The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Second Lecture

[ 1 ] Before we get to our actual questions about human karma, as announced, a number of preliminary considerations are necessary. These include what was said yesterday: a sort of description of the concept of karma. They also include what will be said today about karma and the animal kingdom. What might be called external evidence for the reality of karmic laws—you will find this throughout the course of this series in those places where there is a particular reason to draw special attention to this external evidence. On these occasions, you will also have the opportunity to discuss the rationale behind the concept of karma with outsiders who, as skeptics of the entire idea of karma, will question you about this or that. However, some preliminary considerations are necessary for all of this.

[ 2 ] What could be more natural than to ask: How do animal life and animal destiny relate to what we call the course of human karma, in which—as will become apparent—we find the most important and profound questions of destiny for human beings already determined?

[ 3 ] The relationship between humans on Earth and the animal kingdom has, of course, varied over time and among different peoples. And it is certainly interesting to observe how, among peoples who have preserved the best aspects of humanity’s ancient sacred wisdom, a largely compassionate and loving treatment of animals has taken root. Within the Buddhist world, for example, which has preserved important aspects of ancient worldviews—such as those held by people in prehistoric times—we find a profoundly compassionate treatment of animals, an approach to animals and feelings toward the animal kingdom that countless people in Europe still cannot comprehend. But even among other peoples—I need only mention the Arabs with regard to their treatment of their horses—especially when these peoples have preserved something of the ancient worldviews, as they appear here and there as ancient legacies, you will find a kind of “friendship” toward animals, something akin to treating them as fellow human beings. In contrast, it can certainly be said that in those regions where a certain kind of worldview of the future is taking shape—in the Western regions—little understanding for such compassion toward the animal world has taken root. And it is characteristic that, in the course of the Middle Ages and continuing into our own time, precisely in countries where the Christian worldview has gained ground, the view emerged that animals are not to be regarded at all as beings with an actual inner life, but rather as a kind of automaton. And it has perhaps not been without reason that attention has been drawn—albeit not always with great understanding—to the fact that these views, which have been widely espoused by Western philosophy—namely, that animals are automatons and do not possess a true inner life—have trickled down into the masses, who show no compassion and often know no bounds in their cruel treatment of animals. Indeed, the matter has gone so far that a great philosopher of modern times, Descartes, could have been quite thoroughly misunderstood in his thoughts on the animal world.

[ 4 ] We must, of course, be clear that none of the truly significant thinkers in the development of Western culture ever held the view that animals are merely automatons. Nor did Descartes hold this view, although you can read in many books on philosophy that he did. But that is not true; rather, anyone familiar with Descartes knows that, while he does not attribute to animals a soul capable of developing to the point of deriving proof of God’s existence from self-consciousness, he nevertheless attributes to animals the so-called Life-Spirits that permeate and animate them; these do not, admittedly, constitute a unified individuality like the human “I,” but they do function as a soul within the animal organism. And it is precisely characteristic that Descartes has been thoroughly misunderstood in this regard. For this shows us that, over the past centuries of our Western development, there has been a tendency to attribute to animals something merely automatic, and this tendency has been read into his work even where it could not have been, had one proceeded conscientiously—namely, in Descartes. Western cultural development has the peculiarity that it had to emerge from the elements of materialism. And one might even say: The rise of Christianity took place in such a way that this significant impulse in human development was first transplanted into a materialistic Western mindset. Modern-day materialism is merely a consequence of the fact that even the most spiritual religious creed, Christianity, was initially able to find a materialistic interpretation in the West. It is, if we may put it this way, the destiny of the Western peoples that they must work their way up from materialistic foundations and, precisely in overcoming materialistic views and tendencies, must unfold the powerful forces leading to the highest form of spiritualism. Because this destiny, this karma, has become the lot of the Western peoples, a tendency has also arisen among them to regard animals merely as automatons. Anyone who cannot clearly perceive the workings of spiritual life, anyone who can rely only on what surrounds us in the sensory external world, will easily arrive—based on impressions from this sensory external world—at a view of the animal world that places animals as low as possible. In contrast, those worldviews that have retained elements of the ancient spiritual worldviews of humanity’s primordial wisdom have preserved a kind of insight into what is spiritual even in the animal world; and despite all misunderstandings, despite everything that has crept into their worldviews and corrupted their purity, they have nevertheless been unable to forget that spiritual activities and spiritual laws are at work in the living out and shaping of the animal realm.

[ 5 ] So while, on the one hand, we must recognize that a lack of spiritual worldviews leads to a failure to understand the animal-soul aspect, on the other hand, we must not delude ourselves into thinking that this, too, would merely be an outgrowth of a purely materialistic worldview if we were to apply the concept of karma—as it serves us in understanding human destiny and human karma—without further ado to the animal world. We must not do that. It was already pointed out yesterday that it is necessary to define the concept of karma very precisely. And we would be mistaken if we were to seek in the animal world what we have described as the return of the effect to the being from which the cause originated; for we will only be able to understand the karmic law in a more comprehensive sense by going beyond the individual human life between birth and death, by tracing the human being through the succession of his reincarnations, and by discovering that the repercussions of a cause we have set in motion in one life can only occur in a later life, so that the law of karma extends from life to life, and the effects of causes do not necessarily have to occur—indeed, when we consider karma on a grand scale, they most certainly do not occur in the same life between birth and death.

[ 6 ] We already know from external observations of Spiritual Science that we cannot speak of a reincarnation in animals of the kind that occurs in human beings. For that human individuality which persists when a human being passes through the gate of death—which lives a distinct life in the spiritual realm during the period from death to rebirth, only to re-enter existence through a new birth—we find nothing at all similar, or even exactly the same, in the animal world. We cannot speak of animal death in the same way that we conceive of human death. For everything we describe as the destinies of human individuality after a human being has passed through the gate of death does not occur in the same way in the animal world; and if one were to believe that we could seek in an animal individual the reincarnated being of an animal that had previously existed on Earth—as we must do in the case of humans—then we would certainly be succumbing to an error. Today, when people tend to view everything that presents itself to us in the world solely from the outside and do not delve into the inner reality, the true great contrasts—the most important distinctions between humans and animals—cannot even come into view. Outwardly—from a purely materialistic perspective—the phenomenon of death appears the same in humans and animals. When observing the life of an animal, one might easily believe that individual aspects of that animal’s individual life could be compared to individual aspects of a human’s personal life between birth and death. But that would be a complete mistake. Therefore, the fundamental differences between the animal and the human realms will first be indicated through specific examples.

[ 7 ] For only those who approach with an open mind not only the facts that present themselves to their external sensory perception but also those that arise from their combinatory thinking can fully grasp this difference between animals and humans. Here we find a phenomenon that is also emphasized by natural scientists, but one that contemporary natural scientists do not really know how to make sense of—namely, the fact that humans must actually learn the simplest things first: throughout history, humans have had to learn how to use the simplest tools, and even today our children still have to learn the simplest of things, and they must spend a certain amount of time learning them. It takes effort to teach a person simple manual skills, the making of instruments and tools, and so on. When we consider animals, on the other hand, we must say: How much better off animals are in this regard! — Let’s consider how the beaver constructs its complex, artful dam. It doesn’t need to learn how to do it; it can do it because it is born with this innate ability, just as we humans are born with the ability—the “art”—to lose our baby teeth around the age of seven. No one needs to learn that either. Thus, animals are born with an innate ability, such as the beaver’s ability to construct its dam. And if you look around the animal kingdom, you will find that animals possess very specific skills through which they can accomplish things that human skill—despite all the wonderful progress we have made—is still far from matching.

[ 8 ] Now the question may arise: How is it, in fact, that when a human being is born, he is less capable than, for example, a chicken or a beaver, and that he must first laboriously acquire what these creatures are already born with? That is a major question. And above all, one must learn to sense that it is a major question. For what a person must gain for their worldview depends far less on pointing out important facts than on knowing where to ask the important questions. Facts may be correct, but they are not always valuable for our worldview. Now, although we will address the causes of these phenomena from a perspective of Spiritual Science today, it would take us too far afield to show in every detail why this is so. But for now, we can at least point this out in a few words.

[ 9 ] If we trace human evolution back through Spiritual Science to the most distant past, we will find that the forces and elements which, so to speak, are available to the beaver or another animal to bring such skills into the world were also available to human beings. After all, human beings did not merely inherit clumsiness in their constitution from the distant past, leaving primitive dexterity to the animals. They also received this capacity—indeed, to a far greater extent than the animals. For even though animals are born with certain remarkable skills, these are one-sided in their lives. Humans, in essence, can do nothing at all when they enter life; they must first learn everything pertaining to the external world. That is a somewhat radical way of putting it, but we understand each other. However, once humans begin to learn, it soon becomes apparent that they are more versatile—that their development can be richer in terms of the expression of certain skills and the like than is the case with animals. So humans were originally endowed with rich potential—and yet they do not possess it today. Now the peculiar phenomenon comes to light that, originally, humans and animals were endowed in the same way. And if we were to go back to the ancient Saturn evolution, we would find that a distinction between human and animal evolution had not yet taken place at all. There, both were endowed with exactly the same aptitudes. — What, then, has happened in the meantime that the animal carries all manner of skills into existence, while human beings are such clumsy participants in worldly existence? How has humanity actually behaved in the meantime that it now suddenly lacks all that it had originally been endowed with? Has humanity senselessly squandered these gifts in the course of evolution, while animals, as thrifty stewards, have preserved them? This question can be raised on the basis of the actual facts.

[ 10 ] Human beings have not wasted these innate abilities, which animals today express through external dexterity; they have also made use of them, but for purposes other than those of the animals. Animals express these abilities through external dexterity; beavers and wasps build their nests. Human beings have directed the same forces—which animals express in this way—inward toward themselves and put them to use. And through this, they have brought about what we call their higher human organization. The fact that human beings today walk upright, that they have a more perfect brain—indeed, a more perfect internal organization—also required certain forces; and these are the very same forces with which the beaver builds its lodge. The beaver builds its own nest. Human beings have directed these forces inward—toward their brain, their nervous system, and so on. Consequently, human beings initially had nothing left to work outwardly in the same way. So the fact that we walk among the animals today with a more perfect constitution stems from the fact that, at some point in the course of evolution, we applied everything the beaver processes outwardly to our inner constitution. We have our beaver dam inside us and can therefore no longer unfold these forces outward in the same way. Thus, if we hold fast to a unified worldview, we can see where the various faculties present in beings lead and how they manifest themselves to us today. Because human beings have used these forces in their own way, a very special arrangement became necessary for them in their earthly evolution—one that we are already partly familiar with.

[ 11 ] Why did the forces just mentioned—which we observe manifesting in external activities among the various species and genera of the animal kingdom—have to be directed toward the inner workings of the human organism? Because only by acquiring this inner organization could human beings become the bearers of what today is the “I”—that which passes from incarnation to incarnation. A different kind of organization could not have become such a bearer of the “I”; for it depends entirely on the outer vessel whether an “I”-individuality can be active in earthly existence or not. It could not do so if the outer organization were not suited to the “I”-individuality. Everything therefore came down to making the outer organization suitable for this “I”-individuality. To this end, a special structure had to be created, and we already know its essential nature.

[ 12 ] We know that the development of the Earth was preceded by the development of the Moon, which in turn was preceded by the development of the Sun, and that was preceded by a Saturn development. When the ancient lunar development came to an end, humanity was at a stage in terms of its outer existence that can be described as “animal humanity.” But at that time, this outer human organization was not yet advanced enough to become the bearer of an “I”-individuality. It was the Earth evolution of humankind that had the task of incorporating the “I” into this organization. However, this could only happen because the processes of our Earth evolution were structured in a very peculiar way. — When the ancient lunar evolution had come to an end, everything dissolved, so to speak, into chaos. From this, after a corresponding period of cosmic twilight, the new cosmos of our Earth’s evolution emerged once more. At that time, this cosmos of Earth’s evolution contained everything that is today connected to us and the Earth as our solar system. It was only from this context, from this cosmic unity, that all the other celestial bodies split off from our actual Earth. We need not go into detail about the manner in which the other planets—Jupiter, Mars, and so on—split off. We need only point out that at a certain point in Earth’s evolution, our Earth and our Sun separated. Even after the Sun had already separated and was sending its influences onto Earth from the outside, our Earth was still connected to what is now the Moon, so that the substances and spiritual forces that are now bound to the Moon were, at that time, still connected to our Earth.

[ 13 ] The question has often been raised as to what would have happened if the Sun had not separated from the Earth and had not transitioned to that state in which it now acts upon the Earth from the outside. Since the Earth was initially still connected to the Sun, under those very different conditions, the entire cosmic system—and also the ancestors of the human organism—were united with one another. It is, of course, absurd to look at today’s conditions and then say: “What kind of nonsense is this from the Theosophists? All those organized beings would have had to burn up!” — These beings were precisely such that, under the conditions of that time, they could exist within this entirely different kind of cosmic unity. — If the Sun had remained connected to the Earth, then entirely different, much more intense forces would have remained linked to the Earth, and the result would have been that the Earth’s entire evolution would have progressed with such intensity and speed that it would not have been possible for human organization to unfold as it needed to. Therefore, it was necessary for the Earth to be provided with a slower pace and denser forces. This could only happen by the stormy, vehement forces withdrawing from the Earth. Thus, the forces of the Sun became weaker, above all because they now acted upon the Earth from the outside, at a distance. But this brought about something else. The Earth was now in a state where human beings, once again, would not have been able to progress in the proper way. Conditions were now too dense, too rigid and withering for all life. Humanity would once again have been unable to achieve its development had things remained that way. This was remedied by a special arrangement: namely, some time after the Sun’s departure, the Moon as we know it today left the Earth, taking with it the slowing forces that would have led life to a slow death. Thus, the Earth remained between the Sun and the Moon, adopting precisely the right pace for the human organism to truly accommodate an “I” as the bearer of individuality that passes from incarnation to incarnation. The human organism, as it is today, could not have been brought forth from the cosmos under any other circumstances than through this process of first the separation from the Sun and then from the Moon.

[ 14 ] Someone might say: If I had been God, I would have done it differently; I would have created a mixture right from the start that would have allowed the human organism to develop in the way it had to. Why, then, was it necessary for the sun to emerge first, and why was it then necessary for the moon to emerge as well?

[ 15 ] Anyone who thinks this way is thinking far too abstractly. They fail to consider that if an inner diversity is to be brought about in the world order—as is the case with the human organism—a specific structure is necessary for each individual part, and that what the human mind conceives in a speculative manner cannot be translated into reality. In the abstract, one can conceive of anything; but in true Spiritual Science, one must learn to think concretely, so that one says to oneself: The human organism is, after all, not a simple one. It consists of a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. These three members first had to be brought into a certain balance so that the individual parts stand in the correct relationship to one another. This could only take place through this threefold process: First, the formation of the unified cosmos—the entire cosmic unity of Earth, Sun, and Moon together. Then, the process that could have a moderating effect on the human etheric body had to be carried out separately, because otherwise it would have consumed all development too rapidly—and this occurred when the Sun was moved outward. And then again, because the astral body would otherwise have caused the human organism to wither away, the Moon had to be led out. Since the human organism consists of three members, these three processes also had to take place.

[ 16 ] Thus we see that human beings owe their existence and their present characteristics to a complex structure within the cosmos. We also know, however, that the development of all the kingdoms of nature cannot by any means keep pace with general evolution. We know from general observations of recent years that on each of Earth’s planetary incarnations, certain beings have always lagged behind general evolution; as evolution moved forward, these beings lived in states that did not fully correspond to that evolution. But we also know that, fundamentally, it was only through such lagging behind that all evolution could truly be set in motion. For we know that certain beings remained behind during the ancient lunar evolution as the “Luciferic entities,” that much evil was caused by them, but that we also owe to them what makes human existence possible in the first place—namely, the possibility of freedom and the free unfolding of our inner being. Yes, we can say: In a certain sense, the lagging behind of the Luciferic beings was a sacrifice. They lagged behind so that, during earthly existence, they could carry out very special activities—namely, to endow human beings with the passions that go hand in hand with their human dignity and self-determination. — We must simply get used to using concepts that are quite different from those commonly employed, for based on ordinary concepts, one might perhaps say that the Luciferic spirits should have been made to “stay after school,” and one would not forgive them their negligence. But this was not a matter of negligence on the part of the Luciferic beings. Their remaining behind was, in a certain sense, a sacrifice, so that through what they acquired by this sacrifice, they might be able to influence humanity on Earth.

[ 17 ] As you know from yesterday’s remarks, it is not only beings but also substances that have remained, and they have preserved laws that were appropriate in earlier planetary states and that they then carried over into later development. Thus, phases of development from ancient times intersect with those of newer times; they intermingle. It is this intermingling that actually makes the diversity of life possible in the first place. — This is how the most varied stages in the development of beings present themselves to us. It would not have been possible for an animal kingdom to develop at all alongside the human kingdom if, after the Saturn period, certain beings had not remained behind to form a second kingdom—and to emerge as the first precursors of our present-day animal kingdom—while humans on the Sun had already evolved to a higher stage. This remaining behind is absolutely necessary as the foundation for later formations.

[ 18 ] If the question is now raised: Why must entities and substances be left behind? — I would like to clarify this through a comparison. Human development was meant to progress step by step. This was only possible because human beings became increasingly refined. If they had always acted with the same forces they used during the Saturn phase, they would not have made any progress. They would have remained stagnant. That is why they had to refine their forces. — Now, to illustrate this, let’s take a glass of water in which some substance is dissolved. Everything in this glass, from top to bottom, will have the same color, the same density, and so on; everything will be the same. Now suppose the coarser substances settle to the bottom; then the purer water and the finer substances remain at the top. The water could therefore only become more refined by separating out the coarser elements. — Something like this was also necessary after the Saturnic stage of development had come to an end; such a sediment had to form; all of humanity had to separate out certain elements and retain the finer parts. What was separated off then became the animals. Through this separation, the others were able to refine themselves and advance one step higher. And at each such stage, entities had to be separated off so that human beings could ascend higher and higher.

[ 19 ] We therefore have a humanity that has become possible only because human beings have freed themselves from those entities that live around us in the lower kingdoms. We once had these entities, with all their powers, within the stream of evolution; they were connected to it just as the denser components are connected to water. We allowed them to sink to the bottom and raised ourselves up from them. This is what made our evolution possible. We therefore look down upon the three natural kingdoms living alongside us and say: In all of this, we see something that had to become our foundation so that we could evolve. These entities sank down so that we could rise up. This is how we view the lower natural kingdoms in the proper way.

[ 20 ] If we now consider the Earth’s evolution, this process will become even clearer to us in its details. We must be clear that all facts within the Earth’s evolution are, after all, connected by certain relationships and interdependencies. Now we have seen that the separation of the Sun and the Moon from the Earth actually took place so that the human organism could reach, during the Earth’s evolution, the level necessary to become an individual; this was part of the process of purifying the human organism, as it were. But because these separations in the cosmos took place for the sake of humanity, such far-reaching changes in our entire solar system have also exerted an influence on all three other kingdoms of nature, above all on the animal kingdom, which is closest to us. And if we wish to understand this influence exerted on the animal kingdom by the processes of the separation of the Sun and the Moon, then spiritual science provides us with the following insight.

[ 21 ] Humanity was at a certain stage of its development when the Sun separated from the Earth. If humanity had been forced to remain at that stage—the one it occupied during the time when the Moon was still connected to the Earth—it would not have been able to attain its present organization; instead, it would have faced a state of desolation and withering. The lunar forces first had to withdraw. However, the fact that this human constitution became possible is due solely to the circumstance that, during the time when the Moon was still part of the Earth, humankind had preserved a constitution that could still be softened; for it would have been possible that his constitution would already have been so hardened that the Moon’s departure would have served no purpose. In fact, only the ancestors of humankind were at this stage where their constitution could still be softened. — The Moon therefore had to depart at a specific time. What, then, happened up until the moment the Moon departed?

[ 22 ] The human constitution became coarser and coarser. It is true that human beings did not look like wood. That would be too crude a mental image. Despite its coarseness, the human constitution at that time was still more refined than it is today. But for that time, the human constitution was so coarse that the spiritual part of the human being—which even then, in a certain sense, lived alternately with and without the physical body—had finally reached a point, in the period between the Sun’s and Moon’s departure, where, when it wished to seek out its physical body again, it found that body, due to the processes taking place on Earth, to be so dense that it no longer had any possibility of entering it and using it as a vessel. Consequently, the spiritual-soul aspect of many human ancestors took its leave of Earth altogether and sought, for a certain time, to continue its existence on other planets belonging to our solar system. Only a very small portion of the physical bodies remained usable and survived this period. I have also described this on several occasions: that by far the greatest number of human souls moved out into space, but that the ongoing current of evolution was sustained by a small portion—namely, those human souls who were the most resilient and were able to endure and overcome it all. These resilient souls preserved the course of evolution through the critical period.

[ 23 ] Throughout this entire process, what was at work was not yet, strictly speaking, what we call human selfhood or human individuality. The character of the generic soul was still more prominent. When the souls withdrew, they merged into the generic soul-state.

[ 24 ] Then came the departure from the Moon, and with it came the opportunity once again for the human organization to be refined so that it could once more receive the souls that had previously fled. And these souls gradually returned—right up into the Atlantean era—and took up residence in human bodies. However, certain organisms that had developed during the critical period had remained behind. They had reproduced during that time, but they were unable to become vessels for human soul-life. They were, after all, coarse organisms. Thus, alongside those organisms that were later able to refine themselves, others from the critical period of Earth’s history had persisted. These now became the precursors of a coarser form of organization, and as a result, alongside those organizations that could become bearers of human individualities, there also proliferated organizations that could not become bearers of human individualities—organizations that were the descendants of the organisms abandoned by human souls from that time when the Sun had already departed and the Moon was still connected to the Earth.

[ 25 ] Thus, alongside humankind, we see a realm of organisms literally emerging that, by retaining their lunar character, had become incapable of serving as vessels for human individualities. These organisms are essentially those that became the organisms of our present-day animals. It might seem strange that these coarser organisms of today’s animals now possess certain abilities that can even appear wise in the world—as, for example, in the beaver dam. But this can become clear to us if we do not create mental images of things that are too simple, but rather realize that it was precisely the organisms of those beings—which had not been inhabited by human souls—that had developed the external structures of the animal dwelling, a certain nervous system, and the like, making it possible for them to bring themselves fully into harmony with the laws of earthly existence. For those beings who had not remained capable of receiving human souls had remained connected to the Earth throughout that entire period. The other organisms, which later refined themselves so that they could receive human individualities, were indeed also connected to the Earth; but because they had to undergo changes later, after the Moon had separated, they lost precisely what they had acquired up to that point as a result of their refinement and the necessity of undergoing these changes.

[ 26 ] So we see: When the Moon had separated from the Earth, there were certain organizations on Earth that had simply continued to reproduce in a straight line, just as they had been compelled to do as long as the Moon had previously been connected to the Earth. These organizations had remained crude; they had preserved the laws they had, and had become so rigid within themselves that, once the Moon had separated, no change was possible for them. They simply continued to reproduce in a rigid manner. The other organizations, which became the bearers of human individualities, had to change; they could not reproduce in a rigid manner. They changed in such a way that entities could now influence them—entities that in the meantime had not been connected to the Earth at all, that had been somewhere else entirely and first had to reconnect with the Earth. — Therein lies the difference between those entities that had retained the old, rigid lunar character and those that had changed. What, then, did this change consist of?

[ 27 ] When the souls that had departed from Earth returned and took possession of their bodies once more, they began to restructure the nervous system, the brain, and so on. They used the powers they possessed, as it were, for internal development. Nothing could be changed in the other beings who had become rigid. These latter organisms were now taken over by other beings who were not yet prepared to intervene in the organism—beings who had remained at their earlier stages, who do not progress far enough to influence the inner organisms at all, but who act from the outside, like the animal species souls. Thus, those organizations that were suited for it received the human soul after the departure from the Moon; and these beings then shaped the organization in such a way that it led to the perfect human form. The organizations that had remained rigid during the lunar period could no longer be altered. Those souls are now taking possession of them—souls that were not yet ready to enter an individuality, that had remained at the lunar stage, that had developed everything that could be achieved at the lunar stage, and that are therefore now taking possession of these organizations as species souls.

[ 28 ] This is how the difference between humans and animals is explained to us through cosmic processes. It is precisely through the cosmic processes involved in the Earth’s evolution that two distinct forms of organization have emerged. If we had had to remain at the level of the beings immediately below humankind in terms of physical structure, we would now have to hover around the Earth with our “I,” because our physical forms would have become too rigid. We could not descend, and even though we have become more perfect beings, we would have to remain where the physical forms of the animal group souls exist. But since our organizations were able to become more refined, we were able to move into them and use them as our dwellings—that is, we were able to descend into physical incarnations all the way down to Earth. The species souls had no need for this. They work from the spiritual world into the beings.

[ 29 ] We thus see in the animal kingdom that surrounds us something that we ourselves would be today if we did not owe our organization to the structure described. Let us now ask ourselves: How did the animals below us, with their rigid organizations, come to be on Earth? — They came down through us! They are the descendants of those bodies that we no longer wished to inhabit after leaving the Moon, because they had become too coarse. We left those bodies behind in order to find others later. We would not have been able to find others later if we had not left those first ones behind at that time. For after the Sun emerged on Earth, we had to seek our way forward. — So here we have the very process whereby we, so to speak, left certain beings behind among ourselves so that we ourselves could find the opportunity to ascend to a higher level. To ascend, we had to go to other planets and let the bodies down below decay. In a certain sense, we owe what we are to what was left behind down there. Yes, we can describe this “owing” in even greater detail. We can ask ourselves: How was it even possible for us to leave Earth during that critical period? After all, it’s not as simple as a being just going wherever it wants.

[ 30 ] Then, during the Earth’s evolution, something occurred for the first time that we again owe to the Luciferic spirits. The Luciferic beings were our guides who took us away during that critical period of the Earth’s evolution. They told us, as it were: “A critical time is now approaching down there; you must leave the Earth!” — It was the Luciferic spirits under whose guidance we left the Earth—the very same Luciferic spirits who introduced into our astral bodies at that time the Luciferic principle, the inclination toward everything we call the potential for evil within us—but at the same time, of course, also the potential for freedom. Had they not taken us away from Earth back then, we would have remained forever chained to the form we had created at that time, and we could now at most hover around that form from above, but would never be able to inhabit it. So they took us away and united their own being with ours.

[ 31 ] When we consider this, it becomes clear to us now that, as we departed, we absorbed the Luciferic influences. The groups that did not share this fate—those who were led at that time to very specific regions of the world that remained connected to the Earth—remained below, free from the Luciferic influence. They had to share our earthly destinies with us—but could not share our heavenly destiny with us. And when we returned to Earth, we carried the Luciferic influence within us, whereas those other beings did not; and this made it possible for us to lead a life in a physical body and yet a life independent of the physical body, so that we could also become more and more independent of the physical body. These other beings, however, who did not have the Luciferic influence within them, represented what we had made of them—what our astral bodies had been in the interval between the Sun’s and Moon’s departure—that is, the very thing from which we had freed ourselves. We look at the animals and say: Everything the animals embody—cruelty, gluttony, all animal vices—along with the dexterity they possess—we would have had that within us if we had not been able to cast it out of ourselves! — We owe the liberation of our astral body to the fact that all the coarser astral qualities have remained behind in the animal kingdom of the Earth. And we can say: How fortunate we are that we no longer have this within us—the cruelty of the lion, the cunning of the fox—that it has been drawn out of us and now leads an independent existence outside of us!

[ 32 ] Thus, animals share with us what our astral body is, and through this they have the ability to feel pain. But precisely because of what has just been said, they have not been able to gain the ability to rise higher and higher through pain and by overcoming it. For they have no individuality. As a result, animals are in a far, far worse position than we are. We must endure pain; but every pain is a means of perfection for us; by overcoming it, we rise higher through the pain. We have left the animals behind as beings that, while already capable of feeling pain, did not yet possess what could elevate them above pain—that which enables them to overcome it. That is the fate of the animals. They reveal to us our own state of development at the stage when we were capable of feeling pain but could not yet, through overcoming it, transform that pain into something beneficial for humanity. Thus, in the course of Earth’s evolution, we have given our worse part to the animals, and they stand around us as a symbol of the fact that we have attained our perfection. We would not have been able to rid ourselves of the dregs had we not left the animals behind.

[ 33 ] We must learn not to view such facts as theories, but with a cosmic sense of the world. We must look upon the animals with the feeling: There you are, animals. When you suffer, you suffer something that benefits us humans. We humans have the ability to overcome suffering; you must endure it. But we have left you with the suffering—and deprived ourselves of the means to overcome it!

[ 34 ] When this cosmic feeling is developed from theory, it becomes a comprehensive compassion for the animal world. Wherever, therefore, the cosmic feeling sprang from humanity’s primordial wisdom—where people had still preserved a memory of the ancient knowledge that, through dim clairvoyance, revealed to each person how things once were—there, compassion for the animal kingdom had also been preserved, and there compassion for animals is particularly pronounced. — This compassion will return when people become accustomed to absorbing spiritual wisdom, when people once again come to understand how human karma is connected to world karma. In the times that were, so to speak, times of darkness, when materialistic thinking took hold, people could not have had any real understanding of these connections. People focused only on what exists side by side in space, without considering that these things, which exist side by side in space, have a single origin and have become separated only through the course of evolution. And naturally, they did not sense what connects human beings to animals. And in all regions of the earth where there was a mission to obscure the awareness of the connection between human beings and the animal world—where this awareness was replaced by one limited solely to external physical space—human beings repaid the animals for what they owed them in a peculiar way: by eating them.

[ 35 ] At the same time, however, these things show us how worldviews are connected to the human world of sensations and feelings. Sensations and feelings are, in the final analysis, consequences of worldviews, and just as worldviews and insights change, so too will sensations and feelings change within the context of humanity. Human beings had no choice but to evolve to a higher level; they had to push other beings into the abyss in order to rise higher themselves. They could not give animals an individuality that would, through karma, compensate for what the animals must suffer; they could only pass on the pain to them, without being able to grant them the karmic law of compensation. But what he could not give them before, humanity will one day give them when it has attained the freedom and selflessness of its individuality. Then—in a conscious manner—it will also grasp the karmic law in this realm and will say: “I owe what I am to the animals.” What I can no longer give to the individual animal beings who have descended from an individual existence into a shadowy existence—what I once, so to speak, owed to the animals—I must now make amends for through the treatment I bestow upon them! — Therefore, as development progresses through an awareness of karmic relationships, a better relationship between humans and the animal kingdom will once again emerge than currently exists, especially in the West. A new way of treating animals will emerge through which humans will lift up the animals they have pushed down.

[ 36 ] Thus, we do see a certain relationship between karma and the animal kingdom. What an animal experiences as fate cannot be compared to human karma—unless we want to confuse the two. But if we consider the entire development of the Earth and what had to happen for the sake of humanity and its evolution, then we will see that we can indeed speak of a relationship between human karma and the animal world.