Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
6. The Activity of Michael and the Future of Mankind
[ 2 ] Man is surrounded today by a world which was once of a wholly divine-spiritual nature—divine-spiritual being of which he also was a member. Thus at that time the world belonging to man was a world of divine-spiritual being. But this was no longer so in a later stage of evolution. The world had then become a cosmic manifestation of the Divine Spiritual; the Divine Being hovered behind the manifestation. Nevertheless, the Divine-Spiritual lived and moved in all that was thus manifested. A world of stars was already there, in the light and movement of which the Divine-Spiritual lived and moved and manifested itself. One may say that at that time, in the position or movement of a star, the activity of the Divine and Spiritual was directly evident.
[ 3 ] And in all this—in the working of the Divine Spirit in the Cosmos, and in the life of man resulting from this divine activity—Michael was as yet in his own element—unhindered, unresisted. The adjustment of the relation between the Divine and the Human was in his hands.
[ 4 ] But other ages dawned. The world of the stars ceased to be a direct and present manifestation of Divine-Spiritual activity. The constellations lived and moved, maintaining what the Divine activity had been in them in the past. The Divine-Spiritual dwelt in the Cosmos in manifestation no longer, but in the manner of its working only. There was now a certain distinct separation between the Divine Spiritual and the cosmic World. Michael, by virtue of his own nature, adhered to the Divine-Spiritual, and endeavoured to keep mankind as closely as possible in touch with it.
This he continued to do, more and more. His will was to preserve man from living too intensely in a world which represents only the Working of the Divine and Spiritual—which is not the real Being, nor its Manifestation.
[ 5 ] It is a deep source of satisfaction to Michael that through man himself he has succeeded in keeping the world of the stars in direct union with the Divine and Spiritual. For when man, having fulfilled his life between death and a new birth, enters on the way to a new Earth-life, in his descent he seeks to establish a harmony between the course of the stars and his coming life on Earth. In olden times this harmony existed as a matter of course, because the Divine-Spiritual was active in the stars, where human life too had its source. But today, when ‘the course of the stars is only a continuing of the manner in which the Divine-Spiritual worked in the past, this harmony could not exist unless man sought it. Man brings his divine-spiritual portion—which he has preserved from the past—into relation with the stars, which now only bear their divine-spiritual nature within them as an after-working from an earlier time.
In this way there comes into man's relation to the world something of the Divine, which corresponds to former ages and yet appears in these later times. That this is so, is the deed of Michael. And this deed gives him such deep satisfaction that in it he finds a portion of his very life, a portion of his sun-like, living energy.
[ 6 ] But at the present time, when Michael directs his spiritual eyes to the Earth, he sees another fact as well—very different from the above. During his physical life between birth and death man has a world around him in which even the Working of the Divine-Spiritual no longer appears directly, but only something which has remained over as its result;—we may describe it by saying it is only the accomplished Work of the Divine-Spiritual. This accomplished Work, in all its forms, is essentially of a Divine and Spiritual kind. To human vision the Divine is manifested in the forms and in the processes of Nature; but it is no longer indwelling as a living principle. Nature is this divinely accomplished work of God; Nature everywhere around us is an image of the Divine Working.
[ 7 ] In this world of sun-like Divine glory, but no longer livingly Divine, man dwells. Yet as a result of Michael's working upon him man has maintained his connection with the essential Being of the Divine and Spiritual. He lives as a being permeated by God in a world that is no longer permeated by God.
[ 8 ] Into this world that has become empty of God, man will carry what is in him—what his being has become in this present age.
[ 9 ] Humanity will evolve into a new world-evolution. The Divine and Spiritual from which man originates can become the cosmically expanding Human Being, radiating with a new light through the Cosmos which now exists only as an image of the Divine and Spiritual.
[ 10 ] The Divine Being which will thus shine forth through Humanity will no longer be the same Divine Being which was once the Cosmos. In its passage through Humanity the Divine-Spiritual will come to a realisation of Being which it could not manifest before.
[ 11 ] The Ahrimanic Powers try to prevent evolution from taking the course here described. It is not their will that the original Divine-Spiritual Powers should illumine the Universe in its further course. They want the cosmic intellectuality which they themselves have absorbed to radiate through the whole of the new Cosmos, and in this intellectualised and Ahrimanised Cosmos they want man to live on.
[ 12 ] Were he to live such a life man would lose Christ. For Christ came into the world with an Intellectuality that is still of the very same essence as once lived in the Divine Spiritual, when the Divine-Spiritual in its own Being still informed the Cosmos. But if at the present time we speak in such a manner that our thoughts can also be the thoughts of Christ, we set over against the Ahrimanic Powers something which can save us from succumbing to them.
[ 13 ] To understand the meaning of Michael's mission in the Cosmos is to be able to speak in this way. In the present time we must be able to speak of Nature in the way demanded by the evolutionary stage of the Consciousness Soul or Spiritual Soul. We must be able to receive into ourselves the purely natural-scientific way of thinking. But we ought also to learn to feel and speak about Nature in a way that is according to Christ. We ought to learn the Christ-Language—not only about redemption from Nature, about the soul and things Divine—but about the things of the Cosmos.
[ 14 ] When with inward, heartfelt feeling we realise the mission and the deeds of Michael and those belonging to him, when we enter into all that they are in our midst, then we shall be able to maintain our human connection with the Divine and Spiritual origin, and understand how to cultivate the Christ Language about the Cosmos. For to understand Michael is to find the way in our time to the Logos, as lived by Christ here on Earth and among men.
[ 15 ] Anthroposophy truly values what the natural-scientific way of thinking has learned to say about the world during the last four or five centuries. But in addition to this language it speaks another, about the nature of man, about his evolution and that of the Cosmos; for it would fain speak the language of Christ and Michael.
[ 16 ] If both these languages are spoken it will not be possible for evolution to be broken off or to pass over to Ahriman before the original Divine-Spiritual is found. To speak only in the natural-scientific way corresponds to the separation of intellectuality from the original Divine and Spiritual. This can indeed lead over into the Ahrimanic realm if Michael's mission remains unobserved. But it will not do so if through the power of Michael's example the intellect which has become free finds itself again in the original cosmic intellectuality, which has separated from man and become objective to him. For that cosmic intellectuality lies in the original source of man, and it appeared in Christ in full reality of being within the sphere of humanity, after it had left man for a time so that he might unfold his freedom.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (with reference to the preceding study)
[ 17 ] 112. The Divine-Spiritual comes to expression in the Cosmos in different ways, in succeeding stages: (1) through its own and inmost Being; (2) through the Manifestation of this Being; (3) through the active Working, when the Being withdraws from the Manifestation; (4) through the accomplished Work, when in the outwardly apparent Universe no longer the Divine itself, but only the forms of the Divine are there.
[ 18 ] 113. In the modern conception of Nature man has no relation to the Divine, but only to the accomplished Work. With all that is imparted to the human soul by this science of Nature, man can unite himself either with the powers of Christ or with the dominions of Ahriman.
[ 19 ] 114. Michael is filled with the striving—working through his example in perfect freedom—to embody in human cosmic evolution the relation to the Cosmos which is still preserved in man himself from the ages when the Divine Being and the Divine Manifestation held sway. In this way, all that is said by the modern view of Nature—relating as it does purely to the image, purely to the form of the Divine—will merge into a higher, spiritual view of Nature. The latter will indeed exist in man; but it will be an echo in human experience of the Divine relation to the Cosmos which prevailed in the first two stages of cosmic evolution. This is how Anthroposophy confirms the view of Nature which the age of the Spiritual Soul has evolved, while supplementing it with that which is revealed to spiritual seership.
Menschheitszukunft und Michael-Tätigkeit
[ 1 ] Wie steht heute der Mensch auf seiner Entwickelungsstufe zu Michael und den Seinen?
[ 2 ] Der Mensch steht einer Welt gegenüber, die einstmals ganz göttlich-geistiger Wesenheit war. Einer solchen göttlich-geistigen Wesenheit, der auch er selbst als ein Glied zugehörte. Damals also war die dem Menschen zugehörige Welt göttlich-geistiger Wesenheit. In einer folgenden Entwickelungsetappe war sie es nicht mehr. Da war sie kosmische Offenbarung des Göttlich-Geistigen, und dessen Wesenheit schwebte hinter dieser Offenbarung. Aber sie webte und lebte doch eben in der Offenbarung. Eine Sternenwelt war schon da. In ihrem Scheinen und Sich-Bewegen webte und lebte als Offenbarung das Göttlich-Geistige. Man kann sagen: wie damals ein Stern stand oder sich bewegte, darinnen konnte unmittelbar die Tätigkeit des Göttlich-Geistigen gesehen werden.
[ 3 ] In alledem, wie der göttliche Geist in dem Kosmos wirkte, wie der Mensch in seinem Leben ein Ergebnis war der Tätigkeit des Göttlich-Geistigen im Kosmos, da war Michael widerstandslos noch in seinem Element. Er vermittelte das Verhältnis des Göttlichen zum Menschen.
[ 4 ] Andere Zeiten kamen. Die Sternenwelt hörte auf, unmittelbar gegenwärtig die göttlich-geistige Tätigkeit in sich zu tragen. Sie lebte und regte sich, indem sie beharrend weiter fortsetzte, was solche Tätigkeit früher in ihr war. Das Göttlich-Geistige lebte im Kosmos nicht mehr als Offenbarung, sondern nur noch als Wirksamkeit. Es war eine deutliche Zweiheit zwischen dem Göttlich-Geistigen und dem Kosmischen aufgetreten. Michael hielt sich auf Grund seiner eigenen Wesenheit beim Göttlich-Geistigen. Er suchte den Menschen so nahe als möglich bei diesem zu erhalten. Das tat er immer weiter. Er wollte den Menschen davor bewahren, zu stark in einer Welt zu leben, die nur Wirksamkeit des Göttlich-Geistigen ist, nicht Wesenheit und nicht Offenbarung.
[ 5 ] Michael rechnet es sich zur tiefsten Befriedigung an, daß es ihm gelungen ist, die Sternenwelt durch den Menschen noch unmittelbar mit dem Göttlich-Geistigen auf die folgende Art verbunden zu erhalten. Wenn der Mensch, nachdem er das Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt vollbracht hat, wieder den Weg zu einem neuen Erdendasein antritt, dann sucht er beim Hinabstieg zu diesem Dasein eine Harmonie zwischen dem Sternengang und seinen Erdenleben herzustellen. Diese Harmonie, die vor Zeiten selbstverständlich da war, weil das Göttlich-Geistige in den Sternen wirkte, in denen auch das Menschenleben seinen Quell hatte: sie würde heute, wo der Sternengang bloß die Wirksamkeit des Göttlich-Geistigen fortsetzt, nicht da sein, wenn der Mensch sie nicht suchte. Er bringt sein aus früherer Zeit bewahrtes Göttlich-Geistiges in ein Verhältnis zu den Sternen, die ihr Göttlich-Geistiges nur noch als Nachwirkung einer früheren Zeit in sich haben. Dadurch kommt ein Göttliches in das Verhältnis des Menschen zur Welt, das früheren Zeiten entspricht, doch aber in späteren Zeiten erscheint. Daß dies so ist, das ist die Tat Michaels. Und diese Tat gibt ihm eine so tiefe Befriedigung, daß er in dieser Befriedigung einen Teil seines Lebens-Elementes, seiner Lebens-Energie, seines sonnenhaften Lebenswillens hat.
[ 6 ] Heute aber sieht er, wenn er das Geistes-Auge zur Erde richtet, noch einen wesentlich anderen Tatbestand. Der Mensch ist während seines Lebens im Physischen zwischen Geburt und Tod von einer Welt umgeben, die unmittelbar auch nicht mehr die Wirksamkeit des Göttlich-Geistigen zeigt, sondern nur etwas, das von dieser Wirksamkeit geblieben ist; man kann sagen, nur noch das Werk des Göttlich-Geistigen. Dieses Werk ist in seinen Formen durchaus göttlich-geistiger Art. Für das menschliche Anschauen zeigt sich das Göttliche in den Formen, in dem naturhaften Geschehen; aber es ist nicht mehr als Lebendiges darinnen. Die Natur ist dies gottgewirkte Werk des Göttlichen und ist überall Abbild der göttlichen Wirksamkeit.
[ 7 ] In dieser sonnenhaft göttlichen, aber nicht lebendig göttlichen Welt lebt der Mensch. Er aber hat, als Ergebnis des Wirkens Michaels an ihm, als Mensch den Zusammenhang mit dem Wesen des Göttlich-Geistigen bewahrt. Er lebt als Gott-durchdrungenes Wesen in einer nicht Gott-durchdrungenen Welt.
[ 8 ] In diese Gott-leergewordene Welt wird der Mensch hineintragen, was in ihm ist, das, zu dem seine Wesenheit in diesem Zeitalter geworden ist.
[ 9 ] Menschheit wird sich hineinentfalten in eine Welt-Entwickelung. Das Göttlich-Geistige, dem der Mensch entstammt, kann als kosmisch sich ausbreitende Menschenwesenheit durchleuchten den Kosmos, der nur noch in dem Abbild des Göttlich-Geistigen vorhanden ist.
[ 10 ] Nicht mehr dieselbe Wesenheit, die einst als Kosmos war, wird da durch die Menschheit aufleuchten. Das Göttlich-Geistige wird im Durchgang durch das Menschentum ein Wesen erleben, das es vorher nicht offenbarte.
[ 11 ] Daß die Entwickelung diesen Fortgang nehme, dagegen wenden sich die ahrimanischen Mächte. Sie wollen nicht, daß die ursprünglichen göttlich-geistigen Mächte das Weltall in seinem weiteren Fortgang erleuchten; sie wollen, daß die von ihnen aufgesogene kosmische Intellektualität den ganzen neuen Kosmos durchstrahle und daß der Mensch in diesem intellektualisierten und ahrimanisierten Kosmos weiterlebe.
[ 12 ] Bei einem solchen Leben würde der Mensch den Christus verlieren. Denn dieser ist mit einer Intellektualität in die Welt hereingetreten, die ganz so ist, wie sie einst in dem Göttlich-Geistigen gelebt hat, da dies noch in seiner Wesenheit den Kosmos bildete. Sprechen wir heute so, daß unsere Gedanken auch die des Christus sein können, so setzen wir den ahrimanischen Mächten etwas entgegen, das uns behütet, ihnen zu verfallen.
[ 13 ] Den Sinn der Michael-Mission im Kosmos verstehen, heißt, so sprechen können. Man muß heute über die Natur so sprechen können, wie es die Entwickelungsetappe der Bewußtheitsseele fordert. Man muß die rein naturwissenschaftliche Denkungsart in sich aufnehmen können. Aber man sollte auch so über die Natur sprechen - das heißt empfinden-lernen, wie es Christus gemäß ist. Nicht bloß über Erlösung von der Natur, nicht bloß über Seele und Göttliches sollen wir die Christus-Sprache lernen, sondern über den Kosmos.
[ 14 ] Daß unser menschlicher Zusammenhang mit dem ursprünglich Göttlich-Geistigen so gewahrt bleibe, daß wir über den Kosmos die Christus-Sprache zu pflegen verstehen, dazu werden wir kommen, wenn wir uns in innerlichem herzlichen Erfühlen ganz in das einleben, was Michael und die Seinen mit ihren Taten, mit ihrer Mission unter uns sind. Denn Michael verstehen, heißt heute Weg finden zu dem Logos, den Christus unter Menschen auf der Erde lebt.
[ 15 ] Anthroposophie schätzt in rechter Art, was die naturwissenschaftliche Denkweise gelernt hat, seit vier bis fünf Jahrhunderten über die Welt zu sagen. Aber sie spricht außer dieser Sprache eben noch eine andere über das Wesen des Menschen, über die Entwickelung des Menschen und über das Werden des Kosmos; sie möchte die Christus-Michael-Sprache sprechen.
[ 16 ] Denn werden beide Sprachen gesprochen, dann wird die Entwickelung nicht abreißen und vor dem Finden des ursprünglich Göttlich-Geistigen auf das Ahrimanische übergehen können. Die bloße naturwissenschaftliche Art zu sprechen, entspricht der Loslösung der Intellektualität von dem ursprünglich Göttlich-Geistigen. Sie kann ins Ahrimanische übergehen, wenn der Mission Michaels nicht geachtet wird. Sie wird es nicht, wenn der frei gewordene Intellekt sich durch die Kraft des Michael-Vorbildes wieder findet in der vom Menschen losgelösten, ihm gegenüber objektiv gewordenen ursprünglichen kosmischen Intellektualität, die im Quell des Menschen liegt und die in Christus innerhalb des Menschheitsbereiches wesenhaft erschienen ist, nachdem sie aus dem Menschen zur Entfaltung seiner Freiheit gewichen war.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden (Mit Bezug auf die vorangehende Darstellung der Michael-Tätigkeit)
[ 17 ] 112. Das Göttlich-Geistige kommt im Kosmos in den folgenden Etappen auf verschiedene Art zur Geltung: 1. durch seine ureigene Wesenheit; 2. durch die Offenbarung dieser Wesenheit; 3. durch die Wirksamkeit, wenn die Wesenheit aus der Offenbarung sich zurückzieht; 4. durch das Werk, wenn in dem erscheinenden Weltall das Göttliche nicht mehr ist, sondern nur dessen Formen.
[ 18 ] 113. Der Mensch hat in der gegenwärtigen Naturanschauung nicht ein Verhältnis zu dem Göttlichen, sondern nur zu dessen Werk. Mit dem, was sich der menschlichen Seelenverfassung durch diese Anschauung mitteilt, kann man sich als Mensch sowohl mit den Christus-Mächten wie mit den ahrimanischen Gewalten zusammenschließen.
[ 19 ] 114. Michael ist durchdrungen von dem Bestreben, das im Menschen aus den Zeiten der göttlichen Wesensgeltendmachung und der Offenbarung bewahrte Verhältnis zum Kosmos in einer solchen Art durch sein frei wirkendes Vorbild der menschlich-kosmischen Entwickelung einzuverleiben, daß, was die rein auf das Bild, die Form des Göttlichen bezügliche Naturanschauung sagt, einläuft in eine höhere, geistgemäße Naturanschauung. Diese wird zwar im Menschen vorhanden sein; sie wird aber eben ein menschliches Nacherlebnis des göttlichen Verhältnisses zum Kosmos während der zwei ersten Etappen der kosmischen Entwickelung sein. Anthroposophie bejaht in dieser Art die Naturanschauung des Bewußtseinszeitalters; sie ergänzt sie aber auch durch eine solche, die von dem Blick des Geistes-Auges aus sich ergibt.
The future of humanity and Michael's activity
[ 1 ] What is man's relationship to Michael and his own at his stage of development today?
[ 2 ] Man is confronted with a world that was once entirely of divine-spiritual essence. Such a divine-spiritual entity to which he himself also belonged as a member. At that time, therefore, the world belonging to man was of divine-spiritual beingness. In a subsequent stage of development it was no longer so. There it was a cosmic revelation of the divine-spiritual, and its essence hovered behind this revelation. But it was weaving and living in the revelation. A starry world was already there. In its shining and moving the divine-spiritual weaved and lived as revelation. One can say: as a star stood or moved at that time, the activity of the divine-spiritual could be seen directly therein.
[ 3 ] In all this, as the divine spirit worked in the cosmos, as man in his life was a result of the activity of the divine-spiritual in the cosmos, Michael was still in his element without resistance. He mediated the relationship between the divine and man.
[ 4 ] Other times came. The starry world ceased to carry the divine-spiritual activity within itself. It lived and moved by persistently continuing what such activity used to be in it. The divine-spiritual no longer lived in the cosmos as revelation, but only as activity. A clear duality had arisen between the divine-spiritual and the cosmic. Michael stayed with the divine-spiritual because of his own nature. He sought to keep the human being as close to this as possible. He continued to do so. He wanted to protect man from living too strongly in a world that is only the effectiveness of the divine-spiritual, not essence and not revelation.
[ 5 ] Michael counts it to his deepest satisfaction that he has succeeded in preserving the starry world through man still directly connected with the Divine-Spiritual in the following way. When man, after he has completed the life between death and a new birth, sets out again on the path to a new earthly existence, he seeks to establish a harmony between the starry course and his earthly lives as he descends to this existence. This harmony, which was naturally there ages ago because the divine-spiritual worked in the stars, in which human life also had its source: it would not be there today, where the starry course merely continues the effectiveness of the divine-spiritual, if man did not seek it. He brings his divine-spiritual, preserved from an earlier time, into a relationship with the stars, which only have their divine-spiritual in them as an after-effect of an earlier time. Thus a divine comes into the relationship of man to the world which corresponds to earlier times but appears in later times. And this deed gives him such deep satisfaction that in this satisfaction he has a part of his life-element, his life-energy, his sunlike will to live.
[ 6 ] Today, however, when he turns his spiritual eye to the earth, he sees still another essentially different fact. During his life in the physical, between birth and death, man is surrounded by a world which no longer shows directly the activity of the divine-spiritual, but only something that has remained of this activity; one can say, only the work of the divine-spiritual. This work is definitely of a divine-spiritual nature in its forms. For the human eye, the divine shows itself in the forms, in the natural events; but it is nothing more than the living in it. Nature is this divine work of the divine and is everywhere an image of divine activity.
[ 7 ] Man lives in this sunlike divine, but not livingly divine world. However, as a result of Michael's work on him, as a human being he has retained the connection with the essence of the divine-spiritual. He lives as a God-infused being in a world that is not God-infused.
[ 8 ] Into this God-emptied world, man will carry what is in him, that which his essence has become in this age.
[ 9 ] Humanity will unfold into a world development. The divine-spiritual, from which the human being originates, can, as a cosmically expanding human entity, illuminate the cosmos, which is only present in the image of the divine-spiritual.
[ 10 ] The same entity that once was the cosmos will no longer shine through humanity. In its passage through humanity, the divine-spiritual will experience a being that it did not reveal before.
[ 11 ] The Ahrimanic powers are opposed to the development taking this course. They do not want the original divine-spiritual powers to illuminate the universe in its further progress; they want the cosmic intellectuality they have absorbed to shine through the entire new cosmos and for man to continue to live in this intellectualized and ahrimanized cosmos.
[ 12 ] With such a life, man would lose the Christ. For he has entered the world with an intellectuality that is entirely as it once lived in the divine-spiritual, when this still formed the cosmos in its being. If we speak today in such a way that our thoughts can also be those of the Christ, we oppose the ahrimanic powers with something that prevents us from falling prey to them.
[ 13 ] To understand the meaning of Michael's mission in the cosmos means to be able to speak in this way. Today we must be able to speak about nature in the way demanded by the developmental stage of the consciousness soul. One must be able to absorb the purely scientific way of thinking. But one should also speak about nature - that is, learn to feel it as it is according to Christ. We should learn the language of Christ not just about redemption from nature, not just about the soul and the divine, but about the cosmos.
[ 14 ] That our human connection with the originally divine-spiritual may be preserved in such a way that we understand how to cultivate the Christ-language through the cosmos, we will come to this when we, in an inner heartfelt feeling, completely immerse ourselves in what Michael and His own are among us with their deeds, with their mission. For understanding Michael today means finding the way to the Logos that Christ lives among people on earth.
[ 15 ] Anthroposophy appreciates in the right way what the scientific way of thinking has learned to say about the world for four to five centuries. But in addition to this language, it speaks another language about the nature of man, about the development of man and about the becoming of the cosmos; it wants to speak the Christ-Michael language.
[ 16 ] For if both languages are spoken, then the development will not be able to break off and pass over to the Ahrimanic before the original divine-spiritual is found. The merely scientific way of speaking corresponds to the detachment of intellectuality from the original divine-spiritual. It can pass over into the ahrimanic if the mission of Michael is not respected. It will not if the intellect that has become free finds itself again, through the power of Michael's example, in the original cosmic intellectuality that is detached from man and has become objective towards him, which lies in the source of man and which has essentially appeared in Christ within the human realm after it had departed from man to unfold his freedom.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (with reference to the previous presentation of Michael's work)
[ 17 ] 112 The Divine-Spiritual comes into its own in the cosmos in the following stages in different ways: 1. through its very own beingness; 2. through the revelation of this beingness; 3. by the effectiveness, when the entity withdraws from the revelation; 4. by the work, when in the appearing universe the divine is no longer, but only its forms.
[ 18 ] 113 In the present view of nature, man has no relation to the divine, but only to its work. With that which communicates itself to the human constitution of soul through this view, one can unite as man with both the Christ-powers and the ahrimanic powers.
[ 19 ] 114 Michael is imbued with the endeavor to incorporate the relationship to the cosmos preserved in man from the times of divine manifestation and revelation in such a way, through his freely working example, into the human-cosmic development that what the view of nature, which relates purely to the image, the form of the divine, says, runs into a higher, spirit-like view of nature. This will indeed be present in man; but it will be precisely a human after-experience of the divine relationship to the cosmos during the first two stages of cosmic development. Anthroposophy affirms in this way the view of nature of the age of consciousness; but it also supplements it with one that arises from the view of the spiritual eye.