The Michael Mystery
GA 26
I. At the Dawn of the Michael Age
[ 1 ] Until the ninth century after the Mystery of Golgotha, Man's attitude towards his Thoughts was different from later. He did not have the feeling that he himself was producing the thoughts that lived within his soul. He looked upon them as promptings, instilled into him from a spiritual world. Even when he had thoughts about what he perceived with his senses, these thoughts were to him revelations of the Divinity, speaking to him out of the things of sense.
[ 2 ] Anyone who has spiritual vision understands this feeling. For when a spiritual reality imparts itself to the soul, one never has the feeling: There stands the spiritual perception, and oneself must construct the thoughts with which to comprehend this perception; but one sees the thought along with the perception, given with and contained in it, as objective as the perception itself.
[ 3 ] With the ninth century,…all such dates must of course be taken as giving about the middle of the time: the transition takes place quite gradually,…there awoke in men's souls the light of personal, individual intelligence. Man began to have the feeling: ‘I construct my thoughts.’ And this construction of thoughts became so pre-eminent a feature of the soul's life, that thinkers regarded the essence of the human soul as residing in this, its intelligent behaviour. Until then, people had an imaginative conception of the soul. They looked on her essential being as residing, not in the construction of thoughts, but in her participation in the intelligent, spiritual substance of the world. People thought of the supersensible Spirit-Beings as thinking; and they work into Man; they think into him too. And what thus lives in Man as his part in the supersensible, spiritual world,—this they felt as “Soul.”
[ 4 ] Directly one's views are carried higher, into the spiritual world, one meets with concrete Spiritual Powers in the form of living Beings. To that Power, from whom proceed the Thoughts of things, they gave, in old teachings, the name of Michael. Keeping the name, one may say that it was Michael from whom men once received their thoughts. Michael was regent of the Cosmic Intelligence.—From the time of the ninth century on, men ceased to have a sense that their thoughts were inspired by Michael. Thoughts had fallen from Michael's dominion, and sunk from the spiritual world into the individual souls of men.
[ 5 ] The development of Thought-life was carried on now by men in the human sphere. At first, people were uncertain what these Thoughts were, which they had. This uncertainty runs through the teachings of the Scholastics. They were divided into two schools: Realists and Nominalists. The Realists—with Thomas Aquinas and his circle at their head—still felt the old connection between Thought and Thing, as both belonging together. Accordingly they looked on the thoughts as actual realities, existing in the Things. The thoughts of a man they viewed as a real something flowing from the Things into his soul. The Nominalists had a strong feeling of the fact that the soul makes her own thoughts. They felt thoughts as something purely subjective, which exists in the soul and has nothing whatever to do with the things. In their opinion, thoughts were only the names men made for things. (The Scholastics spoke of ‘Universals,’ not of ‘Thoughts,’ but this does not affect the general principle of their outlook, since thoughts always bear a universal character in regard to the single things.)
[ 6 ] The Realists wanted, one might say, to remain loyal to Michael. Even though the thoughts had fallen from his domain and into that of men, they yet wanted as thinkers to go on serving Michael as Prince of Intelligence in the Cosmos. The Nominalists, in the unconscious part of their souls, completed the falling-away from Michael. They regarded, not Michael, but Man as the owner of thoughts.
[ 7 ] Nominalism spread, and gained increasing hold. And so it went on, until the last third of the nineteenth century. Then came the age, when those who can read the spiritual events taking place in the universe, became aware that Michael had rejoined the stream of intellectual life. He is pursuing a new metamorphosis of his cosmic office. Before, he sent the stream of thoughts from the outer spiritual world into the souls of men. Now, since the last third of the nineteenth century, he seeks to dwell within the human souls, where thoughts are being formed. Before, the human beings who were spiritually akin to Michael watched him perform his works in spirit-regions. Now, they know that they must give him his home in their hearts; now, they dedicate to Michael their own Thought-informed, Thought-sustained spiritual life; now, in free, individual Thought-life, they seek counsel from Michael as to their soul's right path.
[ 8 ] People who in their previous earth-lives were familiar with thought in its inspired form—who were servants, that is, of Michael—felt themselves drawn to this voluntary communion with Michael when they returned to earth-life at the close of the nineteenth century. They looked upon him, who had been their old Thought-Inspirer, as their guide henceforth in the higher form of thinking.
[ 9 ] Those who have eyes for such things could not but be aware of the revolution that took place in respect to men's Thought-life during the last third of the nineteenth century. Before this, Man could only feel the Thoughts arising and taking shape out of his own being. Ever since then, he can rise above his own individual being, he can guide his mind into the realm of the Spirit; and there Michael meets him—Michael who from of old is past master in all Thought-weaving. He frees the thoughts from the region of the head; he opens a free way for them to the heart; he sets free the springs of spiritual fervour from the hearts of men, so that Man may live in full soul's devotion to all that he may learn in the light of Thought.
The Age of Michael has dawned. Hearts are beginning to have Thoughts. The springs of spiritual fervour no longer flow from the darkness only of mystical feeling, but from clear soul-brightness—Thought-informed and Thought-sustained. To understand this, is to receive Michael into the heart. Thoughts which seek today to grasp the Spirit must spring from hearts that throb for Michael, the fiery Thought-King of the Universe.
Im Anbruch des Michael-Zeitalters
[ 1 ] Bis zum neunten Jahrhundert nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha stand der Mensch anders zu seinen Gedanken als später. Er hatte nicht die Empfindung, daß er die in seiner Seele lebenden Gedanken selbst hervorbringe. Er betrachtete sie als Eingebungen einer geistigen Welt. Auch wenn er über das Gedanken hatte, was er mit seinen Sinnen wahrnahm, waren ihm die Gedanken Offenbarungen des Göttlichen, das aus den Sinnesdingen zu ihm sprach.
[ 2 ] Wer geistige Schauungen hat, begreift diese Empfindung. Denn, wenn ein geistig Wirkliches sich der Seele mitteilt, so hat man niemals das Gefühl, da ist die geistige Wahrnehmung, und man formt selber den Gedanken, um die Wahrnehmung zu begreifen; sondern man schaut den Gedanken, der in der Wahrnehmung enthalten und mit ihr gegeben ist, so objektiv wie sie selbst.
[ 3 ] Mit dem neunten Jahrhundert - selbstverständlich sind solche Angaben so zu nehmen, daß sie eine mittlere Zeitangabe bilden; der Übergang geschieht ganz allmählich -leuchtete in den Menschenseelen die persönlich-individuelle Intelligenz auf. Der Mensch bekam das Gefühl: ich bilde die Gedanken. Und dieses Bilden der Gedanken wurde das Überragende im Seelenleben, so daß die Denkenden das Wesen der Menschenseele im intelligenten Verhalten sahen. Vorher hatte man von der Seele eine imaginative Vorstellung. Man sah ihr Wesen nicht im Gedankenbilden, sondern in ihrem Teilhaben an dem geistigen Inhalt der Welt. Die übersinnlichen geistigen Wesen dachte man denkend; und sie wirken in den Menschen hinein; sie denken auch in ihn hinein. Was so von der übersinnlichen geistigen Welt im Menschen lebt, das empfand man als Seele.
[ 4 ] Sobald man in die geistige Welt mit seiner Anschauung hinaufdringt, kommt man an konkrete geistige Wesensmächte heran. In alten Lehren hat man die Macht, aus der die Gedanken der Dinge erfließen, mit dem Namen Michael bezeichnet. Der Name kann beibehalten werden. Dann kann man sagen: die Menschen empfingen einst von Michael die Gedanken. Michael verwaltete die kosmische Intelligenz. Vom neunten Jahrhundert an verspürten die Menschen nicht mehr, daß ihnen Michael die Gedanken inspiriert. Sie waren seiner Herrschaft entfallen; sie fielen aus der geistigen Welt in die individuellen Menschenseelen.
[ 5 ] Innerhalb der Menschheit wurde nunmehr das Gedankenleben ausgebildet. Man war zunächst unsicher, was man an den Gedanken hatte. Diese Unsicherheit lebte in den scholastischen Lehren. Die Scholastiker zerfielen in Realisten und Nominalisten. Die Realisten - deren Führer Thomas von Aquino und die ihm Nahestehenden waren -fühlten noch die alte Zusammengehörigkeit von Gedanke und Ding. Sie sahen daher in den Gedanken ein Wirkliches, das in den Dingen lebt. Die Gedanken des Menschen sahen sie als etwas an, das als Wirklichkeit aus den Dingen in die Seele hinüberfließt. - Die Nominalisten fühlten stark den Tatbestand, daß die Seele ihre Gedanken bildet. Sie empfanden die Gedanken nur als Subjektives, das in der Seele lebt und das mit den Dingen nichts zu tun hat. Sie meinten: die Gedanken seien nur vom Menschen gebildete Namen für die Dinge. (Man sprach nicht von «Gedanken», sondern von «Universalien»; aber das kommt für das Prinzipielle der Anschauung nicht in Betracht, da Gedanken ja immer etwas Universelles im Verhältnis zu den einzelnen Dingen haben.)
[ 6 ] Man kann sagen: Die Realisten wollten Michael die Treue bewahren; auch da die Gedanken aus seinem Bereich in den der Menschen gefallen waren, wollten sie als Denker dem Michael dienen als dem Fürsten der Intelligenz des Kosmos. - Die Nominalisten vollzogen in ihrem unbewußten Seelenteil den Abfall von Michael. Sie betrachteten nicht Michael, sondern den Menschen als den Eigentümer der Gedanken.
[ 7 ] Der Nominalismus gewann an Verbreitung und Einfluß. Das konnte so fortgehen bis in das letzte Drittel des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. In diesem Zeitalter empfanden diejenigen Menschen, die sich auf die Wahrnehmung der geistigen Geschehnisse innerhalb des Weltalls verstehen, daß Michael dem Strom des intellektuellen Lebens nachgezogen war. Er sucht nach einer neuen Metamorphose seiner kosmischen Aufgabe. Er ließ vorher von der geistigen Außenwelt her die Gedanken in die Seelen der Menschen strömen; vom letzten Drittel des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts an will er in den Menschenseelen leben, in denen die Gedanken gebildet werden. Vorher sahen die Michael verwandten Menschen Michael im Geistbereich seine Tätigkeit entfalten; jetzt erkennen sie, daß sie Michael im Herzen wohnen lassen sollen; jetzt weihen sie ihm ihr gedankengetragenes geistiges Leben; jetzt lassen sie sich im freien, individuellen Gedankenleben von Michael darüber belehren, welches die rechten Wege der Seele sind.
[ 8 ] Menschen, die im vorangehenden Erdenleben in inspiriertem Gedankenwesen gestanden haben, also Michaeldiener waren, fühlten sich, am Ende des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts wieder ins Erdenleben gekommen, zu solcher freiwilligen Michaelgemeinschaft gedrängt. Sie betrachteten ihren alten Gedankeninspirator nunmehr als den Weiser im höheren Gedankenwesen.
[ 9 ] Wer auf solche Dinge zu achten versteht, der konnte wissen, welch ein Umschwung im letzten Drittel des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts sich mit Bezug auf das Gedankenleben der Menschen vollzogen hat. Vorher konnte der Mensch nur fühlen, wie aus seinem Wesen heraus die Gedanken sich formten; von dem angedeuteten Zeitabschnitt an kann er sich über sein Wesen erheben; er kann den Sinn ins Geistige lenken; da tritt ihm Michael entgegen, und der erweist sich als altverwandt mit allem Gedankenweben. Der befreit die Gedanken aus dem Bereich des Kopfes; er macht ihnen den Weg zum Herzen frei; er löst die Begeisterung aus dem Gemüte los, so daß der Mensch in seelischer Hingabe leben kann an alles, was sich im Gedankenlicht erfahren läßt. Das Michaelzeitalter ist angebrochen. Die Herzen beginnen, Gedanken zu haben; die Begeisterung entströmt nicht mehr bloß mystischem Dunkel, sondern gedankengetragener Seelenklarheit. Dies verstehen, heißt, Michael in sein Gemüt aufnehmen. Gedanken, die heute nach dem Erfassen des Geistigen trachten, müssen Herzen entstammen, die für Michael als den feurigen Gedankenfürsten des Weltalls schlagen.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 10 ] 79. An die dritte Hierarchie (Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi) kann man geistig herantreten, wenn man Denken, Fühlen und Wollen so kennen lernt, daß man in ihnen das in der Seele wirkende Geistige gewahr wird. Das Denken stellt zunächst nur Bilder, nicht ein Wirkliches in die Welt. Das Fühlen webt in diesem Bildhaften; es spricht für ein Wirkliches im Menschen, kann es aber nicht ausleben. Das Wollen entfaltet eine Wirklichkeit, die den Leib voraussetzt, aber an seiner Gestaltung nicht bewußt mitwirkt. Das Wesenhafte, das im Denken lebt, um den Leib zur Grundlage dieses Denkens zu machen, das Wesenhafte, das im Fühlen lebt, um den Leib zum Mit-Erleber einer Wirklichkeit zu machen, das Wesenhafte, das im Wollen lebt, um an seiner Gestaltung bewußt mitzuwirken, ist in der dritten Hierarchie lebendig.
[ 11 ] 80. An die zweite Hierarchie (Exusiai, Dynameis, Kyriotetes) kann man geistig herantreten, wenn man die Naturtatsachen als Erscheinungen eines in ihnen lebenden Geistigen erschaut. Die zweite Hierarchie hat dann die Natur zu ihrem Aufenthalt, um in ihr an den Seelen zu wirken.
[ 12 ] 81. An die erste Hierarchie (Seraphim, Cherubim, Throne) kann man geistig herantreten, wenn man die im Natur- und Menschenreich vorhandenen Tatsachen als die Taten (Schöpfungen) eines in ihnen wirkenden Geistigen erschaut. Die erste Hierarchie hat dann das Natur- und Menschenreich zu ihrer Wirkung, in der sie sich entfaltet.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 13 ] 82. Der Mensch blickt zu den Sternenwelten auf; was sich da den Sinnen darbietet, sind nur die äußeren Offenbarungen derjenigen Geistwesenheiten und ihrer Taten, von denen in den vorigen Betrachtungen als den Wesen der geistigen Reiche (Hierarchien) gesprochen worden ist.
[ 14 ] 83. Die Erde ist der Schauplatz der drei Naturreiche und des Menschenreiches, insofern diese den äußeren Sinnenschein von der Tätigkeit geistiger Wesenheiten offenbaren.
[ 15 ] 84. Die Kräfte, welche in die irdischen Naturreiche und in das Menschenreich von Seiten geistiger Wesen hineinwirken, enthüllen sich dem Menschengeiste durch die wahre, die geistgemäße Erkenntnis der Gestirnwelten.
At the dawn of the Michael age
[ 1 ] Until the ninth century after the Mystery of Golgotha, man had a different attitude to his thoughts than he did later. He did not have the feeling that he himself produced the thoughts living in his soul. He regarded them as inspirations from a spiritual world. Even if he had thoughts about what he perceived with his senses, the thoughts were revelations of the divine that spoke to him from the sensory things.
[ 2 ] Whoever has spiritual perceptions understands this sensation. For when a spiritually real thing communicates itself to the soul, one never has the feeling that the spiritual perception is there, and one forms the thought oneself in order to comprehend the perception; but one looks at the thought contained in the perception and given with it, as objectively as it is itself.
[ 3 ] By the ninth century - of course, such data should be taken to represent an average time; the transition is very gradual - personal-individual intelligence began to emerge in human souls. Man got the feeling: I form the thoughts. And this forming of the thoughts became the outstanding thing in the life of the soul, so that the thinkers saw the essence of the human soul in intelligent behavior. Previously, people had an imaginative conception of the soul. Its essence was not seen in the forming of thoughts, but in its participation in the spiritual content of the world. The supersensible spiritual beings were thought of as thinking; and they work into man; they also think into him. What thus lives in man from the supersensible spiritual world was perceived as a soul.
[ 4 ] As soon as one penetrates into the spiritual world with one's view, one comes into contact with concrete spiritual powers. In ancient teachings, the power from which the thoughts of things flow was called Michael. The name can be retained. Then you can say: people once received thoughts from Michael. Michael administered the cosmic intelligence. From the ninth century onwards, people no longer felt that Michael inspired their thoughts. They had fallen from his dominion; they fell from the spiritual world into the individual human souls.
[ 5 ] The thought life was now formed within humanity. At first, people were unsure of what they thought. This uncertainty lived on in the scholastic teachings. The scholastics were divided into realists and nominalists. The realists - whose leaders were Thomas Aquinas and those close to him - still felt the old connection between thought and thing. They therefore saw in thought a real thing that lives in things. They saw human thoughts as something that flows from things into the soul as reality. - The nominalists strongly felt that the soul forms its thoughts. They perceived thoughts only as something subjective that lives in the soul and has nothing to do with things. They thought that thoughts were only names formed by man for things. (They did not speak of "thoughts", but of "universals"; but this does not apply to the principle of perception, since thoughts always have something universal in relation to the individual things.
[ 6 ] We can say: The realists wanted to remain faithful to Michael; even since thoughts had fallen from his realm into that of humans, as thinkers they wanted to serve Michael as the prince of the intelligence of the cosmos. - In the unconscious part of their souls, the Nominalists fell away from Michael. They did not regard Michael, but man as the owner of thoughts.
[ 7 ] Nominalism became more widespread and influential. This continued until the last third of the nineteenth century. In this age, those people who understand the perception of spiritual events within the universe felt that Michael had followed the stream of intellectual life. He was searching for a new metamorphosis of his cosmic task. He had previously allowed thoughts to flow from the spiritual outer world into the souls of men; from the last third of the nineteenth century he wants to live in the human souls in which the thoughts are formed. Before, people related to Michael saw Michael unfold his activity in the spirit realm; now they recognize that they should let Michael dwell in their hearts; now they consecrate their thought-born spiritual life to him; now they let Michael teach them in the free, individual thought life which are the right ways of the soul.
[ 8 ] People who had been in inspired thought life in the previous earth life, i.e. were Michael servants, felt themselves urged to such a voluntary Michael community when they returned to earth life at the end of the nineteenth century. They now regarded their old thought inspirer as the sage in the higher thought being.
[ 9 ] Those who know how to pay attention to such things could know what a turnaround took place in the last third of the nineteenth century with regard to people's thought life. Before, man could only feel how thoughts were formed out of his being; from the time period indicated, he can rise above his being; he can direct the mind into the spiritual; there Michael confronts him, and he proves to be an ancient relative of all thought weaving. He frees the thoughts from the realm of the head; he clears the way for them to the heart; he releases the enthusiasm from the mind so that man can live in spiritual devotion to everything that can be experienced in the light of thought. The Michael age has dawned. Hearts begin to have thoughts; enthusiasm no longer flows from mere mystical darkness, but from thought-born clarity of soul. To understand this means to take Michael into one's mind. Thoughts that strive to grasp the spiritual today must come from hearts that beat for Michael as the fiery prince of thought in the universe.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 10 ] 79 The third Hierarchy (Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi) can be approached spiritually when one learns to know thinking, feeling and willing in such a way that one becomes aware of the spiritual working in the soul. Thinking initially only presents images, not a real thing in the world. Feeling weaves in this imagery; it speaks for something real in man, but cannot live it out. The will unfolds a reality that presupposes the body but does not consciously participate in its formation. The beingness that lives in thinking in order to make the body the basis of this thinking, the beingness that lives in feeling in order to make the body a co-experiencer of a reality, the beingness that lives in willing in order to consciously participate in its shaping, is alive in the third hierarchy.
[ 11 ] 80. One can approach the second hierarchy (Exusiai, Dynameis, Kyriotetes) spiritually if one sees the facts of nature as phenomena of a spiritual being living in them. The second hierarchy then has nature as its abode in order to work in it on the souls.
[ 12 ] 81 The first Hierarchy (seraphim, cherubim, thrones) can be approached spiritually if the facts existing in the natural and human kingdoms are seen as the deeds (creations) of a spiritual being working in them. The first hierarchy then has the natural and human kingdoms as its effect, in which it unfolds.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 13 ] 82. Man looks up to the starry worlds; what presents itself to the senses there are only the outer revelations of those spirit beings and their deeds of which we have spoken in the previous considerations as the beings of the spiritual kingdoms (Hierarchies).
[ 14 ] 83. The earth is the scene of the three kingdoms of nature and the kingdom of man, in so far as these reveal the outer semblance of the activity of spiritual beings.
[ 15 ] 84. The forces that work into the earthly kingdoms of nature and into the human kingdom from the side of spiritual beings reveal themselves to the human spirit through the true, spirit-appropriate knowledge of the celestial worlds.