4. The Eternal Forces of the Human Soul in the Light of Spiritual Science

How do we observe the plant? We observe it by following it from the seed up through the roots, leaves and flowers until the seed develops again, and in this we see the repetition of the old and the starting point of the new plant. In this way, we follow spiritually in the human being what enters through birth from the spiritual world, follow what develops as a spiritual seed, we connect the end with the beginning, as we do with the plant. Just as we connect the fruit, the blossom and the seed of a plant with that from which the plant sprouts, and thus see the earlier with the later, so the spiritual researcher sees by developing what has been mentioned as intimate processes within himself; he sees how human life is chained to human life. In repeated earthly lives, the human life develops. The full human life presents itself to the spiritual researcher as a life between birth and death, as a life between death and a new birth, as a re-entry into earthly life, and so on.