Karmic Relationships VII
GA 239
15 June 1924, Breslau
Lecture IX
Let us compare what we learn through direct experiences about our relation to life between birth and death with what we must feel inwardly about the connection between our moral behaviour, thoughts and acts and the consequences of this behaviour. We began these evening lectures with just such studies and we will conclude with the same theme.
When on the one hand we consider how our moral deeds proceed from our purposes, from our whole attitude of soul, we realise that if we observe ourselves without prejudice, one category of our actions must be described as morally good, fit to become part of the world-order; the other category is of actions that must be described as morally bad, morally imperfect, unworthy to become part of the world-order. But whatever comes to pass through men cannot have a momentary significance only—this is admitted by everybody. And the same applies to the world of Nature. Everything has its effects, its consequences, becomes the cause of something or is itself the effect of something. Human life would certainly not be in keeping with the course of world events if what it embraces were not also cause and effect. But whereas we can be completely satisfied when we observe Nature and clearly perceive cause and effect, we certainly cannot be satisfied about the connection between our moral experiences and the course taken by the world-order. There appears to be no direct connection in the physical happenings between what ought to be the result of the moral disposition of our soul and what actually comes to pass in the course of physical life. And if we consider happenings in wider circles of people we see that a man who in respect of his soul-life seems to be morally good, encounters misfortune and evil in the world, while a man who seems inwardly weak and immoral may encounter external events that are in no way a requital for what is harboured in his soul. In short, we find no connection between what a man experiences as his destiny and the essential quality of his will. It could be called an irresponsible illusion if anyone were to deceive himself that in the one life on Earth the destiny he encounters is in any way the effect of his moral will. The bad can be fortunate, the good unfortunate. These two statements really summarise that characteristic of earthly life which makes it incomprehensible, to begin with, to human faculties. And we shall see from this that man, as he is now placed in the world, is himself not in a position to bring about the consequences answering to his deeds. In the single life on Earth morality remains an inner disposition, an inner attunement of the soul; it cannot become directly manifest in outer physical reality. Admittedly, the inner disposition of the soul can be a direct result of the moral attitude. We can be inwardly contented with our good conduct, in spite of being hit by misfortune that is in crass contrast to what we have actually done; but the experience brought about in this way remains in the realm of the soul. Man must acknowledge that in physical life he is not in a position to bring to outward manifestation in the world the inner, moral content of his soul.
When we study karma as we have been doing during the last few days, seeing how earlier lives work over into later incarnations, we realise that in the moral sphere of the life of soul the earlier is inwardly connected with the later. Put briefly, however, this means that here, in physical life on Earth, man has a constitution which forces back his moral conduct into the realm of soul, does not allow it to take effect in one earthly life. In a single earthly life man is powerless to give effect to the moral content he bears in his soul. His physical corporality, his etheric substantiality, make him powerless. In the life between death and a new birth, however, he becomes as powerful as here in physical life he is powerless. But if in his physical life the physical and etheric bodies render him powerless, there must be something in the life between death and a new birth that enables him to give effect to this soul-content, to make it a reality there, and physical reality too in later lives on Earth. On Earth we live in our physical and etheric bodies amid the kingdoms of Nature and it is what we have to take from Nature for these bodies that renders us powerless. With our own being of soul-and-spirit which passes through the gate of death we become powerful after death because we are then united with the Beings of the higher Hierarchies, just as on Earth we are united with the kingdoms of Nature. The Beings of the Hierarchies belong, as we know, to three realms: to the lowest realm belong the Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi; to the middle realm belong Exousiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes; to the highest realm belong Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim. In the course of these lectures we have learnt how man lives between death and a new birth with the inmost essence of the stars and hence with these higher Hierarchies. But in order that the moral content of the soul may come to expression in life on Earth, the following must take place.
It is true that, to begin with, we have to retain in our soul the effects of our moral attitude of thought, feeling and will; we have to wait until in the life between death and a new birth we are vouchsafed the help of the Beings of the higher Hierarchies. What lies in our soul is first carried through the spiritual world, emerges again in a new earthly life and appears then in the form in which it is right to appear. For what should we be if in earthly life we could bring to direct fulfilment the moral content of our soul? We should not be typical men of terrestrial life! Just imagine that you bore within your soul a moral content that quite justifiably you considered could be capable of creating a favourable world-situation and that you could actually bring it about. What would you be then? You would be magicians, not typical men of the Earth! For when a power of spirit-and-soul is brought to direct expression, that is an essentially magical achievement. In our present cycle of existence man is no magician in the single life between birth and death. But he is a magician when, together with the Beings of the Hierarchies, he is active between death and a new birth and is able to continue these activities when he again descends into life on Earth. The karmic development through these two entirely different modes of existence is in fact the process where the human being works magically. The physical human being standing before us in external life is membered—as I have shown at the end of the book Von Seelenratseln (Riddles of the Soul)1See The Case for Anthroposophy. Steiner/Barfield, (Rudolf Steiner Press).—into the nerves-senses man, the rhythmic man and the metabolic-limb man. Metabolism and limbs are connected; when we use our limbs, metabolism is activated and must continue; forces in man must be used up. Metabolism must continue in inner experience too. But both are related. When we observe the human metabolic system as it operates in the physical body, we may be tempted at first to regard it as man's lowest system. There are people who claim to be idealists because they have accustomed themselves to look down with a certain superciliousness upon the metabolic-limb system. It is the lowest system, the system that the respectable idealist would prefer to be without. But without it earthly life would be impossible; it is the system that represents man in his imperfection in earthly life.
Now the facts of the matter are these. In the physical human form the metabolic-limb system is the lowest and therefore has little to do for what is essentially human in earthly life, but it is connected in this earthly life with the Beings of the highest Hierarchy, the Thrones, the Cherubim, the Seraphim. As we move about the world or work with our hands, in this mysterious activity the activity of the Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim is present. These Beings remain helpers when man's life continues between death and a new birth. They remain helpers. Now it is quite erroneous to believe that the moral content of the soul proceeds from the head. In reality, regarded from a higher point of view, man's head is by no means such a tremendously important organ. The head is really more or less a mirror of the external world, and if we had the head alone we should know about nothing except the external world. The head simply reflects the external world. The experiences of the head are mirrorings, reflections of the external world. Our inner, moral impulses do not proceed from the head but from the region of the metabolic-limb system, not, however, from the physical system but from its constitution of soul-and spirit wherein Thrones and Cherubim and Seraphim are living.
And so to acquire a right view of man we must picture the following.—(a drawing was made). This third member of man's constitution, the metabolic-limb system, seems at first to be imperfect, indeed it might be said that in respect of its physical and etheric organisation it is unworthy of the human being. But something else lies within it, or rather this system lies within something else; the Thrones live within it, the Cherubim weave within it, the Seraphim flame within it. When man passes through the gate of death, everything that underlies the physical metabolic-limb system falls away from him and with his ego he remains in the realm wherein he previously existed, namely in the realm of the Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim. He then separates from them but they continue to develop the moral quality of the soul. Here on Earth man looks upwards, to the Heavens, in order to divine a higher reality, a spiritual-super-sensible reality. He does this as long as he is on the Earth. If he is living between death and a new birth he looks downwards and beholds what the moral content of his soul becomes as a result of the deeds of the Cherubim, Seraphim and Thrones. There below, when he descends again to the Earth, the consequences are fulfilled; there the Cherubim, Seraphim and Thrones are working to bring about the fulfilment of the spiritual reality.
And so, after we have become attentive to it, we see how in a magical way man sends the consequences of his deeds of the present into the next earthly life.
Now that we have considered the metabolic-limb system, let us turn our attention to its polar opposite, the nerves-and-senses system. This, of course, extends through the whole organism but is established primarily in the head. We will therefore consider the human head. It is a fact that through the head man experiences only a reflection of the existing external world. His thoughts, his mental conceptions in which alone, as I have said, he is really awake, are actually only reflections from outside by way of the head. But when a man masters Initiation Science, at first through Imaginative knowledge, then, as you know, through its metamorphosis into knowledge through Inspiration and then through Intuition, he is able to look into his earlier lives on Earth—but he sees them then in their spiritual form. In the spiritual world, knowledge itself is reality. And the experience of a man who with genuine Initiation-knowledge is able to look into earlier earthly lives is that he is living not only, say, on June 15th, 1924, but is himself present through the course of the earlier lives; he not only looks into those earlier lives but he looks back upon his whole being. It is not abstract, theoretical observation but direct identification with his own former existence. His inner life is greatly stirred when he begins to experience his earlier earthly lives. But this experience makes it possible to change the focus of his world-outlook. What is the usual focus of a world-outlook? The usual focus is the head. This head with its physical organisation as the foundation, this head which was yours in previous earthly lives and in the immediately preceding life, cannot be made the focus of your world-outlook when you have once experienced earlier incarnations, for it has long since passed away. Only the spiritual principle that was present in the head can be made the focal starting-point of a world-outlook. Initiation therefore consists in this: through going back into his former existence on Earth, man spiritualises himself. All clairvoyance in the best sense of the word actually means going back into earlier earthly lives. To be initiated means not to remain within the limits of the present life but to look at the things of the world with the faculties that were ours in earlier earthly existence. Whereas in the ordinary course we are such imperfect beings in earthly life that we see only the external physical world, the beings we were in earlier existences had already become clairvoyant. And as a rule when we experience the immediately preceding incarnation we make the discovery that the person we were then was already much nearer perfection.
How does it come about that what we could have become after the earlier life has not been achieved? Why is this? You see, if as human beings having nothing but a head we were to pass from one earthly life to another, we should be as perfect in the later life as in the former, but we have the other systems as well as the head. And since the magical principle in man lies in the metabolic-limb system which in turn works in karma, karma brings the head across from one earthly life to another. Thus karma is directly active in the formation of the head. And if we begin to develop an unprejudiced view of man in this field, we shall gradually learn to read a great deal about his karma from the physiognomy of his head. To look at the human head with the ordinary consciousness of today is just the same as taking Goethe's Faust and beginning “I—h-a-v-e—s-t-u-d-i-e-d—a-l-a-s...” because then one knows only the letters and cannot read. When we have learnt to read we shall understand what these strange signs mean. As I said once before, this trivial fact brings it about that whereas we should otherwise see only about thirty different shapes of letters in books, we have Goethe's Faust, Hegel's Logic, the Bible, and so on, simply because we have learnt to read. In the same way we can learn to read the living things around us. The progress from merely spelling the form of the human head and reading it leads into the secrets of the karma of that particular person. As regards the outwardly perceptible form of the head we may say that every human being has his own particular head; no single individual has exactly the same shaped head as another. Although individuals often look alike, they are not alike in respect of their karma. In the head-formation the karma of a man's past is revealed to physical sense-perception. In the metabolic-limb system lies future karma; spiritually concealed, invisibly it is there. So that if we speak of man in the spiritual sense we can say: Man is so constituted that on the one hand he makes his past karma visible and on the other hand he bears his future karma invisibly within him.
In this way we can eventually acquire an inwardly spiritual view of the human being. Man's metabolic-limb system is inferior in respect of its physical and etheric nature only, for in that system live the Beings of the highest Hierarchy. When we consider the physical-material aspect of the head it is undoubtedly the most perfect system because it bears within it, externally and visibly, what works over spiritually from earlier earthly lives. The head is generally the most highly valued, but it is not the most perfect in a spiritual respect. For whereas Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim live in the metabolic-limb system, in the head-system live Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi. It is they who stand behind everything we experience with our head in the physical world of sense. They live in us, in our head-system, and are active behind our consciousness; they encounter the effects of the physical world and mirror them back, and we become conscious only of the reflections. What we are aware of in our head-system is only the semblance of the activities of the Archai, Archangeloi and Angeloi. (A drawing was made). If I am to continue this diagram I must say: the Archai, Archangeloi and Angeloi are working, at the other pole, in the head-system.—I always use the nomenclature of the earlier Christian world-conception in which the spiritual connection was still intact, although the spiritual Beings may just as well be given other names.
Between the nerves-and-senses system which is based primarily in the head and the metabolic-limb system, man has the rhythmic system in which everything that is active between the lungs and the heart is contained. In all this activity live the Beings of the Hierarchy of the Exousiai. Dynamis, Kyriotetes.
In concluding our studies of karma we are led again to the realisation that while man faces the three kingdoms of Nature here on Earth, behind him are the spiritual kingdoms of the Hierarchies, one above the other. And as here on the Earth his physical body encompasses him and prevents him from bringing to fulfilment by magic the moral forces of his soul, after death the world of the Hierarchies receives him and enables him to make effective magically for the next incarnation what he cannot achieve in one earthly life. When a man passes over from one earthly life to the next he would in all circumstances, if his further evolution were to proceed consistently, develop clairvoyance with the head-system yielded by the former life; Archai, Archangeloi and Angeloi would lead him to clairvoyance. Hence if a man is to have insight into spiritual reality—insight that without an iota of superstition or charlatanry can be called clairvoyance—he must be able to project himself with a certain cosmic consciousness into his previous life on Earth, although in the external world he has progressed to his present incarnation.
Thus, if someone is living, let us say, in the twentieth century, he uses the body which this century can provide and for knowledge he must avail himself of the head. He cannot be clairvoyant. But let us suppose he were transported into a previous earthly life, say in the tenth or eleventh century, as the result of his meditative exercises now, in this twentieth century. He is not the same person as he was at that earlier time, but through his own forces he has brought it about spiritually that now, in the twentieth century, he is the man he was in that earlier epoch—a clairvoyant personality. Clairvoyance can reveal this clearly to Initiation-knowledge during life in the physical world. When we look closely into human life, however, it is revealed to clairvoyant consciousness that in the deeper impulses of a man's nature, in the deeper foundations of his soul, what was present in a former incarnation rises up again in a different form. It is therefore essential, if we wish to approach in earnest such matters as the working of karma, that earthly experience must be of a more spiritual character than is usual.
I will elaborate what I have been saying by means of an example. You know from the way in which I have given such examples that they are the findings of spiritual investigation undertaken with a deep sense of responsibility.
A certain individual lived in the European-Asiatic Orient, somewhat earlier than the founding of Christianity, with a task that was far from his liking. It was in an epoch when slavery was still prevalent and his task was to supervise a number of slaves belonging to a certain owner. Supersensible vision leads us to a situation where a human soul, incarnated at that time in the body of a slave-overseer, was obliged to carry out whatever the cruel owner of these slaves decreed. The slaves were in the care of the overseer and relationships of an ethical nature developed between them. But there was deep conflict in the soul of this overseer. It went against the grain to carry out the often cruel, disciplinary punishments ordered by his master. Nevertheless he obeyed, because he was accustomed to these circumstances and because it was natural at that time to act in such a way. Now just consider for a moment: are people to-day always what they would like to be? They do not often think about this; they deceive themselves about the disharmony between what they are and what they would like to be. This individual too was not what he would have liked to be, but intrinsically he had deep sympathy, deep love, for all the unhappy slaves upon whom he was obliged to inflict these cruelties. Social customs, so to say, caused him to hurt the slaves in many ways. He therefore shared the responsibility, although the master and owner of the slaves was primarily the culprit.
Both individualities were born again in the middle of the Middle Ages, and now as a married couple. The former slave-owner came again in a male incarnation, the overseer came as a woman. In the middle of the Middle Ages the reincarnated slave-owner held a position in a certain village commune, a position that was by no means pleasant, for he was a kind of police jailer and was held responsible for whatever happened in the commune; he felt that life was full of hardships. If we look for an explanation we find that these villagers were for the most part reincarnations of the slaves whom he had formerly owned and whom he had caused to be ill-treated by his overseer. The karmic result turned out to be that the former slave-owner, although he had become a fairly high official, was nevertheless the village jailer, who together with his wife was held responsible for whatever happened in the commune. But at the same time, because the wife shared in all the suffering that the one-time slaves caused her husband, the karma was fulfilled between her—the former overseer—and the slave-owner. The bond between these two was dissolved but not the tie between the one-time overseer, now incarnated as a woman, and the members of the commune. They came together again in the nineteenth century. The earlier overseer, who in a certain way had adjusted his relation to the former master, came again as the great educational reformer Pestalozzi, and those who had been the slaves under him were the children who received such infinite benefit from his educational principles.
These things must be viewed not merely with the prosaic intellect, but with soul, with feeling and with love which must become as clear and brilliant as the intellect and be able to develop genuine knowledge. The intellect can develop only pictures of outer Nature, and anyone who thinks that he gets something more than pictures deceives himself. It is possible to get more only if soul, feeling and love become forces of knowledge, and it is only by going back to earlier karma that we are gradually able to realise how karma works. But the whole soul must participate, and the content of these explanations of karma must be grasped by the whole being of man.
It really amounts to this: the soul must penetrate into the very essence of the Anthroposophical Movement. A short time ago I was deeply moved by a certain incident. What I have told you about Pestalozzi I had also said in a lecture in Dornach, and later on had occasion to visit an official in Basle, accompanied by another member of the Dornach Executive. The well-known picture of Pestalozzi among the children was hanging on the wall in the waiting-room. It was known to the member of the Vorstand who was with me. He was deeply moved by it and he said: When one looks at this faithful portrayal of Pestalozzi, one realises that such a situation can only have come about in the way that is revealed through Anthroposophy. This kind of thing is just what ought to occur more often, this realisation in direct experience of what has been discovered by anthroposophical investigations.
These indications of karma which I have now been able, to my great satisfaction, to give you, cannot make demands merely upon your intellect. What has been presented during these eight days calls not merely upon intellect but upon heart, upon the whole soul. And only when you have gathered together all that I have said about the reincarnation of historical personalities, about observation of individual karma, about the influences of sleeping and waking life in the development of karma and let it all work in your hearts and souls, will a comprehensive grasp of the working of karma in individual personalities result from these studies.
Our civilisation will be rescued from the grip of its present decline only if what is so readily taken to-day merely in an intellectualistic sense penetrates into the whole being of man. What does an Oriental say nowadays about Western man? The spirituality of an Oriental at the present time is not of a kind that we can adopt forthwith, but it is a spirituality which in the ancient past was able to gaze deeply into the super-sensible worlds. To-day only traces have remained but in his soul an Oriental still has the feeling of what was once experienced in the East, namely, living communion with the spirit inherent in all things. Such is the experience of those who are not entirely steeped in materialism. One Oriental who had a feeling for the spirituality in Eastern wisdom said the following as he contemplated Western civilisation: ‘Its essential characteristic is that it is only façade and has no foundations. The façade stands on the ground without any solid foundations.’—And this Oriental went on to say: ‘Yes, in nearly everything that belongs to his civilisation, Western man actually starts from the standpoint of his ego, the ego that is enclosed within a single life and therefore has no reality. It has reality only when it emerges from its bounds and leads into the successive earthly lives.’ Realisation of existence in successive earthly lives is regarded by the Oriental as the foundation-structure and remaining with the ego that is enclosed between birth and death he regards as the façade. Have we not heard to-day that when a man looks into spiritual reality he will look back into the past? If he contemplates karmic development with its magical processes he must have accepted the principle of successive incarnations. Then the ego widens out and will no longer be egotistic. The Oriental says that the European can recognise the ego only within the limits of birth and death and this he calls the egotism of the European. So he says that European, indeed Western civilisation as a whole, is only façade and has no foundation-structure; moreover that if this state of things continues and Western civilisation persists in recognising only the ego living between birth and death, the separate stones of the façade might one day fall apart as the façade has no foundation. This picture of the single stones crumbling away from the façade has actually arisen in many oriental souls, living as they do, largely in Imaginations. It is insight into such matters as have been studied here during these last few days that can add the foundation-structure and supplement the mere façade. Contemplation of the karma which reaches from earthly life to earthly life leads man beyond the restricted activity that is limited to a single life on Earth.
In what must be our final lecture, I should now like to place before your souls a vista into the cultural task of Anthroposophy. If it works on within you, revealing many things, you will become co-workers in the task of creating the foundation-structure for a true and genuine façade of Western civilisation. I have nothing to add to what has often been said by men of the East. What they really mean is this: the West has departed too far from the spirit, it can no longer find the foundation-structure; the East must contribute what it still possesses from ancient times in order that civilisation on Earth may not perish.
Whether this terrible fate that is prophesied for Western civilisation by all clear-sighted Orientals can be avoided, depends upon endeavours such as those of Anthroposophy. Resolute will is needed to penetrate into the spiritual world, in order that its forces may again be received into the hearts of men. Hence a community of human beings who have come together, as you have done, for spiritual activity, has grasped what this truly means only if the resolution is taken to apply all the forces of the will to the task of furthering, for the sake of humanity, experience of the spirit. My purpose in these lectures was to point the way to experience of spiritual reality and thus to the moral principle that is everywhere implicit in it. For this reason I wanted in these hours when we could be together again, to give you just what I have given. But in Anthroposophy spiritual things should be taken in earnest at all times, during every moment, not only during every lecture-hour. In Anthroposophy, therefore, it is true to say that when we are beside one another in space, we are together physically, but because we recognise spiritual reality we know that we are also together even when physically apart. And as I know that some of you here must travel back after the lecture, I will add this.—As we make our farewells let us say to ourselves that we will be true anthroposophists by remaining together in our souls through the spirit which becomes alive in us through our view of life. Let those of us who are now going away again say to our friends of the Breslau Group: we too will think about what we have been able to acquire for our own souls and those of others while working together with you. We will feel that we are with you even when we have gone away from this room and we hope that the Breslau friends too will think of those who were so glad to have been among them at this time.
Sechzehnter Vortrag
Vergleichen wir einmal dasjenige, was sich uns durch die unmittelbaren Erfahrungen über unser Verhältnis zum Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod darbietet, mit dem, was der Mensch innerlich empfinden muß über den Zusammenhang seines seelisch-moralischen Verhaltens, Denkens und Handelns mit dem Ergebnis dieses moralisch-seelischen Verhaltens. Wir sind ja von solchen Betrachtungen gerade an diesen Abenden ausgegangen, und wir werden auch wiederum unsere Auseinandersetzungen in solche Betrachtungen zum Schlusse einlaufen lassen. Wir sehen, wenn wir auf der einen Seite hinblicken auf die Art und Weise, wie unsere moralisch-seelischen Handlungen hervorgehen aus unseren Absichten, aus der ganzen Stimmung unserer Seele, daß wit, wenn wir unbefangen auf uns selbst hinschauen, den einen Teil unserer Handlungen bezeichnen müssen als die sittlich guten, diejenigen, die sich dem Weltenprozesse einfügen können; die anderen Handlungen als die sittlich bösen, die sittlich unvollkommenen, diejenigen, die sich seelisch nicht einfügen können dem Weltenprozeß. Aber all das, was dutch den Menschen geschieht, kann ja nicht bloß eine Augenblicksbedeutung haben - so sagt sich eigentlich jeder selbst -, wie auch alles in der Natur nicht bloß seine augenblickliche Bedeutung hat; sondern alles hat seine Wirkungen, seine Folgen, alles wird zur Ursache von etwas anderem oder ist Wirkung von etwas anderem. Das menschliche Leben würde gar nicht hineinpassen in den Gang der Weltereignisse, wenn nicht auch dasjenige, was es in sich trägt, Ursache und Wirkung sein würde. Aber während wir völlig zufrieden sein können, wenn wir in der Natur betrachten, wie irgend etwas aus seiner Ursache heraus geschieht, können wir über dem Zusammenhang unseres moralisch-seelischen Erlebens mit dem Weltengange eben durchaus nicht zufrieden sein. Wir sehen, wie in dem physischen Geschehen kein unmittelbarer Zusammenhang sich herausstellt zwischen dem, was aus unserer moralisch-seelischen Verfassung werden soll, und dem, was im Laufe des physischen Lebens wirklich geschieht. Und ebenso sehen wir, wenn wir im weiteren menschlichen Umkreise das Geschehen auf uns wirken lassen, daß derjenige, der unter Umständen, wenn man seine Seele betrachtet, als moralisch, seelisch gut erscheint, von Unglück, von Schlimmem in der Welt betroffen wird, während der, welcher seelisch schwach, schlimm, ungut erscheint, durchaus von äußerem Geschehen getroffen werden kann, das nicht in allem irgendwie Vergeltung oder dergleichen für dasjenige ist, was in seiner Seelenverfassung lebt. Kurz, wir finden, wenn wir die Natur überblicken, keinen Zusammenhang zwischen dem, was der Mensch erlebt, schicksalsmäßig erlebt, und dem, was die Wesenheit, die Natur seines Wollens ist, und es wäre eine, man könnte sagen, ganz unverantwortliche Illusion, wenn der Mensch für das eine Erdenleben sich vormachen wollte, daß der Verlauf seines schicksalsmäßigen Lebens irgendwie sich als Wirkung ergäbe seines moralischen Wollens. Der Böse kann glücklich, der Gute kann unglücklich sein. In diesen beiden Sätzen faßt sich dennoch dasjenige im Erdenleben zusammen, was dieses Erdenleben zunächst für die höhere Menschlichkeit unbegreiflich macht. Und wir werden daraus ersehen, wie der Mensch, so wie er nun einmal hineingestellt ist in die Welt, nicht in der Lage ist, die entsprechenden Folgen seiner Handlungen eintreten zu lassen: das Moralische bleibt im einzelnen Erdenleben innere Seelenverfassung, innere Seelenstimmung, kann sich nicht unmittelbar in der äußeren physischen Wirklichkeit offenbaren. Allerdings, das besteht ja, daß die Seelenverfassung als eine reale Wirkung der sittlichen Seelenstimmung eintreten kann. Wir können ob unseres guten Verhaltens innerlich-seelisch befriedigt sein, trotzdem uns Unglück trifft, das in einem krassen Gegensatz zu demjenigen steht, was wir eigentlich verursacht haben; aber es bleibt das, was bewirkt wird auf diese Weise, dennoch innerlich-seelisch. Der Mensch muß sich gestehen: Innerhalb des physischen Lebens ist er nicht imstande, in der physischen Welt äußerlich zu verwirklichen dasjenige, was er moralisch-seelisch in seinem Innern trägt.
Wenn wir so, wie wir das in den letzten Tagen getan haben, das Karma betrachten, wie hinüberwirken die früheren Erdenleben in die späteren, dann kommen wir zu einem solchen inneren, entsprechenden Zusammenhang des Späteren mit dem Früheren auf seelisch-moralischem Gebiete. Das heißt aber mit wenig Worten: Der Mensch hat hier im physischen Erdenleben eine Organisation, welche die seelischen Folgen seines moralischen Verhaltens zurückschlägt in sein Seelisches, sie in eine» Erdenleben nicht herauskommen läßt. Es ist der Mensch in diesem Erdenleben ohnmächtig, dasjenige, was er sittlich in seiner Seele trägt, zu verwirklichen. Ohnmächtig ist der Mensch; seine äußerlich-physische Körperlichkeit, seine ätherische Substantialität macht ihn ohnmächtig. Der Mensch wird in dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt ebenso mächtig, wie er hier im physischen Leben ohnmächtig ist. Wenn ihn aber hier im physischen Leben der physische Leib und der Ätherleib hindern, wenn ihn diese ohnmächtig machen, so muß etwas im Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt sein, das ihn mächtig macht, es dort und in späteren Erdenleben auch physisch zu verwirklichen. Hier sind wir mit unserem physischen Leibe und mit unserem Ätherleibe innerhalb der Reiche der Natur. Dasjenige, was wir im physischen Erdenleben für unseren physischen und unseren Ätherleib aus dem Reiche der Natur entnehmen müssen, das macht uns ohnmächtig. Mit demjenigen, womit wir durch die Pforte des Todes gehen, mit unserem eigenen seelisch-geistigen Wesen, werden wir nach dem Tode mächtig, weil wir zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, ebenso wie wir auf der Erde mit den Reichen der Natur verbunden sind, verbunden sind mit den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien. Die Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien gliedern sich ja in drei Reiche, in das gewissermaßen unterste Reich: Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi, das mittlere Reich: Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, das höchste Reich: Throne, Cherubim, Seraphim. Wir haben dargestellt im Verlaufe dieser Vorträge, wie der Mensch mit der eigentlichen Wesenheit der Sterne und dadurch mit diesen höheren Hierarchien zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt lebt. Damit aber das Moralisch-Seelische in unserem Erdenleben sich darstellen kann, muß folgendes vor sich gehen.
Wir müssen zunächst in Wahrheit dasjenige, was die Wirkung unserer moralisch-seelischen Gedankenstimmung, Gefühlsstimmung, Willensstimmung ist, in der Seele drinnen behalten, müssen warten, bis wir in dem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt die Hilfe der Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien bekommen. Dann wird dasjenige, was wir in der Seele tragen, erst durch die geistige Welt hindurchgetragen, taucht wieder auf in einem neuen Erdenleben und erscheint dann in derjenigen Gestalt, in der es erscheinen soll. Was wären wir denn, wenn wir unmittelbar im irdischen Leben verwirklichen könnten, was wir seelisch-moralisch in uns tragen? Wir wären nicht die Menschen des irdischen Erdenlebens! Denken Sie, irgend etwas würden Sie moralisch-seelisch in sich tragen, von dem Sie mit Recht ersehen können, das müßte eine glückliche Weltsituation schaffen, und das geschähe, Sie könnten das bewirken. Was wären Sie dann? Sie wären ein Magier, nicht ein Mensch des irdischen Lebens! Denn wenn so ein Geistig-Seelisches unmittelbar bewirkt wird, so ist das im wesentlichen magische Wirkung. Der Mensch ist im einzelnen Erdenleben zwischen der Geburt und dem Tod in unserem gegenwärtigen Weltenzyklus kein Magier, aber er ist ein Magier zusammen mit den Wesen der höheren Hierarchien, indem er zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt wirkt und diese Wirkungen fortsetzt, wenn er aus diesem Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt wiederum heruntersteigt in das irdische Leben. Es ist die karmische Entwickelung des Menschen durch diese zwei so ganz verschiedenen Daseinsweisen, die irdische und diejenige zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, in der Tat das Gebiet, wo der Mensch magisch wirkt. Wenn wir den physischen Menschen, wie er im äußeren Leben vor uns steht, betrachten, so gliedert er sich für uns - ich habe das ja in meinem Buche «Von Seelenrätseln» am Schlusse angeführt - in den NervenSinnes-Menschen, in den rhythmischen Menschen und in den Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-Menschen. Stoffwechsel und Gliedmaßen hängen ja zusammen; wenn wir unsere Gliedmaßen gebrauchen, wird der Stoffwechsel rege gemacht, er muß vor sich gehen, es müssen Kräfte im Menschen verbraucht werden. Stoffwechsel muß vor sich gehen; im innerlichen Erleben muß auch der Stoffwechsel vor sich gehen. Beides aber ist verwandt. Wenn wir nun auf das Stoffwechselsystem des Menschen zunächst hinschauen, wie es sich im physischen Leibe auslebt, so sind wir ja versucht, das als das niederste System der menschlichen Erdenwesenheit zu betrachten. Es gibt eben Menschen, die sich aus dem Grunde Idealisten nennen, weil sie mit einer gewissen Verachtung sich angewöhnt haben, hinabzuschauen auf das Stoff-wechsel-Gliedmaßen-System. Es ist das niederste System, dasjenige System, das der idealistisch-anständige Mensch am liebsten nicht haben möchte. Nun kann man aber ohne dieses nicht im Erdenleben sein; es ist dasjenige, was den Menschen in seiner Unvollkommenheit im Erdenleben darstellt.
Was hier vorliegt, ist nun eben dieses: Es ist zwar für die physisch-menschliche Gestaltung das Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-System das niederste und hat daher für das eigentlich Menschliche im Erdenleben wenig zu tun, aber es ist schon im Erdenleben verbunden mit den Wesenheiten der höchsten Hierarchie, mit den Thronen, Cherubim, Seraphim. Wenn wir in der Welt herumgehen oder mit unseren Händen arbeiten, dann ist in dieser geheimnisvollen Tätigkeit, die da geschieht, die Tätigkeit der Throne, Cherubim, Seraphim drinnen. Die bleiben aber nun die Helfer, wenn der Mensch sein Leben nach dem Tode fortsetzt und weiterlebt zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt. Da bleiben sie Helfer. Es ist nun ganz irrtümlich, wenn man glaubt, daß das Moralisch-Seelische aus dem Kopf heraus kommt. Der Kopf ist in Wirklichkeit, von einem höheren Gesichtspunkte aus betrachtet, gar nicht ein so ungeheuer wichtiges Organ des Menschen. Der Kopf ist eigentlich mehr oder weniger ein Spiegel für die äußere Welt, und hätten wir nur den Kopf, dann würden wir von nichts etwas wissen als von der äußeren Welt. Im Kopf spiegelt sich eben einfach die äußere Welt. Die Kopferlebnisse sind nur die Spiegelungen der äußeren Welt. Dasjenige, was in uns an sittlichen Impulsen, an seelischen Impulsen lebt, kommt nicht aus dem Kopf, es kommt aus derselben Region, wo das Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-System ist, aber nicht aus dem Physischen des Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-Systems, sondern aus dem Geistig-Seelischen des Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-Systems, worinnen Throne, Cherubim, Seraphim leben.
Und so müssen wir uns folgendes vorstellen, um auf diesem Felde eine entsprechende Anschauung vom Menschen zu bekommen (es wird gezeichnet): Dieses dritte Glied der menschlichen Wesenheit, das Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-System, ist zunächst scheinbar unvollkommen, ja, man möchte sagen, des Menschen unwürdig in bezug auf seine physische und ätherische Organisation. Aber da drinnen steckt etwas anderes, oder vielmehr, dieses System steckt in etwas anderem: da drinnen leben die Throne - ich zeichne nur schematisch, selbstverständlich -, darinnen weben die Cherubim, darinnen flammen die Seraphim. Wenn nun der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes geht, dann fällt alles dasjenige, was zugrunde liegt dem physischen Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-System, von ihm ab, und er bleibt mit seiner IchWesenheit im Bereich desjenigen, worinnen er schon im Leben war: im Bereiche der Throne, Cherubim, Seraphim; dann lebt er weiter im Schoße der Cherubim, Seraphim. Er trennt sich dann von ihnen, sie aber bilden nun weiter aus — auch darauf habe ich in diesen Tagen hingewiesen — dasjenige, was in dem Seelisch-Sittlichen veranlagt war. Der Mensch, so sagte ich schon, sieht hier auf der Erde hinauf, zum Himmel hin, um zu ahnen, was ihm das Höhere, das Geistig-Übersinnliche ist. Das macht der Mensch, solange er auf der Erde ist. Ist der Mensch in dem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, so sieht er herunter, und er schaut, was aus seinem seelisch-sittlichen Verhalten wird durch die Handlungen der Cherubim, Seraphim, Throne. Da sieht er, wenn er wieder heruntersteigt zur Erde, unten die Folgen sich vollziehen; da wirken Cherubim, Seraphim, Throne mit zur Verwirklichung des Geistigen. So sehen wir, nachdem wir so darauf aufmerksam geworden sind, daß der Mensch von dem gegenwärtigen Erdenleben in die nächsten Erdenleben in magischer Weise hineinsendet die Wirkungen seiner Taten.
Blicken wir jetzt hin, nachdem wir, um das zu betrachten, auf das Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-System gesehen haben, nach dem polarisch entgegengesetzten System, nach dem Nerven-Sinnes-System, das zwar auch im ganzen Menschen ist, aber das hauptsächlich im Kopfe veranlagt ist, blicken wir nach dem Kopf des Menschen Der Mensch erlebt durch sein Haupt in der Tat nur eine Spiegelung der gegenwätrtigen Außenwelt. Seine Gedanken, seine Vorstellungen, in denen er ja, wie ich Ihnen sagte, einzig und allein wacht, sind eigentlich durch den Kopf nur Spiegelungen von draußen. Aber wenn man aufsteigt zur Initiations-Wissenschaft, zuerst zur imaginativen Erkenntnis, dann kommt man, wie es Ihnen bekannt ist, durch die imaginative Erkenntnis, ihre Umwandlung in inspirative Erkenntnis, und dann durch die intuitive Erkenntnis zurück zu den früheren Erdenleben. Dann schaut man hinein in die früheren Erdenleben, aber man schaut sie dann in ihrer geistigen Gestalt. In der geistigen Welt ist auch die Erkenntnis etwas durchaus Reales, Und derjenige, der mit wirklicher InitiationsErkenntnis das durchmacht, daß er in die früheren Erdenleben hineinschaut, er kommt sich nicht so vor, als wenn er jetzt da wäre, jetzt am 15. Juni 1924 bloß, sondern er wird sich selber gegenwärtig in dem Verlaufe der früheren Erdenleben; er schaut da nicht nur hinein, sondern er schaut sich in seinem ganzen Wesen zurück. Es ist nicht ein abstrakt-erkenntnismäßiges Hineinschauen, es ist eine Zurückwandlung, ein Einssein, ein Identischwerden mit demjenigen, was man war. Es wird sehr lebendig das Innere, sehr bewegt und erregt, wenn man da zurückkommt in die früheren Erdenleben. Dadurch aber, daß man zurückgeht, gewinnt man die Möglichkeit, den Gesichtspunkt seiner Weltanschauung zu ändern.
Was ist denn der Gesichtspunkt der äußeren Weltanschauung, die man gewöhnlich hat? Der Gesichtspunkt der äußeren Weltanschauung, die man gewöhnlich hat, ist der Kopf. Diesen Kopf, der die physische Kopforganisation zur Grundlage hat, diesen Kopf, den Sie in früheren Erdenleben gehabt haben, schon im vorigen Erdenleben, den können Sie nicht zum Gesichtspunkt der Weltanschauung machen, wenn Sie in frühere Erdenleben zurückgegangen sind; das können Sie nicht, der ist ja längst nicht mehr da, der ist ja fort. Nur das Geistige, das im Kopfe lebte, das können Sie zum Ausgangspunkte der Weltanschauung machen. Die Initiation besteht also darin, daß der Mensch durch Zurückgehen in sein früheres Erdenleben sich vergeistigt. Und eigentlich bedeutet alles Hellsehen im besten Sinne des Wortes ein Zurückgehen in frühere Erdenleben. Initiiertwerden bedeutet, nicht im ‚gegenwärtigen Erdenleben stehenbleiben, sondern mit dem Menschen, der man war im vorigen Erdenleben, die Dinge der Welt anschauen. Während man im gewöhnlichen Verlaufe der Welt ein so unvollkommenes Wesen ist im irdischen Leben, daß man nur die äußere physische Welt sieht, ist dasjenige, was man in früheren Erdenleben war, mittlerweile schon hellsichtig geworden. Und in der Regel ist es so, daß, wenn man zum nächstvorigen Erdenleben zurückkommt, man die Entdekkung macht: derjenige, der man da war, der ist ja eigentlich schon ein viel vollkommenerer Mensch geworden.
Ja, woher kommt es denn, daß dasjenige, was man sein könnte nach dem früheren Erdenleben, eben nicht ist? Woher kommt denn das? Sehen Sie, würde man als Mensch bloß einen Kopf haben und von einem Erdenleben ins andere gehen, so würde man so vollkommen im nächsten Erdenleben gegenüber dem früheren sein, wie ich es angegeben habe. Aber man hat eben nicht bloß den Kopf, man hat die anderen Systeme daran. Und indem man im Stoffwechsel-GliedmaßenSystem das magische Prinzip des Menschen hat, das im Karma wiederum wirkt, bringt das Karma den Kopf des Menschen herüber von einem Erdenleben zum anderen. Es ist also Karma ganz unmittelbar wirksam in der Gestaltung Ihres Kopfes. Und wenn man beginnt, auf diesem Felde zunächst eine unbefangene Menschenanschauung zu entwickeln, dann wird man nach und nach aus der Kopf-Physiognomie des Menschen vieles von seinem Karma lesen lernen. Und wiederum: diesen Kopf des Menschen anschauen, wie er heute mit dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein angeschaut wird, ist geradeso, als wenn man den Goetheschen « Faust » nimmt und anfängt: «H-a-b-e n-u-n a-c-h», weil man nur buchstabieren, nicht lesen kann. Man kann nicht mehr «Habe nun, ach» sagen. Wenn man aber lesen gelernt hat, wird man diese merkwürdigen Zeichen, die da stehen, durchdringen und dieses Lesen verstehen. Ich sagte Ihnen schon: das bewirkt die Kleinigkeit, daß, während man sonst immer nur zirka dreißig verschiedene Buchstabenformen in allen Büchern wahrnehmen würde, man in einem Buche Goethes «Faust», in dem anderen Hegels «Logik », in dem dritten die Bibel und so weiter hat. Daß man dieses haben kann, das geht lediglich daraus hervor, daß man lesen gelernt hat. Ebenso kann man lesen lernen in dem, was einen lebendig umgibt. Und das Aufsteigen vom Buchstabieren der menschlichen Hauptesform zum Lesen darinnen führt einen dann in die Geheimnisse des Karma des betreffenden Menschen. So daß wir uns sagen können bei dem, was in der Kopfesform sichtbar wird, wirklich äußerlich sichtbar: Jeder Mensch hat seinen eigenen Kopf, es hat gar keiner ganz genau die Kopfbildung des anderen. - Obwohl sich die Menschen oftmals ähnlich schauen, sind sie in ihrem Karma unähnlich. In der Kopfbildung tritt das Karma der Vergangenheit des Menschen für die physisch-sinnliche Anschauung zutage; in dem Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-System das künftige Karma; geistig verborgen, unsichtbar ist es da. So daß wir, wenn wir geistig vom Menschen sprechen, sagen können: Der Mensch besteht auf der einen Seite darinnen, daß er sein vergangenes Karma sichtbar macht, auf der anderen Seite darinnen, daß er sein zukünftiges Karma unsichtbar in sich trägt.
So können wir aufsteigen zu einer innerlich-geistigen Betrachtung des Menschen. Wenn wir den Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-Menschen betrachten, so ist darin nur das Physische und das Ätherische ein Niedriges; es leben im Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-System die Wesenheiten der höchsten Hierarchie. Gehen wir zum Kopfe, so ist der Kopf allerdings in physisch-sinnlicher Weise das Vollkommenste am Menschen, weil er in äußerer, sichtbarer Weise dasjenige in sich trägt, was geistig hinüberwirkt aus früheren Erdenleben — man schätzt ihn ja auch gewöhnlich am meisten -, aber er ist es nicht in geistiger Beziehung. Denn während im Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßen-System Throne, Cherubim, Seraphim leben, so leben im Kopfsystem Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi. Die sind es, die im wesentlichen hinter all dem stehen, was wir mit unserem Kopf in der sinnlich-physischen Welt erleben. Die leben in uns, in unserem Kopfsystem; sie handeln hinter unserem Bewußtsein, sie treffen auf die Wirkungen der bloß physisch-sinnlichen Welt und sie spiegeln das zurück, und wir werden uns erst der Spiegelbilder bewußt. Dasjenige, dessen wir im Kopfsystem bewußt werden, ist nur der Schein der Taten der Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi in uns (es wird gezeichnet). Soll ich das Schema fortsetzen, so muß ich sagen: Im Kopfsystem des Menschen, am anderen Pole, wirken Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi. - Ich brauche immer für die geistigen Wesen, die ebensogut mit anderen Ausdrücken benannt werden könnten, die Ausdrücke der älteren christlichen Weltauffassung, die noch das Spirituelle, das Geistige hatte.
Zwischen dem Nerven-Sinnes-System, das vorzugsweise im Kopfe verankert ist, und dem Stoffwechselsystem trägt der Mensch das rhythmische System. In diesem rhythmischen System ist dasjenige, was zwischen Lunge und Herz vorgeht. In alledem lebt drinnen die Hierarchie der Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes.
Also auch bei diesem Abschluß der Karma-Betrachtungen eröffnet sich wiederum die Einsicht, daß der Mensch gewissermaßen nach vorn aufgeschlossen ist den drei Reichen der Natur, die hier auf der Erde sind, daß er nach rückwärts aufgeschlossen ist den übereinanderstehenden geistigen Reichen der Hierarchien. Und wie ihn hier auf der Erde sein physischer Leib empfängt und ihn hindert, in magischer Art zu verwirklichen sein seelisch-ethisches Leben, so nimmt ihn nach dem Tode in Empfang die Welt der Hierarchien und läßt ihn ausleben für die nächsten Erdenleben in magischer Weise dasjenige, was er im einen Erdenleben nicht magisch verwirklicht. Wenn der Mensch aus einem Erdenleben in das andere hinüberschreitet, dann würde er unter allen Umständen, wenn er in regelmäßiger Weise sich fortentwickeln würde, mit dem Kopfsystem aus dem vorigen Erdenleben zur Hellsichtigkeit sich entwickeln; es trügen ihn Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi in die Hellsichtigkeit hinein. Daher muß der Mensch, wenn er wirklich das Geistige einsieht, dasjenige, was man — ohne daß Abergläubisches, Scharlatanhaftes gemeint ist - Hellsichtigkeit nennen kann, es muß der Mensch, trotzdem er in der äußeren Welt fortgeschritten ist zu seinem gegenwärtigen Erdenleben, gewissermaßen in einer kosmischen Gesinnung sich in sein voriges Erdenleben hineinstellen.
Wenn also irgend jemand, sagen wir, im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert lebt, so bedient er sich desjenigen Leibes - und zur Erkenntnis muß ersich dann des Kopfes bedienen -, den ihm das zwanzigste Jahrhundert geben kann. So kann er nicht hellsichtig sein. Nehmen wir aber an, er werde in ein voriges Erdenleben, zum Beispiel im zehnten oder elften Jahrhundert, versetzt, und er versetzte sich durch seine Seelenübungen, jetzt in dieser Zeit des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, zurück in das, was er damals war: dann ist er ja nicht derjenige, der er damals war, sondern er hat durch seine eigene Kraft geistig bewirkt, daß er jetzt für das zwanzigste Jahrhundert derjenige ist, der er damals war, und da ist er eben die hellsichtige Persönlichkeit. Das kann für die Initiations-Erkenntnis innerhalb des Lebens in der physischen Welt die Hellsichtigkeit eben durchaus ergeben. Wenn man aber in das Menschenleben hineinschaut, dann zeigt sich eigentlich real vor der hellsichtigen Erkenntnis, daß in den tieferen Impulsen der menschlichen Natur, in den tieferen Untergründen der Seele dasjenige, was in einem vorigen Erdenleben war, in anderer Gestalt wiederum auflebt. In dieser Beziehung läßt sich ja mancherlei erleben, und da handelt es sich darum, daß, will man überhaupt im Ernst herankommen an solche Dinge, wie es das Wirken des Karma ist, man schon das Erdenerleben seelisch-geistig intimer gestalten muß, als man es gewöhnlich gestaltet.
Ich will das, was ich gesagt habe, an einem Beispiel erörtern. Sie wissen aus der Art und Weise, wie ich solche Beispiele angeführt habe, daß sie tatsächlich hervorgeholt sind aus einer sich verantwortlich fühlenden geistigen Forschung. Ich will ein Beispiel heranziehen.
Eine menschliche Individualität lebte noch etwas vor der Begründung des Christentums im europäisch-asiatischen Orient mit der diese Menschenseele damals wenig befriedigenden Aufgabe - es war dieZeit, in der noch die Sklaverei herrschte -, über eine Anzahl von Sklaven, die einem Herrn, einem Besitzer gehörten, die Oberaufsicht zu führen. Die übersinnliche Anschauung führt einen herein in eine solche Situation, wo eine Menschenseele der damaligen Zeit, verkörpert in dem Leibe eines Sklavenaufsehers, alles dasjenige ausführen mußte, was der harte Herr dieser Sklaven verfügte. Die Sklaven hatten es zunächst mit dem Aufseher zu tun. Sittliche Impulsverhältnisse entwickelten sich zwischen den Sklaven und diesem Aufseher. Aber es ist eigentlich ein sehr Zwiespältiges in der Seele dieses Aufsehers. Es widerstrebt ihm, die oftmals harten, grausamen Maßregeln, die ihm aufgetragen sind von seinem Herrn, auszuführen. Er tut es dennoch, weil er hineingewöhnt ist in dieses Verhältnis, weil man es natürlich findet in der damaligen Zeit, sich so zu verhalten. Denken Sie sich nur: Sind denn heute die Menschen immer so, wie sie heute eigentlich sein wollen? Sie denken eben nicht nach, ob sie so sind, wie sie sein sollten. Da‘durch belügen sie sich über die Disharmonie zwischen dem, was sie sind, und was sie sein möchten. Diese Seele war also nicht das, was sie hätte sein sollen, sondern im Grunde genommen hatte sie tiefes Mitleid, tiefe Liebe mit all den unglücklichen Sklaven, an denen sie die Grausamkeiten vollziehen mußte. Aber aus, ich möchte sagen, sozialen Gewohnheiten tat sie viel Schlimmes an den Sklaven. Dadurch wurde sie mitverantwortlich, während in erster Linie natürlich verantwortlich war derjenige, welcher der Herr und Besitzer der Sklaven war.
Beide Individualitäten kamen in der Mitte des Mittelalters wieder, und zwar jetzt als ein Ehepaar. Der ehemalige Besitzer der Sklaven kam wiederum in einer männlichen Inkarnation, der Sklavenaufseher in einer weiblichen. Dieser Mann in der Mitte des Mittelalters, welcher der wiederverkörperte ehemalige Besitzer der Sklaven war, hatte in einer Art von Dorfgemeinde eine Stellung, die nicht gerade angenehm war. Er war in gewissem Sinne eine Art Polizeibüttel. Alles, was da vorkam in dieser Gemeinde, wurde auf seinen Buckel abgeladen. Er befand sich eigentlich sehr, sehr schlimm. Und wenn man dann nachgeht, warum das so ist, so kommt man darauf: Diese Dorfbewohner waren zum großen Teil die Sklaven, die er früher besessen hatte, und die er von seinem Aufseher in solcher Weise hatte behandeln lassen. Karmisch stellte sich jetzt dieses so heraus, daß der, welcher Besitzer war, zwar wieder ein höherer Beamter, aber doch der Dorfbüttel geworden ist, auf den alles abgeladen wurde, damit abgeladen wurde auch auf seine Ehefrau. Aber zugleich dadurch, daß diese Ehefrau miterlitt alles dasjenige, was die in die Dorfgemeinde verwandelten Sklaven auf den Mann abluden, erfüllte sich das Karma auch zwischen dieser Ehefrau, die früher der Sklavenaufseher war, und dem Sklavenbesitzer. Es löste sich das Band zwischen beiden. Zwischen diesen beiden waren die Bande gelöst, aber noch nicht zwischen diesem Sklavenaufseher, der jetzt in weiblicher Inkarnation erschienen war, und der Dorfgemeinde. Die kamen nun wieder zusammen, und zwar im neunzehnten Jahrhundert. Der ehemalige Sklavenaufseher, der in einer gewissen Weise sein Verhältnis geordnet hatte zu seinem früheren Herrn, der erschien als der große Pädagoge Pestalozzi, und diejenigen, die seine Sklaven waren, erschienen als jene, denen er als Pädagoge nun seine Wohltaten erwies.
Ja, es ist schon so. Solche Dinge muß man ansehen nicht nur mit dem trockenen Verstande, man muß sie ansehen mit Gemüt, Gefühl und Liebe, aber so, daß Gefühl, Gemüt und Liebe so klar und hell werden, wie sonst nur der Verstand ist, und sich wirkliche Erkenntnis entwickeln kann. Der Verstand kann nur die Bilder der äußeren Natur entwickeln, und wenn man glaubt, man kommt zu etwas anderem als zu dem Bilde der Natur, so irrt man sich. Dieses andere können Sie erst haben, wenn Gemüt, Gefühl und Liebe Erkenntniskräfte werden. Dadurch, daß man sich in der angedeuteten Weise in der karmischen Entwickelung zurückversetzt, erst dadurch gelangt man dazu, allmählich sich hineinzuarbeiten in eine Anschauung dessen, wie Karma wirkt. Aber dann muß eben die ganze Seele mitspielen. Deshalb muß dasjenige, was in solchen Auseinandersetzungen über das Karma liegt, den ganzen Menschen ergreifen.
Sehen Sie, diese Dinge müssen schon kommen, daß die Seele sich in inniger Weise einlebt in die anthroposophische Bewegung. Ich war wirklich vor kurzem einmal tief ergriffen. Ich hatte dasjenige, was ich Ihnen jetzt über Pestalozzi vortrug, auch in Dornach vorzutragen und war dann in die Lage versetzt, mit einem anderen Mitgliede des Dornacher Vorstandes eine Basler Behörde zu besuchen. Da gab es im Wartezimmer ein Bild, das bekannte Bild, das auch der andere, der mit mir war, schon oftmals gesehen hat: wie da Pestalozzi sich verhält zu den Kindern. Aber dieser Freund aus dem esoterischen Dornacher Vorstand wurde tief ergriffen von diesem Bilde, und er sagte: Wenn man das Bild anschaut, das aus dem Wesen Pestalozzis genommen ist, so kann ja die Situation eigentlich gar nicht anders geschehen sein als so, wie das alles dargestellt ist durch die Anthroposophie. — Sehen Sie, das sind eben die Dinge, die öfter da sein sollten, die wirklich in das unmittelbare Erleben hineintragen könnten das, was aus anthroposophischen Einsichten kommt. Deshalb können die Auseinandersetzungen über das Karma, die ich jetzt zu meiner großen Befriedigung unter Ihnen halten durfte, nicht bloß den Anspruch darauf machen, intellektualistisch verstanden zu werden, sondern alles, was auseinandergesetzt wurde in diesen acht Tagen, appelliert nicht nur an Ihren Intellekt; es appelliert an Ihr Herz, an Ihr ganzes Gemüt. Und erst wenn Sie zusammenfassen werden dasjenige, was ich über Wiederverkörperung historischer Persönlichkeiten, über Betrachtung des Einzelkarma, über das Hereinspielen von Schlafen und Wachen in die Entwickelung des Karma gesagt habe, und das einwirken lassen in Ihr Herz und Gemüt, dann wird ausgehen können von diesen Betrachtungen ein umfassendes Verständnis für die Wirkungen des Karma in einzelnen Menschenpersönlichkeiten.
Dieses Hereinspielen dessen, was man heute so gern nur intellektualistisch nimmt, in den ganzen Menschen, das ist es ja allein, was unserer im Untergang begriffenen Zivilisation wieder aufhilft. Was sagt heute der Orientale über den westlichen Menschen? Der Orientale hat heute keine Spiritualität, die wir einfach übernehmen können, aber eine Spiritualität, die in alten Zeiten wirklich tief in die geistige Welt hineinschaute. Er hat davon nur noch Spuren, aber er hat doch in seiner Seele eben das Gefühl dafür, was früher einmal im Orient da war: ein Zusammenleben mit dem Geiste, der in allen Dingen lebt. Das hat derjenige, welcher nicht in dem Materialismus aufgeht. Einer dieser Orientalen, der ein Gefühl gerade für das Wesentliche der in der orientalischen Weisheit lebenden Spiritualität hatte, der sagte, als er die westliche Zivilisation anschaute: Was ist dieser eigentümlich? Dieser ist eigentümlich, daß sie bloß Fassade hat und keine Grundmauern. Die Fassade ist unmittelbar auf dem Boden aufstehend, die Grundmauern fehlen. — Und er führt weiter aus, dieser Orientale: Ja, der westliche Mensch geht eigentlich in allem, was zu seiner Zivilisation gehört, in fast allem, von dem Ich aus, von dem in ein einziges Erdenleben eingeschlossenen Ich, von dem, was so wirkt, daß es, so wie man es wahrnimmt, keine Realität ist. Das ist nur dann eine Realität, wenn es aus sich herausgeht und in die aufeinanderfolgenden Erdenleben führt.
Das Stehen in aufeinanderfolgenden Erdenleben, das sieht der Orientale als die Grundmauern an, und das Stehenbleiben beim Ich, wie es eingeschlossen ist zwischen Geburt und Tod, das sieht er als die Fassade an. Haben wir heute nicht gesehen, daß der Mensch, wenn er in das Geistige hineinschaut, wieder in das Vergangene hineinblicken wird? Wenn er hinblickt wieder auf die karmische Entwickelung im magischen Sinne, muß er sich auf den Gesichtspunkt der aufeinanderfolgenden Erdenleben gestützt haben. Da wird das Ich erweitert, da wird das Ich auch nicht mehr egoistisch sein. Der Orientale sagt, daß der Europäer das Ich nur finden kann innerhalb von Geburt und Tod; das nennt er den Egoismus der Europäer. Deshalb sagt er: Der Europäer, überhaupt die westliche Zivilisation, hat Fassade und keine Grundmauern, und wenn es so fortgeht, daß die westliche Zivilisation nur stehenbleibt beim Ich, das zwischen Geburt und Tod lebt, dann könnte eines Tages der Zustand eintreten, daß, weil die Fassade keine Grundmauern hat, die einzelnen Steine der Fassade herausfallen. - Es ist eigentlich in vielen Seelen der orientalischen Menschen, weil sie viel in Imaginationen leben, dieses Bild entstanden von den aus der Fassade, die keine Grundmauern hat, herausbröckelnden Steinen. Gerade die Einsicht in solche Dinge, wie wir sie in diesen Tagen betrachtet haben hier, gibt wieder Grundmauern, führt hinaus über die bloße Fassade. Das Hinschauen auf das Karma, das von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben führt, das führt den Menschen hinaus aus seiner eingeschränkten, begrenzten, bloß in das eine Erdenleben hineinragenden Tätigkeit.
Diesen Ausblick in die kulturgeschichtliche Aufgabe der Anthroposophie möchte ich heute, wo ich ja den letzten Vortrag unter Ihnen halten muß, vor Ihre Seele hinstellen. Wenn er, weiterwirkend in diesen Ihren Seelen, mancherlei darin eröffnet, dann werden diese Seelen eben mitwirken, daß der Grundstein geschaffen werde für eine echte, in sich echte und gediegene Fassade der westlichen Zivilisation. Der Orientale gebraucht immer einen Nachsatz, wenn er so etwas ausführt, wie ich es Ihnen ausgeführt habe. Ich habe ihm eigentlich nichts hinzuzufügen, die Dinge sind schon von Orientalen oftmals ausgesprochen worden. Wenn der Orientale einen solchen Satz sagt, dann meint er: Der Westen hat sich zu weit vom Geist entfernt, der kann die Grundmauern nicht mehr finden; der Osten muß zusetzen dasjenige, was er noch hat aus alten Zeiten, damit überhaupt die Erdenzivilisation nicht zugrunde geht. - An solchen Bestrebungen, wie die Anthroposophie es ist, wird es liegen, ob es gelingt, daß dieses furchtbare Schicksal nicht über die westliche Zivilisation kommt, das ihr heute von allen einsichtigen Orientalen prophezeit wird. Es bedarf des guten Willens, einzudringen in die spirituelle Welt, um dieses Spirituelle wieder aufzunehmen in die menschlichen Herzen, in die menschlichen Gemüter. Es hat daher eine Menschengemeinschaft, die sich zu solcher Geistesarbeit versammelt, wie Sie es jetzt getan haben, die Sache nur dann in rechtem Sinne aufgefaßt, wenn ihr daraus die Aufgabe erwächst, mit aller Kraft des der Seele zur Verfügung stehenden Willens für die Menschheit wiederum hinzuarbeiten zum Erleben des Geistigen. Und auf diese Hinlenkung zum gemüthaften Erleben des Geistigen, sodann auf das moralisch Umfassende kam es mir bei diesen Vorträgen an. Deshalb wollte ich gerade so, wie ich es getan habe, die Stunden ausfüllen, in denen wir wiederum einmal zusammensein konnten. Aber Anthroposophie sollte das Spirituelle jederzeit ernst nehmen, in jedem Augenblicke, nicht nur in jeder Stunde. Sie soll daher auch wahr machen den Satz: Sind wir im Raume beieinander, so sind wit physisch beisammen, aber weil wir das Geistige durchschauen, wissen wir, daß wir auch dann zusammen sind, wenn wir physisch auseinandergehen. Deshalb sage ich heute, weil ich weiß, daß einzelne schon heute, schon nach diesem Vortrage zurückfahren müssen: Begrüßen wir uns zum Abschiede so, wenn wir uns jetzt wieder trennen, daß wir uns sagen: Wir wollen rechte Anthroposophen sein dadurch, daß wir in dem Geiste, der uns lebendig wird aus unserer Weltanschauung, auch dann, wenn wir räumlich getrennt sind, in den Seelen beisammen bleiben. - Begrüßen wir, die wir jetzt wieder weggehen, unsere Freunde des Breslauer Zweiges so, daß wir ihnen sagen: Auch wir wollen zurückdenken an das, was wir mit ihnen gemeinsam für unsere Seele und die Seelen der anderen Menschen erarbeiten durften. Wir wollen uns mit ihnen zusammen fühlen auch dann, wenn wir diese Räume verlassen haben, und wir tragen Sehnsucht danach, daß auch die Breslauer Freunde an diejenigen denken, die zu ihrer tiefsten Befriedigung in dieser Zeit unter ihnen weilen durften.
Sixteenth Lecture
Let us compare what is presented to us through direct experience of our relationship to life between birth and death with what man must inwardly feel about the connection between his spiritual and moral behavior, thoughts and actions and the result of this moral and spiritual behavior. We have started from such considerations on these very evenings, and we will again let our discussions run into such considerations at the end. On the one hand, when we look at the way in which our moral-soul actions emerge from our intentions, from the whole mood of our soul, we see that, if we look at ourselves impartially, we must describe one part of our actions as the morally good ones, those that can fit in with the world process; the other actions as the morally bad ones, the morally imperfect ones, those that cannot fit in with the world process. But all that happens through man cannot have merely a momentary significance - as everyone actually says to himself - just as everything in nature does not have merely a momentary significance; but everything has its effects, its consequences, everything becomes the cause of something else or is the effect of something else. Human life would not fit into the course of world events at all if that which it carries within itself were not also cause and effect. But while we can be completely satisfied when we observe how something happens in nature as a result of its cause, we cannot be satisfied at all with the connection between our moral and spiritual experience and the course of the world. We see how in the physical events there is no direct connection between what is to become of our moral-soul constitution and what actually happens in the course of physical life. And in the same way we see, if we allow events in the wider human sphere to affect us, that he who under certain circumstances, if we look at his soul, appears to be morally and emotionally good, is affected by misfortune, by bad things in the world, while he who appears to be emotionally weak, bad, unwell, can certainly be affected by external events which are not in all respects somehow retribution or the like for that which lives in his soul constitution. In short, if we look at nature, we find no connection between what man experiences, fatefully experiences, and what is the essence, the nature of his will, and it would be, one might say, a quite irresponsible illusion if man wanted to delude himself for one life on earth that the course of his fateful life would somehow result as an effect of his moral will. The bad can be happy, the good can be unhappy. These two sentences nevertheless summarize that in earthly life which makes this earthly life at first incomprehensible to the higher humanity. And we will see from this how man, as he is placed in the world, is not able to bring about the corresponding consequences of his actions: the moral remains in the individual life on earth the inner state of the soul, the inner mood of the soul, and cannot reveal itself directly in outer physical reality. However, this does exist, that the constitution of the soul can occur as a real effect of the moral mood of the soul. We can be inwardly and emotionally satisfied because of our good conduct, even though misfortune befalls us which stands in stark contrast to that which we have actually caused; but what is brought about in this way nevertheless remains inwardly and emotionally. Man must confess to himself: Within the physical life he is not able to realize outwardly in the physical world that which he carries morally-soulfully within himself.
If, as we have done in the last few days, we look at karma, how the earlier earth lives work over into the later ones, then we come to such an inner, corresponding connection of the later with the earlier in the spiritual-moral area. In a few words, however, this means that the human being has an organization here in his physical life on earth which reflects the spiritual consequences of his moral conduct back into his soul and does not allow them to emerge in an earthly life. In this earthly life man is powerless to realize that which he carries morally in his soul. Man is powerless; his external-physical corporeality, his etheric substantiality makes him powerless. Man becomes just as powerful in the life between death and a new birth as he is powerless here in physical life. But if the physical body and the etheric body hinder him here in physical life, if they make him powerless, then there must be something in the life between death and a new birth that makes him powerful enough to realize it physically there and in later earthly lives. Here we are with our physical body and with our etheric body within the realms of nature. That which we have to take from the realm of nature for our physical and etheric bodies in our physical life on earth makes us powerless. With that with which we pass through the gate of death, with our own soul-spiritual being, we become powerful after death, because between death and a new birth, just as we are connected on earth with the kingdoms of nature, we are connected with the beings of the higher hierarchies. The beings of the higher hierarchies are divided into three realms, the lowest realm, so to speak: Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi, the middle realm: Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, the highest realm: Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim. In the course of these lectures we have shown how man lives with the actual essence of the stars and thus with these higher hierarchies between death and a new birth. However, in order for the moral-soul to present itself in our earthly life, the following must take place.
First we must in truth keep within the soul that which is the effect of our moral-soul mood of thought, mood of feeling, mood of will, must wait until we receive the help of the beings of the higher hierarchies in the life between death and a new birth. Then that which we carry in the soul is first carried through the spiritual world, emerges again in a new life on earth and then appears in the form in which it should appear. What would we be if we were able to realize directly in earthly life what we carry in our souls and morals? We would not be the people of earthly life! Do you think that you would carry something morally and spiritually within you that you could rightly see would create a happy world situation, and that would happen, that you could bring about. What would you be then? You would be a magician, not a man of earthly life! For if such a spiritual-soul thing is brought about directly, it is essentially a magical effect. The human being is not a magician in the individual earth life between birth and death in our present world cycle, but he is a magician together with the beings of the higher hierarchies, in that he works between death and a new birth and continues these effects when he descends again from this life between death and a new birth into earthly life. The karmic development of man through these two very different modes of existence, the earthly and the one between death and a new birth, is in fact the area where man works magically. If we consider the physical human being as he stands before us in outer life, he is divided for us - as I mentioned at the end of my book “On Soul Riddles” - into the nervous-sensory human being, the rhythmic human being and the metabolic-limb human being. Metabolism and limbs are connected; when we use our limbs, the metabolism is stimulated, it must proceed, forces must be consumed in the human being. Metabolism must take place; metabolism must also take place in inner experience. But the two are related. If we now first look at the metabolic system of man as it lives itself out in the physical body, we are tempted to regard it as the lowest system of the human earthly being. There are people who call themselves idealists for the very reason that they have become accustomed, with a certain contempt, to look down on the metabolic-limb system. It is the lowest system, the system that the idealistically decent person would prefer not to have. But without this one cannot be in earthly life; it is that which represents man in his imperfection in earthly life.
What is present here is precisely this: Although the metabolic-limb system is the lowest for the physical-human form and therefore has little to do with what is actually human in earthly life, it is already connected in earthly life with the beings of the highest hierarchy, with the thrones, cherubim, seraphim. When we walk around in the world or work with our hands, then the activity of the thrones, cherubim and seraphim is involved in this mysterious activity that takes place there. But they remain the helpers when man continues his life after death and lives on between death and a new birth. There they remain helpers. It is now quite erroneous to believe that the moral-soul comes out of the head. In reality, from a higher point of view, the head is not such a tremendously important organ of the human being. The head is actually more or less a mirror for the outer world, and if we had only the head, we would know nothing about anything but the outer world. The outer world is simply reflected in the head. The experiences of the head are only the reflections of the outer world. That which lives in us in moral impulses, in soul impulses, does not come from the head, it comes from the same region where the metabolic-limb system is, but not from the physical of the metabolic-limb system, but from the spiritual-soul of the metabolic-limb system, in which thrones, cherubim, seraphim live.
And so we must imagine the following in order to get a corresponding mental image of man in this field (it is drawn): This third member of the human entity, the metabolic-limb system, is at first seemingly imperfect, indeed, one might say, unworthy of man in regard to his physical and etheric organization. But there is something else in it, or rather, this system is in something else: in it live the thrones - I am only drawing schematically, of course - in it weave the cherubim, in it flame the seraphim. Now when man passes through the gate of death, all that which underlies the physical metabolic-limb system falls away from him, and he remains with his I-entity in the realm of that in which he was already in life: in the realm of the thrones, cherubim, seraphim; then he continues to live in the bosom of the cherubim, seraphim. He then separates himself from them, but they now continue to form - I have also referred to this in these days - that which was predisposed in the soul-moral. Man, as I have already said, looks upwards here on earth, towards heaven, in order to sense what the higher, the spiritual-supersensible is for him. Man does this as long as he is on earth. When man is in the life between death and new birth, he looks down and sees what becomes of his spiritual and moral behavior through the actions of the cherubim, seraphim and thrones. Then, when he descends again to earth, he sees the consequences taking place below; there cherubim, seraphim, thrones work together for the realization of the spiritual. Thus we see, after we have thus become aware of it, that man sends the effects of his deeds from the present earth life into the next earth lives in a magical way.
Now that we have looked at the metabolic-limb system, let us look at the polar opposite system, at the nervous-sensory system, which is also in the whole human being, but which is mainly located in the head, let us look at the head of the human being The human being in fact experiences through his head only a reflection of the present external world. His thoughts, his mental images, in which, as I told you, he is solely awake, are actually only reflections from outside through the head. But when one ascends to the science of initiation, first to imaginative cognition, then one comes, as you know, through imaginative cognition, its transformation into inspirational cognition, and then through intuitive cognition back to the earlier earth lives. Then you look into the earlier earthly lives, but you see them in their spiritual form. In the spiritual world, knowledge is also something quite real, and the one who goes through this with real initiatory knowledge, that he looks into the earlier earth lives, does not feel as if he were there now, now on June 15, 1924, but he becomes present to himself in the course of the earlier earth lives; he not only looks into them, but he looks back in his whole being. It is not an abstract, cognitive looking back, it is a transformation, a becoming one, a becoming identical with that which one was. The inner being becomes very alive, very moved and excited when one returns to the earlier earthly lives. But by going back, you gain the opportunity to change the viewpoint of your worldview.
What then is the point of view of the outer worldview that one usually has? The point of view of the outer worldview that one usually has is the head. This head, which has the physical head organization as its basis, this head that you had in previous earth lives, already in the previous earth life, you cannot make it the point of view of the worldview if you have gone back to previous earth lives; you cannot do that, it is no longer there, it is gone. Only the spiritual that lived in the head can be made the starting point of the worldview. Initiation therefore consists in the fact that man spiritualizes himself by going back to his former life on earth. And actually all clairvoyance in the best sense of the word means going back to earlier earthly lives. To be initiated means not to remain in the 'present earthly life, but to look at the things of the world with the person one was in the previous earthly life. While in the ordinary course of the world one is such an imperfect being in earthly life that one only sees the outer physical world, that which one was in previous earthly lives has in the meantime already become clairvoyant. And it is usually the case that when you return to the next previous earthly life, you discover that the person you were there has actually already become a much more perfect person.
Yes, where does it come from that what you could be after the previous life on earth is not? Where does that come from? You see, if you as a human being only had a head and went from one earthly life to another, you would be as perfect in the next earthly life compared to the previous one as I have indicated. But you don't just have the head, you have the other systems attached to it. And by having the magical principle of the human being in the metabolic-limb system, which in turn works in karma, karma brings the human being's head over from one earth life to the next. Karma is therefore directly effective in the shaping of your head. And if you begin to develop an unbiased view of man in this field, then you will gradually learn to read much of his karma from the physiognomy of his head. And again: looking at the human head as it is seen today with ordinary consciousness is just like taking Goethe's “Faust” and beginning: “H-a-b-e n-u-n a-c-h”, because you can only spell, not read. You can no longer say “Habe nun, ach”. But if you have learned to read, you will penetrate these strange signs that are there and understand this reading. I have already told you that this is the result of the little thing that, whereas otherwise one would only ever perceive about thirty different letter forms in all the books, one has Goethe's “Faust” in one book, Hegel's “Logic” in another, the Bible in a third, and so on. The fact that one can have this is merely the result of having learned to read. In the same way one can learn to read in that which surrounds one vividly. And the ascent from spelling out the main human form to reading in it then leads one into the secrets of the karma of the person concerned. So that we can say to ourselves in what becomes visible in the head form, really outwardly visible: each person has his own head, no one has exactly the head formation of the other. - Although people often look alike, they are dissimilar in their karma. In the formation of the head the karma of man's past comes to light for the physical-sensual view; in the metabolic-limb system the future karma; spiritually hidden, invisible it is there. So that when we speak spiritually of man, we can say: Man consists on the one hand in making his past karma visible, on the other hand in carrying his future karma invisibly within himself.
In this way we can ascend to an inner-spiritual contemplation of the human being. If we look at the metabolic-limb-man, then only the physical and the etheric are lower in it; the beings of the highest Hierarchy live in the metabolic-limb-system. If we go to the head, the head is indeed the most perfect part of the human being in a physical-sensual way, because it carries within itself in an outer, visible way that which works spiritually over from earlier earthly lives - it is usually held in the highest esteem - but it is not so in a spiritual respect. For while thrones, cherubim and seraphim live in the metabolic limb system, archai, archangeloi and angeloi live in the head system. They are essentially behind everything we experience with our head in the sensual-physical world. They live in us, in our head system; they act behind our consciousness, they encounter the effects of the merely physical-sensual world and they reflect this back, and we only become aware of the mirror images. That of which we become conscious in the head system is only the appearance of the deeds of the Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi in us (it is drawn). If I am to continue the scheme, I must say: In the human head system, at the other pole, the Archai, Archangeloi and Angeloi are at work. - For the spiritual beings, who could just as well be called by other terms, I always need the terms of the older Christian conception of the world, which still had the spiritual, the spiritual.
Between the nervous-sensory system, which is preferably anchored in the head, and the metabolic system, the human being carries the rhythmic system. In this rhythmic system is that which takes place between the lungs and the heart. The hierarchy of the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes lives within all of this.
So also at this conclusion of the karma observations the insight opens up again that man is, as it were, opened forward to the three kingdoms of nature which are here on earth, that he is opened backward to the superimposed spiritual kingdoms of the Hierarchies. And just as his physical body receives him here on earth and prevents him from realizing his spiritual-ethical life in a magical way, so after death the world of the hierarchies receives him and lets him live out in a magical way for the next earth lives that which he does not realize magically in one earth life. When man passes over from one earth-life into another, then under all circumstances, if he were to develop in a regular way, he would develop into clairvoyance with the head system from the previous earth-life; Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi would carry him into clairvoyance. Therefore, if a man really sees the spiritual, that which can be called clairvoyance - without meaning superstitious or charlatanic - he must, in spite of having progressed in the outer world to his present life on earth, place himself, as it were, in a cosmic attitude in his previous life on earth.
So if someone, let us say, lives in the twentieth century, he makes use of that body - and for cognition he must then make use of the head - which the twentieth century can give him. So he cannot be clairvoyant. But let us assume that he is transported to a previous life on earth, for example in the tenth or eleventh century, and through his soul exercises, now in this time of the twentieth century, he puts himself back into what he was then: then he is not the person he was then, but he has spiritually brought about through his own power that he is now for the twentieth century the person he was then, and there he is the clairvoyant personality. This can certainly result in clairvoyance for the initiatory realization within life in the physical world. But if one looks into the human life, then it actually shows itself in reality before clairvoyant insight that in the deeper impulses of human nature, in the deeper undergrounds of the soul, that which was in a previous life on earth comes to life again in a different form. In this respect many things can be experienced, and the point is that if one wants to approach such things as the working of karma in earnest, one has to shape the earth experience in a more soul-spiritual intimate way than one usually shapes it.
I would like to discuss what I have said with an example. You know from the way I have given such examples that they are actually drawn from a spiritual research that feels responsible. Let me give you an example.
A human individuality lived somewhat before the foundation of Christianity in the European-Asian Orient with the task, which was not very satisfying for this human soul at that time - it was the time in which slavery still prevailed - of being in charge of a number of slaves who belonged to a master, an owner. The supersensible view leads one into such a situation, where a human soul of that time, embodied in the body of a slave overseer, had to carry out everything that the hard master of these slaves decreed. At first the slaves had to deal with the overseer. Moral impulses developed between the slaves and this overseer. But there is actually something very ambivalent in the soul of this overseer. He is reluctant to carry out the often harsh, cruel measures he is ordered to do by his master. Nevertheless, he does so because he is accustomed to this relationship, because it was natural at the time to behave in this way. Just think about it: are people today always the way they actually want to be today? They don't think about whether they are the way they should be. As a result, they lie to themselves about the disharmony between what they are and what they want to be. So this soul was not what it should have been, but basically it had deep compassion, deep love for all the unfortunate slaves on whom it had to carry out the cruelties. But out of, I would say, social habits, she did a lot of bad things to the slaves. This made her partly responsible, while the one who was the master and owner of the slaves was of course primarily responsible.
Both individualities returned in the middle of the Middle Ages, now as a married couple. The former owner of the slaves came again in a male incarnation, the overseer of the slaves in a female one. This man in the middle of the Middle Ages, who was the reincarnated former owner of the slaves, had a position in a kind of village community that was not exactly pleasant. In a sense, he was a kind of police beadle. Everything that happened in this community was dumped on him. He was actually in a very, very bad position. And if you then investigate why this was the case, you come to the conclusion that these villagers were largely the slaves he had previously owned and whom he had allowed his overseer to treat in this way. Karmically this turned out to be the case, that the one who was the owner became a higher official again, but still the village beadle, on whom everything was dumped, so that it was also dumped on his wife. But at the same time, because this wife suffered everything that the slaves who had been transformed into the village community unloaded on her husband, the karma between this wife, who had formerly been the slave overseer, and the slave owner was also fulfilled. The bond between the two was severed. The bonds between these two were severed, but not yet between this slave overseer, who had now appeared in a female incarnation, and the village community. They came together again in the nineteenth century. The former slave overseer, who had organized his relationship with his former master in a certain way, appeared as the great pedagogue Pestalozzi, and those who had been his slaves appeared as those to whom he now did his good deeds as a pedagogue.
Yes, it is like that. One must look at such things not only with the dry intellect, one must look at them with mind, feeling and love, but in such a way that feeling, mind and love become as clear and bright as otherwise only the intellect is, and real knowledge can develop. The intellect can only develop the images of external nature, and if one believes that one arrives at something other than the image of nature, one is mistaken. You can only have this other when mind, feeling and love become forces of knowledge. By placing oneself back in the karmic development in the manner indicated, only then can one gradually work oneself into an understanding of how karma works. But then the whole soul must play its part. Therefore, that which lies in such disputes about karma must take hold of the whole human being.
You see, these things have to happen for the soul to become intimately involved in the anthroposophical movement. I was really deeply moved recently. I had to present in Dornach what I have just told you about Pestalozzi and was then put in the position of visiting a Basel authority with another member of the Dornach board. There was a picture in the waiting room, the familiar picture that the other person who was with me had often seen: how Pestalozzi behaved towards the children. But this friend from the esoteric Dornach board was deeply moved by this picture, and he said: "If you look at the picture, which is taken from Pestalozzi's nature, the situation could not really have happened in any other way than the way it is portrayed by anthroposophy. - You see, these are the things that should be there more often, that could really bring into our immediate experience what comes from anthroposophical insights. That is why the discussions about karma that I have now been able to hold among you, to my great satisfaction, cannot merely claim to be understood intellectually, but everything that has been discussed in these eight days appeals not only to your intellect; it appeals to your heart, to your whole mind. And only when you will summarize what I have said about the re-embodiment of historical personalities, about the contemplation of individual karma, about the interplay of sleeping and waking in the development of karma, and let this have an effect on your heart and mind, then a comprehensive understanding of the effects of karma in individual human personalities will be able to emanate from these contemplations.
This playing into the whole human being of what is so readily taken intellectually today is the only thing that will help our civilization, which is in decline. What does the Oriental say about Western man today? Orientals today do not have a spirituality that we can simply adopt, but a spirituality that in ancient times really looked deep into the spiritual world. He only has traces of it, but in his soul he has a feeling for what was once there in the Orient: a coexistence with the spirit that lives in all things. This is what those who are not absorbed in materialism have. One of these Orientals, who had a feeling for the essence of the spirituality living in Oriental wisdom, said when he looked at Western civilization: What is peculiar about it? What is peculiar to it is that it has only a façade and no foundations. The façade stands directly on the ground, the foundation walls are missing. - And he continues, this Oriental: Yes, Western man actually assumes in everything that belongs to his civilization, in almost everything, the ego, the ego enclosed in a single earthly life, that which appears in such a way that it is not a reality as it is perceived. It is only a reality when it goes out of itself and leads into successive earth lives.
The Oriental sees the standing in successive earth lives as the foundation walls, and the standing still with the ego, as it is enclosed between birth and death, he sees as the façade. Have we not seen today that when man looks into the spiritual, he will again look into the past? When he looks again at the karmic development in the magical sense, he must have based himself on the viewpoint of successive earth lives. There the ego will be expanded, there the ego will no longer be egoistic. The Oriental says that the European can only find the ego within birth and death; this he calls the egoism of the European. That is why he says: The European, Western civilization in general, has a façade and no foundation walls, and if it continues in this way, that Western civilization only remains with the ego that lives between birth and death, then one day the situation could arise that, because the façade has no foundation walls, the individual stones of the façade fall out. - Actually, in many souls of oriental people, because they live a lot in imagination, this image has arisen of the stones crumbling out of the façade, which has no foundation walls. It is precisely the insight into such things, as we have looked at here these days, that gives foundations again, that leads beyond the mere façade. Looking at the karma that leads from earthly life to earthly life leads man out of his restricted, limited activity that only extends into one earthly life.
I would like to place this outlook into the cultural-historical task of anthroposophy before your soul today, when I have to give the last lecture among you. If it continues to work in these souls of yours and opens up many things in them, then these souls will help to lay the foundation stone for a genuine and solid facade of Western civilization. The Oriental always uses a postscript when he says something like what I have said to you. I don't really have anything to add; the things have often been said by Orientals. When the Oriental says such a sentence, he means: The West has moved too far away from the spirit, it can no longer find the foundations; the East must add what it still has from ancient times, so that the earth's civilization does not perish at all. - It will be up to such efforts as anthroposophy to ensure that this terrible fate does not befall Western civilization, which is prophesied today by all insightful Orientals. It requires good will to penetrate into the spiritual world in order to take this spirituality back into human hearts and minds. Therefore, a human community that gathers for such spiritual work as you have now done has only understood the matter in the right sense if it has the task of working towards experiencing the spiritual again for humanity with all the strength of will available to the soul. And what mattered to me in these lectures was this guidance towards the soulful experience of the spiritual, and then towards the morally comprehensive. That is why I wanted to fill the hours in which we could be together again, just as I did. But anthroposophy should take the spiritual seriously at all times, in every moment, not just in every hour. It should therefore also make the sentence true: If we are together in space, we are physically together, but because we see through the spiritual, we know that we are also together when we physically separate. That is why I say today, because I know that some of us will have to return today, after this lecture: Let us greet each other at parting in such a way that we say to each other: we want to be true anthroposophists by remaining together in souls in the spirit that comes alive to us from our worldview, even when we are physically separated. - Let us greet our friends from the Breslau branch as we leave again, saying to them: We too want to think back to what we were able to work out together with them for our souls and the souls of other people. We want to feel together with them even when we have left these rooms, and we long for our friends in Wroclaw to think of those who were able to dwell among them at this time for their deepest satisfaction.