The Michael Mystery
GA 26
XIV. A Christmas Contemplation: the Mystery of the Logos
[ 1 ] Into our contemplation of the Michael Mystery there shone like a ray of light the Mystery of Golgotha. This arose of itself, from the fact that Michael is the power that guides Man in the most helpful and wholesome way to the Christ.
[ 2 ] But Michael's mission is of a kind which repeats itself in rhythmic succession during the cosmic evolution of mankind. Its beneficent influence had been repeatedly exerted upon mankind on earth, before the Mystery of Golgotha. Then, it was engaged in everything that the Christ Power—being then still outside the earth—required to manifest in acts for the education of mankind to earthly life. Since the Mystery of Golgotha, it serves in aid of that which must be accomplished by the Christ amongst men on earth. It appears in its repetitions each time in an altered and advanced form—but in repetition.
[ 3 ] In contrast to this, the Mystery of Golgotha is a unique all-overreaching cosmic event, that only takes place once in the course of mankind's whole cosmic evolution.
[ 4 ] So soon as mankind has progressed to the development of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul, there comes for the first time into full force the ever constant danger of that occurring, for which indeed the predispositions had been laid in the beginning of time, namely, that the Being of Mankind would separate and fall away from the Divine, Spiritual Being.
[ 5 ] And in the same measure as the human soul loses her fellowship with the life of the divine, spiritual beings, there emerges round about her what to-day we call the world of Nature.
[ 6 ] Man no longer sees his own living humanity in the divine and spiritual Cosmos, he sees the lifeless work of divine spirit in the earthly world. He sees it at first, not in the abstract form in which we see it to-day, as sensibly physical begins and events, held together by that abstract thread of ideas which we call Natural Law; he sees it as an ocean of divine, spiritual being. In all that he beholds—in the rise and wane of life in the creatures of the animal world, in the growth and budding of the plants, in springing fountain and flowing stream, in the gatherings of wind and cloud—he sees the heaving and falling billows of this ocean of divine, spiritual Being. All these many shapes of life and doing round about him are to him the gestures, the acts, are to him the language of the gods, of that divine Being which underlies the world of ‘Nature.’
[ 7 ] As, at an earlier time, Man had watched the stations and motions of the stars, and seen therein the gestures, the acts,, of the World-Divinities, and read therein their words, so, now, the ‘facts of Nature’ became the verbal expression for the Earth-Goddess. For the Divinity at work in Nature was pictured in woman's form.
[ 8 ] Remnants of this kind of mental picturing remained as an imaginative content of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul, and occupied men's souls until late into the Middle Ages.
[ 9 ] Those ‘who knew,’ the ‘savants,’ talked of the acts of the Goddess, when they wanted to bring the ‘process of Nature’ to men's comprehension. Only with the gradual ascendance of the Spiritual Soul did this view of a living, inwardly soul-endowed Nature grow incomprehensible to mankind.
[ 10 ] The whole manner of viewing such things during the age of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul, recalls to mind the Myth of Persephone and the Mystery on which it is founded.
[ 11 ] Persephone, daughter of Demeter, is forced by the God of the Underworld to accompany him down into his kingdom. This is finally settled in the form that she spends half of the year only in the underworld, and dwells in the upper world during the other half.
[ 12 ] Grandly and powerfully does this myth still express the manner in which men once—in ages long gone past—had looked into the waxing, waning life of the earthly world and read what was behind it.
[ 13 ] All active impulses in the world proceeded in ancient times from the cosmic environment round about the Earth. The Earth herself was only just coming into being. she built up her life-form amidst the cosmic evolution from the forces at work in her surroundings. The divine Spirit-Beings of the Cosmos were the active shapers of Earth's being.
And when the Earth was far enough advanced to become a self-existing cosmic body, then divine spiritual being descended upon her from the universal Cosmos, and became earthly divinity. This was a cosmic fact, perceived and recognized by the dreamlike clairvoyance of ancient Man. Of this perceptive science there has remained the Myth of Persephone. But what also has remained is the manner in which deep into the Middle Ages, men endeavoured with their science to penetrate the secrets of ‘Nature.’ For they directed their gaze then, not as later, towards the impressions of the senses, that is, towards what shows upon the surface of the earthly world, but rather towards those active forces that work up on to the surface from the Earth's inner depths. And these forces of the Deep, these ‘Powers of the Underworld,’ they saw acting in alternation with the action of the Stars and the elemental forces of the Earth's environment.
[ 14 ] There they see the Plants, growing in all their manifold forms, displaying themselves in their gay show of many colours. There, through it all, are at work the forces of Sun, Moon and Stars in conjunction with the forces of the Earth's depths. The foundation is laid by the Minerals; their whole form of being bears the character of earthly descent from World-Beings. The stony rock thrusts itself up from the ‘underworld’ by the strength alone of earthly forces, that once were heavenly ones. The Animal world has not borrowed from Earth the forces of ‘the Depths.’ It is brought into life solely by the World-Forces that work from round about, out of the earth's surroundings. Its beginnings, its growth, its fresh-fledged life, its faculties of nourishment, its powers of motion—all these it owes to the forces that rain from the Sun without upon the Earth within. It propagates its kind under the influences of the Moon-forces which fall from without upon the Earth. It makes its appearance in many shapes and kinds, because of the Stars, which from their different positions in the wide universe work from without upon animal life and give it form. But the animals are merely set down by the universe upon earth. Only with their dim, dull life of consciousness do they take any part in the earthly world; in their beginnings, their growth, in all that they are, so as to perceive and move about, they are no creatures of the earth.
[ 15 ] This grandly constructed idea of the making of the earth was once living amongst men. From what still remains of it, towering over into the Middle Ages, it is only possible to gain but a very faint notion of the grand lines of the structure. To arrive at a true notion of it one must go back, and see with the knowledge of vision into very ancient times. For even with the physically existent documents, what existed in the souls of men is perceptible to him alone, who can read them with the eye of the Spirit.
[ 16 ] Now Man is not in a position to keep so far aloof from the earth as do the creatures of the animal world. To say this is to touch upon the mystery both of mankind and of animal-kind. These mysteries are reflected in the animal-worship of the ancient peoples, more especially of the Egyptians. They saw in the animals beings who are guests upon earth, in whom may be visibly beheld the being and doing of that other, spiritual world which borders on the earthly one. And in the combination of the human with the animal form, as represented in their images, they brought presently before them the figures of those intermediate beings of the elemental world, who are on the road to humanity in the course of the world's evolution, but who never enter the earth-region, so that they may not become men. These intermediate elemental beings actually exist. The Egyptians were only reproducing what they saw, when they made images of them. Such beings however have not the full Self-consciousness of Man.
[ 17 ] To attain to this Self-consciousness, it was necessary for Man to set foot so thoroughly in the terrestrial world that he took up something of the earth's being into his own being. It was necessary for him to be exposed to the fact that in this earthly world he as before him the work wrought by those divine spiritual beings with whom he is associated—but their wrought work only. And because it is only the wrought work—the finished work, detached from its origin—the Luciferic and Ahrimanic Beings have access to it. The result is that Man is under the necessity of making this finished work of the Gods, pervaded as it is by Lucifer and Ahriman, the place in which to lead a portion—namely the earthly portion—of his own existence.
[ 18 ] This is only possible without permanently breaking the tie between the human world and its divine spiritual origin, so long as Man has not yet reached the point of developing his Intellectual or Mind-Soul. At this point there takes place in Man a corruption of his physical, his etheric and his astral bodies. The science of an earlier time recognized this corruption as something actually existent in the human being. It was known to be a necessary element, in order that Consciousness may progress in Man to Self-consciousness. In the science cultivated in those places which were a form of Aristotelian teaching which rightly understood, contains in it this element of corruption as a vital part of its psychological doctrine; only that such ideas, later on, were no longer penetrated in their inner essence.
[ 19 ] During the ages until the development of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul, Man was nevertheless still so closely involved with the forces of his divinely spiritual origin that these forces were able, from their places in the cosmos, to hold in balance the powers of Lucifer and Ahriman by which he was beset on earth. On the part of Man himself, enough was done to help keep this balance, when in the ritual ceremonies of the Mysteries a picture was displayed of the Divine Spirit-Being's descent into the realm of Lucifer and Ahriman and his triumphant resurrection. In the times preceding the Mystery of Golgotha, we find accordingly, in the religious rites of the different peoples, pictorial representations of what then became—in the Mystery of Golgotha itself—a reality.
[ 20 ] But when the Intellectual or Mind-Soul was evolved, nothing but the reality itself could any longer preserve Man's Being from separation from those divine Spirit-Beings to whom he belongs. Into the Intellectual or Mind-Soul so organized as to draw its life, whilst on Earth, from the earthly realm, the Divine must enter—even within this earthly realm—in very reality of Being. This was accomplished through the Divine Spiritual Logos, the Christ, who for the sake of mankind united His cosmic destiny with the Earth.
[ 21 ] Persephone descended into the earthly realm to deliver the plant-world from being condemned to form itself out of the earthly realm only. This is the descent of a divine, spiritual being into earthly Nature. Persephone too has a kind of resurrection, but yearly, in rhythmic succession.
[ 22 ] Over against this event, taking place as a cosmic process upon earth, there is the Descent of the Logos to save Mankind. Persephone comes down in order to bring the natural world into its original relation to the skies. What here takes place is based on Rhythm, for Nature's events proceed in rhythm. The Logos came down into Mankind. This happens but once during the evolution of Mankind. For this evolution forms one part only of a gigantic World-Rhythm, in which Mankind, before its life ‘as Man,’ was something quite different from Mankind, and afterwards will again be different. Whereas plant-life repeats itself as such, over and over again in short rhythms.
[ 23 ] This is the light in which the Mystery of Golgotha must be seen; and men henceforth have need so to see it, now that the Age of Consciousness has begun. For even in the age of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul, there was already the danger of Man losing his link, had not the Mystery of Golgotha intervened.
In the age of the Spiritual Soul, a complete darkening of the spiritual world would come over Man in his consciousness, if the Spiritual Soul could not gather sufficient strength to look back, in insight, to her divine, spiritual origin. But if the Soul can look back, then she finds in the World-Logos the Being who can lead her back. And she is filled through and through with the mighty image, revealing what took place on Golgotha.
[ 24 ] And the beginning of this understanding is a loving comprehension of the World-Christmas, which every year is celebrated in Remembrance. For the Spiritual Soul, that beings with the reception of cold intellectuality, goes on to gather the needful strength, when into this Intellect, that warm Love, of which the stream flows most nobly and purely when it is turned towards the Child Jesus, who in the World's Christmas Holy-Night appears on Earth. Then Man has opened his soul to the influence of the highest of all spiritual facts on Earth, which is also a physical fact. He has set out on the way that ends by receiving the Christ into himself.
[ 25 ] In the world of Nature, a true Science will behold in Persephone—or that being to whom men's eyes still turned in the early middle ages, when they spoke of ‘Nature’—the natural revelation of that primal and eternal divine spiritual power, out of which the natural world arose, and continuously arises as the groundwork of Man's earthly existence.
[ 26 ] In the world of Man, a true Science will behold in Christ the human revelation of that primal and eternal Logos, who in the realm of the Divine Spiritual Being, with whom Man is in his origin united, works for the evolution of the Spirit-Being of Man.
[ 27 ] To turn the human heart in Love towards these great cosmic connections—this is the real celebration of that Feast of Remembrance which meets Man every year, when he gazes on the World's Christ-Mass, the Holy Night. When Love such as this dwells in human hearts, it fires with its warmth the Spiritual Soul's cold element of Light. Were the Spiritual Soul condemned to remain unwarmed by such fire, Man could never attain to its transformation in the Spirit. He would either perish in the cold of intellectual consciousness, or would be condemned to remain in a form of spiritual life which never progresses to the evolution of the Spiritual Soul. He would then stop short with the evolution of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul.
[ 28 ] But the Spiritual Soul is not, of its own being, cold. It only appears so at the beginning of its evolution; because at the beginning it can only display the Light-element that is in it, and not as yet the World-Warmth, from which it nevertheless proceeds.
[ 29 ] To feel Christmas and inwardly to keep it in this fashion, can make present in the soul how the Glory of the divine Spirit Beings, who reveal their image in the star-expanses, is proclaimed before Man, and how the deliverance of Man is accomplished in the fields of Earth from those powers who would draw him away from his source and origin.
Leading Thoughts
[ 1 ] That form of activity, which is introduced by the Michael Forces into the evolution of the World and Man, repeats itself rhythmically—though each time in altered and progressive form—both before and after the Mystery of Golgotha.
[ 1 ] The Mystery of Golgotha is the unique, only once occurring, greatest event in the course of human evolution. It is impossible here to speak of any rhythmic repetition. For although this human evolution is part of a gigantic world-rhythm, yet it is only one single, widely drawn out part of this gigantic rhythm. Before it became this single part, Mankind was something else, essentially other than Mankind. Afterwards, Michael will again be something else. In the course of human evolution, therefore, many Michael Events take place, but only one Event of Golgotha.
[ 1 ] In the swift, rhythmic repetition of a year's cycle, the process of Nature is accomplished by that divine Spirit-Being who descended into the depths of Earth in order to carry the spirit into this natural process. This Being represents the ensouling of the natural world with those primal and eternal forces which must continue to work in Nature, even as the Christ in His descent represents the ensouling of Mankind with the primal and eternal Logos, whose work shall never cease its efficacy for Mankind's salvation.
Weihnachtsbetrachtung: Das Logos-Mysterium
[ 1 ] In die Betrachtung des Michael-Mysteriums strahlte die des Mysteriums von Golgatha herein. Das ist durch die Tatsache gegeben, daß Michael die Macht ist, die den Menschen in der ihm heilsamen Art an den Christus herangeleitet.
[ 2 ] Aber die Michael-Mission ist eine solche, die sich im kosmischen Menschheitswerden in rhythmischer Folge wiederholt. Man hatte sie in ihrer wohltätigen Wirkung auf die Erdenmenschheit wiederholt vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Da hing sie zusammen mit alle dem, was die noch außerirdische Christus-Kraft zur Entfaltung der Menschheit für die Erde tätig zu offenbaren hatte. Nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha wird sie dem dienstbar, was durch Christus der Erdenmenschheit geschehen soll. Sie tritt in abgewandelter und fortschreitender Form in ihren Wiederholungen auf, aber eben in Wiederholungen.
[ 3 ] Dem gegenüber ist das Mysterium von Golgatha ein alles übergreifendes kosmisches Ereignis, das nur einmal stattfindet im Laufe der ganzen kosmischen Menschheitsentwickelung.
[ 4 ] Als die Menschheit bis zur Entfaltung der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele vorgeschritten ist, da macht sich die fortwirkende Gefahr der schon urzeitlich veranlagten Herauslösung des Menschheitswesens aus dem Wesen des Göttlich-Geistigen erst voll geltend.
[ 5 ] Und in demselben Maße, in dem die Menschenseele das Mit-Erleben mit den göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten verliert, taucht um sie herum das auf, was man heute «Natur» nennt.
[ 6 ] Der Mensch schaut nicht mehr das Menschenwesenhafte in dem göttlich-geistigen Kosmos; er schaut das Werk des Göttlich-Geistigen im Irdischen. Er schaut es zunächst nicht in der abstrakten Form, in der es heute geschaut wird: sinnlich-physische Wesen und Geschehnisse, die durch diejenigen abstrakten Ideen-Inhalte zusammengehalten werden, die man «Naturgesetze» nennt. Er schaut es als göttlich-geistiges Wesen. Dieses göttlich-geistige Wesen wogt auf und ab in allem, was er als Entstehen und Vergehen der tierischen Lebewesen, im Wachsen und Sprossen der Pflanzenwelt sieht, was er in Quell- und Flußtätigkeit, in Wind- und Wolkenbildung gewahr wird. All diese Wesenhaftigkeiten und Vorgänge um ihn herum sind ihm die Gebärden, die Taten, sind ihm die Sprache des Götterwesens, das der «Natur» zugrunde liegt.
[ 7 ] Wie dereinst in den Sternenstellungen und Sternenbewegungen die Taten, Gebärden der Weltengötterwesen von dem Menschen geschaut wurden, wie ihre Worte darinnen gelesen wurden, so wurden nunmehr die «Naturtatsachen» der Ausdruck für die Erdgöttin. Denn das in der Natur wirksame Göttliche wurde weiblich vorgestellt.
[ 8 ] Reste dieser Vorstellungsart als imaginative Erfüllung der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele waren noch bis weit herein ins Mittelalter in den Menschenseelen tätig.
[ 9 ] Die Erkennenden sprachen von den Taten der «Göttin», wenn sie das «Naturgeschehen» zum Begreifen bringen wollten. Erst mit dem allmählichen Heraufkommen der Bewußtseinsseele ist diese lebendige, innerlich beseelte Naturbetrachtung für die Menschheit unverständlich geworden.
[ 10 ] Und die Art, wie im Zeitalter der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele nach dieser Richtung hin geschaut wurde, erinnert an den Persephone-Mythos mit dem ihm zugrunde liegenden Mysterium.
[ 11 ] Die Tochter der Demeter, Persephone, wird von dem Gotte der Unterwelt gezwungen, ihm in sein Reich zu folgen. Es kommt das schließlich in der Form zustande, daß sie nur die Hälfte des Jahres in der Unterwelt zubringt, die andere auf der Oberwelt verweilt.
[ 12 ] Gewaltig groß drückt dieser Mythos noch aus, wie man einst in urferner Vergangenheit in traumhaftem Hellsehen all das Werden des Irdischen erkennend durchschaut hat.
[ 13 ] Alles Weltenwirken ging in Urzeiten von der Erden-Umgebung aus. Die Erde war selber erst im Entstehen. Sie bildete ihr Wesen in der kosmischen Entwickelung aus dem Wirken ihrer Umgebung heraus. Die göttlich-geistigen Wesen des Kosmos waren die an ihrem Wesen Schaffenden. - Als sie weit genug war, ein selbständiger Weltkörper zu werden, da stieg Göttlich-Geistiges aus dem allgemeinen Kosmos auf sie hernieder und wurde Erdengottheit. Diese kosmische Tatsache hat das traumhafte Hellsehen alter Menschheit erkennend durchschaut; von dieser Erkenntnis ist der Persephone-Mythos geblieben; aber es ist auch geblieben, wie man bis tief ins Mittelalter hinein die «Natur» erkennend zu durchdringen suchte. Denn man schaute da noch nicht wie später nach den Sinnes-Eindrücken, das heißt nach dem, was an der Oberfläche des Irdischen erscheint, sondern nach den Kräften, die aus den Tiefen der Erde zur Oberfläche herauf wirken. — Und diese «Tiefenkräfte», die «Kräfte der Unterwelt», schaute man in Wechselwirkung mit den Sternen- und Elementen-Wirkungen der Erden-Umgebung.
[ 14 ] Da wachsen die Pflanzen in ihren mannigfaltigen Formen, da offenbaren sie sich in ihrer bunten Farben-Erscheinung. Darinnen wirken die Sonnen-, Monden- und Sternenkräfte mit den Kräften der Erdentiefe zusammen. Die Grundlage gaben dafür ab die Mineralien, die schon ganz durch das ihr Wesen haben, was von Weltenwesen irdisch geworden ist. Das Gestein sprießt durch die irdisch gewordenen Himmelskräfte allein aus der «Unterwelt» herauf. Die Tierwelt hat die Kräfte der «Erdentiefe» nicht angenommen. Sie entsteht allein durch die aus der Erden-Umgebung wirksamen Weltenkräfte. Sie verdankt ihr Werden, Wachsen, Sprießen, ihre Ernährungsfähigkeit, ihre Bewegungsmöglichkeiten den auf die Erde einströmenden Sonnenkräften. Sie kann sich fortpflanzen unter dem Einfluß der auf die Erde einströmenden Mondenkräfte. Sie erscheint in vielen Formen und Arten, weil aus dem Weltall herein die Sternenstellungen in der mannigfaltigsten Art gestaltend auf das Tierleben wirken. Aber die Tiere sind vom Weltall auf die Erde nur hereingestellt. Sie nehmen nur mit ihrem dumpfen Bewußtseinsleben an dem Irdischen teil; mit ihrer Entstehung, ihrem Wachsen, mit allem, was sie sind, damit sie wahrnehmen und sich bewegen können, sind sie keine Erdenwesen.
[ 15 ] Diese großangelegte Idee von dem Werden der Erde lebte dereinst in der Menschheit. Was davon in das Mittelalter hereinragt, läßt nur in geringem Maße dieses Großangelegte noch erkennen. Man muß, um zu dieser Erkenntnis zu gelangen, mit dem Blick der schauenden Erkenntnis in sehr alte Zeiten zurückgehen. Denn auch aus den vorhandenen physischen Dokumenten ist nur für den zu ersehen, was in den Seelen der Menschen vorhanden war, der dies auf geistgemäße Art durchschauen kann.
[ 16 ] Nun ist der Mensch nicht in der Lage, sich der Erde so ferne zu halten wie die Tierheit. Indem man dieses ausspricht, tritt man an das Mysterium der Menschheit ebenso wie an das der Tierheit heran. Diese Mysterien spiegeln sich in dem Tierkult der alten Völker, vor allem der Ägypter. In den Tieren sah man Wesen, die Gäste der Erde sind, an denen man Wesen und Wirksamkeit der geistigen Welt, die an die irdische angrenzt, schauen kann. Und in der Verbindung der Menschengestalt mit der tierischen, die man in Bildern darstellte, vergegenwärtigte man sich die Gestalten derjenigen elementarischen Zwischenwesen, die wohl im Weltenwerden auf dem Wege zur Menschheit sind, aber in das Irdische nicht eintreten, um nicht Menschen zu werden. Solche elementarische Zwischenwesen sind vorhanden. Die Ägypter gaben nur ihr Schauen wieder, indem sie sie abbildeten. Aber solche Wesen haben nicht das volle Selbstbewußtsein des Menschen. Um das zu erlangen, mußte der Mensch die irdische Welt in solch vollständiger Art betreten, daß er vom Erdenwesen in sein Wesen etwas aufnahm.
[ 17 ] Er mußte dem ausgesetzt werden, daß in dieser irdischen Welt das Werk der ihm verbundenen göttlich-geistigen Wesen vorliegt, aber eben nur deren Werk. Und weil nur das vom Ursprunge losgelöste Werk vorliegt, so haben in dieses Zutritt die luziferischen und ahrimanischen Wesenheiten. Es ergibt sich damit für den Menschen die Notwendigkeit, das von Luzifer und Ahriman durchsetzte Werk zum Orte eines Teiles seiner Lebensgestaltung - der irdischen - zu machen.
[ 18 ] Es ist dies so lange ohne die bleibende Loslösung des Menschlichen von seinem ursprünglichen Göttlich-Geistigen möglich, als der Mensch noch nicht zur Entfaltung seiner Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele fortgeschritten ist. Da findet im Menschen eine Korrumpierung seines physischen, seines ätherischen und astralischen Leibes statt. Eine ältere Wissenschaft kennt diese Korrumpierung als etwas, das in der Menschen Wesenheit lebt. Man weiß, daß sie notwendig ist, damit das Bewußtsein zum Selbstbewußtsein im Menschen vorrücken könne. In der Erkenntnispflege, die an den Stätten stattgefunden hat, die von Alexander dem Großen der Wissenschaft gegeben worden sind, lebte ein Aristotelismus, der, richtig verstanden, diese Korrumpierung als ein maßgebendes Element seiner Seelenwissenschaft in sich trägt. Solche Ideen wurden nur später in ihrer inneren Wesenheit nicht mehr durchdrungen.
[ 19 ] In den Zeiten vor der Entwickelung der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele war der Mensch dennoch mit den Kräften seines göttlich-geistigen Ursprunges so verwoben, daß diese Kräfte von ihrem kosmischen Orte aus die auf Erden an ihn herandringenden luziferischen und ahrimanischen Mächte im Gleichgewichte halten konnten. Da war von menschlicher Seite aus Genüge geschehen zur Mitwirkung an diesem Gleichgewichte, wenn in Kult- und Mysterienhandlung das Bild des in Luzifers und Ahrimans Reich untertauchenden und wieder siegreich hervorgehenden göttlich-geistigen Wesens entfaltet wurde. Man sieht daher in den Zeiten, die dem Mysterium von Golgatha vorangingen, in den Völkerkulten bildhafte Darstellungen dessen, was dann im Mysterium von Golgatha eine Wirklichkeit wurde.
[ 20 ] Als die Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele entfaltet war, konnte die Menschenwesenheit nur durch die Wirklichkeit vor der Loslösung von ihren göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten bewahrt bleiben. Es mußte in die während des irdischen Daseins vom Irdischen lebende Organisation der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele auch im Irdischen innerlich das Göttliche als Wesenheit eintreten. Das geschah dadurch, daß der göttlich-geistige Logos, Christus, für die Menschheit sein kosmisches Schicksal mit der Erde verband.
[ 21 ] Persephone ist in das Irdische untergetaucht, um die Pflanzenwelt davon zu befreien, bloß vom Irdischen sich bilden zu müssen. Das ist der Niederstieg eines göttlichgeistigen Wesens in die Natur der Erde. Auch Persephone hat ja eine Art «Auferstehung», aber jährlich in rhythmischer Folge.
[ 22 ] Diesem Ereignis, das als kosmisches auf Erden geschieht, steht gegenüber der Niederstieg des Logos für die Menschheit. Persephone steigt nieder, um die Natur in ihre ursprüngliche Orientierung zu bringen. Da muß Rhythmus zugrunde liegen; denn das Geschehen der Natur erfolgt im Rhythmus. Der Logos steigt nieder in die Menschheit. Es geschieht das einmal während der Entwickelung der Menschheit. Denn diese Entwickelung ist nur ein Glied in einem gigantischen Weltenrhythmus, in dem die Menschheit vor ihrem Mensch-Sein etwas ganz anderes als Menschheit war und nach demselben etwas ganz anderes sein wird, während ja das Pflanzenleben in kurzen Rhythmen als solches sich wiederholt.
[ 23 ] Das Mysterium von Golgatha in diesem Lichte zu sehen, das hat die Menschheit vom Bewußtseinszeitalter an nötig. Denn es wäre schon im Zeitalter der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele die Loslösung des Menschen als Gefahr vorhanden gewesen, wenn nicht das Mysterium von Golgatha erfolgt wäre. Im Zeitalter der Bewußtseinsseele müßte eine völlige Verdunkelung der Geisteswelt für den Menschen in seinem Bewußtsein eintreten, wenn nicht die Bewußtseinsseele sich so weit erkraften könnte, daß sie zu ihrem göttlich-geistigen Ursprung in Einsicht zurückblickte. Kann sie das aber, so findet sie den Weltenlogos als die Wesenheit, die sie zurückführen kann. Sie durchdringt sich mit dem gewaltigen Bilde, das offenbart, was auf Golgatha geschehen ist.
[ 24 ] Und der Beginn dieses Verständnisses ist die liebevolle Erfassung der Welten-Weihe-Nacht, an die jedes Jahr festlich erinnert wird. Denn die Erkraftung der Bewußtseinsseele geschieht ja dadurch, daß sie, die zunächst die Intellektualität aufnimmt, in dieses kälteste Seelen-Element die warme Liebe einziehen läßt. Jene warme Liebe, die am erhabensten strömt, wenn sie dem Jesus-Kinde gilt, das in der Welten-Weihe-Nacht auf Erden erscheint. Damit hat der Mensch die höchste irdische Geistes-Tatsache, die zugleich eine physische war, auf seine Seele wirken lassen; er hat sich auf den Weg begeben, den Christus in sich aufzunehmen.
[ 25 ] Die Natur muß so erkannt werden, daß sie in Persephone oder dem Wesen, auf das man noch im frühen Mittelalter geschaut hat, wenn man von «Natur» gesprochen hat, die göttlich-geistige Ursprungs- und ewige Kraft offenbart, aus der sie entstanden ist und fortdauernd entsteht als die Grundlage des irdischen Menschendaseins.
[ 26 ] Die Menschenwelt muß so erkannt werden, daß sie in Christus den Ursprungs- und ewigen Logos offenbart, der im Bereich der mit dem Menschen ursprünglich verbundenen göttlich-geistigen Wesenheit zur Entfaltung der Geist-Wesenheit des Menschen wirkt.
[ 27 ] In Liebe das Menschenherz zu diesen großen kosmischen Zusammenhängen zu lenken, das ist der rechte Inhalt jener Festes-Erinnerung, die im Hinblicken auf die Welten-Weihe-Nacht jedes Jahr an den Menschen herantritt. Lebt solche Liebe im Menschenherzen, dann durchfeuert sie das kalte Licht-Element der Bewußtseinsseele. Müßte diese ohne diese Durchfeuerung verbleiben: der Mensch käme nie zu ihrer Durchgeistigung. Er erstürbe in der Kälte des intellektuellen Bewußtseins, oder er müßte in einem Geistesleben verbleiben, das nicht zur Entfaltung der Bewußtseinsseele fortschreitet. Er würde dann in der Entfaltung der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele stehen bleiben.
[ 28 ] Aber ihrem Wesen nach ist die Bewußtseinsseele nicht kalt. Sie scheint es nur im Anfange ihrer Entfaltung, weil sie da erst das Lichtvolle ihres Inhaltes offenbaren kann, noch nicht die Weltenwärme, aus der sie ja doch stammt.
[ 29 ] Weihnachten in dieser Art empfinden und erleben, kann in der Seele gegenwärtig machen: wie die Glorie der in Sternenweiten ihre Abbilder offenbarenden göttlich-geistigen Wesen sich vor dem Menschen verkündiget und wie die Befreiung des Menschen innerhalb der Erdenstätte von den Mächten geschieht, die ihn von seinem Ursprünge entfernen wollen.
Goetheanum, zu Weihnacht 1924.
(28. Dezember 1924)
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden (Mit Bezug auf die vorangehende Weihnachtsbetrachtung)
[ 30 ] 137. Die Tätigkeit in der Welt- und Menschheits-Entwickelung, die durch die Michael-Kräfte zustande kommt, wiederholt sich rhythmisch, wenn auch in abgeänderter und fortschreitender Form vor und nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha.
[ 31 ] 138. Das Mysterium von Golgatha ist das einmalige größte Ereignis innerhalb der Menschheits-Entwickelung. Da kann nicht von einer rhythmischen Wiederholung die Rede sein. Denn wenn auch diese Menschheits-Entwickelung in einem gewaltigen Weltenrhythmus drinnensteht, so ist sie doch eben das weitausgedehnte eine Glied in diesem Rhythmus. Bevor sie dieses eine Glied wurde, war die Menschheit etwas wesentlich anderes als Menschheit; nachher wird sie wieder etwas anderes sein. Es finden also während der Menschheitsentwickelung viele Michael-Ereignisse, aber nur ein Ereignis von Golgatha statt.
[ 32 ] 139. In der schnellen rhythmischen Wiederholung eines Jahrlaufes vollzieht das göttlich-geistige Wesen, das zur Durchgeistigung des Naturgeschehens in die Erdentiefen niedergestiegen ist, dieses Geschehen. Es stellt die Durchseelung der Natur mit den Ursprungs- und ewigen Kräften dar, die wirksam bleiben müssen, wie der herabgestiegene Christus die Durchseelung der Menschheit mit dem Ursprungs- und ewigen Logos darstellt, der zum Heile der Menschheit mit seiner Wirksamkeit niemals aufhören soll.
Christmas contemplation: The Logos Mystery
[ 1 ] Into the contemplation of the mystery of Michael shone that of the mystery of Golgotha. This is given by the fact that Michael is the power that leads man to Christ in a way that is beneficial to him.
[ 2 ] But the Michael mission is one that is repeated in rhythmic succession in the cosmic development of mankind. It was repeated in its beneficial effect on earthly humanity before the Mystery of Golgotha. There it was connected with all that the still extraterrestrial Christ-power had to actively reveal for the unfolding of humanity on earth. After the Mystery of Golgotha it becomes serviceable for what is to happen to earthly humanity through Christ. It appears in a modified and progressive form in its repetitions, but precisely in repetitions.
[ 3 ] In contrast, the Mystery of Golgotha is an all-encompassing cosmic event that takes place only once in the course of the entire cosmic development of humanity.
[ 4 ] When humanity has progressed to the unfolding of the intellectual or emotional soul, the continuing danger of the already primeval detachment of the human being from the essence of the divine-spiritual only becomes fully apparent.
[ 5 ] And to the same extent that the human soul loses the co-experience with the divine-spiritual entities, that which today is called "nature" emerges around it.
[ 6 ] Man no longer sees the human entity in the divine-spiritual cosmos; he sees the work of the divine-spiritual in the earthly. At first he does not see it in the abstract form in which it is seen today: sensual-physical beings and events that are held together by those abstract idea-contents that are called "laws of nature". He sees it as a divine-spiritual being. This divine-spiritual being surges up and down in everything he sees in the emergence and decay of animal life, in the growth and sprouting of the plant world, in the activity of springs and rivers, in the formation of wind and clouds. All these beings and processes around him are for him the gestures, the actions, are for him the language of the divine being that underlies "nature".
[ 7 ] As once the deeds and gestures of the world gods were seen by man in the positions and movements of the stars, as their words were read therein, so now the "facts of nature" became the expression for the earth goddess. For the divine active in nature was presented as female.
[ 8 ] Remnants of this type of conception as an imaginative fulfillment of the intellectual or emotional soul were still active in human souls well into the Middle Ages.
[ 9 ] The cognizers spoke of the deeds of the "goddess" when they wanted to understand "natural events". It was only with the gradual emergence of the conscious soul that this living, inwardly animated contemplation of nature became incomprehensible to mankind.
[ 10 ] And the way in which people looked in this direction in the age of the intellectual or emotional soul is reminiscent of the Persephone myth with its underlying mystery.
[ 11 ] The daughter of Demeter, Persephone, is forced by the god of the underworld to follow him into his realm. This finally comes about in such a way that she only spends half the year in the underworld and the other half in the upper world.
[ 12 ] This myth is a powerful expression of how, in the distant past, dreamlike clairvoyance once saw through all the becoming of earthly things.
[ 13 ] In primeval times, all worldly activity emanated from the earthly environment. The earth itself was only just coming into being. It formed its being in the cosmic development out of the work of its environment. The divine-spiritual beings of the cosmos were the creators of its being. - When it was far enough along to become an independent world body, divine-spiritual beings descended upon it from the general cosmos and became earth deities. This cosmic fact was recognized by the dreamlike clairvoyance of ancient mankind; the Persephone myth has remained of this knowledge; but it has also remained how people sought to penetrate "nature" with knowledge until deep into the Middle Ages. For people did not yet look at sensory impressions, i.e. what appears on the surface of the earthly, as they did later, but at the forces that work their way up to the surface from the depths of the earth. - And these "deep forces", the "forces of the underworld", were seen to interact with the star and elemental effects of the earth's environment.
[ 14 ] There the plants grow in their manifold forms, there they reveal themselves in their colorful appearance. In them, the forces of the sun, moon and stars interact with the forces of the earth's depths. The basis for this is provided by the minerals, which already have their essence entirely through that which has become earthly from world beings. The rock sprouts up from the "underworld" solely through the heavenly forces that have become earthly. The animal world has not taken on the forces of the "depths of the earth". It arises solely through the world forces that are effective from the earth environment. It owes its becoming, growth, sprouting, its ability to nourish itself, its possibilities of movement to the solar forces flowing onto the earth. It can reproduce under the influence of the lunar forces flowing onto the earth. It appears in many forms and species, because from the universe the positions of the stars have a formative effect on animal life in the most varied ways. But the animals are only brought to earth from the universe. They only participate in the earthly with their dull life of consciousness; with their development, their growth, with everything that they are, so that they can perceive and move, they are not earthly beings.
[ 15 ] This large-scale idea of the becoming of the earth once lived in humanity. What remains of it in the Middle Ages can only be recognized to a limited extent. In order to arrive at this realization, one must go back to very ancient times with the gaze of observing knowledge. For even from the existing physical documents it is only possible to see what was present in the souls of men for those who can see through this in a spiritual way.
[ 16 ] Now man is not able to keep as far away from the earth as the animal kingdom. By expressing this, one approaches the mystery of humanity as well as that of animality. These mysteries are reflected in the animal cult of the ancient peoples, especially the Egyptians. Animals were seen as beings who were guests of the earth, in whom the nature and effectiveness of the spiritual world, which borders on the earthly world, could be seen. And in the connection of the human form with the animal form, which was depicted in pictures, one visualized the forms of those elementary intermediate beings who are certainly on the way to becoming human in the world, but who do not enter the earthly world in order not to become human. Such elementary intermediate beings exist. The Egyptians only reproduced their vision by depicting them. But such beings do not have the full self-consciousness of human beings. In order to attain this, man had to enter the earthly world in such a complete way that he absorbed something of the earthly being into his being.
[ 17 ] He had to be exposed to the fact that in this earthly world the work of the divine-spiritual beings connected to him is present, but only their work. And because only the work detached from the origin is present, the Luciferic and Ahrimanic beings have access to it. This makes it necessary for man to make the work interspersed with Lucifer and Ahriman the place of a part of his life - the earthly one.
[ 18 ] This is possible without the permanent detachment of the human from his original divine-spiritual, as long as man has not yet progressed to the unfolding of his intellectual or emotional soul. This is when the human being corrupts his physical, etheric and astral body. An older science recognizes this corruption as something that lives in the human being. It is known to be necessary in order that consciousness may advance to self-consciousness in man. In the cultivation of knowledge that took place in the places given to science by Alexander the Great, there lived an Aristotelianism which, correctly understood, carries this corruption within itself as a decisive element of its science of the soul. Such ideas were only later no longer penetrated in their inner essence.
[ 19 ] In the times before the development of the intellectual or emotional soul, man was nevertheless so interwoven with the forces of his divine-spiritual origin that these forces were able to keep the Luciferic and Ahrimanic powers approaching him on earth in equilibrium from their cosmic place. From the human point of view, enough had been done to contribute to this equilibrium when the image of the divine-spiritual being immersed in Lucifer's and Ahriman's realm and emerging victorious again was unfolded in cult and mystery acts. Therefore, in the times that preceded the Mystery of Golgotha, one sees in the cults of the nations pictorial representations of what then became a reality in the Mystery of Golgotha.
[ 20 ] When the intellectual or emotional soul was unfolded, the human being could only be preserved from detachment from its divine-spiritual entities through reality. The divine as an entity had to enter into the organization of the intellectual or emotional soul, which lived during the earthly existence from the earthly, also in the earthly. This happened through the divine-spiritual Logos, Christ, connecting his cosmic destiny with the earth for mankind.
[ 21 ] Persephone submerged into the earthly in order to free the plant world from having to form itself merely from the earthly. This is the descent of a divine-spiritual being into the nature of the earth. Persephone also has a kind of "resurrection", but annually in rhythmic succession.
[ 22 ] This event, which occurs on earth as a cosmic event, is contrasted with the descent of the Logos for humanity. Persephone descends in order to bring nature back to its original orientation. There must be an underlying rhythm, for the events of nature take place in rhythm. The Logos descends into humanity. This happens once during the development of humanity. For this development is only a link in a gigantic world rhythm in which humanity was something quite different from humanity before its human existence and will be something quite different after it, while plant life repeats itself in short rhythms as such.
[ 23 ] To see the Mystery of Golgotha in this light is what humanity has needed from the age of consciousness onwards. For the detachment of man would already have been a danger in the age of the intellectual or emotional soul if the Mystery of Golgotha had not taken place. In the age of the consciousness soul a complete darkening of the spiritual world would have to occur for man in his consciousness if the consciousness soul could not strengthen itself to such an extent that it looked back to its divine-spiritual origin in insight. But if it can do so, it finds the World Logos as the entity that can lead it back. It penetrates itself with the mighty image that reveals what happened on Golgotha.
[ 24 ] And the beginning of this understanding is the loving apprehension of the World Consecration Night, which is festively commemorated every year. For the empowerment of the consciousness soul happens through the fact that it, which initially absorbs intellectuality, allows warm love to enter this coldest soul element. That warm love which flows most sublimely when it is directed towards the child Jesus who appears on earth on the night of the consecration of the world. Thus man has allowed the highest earthly spiritual fact, which was at the same time a physical one, to affect his soul; he has set out on the path to receive the Christ within himself.
[ 25 ] Nature must be recognized in such a way that it reveals in Persephone, or the being that was still looked upon in the early Middle Ages when one spoke of "nature", the divine-spiritual original and eternal power from which it arose and continues to arise as the basis of earthly human existence.
[ 26 ] The human world must be recognized in such a way that it reveals in Christ the original and eternal Logos, which works in the realm of the divine-spiritual entity originally connected with man for the unfolding of the spiritual entity of man.
[ 27 ] To direct the human heart in love to these great cosmic connections is the right content of that festive remembrance which approaches man every year in view of the Night of the Consecration of the World. If such love lives in the human heart, then it fires through the cold light element of the consciousness soul. If it had to remain without this firing, man would never reach spiritualization. He would die in the coldness of intellectual consciousness, or he would have to remain in a spiritual life that does not progress towards the unfolding of the consciousness soul. He would then remain in the unfolding of the intellectual or emotional soul.
[ 28 ] But by its nature the consciousness soul is not cold. It seems so only in the beginning of its unfolding, because only then can it reveal the light of its content, not yet the warmth of the world from which it originates.
[ 29 ] Feeling and experiencing Christmas in this way can make present in the soul: how the glory of the divine-spiritual beings revealing their images in starry expanses proclaims itself before man and how the liberation of man within the earthly place happens from the powers that want to remove him from his origins.
Goetheanum, at Christmas 1924.
(December 28, 1924)
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (with reference to the preceding Christmas reflection)
[ 30 ] 137. The activity in the development of the world and humanity, which comes about through the Michael forces, repeats rhythmically, albeit in a modified and progressive form before and after the Mystery of Golgotha.
[ 31 ] 138 The Mystery of Golgotha is the unique greatest event within the development of mankind. There can be no question of a rhythmic repetition. For even if this development of humanity is part of a tremendous world rhythm, it is nevertheless the most extended one link in this rhythm. Before it became this one link, humanity was something essentially other than humanity; afterwards it will be something else again. So there are many Michael events during the development of mankind, but only one event of Golgotha.
[ 32 ] 139 In the rapid rhythmic repetition of the course of a year, the divine-spiritual being, which has descended into the depths of the earth for the spiritualization of nature, carries out this event. It represents the ensoulment of nature with the original and eternal forces, which must remain effective, just as the descended Christ represents the ensoulment of humanity with the original and eternal Logos, which should never cease its effectiveness for the salvation of humanity.