XI
If we are to
understand the real nature of karma, it is of paramount importance to
turn our attention to the extent to which the cosmos participates in
the evolution of mankind.
In order,
therefore, to be able to envisage those Beings of the spiritual
cosmos who play a part in man's evolution, let us consider, to
begin with, man's connection with the beings belonging to the
earthly realm. Man on earth is surrounded by beings of the mineral,
plant and animal kingdoms, and must be regarded as having all these
three kingdoms of nature within him — in a higher form. In a
certain respect man is related to the mineral kingdom through his
physical organism but he elaborates what is otherwise to be found in
the external mineral kingdom into a higher form of
existence.
Through his
etheric body man is related to the realm of the plants, but again he
elaborates this within himself. The same holds good of man's
relationship through his astral body to the beings of the animal
world. When, therefore, we think of the spatial environment of man we
must realise that he bears the mineral, the plant and the animal
kingdom within him.
Just as man bears
within him these external kingdoms of nature, so does he bear within
him — but in respect of time, not of space — the kingdoms
of the higher Hierarchies. And we can only understand human karma in
all its aspects when we know how the various realms of the
Hierarchies work upon man through the course of his earthly
life.
In considering how
the mineral kingdom works upon man, we have to do with the processes
connected with nourishment. For whatever means of nourishment man
draws from kingdoms higher than the mineral, are reduced, in the
first place, to the mineral condition. Passing on to the plant
kingdom, we know that man has within him life-forces, vital forces.
Again, in reference to the animal kingdom we know that through his
astral body man raises mere life into a higher sphere, into the
sphere of perceptive experience. In short, we can follow the
sequences of processes in the three kingdoms of nature as well as
within the human organism.
In the same way we
can follow the workings of the higher Hierarchies in man's life
of soul-and-spirit. The mineral nature, the plant nature, the animal
nature in man can be understood in the light of the processes
operating in the three kingdoms of nature in space. Equally, we must
understand the higher forces operating in the life of
man.
To begin with, we
will consider human destiny and endeavour to understand how the
kingdoms of the Hierarchies work into it. But here we must study, not
what is present simultaneously in man, namely, physical body,
etheric body and astral body but in connection with the working of
the Hierarchies we must study what transpires in man's earthly
life in the succession of time — regarded, of course, from the
spiritual point of view.
In our
anthroposophical studies we have always recognised distinct periods
in the course of human life: from birth until the change of teeth at
about the 7th year; from the change of teeth to puberty; from puberty
to the 21st year where the differentiation is less perceptible; then
from the 21st year to the 28th; from the 28th year to the 35th; from
the 35th year to the 42nd; from the 42nd year to the 49th; from the
49th year to the 56th; and so on. Concerning what lies beyond the
56th year I shall speak in the next lecture. To-day we shall consider
the course of human life up to the 56th year.
We have therefore
three periods of life up to the 21st year, then three further
periods, and so on.
Man says
“I” of himself. But many forces play upon this
“I”. Outwardly considered, the “I” is worked
upon by mineral forces, plant forces and animal forces; inwardly, in
the aspect of soul-and-spirit, the “I” is worked upon by
the third Hierarchy, by the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, by the
second Hierarchy (Exusiai, Kyriotetes, Dynamis), and by the first
Hierarchy (Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones).
These Beings do
not, however, all work into the course of man's life in the
same way. Even externally there is a difference in the influences
taking effect in the human being according to his age. When, for
example, we observe a little child at the very beginning of earthly
life, we find what is characteristic of the animal kingdom especially
marked in him; a growing, thriving, upbuilding
process.
When we consider
the last portion of life, the years that lead into old age, we find
evidence of a mineralising process; the organism becomes sclerotic,
brittle. Because this mineralising process is more subtle and
intimate in man it works more strongly in him than in the animals
— with the exception of the higher animals. The difference
there is due to conditions into which we cannot enter now, but which
will be dealt with on some later occasion. Whereas in the animal the
ebbing of the life-forces begins directly the up-building process is
complete, the human being carries over important phases of his
development into the period of decline which in reality begins
already in the thirties. A very great deal in the evolution of
humanity would simply not exist if human beings developed in the same
way as the animals, carrying nothing over into old age. Human beings
can carry very much into old age, and many momentous achievements of
culture are due to what has thus been carried over into old age, into
the period of physical decline when the mineralising process is
particularly in evidence.
Outwardly, then,
it is clearly perceptible that at the beginning of earthly life the
animal nature predominates, at the end of earthly life the mineral
nature, and in the intervening period the plant
nature.
But in respect of
the working of the higher Hierarchies upon man the difference is even
more emphatic. In earliest childhood the Third Hierarchy —
Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai — work with particular strength
upon the life of soul-and-spirit. The activity of this Third
Hierarchy embraces, properly speaking, the first three periods of
life. The Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai work throughout this
period. In the little child and the young human being the organism is
all the time being built up by the soul-and-spirit. This activity
embraces almost everything: and into it works forces from the world
of the Third Hierarchy, the Angeloi, Archangeloi,
Archai.
At the 14th year
the Second Hierarchy (Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes) begins to work.
So that here, again through three periods, between the 14th and 35th
years, I must write: Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes. You will see, my
dear friends, that in the period between the 14th and 21st years the
Third and the Second Hierarchy together exercise their influences
upon the human being. It is not until the 21st year that the Second
Hierarchy begins to work by itself.
At puberty, great
cosmic processes, which until this age are not present in the human
being, begin in some measure to be active in him. Little reflection
is needed to perceive that when he becomes capable of procreation the
human being is able to receive into himself from the cosmos those
forces which co-operate in the creation of a new physical man. Before
the age of puberty these cosmic forces do not work in the human
being. A change takes place in the physical organism at puberty
whereby it is imbued with mightier forces than it previously
contained. These stronger forces are not present in the child before
that age. In the child are the weaker forces which, to begin with,
work only upon the soul in earthly life, not upon the
body.
In the 35th year a
period begins when the human being becomes weaker in respect of his
inner soul-forces, less able than he was before to withstand the
onset of the destructive forces of his organism. Before the 35th year
the organism itself provides essential support, for its inherent
tendency is to upbuild. This tendency continues on into the thirties
but then a destructive tendency begins to predominate. This process
of destruction cannot be counteracted even by the forces emanating
from the Beings of the Second Hierarchy. Henceforth the soul must
receive from the cosmos enough support to prevent the normal
course of life being ended by death at the age of 35. For if until
the 21st year only the Beings of the Third Hierarchy were to work and
then from the 14th to the 35th year only the Beings of the Second
Hierarchy, we should be ripe for death at the age of 35, that is to
say at the very middle of earthly life proper — unless the
physical body were still to hold together from sheer inertia. Death
does not occur at this time because actually from the 28th year, not
only from the 35th, and again through three periods, the Beings of
the First Hierarchy, the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones, work
upon man.
| Diagram 1 Click image for large view | |
Again there is a
period, between the 28th and the 35th years, when the Second and
the First Hierarchies are working together. Thus in point of fact
the Second Hierarchy works by itself during the period from the 21st
until the 28th year of life.
As I said before,
we will consider the later period of life in the next lecture. You
will naturally say: But is a human being who has passed his 49th year
forsaken by all the Hierarchies? We shall consider that on another
occasion. What has been said to-day need not therefore be taken as
applying only to those who are under the age of 49 and not to the
others. To begin with, however, we must learn to know how the
Hierarchies pour their forces, their particular strength into human
life as it runs its course.
Naturally you must
not think that such matters can be adequately studied by setting them
out diagrammatically. This is never possible when we have to do with
any higher form of life.
For many years I
have been speaking of man as a threefold being: the man of
nerves-and-senses, the rhythmic man, the metabolic-limb man. A
professor once inferred from this — what will professors not
infer! — that I divided man into three — head, chest,
abdominal system. This was because he thought of everything side by
side. I have of course always emphasised that although the
nerves-and-senses system is concentrated mainly in the head, it
extends through the whole organism. The same is true of the rhythmic
system. The three members must not be thought of in spatial
juxtaposition. You must also conceive the sequence of which we have
been speaking, in the same way: the working of Angeloi, Archangeloi
and Archai is limited, in the main, to the first three periods of
life, but the aftermath of these periods continues through the whole
of life, just as the nerves-and-senses system is concentrated mainly
in the head but is present through the whole organism. We can feel
with the big toe, because it too contains nerves-and-senses
life.
Nevertheless this
threefold membering of the human being is a reality; so too is the
other threefold membering of which I am speaking
to-day.
When you study
these periods in human life, you will be able to say: on the
spiritual side, the human “I” is subject to any number of
influences proceeding from the spiritual world, just as on the
physical side it is subject to influences coming from the animal,
plant and mineral kingdoms. As human beings we stand with our
“I” in the midst of what is coming to us in a most
complicated way from the cosmos. And this activity which extends
spiritually from the cosmos, from the Hierarchies, to man, is also
concerned with the shaping of karma during physical life on
earth.
It is the Angeloi,
Archangeloi and Archai who bring us from the spiritual world into the
physical world, and it is they who mainly accompany us through the
first three periods of life. They work most strongly of all upon the
nerves-and-senses system. In all the complicated and wonderful
development taking place in our sense-life and in our intellectual
life up to the age of 21 — in all this, the Angeloi,
Archangeloi and Archai participate.
Countless
happenings take place behind the scenes of the ordinary
consciousness. And it is precisely in these happenings that the
Beings of the higher Hierarchies participate.
Then again from
puberty, from about the 14th year onwards, Beings whose forces are
stronger than those of the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai, begin to
take hold of the rhythmic system. The real task of the Beings of the
Third Hierarchy, the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai, is to influence
our life of soul. From pre-earthly existence we bring with us into
the first three epochs of life such strong forces that the soul is
able to work powerfully upon the body. During this period, only the
comparatively weaker forces of the Third Hierarchy are required to
come to our help.
Now the forces
which the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai need in order to guide and
direct human life up to the 21st year, stream to them from the
spiritual radiations of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. When physical
science comes to describe the cosmos, it is extremely naïve.
From Saturn, Jupiter and Mars radiate forces of which the Angeloi,
Archangeloi and Archai have the very deepest
understanding.
When man is
passing through the life between death and a new birth, he enters,
first of all, into the Moon-sphere, where he comes into contact with
Beings who were once on earth and who are stern judges of the good
and the evil he brings with him. For the time being he must leave
behind in the Moon-sphere the evil that is part of him. He cannot
bear it into the Sun-sphere.
Then he passes
through the Sun-sphere and still farther out into the cosmos. The
forces of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn begin to work upon him. He passes
through the whole of life between death and a new birth, and only on
the path of return, when he has come again into the Moon-sphere, do
Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai approach him, saying, as it were: We
have learned from Saturn, Jupiter and Mars that thou art crippled.
— I have said that the evil must be left behind, but this means
that man leaves something of himself behind. He enters as a cripple
into the Sun-sphere as well as into the regions beyond. And there the
gaze of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars falls upon him.
Truly, my dear
friends, this life between death and a new birth is complicated! As
soon as we pass through the gate of death, what I have described
takes place in the Moon-sphere. Man must leave behind whatever of his
being has identified itself with evil. It is as though the physical
body were obliged to leave its limbs behind. Because he has
identified himself with evil, man enters the Sun-sphere and all the
rest of the cosmos in a maimed, mutilated condition, for he has been
obliged to leave behind certain parts of his being. And when, having
passed through the Sun-sphere, he enters the spheres of Mars, Jupiter
and Saturn, he feels how Mars, Jupiter and Saturn gaze upon him with
the penetrating eye of justice; for as the weavers of cosmic justice
they watch him in order to behold how much of his being he may bear
upwards. They gaze upon him. Each one of us perceives how much good
or evil has become part of us, what we have been able to bear
upwards, as well as what is lacking, that is to say, what we were
obliged to leave behind; each one of us realises to what extent we
are identified with evil, how much is lacking in us. The gaze
directed upon us by the Beings of Mars, Saturn and Jupiter makes us
realise our imperfections and shortcomings.
When a man returns
again, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars have in the intervening time
communicated to the Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai what they beheld
and experienced when he passed before them with all his
imperfections. The Beings of the Third Hierarchy weave this into him,
so that there is inscribed in his being what he has to do in
compensation. In these first three epochs of life when Angeloi,
Archangeloi and Archai work upon the human being with particular
strength, the demands of karma are inscribed into the
nerves-and-senses system, into the head-system.
When the 21st year
has been passed (— how things are with human beings who die
before that age will be explained in later lectures —) the
karmic demands upon life have already been stamped into a man. If one
is able to read what is there in some human being of 21, one can
perceive what karmic demands are inscribed into him; for it is in
this period up to the 21st year, that these demands are inscribed.
They lie mainly in the hidden, occult foundations of the
nerves-and-senses system, in that which spiritually underlies the
nerves-and-senses system.
When, on the other
hand, we direct our attention to the further course of life, when we
observe the human being between the ages of 28 and 49, we find that
it is less a matter of the inscribing of karmic demands, but
rather of the fulfilment of karma, the discharging of karma.
For it is particularly in this period of life that what has been
inscribed into a man's being in the first three epochs of life
must be brought to karmic fulfilment.
So that here (see
diagram) I can write: fulfilment of karma (28th to 49th
years). During the period from the 21st year to the 28th year, karmic
demands and karmic fulfilment are in balance.
Now there is one
remarkable phenomenon to which attention must be paid in our time. In
the present epoch of evolution there are a great many human beings
whose last incarnation of importance occurred in the first centuries
after the founding of Christianity, up to about the 8th or 9th
century. (— This does not imply that there has been no other
incarnation in the intervening time, but if this was the case it was
an unimportant one. —) If we were to make a survey of the human
beings living in our time and sharing in its culture, we should find
that by far the greater number of them had their last important
incarnation in the first seven or eight centuries after the founding
of Christianity.
Now this period
was one that had a striking effect upon the human beings then living.
This can be perceived to-day when one observes certain people in
respect of their karma. Again and again, my dear friends, I have set
myself the task of studying a number of people from this particular
point of view, people who have acquired a certain amount of
contemporary culture, intellectual culture, and also, speaking
comparatively, considerable learning. Think of the large numbers of
people nowadays who have become teachers in secondary schools, civil
servants, and the like. They have learned a great deal, they have
been to secondary schools, even to universities, and have really
become exceedingly clever. (I do not mean this ironically, I only ask
you to take it in connection with what I have said at other times
about such things.) There are untold numbers of clever people to-day.
The majority, indeed, are so clever that one can hardly tell them
anything, for they know it already! Everyone has his own point of
view; everyone passes judgment on what he hears.
That is how things
are in our time, but only in our time. In earlier epochs it was quite
different. Then there were individuals who had knowledge and the
others listened to them. Clever people were by no means as numerous
as they are to-day, when even in youth they are already clever. Just
think of how many people under the age of 21 write — I will not
say poetry, for this they have always done — but newspaper
articles, even serious critiques.
In our time, then,
intellectuality is very highly developed. In the case of most
individuals this intellectuality is influenced, fundamentally, by
their incarnation during the first seven or eight centuries after the
founding of Christianity. In these centuries the feeling in the human
soul for what came from pre-earthly existence into earthly life was
all the time growing weaker. Men were beginning more and more to take
an interest in what comes after death and were less and less
concerned with what had preceded earthly life. In this connection I
have frequently pointed out that we have no adequate expression for
eternity but only for the half of eternity which has a beginning and
never ends. For this part of the eternity of man's existence we
have the word ‘immortality’, but unlike ancient languages
we have not a word for the other half of eternity, which has never
had a beginning. But eternity embraces both ‘immortality’
and ‘un-bornness’. We have come into this world as beings
to whom birth means only a metamorphosis, just as we depart from the
earthly world through death which again signifies only a
metamorphosis, not an end.
The strong
consciousness that was alive in man until the early Christian
centuries: ‘I have descended from the spiritual world into
physical existence’ — this consciousness grew fainter and
fainter and man began to confine himself to that other thought: I am
here! What went before does not interest me. What does interest me is
what follows after death. — This was the consciousness that
grew stronger and stronger during the first Christian centuries. The
feeling for pre-earthly existence grew dim in those who at that time
were passing through their last incarnation of importance, and that
is why intellectual cleverness now is entirely directed to the
earthly. Great though it is, it is directed entirely to the earthly.
Striking and tremendously significant discoveries can be made in this
domain when one embarks on investigations into karma. I will mention
two cases.
The first is that
of a man who taught history in a secondary school, an extremely
clever man and really impressive as a teacher. Until the time when
the karmic demands were still working and then through this neutral
zone here (see previous diagram) — that is to say until the
beginning of the thirties — his cleverness was very evident. He
was one of the many really clever men of our time. But the moment he
entered this phase here (28th to 49th year) his cleverness was no
longer a support and his moral impulses were in jeopardy. There was
nothing left but intellectuality, which was then undermined. When the
forces which are not bound up with the nerves-and-senses system but
in the later part of life with the metabolic system began to work,
the lower nature of the metabolic-limb system undermined what had
previously come to a very fine form of expression in the
nerves-and-senses system. The man in question, who in respect of
intellect had begun his life really well, actually ended in
degeneracy; there was a moral débâcle. That is one
example.
And now another
example — of a personality who was even more intelligent than
the one I have just mentioned — but again merely intelligent.
He was extremely short-sighted and was possessed of really remarkable
intelligence. Up to the age of 30, this personality too, because of
his intelligence, had a strong influence upon his fellow-men. When,
however, he had passed his 30th or certainly his 35th year, when the
nerves-and-senses system was no longer working so powerfully but when
the metabolic-limb system became especially active in this later
phase of life, this man, who had previously been so able and clever,
became utterly trivial and banal, absorbed in petty squabbles. I had
known him in his youth and confess that I was astonished when I found
him subsequently among people who were taken up with all kinds of
party factions. Observation of the path that leads from karmic
demands to karmic fulfilments disclosed that the forces of
intelligence in men of our time, prepared as they were in the earlier
incarnation during the first Christian centuries, were not strong
enough to enable the soul to reach the realm of the First Hierarchy
in the period when the soul becomes weaker and the body puts up
greater resistance.
And then it became
evident to me that the large numbers of men to-day who are so clever,
who can, above all, be made so clever through their education —
these men in the first epoch of life develop the capacity to reach up
with the forces of their intelligence to the Third Hierarchy, to the
Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai. This they achieve. And in this epoch
of life they are personalities of great promise.
When they come
into the realm of the Second Hierarchy, they are, as it were, given
over to this Hierarchy. The Second Hierarchy reaches down to men;
practically all human beings become capable of procreation. This
cosmic Hierarchy reaches downwards. Here there is no real abyss
between man and the Hierarchy.
When, however, man
reaches his 28th year and must begin to find a relation to the still
higher Hierarchy, the First Hierarchy, he must find this relation
with his whole nature, right down into the metabolic-limb system.
Here he needs stronger forces of inner support in the spiritual
realm; and the seed which was planted in him during an earlier life,
in an epoch when men ceased to think about pre-earthly existence,
proves unable to supply these forces.
In connection with
karma, one would fain impress upon all true educators and teachers
the urgent necessity of imbuing intellectuality with such spiritual
strength that when the human being is passing through the later years
of life, what has been permeated with moral force in his intellect
may be able to hold the balance against the forces which draw him
away from the First Hierarchy. (See arrow in
diagram.)
It is a matter of
no small interest in this age of ours to compare the second part of
human life with the first, and those who have an aptitude for
observing life should certainly begin to practice observation from
this standpoint. For the things of which I have spoken occur in
ordinary life; the examples I have given are taken from everyday life
and could be multiplied a hundred — nay, a thousandfold; they
are to be found everywhere. But something else of the same kind can
also be found at a higher level of life. I have always been
interested in the spiritual development of human beings and when I
look at many who were creative in early life, who made a great
impression on their contemporaries, perhaps as young poets or artists
in some sphere, of whom it was said when they were 24, 25, 26, 27
years old: “What wonderful talent!” ... well, they grew
older; after the poetic and artistic achievements of youth the stream
dried up and they were of no account at all in the sphere where they
had once been of real significance.
If you go through
the names of those who made reputations as young poets or artists and
then lost all right to be included in the annals of literature or
art, you will find abundant proof of what I am saying. But what I
have told you will, at the same time, show you how the different
epochs in human life reveal in manifold ways how karma and the
impulses of karma take effect.
Everything that is
merely intellectualistic and materialistic can really only influence
a human being inwardly in his youth. The spiritual that is infused
into the intellectuality — that alone can hold its own through
the whole of earthly life — in accordance with karma. Therefore
when we observe the kind of destinies I have described, we must look
back to previous incarnations which failed to turn men's eyes
to that vista of the spiritual which can be revealed only when the
gaze is directed to the life before birth, not merely to the life
after death.
Life in our time
is often fraught with this tragedy and there is so much that does not
stand the test of the years. In youth, ideals are plentiful; in old
age few remain. Older people rely more upon the State and upon their
pensions than upon the sustaining power of life itself; they need
support from outside because they cannot find what brings them into
relation with the First Hierarchy.
You see,
therefore, that if we are to study karma in the right way, we must
pay attention to these different, but interpenetrating, members of
man's being. — When man is passing through the first
three epochs of life he lives in relation to the Third Hierarchy.
Then, inwardly and unconsciously, he begins to be related to the
Second Hierarchy and finally to the First Hierarchy. Only on the
basis of this knowledge are we able to judge to what extent a man
enables the karmic impulses within him to come to expression. For
this knowledge of man's relation to the higher Hierarchies,
this knowledge alone can reveal human life in concrete
reality.
Angeloi,
Archangeloi and Archai say to us in our subconsciousness during the
first three epochs of life: All this thou hast brought over from
earlier epochs, from earlier earthly lives. This thou must take upon
thyself. — In our subconscious experience of destiny this is
said to us. And in truth, throughout these three epochs of life this
message of destiny constantly resounds within us. From the Hierarchy
of the Angeloi there rings forth: This is what Saturn, Jupiter and
Mars have meted out to thee. Their forces have revealed it to
us.
Then there follows
all that comes from the Second Hierarchy, from the realm of the Sun;
and finally what comes from the First Hierarchy, from the sphere of
Venus, Mercury and Moon. And just as it is especially the Angeloi
whose call resounds in our subconsciousness during the first three
periods of life: Saturn, Jupiter and Mars have told us that this is
ordained for thee ... so from the 28th year onwards it is the
Seraphim who also speak in the unconscious realm of the soul, saying:
All this remains with thee because thou canst not fulfil it, because
thou art unable to reach up to us; this remains with thee and thou
must bear it into the next earthly life; thou canst not balance it
because thou hast not the strength.
Under the level of
man's consciousness speak the forces of karma, the forces that
shape destiny. They speak from all the three higher Hierarchies. And
if we have a delicate faculty of perception for what enters our life
as destiny, then we can also look behind this vista of destiny and
begin to apprehend with reverence and awe how through the course of
our life the Beings of all the three Hierarchies are weaving this
destiny. And in truth only then do we learn to look at life in the
right way.
For who would be
satisfied, if, when asking us about a man of whose life on earth he
wants to know something, and presumes we can tell him, we merely
answer: ‘Oh, he is called Joseph Müller.’ All that
we can tell him is just the name! But the questioner had expected
that he would hear something more than a name: events in the
man's life, something that throws light on the forces and
impulses that influenced his earthly life! No one who really wants to
know something about a human being can be satisfied with merely
knowing his name. But in this materialistic age of ours people are,
unfortunately, satisfied with the designation ‘Man’. In
respect of all that lies behind the ordinary consciousness wherein
work Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes,
Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones — people to-day are satisfied with
the general designation ‘Man’. They do not look at the
concrete realities. But this they must learn to do; they must turn
their eyes again to these concrete realities of human
life.
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