Karmic Relationships III
GA 237
8 August 1924, Dornach
XI. Evolution of the Michael Principle Throughout the Ages — The Split in the Cosmic Intelligence
For a long time we have been speaking of the karmic facts and conditions connected with the Anthroposophical Movement, with the Anthroposophical Society and with the individuals who feel impelled out of an inner sincerity, to choose their path of life within this Movement. Much will remain to be said on these karmic questions after my return from England, but today, in our last lecture before my departure which will take me away for the rest of August,1The twenty-seven lectures given by Dr. Steiner in England (11th–30th August) were as follows:
In Torquay: True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation. A course of eleven lectures published in English translation under this title: published in German under the title, Das Initiaten-Bewusstsein.
Course of seven lectures on Education.
Three lectures to Members of the Anthroposophical Society, published in English translation, together with those given in London, in the volume entitle, Cosmic Christianity: Karma in the life of Individuals, and in the Evolution of the World.
In London: Three lectures to Members (see above).
Two lectures for doctors and medical students: The Art of Healing from the standpoint of Spiritual Science.
Public lecture on Education (arranged by the Educational Union for the Realisation of Spiritual Values). today I would like to bring to a kind of conclusion what I have said. Thus in today's lecture we will to some extent round off the thoughts I have been able to communicate to you in these our studies upon karma.
You will all have observed, my dear friends, how manifold are the forms through which the karma of the individual anthroposophist has passed in former lives on earth and between death and a new birth. Especially in the last two lectures we have been able to hint at the great significance which these things may have for the individual anthroposophist in his karma. We have seen how the karma of anthroposophists is connected with the evolution of the Michael principle through long, long epochs of time. To begin with, we saw in a more abstract form how the rulership of the Cosmic Intelligence—for so we called it—fell from the dominion of Michael. For as I said, in ancient times it was so indeed, that men could not ascribe to themselves the essence of Intelligence. They ascribed to the inspiration of higher Powers all that they could express in forms of Intelligence. And those who had knowledge of these matters knew that the higher Powers here concerned were the ones who afterwards, in Christian terminology, were designated as the Powers of Michael. I also spoke to you of the 8th or 9th century A.D. as the point of time in the evolution of civilised mankind when the Cosmic Intelligence gradually moved down to the earth, took shape as it were in many single drops which then lived on as personal Intelligence in single human souls. And I told you, my dear friends, how the perception and understanding of the Cosmic Intelligence—that is to say, of the old rulership by Michael,—lived on traditionally, with a certain reality of insight. We turn our gaze for instance to those, in many respects excellent, scholars who were connected with Arabism and with the Aristotelianism that had lived on in Asia since the campaigns of Alexander. This Aristotelianism had also permeated the mysticism of the East, filling it, as it were, with Intelligence. All this was carried across through Africa to Spain and went on working there, in the wisdom of the Moors, in such outstanding individualities as Averroes; and in the teachings of these Moorish, Spanish scholars we find a very real reflection of those old perceptions which had still looked upward to the Cosmic Intelligence.
Let us try to gain a vivid idea of how the Cosmic Intelligence had been conceived. I will give you a rough sketch of what these Moorish, Spanish scholars taught to their pupils in Spain in the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries, in the time when in other parts of Europe such things were prevailing as the School of Chartres, of which I have told you so much. In Spain it was taught by the Moorish scholars and above all by such an individuality as Averroes, that the Intelligence holds sway everywhere. The whole world, the whole cosmos is filled with the all-pervading Intelligence. Human beings down here on earth have many different properties, but they do not possess a personal intelligence of their own. On the contrary, every time a human being is active on the earth, a drop of Intelligence, a ray of Intelligence proceeds from the universal Intelligence, and descends as it were into the head, into the body of the single human being. So that the human being as he walks about on earth, shares in the universal Cosmic Intelligence which is common to all. And when he dies, when he passes through the gate of death, the Intelligence that was his returns to the universal Intelligence, flows back again. Thus all the thoughts, conceptions and ideas which man possesses in the life between birth and death flow back into the common reservoir of the universal Intelligence. One cannot therefore say that the thing of outstanding value in man's soul, namely his Intelligence, is subject to personal immortality. Indeed it was actually taught by the Spanish, Moorish scholars that man does not possess personal immortality. True, he lives on, but, said these scholars, the most important thing about him during his life is the fact that he can unfold intelligent knowledge, and this does not remain with his own being. We cannot therefore say that the intelligent being possesses personal immortality. You see, this was the very point in the fury of the battle which was waged by the Schoolmen of the Dominican Order. It was to maintain and uphold the personal immortality of man. And in that time, such a striving could appear in no other way than it did when the Dominicans declared: Man is personally immortal, and the teaching of Averroes on this subject is heresy, absolute heresy. Today we have to put it differently, but for that time one can understand that a man like Averroes in Spain, who did not assume the personal immortality of man, was declared a heretic. Today we have to study the matter in its reality. We have to say: In the sense in which man has become immortal, as to his Spiritual Soul, he has indeed attained immortality—the continued consciousness of personality after passing through the gate of death—but he has attained this only since the time when a Spiritual Soul took up its abode in earthly man. If therefore we had asked Aristotle or Alexander what were their thoughts about immortality, what would have been their answer? The words of course are not the point. But if, being asked, they had answered in our Christian terminology, they would have said: Our soul is received by Michael and we live on in the communion of Michael. Or they would have expressed it cosmologically. Above all in a community such as that of Alexander or Aristotle, they would have spoken thus in cosmic terms, and indeed they did speak thus: The soul of man is intelligent on earth, but this Intelligence is a drop out of the fulness of what Michael pours forth like a rain of Intelligence, flowing out over mankind. This rain proceeds from the Sun, and the Sun receives the human soul back again into its own being. The human soul as it exists between birth and death is rayed down to Earth from the Sun. Thus on the Sun they would have looked for the dominion of Michael, and such would have been their answer, cosmologically speaking.
These conceptions found their way into Asia, returned from Asia and flourished among the Moors in Spain at the very time when the Scholastic Philosophy rose up in defence of personal immortality. We must not say with the Schoolmen that this conception was an error, but we must say: The evolution of mankind brought with it the individual and personal immortality of man. And it was by the Dominican Schoolmen that this personal immortality was first emphasised, while on the other hand an ancient truth—one that was no longer true for that age in the evolution of the human race—was put forward in the Academies conducted by the Moors in Spain. For we today must not only be tolerant of our contemporaries. We must be tolerant of those who went on propagating ancient teachings. Such tolerance was not possible in that time. Hence it is important for us to repeat this to ourselves again and again: The personal immortality maintained by Dominican Schoolmen has only been true since the time when the Spiritual Soul slowly and gradually entered into mankind.
We can also describe these things in a fully Imaginative form. When a man dies in our time—a man who was really able, during his earthly life, to permeate his soul with true Intelligence—having gone through the gate of death, he looks back upon his past earthly life and sees it as an independent life on earth. In former centuries, man having passed through the gate of death, and looking back upon his earthly life, saw how the etheric body became dissolved in the cosmos. Then he passed through the realm of souls, living through the events again in backward order. Then he could say to himself: ‘Thus Michael, through the Sun, administers what was mine before.’ This is the great difference. But we can only understand such developments in evolution when we look behind the scenes of existence, perceiving the Spiritual behind the Material. We must see the outer events in mankind even as they are shaped and formed out of the spiritual world.
At this point, my dear friends, you must enter once more into all that I have now told you. Remember that with the 9th century A.D. the great crisis was accomplished: the Cosmic Intelligence came down among earthly men. This was the objective fact, this was actually taking place. And now transplant yourselves into the Sun-sphere, where Michael and his hosts were holding sway as I have described. For they had perceived the departure of Christ from the Sun and His passage to the earth in the Mystery of Golgotha, and after that, they had experienced how the Cosmic Intelligence descended more and more, to become individual human knowledge. Now there was one important event which made a deep impression, above all, on those who belong to Michael—whom in our last lecture I called the ‘Michaelites.’ It was an altogether outstanding event, which I have often described in other connections, showing the part it played in the unfolding of civilisation on the earth. Now, however, we must describe it as it appeared from the aspect of the Michaelites themselves, namely from the Sun. We must describe it as it is seen from that perspective—when one looks down from the realm of Michael on to the earth. This most significant event took place in the year 869 A.D. At the 8th Ecumenical Council held in that year at Constantinople, it was declared dogmatically that the old conception of Trichotomy, saying that man consists of body, soul and Spirit, is heretical. It was declared: Man has only body and soul, save that his soul possesses certain spiritual qualities. While in the sphere of objective realities the passage of the Intelligence into the single human beings was being accomplished, it was decreed on earth: Trichotomy is a false heresy. It was decreed in such a final and decisive form that no one within European civilisation could venture henceforth to contradict it. Henceforth one was forbidden to say that man has body, soul and Spirit. One might only speak of body and soul, ascribing spiritual qualities and forces to the soul. Something had thus taken place on earth, of which in the realms of Michael they could only say: Now there will enter into the souls of men the conviction that the Spiritual is but a quality of the soul, and not the Divine which holds sway in the great process of mankind's evolution. ‘Look down upon the earth’—such was the language of Michael—‘Look down upon the earth, behold the consciousness of the Spirit vanishing away.’ But you must see, my dear friends, this vanishing of the consciousness of the Spirit was bound up with the main subject of which we wish to speak today.
As I said just now, hitherto I have only described in abstract terms how the evolution of the Michael realm has taken place behind the scenes of earth-existence. I have said: the Cosmic Intelligence came down to the single men. But this, my dear friends, is only an abstraction. For what is Intelligence? Needless to say we must not conceive that when we ascend into the higher regions we shall be able to take hold of the Intelligence there as we take hold of trees and shrubs here in the physical world. What is Intelligence? These abstract generalisations do not of course exist in reality. ‘Intelligence’ means the mutual relationships of conduct among the higher Hierarchies. What they do, how they relate themselves to one another, what they are to one another,—this is the Cosmic Intelligence. And since as human beings we must first consider the kingdom that is nearest to us, concretely speaking the Cosmic Intelligence will be for us the sum-total of the Beings of the Hierarchy of Angeloi. If we are speaking concretely we cannot say ‘so much Intelligence,’ but rather ‘so many Angeloi.’ This is the reality.
When the Church Fathers were discussing in the year 869 A.D. whether man should speak henceforth of the Spirit, it was a consequence of the fact that a number of Angel Beings were separating from the realm of Michael where they had been before, and were assuming that they would henceforth have to do with earthly Powers only;—that the guidance of human beings would be achieved henceforth through earthly powers alone. You must see clearly what kind of an event this was. Angels are the Beings who guide men from earthly life to earthly life. They are the Beings next above us in the spiritual world, who lead us along our path in the life between death and a new birth and show us the way to our returning earthly life. They make of our several earthly lives a connected chain, a totality of human life. Now a number of Angel Beings—Beings who have this task and who had been united formerly with the Michael kingdom—went out and left the kingdom of Michael. Such being the conduct of these Angel Beings, the destiny of human beings could not possibly remain untouched. Who is it partakes in the very first place in the unfolding of human karma—in the way the earthly thoughts, the earthly deeds and earthly feelings are transformed and elaborated between death and a new birth? It is the Beings of the Angeloi. If now these Angel Beings come to an entirely different position in the cosmos—if, so to speak, they leave the kingdom of the Sun and become no longer celestial Angels but terrestrial—what then must happen? Here we come upon a secret, permeating the whole evolution and history of Europe, hidden behind the external facts. Certain Angeloi remained in the kingdom of Michael. In that great School in the beginning of the 15th century we find also the Angel Beings belonging to the human beings who were then in the kingdom of Michael. To all the souls of human beings who lived in the kingdom of Michael and of whom I have spoken to you, belong Angel Beings who have remained in Michael's kingdom. But there were others who left it and identified themselves with that which was in essence earthly.
Now you will say: How is it possible that it suddenly occurs to a number of Michael Angels to leave the kingdom of Michael? It does not occur to the others to leave.—This, my dear friends, I must admit, is one of the most difficult questions that can possibly be raised in connection with the modern evolution of mankind. It is a question such that as we enter into it all the inner forces of the human being are called into play. It is a question deeply and intimately connected with the whole life of man. For you see, at the foundation of it there lies a cosmic fact. You know, from lectures I have given here, that what is commonly referred to as a mere physical planet is in reality a gathering of Spiritual Beings. When we look up to a star, that which appears to us physically is but the external aspect. In reality we have to do with a gathering of Spiritual Beings. Now there is a certain contrast. Since the very beginning of earthly evolution, this contrast has existed. It is the contrast between the Intelligences of all the planets and the Intelligence of the Sun. There is indeed on the one hand the Sun Intelligence, while on the other there are the Intelligences of the several planets. And it was always so, that the Sun Intelligence stood paramountly under the dominion of Michael, while the other Planetary Intelligences were subject to the other Archangels. Thus we may say:
SUN INTELLIGENCE. PLANETARY INTELLIGENCES.
Sun ... ... MICHAEL
Mercury ... ... RAPHAEL
Venus ... ... ANAEL
Mars ... ... SAMAEL
Jupiter ... ... ZACHARIEL
Moon ... ... GABRIEL
Saturn ... ... ORIPHIEL
On the other hand it was always so that one might not say, Michael administers the Sun Intelligence alone, but rather, Michael administers the whole Cosmic Intelligence, differentiated as it is into the Sun Intelligence and the Planetary Intelligences, Mercury, Venus, Mars, etc. The several Beings of the Hierarchy of Archangeloi partake in its administration. But over all of them together Michael holds sway ever and again. Thus the whole Cosmic Intelligence is administered by Michael. Now of course, every human being was a human being even before, when Michael administered the Cosmic Intelligence from which only a ray descended into the human individual. And it was due to the Sun that man on earth could yet feel himself as man; could feel himself as single man and not as a mere vehicle for the common Cosmic Intelligence. All human Intelligence comes from Michael in the Sun.
But when these centuries approached—the 8th, the 9th, the 10th century A.D.—it happened that the Planetary Intelligences began to reckon with the fact that the earth had changed, and that the Sun too had changed.
My dear friends, that which goes on externally, which the astronomers describe, is after all only the outer side. You know that approximately every 11 years we have a period of Sun-spots, when in the shining of the Sun upon the earth certain places are darkened, covered with spots or blotches. This was not always so. In very ancient times the Sun shone down as a uniform disc of light. There were no Sun-spots. Moreover, after some thousands of years the Sun will have very many more spots than it has today. The Sun is growing ever more spotted. This again is the outer manifestation of the fact that the Michael Power, the Cosmic Power of Intelligence is still decreasing. In the increase of the Sun-spots in the course of Cosmic Evolution is revealed the Sun's decay; the Sun within the cosmos grows increasingly dim and old. And at the appearance of a sufficiently large number of Sun-spots, the other Planetary Intelligences recognised that they would now no longer be ruled by the Sun. They resolved no longer to allow the earth to be dependent on the Sun, but to make it dependent henceforth on the entire cosmos directly. This took place through the planetary Counsels of the Archangels. Notably under the leadership of Oriphiel, this emancipation of the Planetary Intelligences from the Sun-Intelligence took place. It was a complete separation of Cosmic Powers that had hitherto belonged together. The Sun-Intelligence of Michael and the Planetary Intelligences gradually came into cosmic opposition one with another.
Yes, my dear friends, though we do ascribe an entirely different kind of inner nature—of soul-faculty and soul-condition—to the Beings of the Hierarchy of the Angeloi, nevertheless we must ascribe decisions, weighty reflections on that which is taking place, even to them. For we human beings also make our decisions in no other way. We observe the things that are taking place externally before us, we let the facts speak for themselves and then, under the influence of the facts, we act accordingly. Only the determining factors for us between birth and death are earthly facts, whereas for the Beings of the Hierarchy of Angeloi they are cosmic facts, as when a split takes place in the planetary life.
Thus the one host of Beings turned to the Earth-Intelligence and therewith at the same time to the Planetary Intelligence. The other host remained true to the sphere of Michael in order to carry into all the future what Michael administers as the Eternal. And this is the decisive question today. Now that all the power is among men, will Michael be able to carry into all the future that which is Eternal in his working,—now that that which appears in the physical Sun grows darker and vanishes slowly away?
Thus we see, as an outcome of cosmic events, a split among the Angeloi who were formerly united with Michael. But these Beings themselves partake in the karmic evolution. Consider the whole of this as it takes place in the life between death and a new birth. Here it is not so that every human soul can run his course alone, nor can every Angel who guides the human being run his course alone, but the Hierarchy of Angeloi work together; and in their working together karma lives and is worked out. If in an earthly life I become connected with another human being and we work this out karmically in our next life, then, needless to say, the Angel of the one human being must come together with the Angel of the other. A co-operation must take place. But in many cases this was what happened (and this is the overwhelming, shattering experience). In the Ecumenical Council that took place on earth in 869 A.D. the signal was given for an overwhelming event in the spiritual world above. It would almost shatter one to pieces, when one holds oneself entirely upright with the true use of the Cosmic Intelligence, face to face with such overpowering relationships. It is a thing of untold significance that has already happened and is happening more and more: the Angel of the one human being, of the one human soul who was karmically connected with another human soul, did not go on with the Angel of that other soul. Of two human souls karmically united with one another, the one Angel remained with Michael while the other went down to earth. What was bound to happen as a result? In the time between the founding of Christianity and the age of the Spiritual Soul, which is signalised above all by the 9th century and the year 869 A.D., the karma of human beings came into disorder. This is to pronounce one of the deepest and most important words that can possibly be uttered with regard to the modern history of mankind. Disorder came into the karma of present-day humanity. In the following lives on earth the experiences of men were no longer all of them rightly co-ordinated with their karma. This is the chaotic element in the history of recent times. This has brought into the history of recent times more and more social chaos, chaos of civilisation; and the disorder that has come into human karma can find no end. For a split has taken place in the Hierarchy of Angeloi belonging to Michael.
And now we may express something that is deeply connected with the karma of the Anthroposophical Society. It is a thing of immense significance, and, if I may say so, it is only here that we come to the right shade of feeling. For with all that we can describe by choosing comparisons from the conditions that surround us, we cannot exhaustively characterise what is taking place behind the scenes in spiritual worlds. Whatever thoughts we may select from the earthly conditions that surround us, they are but dim and feeble. Having made all these preparations, we must have recourse to the pure description of things spiritual.
Thus we must say: All that has led the souls together into the Anthroposophical Society, all that has brought them into this community through a sincere and inward impulse of their souls, holds good, needless to say. Yet how does it come about? How are the forces really there, which lead these human beings in our time to find their way together under purely spiritual principles, when in the ordinary world of today they are complete strangers to one another? Where do the forces lie, that lead them together? My dear friends, they lie in this: Through the entry of Michael's dominion in the Michael age in which we live—with the penetration of Michael to earthly rulership, replacing the rulership of Gabriel—Michael himself is bringing the power which is to bring order again into the karma of those who have gone with him. Thus we may say: What is it in the last resort that unites the Members of the Anthroposophical Society? It is that they are to bring order again into their karma. This unites them. And if any one of them notices in the course of his life that he is entering here or there into relationships that do not conform to his inmost impulse,—relationships, perhaps, diverging in one way or another from what we may call the true harmony in man as between good and evil,—if he has this on the one hand, while on the other hand he has constant impulse to press forward in the Anthroposophical life,—the fact is that such a man is striving back again to his real karma. He is striving once more to live and express the real karma. This is the cosmic ray that pours through the Anthroposophical Movement, clearly perceptible to him who knows. It is the restoration of the truth in karma.
In this connection we can understand very much, both of the destiny of individuals in the Anthroposophical Society and of the destiny of the whole Society. For these, of course, merge into one another.
We must also realise the following: For the human beings who are connected with those Beings of the Hierarchy of Angeloi who remained in the kingdom of Michael, it is difficult to find the forms of Intelligence adequate to that which they are now to understand. They are striving to maintain even the personal Intelligence in keeping with the true reverence for Michael. These souls, who as I told you partook in those spiritual preparations in the 15th and 19th centuries, come down to earth, devoted still, with their deepest inner striving, to Michael and to his sphere. And yet, in accordance with the principles of human evolution, they must receive the personal and individual Intelligence. The result is a split, a division which must however be solved by spiritual development. They, in their individual affinity, must come together with what the spiritual worlds are bringing down to them in the present age of Intelligence. Those on the other hand whose Angels fell away (which is of course connected with their karma, for the Angel falls if he is connected with a human karma that is according to this)—they receive their personal Intelligence as a complete matter of course. This means that it works in them automatically, through their bodily nature. It works in such a way that they think, think cleverly, but are not fully and deeply and humanly concerned in what they think. This indeed was the great conflict which lasted so long, between the Dominicans and the Franciscans. The Dominicans could not evolve the principle of personal Intelligence otherwise than in the greatest possible faithfulness to the sphere of Michael. But the Franciscans, the followers of Duns Scotus (not Scotus Erigena) became complete Nominalists. They said: Intelligence in any case is only so many words. All that happened in these discussions and arguments between men was in reality an image of mighty conflicts that took place between the one host of Angeloi and the other.
You see, it is so, that the Beings of the Hierarchy of Angeloi who have now united themselves with the earth-principle, have been living on the earth, in a manner of speaking, since about the 9th or 10th century. This again is the shattering tragedy, my dear friends. Here upon earth, materialism is increasing. The human beings—and above all the most advanced, the cleverest among them—are of such a kind as to deny the Spiritual. They begin to laugh in scorn at the idea that Spiritual Beings should be in their environment no less than physical human beings. During this time in which materialism has been expanding on the earth, more and more Angels are descending and living on the earth. They themselves join in; for it was they who at certain times, when a human consciousness became impaired and dull, incorporated themselves and worked on earth. A large number of Angeloi-Beings refrain and hold themselves aloof; but those who by their karma as Angeloi stand nearest to the Ahrimanic powers, do not hold back; at certain times they incorporate themselves in men; they dive down into human beings.
Then there arises what I described in our last lecture, when I said: Here now is such a man on earth. He has great human talent, human Intelligence, which he expresses, maybe, with genius. But for a certain time when his consciousness is dimmed, an Ahrimanic Angeloi-Intelligence takes up his abode in him. At such a time, this may occur: There is the human being; he seems as though he were an ordinary human being, writing this or that out of his own humanity. (Now Ahriman can approach the human being most easily through the very things which the men of today receive in the forms of Intelligence. One must assert one's personality fully, if one is not to be engulfed today in all those things that I have indicated in the course of the last lectures). Hence it is that Ahriman can appear as an author. He makes use, of course, of an Angelos-Being. He can write like an author. And as we are now united in the sign of our Christmas Foundation Meeting, we will not be silent on these things. Therefore I will now add the following.
A very different attitude was possible to one of the most brilliant authors of recent times, one of the greatest authors—a very different attitude was possible before his last works appeared. When I wrote my book Nietzsche, a Wrestler with his Time, all that had come before the public was Nietzsche the brilliant writer, a man who had carried human faculties to the highest point of eminence. It was only afterwards that one became acquainted with what Nietzsche wrote in the period of his decay. There are above all the two works Anti-Christ and Ecce Homo. These two works were written by Ahriman and not by Nietzsche. It was an Ahrimanic spirit incorporated in Nietzsche. Here it was, for the first time, that Ahriman appeared as an author upon earth. He will continue to do so. Nietzsche broke down over it. He went to pieces. We must understand the true nature of the impulses we are confronting when we stand face to face with the ideas that lived in Nietzsche in the time when he wrote the brilliant but devilish works Anti-Christ and Ecce Homo,—intelligent works indeed. I have spoken of the great and all-embracing Intelligence of Ahriman. For greatness, majesty and brilliance, we do not decry a work in calling it Ahrimanic. Only simpletons could think so, who do not know the greatness there can be in Ahriman. We do not blame when we speak of Ahriman. Very much on earth depends on him. I can truly say that in my soul I bled, when for the first time I read Nietzsche's writing on the ‘Will to Power,’ which was then published in such a way that men could gain no right conception of it. But if at the same time one is able to look into those kingdoms which since the dominion of Michael, since the eighties of last century, were severed by the thinnest of thin walls from the earth-kingdom; if one knows how immediately this kingdom adjoins the physical, so that we may say: ‘It is a kingdom similar to that which man passes through after his death’; if one can gaze into these things and see how great the strivings are in this direction, then too one knows with what impulsive power they are coming to expression in such a thing as the Ecce Homo and the Anti-Christ. We need only consider how Ahrimanic are the remarks that occur in the Anti-Christ. I do not know whether the passage is still in the same form in the more recent editions. There is a passage where he is writing on Jesus. (I am not quoting verbatim). He says: Renan describes Jesus as a genius. Nietzsche does not see him as a genius, for he goes on to say: Speaking with the strict accuracy of a psychologist we should use a very different word. ... In my edition of Nietzsche's works there are three dots at this point. I do not know whether it is so in the newer editions too, but in the manuscript there stands at this point the word ‘idiot,’ written in full. That Jesus is described as an ‘idiot,’ this is the hand of Ahriman. And many other things of this kind stand written there. We must remember that at the very time when he was writing these things, there were tendencies in Nietzsche's soul towards Catholicism. We must not forget that these things went parallel with one another. Who, knowing this, could fail to think that a deep riddle lies hidden there? And what are the concluding words of the Anti-Christ? They are somewhat as follows, though again I am not quoting verbatim: ‘I would like to write it on every wall and I have the materials to write it in radiant letters shining far and wide; I would fain write what Christianity is. It is the greatest curse of mankind.’—Thus ends the book. Surely here lies a problem. We must see indeed, how that kingdom which was separated by a thin wall only from our own, and where all the spiritual battles took place towards the end and a little beyond the end of Kali Yuga—we must see how that kingdom is striving to penetrate into the physical domain of earth.
To these things we must look if we would understand what can be the position of mankind today, towards the things that must emerge in civilisation through the dawn of the age of Michael. At the transition of the Kali Yuga—the transition from the dark to the light age—one did indeed have to see things clearly, graphically, in the spiritual and in the physical together, if one would describe (as I did in the Introduction to my Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Spiritual Life) the necessary feeling at that time towards the Spiritual and the Material. From all directions one would like to gather the means of expression to describe the mighty transition that takes place at the dawn of the Michael age. And with all that the Anthroposophical Movement is, we must feel ourselves within these things. For all these mighty, overwhelming facts express themselves to begin with in the human karma which has now come into disorder. We must think of the great and universal truth that lies inherent in the karmic relationships. Yet the world today is such that even into these general karmic laws and relationships, exceptions could enter through the course of many centuries. And now the requirement is to bring these cosmic exceptions back into their true course. If we think of these things—for this is the task, the mission of the Anthroposophical Movement,—we shall feel something of the great and far-reaching significance of this Movement.
This, my dear friends, shall now rest in your souls. You must say to yourselves: Those who out of these great decisions feel in themselves the impulse to come to the anthroposophical life today, will be called again at the end of the 20th century, when at the culminating point the greatest possible expansion of the Anthroposophical Movement will be attained. But it will only happen if these things can really live in us,—if there can live in us the perception of what penetrates cosmically, spiritually, into the earthly physical domain. It will only be so if there penetrates even into the earthly Intelligence, into the perceptions of men, the knowledge of the significance of Michael.
This impulse must be the very soul of our anthroposophical striving. The soul itself must have the will to stand fully in the midst of the Anthroposophical Movement. Thus we shall find it possible, my dear friends, for a certain time to come, to carry in our souls thoughts of a great and far-reaching nature. But we shall not only preserve them, we shall make them living in our souls. And through these thoughts our souls will grow and develop anthroposophically, so that the soul will become what it was intended to become through its own unconscious impulse to come to Anthroposophy. I say again: So that the soul may be taken hold of by the mission of Anthroposophy. I have spoken these earnest words to you in this last hour, so that you may let them work in you quietly and in silence for a time: that the soul shall really be taken hold of by the mission of Anthroposophy. We shall continue these lessons when we come together again,—that will be in the first days of September. For the intervening time I would like to have laid on all your hearts what I have had to say this evening in connection with the karma of individual anthroposophists and of the Anthroposophical Society.
Elfter Vortrag
Durch lange Zeiten haben wir gesprochen von karmischen Verhältnissen, die zusammenhängen mit der anthroposophischen Bewegung, mit der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft, mit den einzelnen Persönlichkeiten, die innerlich ehrlich den Drang fühlen, ihren Lebensweg innerhalb der anthroposophischen Bewegung zu machen. Und obgleich vieles über die karmischen Verhältnisse nach dieser Richtung noch nach der Rückkunft von England zu sagen sein wird, möchte ich doch gerade heute als in der letzten Stunde vor der Abreise nach England einer Reise, die ja den ganzen Rest des August hin dauern wird -, als eine Art von Abschluß einiges vorbringen, das geeignet sein wird, die Gedanken, die ich Ihnen mitteilen durfte in diesen karmischen Betrachtungen, etwas zu runden.
Sie alle haben ja bemerkt, meine lieben Freunde, wie das Karma des einzelnen Anthroposophen mannigfaltige Formen der Gestaltung in früheren Erdenleben und zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt durchgemacht hat, Und wir haben insbesondere in den beiden letzten Stunden schon Andeutungen machen können, welche Bedeutung das für das Karma des einzelnen Anthroposophen haben kann. Wir haben gesehen, daß dieses Karma des Anthroposophen zusammenhängt mit der ganzen Entwickelung, welche das Michael-Prinzip durch lange, lange Zeiträume durchgemacht hat. Wir haben gesehen, zunächst in mehr abstrakter Art, wie entfallen ist der Michael-Herrschaft dasjenige, was genannt werden konnte die Verwaltung der kosmischen Intelligenz. Es war ja durchaus so in älteren Zeiten, daß die Menschen, wie ich sagte, sich nicht selber zuschrieben das intelligente Wesen, sondern daß sie alles, was sie in intelligenten Formen äußerten, herleiteten aus der Inspiration höherer Mächte. Und die Kundigen auf diesem Gebiet wußten, daß es diejenigen höheren Mächte waren, die dann in christlicher Terminologie eben als die Michael-Mächte bezeichnet wurden. Nun habe ich Ihnen das 8. und 9. Jahrhundert als denjenigen Zeitpunkt in der Entwickelung der zivilisierten Menschheit bezeichnet, in welchem die kosmische Intelligenz allmählich sich herunterbewegt hat zur Erde, sich sozusagen in Tropfenformen gestaltet hat, die dann in den einzelnen menschlichen Seelen als die persönliche Intelligenz weiterlebten. Und ich habe Ihnen auch angedeutet, wie traditionell, aber auch aus einer gewissen Einsicht heraus — der Blick für die kosmische Intelligenz, also für die alte michaelische Verwaltung, geblieben ist. Wenn wir hinschauen auf die in vieler Beziehung ganz ausgezeichneten Gelehrten, die in Anlehnung an den Arabismus, in Anlehnung an das, was, von den Alexanderzügen ausgehend, in Asien als Aristotelismus gelebt hat, dann durchdrungen hat die Mystik des Orients und sie, ich möchte sagen, intelligent gemacht hat, wenn wir auf alles das hinschauen, was davon herübergetragen worden ist über Afrika nach Spanien und dort als maurische Weisheit gewirkt hat durch eine solche hervorragende Persönlichkeit wie Averroes, dann finden wir in den Lehren dieser maurisch-spanischen Gelehrten durchaus einen Abglanz der Anschauungen, die nach der kosmischen Intelligenz hingehen.
Wollen wir uns einmal recht stark veranschaulichen, wie dies vorgestellt worden ist. Ich möchte zu diesem Zwecke eine skizzenhafte Zeichnung machen von dem, was diese maurischen Gelehrten ihren Schülern in Spanien im 10., 11., 12. Jahrhundert gelehrt haben, zur selben Zeit, in der an anderen Orten von Europa so etwas geherrscht hat wie die Schule von Chartres, von der ich Ihnen ausführlich erzählt habe.
In Spanien wurde von den maurischen Gelehrten, vor allen Dingen von einer solchen Persönlichkeit wie Averroes, gelehrt, wie die Intelligenz überall waltet, wie die ganze Welt, der Kosmos erfüllt ist von der allwaltenden Intelligenz. Die Menschen unten auf der Erde, sie haben verschiedene Eigenschaften, aber sie haben nicht eine eigene, persönliche Intelligenz. Sondern jedesmal, wenn ein Mensch auf der Erde wirkt, so geht ein Tropfen der Intelligenz, ein Strahl der Intelligenz von der allgemeinen Intelligenz aus, senkt sich gewissermaßen in den Kopf, in den Körper des Menschen, erfüllt ihn, so daß, wenn ein Mensch auf Erden herumgeht, er etwas hat wie eine Art Teil der ganz allgemeinen kosmischen Intelligenz. Stirbt dann der Mensch, geht er durch die Pforte des Todes, so geht das, was er als Intelligenz gehabt hat, zurück in die allgemeine Intelligenz, fließt zurück. So daß, was der Mensch während des Lebens zwischen Geburt und Tod an Gedanken, Begriffen, Ideen hat, in das allgemeine Reservoir der allgemeinen Intelligenz zurückfließt und man nicht davon sprechen kann, daß dasjenige, was der Mensch als besonders Wertvolles in seiner Seele trägt, seine Intelligenz, einer persönlichen Unsterblichkeit unterliegt.
Das war auch durchaus gelehrt von den spanisch-maurischen Gelehrten, daß der Mensch eine persönliche Unsterblichkeit nicht hat. Er lebt weiter, aber es ist ja das Wichtigste an ihm - so sagten die Gelehrten -, daß er während des Lebens intelligentes Wissen entfalten kann. Das geht aber nicht mit seinem Wesen mit. Also kann man nicht sagen, daß das intelligente Wesen eine persönliche Unsterblichkeit hat. Sehen Sie, das war, ich möchte sagen, der Furor des Kampfes der Scholastiker unter den Dominikanern, der Furor, geltendzumachen die persönliche Unsterblichkeit des Menschen. Es konnte das in jener Zeit nicht anders auftreten als so, daß diese Dominikaner geltend machten: Der Mensch ist persönlich unsterblich, und das, was Averroes lehrt, ist Ketzerei, ist Häresie. Das müssen wir heute anders sagen. Aber für die damalige Zeit ist begreiflich, daß man einen Menschen, der die persönliche Unsterblichkeit nicht annahm, wie Averroes in Spanien, für einen Häretiker erklärte. Heute müssen wir die Sache der Wirklichkeit, der Realität gemäß betrachten. Wir müssen sagen: In dem Sinne, wie der Mensch unsterblich geworden ist seiner Bewußtseinsseele nach, hat er sich diese Unsterblichkeit — dieses fortdauernde Bewußtsein von der Persönlichkeit -, nachdem er durch die Pforte des Todes durchgegangen war, erst errungen seit der Zeit, da eine Bewußtseinsseele im Erdenmenschen Platz greift. Wenn man also Aristoteles oder Alexander gefragt hätte, wie sie über Unsterblichkeit denken, wie würden sie geantwortet haben? Auf Worte kommt es nicht an, aber wenn sie gefragt worden wären und wenn sie in christlicher Terminologie geantwortet hätten, würden sie gesagt haben: Unsere Seele wird aufgenommen von Michael, und wir leben fort in der Gemeinschaft des Michael. — Oder sie würden es kosmologisch ausgedrückt haben; gerade aus einer solchen Gemeinschaft heraus, wie die des Alexander oder des Aristoteles war, würde man kosmologisch gesagt haben, und man hat es auch gesagt: Die Seele des Menschen ist intelligent auf Erden, aber diese Intelligenz ist ein Tropfen aus der Fülle dessen, was Michael ergießt wie einen intelligenten Regen, der die Menschen überströmt. Und dieser Regen geht von der Sonne aus, die Sonne nimmt in ihr eigenes Wesen wiederum zurück des Menschen Seele, und die Menschenseele, die da besteht zwischen Geburt und Tod, sie strahlt aus der Sonne auf die Erde nieder. Michael-Herrschaft hätte man auf der Sonne gesucht. So würde man kosmologisch geantwortet haben.
Das ist nach Asien gekommen, ist von Asien zurückgekommen und hat noch geblüht als Anschauung der Mauren in Spanien in der Zeit, als die Scholastiker eingetreten sind für die persönliche Unsterblichkeit. Wir müssen nicht sagen, wie die Scholastiker gesagt haben: Es ist ein Irrtum -, sondern wir müssen sagen: Die Entwickelung der Menschheit hat die individuelle persönliche Unsterblichkeit gebracht, und in der Scholastik der Dominikaner war es, wo man zuerst diese persönliche Unsterblichkeit betont hat. — Und eine alte Wahrheit, die nicht mehr wahr war für jene Zeit in bezug auf die Entwickelung des Menschengeschlechtes, wurde vorgebracht auf den Hochschulen, die von den Mauren besorgt wurden in Spanien. Wir müssen heute nicht nur tolerant sein gegen die Gleichzeitigen, wir müssen auch tolerant sein gegen diejenigen, die alte Lehren fortgepflanzt haben. Das konnte man in der damaligen Zeit nicht; es ist daher wichtig, daß wir uns das immer wieder und wiederum sagen: Was durch die DominikanerScholastiker persönliche Unsterblichkeit genannt wurde, das ist eigentlich eine Wahrheit erst, seitdem die Bewußtseinsseele langsam und allmählich in die Menschheit eingezogen ist.
Man kann das auch, ich möchte sagen, ganz imaginativ schildern. Stirbt heute ein Mensch, der wirklich die Möglichkeit hatte, während des Erdenlebens seine Seele zu durchdringen mit Intelligenz, mit wahrhaftiger Intelligenz, dann geht er durch die Pforte des Todes, und er schaut zurück auf sein Erdenleben, das da war als ein selbständiges Erdenleben. In früheren Jahrhunderten schaute der Mensch, nachdem er durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen war, auf sein Erdenleben zurück, wie da der Ätherleib im Kosmos sich auflöst, wie er durchgeht dann durch das Seelengebiet, wie er durchlebt die Ereignisse in rückwärtsgehender Form. Dann konnte er sich sagen: So verwaltet Michael durch die Sonne dasjenige, was mein war. — Das ist eben der große Unterschied. Man kann aber solch eine Entwickelung nur beurteilen, wenn man hinter die Kulissen des Daseins schaut und auf das Spirituelle hinter dem Materiellen schaut. Darauf kommt es an, daß man die äußeren Ereignisse in der Menschheit so sieht, wie sie aus der spirituellen Welt heraus gestaltet werden.
Nun müssen Sie sich noch einmal hineinversetzen in alles dasjenige, was ich gesagt habe. Versetzen Sie sich hinein in die Tatsache, daß mit dem 9. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert die Krisis sich vollzieht: die kosmische Intelligenz geht hinunter unter die Erdenmenschen. Das ist objektive Tatsache, ist dasjenige, was sich vollzieht. Und nun versetzen Sie sich in die Sonnensphäre, die Michael mit den Seinen so verwaltete, wie ich es erzählt habe, indem man den Abschied des Christus von der Sonne und seinen Übergang auf die Erde im Mysterium von Golgatha wahrgenommen hat und nacherlebt hat, wie nach und nach die kosmische Intelligenz immer mehr und mehr hinuntergeht und individuelle Menschenerkenntnis wird. Ein wichtiges Ereignis, das tiefen Eindruck gemacht hat gerade auf diejenigen, die zu Michael gehören — ich habe das letztemal gesagt «Michaeliten» -, ein wichtiges Ereignis ganz hervorragender Art war dasjenige, was ich in früheren Zusammenhängen schon so charakterisiert habe, wie es sich hineinstellte in den Verlauf der Zivilisationsentwickelung der Erde. Aber jetzt muß es so charakterisiert werden, wie es sich ausnimmt von dem Aspekt der Michaeliten selber von der Sonne aus, wie man es aus der Perspektive sieht, wenn man hinunterschaut aus dem Reiche des Michael auf die Erde.
Dieses wichtige, dieses bedeutungsvolle Ereignis geschah im Jahre 869. Es ist das achte allgemeine, ökumenische Konzil in Konstantinopel, wo dogmatisch konstatiert worden ist: Die alte Anschauung von der Trichotomie — der Mensch bestehe aus Leib, Seele und Geist wäre ketzerisch, der Mensch habe nur Leib und Seele, nur daß die Seele einige geistige Eigenschaften habe. Während sich im Objektiven das vollzog, daß die Intelligenz auf die einzelnen Menschen überging, wurde auf Erden - in so besiegelnder Weise, daß niemand, der in der europäischen Zivilisation stand, dem zu widersprechen wagen konnte dekretiert, die Trichotomie sei falsch, sei ketzerisch. Man durfte nicht davon sprechen, daß der Mensch Leib, Seele und Geist habe, sondern nur von Leib und Seele durfte man sprechen und der Seele geistige Eigenschaften und Kräfte zuschreiben. Damit war etwas auf Erden geschehen, von dem man in den Michael-Reichen nur sagen konnte: Nun wird einziehen in die Seelen der Menschen die Überzeugung, daß das Geistige eine Seeleneigenschaft ist, daß das Geistige nicht das Göttliche ist, das im Fortgang der Menschheitsentwickelung waltet. «Seht hinunter auf die Erde» — das ist die Sprache des Michael -, «da schwindet das Bewußtsein vom Geiste.» Aber, meine lieben Freunde, mit diesem Schwinden des Bewußtseins vom Geiste war ja gerade das verbunden, von dem wir heute vorzugsweise sprechen wollen.
Ich habe eben vorher gesagt, daß ich bisher nur abstrakt charakterisiert habe, wie sich die Entwickelung des Michael-Reiches hinter den Kulissen des Erdendaseins vollzogen hat. Ich sagte, die kosmische Intelligenz wäre hinuntergegangen zu den einzelnen Menschen. Aber das ist nur eine Abstraktion, meine lieben Freunde. Was ist denn Intelligenz? Man darf sich natürlich nicht vorstellen, wenn man hinaufkommt in die höheren Reiche, daß man da die Intelligenz so greife, wie man hier in der physischen Welt Bäume und Sträucher greift. Was ist das: «Intelligenz»? Solche Allgemeinheiten gibt es natürlich nicht in Realität. Intelligenz sind die gegenseitigen Verhaltungsmaßregeln der höheren Hierarchien. Was die tun, wie sie sich zueinander verhalten, wie sie zueinander sind, das ist kosmische Intelligenz. Und da wir natürlich als Menschen das uns nächste Reich ins Auge fassen müssen, so wird konkret für uns die kosmische Intelligenz: die Summe von Wesenheiten aus der Hierarchie der Angeloi. Wenn wir im Konkreten sprechen, können wir nicht von einer Summe von Intelligenz sprechen, sondern von einer Summe von Angeloi; das ist die Realität. Daß sich die Kirchenväter im Jahre 869 darüber unterhielten, ob man von Geist reden soll, war die Folge davon, daß eine Anzahl von Angeloiwesen sich trennten von dem Michael-Reich, bei dem sie früher waren, und sich unter die Anschauung stellten, daß sie es nunmehr nur zu tun haben mit den Erdgewalten, daß sie nur von Erdgewalten aus die Führung der Menschen zu vollziehen haben. Also sehen Sie, was das für ein Ereignis in Wirklichkeit ist! Angeloi sind diejenigen Wesen, die den Menschen von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben führen. Die nächsten Wesen, die über uns in der geistigen Welt stehen, sind es, die uns auf dem Weg geleiten durch das Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt und wiederum zum Erdenleben hinweisen, die die einzelnen Erdenleben zu einer zusammenhängenden Kette des Totallebens der Menschen machen. Eine Anzahl von Engelwesen, die diese Aufgabe haben, die früher vereinigt waren mit dem Michael-Reiche, ging heraus, verließ das Michael-Reich. Durch ein solches Verhalten konnte das Schicksal der Menschen unmöglich unberührt bleiben. Denn wer ist natürlich zunächst daran beteiligt, wie das Karma sich entwickelt, wie die Erdentaten, die Erdengedanken, die Erdengefühle verarbeitet werden zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt? Die Angeloiwesen sind es! Wenn nun diese Angeloiwesen zu einer ganz anderen Stellung im Kosmos kommen, wenn sie sozusagen das Sonnenreich verlassen und an Stelle von zölestischen Engeln zu terrestrischen Engeln werden, was muß denn da geschehen? Da liegt tatsächlich über der ganzen Entwickelung von Europa hinter den äußeren Tatsachen ein großes Geheimnis. Es sind gewisse Angeloi allerdings im Michael-Reich geblieben. In jener großen Lehrschule im Beginne des 15. Jahrhunderts waren auch solche Angeloiwesen, die zu den Menschen gehört haben, welche dazumal im Michael-Reiche waren. Zu all den Seelen der Menschen, die im Michael-Reiche lebten, von denen ich gesprochen habe, gehörten Angeloiwesen, die im Reiche des Michael geblieben sind. Aber die anderen, die waren es, die herausgingen, welche sich mit demjenigen identifizierten, was Erdenwesen war.
Nun werden Sie sagen: Ja, wie kommt es denn eigentlich, daß da einer Anzahl von Michael-Engeln es plötzlich einfällt, herauszugehen aus diesem Michael-Reich? Den anderen fällt es nicht bei, herauszugehen! — Ich muß gestehen, das ist eine der schwierigsten Fragen, die man aufwerfen kann in bezug auf die neuere Entwickelung der Menschheit. Es ist im Grunde genommen eine Frage, die alle inneren Kräfte des Menschen, wenn man sich damit beschäftigt, in Regsamkeit versetzen muß. Das ist eine Frage, die tief und innig zusammenhängt mit dem ganzen Menschenleben.
Sehen Sie, da liegt in der Tat eine kosmische Tatsache zugrunde. Sie wissen aus meinen Vorträgen, die ich hier von dieser Stelle aus gehalten habe: Alles, was man anspricht als einen physischen Planeten, ist eine Ansammlung von geistigen Wesenheiten. Wenn man hinaufschaut zu einem Stern, so ist das, was physisch erscheint, nur das Äußere; in Wirklichkeit hat man es da zu tun mit einer Versammlung von geistigen Wesenheiten. Nun besteht ein gewisser Gegensatz — der immer bestand, seitdem es eine Erdenentwickelung gegeben hat - zwischen den Intelligenzen aller Planeten und der Sonnenintelligenz. Es ist eben auf der einen Seite die Sonnenintelligenz, auf der anderen Seite sind die Planetenintelligenzen. Und immer war es so, daß die Sonnenintelligenz vorzugsweise unter der Herrschaft des Michael stand, die anderen planetarischen Intelligenzen dagegen unter den anderen Erzengeln. Also sagen wir (es wird an die Tafel geschrieben):
Sonnenintelligenz
Michael
Planetenintelligenzen
Merkur: Raphael
Venus: Anael
Mars: Samael
Jupiter: Zachariel
Mond: Gabriel
Saturn: Oriphiel
Aber es war immer so, meine lieben Freunde, daß man nicht sagen konnte, Michael verwalte die Sonnenintelligenz allein. Sondern die ganze kosmische Intelligenz ist spezifiziert in Sonnenintelligenz und in den planetarischen Intelligenzen: Merkur, Venus, Mars und so weiter. Die kosmische Intelligenz wird von den einzelnen Wesen der Archangeloi-Hierarchie mitverwaltet, aber über allen zusammen waltet immer wieder Michael, so daß die gesamte kosmische Intelligenz von Michael verwaltet wird. Selbstverständlich, jeder Mensch war auch früher ein Mensch, als Michael die kosmische Intelligenz verwaltete und als nur ein Strahl in den einzelnen Menschen hineinkam, so daß der Mensch sich doch als Mensch auf der Erde fühlen konnte und der einzelne Mensch nicht bloß Umhüllung der allgemeinen kosmischen Intelligenz war. Das aber rührt von der Sonne her; alle menschliche Intelligenz rührt her von Michael in der Sonne.
Nur als diese Jahrhunderte heraufkamen, das 8., 9., 10. Jahrhundert, da geschah es eben, daß die planetarischen Intelligenzen Rechnung trugen dem Umstande, daß die Erde sich verändert hatte, daß auch die Sonne sich verändert hatte. Ja, das, was da draußen vor sich geht, was die Astronomen beschreiben, das ist nur die Außenseite. Sie wissen: Alle elf Jahre ungefähr haben wir eine Sonnenfleckenperiode; die Sonne scheint so auf die Erde, daß gewisse Stellen dunkel sind, daß gewisse Stellen fleckig sind. Das war nicht immer so. Die Sonne glänzte in sehr alten Zeiten als eine gleichförmige Scheibe herunter, Sonnenflecken waren nicht da. Und die Sonne wird nach Tausenden und Tausenden von Jahren wesentlich viel mehr Flecken haben als heute, sie wird immer fleckiger. Das ist immer die äußere Offenbarung dessen, daß die Michael-Kraft, die kosmische Kraft der Intelligenz immer mehr abnimmt. In dem Vermehren der Sonnenflecken durch die kosmische Entwickelung zeigt sich der Verfall der Sonne; immer mehr zeigt sich das Matterwerden, das Altwerden der Sonne im Kosmos. Und an dem Auftreten einer genügend großen Anzahl von Sonnenflecken erkannten die anderen planetarischen Intelligenzen, daß sie nicht mehr von der Sonne beherrscht sein wollen. Sie nahmen sich vor, die Erde nicht mehr von der Sonne abhängig sein zu lassen, sondern direkt vom gesamten Kosmos. Das geschieht durch die planetarischen Ratschlüsse der Archangeloi. Namentlich unter der Führung des Oriphiel geschieht diese Emanzipierung der planetarischen Intelligenz von der Sonnenintelligenz. Es war ein vollständiges Trennen von bis dahin zusammengehörigen Weltgewalten. Die Sonnenintelligenz des Michael und die planetarischen Intelligenzen gerieten nach und nach in kosmische Opposition zueinander.
Ja, wenn wir auch den Wesenheiten der Hierarchie der Angeloi eine ganz andere Art der Seelenkraft, der Verfassung des Inneren zuschreiben — Entschlüsse, Erwägungen über das, was geschieht, müssen wir ihnen auch zuschreiben. Wir Menschen entscheiden uns ja auch nicht anders, als daß wir die Dinge ansehen, die äußerlich vor sich gehen, daß wir die Tatsachen sprechen lassen, und unter dem Einfluß der Tatsachen dies oder jenes tun. Nur sind für uns maßgebend zwischen Geburt und Tod die Erdentatsachen. Für die Wesenheiten der Hierarchie der Angeloi sind solche Tatsachen maßgebend wie diese, daß da im planetarischen Leben eine Spaltung vor sich geht. Die eine Schar wandte sich der Erdenintelligenz und damit zu gleicher Zeit der planetarischen Intelligenz zu; die andere Schar blieb treu der MichaelSphäre, um das, was der Michael als das Ewige verwaltet, hineinzutragen in alle Zukunft. Das ist nun etwas Entscheidendes, ob Michael das, was in seinem Wirken ewig ist, in alle Zukunft hineinzutragen vermag, jetzt, wo alle Macht unter den Menschen ist, wo das, was in der physischen Sonne erscheint, finsterer wird und allmählich verschwindet.
So sehen wir, durch kosmische Ereignisse veranlaßt, eine Spaltung unter den Angeloi, die früher mit Michael vereinigt waren. Aber diese Wesenheiten bilden ja gerade mit die karmische Entwickelung. Und nun betrachten Sie das Ganze, wie es sich abspielt in dem Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt. Da ist es nicht so, daß jede Menschenseele allein laufen kann, auch nicht jeder Engel, der die Menschen leitet, kann allein laufen, sondern da wirkt die Hierarchie der Angeloi zusammen. Im Zusammenwirken wird das Karma ausgelebt. Natürlich, wenn ich in einem Erdenleben verbunden werde mit Menschen, und wir tragen das im nächsten Leben aus, dann muß zusammenkommen der Engel des einen Menschen mit dem Engel des anderen. Es muß ein Zusammenwirken geschehen, und vielfach war es so. Das ist das ungeheuer Erschütternde, ich möchte sagen das Zermalmende, das sich abspielt auf Erden in dem Ökumenischen Konzil von 869. Es ist das Signal für etwas Ungeheures, was da oben in der geistigen Welt geschieht. Das ist das Zerschmetternde — wenn man sich ganz aufrechterhält, mit dem richtigen Gebrauche der kosmischen Intelligenz aufrechterhält gegenüber solchen übermächtigen Tatsachen-Zusammenhängen -, das erschütternd Bedeutsame, was schon eintrat und immer mehr und mehr eintritt: daß der Angelos der einen Menschenseele, die mit einer anderen Menschenseele früher karmisch verbunden war, nicht zusammenging mit dem Angelos dieser anderen Menschenseele. Der eine Angelos von zwei karmisch verbundenen Menschenseelen blieb bei Michael, der andere ging hinunter zur Erde. Was mußte da geschehen? In dem Zeitraum zwischen der Begründung des Christentums und dem Bewußtseinszeitalter, das vorzugsweise signalisiert war durch das 9. Jahrhundert, durch das Jahr 869, mußte das geschehen, daß in das Karma der Menschen Unordnung hineinkam! Damit ist eines der bedeutsamsten Worte ausgesprochen, das man überhaupt aussprechen kann mit Bezug auf die neuere Geschichte der Menschheit. Unordnung ist in das Karma der neueren Menschheit hineingekommen. Es wurden in den folgenden Erdenjahren nicht mehr alle Erlebnisse richtig in das Karma hineingestellt. Und das Chaotische der neueren Geschichte, was in die neuere Geschichte immer mehr und mehr soziales und anderes Chaos, Kulturchaos hineinbringt, was nicht zu einem Ziel kommen läßt, das ist die Unordnung, in die Karma gebracht worden ist, weil eine Spaltung eintrat in der zu Michael gehörenden Hierarchie der Angeloi.
Und nun können wir etwas aussprechen, was mit dem Karma der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft zusammenhängt, was von ungeheurer Bedeutung ist, was, ich möchte sagen, erst die richtige Nuance gibt. Denn alles, was man schließlich in Anlehnung an die Verhältnisse charakterisieren kann, erschöpft nicht dasjenige, was im Geistigen hinter den Kulissen vorgeht. Es ist schwach und matt, was man aus den Erdenverhältnissen heraus an Gedanken auswählt. Man muß nach solchen Vorbereitungen zu dem greifen, was rein Geistiges charakterisiert.
Da muß man sagen: Gewiß, all das, was die Seelen gemeinschaftlich in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft ehrlich durch inneren Seelendrang zusammengeführt hat, das gilt natürlich. Aber wie kommt es denn, daß auch die Kräfte vorhanden sind, die bewirken, daß wirklich heute sich Menschen zusammenfinden unter rein geistigen Prinzipien, die sonst fremd sind in der heutigen Welt? Wo liegen die Kräfte vom Sich-Zusammenfinden? Die liegen darin, daß durch den Eintritt der Herrschaft des Michael, durch das Michaelische Zeitalter, in dem wir leben, mit dem Hereindringen des Michael in die Erdenherrschaft, mit der Ablösung der Herrschaft des Gabriel durch die Herrschaft des Michael von Michael hereingebracht wird die Kraft, die da bei denjenigen, die mit ihm gegangen sind, wiederum das Karma in Ordnung bringen soll. So daß wir sagen können: Was vereinigt die Mitglieder der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft? Das vereinigt sie, daß sie ihr Karma in Ordnung bringen sollen! Wenn jemand merkt im Verlaufe seines Lebens, daß er da oder dort in Beziehungen hineinkommt, die nicht konform sind seinem inneren Drange, die vielleicht in irgendeiner Weise herausfallen aus dem, was richtige Harmonie ist im Menschen zwischen gut und böse — dieses auf der einen Seite —, und auf der anderen Seite stets ein Drang in ihm ist, mit dem Anthroposophischen vorwärts zu kommen: da liegt das vor, daß der Mensch wiederum zurückstrebt zum Karma, zum wirklichen Karma, zum Ausleben des wirklichen Karma. Das ist der kosmische Strahl, der sich deutlich für den Erkennenden durch die anthroposophische Bewegung ergießt: Wiederherstellung der Wahrheit des Karma. Sehen Sie, damit ist vieles verknüpft von dem, was sowohl Schicksal der einzelnen in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft ist wie Schicksal der ganzen Gesellschaft. Natürlich, denn das fließt alles ineinander.
Nun müssen wir das Folgende ins Auge fassen: Sehen Sie, die Menschen, die zusammenhängen mit Wesen aus der Hierarchie der Angeloi, die im Michael-Reiche verblieben sind, diese Menschen haben es schwer, für das, was sie begreifen sollen, Intelligenzformen zu finden. Sie streben ja dahin, auch die persönliche Intelligenz so zu erhalten, daß das mit der Michael-Verehrung zusammenhängen kann. Diejenigen Seelen, von denen ich gesagt habe, daß sie teilgenommen haben an jenen Vorbereitungen im 15. und 19. Jahrhundert, kommen zur Erde hinunter, hängend noch im tiefsten Drang nach Michael und seiner Sphäre. Dennoch, sie sollen nach Entwickelungsprinzipien der Menschheit die individuelle persönliche Intelligenz aufnehmen. Das gibt Zwiespalt, aber einen Zwiespalt, der sich lösen muß durch eine spirituelle Entwickelung, durch das Zusammenkommen der individuellen Aktivität mit dem, was geistige Welten herunterbringen im jetzigen Intelligenzzeitalter. Die anderen, deren Engel abfielen —- was natürlich mit dem Karma zusammenhängt, denn der Engel fällt ab, wenn er mit einem Menschenkarma zusammenhängt, das dementsprechend ist -, die anderen nehmen wie mit Selbstverständlichkeit die persönliche Intelligenz auf, ganz wie selbstverständlich, aber dafür wirkt sie auch automatisch in ihnen, sie wirkt durch die Körperlichkeit. Sie wirkt so, daß diese Menschen denken, gescheit denken, aber sie sind nicht engagiert dabei. Das war der große Streit, der lange Zeit zwischen den Dominikanern und den Franziskanern sich abspielte. Die Dominikaner konnten nicht das persönliche Intelligenzprinzip anders ausgestalten als in möglichster Treue zur Michael-Sphäre. Die Franziskaner, die Anhänger von Duns Scotus — nicht von Scotus Erigena -, die wurden völlig Nominalisten. Sie sagten: Intelligenz ist überhaupt nur eine Summe von Worten. Alles was sich abspielte an Diskussionen zwischen den Menschen, alles das ist eben wirklich so, daß es das Abbild ist von mächtigen Kämpfen, die stattfinden zwischen der einen Schar der Angeloi und der anderen Schar der Angeloi.
Sehen Sie, das ist so, daß die Wesen aus der Hierarchie der Angeloi, welche nun mit dem Erdenprinzip sich vereinigt haben, eigentlich ja etwa seit dem 9., 10. Jahrhundert auf der Erde leben. Und das ist wiederum das Erschütternde, meine lieben Freunde: Da nimmt auf der Erde der Materialismus zu, da sind gerade die vorgerücktesten, die gescheitesten Menschen so, daß sie das Geistige leugnen, daß sie anfangen zu spotten darüber, daß geistige Wesen ebenso in ihrer Umgebung sein sollen wie physische Menschen. In dieser Zeit, in der sich der Materialismus ausbreitet, steigen immer mehr und mehr Engel herunter und leben auf der Erde. Sie tun mit. Gerade sie sind es, die in gewissen Zeiten, wo das menschliche Bewußtsein getrübt ist, sich inkorporieren und auf Erden wirken. Eine große Anzahl von Wesen der Angeloi hält sich zurück, aber diejenigen, die nach ihrem Angeloikarma am nächsten stehen den ahrimanischen Gewalten, die halten sich nicht zurück, die inkorporieren sich in Menschen, tauchen unter in Menschen zu gewissen Zeiten.
Dann entsteht dasjenige, was ich in der vorigen Stunde bezeichnet habe dadurch, daß ich sagte: Da ist nun ein solcher Mensch auf Erden, er hat menschliche Begabung, menschliche Intelligenz, die er auslebt, vielleicht genial auslebt, aber für eine gewisse Zeit, wo sein Bewußtsein getrübt ist, nimmt eine ahrimanische Angeloi-Intelligenz in ihm Platz. Da kann dann diese Erscheinung auftreten: Da ist ein Mensch, er scheint so, als ob er ein gewöhnlicher Mensch wäre und aus seiner Menschheit heraus dieses oder jenes schreibt. Nun kann das Ahrimanische gerade durch dasjenige an den Menschen heran, was man heute in intelligenten Formen aufnimmt. Man muß seine Persönlichkeit geltend machen, wenn man heute nicht überflutet werden soll von all dem, was ich angedeutet habe im Laufe dieser Vorträge. Und deshalb ist es, daß Ahriman als Schriftsteller auftreten kann. Er bedient sich natürlich eines Angeloswesens. Er kann schriftstellern. Und wenn wir jetzt im Zeichen unserer Weihnachtstagung vereinigt sind, so soll über solche Dinge nicht geschwiegen werden. Deshalb möchte ich das Folgende noch bemerken.
Sehen Sie, es war eine andere Stellung möglich zu einem der glänzendsten Schriftsteller der letzten Zeit, einem der größten Schriftsteller, bevor dessen letzte Werke erschienen sind. Als ich mein Buch schrieb: «Nietzsche, ein Kämpfer gegen seine Zeit», hatte man es in der Öffentlichkeit zu tun mit dem blendenden Schriftsteller, der menschliche Fähigkeiten bis zum Höchsten hinauf gesteigert hatte. Dann erst wurde man bekannt mit dem, was Nietzsche in der Zeit seines Verfalles geschrieben hat. Da sind vor allen Dingen zwei Werke, «Antichrist» und «Ecce homo»: das sind zwei Werke, die Ahriman geschrieben hat nicht Nietzsche, sondern ein ahrimanischer Geist, in Nietzsche inkorporiert. Da trat zuerst Ahriman als Schriftsteller auf Erden auf. Er wird das fortsetzen. Nietzsche ist daran zerschellt. Man denke, welchen Impulsen man gegenübersteht, wenn man jenen Ideen gegenübersteht, die in Nietzsche gelebt haben in der Zeit, wo er aus jenem Geiste heraus jene glänzenden, aber teuflischen Werke geschrieben hat, die Werke «Antichrist» und «Ecce homo» - intelligente Werke! Ich habe gesprochen von der großen, umfassenden Intelligenz Ahrimans. In bezug auf das, was großartig, blendend ist, setzt man ein Werk nicht herunter, wenn man es ahrimanisch nennt, wie Einfältige meinen können, die nicht wissen, welche Größe in Ahriman sein kann. Man tadelt nicht, man lobt nicht, wenn man von Ahriman spricht; sehr viel auf Erden hängt von ihm ab. Wer geblutet hat — ich meine es seelisch -, wie ich geblutet habe, als ich zum ersten Mal Nietzsches Schrift «Der Wille zur Macht» las, die dann veröffentlicht worden ist in einer Weise, daß die Menschen keine richtige Vorstellung davon bekommen konnten, und wer zu gleicher Zeit hineinschauen kann in die Reiche, die, seitdem die Herrschaft des Michael besteht, seit den achtziger Jahren des vorigen Jahrhunderts, nur durch eine ganz dünne Wand getrennt sind von den physischen Erdenreichen, wer weiß, wie dieses Reich ganz unmittelbar anstößt an das physische Reich, so daß man sagen kann, es ist das ein Reich, das ähnlich ist dem Reich, das der Mensch durchmacht nach dem Tode, wer hineinschaut, wie die Anstrengungen sind nach dieser Richtung, der weiß, wie sie impulsierend zum Ausdruck kommen in so etwas wie «Ecce homo» und «Antichrist». Man braucht nur daran zu denken, was für ahrimanische Bemerkungen im «Antichrist» stehen. Ich weiß nicht, ob in den neueren Ausgaben die Stelle auch so steht. Es gibt eine Stelle, wo er über Jesus schreibt - ich zitiere nicht wörtlich — und sagt, Renan bezeichne Jesus als Genie. Nietzsche sieht ihn nicht als Genie an, er sagt: Mit der Strenge des Physiologen gesprochen, wäre hier ein ganz anderes Wort am Platze... In meiner Ausgabe von Nietzsches Werken stehen an dieser Stelle drei Punkte, ich weiß nicht, ob es in neueren Ausgaben auch so ist, im Manuskript steht hier «Idiot», ganz ausgeschrieben. Daß Jesus als «Idiot» bezeichnet wird, ist die Hand des Ahriman. Und manches andere von dieser Art steht da. Und wer könnte denn glauben, daß nicht da in Nietzsche, der gleichzeitig, als er diese Dinge schrieb, Anwandlungen in seiner Seele hatte, zum Katholizismus zu kommen - es ging parallel, Sie müssen.das nicht vergessen —, wer könnte da glauben, daß da nicht ein tiefes Rätsel verborgen ist? Der «Antichrist» - mit welchen Worten schließt er? Mit den Worten - ich kann es nicht wörtlich zitieren -: Ich möchte es an alle Wände schreiben, und ich habe Schreibmaterial mit weithin leuchtenden Lettern, ich möchte es an alle Wände schreiben, was das Christentum ist: Das Christentum ist der größte Fluch der Menschheit! — So schließt das Buch. Da liegt doch ein Problem vor. Man muß eben sehen, wie dieses ganze, nur durch eine dünne Wand von dem unsrigen getrennte Reich, wo sich alle die geistigen Kämpfe beim Ausgang des Kali Yuga abgespielt haben - noch etwas hinausragend über das Kali Yuga -, wie dieses Reich herein will in das physische Erdenreich.
Das sind die Dinge, auf die man hinschauen muß, wenn man begreifen will, wie nun die Menschheit eigentlich stehen kann zu dem, was in der Zivilisation auftreten muß durch den Anbruch des Michael-Zeitalters. Man mußte bei dem Kali Yuga-Übergang, bei dem Übergang von dem finsteren in das lichte Zeitalter, ja tatsächlich in einer geistig-physischen Anschaulichkeit drinnenstehen, wenn man charakterisieren wollte, so wie ich es getan habe in der Vorrede zu meinem Buche «Die Mystik im Aufgange des neuzeitlichen Geisteslebens», die Stimmung, die man haben muß gegenüber dem Geistigen und dem Materiellen. Es ist tatsächlich so, daß man überall herholen möchte die Möglichkeiten, diesen grandiosen Übergang, der da stattfindet als Anbruch des Michael-Zeitalters, zu charakterisieren. Und mit allem, was anthroposophische Bewegung ist, muß man sich da drinnen fühlen. Denn all dieses Großartige, dieses Große, es lebt sich zunächst aus in dem schon in Unordnung gekommenen Menschenkarma. Wenn man denkt, wie allgemeine Wahrheit in den karmischen Zusammenhängen liegt, und wie die Welt so ist, daß selbst in diese allgemeinen karmischen Zusammenhänge die Ausnahmen eingreifen konnten durch Jahrhunderte hindurch, und wie die Forderung hereintritt, kosmische Ausnahmen wiederum in ihre Regeln zurückzuführen: dann wird man etwas empfinden — weil das die Aufgabe, die Mission der anthroposophischen Bewegung ist — von der großen Bedeutung und Tragweite der anthroposophischen Bewegung.
Das, meine lieben Freunde, soll in Ihren Seelen ruhen, wenn Sie sich sagen: Diejenigen, die heute aus solcher Unterscheidung heraus den Drang fühlen, in das anthroposophische Leben hineinzukommen, sie werden mit dem Ablauf des 20. Jahrhunderts wiederum berufen, um an dem Kulminationspunkte die größtmögliche Ausbreitung der anthroposophischen Bewegung zu erreichen. Aber das kann nur geschehen, wenn diese Dinge leben können in uns, wenn leben kann die Anschauung von dem, was kosmisch-geistig hereinragt ins IrdischPhysische, wenn selbst in die irdische Intelligenz, in die Anschauung der Menschen hereinragt die Erkenntnis von der Bedeutung des Michael.
Dieser Impuls muß die Seele sein des anthroposophischen Strebens; die Seele selbst muß darinnenstehen wollen in der anthroposophischen Bewegung. Damit werden wir die Möglichkeit finden, Gedanken von einer großen Tragweite durch einige Zeit in unseren Seelen nicht nur zu bewahren, sondern lebendig zu machen; so daß die Seelen durch diese Gedanken in anthroposophischer Weise sich ferner gestalten, damit die Seele in Wahrheit werde dasjenige, was sie sein soll, durch den unbewußten Drang zur Anthroposophie zu kommen — damit die Seele ergriffen werde von der Mission der Anthroposophie. Um dieses Ergriffensein einmal in einiger Ruhe auf sich wirken zu lassen, habe ich zu Ihnen in dieser letzten Stunde diese ernsten Worte gesprochen. Wir wollen sie fortsetzen, wenn wir wieder zusammenkommen. Wenn wir in den ersten Septembertagen zusammenkommen werden, werden wir die Fortsetzung dieser Betrachtungen haben. In der Zwischenzeit möchte ich an Ihrer aller Herzen gerade dasjenige gelegt haben, was ich heute abend sprechen mußte im Zusammenhang mit dem Karma der einzelnen Anthroposophen und der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft.
Eleventh Lecture
For a long time we have spoken of karmic relationships connected with the anthroposophical movement, with the Anthroposophical Society, with the individual personalities who inwardly honestly feel the urge to make their way in life within the anthroposophical movement. And although much will have to be said about the karmic conditions in this direction after our return from England, I would like to say a few things today, in the last hour before our departure for England on a journey that will last the whole of the rest of August, as a kind of conclusion, which will be suitable for rounding off the thoughts that I have been able to share with you in these karmic reflections.
You have all noticed, my dear friends, how the karma of the individual anthroposophist has undergone manifold forms of shaping in previous earth lives and between death and a new birth, and we have already been able to give indications, especially in the last two hours, of what significance this can have for the karma of the individual anthroposophist. We have seen that this karma of the anthroposophist is connected with the whole development which the Michael principle has undergone through long, long periods of time. We have seen, first of all in a more abstract way, how that which could be called the administration of cosmic intelligence has fallen from the Michael rule. It was indeed the case in older times that men, as I said, did not ascribe to themselves the intelligent being, but that they derived everything they expressed in intelligent forms from the inspiration of higher powers. And those knowledgeable in this field knew that it was those higher powers that were then referred to in Christian terminology as the Michael Powers. Now I have described to you the 8th and 9th centuries as the time in the development of civilized mankind when the cosmic intelligence gradually moved down to earth, forming itself, so to speak, in droplet forms, which then lived on in the individual human souls as personal intelligence. And I have also indicated to you how traditionally, but also out of a certain insight - the view for the cosmic intelligence, i.e. for the old Michaelic administration, has remained. If we look at the scholars, who were quite excellent in many respects, who, following Arabism, following what lived in Asia as Aristotelianism, starting from the Alexander campaigns, then permeated the mysticism of the Orient and, I would like to say, made it intelligent, if we look at everything that was carried over from it, what was carried over from Africa to Spain and worked there as Moorish wisdom through such an outstanding personality as Averroes, then we find in the teachings of these Moorish-Spanish scholars a reflection of the views that go towards cosmic intelligence.
Let us illustrate quite clearly how this was presented. For this purpose, I would like to make a sketchy drawing of what these Moorish scholars taught their students in Spain in the 10th, 11th, 12th centuries, at the same time that something like the School of Chartres, which I have told you about in detail, prevailed in other places in Europe.
In Spain, the Moorish scholars, above all such a personality as Averroes, taught how intelligence reigns everywhere, how the whole world, the cosmos is filled with the omnipotent intelligence. The people down on earth have different qualities, but they do not have their own personal intelligence. But every time a human being works on earth, a drop of intelligence, a ray of intelligence emanates from the general intelligence, sinks, as it were, into the head, into the body of the human being, fills him, so that when a human being walks around on earth, he has something like a kind of part of the very general cosmic intelligence. If the person then dies, passes through the gate of death, then what he had as intelligence goes back into the general intelligence, flows back. So that what a person has of thoughts, concepts, ideas during life between birth and death flows back into the general reservoir of general intelligence and one cannot speak of that which a person carries as particularly valuable in his soul, his intelligence, being subject to personal immortality.
This was also taught by the Spanish-Moorish scholars, that man does not have a personal immortality. He lives on, but the most important thing about him - so the scholars said - is that he can develop intelligent knowledge during his life. But that does not go hand in hand with his nature. So you can't say that the intelligent being has a personal immortality. You see, that was, I would say, the furor of the struggle of the scholastics among the Dominicans, the furor to assert the personal immortality of man. At that time it could not appear otherwise than in such a way that these Dominicans asserted it: Man is personally immortal, and what Averroes teaches is heresy. We have to say that differently today. But at that time it is understandable that a person who did not accept personal immortality, like Averroes in Spain, was declared a heretic. Today we have to look at the matter according to reality. We must say: In the sense that man has become immortal according to his consciousness-soul, he has only attained this immortality - this continuing consciousness of personality - after he has passed through the gate of death, since the time when a consciousness-soul takes hold in the earth-man. So if you had asked Aristotle or Alexander what they thought about immortality, how would they have answered? Words do not matter, but if they had been asked and if they had answered in Christian terminology, they would have said: Our soul is taken up by Michael, and we live on in the community of Michael. - Or they would have expressed it cosmologically; precisely out of such a community as that of Alexander or Aristotle was, one would have said cosmologically, and one has also said it: The soul of man is intelligent on earth, but this intelligence is a drop out of the fullness of what Michael pours out like an intelligent rain that overflows men. And this rain emanates from the sun, the sun takes back into its own being the soul of man, and the soul of man, which exists between birth and death, radiates from the sun down to earth. Michael's rule would have been sought on the sun. This would have been the cosmological answer.
This came to Asia, came back from Asia and still flourished as a view of the Moors in Spain at the time when the scholastics advocated personal immortality. We need not say, as the scholastics said: It is an error - but we must say: the development of mankind has brought individual personal immortality, and it was in the scholasticism of the Dominicans that this personal immortality was first emphasized. - And an old truth, which was no longer true for that time with regard to the development of the human race, was put forward at the universities run by the Moors in Spain. Today we must not only be tolerant of those of the same time, we must also be tolerant of those who have propagated old teachings. This was not possible at that time; it is therefore important that we tell ourselves again and again: what was called personal immortality by the Dominican scholastics is actually only a truth since the soul of consciousness has slowly and gradually entered humanity.
You can also, I would like to say, describe it quite imaginatively. If a person dies today who really had the opportunity during his life on earth to imbue his soul with intelligence, with true intelligence, then he passes through the gate of death and looks back on his life on earth, which was there as an independent life on earth. In earlier centuries, after passing through the gate of death, man looked back on his earthly life, how the etheric body dissolves in the cosmos, how he then passes through the realm of the soul, how he lives through the events in retrograde form. Then he could say to himself: This is how Michael administers through the sun that which was mine. - That is the great difference. But one can only judge such a development if one looks behind the scenes of existence and looks at the spiritual behind the material. It is important to see the external events in humanity as they are shaped by the spiritual world.
Now you must once again put yourself in the place of all that I have said. Put yourself in the place of the fact that with the 9th century after Christ the crisis takes place: the cosmic intelligence descends among the people of earth. That is an objective fact, that is what is taking place. And now put yourself in the sphere of the sun, which Michael administered with his own in the way I have described, by perceiving the departure of the Christ from the sun and his transition to earth in the Mystery of Golgotha and by experiencing how the cosmic intelligence gradually descends more and more and becomes individual human knowledge. An important event that has made a deep impression on those who belong to Michael - I said “Michaelites” last time - an important event of a very outstanding kind was that which I have already characterized in earlier contexts as having taken place in the course of the development of civilization on earth. But now it must be characterized as it appears from the aspect of the Michaelites themselves from the sun, as one sees it from the perspective of looking down from the realm of Michael to the earth.
This important, significant event happened in the year 869, the eighth general ecumenical council in Constantinople, where it was dogmatically stated that the old view of the trichotomy - that man consists of body, soul and spirit - is heretical, that man only has body and soul, except that the soul has some spiritual qualities. While in the objective world intelligence was being transferred to the individual human being, on earth it was decreed - in such a decisive way that no one in European civilization could dare to contradict it - that the trichotomy was wrong, heretical. It was not allowed to speak of man having body, soul and spirit, but only of body and soul and to attribute spiritual qualities and powers to the soul. Thus something had happened on earth of which one could only say in the Michael realms: Now the conviction will enter the souls of men that the spiritual is a property of the soul, that the spiritual is not the divine that rules in the progress of human development. “Look down to the earth” - this is the language of Michael - “there the consciousness of the spirit disappears.” But, my dear friends, this dwindling of the consciousness of the spirit is precisely what we want to speak about today.
I have just said before that I have so far only characterized abstractly how the development of the Michael realm has taken place behind the scenes of earthly existence. I said that the cosmic intelligence had descended to the individual human beings. But that is only an abstraction, my dear friends. What is intelligence? Of course, one must not imagine, when one comes up into the higher realms, that one grasps intelligence there in the same way as one grasps trees and bushes here in the physical world. What is “intelligence”? Such generalities do not exist in reality, of course. Intelligence is the mutual rules of behavior of the higher hierarchies. What they do, how they behave towards each other, how they are towards each other, that is cosmic intelligence. And since we as human beings naturally have to consider the realm closest to us, cosmic intelligence becomes concrete for us: the sum of entities from the Angeloi hierarchy. When we speak in concrete terms, we cannot speak of a sum of intelligence, but of a sum of Angeloi; that is the reality. The fact that in the year 869 the Church Fathers discussed whether one should speak of spirit was the result of a number of Angeloi beings separating themselves from the Michael realm with which they had formerly been, and placing themselves under the view that they now had to deal only with the earth forces, that they had to carry out the guidance of men only from earth forces. So you see what an event this really is! Angeloi are those beings who guide human beings from earth life to earth life. The next beings, who are above us in the spiritual world, are the ones who guide us on the path through life between death and a new birth and in turn point us to earth life, who make the individual earth lives into a coherent chain of the total life of human beings. A number of angelic beings who have this task, who were formerly united with the Michael realm, went out, left the Michael realm. It was impossible for the fate of human beings to remain unaffected by such behavior. For who, of course, is initially involved in how karma develops, how earthly deeds, earthly thoughts, earthly feelings are processed between death and new birth? It is the Angeloi beings! When these angelic beings come to a completely different position in the cosmos, when they leave the solar realm, so to speak, and become terrestrial angels instead of celestial angels, what must happen? There is indeed a great mystery behind the outer facts of the whole development of Europe. Certain Angeloi have, however, remained in the Michael realm. In that great school of teaching at the beginning of the 15th century there were also such Angeloi beings who belonged to the people who were then in the Michael realm. All the souls of the people who lived in the realm of Michael, of whom I have spoken, included Angeloi beings who remained in the realm of Michael. But the others, they were the ones who went out, who identified themselves with that which was earth being.
Now you will say: Yes, how is it that it suddenly occurs to a number of Michael angels to leave this Michael realm? The others do not think of leaving! - I must confess that this is one of the most difficult questions that can be raised with regard to the recent development of humanity. Basically, it is a question that must stir all the inner forces of man when he deals with it. It is a question that is deeply and intimately connected with the whole of human life.
You see, there is indeed an underlying cosmic fact. You know from the lectures I have given here from this place: Everything that one addresses as a physical planet is a collection of spiritual entities. When you look up at a star, what appears physically is only the exterior; in reality you are dealing with an assembly of spiritual entities. Now there is a certain opposition - which has always existed since there has been an earth evolution - between the intelligences of all the planets and the solar intelligence. On the one side is the solar intelligence, on the other side are the planetary intelligences. And it was always the case that the solar intelligence was preferably under the rule of Michael, whereas the other planetary intelligences were under the other archangels. So we say (it is written on the blackboard):
Solar Intelligence
Michael
Planetary intelligences
Mercury: Raphael
Venus: Anael
Mars: Samael
Jupiter: Zachariel
Moon: Gabriel
Saturn: Oriphiel
But it has always been so, my dear friends, that one could not say that Michael alone administers the solar intelligence. But the whole cosmic intelligence is specified in solar intelligence and in the planetary intelligences: Mercury, Venus, Mars and so on. The cosmic intelligence is co-administered by the individual beings of the Archangeloi Hierarchy, but above all of them together Michael always reigns, so that the entire cosmic intelligence is administered by Michael. Of course, every human being was also formerly a human being when Michael administered the cosmic intelligence and when only one ray entered the individual human being, so that the human being could still feel himself to be a human being on earth and the individual human being was not merely the envelope of the general cosmic intelligence. But this stems from the sun; all human intelligence stems from Michael in the sun.
Only when these centuries came up, the 8th, 9th, 10th century, it just happened that the planetary intelligences took account of the fact that the earth had changed, that the sun had also changed. Yes, what is going on out there, what the astronomers describe, that is only the outside. You know: Every eleven years or so we have a sunspot period; the sun shines on the earth in such a way that certain places are dark, that certain places are spotted. It was not always like this. In very old times the sun shone down as a uniform disk, there were no sunspots. And after thousands and thousands of years the sun will have many more spots than it does today, it will become more and more spotted. This is always the outward manifestation of the fact that the Michael force, the cosmic force of intelligence, is diminishing more and more. In the increase of sunspots through cosmic development the sun's decay is revealed; the sun's becoming duller, its ageing in the cosmos becomes more and more apparent. And when a sufficient number of sunspots appeared, the other planetary intelligences recognized that they no longer wanted to be ruled by the sun. They decided that the earth would no longer be dependent on the sun, but directly on the entire cosmos. This happens through the planetary councils of the Archangeloi. Under the leadership of Oriphiel in particular, this emancipation of the planetary intelligence from the solar intelligence is taking place. It was a complete separation of world powers that had previously belonged together. The solar intelligence of Michael and the planetary intelligences gradually came into cosmic opposition to each other.
Yes, even if we ascribe to the Beings of the Hierarchy of the Angeloi a completely different kind of soul power, the constitution of the inner being - we must also ascribe to them decisions, considerations about what happens. We human beings do not decide otherwise than to look at the things that happen externally, to let the facts speak for themselves, and to do this or that under the influence of the facts. It is only that between birth and death the earth facts are decisive for us. For the Beings of the Hierarchy of the Angeloi such facts are decisive as these, that there is a division taking place in planetary life. One group turned to the earth intelligence and thus at the same time to the planetary intelligence; the other group remained faithful to the Michael sphere in order to carry into all the future that which Michael administers as the eternal. Now this is something decisive, whether Michael is able to carry into all the future that which is eternal in his work, now that all power is among men, when that which appears in the physical sun becomes darker and gradually disappears.
So we see, caused by cosmic events, a division among the Angeloi who were formerly united with Michael. But these beings form the karmic development. And now consider the whole thing as it takes place in the life between death and new birth. It is not the case that every human soul can walk alone, nor that every angel who guides human beings can walk alone, but that the hierarchy of angels works together. Karma is lived out in cooperation. Of course, if I am connected with people in one life on earth and we carry this out in the next life, then the angel of one person must come together with the angel of the other. There has to be an interaction, and in many cases this has happened. That is the tremendously shattering, I would like to say crushing, thing that is happening on earth in the Ecumenical Council of 869. It is the signal for something monstrous that is happening up there in the spiritual world. This is the shattering thing - if one maintains oneself completely, if one maintains oneself with the right use of cosmic intelligence in the face of such overpowering factual connections - the shatteringly significant thing that has already occurred and is occurring more and more: that the Angelos of one human soul, which was formerly karmically connected with another human soul, did not go together with the Angelos of this other human soul. One Angelos of two karmically connected human souls remained with Michael, the other went down to earth. What had to happen? In the period between the foundation of Christianity and the Age of Consciousness, which was preferably signalized by the 9th century, by the year 869, it had to happen that disorder came into the karma of men! This is one of the most significant words that can be uttered in relation to the more recent history of mankind. Disorder has come into the karma of recent humanity. In the following years on earth, not all experiences were placed correctly in the karma. And the chaos of recent history, which brings more and more social and other chaos, cultural chaos into recent history, which does not allow a goal to be reached, that is the disorder into which karma has been brought because a split occurred in the hierarchy of the Angeloi belonging to Michael.
And now we can express something that is connected with the karma of the Anthroposophical Society, which is of immense importance, which, I would like to say, only gives the right nuance. For everything that can ultimately be characterized on the basis of the circumstances does not exhaust what is going on behind the scenes in the spiritual realm. The thoughts one selects from earthly conditions are weak and feeble. After such preparations one must reach for that which characterizes the purely spiritual.
There one must say: Certainly, all that which has honestly brought souls together in the Anthroposophical Society through inner soul urge is naturally valid. But how is it that the forces are also present which really bring people together today under purely spiritual principles which are otherwise alien in today's world? Where do the forces of coming together lie? They lie in the fact that through the entry of the reign of Michael, through the Michaelic Age in which we live, with the penetration of Michael into the earthly reign, with the replacement of the reign of Gabriel by the reign of Michael, the power is brought in by Michael, which is again to bring the karma into order with those who have gone with him. So that we can say: What unites the members of the Anthroposophical Society? What unites them is that they should put their karma in order! When someone realizes in the course of his life that here or there he gets into relationships that do not conform to his inner urge, that perhaps in some way fall out of what is right harmony in man between good and evil - this on the one hand - and on the other hand there is always an urge in him to move forward with the anthroposophical: that is when man again strives back to karma, to real karma, to living out real karma. This is the cosmic ray that clearly pours forth for the cognizer through the anthroposophical movement: Restoration of the truth of karma. You see, much of what is the destiny of the individual in the Anthroposophical Society as well as the destiny of society as a whole is linked to this. Of course, because it all flows into each other.
Now we must consider the following: You see, the people who are connected with beings from the Angeloi hierarchy who have remained in the Michael realm, these people find it difficult to find forms of intelligence for what they are supposed to comprehend. They also strive to maintain their personal intelligence in such a way that it can be connected with the worship of Michael. Those souls of whom I have said that they took part in those preparations in the 15th and 19th centuries, come down to earth still clinging to Michael and his sphere in the deepest urge. Nevertheless, they are to receive the individual personal intelligence according to the developmental principles of humanity. This gives rise to discord, but a discord which must be resolved through spiritual development, through the coming together of individual activity with that which spiritual worlds bring down in the present age of intelligence. The others, whose angels fell away - which of course is connected with karma, for the angel falls away when it is connected with a human karma which is corresponding - the others take up personal intelligence as a matter of course, quite as a matter of course, but in return it also works automatically in them, it works through physicality. It works in such a way that these people think, think cleverly, but they are not committed to it. That was the great dispute that took place for a long time between the Dominicans and the Franciscans. The Dominicans could not develop the personal intelligence principle in any other way than in the greatest possible fidelity to the Michael sphere. The Franciscans, the followers of Duns Scotus - not of Scotus Erigena - became completely nominalists. They said: intelligence is only a sum of words. All the discussions that took place between people, all that is really the image of mighty battles that take place between one group of Angeloi and the other group of Angeloi.
You see, it is so that the beings from the hierarchy of the Angeloi, who have now united with the earth principle, have actually lived on earth since about the 9th, 10th century. And that again is the shocking thing, my dear friends: materialism is on the increase on earth, the most advanced, the most intelligent people are such that they deny the spiritual, that they begin to mock the fact that spiritual beings should be just as much in their environment as physical people. At this time when materialism is spreading, more and more angels are descending and living on earth. They join in. It is precisely they who, in certain times when human consciousness is clouded, incorporate themselves and work on earth. A large number of Angeloi beings hold themselves back, but those who are closest to the Ahrimanic powers according to their Angeloikarma do not hold themselves back, they incorporate themselves into people, submerge themselves in people at certain times.
Then that which I described in the previous lesson arises by saying: There is now such a person on earth, he has human talent, human intelligence, which he lives out, perhaps lives out brilliantly, but for a certain time, when his consciousness is clouded, an ahrimanic Angeloi intelligence takes its place in him. This phenomenon can then occur: There is a man, he appears as if he were an ordinary man, writing this or that out of his humanity. Now the Ahrimanic can approach man precisely through that which is received today in intelligent forms. One must assert one's personality if one is not to be flooded today by all that I have indicated in the course of these lectures. And that is why Ahriman can appear as a writer. He naturally makes use of an angelic being. He can write. And if we are now united under the sign of our Christmas conference, we should not remain silent about such things. That is why I would like to say the following.
You see, it was possible to take a different view of one of the most brilliant writers of recent times, one of the greatest writers, before his last works were published. When I wrote my book “Nietzsche, a fighter against his time”, the public had to deal with the dazzling writer who had raised human abilities to the highest level. Only then did people become familiar with what Nietzsche wrote during the period of his decline. Above all, there are two works, “Antichrist” and “Ecce homo”: these are two works written by Ahriman, not Nietzsche, but an Ahrimanic spirit, incorporated into Nietzsche. Ahriman first appeared on earth as a writer. He will continue this. Nietzsche was shattered by it. Think of the impulses one is confronted with when confronted with those ideas that lived in Nietzsche at the time when he wrote those brilliant but diabolical works out of that spirit, the works “Antichrist” and “Ecce homo” - intelligent works! I have spoken of the great, comprehensive intelligence of Ahriman. With regard to what is great, dazzling, one does not belittle a work by calling it Ahrimanic, as the simple-minded may think, who do not know what greatness can be in Ahriman. One does not blame, one does not praise, when one speaks of Ahriman; a great deal on earth depends on him. Whoever has bled - I mean it spiritually - as I bled when I first read Nietzsche's work “The Will to Power”, which was then published in such a way that people could not get a proper idea of it, and whoever at the same time can see into the realms which, since the reign of Michael has existed, since the eighties of the last century, who knows how this realm abuts quite directly on the physical realm, so that one can say that it is a realm similar to the realm that man goes through after death, who looks into it, how the efforts are in this direction, knows how they are impulsively expressed in something like “Ecce homo” and “Antichrist”. One need only think of the Ahrimanic remarks in “Antichrist”. I don't know whether the more recent editions contain the same passage. There is a passage where he writes about Jesus - I am not quoting verbatim - and says that Renan describes Jesus as a genius. Nietzsche does not regard him as a genius, he says: "Speaking with the rigor of a physiologist, a completely different word would be appropriate here... In my edition of Nietzsche's works there are three dots at this point, I don't know whether it is the same in more recent editions, in the manuscript it says “idiot”, written out in full. The fact that Jesus is called an “idiot” is the hand of Ahriman. And there are many other things of this kind. And who could believe that in Nietzsche, who at the same time as he was writing these things, had not in his soul an impulse to come to Catholicism - it went parallel, you must not forget that - who could believe that there is not a deep mystery hidden there? The “Antichrist” - with what words does he conclude? With the words - I can't quote them verbatim - "I want to write it on all the walls, and I have writing material with letters that glow far and wide, I want to write it on all the walls, what Christianity is: Christianity is the greatest curse of mankind! - So the book closes. There is a problem here. You have to see how this whole realm, separated from ours only by a thin wall, where all the spiritual battles took place at the end of the Kali Yuga - still protruding somewhat beyond the Kali Yuga - how this realm wants to enter the physical earth realm.
These are the things one must look at if one wants to understand how humanity can now actually relate to what must occur in civilization through the dawning of the Michael Age. In the Kali Yuga transition, in the transition from the dark to the light age, one must actually be in a spiritual-physical vividness if one wanted to characterize, as I did in the preface to my book “Mysticism in the Rise of Modern Spiritual Life”, the mood one must have towards the spiritual and the material. It is indeed the case that one would like to bring from everywhere the possibilities to characterize this grandiose transition that is taking place as the dawn of the Michael age. And with everything that the anthroposophical movement is, one must feel oneself in it. For all this grandeur, this greatness, is initially expressed in human karma, which has already become disordered. When one thinks how general truth lies in the karmic connections, and how the world is such that even in these general karmic connections the exceptions have been able to intervene through the centuries, and how the demand arises to bring cosmic exceptions back into their rules: then one will feel something - because this is the task, the mission of the anthroposophical movement - of the great significance and scope of the anthroposophical movement.
This, my dear friends, should rest in your souls when you say to yourselves: those who today feel the urge to enter the anthroposophical life out of such discernment, they will be called again with the passing of the 20th century to achieve the greatest possible expansion of the anthroposophical movement at the culmination point. But this can only happen if these things can live in us, if the view of that which projects cosmic-spiritually into the earthly-physical can live, if the realization of the significance of Michael projects even into the earthly intelligence, into the view of human beings.
This impulse must be the soul of anthroposophical striving; the soul itself must want to stand within the anthroposophical movement. In this way we shall find the possibility of not only preserving thoughts of great significance for some time in our souls, but of bringing them to life; so that through these thoughts the souls may further form themselves in an anthroposophical way, so that the soul may in truth become what it is meant to be, through the unconscious urge to come to anthroposophy - so that the soul may be seized by the mission of anthroposophy. I have spoken these serious words to you in this last hour in order to allow this feeling of being seized to take effect in some peace. We will continue them when we meet again. When we meet again in the first days of September, we will continue these reflections. In the meantime, I would like to lay on all your hearts precisely what I had to speak this evening in connection with the karma of the individual Anthroposophists and the Anthroposophical Society.