Karma and Reincarnation, Page 2

Overview

Karmic law operates upon the human being in a transforming, rhythmic ebb and flow. The fourfold Prodigal human being of today is the product of a reciprocation between time and timelessness going back at least to the dawn of the macrocosmic Saturday and running through Sunday and Monday (Old Saturn, Sun and Moon evolutions, respectively), all prior to the Earth evolution or Condition of Consciousness. Within Earth evolution, these prior three states were recapitulated in the first three Evolutionary Epochs (Polarian, Hyperborean and Lemurian; see I-1, I-2 and I-3). The “Three Bodies” of the human being were laid down in these times, in preparation for the entry, during the Atlantean Epoch of Earth evolution, of the germinal human Ego. From the very first, rhythm was involved in all creation. By the time creation had progressed to the Lemurian Epoch, Earth evolution involved countless rhythms, from astral to solar to lunar and all the way down to the human processes of taking in and expelling the watery and gaseous elements necessary for growth and reproduction. In conjunction with the separation of the sexes which then occurred (Gen 2,18-24), the astral body became infected by the Luciferic influence resulting in the Fall (Gen 3).Certain consequences followed. The condensing and hardening of the human form accelerated so that it became bony (thus “Adam,” meaning “hard”; Gen 3,17) and could stand upright, a condition required for the formation of the human skull and body as an image of the heavenly pattern (Gen 1,26-27 and 15,5). Three divine consequences necessarily evolved for the healing, over long eons, of the fallen human condition— pain, toil and death (Gen 3,16-19). (The rhythms involved in the healing process of the respective components of the fourfold human being are given in I-37.)

It is the healing rhythm inherent in the “death” consequence, that between life and death, with which we are here primarily involved in the working out of human karma. Human karma itself, to the extent manifesting in reincarnation, is a phenomenon to be played out only during the portion of Earth evolution when the human being lives in mineral-physical form. Commencing in Lemurian times, it will end in the Sixth Great Evolutionary Epoch (see I-2).

Within this volume, it is shown that the “law” Christ came to fulfill (Mt 5,17) is not that spelled out in the “Written Word” of the Torah, but rather the higher law that exists as its pattern in the spiritual world, the “book” (see “Akashic”) of which the Torah is but a “shadow” (Heb 10,1; see “As Above, So Below”). It is inherent in “the Word,” Christ himself (Jn 1,1-3), emanating from the Father. The karmic law is part and parcel of that Word and/or of what it “created.” Without an understanding of the law of Karma and Reincarnation, the heretofore baffling distinction between the judgment of the Father and the judgment of the Son can never be understood (see “Lord of Karma”).

To introduce his vast spiritual insights to humanity, Steiner chose as his audience the one group deemed most receptive to such new insights, namely, the Theosophical Society, founded by H. P. Blavatsky. Because the Society, from which Steiner was later expelled for his emphasis upon the centrality of the Christ, had introduced Oriental concepts for the first time into the modern Western world, he retained much of the Oriental terminology, including “karma.” We need first to be aware that the term “karma” is synonymous with “destiny” as Steiner assured us (see WNWD; also Destiny [DSTY, 1-15-15] and The Problem of Destiny [PRBDY, 10-24-16]). Thus, while “karma” is not itself mentioned in the Bible, “destiny” is entirely Biblical (Job 15,22, Is 65,11-12, Hos 9,13, Eph 1,5,12, 1 Th 5,9, 1 Pet 1,2,20 and 2,8; also Is 23,13 [see“Wild Animals”]). So we must not reject the term, but rather seek to investigate more fully what it means.

Karma plays itself out in the cycle (Jas 3,6) of life and death, metaphorically akin to that of the grass which flourishes in the morning and is renewed and fades in the evening (Ps 90,5-6); it is primarily the “flesh” of the human being that fades in such manner (Is 40,6-8).

A summary of the human journey between death and rebirth is found in I-33. And a hint of its complexity in the formation of the human being can be found in I-20; there we see in the “hermetic man” the relationship of the septenary planetary system to the development of human organs, and in the “zodiacal man” the relationship between the duodecimal zodiacal regions and the parts of the human body, as well as something of the rhythmic interrelationship between these sevens and twelves. These insights have existed from more ancient times, but have eluded the grasp of modern science and intellectual thinking. Even they are but a profile of a portion of the domain in which the karmic law works.

If we are to comprehend how karma works, we must begin with an outline of what normally³ happens in the human being’s rhythmic journey between death and rebirth. Steiner presented it often and in many different modes, the most fundamental of which is probably found in Occult Science (OS), Chap. 3 (most of OS, including Chap. 3, is condensed in Basic Anthroposopohy, Vol. 3).⁴