Personality and Individuality

Spiritual science uses the terms Personality and Individuality to distinguish between

• the eternal spiritual 'I' of the human being (beyond space and time), the Individuality,
• and the specific clothing in which the soul dresses itself in an individual incarnation, the Personality.

.

Hence, an Individuality includes a string of incarnations, lives of people known with different names and stories in different timeframes of history, that are each characterized by their (different) Personality or 'character colouring'.

In the process of Man's transformation and spiritualization, the relationship between Personality and Individuality also changes (1913-05-18-GA152):

• In the past, the Personality was determined by blood relationships (heredity) and temperament, and into this impersonal elements streamed from the spiritual world.
• In the future, a Personality will be determined by what Man is able to receive as inspiration flowing from the spiritual world and work upon in himself. The tone and character of a Man's Personality will be developed through spiritual understanding, and the character acquired from participation in the spiritual world.

Aspects

• examples: in the Karmic Relationship lecture cycles, Rudolf Steiner gave examples of 50+ Individualities describing various incarnations, see Schema FMC00.241 on Karma research case studies. He typically gave two to four incarnations per Individuality.
  • certain Individualities have individual topic pages, eg Individuality of Julian the Apostate, Individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz, Individuality of Rudolf Steiner

physiognomy and individuation

• the physiognomy of the human physical body as an expression of the soul characteristics is also changing and becoming more closely interrelated, the physical body will become a more rigid expression of one's good or evil soul
  • "the physiognomy is an expression of the Individuality working formatively on the physical body. This will be more and more marked among the further evolved human races, and a time will come when the racial character entirely recedes" (1907-03-16-GA097)
  • millenia ago, the human being stood closer to the group soul and members of a tribal group looked alike. The markedly individual physiognomies are the sign of this freeing of the individual souls from the group soul. One might still find todaymore or less the same features among undeveloped savage people. (1907-03-16-GA097)
• adepts can re-use the same form of the physical body and don't go through the spirit world (longer period, metamorphosis physical body), therefore their physiognomical characteristics are quite alike.
  • see for example Schema FMC00.503 (Novalis, Raphael) and others on Karma research case studies#Illustrations, or Schema FMC00.510A (Spinoza Fichte and Socrates Tolstoj) on KRI - Karmic Relationships Individualities

Lecture coverage and references

1903-12-29-GA088

.. we can call the soul human personality, the spirit human Individuality ..

full extract

Now I would like to mention some ideas concerning the evolu­tion of the rounds. If we wish to follow the evolution of the rounds, then we must be clear that the human being consists of three mem­bers: body, soul, and spirit. For an understanding of the rounds it is important to name these three members differently. We can call the body human kind; we can call the soul human personality; the spirit, human individuality. To make this clear you must understand that human beings with respect to kind or genus, differ very little from one another; we have here a universal equality. But human beings are very different from one another with respect to personality. Personal­ity is then seen as what differentiates. However, what is individual is seen as the universal, as the universal human spirit. Kind is basically the bodily nature; personality is basically the soul aspects; individual­ity, basically the spirit. We wish first to follow the first two; that is, kind and personality. Personality was prepared in the lunar epoch. What has come over from the lunar epoch is the personality. What we carry within is kind or genus, the way we presently appear, the bodily form, which is basi­cally an earthly imprint, an earthly shape. All of earth evolution since pralaya exists in order gradually to bring the human bodily form to the point where it can allow the personality to unite with this bodily form, as well as to allow the two, personality and bodily form, to be­come the seat of the spirit, of the individuality.

1907-03-16-GA097

[humanity group soul evolution]

Now we must enter more exactly into the nature of the human soul, which formerly was not as individualized as it is today.

At one point of human evolution, man stood far closer to the group soul. Tacitus, one hundred years after Christ, gives us a picture of the different tribal groups. All members of a group then felt themselves belonging together, naturally with gradations, for everything in human evolution is in stages. All members of a group then looked alike. The markedly individual physiognomies are the sign of this freeing of the individual souls from the group soul. You still find today, among savages, more or less the same features.

We must hold fast to this fact, that the physiognomy coming to expression is the proof that the individuality works formatively on the body. This will be more and more marked among the further evolved human races. A time will come when the racial character entirely recedes.

1912-05-08-GA143

We have lived through a cultural age which has nothing to say about the individuality who passes from life to life, but values only the single personality. We speak of Socrates, Plato, Caesar, Goethe, Spinoza, Fichte, Raphael, Michelangelo, and think of them only in the one incarnation. We do not speak of the Individuality who goes from incarnation to incarnation, but we speak of the Personality.

We speak of one Socrates, one Plato, one Goethe and so on, we speak only of a single life in which the individuality has found expression. Western culture was destined to stress the importance of the single personality, to bring it to vigorous, characteristic maturity, and to disregard the individuality passing from life to life.

But the time has come when we must again learn gradually to recognise how the eternal Individuality passes through the several single Personalities. Now we find that mankind is striving to apprehend what it is that lives on from personality to personality. That will fire the imagination and illumine the souls of men with a new light of understanding. This can be illustrated by a particular example.

We turn our eyes to a figure such as the Prophet Elijah. First of all, we think of the Prophet himself. But the essential significance of this Prophet is the fact that in a certain way he prepared for the Mystery of Golgotha; He indicated that the Jahve impulse is something that can be understood and grasped only in the ego. He was not able to reveal the full significance of the human ‘I’ for as regards ego-consciousness he represents a half-way stage between the Moses-idea of Jehovah and the Christian Christ-idea. Thus, the prophet Elijah is revealed to us as a mighty herald, an advance messenger of the Christ-Impulse, of what came to pass through the Mystery of Golgotha. We see him as a great and mighty figure.

Now let us turn to another. The West is accustomed to think of him as a single personality. I refer to John the Baptist. The West sees him confined within his personality. But we ourselves learn to know him as the herald of Christ Himself; we follow his life as the forerunner of Christ, as the man who first uttered the words: ‘Change the disposition of your souls for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ He indicated the impulse that was to come through Golgotha; that divinity can be found within the human ego, that the Christ-Ego is to enter more and more deeply into the human ego, and that this impulse is near at hand. Now, through spiritual science, we learn the truth that is also indicated in the Bible, namely that the same Individuality who had lived in the prophet Elijah, lived in John the Baptist. He who as Elijah heralded the Christ was reincarnated as John the Baptist, again heralding the Christ in the way appropriate for his time. For us these two figures are now united. Eastern culture proceeds in a different way, concentrating on individualities and neglecting the single personality.

1913-05-18-GA152

And when in this way we point to what happens behind the world of the senses, we can also point to what takes place here in the sense-world as an imprint or copy of the event that has just been described, — that a promotion, so to say, of this Archangel, takes place behind the world of the senses. Hitherto Man has been able to possess personality. In the future he will also possess personality, but in a different way. Man has always participated to some extent in the super-sensible worlds — at any rate he always could do so with his life of soul; but the personal note, the personal colouring which he then showed in his life in the sense world did not come down from above, it came up from below, it came from Lucifer. It was Lucifer who gave man personality. One could therefore say: Man cannot enter the super-sensible world with his personality, he cannot bring it into the spiritual world, he must blot out his personality — otherwise he will pollute the spiritual world.

[In the future]

In future it will be required of Man to allow his personality to be inspired from above, so that it can receive what will then flow out of the spiritual world.

A personality will receive its stamp from what it has been able to absorb of spiritual knowledge; personality will become something quite different.

In a sense man was formerly a personality through what separated him from the spiritual, through what was impressed into him from the body. In future he must be a personality through what he is able to receive from the spiritual world and work upon in himself.

[In the past]

In the past, blood and temperament determined personalities, and into these personalities impersonal elements streamed from the super-sensible world. Less and less will Man be a personality on account of his blood and temperament. In future he will be able to become a personality through the character that he acquires from his participation in the super-sensible world. The Michael impulse which brings into the human soul an understanding for the spiritual life, will achieve this.

Men with a pronounced character and personality will in the future have this character and personality through what they bring to expression from their understanding of the super-sensible worlds. The Alexanders, the Caesars, the Napoleons belong to the past. Certainly the super-sensible element flowed into them too, but their highly personal colouring they received from what came to them from below. Men who are personalities from the way in which they carry the spiritual world into the sensible, men who carry personality into mankind from the soul, will take the place of the Alexanders, the Caesars, the Napoleons. The strength of human deeds will in future come from the strength of the spiritual influence working into these human deeds.

All this belongs to what is important in the transition from one epoch into another. The transition, however, from the Gabriel epoch into the Michael epoch in our time has all the characteristics of a transition of the utmost significance.

It is possible, even with ordinary sound human reason, to come to an understanding of what has been said today, if one is only unprejudiced enough to observe our times and see how two possibilities come right up against one another in the last third of the 19th century.

The first possibility is to form a world-conception [worldview] based upon natural [mineral] science. Today that is out of date; it has become antiquated, it no longer lies in the character of the age. People still do so because they simply carry forward what comes from the past.

It lies in the character of the age, however, to construct a world-conception from the inspirations coming from the spiritual world [spiritual science] and an understanding of them. [worldview spiritual science] We must receive this into our souls as a feeling, as an experience; then we shall learn to know what the anthroposophical world-conception means for individual souls, we shall learn to perceive what evolution is for mankind. It is given to us to be partakers in things of great significance.

...

Today I wished to place before your souls the important character of this transition: the fact that those souls who can rouse themselves to activity will now be able to find an understanding for inspired truth. For that is the will of those who stand behind mankind, the guiding World-Powers of Man's evolution.

And the expression of this in the sense world is, that

• whereas during past ages temperament and heredity gave personality its individual colouring,
• in the future spiritual understanding will be the determining element. Spiritual understanding will determine the tone and character of a Man's personality.

Daskalos - Symbol of Life

from p 71 - see also Schema FMC00.560

• The five pointed star symbolizes the Personality of Man - on the Symbol of Life center 9
• The six pointed star symbolizes the Individuality of Man (or 'soul-I') - on the Symbol of Life center 6

DiscussionRelated pages

• Man - the human being
• Man's cycle of reincarnation
• The Michaelic stream