Every metanoia, i.e., inner transformation, has something paradoxical about it: on the one hand, I want to overcome the old and start something new – and on the other hand, I myself sabotage my transformation. This paradox is very often a theme in poetry. Many plays show this inner conflict in all its drama. […]
For metanoia, it is precisely important that I gain new courage through an experience of crisis. I need the courage to know and act to face the unpleasant facts I have created myself. But that is the crucial point. One of the facts I have created is my ‹doppelganger›. It is the effect of my thinking, feeling, and wanting and my actions whenever these mental activities have not been permeated and guided by my self. Like my shadow, my doppelganger accompanies and follows me every step of the way and becomes a burden to me. I carry him like a burden on my back and can hardly separate myself from him. It is I, myself, who creates his life as a spiritual and spiritual reality. And since reincarnation and karma – as Rudolf Steiner described in many of his works – have become a certainty of knowledge, I am aware that my doppelganger confronts me with the effects of my thinking, feeling, wanting, and doing of my present life and my previous incarnations.
From Friedrich Glasl, Conflict, crisis, catharsis, and the transformation of the doppelganger. Stuttgart 2007, p. 34.
Image Sofia Lismont – Translation: Monika Werner
