VII
THE NEW AGE OF MICHAEL
We have traced
the events in the physical and super-physical worlds which
underlie what is now striving to make itself known to the
world in Anthroposophy. We know, my dear friends, that in
the last few decades two very important incisions have
occurred, — -important for the whole evolution of
mankind. There is the one to which I have so often drawn
attention, I mean the end of the so-called Dark Age at the
turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. An age of light has
now begun as against the preceding age of darkness. We know
that the age of darkness led eventually to that condition
of the human soul which closed the spiritual eyes of man
completely to the super-sensible world. We know that in
ancient times of human evolution it was a common condition
of mankind to see into the spiritual world, albeit in a
dream-like and more or less instinctive way. To doubt the
reality of the spiritual world was utterly impossible in
olden times of human evolution. But if that old condition
had continued — if mankind had lived on in that
instinctive vision of the spiritual world — there
would never have arisen in human evolution what we may call
the Intelligence of the individual human being, the
manipulation of the intellect or reasoning faculty by the
individual, personal man. And this, as we know, is
connected with that which leads the human being to freedom
of will. The one is unthinkable without the other. Thus in
that dim, instinctive condition which once belonged to
mankind, wherein they experienced the ever-present
spiritual world, man could not attain to freedom, nor could
he attain to that independent Thinking which we may call:
the use of Intelligence by the single human individual.
The time had to
come for these two things: The free and personal use of
Intelligence, and the freedom of the human Will. Hence for
human consciousness the original, instinctive vision that
penetrated to the spiritual world had to disappear. All
this has now been accomplished. Though it is not quite
clear to every single man, yet it has been accomplished for
mankind in general. With the close of the 19th century, the
dark age — the age that darkened the spiritual world,
yet at the same time opened up the use of Intelligence and
of Free Will to man — had run its course. We are now
entering upon an age when man must once again be touched
— in the ways that are possible — touched by
the spiritual world in its reality.
True, we cannot
say that this age has begun in a very light-filled way. It
is as though the first decades of the 20th century had
brought over humanity all the evil that mankind has ever
experienced in the course of history. And yet in spite of
this, the possibility has come into the general course of
human evolution, to reach the light of spiritual life. It
is only by a kind of inertia that men have persisted in the
habits of the age of darkness. They have carried these
habits on into the 20th century; and just because the light
can now arise, illumining the truth, these habits of the
age of darkness have come forth in a far more evil form
than was possible in the Kali-Yuga when they were
justified.
Now we also know
that this direction of all humanity towards a new age of
light was prepared for through the fact that at the end of
the 1870's the Age of Michael began. Let us place again
before our souls what it means to say that the Age of
Michael began with the last third of the 19th century.
We know that as
we are surrounded here by the three kingdoms of outer
Nature, the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms in the
physical world of sense, so we are surrounded in the
spiritual world by the higher kingdoms of which we have
spoken in so many connections as the kingdoms of the
Hierarchies. Even as we descend into the kingdoms of
Nature, beginning with man and coming down to the animal
kingdom, so, as we ascend to the super-sensible, we come to
the kingdom of the Angeloi. The Angels have the task of
guiding and protecting the individual human being as he
passes from earthly life to earthly life. Thus the tasks
that fall to the spiritual world in relation to the
individual human being, are allotted to the Beings of the
kingdom of Angeloi.
We then go on up
to the kingdom of Archangeloi, who have the most varied
tasks. Now it is one of their tasks to guide and direct the
fundamental tendencies of successive ages in relation to
man.
Thus for about
three centuries before the end of the eighteen-seventies,
there was what we may call the dominion of Gabriel. For one
who studies the evolution of humanity, not on the surface
as is customary today, but in the depths, this dominion of
Gabriel is expressed in the fact that the deepest and most
important impulses in the process of humanity during that
time were implanted in those forces which we may call the
forces of heredity. Never were the forces of physical
inheritance that work through the generations so important
as in the three centuries preceding the last third of the
19th century.
Let us see, my
dear friends, how this expresses itself. We know that in
the 19th century the problem of heredity became the most
pressing and important in the consciousness of men. Man
felt how his qualities of soul and spirit are dependent on
heredity. It was as though at the last moment he came to
feel what had been holding sway in human evolution as a
real Law of Nature in the 16th, 17th, and 18th, and in a
great part of the 19th century.
During that time
it was so indeed: man carried even into his spiritual
development the qualities he had inherited from his parents
and ancestors. During that time those qualities became
especially important which are connected with physical
reproduction. Again we find an outward sign of this fact in
the great interest which was felt at the end of the 19th
century in the question of reproduction and indeed in all
sexual questions. In the centuries to which I have just
referred, the most important spiritual impulses had
approached humanity in this way, they had sought for
realisation through physical inheritance.
Now the age in
which Michael leads and guides humanity will stand in
complete contrast to all this. I mean, therefore, the age
that began at the end of the seventies of the last century,
— the age in which we are, and the impulses of which
are interwoven with what we are also learning to know as
the new Age of Light beginning in the 20th century. For the
streams of these two impulses work together.
Today we will
dwell upon this question: What is the characteristic
feature of an Age of Michael? I say, of an Age of
Michael. For the spiritual guidance and leadership to which
I have just referred is as follows. It is always so: one of
the Beings of the kingdom of Archangeloi has the spiritual
leadership in human evolution for about three centuries, in
that region where civilisation is predominantly taking
place.
Gabriel, as I
said, had the leadership in the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th
centuries. His place is now taken by Michael. There are
seven of these Archangels who lead humanity, and thus the
several guidances of the Archangeloi recur in cyclic order.
We today, who live in an Age of Michael, have every reason
to call to mind the last Age of Michael which happened in
the spiritual guidance of mankind.
The last Age of
Michael preceded the founding of Christianity, preceded the
Mystery of Golgotha. It came to an end in ancient times
approximately with the deeds of Alexander and with the
founding of the philosophy of Aristotle.
If we follow out
all that took place in ancient Greece and the surrounding
countries for about three hundred years before the time of
Alexander the Great and Aristotle, we find ourselves once
more in an Age of Michael. An Age of Michael is
characterised by many different conditions, but especially
by this, that in such an age the most spiritual interests
of humanity (according to the particular disposition of the
time) become predominant. In such an age especially, a
cosmopolitan, international character will permeate the
world. National distinctions cease.
Now it was above
all in the Age of Gabriel that the national impulses within
European civilisation, with its American appendage, became
so firmly rooted. In our Age of Michael, in the course of
the next three centuries, these national impulses will be
completely overcome. This is the case in every Age of
Michael: a common feature runs through all humanity —
something of an all-human character, as against the special
interests of single groups or nations.
In the last age
of Michael's dominion on the earth, before the Mystery of
Golgotha, it found the following expression. Out of the
conditions that had taken shape in ancient Greece there
arose that mighty historic tendency which led eventually to
the campaigns of Alexander. In the campaigns of Alexander,
Grecian culture and civilisation was carried, with
extraordinary genius, right into Asia and Africa, and
spread through many nations and peoples who until then had
adhered to quite different things. This stupendous deed
found its culmination in what was then founded in
Alexandria. It was a great cosmopolitan movement, seeking
to give to the whole of the then civilised world the
spiritual forces that had gathered on the soil of ancient
Greece. Such are the things that happen under the impulse
of Michael, and that happened then too under his
impulse.
Now those who
took part in these earthly deeds, done in the service of
Michael, were no longer upon the earth during the time of
the Mystery of Golgotha. All the beings who belonged to the
realm of Michael — no matter whether they were
disembodied human souls, transplanted by death into the
spiritual world when the Michael Age had run its course, or
whether they were souls who never incarnated upon the earth
— they all were united in a common life within the
super-sensible world, in the time when upon the earth the
Mystery of Golgotha was taking place.
We must make
fully present to our heart and mind the facts that lie
before us here. If we choose the aspect of the earth, my
dear friends, if this earth is our standpoint, then we say:
Humanity on the earth reaches a certain point in earthly
evolution. Christ, the lofty Spirit of the Sun, is arriving
on the earth, incarnating in the human being Jesus of
Nazareth. Those who dwell on the earth experience the fact
that Christ, the great Spirit of the Sun, arrives among
them. But they have little knowledge that could really
cause them to understand the greatness of the stupendous
and unique event.
All the more
knowledge have those disembodied souls who are gathered
around Michael and who are living in the realm of the
Sun-existence in worlds above the earth. All the more do
they know how to value what is taking place, as they
witness it from their different aspect. These souls
witnessed what was then taking place for the World, from
the Sun. Christ who had hitherto worked within the realm of
the Sun, who had only been attainable in the Mysteries when
they ascended to the Sun-existence — Christ now
departed from the Sun to unite Himself with earthly
humanity upon the earth. This was what they witnessed.
It was a mighty
and awe-inspiring event, above all for those who belonged
to the communion of Michael. For, those who belong to the
communion of Michael have a peculiar connection with all
that represents the cosmic destinies proceeding from the
Sun. They had to take their leave of Christ, who until then
had had His dwelling-place in the Sun and was thenceforth
to take His place on the earth. This is the other
aspect.
But there was
another thing connected with it, which we can only rightly
understand if we take the following into account. To think
— to live in thoughts that spring forth from within
— as we do today, was impossible for the men of
ancient times. They might be wise, indeed infinitely wiser
than modern humanity, but they were not
‘clever’ in the sense of cleverness today.
Today we call a man clever who is able to produce thoughts
out of himself, who is able to think logically — to
bring one thought into connection with another, and so
forth. In olden times there was no such thing — no
such thing as Thoughts independently produced. The Thoughts
were sent down to the earth at one and the same time with
the Revelations that came to man from the spiritual world.
Man did not think and ponder, but he received the spiritual
content by Revelation, and he received it in such a way
that the Thoughts came with it. Today we think and ponder
about things. In those ancient times the impressions which
the souls received brought the Thoughts with them. The
Thoughts were inspired, not self-made Thoughts. Now he who
ordered the Cosmic Intelligence which thus came to man
along with the spiritual Revelations — he who ordered
this Cosmic Intelligence, who had, so to speak, dominion
over it, — is the same spiritual Being whom we, when
we make use of our Christian terminology, call the
Archangel Michael. He had to administer the Cosmic
Intelligence in the cosmos.
We must make
clear to ourselves what this really means. It is a fact
that such human beings as Alexander the Great, though in a
somewhat different context of ideas, had a distinct
consciousness of the fact that their thoughts came to them
by way of Michael. True, the spiritual Being whom we mean,
was called by a different name. We are making use of the
Christian terminology, but it is not the terminology that
matters. Such a man as Alexander the Great regarded himself
as none other than a Missionary of Michael, an instrument
of Michael. He could think in no other way than this:
Michael is acting on the earth, and I am the instrument
through which he acts. Such was the conception, and this
gave him the strength of will in deed and action. Nor did a
thinker in that time think differently than thus, that
Michael was working in him and giving him the thoughts.
Now this too was
connected with the descent of Christ to the earth: Michael
and his hosts witnessed not only the departure of Christ
from the Sun, but above all they saw how Michael himself
was gradually losing his dominion over the Cosmic
Intelligence. Quite distinctly they saw from the Sun that
revelations would no longer come to men from the spiritual
world with the content of Intelligence. They saw that the
time must come when man himself must reach his own
intelligence on the earth. It was a significant and
incisive event to see the Intelligence pouring down, as it
were, to the earth. By and by, I if may use this
expression, the Intelligence was no longer to be found in
the heavens; it was let down to earth.
This was
fulfilled especially in the first Christian centuries. In
the earliest Christian centuries we still see those human
beings who were capable of it, having at least a few
glimpses of what was flowing to them with the content of
Intelligence as revelations from beyond the earth. This
went on even into the 8th or 9th century A.D. Then came the
great moment of decision. It came in such a way that
Michael and those who belonged to him, no matter whether
incarnate or discarnate, must say to themselves: “Men
upon earth are beginning to become intelligent themselves
— beginning to bring forth their own power of
understanding from within them. The Cosmic Intelligence can
no longer be administered by Michael.” Michael felt
that the dominion over the Cosmic Intelligence was passing
from him — falling from his grasp. While down below
— looking down on to the earth — they saw this
new age of Intelligence, beginning from the 8th or 9th
century onwards. Men were beginning to form their own
thoughts for themselves.
I have already
described, my dear friends, how in certain special Schools
— for instance in the great School of Chartres,
— they handed down the traditions of what had once
been revealed to men, steeped in the Cosmic Intelligence. I
described to you how much was achieved in the School of
Chartres, especially in the 12th century; and I tried to
indicate how the administration of Intelligence on the
earth literally passed over to individual members
especially of the Dominican Order. We need only look into
the works that arose out of Christian Scholasticism —
that wonderful spiritual stream which is so entirely
misunderstood today, by its supporters no less than by its
opponents, because they do not observe its really important
feature. We need only look into these Scholastic works and
see how they wrestled to understand what is the real and
deep significance of Concepts — of the content of
Intelligence — for mankind and for the things of the
world. The great conflict between Nominalism and Realism
was developed especially in the Dominican Order. The
‘Nominalist’ sees no more than names in general
concepts. The ‘Realist’ sees in them real
spiritual content, made manifest in the things of the
world. The whole of Scholasticism is a wrestling of mankind
for a clear understanding of the Intelligence that is
pouring in. No wonder that the main interest of those
around Michael was directed above all to what was unfolding
upon the earth in this Christian Scholasticism. In all that
St. Thomas Aquinas and his pupils, and many other
Schoolmen, were bringing forth, we see the earthly stamp
and impress of the Michael stream of that time — the
Michael stream, the administration of Intelligence, of the
light-filled Spiritual Intelligence.
And now the
Intelligence was here on earth. Now man had to strive for
clarity as to its meaning. Looking down from the spiritual
world, on to the earth, one could see how that which had
belonged to the realm of Michael was now unfolding down
below, outside of his dominion, for it was unfolding in the
beginning of the dominion of Gabriel.
The Wisdom of
Initiation — the Rosicrucian wisdom which was going
forth at that time — consisted in this, that one had
a certain clarity of understanding for these facts.
Especially in
that time of history it is important to see how the earthly
and the super-sensible are connected. Outwardly the earthly
life looks as though it had been loosened, cut off from the
super-sensible, — and yet it is connected. You can see
how it is connected from what I described in our last
lectures.
The super-sensible
facts that here follow, can only be described in pictures,
in Imaginations. They cannot be put into abstract concepts.
They must be livingly described. Therefore I must now
describe what happened in the beginning of the age when the
Spiritual Soul, and with it the Intelligence, enters in and
becomes a part of humanity.
Several centuries
had passed since Michael, in the 9th century A.D., had seen
arriving on the earth what had hitherto been the Cosmic
Intelligence. He now witnessed its further course on earth.
He saw it flowing onward now on earth, especially in
Scholasticism. This was below. He on the other hand
gathered around him those who belonged to his realm in the
domain of the Sun. He gathered them all — human souls
who happened to be in the life between death and a new
birth, and those, also belonging to his realm, who in their
own evolution never enter into human bodies yet have a
certain connection with mankind. You may imagine, those
human souls especially were there, whom I have mentioned as
the great teachers of Chartres. Among the greatest who at
that time, at the beginning of the 15th century, were in
the hosts of Michael and had their deeds to do in the
spiritual world, — among the greatest of them was
Alanus ab Insulis. But all the others too were there, those
whom I have named as belonging to the School of Chartres.
United with them were the others who by now had returned to
the life between death and a new birth, who had come back
again from the Order of the Dominicans. Souls, therefore,
belonging to the Platonic stream were intimately united
with souls who belonged to the Aristotelian times. All
these had experienced and undergone the several impulses of
Michael. Many of them lived in such a way as to have
witnessed the Mystery of Golgotha, not from the earthly
aspect, but from the aspect of the Sun. And at that time,
at the beginning of the 15th century, their situations in
the spiritual world were fraught with peculiar
significance.
Then there arose
under the leadership of Michael something which we may
call, as we must use earthly expressions, a super-sensible
School. What had once been the Michael Mystery — what
had been told to the Initiates in the ancient Mysteries of
Michael, and must now become different, since the
Intelligence had found its way from the cosmos to the earth
— all this Michael himself now gathered up,
expressing it again with untold significance to those whom
he had gathered around him in this School of Michael. For
it was a super-sensible School of Michael at the beginning
of the 15th century. All that once lived as the Michael
Mystery in the Sun Mysteries now became alive again in
super-sensible worlds. It was a wonderful summing-up of the
Platonism that had been continued in the Aristotelian
manner, and of all that Alexander the Great had carried
into Asia and down into Egypt. It was expounded how the
ancient spirituality still lived in this. In this
super-sensible School all the souls took part who had ever
been connected with the stream of which I have now been
speaking to you in many lectures. I mean the souls who are
now predestined to belong to the Anthroposophical Movement,
— whose karma, as it takes shape, leads them to the
Anthroposophical Movement. For all that was taught in that
School was taught from this point of view, that in the
evolution of humanity below, the Michael principle must
thenceforth be developed in a different way, namely through
the Intelligence of the human soul itself.
It was pointed
out how at the end of the 19th century (in the last third
of this century) Michael himself would once again assume
dominion upon the earth. Throughout the intervening time
since the age of Alexander, the six other Archangels would
have fulfilled their several dominions. Now a new Michael
Age would begin. But this new Michael Age must be different
from the others. For the other Ages of Michael were such
that the Cosmic Intelligence had always expressed itself in
the common sphere of humanity. But now, — thus said
Michael in super-sensible worlds to his pupils, — now
in the new Michael Age something quite different would be
required. For what Michael had administered for men through
many aeons, pouring it into earthly existence in living
inspirations, this had now fallen away from him. But he was
to find it again when at the end of the seventies of the
19th century he would begin his new earthly rule. He would
find it again at a time when, to begin with, an
Intelligence bereft of spirituality had taken root among
men. And he would find it in a peculiar condition, —
most intensely exposed to the Ahrimanic forces. For in the
very time when the Intelligence was descending from the
cosmos to the earth, the aspirations of the Ahrimanic
powers grew ever greater, striving to wrest the Cosmic
Intelligence from Michael as soon as it became earthly
Intelligence, striving to make it dominant on earth alone,
free of Michael.
Such was the
crisis from the beginning of the 15th century until our day
— the crisis in the midst of which we are, which
expresses itself as the battle of Ahriman and Michael. For
Ahriman is using all his power to challenge Michael's
dominion over the Intelligence that has now become earthly.
And Michael, with all the impulses that are his, though his
dominion over the Intelligence has fallen from him, is
striving to take hold of it again on earth at the beginning
of his new earthly rule, from the year 1879 onwards. Human
evolution stood at this decisive point in the last third of
the 19th century. The Intelligence, formerly cosmic, had
become earthly, and there was Ahriman, wanting to make it
altogether earthly. He wants to make it continue in the way
that began during the age of Gabriel, making it earthly,
making it an affair only of the human communities of blood
— an affair of the generations, the forces of
reproduction and inheritance. All this Ahriman desires.
Michael came down
towards the earth. He could alone desire to find again, on
earth, what had had to take its own course in the
intervening time in order that man might attain
Intelligence and Freedom. He could alone desire to find it
again in such a way that he might take hold of it on earth
and become, within the earth once more, Lord of the
Intelligence that is now working within mankind. Ahriman
versus Michael: Michael finding himself obliged to defend
against Ahriman what he had ruled through the aeons of time
for the benefit of humankind. Mankind stands in the midst
of this battle; and among other things, to be an
anthroposophist is to understand this battle to a certain
extent at least. It shows itself everywhere; in its true
form it is there behind the scenes of the historical
events, but it shows itself even in the facts that lie
manifest before us.
My dear friends,
those who were in that super-sensible School of Michael
partook in the teachings which I have outlined so very
briefly. The teachings they heard were a repetition of what
had been taught in the Sun Mysteries since ancient time.
They were already a prophecy of what was to be achieved
when the new Age of Michael began. They were an inspired
call, a solemn challenge to those who are gathered around
Michael, to hurl themselves into his stream and take hold
of his true impulse, to the end that Intelligence may once
again be united to the being of Michael.
While these
wonderful teachings were going forth to the souls in that
super-sensible School directed by Michael himself, the same
souls were taking part in an awe-inspiring event that could
only appear within the evolution of our cosmos after long,
long epochs of time. We on the earth, when we speak of the
Divine, look up to the super-sensible world. When we are in
the life between death and a new birth, as I have indicated
once before, we really look down on to the earth, albeit
not the physical earth. As we look down on to the earth,
great and mighty, divine-spiritual workings reveal
themselves to us. Now at the time (at the beginning of the
15th century) when that School began, of which I said that
many souls within the realm of Michael took part in it, at
that very time one could witness something that is repeated
in cosmic evolution after only long, long centuries. As one
looked down to the earth, one witnessed, as it were how
Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones — the members of the
highest Hierarchies — were accomplishing a mighty
deed. It was in the first third of the 15th century, in the
time when behind the scenes of modern history the
Rosicrucian School was founded. Ordinarily when one looks
down to the earthly realm from the life between death and a
new birth, one sees the deeds of the Seraphim, Cherubim and
Thrones taking place in a uniform and steady way. One sees
the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones carrying the Spiritual
from the realm of the Exusiai, Dynamis and Kyriotetes down
into the Physical, and by their power implanting the
Spiritual into the Physical. But, ever and again after long
epochs of time, one witnesses an awe-inspiring departure
from what is thus seen in the ordinary course of being. It
was in the Atlantean time that such a thing had last shown
itself, as seen from the aspect of the Supersensible. What
is taking place at such a moment in humanity shows itself
thus: — As one looks down from the spiritual world,
one sees the earth in all its realms flashed through by
lightning flashes; one hears a mighty, rolling thunder. It
was one of the cosmic thunderstorms that take their course
while human beings upon earth are as though wrapt in sleep.
But it revealed itself mightily to the spirits around
Michael.
Behind all that
took place historically in the soul of man at the beginning
of the 15th century, there stands a tremendous process
which revealed itself to the pupils of Michael at the very
time when they were receiving their teachings in the
super-sensible. In Atlantean time, when the Cosmic
Intelligence, while remaining cosmic, had taken possession
of the hearts of men, such an event had taken place; and
now for the present earthly realm it once again broke forth
in spiritual lightning and thunder. Yes, it was so indeed.
In the age when men were conscious of the earthly historic
convulsions only, — when the Rosicrucians were going
forth, when all manner of remarkable events were happening
of which you can read in external history, — in that
age the earth appeared, to the spirits in the super-sensible
worlds, surrounded by mighty lightnings and thunderclaps.
The Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones were carrying over the
Cosmic Intelligence into that member of man's organisation
which we call the system of nerves and senses, the
head-organization. Once again a great event had taken
place, It does not show itself distinctly as yet, it will
only do so in the course of hundreds or thousands of years;
but it means, my dear friends, that man is being utterly
transformed. Formerly he was a heart-man; then he became a
head-man. The Intelligence becomes his own. Seen from the
super-sensible, all this is of immense significance. All the
power and strength that lies in the domain of the first
Hierarchy, in the domain of the Seraphim and Cherubim who
reveal their strength and power through the fact that they
not only administer the Spiritual within the
Spiritual, like the Dynamis, Exusiai and Kyriotetes, but
carry the Spiritual into the Physical, making it a creator
of the Physical, — all this their power the Seraphim,
Cherubim and Thrones now had to apply in accomplishing a
deed such as takes place, as I said, only after many aeons.
And one might say: What Michael taught to his own during
that time was heralded in the earthly worlds beneath with
thunder and lightning. This should be understood, my dear
friends, for these thunders and lightnings must become
enthusiasm in the hearts and minds of anthroposophists. And
whoever really has the impulse towards Anthroposophy —
(though it be unconsciously as yet, for men do not know it
yet, but they will learn it in good time) — whoever
has this impulse within him, still bears in his soul the
echoes, the after-echoes of the fact that in the circle of
Michael he received yonder heavenly Anthroposophy. For the
heavenly Anthroposophy went before the earthly. The
teachings given at that time were to prepare for what is
now to become Anthroposophy on the earth.
Thus we have a
double super-sensible preparation for what is to become
Anthroposophy on the earth. We have the preparation in the
great super-sensible School from the 15th century onward,
and then we have what I have described as an Imaginative
cult or ritual (Cultus) that took shape in the
super-sensible at the end of the 18th and beginning of the
19th century, when all that the Michael pupils had learned
in the super-sensible School before, was cast into mighty
pictures and Imaginations. Thus were the souls prepared,
who afterwards descended into the physical world, being
destined through all these preparations to feel the inner
impulse to seek for what would work as Anthroposophy on
earth.
Think of them
all! The great teachers of Chartres took part. They, as you
know from my last descriptions, have not yet come down
again, but they sent out before them those who worked above
all in the Dominican Order, having held a kind of
conference with them at the turn of the 12th and 13th
centuries. All these souls afterwards came together again
— those who with fiery lips had declared ancient and
sacred teachings in the School of Chartres, and those again
who had wrestled in the cold and clear, but heart-devoted
works of Scholasticism, to master the true meaning of
Intelligence. All these were among the hosts of Michael,
learning the lessons of the School which I have
indicated.
We have this
School of Michael, and we have the great Imaginative ritual
at the beginning of the 19th century, of the effects of
which I have also spoken. Then we have the significant fact
that at the end of the eighteen-seventies the dominion of
Michael began again. Michael prepares once more to receive,
down here on earth, the Intelligence that fell away from
him in the intervening time. Intelligence must become
Michael-like again. We must understand the sense of the new
Age of Michael. Those who come today with the inner urge to
a spirituality that already shows such Intelligence within
it, as in the Anthroposophical Movement, are souls who are
already here at this day according to their karma, to pay
heed to what is taking place on earth in the beginning of
the Age of Michael. But they are connected with all those
who have not yet come down again. They are connected above
all with those of the Platonic stream who still remain
above, in super-sensible existence, under the leadership of
Bernardus Silvestris, Alanus ab Insulis and the others.
Those who are
able to receive Anthroposophy today with true and deep
devotion in their hearts — those who are able to
unite themselves with Anthroposophy — have within
them the impulse, as a result of all they experienced in
the super-sensible at the beginning of the 15th century and
at the beginning of the 19th century, to appear again on
earth at the end of the 20th century together with the
others who have not yet returned. By that time
anthroposophical spirituality will have prepared for what
must then be realised, through the community of them all,
namely, for the fuller revelation of all that has been
supersensibly prepared through the different streams that I
have named.
My dear friends,
the anthroposophist should receive these things into his
consciousness. He should understand that he is called to
prepare already now that spirituality which must expand
ever more and more, till the culmination is reached at the
end of the 20th century, when true anthroposophists will be
able to be here again, united with the others.
Conscious the true anthroposophist must be that the
need today is to look with active participation and to
co-operate in the battle between Ahriman and Michael. Only
when a spirituality, such as is seeking to flow through the
Anthroposophical Movement on earth, unites with other
spiritual streams, will Michael find the impulses which
will unite him once more with the Intelligence that has
grown earthly but that in truth belongs to him.
It will yet be my
task to show you by what refined and clever means Ahriman
is seeking to hinder this, so that you will see how sharp
is the conflict that rages in our 20th century. Through all
these things we can become aware of the earnestness of the
time and of the courage that is needed if we are to take
our right place in these spiritual streams. Yet at the same
time the man who truly receives these things may say to
himself: “Thou human soul, if only thou understand,
mayest be called to help in making sure the dominion of
Michael.” Then there can arise in the human soul an
inner joy of devotion, a song of gladness that it is given
to him to be so filled with strength. But this feeling of
strong courage and courageous strength must first be found.
For it stands written above us in spiritual letters:
“Be conscious that you will have to return before the
end and at the end of the 20th century, which you
yourselves have prepared. Be conscious how it will then be
able to take shape, even as you prepared it.”
To know oneself
in the very midst of this battle, this decisive conflict
between Michael and Ahriman, is one thing, my dear friends,
that lies inherent in true anthroposophical enthusiasm and
inspiration.
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