X
THE
MICHAELITES: THEIR KARMIC IMPULSE TOWARDS
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE — THE WORKING OF AHRIMAN
INTO THE ONCE COSMIC AND NOW PERSONAL
INTELLIGENCE
The fundamental
feeling which I have wanted to call forth is this: —
The individual who finds himself within the
Anthroposophical Movement should begin to feel something of
the peculiar karmic position which the impulse to
Anthroposophy gives to a man. We cannot but confess that in
the ordinary course of life man feels very little of his
karma. He confronts his life as though the things that
become his life's experience happened by fortuitous
concatenations of circumstance. He pays little heed to the
fact that the things that meet him in earthly life from
birth till death contain the inner, karmic relationships of
destiny. Or, if he does not consider this, he is all too
prone to believe that a kind of fatalism is herein
expressed, — and that human freedom is thereby called
into question, and the like.
I have often said
that the more intensely we penetrate the karmic
connections, the more do we see the true essence of
freedom. We need not therefore fear that by entering into
the karmic relationships more accurately we shall lose our
open and unimpaired vision of the essence of human freedom.
I have described the matters connected with the former
earthly lives of those who come into the Michael community,
and with their lives between death and a new birth. You
will have seen that with all such human beings, that is to
say, in the last resort, with all of you — it is of
the greatest importance, that the Spiritual plays a deep
and significant part in the whole inner configuration of
the soul.
In our
materialistic age with all its conditions of life, of
education and upbringing, a man can only come sincerely to
a thing like Anthroposophy (otherwise his coming to it is
insincere) — he can only come to it sincerely through
the fact that he bears within him a karmic impulse
impelling him towards the Spiritual. In this karmic impulse
are summed up all those experiences which he underwent in
the way I have described before he came down into the
present earthly life.
Now, my dear
friends, when a man is thus strongly united with spiritual
impulses which work immediately upon his soul, he will as
he descends from the spiritual into the physical worlds,
enter less deeply, unite himself less strongly with the
external, bodily nature. All those who have grown into the
Michael stream as above described, were thus predestined to
enter into this physical body with a certain reservation,
if I may put it so. This too lies deep in the karma of the
souls of anthroposophists.
In those, on the
other hand, who out of an inner impulse quite consciously
and anxiously hold themselves at a distance from things
anthroposophical, we shall always find that they are fully
and firmly established in the physical bodily nature. In
the men of today who turn to that spiritual life which
Anthroposophy would give, we find a looser relationship at
any rate of the astral body and Ego-organisation with the
physical and etheric organisation.
Now this means
that such a man will less easily come to terms with his
life. He will find life less easy to deal with, for the
simple reason that he has more possibilities to choose from
than other men. And he easily grows out of the very
things that other men easily grow into. Think only,
my dear friends, to what an intense degree many a human
being of today is what the connections of outer life
have made of him. No one can doubt that he fits into these
connections, however questionable the thing may sometimes
be in other respects. We see him as a clerk, a City man, a
Builder, a Contractor, a Captain of industry and so forth.
He is what he is as an absolute matter of course. There is
no question about it. True, such a man will sometimes say
he feels he was born for a better, or at any rate a
different kind of life; but such a saying is not taken so
very seriously. And now compare the infinite difficulties
we find in those who are drawn by an inner impulse into the
spiritual life of Anthroposophy. Perhaps we see it nowhere
with such remarkable intensity as in the youth, and notably
the youngest of the youth.
Take for instance
the older pupils of the Waldorf School, those in the top
classes of the school. We find, both in our boy and girl
pupils, that they progress comparatively quickly in their
development of soul and mind and spirit. But this does not
make life any easier to take hold of for the young people.
On the contrary, it generally becomes more difficult
— being, as it is, more complicated. The
possibilities become wider and more far-reaching. In the
ordinary course of modern life, (certain exceptions being
omitted) it is not overwhelmingly difficult for those who
stand as teachers or educators beside the growing
adolescent, to find the ways and means of giving sound
advice. But when we bring our children on as we do in the
Waldorf School, it becomes far more difficult to give
advice, for the simple reason that the universal humanity
is more developed in them. The wide horizon which the boy
or girl acquires in the Waldorf School, places before their
inner vision a greater number of possibilities.
Hence it is so
necessary for Waldorf teachers — who again have been
guided to this calling by their karma — to acquire a
wide horizon and a broad outlook, a knowledge of the world
and a sound feeling of what is going on in the world. At
this point all the detailed educational principles and
methods are far less important than wideness of outlook.
Here again, in the karma of such a teacher, we see how
large the number of possibilities becomes; far, far greater
than in ordinary life. The child or adolescent confronts
the Waldorf teacher, once again, not with definite and
defined, but with manifold riddles, — differentiated
in all conceivable directions.
The real karmic
conditions and pre-disposing causes of all that impels a
man to Anthroposophy will best be understood if we speak
not in pedantic outline and definition, but rather hint at
the things in one way or another, characterising more the
atmosphere in which, if I may put it so, anthroposophists
unfold their lives.
All this makes it
necessary for the anthroposophist to pay heed to one
condition of his karma — a condition that is sure to
be present in him to a high degree. Much can be said,
— and we shall still have to say many things —
about the reasons why one or another character or
temperament is drawn to Anthroposophy after the events of
the spiritual world which I have described. But all these
impulses, which bring the single anthroposophists to
Anthroposophy, have as it were one counterpart, which the
Spirit of the World has made more strong in them than in
other men. All the many possibilities that are there with
respect to the most manifold things in life, demand from
the anthroposophist initiative — inner initiative of
soul. We must become aware of this. For the anthroposophist
this proverb must hold good. He must say to himself:
“Now that I have become an anthroposophist through my
karma, the impulses which have been able to draw me to
Anthroposophy require me to be attentive and alert. For
somehow or somewhere, more or less deeply in my soul, there
will emerge the necessity for me to find inner
initiative in life, — initiative of soul which
will enable me to undertake something or to make some
judgment or decision out of my own inmost being.”
Verily, this is written in the karma of every single
anthroposophist: “Be a man of initiative, and beware
lest through hindrances of your own body, or hindrances
that otherwise come in your way, you do not find the centre
of your being, where is the source of your initiative.
Observe that in your life all joy and sorrow, all happiness
and pain will depend on the finding or not finding of your
own individual initiative.” This should stand written
as though in golden letters, constantly before the soul of
the anthroposophist. Initiative lies in his karma, and much
of what meets him in this life will depend on the extent to
which he can become willingly, actively conscious of
it.
You must realise
that very, very much has been said in these few words. For
in our time there is extraordinarily much that can lead one
astray with respect to all that guides and directs one's
judgment; and without clear judgment on the conditions of
life, initiative will not find its way forth from the deep
foundations of the soul. Now what is it that can bring us
to clear judgment on the things of life, especially in this
our age? My dear friends, let us here consider one of the
most important and characteristic features of our time. Let
us then answer the question: How can we come to a certain
clarity of judgment in face of it?
You will see
presently that in what I am now going to tell you we have a
kind of “egg of Columbus.” With the egg of
Columbus the point was to have the happy idea — how
to set it up so that it would stand. In what I shall now
tell you the point will also be to have the happy idea.
We live in the
age of materialism. All that is taking place, by forces of
destiny around us and within us, stands in the sign of
materialism on the one hand, and of the intellectualism
that is already so widespread, on the other. I
characterised this intellectualism yesterday when I spoke
of journalism and of the impulse everywhere to expatiate on
the affairs of the world in public meetings, mass meetings
and the like. We must become aware, to what an extent the
man of today is subject to the influences of these two
currents of the time. For it is almost as impossible to
escape from these two, from intellectualism and
materialism, as it is to avoid getting wet if you go out in
the rain without an umbrella. These things are around us
everywhere. After all, there are certain things we simply
cannot know (and yet we have to know), — which we
cannot know unless we read them in the papers. There are
certain things we cannot learn (and we have to learn
them) unless we learn them in the sense of materialism. How
is one to become a doctor today, unless he is willing to
consume a goodly portion of materialism? He can do no other
than take the materialism too. He must do so as a matter of
course, and if he is unwilling to do so he cannot become a
proper doctor in the sense of the present age. Thus we are
perpetually exposed to these things. This surely enters
very strongly indeed into our karma.
Now all these
things are as though created purposely to undermine
initiative in the souls of men. Every public meeting, every
mass meeting to which we go, only fulfils its purpose as
such, if the initiative of the individual human being, with
the exception of the speakers and leaders, is undermined.
Nor does any newspaper fulfil its purpose if it does not
create an atmosphere of opinion, thus undermining the
individual's initiative.
These things must
be seen. Moreover, we must remember that this ordinary
consciousness of man is a very tiny chamber in the soul,
while all that is going on around him, in the forms which I
have just described, has a gigantic influence on his
sub-conscious life. And after all, we have no alternative.
Beside the fact that we are human beings pure and simple,
we must be “contemporaries” of our age. Some
people think it is possible in a given age to be a human
being pure and simple, but this too would lead to our
downfall. We must also be men and women of our age. Of
course it is bad if we are no more than this; but we
must be contemporaries of our age, that is to say,
we must have a feeling of what is going on in our own
time.
Now it is true
that many anthroposophists let their minds be carried away
from a living feeling of what is present in their time. For
they prefer to paddle in the Timeless. In this respect one
has the strangest experiences in conversation with
anthroposophists. They are very well aware, for instance,
who Lycurgus was, but their ignorance of their
contemporaries, every now and then, is simply touching.
This too is due
to the fact that such a man is pre-disposed to the
unfolding of inner initiative. His karma having placed him
in the world with this quality, he is always in the
position (forgive the comparison) of a bee that has a sting
but is afraid to use it at the right moment. The sting is
the initiative, but the man is afraid to use it. He is
afraid, above all, of stinging into the Ahrimanic realm.
Not that he fears that he will thereby hurt the Ahrimanic.
No, he is afraid that the sting will recoil into his own
body. This, to some extent, is what his fear is like. Thus
through an undetermined fear of life the initiative remains
inactive.
These are the
things which we must see through. On all hands,
theoretically and practically, we meet with the materialism
of our time. It is powerful, and we let our initiative be
put off by it. If an anthroposophist has a sense for these
things, he will perceive how he is being confused, put off,
thrown back on every hand by materialism theoretical and
practical, even in the deepest impulses of his will. Now
this gives a peculiar form to his karma. If you will
observe yourselves truly, you will discover it in your
lives day by day, from morning until evening. And out of
all this there naturally arises as a prevalent feeling of
life: How shall I prove, theoretically and practically, the
falsehood of materialism? This impulse lives in the hearts
and minds of many anthroposophists. Somehow or other they
want to convict materialism of falsehood. It is the riddle
of life, the riddle that life has set so many of us in
theory and practice: How shall we contrive to prove the
falsehood of materialism?
Here is one who
has been through the schools and has become a learned man.
You will find many an example in the Anthroposophical
Society. Now he is awakened to be an anthroposophist. He
feels a tremendous impulse to refute materialism, to fight
it, to say all manner of things against it. So he begins to
attack and refute materialism, and maybe he thinks that in
this very act he stands most thoroughly within the stream
of Michael. But as a rule he meets with little success, and
we cannot but admit: these things that are said against
materialism, though they often proceed from a thoroughly
good will, do not succeed. They make no impression upon the
materialist in theory or practice. Why not?
This is the very
thing that hinders our clarity of judgment. Here stands the
anthroposophist. In order not to be hampered in his
initiative, he wants to be clear what it is that confronts
him in materialism. He wants to probe the wrongness of
materialism to its foundations. But as a rule he finds
little success. He thinks he is refuting materialism, but
it is ever on its legs again. Why is this so?
Now comes what I
have called the egg of Columbus. Why is it so, my dear
friends? It is due to the simple fact that materialism is
true. I have said this many times. Materialism is not
wrong, it is quite right. Here lies the reason. And the
anthroposophist should learn in a very special way the
lesson that materialism is right. He should learn it in
this way: — Materialism is right, but it holds good
of the outer physical body only. The others, who are
materialists, know the physical only, — or at least
they think they know it. Here lies the error, not in the
materialism itself. When we learn anatomy or physiology or
practical outer life in the materialistic way we learn the
truth, but it holds good in the physical alone. This
confession must be made out of the inmost depths of our
human being. I mean, the confession that materialism is
right in its own domain — nay more, that it is
the splendid achievement of our age to have discovered what
is right and true in the domain of materialism. But the
thing also has its practical, its karmically practical
aspect.
This is what will
happen in the karma of many an anthroposophist. He will
come to have the feeling: Here am I living with human
beings with whom indeed karma has united me. (I spoke of
this yesterday). Here am I living with human beings who
know materialism only. They only know what is true of the
physical life, and they cannot approach Anthroposophy
because they are put off by the very correctness of the
knowledge that they have.
Now, my dear
friends, we live in the age of Michael, and in our souls is
the Intellectuality that fell from Michael. When Michael
himself administered the Cosmic Intelligence, these things
were different. From the materialism of that time, the
Cosmic Intelligence was ever and again tearing his soul
away. There were of course materialists even in former
ages, but not as in our age. In former ages a man might be
a materialist. Then with his Ego and astral body he was
implanted in his physical and etheric body. He felt his
physical body. But the Cosmic Intelligence, that Michael
administered, tore his soul away from it ever and again.
Today we are side by side — indeed we are often
karmically united — with men in whom it is as
follows. They too have the physical body; but the Cosmic
Intelligence has fallen away from Michael and is living
individually, — personally, as it were, — in
the human being. Hence the Ego — all that is soul and
spirit — remains in the physical body. Thus there are
standing, side by side with us, men whose soul and spirit
has dived deep down into their physical body.
When we stand
side by side with non-spiritual human beings, we must see
these things according to the truth. Our standing beside
them must not merely call forth in us sympathy or antipathy
in the ordinary sense. It must be an experience that moves
our soul deeply, and it can indeed be a shattering
experience, my dear friends.
To realise how
tragic, how deeply moving an experience it must be, to
stand thus side by side with materialists (who, as I said
before, are right in their own way) we need only look at
those among them who are often highly gifted and who out of
certain instincts may have very good impulses indeed; yet
they cannot come to spirituality. We see the tragedy of it
when we come to consider the great gifts and noble
qualities of many of those who are materialists. For after
all, there can be no question but that they who in this
time of great decisions do not find their way to the
Spirit, will suffer harm in their soul-life for the next
incarnation. Great as their qualities may be, they will
suffer harm. And when we see how through their karma a
number of human beings today have the inner impulse to
spirituality while others cannot come near to it, —
when we behold this contrast — our karmic
living-together with such as I have here described should
find a deep response within our souls. It should touch us
and move us with a sense of tragedy. Until it does so, we
shall never come to terms with our own karma. For if we sum
up all that I have said of Michaelism, (if I may now so
call it) then we shall find: the Michaelites are indeed
taken hold of in their souls by a power that is seeking to
work from the Spiritual into the full human being, even
down into the Physical. I described it yesterday as
follows. I said: these human beings will put aside the
element of race, — the element which, from natural
foundations of existence, gives the human being such or
such a stamp. If a man is taken hold of by the Spirit in
this earthly incarnation inasmuch as he now becomes an
anthroposophist he is thereby prepared in future to become
a man no longer distinguished by such external features but
distinguished rather by what he was in the present
incarnation. Let us be conscious of this in all humility:
The time will come when in these human beings the Spirit
will reveal its own power to form the physiognomy, —
to shape the whole form of man.
Such a thing has
never yet been revealed in the history of the world.
Hitherto the physiognomies of men have been formed on the
basis of their nationality, out of the Physical. Today we
can still tell by the physiognomy of men, where they hail
from, — especially when they are young, when the
cares of life or the joys and divine enthusiasms of life
have not yet left their mark. But in the time to come there
will be human beings by whose physiognomy and features
alone one will be able to tell what they were in their past
incarnation. One will know that in their past incarnation
they penetrated to the things of the Spirit. Then will the
others stand beside them, and what will their karma then
signify? It will have cast aside the ordinary karmic
affinities.
My dear friends,
in this respect he above all who knows how to take life in
real earnest will tell you: One has been karmically united,
or is still karmically united, with many who cannot find
their way into this spirituality. And however many a
kinship may still be left in life, one feels a more or less
deep estrangement, a justified estrangement. The karmic
connection, as it would work itself out in ordinary life,
falls away; it goes. But it remains for something
different. I would put it in this way: — From the one
who stands outside in the field of materialism to the one
who stands in the field of spirituality, nothing else will
remain of karma; but this one thing will remain, that he
must see him. He will become attentive to him. We can look
to a time in the future, when those who in the course of
the 20th century are coming ever more into the things of
the Spirit, will stand side by side with others who were
karmically united with them in the former life on earth. In
that future time the karmic affinities, the karmic
relationships, will make themselves felt far less. But of
all the karmic relationships this will have remained: Those
who are standing in the field of materialism will have to
see and witness those who stand in the field of
spirituality. Those who were materialists today will in the
future have to look continually upon those who came to the
things of the Spirit. This will have been left of
karma.
Once again a
shattering, a deeply moving act, my dear friends. And to
what end? Truly it lies in a far-reaching Divine cosmic
plan. For how will the materialists of today let anything
be proved to them? By having it before their eyes —
by being able to touch it with their hands. Those who stand
in the field of materialism will be able to see with their
eyes and touch with their hands those with whom they once
were karmically united, perceiving in their physiognomy, in
their whole expression, what the Spirit really is, for it
will have become creative in outer form and feature. In
such human beings it will thus be proved, visibly for the
eyes of man, what the Spirit is as a creative power in the
world. And it will be part of the karma of anthroposophists
to demonstrate, for those who stand in the field of
materialism today, that the Spirit truly is, and proves
itself in man himself, through the wise councils of the
Gods.
But to come to
this, it is necessary for us to confront intellectualism,
not in a vague and nebulous and ill-advised way, but truly.
We must not go out, my dear friends, without an umbrella. I
mean, we are exposed to all that I described above as the
two streams — all the writing in the papers, all the
talking in public meetings. As we cannot escape becoming
wet if we go out without umbrellas, so these things too
come over us, we cannot escape them. In the tenderest age
of childhood, — when we are twenty to twenty-four
years old — we have to pursue our studies (whatever
they may be) through materialistic books. Yes, in this
tender age of childhood — the age of twenty to
twenty-four — they take good care to saturate and
well prepare our inner life. For, as we study what is there
put before us, we are trained in materialism by the very
structure and configuration of the sentences. We are
utterly defenseless. There is no help for it.
Such a thing
cannot be countered by merely formal arguments. We cannot
keep a man of today from being exposed to intellectual
materialism. To write non-materialistic text-books on
botany or anatomy today, simply would not do. The
connections of life will not permit of it. The point is, my
dear friends, that we should take hold of these things in
no merely formal sense but in their reality. We must
understand that since Michael no longer draws out the
soul-and-spirit from the physical bodily nature as in times
past, Ahriman can play his game with the soul-and-spirit as
it lives within the body. Above all when the soul-spiritual
is highly gifted and is yet firmly fastened in the body,
then especially it can be exposed to Ahriman. Precisely in
the most gifted of men does Ahriman find his prey, —
so as to tear the Intelligence from Michael, remove it far
from Michael. At this point something happens which plays a
far greater part in our time than is generally thought. The
Ahrimanic spirits, though they cannot incarnate, can
incorporate themselves; temporarily they can penetrate
human souls, permeate human bodies. In such moments the
brilliant and overpowering spirit of an Ahrimanic
Intelligence is stronger than anything that the individual
being possesses, — far, far stronger. Then, however
intelligent he may be, however much he may have learned,
and especially if his physical body is thoroughly taken
hold of by all his learning, an Ahrimanic spirit can for a
time incorporate itself in him. Then it is Ahriman who
looks out of his eyes, Ahriman who moves his fingers,
Ahriman who blows his nose, Ahriman who walks.
Anthroposophists
must not recoil from knowledge such as this. For such a
thing alone can bring the realities of intellectualism
before our souls. Ahriman is a great and outstanding
Intelligence, and Ahriman's purpose with earthly evolution
is overwhelming and thorough. He makes use of every
opportunity. If the Spiritual has implanted itself so
strongly in the bodily nature of a human being, — if
the bodily nature is taken hold of by the Spirit to such an
extent that the consciousness is thereby in a measure
stunned or lowered or impaired, — Ahriman uses his
opportunity. And then it happens (for in our age this has
become possible) then it happens that a brilliant spirit
takes possession of the human being, overpowering the human
personality; and such a spirit, dwelling within a human
personality and overpowering him, is able to work upon
earth — able to work just like a human being.
This is the
immediate striving of Ahriman, and it is strong. I have
told you, my dear friends, of what will be fulfilled at the
end of this century, with those who now come to the things
of the Spirit and take them in full earnestness and
sincerity. This is the time above all, which the Ahrimanic
spirits wish to use most strongly. This is the time they
want to use, because human beings are so completely wrapped
up in the Intelligence that has come over them. They have
become so unbelievably clever. Why, we are quite nervous
today about the cleverness of the people we shall meet! We
can scarcely ever escape from this anxiety, for nearly all
of them are clever. Really we cannot escape from this
anxiety about the cleverness of men. But of a truth the
cleverness which is thus cultivated is used by Ahriman. And
when moreover the bodies are especially adapted to a
possible lowering or diminution of consciousness, it may
happen that Ahriman himself emerges, incorporated in human
form. Twice already it can be demonstrated that Ahriman has
thus appeared as an author. And for those who desire as
anthroposophists to have a clear and true vision of life,
it will be a question of making no mistakes, even in such a
case.
For what is the
use of it, my dear friends, if someone finds a book
somewhere and writes his name on it and he is not the
author? The true author is confused with another. And if
Ahriman is the author of a book, how can it be of any
benefit if we do not perceive who is the true author, but
hold a human being to be the author? For Ahriman by his
brilliant gifts can find his way into everything — he
can slip into the very style of a man. He has a way of
approach to all things. What good can come of it if Ahriman
is the real author, and we mistake it for a human work? To
acquire the power of discrimination in this sphere too, is
absolutely necessary, my dear friends.
I wanted to lead
up to this point, describing thus in general a phenomenon
which is also playing its part in our present age. In next
Friday's lecture I shall have to speak of such phenomena in
greater detail.
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