Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
5. The Experiences of Michael in the Course of His Cosmic Mission
[ 1 ] It is possible to follow the progress of mankind from the point of view of man himself, from the stage of consciousness in which he felt himself as a member of the Divine-Spiritual order, up to the present time, when he is conscious of himself as an individual, freed from the Divine-Spiritual, and able to think for himself. In our last study this point of view was taken.
[ 2 ] But it is also possible, through supersensible vision, to make a picture of what Michael and those who belong to him experience during this evolutionary process—i.e. to describe the facts of it as they appear to Michael himself. This shall now be attempted.
[ 3 ] There is an earliest epoch in evolution, where it is only possible to speak of what takes place among Divine-Spiritual Beings. Here one has to deal with the actions of the Gods alone. Gods fulfil what the impulses of their natures inspire, and are satisfied in this their activity. What they themselves experience in all this is alone important. But in one corner of this field of the Gods' activity, something resembling mankind is to be observed, as forming a part of their divine activity.
[ 4 ] The spiritual Being who from the beginning directed his gaze towards mankind is Michael. He so orders the divine activities that in one part of the Cosmos mankind may exist. And his own activity is of the same nature as that which is revealed later in man as intellect; but this intellect is active as a force that streams through the Cosmos, ordering ideas and giving rise to actual realities. In this force Michael works. His office is to rule the cosmic intellectuality. And he wills the further progress in his domain, which consists in this:—that that which works as intelligence throughout the whole Cosmos should later become concentrated within the human individuality. As a result the following takes place:—there comes a time in the evolution of the world when the Cosmos subsists no longer on its own present intelligence, but on the cosmic intelligence belonging to the past. For the present intelligence must then be sought in the stream of human evolution.
[ 5 ] What Michael desires is to keep the intelligence, which is developing within humanity, permanently in connection with the Divine-Spiritual Beings.
[ 6 ] But in this he is meeting with opposition. What the Gods accomplish in their evolution, in that they release the cosmic intellectuality so that it may become a part of human nature, stands revealed as a fact within the world. If there are beings with power to perceive this fact, then they can take advantage of it. And such beings do indeed exist. They are the Ahrimanic beings. It is their nature to absorb into themselves all that comes forth from the Gods as intelligence. They have the capacity to unite with their own being the sum-total of all intellectuality, and thus they become the greatest, the most comprehensive and penetrating intelligences in the Cosmos.
[ 7 ] Michael foresees how man, in progressing more and more towards his own individual use of intelligence, must meet with these Ahrimanic beings, and how by uniting with them he may then succumb to them. For this reason Michael brings the Ahrimanic Powers under his feet; he continually thrusts them into a deeper region than the one in which man is evolving. Michael, thrusting the dragon at his feet into the abyss: that is the mighty picture which lives in human consciousness of the supersensible facts here described.
[ 8 ] Evolution progresses. The intellectuality which was at first entirely in the sphere of divine spirituality, detaches itself so far that it becomes the element which ensouls the Cosmos. That which previously had only radiated from the Gods themselves now shines as the manifestation of the Divine from the world of the stars. Formerly the world had been guided by the Divine Being himself: it is now guided by the Divine manifestation which has become objective, and behind this manifestation the Divine Being passes through the next stage of his own development.
[ 9 ] Michael is again the ruler of the cosmic intelligence, in so far as this streams through the manifestations of the Cosmos in the order of ideas.
[ 10 ] The third phase of evolution is a further separation of the cosmic intelligence from its origin. In the worlds of the stars the present order of ideas no longer holds sway as the Divine manifestation; the stars move and are regulated according to the order of ideas implanted in them in the past. Michael sees how the cosmic intellectuality, which he has hitherto ruled in the Cosmos, proceeds on its way to earthly humanity.
[ 11 ] But Michael also sees how the danger of humanity succumbing to the Ahrimanic Powers grows greater and greater. He knows that as regards himself he will always have Ahriman under his feet; but will it also be the case with man?
[ 12 ] Michael sees the greatest event in the Earth's history taking place. From the kingdom served by Michael himself Christ descends to the sphere of the Earth, so as to be there when the intelligence is wholly with the human individuality. For man will then feel most strongly the impulse to devote himself to the power which has made itself fully and completely into the vehicle of intellectuality. But Christ will be there; through His great sacrifice He will live in the same sphere in which Ahriman also lives. Man will be able to choose between Christ and Ahriman. The world will be able to find the Christ-way in the evolution of humanity.
[ 13 ] That is Michael's cosmic experience with that which he has to govern in the Cosmos. In order to remain with that which he has to govern, he enters upon the path that leads from the Cosmos to humanity. He has been on this path since the eighth century AD. but he really only took up his earthly office, into which his cosmic office has been changed, in the last third of the nineteenth century.
[ 14 ] Michael cannot force human beings to do anything. For it is just through intelligence having come entirely into the sphere of the human individuality that compulsion has ceased. But in the supersensible world first bordering on this visible world, Michael can unfold as a majestic, exemplary action that which he wishes to display. He can show himself there with an aura of light, with the gesture of a Spirit Being, in which all the splendour and glory of the past intelligence of the Gods is revealed. He can there show how the action of this intelligence of the past is more true, more beautiful and more virtuous in the present than all that is contained in the immediate intelligence of the present day, which streams to us from Ahriman in deceptive, misleading splendour. He can point out how for him Ahriman will always be the lower spirit, under his feet.
[ 15 ] Those persons who can see the supersensible world bordering next upon the visible world, perceive Michael and those belonging to him in the manner here described, engaged in what they would like to do for humanity. Such persons see how—through the picture of Michael in Ahriman's sphere—man is to be led in freedom away from Ahriman to Christ. When through their vision such persons also succeed in opening the hearts and minds of others, so that there is a circle of people who know how Michael is now living among men, humanity will then begin to celebrate Festivals of Michael which will possess the right contents, and at which souls will allow the power of Michael to revive in them. Michael will then work as a real power among men. Man will be free and yet proceed along his spiritual path of life through the Cosmos in intimate companionship with Christ.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (with reference to the preceding study)
[ 16 ] 109. To become truly conscious of the working of Michael in the spiritual order of the World, is to solve the riddle of human freedom in relation to the Cosmos, in so far 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 period of mankind's evolution. No one can say, ‘Freedom is not,’ unless he wishes to deny a patent fact. But we can find a certain contradiction between this fact of our experience and the processes of the Cosmos. In contemplating the mission of Michael within the Cosmos this contradiction is dissolved.
[ 18 ] 111. In my Philosophy of Freedom (Philosophy of Spiritual Activity) the ‘Freedom’ of the human being in the present world-epoch is proved as an essential element of consciousness. In the descriptions here given of the Mission of Michael, the cosmic foundations of the ‘coming-into-being’ of this Freedom are disclosed.
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.