Theosophy of the Rosicrucian
GA 99
30 May 1907, Munich
Translated by Mabel Cotterell and Dorothy S. Osmond
VI. The Law of Destiny
We come today to what man experiences in the physical world, in so far as these experiences are determined by an earlier incarnation. At the outset it must be emphasised that life is not determined by previous incarnations alone but also, though in a small degree, by the present life. The law of how man's past, present and future are connected, is called in Spiritual-scientific literature, the Law of Karma. It is the true law of human destiny; an individual life is only a specific application of the great law of the Cosmos, for the law of Karma is a universal, cosmic law with a specific application in the life of a human being. Whenever we envisage a connection between preceding conditions and subsequent effects, we are thinking in line with this law. I want therefore to explain in detail the individual application of this cosmic law in the life of the human being.
Suppose we have two vessels of water in front of us and put into one of the vessels a red-hot iron ball. The water will hiss and become warm. If we take the ball out and put it into the other vessel, the water in this case neither hisses nor gets warm, because the ball is no longer red hot; it has been cooled by immersion in the first vessel of water. The effect of the behaviour of the iron ball in the first vessel determines its behaviour in the second. Thus are cause and effect always connected in physical life. Subsequent behaviour depends upon what has happened previously.
Another example is afforded by certain animals whose organ of sight has atrophied in consequence of having made their home in dark holes and caves. In such animals, the substances which formerly nourished the eyes were led to other parts of the body because as it was no longer necessary for the eye to see, these substances were not required. The eyes atrophied and remain atrophied in all subsequent generations. Through their earlier wanderings these animals determined the actual behaviour of their organs; the destiny of subsequent generations was determined by what had happened in the past; these animals prepared their destiny for the future. And it is the same in human life.
Man determines his future by his past and because his innermost being is not confined to one incarnation but passes through many, the causes of what confronts him in a given life are to be sought in an earlier life.
We will now consider the chain of happenings which can be understood if we think of the consequences of human deeds, thoughts and feelings. It is so often said in everyday life: Thoughts are duty-free!—meaning that we can think what we like and nobody in the external world will be affected. This is one important point where a man who has really grasped spiritual impulses is at variance with the materialistic thinker.
The materialist agrees that injury is caused if he throws a stone at a man, but he thinks that a thought of hatred which he may harbour against a fellow-creature, does not hurt him. Those however who have real knowledge of the world know that far, far stronger effects proceed from a thought filled with hatred than can ever be caused by a stone. Everything that a man thinks and feels has its effects in the outer world and the seer can follow with great precision the effect of a loving thought that goes out to another man, and the very different effect that is produced by a thought filled with hatred. When you send out a loving thought to someone the seer perceives a form of light shaped like a sort of flower-calyx, playing around his etheric and astral bodies, thereby contributing something to his vitality and happiness. On the other hand a thought of hatred bores its way into the etheric and astral bodies like a wounding arrow.
Very varied observations are to be made in this domain. There is a tremendous difference in the astral world if one voices a thought that is true or a thought that is untrue. A thought is related to a thing and is true if it coincides with that thing. Every event that happens causes an effect in the higher worlds. If someone relates this event truly, an astral form rays out from the teller, unites with the form emanating from the event itself, and both are strengthened. These strengthened forms help to make our spiritual world richer and more full of content—which is necessary if humanity is to make progress. But if the event is related untruthfully, in a way that does not coincide with the facts, then the thought-form of the teller comes up against the thought-form that has proceeded from the event; the two thought-forms collide, causing mutual destruction. These destructive “explosions” caused by lies work on the body like a tumour which destroys the organism. Thus do lies kill the astral forms which have arisen and must arise, and in this way they obstruct or paralyse a part of evolution. Everyone who tells the truth actually promotes the evolution of humanity and everyone who lies, obstructs it. Therefore there is this occult law: Seen with the eyes of Spirit, a lie is a murder. Not only does it kill an astral form, but it is also self-murder. Everyone who lies places obstacles along his own path. Such effects are to be observed everywhere in the spiritual world. The clairvoyant sees that everything a man thinks, feels and experiences has its effect in the astral world. A man's disposition, temperament, enduring qualities of character, thoughts that are not merely transient—all this streams continually not only into the astral world but into the world of Devachan as well. A man with a happy disposition is a source, a centre, of certain processes in Devachan; a man who is hypocritical has the effect of multiplying the essences and substances associated with hypocrisy in human character. Thus Spiritual Science shows us that we do not live as isolated beings but that our thoughts continually produce forms which cast shadows in the world of Devachan and permeate it with all kinds of substances and essences. The four regions of Devachan-the “Continental,” the “Oceanic,” the “Atmospheric” and the region of original “Inspirations” are influenced all the time by the thoughts, feelings and sensations of human beings.
The higher regions of Devachan, in which the Akasha Chronicle appears, are influenced by deeds. What happens in the external world plays into the very highest region of Devachan—the “world of Reason.” We shall understand in this way how on his descent to a new incarnation the human being reconstitutes his astral body and attaches it to himself All his thoughts and feelings and experiences had become integral parts of the astral world, leaving many traces there. If his thoughts had contained much truth, these traces gather together to form a good astral body for him. What he had incorporated into the lower Devachanic world as his temperament and so on, gathers together the new etheric body, and from the highest regions of Devachan where the Akasha Chronicle is to be found, his past deeds play their part in establishing the station, the localisation of the physical body. Here are the forces which bring a human being to a definite locality. If a man has done evil to someone, this is an external fact which reaches into the highest regions of Devachan; when the time comes to enter a new physical body it works as forces which the man has left in his trail, and impels him—under the guidance of higher Beings—to the associations and to the place where he will now be able to experience the effects of his past deeds in the physical world.
Experiences in the external world which do not inwardly affect us very strongly work upon our astral body in the next incarnation, drawing into it corresponding feelings and a characteristic life of thought. If a man has spent his life profitably, if he has been very observant and has acquired wide knowledge, his astral body in the next incarnation will be born with special gifts in these directions. Experience and acquired knowledge thus express themselves, in the next incarnation, in the astral body. Inner experience, all that a man feels in the way of happiness, sorrow and so on—this works down to the etheric body in the next incarnation and imbues it with lasting propensities. The etheric body of a man who experiences much happiness will have a temperament disposed to joy. A man who tries to perform many good deeds, will, as a result of the feelings evoked, have a decided talent in the next life for good deeds; he will also possess a thoroughly developed conscience and will be a person of high moral principles.
That of which the etheric body is the bearer in the present life—the permanent character, talents etc.—appears in the next life in the physical body. For instance, a man who has developed bad inclinations and passions in one life will be born in the next with an unhealthy physical body. On the other hand, a man who enjoys good health, who has great powers of endurance, unfolded good qualities in the previous life. A person who is continually prone to illness, has worked bad impulses into himself. Thus we have it in our power to create for ourselves health or illness in so far as these inhere in the natural constitution of the physical body. All that is required is the elimination of bad tendencies for we then prepare a healthy, vigorous physical body for the next life.
It is possible to observe, in all details, how the tendencies that were present in one life, work, in the next, on the physical body. A person who is disposed to love everything around him, who is loving to all creatures, who pours out love, will have in the next incarnation a physical body that remains young and fresh until late in life. Love for all beings, the cultivation of sympathy, gives rise to a physical body that preserves its youthful vigour. A man who is full of antipathy against other human beings, who criticises and grumbles at everything, trying to keep aloof from it all, produces, as the result of these tendencies, a physical body that ages and becomes wrinkled prematurely. Thus are the tendencies and passions of one life carried over to the physical, bodily life of subsequent incarnations.
The very details can be observed and it can be found that a passion for acquisition, an urge that makes a person hoard possessions and becomes a rooted disposition in him, produces, in the next life, a tendency to infectious diseases in the physical body. Absolute confirmation is possible of cases where a pronounced tendency to infectious diseases leads back to an earlier, very strong sense of acquisition, the bearer of this quality being the etheric body. On the other hand disinterested striving, free from any desire for self-profit and wishing only to work for the well-being of all mankind—this tendency in the etheric body gives rise, in the next life, to a strong power of resistance to infectious diseases.
Thus knowledge of the connection between the physical and the astral world enables us to have a clear understanding of the world in its inner process of development; things are often connected in quite a different way from what people like to imagine. Many people deplore pain and suffering, but from a higher point of view this is quite unjustified, for if they are overcome and the person is ready for a new incarnation, suffering and pain are the sources of wisdom, prudence and comprehensiveness of vision. Even in writing emanating from the modern, materialistic standpoint, we find it stated that there is something like “crystallised pain” in the face of every thinker. What this materialistically minded author says here has long been known to the occultist, for the greatest wisdom of the world is acquired by the quiet endurance of pain and suffering; this creates wisdom in the next incarnation.
No one who shudders at the unpleasantness of pain, who is unwilling to bear pain can create in himself the foundations for wisdom; indeed when we look deeper, we cannot really bemoan illnesses, for regarded from a higher standpoint, from the standpoint of Eternity, they take on a very different aspect. Illnesses calmly borne often appear in the next life as great physical beauty; great physical beauty in a human being is acquired at the cost of illnesses in the preceding life. Such is the connection between impairment of the body through illness, particularly also through external circumstances, and beauty.
The following words of the French writer, Fabre d'Olivet can be applied to this very remarkable connection: “When we observe the life of the human being, it often seems to be like the formation of the pearl in the oyster-shell—the pearl can only come into being through disease.” And so it is actually in human life: Beauty is karmically connected with illnesses and is their result. When I said, however, that a man who unfolds reprehensible passions creates in himself the disposition to illness, it must be fully realised that in this case it is a matter of inherent tendency to illnesses. It is a different matter if a man falls ill through working in a poisonous atmosphere; this too may be a cause of illness but is not connected with the inherent constitution of the physical body.
Everything that is a fact on the physical plane, everything that constitutes a deed, expressing itself in such a way that it has a definite effect in the physical world, from a footstep and movement of the hand to the most complicated processes, for instance the building of a house, comes to the human being in a later incarnation from outside as an actual physical effect. As you see, we live our life from within-outwards. What lives as joy, pain, happiness, sorrow in the astral body appears again in the etheric body; the lasting impulses and passions that are rooted in the etheric body appear in the physical body as constitutional tendencies; deeds that require the agency of the physical body appear as outer destiny in the next incarnation. What the astral body does becomes the destiny of the etheric body; what the etheric body does becomes the destiny of the physical body; and what the physical body does comes back from outside in the next incarnation as a physical reality.
Here you have the actual point where external destiny intervenes in human life. This working of destiny may be postponed for a long time but must inevitably approach the human being sooner or later. If a man's life is followed through the different incarnations it can always be seen that his life in a subsequent incarnation is prepared by Beings who work at his physical embodiment in such a way that he is led to a particular place in order that his destiny may overtake him.
Here again is an example drawn from life. At a Vehmic Court in the Middle Ages a number of judges condemned a man to death and executed the sentence themselves. Earlier incarnations of the judges and of the dead man were investigated and it was found that they had all been contemporaries; the prisoner who had been put to death had been the Chief of a tribe who had ordered the death of those who were now the Vehmic judges. The deed of the former physical life had created the connection between the persons, and the forces had inscribed themselves in the Akasha Chronicle. When a man again comes down to incarnation, these forces cause him to be born at the same time and place as those to whom he is tied in this way, and they work out his destiny. The Akasha Chronicle is a veritable source of power in which everything that is due to be expiated between one human being and another, is inscribed. Some people can sense these processes, but very, very few are really conscious of them.
Suppose a man has a profession in which he is apparently happy and contented; for some reason or other he is forced to leave it and finding no other occupation in the same place is driven far away—into another country, where he has to strike out on an entirely new line of work. Here he finds a person with whom he has in some way to be associated. What has happened in such a case? He had once lived with the person whom he has now met and remained in his debt for some reason or other. This is inscribed in the Akasha Chronicle and the forces have led him to this place in order that he may meet the man and discharge his debt.
Between birth and death the human being is perpetually within a network of these forces of soul which weave around him on all sides; they are the directing powers of his life. You bear within you all the time the workings of earlier lives; and all the time you are experiencing the outcome of former incarnations.
You will realise, therefore, that your lives are guided by Powers of which you yourselves are not aware. The etheric body is worked upon by forms which you yourselves previously called into existence on the astral plane; beings and forces in the higher regions of Devachan, inscribed by you yourselves in the Akasha Chronicle, work upon your destiny. These forces or beings are not unknown to the occultist; they have their own place in the ranks of similar beings. You must realise that in the astral body and in the etheric body, as well as in the physical body, you feel the workings of other beings; all that you do involuntarily, everything to which you are impelled, is due to the working of other beings; it is not born from nothingness. The various members of man's nature are all the time actually permeated and filled by other beings, and many of the exercises given by an initiated teacher are for the purpose of driving out these beings in order that a man may become more and more free.
The beings who permeate the astral body and make it unfree are known as “Demons.” Your astral body is always interpenetrated by demons and the beings you yourselves generate through your true or false thoughts are of such a nature that they gradually grow into demons. There are good demons, generated by good thoughts; but bad thoughts, above all those that are untruthful, generate demoniacal forms of the most terrible and frightful kind and these interlard the astral body—if I may so express it. The etheric body is also permeated by beings from which man must free himself; these beings are called “Spectres”, “ghosts.” And finally, permeating the physical body there are beings known as “Phantoms.” Besides these three classes there are yet other beings, the “Spirits,” who drive the Ego hither and thither—the Ego itself also being a Spirit. In actual fact the human being generates such creatures who then determine his inner and outer destiny when he descends to incarnation. These beings work in your life in such a way that you can feel the “demons” created by your astral body, the “ghosts” or “spectres” created by your etheric body and the “phantoms” created by your physical body. All these beings are related to you and approach you when the time comes for reincarnation.
You will remember that religious documents express these truths. When the Bible speaks of the driving-out of demons, this is not an abstraction but is to be taken literally. Christ Jesus healed those who were possessed of demons; He drove the demons out of the astral body. This is an actual process and, the passage is to be taken literally. The wise man Socrates also speaks of his “Daimon” which worked in his astral body. This was a good demon; such beings are not always evil.
There are, however, terrible and corrupt demonic beings. All demons that are born of lying work in such a way as to throw man back in his development; and because owing to the lies of eminent figures in world-history demons who grow into very powerful beings are all the time being created, we hear of the “Spirits of Hindrance”, “Spirits of obstruction.” In this sense Faust says to Mephistopheles: “Thou art the Father of all hindrances!”
The individual human being, membered as he is within mankind as a whole, has an effect upon the whole world according to whether he speaks the truth or lies; for beings created by truth or by lies produce quite different effects. Imagine a people which was composed entirely of liars, the astral plane would be populated solely by the corresponding demons and these demons would be able to express themselves in constitutional tendency to epidemics. Thus there is a certain species of bacilli who are the carriers of infectious diseases; these beings are the progeny of the lies told by human beings; they are nothing else than physically embodied demons generated by lies.
You see therefore that lies and untruths of earlier ages appear in world-karma as a definite host of beings. A passage in Faust indicates how much deep truth is contained in myths and sagas. You will find there a connection between vermin and lies in the role played by rats and mice in connection with Mephistopheles, the Spirit of Lies. Legends have often preserved wonderful indications of the connection between the spiritual world and the physical world.
In order to understand the Law of Karma we shall have to speak about many other things. The Movement of Spiritual Science itself is the outcome of an intimate knowledge of the Law of Karma.
You have just heard that forces which lie in the etheric body work upon the physical body in the next incarnation. Thus the attitude of mind, the tendency to think along particular lines, works upon the physical body. A spiritual or a materialistic attitude of mind is by no means without importance for the next incarnation. A man who has some knowledge of the higher worlds—he need only believe in their existence—has in his next life a well centred physical body and tranquil nervous system, a body which he has well in hand, including the very nerves. On the other hand, a man who believes in nothing except what is to be found in the world of the senses, communicates this kind of thinking to his physical body and in the next incarnation has a body prone to nervous diseases, a frail, fidgety body in which there is no steadfast centre of will. The materialist scatters himself in pure details; the Spirit binds together, for Spirit is Unity!
The tendency or disposition comes to light, in the case of the individual, through destiny in his next incarnation, but it continues through the generations, so that the sons and grand-children of materialistic fathers have to pay for this by badly constituted nervous systems and nervous disorders. An “epoch” of nerves is the outcome of the materialistic attitude of the last century. And as a counteraction, the Great Teachers of mankind have recognised the necessity of allowing the inflow of spiritual ways of thinking.
Materialism has also found its way into religion. There are people who “believe” in the spiritual worlds but have not the will to acquire real knowledge of them. Can it be said that such people are not materialists? It is materialism in religion which makes people want to have the mystery of the Six Day of Creation—as the Bible describes the evolution of the worlds—displayed before their very eyes; it is materialism which speaks of Christ Jesus as an “historical personality” and ignores the Mystery of Golgotha. Materialism in natural science is primarily a consequence of materialism in religion, and would not exist if the religious life were not saturated with materialism. Men who have been too lazy to deepen their religious life—it is they who have introduced materialism into science. And the derangement of the nerves caused by this materialism works itself out among racial stocks and among whole peoples, as well as in the individual.
If the stream of spirituality is not powerful enough to influence lazy and easy-going people as well, the karmic consequence of nervous derangement will gain greater and greater hold over humanity, and just as in the Middle Ages there were epidemics of leprosy, so, in future, materialistic thinking will give rise to grave nervous diseases; there will be epidemics of insanity besetting whole peoples.
Insight into this domain of the Law of Karma reveals that Spiritual Science should never be a matter of strife but a healing power in humanity. The more spiritual men become, the more will troubles connected with diseases of the nervous system and derangement in the life of soul, be expunged.
Sechster Vortrag
[ 1 ] Heute kommen wir zu den Erlebnissen der Menschen innerhalb unserer physischen Welt, insofern sie durch das frühere Leben des Menschen bestimmt sind. Zunächst muß betont werden, daß dasLeben nicht allein durch die früheren Verkörperungen, sondern, wenn auch nur zum kleinen Teil, auch durch das gegenwärtige Leben bestimmt wird. Dieses Gesetz, dem wir da begegnen, wie Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft des Menschen zusammenhängen, wird in der geisteswissenschaftlichen Literatur das Karmagesetz genannt. Es ist das wahre Schicksalsgesetz des Menschen. In der Wirkung des Karmagesetzes in jedem einzelnen Leben haben wir nur einen Spezialfall des großen Gesetzes des Kosmos, denn was wir das Karmagesetz nennen, ist ein ganz allgemein kosmisches Gesetz, und seine Geltung im menschlichen Leben ist nur ein Spezialfall. Wenn wir uns überhaupt einen Zusammenhang irgendwelcher vorhergehender Verhältnisse und nachfolgender Wirkungen klarmachen, denken wir schon im Sinne dieses Gesetzes. Deshalbmöchte ich die Geltung dieses Gesetzes im Kosmos im einzelnen, und zwar für das Menschenleben, in gehöriger Form klarlegen.
[ 2 ] Wenn wir zwei Gefäße mit Wasser vor uns stehen haben und eine bis zum Glühen erhitzte Eisenkugel in das eine Gefäß werfen, dann zischt das Wasser auf und wird warm. Nehmen wir nun die Kugel heraus und werfen sie in das andere Gefäß, da zischt das Wasser nicht mehr auf und erwärmt sich nicht mehr. Hätten wir nun gleich die Kugel in das zweite Gefäß hineingeworfen, so wäre es auch da geschehen, daß das Wasser gezischt und die Kugel sich abgekühlt hätte; so kann es aber nicht mehr zum Zischen gebracht werden, denn die Kugel ist nicht mehr glühend, weil sie sich bereits im ersten Gefäß abgekühlt hatte. Die Wirkung des Verhaltens der Kugel im ersten Gefäß bedingt ihr Verhalten im zweiten Gefäß. So hängen im physischen Leben Ursache und Wirkung stets zusammen. Von dem, was mit einem Ding vorher geschieht, hängt es ab, wie sich das Ding nachher beträgt.
[ 3 ] Ein anderes Beispiel geben uns gewisse Tiere, bei denen durch ihre Einwanderung in dunkle Höhlen das Sehorgan verkümmert ist. Bei ihnen werden die Stoffe, die vorher die Augen mit Nahrung versorgt haben, in andere Teile des Körpers geleitet, da das Auge dieselben nicht mehr braucht, denn es braucht nicht mehr zu sehen. Ihre Augen wurden dadurch zurückgebildet, und nun werden in allen folgenden Generationen Tiere mit verkümmerten Augen erzeugt werden. Durch ihre frühere Einwanderung bestimmten sie dieses Verhalten der Organe selbst, und ihr Schicksal für ihre folgenden Generationen war bestimmt durch das, was die Wesen in der Vergangenheit taten. Sie bereiteten dadurch ihr Schicksal für die Zukunft vor.
[ 4 ] Ebenso ist es auch fortwährend im Menschenleben. Der Mensch bestimmt sich seine Zukunft durch seine Vergangenheit, und da er als innerste Wesenheit nicht eingeschlossen ist in eine einzelne Verkörperung, sondern durch viele hindurchgeht, so sind für die Dinge, die ihn in einem bestimmten Leben treffen, die Ursachen in einem früheren Leben zu suchen.
[ 5 ] Wir wollen jetzt auf die Verkettung eingehen, die man verstehen kann, wenn man ein wenig die Folge der menschlichen Taten, Gedanken und Gefühle überhaupt in Rechnung zieht. Man sagt im gewöhnlichen Leben so häufig: Gedanken sind zollfrei! — das heißt, man könne denken, was man will, das geniere niemand in der Außenwelt. Hier haben Sie einen wichtigen Punkt, wo der, welcher wirklich von den geistigen Impulsen erfaßt ist, sich von dem materialistisch denkenden Menschen unterscheidet.
[ 6 ] Der Materialist glaubt, daß er einem Menschen, den er mit einem Stein bewirft, wohl weh tut; dagegen glaubt er, daß ein haßerfüllter Gedanke, den er gegen seinen Mitmenschen hegt, demselben nicht weh tue. Wer aber die Welt wirklich kennt, der weiß, daß viel, viel stärkere Wirkungen ausgehen von einem haßerfüllten Gedanken, als je durch einen Steinwurf erregt werden können. Alles, was der Mensch denkt, fühlt und empfindet, hat seine Wirkungen in der Astralwelt, und man kann im einzelnen als Scher sehr genau verfolgen, wie zum Beispiel ein liebevoller Gedanke wirkt, der zu einem andern Menschen hingeht, und wie ganz anders ein haßerfüllter Gedanke. Wenn Sie einen liebevollen Gedanken aussenden, sieht der Seher, wie sich wie eine Art Blumenkelch eine Lichtform bildet, die den Menschen in bezug auf seinen Äther- und Astralleib liebevoll umspielt und dadurch zu seiner Belebung, seiner Seligkeit etwas beiträgt. Der haßerfüllte Gedanke dagegen bohrt sich wie ein verwundender Pfeil in den Äther- und Astralleib.
[ 7 ] Man kann sehr verschiedene Beobachtungen auf diesem Gebiete machen. Es ist ein gewaltiger Unterschied in der Astralwelt, ob man einen Gedanken ausspricht, der wahr ist, oder einen erlogenen. Ein Gedanke bezieht sich auf irgendeine Sache und ist dadurch wahr, daß er mit der Sache übereinstimmt. Es trägt sich zum Beispiel irgendwo eine Tatsache zu, und von dieser geschieht eine Wirkung in die höheren Welten hinauf. Jemand erzählt diese Tatsache wahr: dann strahlt vom Erzähler ein Astralgebilde auf, das sich mit dem von der Tatsache selbst herrührenden Gebilde vereinigt, und beide verstärken sich. Diese verstärkten Formen dienen dazu, unsere geistige Welt immer gegliederter und inhaltsvoller zu machen, wie wir sie brauchen, wenn die Menschheit vorwärtskommen will. Erzählt man die Tatsache nun aber so, daß sie nicht mit dem Geschehnis übereinstimmt, daß sie erlogen ist, dann trifft die Gedankenform des Erzählenden zusammen mit der, welche von der Tatsache ausgeht, beide prallen aufeinander und eine gegenseitige Zerstörung geschieht. Solche explosionsartigen Zerstörungen durch Lügen wirken, wie ein Geschwür am Leibe wirkt, das den Organismus zerstört. So töten Lügen die astralen Gebilde, die entstanden sind und entstehen müssen, und hemmen oder töten so einen Teil der Entwickelung. Tatsächlich bringt ein jeder, der die Wahrheit sagt, die Entwickelung der Menschheit vorwärts, und der, welcher lügt, hemmt dieselbe. Daher gibt es ein okkultes Gesetz: Die Lüge ist, geistig angesehen, ein Mord. Sie tötet nicht nur ein Astralgebilde, sondern sie ist auch ein Selbstmord. Ein jeder, welcher lügt, legt sich selbst Hindernisse in den Weg. Überall sind solche Wirkungen in der geistigen Welt zu beobachten. So sieht auch der Hellseher, daß alles, was man denkt, fühlt und empfindet, seine Wirkungen auf dem Astralplan hat.
[ 8 ] Alles, was der Mensch an Neigungen, Temperament, bleibenden Charaktereigenschaften hat, was man nicht nur vorübergehend denkt, strahlt fortwährend nicht nur bis in die astrale Welt, sondern bis in die devachanische Welt hinein. Ein Mensch mit einem heiteren Temperament ist ein Quell, ein Zentrum für gewisse Vorgänge im Devachan. Ein Mensch mit kopfhängerischem Wesen wirkt so, daß er die Essenzen und Stoffe vermehrt, die mit dem kopfhängerischen Wesen der Menschen zusammenhängen. So zeigt uns die Geisteswissenschaft, daß wir nicht nur isoliert stehen, sondern daß unsere Gedanken fortwährend Formen hervorrufen, welche die devachanische Welt schattieren und sie durchdringen mit allerlei Substanzen und Essenzen. Alle vier Gebiete der devachanischen Welt, das kontinentale, das ozeanische, das atmosphärische und das Gebiet der originellen Einfälle, werden fortwährend von den Gedanken, Gefühlen und Empfindungen der Menschen beeinflußt. — Die höheren Gebiete, wo schon die Akasha-Chronik hineinspielt, werden durch das, was ihre Taten sind, beeinflußt. Was äußerlich geschieht, das spielt hinein bis in die höchsten Gebiete des Devachan, die wir die Vernunftwelt genannt haben.
[ 9 ] Wir werden so begreifen, wie der Mensch bei seinem Herunterstieg zur neuen Verkörperung wieder seinen Astralleib zusammensetzt und sich angliedert. Alles, was er gedacht, gefühlt und empfunden hatte, hatte sich als bleibend eingegliedert in die astrale Welt. Viele Spuren hat es da hinterlassen. War es viel Wahres, was er gedacht hatte, so setzen diese Spuren ihm einen guten Astralleib zusammen. Was er eingegliedert hat in die untere Devachanwelt als sein Temperament und so weiter, das setzt den neuen Ätherleib zusammen, und was er vollbracht hat an Taten, wirkt mit von den höchsten Partien des Devachan aus, wo schon die Akasha-Chronik zu finden ist, auf die Stationierung und Lokalisierung des physischen Leibes. Hier liegen die Kräfte, die einen Menschen an einen bestimmten Ort hinbringen. Hat man jemandem Böses angetan, so ist das eine äußere Tatsache, die hinaufgeht in die höchsten Devachan-Partien. Sie wirkt bei der neuen Eingliederung in einen physischen Leib als Kräfte, welche der Mensch zurückgelassen hat, und drängt ihn, allerdings unter Leitung höherer Wesenheiten, zu dem Orte hin, wo er die Wirkung seiner Taten nunmehr in der physischen Welt erfahren kann.
[ 10 ] Alles, was wir äußerlich erfahren, ohne daß es uns innerlich besonders berührt, wirkt bei der nächsten Verkörperung auf unseren Astralleib und zieht entsprechende Gefühle, Empfindungen und GedankenEigentümlichkeiten heran. Hat man sein Leben gut angewendet, sich viel angeschaut, reichliche Kenntnisse erworben, so ist die Folge davon, daß der Astralleib im nächsten Leben mit besonderen Begabungen nach diesen Richtungen hin wiedergeboren wird. Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen also prägen sich in der nächsten Verkörperung im Astralleib aus. Was man aber empfindet, fühlt, Lust und Leid, was inneres Erleben der Seele ist, das wirkt in der nächsten Verkörperung bis auf den Ätherleib und bewirkt eine bleibende Neigung in ihm. Wer viel Freude erlebt, dessen Ätherleib wird ein zur Freude neigendes Temperament haben. Wer sich bemüht, viele gute Taten zu vollbringen, der wird durch die Gefühle, die dabei entwickelt werden, im nächsten Leben geradezu ein Talent an guten Taten ausgeprägt haben. Er wird auch ein sorgfältig entwickeltes Gewissen haben und wird ein moralisch angelegter Mensch sein.
[ 11 ] Das, wovon der Ätherleib der Träger ist in diesem Leben, der bleibende Charakter, die Anlagen und so weiter, das tritt im nächsten Leben im physischen Leibe auf, und zwar so, daß zum Beispiel ein Mensch, der in seinem Leben schlechte Neigungen und Leidenschaften entwickelt hat, im nächsten Leben mit einem ungesunden physischen Körper geboren wird. Ein Mensch dagegen, der eine gute Gesundheit hat, der viel auszuhalten vermag, der hat im vorigen Leben gute Eigenschaften entwickelt. Einer, der fortwährend zu Krankheiten neigt, hat schlechte Triebe in sich hineingearbeitet. So haben wir es in der Hand, uns Gesundheit oder Krankheit, insofern sie in der Veranlagung des physischen Leibes liegen, selbst zu schaffen. Man braucht nur alle schlechten Neigungen auszumerzen und bereitet sich dann einen guten, kräftigen Körper für das nächste Leben vor.
[ 12 ] Mit allen Einzelheiten kann man beobachten, wie das, was in einem Leben an Neigungen vorhanden war, im nächsten Leben am physischen Leibe wirkt. Ein Leben, das die Neigung hat, alles um sich herum zu lieben, das liebevoll auf jedes Wesen eingeht, ein Leben, das Liebe ausgießt, wird in der nächsten Verkörperung einen physischen Leib haben, der lange jung und blühend aussehen wird. Liebe zu allen Wesen, Sympathie-Entwickelung bewirkt einen sich jugendlich erhaltenden physischen Leib. Ein haßerfülltes Leben, das voll Antipathie gegen andere Wesen ist, das an allem herumkritisiert und nörgelt und sich von allem zurückziehen möchte, das bewirkt aus diesen Neigungen heraus einen physischen Leib, der früh altert und Runzeln bekommt. So übertragen sich die Neigungen und Leidenschaften eines Lebens auf das physische Körperleben der nächsten Verkörperung.
[ 13 ] Man kann bis in Einzelheiten hineinschauen, und da könnte man finden, wie ein ausgebildeter Erwerbssinn, der triebhaft ist, der immer darauf ausgeht, zusammenzuscharren, dadurch, daß das eine Neigung geworden ist, im nächsten Leben eine Disposition zu Infektionskrankheiten im physischen Leibe erzeugt. Man kann solche Fälle durchaus konstatieren, wo eine ausgesprochene Neigung zu Infektionskrankheiten zurückführt auf einen früher stark vorhandenen Erwerbssinn, der ja zu seinem Träger den Ätherleib hat. Ein objektives Streben dagegen innerhalb der Menschheit, das nichts für sich einheimsen will, das für die Menschheit wirkt mit dem ausgesprochenen Sinn, für die Gesamtheit zu arbeiten, solche Neigung im Ätherleib bewirkt im nächsten Leben eine ausgesprochene Stärke gegen Infektionskrankheiten.
[ 14 ] So kann man die Welt bis zu einem hohen Grade in ihrem Werdegange bis ins Innere durchschauen, wenn man den Zusammenhang zwischen der physischen und der astralen Welt kennt, und die Dinge hängen manchmal ganz anders zusammen, als die Menschen es sich vorstellen möchten. Viele Menschen jammern zum Beispiel über Schmerz und Leid. Aber von einem höheren Gesichtspunkte aus ist es gar nicht berechtigt, darüber zu jammern, denn sind sie überwunden und ist man bereit zu einer nächsten Verkörperung, dann sind Leid und Schmerzen die Quellen von Weisheit und Besonnenheit und einem Überschauen der Dinge. Sogar in einer neueren Schrift, die aus der materialistischen Anschauungsart der Gegenwart entstanden ist, finden wir den Ausspruch, daß in der Physiognomie eines jeden Denkers etwas zu finden ist wie kristallisierter Schmerz. Das, was da der materialistisch denkende Schriftsteller sagt, ist dem Okkultisten längst bekannt, denn die größte Weisheit der Welt wird erworben durch das ruhige Ertragen von Schmerz und Leid. Das schafft in der nächsten Inkarnation Weisheit.
[ 15 ] Keiner, der lebensleidig den Schmerz flieht, der ihn nicht ertragen will, kann sich die Grundlage für die Weisheit schaffen. Ja, wenn wir weiter hineinschauen, können wir nicht einmal über die Krankheiten jammern. Wenn man sie von höherer Warte aus, vom Standpunkte der Ewigkeit betrachtet, dann nehmen sie sich ganz anders aus. Krankheiten, die man erträgt, kommen im nächsten Leben oftmals als besondere Schönheit in der Körperlichkeit zum Vorschein, so daß viel körperliche Schönheit, die man beim Menschen findet, durch Krankheit im vorhergehenden Leben errungen ist. Das ist der Zusammenhang zwischen der Verletzung des Körpers durch Krankheit, namentlich auch durch äußere Verhältnisse, und der Schönheit. Man kann auf diesen ganz merkwürdigen Zusammenhang das Wort des französischen Schriftstellers Fabre d’Olivet anwenden: Wenn man das Menschenleben betrachtet, erscheint es oft so wie das Entstehen der Perle in der Perlenmuschel. Erst durch eine Krankheit der Muschel entsteht die Perle. — So ist es tatsächlich auch im Menschenleben: Schönheit steht karmisch im Zusammenhang mit Krankheiten und ist deren Ergebnis. Wenn ich nun aber sagte: Wer schlechte Leidenschaften entwickelt, der schafft sich die Disposition zu Krankheiten —, so muß man streng festhalten, daß es sich hier um die innere Disposition zu Erkrankungen handelt. Wenn man dadurch erkrankt, daß man zum Beispiel in einer verpesteten Luft arbeitet, so ist das etwas anderes; dadurch kann man auch krank werden, aber das hängt nicht zusammen mit der Disposition des physischen Leibes.
[ 16 ] Alles nun, was Tatsachen sind auf dem physischen Plan, alles was etwas Getanes ist, was sich auslebt, daß es eine Wirkung in der physischen Welt hat, vom Schritt und von der Handbewegung an bis zu den kompliziertesten Vorgängen, zum Beispiel dem Bau eines Hauses, kommt als eine wirkliche physische Wirkung von außen in einer späteren Verkörperung an den Menschen heran. Sie sehen, wir leben von innen nach außen: Was im Astralleibe lebt als Freude, Schmerz, Lust und Leid, erscheint wieder im Ätherleibe, was im Ätherleibe wurzelt an bleibenden Trieben und Leidenschaften, erscheint im physischen Leibe als Disposition, was man aber hier tut, so daß man den physischen Leib dazu gebraucht, das erscheint als äußeres Schicksal in der nächsten Verkörperung. So wird das, was der Astralleib tut, zum Schicksal des Ätherleibes, der Ätherleib wird zum Schicksal des physischen Leibes, und was der physische Leib tut, das kommt als Wirkung von außen in der nächsten Verkörperung als eine physische Wirklichkeit zurück.
[ 17 ] Da haben Sie genau den Punkt festgestellt, wo das äußere Schicksal in das Menschenleben eingreift. Diese Schicksalswirkung ist etwas, was zuweilen lange ausbleiben mag, was aber sicher an den Menschen herankommen muß. Man kann immer sehen, wenn man das Leben eines Menschen durch die verschiedenen Verkörperungen hindurch verfolgt, daß sein Leben in einer folgenden Verkörperung so zubereitet wird von Wesen, die wirksam sind bei der Eingliederung in seinen physischen Leib, daß er hingeführt wird an einen bestimmten Ort, damit ihn sein Schicksal ereilt.
[ 18 ] Dafür wieder ein Beispiel aus dem Leben: Bei einer mittelalterlichen Femgerichtsversammlung waren eine Anzahl Femrichter, die das Urteil sprachen und es selbst vollzogen. Sie töteten eine Person. Man ging zurück in frühere Verkörperungen der Richter und des Getöteten, und da stellte es sich heraus, daß alle zu gleicher Zeit gelebt hatten, und zwar der Hingerichtete als Häuptling eines Stammes, und dieser hatte diejenigen, die jetzt Femrichter waren, hinrichten lassen. Diese Tat des vorherigen physischen Lebens hat den Zusammenhang geschaffen zwischen den Personen; sie hat Kräfte geschaffen, die bis in die AkashaChronik hineinwirken. Wenn nun ein Mensch wiederum zur Verkörperung kommt, lassen diese Kräfte ihn wiederum geboren werden gleichzeitig und am selben Ort mit dem Menschen, mit dem er so verkettet ist, und wirken sein Schicksal aus. Die Akasha-Chronik ist tatsächlich eine Kraftquelle, in der alles eingeschrieben ist, was ein Mensch an den andern abzutragen hat. Diese Vorgänge kann mancher spüren; die wenigsten sind sich aber dessen bewußt.
[ 19 ] Ein Mensch ist zum Beispiel in einem Beruf, der ihn scheinbar glücklich und zufrieden macht. Er wird durch irgend etwas herausgetrieben, findet keinen anderen Beruf an demselben Ort, es wirft ihn meilenweit hinaus, in ein anderes Land, wo er einen neuen Berufsweg einschlagen muß. Dort findet er einen Menschen, mit dem er in irgendein Verhältnis treten muß. Was ist da geschehen? Der Mensch hat mit dem andern, mit dem er jetzt zusammengetroffen ist, einmal zusammengelebt. Er ist ihm früher irgend etwas schuldig geblieben. Das ist eingetragen in die Akasha-Chronik, und die Kräfte haben ihn hingeleitet an diesen Ort, damit er mit diesem Menschen zusammentreffen und ihm seine Schuld abtragen könne.
[ 20 ] Fortwährend ist der Mensch zwischen Geburt und Tod in einen solchen Zusammenhang von Kräften eingeschlossen, die ihn von allen Seiten seelisch umspinnen, und das sind die dirigierenden Mächte seines Lebens. Sie sehen so, daß Sie eigentlich fortwährend die Wirkungen früherer Leben in sich tragen, daß Sie immer die Wirkungen früherer Verkörperungen erleben.
[ 21 ] So müssen Sie sich klar sein, daß Sie in Ihrem Leben geleitet werden von Mächten, die Sie selber nicht kennen. Was auf den Ätherleib wirkt, sind Formgebilde, die Sie selbst früher auf dem Astralplan hervorgebracht haben, und was Ihr Schicksal wirkt, sind Wesenheiten, Kräfte auf den höheren Partien des Devachan, die Sie selbst eingeschrieben haben in die Akasha-Chronik. Diese Kräfte oder Wesenheiten sind dem Okkultisten nicht unbekannt, sie sind ganz hineingestellt in die Rangordnung von ähnlichen Wesenheiten. Sie müssen sich klar sein, daß Sie sowohl im Astralleib als im Ätherleib und im physischen Leibe die Wirkungen überhaupt von anderen Wesenheiten verspüren. Alles, was Sie unwillkürlich tun, alles, wozu Sie gedrängt werden, geschieht durch die Wirkung von anderen Wesenheiten. Es geschieht nicht aus dem Nichts heraus. Die verschiedenen Glieder der Menschennatur sind fortwährend wirklich durchdrungen und angefüllt von anderen Wesenheiten, und der eingeweihte Lehrer läßt ein gut Teil der Übungen machen, um dieselben herauszutreiben, damit der Mensch immer freier und freier werde.
[ 22 ] Man nennt die Wesenheiten, die den Astralleib durchsetzen und ihn unfrei machen, Dämonen. Fortwährend sind Sie in Ihrem Astralleib von solchen Dämonen durchdrungen, und die Wesenheiten, die Sie selbst durch Ihre wahren oder falschen Gedanken erzeugen, sind solche, die sich nach und nach zu Dämonen auswachsen. Es gibt gute Dämonen, die von guten Gedanken ausgehen. Schlimme Gedanken aber, vor allem unwahre, lügnerische, erzeugen dämonische Gestalten der furchtbarsten und gräßlichsten Art, die den Astralleib, wenn man sich so ausdrücken darf, durchspicken. Ebenso durchsetzen den Ätherleib Wesenheiten, von denen sich der Mensch frei machen muß, das sind die Spektren oder Gespenster, und endlich gibt es solche, die den physischen Leib durchsetzen, das sind die Phantome. Außer diesen dreien gibt es noch andere Wesenheiten, die das Ich hin- und hertreiben, das sind die Geister, wie das Ich ja auch selbst Geist ist. Tatsächlich ist der Mensch der Hervorrufer von solchen Wesenheiten, die dann, wenn er auf die Erde herunterkommt, das innere und äußere Schicksal bestimmen. Dieselben beleben den Lebensgang so, daß Sie alles spüren, was Ihr Astralleib an Dämonen, Ihr Ätherleib an Gespenstern und Ihr physischer Leib an Phantomen hervorgebracht hat. Alles das hat eine Verwandtschaft zu Ihnen, es strebt zu Ihnen hin, wenn Sie wiederverkörpert werden.
[ 23 ] Da sehen Sie, wie religiöse Urkunden diese Wahrheiten aussprechen. Wenn in der Bibel von der Austreibung von Dämonen die Rede ist, so ist das kein Abstraktum, sondern es ist wirklich und wörtlich zu verstehen. Was tat der Christus Jesus? Er heilte den von Dämonen Besessenen, er holte heraus aus dem astralischen Leibe die Dämonen. Das sind reale Vorgänge und es ist durchaus wörtlich zu nehmen. Auch Sokrates, dieser erleuchtete Geist, spricht von seinem Dämon, der in seinem Astralleibe wirkte. Das war ein guter Dämon; man muß sich unter Dämonen nicht nur schlechte Wesenheiten vorstellen.
[ 24 ] Aber es gibt auch furchtbare, verderbliche Dämonen. Alle Lügendämonen wirken so, wie wenn sie den Menschen zurückwürfen in der Entwickelung, und da in der Weltgeschichte bei den Lügen der großen Persönlichkeiten immer solche Lügendämonen geschaffen werden, die sich zu ganz gewaltigen Wesenheiten auswachsen, spricht man von den Geistern der Hemmnisse oder Hindernisse. In diesem Sinne sagt Faust zu Mephisto: «Der Vater bist du aller Hindernisse!»
[ 25 ] Der einzelne Mensch, so wie er eingesponnen ist in die ganze übrige Menschheit, wirkt dadurch, daß er die Wahrheit spricht oder lügt, auf die ganze Welt zurück, denn ob er Wahrheits- oder Lügendämonen erzeugt, hat seine ganz verschiedenen Wirkungen. Denken Sie sich ein Volk, das aus lauter Lügnern bestände. Sie würden den Astralplan mit lauter Lügendämonen bevölkern, und diese können sich wiederum in der physischen Disposition zu Epidemien äußern. So gibt es eine gewisse Form von Bazillen als Träger von Infektionskrankheiten, die von den Lügen der Menschheit herstammen. Sie sind nichts anderes als physisch verkörperte Lügendämonen. Da sehen Sie, daß die Lügen der Vorzeit im Weltenkarma in einem bestimmten Heer von Wesenheiten auftreten. Wieviel Wahres Mythen und Sagen enthalten, sehen Sie an einer Stelle im «Faust». Da finden Sie einen Zusammenhang zwischen Ungeziefer und Lügen, ebenfalls in der Rolle, die Ratten und Mäuse spielen, im Zusammenhange mit dem Lügengeist, Mephisto. In den Sagen erhalten sich oft wunderbare Zusammenhänge zwischen der geistigen und der physischen Welt.
[ 26 ] Wir müssen noch über manches andere sprechen, um das Karmagesetz zu verstehen. Aus einer gewissen intimen Erkenntnis des Karmagesetzes ist überhaupt die geisteswissenschaftliche Bewegung hervorgegangen. Sie haben eben gesehen, wie Dinge, die im Ätherleib liegen, im nächsten Leben auf den physischen Leib wirken. So wirkt die Gesinnung, die Neigung zu denken, in einer ganz bestimmten Art zu denken, auf den physischen Leib, und so ist es für eine nachfolgende Inkarnation nicht gleichgültig, ob Sie in Ihrer Gesinnung spirituell oder materialistisch sind. Ein Mensch, der etwas von höheren Welten weiß — er braucht nur an die höheren Welten zu glauben —, hat in seinem nächsten Leben einen zentrierten physischen Leib, dessen Nervensystem ruhig wirkt, den er in der Hand hat, bis in die Nerven hinein. Ein Mensch dagegen, der nur gelten lassen will, was in der Sinnenwelt ist, der pflanzt diese Gesinnung fort auf seinen physischen Leib und hat in der nächsten Verkörperung einen solchen, der zu Nervenkrankheiten disponiert ist, einen zappeligen physischen Leib, der keinen festen Willensmittelpunkt hat. Der Materialist zerfällt in lauter Einzelheiten; der Geist hält zusammen, denn er ist die Einheit.
[ 27 ] DieDisposition kommt bei den einzelnen Menschen durch dasSchicksal in der nächsten Inkarnation zum Vorschein, aber sie geht weiter durch die Generationen hindurch, so daß die Söhne und Enkel der Väter, die materialistisch gesinnt waren, das büßen müssen durch schlechte Beschaffenheit des Nervensystems und Nervenkrankheiten. Ein nervöses Zeitalter wie das unsrige ist die Folge der materialistischen Gesinnung des letzten Jahrhunderts, und als Gegenströmung haben die großen Lehrer der Menschheit die Notwendigkeit erkannt, die spirituelle Gesinnung einströmen zu lassen.
[ 28 ] Der Materialismus hat auch bis in die Religion hinein gewirkt. Oder sind diejenigen, die wohl an die geistigen Welten glauben, aber nicht den Willen haben, sie zu erkennen, sind das keine Materialisten? Das ist der Materialismus in der Religion, der da möchte, daß sich das Geheimnis des Sechstagewerkes — wie sich die große Weltenevolution im Sechstagewerk der Bibel auslebt — vor seinen Augen abspielen soll, und der da spricht von Christus Jesus als einer «historischen Persönlichkeit» und vorübergeht an dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Der Materialismus in der Naturwissenschaft ist erst eine Folge des Materialismus in der Religion; es gäbe ihn nicht, wenn nicht das religiöse Leben vom Materialismus durchsetzt wäre. Diejenigen, die heute zu bequem sind, sich auf religiösem Gebiet zu vertiefen, sind dieselben, die in der Naturwissenschaft den Materialismus erzeugt haben. Und die durch diesen Materialismus erzeugte Nervenzerrüttung wirkt sich aus bei ganzen Stämmen, ganzen Völkern, wie im Einzelleben der Menschen.
[ 29 ] Wenn die spirituelle Strömung nicht so viel Macht gewinnt, daß sie auch die Faulen und Bequemen erfassen kann, dann gewinnt dasjenige, was die karmische Folge ist, die Nervosität, immer mehr Einfluß auf die Menschheit, und wie es im Mittelalter Epidemien des Aussatzes gegeben hat, so werden, durch die materialistische Gesinnung hervorgerufen, in der Zukunft schwere Nervenerkrankungen, ganze Epidemien des Wahnsinns auftreten, und ganze Völker werden davon überfallen werden.
[ 30 ] So sollte durch das Einsehen dieses Gebietes des Karmagesetzes die Geisteswissenschaft nicht etwas sein, über das man sich streitet, sondern ein Heilmittel für die Menschheit. Je mehr die Menschheit spirituell wird, desto mehr wird alles ausgemerzt, was mit Erkrankungen des Nervensystems und der Seele zusammenhängt.
Sixth Lecture
[ 1 ] Today we come to the experiences of people within our physical world, insofar as they are determined by the person's past life. First of all, it must be emphasized that life is not determined solely by past embodiments, but also, if only to a small extent, by the present life. This law, which we encounter in the way that a person's past, present and future are connected, is called the law of karma in spiritual science literature. It is the true law of human destiny. In the effect of the law of karma in each individual life, we have only a special case of the great law of the cosmos, because what we call the law of karma is a very general cosmic law, and its validity in human life is only a special case. When we realize any kind of connection between previous conditions and subsequent effects, we are already thinking in terms of this law. Therefore, I would like to explain the validity of this law in the cosmos in detail, and specifically for human life, in the appropriate form.
[ 2 ] If we have two containers of water in front of us and throw a red-hot iron ball into one of them, the water will sizzle and become warm. If we now take the ball out and throw it into the other container, the water will no longer sizzle or heat up. If we had thrown the ball into the second vessel straight away, the water would have sizzled and the ball would have cooled down there too; but now it can no longer be made to sizzle because the ball is no longer glowing, having already cooled down in the first vessel. The effect of the behavior of the ball in the first vessel determines its behavior in the second vessel. Thus, in physical life, cause and effect are always connected. How a thing behaves afterwards depends on what happens to it beforehand.
[ 3 ] Another example is provided by certain animals in which the organ of sight has atrophied as a result of their migrating into dark caves. In their case, the substances that previously supplied the eyes with nourishment are directed to other parts of the body because the eye no longer needs them, since it no longer needs to see. Their eyes were thus regressed, and now animals with atrophied eyes will be produced in all subsequent generations. Through their earlier immigration, they themselves determined this behavior of the organs, and their fate for their following generations was determined by what the beings did in the past. They thereby prepared their fate for the future.
[ 4 ] Likewise, it is also continuous in human life. Man determines his future by his past, and since he, as an innermost being, is not enclosed in a single embodiment, but passes through many, the causes for the things that happen to him in a particular life are to be sought in a previous life.
[ 5 ] We now want to look at the chain of cause and effect that can be understood by taking into account the sequence of human actions, thoughts and feelings in general. We often say in everyday life: thoughts are free! that is, one can think whatever one wants, without embarrassing anyone in the outside world. Here you have an important point where the one who is truly seized by spiritual impulses differs from the materialistically thinking person.
[ 6 ] The materialist believes that he hurts a person whom he hits with a stone; on the other hand, he believes that a hate-filled thought he harbors against his fellow man does not hurt the latter. But anyone who really knows the world knows that a hate-filled thought has a much, much stronger effect than a stone thrown in anger can ever have. Everything that a person thinks, feels and experiences has its effects in the astral world, and one can very closely follow in detail how, for example, a loving thought that goes out to another person works, and how quite different a hate-filled thought works. When you send out a loving thought, the seer sees a form of light forming like a kind of flower calyx that lovingly envelops the person in relation to his etheric and astral body and thus contributes to his invigoration and bliss. The hate-filled thought, on the other hand, pierces like a wounding arrow into the etheric and astral body.
[ 7 ] Many different observations can be made in this connection. In the astral world there is a tremendous difference between expressing a true thought and expressing a false one. A thought refers to some object and is true because it corresponds to that object. For example, a fact occurs somewhere, and from it an effect spreads into the higher worlds. If someone relates this fact truthfully, an astral form radiates from the teller, unites with the form coming from the fact itself, and both are strengthened. These strengthened forms serve to make our spiritual world more and more structured and full of content, as we need it if humanity is to progress. But if a fact is told in such a way that it does not correspond to the event, that it is a lie, then the thought-form of the person telling it, together with that emanating from the event, collide and are mutually destroyed. Such explosive destructions by lies work like an ulcer on the body, which destroys the organism. Thus lies kill the astral formations that have arisen and must arise, and thus inhibit or kill a part of development. In fact, everyone who speaks the truth advances the development of humanity, and he who lies hinders it. Hence there is an occult law: viewed spiritually, a lie is a murder. It not only kills an astral entity, but it is also a suicide. Everyone who lies puts obstacles in his own way. Everywhere in the spiritual world such effects can be observed. The clairvoyant also sees that everything one thinks, feels and experiences has its effects on the astral plane.
[ 8 ] Everything that a person has in terms of inclinations, temperament, and lasting character traits, and what one thinks not only temporarily, radiates continuously not only into the astral world, but also into the devachanic world. A person with a cheerful temperament is a source, a center for certain processes in the devachanic world. A person with a gloomy nature has the effect of increasing the essences and substances that are associated with people's gloomy nature. Thus spiritual science shows us that we do not stand alone, but that our thoughts continually evoke forms that shade the devachanic world and permeate it with all kinds of substances and essences. All four regions of the devachan world – the continental, the oceanic, the atmospheric and the realm of original ideas – are constantly influenced by human thoughts, feelings and perceptions. The higher regions, where the Akasha Chronicle already plays a role, are influenced by their deeds. What happens externally plays a role even in the highest regions of Devachan, which we have called the world of reason.
[ 9 ] We will thus understand how, during his descent to a new embodiment, the human being reassembles his astral body and integrates himself. Everything he had thought, felt and sensed had become part of the astral world. It had left many traces there. If he had thought many true thoughts, these traces helped to compose his astral body. What he has integrated into the lower Devachan world as his temperament and so on, that composes the new etheric body, and what he has accomplished in terms of deeds, contributes from the highest parts of Devachan, where the Akasha Chronicle can already be found, to the stationing and localization of the physical body. These are the forces that bring a person to a certain place. If you have done someone harm, this is an external fact that goes up into the highest parts of Devachan. It acts as forces that the person has left behind when they are re-integrated into a physical body, and pushes them, albeit under the guidance of higher beings, to the place where they can now experience the effect of their actions in the physical world.
[ 10 ] Everything we experience externally without being particularly affected internally has an effect on our astral body in the next embodiment and draws in corresponding feelings, sensations and thought peculiarities. If one has used one's life well, has seen and learned much, has acquired extensive knowledge, then the result is that in the next life the astral body is reborn with special talents in these directions. Thus, experiences and learnings are expressed in the next embodiment in the astral body. But what one feels, senses, experiences in terms of pleasure and suffering, what is the inner experience of the soul, has an effect on the etheric body in the next embodiment and causes a lasting inclination in it. Those who experience much joy will have an etheric body with a temperament inclined towards joy. Those who endeavor to do many good deeds will, through the feelings that are developed in the process, have developed a talent for good deeds in their next life. They will also have a carefully developed conscience and will be a morally inclined person.
[ 11 ] That of which the etheric body is the carrier in this life, the lasting character, the abilities and so on, that appears in the next life in the physical body, and in such a way that, for example, a person who has developed bad inclinations and passions in his life is born in the next life with an unhealthy physical body. On the other hand, a person who has good health, who is able to endure a lot, has developed good qualities in their previous life. Someone who is constantly prone to illness has cultivated bad instincts in themselves. Thus, we have it in our power to create our own health or illness, insofar as they lie in the predisposition of the physical body. One need only eradicate all bad inclinations and then prepare a good, strong body for the next life.
[ 12 ] With all the details, one can observe how what was present in one's inclinations in one life works in one's physical body in the next life. A life that has the tendency to love everything around it, that lovingly responds to every being, a life that pours out love, will have a physical body in the next embodiment that will look young and blooming for a long time. Love for all beings, the development of sympathy, causes a youthful physical body. A life full of hatred and full of antipathy towards other beings, a life that is critical of everything and wants to withdraw from everything, will, as a result of these tendencies, cause the physical body to age prematurely and develop wrinkles. Thus the tendencies and passions of one's life are transferred to the physical body of the next incarnation.
[ 13 ] One can see into the details, and there one could find how an acquired sense of acquisition, which is instinctive, which always seeks to scratch together, can, by becoming an inclination, produce a disposition to infectious diseases in the physical body in the next life. We can definitely observe such cases where a pronounced tendency towards infectious diseases can be traced back to a strong sense of acquisition in the past, which of course has the etheric body as its carrier. On the other hand, an objective striving within humanity, which wants to achieve nothing for itself, which works for humanity with the pronounced sense of working for the whole, such an inclination in the etheric body brings about a pronounced strength against infectious diseases in the next life.
[ 14 ] In this way one can see through the world to a high degree in its development and into its interior, if one knows the connection between the physical and the astral world. Many people, for example, complain about pain and suffering. But from a higher point of view, they have no right to complain about it, because when they are overcome and one is ready for a next embodiment, then suffering and pain are the sources of wisdom and composure and an overview of things. Even in a more recent writing, which has arisen from the materialistic point of view of the present time, we find the saying that in the physiognomy of every thinker there is something like crystallized pain. What the materialistically thinking writer says has long been known to the occultist, for the greatest wisdom in the world is acquired through the calm endurance of pain and suffering. This creates wisdom in the next incarnation.
[ 15 ] No one who flees the pain of life, who does not want to endure it, can create the basis for wisdom. Yes, if we look further, we cannot even complain about illnesses. When you look at them from a higher perspective, from the point of view of eternity, they look quite different. Diseases that one endures often appear in the next life as a special beauty in the physical, so that much physical beauty found in people is achieved through illness in the previous life. This is the connection between the injury of the body through illness, especially through external circumstances, and beauty. The words of the French writer Fabre d'Olivet can be applied to this very remarkable connection: When you look at human life, it often appears like the formation of a pearl in an oyster. The pearl is only formed when the oyster is sick. — This is also the case in human life: beauty is karmically connected with and is the result of disease. But if I were to say that those who develop bad passions create a disposition for disease, then it must be strictly emphasized that this refers to the inner disposition for disease. If one becomes ill because, for example, one works in a place with polluted air, then that is different; one can also become ill as a result of that, but it is not connected with the disposition of the physical body.
[ 16 ] Everything that is a fact on the physical plane, everything that is done, that lives itself out, that has an effect in the physical world, from the step and the hand movement to the most complicated processes, for example the construction of a house, comes to man in a later embodiment as a real physical effect from outside. You see, we live from the inside out: what lives in the astral body as joy, pain, desire and suffering reappears in the etheric body; what is rooted in the etheric body in lasting instincts and passions appears in the physical body as a disposition. But what one does here, using the physical body, appears as external destiny in the next embodiment. Thus what the astral body does becomes the fate of the etheric body, the etheric body becomes the fate of the physical body, and what the physical body does comes back as an effect from outside in the next embodiment as a physical reality.
[ 17 ] There you have established the exact point at which external fate intervenes in human life. This effect of fate is something that may not occur for a long time, but it must surely come to the person. If one follows a person's life through various incarnations, one can always see that his life is prepared by beings who are active in the incorporation of his physical body, so that he is led to a certain place so that his fate may befall him.
[ 18 ] Here is another example from real life: at a medieval court of the Femgericht, there were a number of judges who pronounced the sentence and carried it out themselves. They killed a person. They went back into the past embodiments of the judges and the person killed, and it turned out that they had all lived at the same time, with the executed man as the chief of a tribe, and he had had those who were now the judges executed. This act in their previous physical life created the connection between the persons; it created forces that have an effect even in the Akashic Records. When a person comes to embodiment again, these forces cause him to be born again at the same time and in the same place as the person with whom he is so closely connected, and bring about his destiny. The Akasha Chronicle is indeed a source of power in which everything that one person has to work off on another is written down. Some people can sense these processes, but very few are aware of them.
[ 19 ] A person is in a job, for example, that seems to make him happy and satisfied. He is driven out of it by something, cannot find another job in the same place, and is thrown miles away, to another country, where he has to embark on a new career. There he finds a person with whom he has to enter into some kind of relationship. What has happened here? The person has once lived with the other person they have now met. They once owed them something. This is recorded in the Akasha Chronicle, and the forces have led them to this place so that they can meet this person and repay their debt.
[ 20 ] Between birth and death, man is constantly surrounded by such a connection of forces, which spiritually envelop him from all sides, and these are the directing powers of his life. So you see that you actually carry the effects of past lives within you all the time, that you are always experiencing the effects of previous embodiments.
[ 21 ] So you must realize that you are guided in your life by powers that you yourself do not know. What affects the etheric body are forms that you yourself have produced earlier on the astral plane, and what affects your destiny are entities, forces on the higher parts of Devachan that you yourself have inscribed in the Akasha Chronicle. These forces or entities are not unknown to the occultist; they are fully placed in the hierarchy of similar entities. You must realize that you feel the effects of other entities in the astral body, the etheric body and the physical body. Everything you do involuntarily, everything you are pushed to do, happens through the agency of other entities. It does not happen out of nothing. The various limbs of human nature are continually really permeated and filled by other entities, and the initiated teacher has a good deal of the exercises done to expel them, so that the person may become freer and freer.
[ 22 ] The beings that permeate the astral body and make it unfree are called demons. You are constantly permeated by such demons in your astral body, and the beings that you yourself create through your true or false thoughts are those that gradually grow into demons. There are good demons that arise from good thoughts. But bad thoughts, especially untrue and lying ones, produce demonic figures of the most terrible and hideous kind, which, if one may express it thus, infest the astral body. Likewise, the etheric body is permeated by entities from which the human being must free himself. These are the spectrums or ghosts. Finally, there are those that permeate the physical body, and these are the phantoms. Besides these three, there are still other entities that drive the ego back and forth. These are the spirits, just as the ego itself is spirit. In fact, man is the creator of such beings, which then, when he comes down to earth, determine his inner and outer destiny. These beings animate the course of life in such a way that you feel everything that your astral body has produced in demons, your ether body in ghosts and your physical body in phantoms. All this has a relationship to you, it strives towards you when you are re-embodied.
[ 23 ] There you see how religious documents express these truths. When the Bible speaks of the expulsion of demons, it is not an abstraction, but is to be understood literally. What did Christ Jesus do? He healed those possessed by demons, he extracted the demons from the astral body. These are real events and it is to be taken quite literally. Socrates, that enlightened spirit, also speaks of his demon, which worked in his astral body. It was a good demon; one must not imagine demons as being only bad entities.
[ 24 ] But there are also terrible, pernicious demons. All lying demons work as if they were throwing people back in their development. Since in world history, when great personalities tell lies, these lying demons are always created, and grow into quite powerful entities, they are spoken of as the spirits of hindrance or obstruction. In this sense, Faust says to Mephistopheles: “Father, thou art of all hindrances!”
[ 25 ] The individual human being, as he is interwoven with all of humanity, has an effect on the whole world when he speaks the truth or lies, because whether he produces demons of truth or demons of lies has very different effects. Imagine a nation consisting entirely of liars. They would populate the astral plane with nothing but lying demons, and these in turn can express themselves in the physical plane in the form of epidemics. Thus there is a certain form of bacillus, as the bearer of infectious diseases, which comes from the lies of humanity. They are nothing other than physically embodied lying demons. So you see that the lies of the past appear in world karma in a certain host of beings. You can see how much truth there is in myths and legends from a passage in Faust. There you will find a connection between vermin and lies, also in the role that rats and mice play in connection with the spirit of lies, Mephisto. In the legends, wonderful connections between the spiritual and physical worlds are often preserved.
[ 26 ] We still have to talk about many other things in order to understand the law of karma. The spiritual science movement has emerged from a certain intimate knowledge of the law of karma. You have just seen how things that lie in the etheric body affect the physical body in the next life. Thus, the attitude, the inclination to think, in a very specific way of thinking, affects the physical body, and so it is not unimportant for a subsequent incarnation whether you are spiritual or materialistic in your attitude. A person who knows something of higher worlds – he only needs to believe in the higher worlds – has in his next life a centered physical body, whose nervous system appears calm, and which he has under control, right down to the nerves. A person, on the other hand, who only wants to accept what is in the world of the senses, passes this attitude on to his physical body and in the next embodiment has one that is prone to nervous disorders, a fidgety physical body that has no firm center of will. The materialist disintegrates into mere details; the spirit holds together, for it is the unity.
[ 27 ] The disposition comes to light in the next incarnation through fate in the individual, but it continues through the generations, so that the sons and grandsons of fathers who were materialistic must suffer from the bad nature of the nervous system and nervous diseases. A nervous age like ours is the result of the materialistic attitude of the last century, and as a counter-current the great teachers of humanity have recognized the necessity of letting the spiritual attitude flow in.
[ 28 ] Materialism has also penetrated into religion. Or are those who believe in the spiritual worlds but lack the will to recognize them not materialists? This is materialism in religion, which wants the mystery of the six-day work — as the great evolution of the world is lived out in the six-day work of the Bible — to unfold before its eyes, and which speaks of Christ Jesus as a “historical personality” and passes by the mystery of Golgotha. Materialism in science is only a consequence of materialism in religion; it would not exist if religious life were not permeated by materialism. Those who are too lazy to delve into religious matters today are the same ones who have created materialism in science. And the nervous breakdowns caused by this materialism are affecting entire tribes, entire peoples, as well as the individual lives of people.
[ 29 ] If the spiritual current does not gain enough power to also take hold of the lazy and the complacent, then the karmic consequence of nervousness will gain more and more influence on humanity, and just as there were epidemics of leprosy in the Middle Ages, so in the future, caused by the materialistic attitude, severe nervous diseases, whole epidemics of madness, will occur, and whole nations will be affected by them.
[ 30 ] Thus, by realizing this area of the Law of Karma, spiritual science should not be something to argue about, but a remedy for humanity. The more humanity becomes spiritual, the more everything associated with nervous system and soul diseases will be eradicated.