Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
24. Man in His Macrocosmic Nature
[ 1 ] The Cosmos reveals itself to man, first of all, from the aspect of the Earth and from the aspect of what is outside the Earth, viz. the world of the stars.
[ 2 ] Man feels himself related to the Earth and its forces. Life gives him very clear instruction regarding this relationship.
[ 3 ] In the present age he does not feel himself related in the same way to the stars that are around him. But this lasts only so long as he is not conscious of his etheric body. To grasp the etheric body in Imaginations means to develop a feeling that we belong to the world of the stars, just as we have this feeling regarding the Earth through the consciousness of the physical body.
[ 4 ] The forces which place the etheric body in the world come from the Cosmos around the Earth; those for the physical body radiate from the centre of the Earth.
[ 5 ] But together with the etheric forces which stream to the Earth from the sphere of the Cosmos there come also the World-impulses which work in the astral body of man.
[ 6 ] The ether is like an ocean in which the astral forces swim from all directions of the Cosmos and approach the Earth.
[ 7 ] But in the present cosmic age only the mineral and plant kingdoms come into a direct relation to the astral, which streams down to the Earth on the waves of the ether; not the animal kingdom and not the human kingdom.
[ 8 ] Spiritual vision shows that in the animal embryo there lives, not the astral that is now streaming to the Earth, but that which streamed in during the Old Moon period.
[ 9 ] In the case of the plant kingdom we see how its manifold and wonderful forms are developed through the astral loosening itself from the ether and working over to the world of plants.
[ 10 ] In the animal kingdom we see how, from out of the Spiritual, the astral which was active in very ancient times—during the Moon evolution—has been preserved, and works as something stored up and preserved, remaining on at the present time in the spirit-world, and not coming forth into the etheric world.
[ 11 ] The activity of this astral is, moreover, mediated by the Moon-forces, which have likewise remained in the same condition, from the previous stage of the Earth.
[ 12 ] In the animal kingdom we have, therefore, the result of impulses which manifested themselves externally in Nature in a previous stage of Earth-existence, whereas in the present cosmic age they have withdrawn into the Spirit-world which actively penetrates the Earth.
[ 13 ] Now it is manifest to spiritual vision that within the animal kingdom only the astral forces which have been preserved in the present Earth from the former period are important for the permeation of the physical and etheric bodies with the astral body. But when the animal is once in possession of its astral body, the Sun-impulses appear actively in this astral body. The Sun-forces cannot give the animal anything astral; but when this is once in the animal, they must set to work and foster growth, nutrition, etc.
[ 14 ] It is different for the human kingdom. This, too, receives its astrality to begin with from the Moon-forces that have been preserved. But the Sun-forces contain astral impulses which while they remain inactive for the animal kingdom, in the human astral continue to act in the same way in which Moon-forces worked when man was first permeated with astrality.
[ 15 ] In the animal astral body we see the world of the Moon; in the human, the harmonious accord of the worlds of the Sun and Moon.
[ 16 ] The fact that man is able to receive, for the development of self-consciousness, the Spiritual which rays forth in what belongs to the Earth, depends upon this which belongs to the Sun in the human astral body. The astral streams in from the sphere of the Universe. It acts either as astrality which pours in at the present time or as astrality which streamed in, in ancient times and has been preserved. But everything that is connected with the shaping of the Ego as the vehicle of self-consciousness must radiate from the centre of a star. The astral works from the circumference; that which belongs to the Ego works from a centre. From its centre the Earth as a star gives the impulse to the human Ego. Every star radiates from its centre forces which mould or shape the Ego of some being.
[ 17 ] This shows the polarity existing between the centre of a star and the sphere of the Cosmos.
[ 18 ] From the above it may also be seen how the animal kingdom still stands there today as the result of former evolutionary forces of the Earth's being, how it uses up the astral forces which have been preserved, and how it must disappear when these have been consumed. Man, however, acquires new astral forces from that which belongs to the Sun. These enable him to carry on his evolution into the future.
[ 19 ] From all this it may be seen that the nature of man cannot be understood unless we are just as conscious of his connection with the stars as of his connection with the Earth.
[ 20 ] And that which man receives from the Earth for the unfolding of his self-consciousness depends also upon the Spirit world active within all that belongs to the Earth. The circumstance that the Sun gives to man what he needs for his astral depends upon the activities which took place during the Old Sun period. At that time the Earth received the capacity to unfold the Ego-impulses of humanity. It is the Spiritual from that period which the Earth has preserved for itself from the Sun nature; and it is preserved from dying out through the present activity of the Sun.
[ 21 ] The Earth was itself Sun at one time. Then it was spiritualised. In the present cosmic age, what belongs to the Sun works from outside. This continually rejuvenates the Spiritual which originated in ancient times and is now growing old. At the same time this which belongs to the Sun and acts in the present, preserves that which belongs to a former period from falling into what is Luciferic. For that which continues to work, without being received into the forces of the present, succumbs to Luciferic influences.
[ 23 ] We may say that man's feeling of belonging to the Cosmos beyond the Earth is in this cosmic epoch so dim that he does not notice it within his consciousness. And it is not only dim, it is drowned by his feeling of belonging to the Earth. As man is obliged to find his self-consciousness in the elements of the Earth, he so grows together with them during the early part of the age of the Spiritual Soul, that they act upon him much more strongly than is compatible with the true course of his soul-life. Man is to a certain extent stupefied by the impressions of the world of the senses, and during this condition, thought which is free and has life in itself cannot rise within man.
[ 24 ] The whole of the period since the middle of the nineteenth century has been a period of stupefaction through the impressions received by the senses. It is the great illusion of this age that the over-powerful life of the senses has been considered to be the right one—that life of the senses whose aim was to obliterate completely the life in the Cosmos beyond the Earth.
[ 25 ] In this stupefaction the Ahrimanic Powers were able to unfold their being. Lucifer was repulsed by the Sun-forces more than Ahriman, who was able to evoke, especially in scientific people, the dangerous feeling that ideas are applicable only to the impressions of the senses. Thus it is exactly in these circles that one can find so little understanding for Anthroposophy. They stand face to face with the results of spiritual knowledge and try to understand them with their ideas. But these ideas do not grasp the Spiritual because the experience of the ideas is drowned by the Ahrimanic knowledge of the senses. And so they begin to fear that if they have anything to do with the results of spiritual investigation, they may fall into a blind belief in authority.
[ 26 ] In the second half of the nineteenth century the Cosmos beyond the Earth became darker and darker for human consciousness.
[ 27 ] When man becomes able to experience ideas within himself once more, then, even when he does not support his ideas on the world of the senses, light will again meet his gaze from the Cosmos beyond the Earth. But this signifies that he will become acquainted with Michael in his own kingdom.
[ 28 ] When once the Festival of Michael in autumn becomes true and inward, then this thought will arise in all sincerity in the mind of him who celebrates the festival, and it will live in his consciousness: Filled with ideas, the soul experiences Spirit Light, when sense-appearance only echoes in man like a memory.
[ 29 ] If man is able to feel this he will also be able, after his festive mood, to plunge again in the right way into the world of the senses. And Ahriman will not be able to injure him.
(March, 1925)
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (in connection with the foregoing study: Man in his macrocosmic Nature)
[ 30 ] 168. In the beginning of the age of the Spiritual Soul, man's sense of community with the Cosmos beyond the Earth grew dim. On the other hand—and this was so especially in men of science—his sense of belonging to the earthly realm grew so intense in the experience of sense-impressions, as to amount to a stupefaction.
[ 31 ] 169. While he is thus stupefied, the Ahrimanic powers work upon man most dangerously. For he lives in the illusion that the over-intense, stupefying experience of sense-impressions is the right thing and represents the true progress in evolution.
[ 32 ] 170. Man must find the strength to fill his world of Ideas with light and to experience it so, even when unsupported by the stupefying world of sense. In this experience of the world of Ideas—independent and in their independence filled with light—his sense of community with the Cosmos beyond the Earth will re-awaken. Hence will arise the true foundation for festivals of Michael.
Der Mensch in seiner makrokosmischen Wesenheit
(Goetheanum, Januar 1925)
[ 1 ] Der Kosmos offenbart sich dem Menschen zunächst von Seite der Erde und von der Seite des Außerirdischen, der Sternenwelt.
[ 2 ] Mit der Erde und ihren Kräften fühlt sich der Mensch verwandt. Das Leben belehrt ihn über diese Verwandtschaft mit großer Deutlichkeit.
[ 3 ] Nicht so fühlt er sich im gegenwärtigen Zeitalter verwandt mit der Sternenumgebung. Aber dies dauert nur so lange, als er sich seines Ätherleibes nicht bewußt ist. Den Ätherleib in Imaginationen erfassen, heißt ein Zusammengehörigkeitsgefühl mit der Sternenwelt so entwickeln, wie man dies durch das Bewußtsein vom physischen Leibe von der Erde hat.
[ 4 ] Die Kräfte, die den Ätherleib in die Welt hineinstellen, kommen aus dem Umkreis der Welt, wie die für den physischen Leib aus dem Mittelpunkt der Erde strahlen.
[ 5 ] Aber mit den Ätherkräften, die aus dem Umkreis des Kosmos auf die Erde einströmen, kommen auch diejenigen Weltimpulse, die im astralischen Leibe des Menschen wirken.
[ 6 ] Der Äther ist wie ein Meer, in dem sich schwimmend aus den allseitigen Weltenfernen die Astralkräfte der Erde nähern. –
[ 7 ] Im gegenwärtigen kosmischen Zeitalter können aber nur das Mineral- und das Pflanzenreich in ein unmittelbares Verhältnis zu dem Astralen kommen, das auf den Wogen des Äthers auf die Erde hereinströmt. Nicht das Tierreich und nicht das Menschenreich.
[ 8 ] Beim Tierreich zeigt das geistige Schauen, wie im Embryonalen nicht das gegenwärtig auf die Er de einströmende Astrale lebt, sondern dasjenige, das noch zur alten Mondenzeit eingeströmt ist.
[ 9 ] Bei dem Pflanzenreich schaut man, wie die mannigfaltigen wunderbaren Formen gebildet werden, indem aus dem Äther das Astrale sich löst und über die Pflanzenwelt hin wirkt.
[ 10 ] Bei der Tierwelt schaut man, wie aus dem Geistigen heraus das vorzeitlich - während der Mondenentwickelung -wirksame Astrale aufbewahrt worden ist und als solches Aufbewahrtes wirkt, das gegenwärtig in der Geistwelt verbleibt und nicht in die Ätherwelt heraustritt.
[ 11 ] Die Wirksamkeit dieses Astralen wird auch durch die Mondenkräfte vermittelt, die ja ebenfalls aus dem vorigen Erdenstadium verblieben sind.
[ 12 ] Man hat also im Tierreich das Ergebnis von Impulsen, die im vorigen Erdenstadium sich äußerlich-naturhaft offenbarten, während sie im gegenwärtigen kosmischen Zeitalter sich in die Geistwelt zurückgezogen haben, die wirksam die Erde durchströmt.
[ 13 ] Nun zeigt sich dem geistigen Schauen, daß innerhalb des Tierreiches für die Durchdringung des physischen und des Ätherleibes mit dem Astralleib lediglich die im gegenwärtigen Irdischen aus der Vorzeit bewahrten Astralkräfte bedeutsam sind. Hat aber das Tier einmal seinen Astralleib, dann treten in demselben die Sonnen-Impulse wirksam auf. Die Sonnenkräfte können dem Tiere nichts von Astralischem geben; wohl aber müssen sie, wenn dieses einmal im Tiere ist, für Wachstum, Ernährung und so weiter eintreten.
[ 14 ] Anders ist dies für das Menschenreich. Auch dieses erhält zunächst sein Astrales von den bewahrten Mondenkräften. Aber die Sonnenkräfte enthalten Astralimpulse, die für das Tierreich unwirksam bleiben, die aber im menschlichen Astralen so fortwirken, wie die Mondenkräfte beim ersten Durchdringen des Menschen mit Astralität gewirkt haben.
[ 15 ] Im tierischen Astralleib schaut man die Mondenwelt; im menschlichen den harmonischen Zusammenklang von Sonnen- und Mondenwelt.
[ 16 ] Auf diesem Sonnenhaften im menschlichen Astralleib beruht es, daß der Mensch das im Irdischen ausstrahlende Geistige zur Heranbildung des Selbstbewußtseins aufnehmen kann. Das Astralische strömt aus dem Umkreis des Weltenalls. Es wirkt entweder als solches, das gegenwärtig einströmt, oder als solches, das in der Vorzeit eingeströmt und bewahrt worden ist. — Alles aber, was sich auf Gestaltung des Ich als Träger des Selbstbewußtseins bezieht, muß von einem Sternmittelpunkt ausstrahlen. Das Astralische wirkt aus dem Umkreis, das Ich-mäßige aus einem Mittelpunkt. Die Erde als Stern impulsiert von ihrem Mittelpunkte aus das menschliche Ich. Jeder Stern strahlt von seinem Mittelpunkte aus Kräfte, von denen das Ich irgendeiner Wesenheit gestaltet ist.
[ 17 ] So stellt sich die Polarität von Sternmittelpunkt und kosmischem Umkreis dar.
[ 18 ] Man sieht aus dieser Darstellung zugleich, wie das Tierreich als ein Ergebnis früherer Entwickelungskräfte des Erdenwesens heute noch dasteht, wie es die bewahrten Astralkräfte verbraucht, wie es aber verschwinden muß, wenn diese verbraucht sind. Beim Menschen werden dagegen vom Sonnenhaften aus neue Astralkräfte erworben. Diese machen es ihm möglich, seine Entwickelung in die Zukunft zu tragen.
[ 19 ] Man kann, wie man aus alle dem ersieht, den Menschen in seiner Wesenheit nicht verstehen, wenn man sich seines Zusammenhangs mit dem Sternensein nicht ebenso bewußt wird wie desjenigen mit der Erde.
[ 20 ] Und was der Mensch von der Erde für die Entfaltung seines Selbstbewußtseins empfängt, rührt ja auch von der innerhalb des Irdischen wirksamen Geist-Welt her. — Daß das Sonnenhafte dem Menschen gibt, was er für sein Astralisches braucht, das rührt von den Wirkungen her, die sich während der alten Sonnenzeit abgespielt haben. Da hat die Erde die Fähigkeit empfangen, die Ich-Impulse der Menschheit zu entfalten. Es ist das Geistige aus dieser Zeit, das sich die Erde aus dem Sonnenhaften bewahrt hat, das aber durch die gegenwärtige Sonnenwirkung vor dem Ersterben bewahrt wird.
[ 21 ] Die Erde war einst selbst Sonne. Da hat sie sich vergeistigt. Im gegenwärtigen kosmischen Zeitalter wirkt das Sonnenhafte von außen. Dieses verjüngt fortdauernd das alt werdende, aus der Vorzeit stammende Geistige. Zugleich bewahrt dieses gegenwärtig wirkende Sonnenhafte das Vorzeitliche vor dem Hineinfallen in das Luziferische. Denn was, ohne in die Kräfte der Gegenwart aufgenommen zu werden, fortwirkt, verfällt dem Luziferischen.
[ 22 ] Man kann sagen, des Menschen Zusammengehörigkeitsgefühl mit dem außerirdischen Kosmos sei in dieser kosmischen Epoche so abgedämpft, daß er es nicht innerhalb seines Bewußtseins bemerkt. Und es ist nicht nur abgedämpft, es wird übertönt von dem Zusammengehörigkeitsgefühl
[ 23 ] mit dem Irdischen. Weil der Mensch sein Selbstbewußtsein im Irdischen finden muß, wächst er mit diesem während des Anfangs des Bewußtseinsseelen-Zeitalters so zusammen, daß es viel stärker auf ihn wirkt, als dies mit dem rechten Verlauf seines Seelenlebens vereinbar ist. — Der Mensch ist gewissermaßen von den Eindrücken der Sinnenwelt betäubt. Er kommt innerhalb dieser Betäubung mit dem freien, in sich selbst lebenden Denken nicht auf.
[ 24 ] Die ganze Zeitepoche von der Mitte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts an war eine solche der Betäubung durch die Sinneseindrücke. Das ist die große Illusion dieser Zeitepoche, daß man in ihr das zu starke Sinnesleben für das rechte genommen hat. Jenes Sinnesleben, das das Leben im außerirdischen Kosmos ganz auszulöschen bestrebt war.
[ 25 ] In diese Betäubung hinein konnten die ahrimanischen Mächte ihr Wesen entfalten. Luzifer war durch das Sonnenhafte mehr zurückgewiesen als Ahriman, der in der Lage war, die gefährliche Empfindung gerade in den wissenschaftlichen Menschen hervorzurufen, daß die Ideen nur auf die Sinnes-Eindrücke anwendbar seien. So kann gerade in diesen Kreisen Anthroposophie wenig Verständnis finden. Man steht den Ergebnissen der Geist-Erkenntnis gegenüber. Man sucht sie mit den Ideen zu verstehen. Doch diese Ideen fassen das Geistige nicht, weil ihr Erleben von der ahrimanisierten Sinnes-Erkenntnis übertäubt ist. Und so kommt man in die Furcht hinein, man verfalle blindem Autoritätsglauben, wenn man sich auf die Ergebnisse des geistig Schauenden einläßt.
[ 26 ] Immer finsterer wurde in der zweiten Hälfte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts für das menschliche Bewußtsein der außerirdische Kosmos.
[ 27] Wenn der Mensch in sich die Ideen zu erleben wieder fähig wird, auch dann, wenn er sich mit ihnen nicht an die Sinneswelt anlehnt, dann wird dem Blick in den außerirdischen Kosmos wieder Helligkeit entgegenströmen. Das aber heißt Michael in seinem Reiche kennenlernen.
[ 28 ] Wenn einmal das Michael-Fest im Herbste wahr und innig sein wird, dann wird in der Empfindung der das Fest begehenden Menschen mit innerster Ehrlichkeit sich das Leitmotiv loslösen und im Bewußtsein leben: Ideen-erfüllt erlebt die Seele Geistes-Licht, wenn der Sinnenschein nur wie Erinnerung in dem Menschen nachklingt.
[ 29 ] Wenn der Mensch solches wird empfinden können, dann wird er nach der Festes-Stimmung auch wieder richtig in die Sinneswelt untertauchen können. Und Ahriman wird ihm nicht schaden können.
Goetheanum, Januar 1925.
Leitsätze Nr. 168 bis 170
(8. März 1925)
(Mit Bezug auf die vorangehende Betrachtung: Der Mensch in seiner makrokosmischen Wesenheit)
[ 30 ] 168. Im Beginne des Bewußtseinszeitalters trat eine Abdämpfung des Zusammengehörigkeitsgefühles des Menschen mit dem außerirdischen Kosmos auf. Im Gegensatz hierzu wurde das Zusammengehörigkeitsgefühl mit dem Irdischen im Erleben der Sinneseindrücke gerade bei den wissenschaftlichen Menschen so stark, daß es eine Betäubung darstellt.
[ 31 ] 169. Innerhalb dieser Betäubung wirken die ahrimanischen Mächte besonders gefährlich, weil der Mensch in der Illusion lebt, das zu starke, betäubende Erleben der Sinnes-Eindrücke sei das Rechte und ein wahrer Fortschritt in der Entwickelung.
[ 32 ] 170. Der Mensch muß die Kraft finden, seine Ideenwelt zu durchleuchten und durchleuchtet zu erleben, auch wenn er sich mit ihr nicht an die betäubende Sinneswelt anlehnt. An diesem Erleben der selbständigen, in ihrer Selbständigkeit durchleuchteten Ideenwelt wird das Zusammengehörigkeitsgefühl mit dem außerirdischen Kosmos erwachen. Die Grundlage für Michael-Feste wird daraus erstehen.
The human being in his macrocosmic essence
(Goetheanum, January 1925)
[ 1 ] The cosmos reveals itself to man first from the side of the earth and from the side of the extraterrestrial, the starry world.
[ 2 ] Man feels a kinship with the earth and its forces. Life teaches him about this kinship with great clarity.
[ 3 ] Not so does he feel in the present age related to the stellar environment. But this only lasts as long as he is unaware of his etheric body. To grasp the etheric body in imaginations means to develop a sense of belonging to the starry world in the same way as one has through the consciousness of the physical body of the earth.
[ 4 ] The forces that place the etheric body into the world come from the circle of the world, just as those for the physical body radiate from the center of the earth.
[ 5 ] But with the etheric forces that flow into the earth from the circumference of the cosmos also come those world impulses that work in the astral body of the human being.
[ 6 ] The ether is like a sea in which the astral forces approach the earth, floating from the far reaches of the cosmos. -
[ 7 ] In the present cosmic age, however, only the mineral and plant kingdoms can enter into a direct relationship with the astral, which flows in upon the earth on the waves of the ether. Not the animal kingdom and not the human kingdom.
[ 8 ] In the animal kingdom, spiritual vision shows how in the embryonic it is not the astral that is currently flowing into the earth that lives, but that which still flowed in during the old lunar period.
[ 9 ] In the plant kingdom, one can see how the manifold wonderful forms are formed by the astral being released from the ether and working over the plant world.
[ 10 ] In the animal world, one sees how the astral, which was active in the past - during the development of the moon - has been preserved out of the spiritual and acts as such preserved things, which currently remain in the spiritual world and do not emerge into the etheric world.
[ 11 ] The effectiveness of this astral is also mediated by the lunar forces, which have also remained from the previous earth stage.
[ 12 ] The animal kingdom is thus the result of impulses which in the previous earthly stage manifested themselves externally-naturally, whereas in the present cosmic age they have withdrawn into the spirit world, which effectively flows through the earth.
[ 13 ] Now it becomes apparent to spiritual vision that within the animal kingdom only the astral forces preserved in the present earthly world from the past are significant for the interpenetration of the physical and etheric bodies with the astral body. But once the animal has its astral body, then the solar impulses effectively appear in it. The solar forces cannot give the animal anything of an astral nature; however, once this is in the animal, they must be used for growth, nourishment and so on.
[ 14 ] This is different for the human kingdom. This too initially receives its astral from the preserved lunar forces. But the solar forces contain astral impulses which remain ineffective for the animal kingdom, but which continue to work in the human astral in the same way as the lunar forces did when they first penetrated man with astrality.
[ 15 ] In the animal astral body one sees the lunar world; in the human the harmonious consonance of the solar and lunar worlds.
[ 16 ] It is based on this solar nature in the human astral body that man can absorb the spiritual emanating in the earthly world for the development of self-consciousness. The astral emanates from the circumference of the universe. It works either as that which streams in at present, or as that which has streamed in and been preserved in the past. - But everything that relates to the shaping of the ego as the carrier of self-consciousness must radiate from a star center. The astral works from the circumference, the ego-like from a center. The earth as a star impulses the human ego from its center. Every star radiates forces from its center by which the ego of any entity is formed.
[ 17 ] This is how the polarity of the center of the star and the cosmic circumference is represented.
[ 18 ] This illustration also shows how the animal kingdom still exists today as a result of earlier developmental forces of the earthly being, how it uses up the preserved astral forces, but how it must disappear when these are used up. In the human being, on the other hand, new astral forces are acquired from the solar being. These make it possible for him to carry his development into the future.
[ 19 ] As can be seen from all this, one cannot understand man in his essence if one does not become as conscious of his connection with being stars as one is of his connection with the earth.
[ 20 ] And what man receives from the earth for the unfolding of his self-consciousness also derives from the spirit-world that is effective within the earthly. - The fact that the sun gives the human being what he needs for his astral being stems from the effects that took place during the old solar time. There the earth received the ability to unfold the ego impulses of humanity. It is the spiritual from this time that the earth has preserved from the solar, but which is protected from extinction by the present solar effect.
[ 21 ] The earth itself was once the sun. Then it spiritualized itself. In the present cosmic age, the solar nature works from outside. This continually rejuvenates the ageing spiritual from the past. At the same time, this presently active solar nature protects the prehistoric from falling into the Luciferic. For that which continues to work without being absorbed into the forces of the present falls into the Luciferian.
[ 22 ] It can be said that man's sense of belonging to the extraterrestrial cosmos is so muted in this cosmic epoch that he does not notice it within his consciousness. And it is not only muted, it is drowned out by the feeling of togetherness
[ 23 ] with the earthly. Because man must find his self-consciousness in the earthly, he grows together with it during the beginning of the consciousness soul age in such a way that it has a much stronger effect on him than is compatible with the right course of his soul life. - Man is, as it were, stunned by the impressions of the world of the senses, and within this stupefaction he does not come to terms with the free thinking that lives within himself.
[ 24 ] The whole epoch from the middle of the nineteenth century onwards was one of anaesthesia through sensory impressions. That is the great illusion of this epoch, that in it the sensory life was taken for the right one. That sensory life which endeavored to completely extinguish life in the extraterrestrial cosmos.
[ 25 ] Into this stupor the Ahrimanic powers were able to unfold their nature. Lucifer was more rejected by the solar than Ahriman, who was able to evoke the dangerous feeling in scientific people that ideas are only applicable to sensory impressions. Thus it is precisely in these circles that anthroposophy can find little understanding. One is confronted with the results of spirit-knowledge. One tries to understand them with the ideas. But these ideas do not grasp the spiritual, because their experience is drowned out by ahrimanized sense knowledge. And so one falls into the fear of falling into a blind belief in authority if one accepts the results of the spiritually seeing.
[ 26 ] In the second half of the nineteenth century, the extraterrestrial cosmos became increasingly dark for human consciousness.
[ 27] When man becomes capable of experiencing the ideas within himself again, even if he does not lean on the sensory world with them, then brightness will again flow towards the view into the extraterrestrial cosmos. But that means getting to know Michael in his realm.
[ 28 ] When once the Michael festival in autumn will be true and intimate, then the leitmotif will be released in the feelings of the people celebrating the festival with innermost sincerity and live in consciousness: The soul experiences spirit-light filled with ideas, when the sensual light only echoes like memory in the human being.
[ 29 ] When man will be able to feel this, then he will be able to immerse himself properly in the sensual world again after the festive mood. And Ahriman will not be able to harm him.
Goetheanum, January 1925.
Guiding Principles No. 168 to 170
(March 8, 1925)
(With reference to the preceding consideration: Man in his macrocosmic essence)
[ 30 ] 168 At the beginning of the Age of Consciousness, there was a weakening of man's feeling of togetherness with the extraterrestrial cosmos. In contrast to this, the feeling of belonging to the earthly in the experience of sensory impressions became so strong, especially among scientific people, that it represents a numbing.
[ 31 ] 169 Within this stupefaction, the ahrimanic powers are particularly dangerous because man lives in the illusion that the too strong, stupefying experience of sensory impressions is the right thing and a true progress in development.
[ 32 ] 170 Man must find the strength to illuminate his world of ideas and to experience it illuminated, even if he does not lean on the numbing world of the senses. This experience of the independent world of ideas, illuminated in its independence, will awaken the feeling of togetherness with the extraterrestrial cosmos. The basis for Michaelmas celebrations will arise from this.