Karma research case studies

Introduction

An in depth study of the life and work of Rudolf Steiner shows that his core mission was to bring humanity the renewed teachings of reincarnation and karma or destiny. For example see the book by Thomas Meyer: "Rudolf Steiner's Core Mission: The Birth and Development of Spiritual-Scientific Karma Research". From various studies (see a.o. Luigi Morelli) one can see how Steiner wanted to center his lectures and teaching on the theme of karma as of 1910, but the audience was just not receptive.

However, as of January 1924 however, Steiner started a series of Karmic Relationship lectures. In the next nine months until his death he would give over 80 lectures with karmic 'case studies'. And to the surprise of his audience, he now started using concrete case studies of known personalities which he named, described biographically, and for whom he also sketched previous incarnations and karmic background. Overall Rudolf Steiner described about 50 different instances of individualities with multiple incarnations, as case studies for karma research. More detailed information on KRI - Karmic Relationships Individualities

The reason and choice for these specific cases has deeper reasons that have surely not yet been grasped to the full extent. Steiner choose these particular Individualities for very good reasons, focusing on what he didactically wanted to convey about karmic research and patterns.

Note that study of Rudolf Steiner's Gesamtausgabe shows that quite a number of the personalities described in the 1924 KR were already covered before in lectures from 1905 onwards, and that Steiner was already touching on bringing the 1924 materials in the period 1910-1912.

Nomenclature

with Individuality is meant the spirit who incarnates in multiple incarnations in various personalities. The Personality may differ greatly as a result of the transformation of soul characteristics. So we distinguish between an individuality (underlying) and its various personalities in the multiple incarnations. See Personality and Individuality.
for karmic relationships and karmic groups, see topic page Karmic relationships

Biographical research

It is important to mention that Steiner gave specific descriptions as to how do biographical research in the context of karmic studies, and not only hinted at, but also asked some of his students to pursue specific cases. As a result, the individualities described have been subject of extensive study and a wealth of secondary literature exists on many of them.

As illustrations we can mention (see 'References and further reading' section below)

systemic example is the work coordinated by Wolfgang Schuchhardt (various authors contributing to series of five booklets)
Norbert Glas' biographical studies not just of the individualities covered, but also others eg Henry Stanley. Some of these studies were published posthumously by Meyer.
The research done by Gunther Wachsmuth, Willy Sucher on the KR individualities on the basis of the birth & death charts of the incarnations
As examples of various others, we refer to Albert Steffen, Hella Krause-Zimmer, Friedrich Hievel, Rudolf Treichler, Renate Riemeck, ..

Analysis

A wealth of qualitative study materials is now available on - in total - some 50 to 60 individualities. The question becomes: What are the implicit or hidden learnings in that material, how to extract, deduct these from the case studies, how to use them?

To our knowledge, besides the conclusions that can be drawn from biographical analysis, a first answer was given by Gunther Wachsmuth who compared the astrological birth and death charts of the personalities covered in the KR lectures, and discovered interesting patterns in the alignment of planets and zodiac signs between birth and death of incarnations of the same Individuality. It is possible, or likely, that Wachsmuth may have been acting on a tip by Rudolf Steiner, as we know that Steiner sometimes gave short informal clues to his closest students.

Aspects

Individualities that have been initiates in former lives - in the world today
- On several occasion in the KR lectures, Rudolf Steiner asks the question 'where are the initiates of old', of previous cultural ages? (1924-04-05-GA239, 1924-05-25-GA239). One can imagine certain heavy-caliber Individualities to be impactful in the context of these 'impulses from waves of incarnating souls'. And Steiner gives examples with Garibaldi, Lessing, Comenius, Pestalozzi, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Eliphas Levi. For illustrative examples, see the Schemas on topic page Karmic relationships
- Adepts, masters or highly developed Individualities have great similarity of stature and form of the physical body from one incarnation to another .. "it is said that such a man is not born in a different body .. of a Master it is said: he is born in the same body" (1907-05-29-GA099)
Gunter Wachsmuth has found and illustrated certain patterns when comparing birth and death charts of related incarnations of the same Individuality, for example illustrations see Schema FMC00.502 and Schema FMC00.503 below. These two examples show unmistakenly patterns that cannot be called coincidental.
it is apparent how the thread of Individuality which spans and connects various incarnations, has different 'types' of lives that vary greatly with regards to worldy societal impact. Some lives are working more innerly on karmic balances, others are more connected to the Impulses from waves of reincarnating souls that influence the river of historical and cultural development of mankind.
- examples:
  - KRI 38: Plato - Hrotsvitha - Schröer: clearly Plato was a very impactful incarnation, Schröer much less as he's not even broadly known
  - KRI 87: Origen - Spyridon - Daskalos: Origen was clearly a very impactful incarnation, some other incarnations that Daskalos described are not even known to history
  - KRI 34: Goethe is described as being a follower of Plato in a previous life, seemingly not known to historical records
  - KRI 44: Julian Apostate - Herzeleide - Tycho Brahe
advanced initiates or adepts may reincarnate each century, or with a few years or decades in between (as they no longer (need to) pass through the spirit world between death and a new birth). However historically some stand out, meaning many others are 'below the surface' of historical records or broad public impact. Examples: Individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz and Individuality of Master Jesus, Daskalos.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.241 as an example of a structured table, made on the basis of listening to KR lectures in chronological order.

Schema FMC00.241A provides a reference to the Individualities (KRI) and the Karmic Relationship lecture number (KRL)

Schema FMC00.265 provides the reference used for the Karmic Relationship Lectures with a unique KRL number ordered chronologically. Notice the KR cycles mix this logical chronological order. A few extra lectures from other cycles were added because they cover related subject matter.

Schema FMC00.531 depicts a simple metaphoric image for the main karmic patterns, challenges and debts in one's life or incarnation.

On the upper left is represented the accounting 'balance sheet' of karmic unbalances as a result of many previous lives, the 'book of lives' (part of Man's higher spiritual self or Individuality), also called 'causal body' in theosophy. In the accounting image, each life delivers like the equivalent of 'annual results' that is added to the balance sheet in the process and journey between death and a new birth.

When we investigate our current life with biography work and karma exercises (on the right), we will find particularities, obvious or recurrent challenges, curious patterns. Some don't seem to belong in our experience of this current life, and/or may be an odd aspect of our Personality, even though we feel and have to acknowledge they are an intrinsic part of our true self (and Individuality). Depending on the individual, the process may include spontaneous Past life memories, whereby certain karmic patterns may clearly point to a particular previous incarnation. Importantly, the patterns are typically interwoven with relationships with key people in our lives (their role, impact, the period of our life) see Karmic relationships.

Rudolf Steiner gave examples of the above with the Karma research case studies about the KRI - Karmic Relationships Individualities.

During the journey between death and a new birth, before incarnating the soul develops a life plan in the spiritual world, and so each life has a selection of challenges to work and balance out these karmic unbalances - see a.o. Schema FMC00.287. The image of the slide projector depicts how patterns seen in one life stem from elements from various previous lives shown here as overlay slides.

Initiation is the process of fast tracking this process (versus the 'wheel of karma') by taking on this work on our human character consciously during incarnate life with daily initiation exercises.

Schema FMC00.243 shows an example of historical personalities covered by Rudolf Steiner. Click the image to enlarge.

KR numbers are the chronological lecture numbers as part of the Karmic Relationship lectures, as per FMC00.241 above. The schema illustrates 'human encounters' of important Individualities in a certain timeframe (peaking 1780-1800) and geography (Weimar, Jena).

More on this on the Karmic relationships topic page, oa See comments on the more extensive Schemas FMC00.243A and FMC00.497.

Schema FMC00.502 shows (above) birth and death horoscopes for two personalities of the same individuality KRI=50. It is an example taken from Wachsmuth (1956, see 'Further reading' section below). The two charts below show the remarkable clustering of planets in certain zodiac signs for birth and death of the two incarnations (so four planetary positions 1 to 4). Wachsmuth identifies alignments, oppositions and squares.

Schema FMC00.503 shows (left) birth and death horoscopes for two personalities of the same individuality KRI=52. It is an example taken from Wachsmuth (1956, see 'Further reading' section below). The four charts on the right show the remarkable clustering of planets in certain zodiac signs for birth and death of the two incarnations (so four planetary positions 1 to 4). Wachsmuth identifies alignments, oppositions and squares.

Observe the remarkable clustering of four planets cluster in three zodiac signs (Taurus-Aries-Pisces), whereas Jupiter and Saturn take positions in the other zodiac signs (also with certain patterns).

Schema FMC00.510 illustrates some Individualities described in Rudolf Steiner's Karmic Relationships lectures of 1924. KRI is the unique ID for each Individuality, as per Schema FMC00.241A. The illustrations of personalities/incarnations were taken from the internet public domain. For ancient times the origin of these representations is not always necessarily trustworthy or documented, one can even argue they were made up (but then even the more interesting the 'coincidence'), as nevertheless and despite all reservations, the purely visual side-by-side may trigger a feeling of correspondence.

The series of FMC00.510 and variants is supporting illustrative material to the quote from 1907-05-29-GA099: "highly developed Individualities have great similarity of stature and form of the physical body from one incarnation to another .. "it is said that such a man is not born in a different body". See also Raphael and Novalis in Schema FMC00.503.

Schema FMC00.510A - for explanation of this series see Schema FMC00.510.

Above: Rudolf Steiner talked on several occasions about Spinoza, Fichte and Philo of Alexandria being incarnations of the same Individuality. On the left are fairly trustworthy depictions (and compare the noses, for example); the illustrations on the right were added because it's still interesting how an imaginary depiction from the middle ages of Philo is shown 'coincidentally' with such expressive eyes, whereas the eyes are also a characteristic in Spinoza's and Fichte's facial expression.

Below: Rudolf Steiner lectured about Tolstoj but never publicly stated a link with Socrates. He did do so however in an informal conversation, for more info see KRI - Karmic Relationships Individualities#KRI 65: Tolstoj.

Lecture coverage and references

Coverage overview

Rudolf Steiner's early tentatives to bring the teachings of karma and reincarnation

It is not commonly known, or widespread knowledge, that already before the famous 1924 karmic relationship lectures, Rudolf Steiner made several early attempts to bring exactly that some knowledge. Below are listed some examples of the periods 1903-1904, and again the period 1910-

He commented himself that the theosophical audience at that time was not ready or receptive. Also, it was only after the events of 1923 that Steiner was free to lecture to the full extend, as the counterforces had been silenced.

This note list examples:

1903-08-24-GA090C

mentions the cases of Cusanus/Kopernicus and Philo/Spinoza/Fichte (see Schema FMC00.510A)

1903-10-09-GA090C

already mentions Goethe as a sculptor student at the time of Plato

1904-05-27-GA090A

mentions that John (the Evangelist, Individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz, generally believed to be one of Steiner's two masters), was a pupil of Philo of Alexandria

1907-05-29-GA099

The Initiate performs consciously, between death and a new birth, what the average human being performs unconsciously between birth and death; the Initiate consciously builds up his new physical body. For him, therefore, birth amounts to no more than an outstanding event in his existence. He exchanges the substances only once, but then fundamentally. Hence there is considerable similarity of stature and form in such Individualities from one incarnation to another, whereas in those who are but little developed there is no similarity of form whatever in their successive incarnations. The higher the development of a man, the greater is the similarity in two successive incarnations; this is clearly perceptible to clairvoyant sight.
There is a definite phrase for indicating this higher stage of development; it is said that such a man is not born in a different body, any more than it is said of the average human being that he receives a new body every seven years. Of a Master it is said: he is born in the same body; he uses it for hundreds, even thousands of years. This is the case with the vast majority of leading Individualities.
[editor note: compare for example the two faces on Schema FMC00.503]
An exception is formed by certain Masters who have their own special mission; with them the physical body remains, so that death does not occur for them at all. These are the Masters whose task it is to watch over and bring about the transition from one race to another.
[editor note on the last paragraph: see White Lodge#.5B2.5D - Sri Guru Babaji]

1910-12-GA126

In this cycle called 'Occult history', Rudolf Steiner makes multiple references to important historical personalities which also appear in the 1924 Karmic Relationship lectures

1910-12-27-GA126 and 1910-12-28-GA126:
- Gilgamesh (KRI37), Eabani (KRI36)
- Hypatia (KRI59), Scotus Erigena

1910-12-29-GA126: Aristotle (KRI36)
1910-12-30-GA126: Julian the Apostate <-> Tycho Brahe (KRI44)
1910-12-31-GA126: Nicolaus Cusanus <-> Nicolaus Copernicus. (KRI55). Oberlin
1911-01-01-GA126:
- Homer and Aeschylus, Plato and Aristotle
- Elijah <-> John the Baptist <-> Raphael <-> Novalis (KRI52)
- historical development (not reincarnation): the transition from Michelangelo to Galileo (KRI87).

1924-05-25-GA239

A question may well occur to you, a question that is entirely justified and based upon statements often made by me in books and lectures, namely, that in earlier times there were great Initiates who lived among men. You may ask: Where are they now, in this later age?
Probably if you look around at present you will not say of many of the men working in the world that they have the characteristic traits of Initiates, and this has been the case for some long time.
So the question must be asked: Where are the Initiates in their later incarnations?

Discussion

Note 1 - Additional information

Sri M

In the second volume of his biography 'The journey continues' (TJC), Sri M extensively describes his path through multiple incarnations , including contacts with several important spiritual Individualities. The stories of these incarnations is spread over the different chapters, these are put in a tentative chronological sequence below. Not all references to the eight previous incarnations are described in full, eg for some only a short statement is given without further details, another incarnation is described through a dream story.

Remark the great variance in lives: [A] and [E] also [F] are 'materially successful' in earthly mundane terms, some like [C] are quite totally the opposite, allmost hitting rock bottom. Note also how the lives as a woman have different qualities to the stories and life impulse, eg [F] and [H]. Interesting also that unlike incarnations given by Daskalos, or cases of Rudolf Steiners KR lectures, there are no notable historical figures mentioned here, but on the other hand there are multiple lives born in a family of Rishis, like [B] and [G].

[A] - [not timed] a dream story that "has to do with my past lives and was like a replay of what happened" - incarnation as an extremely rich merchant named Dhana living a life of pleasure seeking and extravagance in the then-cosmopolitan city of Pataliputra, now Patna (Ch. 4).
- assumption here is that this was an early incarnation that may have set in motion the path of the soul seeking for the spirit, however this is purely a hypothesis
[B] - incarnation around -3100 BC as Indumati, daughter of a Brahmin rishi – short meeting with Krishna (Ch. 6)
[C] - incarnation in the 6th century BC as Mooka, born in the lowest caste and a burner of dead bodies. A harsh life when his wife died young and his young daughter drowned. Meeting with Gautama Buddha. (Ch. 19)
- the Buddha: “I am not your personal guru. He waits for you in the Dronagiri mountains in the Himalayas. After many births in this world and the hidden realms, you will be born in the Himalayas near Badrinath in a family of yogis and will become his disciple, but you will have to be reborn as a result of certain karmas.”
- the above refers to incarnation [G]
[D] - [reference only] "reborn in a wealthy family" .. also reference to current incarnation, but in between "you will have to be reborn as a result of certain karmas” (end Ch 19 - no further details (tbc))
- the wealthy family may possible refer to incarnation [E], but it may be likely it refers to another incarnation between 6th century BC and 9th century AD for which no details are given
[E] - incarnation around 9^th century as Rawal Deoraj, warrior of the Bhati clan - first contact with Sri Guru Babaji (end of Ch. 11)
[F] - incarnation in 18th century as Moti, Muslim daughter of Afghan nobleman and queen/begum of Nawab (ruler) in south of India - meeting and initiation by Sadashiva Brahmendra of Nerur (birth unknown to approx. 1756) (Ch. 11)
[G] - born in orthodox Brahmin family which would migrate from Benaras [=Varanasi] to the Himalayas, near Badrinath - disciple of Sri Guru Babaji (end of Ch 11 - with no further details given there). This can be linked to what is described in the Epilogue:
- "a hundred years ago" (so approx. 1820s) Madhu, a 19 year old yogi, from a distinguished family of Vedic scholars from the holy city of Varanasi, and a pupil of Sri Guru Babaji (Epilogue)
- "This young yogi .. came from a distinguished family of Vedic scholars from the holy city of Varanasi. His ancestors had been disciples of a legendary yogi called Sri Guru Babaji. This young man’s father, himself a disciple of Babaji, had handed over his son to the great yogi at the age of nine."(Epilogue)
[H] - Incarnation in the 19th century as Sashikala, a courtesan in Calcutta ("just before I was born a boy in a Muslim family in Kerala") - meeting Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886) (Ch. 23)
[I] - current incarnation as Sri M (also Sri Madhukarnath, born Mumtaz Ali Khan, also Madhu in AHM) - born 1949 in a Muslim family in Trivandrum, Kerala - pupil to his personal guru Sri Maheshwarnath
- left home at age nineteen to find his master in the Himalayas, met Maheshwarnath Babaji near Badrinath and stayed with him for three-and-a-half years (period around 1968-1972). Started his teachings in 1998 (aged 49).

Notes:

Varanasi is 1000 kms away from Badrinath, but only 250 from Patna.
Benaras is the same as Varanasi. (The name Varanasi was spelt Baranasi in Pali, which ultimately gave birth to the name Banaras. The different spellings such as Benares and Benaras were in active use during the British regime in India, but these forms of the name are now lost. The name Banaras is still widely used.)

Note 2 - Potential other correlation between Individualities mentioned by Rudolf Steiner in his lectures

Any person who has read many of Rudolf Steiner's lectures, will have notes that hundreds of names are mentioned of people in many different contexts, but that often certain combination of names occur repeatedly.

Obvious examples are Aristotle and Alexander the Great, or say Raphael and Novalis.

Only in the KR lectures of 1924 much became clear, as the relations through different Individualities across incarnations was sketched, as well as several incarnations of the same Individuality.

Hence, it is a reasonable and likely working hypothesis to assume that Rudolf Steiner gave such examples implicitly, without mentioning the true reason why he juxtaposed certain souls. Sometimes it was for contrast and these Individualities may not have had direct correlation or relation, but this was definitely not always the case.

Below we list some remarkable case examples of such occurences where Rudolf Steiner mentions the same people in one lecture, repeatedly. Now for many the relation was explicitly described, but the point is that for many such others this was not the case, leaving room for investigation.

Augustine and Descartes (at least in 10 lectures)
Carnegie and Tolstoj (GA057, GA068B)
Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas
Gilgamesh and Eabani
Spinoza and Fichte (KRI53)

Related pages

References and further reading

Gunther Wachsmuth (1893-1963): 'Kosmische Aspekte von Geburt und Tod. Beiträge zur Karmaforschung' (1956 original in DE), in FR as 'Ciel de naissance et ciel de mort' (1976)
Wolfgang Schuchhardt: 'Schicksal in wiederholten Erdenleben'
- Band 1: Bacon, Comenius, Darwin, Laplace, Schubert, Vischner, Wilson
- Band 2: Dühring, Engels, Gregor VII, Haeckel, Hartmann, Hausner, Lessing, Marx, Nietzsche, Pestalozzi
- Band 4: Garibaldi, Voltaire, Eliphas Levi, Schiller, Goethe, Heine, Ignatius v. Loyola, Swedenborg
- Band 5: Solowjow. Tycho de Brahe; Schleich; Strindberg; Böcklin; Spicker; Hertling: Weininger: Schröer; Victor Hugo

Norbert Glas, see further: Norbert Glas#Biographies
- Henry Stanley, Ferdinand Raimund, Byron Amos Comenius, Nero, Ibsen, Strindberg, Ignatius von Loyola and Emanuel Swedenborg.
Alfons Rosenberg (1902-1985): 'J. Fr. Oberlin'
René Maikowski (1900-1992)
- Schicksalswege auf der Suche nach dem lebendigen Geist (1980)
- Auf der Suche nach dem lebendigen Geist : Persönlichkeiten und Kulturimpulse der abendländischen Geschichte (1971)

Various other

Friedrich Oberkogler: 'Merlin - Richard Wagner : Versuch einer geisteswissenschaftlichen Betrachtung über die karmischen Hintergründe der Biographie Richard Wagners' (1974 or 75)
Frank Berger: 'Unter neuen Vorzeichen: Bruckner, Mahler, Schönberg und ihr karmischer Umkreis (1996)
- explores some hypotheses based on visual facial resemblance and life themes (included personalities besides Brucker and Mahler are Schönberg, Wagner and potential links to Vespasian Titus, Flavius Josephus, Apollonius of Tyana)