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Karmic Relationships III
GA 237

1 August 1924, Dornach

VIII. Ahriman's Fight Against the Michael Principle — The Message of Michael

We shall now have to describe how the individual anthroposophist can come to experience his karma through the simple fact that he has placed himself into the Anthroposophical Society, or at any rate into the Anthroposophical Movement, through all the previous conditions of which we have already spoken. To this end it will be necessary for me to add a few explanations to what I set forth last Monday. I told you of the deeply important super-sensible School at the beginning of the 15th century. To characterise it we can say: Michael himself was the great Teacher in that School. Numbers of souls, human souls who were then in the life between death and a new birth, and numbers too of spiritual beings who do not have to enter earthly incarnation, but spend the aeons, during which we live, in an ethereal or other higher form of higher existence,—all these human, super-human and sub-human beings, belonged at that time to the all-embracing School of the Michael Power. They were, so to speak, disciples of Michael. And you will remember, last Monday I told you a little of the content of the teaching given at that time.

Today we will begin by emphasising this one point: the previous Michael dominion, having lasted three centuries and finding its culmination in the Alexandrian epoch of pre-Christian time, was withdrawn from the earth, and the dominions of the other Archangeloi followed. At the time when on earth, within the earthly realm, the Mystery of Golgotha took place, the Michael community were united in the Spirit, with all the spiritual and human-spiritual beings who belonged to them. How did they feel and perceive the Mystery of Golgotha? Christ at that time was taking His departure from their realm—the realm of the Sun. Such was their experience; while the human beings who were then living upon earth had to experience the Mystery of Golgotha quite differently. For Christ was coming down to them to the earth.

Now this is an immense, far-reaching and gigantic contrast in experience, as between the one kind of human soul and the other,—a contrast which we need to penetrate and understand with all our heart and mind.

Then there began the time when the Cosmic Intelligence, that is to say, the essence of Intelligence that is spread out over the great universe, which had been subject to the unlimited rulership of Michael until the end of the Alexandrian epoch, gradually passed into the possession of man on earth and fell, so to speak, out of the hands of Michael.

You must realise, my dear friends: the evolution of mankind with respect to these things took place as follows. Till the end of the Alexandrian time, nay even afterwards,—and for certain groups of human beings long, long afterwards,—when a man was intelligent there was always the consciousness, not that he had evolved the Intelligence within him, but that he was gifted with it from the spiritual worlds. If a man thought a clever thought, the cleverness of it was ascribed to the inspiration of spiritual Beings. It is indeed of fairly recent date that man ascribes his cleverness, his intelligence, to himself. This is due to the fact that the rulership of Intelligence has passed from the hands of Michael into the hands of men. When Michael at the end of the eighteen-seventies again assumed his regency in the guidance of earthly destinies, he found the Cosmic Intelligence, which had fallen away from him entirely since the 8th or 9th century A.D.,—he found it again in the realm of mankind below.

Thus it was in the last third of the 19th century, when the Gabriel dominion was over and the Michael dominion began to spread. It was as though Michael, coming to the intelligent human beings, arrived at a point where he could say: Here do I find again that which has fallen away from me, which I administered in times long past.

Now in the Middle Ages there was a great conflict between the leading men of the Dominican Order and those who, in a continuation of Asiatic Alexandrianism, had found their way over into Spain,—Averroes, for example. What was the substance of this conflict? Averroes and those on his side—the Mohammedan followers of Aristotelian learning—said: “Intelligence is universal, common to all.” They only spoke of a pan-Intelligence, not of an individual human Intelligence. To Averroes the individual human Intelligence was but a kind of mirrored reflection in the single human head. In its reality it had only a general, universal existence.

I will draw a mirror, thus (drawing on the blackboard). I might equally well have drawn a mirror not with nine parts only, but with hundreds, thousands and millions. Over against it is an object which will be reflected. So it was for Averroes, who was attacked so vigorously by Thomas Aquinas. For Averroes—in the tradition of the old Michael epoch—Intelligence was pan-Intelligence, one Intelligence and one only, which the several human heads reflected. As soon as the human head ceases to work, the individual Intelligence is no more. Now was this really true?

The fact is this. That which Averroes conceived had been true till the end of the Alexandrian age. It was simply a cosmic and human fact until the end of that age. But Averroes held fast to it while the Dominicans received into themselves the evolution of mankind. They said, “It is not so.” They might of course have said, “It was so once, but it is not so today.” But they did not say this. They simply took the actual and true condition at that time (the 13th century) which became even more so in the 14th and 15th centuries. They said: “Now everyone has his own intellect, his own intelligence.”

This was what really happened, and to bring these matters to full clearness of understanding was the very task of the super-sensible School of which I spoke last Monday. It was repeated in that School again and again in many metamorphoses, inasmuch as the character of the ancient Mysteries was again and again described. Wonderfully clearly and visibly, not in super-sensible Imaginations, (these only came at the beginning of the 19th century) but in super-sensible Inspirations, there was described what I have often been able to give here in a reflected radiance—the essence of the ancient Mysteries.

Then too they pointed to the future, to what was to become the new life of the Mysteries. They pointed to all that was to come, though not in the way of the old Mysteries which had come to human beings who did not yet possess Intelligence on earth, and who, accordingly, still had a dream-like experience of super-sensible worlds. They pointed to that new life of the Mysteries which we must now begin to understand in the realm of Anthroposophy, and which is absolutely compatible with the full Intelligence of man—the clear, light-filled Intelligence.

Let us now enter a little into the more intimate details of the teachings of that super-sensible School. For they led to a knowledge of something, of which only a kind of shadowy reflection has existed in the world-conceptions of men upon the earth since the old Hebrew time and in the Christian era. It exists, to this day (when a far deeper insight ought already to prevail) in the large majority of men only as a dim reflection out of old traditions. I mean the teaching about Sin, about the sinful human being, the teaching about man, who at the beginning of human evolution was predestined not to descend so deeply into the material realm as he has actually descended.

We can still find a good version of this teaching in St. Martin, the ‘Unknown Philosopher.’ He still did teach his pupils that originally, before human evolution on the earth began, man stood upon a certain height from which he then sank down through a primeval Sin which St. Martin describes as the Cosmic Adultery. By a primeval Sin man descended to that estate in which he finds himself today.

St. Martin here points to something that was inherently contained in the doctrine of Sin during the whole of human evolution, I mean, the idea that man does not stand at that high level at which he could be standing. All teachings about inherited Sin were justly connected with this idea, that man has descended from the height which originally was his.

Now by following this idea to its conclusion, a world-conception of a very definite shade or colouring had gradually been evolved. This kind of world-conception said in effect: Man has become sinful (and to become sinful means to fall from one's original height). And since man has in fact become sinful, he cannot see the world as he would have been able to see it in his sinless condition before the Fall. Man, therefore, sees the world darkly and dimly. He sees it not in its true form. He sees it with many illusions and false fantasies. Above all, he sees what he sees in outer Nature, not as it really is or with its true spiritual background. He sees it in a material form which is not there in reality at all. Such was the meaning of the saying: Man is sinful. Such was its meaning in ancient time and—in the traditions—frequently even to this day. Thus upon earth too, those who had kept the tradition of the Mysteries continued to teach: Man cannot perceive the world, he cannot feel in the world, he cannot act in the world as he would think and feel and act if he had not become sinful,—if he had not descended from the height for which his Gods originally predestined him.

Now we may turn our gaze to all the leading Spirits in the kingdom of Archangeloi who follow one another in earthly rule, so that this earthly dominion is exercised by the several Archangeloi in turn through successive periods of three to three-and-a-half centuries. In the last three or four centuries it has been the dominion of Gabriel. Now it will be that of Michael, for three hundred years to come. Let us turn our gaze therefore to the whole series of these Archangel Beings: Gabriel, Raphael, Zachariel, Anael, Oriphiel, Samael, Michael. As we look to all these Beings, we can characterise the relation that exists between them and the loftier Spirits of the Hierarchies, somewhat as follows.

I beg you not to take these words lightly or easily. We have but human words to express these sublime realities. Simple as the words may sound, they are not lightly meant. Of all these Angels, the number of whom is seven, six have to a very considerable extent (not entirely—Gabriel most of all—but even he not altogether)—six, as I said, have to a very considerable extent resigned themselves to the fact that man is faced with Maya, with the great illusion, because, in his quality which no longer accords with his original pre-destination, he has in fact descended from his first stature. Michael alone, Michael is the only one (I say again, I am forced to use banal expressions) Michael is the only one who would not give in. Michael, and with him those who are the Michael spirits even among men, continues to take this stand: I am the Ruler of the Intelligence. And the Intelligence must be so ruled that there shall not enter into it any illusion nor false fantasy, nor anything that would restrict the human being to a dark and vague and cloudy vision of the world.

My dear friends: to see how Michael stands there as the greatest opponent in the ranks of the Archangels, is an unspeakably uplifting sight,—overpowering, magnificent. And every time a Michael Age returned, it happened upon earth too that Intelligence as a means to knowledge became not only cosmopolitan as I have already said, but became such that men were filled through and through with the consciousness: We can after all ascend to the Divinity.

This consciousness: “We can after all ascend to the Divine,” played an immense part at the end of the last Michael Age, the Michael Age before our own. Starting from ancient Greece, the places of the ancient Mysteries everywhere were in a state of discouragement; an atmosphere of discouragement had come over them all. Discouraged were those who lived on in Southern Italy and Sicily. The successors of the ancient Pythagorean School of the sixth pre-Christian century had been well-nigh extinguished. They were filled with discouragement.

Once again, those who were initiated in the Pythagorean Mysteries saw how much illusion, illusion of materialism, was spreading over the whole world.

Discouraged too were those who were the daughters and sons of ancient Egyptian Mysteries. Oh, these Egyptian Mysteries! It was only like the slag from wonderful old veins of precious metal, when they still handed down the deep old teachings, such as were expressed in the legend of Osiris, or in the worship of Serapis. And where were those mighty and courageous ascents to the spiritual world that had taken their start, for example, from the Mysteries of Diana at Ephesus? Even the Samothracian Mysteries, the wisdom of the Kabiri, could now only be deciphered by individuals who bore deep within them the impulse of greatness to soar upward with might and main. By such souls alone could the clouds of smoke that ascended from Axieros, etc., from the Kabiri, be deciphered.

Discouragement everywhere! Everywhere a feeling of what they sought to overcome in the ancient Mysteries as they turned to the secret of the Sun Mystery, which is in truth the secret of Michael. Everywhere a feeling: Man cannot, he is unable.

This Michael Age was an age of great trial and probation. Plato, after all, was but a kind of watery extract of the ancient Mysteries. The most intellectual element of this extract was then extracted again in Aristotelianism, and Alexander took it on his shoulders.

This was the word of Michael at that time: Man must reach the Pan-Intelligence, he must take hold of the Divine upon earth in sinless form. From the centre of Alexandria the best that has been achieved must be spread far and wide in all directions, through all the places of the Mysteries, discouraged as they are. This was the impulse of Michael. This is indeed the relation of Michael to the other Archangeloi. He has protested most strongly against the Fall of man.

This too was the most important content of his teaching, the teaching with which he instructed his own in the super-sensible School of which I spoke last Monday. It was as follows: Now that the Intelligence will be down among men upon the earth, having fallen from the lap of Michael and from his hosts,—now in this new Age of Michael, men will have to become aware of the way of their salvation. They must not allow their Intelligence to be overcome by sinfulness; rather must they use this age of Intelligence to ascend to the spiritual life in purity of Intelligence, free from all illusion.

Such is the mood and feeling on the side of Michael as against the side of Ahriman. On Monday last I characterised this great contrast. Already the very strongest efforts are being made by Ahriman, and more still will be made in the future—the strongest efforts to acquire the Intelligence that has come into the hands of men. For if men once became possessed by Ahriman, Ahriman himself, in human heads, would be possessing the Intelligence.

My dear friends, we must learn to know this Ahriman, these hosts of Ahriman. It is not enough to find the name of Ahriman contemptible or to give the name of Ahriman to so many beings whom one despises. That is of no avail. The point is that in Ahriman there stands before us a cosmic Being of the highest imaginable Intelligence, a cosmic Being who has already taken the Intelligence entirely into the individual, personal element. In every conceivable direction Ahriman is in the highest degree intelligent, over-intelligent. He has at his command a dazzling Intelligence, proceeding from the whole human being, with the single exception of the part of the human being which in the human forehead takes on a human form.

To reproduce Ahriman in human Imaginations we should have to give him a receding forehead, a frivolously cynical expression, for in him everything comes out of the lower forces, and yet from these lower forces the highest Intelligence proceeds. If ever we let ourselves in for a discussion with Ahriman, we should inevitably be shattered by the logical conclusiveness, the magnificent certainty of aim with which he manipulates his arguments. The really decisive question for the world of men, in the opinion of Ahriman, is this: Will cleverness or stupidity prevail? And Ahriman calls stupidity everything that does not contain Intelligence within it in full personal individuality. Every Ahriman-being is over-endowed with personal Intelligence in the way I have now described; critical to a degree in the repudiation of all things unlogical; scornful and contemptuous in thought.

When we have Ahriman before us in this way, then too we shall feel the great contrast between Ahriman and Michael. For Michael is not in the least concerned with the personal quality of Intelligence. It is only for man that the temptation is ever-present to make his Intelligence personal after the pattern of Ahriman. Truth to tell, Ahriman has a most contemptuous judgment of Michael. He thinks Michael foolish and stupid,—stupid, needless to say, in relation to himself. For Michael does not wish to seize the Intelligence and make it personally his own. Michael only wills, and has willed through the thousands of years, nay through the aeons, to administer the Pan-Intelligence. And now once more, now that men have the Intelligence, it should again be administered by Michael as something belonging to all mankind—as the common and universal Intelligence that benefits all men alike.

We human beings shall indeed do rightly, my dear friends, if we say to ourselves: the idea that we can have cleverness for ourselves alone is foolish. Certainly we cannot be clever for ourselves alone. For if we want to prove anything to another person logically, the first thing we must presume is that the same logic holds good for him as for ourselves. And for a third party again it is the same logic. If anyone were able to have a logic of his own it would be absurd for us to want to prove anything to him by our logic. This after all is easy to realise; but it is essential in the present age of Michael for this realisation also to enter into our deepest feelings.

Thus behind the scenes of existence is raging the battle of Michael against all that is of Ahriman. And this, as I said last Monday, is among the tasks of the anthroposophist. ... He must have a feeling for the fact that these things are so at the present time. He must feel that the cosmos is as it were in the very midst of the battle.

You see, this battle was already there in the cosmos, but it became significant above all since the 8th or 9th century, when the Cosmic Intelligence gradually fell away from Michael and his hosts and came down to men on earth. It only became acute when the Spiritual Soul began to unfold in humanity, at the point of time which I have so often indicated, at the beginning of the 15th century. In individual spirits who lived on earth at that time, we see, even upon earth, some sort of reflection of what was taking place in the great super-sensible School of which I spoke last Monday. We see something of it reflected in individual men on the earth.

In recent lectures we have said much of heavenly reflections in earthly schools and institutions. We have spoken of the great School of Chartres, and others. But we can speak of this in relation to individual human beings too. Thus at the very time when the Spiritual Soul began to evolve in civilised mankind—when Rosicrucianism, genuine Rosicrucianism, was nurturing the early beginnings of the impulse to the Spiritual Soul,—something of the impulse which was at work above the earth struck down like lightning upon a spirit living in that age. I mean Raymond of Sabunda. What he taught at the beginning of the 15th century is almost like an earthly reflection of the great super-sensible doctrine of Michael which I have characterised.

He said: men have fallen from the vantage-point that was given to them originally by their Gods. If they had remained upon that point, they would have seen around them all that lives in the wondrous crystal shapes of the mineral kingdom, in the amorphous mineral kingdom, in the hundred-and-thousand fold forms of the plant kingdom, in the forms of the animal, all that lives and moves in water and air, in warmth and in the earthly realm. All this they would have seen as it really is, in its true nature.

Raymond of Sabunda called to mind, how the Tree of Sephiroth, or the Aristotelian categories (those generalised concepts that look so strange to one who cannot understand them) contain what is meant to guide us through Intelligence, up into the universe. How dry, how appallingly dry do these categories seem as they are taught in the textbooks of Logic. Being, having, becoming, here, there—ten of these categories, ten abstract concepts, and people say: it is too dreadful, it is appalling to have to learn such abstractions. Why should anyone grow warm with enthusiasm for ten generalised concepts—being, having, becoming and so forth?

But it is just as though someone were to say: here is Goethe's Faust. Why do people make so much fuss of it? It only consists of A, B, C, D, E, F, ... to Z. Nothing else is there in the book, only A, B, C, D ... Z in various combinations and permutations. Certainly one who cannot read, and takes Goethe's Faust in hand, will not perceive the greatness that is contained in it. He will only see A, B, C, D ... to Z. One who does not know how the A, B, C, D, are to be combined, who does not know how they are related to one another, cannot read Goethe's Faust.

So it is, in relation to the reading of words, with the Aristotelian categories. There are ten of them, not so many as the letters of the alphabet, but they are indeed the spiritual letters. And anyone who knows how to manipulate ‘being,’ ‘having,’ ‘becoming,’ etc., in the right way,—just as we must know how to treat the several letters so that they produce the Faust of Goethe,—anyone who knows how to do this, may still be able to divine what Aristotle for example said of these things in his instruction of Alexander.

Raymond of Sabunda was one who still drew attention to such things. He had knowledge of them. He said: Look for instance at what is still contained in Aristotelianism. There we find something that has still remained of that old standpoint from which man fell at the beginning of human evolution on earth. Originally, men still preserved some memory of it. It was the reading in the Book of Nature. But men have fallen; they can no longer truly read in the Book of Nature. Hence God in His Compassion has given them in the Bible, the Book of Revelation, in order that they may not entirely depart from the Divine and Spiritual. Thus Raymond of Sabunda still taught, even in the 15th century, that the Book of Revelation exists for sinful man because he is no longer able to read in the Book of Nature. And in the way he taught these things, we can already perceive his idea that man must find once more the power to read in the great Book of Nature.

This is the impulse of Michael. Now that the Intelligence administered by him has come down to men, it is his impulse to lead men again to the point where they will read once more in the Book of Nature. The great Book of Nature will be opened again. Men will read once more in the Book of Nature.

In reality, everyone who is in the Anthroposophical Movement should feel that he can only understand his karma when he knows that he personally is called to read once more, spiritually, in the Book of Nature—to find the spiritual background of Nature, God having given His Revelation for the intervening time.

Read the inner meaning that is contained in my book Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Spiritual Life (Modern Mysticism).1Mysticism and Modern Thought. Anthroposophical Publishing Co. On the last page you will see (in the form, of course, in which I could and had to write it at that time), you will see that the whole point was to guide the Anthroposophical Movement in this direction—to awaken once more the faculty to read not only in the Book of Revelation, in which I said that Jacob Boehme was still reading, but in the Book of Nature. The blundering, inadequate, and frequently repulsive attempts of modern natural science must be transmuted by a spiritual world-conception, till there arise from them a true reading of the Book of Nature. I think even this expression, ‘the Book of Nature,’ is to be found at the end of my book Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Spiritual Life. From the very beginning, the Anthroposophical Movement had this ‘Shibboleth.’ From the very beginning it was an appeal to those who should now listen to the voice of their own karma, and hear more or less dimly and subconsciously the call: ‘Behold, my karma is somehow moved and taken hold of by this Michael message which is sounding forth into the world. I, through my own karma, have to do with this.’

There are the human beings after all, who have been always there. They are always there. They have come, and they will come ever and again. There are those who are prepared in some sense to depart from the world and come together in this which is now called the Anthroposophical Society. As to the sense in which this ‘departure from the world’ is to be conceived—whether it be more or less real, or outwardly formal or the like—that is another matter. For the individual souls it is a kind of departure—a going away from the world and into something different from the world in which they have grown up. All manner of karmic experiences come to the individual, each in his own way. The one will have this or that to undergo through the fact that he must tear himself loose from old connections and unite with those who are seeking to cultivate the message of Michael. There are some who feel this union with the mission of Michael as a kind of salvation. There are others who feel it in a different way, finding themselves in this position: ‘I am drawn to Michael on the one hand and to Ahrimanism on the other. I cannot choose. Through my life I stand in the midst of these things.’ There are some whose inner courage tears them away, albeit they still preserve the outward connections. There are some who still find the outer connections easily. And this perhaps is best for the present condition of the Anthroposophical Society. But in every case, those human beings who are within the Anthroposophical Movement stand face to face with others who are not in it, including some with whom they are deeply, karmically connected from former earthly lives. Here we can look into the strangest of karmic threads.

My dear friends, we shall only be able to understand these karmic threads if we remember all the preceding conditions that we have now set forth. We shall only understand them when we have really seen how the souls who today, out of their unconscious Being, feel impelled to the Anthroposophical Movement, have undergone experiences together. For they have undergone much together in former lives on earth. Moreover the great majority of them belonged to the hosts who heard the Michael message in the super-sensible in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, and who took part at the beginning of the 19th century in the great Imaginative ceremony of which I have here spoken. Thus we behold a mighty Cosmic and Tellurian call, addressed to the deep karmic relationship of the members of the Anthroposophical Society. We heard last Monday, how this call will continue throughout the 20th century, and how the culmination will come at the end of this century. Of these things, my dear friends, I will speak again next Sunday.

Achter Vortrag

Es wird sich nunmehr darum handeln, darzustellen, wie der einzelne Anthroposoph sich in seinem Karma erlebt eben einfach dadurch, daß er aus den Vorbedingungen heraus, von denen ja gesprochen worden ist, in die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft oder wenigstens in die anthroposophische Bewegung nun sich hineingestellt hat. Dazu wird noch notwendig sein, daß ich einiges heute erläuternd zu dem hinzufüge, was ich am letzten Montag hier auseinandergesetzt habe. Ich habe hingewiesen auf die bedeutungsvolle übersinnliche Lehrschule im Beginne des 15. Jahrhunderts, die so charakterisiert werden darf, daß man sagt: In ihr war Michael selber der große Lehrer. Und Scharen von Menschenseelen, welche dazumal zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt standen, aber auch Scharen von solchen geistigen Wesenheiten, die nicht dazu bestimmt sind, in eine Erdeninkarnation überzugehen, sondern die in einem ätherischen oder sonstigen höheren Dasein die Äonen, in denen wir leben, zubringen, sie alle, diese Wesenheiten, also menschliche, übermenschliche, untermenschliche Wesenheiten, sie gehörten sozusagen dazumal zur umfassenden Schülerschaft der Michaelischen Macht. Und ich habe Ihnen ja auch schon am letzten Montag einiges von dem charakterisiert, was dazumal der Inhalt der betreffenden Lehre war.

Heute wollen wir einmal den einen Punkt zunächst herausheben: die Michaelische Herrschaft, die die vorletzte, also eigentlich gegenüber der gegenwärtigen die letzte war, die durch drei Jahrhunderte gedauert hat und im Alexanderzeitalter in der vorchristlichen Zeit ihr Ende gefunden hat, diese Michaelische Herrschaft, sie zog sich dann zurück; andere Erzengelherrschaften kamen über die Erde. Die Michael-Gemeinschaft war zur Zeit, als auf Erden das Mysterium von Golgatha stattfand, vereint eben mit den geistigen und menschlichgeistigen Wesenheiten, die zu ihnen gehörten. Sie empfanden das Mysterium von Golgatha so, daß der Christus dazumal ihren Bereich, den Sonnenbereich, verließ, währenddem die damals auf der Erde lebenden Menschen das Mysterium von Golgatha so empfinden mußten, daß der Christus zu ihnen auf die Erde kam.

Das ist ein gewaltiger, ich möchte sagen, ins Riesengroße sich erstreckender Gegensatz im Erleben der einen und der anderen Art von Seelen, und wir müssen uns recht herzlich in diesen Gegensatz vertiefen.

Dann fing die Zeit an, in der allmählich die kosmische Intelligenz, also das intelligente Wesen, welches ausgebreitet ist über die ganze Welt, welches in der unbeschränkten Verwaltung des Michael stand bis zum Ende der Alexanderzeit, allmählich in den Besitz der Menschen auf Erden überging, Michael sozusagen entfiel.

Sehen Sie, meine lieben Freunde, die Entwickelung der Menschheit ging ja in bezug auf diese Dinge in der folgenden Art vonstatten. Bis zum Ende der Alexanderzeit, ja bis in die Nach-Alexanderzeit, und für einzelne Menschengruppen noch lange darüber hinaus, war immer das Bewußtsein vorhanden, daß, wenn einer intelligent war, er nicht selber in sich diese Intelligenz entwickelte, sondern daß sie ihm geschenkt wurde aus den geistigen Welten. Wenn man etwas dachte, das gescheit war, so schrieb man die Tatsache, daß es gescheit war, der Inspiration der geistigen Wesenheiten zu. Das ist eben neueren Datums, daß man sich die Gescheitheit, das Intelligentsein selber zuschreibt. Und das ist deshalb, weil die Verwaltung der Intelligenz aus der Hand des Michael in die Hände der Menschen übergegangen ist.

Michael fand, als er Ende der siebziger Jahre des 19. Jahrhunderts wiederum seine Regentschaft in der Führung der Erdengeschicke antrat, Michael fand die ihm seit dem 8. oder 9, nachchristlichen Jahrhundert vollständig entfallene kosmische Intelligenz im Bereiche der Menschen unten.

So war es schon im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts, als die Michael-Herrschaft sich wiederum ausbreitete nach der Gabriel-Herrschaft. Da kam Michael sozusagen, indem er zu den intelligenten Menschen kam, zu dem, wovon er sagen konnte: Da finde ich wieder, was mir entsunken ist, was ich früher verwaltet habe. Und es bestand ja der große Streit im Mittelalter zwischen den führenden Persönlichkeiten des Dominikanerordens und denjenigen, die sich in der Fortsetzung des asiatischen Alexandrinismus nach Spanien hinübergezogen hatten, wie in Averroes und den Seinigen, eigentlich darinnen, daß Averroes und die Seinigen, also die mohammedanischen Nach-Aristoteliker, sagten: Intelligenz ist etwas Allgemeines. Sie sprachen nur von einer Pan-Intelligenz, nicht von einer einzelnen menschlichen Intelligenz. Es war das, was einzelne menschliche Intelligenz ist, für Averroes nur eine Art Spiegelung im einzelnen Menschenkopfe von dem, was aber in Realität nur allgemein vorhanden ist.

Denken Sie sich einmal, jemand hat einen Spiegel, der so ist (siehe Zeichnung), und ich könnte statt dieser neun Teile des Spiegels auch hundert und tausend und Millionen Teile herzeichnen natürlich. Hier wäre ein Gegenstand, der sich spiegelt. So war es für Averroes, der von Thomas von Aquino ganz>lebhaft bekämpft wurde: Der Verstand, die Intelligenz war für ihn in der Tradition an die alte Michaelzeit eine Pan-Intelligenz, eine Intelligenz, die nur eine war; die einzelnen menschlichen Köpfe spiegelten das, so daß, wenn der menschliche Kopf nicht mehr wirkte, es keine individuelle Intelligenz gab. Was war denn also tatsächlich eigentlich der Fall?

Ja, sehen Sie, das, was Averroes sich vorstellte, das war richtig bis zum Ende der Alexanderzeit, das war einfach eine kosmisch-menschliche Tatsache bis zum Ende der Alexanderzeit; er hat es festgehalten. Die Dominikaner haben die Evolution der Menschheit aufgenommen, sie haben gesagt: So ist es nicht! — Sie hätten natürlich auch sagen können: Es war einmal so, doch es ist heute nicht mehr so! — Aber das haben sie nicht getan; sie nahmen nur den Tatbestand, der eben im 13. Jahrhundert war, der dann besonders stark kam im 14., 15. Jahrhundert. Sie sagten: Jetzt hat jeder seinen eigenen Verstand. — Das war eben dasjenige, was da eintrat.

Und das zur völligen Klarheit zu bringen, das war die Aufgabe jener übersinnlichen Schule, von der ich am letzten Montag gesprochen habe. Das wurde in allen Metamorphosen in dieser übersinnlichen Schule immer wieder und wiederum betont, indem immer wieder und wiederum der Grundcharakter der alten Mysterien geschildert wurde. In einer großartigen anschaulichen Weise in übersinnlichen, nicht Imaginationen, die kamen erst im Beginne des 19. Jahrhunderts, aber in übersinnlichen Inspirationen wurde geschildert dasjenige, wovon ich in der Lage war, hier öfter den Abglanz zu geben, indem ich altes Mysterienwesen schilderte.

Dann aber wurde auch auf die Zukunft hingewiesen, auf das, was neues Mysterienwesen werden sollte, auf all dasjenige, was nun nicht wie das alte Mysterienwesen in den Menschen hineinkam, der auf der Erde nicht die Intelligenz hatte, der daher in traumhafter Weise die übersinnlichen Welten erleben konnte, sondern auf dasjenige Mysterienwesen, das wir anfangen müssen zu verstehen auf anthroposophischem Gebiete, das mit der völligen Intelligenz der Menschen, mit der klaren, lichtvollen Intelligenz absolut vereinbar ist.

Aber gehen wir ein wenig auf die Intimitäten der Lehre jener übersinnlichen Schule ein. Diese Intimitäten führten ja zu der Erkenntnis von dem, wovon sich eigentlich in den Weltanschauungen der Menschen auf Erden seit der alten hebräischen Zeit und wiederum innerhalb der christlichen Zeit nur eine Art Abglanz fand, wovon auch heute noch, wo schon tiefere Einsichten herrschen sollten, bei der weitaus größten Anzahl der Menschen sich nur noch ein traditioneller Abglanz findet: Es ist die Lehre von der Sünde, von dem sündhaften Menschen, von dem Menschen, der eigentlich am Ausgangspunkte der menschlichen Entwickelung dazu bestimmt gewesen wäre, nicht so tief in das Materielle herunterzusteigen, als er nun heruntergestiegen ist.

Eine gewisse noch gute Version dieser Lehre findet sich ja zum Beispiel bei Saint-Martin, bei dem «Unbekannten Philosophen», der durchaus noch seine Schüler lehrt, daß der Mensch in der Tat ursprünglich, bevor die Menschenentwickelung auf der Erde begann, auf einer gewissen Höhe stand, und daß er heruntergesunken ist durch eine Ursünde, die Saint-Martin den kosmischen Ehebruch nennt. Durch eine Ursünde ist der Mensch heruntergesunken zu demjenigen Stande, in dem er heute sich befindet. Nun, dadurch aber hat ja gerade SaintMartin auch hingewiesen auf das, was in der Lehre von der Sünde während der ganzen menschlichen Entwickelung vorhanden war: die Anschauung, daß der Mensch nicht auf der Höhe steht, auf der er stehen könnte. Alle Lehre von der Erbsünde wurde mit Recht mit dieser Anschauung verbunden, daß der Mensch eigentlich ursprünglich von seiner Höhe heruntergesunken ist.

Dadurch aber, daß man die Konsequenzen dieser Anschauung zog, hatte man eine ganz bestimmte Nuance der Weltanschauung herausgearbeitet, die Nuance, welche sagte: Da der Mensch nun einmal sündhaft geworden ist — und sündhaft werden, heißt eben heruntersinken von der ursprünglichen Höhe -, so kann er nicht so die Welt durchschauen, wie er sie sindenlos, wie er vor seinem Falle war, hätte anschauen können. Der Mensch sieht daher die Welt trübe. Er sieht sie nicht in ihrer wahren Gestalt, er sieht sie voller Illusionen und Phantasmen. Er sieht gerade das, was er draußen in der Natur schaut, sieht nicht, wie es ist mit seinem geistigen Hintergrunde; er sieht es in materieller Form, die in Wirklichkeit gar nicht da ist. Das heißt, der Mensch ist sündhaft für die Anschauung der alten Zeiten und für die Tradition vielfach noch heute. So daß also auf der Erde von denjenigen auch, die die Tradition der Mysterien bewahrten, durchaus gelehrt wurde: Der Mensch kann die Welt nicht so anschauen, er kann in der Welt nicht so fühlen, er kann in der Welt nicht so tun, wie er denken, fühlen und tun würde, wenn er nicht sündhaft geworden wäre, das heißt, wenn er von der Höhe, zu der ihn ja die zu ihm gehörigen Götter ursprünglich bestimmt haben, nicht heruntergefallen wäre.

Wenn wir nun hinschauen auf alle die führenden Geister aus der Reihe der Archangeloi, welche nacheinander sich so ablösen in der irdischen Herrschaft, daß diese Herrschaft immer durch etwa drei bis dreieinhalb Jahrhunderte ausgeübt wird, wie in den letzten drei bis vier Jahrhunderten durch Gabriel, jetzt durch Michael weiter durch drei Jahrhunderte, die da kommen werden, wenn wir auf die ganze Reihe dieser Archangeloi-Wesen: Gabriel, Raphael, Zachariel, Anael, Oriphiel, Samael, Michael hinschauen, so können wir das Verhältnis, das zwischen ihnen und den höheren Geistern der höheren Hierarchien besteht, etwa in der folgenden Art charakterisieren.

Bitte, nehmen Sie die Worte, die trivial klingen - aber man hat ja nur Menschenworte -, nehmen Sie die Worte für diese erhabenen Dinge nicht, ich möchte sagen, leicht hin; sie sind nicht leicht gemeint. Von allen diesen Engeln, deren sieben an der Zahl sind, haben sechs sich zwar nicht ganz — am meisten Gabriel, auch er nicht ganz -, aber doch sechs verhältnismäßig sehr stark sich abgefunden mit der Tatsache, daß die Menschen vor der Maja, vor der großen Illusion stehen, weil sie durch ihre Qualität, die nicht dem entspricht, wozu sie ursprünglich bestimmt waren, herabgestiegen sind von dieser ihrer ursprünglichen Gestalt. Einzig und allein Michael ist derjenige, der eben — ich muß mich, ich möchte sagen, banal ausdrücken - nicht nachgeben wollte und der mit denen, die Michael-Geister sind auch unter den Menschen, auf dem Standpunkte steht: Ich bin der Verwalter der Intelligenz. Die Intelligenz muß so verwaltet werden, daß in sie nicht eintritt die Illusion, die Phantastik, das, was den Menschen nur dunkel und nebulos in die Welt hineinschauen läßt.

Meine lieben Freunde, zu durchschauen, wie da Michael dasteht als der größte Opponent in der Erzengelschar, das ist ein ungeheuer erhebender Anblick, das ist etwas überwältigend Grandioses. Und jedesmal, wenn eine Michaelzeit da war, geschah auch auf Erden dieses, daß die Intelligenz als Mittel zur Erkenntnis nicht nur kosmopolitisch wurde, wie ich es schon dargestellt habe, sondern so wurde, daß die Menschen sich durchdrangen mit dem Bewußtsein: Wir können doch zur Gottheit hinauf.

Dieses «Wir können doch zur Gottheit hinauf», das spielte eine ungeheuer große Rolle am Ende der letzten alten Michaelzeit. Da waren, von Griechenland ausgehend, überall die Stätten der alten Mysterien so, daß über sie hingezogen war die Atmosphäre der Entmutigung. Entmutigt waren diejenigen, die in Unteritalien, in Sizilien die Nachfolger der alten pythagoreischen Schule waren, entmutigt waren sie, weil der Zauberglanz, der einmal im 6. vorchristlichen Jahrhundert über der pythagoreischen Schule gewaltet hatte, verglommen war. Wiederum wurde - auch von den in die pythagoreischen Mysterien Eingeweihten — gesehen, wie das Illusionäre, das materialistisch Illusionäre sich über die Welt hin verbreitet.

Entmutigt waren die Töchter und Söhne der alten ägyptischen Mysterien. Oh, diese ägyptischen Mysterien, sie waren schon zur Alexanderzeit so entmutigt, daß sie, ich möchte sagen, nur noch wie Schlacken alter wunderbarer Metallflüsse fortpflanzten solche tiefen Lehren, wie sie sich zum Ausdrucke brachten in der Osiris-Sage oder in dem Hinaufschauen zu dem Serapis. Drüben in Asien, wo waren jene mutigen, gewaltigen Erhebungen in die geistige Welt, wie sie etwa ausgingen von den Diana-Mysterien in Ephesus? Selbst die Samothrakischen Mysterien, die Weisheiten der Kabiren, sie konnten nurmehr von denjenigen, die in sich selber den Impuls zum Aufschwunge, zum Großen trugen, entziffert werden; nur von denen, die so in ihrer Seele geartet waren, konnten noch die Rauchwolken, die aufstiegen aus Axieros, Axiokersos, Axiokersa, den Kabiren, entziffert werden.

Entmutigung war überall eingetreten! Überall ein Empfinden, möchte ich sagen, desjenigen, was man in den alten Mysterien versuchte zu überwinden, indem man sich an das Geheimnis des Sonnenmysteriums wandte, das eigentlich das Geheimnis des Michael ist überall ein Empfinden: der Mensch kann nicht!

Diese Michaelzeit war eine Zeit der großen Prüfung. Plato war im Grunde genommen nur noch eine Art von wässerigem Extrakt des alten Mysterienwesens. Aus diesem Extrakt wurde dann das Intellektuellste durch den Aristotelismus geholt, und Alexander nahm es auf seine Schultern.

Das war damals das Michael-Wort: Der Mensch muß zur PanIntelligenz kommen, zur Erfassung des Göttlichen auf der Erde in sündloser Form. Es muß verbreitet werden überallhin das Beste, was gewonnen worden ist, über die entmutigten Mysterienstätten hin, mit dem Mittelpunkte in Alexandrien. Das war der Impuls des Michael. Und dies ist eben das Verhältnis des Michael zu den anderen Archangeloi: daß er in der stärksten Weise protestierte gegen den Fall der Menschen.

Das ist aber auch. dasjenige, was der wichtigste Inhalt seiner Lehre ist, wie er sie in jener übersinnlichen Lehrschule, von der ich letzten Montag gesprochen habe, den Seinigen beigebracht hat. Dieser wichtigste Inhalt ist der: Wenn nun die Intelligenz unter den Menschen sein wird, wenn nun die Intelligenz, entfallen dem Schoße der Michaeliten, unten auf der Erde sein wird, dann müssen die Menschen in diesem Michaelischen Zeitalter spüren, empfinden müssen sie, daß sie sich da zu retten haben, weil die Intelligenz nicht befallen werden darf von der Sündhaftigkeit, weil dieses Zeitalter der Intelligenz benutzt werden muß, um in reiner Intelligenz, frei von der Illusion, zum spirituellen Leben aufzusteigen.

Das ist dasjenige, was die Stimmung ist auf der Michael-Seite gegenüber der Stimmung auf der Ahrimanseite. Denn ich habe den Gegensatz auch schon letzten Montag charakterisiert: wie von Ahriman die stärksten, die allerstärksten Anstrengungen schon gemacht werden und weiter gemacht sein werden, diese unter die Menschen geratene Intelligenz sich anzueignen, die Menschen von sich besessen zu machen, so daß Ahriman in den Menschenköpfen die Intelligenz besitzen würde.

Sehen Sie, meine lieben Freunde, man muß, möchte ich sagen, diesen Ahriman, das heißt diese Scharen des Ahriman, nur kennen. Es ist nicht damit getan, daß man den Namen Ahriman verächtlich findet und einer Schar von verächtlichen Wesen den Namen des Ahriman gibt. Damit ist gar nichts getan. Worauf es ankommt, ist, daß in Ahriman vor allen Dingen eine Weltenwesenheit vor uns steht von denkbar höchster Intelligenz, eine Weltenwesenheit, die schon ganz ins Individuelle hereingenommen hat die Intelligenz. Ahriman ist nach jeder Richtung hin im hohen Grade überintelligent; eine blendende Intelligenz beherrscht er, die aus dem ganzen menschlichen Wesen kommt, nur nicht aus demjenigen Teil des menschlichen Wesens, das sich gerade in der menschlichen Stirne menschlich formt.

Würden wir den Ahriman in menschlicher Imagination nachbilden, so müßten wir ihm eine zurücklaufende Stirn geben und einen frivolzynischen Ausdruck, weil alles bei ihm aus diesen niederen Kräften kommt, aber aus diesen niederen Kräften kommt eben die höchste Intelligenz. Mit Ahriman sich etwa in eine Diskussion einzulassen, würde bedeuten, daß man geradezu zerschmettert würde von der logischen Folgerichtigkeit, von der grandiosen Treffsicherheit, mit der er seine Argumente handhabt. Für die Welt der Menschen, so ist die Meinung Ahrimans, muß sich erst entscheiden, ob Klugheit oder Torheit herrschen wird. Und töricht nennt Ahriman alles, was nicht in voller persönlicher Individualität die Intelligenz in sich schließt. Denn jedes Ahrimanwesen ist persönlich überintelligent, so wie ich es Ihnen eben geschildert habe, kritisch in der Ablehnung alles Unlogischen, spottend, verächtlich denkend.

Sehen Sie, wenn man so Ahriman vor sich hat, dann wird man natürlich auch den vollen Gegensatz zwischen Ahriman und Michael empfinden. Denn Michael kommt es auf das Persönliche der Intelligenz gar nicht an; für den Menschen ist nur stets die Versuchung da, die Intelligenz nach dem Musterbilde des Ahriman auch persönlich zu machen. Ahriman hat eigentlich von Michael ein sehr verächtliches Urteil, Ahriman hat von Michael das Urteil, daß Michael dumm, töricht sei. Natürlich ist das in Relation zu sich selber: weil Michael nicht persönlich die Intelligenz an sich heranziehen will, sondern weil Michael will und wollte durch Jahrtausende, durch Äonen, die PanIntelligenz verwalten, und jetzt auch wiederum, indem die Menschen die Intelligenz haben sollten, sie als etwas gemeinsam Menschliches, als etwas, was allen Menschen als solchen als die allgemeine Intelligenz zugute kommt, verwalten will.

Gewiß, wir würden recht tun als Menschen, wenn wir uns sagen würden: der Glaube, daß wir die Gescheitheit allein für uns haben können, der ist töricht. Denn wir können nicht gescheit nur für uns sein. Wenn wir jemandem etwas logisch beweisen wollen, so setzen wir doch gerade voraus, daß für ihn dieselbe Logik gilt, und für den dritten wieder dieselbe Logik. Wenn einer eine eigene Logik haben könnte, ja, dann könnten wir ihm ja nichts beweisen wollen nach unserer Logik. Es ist eben die Eigentümlichkeit dieses Michael-Zeitalters, daß das durchaus auch in das Fühlen gehen muß, was schließlich einzusehen ist.

Und so tobt eigentlich hinter den Kulissen des Daseins der Kampf des Ahriman gegen den Michaelismus. Und das ist, wie ich schon am letzten Montag sagte, etwas, was zur Aufgabe des Anthroposophen gehört: eine Empfindung dafür zu haben, daß dieses jetzt so ist, daß sozusagen der Kosmos in diesem Kampfe drinnensteht.

Sehen Sie, Bedeutung gewann dieser Kampf, der im Kosmos schon war seit dem 8., 9. Jahrhundert, als nach und nach die kosmische Intelligenz dem Michael und seinen Scharen entsank, herunterkam unter die Erdenmenschen, aktuell wurde das erst, als die Bewußtseinsseele in jenem Zeitpunkte, auf den ich so oft hingedeutet habe, im Beginne des 15. Jahrhunderts, sich in der Menschheit zu entwickeln begann. Da sehen wir auch auf Erden in einzelnen Geistern, die dazumal eben auf der Erde lebten, etwas wie eine Spiegelung von dem, was in der großen übersinnlichen Lehrschule, von der ich letzten Montag gesprochen habe, stattfand; da sehen wir, daß etwas davon in den einzelnen Erdenmenschen sich spiegelte.

Wir haben ja in der letzten Zeit so vieles von himmlischen Spiegelungen in irdischen Schulen und Anstalten erörtert. Wir haben von der großen Schule von Chartres gesprochen, wir haben von anderen gesprochen. Aber auch für einzelne Menschen kann da gesprochen werden. Und da haben wir die merkwürdige Erscheinung, daß gerade da, wo die Bewußtseinsseele in der zivilisierten Menschheit sich zu entwickeln beginnt, da, wo das wahre Rosenkreuzertum diesen Aufgang, diesen Anfang des Impulses zur Bewußtseinsseele in die Hand zu nehmen hat, daß da in einen Geist dieses Zeitalters wie ein Blitz hineinschlug etwas von diesem überirdischen Impuls. Das war in Raimundus de Sabunda im 15. Jahrhundert. Und es ist fast wie ein irdischer Abglanz der großen übersinnlichen Michael-Lehre, die ich Ihnen nun charakterisiert habe, was da Raimundus de Sabunda lehrte im Beginne des 15. Jahrhunderts.

Er sagte: Die Menschen sind von dem Standpunkte, der ihnen ursprünglich von den zu ihnen gehörigen Göttern verliehen war, heruntergefallen. Wären sie auf diesem Standpunkte geblieben, sie hätten um sich alles das, was in den wunderbaren Kristallformen des Mineralreiches, was in dem ungeformten Mineralreiche lebt, was in den hundert- und tausendfältigen Formen des Pflanzlichen lebt, was in den Formen des Tierischen lebt, was sich regt und bewegt in Wasser, Luft, was sich regt und bewegt im Warmen und Irdischen, sie hätten all das so gesehen, wie es in seiner wahren Gestalt ist.

Raimundus von Sabunda erinnerte daran, wie einstmals im Sephirotbaum, in den Aristotelischen Kategorien, in jenen allgemeinen Begriffen, die so sonderbar ausschauen für den, der sie nicht versteht, wie in alledem enthalten ist dasjenige, was durch die Intelligenz hinaufführen soll in die geistige Welt. Wie trocken, wie schrecklich trocken nimmt sich für die Menschen aus, was in den Aristotelischen Kategorien enthalten ist, wenn da in den Logiken gelernt wird: Sein, Verhalten, Tun, da, dort - zehn solche Kategorien, zehn solche allgemeinen Begriffe. Da sagen die Menschen: Das ist natürlich zum Davonlaufen, solche allgemeinen Begriffe zu lernen, ist zum Davonlaufen! Warum soll man sich denn für zehn solche allgemeine Begriffe: Sein, Haben, Werden und so weiter, warum soll man sich denn dafür echauffieren? — Das ist aber gerade so, wie wenn jemand sagen würde: Da ist der Goethesche «Faust», da machen die Leute ein Wesen aus dem Goetheschen «Faust»! Der besteht doch nur aus a, b, c, d, e, f bis z! Es ist nichts anderes drinnen in dem Buch, nur in verschiedenen Kombinationen, als a, b, c, d, e, f bis z. Und einer, der nicht lesen kann und den Goetheschen «Faust» in die Hand nimmt, der wird nicht darauf kommen, was für eine ungeheure Größe darinnen ist, sondern wird immer nur a, b, c, d, e, f bis z sehen. Einer, der nicht weiß, wie a, b, c, d zu kombinieren sind, der nicht weiß, wie sie gegeneinander sich verhalten, der kann den «Faust» eben nicht lesen.

Sehen Sie, so ist es auch in bezug auf das Lesen der Worte mit den Aristotelischen Kategorien; ihrer sind zehn: Sein, Quantität — Menge, Qualität — Eigenschaft, Relation, Raum, Zeit, Lage, Verhalten, Tun, Leiden - ihrer sind nicht so viele wie Buchstaben. Es sind die geistiger Buchstaben. Wer Sein, Verhalten, Tun und so weiter in der richtigen Weise zu handhaben weiß, so wie man die einzelnen Buchstaben zu handhaben weiß, damit sie den «Faust» ergeben, der ahnt noch etwas von dem, was Aristoteles über diese Dinge zum Beispiel in der Unterweisung des Alexander gesagt hat.

Raimundus von Sabunda, er machte noch aufmerksam auf so etwas, er wußte noch von so etwas. Er sagte: Sieht man hin auf das, was zum Beispiel noch im Aristotelismus war, so ist es etwas, was geblieben ist von jenem alten Standpunkte, von dem die Menschen heruntergesunken sind im Beginne der menschlichen Erdenentwickelung. Daran haben sie sich noch im Anfang erinnert: das war das «Lesen im Buche der Natur». Aber die Menschen sind eben so tief heruntergefallen, daß sie nicht mehr in Wahrheit in dem «Buche der Natur» lesen können. Daher hat ihnen Gott, der sich ihrer erbarmte, die Bibel gegeben, oder das «Buch der Offenbarung», damit sie nicht ganz hinwegkommen von dem, was das Göttlich-Geistige ist.

Also Raimundus von Sabunda hat noch im 15. Jahrhundert gelehrt: Das «Buch der Offenbarung» ist da für den sündigen Menschen, weil der nicht versteht, in dem «Buche der Natur» zu lesen; aber er hat es so gelehrt, daß er schon gedacht hat: Die Menschen müssen wieder die Möglichkeit finden, in dem «Buche der Natur» zu lesen. Und das ist der Impuls des Michael: die Menschen, nachdem die von ihm verwaltete Intelligenz unter sie gekommen ist, wieder dazu zu bringen, das große Buch der Natur wiederum aufzuschlagen, in dem «Buche der Natur» zu lesen.

Eigentlich sollte jeder, der in der anthroposophischen Bewegung ist, fühlen, daß er sein Karma nur verstehen kann, wenn er erst weiß: An ihn geht persönlich die Aufforderung, wiederum in dem «Buche der Natur» geistig zu lesen, die geistigen Hintergründe der Natur zu finden, nachdem Gott die Offenbarung für die Zwischenzeit gegeben hat.

Nehmen Sie auf den Sinn, der enthalten ist in meinem Buche «Die Mystik im Aufgange des neuzeitlichen Geisteslebens». In diesem Buche werden Sie auf der letzten Seite sehen - nur eben in der Gestalt, wie ich es dazumal schreiben konnte und schreiben mußte —, daß es sich darum handelte, die anthroposophische Bewegung in dem Sinne zu führen, daß wiederum gelesen werden kann nicht nur in dem «Buche der Offenbarung», von dem ich sagte, daß noch Jakob Böhme darin gelesen hat, sondern auch in dem «Buche der Natur». Die stümperhaften, die ungenügenden, die oftmals schauderhaften Anfänge der neueren Naturwissenschaft, sie müssen umgewandelt, metamorphosiert werden durch eine spirituelle Weltanschauung in ein wirkliches Lesen in dem Buche der Natur. Auch ist, glaube ich, der Ausdruck vom «Buche der Natur» am Ende des Buches «Die Mystik im Aufgange des neuzeitlichen Geisteslebens» gebraucht. Vom Anfang an hatte die anthroposophische Bewegung dieses «Schibboleth». Vom Anfange an war das ein Appell an diejenigen Menschen, die nun hören sollten auf die Stimme ihres Karma, mehr oder weniger unterbewußt und dunkel vernehmen sollten den Ruf: Mein Karma wird etwas affiziert und ergriffen von dem, was als Michael-Botschaft da in die Welt tönt; ich habe durch mein Karma etwas damit zu tun.

Es sind ja schließlich Menschen, die dagewesen sind, die immer da sind, die da kamen, die immer wieder kommen und kommen werden, welche bereit sind, in einem gewissen Sinne hinwegzugehen von der Welt, sich zu sammeln in dem, was sich als Anthroposophische Gesellschaft zusammenfaßt. In welchem Sinne, mehr oder weniger, dieses Hinweggehen von der Welt aufzufassen ist, als wirklich, als formell und so weiter, das ist ja eine Sache für sich, aber eine Art Hinweggehen ist es für die einzelnen Seelen, eine Art Hingehen zu etwas, was anders ist als dasjenige, aus dem sie herausgewachsen sind. Die mannigfaltigsten karmischen Ergebnisse kommen ja an den einzelnen Menschen heran. Der eine erlebt das oder jenes dadurch, daß er sich aus Zusammenhängen herausreißen muß, daß er sich vereinigt mit denen, die die Michael-Botschaft pflegen wollen. Da sind solche, die diesen Anschluß an die Michael-Botschaft wie eine Art von Erlösung empfinden. Dann sind aber solche, die es empfinden, als ob sie in eine Lage versetzt sind wie etwa: Ich werde hingezogen zu Michael auf der einen Seite, zu dem Ahrimanismus auf der anderen Seite; ich kann nicht wählen, ich stecke durch das Leben darinnen! — Da sind solche, die ihr Mut herausreißt, die aber noch einen äußeren Zusammenhang haben. Da sind solche, die leicht den äußeren Zusammenhang finden; auch das ist möglich, und vielleicht sogar für den heutigen Zustand der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft noch das Allerbeste. Aber immer stehen Menschen, die innerhalb der anthroposophischen Bewegung stehen, anderen gegenüber, die nicht darinnen stehen, auch solchen, mit denen sie von früheren Erdenleben her karmisch tief verbunden sind. Da sehen wir dann hinein in die merkwürdigsten karmischen Fäden.

Verstehen können wir diese merkwürdigen karmischen Fäden nur, wenn wir uns erinnern werden an diese Voraussetzungen, die wir jetzt durchgesprochen haben, wo wir wirklich gesehen haben, wie die Seelen, die heute aus dem Unbewußten heraus den Drang empfinden hin zur anthroposophischen Bewegung, etwas miteinander durchgemacht haben in früheren Erdenleben, Dinge durchgemacht haben, indem sie zum größten Teile zu den Scharen gehörten, die die Michael-Botschaft im Übersinnlichen im 15., 16., 17. Jahrhundert gehört haben, die dann im Beginne des 19. Jahrhunderts den mächtigen imaginativen Kultus durchgemacht haben, von dem ich hier gesprochen habe. Wir sehen einen mächtigen kosmisch-tellurischen Ruf an die karmischen Zusammenhänge der Mitglieder der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft herangehen. Wir haben ja letzten Montag gehört, wie der sich über das ganze 20. Jahrhundert erstrecken wird, und wie die Kulmination eintreten wird am Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts.

Davon, meine lieben Freunde, möchte ich dann am nächsten Sonntag sprechen.

Eighth Lecture

It will now be a matter of describing how the individual anthroposophist experiences himself in his karma simply because he has now placed himself in the Anthroposophical Society, or at least in the anthroposophical movement, out of the preliminary conditions of which we have already spoken. It will be necessary for me to add a few explanatory remarks today to what I discussed here last Monday. I referred to the significant supersensible school of teaching at the beginning of the 15th century, which may be characterized in such a way that one says: In it Michael himself was the great teacher. And multitudes of human souls, which at that time stood between death and a new birth, but also multitudes of such spiritual entities, which are not destined to pass over into an earthly incarnation, but which spend the eons in which we live in an etheric or other higher existence, they all, these entities, therefore human, superhuman, subhuman entities, they belonged, so to speak, at that time to the comprehensive student body of the Michaelic power. And last Monday I already characterized some of what was the content of the relevant teaching at that time.

Today we want to emphasize one point first: the Michaelic rule, which was the penultimate, therefore actually the last compared to the present one, which lasted through three centuries and found its end in the age of Alexander in the pre-Christian time, this Michaelic rule, it then withdrew; other archangelic rulerships came over the earth. At the time when the Mystery of Golgotha took place on earth, the Michael community was united with the spiritual and human-spiritual beings who belonged to them. They experienced the Mystery of Golgotha in such a way that the Christ then left their realm, the solar realm, while the people living on earth at that time had to experience the Mystery of Golgotha in such a way that the Christ came to them on earth.

This is a tremendous, I would like to say enormous, contrast in the experience of the one and the other kind of souls, and we must delve into this contrast very deeply.

Then the time began in which the cosmic intelligence, that is, the intelligent being, which is spread over the whole world, which was under the unlimited administration of Michael until the end of the time of Alexander, gradually passed into the possession of men on earth, Michael, so to speak, fell away.

You see, my dear friends, the development of mankind took place in the following way with regard to these things. Until the end of the Alexander period, indeed until the post-Alexander period, and for individual groups of people long after that, there was always the awareness that if someone was intelligent, he did not develop this intelligence within himself, but that it was given to him from the spiritual worlds. If one thought something that was clever, one attributed the fact that it was clever to the inspiration of the spiritual beings. It is of recent date that one ascribes cleverness, intelligence, to oneself. And that is because the administration of intelligence has passed from the hands of Michael into the hands of men.

When Michael again took up his regency in the management of the earth's destiny at the end of the seventies of the 19th century, Michael found the cosmic intelligence that had completely eluded him since the 8th or 9th century AD in the realm of human beings below.

This was already the case in the last third of the 19th century, when the Michael dominion spread again after the Gabriel dominion. There Michael came, so to speak, by coming to the intelligent people, to that of which he could say: There I find again what I have lost, what I used to administer. And the great dispute in the Middle Ages between the leading figures of the Dominican Order and those who had moved over to Spain in the continuation of Asiatic Alexandrinism, as in Averroes and his followers, actually consisted in the fact that Averroes and his followers, i.e. the Mohammedan post-Aristotelians, said: Intelligence is something general. They spoke only of a pan-intelligence, not of an individual human intelligence. For Averroes, what individual human intelligence is, was only a kind of reflection in the individual human head of what in reality only exists in general.

Imagine someone has a mirror that is like this (see drawing), and instead of these nine parts of the mirror I could of course also draw hundreds and thousands and millions of parts. Here would be an object that is reflected. That's how it was for Averroes, who was fought quite>vividly by Thomas Aquino: The mind, the intelligence, was for him, in the tradition to the old Michael age, a pan-intelligence, an intelligence that was only one; the individual human minds mirrored that, so that when the human mind ceased to operate, there was no individual intelligence. So what was actually the case?

Yes, you see, what Averroes envisioned, that was true until the end of Alexander's time, that was simply a cosmic human fact until the end of Alexander's time; he recorded it. The Dominicans recorded the evolution of humanity, they said: That's not the way it is! - Of course, they could also have said: It was like that once, but it is no longer like that today! - But they didn't do that; they just took the facts that were there in the 13th century, which then became particularly strong in the 14th and 15th centuries. They said: Now everyone has their own mind. - That was precisely what happened.

And to bring this to complete clarity was the task of the supersensible school that I spoke about last Monday. This was emphasized again and again in all the metamorphoses in this supersensible school by describing again and again the basic character of the ancient mysteries. In a magnificently vivid way in supersensible, not imaginations, which only came at the beginning of the 19th century, but in supersensible inspirations, that was described of which I was able to give a reflection here more often by describing ancient mysteries.

But then reference was also made to the future, to that which was to become the new Mystery Being, to all that which did not come into man like the old Mystery Being, who did not have the intelligence on earth, who could therefore experience the supersensible worlds in a dreamlike way, but to that Mystery Being which we must begin to understand in the anthroposophical field, which is absolutely compatible with the complete intelligence of man, with the clear, light-filled intelligence.

But let us look a little at the intimacies of the teaching of that supersensible school. These intimacies led to the realization of that of which there was actually only a kind of reflection in the worldviews of people on earth since ancient Hebrew times and again within the Christian era, of which even today, when deeper insights should already prevail, only a traditional reflection can still be found in the vast majority of people: It is the teaching of sin, of the sinful human being, of the human being who, at the starting point of human development, would actually have been destined not to descend so deeply into the material as he has now descended.

A certain still good version of this teaching can be found for example with Saint-Martin, with the “Unknown Philosopher”, who definitely still teaches his pupils that man indeed originally, before the development of man on earth began, stood on a certain height, and that he sank down through an original sin, which Saint-Martin calls cosmic adultery. Through an original sin man sank down to the state in which he finds himself today. But in this way Saint Martin also pointed out what was present in the doctrine of sin throughout human development: the view that man is not at the height at which he could be. All the doctrine of original sin was rightly linked to this view that man actually originally sank from his height.

But by drawing the consequences of this view, a very specific nuance of the worldview was worked out, the nuance that said: Since man has become sinful - and to become sinful means to sink down from the original height - he cannot see through the world as he could have seen it without sin, as he was before his fall. Man therefore sees the world dimly. He does not see it in its true form, he sees it full of illusions and phantasms. He sees precisely what he sees outside in nature, he does not see how it is with its spiritual background; he sees it in material form, which in reality is not there at all. That is to say, man is sinful for the view of ancient times and for tradition in many cases still today. Thus it was taught on earth by those who preserved the tradition of the Mysteries: Man cannot look at the world in this way, he cannot feel in the world in this way, he cannot do in the world in the way he would think, feel and do if he had not become sinful, that is, if he had not fallen from the height to which, after all, the gods belonging to him originally destined him.

When we now look at all the leading spirits from the series of the Archangeloi, which successively replace each other in the earthly rule, that this rule is always exercised through about three to three and a half centuries, as in the last three to four centuries through Gabriel, now through Michael further through three centuries, which will come, when we look at the whole series of these Archangeloi beings: Gabriel, Raphael, Zachariel, Anael, Oriphiel, Samael, Michael, we can characterize the relationship that exists between them and the higher spirits of the higher hierarchies in something like the following way.

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Please, do not take the words that sound trivial - but one has only human words - do not take the words for these sublime things, I would say, lightly; they are not meant lightly. Of all these angels, of whom there are seven in number, six have not quite resigned themselves - Gabriel most of all, he too not quite - but six have come to terms with the fact that men stand before the Maja, before the great illusion, because through their quality, which does not correspond to what they were originally destined for, they have descended from their original form. Only Michael is the one who - I must express myself, I would like to say banal - did not want to give in and who stands with those who are Michael spirits also among human beings: I am the administrator of intelligence. Intelligence must be administered in such a way that illusion, fantasy, that which allows man to see into the world only darkly and nebulously, does not enter into it.

My dear friends, to see through how Michael stands there as the greatest opponent in the archangelic host is a tremendously uplifting sight, it is something overwhelmingly grandiose. And every time there was a Michael time, this also happened on earth, that intelligence as a means of knowledge not only became cosmopolitan, as I have already described, but became such that people penetrated themselves with consciousness: We can go up to the Godhead after all.

This “We can still ascend to the Godhead” played a tremendously important role at the end of the last ancient Michael Age. Starting in Greece, the sites of the ancient Mysteries were everywhere in an atmosphere of discouragement. Discouraged were those who were the successors of the old Pythagorean school in Lower Italy, in Sicily, discouraged because the magic glow that had once reigned over the Pythagorean school in the 6th century before Christ had faded. Once again - even those initiated into the Pythagorean mysteries - saw how the illusionary, the materialistically illusionary was spreading across the world.

Discouraged were the daughters and sons of the ancient Egyptian Mysteries. Oh, these Egyptian Mysteries, they were already so discouraged in Alexander's time that they, I would like to say, only continued to propagate such deep teachings as they expressed themselves in the Osiris legend or in looking up to Serapis. Over in Asia, where were those courageous, mighty uplifts into the spiritual world, such as emanated from the Diana Mysteries in Ephesus? Even the Samothracian Mysteries, the wisdom of the Kabirs, could only be deciphered by those who carried within themselves the impulse for upliftment, for greatness; only by those who were so inclined in their souls could the clouds of smoke that rose from Axieros, Axiokersos, Axiokersa, the Kabirs, be deciphered.

Discouragement was everywhere! Everywhere a feeling, I would like to say, of that which one tried to overcome in the old mysteries by turning to the secret of the solar mystery, which is actually the secret of Michael everywhere a feeling: man cannot!

This Michael age was a time of great testing. Plato was basically only a kind of watery extract of the old mystery being. Aristotelianism then extracted the most intellectual from this extract, and Alexander took it on his shoulders.

This was then the Michael word: Man must come to pan-intelligence, to the apprehension of the divine on earth in sinless form. The best that has been gained must be spread everywhere, beyond the discouraged mystery sites, with the center in Alexandria. That was Michael's impulse. And this is precisely the relationship of Michael to the other Archangeloi: that he protested in the strongest way against the fall of men.

But this is also that which is the most important content of his teaching, as he taught it to his own in that supersensible school of teaching of which I spoke last Monday. This most important content is this: When now the intelligence will be among men, when now the intelligence, from the bosom of the Michaelites, will be down on earth, then men in this Michaelic age must feel, they must sense that they have to save themselves there, because the intelligence must not be afflicted by sinfulness, because this age of intelligence must be used to ascend to spiritual life in pure intelligence, free from illusion.

This is what the mood is on the Michael side compared to the mood on the Ahriman side. For I already characterized the contrast last Monday: how the strongest, the very strongest efforts are already being made and will continue to be made by Ahriman to appropriate this intelligence that has come among men, to make men obsessed with himself, so that Ahriman would possess the intelligence in the minds of men.

You see, my dear friends, one must, I would say, only know this Ahriman, that is, these hosts of Ahriman. It is not enough that one finds the name Ahriman contemptible and gives the name of Ahriman to a host of contemptible beings. That is not enough. What matters is that in Ahriman we have before us above all a world entity of the highest conceivable intelligence, a world entity that has already taken intelligence completely into the individual. Ahriman is highly over-intelligent in every direction; he commands a dazzling intelligence that comes from the whole human being, only not from that part of the human being that is formed humanly in the human forehead.

If we were to recreate Ahriman in human imagination, we would have to give him a receding forehead and a frivolous expression, because everything in him comes from these lower forces, but it is from these lower forces that the highest intelligence comes. To enter into a discussion with Ahriman, for example, would mean that one would be virtually crushed by the logical consistency, by the grandiose accuracy with which he handles his arguments. In Ahriman's opinion, the human world must first decide whether wisdom or foolishness will prevail. And Ahriman calls everything foolish that does not include intelligence in full personal individuality. For every Ahriman being is personally over-intelligent, as I have just described it to you, critical in its rejection of everything illogical, mocking, thinking contemptuously.

You see, if you have Ahriman before you in this way, then you will naturally also feel the complete contrast between Ahriman and Michael. For Michael is not concerned at all with the personal aspect of intelligence; for man there is only always the temptation to make intelligence personal according to the model of Ahriman. Ahriman actually has a very contemptuous judgment of Michael, Ahriman has the judgment of Michael that Michael is stupid, foolish. Of course, this is in relation to himself: because Michael does not want to personally draw intelligence to himself, but because Michael wants and has wanted to administer pan-intelligence through millennia, through eons, and now also wants to administer it as something commonly human, as something that benefits all people as such as the general intelligence.

Certainly, we would do right as human beings if we said to ourselves: the belief that we can have intelligence for ourselves alone is foolish. For we cannot be clever for ourselves alone. If we want to prove something logically to someone, we presuppose that the same logic applies to him, and the same logic applies to the third person. If someone could have his own logic, yes, then we could not want to prove anything to him according to our logic. It is precisely the peculiarity of this Michael Age that it must also go into feeling, which is ultimately understandable.

And so the battle of Ahriman against Michaelism is actually raging behind the scenes of existence. And this, as I said last Monday, is something that belongs to the task of the anthroposophist: to have a feeling for the fact that this is now the case, that the cosmos is, so to speak, involved in this battle.

You see, this struggle, which had already been going on in the cosmos since the 8th, 9th century, when the cosmic intelligence gradually deserted Michael and his hosts and came down among the people of earth, only became actual when the consciousness soul began to develop in humanity at that time to which I have so often referred, at the beginning of the 15th century. There we also see on earth in individual spirits, who at that time lived on earth, something like a reflection of what took place in the great supersensible school of teaching of which I spoke last Monday; there we see that something of it was reflected in the individual earth people.

We have recently discussed so much about heavenly reflections in earthly schools and institutions. We have spoken of the great school of Chartres, we have spoken of others. But we can also speak of individual people. And there we have the curious phenomenon that just when the soul of consciousness begins to develop in civilized mankind, just when true Rosicrucianism has to take this rise, this beginning of the impulse towards the soul of consciousness into its own hands, something of this supernatural impulse strikes like lightning into a spirit of this age. That was in Raimundus de Sabunda in the 15th century. And it is almost like an earthly reflection of the great supersensible Michael teaching, which I have now characterized for you, what Raimundus de Sabunda taught at the beginning of the 15th century.

He said: "Men have fallen from the position originally given to them by the gods belonging to them. If they had remained in this position, they would have seen around them everything that lives in the wonderful crystal forms of the mineral kingdom, in the unformed mineral kingdom, in the hundreds and thousands of forms of the vegetable kingdom, in the forms of the animal kingdom, that which moves and stirs in water and air, that which moves and stirs in the warm and earthly, they would have seen all this as it is in its true form.

Raimundus of Sabunda recalled how once in the Sephiro tree, in the Aristotelian categories, in those general concepts that look so strange to those who do not understand them, how in all this is contained that which is to lead up through the intelligence into the spiritual world. How dry, how terribly dry what is contained in the Aristotelian categories appears to people when they are taught in the logics: Being, behavior, doing, there, there - ten such categories, ten such general concepts. People say: Of course that's a runaway, learning such general concepts is a runaway! Why should we get so excited about ten such general concepts: being, having, becoming and so on? - But that's just like someone saying: There's Goethe's “Faust”, people are making a being out of Goethe's “Faust”! It only consists of a, b, c, d, e, f to z! There is nothing else in the book, only in different combinations, as a, b, c, d, e, f to z. And someone who cannot read and takes Goethe's “Faust” in his hand will not realize what an enormous size is in it, but will only ever see a, b, c, d, e, f to z. Someone who does not know how a, b, c, d are to be combined, who does not know how they relate to each other, cannot read “Faust”.

You see, it is the same with the Aristotelian categories when it comes to reading words; there are ten of them: being, quantity - quantity, quality - quality, relation, space, time, position, behavior, doing, suffering - they are not as many as letters. They are the spiritual letters. Whoever knows how to handle being, behavior, doing and so on in the right way, just as one knows how to handle the individual letters so that they make up the “fist”, still has some idea of what Aristotle said about these things, for example in the instruction of Alexander.

Raimundus of Sabunda, he still drew attention to something like this, he still knew about something like this. He said: "If you look at what was still in Aristotelianism, for example, it is something that has remained from that old standpoint from which people sank at the beginning of human development on earth. They still remembered this in the beginning: that was “reading in the book of nature”. But men have fallen so low that they can no longer read in truth in the “Book of Nature”. That is why God, who had mercy on them, gave them the Bible, or the “Book of Revelation”, so that they would not completely lose sight of what the divine-spiritual is.

So Raimundus of Sabunda still taught in the 15th century: The “Book of Revelation” is there for sinful man, because he does not understand how to read in the “Book of Nature”; but he taught it in such a way that he had already thought: People must again find the opportunity to read in the “Book of Nature”. And that is Michael's impulse: to bring people, after the intelligence he administers has come among them, to open the great book of nature again, to read in the “Book of Nature”.

In fact, everyone who is in the anthroposophical movement should feel that he can only understand his karma when he first knows: the invitation goes to him personally to read again spiritually in the “Book of Nature”, to find the spiritual background of nature, after God has given the revelation for the meantime.

Take up the meaning contained in my book “Mysticism in the Rise of Modern Spiritual Life”. In this book you will see on the last page - only in the form in which I could and had to write it at that time - that it was a matter of leading the anthroposophical movement in the sense that it can again be read not only in the “Book of Revelation”, of which I said that Jakob Böhme still read in it, but also in the “Book of Nature”. The bungling, the inadequate, the often shuddering beginnings of modern natural science must be transformed, metamorphosed by a spiritual worldview into a real reading of the Book of Nature. I believe that the expression “Book of Nature” is also used at the end of the book “Mysticism at the Dawn of Modern Spiritual Life”. From the beginning, the anthroposophical movement had this “shibboleth”. From the very beginning it was an appeal to those people who should now listen to the voice of their karma, more or less subconsciously and darkly hear the call: My karma is somewhat affected and seized by what is sounding into the world as Michael's message; I have something to do with it through my karma.

After all, there are people who have been there, who are always there, who came there, who will always come and come again, who are ready to go away from the world in a certain sense, to gather together in what is called the Anthroposophical Society. In what sense, more or less, this going away from the world is to be understood, as real, as formal and so on, that is one thing in itself, but it is a kind of going away for the individual souls, a kind of going towards something that is different from that out of which they have grown. The most varied karmic results come to the individual person. One person experiences this or that by having to tear himself away from contexts, by uniting with those who want to cultivate the Michael message. There are those who experience this connection to the Michael message as a kind of redemption. But then there are those who feel as if they have been placed in a position such as: I am drawn to Michael on the one hand, to Ahrimanism on the other; I cannot choose, I am stuck in it through life! - There are those who are torn out by their courage, but who still have an outer connection. There are those who easily find the outer connection; that too is possible, and perhaps even the very best thing for the present state of the Anthroposophical Society. But people who are within the anthroposophical movement are always confronted with others who are not, including those with whom they have a deep karmic connection from earlier earthly lives. We then see into the strangest karmic threads.

We can only understand these strange karmic threads if we remember these conditions that we have now discussed, where we have really seen how the souls who today feel the urge out of the unconscious towards the anthroposophical movement have gone through something together in earlier earthly lives, have gone through things, in that they belonged for the most part to the multitudes who heard the Michael message in the supersensible in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.They then went through the powerful imaginative cult at the beginning of the 19th century of which I have spoken here. We see a powerful cosmic-telluric call approaching the karmic connections of the members of the Anthroposophical Society. We heard last Monday how it will extend throughout the 20th century and how it will culminate at the end of the 20th century.

That, my dear friends, is what I would like to talk about next Sunday.