Vol. II
SUMMARY
OF CONTENTS
STUDIES OF
KARMIC
RELATIONSHIPS
IN THE
COURSE OF
HISTORY
I
Examples of karmic relationships. Lord Bacon of Verulam and Amos
Comenius. Marx and Engels. Otto Hausner.
6th April, 1924
II
The esoteric trend
in the Anthroposophical Movement. Souls united by karma work together
in their pre-earthly existence. Leopold von Ranke, influenced in his
pre-earthly life by Bacon of Verulam. Schlosser by Amos Comenius. One
incarnation works across into later incarnations. Conrad Ferdinand
Meyer.
12th April, 1924
III
Study of history
must centre around observation of man. The fruits of earlier epochs
are carried over into later times by human beings themselves.
Pestalozzi. Conrad Ferdinand Meyer. Emerson. Herman
Grimm.
23rd April,
1924
IV
Reincarnations of
former Initiates. Differences in the successive earthly lives.
Adaptation to new conditions of civilisation. Earlier knowledge is
submerged but not lost; it merely takes a different form of
expression. The great question in the Mysteries of Asia Minor during
the early Christian centuries. The ancient Initiate-wisdom of earlier
lives presses its way from the heart into artistic, poetic creation.
Ibsen, Frank Wedekind, Hölderlin, Hamerling.
26th April,
1924
V
The attitude of
wonder towards the things of everyday life. Types of character emerge
from events in history, becoming impulses of soul in subsequent
earthly lives. The Emperor Nero. The Crown Prince Rudolf. Good and
evil viewed in the light of karma. The problem of destiny. Temple
architecture. Meditation in pictures. The Goetheanum Building —
an education for vision of karma.
27th April,
1924
KARMA IN
HUMAN
LIFE
VI
The study of karma
has value only when it flows into the moral life. Man is little
inclined to detach himself from his own being and to give himself
wholly to another. Spiritual endeavour is fraught with the danger of
enhanced egoism. Karmic adjustment between death and a new birth.
Karma casts its shadows or its light in advance. Practical exercises
for the vision of karma. Through ‘thinking away’ the
physical man, the impulses of Saturn, Sun and Moon become visible
behind him.
4th May,
1924
VII
Perception of
karma attained gradually through inner activity of soul. The
beginning of the path to knowledge is to fill our thoughts with the
infinitely wise provisions made in the world; then we must be able to
wait. Insight into karmic connections can be stimulated by
picturing vividly something experienced during the day; during the
night the astral body gives shape to the picture in the outer ether
which impregnates it with its own substance; the picture is further
elaborated during the second and third days and nights by the etheric
body and it is then received into the physical body, spiritualised
and transformed. Spiritual exertion is essential if will is to be
transformed into vision. In the study of karma, absolute clarity and
soundness of head and heart must prevail.
9th May,
1924
VIII
Karmic connections
in relation to the physical. Studies that approach the study of karma
from the side of the bodily form, the physiognomy and the external
manifestations of the human being in the physical world. Certain
types of character point back to definite behaviour in the previously
earthly life. Matter is the outer revelation of the spiritual. The
human form and its possibilities of movement are an image of the
spiritual world. Head, rhythmic system, metabolic-limb system, in the
stream of karmic development.
10th May,
1924
IX
The inner
configuration of karma. The shaping of karma is connected with the
primeval Teachers of humanity who now have their dwelling-place in
the Moon. The magic power of these Moon Beings. The pictures of
man's deeds in the ‘negative’. The strong
impressions of life in the soul-world on the backward journey after
death. In the region of the Moon Beings the pictures of earthly
experiences are imbued with cosmic substance. Reading the
World-Script in the light of the ten Aristotelian concepts.
Observation of the backward journey after death of two
individualities: the prototype of Strader in the Mystery Plays, and
Jacob Frohschammer. The transformation of man's being after
death in a sphere of reality utterly different from earthly reality.
The seed of karma and the ‘negatives’ inscribed into the
cosmic ether are received into the earthly will when the individual
returns to incarnation.
11th May,
1924
THE
SHAPING OF
KARMA
AFTER
DEATH
X
The terrestrial
world and the extra-terrestrial world work quite differently
upon the shaping of karma. The transition from life shared with the
Moon Beings to life shared with the higher Hierarchies. Journey
through the planetary spheres. What is in essence human
derives from the Sun-existence; the earthly is but an image. Bad
karma is left behind before man enters the Sun-existence; it is found
again in the Moon-sphere on the return from cosmic existence.
Homunculus in Goethe's Faust. Predisposition to health
arises in the Sun-existence; predisposition to illness is engendered
in the region below that of Sun-existence. In the world of the Second
Hierarchy, natural laws are without validity. In the region of the
First Hierarchy, the spiritual laws are transformed into the
physical.
16th May,
1924
XI
Beings of the
spiritual world and the part they play in human karma. Man's
connection with the beings of the kingdoms of nature and with the
higher Hierarchies of spiritual Beings. Karmic demands and karmic
fulfilments. Unborn-ness and Immortality. Modern cleverness and its
failure to give support in the later years of life. Concrete reality
of man's relation to the higher Hierarchies.
18th May,
1924
XII
Influence of the
Hierarchies and reflections of the planetary Beings. Imaginative and
Inspired consciousness. Life after death in the planetary spheres.
Elaboration of karma in union with the higher spiritual Beings.
Voltaire. Eliphas Levi. Victor Hugo.
29th May,
1924
XIII
Understanding of
karmic connections depends upon insight into what is happening in the
world behind man's ordinary consciousness, therefore
upon super-sensible cognition. Survey of the life-tableau. In acts of
Imaginative and Inspired knowledge man still remains within the
physical body. The physical body as the bearer of spiritual Beings.
Karma is shaped by the gods who are working within the human being.
Freedom is acquired through the development of the Consciousness
Soul. Human destiny an affair of the gods. Tranquil acceptance of
destiny kindles forceful and strong spiritual impulses. Scenes in the
Mystery Plays.
30th May,
1924
THE
COSMIC
FORM OF
KARMA
AND THE
STUDY OF
INDIVIDUAL
KARMIC
RELATIONSHIPS
XIV
Concerning the
sense of responsibility in regard to communications from the
spiritual world. Spiritual science and the writing of a biography.
How and where does higher vision perceive karma working in the life
of a man? Deeds of the day are translated, integrated into karma
during sleep. During sleep man has memory-experiences of his own
lives on earth. Behind the cosmic thoughts live the Hierarchies, just
as our own human being lives behind our memory-thoughts. Karma is
contained in the ‘section’ of the cosmos allotted to each
of us by the Hierarchies who look back over our previous earthly
lives.
22nd June,
1924
XV
Groups of human
souls united by their karma. The connection of events in Nature with
the karma of humanity. The influence of karma upon external Nature in
volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods and similar phenomena. Behind
and through the workings of the Sun weave the Beings of the Second
Hierarchy. The “Midnight Sun”. From the world of the
Second Hierarchy the Third Hierarchy rays on us during sleep through
the traces of our thoughts left behind in the etheric body. Into the
weaving and working of the Second Hierarchy there strikes the First
Hierarchy. These two Hierarchies together are concerned with
man's astral body and Ego. Initiation-vision in cult and
ritual. “True ritual comes into existence as a copy of
happenings in the spiritual world”.
27th June,
1924
XVI
Karma viewed from
the standpoint of world-history. Social systems created under the
influence of materialistic thinking. Events in elemental Nature and
events due to civilisation. Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers play into
the deeds wrought by the gods for man. Difference in the karmic
consequences of Nature-catastrophes and catastrophes due to
civilisation. Moon-forces remaining in the earth are stirred into
activity and used by the Ahrimanic forces. Nature-catastrophes lead
to the introduction of an earthly element into the spiritual worlds.
The karmic consequence of Nature-catastrophes and of catastrophes
brought about by civilisation is enhancement of the intellectual
faculties of the will respectively, in the next earthly life. Through
misguided impulses in civilisation a Luciferic element is carried
into the spiritual world, working in that world as darkness, of which
Ahriman can avail himself. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc. The
good gods lead human destinies again into the paths of righteousness
and justice. The destiny of men is in-woven with the destiny of gods.
Knowledge of karma is the holy ground of the spirit where we reach
out for the hands of the gods.
29th June,
1924
List of relevant
Literature
Summarised Plan of
the Complete Edition of Rudolf Steiner's works in the original
German
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