must have the ability to look at the whole of a person if one wants to look at karma in a valid and applicable way. You see, having a certain profession, for example, is more or less something that comes from upbringing and so on. On the other hand, it has to do with a person's inner spiritual configuration if he can't help but take out his handkerchief and blow his nose before he begins a speech. This is much more intimately linked to the nature of man. But it is a radical, extreme example. Things are not always like that. But I would like to evoke a mental image of the fact that, as a rule, what lies on the surface of a person's life is of no use at all for the investigation of karma, that one must engage in certain intimacies, but in those into which one does not first delude oneself in an unlawful way, but which lie there openly in life.

[ 10 ] Having made this introduction, I would now like to begin unashamedly with what I have to say, naturally with all the reserves that must always be present in such a case, namely the reserves that everyone will believe or disbelieve what I have to say, but also with the assurance that the matter I am about to discuss is based on the utmost seriousness of humanistic research.

[ 11 ] Such things also do not occur when one approaches research with the intention of doing research as a modern laboratory researcher does; rather, research on karma must itself arise in a certain way from karma. I had to mention this at the end of the new edition of my “Theosophy” for the reason that among the many strange impositions that have been made on me in the course of my life is that I should submit myself to some psychological laboratory so that people there can investigate whether the things I say about spiritual science are justified. That is, of course, just as ridiculous as if someone were to deliver mathematical results and one did not check these mathematical results but asked him to be examined in a laboratory in order to find out whether he was a real mathematician or not. But these kinds of ridiculous things are nowadays considered erudition and are taken seriously. I have expressly mentioned at the end of the new edition of my “Theosophy” that nothing can come of such experiments, and I have also mentioned that all paths that must lead to such a thing - to an investigation of a concrete occult result - must themselves be prepared in a spiritual and supersensible way.

[ 12 ] Once I had the opportunity to meet a modern doctor who was very well known to me in terms of his reputation and his literary career and whom I held in high esteem. So in this case I am mentioning the karmic details that led to the corresponding research. It has taken a long time and has only been completed in the last few weeks; it is only now that - if you are a conscientious person - you talk about it. So I am mentioning all the details so that you can see some - not all, of course - of how things are connected.

[ 13 ] So I got to know one such modern doctor, and in such a way that when I got to know him, he was together with another personality. I had known this other personality very well for some time; he always made an impression on me, I don't want to say a deep impression, but a thorough impression. A profound impression for the reason that this personality was extraordinarily fond of being together with people who were concerned in the broadest sense with a somewhat outwardly conceived occultism. But this personality was also extraordinarily fond of talking about what many of his acquaintances had to say about all kinds of occult matters, especially about all kinds of things that have to do with the occult and what today's artists should strive for as lyricists, epic poets and dramatists. And this personality was surrounded by a kind of, I would say, moral aura. I use the word “moral” for everything that has to do with the mental qualities controlled by the will. In the presence of this personality, whom I was actually visiting, I now found the other person, whom I knew and held in high esteem because of his career as a writer and his work as a doctor. And what happened during this visit really left a deep impression, which prompted me to include the whole thing in the field of spiritual research.

[ 14 ] Then something very strange happened. Through the insight that I was able to gain through the meeting of the two personalities, and also through the impression that this other personality made on me, whom I had known for a long time from her writing career, from her medical work, whom I appreciated and whom I saw outwardly here for the first time, through all this I received the strength, initially not this personality, I got to know for the first time, to somehow examine the life and destiny of this personality, but it shone light on the other, whom I had known for a long time, and it turned out that the other - not in his last, but in an earlier life on earth - had lived in ancient Egypt and, what is peculiar, had been mummified in ancient Egypt, embalmed as a mummy.

[ 15 ] I soon realized that this mummy still existed. I also saw it somewhere later, but much later. That was initially the starting point. But because the research was kindled by this personality, whom I had known for a long time, it radiated further, so to speak, this research, and the possibility arose of researching the fate of the man of the new acquaintance. And then the following occurred.

[ 16 ] While one is otherwise very easily led back from a person's earthly life to the last, here intuition led far back into ancient Egypt and clearly presented two personalities to the soul's eye: a kind of chieftain in ancient Egypt, who in a certain very strong sense held the old Egyptian initiation, but had become somewhat decadent as an initiate, who began to take the initiation no longer very seriously in the course of his life, even treating it with a certain mocking demeanor. But the chief had a servant who was extremely serious. The servant was, of course, not initiated; but both were given the task of embalming mummies and procuring the materials from quite far away.

[ 17 ] Now, the business of embalming mummies was an extraordinarily complicated one, especially in ancient Egypt, and required intimate knowledge of the human being, of the human body. But deep knowledge of the human soul was also required of those who were to embalm mummies legitimately. The chief, who had actually been initiated into this business, gradually became frivolous towards his actual profession. Thus it came about that he gradually, one would say in mystery language, betrayed those things which he had received through a kind of initiation to his servant, who turned out to be a man who gradually understood the content of the initiation better than the initiate. And so the servant in question became an embalmer of mummies, while the other one did not even watch any more, but of course claimed for himself everything that was connected with it in terms of position and social attitude. This other one also gradually became so that he no longer enjoyed any great prestige and thus came into many a life conflict. The servant, however, who gradually worked his way up to a very, very serious view of life, was virtually seized, strangely congenially seized by a kind of initiation which was not a real one, but which lived so instinctively in him. And so a whole series of mummies were embalmed under the supervision and with the complicity of these two people.

[ 18 ] Time passed. The two men passed through the gate of death, underwent those experiences of which I shall speak next time, which in the supersensible are connected with the development of karma, of destiny, and were then both again transferred to earthly life in Roman times, just about the time when the Roman imperial rule was established: in the time of Augustus; not exactly, but approximately in the age of Augustus.

[ 19 ] As I said, it is conscientious research, as exact as any physical or chemical research can be. I would not speak of these things if it had not been possible for weeks to speak of them in such a definite way. Now we find one of them, the chief - who gradually became a frivolous initiate, but who, after passing through the gate of death, experienced it as an extraordinarily bitter earthly trial with all the after-effects of such a bitter earthly trial, We find him again as Augustus' daughter Julia, who marries Augustus' stepson Tiberius and leads a life that seemed naturally justifiable in her own eyes, but which was considered so immoral in Roman society at the time that she was banished. The other, the servant, who had worked his way up almost to become an initiate, but from the bottom up, is reborn at this time as the Roman historian Titus Livius.

[ 20 ] Now the interesting thing is how Titus Livius came to write history. He embalmed a whole number of mummies in ancient Egyptian times. The souls that were in the bodies of these mummies were often incarnated as Romans, namely as the seven Roman kings - because there were seven Roman kings. When we go back to the time when the two, the chief and his servant, were incarnated, we return to very ancient Egyptian times. And through a certain law that applies precisely to the reincarnation of souls whose bodies are mummified, these souls were called back to earth relatively soon. But the karmic connection of the chief's servant, of whom I have spoken, with these souls whose bodies he has embalmed, is so intimate that he must write the history of them in particular - of course he must also include the other things he has not embalmed - but he must write the history of the very people he has embalmed. This is how Titus Livius becomes a historian.

[ 21 ] Now I would just like as many of you as possible to take the Roman history of Titus Livius and let the style of Titus Livius work on you with the knowledge that arises here from the karmic context. You will see that what is strangely humanly penetrating and at the same time tends towards myth in the style of Titus Livius urges towards that knowledge of human nature which an embalmer can acquire. One only arrives at such a connection when one undertakes such research. But then it is precisely that which suddenly sheds light on something. It is difficult to imagine the origin of the style of Titus Livius, this strange style with which Livius, as a historian, embalms the people he describes - because that is how it is in the end, this style - it is difficult to imagine the origin of this style. A light is thrown on this style when one points out such connections.

[ 22 ] Now, you see, we have the two personalities again as Julia and Titus Livius. As Julia and Titus Livius they now again pass through the gate of death. Everything that the one soul has experienced: to be actually quite strongly a kind of initiate, but to have distorted it into frivolity, to have experienced the bitterness of the aftermath in the life between death and new birth, then to have experienced as Julia the peculiar fate - read it up - all this resulted for the next life that followed the Julia life between death and new birth, a strong antipathy against the Julia incarnation, which universalized itself in a strange way. One can find this individuality in the intuition in the life between death and new birth, as if it were constantly crying out: Oh, if I had never become a woman, because what I accomplished in ancient Egypt led me to this womanhood!

[ 23 ] You can now follow these individualities. One enters the Middle Ages: One finds Titus Livius again as a singing poet in the middle of the Middle Ages. One is surprised to find him like this, because the external professions are not connected at all. But the greatest surprises that can come to a person are precisely those that result from the observation of earthly lives that emerge from one another. One finds the Roman historian - with the style that emerged from the knowledge of the human being through mummification - in the further development of this style, which had a great lightness and which is now carried upwards in lyrical lightness, one finds Titus Livius again as Walther von der Vogelweide.

[ 24 ] Walther von der Vogelweide, who is staying in Tyrol and has many patrons, now also has a certain patron among them who is a very strange person. A man who was on a first-name basis with all kinds of alchemists, of whom there were dozens and dozens in the Tyrol at the time, who was a lord of the castle, but who was everywhere - one would say, if one were to speak in modern theatrical language, in all kinds of alchemical scams, but who experienced and learned a tremendous amount in the process; who, among other things, was inspired by this, as was later the case with Paracelsus in a similar way, to intensively pursue everything occult. He acquired a tremendously intense occult sense, and this enabled him to rediscover something in Tyrol that was actually only legendarily known at the time, namely the castle, the mountain castle, the rock castle, which could not have been recognized by anyone else because it consisted only of rocks - it was made of rocks, with a hollow in it - the castle of the dwarf king Laurin. And the demonic nature of the area around Laurin's castle made a tremendously deep impression on this personality. So that strange things are united in this soul: Initiation driven to the point of frivolity, resentment at having been a woman and thus having been driven into Roman immorality and at the same time into Roman hypocrisy about morality, and intimate knowledge, but external knowledge, of all kinds of alchemy; but this in turn expanded into a free sense about nature demons and generally about the spiritual in all nature. And both - even if this is not mentioned in Walther's biography, it is nevertheless the case - both Walther von der Vogelweide and this man came together quite often at that time. Walther von der Vogelweide experienced many an impetus, many an influence from this man.

[ 25 ] Now, you see, here we observe at the same time - which is, so to speak, karmic law - how the personalities are drawn to each other again and again, how they are called here to earth again and again and again simultaneously, complementing each other, living out themselves in opposites. And again, it is interesting to see Walther's peculiar lyrical style, which really, I would like to say, appears as if he had now thoroughly disliked embalming and turned to the completely different side of life, to the side of life where one is not dealing with anything dead, but with the full joyful existence - but also again with a touch of pessimism. Feel Walther von der Vogelweide's style, and feel the two previous lives on earth within this style. Feel also the restless life of Walther von der Vogelweide: it reminds you tremendously of the life that comes to you when you are with the dead for so long and many destinies unload themselves into your soul, as was the case with a mummy embalmer.

[ 26 ] And now further on. You see, the further pursuit of this karmic chain led me again into the same room - but now only intuitively, in spirit - in which I had been in the presence of an old acquaintance of mine, but whom I also knew as a mummy - and now I knew: embalmed as a mummy by the other - so the whole line led me again into this room. And I found the soul that had passed through the ancient Egyptian serving embalmer, through Titus Livius, through Walther von der Vogelweide, in the modern doctor Ludwig Schleich.

[ 27 ] So the connections in life emerge in a surprising way. Who can even comprehend an earthly life with ordinary consciousness! It can only be understood if one knows what is at the bottom of a soul. Theoretically, many people know that successive earth lives are deposited at the bottom of the soul. But it only becomes real, concrete, when you actually look at it in a specific case.

[ 28 ] The gaze was led out of this room again, for the other personality, which was there as one mummified by the other, initially revealed no further traces, at least not very significant further traces. On the other hand, the path of the soul of the old chief, Julia, the discoverer of Laurin's magic castle, was now revealed: that is August Strindberg.

[ 29 ] Now I ask you to take the whole of August Strindberg's life and poetry and see them against the background I have just described. Look at Strindberg's peculiar hatred of women, which is not really hatred at all, because it arises from all sorts of other backgrounds. Look at everything that runs demonically through Strindberg's poetry. Take a look at August Strindberg's predilection for all kinds of alchemical and occult arts and crafts - and finally take a look at his adventurous life! Then you will see how well this life contrasts with the background described.

[ 30 ] And then read the memoirs of Ludwig Schleich, his relationship to August Strindberg, and you will see how this in turn is lived out against the background of his earlier life on earth! But Ludwig Schleich's memoirs can shine a light, a very strange light, I would say a startling light. The personality with whom I met Schleich, whom I spoke of as having been mummified by Schleich himself in the old Egyptian life, is the same personality of whom Schleich tells in his memoirs that she brought him Strindberg, brought him back. They worked together on the corpse: this soul that was in this body brought them together again.

[ 31 ] You see, this is how things that can first be discussed theoretically about repeated earth lives and karma become concrete. But only then does that which presents itself in life on earth become transparent. What is a single human life on earth in its full incomprehensibility if it cannot be seen on the background of previous lives on earth!

[ 32 ] My dear friends, when I discuss such things, I have a feeling in addition to the discussion. These things, which have become possible to discuss since the Christmas Conference, these things require, if they are to be regarded in the right sense, true seriousness, a serious attitude and a serious standing within the anthroposophical movement on the part of the listeners, for they can very easily lead to all kinds of frivolities. But these things are brought forward because it is necessary today for the Anthroposophical Society to be placed on the basis of seriousness and to become aware of its own task within modern civilization.

[ 33 ] Therefore, having laid the foundation in this way, I should like to speak in the next lesson, which is to take place next Wednesday at half past eight, about the karma of the Anthroposophical Society, and then in the next lesson, which I shall announce, to pass on to what such karma considerations can become for the human being who wishes to contemplate his own life in its deeper sense.