The Michael Mystery
GA 26
III. The Pre-Michaelite Way, and the Way of Michael
[ 1 ] We shall fail to find the right light upon the new Michael-impulse now making its way into human evolution, if we form that conception of the relation between the modern world of Ideas and the world of Nature, which is common at the present day.
[ 2 ] The usual notion is this: Outside, is the natural world with its things and processes; inside, are the Ideas. The ideas represent concepts of the things of Nature, or else of the so-called laws of Nature. The primary concern of thinkers is then to shew how to construct those particular ideas which bear the requisite relation to the things of Nature, or from which the true laws of Nature may be deduced.
[ 3 ] In all this, they attach very little importance to the connection between these ideas and the man who has them. And yet the real gist of the matter remains unrecognized, unless the question first be raised: What is Man going through with the natural-science ideas of modern times?
[ 4 ] An answer may be arrived at as follows:
[ 5 ] Man's feeling to-day is that ideas are evolved within him by the special activity of his soul. He has the feeling that he himself is the evolver of his ideas, whereas his perceptions intrude upon him from without.
[ 6 ] This feeling is not one which Man always had. In older times, the contents of his ideas seemed to him not something manufactured by himself, but received by way of suggestion from the supersensible world.
[ 7 ] It is a feeling that has passed through different stages; and the stages depended upon the particular part of his being, with which Man realized what he to-day calls his ‘ideas.’ To-day is the age of the Spiritual Soul's evolution, when the statement holds good without reservation, which was made in the recent Leading Thoughts 1Anthroposophical Leading Thought #34: “The Thoughts of man have their true seat in the etheric body. There, however, they are forces of real life and being. They imprint themselves upon the physical body, and as such ‘imprinted thoughts’ they have the shadowy character in which the every-day consciousness knows them.”
[ 8 ] One may go back into times when thoughts were realized directly with the I. Then however they were not, as now, shadowy; they were not even merely living; they were endowed with soul and permeated with spirit. Which means, that Man did not think thoughts; he realized a direct perception of concrete spiritual Beings.
[ 9 ] A form of consciousness such as this, which looks above to a world of spiritual Beings, is everywhere to be found amongst the different peoples in their early ages. What remains of it, preserved in history, is termed to-day the ‘myth-creating’ consciousness. Man is in the midst of his own true world, the world of his origin. Whereas, with the present-day consciousness, he withdraws himself from his own world.
[ 10 ] Man is Spirit; and Man's world is the world of spiritual Beings.
[ 11 ] Then there comes a next stage, where Thought is no longer realized by the I, but by the astral body. There, the direct spirituality is lost to the soul's perception. Thought appears as living and endowed with soul.
[ 12 ] In the first stage—the vision of concrete forms of spiritual being—Man feels no impellent need to bring what his vision shows him into any nearer relation with the world perceived by his senses. The world's sensible phenomena reveal themselves, it is true, as being the deeds of that which is beheld by supersensible vision; but to construct a special science of what is directly, spiritually visible to the ‘mind's eye,’ is not a matter of urgent necessity. Moreover the world of Spirit-Beings, shewn by vision, presents such a wealth that the attention is arrested by this above everything else.
[ 13 ] A change comes with the second stage of consciousness. The concrete Spirit-Beings conceal themselves. Their reflected glory becomes apparent as ensouled life. Men begin to bring the ‘life of Nature’ into relation with this ‘life of Souls.’ They search the things of Nature and the processes of Nature for the Spirit-Beings at work there, and for their spiritual deeds. In what later appeared as Alchemy and the pursuits of the alchemists, can be seen historically the residue of this stage of consciousness.
[ 14 ] And as, when ‘thinking’ Spirit-Beings in the first stage of consciousness, Man was living completely in his own world of being, so even at this second stage, he is still quite close to himself and to his own first source.
[ 15 ] This however means that at both stages all possibility is excluded of Man's coming in the true sense to any inner, personal impulse for his actions.
[ 16 ] Spiritual being, of a kind akin to himself, acts in him. What he seems to be doing, is the open manifestation of events enacted between Spirit-Beings. What Man does, is the sensibily physical appearance of an actual divine-spiritual process taking place behind it.
[ 17 ] A third epoch in the evolution of consciousness brings thoughts to consciousness in the etheric body, but still as living thoughts.
[ 18 ] The Greek of civilization, in the days of its greatness, lived in this form of consciousness. The ancient Greek, when thinking, did not construct a thought, with which he viewed the world as through a construction of his own; but he felt aroused within himself the stir of that same life, which, outside too, pulsed through the things and processes around him.
[ 19 ] Then for the first time, there arose the longing for Freedom of personal action—not as yet actual Freedom, but the longing for it.
[ 20 ] In the human being who felt the stir of Nature stirring within himself, there grew up a longing to separate his own life-stir from the life-stir that he saw going on in the outer world, foreign to himself. But, nevertheless, this life-stir in the outer world was still felt as a last outcome of that real and active Spirit-world which is of the same kind with Man.
[ 21 ] Not until Thoughts took their print in the physical body, and consciousness extended only to this physical imprint, did the possibility of Freedom first begin. This is the state of things, as it was in the fifteenth century after Christ.
[ 22 ] In the world's evolution, the bearing which the Ideas of the modern conception of Nature may have upon nature herself, is a matter of no moment; for these Ideas did not assume their present form in order to supply a particular picture of the natural world, but in order to bring Man to a particular stage of his evolution.
[ 23 ] When thoughts laid hold on the physical body, they lost from their immediate contents Spirit, Soul and Life. These were blotted out; and the abstract Shadow, that haunts the physical body, alone remains. Physical, material things alone can be the objects of knowledge for such thoughts as these; for such thoughts themselves are only actual in Man's physical, material body.
[ 24 ] The reason why Materialism arose, is not that only material things and processes are to be seen in the outer world of Nature; it is because Man, in his evolution, had to go through a stage which brought him to a form of consciousness that is at first only capable of seeing material revelations. The one-sided development of this requirement in human evolution has resulted in the modern view of the natural world.
[ 25 ] Michael's mission is to convey to men's ether-bodies those forces by which the Thought-Shadows may again acquire life. To these new-enlivened Shadows, souls and Spirits from the supersensible worlds above will incline themselves. And with these, Man, unbounded and free, will be able to dwell with them of old, when he was merely the physical image of their workings.
Leading Thoughts
[ 26 ] In the evolution of mankind, Consciousness comes down, step by step, along the ladder of Thought-development. There is a first stage of consciousness: here Man realizes thoughts in his I, as Being imbued with Spirit, Soul and Life. Then comes a second stage, where Man realizes Thoughts in his astral body. Here they appear rather as living and soul-endowed Images of the spirit-Beings. At a third stage, the Thoughts are realized in Man's ether-body; here they are only an inner life-stir, like the after-echo of a life of soul. At the fourth stage, the present one, Thoughts are realized by Man in his physical body, and represent dead Shadows of the Spirit.
[ 27 ] In proportion as Spirit, Soul and Life recede from human Thinking. Man's own Will comes to life. Freedom grows possible.
[ 28 ] It is Michael's task to lead Man back by the paths of Will, thither whence first he came, when on the paths of Thought he descended from the realization of the supersensible world to the realization of the sensible world in his earthly consciousness.
Der vor-michaelische und der Michaels-Weg
[ 1 ] Man wird nicht im rechten Lichte sehen können, wie der Michael-Einschlag in die Menschheits-Entwickelung hereindringt, wenn man sich über das Verhältnis der neueren Ideenwelt zur Natur die Vorstellung macht, die heute allgemein üblich ist.
[ 2 ] Da denkt man: draußen ist die Natur mit ihren Vorgängen und Wesen; im Innern, da sind die Ideen. Diese stellen Begriffe von Naturwesen dar oder auch sogenannte Naturgesetze. Es kommt den Denkern dabei vor allem darauf an, zu zeigen, wie man die Ideen bildet, die das rechte Verhältnis zu den Naturwesen haben oder die wahre Naturgesetze enthalten.
[ 3 ] Man legt dabei wenig Wert darauf, wie diese Ideen zu dem Menschen stehen, der sie hat. Und doch wird man, worauf es ankommt, nur einsehen, wenn man vor allem die Frage aufwirft: Was erlebt der Mensch in den neueren naturwissenschaftlichen Ideen?
[ 4 ] Man wird zu einer Antwort auf die folgende Art kommen.
[ 5 ] Heute empfindet der Mensch, daß Ideen in ihm durch die Tätigkeit seiner Seele ausgebildet werden. Er hat das Gefühl: er ist der Ausbildner der Ideen, während nur die Wahrnehmungen von außen an ihn herandringen.
[ 6 ] Dieses Gefühl hatte der Mensch nicht immer. Er empfand in älteren Zeiten den Inhalt der Ideen nicht als etwas Selbst-Gemachtes, sondern als etwas durch Eingebung aus der übersinnlichen Welt Erhaltenes.
[ 7 ] Dieses Gefühl machte Stufen durch. Und die Stufen hingen davon ab, mit welchem Teil seines Wesens der Mensch das erlebte, was er heute seine Ideen nennt. Heute in dem Zeitalter der Entwickelung der Bewußtseinsseele gilt uneingeschränkt, was in den vorigen Leitsätzen steht: «Die Gedanken haben ihren eigentlichen Sitz im ätherischen Leib des Menschen. Aber da sind sie lebendig-wesenhafte Kräfte. Sie prägen sich dem physischen Leibe ein. Und als solche ,eingeprägte Gedanken' haben sie die schattenhafte Art, in der sie das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein kennt.»
[ 8 ] Man kann nun zurückgehen in Zeiten, in denen Gedanken unmittelbar im «Ich» erlebt wurden. Da aber waren sie nicht schattenhaft wie heute; sie waren nicht bloß lebend; sie waren beseelt und durchgeistigt. Das heißt aber: der Mensch dachte nicht Gedanken; sondern er erlebte die Wahrnehmung von konkreten geistigen Wesenheiten.
[ 9 ] Man wird ein Bewußtsein, das so zu einer Welt von geistigen Wesenheiten aufsieht, überall in der Vorzeit der Völker finden. Was sich davon geschichtlich erhalten hat, bezeichnet man heute als mythenbildendes Bewußtsein und legt ihm keinen besonderen Wert bei für die Erfassung der wirklichen Welt. - Und doch steht der Mensch mit diesem Bewußtsein in seiner Welt, in der Welt seines Ursprunges darinnen, während er sich mit dem heutigen Bewußtsein aus dieser seiner Welt heraushebt.
[ 10 ] Der Mensch ist Geist. Und seine Welt ist die der Geister.
[ 11 ] Eine nächste Stufe ist diejenige, wo das Gedankliche nicht mehr vom «Ich», sondern von dem astralischen Leibe erlebt wird. Da geht die unmittelbare Geistigkeit für den seelischen Anblick verloren. Das Gedankliche erscheint als ein beseeltes Lebendiges.
[ 12 ] Auf der ersten Stufe, dem Erschauen des konkret geistig Wesenhaften, hat der Mensch gar nicht stark das Bedürfnis, das Erschaute an die Welt des Sinnlich-Wahrgenommenen heranzutragen. Die sinnlichen Welterscheinungen offenbaren sich zwar als die Taten des übersinnlich Erschauten ; aber eine besondere Wissenschaft von dem auszubilden, was dem «geistigen Blick» unmittelbar anschaulich ist, liegt keine Nötigung vor. Außerdem ist, was als die Welt der Geistwesen erschaut wird, von solcher Fülle, daß darauf vor allem die Aufmerksamkeit ruht.
[ 13 ] Anders wird dies bei der zweiten Bewußtseins-Etappe. Da verbergen sich die konkreten Geistwesen; ihr Abglanz, als beseeltes Leben, erscheint. Man beginnt das «Leben der Natur» an dieses «Leben der Seelen» heranzutragen. Man sucht in den Naturwesen und Naturvorgängen die wirksamen Geistwesen und deren Taten. In dem, was später als alchymistisches Suchen auftrat, ist geschichtlich der Niederschlag dieser Bewußtseins-Etappe zu sehen.
[ 14 ] Wie der Mensch, indem er auf erster Bewußtseins-Etappe Geistwesen «dachte», ganz in seinem Wesen lebte, so steht er auf dieser zweiten sich und seinem Ursprung noch nahe.
[ 15 ] Damit ist aber auf beiden Stufen ausgeschlossen, daß der Mensch im eigentlichen Sinne zu einem inneren eigenen Antrieb für sein Handeln komme.
[ 16 ] Geistiges, das von seiner Art ist, handelt in ihm. Was er zu tun scheint, ist Offenbarung von Vorgängen, die sich durch Geistwesen abspielen. Was der Mensch tut, ist die sinnlich-physische Erscheinung eines dahinterstehenden wirklichen göttlich-geistigen Geschehens.
[ 17 ] Eine dritte Epoche der Bewußtseins-Entwickelung bringt die Gedanken, aber als lebendige, im ätherischen Leib zum Bewußtsein.
[ 18 ] Als die griechische Zivilisation groß war, lebte sie in diesem Bewußtsein. Wenn der Grieche dachte, so bildete er sich nicht einen Gedanken, durch den er, als mit seinem eigenen Gebilde, die Welt ansah; sondern er fühlte in sich erregt Leben, das auch draußen in den Dingen und Vorgängen pulsierte.
[ 19 ] Da erstand zum ersten Male die Sehnsucht nach Freiheit des eigenen Handelns. Noch nicht wirkliche Freiheit; aber die Sehnsucht darnach.
[ 20 ] Der Mensch, der das Regen der Natur in sich selber sich regend empfand, konnte die Sehnsucht ausbilden, die eigene Regsamkeit loszulösen von der als fremd wahrgenommenen Regsamkeit. Aber es wurde immerhin in der äußeren Regsamkeit noch das letzte Ergebnis der wirksamen Geist-Welt empfunden, die gleicher Art mit dem Menschen ist.
[ 21 ] Erst als die Gedanken ihre Prägung im physischen Leibe annahmen und sich das Bewußtsein nur auf diese Prägung erstreckte, trat die Möglichkeit der Freiheit ein. Das ist der Zustand, der mit dem fünfzehnten nachchristlichen Jahrhundert gegeben ist.
[ 22 ] In der Welt-Entwickelung kommt es nicht darauf an, was für Bedeutung die Ideen der heutigen Naturanschauung zur Natur haben; denn diese Ideen haben ihre Formen nicht deshalb angenommen, um ein bestimmtes Bild der Natur zu liefern, sondern um den Menschen zu einer bestimmten Stufe seiner Entwickelung zu bringen.
[ 23 ] Als die Gedanken den physischen Körper ergriffen, war aus ihrem unmittelbaren Inhalte Geist, Seele, Leben getilgt; und der abstrakte Schatten, der am physischen Leibe haftet, ist allein geblieben. Solche Gedanken können nur Physisch-Materielles zum Gegenstande ihrer Erkenntnis machen. Denn sie sind selbst nur wirklich an dem physischmateriellen Leibe des Menschen.
[ 24 ] Nicht deshalb ist der Materialismus entstanden, weil nur materielle Wesen und Vorgänge in der äußeren Natur wahrzunehmen sind; sondern weil der Mensch in seiner Entwickelung eine Etappe durchzumachen hatte, die ihn zu einem Bewußtsein führte, das zunächst nur materielle Offenbarungen zu schauen fähig ist. Die einseitige Ausgestaltung dieses menschlichen Entwickelungs-Bedürfnisses ergab die Naturanschauung der neueren Zeit.
[ 25 ] Michaels Sendung ist, in der Menschen Äther-Leiber die Kräfte zu bringen, durch die die Gedanken-Schatten wieder Leben gewinnen; dann werden sich den belebten Gedanken Seelen und Geister der übersinnlichen Welten neigen; es wird der befreite Mensch mit ihnen leben können, wie ehedem der Mensch mit ihnen lebte, der nur das physische Abbild ihres Wirkens war.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden (Auf Grund des vorangehend Dargestellten)
[ 26 ] 103. In der Menschheits-Entwickelung steigt das Bewußtsein auf der Leiter der Gedanken-Entfaltung herab. Es gibt eine erste Bewußtseins-Etappe: da erlebt der Mensch die Gedanken im «Ich» als durchgeistigte, beseelte, belebte Wesen. Auf einer zweiten Etappe erlebt der Mensch die Gedanken im astralischen Leib; sie stellen da nur mehr die beseelten und belebten Abbilder der Geistwesen dar. Auf einer dritten Etappe erlebt der Mensch die Gedanken im Äther-Leibe; sie stellen nur eine innere Regsamkeit wie einen Nachklang von Seelenhaftem dar. Auf der vierten, gegenwärtigen Etappe erlebt der Mensch die Gedanken im physischen Leibe; sie stellen tote Schatten des Geistigen dar.
[ 27 ] 104. In demselben Maße, in dem das Geistig-Seelisch-Lebendige im Menschendenken zurücktritt, lebt des Menschen Eigenwille auf; die Freiheit wird möglich.
[ 28 ] 105. Es ist Michaels Aufgabe, den Menschen auf den Bahnen des Willens dahin wieder zu führen, woher er gekommen ist, da er auf den Bahnen des Denkens von dem Erleben des Übersinnlichen zu dem des Sinnlichen mit seinem Erdenbewußtsein heruntergestiegen ist.
The pre-Michaelian and the Michael way
[ 1 ] It will not be possible to see in the right light how the Michael impact penetrates into the development of humanity if one forms the idea of the relationship of the newer world of ideas to nature that is generally accepted today.
[ 2 ] There one thinks: outside is nature with its processes and beings; inside, there are the ideas. These represent concepts of natural beings or so-called laws of nature. The main concern of thinkers is to show how to form the ideas that have the right relationship to natural beings or that contain the true laws of nature.
[ 3 ] In doing so, little importance is attached to how these ideas relate to the person who has them. And yet we will only understand what is important if we first and foremost pose the question: What does man experience in the newer scientific ideas?
[ 4 ] You will arrive at an answer in the following way.
[ 5 ] Today man feels that ideas are formed in him through the activity of his soul. He has the feeling that he is the creator of ideas, while only perceptions from outside reach him.
[ 6 ] Man did not always have this feeling. In older times he did not perceive the content of ideas as something self-made, but as something received by inspiration from the supersensible world.
[ 7 ] This feeling went through stages. And the stages depended on the part of man's being with which he experienced what he now calls his ideas. Today, in the age of the development of the consciousness soul, what is written in the previous guiding principles applies without restriction: "Thoughts have their actual seat in the etheric body of man. But there they are living-substantial forces. They imprint themselves on the physical body. And as such 'imprinted thoughts' they have the shadowy nature in which ordinary consciousness knows them."
[ 8 ] We can now go back to times when thoughts were experienced directly in the "I". But then they were not shadowy as they are today; they were not merely living; they were soulful and spiritualized. This means, however, that man did not think thoughts; rather, he experienced the perception of concrete spiritual entities.
[ 9 ] A consciousness that thus looks up to a world of spiritual entities will be found everywhere in the prehistory of peoples. What has been preserved historically is today called myth-forming consciousness and is of no particular value for grasping the real world. - And yet man stands with this consciousness in his world, in the world of his origin, while with today's consciousness he stands out of this his world.
[ 10 ] Man is spirit. And his world is that of spirits.
[ 11 ] A next stage is that where the mental is no longer experienced by the "I" but by the astral body. Here the immediate spirituality is lost for the spiritual sight. The mental appears as an animated living being.
[ 12 ] At the first stage, the perception of the concrete spiritual essence, the human being does not have a strong need to bring what is perceived to the world of the sensually perceived. The sensory phenomena of the world reveal themselves as the acts of the supersensible; but there is no need to form a special science of that which is immediately visible to the "spiritual gaze". Moreover, what is seen as the world of spiritual beings is of such abundance that attention rests above all on it.
[ 13 ] This is different in the second stage of consciousness. Here the concrete spiritual beings are concealed; their reflection, as animated life, appears. One begins to bring the "life of nature" to this "life of souls". The effective spiritual beings and their deeds are sought in the natural beings and natural processes. In what later emerged as the alchymistic search, the precipitation of this stage of consciousness can be seen historically.
[ 14 ] Just as man, by "thinking" spiritual beings in the first stage of consciousness, lived entirely in his being, so in this second stage he is still close to himself and his origin.
[ 15 ] This, however, rules out the possibility of man having an inner drive of his own for his actions in the true sense at both levels.
[ 16 ] The spiritual, which is of his own kind, acts within him. What he seems to do is the revelation of processes that take place through spiritual beings. What man does is the sensual-physical manifestation of an underlying real divine-spiritual event.
[ 17 ] A third epoch of the development of consciousness brings the thoughts, but as living ones, to consciousness in the etheric body.
[ 18 ] When Greek civilization was great, it lived in this consciousness. When the Greek thought, he did not form a thought through which he looked at the world as if it were his own construct; rather, he felt excited life within himself, which also pulsated outside in things and processes.
[ 19 ] Then the longing for freedom of action arose for the first time. Not real freedom yet, but the longing for it.
[ 20 ] Man, who felt the rain of nature stirring within himself, was able to develop the longing to detach his own activity from the activity perceived as alien. But in the outer activity, the final result of the effective spirit world, which is of the same kind as the human being, was still felt.
[ 21 ] Only when the thoughts took on their imprint in the physical body and consciousness extended only to this imprint did the possibility of freedom arise. This is the state that existed in the fifteenth century after Christ.
[ 22 ] In the development of the world it does not matter what significance the ideas of the present-day view of nature have for nature; for these ideas have not assumed their forms in order to provide a certain picture of nature, but in order to bring man to a certain stage of his development.
[ 23 ] When the thoughts took hold of the physical body, spirit, soul, life were eradicated from their immediate content; and the abstract shadow that clings to the physical body has remained alone. Such thoughts can only make the physical-material the object of their cognition. For they themselves are only real in the physical-material body of man.
[ 24 ] Materialism did not arise because only material beings and processes can be perceived in external nature, but because man had to go through a stage in his development that led him to a consciousness that is initially only capable of seeing material revelations. The one-sided shaping of this human need for development resulted in the view of nature of modern times.
[ 25 ] Michael's mission is to bring into the human ether-bodies the powers through which the thought-shadows will again gain life; then souls and spirits of the supersensible worlds will incline themselves to the animated thoughts; the liberated human being will be able to live with them, as formerly the human being lived with them, who was only the physical image of their activity.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (based on the above)
[ 26 ] 103 In the development of humanity, consciousness descends the ladder of thought unfoldment. There is a first stage of consciousness: there the human being experiences the thoughts in the "I" as spiritualized, animated, animate beings. In a second stage the human being experiences the thoughts in the astral body; there they only represent the ensouled and animated images of the spirit beings. At a third stage, the human being experiences thoughts in the etheric body; they only represent an inner activity like an echo of the soul. In the fourth, present stage, man experiences thoughts in the physical body; they represent dead shadows of the spiritual.
[ 27 ] 104 To the same extent that the spiritual-soulful-living recedes in human thinking, man's self-will revives; freedom becomes possible.
[ 28 ] 105 It is Michael's task to lead man along the pathways of the will back to where he came from, since he has descended along the pathways of thinking from the experience of the supersensible to that of the sensible with his earthly consciousness.