08/18/2026
Nearing the end of his life in 1924, Rudolf Steiner stressed to the members of the Anthroposophical Society the urgency that they awaken to the super-sensible world so that in Dornach there would be created a living center of spiritual knowledge. To guide the movement forward, Rudolf Steiner commenced articulating the core tenets of anthroposophy in succinct, powerful statements published monthly to members and compiled later in the book Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts. Also, to an audience of seasoned students of Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner delivered Anthroposophy: An Introduction which contains advanced, yet foundational material required of his students. He further gave the first of what he intended to be three classes for the School of Spiritual Science of the re-founded Anthroposophical Society as a further development of his earlier Esoteric School, Esoteric Instructions. In this last year of Rudolf Steiner's speaking engagements he produced eight volumes of material on Karma and Reincarnation. The following is an excerpt of a lecture given on June 15, 1924. Would there be any initiates to carry on his legacy after he was gone the next year?
"What, then, is the perspective of the external worldview that people usually hold? The perspective of the external worldview that people usually hold is the head. This head, which is based on the physical structure of the headβthis head that you had in earlier earthly lives, even in your previous earthly lifeβyou cannot make it the point of view for your worldview once you have gone back into earlier earthly lives; you cannot do that, for it is long gone, it is no longer there. Only the spiritual aspect that lived in the head can serve as the starting point for your worldview. Initiation, therefore, consists in a person becoming spiritualized by returning to their past earthly lives. And in fact, all clairvoyanceβin the best sense of the wordβmeans a return to past earthly lives. To be initiated means not to remain stuck in oneβs βpresent earthly life,β but to view the things of the world through the eyes of the person one was in a previous earthly life. Whereas in the ordinary course of life one is such an imperfect being in earthly existence that one sees only the outer physical world, the person one was in previous earthly lives has, in the meantime, already become clairvoyant. And as a rule, when one returns to the immediately preceding earthly life, one makes the discovery: the person one was back then has, in fact, already become a much more perfect human being."
Read more: Rudolf Steiner, Esoteric Considerations of Karmic Connections, Volume V, Lecture 16, GA 239, 15 June 1924, WrocΕaw. https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA239/English/SOL/19240615p01.html
