---
ga: 90
title: "A Special Case of Evolution: Cardinal Nicholas Cusanus"
date: 1903-08-24
location: Berlin
words: 554
---
# Theosophy and Occultism

## GA 90c — 24 August 1903, Berlin

### I. A Special Case of Evolution: Cardinal Nicholas Cusanus

I must first explain something that is important for understanding evolution and re-embodiment. Every personality, every individuality must live out its life in the devachan, in the arupa sphere, in order to maintain the unified thread. A personality as exalted as Nicholas of Cusa descends even in ordinary life from the arupa sphere. Every person acts from the arupa sphere, but only a few know about it. The higher a person has risen in the arupa sphere in the time between two lives on earth, the more the divine breaks through in him.

Cusanus wrote a work about not-knowing out of higher knowledge: De docta ignorantia. “Ignorantia” means “not-knowing”, and not-knowing here is equivalent to higher beholding. In his books he also expressed the following: There is a kernel of truth in all religions; we need only look deeply enough into them. He also stated that the Earth revolves around the Sun. He stated this as an intuition.

Copernicus did not live until the sixteenth century, Cusanus already in the fifteenth century. Such an incarnation as that of Cusanus is to be considered in context. It is possible that the recollection of previous incarnations is lost in an incarnation, only to awaken later, perhaps after one or even after many incarnations. The means of the causal body can only be used when one awakens in the plane above the causal sphere. Every being must be drawn back down to the physical sphere by a force from the devachan, and by forces that he has not yet encountered. In the highest Arupa level, the person gets to know these forces and thus gains influence over his later incarnation. He also had his life in his hands to a certain extent.

Cusanus points to both theosophy and modern science. Cusanus also had influence on his following incarnation. It was Nicholas Cusanus who experienced re-embodiment in such a way that he reappeared as Copernicus.

An incarnation does not depend solely on one's own development, but also on the usefulness and significance for the whole evolution. An example of regular development. The succession of personalities of higher individualities is no longer irregular. There is no regular development in the less developed. In highly developed individualities, however, outstanding qualities will emerge. These include

> firstly, a sincere looking up to the Higher,  
> secondly, a calm love for God,  
> thirdly, becoming in God.

As a regular development of an individuality, we can consider

> firstly: a contemporary of Jesus, Philo;  
> secondly: Spinoza;  
> thirdly: Fichte.

Three personalities – one individuality. If you read Fichte without knowing about these processes, you will understand very little. But with this knowledge, you will find that the words of these personalities are written in fire. These great minds have undergone a regular evolution themselves.

In oriental esotericism, there is something that is difficult to understand: the being does not need to be exhausted in its determinations. A personality can work on one level without lowering its whole being into that level. The being does not need to coincide with the upadhis. The desire to help is the thread of strength that establishes the connection with the sphere in question.