The Rudolf Steiner Archive

34. Envy and Lies as Karmic Consequences

[ 1 ] Today we will discuss several topics related to everyday life, including the relationship between Theosophy and human life in general, and how Theosophical thinking and feeling influence our lives.

[ 2 ] People often ask: How can theosophical views be proven? If people would only really pay attention, they would already find proof. There is a deep skepticism that what takes place within our souls has any significance at all. People always want only so-called logical proofs.

[ 3 ] For example, two people might argue over whether a piece of iron is magnetic. Some believe it on authority, while others trust only what they see with their own eyes, and so on. But anyone who conducts an experiment with a magnet would soon discover the truth. In the same way, one should measure life against theosophical truths. However, one must allow oneself a little more time to reflect on life than people tend to do today.

[ 4 ] During my career as a preschool teacher, I observed the following. Back then, it was common practice to give young children a small glass of red wine with their meals to fortify them; these kinds of experiences are worth noting for life. Today, you can see the difference between the adults who regularly received that little glass of red wine as children and those who grew up without this “pick-me-up.” All those who received that little glass of red wine back then are now fidgety and nervous people! — Of course, there may be other causes for nervousness, but I’m only talking here about cases where no other causes were present.

[ 5 ] Such effects cannot be recognized in five years, as is the case with new remedies—faith in them usually lasts only five years—so one must be more patient. But through careful, patient observation, one can see how karma operates within a single incarnation and between two incarnations.

[ 6 ] Envy and lies are two traits that human beings strive with all their might to overcome. We know that after several incarnations, the Luciferic beings exerted an influence on the human astral body, while lies and error are attributable to the influence of the Ahrimanic principle on the etheric body. One might call out to our clever population, which calls itself “monistic”: “This little crowd would never notice the devil even if he had them by the collar.” - As soon as a person senses that they possess qualities such as envy and deceitfulness, they strive with all their might to eradicate them at the root. But because this is very difficult, something else tends to take its place.

[ 7 ] This, in fact, is the explanation for all natural processes: that the skull bones—and indeed all our bones—are transformed vertebral bones. In the forthcoming issue of Anthroposophy, I will point out that, for example, our taste organs are modified, vestigial facial organs.

[ 8 ] Envy puts on a mask and transforms itself into a tendency to criticize. People then believe they must not turn a blind eye to the faults of others. Most nitpicking, a tendency to criticize, and so on are rooted in transformed envy; this then appears as justified criticism. - Lucifer, who can no longer deal with the person who has overcome envy, hands over the reins, as it were, to Ahriman, who then sets his sights on the etheric body and stirs up a thirst for gossip and the like.

[ 9 ] In the second half of his life, it will become apparent that such a person cannot quite find his way in life, always turns to others for advice, and never knows how to take the initiative on his own. Anyone who is deceitful during one phase of their life will be shy and reserved during another; they will be unable to look others openly in the eye. There is profound truth in the saying that we cannot trust someone who cannot calmly look us in the eye. Without the aid of clairvoyance, one can observe such connections.

[ 10 ] If a child is not encouraged to strike the right balance between social interaction and solitude—even spending time with people one dislikes counts as solitude—then a tendency toward quarrelsomeness, a love of litigation, the madness of being a troublemaker, and so on tends to develop in old age. Dogmatism and a contrarian spirit are the result of too much solitude some twenty to thirty years ago.

[ 11 ] On the contrary: excessive sociability and a lack of composure—there are people who get just as bored when they are alone—lead to a certain inability to engage with a subject continuously and thoroughly. One consequence of such a restless nature is a diminished memory. If one compares the memory of people from two millennia ago—when people could immediately memorize songs they heard word for word—with our memory today, one cannot help but be amazed. - One could already notice the difference between the first and second halves of the twentieth century; memory has become less and less reliable. If theosophy were not to take root in humanity, people would soon have no memory at all. A frantic rushing from one thing to another is the result of an excess of sociability. We must strive to awaken an interest in children for something they can engage with for at least an hour each day. Quick judgment, strength of will, and knowing what one wants are achieved only through necessary solitude. - All socializing today seems downright pitiful; people who have lived side by side for ten years know nothing about one another—nothing is passed on from one to the other. How few people today have an instinct for recognizing whether they are dealing with someone who, so to speak, is full of hot air.

[ 12 ] Only through a wise balance of social interaction and solitude can one acquire such practical experience. Unless we go through life blindfolded, we will see how theosophical truths are confirmed.

[ 13 ] In the next incarnation, the karmic effect may now manifest itself even in the physical body. As a result of shyness, our organism will be prone to infectious diseases. Envy will produce tired, pale people. If we believed in karma in a practical sense—which wouldn’t be so difficult if people weren’t so stubborn—we would seek to bring our actions into harmony with this belief, and the benefits would soon become apparent.

[ 14 ] Just as edelweiss always grows on the mountain, never in the valley, so are we always brought together with the people with whom we have karmic debts to settle. If a frail child is born into our family, we can assume that this child struck us or envied us in a previous life. The more we offer such a child positive support through forgiveness—and forgiveness again and again—the faster it will recover. If this principle is applied at the right time, the child’s pale skin will regain its color, and its limbs will become plump. The child can then overcome its karma and draw upon the strength that will help it thrive.

[ 15 ] With children, one should also not fail to cultivate the necessary mental agility, for only in this way can they attain a certain level of fluency.

[ 16 ] Physical training does not protect one from becoming clumsy. There are people who cannot even sew on a button by themselves; who cannot even carry a plate from one room to another without dropping it. Whatever abilities are to be present in a physical sense must first be present in a mental sense.

[ 17 ] Over the past four to five centuries, people have cultivated an incredible materialism. Theosophy as a way of life will show that the spiritual and the psychological are the causes of the physical.

[ 18 ] There were certainly not as many nearsighted people four or five centuries ago as there are today. If people do not become more spiritual, they will become even more nearsighted.

[ 19 ] These are karmic matters that have been confirmed by Hellscher's research. Long incarnations prior to the appearance

[ 20 ] Before Christ Jesus, the Christ impulse was not yet at work in people’s souls; but now it is at work within them. An example will illustrate the profound significance of whether or not the Christ impulse can take effect. We shall now turn our attention to a figure who lived at the turn of the Middle Ages and the modern era—a highly interesting individual whose name, however, cannot yet be revealed. During my visit to our southernmost lodge in Palermo, I sensed even while traveling by ship from Naples to Sicily that I was bound to find something significant there; there was indeed something very special in the spiritual atmosphere of Sicily. - One must approach such problems dispassionately and without any greed. - Over the course of the next few days, it became clear that these peculiar currents were caused by the fate of a previous incarnation of the aforementioned figure, the great philosopher Empedocles, who was also an architect and had introduced the Mysteries to Sicily. - Other philosophers would regard what has been said as madness. - Empedocles was far ahead of his time; he already held certain materialistic ideas back then that were to come after the Christ impulse. He was, so to speak, the first to discover the four elements.

[ 21 ] But even as a sage of the mysteries, Empedocles was ahead of his time; he longed to become one with the elements, and he threw himself into Mount Etna. What was spiritually dissolved there still lives on today in the atmosphere of Mount Etna.

[ 22 ] Today, the Christ impulse can be found everywhere within the material world. Had Empedocles been able to find it, he would have connected with it. He came too late or too early, so that he had to fully experience the pain of the initiates of that time, who could no longer attain the primordial wisdom and were thus driven to despair by the darkness surrounding them, because Christ could not yet be found. Without knowledge of Empedocles’ fate, one cannot understand his later incarnation, which was a very problematic personality.

[ 23 ] If one compares the personality of Christ with that of the Buddha, one sees the difference: Christ taught love for the physical body in order to lead humanity toward the Christianization of the entire globe, so that souls might ascend to higher levels of existence and leave the Earth behind as a corpse. - The Buddha feels happy that this was his last time in a physical body. We can see a descending karma of humanity from the beginning until the appearance of the Christ, but from then on, an ascending one until the end.