The Michael Mystery
GA 26
XIX. What is the Earth, in reality, in the Macrocosm?
[ 1 ] The successive stages in the growth of the Cosmos and Mankind have been regarded in these studies from the most various aspects. It has been seen that the forces of his being come to Man from the extra-terrestrial Cosmos, all except those which give him his consciousness of Self; these he has from the Earth.
[ 2 ] This gives at once the significance of the Earth-world for Man. To this now comes the question: what significance has the Earth-world for the Macrocosm?
[ 3 ] To arrive at any answer to this question, we must look back at the previous observations.
[ 4 ] The Macrocosm is seen by the clairvoyant consciousness of the seer in every greater fullness of life, the farther back his vision penetrates into the past. Its life in a remote past is such that at a certain point all calculability of its life-manifestations ceases. From this fullness of life Man is gradually separated out. The Macrocosm passes over more and more into the sphere of the Calculable.
[ 5 ] Therewith however, it slowly dies out. In the same measure as Man, the Microcosm, emerges as an independent being out of the Macrocosm, the Macrocosm died.
[ 6 ] The cosmic Present shows an extinct Macrocosm. But in the process not only Man has arisen; out of the Macrocosm has arisen also the Earth.
[ 7 ] Man, who draws from the Earth the forces for his own Self-consciousness, is inwardly much too close to the Earth to have a clear perception of its essential character and being. In all their active development of Self-consciousness during the age of the Spiritual Soul, men have accustomed themselves to turn their attention to the size of the Universe in space, and to look upon the Earth as a grain of dust, of no significance in comparison with the physical spatial Universe.
[ 8 ] It may therefore at first seem strange, when spiritual observation of the facts discloses the true cosmic significance of this supposed ‘grain of dust.’
[ 9 ] The substructure of the Earth is the mineral world, in which the other kingdoms of Nature, the vegetable and animal worlds, are as it were embedded.
[ 10 ] Through the whole, run those living forces which manifest themselves during the course of the year in its successive phenomena. If we look at the Vegetable world: in autumn and winter it manifests forces of physical decay and death. The consciousness of the seer recognizes in this form of manifestation the inner being of those forces which have brought about the decay of the macrocosm. In spring and summer, the life of the plant-world is a manifestation of growing, sprouting forces. Clairvoyant consciousness recognizes in this growing, sprouting life, not only the green bounty of the revolving year, but a surplus. The surplus is one of young seed-force. The plants bear within them more young seed-force than they can use for the growth of leaves and flowers and fruit. This excess of young seed-force can be perceived with spiritual sight, streaming forth beyond the earth-world into the macrocosm outside it.
[ 11 ] So too an excess of force streams from the Mineral kingdom into the Cosmos beyond the Earth. It is the task of this excess of mineral force to carry the forces from the plants to their allotted places in the macrocosm. Under the influence of the mineral forces, the plant-forces shape themselves into the new image of an ordered macrocosm.
[ 12 ] Again, there are forces which go forth from the Animal world. These forces do not however act like the mineral and vegetable ones, radiating outward form the Earth, but in such a way that all that is carried out from the plant-world by the mineral forces into the Universe, to take shape there is held together in a sphere (a globe) so as to present the aspect of a macrocosm rounded in on all sides and self-contained.
[ 13 ] Such is the true character and being of Earth, as seen to spiritually perceptive consciousness. It stands as a source of new life in the midst of the dead and dying Macrocosm.
[ 14 ] As out of the little plant-seed—in space so small and insignificant—the large and perfect plant grows up again when the old one is dead and fallen, so out of that ‘grain of dust,’ the Earth, a new Macrocosm will grow up, while the old one dies and falls to pieces.
[ 15 ] A true view of the Earth, in its real character and being, sees everywhere in it's the springing life-seed of a forth-coming World. Thereby alone can one arrive at an understanding of the natural world and its kingdoms, by learning to recognize in them all this seedling life.
[ 16 ] Man's earthly existence is carried on in the midst of this new-upspringing life. He has his part in the up-springing of the new, as well as in the life that is extinct and dead. From the dead, he has his Thinking forces. So long as, in the past, these Thinking forces came from the still living macrocosm, they gave no basis for Self-conscious Man. They lived as forces of Growth, in Man who had as yet no consciousness of Self. The forces of Thought must have no inherent life of their own, if they are to afford a basis for Man's free Self-Consciousness. They, with the dead and dying macrocosm, must remain dead shadows of what was living in an earlier cosmic age.
[ 17 ] On the other hand Man has his part in the Earth's new, upspringing life. From this he has his Will-forces. These are very life; but just because of this, Man cannot partake in their real being with his Self-consciousness. They send forth their beams in the interior of the human being, radiating into the Thought-shadows. With them mingles the stream of shadows; and in this mingled stream, where free human Thought unfolds amid the new, upspringing life of Earth, during the Age of the Spiritual Soul there grows to full free life in Man the consciousness of his human Self.
[ 18 ] The Past casting Shadows, the Future holding Seeds of new reality, meet in the being of Man. And their meeting is the human life of the Present.
[ 19 ] That this is the case, becomes clear at once to the consciousness of the seer when turning to that region of the spirit-world which directly adjoins the physical, and which is also the scene of Michael's labours.
[ 20 ] The life of the whole earthly world grows plain when, underlying it all, one recognizes the life-seed of a new universe. Every plant in its variety, every stone, appears in a new light to the human soul which learns to perceive how every one of these forms of being—through its special life, though its special shape—contributes to make the entire Earth the embryo-seed of a new, reviving Macrocosm.
[ 21 ] Let anyone but once try to make the thought of these facts alive within himself, and he will feel what such a thought can signify for the human heart and mind.
Leading Thoughts
[ 22 ] In the beginning of the age of the Spiritual Soul, men have accustomed themselves to direct their observation to the physical proportions of the Universe in Space, and to regard primarily its bigness in this respect. Accordingly, they speak of the Earth as a grain of dust in the midst of this, to physical appearance, so gigantic Universe.
[ 23 ] To the consciousness of the seer, this ‘grain of dust’ reveals itself as the first life-seed of a newly arising Macrocosm; whilst the old Macrocosm can be seen to have died out. It was necessary for it to die and become extinct, in order that Man might separate himself out from it in full Self-consciousness.
[ 24 ] In the present cosmic age, Man takes part in the dead and dying Macrocosm with his Thinking forces, which give him freedom; whilst with his Will-forces, whose real being is hid from him, he takes part in the young Macrocosm that is springing up as Earth-born seed into new life.
Was ist die Erde in Wirklichkeit im Makrokosmos?
(Goetheanum, Januar 1925)
[ 1 ] Das Werden des Kosmos und der Menschheit ist in diesen Betrachtungen von den verschiedensten Gesichtspunkten aus angeschaut worden. Gezeigt hat sich, wie der Mensch die Kräfte seines Wesens vom außerirdischen Kosmos hat, außer denen, die ihm sein Selbstbewußtsein geben. Diese kommen ihm von der Erde.
[ 2 ] Damit ist die Bedeutung des Irdischen für den Menschen dargelegt. Es muß sich daran die Frage knüpfen: Welche Bedeutung hat das Irdische für den Makrokosmos?
[ 3 ] Um der Antwort auf diese Frage näher zu kommen, muß man den Blick auf das hier schon Dargestellte werfen.
[ 4 ] Der Makrokosmos wird von dem schauenden Bewußtsein in immer größerer Lebendigkeit gefunden, je weiter der Blick in die Vergangenheit zurückdringt. Er lebt in ferner Vergangenheit so, daß jede Berechnung seiner Lebensoffenbarungen da aufhört. Aus dieser Lebendigkeit heraus wird der Mensch abgesondert. Der Makrokosmos tritt immer mehr in die Sphäre des Berechenbaren ein.
[ 5 ] Damit aber erstirbt er allmählich. In dem Maße, in dem der Mensch — der Mikrokosmos — als selbständige Wesenheit aus dem Makrokosmos ersteht, erstirbt dieser.
[ 6 ] In der kosmischen Gegenwart besteht ein erstorbener Makrokosmos. Aber im Werden desselben ist nicht nur der Mensch entstanden. Es ist aus dem Makrokosmos auch die Erde erstanden.
[ 7 ] Der Mensch, der von der Erde die Kräfte für sein Selbstbewußtsein hat, steht dieser innerlich viel zu nahe, um ihr Wesen zu durchschauen. In der vollen Entfaltung des Selbstbewußtseins im Zeitalter der Bewußtseinsseele hat man sich gewöhnt, den Blick auf die räumliche Größe des Weltenalls zu wenden und die Erde wie ein Staubkorn, unbedeutend gegenüber dem physisch-räumlichen Weltall, anzusehen.
[ 8 ] Daher wird es zunächst absonderlich erscheinen, wenn ein geistiges Anschauen die wahre kosmische Bedeutung dieses angeblichen «Staubkorns» enthüllt.
[ 9 ] In die mineralische Grundlage der Erde sind die andern Reiche, das Pflanzen- und das Tierreich, eingebettet.
[ 10 ] In alle dem leben die Kräfte, die sich im Jahreslauf in ihren verschiedenen Erscheinungsformen zeigen. Man sehe auf die Pflanzenwelt. Im Herbst und Winter zeigt sie physisch ersterbende Kräfte. Das schauende Bewußtsein nimmt in dieser Erscheinungsform das Wesen derjenigen Kräfte wahr, die den Makrokosmos zum Ersterben gebracht haben. Im Frühling und Sommer zeigen sich im Pflanzenleben wachsende, sprossende Kräfte. Das schauende Bewußtsein nimmt in diesem Wachsen und Sprossen nicht nur das wahr, was den Pflanzensegen für das Jahr erstehen läßt, sondern einen Überschuß, Dieser Überschuß ist ein solcher der Keimkraft. Die Pflanzen enthalten mehr Keimkraft, als sie für Blätter-, Blüten- und Fruchtwachstum verbrauchen. Dieser Überschuß an Keimkraft strömt vor dem schauenden Bewußtsein hinaus in den außerirdischen Makrokosmos.
[ 11] Ebenso strömt aber auch überschüssige Kraft vom Mineralreich in den außerirdischen Kosmos. Diese Kraft hat die Aufgabe, die von den Pflanzen kommenden Kräfte an die rechten Orte im Makrokosmos zu bringen. Es wird unter dem Einfluß der Mineralkräfte aus den Pflanzenkräften ein neugestaltetes Bild eines Makrokosmos.
[ 12 ] Ebenso gibt es vom Tierischen ausgehende Kräfte. Diese wirken aber nicht in dem Sinne, wie die mineralischen und pflanzlichen, von der Erde ausstrahlend, sondern so, daß sich, was in Gestaltung durch die mineralischen Kräfte an Pflanzlichem ins Weltall getragen wird, zur Sphäre (Kugel) zusammenhält und dadurch das Bild eines allseitig geschlossenen Makrokosmos ersteht.
[ 13 ] So schaut das geist-erkennende Bewußtsein das Wesen des Irdischen. Dieses steht neu belebend innerhalb des erstorbenen Makrokosmos drinnen.
[ 14 ] Wie aus dem Pflanzenkeim, der räumlich so unbedeutend klein ist, die ganze große Pflanze sich wieder bildet, wenn die alte ersterbend zerfällt, so wird aus dem «Staubkorn» Erde ein neuer Makroskosmos, indem der alte erstorbene zerfällt.
[ 15 ] Das ist ein wahres Anschauen des Erdenwesens, das überall in ihm eine keimende Welt schaut. Man lernt nur dadurch die Naturreiche verstehen, daß man in ihnen dieses Keimende empfindet.
[ 16 ] Inmitten dieses keimenden Lebens vollbringt der Mensch sein Erdendasein.- Er nimmt an diesem Keimenden sowohl wie an dem erstorbenen Leben teil. Aus dem erstorbenen hat er seine Denkkräfte. Solange diese Denkkräfte in der Vergangenheit aus dem noch lebenden Makrokosmos kamen, waren sie nicht Grundlage des selbstbewußten Menschen. Sie lebten als Wachstumskräfte in dem Menschen, der noch kein Selbstbewußtsein hatte. Die Denkkräfte dürfen für sich kein Eigenleben haben, wenn sie die Grundlage bilden sollen für das freie menschliche Selbstbewußtsein. Sie müssen für sich mit dem erstorbenen Makrokosmos die toten Schatten von Lebendigem der kosmischen Vorzeit sein.
[ 17 ] Auf der andern Seite nimmt der Mensch teil an dem Keimenden der Erde. Aus ihm sind seine Willenskräfte. Sie sind Leben, aber dafür nimmt der Mensch mit seinem Selbstbewußtsein nicht an ihrem Wesen teil. Sie strahlen innerhalb des Menschenwesens in die Gedankenschatten herein. Sie werden von diesen Schatten durchströmt, und im Durchströmen des im keimenden Erdenwesen sich entfaltenden freien Gedankens lebt das volle, freie menschliche Selbstbewußtsein sich im Zeitalter der Bewußtseinsseele in den Menschen hinein.
[ 18 ] Die Vergangenheit Schatten werfend, die Zukunft Wirklichkeitskeime enthaltend, begegnen sich in der menschlichen Wesenheit. Und die Begegnung ist das Menschenleben der Gegenwart.
[ 19 ] Daß sich das so verhält, wird dem schauenden Bewußtsein sofort klar, wenn es sich in diejenige Geist-Region begibt, die sich an die physische unmittelbar anschließt, und in der man auch die Betätigung Michaels findet.
[ 20 ] Das Leben alles Irdischen wird durchsichtig, wenn man auf seinem Grunde den Weltenkeim empfindet. Jede Pflanzenform, jeder Stein, sie erscheinen der Menschenseele in einem neuen Lichte, wenn diese gewahr wird, wie jedes dieser Wesen durch sein Leben, durch seine Gestalt beiträgt, daß die Erde als Einheit der Embryonal-Keim eines neu auflebenden Makrokosmos ist.
[ 21 ] Man versuche nur einmal, den Gedanken an diese Tatsachen in sich ganz lebendig zu machen, und man wird fühlen, was er innerhalb des Menschengemütes bedeuten kann.
Goetheanum, Januar 1925.
Leitsätze Nr. 153 bis 155
(1. Februar 1925)
(Mit Bezug auf die vorangehende Betrachtung: Was ist die Erde in Wirklichkeit im Makrokosmos?)
[ 22 ] 153. Man hat sich im Beginne des Zeitalters der Bewußtseinsseele gewöhnt, den Blick auf die räumlich-physische Größe des Weltenalls zu lenken, und vor allem diese zu empfinden. Deshalb nennt man die Erde ein Staubkorn innerhalb dieses physisch mächtig erscheinenden Weltenalls.
[ 23 ] 154. Vor dem schauenden Bewußtsein offenbart sich dieses «Staubkorn» als die Keimanlage eines neu entstehenden Makrokosmos, während der alte sich als erstorben erweist. Er mußte ersterben, damit der Mensch mit vollem Selbstbewußtsein sich von ihm absondern konnte.
[ 24 ] 155. In der kosmischen Gegenwart nimmt der Mensch mit seinen ihn befreienden Gedankenkräften an dem erstorbenen, mit seinen ihm ihrem Wesen nach verborgenen Willenskräften an dem als Erdenwesen keimenden, neu auflebenden Makrokosmos teil.
What is the earth in reality in the macrocosm?
(Goetheanum, January 1925)
[ 1 ] The development of the cosmos and of humanity has been examined in these considerations from the most diverse points of view. It has been shown how man derives the forces of his being from the extraterrestrial cosmos, apart from those which give him his self-consciousness. These come to him from the earth.
[ 2 ] This explains the significance of the earthly for man. The question must follow: What significance does the earthly have for the macrocosm?
[ 3 ] In order to come closer to the answer to this question, we must take a look at what has already been presented here.
[ 4 ] The macrocosm is found by the observing consciousness in ever greater vitality the further the gaze penetrates back into the past. It lives in the distant past in such a way that any calculation of its life revelations ceases there. Man is separated from this vitality. The macrocosm enters more and more into the sphere of the calculable.
[ 5 ] Thus, however, it gradually dies out. To the extent that the human being - the microcosm - emerges as an independent entity from the macrocosm, the latter dies out.
[ 6 ] In the cosmic present there is a macrocosm that has died. But it is not only the human being that came into being. The earth also emerged from the macrocosm.
[ 7 ] Man, who has the powers for his self-consciousness from the earth, is inwardly far too close to it to see through its essence. In the full development of self-consciousness in the age of the consciousness soul, one has become accustomed to turn one's gaze to the spatial greatness of the universe and to regard the earth as a speck of dust, insignificant compared to the physical-spatial universe.
[ 8 ] It will therefore seem strange at first if a spiritual contemplation reveals the true cosmic significance of this alleged "speck of dust".
[ 9 ] The other kingdoms, the plant and animal kingdoms, are embedded in the mineral foundation of the earth.
[ 10 ] In all of these live the forces that show themselves in their various manifestations during the course of the year. Look at the plant world. In fall and winter it shows physically dying forces. In this manifestation, the observing consciousness perceives the essence of those forces that have caused the macrocosm to die. In spring and summer, growing, sprouting forces appear in plant life. The observing consciousness perceives in this growth and sprouting not only that which gives rise to the plant blessing for the year, but a surplus, this surplus is one of germinating power. The plants contain more germinating power than they consume for leaf, flower and fruit growth. This surplus of germination power flows out into the extraterrestrial macrocosm in front of the observing consciousness.
[ 11 ] But in the same way, excess power also flows from the mineral kingdom into the extraterrestrial cosmos. This power has the task of bringing the forces coming from the plants to the right places in the macrocosm. Under the influence of the mineral forces, the plant forces become a newly formed image of a macrocosm.
[ 12 ] There are also forces emanating from the animal. These, however, do not work in the sense that they radiate from the earth like the mineral and vegetable forces, but in such a way that what is carried into the universe by the mineral forces holds itself together to form a sphere and thus the image of an all-round closed macrocosm arises.
[ 13 ] This is how the spirit-recognizing consciousness sees the essence of the earthly. This stands newly reviving within the dead macrocosm inside.
[ 14 ] Just as the whole large plant forms again from the plant germ, which is spatially so insignificantly small, when the old one first decays, so a new macrocosm is formed from the "grain of dust" earth when the old, dead one decays.
[ 15 ] This is a true contemplation of the earthly being, which sees a germinating world everywhere in it. One learns to understand the kingdoms of nature only through feeling this germinating in them.
[ 16 ] In the midst of this germinating life man accomplishes his earthly existence.- He participates in this germinating as well as in the dead life. From the dead life he has his powers of thought. As long as these powers of thought came from the still living macrocosm in the past, they were not the basis of the self-conscious human being. They lived as growth forces in the human being who did not yet have self-consciousness. The powers of thought must not have a life of their own for themselves if they are to form the basis for free human self-consciousness. Together with the dead macrocosm, they must be the dead shadows of the living of cosmic prehistory.
[ 17 ] On the other hand, man participates in the germinating of the earth. From him are his will-powers. They are life, but man with his self-consciousness does not participate in their essence. They radiate into the shadows of thought within the human being. They are flowed through by these shadows, and in the flowing through of the free thought unfolding in the germinating earth being, the full, free human self-consciousness lives itself into the human being in the age of the consciousness soul.
[ 18 ] The past casting shadows, the future containing germs of reality, meet in the human being. And the encounter is the human life of the present.
[ 19 ] The fact that this is the case becomes immediately clear to the observing consciousness when it enters the region of the spirit that directly adjoins the physical, and in which one also finds the activity of Michael.
[ 20 ] The life of everything earthly becomes transparent when one senses the germ of the world at its base. Every plant form, every stone, they appear to the human soul in a new light when it realizes how each of these beings contributes through its life, through its form, that the earth as a unity is the embryonic germ of a newly reviving macrocosm.
[ 21 ] Just try once to make the thought of these facts fully alive within yourself, and you will feel what it can mean within the human mind.
Goetheanum, January 1925.
Guiding Principles No. 153 to 155
(February 1, 1925)
(With reference to the previous consideration: What is the earth in reality in the macrocosm?)
[ 22 ] 153. At the beginning of the age of the consciousness soul, one has become accustomed to direct one's gaze to the spatial-physical size of the universe, and above all to feel this. This is why the earth is called a speck of dust within this physically powerful universe.
[ 23 ] 154 This "speck of dust" reveals itself to the observing consciousness as the seedbed of a newly emerging macrocosm, while the old one proves to be dead. It had to die so that man could separate himself from it with full self-consciousness.
[ 24 ] 155 In the cosmic present, man participates with his liberating powers of thought in the dead macrocosm, and with his powers of will, which are hidden from him by their nature, in the newly reviving macrocosm that is germinating as an earth being.