Personality and Individuality

From Free Man Creator

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 coloring'.

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

  • in the first place we have a consciousness which extends the time between birth and death, the consciousness of the ‘Personality' ... then there is a consciousness which works beyond birth and death of which Man in his ordinary consciousness knows nothing, but which nevertheless works in the same way as the ordinary consciousness. ... a more comprehensive consciousness which operates during the period between death and rebirth. The entity included in this consciousness we will call the ‘Individuality,’ and this consciousness, which is being continually interrupted by the personal consciousness', we will call the ‘individual consciousness.’ (1910-05-16-GA120)
  • 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.
  • In the future, personality will become something quite different: 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 ... he must be a personality through what he is able to receive from the spiritual world and work upon in himself. (1913-05-18-GA152)

spiritual maturity

  • an objective measure for spiritual maturity is the level or height the Individuality or Man's higher triad can consciously ascend to on the Planes or worlds of consciousness (both with astral and mental travel, and between death and a new birth)
    • there are no limitations to move between the worlds of consciousness other than the level of maturity of the Individuality, each soul 'fits' a certain gradient level. People from lower levels will not feel well or comfortable at higher levels because they are at a different vibratory level of consciousness. It is not possible to grab people from one plane and place them at a higher level as they will not fit there but move down again automatically ... like a form of gravity that will bring them down to where they belong and in will feel most comfortable .. in attunement with the vibrations of that environ­ment. (Daskalos, see Planes or Worlds of Consciousness#198X - Daskalos)
    • see also: law for evolution and development of mankind: 'development is only possible through differentiation'; and organizing for this, accordingly: "certain groups of people must be separated in order that a particular quality of human nature can be developed. (1912-05-29-GA155) - see more on Spiritual guidance of mankind#Segmentation
  • in the process between death and a new birth, during the ascent, the soul will - depending on how 'refined' it is - maintain or keep consciousness up to a certain planetary sphere, this could be Mercury, Venus, Sun or Mars for example. To see this from another angle, see Schema FMC00.508 on the interpenetration of astral and lower spirit worlds. The critical point for current humanity in its spiritual ascent is to develop consciousness soul and spirit-self (or manas), refining the lower astral (right on schema) so the Sun is the pivoting point.
  • related: the difference between the soul and spirit of the Individuality, and the environment in which it incarnates (like human race, folk soul, and probably blood line context - for 'differentiation' see Schema FMC00.653). More on this on Human races#Difference between soul development and race development and the topic page Unification.

physiognomy and individuation

  • Man's form was created by the Spirits of Form who stamped the principle of form into Man during early Earth evolution, giving expression to the different human forms and various human races. This process was in the past, and what the Spirits of Form stamped into human beings has long since passed into the processes of heredity and become a heritage handed down from generation to generation. (1912-06-20-GA133)
  • 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 today more or less the same features among undeveloped savage people. (1907-03-16-GA097)
    • "The further we go back into the past, the more do we find that the outer form of the child resembles that of its forefathers; but the further we go into the future, the more will the human being, in his outward appearance, become an expression of the Individuality who passes on from one incarnation to another." and "In the course of Earth-evolution in the future, the forces of form, the forms begotten by thoughts and feelings will assume greater and greater importance ... and in so far as they are the offspring of selfless wisdom, selfless love, these forces will work formatively upon Man." (1912-06-20-GA133)
  • 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.
    • 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)
    • 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

Inspirational quotes

1924-04-12-GA236

Truly the souls of men are far too rich in content to enable us to understand their content out of a single life alone.

from: KRI - Karmic Relationships Individualities#1924-04-12-GA236

1917-02-27-GA175

from lecture titled: 'Morality as a germinating force'

What is the whole purpose of Man's earthly evolution? That Man adapt himself to the Earth and take the Earth-conditions into himself; that he should carry into his future evolution what the Earth has been able to give him, not in any one incarnation alone, but in the whole sum of his incarnations on Earth. That then is the purpose of the Earth evolution.

from: Meaning of Free Man Creator#1917-02-27-GA175

Illustrations

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.

1910-05-16-GA120

lecture titled: The Nature and Significance of Karma in the Personal and Individual; and in Humanity, the Earth and the Universe

In ordinary life a person does not seek a connection between cause and effect, because he takes only short periods into consideration. So when something happens to him in later life, he does not look for the cause in his earlier life; yet he could do so if he were only observant enough and investigated everything. He could do it with the consciousness which as memory-consciousness is at his disposal, and if through recollection he strove to make the connection, in a karmic sense, between earlier and later events, he would arrive at the following conclusion: ‘I see, of course, that certain experiences that come to me would not have occurred unless this or that had happened to me in earlier life, and I must now suffer for the wrong way in which I was brought up.’ But if he also looks into the connection, not for what he has done wrong, but for the wrong done against him, that will be a help to him. He will more easily find ways and means to neutralise the harm which has been done to him. The recognition of such a connection between cause and effects in our different periods of life which we can scan with ordinary consciousness may be of the utmost use to us in life; for if we acquire this knowledge we may perhaps do something else. Without doubt if a person having arrived at the age of eighty looks back and sees that the causes of the things happening to him now are to be found in his earliest childhood it will then perhaps be very difficult for him to remedy the ill that has been done to him; and if he then begins to study the teaching it will not help him very much. But if he lets himself be taught before, and looks back in, say, his fortieth year on the wrongs that have been done to him, he might then have time to take measures against them.

Thus we see that we must be taught not entirely by our own individual life karma, but by the law of inter-dependence which karma as a whole signifies. This may be very useful in our life. What should a man do who in his fortieth year attempts to avert the effect of wrongs done to him, or wrongs which he himself did in his twelfth year? He will do everything to avert the consequences of his own misdeeds or those of others towards him. He will to a certain extent replace by another the result which would inevitably have taken place had he not intervened. The knowledge of what happened in his twelfth year will lead him to a definite action in his fortieth year, which he would not have taken unless he had known that this or that had happened in his twelfth year. What then, has the man done by looking back at his early life? He has through the knowledge thus attained, allowed a definite result to follow a cause. He has willed the cause and has brought it about. This shows now how, in the line of karmic consequences, our will can intervene and bring about something which takes the place of the karmic effects which would otherwise have followed. If we consider such a case in which a person has quite consciously brought about a connection between cause and effect in life, we could conclude that in this case karma or the laws of karma have penetrated his consciousness, and he has himself, in a certain way brought about the karmic effect. Let us now apply the same reflections to what we know about the life of man in his different reincarnations upon earth. The consciousness of which we have just spoken which extends, with the exception mentioned, throughout the period between birth and death, is due to the fact that man is able to use his brain as an instrument. When a man steps through the gate of death, a different sort of consciousness comes into play—one that is independent of the brain and works under essentially different conditions. We also know that this consciousness, which lasts until a new birth, can look back over all that has been done by the man in his life between birth and death. In this period between birth and death we must first form the intention to look back at any wrongs which have been done to us, or which we have done, if we wish to counteract these wrongs karmically. After death, in looking back over life, we see what we have done wrong or otherwise; and at the same time we see how these deeds have affected ourselves; we see how, to a certain action, our characters have been improved or debased. If we have brought suffering to anyone, we have sunk and become of less value; we are less perfect, so to speak. Now, if we look back after death we see numerous events of the sort, and we say to ourselves: ‘I have deteriorated.’ Then in the consciousness after death, the will and power arise to win back, when the opportunities occur, the value we have lost; the will, that is to say, to make compensation for every wrong committed. Thus between death and re-birth the tendency and intention is formed to make good what has been done wrong, in order to regain the standard of perfection a man should have—a standard which has been lowered by the deed referred to.

Then the man returns once more to life on earth. His consciousness is altered again. He does not recollect the time between death and rebirth, or the resolutions to make compensation. But the intention remains within him, and although he does not know that he must do such and such a thing to compensate such and such an act, yet he is impelled by the power within him to make the compensation. Now we can form an idea of what happens when a man in his twentieth year suffers bitter trial. With the consciousness he possesses between birth and death, he will be depressed by the trial; but if he could remember his resolutions made between death and rebirth, he would be able to trace the power which drove him into the position in which he suffered the trial, because he felt that only by passing through it would he win back the degree of perfection which he has lost and was now to regain. When, therefore, the ordinary consciousness says, ‘The trial is there, and you are suffering from it,’ it sees only the trouble itself, and not the effect it produces; but the other consciousness which can look back upon all the time between death and rebirth, sees the intentional seeking for the trial or other misfortune.

This, indeed, is actually shown to us when we look out over a Man's life from a higher standpoint. Then we can see that fateful events occur in human life which are not the results of causes in the individual life itself, but are the effects of causes perceived in another state of consciousness, namely, the consciousness we had before re-birth. If we grasp these ideas thoroughly, we shall see that in the first place we have a consciousness which extends over the time between birth and death, which we call the consciousness of the ‘Personality.’

And then we see that there is a consciousness which works beyond birth and death of which man in his ordinary consciousness knows nothing, but which nevertheless works in the same way as the ordinary consciousness. We have, therefore, shown first of all how anyone may take over his own karma, and in his fortieth year make some compensation so that the causes of his twelfth year may not come to effect. Thus he takes karma into his personal consciousness. If, however, the man is driven somewhere where he has to suffer pain in order to compensate for something and to become a better man, this also proceeds from the man himself; not from his personal consciousness, but from a more comprehensive consciousness which operates during the period between death and rebirth. The entity included in this consciousness we will call the ‘individuality,’ and this consciousness, which is being continually interrupted by the ‘personal consciousness,’ we will call the ‘individual consciousness.’

Thus we see karma operative in relation to the individual human being.

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.

1912-06-20-GA133

What is the principle underlying the distinction to be made among the individual forms of men in the course of the evolution of humanity?

Everything that is ‘form’ on the Earth derives from the Spirits of Form.

The name Spirits of Form is actually given to these beings of the higher hierarchies because everything that has form, shape, life—everything that takes on shape inwardly and evolves an outer form, has received the essential impetus for this form from the Spirits of Form.

Not only man, but in a certain sense all the beings of the different hierarchies are involved in a constant process of evolution.

In our present age, the Spirits of Form (SoF) are moving to the higher rank of Spirits of Movement (SoM). The archai to that of Spirits of Form (SoF). The archangels to that of archai.

As the Spirits of Form move upwards in rank they no longer function, in the primary sense, as Spirits of Form, but the succeeding archai do not, at once, assume the functions of Spirits of Form.

This will help you to understand that something quite definite will come about during the second half of the period of Earth evolution into which we have now passed.

At the beginning of Earth-evolution, the Spirits of Form stamped the principle of form into Man; this comes to expression in the different human forms.

Just as the various races have developed their characteristic qualities, and individual human beings take on the traits of the several races, so have the various groups of humanity as a whole all over the Earth received their stamp from the Spirits of Form.

What the Spirits of Form stamped into human beings has long since passed into the processes of heredity; it has long since become a heritage, handed down from generation to generation.

In a sense, the Spirits of Form leave man greater freedom as they themselves move into a higher category and withdraw from the form-creating function devolving upon them at the beginning of Earth-evolution.

So far as the Beings of the Hierarchies are concerned, Man is drawing nearer and nearer to his coming of age.

But of this we must be clear— the spiritual beings, moving up as they do to higher ranks, have themselves to evolve, and prepare for the next planetary condition of the Earth, in order that during the Future Jupiter stage they may endow the beings who once belonged to the Earth with forms which will then be appropriate.

Towards the end of a planetary age it is always the case that the being of central importance—and on the Earth this is Man—is left free, so that the qualities with which he was originally endowed may pass more freely into his own hands.

In the course of Earth-evolution in the future, therefore, the forces of form, the forms begotten by thoughts and feelings will assume greater and greater importance.

And in so far as they are selfless, in so far as they are the offspring of selfless wisdom, selfless love, these forces will work formatively upon Man.

For the design or pattern of the evolutionary process may be indicated in the following way.

  • The further we go back into the past, the more do we find that the outer form of the child resembles that of its forefathers; but
  • the further we go into the future, the more will the human being, in his outward appearance, become an expression of the Individuality who passes on from one incarnation to another.

This means that in one and the same family (even now it is very frequently the case and nobody with an eye for such things will deny it) there will be less and less likeness between the faces of the children and between the faces of the children and between the other parts of the human figure, for the reason that the forms will no longer be the expression of family or race, but more and more the expression of Individuality.

Anyone with a knowledge of spiritual science, if he really observes human beings living all over the Earth, can perceive, even today, side by side with the inherited characteristics of race or family, more and more strongly individual lineaments of face, head, and other bodily forms; he can perceive the striking differences in form and figure among members of one and the same family.

In this respect, of course, we are in a period of transition; but the sixth Post-Atlantean age is in preparation, together with its paramount characteristic, namely, that unlike the conditions obtaining in earlier periods of culture, outer marks of race will be much less of a criterion.

In the sixth age the criterion all over the Earth will be the extent to which the Individuality has impressed upon his countenance and upon the whole of his being, the forces left behind by the forms begotten of selfless thoughts and feelings—especially those deriving from wisdom.

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

Discussion

Note 1 - The core Individuality and the incarnate life of the Personality

The bullets below are draft notes for expansion of this note, so temporary placeholder.

  • studying lives of important Individualities like Schiller, Mozart, Goethe, Paul of Tarsus .. one finds they are not 'moon and roses', but also contain véry human aspects, behaviors, actions .. that seem not really in line with the maturity and caliber of the Individuality. They are not immaculate, they are human
  • see Yogananda's autobio book, and then especially the comments in the writings of Shelly Trimmer (More sources on the topic of initiation#Lesser known) who knew him quite well, and who was also a rather advanced Individuality in terms of spiritual maturity and development. Shelly Trimmer (and Ray Grasse who knew Shelly also talks about this) .. Shelly said that Yogananda was a saint, and also a Man .. and had quite some anecdotes that he didn't always behave as a saint therefore.
  • now consider:

This note is to explain how all the above hangs together.

People 'as we know them' are part of such an impulse wave of reincarnating souls, they are connected to the higher hierarchies which holds them together, so to speak .. like a bundle of threads. It's such a multi-dimensional image that no analogies or metaphors are suited really.

Their 'mundane' waking consciousness in incarnate life, so as Personality and the life they live, is not always conscious of this, of the Individuality that is their core, nor the wave they are part of.

Examples RS mentions as illustrations:

  • for example Richard Wagner was able to intuit many things, gave expression to insights, but he wasn't always clear on them or their deeper esoteric or spiritual scientific meaning. Something similar is described in the case of Tolstoj.
  • quite mature souls part of such a wave were and are not always able to touch, accept, to embrace the spiritual or spiritual science. Examples are Haeckl, Karl Julius Schroer, Grimm, Nietzsche .. again reading the GA will bring up many such examples. This difficulty is quite clear and apparent, examples of high caliber Individualities like Soloviev.
  • also important Individualities seem to be 'awakened' by an initiator or master that intervenes, this goes eg for Rudolf Steiner or also Goethe who received an initiation to 'awake' fully to who he was. A similar intervention can be found in the booklet Adept Magician (by Marten Crawford, excerpt on this site).


Consider Schema FMC00.531. The Individuality is the core, see also causal body as 'Book of Lives' .. so the higher refined Individuality is really Man's higher triad or higher self, one can imagine it is slightly under the surface of the lower self, buried or lurking, subdued or latent. But each incarnation carries impulses of Personality and they are just as much part of the life the person will live on Earth.

Another example, related but not quite the same, rather further off .. is in Rudolf Steiner's Gesamtausgabe (GA), where he says that even Christ-Jesus used terms or language that originated from the fact that Zarathustra, the Individuality of Master Jesus lived in this body before .. described as a coloring that came along with the use of the lower bodies by the spiritual being of the Christ.

This means we have to appreciate this fine distinction and see the human aspects, also faults and slight idiosyncracies, in the lives of important Individuality. They are not 100,00% perfect in every instant and action.

Related pages

References and further reading

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