The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Popular Occultism VIII

[ 1 ] Today we will continue our reflections on the effects of the law of karma. Let us review what has been said: The actions of a past life are expressed in this life as external life circumstances. The inclinations, the temperamental disposition, and so on from the past life are transformed into the physical and health-related constitution in this life. Yet another connection becomes apparent when we consider a person’s imaginative life. This imaginative life is the activity of our astral body. The nature of this imaginative life influences the etheric body in the next life—that is, the person’s enduring moral disposition. Let us consider the disposition of Schopenhauer, who was a pessimist. Viewing life pessimistically or optimistically is a characteristic of the etheric body, and in the case of pessimism, this attitude is caused by the fact that such a person had unsatisfactory or unhappy experiences in their previous life. (See Appendix.) If someone makes many disparaging judgments about their fellow human beings—if they are, in short, a critic—this tendency from one life will be expressed in the next life through a certain condition of the physical body, namely, that the person in question will age prematurely and generally display little youthfulness. This is, in general, a good prerequisite for the next life: to approach all people not with repulsion, but with love.

[ 2 ] How, then, does heredity align with the reality of reincarnation and karma? Some will seek to refute reincarnation by pointing out, for example, that there are families in which members across several generations are musicians, and they will attribute everything to heredity. A witty theosophist once remarked: “It is not true that children resemble their parents; rather, parents resemble their children.”—Let us examine what this statement means. (See Appendix.)

[ 3 ] At the beginning of human development, a person has an astral body on which the “I” has not yet worked at all. Over the course of incarnations, the “I” begins to work into the astral body. This makes the astral body more perfect. The ability to distinguish between truth and error is an achievement of later incarnations. Everything in life must first be learned through experience. Correct judgment develops only through error. Even mathematical truths arise from the fact that the opposite is false. Human beings continually work on their astral bodies from the perspective of their “I.” For the clairvoyant, there is a great difference between observing the astral body of a developed human being and that of an undeveloped one. As a result of this transformation of the astral body, there is a part in every human soul that is still filled with lower instincts and passions, and a part that has been spiritually transformed by the “I.” Francis of Assisi, for example, had completely transformed and reworked his astral body. The occultist refers to that part of the astral body that has been transformed by the “I” using the Eastern term “Manas.”

[ 4 ] It is much more difficult to work on the etheric body than on the astral body, because the etheric body is much harder to penetrate. This impenetrability is partly the work of the human being himself, insofar as it stems from past deeds, but it is also partly the work of other, higher beings who were active in the formation of the etheric body. The more a person works into the etheric body, the more he becomes what is called a religious and wise person.

[ 5 ] An occultist must be familiar with the method not only of working through the astral body, but also of working into the etheric body. The secret student consciously reshapes the etheric body so that he acquires the ability to exert a harmonizing influence on the forces of the etheric body. In the case of the initiated, this influence on the etheric body manifests itself in such a way that, during certain phases of his life, he can draw upon powers he would not otherwise possess. Budhi is the name given to what arises in this way through the “I” working into the etheric body, and a person who has reached this stage is called a chela. At a certain point, the chela becomes aware of his previous earthly lives. (See Appendix.)

[ 6 ] Finally, at a very high stage of development, a person also gains control over his physical body. Such an initiate is called a Master. To the extent that a person gains control over his physical body, to that extent is the Atma present within it. This mystery of working into the physical body and the resulting radiance of the Atma cannot be discussed here.

[ 7 ] In modern human beings, the ego has little influence on the physical body, somewhat more on the etheric body—though still very little—and the greatest influence on the astral body. Everything that the human “I” has not yet worked through in the previous life continues to exert an influence through the process of ordinary heredity and confronts the individual in the new life as karma: in the case of people of our time, therefore, a smaller or larger portion comes from the astral body, the majority from the etheric body, and usually everything from the physical body. If one were to investigate, one would find the following in the case of an initiate or a master: When he is born, he bears only an outward resemblance to the family; rather, his entire appearance resembles that of his previous incarnation, because he was already able to work into the physical body. Heredity is strongest where no distinct individualities incarnate. Where personalities are strongly differentiated and pronounced, few similarities are found. Let us assume a human core being with certain abilities that incarnated centuries ago and is now seeking a new embodiment. By virtue of its qualities, it must be drawn to parents whose physical characteristics best correspond to its capacities. It chooses the family that, through its physical constitution and nature, can provide the most suitable physical body—the one it currently needs to fully express its abilities. A great musical spirit needs a line of ancestors that can provide a body in which it can best find an instrument for its artistic expression. This is the meaning of the seemingly paradoxical statement: “Parents resemble their children.”

[ 8 ] This raises the question: Does the human being in Kamaloka and Devachan have nothing else to do but work on himself? On the contrary, he also works on the rest of the world. The fact that the human being repeatedly proceeds to new incarnations is not meaningless or purposeless, for each time the Earth has changed significantly. Only when there is something new to learn does a person return to Earth. What takes place on the physical plane has its origin in the spiritual worlds. Who created the city of Leipzig with its culture, its houses, streets, and so on? The human spirit did. Who brought about the changes in the flora of Central Europe over the last thousand years? These changes originated with spiritual beings. The material world is simply the outward expression of purely spiritual processes. Threads extend down to us from the Devachan plane. The plant world does not develop on its own; it is guided from Devachan by Devachanic beings. And the animal kingdom? Just as the stones of houses do not arrange themselves, the animal world does not change on its own. Everything that changes within the animal kingdom is brought about from the astral plane, at least as far as warm-blooded animals are concerned. Natural science attributes the changes in the animal kingdom to adaptation to external living conditions. But using the term “adaptation” in this context is a stopgap, for what is actually at work here are spiritual beings. Conventional science can never discover the true causes of these changes; only spiritual science can do so. There are beings involved in the transformation of the plant and animal kingdoms on our Earth. Human beings, too, contribute to this work while they are in Kamaloka and Devachan. Nothing happens through “miracles”; everything is governed by lawful processes. Just as the human spirit on the physical plane has gradually shaped the world from small tents and huts to communities and nations, so too does it help shape the fauna and flora that surround us in Devachan. We have prepared for ourselves the nest into which we are born. In Kamaloka, however, human beings work on the various animal species.

[ 9 ] Before a person incarnates, he has a preview of his coming earthly life. If this life is difficult, the person may experience a severe shock and, under certain circumstances, become mentally impaired because their etheric body resists entering the physical body, causing its center of power to shift outside the brain.