XIII
The ability to
perceive karmic connections in human life demands a clear
understanding of laws and conditions of existence with which,
generally speaking, the man of modern times is entirely unfamiliar.
For into the karmic connections extending from one earthly life into
another, spiritual laws are working, spiritual laws which will be
totally misconstrued if they are associated in the very slightest
degree with causation similar to what is meant when we speak in the
ordinary way of ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ in the
world.
In order to
understand the real nature of karmic connections we must, in the
first place, have a clear and exact perception of what is happening
within man behind the sphere of his ordinary consciousness. And it is
only by observing the being of man as revealed to super-sensible
cognition, to Initiation-knowledge, that such understanding can be
attained.
Let us therefore
consider to-day how the attainment of Imagination, Inspiration and
Intuition makes it increasingly possible for man to recognise how he
lives, as man, within the whole cosmos. This will enable us to
continue the study of certain matters that were touched upon in
recent lectures and will eventually lead to an understanding of
karma.
It has often been
said, even in public lectures, that at the stage of Imaginative
Cognition a tableau of the present earthly life spreads out before
man. A vista of his life lies before him in mighty pictures and he is
able to behold things that cannot be yielded by memory in the
ordinary sense.
In this vista
which opens out as a result of the striving for Imaginative
Knowledge, man is, to begin with, entirely within his physical and
etheric bodies, but through the appropriate exercises he makes
himself completely independent of everything by which impressions are
transmitted to him from his physical body. In the activity of
Imaginative Cognition man is therefore independent of his
sense-impressions, and also of his intellectual knowledge. He lives
entirely in the etheric body and the memory-tableau lies outspread
before him.
We can therefore
say: man is now living in the super-sensible, inwardly detached from
his physical body. And in point of fact it would not be so difficult
as it actually is for the majority of people to acquire this faculty
of Imaginative Knowledge, if only there were a stronger inclination
to break through the inner link between the life of soul and the
physical body.
It is, of course,
comparatively easy to break through the link with direct
sense-perception. But remember that a man is also connected with his
physical body through the attitude and tenor of soul he acquires in
his earthly life. After all, our moods of soul are also dependent
upon the physical body, are essentially influenced by the physical
body. When a man ascribes one thing or another to his capacities, his
talents or other qualities of soul, this is all connected with his
experiences in the physical body. If he is to acquire the faculty of
genuine Imaginative Knowledge he must free himself from all this; and
if he succeeds, even if only for a moment, he knows what Imaginative
Knowledge is and the life-tableau begins gradually to
unfold.
It is necessary to
bear in mind the difference between the condition of being bound up
with the physical body and thus living within it, and the condition
of being independent of the physical body but for all that remaining
within it. There is a real difference, and it is the latter condition
that obtains in the activity of Imaginative Knowledge. We remain
within the physical body, we do not leave it, but we are nevertheless
independent of it.
When you remain
with your soul and spirit within the physical body, then you fill the
physical body, even if you are not bound up with it. I will
illustrate this diagrammatically. —
| Diagram 1 Click image for large view | |
Let us think,
first, of man's ordinary, everyday condition. Take this (a) to
represent the physical body (inner curves), this the etheric body
(outer curves) and this the soul and spirit (short branching
lines).
The etheric body
is connected everywhere with the physical body through the muscles,
bones and nerves. These connections are everywhere, proceeding from
the etheric body to the physical body. Now picture to yourselves that
you have a porous clay vessel and you pour liquid into it. The liquid
fills the pores and runs out into the porous clay. But it may also
happen that your vessel is not porous and in that case none of the
liquid is absorbed; the liquid will then be in the vessel but there
will be no channels into the clay walls. In the activity of
Imaginative Knowledge man is in this sense within his body but the
etheric body does not enter into the muscles, the bones and so forth.
This condition can be indicated by (b) in the diagram. Physical body;
then etheric body which is now on its own; and within, the soul and
spirit. All that has happened is that the etheric body is now
inwardly detached. The result of this detachment will of course be
perceptible when returning to the previous condition. It is therefore
only natural that when a man really tries to make himself free of his
physical body but remains within it, as is the case in the activity
of Imaginative Cognition, he is aware not only of exhaustion but of
actual heaviness. He becomes intensely aware of his physical body
because he has now to make his way into it again.
This is the
condition obtaining in the activity of Imaginative Cognition but not
in that of Inspiration, Inspired Knowledge. In the activity of
Inspired Cognition — which begins, as I have described to you,
with consciousness that has been emptied of images — man is
outside his physical body with the soul and spirit. Thus (c) in the
diagram represents the soul and spirit outside the physical and
etheric bodies.
The outer
configuration must therefore be the same as in sleep. Knowledge
through Inspiration is possible only when with his ego and astral
body a man can be outside the etheric body.
And now, when he
returns into his physical and etheric bodies, he notices the presence
there of something else; the physical and etheric bodies are not at
all as he is accustomed to know them; something is there within them.
This is very important, because knowledge of it gives an indication
of the whole process of Initiation.
At first, a
certain difficulty is experienced in coming back into the physical
and etheric bodies after the state of Inspiration, because there is
the feeling of diving down into something quite
different.
Remember what I
told you yesterday about the backward survey of the memory-tableau.
If this memory-tableau is blotted out in the activity of Inspired
Knowledge, we perceive what it is that is present there within the
physical body. And when the memory-picture of the phase between birth
and the 7th year, until the time of the change of teeth, is blotted
out, we perceive that within this physical body there was an Angelos,
an Angel! We actually behold there a Being of the Third Hierarchy. So
that what happens is this. We succeed in getting outside the physical
body and then return into it as into our house and home ... and lo!
we meet our Angel there when we look back upon the phase of life from
birth until the 7th year.
Knowledge of such
truths existed in the days of the ancient, instinctive clairvoyance,
knowledge which took different forms in the various epochs of
evolution; and these truths were taken into account in establishing
certain customs and usages.
In olden times men
were fully conscious that the giving of names should conform with
spiritual realities. Generally speaking, people to-day are
indifferent about the kind of names their children receive. For some
the only consideration is whether the name has a pretty sound. There
is often an element of coquetry in giving a name to a child; people
‘fancy’ the name. But in olden times men were mindful of
the child's relation to the spiritual world and chose the name
accordingly. In an epoch, for example, when a prophetic being was
venerated under the name of ‘Elisha’, girls were
sometimes named ‘Elisa-beth’, that is to say, the
‘house of Elisha’. In this way expression was given to
the hope that by placing a child in the world with this name, the
grace of the prophet would be ensured. And so the names were given
with this aim in view.
What were the
grounds for this? It was known that when man has been outside his
body and then returns into it, he sees himself as the bearer of
spiritual Beings. And the whole conception that little children,
especially, are guarded by their Angel originates in the fact that
when with Initiation-knowledge we look back upon the phase of life
from birth to the 7th year, we experience what I described yesterday
by saying that when this phase in the memory-tableau is blotted out,
the Hierarchy of the Angeloi, that is to say, the deeds and
activities of the Moon-sphere shine through.
Again, when we
look back upon the phase from the 7th to the 14th years and then
return into the body, we find an Archangelos. This Archangel is of
course also present within the human being from birth until the 7th
year, but we do not find the Archangel when we are looking back only
at the phase between birth and the 7th year.
And so when we
return into the body after having been outside it, we become aware
that there, within the body, are Beings of all the higher
Hierarchies. But this form of self-knowledge, the knowledge that the
body is the bearer of the Beings of the higher Hierarchies, cannot be
acquired in any other way than by having first been outside the body
and then returning into it again.
This can be
understood only when it is connected with another fact. I have told
you that the many stars in the heavens are but the outer signs of
colonies of gods. Where the stars sparkle in the heavens there are,
in reality, colonies of spiritual Beings. But you must not imagine
that these gods have their consciousness only
in Venus, or only in the Sun, or
in Mercury, or in Sirius. They have their main habitation, the focal
point of their existence in these several spheres, and this is true
of all spiritual Beings of the cosmos who have anything to do with
the earth. But it is impossible to say of their existence in the
cosmos that they have their dwelling-place only in Mars, only in
Venus, and so forth. Paradoxical as it will seem, I am nevertheless
obliged to say that the Divine Beings who belong to the earth and who
people Mars, Venus, Jupiter or another of the planets — also
the Sun — would be blind if they inhabited only one of these
spheres. They would live, they would be active — just as we can
walk about and take hold of things even if we have no eyes; but they
would not see — I mean, of course, in the way in which Divine
Beings ‘see’ — they would lack a certain faculty
for perceiving what is happening in the cosmos. But this, my dear
friends, will lead you to ask: Where, then, is the eye of the gods,
where is their organ of perception? This organ of perception is
provided by the Moon, our neighbour in the cosmos — in addition
to all its other functions. All the Divine Beings belonging to the
Sun, to Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, have their eye in the
Moon and are at the same time in the Moon.
And now think of
some of the things of which we have spoken here from time to time.
Take only one fact. The Moon was once part of the earth, and
separated from the earth only in the course of time. Before the
separation of the Moon, therefore, the eye of the gods was bound up
with the earth; the gods beheld the cosmos from the earth. Hence at
that time the great primeval Teachers too were able to impart their
wisdom to mankind. For in that they were living on the earth, and the
Moon was still within the earth, they could gaze into the cosmos with
the eye of the gods. When the Moon departed, remembrance of this
vision of the gods remained with them for a time; thus they could
behold, in remembrance, what was now seen with the eye of man, and
could communicate this to the gods. But the primeval Teachers
themselves had then to make their way to the Moon, where they are to
this day, and to found a colony there in order to be able to see with
the eye of the gods.
And now turn your
minds to something else. From the Moon, Jahve reigned over the heart
and soul of the Jewish people, and those of the primeval Teachers who
were still associated with the cult and the teaching of Jahve united
with him in the Moon, in order to look out into the cosmos through
his eyes. In time to come the Moon will again be united with the
earth and then it will be possible for man on the earth to gaze into
the cosmos with the eye of the gods. Vision of the cosmos will then
be a natural human faculty.
It is only by
understanding these things that we can come to know the nature of the
universe. For only when man views the universe in this way can he
have any true conception of the function of the
Moon.
And now we have
the reason why freedom, free spiritual activity, can be unfolded in
earthly life. As long as the Moon was connected with the earth, as
long as the primeval Teachers taught men out of their store of
remembrance, and as long as this teaching was preserved in the
Mysteries — actually until the 14th century
A.D. — all wisdom consisted in what
had been seen with the eye of the gods. Only since the period I
indicated to you, only since the year 1413, has it become utterly
impossible for the earth to see with the eye of the gods. So that
with the development of the Consciousness Soul, freedom begins to be
within the reach of men.
But in point of
fact man is on the earth only in the activity of sense-perception and
intellectual knowledge, for the latter is also bound up with the
physical body. The truth of the matter is as follows. Let us picture
the human being. It is only in his sense and intellectual knowledge
that he extends beyond the Hierarchies who are within him. In respect
of all that lies behind his intellect, he is filled with the Third
Hierarchy; in all that lies behind his feeling, he is filled with the
Second Hierarchy; in all that lies behind his willing, he is filled
with the First Hierarchy.
We are therefore
in very truth within the Hierarchies and it is only in respect of our
sensory organs and intellect that we extend beyond their realm. It is
actually as though we were swimming, with the head rising a little
out of the water. With our senses and our intellect we rise out of
the ocean of the activities of the Hierarchies.
All this we find
when, having experienced the reality of perception outside the body,
we return again into the body. And then we find that in very truth
man is the House of the Gods.
Something else
will now be clear to you. When the gods desire cosmic vision, they
gaze through the eye of the Moon. But when they desire to behold the
cosmos from the earth — whereby an entirely different aspect is
revealed — then they must look from out of man. The human race
is the other eye of the gods!
In very ancient
times it was natural for man to be able to see with the eye of the
gods because the Moon was within the earth. And he will be able to do
so again when in future time the Moon and the earth are re-united.
Through Initiation, however, through becoming aware on returning into
the body that the gods are present there, and through coming to know
these gods, man learns to behold the world through the “eye of
man.” Thus Initiation reveals to man what in earlier times
was revealed to the gods through the eye of the Moon.
What we do with
our everyday consciousness, the intentions we form, and so forth
— all this depends upon ourselves; but our karma is shaped and
fashioned by the Hierarchies within us. They are the
architects and shapers of an entirely different World-Order, a
World-Order belonging to the soul, to the moral sphere of life. This
is the other aspect of man, the aspect of the Hierarchies who are
within him.
As long as we
remain at the stage of Imaginative Knowledge we are convinced, as we
look back over our own earthly life, that we are a unity; we are also
convinced that certain actions in life are free, because they proceed
from this unity. With Imaginative Knowledge we perceive little of our
karma. When we reach the stage of Inspired Knowledge, however, and
then return into the body, we feel ourselves divided into a world of
countless Hierarchies. We return into the body and at first do not
know our identity. Are we the Angel, are we a Being of one of the
Hierarchies, one of the Dynamis, or Exusiai? We are divided into a
world of Beings, dazed by the multiplicity of our nature, for we are
one with all these Beings.
At this point the
appropriate exercises must make a man so inwardly strong that he can
assert his unity over against this multiplicity. And then — it
is of course all an after-effect of the life between death and
rebirth — he perceives how karma is shaped by the interweaving
activities of the many Beings within him. Countless Divine Beings
take part in the shaping of human karma. It is therefore true to say
that man leads an earthly life in the real sense only in respect of
his intellectual and sensory activity. In the activity of his life of
feeling and of will — yes, and even in a more remote and hidden
activity of thought — man shares in the life of the gods. In a
hidden thought-activity he shares in the life of the Angeloi,
Archangeloi and Archai; in respect of what is hidden in his life of
feeling he shares in the life of the Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes;
and in respect of his will he shares in the life of the Seraphim,
Cherubim and Thrones.
What we call human
destiny is therefore an affair of the gods and as such it must be
regarded.
But what does this
mean for earthly life? If a man cannot accept his destiny with inner
composure, if he rebels against his destiny, if — from his
personal point of view of course — he is discontented with it,
if he brings his destiny into confusion by subjective decisions, then
it is as though he were continually disturbing the gods in the
shaping of his destiny. Destiny can of a truth only be lived through
in the right way when life is accepted with inner composure and
tranquillity. To feel and perceive how destiny works is something
that brings with it hard and heavy tests for human nature. If a man
can succeed in taking his destiny earnestly, this experience will
give him a strong and deep impulse to live in communion with the
spiritual world. And life itself will unfold in him a feeling for
connections of destiny, of karma.
Men of the modern
age have to a great extent lost this sensitivity, this delicacy of
perception; their perceptions have become crude. But suppose there is
someone who looks back with more delicate perception upon the
relationship he had with a human being who was an example to him in
his youth — a teacher, perhaps. People do not always feel
contemptuous about those who were their teachers; many look back with
inner happiness to those who educated them. When this is so, the
recollection can deepen into a very intimate experience. It may come
to us that between our 7th and 14th years, for example, we always
felt obliged to do whatever this revered teacher did; or we may
realise that when this teacher told us something we felt as though we
had already heard it, as though it were just being repeated. It is
actually one of the most beautiful experiences in life when we
remember something of this kind, feeling that it was repetition. And
then it strikes us that something must underlie this experience.
Healthy human reason will tell us that there is nothing to account
for it in the present earthly life, and then the same reasoning
faculty points us to previous lives. There are indeed many whose
attention is directed in this way to earlier lives on
earth.
Now what does it
mean when we can look back to a teacher with feelings like these? It
means that in our present life destiny has led this teacher to us. It
is our karma to have such a teacher and it points to a previous
earthly life.
As a rule —
and this is shown by occult observation — as a rule it is not
the case that in the previous earthly life the teacher was also our
teacher; the relationship then was quite different. From a teacher we
receive thoughts, ideas, even
if they are clothed in the form of pictures; in true education we
receive thoughts and ideas. When this is the case it points back, as
a rule, to a relationship where feelings, not thoughts, were
communicated by the person in question; there was less opportunity
for receiving thoughts from him, but feelings were
communicated — feelings which can be transmitted in so many
different ways. And the same may apply to the present and a future
earthly life.
Let us suppose
that in this present life a man feels drawn by warm, inner sympathy
to some other person with whom life does not bring him into specially
close contact, whom he merely meets but to whom he is strongly drawn.
In such a case it may happen that these feelings of sympathy lead to
the other becoming his teacher in a later-life.
What, then, has
actually happened? When feelings of sympathy and attraction towards
another person unfold in a man, this is the result of what the Beings
of the Second Hierarchy — the Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai
— unfold in and around the human being.
Then, in the next
life, when the influence does not work by way of the feelings but by
way of thoughts and ideas, this means that the Beings of the Second
Hierarchy have given over what they wrought in a preceding life, to
the Beings of the Third Hierarchy, to the Angeloi, Archangeloi and
Archai; and it is they who are now working within the human
being.
When, therefore,
our karma unfolds from one earthly life to another, this means that
actual deeds are passed on from one Hierarchy to another and that in
the cosmos, in the spiritual cosmos, something of immense
significance is taking place.
In looking at a
man's destiny we gaze, as it were through a veil, into a wide
vista of cosmic happenings. If we can become conscious of this, the
impression will be one of tremendous power. You have only to picture
it to yourselves, entering into it with the right feeling and
understanding.
Imagine now that
you are observing the manifestations of destiny in the life of a
human being. This should never be done in a spirit of indifference,
for in observing the destiny of a human being we are in truth
beholding deeds which have poured from the highest Hierarchy into the
lowest Hierarchy, and again from the lowest into the highest
Hierarchy. We are gazing upon a weaving activity of life in the ranks
of the Hierarchies when we study the destiny of a human being. It is
something that must be contemplated with deep piety and veneration,
because as we behold this destiny the world of the gods lies manifest
before us.
This was the
feeling I tried in some measure to convey when I was writing the
Mystery Plays. Throughout the Plays you will find scenes that have
their setting in earthly life and others that have their setting in
the spiritual world. And I have also made it evident how not only the
higher Hierarchies but elemental beings, also the Ahrimanic and
Luciferic powers, mingle in the living, weaving deeds that flow from
above downwards and from below upwards when the destiny of man is
being fulfilled.
Think of the
scenes when Strader and Capesius are within the super-sensible world
in quite different forms of existence but for all that the same
individuals. This is only the other side of man's life which is
just as truly part of him — the side that belongs to the world
of the gods and not to the world of the minerals, the animals, the
plants, the mountains, the clouds, the trees and so forth. To learn
to contemplate the destinies of human beings with reverence and awe
— that too is something that the times demand of us. It is a
dreadful experience to read biographies from the pens of
materialistically-minded authors to-day, for they write without an
iota of reverence for the destiny of the one whose life they are
narrating. Of a truth it would be well for biographers to realise
that when they intrude into the life of a human being, even if only
for the purpose of describing it, they are coming into invisible
contact with all the Hierarchies.
Deliberations of
this kind lead us to the ‘feeling’ side of Anthroposophy.
We realise that everything offered to us in Anthroposophy must also
move our feelings. For in Anthroposophy it is not merely a question
of acquiring knowledge; feelings about the world are quickened within
us, feelings which alone can enable us to find our rightful place in
life. And without such feelings we cannot truly understand or
perceive the laws by which the karma of man is
pervaded.
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