Accidents

Consider the case of a man from whom life is snatched away in his prime because of an accident. Then the spiritual investigator can see the following happening. When he follows this soul after death, it turns out that through undergoing this unfortunate event, forces are absorbed, that will prepare him for greater intellectual capacities in the following earth life, than if this accident had not happened.

Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 063 – Geisteswissenschaft als Lebensgut – Berlin, 4th December 1913 (page 171)

Translated by Nesta Carsten-Krüger

Previously posted 18th February 2015

Who is it who shouts loudest that there is no devil? Those who are most possessed by him.

Who is it who shouts loudest that there is no devil? Those who are most possessed by him. For the spirit whom we call Ahriman is enormously interested in having his existence denied by those who are most possessed by him. ”the common people never know the devil, even when they have caught him”. So that is a dreadful Maya, not to believe in Ahriman, for it means that he’s collared one most of all when one does not believe in him; in that case one gives him the greatest power over oneself.

It is wrong, therefore, to say that monists fight the devil when they rant and rave against him. No, a materialistic and monistic gathering where people rant and rave against the devil is liable to conjure up the devil. More than the witches of old do modern materialists call up the devil, much, much more so! That is the truth and the other is Maya.

So we must learn to judge things differently. Someone who goes to a monistic meeting with materialistic nuance is untruthful when he says that these people free humanity from the devil. He ought to say: I am now going to a meeting where the devil is called into human culture with all the powers that human beings have.

Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 150 – Die Welt des Geistes und ihr Hereinragen in das physische Dasein – Augsburg, March 14, 1913 (page 27)

This English translation has been copied from the book: How the Spiritual World Projects into Physical Existence – The Influence of the Dead (page 14) – Published by Rudolf Steiner Press

On too much protein

If one gulps down too much protein, it doesn’t go over into the body at all, but into the fecal waste matter. Even so, the body does get something from it: before it passes out, it lies there in the intestines and becomes poisonous and poisons the whole body. That’s what can happen from too much protein. And from this poisoning comes then very frequently arteriosclerosis-so that many people get arteriosclerosis too early, simply from stuffing themselves with too much protein.

It is important, as I have tried to show you, to know these things about nutrition. For most people are thoroughly convinced that the more they eat, the better they are nourished. Of course it is not true. One is often much better nourished if one eats less, because then one does not poison oneself.

Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 354 – The Evolution of the Earth and Man and The Influence of the Stars – Lecture VI – Dornach, 31st July, 1924

Our value to the world

Our value for the world must be seen to lie wholly in acts of love, not in what is done for the sake of self-perfecting. Let us be under no illusion about this.

Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 143 – Love and Its Meaning in the World – Zurich, 17th December, 1912

Body and Soul/The Earth and The Stars

It would be perfectly possible for this human soul with all its content to make use of a differently formed body, just as the message from Berlin to Paris could be sent by means other than the electric telegraph. The electric telegraph merely happens to be the most convenient way of sending messages, given the conditions of our present existence, and in the same sense the body with its possibility of movement and the head above provides the most convenient means, in the conditions of our existence on Earth, for the soul to express itself. But it is simply not the case that the body as such has anything more directly to do with the life of the soul than the electric telegraph with its mechanism has directly to do with the transmission of a communication from Berlin to Paris, or a watch with time. It would be possible to devise an instrument quite different from our watches for measuring time. Similarly it is possible to conceive of a body — quite different from the one we use in the conditions prevailing on Earth — that would enable the soul to express itself. […] It is quite conceivable that if, instead of living on the Earth, we were born on some other planet, our soul would be adapted to a quite different planetary existence. The particular formation of our eyes and ears is not attributable to the soul but to the conditions prevailing on the Earth. All we do is to make use of these organs. If we make ourselves consciously aware of the fact that with our soul we belong to the world of the stars, we shall have taken a first step towards a real understanding of our relationships as human beings and our true human nature.

Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 141 – Between Death and Rebirth – Lecture Three – Berlin, 3rd December 1912

Translated by E. H. Goddard & D. S. Osmond