We follow the lives of renowned people, past and present, and the roles they play on the stage of world history. Our aim is to trace their soul development through the workings of karma and reincarnation.
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We are a pair of unaffiliated fellow travellers with a shared interest in transpersonal lives, particularly those of historical individuals and their soul groups. Our research focuses on genealogies and karmic trajectories, not our own, and is both unique and independent. We do not offer past life readings or regressive therapy, nor are we selling anything. Everything here is free — and while we may have used your photos without due acknowledgement — you are welcome to re-use our material online.
Introduction
It seems names and dates, raw talent and acquired skills, friendships and family, life circumstances and physical appearances (incl. disabilities or injuries), even habits and hobbies, are among the traits that commonly recur across lifetimes, sometimes skipping one or more in between, but which are still recurrent over many lives. However, too much focus on resemblances or parallels alone can be misleading and don't prove anything on their own. To illustrate a few traits, here are a some notable examples...
Latest Post
Much has been said about Trump's unilateral meetings with Putin and Zelensky. Most bears not to be repeated here. However, we do wish to add that a more nuanced understanding of their contest, conflict and collusion can be traced back to a time when Putin and Zelensky were Parthian brothers and Trump their Roman overlord. It was Zelensky who then stood his ground as he stands firm now. He is undoubtedly the bravest person in the world today. You can read more about their karmic background here.
The Egyptian Book of the Dead states: “I am yesterday, today and tomorrow, and have the power to be born anew." Since time immemorial beliefs in an afterlife have included the idea of our physical return and that we've all been here before. For example, these three South African presidents were once cut from the same cloth (or hewn from the same tree, to use an African metaphor) and so remain linked through the ages: Mandela, FW De Klerk and Ramaphosa were once three successive Pharaohs; namely Horemheb, Ai and Ramses I. Their karma is now our history...
How are we to remember Niël Barnard (1949 – 2025)? Should it be as the last Apartheid spy boss or as the least known Afrikaner of that era? Much has been said about his role as chief of South Africa's National Intelligence Service when Mandela was in prison. Here's our take on the man once known as Nakhtim...
The high priest of Amun and royal vizor to the Ramesside dynasty, known as Ramessesnakht in the historical records, returned as the mystic faith healer Gregori Rasputin...
The Ramesside period in Egyptian history (19th–20th dynasties) found renewed expression in the Romanovs of Russia (17th–20th centuries). While their successions are loosely parallel, the most renowned transpersonal lives are those of Ramses the Great and Peter the Great; as well as Tsar Alexander II and Mikhail Gorbachev. Here we'll take a closer look at some of these parallels...
Historically, the English royal family has deep Teutonic ties going back to King George I of Great Britain, their first monarch of German origin. For the next three-hundred years, close relationships were forged between the English and German nobilities. This is a hallmark of pride for the British Royal Family today. Karmically, however, we find another marker in the family, namely a direct and enduring link to the French. Here we look at some current examples...
This commemorative bust of the last Holy Roman Emperor and first Emperor of Austria, Francis II and I, has pride of place in Laxenburg Schlosspark, former country estate and summer residence of the imperial family outside Vienna. As a gift to Austria from the Italians, the memorial portrays the Emperor as a Caesar — a Roman Habsburg. We may well ask if such portraits are based on a belief in transpersonal lives or, like so many portraits/selfies today, they simply reveal what many aspire to and/or who they most admire? We asked El Ochre for a response to the identities of Emperor Francis and his kith and kin...
Talking of Austria’s imperial family (above) and their connection to ancient Rome, one individual stands out above everyone else. He does so for no honourable reason, alas, but for his notoriety in ancient Rome. The tragic Crown Prince Rudolf, heir to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, is linked by a bizarre twist of fate to Emperor Nero...
Our karmic research reveals that the Bush family are linked to the Severan family of ancient Rome. George H W Bush appears to be the family's first emperor, Septimius Severus, with George W Bush as the most recent incarnation of his eldest son, Caracalla. Severus’ youngest son, Geta, is known to us today as Tony Blair. We disclose some striking parallels between these former brothers in arms...
One additional disclosure is the continuation of a Severus lineage among contemporary British politicians, including three former Tory Prime Ministers: David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson. They too were cut from the same cloth (or used the same tailor) and continued fighting each other like siblings often do when left alone...
Unexpectedtly, Oprah Winfrey is an incarnation of Claudia Octavia, the daughter of Claudius (Bill Clinton) and a sister of Britannicus (Barack Obama). We were surprised to learn that Claudia Octavia was a so-called 'conjoint incarnation' (see Keywords) involving two souls, the second allegedly being Michelle Obama...
It seems Melania and Ivanka Trump are also linked to Nero. Melania appears to have been Claudia Acte, a slave girl in the imperial palace who, once freed, had an affair with the young Nero, the adopted son of emperor Claudius. At the time, Nero was prevented from marrying Claudia and went on to have three wives in rapid succession; the last being Ivanka, then known as Statilia Messalina...
The past lives of Abraham Lincoln can be traced back to Menelaiu, eldest son of Salomaiu and Salome, a family from the latter-days of Atlantis. The three often returned to work out their karma together, as relatives or friends, with each incarnation providing the experiences required for their eventual reunion as Dhumans. We focus first on the father-son relationship...
The concept of transmigrating souls is ageless and ubiquitous. Diverse cultures contend that, since the dawn of time, we have returned with kith and kin, friend and foe, to find ourselves in some far-flung land or distant city. We now look at Greek and Russian citizens who have repeatedly reformed society...
As Anthropologists have shown, the mobility of women in certain societies can exceed that of men. Historically, they have been exchanged as wives, mistresses or slaves and thus assimilated into other cultures, often far from home, where they have made new families for themselves. Some women, given choice and free will, also become entripid explorers or groundbreaking discoverers of worlds their contemporary men had yet to see...
The citizens of ancient Rome have, over two millennia, returned to recreate their New Rome: Constantinople, Paris, Washington, to name but a few. Many are back today to make Trump's America great again. Among them is Elon Musk, a former Prefect of the Praetorian Guard, then called Ofonius Tigellinus. He was Nero's ruthless fixer and indulged the emperor's every vice...
Returning Compatriots
Like the legendary Greek Argonauts, the Archons of Arcturus are a select group of compatriots travelling together since the beginning of time and to the ends of the world. As family, friends or rivals, they play epoch-making roles to maintain a balance of power in the world...
There is always a likelihood among souls karmically linked by group or place — whether these be from the same family, dynasty, court, school or community — to return as allies and rivals, friends and enemies. This is also true for detractors of Nazism or Communism. Here are two examples from our recent research...
Recurring Power
Leaders with a shared karmic past inevitably draw their countries into that history, unconsciously or not, as has been seen happening in Israel, Syria and Iran today. Prime Minister Netanyahu, former President Bashar al-Assad and Supreme Leader Hosseini Khamenei come from a long line of Assyrian-Parthian vassal rulers in the 1st–2nd centuries CE. They were among several rival usurpers vying for status and support from their overlords, Vologases I and Vologases III. We look at their past karma to better understand what's happening today...​
It is often said that the founding of America and its role in modern history parallels the rise and fall of ancient Rome — and that decline and degeneration is again inevitable. If so, are we witnessing re-enactments of the same dramas by the same actors and can their roles be rewritten today? Here we compare some parallels between Nero, Mussolini and Trump...
Recurring Creativity
Walt Whitman's affinity with the ancient Stoics began early, aged sixteen, and deepened over time. Throughout his life he felt engaged in a prolonged and profound dialogue with Stoic thinkers and recognised himself as an intimate, if only far-removed, protégé of Epictetus. Could it be that the poet saw himself as one of the lives of the philosopher?
Great men course through history like an ocean wave toward some as yet unknown shore. Some seem not to find their way, like Alexander on the endless sea of the Asian steppe. Others get lost, as did Columbus on the unknown Atlantic. But truly great men give impetus and purpose to an entire epoch. Dag Hammarskjöld was one such great man...
Recurring Collaborations
A hundred years ago, on 30 March 1925, Rudolf Steiner died peacefully among his dearest friends. During his final year, while lecturing on the karmic relationships of historical individuals, a few friends came to the realisation that Steiner was himself a reincarnation of Aristotle. In turn, many identified themselves as contemporaries from his former lives. The extent to which Steiner named or confirmed these is still unclear since most of his disclosures were shared in confidence; that is, in private conversation and personal correspondence. We take a fresh look at the identities in the light of recent revelations, starting with Aristotle and Plato's collaboration in Athens. We also look ​at their Oversouls and the other lives they've overseen...
Who is the genius behind the works of Shakespeare?
Who inspired the vision of Heaven and Hell in the Divine Comedy?
Who, where and what were they in their earlier collaborations?