The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Significance of the Celestial Bodies Surrounding the Earth for Human Life II

[ 1 ] It has already been pointed out here among our Bernese anthroposophical friends how the Christmas Conference at the Goetheanum was intended to bring a new impulse into the anthroposophical movement. The importance of this new direction cannot be emphasized enough. For the fact is that prior to this Christmas Conference—at least in practice, if perhaps not everywhere—the prevailing view was that the Anthroposophical Society served as a kind of administrative body for what anthroposophy embodies in terms of content and life impulse. This has essentially been the case ever since the Anthroposophical Society became independent from the Theosophical Society.

[ 2 ] And the development of this Anthroposophical Society did not, in fact, proceed as it might have done had I not held any position on the executive board or the like, but had instead occupied, so to speak, a completely independent position within the Society. Nevertheless, little attention was actually paid to all that could have developed under these circumstances. And so it came to pass that, starting around 1919—after all, leading the Anthroposophical Society had been difficult during the war years—all sorts of efforts arose within the Anthroposophical Society, efforts arising from various ambitions within the membership that, in essence, had a detrimental effect on the actual anthroposophical cause—detrimental in the sense that, as a result, I would say, the hostility of the outside world became particularly pronounced. It is, after all, quite natural, my dear friends, that when such efforts arise within a society founded on occult principles, one must ultimately—from an esoteric perspective—allow these things to come into being. For just imagine: if everything that was trying to take shape there had been prevented by me from the very beginning, most of those involved would say today: “Yes, if only this or that had happened, it would have led to something beneficial!” — Well, one can certainly say that the position of the anthroposophical movement in the world has become increasingly difficult as a result.

[ 3 ] I do not wish to go into details, but rather to focus more on the positive; I simply want to say that it has now become necessary to counter all the negativity that has gradually arisen in society with positivity. Such a positive foundation—I had to mention this often before the Christmas Conference at the Goetheanum—is that the anthroposophical movement, which is actually a spiritual current guided by spiritual powers and forces from the supersensible world that manifest only here in the physical world, must not be conflated with the Anthroposophical Society, which is simply an administrative organization — to the extent that it is able to do so — for the sake of nurturing the anthroposophical impulse.

[ 4 ] Well, since the Christmas Conference at the Goetheanum, things have certainly changed. And it was only from the perspective of this change that it made sense for me myself—together with a Executive Council with which, as a unified organism, we can and must work very intensively for the anthroposophical movement—to assume the chairmanship. This prerequisite is that the anthroposophical movement must now become one with the Anthroposophical Society. What was not true before the Christmas Conference has thus been thoroughly transformed since the Christmas Conference. The Anthroposophical Society must now coincide with the anthroposophical movement as it manifests itself in the world. Consequently, however, it has become necessary for the esoteric impulse flowing through the anthroposophical movement to truly manifest itself in the entire constitution of the Anthroposophical Society. Therefore, since this Christmas Conference in Dornach, it must be unequivocally recognized that the appointment of the Dornach Executive Council itself is an esoteric act, that the aim is for a true esoteric current to flow through the Society, and that the appointment of the Executive Council is to be regarded as an esoteric act. The Executive Council has been formed on this basis.

[ 5 ] It must also be noted that the Anthroposophical Society can no longer exist merely as an administrative body for anthroposophy, but that anthroposophy itself must now be practiced in everything that takes place within the Anthroposophical Society. The activity itself must be anthroposophical. This is something that, it seems, is quite difficult to internalize. But this fundamental transformation should gradually take root in the consciousness of our dear friends.

[ 6 ] And initially, an attempt was made, in the newsletter published by the “Goetheanum,” to bring into the Society that which could give it a unified substance—that which could, so to speak, provide a unified train of thought capable of serving the flow of the spiritual through the Movement; something that makes a unified train of thought possible, particularly through the weekly formulation of guiding principles, which are intended, so to speak, to be the fundamental seed for what takes place in the individual branches. It is indeed remarkable how little people still understand what the anthroposophical movement is all about.

[ 7 ] Some time ago, I received a letter from a younger member of the Anthroposophical Society. This letter discussed the integration—which is irrelevant here in Switzerland, but I mention it as an example—of the Community for Christian Renewal into the Anthroposophical Society. At a certain point, speaking from the Goetheanum in Dornach, I emphasized how this Community for Christian Renewal is to be understood in relation to the Anthroposophical Society. At that time, I emphasized that I cannot in any way be regarded as the founder of the Christian Community from within the Anthroposophical Society, but rather that this Christian Community was established alongside the Anthroposophical Society by me—I used the expression “as a private individual” at the time. This letter now takes up this expression “private individual,” after it is stated that a religious renewal cannot come about through a human being, but solely and exclusively through a spiritual impulse flowing back from the higher spheres into the earthly impulses: A religious renewal can be hoped for only from divine-spiritual powers themselves. That is quite correct. But one thing may be overlooked here—and it is essential that this one point be fully understood within the Anthroposophical Society. What must be understood is this: that the anthroposophical movement as such—and within it lie the sources for the Christian renewal movement—does not owe its origin to a merely human impulse, but that it is precisely that which has been brought into the world under the influence and from the impulse of spiritual-divine powers. Only when one sees in anthroposophy itself a spiritual force that flows esoterically through civilization will one be able to hold the correct view even when something else arises from the sources of anthroposophy, and an objection such as the one in the letter cannot arise. One must be aware that the Anthroposophical Society will continue to be guided esoterically from the Goetheanum.

[ 8 ] This is connected to the fact that a completely new current runs through everything that is now understood as the anthroposophical movement. That is why, my dear friends, you will also notice how differently people can speak now compared to how they did before. In the future, nothing else will matter but that, in all the activities of the anthroposophical movement—which is identical with the Anthroposophical Society—responsibility will henceforth lie directly before the spiritual powers themselves. But this must be properly understood. And it must be specifically understood that even the title “General Anthroposophical Society” may not be used for any event without first consulting the Dornach Executive Board; that nothing inaugurated by Dornach may be used in any further context without establishing the appropriate relationship with the Dornach Executive Board. I must mention this because such things keep happening—for example, lectures are given under the title of the General Anthroposophical Society without consulting Dornach. Elements of an esoteric nature, such as formulas and the like, are used without justifying this through consultation with the Executive Committee, which is absolutely necessary, for we are dealing with realities, not with mere administrative measures or formalities. Therefore, for all such matters and similar ones, consultation must be sought or an inquiry directed to the secretary of the Dornach Executive Committee. If no agreement has been reached, the event in question will not be regarded as originating from the anthroposophical movement. This would have to become apparent in some way.

[ 9 ] The fact is that everything bureaucratic or formally administrative must be eliminated from the Anthroposophical Society in the future. The relationship that exists within the Anthroposophical Society is a purely human one, based entirely on the human aspect. Perhaps I may also mention here that this is already evident in the fact that all twelve thousand membership certificates issued will now be signed by me personally. I have also been advised that I should have a stamp made and affix it. I do not do that. It is only a small measure, but it is different when I have let my eye rest on a member’s name and, through that, a relationship—albeit abstract, yet nonetheless personal—has been established. Even if it is an external formality, it is meant to indicate that in the future we will strive to make these relationships more personal, more human. That is why, for example, when the question was raised recently in Prague as to whether the Bohemian National Society could become a member of the Anthroposophical Society, the decision had to be made that it could not: only individual human beings can become members of the Anthroposophical Society; they can then join together to form various groups. But as individual human beings, they become members and hold the certificate as individual human beings. Legal entities—that is, non-human legal personalities—will not have this. Likewise, the statutes are not declarations but a simple account of what the Executive Council in Dornach—to be understood in the esoteric sense—intends to do for the anthroposophical movement on its own initiative. All these matters must be taken with the utmost seriousness in the future; only then will it be possible to create within the Anthroposophical Society that which, had it not been created, would have made it impossible for me to assume the leadership of the Anthroposophical Society myself.

[ 10 ] Now, through the Christmas Conference, a new impulse is certainly to be brought into all our work and activities. And that is why, in the future, we will speak entirely from the spiritual realm—speaking in such a way that events like those that have occurred recently will no longer be able to happen. You see, a large part of the hostility, for example, arose from certain things in society that were provocative. Certainly, all sorts of unfair things are also involved, but in the future, it will no longer be possible to approach hostility in the same way as in the past. For the cycles are such that they are available to everyone; they can be obtained from the Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag. We will not have them promoted in bookstores, nor should their release be understood to mean that they will be distributed through the book trade, but they will be accessible to everyone. This alone dispels the claim that the Anthroposophical Society is a secret society with secret writings. But in the future, many things will flow through the anthroposophical movement toward which one cannot possibly develop any relationship with any hostile outside world. Much of what will flow into the teachings of the Anthroposophical Society in the future will be such that it will provoke the natural hostility of those on the outside—but this is a hostility that will not be a cause for concern, because it is a natural one.

[ 11 ] In this spirit, I would like to share a few thoughts with you; specifically, I would like to discuss how our understanding of the historical development of humanity takes on a completely different light when we seriously consider the karmic relationships at work in the evolution of the world.

[ 12 ] You see, at the very first meeting held in Berlin to establish what was then the German Section of the Theosophical Society, I chose a specific title for a lecture I intended to give at that time. The title was: “Practical Karma Exercises.” At that time, I wanted to introduce what is now to take place. I want to get serious about the study of karma.

[ 13 ] At that time, there were a few older members of the Theosophical Society in the German Section; they began to literally tremble at the thought that I might intend to begin in such an esoteric manner. And indeed, the mood was not right for it. It was evident just how unprepared people’s souls were for such a thing. The topic of “Practical Karma Exercises,” as it was intended at the time, could not be presented at all in the manner originally planned. The circumstances at that time made it necessary to speak in a much more exoteric manner than had been intended. But we must finally begin with the truly esoteric, now that more than two decades of preparatory work have been completed. Thus, the Christmas Conference in Dornach was able to take place, where the esoteric entered the Society, and so we can now actually pick up where it was originally intended to carry this esoteric current into the Society.

[ 14 ] The historical development of humanity—what is it, really, when we look at what reveals itself to human beings as repeated earthly lives? Consider this, my dear friends: whenever a personality appears who plays a guiding or leading role in the development of humanity, we must say that this personality carries within them a soul individuality that has often already existed in earthly life and that brings into this earthly life the impulses from earlier earthly lives. We can truly understand them only when we grasp them in the context of their earlier earthly lives. At the same time, we see how what was active in earlier epochs of world history is carried over from those earlier epochs by the people themselves. What lives in today’s civilization has grown out of the people of the more recent present. But these people of the more recent present are, after all, the same souls who were present in earlier epochs, who absorbed what earlier civilizational epochs had brought forth. These people themselves have carried this over into the present. And it is much the same for the other epochs. Thus, one can only understand this continuous flow of civilizational impulses if one can take into account what is carried over by the souls from one epoch to the next. Then, however, a concrete history emerges in contrast to the abstract one. Otherwise, one merely speaks of ideas at work in world history, or of moral will—or moral impulses in general—that carry things from one period into the next. The bearers of what originates from other cultural epochs are the human souls themselves, for they incarnate anew time and again. Only then can one understand how one has come to be what one is, how one has brought with oneself that which underlies the destiny of the body—the destiny in both good and evil—when one first looks at the way in which what has become history has been carried from one epoch to another by human beings themselves, who have lived through repeated earthly lives. Then the secrets—the great enigmatic questions of historical development—will surely be revealed.

[ 15 ] Today I would like to use three examples to illustrate how karma works through specific individuals: one example that focuses more on the grand stage of history, and two others that focus more on the reincarnations of individual people.

[ 16 ] You see, our modern civilization contains a great deal that is not entirely in harmony with Christianity or Christian development today: modern science, with everything it has already brought into even elementary schools, so that people who know nothing about science nonetheless think in a way shaped by scientific thinking. These influences are not actually Christian. Where do they come from?

[ 17 ] Well, you all know that about half a millennium after the founding of Christianity, Arabism—inspired by Muhammad—spread. At first, this Arabism is understood to mean that Muhammad established a doctrine that, in a certain sense, stood in opposition to Christianity. In what way did it stand in opposition to Christianity? You see, it is a fundamental tenet of Christianity that at its core reside the three forms of the Divine: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This traces back to the ancient mysteries, which guided people through four preliminary stages and then through the three higher stages. When a person has reached the fifth stage, he appears as the representative of the Holy Spirit; in the sixth, as the representative of Christ; and in the seventh, the highest, as the representative of the Father. I just wanted to mention that.

[ 18 ] This Trinity makes it possible for the impulse of freedom to be at the heart of Christianity’s development. There, one looks up to God the Father. What do we find there? When we look up to God the Father, God the Father is that spirituality which lives in all the forces of the universe that emanate from the Moon for earthly existence. Now, within earthly existence, all those forces emanate from the Moon that are connected with the impulses of physical germination—that is, in the case of human beings, physical incarnation. Of course, one must always be clear that this physical incarnation has a spiritual side. We descend from pre-earthly existence—which is a spiritual-soul existence—into earthly existence; we unite with the physical body. But everything that happens there—everything that places the human being into earthly life from the moment of birth—is the creation of God the Father; it is creation on Earth through lunar forces. Consequently, because the human being is subject to the lunar forces throughout an earthly life, he or she is predestined, upon entering Earth’s evolution, to be subject to very specific impulses. This is why, for example, a lunar religion—a distinctly Father-centered religion, such as the ancient Hebrew-Jewish faith—is entirely focused on recognizing in the human being only that which is inherent in him through the Father-God forces, through the lunar forces. When Christianity was founded, however, ancient mystery truths were still very much present in the environment surrounding Christ; these truths, for example, referred back to very specific institutions that existed in the earliest period of post-Atlantean cultural development—institutions that seem quite grotesque to people today, but which were rooted in human nature.

[ 19 ] You see, during the first post-Atlantean cultural epoch—which we have called the Proto-Indian—when a person reached the age of thirty, a truly radical transformation, a metamorphosis, took place in their earthly life. This transformation was so radical that, expressed in today’s modern terms, the following could happen: A person who had passed the age of thirty would encounter another person whom he knew very well—perhaps even a friend—who had not yet passed the age of thirty. The younger person would speak to him, wanting to greet him. The one who has passed the age of thirty does not understand at all what the other wants: He has forgotten everything he experienced on Earth by the age of thirty! And that which continues to act within him as an impulse in life was bestowed upon him through the Mysteries. This was the case in the earliest times of evolution following the Atlantean catastrophe. In order to learn about what he had experienced before, he first had to inquire: he first had to learn this from the small community that was there. At the age of thirty, the soul was transformed in such a way that the person became a completely new person. He began a new existence, just as he had begun as a child at birth. At that time, it was perfectly clear to him: The forces of youth are at work until the age of thirty; then the mysteries, which contained real impulses within them, had to ensure that the human being continued to have a human existence within his soul. The mysteries did this because they were the keepers of the mystery of the Son.

[ 20 ] Christ now lived in an age in which the mysteries of the Son—which I can only hint at here—had completely dissipated and were known only within small circles. Christ, however, was able to reveal himself through his experience at the age of thirty in such a way that he had now, as the last one, received the Son impulse directly from the universe—just as one must receive it in order to be dependent on the solar forces after the age of thirty, just as one had previously been dependent on the lunar forces. Christ made it clear to humanity: the Son-being within him is that solar being that had once been awaited in the mysteries, but as something that was not on Earth. Thus humanity has been directed—just as in the ancient mysteries one looked into the secrets of the solar power—now toward Christ, to say that the solar mystery has now entered into human beings. This, however, was completely eradicated in the first centuries of Christianity. Stellar wisdom, cosmic wisdom, was eradicated, and a materialistic conception of the Mystery of Golgotha gradually took shape—one that recognizes Christ only as something that certainly lived in Jesus, but otherwise wishes to know nothing of the entire context.

[ 21 ] Thus, those who knew this could say during the first centuries of Christianity: Alongside God the Father, there exists God the Son, or Christ. God the Father is the ruler of that which is fatalistically inherent in human beings, because it is born with them and acts within them like the forces of nature. This is also how the Hebrew religion is constituted. Christianity places the power of the Son alongside this, a power that enters the soul during the course of human life as a Creator, setting the person free and allowing him to be reborn to himself, so that he may become something in earthly life that is not yet predetermined at birth by the forces of the moon. This was the main impulse of Christianity in the first centuries.

[ 22 ] Islam rebelled against this impulse with its maxim, which has had a far-reaching impact: There is no god but God, whom Muhammad is to proclaim. — It is a return to pre-Christian times, albeit in a renewed form, as was bound to happen, since it occurred half a millennium after the founding of Christianity. Thus, the God of nature, the Father God, was made the sole God—not a God of freedom, a God leading people to freedom. Within Arab culture, where Islam is spreading, this fosters a revival of ancient cultures. A revival of ancient cultures, excluding Christianity, is indeed taking place on a grand scale in various centers of civilization in the Orient. It spread from east to west alongside the warlike currents of Arabism, in Africa—I would say, encompassing Christianity—as a movement of revival of ancient culture within Arabism.

[ 23 ] A shining example of this Arab culture was found in Asia, at the court of Harun al-Rashid, during the era when Charlemagne reigned in Europe. But while Charlemagne could barely manage to read and write and develop the most primitive beginnings of culture, a truly magnificent culture flourished at the court of Harun al-Rashid. Harun may not have been a particularly good man, but he possessed a comprehensive mind—a penetrating, brilliant mind—a universal mind in the best sense of the word. He gathered at his court all the sages who were the bearers of everything that could be known at that time: poets, philosophers, physicians, theologians, architects—all of them thrived, drawn there by his great spirit, at the court of Harun al-Rashid.

[ 24 ] Now, at the court of Harun al-Rashid lived a truly eminent and significant spirit—a spirit who, not during that particular incarnation at Harun al-Rashid’s court, but in an earlier incarnation, had been a true initiate. You may ask: Does an initiate, as he passes through incarnations, not remain an initiate? One may have been a deeply initiated being in an earlier epoch, but in a new epoch one must use the body available to that epoch and undergo the education that can arise from it. Then one must keep the forces that initially come from the earlier incarnation in the subconscious. What is appropriate to the corresponding civilization must then develop within a person. Thus, there are certainly people who outwardly appear to be mere products of their civilization; but from the way they live in the outside world, one can perceive deeper impulses within them: They were once initiates, do not lose that status, and act accordingly even in their subconscious; yet they cannot help but adapt to what the life of their culture affords them.

[ 25 ] Thus, the figure whom tradition credits with establishing magnificent institutions for all the sciences at the court of Harun al-Rashid was, at that time, simply one of the greatest sages of his era, possessing such an outstanding organizational talent that much of what was accomplished at Harun al-Rashid’s court stemmed from his spirit.

[ 26 ] Arabism then spread over the course of centuries. We are, of course, aware of the wars that Europe waged to push Arabism back within its bounds. But that was not the end of it: the souls who were active in Arabism pass through the gate of death, continue to evolve in the spiritual world, and, in a certain sense, remain active in their work. Such is the case with the two individualities of Harun al-Rashid and his wise advisor, who lived at his court.

[ 27 ] Let us first follow Harun al-Rashid. He passes through the gate of death and continues to evolve through the spiritual world. The outward form of Arabism is pushed back; Christianity implants its exoteric character—which it has gradually adopted—in Central and Western Europe. But just as it is impossible for the old form of Mohammedanism—of Arabism—to continue to exert an influence in Europe, so it becomes possible for the souls of those who once lived at the court of Harun al-Rashid in this brilliant civilization—and who received the impulse to continue working within it—to indeed continue to do so.

[ 28 ] Thus we see that Harun al-Rashid himself is reincarnated in the oft-mentioned figure of Bacon of Verulam, that leading English thinker who has influenced the entire modern scientific way of thinking and, with it, much of what now lives within human beings. Harun al-Rashid could not spread a culture and civilization shaped in the strict sense of Arabism from London or England; this spirit had to make use of the form that was possible in the Western world. But the entire fundamental character, the basic thrust of what Bacon of Verulam poured into European thought, is the old Arabism in a new form. And so Arabism lives on precisely in what scientific thinking is today, because Bacon of Verulam was the reincarnated Harun al-Rashid.

[ 29 ] The sage who lived at his court also passed through the gate of death; but he took a different path. He could not immerse himself in the kind of materialistic intellectual current into which Baco was able to immerse himself; he had to remain within a more spiritual intellectual current. And so it came to pass that in the same era in which Baco of Verulam was active, another spirit—but now in Central Europe—was at work, one that, in a sense, resonated in its soul with what emanated from the soul of the reborn Harun al-Rashid. We see, as it were, the Baco current pouring over from England toward Central Europe, from west to east. Because the soul—I would say—brought back this view of Arabism from Spain and France, it is already understandable that it took on a different content than that soul which, passing through the gate of death, directed its gaze during its passage through the spiritual world toward what existed in Eastern and Central Europe, and was reborn in Central Europe as Amos Comenius. He renewed what he had lived out at the court of Harun al-Rashid, drawing on Eastern wisdom, by becoming, in the 17th century, the figure who vigorously championed the idea that a spiritual, structured spiritual force runs through human development. — It is often trivially said that Comenius believed in the “Millennium.” That is a simplistic way of putting it. In truth, it means that Comenius believed in epochs in human development, that he posited a spiritual development of world history structured by the spiritual world. He sought to show that a spiritual force surges through and interweaves the whole of nature: he wrote a “Pansophia,” a universal wisdom. There is actually a profound spiritual current in the work of Amos Comenius. In this regard, he is a reformer of the educational system. It is well known that he strove for concreteness; but for a concreteness different from that of materialism—for a concreteness that is thoroughly spiritual. I cannot elaborate on this in detail; I can only point out how Arabism in its Western form, and Arabism in its Eastern form, flowed out of what emerged in Central Europe from the convergence of these two spiritual impulses.

[ 30 ] We can understand much of what is alive in Central European civilization only if we see how the intellectuals who lived at the court of Harun al-Rashid themselves—in a form that could be renewed—brought over from Asia what flows from Arab culture. In this way, we see how human individuality operates in the course of historical development. And when we look at such significant examples, we can learn from them how karma works through incarnations. Then, as I have discussed on various occasions, it can be applied to our own incarnation. But first, we must have concrete examples.

[ 31 ] Let us first consider such an example—and there is certainly a great deal of interest in this here in this country—let us consider the Swiss poet Conrad Ferdinand Meyer. If we look not only at his poetry but also at Conrad Ferdinand Meyer’s personality, he can certainly arouse great interest. He is a remarkable figure, this Conrad Ferdinand Meyer. It has actually always been this way with him: When he composed his poems, which flow with wondrous rhythms, one can see—if one is able to observe these things—how his soul, at every moment, seemed inclined to step out of his body. There is indeed something purely soulful that lives in the wonderful forms of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer’s poetry, including his prose poems. He also repeatedly suffered in his life from the fate that, whenever this separation between the spiritual-soul and the physical-bodily became too great, a cloud settled over his earthly life. But this only loose interplay between the spiritual-soul aspect and the physical body—one notices it when one engages with the writings or the personality of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer. This individuality, which in the incarnation of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer lives only loosely within the physical body, must—so one tells oneself at first—have gone through something quite extraordinary in earlier earthly lives.

[ 32 ] Now, research into past lives on Earth is truly not always easy. One must endure the most varied disappointments and setbacks in relation to what one seeks to fathom spiritually. What I say about reincarnations is therefore by no means intended to satisfy those hungry for sensationalism, but rather to shed ever deeper light on the course of history.

[ 33 ] If one traces Conrad Ferdinand Meyer’s life, especially when starting from this loose connection between the spiritual-soul aspect and the physical-bodily aspect, one is led back to a very early incarnation, an incarnation in the 6th century A.D. There one is led to an individual whom one cannot quite grasp at first with the spiritual intuition one uses to trace such things. In fact, one is spiritually led away from this individual, who lived in Italy and found his way into the form of Christianity that was spreading there at the time. One cannot quite grasp it, and one is then thrown back to the Conrad Ferdinand Meyer incarnation, so that in this investigation of an earlier incarnation—even if one believes one has arrived at this 6th-century incarnation—one must return to the later Conrad Ferdinand Meyer and does not properly understand the connection between these two incarnations until one discovers the solution to the riddle. One notices that within Conrad Ferdinand Meyer lives a thought that misleads one—a thought that has also taken on an artistic form, a thought that has found its way into his story “The Saint,” which deals with Thomas Becket, the Chancellor-Bishop of Canterbury in the 12th century at the court of Henry of England.

[ 34 ] But now, if one traces the connections between thoughts and feelings that were alive within Conrad Ferdinand Meyer as he wrote this story, one truly begins to grasp the way in which Conrad Ferdinand Meyer’s mind worked. One is, so to speak, led from a darkening of consciousness into enlightenment and back again. Ultimately, one says to oneself: There is something quite special about this thought in Conrad Ferdinand Meyer’s story; it cannot be explained so easily—it must actually run deep. Then one realizes that it stems from an impulse in an earlier earthly life, in which the individuality of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer was in Italy, lived at a small court, and played a major role within Christian development: there, this individuality experienced something special. One gradually comes to understand that this individuality was sent from Italy to England on a Christian mission. This mission founded the Archdiocese of Canterbury at that time. The individuality that later became Conrad Ferdinand Meyer was, on the one hand, deeply moved by that art form—now extinct—which existed in Italy in the 4th and 5th centuries and which subsequently found its further expression in the mosaics of Italy. Conrad Ferdinand Meyer’s individuality was active within this context. Then, inspired by the Christianity of that time, it went to England with the mission. After helping to found the Archdiocese of Canterbury, it was murdered by an Anglo-Saxon chieftain under strange circumstances.

[ 35 ] This circumstance continued to live on as an impulse in the soul. And when this soul was born as Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, that fate from long ago lived on in his subconscious: being murdered in England—it has something to do with the Archdiocese of Canterbury! Just as a memory is sometimes triggered by the sound of a word, so this impulse—“I once had something to do with Canterbury”—continues to resonate, and this drives Conrad Ferdinand Meyer’s soul not to describe his own fate—which remains in the subconscious— but rather the similar fate of Thomas Becket, Chancellor to Henry of England, who was also Archbishop of Canterbury at the time.

[ 36 ] This peculiar psychological affliction of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer also causes his own fate to merge with that of the other, whom he comes to know as Conrad Ferdinand Meyer through history.

[ 37 ] During the Thirty Years’ War, when Central Europe was in such a state of chaos, this individuality was reborn—as a woman. And as a female personality, the chaos of the Thirty Years’ War had a particularly profound effect on this individuality. This woman married a man who was actually somewhat rough around the edges—a veteran warrior who had fled German circumstances to the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. And so this married couple—the woman receptive to the powerful impressions of the present, which were indeed chaotic, the man more philistine—spent their time in the canton of Graubünden.

[ 38 ] It was from the world-shaping events of the time that what seeks to sprout anew in Jürg Jenatsch was drawn. Thus, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer’s thoughts and feelings are revived through what he experienced in this way. The difficulty lies in the fact that Conrad Ferdinand Meyer absorbed these impressions into his soul but had to transform them, because he lived in the world in such a way that his spiritual-soul aspect was constantly receiving impulses, which then caused his spiritual-soul aspect, in the incarnation of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, to be connected only loosely to the physical-bodily aspect.

[ 39 ] Well, you see in this something that can be used to demonstrate how ancient impulses influence a person’s thinking, feeling, perception, and artistic creation in a most remarkable way. The truth about this certainly does not arise through speculation or intellectual reflection of any kind, but truly only through spiritual intuition.

[ 40 ] Of particular interest with regard to their repeated earthly lives are those personalities who, in one earthly life or another, capture our attention. You see, there is a personality who is particularly dear and valued by people here and who truly provides insight into the way souls pass through their earthly lives. When one truly comes to understand these things, they appear quite different from what one might actually assume.

[ 41 ] Here we have a soul—I first encountered him in a sort of priestly role within the ancient mysteries. In a kind of priestly mission; not exactly a high-ranking priest, but a priest who, through his position within the Mysteries, was able to shape souls to a great degree. A noble personality full of goodness in that incarnation, as he had once grown through the Mysteries.

[ 42 ] This individual had the fate, in the first century before the founding of Christianity—that is, about a hundred years before the birth of Christ—to serve a slave trader in accordance with the customs of the time, and to lead, under a rather cruel master, a group of slaves who had to work hard and who, according to the customs of that era, could not be treated any differently than they were. One must not misjudge or misunderstand this individual. One must view the context of ancient cultures differently than that of our own. One must fully understand that such a noble individual as the one of whom I speak could have reincarnated, roughly one hundred years before the founding of Christianity, as a sort of slave owner for a large army of slaves. She could not act much on her own initiative; that was her heavy fate. But at the same time, she had established a unique relationship with the souls inhabiting the slaves who were forced to work hard. This individual obeyed precisely that more cruel figure I have spoken of—today we would say: her superior. But in such matters, in such contexts, antipathies and sympathies take shape. And when this personality—who had sometimes, with a heavy, bleeding heart, done what she was required to do according to the orders she had received—passed through the gate of death, she encountered there the souls who had also harbored a certain hatred toward her. This then played out in the life between death and rebirth, thereby establishing soul-spiritual connections that subsequently served as preparatory impulses for the next earthly life.

[ 43 ] Naturally, karmic connections form between all people who interact with one another. It is also, in a sense, a matter of fate that this individual—of whom I am speaking here—who was a sort of slave overseer and karmically bound to her superior, whose orders she was compelled to obey, also made herself guilty in a certain way—I would say: innocently guilty—of everything that the superior’s cruelty brought about. She simply went along with it—not out of any original impulse, but prompted by the customs and the entire context—and thus a karmic bond existed between the two. This developed in the life between death and rebirth in such a way that this personality, who had been a slave overseer, was reborn in the 9th century A.D. as a woman. She became the wife of that cruel superior and experienced many things in this relationship that served as karmic compensation for what I have described as a kind of “becoming guilty while innocent” in relation to the atrocities committed. But what is experienced further deepens the soul: some of what had been present in the old incarnation as a priest resurfaced, but it resurfaced with a profound sense of tragedy. The circumstances of the 9th century led this married couple to come into contact with many people who were the reincarnated souls of those who had lived with them as slave souls and who had now also been reborn. Human souls are, as a rule, reborn together in the same era. And once again, a relationship of life arose on Earth.

[ 44 ] The souls, who had once been held together by the slave driver, now lived together in a community of varying size. The community servant—one might say, though a servant in a somewhat higher sense—was that cruel man. And since he had to deal with all the residents, he experienced nothing but trouble from this community, of which he was not the leader, but for which he had to take care of many matters. The woman always shared in this experience. Thus we see how a number of people grow together with these two personalities. But the karma that had bound these two personalities—the former superior and the slave driver—this karmic bond has now been fulfilled. That old priestly individuality was no longer bound to this personality; but it remained connected to the others, because so much had happened to these souls for which this individuality had at least served as the instrument in an incarnation about a hundred years before Christ. As a woman, she brought only blessings through her deeds as she cared for the community—admittedly with great kindness, but a kindness that was nonetheless compatible with the fact that the woman herself suffered infinite tragedy.

[ 45 ] Everything that had emerged as a shared bond—everything that had woven karmic threads—all of that continued, and as they journeyed further through life between death and rebirth, from the 9th century onward into more recent times, new impulses arose that held these people together. And they were now reborn—not in any external community, but in such a way that those who had once been slave souls and were then connected in a village community were reborn at least during the same period, so that the possibility existed to reestablish a relationship with the priestly individuality born at the same time from the ancient mystery site, the slave leader’s individuality in the century before Christ, and the woman’s individuality in the 9th century A.D. For this individuality was reborn as Pestalozzi. Those who were also reborn at roughly the same time to fulfill their karma—these souls who had the kind of relationship with him that I have just described—were destined to become the students, the pupils, to whom Pestalozzi, in fulfillment of his karma, now bestowed such immense blessings.

[ 46 ] Well, my dear friends, it is truly so: When one contemplates life, and behind life as it presents itself, sees the workings of souls from incarnation to incarnation—certainly, it must be disconcerting, must be surprising, for it is always different from what the mind would have it be. And yet, life takes on a profound depth of meaning when viewed in this context. And I think that human beings have already gained something by contemplating such connections. When these connections are brought to light—sometimes in a rather difficult way—from the spiritual background, and when one points out, as I could only do in outline form today, what is then present in overt existence, then it certainly becomes evident how karma works through human lives. Merely hearing such a reflection already imbues life with a serious depth, and one can understand such a reflection if one truly looks at what is presented outwardly with an unbiased eye.

[ 47 ] Anthroposophy is not meant merely to develop theories of repeated earthly lives and to provide all sorts of schemes, but to reveal the very concrete spiritual foundations of life. People will view the world quite differently once we bring these things to light. When the time comes, we will have to point out how this can also influence people’s actions. Once you understand this, it will become clear that such genuine, practical reflections on karma are precisely what our civilization needs as a new direction and a deeper foundation. Today I simply wanted to bring these practical examples of karma to your attention. Take a closer look at well-known figures, and you will find that much of what I have said is true.