The Michael Mystery
GA 26
V. Michael's Experiences in the Fulfillment of his Cosmic Mission
[ 1 ] The progress of mankind may be traced, from the stage of consciousness where Man still felt himself part of the divine-spiritual order, down to the present one, where he learns to feel himself an individuality, detached from divine-spiritual Being, and able to make use of his own Thoughts. One may trace this from the point of view of mankind, as was done in the previous letter.
[ 2 ] One may also, however, through supersensible vision, sketch a picture of the experiences of Michael and his Company during the same tide of evolution—describe, that is, the same series of facts from the point of view of Michael. This shall now be attempted.
[ 3 ] There is, to begin with, a very early age, in which one can only really speak of what goes on amongst divine-spiritual Beings. It is one series of the actions of gods, with which one has here to do. Gods perform what the impulses of their own individual natures suggest to them. They find their appropriate satisfaction in this activity. And how they are affected by it all, is the sole matter in view. Only in one corner of the field of the Gods' goings, may be seen something that looks like Mankind. Mankind is a part of the Gods' activity.
[ 4 ] There is one spiritual Being, however, who from the very first has turned his eyes upon mankind: this is Michael. He arranges, so to speak, the doings of the Gods, so that Man can exist in a cosmic corner. And his mode of activity in doing this, is analogous to that which displays itself later in Man as Intellect—only that, with him, it is an active stream of force, that flows throughout the Cosmos, introducing order of ideas, and bringing cause to effect in fact. In this force Michael is at work. It is his office to administer the Intellectuality of the Cosmos. He desires further progress, namely, that the force which works as Intelligence throughout the whole Cosmos, should hereafter be concentrated in the individuality of Man. The consequence is that there comes a time in the world's evolution, when the Cosmos no longer lives by its present, but by its past Intelligence, whilst the present Intelligence is in the human stream of evolution.
[ 5 ] Michael wants to keep this Intelligence, that is growing up in mankind, in continuous connection with the divine spiritual Beings.
[ 6 ] To this, however, there is an obstacle. The whole line of evolution traveled through by the Gods, from the point where the intellectual force is set free from their cosmic working, to where it becomes incorporated in Man's nature, lies open as a patent fact in the world. Supposing there to be any beings, possessed of the faculty to see these facts, they could turn them to their own account. And such beings do actually exist—namely the Ahrimanic beings. Their whole form of being predisposes them to absorb into themselves any kind of intelligence that becomes detached from the Gods. They are suited to assimilate into their own being the entire sum of intellectuality of every kind. Thereby they grow to be the greatest, the most comprehensive and most penetrating Intelligences in the whole Cosmos.
[ 7 ] Michael can foresee how Man, as he attains ever more and more to the private use of intelligence, must needs come into contact with these Ahrimanic beings, and may then be tempted into an alliance with them, and so fall their prey. Michael therefore puts the Ahtrimanic Powers beneath his feet, drives them constantly down into deeper regions, below the one where Man is pursuing his development. Michael, with his foot upon the Dragon, thrusting him into the abyss—such is the stupendous picture, as it lives within human consciousness, of these deeds in the supersensible world.
[ 8 ] Evolution moves onward. The Intellectual force, which at first lay wholly within the domain of divine spirituality, now becomes so far detached, as to give soul to the Cosmos. What formerly had shot forth only as beams from the Gods, now shines as revealed glory of the godhead from the world of stars. Before, the world was guided by the Divine Being itself; now, it is guided by the Divine Revelation, which has come to be objective, and behind which the Divine Being is passing through the next stage of its own evolutionary course.
[ 9 ] Here again Michael is regent of the Cosmic Intelligence, inasmuch as this Intelligence flows as an ordering stream of Ideas through all the revelations of the Cosmos.
[ 10 ] The third phase of evolution is a still further detachment of the Cosmic Intelligence from its original source. It is no longer the present order of ideas which now rules the star-worlds as divine revelation; but the stars guide and group themselves in their courses in accordance with the order of ideas which was implanted in them in the past. Michael sees that which was under his sway in the Cosmos—the Intellectuality of the Cosmos—ever more and more taking its way to mankind on earth.
[ 11 ] And Michael sees too that the danger of mankind's falling into the snares of the Ahrimanic Powers is becoming ever greater. For himself, he knows that he will always have Ahriman beneath his feet; but can he do the same for Man?
[ 12 ] He sees the greatest of all events on Earth take place. Out of that realm of which Michael was himself the servant, the Christ-Being descends into the sphere of Earth, that He may be at hand when the power of Intelligence shall have passed completely over to the human individual. For then will come the time when the urge will be strongest in Man, wholly to give himself to that Power, which in every particular and in consummate perfection has made itself the bearer of the intellectual force. But Christ will be at hand. Through His great sacrifice He will live in the same sphere where Ahriman dwells. Man will have the choice between Christ and Ahriman. The world will be able in mankind's evolution to find the way of Christ.
[ 13 ] Such are Michael's experiences with the cosmic regency. In order to remain with that, of which he was regent in the cosmos, he takes the road from the cosmos to mankind. He has been upon the road since the eighth century of Christianity, but only really entered upon his earthly office—into which his cosmic office is transformed—in the last third of the nineteenth century.
[ 14 ] Michael has no power to compel men to anything. For the very fact that Intelligence has passed completely into the domain of human individuality, means, of itself, the end of all compulsion. But in the supersensible world that borders on the physical, Michael can perform before men, in a majestic act of imaginative ritual for their imitation, what he desires to do. There he may display himself in an aura of light, in a spirit-gesture, in which is revealed all the glory and majesty of the past Intelligence of Gods. There he may visibly demonstrate, how this Intelligence of the past is even now, in its effects in the present, truer and lovelier and more virtuous than all that in false, delusive splendour proceeds in the immediate present-day Intelligence from Ahriman. There he may let men see how, for him, Ahriman must always be the baser spirit underneath his feet.
[ 15 ] Those who can look into the supersensible world which lies next to the physical one, see Michael there, even as he is here described, and see what he and his company are trying to do for men. Such people see how in freedom Man is to be guided, by the picture of Michael in the sphere of Ahriman, away from Ahriman to Christ. If, through their own seeing, these people can succeed in opening the hearts and minds of other men as well, so that there may be a group of people who know how Michael is now dwelling amongst men, then mankind will make a beginning towards celebrating the Festival of Michael in its true reality, for in such festivals human souls will waken to life within themselves the power of Michael. Then will Michael be working as an actual power amongst men. Man will be free, and yet in innermost communion with Christ, as he journeys on his spiritual life-way through the Cosmos.
Leading Thoughts
[ 16 ] To awake to a true consciousness of the Michael-Influence in the spiritual complex of the world, is to solve the problem of Human Freedom from its cosmic complexities, so far as its solution is necessary for Man upon Earth.
[ 17 ] For ‘Freedom’ is a fact of direct experience for every man who understands himself in the present period of human evolution. No-one, without denying a patent fact, can venture to say: ‘There is no Freedom.’ Yet one may find a contradiction between the fact thus actually given, and the processes of the Cosmos. The ground of contradiction ceases in contemplation of Michael's mission in the Cosmos.
[ 18 ] In my ‘Philosophy of Freedom’ the freedom of Man's being in the present world-age will be found demonstrated as an actual subject of inner consciousness. In the picture here given of the Michael-Mission, may be found the cosmic arguments for this Freedom's evolution.
Michaels Erfahrungen und Erlebnisse während der Erfüllung seiner kosmischen Mission
[ 1 ] Man kann das Fortschreiten der Menschheit von der Bewußtseinsetappe, auf der sich der Mensch als Glied der göttlich-geistigen Ordnung, bis zu der gegenwärtigen, durch die er sich als eine vom Göttlich-Geistigen losgelöste Individualität mit Eigengebrauch der Gedanken erfühlt, vom Gesichtspunkte der Menschheit verfolgen. Das ist im letzten Aufsatz geschehen.
[ 2 ] Man kann aber auch durch übersinnliches Schauen ein Bild von dem entwerfen, was Michael und die Seinen während dieser Entwickelungsströmung erleben, also dieselbe Tatsachenreihe von dem Gesichtspunkte Michaels schildern. Das soll diesmal versucht werden.
[ 3 ] Es gibt zunächst eine älteste Zeit, in der man eigentlich nur von dem sprechen kann, was unter göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten geschieht. Man hat es mit einem fortlaufenden Götterhandeln zu tun. Götter vollbringen, was ihnen die Impulse ihrer Wesenheiten eingeben; sie sind entsprechend befriedigt in dieser Tätigkeit. Und was sie bei alledem erleben, kommt allein in Betracht. Nur in einer Ecke im Felde dieses Götterhandelns ist etwas wie die Menschheit bemerkbar. Sie ist ein Teil in dem Götterhandeln.
[ 4 ] Die geistige Wesenheit aber, die von Anfang an ihren Blick auf die Menschheit gelenkt hat, ist Michael. Er gliedert gewissermaßen das Götterhandeln so, daß in einer kosmischen Ecke die Menschheit bestehen kann. Und die Art, wie er sich da betätigt, ist verwandt dem Tun, das später im Menschen als Intellekt zur Offenbarung kommt; nur ist sie als Kraft betätigt, die in Ideenordnung durch den Kosmos strömt, Wirklichkeit verursachend. In dieser Kraft wirkt Michael. Die kosmische Intellektualität zu verwalten, ist sein Amt. Er möchte den weiteren Fortschritt auf seinem Gebiete. Und der kann nur darin bestehen, daß, was als Intelligenz durch den ganzen Kosmos wirkt, später sich konzentriert in der menschlichen Individualität. Was dadurch zustande kommt, ist dieses: es tritt in der Weltentwickelung eine Zeit ein, in der der Kosmos nicht mehr von seiner gegenwärtigen, sondern von seiner vergangenen Intelligenz lebt. Und die gegenwärtige Intelligenz ist in der menschheitlichen Entwickelungsströmung.
[ 5 ] Michael möchte, was sich da innerhalb der Menschheit als Intelligenz entwickelt, fortdauernd im Zusammenhange mit den göttlich-geistigen Wesen erhalten.
[ 6 ] Dem aber steht ein Widerstand entgegen. Was die Götter als Entwickelung durchmachen in der Linie von der Ablösung der Intellektualität von ihrem kosmischen Tun bis zur Eingliederung in die menschliche Natur hin, das steht offen als Tatsache in der Welt drinnen. Sind Wesen vorhanden, die ein Wahrnehmungsvermögen haben, durch das sie diese Tatsachen schauen können, so können sie sich diese zunutze machen. - Und solche Wesenheiten sind vorhanden. Es sind die ahrimanischen Wesen. Sie sind ganz dazu veranlagt, alles, was sich als Intelligenz von den Göttern loslöst, in sich aufzusaugen. Sie sind dazu veranlagt, die Summe aller Intellektualität mit ihrem eigenen Wesen zu vereinigen. Sie werden damit die größten, die umfassendsten und eindringlichsten Intelligenzen des Kosmos.
[ 7 ] Michael sieht voraus, wie der Mensch, indem er immer mehr zum Eigengebrauch der Intelligenz vorrückt, sich mit den ahrimanischen Wesen begegnen muß und wie er dann ihnen verfallen kann, indem er eine Verbindung mit ihnen eingeht. - Deshalb bringt Michael die ahrimanischen Mächte unter seine Füße, er stößt sie fortwährend in ein tieferes Gebiet, als das ist, in dem der Mensch sich entfaltet. Michael, den Drachen zu seinen Füßen, ihn in den Abgrund stoßend: das ist das im Menschenbewußtsein lebende gewaltige Bild der hier geschilderten übersinnlichen Tatsachen.
[ 8 ] Die Entwickelung rückt vorwärts. Die Intellektualität, die zuerst ganz im Bereiche der göttlichen Geistigkeit war, löst sich so weit los, daß sie zur Beseelung des Kosmos wird. Was vorher nur von den Göttern ausstrahlte, das erglänzt jetzt als die Offenbarung des Göttlichen aus der Sternenwelt. Vorher ward die Welt gelenkt durch die göttliche Wesenheit selbst, jetzt wird sie gelenkt durch die objektiv gewordene göttliche Offenbarung, hinter der die göttliche Wesenheit die nächste Stufe ihrer eigenen Entwickelung durchläuft.
[ 9 ] Wieder ist Michael der Verwalter der kosmischen Intelligenz, insofern diese durch die Offenbarungen des Kosmos in Ideenordnung strömt.
[ 10 ] Die dritte Phase der Entwickelung ist ein weiteres Loslösen der kosmischen Intelligenz von ihrem Ursprünge. In den Sternenwelten waltet nun nicht mehr die gegenwärtige Ideenordnung als göttliche Offenbarung; es laufen die Sterne und ordnen sich nach der in der Vergangenheit ihnen eingepflanzten Ideenordnung. Michael sieht, wie immer mehr, was er im Kosmos verwaltet hat, die kosmische Intellektualität, den Weg zur Erdenmenschheit nimmt.
[ 11 ] Michael sieht aber auch, wie die Gefahr, daß die Menschheit den ahrimanischen Mächten verfällt, immer größer wird. Er weiß: für sich wird er Ahriman immer unter seinen Füßen haben; ob aber auch für den Menschen?
[ 12 ] Das größte Erden-Ereignis sieht Michael eintreten. Aus dem Reiche, dem Michael selbst diente, steigt die Christus-Wesenheit hinunter in den Erdbereich, um da zu sein, wenn die Intelligenz völlig bei der menschlichen Individualität sein wird. Denn dann wird der Mensch den Drang am stärksten empfinden, sich an die Macht hinzugeben, die restlos in aller Vollkommenheit sich zum Träger der Intellektualität gemacht hat. Aber Christus wird da sein; er wird in derselben Sphäre durch sein großes Opfer leben, in der auch Ahriman lebt. Der Mensch wird wählen können zwischen Christus und Ahriman. Die Welt wird in der Menschheits-Entwickelung den Christus-Weg finden können.
[ 13 ] Das ist Michaels kosmische Erfahrung mit dem, was er im Kosmos zu verwalten hat. Er tritt, um bei dem Gegenstande seiner Verwaltung zu bleiben, den Weg vom Kosmos zu der Menschheit an. Er ist auf diesem Wege seit dem achten nachchristlichen Jahrhunderte, ist aber eigentlich angekommen bei seinem Erdenamte, in das sich sein kosmisches Amt verwandelt hat, erst im letzten Drittel des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts.
[ 14 ] Zwingen kann Michael die Menschen zu nichts. Denn der Zwang hat ja eben dadurch aufgehört, daß die Intelligenz ganz in den Bereich der menschlichen Individualität getreten ist. - Aber als eine majestätische vorbildliche Handlung, in der an die sichtbare zunächst angrenzenden übersinnlichen Welt, kann Michael entfalten, was er entfalten will. Mit einer Licht-Aura, mit einer Geistwesen-Geste kann da Michael sich zeigen, in der sich aller Glanz und alle Herrlichkeit der vergangenen Götter-Intelligenz offenbart. Zur Erscheinung kann er da bringen, wie die Wirkung dieser Vergangenheits-Intelligenz in der Gegenwart noch wahrer, schöner und tugendhafter ist als alles in unmittelbarer Gegenwarts-Intelligenz, das in trugvollem, verführerischem Glanz von Ahriman herströmt. Er kann bemerklich machen, wie für ihn Ahriman immer der niedrige Geist unter seinen Füßen sein wird.
[ 15 ] Diejenigen Menschen, welche die an die sichtbare Welt angrenzende nächste übersinnliche schauen, nehmen so, wie hier geschildert, Michael und die Seinen bei dem wahr, was sie für die Menschen tun möchten. Solche Menschen sehen, wie der Mensch in Freiheit durch das Bild Michaels in der Ahriman-Sphäre von Ahriman ab zu Christus geführt werden soll. Wenn es solchen Menschen gelingt, durch ihr Schauen auch Herzen und Sinnen andrer Menschen aufzuschließen, damit ein Kreis von Menschen wisse, wie jetzt Michael unter den Menschen lebt, dann wird die Menschheit beginnen, Michael-Feste mit dem rechten Inhalt zu feiern, auf denen die Seelen werden in sich die Kraft Michaels aufleben lassen. Michael wird dann als eine reale Macht unter den Menschen wirken. Der Mensch aber wird frei sein und doch in inniger Gemeinschaft mit Christus seinen Geist-Lebensweg durch den Kosmos gehen.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden (Mit Bezug auf die vorangehende Darstellung der Michael-Erfahrungen)
[ 16 ] 109. Sich der Michael-Wirksamkeit im geistigen Weltzusammenhang recht bewußt werden, heißt das Rätsel der menschlichen Freiheit aus den kosmischen Zusammenhängen heraus lösen, soweit die Lösung dem Erdenmenschen notwendig ist.
[ 17 ] 110. Denn die «Freiheit» ist als Tatsache jedem Menschen, der sich selber im gegenwärtigen Abschnitt der Menschheitsentwickelung versteht, unmittelbar gegeben. Keiner darf sagen, wenn er nicht eine offenbare Tatsache leugnen will, «Freiheit ist nicht». Aber man kann einen Widerspruch finden zwischen dem, was so tatsächlich gegeben ist, und den Vorgängen im Kosmos. In der Betrachtung von Michaels Sendung im Kosmos fällt dieser Widerspruch hinweg.
[ 18 ] 111. In meiner «Philosophie der Freiheit» findet man die «Freiheit» des Menschenwesens in der gegenwärtigen Weltzeit als Inhalt des Bewußtseins nachgewiesen; in den Darstellungen der Michael-Mission, die hier gegeben werden, findet man das «Werden dieser Freiheit» kosmisch begründet.
Michael's experiences and adventures during the fulfillment of his cosmic mission
[ 1 ] The progression of humanity from the stage of consciousness at which man as a member of the divine-spiritual order, to the present stage, through which he feels himself as an individuality detached from the divine-spiritual with his own use of thought, can be followed from the point of view of humanity. This has been done in the last essay.
[ 2 ] But one can also sketch a picture of what Michael and his followers experience during this developmental current through supersensible vision, i.e. describe the same series of facts from Michael's point of view. This shall be attempted this time.
[ 3 ] There is first of all an earliest time in which one can actually only speak of what happens among divine-spiritual beings. We are dealing with an ongoing action of the gods. Gods accomplish what the impulses of their beings give them; they are correspondingly satisfied in this activity. And what they experience in all of this is the only thing that matters. Only in one corner of the field of this action of the gods is something like humanity noticeable. It is a part of the action of the gods.
[ 4 ] But the spiritual being that has directed its gaze towards humanity from the beginning is Michael. He organizes the actions of the gods in such a way that humanity can exist in a cosmic corner. And the way in which he is active there is related to the activity that later comes to manifestation in man as intellect; only it is active as a force that flows through the cosmos in the order of ideas, causing reality. Michael works in this power. His office is to administer cosmic intellectuality. He wants further progress in his field. And this can only consist in the fact that what works as intelligence through the whole cosmos is later concentrated in human individuality. What comes about as a result is this: a time arrives in world development in which the cosmos no longer lives from its present intelligence, but from its past intelligence. And the present intelligence is in the human developmental current.
[ 5 ] Michael would like to maintain what is developing within humanity as intelligence continuously in connection with the divine-spiritual beings.
[ 6 ] But there is resistance to this. What the gods go through as a development in the line from the detachment of intellectuality from its cosmic activity to its incorporation into human nature, that is open as a fact within the world. If beings are present who have a perceptive faculty through which they can see these facts, they can make use of them. - And such beings are present. They are the ahrimanic beings. They are completely predisposed to absorb everything that detaches itself from the gods as intelligence. They are predisposed to unite the sum of all intellectuality with their own being. They thus become the greatest, the most comprehensive and penetrating intelligences of the cosmos.
[ 7 ] Michael foresees how man, by advancing more and more to the self-use of intelligence, must meet with the ahrimanic beings and how he can then fall prey to them by entering into a union with them. - Therefore Michael brings the ahrimanic powers under his feet, he continually pushes them into a deeper realm than that in which man unfolds himself. Michael, the dragon at his feet, pushing him into the abyss: this is the powerful image of the supernatural facts described here living in human consciousness.
[ 8 ] Development moves forward. Intellectuality, which at first was entirely in the realm of divine spirituality, detaches itself to such an extent that it becomes the animation of the cosmos. What previously radiated only from the gods now shines forth as the revelation of the divine from the starry world. Before, the world was guided by the divine essence itself, now it is guided by the divine revelation that has become objective, behind which the divine essence passes through the next stage of its own development.
[ 9 ] Michael is again the administrator of cosmic intelligence, insofar as it flows through the revelations of the cosmos in the order of ideas.
[ 10 ] The third phase of development is a further detachment of the cosmic intelligence from its origin. In the starry worlds, the present order of ideas no longer reigns as divine revelation; the stars run and organize themselves according to the order of ideas implanted in them in the past. Michael sees how more and more of what he has administered in the cosmos, the cosmic intellectuality, takes the path to earthly humanity.
[ 11 ] Michael also sees, however, how the danger of humanity falling prey to the Ahrimanic powers is growing ever greater. He knows: for himself he will always have Ahriman under his feet; but whether for mankind too?
[ 12 ] Michael sees the greatest earth event occurring. From the realm that Michael himself served, the Christ entity descends into the earth realm to be there when the intelligence will be fully with the human individuality. For it is then that man will feel the strongest urge to surrender to the power that has made itself the bearer of intellectuality in all perfection. But Christ will be there; he will live in the same sphere through his great sacrifice in which Ahriman also lives. Man will be able to choose between Christ and Ahriman. The world will be able to find the way of Christ in the development of humanity.
[ 13 ] This is Michael's cosmic experience of what he has to administer in the cosmos. To stay with the object of his administration, he starts on the path from the cosmos to humanity. He has been on this path since the eighth century after Christ, but did not actually arrive at his earthly office, into which his cosmic office has been transformed, until the last third of the nineteenth century.
[ 14 ] Michael cannot force people to do anything. For compulsion has ceased precisely because intelligence has entered entirely into the realm of human individuality. - But as a majestic, exemplary action, in the supersensible world that initially borders on the visible world, Michael can unfold what he wants to unfold. With an aura of light, with a gesture of a spirit being, Michael can show himself in which all the splendor and glory of the past intelligence of the gods is revealed. He can bring to light how the effect of this past intelligence in the present is even truer, more beautiful and more virtuous than everything in immediate present intelligence, which flows from Ahriman in a seductive glow. He can realize how for him Ahriman will always be the low spirit beneath his feet.
[ 15 ] Those people who see the next supersensible world adjacent to the visible world perceive Michael and his own in what they want to do for people, as described here. Such people see how man in freedom is to be led away from Ahriman to Christ through the image of Michael in the Ahriman sphere. If such people succeed in opening the hearts and minds of other people through their vision, so that a circle of people know how Michael now lives among people, then humanity will begin to celebrate Michael festivals with the right content, at which the souls will revive the power of Michael within themselves. Michael will then work as a real power among men. Man, however, will be free and yet walk his spiritual path of life through the cosmos in intimate communion with Christ.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (with reference to the previous presentation of the Michael experiences)
[ 16 ] 109 Becoming fully aware of Michael's activity in the spiritual world context means solving the riddle of human freedom out of the cosmic contexts, insofar as the solution is necessary for man on earth.
[ 17 ] 110 For "freedom" as a fact is directly given to every human being who understands himself in the present stage of human development. No one may say, if he does not wish to deny an obvious fact, "freedom is not". But one can find a contradiction between what is actually given and the processes in the cosmos. In the consideration of Michael's mission in the cosmos, this contradiction falls away.
[ 18 ] 111 In my "Philosophy of Freedom" one finds the "freedom" of the human being in the present world time proven as the content of consciousness; in the descriptions of Michael's mission given here, one finds the "becoming of this freedom" cosmically founded.