The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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 issued by the Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum (with reference to the preceding description of the world thoughts in the work of Michael and in 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.