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Karmic Relationships VIII
GA 240

27 August 1924, London

Lecture VI

If we look back over the evolution of mankind since the Mystery of Golgotha, we get the impression that Christianity, the Christ Impulse, has only been able to live on within the European and American civilisations in the face of definite obstacles and in association with other streams of spiritual life. And a study of the growth and gradual development of Christianity reveals many remarkable facts.

To-day I want to describe in broad outlines the growth and development of Christianity in connection with what ought to live within the Anthroposophical Society: and not only ought to, but can live, because those persons who feel an honest and sincere urge towards Anthroposophy, have this urge from the very depths of their being.

If we take the facts of repeated earthly lives in all seriousness, we shall say: This inner urge to get away from the conceptions and habits of thought of those among whom life, education and social relationships have placed us, this urge that we feel to enter a stream of thought which really makes claims upon our life of soul, must have its origin in karma, in the karma coming from earlier lives on earth.

Now if we study the question of karma in connection with those personalities who find themselves together in the Anthroposophical Movement, it transpires that, without exception, before their present earthly life they have had one other important incarnation since the Mystery of Golgotha. They were already on earth once since the time of the Mystery of Golgotha and are now there for the second time since that Event.

And then the great question arises: How has the previous earthly life, with respect to the Mystery of Golgotha, worked upon these personalities who now, out of their karma, feel the urge to enter the Anthroposophical Movement?

Even from exoteric study we find that men standing as firmly within the stream of Christianity itself as St. Augustine, have said: “Christianity did not begin with Christ; there were Christians before Christ, only they were not so called.” This is what St. Augustine says.

Those who penetrate more deeply into the spiritual mysteries of human evolution and can study these spiritual mysteries with Initiation Science, will strongly confirm such a view as is expressed by St. Augustine, for it is a fact. But it becomes necessary, then, to know in what form that which through the Mystery of Golgotha became the historical Christ Impulse upon the earth, existed in earlier times.

To-day I can speak of this earlier form of Christianity by starting from impressions which came in a place not far distant from Torquay (where our Summer Course has been held), in Tintagel, whence proceeded the spiritual stream connected with King Arthur. It was possible to receive the impressions which can still come to-day at the spot where King Arthur's castle with its Round Table stood—impressions which come above all from the magnificent natural surroundings of this castle.

At this place where nothing but ruins remain of the old citadel of King Arthur, where we look back as if in memory across the centuries that have elapsed since the Arthur stream went out from thence, we realise how stone after stone has so crumbled away that there is hardly anything to be recognised of the old castles which once were inhabited by King Arthur and those around him. But when with the eye of spirit we look out from the place where the castle once stood, over the sea with its iridescent colours and breaking waves, the impression we get is that we are able at this place to penetrate deeply into the elemental secrets of nature and of the cosmos.

And if we look back with occult sight, if we can visualise the point of time which lies a few thousand years ago, when the Arthur stream had its beginning, then we see that those who lived on Arthur's Mount had, as is the case with all such occult centres, chosen this spot because the impulses necessary for the tasks they had set themselves, for their mission in the world, needed the play of those forces which nature there displayed before them.

I cannot say whether it is always so, but when I saw the view there was a most wonderful play of waves surging and rippling up from the depths—in itself one of the most beautiful sights in all nature. These waves hurl themselves against the walls of rock and as they fall back again in seething foam the elementary spirits are able to rise up from below and come to living expression. From above, the sunlight is reflected in manifold forms in the waves of the air. This interplay of elemental nature from above and from below reveals the full power of the Sun and displays it in such a way that man is able to receive it into his being. Those who can imbibe what is given by this interplay of the beings born of the light above and the beings born in the depths below, receive the power of the Sun, the impulse of the Sun. It is a moment in which man can unfold what I will call “piety”—piety in the pagan sense. Christian piety is not the same as pagan piety which means inner surrender to the gods of nature working and weaving everywhere in the play of nature.

Those who lived around King Arthur absorbed this play of weaving, working nature into their very being. And most significant of all was what they were able to receive in the first centuries after the Mystery of Golgotha.

I want to tell you to-day about the character of this spiritual life that was connected with such centres as that of King Arthur's Round Table. And I must begin by speaking of something that is known to you all.

When a human being dies, he leaves his physical body and still has his etheric body around him for a few days. After these few days have elapsed he lays aside his etheric body and lives on then in his astral body and Ego. What happens thus to the man who has passed through the gate of death, appears to the eye of vision as if the etheric being were dissolving. After death the etheric human being expands and expands, his actual form becoming more and more indefinite as he weaves himself into the cosmos.

A remarkable phenomenon, and the exact opposite of this other, occurred in the world-historic sense when the Mystery of Golgotha took place. What was it that happened then? Up to that time Christ had been a Sun Being, had belonged to the Sun. Before the Mystery of Golgotha had come to pass, the Knights of King Arthur's Round Table stood on these rocks, gazed at the play between the Sun-born spirits and the Earth-born spirits, and felt that the forces living in this play of nature-spirits poured into their hearts and above all through their etheric bodies. Therewith they received into themselves the Christ Impulse which was then streaming away from the Sun and was living in everything that is brought into being by the Sun-forces.

And so, before the Mystery of Golgotha, the Knights of King Arthur received into themselves the Sun-Spirit, that is to say, the Christ as He was in pre-Christian times. And they sent their messengers out into all Europe to subdue the wild savagery of the astral bodies of the peoples of Europe, to purify and to civilise, for such was their mission. We see such men as these Knights of King Arthur's Round Table starting from this point in the West of England to bear to the peoples of Europe as they were at that time, what they had received from the Sun, purifying the astral forces of the then barbarous European population—barbarous at all events in Central and Northern Europe.

Then came the Mystery of Golgotha. What happened in Asia? Over yonder in Asia, the sublime Sun Being, Who was later known as the Christ, left the Sun. This betokened a kind of death for the Christ Being. He went forth from the Sun as we human beings go forth from the earth when we die. And as a man who dies leaves his physical body behind on the earth and his etheric body which is laid aside after three days is visible to the seer, so Christ left behind Him in the Sun that which in my book Theosophy is called “Spirit-Man,” the seventh member of the human being.

Christ died to the Sun. He died cosmically, from the Sun to the earth. He came down to the earth. From the moment of Golgotha onwards His Life-Spirit was to be seen around the earth. We ourselves leave behind at death the Life-Ether, the etheric body, the life-body. After this cosmic Death, Christ left His Spirit-Man on the Sun, and around the earth, His Life-Spirit. So that after the Mystery of Golgotha the earth was swathed as it were by the Life-Spirit of the Christ.

Now the connections between places are not the same in the spiritual life as they are in physical life. The Life-Spirit of the Christ was perceived in the Irish Mysteries, in the Mysteries of Hibernia; and above all by the Knights of King Arthur's Round Table. So, up to the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, the Christ Impulse belonging to the Sun actually went out from this place where the impulses were received from the Sun. Afterwards the power of the Knights diminished but they lived at the time within this Life-Spirit which encircled the earth and in which there was this constant interplay of light and air, of the Spirits in the Elements from above and from below.

Try to picture to yourselves the cliff with King Arthur's castle upon it and from above the Sun-forces playing down in the light and air, and pouring upwards from below the elementary beings of the earth. There is a living interplay between Sun and earth.

In the centuries which followed the Mystery of Golgotha this all took place within the Life-Spirit of the Christ. So that in the play of nature between sea and rock, air and light, there was revealed, as it were in spiritual light, the Event of Golgotha.

Understand me rightly, my dear friends. If in the first five centuries of our era men looked out over the sea, and had been prepared by the exercises practised by the twelve who were around King Arthur and who were concerned above all with the Mysteries of the Zodiac, if they looked out over the sea they could see not merely the play of nature but they could begin to read a meaning in it just as one reads a book instead of merely staring at it. And as they looked and saw, here a gleam of light, there a curling wave, here the sun mirrored on a rocky cliff, there the sea dashing against the rocks, it all became a flowing, weaving picture—a truth whose meaning could be deciphered. And when they deciphered it they knew of the spiritual Fact of the Mystery of Golgotha. The Mystery of Golgotha was revealed to them because the picture was all irradiated by the Life-Spirit of Christ presented to them by nature.

Yonder in Asia the Mystery of Golgotha had taken place and its impulse had penetrated deeply into the hearts and souls of men. We need only think of those who became the first Christians to realise what a change had come about in their souls. While all this of which I have been telling you was happening in the West, the Christ Himself, the Christ Who had come down to earth leaving His Spirit-Man on the Sun and His Life-Spirit in the atmosphere around the earth, bringing down His Ego and His Spirit-Self to the earth—the Christ was moving from East to West in the hearts of men, through Greece, Northern Africa, Italy, Spain, across Europe. The Christ worked here in the hearts of men, while over in the West He was working through nature.

And so on the one hand we have the story of the Mystery of Golgotha, legible in the Book of Nature for those who were able to read it, working from West to East. It represented, as it were, the science of the higher graduates of King Arthur's Round Table. And on the other hand we have a stream flowing from East to West, not in wind and wave, in air and water, not over hills or in the rays of the Sun, but flowing through the blood, laying hold of the hearts of men on its course from Palestine through Greece into Italy and Spain.

The one stream flows through nature; the other through the blood and the hearts of men. These two streams flow to meet one another. The pagan stream is still working, even to-day. It bears the pre-Christian Christ, the Christ Who was proclaimed as a Sun Being by those who were Knights of the Round Table, but also by many others before the Mystery of Golgotha actually took place. The pre-Christian Christ was carried through the world by this stream even in the age of the Mystery of Golgotha. And a great deal of this wisdom was carried forth into the world by the stream known as that of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It is possible, even to-day, to discover these things. There is a pagan Christianity, a Christianity that is not directly bound up with the actual historical Event of Golgotha.

And coming upwards to meet this stream there is the form of Christianity that is connected directly with the Mystery of Golgotha, flowing through the blood, through the hearts and souls of men. Two streams come to meet one another—the pre-Christian Christ stream, etherealised as it were, and the Christian Christ stream. The one is known, subsequently, as the Arthur stream; the other as the Grail stream. Later on they came together; they came together in Europe, above all in the spiritual world.

How can we describe this movement? The Christ Who descended through the Mystery of Golgotha drew into the hearts of men. In the hearts of men He passed from East to West, from Palestine, through Greece, across Italy and Spain. The Christianity of the Grail spread through the blood and the hearts of men. The Christ took His way from East to West.

And to meet Him from the West there came the spiritual etheric Image of the Christ—the Image evoked by the Mystery of Golgotha, but still picturing the Christ of the Sun Mysteries.

Behind the scenes of world-history, sublime and wonderful events were taking place. From the West came pagan Christianity, the Arthur-Christianity, also under other names and in another form. From the East came the Christ in the hearts of men. And then the meeting takes place—the meeting between the Christ Who had Himself come down to earth and His Own Image which is brought to Him from West to East. This meeting took place in the year 869 A.D. Up to that year we have two streams, clearly distinct from one another. The one stream, more in the North, passed across Central Europe and bore the Christ as a Sun Hero, whether the name were Baldur or some other. And under the banner of Christ, the Sun Hero, the Knights of Arthur spread their culture abroad.

The other stream, rooted inwardly in the hearts of men, which later on became the Grail stream, is to be perceived more in the South, coming from the East. It bears the real Christ, Christ Himself. The other stream brings to meet it from the West a cosmic Image of the Christ. This meeting of Christ with Himself, of Christ the Brother of Humanity with Christ the Sun Hero Who is there only as it were in an Image—this meeting of Christ with His own Image took place in the 9th century.

I have given you here, my dear friends, an idea of the inner happenings during the first centuries after the Mystery of Golgotha, when, as I have already said, the souls were living who are now again upon earth, and who have carried with them from their previous earthly lives the urge to come in sincerity into the Anthroposophical Movement.2See: Karmic Relationships, Vol. III.

When we consider this significant Arthur stream from West to East, it appears to us as the stream which brings the Impulse of the Sun into earthly civilisation. In this Arthur stream is working and weaving the Michael stream as we may call it in Christian terminology, the stream in the spiritual life of humanity in which we have been living since the end of the seventies of last century. The Ruling Power, known by the name of Gabriel, who had held sway for three or four centuries in European civilisation, was succeeded at the end of the seventies of last century by Michael. And the Rulership of Michael will last for three to four centuries, weaving and working in the spiritual life of mankind. And so we have good cause at the present time to speak of the Michael streams, for we ourselves are living once again in an Age of Michael.

We find one of these Michael streams if we look back to the period immediately preceding that of the Mystery of Golgotha, to the Arthur Impulse going out from the West, from England, an Impulse which was kindled originally by the Hibernian Mysteries. And we find a still more ancient form of this Michael stream if we look back to what happened centuries before the Mystery of Golgotha, when, taking its start from Northern Greece, in Macedonia, the international, cosmopolitan stream connected with the name of Alexander the Great arose under the influence of the conception of the world that is known as the Aristotelian. What was achieved through Aristotle and Alexander in that pre-Christian age took place under the Rulership of Michael, just as now once again we are living under his Rulership. The Michael Impulse was there in the spiritual life at the time of Alexander the Great, just as it is there now, in our own time. Whenever a Michael Impulse is at work in humanity upon the earth it is always a time when that which has been founded in a centre of spiritual culture spreads abroad among many peoples of the earth and is carried into many regions, wherever it is possible to carry it.

This came to pass in pre-Christian times through the campaigns of Alexander. The achievements of Greek culture were spread among men wherever this became possible. If one had asked Alexander and Aristotle: Whence comes your impulse to spread abroad the spiritual culture of your age?—they would have spoken, though under a different name, of that same Being, Michael, who works from the Sun as the Servant of Christ. For among the Archangels who in turn rule over civilisation, Michael belongs to the Sun. Michael was Ruler in the time of Alexander and is Ruler again in our own time. The next Ruling Archangel was Oriphiel, who belongs to Saturn. His successor, the Archangel Anael, belongs to Venus. While Zachariel, the Archangel who ruled civilisation in the 4th and 5th centuries, belongs to the sphere of Jupiter. Then came Raphael, from the Mercury sphere, at the time when a form of thought connected with medicine and healing lived in the background of European civilisation. After Raphael came Samael, whose Rulership extended a little beyond the 12th century. And then came the Age of Gabriel. Samael belongs to Mars, Gabriel to the Moon. And Gabriel was once again succeeded by Michael, who belongs to the Sun sphere, in the seventies of the 19th century. Thus in rhythmic succession these seven Beings of the Hierarchy of the Archangels rule over the spiritual life of the earth.

And so as we look back—when was the last Rulership of Michael? It was in the Alexander period. It prevailed during that period when Greek civilisation was carried across to Asia and Africa, and finally concentrated in the great and influential city of Alexandria with its mighty heroes of the spiritual life.

It is a strange vista that presents itself to occult sight. In the age which lies a few centuries before the Mystery of Golgotha, we see, going Eastwards from Macedonia—that is to say, once more from West to East but this time farther to the East—we see the same stream which proceeds from the English and Irish souls in the West and which also flows from West to East. During the Alexander period, Michael was the Ruling Archangel on the earth. During the Arthur period, when Michael was working from the Sun, the influences I have described were sent down from the Sun. But what happened later on, after the Mystery of Golgotha had taken place? What happened to the kind of thought that had been carried by Alexander the Great over to Asia?

At the time when Charlemagne, in his own way, was establishing a certain form of Christian culture in Europe, Haroun al Raschid was living over yonder in Asia Minor. All the oriental wisdom and spirituality to be found at that time in architecture, in art, in science, in religion, in literature, in poetry—it was all gathered at the Court of Haroun al Raschid. And at his side there was a Counsellor, a man who was not initiated in all these arts and sciences at that time, but who had been an Initiate in earlier times, in a former life. Around these two men, Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor, we find that all the wisdom which had been carried by Alexander into Asia, all the teachings which had been drawn from the old nature-wisdom and were imparted by Aristotle to those he was able to instruct—all this was changed. Alexandrianism and Aristotelianism were permeated and impregnated at the Court of Haroun al Raschid with Arabism, with Mohammedanism.

And then, all the learning thus permeated with Arabism was carried over into the stream of Christianity by way of Greece, but especially by way of Northern Africa, Italy and Spain. It was carried over, inculcated as it were into the world of Christendom.

But before this, Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor had passed through the gate of death, and from that life which leads from death to a new birth they looked down on what was taking place on earth in the expeditions of the Mohammedan Moors to Spain. From the spiritual world they watched the form of culture which they themselves had promoted and which had been spread by their successors. Haroun al Raschid concentrated his attention from the spiritual world more on the regions of Greece, Italy and Spain; his Counsellor more on the stream going out from the East across the regions to the North of the Black Sea, through Russia and into Central Europe.

And now the question arises: What was the destiny of Alexander and Aristotle themselves? They were deeply bound up with the Rulership of Michael but they were not incarnated on the earth at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha.

We must try to get a clear conception of the two contrasting pictures. On the earth are those who were contemporaries of the Mystery of Golgotha. Christ comes down through the Mystery of Golgotha, becomes Man, and from then on lives in the earth-sphere. And what is happening on the Sun? On the Sun there are the souls who at that time belonged to Michael, who were living in his sphere. These souls witnessed, from the Sun, the departure of Christ from the Sun and His descent to earth. On the earth there were those who witnessed His arrival. That is the difference. The experience of those who were on earth during the Michael Rulership at the time of Alexander, was that they saw as it were the other direction of the Christ Event, namely, the departure of the Christ from the Sun. They live on—I will not now mention unimportant incarnations—and they experience, in the spiritual world, that significant point of time in the 9th century, about the year 869, when there took place the meeting of the Christ with His own Image, with His own Life-Spirit brought over from pagan, pre-Christian Christianity.

Another meeting also took place in the spiritual world, a meeting of the individualities living in Alexander the Great and in Aristotle with the individualities who had lived in Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor. The wisdom from Asia, in a Mohammedanised form, living in Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor after their death, came into contact, in the spiritual world, with Alexander and Aristotle. On the one side Aristotelianism and Alexandrianism, but impregnated with Mohammedanism, and on the other, the real Aristotle and the real Alexander—not a weakened form of their teachings. Alexander and Aristotle had witnessed the Mystery of Golgotha from the Sun.

Then a great spiritual exchange, a great heavenly Council, if one may call it so, took place in the spiritual world between Mohammedanised Aristotelianism and Christianised Aristotelianism which had, however, been imbued in the spiritual world with the Christian Impulse.

In the spiritual world which borders on our physical earth—it was here that Alexander and Aristotle met with Haroun al Raschid and his Counsellor and consulted together as to the further progress of Christianity in Europe, with an eye to what should come at the end of the 19th century and in the 20th century, when Michael would again have the Rulership on earth. This all took place in the light raying from that other event, namely, the meeting of Christ with His own Image. That heavenly Council was permeated by the influence of this meeting. And the lines, the threads of the spiritual life of humanity were projected with great intensity in the spiritual world which borders on the physical earth.

Below, on the earth itself, the Church Fathers gathered together in Constantinople at the Eighth Ecumenical Council, where they formulated the dogma that man does not consist of body, soul and Spirit, but only of body and soul, the soul possessing certain spiritual attributes. Trichotomy—the definition of man as body, soul and Spirit—was done away with and anyone who persisted in believing it was declared to be a heretic. The Christian Fathers in Europe never spoke of body, soul and Spirit, but only of body and soul.

The decisive event which took place in the year 869 in the super-sensible worlds as I have described it, cast its shadows down into the earthly world. The Dark Age, the Kali Yuga, received a special impetus, while what I have just described was taking place above, in the spiritual world.

Such was the real course of events. In the physical world the Council of Constantinople which eliminated the Spirit, and in the world immediately bordering on the physical, a heavenly Council such as I have described—coinciding with the meeting of Christ Himself with His own Image.

But it was known that it was a question of waiting until the new Michael Age had dawned on earth. There were, none the less, always a few Teachers who knew, even though in a somewhat decadent way, something of what takes place behind the veils of existence. There were always Teachers who knew how to present, if not always in very apt pictures, the spiritual content of the world, who could speak of what was happening in the spiritual world that is so near to the earth. And here and there these Teachers found ears willing to listen to them. Their listeners were men who learned something of true Christianity by catching here and there fragmentary words as to what would come in the 20th century after the Michael Rulership had begun once again.

In you yourselves, my dear friends, are the souls who were in incarnation at that time and listened to those who spoke of the coming Age of Michael and whose speech was influenced by impulses coming down from the heavenly Council of which I have told you.

From these experiences of a previous life in the early Christian centuries—not precisely the 9th century but before and after, chiefly before—arose the subconscious urge, when the Michael Rulership should be there once more, from the end of the 19th century onwards, to look for centres where the spiritual life is again cultivated under the influence of Michael. This impulse was rooted in the souls of those who had once heard of the teachings, who knew something of the mysteries of which we have spoken to-day.

And so the karmic urge lives in souls to find their way to that form of Christianity which was to be spread by Anthroposophy under the influence of Michael at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. What these souls had experienced in earlier times expresses itself in this incarnation in the fact that certain of them find their way to the Anthroposophical Movement.

Knowledge resulting from a converging of old pre-Christian, cosmic Christianity with inward Christian doctrines, teachings which were connected with the spiritual workings of nature and yet also with the Mystery of Golgotha, continued to be taught on earth at the time when those souls who now in this later incarnation feel themselves drawn to Anthroposophy had passed through the gates of death and were living in the spiritual world between death and a new birth. Some of them indeed came down to incarnation on the earth. The ancient teachings, with their cosmic view of Christianity, lived on, propagating traditions of the Mysteries of antiquity. This knowledge lived on in Schools in Europe like that of Chartres in the 12th century, with its great Teachers—Bernardus Sylvestris, Alanus ab Insulis and others. And the teachings lived and worked too in the great teacher of Dante, Brunetto Latini, of whom I spoke to you in the last lecture. In this way we see how there is a continuation of the knowledge in which there was still connection between cosmic Christianity and the purely human, earthly Christianity which more and more gained the supremacy on earth.

The Council held in Constantinople was an earthly, shadow-image of something that took place in the spiritual world. A constant connection was maintained between what was proceeding in the physical world and in the immediately adjacent spiritual world. And because of this, the most illustrious Teachers of Chartres felt themselves inspired by the true Alexander and the true Aristotle, although in a still stronger way by Plato and by the Platonic and Neo-Platonic thought which prevailed in the mysticism of the Middle Ages.

Something of great significance now took place. Those who had grouped themselves around Michael, and who had for the most part been incarnated at the time of Alexander, were now living in the spiritual world. Looking down from thence they saw how Christianity was evolving under the Teachers of Chartres. But they waited until these Teachers—who were the last who taught of Christianity in its cosmic aspect—they waited until these Teachers of Chartres had come up into the spiritual world. And at a certain point of time, at the end of the 12th and beginning of the 13th centuries, there gathered together in the spiritual sphere bordering on cur earth, the more definitely Platonic Teachers of Chartres and those who had in some way taken part in the heavenly Council in the year 869. There took place—if I may use trivial words of earth to describe such a sublime event—a kind of conference between the Teachers of Chartres who had just ascended into the spiritual world and were now to continue their existence there, and those who were on the point of descending to earth, among them the individualities of Alexander and Aristotle, who immediately afterwards incarnated in the Dominican Order. And then, in a body of teaching that is so misunderstood to-day but the deep significance of which ought to be realised, in Scholasticism, preparation was made for all that was to come later on in the next Age of Michael.

And now, in order that they might enter right into the heart of Christianity, the souls who belonged to the sphere of Michael, who had lived in the old Alexander time, who had not lived on earth during the first Christian centuries, or at least only in unimportant incarnations—these souls now came into incarnation in order to imbibe Christianity in the Dominican or other Orders, but mainly in the Dominican Order. Again they passed through the gate of death and continued their existence in the spiritual world.

In the 15th century and lasting on into the 16th—and it must be remembered that time-relationships are quite different in the spiritual world—there took place in the super-sensible world the great process of instruction instituted by Michael himself for those who belonged to him. A great super-sensible School was founded, a School in which Michael himself was the Teacher and in which those souls took part who had been inspired by the impulses of the Alexander Age and had later steeped themselves in Christianity in the manner described. All the discarnate souls who belonged to Michael took part in this great School in the super-sensible world during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. All the Beings of the Hierarchy of Angels, Archangels and Archai who belonged to the Michael stream, as well as many elementary beings, also took part in it.

In this super-sensible School, a wonderful review was given of the wisdom of the ancient Mysteries. Detailed knowledge in regard to the ancient Mysteries was imparted to the souls partaking in this School. They looked back to the Sun Mysteries, to the Mysteries of the other planets. But a vista of the future was given too, a vista of what should begin at the end of the 19th century in the new Age of Michael. All this passed through these souls who now, in the present Michael Age, feel drawn to the Anthroposophical Movement.

Meanwhile, on earth, the last bout of the struggle was taking place. Haroun al Raschid had incarnated again as Lord Bacon of Verulam and in this new incarnation had set the impulse of materialism on foot. The universality in the teachings of Bacon, but also his materialism, came from his incarnation as Haroun al Raschid. Bacon was the reincarnated Haroun al Raschid. The Counsellor, who had taken the other path, incarnated in the same epoch, as Amos Comenius.

And so while Christianity illumined by Aristotelian and Alexandrian thought was going through its most important phase of development in the super-sensible worlds during the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th centuries—during this very same period we find materialism being established on earth in the minds of men, established in science by Bacon, the reincarnated Haroun al Raschid, and in the realm of education by Amos Comenius, the reincarnated Counsellor of Haroun al Raschid. The two souls worked together.

When Amos Comenius and Bacon had once again passed through the gate of death, a remarkable thing came to pass in the spiritual world. After Bacon had passed through the gate of death, it happened that because of the particular mode of thinking he had adopted in his incarnation as Bacon, a whole world of “idols,” demonic idols, went forth from his etheric body, and spread themselves out in the spiritual world which was peopled by those who were the pupils of Michael.

As I have shown in my first Mystery Play, things that happen on earth work powerfully into the spiritual world. Bacon's mode of thinking on the earth worked so shatteringly into the spiritual world that it was flooded by a whole host of “idols.”

And the materialistic form of educational science inaugurated by Amos Comenius provided the sphere, the cosmic atmosphere, as it were, for the idols of Bacon. Bacon provided the idols; and just as we human beings have around us the mineral and plant kingdoms, so these idols of Bacon were surrounded by other kingdoms which were necessary to their existence. And these were provided by what Amos Comenius had instituted on earth.

The individualities who had once lived on the earth as Alexander and Aristotle set themselves to fight these demonic idols. And the conflict continued until the time when the French Revolution broke out on the earth.

The idols, the demonic idols which it had not been possible to overcome, which had as it were escaped from the fight, descended to earth and became the inspiring forces of the materialism of the 19th century with its many consequences. These forces are the inspirers of the materialism of the 19th century.

The souls who had remained behind, who with the assistance of the individualities of Aristotle and Alexander had profited by the teaching of Michael, came back to earth, bearing the impulses I have described, towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. And many of these souls can be recognised in those who come to the Anthroposophical Movement. Such is the karma of those who come to the Movement with inner sincerity.

It is a shattering experience to hear of what is happening immediately behind the events in the outer world at the present time. But it is something which, under the impulse of the Christmas Foundation at the Goetheanum must be implanted in the hearts and souls of those who call themselves Anthroposophists. It must live in their hearts and souls, and it will give them the strength to work on, for those who are Anthroposophists to-day in the true sense will feel a strong urge to come down again to the earth very soon. And with a faculty of prophecy connected with the Michael Impulse, it can be foreseen that many anthroposophical souls will come again to the earth at the end of the 20th century in order to bring to full realisation the Anthroposophical Movement which must now be established on a firm and sure foundation.

Every Anthroposophist should be moved by this knowledge: “I have in me the impulse of Anthroposophy. I recognise it as the Michael Impulse. I wait and am strengthened in my waiting by true activity in Anthroposophy at the present time in order that after the short interval allotted in the 20th century to anthroposophical souls between death and a new birth, I may come again at the end of the century to promote the Movement with much more spiritual power. I am preparing for the new Age leading from the 20th into the 21st century” ... It is thus that a true Anthroposophist speaks. Many forces of destruction are at work upon the earth! All culture, all civilised life must fall into decadence if the spirituality of the Michael Impulse does not so lay hold of men that they are capable of bringing upliftment to the civilisation that is hurrying downhill.

If there are to be found truly anthroposophical souls, willing to bring this spirituality into earthly life, then there will be a movement leading upwards. If such souls are not found, decadence will continue to spread. The great War, with all its attendant evils, will be merely the beginning of still worse evils.

Human beings to-day are facing a great crisis. Either they must see civilisation going down into the abyss, or they must raise it by spirituality and promote it in the sense of the Michael Impulse.

That, my dear friends, is what I had to say to you on this occasion and my desire is that it shall work on and bear fruit in your souls. For as I have often said at the conclusion of a happy and satisfying visit, when we have worked together for a time, we know, as Anthroposophists, that it is our karma to have been able to do so. We know too that we still remain united, even when divided in physical space. We shall remain united in the signs that can reveal themselves to the eyes of spirit and to the ears of soul if what I have said in these lectures has been received in full earnestness and has been understood.

Dritter Vortrag

Zurückschauend auf die Entwickelung der Menschheit seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha, bekommen wir den Eindruck, daß das Christentum, der Christus-Impuls, sich nur gegen gewisse Widerstände und im Zusammenhange mit anderen Geistesströmungen innerhalb der europäischen, der amerikanischen Zivilisation einleben konnte. Und die Entfaltung, die allmähliche Entwickelung des Christentums bietet ja die merkwürdigsten Tatsachen dar.

Heute möchte ich diese Entwickelung des Christentums, indem ich sie mit ein paar Strichen streifen werde, im Zusammenhange mit demjenigen darstellen, was innerhalb der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft leben soll, was innerhalb der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft nicht nur leben soll, sondern leben kann, weil diejenigen Menschen, welche sich aus einem inneren ehrlichen Drange heraus zur Anthroposophie hingezogen fühlen, heute diesen Drang ja aus dem Innersten ihres Wesens heraus haben.

Wenn wir es nun ganz ernst nehmen mit der Tatsache der wiederholten Erdenleben, dann müssen wir uns sagen: Alles dasjenige, was einen solchen inneren Drang darstellt - den Drang, herauszugehen aus den Anschauungen, aus den Denkgewohnheiten derjenigen Bevölkerung, in die wir durch Leben, durch Erziehung, durch gesellschaftliche Verhältnisse sonst hineingestellt sind, und hinzugehen immerhin zu einer Weltanschauungsströmung, die einen mehr oder weniger in der Seele in Anspruch nimmt -, ein so verspürter Drang muß im Karma begründet sein, im Karma begründet sein aus früheren Erdenleben her.

Nun kann sich ergeben, gerade wenn man die Frage des Karma mit Bezug auf jene Persönlichkeiten ins Auge faßt, welche sich in der anthroposophischen Bewegung zusammenfinden, daß diese Persönlichkeiten eigentlich ausnahmslos vor ihrem gegenwärtigen Erdenleben ein anderes maßgebliches Erdenleben in der Zeit nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha hinter sich haben, so daß sie sozusagen schon einmal hineingestellt waren in die Zeit der Erdenmenschheitsentwickelung nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha, daß sie also ein zweites Mal seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha da sind.

Da entsteht denn die große Frage: wie hat das vorige Erdenleben auf diese Persönlichkeiten, die nun aus ihrem Karma heraus den Drang in die anthroposophische Bewegung verspüren, wie hat das vorige Erdenleben mit Rücksicht auf das Mysterium von Golgatha auf sie gewirkt?

Nun, schon äußerlich, exoterisch ergibt sich ja, daß selbst solche, ganz tief in der positiven christlichen Entwickelung drinnen stehende Menschen, wie der heilige Augustinus, Aussprüche wie diese getan haben: Das Christentum ist nicht erst seit Christus da, sondern es gab auch vor Christus Christen, nur nannte man sie noch nicht so. So sagt der heilige Augustinus.

Derjenige, der nun tiefer eindringt in die geistigen Geheimnisse der Menschheit, der die geistigen Geheimnisse der Menschheit studieren kann mit der Initiationswissenschaft, der muß aber eine solche Anschauung, wie sie bei Augustinus zutage tritt, im allertiefsten Sinne bekräftigen. Es ist so. Nur entsteht dann das tiefe Bedürfnis, erkennen zu lernen, wie das, was durch das Mysterium von Golgatha der historische Christus-Impuls auf der Erde geworden ist, vorher gelebt hat.

Nun kann ich heute, ich möchte sagen, einleitend auf diese vorherige Gestalt des Christentums dadurch hinweisen, daß ich von Eindrücken ausgehe, die in der Nähe des Ortes unseres Sommerkurses in Torquay zu erhalten waren, an der Stätte, wo die Geistesströmung des Königs Artus ausgegangen war, in Tintagel. Es war uns ja möglich, die Eindrücke, die heute noch an jener Stelle, wo einstmals das Schloß der Artusschen Tafelrunde war, die Eindrücke, welche heute noch dort, namentlich von der dieses Schloß umgebenden großartigen Natur gewonnen werden können, anzuschauen.

Da ergibt sich ja, daß an jener Stätte, wo nur noch Trümmer der alten Artusburg vorhanden sind, man da schaut, gleichsam im Gedanken erschaut, wie durch die Jahrhunderte, seitdem die Artusströmung von dort ausgegangen ist, Stein um Stein abgebröckelt ist, so daß jetzt kaum mehr viel zu erkennen ist von den alten Burgen, die da von König Artus und den Seinen bewohnt worden sind. Aber wenn man mit dem geistigen Auge hinausschaut von jenem Platze aus, wo die Burg gestanden hat, hinausblickt auf das Meer, das sich farbenschillernd und anbrandend so darbietet, wenn man da hinausschaut - hier ein Bergkogel auf der einen Seite, hier das Meer -—, dann bekommt man den Eindruck, daß der Mensch dort in der Lage ist, das elementarische Wesen der Natur und des Kosmos in einem ganz besonders tiefen Sinne in sich aufzunehmen. Und schaut man dann mit dem okkulten Blicke zurück, vergegenwärtigt man sich denjenigen Zeitpunkt, der ja wenige Jahrtausende zurückliegt, in dem die Artusströmung zunächst begonnen hat, dann sieht man: die Menschen, die dort lebten auf der Artusburg — wie es mit allen diesen okkulten Stätten der Fall ist -, hatten sich diesen Punkt ausersehen, weil ihnen nötig war für die Impulse, die sie brauchten, für die Aufgabe, die sie sich gestellt hatten, für alles, was sie in der Welt tun sollten, dasjenige, was sich da vor ihnen in der Natur abspielte.

Nun ist es ja- ich kann heute nicht sagen, ob es immer so ist, aber in denjenigen Augenblicken, wo ich das sah, stellte sich die Sache so dar -, ein hinreißend schönes Spiel der aus der Tiefe auftreibenden Meereswogen, deren wunderbares Kräuseln ohnedies ja schon eines der großartigsten Naturspiele ist, es ist das von den Felswänden abstoßende und wiederum zurückbrandende Treiben der Meereswogen, das von unten die elementarischen Geister aufsprießen und sich ausleben läßt, von oben herunter der Sonnenschein, der in den Luftwellen in der mannigfaltigsten Weise sich spiegelt, es ist dies, ich möchte sagen, ein Moment, in dem man dasjenige entwickeln kann, was ich nennen möchte: in heidnischer Art fromm werden. Dies Zusammenspiel von Elementarischem von oben, von Elementarischem von unten zeigt die ganze Sonnenkraft, breitet diese Sonnenkraft vor den Menschen so aus, daß der Mensch sie empfangen kann. Und derjenige, der aufnehmen kann das, was da die lichtgeborenen Elementarwesen von oben, die schweregeborenen Elementarwesen von unten in ihrem Zusammenspiel treiben, wer das in sich aufnehmen kann, der nimmt eben die Sonnenkraft auf, den Sonnenimpuls. Es ist etwas anderes, als in christlicher Art fromm werden. In heidnischer Art fromm werden, das heißt: hingegeben sein an die Götter der Natur, die überall im Wesen und Weben der Natur spielen und kraften und wirken und weben.

Und dieses ganze Naturwirken und -weben, das haben offenbar diejenigen aufgenommen, die mit und um den König Artus waren. Und das Bedeutsame ist das, was jene Menschen aufnehmen konnten, die in den ersten Jahrhunderten nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha um den König Artus waren.

Nun möchte ich Ihnen heute, meine lieben Freunde, entwickeln, wie dieses besondere Geistesleben an solchen Stellen war, wie die der Artusschen Tafelrunde. Ich muß da ausgehen von einer Erscheinung, die Sie alle kennen.

Wenn der Mensch stirbt, läßt er zunächst seinen physischen Leib hinter sich, und er trägt noch einige Tage seinen Ätherleib an sich. Nach einigen Tagen legt er den Ätherleib ab, lebt im astralischen Leib und im Ich weiter. Was sich da mit dem Menschen, der durch des Todes Pforte gegangen ist, abspielt, das stellt sich dem schauenden Blicke so dar, daß man den Menschen sich ätherisch auflösen sieht nach dem Tode. Er wird immer größer und größer, aber auch immer undeutlicher und undeutlicher. Er webt sich in den Kosmos hinein.

Eine merkwürdige, polarisch entgegengesetzte Erscheinung spielte sich weltgeschichtlich ab in Anknüpfung an das Mysterium von Golgatha. Was geschah denn dazumal, als das Mysterium von Golgatha geschah? Der Christus war bis dahin Sonnenwesen, gehörte der Sonne an. Bevor nun das Mysterium von Golgatha sich abspielte, standen die Ritter von Artus’ Tafelrunde oben auf ihren Felsenbergen, schauten hinaus in das Spiel der sonnengeborenen Geister und der erdgeborenen Geister und empfanden: dasjenige, was in dieser Kraft spielte, durchdrang ihr Herz, durchdrang aber vor allen Dingen ihren ätherischen Leib. Damit nahmen sie auf den Christus-Impuls, der dazumal von der Sonne wegströmte und in allem lebte, was von der Sonnenströmung bewirkt wird.

Also vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha, ausgehend von Artus’ Tafelrunde, nahmen die Ritter der Artusschen Tafelrunde den Sonnengeist, das heißt, den vorchristlichen Christus in ihr eigenes Wesen auf. Dann sandten sie ihre Sendlinge hinaus nach ganz Europa, um die Wildheit der astralischen Leiber der europäischen Bevölkerung zu bekämpfen, zu läutern, zu zivilisieren, denn das war ihre Aufgabe. Und wir sehen gerade solche Menschen, wie die Ritter der Artusschen Tafelrunde, ausgehend von diesem westlichen Punkte des heutigen England, wir sehen sie das, was sie von der Sonne bekommen, hintragen über die ganze europäische dazumalige Menschheit, läutern, reinigen die Astralitäten der damals sehr wilden europäischen, wenigstens in Mitteleuropa und in Nordeuropa sehr wilden europäischen Bevölkerung.

Dann aber kam das Mysterium von Golgatha. Was geschah in Asien? In Asien drüben geschah es nun weltgeschichtlich, daß jenes hohe Sonnenwesen, das man nachher als den Christus bezeichnete, die Sonne verließ. Das war eine Art Sterben für den Christus. Christus ging fort von der Sonne, wie wir Menschen im Sterben fortgehen von der Erde. Also Christus ging fort von der Sonne, wie ein Mensch, der stirbt, fortgeht von der Erde. Und wie bei einem Menschen, der stirbt, indem er von der Erde fortgeht, für den okkulten Beschauer der ätherische Leib schaubar ist, den er nach drei Tagen ablegt und er den physischen Leib zurückläßt, so ließ Christus in der Sonne zurück dasjenige, was Sie in meiner «Theosophie» beschrieben finden am Menschen als den Geistesmenschen, als das siebente Glied der menschlichen Wesenheit.

Christus «starb von der Sonne», er starb kosmisch von der Sonne zur Erde herab, er kam zur Erde herunter. Von dem Momente von Golgatha ab war auf der Erde zu schauen dasjenige, was sein Lebensgeist war. Wir lassen den Lebensäther, den Ätherleib, den Lebensleib zurück nach dem Tode; nach diesem kosmischen Tode ließ der Christus den Geistesmenschen auf der Sonne zurück, und im Umkreise der Erde den Lebensgeist. So daß vom Mysterium von Golgatha ab die Erde von dem Lebensgeiste Christi wie von einem Geistigen umweht war.

Aber nun sind physische Ortszusammenhänge für das geistige Leben ganz anders als für das physische Leben. Dieser Lebensgeist, der war vor allen Dingen schaubar von den irischen Mysterien, von den Mysterien von Hybernia aus und wurde schaubar vor allen Dingen für die Ritter der Tafelrunde des Königs Artus. So daß von dieser Stätte aus bis zum Mysterium von Golgatha der Christus-Impuls der Sonne in Wirklichkeit ging: da wurden sie von der Sonne her empfangen, die Impulse. Nachher wurde ja auch die Kraft der Artusritter geringer. Aber sie standen lebendig drinnen in dem Lebensgeiste, der mit kosmischer Konfiguration die Erde umwehte, in dem sie fortwährend lebten und in dem fortwährend drinnen spielte dieses Spiel von Licht und Luft, von den Elementarwesen von oben und von den Elementarwesen von unten.

Denken Sie sich: wenn man so hinschaut auf das Riff, wo oben die Artusburg ist, dann erschaut man, von oben herunter spielend die Sonne in Licht und Luft, von unten heraufspielend die Elementarwesen der Erde: oben Elementarwesen, unten Elementarwesen, Sonne und Erde in lebhafter Wechselwirkung.

Aber in den Jahrhunderten nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha spielte sich das alles ab im Lebensgeiste Christi. So daß wie in einem geistigen Schein, aber innerhalb von Naturtatsachen, in diesem Spiel von Meer und Felsen und Luft und Licht von jener Stätte aus zugleich die geistige Tatsache des Mysteriums von Golgatha drinnien spielte.

Verstehen Sie mich recht, meine lieben Freunde, Damals sah man hinaus in das Meer, und wenn man jene Exerzitien, die die Zwölfe um den König Artus machten, die sich anlehnten an die Mysterien des Tierkreises, des Zodiakus, hinter sich hatte, so sah man - im 1., 2., 3., 4., 5. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert - nicht bloß das Spiel der Natur, sondern es war so, wie wenn man anfangen könnte zu lesen, geradeso wie wenn man ein Buch vor sich hat, das man entweder anglotzen oder das man lesen kann: da glänzte ein Flämmchen auf, kräuselte sich eine Welle, spiegelte sich die Sonne an irgendeinem Felsriff, da ward das Meer an das Felsriff hinaufgeschlagen — das alles ist konfiguriert, das alles ist ein Fließendes, Strömendes, ein sich Kreisendes, ein Weisendes, eine Wahrheit, die man entziffern kann.

Entzifferte man es, so las man die geistige Tatsache des Mysteriums von Golgatha, weil alles das durchspielt wurde vom Lebensgeiste Christi.

Drüben in Asien hatte sich das Mysterium von Golgatha abgespielt, hatte die Seelen, die Herzen der Menschen ergriffen, hatte sich tief hineingelebt in die Seelen, in die Herzen der Menschen. Man muß nur einmal auf diejenigen hinschauen, die die ersten Christen waren, welche Umwandelung diese in ihren Seelen erlebt haben, man wird schon finden: In derselben Zeit, in der hier im Westen sich das abspielte, was ich eben beschrieben habe, drang dort der wirkliche Christus, der Christus, der heruntergestiegen war, der seinen Geistesmenschen oben auf der Sonne gelassen hatte, seinen Lebensgeist in der Atmosphäre der Erde hatte, der drang, indem er sein Ich heruntertrug — noch mit dem Geistselbst heruntertrug auf die Erde -, vom Osten nach Westen durch Griechenland, Nordafrika, Italien, Spanien herüber nach Europa durch die Herzen der Menschen in derselben Zeit, in der er hier durch die Natur drang.

So daß wir sehen: Hier von Westen nach Osten wirkend, innerhalb der Natur lesbar für denjenigen, der lesen kann, die Historie des Mysteriums von Golgatha gewissermaßen als die Naturwissenschaft der Höhergraduierten aus des Artus Tafelrunde; von Osten nach Westen eine Strömung — jetzt nicht in Wind und Wellen, nicht in Luft und Wasser, nicht über Berge und Sonnenstrahlen hin, sondern eine Strömung durch das Blut der Menschen, durch die Herzen der Menschen, das Blut der Menschen ergreifend -, von Palästina durch Griechenland bis nach Italien und Spanien hinein.

So daß wir sagen können: Auf der einen Seite geht es durch die Natur, auf der anderen Seite geht es durch das Blut, durch die Herzen der Menschen. Diese zwei Strömungen gehen einander entgegen: die eine, die noch in der Natur spielt, die bei der ganzen heidnischen Strömung noch heute ist, die trägt den vorchristlichen, den heidnischen Christus, den Christus, der als Sonnenwesen von solchen Menschen wie den Rittern der Tafelrunde, aber auch den vielen anderen, vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha verbreitet worden ist. Diese Strömung trägt den vorchristlichen Christus auch noch in der Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha durch die Welt. Und ein großer Teil derjenigen ist ja ausgegangen von der Strömung, die man zusammenfaßt unter dem Titel der Strömung aus des Artus Tafelrunde. Man kann heute noch auf diese Dinge kommen: da ist heidnisches Christentum, Christentum, das nicht anknüpft an das historische Ereignis von Golgatha.

Unten entgegenkommend ist das Christentum, das anknüpft an das Mysterium von Golgatha, das durch das Blut der Menschen, das durch die Herzen, die Seelen der Menschen geht. Zwei Strömungen, die einander entgegengehen: Die vorchristliche Christus-Strömung, ich möchte sagen, wie ätherisiert — die christliche Christus-Strömung. Die eine ist später eben bekanntgeworden als die Artusströmung; die andere ist bekanntgeworden als die Gralsströmung. Beide begegneten einander später. Und zwar begegneten sie einander innerhalb Europas und vor allen Dingen in der geistigen Welt.

Wie können wir diese Bewegung nennen? Der Christus, der herabgestiegen war durch das Mysterium von Golgatha, ist in die Herzen der Menschen eingezogen. In den Herzen der Menschen selber zog er von Osten nach Westen, von Palästina durch Griechenland, über Italien nach Spanien. Das Grals-Christentum, durch das Blut, durch die Herzen der Menschen breitete es sich aus. Der Christus unternahm seinen Zug von Osten nach Westen.

Entgegen kam das Geist-Ätherbild des Christus von Westen, bewirkt durch das Mysterium von Golgatha, aber in sich noch tragend Christus mit dem Sonnenmysterium.

Ein Großartiges, Wunderbares spielt sich hinter den Kulissen der Weltgeschichte ab. Von Westen herüber das heidnische Christentum, das Artus-Christentum, auch unter anderem Namen und in anderer Form auftretend; von Osten herüber der Christus in den Herzen der Menschen. Die Begegnung: Christus, der wirkliche, auf die Erde gekommene Christus. begegnet seinem Bilde, das ihm entgegengetragen wird, von Westen nach Osten strömend. 869 ist die Begegnung. Bis zu diesem Jahre haben wir deutlich voneinander unterschieden eine Strömung, die im Norden und über Mitteleuropa hingeht, die durchaus, ob man ihn nun Baldur oder irgendwie nannte, den Christus als Sonnenhelden in sich trug. Und unter der Flagge des Christus als Sonnenhelden verbreiteten die Artusritter ihre Kultur.

Die andere Strömung, die innerlich im Herzen wurzelt, die dann später zur Gralsströmung wurde, sie ist mehr im Süden von Osten her zu sehen, sie trägt den eigentlichen, den wahren, den wirklichen Christus. Die von Westen kommende trägt gewissermaßen ein kosmisches Bild ihm entgegen.

Die Begegnung des Christus mit sich selbst, des Christus als Bruder des Menschen und des Christus als Sonnenhelden, der nur noch im Bilde vorhanden ist, diese Begegnung, dieses Zusammenfließen des Christus mit seinem eigenen Bilde findet statt im 9. Jahrhundert.

Damit habe ich Ihnen geschildert, wie innerlich der Zeitenlauf war in den ersten Jahrhunderten nach dem Mysterium von Golgatha, in jenen ersten Jahrhunderten, in denen ja auch, wie ich schon angeführt habe, die Seelen da waren, die nun wieder erschienen sind und die aus ihren früheren Erdenleben den Drang mitgebracht haben, sich ehrlich nach der anthroposophischen Bewegung hin zu bewegen.

Wenn wir hinschauen auf diese bedeutungsvolle Artusströmung von Westen nach Osten, so erscheint sie als diejenige, welche den Sonnenimpuls in die Erdenzivilisation hineinträgt. Damit wellt und webt innerhalb dieser Artusströmung dasjenige, was man in christlicher Terminologie die Michael-Strömung nennen kann, jene Michael-Strömung im spirituellen Leben der Menschheit, in die wir als moderne Menschen wiederum einziehen seit dem Ende der siebziger Jahre des vorigen Jahrhunderts. Nachdem jene Macht, welche man mit dem christlichen Namen Gabriel bezeichnen kann, drei bis vier Jahrhunderte geherrscht hat als die dirigierende Macht in der europäischen Zivilisation, wurde sie abgelöst — Ende der siebziger Jahre des vorigen Jahrhunderts — durch die Michael-Herrschaft, die wiederum drei bis vier Jahrhunderte dauern wird, im Geistesleben der Menschen fortleben und weben und wellen wird und in der wir eben jetzt drinnen stehen.

Wir haben also in unserer Gegenwart immerhin Veranlassung — weil wir selber wiederum in der Michael-Strömung drinnen leben -, wir haben Veranlassung, auf solche Michael-Strömungen hinzuweisen.

Wir finden diese Michael-Strömung, wenn wir in der Zeit, die dem Mysterium von Golgatha hart voranging, hinschauen auf die vom englischen Westen ausgehende, ursprünglich von den Mysterien von Hybernia angeregte Artusströmung. Wir sehen in einer älteren Form diese Michael-Strömung, wenn wir hinblicken auf dasjenige, was Jahrhunderte vor der Entstehung des Mysteriums von Golgatha von Nordgriechenland, von Mazedonien aus, durch jene internationale, jene kosmopolitische Strömung geschehen ist, die an den Namen Alexanders des Großen geknüpft ist und unter dem Einfluß jener Weltanschauung gestanden hat, die unter dem Namen der aristotelischen bekannt ist. Was in der vorchristlichen Zeit sich durch Aristoteles und Alexander abgespielt hat, stand damals so in der Michael-Herrschaft drinnen, wie wir jetzt wiederum in der Michael-Herrschaft drinnen stehen, und dazumal war auf Erden ebenso wie jetzt in dem geistigen Leben der Michael-Impuls. Immer, wenn ein Michael-Impuls in der Erdenmenschheit ist, dann ist die Zeit, wo dasjenige, was in einem Kulturzentrum, in einem spirituellen Zentrum begründet worden ist, über viele Völker der Erde, in allen Gegenden, in denen es möglich ist, ausgebreitet wird.

Das geschah in der vorchristlichen Zeit durch die Alexanderzüge. Da wurde das, was innerhalb der griechischen Kultur gewonnen worden ist, verbreitet über diejenige Menschheit, in der es verbreitet werden konnte. Und wenn man Aristoteles und Alexander gefragt hätte: Woher habt ihr dasjenige, was in euren Herzen sitzt als der Impuls zur Ausbreitung des geistigen Lebens eurer Zeit? — sie würden zwar mit einem anderen Namen, aber im Wesen doch geantwortet haben: Von dem Impuls des Michael, desjenigen, der als Diener Christi von der Sonne aus wirkt. Denn von den verschiedenen Archangeloi, welche abwechselnd die Kultur beherrschen, gehört Michael, der im Alexander-Zeitalter und wiederum in unserem Zeitalter herrscht, der Sonne an. Es gehört derjenige, der dann gefolgt ist auf die Alexander-Zeit, Oriphiel, dem Saturn an. Es gehört derjenige, der dann auf Oriphiel gefolgt ist, Anael, der Venus an. Es gehört derjenige Erzengel, der im 4., 5. Jahrhundert die europäische Zivilisation beherrscht hat, Zachariel, der Jupitersphäre an. Dann kam Raphael aus der Merkursphäre in derjenigen Zeit, in der insbesondere eine Art Medizinkultur-Denkweise im Untergrunde desjenigen blühte, was als europäische Zivilisation sich abspielte. Dann kam Samael so über das 12. Jahrhundert hin. Samael gehört dem Mars an. Dann kam Gabriel, der der Mondensphäre angehört. Und nun trat wiederum seit den siebziger Jahren des vorigen Jahrhunderts Michael ein, der der Sonnensphäre angehört. So gehen im Rhythmus fort die Herrschaften über das Geistesleben der Erde durch diese sieben Wesen aus der Hierarchie der Archangeloi. Wenn wir also zurückblicken — wo war die letzte Michael-Herrschaft? Sie war in der Alexanderzeit. Sie war da als dasjenige, was sich abgespielt hatte durch Jahrhunderte als griechische Zivilisation, hinübergetragen wurde nach Asien, hinübergetragen wurde nach Afrika, sich konzentrierte in der geistig mächtigen Stadt Alexandria mit ihren bedeutsamen Geisteshelden.

Das ist ein eigentümlicher Anblick für das okkulte Schauen. Geht man diese paar Jahrhunderte vor das Mysterium von Golgatha zurück: man sieht von Mazedonien nach Osten hinüber — also wiederum von Westen nach Osten, aber weiter nach Osten gelegen — die Strömung, die man dann ebenso schaut von den englisch-irischen Seelen, wiederum von Westen nach Osten hinüber. Während der Alexanderherrschaft herrscht Michael auf Erden. Während der Artusherrschaft wird unter der Herrschaft des Michael, der jetzt von der Sonne herunter wirkt, von der Sonne herunter dasjenige getragen, was ich Ihnen dargestellt habe.

Wie war es aber dann später, nachdem das Mysterium von Golgatha abgelaufen war, mit der Verbreitung derjenigen Geistesart, die von Alexander dem Großen durch die Eroberungszüge nach Asien hinübergetragen worden war, der aristotelischen?

Wir sehen dann, wie in derselben Zeit, in der Karl der Große in Europa eine Art christlicher Kultur auf seine Weise begründet, drüben in Asien, in Vorderasien Harun al Raschid wirkt. Wir sehen am Hofe Harun al Raschids vereint alles das, was an orientalischer Weisheit, an Spiritualität vorhanden war in Architektur, in Kunst, in Wissenschaft, in Religion, im Schrifttum, in Dichtung, in allem. Und wir sehen einen Ratgeber neben Harun al Raschid, der zwar, während er neben Harun al Raschid steht, in dem allem nicht eingeweiht ist, der aber ein Eingeweihter war in alten Zeiten, in früheren Erdenleben. Und wir sehen unter diesen beiden Menschen, unter Harun al Raschid und unter seinem Ratgeber, ganz verändert dasjenige, was als Aristotelismus nach Asien verpflanzt war, dasjenige, was noch durch Aristoteles aus der alten Weisheit der Natur den Menschen gezeigt worden ist, die er unterrichten konnte; wir sehen das, was Alexandrinismus, was Aristotelismus war, am Hofe von Harun al Raschid, durchdrungen und imprägniert von Arabismus, von Mohammedanismus.

Und wir sehen dann herübergetragen in die christliche Entwickelung dasjenige, was von Harun al Raschid, was vom Arabismus ausging. Wiederum, ich möchte sagen, dem Christentum nachgetragen, in das Christentum hineingeschoben, durch Griechenland, aber namentlich durch Nordafrika, durch Italien nach Spanien hineingeschoben, eine Art Arabismus.

Aber Harun al Raschid und sein Ratgeber, sie sind ja früher durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen. Sie verfolgten von dem Leben, das sie jetzt vom Tode bis zur neuen Geburt, über dem irdischen führten, das, was unten als die mohammedanisch-maurischen Züge nach Spanien hinein sich abspielte, sie verfolgten von der geistigen Welt aus das, was sie selbst gepflegt hatten und was sich durch ihre Nachfolger ausbreitete, Harun al Raschid mehr, indem er seinen Blick von der geistigen Welt auf Griechenland, Italien, Spanien warf; sein Ratgeber, indem er seinen Blick warf auf dasjenige, was vom Osten herüber durch die Gegenden nördlich des Schwarzen Meeres, durch Rußland, bis nach Mitteleuropa hin ging.

Die Frage steht vor uns: Was ist mit Alexander, was ist mit Aristoteles selber geschehen? Sie waren tief verbunden mit der Michael-Herrschaft, aber nicht zu der Zeit auf Erden, als das Mysterium von Golgatha sich abspielte.

Nun müssen wir uns lebhaft die beiden Gegenbilder vorstellen. Auf der Erde sind die Menschen, die Zeitgenossen sind des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Christus wird Mensch, geht durch das Mysterium von Golgatha, lebt von da an in der Erdensphäre fort. Wie ist es auf der Sonne? Da sind die Seelen, die dazumal zu Michael gehörten, in der Sphäre des Michael lebten. Sie sind diejenigen, die von der Sonne aus schauen, wie Christus die Sonne verläßt. Auf der Erde sind diejenigen, die des Christus Ankunft schauen; auf der Sonne sind diejenigen, die des Christus Weggang schauen: sie sehen ihn heruntersteigen zur Erde. Das ist der Gegensatz. Und das erleben vorzugsweise diejenigen, die im Erdenleben teilgenomen haben an jener Michael-Herrschaft, die zur Alexanderzeitwar.Sie erleben sozusagen das umgekehrte Christus-Ereignis: den Fortgang des Christus von der Sonne. Sie leben weiter - unmaßgebliche Inkarnationen will ich jetzt nicht erwähnen -, sie leben weiter und sie erleben das in der geistigen Welt für die Erdenwelt bedeutsame Zeitalter des 9. nachchristlichen Jahrhunderts, ungefähr das Jahr 869. Denn da findet ja erstens das statt, was ich Ihnen eben angedeutet habe: die Begegnung des Christus mit seinem Ebenbilde, mit seinem Lebensgeist, mit demjenigen, was noch vorhanden war von dem vorchristlichen heidnischen Christus. Aber es findet auch die Begegnung statt zwischen jenen Individualitäten, welche in Alexander dem Großen und Aristoteles lebten, mit jener Individualität, die in Harun al Raschid, und jener, die in seinem Ratgeber lebte: Der mohammedanisierte Aristotelismus von Asien in geistiger Entfaltung in Harun al Raschid und dem Ratgeber nach dem Tode mit Alexander und Aristoteles nach dem Tode. Aber das eine war der Aristotelismus und Alexandrinismus, der den Mohammedanismus aufgenommen hat, das andere war der wirkliche Aristotelismus, waren nicht jene nachträglichen Lehren, die schon durch Menschen gegangen waren. Aristoteles und Alexander hatten das Mysterium von Golgatha von der Sonne aus gesehen.

Da fand die große Auseinandersetzung, gewissermaßen jenes himmlische Konzil statt zwischen dem mohammedanisierten Aristotelismus und dem christianisierten Aristotelismus, aber dem in der geistigen Welt christianisierten Aristotelismus.

So kann man sagen: Hier in der Welt, die unmittelbar als geistige Welt an unsere physische Erdenwelt angrenzt, begegneten sich Alexander und Aristoteles und Harun al Raschid und sein Ratgeber, sich auseinandersetzend über den weiteren Fortgang der Christianisierung Europas, hinweisend auf dasjenige, was kommen mußte am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts, im 20. Jahrhundert, wo die Michael-Herrschaft wiederum auf Erden sein kann.

Und das alles entstand, spielte sich ab wie bestrahlt von jenem Ereignisse der Begegnung des Christus mit seinem Gegenbilde. Das alles stand unter diesem Eindrucke. Das geistige Leben der Menschen wurde in der spirituellen Welt, die unmittelbar an die physische Erdenwelt angrenzt, in intensiver Weise projektiert, könnte man sagen, fadengezeichnet.

Und unten auf der Erde selber versammelten sich in Konstantinopel zum achten allgemeinen ökumenischen Konzil die Väter der Kirche und faßten das Dogma, daß der Mensch nicht aus Leib, Seele und Geist, sondern nur aus Leib und Seele bestehe, und die Seele einige geistige Eigenschaften habe. Die Trichotomie — so nannte man das, daß der Mensch aus Leib, Seele und Geist besteht -—, die Trichotomie wurde abgeschafft. Wer ferner an sie glaubte in Europa, der wurde ein Häretiker. Die christlichen Väter in Europa vermieden unter allen Umständen, jemals von der 'Trichotomie, von Leib, Seele und Geist zu sprechen, sondern redeten nur von Leib und Seele.

Was so als Maßgebliches im Jahre 869 in übersinnlichen Welten geschah, wie ich es Ihnen beschrieben habe, das warf seine Schatten hinunter in die Welt. Das finstere Zeitalter des Kali Yuga nahm einen besonderen Impuls seiner Finsternis auf, während sich darüber dasjenige abspielte, was ich Ihnen eben beschrieben habe.

Das war der wirkliche Verlauf der Ereignisse: in der physischen Welt das Konzil von Konstantinopel, in dem der Geist abgeschafft wird; in der unmittelbar an die physische Welt angrenzenden Welt ein himmlisches Konzil, das sich.so abspielte, indem der Christus selber seinem Gegenbilde begegnete.

Aber man war sich klar: Man muß warten, bis die neue MichaelHerrschaft auf der Erde beginnen kann. Immer aber fanden sich Lehrer, die, wenn auch gewissermaßen in der Dekadenz, etwas wußten von dem, was eigentlich hinter den Kulissen des Daseins vor sich geht; immer fanden sich Lehrer, die in, wenn auch manchmal nicht sehr zutreffenden Bildern darzustellen wußten, was geistiger Inhalt der Welt ist, was zugrunde liegt demjenigen, was in der unmittelbar an die physische Welt angrenzenden geistigen Welt ist. Und solche Lehrer fanden zuweilen Ohren, die ihnen zuhörten. Und diejenigen Ohren, die ihnen zuhörten, gehörten Menschen an, welche in der Weise vom Christentum hörten, daß sie allerdings nur da oder dort ein gebrochenes Wort, aber doch etwas von dem hörten, was kommen soll im 20. Jahrhundert, nachdem die Michael-Herrschaft wiederum begonnen haben wird.

Diese Menschen, meine lieben Freunde, in Euren eigenen Seelen sitzen die Seelen, die dazumal verkörpert waren und solchen Seelen zugehört hatten, die von der kommenden Michael-Herrschaft redeten; von der kommenden Michael-Herrschaft unter dem Einflusse solcher Impulse redeten, wie sie herunterkamen von jenem himmlischen Konzil, von dem gesprochen worden ist.

Aus solchem Erleben im früheren Leben, in den ersten christlichen Jahrhunderten - nicht gerade im 9. Jahrhundert, sondern vorher und später, aber namentlich vorher -, entwickelte sich der Drang heran, dann, wenn die Michael-Herrschaft Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts, Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts kommt, unbewußt hinzuschauen auf die Stätte, wo jetzt wirklich unter dem Einfluß der Michael-Herrschaft das spirituelle Leben wieder gepflegt wird. Das pflanzte sich in die Seelen derjenigen, die von Lehren hörten, die etwas enthielten von den Geheimnissen, von denen wir heute gesprochen haben.

So pflanzt sich karmisch in die Seelen die Sehnsucht, heranzukommen an dasjenige Christentum, das unter dem Einflusse des Michael am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts, Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts anthroposophisch verbreitet werden sollte. Und was dazumal diese Seelen erlebt haben, das findet in der Wiederverkörperung jetzt seinen Ausdruck darinnen, daß gewisse Seelen den Zugang zur anthroposophischen Bewegung finden.


Lehren, welche anknüpften an eine Art von Zusammenfluß von altem, vorchristlichem kosmischem Christentum und der innerlichen christlichen Lehre, Lehren, welche anknüpften an geistiges Leben und Weben in der Natur und die dennoch anknüpfen konnten an das Mysterium von Golgatha, wurden nun fortdauernd gelehrt, gelehrt auf Erden in der Zeit, als die Seelen, die jetzt zur Anthroposophie hingedrängt sich fühlen, schon wiederum durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen waren, lebten in dem Leben zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, einzelne auch heruntersteigend zur Erde, sich verkörpernd. Wir sehen, wie fortlebten auf der Erde die alten Lehren, die noch das Christentum in kosmischer Art anschauten, die alten Lehren, welche fortpflanzten Traditionen an die alten Mysterien; wir sehen solche Lehren fortgepflanzt durch bedeutsame europäische Schulen, wie zum Beispiel eben namentlich die Schule von Chartres im 12. Jahrhunderte, wo so bedeutende Lehrer lehrten wie Bernardus Sylvestris, Alanus ab Insulis und andere große Lehrer, welche in der Schule von Chartres lehrten. Wir sehen, wie solche Lehren lebten und webten zum Beispiel in dem Ihnen am letzten Sonntag erwähnten Brunetto Latini. Brunetto Latini, der große Lehrer Dantes, trug solche Lehren in sich. Wir sehen in dieser Art dasjenige sich fortpflanzen, was noch einen Zusammenhang hatte zwischen dem kosmischen Christentum und dem rein menschlichen, irdischen Christentum, das ja auf der Erde doch immer mehr und mehr überhandnahm.

Das war ja das Gegenbild, dem auf Erden das irdische Konzil von Konstantinopel entsprach: daß in der Art, wie ich Ihnen erzählte, ein fortwährender Zusammenhang stattgefunden hat zwischen demjenigen, was in den geistigen Welten, was in der Welt, die unmittelbar an unsere physische Welt angrenzt, und unserer physischen Welt sich abspielte. Ein fortwährender Zusammenhang fand statt. So fühlten sich schon gerade die bedeutendsten Lehrer von Chartres inspiriert von dem wirklichen Alexander und dem wirklichen Aristoteles, aber auch in hervorragendstem Sinne von Plato und von alledem, was sich von Plato und dem Neuplatonismus an die damals im Mittelalter herrschende Mystik anlehnte.

Und etwas sehr Bedeutendes fand statt. Diejenigen Menschen, die vorzugsweise um Michael sich scharten, die also im Alexander-Zeitalter vorzugsweise inkarniert waren, sie lebten jetzt in der geistigen Welt. Sie schauten schon auf so etwas herunter, wie es die christliche Entwickelung war durch dieLehrer von Chartres. Sie warteten aber, bis die Lehrer von Chartres, die letzten, die noch kosmisches Christentum lehrten, hinaufkamen in die geistige Welt. Und es war ein gewisser Zeitpunkt, ein Zeitpunkt am Ende des 12. Jahrhunderts, am Beginne des 13. Jahrhunderts, da begegneten sich gewissermaßen in der überirdischen Sphäre, die unmittelbar an die irdische angrenzte, die mehr platonisch gearteten Lehrer von Chartres mit jenen, die das himmlische Konzil von 869 durchmachten. Und da fand, wenn ich mich trivial-irdisch ausdrücken darf für diese erhabene Sache, da fand eine Art Besprechung statt zwischen denen, die als die Lehrer von Chartres eben hinaufkamen in die geistige Welt und nunmehr in der geistigen Welt weiter die Entwickelung erleben sollten, und jenen anderen, die unmittelbar heruntersteigen sollten, unter welchen die unmittelbaren Individualitäten von Alexander und Aristoteles selber waren, die dann im Dominikaner-Orden sich unmittelbar nachher verkörperten. Und es fand statt auf Erden in dem, was heute so verkannt wird, was wert wäre, daß man es tiefer in seiner Bedeutung erkennen würde, es fand statt in dem, was als Scholastik auf der Erde auftrat, die Vorbereitung für alles Spätere, was dann im späteren Michael-Zeitalter stattfinden sollte,

Und um sich recht in das Christentum einzuleben, um ganz im Christentum drinnen zu stehen, verkörperten sich diejenigen, die der Michael-Sphäre angehörten, die im alten Alexander-Zeitalter lebten, nicht mitgemacht hatten die ersten christlichen Jahrhunderte oder nur in unmaßgeblichen Inkarnationen, verkörperten sich, um eben ins Christentum sich einzuleben, im Dominikaner-Orden oder in anderen christlichen Orden, aber hauptsächlich im Dominikaner-Orden. Dann gingen sie durch die Pforte des Todes hinauf in die geistige Welt und wirkten in der geistigen Welt weiter.

Da fand nun im 15. Jahrhundert - bis ins 16. Jahrhundert hinein dauerte es, die Zeitverhältnisse sind ganz andere für die geistige Welt — jene gewaltige Unterweisung im Übersinnlichen statt, die von Michael selber für die Seinigen ausgegangen ist. Da wurde sozusagen eine übersinnliche, eine spirituelle Schule begründet, eine Schule, in der Michael selber der Lehrer war, eine Schule, an der die entsprechenden Menschen teilnahmen, die dazumal inspiriert waren namentlich durch das frühere Michael-Zeitalter, inspiriert dann durch das Hineinleben in das Christentum auf die Art, wie ich es dargestellt habe. All dasjenige, was zu Michael gehörte an entkörperten Menschenseelen, nahm teil an jener großen Schule, die übersinnlich stattfand im 14., 15., 16. Jahrhunderte. Alle diejenigen Wesenheiten aus der Hierarchie der Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, die zur Michael-Strömung gehörten, nahmen teil. Zahlreiche Elementarwesen nahmen teil.

Es fand dort ein bedeutsamer Rückblick auf alles alte Mysterienwesen statt. Eine genaue Erkenntnis wurde für die Seelen über das alte Mysterienwesen verbreitet, Zurückgeschaut wurde in die Sonnenmysterien, in die Mysterien der anderen Planeten. Aber auch der Ausblick für die Zukunft wurde eröffnet, für das, was im neuen MichaelZeitalter beginnen sollte, das gegen Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts anfängt, das jetzt herrschend ist. All das ging dazumal durch die Seelen. Es waren wieder dieselben Seelen, die in unserem Michael-Zeitalter sich zur anthroposophischen Bewegung hingedrängt fühlten.

Mittlerweile fand auf Erden, ich möchte sagen, der letzte Anprall statt. Harun al Raschid verkörperte sich wieder, begründete in seiner Wiederverkörperung den Impuls des Materialismus, erschien als Baco von Verulam. Die Universalität Bacos von Verulam ist von Harun al Raschid, aber auch das, was an Intellektuellem, an Materialismus in Bacon lebt, ist von Harun al Raschid. Bacon erschien als der wiederverkörperte Harun al Raschid. Sein Ratgeber, der den anderen Weg gemacht hat, erschien in dem gleichen Zeitalter als Amos Comenius.

Und so sehen wir, während das Christentum in der Beleuchtung des Aristotelismus im Übersinnlichen im 14., 15., 16., 17. Jahrhundert und so weiter die hauptsächlichste Entwickelung durchmachte, auf Erden den Materialismus geistig begründet: begründet in der Wissenschaft durch Bacon, den wiederverkörperten Harun al Raschid, begründet im Erziehungswesen unter Amos Comenius, dem wiederverkörperten Ratgeber des Harun al Raschid. Beide wirkten zusammen.

Und Amos Comenius und Bacon bewirkten beide, als sie nun durch die Pforte des Todes gingen, Merkwürdiges in der geistigen Welt. Als Baco von Verulam durch die Pforte des Todes ging, zeigte sich, wie von seinem ätherischen Leibe durch die besondere Denkungsart, die er in der Bacon-Inkarnation angenommen hatte, eine ganze Welt von Idolen, dämonischen Idolen ausging, welche die geistige Welt erfüllten, von der ich eben gesprochen habe, in der die Nachwirkungen jenes seelischen Konzils sich abspielten unter den Individualitäten, welche von Michael belehrt wurden. In dieser Welt breiteten sich Idole aus.

Es ist schon so, wie in meinem ersten Mysterium dargestellt ist, daß das, was auf Erden geschieht, mächtige Wirkungen in die geistige Welt hinein hat. Bacons irdische Geistesart hatte in die geistige Welt hinein die tumultuarische Wirkung, daß eine ganze Welt von Idolen sich ausbreitete.

Und aus dem, was Amos Comenius auf Erden doch eigentlich als eine Art materialistische Pädagogik begründet hatte, bildete sich sozusagen die Grundlage, die Welt, die Sphäre, die Weltatmosphäre für dasjenige, was die Idole des Bacon waren. Ich möchte sagen: Bacon lieferte die Idole, und was zu den Idolen als andere Reiche gehörte, das lieferte ihnen Amos Comenius durch dasjenige, was auf Erden stattgefunden hatte. Denn wie wir als Menschen das Mineralreich, das Pflanzenreich um uns haben, so hatten nun diese Idole des Bacon die anderen Reiche, die sie brauchten, um sich.

Und der Bekämpfung von alledem, der Bekämpfung dieser dämonischen Idole, hatten sich jetzt jene Individualitäten zu widmen, die einstmals unter der Führung von Alexander und Aristoteles auf der Erde waren. Das spielte sich ab bis zu dem Momente hin, wo die Französische Revolution auf Erden stattfand.

Diejenigen Idole, die nicht bekämpft werden konnten, diejenigen Dämonen, idolischen Dämonen, die sozusagen entkommen waren im Kampfe, die stiegen dann zur Erde herunter und inspirierten das, was der Materialismus des 19. Jahrhunderts war, mit allem, was nachfolgte. Das sind die Inspiratoren des Materialismus des 19. Jahrhunderts!

Die Seelen, die zurückgeblieben waren, die die Lehren des Michael unter der Assistenz der Individualitäten des Aristoteles und Alexander genossen hatten, die kamen eben mit den Impulsen in sich, die ich geschildert habe, wiederum auf die Erde herunter Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts, Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts. Und viele dieser Seelen erkennt man wieder in denjenigen, die an die anthroposophische Bewegung herankommen. Das ist das Karma derjenigen, die ehrlich, innerlich aufrichtig an die anthroposophische Bewegung herankommen.

Es ist ein Erschütterndes, wenn man es so schildert, wie es im unmittelbaren Hintergrunde desjenigen dasteht, was sich äußerlich in der Gegenwart abspielt. Es ist aber etwas, was hineingesenkt werden muß unter dem Einfluß des Weihnachtsimpulses vom Goetheanum in die Seelen, in die Herzen derjenigen, die sich Anthroposophen nennen. Es ist etwas, was leben sollte in den Herzen, in den Seelen derjenigen, die sich Anthroposophen nennen. Und das wird einem die Kraft geben, nun weiter zu wirken; denn diejenigen, die heute Anthroposophen sind, im ehrlichen, wahren Sinne Anthroposophen sind, die werden einen starken Drang haben, bald wiederum zur Erde herunterzukommen. Und innerhalb der Michael-Prophetie sieht man voraus, wie zahlreiche Anthroposophenseelen mit dem Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts wiederum zur Erde kommen, um das, was heute mit starker Kraft als anthroposophische Bewegung begründet werden soll, zur vollen Kulmination zu bringen.

Das ist es, was Anthroposophen eigentlich bewegen sollte: Hier stehe ich. Der anthroposophische Impuls ist in mir. Ich erkenne ihn als den Michael-Impuls. Ich warte, indem ich mich für mein Warten stärke durch die rechte anthroposophische Arbeit in der Gegenwart und die kurze Zwischenzeit ausnütze, die gerade den Anthroposophenseelen beschieden ist im 20. Jahrhundert zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, um am Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts wiederzukommen und die Bewegung mit einer viel spirituelleren Kraft fortzusetzen. Ich bereite mich für dieses neue Zeitalter vom 20. ins 21. Jahrhundert hinein vor — so sagt sich eine rechte Anthroposophenseele -, denn viele zerstörende Kräfte sind auf der Erde. In die Dekadenz muß alles Kulturleben, alles Zivilisationsleben der Erde hineingehen, wenn nicht die Spiritualität des Michael-Impulses die Menschen ergreift, wenn nicht die Menschen wiederum imstande sind, dasjenige, was an Zivilisation heute hinabrollen will, wiederum hinaufzuheben.

Finden sich solche ehrlichen Anthroposophenseelen, die die Spiritualität in dieser Weise in das Erdenleben hineintragen wollen, dann wird es eine Bewegung nach aufwärts geben. Finden sich solche Seelen nicht, dann wird die Dekadenz weiterrollen. Der Weltkrieg mit all seinen üblen Beigaben wird nur der Anfang von noch Üblerem sein. Denn es steht heute die Menschheit vor einer großen Eventualität: vor der Eventualität, entweder in den Abgrund hinunterrollen zu sehen alles, was Zivilisation ist, oder es durch Spiritualität hinaufzuheben, fortzuführen im Sinne dessen, was im Michael-Impuls, der vor dem Christus-Impuls steht, gelegen ist.

Das ist dasjenige, meine lieben Freunde, was ich vor Euren Seelen zu entwickeln hatte bei dieser Anwesenheit, von dem ich möchte, daß es fortwirken sollte in Euren Seelen. Denn wie ich oftmals gesagt habe, wenn ich nach einem erfreulichen, befriedigenden Zusammensein beschließen mußte, was verhandelt, gearbeitet werden konnte in solchem Zusammensein: Anthroposophen sind, wenn sie vereinigt sind im physischen Leben, zusammen, nehmen das als ihr Karma hin, bleiben aber vereint, auch wenn sie im physischen Raume auseinander sind. So wollen wir vereint bleiben in denjenigen Zeichen, die sich uns zeigen können vor dem geistigen Auge, vor dem geistigen Ohre, wenn wir in vollem Ernst solches aufnehmen, wie ich es gerne hätte fließen lassen, wenn ich verstanden worden bin, durch das, was ich in diesen drei Stunden vor Ihnen, meine lieben anthroposophischen Freunde, entwickeln durfte.

Third Lecture

Looking back on the development of mankind since the Mystery of Golgotha, we get the impression that Christianity, the Christ-impulse, could only settle down against certain resistance and in connection with other spiritual currents within European and American civilization. And the unfolding, the gradual development of Christianity presents the most remarkable facts.

Today I would like to describe this development of Christianity, by touching on it with a few strokes, in connection with that which is to live within the Anthroposophical Society, which is not only to live, but can live within the Anthroposophical Society, because those people who feel drawn to Anthroposophy out of an inner honest urge have this urge today from the very core of their being.

If we now take the fact of repeated earth lives very seriously, then we must say to ourselves: Everything that represents such an inner urge - the urge to leave the views, the habits of thought of the population into which we are otherwise placed through life, through education, through social conditions, and to go at least to a worldview current that more or less claims one in the soul - such a felt urge must be founded in karma, must be founded in karma from earlier earth lives.

When the question of karma is considered in relation to those personalities who come together in the anthroposophical movement, it can be seen that these personalities, without exception, have actually had another significant earthly life in the time after the Mystery of Golgotha before their present earthly life, so that they were, so to speak, already once placed in the time of the development of humanity on earth after the Mystery of Golgotha, so that they are here a second time since the Mystery of Golgotha.

There then arises the great question: how did the previous earth-life affect these personalities who now feel the urge to join the anthroposophical movement out of their karma, how did the previous earth-life affect them with regard to the Mystery of Golgotha?

Now, even externally, exoterically, it is clear that even people who were deeply involved in positive Christian development, such as St. Augustine, made statements such as these: Christianity has not only existed since Christ, but there were also Christians before Christ, only they were not yet called Christians. So says St. Augustine.

Those who now penetrate deeper into the spiritual mysteries of humanity, who can study the spiritual mysteries of humanity with the science of initiation, must affirm in the deepest sense such a view as that of St. Augustine. It is so. Only then the deep need arises to learn to recognize how that which has become the historical Christ impulse on earth through the Mystery of Golgotha lived before.

Now today I can, I would like to say, make an introductory reference to this previous form of Christianity by starting from impressions that were received near the site of our summer course in Torquay, at the place where the spiritual current of King Arthur had emanated, in Tintagel. We were able to see the impressions that can still be gained today at the place where the castle of Arthur's Round Table once stood, the impressions that can still be gained there today, especially of the magnificent nature surrounding this castle.

At that place, where only the ruins of the old Arthurian castle remain, one can see, as it were in one's mind's eye, how stone after stone has crumbled away over the centuries since the Arthurian current started from there, so that now there is hardly anything left to recognize of the old castles that were inhabited by King Arthur and his family. But if you look out with your mind's eye from the place where the castle once stood, if you look out over the sea, which presents itself shimmering with color and surging against the shore, if you look out there - here a mountain peak on one side, here the sea - then you get the impression that man is able to absorb the elemental essence of nature and the cosmos in a particularly deep sense. And if one then looks back with the occult gaze, if one visualizes that point in time, a few millennia ago, in which the artus flow first began, then one sees: the people who lived there at Arthur's Castle - as is the case with all these occult sites - had chosen this point because they needed it for the impulses they needed, for the task they had set themselves, for everything they were to do in the world, that which was taking place before them in nature.

Now it is - I cannot say today whether it is always like this, but in those moments when I saw it, it was like this - an enchantingly beautiful play of the sea waves rising from the depths, whose wonderful rippling is already one of the most magnificent plays of nature, It is the drifting of the sea waves, pushing off from the rock faces and then breaking back again, which allows the elemental spirits to sprout up from below and live out, from above the sunshine, which is reflected in the air waves in the most varied ways, it is this, I would like to say, a moment in which one can develop what I would like to call: to become pious in a pagan way. This interplay of the elemental from above and the elemental from below shows the whole solar power, spreads this solar power out before man in such a way that man can receive it. And the one who can absorb what the light-born elemental beings from above and the heavy-born elemental beings from below are doing in their interplay, the one who can absorb it, absorbs the solar power, the solar impulse. It is different from becoming pious in the Christian way. To become pious in a pagan way means to be devoted to the gods of nature, who play and work and weave everywhere in the being and weaving of nature.

And all this working and weaving of nature was obviously absorbed by those who were with and around King Arthur. And the significant thing is what those people who were around King Arthur in the first centuries after the Mystery of Golgotha were able to absorb.

Now I would like to develop for you today, my dear friends, what this particular spiritual life was like in such places as the Arthurian Round Table. I must start from a phenomenon that you all know.

When a person dies, he first leaves his physical body behind and carries his etheric body with him for a few more days. After a few days he discards the etheric body and continues to live in the astral body and in the ego. What happens to the person who has passed through the gate of death presents itself to the observing eye in such a way that one sees the person dissolve etherically after death. He becomes larger and larger, but also more and more indistinct and indistinct. He weaves himself into the cosmos.

A strange, polar opposite phenomenon took place in world history in connection with the Mystery of Golgotha. What happened then, when the Mystery of Golgotha took place? Until then, the Christ was a solar being, belonged to the sun. Before the Mystery of Golgotha took place, the knights of Arthur's Round Table stood on top of their rocky mountains, looked out into the play of the sun-born spirits and the earth-born spirits and felt that what was playing in this power penetrated their hearts, but above all penetrated their etheric bodies. Thus they took up the Christ-impulse, which at that time flowed from the sun and lived in everything that is brought about by the solar current.

So before the Mystery of Golgotha, starting from Arthur's Round Table, the knights of Arthur's Round Table absorbed the sun spirit, that is, the pre-Christian Christ, into their own being. Then they sent their emissaries out across Europe to fight the savagery of the astral bodies of the European population, to purify and civilize them, for that was their task. And we see just such people, like the Knights of the Arthurian Round Table, starting from this western point of today's England, we see them carrying what they receive from the sun over the whole of European humanity at that time, purifying, cleansing the astralities of the then very wild European, at least in Central Europe and in Northern Europe very wild European population.

But then came the Mystery of Golgotha. What happened in Asia? Over in Asia it happened in world history that the high solar being, who was later called the Christ, left the sun. This was a kind of death for the Christ. Christ departed from the sun, just as we humans depart from the earth when we die. So Christ went away from the sun, just as a person who dies goes away from the earth. And just as the etheric body of a person who dies by leaving the earth is visible to the occult observer, which he discards after three days and leaves behind the physical body, so Christ left behind in the sun that which you find described in my “Theosophy” in man as the spiritual man, as the seventh member of the human being.

Christ “died from the sun”, he died cosmically from the sun down to earth, he came down to earth. From the moment of Golgotha that which was his life spirit could be seen on earth. We leave the life ether, the etheric body, the life body behind after death; after this cosmic death the Christ left the spirit man on the sun, and in the orbit of the earth the life spirit. So that from the Mystery of Golgotha the earth was enveloped by the life-spirit of Christ as by a spiritual being.

But now physical place contexts are completely different for the spiritual life than for the physical life. This spirit of life was above all visible from the Irish Mysteries, from the Mysteries of Hybernia, and became visible above all to the Knights of the Round Table of King Arthur. So that from this place up to the Mystery of Golgotha the Christ-impulse of the sun went in reality: there they were received from the sun, the impulses. Afterwards the power of the Arthurian knights also diminished. But they were alive within the spirit of life that wafted around the earth in a cosmic configuration, in which they lived continually and in which this play of light and air, of the elemental beings from above and the elemental beings from below, was constantly at play.

Think of it: if you look at the reef where the Artus castle is above, you will see the sun playing down from above in light and air, and the elemental beings of the earth playing up from below: elemental beings above, elemental beings below, sun and earth in lively interaction.

But in the centuries after the Mystery of Golgotha all this took place in the life spirit of Christ. So that as in a spiritual semblance, but within natural facts, in this play of sea and rock and air and light from that place, the spiritual fact of the Mystery of Golgotha played out at the same time.

Understand me rightly, my dear friends, at that time one looked out into the sea, and when one had gone through those spiritual exercises that the twelve around King Arthur made, which were based on the mysteries of the zodiac, the zodiac, then one saw - in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th centuries after Christ - not only the spiritual fact of the Mystery of Golgotha. In the first, second, third, fourth and fifth centuries after Christ, one saw not only the play of nature, but it was as if one could begin to read, just as if one had a book in front of one, which one could either stare at or read: a little flame shone, a wave rippled, the sun was reflected on some rocky reef, the sea was beaten up against the rocky reef - all this is configured, all this is a flowing, flowing, circling, wise, a truth that can be deciphered.

If you deciphered it, you read the spiritual fact of the Mystery of Golgotha, because all of this was played out by the life spirit of Christ.

Over there in Asia the Mystery of Golgotha had taken place, had seized the souls, the hearts of men, had lived itself deeply into the souls, into the hearts of men. You only have to look at those who were the first Christians to see what transformation they experienced in their souls: At the same time in which what I have just described took place here in the West, the real Christ, the Christ who had descended, who had left his spirit-man up on the sun, who had his life-spirit in the atmosphere of the earth, penetrated there by carrying his I down - still carrying it down to earth with the spirit-self - from the East to the West through Greece, North Africa, Italy, Spain over to Europe through the hearts of men at the same time in which he penetrated here through nature.

So that we see: Here, working from west to east, legible within nature for those who can read, the history of the Mystery of Golgotha, as it were, as the natural science of the higher graded from Arthur's Round Table; from east to west a current - now not in wind and waves, not in air and water, not over mountains and sunbeams, but a current through the blood of men, through the hearts of men, seizing the blood of men - from Palestine through Greece into Italy and Spain.

So that we can say: On the one side it goes through nature, on the other side it goes through the blood, through the hearts of men. These two currents go towards each other: the one which still plays in nature, which is still with the whole pagan current today, carries the pre-Christian, the pagan Christ, the Christ who was spread as a solar being by such men as the Knights of the Round Table, but also the many others, before the Mystery of Golgotha. This current still carries the pre-Christian Christ through the world at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. And a large part of it emanated from the current that is summarized under the title of the current from the Round Table of Arthur. You can still come across these things today: there is pagan Christianity, Christianity that is not linked to the historical event of Golgotha.

Christianity that ties in with the mystery of Golgotha, that passes through the blood of men, that passes through the hearts and souls of men, is the opposite. Two currents that go towards each other: The pre-Christian Christ current, I would like to say, as if etherealized - the Christian Christ current. The one later became known as the Artus current; the other became known as the Grail current. Both met each other later. And they encountered each other within Europe and above all in the spiritual world.

What can we call this movement? The Christ who descended through the Mystery of Golgotha entered the hearts of men. In the hearts of men themselves he moved from East to West, from Palestine through Greece, via Italy to Spain. The Christianity of the Grail spread through the blood, through the hearts of men. The Christ undertook his journey from east to west.

In contrast, the spirit-ether image of Christ came from the West, brought about by the Mystery of Golgotha, but still carrying Christ with the Sun Mystery within it.

A great and wonderful thing is taking place behind the scenes of world history. From the West, pagan Christianity, Arthurian Christianity, also appearing under a different name and in a different form; from the East, Christ in the hearts of men. The encounter: Christ, the real Christ who came to earth, meets his image, which is carried towards him, flowing from West to East. 869 is the encounter. Up to this year, we have clearly distinguished between a current going north and across Central Europe, which, whether it was called Baldur or something else, carried the Christ as the sun hero within it. And the Arthurian knights spread their culture under the banner of Christ as the sun hero.

The other current, which is rooted in the heart, which later became the Grail current, is to be seen more in the south from the east, it carries the actual, the true, the real Christ. The one coming from the west carries a cosmic image towards him, so to speak.

The encounter of Christ with himself, of Christ as the brother of man and of Christ as the sun hero, who is only present in the image, this encounter, this confluence of Christ with his own image takes place in the 9th century.

Thus I have described to you the inner course of time in the first centuries after the Mystery of Golgotha, in those first centuries in which, as I have already mentioned, the souls were there who have now reappeared and who have brought with them from their earlier lives on earth the urge to move honestly towards the anthroposophical movement.

When we look at this significant Artus current from west to east, it appears as the one that carries the solar impulse into earth civilization. Thus within this Artus current there undulates and weaves that which in Christian terminology can be called the Michael current, that Michael current in the spiritual life of humanity into which we as modern people have again been moving since the end of the seventies of the last century. After that power, which can be described with the Christian name Gabriel, had ruled for three to four centuries as the directing power in European civilization, it was replaced - at the end of the seventies of the last century - by the Michael dominion, which will again last three to four centuries, will live on and weave and undulate in the spiritual life of mankind and in which we are just now standing inside.

So we have at least cause in our present - because we ourselves again live within the Michael current - we have cause to point to such Michael currents.

We find this Michael current when we look at the Artus current in the time that preceded the Mystery of Golgotha, which originally came from the English West and was inspired by the Mysteries of Hybernia. We see this Michael current in an older form when we look at what happened centuries before the emergence of the Mystery of Golgotha from northern Greece, from Macedonia, through that international, that cosmopolitan current which is linked to the name of Alexander the Great and which was under the influence of that worldview which is known under the name of Aristotelianism. What took place in pre-Christian times through Aristotle and Alexander was then in the Michael dominion in the same way as we are now in the Michael dominion, and at that time the Michael impulse was on earth just as it is now in the spiritual life. Whenever there is a Michael impulse in humanity on earth, then is the time when that which has been established in a cultural center, in a spiritual center, is spread over many peoples of the earth, in all regions where it is possible.

This happened in pre-Christian times through the Alexander campaigns. What had been gained within the Greek culture was spread across the humanity in which it could be spread. And if one had asked Aristotle and Alexander: Where did you get that which sits in your hearts as the impulse to spread the spiritual life of your time? - they would have answered with a different name, but in essence: From the impulse of Michael, the one who works as the servant of Christ from the sun. For of the various Archangeloi who alternately rule the culture, Michael, who rules in the Alexander Age and again in our age, belongs to the Sun. The one who followed in the Alexander Age, Oriphiel, belongs to Saturn. The one who then followed Oriphiel, Anael, belongs to Venus. The archangel who ruled European civilization in the 4th and 5th centuries, Zachariel, belongs to the sphere of Jupiter. Then Raphael came from the sphere of Mercury at the time when a kind of medical culture way of thinking flourished in particular in the background of what took place as European civilization. Then Samael arrived around the 12th century. Samael belongs to Mars. Then came Gabriel, who belongs to the lunar sphere. And now, since the seventies of the last century, Michael, who belongs to the solar sphere, entered again. Thus the rulership over the spiritual life of the earth continues in rhythm through these seven beings from the hierarchy of the Archangeloi. So if we look back, where was the last reign of Michael? It was in the time of Alexander. It was there as that which had taken place through centuries as Greek civilization, carried over to Asia, carried over to Africa, concentrated in the spiritually powerful city of Alexandria with its significant spiritual heroes.

This is a peculiar sight for the occult vision. If one goes back these few centuries before the Mystery of Golgotha: one sees from Macedonia across to the East - thus again from West to East, but further to the East - the current that one then also sees from the Anglo-Irish souls, again from West to East. During the reign of Alexander Michael reigns on earth. During the reign of Arthur, under the rule of Michael, who now works down from the sun, that which I have described to you is carried down from the sun.

But how was it then later, after the Mystery of Golgotha had expired, with the spreading of that kind of spirit which had been carried over to Asia by Alexander the Great through the conquests, the Aristotelian?

We then see how, at the same time as Charlemagne was establishing a kind of Christian culture in Europe in his own way, Harun al Rashid was at work over in Asia, in the Near East. At the court of Harun al Rashid we see everything that was present in oriental wisdom, in spirituality, in architecture, in art, in science, in religion, in literature, in poetry, in everything. And we see a counselor next to Harun al Rashid who, while standing next to Harun al Rashid, is not initiated in all this, but who was an initiate in ancient times, in earlier lives on earth. And we see among these two people, under Harun al Rashid and under his advisor, completely changed that which was transplanted to Asia as Aristotelianism, that which was still shown by Aristotle from the ancient wisdom of nature to the people he could teach; we see that which was Alexandrianism, which was Aristotelianism, at the court of Harun al Rashid, permeated and impregnated by Arabism, by Mohammedanism.

And then we see carried over into Christian development that which emanated from Harun al Rashid, which emanated from Arabism. Again, I would like to say, carried after Christianity, pushed into Christianity, through Greece, but especially through North Africa, through Italy to Spain, a kind of Arabism.

But Harun al Rashid and his advisor had previously passed through the gate of death. From the life that they now led from death to the new birth, above the earthly one, they pursued what was taking place below as the Mohammedan-Moorish moves into Spain, they pursued from the spiritual world what they themselves had cultivated and what was spreading through their successors, Harun al Rashid more by casting his gaze from the spiritual world to Greece, Italy, Spain; his counselor, by casting his gaze on that which spread from the East through the regions north of the Black Sea, through Russia, to Central Europe.

The question before us is: What happened to Alexander, what happened to Aristotle himself? They were deeply connected with the Michael reign, but not at the time on earth when the Mystery of Golgotha took place.

Now we must vividly imagine the two opposing images. On earth there are people who are contemporaries of the Mystery of Golgotha. Christ becomes man, passes through the Mystery of Golgotha, and from then on lives on in the earthly sphere. What is it like on the sun? There are the souls who once belonged to Michael, who lived in the sphere of Michael. They are the ones who see from the sun how Christ leaves the sun. On earth are those who see Christ's arrival; on the sun are those who see Christ's departure: they see him descend to earth. That is the contrast. And this is experienced preferably by those who in earthly life took part in the reign of Michael, which was in Alexander's time; they experience, so to speak, the reverse Christ event: the departure of the Christ from the sun. They continue to live - I will not mention inconsequential incarnations now - they continue to live and they experience the age of the 9th century after Christ, which is significant for the earthly world in the spiritual world, approximately the year 869, because firstly what I have just indicated to you takes place there: the encounter of the Christ with his image, with his spirit of life, with that which was still present of the pre-Christian pagan Christ. But there is also an encounter between the individualities that lived in Alexander the Great and Aristotle, with the individuality that lived in Harun al Rashid and the individuality that lived in his advisor: the Mohammedanized Aristotelianism of Asia in spiritual development in Harun al Rashid and the advisor after his death with Alexander and Aristotle after his death. But the one was the Aristotelianism and Alexandrianism that absorbed Mohammedanism, the other was the real Aristotelianism, not those later teachings that had already passed through people. Aristotle and Alexander had seen the mystery of Golgotha from the sun.

There the great confrontation, that heavenly council so to speak, took place between the Mohammedanized Aristotelianism and the Christianized Aristotelianism, but the Aristotelianism Christianized in the spiritual world.

So one can say: Here in the world that directly adjoins our physical earthly world as the spiritual world, Alexander and Aristotle and Harun al Raschid and his advisor met, discussing the further progress of the Christianization of Europe, pointing to that which had to come at the end of the 19th century, in the 20th century, when the Michael rule can again be on earth.

And all this came into being, took place as if illuminated by that event of the meeting of Christ with his counter-image. It was all under this impression. The spiritual life of human beings was projected, one could say thread-drawn, in an intensive way in the spiritual world, which directly adjoins the physical world on earth.

And down on earth itself, the fathers of the Church gathered in Constantinople for the eighth general ecumenical council and adopted the dogma that man does not consist of body, soul and spirit, but only of body and soul, and that the soul has some spiritual qualities. The trichotomy - as it was called, that man consists of body, soul and spirit - the trichotomy was abolished. Anyone who continued to believe in it in Europe became a heretic. The Christian fathers in Europe avoided at all costs ever speaking of the ‘trichotomy’, of body, soul and spirit, but only spoke of body and soul.

What happened in the supersensible worlds in the year 869, as I have described it to you, cast its shadow down into the world. The dark age of the Kali Yuga took up a special impulse of its darkness, while that which I have just described to you took place above it.

This was the real course of events: in the physical world the Council of Constantinople, in which the spirit is abolished; in the world immediately adjoining the physical world a heavenly council, which took place in such a way that the Christ himself met his counter-image.

But it was clear that we had to wait until the new Michael reign could begin on earth. But there were always teachers who knew something of what was actually going on behind the scenes of existence, even if they were, so to speak, in decadence; there were always teachers who knew how to depict, even if sometimes not very accurately, what the spiritual content of the world is, what underlies that which is in the spiritual world immediately adjacent to the physical world. And such teachers sometimes found ears that listened to them. And those ears that listened to them belonged to people who heard of Christianity in such a way that they only heard a broken word here or there, but nevertheless something of what is to come in the 20th century, after the Michael reign will have begun again.

These people, my dear friends, in your own souls sit the souls who were embodied at that time and had listened to such souls who spoke of the coming Michael reign; spoke of the coming Michael reign under the influence of such impulses as they came down from that heavenly council of which has been spoken.

From such experiences in earlier life, in the first Christian centuries - not exactly in the 9th century, but before and later, but especially before - the urge developed to look unconsciously, when the Michael reign came at the end of the 19th century, at the beginning of the 20th century, to the place where spiritual life is now really being cultivated again under the influence of the Michael reign. This planted itself in the souls of those who heard of teachings that contained something of the mysteries of which we have spoken today.

So the longing to come closer to the Christianity that was to be spread anthroposophically under the influence of Michael at the end of the 19th century, the beginning of the 20th century, planted itself karmically in the souls. And what these souls experienced at that time now finds its expression in the re-embodiment in that certain souls find access to the anthroposophical movement.


Teachings which were linked to a kind of confluence of old, pre-Christian cosmic Christianity and the inner Christian teaching, teachings which were linked to spiritual life and weaving in nature and which could nevertheless be linked to the Mystery of Golgotha, were now taught continuously, taught on earth at the time when the souls who now feel themselves urged towards anthroposophy had already passed through the gate of death again, lived in the life between death and a new birth, some also descending to earth, incarnating themselves. We see how the old teachings that still looked at Christianity in a cosmic way lived on on earth, the old teachings that propagated traditions of the old mysteries; we see such teachings propagated by important European schools, such as, for example, the school of Chartres in the 12th century, where such important teachers taught as Bernardus Sylvestris, Alanus ab Insulis and other great teachers who taught in the school of Chartres. We see how such teachings lived and worked, for example, in the Brunetto Latini mentioned to you last Sunday. Brunetto Latini, the great teacher of Dante, carried such teachings within him. In this way we see the propagation of that which still had a connection between cosmic Christianity and purely human, earthly Christianity, which was becoming more and more prevalent on earth.

That was the counter-image to which the earthly Council of Constantinople corresponded on earth: that in the way I told you, a continuous connection took place between what took place in the spiritual worlds, what took place in the world immediately adjacent to our physical world, and our physical world. There was a constant connection. Thus the most important teachers of Chartres felt inspired by the real Alexander and the real Aristotle, but also in the most outstanding sense by Plato and by everything that drew on Plato and Neoplatonism in the mysticism that prevailed in the Middle Ages at that time.

And something very significant took place. Those people who had preferably gathered around Michael, who had preferably incarnated in the Alexander Age, were now living in the spiritual world. They were already looking down on something like the Christian development through the teachers of Chartres. But they waited until the teachers of Chartres, the last who still taught cosmic Christianity, came up into the spiritual world. And it was at a certain point in time, at the end of the 12th century, at the beginning of the 13th century, that the more Platonic teachers of Chartres met with those who had gone through the heavenly council of 869 in the supernatural sphere, which directly adjoined the earthly sphere. And there, if I may express myself in trivial earthly terms for this sublime matter, a kind of meeting took place between those who, as the teachers of Chartres, had just ascended into the spiritual world and were now to experience further development in the spiritual world, and those others who were to descend directly, among whom were the immediate individualities of Alexander and Aristotle themselves, who then embodied themselves immediately afterwards in the Dominican Order. And it took place on earth in that which is so misjudged today, which would be worth to be recognized more deeply in its meaning, it took place in that which appeared on earth as scholasticism, the preparation for everything later, which was then to take place in the later Michael age.

And in order to really settle into Christianity, in order to stand completely within Christianity, those who belonged to the Michael sphere, who lived in the old Alexander age, who had not participated in the first Christian centuries or only in insignificant incarnations, embodied themselves in order to settle into Christianity, in the Dominican order or in other Christian orders, but mainly in the Dominican order. They then went up through the gate of death into the spiritual world and continued to work in the spiritual world.

Then, in the 15th century - it lasted into the 16th century, the time conditions are quite different for the spiritual world - that tremendous instruction in the supersensible took place, which went out from Michael himself for his own. There a supersensible, a spiritual school was founded, so to speak, a school in which Michael himself was the teacher, a school in which the corresponding people took part, who at that time were inspired especially by the earlier Michael age, inspired then by living into Christianity in the way I have described. All those disembodied human souls who belonged to Michael took part in that great school which took place supersensibly in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. All those beings from the hierarchy of the Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, who belonged to the Michael current, took part. Numerous elemental beings took part.

A significant review of all ancient mystery beings took place there. A precise insight was given to the souls about the old mystery being, looking back into the sun mysteries, into the mysteries of the other planets. But the outlook for the future was also opened up, for what was to begin in the new Michael Age, which began towards the end of the 19th century and is now prevailing. All this passed through the souls at that time. It was again the same souls who felt themselves pushed towards the anthroposophical movement in our Michael Age.

In the meantime, I would like to say, the last impact took place on earth. Harun al Rashid embodied himself again, founded the impulse of materialism in his re-embodiment, appeared as Baco of Verulam. The universality of Baco of Verulam is from Harun al Rashid, but the intellectualism and materialism that lives in Bacon is also from Harun al Rashid. Bacon appeared as the reincarnated Harun al Rashid. His counselor, who took the other path, appeared in the same age as Amos Comenius.

And so we see, while Christianity underwent the most important development in the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th century and so on in the illumination of Aristotelianism in the supersensible, materialism was founded spiritually on earth: founded in science by Bacon, the reincarnated Harun al Raschid, founded in education under Amos Comenius, the reincarnated counselor of Harun al Raschid. The two worked together.

And Amos Comenius and Bacon, as they passed through the gate of death, both brought about strange things in the spiritual world. When Baco of Verulam passed through the gate of death, it became apparent how, through the special way of thinking he had adopted in the Bacon incarnation, a whole world of idols, demonic idols, emanated from his etheric body, which filled the spiritual world of which I have just spoken, in which the after-effects of that spiritual council took place among the individualities who were taught by Michael. Idols spread out in this world.

It is already the case, as described in my first Mystery, that what happens on earth has powerful effects in the spiritual world. Bacon's earthly way of thinking had the tumultuous effect of spreading a whole world of idols into the spiritual world.

And from what Amos Comenius had actually founded on earth as a kind of materialistic pedagogy, the foundation, the world, the sphere, the world atmosphere was formed, so to speak, for what Bacon's idols were. I would like to say: Bacon provided the idols, and what belonged to the idols as other realms was provided by Amos Comenius through what had taken place on earth. For just as we as human beings have the mineral kingdom and the plant kingdom around us, so these idols of Bacon had the other kingdoms they needed around them.

And those individuals who were once on earth under the leadership of Alexander and Aristotle now had to devote themselves to combating all of this, to combating these demonic idols. This took place right up to the moment when the French Revolution took place on earth.

Those idols that could not be fought, those demons, idol demons that had escaped in battle, so to speak, then descended to earth and inspired what was the materialism of the 19th century, with everything that followed. These are the inspirers of 19th century materialism!

The souls who had remained behind, who had enjoyed the teachings of Michael under the assistance of the individualities of Aristotle and Alexander, came down to earth again at the end of the 19th century, at the beginning of the 20th century, with the impulses within them that I have described. And many of these souls can be recognized again in those who come to the anthroposophical movement. This is the karma of those who approach the anthroposophical movement honestly, with inner sincerity.

It is a shocking thing when it is described as it stands in the immediate background of what is happening outwardly in the present. But it is something that must be sunk into the souls, into the hearts of those who call themselves anthroposophists, under the influence of the Christmas impulse from the Goetheanum. It is something that should live in the hearts, in the souls of those who call themselves anthroposophists. And this will give one the strength to continue working now; for those who are anthroposophists today, who are anthroposophists in the honest, true sense, will have a strong urge to come down to earth again soon. And within the Michael prophecy it is foreseen how numerous anthroposophical souls will come to earth again with the end of the 20th century in order to bring to full culmination what is to be founded today with strong power as an anthroposophical movement.

This is what should actually move anthroposophists: This is where I stand. The anthroposophical impulse is in me. I recognize it as the Michael impulse. I wait by strengthening myself for my waiting through the right anthroposophical work in the present and by making use of the short interim period that is granted to anthroposophical souls in the 20th century between death and a new birth, in order to return at the end of the 20th century and continue the movement with a much more spiritual strength. I am preparing myself for this new age from the 20th into the 21st century - so says a true anthroposophical soul - because many destructive forces are on earth. All cultural life, all civilized life on earth must go into decadence if the spirituality of the Michael impulse does not take hold of people, if people are not able to lift up again that which civilization wants to roll down today.

If such honest anthroposophical souls are found who want to carry spirituality into earthly life in this way, then there will be an upward movement. If such souls are not found, then decadence will roll on. The world war with all its evil accompaniments will only be the beginning of something even worse. For today humanity is faced with a great eventuality: the eventuality of either seeing everything that is civilization roll down into the abyss, or to lift it up through spirituality, to continue in the sense of what lies in the Michael impulse, which stands before the Christ impulse.

This, my dear friends, is that which I have had to develop before your souls in this presence, that which I would have it continue to work in your souls. For as I have often said when, after a pleasant, satisfying meeting, I had to decide what could be negotiated, what could be worked on in such a meeting: Anthroposophists, when they are united in physical life, are together, accept this as their karma, but remain united even when they are apart in physical space. So let us remain united in those signs that can show themselves to us before the spiritual eye, before the spiritual ear, if we take in such things in full earnestness, as I would have liked them to flow if I had been understood through what I have been able to develop before you in these three hours, my dear anthroposophical friends.