The Rudolf Steiner Archive

54. Karmic Consequences of Laziness and Deceitfulness

[ 1 ] Over the past few months, I have been engaged in occult research into human life between death and a new birth. Conscience... Clarity regarding what conscience is arises from observing the soul during the interval between death and a new birth. The lives of such souls cast a shadow forward onto the future physical life. More and more, the events that will befall us between death and a new birth are coming to light.

[ 2 ] A glimpse into the future ...

[ 3 ] Then comes a certain moment, roughly halfway between death and a new birth. This moment has a profound effect on the seer when he experiences it for the first time in a soul. — Kamaloka

[ 4 ] Immediately after that moment, something happens. We face that moment as shaken as we would face death in the physical world.

[ 5 ] In the first half of life, between death and a new birth, we live more in mental images; in the second half, we are more beings of will. Once we are in the second half of this life, we can no longer change anything for our future physical life. The forces that arise in the second half of this life bring about illness and death. What will the person who acts against his or her conscience do? All the qualities of physical life carry over into the supersensible life. Whether or not epidemics will occur in the future depends on the moral impulses that people have now.

[ 6 ] People are not evil, but complacent. Out of complacency and habit [Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake and Galileo was sentenced to house arrest]. Today, people have other means at their disposal, since they have become more cowardly. People are complacent. They do not want to change themselves or rethink matters pertaining to the spiritual and mental life. The spirits of obstacles are hosts that serve Ahriman. Ahriman’s primary task is to instill resistance in life. Through our complacency, we become servants of the spirits of obstacles. In the first half of life, the complacent person, looking ahead to the time between death and a new birth, sees that he will become a servant of the spirits of obstacles and a hindrance to the world’s development. As a result, they will experience intense suffering in their next life. One perceives this hindrance as pressure directed against oneself. Clumsiness in life stems from having been a person of ease. We are currently in a transitional phase. In the next life, the connections between incarnations will become clear(er?). In the future, people will have the terrible realization: clumsiness stems from complacency.

[ 7 ] A special chapter is devoted to the nature of the lie. Dishonesty plays a significant role in today’s industrial and commercial life. This was not the case to the same extent even a short time ago. The nature of the lie is as follows: What does a person want when he lies, whether consciously or unconsciously? Everyone who lies seeks, through the lie, to develop a power that spiritualizes them. The Elohim gave human beings earthly life so that they might fulfill their mission. Lucifer does not want human beings to go through earthly life. Lying is serving Lucifer: snatching human beings away from earthly life into a spiritual realm—but a Luciferic realm. A liar = a dreamer; all of this is Luciferic influence. If a person was a liar in a past earthly life, one can see in the first half of life—between death and a new birth—how they become a servant of the Luciferic hosts. People who have served the Luciferic hosts in particular (who were liars) are those who become blatant egoists. All selfishness in later lives is prepared by lying in earlier lives. By turning away from the truth, a person turns away from humanity. Karmically, selfishness stems from a disposition toward lying. Speaking untruths about the higher worlds arises from intoxication with the occult.

[ 8 ] Many of the souls sitting here were incarnated among ancient pastoral peoples. They looked up at the starry sky and saw, much more clearly than the physical planets, the spiritual beings surrounding them—archangels and so on. Denying the Hierarchies would have been impossible back then, since they were perceived. Today, it is necessary to bring this ancient knowledge back to humanity. Theosophy is humanity’s gradual recollection of this original knowledge. Our time summons the most evil spirits through its denial (of the spiritual).

[ 9 ] People who have not yet shed their old astral body upon a new incarnation are then clairvoyant. However, they see only demonic figures that torment them incessantly.