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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

Karmic Relationships VII
GA 239

At the end of his life Rudolf Steiner took up the task that was his special destiny; to bring to the West a knowledge of reincarnation and karma. To do this he gave over eighty lectures in 1924 in which he explicitly and concretely revealed the destinies of various individuals from one life to the next in order to show how the general laws of karma operate in individual cases. He also revealed many details of the karmic streams of the members of the Anthroposophical Society. These volumes constitute an immeasurable contribution to the understanding of reincarnation and karma, and the tasks of the Anthroposophical Society in connection with the Archangel Michael.

Publisher's Note
Lecture I June 07, 1924
The Moon sphere and the primeval Teachers of Humanity. Experiences after death. The first seed of karma.
Lecture II June 08, 1924
Experiences after death: in the Mercury sphere, the Venus sphere, the Sun sphere, the Mars sphere, the Jupiter sphere, the Saturn sphere. The work of the Hierarchies in the forming of karma.
Lecture III June 09, 1924
Human souls and their ascent after death through the planetary spheres. Communion with the Beings of the Hierarchies. Our outer world during life on Earth becomes our inner world in our life between death and a new birth. Historical evolution is borne onwards by human beings themselves. Behind the destinies of individual men are the deeds of Gods. Heine, Voltaire, Goethe, Eliphas Levi.
Lecture IV June 10, 1924
The effects of karma in world history. The working of the Saturn sphere. In all the Beings of this sphere there is an intense, all pervading consciousness of the Past. The Saturn Beings gaze back upon the memory of all the Beings belonging to the whole planetary system. Individuals whose karma was given configuration in the Saturn sphere. Friedrich Schiller, Ernst Haeckel, Victor Hugo.
Lecture V June 11, 1924
What karma signifies in the individual life of man. The difference in acquaintanceships formed in life is due to the working of karma. Karmic links formed between individuals and groups of individuals lead, as a rule (although there are always exceptions) to contemporaneous existence in subsequent incarnations. Examples of karmic connections: the geometry teacher and Lord Byron. Garibaldi and his ties with King Victor Emanuel, Cavour and Mazzini.
Lecture VI June 12, 1924
Three states of the life of soul: waking, dreaming, sleeping; connected with thoughts and sensory impressions, feelings, will. Remembrance and speech. The seven year periods of life and their relation to pre earthly existence and the earlier incarnation. The origin of the Youth Movement in the twentieth century. The karma of outstanding figures in history. Haroun al Raschid. Lord Bacon of Verulam. Amos Comenius. Woodrow Wilson.
Lecture VII June 13, 1924
Investigation of karma. The cosmic nature of Christ.
Lecture VIII June 14, 1924
The moments of waking and going to sleep in relation to the karmic past and to karma in process of formation. The forming of karma during sleep. Death at an early age. Therapeutic insights.
Lecture IX June 15, 1924
The effects of our moral conduct and our connection with the Hierarchies in the life between death and a new birth. In the head formation the karma of a man's past is revealed to sense perception. In the metabolic limb system lies future karma, spiritually concealed but invisibly present. The incarnations of Pestalozzi. The cultural task of Anthroposophy.