The Festivals and Their Meaning IV:
Michaelmas
GA 152
20 May 1913, Stuttgart
The Michael Impulse and the Mystery of Golgotha II
We have tried to throw some light upon the character of our present age as it shows itself in relation to the working of cosmic law. This is a matter that should not be lightly passed over. For when we speak of the spiritual forces, the spiritual influences of a particular age, these are likewise the forces and impulses which are working in the soul of each one of us. We cannot understand our own souls, unless we are able to place ourselves in right relation to these forces and influences of our age which are at the same time the spiritual forces and impulses of our own souls. In whatever way individuals among you may account for your belief in something that is given in Spiritual Science, it is absolutely true that in the souls of all those who fairly and honestly come to Spiritual Science there lives, perhaps unconsciously, an urge that comes from the genuine spiritual impulses of our time.
In the last lecture I endeavoured to show you that at the present time we are living in what one may call the Michael Age. An understanding for spiritual things is now becoming possible for an increasing number of souls. Whereas during the course of previous centuries it was possible to acquire an understanding above all for the things of external natural science, for physical, chemical and physiological laws, for everything related to external space and time, whereas during the Gabriel Age understanding was awakened for all that went from triumph to triumph in the natural sciences, and inclined men to a scientific conception of the world, we are now entering upon an age in which it will be just as possible to understand the things of the spirit.
At no time in human evolution have two successive epochs been so radically different from one another as that which has just run its course and the epoch upon which we are now entering. And never before have souls been more alien to one another than will be the souls of those who incline to what is spiritual and the souls who still adhere to what past centuries have brought. Nor will it be long before those who believe they stand firmly in materialistic Monism will be quite out of date in comparison with those who are earnestly seeking an understanding of super-sensible worlds. For since the last third of the nineteenth century a spiritual ‘tidal wave’ from higher worlds has been flowing into our world, and making it possible for man to understand the way in which human and world evolution are spiritually guided.
My dear friends, nearly two thousand years ago the event took place which you all know under the name of the Mystery of Golgotha. Of this Mystery of Golgotha we have often spoken here. We have approached it from many different sides, and have seen it to be the great centre of gravity of all human evolution. It has been possible to show quite clearly that without reference to any religious views or creed, but purely out of spiritual science itself, an understanding of this Event is possible, and in such a way that one may expect understanding from every shade of current religious belief. We have also spoken at some length about the reasons why certain people are not prepared to accept the Christ Event as the great centre of gravity of human evolution. But now we must turn our minds to something else which was mentioned yesterday in the public lecture.1Lecture on “Raphael and his Mission in the Light of Spiritual Science.” Stuttgart, 19th May, 1913.
It might well be that out of prejudice a person wished to know nothing of what took place in a certain small country at the beginning of our era, did not want to trouble himself about what we call the Mystery of Golgotha. Very well, let us even assume that it would be natural for him to imagine the whole course of history in such a way that what happened on Golgotha could be struck out. Let us make that hypothesis. In the course of his study of the evolution of mankind, such a person will nevertheless discover a special characteristic of that age. We spoke of this yesterday. The epoch immediately preceding the Mystery of Golgotha was a time of transition in the attitude and direction of the human soul. From having been directed more to the surrounding world in an external way, man's soul began to be turned within to its own inner nature—and this, quite apart from the Mystery of Golgotha. At the time into which the Mystery of Golgotha was placed, the great transition was occurring from a life in outward surroundings to a more inward life. And anyone can feel this, even if he ignore the Mystery of Golgotha altogether. Mankind was in that time at a turning-point. It is not necessary even to speak of the Mystery of Golgotha, one can point to quite other events to show that formerly man's life had an outward direction, but that afterwards those who are animated by the impulse of the age, by the true genius of the age, begin to make their life more inward.
When anything of this kind happens, it does not happen without being prepared beforehand. I have no desire to quote the trite saying: Nature, or history, does not proceed by leaps. The expression holds good only within certain limits. Even the blossom is already prepared in the green leaves—although here we have, have we not, a clear case of a ‘leap’ in development? Similarly there was a preparation beforehand for what appears as a sudden incision in human history at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. When we go deeply into what we can find of the teaching and outlook of the last centuries of ancient Hebraism, we find a spirit—of a Hebrew kind, of course—a spirit of preparation for the Mystery of Golgotha; and not in Hebraism alone, for in other regions of the earth too we can find such a spirit of preparation.
In Hebraism new features began to show themselves of quite a different order from those that were there formerly. In the sixth century before the Mystery of Golgotha we find an altogether new mode of regarding the world, compared with what we find earlier in the spiritual life of the Hebrews; it marks a new epoch. This reveals itself clearly enough to the careful observer. And if it shows itself here in a different manner since the old Hebrew people were differently constituted, yet it is the same spirit, expressing itself differently, which prevails in Greek philosophy and even in the Greek art of poetry, in the last centuries before the Mystery of Golgotha. We find it everywhere. One has only to make a serious study of spirits like Plato and Aristotle,—yes, and even Socrates, to see that this turning point is everywhere being prepared.
Now events that happen here on earth are guided and controlled from the super-sensible world. Before the incision entered into the physical life of the earth which we call the Event of Golgotha, the earlier guidance of evolution sent out a Messenger—at that time still a Messenger of Jehovah—to guide this event. He was the Spirit who prepared the period of civilisation up to the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, the same Spirit who is the Leader of our own culture epoch just beginning, the Spirit we have called Michael. Just as Michael gives its character to our age, so did he give its character to the whole civilisation which prepared the way for the Mystery of Golgotha. The Power however who sent forth Michael from the higher worlds was at that time Jahve or Jehovah.
In those days it was not as it is in our time, when, as soon as one speaks of spiritual things, the objection is so easily raised: You often speak of the Folk Spirit or Time Spirit, and of other spiritual facts, but you rarely speak of God.—People do not notice why one does not speak of God,—for the reason, namely, that no human concept can embrace that in which we live and move and have our being. Here one also meets with points of view which are, from a certain aspect, very interesting. When I gave a public lecture recently in a certain town, and as the practice often is, questions were sent up to be answered, one man put a very clever question. He asked: “If logically one recognises an object through the fact that one looks at it as an object and can stand before it, if we cannot have an objective picture of an object which we have in ourselves—like the pupil of the eye, for example—because we cannot look at it, then how does this fit in with the opinion of many Mystics that one must remove oneself from God in order to be able to contemplate Him?”
Certainly many Mystics have maintained that one must withdraw from God in order to contemplate Him. It was a clever question, but the only answer that can be given is: “You may withdraw from God as much as you please, but you still remain in Him, you cannot get out of God.” Logic may often be very logical but fall short of reality.
In times when men stood nearer to the spiritual, they had a feeling of reverence for the Divinity in which we live and move and have our being, the Divinity which it was not even always right to call by name; and for that reason the ancient Hebrews, in order not to pronounce the name, used the expression the ‘Countenance of Jehovah.’ In man, the countenance is what he turns outwards, that by which he reveals himself. It is not the whole of man. One knows a man as he is in his inner being by the features of his countenance, but one does not on that account presume to speak of the whole man when one means his face or countenance.
At that time therefore, Michael was called the ‘Countenance of Jehovah’; men preferred to speak of the representative through whom Jahve revealed Himself to mankind as in an external countenance. Even in intimate circles they would rather name the representative than speak of Jahve Himself. Michael was in fact at that time looked upon as the spiritual Regent of the age, as the Messenger of Jahve, as the member of the Hierarchies from whom streamed forth the impulse that was to come for the understanding of he Event of Golgotha.
In the intervening centuries other Beings from the rank of the Archangels have had the guidance of mankind's spiritual evolution, but the Being who had the guidance when preparation had to be made for the Mystery of Golgotha is the same Being as is now again sending the floods of super-sensible life down into the world of the senses. There was a Michael Age then, and a Michael Age is the one that is now beginning. There is, however, a vast difference between that Michael Age and ours which has just begun.
It would take us too far to-day to describe what kind of understanding men have been able to bring to the Mystery of Golgotha during the period which has elapsed between that Michael Age and ours. There have been deeply fervent souls who out of a more or less intense need for belief have gained a relation to the Mystery of Golgotha and its Bearer; there have been deeply religious natures all through the centuries since the Mystery of Golgotha down to our own time. But the Mystery of Golgotha is a Mystery which, notwithstanding that it took place as a real fact, at the beginning of modern times, is yet of such a nature that human souls cannot presume to understand it fully without preparation. New epochs will continually arise which will bring a greater deepening to human souls, and which will have an increasing understanding for what happened in the Mystery of Golgotha. The Event itself stands there as the great turning-point in human evolution; the understanding of the Event will continuously grow and ripen in the spiritual evolution of the Earth. This fact cannot be engraved deeply enough into our minds and hearts.
Let us grasp in a certain metaphysical abstraction what actually took place at that time. We have described it from various points of view; let us now choose a more abstract point of view, but one which, if we allow it to work upon us, can call forth a deep feeling in our souls.
When with ordinary powers of observation and even with scientific observation we study the things around us, we learn to know by means of ordinary thinking and ordinary science the laws of existence in the mineral, plant, animal and human kingdoms. These laws all culminate in an ideal,—to understand life. But life is not to be understood here on earth. Occultism alone can give knowledge of life; external science can never fathom it. It would be the wildest fantasy to believe that one could ever penetrate the laws of life as one can physical or chemical laws. To do so remains an ideal; it can never be reached. On the physical plane there is never any possibility of giving a knowledge of life. This knowledge of life must remain the preserve of super-sensible knowledge.
But now, impossible as is a sense knowledge of life, equally impossible is a super-sensible knowledge of death. There are conditions of terrible isolation of consciousness in the spiritual worlds, there is such a thing as a temporary immersion as though into a condition of sleep, but there is no death in the higher worlds. Death is impossible in the higher worlds. All the Beings we have learned to know as Beings of the higher Hierarchies have this distinguishing characteristic; they do not know death, they never pass through death. Just as we are told in the Bible that the Angels covered their faces before the secret of birth, the secret of Man's becoming, so must they and all other Higher Beings cover their faces before death. For death is an event that is only possible in the sense world, not in the super-sensible.
Among all the Beings of the higher worlds there was One and One alone Who had to go through death,—we may also say, Who willed to go through death; that is, the Christ. To that end He had to come down to Earth. In order that a Being of the higher worlds might be able to accomplish what was necessary for Earth evolution, the Christ had to descend from a world in which there is no death to the world in which there is death.
If such ideas are at first abstract, it is for us to change them into feeling and experience. The full understanding of what I have now described in an abstract way will become a concern of the evolution of humanity. With a certain reverence, together with humility and delicacy let us approach to-day the secret of the Mystery of Golgotha.
For what was it that really happened then? It has often been described. The Christ descended from the super-sensible worlds into the world in which He has since lived as a hidden Force—a Force however which will make itself manifest from this century onwards. He descended out of a world in which there is no death, into the world of death, and He—this Force—has united Himself with the Earth; from being a cosmic Force He has become a Force of the Earth. He went through death, in order to come to life in Earth existence, in order to be within the Earth world. And all through the centuries there has come to expression in souls which were filled with this Impulse the striving of mankind to understand Him. But the nearer evolution approached the close of the Gabriel Age, the more this understanding receded, until to-day just where there should be understanding, it is sadly lacking, and materialism prevails not only in modern science but consequently in Theology too. The real understanding of the Christ Impulse has grown less and less. Materialism has seized upon men's souls and deeply ensconced itself in them. Materialism became in many respects the fundamental impulse of the epoch which has just elapsed. Countless souls died during that epoch who went through the gate of death with a materialistic outlook. For such numbers of souls to go through the gate of death with a materialistic outlook would have been impossible in earlier ages. These souls then lived in the spiritual world between death and a new birth without knowing anything of the world, in which they lived. A Being came towards them; they perceived Him in that world. They had to perceive Him because this Being had united Himself with the Earth, although for the present He rules invisibly in physical Earth existence. And the exertions of these souls who had gone through the gate of death succeeded—we cannot express it otherwise—in driving the Christ out of the spiritual world. The Christ has had to experience a renewal of the Mystery of Golgotha, although not in the same magnitude as before. At that time He went through death; now He had to undergo banishment from His existence in the spiritual world. And thus there was fulfilled in Him the eternal law of the spiritual world,—that what disappears for the higher spiritual world arises anew in the lower world.
If it is possible in the 20th century for souls to evolve to an understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha, then it is due to this Event,—that Christ, through a conspiracy of materialistic souls, has been driven out of the spiritual worlds, and transferred into the sense world, into the world of man, so that even in this world of the senses a new understanding for the Christ can begin. Hence, too, Christ is still more nearly and intimately united with the destiny of men on Earth. And while in the past man could look up to Jahve or Jehovah and know that He was the Being who sent out Michael to prepare the way for the transition from the Jahve Age to the Christ Age,—while in earlier ages it was Jehovah who sent Michael, it is now the Christ who sends us Michael.
This is the new and important fact which we must transform into a feeling. As formerly man could speak of Jahve-Michael, the Leader of the age, so now we can speak the Christ-Michael. Michael has been exalted to a higher stage—from Folk Spirit to Time Spirit, inasmuch as from being the Messenger of Jahve he has become the Messenger of Christ. And so when we speak of a right understanding of the Michael Impulse in our age, we are speaking of a right understanding of the Christ Impulse.
An abstract understanding always deals in names, simply in names, and thinks it will arrive somewhere if it asks: “What kind of Being is Michael?” and wants to be told that he comes from this or that Hierarchy, that he is an Archangel, that Archangels have such and such qualities. Then it is all defined and people think now they know what such a Being is. They do not know it by speaking of Michael in this way. If one wants to understand the evolution of mankind, one must understand that Michael too has evolved: one must understand that it is the same Being who paved the way for the preparation of the Mystery of Golgotha, and who now in our day paves the way for the understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha. Then, however, he was a Folk Spirit, now he is a Time Spirit; then he was the Messenger of Jahve, now he is the Messenger of Christ. We speak of the Christ in the right way when we speak of Michael and his mission, knowing that Michael, who was formerly the bearer of the Jehovah-mission, is now the bearer of the Mission of the Christ.
My dear friends, we have been able to follow the path of Michael, a Spirit who has, so to say, ascended in order to communicate a new impulse to mankind; who has ascended, or rather is ascending, from the rank of the Archangels to the rank of the Archai. His place will be filled by another Being who succeeds him.
I have spoken here on different occasions of the evolution which Buddha passed through. The puerile objections which are now being made against us2A reference to the attempts made among some members of the Theosophical Society to put forward Krishnamurti as the new Bearer of the Christ for the West. are brought also against our understanding of the Christ Impulse in the world,—as though we had ever been one-sided in our representation of the Christ Impulse. We turn our gaze to evolution as a whole and describe what different impulses underlie it, giving to each its due value. Again and again we have spoken of the Bodhisattva who was born as Gautama Buddha and have shown that for us it is truth that he became ‘Buddha’. We have followed his evolution until the time when he received his mission on Mars. And of that mission we have also spoken here.
As long as man dwells on Earth, there is always for each human being, however high he may stand, an individuality who guides him from incarnation to incarnation. The individual guidance of human beings is made subject to the Angeloi, the Angel Beings. When a man from being a Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, then his Angel is, as it were, set free. And it is such Angel Beings who, after the fulfilment of their mission, ascend into the realm of the Archangel Beings.
Thus if we really understand how to penetrate ever more deeply into the super-sensible evolution which lies behind our sense evolution, we are actually able to perceive at some point how an Archangel ascends to the nature of the Archai, and an Angel Being to an Archangel Being.
My dear friends, what I have said to you about the spiritual background of the world in which we live and in which we wish to take our stand as Anthroposophists—I have not said it in order that you may merely theorise over these things, but that you may transform into feeling and experience what has been expressed in words and ideas. Yes,—to be an Anthroposophist in our age means to know the nature of the super-sensible world which underlies the sense world of human evolution, to feel oneself in the spiritual world, as physical man feels himself physically in the atmosphere. But we do not feel ourselves in the spiritual world by merely repeating: Spirit, Spirit, Spirit is in us! Just as one has to gauge in a practical concrete way—from the formation of the clouds, from the humidity and other phenomena—the state of the atmosphere of the Earth, so we must ‘feel’ in quite a concrete way the spiritual world into which we are submerged every night when we fall asleep; we must feel and know how there lives in this spiritual world what is now happening as a result of the mission entrusted by Christ to Michael,—that is, to the same Spirit of the Hierarchy of Archangels who in earlier times had been used by the impulse of Jahve for the preparation of the Mystery of Golgotha. That is what is happening behind our physical sense evolution. And to feel ourselves within such happenings in the spiritual world, in the same way as we feel ourselves physically within the atmosphere which we breathe in and out, means to have the right consciousness to-day in relation to the spiritual world.
Try to receive into your whole heart and soul these results of occultism which I have now endeavoured to lay before you; try to have a sensitive understanding of them, and to consider what it means now in this age to live consciously in the spiritual events that are taking place around us, to live consciously in that world whither our soul goes every night when we fall asleep and whence we come every morning when we awake. Try to lead the soul into the direct and concrete experience of what is so often abstractly called Divine Providence. For it lies in the true character of our age to do this. Try now in this present time to know and experience as individual Beings what men in past ages could only feel in an undefined way as a Providence moving through the world.
Place as a picture before your souls that the task of the previous epoch was to find natural science. At that time the laws of nature were good if they were rightly used by man to build up external world conceptions. But there is nothing absolutely good or bad in this external world of Maya. In our time the laws of Nature would be bad and evil, were they still to be used to build up a world conception at a time when spiritual life is flowing into the sense world. These words are not to be taken as directed against what past ages have done; they are directed against what wants to remain as it was in earlier ages and will not put itself at the service of the new revelation.
Michael did not fight this Dragon in the ages that are past, for then the Dragon which is now meant was not yet a Dragon; it will become a Dragon if those concepts and ideas which belong only to natural science were to be used to construct the world conception of the coming age. For the monster that will then rear its head amongst mankind will be rightly seen in the picture of the Dragon that must be vanquished by Michael, whose Age begins in our own time.
That is an important Imagination,—Michael overcoming the Dragon. To receive the inflow of spiritual life into the sense world,—from now on, that is the service of Michael. We serve Michael by overcoming the Dragon that is trying to grow to his full height and strength in ideas which during the past epoch produced materialism and which now threaten to prolong their life on into the future. To defeat this means to stand in the service of Michael. That is the victory of Michael over the Dragon. It is the old picture over again, which for earlier times had another meaning and which must now acquire the right meaning for our age. When we are conscious of the part we have to play as men of a new age, then our task can stand before us in the picture of Michael conquering the Dragon.
Let us take this picture and make of it an Imagination. Let us try to understand our times through knowing ourselves to be in a spiritual guidance that is the true spiritual guidance of our age, and that can be the spiritual guidance of every human soul who is sincerely and honestly seeking evolution on the path of spiritual life.
Der Michael-Impuls und das Mysterium Von Golgatha
Wir haben uns bemüht, das ein wenig zu beleuchten, was aus der Weltgesetzmäßigkeit heraus der Charakter unseres gegenwärtigen Zeitalters ist, und wir sollten nicht vorübergehen an einer solchen Charakteristik unseres Zeitalters. Denn wenn wir reden von den geistigen Kräften, von den geistigen Impulsen eines Zeitalters, so sind das diejenigen Kräfte, diejenigen Impulse, welche in jeder einzelnen unserer Seelen drinnen wirken. Und wir können nicht mit unseren Seelen zurechtkommen, wenn wir uns nicht zu stellen vermögen zu diesen Kräften, zu diesen Impulsen unseres Zeitalters, die nun einmal zugleich die geistigen Kräfte und Impulse unserer eigenen Seele sind.
Es ist durchaus wahr, daß — wie sich auch der einzelne unter Ihnen zurechtlegt, warum er dieses oder jenes in der Geisteswissenschaft glaubt - in den Seelen derjenigen, welche aufrichtig und ehrlich zur Geisteswissenschaft kommen, vielleicht unbewußt das Gefühl, der Trieb lebt, der da kommt von den echten, wahren spirituellen Impulsen unserer Zeit.
Ich habe Ihnen vorgestern zu charakterisieren versucht, daß wir gegenwärtig leben in dem, was man das Michael-Zeitalter nennen kann. Das Verständnis für spirituelle Dinge wird immer mehr und mehr Seelen möglich werden. Während die letzten Jahrhunderte so abliefen, daß vor allen Dingen Verständnis möglich wurde für Dinge des äußeren Naturwissens, für physikalische, chemische, physiologische Gesetze, für alles, was sich auf den äußeren Raum und die Zeit bezieht, während in dem Gabriel-Zeitalter in den Seelen Verständnis erweckt wurde für das, was in den Naturwissenschaften von Triumph zu Triumph zog und die Seele hinneigte zum naturwissenschaftlichen Verständnis der Welt, gehen wir einem Zeitalter entgegen, wo es ebenso möglich sein wird, das Spirituelle zu verstehen.
Noch niemals eigentlich in der Entwickelung der Menschheit waren zwei aufeinanderfolgende Zeitalter so radikal verschieden, wie das eben abgelaufene und das, in das wir hineingehen. Und fremder sein als jemals werden die Seelen, die zum Spirituellen neigen, den Seelen, die noch festhalten an dem, was die vergangenen Jahrhunderte brachten. Und nicht lange wird es dauern, daß diejenigen, welche auf dem Boden des materialistischen Monismus zu stehen glauben, vollständig unzeitgemäß sein werden gegenüber jenen Seelen, die mit Sehnsucht suchen werden nach einem Verständnis der übersinnlichen Welten. Denn seit dem letzten Drittel des vorigen Jahrhunderts hat sich eine geistige Flutwelle aus den höheren Welten in unsere Welt hinein eröffnet, und deshalb ist es möglich geworden, Verständnis zu erhalten für das, was spirituell die Menschheits- und Weltenevolution leitet. Vor nahezu zwei Jahrtausenden geschah ja das Ereignis, das Ihnen allen bekannt ist unter dem Namen des Mysteriums von Golgatha, und oftmals ist auch hier darüber gesprochen und von den verschiedensten Seiten her beleuchtet worden dieses Mysterium von Golgatha als der große Schwerpunkt der Menschheitsentwickelung. Und klar hat es wohl werden können, daß ohne Berührung irgendeines konfessionellen Standpunktes, sondern rein aus der Geisteswissenschaft heraus, das Verständnis für dieses Ereignis möglich ist, so daß man Verständnis erwarten kann von jeder konfessionellen Strömung der Gegenwart. Auch über die Gründe, warum die einen oder anderen das ChristusEreignis nicht als den großen Schwerpunkt der Menschheitsevolution annehmen wollen, ist ausführlich gesprochen worden. Aber wir sollen auch so etwas wohl mit der Seele betrachten, wovon ja auch gestern im öffentlichen Vortrag hat gesprochen werden können. Es könnte sein, daß irgend jemand aus einem Vorurteil heraus nichts wissen wollte von dem, was in einem kleinen Lande zu Beginn unseres Zeitalters sich abgespielt hat, es könnte das ja sein, daß irgend jemand sich nicht kümmern wollte um dasjenige, was wir das Mysterium von Golgatha nennen. Gut, wir wollen sogar annehmen, es würde einer Seele natürlich sein, auch den geschichtlichen Verlauf so zu denken, daß auszustreichen wäre, was geschehen ist auf Golgatha. Nehmen wir das hypothetisch an. Wenn diese Seele die Menschheitsentwickelung betrachtet, so würde sie doch etwas finden, was dieses Zeitalter besonders charakterisiert. Davon wurde gestern gesprochen. Es ist in jener Epoche vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha der Übergang von einer Stellung der Menschenseele zur Umwelt in äußerlicher Weise, und der nachherigen Stellung der Seele zu ihrer eigenen Innerlichkeit vorhanden, ganz abgesehen von dem Mysterium von Golgatha. In dem Zeitpunkt, in den das Mysterium von Golgatha hineingestellt ist, fand dieser große Übergang der Menschheit statt von einem Leben in der äußeren Umgebung zu der Verinnerlichung. Und jeder kann das fühlen, auch wenn er absieht von dem Mysterium von Golgatha.
Die Menschheit ist in diesem Zeitpunkt an einem Wendepunkt. Man braucht gar nicht einmal von dem Mysterium von Golgatha zu sprechen, sondern man kann die anderen Ereignisse nehmen, und sie werden zeigen, daß vorher die Menschheit in einer Veräußerlichung gelebt hat, daß aber nachher in einer Verinnerlichung zu leben beginnen die Menschen, die von dem Impuls der Zeit, von ihrem Genius durchzogen werden. |
Aber wenn so etwas geschieht, geschieht es in der Weise, daß es vorher vorbereitet wird. Ich will den trivialen Ausspruch nicht gebrauchen: Die Natur oder die Geschichte mache keinen Sprung. Der Ausdruck hat nur in gewissen Grenzen Berechtigung, denn vorbereitet - ist es nicht dennoch sprunghafte Entwickelung? — wird ja auch die Blüte in den grünen Blättern schon. So wurde auch vorbereitet dasjenige, was wie ein Einschnitt in der MenschheitsentwickeJung sich ausnimmt zur Zeit des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Und wir können nicht nur finden, wenn wir uns vertiefen in dasjenige, was uns als Lehre, als Anschauung entgegentritt in den letzten Jahrhunderten des althebräischen Altertums, wir können nicht nur einen Geist dort finden - allerdings einen eigenen Geist — der Vorbereitung für das Mysterium von Golgatha, sondern wir können einen solchen Geist der Vorbereitung auch in anderen Gegenden der Erde finden.
Für den Geist des Hebräertums war es ja so, daß er Einschläge ganz anderer Art zeigt, als früher da waren. Eine ganz andere Art der Weltbetrachtung setzt ein im 6. Jahrhundert vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha, eine ganz neue Epoche gegenüber dem, was im hebräischen Geistesleben früher da war. Das enthüllt sich dem genau betrachtenden Blicke sehr klar. Und wenn es hier auch in anderer Art hervortritt, weil das althebräische Volk allerdings ja anders geartet war, so ist es doch derselbe Geist, der nur einen anderen Ausdruck bekommt; es ist der Geist, der in der griechischen Philosophie, ja selbst in der griechischen Dichtkunst herrscht in den letzten Jahrhunderten vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Überall finden wir das. Man braucht nur ernsthaft Geister wie Plato und Aristoteles, ja sogar Sokrates zu betrachten, um zu sehen, daß dieser Wendepunkt überall vorbereitet wird.
Nun werden solche Ereignisse, die hier auf Erden geschehen, gelenkt und geleitet von der übersinnlichen Welt aus. Bevor dieser Einschlag geschah in das physische Erdenleben, den wir als das Ereignis von Golgatha bezeichnen, schickte die frühere Leitung der Evolution einen Sendboten aus — dazumal noch einen Sendboten Jahves -, um diesen Einschlag vorzubereiten. Es war derjenige Geist, der die Kulturepoche vorbereitet hat bis zum Mysterium von Golgatha hin, derselbe Geist, der der Leiter unserer eben anbrechenden Kulturepoche ist, der Geist, den wir Michael genannt haben. Wie Michael den Charakter gibt unserer Zeit, so gab er den Charakter der ganzen Kultur, die das Mysterium von Golgatha vorbereitete. Nur war die Macht, die aus höheren Welten diesen Michael sandte, in jener Zeit Jahve oder Jehova.
In jener Zeit war es nicht so wie in unserer Zeit, wo so leicht einem eingewendet wird, wenn man von geistigen Dingen spricht: Du sprichst viel von Volksgeist oder Zeitgeist oder sonst von geistigen Tatsachen, aber du redest so wenig von Gott. — Die Leute merken nicht, warum man nicht von Gott redet: weil kein menschlicher Begriff wirklich umfassen kann dasjenige, in dem wir leben, weben und sind. Auch hierin existieren Anschauungen, die zum Teil sehr interessant sind. Als ich in einer Stadt jüngst einen öffentlichen Vortrag hielt und, wie das so üblich geworden ist, Fragen zum Beantworten aufgegeben wurden, stellte ein Mensch eine sehr kluge Frage. Er fragte nämlich: Ja, wenn man doch logischerweise einen Gegenstand dadurch erkennt, daß man ihn als Objekt anschaut, dadurch, daß man ihm gegenübertteten kann — wenn wir ein objektives Bild von einem Gegenstand, den wir in uns haben, wie den Augapfel, nicht haben können aus dem Grunde, weil wir ihn nicht anschauen können -, wie verhält es sich dann mit der Behauptung mancher Mystiker, daß man von Gott abrücken müsse, um ihn als Objekt betrachten zu können?
Gewiß haben manche Mystiker die Behauptung aufgestellt, man müsse von Gott abrücken, um sich ihm gegenüberzustellen. Die Frage war klug, aber sie muß nur so beantwortet werden, daß man sagt: Du magst von Gott abrücken soviel du willst, aber du bleibst doch in dem Gott drinnen, du kannst nicht aus dem Gott heraus. - Manche Logik ist recht logisch, aber sie ist auch sehr kurzlogisch.
In den Zeiten, wo die Menschen dem Geistigen noch näher standen, da hatte man noch ein Gefühl der Ehrerbietung für das Göttliche, in dem wir leben und weben und sind, das nicht immer mit Namen benannt werden soll, und deshalb bediente sich das althebräische Altertum, um den Namen nicht auszusprechen, des Ausdrucks: «Das Angesicht Jahves.» Angesicht ist beim Menschen dasjenige, was er nach außen wendet, wodurch er sich offenbart. Es ist nicht das Ganze des Menschen. Man erkennt ihn nach seiner Innerlichkeit an den Zügen des Antlitzes, aber man vermißt sich doch deshalb nicht, von dem ganzen Menschen zu sprechen, wenn man sein Angesicht meint.
Deshalb nannte man damals Michael «das Angesicht Jahves», nannte viel lieber den Stellvertreter, durch den sich, wie in einem der Menschheit zugewendeten Antlitz, Jahve oder Jehova der Menschheit kundgab. Man nannte auch in vertrauten Kreisen viel lieber den Stellvertreter, als daß man von Jahve selbst sprach. Michael wurde eben damals als der geistige Regent des Zeitalters betrachtet, als der Sendbote Jahves, als derjenige Hierarch, von dem ausstrahlte in der damaligen Zeit, was als Impuls kommen sollte, um das Ereignis von Golgatha vorzubereiten.
Nun, in der Zwischenzeit haben andere Wesenheiten aus der Reihe der Archangeloi die Führung der geistigen Menschheitsevolution gehabt. Und das Wesen, das die Führung hatte, als vorbereitet werden sollte das Mysterium von Golgatha, ist dasselbe Wesen, das jetzt wiederum die Fluten des übersinnlichen Lebens in die sinnliche Welt hineinsendet. Ein Michael-Zeitalter war dazumal, ein Michael-Zeitalter ist dasjenige, was gerade jetzt beginnt. Aber es ist ein gewaltiger Unterschied zwischen dem damaligen Michael-Zeitalter und dem unseren, das jetzt beginnt.
Es würde heute zu weit führen, zu charakterisieren, welches Verständnis dem Mysterium von Golgatha die Zeit entgegenbringen konnte, die seit jenem Michael-Zeitalter bis zu dem unsrigen verflossen ist. Es hat tief innige Seelen gegeben, die aus einem mehr oder weniger gesteigerten Glaubensbedürfnisse heraus ihr Verhältnis gewonnen haben zu dem Mysterium von Golgatha und seinem Träger, es hat tief religiöse Naturen gegeben seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha bis zu unseren Zeiten. Aber das Mysterium von Golgatha ist ein solches, welches zwar als eine reale Tatsache am Ausgangspunkt der neueren Zeit steht, dem gegenüber aber die menschliche Seele sich nicht ohne weiteres vermessen darf, es voll zu durchschauen, es voll zu verstehen. Immer neue Epochen werden kommen, die die Menschenseelen immer mehr vertiefen werden, und die immer besser und besser verstehen werden, was geschehen ist im Mysterium von Golgatha. Das Ereignis selber steht da als der Wendepunkt in der menschlichen Entwickelung, das Verständnis dieses Ereignisses wird immer mehr wachsen und reifen in der geistigen Erdenentwickelung.
Wir können uns nicht tief genug diese Sache in die Seele schreiben. Fassen wir einmal in einer gewissen metaphysischen Abstraktion ins Auge, was eigentlich dazumal geschehen ist. Wir haben es von verschiedenen Standpunkten charakterisiert. Wir wollen einmal einen mehr abstrakten Standpunkt wählen, der aber, wenn wir ihn wirken lassen auf die Seele, eine tiefe Empfindung auszulösen vermag in unserer Seele.
Wenn die gewöhnliche Weltbetrachtung oder auch die gewöhnliche Wissenschaft die Dinge um uns studiert — ich habe auf diese Sache schon gestern im öffentlichen Vortrage aufmerksam gemacht, aber wir wollen das noch einmal ins Auge fassen -, wenn die Dinge um uns herum studiert werden, dann lernt der Mensch durch das gewöhnliche Denken und die gewöhnliche Wissenschaft die Gesetze des Daseins im Mineral-, Pflanzen-, Tier- und menschlichen Reich erkennen. Diese Gesetze, sie gipfeln alle in einem Ideale: das Leben zu verstehen. Aber das Leben selber wird hier auf Erden nicht verstanden. Erkenntnis des Lebens kann nur der Okkultismus geben. Die äußere Wissenschaft kann niemals das Leben durchschauen. Und es wäre die ärgste Phantastik zu glauben, daß man jemals, so wie man physikalische oder chemische Gesetze durchschauen kann, auch die Gesetze des Lebens durchschauen könnte. Ein Ideal bleibt es, aber es kann nicht erreicht werden. Für den physischen Plan ist es eine Unmöglichkeit, Erkenntnis des Lebens zu geben. Diese Erkenntnis des Lebens muß der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis aufgespart bleiben.
So unmöglich wie die sinnliche Erkenntnis des Lebens, so unmöglich ist die übersinnliche Erkenntnis des Todes. Es gibt Zustände der grauenvollen Vereinsamung des Bewußtseins in der geistigen Welt, es gibt ein zeitweiliges Untertauchen wie in einen Schlaf, aber es gibt keinen Tod in den höheren Welten. Der Tod ist unmöglich in den höheren Welten.
Alle die Wesen, die wir als die Wesen der höheren Hierarchien kennengelernt haben, sie zeichnen sich dadurch aus, daß sie den Tod nicht kennen, daß sie durch den Tod nicht durchgehen. Geradeso wie in der Bibel richtig gesagt ist, daß die Engel ihr Antlitz verhüllten vor dem Geheimnis der Geburt, der Menschwerdung, geradeso müssen sie und alle übrigen höheren Wesen ihr Antlitz verhüllen vor dem Tode. Denn der Tod ist ein Ereignis, das nur für die sinnliche Welt möglich ist, nicht aber für die übersinnliche.
Unter den gesamten Wesen der höheren Welten gab es nur eines, das durch den Tod gehen mußte, wir können auch sagen wollte, das ist der Christus. Dazu mußte er auf die Erde herabsteigen.
Damit ein Wesen der höheren Welten das hat bewirken können, was nötig war für die Erdenentwickelung, mußte der Christus heruntersteigen aus einer Welt, in der es keinen Tod gibt, in die Welt, in der es einen Tod gibt.
Solche Vorstellungen, wenn sie auch zunächst abstrakt sind, müssen wir in ein Gefühl, in eine Empfindung verwandeln. Das volle Verständnis dessen, was ich jetzt abstrakt charakterisiert habe, wird ein Gegenstand der Evolution der Menschheit werden. Mit einer gewissen Ehrerbietung, Demut und Zartheit zugleich, nähern wir uns heute dem Geheimnis des Mysteriums von Golgatha.
Was war denn eigentlich geschehen? Es ist oft charakterisiert worden. Der Christus stieg herab aus den übersinnlichen Welten in die Welt, in der er seitdem lebt, zwar als eine geheime Kraft, die sich aber offenbaren wird von unserm Jahrhundert an. Er stieg herab aus der Welt, in der es keinen Tod gibt, in die Welt des Todes. Und er — diese Kraft - hat sich vereinigt mit der Erde. Er ist aus einer kosmischen Kraft zu einer Kraft der Erde geworden. Er ist durch den Tod gegangen, um innerhalb des Erdendaseins aufzuleben, um innerhalb der Erdenwelt zu sein. Und die Menschheit hat sich bemüht in diesen oder jenen Seelen, die sich mit diesem Impuls erfüllten, ihn zu verstehen durch die Jahrhunderte. Aber je weiter die Entwickelung heranrückte an das abgelaufene Gabriel-Zeitalter, ist es geschehen, daß das Verständnis immer mehr zurückging. Und heute ist es gerade bei denjenigen, die Verständnis haben sollten, recht schlecht bestellt mit diesem Verständnis, und der Materialismus macht sich nicht nur geltend in der heutigen materialistischen Wissenschaft, sondern macht sich vielfach auch geltend in der Theologie. Abgenommen hat das wirkliche Verständnis für den Christus-Impuls. Materialismus hat die Seelen ergriffen, er hat sich tief eingenistet in die Seelen. Der Materialismus ist in vieler Beziehung der Grundimpuls der letzten, der abgelaufenen Epoche geworden. Zahlreiche Seelen sind gestorben, die durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind mit materialistischer Gesinnung. In einem solchen Maße mit materialistischer Gesinnung durch die Pforte des Todes zu gehen, wie in der abgelaufenen Epoche Seelen hindurchgegangen sind, das konnte in früheren Zeitaltern gar nicht stattfinden.
Dann lebten diese Seelen in der Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt in der spirituellen Welt so, daß sie nichts wußten von der Welt, in der sie lebten. Da trat ihnen ein Wesen entgegen. Das erblickten sie in dieser Welt. Sie mußten es erblicken, weil dieses Wesen sich vereinigt hatte mit dem Erdendasein, wenn es auch unsichtbar waltet vorläufig im sinnlichen Erdendasein. Und den Anstrengungen dieser durch die Pforte des Todes gegangenen Seelen ist es gelungen, den Christus, wir können nicht anders sagen als: zu vertreiben aus der spirituellen Welt. Und der Christus mußte erleben eine Erneuerung des Mysteriums von Golgatha, wenn auch nicht in derselben Größe wie das vorhergehende. Damals ging er durch den Tod, jetzt war es ein Hinausgestoßenwerden aus seinem Sein in der spirituellen Welt. Und dadurch erfüllte sich an ihm das ewige Gesetz der spirituellen Welt. Was in der höheren, spirituellen Welt verschwindet, das ersteht aufs neue in der niederen Welt.
Wenn es im 20. Jahrhundert möglich ist, daß die Seelen sich heranentwickeln zum Verständnis des Mysteriums von Golgatha, so rührt es von diesem Ereignis her, daß der Christus durch eine Verschwörung der materialistischen Seelen herausgetrieben ist aus den spirituellen Welten, versetzt worden ist in die sinnliche Welt, in die Menschenwelt, so daß auch in dieser sinnlichen Welt ein neues Verständnis beginnen kann für den Christus. Daher ist auch der Christus in noch innigerer Weise vereinigt mit allem, was die Schicksale der Menschen auf Erden sind. Und wie man einstmals hinaufsehen konnte zu dem Jahve oder Jehova und wissen konnte, daß er dasjenige Wesen war, das den Michael vorausgesandt hat, um vorzubereiten, was da herüberführen sollte aus dem Jahve-Zeitalter zum Christus-Zeitalter, während es früher Jahve war, der den Michael sandte, ist es jetzt der Christus, der uns den Michael sendet.
Das ist das Neue, das Große, was wir für uns in ein Gefühl verwandeln sollen. Wie man früher sprechen konnte von Jahve-Michael, dem Leiter des Zeitalters, können wir jetzt sprechen von dem ChristusMichael. Michael hat eine Erhebung in eine höhere Stufe, vom Volksgeist zum Zeitgeist durchgemacht dadurch, daß er vom Sendboten Jahves zum Sendboten des Christus geworden ist.
Und so reden wir von einem richtigen Verständnis des ChristusImpulses, wenn wir von einem richtigen Verständnis des MichaelImpulses in unserer Zeit sprechen.
Abstraktes Verständnis geht auf Namen, immer wieder auf Namen, und glaubt etwas zu haben, wenn es so vorgeht, daß es frägt: Was ist Michael für ein Wesen? - und wissen will: er ist aus dieser oder jener Hierarchie hervorgegangen, er ist ein Erzengelwesen, Erzengelwesen haben diese oder jene Eigenschaften. Dann definiert man das und glaubt nun zu wissen, was ein solches Wesen ist. Oftmals bin ich auch schon nach Definitionen gefragt worden. Das erinnert mich immer an den Streit, der in einer griechischen Philosophenschule um den Wert einer Definition stattgefunden hat. Man stritt sich darum, wie man einen Menschen definieren könne. Man einigte sich schließlich dahin: ein Mensch ist ein Wesen, das auf zwei Beinen geht und keine Federn hat. - Es ist nicht zu leugnen, daß diese Merkmale auf den Menschen passen, so gut wie manche Definitionen auf die Begriffe passen, die man so hinpfahlt. Aber doch hatte der recht, der das nächste Mal einen gerupften Hahn brachte und fragte, ob das ein Mensch sei, denn er gehe auf zwei Beinen und habe keine Federn. Es ist nicht damit getan, daß man von Michael spricht, weil man, gerade wenn man die Menschheitsevolution verstehen will, den Michael in seiner Evolution verstehen muß, daß er dasselbe Wesen ist, das den Ton angegeben hat zur Vorbereitung des Mysteriums von Golgatha, und jetzt in unserer Zeit den Ton angibt für das Verständnis des Mysteriums von Golgatha. Dazumal aber war er ein Volksgeist, und jetzt ist er ein Zeitgeist. Dazumal war er der Sendbote des Jahve, jetzt ist er der Sendbote des Christus. Und wir sprechen so recht von dem Christus, wenn wir sprechen von Michael und seiner Sendung und wissen, daß das, was dazumal Michael war, der Träger der JahveMission, jetzt der Träger der Christus-Mission ist.
Wir haben Michael verfolgen können, einen Geist, der sozusagen aufgestiegen ist, der, um der Menschheit einen neuen Impuls zu vermitteln, aufgestiegen ist oder aufsteigt aus dem Range der Archangeloi zum Range der Archai.
Der Platz wird ausgefüllt durch eine andere Wesenheit, die nachkommt. Ich habe hier verschiedene Male gesprochen von der Evolution, dieBuddha durchgemacht hat. Jene knabenhaften Einwendungen, die uns jetzt gemacht werden, machen sich in ihrer Dreistigkeit auch heran an unsere Auffassung des Christus-Impulses in der Welt, als ob wir mit unserer Darlegung des Christus-Impulses jemals einseitig gewesen wären. Wir lenken die Blicke auf die Gesamtevolution, und wir charakterisieren dasjenige, was der Evolution unterliegt, aus den verschiedenen Impulsen heraus und geben jedem sein Recht. Wie oft ist es betont worden, daß für uns Wahrheit ist, daß der Bodhisattva, der als Gautama Buddha geboren worden ist, eben zum Buddha aufgestiegen ist. Wir haben seine Evolution verfolgt bis zu dem Zeitpunkt, wo er seine Mission auf dem Mars bekommen hat. Davon ist hier schon gesprochen worden.
Solange der Mensch auf Erden weilt, wie hoch er auch stehen mag, kann man immer bei jedem Menschen von jener Individualität sprechen, die ihn leitet von Inkarnation zu Inkarnation. Die individuelle Führung der Menschen unterliegt den Angeloi, den Engelwesen. Wenn ein Mensch vom Bodhisattva zum Buddha wird, dann wird sozusagen sein Engel frei. Solche Engelwesen sind es dann, die nach Erfüllung ihrer Mission aufsteigen in die Reiche der Erzengelwesen.
So ergreifen wir an einem Punkte wirklich das Aufsteigen eines Erzengels zum Wesen der Archai und das Aufsteigen eines Engelwesens zum Erzengelwesen, wenn wir wirklich verstehen, tiefer und tiefer hineinzuschauen in dasjenige, was hinter unserer sinnlichen Evolution als die übersinnliche Evolution steht.
Nun, dasjenige, was ich also zu Ihnen gesprochen habe über den spirituellen Hintergrund der Welt, in der wir drinnenstehen, und in die wir uns als Anthroposophen hineinstellen wollen, ich habe es nicht deshalb gesprochen, damit die Seelen bloß theoretisieren über diese Dinge, sondern damit die Seelen das, was in Worten und Begriffen ausgedrückt ist, in Gefühle und Empfindungen verwandeln. Ja, Anthroposoph sein in unserer Gegenwart heißt wissen, wie beschaffen ist die übersinnliche Welt, die zugrunde liegt der sinnlichen Welt der Menschheitsevolution, sich zu fühlen in der geistigen Welt, wie sich der physische Mensch in der Atmosphäre physisch fühlt. Sich so zu fühlen in der geistigen Welt! Aber man fühlt sich nicht in der geistigen Welt, wenn man bloß betont: Geist und Geist und Geist ist in uns! Sondern so, wie man die Erdenatmosphäre nach Wolkenbildungen, Feuchtigkeits- und anderen Erscheinungen konkret zu beurteilen hat, so müssen wir auch die geistige Welt, in die wir jede Nacht mit dem Einschlafen untertauchen, im Konkreten charakterisieren, erfühlen und empfinden, was da lebt und webt in dieser geistigen Welt. Dasjenige, was in der Gegenwart geschieht durch die Sendung, die an Michael übertragen ist von dem Christus aus, die ergangen ist an denselben Geist aus der Hierarchie der Archangeloi, dessen sich bedient hat zur Vorbereitung des Mysteriums von Golgatha einstmals der Impuls des Jahve, das ist es, was hinter unserer physisch-sinnlichen Evolution sich abspielt. Und drinnen sich zu wissen, zu fühlen in solchem Geschehen in der geistigen Welt, wie wir uns physisch fühlen in der Atmosphäre, die wir ein- und ausatmen, das heißt in der Gegenwart gegenüber der geistigen Welt im konkreten Sinne das richtige Bewußtsein haben.
Versuchen Sie es, in eine Gesamtempfindung Ihrer Seele zu verwandeln solche Ergebnisse des Okkultismus. Was ich jetzt versuche, in ihre Seelen zu legen, versuchen Sie, einen empfindenden Begriff davon zu gewinnen, zu beachten, was es heißt, gerade heute in diesem Zeitalter wissend drinnen zu leben in dem, was geistig um uns geschieht, in dem, wohin unsere Seele geht jeden Abend, wenn wir einschlafen, und woher wir kommen jeden Morgen, wenn wir aufwachen. Versuchen Sie, die Seele hinaufzulenken in dieses Konkrete, das oftmals ganz abstrakt genannt wird die «göttliche Vorsehung». Das ist im Charakter unserer Zeit gelegen, daß das, was der Mensch in verflossenen Zeitaltern unbestimmt nur fühlen durfte als die durch die Welt flutende Vorsehung, daß er das in der Gegenwart als einzelne Wesen zu erkennen, zu empfinden vermag. Lassen Sie es als ein Bild vor Ihrer Seele stehen, daß das verflossene Zeitalter die Naturgesetze finden mußte. Damals waren die Naturgesetze gut, wenn sie richtig gebraucht wurden in der menschlichen Seele, um die äußeren Weltanschauungen aufzubauen. Aber es gibt nichts absolut Gutes oder Böses in dieser äußeren Welt der Maja. Schlecht und böse würden die Naturgesetze in unserem Zeitalter, wem sie weiter gebraucht würden zum Aufbau einer Weltanschauung in der Zeit, wo das spirituelle Leben hereinfließt in die sinnliche Welt. Nicht dasjenige, was die verflossenen Zeitalter getan haben, wird getroffen mit diesen Worten, sondern das, was bleiben will, wie es in früheren Zeitaltern war, was sich nicht in den Dienst stellen will der neuen Offenbarung.
Michael hat nicht den Drachen bekämpft in dem Zeitalter, das abgelaufen ist, denn da war der Drache, der jetzt gemeint ist, noch nicht ein Drache. Ein Drache wird er werden, wenn diejenigen Begriffe und Ideen, die nur naturwissenschaftliche Gesetze sind, zur Weltanschauung des nächsten Zeitalters aufgebaut werden sollten. Und das, was sich da aufbäumen will, das ist wiederum, richtig aufgefaßt, in dem Bilde als der Drache, der besiegt werden muß von Michael, dessen Zeitalter in unseren Jahren beginnt.
Das ist eine wichtige Imagination: Michael, besiegend den Drachen. Spirituelles, flutendes Leben hinein zu empfangen in die Sinneswelt: Michael-Dienst ist es von jetzt ab. Ihm dienen wir in der Besiegung des Drachens, der sich auswachsen will in Ideen, die während des verflossenen Zeitalters den Materialismus gebracht haben, die sich hinüberwachsen wollen in die Zukunft. Das zu überwinden, heißt im Dienst des Michael stehen. Das ist der Sieg des Michael über den Drachen. Es ist wieder das alte Bild, das für frühere Zeiten eine andere Bedeutung hatte, das aber jetzt diese Bedeutung für unser Zeitalter bekommen soll. Erkennen und erfühlen können wir unsere Aufgabe in dem Bilde «Michael, besiegend den Drachen», wenn wir fühlen, woran wir teilnehmen sollen als Menschen eines neuen Zeitalters.
Nun wohl, versuchen wir dieses Bild zu unserer Imagination zu machen, versuchen wir unsere Zeit zu verstehen dadurch, daß wir uns konkret drinnen wissen in der geistigen Führung, die die geistige Führung unseres Zeitalters ist, die die geistige Führung jeder Menschenseele sein kann, jeder solchen Menschenseele, die da aufrichtig und ehrlich eine Entwickelung sucht, einen Aufstieg zu immer höheren Stufen des geistigen Lebens.
The Michael Impulse and the Mystery of Golgotha
We have endeavored to shed some light on what, based on the laws of the world, constitutes the character of our present age, and we should not overlook such a characteristic feature of our time. For when we speak of the spiritual forces, of the spiritual impulses of an age, we are referring to those forces, those impulses that are at work within each of our souls. And we cannot come to terms with our souls unless we are able to face these forces, these impulses of our age, which are at the same time the spiritual forces and impulses of our own souls.
It is absolutely true that — as each of you can work out for yourselves why you believe this or that in spiritual science — in the souls of those who come to spiritual science sincerely and honestly, there lives, perhaps unconsciously, the feeling that the impulse comes from the genuine, true spiritual impulses of our time.
The day before yesterday, I tried to characterize for you that we are currently living in what can be called the Michael era. Understanding of spiritual things will become possible for more and more souls. While the last centuries passed in such a way that understanding became possible above all for things of external natural science, for physical, chemical, and physiological laws, for everything related to outer space and time, while in the Gabriel age an understanding was awakened in souls for what was triumphing in the natural sciences, and the soul was drawn toward a scientific understanding of the world, we are now entering an age in which it will be just as possible to understand the spiritual.
Never before in the development of humanity have two successive ages been so radically different as the one just passed and the one we are entering. And never will the souls who are inclined toward the spiritual be more alien to the souls who still cling to what the past centuries have brought. And it will not be long before those who believe they stand on the ground of materialistic monism will be completely out of step with those souls who will search longingly for an understanding of the supersensible worlds. For since the last third of the previous century, a spiritual tidal wave has opened up from the higher worlds into our world, and therefore it has become possible to gain an understanding of what spiritually guides the evolution of humanity and the world. Almost two millennia ago, the event that is known to all of you as the Mystery of Golgotha took place, and this Mystery of Golgotha has often been discussed here and illuminated from various angles as the great focal point of human evolution. And it has become clear that, without touching on any confessional standpoint, but purely from the perspective of spiritual science, it is possible to understand this event, so that one can expect understanding from every confessional current of the present. The reasons why some people do not want to accept the Christ event as the great focal point of human evolution have also been discussed in detail. But we should also consider such things with the soul, as was discussed yesterday in the public lecture. It could be that someone, out of prejudice, did not want to know anything about what happened in a small country at the beginning of our era; it could be that someone did not want to concern themselves with what we call the Mystery of Golgotha. Well, let us even assume that it would be natural for a soul to think of the course of history in such a way that what happened on Golgotha should be erased. Let us assume this hypothetically. If this soul were to look at human development, it would find something that particularly characterizes this age. We spoke about this yesterday. In the epoch before the mystery of Golgotha, there was a transition from the human soul's position in relation to the external environment to its subsequent position in relation to its own inner life, quite apart from the mystery of Golgotha. At the moment when the Mystery of Golgotha took place, this great transition of humanity from a life in the external environment to inner life took place. And everyone can feel this, even if they disregard the Mystery of Golgotha.
Humanity is at a turning point at this moment. One need not even speak of the mystery of Golgotha, but can take other events, and they will show that humanity previously lived in an externalization, but that afterwards, people who are permeated by the impulse of the times, by their genius, begin to live in an internalization.
But when something like this happens, it happens in such a way that it has been prepared beforehand. I do not want to use the trivial expression: nature or history does not make leaps. The expression is only justified within certain limits, for even if something is prepared, is it not still a leap in development? The blossom is already present in the green leaves. In the same way, what appears as a break in human development at the time of the mystery of Golgotha was also prepared. And we can not only find, when we delve deeply into what has come down to us as teaching, as insight, in the last centuries of ancient Hebrew antiquity, we can not only find a spirit there — indeed, a spirit of its own — preparing for the mystery of Golgotha, but we can also find such a spirit of preparation in other parts of the world.
For the spirit of Hebraism, it was indeed the case that it showed influences of a completely different kind than had been there before. A completely different way of looking at the world began in the 6th century before the mystery of Golgotha, a completely new epoch compared to what had previously existed in Hebrew spiritual life. This becomes very clear to the attentive observer. And even if it appears here in a different form, because the ancient Hebrew people were of a different nature, it is still the same spirit that is merely expressed differently; it is the spirit that prevailed in Greek philosophy, and even in Greek poetry, in the last centuries before the Mystery of Golgotha. We find this everywhere. One need only seriously consider minds such as Plato and Aristotle, even Socrates, to see that this turning point was being prepared everywhere.
Now, such events that happen here on earth are guided and directed from the supersensible world. Before this impact on physical earthly life, which we call the event of Golgotha, the former leadership of evolution sent out a messenger — at that time still a messenger of Yahweh — to prepare for this impact. It was the same spirit that prepared the cultural epoch up to the Mystery of Golgotha, the same spirit that is the leader of our dawning cultural epoch, the spirit we have called Michael. Just as Michael gives character to our time, so he gave character to the entire culture that prepared the Mystery of Golgotha. Only the power that sent Michael from higher worlds was Yahweh or Jehovah at that time.
At that time it was not like in our time, where it is so easy to be reproached when one speaks of spiritual things: You talk a lot about the spirit of the people or the spirit of the times or other spiritual facts, but you say so little about God. People do not realize why one does not speak of God: because no human concept can truly encompass that in which we live, weave, and are. Here, too, there are views that are very interesting in part. When I recently gave a public lecture in a city and, as is customary, questions were asked, one person asked a very clever question. He asked: Yes, if it is logical that we recognize an object by looking at it, by being able to stand opposite it — if we cannot have an objective image of an object that we have within us, such as the apple of the eye, because we cannot look at it — how do we then deal with the assertion of some mystics that one must turn away from God in order to be able to contemplate Him as an object?
Certainly, some mystics have asserted that one must turn away from God in order to face Him. The question was clever, but it can only be answered by saying: You may distance yourself from God as much as you want, but you remain within God; you cannot leave God. Some logic is quite logical, but it is also very short-sighted.
In times when people were still closer to the spiritual, there was still a sense of reverence for the divine in which we live and breathe and are, which should not always be named, and therefore ancient Hebrews used the expression “the face of Yahweh” in order not to pronounce the name. The face is what a person turns outward, through which they reveal themselves. It is not the whole person. One recognizes a person by their inner nature in the features of their face, but one does not therefore fail to speak of the whole person when one refers to their face.
That is why Michael was called “the face of Yahweh” at that time, and why people much preferred to refer to the representative through whom Yahweh or Jehovah revealed himself to humanity, as if in a face turned toward humanity. In intimate circles, people also much preferred to refer to the representative rather than to Yahweh himself. Michael was regarded at that time as the spiritual ruler of the age, as the messenger of Yahweh, as the hierarch from whom radiated what was to come as an impulse to prepare for the event of Golgotha.
Now, in the meantime, other beings from the order of the Archangels have taken over the leadership of the spiritual evolution of humanity. And the being who was in charge when the mystery of Golgotha was to be prepared is the same being who is now sending the floods of supersensible life into the sensory world. There was a Michael age back then, and a Michael age is what is beginning right now. But there is a tremendous difference between the Michael age of that time and ours, which is now beginning.
It would go too far today to characterize the understanding that the time since that Michael age has been able to bring to the mystery of Golgotha. There have been deeply soulful individuals who, out of a more or less heightened need for faith, have gained a relationship to the mystery of Golgotha and its bearer; there have been deeply religious natures since the mystery of Golgotha until our times. But the mystery of Golgotha is such that, although it stands as a real fact at the starting point of the newer era, the human soul cannot presume to fully comprehend it or understand it completely. New epochs will always come that will deepen the human soul more and more, and that will understand better and better what happened in the mystery of Golgotha. The event itself stands there as the turning point in human development, and the understanding of this event will grow and mature more and more in the spiritual development of the earth.
We cannot write this matter deeply enough into our souls. Let us consider in a certain metaphysical abstraction what actually happened at that time. We have characterized it from various points of view. Let us choose a more abstract point of view, which, however, when we allow it to work on the soul, is capable of awakening a deep feeling in our souls.
When the ordinary view of the world or even ordinary science studies the things around us — I already drew attention to this in yesterday's public lecture, but let us consider it again — when the things around us are studied, then through ordinary thinking and ordinary science, human beings learn to recognize the laws of existence in the mineral, plant, animal, and human realms. These laws all culminate in one ideal: to understand life. But life itself is not understood here on earth. Only occultism can give us knowledge of life. Outer science can never see through life. And it would be the worst kind of fantasy to believe that one could ever understand the laws of life in the same way that one can understand the laws of physics or chemistry. It remains an ideal, but it cannot be achieved. It is impossible for the physical plane to provide knowledge of life. This knowledge of life must be reserved for supersensible knowledge.
Just as impossible as the sensory knowledge of life is the supersensible knowledge of death. There are states of terrible isolation of consciousness in the spiritual world, there is a temporary submersion as if into sleep, but there is no death in the higher worlds. Death is impossible in the higher worlds.
All the beings we have come to know as beings of the higher hierarchies are characterized by the fact that they do not know death, that they do not pass through death. Just as it is correctly stated in the Bible that the angels veiled their faces before the mystery of birth, of becoming human, so must they and all other higher beings veil their faces before death. For death is an event that is only possible for the sensory world, but not for the supersensible world.
Among all the beings of the higher worlds, there was only one who had to pass through death, or we might say, who wanted to. That was Christ. To do this, he had to descend to earth.
In order for a being from the higher worlds to be able to accomplish what was necessary for the development of the earth, Christ had to descend from a world where there is no death into a world where there is death.
Such ideas, even if they are abstract at first, must be transformed into a feeling, into a sensation. The full understanding of what I have now characterized in abstract terms will become an object of human evolution. With a certain reverence, humility, and tenderness, we approach today the mystery of Golgotha.
What actually happened? It has often been described. Christ descended from the supersensible worlds into the world in which he has lived ever since, as a secret power that will reveal itself from our century onwards. He descended from the world where there is no death into the world of death. And he — this force — united himself with the earth. He became a force of the earth out of a cosmic force. He passed through death in order to live within earthly existence, to be within the earthly world. And humanity has strived through the centuries to understand him in those souls who were filled with this impulse. But the closer the development approached the end of the Gabriel era, the more understanding declined. And today, it is precisely those who should have understanding who have very little of it, and materialism is not only prevalent in today's materialistic science, but also in many areas of theology. The real understanding of the Christ impulse has diminished. Materialism has taken hold of souls; it has become deeply ingrained in them. In many respects, materialism has become the basic impulse of the last, the past epoch. Numerous souls have died who passed through the gate of death with a materialistic attitude. To pass through the gate of death with such a materialistic attitude as souls did in the past epoch was impossible in earlier times.
Then these souls lived in the spiritual world between death and rebirth in such a way that they knew nothing of the world in which they lived. Then a being appeared before them. They saw it in this world. They had to see it because this being had united itself with earthly existence, even though it reigns invisibly for the time being in the sensory earthly existence. And through their efforts, these souls who had passed through the gate of death succeeded in driving Christ out of the spiritual world; we cannot say it any other way. And Christ had to experience a renewal of the mystery of Golgotha, though not on the same scale as before. At that time, he passed through death; now it was a being cast out of his existence in the spiritual world. And thereby the eternal law of the spiritual world was fulfilled in him. What disappears in the higher, spiritual world arises anew in the lower world.
If it is possible in the 20th century for souls to develop an understanding of the mystery of Golgotha, it is because of this event, that Christ was driven out of the spiritual worlds by a conspiracy of materialistic souls and placed in the sensory world, the human world, so that a new understanding of Christ can begin in this sensory world. Therefore, Christ is also united in an even more intimate way with everything that constitutes the destinies of human beings on earth. And just as one could once look up to Yahweh or Jehovah and know that he was the being who had sent Michael ahead to prepare the way for the transition from the Yahweh era to the Christ era, whereas in earlier times it was Yahweh who sent Michael, so now it is Christ who sends Michael to us.
This is the new, the great thing that we must transform into a feeling for ourselves. Just as we could once speak of Yahweh-Michael, the leader of the age, we can now speak of Christ-Michael. Michael has undergone an elevation to a higher level, from the spirit of the people to the spirit of the age, by becoming the messenger of Christ instead of the messenger of Yahweh.
And so we speak of a correct understanding of the Christ impulse when we speak of a correct understanding of the Michael impulse in our time.
Abstract understanding relies on names, always on names, and believes it has something when it asks: What kind of being is Michael? — and wants to know: he has emerged from this or that hierarchy, he is an archangel, archangels have these or those characteristics. Then one defines this and believes one now knows what such a being is. I have often been asked for definitions. This always reminds me of the dispute that took place in a Greek school of philosophy about the value of a definition. They argued about how to define a human being. They finally agreed that a human being is a creature that walks on two legs and has no feathers. It cannot be denied that these characteristics apply to humans, just as some definitions apply to the terms that are thrown around. But the next person who brought a plucked rooster and asked if it was a human being was right, because it walked on two legs and had no feathers. It is not enough to speak of Michael, because if one wants to understand human evolution, one must understand Michael in his evolution, that he is the same being who set the tone for the preparation of the mystery of Golgotha and now sets the tone for the understanding of the mystery of Golgotha in our time. At that time, however, he was a folk spirit, and now he is a spirit of the times. At that time he was the messenger of Yahweh, now he is the messenger of Christ. And we speak rightly of Christ when we speak of Michael and his mission, knowing that what Michael was then, the bearer of the Yahweh mission, is now the bearer of the Christ mission.
We have been able to follow Michael, a spirit who has, so to speak, ascended, who has ascended or is ascending from the rank of the Archangeloi to the rank of the Archai in order to give humanity a new impulse.
The place is filled by another being who follows. I have spoken here several times about the evolution that Buddha underwent. Those boyish objections that are now being made to us, in their audacity, also attack our understanding of the Christ impulse in the world, as if we had ever been one-sided in our presentation of the Christ impulse. We direct our gaze to the whole of evolution, and we characterize what underlies evolution from the various impulses and give each its due. How often has it been emphasized that it is true for us that the Bodhisattva who was born as Gautama Buddha has indeed ascended to Buddhahood. We have followed his evolution up to the point where he received his mission on Mars. This has already been discussed here.
As long as human beings dwell on earth, no matter how high they may stand, one can always speak of that individuality in every human being which guides them from incarnation to incarnation. The individual guidance of human beings is subject to the Angeloi, the angelic beings. When a human being becomes a Buddha, his angel, so to speak, becomes free. It is these angelic beings who, after fulfilling their mission, ascend to the realms of the archangelic beings.
Thus, when we truly understand and look deeper and deeper into what lies behind our sensory evolution as the supersensible evolution, we can truly grasp the ascent of an archangel to the being of the archai and the ascent of an angelic being to the being of the archangel.
Now, what I have told you about the spiritual background of the world in which we live and into which we as anthroposophists want to place ourselves, I have not said so that souls may merely theorize about these things, but so that souls may transform what is expressed in words and concepts into feelings and sensations. Yes, to be an anthroposophist in our present age means to know what the supersensible world underlying the sensory world of human evolution is like, to feel oneself in the spiritual world as the physical human being feels physically in the atmosphere. To feel oneself in the spiritual world! But one does not feel oneself in the spiritual world if one merely emphasizes: Spirit and spirit and spirit is within us! Just as we have to assess the earth's atmosphere in concrete terms by looking at cloud formations, humidity, and other phenomena, so too must we characterize, feel, and sense in concrete terms the spiritual world into which we immerse ourselves every night when we fall asleep, what lives and weaves in this spiritual world. What is happening in the present through the mission entrusted to Michael by Christ, which was given to the same spirit from the hierarchy of the archangels, which the impulse of Yahweh once used to prepare the mystery of Golgotha, is what is taking place behind our physical-sensory evolution. And to know and feel oneself within such events in the spiritual world, just as we feel ourselves physically in the atmosphere that we breathe in and out, that is, to have the right consciousness in the present moment in relation to the spiritual world in a concrete sense.
Try to transform such results of occultism into an overall feeling of your soul. What I am now trying to place in your souls, try to gain a feeling for, to understand what it means, especially today, in this age, to live with the knowledge of what is happening spiritually around us, where our soul goes every evening when we fall asleep, and where we come from every morning when we wake up. Try to direct your soul upward into this concrete reality, which is often referred to in a very abstract way as “divine providence.” It is in the nature of our time that what people in past ages could only feel vaguely as providence flooding through the world, they are now able to recognize and feel as individual beings. Let it stand before your soul as an image that the past age had to discover the laws of nature. At that time, the laws of nature were good when they were used correctly in the human soul to build up the outer worldviews. But there is nothing absolutely good or evil in this outer world of Maya. The laws of nature would become bad and evil in our age if they continued to be used to build a worldview at a time when spiritual life is flowing into the sensory world. These words do not refer to what past ages have done, but to what wants to remain as it was in earlier ages, what does not want to serve the new revelation.
Michael did not fight the dragon in the age that has passed, for the dragon that is now meant was not yet a dragon. It will become a dragon when those concepts and ideas that are only natural laws are built up into the worldview of the next age. And what wants to rear up there is, correctly understood, represented in the image of the dragon that must be defeated by Michael, whose age is beginning in our years.
This is an important image: Michael defeating the dragon. Receiving spiritual, flowing life into the sensory world: this is Michael's service from now on. We serve him in defeating the dragon that wants to grow into ideas that brought materialism during the past age and that want to grow into the future. To overcome this is to stand in Michael's service. This is Michael's victory over the dragon. It is again the old image that had a different meaning in earlier times, but which now must take on this meaning for our age. We can recognize and feel our task in the image of “Michael defeating the dragon” when we feel what we are to participate in as human beings of a new age.
Now then, let us try to make this image our own, let us try to understand our time by knowing that we are concretely within the spiritual guidance that is the spiritual guidance of our age, that can be the spiritual guidance of every human soul, every such human soul that sincerely and honestly seeks development, an ascent to ever higher stages of spiritual life.