Michael & the Mission of Man- Blog - Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Last Address
Michael and the Mission of Man

September 28, 2024
by Karin Wietrzykowski

This year marks the centennial of Rudolf Steiner's last address to the Anthroposophical Society given on September 28, 1924 in Dornach, Switzerland. We are honored to present to you his full lecture now online in English, including the addenda of additional remarks.¹ To our knowledge, this lecture was omitted from all English language books published prior to 1997 and never before has the addendum of additional remarks been made available in English. The following article is intended to underscore the utmost importance of this information, both in what it says, and what was left unsaid. It strikes to the heart of the human condition, the future of anthroposophy, and ultimately the future of mankind.

On the eve of Michaelmas 1924, Dr. Steiner, frail and deathly ill, summoned the strength to passionately declare his last will for the rebirth of the anthroposophical movement. This extraordinary event transpired in the wake of the blazing fire that consumed his architectural masterpiece of the first Goetheanum on New Year's Eve 1922. The flames that burned down that exquisite temple would thereafter only remain in the spiritual world.

Steiner had figuratively laid the "Foundation Stone of Anthroposophy" in the hearts of the members of the Anthroposophical Society nine months earlier on December 26, 1923 during the Christmas Conference. This meeting signified the founding of a renewed General Anthroposophical Society in which he accepted the main leadership role together with the executive counsel in Dornach. Having previously remained on the perimeter of the administration of the society, he now assumed the central position and thereby he joined his destiny to it. With proper development, the anthroposophical movement was intended to blossom.²

Perhaps in an even greater tragedy than the burning of the Goetheanum, the conditions at the time were not yet ripe for the seed of this new anthroposophical impulse to take root, flower, and bear fruit. As Marie Steiner later writes, “For we cannot but admit: We were called, but we were not chosen. We were incapable of responding to the call, as further developments showed.” ³ She tells how Dr. Steiner, in a gesture of extraordinary sacrifice, had taken the karma of the Society and its members upon himself and the effects of that were plainly visible now.

The outcome revealed what it meant for Dr. Steiner to take our karma upon himself. What could have been deeply esoteric would have been to bring earlier diverging earlier spiritual streams to a harmonious balance in the persons of some of their present representatives. This would have been an esoteric task that could have been achieved together with Dr Steiner through his superior insight, strength and capacity for love. But our human karma and that of the Society burst upon him the very minute the Christmas Foundation Conference had been brought to a close. On that last day, 1 January 1924, he suddenly fell seriously ill. At the social gathering with tea and refreshments, described as a Rout on the programme, he was struck down as though by a sword aimed at his very life. Yet he continued without intermission and with boundless energy to be active until 28 September, the day on which he spoke to us for the last time. His failing physical forces were nourished by spiritual fire, indeed they were borne by this fire and grew beyond themselves. But at the last, after superhuman achievements during the month of September, the power of this inner flame finally devoured him too.²

This last address was Steiner's last supplication for humanity to actively develop themselves to be able to carry the anthroposophical impulse forward after he was gone.

In this somber atmosphere, Dr. Steiner continued his discussion of Karma and "beings who are intimately connected, and will always be intimately connected, with the Michael stream" — specifically, the individualities of Elias, John, Raphael, Novalis. These individuals carried the Michaelic impulses into human evolution and continue to do so even today. Not only does this Last Address disclose the reincarnation of this Being as four individualities, it points to the creation of a new prototype of Human Being capable of carrying those impulses forward in human evolution.

The Heavenly Stream of Michael

The urgency for this Michaelic impulse to be carried forward in human evolution cannot be overstated. As Steiner repeatedly articulated, there are two streams of influence in human evolution: one heavenly and another earthly. With the fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden due to their desire for godly wisdom, free will entered the stream of human evolution. This freedom gave rise to the possibility of evil, the Karma necessary to redeem ourselves, and polarities manifesting within the earthly realm. These polarities were carried forward in time through the descendants of Adam and Eve: Abel (the feminine, spiritual stream) and Cain (the masculine, material stream).

In his Karmic Relations lectures, he clearly explains these streams as well as Archangel Michael's authority as Ruler of Cosmic Intelligence. His name is pronounced Micha-EL as the word el means “god” and “the Way”. Steiner taught Michael's Rulership began in November 1879 and would continue for the next three to four centuries. He states, “We are living in a very early period of the Michael Age and what we now possess as intelligence is still only just beginning to unfold in the general consciousness of mankind.” Michael is the bringer of the spiritual forces of the Sun which is “the source of all intellectual life operating in service of the Spirit.” ⁴

Since the Mystery of Golgotha, mankind has fallen away from Cosmic Intelligence to Personal Intelligence. Cosmic Intelligence “moved down to the earth, took shape as it were in many single drops which then lived on as personal Intelligence in single human souls.”

I have said: the Cosmic Intelligence came down to the single men. But this, my dear friends, is only an abstraction. For what is Intelligence? Needless to say we must not conceive that when we ascend into the higher regions we shall be able to take hold of the Intelligence there as we take hold of trees and shrubs here in the physical world. What is Intelligence? These abstract generalisations do not of course exist in reality. ‘Intelligence’ means the mutual relationships of conduct among the higher Hierarchies. What they do, how they relate themselves to one another, what they are to one another—this is the Cosmic Intelligence. And since as human beings we must first consider the kingdom that is nearest to us, concretely speaking the Cosmic Intelligence will be for us the sum-total of the Beings of the Hierarchy of Angeloi. If we are speaking concretely we cannot say ‘so much Intelligence,’ but rather ‘so many Angeloi.’ This is the reality.⁵

The shift from cosmic to personal intelligence was a shift from the stream of heavenly life to the stream of the earthly, material world. Michael began to witness his dominion over this sphere slipping away as it streamed downward. In earlier epochs, men strove for Intelligence not by developing the faculties of the head, but by seeking for Inspiration conveyed to them by cosmic forces. With the fall of mankind into further earthly materialism and intellectualism, a new rescue mission, so to speak, was required of Michael and his legions. This was through the heart.

Michael who has been striving from the Sun for those on earth who perceive the Spiritual in the cosmos, desires henceforward to establish his citadel in the hearts and in the souls of men on earth. This is to begin in our present age. Christianity is to be guided into a realm of deeper truths in as much as understanding of Christ as a Sun Being is to arise within humanity through Michael, the Sun Spirit who has always ruled over the Intelligence, who can now no longer administer it in the cosmos but desires in future time to administer it in and through the hearts of men.

Not only does this have grave importance for mankind and the responsibilities of individuals in that regard, but it is the central mission of the anthroposophical movement itself. Steiner was firm that we must take up the sword of Michael and forge a new path from which a new form of Christianity will emerge to redeem mankind.

The fact that the karma of very many of the souls who have come into the Anthroposophical Movement with real sincerity is connected with these preliminary conditions and antecedents, makes the Anthroposophical Movement into the true Michael Movement, the Movement that is predestined to bring about the renewal of Christianity. This lies in the karma of the Anthroposophical Movement. It lies, too, in the karma of many individuals who have come with sincerity into that Movement. To carry into the world the Michael Impulse which in this way can be pictured in all its concrete reality, which is betokened by many a sign on the earth today and also comes strikingly to expression in the wonderful play of nature-forces around the ruins of Arthur's castle—this is the task of the Anthroposophical Movement in a very special sense. For in the course of the centuries the Michael Impulse must find its way into the world of men if civilisation is not to perish from the earth.

The battle being waged is no less than to unite the two streams of heaven and earth. We must imbue ourselves with cosmic inspiration of past eras, like King Arthur and the twelve Knights of the round table, making ourselves into the Holy Grail through our hearts.

The Mystery of John

Steiner has provided detailed accounts of the complexities surrounding the incarnations of John the Baptist and his cousin Jesus, John's baptism of Jesus facilitating the incarnation of the Christ, and the initiatory raising of Lazarus who became the disciple known as John. ⁶ These events were necessary to prepare for the work of the Michaelic Thought to arise within the human soul. John the Baptist, of the heavenly Abel stream, was beheaded prior to the raising of Lazarus who was of the earthly, Cain stream. While one can come to understand from Steiner's other indications that John the Baptist imbued Lazarus to become Lazarus-John, Steiner only left clues for this to be pieced together. Our English translation of the additional remarks to The Last Address indicates this was in fact the case.

In additional remarks to the lecture which have only been publicly available in German until now published here by us state:

It should be noted that Rudolf Steiner was unable to finish the presentation on September 28, 1924. Marie Steiner recalled this in her essay On the Eve of Michaelmas, published in the Anthroposophical Society's journal in September 1925:

“He did not get as far as he had originally intended with the lecture. He gave us the first part of the Mystery of Lazarus; at the time he not only told me, but later wrote on the cover of the first postscript: Do not pass on until I have given the second part. - It was then wrested from him anyway, like so many things. - Now he will no longer give us this second part. It will be left to our powers of understanding to distinguish the right thing between the secrets of incarnation and incorporation, the crossings of the lines of individuality. He ended with what had been a recurring theme in his revelations of wisdom: the mystery of Novalis, Raphael, John... We were led back to him again and again, from the most diverse aspects. The last, the most difficult, because it was crossed by another line of individuality, he gave to us on the eve of that Michaelmas day - and broke off...”¹

This makes sense since he was growing weary and there was no one present adequately prepared to carry this impulse forward. From the Additional Remarks, we also find others confirmed what Steiner had only publicly given clues.

What Marie Steiner only hinted at as an explanation given orally by Rudolf Steiner was confirmed by Dr. Ludwig Noll, who, along with Dr. Ita Wegman, was one of Rudolf Steiner's doctors Steiner, handed down:

When Lazarus was raised from the dead, the spiritual essence of John the Baptist, who since his death had been the spirit overshadowing the disciples, penetrated from above into the former Lazarus up to the consciousness soul, and from below the essence of Lazarus, so that the two penetrated each other. After the resurrection of Lazarus, this is then John, “the disciple whom the Lord loved.” (See also Lecture 6 of "The Gospel of Mark", where Elijah is described as the group soul of the apostles.)

With the initiation of Lazarus, we find the unification of the Cain and Abel streams through the joining of Lazarus (Cain) and John the Baptist (Abel). From this union, a new prototype of the Human Being emerged: John, "the one whom Jesus loved."

At the last supper, John the Apostle, the raised Lazarus-John, symbolically moved his head from Jesus' lap to his breast or heart. This signified that all the lower forces of egotism had been raised to the heart through Christ — the new heart-felt thinking required of mankind.

Completion or perfection is reached when the lower soul qualities drop away and only the higher ones remain... John's very power of soul will have brought it about that those powers are then lifted up into the loving heart. Rivers of spiritual love will flow from it. When the Christ is in us, the heart is the organ which is most powerful in us. The lower power of soul will then have been raised from the lower abdomen to the heart. Every initiate experienced this as the mystery of the heart. It came to expression in the words ‘my God, my God, how you have raised me up high!’⁷

John was thus a new form of Human Being capable of rising to the higher worlds. Steiner notes, “‘John’ describes his own initiation in the story of the ‘raising of Lazarus.’” ⁸ This story of human development spans the entire Bible from Adam in Genesis to the Apocalypse of John. Thus, in many respects, this lecture completes Steiner's teachings on the fall and redemption of mankind.

Four times twelve Human Beings

As noted, rather than expounding upon the occult knowledge of the significance of John as he had intended, Dr. Steiner abruptly pivoted from this discussion to re-emphasize the individual transformation required of those in attendance and humanity at large, stating:

And so we see in Novalis a radiant and splendid forerunner of that Michael stream which is now to lead you all, my dear friends, while you live; and then, after you have gone through the gate of death, you will find in the spiritual super-sensible worlds all those others—among them also the being of whom I have been speaking to you today—all those with whom you are to prepare the work that shall be accomplished at the end of the century, and that shall lead mankind past the great crisis in which it is involved.

This work is: to let the Michael Power and the Michael Will penetrate the whole of life. The Michael Power and the Michael Will are none other than the Christ Will and the Christ Power, going before in order to implant in the right way into the Earth the Power of the Christ. If this Michael Power is able verily to overcome all that is of the demon and the dragon [and you will know what that is], if you all, who have in this way received in the light Michael Thought, have indeed received it with true and faithful heart and with tender love, and will endeavour to go forward from the Michael mood of this year, until not only is the Michael Thought revealed in your soul, but you are able also to make the Michael Thought live in your deeds in all its strength and all its power—if this is so, then will you be true servants of the Michael Thought, worthy helpers of what has now to enter Earth-evolution through Anthroposophy, and take its place there in the meaning of Michael.

If, in the near future, in four times twelve human beings (emphasis added), the Michael Thought becomes fully alive—four times twelve human beings, that is, who are recognised not by themselves but by the Leadership of the Goetheanum in Dornach—if in four times twelve such human beings, leaders arise having the mood of soul that belongs to the Michael festival, then we can look up to the light that through the Michael stream and the Michael activity will be shed abroad in the future among mankind.

What did he mean by "four times twelve human beings?" Throughout the course of his work, Steiner repeatedly refers to the four principal parts of the human being: the physical, etheric, astral and I. Multiplied by twelve, one can view this as describing the fully developed four-fold human being empowered and enlightened with the entire Cosmic Order - the three Hierarchies of the spiritual world and the Holy Trinity itself. This is the new prototypical Human Being of John who had raised his four lower bodies (physical, etheric, astral, ego/Lower I) to the higher I, manas (Spirit-Self), buddhi (Life-Spirit) and atma (Spirit-Man). The Higher Realms must find a permanent seat within the mind of Man to stream down Cosmic Intelligence into the earthly realm.

Rank	Order	Names	Tasks	Transforms
1	Holy Trinity	Father, Godhead, Love	Creator of the universe. Ruler of Cosmic Order.	Physical Body → Spirit-Man
2		Son, Christ (Divine Masculine)	Redeemer of Mankind. Descended from the Sun to reside in the Earth's etheric realm.
3		Holy Spirit, Sophia (Divine Feminine)	Bearer of Christ to humanity.
4	1st Hierarchy	Seraphim, Spirits of Love	To receive the ideas of the Trinity.	Etheric Body → Life-Spirit
5		Cherubim, Spirits of Harmony	To ponder over ideas.
6		Thrones, Spirits of Will	To transform ideas into actions.
7	2nd Hierarchy	Dominions, Spirits of Wisdom, Kyriotetes	To carry out what the first hierarchy has initiated.	Astral Body → Spirit-Self
8		Virtues, Spirits of Motion, Mights, Dynamis	Movement and metamorphosis of our plant of air, water and vegetation.
9		Powers, Spirits of Form, Elohim, Exusiai	Creator of mankind that carries the two polar streams that must be unified through a new form of Christianity.
10	3rd Hierarchy	Principalities, Archai, Spirits of Personality, Time or Epoch Spirits	To give rise to a purely self-directing and independent Human Being.	Ego/lower I → Higher I
11		Archangels, Spirits of Fire, National/Folk Spirits	To serve as group souls of nations and peoples.
12		Angels, Angeloi	To assist and guide human beings while living on Earth.
13	Human Beings	Mission: To exercise our free will to transform our corrupted, densified selves to their original spiritual state thereby enabling the Cosmic Order to be reflected in the Human Being as we become instruments of God's will and love, thereby unifying the two ancient polar streams, redeeming mankind from the fall, and resounding the Harmony of the Spheres here on Earth.

The work we are called to accomplish is, like Jesus-Christ and Lazarus-John, to raise our four-fold human nature to reverberate with the higher frequencies of our Spirit-Self, Life-Spirit, and Spirit-Man. Then, with esoteric development, man will reverberate the harmony of the spheres. We do this by accepting the sword of Michael, his Cosmic Thinking, within our souls. The fully developed human being becomes a true microcosm of the Cosmic Order, shining its light within and then through our actions out into the world:

Essentially one can distinguish twelve parts, each of which is really a picture—a painting of one part of the great cosmos. When all twelve are assembled together, the impression is given that some unknown painter has produced miniature pictures of the macrocosm, twelve in number, and from these has formed the physical human body. Now, when the individual is engaged in occult development, this picture grows larger and larger, and also appears inwardly more and more pleasing, radiant from within. This is because, in the case of an individual not engaged in occult development, the macrocosm is only reflected in its physical aspect; but in the case of one undergoing an occult development the spiritual content more and more manifests itself; the pictures of the spiritual essence of the macrocosm are to be seen. Thus occult development also shows us that a person engaged in an occult development, from being merely a physical microcosm, becomes more and more a spiritual one, that is, he manifests within himself more and more, not merely the pictures of planets and suns, but of entities belonging to the Higher Hierarchies. That is the difference between persons engaged and others not engaged in occult development. The more a person presses forward in occult development the more exalted are the Hierarchies manifesting within him. And thus we learn the structure of the world, as it were, by clairvoyantly observing the physical human body.⁹

This aspect of the 12 forces is projected in many spheres of influence: the twelve disciples, the twelve senses to be developed in the Human being, the twelve streams Christian Rosenkreutz made it his mission to unite, the twelve signs of the zodiac, the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve months of the year, and even the twelve knights of the round-table in the Arthurian legend. Rudolf Steiner also articulates twelve main philosophical standpoints, all of which are valid and necessary. While it may be popular today to strive for unity consciousness and oneness, the universe is much more complex. A deep understanding of the universe (the one verse or the Word) must come from a spiritual perspective that includes the multiplicity contained within it. He explained this mind-bending philosophical issue with sharp wit, as he often did.

If we are Spiritists, then it may happen that people will say to us: “Why so many spirits? Why bring numbers into it? Let there be One Undivided Spirit!” Anyone who goes more deeply into the matter knows that this objection is like saying: “You tell me there are two hundred midges over there. I don't see two hundred; I see only a single swarm.” Exactly so would an adherent of Pneumatism stand with regard to a Spiritist. The Spiritist sees the universe filled with the Spirits of the Hierarchies; the Pneumatist sees only the one “swarm”—only the Universal Spirit. But that comes from an inexact view.¹⁰

Man as a Temple

It is our mission to make ourselves into worthy four-part beings filled with this Cosmic Order of twelve. Our bodies become temples in which these twelve streams have a permanent seat and radiate out into the world. Steiner explains:

Therefore in truth, throughout our earthly life our physical body is not our own. If it depended on us, it could not go on at all. It is, as was said of old, the true Temple of the Godhead — of the Divine threefold Being. Likewise our ether-body is the dwelling-place of the Hierarchy of Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones. They have to help in caring for the organs which are assigned to the etheric body. As to those physical and etheric organs on the other hand which are deserted every night by the astral body, they are provided for by the second Hierarchy—Kyriotetes, Dynamis and Exusiai. Lastly, the organs forsaken during sleep by the human Ego have to be cared for in the night by Angeloi, Archangeloi and Archai. There is a constant activity within the human being, proceeding not only from man himself. Only in waking life he lives in this bodily nature, so to speak, as a subtenant. For at the same time it is the Temple and the dwelling-place of spiritual Beings—the Beings of the Hierarchies.¹¹

This brings us to the Temple of Solomon, the temple for the New Covenant. In earlier times, Man had to build a vessel to carry himself across the astral waters into earthly existence. This was symbolized by Noah's Ark. Steiner reveals, "Now he has to surround his higher self with a house created by his own spirit, by his own wisdom, by the wisdom of Solomon." This is the stage of Manas development—the development of the Higher I. We transform from a fourfold being into fivefold, symbolized by the pentagram, the fifth being the Higher Self for which a new temple must be built.

We have to prepare for the New Covenant, in place of the Old Covenant. The old one is the Covenant of the creating God, in which God is at work on the Temple of Mankind. The New Covenant is the one in which man himself surrounds the divine with the Temple of Wisdom, when he restores it, so that this ‘I’ will find a sanctuary on this earth when it is resurrected out of matter, set free.¹²

One can also see these principles reflected in the first Goetheanum. Specifically, the small cupola — the spiritual activation center and head of the building — has twelve columns with the Representative of Man (a thirteenth) centered in the middle. Each column has a throne at its base. These thrones are offered as permanent seats to be filled by the celestial hierarchies to imbue mankind with Cosmic Thinking. It is an architectural model of the temple of Man — the dwelling-place of the macrocosm of the Cosmic Order in the microcosm of the Human Being. Of the future building to be constructed, Dr. Steiner described his vision of a building reflecting the spirit being received by the human soul — the macrocosm creating form in the microcosm of man:

The spirit that is received into the soul must be able to pour into form. Just as the human being raising himself upright and then the human being consolidated in himself were the prototypes of the ancient temples, so the prototype of the temple of the future must be the human soul into which the Spirit has been received. The mission of our age is to initiate an Art of Building which shall be able to speak with all clarity to the men of future times: The Temple is — Man — the Man who receives the Spirit into his soul! ¹³

From the Foundation Stone to the Michael Meditation

With the laying of the Foundation Stone in December of 1923, after the destruction of the first Goetheanum, Rudolf Steiner prepared the ground for the anthroposophical impulse to arise from the ashes of the temple. In the Foundation Stone meditation, Steiner urged his students to practice Spirit-recalling, Spirit-remembering, and Spirit-envisioning to enable the three, tri-fold Hierarchies and Trinity to penetrate their lower four bodies to raise them to their fully developed state.¹⁴ This urgent call to human souls to exercise their thinking, feeling and willing to transform their four lower bodies and thereby return them to their original spiritual state. It beckons the higher realms to work within us, with the last step given by the grace of God. It is another example of the four by twelve Human Being that needs to arise.

Stanza	Practice	Hierarchy	Transform Lower Bodies	Redeemed Spiritual Sheaths
I.	Spirit-recalling	1st: Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones Spirits of Strength	Etheric →	Life-Spirit/Buddhi
II.	Spirit-meditating	2nd: Kyriotetes, Dynamis, Exusiai Spirits of Light	Astral →	Spirit-Self/Manas
III.	Spirit-envisioning	3rd: Archai, Archangeloi, Angeloi Spirits of Soul	Ego/Lower I →	Higher Self/I
IV.	Grace	Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit	Physical →	Spirit-Man

Now, forty weeks later when a new Anthroposophical impulse was to have been born among the members, there was no one adequately prepared to fructify this impulse for humanity and carry it forward into action. The Michaelmas verse given that day is his deepest call to the Hierarchies and beckoning to humanity to take up this mission.¹⁵

Springing from Powers of the Sun,
Radiant Spirit-powers, blessing all Worlds!
For Michael's garment of rays
Ye are predestined by Thought Divine.

He, the Christ-messenger, revealeth in you—
Bearing mankind aloft—the sacred Will of Worlds.
Ye, the radiant Beings of Aether-Worlds,
Bear the Christ-Word to Man.

Thus shall the Heralds of Christ appear
To the thirstily waiting souls,
To whom your Word of Light shines forth
In cosmic age of Spirit-Man.

Ye, the disciples of Spirit-Knowledge,
Take Michael's Wisdom beckoning,
Take the Word of Love of the Will of Worlds
Into your soul's aspiring, ACTIVELY!

The Michaelic Quest

Thus, as a final bookend to Rudolf Steiner's life's work, in his Last Address he ties together the full corpus of his teachings which articulate no less than the mission of mankind. We must use our freedom to develop the human being into an instrument of God's will, bringing the harmony of the spheres into the earthly realm. Mankind must choose to become a true spiritual, microcosmic reflection of the macrocosm of the Cosmic Order and actively work to illuminate the world through its actions to connect mankind in brotherly love. What was accomplished by Jesus-Christ in spiritualizing His human body is now our task. We must raise our ego to our higher self or "I" like Lazarus being raised from the dead. Archangel Michael and his legions lead the way as we take up his sword like the Arthurian legend, defeating the dragons that would hinder us, and fill ourselves with all of the forces of the heavenly hierarchy to enlighten the world. We are on a quest to become none other than the Holy Grail, should we choose to accept it.¹⁶

Steiner's message is clear. Human Beings are called upon to develop themselves through serious study and practice to take up the Michaelic Impulse which is the impulse of the Christ Himself. Dr. Steiner offered many practices, exercises and meditations to help us do so.¹⁷ While today's society may tempt us with more "modern" streams that offer more accessible paths, they are often rebranded impulses of the material world which give us comfort in avoidance of the hard work required.

The Resurrection of the Soul through Heartfelt Thinking

At Michaelmas, we recognize the dragon that Archangel Michael drove out of heaven as the Ahrimanic forces that would bind us to the material world. This battle continues as the dragon continues to rise back up toward heaven. With each uprising, Michael casts the dragon not into hell, but rather into the human head! ¹⁸ With the Dragon now entrenched in human nature, mankind must fight those inner forces that would hinder its spiritual development. We do this through what in German is known as our Gemüt or in simple English translation — our "mind." But Gemüt is more than just thinking; it is more akin to feeling or heartfelt thinking.¹⁹

We must move from our intellectual thinking and physical senses to cosmic thought and spiritual senses. With the development of our thinking, feeling and willing, we transform the soul.

Sentient Soul → Intellectual/Mind Soul → Consciousness Soul

In this way, we may begin to follow in the footsteps of Jesus-Christ who showed us the way. We see Michaelmas as the profound continuation of Easter within Man’s own Soul. Christmas brings the birth of the Jesus; Easter, the death and resurrection of the fully transformed and spiritualized Jesus-Christ. For Michaelmas, mankind carries the Easter thought into his own soul. While Easter represents the death and resurrection of Christ; Michaelmas represents the reverse in mankind: the resurrection of Man’s own soul and then physical death.

What does Easter represent in the year's festivals? It is a festival of resurrection. It commemorates the Resurrection realized in the Mystery of Golgotha through the descent of Christ, the Sun-Spirit, into a human body. First death, then resurrection: that is the outer aspect of the Mystery of Golgotha. One who understands the Mystery of Golgotha in this sense sees death and resurrection in this way of redemption; and perhaps he will feel in his soul that he must unite in his Gemüt with Christ, the victor over death, in order to find resurrection in death. But Christianity does not end with the traditions associated with the Mystery of Golgotha: it must advance. The human Gemüt turns inward and deepens more and more as time goes on; and in addition to this festival that brings alive the Death and Resurrection of Christ, man needs that other one which reveals the course of the year as having its counterpart within him, so that he can find in the round of the seasons first of all the resurrection of the soul — in fact, the necessity for achieving this resurrection — in order that the soul may then pass through the portal of death in a worthy way. Easter: death, then resurrection; Michaelmas: resurrection of the soul, then death.

This makes of the Michael Festival a reversed Easter Festival. Easter commemorates for us the Resurrection of Christ from death; but in the Michael Festival we must feel with all the intensity of our soul: In order not to sleep in a half-dead state that will dim my self-consciousness between death and a new birth, but rather, to be able to pass through the portal of death in full alertness, I must rouse my soul through my inner forces before I die. First, resurrection of the soul — then death, so that in death that resurrection can be achieved which man celebrates within himself.²⁰

This concept is reflected in Rudolf Steiner's Calendar of the Soul verses to be practiced with the festivals throughout the seasons.²¹

Contemplate Rudolf Steiner's Michaelmas call for us to birth the higher self with the sword of Michael — the will's fiery might that "steels" the "Spirit's impulses" to transform the lower ego into the higher I or self. This is found in verse for Week 26, here translated by Liselotte & William Mann:

Nature! Your soul of motherhood
I bear within the being of my will;
And this will's fiery might
Steels my Spirit's impulses,
That self-awareness they beget,
To bear my Self in me.

Indeed, we are “born again” by taking the risen Christ into our soul while living. The Michael thought, “the resurrection of Man's own soul” continues the Easter thought of the death and resurrection of Christ.

It would become the whole disposition of the human soul to permeate the cosmos, to unite itself with cosmic worlds, if once the Michael thought could awaken as a festival thought in such a way that we were to place a Michael festival in the second half of September alongside the Easter festival; if to the thought of the resurrection of the God after death could be added the thought, produced by the Michael force, of the resurrection of man from death, so that man through the Resurrection of Christ would find the force to die in Christ. This means, taking the risen Christ into one's soul during earthly life, so as to be able to die in Him — that is, to be able to die, not at death but when one is living.

Then that which we need will be present in life. For these are one, and they will once again weave religion, science, and art into oneness, because people will understand how to conceive the trinity. Such a thing could actually become an impulse which singly and alone would be able, in the present condition of humanity, to replace the descending forces with ascending ones.²²

We are intended to transform our human bodies to resonate and radiate the music of the spheres, so the exulted Beings of the Hierarchies can work through us and thereby evolve themselves. We are to become co-creators with them by spiritualizing ourselves. Like King Arthur and his twelve knights, we establish a personal citadel of the cosmic realm in our minds with the twelve hierarchies streaming down like the pillars of the First Goetheanum. With a crown of streaming light, we radiate the Cosmic Order here on earth.

The Courage to Transform Ourselves

Will we take up the Michael Thought this Michaelmas? Will we move beyond intellectual thinking to Cosmic Thinking and stream that into the world through our actions? In his second Mystery Drama, The Soul's Probation, Capesius is challenged to elevate his thinking in this way.²³ These lines guide him on this path. May they inspire us to take up the sword of Michael to transform ourselves and thereby transform the world.

‘Within thy thinking cosmic thought doth live,
Within thy feeling cosmic forces play,
Within thy will do cosmic beings work;
Abandon thou thyself to cosmic thought,
Experience thyself through cosmic force,
Create thyself anew from cosmic will.
End not at last in cosmic distances
By fantasies of dreamy thought beguiled.
Do thou begin in farthest spirit-realms
And end in the recesses of thy soul.
The plan divine then shalt thou recognize
When thou hast realized thy Self in thee.’

Then three figures, representing soul forces float around him and one, Luna speaks:

Luna:
Abundant power is thine
For lofty spirit-flight;
Its sure foundation rests
Upon the human will.
Its temper hath been tried
By sure and certain hope.
It hath grown strong as steel
By sight of future times.
Thou dost but courage lack
To pour into thy will
Thy confidence in life.
Into the vast Unknown
Dare but to venture forth!

References to Resources

Rudolf Steiner's Last Address: The Individuality Of Elias, John, Raphael, Novalis, GA 238, 28 September 1924, Dornach.
Karmic Relationships Vol. VI, Lecture VII, GA 240, 18 July 1924, Arnhem, GA 238, 28 September 1924, Dornach.
Forward to The Christmas Conference by Marie Steiner, GA 260, entitled The Close of the Year and the Turn of the Year 1923/1924.
Karmic Relationships Vol. VIII, Lecture III GA 240, 21 August 1924, Torquay.
Karmic Relationships Vol. VIII, Lecture XI GA 240, 8 August 1924, Torquay.
For summaries of Steiner's teachings on these matters, see Christmas: The Birth of the Light for the Redemption of Humanity and The Mystery of St. John,.
The Mystery of Golgotha from The Christian Mystery, GA 97. See also Festivals of the Seasons, Lecture 2. The Mystery of Golgotha II, 1 April 1907, Berlin:
The transformation comes about through the creative power pressing upwards from the lap to the heart. Now read the passage concerning the disciple of Jesus whom He loved most, and of whom it is said that he lies on Jesus’ breast. This is the passage which tells how the lowest power of production, the creative power of man, moves upwards from the lap to the heart, which is connected with the lungs and larynx. This passage tells that John is initiated into the Mystery of the Son by Christ Jesus.
The Gospel of St. John (Basle), Lecture V, GA 100, 20 November 1907, Basle.
The Effect of Occult Development Upon the Self and the Sheaths of Man, Lecture X, GA 145, 29 March 1913.
Human and Cosmic Thought, Lecture II, GA 151, 21 January 1913, Berlin.
Man As A Picture of The Living Spirit,, GA 228, 2 September 1923, London.
The Temple Legend, Lecture 12, GA 93, 22 May 1905, Berlin.
And The Temple Becomes Man,, GA 286, 12 December 1911, Berlin.
The Foundation Stone Meditation given by Rudolf Steiner to the Anthroposophical Society on December 26, 1924 in Dornach.
The Michael Meditation, from The Festivals and Their Meaning IV: Michaelmas, GA 238, September 28, 1924, Dornach.
Man, the Most Significant Symbol, Occult Signs and Symbols, GA 101, September 16, 1907.
The transformed larynx will become the chalice known as the Holy Grail. Even as one is purified, so also the other, which unites with this generative organ. It will be an essence of world force and of great cosmic essence. This world spirit in its essence is represented by the dove facing the Holy Grail. Here it symbolizes the spiritualized fructification that will be active out of the cosmos when men will have identified themselves with the cosmos. The complete creativity of this process is represented by the rainbow. This is the all-embracing seal of the Holy Grail. The whole gives the sense of the connection between world and men in a wonderful way, as a summation of the meaning of the other seals.
PRACTICE — a summary of foundational teachings, meditative verses and mantras, prayers and other exercises given by Rudolf Steiner to assist the development of oneself spiritually.
The Michael Deed and the Michael Influence as Counter-pole of the Ahrimanic Influence, from The Mission of the Archangel Michael, GA 194, 29 November 1919. See also our collection of selected readings from our Festivals page — The Michaelmas Festival.
Michaelmas and Soul-Forces of Man, Lecture IV, GA 223, 1 October 1923, Vienna.
Michaelmas: Conquering the Ahrimanic Forces of Darkness, an article providing background on the Michaelmas Festival as taught by Rudolf Steiner.
Practice Rudolf Steiner's Calendar of the Soul Verses to learn how the soul can progress through the seasons and festivals of the year.
The Cycle of the Year, Lecture III, GA 223, 2 April 1923, Dornach.
Four Mystery Plays, The Soul's Probation, Scene 1

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