Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
3. The Way of Michael, and What Preceded It
[ 1 ] It is not possible to perceive in the right light how the Michael Impulse breaks into human evolution, if one shares the conception which is universally accepted today, as to the relation of the new world of ideas to Nature.
[ 2 ] It is thought: There outside us is Nature with all that she accomplishes and is; within us are the ideas. These ideas are thoughts about the things of Nature, or about the so-called Laws of Nature. The thinkers of today are concerned first of all to show how to form such ideas as shall stand in a true relation to Nature, or in which the true Natural Laws shall be contained.
[ 3 ] It is of little importance to them how these ideas are related to the man himself, who has them. But in truth there can be no real insight until this question is raised: What does Man experience through the natural-scientific ideas of modern times?
[ 4 ] The answer can be arrived at in the following way.
[ 5 ] Man feels today that the ideas are formed within him through the activity of his soul. He has the feeling that he himself forms his ideas, while only the sense-perceptions come to him from without.
[ 6 ] Man did not always feel in this way. In times past he did not realise the content of his ideas as something he had made himself, but as something received through inspiration from the supersensible world.
[ 7 ] There were various stages of this feeling. And these stages depended on that part of a man's being in which he experienced what today he calls his ideas. Today, in the period of the development of the Spiritual Soul or Consciousness Soul, what is contained in the ‘Leading Thoughts’ of the last number is wholly true:—Thoughts have their true seat in the human etheric body. There, however, they are real, living forces. They imprint themselves in the physical body, as such “imprinted thoughts” they possess the shadowy character known to ordinary consciousness.
[ 8 ] Now one can go back to times in which the thoughts were directly experienced in the ‘Ego.’ But in those times they were not shadowy as they are today, nor were they merely living; they were full of soul and spirit. But this means that the man did not only think his thoughts; he had as an experience the perception of concrete spiritual beings.
[ 9 ] Everywhere amongst the peoples of antiquity one finds the consciousness that looked up to a world of spiritual beings. The historical remains of this are described today as a consciousness that expressed itself in myths and mythologies, which are not considered of much importance for an understanding of the real world. And yet with this consciousness man stands in his own world—in the world of his true origin—whereas with his present consciousness he is lifted out of his own world. [ 10 ] Man is a spirit; and his world is the world of spiritual beings.
[ 11 ] The next stage was one in which the element of thought was no longer experienced by the Ego but by the astral body. The soul here loses the direct vision of the Spiritual. Thought appears as an element which is ensouled and alive.
[ 12 ] At the first stage, that of the vision of concrete spiritual beings, man does not feel at all strongly the necessity of connecting what he sees with that which he perceives through his senses. The phenomena perceptible to the senses are seen to be the deeds of what he observes supersensibly, but he does not feel impelled to develop a special science of that which is directly seen by spiritual vision. Moreover, the world of spirit-beings which he sees is so rich that his attention is directed to it above all things.
[ 13 ] It is different at the second stage of consciousness. Here the concrete spiritual beings are hidden; their reflection appears in the form of an ensouled life. Man begins to relate the ‘life of Nature’ to this ‘life of souls.’ In the beings and processes of Nature he seeks the active spirit-beings and their deeds. The result of this stage of consciousness may be seen historically in that which appeared later as the quest of the alchemists.
[ 14 ] When at the first stage of consciousness man ‘thought’ the spirit-beings, he lived entirely in his own being; and at the second stage, too, he is still quite near to his origin. [ 15 ] But at both stages it is quite impossible for man to develop, in the true sense of the word, his own inner impulses of action.
[ 16 ] A spirituality which is of like nature with himself acts in him. What he seems to do is the manifestation of processes which come about through spirit-beings. What man does is the sensibly physical manifestation of a real spiritual and divine event which stands behind.
[ 17 ] A third epoch in the development of consciousness brings thought to consciousness in the etheric body, but as living thought.
[ 18 ] The Greeks lived in this consciousness when Greek civilisation was at its prime. The ancient Greek did not form thoughts for himself and then look out upon the world with them as with his own creations, but when he thought he felt that a life was being kindled within him—a life which also pulsated in the objects and events outside him.
[ 19 ] Then for the first time there arose in man the longing for the freedom of his own actions—not yet true freedom, but the longing for it.
[ 20 ] Man, who felt the life and activity of Nature asserting itself in him, could develop the longing to detach his own activity from the activity which he perceived outside him and around him. But after all, this outer activity was still perceived as the final result of the active spirit-world, which is of like nature with man himself.
[ 21 ] Only when the thoughts were imprinted in the physical body and when the consciousness extended only to this imprint—then only did the possibility of freedom arise. This condition came with the fifteenth century AD.
[ 22 ] For the evolution of the world the important point is not, ‘What is the significance of the ideas of modern natural science with regard to Nature?’ For in effect these ideas have assumed their forms, not in order to provide man with a certain picture of Nature, but in order to bring him forward to a certain stage in his evolution.
[ 23 ] When thoughts laid hold of the physical body, spirit, soul and life had been excluded from their immediate contents, and the abstract shadow attaching to the physical body alone remained. Thoughts such as these can make only what is physical and material into the object of their knowledge, for they themselves are only real in the physical and material body of man. [ 24 ] Materialism did not originate because material beings and processes alone can be perceived in external Nature, but because man had to pass through a stage in his development which led him to a consciousness at first only capable of seeing material manifestations. The one-sided development of this necessity in human evolution resulted in the modern view of Nature.
[ 25 ] It is Michael's mission to bring into human etheric bodies the forces through which the thought-shadows may regain life; then the souls and spirits in the supersensible worlds will incline towards the enlivened thoughts, and the liberated human being will be able to live with them, just as formerly the human being who was only the physical image of their activity lived with them.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society
[ 26 ] 103. In the evolution of mankind consciousness descends on the ladder of unfolding Thought. There was an earliest stage in consciousness when man experienced the Thoughts in the Ego—experienced them as real Beings, imbued with Spirit, soul and life. At a second stage he experienced the Thoughts in the astral body; henceforth they appeared only as the images of Spirit-beings—images, however, still imbued with soul and life. At a third stage he experienced the Thoughts in the etheric body; here they manifest only an inner stirring, like an echo of the quality of soul. At the fourth, which is the present stage, man experiences the Thoughts in the physical body, where they appear as the dead shadows of the Spiritual.
[ 27 ] 104. In like measure as the quality of Spirit, soul and life in human Thought recedes, man's own Will comes to life. True freedom becomes possible.
[ 28 ] 105. It is the task of Michael to lead man back again, on paths of Will, whence he came down when with his earthly consciousness he descended on the paths of Thought from the living experience of the Supersensible to the experience of the world of sense.
Der vor-michaelische und der Michaels-Weg
[ 1 ] Man wird nicht im rechten Lichte sehen können, wie der Michael-Einschlag in die Menschheits-Entwickelung hereindringt, wenn man sich über das Verhältnis der neueren Ideenwelt zur Natur die Vorstellung macht, die heute allgemein üblich ist.
[ 2 ] Da denkt man: draußen ist die Natur mit ihren Vorgängen und Wesen; im Innern, da sind die Ideen. Diese stellen Begriffe von Naturwesen dar oder auch sogenannte Naturgesetze. Es kommt den Denkern dabei vor allem darauf an, zu zeigen, wie man die Ideen bildet, die das rechte Verhältnis zu den Naturwesen haben oder die wahre Naturgesetze enthalten.
[ 3 ] Man legt dabei wenig Wert darauf, wie diese Ideen zu dem Menschen stehen, der sie hat. Und doch wird man, worauf es ankommt, nur einsehen, wenn man vor allem die Frage aufwirft: Was erlebt der Mensch in den neueren naturwissenschaftlichen Ideen?
[ 4 ] Man wird zu einer Antwort auf die folgende Art kommen.
[ 5 ] Heute empfindet der Mensch, daß Ideen in ihm durch die Tätigkeit seiner Seele ausgebildet werden. Er hat das Gefühl: er ist der Ausbildner der Ideen, während nur die Wahrnehmungen von außen an ihn herandringen.
[ 6 ] Dieses Gefühl hatte der Mensch nicht immer. Er empfand in älteren Zeiten den Inhalt der Ideen nicht als etwas Selbst-Gemachtes, sondern als etwas durch Eingebung aus der übersinnlichen Welt Erhaltenes.
[ 7 ] Dieses Gefühl machte Stufen durch. Und die Stufen hingen davon ab, mit welchem Teil seines Wesens der Mensch das erlebte, was er heute seine Ideen nennt. Heute in dem Zeitalter der Entwickelung der Bewußtseinsseele gilt uneingeschränkt, was in den vorigen Leitsätzen steht: «Die Gedanken haben ihren eigentlichen Sitz im ätherischen Leib des Menschen. Aber da sind sie lebendig-wesenhafte Kräfte. Sie prägen sich dem physischen Leibe ein. Und als solche ,eingeprägte Gedanken' haben sie die schattenhafte Art, in der sie das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein kennt.»
[ 8 ] Man kann nun zurückgehen in Zeiten, in denen Gedanken unmittelbar im «Ich» erlebt wurden. Da aber waren sie nicht schattenhaft wie heute; sie waren nicht bloß lebend; sie waren beseelt und durchgeistigt. Das heißt aber: der Mensch dachte nicht Gedanken; sondern er erlebte die Wahrnehmung von konkreten geistigen Wesenheiten.
[ 9 ] Man wird ein Bewußtsein, das so zu einer Welt von geistigen Wesenheiten aufsieht, überall in der Vorzeit der Völker finden. Was sich davon geschichtlich erhalten hat, bezeichnet man heute als mythenbildendes Bewußtsein und legt ihm keinen besonderen Wert bei für die Erfassung der wirklichen Welt. - Und doch steht der Mensch mit diesem Bewußtsein in seiner Welt, in der Welt seines Ursprunges darinnen, während er sich mit dem heutigen Bewußtsein aus dieser seiner Welt heraushebt.
[ 10 ] Der Mensch ist Geist. Und seine Welt ist die der Geister.
[ 11 ] Eine nächste Stufe ist diejenige, wo das Gedankliche nicht mehr vom «Ich», sondern von dem astralischen Leibe erlebt wird. Da geht die unmittelbare Geistigkeit für den seelischen Anblick verloren. Das Gedankliche erscheint als ein beseeltes Lebendiges.
[ 12 ] Auf der ersten Stufe, dem Erschauen des konkret geistig Wesenhaften, hat der Mensch gar nicht stark das Bedürfnis, das Erschaute an die Welt des Sinnlich-Wahrgenommenen heranzutragen. Die sinnlichen Welterscheinungen offenbaren sich zwar als die Taten des übersinnlich Erschauten ; aber eine besondere Wissenschaft von dem auszubilden, was dem «geistigen Blick» unmittelbar anschaulich ist, liegt keine Nötigung vor. Außerdem ist, was als die Welt der Geistwesen erschaut wird, von solcher Fülle, daß darauf vor allem die Aufmerksamkeit ruht.
[ 13 ] Anders wird dies bei der zweiten Bewußtseins-Etappe. Da verbergen sich die konkreten Geistwesen; ihr Abglanz, als beseeltes Leben, erscheint. Man beginnt das «Leben der Natur» an dieses «Leben der Seelen» heranzutragen. Man sucht in den Naturwesen und Naturvorgängen die wirksamen Geistwesen und deren Taten. In dem, was später als alchymistisches Suchen auftrat, ist geschichtlich der Niederschlag dieser Bewußtseins-Etappe zu sehen.
[ 14 ] Wie der Mensch, indem er auf erster Bewußtseins-Etappe Geistwesen «dachte», ganz in seinem Wesen lebte, so steht er auf dieser zweiten sich und seinem Ursprung noch nahe.
[ 15 ] Damit ist aber auf beiden Stufen ausgeschlossen, daß der Mensch im eigentlichen Sinne zu einem inneren eigenen Antrieb für sein Handeln komme.
[ 16 ] Geistiges, das von seiner Art ist, handelt in ihm. Was er zu tun scheint, ist Offenbarung von Vorgängen, die sich durch Geistwesen abspielen. Was der Mensch tut, ist die sinnlich-physische Erscheinung eines dahinterstehenden wirklichen göttlich-geistigen Geschehens.
[ 17 ] Eine dritte Epoche der Bewußtseins-Entwickelung bringt die Gedanken, aber als lebendige, im ätherischen Leib zum Bewußtsein.
[ 18 ] Als die griechische Zivilisation groß war, lebte sie in diesem Bewußtsein. Wenn der Grieche dachte, so bildete er sich nicht einen Gedanken, durch den er, als mit seinem eigenen Gebilde, die Welt ansah; sondern er fühlte in sich erregt Leben, das auch draußen in den Dingen und Vorgängen pulsierte.
[ 19 ] Da erstand zum ersten Male die Sehnsucht nach Freiheit des eigenen Handelns. Noch nicht wirkliche Freiheit; aber die Sehnsucht darnach.
[ 20 ] Der Mensch, der das Regen der Natur in sich selber sich regend empfand, konnte die Sehnsucht ausbilden, die eigene Regsamkeit loszulösen von der als fremd wahrgenommenen Regsamkeit. Aber es wurde immerhin in der äußeren Regsamkeit noch das letzte Ergebnis der wirksamen Geist-Welt empfunden, die gleicher Art mit dem Menschen ist.
[ 21 ] Erst als die Gedanken ihre Prägung im physischen Leibe annahmen und sich das Bewußtsein nur auf diese Prägung erstreckte, trat die Möglichkeit der Freiheit ein. Das ist der Zustand, der mit dem fünfzehnten nachchristlichen Jahrhundert gegeben ist.
[ 22 ] In der Welt-Entwickelung kommt es nicht darauf an, was für Bedeutung die Ideen der heutigen Naturanschauung zur Natur haben; denn diese Ideen haben ihre Formen nicht deshalb angenommen, um ein bestimmtes Bild der Natur zu liefern, sondern um den Menschen zu einer bestimmten Stufe seiner Entwickelung zu bringen.
[ 23 ] Als die Gedanken den physischen Körper ergriffen, war aus ihrem unmittelbaren Inhalte Geist, Seele, Leben getilgt; und der abstrakte Schatten, der am physischen Leibe haftet, ist allein geblieben. Solche Gedanken können nur Physisch-Materielles zum Gegenstande ihrer Erkenntnis machen. Denn sie sind selbst nur wirklich an dem physischmateriellen Leibe des Menschen.
[ 24 ] Nicht deshalb ist der Materialismus entstanden, weil nur materielle Wesen und Vorgänge in der äußeren Natur wahrzunehmen sind; sondern weil der Mensch in seiner Entwickelung eine Etappe durchzumachen hatte, die ihn zu einem Bewußtsein führte, das zunächst nur materielle Offenbarungen zu schauen fähig ist. Die einseitige Ausgestaltung dieses menschlichen Entwickelungs-Bedürfnisses ergab die Naturanschauung der neueren Zeit.
[ 25 ] Michaels Sendung ist, in der Menschen Äther-Leiber die Kräfte zu bringen, durch die die Gedanken-Schatten wieder Leben gewinnen; dann werden sich den belebten Gedanken Seelen und Geister der übersinnlichen Welten neigen; es wird der befreite Mensch mit ihnen leben können, wie ehedem der Mensch mit ihnen lebte, der nur das physische Abbild ihres Wirkens war.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden (Auf Grund des vorangehend Dargestellten)
[ 26 ] 103. In der Menschheits-Entwickelung steigt das Bewußtsein auf der Leiter der Gedanken-Entfaltung herab. Es gibt eine erste Bewußtseins-Etappe: da erlebt der Mensch die Gedanken im «Ich» als durchgeistigte, beseelte, belebte Wesen. Auf einer zweiten Etappe erlebt der Mensch die Gedanken im astralischen Leib; sie stellen da nur mehr die beseelten und belebten Abbilder der Geistwesen dar. Auf einer dritten Etappe erlebt der Mensch die Gedanken im Äther-Leibe; sie stellen nur eine innere Regsamkeit wie einen Nachklang von Seelenhaftem dar. Auf der vierten, gegenwärtigen Etappe erlebt der Mensch die Gedanken im physischen Leibe; sie stellen tote Schatten des Geistigen dar.
[ 27 ] 104. In demselben Maße, in dem das Geistig-Seelisch-Lebendige im Menschendenken zurücktritt, lebt des Menschen Eigenwille auf; die Freiheit wird möglich.
[ 28 ] 105. Es ist Michaels Aufgabe, den Menschen auf den Bahnen des Willens dahin wieder zu führen, woher er gekommen ist, da er auf den Bahnen des Denkens von dem Erleben des Übersinnlichen zu dem des Sinnlichen mit seinem Erdenbewußtsein heruntergestiegen ist.
The pre-Michaelian and the Michael way
[ 1 ] It will not be possible to see in the right light how the Michael impact penetrates into the development of humanity if one forms the idea of the relationship of the newer world of ideas to nature that is generally accepted today.
[ 2 ] There one thinks: outside is nature with its processes and beings; inside, there are the ideas. These represent concepts of natural beings or so-called laws of nature. The main concern of thinkers is to show how to form the ideas that have the right relationship to natural beings or that contain the true laws of nature.
[ 3 ] In doing so, little importance is attached to how these ideas relate to the person who has them. And yet we will only understand what is important if we first and foremost pose the question: What does man experience in the newer scientific ideas?
[ 4 ] You will arrive at an answer in the following way.
[ 5 ] Today man feels that ideas are formed in him through the activity of his soul. He has the feeling that he is the creator of ideas, while only perceptions from outside reach him.
[ 6 ] Man did not always have this feeling. In older times he did not perceive the content of ideas as something self-made, but as something received by inspiration from the supersensible world.
[ 7 ] This feeling went through stages. And the stages depended on the part of man's being with which he experienced what he now calls his ideas. Today, in the age of the development of the consciousness soul, what is written in the previous guiding principles applies without restriction: "Thoughts have their actual seat in the etheric body of man. But there they are living-substantial forces. They imprint themselves on the physical body. And as such 'imprinted thoughts' they have the shadowy nature in which ordinary consciousness knows them."
[ 8 ] We can now go back to times when thoughts were experienced directly in the "I". But then they were not shadowy as they are today; they were not merely living; they were soulful and spiritualized. This means, however, that man did not think thoughts; rather, he experienced the perception of concrete spiritual entities.
[ 9 ] A consciousness that thus looks up to a world of spiritual entities will be found everywhere in the prehistory of peoples. What has been preserved historically is today called myth-forming consciousness and is of no particular value for grasping the real world. - And yet man stands with this consciousness in his world, in the world of his origin, while with today's consciousness he stands out of this his world.
[ 10 ] Man is spirit. And his world is that of spirits.
[ 11 ] A next stage is that where the mental is no longer experienced by the "I" but by the astral body. Here the immediate spirituality is lost for the spiritual sight. The mental appears as an animated living being.
[ 12 ] At the first stage, the perception of the concrete spiritual essence, the human being does not have a strong need to bring what is perceived to the world of the sensually perceived. The sensory phenomena of the world reveal themselves as the acts of the supersensible; but there is no need to form a special science of that which is immediately visible to the "spiritual gaze". Moreover, what is seen as the world of spiritual beings is of such abundance that attention rests above all on it.
[ 13 ] This is different in the second stage of consciousness. Here the concrete spiritual beings are concealed; their reflection, as animated life, appears. One begins to bring the "life of nature" to this "life of souls". The effective spiritual beings and their deeds are sought in the natural beings and natural processes. In what later emerged as the alchymistic search, the precipitation of this stage of consciousness can be seen historically.
[ 14 ] Just as man, by "thinking" spiritual beings in the first stage of consciousness, lived entirely in his being, so in this second stage he is still close to himself and his origin.
[ 15 ] This, however, rules out the possibility of man having an inner drive of his own for his actions in the true sense at both levels.
[ 16 ] The spiritual, which is of his own kind, acts within him. What he seems to do is the revelation of processes that take place through spiritual beings. What man does is the sensual-physical manifestation of an underlying real divine-spiritual event.
[ 17 ] A third epoch of the development of consciousness brings the thoughts, but as living ones, to consciousness in the etheric body.
[ 18 ] When Greek civilization was great, it lived in this consciousness. When the Greek thought, he did not form a thought through which he looked at the world as if it were his own construct; rather, he felt excited life within himself, which also pulsated outside in things and processes.
[ 19 ] Then the longing for freedom of action arose for the first time. Not real freedom yet, but the longing for it.
[ 20 ] Man, who felt the rain of nature stirring within himself, was able to develop the longing to detach his own activity from the activity perceived as alien. But in the outer activity, the final result of the effective spirit world, which is of the same kind as the human being, was still felt.
[ 21 ] Only when the thoughts took on their imprint in the physical body and consciousness extended only to this imprint did the possibility of freedom arise. This is the state that existed in the fifteenth century after Christ.
[ 22 ] In the development of the world it does not matter what significance the ideas of the present-day view of nature have for nature; for these ideas have not assumed their forms in order to provide a certain picture of nature, but in order to bring man to a certain stage of his development.
[ 23 ] When the thoughts took hold of the physical body, spirit, soul, life were eradicated from their immediate content; and the abstract shadow that clings to the physical body has remained alone. Such thoughts can only make the physical-material the object of their cognition. For they themselves are only real in the physical-material body of man.
[ 24 ] Materialism did not arise because only material beings and processes can be perceived in external nature, but because man had to go through a stage in his development that led him to a consciousness that is initially only capable of seeing material revelations. The one-sided shaping of this human need for development resulted in the view of nature of modern times.
[ 25 ] Michael's mission is to bring into the human ether-bodies the powers through which the thought-shadows will again gain life; then souls and spirits of the supersensible worlds will incline themselves to the animated thoughts; the liberated human being will be able to live with them, as formerly the human being lived with them, who was only the physical image of their activity.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (based on the above)
[ 26 ] 103 In the development of humanity, consciousness descends the ladder of thought unfoldment. There is a first stage of consciousness: there the human being experiences the thoughts in the "I" as spiritualized, animated, animate beings. In a second stage the human being experiences the thoughts in the astral body; there they only represent the ensouled and animated images of the spirit beings. At a third stage, the human being experiences thoughts in the etheric body; they only represent an inner activity like an echo of the soul. In the fourth, present stage, man experiences thoughts in the physical body; they represent dead shadows of the spiritual.
[ 27 ] 104 To the same extent that the spiritual-soulful-living recedes in human thinking, man's self-will revives; freedom becomes possible.
[ 28 ] 105 It is Michael's task to lead man along the pathways of the will back to where he came from, since he has descended along the pathways of thinking from the experience of the supersensible to that of the sensible with his earthly consciousness.