The Question of Destiny. Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts #44, #45, #46

Saint Francis receiving the stigmata

Rudolf Steiner:

44. We should pass on to a spiritual-scientific treatment of the question of destiny by taking examples from the life and experience of individual men and women, showing how the forces of destiny work themselves out, and the significance they have for the whole course of human life. We may show, for instance, how an experience which a man undergoes in his youth, which he can certainly not have brought upon himself entirely of his own free will, may nonetheless to a large extent give shape to the whole of his later life.

45. We should describe the significance of the fact that in the physical course of life between birth and death the good may become unhappy in their outer life, and the wicked at any rate apparently happy. In expounding these things, pictures of individual cases carry more weight than theoretical explanations; they are a far better preparation for the spiritual-scientific treatment of the subject.

46. Events of destiny which come into the life of man in such a way that their determining conditions cannot possibly be found in his present life should be cited. Faced with such happenings, a purely reasonable view of life already points in the direction of former lives on Earth. It must of course be made clear by the very way in which these things are described that no dogmatic or binding statement is implied. The purpose of such examples is simply to direct one's thoughts toward  a spiritual-scientific treatment of the question of destiny.

Source: http://wn.rsarchive.org/GA/GA0026/English/RSP1973/GA026_a02.html