AT THE DAWN OF THE MICHAEL AGE
Before and until the ninth century after the Mystery of Golgotha, the
human being stood in a different relation to his thoughts from that
which he has had in later times. He did not have the feeling that he
himself brought forth the thoughts that lived in his soul. He regarded
them as inspirations from a spiritual world. And when he had thoughts
about what he perceived with his senses, even these thoughts were to
him revelations of the Divine that spoke to him from the things of the
senses.
Whoever has spiritual vision will understand this experience. For when
something that is real in the spiritual sense communicates itself to
the soul, one never has the feeling: There is the spiritual
perception, and I myself am developing the thought with which to
understand it. But one sees the thought which the
perception contains, and which is given with it, no less objectively
than the perception itself
(When dates are given in this connection, they are to be taken only as
a rough indication of the period; the transition takes place quite
gradually.) Speaking, in this sense, we may say that the ninth century
saw the lighting-up, in the souls of men, of the individual personal
intelligence.
Man began to have the feeling: I myself form my
thoughts. And this forming of thoughts came to be the thing
of first importance in the soul's life, so that man saw in the
intellectual experience the very essence and being of his soul. In
earlier times men had had an imaginative conception of the soul. To
them the essential thing about the soul was not that it formed
thoughts, but that it partook of the spiritual content of the
Universe. It was the supersensible, spiritual Beings whom they
conceived to be thinking, and extending their influence into
the human being thinking into him as well. That which lives in
the human being of the supersensible, spiritual world this they
felt as the soul.
As soon as we penetrate with higher vision into the spiritual world,
we meet with real and concrete spiritual Beings, spiritual Powers. In
old teachings the Power from whom the thoughts in things proceed was
designated by the name Michael. This name we may still apply,
for it is true that human beings, once upon a time, received the
thoughts of Michael. Michael held sway over the Cosmic Intelligence.
But from the ninth century onwards men no longer felt that Michael was
inspiring the thoughts into them. The thoughts had fallen away from
his dominion fallen out of the spiritual world into the
individualised souls of men.
Henceforth it was within mankind that the life of thought was evolved.
To begin with, men were uncertain as to what it was they had in their
thoughts. This uncertainty found very real expression in the
scholastic teachings. The Schoolmen were divided into Nominalists and
Realists. The Realists, led by St. Thomas Aquinas and those who stood
near to him, still felt the old closeness and kinship between thought
and thing. Hence they saw in the thoughts a reality living in the
things. They regarded the thoughts of man as reality which flows over
from the things into the human soul.
The Nominalists felt very strongly the fact that the soul forms its
thoughts. They felt that the thoughts were merely something that
existed subjectively in the soul and had nothing to do with the
objects. They were of the opinion that thoughts are only names man
forms for things. (They did not speak of thoughts but of
universals, but that does not come into consideration for
the principle of the theory, as thoughts always contain something
universal as compared with the individual objects.)
We may say that the Realists wished to remain faithful to Michael;
even though the thoughts had fallen from his sphere into that of man,
they wished, as thinkers, to serve Michael as the Ruler of the
intelligence of the Cosmos. The Nominalists deserted Michael, with
respect to the unconscious part of their soul. They did not consider
Michael as the owner of the thoughts, but man.
Nominalism spread abroad and increased in influence up to the last
third of the nineteenth century. Then at this period those persons who
were able to perceive the spiritual events in the Universe felt that
Michael had followed the stream of intellectual life. He is seeking a
new metamorphosis of his cosmic task. Formerly he allowed the thoughts
to stream from the spiritual outer world into the souls of men; since
the last third of the nineteenth century he wishes to live in the
human souls in which the thoughts are formed. In earlier times the
human beings related to Michael saw him develop his activity in the
spiritual sphere; they now know that they ought to let Michael dwell
in their hearts; they now dedicate to him their spiritual life which
is based upon thought; they now, in their free and individual life of
thought, allow themselves to be instructed by Michael as to which are
the right paths of the soul.
When those who in their former Earth-life received their thoughts by
inspiration, i.e., who were servants of Michael, had returned to
earthly life at the close of the nineteenth century, they felt urged
towards a voluntary Michael community of this description. They now
looked upon the one who had formerly inspired them with thoughts as
their guide in forming higher thoughts.
One who understands how to observe such things knows what a great
change took place in the last third of the nineteenth century with
respect to the life of human thought. Before that time man could only
feel how thoughts formed themselves in his own being; from the time
indicated he is able to raise himself above his own being; he can turn
his mind to the Spiritual; he there meets Michael, who proves his
ancient kinship with everything connected with thought. He liberates
thought from the sphere of the head; he clears the way for it to the
heart; he enkindles enthusiasm in the feelings, so that the human mind
can be filled with devotion for all that can be experienced in the
light of thought.
The Age of Michael has dawned. Hearts are beginning to have thoughts;
spiritual fervour is now proceeding, not merely from mystical
obscurity, but from souls clarified by thought. To understand this
means to receive Michael into the heart. Thoughts which at the present
time strive to grasp the Spiritual must originate in hearts which beat
for Michael as the fiery Prince of Thought in the Universe.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
79. Spiritually, we can approach the Third Hierarchy (Archai,
Archangeloi, Angeloi) by learning to know Thinking, Feeling and
Willing, so as to perceive in them the Spiritual that works in the
soul. Thinking, to begin with, places not an effective reality, but
only pictures into the world. Feeling lives and moves in this
realm of pictures; bears witness to the presence of a reality in man,
but cannot live it or express it outwardly. Willing unfolds a reality
which presupposes the existence of the body but does not consciously
assist in its formation. The spiritual reality that lives in our
Thinking, to make the body the foundation of this Thinking; the
spiritual reality that lives in our Feeling, to make the body share in
the experience of a reality; the spiritual reality that lives in our
Willing, consciously to assist in fashioning the body all this
is alive in the Third Hierarchy.
80. Spiritually, we can approach the Second Hierarchy (Exusiai,
Dynamis, Kyriotetes) by awakening to see the facts of Nature as the
manifestations of spiritual being that indwells them. The Second
Hierarchy then has Nature for its dwelling-place, there to work upon
the souls.
81. Spiritually, we can approach the First Hierarchy (Seraphim,
Cherubim, Thrones) by awakening to see the facts that confront us in
the kingdom of Nature and of Man as the deeds (creations) of spiritual
being that is working in them. The First Hierarchy then has the
kingdom of Nature and of Man as the outcome of its work, wherein it
unfolds its Being.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
82. Man looks upward to the worlds of stars; what is there presented
to his senses is but the outer manifestation of those Spirit-beings
and their deeds of whom we have spoken as the Beings of
the spiritual kingdoms or Hierarchies.
83. The Earth is the scene of action of the three Nature kingdoms and
of the human kingdom, inasmuch as these make manifest the outward and
sensible glory of the activity of spiritual Beings.
84. The forces, working from spiritual Beings into the earthly
kingdoms of Nature and into the kingdom of Man, are revealed to the
human Spirit in the true that is, the spiritual
knowledge of the starry worlds.
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