Anthroposophical Guidelines

Second Contemplation: How the Michael Forces functioned during the first unfolding of the Consciousness Soul

At the time of the dawn of the Consciousness Soul in man’s earthly evolution, it was difficult for the beings from the spiritual region closest to the earth to approach humanity. Earthly events acquired a form which showed that relations of a very special kind were necessary for spirituality to make its way into the physical life of man. But on the other hand, that form also shows in an often most clarifying manner how where spiritual powers of the past are still active and the powers of the future already begin to be active, one spiritual entity energetically seeks its way into humanity’s earthy life in opposition to the other.

Between 1339 and 1453 France and England were engaged in a senseless war for over a hundred years. These spiritually chaotic events, unfavorable for human development, were responsible for delaying the introduction of the Consciousness Soul, which would have appeared sooner had those events not occurred. Chaucer, who died in 1400, laid the foundation for English literature. One needs only to consider the spiritual consequences for Europe of this foundation and one will find it meaningful that it could not develop freely, but succumbed to the confusion of war. Furthermore, already earlier (1215) the political thinking characteristic of the Consciousness Soul had begun to take shape in England. The further development of this event was also hindered by the chaos of war.

This was a time when the spiritual forces wanting man to develop as he had been disposed from the beginning by the divine-spiritual forces above them met their adversaries. These adversaries wished to detour man onto roads other than those meant for him from the beginning. He would then not be able to use the forces of his origin for his subsequent evolution. His cosmic childhood would thus remain unfruitful. It would be like a fading part of his being. The result would be that man could become prey to the Luciferic or Ahrimanic powers and his individual development would fall short. If the efforts of these anti-human adversarial powers had been completely successful instead of merely being a hindering factor, the introduction of the Consciousness Soul could have been completely prevented.

An event which illustrates especially well the streaming of spirituality into earthly events was the emergence and destiny of Jeanne d’Arc, the maid of Orleans (14121431). What she did came from the deepest subconscious fount of her soul. She followed the faint inspirations of the spiritual world. Chaos reigned on earth, through which the Consciousness Soul age was to be hindered. Michael had to prepare his future mission from the spiritual world. He was only able to do so when his impulses were received by human souls. The maid of Orleans had such a soul. He also acted through many other souls, even when it was only possible in a moderate way and is less apparent to official history. He met his Ahrimanic adversary in such events as the war between England and France.

The Luciferic adversary he met in those times was spoken of in the previous contemplation. But the events show that that adversary was also especially active in the time following the Maid of Orlean’s appearance. One sees in those events that humanity was unable to contend with the intervention of the spirit-world in human affairs, which was understood and could also be integrated into the will at a time when imaginative understanding was still present. Contention with such intervention became impossible with the end of the Comprehension or Sensitivity Soul era; the attitude corresponding to the Consciousness Soul had not yet been found at that time; it has not yet been accomplished even today.

What happened was that Europe’s formation was arranged from the spiritual world, without man realizing what was happening and without his efforts having a meaningful influence.

To appreciate the meaning of those events, which were realized from the spirit world, one needs only to imagine what would have happened in the fifteenth century if there had been no Maid of Orleans,. There are also people who try to explain such occurrences materialistically. Making them understand is impossible, because they arbitrarily give a materialistic meaning to what is obviously spiritual.

This clearly shows that humanity’s striving to find the path to divine spirituality was no longer without difficulties, even when it was intensively sought. Such difficulties did not exist in the age when insight could be obtained by means of imaginations. In order to correctly judge what is meant, it is only necessary to clearly observe the persons who had emerged as philosophers. A philosopher cannot be judged only by his effect on his times, nor how many people have taken up his ideas. He is much more the expression, the personification of his times. What the majority of people already experience as unconscious feelings and motives are introduced by the philosopher with his ideas. He indicates the mentality of his times as a thermometer indicates the temperature of its surroundings. Philosophers are as little the cause of the mentality of their times as the thermometer is of the temperature of its surroundings.

In this respect, consider the philosopher Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650), who was active when the consciousness soul age was already in progress. The thin thread of his connection with the spirit world (true being) was his experience of “I think, therefore I am”. In the center of the Consciousness Soul, the I, he tried to experience reality; and only to the extent of what the Consciousness Soul could tell him.

And he sought clarity about the rest of spirituality by intellectually investigating how much guarantee the certainty of his own self-awareness provided for the certainly of other things. He asked everywhere about the truths which had been handed down historically: are they as clear as “I think, therefore I am”? If he can affirm this, he accepts them. Doesn’t this kind of thinking directed towards the things of the world ignore the spirit? This spirit’s revelation had restricted itself to the thinnest thread in self-awareness; everything else showed itself to be directly revealed without spiritual revelation. What lies beyond self-awareness can only indirectly throw a flicker of light of this spiritual revelation into the Consciousness Soul through the intellect. The person of that time let his still relatively empty-of-content Consciousness Soul strive with intense desire towards the spiritual world. A thin stream gets there.

The beings of the spirit-world directly bordering on the earth, and the human souls on earth, came together with difficulty. Michael’s super-sensible preparations for his later mission were experienced by human souls only with the greatest inhibitions.

We may compare, in order to understand the different mentalities, the ideas expressed by Descartes and Augustine, the latter possessing the same slim foundation for experiencing the spiritual world as Descartes - at least in respect to his formulations. Except that in Augustine’s case it derived from the full imaginative force of the Comprehension or Sensitivity Soul. (He lived from 354 to 430.) Augustine and Descartes are considered to be related - and correctly so. However, Augustine’s intellect was still a vestige of the cosmos, whereas Descartes’ intellect had been absorbed into the individual human soul. One can see from the process of spiritual striving from Augustine to Descartes how the cosmic character of thinking power is lost, and then appears again in the human soul. At the same time one can also see how Michael and human minds come together under difficult conditions, so that Michael can guide them, as he once did in the cosmos.

The Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces are at work to obstruct this coordination. The Luciferic forces want man to develop only what was appropriate to his cosmic infancy. The Ahrimanic ones, in opposition but simultaneously collaborating, would like to see only the forces to be developed during a later epoch flourish, and let the cosmic infancy fade out.

Against such increasing opposition, the human souls of Europe processed the spiritual impulses of the old worldview ideas streaming from the East to the West through the Crusades. The Michael forces lived strongly in those ideas. Cosmic intelligence, the direction of which was Michael’s ancient spiritual heritage, dominated these worldviews.

How could they be absorbed when a chasm existed between the forces of the spirit-world and human souls? They entered into the slowly evolving Consciousness Soul. On one side, they encountered the obstacle which still existed in the weakly developed Consciousness Soul, which lamed them. On the other side, they no longer possessed an imaginative consciousness. Human souls could no longer connect to them with insight. They were received either superficially or superstitiously.

Names such as Wicliff, Huss and others on one hand, and the term “Rosicrucian” on the other, should be understood with this mentality in mind.

We will speak of this further.

(The continuation of this second contemplation and the third will follow.)

Goetheanum, November 30, 1924

127. At the beginning of the Consciousness Soul age human souls had still only developed their intellectual forces to a limited degree. There was a lack of coherence between what these souls desired in the depths of their unconscious and what forces from the region where Michael was could give them.
128. In this lack of coherence a spiritual opportunity existed for the Luciferic powers to hold back humanity at its cosmic childhood, and not permit it to develop further on the divine spiritual paths with which it was united from the beginning, but on Luciferic ones.
129. Furthermore, the spiritual opportunity existed for the Ahrimanic powers to completely disconnect humanity from its cosmic childhood and thus absorb it into their own realm in future evolution.
130. Neither of these things happened, because the Michael-forces were active; but human spiritual development had to take place under the hindrances caused by these opportunities, and became what it is now because of them.