Karmic Relationships VII
GA 239
9 June 1924, Breslau
Lecture III
The conception of karma and its background given in the lecture yesterday can be deepened in many essential respects. We heard that behind human destiny there are worlds in relation to which the aspect of destiny usually observed amounts to no more than the letters of a script as compared with what is produced by the combinations of those letters in a work such as Goethe's Faust. Behind the destiny of a human being we can in very truth gaze at the life and weaving deeds of higher worlds and of the Beings belonging to those worlds. But this picture can be deepened and elaborated.—When man is passing through the Moon sphere after death, he lives in communion with the great primeval Teachers of humanity who have their abode in that sphere. Through the whole of the period between death and a new birth he is associated with human souls—particularly those with whom he is karmically connected—who have also passed through the gate of death and are living through the same period of spiritual existence. In the Moon sphere man lives in communion with the Beings we know as the Angeloi, Arch-angeloi and Archai, and as he passes through the following planetary spheres, with higher and ever higher Beings. It is not really correct to make demarcations and assign one particular Hierarchy to each heavenly sphere, for this is not in accord with reality. But in a general sense it can be said that the Archai, Archangeloi and Angeloi enter into communion with us before we pass into the Sun sphere; in that sphere we find our way into what has to be accomplished between death and a new birth in cooperation with the Hierarchy of the Exousiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. And then we gradually live on into the realms of the Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim as we approach the Mars sphere and the Jupiter sphere. It is not correct to say that one Hierarchy corresponds only to one particular planetary sphere; but there is something else that will have important bearings when we come to study karmic relationships in greater detail.
It will, however, be necessary to familiarise ourselves with a conception which, to begin with, will seem strange and perplexing to ordinary thinking. As we stand on the Earth and feel our way into existence, we conceive of the Earthly as being immediately around us, on, under, and a little above the surface of the Earth in the environment, and when our minds turn to the so-called super-Earthly, our gaze is instinctively directed upwards. We feel the super-Earthly to be above us. Strange as it seems, it is true nevertheless, that when we ourselves are within those super-Earthly realms to which we look upwards from the Earth, when we are actually within them, the opposite holds good; for then we look downwards to the Earthly—which now lies below. In a certain sense we do so through the whole of our existence between death and a new birth. The question will occur to you: Is our experience of earthly things during physical existence so inadequate that between death and rebirth we have to look down from those super-earthly spheres to the Earth as a kind of nether heaven below us? ... But something else must be remembered here. The vista of all that we behold around us and in the cosmic expanse while we live on Earth between birth and death in a physical body enclosed by the skin, this vista is majestic and splendid; it refreshes and delights us, or it may bring tragedy and pain. At any rate it is a vista of rich and abundant life and a man might well believe that in comparison with the majesty of the world of stars, with everything that is revealed to him as his outer world, what is enclosed within his skin during physical existence is puny and insignificant. But the vista before us in our life between death and a new birth is entirely different. All that was our outer world during life on Earth now becomes our inner world. We feel ourselves expanding ever more and more into the cosmic spheres. What is there experienced may be described in earthly language in somewhat the following way.
Here on Earth we say, ‘my heart’—meaning something that is inside our skin. Between death and a new birth we do not say, ‘my heart,’ but ‘my Sun.’ For at a certain stage between death and rebirth, when our being has expanded into the Universe, the Sun is within us just as here on Earth the heart is within us—and the same applies in a spiritual sense to the rest of the starry worlds as I have described. Conversely, what was enclosed within our skin on Earth now becomes our outer world. But do not imagine that it bears any resemblance to what an anatomist sees when he dissects a corpse. The spectacle is even grander and more majestic than the panorama of the Universe presented to us on Earth. From the vantage-point of our life between death and a new birth, a whole world is revealed in what the physical senses perceive merely as heart, lung, liver, and so forth; it is a world greater and more impressive than the outer Universe at which we gaze during life on Earth.
Another singular fact is the following.—You may say: ‘Yes, but as this world is present in every human being, everyone who dies must carry a separate world within him through death, and this suggests that the worlds to be perceived in the after-death existence greatly outnumber the individuals with whom one actually comes in contact there ...’ The secret lies in the fact that, firstly, all those human beings with whom we have some karmic tie are seen as a unity, as one world. Then there are the other souls who also form a unified, though less defined whole: this host of souls is linked with those with whom we have actual karmic ties, and again there is a unified whole. The moment we pass from the physical world into the spiritual world, everything is different. A great deal that has to be said will seem paradoxical to those unaccustomed to such conceptions but it is necessary now and again to draw attention to the conditions prevailing in the spiritual world as revealed to Initiation-wisdom. In the physical world we can count: one, two, three ... we can also count money—although perhaps not just at the present time!—but counting does not really mean anything in the spiritual world. Number has no particular significance there; everything is more or less a unity. If things are to be counted they must be distinct and separate from each other and this does not apply in the spiritual world. In describing the spiritual world and the physical world, quite different terms have to be used in each case. From the vantage-point of the spiritual world, that which in the physical world is within man, presents a very different appearance. Man's structure is even more splendid, more awe-inspiring than the structure of the Heavens as perceived from the Earth. And what we prepare in communion with the higher Hierarchies for the incarnation that will follow the life between death and a new birth must be an entelechy of soul-and-spirit that befits this human structure, permeates it, gives it life.
How does the life of a human being develop on Earth? When we are born from pre-earthly existence into earthly life, the whole physical body has, apparently, been provided by our parents. It may seem as though having come down from the super-sensible world we unite in a purely external way with what has been prepared for us in the physical world by our parents and has developed in the mother's body. What happens in reality, however, is the following.—
The substance of the physical body is constantly changing; it is all the time being thrown off and replaced. Think only of your finger-nails and your hair. You cut your finger-nails and they grow again. But this is only a process that is externally perceptible; in reality, man is all the time throwing off matter and replacing it from within, from the inner centre of his being. Substance is perpetually scaling off and in seven or eight years time all the physical substance that was within us seven years previously has been thrown off and replaced by new. Just think of this.—Seven years ago I was able, to my great joy, to lecture to friends here in Breslau. There they were, sitting on chairs in front of me; but nothing remains to-day of the physical substance contained in those bodies; it has all vanished and been replaced by other physical substance. What has remained in each case is the individuality of spirit-and-soul. The individuality was present before birth, in pre-earthly existence, in earlier earthly lives too, and has remained. But the substance of the bodies sitting in the chairs seven years ago has long since passed away into other regions of the Universe. Now this exchange of substance begins at birth and is complete after the lapse of seven years or so. What our parents provide is the substance and its particular organisation up to the time of the change of teeth. Thereafter the task of moulding the substance is taken over by the individuality. The change of teeth is a process of great significance. Until that time we have received from our parents a model, this model resembles our parents, embodies the hereditary traits. Then, in accordance with this model, the individuality of spirit-and-soul slowly builds up the second body which exists from the time of the change of teeth to the onset of puberty, is then cast off, and the third body begins to develop. Hereditary traits which remain in us are due to the fact that in the second body we have copied them from the model. What is copied from the model at a later stage is adapted and elaborated by the unconscious faculty, acquired in pre-earthly existence, to mould the human organism in accordance with the secrets it contains. The purpose of the first body which we bear until the time of the change of teeth is to enable us, in conformity with our karma, to resemble our parents. The real secrets, the deep, all-embracing secrets whereby the human organism is built up as the wonderful image of the outer structure of the Heavens—these secrets in their innermost essence have to be acquired during the life between death and a new birth.
Having lived through the first half of the Sun-existence we have to find our way into the second half, where the impulse to live out our karma is kindled. Here again a vista lies before us of wonderful happenings which take place between ourselves and the Beings of the higher Hierarchies.
Here on Earth we live and move among minerals, plants, animals, other human beings; between death and a new birth we live together with other human souls in the way described—but now, instead of minerals, plants, animals, there are the Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi, and together with them we shape our karma. Through the whole of the time we gaze at the earthly realm below where our karma must take effect, gaze at it longingly, as something to which all our forces of feeling are directed,—just as here on Earth between birth and death we gaze upwards with longing to the Heavens. In ascending to the Moon sphere, Mercury sphere, Venus sphere, we find our way to the Beings of the Hierarchy of Archai, Archangeloi and Angeloi. These Beings are the judges of what is good and evil in us, also of the mutilation we undergo, as I described in the previous lecture. For the consequence of unrighteousness is that we suffer a kind of mutilation as beings of soul and spirit. There, in these higher spheres, we have our judges, we are involved in the operations of Cosmic Justice.—In the Sun-existence we reach the sphere of the Exousiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. We are now within the ranks of Beings who do not only judge but actually work with us at the shaping of our karma. These Beings—Exousiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes—are primarily denizens of the Sun, and therewith of the whole Universe. They belong essentially to spiritual worlds. But mediators are necessary between the spiritual world and the material, physical world, and these mediators are the Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim. Their rank in the spiritual Cosmos is higher because they are mightier Beings—mightier not merely in the realm of spiritual life but because they bring to effect in the physical world what is thus lived through in the spiritual worlds. In the life between death and a new birth we gaze consciously and with longing at the earthly realm below, but in reality we are gazing at what is proceeding among the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, in their mutual connections with one another. It is a shattering, awe-inspiring experience. We learn, gradually, to understand the deeds performed between Seraphim and Seraphim, Cherubim and Cherubim, Thrones and Thrones, and again between Thrones and Seraphim, Thrones and Cherubim, and so forth. These Beings are engaged in bringing about a process of adjustment which, as we learn to understand it, we feel has something to do with ourselves. What is it, in reality? It is the image that arises in cosmic existence from the good and the evil for which we were responsible in our earthly life. The good must result in good; the evil must result in evil. Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones elaborate the consequences of what we have sown on Earth; our evil deeds have injurious consequences, in cosmic existence. We witness how Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones are occupied with the consequences of our evil deeds. And the knowledge gradually dawns upon us that in what comes to pass in cosmic evolution among the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, our karma is being lived out in the Heavens before we can live it out on Earth. This awe-inspiring experience is enhanced inasmuch as we now realise with all the force we possess in this spiritual life between death and a new birth, that what the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones experience in their divine existence finds its just fulfilment when we ourselves experience it in the next earthly life. Thus in super-earthly realms our karma is lived through in advance by the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. In very truth the Gods are the Creators of the Earthly. They live through everything in advance, in the realm of spirit; then in the physical realm it comes to fulfilment. Our karma is prefigured by the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones in their divine existence. Thus are the forces which shape our karma set in operation.
During existence in the planetary spheres we experience the deeds, the judgements, of the Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi. But Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones are also at work, in order that they may live through our karma in advance. Thus are we made aware of the debt we owe to the world on account of our previous deeds, thus do we experience the divine foreshadowing of what our life is to be. These experiences are complex and intricate, but they are part and parcel of that super-earthly existence upon which earthly life is based.
Not until we realise how rich in content is the life between death and a new birth and think of this in conjunction with the happenings of earthly life do we obtain a really adequate conception of what comes to pass in the world through man and in man. Thus is self-knowledge deepened, enriched and spiritualised. The only way whereby we can obtain a true picture of the earthly life of humanity is to view it against the background of happenings in the spiritual world.
We see human beings appearing on the Earth; they are born, grow up, are creative or active according to their destiny and the particular faculties they possess. The historical life of humanity through the ages is, after all, the outcome of human faculties, human deeds, human thoughts and feelings. But all these human beings who appear in an earthly life between birth and death—all of them have passed through previous lives in which they experienced the Earthly in a different way, worked upon it in a different way. The influences of earlier lives make themselves felt in all later lives, but it is only possible to understand the sequence of connections by taking account, too, of the periods lying between death and rebirth. Then, for the first time, we have a true conception of history, for we realise that what appears on the Earth through human beings in one epoch is linked with the happenings of an earlier epoch. But the essential question is: How are the fruits and happenings of an earlier epoch carried over into later times?—Historians have long been content to record consecutive facts but from data of this kind it is impossible to understand why later events follow those that preceded them. Some have said that ideas are at work in history and then become actuality. But no genuine thinker can conceive why this should be so. Others—those who hold the materialistic view of history—say: Ideas—so much twaddle! Economic factors are the only reality, they lie at the root of everything!—Such is the materialistic, mechanistic conception of history.
But this is no more than a dabbling on the surface of things. The reality is that what came to pass in earlier epochs of history is carried over into later epochs by human beings themselves. All those who are sitting here now lived in earlier epochs. Their deeds and manner of acting are the consequences of what they experienced in earlier lives. And so it is with everything that comes to pass in the course of history, be it of importance or of little account. The earlier is carried over into the later by human souls themselves. The conception of life prevailing nowadays can be deepened in the true sense only by the realisation that historical evolution too is borne onwards by man himself. But everything is determined by what is achieved in the starry worlds between death and rebirth where man works in cooperation with the Beings of the higher Hierarchies.
And now let us take an example to illustrate what has been said. In comparatively early times, not long before the founding of Christianity, a certain Initiate was incarnated in the East, in the Indian civilisation. In his earthly life this individuality had poor eyesight—in describing karmic relationships one must go into details of this kind—and his perceptions remained more or less superficial. This life which was characterised by the mystical outlook typical of Indian culture, was followed by other, less important incarnations. But there was a life between death and a new birth during which the superficial experiences of the Indian incarnation were worked upon in the Mercury sphere, partly too in the Venus sphere and in the Mars sphere, in conjunction with Beings of the higher Hierarchies. In the majority of human beings the influences of one of the cosmic spheres are dominant in the shaping of the karma, but in the case of this particular individuality the influences of the Mercury sphere, the Venus sphere and the Mars sphere worked with almost equal strength at the karmic transformation of incipient faculties arising from the experiences of an Indian incarnation. In the nineteenth century this individuality appeared again as a somewhat complex personality, namely, Heinrich Heine.
Let us think about an example such as this which has been brought to light from the depths of spiritual life by very penetrating and exact investigation. A rigid, superficial thinker will argue that this tends to take away the whole atmosphere and quality of the personality, that what he wants is a picture of the elementary characteristics of the man in question ... well, he has every right to take this attitude if he chooses; it is his karma to be a philistine and he has the right to speak in this way ... but he will not succeed in reaching more than a fragment of the truth. When we look more deeply into the facts, the foundations and the background of the reality come to light. The life of an individual is certainly not impoverished but infinitely enriched in meaning when it is studied in the light of such foundations, when we can perceive the experiences of an earlier, Indian incarnation glimmering through that problematic, fitful Heine-life. Having absorbed the influences operating in the Mercury sphere and the Venus sphere, this individuality passed into the Mars sphere, where a certain strain of aggressiveness developed for the next earthly life; the experiences of an earlier life were transformed into a faculty in which there was a certain vein of aggressiveness. In the Mercury sphere the soul acquired the tendency to flit from one experience to another, one concept to another, and in the Venus sphere an element of eroticism—eroticism in the spiritual sense—crept into the imaginative, conceptual faculties.
In surveying a human life in this way we gaze into cosmic existence, and what we thus perceive is certainly not poorer in content than the commonplace picture of a man's elementary characteristics desired by superficial observers. We perceive how earlier history is carried over into later history through the instrumentality of the starry worlds and the Beings of those worlds. History becomes reality only when it is viewed in this setting; otherwise it remains so many disjointed ciphers. But now we begin to read from history how behind the individual destinies of men there are the deeds of Gods and of worlds which become manifest in ever greater grandeur and power in the process of the historical evolution of humanity—where we shall always discern the weaving of the destinies and the thoughts of individuals.
And now, another example.—There is an individuality who at the time when Islam was spreading across North Africa to Spain, had acquired much scholarship according to the standards then prevailing. Schools similar to that in which St. Augustine had received instruction still existed in North Africa, but now, in a later period, the School had fallen into decline. This individuality imbibed a great deal of the knowledge that had been preserved in these Schools in which much wisdom deriving from the ancient Mysteries still survived, although in a decadent form. Then his path took him to Spain where he came in contact with the earlier—not the later—Cabbalistic School, acquired much of this earlier Cabbalistic learning and thus became thoroughly versed in Manichean-Cabbalistic doctrine. In the course of further development during a life between death and a new birth, a certain strain of aggressiveness was acquired and, in addition, a talent which had something rather dangerously fascinating about it, namely, fluency of speech and language in dealing with all kinds of problems which arose in the soul from the earlier incarnation. With these characteristics the individuality in question was born again in the eighteenth century as Voltaire.
To know that the Voltaire-life leads back to experiences akin to those of St. Augustine in his early days, experiences which were associated with the Cabbalistic School and hence with all the irony peculiar to Cabbalistic learning, to know that all these elements play a part and, by penetrating into what happened during life between death and rebirth, to perceive the connection between the two lives—this alone can lead to a picture of the whole reality. At first sight there seems to be no connection between successive earthly lives; we do not perceive how the one reaches over into the other. The intervening periods are not perceived but for all that they are fragments of the whole picture in which everything is embraced. It is only by studying the spiritual background as well as the earthly nature of a man that we can hope to approach reality.
In this connection a new trend must take effect on our Movement, from now onwards. When the German Section of the Theosophical Society was founded in Berlin in 1902, I gave as the title of my first lecture: Studies of the concrete working of Karma. The lecture was announced but could not be delivered for the simple reason that the older members of the Theosophical Society had their own ideas of what may or may not be spoken about, and this attitude had determined the whole atmosphere. The leading Members would have been horrified if at that time one had spoken of the concrete workings of karma. The Theosophical Movement was not ready for it. A great deal of preparation was necessary and has, in fact, been going on now for more than two decades. But at the Christmas Foundation Meeting the impulse was given to speak without reserve, not only about the Spiritual in general but also about what can be discovered concerning man's life in the realm of spirit. And so in future we shall speak quite openly in the Anthroposophical Society of matters of which from the very beginning it was the intention to speak, but for which preparation had to be made. This is part of the esoteric trend and impulse with which the Anthroposophical Society was imbued through the Christmas Foundation Meeting. The Christmas Meeting was no trifling episode; it betokened the assumption of new responsibilities for the Anthroposophical Movement, responsibilities flowing from the realm of spirit.
To be able to gaze at what takes place between death and a new birth brings home to one the rich diversity and many-sidedness of the world. For when it is said that the qualities of aggressiveness and also of fluency of language are quickened in the Mars sphere, this is only one aspect; other aspects of life too are quickened in that sphere. And the same applies to the Jupiter sphere. The Jupiter sphere and its Beings are experienced when in the process of self-observation one looks back with the insight of Initiation over the period between the forty-ninth and fifty-sixth years of life—and then obliterates the pictures. The vista of the Jupiter sphere may be a shattering experience, for the Beings of Jupiter are utterly different from human beings. Think of a quality which is sometimes more and sometimes less in evidence, namely the quality of wisdom. Men insist that they are wise ... but what a struggle it is for them to acquire wisdom! The tiniest fragment of wisdom in any field is difficult to attain and demands inner effort. Nothing of the kind is necessary for the Jupiter Beings. Wisdom is an integral part of their very nature—I cannot say it is ‘born’ in them, for the Jupiter Beings do not come into existence through an embryo as men do on Earth. You must picture to yourselves that there is something around Jupiter like the cloud-masses around the Earth. If you were now to imagine bodies of men forming out of the clouds and flying down to the Earth, that would be a picture of how the new Beings come forth from a kind of cloud-mass on Jupiter; but these Beings have wisdom as an original, intrinsic characteristic. Just as we have circulating blood, so they have wisdom. But their wisdom is not a merited reward, nor has it been acquired by effort; they have it by nature. Therefore their thinking, too, is utterly different from the thinking of men. The experience is shattering, overwhelming, but we must gradually get accustomed to the idea. Just as we on Earth are pervaded by air, so everything on Jupiter is pervaded by wisdom. Wisdom there has substantiality, streams in the atmosphere, discharges itself like rain on Jupiter, rises like mist to the heights. But Beings are there—Beings who ascend in a cloud, a mist of wisdom. Herein live the Cherubim, who in this realm of existence gather up and give shape to the karma of human beings. Other impulses too are in operation, but what holds good unconditionally is that the experiences of an earlier incarnation are gathered together and moulded into shape by the forces of the self-subsisting wisdom of the Jupiter sphere. Then, when the individuality comes down again to incarnation on the Earth, he bears the stamp arising from the re-shaping of his earlier experiences by wisdom which ultimately takes effect in very diverse forms.—Again we will take an example.
There is an individuality who leads us back to ancient Greece, into a milieu of Platonism, and also of sculpture. This individuality had a very significant incarnation as a sculptor in Greece. What he there experienced was carried over into intermediate incarnations of less importance. This is an individuality whose karma for what is at the moment his latest incarnation was elaborated chiefly in the sphere of the Jupiter wisdom.
Another individuality takes us back to Central America, to Mexico, in times before European people had migrated to America. He was connected with the then declining Mysteries of the early, original inhabitants of Mexico and came into contact with the Mexican deities at a time when the pupils of the Mysteries still had real and living intercourse with these spiritual Beings. This was karma of a special—not a particularly favourable—kind. These Gods—Quetzalcoatl, Tetzkatlipoka, Taotl—are still mentioned by scholars to-day but hardly more than by name. The individuality of whom I am speaking was closely connected with those Mysteries which, in spite of their decadence, enabled a God such as Taotl or Quetzalcoatl to be a living reality to him. There, in those declining Mysteries, he became thoroughly versed in the magic arts—arts which were already rife with superstition—and a Being like Tetzkatlipoka was a vivid reality to him. Tetzkatlipoka was a kind of Serpent God with whom men felt themselves astrally connected. Unlike the other individuality whose life as a man in Greece was followed by female incarnations, this individuality had no intermediate incarnation. He lived as a man within the Mexican Mysteries, passed through the sphere of the Jupiter-wisdom in his life between death and a new birth and then incarnated in the eighteenth/nineteenth century. The other individuality who had lived in Greece also passed through the Jupiter sphere in the way that is possible for one who had been a sculptor and had unfolded the faculty of creative imagination which was still so potent a force in Greece. This was transformed and re-cast in the Jupiter sphere where the wisdom underlying the Greek talent for plastic representation of the human form, for pictorial conceptions of the world, is present in its very essence, and the individuality came down into a body with a strongly Grecian bent of mind that had been elaborated in the Jupiter sphere, being reborn as Goethe.
The other individuality also passed through the Jupiter sphere, where his experiences in the Mexican Mysteries were cast into a new form. But the Jupiter sphere could not produce identical results from an earthly life in Greece and an earthly life in Mexico of the kinds I have described. Both sets of experience were worked upon by the wisdom of the Jupiter sphere but both were conditioned by the formative forces that had been in operation in earlier lives. The individuality who had been connected with the Mexican Mysteries lived through the Jupiter sphere and was reborn as Eliphas Levi. There you have an example of how magic practices, magic rites and enactments have been transformed in a remarkable way into wisdom. It is Jupiter-karma of an inferior kind, but for all that replete with spirituality, replete with wisdom. From this we perceive how what a man has experienced in earthly life works into what he becomes during his life between death and a new birth. The later life is invariably conditioned by the earlier life. But the experiences of earthly life can be transformed by the selfsame sphere into very different karma. Our view of human life can only be deepened in the right way when we perceive how this life is shaped in conformity with karma. Then it is enriched, then and only then do we acquire a real knowledge of man and of human life.
Zehnter Vortrag
Die Anschauungen, die wir gestern gewonnen haben über die Hintergründe des Karma, sie können noch wesentlich vertieft werden. Wir haben gesehen, wie hinter dem, was wir ein Menschenschicksal nennen, Welten stehen, gegenüber denen sich dasjenige, was man gewöhnlich von dem Menschenschicksal wahrnimmt, ausnimmt wie die Kenntnis der Buchstaben, die einer Sprache eigen sind, gegenüber dem, was, sagen wit, in einem Werke, wie der Goethesche «Faust» es ist, aus der verschiedenen Kombination dieser Buchstaben hervorgeht. Wir können wirklich das Leben und Weben höherer Welten und ihrer Wesenheiten schauen hinter einem Menschenschicksal. Aber diese Anschauung kann, wie gesagt, noch vertieft werden. Wir haben es schon erwähnt: Wenn der Mensch durchgeht durch das, was wir die Mondensphäre genannt haben, dann lebt er in Gemeinschaft mit den nun in dieser Sphäre befindlichen Urlehrern der Menschheit. Er lebt in dem ganzen Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt zusammen mit jenen Menschenseelen, die auch durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind und ihr weiteres geistiges Leben in dem Dasein zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt finden; namentlich mit jenen Menschenseelen, mit denen er in irgendeiner Weise karmisch zusammenhängt. Aber der Mensch lebt schon in der Mondensphäre mit den Wesenheiten, die wir dann nennen Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, und et lebt weiter, indem er durch die folgenden Sphären durchgeht, mit immer höheren und immer höheren Wesenheiten zusammen. Es ist nicht ganz richtig, so abzugrenzen, daß man einer jeden Sternensphäre ganz genau irgendeine Hierarchie zuerteilt. So ist es nicht in Wirklichkeit. Aber im ganzen können wir doch sagen, daß Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi mit uns zusammenkommen, bevor wir in die Sonnensphäre eintreten, daß wir uns dann hineinleben in alles das, was wir zu schaffen haben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt mit den Wesenheiten der Hierarchie Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, allmählich aber uns jetzt in unbestimmter Weise weiter hineinleben in die Sphäre der Throne, Cherubim, Seraphim, indem wir Mars und Jupiter entgegenleben. Genau stimmt nicht irgendeine Hierarchie mit einem Planetengebilde, einer Planetensphäre zusammen. Aber ein anderes gilt, das uns auch wichtig sein wird, wenn wir auf die Einzelheiten der karmischen Zusammenhänge eingehen werden.
Wir müssen uns nur eine ganz bestimmte Vorstellung aneignen, die vielleicht zunächst etwas sonderbar erscheint, wenn man herkommt aus den Gewohnheiten, die man im Denken und Empfinden auf der Erde hat. Wenn wir als Menschen auf der Erde stehen und uns hineinfühlen in das Dasein, dann denken wir, das Irdische sei unmittelbar um uns herum, auf der Erdoberfläche, unter der Erdoberfläche, ein wenig darüber, im Umkreis, und wir senden wohl aus einer bestimmten Empfindung heraus den Blick über uns hinaus, wenn wir zu dem sogenannten Überirdischen hinschauen wollen. Wir erblicken dann in unserem Gemüte das Überirdische als etwas, was oben über uns steht. Nun ist es sonderbar, aber doch eben wahr: Wenn wir selber in denjenigen Sphären sind, auf die wir da von der Erde aus als zu dem Überirdischen hinaufschauen, dann tritt für uns gerade das Umgekehrte ein. Dann schauen wir aus jenen überirdischen Welten auf das Irdische herunter, und in gewissem Sinne schauen wir während unseres ganzen Daseins zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt auf das Irdische herunter. Sie werden fragen: Erleben wir denn das Irdische nicht schon hier auf Erden genügend, um vom Überirdischen, gewissermaßen wie zu einem unterirdischen Himmel, herunterzuschauen auf dieses Irdische in dem Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt? - Wenn man das aber einsehen will, so muß man eben durchaus ein anderes ins Auge fassen. Das, was wir hier erblicken auf der Erde, wenn wir innerhalb der Haut in unserem physischen Körper leben zwischen Geburt und Tod, was wir um uns und in den Weltenweiten erblicken, es ist ja gewiß großartig, majestätisch, es erhebt Sinn, Herz und Gemüt, bringt uns in tragisch leidvolle, schmerzensreiche Situationen, es ist ein reiches Leben. Und hier auf der Erde stehend wird sich der Mensch leicht sagen: Gegenüber der Majestät und Größe alles dessen, namentlich des Sternenhimmels, das er auf diese Weise. überblicken kann als seine Außenwelt, ist nur ein Unbedeutendes, was innerhalb unserer Haut lebt, was wir als physische Menschen zwischen Geburt und Tod hier auf der Erde sind. - Allein so ist es eben nicht für die Anschauung, die wir haben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Da ist alles das, was für uns auf Erden hier Außenwelt ist, unsere Innenwelt. Wir vergrößern uns allmählich in die Sphären der Welt hinein. Dasjenige, was wir als uns selber spüren, wird immer größer und größer. Und wenn wir auf irdische Weise aussprechen würden, was wir da erleben, so müssen wir uns folgendes sagen.
Hier auf der Erde sagen wir «mein Herz» und meinen damit etwas, was innerhalb unserer Haut ist. Wenn wir in dem Leben stehen zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, sagen wir nicht «mein Herz», sondern wir sagen «meine Sonne». Denn die Sonne ist dann in einem gewissen Stadium zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, nachdem wir ins Weltenall hinausgewachsen sind, so in uns, wie auf der Erde unser Herz in uns ist, und ebenso die übrigen Sternenwelten in ihrer geistigen Art, wie ich sie beschrieben habe. Dagegen wird Außenwelt für uns alles das, was innerhalb der menschlichen Haut liegt. Sie müssen sich nicht vorstellen, daß das dann so aussieht, wie es sich präsentiert, wenn der Schulanatom eine Leiche seziert. So sieht es nicht aus, sondern es sieht majestätischer und größer aus als das ganze Weltengebäude, das wir von der Erde aus hier als diese äußere Welt überblicken können. In demjenigen, was sich für die physischen Sinne nur präsentiert als Herz, Lunge, Leber und so weiter, in alledem zeigt sich von dem Gesichtspunkte, den wir einnehmen zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, eine großartige, gewaltige Welt, größer als die Welt, die wir vom irdischen Gesichtspunkte aus hier überblicken.
Und ein anderes Eigentümliches tritt auf. Sie werden sagen: Nun ja, aber jeder Mensch hat dann doch diese Welt, und so viele Welten werden dann durch den Tod getragen, als eben Menschen sterben. Man müßte also eigentlich nach dem Tode so unendlich viele Welten sehen, als man Menschen erblickt nach dem Tode. -— Aber das Geheimnis liegt darinnen, daß man erstens alle diejenigen Menschen, mit denen man in irgendeiner Weise karmisch verbunden ist, als eine Einheit sieht, als eine einheitliche Welt. Und an diese Menschen, mit denen man karmisch verbunden ist, schließen sich die anderen an, die auch mehr oder weniger, wenn auch nicht so streng, sich zu einer Einheit und, wiederum mit uns verbunden, mit uns sich zu einer Einheit verbinden. Denn es wird eben alles anders, wenn man von der physisch-sinnlichen Welt in die geistige Welt eintritt. Es ist gewiß manches für den, der nicht gewohnt ist, in solchen Vorstellungen zu empfinden, paradox. Aber hie und da soll man doch auf die Eigentümlichkeiten der geistigen Welt, wie sie sich der Initiationsweisheit zeigen, hinweisen. Sehen Sie, hier in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt kann man zählen: eins, zwei, drei; man kann sogar - wenn auch nicht gerade jetzt - Geld zählen in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt; aber das Zählen hat in der geistigen Welt nicht eigentlich einen Sinn. Da bedeutet die Zahl nichts Besonderes, da ist alles mehr oder weniger Einheit, und jene Unterscheidung, die man haben muß zwischen den Dingen, wenn man sie zählt, wo eins neben dem anderen sein muß, gibt es nicht in der geistigen Welt. Es muß schon manches ganz anders für die geistige Welt beschrieben werden als für die physisch-sinnliche Welt. Und so ist dasjenige, was hier eigentlich im Physischen menschliches Innere ist, eben vom Gesichtspunkte der geistigen Welt aus ganz anders, als es sich hier ausnimmt. Großartig und gewaltig ist der Menschenbau, großartiger und gewaltiger als der von der Erde aus überschaubare Himmelsbau. Und das, was wir uns erarbeiten in Gemeinschaft mit den höheren Hierarchien für das nächste Erdenleben, das da folgt auf das Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, das muß ja in den Menschenbau hineinpassen, das muß ein Seelisch-Geistiges sein, das den Menschenbau durchdringt und durchdringend belebt. Denn wie entwickelt sich dieses Menschenleben auf der Erde?
Wir bekommen durch unsere Eltern, wenn wir hineingeboren werden in das Erdenleben aus unserem vorirdischen Dasein, scheinbar ganz den physischen Leib. Und die Sache könnte sich so ausnehmen — aber sie ist nicht in Wirklichkeit so -, als ob wir mit einem SeelischGeistigen herunterkämen aus der übersinnlichen Welt, aus dem vorirdischen Dasein, und uns mit dem, was uns die Eltern zurechtlegen in der physischen Welt, was sich im Mutterleibe ausbildet, uns bloß äußerlich verbinden würden. Aber so ist es ja nicht, sondern in Wirklichkeit ist es so: Dasjenige, was wir in unserem physischen Leibe in physischer Substanz haben, das ändert sich ja fortwährend. Es geht fortwährend weg und wird neu ersetzt. Sie brauchen ja nur an Ihre Fingernägel und an Ihre Haare zu denken. Die Fingernägel schneiden Sie ab, sie wachsen immer nach. Aber das ist nur das Äußerliche; in Wirklichkeit schuppt der Mensch nach außen fortwährend ab und ersetzt das von innen neu, von dem inneren Mittelpunkt aus, was er abschuppt nach außen hin. Er schiebt fortwährend die Materie nach außen, stößt sie ab. Und nach sieben bis acht Jahren ist es so, daß wir alles, was wir als physische Substanz vor sieben Jahren in uns gehabt haben, abgestoßen und neu ersetzt haben. Sehen Sie, es ist schon so: Ich habe ja die Freude gehabt, vor sieben Jahren vor einigen hier in Breslau zu sprechen. Es sind auch die Freunde auf Stühlen vor mir gesessen. Aber von dieser physischen Materie, die dazumal auf den Stühlen war, ist keine mehr heute da: alles ist fort, alles ist ersetzt durch andere physische Materie, und dasjenige, was geblieben ist, ist die geistig-seelische Individualität. Die war allerdings schon da, bevor sie geboren wurde, im vorirdischen Dasein. Die war in früheren Erdenleben da, die ist sozusagen treu. Aber die Substanz des physischen Leibes, die dazumal auf den Stühlen saß, ist längst in alle Winde und in andere Weltengegenden hin verflogen.
Nun, dieser Austausch, der alle sieben bis acht Jahre erfolgt, der erfolgt von der Geburt an. Wir bekommen nämlich von unseren Eltern übermittelt das Substantielle und seine Gestaltung nur bis zum Zahnwechsel hin. Dasjenige, was wir dann substantiell formen, das machen wir aus unserer Individualität heraus. Dieser Zahnwechsel ist etwas ganz Wichtiges. Wir haben von den Eltern überkommen bis zum Zahnwechsel ein Modell; dieses Modell ist den Eltern ähnlich, da liegen die vererbten Eigenschaften. Unsere geistig-seelische Individualität formt nach dieser Modell langsam den zweiten Körper, der von dem Zahnwechsel bis zur Geschlechtsreife existiert und dann wieder abgestoßen wird; dann beginnt der dritte Körper. Aber das, was wir in Wirklichkeit erben, so daß die vererbten Eigenschaften bleiben, rührt davon her, daß wir diese in unserem zweiten Körper dem Modell nachbilden. Das, was wir später dem Modell nachgebildet haben, das ordnen wir in Gemäßheit desjenigen, was wir uns als eine unbewußte Kunst, den menschlichen Organismus aus seinen Geheimnissen heraus zu formen, im vorirdischen Dasein erwerben. Zu nichts anderem dient uns der erste Körper bis zum Zahnwechsel, als daß wir uns gemäß unserem Karma den Eltern ähnlich machen. Die eigentlichen Geheimnisse, die tiefen, umfassenden Geheimnisse, nach denen der menschliche Organismus aufgebaut ist als das wunderbare Nachbild des äußeren Himmelsgebäudes, die müssen wir ihrem innersten Wesen nach lernen in dem Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Und da hinein müssen wir zurückleben lernen, nachdem wir die Hälfte des Sonnendaseins durchgemacht haben. Lernen müssen wir, uns in die zweite Hälfte hineinzuleben, die uns veranlaßt, die Triebe unseres Karma auszubilden. Da schauen wir wieder hinein in ein wunderbares Geschehen, das abfließt zwischen uns und den Wesen der höheren Hierarchien in dem Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt.
Wie wir hier auf der Erde mit Mineralien, Pflanzen, Tieren, mit anderen Menschen umgehen, so gehen wir zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt nicht mit Mineralien um, sondern mit anderen Menschenseelen in der beschriebenen Weise, aber nun, statt mit den Mineralien, Pflanzen, Tieren, mit Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi, und bilden mit ihnen zusammen unser Karma. Und während dieser ganzen Zeit schauen wir auf das untere Irdische hier, in dem sich unser Karma ausleben muß, sehnsüchtig hin wie auf etwas, nach dem alle unsere Gemütskräfte, unsere Sehnsuchten gehen, so wie wir sehnsüchtig innerhalb unserer Gemütskräfte zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode hier auf Erden hinschauen nach oben zu dem Himmlischen. Und nun ist es so, daß wir, indem wir aufsteigen in die Mondensphäre, Merkursphäre, Venussphäre, hineinwachsen in die Wesenheiten der Hierarchie der Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi. In diesen haben wir die Richter über unser Gutes und Böses, und in dem Sinne, wie ich das in den vorigen Vorträgen ausgeführt habe, auch über unsere Verstümmelung. Denn wir werden seelisch-geistig verstümmelt durch das Böse. Da haben wir die Beurteiler, da stehen wir zunächst im kosmischen Urteile darinnen. Kommen wir im Sonnendasein an, so kommen wir zu Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. Wir stehen in der Reihe der Wesenheiten drinnen, die nicht bloß Urteiler, sondern Arbeiter an unserem Karma sind.
Diese Wesenheiten, Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, sind nun vorzugsweise Sonnenbewohner, damit aber natürlich Bewohner des ganzen Weltenalls. Sie gehören ihrem Wesen nach geistigen Welten an. Aber es bedarf der Mittler zwischen den geistigen Welten und den physisch-sinnlichen Welten, und die Vermittler sind die Throne, Cherubim und Seraphim. Sie haben deshalb ihren höheren Rang im geistigen Kosmos, weil sie die Mächtigeren sind, nicht bloß geistig im geistigen Erleben, sondern weil sie dieses Geistige, das sie im Geistigen erleben, dann im Physischen verwirklichen. Wenn wir zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt sind und so, wie ich es beschrieben habe, sehnsüchtig auf die Erde herabblicken, dann schauen wir, indem wir uns bewußt sind, auf das Irdische herunterzuschauen, eigentlich, was Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne Merkwürdiges miteinander erleben. Wir schauen also herunter, sehen Erlebnisse gegenseitig sich vollziehender Taten zwischen Seraphim, Cherubim, Thronen, Taten, die uns tief erschüttern. Wir lernen allmählich diese Taten verstehen, diese Taten, die sich abspielen zwischen Seraphim und Seraphim, Cherubim und Cherubim, Thronen und Thronen, und wieder zwischen Thronen und Seraphim, Thronen und Cherubim und so weiter. Die tun da etwas, etwas gerecht Ausgleichendes, von dem wir das Gefühl haben, das gehe uns etwas an, wenn wir es allmählich verstehen lernen. Was ist das? Das ist das Bild, das sich im Weltgeschehen ergibt aus dem, was wir waren im vorigen Erdenleben im Guten und im Bösen. Das Gute muß gute, das Böse muß böse Folgen haben. Die Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne, die gestalten die Folgen desjenigen, was wir gesät haben auf Erden, unter sich aus. Was wir als böse Taten verübt haben, hat böse Folgen im Kosmischen. Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne sehen wir in einem Tun darinnen, das die Folge unserer bösen Taten ist. Und wir lernen allmählich erkennen, daß in der Weltenentwickelung dasjenige, was unter Seraphim, Cherubim, Thronen geschieht, das himmlische Ausleben unseres Karma ist, bevor wir es irdisch ausleben können. Die Erschütterung verstärkt sich dadurch, ‘daß wir uns nun sagen mit all der Kraft, die wir haben können in dem geistigen Leben, das wir zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt verbringen: Das, was die Cherubim, Seraphim, Throne erleben in ihrem Götterdasein, das erfährt seinen richtigen Ausgleich, wenn wir es im nächsten Erdenleben von uns aus erfahren.
Unser Karma wird so durch Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne zuerst überirdisch vorgelebt. Ja, die Götter sind in ihrer Geistigkeit von allem Irdischen die Schöpfer. Da müssen sie zuerst alles selber durchleben. Sie erleben es in der Sphäre des Geistigen; dann wird es hier unten verwirklicht in der Sphäre des Sinnlich-Physischen. Auch dasjenige, was wir als unser Karma erleben, das erleben Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne in ihrem Götterdasein voraus, und damit ist die Summe der Kräfte geschaffen, die unset Karma formt. So erleben wir das Dasein der planetarischen Sphären, so erleben wir dasjenige, was auf Merkur geschieht, als Urteil zunächst der Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi. Aber da mischen sich dazwischen wieder Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne, um uns unser Karma vorzuleben. Und so erleben wir in uns selbst, was wir durch unsere vorigen Taten der Welt schuldig geworden sind, so erleben wir im Göttervorbild dasjenige, was geschehen soll durch unser Leben. Das ist ein kompliziertes Erleben, aber ein solches, das eben dem irdischen Leben durchaus als das überirdische Leben zugrunde liegt. Und dann, wenn wir so Ahnungen davon bekommen, wie reichhaltig dieses Leben ist zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, und wenn wir dessen Inhalt zusammenfügen mit dem Inhalt des irdischen Lebens, dann bekommen wir erst eine gültige, eine wirkliche Vorstellung von dem, was eigentlich durch den Menschen, am Menschen, im Menschen in der Welt geschieht. Da wird allerdings unsere menschliche Selbsterkenntnis erst in der richtigen Weise vertieft, durchseelt und durchgeistigt. Und erst, wenn man das, was nun auch im Verlaufe des irdischen Menschenlebens geschieht, so betrachtet, daß man es auf dem Hintergrunde dessen sieht, was in der geistigen Welt vor sich geht, dann betrachtet man dieses Leben in seiner Wahrheit.
Nun, wir sehen hier auf der Erde Menschen auftreten. Durch die Geburt werden sie Kinder, sie wachsen heran, sie treten mit diesem oder jenem Lebensschicksal genießend, schaffend, arbeitend auf, tragen diese oder jene Fähigkeit an sich. Aus den Fähigkeiten, aus den Taten der Menschen, aus den Gedanken, Empfindungen der Menschen setzt sich ja auch das geschichtliche Leben der Menschen im Laufe der Zeit zusammen. Aber alle die Menschen, die so in ein Erdenleben hineintreten, das zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode verfließt, alle diese Menschen haben frühere Erdenleben durchgemacht, in denen sie das Irdische auf eine etwas andere Weise erlebt haben, das Irdische auf eine andere Weise gestaltet haben. In allen folgenden Erdenleben machen sich die Wirkungen der früheren Erdenleben geltend. Aber verstehen können wir diesen ganzen Zusammenhang doch nur, wenn wir auch hineinblicken in die Lebensepochen zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt.
Dann kommen wir auch zu einer richtigen Auffassung des geschichtlichen Lebens. Denn dann wird gleich alles für uns so, daß wir uns sagen: Das, was in einer Erdenepoche auftritt durch Menschen, das gliedert sich einer früheren Erdenepoche an. Aber wie kommt dasjenige, was in früheren Erdenepochen geschieht, in die späteren hinüber? - Die Geschichtsschreiber haben das lange so beschrieben, daß sie einfach die in der Geschichte aufeinander folgenden Tatsachen notierten. Da konnte man gar nicht einsehen, wie das Spätere auf das Frühere folgt. Dann sind einige gekommen, die haben gesagt: Da wirken Ideen in der Geschichte, und die Ideen verwirklichen sich ja. Derjenige, der real denkt, kann sich nichts dabei vorstellen, daß Ideen sich verwirklichen sollen. Da sind. dann die anderen gekommen, die materialistischen Geschichtsauffasser, und die haben gesagt: Ideen das ist Wischi-Waschi! Es verwirklichen sich nur wirtschaftliche Zusammenhänge, und aus denen geht alles hervor. - Es kam die mechanistische, materialistische Geschichtsauffassung.
Das alles ist eigentlich ein Herumplätschern an der Oberfläche. In Wirklichkeit wird dasjenige, was in früheren Geschichtsepochen geschehen ist, durch die Menschen selber in die späteren hinübergetragen. Die Menschen, die hier sitzen, sie alle lebten ja in früheren Geschichtsepochen. Dasjenige, was Sie selber tun, ist die Folge dessen, was Sie in früheren Leben getan haben. So ist es mit allem Großen, mit allem Kleinen, das im Laufe der Geschichte geschieht. Durch die Menschenseelen selber wird das Frühere in das Spätere hinübergetragen. Dadurch wird erst die menschliche Lebensauffassung vertieft, daß man den Menschen als den Träger auch des geschichtlichen Werdens ansehen kann. Man kann ihn so ansehen, aber das kann man erst, wenn man im Menschenleben anlangt bei demjenigen, was zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt in den Sternensphären durch die Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien zusammen mit den Menschen geschieht.
Lassen Sie uns das an einem Beispiel veranschaulichen. Da war in einer verhältnismäßig frühen Zeit, so etwa gerade in der Zeit, die hart an die Begründung des Christentums herankommt, ein Initiierter verkörpert im Orient, im indischen Leben. Dadurch, daß diese Individualität in ihrer irdischen Verkörperung im indischen Leben schlechte Augen hatte - man muß so auf die Einzelheiten eingehen, wenn man karmische Zusammenhänge bespricht -, hatte sie über alles mehr oder weniger oberflächlich hinweggeschaut. Sie stand eben drinnen in der mystischen indischen Lebensauffassung, ging dann durch andere Verkörperungen hindurch, die weniger Bedeutung hatten. Dann aberging sie durch ein Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt durch, in dem alles das, was dieser Individualität sich auf der Seele abgelagert hatte im indischen oberflächlichen Erleben, nun ausgebildet wurde in der Merkursphäre, zum Teil in der Venussphäre, zum Teil in der Marssphäre. Da wirkte es mit Wesen der höheren Hierarchien zusammen, um das in einer gewissen Weise zu formen. Nun ist es bei den meisten Menschen so, daß vorzugsweise aus einer Sternensphäre heraus das Karma charakteristisch gebildet wird. Da aber ergab sich durch dieses Zusammenwirken eine Individualität, wo an der Formung der inneren Fähigkeiten, an der karmischen Umgestaltung der Fähigkeiten, die aus einem indischen Erleben einmal hervorgegangen warten, fast gleichmäßig arbeiteten die Merkur-, die Venus- und die Marssphäre. Diese Individualität trat im neunzehnten Jahrhundert als eine Persönlichkeit auf und wurde als solche Fleinrich Feine.
Nun, schauen wir uns ein solches Beispiel an, das ja durch ganz besonders gewissenhafte geistige Forschung aus den Tiefen des geistigen Lebens auf die Oberfläche gebracht worden ist. Der steife oberflächliche Philister würde sagen: Da geht mir das ganze Aroma von der Persönlichkeit weg; die will ich in ihren elementaren Eigenschaften haben. - Mag der steife Philister das sagen, er hat auch seine Menschenrechte, und sogar nach seinem Karma hat er das Recht des steifen Philisters. Aber er gelangt eben nur bis zu einem gewissen Grad der Wahrheit. Schaut man tiefer in die Tratsachen hinein, dann kommen eben die Unter- und Hintergründe der Wahrheit, der Wirklichkeit zu Tage. Und da muß man schon sagen: Das Leben, auch das Leben des einzelnen Menschen wird nicht ärmer in seiner Bedeutung, sondern unendlich reicher, wenn man es auf solchen Untergründen betrachtet; wenn man wirklich herausglänzen sieht aus diesem problematischen, fragmentarischen Heine-Leben des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts dasjenige, was einmal eine indische Inkarnation war und was dann durch alle die Einflüsse als Folgen aus einem früheren Dasein in Merkur, Venus und Mars durchgemacht werden kann: im Marsdasein, wo ein gewisser aggressiver Sinn für das folgende Erdendasein ausgebildet wird, wo also das, was angeeignet worden war in einem früheren Erdenleben, als eine besondere Fähigkeit in einen gewissen aggressiven Sinn sich hineinentwickelte, im Merkurdasein, wo sich die Seele erwerben kann, da diese Fähigkeit karmisch ja besonders im Merkurdasein ausgebildet wird, ein Hinflattern über Empfindungen und Begriffe, und im Venusdasein, wo wiederum ein gewisses Geistig-Erotisches hereinkommen konnte in die menschlichen Vorstellungskräfte.
Wir schauen also, indem wir so ein Menschenleben überblicken, zu gleicher Zeit in das Weltendasein hinein, und dasjenige, was wir so im Menschen sehen, das ist wahrhaftig nicht ärmer als das, was wir in der sogenannten unmittelbar elementarischen Betrachtung, die nur eine Philisterbetrachtung ist, haben. Es ist schon so, daß man sieht, wie das frühere Geschichtliche in das spätere hinübergetragen wird, und wie die Vermittler die Sternenwelten sind mit ihren Wesenheiten. Dadurch wird Geschichte erst eine Wirklichkeit, sonst bleibt sie Buchstabe, zweiunddreißig Buchstaben. Dann aber beginnen wir zu lesen in der Geschichte, wenn wir sehen, wie hinter den einzelnen Menschenschicksalen ganze Götterwelten-Taten stehen, nur noch grandioser, gewaltiger ausgebreitet als das Geschichtswerden der Menschheit, in das wir immer hineinverwoben finden die menschlichen Einzelschicksale.
Und nehmen wir ein anderes Beispiel. Da gibt es eine Individualität, die eine für die damalige Zeit gründliche Ausbildung erworben hatte in der Zeit, als auf der Erde der Islam sich ausbreitete durch Nordafrika nach Spanien. Da gab es in Nordafrika noch Schulen, die so ähnlich waren wie die Schule, in welcher der heilige Augustinus ausgebildet worden ist; aber es war schon in einer späteren Zeit, die Schule war in Dekadenz. Diese Individualität lernte vieles, was eigentümlich diesen Schulen war, was noch vieles von den alten Mysterien, aber im Niedergange, in sich enthielt. Dann wurde diese Individualität verschlagen nach Spanien, kam dann in Zusammenhang nicht mit späterer, aber mit der früheren jüdischen kabbalistischen Schule, nahm wieder vieles auf aus der Früh-, nicht aus der Spätkabbalistik und wurde ein Geist, der so etwas Manichäisch-Kabbalistisches in einer großen inneren Geläufigkeit in der Seele hatte. Diese Individualität fand nun ihre Weiterentwickelung in einem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, und da insbesondere in Gemeinschaft mit den Wesenheiten, die mit dem Marsdasein zu tun haben. Sie eignete sich im Marsdasein an einen gewissen aggressiven Sinn, aber auch wieder außer diesem aggressiven Sinn die Leichtigkeit der Sprache, geradezu etwas Verführerisches in der Sprachgabe, die Leichtigkeit in der sprachlichen Behandlung von allen möglichen Problemen, die sie so in ihrem Inneren aus ihrem früheren Erdenleben hatte. Damit verkörperte sie sich im achtzehnten Jahrhundert, wurde Voltaire.
Sehen Sie, zu wissen, daß das Voltaire-Dasein zurückführt auf Erlebnisse, die sogar ähnlich waren denen des Augustinus in seiner Jugend, die ähnlich waren den späteren kabbalistischen Erlebnissen, mit all diesem Ironischen, das in der Ur-Kabbalistik vorhanden war, zu wissen, daß das alles da ist, so zu überschauen den Zusammenhang, auch wiederum hineinzuschauen dutch das Zusammenhalten der zwei irdischen Leben in dasjenige, was dazwischen liegt, zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt: das macht die Welt erst ganz, das führt erst hinein in die Wirklichkeit. Wir haben, wenn wir die Erdenleben überblicken, zunächst ganz Unzusammenhängendes in den aufeinanderfolgenden Erdenleben. Man sieht nicht, wie das eine in das andere hineinragt. Aber das sind ja außerdem nur Fragmente. Das, was dazwischen liegt, wird nicht gesehen; aber die Wirklichkeit umfaßt alles dies zusammen. Und es ist schon so, daß man eigentlich an die Wirklichkeit nur herandringt, wenn man nicht nur die Natur, sondern wenn man auch das Menschenwesen nach seinen geistigen Hintergründen betrachtet.
In dieser Beziehung muß es schon so sein, daß von jetzt ab ein neuer Zug in unsere Bewegung hineinkommt. Als die Deutsche Sektion der Theosophischen Gesellschaft in Berlin begründet worden ist, 1902, da kündigte ich an als meinen ersten Vortrag, den ich dazumal halten wollte, «Praktische Karmaübungen». Ja nun, angekündigt war der Vortrag, gehalten konnte er nicht werden aus dem einfachen Grunde, weil ja die gegebenen Verhältnisse da waren. Da waren die verschiedenen alten Mitglieder der theosophischen Bewegung, die hatten so ihre Vorstellungen von dem, was man sagen darf, was man nicht sagen darf; danach hatte sich aber das ganze Milieu, die ganze Atmosphäre gebildet. Die, welche die Leiter waren, wären ja Kopf gestanden, wenn man dazumal begonnen hätte, über praktische Karmaübungen zu sprechen. Es war einfach die theosophische Bewegung nicht reif dazu. Es mußte erst vieles vorbereitet werden. Und in der TT’at, die Vorbereitung hat zwei Jahrzehnte gedauert, mehr noch. Aber bei der Weihnachtstagung ist der Impuls ausgegossen worden, nun rückhaltlos nicht bloß dasjenige, was über die natürlichen Gebiete des Geistigen erforscht werden kann, zu enthüllen, sondern rückhaltlos auch dasjenige zu enthüllen, was über die menschlichen Gebiete des Geistes so erforscht werden kann. Es wird daher in der Zukunft rückhaltlos gesprochen werden innerhalb der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft über dasjenige, was doch schon von Anfang an in der Absicht lag, wozu aber diese Anthroposophische Gesellschaft erst allmählich heranreifen mußte. Das ist auch etwas, was als ein esoterischer Zug durch die Weihnachtstagung in die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft hineingekommen ist. Die Weihnachtstagung war wirklich keine Spielerei, sondern das Übernehmen neuer Verantwortlichkeiten gerade vom Geistgebiete aus für die anthroposophische Bewegung.
Sehen Sie, wenn man hinschauen kann auf dasjenige, was zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt liegt, so kann einem gerade dadurch klar werden, wie mannigfaltig, wie vielseitig die Welt ist. Denn wenn man auf der einen Seite sagt: In der Marssphäre wird angeregt für das spätere Erdenleben der aggressive Sinn, die Sprachgeschicklichkeit, die Sprachgewaltigkeit -, so ist das nur eine Seite; es werden auch andere Seiten innerhalb des Marslebens angeregt. Und so ist es zum Beispiel auch beim Jupiter. Die Jupitersphäre und ihre Wesenheiten erlebt man, wenn man mit der Initiationseinsicht zurückschaut auf dasjenige, was man zwischen dem neunundvierzigsten und sechsundfünfzigsten Jahre erschaut und auslöscht die Selbstbeobachtung. Da kann man schon von dem Anblicke dessen, was it Jupiter geschieht, etwas erschüttert werden. Denn diese Jupiterwesen sind doch ganz anders als die Menschen. Nehmen wir nur eine Eigenschaft der Menschen, die ja nun an sich mehr oder weniger häufig ist, nehmen wir die Weisheit. Die Menschen sagen: Wir sind weise. — Aber wie schwer erringt sich der Mensch diese Weisheit! Wenn das auch nur ein bißchen Weisheit ist, so ist das etwas schwer Errungenes. Da muß man vieles innerlich durchringen, um sich auf einem Gebiete nur ein bißchen Weisheit zu erwerben. Das alles haben die Jupiterwesen nicht nötig. Die werden mit der Weisheit - ich kann nicht sagen geboren, denn so wie auf der Erde das Entstehen der Menschen im Embryo geschieht, so geschieht nicht das Entstehen der Jupiterwesen. Da müssen Sie sich vorstellen, daß in der Umgebung des Jupiter so etwas ist wie um die Erde die Wolkengebilde. Wenn Sie sich nun vorstellen, aus den Wolken heraus formten sich die Menschenkörper und flögen dann auf die Erde herunter, so würde dies die Art sein, wie auf dem Jupiter aus einer Art von Wolken die neuen Wesen sich herausgestalten, aber so, daß diese Wesen, die etwa aus den Wolken herausflögen, eben die Weisheit zu ihrer Grundeigenschaft haben würden. Wie wir eine Blutzirkulation haben, so haben sie die Weisheit. Aber sie ist kein Verdienst, kein Errungenes, sie haben sie eben. Dadurch denken sie auch ganz anders als die Menschen. Das wirkt zwar erschütternd, aber man muß sich nach und nach an diesen Anblick gewöhnen. Und das ist alles auf dem Jupiter durchdrungen und durchzogen, wie wir auf der Erde von Luft durchdrungen sind, von Weisheit. Die Weisheit ist dort substantiell, sie strömt auf dem Jupiter in Wind und Wettern herum, ergießt sich auf den Jupiter, zieht als Nebel in die Höhe. Das sind aber immer wiederum Wesen, die in einem Weisheitsnebel aufsteigen. Darin nun leben vorzugsweise die Cherubim, die in diesem Zusammenhange an dem menschlichen Karma mit den Menschen zusammen formen. Aber es leben darin auch andere Impulse. Das gilt aber unbedingt: Was ein Mensch in einem früheren Erdenleben durchgemacht hat, wird karmisch zusammengeformt durch die Kräfte der Weisheit, der selbstverständlichen Weisheit. Er kommt dann auf die Erde herunter und trägt das Gepräge desjenigen, was sich dadurch ergibt, daß er früher auf der Erde Erlebtes in selbstverständliche Weisheit zusammengeformt hat, die dann nur auf die verschiedenste Weise zum Ausdruck kommt. Auch dafür ein Beispiel.
Da ist eine Individualität, die führt uns zurück ins alte Griechenland, so in eine Art platonischer, aber zugleich auch bildhauerischer Atmosphäre. Eine wichtigste Inkarnation hat diese Individualität in dieser plastischen Zeit Griechenlands erlebt als Bildhauer. Das, was sie da erlebt hat, trug sie in spätere Zwischenverkörperungen, die weniger wichtig waren, hinein. Das ist eine Individualität, die ihr Karma ausarbeitete für ihre vorläufig letzte Erdeninkarnation besonders in der Sphäre der Weisheit Jupiters.
Eine andere Individualität führt uns zurück in die Zeiten, bevor Amerika von Europa aus bevölkert worden ist, nach Mittelamerika, nach Mexiko. Da lebte sie in den verfallenden Mysterien der früheren mexikanischen Urbevölkerung. Sie lernte da kennen, als die Zusammenhänge der dortigen Menschen, der Mysterienschüler, mit den geistigen Wesen noch lebendig waren, dasjenige, was da lebte als mexikanische Götter. Heute reden Leute, die gelehrt sind, ja auch wieder - ein besonderes Karma, aber ein für die Menschen nicht besonders glückliches Karma - über diese Götter, Quetzalkoatl, Tetzkatlipoka und Taotl; doch man bekommt durch diese Beschreibungen kaum viel mehr als die Namen. Aber die Individualität, von der ich Ihnen spreche, die lebte lebendig darinnen, wenn auch in den verfallenden Mysterien. Für die war so ein Gott Taotl, Quetzalkoatl, etwas Lebendiges. Es waren das in der Tat zauberische, lebendige Wesenheiten. Und dort, in den verfallenden Mysterien des Quetzalkoatl, da lebte sie sich auch hinein in einen damals schon ganz abergläubischen, magischen Inhalt, in solch eine Wesenheit wie Tetzkatlipoka - Tetzkatlipoka ist eine Art Schlangengott gewesen, mit dem man sich astral verbunden fühlte -, und das wurde für sie intensiv lebendig. Diese Individualität ging dann nicht durch andere Inkarnationen, nachdem sie ihr Leben zwischen Tod und einer neuen Geburt erlebt hatte, wie jene andere, die noch Zwischeninkarnationen durchmachte, als Mann in Griechenland gelebt hatte und dann durch weibliche Inkarnationen durchging. Diese Individualität lebte als Mann innerhalb der mexikanischen Mysterien, ging in dem Leben zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt durch die Jupitersphäre der Weisheit und lebte dann gerade im achtzehnten, neunzehnten Jahrhundert. Die Individualität, die in Griechenland gelebt hatte, ging auch durch die Jupitersphäre, wie man eben durchgehen kann, wenn man Bildhauer war und zugleich auf griechische Art erlebt hatte diese plastische Vorstellungsweise, die ‘dazumal auch wirklich lebendig war. Sie prägte dieses Plastische, das in Griechenland an der Gestaltung des Menschen erlebt werden konnte, um in gestaltendes Auffassen der ganzen Welt in der Weisheitssphäre des Jupiter, wo alle diese Weisheit substantiell vorhanden ist, kam dann in einen Menschenleib mit ihrer durch den Jupiter ausgeprägten Griechenheit und wurde als Goethe wiedergeboren.
Die andere Individualität ging auch durch die Jupitersphäre, prägte dasjenige, was man erfahren konnte in den mexikanischen Mysterien, dann auch um in der Jupitersphäre. Aber es konnte nicht dasselbe in der Jupitersphäre entstehen aus einem Erdenleben, das in Griechenland so erlebt worden ist, wie ich es geschildert habe, und aus einem Erdenleben, das in Mexiko so erlebt wurde, wie ich es geschildert habe. Beides ist durch die Weisheitssphäre des Jupiter gegangen, aber beides ist so geworden, wie es werden mußte gemäß den Gestaltungskräften aus dem früheren Leben. Die Individualität, die durch die mexikanischen Mysterien gegangen ist, ging durch die Jupitersphäre, wurde wiedergeboren als Eliphas Levi. Da haben Sie in einer merkwürdigen Weise in Weisheit umgewandelt magisch-rituelle Handlungen, magische Kulte. Es ist eben minderwertiges Jupiterkarma, trotzdem außerordentlich geistvolles, weisheitsvolles. Man sieht daran, wie zusammenwirken dasjenige, was der Mensch im Erdenleben erfahren hat, und dasjenige, was er zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt wird. Es wird durchaus das spätere Leben nach dem früheren Leben gebildet, aber in mannigfaltiger Weise kann durch die gleiche Sphäre umgeprägt werden im Karma dasjenige, was ein Mensch im Erdenleben durchgemacht hat. Wenn man so ansieht die Gestaltung des menschlichen Lebens im karmischen Sinne, vertieft man erst richtig dieses Menschenleben. Dann bereichert es sich, dann erscheint es erst in seiner ganzen Wirklichkeit, dann kennt man in Wirklichkeit erst den Menschen und das Menschenleben.
Tenth Lecture
The insights we gained yesterday into the background of karma can still be deepened considerably. We have seen how, behind what we call a human destiny, there are worlds compared with which what we usually perceive of a human destiny is like the knowledge of the letters that are peculiar to a language, compared with what, let us say, emerges from the various combinations of these letters in a work such as Goethe's Faust. We can really see the life and weaving of higher worlds and their essences behind a human destiny. But this view can, as I said, be deepened. We have already mentioned that when man passes through what we have called the sphere of the moon, he lives in communion with the primal teachers of humanity who are now in this sphere. He lives in the whole life between death and a new birth together with those human souls who have also passed through the gate of death and find their further spiritual life in the existence between death and a new birth; namely with those human souls with whom he is in some way karmically connected. But the human being already lives in the lunar sphere with the beings we then call Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, and he continues to live together with ever higher and ever higher beings as he passes through the following spheres. It is not quite right to delineate in such a way that one assigns a hierarchy to each star sphere. It is not really like that. But on the whole we can say that Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi come together with us before we enter the solar sphere, that we then live ourselves into all that we have to create between death and new birth with the beings of the Hierarchy Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, but now gradually live ourselves further into the sphere of the Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim in an indeterminate way by living towards Mars and Jupiter. It is not exactly a hierarchy that coincides with a planetary structure, a planetary sphere. But there is another thing that will also be important to us when we go into the details of the karmic connections.
We only need to acquire a very specific mental image, which may seem a little strange at first if you come from the habits of thinking and feeling on Earth. When we as human beings stand on earth and feel our way into existence, then we think that the earthly is directly around us, on the surface of the earth, below the surface of the earth, a little above it, in the periphery, and we probably send our gaze beyond ourselves out of a certain feeling when we want to look towards the so-called supernatural. We then see the supernatural in our minds as something that stands above us. Now it is strange, but nevertheless true: when we ourselves are in those spheres that we look up to from the earth as the supernatural, then the reverse occurs for us. Then we look down from those supernatural worlds to the earthly, and in a certain sense we look down to the earthly during our entire existence between death and a new birth. You will ask: Do we not already experience the earthly sufficiently here on earth to look down from the supermundane, as it were to a subterranean heaven, to this earthly in the life between death and a new birth? - But if you want to understand this, you have to consider something else. What we see here on earth, when we live within our skin in our physical body between birth and death, what we see around us and in the world, it is certainly magnificent, majestic, it elevates our mind, heart and spirit, it brings us into tragically painful, painful situations, it is a rich life. And standing here on earth, man will easily say to himself: Compared to the majesty and greatness of everything, especially the starry sky, which he can survey in this way as his outer world, what lives within our skin, what we are as physical human beings between birth and death here on earth, is only an insignificant thing. - But this is not the case for the view we have between death and a new birth. Everything that is the outer world for us here on earth is our inner world. We gradually expand into the spheres of the world. That which we sense as ourselves becomes larger and larger. And if we were to express what we are experiencing in an earthly way, we would have to say the following to ourselves.
Here on earth we say “my heart” and by this we mean something that is within our skin. When we are in the life between death and a new birth, we do not say “my heart”, but we say “my sun”. For the sun is then in us at a certain stage between death and a new birth, after we have grown out into the universe, just as our heart is in us on earth, and likewise the other starry worlds in their spiritual nature, as I have described them. On the other hand, the outer world is for us everything that lies within the human skin. You need not imagine that this is what it looks like when the school anatomist dissects a corpse. It does not look like that, but it looks more majestic and larger than the whole world structure that we can survey here from the earth as this outer world. In that which presents itself to the physical senses only as heart, lungs, liver and so on, in all this, from the point of view we take between death and a new birth, a magnificent, mighty world appears, greater than the world we can see here from the earthly point of view.
And another peculiarity occurs. You will say: Well, yes, but then every human being has this world, and so many worlds are carried through death as people die. So one should actually see as infinitely many worlds after death as one sees people after death. -- But the secret lies in the fact that, firstly, one sees all those people with whom one is in some way karmically connected as a unit, as a unified world. And these people, with whom one is karmically connected, are joined by the others, who also more or less, though not so strictly, unite to form a unity and, again connected with us, unite with us to form a unity. For everything changes when one enters the spiritual world from the physical-sensual world. It is certainly paradoxical for those who are not used to feeling in such mental images. But here and there one should point out the peculiarities of the spiritual world as they are revealed to initiatory wisdom. You see, here in the physical-sensible world one can count: one, two, three; one can even - though not just now - count money in the physical-sensible world; but counting has no real meaning in the spiritual world. There the number means nothing special, there everything is more or less unity, and the distinction that one must have between things when one counts them, where one must be next to the other, does not exist in the spiritual world. Many things have to be described quite differently for the spiritual world than for the physical-sensual world. And so what is actually the human inner being in the physical world is quite different from the point of view of the spiritual world than it appears here. The human structure is magnificent and mighty, more magnificent and mightier than the heavenly structure that can be seen from the earth. And that which we work out in communion with the higher hierarchies for the next life on earth, which follows the life between death and a new birth, must fit into the human structure, it must be a soul-spiritual thing that permeates and animates the human structure. For how does this human life develop on earth?
When we are born into life on earth from our pre-earthly existence, we seemingly receive the physical body entirely through our parents. And the matter could appear - but it is not really so - as if we came down with a soul-spirituality from the supersensible world, from the pre-earthly existence, and would merely connect ourselves externally with what our parents prepare for us in the physical world, what is formed in our mother's womb. But it is not like that, in reality it is like this: what we have in our physical body in physical substance is constantly changing. It is constantly disappearing and being replaced. You only need to think of your fingernails and your hair. You cut your fingernails, they always grow back. But that is only the outward appearance; in reality, a person is constantly shedding on the outside and replacing what he is shedding on the outside from the inside, from the inner center. He is constantly pushing matter outwards, repelling it. And after seven to eight years, we have shed and replaced everything that we had inside us as physical substance seven years ago. You see, it is like that: I had the pleasure of speaking to some people here in Wroclaw seven years ago. Friends also sat on chairs in front of me. But none of the physical matter that was on the chairs then is there today: everything is gone, everything has been replaced by other physical matter, and what remains is the spiritual-soul individuality. However, it was already there before it was born, in the pre-earthly existence. It was there in earlier earthly lives, it is, so to speak, faithful. But the substance of the physical body, which sat on the chairs at that time, has long since flown to the four winds and to other parts of the world.
Now, this exchange, which occurs every seven to eight years, takes place from birth. We receive from our parents what is substantial and its formation only up to the change of teeth. What we then form substantially, we do out of our individuality. This change of teeth is something very important. We have inherited a model from our parents up to the change of teeth; this model is similar to our parents, that is where the inherited characteristics lie. Our spiritual-mental individuality slowly forms the second body according to this model, which exists from the change of teeth until sexual maturity and is then rejected again; then the third body begins. But what we actually inherit, so that the inherited characteristics remain, comes from the fact that we reproduce them in our second body according to the model. That which we have later copied from the model, we arrange in accordance with that which we acquire as an unconscious art of forming the human organism out of its secrets in pre-earthly existence. The first body serves us for nothing else until the change of teeth than to make us similar to our parents according to our karma. The actual secrets, the deep, comprehensive secrets, according to which the human organism is constructed as the marvelous image of the outer heavenly building, we must learn in their innermost essence in the life between death and a new birth. And we must learn to live back into it after we have gone through half of the sun's existence. We must learn to live into the second half, which causes us to develop the impulses of our karma. There we look again into a wonderful event that flows between us and the beings of the higher hierarchies in the life between death and a new birth.
As we deal here on earth with minerals, plants, animals, with other people, so between death and a new birth we do not deal with minerals, but with other human souls in the way described, but now, instead of with the minerals, plants, animals, with Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi, and together with them we form our karma. And during this whole time we look longingly towards the lower earthly here, in which our karma must live itself out, as towards something towards which all our powers of mind, our longings, go, just as we look longingly within our powers of mind between birth and death here on earth upwards to the heavenly. And now it is so that by ascending into the sphere of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, we grow into the beings of the Hierarchy of the Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi. In these we have the judges of our good and evil, and in the sense in which I have explained it in the previous lectures, also of our mutilation. For we are mutilated in soul and spirit by evil. There we have the judges, there we initially stand in cosmic judgment. When we arrive in the solar existence, we come to Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. We stand within the series of beings who are not merely judges, but workers on our karma.
These beings, Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, are now preferably inhabitants of the sun, but thus naturally inhabitants of the whole universe. By their nature they belong to spiritual worlds. But there is a need for mediators between the spiritual worlds and the physical-sensual worlds, and the mediators are the thrones, cherubim and seraphim. They have their higher rank in the spiritual cosmos because they are the more powerful ones, not only spiritually in the spiritual experience, but because they realize this spiritual, which they experience in the spiritual, in the physical. When we are between death and the new birth and look down longingly on the earth as I have described, then, by being conscious of looking down on the earthly, we are actually looking at what seraphim, cherubim and thrones experience strange things together. So we look down, we see experiences of mutually accomplished deeds between seraphim, cherubim, thrones, deeds that shake us deeply. We gradually come to understand these deeds, these deeds that take place between seraphim and seraphim, cherubim and cherubim, thrones and thrones, and again between thrones and seraphim, thrones and cherubim and so on. They are doing something, something justly balancing, which we have the feeling concerns us, if we gradually learn to understand it. What is that? It is the picture that emerges in world events from what we were in the previous life on earth in good and in evil. Good must have good consequences, evil must have evil consequences. The seraphim, cherubim, thrones, form the consequences among themselves of what we have sown on earth. What we have committed as evil deeds has evil consequences in the cosmos. We see seraphim, cherubim, thrones in an action that is the consequence of our evil deeds. And we gradually learn to recognize that in the development of the world what happens among seraphim, cherubim and thrones is the heavenly living out of our karma before we can live it out on earth. The shock is intensified by the fact that 'we now tell ourselves with all the strength we can have in the spiritual life that we spend between death and a new birth: That which the cherubim, seraphim, thrones experience in their existence as gods, that experiences its proper balance when we experience it from ourselves in the next life on earth.
Our karma is thus first exemplified supernaturally by seraphim, cherubim and thrones. Yes, the gods in their spirituality are the creators of everything earthly. They must first experience everything themselves. They experience it in the sphere of the spiritual; then it is realized down here in the sphere of the sensual-physical. That which we experience as our karma is also experienced in advance by seraphim, cherubim and thrones in their existence as gods, and thus the sum of the forces that form our karma is created. Thus we experience the existence of the planetary spheres, thus we experience what happens on Mercury as the judgment of the Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi. But in between, seraphim, cherubim and thrones intermingle to exemplify our karma. And so we experience in ourselves what we owe to the world through our previous deeds, and so we experience in the model of the gods what is to happen through our lives. This is a complicated experience, but one that underlies earthly life as supernatural life. And then, when we get an inkling of how rich this life is between death and the new birth, and when we combine its content with the content of earthly life, only then do we get a valid, a real mental image of what actually happens through man, in man, in man in the world. It is only then, however, that our human self-knowledge is deepened in the right way, that it is soulful and spiritualized. And only when we look at what happens in the course of human life on earth in such a way that we see it against the background of what is going on in the spiritual world can we see this life in its truth.
Now, we see people appearing here on earth. Through birth they become children, they grow up, they appear with this or that life destiny, enjoying, creating, working, carrying this or that ability. The historical life of people over the course of time is made up of their abilities, their deeds, their thoughts and feelings. But all the people who thus enter an earthly life that passes between birth and death, all these people have gone through earlier earthly lives in which they have experienced the earthly in a slightly different way, have shaped the earthly in a different way. In all subsequent earthly lives, the effects of the earlier earthly lives make themselves felt. But we can only understand this whole connection if we also look into the epochs of life between death and the new birth.
Then we also come to a correct understanding of historical life. For then everything becomes clear to us in such a way that we can say to ourselves: That which appears in an earthly epoch through human beings is associated with an earlier earthly epoch. But how does that which happens in earlier earth epochs come over into the later ones? - For a long time, historians described this by simply noting down the facts that followed one another in history. It was impossible to see how the later followed the earlier. Then some came along who said: ideas are at work in history, and the ideas are realized. Those who think in real terms cannot imagine that ideas should be realized. Then the others came along, the materialist historians, and they said: "Ideas are just wishy-washy! Only economic connections are realized, and everything emerges from them. - Then came the mechanistic, materialistic view of history.
All of this is actually a rippling on the surface. In reality, what happened in earlier historical epochs is carried over into later ones by the people themselves. The people sitting here all lived in earlier periods of history. What you do yourself is the result of what you did in earlier lives. It is the same with everything great and everything small that happens in the course of history. Through the human souls themselves, the past is carried over into the future. This deepens the human view of life so that man can be seen as the bearer of historical development. We can see him in this way, but we can only do so when we arrive in human life at what happens between death and a new birth in the spheres of the stars through the beings of the higher hierarchies together with human beings.
Let us illustrate this with an example. At a relatively early time, just about the time that comes close to the foundation of Christianity, there was an Initiate embodied in the Orient, in Indian life. Because this individuality in its earthly embodiment in Indian life had bad eyes - one has to go into the details in this way when discussing karmic connections - it had more or less superficially overlooked everything. She was just inside the mystical Indian view of life, then went through other embodiments that had less significance. But then it passed through a life between death and a new birth, in which everything that had been deposited on the soul of this individuality in the Indian superficial experience was now developed in the sphere of Mercury, partly in the sphere of Venus, partly in the sphere of Mars. There it worked together with beings of the higher hierarchies to form it in a certain way. Now it is the case with most people that karma is preferably formed characteristically out of a star sphere. Through this interaction, however, an individuality arose in which the spheres of Mercury, Venus and Mars worked almost equally on the shaping of the inner abilities, on the karmic transformation of the abilities that had once emerged from an Indian experience. This individuality emerged in the nineteenth century as a personality and as such became Heinrich Feine.
Now, let us look at such an example, which was brought to the surface from the depths of spiritual life through particularly conscientious spiritual research. The stiff, superficial philistine would say: "That takes all the flavor out of the personality; I want it in its elementary qualities. - The stiff philistine may say that, he also has his human rights, and even according to his karma he has the right of the stiff philistine. But he only reaches a certain degree of truth. If you look deeper into the facts, then the under- and background of truth, of reality, comes to light. And here it must be said that life, even the life of the individual human being, does not become poorer in its meaning, but infinitely richer, if one looks at it on such foundations; if one really sees shining out of this problematic, fragmentary Heine life of the nineteenth century that which was once an Indian incarnation and which can then be experienced through all the influences as consequences from an earlier existence in Mercury, Venus and Mars: in the Martian existence, where a certain aggressive sense is formed for the following earthly existence, where thus that which had been acquired in a previous earthly life developed as a special faculty into a certain aggressive sense, in the Mercurial existence, where the soul can acquire, since this faculty is karmically formed especially in the Mercurial existence, a fluttering forth about sensations and concepts, and in the Venusian existence, where again a certain spiritual-erotic could enter into the human powers of imagination.
When we look over a human life in this way, we are at the same time looking into the world existence, and what we see in man in this way is truly no poorer than what we have in the so-called direct elementary observation, which is only a philistine observation. It is already so that one sees how the earlier historical is carried over into the later, and how the mediators are the starry worlds with their entities. Only through this does history become a reality, otherwise it remains a letter, thirty-two letters. But then we begin to read history when we see how behind the individual fates of human beings there are entire deeds of the gods, only more grandiose, more powerfully spread out than the history of humanity, into which we always find the individual human fates interwoven.
And let us take another example. There is an individual who had acquired a thorough education for that time, at the time when Islam was spreading on earth through North Africa to Spain. There were still schools in North Africa that were similar to the school in which St. Augustine was educated; but it was already a later time, the school was in decadence. This individuality learned much that was peculiar to these schools, which still contained much of the old mysteries, but in decline. Then this individuality was displaced to Spain, came into contact not with the later, but with the earlier Jewish Kabbalistic school, again absorbed much from the early, not the late Kabbalistic school and became a spirit that had something Manichaean-Kabbalistic in a great inner fluency in the soul. This individuality now found its further development in a life between death and a new birth, and there especially in communion with the entities that have to do with the Martian existence. In the Martian existence it acquired a certain aggressive sense, but also, in addition to this aggressive sense, a lightness of speech, something almost seductive in the use of language, a lightness in the linguistic treatment of all kinds of problems that it had within itself from its earlier life on earth. Thus she embodied herself in the eighteenth century, became Voltaire.
You see, to know that Voltaire's existence leads back to experiences that were even similar to those of Augustine in his youth, that were similar to the later cabbalistic experiences, with all this irony that was present in the original cabbalism, to know that all this is there, to see the connection, to look again into the holding together of the two earthly lives into that which lies in between, between death and new birth: that is what makes the world whole, that is what leads into reality. When we look at the earthly lives, we first of all have something quite unconnected in the successive earthly lives. We do not see how the one extends into the other. But these are only fragments. What lies in between is not seen; but reality encompasses all this together. And it is true that you can only really get to reality if you not only look at nature, but also at the human being according to its spiritual background.
In this respect, it must be the case that from now on a new trait will enter our movement. When the German Section of the Theosophical Society was founded in Berlin in 1902, I announced that the first lecture I wanted to give at that time would be “Practical Karma Exercises”. Well, the lecture was announced, but it could not be held for the simple reason that the circumstances were right. There were the various old members of the theosophical movement, they had their mental images of what one was allowed to say and what one was not allowed to say; but then the whole milieu, the whole atmosphere had formed. Those who were the leaders would have been upside down if they had started to talk about practical karma exercises at that time. The theosophical movement was simply not ready for it. Much had to be prepared first. And in the TT'at, the preparation took two decades, even more. But at the Christmas meeting the impulse was poured out to now unreservedly reveal not only that which can be researched about the natural realms of the spiritual, but also to unreservedly reveal that which can be researched about the human realms of the spirit. In the future, therefore, there will be unreserved discussion within the Anthroposophical Society about that which has been the intention from the very beginning, but which this Anthroposophical Society has only gradually had to mature into. This is also something that came into the Anthroposophical Society as an esoteric trait through the Christmas Conference. The Christmas Conference was really not a gimmick, but the assumption of new responsibilities for the anthroposophical movement precisely from the spiritual realm.
You see, if you can look at what lies between death and new birth, you can realize just how diverse, how multifaceted the world is. For if one says on the one hand: In the Martian sphere the aggressive sense, the skill of speech, the power of speech are stimulated for later life on earth - that is only one side; other sides are also stimulated within Martian life. And so it is with Jupiter, for example. One experiences the Jupiter sphere and its essences when one looks back with initiatory insight on that which one sees between the forty-ninth and fifty-sixth year and extinguishes self-observation. One can be somewhat shaken by the sight of what happens with Jupiter. For these Jupiter beings are quite different from human beings. Let's take just one characteristic of humans, which is now more or less common, let's take wisdom. People say: We are wise. - But how difficult it is for man to acquire this wisdom! If it is even a little bit of wisdom, it is something that is hard to achieve. One must struggle through much inwardly in order to acquire just a little wisdom in one area. Jupiter beings do not need all that. They are born with wisdom - I cannot say born, for just as on earth the development of human beings takes place in the embryo, so the development of Jupiter beings does not take place. You must imagine that in the surroundings of Jupiter there is something like the cloud formations around the earth. If you now imagine that the human bodies form out of the clouds and then fly down to earth, this would be the way in which the new beings form out of a kind of cloud on Jupiter, but in such a way that these beings, which would fly out of the clouds, would have wisdom as their basic characteristic. Just as we have a circulation of blood, so they have wisdom. But it is not a merit, not an achievement, they just have it. As a result, they also think very differently from humans. That may seem shocking, but you have to gradually get used to it. And everything on Jupiter is permeated and infused with wisdom, just as we on Earth are permeated with air. Wisdom is substantial there, it flows around on Jupiter in wind and weather, pours down on Jupiter, moves upwards as mist. But these are always beings that rise in a wisdom mist. The cherubim live preferentially in it, and in this context they form human karma together with human beings. But other impulses also live in it. But this is absolutely true: What a person has gone through in a previous life on earth is formed karmically by the forces of wisdom, natural wisdom. He then comes down to earth and bears the imprint of that which results from the fact that he has formed what he experienced earlier on earth into self-evident wisdom, which then only finds expression in the most diverse ways. An example of this too.
There is an individuality that takes us back to ancient Greece, into a kind of Platonic, but also sculptural atmosphere. This individuality experienced its most important incarnation as a sculptor in this plastic time in Greece. It carried what it experienced there into later intermediate incarnations, which were less important. This is an individuality that worked out its karma for its last earthly incarnation for the time being, especially in the sphere of Jupiter's wisdom.
Another individuality takes us back to the times before America was populated from Europe, to Central America, to Mexico. There she lived in the decaying mysteries of the former Mexican indigenous population. There, when the connections between the people there, the students of the Mysteries, and the spiritual beings were still alive, she got to know what lived there as Mexican gods. Today, people who are learned talk about these gods, Quetzalkoatl, Tetzkatlipoka and Taotl - a special karma, but a karma that is not particularly fortunate for people - but you hardly get much more than the names from these descriptions. But the individuality I am talking to you about lived in them, albeit in the decaying mysteries. For them, a god like Taotl, Quetzalkoatl, was something alive. They were indeed magical, living entities. And there, in the decaying mysteries of Quetzalkoatl, she also lived herself into a magical content that was already quite superstitious at the time, into such an entity as Tetzkatlipoka - Tetzkatlipoka was a kind of snake god with whom one felt astrally connected - and that became intensely alive for her. This individuality then did not go through other incarnations after experiencing its life between death and a new birth, like the other one that went through intermediate incarnations, lived as a man in Greece and then went through female incarnations. This individuality lived as a man within the Mexican Mysteries, passed through the Jupiter sphere of wisdom in the life between death and the new birth, and then lived in the eighteenth, nineteenth century. The individuality that had lived in Greece also passed through the Jupiter sphere, just as one can pass through it if one was a sculptor and at the same time had experienced in a Greek way this plastic way of imagining, which was really alive at that time. It shaped this plasticity, which could be experienced in the shaping of man in Greece, into a formative comprehension of the whole world in the wisdom sphere of Jupiter, where all this wisdom is substantially present, then came into a human body with its Greekness shaped by Jupiter and was reborn as Goethe.
The other individuality also passed through the Jupiter sphere, and shaped that which could be experienced in the Mexican Mysteries, then also in the Jupiter sphere. But the same thing could not arise in the Jupiter sphere from an earthly life that was experienced in Greece as I have described it, and from an earthly life that was experienced in Mexico as I have described it. Both have passed through the wisdom sphere of Jupiter, but both have become as they had to become according to the formative forces from the previous life. The individuality that passed through the Mexican Mysteries passed through the Jupiter sphere and was reborn as Eliphas Levi. There you have magical-ritual acts, magical cults, transformed into wisdom in a strange way. It is inferior Jupiter karma, yet extraordinarily spiritual and wise. You can see from this how that which man has experienced in earthly life and that which he becomes between death and a new birth work together. The later life is certainly formed according to the earlier life, but that which a person has gone through in earthly life can be shaped in manifold ways by the same sphere in karma. If you look at the shaping of human life in the karmic sense in this way, you really deepen this human life. Only then does it enrich itself, only then does it appear in all its reality, only then does one really know the human being and human life.