{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 101/1907-12-27/p022","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Let us consider a group of people, say, for example, a tribe; let us take any of the old Central European tribes, for example the tribe of the Cheruscians. Such a tribe comes into being once, and then it passes away. The materialistic world observer sees in what the tribe of the Cheruscans is actually only something abstract, a concept that holds them together. But that is something unreal. The occultist sees in the tribe of the Cherusci a group soul, which comes into being, is born, at the time when the tribe of the Cherusci enters history; it grows as the power of the Cherusci grows, and it dies when the Cherusci disappear from history. Behind the developing tribe of the Cherusci, the occultist sees an evolving etheric being. Now there is a difference between an etheric being and a physical being here on earth. A physical being is born on the physical plane, grows, reaches a peak in life and dies again. Birth and death is the characteristic of the beings on the physical plane. This is not the case with the beings that live on the higher planes. If we follow animal group souls on the astral plane through thousands of years, their arising and passing away cannot be expressed by the words 'birth' and 'death'. Something quite different underlies it. It is based on transformation, metamorphosis. If you, with clairvoyant powers, were to encounter an animal group soul on the astral plane today and remember one of its previous embodiments, how it was with this animal group soul 1500 years ago, it will not appear to you as it would if you were to look at a younger person. You will, however, see the group soul passing through youth, middle age, and old age, but it does not give up consciousness in old age; it does not die. It is constantly transforming itself without passing through death. You can trace the animal group soul back to times immemorial – you will only encounter metamorphosis, not birth and death.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"VII. Group Ego and Individual Ego","site_heading":null,"date":"1907-12-27","location":null,"word_count":342,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/101/1907-12-27/p022","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Myths and Legends, Occult Signs and Symbols","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA101/English/SOL2024/19071227p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/101/1907-12-27/p022"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/101/1907-12-27/p022","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 101/1907-12-27/p022","passage_number":22,"text":"Betrachten wir eine Gruppe von Menschen, sagen wir zum Beispiel einen Stamm; nehmen wir irgendeinen der alten mitteleuropäischen Stämme, meinetwegen den Stamm der Cherusker. Ein solcher Stamm entsteht einmal, und er vergeht. Der materialistische Weltbetrachter sieht in dem, was der Stamm der Cherusker ist, eigentlich nur etwas Abstraktes, einen Begriff, der sie zusammenhält. Das ist aber etwas Unreales. Der Okkultist sieht im Stamm der Cherusker eine Gruppenseele, die entsteht, «geboren wird», in der Zeit, wo der Stamm der Cherusker in die Geschichte eintritt; sie wächst, wie die Macht der Cherusker wächst, und sie «stirbt», wenn die Cherusker aus der Geschichte verschwinden. Hinter dem sich entwickelnden Stamm der Cherusker sieht der Okkultist eine sich entwickelnde Ätherwesenheit. Nun gibt es einen Unterschied zwischen einer Ätherwesenheit und einer physischen Wesenheit hier auf der Erde. Eine physische Wesenheit wird auf dem physischen Plan geboren, wächst, erreicht einen Lebenshöhepunkt und stirbt wiederum. Geburt und Tod ist das Charakteristische der Wesenheiten auf dem physischen Plan. So ist es nicht mit den Wesenheiten, die auf den höheren Planen leben. Wenn wir die tierischen Gruppenseelen auf dem Astralplan verfolgen durch Jahrtausende hindurch, so ist ihr Entstehen und Vergehen gar nicht auszudrücken durch die Worte «Geburt» und «Tod». Es liegt da etwas ganz anderes zugrunde. Es liegt Verwandlung, Metamorphose, zugrunde. Wenn Sie mit hellseherischem Vermögen einer tierischen Gruppenseele auf dem Astralplan heute begegnen und sich erinnern an eine ihrer vorhergehenden Verkörperungen, wie es mit dieser tierischen Gruppenseele vor 1500 Jahren war, so wird sie Ihnen nicht so erscheinen, wie wenn Sie einen jüngeren Menschen betrachten. Allerdings sehen Sie die Gruppenseele auch Jugend, mittlere Lebenszeit und Alter durchmachen, aber sie gibt im Alter ihr Bewußtsein nicht auf, sie stirbt nicht. Sie verwandelt sich immerfort, ohne daß sie durch den Tod hindurchgeht. Sie können die tierische Gruppenseele zurückverfolgen bis in ururferne Zeiten — Sie treffen nur Metamorphose an, nicht Geburt und Tod.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":311,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/101/1907-12-27/p022"}],"english":["GA 101/1907-12-27/p022"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":311,"en_words":342,"ratio":1.1,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","anchors","reader"],"reader_german":["GA 101/1907-12-27/p022"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.06,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5558,"original_word_count":5233,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"Myths and Legends, Occult Signs and Symbols","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA101/English/SOL2024/19071227p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 101/1907-12-27/p022"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}