Karmic Relationships 38

The present lecture has remained unpublished either in German or in English since 1940, and the original publication is exceedingly rare. Thus I have appended the German original of 1940 at the end of the volume. It is an extraordinary lecture, which discusses the earlier incarnations of the German dramatist and philosopher Friedrich Schiller, the poets Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Heinrich Heine, and the French occultist Eliphas Lévi. In each case, Steiner describes how future karma was formed in the various planetary spheres during the life between death and rebirth, and in response to the specific previous incarnation. In a mere twenty pages, scenarios of a vast scope are conjured forth.