{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p004-p010","extent":"range","passage_number":4,"through":10,"paragraph_count":7,"first_locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p004","last_locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p010","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"title":"Lecture IX","date":"1913-03-04","location":null,"alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"E. H. Goddard and D. S. Osmond","identified_edition":"RSP1975","book_title":"Between Death and Rebirth","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA141/English/RSP1975/19130304p01.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"]},"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},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.95,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6258,"original_word_count":6575,"may_be_abridged":false},"site_heading":"Preparing the Soul Between Death and Rebirth","site_heading_note":"A heading the site wrote for this unit from a summary of it; not in the edition, and not the words of Rudolf Steiner or of the translator. Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote it.","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/141/1913-03-04/p004-p010","json_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/141/1913-03-04/p004-p010.json","lecture_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/141/1913-03-04#p004","word_count":1678,"quote_safe":true,"passages":[{"passage_number":4,"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p004","text":"As I said, this way of speaking could be heard time and time again and this is still the case in wide circles today; in the way the subject is expressed it may often, in a certain respect, almost seem acceptable. And yet it is utterly at variance with what is disclosed to spiritual investigation when the facts connected with the life between death and rebirth are considered in their spiritual aspect. When a man has passed through the gate of death he comes into contact with many and infinitely varied forces and beings. He does not only find himself living amid a multitude of super-sensible facts but he comes into contact with definite forces and Beings—namely, the Beings of the several higher Hierarchies. Let us ask ourselves what this contact signifies for one who is passing through the period of existence between death and the new birth.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":148,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/141/1913-03-04/p004","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"E. H. Goddard and D. S. Osmond","identified_edition":"RSP1975","book_title":"Between Death and Rebirth","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA141/English/RSP1975/19130304p01.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 141/1913-03-04/p004"],"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."}},{"passage_number":5,"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p005","text":"We know that when an individual has spent this period of life in the super-sensible world and passes into physical existence again through birth, he becomes in a certain way the moulder of his own bodily constitution, indeed of his whole destiny in the life on Earth. Within certain limits the human being builds and fashions his body, even the very convolutions of his brain, by means of the forces brought with him from the spiritual worlds when he enters again into physical existence through birth. Our whole earthly existence depends upon our physical body possessing organs which enable us to come in touch with the outer physical world, to act and moreover to think in that world.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":118,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/141/1913-03-04/p005","german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1913-03-04","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p005","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/141/1913-03-04/p005"}],"bead_confidence":"high","length_check":{"de_words":327,"en_words":296,"ratio":0.91,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"E. H. Goddard and D. S. Osmond","identified_edition":"RSP1975","book_title":"Between Death and Rebirth","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA141/English/RSP1975/19130304p01.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 141/1913-03-04/p005"],"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."}},{"passage_number":6,"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p006","text":"If, here in the physical world, we do not possess the appropriately formed brain which, on passing through birth we formed for ourselves out of the forces of the super-sensible world, we remain unable to cope with life in this physical world. In the real sense we are fitted for life in the physical world only when we bring with us from the spiritual world forces by means of which we have been able to build a body able to cope with this world and all its demands. The super-sensible forces which man needs in order to fashion his body and also his destiny are received by him from the Beings of the higher Hierarchies with whom he has made contact between death and the new birth. What we need for the shaping of our life must be acquired during the time that has preceded our birth since the last death. Between death and the next birth we must approach, stage by stage, the Beings who can endow us with the forces we need for our physical existence.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":178,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/141/1913-03-04/p006","german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1913-03-04","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p005","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/141/1913-03-04/p005"}],"bead_confidence":"high","length_check":{"de_words":327,"en_words":296,"ratio":0.91,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"E. H. Goddard and D. S. Osmond","identified_edition":"RSP1975","book_title":"Between Death and Rebirth","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA141/English/RSP1975/19130304p01.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 141/1913-03-04/p005"],"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."}},{"passage_number":7,"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p007","text":"In the life between death and rebirth we can pass before the Beings of the higher Hierarchies in two ways. We may recognise them, understand their nature and essential characteristics, be able to receive what they can give us and what we shall need in the following life. We must be able to understand or at least to perceive what is being offered us and what we shall subsequently need. But we might also pass before these Beings in such a way that, figuratively speaking, their hands are offering gifts which we do not receive because it is dark in the higher world in which we then live. Thus we may pass through that world with understanding, with awareness of what these Beings are offering us, or we may pass through it without understanding, unaware of what they wish to bestow. Now the way in which we pass through this spiritual world, which of the two ways we necessarily choose in our life between death and the new birth, is predetermined by the after-effects of the previous life and of earlier lives on Earth. A person whose attitude in his last life on Earth was unresponsive and antagonistic to all thoughts and ideas that may enlighten him about the super-sensible world—such a person passes through the life between death and rebirth as if through a world of darkness. For the light, the spiritual light we need in order to realise how these different Beings approach us and what gifts we may receive from them for our next life on Earth—the light of understanding for what is here coming to pass cannot be acquired in the super-sensible world itself; it must be acquired here, during physical incarnation on Earth. If, at death, we bear with us into the spiritual life no relevant ideas and concepts, we shall pass unknowingly through our super-sensible existence until the next birth, receiving none of the forces needed for the next life. From this we realise how impossible it is to say that we can wait until death itself occurs because we shall then discover what the facts are—whether indeed we shall encounter any reality at all after death. Our relationship to that reality depends upon whether in earthly life we have been receptive or antagonistic in our souls to concepts or ideas of the super-sensible world that have been accessible to us and will be the light through which we must ourselves illumine the path between death and rebirth.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":414,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/141/1913-03-04/p007","german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1913-03-04","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p006","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/141/1913-03-04/p006"},{"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p007","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/141/1913-03-04/p007"}],"bead_confidence":"high","length_check":{"de_words":485,"en_words":414,"ratio":0.85,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"E. H. Goddard and D. S. Osmond","identified_edition":"RSP1975","book_title":"Between Death and Rebirth","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA141/English/RSP1975/19130304p01.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 141/1913-03-04/p006","GA 141/1913-03-04/p007"],"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."}},{"passage_number":8,"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p008","text":"Something further can be gathered from what has been said. The belief that we have, so to say, only to die in order to receive everything that the super-sensible world can give us, even if we have made no preparation for it—this belief is utterly false. Every world has its own special mission. And what a man can acquire during an incarnation on Earth he can acquire in no single one of the other worlds. Between death and the new birth he is able, in all circumstances, to enter into communion with the Beings of the higher Hierarchies. But in order to receive their gifts, to avoid having to grope in darkness through life there or in fearful loneliness, in order to establish contact with those Beings and receive their forces, the ideas and concepts which are the light enabling the higher Hierarchies to be visible to the soul must be acquired in earthly life. And so an individual who in earthly life during the present cycle of time has rejected all spiritual ideas, passes through the life between death and rebirth in fearful loneliness, groping in darkness. In the next incarnation he will fail to bring with him the forces wherewith to build his body efficiently and mould his organs; he can fashion them in an imperfect form only and consequently he will be an inadequate human being in his next life.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":233,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/141/1913-03-04/p008","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"E. H. Goddard and D. S. Osmond","identified_edition":"RSP1975","book_title":"Between Death and Rebirth","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA141/English/RSP1975/19130304p01.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 141/1913-03-04/p008"],"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."}},{"passage_number":9,"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p009","text":"We realise from this how Karma works over from one life to the next. In one life a man deliberately scorns to develop in his soul any relationship with the spiritual worlds; in the next life he has no forces wherewith to create even the organs enabling him to think, feel or will the truths of spiritual life. He remains dull and indifferent to spiritual things and spiritual life passes him by as though in dream—as is so frequently the case today. On the Earth such an individual can take no interest in spiritual worlds; and his soul, after passing through the gate of death, is an easy prey for the Luciferic powers. Lucifer makes straight for such souls. Here we have the strange situation that in the next life in the spiritual world, the life that follows the dull, unreceptive one, the deeds and the Beings of the higher Hierarchies are indeed illumined for such an individual but in this case *not* as a result of what he acquired in earthly life but by the light which Lucifer sends into his soul. It is Lucifer who illumines the higher worlds for him when he passes into the life between death and rebirth. Now, he can, it is true, perceive the higher Hierarchies, recognise when they are offering their gifts to him. But the fact that Lucifer has tainted the light means that all the gifts have a particular colouring and character. The forces of the higher Hierarchies are then not exactly as the human being could otherwise have received them. Their nature then is such that when the human being passes into his next life on Earth he can certainly form and mould his body, but he moulds it then in such a way that although he becomes an individual who is, admittedly, able to cope with the outer world and its demands, in a certain respect he is inwardly inadequate, because his soul is tinged with Lucifer's gifts or at least by gifts that have a Luciferic trend.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":340,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/141/1913-03-04/p009","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"E. H. Goddard and D. S. Osmond","identified_edition":"RSP1975","book_title":"Between Death and Rebirth","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA141/English/RSP1975/19130304p01.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 141/1913-03-04/p009"],"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."}},{"passage_number":10,"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p010","text":"When we come across individuals who have worked on their bodies in such a way that they are able to make effective use of their intellect and acquire certain skills which will help them to raise their status in the world, although to their own advantage only, snatching at what is in their own interest, dryly calculating what is beneficial to themselves without any consideration for others—and there are many such people nowadays—in these cases the seer will very often find that their previous history was what has been described. Before they began to display their dry, intellectual, sharp-witted character in life, they had been led through their existence between death and rebirth by Luciferic beings who were able to approach them because in the preceding incarnation they had lived an apathetic, dreamy existence. But these traits themselves had been acquired because such individuals had passed through an earlier existence between death and rebirth groping in darkness. The Spirits of the higher Hierarchies would have bestowed upon them the forces needed for fashioning a new life, but they were unable to receive these forces; and that in turn was because they had deliberately refused to concern themselves with ideas and concepts relating to a spiritual world. That is the karmic connection. Such examples do certainly occur; they appear before the eyes of spirit only too frequently when with the help of powers of spiritual investigation and knowing the conditions of human life, we penetrate into higher worlds.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":247,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/141/1913-03-04/p010","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"E. H. Goddard and D. S. Osmond","identified_edition":"RSP1975","book_title":"Between Death and Rebirth","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA141/English/RSP1975/19130304p01.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 141/1913-03-04/p010"],"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."}}],"witnesses":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"first_passage":1,"last_passage":32,"passage_count":32,"word_count":6575},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"first_passage":1,"last_passage":34,"passage_count":34,"word_count":6258,"completeness":{"ratio":0.95,"band":"comparable","note":null}}],"aligned_witness":{"status":"aligned","lang":"de","edition":"original","confidence":"high","passages":[{"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p004","passage_number":4,"text":"Wie gesagt, man konnte oft und oft und kann auch heute noch in weiten Kreisen diese Redensart hören, und wenn sie so ausgesprochen wird — sie möchte fast in einer gewissen Beziehung annehmbar scheinen. Und doch: sie widerspricht vollständig den Tatsachen, die sich der geistigen Forschung ergeben, wenn man diejenigen Tatsachen geistig ins Auge faßt, welche sich in dem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt abspielen. Wenn der Mensch durch die Pforte des Todes hindurchgegangen ist, dann tritt er ja in Beziehungen zu den verschiedensten Kräften und Wesenheiten. Der Mensch lebt sich sozusagen nicht nur in eine Summe von übersinnlichen Tatsachen ein, sondern er kommt in Berührung mit gewissen Kräften, ja mit Wesenheiten, die wir kennen und oft besprochen haben als die Wesenheiten der einzelnen höheren. Hierarchien. Fragen wir uns nun einmal, welche Bedeutung es für den Menschen beim Durchgange durch das Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt hat, mit diesen Kräften und Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien in Zusammenhang zu kommen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":161,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/141/1913-03-04/p004"},{"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p005","passage_number":5,"text":"Wir wissen, daß der Mensch, wenn er durch dieses Leben in der übersinnlichen Welt durchgegangen ist und durch eine neue Geburt wieder ins Dasein tritt, in einer gewissen Weise der Selbstaufbauer seiner Leiblichkeit, ja seines ganzen Geschickes in dem nächsten Leben wird. Innerhalb gewisser Grenzen formt und baut der Mensch seinen Leib bis in die Windungen seines Gehirns sich auf mit den Kräften, die er sich aus den geistigen Welten mitzubringen hat, wenn er durch die Geburt neuerdings ins physische Dasein tritt. Und hier im physischen Dasein hängt ja unser ganzes Leben davon ab, daß wir solche Formen, solche Ausgestaltungen unseres physischen Leibes haben, durch die wir mit der äußeren physischen Welt in Beziehung treten können, durch die wir in dieser äußeren physischen Welt handeln, uns betätigen können, ja, durch die wir in dieser äußeren physischen Welt denken können. Denn wenn wir hier in der physischen Welt nicht das entsprechend zugeformte Gehirn haben, welches wir uns, durchgehend durch die Geburt, aus den Kräften der übersinnlichen Welt heraus formen, so bleiben wir ja unzulänglich für das Leben in der physischen Welt. Wir sind für dieses Leben in der physischen Welt nur dann zulänglich, wenn wir uns solche Kräfte aus der geistigen Welt mitbringen, durch die wir uns einen dieser physischen Welt mit allen ihren Forderungen gewachsenen Leib aufbauen können. Die Kräfte, die übersinnlichen Kräfte, welche der Mensch braucht, um an seinem Leib und auch an seinem Schicksal zu formen, sie erhalten wir von jenen Wesenheiten und Kräften der höheren Hierarchien, mit denen wir zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt in Zusammenhang kommen. Was wir zum Aufbau unseres Lebens brauchen, das müssen wir uns also erwerben in der Zeit, die unserer Geburt vorangegangen ist seit dem letzten Tode. Wir müssen sozusagen zwischen dem Tode und der nächsten Geburt Schritt für Schritt an die entsprechenden Wesenheiten herantreten, die uns bescheren können, uns übergeben können die Kräfte, die wir dann, wenn wir wieder ins physische Dasein getreten sind, zu unserem Leben brauchen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":327,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/141/1913-03-04/p005"},{"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p006","passage_number":6,"text":"Nun können wir in einer zweifachen Weise in diesem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt vor den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien vorübergehen. Wir können so vor ihnen vorübergehen, daß wir sie erkennen, daß wir ihre Wesenheit, ihre Charaktereigenschaften verstehen, und daß wir entgegennehmen können, was sie uns zu geben vermögen, denn es ist ein Empfangen dessen von den höheren Hierarchien, was sie uns geben können, und was wir in dem folgenden Leben brauchen. Wir müssen in bezug auf das, was zu geben ist, in der Lage sein zu verstehen, ja auch nur zu sehen, wenn uns dies oder jenes gereicht wird, was wir dann brauchen können. Denn wir könnten auch so an diesen Wesenheiten vorübergehen, daß uns, bildlich gesprochen, die Hände dieser Wesen der höheren Hierarchien ihre Gaben reichen, die wir auch für unser Leben brauchten, daß wir sie aber nicht nehmen, weil es finster ist, geistig gesprochen, in dieser höheren Welt, durch die wir da durchgehen. Wir können also mit Verständnis durch diese Welt durchgehen, so daß wir gewahr werden, was uns von jenen Wesenheiten gereicht werden soll, oder wir können auch durch diese Welt mit Unverständnis durchgehen und nicht gewahr werden, was die Wesenheiten uns reichen wollen. Die Art nun, wie wir durchgehen, welche von den zwei Arten wir für den Durchgang zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt notwendigerweise wählen müssen, das wird vorherbestimmt durch die Nachwirkungen des vorangegangenen letzten und der früheren Erdenleben. Ein Mensch, der sich in dem letzten Erdenleben stumpf und ablehnend gegenüber allen Gedanken und Ideen verhalten hat, die uns als Aufklärungen über die übersinnliche Welt kommen können, ein solcher Mensch geht durch das Leben zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt wie durch eine Welt von Finsternis hindurch. Denn das Licht, geistig gesprochen, welches wir brauchen, um zu erkennen, wie diese Wesenheiten an uns herantreten, um zu erkennen, welche Gaben wir von den einen oder anderen Wesenheiten zu unserm nächsten Leben empfangen sollen, das Licht des Verständnisses dafür können wir nicht in der übersinnlichen Welt selber erlangen, sondern das müssen wir hier in der physischen Erdenverkörperung erlangen. Wir gehen so durch das übersinnliche Leben bis zur nächsten Geburt, daß wir an allem vorübergehen, nichts erkennen und nirgends die Kräfte in Empfang nehmen, die wir zum nächsten Leben brauchen, wenn wir, durch die Pforte des Todes hindurchgehend, keine Ideen und Begriffe mitbringen, um sie in das spirituelle Leben zu tragen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":395,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/141/1913-03-04/p006"},{"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p007","passage_number":7,"text":"Daraus sehen wit, wie unmöglich es ist, zu sagen, man könne warten bis der Tod eintritt, denn dann werde sich zeigen, welche Tatsache oder ob überhaupt eine Wirklichkeit uns nach dem Tode entgegentrete. Wie wir uns dann zu dieser Wirklichkeit verhalten können, das hängt davon ab, ob wir uns hier im Erdenleben in unserer Seele empfangend oder ablehnend verhalten haben zu den Begriffen über die übersinnliche Welt, die wir haben erhalten können, und die das Licht sein müssen, durch das wir uns den Durchgang zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt beleuchten.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":90,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/141/1913-03-04/p007"},{"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p008","passage_number":8,"text":"Noch ein anderes können wir aus dem Gesagten ersehen. Der Glaube, daß man sozusagen nur zu sterben brauche, um alles zu empfangen, was die übersinnliche Welt einem geben könne, wenn man es auch hier versäumt hat, sich auf sie vorzubereiten, dieser Glaube ist ganz falsch. Alle Welten haben ihre besondere Mission. Und was sich der Mensch in seiner Erdenverkörperung erwerben kann, das kann er sich in keiner der anderen Welten erwerben. Er kann zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt unter allen Umständen in Gemeinschaft kommen mit den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien. Um aber ihre Gaben entgegenzunehmen, um nicht im Finstern durch das Leben zu tappen oder doch in grausiger Einsamkeit, sondern um eine Beziehung zu den höheren Hierarchien und ihren Kräften anknüpfen zu können, dazu müssen hier im Erdenleben die Ideen und Begriffe erworben werden, die das Licht sind, um die höheren Hierarchien zu schauen. So geht ein Mensch, der es im Erdenleben, im heutigen Zeitenzyklus zum Beispiel verschmäht hat, sich spirituelle Begriffe anzueignen, wie in grausiger Einsamkeit durch das Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, und in bezug auf das höhere Leben bedeutet grausige Einsamkeit eben im finstern tappen, und er bringt sich dann im nächsten Leben nicht die Kräfte mit, welche ihm in entsprechender Weise seinen Leib aufbauen und seine Werkzeuge zimmern sollen. Er kann sie nur in unvollkommener Gestalt aufbauen, und er wird daher ein unzulänglicher Mensch im nächsten Leben sein.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":235,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/141/1913-03-04/p008"},{"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p009","passage_number":9,"text":"Wir sehen daraus, wie Karma von dem einen Leben zu dem nächsten hinüberwirkt. In dem einen Leben verschmäht es der Mensch durch seine Willkür, mit den geistigen Welten irgendwie seelisch einen Zusammenhang zu entwickeln; im nächsten Leben hat er keine Kräfte, um sich auch nur die Organe anzuschaffen, durch die er denken, fühlen, wollen könnte die Wahrheiten des geistigen Lebens. Dann bleibt er stumpf und unaufmerksam gegenüber den geistigen Verhältnissen, und es geht das geistige Leben wie im Traum an ihm vorüber, wie es ja bei so vielen Menschen der Fall ist. Er kann sich dann auf dem Erdenrund für die geistigen Welten nicht interessieren. Und wenn eine solche Seele dann neuerdings durch die Pforte des Todes geht, dann ist sie eine rechte Beute für die luziferischen Mächte, dann tritt Luzifer gerade an solche Seelen heran. Und das Eigenartige ist, daß in dem nächsten Leben in der geistigen Welt, in dem auf das stumpfe und unaufmerksame folgende, solchem Menschen sehr wohl die Wesenheiten und Tatsachen der höheren Hierarchien beleuchtet werden, aber jetzt nicht durch das, was er sich im Erdenleben erworben hat, sondern durch das Licht, welches ihm Luzifer in seine Seele hineinträufelt. Luzifer beleuchtet ihm jetzt die höhere Welt, wenn er durch das Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt durchgeht. Jetzt kann er zwar die höheren Hierarchien wahrnehmen, kann wahrnehmen, wenn sie ihm Kräfte reichen wollen. Aber daß Luzifer ihm das Licht dafür angesteckt hat, das gibt die besondere Nuance, die besondere Färbung; das macht alle Gaben dann von besonderer Art. Die Kräfte der höheren Hierarchien sind dann nicht so, wie der Mensch sie sonst hätte aufnehmen können, sondern sie werden so, daß er, wenn er ins nächste Leben eintritt, sich wohl seine Leiblichkeit formen und gestalten kann, aber er gestaltet sie dann so, daß er zu einem Menschen wird, der zwar jetzt der äußeren Welt und ihren Anforderungen gewachsen ist; aber in gewisser Beziehung ist dann ein solcher Mensch innerlich unzulänglich, weil er in seiner Seele durchsetzt und durchfärbt ist von Luzifers Gaben oder wenigstens von luziferisch gefärbten Gaben.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":341,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/141/1913-03-04/p009"},{"locus":"GA 141/1913-03-04/p010","passage_number":10,"text":"Wenn wir Menschen im Leben antreffen, welche ihre Leiblichkeit in der Weise zugearbeitet haben, daß sie ihren Verstand gut benutzen können, sich auch gewisse Geschicklichkeiten erwerben, durch die sie sich hochbringen können, es aber nur zu ihrem eigenen Vorteile tun, wenn sie ihre Gaben nur anwenden, um das zu erhaschen, was für sie und ihr Sein Bedeutung hat, wenn sie also recht rücksichtslos, trocken ihren Vorteil im Auge haben, wie es gerade in unserer Zeit recht viele Menschen gibt, dann findet der Seher sehr häufig, daß sie jene Vorgeschichte durchgemacht haben, welche eben charakterisiert worden ist. Sie wurden, bevor sie zu dem trockenen und verständigen und geschickten Leben gekommen sind, durch die Welt, welche zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt verläuft, geführt von den luziferischen Wesenheiten; und diese konnten an sie herantreten, weil sie in der vorherigen Inkarnation stumpf und träumend durch das Leben gegangen waren. Dieses Stumpfsinnige und Träumerische aber hatten sie sich erworben, weil sie vorher durch ein Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt durchgegangen waren, wo sie sich in Finsternis durchtappten, durch ein Leben, in welchem ihnen die Geister der höheren Hierarchien die Kräfte zum Aufbau eines neuen Lebens geben sollten, die sie aber nicht richtig entgegennehmen konnten; und das wieder war geschehen, weil sie es vorher willkürlich abgelehnt hatten, sich mit den Ideen und Begriffen über eine geistige Welt zu befassen. Hier haben wir den karmischen Zusammenhang! Je nachdem, was im historischen Werdegang der Menschheit das Tatsächliche ist, vermannigfaltigen sich die Dinge, die jetzt dargestellt worden sind. Aber sie treten auf; sie treten nur zu häufig auf, wenn wir mit Hilfe der Geistesforschung in die höheren Welten eindringen und die Bedingungen der Menschenleben erkennend, vor das geistige Auge rücken.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":284,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/141/1913-03-04/p010"}],"beads":[{"from":[4],"to":[4],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[5,6],"to":[5],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[7],"to":[6,7],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[8],"to":[8],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[9],"to":[9],"confidence":"high"},{"from":[10],"to":[10],"confidence":"high"}],"note":"Paired by the paragraph aligner; each language numbers its own paragraphs. A bead at either end of the span can carry text beyond it (the `from` numbers show what each bead covers)."}}