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Karmic Relationships VI
GA 240

20 July 1924, Arnheim

Lecture IX

The rulership of Michael in its cosmic, spiritual aspect shows us, as you will have gathered from what I have already told you, that he occupies a special position among those spiritual Beings whom we call the Archangeloi. And precisely because of its bearing upon the central theme of these lectures, we shall appreciate the significance of the fact that in the centuries preceding the founding of Christianity, Michael sent his impulses—his ‘cosmopolitan’ impulses—from the Sun to the Earth. As time went on, these cosmopolitan impulses disappeared: the Cosmic Intelligence fell away from Michael and by the eighth century A.D. had arrived on Earth. In earthly evolution we then find men whose thoughts were produced out of themselves, who are, as it were, ‘self-made’ thinkers. This personal, self-engendered thinking was then cultivated in preparation for the next reign of Michael. As we have seen, the wise Masters of the School of Chartres worked in unison towards this end with those souls who had been connected with the previous reign of Michael and who were predestined to develop the once cosmic but now earthly Intelligence. They were predestined to carry their work on into the nineteenth century when—at first in the spiritual world—it became possible, through the Imaginative Cult I have described to you, to prepare for what the Anthroposophical Movement was intended to achieve.

Since the last third of the nineteenth century we have been living in the initial stage of the new reign of Michael; throughout this time, and above all in our own day, preparation has to be made for what must come to pass in the twentieth century. For before the end of this present century a considerable number of human beings who have unfolded real understanding of Anthroposophy will have passed through a briefer period between death and rebirth than is usual and will again be united on the Earth under the leadership of those who were the Masters of Chartres and with those who have remained in direct connection with the sovereignty of Michael. This will take place in order that under the spiritual guidance of these two groups of beings the final, hallowed impulse may be given for the development of the spiritual life on Earth.

Anthroposophy can only be of real significance for those who want to ally themselves with it, when with a certain inner, reverent fervour they become conscious that they may indeed have their place within a sphere of happenings like those described yesterday. This realisation will not only kindle inner enthusiasm but also be a source of strength, giving us the knowledge that it is our task to be the continuers of what was once alive in the ancient Mysteries.

But this consciousness must be, and indeed can be, deepened in every direction. For in the light of what was said yesterday, we look back to the time when, united with a host of super-earthly Beings in the spiritual realm of the Sun, Michael sent down upon Earth those impulses and signs which inspired the deeds of Alexander on the one side and the Aristotelian philosophy on the other. Out of these impulses arose the last phase of the inspired Intelligence on Earth. Then, together with human souls who on his behalf carried out this work on Earth, together with his spiritual hosts and the hosts of human souls around these leading spirits, Michael witnessed the Mystery of Golgotha from his abode on the Sun. Truly our souls may be stirred by picturing that moment when Michael, together with a host of Angeloi, Archangeloi and human souls, witnessed the Christ departing from the Sun in order to enter the bodily sheaths of a man and, through what He could experience in a human body on Earth, to unite Himself with the further evolution of humanity. But for Michael himself this was at the same time the sign that henceforward he must allow the heavenly Intelligence, hitherto in his keeping, to stream down like holy rain upon the Earth, to fall away gradually from the Sun. And when the ninth century of the Christian era had come, those around Michael perceived: The content of what had been guarded hitherto under Michael, is now down below, upon the Earth.

What mattered now was that in complete harmony with the sovereignty of Michael there should arise all that came into the world through the Masters of Chartres and also through certain chosen souls in the Order of the Dominicans. In short, there came about the phase of evolution which from the beginning of the fifteenth century inaugurated the epoch of the Consciousness Soul—it is the phase of evolution in which we ourselves are living. Approximately in the first third of the preceding epoch, that is to say during the first third of the epoch of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul, as an outcome of Alexandrianism, the super-earthly Intelligence had spread in Asia, Africa and parts of Europe. Following upon this, came the time when Michael, the foremost Archangel-Spirit of the Sun, knew that the Cosmic Intelligence was passing away from this realm, away from his administration: the conditions were now established for the development of the Intelligence on the Earth. A further phase of development on Earth began in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of the Christian era, when Gabriel became the administrator—as I explained in my previous lecture—while Michael was free from his earlier obligations in the Cosmos.

Michael was now in an unusual position. In other circumstances, when an Archangelos is not himself the ruling Spirit in the affairs of Earth, he lets his impulses pour, nevertheless, into what the other Archangeloi are bringing to pass. The impulses from all the seven consecutive Archangelic rulerships flow in continually—it is simply that one rulership predominates in a particular age. When, for example, in earlier epochs of evolution, Gabriel was the leading Spirit, it was paramountly those impulses of which he was the actual ruler that flowed into earthly evolution; but the other Archangeloi were also at work. Now, however, when Gabriel was exercising his dominion, Michael was in the unusual position of being unable to participate from the Sun in the affairs of the Earth. Truly it is a strange position for a ruling Archangelos to perceive that the activity he has been wielding through long ages has, for the time being, come to an end. And so it was that Michael said to those who belonged to him: For the time during which we cannot send impulses to the Earth (it is the period which ended about the year 1879) we must set about a special task, a task within the realm of the Sun. It was to be possible for those souls who have been led by their karma into the Anthroposophical Movement, to behold in the realm of the Sun the deeds performed by Michael and his hosts while Gabriel was holding sway upon the Earth.

This was detached from the otherwise regular sequence of deeds taking place between gods and men. The souls connected with Michael—the leading souls of Alexander's time, the leading Dominicans with those of less eminence who had gathered around them, and a large number of aspiring human souls in association with the leading spirits—these souls felt torn away from the age-long connection with the spiritual world. There, in super-sensible worlds, those human souls predestined to become Anthroposophists experienced something never previously experienced by human souls between death and rebirth in the super-earthly realm. In earlier times during the period between death and a new birth, the karma for the future earthly existence had been elaborated by human souls in connection with leading spiritual Beings. But no karma had ever previously been elaborated in the same way as was the karma of those predestined to become Anthroposophists. Never before in the realm of the Sun between death and rebirth had there been accomplished such work as was possible under the leadership of Michael when, as was now the case, he was free of the concerns of the Earth.

Something came to pass in the super-sensible worlds. It was something that lies implanted deep down in the hearts of the majority of Anthroposophists to-day, although in the unconscious, wrapt in sleep or dream. And the Anthroposophist speaks truly when he says to himself: Within my heart there lies a secret although I am yet unconscious of it. It is a secret mystery wherein are reflected the deeds of Michael in realms beyond the Earth when, before my present incarnation, I was serving him. In the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Michael, being free of his wonted tasks, was enabled to work in a special way, and I was working under him.

Michael gathered his hosts, he gathered from the realms of the Angeloi and the Archangeloi the super-sensible Beings who belonged to him, but he gathered, too, human souls who in one way or another had been connected with him. And thus there arose a kind of School—a great and ever-widening super-sensible School. In the same way that a kind of heavenly Conference had taken place at the beginning of the thirteenth century between those who worked together as Platonists and Aristotelians, a super-sensible tuition now took place, from the fifteenth into the eighteenth centuries, under the direct leadership of Michael—a super-sensible schooling in which the great Teacher, ordained by cosmic decree, was Michael himself. Thus, before the super-sensible cult that took its course during the first half of the nineteenth century in mighty Imaginations, as I have told you, numbers of human souls had already received a super-sensible schooling whose results they now carry subconsciously within them. These results come to expression in the urge felt by such people to come to Anthroposophy. The urge that brings them to Anthroposophy is indeed the outcome of this schooling. And it can truly be said: At the end of the fifteenth century, Michael gathered his hosts of gods and of human souls in the realm of the Sun and gave them teaching which extended over long periods of time. This teaching was to somewhat the following effect.—

Since the human race has peopled the Earth in human form, Mysteries have existed upon the Earth: Sun Mysteries, Mercury Mysteries, Venus Mysteries, Mars Mysteries, Jupiter Mysteries, Saturn Mysteries. Into these Mysteries the gods poured their secrets; in these Mysteries men were initiated when they were fit for Initiation. Thus it has been possible for the human being on the Earth to know what proceeds on Saturn, on Jupiter, on Mars and so forth, to know, too, how happenings in these spheres work into the evolution of mankind on Earth. Always there have been Initiates who, in the Mysteries, communed with the Gods. With an old, instinctive clairvoyance, these Initiates received the impulses coming to them in the Mysteries. But even meagre traditions (thus spoke Michael to those who belonged to him) even meagre traditions of this have almost vanished from the Earth. The impulses can no longer stream into the Earth. It is only in the lowest-lying region—that of physical procreation—it is there and there alone that Gabriel still has the power to let the Moon-influences flow into the evolution of humanity. The ancient traditions have almost disappeared from the Earth and therewith the possibility to nurture and cultivate the impulses streaming into the subconscious life and into the differently constituted bodily natures of men. We, however, turn our gaze back to all that once was brought in the Mysteries as a gift of the Heavens to men; we survey this wonderful tableau. And also we look downwards across the flow of the ages. And there we find the places of the Mysteries, we see how the heavenly wisdom streamed into these Mysteries, how men were initiated, how from our hallowed realm in the Sun the Cosmic Intelligence poured down to men in such a way that the great Teachers of humanity received truly spiritual ideas, thoughts, concepts. These ideas and thoughts were inspired into them from our hallowed realm in the Sun. These inspirations have vanished from the Earth. We see them only when we look back into epochs of antiquity ... stage by stage we see them disappearing from earthly evolution during the time of Alexander and its aftermath—and down there below we see the Intelligence that has now become earthly, spreading gradually among men. But the vista has remained with us. We yet behold the secrets that were once divulged to the Initiates of the Mysteries. Let us bring this fully into our consciousness! Let us bring it to the consciousness of those spiritual Beings who are around me, those Beings who never appear in earthly bodies but have their existence only in an etheric form. But let us bring it, too, to those souls who have often lived on Earth in physical bodies, those who are actually there now, and who belong to the Michael community—let us bring it to the consciousness of these human souls. We will image forth the great Initiation-teaching which once streamed down in the ancient fashion, through the Mysteries, to the Earth. We will present this to the souls of those who in their life of Intelligence were linked with Michael.—

And then—if I may use an earthly, and in such a context an almost trivial expression—then the ancient Initiation-Wisdom was “worked through.” In a great and comprehensive heavenly School, Michael taught the contents of what he was now no longer able to administer himself. It was an overwhelming deed—something that in the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth centuries and on into the eighteenth, caused such profound disquiet and alarm to the Ahrimanic demons on Earth that a remarkable thing happened. Between heavenly deeds and earthly deeds at this time polaric contrast was established. In the heights, in the spiritual world, there was this sublime School, gathering together the old Initiate-Wisdom in a new form, calling up into the Intelligence-filled consciousness, into the Consciousness Soul of predestined human beings between death and rebirth, what in earlier times had been man's treasury of wisdom in the Intellectual Soul, the Sentient Soul, and so forth. In inner words, seeming stern in many respects when they were uttered, Michael placed before those who belonged to him the picture of cosmic relationships, the anthroposophical relationships. These souls received teaching which unveiled the secrets of worlds. Below, on the Earth, the Ahrimanic spirits were at work.—And here it is necessary to point without reserve to a secret. Outwardly regarded it will seem unacceptable in face of modern culture, but it is nevertheless a divine secret and one of which Anthroposophists must be cognisant in order to be able to lead civilisation in the right way to the end of the twentieth century.

While Michael above was teaching his hosts, there was founded in the realm lying immediately below the surface of the Earth, a kind of sub-earthly, Ahrimanic school. The Michael School was in the super-earthly world; in the region beneath our feet—for the spiritual is actively at work in the sub-earthly region also—the opposing Ahrimanic school was founded. And in that particular period, when no impulses were streaming down from Michael bringing heavenly inspiration to the Intelligence, when the Intelligence on the Earth was, for the time being, left to itself, the Ahrimanic hosts strove all the harder to send their impulses up from below into the development of the Intelligence in mankind. It is a truly overwhelming picture. The Earth's surface—Michael above, teaching his hosts, revealing to them in mighty, cosmic language the ancient Initiate-Wisdom, and below, the Ahrimanic school in the sub-strata of the Earth. Upon the Earth, the Intelligence that has fallen from the Heavens is unfolding. For the time being, Michael holds his School in heavenly isolation from the earthly world—no impulses stream down from above—and there below are the Ahrimanic powers, sending up their impulses with all the greater strength.

There have always been souls incarnated on the Earth who were aware of this sinister situation. Anyone conversant with the spiritual history of this epoch, especially the spiritual history of Europe, will everywhere find evidence of the fact that there were individuals here and there—often quite simple men—who had an inkling of this sinister situation: abandonment of humanity by the Michael rulership, and impulses rising from below like demonic vapours, striving to conquer the Intelligence.

It is remarkable how closely the revelations of wisdom are bound up with the human being, if all that springs from such revelations is to be beneficial. This is the secret which must here be touched upon.—A human being whose task it is to proclaim the Michael wisdom feels that in a certain respect he is following the right course when he tries to put into words, when he wrestles to find the terminology to express, what is, in very truth, the wisdom of Michael. Such a one feels, too, that he is further justified when with his own hand he writes down this wisdom; for then the flow of the spiritual is directly connected with him and streams, as it were, into the forms of what he is writing, into what he is doing. Thus he willingly communicates this wisdom to others in the form of reading material when it is written down by him in his own hand. But when through mechanical means, through the medium of the printed book, he sees his work duplicated, he has a feeling of uneasiness. This has to be endured, for the method is in keeping with our age. Nevertheless, the feeling of uneasiness is never absent from one who stands within the life of the Spirit together with what he has to proclaim.

In connection with the lecture yesterday, somebody has asked me whether, as Swedenborg has hinted, the letter (Buchstabe) is not, after all, the ‘last outflow’ of the spiritual life. That indeed is so! It is the last outflow of the spiritual life so long as it flows through a man in a continuous stream from the Spirit. But when it is fixed by mechanical means as it were from the other pole, when it comes before the eyes of men as printed letters, it becomes an Ahrimanic spiritual power. For, strange to say, it is that Ahrimanic school which worked in opposition to the School of Michael in the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—it is that Ahrimanic school which brought the art of printing, with all its consequences, to Europe. Printing can be the soil from which demonic powers, well adapted to combat the rulership of Michael, may spring.

An Anthroposophist must be able to perceive the significance and meaning of realities in life; he must recognise that printing is a spiritual power but precisely that spiritual power which Ahriman has placed in opposition to Michael. Therefore to those who in his School at that time were being taught by him, Michael constantly gave this warning: When you descend again to the Earth in order to give effect to what has here been prepared, gather men around you, make known the essentials by word of mouth, and do not regard the ‘literary’ effects produced in the world through the printed book as of foremost importance.—Hence the more intimate method of working from man to man is more truly in accord with Michael's way. If, instead of working merely through books, we meet together with one another, letting the impulses flow into us in the sphere of the human and the personal, and only then using the books as aids to memory, shall we be able to inaugurate the stream that—imponderably at first—is destined to flow through the Anthroposophical Society. It is inevitable that we should make use of books for we must also become masters of this art of Ahriman's—otherwise we should be delivered into his hands. We must be able to reckon truly with the Ahrimanic spirit of the times, otherwise tremendous power would be given to him. Thus it is not a matter of merely ousting the printed book but of bringing it into relationship with what works in a directly human way. So it would not be right, as a result of what I have just put before you, to say: ‘Away with all the anthroposophical books!’ Thereby we should be delivering up the art of printing to the most powerful enemies of the Michael wisdom; we should be making it impossible for our anthroposophical work to thrive, as thrive it must, until the end of the century is reached. What we must do is to ennoble the art of printing through our reverence for the Michael wisdom. For what is it that by way of the art of printing Ahriman is intent upon achieving in opposition to Michael? Ahriman is intent upon conquest of the Intelligence. There is evidence of it everywhere to-day. Conquest of the Intelligence, which asserts itself wherever conditions are favourable. And when do we find the Ahrimanic spirits most potent in their attacks against the coming age of Michael? We find them at those times when a diminution or lowering of the consciousness takes place in human beings. These Ahrimanic spirits then take possession of human consciousness, they entrench themselves within it. For instance, in the year 1914, many individuals in a lowered state of consciousness became entangled in events which led to the outbreak of the terrible World War. And within the lowered consciousness of such men the hosts of Ahriman promoted the World War—promoted it by way of human beings. The real causes of that War will never be brought to light by documents contained in archives. No, one must rather look deeply into history and perceive that there, at some particular point, stood an influential personality, at this point another, and there again another—and these men were in a lowered state of consciousness. That was the opportunity for Ahriman to take possession of them. And if you want to realise how easy it is in our age for men to be possessed by Ahriman, you need think only of this example.

What happened, when, with the printed volumes they had brought with them, the Europeans arrived in North America in times when Indians were still to be found in the eastern part of the land? When the Indians saw these volumes with their strange characters of script they took the letters to be little demons. They had the right perception for these things. They were terribly frightened when they looked at all these little demonic entities—a, b, and the rest, as they appear in print. For these letters, reproduced in such a different way, do contain something that fascinates, something that casts a spell over the modern mind; and only the good outlook of Michael, with eyes open to the human element in the proclamation of wisdom, can lead men beyond the danger of this lure. But evil things may happen in this domain.

At this point let me say the following.—There are certain secrets connected with the vision of world-existence which cannot be penetrated before a somewhat advanced age in life. Each particular period of life enables one who possesses Initiation-science to behold the individual secrets of existence. Thus between the twenty-first and forty-second years of life—not before—such a man is able to gaze into the Sun-existence; between the forty-second and forty-ninth years into the Mars secrets; between the forty-ninth and fifty-sixth years into the Jupiter secrets. But to behold the secrets of worlds in their interconnections, one must have passed the age of sixty-three.1See True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigations. Lecture 6. (Rudolf Steiner Press.) Therefore before I myself was in this position, I should not have been able to speak of certain things of which I now speak without any reserve. Before the vision can penetrate into anything related to the Michael Mysteries, to the influences working from the spiritual realm of the Sun, one must look upwards from the Earth through the Saturn existence into the secrets of worlds. One must be able to experience, to live within that twilight of the spiritual world which proceeds from the ruler of Saturn, from Oriphiel, who was the leading Archangels at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha and who will again assume the leadership when the Michael Age has run its course.

To such vision, however, shattering, overwhelming truths connected with the present age are revealed. As we have seen, the art of printing spread over the Earth through the Ahrimanic school working in opposition to the School of Michael, and because of this, ‘authorship’ on a wide scale has arisen on the Earth. Who, then, were ‘authors’ in earlier times, before printing was in existence? They were men whose writings could be known only in the narrowest circles, in circles, moreover, that were properly prepared. Into how many hands did a book find its way before printing was in use? Think of the following, and you will be able to judge how things were. A kind of substitute for the later art of printing was already in existence in ancient Chinese civilisation and had reached a high level of perfection. A kind of printing art had been established there—also in an Age when Michael was ruling above; and when below there was an Ahrimanic anti-rulership. But nothing very much came of it. In those times the power of Ahriman was not yet so powerful and he was still unable to make really effective attempts to wrest from Michael the rulership of the Intelligence. The attempt was renewed in the time of Alexander but then again was unsuccessful.

Ahriman's influence in the printing art of the modern age, however, has assumed deep significance. Authorship has, so to speak, been popularised. And something has become possible, something that is as great in a wonderful, brilliant, dazzling way as, on the other hand, the necessity is great to receive it in absolute equableness of soul and to estimate it according to its true significance. First attempts have been made, attempts which from Michael's realm may be characterised by saying: Ahriman has appeared as an author. For Michael and his circle, this is a deeply significant happening to-day. Ahriman as an author! Not only have men been possessed by him as I indicated in the case of the outbreak of the War, but in that he manifested on Earth through human souls, he himself appeared as an author. That he is a most brilliant author need be no cause for astonishment; for Ahriman is a mighty, all-embracing spirit. True, he is not by nature fitted to promote the evolution of mankind on the Earth according to the intentions of the good gods; he opposes it. Nevertheless in his own sphere he is not only a thoroughly useful but a beneficent power—for beings who on one level of world-happenings are benefactors are exceedingly harmful on another. It need not be assumed, therefore, that in characterising the works of Ahriman they must come in for unqualified rebuke. Provided one is conscious of what they are, one can even admire them. But the Ahrimanic character must be recognised!

Michael teaches how recognition can be made to-day if men are willing to listen to him. For the Michael schooling has worked on and still to-day it is possible for men to draw near it. Then it teaches how Ahriman himself as an author has made attempts—first attempts of a deeply shattering, deeply tragic character—working, of course, through a human being. Nietzsche's Anti-Christ, his Ecce Homo, his autobiography, and the annotations in The Will to Power—those most brilliant chapters of modern authorship with their often devilish content—Ahriman was their writer, exercising his sovereignty over that which in letters on the Earth can be made subject to his dominion through the art of printing! Ahriman has already begun to appear as an author and his work will continue. On Earth in the future alertness will be necessary in order that not all the productions of authorship shall be deemed of the same calibre. Works written by men will appear, but some individuals at least must be aware that a Being is training himself to become one of the most brilliant authors in the immediate future: that Being is Ahriman! Human hands will write the works, but Ahriman will be the author. As once the Evangelists of old were inspired by super-sensible Beings and wrote down their works through this inspiration, so will the works of Ahriman be penned by men.

The further history of the evolution of humanity will present itself in two aspects. Endeavours must be made to propagate in the earthly realm—to the greatest extent possible—what was once taught by Michael in super-sensible Schools to souls predestined to receive it; endeavours must be made in the Anthroposophical Society to be reverently mindful of this knowledge and to impart it to those who will be incarnated in the coming times, until the end of the century has arrived. And then, many of those who for the first time are learning of these things to-day will come down to the Earth again. The time will be short. But meanwhile on Earth much that has been written by Ahriman will appear.

One task of Anthroposophists is this: steadfastly to cultivate the Michael Wisdom, to bring courageous hearts to this Michael Wisdom, and to realise that the first penetration of the earthly Intelligence by the spiritual sword of Michael consists in this sword being wielded by those into whose hearts the Michael wisdom has found its way. And so the picture of Michael in a new form may inspire each single Anthroposophist—Michael standing there within the hearts of men, beneath his feet the production of Ahrimanic authorship. Such a picture need not be painted in that external form in which during the time of the Dominicans the image was often fixed—above, the Dominican Schoolmen with their books, below, crushed under their feet, the heathen wisdom as represented by Averröes, Avicenna and the rest. Wherever it was a matter of portraying the battle waged by Christian Scholasticism against heathendom, these pictures are to be found. But in the spirit there must be this other picture: Devotion to Michael as he enters into the world, laying hold of the Intelligence upon Earth; and—in order that one may not be bedazzled—alertness with regard to the brilliant work of Ahriman as an author through the whole of the twentieth century. Ahriman will write his works in the strangest places—but they will be there indeed—and he is preparing pupils for his purposes. Even in our day, much in the subconscious is being schooled in such a way that souls will be able to incarnate again quickly and become instruments for Ahriman as an author. He will write in all domains: in philosophy, in poetry, in the sphere of the drama and the epic; in medicine, law, sociology. Ahriman will write in all these domains!

This will be the situation into which mankind will be led when the end of the century is reached. And those who are still young to-day will witness many samples of how Ahriman appears as an author. In every sphere watchfulness will be needed—and reverent enthusiasm for the Michael Wisdom.

If we can permeate ourselves with these things, if we can feel ourselves standing within the spiritual life in the sense of the indications here given, then, my dear friends, we shall place ourselves as true Anthroposophists into the civilisation of the present time. Then, maybe, we shall realise more and more deeply that a new Impulse is going out from the Christmas Foundation at the Goetheanum, that in truth only now are there being presented to the Anthroposophical Society things whereby this Society can see itself as it were in a great cosmic mirror—in which the individual, too, together with the karma which leads him into the Anthroposophical Society, can see himself reflected.

That is what I wanted to lay on your hearts in these lectures. For it is to hearts that the words are chiefly spoken. The hearts of men must become the helpers of Michael in the conquering of the Intelligence that has fallen to the Earth. Just as once the old Serpent was destined to be crushed by Michael, so must the Intelligence that has now become the Serpent be conquered by Michael, be spiritualised by Michael. And whenever the Serpent appears in its unspiritualised state, made Ahrimanic, it must be recognised through the vigilance, the alertness which belongs to the anthroposophical spirit and is developed through the Michael-like tenor of soul.

Dritter Vortrag

Aus dem, was ich gestern über die Michael-Herrschaft im geistigen, kosmischen Zusammenhange auseinandergesetzt habe, konnten Sie ersehen, daß Michael eine besondere Stellung unter denjenigen geistigen Wesenheiten einnimmt, welche wir, nach der vor alten Zeiten schon innerhalb der christlichen Gemeinschaften entstandenen Benennung, zuzählen den Archangeloi. Und zwar wird uns gerade für das, was uns in diesen Tagen wichtig ist, bedeutsam erscheinen müssen, daß Michael in den Jahrhunderten vor der Begründung des Christentums durchaus noch von der Sonne, von der Region des Sonnenhaften aus seine Impulse auf die Erde schickte, seine, wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf, kosmopolitischen Impulse; daß dann diese kosmopolitischen Impulse verlorengehen, daß die kosmische Intelligenz gewissermaßen Michael entsinkt und im 8. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert in der Erdenregion ankommt. So daß wir dann Menschen innerhalb der Erdenentwickelung finden, die Eigendenken haben, daß dann dieses Eigendenken auf die Weise gepflegt, pflegend erkämpft wurde für eine weitere MichaelHerrschaft, wie ich das gestern angeführt habe, indem einträchtig zusammenwirken die Weisen der Schule von Chartres mit denjenigen, die geradezu herstammen aus der alten Michael-Herrschaft und dazu prädestiniert sind, das Prinzip der früher kosmischen, Jetzt irdischen Intelligenz weiter fortzupflegen, bis im 19. Jahrhundert die Möglichkeit eingetreten ist, daß zunächst innerhalb der geistigen Welt durch jenen Kultus von Imaginationen, den ich Ihnen beschrieben habe, dasjenige vorbereitet wird, was einstmals mit der anthroposophischen Bewegung gewollt werden soll. Seit dem letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts, insbesondere aber in unserer Zeit, stehen wir im Beginne der neuen Michael-Herrschaft; durch diese Michael-Herrschaft wird dasjenige vorbereitet, was noch in diesem Jahrhundert eintreten muß, nämlich daß eine größere Anzahl von Menschen - eben diejenigen, die zu einem wirklichen Verständnis des Anthroposophischen kommen — vor dem Ende des Jahrhunderts beschleunigt durchmachen die Zeit zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt und jetzt wieder auf der Erde vereinigt werden unter der Führung sozusagen der beiden Arten von geistigen Wesenheiten, der Lehrer von Chartres und derjenigen, die unmittelbar mit der Michael-Herrschaft vereinigt geblieben sind, um unter der Führung dieser beiden Arten von geistigen Wesenheiten dann den letzten, wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf, geheiligten Impuls zu geben für die weitereEntwickelung des geistigen, des spirituellen Lebens auf der Erde. Anthroposophie wird für diejenigen, die an ihr teilnehmen wollen, nur dann eine wirkliche Bedeutung gewinnen können, wenn sie mit einem gewissen inneren heiligen Eifer sich bewußt werden, daß sie ja in einem solchen Zusammenhange drinnenstehen können, der so charakterisiert werden kann, wie das gestern geschehen ist. Das wird inneren Enthusiasmus geben, das wird aber auch Kraft geben. Das wird wissen lassen, daß man hinarbeiten soll, immer mehr und mehr Fortsetzer desjenigen zu werden, was einstmals in den alten Mysterien gelebt hat. Ein solches Bewußtsein muß aber nach allen Seiten hin vertieft werden. Und es kann vertieft werden. Denn im Sinne des gestern Auseinandergesetzten blicken wir zurück auf diejenige Zeit, wo Michael im geistigen Sonnenbereich vereint war mit einer Anzahl von überirdischen Wesenheiten, wo er von diesem geistigen Sonnenbereiche aus solche Zeichen auf die Erde heruntergeschickt hat, daß sie auf der einen Seite zu den Alexandertaten, auf der anderen Seite zur aristotelischen Philosophie begeistern konnten; daß sie sozusagen die letzte Phase von inspirierter, von spiritueller Intelligenz auf der Erde bewirken konnten; daß dann mit denjenigen Menschenseelen zusammen, die sozusagen in seinem Auftrage solches auf der Erde ausgeführt haben, Michael mit seinen geistigen Scharen und mit den Scharen jener Menschenseelen zusammen, die um solche führenden Menschenseelen herum waren, von der Sonne aus das Mysterium von Golgatha beobachtet hat. Und man kann sich schon durchdringen mit etwas, das in der Seele wirkt, wenn man sich den Moment vor Augen stellt, wo Michael mit einer Anzahl von Engeln, Erzengeln und Menschenseelen den Christus fortziehen sieht von der Sonne, um in das körperliche Gehäuse eines Menschen einzutreten und sich durch das, was er im Menschenleibe auf der Erde erleben kann, mit der Fortentwickelung der Menschheit auf der Erde zu verbinden. Das war aber zugleich für Michael das Zeichen, daß nunmehr die von ihm bis dahin bewahrte himmlische Intelligenz auf die Erde gewissermaßen als ein heiliger Regen herunterströmen müsse, nach und nach der Sonne entsinken müsse. Und im 8. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert war es ja so, daß diejenigen, die um Michael waren, sahen, wie das Substantielle, das Michael bis dahin bewahrte, nunmehr unten auf der Erde ist.

Nun handelt es sich darum, daß im vollen Einklange mit der MichaelHerrschaft alles dasjenige geschah, was durch die Meister von Chartres, aber auch alles, was durch die dazu Auserwählten aus dem Dominikaner-Orden in die Welt kam: so daß, kurz gesagt, diejenige Entwickelung der Menschheit herbeigeführt wurde, die vom Beginne des 15. Jahrhunderts aus die Bewußtseins-Seelenentwickelung in der Menschheit inaugurieren konnte, jene Entwickelung, in der wir jetzt drinnen stehen. Denn ungefähr im ersten Drittel der vorangehenden Entwickelung, das heißt im ersten Drittel des Zeitalters der Entwickelung der Verstandesoder Gemütsseele, haben wir ja die Ausbreitung der überirdischen Intelligenz über Asien, Afrika und einen Teil von Europa durch den Alexandrinismus. Nun tritt aber eine besondere Zeit ein, eine Zeit, welche uns Michael, den hervorragendsten Erzengelgeist der Sonne, innerhalb dieser Sonne so zeigt, daß er seine Verwaltung der kosmischen Intelligenz von der Sonne fortgegangen weiß; daß er weiß: auch die Angelegenheiten sind geordnet, welche die weitere Entwickelung dieser Intelligenz auf der Erde fortführen können. Diese Zeit tritt etwa im 16., 17. nachchristlichen Jahrhundert ein. Da ist sozusagen Michael frei von seinen früheren Obliegenheiten im Kosmos. Die irdischen Entwickelungen verwaltet, auf die Art,wie ich es gestern beschrieben habe, Gabriel.

Michael ist jetzt in einer besonderen Lage. Wenn sonst ein Erzengel nicht gerade der regierende Fürst der irdischen Angelegenheiten ist, so läßt er seine Impulse dennoch in das einfließen, was die anderen tun. Denn fortwährend fließen von allen sieben aufeinander folgenden Erzengel-Herrschaften die Impulse ein; einer ist nur immer der vorzüglichste. Wenn also zum Beispiel Gabriel in früheren Epochen der Menschheitsentwickelung der führende Geist war, so floß von ihm vorzugsweise das, was er zu regieren hatte, in die irdische Entwickelung ein; aber die anderen Erzengel wirkten mit. Jetzt aber, da Gabriel seine Herrschaft ausübte, war Michael in der besonderen Lage, von der Sonne aus bei den irdischen Angelegenheiten nicht mitwirken zu können. Das ist für einen führenden Erzengel eine ganz besondere Lage: zu sehen, daß seine Tätigkeit, die durch lange Zeiträume hindurch ausgeübt worden ist, sozusagen aufgehört hat. Und so kam es, daß Michael zu den Seinigen sagte: Es ist notwendig, daß wir für die Zeit, in der wir nicht Impulse auf die Erde schicken können - für die Zeit, die mit dem Jahre 1879 etwa endet —, uns eine besondere Aufgabe suchen, eine Aufgabe suchen innerhalb der Sonnenregion. — Es sollte für diejenigen Seelen, die ihr Karma in die anthroposophische Bewegung hineingeführt hat, die Möglichkeit vorhanden sein, in der Sonnenregion auf dasjenige hinblicken zu können, was Michael und die Seinen in der Zeit taten, die auf Erden die Zeit der Gabriel-Herrschaft war.

Das war etwas, was sozusagen herausfiel aus all den sonstigen, regelmäßig fortgehenden Taten unter Göttern und Menschen. Die mit Michael verbundenen Seelen — die führenden Menschenseelen der Alexanderzeit, diejenigen der großen Dominikanerzeit und die, welche sich als weniger führende um sie geschart hatten, und eine große Anzahl von strebenden, sich entwickelnden Menschen im Verein mit führenden Geistern -, sie fühlten sich wie herausgerissen aus dem althergebrachten Zusammenhange mit der geistigen Welt. Da wurde von den Menschenseelen, die prädestiniert waren, Anthroposophen zu werden, im Übersinnlichen etwas erlebt, was früher niemals in den überirdischen Regionen von Menschenseelen zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt erlebt worden ist. Früher wurde eben erlebt, daß in der Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt von den Menschenseelen im Verein mit führenden geistigen Wesenheiten das Karma für die künftige Erdenexistenz ausgearbeitet worden ist. Aber so ausgearbeitet wurde früher kein Karma, wie jetzt das Karma derjenigen, die durch die angegebenen Dinge prädestiniert waren, Anthroposophen zu werden. Niemals arbeitete man in der Sonnenregion früher zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt so, wie jetzt unter der von Erdenangelegenheiten frei gewordenen Herrschaft des Michael gearbeitet werden konnte,

Da geschah dann etwas, was in den übersinnlichen Regionen damals Ereignis war, etwas, was heute im tiefsten Herzensinneren der meisten Anthroposophen, wenn auch unbewußt, schlafend, träumerisch ruht. Und der Anthroposoph kann recht tun, wenn er, an sein Herz greifend, sich sagt: Da drinnen ist ein mir heute vielleicht unbewußtes Geheimnis, das ein Abglanz ist der Michael-Taten aus dem 16.,17.,18. Jahrhundert in den überirdischen Regionen, wo ich vor meinem jetzigen Abstieg in die Erdenregion unter Michael gearbeitet habe, der etwas Besonderes arbeiten konnte, weil er sozusagen von seinen fortfließenden Aufgaben frei geworden war. Und Michael versammelte seine Scharen, versammelte diejenigen, die als übersinnliche Wesen zu ihm gehörten aus der Region der Angeloi und Archangeloi, er versammelte aber auch die Menschenseelen, die in irgendeine Verbindung mit ihm gekommen waren. Und es entstand so etwas wie eine gewaltig sich ausbreitende übersinnliche Schule. Wie im Beginne des 13. Jahrhunderts von denjenigen, die als Platoniker und Aristoteliker zusammenwirken konnten, sozusagen eine Art himmlischen Konzils stattgefunden hat, so fand jetzt unmittelbar unter der Führung Michaels vom 15. bis ins 18. Jahrhundert herein eine übersinnliche Schulung statt, als deren großen Lehrer die Weltenordnung Michael selber auserwählt hat. Demjenigen also, was ich Ihnen erzählt habe von der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts, von jenem in mächtigen Imaginationen verfließenden übersinnlichen Kultus, ging voran eine übersinnliche Schulung für zahlreiche Menschenseelen, eine Schulung, deren Resultate diese Menschenseelen jetzt in ihrem Inneren tragen, unbewußt. Das Resultat dieser Schulung kommt nur dadurch heraus, daß diese Menschenseelen den Drang zur Anthroposophie verspüren. Dieser Drang zur Anthroposophie ist das Resultat dieser Schulung. Und man kann sagen: Einstmals, am Ende des 15. Jahrhunderts, versammelte Michael seine Götter- und Menschenscharen in der Sonnenregion und sprach zu ihnen in einer Rede, die über lange Zeiträume ausgedehnt war, etwa folgendermaßen:

Seitdem das Menschengeschlecht in menschlicher Gestalt die Erde bevölkert, hat es auf der Erde Mysterien gegeben: Sonnenmysterien, Merkurmysterien, Venusmysterien, Marsmysterien, Jupitermysterien, Saturnmysterien. In diese Mysterien haben die Götter ihre Geheimnisse hineingesendet; dort sind dazu geeignete Menschen eingeweiht worden. So daß man auf der Erde wissen konnte, was auf Saturn, Jupiter, Mars und so weiter vor sich geht und wie dieses, was dort vor sich geht, in die Menschheitsentwickelung auf der Erde hineinwirkt. Eingeweihte, Initiierte, die in den Mysterien mit den Göttern verkehrten, hat es immer gegeben. In instinktiver alter hellseherischer Weise haben die Initiierten das aufgenommen, was in den Mysterien durch Impulse an sie herangekommen ist. Das ist — so sagte Michael zu den Seinen - bis auf wenige Traditionen hin auf der Erde verschwunden, das ist nicht mehr da. Die Impulse können nicht mehr in die Erde hineinfließen. Einzig und allein in der untergeordnetsten Region, in der Fortpflanzungsregion, hat noch Gabriel die Macht, die Mondeneinflüsse in die Entwickelung der Menschheit hineinkommen zu lassen. Mehr oder weniger sind die alten Traditionen von der Erde verschwunden und damit die Möglichkeit, die ins Unterbewußtsein und damit in die verschiedenen Leiblichkeiten der Menschen hineingehenden Impulse zu pflegen. Wir aber schauen nunmehr zurück auf alles das, was einstmals wie eine Gabe des Himmels in den Mysterien an Menschen herangebracht worden ist, wir überblicken einmal dieses wunderbare Tableau, wir schauen in den Zeitenlauf hinunter: Wir finden da die Mysterienstätten, wir sehen, wie die himmlische Weisheit in diese Mysterien hineingeströmt ist, wie Menschen von ihr initiiert worden sind, wie gerade von unserer geweihten Sonnenstätte aus die kosmische Intelligenz über die Menschen so heruntergekommen ist, daß die großen Lehrer der Menschheit Ideen, Gedanken, Begriffe gehabt haben, die spirituell waren, die ihnen aber eininspiriert waren von unserer geweihten Sonnenstätte aus. Das ist von der Erde verschwunden. Wir sehen es, indem wir auf alte Epochen der Erde zurückschauen, wir sehen es nach und nach von der Erdenentwikkelung verschwinden in der Alexanderzeit und ihrer Nachwirkung, und unten sehen wir, unter den Menschen, allmählich die irdisch gewordene Intelligenz sich ausbreiten. Aber wir haben ja diesen Anblick, der uns geblieben ist: wir schauen hin auf die Geheimnisse, in die einstmals die Initiierten der Mysterien eingeweiht worden sind. Bringen wir sie uns zum Bewußtsein! Bringen wir es denjenigen geistigen Wesenheiten, die um mich herum niemals in einem Erdenleibe erscheinen, sondern nur in ätherischer Art leben, zum Bewußtsein. Bringen wir es aber auch denjenigen Seelen, die in Erdenleibern oftmals auf der Erde waren, jetzt aber gerade da sind und zur Michael-Gemeinschaft gehören, bringen wir es diesen Menschenseelen zum Bewußtsein. Entwerfen wir die große Initiatenlehre, die einstmals auf die alte Art auf die Erde durch die Mysterien niedergeströmt ist, entwerfen wir sie vor den Seelen derjenigen, die auf intelligente Art mit Michael verbunden waren.

Und da wurde «durchgenommen» — wenn ich mich eines irdischen, in einem solchen Zusammenhange fast trivial klingenden Ausdruckes bedienen darf -, da wurde durchgenommen die alte Initiationsweisheit. Eine große, umfassende himmlische Schule gab es. In ihr wurde von Michael das gelehrt, was er jetzt nicht mehr selbst verwalten konnte. Es war etwas Ungeheueres, etwas, was die ahrimanischen Dämonen auf der Erde, gerade im 15., 16., 17. bis ins 18. Jahrhundert herein, in allertiefster Weise beunruhigte, was sie in furchtbare Erregung brachte, so daß sich etwas Merkwürdiges abspielte. Das spielte sich ab, was einen polarischen Gegensatz zwischen himmlischen Taten in dieser Zeit und irdischen Taten in dieser Zeit zeitigte: Oben in der Geistigen Welt eine hohe Schule, die auf eine neue Art im Übersinnlichen zusammenfaßt die alte Initiatenweisheit, die den zunächst dazu prädestinierten Menschenseelen zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt ins intelligente Bewußtsein, in die Bewußtseinsseele das heraufhob, was früher in alten Zeiten in der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele, in der Empfindungsseele und so weiter Weisheitseigentum der Menschen war. Auf die Art, wie im inneren Worte, das ja in vieler Beziehung zugleich hart ist, gesprochen werden kann, setzte Michael den Seinen auseinander die Weltenzusammenhänge, die kosmischen Zusammenhänge, die anthroposophischen Zusammenhänge. Diese Seelen bekamen eine Lehre, welche die Weltengeheimnisse enthüllte. Unten auf der Erde wirkten die ahrimanischen Geister. Und es ist notwendig, an dieser Stelle in ganz unverhohlener Weise auf ein Wahrheitsgeheimnis hinzudeuten, das ganz gewiß, äußerlich angesehen, gegenüber der gegenwärtigen Zivilisation sich etwas deplaciert ausnimmt, das aber doch ein göttliches Geheimnis ist, das die Anthroposophen wissen müssen, um die Zivilisation in der rechten Art, so wie ich es angedeutet habe, gegen das Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts hinzuführen.

Während Michael oben seine Scharen schulte, wurde eine Art unterirdischer, unmittelbar unter der Oberfläche der Erde liegender ahrimanischer Schule gegründet. Daher kann man davon sprechen, daß im Überirdischen die Michael-Schule ist; unmittelbar in der Region, auf der wir stehen - denn auch im Unterirdischen ist Geistiges tätig und wirksam —, wurde die ahrimanische Gegenschule begründet. Und wenn von Michael jetzt gerade in dieser Zeit keine Impulse herunterströmten, um die Intelligenz himmlisch zu inspirieren, wenn die Intelligenz auf der Erde sich zunächst selbst überlassen war, so bemühten sich um so mehr die ahrimanischen Scharen, von unten herauf Impulse in die intelligente Menschheitsentwickelung hineinzusenden. Es ist ein gewaltiges Bild, das einem da vor Augen stehen kann. Man stelle sich vor: die Erdoberfläche, oben Michael, seine Scharen belehrend, ihnen mit großen gewaltigen Weltenworten das enthüllend, was die alte Initiatenweisheit war; dem gegenüberstehend die ahrimanische Schule in den Untergründen der Erde. Auf der Erde sich entwickelnd die vom Himmel herabgefallene Intelligenz; Michael zunächst gegenüber dem Irdischen in himmlischer Einsamkeit Schule haltend — keine Strömungen gehen von oben nach unten -, die ahrimanischen Mächte um so mehr ihre Impulse nach oben sendend.

Es hat immerhin auf der Erde verkörperte Seelen gegeben, die in den angedeuteten Jahrhunderten das Unheimliche dieser Lage gespürt haben. Wer die Geistesgeschichte, namentlich Europas, aus dieser Zeit kennt, der findet überall die merkwürdige Tatsache, daß da und dort manchmal ganz einfache Menschen leben, welche das Unheimliche dieser Lage verspüren: dieses Verlassensein der Menschheit von der Michael-Herrschaft und diese von unten mit dämonischen geistigen Dünsten aufsteigenden Impulse, welche die Intelligenz erobern wollen.

Es ist merkwürdig, wie eng mit dem Menschen verbunden, wenn alles daraus Entsprießende gut werden soll, die Offenbarungen des Weisheitslebens sein müssen. Das ist eben das Wahrheitsgeheimnis, das hier berührt werden muß. Denn derjenige, der die Michael-Weisheit zu verkündigen hat, der fühlt in einer gewissen Beziehung, daß er an seiner rechten Stelle steht, wenn er ringt, den Ausdruck, die Wortformulierung zu finden für das, was Michaels Weisheit ist. Er fühlt sich sogar noch an der rechten Stelle stehend, wenn er, von seinen Händen ausgehend, diese Michael-Weisheit niederschreibt; denn da fließt das, was vom Spirituellen her mit dem Menschen verbunden ist, sozusagen in die Form des Geschriebenen hinein, in das, was er tut. Aber trotzdem es ertragen werden muß, trotzdem es in unsere Zeit gehört, ist ein unheimliches Gefühl damit verbunden, wenn man das, was Michael-Weisheit ist, was man gerne noch aufschreibt und als zu Lesendes meinetwillen den Leuten mitteilt, wenn man das auf mechanische Art vervielfältigt sieht in gedruckten Büchern. Dieses unheimliche Gefühl gegenüber dem gedruckten Buche ist durchaus bei demjenigen vorhanden, der mit dem, was er zu verkündigen hat, im Geistesleben drinnen steht.

Ich bin im Anschlusse an den gestrigen Vortrag von jemandem gefragt worden, ob denn nicht — worauf etwas schon Swedenborg hiingedeutet hat — der Buchstabe der letzte Ausfluß des geistigen Lebens ist. Das ist er! Er ist es so lange, als er im kontinuierlichen Fortgange durch einen Menschen aus dem Geistigen fließt. Er wird ahrimanische geistige Macht, wenn er durch das Mechanische fixiert wird, gewissermaßen von der anderen Seite der Welt aus fixiert wird, wenn er als gedruckter Buchstabe vor die Augen der Menschen tritt. Denn das ist ja das Eigentümliche, daß es jene ahrimanische Schule ist, die als Gegenschule der Michael-Schule begründet worden ist und im 15., 16., 17.,18. Jahrhundert gewirkt hat, die in Europa die Buchdruckerkunst heraufgebracht hat, mit allem Gefolge der Buchdruckerkunst. Aus der Buchdruckerkunst können die dämonischen Gewalten aufsprießen, die gerade dazu geeignet sind, Michaels Herrschaft zu bekämpfen.

Man muß das, was real ist im Leben, in seiner wirklichen Bedeutung durchschauen, wenn man Anthroposoph ist. Man muß in der Druckkunst zwar eine geistige Macht sehen, aber eben die geistige Macht, die von Ahriman dem Michael entgegengestellt worden ist. Daher diese fortdauernde Mahnung Michaels an diejenigen, die er nun in seiner Schule dazumal unterrichtete, die fortdauernde Mahnung: Wenn ihr wieder auf die Erde herunterkommt, um das auszuführen, was hier veranlagt ist, dann sammelt die Menschen um euch, verkündigt das Wichtigste von Mund zu Ohr und seht nicht das Wichtigste darin, daß nur durch das gedruckte Buch in der Welt «literarisch» gewirkt werde. — Daher ist die intimere Art, von Mensch zu Mensch zu wirken, diejenige, die vorzugsweise in der Richtung des Wirkens Michaels ist. Und wenn wir uns, statt bloß durch Bücher zu wirken, vereinigen und die wichtigsten Impulse menschlich-persönlich aufnehmen und — weil es so sein muß, weil sonst wieder Ahriman eine ungeheure Herrschaft bekommen würde, wenn wir uns seiner Kunst nicht auch bemächtigten — das andere dann nur benützen, um gewissermaßen «Gedächtnishilfen» zu haben, um das zu haben, was mit dem ahrimanischen Zeitgeist rechnet: pflegen wir dies in solcher Weise, daß wir nicht etwa das gedruckte Buch ausmerzen, aber ihm das richtige Verhältnis geben zu dem, was unmittelbar menschlich wirkt, dann inaugurieren wir das, was zunächst imponderabel als Michael-Strömung durch die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft fließen soll. Denn nicht richtig wäre es, von so etwas ausgehend, wie ich es jetzt dargestellt habe, nun etwa zu sagen: Also schaffen wir die anthroposophischen Bücher ab! Dadurch würden wir gerade die Druckkunst an die stärksten Feinde der Michael-Weisheit ausliefern; da würden wir die Fortsetzung unserer anthroposophischen Arbeit, die ja gerade bis zum Ende des Jahrhunderts hin gedeihen soll, unmöglich machen. Aber wir müssen durch heilige Gesinnung gegenüber dem, was da in der Michael-Weisheit lebt, die Druckkunst adeln! Denn was will Ahriman gegenüber dem Michael durch die Druckkunst? Er will - Sie sehen es heute überall aufsprießen — die Eroberung der Intelligenz, jene Eroberung der Intelligenz, welche überall dort besonders eingreifen will, wo die Verhältnisse dazu günstig sind. Worinnen besteht denn das hauptsächlichste Wirken der ahrimanischen Geister in ihrer Bekämpfung des kommenden Michael-Zeitalters? Das Wirksame besteht darin, daß diese ahrimanischen Geister in Zeiten, wo die Bewußtseine der Menschen heruntergedämpft sind, gewissermaßen die Menschen von sich «besessen» machen, daß sie eingreifen in die menschlichen Bewußtseine. So sind ja viele Menschen, die 1914 herabgedämmerte Bewußtseine hatten, hineinverflochten gewesen in die Entstehung des furchtbaren Weltkrieges. Und in ihren gedämpften Bewußtseinen haben den Weltkrieg die Scharen des Ahriman gemacht — durch die Menschen. Und man wird die Ursachen dieses Krieges nicht auf äußerliche dokumentarische Weise aus den Archiven je enthüllen; sondern man muß hineinschauen in die Geschichte und muß sehen: da war eine maßgebende Persönlichkeit, dort war wieder eine, dort wieder eine andere, die ihr Bewußtsein heruntergedämpft hatten. Das war die Gelegenheit, daß Ahriman die Menschen von sich besessen machte. Und wenn man wissen will, wie leicht es geschehen kann, daß in unserem Zeitalter die Menschen von Ahriman besessen werden können, dann braucht man nur an so etwas zu denken, wie es sich zutrug, als die Europäer nach Amerika kamen mit den gedruckten Werken, die sie mitgebracht hatten, zu der Zeit, als es im Osten von Nordamerika noch Indianer gab. Als die Indianer bei den Europäern diese merkwürdigen Schriftzeichen sahen, da haben sie sie angesehen als kleine Dämonen. Sie hatten den richtigen Blick dafür; sie fürchteten sich außerordentlich vor all diesen kleinen Dämonen a, b und so weiter, wie sie in den gedruckten Buchstaben ausschauen. Denn in diesen, in der verschiedensten Weise reproduzierten Buchstaben liegt für die heutigen Menschen etwas Faszinierendes; und nur die gute Michael-Gesinnung, die das Menschliche in der Weisheitsverkündigung schauen kann, die kann über dieses Faszinierende hinausführen.

Aber es kann auf diesem Wege Arges geschehen. Ich möchte Ihnen da das Folgende sagen. Es gibt ja gewisse Geheimnisse der Weltenanschauung, die nur zu durchschauen sind, wenn man ein ziemlich hohes Alter erreicht hat. Die einzelnen Lebensalter lassen den Menschen, wenn man im Besitze der Initiationswissenschaft ist, hinschauen auf die einzelnen Geheimnisse des Daseins. So kann man zwischen dem einundzwanzigsten und zweiundvierzigsten Lebensjahre hineinschauen in die Sonnenverhältnisse — vorher nicht. So kann man zwischen dem zweiundvierzigsten und neunundvierzigsten Jahre in die Marsgeheimnisse hineinschauen; so zwischen dem neunundvierzigsten und sechsundfünfzigsten Jahre in die Jupitergeheimnisse. Will man aber die Weltengeheimnisse im Zusammenhange schauen, dann muß man das dreiundsechzigste Lebensjahr überschritten haben. Daher würde ich gewisse Dinge, die ich jetzt unverhohlen ausspreche, vorher nicht haben sagen können, bevor ich eben in dieser Lage war. Denn will man das durchschauen, was sich gerade auf die Michael-Geheimnisse bezieht, was ja von der geistigen Region der Sonne aus wirkt, dann muß man von der Erde aus in die Weltengeheimnisse hinaufschauen durch die Saturnweisheit. Dann muß man jene Dämmerung in der geistigen Welt verspüren können, in ihr leben können, die von dem den Saturn beherrschenden Oriphiel herrührt, der zur Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha der führende Erzengel war und der wieder der führende Erzengel sein wird, nachdem die Michael-Zeit abgelaufen sein wird.

Dann enthüllen sich aber für die heutige Zeit erschütternde Wahrheiten, ganz erschütternde Wahrheiten! Denn dadurch, daß durch diese ahrimanische Gegenschule zur Schule des Michael die Druckkunst sich auf der Erde verbreitet hat, ist ja auf der Erde aufgetreten die «Schriftstellerei» im weiteren Umfange. Wer war denn früher Schriftsteller, als man noch nicht druckte? Solche waren es, die eigentlich nur im engsten Kreise ihre Schriften verbreiten konnten, in Kreisen, die übrigens dazu vorbereitet waren. Denn in wie viele Hände kam denn ein Buch, bevor die Druckkunst verbreitet war? Wie es damit eigentlich ist, das kann man so recht ermessen, wenn man folgendes bedenkt: Eine Art Surrogat der Druckkunst, bis zu einer hohen Vollkommenheit gediehen, war ja schon in der alten chinesischen Kultur vorhanden. Da gab es schon eine Art Druckkunst, auch zu einer Zeit begründet, in der eine MichaelHerrschaft oben war und unten eine ahrimanische Gegenherrschaft. Aber es ist zu nichts Besonderem gekommen; Ahriman war dazumal noch nicht mächtig. Er konnte noch nicht besondere Versuche machen, um dem Michael wirklich die Herrschaft über die Intelligenz abzukämpfen. Es wurde dieser Versuch ja erneuert zur Alexanderzeit, aber da gelang er wieder nicht.

Nun hat aber der Ahrimanismus in der Druckkunst der neueren Zeit seine große Bedeutung gehabt. Das Schriftstellertum ist sozusagen populär geworden. Und eins ist möglich geworden, eines, das ebenso wunderbar, glänzend und blendend ist, wie es auf der anderen Seite zwar aufgenommen werden muß im vollen Gleichmaß der Seelenkräfte, aber doch in seiner richtigen Bedeutung gewürdigt werden muß. Erste Versuche sind da, die aus der Region des Michael heraus bezeichnet werden können als: es ist Ahriman als Schriftsteller aufgetreten! In Michael-Kreisen bildet es heute ein bedeutsames Ereignis. Ahriman als Schriftsteller! Nicht nur, daß Menschen von ihm besessen worden sind, wie ich es angedeutet habe für den Kriegsausbruch, sondern Ahriman ist, indem er sich durch Menschenseelen auf der Erde kundgab, selber als Schriftsteller aufgetreten. Daß er ein glänzender Schriftsteller ist, braucht nicht weiter zu verwundern; denn Ahriman ist ein großer, ein umfassender, ein gewaltiger Geist. Er ist nur eben derjenige Geist, der nicht zur Fortentwickelung der Menschheit auf der Erde im Sinne der guten Götter geeignet ist, sondern zu ihrer Bekämpfung. Auf seinem Gebiete ist er eine nicht nur durchaus brauchbare, sondern wohltätige Macht; denn diejenigen Wesenheiten, die auf einem Niveau des Weltgeschehens wohltätig sind, die sind auf einem anderen außerordentlich schädlich. Deshalb braucht nicht vorausgesetzt zu werden, wenn man die Werke Ahrimans charakterisieren will, daß diese Werke besonders abzukanzeln wären. Man kann sie sogar, wenn man sich dessen bewußt ist, was da vorliegt, bewundern. Aber man muß eben den ahrimanischen Charakter erkennen!

Michael lehrt dies heute erkennen, wenn man auf ihn hinhören will. Denn die Michael-Schulung hat nachgewirkt, und man kann heute noch an sie herankommen. Dann lehrt sie, wie Ahriman als Schriftsteller zunächst einmal die Versuche gemacht hat, erste Versuche tief erschütternden, tragischen Charakters, die natürlich aufgetreten sind durch einen Menschen: «Der Antichrist» von Nietzsche, «Ecce homo», die Selbstbiographie Nietzsches, und alles das, was Notizen sind im «Willen zur Macht» — die glänzendsten Kapitel modernen Schriftstellertums, mit ihrem oftmals so teuflischen Inhalt! Ahriman hat sie geschrieben, seine Herrschaft über das ausübend, was in Buchstaben auf Erden durch die Druckkunst seiner Herrschaft unterworfen werden kann. Es hat Ahriman bereits so begonnen, als Schriftsteller aufzutreten, und er wird seine Arbeit fortsetzen. Und notwendig ist es in der Zukunft auf der Erde, Wachsamkeit haben zu können, damit man nicht alles, was einem in der Schriftstellerei entgegentritt, als gleichartig hinnimmt. Menschenwerke werden herauskommen, aber wissen müssen einzelne Menschen, daß einer sich schult, um einer der glänzendsten Schriftsteller in der nächsten Zukunft zu werden: Ahriman! Menschenhände werden die Werke schreiben, aber Ahriman wird der Schriftsteller sein. Wie einstmals die alten Evangelisten inspiriert waren und die Werke ihrer übersinnlichen Wesenheiten, die sie begeisterten, niedergeschrieben haben, so werden Ahrimans Werke von Menschen geschrieben werden.

Und zweierlei wird es in der ferneren Entwickelungsgeschichte der Menschheit geben. Da wird die Bemühung sein müssen, dasjenige, was einstmals von Michael den prädestinierten Seelen in überirdischen Schulen gelehrt worden ist, fortzupflanzen in der irdischen Region, soweit es möglich sein kann, in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft andächtig in diesen Kenntnissen zu sein, und die, welche in den folgenden Inkarnationen nachkommen werden, darin zu unterrichten, bis das Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts da sein wird. Dann werden manche von denen, die diese Dinge heute zum ersten Mal erfahren, wieder zur Erde niedersteigen, was also bald sein wird. Auf der Erde aber wird mittlerweile vieles erscheinen, zahlreiches, was von Ahriman geschrieben sein wird. — Die eine Aufgabe der Anthroposophen wird sein: treulich die Michael-Weisheit zu pflegen, mit wohlmütigen Herzen zur MichaelWeisheit zu stehen und die erste Durchdringung der irdischen Intelligenz mit dem geistigen Michael-Schwert darin zu sehen, daß nun dieses geistige Michael-Schwert gehandhabt wird von den Herzen, in welche die Michael-Weisheit eingezogen ist, so, daß das Michael-Bild wie ein die einzelnen Anthroposophen begeisterndes Bild in einer neuen Gestalt erscheint: dastehend Michael in den Herzen der Menschen, unter seinen Füßen das, was ahrimanische Schriftstellerei sein wird. Es wird nicht jener äußeren Malerei bedürfen, die in der Dominikanerzeit oftmals das Bild fixiert hat: Oben die scholastischen Dominikaner mit ihren Büchern dastehend, unten die heidnische Weisheit, dargestellt durch Averroës, Avicenna und so weiter, die zu ihren Füßen zertreten werden — man sieht diese Bilder überall da, wo die Bekämpfung des Heidentums durch die christliche Scholastik im Bilde veranschaulicht werden sollte -, aber im Geiste wird man dieses Bild haben müssen: Ergebenheit gegenüber dem in die Welt hereinziehenden, auf der Erde die Intelligenz ergreifenden Michael, und Wachsamkeit — so daß man sich über sie erheben kann - gegenüber der glänzenden, blendenden, durch das ganze 20. Jahrhundert hindurch wirkenden Arbeit von Ahriman als Schriftsteller. Er wird an den sonderbarsten Stellen seine Werke schreiben, sie werden aber da sein, diese Werke, und seine Schüler bildet er sich heraus. Es erscheint gar manches schon in unserer Zeit, was zunächst die unterbewußten Seelen heranbildet, damit sie schnell sich wieder verkörpern und Werkzeuge werden können für Ahriman als Schriftsteller. Auf allen Gebieten wird er schreiben: Schreiben wird er in der Philosophie, schreiben wird er in der Poesie, schreiben wird er auf dem Gebiete der Dramatik und der Epik; schreiben wird er auf dem Gebiete der Medizin, der Jurisprudenz, der Soziologie! Auf allen Gebieten wird Ahriman schreiben!

Das wird die Situation sein, welcher die Menschheit wird entgegenzuleben haben mit dem Ende des Jahrhunderts. Und diejenigen, die heute noch jünger sind, werden manches sehen von dem, wie Ahriman als Schriftsteller auftritt. Auf allen Gebieten wird Wachsamkeit gebraucht werden und heiliger Enthusiasmus für die Michael-Weisheit.

Meine lieben Freunde, können wir uns mit so etwas durchdringen, können wir in der Lage sein, im geistigen Leben uns so drinnenstehend zu fühlen, wie es im Sinne dieser Andeutungen liegt, dann werden wir uns als rechte Anthroposophen in die gegenwärtige Zivilisation hineinstellen. Dann werden wir vielleicht doch immer mehr und mehr verspüren, daß eben ein neuer Zug von der Weihnachtstagung am Goetheanum ausgeht, daß im Grunde genommen der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft jetzt erst dasjenige vorgehalten wird, worin sie sich wie in einem «Weltenspiegel» selber sehen kann, und daß auch der einzelne mit seinem ihn in die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft hineinführenden Karma sich gespiegelt sehen kann.

Das ist das, was ich Ihnen zunächst habe durch diese Vorträge ans Herz legen wollen. Denn zu den Herzen soll vorzugsweise gesprochen werden. Die Herzen müssen die Helfer des Michael werden in der Eroberung der vom Himmel auf die Erde gefallenen Intelligenz. Wie die alte Schlange von Michael zertreten werden mußte, so muß die zur Schlange gewordene Intelligenz von Michael erobert werden, spiritualisiert werden. Und überall, wo sie als Widerpart auftritt — nicht spiritualisiert, sondern ins Geistige ahrimanisiert —, da muß sie in der richtigen Weise erkannt werden durch die an der Michael-Gesinnung heranerzogene Wachsamkeit des anthroposophischen Geistes.

Third Lecture

From what I discussed yesterday about the rule of Michael in the spiritual, cosmic context, you could see that Michael occupies a special position among those spiritual beings whom we, according to the name that arose in ancient times within the Christian communities, count among the Archangeloi. And precisely for what is important to us in these days, it must appear significant that Michael in the centuries before the foundation of Christianity still sent his impulses to the earth from the sun, from the region of the solar, his, if I may express myself so, cosmopolitan impulses; that then these cosmopolitan impulses are lost, that the cosmic intelligence so to speak departs from Michael and arrives in the earth region in the 8th century after Christ. So that we then find people within the earth development who have their own thinking, that this own thinking was then cultivated, nurtured and fought for a further Michael dominion, as I mentioned yesterday, in that the wise men of the School of Chartres worked together in harmony with those who virtually came from the old Michael dominion and were predestined to continue to cultivate the principle of the earlier cosmic, now earthly intelligence, until in the 19th century the possibility arose that in the future the principle of the former cosmic, now earthly intelligence could be further developed. In the nineteenth century the possibility arose that within the spiritual world, through the cult of imagination which I have described to you, that which was once intended by the anthroposophical movement would be prepared. Since the last third of the 19th Since the last third of the 19th century, but especially in our time, we have been at the beginning of the new Michael reign; This Michael reign prepares the way for what must happen in this century, namely that a larger number of people - precisely those who come to a real understanding of anthroposophy - will pass through the time between death and a new birth before the end of the century and will now be reunited on earth under the guidance, so to speak, of the two kinds of spiritual beings, the teachers of Chartres and those who have remained directly united with the Michael reign, in order, under the guidance of these two kinds of spiritual beings, to give the last, if I may express myself so, sanctified impulse for the further development of the spiritual life on earth. Anthroposophy will only be able to gain real significance for those who wish to participate in it if they become aware, with a certain inner holy zeal, that they can stand within such a context, which can be characterized as it was yesterday. This will give them inner enthusiasm, but it will also give them strength. It will let one know that one should work towards becoming more and more a continuator of that which once lived in the ancient Mysteries. But such an awareness must be deepened in all directions. And it can be deepened. For in the sense of what we discussed yesterday, we look back to the time when Michael was united in the spiritual solar realm with a number of supernatural beings, when he sent such signs down to earth from this spiritual solar realm that they were able to inspire the Alexander deeds on the one hand and Aristotelian philosophy on the other; that they could, so to speak, bring about the last phase of inspired, of spiritual intelligence on earth; that then, together with those human souls who, so to speak, carried out such things on earth on his behalf, Michael, together with his spiritual hosts and with the hosts of those human souls who were around such leading human souls, observed the Mystery of Golgotha from the sun. And you can already penetrate yourself with something that works in the soul if you imagine the moment when Michael, with a number of angels, archangels and human souls, sees the Christ depart from the sun to enter the physical body of a human being and, through what he can experience in the human body on earth, to connect himself with the further development of humanity on earth. At the same time, however, this was the sign for Michael that the heavenly intelligence he had preserved until then would now have to flow down to earth as a kind of holy rain and gradually disappear from the sun. And in the 8th century AD it was the case that those who were around Michael saw how the substance that Michael had preserved until then was now down on earth.

The point is that everything that came into the world through the Masters of Chartres, but also everything that came into the world through the chosen ones from the Dominican Order, happened in full harmony with Michael's rule: so that, in short, that development of humanity was brought about which, from the beginning of the 15th century, could inaugurate the development of the consciousness-soul in humanity, that development in which we now find ourselves. For approximately in the first third of the preceding development, that is, in the first third of the age of the development of the intellectual or emotional soul, we have the spread of supernatural intelligence over Asia, Africa and a part of Europe through Alexandrinism. Now, however, a special time occurs, a time which shows us Michael, the most outstanding archangel spirit of the sun, within this sun in such a way that he knows his administration of the cosmic intelligence has departed from the sun; that he knows: the affairs are also ordered which can continue the further development of this intelligence on earth. This time occurs approximately in the 16th, 17th century after Christ. There Michael is, so to speak, free from his earlier duties in the cosmos. The earthly developments are administered by Gabriel in the way I described yesterday.

Michael is now in a special position. If otherwise an archangel is not exactly the ruling prince of earthly affairs, he nevertheless allows his impulses to flow into what the others do. This is because the impulses of all seven successive archangel rulerships are constantly flowing in; only one is always the most prominent. If, for example, Gabriel was the leading spirit in earlier epochs of human development, then what he had to govern flowed from him into the earthly development; but the other archangels worked with him. Now, however, when Gabriel exercised his rule, Michael was in the special position of not being able to participate in earthly affairs from the sun. This is a very special situation for a leading archangel: to see that his activity, which had been carried out over long periods of time, had, so to speak, ceased. And so it came about that Michael said to his own: "It is necessary that for the time in which we cannot send impulses to earth - for the time that ends with the year 1879 approximately - we look for a special task, look for a task within the solar region. - There should be an opportunity for those souls whose karma has led them into the anthroposophical movement to be able to look in the solar region at what Michael and his followers did in the time that was the time of Gabriel's reign on earth.

This was something that stood out, so to speak, from all the other, regularly continuing deeds among gods and men. The souls connected with Michael - the leading human souls of Alexander's time, those of the great Dominican period and those who had gathered around them as less leading ones, and a large number of striving, developing human beings in union with leading spirits - they felt as if they had been torn out of the traditional connection with the spiritual world. The human souls who were predestined to become anthroposophists experienced something in the supersensible that had never before been experienced by human souls in the supernatural regions between death and new birth. In former times it was experienced that in the time between death and new birth the karma for the future earthly existence was worked out by the human souls in union with leading spiritual beings. But in former times no karma was worked out in the same way as now the karma of those who were predestined to become anthroposophists through the things indicated. Never before did one work in the solar region between death and new birth in the way that one can now work under the rule of Michael, which has become free of earthly matters.

Then something happened which was then an event in the supersensible regions, something which today lies dormant, even if unconsciously, dreamily, in the deepest heart of most anthroposophists. And the anthroposophist can do right when, reaching into his heart, he says to himself: "In there is a secret, perhaps unconscious to me today, which is a reflection of Michael's deeds from the 16th, 17th, 18th century in the supernatural regions, where I worked under Michael before my present descent into the earth region, who was able to work in a special way because he had become free, so to speak, from his flowing tasks. And Michael gathered his hosts, gathered those who belonged to him as supersensible beings from the region of the Angeloi and Archangeloi, but he also gathered the human souls who had come into some kind of connection with him. And something like a vastly expanding psychic school came into being. Just as at the beginning of the 13th century a kind of heavenly council took place between those who were able to work together as Platonists and Aristotelians, so now a supersensible training took place directly under the guidance of Michael from the 15th to the 18th century, and the world order itself chose Michael as its great teacher. So what I have told you about the first half of the 19th century, about the supersensible cult flowing in powerful imaginations, was preceded by a supersensible training for numerous human souls, a training whose results these human souls now carry in their inner being, unconsciously. The result of this training comes out only because these human souls feel the urge to anthroposophy. This urge to anthroposophy is the result of this training. And one can say: Once, at the end of the 15th century, Michael gathered his hosts of gods and men in the solar region and spoke to them in a speech that was extended over long periods of time, something like this:

Since the human race populated the earth in human form, there have been mysteries on earth: solar mysteries, Mercury mysteries, Venus mysteries, Mars mysteries, Jupiter mysteries, Saturn mysteries. The gods have sent their secrets into these mysteries; suitable people have been initiated into them. So that people on earth could know what is going on on Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and so on, and how this, what is going on there, affects the development of mankind on earth. There have always been initiates, initiates who communed with the gods in the mysteries. In an instinctive old clairvoyant way, the initiates have absorbed what has come to them through impulses in the Mysteries. This has disappeared on earth - as Michael said to his own - except for a few traditions, it is no longer there. The impulses can no longer flow into the earth. Only in the most subordinate region, in the reproductive region, does Gabriel still have the power to allow the lunar influences to enter into the development of humanity. The old traditions have more or less disappeared from the earth and with them the possibility of cultivating the impulses that enter the subconscious and thus the various physicalities of human beings. But now we look back at everything that was once brought to people in the Mysteries as a gift from heaven, we survey this wonderful tableau, we look down into the course of time: We find there the Mystery Places, we see how the heavenly wisdom has flowed into these Mysteries, how men have been initiated by it, how just from our consecrated solar place the cosmic intelligence has descended upon men in such a way that the great teachers of mankind have had ideas, thoughts, concepts which were spiritual, but which were inspired into them from our consecrated solar place. That has disappeared from the earth. We see it by looking back to the old epochs of the earth, we see it gradually disappearing from the earth's development in the time of Alexander and its aftermath, and below we see, among men, the intelligence that has become earthly gradually spreading. But we have this sight which has remained with us: we look at the secrets into which the initiates of the Mysteries were once initiated. Let us bring them to our consciousness! Let us bring it to the consciousness of those spiritual beings who never appear around me in an earthly body, but only live in an etheric way. But let us also bring it to the consciousness of those souls who have often been on earth in earthly bodies, but who are here now and belong to the Michael community. Let us outline the great initiatic teaching that once streamed down to earth in the old way through the Mysteries, let us outline it before the souls of those who were intelligently connected with Michael.

And there the old initiatory wisdom was “gone through” - if I may use an earthly expression that sounds almost trivial in such a context. There was a large, comprehensive heavenly school. In it Michael taught what he could no longer administer himself. It was something monstrous, something that disturbed the Ahrimanic demons on earth, especially in the 15th, 16th, 17th and into the 18th century, in the most profound way, something that caused them to become terribly agitated, so that something strange took place. This took place, which resulted in a polar contrast between heavenly deeds at that time and earthly deeds at that time: Above in the spiritual world a high school, which summarizes in a new way in the supersensible the old initiatic wisdom, which lifted up into the intelligent consciousness, into the consciousness soul, that which was formerly in ancient times the property of wisdom of men in the intellect or mind soul, in the sentient soul and so on. In the way that can be spoken in the inner word, which is hard in many respects at the same time, Michael explained to his own the world connections, the cosmic connections, the anthroposophical connections. These souls received a teaching which revealed the secrets of the world. Down on earth the ahrimanic spirits were at work. And it is necessary at this point to point out quite blatantly a secret of truth which, viewed outwardly, certainly appears somewhat out of place in relation to the present civilization, but which is nevertheless a divine secret that the anthroposophists must know in order to lead civilization in the right way, as I have indicated, towards the end of the 20th century.

While Michael was training his flocks above, a kind of subterranean Ahrimanic school was established just below the surface of the earth. We can therefore speak of the Michael school being in the Supermundane; the Ahrimanic counter-school was founded directly in the region on which we stand - for the spiritual is also active and effective in the subterranean. And if no impulses flowed down from Michael just at this time to inspire the intelligence celestially, if the intelligence on earth was initially left to itself, then the Ahrimanic hosts endeavored all the more to send impulses from below into the intelligent development of mankind. It is a tremendous picture that can appear before your eyes. Imagine: the surface of the earth, Michael above, instructing his hosts, revealing to them with great powerful world words what the old initiatic wisdom was; opposite to this the Ahrimanic school in the subsoil of the earth. Developing on earth the intelligence fallen down from heaven; Michael at first keeping school in heavenly solitude towards the earthly - no currents go from above downwards -, the ahrimanic powers all the more sending their impulses upwards.

After all, there have been embodied souls on earth who have sensed the uncanny nature of this situation in the centuries alluded to. Whoever knows the spiritual history, especially of Europe, from this time, will find everywhere the strange fact that here and there sometimes quite simple people live who feel the uncanny of this situation: this abandonment of mankind by the Michael rule and these impulses rising from below with demonic spiritual vapors, which want to conquer the intelligence.

It is strange how closely connected with the human being the revelations of the wisdom life must be if everything that springs from it is to be good. This is precisely the secret of truth that must be touched upon here. For the one who has to proclaim the wisdom of Michael feels in a certain respect that he is in his right place when he struggles to find the expression, the word formulation for what Michael's wisdom is. He even feels that he is still in the right place when, starting from his own hands, he writes down this Michael-wisdom; for there that which is connected with man from the spiritual side flows, so to speak, into the form of what he writes, into what he does. But even though it has to be endured, even though it belongs to our time, there is an uncanny feeling connected with it when one sees that which is Michael-wisdom, which one still likes to write down and communicate to people as something to be read for my sake, when one sees it reproduced in a mechanical way in printed books. This uncanny feeling towards the printed book is definitely present in those who are inside the spiritual life with what they have to proclaim.

Following yesterday's lecture, someone asked me whether the letter is not the last outflow of spiritual life - as Swedenborg already hinted at. It is! It is so long as it flows continuously through a human being from the spiritual. It becomes ahrimanic spiritual power when it is fixed by the mechanical, when it is, so to speak, fixed from the other side of the world, when it appears before the eyes of men as a printed letter. For that is the peculiar thing, that it is the Ahrimanic school, which was founded as the counter-school to the Michael school and was active in the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, which brought up the art of printing in Europe, with all the consequences of the art of printing. From the art of printing can sprout the demonic forces that are precisely suited to fighting Michael's rule.

If you are an anthroposophist, you must see through the real meaning of what is real in life. One must indeed see a spiritual power in the art of printing, but precisely the spiritual power that has been set against Michael by Ahriman. Hence this continual admonition of Michael to those whom he taught in his school at that time, the continual admonition: When you come down to earth again to carry out what has been arranged here, then gather people around you, proclaim the most important things from mouth to ear and do not see the most important things in the fact that only through the printed book “literary” work is done in the world. - Therefore, the more intimate way of working from person to person is that which is preferably in the direction of Michael's work. And if, instead of working merely through books, we unite and take up the most important impulses in a human-personal way and - because it must be so, because otherwise Ahriman would again gain a tremendous dominion if we did not also take possession of his art - then use the other only in order to have, as it were, “memory aids”, in order to have that which reckons with the Ahrimanic spirit of the times: if we cultivate this in such a way that we do not eradicate the printed book, but give it the right relationship to that which has an immediate human effect, then we inaugurate that which is initially to flow imposingly through the Anthroposophical Society as the Michael current. For it would not be right, starting from something like what I have just described, to say: So let's abolish anthroposophical books! By doing so we would be handing over the art of printing to the strongest enemies of Michael Wisdom; we would be making it impossible to continue our anthroposophical work, which should flourish right up to the end of the century. But we must ennoble the art of printing through a holy attitude towards that which lives in Michael's wisdom! For what does Ahriman want from Michael through the art of printing? He wants - you see it sprouting up everywhere today - the conquest of the intelligence, that conquest of the intelligence which wants to intervene in particular wherever the circumstances are favorable. In what then does the most important work of the Ahrimanic spirits consist in their fight against the coming Michael Age? What is effective is that these Ahrimanic spirits, in times when people's consciousnesses are dampened, make people ‘possessed’ by them, so to speak, and intervene in human consciousnesses. Thus many people who had dampened consciousnesses in 1914 were involved in the emergence of the terrible world war. And in their dimmed consciousnesses the hosts of Ahriman made the world war - through men. And the causes of this war will not ever be revealed in an external documentary way from the archives; but one must look into history and see: there was an authoritative personality, there was another, there was another, who had dampened down their consciousness. That was the opportunity for Ahriman to make people obsessed with himself. And if you want to know how easily it can happen in our age that people can become possessed by Ahriman, then you need only think of what happened when the Europeans came to America with the printed works they had brought with them, at the time when there were still Indians in the east of North America. When the Indians saw these strange characters among the Europeans, they saw them as little demons. They had the right eye for it; they were extremely afraid of all these little demons a, b and so on, as they appear in the printed letters. For there is something fascinating for people today in these letters, reproduced in the most diverse ways; and only the good Michael spirit, which can see the human in the proclamation of wisdom, can lead beyond this fascination.

But bad things can happen on this path. I would like to tell you the following. There are certain secrets of the world view that can only be seen through when one has reached a fairly advanced age. The individual ages of life, if one is in possession of the science of initiation, allow man to look at the individual secrets of existence. Between the ages of twenty-one and forty-two, for example, one can look into the relations of the sun - not before. Thus between the forty-second and forty-ninth year one can look into the mysteries of Mars; thus between the forty-ninth and fifty-sixth year one can look into the mysteries of Jupiter. But if you want to see the mysteries of the world in context, then you must have passed the age of sixty-three. Therefore, I would not have been able to say certain things that I am now blatantly expressing before I was in this position. For if you want to see through what relates to the Michael Mysteries, which work from the spiritual region of the sun, then you have to look up from the earth into the mysteries of the world through the wisdom of Saturn. Then one must be able to feel that twilight in the spiritual world, to live in it, which comes from Oriphiel ruling Saturn, who was the leading archangel at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha and who will again be the leading archangel after the Michael time has expired.

But then shattering truths are revealed for the present time, quite shattering truths! For it is through this Ahrimanic counter-school to the school of Michael that the art of printing has spread on earth, and thus “writing” has appeared on earth on a wider scale. Who were writers in earlier times when there was no printing? They were those who could only disseminate their writings in the narrowest circles, in circles that were prepared for it. After all, how many hands did a book end up in before the art of printing was widespread? You can get a good idea of how things actually were if you consider the following: a kind of surrogate for the art of printing, which had already reached a high level of perfection, already existed in ancient Chinese culture. There was already a kind of art of printing, also founded at a time when a Michael rule was above and an Ahrimanic counter-rule below. But nothing special happened; Ahriman was not yet powerful at that time. He could not yet make special attempts to really wrest the dominion over the intelligence from Michael. This attempt was renewed at the time of Alexander, but again it did not succeed.

Now, however, Ahrimanism has had its great significance in the art of printing in more recent times. Writing has become popular, so to speak. And one thing has become possible, one that is just as wonderful, brilliant and dazzling as it must, on the other hand, be received in the full balance of the soul's powers, but must nevertheless be appreciated in its proper meaning. The first attempts have been made which, from the region of Michael, can be described as: Ahriman has appeared as a writer! In Michael circles it is a significant event today. Ahriman as a writer! Not only that people have been possessed by him, as I have indicated for the outbreak of war, but Ahriman himself has appeared as a writer by making himself known on earth through human souls. That he is a brilliant writer need not be surprising, for Ahriman is a great, a comprehensive, a mighty spirit. He is just that spirit which is not suitable for the further development of mankind on earth in the sense of the good gods, but for fighting them. In its own field it is not only an entirely useful power, but a beneficent one; for those entities which are beneficent on one level of world affairs are extraordinarily harmful on another. Therefore it need not be assumed, if one wishes to characterize the works of Ahriman, that these works are to be particularly dismissed. One can even admire them if one is aware of what is there. But you just have to recognize the Ahrimanic character!

Michael teaches us to recognize this today, if we want to listen to him. For the Michael training has had a lasting effect and you can still access it today. Then it teaches how Ahriman as a writer first of all made the attempts, the first attempts of a deeply shattering, tragic character, which naturally occurred through a human being: “The Antichrist” by Nietzsche, “Ecce homo”, Nietzsche's self-biography, and everything that is noted in the “Will to Power” - the most brilliant chapters of modern writing, with their often so diabolical content! Ahriman wrote them, exercising his dominion over that which can be subjected to his rule in letters on earth through the art of printing. Ahriman has already begun to appear as a writer in this way, and he will continue his work. And it is necessary in the future on earth to be able to be vigilant so that one does not accept everything one encounters in writing as similar. Human works will come forth, but individuals must know that someone is training himself to become one of the most brilliant writers in the near future: Ahriman! Human hands will write the works, but Ahriman will be the writer. Just as the ancient evangelists were once inspired and wrote down the works of their supernatural entities that inspired them, so Ahriman's works will be written by men.

And there will be two things in the further development history of mankind. There will have to be the endeavor to propagate in the earthly region what was once taught by Michael to the predestined souls in supernatural schools, as far as it can be possible to be devout in this knowledge in the Anthroposophical Society, and to teach it to those who will come after in the following incarnations, until the end of the 20th century will be there. Then some of those who are experiencing these things for the first time today will descend to earth again, which will be soon. In the meantime, however, many things will appear on earth, many things that will be written by Ahriman. - The one task of the anthroposophists will be to faithfully cultivate the Michael-wisdom, to stand by the Michael-wisdom with good-natured hearts and to see the first penetration of the earthly intelligence with the spiritual Michael-sword in the fact that this spiritual Michael-sword will now be wielded by the hearts into which the Michael-wisdom has entered, so that the Michael-image will appear in a new form like an image inspiring the individual anthroposophists: Michael standing in the hearts of men, under his feet that which will be ahrimanic writing. There will be no need for the external painting that often fixed the picture in the Dominican period: above the scholastic Dominicans standing with their books, below the pagan wisdom, represented by Averroës, Avicenna and so on, trampled under their feet - one sees these pictures everywhere where the fight against paganism by Christian scholasticism was to be illustrated in pictures - but in the spirit one will have to have this picture: Devotion to Michael moving into the world, seizing the intelligence on earth, and vigilance - so that one can rise above it - to the brilliant, dazzling work of Ahriman as a writer, working through the whole 20th century. He will write his works in the strangest places, but they will be there, these works, and he will form his disciples. Many things are already appearing in our time that will first train the subconscious souls so that they can quickly embody themselves again and become tools for Ahriman as a writer. He will write in all fields: he will write in philosophy, he will write in poetry, he will write in the fields of drama and epic; he will write in the fields of medicine, jurisprudence, sociology! Ahriman will write in all fields!

This will be the situation that humanity will have to face at the end of the century. And those who are still younger today will see much of how Ahriman appears as a writer. Vigilance will be needed in all areas and holy enthusiasm for Michael wisdom.

My dear friends, if we can penetrate ourselves with something like this, if we can be in a position to feel ourselves in the spiritual life as it is in the sense of these allusions, then we will place ourselves as true anthroposophists in the present civilization. Then, perhaps, we will feel more and more that a new impulse is emanating from the Christmas Conference at the Goetheanum, that basically the Anthroposophical Society is only now being presented with that in which it can see itself as in a “world mirror”, and that the individual, with his karma leading him into the Anthroposophical Society, can also see himself reflected.

This is what I first wanted to convey to you through these lectures. For it is preferable to speak to the hearts. The hearts must become Michael's helpers in the conquest of the intelligence that has fallen from heaven to earth. Just as the old serpent had to be crushed by Michael, so the intelligence that has become a serpent must be conquered by Michael, spiritualized. And wherever it appears as an adversary - not spiritualized, but ahrimanized into the spiritual - it must be recognized in the right way through the vigilance of the anthroposophical spirit trained in the Michael-mindedness.