II
I have
raised the question: How can we find in earlier earthly lives the
explanation of a later incarnation, in the case not only of
historical personages but also in that of many a personality
unnoticed by history whose influence nevertheless arouses our
interest? And to-day, as a foundation for further studies, I shall
indicate connections in the incarnations of certain individuals. What
I shall put before you is the outcome of a particular kind of
spiritual investigation, and with this foundation — which will
be given in narrative form to-day — we shall begin to
understand how the successive earthly lives of individuals can be
discovered.
We will
take characteristic personalities whose names I gave as examples in
the last lecture. Such personalities make us alive to the fact that
spiritual impulses of very different kinds are working in our present
civilisation. For well nigh two thousand years Christianity has been
spreading in the West and in many colonial territories, influencing
civilisation to a greater extent than is imagined. It is true, of
course, that really close study may reveal the working of the Christ
Impulse in many things where there is at first no evidence of it. But
for all that, it cannot be denied that there are elements in our
civilisation which seem to have no connection whatever with
Christianity. Certain views and customs of life which seem to be
utterly at variance with Christianity take root in our
civilisation.
The
attention of one who calls super-sensible research to his aid in order
to discover the deeper reasons for the course taken by the spiritual
life of mankind, is drawn to a phenomenon insufficiently studied in
connection with the growth of Western civilisation. His attention is
drawn to the work of an institution which flourished in the East in
the days of Charlemagne in the West. I am referring to that Court in
the East whose ruler, surrounded by oriental splendour and
magnificence, was Haroun al Raschid, the contemporary of Charlemagne
whose achievements in the West fade into insignificance as compared
with the brilliance of what was going forth, at the very same time,
from the Court of Haroun al Raschid.
All
branches of spiritual life had been brought together at this Court in
Western Asia. It must be remembered that through the expeditions of
Alexander, Greek culture had been carried over to Asia in a form of
which only a faint inkling remains to-day. The finest fruits of Greek
culture had found their way to Asia, brought thither by the genius of
Alexander the Great. And as a result, many centres of learning in the
East had adopted conceptions of the world which faithfully preserved
the old, while rejecting many elements that in the West were
threatening to submerge the old.
Through
the expeditions of Alexander the Great, a certain rational and
healthy form of mysticism had been carried over to Asia, with the
result that men who were more adapted for the kind of philosophical
thinking thus introduced, regarded the world as pervaded by the
Cosmic Intelligence. Over in Asia in those times a man did not say:
“I think this or that out for myself, I have my own, personal
intelligence” — but he said: “Everything that is
thought is thought by Gods, primarily by the supreme Godhead —
the Godhead as conceived by Aristotelianism.” The intelligence
in a human being was a drop of the Universal Intelligence manifesting
in the individual, so that in head and heart man felt himself to be
an integral part of the Universal Intelligence.
Such was
the mood-of-soul in those times and it prevailed, still, at the Court
of Haroun al Raschid in the 8th and 9th centuries after the founding
of Christianity. Nor must it be forgotten that many learned sages had
taken refuge in Asia when the Schools of Greek philosophy were
exterminated in Europe. Astronomy with a strongly mystical trend,
architecture and other forms of art revealing truly creative power,
poetry, sciences, directives for practical life — all these
things flourished at the Court of Haroun al Raschid. He was a
splendour-loving but at the same time a highly gifted organiser and
he gathered at his Court the most learned men of his day, men who
although they were no longer working as Initiates, still preserved
and cultivated in a living way much of the ancient wisdom of the
Mysteries.
We will
consider more closely one such personality. He was a very wise
Counsellor of Haroun al Raschid. His name is of no consequence and
has not come down to posterity, but he was a man of great wisdom and
in order to understand him we must pay attention to something that
may surprise even those who are to some extent conversant with
Spiritual Science.
There is
a question which may occur to all of you. You may say: Anthroposophy
tells us that there were once Initiates, living here or there,
possessing far-reaching knowledge and profound wisdom. But since men
live again in new earthly lives, why is it that to-day, for example,
we do not recognise reincarnated sages of old? This would be an
entirely reasonable question.
But one
who is aware of the conditions by which earthly life is determined,
knows that an individuality whose karma leads him from pre-earthly
existence to birth in a particular epoch, must accept the educational
facilities which that epoch affords. And so it may well be that
although some individual was an Initiate in bygone times, the
knowledge he possessed as an Initiate remains in the subconscious
realm of the soul; his day-consciousness gives indications of powers
of some significance but does not directly reveal what was once in
his soul in an earlier incarnation as an Initiate.
This is
true of that wise Counsellor of Haroun al Raschid. In very ancient
Mysteries he had been an Initiate. He had reincarnated and he lived
as a reincarnated Initiate at the Court of Haroun al Raschid; the
fruits of his earlier Initiation revealed themselves in a genius for
organisation and he was able to administer in a truly masterly way
the work of the other learned men at that Court. But he did not make
the direct impression of an Initiate. Through his own being and
qualities, not merely through the fact of earlier Initiation, he
preserved the ancient Initiation-Science — but as I said, he
did not actually give the impression of having attained
Initiation.
Haroun al
Raschid held this wise man in high esteem, entrusting him with the
organisation of all the sciences and arts flourishing at the Court.
Haroun al Raschid was happy to have this man at his side, feeling
tied to him by a deep and sincere friendship.
We will
now turn our attention to these two individuals, Haroun al Raschid
and his wise Counsellor — remembering that in the 8th and 9th
centuries at the Court of Charlemagne in Europe, men of the highest
social rank (including Charlemagne himself) were only just beginning
to make their first attempts at writing; at the same Court, Eginhart
was endeavouring to formulate the early rudiments of grammar. In days
when everything in Europe was extremely primitive, over in Asia much
brilliant spiritual culture was personified in Haroun al Raschid whom
Charlemagne held in great veneration. But this was a kind of culture
which knew nothing of Christ nor wished to have anything to do with
Christianity; it preserved and cultivated the best elements of
Arabism and also kept alive ancient forms of Aristotelian thought
— those forms which had not made their way to Europe, for it
was chiefly Aristotelian logic and dialectic which had spread so
widely in the West and were the principles upon which the work of the
Church Fathers and later on that of the Schoolmen was based.
As a
result of the achievements of Alexander the Great, it was the more
mystical and scientific knowledge imparted by Aristotle that had been
cultivated in Asia where it had all come under the influence of the
tremendously powerful intelligence of Arabism — which was,
however, held to be a revealed, an inspired intelligence.
The
existence of Christianity was known to the learned men at the Court
of Haroun al Raschid but they regarded it as primitive and elementary
in comparison with their own intellectual achievements.
We will
now follow the subsequent destinies of these two personalities;
Haroun al Raschid and his wise Counsellor. Having worked in the way I
have described, they bore with them through the gate of death the
impulse to ensure that the kind of thinking, the world-conception
cultivated at this Court, should spread in the world.
Let us
consider soberly and in all earnestness, what then ensued. Two
individualities start out from Asia: the wise Counsellor and his
overlord, Haroun al Raschid. For a time after death they remained
together. It was to Alexandrianism, to Aristotelianism, that they
owed the knowledge they had acquired. But they also absorbed all that
in later times had been done to re-cast, to re-model these teachings.
Unless it is possible to grasp what is happening in the spiritual
world while the events of the physical world take their course on the
earth below, we can understand only a tiny fraction of the world.
History
gives a picture of what transpired after the epoch of Charlemagne and
Haroun al Raschid. But while all that history relates about Asia and
Europe was proceeding in the 8th and 9th centuries and on into the
late Middle Ages, other most significant happenings were taking place
in the spiritual world above. It must not be forgotten that while the
physical life below and the spiritual life above flow on, influences
from souls passing through their existence between death and rebirth
stream down perpetually upon earthly life. Therefore we do right to
attach importance to what the discarnate souls yonder in the
spiritual world are experiencing and how they are acting in any
particular epoch. Human life, above all in its course through
history, can never be really comprehensible unless we turn our
attention to what is happening behind the scenes of external history,
in the spiritual world.
Now it
must be remembered that the impressions which men carry with them
through the gate of death often differ in a very marked degree from
the impressions people have of them during earthly life. And those
who cannot throw off preconceptions when they are observing the
spiritual life may find it difficult to recognise some particular
individuality who in his existence after death is revealed to the eye
of the seer. Nevertheless there are means whereby one can learn to
perceive phases of spiritual life other than the one immediately
following earthly existence. I have spoken of this in the
Lecture-Course that is being given here [True and
False Paths in Spiritual Investigation. Rudolf Steiner Press,
1969.] and I shall have still more to say about the later
phases of the life stretching from death to a new birth. We shall
then understand more clearly the nature of the paths which enable us
to make contact with the so-called Dead.
It is by
these same paths that we are able to follow the further destinies of
individuals such as Haroun al Raschid and his wise Counsellor. In
order to understand later developments in European civilisation it is
of the greatest importance to take account of these two individuals,
above all of the bond between them in their thought and principles of
action. Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor also bore with them
through the gate of death a deep and strong affinity with the
individualities of Alexander and Aristotle — who had, of
course, preceded them in earthly existence by many centuries —
and an intense longing to come into direct contact with them again.
Moreover a meeting actually took place, with consequences of
far-reaching significance.
For a
while, Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor journeyed onwards
together in the super-sensible world, looking down from thence upon
happenings in the civilised world further to the West, in Greece, in
certain regions North of the Black Sea, and so forth. They looked
down upon it all and among the events upon which their gaze fell was
one of which much has been said in anthroposophical lectures, namely
the 8th General Ecumenical Council at Constantinople in the year 869
A.D.
The
effect of this 8th Ecumenical Council upon the development of Western
civilisation was incisive and profound, for Trichotomy, the
definition of man as body, soul and Spirit, was then declared
heretical. It was decreed that true Christians must speak of man as a
twofold being, consisting of body and soul only, the soul possessing
certain spiritual qualities and forces. The reason why so little
inclination to spirituality is to be discerned in Christian
civilisation is that acknowledgment of the Spirit was declared
heretical by the 8th Ecumenical Council in the year 869.
It was a
momentous event, the effects of which have been far too little
heeded. The Spirit was done away with: man was to be regarded as
consisting only of body and soul. But the shattering experience for
one who can observe the spiritual life and above all for one who
truly participates in it is that precisely when here on earth in the
year 869 A.D. the Spirit was done away with,
there took place in the spiritual world above the meeting between the
souls of Haroun al Raschid and his wise Counsellor and the souls of
Alexander the Great and Aristotle.
In
thinking about what follows, you must accustom yourselves to the fact
that super-sensible happenings will now be spoken of in Anthroposophy
as naturally as we speak of happenings in the physical world. The
lives of Alexander the Great and of Aristotle in those particular
incarnations marked the culmination of a certain epoch. The impulse
which had been given by ancient cultures and had come to expression
in Greece was formulated by Aristotle into concepts which in the form
of ideas dominated the West and human civilisation in general for
long ages of time.
Alexander
the Great, the pupil and friend of Aristotle, had with stupendous
forcefulness spread the impulses given by Aristotle over wide areas
of the then known world. This impulse was still working in Asia in
the days of Haroun al Raschid. It had long possessed a centre of
brilliant and illustrious learning in Alexandria but at the same
time, working through many hidden channels, it had a profound effect
upon the whole of oriental culture.
All this
had reached a certain culmination. The impulses of ancient
spirituality in their manifold forms had converged in Alexandrianism
and Aristotelianism. Christianity was born. The Mystery of Golgotha
took place — in an age when the individualities of Alexander
and Aristotle were not incarnated on the earth but were in the
spiritual world, in intimate communion with what we call the dominion
of Michael whose earthly rule had also come to its close, for
Oriphiel had then succeeded Michael as the ruling Time-Spirit.
Centuries had passed since the Mystery of Golgotha. What Alexander
and Aristotle had established on earth, the aims to which they had
dedicated all their powers, the one in the field of thought, the
other giving effect to a great genius for rulership — all this
had been at work on the earth below. And from the spiritual world
these two souls beheld it flowing on through the centuries, during
one of which the Mystery of Golgotha had taken place. They turned
their gaze upon all that was being done to spread a knowledge of the
Mystery of Golgotha. They saw their work spreading abroad on the
earth beneath, spreading too through the activities of individuals
like Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor.
But in
the souls of Alexander and Aristotle themselves there was an urge for
something completely new, for a new beginning — not a mere
continuation of what was already on the earth, but veritably a new
beginning. In a certain respect, of course, there would be
continuation, for it was not a question of sweeping away the old. But
a new and mighty impulse whereby a particular form of Christianity
would be instilled into earthly civilisation — it was to the
inauguration of this impulse that Alexander and Aristotle dedicated
themselves.
When
their karma led them down again to incarnation on the earth ( —
it was before the meeting had taken place with Haroun al Raschid and
his Counsellor — ) they lived, unknown and unheeded, in a
corner of Europe not without importance for Anthroposophy, dying at
an early age, but gazing for a brief moment as it were through a
window into the civilisation of the West, receiving impressions and
impulses but giving none of any significance themselves. That was to
come later.
They had
returned again into the spiritual world and were in the spiritual
world when in the year 869 the 8th Ecumenical Council was held at
Constantinople. It was then that the meeting took place in the
spiritual world between Aristotle and Alexander on the one side and
Haroun al Raschid and his wise Counsellor on the other. It was an
exchange of thought and ideas in the super-sensible world, of immense,
far-reaching significance. We must realise that exchanges or
conferences of this nature in the super-sensible world are of
infinitely greater moment than mere discussions in words. When people
on the earth sit together in discussion, when words shoot hither and
thither without having much effect one way or the other, this is not
even a shadowy image of what transpires when great decisions
affecting the spiritual life as well, are taken in super-sensible
worlds.
Alexander
and Aristotle affirmed at that time that what had been established in
earlier days must now be guided undeviatingly into the dominion of
Michael. For it was known that Michael would again assume his Regency
in the 19th century.
At this
point we must understand one another. As the evolution of mankind
flows onwards, one of the Archangels becomes Regent and exercises
earthly rule for a period of three to three-and-a-half centuries. At
the time when Aristotelianism was carried by Alexander the Great to
Asia and Africa, at the time when the spread of this culture was
pervaded by a cosmopolitan, international spirit, Michael was the
Ruling Archangel; the spiritual life was under his dominion. The
Regency of Michael was followed by that of Oriphiel. Then, until the
14th century A.D., there follow the Rulerships
of Anael, Zachariel, Raphael, Samael — each lasting for three
to four centuries. Gabriel is Regent from the 15th until the last
third of the 19th century, when Michael again assumes dominion. Seven
Archangels follow one another. Thus the earthly Rulerships of six
other Archangels follow that of Michael, which was in force at the
time of Alexander, and Michael assumes dominion again at the end of
the 19th century. We ourselves, do we but rightly understand the
spiritual life, live under the direct influence of the Michael
Rulership.
And so in
the century when the meeting with Haroun al Raschid took place,
Alexander and Aristotle turned their gaze to the earlier Rulership of
Michael under which their work had been carried forward, they turned
their gaze to the Mystery of Golgotha which as members of the
Michael-community they had experienced from the sphere of the Sun,
not from the earth — for at that time Michael's rule on earth
was over. Michael and his own, among them Alexander and Aristotle,
did not experience the Mystery of Golgotha from the vantage-point of
the earth; they did not witness the arrival of Christ on the earth,
they witnessed His departure from the Sun. But all that they
experienced formed itself into the impulse which remained alive in
them — the impulse to ensure that the new Michael Rulership, to
which with every fibre of their souls Alexander and Aristotle had
pledged their troth, would bring a Christianity not only firmly
established but more inward, more profound. The new dominion of
Michael was to begin in the year 1879 and last for three to four
centuries. This is our own epoch and it behoves Anthroposophists to
understand what it means to be living under the Michael
Rulership.
Neither
Haroun al Raschid nor his Counsellor were willing to accept this
— the Counsellor with less emphasis, but fundamentally it was
so in his case too. They desired, first and foremost, that the world
should be dominated by the impulse that had taken such firm root in
Mohammedanism. The participants in this spiritual struggle in the 9th
century A.D. confronted each other in
resolute, intense opposition — Haroun al Raschid and his
Counsellor on the one side and, on the other, the individualities who
had lived as Aristotle and Alexander.
The
aftermaths of this spiritual struggle worked on in the civilisation
of Europe, are indeed working to this day. For what happens in the
spiritual world above works down upon and into the affairs of the
earth. And the very opposition with which Haroun al Raschid and his
wise Counsellor confronted Aristotle and Alexander at that time added
strength to the impulse, so that from this meeting two streams went
forth — one taking its course in Arabism and one whereby,
through the impulses of the Michael Rulership, Aristotelianism was to
be led over into Christianity.
After
this encounter in the super-sensible world, Haroun al Raschid and his
Counsellor continued along a path leading towards the West, watching
and observing what was happening below on the earth. From this
super-sensible existence, the one (he who had lived as Haroun al
Raschid) concerned himself deeply with civilisation in Northern
Africa, in Southern. Europe, in Spain, in France. During
approximately the same period, the other (he who had been the wise
Counsellor) concerned himself with the happenings of the spiritual
life more towards the East, in the neighbourhood of the Black Sea,
and thence through Europe as far as Holland and even England. And at
roughly the same time, both were born again in European
civilisation.
Now there
need not necessarily be external similarity between such
reincarnations. It is as a rule quite erroneous to believe that a man
who has in him a particular kind of spirituality will be born again
with that same spirituality. We must look more deeply into the roots
of the human soul if we are to speak truly about repeated earthly
lives. So, for example, we may take the famous Pope Gregory VII, the
former Abbot Hildebrand — a Pope who worked fervidly for the
cause of Catholicism and to whom is due much of the power wielded by
the Papacy in the Middle Ages. He was born again in the 19th century
as Ernst Haeckel, a bitter opponent of the Papacy. Haeckel is the
reborn Abbot Hildebrand, Gregory VII, Gregory the Great. In giving
this example my only object is to show that it is the inner,
deep-rooted impulses of the soul and not external similarity of
thought and outlook that are carried over from one earthly life into
another.
And so
while the Arabians were still surging across Africa into Spain, it
was the natural tendency of Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor to
watch and exercise a protective influence over these campaigns.
Outwardly, of course, the spread of Mohammedanism was checked, but
its inner characteristics and trends were carried through the
spiritual life by both these individualities on their journey between
death and rebirth — carried over from the past into the
future.
Haroun al
Raschid was born again as Bacon of Verulam. His wise Counsellor too
was born again, almost at the same time, as Amos Comenius, the
educational reformer.
Think of
what was brought into the world through Bacon of Verulam who was only
outwardly a Christian and who introduced the abstract trend of
Arabism into European science; and then think of what Amos Comenius
instilled into education — his advocacy of material, concrete
realism, his principles of the form in which all teaching matter
should be imparted. It is a trend that has no direct connection with
Christianity. Although Amos Comenius worked among the Moravian
Brothers, what he actually brought into being is to be explained by
the fact that in a previous incarnation he stood in the same
relationship to the development of the spiritual life of mankind as
did the culture flourishing at the Court of Haroun al Raschid.
Think of
every line of Bacon's writings, of what lies inherent in the
sense-realism, as it is called, of Amos Comenius — it is all a
riddle, perplexing, inexplicable. Lord Bacon is a violent opponent of
Aristotelianism. His passionate antagonism is so clearly in evidence
that one can perceive how deeply this impulse is rooted in his soul.
The spiritual investigator who is able to discern and penetrate these
things, not only studies Bacon of Verulam and Amos Comenius but also
follows their life in the super-sensible world between death and
rebirth. In the writings of Bacon of Verulam and Amos Comenius, in
the very tone of their writings, in everything about them there is
evidence of rebellion against Aristotelianism. How is this to be
explained?
The
following must be remembered. When Bacon and Amos Comenius returned
to earthly life, Alexander and Aristotle had already again been in
incarnation during the Middle Ages, at a time when they, for their
part, had accomplished- what it was then possible to accomplish for
Aristotelianism, moreover when Aristotelianism itself was present in
a form very different from that in which it had been cultivated by
Haroun al Raschid — who, as I said, is the same individuality
as Bacon of Verulam.
Picture
to yourselves the whole situation. Think of the meeting — if I
may express it so — in the year 869 A.D.
and of how under this influence there had taken shape in Haroun al
Raschid impulses of soul which now encountered something that had
already been partially accomplished on the earth — for
Alexander and Aristotle had already been in incarnation and their
lives as men on earth in the pre-Christian era had played no part in
giving effect to their aim. Realising this, you will understand the
nature of the impulses resulting from that meeting in the spiritual
world. And from the fact that Bacon and Amos Comenius could now
perceive what Alexandrianism and Aristotelianism had become in the
world, you will be able to understand the tone pervading their
writings — the writings of Bacon especially, but also those of
Amos Comenius.
Studied
in the true and real way, history, as you see, leads us from the
earth to the heavens. Account must be taken of happenings that can
only be revealed in the super-sensible world. To understand Bacon of
Verulam and Amos Comenius we must follow them backwards, first
through the epoch when Aristotelianism was being promulgated by
Scholasticism, backwards again to the encounter in the year 869 at
the time of the 8th Ecumenical Council and then still further back,
to the epoch when Alexandrianism and Aristotelianism were being
promoted and cultivated by Haroun al Raschid and his wise Counsellor
in the form that was possible in those days. The happenings of life
on the earth can only be really comprehensible when account is taken
of how the super-sensible world works into the physical world.
This much
I wanted to say, in order to show you that the work and influence of
certain personalities on earth can only be understood by following
and observing their several incarnations.
There is
no time to say more about these things to-day and I will therefore
bring the lecture to a brief conclusion.
As we
study the progress of human civilisation it becomes apparent that
through such individualities as Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor
who was subsequently reborn as Amos Comenius, there creeps into the
development of Christianity an element that will not merge with
Christianity but inclines strongly towards Arabism. Thus in our own
time we have on the one side the direct, unbroken line of Christian
development and on the other, the penetration of Arabism, first and
foremost in abstract science.
What I
want particularly to lay on your hearts is the following: Spiritual
contemplation of these two streams leads our gaze to many things
which have taken place in the super-sensible world, for example to an
event like that of the meeting between Alexander, Aristotle, Haroun
al Raschid and his wise Counsellor. Impulses kindled by many such
events furthered the spread of true Christianity, while other events
were the causes of hindrances along its path. But because in the
spiritual world the Michael Impulse has taken the course I have
indicated to you, there is good hope that in time to come
Christianity will receive its real and true form under the sign of
the Michael Impulse. For under the sign of the Michael Impulse other
exchanges of thought have also taken place in the super-sensible
world.
Let me
add only this. Many personalities have come together in the
Anthroposophical Society. They too have their karma which leads back
to earlier times and appears in many different forms as we go
backwards to the pre-earthly existence and then to earlier
incarnations. Among those who come to the Anthroposophical Movement
with real sincerity, there are only a few who were not led by their
karma to participate in such happenings as I have now been describing
to you. In one way or another, those who with deep sincerity feel the
urge to enter the Anthroposophical Society are connected with events
like the meeting of Alexander and Aristotle with Haroun al Raschid
and his wise Counsellor. Something of the kind has determined the
karma which then, in the present earthly life, takes the form of a
longing to receive the spiritual knowledge that is cultivated in the
Anthroposophical Movement.
But something else
must here be added. Because of the particular form which the Michael
Rulership assumes, there will be many deviations from the laws
determining reincarnation in the case of those persons whose karma
and connection with the Michael dominion leads them into the
Anthroposophical Movement. For they will appear again at the turn of
the 20th/21st century — therefore in less than a hundred years
— in order to carry to full and culminating effect what as
Anthroposophists they are able to do now in the service of Michael's
dominion. The urge to be a true Anthroposophist expresses itself in
the interest taken in matters of the kind of which we have been
speaking — provided the interest is deep and sincere. The very
understanding of these things gives rise to the impulse to return to
the earth in less than a century in order to give effect to the
intent and purpose of Anthroposophy.
I should like you to
think deeply about the indications that have been given. In these
brief words much may be found that will help you to find your true
place in the Anthroposophical Movement and to feel that your
membership of this Movement is deeply connected with your karma.
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