The Michael Mystery
GA 26
IV. Michael's Task in the Sphere of Ahriman
[ 1 ] When Man looks back over his own evolution and reviews in spirit the peculiar character which his spiritual life has assumed during the last five centuries, he cannot but recognize—even in his ordinary consciousness, however dimly—that in these five centuries he has come to a critical turning-point in the whole earthly evolution of mankind.
[ 2 ] In the last letter I pointed out this critical turn in evolution from one of its aspects. One may look back namely into earlier ages of this evolution; then we observe how a transformation took place in that soul-force in Man which to-day is employed as the force of Intelligence.
[ 3 ] Thoughts now appear within the field of human consciousness—dead, abstract Thoughts. These Thoughts are tied to the physical human body. Man must recognize them as his own progeny.
[ 4 ] When, in days of yore, Man turned his soul's gaze in the direction where now his own Thoughts appear to him, he then beheld divine Spirit-beings. He saw his whole existence bound up with these Beings, in all that he was, down to his physical body. He must confess himself the product of these Beings,—not only their product in all that he was, but also in all that he did. Man had no Will of his own; all that he did was a manifestation of Divine Will.
[ 5 ] Step by step—as described in the last letter—the stage has been reached of a personal Will of Man's own for which the time began about five hundred years ago.
[ 6 ] The last stage, however, differs more markedly from all the preceding ones than these do from one another.
[ 7 ] As the Thoughts pass over into the physical body, they lose their aliveness; they become dead—spiritual dead constructions. Previously, whilst pertaining to Man, they were yet at the same time organs of the Divine Spirit-beings, to whom Man himself pertained. They willed in Man as living forms of Being. And hence Man felt himself through them livingly bound to the spiritual world.
[ 8 ] With his dead Thoughts, he feels himself released from the spiritual world,—he feels himself planted down completely into the physical world.
[ 9 ] But hereby he is at the same time brought into the sphere of the Ahrimanic Mind. The Ahrimanic form of mind has no great power in those regions, where the Beings of the Higher Hierarchies keep Man within their own immediate sphere,—either by working within him themselves, as in primeval times, or, as later, by the brightness of their ensouled or living reflection. So long as the workings of super-sensible Beings continue in this way to enter into all the workings of Man,—until, that is, about the fifteenth century A.D.—the powers of Ahriman find within the field of human evolution only a faint echo, one might say, of their strength.
[ 10 ]
The picture drawn by the Persian world-view of the workings of Ahriman, is in no contradiction to the above statement. For what is meant in the Persian view of Ahriman's workings, is not something going on in the evolution of the human soul, but within the neighbouring world, that borders on Man's soul-world. From this neighbouring world of spirit the web of Ahriman's weaving undoubtedly sent it s threads across into the world of the human soul, but did not directly encroach upon it.
[ 11 ] Any such direct encroachment only became possible in the period that began some five hundred years ago.
[ 12 ] Thus Man stands at the end of a stream of evolution in which his own human being has been built up by a form of Divine spirit-being which passes finally into the abstract Intelligence-Personality of Man, and there, so far as itself is concerned, died out.
[ 13 ] Man has not remained in those spheres where he had his own first source in the Divine Spirit-being.
[ 14 ] What was thus accomplished five hundred years ago for Man's consciousness, had already taken place on a broader scale throughout his general being at the time when the Mystery of Golgotha entered upon its earthly manifestation. This was the time when human evolution began—imperceptibly as yet for the consciousness of most people of that period—to slide gradually down, out of a world where Ahriman has but little power, into one where he has very much. It was in the fifteenth century that this downslide, from one world-stratum into another, reached its final completion.
[ 15 ] Here, in this world-stratum, it becomes possible for Ahriman to exert his influence upon Man, and with disastrous effects, because in this stratum the divine influences congenial to Man have died out. But there was no other possible way for Man to arrive at the development of his free will, save by withdrawing to a sphere in which those Divine Spirit-beings had no life, who were involved with him from his origin.
[ 16 ] In the very essence of this human evolution, cosmically viewed, lies the Mystery of the Sun. With the Sun, and all that Man—down to the important turning-point in his evolution—could see in the Sun, were involved the divine-spiritual Beings of his origin. These Beings have detached themselves from the Sun, and left on it only their extinct remains. So that what Man now receives through the sun, taken up into his bodily system, is the power of dead Thoughts only.
[ 17 ] But these Divine Beings have sent Christ from the Sun to Earth. He, for the salvation of mankind, has united His own living Being with the deadness of divine existence in the kingdom of Ahriman. Mankind have thus the twofold possibility, which is the pledge of their freedom: Either to turn to Christ in that mind and spirit which was theirs subconsciously when they came down from the vision of supersensible life in the Spirit until they could use Intelligence,—but to do this now in consciousness. Or else, in their detachment from Spirit-life, to seek to enjoy the sense of themselves—and thereby fall a prey to the Powers of Ahriman and be carried in the Ahrimanic direction of evolution.
[ 18 ] Such is the situation of mankind since the beginning of the fifteenth century. It has been preparing—for everything proceeds gradually in evolution—ever since the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, that greatest of all earthly events, which is designed to save Man from the destruction to which he is unavoidably exposed in order to become a free being.
[ 19 ] Now it is true to say: what has been done by mankind in this situation hitherto has been achieved half unconsciously. In this half-conscious way it has led to what is good in a view of Nature living in abstract ideas, and also to many equally beneficent principles in the conduct of practical life. [ 20 ] But the age has gone by, when Man could afford to pursue his existence unconsciously in the dangerous Ahrimanic sphere.
[ 21 ] The scientific observer of the spiritual world is to-day obliged to rouse mankind's attention to the spiritual fact that Michael has now succeeded to the guidance of human affairs. Whatever Michael performs, is performed in such a way as to exert no influence from his part upon man; but they are free to follow him, and so, in freedom, with the Christ-Power to find their way out again from Ahriman's sphere, which they entered of necessity.
[ 22 ] Whoever honestly, from the innermost core of his soul, can feel himself one with Anthroposophy, is a true interpreter of this Michael-Phenomenon. Anthroposophy is intended to be the message of this Michael-Mission.
Leading Thoughts
[ 23 ] 1. Michael travels upwards again over the paths which Mankind traveled downwards through the successive steps of the spirit's evolution to the exercise of Intelligence. Only, by Michael, the Will will be led up the track, which was descended by Wisdom until she came to Intelligence, her final stage.
[ 24 ] 2. From this point in the world's evolution, Michael merely shows his road, so that Mankind may walk on it in Freedom. And this is what distinguishes this particular regency of Michael's from the previous regencies of all other archangels—indeed from all those of Michael himself until now. These other regencies worked as active forces within Man, and did not merely show him their own workings; so that Man in those times could not be free in his.
[ 25 ] 3. To recognize this, is the task of Man at this present day, so that with his entire soul he may find his own right spiritual road during the age of Michael.
Michaels Aufgabe in der Ahriman-Sphäre
[ 1 ] Wenn der Mensch auf seine Entwickelung zurückblickt und dabei die besondere Eigenheit sich zur geistigen Anschauung bringt, die sein Geistesleben seit fünf Jahrhunderten angenommen hat, so muß er schon innerhalb des gewöhnlichen Bewußtseins wenigstens ahnend erkennen, daß er seit diesen fünf Jahrhunderten an einem bedeutsamen Wendepunkte der ganzen irdischen Entwickelung der Menschheit steht.
[ 2 ] In der letzten Betrachtung habe ich, von einem Gesichtspunkte aus, auf diese bedeutsame Wendung hingewiesen. Da kann man hinauf blicken in die Vorzeit der Entwickelung. Man schaut, wie sich im Menschen die Seelenkraft gewandelt hat, die gegenwärtig als die Kraft der Intelligenz tätig ist.
[ 3 ] Jetzt erscheinen Gedanken, tote, abstrakte Gedanken im Felde des menschlichen Bewußtseins. Diese Gedanken sind an den physischen Menschenleib gebunden; der Mensch muß sie als die von ihm erzeugten anerkennen.
[ 4 ] In der Urzeit schaute der Mensch, wenn er seinen Seelenblick in die Richtung wendete, in der ihm heute die eigenen Gedanken sich offenbaren, göttlich-geistige Wesenheiten. An diese Wesenheiten fand der Mensch sein ganzes Sein, bis zum physischen Leib, gebunden; er mußte sich als das Erzeugnis dieser Wesenheiten anerkennen. Aber als solches Erzeugnis nicht nur sein Sein anerkennen, sondern auch sein Tun. Der Mensch hatte keinen eigenen Willen. Was er tat, war Erscheinung des göttlichen Willens.
[ 5 ] Stufenweise, wie dies geschildert wurde, ist es bis zum eigenen Willen gekommen, dessen Zeit vor ungefähr fünf Jahrhunderten eingetreten ist.
[ 6 ] Aber die letzte Etappe unterscheidet sich von allen vorangehenden viel stärker als diese untereinander.
[ 7 ] Indem die Gedanken an den physischen Leib übergehen, verlieren sie die Lebendigkeit. Sie werden tot; geistig tote Gebilde. Sie waren vorher, indem sie dem Menschen angehörten, noch immer zugleich Organe der göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten, zu denen der Mensch gehört. Sie wollten im Menschen wesenhaft. Und dadurch fühlte sich der Mensch durch sie mit der geistigen Welt lebendig verbunden.
[ 8 ] Mit den toten Gedanken fühlt er sich abgelöst von der geistigen Welt. Er fühlt sich ganz versetzt in die physische Welt.
[ 9 ] Damit aber ist er in die Sphäre der ahrimanischen Geistigkeit versetzt. Diese hat keine starke Macht in den Gebieten, in denen die Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien den Menschen so in ihrer Sphäre halten, daß sie entweder, wie in Urzeiten, selbst im Menschen wirken oder, wie später, durch ihren beseelten oder lebendigen Abglanz. Solange dieses ins Menschenwirken hereingehende Wirken übersinnlicher Wesenheiten besteht, das heißt bis etwa zum fünfzehnten Jahrhundert, haben innerhalb der Menschheitsentwickelung die ahrimanischen Mächte nur eine - man möchte sagen - leise anklingende Macht.
[ 10 ] Was die persische Weltanschauung von dem Wirken Ahrimans schildert, ist damit nicht im Widerspruche. Denn diese Weltanschauung meint nicht ein Wirken Ahrimans innerhalb der menschlichen Seelen-Entfaltung, sondern ein solches in einer an die menschliche Seelenwelt unmittelbar angrenzenden Welt. Ahrimans Weben spielt da wohl herüber aus einer benachbarten Geistwelt in die menschliche Seelenwelt, aber es greift nicht unmittelbar ein.
[ 11 ] Dieses unmittelbare Eingreifen ist eben erst in der Zeitspanne möglich geworden, die vor etwa fünf Jahrhunderten begonnen hat.
[ 12 ] So steht der Mensch am Ende einer Entwickelungsströmung, innerhalb welcher sein Wesen aus solcher göttlicher Geistigkeit geworden ist, die zuletzt für sich in der abstrakten Intelligenz-Wesenheit des Menschen erstirbt.
[ 13 ] Der Mensch ist nicht in den Sphären verblieben, in denen er als in dieser göttlichen Geistigkeit seinen Ursprung hat.
[ 14 ] Was vor fünf Jahrhunderten für das Bewußtsein des Menschen begonnen hat, es hatte sich für einen weiteren Umfang seiner Gesamtwesenheit schon vollzogen zur Zeit, als das Mysterium von Golgatha in die irdische Erscheinung getreten ist. Da war es, daß unwahrnehmbar für das damals bei den meisten Menschen vorhandene Bewußtsein, allmählich die Menschheitsentwickelung aus einer Welt, in der Ahriman wenig, in eine solche hineinglitt, in der er viel Macht hat. Dieses Gleiten in eine andere Weltschichte erreichte ihre Vollendung eben im fünfzehnten Jahrhundert.
[ 15 ] Ahrimans Einfluß auf den Menschen in dieser Weltschichte ist deshalb möglich und kann verheerend wirken, weil in dieser Schichte das dem Menschen verwandte Götterwirken erstorben ist. Aber der Mensch konnte zur Entfaltung des freien Willens gar nicht auf eine andere Art kommen als dadurch, daß er sich in eine Sphäre begab, in der die vom Urbeginn mit ihm verbundenen göttlich-geistigen Wesen nicht lebendig waren.
[ 16 ] Kosmisch angesehen liegt in dem Wesen dieser menschlichen Entwickelung das Sonnen-Mysterium. Mit dem, was der Mensch bis zu dem bedeutsamen Wendepunkte seiner Entwickelung in der Sonne wahrnehmen konnte, waren die göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten seines Ursprungs verbunden. Diese haben sich von der Sonne losgelöst und auf dieser nur ihr Erstorbenes zurückgelassen, so daß der Mensch in seine Leiblichkeit durch die Sonne nurmehr die Kraft toter Gedanken aufnehmen kann.
[ 17 ] Aber diese Wesenheiten haben den Christus aus der Sonne zur Erde gesandt. Dieser hat sein Wesen zum Heile der Menschheit mit der Erstorbenheit des göttlich-geistigen Seins in Ahrimans Reich verbunden. So hat die Menschheit die zweifache Möglichkeit, die die Gewähr ihrer Freiheit ist: zu Christus sich wenden in der Geistgesinnung, die beim Heruntersteigen aus der Anschauung des übersinnlichen Geistdaseins bis zum Gebrauche der Intelligenz unterbewußt vorhanden war, jetzt in bewußter Art; oder sich erfühlen wollen in der Losgelöstheit von diesem Geistdasein und damit verfallen in die Orientierung, die die ahrimanischen Mächte nehmen.
[ 18 ] In dieser Situation ist die Menschheit seit dem Beginn des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts. Vorbereitet ist diese - in der Entwickelung geschieht ja alles allmählich - seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha, das als das größte Erden-Ereignis dazu bestimmt ist, den Menschen vor dem Verderben zu retten, dem er ausgesetzt sein muß, weil er ein freies Wesen sein soll.
[ 19 ] Man kann nun sagen: was von Seite der Menschheit bisher innerhalb dieser Situation geschehen ist, vollzog sich halb-unbewußt. Und in dieser Art hat es zu dem Guten der in abstrakten Ideen lebenden Naturanschauung und zu manchen ebenso guten Prinzipien der Lebenshaltung geführt.
[ 20 ] Aber dieses Zeitalter, in dem der Mensch unbewußt in der gefährlichen Ahriman-Sphäre sein Dasein entfalten darf, ist vorüber.
[ 21 ] Der Erforscher der geistigen Welt muß heute die Menschheit auf die geistige Tatsache aufmerksam machen, daß Michael die geistige Führung der Menschheitsangelegenheiten übernommen hat. Michael vollbringt, was er zu vollbringen hat, so, daß er die Menschen nicht dadurch beeinflußt; aber sie können in Freiheit ihm folgen, um mit der Christus-Kraft den Weg aus der Ahriman-Sphäre wieder herauszufinden, in die sie notwendig kommen mußten.
[ 22 ] Wer ehrlich, aus dem tiefsten Wesen seiner Seele, sich mit Anthroposophie eins fühlen kann, der ist ein rechter Versteher dieses Michael-Phänomens. Und Anthroposophie möchte die Botschaft von dieser Michael-Mission sein.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
[ 23 ] 106. Michael geht die Wege wieder aufwärts, welche die Menschheit abwärts auf den Stufen der Geistesentwickelung bis zur Intelligenzbetätigung gegangen ist. Nur wird Michael den Willen aufwärts die Bahnen führen, welche die Weisheit bis zu ihrer letzten Stufe, der Intelligenz, abwärts gegangen ist.
[ 24 ] 107. Wie Michael von diesem Zeitpunkte der Weltentwickelung seinen Weg bloß zeigt, so daß ihn der Mensch in Freiheit wandeln kann, das unterscheidet diese Michael-Führung von allen früheren Erzengel-Führungen, ja von allen früheren Michael-Führungen selbst. Diese Führungen wirkten im Menschen; sie zeigten nicht bloß ihr Wirken, so daß der Mensch in dem seinigen damals nicht frei sein konnte.
[ 25 ] 108. Dieses einzusehen, ist des Menschen gegenwärtige Aufgabe, damit er mit seiner ganzen Seele seinen Weg des Geistes innerhalb des Michael-Zeitalters finden könne.
Michael's task in the Ahriman sphere
[ 1 ] When man looks back on his development and thereby brings to his spiritual view the particular peculiarity which his spiritual life has assumed for five centuries, he must recognize, already within the ordinary consciousness, at least intuitively, that since these five centuries he has stood at a significant turning point in the whole earthly development of mankind.
[ 2 ] In the last observation I referred to this significant turning point from one point of view. There one can look up into the prehistory of development. You can see how the power of the soul has changed in man, which is currently active as the power of intelligence.
[ 3 ] Now thoughts, dead, abstract thoughts appear in the field of human consciousness. These thoughts are bound to the physical human body; man must recognize them as those generated by him.
[ 4 ] In primeval times, when man turned his soul's gaze in the direction in which his own thoughts reveal themselves to him today, he saw divine-spiritual entities. Man found his whole being, up to the physical body, bound to these entities; he had to recognize himself as the product of these entities. But as such a product he had to recognize not only his being, but also his doing. Man had no will of his own. What he did was a manifestation of the divine will.
[ 5 ] In stages, as this has been described, it has come to its own will, the time of which occurred about five centuries ago.
[ 6 ] But the last stage is much more different from all the preceding ones than these are from each other.
[ 7 ] When thoughts pass over to the physical body, they lose their vitality. They become dead; spiritually dead entities. Previously, by belonging to the human being, they were still at the same time organs of the divine-spiritual entities to which the human being belongs. They wanted to be in man. And through them, man felt a living connection with the spiritual world.
[ 8 ] With the dead thoughts, he feels detached from the spiritual world. He feels completely transported into the physical world.
[ 9 ] Thus, however, he is transferred into the sphere of the ahrimanic spirituality. This has no strong power in the regions in which the entities of the higher hierarchies hold man in their sphere in such a way that they either, as in primeval times, work in man themselves or, as later, through their animated or living reflection. As long as this work of supersensible entities entering into human activity exists, that is until about the fifteenth century, the ahrimanic powers have only a - one might say - faintly insinuating power within the development of mankind.
[ 10 ] What the Persian worldview describes of the work of Ahriman is not in contradiction with this. For this worldview does not mean an activity of Ahriman within the unfolding of the human soul, but such an activity in a world directly adjacent to the human soul world. Ahriman's weaving certainly plays over from a neighboring spirit world into the human soul world, but it does not intervene directly.
[ 11 ] This direct intervention has only become possible in the period of time that began about five centuries ago.
[ 12 ] So man stands at the end of a current of development within which his being has become of such divine spirituality that ultimately dies for itself in the abstract intelligence-being of man.
[ 13 ] Man has not remained in the spheres in which he has his origin as in this divine spirituality.
[ 14 ] What began five centuries ago for the consciousness of man had already taken place for a wider scope of his total being at the time when the Mystery of Golgotha entered into earthly manifestation. It was then that, imperceptibly for the consciousness of most people at that time, the development of mankind gradually slipped from a world in which Ahriman had little power into one in which he had much power. This slide into another world history reached its completion in the fifteenth century.
[ 15 ] Ahriman's influence on man in this world history is possible and can have a devastating effect because in this layer the work of the gods related to man has died. But man could not come to the development of free will in any other way than by entering a sphere in which the divine-spiritual beings connected with him from the beginning were not alive.
[ 16 ] Cosmically speaking, the essence of this human development lies in the mystery of the sun. The divine-spiritual entities of his origin were connected with what man could perceive up to the significant turning point of his development in the sun. These have detached themselves from the sun and left behind on it only their first dead, so that man can only absorb into his corporeality through the sun the power of dead thoughts.
[ 17 ] But these beings have sent the Christ from the sun to earth. He has combined his essence with the immortality of the divine-spiritual being in Ahriman's realm for the salvation of mankind. Thus mankind has the twofold possibility, which is the guarantee of its freedom: to turn to Christ in the spiritual attitude which was subconsciously present when descending from the contemplation of the supersensible spiritual existence up to the use of intelligence, now in a conscious way; or to want to feel itself in detachment from this spiritual existence and thus fall into the orientation taken by the Ahrimanic powers.
[ 18 ] Mankind has been in this situation since the beginning of the fifteenth century. It has been prepared - in development everything happens gradually - since the Mystery of Golgotha, which, as the greatest event on earth, is destined to save man from the perdition to which he must be exposed because he is to be a free being.
[ 19 ] It can now be said that what has happened so far on the part of mankind within this situation has taken place half-unconsciously. And in this way it has led to the good of the view of nature living in abstract ideas and to some equally good principles of the attitude to life.
[ 20 ] But this age, in which man is allowed to unfold his existence unconsciously in the dangerous Ahriman sphere, is over.
[ 21 ] The investigator of the spiritual world must draw humanity's attention today to the spiritual fact that Michael has taken over the spiritual leadership of human affairs. Michael accomplishes what he has to accomplish in such a way that he does not influence people through it; but they can follow him in freedom in order to find their way out of the Ahriman sphere again with the Christ-power, into which they necessarily had to come.
[ 22 ] Whoever can honestly, from the deepest essence of his soul, feel at one with anthroposophy, is a true understanding of this Michael phenomenon. And anthroposophy wants to be the message of this Michael mission.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 23 ] 106 Michael goes upwards again on the paths which humanity has gone downwards on the stages of spiritual development up to intelligence activity. Only Michael will lead the will upwards along the paths that wisdom has followed downwards to its final stage, intelligence.
[ 24 ] 107 How Michael shows his path only from this time of world development, so that man can walk it in freedom, distinguishes this Michael guidance from all earlier archangel guidance, indeed from all earlier Michael guidance itself. These guides worked in man; they did not merely show their work, so that man could not be free in his own at that time.
[ 25 ] 108. To realize this is man's present task, so that he may find his way of spirit with his whole soul within the Michael Age.