The Rudolf Steiner Archive

At the Dawn of the Michael Age

[ 1 ] Until the ninth century after the Mystery of Golgotha, man had a different attitude to his thoughts than he did later. He did not have the feeling that he himself produced the thoughts living in his soul. He regarded them as inspirations from a spiritual world. Even if he had thoughts about what he perceived with his senses, the thoughts were revelations of the divine that spoke to him from the sensory things.

[ 2 ] Whoever has spiritual perceptions understands this sensation. For when a spiritually real thing communicates itself to the soul, one never has the feeling that the spiritual perception is there, and one forms the thought oneself in order to comprehend the perception; but one looks at the thought contained in the perception and given with it, as objectively as it is itself.

[ 3 ] By the ninth century - of course, such data should be taken to represent an average time; the transition is very gradual - personal-individual intelligence began to emerge in human souls. Man got the feeling: I form the thoughts. And this forming of the thoughts became the outstanding thing in the life of the soul, so that the thinkers saw the essence of the human soul in intelligent behavior. Previously, people had an imaginative conception of the soul. Its essence was not seen in the forming of thoughts, but in its participation in the spiritual content of the world. The supersensible spiritual beings were thought of as thinking; and they work into man; they also think into him. What thus lives in man from the supersensible spiritual world was perceived as a soul.

[ 4 ] As soon as one penetrates into the spiritual world with one's view, one comes into contact with concrete spiritual powers. In ancient teachings, the power from which the thoughts of things flow was called Michael. The name can be retained. Then you can say: people once received thoughts from Michael. Michael administered the cosmic intelligence. From the ninth century onwards, people no longer felt that Michael inspired their thoughts. They had fallen from his dominion; they fell from the spiritual world into the individual human souls.

[ 5 ] The thought life was now formed within humanity. At first, people were unsure of what they thought. This uncertainty lived on in the scholastic teachings. The scholastics were divided into realists and nominalists. The realists - whose leaders were Thomas Aquinas and those close to him - still felt the old connection between thought and thing. They therefore saw in thought a real thing that lives in things. They saw human thoughts as something that flows from things into the soul as reality. - The nominalists strongly felt that the soul forms its thoughts. They perceived thoughts only as something subjective that lives in the soul and has nothing to do with things. They thought that thoughts were only names formed by man for things. (They did not speak of "thoughts", but of "universals"; but this does not apply to the principle of perception, since thoughts always have something universal in relation to the individual things.

[ 6 ] We can say: The realists wanted to remain faithful to Michael; even since thoughts had fallen from his realm into that of humans, as thinkers they wanted to serve Michael as the prince of the intelligence of the cosmos. - In the unconscious part of their souls, the Nominalists fell away from Michael. They did not regard Michael, but man as the owner of thoughts.

[ 7 ] Nominalism became more widespread and influential. This continued until the last third of the nineteenth century. In this age, those people who understand the perception of spiritual events within the universe felt that Michael had followed the stream of intellectual life. He was searching for a new metamorphosis of his cosmic task. He had previously allowed thoughts to flow from the spiritual outer world into the souls of men; from the last third of the nineteenth century he wants to live in the human souls in which the thoughts are formed. Before, people related to Michael saw Michael unfold his activity in the spirit realm; now they recognize that they should let Michael dwell in their hearts; now they consecrate their thought-born spiritual life to him; now they let Michael teach them in the free, individual thought life which are the right ways of the soul.

[ 8 ] People who had been in inspired thought life in the previous earth life, i.e. were Michael servants, felt themselves urged to such a voluntary Michael community when they returned to earth life at the end of the nineteenth century. They now regarded their old thought inspirer as the sage in the higher thought being.

[ 9 ] Those who know how to pay attention to such things could know what a turnaround took place in the last third of the nineteenth century with regard to people's thought life. Before, man could only feel how thoughts were formed out of his being; from the time period indicated, he can rise above his being; he can direct the mind into the spiritual; there Michael confronts him, and he proves to be an ancient relative of all thought weaving. He frees the thoughts from the realm of the head; he clears the way for them to the heart; he releases the enthusiasm from the mind so that man can live in spiritual devotion to everything that can be experienced in the light of thought. The Michael age has dawned. Hearts begin to have thoughts; enthusiasm no longer flows from mere mystical darkness, but from thought-born clarity of soul. To understand this means to take Michael into one's mind. Thoughts that strive to grasp the spiritual today must come from hearts that beat for Michael as the fiery prince of thought in the universe.

Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society

[ 10 ] 79. The third Hierarchy (Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi) can be approached spiritually when one learns to know thinking, feeling and willing in such a way that one becomes aware of the spiritual working in the soul. Thinking initially only presents images, not a real thing in the world. Feeling weaves in this imagery; it speaks for something real in man, but cannot live it out. The will unfolds a reality that presupposes the body but does not consciously participate in its formation. The beingness that lives in thinking in order to make the body the basis of this thinking, the beingness that lives in feeling in order to make the body a co-experiencer of a reality, the beingness that lives in willing in order to consciously participate in its shaping, is alive in the third hierarchy.

[ 11 ] 80. One can approach the second hierarchy (Exusiai, Dynameis, Kyriotetes) spiritually if one sees the facts of nature as phenomena of a spiritual being living in them. The second hierarchy then has nature as its abode in order to work in it on the souls.

[ 12 ] 81. The first Hierarchy (seraphim, cherubim, thrones) can be approached spiritually if the facts existing in the natural and human kingdoms are seen as the deeds (creations) of a spiritual being working in them. The first hierarchy then has the natural and human kingdoms as its effect, in which it unfolds.

(Continued in the next issue.)