The Michael Mystery
GA 26
X. First Contemplation: How Michael prepares his earthly mission supersensibly, by the conquest of Lucifer.
[ 1 ] Michael's intervention in the evolution of the world and of mankind, at the end of the nineteenth century, appears in a remarkable illumination, if we consider the history of spiritual life in the centuries that went before.
[ 2 ] In the early fifteenth century lies the moment from which the epoch of the spiritual Soul first begins.
[ 3 ] Previous to this moment, a great change may be seen taking place in the spiritual life of mankind. One can trace how everywhere, previously, Imaginations played through all men's outlook on the world. Particular persons, it is true, have, before this, already arrived in their soul's life so far as bare ‘concepts.’ But the general soul-life of the majority of mankind goes on in a mutual intermingling of Imaginations and of mental conceptions drawn from the purely physical world. It is so with their conceptions about processes of nature, and also with their conceptions of events in history.
[ 4 ] What spiritual observation can discover in this direction is in every way confirmed by external testimony. A few instances may be mentioned here.
[ 5 ] The tales of historical events, which had lived in the minds and mouths of men during the preceding centuries, began to be written down just before the Age of Consciousness.t1Footnote by translator. In this and in several of the following Letters, the phrase ‘Age of Consciousness’ (Bewusstseins-Zeitalter) is often used synonymously with ‘Age of the Consciousness-Soul or spiritual Soul’ (Zeitalter der Bewusstseins-Seele)—compare what is said of this in the Preface. And thus we have preserved from that period ‘legends’ and such things, which give a faithful portrayal of the manner in which men pictured ‘history’ to themselves in the times before.
[ 6 ] A beautiful example is the Tale of the Good Gerard, preserved in a poem by Rudolf of Ems, who lived in the first half of the thirteenth century. ‘Good Gerard’ is a rich merchant of Cologne. He sets out on a trading expedition to Russia, Livonia and Prussia, to buy sables. Thence he goes on to Damascus and Nineveh, to procure silks and similar merchandise.
[ 7 ] On the homeward journey he is driven out of his course by a tempest. He is thrown upon a strange shore, where he makes acquaintance with a man who is keeping prisoner certain English knights and also the bride of the English king. Gerard offers him everything that he has gained by trade upon his journey, and receives the prisoners in return. He takes them on board his ship and sets out on his journey home. When the ships come to where the ways part, one way to Gerard's country and the other to England, Gerard dismisses the men-prisoners and sends them on their way to their own country. The king's bride he keeps with him, in the hope that her betrothed, King William, will come and fetch her, as soon as he hears that she is free and where she is dwelling. The bride-queen and the ladies of her company are treated by Gerard with all conceivable kindness. She lives as a well-loved daughter in the house of him who has redeemed her from captivity. A long, long time goes by, without the king's appearing to fetch her. At last, in order to secure the future of his foster daughter, Gerard resolves to marry her to his own son; for it seem reasonable to believe that William is dead. The wedding feast is already in full train, when an unknown pilgrim appears amongst them. It is William. He had been long wandering about, seeking for his betrothed bride. She is restored to him, after Gerard's son has unselfishly resigned her. Both remain for a while still with Gerard; and then he fits out a ship to take them to England. Gerard is the first to be seen and welcomed in England by his former prisoners—all now attained to high dignities, and they at once want to choose him for their king. But he can tell them in reply that he is bringing them their own rightful king and queen. For they too had believed William to be dead, and were about to choose another king to rule the country, where everything had fallen to into confusion during the long time that William had been on his wanderings. The merchant of Cologne rejects everything they offer him in the way of honours and riches; and returns to Cologne, to live again as the simple merchant that he was before.
The story is couched in the form that the Saxon Emperor, Otto the First, journeys to Cologne to make the acquaintance of Good Gerard. For the powerful emperor in much that he has done, has not escaped the temptation of looking for an ‘earthly reward.’ Through acquaintance with Gerard, there is brought keenly home to him, by example, the untold good done by a plain man: The sacrifice of all the merchandise he had acquired, in order to set prisoners free; the restoration of his son's bride to William; and then all that he performs in order to bring William back to England, and so on—without coveting any earthly reward whatever in return, but looking for his reward from the hand of God alone. In the mouths of the people the man goes by the name of ‘the good Gerard.’ The Emperor feels that he has received a powerful spur, religiously and morally, through acquaintance with a man so minded as Gerard.
[ 8 ] This story—of which I have here given the bare outline, so as not merely to allude by name to something little known—shows from one aspect very distinctly what was the constitution of men's souls in the age that preceded the dawning of the Spiritual Soul in human evolution. [ 9 ] Anyone who lets the story, as told by Rudolf of Ems, work within him, can feel what a change has taken place in men's realization of the earthly world since the days when Emperor Otto lives (in the tenth century.)
[ 10 ] Looking thence to the age of the Spiritual Soul, we may see how the world has grown as it were ‘clear’ to the vision of men's souls, in respect of their grasp of physical entities and physical processes. Gerard sails with his ships, so to speak, through a mist. He only knows, each time, one little bit of the world with which he has to do. In Cologne, one learns nothing of what is happening in England; and one must go for years in search of a man who is in Cologne. The life and possessions of such a person as the man on whose shore Gerard is cast on his homeward voyage, first become known to one when Fate carries one directly to the spot. Compared to the perspicuity of the world's circumstances to-day, that of those days is like the difference between gazing over a broad, sunny landscape, and groping in a dense mist.
[ 11 ] With anything that to-day is accounted ‘historic’ the Tale of Good Gerard and the circumstances narrated in it have nothing whatever to do. But all the more do they shew the general tone of feeling and the whole state of mind of the age. And this, not the particular occurrences of the physical world, is depicted in Imaginations.
[ 12 ] The picture so drawn reflects Man's feeling that he is not merely a being who in all his life and actions is simply a link in the chain of events in the physical world, turned men's eyes to the beholding of the spiritual world. They did not see into the length and breadth of physical existence; but all the more they saw into the depths of spiritual existence.
[ 13 ] The tale of Good Gerard shews how the twilight haze which preceded the age of the Spiritual Soul as regards the perspective of the physical world, turned men's eyes to the beholding of the spiritual world. They did not see into the length and breadth of physical existence; but all the more they saw into the depths of spiritual existence.
[ 14 ] But as once it had been, when in their dim dreamlike clairvoyance men had looked into the spiritual world, it was now no more, in the age of which we are speaking. The Imaginations were there, but the apprehension they met with in the human soul was one already strongly tending towards the intellectual form of thought. The result was that people no longer knew how the world which reveals itself in Imaginations is related to the world of outer physical existence. And therefore, to people who adhered with more penetration to the intellectual form of thought, the Imaginations appeared to be free ‘fictions,’ with no actual reality.
[ 15 ] People no longer knew that through Imaginations men look into a world in which they dwell with quite another part of their being than in the physical world. And so, in the descriptions, both worlds are portrayed side by side; and both, from the style of the narration wear such a character, that one might well think that the spiritual events described had taken place alongside the physical ones, as visibly as the physical events themselves.
[ 16 ] Moreover, in many of these stories, the physical events themselves were confounded together. Persons whose lives lay hundreds of years apart appear on the scene as contemporaries. Actual events are transferred to wrong places or wrong times. [ 17 ] Facts of the physical world are looked at by the human soul in a way in which one can only look at things of the spirit, for which time and space have another meaning than they have for physical things. The physical world is described in Imaginations, instead of in thoughts. And, in return, the spiritual world is woven into the story as though one had to do, not with a quite other form of existence, but with a continuation of the physical facts.
[ 18 ] The history which holds solely to physical interpretations of everything, thinks that the old Imaginations from the East, from Greece, etc. were taken over, and woven poetically into the historical material which interested people at the time. In the writings of Isidore of Seville (7th century A.D.) there was indeed a regular collection of old stories and legendary ‘motifs.’
[ 19 ] But this is a surface view of the matter. It can have a value only for one who has no sense of that other form of human soul-life, which knows itself and its own external existence to be in direct touch with the spiritual world, and feels impelled to express in Imaginations what thus it knows. And if then, instead of the narrator's own ‘Imagination,’ he uses one that has been handed down in history and which he has made his own by familiarity, this is not the essential feature; the essential feature is, that the soul's whole orientation is towards the spiritual world, so that the soul sees her own doings and all the proceedings of Nature interwoven with this spiritual world.
[ 20 ] There is, however, a certain confusion observable in the style of narrative in the period just before the dawn of the Spiritual Soul.
[ 21 ] In this confusion, when viewed with spiritual understandings, may be seen the actions of the Luciferic Powers. [ 22 ] The impulse which makes the soul adopt Imaginations into her personal store of life-experience, corresponds less with the faculties that she possessed in primeval times—through dream-like clairvoyance—and more with those already in existence in the eighth to the fourteenth centuries. These later faculties were already impelling the soul more towards a thinking interpretation of what was perceived through the senses. The soul is placed betwixt the two: betwixt the old orientation—where all turns upon the spiritual world, and the physical world is only seen as in a mist—and the new orientation, where all turns upon physical proceedings, and spiritual vision has grown dim.
[ 23 ] Into this unstable balance in the human soul is thrown the Luciferic influence. The Luciferic Powers want to prevent Man from coming to a complete orientation in the physical world. They want to keep him with his consciousness in spiritual regions that were suited to him in primeval times. They want to keep his dream-like, imaginative world-vision from the influence of that pure thinking which is trained to the understanding of physical existence. They are able indeed, in a wrong way, to keep back his powers of vision from the physical world; but they are not able, in a right way, to keep alive his power of realizing the old Imaginations. And so they leave him musing in Imaginations, without being able quite to transport him in soul into those worlds, where Imaginations have real validity. [ 24 ] The effect of Lucifer's influence, in the first beginning of the Age of the Spiritual Soul, is to transport Man out of the physical world into the supersensible one that lies just on its borders.
[ 25 ] This may be seen clearly illustrated in the Legend of Duke Earnest, which was one of the favourite stories of the Middle Ages, and circulated far and wide:
[ 26 ] Duke Earnest comes into conflict with the Emperor; and the emperor makes war unjustly upon him, to destroy him. To escape these impossible relations with the head of the empire, Duke Earnest sees himself obliged to join the crusade which is on its way to the East. In the various adventures that now befall him before his journey reaches its end, physical things and spiritual things are interwoven in the ‘legendary’ style above described. The duke, for instance, comes on his journey to a race of men with heads like cranes. He is cast with his vessels upon the ‘Magnetic Mountain,’ which attracts all ships by its magnetic power, so that people who come into the neighbourhood of the mountain cannot get away again, but are bound to perish miserably. Duke Earnest and his followers manage to escape by sewing themselves into skins and letting themselves be carried off by griffins, who are used to come down and prey upon the people who have been cast on the Magnetic Mountain. They are carried to a mountain top; and there, whilst the griffins are away, they cut themselves out of the skins and so escape. After further wanderings, they come to a people whose ears are so long that they can wrap them round their whole body like a coat; and then to another race of people with such big feet that when it rains they lie down on the ground and spread their feet over them like umbrellas. They come to a race of dwarfs, a race of giants, and so on. A great deal of this kind comes into the tale, as part of Duke Earnest's adventures upon his crusade. This ‘legend’ does not let one feel—in the way one should, wherever ‘Imaginations’ come in—that here the story is passing into a spiritual sphere, telling in pictures of things that are going on in the astral world and have a connection with the wills and the fate of the people upon earth.
[ 27 ] It is the same with the fine ‘Story of Roland,’ which celebrates Charlemagne's expedition against the heathens of Spain. Here it is even narrated, in analogy with the bible, that in order to enable Charlemagne to reach a desired place the sun stays its course, so that this one day is as long as an ordinary two.
[ 28 ] And, in the Saga of the Niebelung, one can see how the form of the story preserved in Northern countries has maintained the vision of the Spiritual in much greater purity; whereas in Middle Europe the Imaginations have been brought very close to physical life. The form of the Northern legends expresses clearly that the Imaginations have reference to an ‘astral world.’ In its Mid-European form, the ‘Niebelungen Lied,’ the Imaginations glide over into the views of the physical one.
[ 29 ] Those imaginations too, which come into the Legend of Duke Earnest, have in reality to do with experiences that are realised, between the adventures on the physical plane, in an ‘astral world’, to which Man as much belongs as to the physical one.
[ 30 ] All this, examined with the eye of the spirit, shows that the entrance into the Age of Consciousness means growing out of a phase of evolution in which the Luciferic Powers would be victorious over mankind, if the Spiritual Soul with its intellectual power did not bring a new strain of evolution into Mans being. That tendency to take their whole orientation from the spiritual world, by which men are confused and led astray, finds its check in the Spiritual Soul; men's gaze is drawn out into the physical world. All that takes place in this direction helps to withdraw mankind from the bewildering influence of Lucifer.
[ 31 ] In all this, Michael is already working from out of the spiritual world on Man's behalf. From the region above the senses he is preparing his work for later. He gives to mankind impulses which conserve the primeval relation to the divine-spiritual world, without this conservation assuming a Luciferic character.
[ 32 ] Then, in the last third of the nineteenth century, Michael pushes forward, and carries his action—which from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century has gone on preparatorily from the supersensible region—into the physical earth-world itself.
[ 33 ] It was necessary, for a while, that mankind should pursue their spiritual evolution in the direction of freeing themselves from a relation to the spiritual world which was threatening to become impossible. Subsequently, this evolution turned again, through Michael's mission, into paths which bring human progress upon earth once more into a relation with the spiritual world in which Man can find health and wholeness.
[ 34 ] So Michael stands, in his working, between the World-Picture of Lucifer, and the World-Understanding of Ahriman. The World-Picture turns, with Michael, to wisdom of itself as divine World-Working. And in this World-Working lives the care of Christ for mankind, which can thus disclose itself through Michael's World-Revelation to the human heart.
Leading Thoughts
[ 35 ] The dawn of the Age of Consciousness (age of the Spiritual Soul) in the 15th century is preceded, in the evening of the age of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul, by an enhancement of Luciferic activity, which lasts on for a while into the new period.
[ 36 ] The aim of this Luciferic activity is unrightfully to preserve old forms of mentally picturing the world, and to keep Man back from using the intellect to comprehend the physical life of the world and make himself familiar with it.
[ 37 ] Michael unites himself with Man's activity, in order that the emancipated power of the intellect may abide by its divine, spiritual parentage, not in a Luciferic but in a rightful way.
Erste Betrachtung:
Vor den Toren der Bewußtseinsseele. Wie Michael seine Erdenmission durch Besiegung Luzifers überirdisch vorbereitet
[ 1 ] Michaels Eingreifen in die Welt- und Menchheitsentwickelung am Ende des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts erscheint in einer besonderen Beleuchtung, wenn man die Geistesgeschichte in den Jahrhunderten betrachtet, die ihm vorangegangen sind.
[ 2 ] Im Beginne des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts liegt der Zeitpunkt, in dem die Epoche der Bewußtseinsseele ihren Anfang nimmt.
[ 3 ] Vor diesem Zeitpunkt offenbart sich ein völliger Wandel in dem Geistesleben der Menschheit. Man kann verfolgen, wie vorher in das menschliche Anschauen überall noch Imaginationen hineingespielt haben. Einzelne Persönlichkeiten haben sich allerdings schon früher zu bloßen «Begriffen» in ihrem Seelenleben gefunden; allein die allgemeine Seelenverfassung der Mehrzahl der Menschen lebt in einem Sich-Durchdringen von Imaginationen mit Vorstellungen, die der rein physischen Welt entstammen. So ist es mit den Vorstellungen über Naturgeschehen, so aber auch mit denen über das geschichtliche Werden.
[ 4 ] Was die geistige Beobachtung nach dieser Richtung finden kann, wird durch die äußeren Zeugnisse durchaus bestätigt. Auf einige der letzteren sei hier gedeutet.
[ 5 ] Was in den vorangegangenen Jahrhunderten über geschichtliche Ereignisse gesonnen und gesprochen worden war, wird gerade vor dem Anbrach des Bewußtseinszeitalters vielfach niedergeschrieben. Und so haben wir aus dieser Zeit «Sagen» und dergleichen aufbewahrt, die ein getreues Bild davon geben, wie man vorher «Geschichte» vorgestellt hat.
[ 6 ] Ein schönes Beispiel ist die Erzählung von dem «guten Gerhard», die in einem Gedichte des Rudolf von Ems, der in der ersten Hälfte des dreizehnten Jahrhunderts lebte, erhalten ist. Der «gute Gerhard» ist ein reicher Kaufmann in Köln. Er unternimmt eine Handelsreise nach Rußland, Livland und Preußen, um Zobelfelle zu kaufen. Dann geht er nach Damaskus und Ninive, um Seidenstoffe und ähnliches zu erwerben.
[ 7 ] Auf der Heimreise wird er vom Sturm verschlagen. In dem fremden Gebiet, in das er kommt, lernt er einen Mann kennen, in dessen Gefangenschaft sich englische Ritter und auch die Verlobte des englischen Königs befinden. Gerhard gibt alles hin, was er auf der Reise erhandelt hatte, und erhält dafür die Gefangenen. Die nimmt er auf sein Schiff und tritt die Heimreise an. Als die Schiffe dahin kommen, wo die Wege nach der Heimat Gerhards und nach England sich trennen, entläßt Gerhard die männlichen Gefangenen nach ihrer Heimat; die Verlobte des Königs behält er bei sich, in der Hoffnung, daß ihr Bräutigam, der König Wilhelm, sie abholen werde, sobald er von ihrer Befreiung und ihrem Aufenthaltsorte Kunde erhält. In der denkbar besten Art werden die Königsbraut und ihre mitgekommenen Freundinnen von Gerhard gehalten. Sie lebt wie eine vielgeliebte Tochter in dem Hause ihres Erlösers aus der Gefangenschaft. Es vergeht die längste Zeit, ohne daß der König erscheint, sie abzuholen. Da entschließt sich Gerhard, um der Pflegetochter Zukunft zu sichern, sie mit seinem Sohne zu vermählen. Denn es kann geglaubt werden, daß Wilhelm tot sei. Schon ist das Hochzeitsfest für den Sohn Gerhards im Gange; da erscheint auf demselben als unbekannter Pilger - Wilhelm. Er war lange umhergeirrt, um seine Verlobte zu suchen. Ihm wird nach dem selbstlosen Verzicht von Gerhards Sohn seine Braut zurückgegeben. Einige Zeit bleiben beide noch bei Gerhard; dann rüstet dieser ein Schiff aus, um sie nach England zu bringen. Als die wieder zu Würden gekommenen Gefangenen Gerhard zunächst in England begrüßen können, wollen sie ihn zum König wählen. Er aber kann erwidern, daß er ihnen ihr rechtmäßiges Königspaar bringe. Auch sie hatten ja Wilhelm für tot gehalten und wollten einen ändern König für das Land wählen, in dem die Zustände während des Umherirrens Wilhelms chaotisch geworden waren. - Der Kölner Kaufmann schlägt alles, was man ihm an Würden und Reichtümern anbietet, aus und kehrt nach Köln zurück, um dort weiter der einfache Kaufmann zu sein, der er vorher gewesen. - Die Geschichte wird so eingekleidet, daß der sächsische Kaiser, Otto der Erste, nach Köln reist, um den «guten Gerhard» kennen zu lernen. Denn der mächtige Kaiser ist der Versuchung unterlegen, für manches, was er getan hat, auf «irdischen Lohn» zu rechnen. Dadurch, daß er Gerhard kennen lernt, wird ihm an einem Beispiel fühlbar, wie ein einfacher Mann unsägliches Gutes tut - Hingabe aller Waren, die er erstanden, um Gefangene zu befreien; Rückgabe der Braut des Sohnes an Wilhelm; dann alles, was er verrichtet, um diesen wieder nach England zu bringen und so weiter -, ohne irgendwelchen irdischen Lohn dafür zu begehren, sondern alle Belohnung allein von dem Walten der Gottheit zu erwarten. Der Mann heißt im Menschenmunde «der gute Gerhard»; der Kaiser fühlt, daß er einen mächtigen religiösmoralischen Ruck erhält durch die Bekanntschaft mit Gerhards Gesinnung.
[ 8 ] Die Erzählung, deren Gerüst ich hier gegeben habe, um nicht über etwas wenig Bekanntes bloß mit Namen zu deuten, zeigt nun von der einen Seite ganz deutlich die Seelenverfassung des Zeitalters vor dem Heraufkommen der Bewußtseinsseele in der Entwickelung der Menschheit.
[ 9 ] Wer nämlich die Erzählung, wie sie Rudolf von Ems gibt, auf sich wirken läßt, der kann fühlen, wie das Erleben der Erdenwelt seit jener Zeit, in der Kaiser Otto gelebt (im zehnten Jahrhundert), sich gewandelt hat.
[ 10 ] Man sehe hin, wie in dem Zeitalter der Bewußtseinsseele die Welt vor dem Seelenblicke des Menschen gewissermaßen «hell» für alles Erfassen des physischen Seins und Werdens geworden ist. Gerhard fährt mit seinen Schiffen gewissermaßen wie im Nebel. Er kennt nur immer ein Stückchen von der Welt, mit der er in Verbindung kommen will. Man erfährt in Köln nichts von dem, was in England vor sich geht, und muß jahrelang suchen nach einem Menschen, der in Köln ist. Man lernt Leben und Besitz eines solchen Menschen, wie der ist, zu dem Gerhard auf der Heimreise verschlagen wird, erst kennen, wenn man durch das Schicksal unmittelbar an den entsprechenden Ort herangebracht wird. Zu dem Durchschauen der Weltverhältnisse von heute verhält sich das damalige wie das Hineinblicken in eine sonnenerhellte weite Landschaft zu dem Sich-Hintasten im dichten Nebel.
[ 11 ] Mit dem, was man heute «geschichtlich» gelten läßt, hat das nichts zu tun, was in Verbindung mit dem «guten Gerhard» erzählt wird. Um so mehr aber mit der Gemütsstimmung und der ganzen geistigen Lage des Zeitalters. Diese, nicht die einzelnen Ereignisse der physischen Welt, werden in Imaginationen dargestellt.
[ 12 ] In dieser Darstellung spiegelt sich, wie der Mensch sich nicht nur als ein Wesen fühlt, das als ein Glied in der Kette der Ereignisse der physischen Welt lebt und tätig ist, sondern wie er in sein irdisches Dasein geistige, übersinnliche Wesen hineinwirken und mit ihnen seinen Willen in Zusammenhang fühlt.
[ 13 ] Die Erzählung vom «guten Gerhard» zeigt, wie das Dämmerdunkel, das in bezug auf das Durchschauen der physischen Welt dem Zeitalter der Bewußtseinsseele vorangegangen ist, den Blick in das Erschauen der geistigen Welt gewiesen hat. Man sah nicht in die Weiten des physischen Daseins, man sah um so mehr in die Tiefen des geistigen.
[ 14 ] Aber so, wie einst ein dämmerhaftes (traumhaftes) Hellsehen der Menschheit die geistige Welt gezeigt hatte, war es in dem gekennzeichneten Zeitalter nicht mehr. Die Imaginationen waren da; aber sie traten innerhalb einer Auffassung der Menschenseele auf, die schon stark nach dem Gedanklichen hindrängte. Das bewirkte, daß man nicht mehr wußte, wie die Welt, die sich in Imaginationen offenbarte, sich zu der des physischen Daseins verhält. Deshalb erschienen die Imaginationen Leuten, die schon eindringlicher sich an das Gedankliche hielten, als willkürliche «Erdichtungen» ohne Wirklichkeit.
[ 15 ] Man wußte nicht mehr, daß man durch die Imagination in eine Welt blickt, in der man mit einem ganz ändern Teile seines Menschenwesens steht als in der physischen. So standen in der Darstellung beide Welten nebeneinander; und beide trugen durch die Haltung der Erzählung einen Charakter, daß man meinen konnte, die geistigen Geschehnisse, die man erzählte, hätten sich so wahrnehmbar zwischen den physischen abgespielt, wie diese selbst wahrnehmbar sind.
[ 16 ] Dazu kam, daß man die physischen Ereignisse in vielen dieser Erzählungen durcheinander warf. Personen, deren Leben Jahrhunderte voneinander entfernt liegt, treten als Zeitgenossen auf; Geschehnisse werden an unrichtige Orte oder in unrichtige Zeitpunkte versetzt.
[ 17 ] Es werden Tatsachen der physischen Welt so von der menschlichen Seele angeschaut, wie man nur das Geistige anschauen kann, für das Zeit und Raum eine andere Bedeutung als für das Physische haben; die physische Welt wird in Imaginationen statt in Gedanken dargestellt; dafür wird die geistige Welt so in die Erzählung verwoben, wie wenn man es nicht mit einer anderen Daseinsform, sondern mit dem Fortgang physischer Tatsachen zu tun hätte.
[ 18 ] Eine nur an das Physische sich haltende Geschichts-Erfassung denkt, man habe die alten Imaginationen des Orients, Griechenlands und so weiter übernommen und dichterisch mit den geschichtlichen Stoffen verwoben, die die Menschen damals beschäftigten. Man hatte ja in den Schriften Isidors von Sevilla aus dem siebenten Jahrhundert eine förmliche Sammlung alter «Sagenmotive».
[ 19 ] Doch dies ist eine äußerliche Betrachtungsweise. Sie hat etwas Bedeutsames nur für denjenigen, der keinen Sinn für die menschliche Seelenverfassung hat, die sich mit ihrem Dasein noch im unmittelbaren Anschluß an die geistige Welt weiß und die dieses Wissen in Imaginationen auszudrücken sich gedrängt fühlt. Wird dann statt der eigenen Imagination eine geschichtlich überlieferte verwendet, in die man sich eingelebt hat, so ist das nicht das Wesentliche. Dieses liegt darin, daß die Seele nach der geistigen Welt hin orientiert ist, so daß sie ihr eigenes Tun und das Naturgeschehen in diese Welt eingegliedert sieht.
[ 20 ] Doch ist in der Erzählungsart der Zeit vor demAnbruch des Bewußtseinszeitalters Verirrung zu bemerken.
[ 21 ] In dieser Verirrung schaut die geistgemäße Beobachtung das Wirken der luziferischen Macht.
[ 22 ] Was die Seele drängt, Imaginationen in ihren Erlebnisgehalt aufzunehmen, das entspricht weniger den Fähigkeiten, die sie in der Vorzeit - durch ein traumhaftes Hellsehen - hatte, sondern schon mehr denjenigen, die im achten bis vierzehnten nachchristlichen Jahrhundert vorhanden waren. Diese Fähigkeiten drängten schon mehr nach einer gedanklichen Erfassung des sinnlich Wahrgenommenen hin. Beide Fähigkeiten sind in der Übergangszeit nebeneinander vorhanden. Die Seele ist hineingestellt zwischen die alte Orientierung, welche auf die Geisteswelt geht und die die physische nur wie im Nebel sieht, und die neue, die auf das physische Geschehen geht und in der das geistige Anschauen verblaßt.
[ 23 ] In dieses schwankende Gleichgewicht der Menschenseele wirkt die luziferische Macht hinein. Sie möchte den Menschen verhindern, die volle Orientierung in der physischen Welt zu finden. Sie möchte ihn in geistigen Regionen, die ihm in der Vorzeit angemessen waren, mit seinem Bewußtsein erhalten. Sie möchte in sein traumhaft imaginatives Weltanschauen nicht rein Gedankliches, das auf das Erfassen des physischen Daseins gerichtet ist, einfließen lassen. Sie kann sein Anschauungsvermögen in unrechter Art wohl von der physischen Welt zurückhalten. Sie kann aber das Erleben der alten Imaginationen nicht in der rechten Art aufrecht erhalten. So läßt sie ihn in Imaginationen sinnen, ohne ihn seelisch ganz in die Welt versetzen zu können, in denen Imaginationen vollgültig sind.
[ 24 ] Im Anbruche des Bewußtseinszeitalters waltet Luzifer so, daß durch ihn der Mensch in die an die physische zunächst angrenzende übersinnliche Region auf eine ihm nicht entsprechende Art versetzt wird.
[ 25 ] Man sehe dies ganz anschaulich an der «Sage» vom «Herzog Ernst», die zu den beliebtesten des Mittelalters gehörte und die im weiten Umkreise überall erzählt wurde.
[ 26 ] Der Herzog Ernst kommt in Zwiespalt mit dem Kaiser, der ihn ungerecht durch Krieg zugrunde richten will. Der Herzog fühlt sich gedrängt, dem unmöglichen Verhältnis mit dem Reichshaupte dadurch zu entgehen, daß er an der Kreuzzugsbewegung nach dem Orient teilnimmt. In den Erlebnissen, die er nun durchmacht, bis die Reise ihn nach dem Ziele führt, wird «sagenhaft» das Physische mit dem Geistigen in der angedeuteten Art verwoben. Der Herzog gelangt zum Beispiel auf seinem Wege zu einem Volke, das den Kopf gestaltet hat wie Kraniche; er wird an den «Magnetberg» mit den Schiffen verschlagen, von dem diese magnetisch angezogen werden, so daß Menschen, die in die Nähe des Berges kommen, nicht wieder zurück können, sondern elendig umkommen müssen. Der Herzog Ernst und sein Gefolge machen sich dadurch los, daß sie sich in Häute einnähen, von Greifen, die gewohnt sind, die nach dem Magnetberg verschlagenen Menschen zur Beute sich zu holen, auf einen Berg sich bringen lassen und dort nach dem Durchschneiden der Häute in Abwesenheit der Greife entkommen. Die weitere Wanderung führt dann zu einem Volke, dessen Ohren so lang sind, daß sie wie eine Kleidung um den ganzen Körper geschlagen werden können; zu einem ändern, dessen Füße so groß sind, daß sich die Leute, wenn es regnet, auf den Boden legen können und die Füße als Schirme über sich breiten können. Er kommt zu einem Zwergen-, einem Riesenvolke und so weiter. Dergleichen vieles wird in Verbindung mit der Kreuzzugsreise des Herzogs Ernst erzählt. Die «Sage» läßt nicht in der rechten Art fühlen, wie überall da, wo Imaginationen eintreten, die Hinorientierung auf eine geistige Welt stattfindet, wie da Dinge durch Bilder erzählt werden, die in der Astralwelt sich abspielen und die mit Wille und Schicksal der Erdenmenschen zusammenhängen.
[ 27 ] Und so ist es mit der schönen «Rolandsage», in der Karls des Großen Zug gegen die Heiden nach Spanien verherrlicht wird. Da wird sogar in Anlehnung an die Bibel gesagt, daß, damit Karl der Große ein von ihm erstrebtes Ziel erreichen könne, die Sonne sich in ihrem Laufe hemme, so daß ein Tag so lang werde wie sonst zwei.
[ 28 ] Und in der «Nibelungensage» sieht man, wie diejenige Form, die sich in nordischen Ländern erhalten hat, das Anschauen des Geistigen reiner aufrecht erhält, während in Mitteleuropa die Imaginationen an das physische Leben nahe herangebracht werden. An der nordischen Form der Erzählung ist ausgedrückt, daß sich die Imaginationen auf eine «astralische Welt» beziehen; in der mitteleuropäischen Gestalt des Nibelungenliedes gleiten die Imaginationen in das Anschauen der physischen Welt hinein.
[ 29 ] Auch die in der Herzog-Ernst-Sage auftretenden Imaginationen beziehen sich ja in Wirklichkeit auf das, was zwischen den Erfahrungen in der physischen Sphäre in einer «astralischen Welt» erlebt wird, der der Mensch ebenso angehört wie der physischen.
[ 30 ] Wendet man auf all das den Geistesblick, so schaut man, wie das Eintreten in das Bewußtseinszeitalter das Herauswachsen aus einer Entwickelungsphase bedeutet, in der die luziferischen Mächte über die Menschheit siegen würden, wenn nicht durch die Bewußtseinsseele mit ihrer Kraft der Intellektualität ein neuer Entwickelungseinschlag in das Menschenwesen käme. Die Hinorientierung auf die geistige Welt, die in die Bahnen der Verirrung einlenken will, wird durch die Bewußtseinsseele gehindert; der Menschenblick wird herausgeholt in die physische Welt. Alles, was nach dieser Richtung geschieht, entzieht die Menschheit der sie beirrenden luziferischen Macht.
[ 31 ] Da ist Michael schon von der geistigen Welt aus für die Menschheit tätig. Er bereitet vom Übersinnlichen aus sein späteres Werk vor. Er gibt der Menschheit Impulse, die das vorzeitige Verhältnis zur geistig-göttlichen Welt bewahren, ohne daß dieses Bewahren einen luziferischen Charakter annimmt.
[ 32 ] Dann, im letzten Drittel des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, dringt Michael mit der Tätigkeit, die er vom fünfzehnten bis in das neunzehnte Jahrhundert vorbereitend vom Übersinnlichen aus geübt hat, in die physische Erdenwelt selbst vor.
[ 33 ] Die Menschheit mußte eine Zeitlang die geistige Entwickelung daraufhin durchmachen, daß sie sich von dem Verhältnisse zur geistigen Welt befreit, das ein unmögliches zu werden drohte. Darauf lenkte diese Entwickelung durch die Michael-Mission in Bahnen ein, die den Fortgang der Erdenmenschheit wieder in ein Verhältnis zur geistigen Welt bringen, das ihr heilsam ist.
[ 34 ] So steht Michael in seinem Wirken zwischen dem luziferischen Weltbild und dem ahrimanischen Weltverstand. Das Weltbild wird bei ihm weisheitsvolle Weltoffenbarung, die den Weltverstand als göttliches Weltenwirken enthüllt. In diesem Weltenwirken lebt des Christus Sorge für die Menschheit, das so aus Michaels Weltoffenbarung dem Menschenherzen sich enthüllen kann.
[ 35 ] (Die zweite und dritte Betrachtung folgen.)
Goetheanum, 23. November 1924.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden
(Mit Bezug auf die vorangehende erste Betrachtung über Michaels übersinnliche Vorbereitung seiner Erden-Mission)[ 36 ] 124. Dem Aufgange des Bewußtseinszeitalters (fünfzehntes Jahrhundert) geht in der Abenddämmerung des Zeitalters der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele ein erhöhtes luziferisches Wirken voran, das auch noch in der neuen Epoche eine Zeitlang fortdauert.
[ 37 ] 125. Dieses luziferische Wirken möchte alte Formen des Bild-Vorstellens der Welt unrechtmäßig bewahren und den Menschen davon zurückhalten, das physische Weltdasein durch Intellektualität zu begreifen und sich in dieses hineinzuleben.
[ 38 ] 126. Michael verbindet sich mit dem Menschheits-Wirken, damit die selbständige Intellektualität bei dem angestammten Göttlich-Geistigen verbleibe, doch nicht in luziferischer, sondern in rechtmäßiger Art.
First contemplation:
At the gates of the soul of consciousness. How Michael prepares his earth mission by defeating Lucifer supernaturally
[ 1 ] Michael's intervention in the development of the world and humanity at the end of the nineteenth century appears in a special light when one considers the spiritual history of the centuries that preceded him.
[ 2 ] The beginning of the fifteenth century is the point in time when the epoch of the consciousness soul begins.
[ 3 ] Before this time, a complete change in the spiritual life of mankind is revealed. One can trace how previously imaginations still played a role in human perception everywhere. Individual personalities, however, had already found their way earlier to mere "concepts" in their soul life; only the general soul constitution of the majority of people lives in an interpenetration of imaginations with concepts that originate from the purely physical world. So it is with the ideas about natural events, but also with those about historical development.
[ 4 ] What spiritual observation can find in this direction is confirmed by external evidence. Some of the latter are indicated here.
[ 5 ] What had been thought and spoken about historical events in the preceding centuries is often written down just before the dawn of the age of consciousness. And so we have preserved "legends" and the like from this time, which give a true picture of how "history" was previously imagined.
[ 6 ] A fine example is the tale of "Good Gerhard", which is preserved in a poem by Rudolf von Ems, who lived in the first half of the thirteenth century. The 'good Gerhard' is a rich merchant in Cologne. He undertakes a trading trip to Russia, Livonia and Prussia to buy sable skins. He then goes to Damascus and Nineveh to buy silk fabrics and the like.
[ 7 ] On his journey home, he is caught up in a storm. In the foreign territory he arrives in, he meets a man in whose captivity there are English knights and also the fiancée of the English king. Gerhard gives up everything he had acquired on the journey and receives the prisoners in return. He takes them on board his ship and sets off on his journey home. When the ships arrive at the point where the paths to Gerhard's homeland and to England diverge, Gerhard releases the male prisoners to their homeland; he keeps the king's fiancée with him in the hope that her bridegroom, King William, will come for her as soon as he receives news of her liberation and whereabouts. Gerhard keeps the royal bride and her friends in the best possible way. She lives like a much-loved daughter in the house of her deliverer from captivity. The longest time passes without the king appearing to fetch her. Then Gerhard decides to marry her to his son in order to secure the future of his foster daughter. For it is believed that Wilhelm is dead. The wedding feast for Gerhard's son is already underway when an unknown pilgrim - Wilhelm - appears at it. He had wandered around for a long time looking for his fiancée. After the selfless renunciation of Gerhard's son, his bride is returned to him. They both stay with Gerhard for a while; then he prepares a ship to take them to England. When the restored prisoners are able to welcome Gerhard back to England, they want to elect him as king. But he is able to reply that he is bringing them their rightful king and queen. They, too, had believed William to be dead and wanted to elect a new king for the country, where conditions had become chaotic during William's wanderings. - The Cologne merchant turns down all the dignities and riches offered to him and returns to Cologne to continue being the simple merchant he was before. - The story is framed in such a way that the Saxon Emperor, Otto the First, travels to Cologne to get to know the "good Gerhard". The powerful emperor is tempted to count on "earthly reward" for some of the things he has done. By getting to know Gerhard, he becomes aware of an example of how a simple man does unspeakable good - giving all the goods he has bought to free prisoners; returning his son's bride to William; then everything he does to bring him back to England and so on - without desiring any earthly reward for it, but expecting all reward solely from the rule of God. The man is called "the good Gerhard" by the people; the emperor feels that he receives a powerful religious and moral jolt through his acquaintance with Gerhard's attitude.
[ 8 ] The narrative, the framework of which I have given here so as not to merely interpret something little known by name, now shows from one side quite clearly the state of the soul of the age before the emergence of the consciousness soul in the development of mankind.
[ 9 ] For anyone who allows the narrative as given by Rudolf von Ems to sink in can feel how the experience of the earthly world has changed since the time in which Emperor Otto lived (in the tenth century).
[ 10 ] Look at how, in the age of the consciousness soul, the world before the human soul's gaze has become, so to speak, "bright" for all comprehension of physical being and becoming. Gerhard sails with his ships as if in a fog. He only ever knows a little bit of the world with which he wants to come into contact. In Cologne one learns nothing of what is going on in England and has to search for years for a person who is in Cologne. You only get to know the life and possessions of a person like the one Gerhard is taken to on his journey home when fate brings you directly to the place in question. Looking through the world conditions of today is like looking into a sunlit, wide landscape and feeling your way through thick fog.
[ 11 ] What is told in connection with the "good Gerhard" has nothing to do with what is considered "historical" today. All the more so, however, with the mood and the whole spiritual situation of the age. These, not the individual events of the physical world, are depicted in imaginations.
[ 12 ] This representation reflects how man feels himself not only as a being who lives and is active as a link in the chain of events of the physical world, but how he feels spiritual, supersensible beings working into his earthly existence and his will in connection with them.
[ 13 ] The story of the "good Gerhard" shows how the twilight darkness that preceded the age of the conscious soul with regard to seeing through the physical world pointed the way to seeing the spiritual world. One did not see into the vastness of physical existence, one saw all the more into the depths of the spiritual.
[ 14 ] But just as a dim (dreamlike) clairvoyance had once shown mankind the spiritual world, it was no longer so in the marked age. The imaginations were there; but they occurred within a conception of the human soul that was already pushing strongly towards the mental. As a result, people no longer knew how the world that revealed itself in imaginations related to the world of physical existence. For this reason, the imaginations appeared to people who were already more insistently attached to the mental as arbitrary "fictions" without reality.
[ 15 ] They no longer knew that they were looking through the imagination into a world in which they stood with a completely different part of their human being than in the physical world. Thus both worlds stood side by side in the representation; and both bore a character through the attitude of the narrative that one could think that the spiritual events that were told had taken place as perceptibly between the physical ones as these themselves are perceptible.
[ 16 ] In addition, the physical events in many of these narratives were mixed up. People whose lives are centuries apart appear as contemporaries; events are transposed to incorrect places or times.
[ 17 ] Facts of the physical world are viewed by the human soul as one can only view the spiritual, for which time and space have a different meaning than for the physical; the physical world is depicted in imaginations instead of in thoughts; instead, the spiritual world is interwoven into the narrative as if one were not dealing with another form of existence, but with the progress of physical facts.
[ 18 ] A historical narrative that focuses only on the physical thinks that the ancient imaginations of the Orient, Greece and so on have been adopted and poetically interwoven with the historical material that preoccupied people at the time. After all, the writings of Isidore of Seville from the seventh century contained a formal collection of old "legendary motifs".
[ 19 ] But this is an external view. It only has meaning for those who have no sense of the human soul condition, who know that their existence is still directly connected to the spiritual world and who feel compelled to express this knowledge in imaginations. If, instead of one's own imagination, a historically handed down one is used into which one has settled, then this is not the essential thing. This lies in the fact that the soul is oriented towards the spiritual world, so that it sees its own actions and natural events as being integrated into this world.
[ 20 ] However, there is an aberration in the narrative style of the time before the dawn of the age of consciousness.
[ 21 ] In this aberration, spiritual observation sees the workings of the Luciferic power.
[ 22 ] What urges the soul to include imaginations in its experiential content corresponds less to the abilities it had in prehistoric times - through a dreamlike clairvoyance - but already more to those that were present in the eighth to fourteenth centuries after Christ. These abilities were already pushing more towards a mental grasp of what was perceived by the senses. Both faculties exist side by side in the transitional period. The soul is placed between the old orientation, which focuses on the spiritual world and sees the physical world only as if in a fog, and the new orientation, which focuses on physical events and in which spiritual perception fades away.
[ 23 ] The Luciferic power works into this wavering balance of the human soul. It wants to prevent people from finding their full orientation in the physical world. It wants to keep him and his consciousness in spiritual regions that were appropriate for him in the past. It does not want to allow purely mental thoughts, which are directed towards grasping physical existence, to flow into his dreamlike, imaginative view of the world. It may well hold back his visual faculty from the physical world in the wrong way. But it cannot maintain the experience of the old imaginations in the right way. Thus it allows him to contemplate in imaginations without being able to transfer him mentally completely into the world in which imaginations are fully valid.
[ 24 ] In the dawning of the age of consciousness, Lucifer rules in such a way that through him man is transferred to the supersensible region, which is initially adjacent to the physical, in a way that does not correspond to him.
[ 25 ] This can be seen quite clearly in the "legend" of "Duke Ernst", which was one of the most popular of the Middle Ages and was told everywhere in a wide circle.
[ 26 ] Duke Ernest comes into conflict with the emperor, who wants to unjustly destroy him through war. The duke feels compelled to escape the impossible relationship with the head of the empire by taking part in the crusade to the Orient. In the experiences he now undergoes until the journey leads him to his destination, the physical and the spiritual are "fabulously" interwoven in the manner alluded to. On his way, for example, the Duke comes across a people with heads shaped like cranes; he is taken to the "magnetic mountain" with the ships, from which they are magnetically attracted, so that people who come near the mountain cannot return, but must perish miserably. Duke Ernst and his entourage make their escape by sewing themselves into skins, allowing themselves to be taken to a mountain by griffins who are accustomed to taking the people who have been taken to the magnetic mountain as prey, and escaping there after cutting through the skins in the absence of the griffins. The further journey then leads to a people whose ears are so long that they can be wrapped around the whole body like clothing; to a change whose feet are so large that when it rains, the people can lie down on the ground and spread their feet over themselves as umbrellas. He comes to a dwarf people, a giant people and so on. Much of this is told in connection with Duke Ernst's crusade. The "saga" does not allow us to feel in the right way how, wherever imaginations occur, the orientation towards a spiritual world takes place, how things are told through images that take place in the astral world and are connected with the will and fate of earthly people.
[ 27 ] And so it is with the beautiful "Rolandsage", in which Charlemagne's campaign against the pagans in Spain is glorified. It is even said, with reference to the Bible, that in order for Charlemagne to achieve the goal he was striving for, the sun was slowed in its course so that one day would be as long as two.
[ 28 ] And in the "Saga of the Nibelungs" we see how the form that has been preserved in Nordic countries maintains a purer view of the spiritual, while in Central Europe the imaginations are brought closer to physical life. The Nordic form of the tale expresses the fact that the imaginations relate to an "astral world"; in the Central European form of the Song of the Nibelungs, the imaginations glide into the contemplation of the physical world.
[ 29 ] The imaginations that appear in the Herzog-Ernst saga also refer in reality to what is experienced between the experiences in the physical sphere in an "astral world" to which the human being belongs just as much as to the physical world.
[ 30 ] If we look at all this with the spiritual eye, we see how entering the age of consciousness means growing out of a phase of development in which the Luciferic powers would triumph over humanity if a new developmental impact did not come into the human being through the consciousness soul with its power of intellectuality. The orientation towards the spiritual world, which wants to turn into the paths of aberration, is hindered by the consciousness soul; the human gaze is drawn out into the physical world. Everything that happens in this direction withdraws humanity from the Luciferic power that is obstructing it.
[ 31 ] There Michael is already working for humanity from the spiritual world. He prepares his later work from the supernatural. He gives humanity impulses that preserve the premature relationship to the spiritual-divine world without this preservation taking on a Luciferian character.
[ 32 ] Then, in the last third of the nineteenth century, Michael penetrates into the physical world on earth itself with the activity that he had practiced from the supersensible in preparation from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century.
[ 33 ] Mankind had to undergo spiritual development for a time in order to free itself from the relationship to the spiritual world, which threatened to become an impossible one. Then, through the Michael mission, this development was steered into paths that bring the progress of earthly humanity back into a relationship with the spiritual world that is beneficial to it.
[ 34 ] So Michael stands in his work between the Luciferic worldview and the Ahrimanic worldmind. With him, the worldview becomes wisdom-filled world-revelation, which reveals the world-mind as divine world-working. In this worldly work lives the Christ's care for humanity, which can thus reveal itself to the human heart from Michael's worldly revelation.
(The second and third reflections follow.)
Goetheanum, November 23, 1924.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
(With reference to the preceding first meditation on Michael's supersensible preparation for his earth mission)[ 35 ] 124 The advent of the Age of Consciousness (fifteenth century) is preceded in the twilight of the Age of the Mind or Spiritual Soul by a heightened Luciferic activity, which continues for a time into the new epoch.
[ 36 ] 125 This luciferic activity wants to unlawfully preserve old forms of imagining the world and hold man back from understanding the physical world existence through intellectuality and living into it.
[ 37 ] 126 Michael connects himself with the work of humanity so that independent intellectuality remains with the ancestral divine-spiritual, but not in a Luciferian, but in a lawful way.