The Michael Mystery
GA 26
VIII. Michael's Mission in the Cosmic Age of Human Freedom
[ 1 ] When one inwardly pursues the course of spiritual life down to Michael's workings at the present day, it becomes possible to obtain a light from spiritual science upon Freedom in its cosmic character.
[ 2 ] This does not apply to my ‘Philosophy of Freedom,’ which is something that proceeds from the purely human powers of cognition themselves, if once they can enter upon the field of the spirit. To arrive at the knowledge there arrived at, requires, so far, no intercourse with beings of other worlds. But the ‘Philosophy of Freedom’ makes—one may say—a good preparation for that other knowledge about freedom which may afterwards be learnt in spiritual intercourse with Michael. [ 3 ] And this is as follows.
[ 4 ] If freedom is really to have life in human actions, that which is performed in freedom's light must be in no way dependent upon the human physical and etheric organization. A ‘free’ performance can proceed from the I alone, and the astral body must also be able to vibrate along with the free action of the I, so as to transmit it to the physical and ether-bodies. This however is only one side of the matter. The other side is the one that becomes clear in connection with Michael's mission. Namely, whatever a man realizes in freedom in his inward life, must again have no sort of action upon his etheric nor physical body. Were it to do so, the man would inevitably be brought completely out of line with all that he has come to be during the different stages of his evolution under the influence of divine-spiritual Being and divine-spiritual Revelation.
[ 5 ] What Man brings to realization in his inward life from all that is the wrought work only of divine spirit round about him, must exert no influence of any but his spiritual part—his I. The only thing that may influence his physical and etheric organism, is what comes through the evolutionary stream, not in his surroundings, but in his own being itself, as the continuation of what had its first beginnings in the being and revelation of divine spirit. But this element in the human being must on no account become involved in its workings with what lives in the element of freedom.
[ 6 ] What alone makes this possible, is that Michael carries over from a very remote past in evolution, something which gives Man a link with that divine-spiritual reality which no longer intervenes, in the present day, in the physical and etheric structures. So that by this means, there grows up in the Michael Mission the basis for an intercourse between Man and the spiritual world, which does not interfere in the workings of Nature.
[ 7 ] It is elevating to watch how, through Michael, Man's being becomes lifted ever higher into the spiritual sphere; whilst what is going on below, unconscious and subconscious, beneath the sphere of freedom, becomes ever more deeply wedded to the world of matter.
[ 8 ] Man will find his relation to world-being growing ever more incomprehensible as time goes on, unless he will consent to recognize his relation, not merely with natural beings and natural processes, but also with things of another kind, such as the Michael Mission. One's relations to the natural world are something that one learns to know as viewed from outside. Relations with the spiritual world proceed from something like an inner conversation with a reality of being, to which one has opened access by one's readiness to view the world in a spiritual aspect.
[ 9 ] For Man, therefore, to carry the impulses of freedom into actual life, he must be in a position to hold aloof from his own being certain affectations of nature that act upon his being from out of the Cosmos, and to keep them from affecting it. This ‘holding aloof’ goes on then in the subconscious, whilst in the consciousness those other forces are at work, which represent the life of the I in freedom.
For the man's inward perception, there is this consciousness of creative freedom. For the spiritual beings connected with Man from other world-spheres it is different. The being from the hierarchy of the Angeloi, whose work it is to conduct the man's identity from one earth-life to another, becomes at once visibly aware that man is repelling cosmic forces which are seeking to continue his development—forces which are seeking to give the necessary physical support to his I-system, as they did previous to the age of Michael.
[ 10 ] Michael, as a being from the hierarchy of the Archangeloi, receives his impressions by aid of the beings from the Angeloi-Hierarchy. He devotes himself to the task of conveying to Man from the spiritual part of the Cosmos, in the manner described, forces which can replace the suppressed forces of his natural existence.
[ 11 ] This he accomplishes by bringing all he does into most perfect unison with the Mystery of Golgotha.
[ 12 ] The workings of the Christ in earthly evolution contain the forces which Man needs when he works in freedom, in order to make good the suppressed impulses of Nature. Only, Man must then actually bring his soul into that inner intercourse of life with the Christ, already spoken of in these descriptions of the Michael Mission.
[ 13 ] Man is conscious of being in the midst of a reality, when he stands in the face of the physical Sun, and it gives him warmth and light.
[ 14 ] Even so he must live before the face of the Spiritual Sun, the Christ, who has united His life with the life of Earth; and from this Spiritual Sun he must receive, alive within his soul, what in the spiritual world corresponds to warmth and light.
[ 15 ] He will feel himself filled through and through with ‘spiritual warmth,’ when he realizes the life of the ‘Christ within him.’ And feeling how this warmth flows through him, he will say: This warmth dissolves my human being from bonds with the Cosmos which must not hold it. The divine-spiritual Being of yore led me to regions where it needs must leave me, in order that I might achieve my freedom. But in these regions it has given to me the Christ, that from His forces I may receive as a free man, what the divine-spiritual Being of yore once gave to me by way of Nature—which, in those days, was also the way of the Spirit. To the divine source whence I came, this warmth leads me back once more.
[ 16 ] And as this feeling rises in him, Man's sense of his life in and with the Christ will become one in inner soul-warmth with his sense of real, true manhood. ‘Christ gives me my human being,’—this will be a dominant feeling, breathing, 0pulsing through all the soul. And if this feeling be once there, there will come too that other feeling, where Man feels himself by Christ lifted up above the life of earth, and feels himself one with the stars that environ the earth and with all that may be read in this starry environment of the spiritual and divine.
[ 17 ] So too will it be with the spiritual light. Man can have the full feeling of himself in his own being as a man, when he wakens to the consciousness of himself as a man, when he wakens to the consciousness of himself as a free individual. Nevertheless this is accompanied with a certain darkness. The Divine and spiritual of ancient days no longer shines. In the light which Christ brings to the I of Man, the ancient, primal light is there once more. In such a life in community with Christ, the thought may arise, shedding bliss and brightness like the sun through the whole soul: The divine light of old is there, in all its pristine glory; it shines, though not with the light of Nature. And Man unites himself in the present with the spiritual cosmic Light-Powers of the past, that shone in the times before he was a free individual. In this light he can find the paths which will lead him aright as human being, if he understandingly unites himself in soul with the Michael Mission.
[ 18 ] In the spirit's warmth Man will feel the impulse that can carry him on in such a way into his cosmic future, that he can there remain true to the gifts given him by the divine spirit-beings at his origin—notwithstanding that he has since developed in their worlds to a free individuality. And in the spirit's light he will find the power which will lead him, with open eyes and ever higher and broader consciousness, to that world where he shall find himself again as free Man in the company of the Gods of his first origin.
[ 19 ] To want to remain in the first, original state of existence—to want to keep the original naïve simplicity of divine goodness, of the time when the gods ruled in Man, and to shrink from making use of his freedom,—this leads Man in the present-day world, where everything is disposed for the evolution of his freedom, only in the end to Lucifer, whose aim it is to see the present world repudiated.
[ 20 ] To give himself over to the present state of existence; to admit through all the worlds nothing save the rule of that natural law, accessible to the present-day intellect, to which goodness is a neutral matter; to want to enjoy the use of freedom in the intellect alone; this, in the present-day world—where, while freedom reigns in the upper regions, evolution must be carried further in the deeper regions of the soul—only leads Man in the end to Ahriman, whose aim it is to see the present world transformed entirely into a Cosmos of Intellectual Being.
[ 21 ] In regions such as this, where Man is able to feel that when he turns his eyes upon the outer world they fall spiritually upon Michael, and when he turns them to the inner world of the soul they fall spiritually upon Christ, here he will gather such security of soul and spirit, as shall enable him to travel along that cosmic road, on which without the loss of his first origin he shall find the true and right consummation of his future.
Leading Thoughts
[ 22 ] A free action can only be one in which no process of Nature, in or outside of Man, plays a part.
[ 23 ] The polaric counter-proposition in this: In all free action of human individuality, a process of Nature in man is suppressed, which in an unfree action would be there and would give the man's being the formation cosmically predestined for it.
[ 24 ] This formation of his being, which a man fails to receive by the natural road if in his life and being he follows the course of cosmic evolution through its present and future stages, comes to him by a spiritual road through the union with Michael, whereby he also finds the way to Christ.
Michaels Mission im Weltenalter der Menschen-Freiheit
[ 1 ] Wenn man mit dem geistigen Erleben an Michaels Wirken in der Gegenwart herankommt, so findet man die Möglichkeit, sich geisteswissenschaftlich über das kosmische Wesen der Freiheit Licht zu verschaffen.
[ 2 ] Dies bezieht sich nicht auf meine «Philosophie der Freiheit». Diese geht aus den rein-menschlichen Erkenntniskräften selbst hervor, wenn diese sich auf das Feld des Geistes begeben können. Man braucht dann, um zu erkennen, was hier erkannt wird, noch nicht ein Zusammengehen mit Wesen andrer Welten. Man kann aber sagen, die «Philosophie der Freiheit» bereitet dazu vor, über die Freiheit das zu erkennen, was dann im geistigen Zusammengehen mit Michael erfahren werden kann.
[ 3 ] Und das ist das Folgende.
[ 4 ] Soll Freiheit wirklich im menschlichen Handeln leben, so darf, was in ihrem Lichte vollzogen wird, in keiner Art von der menschlichen physischen und ätherischen Organisation abhängig sein. Das «Freie» kann sich nur aus dem «Ich» heraus vollziehen; und mit dem freien Wirken des «Ich» muß der Astralleib mitschwingen können, damit er es auf physischen und ätherischen Leib übertragen kann. -Dies ist aber nur die eine Seite der Sache. Die andere wird eben im Zusammenhange mit Michaels Mission durchsichtig. - Es darf, was in Freiheit vom Menschen erlebt wird, auch nicht in irgendeiner Art auf seinen ätherischen oder physischen Leib wirken. Geschähe dieses, so müßte der Mensch völlig aus dem herauskommen, was er in den Etappen seiner Entwickelung unter dem Einfluß der göttlich-geistigen Wesenheit und der göttlich-geistigen Offenbarung geworden ist.
[ 5 ] Was der Mensch durch dasjenige erlebt, was nur göttlichgeistiges Werk in seiner Umgebung ist, darf nur auf sein Geistiges (sein Ich) einen Einfluß haben. Auf seine physische und ätherische Organisation kann nur Einfluß haben, was sich in der Entwickelungsströmung nicht in seiner Umgebung, sondern innerhalb seiner Wesenheit selbst von dem fortsetzt, das seinen Anfang in Wesenheit und Offenbarung des Göttlich-Geistigen gehabt hat. Das aber darf in der Menschen-Wesenheit gar nicht zusammenwirken mit dem, was in dem Elemente der Freiheit lebt.
[ 6 ] Dies ist nur dadurch möglich, daß Michael aus urferner Vergangenheit der Entwickelung etwas herüberträgt, das den Menschen einen Zusammenhang mit dem Göttlich-Geistigen gibt, das in der Gegenwart nicht mehr in die physische und ätherische Bildung eingreift. Dadurch entwickelt sich innerhalb von Michaels Mission der Boden für einen Verkehr des Menschen mit der geistigen Welt, der gar nicht ins Naturhafte hinübergreift.
[ 7 ] Es ist erhebend anzusehen, wie durch Michael des Menschen Wesenheit in die geistige Sphäre hinaufgehoben wird, während das Unbewußte, Unterbewußte, die sich unter der Sphäre der Freiheit entfalten, immer tiefer mit dem Materiellen zusammenwächst.
[ 8 ] Des Menschen Stellung zum Weltwesen wird ihm fernerhin immer unverständlicher werden, wenn er sich nicht darauf einläßt, außer seinen Beziehungen zu Naturwesen und Naturvorgängen auch noch solche anzuerkennen wie die zur Michael-Mission. - Die Beziehungen zur Natur lernt man wie etwas kennen, das man von außen anschaut; diejenigen zur geistigen Welt gehen aus von etwas, das gewissermaßen ein inneres Gespräch mit einem Wesenhaften ist, zu dem man sich den Zugang dadurch eröffnet hat, daß man auf das geistgemäße Anschauen der Welt eingegangen ist.
[ 9 ] Der Mensch muß also, um die Impulse der Freiheit darleben zu können, imstande sein, gewisse Naturwirkungen, die aus dem Kosmos herein die Wirkung auf sein Wesen nehmen, von diesem Wesen fernezuhalten. Diese Fernhaltung spielt sich im Unterbewußtsein dann ab, wenn im Bewußtsein die Kräfte walten, die eben das Leben des Ich in Freiheit darstellen. Für das menschliche innere Wahrnehmen ist das Bewußtsein des Wirkens in Freiheit da; für die geistigen Wesen, die aus ändern Weltensphären mit dem Menschen in Verbindung stehen, ist das anders. Dem Wesen aus der Hierarchie der Angeloi, das mit der Fortführung des Menschenseins von Erdenleben zu Erdenleben zu tun hat, wird gegenüber dem menschlichen Handeln in Freiheit sofort dieses anschaulich: der Mensch stößt von sich kosmische Kräfte hinweg, die ihn weiterbilden wollen, die seiner Ich-Organisation die nötigen physischen Stützen geben wollen, wie sie sie ihr gegeben haben vor dem Michael-Zeitalter.
[ 10 ] Michael erhält als Wesen aus der Hierarchie der Archangeloi seine Eindrücke mit Hilfe der Wesen aus der Angeloi-Hierarchie. Er widmet sich der Aufgabe, dem Menschen aus dem geistigen Teil des Kosmos auf die hier geschilderte Art Kräfte zuzuführen, die die aus dem Naturdasein unterdrückten ersetzen können.
[ 11 ] Das erreicht er, indem er seine Wirksamkeit in den vollkommensten Einklang mit dem Mysterium von Golgatha bringt.
[ 12 ] In der Wirksamkeit des Christus innerhalb der Erdenentwickelung liegen die Kräfte, die der Mensch im Wirken durch Freiheit zum Ausgleich unterdrückter Natur-Impulse braucht. - Nur muß der Mensch dann wirklich seine Seele in das innere Zusammenleben mit Christus bringen, von dem hier in diesen Mitteilungen über die Michael-Mission schon gesprochen ist.
[ 13 ] Der Mensch weiß sich in einer Wirklichkeit, wenn er der physischen Sonne gegenübersteht und durch sie Wärme und Licht empfängt.
[ 14 ] So muß er der geistigen Sonne, Christus, die ihr Dasein mit dem Erdendasein vereint hat, gegenüber leben und von ihr in der Seele das lebendig empfangen, was in der geistigen Welt der Wärme und dem Licht entspricht.
[ 15 ] Er wird sich von der «geistigen Wärme» durchdrungen fühlen, wenn er den «Christus in sich» erlebt. Er wird sich in dieser Durchdringung erfühlend sagen: diese Wärme löst dein menschliches Wesen aus Banden des Kosmos, in denen es nicht bleiben darf. Das göttlich-geistige Sein der Urzeit mußte dich zur Erringung der Freiheit in Regionen führen, in denen es nicht bei dir bleiben konnte, in denen es aber dir den Christus gegeben hat, daß seine Kräfte dir als freiem Menschen verleihen, was das göttlich-geistige Sein der Urzeit dir einstmals auf dem Naturwege gegeben hat, der damals zugleich der Geistesweg war. Zu dem Göttlichen, aus dem du stammest, führt dich diese Wärme wieder zurück.
[ 16 ] Und in diesem Erfühlen wird im Menschen in inniger Seelenwärme zusammenwachsen das Erleben in und mit dem Christus und das Erleben echten und wahren Menschentums. «Christus gibt mir mein Menschenwesen», das wird als Grundgefühl die Seele durchwehen und durchwellen. Und ist erst dieses Gefühl vorhanden, so kommt auch das andere, in dem der Mensch durch Christus sich hinausgehoben fühlt über das bloße Erdensein, indem er sich mit der Sternen-Umgebung der Erde eins fühlt und mit allem, was in dieser Sternen-Umgebung zu erkennen ist als Göttlich-Geistiges.
[ 17 ] Und so mit dem geistigen Lichte. Der Mensch kann sich in seiner Menschenwesenheit voll erfühlen, indem er sich als freie Individualität gewahr wird. Aber eine Verfinsterung ist damit doch verbunden. Das Göttlich-Geistige der Urzeit leuchtet nicht mehr. Im Lichte, das der Christus dem Menschen-Ich bringt, ist das Urlicht wieder da. Es kann in solchem Zusammenleben mit dem Christus der beseligende Gedanke sonnenhaft die ganze Seele durchglänzen: Das uralt-herrliche göttliche Licht ist wieder da; es leuchtet, obwohl sein Leuchten kein naturhaftes ist. Und der Mensch vereinigt sich in der Gegenwart mit den geistigen kosmischen Leuchtekräften der Vergangenheit, in der er noch nicht eine freie Individualität war. Und er kann in diesem Lichte die Wege finden, die seine Menschen Wesenheit recht führen, wenn er sich verständnisvoll in seiner Seele mit der Michael-Mission verbindet.
[ 18 ] Dann wird der Mensch in der Geist-Wärme den Impuls fühlen, der ihn in seine kosmische Zukunft so hinüberträgt, daß er in dieser treu bleiben kann den Ur-Gaben seiner göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten, trotzdem er sich in deren Welten zur freien Individualität entwickelt hat. Und er wird in dem Geistes-Lichte die Kraft empfinden, die ihn wahrnehmend mit immer höherem und weiterem Bewußtsein der Welt zuführt, in der er sich als freier Mensch mit den Göttern seines Ursprungs wiederfindet.
[ 19 ] In dem ursprünglichen Sein verharren, die ursprüngliche naive, im Menschen waltende Götter-Güte beibehalten wollen und vor dem vollen Gebrauche der Freiheit zurückbeben, führt den Menschen in dieser Welt der Gegenwart, in der alles auf die Entwickelung seiner Freiheit veranlagt ist, doch zu Luzifer, der die gegenwärtige Welt verleugnet wissen will.
[ 20 ] Sich dem gegenwärtigen Sein übergeben, die jetzt dem Intellekt erreichbare Welten-Natürlichkeit, die gegen Güte sich neutral verhält, allein walten lassen wollen und den Gebrauch der Freiheit nur im Intellekt erleben wollen, das führt den Menschen in dieser Welt der Gegenwart, in der die Entwickelung in tieferen Seelenregionen fortgesetzt werden muß, da in oberen Freiheit waltet, doch zu Ahriman, der die gegenwärtige Welt ganz in einen Kosmos des intellektuellen Wesens umgewandelt wissen will.
[ 21 ] In solchen Regionen, in denen der Mensch den Blick nach der Außenwelt geistig auf Michael, den Blick nach dem Inneren der Seele geistig auf Christus fallen fühlt, gedeiht jene Seelen- und Geistes-Sicherheit, durch die er denjenigen kosmischen Weg zu gehen vermögen wird, auf dem er ohne Verlust seines Ursprungs seine rechte Zukunfts-Vollendung finden wird.
Goetheanum, 9. November 1924.Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden (Mit Bezug auf die vorangehende Darstellung des Michael- und Christus-Erlebnisses durch den Menschen)
[ 22 ] 118. Eine freie Handlung kann nur diejenige sein, bei der kein Naturgeschehen in oder außer dem Menschen mitwirkt.
[ 23 ] 119. Dem steht als der polarische Gegensatz gegenüber, daß im freien Wirken der Menschen-Individualität in dieser ein Naturgeschehen unterdrückt wird, das bei unfreiem Handeln da wäre und dem Menschenwesen seine ihm kosmisch vorbestimmte Gestaltung gäbe.
[ 24 ] 120. Diese Gestaltung, die dem Menschen, der in seinem Wesen mit dem gegenwärtigen und zukünftigen Welten-Entwickelungs-Stadium mitlebt, nicht auf naturgemäßem Wege zukommt, kommt ihm auf geistgemäßem zu durch das Sich-Verbinden mit Michael, wodurch er auch den Weg zu Christus findet.
Michael's mission in the world age of human freedom
[ 1 ] If one approaches Michael's work in the present with spiritual experience, one finds the possibility of gaining spiritual scientific insight into the cosmic essence of freedom.
[ 2 ] This does not refer to my "philosophy of freedom". This emerges from the purely human powers of cognition themselves, if these can enter the field of the spirit. In order to recognize what is recognized here, it is not yet necessary to merge with beings from other worlds. However, one can say that the "philosophy of freedom" prepares us to recognize through freedom what can then be experienced in spiritual union with Michael.
[ 3 ] And that is the following.
[ 4 ] If freedom is really to live in human action, then what is accomplished in its light must not be dependent in any way on the human physical and ethereal organization. The "free" can only take place out of the "I"; and the astral body must be able to resonate with the free activity of the "I" so that it can transfer it to the physical and etheric body. -But this is only one side of the matter. The other becomes clear in connection with Michael's mission. - What is experienced by man in freedom must not affect his etheric or physical body in any way. If this were to happen, man would have to emerge completely from what he has become in the stages of his development under the influence of the divine-spiritual beingness and the divine-spiritual revelation.
[ 5 ] What man experiences through that which is only divine-spiritual work in his environment may only have an influence on his spiritual (his I). Only that which continues in the current of development not in its environment but within its beingness itself from that which had its beginning in the beingness and revelation of the divine-spiritual can have an influence on its physical and etheric organization. This, however, must not interact in the human being with that which lives in the element of freedom.
[ 6 ] This is only possible because Michael carries over from the distant past of development something that gives man a connection with the divine-spiritual, which in the present no longer intervenes in the physical and etheric formation. In this way, within Michael's mission, the ground develops for an intercourse of man with the spiritual world that does not reach over into the natural at all.
[ 7 ] It is uplifting to see how, through Michael, man's essence is lifted up into the spiritual sphere, while the unconscious, the subconscious, which unfold under the sphere of freedom, grow ever deeper together with the material.
[ 8 ] Man's position in relation to the world being will continue to become more and more incomprehensible to him if he does not allow himself to recognize not only his relationship to natural beings and natural processes but also such relationships as that to the Michael mission. - One gets to know the relationships to nature like something that one looks at from the outside; those to the spiritual world proceed from something that is, so to speak, an inner conversation with a being, to which one has opened access by entering into the spiritual view of the world.
[ 9 ] In order to be able to live the impulses of freedom, man must therefore be able to keep away from this being certain effects of nature that have an impact on his being from within the cosmos. This keeping away takes place in the subconscious mind when the forces are at work in the conscious mind which represent the life of the ego in freedom. For the human inner perception, the consciousness of working in freedom is there; for the spiritual beings who are in contact with man from other spheres of the world, it is different. The being from the Hierarchy of the Angeloi, who has to do with the continuation of the human being from earth life to earth life, immediately becomes aware of this in relation to human action in freedom: man pushes away from himself cosmic forces that want to further educate him, that want to give his ego organization the necessary physical supports, as they gave it before the Michael Age.
[ 10 ] Michael, as a being from the hierarchy of the Archangeloi, receives his impressions with the help of the beings from the Angeloi hierarchy. He dedicates himself to the task of supplying man with powers from the spiritual part of the cosmos in the manner described here, which can replace those suppressed from the natural existence.
[ 11 ] He achieves this by bringing his effectiveness into the most perfect harmony with the Mystery of Golgotha.
[ 12 ] In the activity of the Christ within the earthly development lie the forces which man needs in working through freedom to balance suppressed natural impulses. - But man must then really bring his soul into the inner coexistence with Christ, of which we have already spoken here in these messages about the Michael mission.
[ 13 ] The human being knows himself in a reality when he faces the physical sun and receives warmth and light through it.
[ 14 ] So he must live facing the spiritual sun, Christ, which has united its existence with earthly existence, and receive from it alive in the soul that which corresponds to warmth and light in the spiritual world.
[ 15 ] He will feel permeated by the "spiritual warmth" when he experiences the "Christ in himself". Feeling this penetration, he will say to himself: this warmth releases your human being from the bonds of the cosmos in which it is not allowed to remain. The divine-spiritual being of primeval times had to lead you to the attainment of freedom in regions in which it could not remain with you, but in which it gave you the Christ, that its powers bestow on you as a free human being what the divine-spiritual being of primeval times once gave you on the path of nature, which at that time was also the spiritual path. This warmth leads you back to the divine from which you originated.
[ 16 ] And in this feeling, the experience in and with Christ and the experience of genuine and true humanity will grow together in the human being in an intimate warmth of soul. "Christ gives me my humanity", this will blow through the soul as a basic feeling. And once this feeling is present, then comes the other, in which the human being feels lifted above mere earthly existence through Christ, in that he feels at one with the starry environment of the earth and with everything that can be recognized in this starry environment as divine-spiritual.
[ 17 ] And so with the spiritual light. Man can fully feel himself in his human nature by becoming aware of himself as a free individuality. But a darkening is connected with this. The divine-spiritual of primeval times no longer shines. In the light that the Christ brings to the human ego, the primal light is there again. In such a life together with the Christ, the blissful thought can shine through the whole soul like the sun: The ancient-glorious divine light is there again; it shines, although its glow is not a natural one. And man unites himself in the present with the spiritual cosmic luminous forces of the past, in which he was not yet a free individuality. And in this light he can find the paths that lead his human being right, if he connects himself understandingly in his soul with the Michael mission.
[ 18 ] Then the human being will feel the impulse in the spirit-warmth that carries him over into his cosmic future in such a way that he can remain faithful to the original gifts of his divine-spiritual entities, even though he has developed into a free individuality in their worlds. And in the spiritual light he will feel the power which, perceiving, leads him with ever higher and wider consciousness to the world in which he finds himself as a free human being with the gods of his origin.
[ 19 ] To persist in the original being, to want to retain the original naive goodness of the gods reigning in man and to tremble back before the full use of freedom, leads man in this world of the present, in which everything is predisposed to the development of his freedom, yet to Lucifer, who wants to know the present world denied.
[ 20 ] To surrender to the present being, to allow the naturalness of the world that is now accessible to the intellect, which is neutral towards goodness, to reign alone and to experience the use of freedom only in the intellect, that leads man in this world of the present, in which the development must be continued in deeper regions of the soul, where freedom reigns in the upper regions, to Ahriman, who wants the present world to be completely transformed into a cosmos of the intellectual being.
[ 21 ] In such regions, in which man feels his gaze towards the outer world falling spiritually on Michael, his gaze towards the inner soul spiritually on Christ, that security of soul and spirit thrives through which he will be able to walk that cosmic path on which he will find his right future perfection without losing his origin.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (with reference to the preceding presentation of the Michael and Christ experience through man)
[ 22 ] 118. A free action can only be that in which no natural event in or outside the human being is involved.
[ 23 ] 119 The polar opposite to this is that in the free action of human individuality, a natural event is suppressed in it, which would be there in the case of unfree action and would give the human being its cosmically predetermined form.
[ 24 ] 120. This formation, which does not come to man, who in his being lives together with the present and future stage of world development, in a natural way, comes to him in a spiritual way through connecting with Michael, through which he also finds the way to Christ.