Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
7. The Michael-Christ-Experience of Man
[ 1 ] When with deep and earnest feeling a human being takes the inner vision of Michael's being and his deeds into his outlook on life, there will dawn upon him the true understanding of the way in which this world is to be taken by man—this world which is neither the Divine Being, nor the Manifestation, nor Active Working, but the Accomplished Work of the Gods. To look with knowledge into this world is to have before us forms and formations which speak aloud of the Divine; in which, however—if we are under no illusion about it—independent, living, Divine Being cannot be found. Nor must we consider merely our knowledge of the world. It is true that with respect to knowledge this configuration of the world, as it surrounds man at the present day, is revealed most strikingly. But more essential for everyday life is our feeling, our willing and work in a world which—though in its formation we may well feel it to be Divine—cannot really be experienced as actively imbued with Divine life. In order to bring real moral life into such a world, the ethical impulses I have described in my book Philosophy of Freedom are necessary.
[ 2 ] For the man who feels truly, Michael's Being and his present world of deeds can shine forth in this world of the Divine accomplished work. Michael does not enter into the physical world as a phenomenal appearance. He keeps himself with all his activity within a supersensible region—albeit one which borders directly upon the physical world of the present phase of world-evolution. Thus it can never happen that men's view of Nature will be led away into the fantastic through the impressions they receive from the Being of Michael; nor will they be inclined thereby to shape their ethical and practical life in this world—Divine as it is in its form, but void of Divine life—as if impulses could be there in it which did not require to be sustained, ethically and spiritually, by man himself. If we transplant ourselves into the Spiritual, be it in thinking or in willing, we shall always be obliged to approach Michael.
[ 3 ] We shall thereby live spiritually in the following way. We shall accept both our knowledge and our life in the manner in which we are obliged to accept them since the fifteenth century. But we shall hold fast to Michael's revelation. We shall let this revelation shine like a light into the thoughts we receive from Nature; we shall carry it as warmth in our hearts when we have to live in accordance with a world which is the accomplished work of the Divine. We shall then place before us not only the observation and experience of the present world but also that which Michael makes possible for us, namely a past condition of the world—one which Michael, through his Being and his deeds, brings into the present.
[ 4 ] If it were otherwise—if Michael were to work in such a manner that he carried his deeds into the world which at the present time man must know and experience as the physical—man would now learn of the world, not that which in reality is in it but that which was in it. This illusory conception of the world, when it takes place, leads the human soul away from the reality that is suited to it and into another—into a Luciferic one.
[ 5 ] The manner in which Michael brings the past into activity in present human life is the one which is in accordance with the true spiritual progress of the world and contains nothing Luciferic. It is important that in the human mind there should be a correct idea of the way in which, in Michael's mission, everything Luciferic is avoided.
[ 6 ] To have this attitude towards the light of Michael which is dawning in human history means at the same time to be able to find the right way to Christ.
[ 7 ] Michael will point out the right road with respect to the world which lies about man, for him to know and be active in it. The way to Christ will have to be found within.
[ 8 ] It is quite comprehensible that, during the period in which the knowledge of Nature has the form given to it by the last five centuries, the knowledge of the supersensible world should also have become such as humanity now experiences.
[ 9 ] Nature has to be known and experienced in such a manner that the Gods are nowhere in it. In consequence of this, man in this form of his relation to the world, experiences himself no longer. Inasmuch as he is a supersensible being, the position of his Self with respect to Nature which is in accordance with this age yields him nothing at all regarding his own being. Nor, if he has this position alone in view, can he live ethically in a manner in keeping with his true humanity.
[ 10 ] Naturally, this causes people to prevent the modern way of knowledge and of life from entering into anything that relates to the supersensible nature of man, nay to the supersensible world at all. They separate this latter realm from anything accessible to human knowledge. A sphere of Revelation by Faith, apart from science or above it, is set up in contradistinction to the sphere of what is knowable.
[ 11 ] But over against this there stands the purely spiritual activity of Christ, who since the Mystery of Golgotha can be reached by the human soul. The soul's relation to Christ need not remain indefinite or dimly mystical in feeling; it can become one that is quite concrete, humanly deep and clearly experienced.
[ 12 ] Then, from the life together with Christ, there flows into the human soul what it ought to know regarding its own supersensible being. The religious revelation must then be felt in such a manner that the living experience of Christ continually streams into it. It will become possible for life to be filled with Christ, through Christ being perceived as the Being who gives to the human soul the knowledge of its own supersensible nature.
[ 13 ] Thus the Michael experience and the Christ experience will in the future be able to stand side by side. Through Michael man will find the path into the supersensible world in the right way with respect to the outer world of Nature. Our view of Nature, without being falsified in itself, will then be able to stand by the side of a spiritual view of the world and of man inasmuch as he is a cosmic being.
[ 14 ] Through his true attitude to Christ man will be able, in the active intercourse of his soul with Christ, to experience what he could otherwise only receive as a traditional revelation by faith. He will be able to experience the inner world of the soul's life as one that is shone through by the Spirit; and he will also experience the outer world of Nature as one that is upborne by the Spirit.
[ 15 ] If man were to gain information about his own supersensible nature without his life in union with Christ, this would lead him out of his own reality and into that of Ahriman. Christ bears within Himself, in a manner true to the whole Cosmos, the impulses for the future of humanity. To unite with Christ signifies for the human soul to receive into itself, in a manner true to the Cosmos, its own seeds for the future. Other beings who already at the present time manifest forms which will be cosmically right for man only in the future, belong to the Ahrimanic sphere. To unite ourselves with Christ in the right way is also to preserve ourselves in the right way from the Ahrimanic.
[ 16 ] Those who strictly demand that the revelations of religious faith shall be preserved from the invasions of human knowledge are unconsciously afraid that by such ways as this man might come under Ahrimanic influences. This fact must be appreciated. But it should also be appreciated that it is to the honour and true recognition of Christ when that gift of grace, which is the inflowing of the Spiritual into the human soul, is ascribed to the living experience with Him.
[ 17 ] Thus in the future the Michael experience and the Christ experience can stand side by side; man will thereby find his right path of freedom between the Luciferic deviation into illusions in thought and life, and the Ahrimanic allurement into forms of the future which may satisfy his pride but cannot as yet be his present forms.
[ 18 ] To fall into Luciferic illusions means not to become fully Man—not to wish to progress to the stage of spiritual freedom but to wish to halt, as God-Man, at a premature stage of evolution. To succumb to Ahrimanic temptations means not to be willing to wait until at a certain stage of human development the right cosmic moment will have come, but to wish to forestall this stage.
[ 19 ] Michael-Christ will stand in future as the guiding word at the entrance to the path upon which man may arrive at his world-goal, in a way that is cosmically right, between the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic powers.
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (with reference to the preceding study)
[ 20 ] 115. Man goes on his way through the Cosmos in such manner that his looking back into past ages can be falsified by the impulses of Lucifer, and his thinking into the future deceived by the allurements of Ahriman.
[ 21 ] 116. To the falsifying influences of Lucifer he finds the right relation when he imbues his attitude to life and knowledge with the Being and the Mission of Michael.
[ 22 ] 117. Moreover, in so doing he provides against the allurements of Ahriman. For the path of the Spirit into external Nature, which Michael inspires, leads to a right relation to the domain of Ahriman, inasmuch as a true and living experience with Christ is also found thereby.
Das Michael-Christus-Erlebnis des Menschen
[ 1 ] Wer die von gründlicher Empfindung getragene innere Anschauung von Michaels Wesen und Taten in seine Gesinnung aufnehmen wird, dem wird das rechte Verständnis davon aufgehen, wie eine Welt von dem Menschen zu nehmen ist, die nicht göttlicher Wesenheit oder Offenbarung oder Wirksamkeit, sondern der Götter Werk ist. In diese Welt erkennend blicken, bedeutet Formen, Gestaltungen vor sich haben, die überall laut von dem Göttlichen sprechen; in denen aber selbstlebendes göttliches Sein nicht gefunden wird, wenn man sich keiner Illusion hingibt. Und man wird nicht bloß auf das Erkennen der Welt blicken dürfen. An diesem offenbart sich wohl die Konfiguration der Welt, die heute den Menschen umgibt, am deutlichsten. Wesentlicher für das alltägliche Leben ist aber das Fühlen, das Wollen, das Arbeiten in einer Welt, die in ihrer Gestaltung wohl als göttlich empfunden, aber nicht als göttlichbelebt erfahren werden kann. In diese Welt wirkliches sittliches Leben zu bringen, dazu sind die ethischen Impulse notwendig, die ich in der «Philosophie der Freiheit» gezeichnet habe.
[ 2 ] In dieser Werk-Welt kann für den echt fühlenden Menschen Michaels Wesen und gegenwärtige Tatenwelt leuchten. Michael kommt als Erscheinung nicht in die physische Welt herein. Er hält sich mit all seinem Wirken innerhalb einer übersinnlichen Region, die aber unmittelbar an die physische Welt der gegenwärtigen Weltentwickelungsphase angrenzt. Dadurch kann nie die Möglichkeit eintreten, daß durch die Eindrücke, die Menschen vom Michaels-Wesen her erhalten, sie die Naturanschauung ins Phantastische führen oder das sittlich-praktische Leben in einer gottgestalteten, aber gottunbelebten Welt so bilden möchten, wie wenn Impulse da sein könnten, die nicht von dem Menschen selbst ethisch-geistig getragen sein müßten. Man wird stets, ob denkend oder wollend, durch ein Sich-Versetzen ins Geistige an Michael herankommen müssen.
[ 3 ] Dadurch wird man in der folgenden Art geistig leben. Man wird Erkennen und Leben so hinnehmen, wie sie nun einmal seit dem fünfzehnten Jahrhundert hingenommen werden müssen. - Aber man wird sich an die Michael-Offenbarung halten; man wird diese Offenbarung als ein Licht in die Gedanken leuchten lassen, die man aus der Natur empfängt; man wird sie als Wärme im Herzen tragen, wenn man der göttlichen Werk-Welt gemäß leben muß. - Man wird sich dann nicht nur Beobachtung und Erleben der gegenwärtigen Welt, sondern auch dasjenige, was Michael vermittelt, einen vergangenen Weltzustand, vor Augen stellen, einen Weltzustand, den eben Michael durch sein Wesen und seine Taten in die Gegenwart hereinträgt.
[ 4 ] Wäre es anders: wirkte Michael so, daß er seine Taten hereintrüge in die Welt, die der Mensch gegenwärtig als physische erkennen und erleben muß, so erführe der Mensch in der Gegenwart aus der Welt das, was in Wirklichkeit nicht in ihr ist, sondern war. Geschieht solches, dann führt dies illusorische Erfassen der Welt die Seele des Menschen aus der ihr angemessenen Wirklichkeit in eine andere, nämlich in eine luziferische.
[ 5 ] Die Art, wie Michael das Vergangene im gegenwärtigen Menschenleben zur Wirksamkeit bringt, ist die im Sinne des rechten geistigen Weltenfortschritts gehaltene, die nichts Luziferisches enthält. Es ist wichtig, daß in der Auffassung der Menschenseele eine rechte Vorstellung davon lebe, wie in Michaels Mission alles Luziferische vermieden wird.
[ 6 ] Diese Stellung zu dem in der Menschheitsgeschichte aufgehenden Michaels-Lichte haben, heißt auch den rechten Weg zu Christus finden können.
[ 7 ] Michael wird die rechte Orientierung geben, wenn es sich um die Welt handelt, die den Menschen für sein Erkennen oder für sein Handeln umgibt. Zu Christus wird man im Innern den Weg finden müssen.
[ 8 ] Es ist durchaus begreiflich, daß in der Zeit, in der die Naturerkenntnis die Form hat, die ihr die letzten fünf Jahrhunderte gegeben haben, auch die Erkenntnis der übersinnlichen Welt so geworden ist, wie sie gegenwärtig die Menschheit erlebt.
[ 9 ] Die Natur muß erkannt und erlebt werden so, daß alles götterleer ist. Dadurch erlebt sich in seinem so gestalteten Verhältnis zur Welt der Mensch selbst nicht mehr. Insofern der Mensch ein übersinnliches Wesen ist, gibt ihm die dem Zeitalter angemessene Stellung seiner selbst zur Natur nichts über sein eigenes Wesen. Er kann auch, wenn er nur diese Stellung im Auge hat, nicht ethisch so leben, wie es seiner Menschheit angemessen ist.
[ 10 ] Dadurch wird die Veranlassung dazu gegeben, diese Erkenntnis- und Lebensart in nichts einfließen zu lassen, was sich auf die übersinnliche Menschenwesenheit, ja auf die übersinnliche Welt überhaupt bezieht. Es wird dieses Gebiet abgesondert von dem der menschlichen Erkenntnis Erreichbaren. Es wird ein außer- oder überwissenschaftliches Gebiet der Glaubens-Offenbarung gegenüber dem Erkennbaren in Anspruch genommen.
[ 11 ] Aber dem steht das rein geistige Wirken des Christus gegenüber. Der Christus ist seit dem Mysterium von Golgatha der Menschenseele erreichbar. Und deren Beziehung zu ihm braucht nicht eine unbestimmte, dunkel-gefühls-mystische zu bleiben; sie kann eine völlig konkrete, menschlich tief und klar zu erlebende werden.
[ 12 ] Dann aber strömt aus dem Zusammenleben mit Christus in die Menschenseele herüber, was diese wissen soll über ihre eigene übersinnliche Wesenheit. Die Glaubens-Offenbarung muß dann so empfunden werden, daß in sie die lebendige Christus-Erfahrung fortwährend einströmt. Es wird das Leben dadurch durchchristet werden können, daß in Christus das Wesen empfunden wird, welches der Menschenseele die Anschauung ihrer eigenen Übersinnlichkeit gibt.
[ 13 ] So werden nebeneinanderstehen können: Michael-Erlebnis und Christus-Erlebnis. Durch Michael wird der Mensch gegenüber der äußeren Natur in der rechten Art ins Übersinnliche den Weg finden. Naturanschauung wird, ohne in sich selbst verfälscht zu werden, sich neben eine geistgemäße Anschauung von der Welt und vom Menschen, sofern er ein Weltwesen ist, hinstellen können.
[ 14 ] Durch die rechte Stellung zu Christus wird der Mensch dasjenige, was er sonst nur als traditionelle Glaubens-Offenbarung empfangen könnte, im lebendigen Verkehr der Seele mit Christus erfahren. Die innere Welt des seelischen Erlebens wird als eine geistdurchleuchtete erlebt werden können wie die äußere Welt der Natur als eine geistgetragene.
[ 15 ] Würde der Mensch ohne in dem Zusammenleben mit der Christus-Wesenheit den Aufschluß gewinnen wollen über seine eigene übersinnliche Wesenheit, so würde ihn dies aus seiner eigenen Wirklichkeit heraus- und in die ahrimanische hineinführen. Christus trägt in sich in kosmisch gerechtfertigter Art die Zukunftsimpulse der Menschheit. Sich mit ihm verbinden, heißt für die Menschenseele ihre eigenen Zukunftskeime kosmisch gerechtfertigt in sich aufnehmen. Andere Wesen, die in der Gegenwart schon Gestaltungen aufweisen, die kosmisch für Menschen erst in der Zukunft gerechtfertigt sind, gehören der ahrimanischen Sphäre an. Sich mit Christus in rechter Art verbinden, heißt sich auch vor dem Ahrimanischen in der rechten Art bewahren.
[ 16 ] Es liegt bei denjenigen, welche die Bewahrung der Glaubens-Offenbarungen vor dem Einfließen menschlicher Erkenntnis streng verlangen, die unbewußte Furcht vor, der Mensch könne auf solchen Wegen in ahrimanische Einflüsse hineinkommen. Das muß verstanden werden. Aber verstanden sollte auch werden, daß es zur Ehre und wirklichen Anerkenntnis Christi ist, wenn dem Erleben mit Christus das gnadeerfüllte Einfließen des Geistigen in die Menschenseele zugeschrieben wird.
[ 17 ] So können in der Zukunft Michael-Erlebnis und Christus-Erlebnis nebeneinander stehen; dadurch wird der Mensch seinen rechten Freiheitsweg finden zwischen der luziferischen Abirrung in Denk- und Lebens-Illusionen und der ahrimanischen Verlockung in Zukunftgestaltungen, die seinen Hochmut befriedigen, die aber noch nicht seine gegenwärtigen sein können.
[ 18 ] In luziferische Illusionen verfallen, heißt nicht voll Mensch werden, nicht bis zur Freiheit-Etappe vorschreiten wollen, sondern auf einer zu frühen Stufe der Entwickelung - als Gott-Mensch - stehenbleiben wollen. In ahrimanische Verlockungen verfallen, heißt nicht warten wollen, bis bei einem bestimmten Grade des Menschtums der rechte kosmische Augenblick gekommen ist, sondern diesen Grad vorausnehmen wollen.
[ 19 ] Michael-Christus wird in der Zukunft als das Richtungs-Wort stehen im Beginne des Weges, auf dem der Mensch kosmisch-gerecht zwischen den luziferischen und den ahrimanischen Mächten zu seinem Welten-Ziele kommen kann.
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)
[ 20 ] 115. Der Mensch wandelt seinen Weg durch den Kosmos so, daß ihm die Rückschau in die Vorwelt gefälscht werden kann durch luziferische Impulse und das Vorwärtssinnen in die Zukunft getäuscht werden kann durch ahrimanische Verlockungen.
[ 21 ] 116. Zu den luziferischen Fälschungen findet der Mensch die rechte Stellung durch die Durchdringung seiner Gesinnung für Erkenntnis und Leben mit der Michael-Wesenheit und der Michael-Mission.
[ 22 ] 117. Dadurch aber bewahrt sich der Mensch auch vor den ahrimanischen Verlockungen, denn der Geist-Weg in die äußere Natur, der durch Michael angeregt wird, führt zu der rechten Stellung zu dem Ahrimanischen, weil das rechte Erleben mit Christus gefunden wird.
The Michael-Christ experience of man
[ 1 ] Whoever will take into his mind the inner view of Michael's nature and deeds, borne by thorough perception, will come to the right understanding of how a world is to be taken by man, which is not of divine essence or revelation or efficacy, but the work of the gods. To look into this world with recognition means to have forms, shapes before you which everywhere speak loudly of the divine; but in which self-living divine being is not found if you do not indulge in any illusion. And one must not merely look at the recognition of the world. This is probably where the configuration of the world that surrounds people today is revealed most clearly. More essential for everyday life, however, is feeling, willing and working in a world that can be perceived as divine in its design, but cannot be experienced as divinely animated. Bringing real moral life into this world requires the ethical impulses that I have outlined in the "Philosophy of Freedom".
[ 2 ] In this world of works, Michael's essence and present world of deeds can shine for the genuinely sentient human being. Michael does not enter the physical world as an apparition. With all his activity he remains within a supersensible region which, however, is directly adjacent to the physical world of the present phase of world development. Thus the possibility can never arise that through the impressions which men receive from the Michael-being, they might lead their view of nature into the fantastic, or that they might form the moral-practical life in a world shaped by God, but not animated by God, as if impulses could be there which need not be carried ethically and spiritually by man himself. One will always have to approach Michael, whether thinking or willing, by placing oneself in the spiritual.
[ 3 ] Thus one will live spiritually in the following way. One will accept knowledge and life as they have had to be accepted since the fifteenth century. - But one will keep to the Michael revelation; one will let this revelation shine as a light into the thoughts one receives from nature; one will carry it as warmth in the heart when one must live according to the divine world of work. - One will then not only observe and experience the present world, but also visualize that which Michael conveys, a past world state, a world state which Michael brings into the present through his being and his deeds.
[ 4 ] If it were otherwise: if Michael worked in such a way that he brought his deeds into the world, which man must presently recognize and experience as physical, then man would experience in the present from the world that which in reality is not in it, but was. If this happens, then this illusory grasp of the world leads the soul of man from the reality that is appropriate to it into another, namely into a Luciferian one.
[ 5 ] The way in which Michael brings the past into effect in the present human life is that which is held in the sense of the right spiritual progress of the world, which contains nothing Luciferic. It is important that a correct conception of how everything Luciferic is avoided in Michael's mission lives in the conception of the human soul.
[ 6 ] Having this position in relation to the light of Michael rising in human history also means being able to find the right path to Christ.
[ 7 ] Michael will give the right orientation when it comes to the world that surrounds man for his cognition or for his actions. One will have to find the way to Christ within.
[ 8 ] It is quite understandable that in the time in which the knowledge of nature has the form that the last five centuries have given it, the knowledge of the supersensible world has also become as mankind is currently experiencing it.
[ 9 ] Nature must be recognized and experienced in such a way that everything is empty of gods. In this way, man no longer experiences himself in his relationship to the world. In so far as man is a supersensible being, the position of himself in relation to nature appropriate to the age gives him nothing about his own being. Even if he only has this position in mind, he cannot live ethically in a way that is appropriate to his humanity.
[ 10 ] This is the reason for not allowing this way of knowing and living to flow into anything that relates to the supersensible human being, indeed to the supersensible world in general. This area is separated from that which is accessible to human cognition. A non-scientific or superscientific area of the revelation of faith is claimed over the cognizable.
[ 11 ] But this is contrasted with the purely spiritual work of Christ. The Christ has been accessible to the human soul since the Mystery of Golgotha. And their relationship with him need not remain an indeterminate, darkly mystical one; it can become a completely concrete one that can be experienced deeply and clearly in human terms.
[ 12 ] But then what the human soul should know about its own supersensible being flows into it from its life together with Christ. The revelation of faith must then be felt in such a way that the living experience of Christ continually flows into it. Life will be able to be permeated by the fact that in Christ the being is felt which gives the human soul the view of its own supersensuousness.
[ 13 ] So it will be possible to stand side by side: Michael-experience and Christ-experience. Through Michael, man will find the right way into the supersensible in relation to external nature. The view of nature will, without being distorted in itself, be able to stand alongside a spiritual view of the world and of man, insofar as he is a world being.
[ 14 ] Through the right attitude towards Christ, man will experience that which he could otherwise only receive as a traditional revelation of faith in the living communication of the soul with Christ. The inner world of the soul's experience will be experienced as spiritually illuminated, just as the outer world of nature can be experienced as spirit-bearing.
[ 15 ] If the human being were to want to gain insight into his own supersensible entity without living together with the Christ entity, this would lead him out of his own reality and into the ahrimanic one. Christ carries within himself the future impulses of humanity in a cosmically justified way. For the human soul to unite with him means to absorb its own future germs in a cosmically justified way. Other beings, who already show forms in the present that are cosmically justified for human beings only in the future, belong to the ahrimanic sphere. Connecting with Christ in the right way also means protecting oneself from the ahrimanic in the right way.
[ 16 ] There is an unconscious fear among those who strictly demand the preservation of the revelations of faith from the influx of human knowledge that man could enter into ahrimanic influences in such ways. This must be understood. But it should also be understood that it is to the glory and true acknowledgement of Christ when the grace-filled influx of the spiritual into the human soul is attributed to the experience with Christ.
[ 17 ] So in the future Michael-experience and Christ-experience can stand side by side; thereby man will find his right path of freedom between the Luciferic aberration in illusions of thought and life and the Ahrimanic allurement in future formations which satisfy his pride but which cannot yet be his present ones.
[ 18 ] To fall into Luciferic illusions is not to become fully human, not to want to progress to the stage of freedom, but to want to remain at too early a stage of development - as God-man. To fall into ahrimanic temptations is not to want to wait until the right cosmic moment has come at a certain degree of humanity, but to want to anticipate this degree.
[ 19 ] Michael-Christ will stand in the future as the word of direction at the beginning of the path on which man can reach his cosmic goal between the Luciferic and the Ahrimanic powers.
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)
[ 20 ] 115 Man walks his path through the cosmos in such a way that his retrospective view of the previous world can be falsified by Luciferic impulses and his forward thinking into the future can be deceived by Ahrimanic enticements.
[ 21 ] 116. man finds the right position to the Luciferic falsifications through the penetration of his attitude for knowledge and life with the Michael entity and the Michael mission.
[ 22 ] 117. In this way, however, man also protects himself from the Ahrimanic temptations, because the spirit-path into the outer nature, which is stimulated by Michael, leads to the right position towards the Ahrimanic, because the right experience with Christ is found.