Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
8. Michaels Mission in the Cosmic Age of Human Freedom
[ 1 ] When the work of Michael at the present time is approached through spiritual experience, it becomes possible, from the spiritual-scientific point of view, to obtain light on the cosmic nature of Freedom.
[ 2 ] This does not refer to my Philosophy of Freedom (or ‘Philosophy of Spiritual Activity,’) which is based on the purely human faculties of cognition, where these are operative in the field of the spirit. In order to follow the thought of this book, it is not yet necessary to join company with the beings of other worlds. But it may be said that the Philosophy of Freedom prepares the way for the understanding of the freedom which, in spiritual connection with Michael, can then be experienced. [ 3 ] And this is as follows.
[ 4 ] If freedom is to be a living reality in human action, then that which is accomplished in the light of it must be completely independent of man's physical and etheric organisation. There can be no freedom except through the ‘I,’ and the astral body must be able to vibrate in harmony with the free activity of the ‘I,’ so that it may be able to transmit it to the physical and etheric bodies. But this is only one side of the matter. The other side becomes clear in connection with the mission of Michael. For it is also true that what man experiences in freedom must not in any way affect his physical or etheric body. Were this to happen, he would have to lose entirely what he had gained during his evolution under the influence of Divine-Spiritual Being, and Divine-Spiritual Manifestation.
[ 5 ] What man experiences through this his environment which is but the accomplished Work of the Divine and Spiritual, must take effect on his spiritual nature (i.e. his Ego) only. His physical and etheric Organisation must only be affected by that which flows on, in the stream of evolution, not in his outer environment, but within his own being, and which had its origin in the Being and Manifestation of the Divine-Spiritual. But this must not work together with that in the human being which lives in the element of freedom.
[ 6 ] All this is only made possible because Michael carries over from the far past of evolution something that brings man into connection with that Divine-Spiritual reality which in the present day no longer penetrates the physical and etheric Organisation. Through this the foundation is being laid, within the mission of Michael, for a human intercourse with the spiritual world which does not interfere at all with the working of Nature.
[ 7 ] It is inspiring to see how the human being is raised by Michael into the spiritual sphere, whereas the unconscious and subconscious elements which develop beneath the sphere of freedom are uniting ever more strongly with the world of matter.
[ 8 ] Man's position with respect to the world will in the future become more and more incomprehensible to him if he is not prepared to recognise, in addition to his relations to the beings and processes of Nature, such relations as this to the Michael Mission. Our relations to Nature are recognised by looking at them from without; our relations to the spiritual world proceed from something like an inner conversation with Beings to whom we have opened up the way by adopting a spiritual view of the world.
[ 9 ] In order, therefore, for man to realise the impulse of freedom, he must be able to hold at a distance certain influences of Nature which affect his being from the Cosmos. This ‘holding at a distance’ is taking place in the sub-consciousness, when in the consciousness there are the forces which represent the life of the Ego in freedom. For the inward perception of man himself there is the consciousness of his activity in freedom, but for the spiritual Beings connected with man from other spheres of the Universe it is different. The Being from the hierarchy of the Angeloi, who leads human existence from one earthly life to another, sees at once how the matter stands regarding human action in freedom; he sees how man thrusts away from himself cosmic forces which want to form and mould him further—which want to give to his Ego-organisation the necessary physical supports, as they did before the age of Michael.
[ 10 ] Michael, who is a member of the hierarchy of the Archangeloi, receives his impressions with the aid of the Beings of the Angeloi-hierarchy. He devotes himself, in the manner here described, to the task of bringing to man from the spiritual part of the Cosmos forces which can replace those from the realm of Nature which have been suppressed.
[ 11 ] He accomplishes this by bringing his activity into the most perfect accord with the Mystery of Golgotha.
[ 12 ] The forces which man requires for the compensation of suppressed impulses of Nature when he acts through freedom, are contained in the activity of Christ within earthly evolution. But man must then really bring his soul into that inner life in union with Christ, of which we have already spoken in these articles on the Michael Mission.
[ 13 ] When a man faces the physical Sun and receives from it warmth and light he knows that he is living in a reality. [ 14 ] In the same way he must live in the presence of Christ, the spiritual Sun, who has joined His life to that of the Earth, and receive actively from Him into his soul that which in the spiritual world corresponds to warmth and light.
[ 15 ] He will feel himself permeated by ‘spiritual warmth’ when he experiences the ‘Christ in me.’ Feeling himself thus permeated he will say to himself: ‘This warmth liberates my human being from bonds of the Cosmos in which it may not remain. For me to gain my freedom the Divine-Spiritual Being of primeval times had to lead me into regions where it could not remain with me, where, however, it gave me Christ, that His forces might bestow upon me as a free human being what the Divine-Spiritual primeval Being once gave me by way of Nature, which was then also the Spirit-way. This warmth leads me back again to the divine sources, whence I came.’
[ 16 ] And in this feeling there will grow together in man, in inner warmth of soul, the experience in and with Christ and the experience of real and true humanity. ‘Christ gives me my humanity’—that will be the fundamental feeling which will well up in the soul and pervade it. When this feeling is once there, another comes: man feels raised by Christ beyond mere earthly existence, he feels one with the starry firmament around the Earth and with all that can be recognised in this firmament as Spiritual and Divine.
[ 17 ] It is the same with the spiritual Light. Man can feel himself fully in his true human nature by becoming aware of himself as a free individual. A certain darkening is however connected with this. The Divine-Spiritual of primeval times no longer shines. The primeval Light appears again in the Light brought by Christ to the human ego. In the life in union with Christ this blissful thought may shine like a sun through the whole soul: ‘The glorious primal Divine Light is here again; it shines, although its light comes not from Nature.’ And man unites himself, while in the present, with the spiritual, cosmic forces of Light belonging to that past when he was not yet a free individual. And in this Light he can find the paths which lead him aright as a human being, when in his soul he unites himself, with understanding, with the Michael Mission.
[ 18 ] Then in the Spirit-warmth man will feel the impulse which so carries him over into his cosmic future, that in this future he will be able to remain true to the original gifts of Divine Spiritual Beings, albeit he has evolved in their worlds to free individuality. And in the Spirit-light he will feel the power which leads him with open eyes and ever higher and wider consciousness to the world in which as a free human being he will find himself again with the Gods of his origin.
[ 19 ] If man wishes to continue in the original existence and keep the primal naive Divine Goodness which held sway in him, and shrinks from the full use of freedom—it leads him, in this present world in which everything tends to develop his freedom, to Lucifer, who wishes the present world to be denied.
[ 20 ] If man devotes himself to present existence and wishes the natural world alone to hold sway (the natural world which is accessible to the present intellect and which is neutral with respect to Goodness), if he wishes to experience the use of freedom in the intellect alone, then in this present world where evolution needs to be continued in deeper regions of the soul, while freedom rules in the upper regions—he will after all be led to Ahriman, who wishes to see the present world transformed into a Cosmos of pure intellectuality.
[ 21 ] Certainty of soul and spirit flourishes in those regions where man feels that in the direction of the outer world his gaze rests spiritually on Michael, and in the direction towards the inner being of the soul on Christ. It is that certainty through which he will be able to traverse the cosmic path upon which he will, without losing his origin, in the future find his true perfection.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 22 ] 118. That action alone can be free in which no process of Nature, either within man or without him, plays an active part.
[ 23 ] 119. But there is also the other pole, the opposite aspect of this truth. Whenever the individuality of man works freely, a Nature-process is suppressed in him. In an unfree action this process of Nature would indeed be present, giving to the human being his cosmically predestined character.
[ 24 ] 120. To the man who with his own life and being really partakes in the present and future stages of World-evolution, this character is not vouchsafed by way of Nature. But it comes to him by way of the Spirit when he unites himself with Michael, whereby he also finds the way to Christ.
Michaels Mission im Weltenalter der Menschen-Freiheit
[ 1 ] Wenn man mit dem geistigen Erleben an Michaels Wirken in der Gegenwart herankommt, so findet man die Möglichkeit, sich geisteswissenschaftlich über das kosmische Wesen der Freiheit Licht zu verschaffen.
[ 2 ] Dies bezieht sich nicht auf meine «Philosophie der Freiheit». Diese geht aus den rein-menschlichen Erkenntniskräften selbst hervor, wenn diese sich auf das Feld des Geistes begeben können. Man braucht dann, um zu erkennen, was hier erkannt wird, noch nicht ein Zusammengehen mit Wesen andrer Welten. Man kann aber sagen, die «Philosophie der Freiheit» bereitet dazu vor, über die Freiheit das zu erkennen, was dann im geistigen Zusammengehen mit Michael erfahren werden kann.
[ 3 ] Und das ist das Folgende.
[ 4 ] Soll Freiheit wirklich im menschlichen Handeln leben, so darf, was in ihrem Lichte vollzogen wird, in keiner Art von der menschlichen physischen und ätherischen Organisation abhängig sein. Das «Freie» kann sich nur aus dem «Ich» heraus vollziehen; und mit dem freien Wirken des «Ich» muß der Astralleib mitschwingen können, damit er es auf physischen und ätherischen Leib übertragen kann. -Dies ist aber nur die eine Seite der Sache. Die andere wird eben im Zusammenhange mit Michaels Mission durchsichtig. - Es darf, was in Freiheit vom Menschen erlebt wird, auch nicht in irgendeiner Art auf seinen ätherischen oder physischen Leib wirken. Geschähe dieses, so müßte der Mensch völlig aus dem herauskommen, was er in den Etappen seiner Entwickelung unter dem Einfluß der göttlich-geistigen Wesenheit und der göttlich-geistigen Offenbarung geworden ist.
[ 5 ] Was der Mensch durch dasjenige erlebt, was nur göttlichgeistiges Werk in seiner Umgebung ist, darf nur auf sein Geistiges (sein Ich) einen Einfluß haben. Auf seine physische und ätherische Organisation kann nur Einfluß haben, was sich in der Entwickelungsströmung nicht in seiner Umgebung, sondern innerhalb seiner Wesenheit selbst von dem fortsetzt, das seinen Anfang in Wesenheit und Offenbarung des Göttlich-Geistigen gehabt hat. Das aber darf in der Menschen-Wesenheit gar nicht zusammenwirken mit dem, was in dem Elemente der Freiheit lebt.
[ 6 ] Dies ist nur dadurch möglich, daß Michael aus urferner Vergangenheit der Entwickelung etwas herüberträgt, das den Menschen einen Zusammenhang mit dem Göttlich-Geistigen gibt, das in der Gegenwart nicht mehr in die physische und ätherische Bildung eingreift. Dadurch entwickelt sich innerhalb von Michaels Mission der Boden für einen Verkehr des Menschen mit der geistigen Welt, der gar nicht ins Naturhafte hinübergreift.
[ 7 ] Es ist erhebend anzusehen, wie durch Michael des Menschen Wesenheit in die geistige Sphäre hinaufgehoben wird, während das Unbewußte, Unterbewußte, die sich unter der Sphäre der Freiheit entfalten, immer tiefer mit dem Materiellen zusammenwächst.
[ 8 ] Des Menschen Stellung zum Weltwesen wird ihm fernerhin immer unverständlicher werden, wenn er sich nicht darauf einläßt, außer seinen Beziehungen zu Naturwesen und Naturvorgängen auch noch solche anzuerkennen wie die zur Michael-Mission. - Die Beziehungen zur Natur lernt man wie etwas kennen, das man von außen anschaut; diejenigen zur geistigen Welt gehen aus von etwas, das gewissermaßen ein inneres Gespräch mit einem Wesenhaften ist, zu dem man sich den Zugang dadurch eröffnet hat, daß man auf das geistgemäße Anschauen der Welt eingegangen ist.
[ 9 ] Der Mensch muß also, um die Impulse der Freiheit darleben zu können, imstande sein, gewisse Naturwirkungen, die aus dem Kosmos herein die Wirkung auf sein Wesen nehmen, von diesem Wesen fernezuhalten. Diese Fernhaltung spielt sich im Unterbewußtsein dann ab, wenn im Bewußtsein die Kräfte walten, die eben das Leben des Ich in Freiheit darstellen. Für das menschliche innere Wahrnehmen ist das Bewußtsein des Wirkens in Freiheit da; für die geistigen Wesen, die aus ändern Weltensphären mit dem Menschen in Verbindung stehen, ist das anders. Dem Wesen aus der Hierarchie der Angeloi, das mit der Fortführung des Menschenseins von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben zu tun hat, wird gegenüber dem menschlichen Handeln in Freiheit sofort dieses anschaulich: der Mensch stößt von sich kosmische Kräfte hinweg, die ihn weiterbilden wollen, die seiner Ich-Organisation die nötigen physischen Stützen geben wollen, wie sie sie ihr gegeben haben vor dem Michael-Zeitalter.
[ 10 ] Michael erhält als Wesen aus der Hierarchie der Archangeloi seine Eindrücke mit Hilfe der Wesen aus der Angeloi-Hierarchie. Er widmet sich der Aufgabe, dem Menschen aus dem geistigen Teil des Kosmos auf die hier geschilderte Art Kräfte zuzuführen, die die aus dem Naturdasein unterdrückten ersetzen können.
[ 11 ] Das erreicht er, indem er seine Wirksamkeit in den vollkommensten Einklang mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha bringt.
[ 12 ] In der Wirksamkeit des Christus innerhalb der Erdenentwickelung liegen die Kräfte, die der Mensch im Wirken durch Freiheit zum Ausgleich unterdrückter Natur-Impulse braucht. - Nur muß der Mensch dann wirklich seine Seele in das innere Zusammenleben mit Christus bringen, von dem hier in diesen Mitteilungen über die Michael-Mission schon gesprochen ist.
[ 13 ] Der Mensch weiß sich in einer Wirklichkeit, wenn er der physischen Sonne gegenübersteht und durch sie Wärme und Licht empfängt.
[ 14 ] So muß er der geistigen Sonne, Christus, die ihr Dasein mit dem Erdendasein vereint hat, gegenüber leben und von ihr in der Seele das lebendig empfangen, was in der geistigen Welt der Wärme und dem Licht entspricht.
[ 15 ] Er wird sich von der «geistigen Wärme» durchdrungen fühlen, wenn er den «Christus in sich» erlebt. Er wird sich in dieser Durchdringung erfühlend sagen: diese Wärme löst dein menschliches Wesen aus Banden des Kosmos, in denen es nicht bleiben darf. Das göttlich-geistige Sein der Urzeit mußte dich zur Erringung der Freiheit in Regionen führen, in denen es nicht bei dir bleiben konnte, in denen es aber dir den Christus gegeben hat, daß seine Kräfte dir als freiem Menschen verleihen, was das göttlich-geistige Sein der Urzeit dir einstmals auf dem Naturwege gegeben hat, der damals zugleich der Geistesweg war. Zu dem Göttlichen, aus dem du stammest, führt dich diese Wärme wieder zurück.
[ 16 ] Und in diesem Erfühlen wird im Menschen in inniger Seelenwärme zusammenwachsen das Erleben in und mit dem Christus und das Erleben echten und wahren Menschentums. «Christus gibt mir mein Menschenwesen», das wird als Grundgefühl die Seele durchwehen und durchwellen. Und ist erst dieses Gefühl vorhanden, so kommt auch das andere, in dem der Mensch durch Christus sich hinausgehoben fühlt über das bloße Erdensein, indem er sich mit der Sternen-Umgebung der Erde eins fühlt und mit allem, was in dieser Sternen-Umgebung zu erkennen ist als Göttlich-Geistiges.
[ 17 ] Und so mit dem geistigen Lichte. Der Mensch kann sich in seiner Menschenwesenheit voll erfühlen, indem er sich als freie Individualität gewahr wird. Aber eine Verfinsterung ist damit doch verbunden. Das Göttlich-Geistige der Urzeit leuchtet nicht mehr. Im Lichte, das der Christus dem Menschen-Ich bringt, ist das Urlicht wieder da. Es kann in solchem Zusammenleben mit dem Christus der beseligende Gedanke sonnenhaft die ganze Seele durchglänzen: Das uralt-herrliche göttliche Licht ist wieder da; es leuchtet, obwohl sein Leuchten kein naturhaftes ist. Und der Mensch vereinigt sich in der Gegenwart mit den geistigen kosmischen Leuchtekräften der Vergangenheit, in der er noch nicht eine freie Individualität war. Und er kann in diesem Lichte die Wege finden, die seine Menschen Wesenheit recht führen, wenn er sich verständnisvoll in seiner Seele mit der Michael-Mission verbindet.
[ 18 ] Dann wird der Mensch in der Geist-Wärme den Impuls fühlen, der ihn in seine kosmische Zukunft so hinüberträgt, daß er in dieser treu bleiben kann den Ur-Gaben seiner göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten, trotzdem er sich in deren Welten zur freien Individualität entwickelt hat. Und er wird in dem Geistes-Lichte die Kraft empfinden, die ihn wahrnehmend mit immer höherem und weiterem Bewußtsein der Welt zuführt, in der er sich als freier Mensch mit den Göttern seines Ursprungs wiederfindet.
[ 19 ] In dem ursprünglichen Sein verharren, die ursprüngliche naive, im Menschen waltende Götter-Güte beibehalten wollen und vor dem vollen Gebrauche der Freiheit zurückbeben, führt den Menschen in dieser Welt der Gegenwart, in der alles auf die Entwickelung seiner Freiheit veranlagt ist, doch zu Luzifer, der die gegenwärtige Welt verleugnet wissen will.
[ 20 ] Sich dem gegenwärtigen Sein übergeben, die jetzt dem Intellekt erreichbare Welten-Natürlichkeit, die gegen Güte sich neutral verhält, allein walten lassen wollen und den Gebrauch der Freiheit nur im Intellekt erleben wollen, das führt den Menschen in dieser Welt der Gegenwart, in der die Entwickelung in tieferen Seelenregionen fortgesetzt werden muß, da in oberen Freiheit waltet, doch zu Ahriman, der die gegenwärtige Welt ganz in einen Kosmos des intellektuellen Wesens umgewandelt wissen will.
[ 21 ] In solchen Regionen, in denen der Mensch den Blick nach der Außenwelt geistig auf Michael, den Blick nach dem Inneren der Seele geistig auf Christus fallen fühlt, gedeiht jene Seelen- und Geistes-Sicherheit, durch die er denjenigen kosmischen Weg zu gehen vermögen wird, auf dem er ohne Verlust seines Ursprungs seine rechte Zukunfts-Vollendung finden wird.
Goetheanum, 9. November 1924.Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden (Mit Bezug auf die vorangehende Darstellung des Michael- und Christus-Erlebnisses durch den Menschen)
[ 22 ] 118. Eine freie Handlung kann nur diejenige sein, bei der kein Naturgeschehen in oder außer dem Menschen mitwirkt.
[ 23 ] 119. Dem steht als der polarische Gegensatz gegenüber, daß im freien Wirken der Menschen-Individualität in dieser ein Naturgeschehen unterdrückt wird, das bei unfreiem Handeln da wäre und dem Menschenwesen seine ihm kosmisch vorbestimmte Gestaltung gäbe.
[ 24 ] 120. Diese Gestaltung, die dem Menschen, der in seinem Wesen mit dem gegenwärtigen und zukünftigen Welten-Entwickelungs-Stadium mitlebt, nicht auf naturgemäßem Wege zukommt, kommt ihm auf geistgemäßem zu durch das Sich-Verbinden mit Michael, wodurch er auch den Weg zu Christus findet.
Michael's mission in the world age of human freedom
[ 1 ] If one approaches Michael's work in the present with spiritual experience, one finds the possibility of gaining spiritual scientific insight into the cosmic essence of freedom.
[ 2 ] This does not refer to my "philosophy of freedom". This emerges from the purely human powers of cognition themselves, if these can enter the field of the spirit. In order to recognize what is recognized here, it is not yet necessary to merge with beings from other worlds. However, one can say that the "philosophy of freedom" prepares us to recognize through freedom what can then be experienced in spiritual union with Michael.
[ 3 ] And that is the following.
[ 4 ] If freedom is really to live in human action, then what is accomplished in its light must not be dependent in any way on the human physical and ethereal organization. The "free" can only take place out of the "I"; and the astral body must be able to resonate with the free activity of the "I" so that it can transfer it to the physical and etheric body. -But this is only one side of the matter. The other becomes clear in connection with Michael's mission. - What is experienced by man in freedom must not affect his etheric or physical body in any way. If this were to happen, man would have to emerge completely from what he has become in the stages of his development under the influence of the divine-spiritual beingness and the divine-spiritual revelation.
[ 5 ] What man experiences through that which is only divine-spiritual work in his environment may only have an influence on his spiritual (his I). Only that which continues in the current of development not in its environment but within its beingness itself from that which had its beginning in the beingness and revelation of the divine-spiritual can have an influence on its physical and etheric organization. This, however, must not interact in the human being with that which lives in the element of freedom.
[ 6 ] This is only possible because Michael carries over from the distant past of development something that gives man a connection with the divine-spiritual, which in the present no longer intervenes in the physical and etheric formation. In this way, within Michael's mission, the ground develops for an intercourse of man with the spiritual world that does not reach over into the natural at all.
[ 7 ] It is uplifting to see how, through Michael, man's essence is lifted up into the spiritual sphere, while the unconscious, the subconscious, which unfold under the sphere of freedom, grow ever deeper together with the material.
[ 8 ] Man's position in relation to the world being will continue to become more and more incomprehensible to him if he does not allow himself to recognize not only his relationship to natural beings and natural processes but also such relationships as that to the Michael mission. - One gets to know the relationships to nature like something that one looks at from the outside; those to the spiritual world proceed from something that is, so to speak, an inner conversation with a being, to which one has opened access by entering into the spiritual view of the world.
[ 9 ] In order to be able to live the impulses of freedom, man must therefore be able to keep away from this being certain effects of nature that have an impact on his being from within the cosmos. This keeping away takes place in the subconscious mind when the forces are at work in the conscious mind which represent the life of the ego in freedom. For the human inner perception, the consciousness of working in freedom is there; for the spiritual beings who are in contact with man from other spheres of the world, it is different. The being from the Hierarchy of the Angeloi, who has to do with the continuation of the human being from earth life to earth life, immediately becomes aware of this in relation to human action in freedom: man pushes away from himself cosmic forces that want to further educate him, that want to give his ego organization the necessary physical supports, as they gave it before the Michael Age.
[ 10 ] Michael, as a being from the hierarchy of the Archangeloi, receives his impressions with the help of the beings from the Angeloi hierarchy. He dedicates himself to the task of supplying man with powers from the spiritual part of the cosmos in the manner described here, which can replace those suppressed from the natural existence.
[ 11 ] He achieves this by bringing his effectiveness into the most perfect harmony with the Mystery of Golgotha.
[ 12 ] In the activity of the Christ within the earthly development lie the forces which man needs in working through freedom to balance suppressed natural impulses. - But man must then really bring his soul into the inner coexistence with Christ, of which we have already spoken here in these messages about the Michael mission.
[ 13 ] The human being knows himself in a reality when he faces the physical sun and receives warmth and light through it.
[ 14 ] So he must live facing the spiritual sun, Christ, which has united its existence with earthly existence, and receive from it alive in the soul that which corresponds to warmth and light in the spiritual world.
[ 15 ] He will feel permeated by the "spiritual warmth" when he experiences the "Christ in himself". Feeling this penetration, he will say to himself: this warmth releases your human being from the bonds of the cosmos in which it is not allowed to remain. The divine-spiritual being of primeval times had to lead you to the attainment of freedom in regions in which it could not remain with you, but in which it gave you the Christ, that its powers bestow on you as a free human being what the divine-spiritual being of primeval times once gave you on the path of nature, which at that time was also the spiritual path. This warmth leads you back to the divine from which you originated.
[ 16 ] And in this feeling, the experience in and with Christ and the experience of genuine and true humanity will grow together in the human being in an intimate warmth of soul. "Christ gives me my humanity", this will blow through the soul as a basic feeling. And once this feeling is present, then comes the other, in which the human being feels lifted above mere earthly existence through Christ, in that he feels at one with the starry environment of the earth and with everything that can be recognized in this starry environment as divine-spiritual.
[ 17 ] And so with the spiritual light. Man can fully feel himself in his human nature by becoming aware of himself as a free individuality. But a darkening is connected with this. The divine-spiritual of primeval times no longer shines. In the light that the Christ brings to the human ego, the primal light is there again. In such a life together with the Christ, the blissful thought can shine through the whole soul like the sun: The ancient-glorious divine light is there again; it shines, although its glow is not a natural one. And man unites himself in the present with the spiritual cosmic luminous forces of the past, in which he was not yet a free individuality. And in this light he can find the paths that lead his human being right, if he connects himself understandingly in his soul with the Michael mission.
[ 18 ] Then the human being will feel the impulse in the spirit-warmth that carries him over into his cosmic future in such a way that he can remain faithful to the original gifts of his divine-spiritual entities, even though he has developed into a free individuality in their worlds. And in the spiritual light he will feel the power which, perceiving, leads him with ever higher and wider consciousness to the world in which he finds himself as a free human being with the gods of his origin.
[ 19 ] To persist in the original being, to want to retain the original naive goodness of the gods reigning in man and to tremble back before the full use of freedom, leads man in this world of the present, in which everything is predisposed to the development of his freedom, yet to Lucifer, who wants to know the present world denied.
[ 20 ] To surrender to the present being, to allow the naturalness of the world that is now accessible to the intellect, which is neutral towards goodness, to reign alone and to experience the use of freedom only in the intellect, that leads man in this world of the present, in which the development must be continued in deeper regions of the soul, where freedom reigns in the upper regions, to Ahriman, who wants the present world to be completely transformed into a cosmos of the intellectual being.
[ 21 ] In such regions, in which man feels his gaze towards the outer world falling spiritually on Michael, his gaze towards the inner soul spiritually on Christ, that security of soul and spirit thrives through which he will be able to walk that cosmic path on which he will find his right future perfection without losing his origin.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (with reference to the preceding presentation of the Michael and Christ experience through man)
[ 22 ] 118. A free action can only be that in which no natural event in or outside the human being is involved.
[ 23 ] 119 The polar opposite to this is that in the free action of human individuality, a natural event is suppressed in it, which would be there in the case of unfree action and would give the human being its cosmically predetermined form.
[ 24 ] 120. This formation, which does not come to man, who in his being lives together with the present and future stage of world development, in a natural way, comes to him in a spiritual way through connecting with Michael, through which he also finds the way to Christ.