The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. Universal Law and Human Destiny — A Christmas Reflection

I. Article in “Deutschland”, Third Section, December 13, 1903

[ 1 ] On Friday evening, in the Erholungssaal, Dr. Rudolf Steiner delivered the third of the six announced theosophical lectures on: “World Law and Human Destiny—A Christmas Reflection.” He explained the following:

[ 2 ] Since time immemorial, human beings have been described as a “world in miniature” (microcosm) in contrast to the “world at large” (macrocosm). This view is arrived at not only by reason but also by emotion, as it rises to the sublime starry sky and to the ideals of the human spirit with equal reverence and enthusiasm. Two things, says Kant, fill the mind with ever-increasing admiration and awe: “the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.” But one might just as well say: How unequal the “great” and the “small world” really are. The starry heavens with their eternally unchanging laws, and the moral and spiritual nature of humankind, which follows its laws only tentatively and uncertainly and strays from them at every moment. In the face of the starry heavens, the greatest admirers are found among the scholars who explore its laws. Kepler literally cried out in admiration when he had uncovered the secrets of the planetary orbits. The human heart, with its fickleness and confusion, on the other hand, arouses the greatest reservations even in those who know it best. Goethe, one of the greatest connoisseurs of human nature, repeatedly and gladly flees from its wanderings to the unwavering regularity of external nature. Goethe himself has shown the way to come to terms with such feelings. For he says: “Let man be noble, helpful, and good.” This is a commandment that no one imposes on nature. A person who strays from the paths of justice and virtue can be reproached, but not the volcano that wreaks unspeakable devastation. One must find oneself in harmony with nature, even when it acts destructively. We know that its laws are immutable. Have they always been so? No; the laws of planetary motion—whose discovery Kepler rejoiced over—were only established by the solar system after a long cosmic struggle. Harmony was born out of the chaotic primordial nebula. That branch of research which is capable of penetrating to the supersensible facts shows that external nature is born of the Spirit, of the World-Thought, just as human actions are born of human thoughts. Here, Theosophy clarifies the difference between human beings and external nature. After all, the human being is not merely the physical entity that can be perceived by the external senses. Within his physical body, he also possesses the soul organism (astral body), and within the latter, the eternal spirit (mental body), in which thoughts, moral feeling, and the voice of conscience have their origin. Between these three components of his being, the struggle that has reached a provisional conclusion in external nature still rages within the human being. This external nature, too, was once a world of thought; it passed through the stage of soul (astral) existence before becoming what it is today before our eyes. But the struggles in this realm are over. In inanimate nature, there are no longer any unfulfilled desires or passions that have their seat in the soul (astral) body. This is not yet the case with human beings. Their development and perfection are meant to lead them to a point where their age-old laws, which lie in the world of thought, find their harmonious expression in external physical existence and in their actions. This lack of harmony is also evident in the relationship between fate and character, or disposition. The good person often suffers, while the wicked are happy; the wicked deed often bears the same fruit in external, sensory existence as the noble deed of the philanthropist. The only way to resolve this apparent injustice in the world is to adopt the perspective of the great law of spiritual causes and effects, which, over the course of many lifetimes of the human spirit, brings about a balance for what can never be understood in a single lifetime. It is not only the theosophists of the present who know that the human spirit incarnates not just once, but many times; deeper minds of all ages have also embraced this view. Giordano Bruno and Lessing need only be cited as examples. In a person’s life, many things seem incomprehensible because their causes lie in previous lives. Someone who is particularly wise possesses the predisposition for this because, in a previous life, they had experiences that led to their wisdom. All the painful experiences we have undergone in past lives—by simply yielding to pleasure and displeasure in our actions—have given rise to the voice of conscience in the present life. - And actions and thoughts that do not bear their corresponding fruits in this present life will do so in subsequent incarnations. This is the great law of karma, of spiritual causes and effects in the human world. For everyone, a time will come when they are incarnated in a form so perfect that their memory will be illuminated with the recollection of all their past incarnations. Then they will recognize karma as the just law of harmonious balance and perfect justice. And they will then be able to shape their lives so that they no longer grope in error, but move within immutable laws, just as the sun, in the course of a year, shows us only regular positions. Therefore, peoples have always taken the (apparent) course of the sun across the sky as a symbol of the great exemplars, of the Sons of God, of the World-Saviors, who already bear within themselves, ahead of time, the divine soul toward which human beings are evolving. The Christians, too, in the fourth century, fixed the birth of their World-Savior on December 25, the time of the winter solstice. Just as this solstice brings back the light, so the Son of God brought spiritual light by showing that human beings are advancing toward perfection and by exemplifying this perfection himself. If we understand the true meaning, we hear the goal of human development resounding in the sounds of Christmas: the future harmony between the laws of the world and the destiny of humankind.

II. Article in the “Weimarische Zeitung”, Second Supplement, December 13, 1903

Weimar, December 12.

[ 3 ] Universal Law and Human Destiny. Dr. Steiner’s lecture yesterday, which was rather sparsely attended, was intended to be a theosophical Christmas reflection. It was explained there that there is apparently an insurmountable contradiction between universal law and human destiny. However, this is not actually the case. Because the spiritual substance—the bearer of the eternal law within human beings—can act only through the medium of the astral body and thus loses much of its power and purity, a disharmony arises in human destiny. In the great order of nature, this conflict appears to have been resolved. While the Kant-Laplace theory of the origin of this solar system from the primordial nebula is correct, this world was preceded by an astral world and a spiritual world. External nature is therefore, as it were, a model for humankind, a call to strive toward the goal of perfection. When asked why, in this life, the good are often unhappy while the wicked are happy, Dr. Steiner replied that people are what they have made themselves in previous lives. The justice of the law of karma rests on its effect across all the lives of the individual. Human wisdom, too, is the result of the experience of countless incarnations, and the only reason there are different kinds of wisdom is that people have had different experiences in the past. This is known, Dr. Steiner explained, by those who are alive today and have acquired the ability to look back on their past lives. Once everyone has reached a certain level, they will be able to look back in the same way, and then their course of development will appear completely harmonious to them. — In the course of his lecture, Dr. Steiner felt compelled to explain that he had been misunderstood in connection with his lecture “The Pilgrimage of the Soul.” This misunderstanding found expression in a critical note in the Weimarische Zeitung. — The intention here is not to provoke a polemic with Dr. Steiner, yet even today the speaker cannot escape the accusation that, in his lecture yesterday, he once again presented Theosophy as possessing the universally valid truth. When, as a precaution, he consistently used expressions such as “We (theosophy) know,” or “theosophy knows,” or “those who have become sufficiently wise know this,” he was merely stating that the rest of humanity is simply not yet as wise as the small group of theosophists. But since, according to Dr. Steiner’s statement, what he proclaims is indeed the truth for those trained in Theosophy, it is not clear why the critical note in question in the Weimarische Zeitung should be based on a misunderstanding. Every founder of a religion, every sect leader, every architect of a philosophical system has believed himself to be in possession of the universally valid truth; and it was not only speculative minds who believed this, but every human being, no matter how undeveloped, every animal, and every phenomenon of nature believes it. Except that in such cases, the truth goes by the name of “justice.” From the fact that, as Schopenhauer says, every phenomenon sensed the whole of nature behind it, arose the bellum omnium contra omnes. If, then, the one and only truth is to be found once again, it is surely justified to place an ironic question mark after this announcement!