THE EXPERIENCES OF MICHAEL IN THE COURSE
OF HIS COSMIC MISSION
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.
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.
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.
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.
What Michael desires is to keep the intelligence, which is developing
within humanity, permanently in connection with the Divine-Spiritual
Beings.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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