Recurring Collaborations
— Plato, Theaetetus, 369 BC, 150
In the light of recent revelations (El Ochre, 1997 – 2025), Plato is seen as an incarnation of Pratabulu, an Osirian Adept descended from the youngest son of Adam el Daoud. Similarly, Aristotle was an incarnation of Aristonaiu, a descendant of Arbal el Caen, the eldest son of the Father King, Adam el Daoud, also known as 'the Beloved'. The latter two were once co-incarnate as Jesus Christ. Note that Pratabulu and Aristonaiu are illustrated generically since actual portraits of Atlanteans are not to be found. Their parallel incarnations are tabulated below and differ from Steiner's view that his friends and compatriots, Tobias Gottfried Schröer and Karl Julius Schröer, father and son, were reincarnations of Socrates and Plato. (GA238, Karmic Relationships IV : X, 23 September 1924)
Plato (428 – 347 BCE) was one of the most original and influential thinkers in Western philosophy. He founded the Academy at Athens and taught a doctrine of mentalism; ie that all things are expressions of primordial ideas within the universal mind. Plato preserved the dialogues of Socrates and recorded much of the metaphysical information channelled through his teacher, although this type of revelatory knowledge was already receding under the emerging trend of rationalism. In turn Plato's own pupil, Aristotle (384 – 322 BCE), moved away from supersensible inspiration toward rational speculation. He considered knowledge to be grounded in sensory experience and proceeded to produce logical explanations for all natural phenomena. While Aristotle's scientific theories covered physics and biology (his wife Pythias was a biologist and embryologist), his metaphysical speculations were essentially materialistic. Aristotle eventually discounted Plato's notion of a soul distinct from the body. For him God was the Prime Mover, a cosmic force rather than a spiritual essence. Though many of his conclusions are now redundant, his empirical method and analytical approach still form a fundamental part of our modern scientific thinking.
Aristotle tutored the young Alexander the Great for several years. Their relationship was marked by dialogue and debate — notably on the ethics of good governance and strong leadership — and lasted until their deaths. ​They returned in their next incarnations, together, as Eratosthenes of Cyrene (276 – 196 BCE) and Ptolemy III Euergetes (284 – 222 BCE). Once more a Greek philosopher, Eratosthenes headed the great library of Alexandria (so named after Alexander) while Ptolemy, again a Macedonian king, became the third pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.
Like Aristotle, Eratosthenes' knowledge was vast and profound. He excelled as a scientist, mathematician, poet and inventor, but is most famous for his remarkable calculation of the earth's circumference and hence called the father of geography. Eratosthenes eventually went blind and starved himself to death. This blindness was the karmic consequence of his agnostic neglect of the visionary faculty of the mind, but in a later incarnation as the German philosopher Rudolf Steiner he would acquire extraordinary powers of clairvoyance.​​
​Likewise Plato and Aristotle were to resume their own teacher-pupil relationship as Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas.
St Albertus Magnus (c.1200 – 1280) was a Hermetic scholar noted for introducing Greek philosophy and Arabic science into the medieval world. As a Dominican theologian he now taught St Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274). The latter attempted to reconcile the philosophy of Aristotle with the theology of St Augustine, and thereby to reconcile all knowledge with faith. He wrote the magnum opus, Summa Theologica, a classic history of philosophy and among the most influential works on the history of ideas in Western culture. Aristotle's thought had already been rediscovered by the Arabs in the golden age of their culturally advanced empire, and was to become authoritative in Europe throughout the Middle Ages — not without negative consequences. Adopted and adapted as a basis for Christian scholasticism by Aquinas, Aristotle's teachings were deemed by the Church to be the last word on natural philosophy, which precluded further scientific research until the dawn of the Enlightenment. Galileo, for one, famously faulted the Aristotelian law that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones, by dropping different weights from the leaning tower of Pisa — and thus showed that all objects, regardless of their weight, fell at the same speed.
Meanwhile Plato was about to return as another distinctive thinker. Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Spanish-Portuguese Jewish heritage. He rejected traditional thought and became a free thinker, synthesising original and distinct ideas that derived from no particular school of thought and gave rise to none, though his influence on later thinkers has been pervasive. He is considered the most complete modern exponent of pantheism; the doctrine that all things, of mind and matter, are manifestations of God — the universal and absolute being. He returned three centuries later, again as a philosopher, this time French.
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Henri Bergson (1859 – 1941) was of Polish-Jewish origins and became a Nobel laureate for his rich and vitalising ideas which he expressed with literary brilliance. He expounded a philosophy on the mentalist energy of life and the spiritual urge in evolution (élan vital). Herewith he counterbalanced the materialism and abstract rationalism of his contemporaries. He gnostically favoured inspired intuition over sensate intellect. His original eclectic philosophy can be considered mystical in the best sense of the word. As the last reincarnation of Plato, he completed his mission as the great philosopher of cosmic consciousness. ​
"Every philosopher has two philosophies, his own and Spinozas."
— Henri Bergson, in a letter to Léon Brunschvicg, 1927
At the same time Aristotle returned as a remarkably gifted clairvoyant. Rudolf Steiner (1861 – 1925) was an Austrian seer, esoteric philosopher and scientist — as well as founder of the Anthroposophical Society in 1912 after breaking with the Theosophical Society over his disagreement with its eastern religious tenets.
Steiner's Anthroposophy was instead based on Christian Gnosticism and Rosicrucianism, but he also contributed many original and seminal teachings. He advanced the science of holistic health, organic farming and child-centred education. The influential Waldorf School system is based on his ideas. Steiner has been called a 'scientist of the invisible'. As the last incarnation of Aristotle, he studied the super sensible world empirically through refined senses. He could see the operation of the spiritual forces behind the scenes of the visible world. He also penetrated through the mystery of Golgotha. He perceived it as a crossroad in the history of human consciousness — the opening of a new spiritual dimension. Steiner's Christianity was of the Cosmic Christ, the Logos, and of its operation in the evolution of the soul towards divine at-one-ment. He had come full-circle from the spiritual blindness of Aristotle to the vision of revelation.
In this life Steiner was joined by numerous soul companions, notably Marie von Sivers (1867 – 1948) and Ita Wegman (1876 – 1943, who he linked respectively to Theophrastus and Alexander the Great. Coincidentally, Steiner also identified his wife Marie as Aquinas and his professor Karl Julius Schröer as Plato. Steiner believed Schröer was destined to have been the founder of Anthroposophy — a karmic task he eventually took upon himself while making his Marie his successor as leader of the anthroposophical movement. We however see their karmic trajectories somewhat differently, as set out by El Ochre et al in Esoteric Biographies, c.1997.
According to El Ochre, Schröer had been Plato’s nephew Speusippus, not Plato. Speusippus was an elder in Plato's Academy and as much a teacher to Aristotle as Plato was himself. Speusippus diverged in outlook regarding certain aspects of Plato's teaching. Aristotle himself later deviated from Plato and was more in accordance with influences drawn from Speusippus. Speusippus headed the Academy upon Plato’s death and Aristotle founded his own school, the Lyceum. (15 February 2018)
While it was previously given that Spinoza had been a reincarnation of Plato, El Ochre has since explained that Speusippus and Spinoza were both oversouled by Pratabulu, thus linking both men to Plato. "Karmic biographies are difficult to map because it is often far more complex than merely tracking a simple lineage of a single soul. As you know, an incarnation can incorporate multiple souls and even oversouls. This can create apparent discrepancies... We can therefore connect a series of incarnations solely with regard to a particular soul or, similarly, we can follow their lineage with regard to a specific oversoul. Thus soul lineages may intersect with others at points of particular incarnations common to them." (16 February 2018)​
​El Ochre confirms Steiner has returned but "no one will find Steiner until Steiner finds himself." A cryptic remark, deliberately so, I think.
— Laurence Oliver, in response to Steiner's reappearance today, 30 March 2025
We now look at the past lives of Marie von Sivers, Ita Wegman and their female contemporaries from ancient Athens.
“There is no greater pillar of stability than a strong, free and educated woman, and there is no more inspiring role model than a man who respects and cherishes women and champions their leadership!”
— Angelina Jolie, address to the African Union summit, Johannesburg, 15 June 2015
​Marie von Sivers
Marie von Sivers had once been a pupil in Plato's Academy and is remembered as one of only two women allowed to study at the Academy; namely Lasthenia and Axiothea. Lastheneia of Mantnea was originally an actress who joined the Academy in the guise of a male, until her ploy was discovered. Aristotle was attracted to her and they became lovers. She stayed on after Plato's death and,
following Aristotle's departure to found his own school, became the lover of Plato's successor, Speusippus.
Lasthenia left the Academy a decade later, following the death of Speusippus, and was subsequently reunited with Aristotle as his companion, assisting him in his writings. Aristotle's first wife Pythias had died, and although he went on to a second marriage with his childhood sweetheart Herpyllis, Lasthenia was always in his affections. Lasthenia returned as a theatre actress and was fluent in several languages, later becoming Steiner's second wife. Steiner's first wife, Anna Eunicke, was the reincarnate Pythias, a Greek biologist believed to have collaborated with him on his writings (History of Animals, mid-4th century BCE). Herpyllis was not reincarnate in Steiner's lifetime. (El Ochre, 22 October 2025)
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We turn to the women in Steiner's life, notably a dedicated group of female companions, and their contemporary incarnations back in ancient Athens.​​​​​​​​
​Ita Wegman
Olympias, the wilful mother of Alexander the Great, is said to have returned as Ita Wegman, the intimate associate of Rudolf Steiner, himself the reincarnation of Aristotle and former tutor to the Macedonian Prince. Olympias had an affair with Aristotle, as did Wegman with Steiner. In that life she contributed much to the teachings and endeavours of Steiner's Anthroposophy, particularly in the field of alternative natural medicine — perhaps in expiation of her misuse of drugs for nefarious purposes before as Olympias. (El Ochre, 16 November 2024)
Ita Wegman was the child of a Dutch colonial family living in Java, Indonesia.
Elisabeth Vreede
We now turn to another Dutch colleague. Elisabeth Vreede was the reincarnate soul of the legendary Hypatia, the erudite Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer and mathematician from Alexandria, 4–5th century CE. Hypatia's brilliance and tragic murder are well-known facts of history. Further back in history she had been Axiothea, also a brilliant pupil in Plato's Academy. Axiothea's biography is obscure. She had been impressed with Plato's Republic and sought to study philosophy by joining his Academy disguised as a man. She could not sustain the ruse but, on being found out, was allowed to remain too, attesting to her brilliance. She knew Aristotle, Plato's star pupil, and took a keen interest in the emerging differences and debates between the two great minds. After Plato died the Academy was headed by his nephew Speusippus. Aristotle left for Macedon to become tutor to Alexander. Axiothea stayed on at the Academy for a time but became dissatisfied with Speusippus and left to explore other interests such as mathematics and astronomy. She associated with Aristotle again in the last years of their lifetime, when she also became acquainted with Phryne. After Aristotle's death she maintained a close friendship with Phryne whom she outlived, but they were never formally part of Aristotle's Lyceum. (El Ochre, 22 October 2025)
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For our account of Phryne (Edith Maryon) and her association with Aristotle, see the addition to Steiner's Companions.
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