During 1924, before his last address in September, Rudolf Steiner gave over eighty lectures on the subject of karma to members of the Anthroposophical Society. These profoundly esoteric lectures examine the underlying laws of reincarnation and karma, and explore in detail the incarnations of certain named historical figures. In Rudolf Steiner's words, the study of karma is '…a matter of penetrating into the most profound mysteries of existence, for within the sphere of karma and the course it takes lie those processes which are the basis of the other phenomena of world-existence...'

In this second volume of the series, Rudolf Steiner considers individual karmic relationships in history - for example Marx and Engels - as well as surveying karma in human life, the shaping of karma after death, and the "cosmic form" of karma.