I
For
centuries now men have become less and less accustomed to turn their
minds to the spiritual world. We say, and rightly say, that the last
few centuries have inaugurated an age of materialism which has set
its stamp not only upon man's thinking but also upon his will, his
actions, indeed upon his whole life. And we in the Anthroposophical
Society realise that the purpose of this Society is to awaken forces
whereby men will be released from their bondage to matter, from
influences which make them deny the reality of the Spiritual.
But if
the Anthroposophical Movement is to provide the impulse that is
needed in the evolution of humanity, all the teachings, all the
treasures of wisdom which have for many years been flowing through it
must be applied with real earnestness. We must ponder deeply on the
realities of man's life to-day. He comes into the world through birth
with traits inherited from parents and ancestors, he is influenced
and guided by current views and opinions and at a certain age he
becomes alert and awake to the life that surrounds him in the outer
world. He pays attention to the ideas, the thoughts, the deeds, the
impulses to be found in his environment; he tries to understand his
place as a member of a particular nation, as a member of humanity in
general, and so forth.
In the
Anthroposophical Movement we accept the enlightening truth that all
of us who are present here have passed through earlier lives on the
earth. We have carried into this present life the fruits of those
earlier lives. And we are mindful not only of what we are within our
present nation, within modern humanity, but we realise that we have
already passed through a number of incarnations on the earth and that
in other conditions of existence between death and rebirth we have so
worked at the development of the Self, the Ego, that we have made
ourselves what we are to-day.
But in
his everyday consciousness man does not realise that these previous
earthly lives must also be taken into account. Nor will any progress
be possible unless he studies the whole of life in the light of
karma, of destiny taking shape from one earthly life to another. The
historical life of humanity must, above all, be studied from this
point of view. We say to ourselves that here or there an outstanding
personality appeared, one who accomplished great things for mankind.
Do we really understand such a personality if we merely consider that
he was born at a certain time and then follow the experiences and
events of that single life? If the teachings available in the
Anthroposophical Movement are taken seriously, our attitude must
rather be this: There we see a personality who in his incarnation now
or in the past, represents the fruits of earlier earthly lives, and
we cannot really understand him without taking those earlier lives
into account.
If this
point of view is seriously adopted, however, our conception of
history will be radically different from that prevailing to-day. It
is customary nowadays to recount the facts and events of the various
epochs of human history — in connection, let us say, with a
statesman, a painter or some other outstanding figure. Accounts are
given of his life and deeds on earth, but the idea that earlier
earthly lives play over into a given incarnation is never seriously
considered. Yet there can be no real understanding of history without
the knowledge that what happens in a later time is the fruit carried
over by the human being himself from earlier into later epochs. The
human beings who are living to-day or who lived centuries ago were
also on the earth in past ages and have carried over into this later
epoch the results of what they thought and experienced in those
bygones times.
How, for
example, are we to understand a phenomenon of the present age as
disturbing as the following? — For well nigh two thousand
years, all that was inaugurated through the Mystery of Golgotha has
been with us; ever since then the Christ Impulse has been working in
European and Western civilisation. But in the very same world through
which the Christ Impulse has passed, warming the hearts and
enlightening the minds of men, a different element has taken root. In
that same world are to be found the results of all that is inculcated
even into our children through the introduction of modern science
into the schools, all the ideas and views presented to us by the
newspapers every morning at breakfast. Then again, think of the
prevailing conceptions of the nature and being of man, think of all
that science has introduced into public life, all that art and other
branches of culture have produced .. . it cannot be said that these
things are permeated by the Christ Impulse. They are there
side-by-side with the Christ Impulse. Indeed many men are at pains to
prevent the influence of the Christ Impulse finding its way into the
domains of anatomy, physiology, biology or history, and to keep all
such fields of knowledge separate and apart.
Why is it
so? As long as we merely speak of some personality who was, let us
say, a scientist, who received this or that kind of education, who
engaged in some form of research, or again, if we merely speak of a
statesman as having been a Liberal or a Conservative, we shall not
understand how the Christ Impulse can flow through modern
civilisation simultaneously with elements that need have nothing
whatever in common with Christianity. How can this be? We shall,
however, be able to understand if we study the different earthly
lives of outstanding personalities, for we shall realise then that
human beings carry over into later epochs the thoughts, the impulses
of will they unfolded in their earlier incarnations.
We
observe personalities in history who have had great influence upon
our own epoch. Think, for example, of one whose influence upon
external life, especially in domains where science plays a part, has
been deep and far-reaching — I am referring to Bacon, Lord
Bacon of Verulam. He appears in the world and details of his life are
well known. We see him working in the sphere of Christian
civilisation. Yet there is no trace whatever of the Christian Impulse
in his writings. Bacon of Verulam might equally have arisen from some
non-Christian civilisation. What he actually says about Christianity
is extremely superficial compared with the real impulse that was
within him. The same characteristic is to be perceived in Bacon the
scientist, Bacon the philosopher, Bacon the statesman.
Again,
think of a personality like Darwin. Darwin was a good and sincere
Christian, but there was no connection whatever between his
Christianity and his ideas about the evolution of animals and man.
The trend of thought in both cases is altogether different from that
of the Christian Impulse.
We shall
make no headway unless we ask ourselves: What can there have been in
the earlier earthly lives, let us say of Bacon, or of Darwin? What
had they carried over from their earlier incarnations?
If the
Anthroposophical Society is to fulfil its purpose, such questions
must no longer remain abstract. The mere knowledge that man lives
many times on the earth, that one thing or another is carried over
from an earlier into a later life will not lead us far. There is of
course nothing against reflections of this kind; they amount to no
more than a general belief and are innocuous. But what we must do is
to study the concrete realities of man's being and understand his
life in some later epoch in the light of what he was in earlier
incarnations.
We shall
now proceed to study these matters, beginning with an example taken
from history, in order to tackle the subject of karma in all
earnestness. Observing the progress of evolution revealed by
civilisation, by the deeds of humanity, we shall be able to perceive
how individuals carry over into a later epoch what they acquired and
made their own in an earlier one.
For
example: Bacon of Verulam appears in a certain age; Darwin appears in
a later epoch. We discern a certain similarity between them.
Superficial study merely sets out to discover how Bacon, how Darwin,
evolved their particular views and ideas. But if we go more deeply
into the matter we find that both of them introduce into Christian
civilisation an element which, to begin with, is altogether
inexplicable as a product of that civilisation.
As we
look back, the question arises: Had not Bacon and Darwin passed
through earlier lives on earth? They carried over from those earlier
incarnations the traits and characteristics revealed in their later
lives. When we understand them as individuals, then and only
then do we understand their real place in history. For when the
reality of karma is taken seriously, history resolves itself into
deeds of men, into streams of human lives flowing from remote ages of
the past into the present and thence into the future.
From now
onwards these things will be spoken of without reserve; we shall
speak of facts of the spiritual life in such a way that external
history and the external world of nature will themselves reveal to us
the spiritual realities lying behind.
It is
certain that these questions, bearing as they do upon the spiritual
and physical worlds alike, will, to begin with, be taken less
seriously than is their due. For judgments about such matters cannot
be formed as judgments are formed about the things of ordinary life.
And in order to indicate the many underlying factors which have to be
taken into consideration, I should like to make a certain personal
reference — although it is meant to be quite objective —
before we come to answer the questions: Who was Bacon in his previous
life? Who was Darwin in his previous life? [Dr.
Steiner did not speak further of Darwin in these lectures. Readers
are referred to his lecture in Dornach, 16th March, 1924. Karmic
Relationships, Vol. I.]
In the
Goetheanum Weekly, as you know, I am writing the story of my
life. But in a periodical intended for the outside world as well, it
is not possible to speak of everything and certain additions must be
made for the sake of those within our Movement who earnestly desire
to find their way into the spiritual world. And so to-day, before I
proceed in the next lectures to answer such questions as have here
been raised, I should like to make this brief personal reference.
Those who
like myself were born in the sixties of last century have lived
through the epoch when the Gabriel Rulership of the preceding three
and a half centuries was superseded by the Michael Rulership. The
Michael Rulership, that is to say the entry of the Sun-Impulse
belonging to Michael into the civilisation of humanity, began at the
end of the seventies of last century. In the time immediately after
the entry of the Michael influence, in the eighties and nineties,
when the Michael Rulership was beginning to take effect behind the
scenes of external happenings, those who were passing through the
period of the development of the Intellectual or Mind Soul —
that is to say between the ages of twenty-eight and thirty-five
— were really living in a kind of aloofness from the physical
world. For when a human being is consciously active and alert in the
Mind Soul he is aloof in a very real sense from the material
world.
We speak
of man as a being composed of physical body, etheric body, sentient
body. With his physical body he stands clearly within the physical
world. With his etheric body, sentient body and sentient soul too, he
is strongly involved in the external world. But he can live aloof and
apart from the external, material world when he is fully conscious in
the Mind Soul, before the Consciousness or Spiritual Soul awakens in
the thirty-fifth year of life. Full consciousness within the Mind
Soul can transport a man altogether into the world of soul. And so in
the eighties and nineties of last century there was opportunity for
those possessed of the corresponding faculties to live in the Mind
Soul, aloof to a greater or less extent from the physical world.
What does
this mean? It means that in the Mind Soul, aloof from the material
world, one was able to live in the very world into which Michael was
entering on his way down towards the earth. The eighties and nineties
produced many things that evoked wonder and admiration, there were
many fields in which men became expert and many ways by which culture
was enriched. Modern literature has words of high praise for this
period. Think only of what was achieved by newspapers and in the
world of art from the years 1879, 1880–1890 onwards. But in
these very years there were happenings of an altogether different
character. — Behind a thin veil, a very thin veil at that time,
was a world adjoining our physical world. Peculiar conditions
prevailed shortly before the close of Kali Yuga at the end of the
19th century. In a neighbouring world, separated from the physical
world by a veil so thin that it was impenetrable only to the everyday
consciousness of men, things were taking place which must come to
clearer and clearer evidence in the physical world and their
influences brought to effect.
In very
truth something mysterious was at work in the closing decades of the
19th century. There were momentous happenings, grouped around the
Spirit we name Michael. Participating in these happenings were strong
and forceful followers of Michael, human souls living at that time in
their existence between death and rebirth, not yet incarnate in the
physical body; but there were also mighty demonic Powers who under
the sway of Ahrimanic influences set themselves in rebellion against
what was thus to come into the world.
If I may
now be allowed to make a personal reference, it is this: Conceptions
of the reality of the spiritual world presented no difficulty to me
at any age. What the spiritual world revealed penetrated into my
soul, formed itself into ideas, into thoughts. On the other hand,
things that came easily to others were difficult for me. I was always
able quickly to grasp the arguments of natural scientific thinking,
but concrete facts would not remain in my memory, simply would not
register there. I could without effort understand the wave-theory,
the arguments of the mathematicians, physicists and chemists; on the
other hand, unlike most others, I could not recognise a particular
mineral if I had seen it only once or twice; I was obliged to look at
it perhaps thirty or forty times before I could recognise it again. I
found it difficult to retain concrete pictures of the things of the
external, material world. It was not easy for me to come fully into
the physical world of sense.
For this
reason I lived with all the forces of the Mind Soul through what was
taking place in this world behind the veil, in this sphere of
Michael's activity. And it was there that the great challenge arose
once and for all to deal earnestly with the reality of the spiritual
world, to bring these momentous questions to the light of day.
External life offered no incentive, for all that was done there was
to hash up once again the old, well-worn biographies of men like
Darwin and Bacon. But there behind the scenes, behind this thin veil,
in the region where Michael was at work, the great questions were
brought to an issue. And this above all was borne in upon one: What a
vast difference there is between asking these questions inwardly and
putting them into actual words!
At the
present time people think that once something is known it can
immediately be spoken about. Indeed everything that enters people's
ken to-day is at once put into words and announced. But when the
questions at issue in Michael's sphere in the eighties and nineties
took hold of a man, they worked on into the 20th century. And even
after having lived with these questions for decades, every time one
wanted to utter them, it was as though the opponents of Michael
gathered round and sealed one's lips — for about certain
matters silence was to be maintained.
Much that
remained a Michael secret had therefore to be carried onward in the
heart of the Anthroposophical Movement itself — above all the
truths relating to historical connections of the kind to which
reference has been made. But for a certain time now — actually
for months — it has been possible for me to speak of these
things without reserve. That is why I have been able to speak freely
of the connections between earthly lives, and shall also do so here.
For this is part of the unveiling of those Michael Mysteries which
took the course I have described to you.
This is
one of the subjects which, up till now, has been dealt with in a more
abstract way. At the beginning of the lecture I spoke of an
eventuality, namely that the spiritual world might have withheld
consent. It has not been so. What has actually happened is that since
the Christmas Foundation Meeting and above all because of the
opportunities vouchsafed to me for occult work, the demons who
hitherto prevented these things from being voiced have been compelled
to remain silent. The things to which I refer are not, of course,
entirely new, for they were experienced a long time ago in the
way I have indicated to you. But it must be remembered that in
occultism things that are discovered one day cannot be communicated
the next.
I have
now spoken of a certain change in circumstances and am telling you
these things in order that when, in the future, reference is made to
concrete realities in the repeated earthly lives of conspicuous or
inconspicuous personalities, you may understand them with the
necessary earnestness. Such things must not be lightly taken but with
the respect that is their due.
In the
forthcoming lectures such indications will be multiplied and
elaborated. But before speaking about earlier incarnations of men
like Darwin and others I wanted first to emphasise by what kind of
spiritual atmosphere these things must be pervaded and the nature of
the enlightenment that needs to be shed upon them.
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