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Karmic Relationships VI
GA 240

19 July 1924, Arnheim

Lecture VIII

Yesterday I spoke of the karma of the Anthroposophical Society. To-day I propose to speak of certain cognate matters, and in such a way that the present lecture will be comprehensible in itself.

Everything that will have to be achieved in the present epoch of evolution as a preparation for spiritual happenings in the near and more distant future, is connected with what, among anthroposophists, I have often called the Michael Event. And in connection with this Michael Event I want to speak to-day about something that concerns the Anthroposophical Movement.

In speaking of a happening such as this Michael Event, it must always be remembered that the world develops by stages. When we study the evolution of the world with the faculties which man's earthly life between birth and death enables him to possess to-day, we see humanity evolving on the Earth, we see ancient peoples arising from still earlier peoples; we see that from the background of very ancient Oriental civilisations, from the Indian, the Chinese, the Arabian and the Chaldean-Egyptian peoples, the Greeks and the Romans gradually emerge; then we come to the Middle Ages and finally to our own age—our modern age with all its aberrations but also with its great technical achievements. Yet not only is there this external development of the peoples but as it were behind it, evolution is also taking place. We can perceive evolution being passed through not only by mankind but also by spiritual Beings who are connected in certain ways with the evolution of humanity. In their ranks are those Beings called the Angeloi—the Angels in Christian terminology. They are directly connected with the individual human being. They lead, or guide him in so far as he needs guidance, from one earthly life to another and are his Guardians, his Protectors, whenever and wherever he needs their protection. Therefore, super-sensible though they be and imperceptible to earthly sight, the Angeloi are directly connected with mankind's evolution.

In the next immediately adjacent spiritual realm, the Beings whom we call the Hierarchy of the Archangeloi, the Archangels, unfold their activity. The Archangeloi have to do with much that also plays a part in the evolution of humanity. They have to do, not with the individual human being, but with groups of human beings. Thus, as I have said in many anthroposophical lectures, the evolution of the peoples is under the rulership of Archangelic Beings. But it is also the case that certain epochs in Earth-evolution receive their essential impulses from individual Archangeloi. For example, during the three centuries preceding the last third of the nineteenth century, namely during the nineteenth, eighteenth, seventeenth centuries and part of the sixteenth, we must think of the civilised world as being essentially under the dominion of the Archangel known to Christians capable of speaking of these things, as Gabriel. This period was therefore the Age of Gabriel.

This particular Gabriel Age is of great significance for the whole evolution of mankind in modern times, for the following reason. Since the Mystery of Golgotha took place it has been possible for men on the Earth to have this realisation: Through the Mystery of Golgotha, Christ, the sublime Being of the Sun, has come down to the Earth. He has descended from the Sun to the Earth, entering into the body of Jesus and uniting Himself with Earth's destiny. But although the Christ Being has remained united with the Earth, it has not been possible through the succeeding rulerships of Archangeloi from the time of the Mystery of Golgotha until that of the dominion of Gabriel, for the Christ Impulse itself actually to lay hold of the inner physical and etheric forces of mankind. This became possible for the first time under the Gabriel impulse which began to work about three hundred years before the last third of the nineteenth century. Thus, in reality, it is only since that time that by way of the forces of heredity themselves the Christ Impulse has been able to penetrate humanity inwardly. As yet this has not been achieved.

Gabriel rules over the whole realm of the physical forces of heredity within humanity. He is the super-sensible Spirit who is connected essentially with the sequence of the generations, who is—if I may put it so—the great Guardian Spirit of the mothers who bring children into the world. Gabriel has to do with births, with the embryonic development of the human being. The forces of Gabriel work in the spiritual processes underlying the physical process of propagation. And so it is only since this recent Gabriel rulership that the physical propagation of mankind on Earth has come into connection in the real sense with the Christ Impulse.

From the end of the eighteen-seventies, the rulership of Michael begins. It is a rulership altogether different in character from that of Gabriel. Whereas the rulership of the Archangel in the three preceding centuries comes to expression in spiritual impulses working in the physical, Michael is the Archangel who in his rulership has paramountly to do with the powers of the intelligence in mankind, with everything, therefore, that concerns the intellectual, the spiritual evolution and culture of mankind. In any study of the earthly circumstances of humanity it is extremely important to realise that the Gabriel rulership which in the spiritual sphere has an effect upon what is most deeply physical, is always followed by the regency of Michael, who has to do with the spiritual element in culture. The Archangel Gabriel, therefore, is the Divine Guardian of the process of physical propagation. The Spirit who has to do with the development of the sciences, of the arts, of the cultural element of the epoch, is the Archangel known in Christianity as Michael. Over those civilisations which are predominant in every epoch, seven successive Archangel-rulerships take place. Six other such rulerships have therefore preceded the present rulership of Michael. And if, beginning with Gabriel, we go backwards through these rulerships, we come to an epoch when Michael again held sway. Every such rulership, therefore, is always the repetition of earlier, identical rulerships, and the evolution of the Archangels themselves takes place through this cyclic progress. After a period of about two thousand years, the same Archangel always assumes the rulership again within the predominating civilisation.

But these periods of rulership, each of which lasts for a little over three hundred years, are essentially different from one another. The difference is not always as great as it is between the Michael rulership and the Gabriel rulership, but the rulerships are, nevertheless, essentially different. And here we can say: Each reign of Gabriel is preparatory to an age when the peoples become more widely separated from one another and more differentiated. In the age following his dominion the nationalistic tendency also becomes accentuated. So, if you ask yourself why it is that such strong nationalistic feeling is asserting itself to-day under the rulership of Michael, which has now begun, the answer is that preparation took place spiritually a long time ago; the influence worked on and then began to decline, but the after-effects—often worse than the event itself—continue. It is only by degrees that the impulse of Michael can make its way into what is, to a great extent, a legacy from the past reign of Gabriel. But always when an age of Michael dawns, a longing begins to arise in mankind to overcome racial distinctions and to spread through all the peoples living on the Earth the highest and most spiritual form of culture produced by that particular age. Michael's rulership is always characterised by the growth of cosmopolitanism, by the spread of a spiritual impulse among peoples who are ready to receive it, no matter what language they speak. Of the seven Archangels who send their impulses into the evolution of humanity, Michael is always the one who gives the cosmopolitan impulse—and at the same time the impulse for the spreading of whatever is of most intrinsic value in a particular epoch.

If we turn now to past times in the evolution of humanity, asking ourselves in what period the previous Michael Age occurred, we come to the epoch which culminated in those cosmopolitan deeds springing from the impulse of the lofty spiritual culture of Greece, whose fruits were carried over to Asia through the campaigns of Alexander. There, developing from the foundations of the ancient culture, we see the urge to take the spiritual culture of Greece—the little land of Greece—over to the Oriental peoples, to Egypt; there is an urge to spread a cosmopolitan impulse in this way among all the peoples able to receive it. This cosmopolitan impulse, this urge of the earlier Age of Michael, to spread over the world all that the Greek culture had achieved for humanity, was of the very greatest possible significance. The crowning triumph of that Age was represented, in a certain sense, by the city of Alexandria in its prime, standing yonder in North Africa.

These things came to pass in the preceding Age of Michael. Thereafter the other six Archangels assume in time their dominions. And in the last third of the nineteenth century, at the end of the seventies, a new Michael Age begins. But never yet in the whole of earthly evolution has the difference between two Ages of Michael been as great as that between the Michael Age at the time of Alexander and the one in which we have been living since the end of the seventies of the last century. For between these two reigns of Michael falls the Event which gives Earth-evolution its true meaning: the Mystery of Golgotha.

Let us now consider what it is that Michael has to administer in the spiritual Cosmos. It is Michael's task to administer a power that is essentially spiritual, reaching its zenith in man's faculty of intellectual understanding. Michael is not the Spirit who, if I may put it so, cultivates intellectuality per se; the spirituality he bestows strives to bring enlightenment to mankind in the form of ideas, of thoughts—but ideas and thoughts that grasp the spiritual. His wish is that man shall be a free being, but one who discerns in his concepts, in his thoughts, what comes to him as revelation from the spiritual worlds.

And now think of the Michael Age at the time of Alexander. As I have so often said, human beings in our day are extremely clever—that is to say, they form concepts, they have ideas; they are intellectual, possessing as it were a self-made intellectuality. People were clever, too, in the days of Alexander. Only if in those times they had been asked: Whence do you derive your concepts, your ideas?—they would not have said: We have produced them out of ourselves. ... No, they received into themselves the spiritual revelations, and together with these revelations, the ideas. They did not regard the ideas as something which man evolves out of himself, but as something revealed to him in his spiritual nature. The task of Michael at that time was to administer this heavenly Intellectuality—in contrast to earthly Intellectuality. Michael was the greatest of the Archangels who have their abode on the Sun. He was the Spirit who sent down from thence to the Earth not only the Sun's physical-etheric rays but, within them, the inspired Intellectuality. And in those past days men knew: the power of Intelligence on Earth is a gift of the Heavens, of the Sun; it is sent down from the Sun. And the one who actually sends the spiritual Intellectuality down to the Earth, is Michael. In the ancient Sun Mysteries this wonderful Initiation-teaching was given: Michael dwells on the Sun; there he administers the Cosmic Intelligence. This Cosmic Intelligence, inspired into human beings, is a gift of Michael.

Then came the epoch when man was to be made ready to unfold intellect out of his own, individual force of soul; he was not merely to receive the Cosmic Intelligence through revelation but to evolve Intelligence out of his inner forces. Preparation for this was made by Aristotelianism—that remarkable philosophy which arose in the twilight period of Greek culture and was the impulse underlying the campaigns of Alexander the Great in Africa and Asia.

By means of Aristotelianism, earthly Intelligence emerged as though from the shell of the Cosmic Intelligence. And from what came to be known as Aristotelian Logic there arose that intellectual framework on which the thinking of all subsequent centuries was based; it conditioned human intelligence.

And now you must conceive that through this single deed the Michael Impulses culminated: the earthly-human Intelligence was established, while, as a result of the campaigns of Alexander, the culture of Greece was imprinted upon those peoples who at that time were ready to receive the cosmopolitan impulse.

The epoch of Michael was followed by that of Oriphiel. The Archangel Oriphiel assumed dominion. The Mystery of Golgotha took place. At the beginning of the Christian era, those human souls who had been conscious of the leadership of the Archangel Michael in Alexander's time and had participated in the deeds of which I have just spoken, were gathered around Michael in the realm of the Sun. Michael had relinquished his dominion for the time being to Oriphiel, and in the realm of the Sun, together with those human souls who were to be his servants, Michael witnessed the departure of Christ from the Sun.

This, too, is something of which we must be mindful.—Those human souls who are connected with the Anthroposophical Movement may say to themselves: We were united with Michael in the realm of the Sun. Christ, who hitherto had sent His Impulses towards the Earth from the Sun, departed from the Sun in order to unite Himself with earthly evolution!—Try to picture to yourselves this stupendous cosmic event that took place in realms beyond the Earth: it lies within the mighty vista open to those human souls who at that time were gathered around Michael as servants of the Angeloi, after his rulership on Earth had ended. In the realm of the Sun they witnessed the departure of the Christ from the Sun. “He is departing!” ... such was their great and overwhelming experience when He left in order to unite His destiny with the destiny of earthly humanity.

Truly it is not only on the Earth but in the life between death and rebirth that the souls of human beings receive the impulse for the paths they take. Above all was it so in the case of those who had lived through the time of Alexander. A great and mighty impulse went forth from that moment in cosmic history when these souls witnessed the departure of Christ from the Sun. They saw clearly: the Cosmic Intelligence is passing over gradually from the Cosmos to the Earth! And Michael, together with those around him saw that all the Intelligence once streaming through the Cosmos was now sinking down, stage by stage, upon the Earth.

Michael and those who belonged to him—no matter whether they were in the spiritual world or incarnate for a brief earthly life—were able to visualise the rays of the Intelligence arriving, in the eighth century of the Christian era, in the earthly realm itself. And they knew that down upon the Earth the Intelligence would unfold and develop further. Now, on the Earth, the appearance of the first ‘self-made’ thinkers could be observed. Hitherto, great human beings who were ‘thinkers’ had received their thoughts by way of Inspiration; the thoughts had been inspired into them. Only now, from the eighth century A.D. were there those who could be called ‘self-made’ thinkers—those who produced their own thoughts out of themselves. And within the Archangelic host in the realm of the Sun, the mighty proclamation rang forth from Michael: The power belonging to my kingdom and under my administration in this realm is here no longer; it streams downwards to the Earth and must there surge onwards!

From the eighth century onwards this was the spectacle of the Earth as witnessed from the Sun. And within it was the great mystery: The forces which are pre-eminently the forces of Michael have descended from the Heavens and are now upon the Earth. This was the profound secret which was known to Initiates in Schools such as those I spoke of yesterday, for example, the renowned School of Chartres. In earlier times, when men wished to discover the true nature of Intelligence they had been obliged, in the Mystery Centres, to look upwards to the Sun. Now the Intelligence was upon the Earth, though not as yet very clearly perceptible. But gradually there was recognition that human beings were now evolving who possessed an individual intelligence of their own. One of those in European civilisation in whom the first sparks of personal thinking were alight was Johannes Scotus Erigena. I have often spoken of him. But there had been a few others, even before him, whose thoughts were not merely inspired, who no longer received revelations, but who could be called self-made thinkers. And now this individual thinking became more and more widespread.

There was a possibility in Earth-evolution of making this self-produced thinking serve a particular end. Consider what it represented: it was in actuality the sum-total of those impulses from Michael's realm in the Heavens which had found their way to the Earth. And for the time being Michael was called upon to allow the Intelligence to unfold without his participation. Not until the year 1879 was he to re-assume his rulership. In the meantime, the Intelligence developed in such a way that at the first stages he could not have exercised his dominion. His influences could not be exerted over men who were unfolding their own, individual thoughts. His time had not yet come.

This profound secret of the descent of the pan-Intelligence in the evolution of humanity was known in a few Mystery Centres over in the East. And so, within these particular Oriental Mysteries, a few chosen pupils could be initiated into this secret by certain deeply spiritual, highly developed men. Through dispensations of a nature which it is difficult for the earthly intellect to comprehend, the illustrious Court of which I have spoken at the Goetheanum and in other places, came into touch with this secret of which certain Oriental Mysteries were fully cognisant. In the eighth and at the beginning of the ninth century, under the leadership of Haroun al Raschid, this Court wielded great power over in Asia. Haroun al Raschid was a product of Arabian culture, a culture tinged with Mohammedanism. The secret of which I have spoken found its way to some of Haroun al Raschid's initiated Counsellors—or to those who possessed at least a certain degree of knowledge—and the brilliance of his Court was due to the fact that it had come in touch with this secret. At this Court were concentrated all the treasures of wisdom, of art, of the truths of religious life to be found in the East—coloured, of course, by Mohammedanism. In the days when, in Europe, at the Court of Charlemagne who was a contemporary of Haroun al Raschid, men were occupied in collating the first rudiments of grammar and everything was still in a state of semi-barbarism, there flourished in Baghdad that brilliant centre of Oriental, Western Asiatic spiritual life. Haroun al Raschid gathered around him men who were conversant with the great traditions of the Oriental Mysteries. And he had by his side one particular Counsellor who had been an Initiate in earlier times and whose spiritual driving forces were still influenced by the previous incarnations. He was the organiser of all that was cultivated at the Court of Haroun al Raschid in the domains of geometry, chemistry, physics, music, architecture, and the other arts—above all, a distinguished art of poetry. In this renowned and scintillating assembly of sages, it was felt, more or less consciously: the earthly Intelligence that has come down from the Heavens upon the Earth must be placed in the service of Mohammedan spiritual life!

And now consider this: from the time of Mohammed, from the time of the early Caliphs onwards, Arabian culture was carried from Asia across North Africa into Europe, where it spread as the result of warlike campaigns. But in the wake of those who by means of these campaigns spread Arabism as far even as Spain—France was affected by it and, spiritually, the whole of Western Europe—there also came outstanding personalities. The wars waged by the Frankish kings against the Moors, against Arabism, are known to all of you ... but that is the external aspect, that is what happens in external history ... much more important is it to know how the spiritual streams flow on perpetually within the evolution of mankind.

Haroun al Raschid and his wise Counsellor passed through the gate of death. But after their life between death and rebirth they continued to pursue their earthly aims in remarkable ways. It was their aim to introduce Arabian modes of thinking into the European world with the help of the rudiments of the Intelligence now spreading in Europe. And so after Haroun al Raschid had passed through the gate of death, while his soul was traversing spiritual, starry worlds, we see his gaze directed unswervingly from Baghdad across Asia Minor, to Greece, Rome, Spain, France and then northwards to England. Throughout this life between death and rebirth his attention was directed to the South and West of Europe. And then Haroun al Raschid appeared again in a new incarnation—becoming Lord Bacon of Verulam. Bacon himself is the reincarnated Haroun al Raschid who in the intervening time between death and rebirth had worked as I have just described.

But the other, the one who had been his wise Counsellor, chose a different direction—from Baghdad across the Black Sea, through Russia and then into Middle Europe. The two individualities took different paths and directions. Haroun al Raschid passed to his next earthly goal as Lord Bacon of Verulam; the wise Counsellor during his life between death and a new birth did not divert his gaze from the sphere where influences from the East can be increasingly potent, and he appeared again as Amos Comenius (Komenski), the great educational reformer and author of “Pan-Sophia.” And from the interworking of these two individualities who had once been together at the Court in Baghdad there subsequently arose in Europe something which unfolded—more or less at a distance from Christianity—in the form of Arabism derived from influences of that past time when the Intelligence had first fallen away from Michael on the Sun.

What came outwardly and physically to expression in wars was, as we know, repelled by the Frankish kings and the other European peoples. We see how the Arabian campaigns which with such a powerful initial impetus were responsible for the spread of Mohammedan culture, were broken and brought to a halt in the West; we see Mohammedanism disappearing from the West of Europe. Nevertheless, divested of the outer forms it had assumed and the external culture it had founded, this later Arabism became modern natural science, and also became the basis of what Amos Comenius achieved for the world in the domain of pedagogy. And in this way the earthly Intelligence, ‘garrisoned’ as it were by Arabism, continued to spread right on into the seventeenth century.

Here we have indicated something that lies as sub-strata of the soil into which we to-day have to sow the seeds of Anthroposophy. We must ponder deeply over the inner and spiritual reality behind these things.

In Europe, while this stream was flowing over from Asia as the spiritual continuation of that Illustrious Court of Baghdad, Christianity was also developing and spreading. But the spread of Aristotelianism in Europe was fraught with great difficulties. The natural science of Aristotle had been carried to Asia by the mighty deeds of Alexander and the impulses flowing from Hellenistic spiritual life, but here it had been seized upon by Arabism. In Europe, within the expanding Christian culture, Aristotelianism was at first known in a diluted form only. Then, in the manner which I have already indicated, Aristotelianism joined hands with Platonism—Platonism, which was based directly upon the ancient teachings of the Greek Mysteries.

But at the very outset, Aristotelianism spread in Europe by slow degrees while Platonism took the lead and prompted the establishment of schools, one of the most important being the School of Chartres. At Chartres, the scholars of whom I spoke yesterday—Bernard Sylvestris, Bernard of Chartres, John of Salisbury and, foremost among them all, Alanus ab Insulis—were all working in the twelfth century. In this School men spoke very differently from those whose teachings were merely an echo of Arabism. The teachings given in the School of Chartres were pure and genuine Christianity, illumined by the ancient Mystery-wisdom still remaining within reach of men. And then something of immense significance took place. The leading teachers of Chartres, who with their Platonism had penetrated deeply into the secrets of Christianity and who had no part in Arabism, went through the gate of death. Then there took place, for a brief period at the beginning of the thirteenth century, a great ‘heavenly conference.’ And when the most outstanding of the teachers—foremost among them Alanus ab Insulis—had passed through death and were in the spiritual world, they united in a momentous cosmic deed with those who at that time were with them but who were destined in the very near future to come into earthly existence for the purpose of cultivating Aristotelianism in a new way. Among those preparing to descend were individualities who had participated with deep intensity of soul in the working of the Michael Impulse during the time of Alexander. And at the turn of the twelfth century we may picture, for it is in keeping with the truth, a gathering-together of souls who had just arrived in the spiritual world from places of Christian Initiation—of which the School of Chartres was one—and souls who were on the point of descending to the Earth. In the spiritual realms, these latter souls had preserved, not Platonism, but Aristotelianism, the inner impulse of the Intelligence deriving from the Michael Age in ancient times. Now, in the spiritual world, the souls gathered together ... among them, too, were souls who could say: We were with Michael and together with him we witnessed the Intelligence streaming down from the Heavens upon the Earth; we were united with him too in the mighty cosmopolitan Deed enacted in earlier times when the Intelligence was still administered from the Cosmos, when he was still the ruler and administrator of the Intelligence.

And now, for the time being, the teachers of Chartres handed over to the Aristotelians the administration and ordering of the affairs of the spiritual life on Earth. Those who were now to descend and were by nature fitted to direct the earthly, personal Intelligence, took over the guidance of spiritual life on Earth from the Platonists, who could work truly only when the Intelligence was being administered “from the Heavens.”

It was into the Dominican Order above all that those individualities in whose souls the Michael Impulse was still echoing on from the previous Age of Michael, found their way. And from the Dominican Order issued that Scholasticism which wrestled through many a bitter but glorious battle to master the true nature and operation of the Intelligence within the human mind. Deeply rooted in the souls of those founders of Dominican Scholasticism in the thirteenth century was this great question: What is taking place in the domain of Michael?

There were men, later on known as Nominalists, who said: Concepts and ideas are merely names, they have no reality. The Nominalists were under an Ahrimanic influence, for their real aim was to banish Michael's dominion from the Earth. In asserting that ideas are only names and have no reality, their actual aim was to prevent Michael's dominion from prevailing on Earth. And at that time the Ahrimanic spirits whispered to those who would lend their ear: The Cosmic Intelligence has fallen away from Michael and is here, on the Earth: we will not allow Michael to resume his rulership over the Intelligence! ... But in that heavenly conference—and precisely here lies its significance—Platonists and Aristotelians together formed a plan for the furtherance of the Michael Impulses.—In opposition to the Nominalists were the Realists of the Dominican Order who maintained: Ideas and thoughts are spiritual realities contained within the phenomena of the world, they are not merely nominal.

If one understands these things, one is often reminded of them in a really remarkable way. During my last years in Vienna, one of my acquaintances among other ordained priests was Vincenz Knauer, the author of the work, Hauptprobleme der Philosophie, which I have often recommended to Anthroposophists. In the nineteenth century he was still involved in this conflict between Nominalism and Realism. He was trying to make it clear that Nominalism is fallacious and he had chosen a very apt example to illustrate his arguments. It is also given in his books. But I remember with deep satisfaction a certain occasion when I was walking with him along the Wahringstrasse in Vienna. We were speaking about Nominalism and Realism. With all his self-controlled enthusiasm which had something remarkable about it, something of the quality of genuine philosophy in contrast to the philosophy of others who had more or less lost this quality—Knauer said on that occasion: I always make it clear to my students that the Ideas made manifest in the things of the world have reality—and I tell them to think of a lamb and a wolf. The Nominalists would say: A lamb is muscle, bone, matter; a wolf is muscle, bone, matter. What receives objective existence in lamb-flesh as the form, the idea of the lamb—that is only a name. “Lamb” is a name there and not, as idea, a reality. Similarly, as idea, “wolf” is not anything real but only a name. But—Knauer went on—it is easy to refute the Nominalists for one need only say to them: Give a wolf nothing but lamb's flesh to eat for a time and no other food whatever. If the idea “lamb” contains no reality, is only a name, and if the lamb is nothing but matter, the wolf would gradually become a lamb. But it does not do so! On the contrary, it goes on being the reality “wolf.” In what stands there before us as the lamb, the idea “lamb” has, as it were, gathered the matter and brought it into the form. Similarly with the wolf: the idea “wolf” has gathered the matter and cast it into the form.

This was the fundamental issue in the conflict between the Nominalists and the Realists: the reality of what is apprehensible only by the intellect.

Thus we see that it was the task of the Dominicans to work in advance, at the right time, for the next Michael rulership. And whereas in accordance with the decisions of that heavenly conference at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Platonists—the teachers of Chartres, for example—remained in the spiritual world and had no incarnations of significance, the Aristotelians were to work at that time for the cultivation of the Intelligence, on Earth. And from Scholasticism—which only much later, in the modern age, was distorted, caricatured and made Ahrimanic by Rome—from Scholasticism there has proceeded all intellectual striving in so far as it has kept free from the influence of Arabism.

So at that time when these two streams of spiritual life are to be perceived in Middle and Western Europe: on the one side, the stream with which Bacon and Amos Comenius were connected; on the other side, the stream of Scholasticism that was and is Christian Aristotelianism takes its place in the evolution of civilisation in order to prepare, as was its task, for the new Age of Michael. When, during the rulership of the preceding Archangels, the Schoolmen looked up into the spiritual realms they said to themselves: Michael is yonder in the heights; his rulership must be awaited. But some preparation must be made for the time when he once again becomes the Regent of all that which, through the dispensation of cosmic evolution, fell away from him in the Cosmos. This time must be prepared for! ... And so a stream began to flow which, though diverted into a false channel through Ultramontanism, continued and carried with it the impulse of preparation proceeding from the thirteenth century.

It was a stream, therefore, whose source is Aristotelian and whose influence worked directly on the ordering of the Intelligence that was now in the earthly realm. With this stream is connected that of which I spoke yesterday, saying that one who had remained a little longer with Alanus ab Insulis in the spiritual world, came down as a Dominican and brought a message from Alanus ab Insulis to an older Dominican who had descended to the Earth before him.

An intense will was present in the spiritual life of Europe to take strong hold of the thoughts. And in realms above the Earth these happenings led, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, to a great, far-reaching Act in the spiritual world where that which later on was to become Anthroposophy on the Earth was cast into mighty Imaginations. In the first half of the nineteenth century, and even for a short period at the end of the eighteenth, those who had been Platonists under the teachers of Chartres, who were now living between death and rebirth, and those who had established Aristotelianism on Earth and who had long ago passed through the gate of death—all of them were united in the heavenly realms in a great super-earthly Cult or Ritual. Through this Act all that in the twentieth century was to be spiritually established as the new Christianity after the beginning of the new Michael Age in the last third of the nineteenth century—all this was cast into mighty Imaginations.

Many drops trickled through to the Earth. Up above, in the spiritual world, in mighty, cosmic Imaginations, preparation was made for that creation of the Intelligence—an entirely spiritual creation—which was then to come forth as Anthroposophy. What trickled through made a very definite impression upon Goethe, coming to him in the form, as it were, of little reflected miniatures. The mighty pictures up above were not within Goethe's ken; he elaborated these little miniature pictures in his Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily. Truly, it opens up a wonderful vista! The streams I have described flow on in such a way that they lead to those mighty Imaginations which take shape in the spiritual world under the guidance of Alanus ab Insulis and the others. Drops trickle through, and at the turn of the eighteenth century Goethe is inspired to write his Fairy Tale. It was, we might say, a first presentation of what had been cast in mighty Imaginations in the spiritual world at the beginning of the nineteenth, indeed by the end of the eighteenth century. In view of this great super-sensible Cult during the first half of the nineteenth century, it will not surprise you that my first Mystery Play, The Portal of Initiation—which in a certain respect aimed at giving dramatic form to what had thus been enacted at the beginning of the nineteenth century—became alike in outer structure to what Goethe portrayed in his Fairy Tale. For having lived in the super-earthly realms in Imaginative form, Anthroposophy was to come down to the Earth. Something came to pass in the super-earthly realms at that time. Numbers of souls who in many different epochs had been connected with Christianity came together with souls who had received its influences less directly. There were those who had lived on Earth in the Age when the Mystery of Golgotha took place and also those who had lived on Earth before it. The two groups of souls united in order that in regions beyond the Earth, Anthroposophy might be prepared. The individualities who, as I said, were around Alanus ab Insulis, and those who within the Dominican stream had established Aristotelianism in Europe, were united, too, with Brunetto Latini, the great teacher of Dante. And in this host of souls there were very many of those who, having again descended to the Earth, are now coming together in the Anthroposophical Society. Those who feel the urge to-day to unite with one another in the Anthroposophical Society were together in super-sensible regions at the beginning of the nineteenth century in order to participate in that mighty Imaginative Cult of which I have spoken.

This too is connected with the karma of the Anthroposophical Movement. It is something that one discovers, not from any rationalistic observation of this Anthroposophical Movement in its external, earthly form only, but from observation of the threads that lead upwards into the spiritual realms. Then one perceives how this Anthroposophical Movement descends. At the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries it is, in very truth, the “heavenly” Anthroposophical Movement. What Goethe transformed into little miniature images in the Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily were drops that had trickled through. But it was to come down in the real sense in the last third of the nineteenth century, since when Michael has been striving—but now moving downwards from the Sun to the Earth—to take hold of the earthly Intelligence of men.

We know that since the Mystery of Golgotha Christ has been united with the Earth—with humanity on Earth. But, to begin with, He was not outwardly comprehended by human beings. We have seen also that in the age of Alexander the last phase of the rulership of Michael over the Cosmic Intelligence was taking place. By the eighth century A.D., the Cosmic Intelligence had descended to the Earth. In accordance with the agreements reached with the Platonists, those who were connected with Michael undertook to prepare this earthly Intelligence in Scholastic Realism in such a way that Michael would again be able to unite with it when, in the onward flow of civilisation, he would assume his rulership at the end of the seventies of the nineteenth century.

What matters now is that the Anthroposophical Society shall take up this, its inner task—this task which is: not to contest Michael's rulership of human thinking! Here there can be no question of fatalism. Here it can only be said that men must work together with the Gods. Michael inspires men with his own being in order that there may appear on the Earth a spirituality consonant with the personal Intelligence of men, in order that men can be thinkers—and at the same time truly spiritual. For this and this alone is what Michael's dominion means. This is what must be wrestled for in the Anthroposophical Movement. And then those who are working to-day for the Anthroposophical Movement will appear again on Earth at the end of the twentieth century and will be united with the great teachers of Chartres. For according to the agreement reached in that heavenly conference at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Aristotelians and the Platonists were to appear together, working for the ever-growing prosperity of the Anthroposophical Movement in the twentieth century, in order that at the end of this century, with Platonists and Aristotelians in unison, Anthroposophy may reach a certain culmination in earthly civilisation. If it is possible to work in this way, in the way predestined by Michael, then Europe and modern civilisation will emerge from decline. But verily in no other way than this! The leading of civilisation out of decline is bound up with an understanding of Michael.

I have now led you towards an understanding of the Michael Mystery reigning over the thinking and the spiritual strivings of mankind. This means—as you can realise—that through Anthroposophy something must be introduced into the spiritual evolution of the Earth, for all kinds of demonic, Ahrimanic powers are taking possession of men. The Ahrimanic powers in many a human body were exultant in their confidence that it would no longer be possible for Michael to take over his rulership of the Cosmic Intelligence which had fallen down to the Earth. And this exultation was particularly strong in the middle of the nineteenth century, when Ahriman already believed: Michael will not again recover his Cosmic Intelligence which made its way from the heavens to the Earth. And this exultation was particularly strong in the middle of the nineteenth century, when Ahriman already believed that Michael would not again recover his Cosmic Intelligence which made its way from the Heavens to the Earth. Verily, great and mighty issues are at stake! For this reason it is not to be wondered at that those who stand in the midst of this battle have to go through many extraordinary experiences.

Stranger things have been said about the Anthroposophical Movement than about any other spiritual Movement. The curious statements made indicate in themselves that with its spirituality and its connection with the Mystery of Golgotha, it is beyond the comprehension even of some of the most enlightened minds of the present day.—Does anyone ever tell you that he has seen a man who is black and white at the same time? I hardly think you would regard him as sane if he said such a thing to you. But to-day people are quite capable of writing in a similar strain about the Anthroposophical Movement. In his book, The Great Secret [Le Grand Secret. Bibliothèque Charpentier, 1921. The passages concerned have been translated from the German version of Maeterlinck's book from which Dr. Steiner was quoting. The original French of these passages will be found on page 182 of the present volume.], Maurice Maeterlinck, for example, taking me to be the pillar of the Anthroposophical Movement, applies in regard to myself a kind of logic entirely similar to that used by someone who claims to have seen a man who is black and white, a European and a Moor at the same time. Now a man can be one of the two, but certainly not both simultaneously! Yet Maeterlinck says: “What we read in the Vedas, says Rudolf Steiner, one of the most erudite and also one of the most confusing among contemporary occultists ...” If somebody were to say he had seen a man who was a European and a Moor at the same time, he would be considered crazy; but Maeterlinck uses the words “erudite” and “confusing” in juxtaposition. He also says: “Rudolf Steiner who, when he does not lose himself in visions—plausible, perhaps, but incapable of verification—of the prehistoric ages, and in astral jargon concerning life on other planets, is a clear and shrewd thinker who has thrown remarkable light on the meaning of this judgement” (he is referring to Osirification) “and of the identification of the soul with God.” In other words, therefore: when Rudolf Steiner is not talking about Anthroposophy, he is a clear and shrewd thinker. Maeterlinck allows himself to say this—and other remarkable things too, for example the following: “Steiner has applied his intuitive methods, which amount to a kind of transcendental psychometry, in order to reconstruct the history of the Atlanteans and to reveal to us what takes place on the sun, the moon and in other worlds. He describes the successive transformations of the entities which become men, and he does so with such assurance that we ask ourselves, having followed him with interest through the introductions which denote an extremely well-balanced, logical and comprehensive mind, if he has suddenly gone mad or if we are dealing with a hoaxer or with a genuine seer.” ... Now just think what this means.—Maeterlinck states that when I write books, the introductions are admittedly the product of an “extremely well-balanced, logical and comprehensive mind.” But when he reads on he does not know whether I have suddenly gone mad or whether I am a hoaxer or a genuine seer. Well, after all I have not written only books! It is always my custom to write an introduction to each book first. Very well, then ... I write a book. Maeterlinck reads the introduction and I seem to him to have an “extremely well-balanced, logical and comprehensive mind.” Then he reads on, and I turn into someone who makes him say: I don't know whether Rudolf Steiner has suddenly gone mad or whether he is a hoaxer or a seer. Then it happens again ... I write a second book: when he reads the introduction Maeterlinck again accepts me as having an “extremely well-balanced, logical and comprehensive mind.” Then he reads the further contents and again does not know whether I am a lunatic or a hoaxer or a seer. And so it goes on ... But suppose everybody were to say: when I read your books you seem, at the beginning, to be very clever, balanced and logical, but then you suddenly go mad! People who are logical when they begin to write and then as they write on suddenly become crazy, must indeed be extraordinary creatures! In the next book they switch round, are logical at the beginning and later on again lunatics! There seems to be a rhythmical sequence ... well, after all there are rhythms in the world!

Such examples indicate how the most enlightened minds of the present age receive what must be established as the Michael Epoch in the world and what has to be done in order that the Cosmic Intelligence which in accordance with the World-Order fell away from Michael in the eighth century A.D., may again be found within earthly humanity. The whole Michael tradition must be renewed. Michael with his feet upon the Dragon—it is right to contemplate this picture which portrays Michael the Warrior, defending the Cosmic Spirit against the Ahrimanic Powers under his feet.

This battle, more than any other, is laid in the human heart. There, within the hearts of men, it is and has been waged since the last third of the nineteenth century. Decisive indeed will be what human hearts do with this Michael Impulse in the world in the course of the twentieth century. And in the course of the twentieth century, when the first century after the end of Kaliyuga has elapsed, humanity will either stand at the grave of all civilisation—or at the beginning of that Age when in the souls of men who in their hearts ally Intelligence with Spirituality, Michael's battle will be fought out to victory.

Zweiter Vortrag

Gestern habe ich für diejenigen der Freunde, die hier waren, einiges auseinanderzusetzen mir erlaubt über das Karma der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft. Ich möchte heute etwas erörtern, was damit zusammenhängt, und werde es so sagen, daß das Heutige auch aus sich selbst heraus verstanden werden kann.

Alles, was im gegenwärtigen Zeitpunkte der Menschheitsentwickelung zu leisten sein wird zur Vorbereitung von geistigen Ereignissen der nächsten und der ferneren Zukunft, hängt ja mit demjenigen zusammen, was ich öfter unter unseren anthroposophischen Freunden das Michael-Ereignis genannt habe, und ich möchte gerade heute über dieses Michael-Ereignis einiges besprechen, was zusammenhängt mit der anthroposophischen Bewegung.

Wenn wir von einer solchen Erscheinung wie dem Michael-Ereignis sprechen, so müssen wir durchaus von der Vorstellung ausgehen, daß die Welt gewissermaßen «etappenweise» gebaut ist. Wenn wir nur mit denjenigen Kräften die Weltentwickelung anschauen, die dem Menschen heute durch sein irdisches Leben zwischen Geburt und Tod möglich sind, so sehen wir, wie sich die Menschheit auf der Erde entwickelt hat, wie alte Völker sich aus noch älteren herausgebildet haben; wie dann allmählich durch das Orientalentum, durch die indische, persische, arabische und chaldäisch-ägyptische Bevölkerung die griechisch-römische sich ergeben hat, wie dann aus der griechisch-römischen die mittelalterliche Zeit geworden ist und wie endlich unsere neuere Zeit mit allen ihren Wirren, aber auch mit allem, was sie in technischer Beziehung Großes gebracht hat, entstanden ist. Aber sowohl «unterhalb», möchte ich sagen, wie «oberhalb» dieser Fläche, die wir da im Fortgange der Völker überblicken, sehen wir Entwickelungen, Entwickelungen, die nun nicht von den Menschen durchgemacht werden, sondern die durchgemacht werden von geistigen Wesenheiten, aber von solchen geistigen Wesenheiten, welche mit der Menschheitsentwickelung in einem gewissen Zusammenhange stehen.

Unmittelbar mit der Entwickelung der einzelnen Menschen hat es zu tun das Reich der Angeloi, der Engel im christlichen Sinne. Dieses Reich der Angeloi hat diejenigen Wesenheiten in sich, welche den einzelnen Menschen leiten, insofern er eine solche Geleitschaft, einen solchen Führer braucht, von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben; sie sind die Beschützer des Menschen in allem, wo er einen solchen Schutz braucht. Sie sind also, wenn auch für irdische Augen übersinnlich, unmittelbar mit der Menschheitsentwickelung verbunden.

Aber gleich im angrenzenden geistigen Reiche entwickeln diejenigen Wesenheiten ihre Tätigkeit, die wir als die Hierarchie der Archangeloi, der Erzengel, bezeichnen. Diese Archangeloi haben es mit vielem zu tun, was auch in der Menschheitsentwickelung eine Rolle spielt — nicht mit dem einzelnen Menschen, wohl aber mit Zusammenhängen von Menschen. So zum Beispiel ist das der Fall, was ich auch schon öfter in anthroposophischen Vorträgen erwähnt habe, daß die Völkerentwickelungen regiert werden von Erzengelwesen. Aber es ist auch so, daß gewisse Zeitalter in der Erdenentwickelung vorzugsweise impulsiert werden, bestimmt werden von ganz gewissen Erzengelwesenheiten. In den drei Jahrhunderten zum Beispiel, die dem letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts vorangegangen sind, also im 19., 18., 17. und in einem Teile des 16. Jahrhunderts, haben wir die zivilisierte Welt im wesentlichen uns vorzustellen unter der Herrschaft jenes Erzengelwesens, das von den Christen, die von solchen Dingen sprechen können, Gabriel genannt wird. So daß also während dieser Periode das Zeitalter des Gabriel war.

Dieses Zeitalter des Gabriel hat eine große Bedeutung für die ganze neuere Entwickelung der Menschheit. Denn im Grunde genommen war es seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha so, daß die Menschen allerdings auf der Erde erlebt haben: das hohe Sonnenwesen Christus ist durch das Mysterium von Golgatha von der Sonne auf die Erde heruntergestiegen, hat in dem Leibe des Jesus einen Körper angenommen, hat sich mit dem Schicksal der Erde verbunden. Aber indem so das Christus-Wesen mit der Erde verbunden blieb, konnte — durch die ganze Reihe der Herrschaft der Erzengel hindurch von dem Mysterium von Golgatha bis zur Herrschaft des Gabriel — der Christus-Impuls eigentlich noch nicht das innere Physische und Ätherische der Menschheit ergreifen. Das war erst unter dem Gabriel-Impuls möglich, der etwa drei Jahrhunderte vor dem letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts einsetzte. So daß erst seit dieser Zeit eine Menschheit da ist, die innerlich - wenn sie das auch bis heute noch nicht getan hat - durchdrungen werden kann von dem Christus-Impuls schon durch die Vererbungskräfte. Denn Gabriel regiert innerhalb der Menschheit alles, was physische Vererbungskräfte sind. Er ist namentlich der übersinnliche Geist, der mit der Generationenfolge verbunden ist, der, ich möchte sagen, der große, umfassende Schutzgeist der Mütter ist, insofern diese Mütter Menschenkinder in die Welt hineinstellen. Gabriel hat zu tun mit den Geburten, er hat zu tun mit der Embryonalentwickelung des Menschen. Die Kräfte des Gabriel liegen in alledem, was als Geistiges der physischen Fortpflanzung zugrunde liegt; so daß eigentlich erst seit dieser letzten Herrschaft des Gabriel die physische Fortpflanzung der Menschheit auf Erden in Zusammenhang gekommen ist mit dem Christus-Impuls.

Dann beginnt von dem Ende der siebziger Jahre des vorigen Jahrhunderts an die Herrschaft des Michael. Sie ist eine ganz andere als die Herrschaft des Gabriel. Während man die Erzengelherrschaft in den vorangehenden drei Jahrhunderten in den geistigen Impulsen des Physischen hat suchen müssen, hat man in alledem, was seither als MichaelHerrschaft sich ausbreitet, gerade denjenigen Erzengel zu sehen, der vorzugsweise mit den geistigen, mit den Vernunfteigenschaften der Menschheit zu tun hat, mit allem also, was die vernünftige, die geistige Entwickelung der Menschheit, was die geistige Kultur betrifft. Und es ist für die Betrachtung des irdischen Menschheitszusammenhanges von außerordentlich großer Bedeutung, daß die Herrschaft des Gabriel, die, ich möchte sagen, im Geistigen das am meisten Physische ergreift, immer abgelöst wird von der Herrschaft des Michael, der es eigentlich zu tun hat mit alle dem, was in der Kultur das sogenannte Geistige ist. Wenn wir also nach der Erzengel-Schutzgottheit für die physische Fortpflanzung ausschauen wollen, dann schauen wir hinauf zum Erzengel Gabriel; wenn wir zu demjenigen Geiste emporschauen wollen, der es in dem Zeitalter der Zivilisation mit der Entwickelung der Wissenschaften, mit der Entfaltung der Künste und so weiter zu tun hat, dann schauen wir hinauf zu dem Erzengelwesen, das nach christlichem Gebrauch mit dem Namen Michael bezeichnet wird. - Es folgen für diejenigen Kulturen, die in den Zeitaltern immer die maßgebenden sind, immer aufeinander sieben Erzengelherrschaften; so daß der MichaelHerrschaft also sechs andere Erzengelherrschaften vorangegangen sind. Und wenn wir von Gabriel in den Erzengelherrschaften weiter zurückgehen, so kommen wir dann zu einem Zeitalter zurück, in welchem wieder Michael auf der Erde seinen Einfluß verwirklicht hat. So daß immer eine jede solche Erzengelherrschaft die Wiederholung von früheren, gleichartigen Erzengelherrschaften ist, und die Entwickelung der Erzengel selbst geschieht zugleich durch diesen Fortschritt. Immer kommt nach einer gewissen Zeit, nach etwa zwei Jahrtausenden, derselbe Erzengel innerhalb der maßgebenden Zivilisation zur Herrschaft.

Aber diese Herrschaften, die jeweils so etwa dreihundert Jahre und etwas darüber dauern, unterscheiden sich wesentlich voneinander; nicht immer so stark wie die Michael-Herrschaft von der Gabriel-Herrschaft, aber sie unterscheiden sich doch wesentlich voneinander. Und da können wir sagen: Immer dann, wenn Gabriel herrscht, bereitet sich für die Folgezeit dasjenige Zeitalter vor, das die Völker voneinander trennt, sie differenziert, das Zeitalter, in welchem die Völker mehr nationalistisch werden. Sie können fragen: Wie kommt es, daß in der gegenwärtigen Zeit, wo doch das Zeitalter des Michael eingetreten ist, ein so starkes nationalistisches Element auf der Erde auftritt? Ja, geistig hat sich das lange vorher vorbereitet; dann wirkt es fort, schwingt ab, und es sind noch lange die Nachwehen vorhanden, die oftmals schlimmer sind als das unmittelbare Zeitalter. Denn nur nach und nach schiebt sich die Michael-Impulsivität in das hinein, was zum großen Teil jetzt von der Gabriel-Herrschaft zurückgelassen ist. Immer aber dann, wenn das Michael-Zeitalter anfängt, beginnt für die Menschheit auf der Erde eine Sehnsucht, alle völkischen Unterschiede zu überwinden und über die verschiedenen Völker, die zu dieser Zeit die Erde bevölkern, dasjenige auszubreiten, was als die höchste Kultur, als der höchste Geistesinhalt in einem bestimmten Zeitalter entstanden ist. Die MichaelHerrschaft bezeichnet immer das Überhandnehmen eines kosmopolitischen Prinzips, bezeichnet immer die Ausbreitung eines höchsten Geistesstandes auf der Erde unter denjenigen Völkern - gleichgültig, welche Sprache sie haben -, die für diesen Geistesstand zugänglich sind. Daher ist von den sieben Erzengeln, die ihre Impulse in die Menschheitsentwickelung hineinsenden, Michael immer derjenige, der der Menschheit den Impuls des Kosmopolitismus gibt — und zu gleicher Zeit den Impuls, das Wertvollste, das in einem Zeitalter da ist, unter den Menschen zur Ausbreitung zu bringen.

Wenn wir nun in der Entwickelung der Menschheit zurückgehen und uns fragen: Welches ist das nächste, hinter dem unsrigen zurückliegende Michael-Zeitalter? - so kommen wir in jenes Zeitalter, das seinen Abschluß mit denjenigen kosmopolitischen Taten gefunden hat, die auf Grundlage des damals wertvollsten, griechischen Geisteslebens durch die Alexanderzüge nach Asien geschehen sind. Wir sehen da, wie aus der Grundlage der alten Zivilisationsentwickelung sich der Drang herausbildet, dasjenige, was in Griechenland - in dem kleinen Griechenland - an Geisteskultur erreicht worden ist, hinüberzutragen zu den orientalischen Völkern, hinüberzutragen nach Ägypten, es auszubreiten in kosmopolitischer Weise unter all den Völkern, welche dafür zugänglich gewesen sind. Das ungeheuer Bedeutungsvolle geschieht, daß aus diesem Michael-Zeitalter heraus die kosmopolitische Ausbreitung desjenigen sich entfaltet, was durch das Griechentum der Menschheit errungen worden ist. Und als die Stadt Alexandria im Norden von Afrika aufblüht, da ist dieses Aufblühen in einem gewissen Sinne die Krönung jenes damaligen Michael-Zeitalters.

Das war das vorangehende Michael-Zeitalter. Dann kommen die anderen sechs Erzengel zur Herrschaft. Und im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts, am Ende der siebziger Jahre, beginnt wiederum ein neues Michael-Zeitalter. Aber noch niemals in der ganzen Erdenentwickelung war ein so großer Unterschied zwischen zwei aufeinanderfolgenden Michael-Zeitaltern wie zwischen dem der Alexanderzeit und demjenigen, in dem wir jetzt seit dem Ende der siebziger Jahre des vorigen Jahrhunderts drinnen leben. Es fällt ja zwischen diese beiden Michael-Zeitalter dasjenige Ereignis, das der Erdenentwickelung den eigentlichen Sinn gibt: das Mysterium von Golgatha!

Nun müssen wir bedenken, was Michael eigentlich im Ganzen des geistigen Kosmos zu verwalten hat: Er hat dasjenige zu verwalten, was zwar spirituell ist, was aber dann gipfelt in dem intellektuellen Begreifen des Menschen. Michael ist nicht etwa derjenige Geist, welcher die Intellektualität pflegt; aber alles, was er gibt als Spiritualität, das will in Form von Ideen, in Form von Gedanken - aber in Form von Ideen und Gedanken, die das Geistige ergreifen — der Menschheit einleuchten. Michael will, daß der Mensch ein freies Wesen ist, das in seinen Begriffen und Ideen auch einsieht, was ihm als Offenbarung von den geistigen Welten aus wird.

Schauen wir uns einmal dieses Michael-Zeitalter an, wie es in der Alexanderzeit war. Ich habe ja oftmals gesagt: in unserem Zeitalter sind die Menschen sehr, sehr gescheit, das heißt, sie haben Begriffe, Ideen, Vorstellungen, sie sind intellektualistisch, sie haben eine selbsterworbene Intellektualität. Aber gescheit waren die Leute in der Alexanderzeit auch. Nur, wenn man sie damals gefragt hätte: Woher habt ihr eure Begriffe, eure Ideen? — so hätten sie nicht gesagt: Die haben wir aus uns heraus errungen. — Sondern sie empfingen die geistigen Offenbarungen - und mit diesen zusammen die Ideen. So daß man nicht die Ideen als etwas ansah, was man selbst ausgestaltet, sondern als etwas, was mit der Spiritualität den Menschen geoffenbart wird. Und diese —- im Gegensatz zur heutigen irdischen — himmlische Intellektualität hatte damals Michael in der Alexanderzeit zu verwalten. Er war unter den Erzengeln, insofern diese die Sonne bevölkern, der hervorragendste. Er war derjenige Geist, welcher von der Sonne aus nicht nur die physisch-ätherischen Sonnenstrahlen sandte, sondern welcher in den physisch-ätherischen Sonnenstrahlen die inspirierende Intellektualität auf die Erde sandte. Denn damals wußten die Menschen: Was sie an Intelligenzkraft auf der Erde entfalten, das ist Himmelsgabe, das ist Sonnengabe, das wird heruntergeschickt von der Sonne. Und der unmittelbar ausführende Geist, der die Intellektualität auf spirituelle Art auf die Erde heruntersendet, das ist Michael! - Das war auch vorhanden in den alten Sonnenmysterien als eine wunderbare Eingeweihtenlehre: daß auf der Sonne Michael wohne, daß er dort die kosmische Intelligenz verwalte und daß diese kosmische Intelligenz, indem sie die Menschen inspiriert, eine Gabe des Michael ist.

Nun aber kam dasjenige Zeitalter, in welchem immer mehr und mehr die Gabe des Menschen vorbereitet werden sollte, den Intellekt aus der eigenen Kraft der Seele heraus zu entwickeln; nicht nur die Intelligenz des Kosmos geoffenbart zu bekommen, sondern selber aus eigener Kraft intelligent zu werden. Das wurde dann vorbereitet durch den Aristotelismus, durch jene eigentümliche, in der Dämmerung des Griechentums auftretende philosophische Weltanschauung, die dann den Impuls gegeben hat zu den Alexanderzügen nach Asien und Afrika. In dem Aristotelismus lag, ich möchte sagen, die Loslösung, die Herausschälung der irdischen Intelligenz von der kosmischen Intelligenz. In dem, was man dann später die Logik des Aristoteles nannte, liegt die Herausschälung jenes Gedankengerippes, das dann menschliche Intelligenz in allen folgenden Jahrhunderten wurde. Und nun müssen Sie bedenken, daß sozusagen als eine letzte Tat, die von den Michael-Impulsen herrührte, dasteht diese Begründung irdisch-menschlicher Intelligenz und die Beeindruckung der damals für das Kosmopolitische veranlagten Völker mit griechischer Kultur durch die Alexanderzüge. Das ist eine einheitliche Tat.

Dann trat an die Stelle des Zeitalters des Michael dasjenige des Oriphiel. Herrschend wurde der Erzengel Oriphiel. Das Mysterium von Golgatha trat ein. Diejenigen Menschenseelen, welche bewußt unter der Herrschaft des Michael in der Alexanderzeit mitgewirkt haben an den Taten, von denen ich eben gesprochen habe, sie waren im Beginne des christlichen Zeitalters innerhalb der Sonne geschart um das Erzengelwesen des Michael, der jetzt für die Erde zunächst seine Herrschaft an Oriphiel abgegeben hatte, der aber im Bereiche der Sonne mit denjenigen, die ihm als Menschenseelen dienen sollten, mitmachte den Weggang des Christus von der Sonne.

Und das ist auch eines der Ereignisse, die wir ins Auge fassen müssen: daß ja in denjenigen Menschenseelen, die mitverbunden sind mit der anthroposophischen Bewegung, jener Anblick vorhanden ist: Wir sind mit Michael auf der Sonne vereinigt, der Christus, der bis dahin von der Sonne aus seine Impulse nach der Erde geschickt hat, er geht fort von der Sonne, um sich mit der Erdenentwickelung zu verbinden! Ja, denken Sie nur an dieses bedeutungsvolle, überirdisch-kosmische Ereignis, an diesen besonderen Anblick, den jene Menschenseelen hatten, die damals als Angeloi-Diener um Michael geschart waren, nachdem er seine Herrschaft auf der Erde beendet hatte, und die gewissermaßen innerhalb der Sonnenregion mitmachten, wie der Christus die Sonne verließ, um sein Schicksal mit dem Schicksal der Erdenmenschheit zu verbinden. «Er geht fort!» das war das große Erlebnis.

Die Menschenseelen bekommen ja wahrhaftig ihre Direktionen nicht bloß auf der Erde, sie bekommen sie auch im Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt. So war es vor allem für die, welche das Alexanderzeitalter mitgemacht hatten. Ein großer, gewaltiger Impuls ging aus von dem kosmisch-weltgeschichtlichen Moment, wo diese Seelen sahen, wie der Christus von der Sonne fortging. Und für sie war Klarheit über die Tatsache: Jetzt geht die kosmische Intelligenz nach und nach vom Kosmos auf die Erde über. Und Michael und die, welche um ihn waren, sahen gewissermaßen, wie nach und nach alles, was an Intelligenz früher aus dem Kosmos floß, hinuntersank auf die Erde.

Und Michael und die Seinen — entweder indem sie oben in der geistigen Welt waren oder für ein kurzes Erdenleben unten verkörpert waren -, sie sahen, wie im Erdenbereich selber im 8. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert die Strahlungen des intelligenten Lebens ankamen, sie wußten: da unten wird weiter die Intelligenz sich entfalten! Und auf der Erde konnte man bemerken, wie die ersten Denker auftraten. Die anderen, die vorher als große Wesenheiten auftraten, waren inspirierte Gedankenbesitzer. Eigendenker traten erst von diesem 8. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert an auf. Und innerhalb des Erzengelchores in der Sonnenregion ertönte von Michaels Wesenheit aus das gewaltige Wort: «Was die Kraft meines Reiches war, was von hier aus durch mich verwaltet worden ist, es ist nicht mehr hier; es muß dort unten auf der Erde weiterströmen und -wellen und -wogen!»

Das war, vom 8. Jahrhunderte angefangen, der Anblick der Erde von der Sonne aus. Das war auch das große Geheimnis, daß die Kräfte, die vorzugsweise die Kräfte des Michael sind, vom Himmel auf die Erde herniedergestiegen sind. Das war auch das große Geheimnis, welches in Schulen von der Art, wie ich gestern eine besprochen habe, zum Beispiel in der hohen Schule von Chartres, einigen Eingeweihten mitgeteilt worden ist. Man möchte sagen: Vorher mußte man, wenn man wissen wollte, was Intelligenz ist, durch die Mysterien hinaufblicken zur Sonne. Jetzt war die Intelligenz auf der Erde noch nicht so sichtbar, aber es wurde allmählich bekannt, daß Menschen, die Eigendenken haben, Eigenintelligenz haben, sich auf der Erde entwickeln. Einer derjenigen, die innerhalb der europäischen Zivilisation, ich möchte sagen, erste Funken des Eigendenkens in ihrer Seele aufsprießen hatten, war ja der von mir öfter besprochene Scotus Erigena. Aber ihm gingen schon einige andere voran, die Eigendenken hatten, nicht mehr bloß inspiriertes, von oben geoffenbartes Denken. Und immer mehr und mehr griff dieses Eigendenken um sich.

Aber es gab in der Erdenentwickelung eine Möglichkeit, dieses Eigendenken in einen besonderen Dienst zu stellen. Denn denken Sie: dieses Eigendenken war ja die Summe der von Michaels Region vom Himmel auf die Erde heruntergestiegenen Impulse. Michael war zunächst dazu berufen, auf der Erde diese Erdenintelligenz weiter sich entwickeln zu lassen. Er war noch nicht dabei; er sollte erst wieder mit dem Jahre 1879 dazukommen. Es entwickelte sich unten dieses Erdendenken zunächst so, daß Michael noch nicht die Herrschaft über dasselbe übernehmen konnte. Er konnte die Menschen, die Eigendenker waren, noch nicht impulsieren, denn seine Herrschaft, seine Zeit war noch nicht gekommen.

Dieses, was wie ein tiefes Geheimnis in der Menschheitsentwickelung der Erde waltete, wußte man in einzelnen wenigen orientalischen Mysterien. Und so konnten in diesen einzelnen wenigen orientalischen Mysterien von grundspirituell veranlagten und ausgebildeten Menschen einzelne Schüler eingeweiht werden in dieses große Geheimnis. Und durch eine Fügung von der Art, wie sie nur schwer verständlich sind für den gewöhnlichen Erdenverstand, kam es eben, daß von diesem Geheimnis, das einigen orientalischen Mysterien gut bekannt war, jener Herrscherhof berührt wurde, von dem ich am Goetheanum und an anderen Orten gesprochen habe. Gerade im 8. und im Beginne des 9, Jahrhunderts waltete in Asien dieser Herrscherhof unter der Herrschaft des Harun al Raschid. Harun al Raschid war hervorgegangen aus der Kultur des Arabismus, aus der mohammedanisch angewehten Kultur. Zu seinen eingeweihten oder wenigstens bis zu einem gewissen Grade wissenden Ratgebern war dasjenige Geheimnis gedrungen, von dem ich eben gesprochen habe. Gerade weil von diesem Geheimnis berührt war der Bagdader Hof unter der Herrschaft des Harun al Raschid, deshalb war dieser Hof ein so glänzender. Alles, was an Weistümern, an Kunst, was an tiefer Religiosität im Oriente vorhanden war, konzentrierte sich — allerdings unter mohammedanischer Färbung — an dem Hofe des Harun al Raschid. Während in Europa am Hofe Karls des Großen, der ein Zeitgenosse des Harun al Raschid war, Menschen sich damit beschäftigten, die ersten Elemente einer Grammatik zusammenzustellen, und alles noch halb barbarisch war, war in Bagdad die Residenz, die glänzende Pflanzstätte des orientalischen, des vorderasiatischen Geisteslebens. Harun al Raschid vereinigte um sich diejenigen, die da wußten um die großen Traditionen der Mysterien im Oriente. Und namentlich einen Ratgeber hatte er um sich, der in früheren Zeiten Eingeweihter war, auf dessen geistige Impulsivität aber die früheren Inkarnationen noch wirkten und der der Organisator alles dessen wurde, was an Geometrie, an Chemie und Physik, an Musik, an Architektur und an anderen Künsten, namentlich aber an glänzender Dichtkunst, am Hofe des Harun al Raschid gepflegt worden ist. In der weithin glänzenden Versammlung von Weisen an diesem Hofe war eine mehr oder weniger bewußte Empfindung davon vorhanden: die Intelligenz der Erde, die vom Himmel auf die Erde heruntergestiegen war, muß gestellt werden in den Dienst mohammedanischer Geistesart!

Nun bedenken Sie, von dem Zeitalter des Mohammed, von dem Zeitalter der ersten Kalifen an war ja von Asien über Nordafrika bis nach Europa hineingetragen der Arabismus. Dort breitete er sich aus durch Kriege. Da kamen aber auch mit denjenigen, die auf kriegerische Art Arabismus bis nach Spanien herein ausbreiteten — Frankreich wurde davon berührt, geistig der ganze Westen von Europa -, mit denen kamen auch bedeutende Persönlichkeiten. Und Ihnen allen sind ja bekannt jene Kriegszüge der Frankenkönige gegen die Mauren, gegen den Arabismus. Aber das ist das Äußere, was in der Geschichte verläuft, viel bedeutungsvoller ist das, wie im Inneren der Menschheitsentwickelung immer die spirituellen Strömungen verlaufen.

Dann ging sowohl Harun al Raschid wie auch sein bedeutender Ratgeber durch die Pforte des Todes. Aber nachdem sie durch den Tod gegangen und im Dasein zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt waren, verfolgten sie auf eigentümliche Art ihr Ziel, arabische Denkweise mit Hilfe des sich in Europa ausbreitenden intelligenten Prinzips in die europäische Welt hineinzutragen. Daher sehen wir, nachdem Harun al Raschid durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen war, wie von Asien herüber, von Bagdad über Afrika, durch Spanien, über den Westen Europas bis nach England hinüber Harun al Raschids Seele, während sie durch geistige Welten, durch Sternenwelten ging, unverwandt den Blick richtete von Bagdad herüber durch Vorderasien, durch Griechenland über Rom nach Spanien, Frankreich, ja bis hinauf nach England. Das war ein Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt, das fortdauernd auf den Süden und Westen Europas die Aufmerksamkeit richtete. Und dann erschien Harun al Raschid in einer nächsten Inkarnation wieder — und er wurde der Lord Bacon, Baco von Verulam. Bacon selber ist Harun al Raschid, der in der Zwischenzeit in der Weise zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt gewirkt hat, wie ich es soeben auseinandergesetzt habe. Aber der andere, der sein weiser Ratgeber war, wählte den anderen Weg von Bagdad über das Schwarze Meer durch Rußland nach Mitteleuropa herein. Nach zwei verschiedenen Richtungen gingen die beiden Individualitäten: Harun al Raschid bis zu seinem nächsten Erdenziel als Lord Bacon, als Baco von Verulam; der weise Ratgeber wendete während seines Durchganges im Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt den Blick nicht ab von dem, was immer mehr und mehr vom Osten beeinflußt und beeindruckt werden kann, und er erschien wieder als der große Pädagoge und der Verfasser der «Pansophia», als Amos Comenius. Und aus dem Zusammenwirken dieser einstmals am Hofe von Bagdad wirkenden Individualitäten ist dann in Europa das entstanden, was sich — mehr oder weniger abseits vom Christentum -— entwickelt hat als veralteter Arabismus, aber unter dem Einflusse der, ich möchte sagen, dem Michael von der Sonne entfallenen Intelligenz.

Was äußerlich-physisch in Kriegen geschah, das wurde ja durch die Frankenkönige und durch die anderen Europäer zurückgewiesen. Wir sehen, wie die zuerst mit einer so großen Stoßkraft auftretenden Araberzüge und ihre Ausbreitung der mohammedanischen Kultur sich im Westen brechen, wie sie nicht weiterdringen können; wir sehen für den Westen Europas den Mohammedanismus verschwinden. Aber indem er das, was er an äußeren Formen hatte und an äußerer Kultur begründete, abstreifte, wurde er, der neuere Arabismus, gerade die moderne Naturwissenschaft, wurde das, was in einem pädagogischen Sinne Amos Comenius für die Welt begründete. Und so war es, daß sich in das 17. Jahrhundert herein die Erdenintelligenz, gewissermaßen okkupiert vom Arabismus, ausbreitete.

Damit haben wir auf etwas hingewiesen, was demjenigen zugrunde liegt, in das wir heute die anthroposophische Saat hineinzusäen haben. Man muß das wirklich recht in seiner spirituellen Innerlichkeit betrachten.

Während aber dieses von Asien herüber als die spirituelle Fortsetzung des glänzenden Hofes von Bagdad sich ergab, entwickelte sich, breitete sich aus in Europa das Christentum. Aber es kam so, daß in Europa, ich möchte sagen, unter den größten Schwierigkeiten der Aristotelismus sich ausbreitete. Während durch die großen Taten Alexanders der Aristotelismus hinübergetragen wurde nach Asien als Naturwissenschaft durch alles das, was in gewaltiger Weise aus dem Griechentum sich herausentwickelt hatte, dann vom Arabismus okkupiert worden war, breitete sich, ich möchte sagen, zunächst «in dünnem Aufguß», der Aristotelismus innerhalb der heraufstrebenden christlichen Kultur Europas aus. Und da verband er sich mit dem Platonismus, der durchaus auf alten griechischen Mysterien fußte; verband sich so, wie ich das im ersten Vortrage angedeutet habe.

Aber wir sehen zunächst, wie der Aristotelismus ganz sachte sich in Europa ausbreitete, während der Platonismus überall zu Schulen kommt. Und eine der bedeutendsten war eben jene Schule von Chartres im 12. Jahrhundert, in der jene großen Geister wirkten, die ich gestern aufgezeigt habe: Bernardus Sylvestris, Bernardus von Chartres, Johannes Salisbury, aber namentlich Alanus ab Insulis. In dieser Schule von Chartres wurde noch anders geredet als in dem, was sich ausbreitete als Nachklang des Arabismus. In der Schule von Chartres war echtes Christentum, aber echtes Christentum im Glanze alter Mysterien, wie man eben diese Mysterienweisheit noch haben konnte.

Dann geschah das Bedeutsame: Die dem Arabismus ganz ferne stehenden, aber mit ihrem Platonismus tief in die christlichen Geheimnisse eingetauchten großen Lehrer von Chartres gingen durch die Pforte des Todes. Und da war jene kurze Zeit, im Beginne des 13. Jahrhunderts, wo gleichsam ein großes himmlisches Konzil stattfand. Als die besten der Lehrer, voran Alanus ab Insulis, gestorben waren, das heißt drüben in der geistigen Welt waren, da versammelten sie sich zu bedeutsamer kosmischer Tat mit denjenigen, die noch oben in der geistigen Welt waren und demnächst heruntersteigen sollten auf die Erde und dort in einer neuen Weise den Aristotelismus vertreten sollten. Und unter diesen, die da heruntersteigen sollten, waren eben solche, die gerade mit innerster Seele, mit starker intensiver Seelenkraft teilgenommen haben an dem Wirken der Michael-Impulse in der Alexanderzeit. Und wir dürfen uns vorstellen, weil das der Wahrheit entspricht, daß an dieser Wende des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts zusammenkamen Seelen, die aus christlichen Einweihungsstätten, wie eine solche die Schule von Chartres war, eben heraufgekommen waren in die geistige Welt, und solche Seelen, die zum Heruntersteigen bereit waren und die sich in den geistigen Regionen jetzt nicht den Platonismus, sondern den Aristotelismus, die innere Intelligenzwirkung, die noch aus der alten Michael-Zeit stammte, bewahrt hatten. Da waren sie, auch diejenigen, welche sich sagten: Wir waren ja um Michael, als wir mit ihm gesehen haben, wie die Intelligenz vom Himmel auf die Erde herunterströmte, wir waren mit ihm vereint auch bei jener großen kosmopolitischen Tat, die noch unter der alten Verwaltung der Intelligenz durch Michael, wo die Intelligenz kosmisch verwaltet wurde, vollzogen wurde. - Und da geschah es eben, daß die Lehrer von Chartres den Aristotelikern zunächst die Verwaltung der geistigen Erdenangelegenheiten übertrugen. Denjenigen also, die jetzt heruntersteigen sollten und gerade dazu geeignet waren, die Verwaltung des intelligenten Lebens, der Eigenintelligenz auf der Erde zu übernehmen, denen übertrugen die Platoniker, die eigentlich nur noch unter solchem Einfluß stehen konnten, daß die Intelligenz «vom Himmel aus» verwaltet wird, denen übertrugen diese Lehrer von Chartres die Verwaltung des geistigen Lebens auf der Erde.

Namentlich in den Dominikaner-Orden hinein kamen diese Geister, in deren Seelen ein Nachklang des Michael-Impulses aus der vorangegangenen Michael-Zeit war. Und es entstand die ja namentlich aus dem Dominikaner-Orden hervorgehende Scholastik, jene Scholastik, die dann bitter, aber auch großartig damit rang: Wie verhält es sich mit dem intelligenten Denken? Das war ja die große Frage, die dann im 13. Jahrhundert tief unten in den Seelen der Begründer der Scholastik saß — die brennende Frage: Was geschieht mit der Michael-Herrschaft?

Da gab es Menschen, die man später die Nominalisten nannte, sie sagten: Begriffe und Ideen sind bloße Namen, sind nichts Reales. Sie waren ahrimanisch beeinflußt; denn die Nominalisten wollten eigentlich alle Michael-Herrschaft von der Erde wegverbannen. Indem man behauptete, Ideen wären nur Namen, wären nichts Reales, wollte man eigentlich die Michael-Herrschaft nicht auf der Erde zur Wirkung kommen lassen. Und die ahrimanischen Geister sagten dazumal für die, welche ein Ohr dafür hatten: Michael ist die kosmische Intelligenz entfallen, sie ist hier auf der Erde; wir wollen den Michael nicht wieder zur Herrschaft über die Intelligenz kommen lassen! — Aber darin bestand eben jenes bedeutsame himmlische Konzil, daß Platoniker und Aristoteliker zusammen einen Plan entwarfen, wie gerade dieMichael-Impulse weiter verarbeitet werden sollten. Den Nominalisten traten die dominikanischen Realisten gegenüber, die sagten: Ideen, Gedanken sind Reales, das in den Dingen drinnen lebt, nicht bloße Namen.

Man wird, wenn man dafür Verständnis hat, manchmal an solche Dinge in einer recht merkwürdigen, bewundernswerten Art erinnert. In meinen letzten Wiener Jahren wurde ich unter anderem mit einem Ordenspriester bekannt, Vincenz Knauer, der die philosophische Schrift geschrieben hat, die ich öfter auch den Anthroposophen angeraten habe zu lesen: «Hauptprobleme der Philosophie.» Er war noch im 19. Jahrhundert in diesen Streit zwischen Nominalisten und Realisten hineingestellt: er suchte den Menschen klarzumachen, wie es ein Unding ist, von Nominalismus zu sprechen, und er hatte dazu ein sehr gutes Beispiel gewählt — es steht auch in seinen Büchern -, aber ich erinnere mich mit einer tiefen Befriedigung daran, wie ich einmal mit ihm zusammen in Wien in der Inneren Währinger-Straße ging, wir sprachen über Nominalismus und Realismus, und wie er da mit seinem ganzen bedächtigen Enthusiasmus, der etwas sehr Merkwürdiges hatte — ich möchte sagen: so etwas von ehrlicher Philosophie, während die anderen Philosophen mehr oder weniger unehrlich geworden waren -, wie er da sagte: Ich mache meinen Schülern immer klar, daß dasjenige, was als Ideen in den Dingen lebt, eine Realität hat, und wende dazu ihren Blick auf ein Lamm und einen Wolf. Die Nominalisten würden in bezug auf diese beiden, Lamm und Wolf, sagen: Muskel, Knochen, Materie ist das Lamm; Muskel, Knochen, Materie ist der Wolf. Was als Form, als Idee des Lammes im Lammfleisch verwirklicht ist: es ist nur ein Name. «Lamm» ist ein Name, ist nicht als Idee ein Reales. Ebenso verhält es sich mit dem Wolf: er ist wieder als Idee nichts Reales, sondern nur ein Name, Aber man kann die Nominalisten leicht widerlegen, sagte der gute Knauer, denn man braucht ihnen nur klarzumachen: Gebt einem Wolfe, dem ihr alle andere Nahrung entzieht, eine Zeitlang bloß Lammfleisch zu fressen: wenn die «Idee» Lamm keine Realität hat, ein Nichts ist, nur ein Name, und wenn die Materie im Lamme das Ganze wäre, dann müßte der Wolf nach und nach ein Lamm werden. Er wird es aber nicht! Im Gegenteil, er ist noch weiter die Realität Wolf. Bei dem, was wir als Lamm vor uns haben, hat die Idee Lamm gleichsam die Materie angezogen und in die Form gebracht; und ebenso ist es beim Wolf: die Idee Wolf hat die Materie, die im Wolfe ist, angezogen und in die Form gebracht.

Aber dieser Streit war es im Grunde genommen, um was die Nominalisten und die Realisten kämpften: es handelte sich um die Realität dessen, was durch die Intelligenz zu erfassen ist.

So mußten die Dominikaner zur rechten Zeit vorarbeiten für die nächste Herrschaft des Michael. Und während die Platoniker, zum Beispiel die Lehrer von Chartres, nach dem Beschlusse dieses im Beginne des 13. Jahrhunderts stattgefundenen himmlischen Konzils in der geistigen Welt blieben, keine maßgebenden Inkarnationen hatten, sollten damals die Aristoteliker für die Erdenangelegenheiten des Intelligenten arbeiten. Und von der Scholastik — die ja nur in der modernen Zeit von Rom entstellt und karikiert, ahrimanisiert worden ist — ging nun alles moderne intelligente Streben aus, insofern es nicht von dem Arabismus okkupiert worden ist.

So sehen wir in dieser Zeit in Mittel- und Westeuropa die beiden Strömungen laufen: auf der einen Seite die Strömung, mit der verbunden sind Bacon und Amos Comenius, und auf der anderen Seite haben wir die scholastische Strömung, das heißt das Sich-Hineinstellen in die geistige Zivilisationsentwickelung dessen, was christlicher Aristotelismus war und ist und was vorzubereiten hatte das neue Zeitalter des Michael. Wenn die Scholastiker während der Herrschaft der früheren Erzengel haben hinaufschauen wollen nach den geistigen Regionen, so haben sie sich gesagt: Da ist Michael, dessen Herrschaft erwartet werden muß. Vorbereitet werden muß das, was er, nachdem es ihm im Himmel nach der Fügung der kosmischen Entwickelung entfallen war, zur rechten Zeit auf derErde wieder übernehmen muß! — So entwickelte sich eine Strömung, die dann nur durch den katholischen Ultramontanismus auf einen falschen Nebenweg geführt worden ist, die aber für sich geblieben ist und dasjenige fortsetzte, was im 13. Jahrhundert begründet worden ist.

Es bildete sich also eine Strömung heraus, die unmittelbar in der Verwaltung der irdischen Intelligenz auf der Grundlage des Aristotelismus arbeitete. In ihr lebte dann auch dasjenige, wovon ich gestern gesagt habe, daß einer, der etwas länger bei Alanus ab Insulis in der geistigen Welt geblieben war, als jüngerer Dominikaner herabgekommen ist und einem älteren Dominikaner, der schon vor ihm heruntergestiegen war auf die Erde, eine Botschaft brachte von Alanus ab Insulis. Da lebte im europäischen Geistesleben jener intensive Wille, die Gedanken stark zu erfassen. Und über dem irdischen Leben ging aus alledem dann auch dasjenige hervor, was dann im Beginne des 19. Jahrhunderts zu einer großen, umfassenden Veranstaltung in der geistigen Welt führte, wo sich das, was später auf der Erde Anthroposophie werden sollte, in mächtigen Imaginationen abspielte. In der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts, schon ein wenig am Ende des 18., waren alle die, welche Platoniker waren unter der Führung der Lehrer von Chartres, die ja jetzt zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt waren, und auch die, welche den Aristotelismus in Europa begründet haben und mittlerweile auch längst durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen waren, in himmlischen Regionen vereinigt, um einen überirdischen Kultus zu vollziehen, in welchem in mächtigen realen Imaginationen das hineingestellt wurde, was im neuen Christentum im 20. Jahrhundert auf spirituelle Art wieder begründet werden soll, nachdem das neue Michael-Zeitalter im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts begonnen hat.

Davon sickerte so manches durch. Oben in der geistigen Welt spielte sich ab in mächtigen kosmischen Imaginationen die Vorbereitung für jene intelligente, aber durchaus spirituelle Erschaffung, die dann als Anthroposophie erscheinen sollte. Was da durchsickerte: auf Goethe machte es einen bestimmten Eindruck. Ich möchte sagen, es kam in Miniaturbildern bei ihm durch. Die großen, gewaltigen Bilder, die sich da oben abspielten, kannte Goethe nicht; er verarbeitete diese Miniaturbildchen in seinem «Märchen von der grünen Schlange und der schönen Lilie». Eine wunderbare Erscheinung! Wir haben die ganzen Strömungen, die ich geschildert habe, so sich fortsetzend, daß sie zu jenen mächtigen Imaginationen führen, die oben in der geistigen Welt unter der Führung des Alanus ab Insulis und der anderen sich abspielen; wir haben das Mächtige, daß da Dinge durchsickern und Goethe an der Wende des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts begeistern zu seinem spirituellen Märchen «Von der grünen Schlange und der schönen Lilie». Es war sozusagen ein erstes Herauskommen desjenigen, was zunächst in mächtigen Imaginationen im Beginne des 19., sogar schon am Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts sich in der geistigen Welt abspielte. Sie werden es daher nicht wunderbar finden, daß im Hinblick auf diesen übersinnlichen Kultus, der in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts stattfand, mein erstes Mysteriendrama, «Die Pforte der Einweihung», das ja in einer gewissen Weise in dramatischer Form wiedergeben wollte, was sich da im Beginne des 19. Jahrhunderts abspielte, äußerlich in der Struktur etwas ähnlich wurde dem, was Goethe in seinem Märchen «Von der grünen Schlange und der schönen Lilie» dargestellt hat. Denn die Anthroposophie sollte von der Art, wie sie imaginativ in den ersten Zeiten in überirdischen Regionen gelebt hat, heruntersteigen in die irdische Region. Denn damals geschah in den überirdischen Regionen etwas. Eine große Anzahl von Seelen, die in den verschiedensten Zeiten vom Christentum berührt worden waren, vereinigten sich mit solchen Seelen, die weniger vom Christentum berührt waren, die in der Zeit gelebt haben, als das Mysterium von Golgatha auf der Erde stattfand, und vorher. Es vereinigten sich diese beiden Gruppen von Seelen, um in überirdischen Regionen die Anthroposophie vorzubereiten. Da waren die geschilderten Individualitäten, die um Alanus ab Insulis herum waren, und die, welche innerhalb der Dominikanerströmung den Aristotelismus in Europa begründet haben, auch vereinigt mit dem großen Lehrer Dantes, mit Brunetto Latini. Und in dieser großen Schar von Seelen war ein großer Teil derjenigen, die heute, nachdem sie wieder auf die Erde heruntergestiegen sind, sich in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft zusammenschließen. Die, welche heute den Drang fühlen, sich in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft zu vereinigen, waren im Beginne des 19. Jahrhunderts in übersinnlichen Regionen zusammen, um jenen mächtigen Imaginationskultus zu verrichten, von dem ich gesprochen habe.

Das ist auch etwas, was mit dem Karma der anthroposophischen Bewegung verknüpft ist. Es ist etwas, auf das man kommt, wenn man diese anthroposophische Bewegung nicht rationalistisch in ihrer äußeren Erdengestalt allein betrachtet, sondern wenn man die Fäden betrachtet, die hinaufführen in die geistigen Regionen. Da sieht man, wie sozusagen diese anthroposophische Bewegung herabsteigt. Ja, das ist am Ende des 18. und im Beginne des 19. Jahrhunderts, ich möchte sagen, die «himmlische» anthroposophischeBewegung: da sickert das durch, was Goethe in Miniaturbildern im Märchen «Von der grünen Schlange und der schönen Lilie» wiedergibt. Dann aber sollte es heruntersteigen, als im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts Michael, nun aber von der Sonne auf die Erde heruntersteigend, die Erdenintelligenz der Menschen ergreifen will.

Seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha war Christus mit der Erdenmenschheit vereinigt. Die Erdenmenschheit konnte ihn zunächst äußerlich nicht fassen. Die Michael-Herrschaft hat die letzte Phase kosmischer Intelligenz verwaltet in der Alexanderzeit. Mit dem 8. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert war die kosmische Intelligenz ganz heruntergefallen in die Erdenwesenheit. Die, welche mit Michael verbunden waren, haben es, nach den Abmachungen mit den Platonikern, dann unternommen, diese Erdenintelligenz im scholastischen Realismus so vorzubereiten, daß Michael sich wiederum mit ihr vereinigen kann, wenn er seine Herrschaft mit dem Ende der siebziger Jahre im 19. Jahrhundert in der fortlaufenden Zivilisation antritt.

Darum handelt es sich jetzt, daß die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft diese ihre innere Aufgabe ergreift, diese Aufgabe, die darin besteht, Michael das menschliche Denken nicht streitig zu machen. Da kann man nicht fatalistisch sein. Da kann man nur sagen: DieMenschen müssen mit den Göttern zusammenarbeiten, mit Michael selber. Michael begeistert die Menschen, damit auf der Erde eine Spiritualität erscheine, die der Eigenintelligenz der Menschen gewachsen ist, damit man denken kann und zugleich spiritueller Mensch sein; denn das bedeutet erst die Michael-Herrschaft. Um das muß gekämpft werden innerhalb der anthroposophischen Bewegung. Dann werden die, welche heute für die anthroposophische Bewegung wirken, am Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts schon wieder erscheinen und auf der Erde verbunden sein mit denen, welche die Lehrer von Chartres waren. Denn das ist die Abmachung jenes himmlischen Konzils im Beginne des 13. Jahrhunderts, daß sie miteinander erscheinen, die Aristoteliker und die Platoniker, und daß dahin gearbeitet werde, daß immer blühender und blühender die anthroposophische Bewegung im 20. Jahrhundert werde, damit am Ende dieses Jahrhunderts im Verein von Platonikern und Aristotelikern die Anthroposophie eine gewisse Kulmination in der Erdenzivilisation erlangen kann. Kann so gearbeitet werden, wie es von Michael vorbestimmt, prädestiniert ist, dann kommt Europa, dann kommt die moderne Zivilisation heraus aus dem Niedergang. Aber auf keine andere Weise sonst! Dieses Herausführen der Zivilisation aus dem Niedergang ist verbunden mit dem Verständnis von Michael.

Damit, meine lieben Freunde, habe ich Sie herangeführt zu dem Verständnis des Michael-Geheimnisses, das eben in der Gegenwart über der denkenden und nach spiritueller Weisheit strebenden Menschheit waltet. Daß damit — durch die Anthroposophie — etwas hereingetragen werden muß in die geistige Erdenentwickelung, was vielen paradox erscheint, das können Sie begreifen, denn allerlei dämonisch-ahrimanische Gewalten machen die Menschen von sich besessen. So daß die ahrimanischen Gewalten in manchen Menschenleibern schon jubelten, daß Michael seine kosmische Intelligenz, die auf die Erde heruntergefallen ist, nicht mehr erhalten könne. Und dieses Jubeln war besonders stark in der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts, wo Ahriman schon glaubte, daß Michael seine einstmals kosmische Intelligenz, die den Weg vom Himmel auf die Erde gefunden hatte, nicht wiederfinden werde. Es geht um Großes, es geht um Riesiges! Deshalb ist es nicht weiter wunderbar, wenn die in diesen Kämpfen Drinnenstehenden manches Sonderbare erfahren müssen.

Eigentlich ist noch nie über eine geistige Bewegung so sonderbar gesprochen worden wie über die anthroposophische. Gerade an der kuriosen Art, über die anthroposophische Bewegung zu sprechen, sehen Sie, wie sie mit ihrem spirituellen Charakter und mit ihrem Zusammenhang mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha von den erleuchtetsten Geistern der Gegenwart nicht begriffen werden kann. Denn sagt Ihnen etwa jemand, er habe einen Menschen gesehen, der schwarz und weiß zugleich sei? Ich glaube nicht, daß Sie den für vernünftig halten, der Ihnen so etwas sagte. Aber heute dürfen die Leute über die anthroposophische Bewegung etwas Ähnliches schreiben. So darf zum Beispiel Maurice Maeterlinck in seinem Buche «Das große Rätsel» über mich selbst, insofern er mich als Träger der anthroposophischen Bewegung behandelt, eine Logik entfalten, die ganz gleich ist derjenigen, wie wenn jemand sagte, er habe einen Menschen gesehen, der schwarz und weiß, Europäer und Mohr zugleich ist. Eines kann man sein, aber nicht beides zugleich. Maeterlinck jedoch sagt: «Was wir in den Vedas lesen, sagt Rudolf Steiner, einer der gelehrtesten und auch der verworrensten unter den zeitgenössischen Okkultisten...» Wenn jemand sagte, er habe einen Menschen gesehen, der ein Europäer und ein Mohr zugleich ist, so würde man ihn für verrückt erklären; aber Maeterlinck darf zusammenstellen «einer der gelehrtesten und verworrensten». Und er sagt weiter: «Rudolf Steiner, der, wenn er sich nicht in vielleicht wahrscheinliche, aber nie nachprüfbare Visionen der Prähistorie, in astrale Redensarten über das Leben auf anderen Sternen verirrt, ein sehr klarer und scharfer Geist ist, hat den Sinn dieses Gerichts» — gemeint ist die Osirifikation — «und dieser Gleichsetzung der Seele mit Gott außerordentlich gut beleuchtet.» (S. 80.) Also das heißt: Wenn er nicht just über Anthroposophie spricht, ist er ein klarer und scharfer Geist. Das darf wieder Maeterlinck sagen. Er darf noch mehr sagen, Dinge, die ganz sonderbar sind, denn er findet es möglich, das folgende zu sagen: «Steiner hat seine intuitiven Methoden angewendet, die eine Art transzendentaler Psychometrie sind, um die Geschichte der Atlantier zu rekonstruieren und uns zu offenbaren, was auf der Sonne, dem Mond und anderen Welten geschieht. Er beschreibt uns die aufeinanderfolgenden Wandlungen der Wesenheiten, die zu Menschen werden, und er tut das mit so viel Sicherheit, daß man sich fragt, nachdem man ihm mit Interesse durch die Einführung gefolgt ist, die einen sehr abwägenden, logischen und weiten Geist zeigt, ob er plötzlich wahnsinnig wird oder ob man es mit einem Schwindler oder wirklichen Visionär zu tun hat.» ($.167.) Nun bedenken Sie, was das heißt: Maeterlinck behauptet, wenn ich Bücher schreibe, dann sind die Einleitungen immer so, daß er sagen muß, er habe es mit einem «sehr abwägenden, logischen und weiten Geist» zu tun. Liest er aber in meinen Büchern weiter, so weiß er nicht, ob ich plötzlich wahnsinnig geworden oder ein Schwindler oder ein wirklicher Visionär sei. Aber nun habe ich nicht nur einzelne Bücher geschrieben. Ich schreibe immer die Einführung bei jedem Buche zuerst. Nun habe ich also ein Buch geschrieben, Maeterlinck liest die Einführung: Da stelle ich mich ihm dar als ein «sehr abwägender, logischer und weiter Geist»; dann liest er weiter und findet mich nun so, daß er sagt: Ich weiß nicht, ob Rudolf Steiner plötzlich wahnsinnig geworden oder ein Schwindler oder Visionär ist. Dann geht es weiter... Ich schreibe ein zweites Buch: da bin ich für Maeterlinck, wenn er die Einleitung liest, wieder ein «sehr abwägender, logischer und weiter Geist»; dann liest er den weiteren Inhalt und findet mich wieder so, daß er nicht weiß, ob ich wahnsinnig oder ein Schwindler oder Visionär bin. Und so geht das dann weiter. Aber bedenken Sie, die Leute kommen darauf, zu sagen: Wenn ich deine Bücher von vorne lese, kommst du mir sehr gescheit, abwägend und logisch vor; dann aber wirst du plötzlich wahnsinnig! Was müssen das für merkwürdige Menschen sein, die, wenn sie anfangen zu schreiben, logisch sind, und dann beim Weiterschreiben auf einmal wahnsinnig werden; dann beim nächsten Buche sich wieder umschalten, im Anfange wieder Logiker sind, dann später Wahnsinnige! Und so rhythmisch weiter. «Rhythmen» gibt es ja in der Welt.

Aber an diesem Beispiele mögen Sie sehen, wie die erleuchtetsten Geister der Gegenwart das aufnehmen, was als Michael-Epoche in der Welt begründet werden muß, was getan werden muß, damit die im 8. Jahrhundert Michael nach der Weltordnung mit Recht entsunkene kosmische Intelligenz innerhalb der Erdenmenschheit wiederum gefunden werde. Die ganze Michael-Tradition muß revidiert werden. Michael, seine Füße auf den Drachen gestellt: Man erblickt mit Recht dieses Bild, das den Michael-Kämpfer darstellt, wie er den kosmischen Geist vertritt gegenüber den ahrimanischen Mächten, die er unter seinen Füßen hat.

Mehr als irgendein anderer Kampf ist dieser Kampf in das menschliche Herz gelegt. Da drinnen ist er verankert, verankert seit dem letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts. Entscheidend muß dasjenige werden, was Menschenherzen mit dieser Michael-Angelegenheit der Welt im Laufe des 20. Jahrhunderts tun. Und im Laufe dieses 20. Jahrhunderts, wenn das erste Jahrhundert nach dem Ende des Kali Yuga verflossen sein wird, wird die Menschheit entweder am Grabe aller Zivilisation stehen oder am Anfange desjenigen Zeitalters, wo in den Seelen der Menschen, die in ihrem Herzen Intelligenz mit Spiritualität verbinden, der Michael-Kampf zugunsten des Michael-Impulses ausgefochten wird.

Second Lecture

Yesterday I took the liberty of saying a few things about the karma of the Anthroposophical Society for those of my friends who were here. Today I would like to discuss something that is connected with this, and I will say it in such a way that what I say today can also be understood on its own terms.

Everything that will have to be accomplished at the present time in the development of humanity in preparation for the spiritual events of the near and more distant future is connected with what I have often called the Michael event among our anthroposophical friends, and I would like to discuss a few things about this Michael event today that are connected with the anthroposophical movement.

When we speak of such a phenomenon as the Michael event, we must certainly start from the mental image that the world is built in stages, so to speak. If we look at the development of the world using only those forces that are possible for man today through his earthly life between birth and death, we can see how mankind has developed on earth, how ancient peoples have evolved from even older ones; how gradually, through the Orient, through the Indian, Persian, Arabian and Chaldean-Egyptian populations, the Greco-Roman period emerged, how the Greco-Roman period then developed into the medieval period and how our more recent era, with all its turmoil, but also with all the great things it has brought in terms of technology, has finally come into being. But both “below”, I would like to say, and “above” this surface which we survey in the progress of the peoples, we see developments, developments which are not now undergone by men, but which are undergone by spiritual entities, but by such spiritual entities which have a certain connection with the development of mankind.

The kingdom of the Angeloi, the angels in the Christian sense, has to do directly with the development of individual men. This kingdom of the Angeloi has within it those beings who guide the individual human being insofar as he needs such guidance, such a leader, from earthly life to earthly life; they are the protectors of the human being in everything where he needs such protection. They are therefore directly connected with the development of mankind, even if they are supersensible to earthly eyes.

But immediately in the adjoining spiritual realm those beings develop their activity which we call the hierarchy of the Archangeloi, the archangels. These Archangeloi have to do with many things that also play a role in the development of mankind - not with the individual human being, but certainly with the interrelationships of human beings. For example, it is the case, as I have often mentioned in anthroposophical lectures, that the development of peoples is governed by archangel beings. But it is also the case that certain ages in the earth's development are preferentially impulsed, determined by very specific archangel beings. In the three centuries, for example, which preceded the last third of the 19th century, that is in the 19th, 18th, 17th and part of the 16th century, we have to imagine the civilized world essentially under the rule of that archangel being who is called Gabriel by the Christians who can speak of such things. So that during this period was the age of Gabriel.

This age of Gabriel has a great importance for the whole newer development of mankind. For basically, since the Mystery of Golgotha, people on earth have experienced that the high solar being Christ has descended from the sun to earth through the Mystery of Golgotha, has taken on a body in the body of Jesus, has united himself with the fate of the earth. But because the Christ-being thus remained connected with the earth, the Christ-impulse could not yet actually take hold of the inner physical and etheric of humanity - through the whole series of the reign of the archangels from the Mystery of Golgotha to the reign of Gabriel. This was only possible under the Gabriel impulse, which began about three centuries before the last third of the 19th century. So that only since this time there is a mankind which inwardly - even if it has not yet done so today - can be permeated by the Christ impulse already through the hereditary powers. For Gabriel governs everything within humanity that is physical hereditary power. In particular, he is the supersensible spirit who is connected with the succession of generations, who, I would like to say, is the great, comprehensive protective spirit of the mothers, insofar as these mothers bring human children into the world. Gabriel has to do with births, he has to do with the embryonic development of the human being. The powers of Gabriel lie in everything that underlies physical procreation as spiritual; so that actually only since this last reign of Gabriel has the physical procreation of mankind on earth come into connection with the Christ impulse.

Then, from the end of the seventies of the last century, the reign of Michael begins. It is quite different from the reign of Gabriel. Whereas in the previous three centuries the rule of the archangel had to be sought in the spiritual impulses of the physical, in everything that has spread since then as the rule of Michael we have to see precisely that archangel who has to do primarily with the spiritual, with the rational qualities of humanity, with everything that concerns the rational, the spiritual development of humanity, that concerns spiritual culture. And it is of extraordinarily great importance for the consideration of the earthly human context that the dominion of Gabriel, which, I would like to say, takes hold of the most physical in the spiritual, is always replaced by the dominion of Michael, who actually has to do with all that which is the so-called spiritual in culture. So if we want to look for the archangel-protecting deity for physical procreation, then we look up to the archangel Gabriel; if we want to look up to the spirit who in the age of civilization has to do with the development of the sciences, with the unfolding of the arts and so on, then we look up to the archangel being who, according to Christian usage, is called Michael. - For those cultures which are always the most authoritative in the ages, seven archangelic reigns always follow one another; so that the reign of Michael was preceded by six other archangelic reigns. And if we go further back from Gabriel in the archangel reigns, we then come back to an age in which Michael has again realized his influence on earth. So that each such archangel reign is always the repetition of earlier, similar archangel reigns, and the development of the archangels themselves happens at the same time through this progress. After a certain time, after about two millennia, the same archangel always comes to rule within the dominant civilization.

But these reigns, which each last about three hundred years and a little over, differ substantially from each other; not always as much as the Michael reign from the Gabriel reign, but they do differ substantially from each other. And we can say that whenever Gabriel rules, the age that separates the peoples from each other, that differentiates them, the age in which the peoples become more nationalistic, is preparing itself for the following period. You may ask: How is it that in the present time, when the age of Michael has come, such a strong nationalistic element is appearing on earth? Yes, spiritually it was prepared long beforehand; then it continues to have an effect, it fades away, and the after-effects are still present for a long time, which are often worse than the immediate age. For it is only gradually that the Michael impulsiveness pushes its way into what is now largely left behind by the Gabriel dominion. But whenever the Michael Age begins, a longing begins for humanity on earth to overcome all ethnic differences and to spread across the various peoples populating the earth at this time that which has arisen as the highest culture, as the highest spiritual content in a particular age. The Michael rule always denotes the prevalence of a cosmopolitan principle, always denotes the spread of a highest spiritual state on earth among those peoples - no matter what language they have - who are accessible to this spiritual state. Therefore, of the seven archangels who send their impulses into the development of mankind, Michael is always the one who gives mankind the impulse of cosmopolitanism - and at the same time the impulse to bring the most valuable thing that is there in an age to spread among men.

If we now go back in the development of mankind and ask ourselves: What is the next Michael Age, which lies behind ours? - we come to that age which found its conclusion with those cosmopolitan deeds which took place on the basis of the then most valuable Greek spiritual life through the Alexander campaigns to Asia. We see there how from the basis of the ancient development of civilization the urge arises to carry over to the Oriental peoples, to carry over to Egypt, to spread in a cosmopolitan way among all the peoples who were accessible to it, that which had been achieved in Greece - in little Greece - in spiritual culture. The tremendously significant thing that happens is that out of this Michael Age the cosmopolitan spread of that which has been achieved through the Greekness of mankind unfolds. And when the city of Alexandria blossoms in the north of Africa, this blossoming is in a certain sense the culmination of that Michael Age.

That was the previous Michael age. Then the other six archangels come to reign. And in the last third of the 19th century, at the end of the seventies, another new Michael Age begins. But never before in the entire development of the earth has there been such a great difference between two successive Michael ages as between the age of Alexander and the one in which we have been living since the end of the seventies of the last century. The event that gives the earth's development its actual meaning falls between these two Michael ages: the Mystery of Golgotha!

Now we must consider what Michael actually has to administer in the whole of the spiritual cosmos: He has to administer that which is indeed spiritual, but which then culminates in the intellectual comprehension of man. Michael is not the spirit who cultivates intellectuality; but everything he gives as spirituality wants to enlighten mankind in the form of ideas, in the form of thoughts - but in the form of ideas and thoughts that grasp the spiritual. Michael wants man to be a free being who also understands in his concepts and ideas what is revealed to him from the spiritual worlds.

Let us take a look at this Michael Age as it was in the time of Alexander. I have often said that in our age people are very, very clever, that is, they have concepts, ideas, mental images, they are intellectualists, they have a self-acquired intellectuality. But people in Alexander's time were also clever. Only if you had asked them back then: Where did you get your concepts, your ideas? - they would not have said: We acquired them out of ourselves. - Rather, they received spiritual revelations - and together with these the ideas. So that the ideas were not seen as something that one formed oneself, but as something that was revealed to people through spirituality. And this - in contrast to today's earthly - heavenly intellectuality had to be administered by Michael in Alexander's time. He was the most outstanding of the archangels, insofar as they populate the sun. He was the spirit who not only sent the physical-etheric rays of the sun from the sun, but who also sent the inspiring intellectuality to earth in the physical-etheric rays of the sun. For at that time people knew: What they unfold in the power of intelligence on earth is the gift of heaven, it is the gift of the sun, it is sent down from the sun. And the directly executing spirit that sends intellectuality down to earth in a spiritual way is Michael! - This was also present in the old solar mysteries as a wonderful initiate teaching: that Michael dwells on the sun, that he administers the cosmic intelligence there and that this cosmic intelligence, by inspiring people, is a gift of Michael.

But now came that age in which more and more the gift of man was to be prepared to develop the intellect out of the soul's own power; not only to have the intelligence of the cosmos revealed to him, but to become intelligent himself out of his own power. This was then prepared by Aristotelianism, by that peculiar philosophical worldview that emerged in the twilight of Greekism, which then gave the impetus for Alexander's expeditions to Asia and Africa. In Aristotelianism lay, I would say, the detachment, the peeling away of the earthly intelligence from the cosmic intelligence. In what was later called Aristotle's logic lies the peeling away of the skeleton of thought that became human intelligence in all the centuries that followed. And now you must consider that this foundation of earthly-human intelligence and the impressing of the then cosmopolitan peoples with Greek culture through the Alexander campaigns stands, so to speak, as a final act that originated from the Michael impulses. This is a unified act.

Then the age of Michael was replaced by that of Oriphiel. The archangel Oriphiel became the ruler. The Mystery of Golgotha occurred. Those human souls who had consciously participated under the rule of Michael in the time of Alexander in the deeds of which I have just spoken, they were gathered at the beginning of the Christian age within the sun around the archangel being of Michael, who had now first given up his rule for the earth to Oriphiel, but who in the realm of the sun with those who were to serve him as human souls participated in the departure of the Christ from the sun.

And this is also one of the events we have to keep in mind: that in those human souls who are connected with the anthroposophical movement there is that sight: We are united with Michael on the sun, the Christ, who until then sent his impulses from the sun to the earth, he goes away from the sun to connect with the earth development! Yes, just think of this significant, supernatural-cosmic event, of this special sight that those human souls had who were gathered around Michael as Angeloi servants at that time, after he had ended his reign on earth, and who, so to speak, participated within the solar region as the Christ left the sun in order to unite his fate with the fate of earthly humanity. “He is leaving!” That was the great experience.

The human souls truly do not only receive their directions on earth, they also receive them in life between death and a new birth. This was especially true for those who had lived through the Alexander Age. A great, powerful impulse emanated from the cosmic-world-historical moment when these souls saw how the Christ departed from the sun. And for them there was clarity about the fact that cosmic intelligence was now gradually passing from the cosmos to the earth. And Michael and those who were around him saw, as it were, how gradually all the intelligence that had previously flowed from the cosmos sank down to earth.

And Michael and his - either by being above in the spiritual world or by being embodied below for a short life on earth - they saw how the radiations of intelligent life arrived in the earth realm itself in the 8th century after Christ, they knew: down there the intelligence will continue to unfold! And on earth one could notice how the first thinkers appeared. The others, who had previously appeared as great beings, were inspired thought possessors. Individual thinkers only appeared from the 8th century AD onwards. And within the archangel choir in the solar region, the mighty word rang out from Michael's entity: “What was the power of my kingdom, what was administered from here through me, is no longer here; it must continue to flow and ripple and wave down there on earth!”

From the 8th century onwards, this was the view of the earth from the sun. This was also the great secret that the forces, which are preferably the forces of Michael, descended from heaven to earth. This was also the great secret which was communicated to some initiates in schools of the kind I discussed yesterday, for example in the high school of Chartres. You might say that before, if you wanted to know what intelligence was, you had to look up to the sun through the Mysteries. Now intelligence was not yet so visible on earth, but it gradually became known that people who have their own thinking, their own intelligence, develop on earth. One of those who, within European civilization, I would say, had the first sparks of self-thinking sprouting in their souls was Scotus Erigena, whom I have often discussed. But he was preceded by several others who had their own thinking, no longer merely inspired thinking revealed from above. And more and more this independent thinking spread.

But in the earthly development there was a possibility to put this self-thinking into a special service. For think about it: this self-thinking was the sum of the impulses that descended from heaven to earth from Michael's region. Michael was initially called to allow this earth intelligence to develop further on earth. He was not there yet; he was not to join it again until 1879. At first this earthly thinking developed in such a way that Michael could not yet take control of it. He could not yet impel the people who were independent thinkers, for his rule, his time had not yet come.

This, which was like a deep secret in the development of mankind on earth, was known in a few individual oriental mysteries. And so in these few individual oriental mysteries, individual disciples could be initiated into this great secret by people with a basic spiritual disposition and training. And through a coincidence of a kind that is difficult for the ordinary earthly mind to understand, it just so happened that this secret, which was well known to some of the Oriental Mysteries, touched that court of rulers of which I have spoken at the Goetheanum and in other places. It was precisely in the 8th and the beginning of the 9th century that this court of rulers reigned in Asia under the rule of Harun al Raschid. Harun al Rashid had emerged from the culture of Arabism, from the Mohammedan culture. The secret of which I have just spoken had reached his initiated or at least to a certain extent knowledgeable advisors. The Baghdad court under the rule of Harun al Rashid was touched by this secret, which is why this court was so brilliant. Everything that existed in the Orient in terms of wisdom, art and deep religiosity was concentrated at the court of Harun al Rashid, albeit with a Mohammedan tinge. While in Europe at the court of Charlemagne, who was a contemporary of Harun al Rashid, people were busy compiling the first elements of a grammar and everything was still half barbaric, Baghdad was the residence, the glittering nursery of Oriental, Near Eastern intellectual life. Harun al Rashid gathered around him those who knew about the great traditions of the mysteries of the Orient. In particular, he had around him an advisor who had been an initiate in earlier times, but whose spiritual impulsiveness was still influenced by his earlier incarnations and who became the organizer of everything that was cultivated at the court of Harun al Rashid in terms of geometry, chemistry and physics, music, architecture and other arts, but especially the brilliant art of poetry. There was a more or less conscious sense of this in the widely brilliant assembly of sages at this court: the intelligence of the earth, which had descended from heaven to earth, must be placed at the service of the Mohammedan way of thinking!

Now consider, from the age of Mohammed, from the age of the first caliphs, Arabism was carried from Asia via North Africa to Europe. There it spread through wars. But along with those who spread Arabism as far as Spain in a warlike manner - France was touched by it, spiritually the whole of Western Europe - came important personalities. And you are all familiar with the campaigns of the Frankish kings against the Moors, against Arabism. But that is the external course of history; much more significant is the way in which the spiritual currents always run within the development of humanity.

Then both Harun al Rashid and his important advisor passed through the gate of death. But after they had passed through death and were in the existence between death and a new birth, they pursued in a peculiar way their goal of bringing the Arab way of thinking into the European world with the help of the intelligent principle that was spreading in Europe. Therefore, after Harun al Rashid had passed through the gate of death, we see how Harun al Rashid's soul, as it passed through spiritual worlds, through starry worlds, from Asia across Baghdad via Africa, through Spain, across the west of Europe to England, turned its gaze unwaveringly from Baghdad across the Near East, through Greece via Rome to Spain, France, and even up to England. It was a life between death and rebirth that constantly focused its attention on the south and west of Europe. And then Harun al Rashid reappeared in a next incarnation - and he became Lord Bacon, Baco of Verulam. Bacon himself is Harun al Raschid, who in the meantime worked in the way between death and new birth, as I have just explained. But the other, who was his wise counselor, chose the other route from Baghdad across the Black Sea through Russia into Central Europe. The two individuals went in two different directions: Harun al Raschid to his next earthly destination as Lord Bacon, as Baco of Verulam; the wise counselor, during his passage in life between death and new birth, did not turn his eyes away from that which can be more and more influenced and impressed by the East, and he reappeared as the great pedagogue and the author of the “Pansophia”, as Amos Comenius. And from the interaction of these individualities, once active at the court of Baghdad, there then arose in Europe what has developed - more or less apart from Christianity - as an outdated Arabism, but under the influence of the intelligence that, I would like to say, had fallen away from Michael of the Sun.

What happened externally and physically in wars was rejected by the Frankish kings and the other Europeans. We see how the Arab campaigns, which first appeared with such great force, and their spread of Mohammedan culture break up in the West, how they cannot penetrate any further; we see Mohammedanism disappearing for the West of Europe. But by stripping away what it had in external forms and established in external culture, it became, the newer Arabism, precisely the modern natural science, became what Amos Comenius established for the world in a pedagogical sense. And so it was that in the 17th century, the intelligence of the earth spread, to a certain extent occupied by Arabism.

Thus we have pointed to something that underlies that into which we have to sow the anthroposophical seed today. You really have to look at this in its spiritual inwardness.

But while this was emerging from Asia as the spiritual continuation of the brilliant court of Baghdad, Christianity was developing and spreading in Europe. But it so happened that in Europe, I might say, Aristotelianism spread with the greatest difficulty. While through the great deeds of Alexander Aristotelianism was carried over to Asia as a natural science through everything that had developed in a tremendous way out of Greekism and was then occupied by Arabism, Aristotelianism spread, I would like to say, initially “in a thin infusion”, within the emerging Christian culture of Europe. And there it combined with Platonism, which was certainly based on ancient Greek mysteries; combined as I indicated in the first lecture.

But first we see how Aristotelianism spread very slowly in Europe, while Platonism developed schools everywhere. And one of the most important was the school of Chartres in the 12th century, in which the great minds I mentioned yesterday were active: Bernardus Sylvestris, Bernardus of Chartres, John Salisbury, but especially Alanus ab Insulis. In this school of Chartres, people still spoke differently than in what spread as an echo of Arabism. In the school of Chartres there was genuine Christianity, but genuine Christianity in the splendor of ancient mysteries, just as one could still have this mystery wisdom.

Then something significant happened: the great teachers of Chartres, who were far removed from Arabism but whose Platonism was deeply immersed in the Christian mysteries, passed through the gates of death. And there was that brief period, at the beginning of the 13th century, when a great heavenly council took place, as it were. When the best of the teachers, first and foremost Alanus ab Insulis, had died, that is, when they were over there in the spiritual world, they gathered for a significant cosmic act with those who were still up in the spiritual world and were soon to descend to earth and there represent Aristotelianism in a new way. And among those who were to descend were precisely those who had participated in the work of Michael's impulses in Alexander's time with the innermost soul, with strong, intense soul power. And we may imagine, because this corresponds to the truth, that at this turn of the 12th and 13th centuries souls came together who had just come up into the spiritual world from Christian places of initiation, such as the school of Chartres, and such souls who were ready to descend and who had now preserved in the spiritual regions not Platonism but Aristotelianism, the inner intelligence effect that still came from the old Michael time. There they were, even those who said to themselves: "We were around Michael when we saw with him how the intelligence streamed down from heaven to earth, we were also united with him in that great cosmopolitan deed which was still carried out under the old administration of the intelligence through Michael, where the intelligence was administered cosmically. - And there it happened that the teachers of Chartres first entrusted the administration of spiritual earth affairs to the Aristotelians. To those, then, who were now to descend and were just suited to take over the administration of intelligent life, of self-intelligence on earth, the Platonists, who could actually only be under such an influence that intelligence is administered “from heaven”, these teachers of Chartres entrusted the administration of spiritual life on earth to them.

These spirits, in whose souls there was an echo of the Michael impulse from the previous Michael era, came into the Dominican order in particular. And the scholasticism that emerged from the Dominican order, the scholasticism that then struggled bitterly but also magnificently with the question: What about intelligent thinking? That was the big question that sat deep down in the souls of the founders of scholasticism in the 13th century - the burning question: what happens to the rule of Michael?

There were people who were later called the nominalists, they said: concepts and ideas are mere names, they are nothing real. They were influenced by Ahriman, for the nominalists actually wanted to banish all Michael dominion from the earth. By claiming that ideas were only names, that they were nothing real, they actually did not want to allow Michael's rule to take effect on earth. And the Ahrimanic spirits said at that time for those who had an ear for it: Michael is no longer the cosmic intelligence, it is here on earth; we do not want to allow Michael to rule over the intelligence again! - But that important celestial council consisted in the fact that Platonists and Aristotelians together drew up a plan as to how precisely the Michael impulses were to be further processed. The nominalists were opposed by the Dominican realists, who said: ideas and thoughts are real things that live inside things, not mere names.

If you have an understanding of this, you are sometimes reminded of such things in a very strange, admirable way. In my last years in Vienna I became acquainted with, among others, a religious priest, Vincenz Knauer, who wrote the philosophical work that I have often advised anthroposophists to read: “Main Problems of Philosophy”. He was still in the 19th century. He tried to make it clear to people how absurd it was to speak of nominalism, and he had chosen a very good example for this - it is also in his books - but I remember with deep satisfaction how I once walked with him in Vienna in Innere Währinger-Straße, we talked about nominalism and realism, and how he, with all his thoughtful enthusiasm, which had something very strange - I would like to say: something of honest philosophy, while the other philosophers had become more or less dishonest - as he said: I always make it clear to my students that what lives as ideas in things has a reality, and to this end I turn their gaze to a lamb and a wolf. The nominalists would say with regard to these two, lamb and wolf: muscle, bone, matter is the lamb; muscle, bone, matter is the wolf. What is realized as the form, as the idea of the lamb in the lamb's flesh: it is only a name. “Lamb” is a name, it is not a real thing as an idea. It is the same with the wolf: as an idea it is again nothing real, but only a name, But one can easily refute the nominalists, said the good Knauer, for one need only make it clear to them: Give a wolf, from which you deprive all other food, only lamb meat to eat for a while: if the “idea” lamb has no reality, is a nothing, only a name, and if the matter in the lamb were the whole, then the wolf would gradually have to become a lamb. But it does not become one! On the contrary, it is still the reality of the wolf. In what we have before us as a lamb, the idea lamb has, as it were, attracted matter and brought it into form; and it is the same with the wolf: the idea wolf has attracted the matter that is in the wolf and brought it into form.

But this dispute was basically what the nominalists and the realists were fighting over: it was about the reality of what can be grasped by intelligence.

So the Dominicans had to prepare in time for the next reign of Michael. And while the Platonists, for example the teachers of Chartres, remained in the spiritual world after the decision of this heavenly council, which took place at the beginning of the 13th century, and had no authoritative incarnations, the Aristotelians were then to work for the earthly affairs of the intelligent. And from scholasticism - which has only been distorted and caricatured, ahrimanized by Rome in modern times - all modern intelligent striving now emanated, insofar as it has not been occupied by Arabism.

So we see the two currents running in Central and Western Europe at this time: on the one hand the current to which Bacon and Amos Comenius are connected, and on the other hand we have the scholastic current, that is, the placing of oneself in the spiritual civilization development of what Christian Aristotelianism was and is and what had to prepare the new age of Michael. When the scholastics wanted to look up to the spiritual regions during the reign of the earlier archangels, they said to themselves: There is Michael, whose reign must be awaited. Preparations must be made for what he must take over again on earth at the right time, after it had fallen away from him in heaven according to the destiny of cosmic development! - Thus a current developed which was then only led onto a false byway by Catholic ultramontanism, but which remained for itself and continued that which had been founded in the 13th century.

So a current emerged that worked directly in the administration of earthly intelligence on the basis of Aristotelianism. In it lived that of which I spoke yesterday, that one who had remained a little longer with Alanus ab Insulis in the spiritual world came down as a younger Dominican and brought a message from Alanus ab Insulis to an older Dominican who had already descended to earth before him. There lived in European spiritual life that intense will to grasp thoughts strongly. And above the earthly life there arose from all this that which then, at the beginning of the 19th century, led to a great, comprehensive event in the spiritual world, where what was later to become anthroposophy on earth took place in powerful imaginations. In the first half of the 19th century, already a little towards the end of the 18th, all those who were Platonists under the leadership of the teachers of Chartres, who were now between death and a new birth, and also those who had founded Aristotelianism in Europe and had long since passed through the gate of death, were united in heavenly regions to carry out a supernatural cultus in which was placed in powerful real imaginations that which in the new Christianity of the 20th century was reestablished in a spiritual way. This was to be re-established in a spiritual way in the new Christianity of the 20th century, after the new Michael age had begun in the last third of the 19th century.

Some of this leaked out. Up in the spiritual world, powerful cosmic imaginations were preparing the way for the intelligent but thoroughly spiritual creation that was to appear as anthroposophy. What transpired there made a certain impression on Goethe. I would like to say that it came through to him in miniature images. Goethe was not familiar with the large, powerful images that took place up there; he processed these miniature images in his “Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily”. A wonderful phenomenon! We have all the currents that I have described, continuing in such a way that they lead to those powerful imaginations that take place up there in the spiritual world under the guidance of Alanus ab Insulis and the others; we have the powerful things that seep through and inspire Goethe at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries to his spiritual fairy tale “Of the Green Serpent and the Beautiful Lily”. It was, so to speak, a first emergence of that which initially took place in powerful imaginations in the spiritual world at the beginning of the 19th century, even at the end of the 18th century. You will therefore not find it surprising that in view of this supersensible cultus which took place in the first half of the 19th century, my first mystery drama, “The Gate of Initiation”, which in a certain way wanted to reproduce in dramatic form what was taking place at the beginning of the 19th century, became outwardly somewhat similar in structure to what Goethe portrayed in his fairy tale “Of the Green Serpent and the Beautiful Lily”. For anthroposophy was to descend into the earthly region from the way it had lived imaginatively in the supernatural regions in the early times. For at that time something was happening in the supermundane regions. A large number of souls who had been touched by Christianity at various times united with souls who had been less touched by Christianity, who had lived at the time when the Mystery of Golgotha took place on earth and before. These two groups of souls united in order to prepare anthroposophy in supernatural regions. There were the individualities described who were around Alanus ab Insulis, and those who founded Aristotelianism in Europe within the Dominican current, also united with the great teacher Dante, with Brunetto Latini. And in this great group of souls was a large part of those who today, having descended to earth again, unite in the Anthroposophical Society. Those who today feel the urge to unite in the Anthroposophical Society were together in supersensible regions at the beginning of the 19th century to perform that powerful cult of imagination of which I have spoken.

This is also something that is linked to the karma of the anthroposophical movement. It is something you come to when you look at this anthroposophical movement not rationalistically in its outer earthly form alone, but when you look at the threads that lead up into the spiritual regions. There you can see how this anthroposophical movement descends, so to speak. Yes, at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, I would like to say that this is the “heavenly” anthroposophical movement: what Goethe depicts in miniature pictures in the fairy tale “Of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily” seeps through. But then it was to descend when, in the last third of the 19th century, Michael, now descending from the sun to the earth, wanted to seize people's earthly intelligence.

Since the Mystery of Golgotha, Christ was united with earthly humanity. At first, earthly humanity could not grasp him outwardly. The reign of Michael administered the last phase of cosmic intelligence in the time of Alexander. By the 8th century A.D., the cosmic intelligence had fallen completely into the earth entity. Those who were connected with Michael then undertook, according to the agreements with the Platonists, to prepare this earth intelligence in scholastic realism in such a way that Michael can unite with it again when he begins his reign at the end of the seventies in the 19th century in the continuing civilization.

The Anthroposophical Society must now take up this inner task, this task which consists in not disputing Michael's human thinking. One cannot be fatalistic about this. We can only say that people must work together with the gods, with Michael himself. Michael inspires people so that a spirituality may appear on earth that is equal to people's own intelligence, so that one can think and at the same time be a spiritual person; for that is what Michael's rule means. This is what must be fought for within the anthroposophical movement. Then those who are working for the anthroposophical movement today will reappear at the end of the 20th century and be connected on earth with those who were the teachers of Chartres. For this is the agreement of that heavenly council at the beginning of the 13th century, that they should appear together, the Aristotelians and the Platonists, and that work should be done to ensure that the anthroposophical movement in the 20th century becomes more and more flourishing, so that at the end of this century anthroposophy can attain a certain culmination in earth civilization in the union of Platonists and Aristotelians. If we can work in the way predestined by Michael, then Europe will emerge, then modern civilization will emerge from its decline. But in no other way! This leading of civilization out of decline is connected with the understanding of Michael.

In this way, my dear friends, I have led you to the understanding of the Michael Mystery, which rules over thinking humanity in the present time, striving for spiritual wisdom. You can understand that through anthroposophy something must be brought into the spiritual development of the earth which seems paradoxical to many, for all kinds of demonic-Ahrimanic powers make people obsessed with themselves. So that the Ahrimanic powers in some human bodies were already rejoicing that Michael could no longer maintain his cosmic intelligence, which had fallen down to earth. And this rejoicing was particularly strong in the middle of the 19th century, when Ahriman already believed that Michael would not find his once cosmic intelligence, which had found its way from heaven to earth, again. It's about big things, it's about huge things! That is why it is no wonder that those caught up in these battles have to experience some strange things.

No spiritual movement has ever been spoken of in such a strange way as the anthroposophical movement. The curious way in which the anthroposophical movement is spoken of shows how its spiritual character and its connection with the Mystery of Golgotha cannot be understood by the most enlightened spirits of the present day. For does anyone tell you that he has seen a man who is black and white at the same time? I do not believe that you would consider the person who told you such a thing to be reasonable. But today people are allowed to write something similar about the anthroposophical movement. Maurice Maeterlinck, for example, in his book “The Great Enigma”, is allowed to develop a logic about me, insofar as he treats me as the bearer of the anthroposophical movement, which is quite the same as if someone said that he had seen a person who is black and white, European and Moor at the same time. You can be one thing, but not both at the same time. Maeterlinck, however, says: “What we read in the Vedas is said by Rudolf Steiner, one of the most learned and also the most confused of contemporary occultists...” If someone said that he had seen a man who was a European and a Moor at the same time, he would be declared mad; but Maeterlinck may put together “one of the most learned and most confused”. And he goes on to say: “Rudolf Steiner, who, when he does not stray into perhaps probable but never verifiable visions of prehistory, into astral idioms about life on other stars, is a very clear and sharp mind, has illuminated the meaning of this judgment” - meaning Osirification - “and this equation of the soul with God extraordinarily well.” (p. 80.) In other words, when he is not talking about anthroposophy, he is a clear and sharp mind. Maeterlinck can say that again. He may say even more, things that are quite strange, for he finds it possible to say the following: "Steiner has used his intuitive methods, which are a kind of transcendental psychometry, to reconstruct the history of the Atlanteans and to reveal to us what is happening on the sun, the moon and other worlds. He describes to us the successive transformations of the entities that become men, and he does it with so much certainty that one wonders, after following him with interest through the introduction, which shows a very deliberative, logical, and broad mind, whether he suddenly becomes insane or whether one is dealing with an impostor or a real visionary." ($.167.) Now consider what this means: Maeterlinck claims that when I write books, the introductions are always such that he has to say that he is dealing with a “very deliberate, logical and broad mind”. But if he reads on in my books, he doesn't know whether I have suddenly gone mad or am a fraud or a real visionary. But now I haven't just written individual books. I always write the introduction to each book first. So now I have written a book, Maeterlinck reads the introduction: there I present myself to him as a “very deliberative, logical and broad mind”; then he reads on and now finds me saying: I don't know whether Rudolf Steiner has suddenly gone mad or is a fraud or a visionary. Then it goes on... I write a second book: for Maeterlinck, when he reads the introduction, I am again a “very deliberative, logical and broad mind”; then he reads the rest of the content and finds me again in such a way that he doesn't know whether I am insane or a fraud or a visionary. And so it goes on. But remember, people have the idea of saying: "When I read your books from the beginning, you seem very clever, reasoning and logical to me; but then suddenly you go mad! What strange people they must be who, when they start writing, are logical, and then suddenly become insane as they continue writing; then switch again with the next book, are logical again at the beginning, then later insane! And so on rhythmically. There are “rhythms” in the world.

But from this example you may see how the most enlightened spirits of the present take up what must be established as the Michael epoch in the world, what must be done so that the cosmic intelligence, which rightly disappeared in the 8th century Michael according to the world order, is found again within earth humanity. The whole Michael tradition must be revised. Michael, his feet placed on the dragon: One rightly beholds this image representing the Michael-fighter as he represents the cosmic spirit to the Ahrimanic powers he has beneath his feet.

More than any other battle, this battle is placed in the human heart. It has been anchored there since the last third of the 19th century. What human hearts do with this Michael issue of the world in the course of the 20th century must become decisive. And in the course of this 20th century, when the first century after the end of the Kali Yuga will have passed, mankind will either stand at the grave of all civilization or at the beginning of that age where in the souls of men who combine intelligence with spirituality in their hearts, the Michael battle will be fought in favour of the Michael impulse.