Reincarnation in European history 3: Darwin
Introduction
In the previous article Reincarnation in European history 1: Arab Civilization we begin to propose how Rudolf Steiner reinterprets history with the concepts of reincarnation and karma in different works, but specifically in Karmic Relations that consisted of a set of talks he gave to end of his life
Here we are going to refer to Darwin.
Steiner tells us that in a previous incarnation, Darwin was General Tarik.
European history: General Táriq ibn Ziyad طارق بن زياد
Tarik was the general who led the Muslim conquest of the Spanish peninsula.
According to the chronicles, in 711, Tarik crossed the sea from the north coast of Africa (Morocco) and landed on what is now called Gibraltar which means the mountain of Tarik ( Jab al-Tarik). Although it was Beriberi, it followed orders from the Arabs.
The Arab armies, led by Tarik conquered Cordoba and Granada and reached Toledo. Tarik won the support of the Jews persecuted by the Visigoths. In three years they took almost all of Visigoth Spain.
The legend says that upon arriving in Gibraltar, Tarik burned his ships and told his men:
Oh, my warriors, where can they flee? Behind you is the sea, before you the enemy. They only hope for their courage and determination. Remember that you are luckier here than the orphan sitting at the table of the greedy boss. Your enemies are before you, protected by an innumerable army. They have men in abundance, but you, as the only resource, have their own swords. Do not believe that I intend to incite you to face dangers that I myself refuse to share with you. During the attack, he will be in front, where the chance of survival is less.
(Tarik s Address to His Soldiers), 711 CE
It is good to take into account that most were newly converted Beriberis converted to the Muhammad religion. The majority were not Arabs, but Beriberis. When Spain was divided, the Arabs stayed with the best lands in the south and the Beriberis with those in the north of Spain.
The tensions between Catholics and Arabs lasted for centuries and ended in 1492, with the taking of Granada. Whereupon the Iberian Peninsula and all of Europe was freed from the Islamic kingdom.
What happened to the Arab culture and Muslim deterministic thinking?
The point that Rudolf Steiner presents is that there is another way to interpret the story. That energy and that current of Muslim dogmatism would present itself again in Europe in an unexpected way. Arab leaders will reincarnate in Europe and develop materialistic scientific thinking.
We can ask ourselves, about all of Tarik's experience moving from Africa to Spain, fighting against the Visigoths, being a beriberi, under the authority of the Arabs, about all this experience that was useful to him. for your next incarnation?
Charles Robert Darwin was the reincarnation of Tarik.
Charles Robert Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882) He was born in England and is recognized for his work published in 1859 The Origin of Species, where he presents the theory of biological evolution through natural selection.
In his work, Darwin states that animals and plants adapt to their environment in the midst of a struggle for existence .
Steiner points out that Darwin went to the forms, to the outside. I felt it was impossible to penetrate what life gives. This is why he took life as something already given and did not try to explain it. He only cared about the way life takes.
Rudolf Steiner clarifies that this is the historical trend of our time that he calls Indo-European.
He explains that we have gone through the Persian culture, the Chaldean-Babylonian-Egyptian culture, the Greco-Roman culture and culture before arriving at the act: Indo-European. In these changes from one culture to another, we have moved from cultures very focused on the spiritual world to the present one that is centered on the material world.
We are at the lowest point of spirituality, but this stage was necessary to return to the spiritual sense, but now in a conscious way. Darwin himself recognized that he could not say anything about life, that he only studied forms.
Current science is dedicated to studying the external and to declare that about life itself it knows nothing. In this follows the ideas of Kant, who said that only appearances can be known, but not the thing itself. That is, we can only learn by the physical senses.
However, Steiner explains, materialism will be the foothold to recognize that it is possible to understand the spiritual world with a scientific foundation. So this materialistic phase was necessary to learn to think, to develop logical thinking and advance to new phases of knowledge with a spiritual science.
Materialistic knowledge is based on perception and observation, which has allowed us great scientific development.
What Steiner explains to us is that this materialistic science is due to the high development of science and the arts achieved in the Arab Empire and based on the deterministic religious thinking propagated by Muhammad.
Culture and reincarnation
What Rudolf Steiner points out, is that although the culture of the Arab Empire was defeated, the tendency that their leaders had learned remained and when reincarnating in European countries, they implemented those principles, but now as scientific knowledge, as is the case of Bacon, presented in a previous article, and Darwin, whom we are referring to.
One might ask why they were not born in countries with the same religion that they proclaimed in their previous life. One of Steiner's responses is that one is born in the culture or country against which he has fought the most.
If we are going to interpret it according to Darwin's theory, we could say that the best way to camouflage is to have the enemy's skin. It is a form of survival. Reincarnation in European history is an expression of evolution.
An important aspect in this vision that Steiner offers us is that in social life, as well as in physical life, energy does not disappear. The cultural forces of the past come back to life with different clothing.
That force with which Tarif conquered Spain, returns to conquer Europe. If he once imposed a deterministic religion through military force, he now imposes a deterministic materialistic science through thought. If we look at Darwin's theory, she is still a warrior . It is the struggle for existence that defines the evolution of the species. It is not a Christian theory of compassion and altruism. It is the Muslim thought expressed in a scientific context.
This does not disqualify the theory, which is telling us that the way in which reality is presented is the struggle. What Steiner is going to tell us is that we can now return to spiritual knowledge by integrating materialistic knowledge.
Steiner states that a spiritual science must integrate the ideas expressed by Darwin.
Wanting to understand life (the essence) despising physical forms is wanting to understand life without wanting to know how it manifests in its material form. We could say that materialism teaches us to love creation.
Even esoteric schools also change, evolve. The ways of expressing ideas and even the ideas themselves are transformed. That is why the dogmatism of a religion leads it to the situation of species that do not adapt to new environments. The truth, although essentially the same, will be expressed differently. People will understand it differently and will demand new forms of interpretation.
You cannot love God, despising human beings. But to love human beings you have to know them in all their extension . Above all, to love ourselves, we have to know each other.
It is interesting that according to Steiner, anthroposophical ideas would have been impossible without the theories of Darwin and Freud's Psychoanalysis.
It is interesting that according to Steiner, the anthroposophical ideas, which he presented, would have been impossible without the theories of Darwin and Freud's Psychoanalysis.
References
Rudolf Steiner (2003) Karmic Relations. Rudolf Steiner editorial.
Rudolf Steiner Darwin and Tolstoy https://southerncrossreview.org/92/steiner-tolstoy.html
Jose Contreras reincarnation-in-European-history-1-Arab-civilization
Tarik s Address to His Soldiers, 711 CE https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/711tarik1.asp
Link suggestions:
The Minor Arcana of the Tarot Rider
The mysteries of the Major Arcana
What is meditation?
