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Rudolf Steiner e.Lib
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Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies - Volume III
Rudolf Steiner e.Lib Document
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Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies - Volume III
The Karmic Relationships of the Anthroposophical Movement
On-line since: 15th July, 2007
By Rudolf Steiner
Bn/GA 237
At the end of his life Rudolf Steiner took up the task that was his
special destiny; to bring to the West a knowledge of reincarnation and
karma. To do this he gave over eighty lectures in 1924 in which he
explicitly and concretely revealed the destinies of various individuals
from one life to the next in order to show how the general laws of karma
operate in individual cases. He also revealed many details of the karmic
streams of the members of the Anthroposophical Society. These volumes
constitute an immeasurable contribution to the understanding of
reincarnation and karma, and the tasks of the Anthroposophical Society
in connection with the Archangel Michael.
Eleven lectures given at Dornach, Switzerland, from 1st July
to 8th August, 1924. Translated by George Adams, with revisions by
D. S. Osmond. Published here with the kind permission of the
Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland.
Translated from shorthand reports unrevised by the lecturer. The original
texts of the lectures are contained in Vol. III of the series entitled
Esoterische Betrachtungen karmischer Zusammenhänge in the
Complete Edition of Rudolf Steiner's works. (No. 237 in
the Bibliographical Survey, 1961).
Copyright © 1977
This e.Text edition is provided with the cooperation of:
The Rudolf Steiner Press
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Thanks to an anonymous donation, this lecture series is now available.
| Cover Sheet |
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| Editorial Note |
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| Contents |
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| Introduction |
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Lecture I: | Introduction to these Studies on Karma
Intellectualism and
the mood of soul which preceded it: men received the
thoughts into themselves from the cosmic ether. As late as
the early Middle Ages this old conception persisted in
personalities influenced on the one side by Arabism and on
the other by Aristotelianism. For the civilisation of
Europe a special impulse towards the development of the
Spiritual Soul was necessary. Two spiritual streams in
conflict: the quasi-Arabian philosophers and the Dominican
Scholastics who, as the representatives of individualism,
fight against them. Intense inner conflicts at the time of
this struggle to make possible the development of the
Spiritual Soul and to uphold the reality of individual
Thinking.
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July 01, 1924 |
Lecture II: | Forces of Karmic Preparation in the Cosmos
Forces of karmic
preparation in the cosmos. The former incarnations of a man
work on his later incarnations as a spiritual instinct
within the Ego; after death he becomes objectively
conscious of the experiences undergone on earth. The web of
karmic relationships. The transmutation of the earthly
deeds of men into the heavenly deeds of souls. When two
human beings are working together something takes place as
between the two, transcending the individual experiences of
either. The connection of what happens in the human world
on earth with what goes on in the spiritual worlds above is
at most established for the ordinary consciousness when
sacred spiritual actions are brought into the physical
world of sense. The heavenly deeds and consequences of
certain happenings fall like a fine rain into the
mirror-images of thought on earth. But the shades, the very
real ghosts of the 19th century move about among the men of
the present day who are enticed by the Ahrimanic trend of
the age.
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July 04, 1924 |
Lecture III: | The Spiritual Foundations of Anthroposophical Endeavour
The connection
between human life on earth and that which goes on in the
cosmos. Whatever happens here on earth has its
corresponding counterpart in the spiritual worlds. This
comes to expression in the writing of the stars. What are
the spiritual, cosmic realities underlying such a
community as the Anthroposophical Society? By what
predisposition is a soul led to Anthroposophy? — A
longing for Christ accompanies many souls from their
pre-earthly life into their present life on earth: they
strive again to know Christ as a Being of the Sun.
Christian experience mingles with the conceptions of
ancient Paganism. In many souls influences are present
which make it possible for men to fall victim to the
temptations of Lucifer and Ahriman.
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July 06, 1924 |
Lecture IV: | The Soul's Condition of Those Who Seek for Anthroposophy
Two groups are to
be distinguished in the Anthroposophical Movement: the
one with a more inward need of the heart to place Christ
in the central point, the other finding great
satisfaction in knowing Him from the aspect of cosmology
and of earthly and human history. The origins of this
grouping go back to the times of the Atlantean Oracles.
For those souls who come to Anthroposophy to-day, that
incarnation is particularly important which falls into
the early centuries after Christ. Some human souls have
had many, others comparatively few past incarnations on
the earth. Souls of the one group, taken as a whole,
received Christianity in those early centuries chiefly
through their intellect; the others received the impulses
paramountly into their will. Experiences in the life
between death and a new birth of the mighty Imaginations
enacted as a super-sensible spiritual action in the first
half of the 19th century.
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July 08, 1924 |
Lecture V: | Spiritual Conditions of Evolution Leading up to the Anthroposophical Movement
The common element
in the soul-condition of the two groups in the first
Christian centuries was a feeling, slight and delicate
but present nevertheless, between falling asleep and
waking, of the Spiritual working and weaving in external
Nature, and of the instreaming of spirituality in the
light-filled spaces of the cosmos. Perception of the
innocence of Nature's being. Then men began to ponder
about the depth of the forces that bring forth the good
and evil in the human soul. This mood of soul arose
especially among those who received knowledge and
teachings from the East. (‘Bulgars’ —
human beings who were most strongly touched by this
opposition of the good and evil spiritual powers.
Heretics). Then came the time when vision of the
rainbow-shining glory over the plants, the desire-nature
about the animals, faded away; between falling asleep and
waking the whispered language of the spiritual worlds
grew fainter but the Spiritual could still be spoken of
as of something known to men; in the following time, the
feeling of the souls in their life after death was that
upon earth the evening twilight of the Logos had set in.
With this is connected the rise of the Catechism; the
Mass in its totality becomes exoteric instead of being
divided, as formerly, into an exoteric and an esoteric
portion. The fundamental feeling of the souls in the
spiritual world between the 7th and the 20th century was:
Christ is no longer being recognised in His true nature;
the sacred ceremony is no longer understood. This feeling
intensified their sense of the need for a new
Christ-experience on the earth.
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July 11, 1924 |
Lecture VI: | The School of Chartres
High places of
knowledge, relics of the ancient Mysteries, were present
until the 7th or 8th century A.D.
In those centres men did not speak of
abstract laws of Nature but of the creative power of the
Goddess Natura. Then the delicate but living connection
with the spiritual world faded but the old teachings were
still cultivated in certain centres whose impulses only
came to an end in the 12th or 13th century. Knowledge
concerning the four Elements, the Planetary System, the
‘Cosmic Ocean’, the secrets of the
‘I’, were cultivated until the turn of the
14th–15th century. The School of Chartres and its
teachers. Towards the end of the 12th century, such
teachings were still cultivated in the University of
Orleans. Platonists and Aristotelians. Brunetto Latini.
At the beginning of the 13th century a supremely
important ‘exchange of ideas’ took place in
the spiritual world with the aim of bringing about a new
spirituality on earth. A wonderful co-operation between
souls working from above and those who were below on
earth was the result. Into this spiritual atmosphere true
Rosicrucianism was able to pour its influence.
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July 13, 1924 |
Lecture VII: | The New Age of Michael
The manipulation of
the intellect by the individual, personal man leads him
to freedom of will. In the first Christian centuries,
until the 8th or 9th, the Cosmic Intelligence was flowing
down from the heavens to the earth. Scholasticism: a
wrestling of mankind for a clear understanding of the
Intelligence that is pouring in. The Spiritual Soul, and
with it the Intelligence, begins to become part of
humanity. Rosicrucian wisdom consisted in this, that one
had a certain clarity of understanding for these facts.
In the domain of the Sun, Michael gathered around him the
souls who then, at the beginning of the 15th century,
were united in the super-sensible School of Michael.
From now onwards the Michael principle was to be
developed through the Intelligence of the human soul
itself until the beginning of the new Michael Age on
earth at the end of the 19th century. The great crisis
from the beginning of the 15th century until our day is
the battle of Ahriman against Michael. Ahriman wants to
make the former Cosmic Intelligence altogether earthly.
The carrying over of the Cosmic Intelligence into the
system of nerves and senses (the head-organisation) in
man is experienced from the spiritual world as though a
cosmic thunderstorm were taking its course. Such an event
had last taken place in Atlantean time when the Cosmic
Intelligence, while remaining cosmic, had taken
possession of the hearts of men. Through spiritualisation
of the intellect, the head-man must now again become a
heart-man. The end of the century.
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July 28, 1924 |
Lecture VIII: | Ahriman's Fight Against the Michael Principle. The Message of Michael
The previous
Michael dominion, its cosmopolitan stamp and its aim: the
consciousness that in spite of the Fall, man can after
all ascend to the Divinity. Since the 8th or 9th century
the Cosmic Intelligence has passed from the hands of
Michael into the hands of men. Conflict between the
Scholastics and the Mahommedan followers of Aristotelian
learning. In the last Michael age an atmosphere of
discouragement had come over the ancient Mysteries; it
was an age of great trial and probation. The word of
Michael at that time was: Man must reach the
Pan-Intelligence, he must take hold of the Divine upon
earth in sinless form. In the new Michael age men will
have to become aware of the way of their salvation, to
realise that they must rescue themselves from Ahriman's
aim to take possession of the Intelligence that has come
into their hands. Anthroposophists must learn to realise
that the cosmos to-day is engaged in this battle of
Ahriman against Michael. Earthly reflection in Raymond of
Sabunda of the teachings of Michael in the super-sensible.
It is a Michael impulse to lead men again to the point
where they will read in the Book of Nature, not only in
the Book of Revelation.
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August 01, 1924 |
Lecture IX: | Entry of the Michael Forces. Decisive Character of the Michael Impulses
The Michael
impulses are of a kind to enter deeply and intensely into
the whole being of man, hence into his physical karma.
The time of the great crisis. The Michael impulses are
fraught with great decisions. Human beings who in the
present incarnation receive the Michael impulses through
Anthroposophy are thereby preparing their whole being in
such a way that these Michael impulses enter even into
the forces that are otherwise determined merely by the
connections of race and nation. The finer, more intimate
connections of life must be observed; they extend even
into the realms of the Angeloi. While the Michael
community is being formed here on earth, the kingdom of
the Angeloi is being turned into a twofold kingdom, a
kingdom of Angeloi with an upward tendency, and one with
a downward tendency. The intellectualism prevailing
everywhere to-day is spiritual nourishment for the
Ahrimanic Powers. The possibilities for Ahriman to take a
hand in civilisation have become ever greater and
greater. A diminution or diversion of consciousness in a
human being gives Ahriman the possibility to incorporate
himself and to work out of that human being. The age is
fraught with mighty decisions.
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August 03, 1924 |
Lecture X: | The Michaelites: Their Karmic Impulse Towards the Spiritual Life — The Working of Ahriman into the Once Cosmic and Now Personal Intelligence
In the karmic
impulse impelling a man towards the Spiritual are summed
up all the experiences undergone in the way described
before the souls descended into the present earthly life.
Inner initiative of soul is demanded of the
anthroposophist. Undermining of initiative through the
materialistic intellectualism that is so widespread
to-day. Undetermined fear of life. Materialism holds good
of physical life only. The tragedy in the karma of men
who cannot find their way to spirituality. The time will
come when in human beings who are taken hold of by the
Spirit in this earthly incarnation, the Spirit will
reveal its own power to form the physiognomy, to shape
the whole form of man. To those who stand in the field of
materialism to-day it will be demonstrated that the
Spirit is creative, for they will behold it in outer form
and feature. Ahriman's striving to tear the Intelligence
from Michael. The Ahrimanic spirits cannot incarnate but
can temporarily incorporate themselves and so work in the
souls of men. Ahriman has in this way actually appeared
as an author. (See end of next lecture. Nietzsche's
Anti-Christ and Ecce Homo).
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August 04, 1924 |
Lecture XI: | Evolution of the Michael Principle Throughout the Ages. The Split in the Cosmic Intelligence
Battle waged by the
Schoolmen of the Dominican Order to maintain and uphold
the personal immortality of man. Averroes declared a
heretic. To-day we have to say: “In the sense in
which man has become immortal, as to his Spiritual Soul,
he has indeed attained immortality — the continued
consciousness of personality after passing through the
gate of death — but he has attained this only since
the time when a Spiritual Soul took up its abode in
earthly man.” The Sun-Intelligence of Michael and
the Planetary Intelligences. In the 9th century
A.D., with the descent of the Cosmic
Intelligence into men, the Sun-Intelligence of Michael
and the Planetary Intelligences gradually came into
cosmic opposition one with another. In the Ecumenical
Council of 869 A.D.
the signal was given for an overwhelming
event in the spiritual world above: a split among the
Angels who guide human souls, leading to disorder in the
karma of men. This is the chaotic element in the history
of recent times. With the penetration of Michael to
earthly rulership, Michael brings the power which is to
bring order again into the karma of those who have gone
with him. The restoration of the truth in karma. The
mission of Anthroposophy.
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August 08, 1924 |
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