Pre-Natal Development and Reincarnation - 19 July 1966

   

Today we will work with the idea that reincarnation is a fact which can be discovered. As a first example, we will deal with Novalis, who was born on 2 May 1772, and we will start by giving his cosmic counter-image. We will do this from the heliocentric aspect.

His Earth was situated in Scales, and it is this that contains the embryo image, the cosmic counterpart of Novalis, even physiologically. In all this, we are presented with the facts of past incarnations. As Novalis is already very well known to us, we will take him as an example.

First, we must remember that our head presents the residue of the past life, a physical-spiritual residue that comprises a whole universe, which is lowered at conception as a kind of spiritual kernel. For us it is vital to look upon this Earth-head (where, from the geocentric aspect we would have the Sun) to give us the information we would find with regard to Novalis.

Novalis is the perfect example, cosmologically, of karma and reincarnation. We know that Saturn is also associated with human karma and that it represents the Omnipotent Father Time, who holds the secrets of time and reincarnation. What we seek is the time since Novalis’ last incarnation, as Raphael, whose Sun is in Ram in 1483. For this we should ask Saturn for confirmation.

Therefore, we return to the time when Saturn was in Scales (1749). It moved in 1772 to its position in Leo. (Novalis’ Saturn at birth came close to the fixed star Regulus in the constellation of the Lion.) We therefore subtract the time when Saturn was in Scales in 1749 from Novalis’ birth date of 1772, which gives us 23.4 Sun years.

We must now transpose this into Moon years (you will remember that last night, relating to 1413 and Joan of Arc’s execution, we transposed Sun time into Moon time and arrived at the year 1945). Let us now transpose the 23.4 Sun years into Moon time:

   

      Birth of Novalis                                                       1772

      When Saturn in Scales                                           -1749

      Sun years                                                                     23.4

      Sun years 23.4 x 12.37 (lunations) 289.4                1772

-289

      Birth of Raphael                                                      1483

As we started from the date 1772, we now subtract from that these 289.4 years and arrive at the year 1483. Also, having started from 1772, we went back to find Saturn in the place where, at birth, we found the Earth in 1749. It was this Saturn that pre-visualized the oncoming incarnation. (We could oven suspect that this year of 1749 held an important event in the spiritual world, and connected with it, which could be why the soul chose this as karma, through cooperation with the Divine Beings.)

We return, therefore, to the year 1483, when Raphael was born. We remember that a previous incarnation of Raphael had been as John the Baptist, and also Christ’s words, speaking of him as the greatest of human beings, though not superhuman. John the Baptist was the forerunner of humanity, and still is, while establishing a new relationship to the cosmic world.

In 1483 the Sun at Raphael’s birth was in Aries, but this we cannot handle at the moment. There are tremendous secrets here that must be restrained for lack of time. This is a relationship concerning Saturn. Yesterday we said that Saturn, Sun, and Moon rhythms would all give us the same moment of return to Raphael.

If we go back from the Earth at Novalis’ birth 252 degrees (on the proposition that one degree, or day, of the Sun stands for one year), we find the Earth in Waterman. This indicates the possibility of another incarnation in 1520.

   

Earth at birth         = 222° minus 252°      = 222 + 360 - 252 = 330°        Earth 330° is in opposition to Saturn at Birth in 150°

1772 = Birth of Novalis

- 252 years

1520 = Death of Raffael

   

On Thursday we will deal with the projection of the death of Raphael into the future. This is also possible.

We will now take another example, that of Haeckel. He was the Darwinist who was born on February 16, 1834, with Saturn in Virgin. Here, we will try to employ all three perspectives, of Sun, Moon and Saturn.

Let us start with the Moon. We will take the year 1067 in the life of Pope Gregory VII. He died on May 25, 1085, with Saturn and Pluto in Ram. The year 1067 is a date during his lifetime. We should really check these facts from the lecture cycles of Rudolf Steiner. It is essential that we accompany this work by such a study in order that it may not become merely superficial and flippant. Gregory VII was a powerful figure of the Roman Church, which he used as a strong instrument. It was he who made Henry IV come to Canossa for forgiveness after his excommunication. Henry had wanted his temporal power to have its say, but Gregory introduced the Law of Investitures, and the celibacy of all Roman Catholic Priests.

By this, Gregory created a two-edged instrument that ensured that the priesthood was devoted entirely to the Church, without personal obligations. Also, that the clergy were selected exclusively by the Church. Rudolf Steiner speaks in his Karma lectures of these tremendous shortcomings. Haeckel was also a “pope” of Darwinism, and with all the spiritual experiences between the one life and the next, he came to oppose his own previous defects by correction. In 1067, Gregory, though not yet Pope, was already preparing for that office. It is even mentioned in official records in 1059 that he had begun to speak against the rights of Emperors.

Let us see if we can make this more manageable, by making use of Moon time. We know that from one lunation to the next is 29.458 days, and that in one year there are 12.37 lunations. Therefore, we must reduce the Sun years to Moon years. Haeckel was born in 1834. In 1772 Saturn was in the place where the Earth was at Haeckel’s birth. From 1772 to 1834 is a difference of 62 years containing 767 lunations as representative of Sun years. (Subtract 767 years from 1834 and you arrive at 1067, during the life time of Gregory.)

Starting from 1834, Haeckel’s birth year, and if we go back to 1772, we come back to almost the same Saturn in Leo that had arrived there at the time of Novalis’ birth.

Haeckel was born in 1834, but we will return to the birth of Novalis in 1772, when Saturn was close to the fixed star Regulus in Lion. This Saturn travels round the zodiac to return to almost the same position, but a bit further on in Scales, in 1834. The birth contains the secrets of a past individuality. This is sacred ground of the secrets of the incarnation of a human being, if one reads the heavenly signs properly. We can come to similar conclusions through the Saturn rhythms. Through such computations, all arriving at the same result, we can find the right track.

We will confirm such methods with yet another individuality, that of Francis Bacon. He was born on January 22, 1561. We will find a reference to him by Rudolf Steiner in Karmic Relationships.

In this case, we also look back to Haroun al Raschid, the Caliph who was born in 763 and died 809 AD. This was a previous incarnation. Bacon’s Saturn was in Taurus, incidentally. Referring back to previous lectures, we see how deep this connection goes in relation to the 1413 chart, and the development of natural science.

This time, we will take the year of the birth of Bacon in 1561. We will take a point in time, 801, from the last incarnation, and we will then transpose these years to lunations, and divide by 12.37, and thereby come to 61.45. Subtract 61.45 from 1561.45 and we arrive at the date of 1499 (August) when Saturn was in Aries in opposition to the Earth at the epoch.

   

1561 Birth of Bacon   1561.05 - 801 Point in last life            - 61.45

                           760 ÷ 12.37 Lunations = 61.45                     1499.6

(In such a process, I would first calculate when Saturn opposed the Earth — in this case the Earth of the Epoch of Bacon — that is, in 1499.6. This date I would subtract from 1561 = 61.45 years. These I transposed into Moon years, or lunations 61.45 x 12.37 = 760. This figure subtracted from 1561 lead me back to 801 A D.)

I suspect the year 801 to have been a significant date in the life of the Caliph, which might be associated with this incarnation of Bacon — possibly with the Arab University and its principles of Mohammedism. This could come out in Bacon as a tendency toward natural science, and its over-materialism. He even died from a cold he caught while he was investigating the death of a chicken that was just run over by his vehicle.

Now let us return with Saturn of 1561, and to the point when Earth is in Cancer at the birth of Bacon in 1535. Then we will transpose these Sun years to Saturn years, knowing that each Sun year stands for 29.458 years. Through this same method, which we have employed previously, we arrive at the year 809.

   

1561 Earth in Cancer	1561
- 1535 Saturn in the same place	-              752
25.5 Sun years x 29.458 = 752	809

   

In 1535 Thomas Moore was executed. This could have been a moment in the prenatal life of Bacon, when he picked up the threads to work toward a pre-visualized incarnation. Such things can be clarified by the death asterogram.

We can also work with the time proposition of one day to one year and again reach a similar result. Finally, we will attempt to prove these results again in the life of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was born on May 25, 1803. He was also involved in the events of

Gregory’s lifetime, for he was then Mathilda of Tuscany, and it was in her castle that Henry IV begged Gregory’s forgiveness. She was a highly spiritual personality, who lived from 1046 to 1115.

Shortly before Emerson’s birth in 1803, there was the Great Conjunction in 1802 of Saturn and Jupiter. If we now go back two cycles, or 59.5 years, from 1803, we come back to 1743, the year of the previous Great Conjunction, which took place opposite the Earth of Emerson’s epoch; therefore we see, also in this case, the time between the two incarnations inscribed into the asterogram of Emerson’s birth. Now 59.5 years, which is almost two Saturn cycles, equals 736 lunations, and if we go back 736 years from 1803, we come to 1067, when Mathilda was 21 years of age and what was possibly a significant date in her life.

   

                                    736 x 12.37 = 59.5 years;       1803 - 736 = 1067

   

These rhythms may seem complicated, but not only can they be confirmed, but in using them, with variations, we are prevented from becoming too set in our ways, and it gives us flexibility. The transposition of Saturn time indicates the insertion of the individuality into the processes of history. The transposition of Moon time leans more toward the individual stream of vitality, as a kind of vessel for the new incarnation, and the transposition of Sun time gives us the prospect of leading Karma.

Sometimes we may feel there is little relation in character between one incarnation and another. But if one lifetime appears rather sinister, we must remember that in the spiritual worlds between death and a new birth a transformation can take place. The soul takes stock of its past mistakes and vows — with the help of Spiritual Beings — that next time it will be different. For instance, when Gregory died, Saturn was in Ram and Pluto was very close. This was stern indeed. But in his next incarnation as Haeckel, Saturn stood nearly opposite the previous position, in the constellation of Virgin, as a kind of ‘renewal’. For in Virgin we see redemption for the scientific element. Haeckel had this feeling for science, but he also had a strong sense of the beautiful. We can find many such instances of this kind of reversal if we look for them. Also, when Haeckel was born, in 1834, Pluto returned to Ram, but it was accompanied by Jupiter, and so it was permeated with new life forces.

I should have mentioned earlier, with regard to Novalis, that we can take him right back to John the Baptist by using the Moon cycles. Saturn was in the same place in the zodiac as at Novalis’ birth in 1631. It traveled round several times before it settled in the same place in 1772 (Lion). We can read 26 AD (the time of John the Baptist) by using the lunations (this is also corroborated by the Saturn transposition of time).

   

             1772   Birth of Novalis

          -1631 Saturn in Scales (as in 1749 leading back to Raphael) conjunct Earth position at birth.

141 x 12.37 (lunations) = 1746.4 Moon cycles

1772

-1746.4

                   26 AD John the Baptist