THE NAME

IT IS A PITY that men pass by even serious matters with indifference, and that owing to their spiritual indolence they only recognize everything when they must recognize it.

The root cause of this fateful indolence is to be found in the effects of mankind’s hitherto wanton misuse of their free volition.

All men stand in the Law as does every creature; they are enveloped and penetrated by the Law, and in the Law and through the Law they have also come into existence.

They live in it, and with their free volition they themselves weave their own fate, choose their own ways.

When incarnated here upon earth these self-chosen paths also lead them unfailingly to those parents whom they absolutely need for their childhood.

Thus they also enter into those circumstances which are useful to them, because they receive just that which has ripened for them as the fruit of the threads of their own volition.

In the resulting experiences they also continue to mature, for if their previous volition was evil then the fruits they will have to taste will be exactly in accordance therewith.

This happening with its inescapable final consequences is at the same time the continuous fulfilment of wishes once cherished, which always lie hidden in every volition, and which indeed form the central motive of every volition.

Except that such fruits often do not appear till the next earth-life, yet they never fail to appear!

In addition these consequences simultaneously hold the redemption for everything which man has formed up till then, be it good or evil.

As soon as he learns the lessons from these experiences and thereby comes to recognize how he is, then it is also definitely possible for him to ascend at any moment, as well as out of any set of circumstances; for no burden is so weighty that it could not be changed by an earnest volition for what is good.

Thus it operates in constant and uninterrupted movement throughout the entire Creation, and the human being also, along with every other creature, keeps on weaving his fate, his particular kind of path in the threads of the Law.

Every stirring of his spirit, every wavering of his soul, every action of his body, and every word he utters automatically and unconsciously ties ever new threads to the existing ones, attaching them, connecting one with the other, and interweaving them.

The human being forms and forms, and even thereby forms in advance the earth-name which he must bear in his next life on earth, and which he will inevitably bear because the threads of his own weaving surely and unswervingly lead him to it.

Thus every earth-name also stands in the Law.

It is never accidental and never without the bearer himself having provided the basis for it beforehand, because in the process of incarnating every soul runs irresistibly along the threads of its own weaving, as if on rails, to the place where it exactly belongs in accordance with the Primordial Law of Creation.

As this happens the threads finally become ever more taut in the increasing material condensation at those points where the radiations of coarse ethereal matter are in close contact with the radiations of fine gross matter, and join hands for a firm union, as if magnetized, for the period of a new life on earth.

The particular earth-life then lasts until the original strength of these radiations of the soul changes on account of various redeeming experiences during life on earth.

Therewith this magnetic power of attraction is also directed more upwards than downwards to the gross material; whereby in turn the separation of the ethereal matter of the soul from the gross material body finally takes effect in accordance with the Law, because a real fusion has never taken place, but merely a union, which was held together magnetically through a very definite strength arising from the degree of heat of their mutual radiation.

Thus it also happens that the soul must separate from a body which has been forcibly destroyed, ruined by disease, or weakened by old age at the very moment when this body, owing to its changed condition, can no longer produce that strength of radiation which brings about such a magnetic power of attraction as is necessary to play its part in the firm union between soul and body.

This results in earthly death, or the falling back or falling off of the gross material body from the ethereal cloak of the spirit, thus separation.

This is a process in accordance with firmly established laws and takes place between two species, which only unite at a precisely corresponding degree of heat through the radiation thus produced.

But they can never merge into each other, and they fall apart again when one of the two different species can no longer fulfil the condition ordained.

Even when the gross material body is asleep its firm union with the soul is loosened, because during sleep the body produces a different radiation which does not bind as solidly as the one required for the firm union.

However, since the union still exists only a loosening takes place, but no separation.

This loosening is immediately eliminated at each awakening.

But if a person inclines only towards gross material things, for example, as with those who so proudly call themselves realists or materialists, then hand in hand with this goes the fact that through this desire their soul produces a specially strong radiation directed towards the World of Gross Matter.

This process involves a very hard physical death because the soul tries to cling one-sidedly to the gross material body, and thus a condition arises which is called a heavy death-struggle.

The kind of radiation is therefore decisive for much, indeed for everything in Creation.

It provides an explanation for every process!

How a soul comes just to the gross material body ordained for it I have already explained in my lecture about the mystery of birth.

The threads linking it with the prospective parents have been knotted through their mutual homogeneity, which at first had an attracting influence that increased more and more, until at a certain maturity of the growing body the threads joined and knotted themselves to this body, thus forcing a soul to incarnate.

And the parents also bear that name which they acquired through the way in which they wove the threads for themselves.

For this reason the same name must be suitable for the approaching homogeneous soul which has to incarnate.

In spite of the apparent reflection given to the matter even the first names of the new earthman are always and only given in such a way as will correspond to the homogeneous species, because the thinking and reflecting always and only conform to that particular species.

The species can always be accurately recognized in the thinking, and therefore in spite of their thousandfold variations those species to which particular thought-forms belong can be clearly and sharply distinguished.

I have already spoken about this in my explanations about thought-forms.

The species is fundamental for everything.

Consequently even with the greatest pondering about the names to be given to an infant at its christening they will always be so chosen as to correspond with the Law to which the species is subject or which it merits, for man cannot act any differently because he stands in the Laws, which affect him according to his species.

Notwithstanding all this the free will is never excluded, since each species of man is in reality only a fruit of the personal and actual volition which he carries within himself.

It is nothing but an utterly detestable excuse if he seeks to deceive himself that under the compulsion of the Laws of Creation he has no freedom of his will.

Whatever he is forced to experience for himself under the compulsion of these Laws are fruits of his personal volition, which has preceded these fruits and woven the threads leading to them, allowing them to ripen correspondingly.

Thus every person on earth bears precisely that name which he earned for himself.

Therefore his name is not only what it is, he is not only called by this name, but he is this name.

Man is what his name says!

There is no chance about the matter!

In some way the prescribed combination is achieved; for man cannot tear apart these threads until they are lived off by the human spirits concerned with them and to which they cling.

That is a knowledge which mankind of today does not yet possess, and which they will therefore very probably smile about as they do with everything they cannot comprehend.

But neither does this mankind know the Divine Laws which have been hewn firmly into Creation from its primordial beginning, the Laws to which Creation owes its very existence, which also affect man every single second, which are likewise his helpers and judges in everything he does and thinks, and without which he would be absolutely unable to draw a single breath!

And all this he does not know!

Neither is it astonishing, therefore, that he does not want to recognize many things as the immutable consequences of these Laws, but tries to mock and laugh at them.

However, just in those things which man should and must definitely know he is utterly inexperienced or, to put it bluntly, he is more stupid than any other creature in this Creation whose whole life simply swings therein!

And just through this stupidity he laughs about everything he cannot understand!

His mockery and ridicule are the direct proof and admission of his ignorance, of which he will soon be ashamed when it causes him to be overcome with despair.

Only despair can still achieve the destruction of the hard casing which now envelops men and keeps them so much imprisoned!

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