Anthroposophical Guidelines

Continuation of the Second Contemplation: Hindrance and Furtherance of the Michael Forces at the Dawn of the Conscious Soul Age

In all of Europe the incorporation of the consciousness soul also had the effect of disturbing religious faith and the experience of ritual. At the turn of the eleventh and twelfth centuries one sees the advance notices of this disturbance in the appearance of the “proofs of God” (especially by Anselm of Canterbury). The existence of God was to be proven through reason. Such a desire could only appear when the old way, to experience “God” with the soul’s forces, was disappearing. For what one experiences in that way cannot be proven logically.

The previous way was for the soul to perceive the intelligent beings - up to the Godhead; the new way became to form thoughts intellectually about the “primal ground” of the universe. The first way was supported by the forces of Michael in the spiritual regions at the periphery of the earth, which equipped the soul with capacities beyond the forces of sense-thinking to perceive the intelligent beings in the universe; for the second way the soul’s connection with the Michael-forces first had to be accomplished.

Extensive areas of human religious life, such as the central teaching of Holy Communion, began to falter - through Wicliff in England (fifteenth century) to Huss in Bohemia. In Holy Communion man could find his connection to the spirit-world, which was opened to him by Christ, for he was able to unite his being with Christ in such a way that the fact of union through the senses was at the same time a spiritual one.

The consciousness of the Comprehension or Sensitivity Soul was able to understand this union. For this soul could still conceive of the spirit as well as of matter, which were so close that the transition of the one (matter) into the other (spirit), was conceivable. Such ideas should not be so intellectual that they require proof of God’s existence; they must be ideas which still have something of imagination. Thereby the active spirit in matter is felt, and in the spirit the striving for matter. Behind ideas of this kind are Michael’s cosmic forces.

Just consider how much faltered for the human soul during that time! How much of what was related to its most inner and holiest experience! Personalities such as Huss, Wicliff and others appeared, in whom the Consciousness Soul shone brightest, whose soul constitutions strongly united them with the Michael-forces, something which would happen to others centuries later. They asserted the Consciousness Soul’s right to vibrantly grasp the religious mysteries. They felt: intellectuality, which arose together with the Consciousness Soul, must be capable of including in its ideas what was achieved through imagination in older times.

On the other hand, the human soul’s old traditional attitude had lost all its inner strength in the widest circles. What is historically called abuses of the religious life, with which the great reformation councils occupied themselves at the time of the beginning of Consciousness Soul’s activity, is all related to the lives of those who did not yet feel the Consciousness Soul within them, but could no longer find something which could give them inner strength and certainty in the Comprehension or Sensitivity Soul.

One can truly say that such historical human experiences as came about in the councils of Constance and Basel illustrate the streaming down of intellectuality towards humanity from the spirit world above - and below the earthly region with a no-longer- suitable Comprehension or Sensitivity Soul. In between the Michael-forces oscillated, looking back at their previous connection to divine spirituality and downward at humanity, which also had that connection, but which now had to move to a sphere in which Michael would have to help spiritually, although he was not yet able to inwardly unite with that sphere. In Michael’s efforts, which are necessary in cosmic evolution, but which nevertheless are at first a disturbance of the equilibrium in the cosmos, is also the reason for what humanity experienced at that time in regard to the holiest truths.

One looks deeply into the characteristics of that age by studying Cardinal Nicolaus Cusanus. (See references to him in my book Mysticism and Modern Thought.) His personality is like a signpost of the times. He wanted to enforce viewpoints which would not combat the physical world’s evils with fanatical tendencies, but with common sense - to get the train of thought back on track. His actions at the Council of Basel and in his church parish are evidence of this.

Nicolaus tended completely toward the evolutionary transition to the Consciousness Soul, and on the other hand he revealed viewpoints which indicate the forces of Michael in shining armor. He included the good old ideas, those which lead human minds toward the development of capacities for the perception of intelligences in the cosmos, when Michael still directed the Universal-Intellectuality. The “learned ignorance” of which he spoke refers to what is beyond understanding through sense perception: that thinking beyond intellectuality (common knowledge) leads into a region where - unknowingly - the spiritual is grasped in living vision.

Thus Nicolaus is a person who, feeling the disturbance of cosmic equilibrium through Michael in his own soul, intuitively wanted to do everything possible to orient this disturbance towards the healing of humanity.

Something else hid between these events. Individual personalities who understood the meaning of the Michael forces in the universe wished to prepare their own souls to be able to consciously gain access to the spiritual region bordering the earthly region, where Michael was working for the benefit of humanity.

They sought justification for this spiritual undertaking by acting in their professions and otherwise in such a way that they would not be distinguishable from others. Thereby, that they carried out their earthly duties in such a loving way, they were able to freely devote their inner selves to the mentioned spiritual task. What they did in this respect were the things for which they came together “in secret”. From the standpoint of what happened physically, the world was at first apparently untouched by this spiritual striving. Nevertheless, it was necessary in order to connect souls to the Michael-World. They were not “secret societies” in any negative sense, not seekers for what is hidden because it shuns the light of day. Rather were they associations of people who were convinced that their members were conscious of Michael’s mission. Therefore they did not speak of their work in front of those who would only disturb their tasks due to lack of understanding. These tasks consisted at first of working in spiritual streams which did not move in earthly life, but in the neighboring spirit-world which, however, sent its spiritual impulses into earthly life.

It was a matter of the spiritual activity of people who stood in the physical world, but cooperated with Beings of the spirit-world, with Beings who did not incorporate into the physical world. They were called - not very accurately - Rosicrucians. True Rosicrucianism was completely in line with the Michael-Mission activity. It helped Michael prepare his spiritual work on earth for what he intended for a future age.

We can judge what happened by taking the following into account. The difficulty, rather the impossibility for Michael to enter human souls was because he did not want to come in any way into contact with the contemporary physical world. He wanted to remain in the force complex that existed for spirits of his kind and for humans in the past. Any contact with what man must come into contact with in physical earthly life could only be considered by Michael to be a contamination of his being. In normal human life, the soul’s spiritual experiences work into his physical earthly life, and the latter into the former. This reverse effect is evidenced namely in man’s attitude and his orientation towards the earthly. Such intertwining effect is the rule - although not always - especially for people in public life. Therefore Michael’s activities in respect to many reformers encountered strong obstacles.

The Rosicrucians overcame these difficulties by keeping their normal lives with their earthly duties totally apart from their work with Michael. When he, with his impulses, encountered what a Rosicrucian had prepared for him in his soul, he found himself in no way exposed to the danger of earthly contact. Because what united the Rosicrucian with Michael was kept safely apart by the Rosicrucian’s state of soul. This true Rosicrucian resolve forged the path to be found on earth for Michael’s coming mission.

(The third contemplation follows.)

Goetheanum, December 6, 1924

Further Guidelines for the Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum

(With reference to the preceding two contemplations about Hindrance and Furtherance of the Michael Forces at the dawn of the Consciousness Soul age.)

131. At the beginning of the Consciousness Soul age the emancipated intellectuality in man wanted to occupy itself with truths of religion and ritual. Human soul-life experienced uncertainty, a faltering thereby. An attempt was made to prove logically what was previously experienced by the soul. The content of ritual, which must be grasped in imaginations, was to be grasped through logical conclusions - even be conducted according to them.
132. This is all related to the fact that Michael wanted, under all circumstances, to avoid any contact with the physical earth - upon which man must walk - although he was to continue to accompany the cosmic intellectuality, which he administered in the past, in humanity. Thereby through the Michael-forces a disturbance occurred in cosmic equilibrium which was necessary for the continuation of world evolution.
133. Michael’s mission was made easier when certain personalities - the true Rosicrucians - organized their normal earthly lives in such a way that they in no way interfered with their inner soul lives. They could therefore develop forces internally through which they could cooperate with Michael spiritually without him running the danger of being enmeshed in earthly events - which would have been out of the question for him.