Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
9. The World-Thoughts in the Working of Michael and in the Working of Ahriman
[ 1 ] When one considers the relation of Michael to Ahriman, one may well feel impelled to ask: How are these spiritual Powers related to one another in the cosmic sense, seeing that both of them are active in the unfolding of the forces of Intellectuality?
[ 2 ] In the past Michael unfolded the Intellectuality throughout the Cosmos. He did this as the servant of the Divine Spiritual Powers, to whom both he himself and man owed their origin. And he wishes not to depart from this relationship to Intellectuality. When Intellectuality was loosened from the Divine-Spiritual Powers in order to find its way into the inner being of man, Michael resolved thenceforth to assume his true relationship to mankind in order that in mankind he might find his relationship to the Intellectuality. But he wanted to do all this only in the sense of the Divine Spiritual Powers and as their servant still. For with these Powers he has been united ever since his own origin and that of men. Therefore it is his intention that Intellectuality shall flow in future through the hearts of men, but that it shall flow there as the self-same force which it was in the beginning when it poured forth from the Divine-Spiritual Powers.
[ 3 ] It is altogether different with Ahriman. He is a Being who long, long ago severed himself from the stream of evolution to which those Divine-Spiritual Powers belong of whom we are speaking. In an age of primal antiquity he set himself up beside them as an independent power in the Cosmos. This Being, though in the present day he is there in the world of space to which man belongs, evolves no relationship of inner forces with the Beings rightly belonging to this world. It is only through the Intellectuality, loosened from the Divine Spiritual Beings, which comes into this world, that Ahriman—finding himself akin to it—is able in his own way to unite himself with mankind. For in an ancient and primeval past he already united with himself this Intellectuality which man receives in the present as a gift from the Cosmos. Ahriman, if he succeeded in his intentions, would make the intellect, given to mankind, similar to his own.
[ 4 ] Now Ahriman appropriated Intellectuality to himself in an age when he could not make it an inner reality within him. It has remained in his being as a force, utterly detached from anything of heart or soul. Intellectuality pours forth from Ahriman as a cold and freezing, soulless cosmic impulse. Those human beings who are taken hold of by this impulse bring forth that logic which seems to speak for itself alone, void of compassion and of love, which bears no evidence of a right, heartfelt, inner relationship of soul between the human being and what he thinks and speaks and does. In real truth it is Ahriman who speaks in this kind of logic.
[ 5 ] But Michael has never appropriated Intellectuality to himself. He rules it as a Divine-Spiritual force while feeling himself united with the Divine-Spiritual Powers. And when he pervades the intellect it becomes manifest that the intellect can equally well be an expression of the heart and soul as an expression of the head and mind. For Michael has within him all the original forces of his Gods as well as those of man. Consequently he does not convey to the intellect anything that is soulless, cold, frosty, but he stands by it in a manner that is full of soul and inwardly warm.
[ 6 ] Herein, too, lies the reason why Michael moves through the Cosmos with earnest mien and gesture. To be inwardly united in this way with intelligence means at the same time to be obliged to fulfil the requirement that into it shall be brought no subjective caprice, wish or desire. Otherwise logic becomes the arbitrary activity of one being, instead of the expression of the Cosmos. Michael considers that his special virtue consists in strictly maintaining his being as the expression of the World-Being, keeping within himself all that would make itself felt as his own being. His aims are directed towards the great purposes of the Cosmos; this is expressed in his mien. His will, as it approaches man, must reflect what he sees in the Cosmos; and this is shown in his attitude, his gesture. Michael is earnest in all things, for earnestness, as the manifestation of a being, is a reflection of the Cosmos from this being; smiling is the expression of that which proceeds and radiates from a being into the world.
[ 7 ] One of the Imaginations of Michael is the following: he rules through the passage of time; bearing the light from the Cosmos really as his own being; giving form to the warmth from the Cosmos as the revealer of his own being; as a being he keeps steadily on his course like a world, affirming himself only by affirming the world, as if leading forces down to the Earth from all parts of the Universe.
[ 8 ] Contrast this with an Imagination of Ahriman: As he goes along he would like to capture space from time; he has darkness around him into which he shoots the rays of his own light; the more he achieves his aims the severer is the frost around him; he moves as a world which contracts entirely into one being, viz., his own, in which he affirms himself only by denying the world; he moves as if he carried with him the sinister forces of dark caves in the Earth.
[ 9 ] When man seeks freedom without inclining towards egoism—when freedom becomes for him pure love for the action which is to be performed—then it is possible for him to approach Michael. But if he desires to act freely and at the same time develops egoism—if freedom becomes for him the proud feeling of manifesting himself in the action—then he is in danger of falling into Ahriman's sphere.
[ 10 ] The Imaginations we have just described shine forth from a man's pure love for the action (Michael), or from his own self-love in acting (Ahriman).
[ 11 ] When man feels himself as a free being in proximity to Michael he is on the way to carry the intellectual power into his ‘whole man’; he thinks indeed with his head, but his heart feels the brightness of the thought or its shade; the will radiates forth the essential being of man by allowing thoughts, to stream into it as intentions and aims. Man becomes more and more man by becoming the expression of the world; he finds himself, not by seeking himself, but by uniting himself voluntarily with the world.
[ 12 ] If, when man unfolds his freedom, he succumbs to Ahriman's temptations, he is drawn into intellectuality as if into a spiritual automatic process in which he is a part; he is no longer himself. All his thinking becomes an experience of the head; but this separates it from the experience of his own heart and the life of his own will, and blots out his own being. Man loses more and more of the true inner human expression by becoming the expression of his own separate existence; he loses himself by seeking himself, he withdraws himself from the world which he refuses to love. It is only when he loves the world that a man truly experiences himself.
[ 13 ] From the above description it may be evident that Michael is the Guide to Christ. Michael goes with love on his way through the world, with all the earnestness of his nature, attitude and action. The man who attaches himself to him cultivates love in relation to the outer world. And love must be unfolded first of all in relation to the outer world, otherwise it becomes self-love.
[ 14 ] If this love in the spirit of Michael is there, then one's love of another being will shine back into one's own self. The self will be able to love without loving itself. And on the paths of this love Christ can be found by the human soul.
[ 15 ] One who holds fast to Michael cultivates love in relation to the outer world, and he thereby finds that relation to the inner world of his soul which brings him in touch with Christ.
[ 16 ] The age now dawning requires that humanity should turn its attention to a world immediately bordering upon the world perceived as physical—one in which can be found what we have here described as the Being and the Mission of Michael. For the world which man pictures as Nature when he sees this physical world, is also not the one in which he is immediately living, but one which lies as far below the truly human world as the world of Michael lies above it. It is only that man fails to notice that unconsciously, when he makes for himself a picture of his world, the image of another world really arises. When he paints this picture he at the same time excludes himself and succumbs to the spiritual automatic process. Man can only preserve his humanity by placing over against this picture, in which he loses himself in the picture of Nature, the other, in which Michael rules—in which Michael leads the way to Christ.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (in connection with the foregoing account of the World-Thoughts in the Working of Michael and in the Working of Ahriman)
[ 17 ] 121. We have not fully understood the significance or the Universe of something that is working there—for instance, of the Cosmic Thoughts—so long as we stop short at the thing itself. We must also look to recognise the Beings from whom it proceeds. Thus for the Cosmic Thoughts we must see whether it is Michael or Ahriman who bears them out into the world and through the world.
[ 18 ] 122. Proceeding from the one Being—by virtue of his relation to the world—the same thing will work creatively and wholesomely; proceeding from another, it will prove fatal and destructive. The Cosmic Thoughts carry man into the future when he receives them from Michael; they lead him away from the future of his salvation when Ahriman has power to give them to him.
[ 19 ] 123. Such reflections lead us ever more to overcome the idea of an undefined Spirituality, pantheistically conceived as holding sway at the root of all things. We are led to a conception that is definite and real, capable of clear ideas about the spiritual Beings of the Hierarchies. For the reality is everywhere a reality of Being. Whatsoever in it is not Being, is the activity that proceeds in the relation of one Being to another. This too can only be understood if we can turn our gaze to the active Beings.
Die Weltgedanken im Wirken Michaels und im Wirken Ahrimans
[ 1 ] Der Betrachter des Verhältnisses Michaels zu Ahriman wird wohl zu der Frage gedrängt: wie verhalten sich in dem kosmischen Zusammenhange diese beiden Geistesmächte, insoferne doch beide in der Entfaltung der intellektuellen Kräfte tätig sind?
[ 2 ] Michael entfaltete die Intellektualität durch den Kosmos hindurch in der Vergangenheit. Da tat er dieses als Diener der göttlich-geistigen Mächte, die sowohl ihm selbst wie dem Menschen den Ursprung gegeben haben. Und bei diesem Verhältnis zur Intellektualität will er bleiben. Als diese von den göttlich-geistigen Mächten sich loslöste, um den Weg in das Innere des Menschenwesens zu finden, da beschloß er, fortan sich in rechter Art zur Menschheit zu stellen, um in dieser sein Verhältnis zur Intellektualität zu finden. Aber er wollte all dieses nur im Sinne der göttlich-geistigen Mächte auch weiterhin als deren Diener tun, der Mächte, mit denen er von seinem und der Menschen Ursprünge her verbunden ist. So ist seine Absicht, daß in Zukunft die Intellektualität durch die Herzen der Menschen ströme, aber als dieselbe Kraft, die sie ausströmend aus den göttlich-geistigen Mächten schon im Anfange war.
[ 3 ] Ganz anders steht es bei Ahriman. Dieses Wesen hat sich seit lange aus der Entwickelungsströmung losgelöst, der die gekennzeichneten göttlich-geistigen Mächte angehören. Es hat sich in urferner Vergangenheit als selbständige kosmische Macht neben diese hingestellt. - Nun steht es in der Gegenwart zwar räumlich in der Welt darinnen, der der Mensch angehört, aber es entwickelt mit den rechtmäßig dieser Welt angehörenden Wesen keinen Kräftezusammenhang. Nur da die Intellektualität, von den göttlich-geistigen Wesen losgelöst, an diese Welt herankommt, findet Ahriman sich mit dieser Intellektualität so verwandt, daß er sich auf seine Art durch sie mit der Menschheit verbinden kann. Denn er hat, was der Mensch in der Gegenwart wie eine Gabe aus dem Kosmos erhält, schon in urferner Zeit mit sich vereinigt. Ahriman würde, wenn ihm gelänge, was in seiner Absicht liegt, den der Menschheit gegebenen Intellekt ähnlich seinem eigenen machen. –
[ 4 ] Nun hat Ahriman sich die Intellektualität in einer Zeit angeeignet, als er sie nicht in sich verinnerlichen konnte. Sie blieb eine Kraft in seinem Wesen, die mit Herz und Seele nichts zu tun hat. Als kalt-frostiger, seelenloser kosmischer Impuls strömt von Ahriman die Intellektualität aus. Und die Menschen, die von diesem Impuls ergriffen werden, entwickeln eine Logik, die in erbarmungs- und liebeloser Art für sich selbst zu sprechen scheint - in Wahrheit spricht eben Ahriman in ihr -, bei der sich nichts zeigt, was rechtes, inneres, herzlich-seelisches Verbundensein des Menschen ist mit dem, was er denkt, spricht, tut.-
[ 5 ] Michael hat sich die Intellektualität aber nie angeeignet. Er verwaltet sie als göttlich-geistige Kraft, indem er sich verbunden fühlt mit den göttlich-geistigen Mächten. Dadurch zeigt sich auch, indem er die Intellektualität durchdringt, in dieser die Möglichkeit, ein Ausdruck des Herzens, der Seele ebenso gut zu sein wie ein solcher des Kopfes, des Geistes. Denn Michael trägt in sich alle die Ursprungskräfte seiner Götter und der des Menschen. Dadurch überträgt er auf die Intellektualität nichts Kalt-Frostiges, Seelenloses, sondern er steht bei ihr in warm-inniger, seelenvoller Art.
[ 6 ] Und hierinnen liegt auch der Grund, warum Michael mit ernster Miene und Geste durch den Kosmos wallet. Im Innern so verbunden sein mit dem intelligenten Inhalte, wie Michael es ist, bedeutet zugleich, die Anforderung erfüllen müssen, nichts von subjektiver Willkür, von Wunsch oder Begehren in diesen Inhalt hineinzubringen. Sonst wird ja Logik Willkür eines Wesens statt Ausdruck des Kosmos. Streng sein Wesen als Ausdruck des Weltwesens zu halten; alles, was sich im Innern als Eigenwesen regen will, auch in diesem Innern zu lassen: das betrachtet Michael als seine Tugend. Sein Sinn ist nach den großen Zusammenhängen des Kosmos gerichtet - davon spricht seine Miene; sein Wille, der an den Menschen herantritt, soll widerspiegeln, was er im Kosmos erschaut -, davon spricht seine Haltung, seine Geste. Michael ist in allem ernst, denn Ernst als Offenbarung eines Wesens ist der Spiegel des Kosmos aus diesem Wesen; Lächeln ist der Ausdruck dessen, was, von einem Wesen ausgehend, in die Welt hineinstrahlt.
[ 7 ] Eine der Imaginationen von Michael ist auch diese: Er wallet durch den Zeitenlauf, das Licht aus dem Kosmos wesenhaft als sein Wesen tragend; die Wärme aus dem Kosmos als Offenbarer seines eigenen Wesens gestaltend; er wallet als Wesen n/ie eine Welt, sich selber nur bejahend, indem er die Welt bejaht, wie aus allen Weltenstätten Kräfte zur Erde niederführend.
[ 8 ] Dagegen eine solche von Ahriman: Er möchte in seinem Gange aus der Zeit den Raum erobern, er hat Finsternis um sich, in die er die Strahlen des eignen Lichtes sendet; er hat um so stärkeren Frost um sich, je mehr er von seinen Absichten erreicht; er bewegt sich als Welt, die sich ganz in ein Wesen, das eigene, zusammenzieht, in dem er sich selber nur bejaht durch Verneinung der Welt; er bewegt sich, wie wenn er die unheimlichen Kräfte finsterer Höhlen der Erde mit sich führte.
[ 9 ] Wenn der Mensch die Freiheit sucht, ohne Anwandlung zum Egoismus, wenn ihm Freiheit wird reine Liebe zur auszuführenden Handlung, dann hat er die Möglichkeit, sich Michael zu nahen; wenn er in Freiheit wirken will bei Entfaltung des Egoismus, wenn ihm Freiheit wird das stolze Gefühl, sich selber in der Handlung zu offenbaren, dann steht er vor der Gefahr, in Ahrimans Gebiet zu gelangen.
[ 10 ] Die oben geschilderten Imaginationen leuchten auf aus des Menschen Liebe zur Handlung (Michael) oder seiner Eigenliebe zu sich selbst, indem er handelt (Ahriman).
[ 11 ] Indem sich der Mensch als freies Wesen in Michaels Nähe fühlt, ist er auf dem Wege, die Kraft der Intellektualität in seinen «ganzen Menschen» zu tragen; er denkt zwar mit dem Kopfe, aber das Herz fühlt des Denkens Hell oder Dunkel; der Wille strahlt des Menschen Wesen aus, indem er die Gedanken als Absichten in sich strömen hat. Der Mensch wird immer mehr Mensch, indem er Ausdruck der Welt wird; er findet sich, indem er sich nicht sucht, sondern in Liebe sich wollend der Welt verbindet.
[ 12 ] Indem der Mensch seine Freiheit entfaltend in Ahrimans Verlockungen fällt, wird er in die Intellektualität hineingezogen, wie in einen geistigen Automatismus, in dem er ein Glied ist, nicht mehr er selbst. All sein Denken wird Erlebnis des Kopfes; allein dieser sondert es vom Eigenherzerleben und eignem Willensleben ab und löscht das Eigensein aus. Der Mensch verliert immer mehr von seinem innerlich wesenhaft-menschlichen Ausdruck, indem er Ausdruck seines Eigenseins wird; er verliert sich, indem er sich sucht; er entzieht sich der Welt, der er die Liebe verweigert ; aber der Mensch erlebt sich nur wahrhaft, wenn er die Welt liebt.
[ 13 ] Es ist aus dem Geschilderten wohl anschaulich, wie Michael der Führer zu Christus ist. Michael geht mit allem Ernste seines Wesens, seiner Haltung, seines Handelns in Liebe durch die Welt. Wer sich an ihn hält, der pfleget im Verhältnis zur Außenwelt der Liebe. Und Liebe muß im Verhältnis zur Außenwelt sich zunächst entfalten, sonst wird sie Selbstliebe.
[ 14 ] Ist dann diese Liebe in der Michael-Gesinnung da, dann wird Liebe zum andern auch zurückstrahlen können ins eigene Selbst. Dieses wird lieben können, ohne sich selbst zu lieben. Und auf den Wegen solcher Liebe ist Christus durch die Menschenseele zu finden.
[ 15 ] Wer sich an Michael hält, der pfleget im Verhältnis zur Außenwelt der Liebe, und er findet dadurch das Verhältnis zur Innenwelt seiner Seele, das ihn mit Christus zusammenführt.
[ 16 ] Das Zeitalter, das jetzt im Anbrechen ist, bedarf des Hinblickes der Menschheit auf eine Welt, die unmittelbar als geistige an die physisch empfundene angrenzt und in der solches zu finden ist, wie es hier als Michael-Wesenheit und Michael-Mission geschildert ist. Denn die Welt, die sich der Mensch im Anblicke dieser physischen Welt als die Natur ausmalt, ist auch nicht die, in der er unmittelbar lebt, sondern eine solche, die so weit unter der wahrhaft menschlichen liegt wie die michaelische über dieser. Nur merkt der Mensch nicht, daß unbewußt, indem er sich ein Bild seiner Welt macht, eigentlich das einer ändern entsteht. Er ist, indem er dieses Bild malt, schon dabei, sich auszuschalten und dem geistigen Automatisrnus zu verfallen. Der Mensch kann seine Menschheit nur bewahren, wenn er diesem Bilde, in dem er sich als in dem Bilde der Naturanschauung verliert, das andere gegenüberstellt, in dem Michael waltet, in dem Michael die Wege zum Christus führt.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden (Mit Bezug auf die vorangehende Darstellung über die Weltgedanken im Wirken Michaels und im Wirken Ahrimans)
[ 17 ] 121. Man hat ein in der Welt Wirkendes, zum Beispiel die Weltgedanken, in seiner Bedeutung für die Welt noch nicht durchschaut, wenn man bei diesem Wirkenden an sich stehen bleibt, sondern man muß erkennend auf die Wesen blicken, von denen das Wirkende ausgeht; zum Beispiel für die Weltgedanken, ob sie von Michael oder Ahriman in und durch die Welt getragen werden.
[ 18 ] 122. Was von dem einen Wesen ausgehend, wegen dessen Verhältnis zur Welt, heilsam und schaffend wirken kann, das kann sich verderblich und zerstörend erweisen, wenn es von einem ändern Wesen ausgeht. Die Weltgedanken tragen den Menschen in die Zukunft, wenn er sie von Michael empfängt; sie führen ihn von der ihm heilsamen Zukunft hinweg, wenn Ahriman sie ihm geben kann.
[ 19 ] 123. Durch solche Betrachtungen wird man immer mehr dazu gebracht, die Anschauung von einer unbestimmten Geistigkeit, die pantheistisch auf dem Grunde der Dinge walten soll, zu überwinden; und man wird zu einer bestimmten, konkreten geführt, die von den geistigen Wesen der höheren Hierarchien sich Vorstellungen machen kann. Denn die Wirklichkeit besteht ja überall im Wesenhaften; und was in ihr nicht Wesenhaftes ist, das ist die Tätigkeit, die sich im Verhältnisse von Wesen zu Wesen abspielt. Es kann nur begriffen werden, wenn man den Blick auf die tätigen Wesen werfen kann.
The world thoughts in the work of Michael and the work of Ahriman
[ 1 ] The observer of Michael's relationship to Ahriman is probably forced to ask the question: how do these two spiritual powers behave in the cosmic context, insofar as both are active in the unfolding of intellectual powers?
[ 2 ] Michael unfolded intellectuality through the cosmos in the past. He did this as a servant of the divine-spiritual powers that gave both himself and man their origin. And he wants to remain in this relationship to intellectuality. When this detached itself from the divine-spiritual powers in order to find its way into the inner being of man, he decided to place himself from then on in the right way towards humanity in order to find his relationship to intellectuality in it. But he wanted to continue to do all this only in the sense of the divine-spiritual powers as their servant, the powers with which he is connected from his and mankind's origins. Thus his intention is that in the future intellectuality should flow through the hearts of men, but as the same power that it was in the beginning, emanating from the divine-spiritual powers.
[ 3 ] The situation is quite different with Ahriman. This being has long since detached itself from the current of development to which the designated divine-spiritual powers belong. In the distant past it placed itself alongside them as an independent cosmic power. - Now, in the present, it stands spatially within the world to which man belongs, but it develops no connection of forces with the beings that rightfully belong to this world. Only since intellectuality, detached from the divine-spiritual beings, approaches this world, does Ahriman find himself so related to this intellectuality that he can connect himself in his own way with humanity through it. For he has already united with himself in ancient times what man receives in the present like a gift from the cosmos. Ahriman would, if he succeeded in what he intended, make the intellect given to mankind similar to his own. -
[ 4 ] Now Ahriman appropriated intellectuality at a time when he could not internalize it within himself. It remained a force in his being that had nothing to do with heart and soul. Intellectuality emanates from Ahriman as a cold-frosty, soulless cosmic impulse. And people who are seized by this impulse develop a logic that seems to speak for itself in a pitiless and loveless way - in truth, it is Ahriman who speaks in it - in which nothing is revealed that is the true, inner, heartfelt-soul connection of man with what he thinks, speaks and does.
[ 5 ] Michael, however, never appropriated intellectuality. He administers it as a divine-spiritual power by feeling connected to the divine-spiritual powers. In this way, by penetrating intellectuality, he also reveals the possibility of being an expression of the heart, of the soul, just as well as of the head, of the spirit. For Michael carries within him all the original powers of his gods and those of man. As a result, he does not transfer anything cold and frosty or soulless to intellectuality, but stands with it in a warm, soulful way.
[ 6 ] And this is also the reason why Michael wanders through the cosmos with a serious expression and gesture. To be inwardly so connected with the intelligent content, as Michael is, means at the same time having to fulfill the requirement of bringing nothing of subjective arbitrariness, wish or desire into this content. Otherwise logic becomes the arbitrariness of a being instead of an expression of the cosmos. To hold his being strictly as an expression of the world being; to leave everything that wants to stir within as a being of its own also within this being: Michael regards this as his virtue. His mind is directed towards the great connections of the cosmos - his expression speaks of this; his will, which approaches man, should reflect what he sees in the cosmos - his attitude, his gesture speaks of this. Michael is serious in everything, because seriousness as the revelation of a being is the mirror of the cosmos from this being; a smile is the expression of what radiates from a being into the world.
[ 7 ] One of the imaginations of Michael is also this: He walks through time, carrying the light from the cosmos essentially as his being; shaping the warmth from the cosmos as a revelator of his own being; he walks as being n/no world, affirming himself only by affirming the world, as bringing down forces to earth from all places of the world.
[ 8 ] In contrast, such a one from Ahriman: He wants to conquer space in his gait out of time, he has darkness around him into which he sends the rays of his own light; he has all the stronger frost around him the more he achieves of his intentions; it moves as a world that is completely drawn together into one being, its own, in which it affirms itself only by negating the world; it moves as if it carried the uncanny forces of the dark caves of the earth with it.
[ 9 ] When man seeks freedom without any inclination towards egoism, when freedom becomes pure love for the action to be performed, then he has the possibility of approaching Michael; if he wants to work in freedom with the development of egoism, if freedom becomes the proud feeling to reveal himself in the action, then he faces the danger of entering Ahriman's territory.
[ 10 ] The imaginations described above light up out of man's love for action (Michael) or his self-love for himself by acting (Ahriman).
[ 11 ] Inasmuch as man feels himself to be a free being in Michael's proximity, he is on the way to carrying the power of intellectuality into his "whole man"; he thinks with his head, but the heart feels the light or darkness of thought; the will radiates the essence of man by having thoughts flowing within him as intentions. Man becomes more and more human by becoming an expression of the world; he finds himself by not seeking, but by willingly connecting himself to the world in love.
[ 12 ] When man, unfolding his freedom, falls into Ahriman's allurements, he is drawn into intellectuality, as into a spiritual automatism in which he is a member, no longer himself. All his thinking becomes an experience of the head; only the head separates it from his own heart life and his own will life and extinguishes his own being. Man loses more and more of his inner essential human expression by becoming an expression of his own being; he loses himself by seeking himself; he withdraws from the world, which he refuses to love; but man only truly experiences himself when he loves the world.
[ 13 ] It is clear from what has been described how Michael is the guide to Christ. Michael goes through the world with all the seriousness of his nature, his attitude and his actions in love. Whoever adheres to him cultivates love in relation to the outside world, and love must first unfold in relation to the outside world, otherwise it becomes self-love.
[ 14 ] If this love is then present in the Michael attitude, then love for the other will also be able to radiate back into one's own self. It will be able to love without loving itself. And on the paths of such love, Christ can be found through the human soul.
[ 15 ] Whoever adheres to Michael cultivates a relationship with the outer world of love, and thereby finds the relationship with the inner world of his soul, which brings him together with Christ.
[ 16 ] The age that is now dawning requires mankind to look to a world that is directly adjacent to the physically perceived as spiritual and in which such is to be found as is described here as the Michael entity and Michael's mission. For the world which man imagines as nature in the sight of this physical world is also not the one in which he lives directly, but one which lies as far below the truly human as the Michaelic above it. Only man does not realize that unconsciously, by making an image of his world, he actually creates that of a change. By painting this picture, he is already in the process of switching himself off and falling into spiritual automatism. Man can only preserve his humanity if he juxtaposes this image, in which he loses himself as in the image of the view of nature, with the other, in which Michael reigns, in which Michael leads the way to Christ.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (with reference to the previous presentation on the world thoughts in the work of Michael and the work of Ahriman)
[ 17 ] 121 One has not yet seen through something that is active in the world, for example, the world thoughts, in its significance for the world, if one stops at this active thing in itself, but one must look recognizably at the beings from which the active thing emanates; for example, for the world thoughts, whether they are carried into and through the world by Michael or Ahriman.
[ 18 ] 122 What can have a salutary and creative effect starting from one being, because of its relationship to the world, can prove to be pernicious and destructive if it starts from a different being. The thoughts of the world carry man into the future if he receives them from Michael; they lead him away from the future that is salutary for him if Ahriman can give them to him.
[ 19 ] 123 Through such contemplations one is led more and more to overcome the view of an indeterminate spirituality, which is supposed to reign pantheistically at the bottom of things; and one is led to a definite, concrete one, which can form ideas of the spiritual beings of the higher hierarchies. For reality consists everywhere in essence; and what is not essence in it is the activity that takes place in the relationship of being to being. It can only be understood if one can cast one's gaze on the active beings.