Introduction to the Basics of Theosophy

GA 111 — 30 September 1907, Hanover

X. General Karma: The Example of the Atlanteans

If [the Atlanteans] had not striven for higher qualities than those offered by their race, they could not have become Indians. Those who learn only what is necessary to fulfill a profession, to become a soldier, and the like, are not capable of elevating or advancing the race. Those who are guided into a theosophical lodge can learn the things that lead them beyond the race and that help them beyond their incarnation. Man can either grow together with the race or go beyond it, perish in it or reach a higher level. Those who do not study enough must come back in the same race. Those who do not strive to advance gradually run the risk of falling into ruin. There are always a lot of people who cling to the fleeting facts, do not want to go into the timeless, and push away the guides who point to the future. It is their choice to go with them or not to develop further. The more intensely these people reject progress, the more they condemn themselves to remain behind. In “Ahasver”, the “Eternal Jew”, it is described what it means to remain eternal in a race because he does not want to hear the Redeemer.

All occult struggle affects the deepest nature of man. What happens in the etheric body has an influence on the physical body. Thus it would have become most disastrous for a nation if a leader of the people had sinned against the etheric body through debauchery; the consequences could have been like the plague. The legend of Oedipus is based on this fact. Oedipus was a highly initiated person and was able to solve the riddle of the Sphinx, but he did not see through the blood ties, so the

saying of the oracle. It is objected that if man is subject to karma and heredity, we should not intervene to help his fate. In the Bach family there were many great musicians. Just as their outward physiognomies resembled each other, so they all had a musical ear. The individuality that incarnates seeks out a suitable instrument, parents who give it the opportunity to develop its abilities.

Likewise, eight famous mathematicians were incarnated in the Bernoulli family. [...] The disposition draws the relevant people down; morally upstanding parents will attract appropriate children.

It is not true that Theosophy can destroy a mother's love because a foreign individuality is embodied; on the contrary, the child loves its mother before it is loved by its mother. Freedom of action is not affected. We should always grasp karma with our hearts, then we will be carried beyond the difficulties. Karma is a life account. The bookkeeping is mathematically determined by the cash balance, which can be quite different. Should the merchant be deterred by losses? New items can always be entered in the debit and credit sides, depending on the situation. If the merchant needs help and we can assist him, it is considered a good item and must have a good effect. If we were helpful, we have entered a good item for ever. If we help in an effective way, the differences will be resolved.

This is a bone of contention between theologians and theosophists. The priests claim that they cannot recognize the law of karma because Jesus Christ helped people through his death; but the theosophists did not want to believe in representation. The two can get along well together. It is possible that one can help in a matter in which the other cannot help himself. Let us apply this fact to Christ Jesus. Those who look more deeply into it will learn to understand it; without his help, humanity would be lost.

In the past, people believed in karma and reincarnation, which worked through all races. The teaching is still represented in Buddhism and the Mongolian race and formerly in Europe. Buddha worked in Europe in the old mysteries and was the same individuality who appeared in Asia as the Buddha and in Europe as [Bodha - Wodha -] Wotan.

The doctrine of reincarnation is being lost, the esoteric life cannot be taught publicly because new times are dawning. Now the time is approaching again when people will prepare themselves to receive the Christ anew. He will come when he is understood esoterically. The teaching of reincarnation disappeared about a thousand years before Christ, he could only speak of it to his most intimate disciples. He spoke to them of his return and went with them to the mountain and was transfigured. The disciples became clairvoyant beyond time and space and saw exalted figures: Moses and Elijah. The eternity of the spirit stands before them. The disciples ask the Master if Elijah will not come back, He answers: Did you not see him? John was indeed Elijah, but he says nothing to anyone. — This teaching He will proclaim when He will appear again. For the time being, this secret was withheld from mankind. The great teachers do not tell people everything they know, but what is useful to them.

Most of you listeners have been theosophists before, or come from the old Druid schools; you heard the old truths in legends, fairy tales and myths. There are no dogmas in theosophy. In three thousand years another theosophy will replace the present one. Anyone who dogmatizes sins against it.

In the old states, there was a firm belief in reincarnation. It was hardly credible, for example, what Etruscan slaves had to endure under the Romans. Only the consciousness of a just compensation kept them going. The individual felt like a link in the whole.

The time had to come to take the present life as seriously as if it were the only one; eternity depends on it. We see in our culture that it is considered so valuable to work for this plan. The physiological influence gradually emerged that the brain is not capable of grasping more than earthly life. The temperance movements are paving the way for Theosophy. Christianity had to take into account that humanity was not yet capable of knowing the higher worlds, so it had to be taught exoterically, and it may only be proclaimed esoterically when the Christ appears.

This truth is hidden in the wedding at Cana. The sacrificial juice was water, it was then transformed into wine. The Greek Dionysus festivals were also celebrated so that the ego of man became earthbound and looked down from heaven. Christianity retained the custom of drinking wine at festivals.

In the Homeric age, the doctrine of reincarnation disappears, the present time included.

This is a period of time during which the soul returns once as a male and once as a female. One incarnation had to be spent in the present culture, while the earlier one was at the beginning of Christianity or shortly before.

It should come as no surprise that in an age of masculine culture, spiritual culture, which began with Theosophy, came through a woman. The Theosophical movement will prove to be eminently practical. It will lead people to overcome gender within themselves and to elevate themselves to a point of view where the spiritual self and the spiritual human being stand, who are trans-gender and trans-personal, to the purely human. A similar consciousness will gradually awaken in women as it has in men. Those who feel themselves to be women on the other side of humanity will speak of the “eternal masculine” in female nature, like those who spoke deeply from the soul: “The eternal feminine lifts us up.” This is then a true understanding and solution to the women's issue.

A spiritual age will result in the realization of the supra-sexual interior, without wanting to retreat into the ascetic or deny the sex. When people ennoble and beautify this relationship, they live in the supra-sexual. It can then be said: The eternal human draws us up.