The Rudolf Steiner Archive

1. Complex Questions About Reincarnation

How Can What the Initiates Have Achieved Be Preserved for the Future?

[ 1 ] We will discuss some intimate questions regarding reincarnation that can only be addressed within a branch of prepared anthroposophists. This does not merely mean that such anthroposophists should be theoretically prepared, but that they have developed their capacity for perception through their participation in a branch. For we all remember that through this collaboration, changes have taken place in our perceptions and feelings regarding the truth. What we today not only believe but regard as [true]—as standing above all belief—was once unbelievable even to us and is still, to those uninitiated, fantastical, nonsense, or a daydream. The fact that one has grown accustomed to truly living according to these views is the sign of having advanced, and such a person can then approach the consideration of specific questions. Much of what is said here may seem remote; and yet all these things shed light on life and its manifestations, even though we must first go far back to distant periods of human development. We must begin by placing ourselves in a position to contemplate how the process of reincarnation generally unfolds.

[ 2 ] When a person passes through the gate of death, they initially have certain experiences. The first experience is the feeling that they are growing larger, as if they were outgrowing their own skin. They then gain a different perspective on things than they had before in physical life. In the physical world, every thing has its specific place, here or there, outside the observer. In this new world, however, it is different. There, it is as if the person were inside [the things], as if they were expanded with or within the things, whereas before they were merely a single part in their place. The second experience consists in the person having a tableau of memories from their past life, in which all the events of their life appear in a comprehensive recollection. This lasts for a very specific period of time. For reasons that cannot be explained today, this period is longer or shorter depending on the individual. In general, the duration of this state can be determined by how long the person was able to remain awake in their past life without being overcome by sleep. Suppose the maximum limit for remaining awake was forty-eight hours; then, even after their “death,” the tableau of memories lasts forty-eight hours. Thus, this stage is like a review of one’s past life.

[ 3 ] Then the etheric body emerges from the astral body, in which the “I” lives. Until now, all three had been connected after the physical body had been left behind; now the etheric body also steps out and becomes the etheric corpse. However, no person today completely sheds the etheric body; rather, the person takes with them an extract or essence from their etheric body for the entire time that follows. So the etheric corpse is shed, but the fruit of the last life is carried along by the astral body and the “I.” To be entirely precise, one must say that something is also taken from the physical body: a kind of spiritual extract of this body—the “tincture” of the medieval mystics. But this extract from the physical body is the same in every life; it merely represents the fact that the “I” was incarnated. The essence of the etheric body, on the other hand, differs in every life, depending on the experiences gathered within it and on the extent to which one has progressed.

[ 4 ] This is followed by the Kamaloka state, the period of weaning away from physical, sensual life, which lasts about one-third of one’s physical lifetime. Once the etheric body has been shed, the astral body still retains all the passions, desires, and so on that it had at the end of life; these must now be overcome and purified, and that is Kamaloka. Then the astral body is also shed. Here, too, the fruit—the astral essence—is taken along, while the remainder, the astral corpse, dissolves into the astral world. And now the person enters Devachan, where they prepare in the spiritual world for a new, future life. Here they live amidst spiritual events and beings until they are called back into the physical world, whether because their karma so dictates or because they are needed on the physical Earth.

[ 5 ] This is a general description of the process. But life in the spiritual realm is constantly moving forward, as the future becomes linked to the past, and what is to come is built upon what has gone before. When one examines how this occurs in detail, wondrous things are revealed—much that is not contained in the simple description of the process of reincarnation. It is clear, after all, that there are great differences in the course of human development, and that the essences or extracts of their bodies will also be of very different value, depending on whether they have drawn this or that fruit from life. And when we recall that there are great guides of humanity—initiates—who lead other people into the spiritual worlds, we must ask ourselves: How is what the initiates have attained preserved for the future?—External history, of course, can provide no answer to this. We must take a closer look at the reincarnation of the initiates—beginning with the oldest initiates—in order to then apply the findings.

[ 6 ] Before humanity inhabited the present-day continents, the Earth’s landscape was entirely different. Where the Atlantic Ocean lies today, there once existed the continent of Atlantis. It was subsequently destroyed by great catastrophes, which are recounted in the flood myths of various peoples. The Atlanteans—that is, we ourselves—had their great leaders and initiates, and even at that time there were places of learning or schools where the initiates taught. These can be explored clairvoyantly today. We then see that there were a number of such sites where the leaders taught and lived. A fitting name for them is “oracles.” One of the largest and most important oracles was the Sun Oracle. The most significant leader lived there. His main task was to impart revelations about the mysteries of the Sun—not the physical Sun—for that is only the outer aspect—but the true Sun. This true Sun consists of spiritual beings who make use of the physical Sun, just as human beings make use of the Earth. To perceive and reveal the inner mysteries of this solar existence—that was the task of the great Solar Oracle. For this Oracle, sunlight was not merely something physical; rather, every ray of sunlight is the work of the spiritual beings who have their domain on the Sun. At the time of ancient Atlantis, these great beings were still exclusively on the Sun. This changed later when the great Being who was later called Christ united with the Earth. One can therefore also call the Solar Oracle the Christ Oracle. The union of the Christ Being with the Earth took place when the blood of Christ Jesus flowed on Golgotha. There his Being united with the Earth’s atmosphere, as can still be perceived today through clairvoyant retrospection. Thus the Christ Being came from the Sun to Earth. When the light of spiritual enlightenment fell upon Saul-Paul near Damascus, Paul saw the Christ united with the Earth and knew at the same time that it was He who had shed His blood on Golgotha.

[ 7 ] The Sun Oracle of ancient Atlantis already pointed to the coming Christ. It prophesied the coming of the Sun God, who—though he was not referred to as Christ until much later—can nevertheless be described as the Christ Oracle. These oracles had many successors in later times; there were Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Vulcan oracles, each with its own great mysteries and teachings. Toward the end of the Atlantean era, a group of advanced individuals developed near what is now Ireland; from their midst, the greatest leader selected a number of people to carry on the culture through them when the impending catastrophe struck. Meanwhile, great migrations had already taken place long ago to the rising lands of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in these regions many successors to the ancient oracles arose, though their significance steadily waned. The great leader, however, selected the best among them to lead them to a special land. They were simple, unassuming people and differed from most other Atlanteans in that they had almost completely lost their clairvoyance. The majority of Atlanteans, after all, were still clairvoyant. When they fell asleep at night, they did not lose consciousness; rather, the sensory world vanished, and in its place arose the spiritual world, in which they then became companions of the divine-spiritual beings. The more advanced among them, however, had begun to develop their intellect. Yet they were simple, deeply warm-hearted, and deeply devoted to their leader. With them, he journeyed eastward, into the heart of Asia, and there founded the center for post-Atlantean culture. There, the group was kept separate from the other living beings who were unsuited for this task. The education of the descendants was carried out with particular care. It was only among these descendants that the qualities developed which enabled them to become great teachers. This was achieved in a mysterious way. The necessary preparations were made to preserve all that was good in Atlantean culture and carry it over into the new race, in order to usher in a new, progressive culture. That was the task of the Manu, the great leader; for the sages who lived at the lesser oracles could not do this. What we call the etheric body had been preserved by the Manu from the great oracle sages. While this etheric body otherwise, as we have seen, dissolves as a second corpse, it was preserved in certain cases. The greatest of these oracle sages had worked so much into their etheric bodies that they were too valuable to be absorbed into the general etheric world. Therefore, the seven finest etheric bodies of the seven greatest sages were preserved until the Manu had trained the seven best from his group to such an extent that they were suitable for these etheric bodies. Only the etheric body of the great initiate of the Christ Oracle was treated somewhat differently from the others in a certain respect. These seven sages, then—the seven great Rishis who had received the seven etheric bodies of the greatest initiates—went to India and became the great founders of Indian culture, the seven great teachers.

[ 8 ] This ancient, sacred culture of the pre-Vedic era originated with the seven Rishis, who bore the preserved etheric bodies of the oracle initiates of the Venus, Mars, and Jupiter oracles, and so on. Within them, so to speak, was an imprint of those initiates—a reflection of their abilities. Outwardly, they were quite plain and simple. Their great significance was not apparent from the outside. Nor did their intellect rise to the immense heights of their prophecies. They were not scholars; their powers of judgment were not as highly developed as those of some others—in fact, they were even less developed than those of many people today. Their astral body and “I” were, of course, their own; only the etheric body had been given to them by those great sages. But in moments of inspiration, they were, as it were, seized by these oracular beings; the etheric body was then active, and they were merely instruments through which that ancient wisdom—the Vedas—was proclaimed, a wisdom that is far too difficult, indeed incomprehensible, for people today. Thus was the ancient wisdom of the ancient oracles revealed. Only the Solar or Christ Oracle could not be fully revealed in this way. Only a glimmer of the wisdom of the Sun could be handed down, for it was so exalted that even the holy Rishis could not attain it.

[ 9 ] Here we see that reincarnation does not always and generally proceed as smoothly as is often assumed; rather, when an etheric body is particularly valuable, something like a model—to put it figuratively—is preserved and then given to a later human being. And this is not all that rare. Many an ordinary person can have a very valuable etheric body, and this is set aside. Not all etheric bodies simply dissolve again; rather, those that are particularly useful are transferred to other people. And it is by no means the same “I” that receives this preserved etheric or astral body again, but rather a different ego that has absolutely nothing to do with the “I” that previously possessed the etheric body. This easily gives rise to great delusions when a person’s past is investigated using imperfect clairvoyant methods. Consequently, occult theories about people’s past lives are often completely wrong—just as it would be completely wrong to say that the seven Rishis are the same “I”s as the initiates whose etheric bodies they possess.

[ 10 ] Much in human evolution, however, only becomes clear once one knows such things; only then can it be explained how what has once been achieved is preserved and maintained within the order of nature. Thus, the highest achievements of Atlantean culture were preserved for us through the transmission of these seven etheric bodies.

[ 11 ] Let us cite another example here, one that could not be discussed earlier. Let us go back to the ancient Persian era, the period of the Zarathustrian culture. We see this as an important period because it is the first post-Atlantean era in which the physical world was increasingly conquered. In the Indian era, the longing for the spiritual still predominates. For those people, the spiritual world was the real one; they felt like strangers in the physical world, where the earthly is temporary, illusory—Maya. In prehistoric Persian culture, this changed through the teachings of Zarathustra—that is, the actual or first Zarathustra, for there were many of them. His task as a leader was to direct people toward the physical plane, to make inventions, and to manufacture instruments and devices in order to master this physical world. This was necessary. After all, human beings had to come to know the physical as something important to them. But the seducer tells them that the physical is the only reality, that only the earthly exists. And so Zarathustra teaches that this is false, that behind all the physical there is the spiritual, just as the physical sun is the outward sign of the great solar being, the spiritual-divine, the great aura, Ahura Mazda, Ormuzd. This being is now physically invisible and now far from Earth, on the sun. But, says Zarathustra, one day it will become manifest; later on, it will also appear on Earth, just as it is now on the sun.

[ 12 ] He initiated his closest disciples into these mysteries, and to two of them in particular he imparted the most profound teachings. He trained one of them especially in all matters pertaining to judgment, in the sciences, astronomy, and astrology, as well as in agriculture and other fields. He imparted all of this to this one disciple; this was made possible by a procedure or process between them that remains a mystery. Through this, the disciple was prepared so that in his next incarnation he could bear the teacher’s astral body. This reincarnated disciple, bearing his teacher’s astral body, is Hermes. Hermes was the great teacher and sage of the Egyptian mysteries. Hermes is born with Zarathustra’s astral body; through this, he becomes the bearer of great wisdom.

[ 13 ] The second inner disciple was instructed in those things that are particularly manifested in the etheric body—that is, deeper qualities. In his subsequent incarnation, this disciple received the etheric body of Zarathustra. The religious texts recount events concerning this that can only be understood through these explanations. Upon his rebirth, the disciple had to come to life in a very special way; the etheric body had to be strong before the astral body came to life. This was achieved through what was connected with the birth of Moses—for he is the reborn disciple. The fact that he was placed in a basket and set adrift on the water, and so on, served the purpose of fully awakening the etheric body as a child. This enabled Moses to look back in his memory to times long past, to record the Genesis of the Earth in images, and to read the Akashic Records. Thus one sees, as it were, these forces at work behind the scenes, through which everything of value is preserved and utilized.

[ 14 ] There are also other examples from later periods. For instance, a remarkable figure lived in the 15th century: Nicholas of Cusa (Cusanus). Here we see the remarkable case that, in his research, this man essentially laid the groundwork for the entire doctrine of Copernicus in the 16th century. Although it is not yet as fully developed in his books as it was in Copernicus’s, it is nonetheless contained therein in all essential respects—a fact that is entirely inexplicable to conventional scholarship. In fact, Cusanus’s astral body was transferred to Copernicus, even though Copernicus’s “I” was entirely different from that of Cusanus. This provided Copernicus with the foundations and all the groundwork for his teachings.

[ 15 ] Similar cases occur frequently. What is particularly valuable is always preserved; nothing is lost. But this naturally leads to frequent mix-ups, especially when a person’s past lives are to be investigated through spiritualist mediums. The transfer from the etheric or astral body to later human beings usually takes place in such a way that, when an astral body is transferred, it remains—in terms of language—within the same people; an etheric body, however, can go to a different people.

[ 16 ] Another characteristic case is the following. When a pioneering figure dies, the etheric body is always preserved. There are artificial methods for this that have always been known in the secret schools. Thus, for certain purposes in modern times, it was important that Galileo’s etheric body be preserved. He was the great reformer of mechanical physics; he accomplished tremendous feats. Indeed, one can say that without his discoveries, many purely practical achievements of the modern era would not have been possible at all, for all technological advances are based on Galileo’s science. Tunnels such as the Gotthard or Simplon became possible only because Leibniz, Newton, and Galileo developed the sciences of integral and differential calculus, mechanics, and so on. It would therefore have been a waste in the economy of nature, even with regard to Galileo, if his etheric body—the “bearer of his memory and his abilities”—had been lost. Thus, this etheric body was transferred to another human being. He emerged from a poor farming village and later became the creator of Russian grammar and classical literature: Mikhail Lomonosov. But he is not the reincarnated Galileo, as a superficial investigation might perhaps conclude.

[ 17 ] We thus find that such cases are common, and that the process of reincarnation is not as simple as is generally assumed. Therefore, much greater caution must be exercised when people use occult means to investigate their past incarnations. In many cases, it is nothing more than child’s play when people claim or imagine that they are the reincarnation of so-and-so—perhaps Nero, Napoleon, Beethoven, or Goethe. This is, of course, silly and reprehensible. But the matter is far more dangerous when advanced occultists make mistakes in this regard—perhaps imagining that they are the reincarnation of this or that person, when in reality they possess only that person’s etheric body. Then this is not merely an error—which is regrettable in and of itself—but the person lives under the influence of this false idea, and this has downright devastating effects. The entire development of the soul takes a wrong turn because of this illusion.

[ 18 ] We see, then, that not only do the “I”s reincarnate, but that the lower members, in a certain sense, also undergo a similar process. As a result, the overall process of reincarnation takes on a much more complex form than is usually assumed. Thus, we see that the “I” of Zarathustra reincarnates as Zarathas-Nazarathos, who became the teacher of Pythagoras. His astral body reappears in Hermes, and his etheric body in Moses. Nothing, then, is lost in the world; everything is preserved and transmitted, provided it is valuable enough.