Principle of spiritual economy

Not only the human 'I' can be reincarnated, the human etheric body and the human astral body can also be reincarnated. The principle of spiritual economy is that what has once been gained cannot perish but is preserved and transplanted on the spiritual soil of posterity.

Valuable bodily components of important Individualities are not lost but can be re-used by other Individualities as part of an incarnation.

Aspects

for case examples see Schema FMC00.089 .. as "the intimate history of Christian development is connected with this fact" (1909-02-15-GA109)
the multiplication process is described for Sem-Melchizedek, Elijah, as case examples for study as they relate to the Christ Impulse
- Sem-Melchizedek (1909-02-15-GA109)
- for Elijah
  - "The spirit of Elijah itself shows how in multiplied form it must enter human hearts, so that in the further course of world history they may gradually take up ever more and more of the Christ Impulse. .. “I will make a place for Him; I will prepare the way for Him into the hearts of men. I will no longer merely hover over men, but will enter into human hearts, so that He also can enter in.” (1912-09-17-GA139) - see The being of Elijah#Note 4 - Elijah cellular multiplication into human heart
- the Christ Impulse
  - "Because the avatar being of Christ lived in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, it became possible for his etheric body to be multiplied innumerable times. This was true as well of the astral body and even the I; that is, the I as an impulse," (1909-02-15-GA109)
  - "through what we may call a mystical Christological process, Man acquires a body quite other than the one he has gradually acquired in his downward evolution .. think of each of these new bodies as having an intimate connection with the pure phantom that rose from the grave, somewhat as the human cells of the physical body are connected with the original cell." (1911-10-11-GA131) see Cleansed phantom#1911-10-11-GA131
re-use of bodily principles
- in the future and later stages of human development, also copies (or a 'print', "Abdruck") of the spirit-self, life-spirit and spirit-man will similarly be available (1909-02-03-GA109 notes to lecture).
- transfer copy of I
  - The I of Master Jesus (Zarathustra, Jesus of Nazareth, KRI90) lived again in Lucian of Antioch (approx 240-312), the teacher of Arius (approx 260-336) later also in a personality in northern Italy. (1909-02-19-GA109 notes to lecture). Note: Regarding copies of the bodies of Jesus, in 1909-03-22-GA109 notes to lecture, Franciscus of Assisi and Elisabeth von Thüringen are mentioned as carriers of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth. This shows that the individual scribes did not always consistently use Jesus or Christ-Jesus.
- transfer copy of etheric body
  - Michael Lomonossow is given as an example of a carrier of the etheric body of Galilei. (1909-02-19-GA109 notes to lecture (states explicitly astral body, also in 1917-01-15-GA174: "The soul of Galileo lives again in the Russian Lomonosov ,and Lomonosov is .. founder of Slav culture in the East")
  - The author of the old Saxon epic Heliand (9th century) was a carrier of (copy of) the etheric body of Jesus. (1909-02-19-GA109 notes to lecture)
- transfer copy of astral body
  - KRI55: Copernicus received the astral body of Nikolaus von Kues (1909-02-25-GA109 notes to lecture)
  - Rudolf Steiner discusses Shankaracharya or Adi Shankara, a vedic scholar and teacher, as a potential carrier of the astral body of the Buddha (the wordings are confusing so it's not clear he confirms it or not) (1909-03-22-GA109 notes to lecture)
- in the lectures of the Baptism, the technique of sacrificing lower bodies is described. It is described how "in Jesus of Nazareth we have a personality that reached a high stage of development and .. already used to sacrifice [these] in previous incarnations." (1908-09-14-GA244 - Q&A 169.8)
- a human etheric body which remains preserved after death is called nirmanakaya, one that originates from multiplication is called dharmakaya (1909-02-19-GA109 extra notes to lecture). Multiplication of ether bodies is possible through avatars, highly developed beings such as Vishnu (who worked in Krishna as avatar) and many advanced Brahmans. (1909-02-03-GA109 and 1909-02-19-GA109 notes to lecture).

lateral thinking:
- in 1924-08-08-GA237 Rudolf Steiner states: "the soul shall really be taken hold of by the mission of spiritual science" on Q00.006 - spiritual events at various points in life#1924-08-08-GA237. This could refer to the process of attaching a copy of the etheric body
- in that context, see also the working of the etheric body of Christian Rosenkreutz - see Individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz#1911-09-27-GA130

Inspirational quotes

1909-02-19-GA109 notes to lecture

Those who are preparing themselves today, are preparing a copy (or imprint) of the I of that entity (Christ and examples of carriers of bodily principles such as Franciscus of Assisi Elisabeth von Thüringen ), and that is the development of the future Christianity. This is now the past works into the future, and this is how Man will recognize his destination, that way becoming a contributor in this great spiritual task. Brah

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.089 shows examples of Individualities that have received copies of Christ-Jesus as part of their make up in Man's bodily principles for the given incarnations.

Addition: Nicolas Cusanus or Nikolaus von Kues is told to be a carrier of the astral body of Christ, and Galilei a carrier of the etheric body of Christ. It is said that Franciscus of Assisi could err in his I (as it had not been fully been worked through the Christ impulse ; in DE: "noch nicht durchchristlicht") but was truly great in his astral body, and that he lived in copies of the three sheaths of Christ. (1909-02-19-GA109 notes to lecture)

Lecture coverage and references

Overview coverage

In the period Feb to May 1909 this topic was covered in lectures mainly in GA109 (two from Rome that are in GA109 also in GA111).

Note that additional information (from various notes of lesser quality) is in GA volume GA109 in an Appendix (p 284 onwards in the German DE PDF). These are worth studying as they contain interesting nuances and hints.

Just one example, at the end of 1909-03-22-GA109 extra notes to lecture, in an allmost teasing tone: "Who has built into the St. Peter Cathedral the mechanics through Michelangelo that humanity received only later through Galilei." This is context of an explanation of re-use of etheric and astral bodies. This is picked up in 1911-01-01-GA109 notes to lecture (the actual lecture is in GA126), where is explained that the great intellectual thoughts about mechanics that Galilei had for humanity, can be seen in the spatial forms by Michelangelo in the St Peters. Further interesting hints are given, that the person who remarked this also noted that Michelangelo's death coincides with Galilei's birthday. See also '1911-12-17-GA109 notes to lecture' below.

Reference extracts

1909-01-21-GA109

also covered (see also 1909-02-15-GA109):

Astral body Cusa to Copernicus
Etheric body Galileo to Lomonosov
re-use of Zarathustra's astral body in Hermes, and etheric body in Moses

The fact is that the astral body of Cusa was transferred to Copernicus even though the ego of the latter was different from that of Cusa. This is how Copernicus received the foundation and all the preparations for his own doctrine.
Similar cases occur often. What is especially valuable is always preserved; nothing vanishes. But this fact also enhances the possibility of error in any attempt to establish correspondences, especially when people attempt to investigate the earlier lives of a human being with the help of a medium in séance. The transfer of an etheric or astral body to a human being in more modern times usually happens now in such a way that an astral body is transferred to a member of the same language group, whereas an etheric body can be transferred to a member of another language group.
With regard to Galileo, it would have been a waste in nature's economy had his etheric body, the carrier of his memory and talent, been lost. And that is why his etheric body was transferred to another human being: Michail Lomonosov, who came from a poor Russian village and was later to become the founder of Russian grammar and classical literature. Lomonosov, however, is not the reincarnated Galileo, as might be supposed as a result of superficial investigation.
And thus we see that there are many such cases and that the process of reincarnation is not so simple as most people of our time think. If, therefore, people investigate earlier incarnations with the help of occult methods, they have to exercise much greater caution. .. the matter becomes more dangerous when advanced occultists make mistakes in this regard and imagine that they are the reincarnation of this or that man, when in fact they carry only his etheric body. ..

We have seen not only that the I's are capable of reincarnation, but that the lower members of the human constitution in a certain sense undergo a similar process. The result of this is that the whole configuration of the process of reincarnation is much more complicated than is usually supposed. And thus we see that the ego of Zarathustra was reincarnated as Zarathas — Nazarathos, who in turn became the teacher of Pythagoras. On the other hand, Zarathustra's astral body reappeared in Hermes and his etheric body in Moses. Therefore, nothing is lost in the world; everything is preserved and transmitted to posterity, provided it is valuable enough

1909-02-15-GA109

or translation V2 of that lecture: 1909-02-15-GA109

Note: this lecture held in Berlin appears in both GA107 (DE edition 5 of 1988) and GA109 (DE edition 3 of 2000). On this site we use the reference GA109 consistently to avoid confusion, and GA109 because that GA volume carries the title spiritual economy (so the lecture is definitely in the right place in that volume).

covers

the connection of an avatar being with the etheric body of Sem, the progenitor (Stammvater) of the Semites. This caused a multiplication into uncountable copies of this etheric body in his descendants
the storage of Sems own etheric body in the spiritual world for the mission of Melchisedek within the mission of the Hebrew people
the impulse of Melchisedek to Abraham

and then also:

the multiplication of the etheric body, astral body and I of Jesus of Nazareth through the entry of the Christ avatar being in Jesus
the storage of these multiplied etheric and astral bodies in the spiritual world and the later insewing or weaving in (einweben) of these bodies in mature or ripe souls
the intimate relation between the above and the history of Christianity

Other examples are given in that lecture:

starting in the Atlantean epoch and Seven Rishis
also Shem son of Noah, Melchizedek

Quote A

Now we have already said in the lecture mentioned at the beginning that there is also a spiritual economy consisting in the fact that anything of especial value is preserved and carried over into the future. We have heard that not only is the I re-embodied, but that also the astral body and the etheric body can be re-embodied.
Aside from the fact that numberless copies of Shem's etheric body were formed, his own etheric body was also preserved in the spiritual world because it could later be useful in the mission of the Hebrew people. In this etheric body all the peculiarities of the Hebrews had originally come to expression, and if at any time something of especial importance was to occur for them, if a special task or mission was to be assigned to some one of them, it could best be accomplished by one who bore the etheric body of the ancestor.
At a later time, a man who played an important role in the history of the Hebrews actually did bear the etheric body of the tribal ancestor, Shem. In fact, we have here one of those wonderful complications in human evolution that can explain a great deal to us. We have to do with an exalted individuality who was compelled to condescend, in somewhat the way a spiritually advanced person would have to speak to a lowly tribe, to speak to the Hebrew people in a manner appropriate to giving them strength for a special mission. He would, of course, be compelled to learn the language of this tribe, but it should not be maintained because of this that the language was something that would be used to advance him personally; he needed only take the trouble to learn the language.
In this same way a lofty individuality had to make the effort to use Shem's etheric body to be able to give a definite impulse to the ancient Hebrew people. This personality is the one you find in Biblical history named Melchizedek. He took upon himself the etheric body of Shem so that later he could give Abraham the impulse you find so beautifully described in the Bible. So, aside from the fact that what was contained in the individuality of Shem was multiplied because an avatar being was embodied in it, which then became woven into all the other etheric bodies of the Hebrews, Shem's own etheric body was preserved in the spiritual world so that it could be borne at a later time by Melchizedek, who was to give the Hebrews an important impulse through Abraham.
Thus delicately interwoven are the facts existing behind the physical world that alone make explicable to us what occurs in it. We come to understand history only when we are able to point to such facts of a spiritual nature lying behind the physical ones. History can never be explained by considering physical facts alone.
What we have been discussing becomes especially significant. Through the descent of an avatar being the essential soul-spiritual members of the individual who is the bearer of this avatar being are multiplied and transmitted as copies to other human beings.
This fact assumes special significance through the appearance of Christ on Earth. Because the avatar being of Christ lived in the body of Jesus of Nazareth, it became possible for his etheric body to be multiplied innumerable times. This was true as well of the astral body and even the I; that is, the I as an impulse, as it was kindled in the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth when Christ entered his threefold sheath. First, however, we will take into account the fact that through the Avatar Being the etheric and astral bodies of Jesus could be multiplied.
Now, through the appearance of the Christ principle in earthly evolution one of the most significant phenomena in humanity occurred.
What I have told you about Shem is fundamentally typical and characteristic of the pre-Christian times. When an etheric or an astral body is multiplied in this way, the copies are transmitted as a rule to those people who are related by blood to the one who had the original. Hence, the copies of Shem's etheric body were transmitted to the members of the Hebrew tribe.
This was changed when the Christ avatar being appeared. The etheric and astral bodies of Jesus of Nazareth were multiplied and the copies preserved until they could be used in the course of human development. They were not, however, limited to any one nationality nor to any particular people.
But when in the course of time a human being appeared who, irrespective of nationality, was ripe to have interwoven with his etheric or astral body an etheric or astral copy of the etheric or astral body of Jesus of Nazareth, they could be woven into his being. Thus, we see how it became possible in the course of time for all sorts of people to have woven into them copies of the astral or etheric bodies of Jesus of Nazareth.
The intimate history of Christian development is connected with this fact. ...

quote A (checked, seemingly not correct?)

After hearing about these examples of the reincarnation of etheric bodies and of an astral body, we know it is insufficient to speak only of the reincarnation of the I. The other members of the human constitution - the etheric body and the astral body — can also be reincarnated. It is a principle of spiritual economy that what has once been gained cannot perish, but is preserved and transplanted on the spiritual soil of posterity.

1909-04-19-GA264

(p 190 in EN edition 2010)

1909-05-16-GA104A

This is what happened to Sem, who actually had something to do with the entire tribe of the Semites. A special etheric body was formed for such a progenitor of a tribe. Because of this Sem was a kind of double personality. As incredible as it may sound to modern thinking, to a clairvoyant a personality such as Sem appeared, with his aura, like an ordinary man whose etheric body was filled by a higher being reaching down from higher worlds. In this way the man's aura became a mediator between his personality and higher worlds.
When dwelling in a human being such a divine being has a very special power. He can reproduce a particular etheric body, and these reproduced etheric bodies then form a fabric that is again and again woven into the descendants.
In this way the descendants of Sem were endowed with copies of his etheric body. But the etheric body of Sem himself, not only the reproduced copies, was also preserved in the mysteries. Then, any special individual who had been assigned a special mission had to use this etheric body in order to make himself understood to the Semitic people, just as highly educated Europeans would have to learn the language of the Hottentots in order to make themselves understood to them. The individuals given a special mission therefore had to carry within them the real etheric body of Sem in order to make themselves understood to the Semitic people. An example of such a personality would be Melchizedek, who could only show himself to Abraham in the etheric body of Sem.

and later

The Christ being took possession of these three bodies but he also took possession of something else, something that remained behind like an imprint of the I of Jesus. From the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries on, something like a copy of Jesus' I was woven into those men who then began to speak of an “inner Christ.” Meister Eckhart and Johannes Tauler were speaking out of their inner experience of something like an imprint of the I of Jesus of Nazareth.
Although there are still many people present today carrying something like a copy of the various bodies of Jesus of Nazareth, they no longer become leading personalities. More and more we see how in our fifth age there are people who must rely on themselves, on their own I. Such inspired people will become increasingly rare.
Therefore, steps were taken to provide for the future so that a particular spiritual stream could arise in our time, a spiritual stream with the task of insuring that spiritual knowledge will still reach humanity. Those individuals who could see into the future had to provide for human beings who are wholly dependent on their merely human I.

1911-10-11-GA131

see Cleansed phantom#1911-10-11-GA131

In a "mystical Christological process" analoguous to the multiplication of cells

Such question as this might be asked: If indeed Paul really believed that a spiritual body had risen, what has this spiritual body which had risen out of the grave to do with what every Man now bears in himself?
This is not hard to understand: we need only consider the analogy offered by the coming into existence of a human individual.

As physical human being he begins from a single cell; a physical body consists entirely of cells which are all children of the original cell; all cells which compose a human body are traceable to the original cell.

Now imagine that, through what we may call a mystical Christological process, Man acquires a body quite other than the one he has gradually acquired in his downward evolution.

Then think of each of these new bodies as having an intimate connection with the pure phantom that rose from the grave, somewhat as the human cells of the physical body are connected with the original cell. That is, we must think of the Phantom as multiplying itself, as does the cell which gives rise to the physical body.
So, in the evolution which follows the Mystery of Golgotha, every Man can inwardly acquire something which is spiritually descended from the phantom which rose from the grave, just as — to echo Paul — the ordinary body which falls into dissolution is descended from Adam.

1911-12-17-GA109 notes to lecture

When after life on Earth we pass through the gate of death, after having worked here on Earth on the progress and transformation of our bodily principles, then ..
.. we give over the part of the etheric body that we transformed to an angelic being as the contribution due to which it is entitled ("seinen Tribut, auf der er wartet und auf den er einen Anspruch hat"). This contribution or part is being radiated out by the angel and made of use for future generations, so the thoughts of experiences and progress can express and transplant themselves further. When this would not happen, and men would not work the tranformation of their etheric bodies, but only would occupy themselves with the needs of the physical plane, then the whole world would become ever more lonely and in the end die out.
The experiences that are gained by the transformation of the astral body, are being transferred after death to an archangel, that radiates it again onto other human beings. So delicate and hidden are these influences of our astral bodies working, that only through spiritual science can explain how these things work.
As an example: Paracelsus (1493-1541) died at age 48 after having worked extremely hard on his astral body through the many experiences he had. These transformed powers of his astral body were transferred through the archangelic beings to Goethe in the for him so important 48th year of his life, when a wholly new period of his life started for Goethe whereby he worked over Faust and discovered many secrets. He added to Faust the 'preface in heave'n, that made Faust not just the story of a single human being, but of the whole development of humanity.
The I then still needs to be considered. Also here the developed powers, especially with strong Individualities, are transferred to a being of the hierarchy of the Archai, that then uses these in long ages of time to let new forces descend into humanity.
That is what happens in the spiritual world after death.

Discussion

Note 1 - Melchizedek or Melchisedek

Note: for more on Melchizedek (or Melchisedek or Melchisedech or Malekzadik) as "the great Atlantean Sun-initiate" (and the impulse given to Abraham), see 1910-09-04-GA123