Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts
GA 26
11. Second Study: How the Michael Forces Work in the Earliest Unfolding of the Spiritual Soul
[ 1 ] At the time when the Spiritual Soul was entering the evolution of mankind on Earth, it was difficult for the Beings of the spiritual world next to this earthly existence to approach mankind. The form assumed by earthly events at that time proves that very peculiar conditions were necessary in order to enable the Spirit to find its way into the physical life of mankind. But it shows another thing as well, and in a way that is often most illuminating. It shows how, at a point when the Powers of the past are still at work and those of the future already beginning their activity, one spiritual influence tries to find its way into the earthly life of mankind in vigorous opposition to another.
[ 2 ] Between 1339 and 1453 a chaotic, devastating war begins between France and England. It lasts for more than a hundred years. In the chaos of this war, which was due to a certain spiritual current unfavourable to the evolution of mankind, events which would otherwise have brought the Spiritual Soul into humanity more quickly were definitely hindered. Chaucer, who died in 1400, laid the foundations of English literature. We need only remember the great spiritual consequences which took their start in Europe from the founding of this literature, and we shall see the importance of the fact that such an event was not able to work itself out freely, but fell into the midst of the confusions of a prolonged war. Moreover, already in 1215 that way of political thought which can receive its true stamp and character through the Spiritual Soul had begun in England. The further evolution of this fact, too, fell into all the hindrances of war.
[ 3 ] This was a time when the spiritual forces, seeking to evolve man according to the potentialities laid in him from the very beginning by yet loftier Divine-Spiritual Powers, encountered their strong adversaries. These adversaries wish to divert man into channels other than those appointed for him from the beginning. If they were to succeed, man would not be able to apply the forces of his origin to his further evolution. His cosmic childhood would remain unfruitful for him. It would become a dying, withering part within his being. The consequence would be that man could then fall a prey to the Luciferic or Ahrimanic Powers and lose his own true and proper development. If the adversaries of mankind had succeeded in their efforts—if they had not only put hindrances in the way, but achieved complete success—the entry of the Spiritual Soul could have been prevented.
[ 4 ] An event which reveals the inpouring of the Spiritual into the earthly events in a most clear and radiant way is the appearance and subsequent history of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans (1412–1431). The impulses for what she does lie in the deep, subconscious foundations of her soul. She follows dim inspirations from the spiritual world. On the Earth there is confusion and disorder, through which the age of the Spiritual Soul is to be hindered. Michael has to prepare from the spiritual world his later mission; this he is able to do where his impulses are received into human souls. Such a soul lives in the Maid of Orleans. And Michael also worked through many other souls, although this was possible only in a minor degree and is less apparent in outer historical life. In events such as the war between England and France he met with opposition from his Ahrimanic adversary.
[ 5 ] In our last number we spoke of the Luciferic adversary Michael found at the same time. And indeed, this adversary is particularly apparent in the course of events following upon the appearance of the Maid of Orleans. From these events it may be seen that mankind no longer knew how to deal with an intervention of the spiritual world in the destiny of humanity, which could be understood and also received by men into the will as long as Imaginative understanding existed. The earlier attitude towards such intervention became impossible when the Intellectual Soul ceased to act; the attitude corresponding to the Spiritual Soul had not at that time been discovered; nor has it yet been achieved.
[ 6 ] Thus it came about that Europe was moulded from the spiritual world without men understanding what was happening, and without that which they were able to do having any appreciable influence on this process.
[ 7 ] The significance of this event, the determining causes of which lay in the spiritual world, will be perceived if one tries to imagine what would have happened in the fifteenth century had there been no Maid of Orleans. There are some who wish to explain this phenomenon materialistically. It is impossible to come to an understanding with such people because they arbitrarily interpret in the materialistic sense something that is obviously spiritual.
[ 8 ] In certain directions of spiritual striving, too, it may now be clearly seen that humanity can no longer find the way to the Divine-Spiritual without difficulty, even though men search with resolution. There are difficulties which did not exist in the age when insight could still be gained with the aid of Imaginations. In order to judge correctly what is here meant, all that is necessary is to see in a clear light those individuals who come forward as philosophical thinkers. A philosopher cannot be judged by his effect on his age alone, nor by observing how many people have accepted his ideas. He is rather the expression, the manifestation in person for his age. The philosopher presents in his ideas that which the greater part of humanity bears within it as its frame of mind, unconscious feelings and impulses of life. Like a thermometer which registers the degree of the surrounding warmth, he registers the mental condition of his age. The philosophers are no more the causes of the psychology of their age than the thermometer is the cause of the surrounding temperature.
[ 9 ] Consider, from this point of view, the philosopher René Descartes, who worked when the age of the Spiritual Soul had already commenced. (He lived from 1596 to 1650.) The slender support for his connection with the spirit-world (the world of true being) is the experience ‘I think, therefore I am.’ In the centre of self-consciousness, in the ‘I,’ he tries to feel reality; and indeed, only so much as the Spiritual Soul can tell him.
[ 10 ] And he endeavours intellectually to understand the rest of the Spiritual by inquiring what guarantee the certainty of his own self-consciousness gives for the certainty of anything else. Regarding the truths handed on to him historically he always inquires: Are they as clear as the ‘I think, therefore I am’? And if he can answer this in the affirmative he accepts them.
[ 11 ] In this kind of human thought is not the Spirit eliminated from all observation that is directed towards the things in the world? The manifestation of the Spirit has withdrawn to the pin-point support in self-consciousness; all else, as it shows itself directly, is void of any revelation of the Spirit. Only indirectly, by the intellect in the Spiritual Soul, can the light of this spirit-revelation be thrown on that which lies outside self-consciousness. [ 12 ] The man of this age allows the content of his Spiritual Soul, which is as yet almost empty, to stream towards the spiritual world with intense longing. A tiny ray goes thither.
[ 13 ] The beings in the Spirit-world immediately bordering upon the Earth-world, and the human souls on Earth, come to one another with difficulty. Michael's supersensible preparation for his later Mission is also experienced by the human soul only under the greatest hindrances.
[ 14 ] In order to grasp the essential nature of the frame of mind expressed in Descartes, compare this philosopher with St. Augustine, who, in the outer formulation of it, sets up for the experience of the spiritual world the same support as Descartes. But in St. Augustine it takes place out of the full force of the Intellectual or Mind-Soul. St. Augustine (354 - 430) is justly found to be related to Descartes, but his intellect is still the remnant of what is cosmic, whereas that of Descartes is the intellect that is already entering the individual human soul. In the progress of spiritual striving from St. Augustine to Descartes it may be seen how the cosmic character of the power of thought is lost and how it then reappears in the human soul. But it can also be seen at the same time with what difficulty Michael and the human soul come together so that Michael may lead in man what he once led in the Cosmos.
[ 15 ] The Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces are at work to prevent this union. The Luciferic forces want man to unfold only that which was proper to him during his cosmic childhood; the Ahrimanic forces, which are opposed to the Luciferic and yet co-operate with them, would like to develop only those forces which were gained in later ages of the world, and so let the cosmic childhood of man wither away.
[ 16 ] Under increased resistances such as these, the human souls in Europe digested the spiritual impulses contained in old world-conceptions which had streamed from the East to the West through the Crusades. The Michael-forces lived very strongly in these conceptions. The Cosmic Intelligence, the rulership of which was the ancient spiritual heritage of Michael, was dominant in these old world-conceptions.
[ 17 ] How could they be received, seeing that there was a chasm between the forces of the spirit-world and the human souls? These forces came to the Spiritual Soul which was only just beginning to evolve. On one side they met with the hindrance given in the Spiritual Soul itself which was still but little developed. And on the other they no longer found a consciousness supported by Imagination. The human soul could not with full insight unite them with itself. They were accepted either quite superficially or superstitiously.
[ 18 ] We have to pay attention to this frame of mind if we wish to understand the movements of thought connected on the one hand with the names of Wycliffe, Huss and others, and on the other with the name of ‘Rosicrucianism.’
Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (in connection with the foregoing Second Study of the Michael Forces in the earliest Unfolding of the Spiritual Soul)
[ 19 ] 127. At the beginning of the Age of Consciousness, man evolved the intellectual forces of his soul only to a small extent as yet. Hence there arose a gap between what the soul of man in unconscious depths was longing for, and what the forces from the region of Michael's abode could give him.
[ 20 ] 128. Owing to this gap, there was a greater possibility for the Luciferic powers to hold man back in the forces of cosmic childhood, thus bringing about his further evolution, not on the paths of the Divine-Spiritual Powers with whom he was united from the beginning, but on the paths of Lucifer.
[ 21 ] 129. Moreover there was a greater possibility for the powers of Ahriman to wrest man away from the forces of his cosmic childhood, thus dragging him down, for his further evolution, into their own domain.
[ 22 ] 130. Neither of these dangers was realised, for the forces of Michael were after all at work. But the spiritual evolution of mankind had to take place under the resulting hindrances, and it was thus that it became what it has, in fact, hitherto become.
Zweite Betrachtung: Wie die Michael-Kräfte in die erste Entfaltung der Bewußtseinsseele wirken
[ 1 ] In der Zeit während des Einschlages der Bewußtseinsseele in die Erdenentwickelung der Menschheit war es für die Wesen der dem Erdendasein nächsten geistigen Welt schwierig, an die Menschheit heranzukommen. Die Erdenereignisse nehmen eine Form an, die zeigt, daß Verhältnisse ganz besonderer Art notwendig sind, um dem Geistigen den Weg in das physische Leben der Menschheit möglich zu machen. Aber es zeigt andererseits diese Form auch wieder in oftmals klärendster Art, wie das eine Geistige da, wo die Mächte der Vergangenheit noch wirken und die Mächte der Zukunft schon zu wirken beginnen, sich energisch gegen ein anderes Geistiges seinen Weg in das Erdenleben der Menschheit sucht.
[ 2 ] Da entwickelt sich zwischen 1339 und 1453 ein mehr als hundertjähriger verwirrender Krieg zwischen Frankreich und England. In dieser von einer gewissen, der Menschenentfaltung ungünstigen geistigen Strömung herrührenden Verwirrung finden Ereignisse ihre Hemmungen, die schneller die Bewußtseinsseele in die Menschheit eingeführt hätten, wenn die Hemmungen nicht dagewesen wären. Chaucer (der 1400 gestorben ist) hat die englische Literatur begründet. Man braucht nur daran zu denken, was von dieser Literaturbegründung für geistige Folgen in Europa ausgegangen sind, und man wird es bedeutsam finden, daß das Ereignis nicht frei sich gestalten konnte, sondern daß es in eine Kriegsverwirrung hineinfiel. Dazu kommt, daß schonvorher (1215) in England dasjenige politische Denken begonnen hatte, das durch die Bewußtseinsseele seine rechte Ausprägung erhalten kann. Auch die weitere Entwickelung dieses Ereignisses fällt in die Kriegshemmungen hinein.
[ 3 ] Man hat es da mit einer Zeit zu tun, in der die geistigen Kräfte, die den Menschen so entwickeln wollen, wie er von ihnen übergeordneten göttlich-geistigen Mächten von Anfang an veranlagt ist, ihre Widersacher finden. Diese Widersacher wollen den Menschen in andere Bahnen einlenken, als die ihm vom Anbeginne gewiesenen sind. Er würde dann die Kräfte seines Anfangs für seine spätere Entwickelung nicht anwenden können. Seine kosmische Kindheit bliebe für ihn unfruchtbar. Sie würde zum verdorrenden Teile seiner Wesenheit. Die Folge davon wäre, daß der Mensch die Beute der luziferischen oder ahrimanischen Mächte werden könnte und ihm seine selbsteigene Entfaltung entfiele. Hätten es die Menschheits-Widersacher mit diesen ihren Bestrebungen nicht bloß bis zu Hemmungen, sondern bis zu einem vollen Erfolg gebracht, so hätte der Einschlag der Bewußtseinsseele unterbunden werden können.
[ 4 ] Ein Ereignis, in dem das Einströmen des Geistigen in die Erdenereignisse besonders helleuchtend sich offenbart, ist das Auftreten und Schicksal der Jeanne d'Arc, der Jungfrau von Orleans (1412-1431). Was sie tut, hat für sie selbst die Impulse tief in den unterbewußten Untergründen der Seele. Sie folgt den dunklen Eingebungen der geistigen Welt. Auf der Erde herrscht Verwirrung, durch die das Bewußtseinszeitalter verhindert werden soll. Michael muß seine spätere Mission von der Geistwelt her vorbereiten. Er kann es da, wo seine Impulse in Menschenseelen aufgenommen werden. Die Jungfrau hat eine solche Seele. Er wirkt, wenn dies auch nur in minderem Grade möglich und für das äußere geschichtliche Leben weniger sichtbar ist, auch durch viele andere Seelen. In solchen Ereignissen, wie in dem Kriege zwischen England und Frankreich, findet er seine ahrimanische Gegnerschaft.
[ 5 ] Von dem luziferischen Widersacher, den er in dieser Zeit gefunden hat, ist in der vorigen Betrachtung gesprochen. Aber dieser Widersacher zeigt sich ja auch ganz besonders darinnen, wie die Ereignisse sich abspielten, die dem Auftreten der Jungfrau von Orleans folgten. Man sieht an diesen Ereignissen, daß die Menschen keine Stellung mehr gewinnen konnten gegenüber einem Eingreifen der Geistwelt in die Geschicke der Menschheit, das begriffen und auch von den Menschen in ihren Willen aufgenommen werden konnte, als noch imaginatives Verstehen vorhanden war. Die Stellung zu solchem Eingreifen ist mit dem Aufhören des Wirkens der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele unmöglich geworden; die Stellung, die der Bewußtseinsseele entspricht, war damals noch nicht gefunden; sie ist auch heute noch nicht errungen.
[ 6 ] So ist es denn gekommen, daß damals die Gestaltung Europas von der geistigen Welt aus zustande gekommen ist, ohne daß die Menschen ein Verständnis für das hatten, was geschieht, und ohne daß, was sie vermochten, einen nennenswerten Einfluß auf diese Gestaltung hat haben können.
[ 7 ] Man braucht ja nur sich vorzustellen, was im fünfzehnten Jahrhundert geschehen wäre, wenn es keine Jungfrau von Orleans gegeben hätte, und man wird die Bedeutung dieses aus dem Geiste bedingten Ereignisses wohl einsehen. - Es gibt ja auch Persönlichkeiten, die eine solche Erscheinung materialistisch erklären wollen. Mit ihnen ist eine Verständigung deshalb unmöglich, weil sie das offenbar Geistige im materialistischen Sinne willkürlich umprägen.
[ 8 ] Deutlich zeigt sich nun auch in gewissen geistigen Bestrebungen der Menschheit, wie diese den Weg zum Göttlich-Geistigen nicht mehr ohne Schwierigkeiten findet, auch wenn sie ihn intensiv sucht. Es sind Schwierigkeiten, die in den Zeitaltern nicht vorhanden waren, in denen noch mit Imaginationen Einsicht geschaffen werden konnte. Man hat, um das hier Gemeinte richtig zu beurteilen, nur nötig, die als philosophische Denker auftretenden Persönlichkeiten im klaren Lichte zu sehen. Ein Philosoph kann nicht nach seiner Wirkung auf sein Zeitalter allein betrachtet werden, nicht darnach, wie viele Menschen seine Ideen aufgenommen haben. Er ist vielmehr der Ausdruck, die offenbare Wesenheit für sein Zeitalter. Was der große Teil der Menschheit unbewußt als Seelenverfassung, als unbewußte Gefühle und Lebensantriebe in sich trägt, das bringt der Philosoph in seine Ideen. Er zeigt, wie das Thermometer den Wärmezustand seiner Umgebung, so den Seelenzustand seines Zeitalters an. Die Philosophen sind ebensowenig die Ursachen der Seelenverfassung ihrer Zeitalter wie die Thermometer die der Wärmeverfassung ihrer Umgebung.
[ 9 ] Man sehe unter diesen Voraussetzungen auf den Philosophen René Descartes, der wirkte, als das Bewußtseinszeitalter schon im Gange war. (Er lebte 1596 bis 1650.) Die schmale Stütze seiner Verbindung mit der Geistwelt (dem wahren Sein) ist das Erlebnis «Ich denke, also bin ich». Im Zentrum des Selbstbewußtseins, des Ich, sucht er die Realität zu empfinden; und zwar nur so viel, als ihm die Bewußtseinsseele sagen kann.
[ 10 ] Und über alles übrige Geistige sucht er auf dem intellektualistischen Wege sich klar zu werden, indem er untersucht, wieviel Bürgschaft die Gewißheit des eigenen Selbstbewußtseins über die Gewißheit von anderem gibt. Er fragt überall gegenüber den Wahrheiten, die ihm geschichtlich überliefert sind: sind sie so klar wie das «Ich denke, also bin ich»? Und kann er das bejahen, so nimmt er sie an.
[ 11 ] Ist bei einem solchen menschlichen Denken nicht aller Anschauung, die auf die Dinge der Welt orientiert ist, der Geist ausgetrieben? Die Offenbarung dieses Geistes hat sich auf die kleinste Stütze im Selbstbewußtsein zurückgezogen; alles andere erweist sich unmittelbar ohne Geistesoffenbarung. Es kann auf das außer dem Selbstbewußtsein Liegende nur mittelbar durch den Intellekt in der Bewußtseinsseele ein Licht dieser Geistesoffenbarung geworfen werden.
[ 12 ] Der Mensch dieses Zeitalters läßt gewissermaßen den noch fast leeren Inhalt seiner Bewußtseinsseele in intensiver Sehnsucht nach der Geistwelt strömen. Ein dünner Strahl geht dahin.
[ 13 ] Die Wesen der an die Erdenwelt unmittelbar angrenzenden Geistwelt und die Menschenseelen auf Erden kommen schwer zueinander. Michaels übersinnliche Vorbereitung seiner späteren Mission wird nur unter den größten Hemmungen von der Menschenseele miterlebt.
[ 14 ] Man vergleiche, um das Wesen der Seelenstimmung zu erfassen, die in Descartes zum Ausdrucke kommt, diesen Philosophen mit Augustinus, der der äußeren Formulierung nach dieselbe Stütze für das Erleben der geistigenWelt geltend macht wie Descartes. Nur geschieht es bei Augustinus aus der vollen imaginativen Kraft der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele. (Er lebte 354 bis 430.) Man findet Augustinus mit Descartes mit Recht verwandt. Nur ist der Intellekt des Augustinus noch der Rest des Kosmischen, der bei Descartes der schon in die einzelne Menschenseele einziehende. Gerade an dem Fortgang des Geistesstrebens von Augustinus zu Descartes kann man sehen, wie der kosmische Charakter der Gedankenkräfte sich verliert, und wie dieser dann in der Menschenseele wieder auftritt. Man schaut aber zugleich, wie Michael und die Menschenseele unter Schwierigkeiten sich so zusammenfinden, daß Michael im Menschen leiten kann, was er einst im Kosmos geleitet hat.
[ 15 ] Es sind gegen dieses Zusammenfinden die luziferischen und ahrimanischen Kräfte am Werke. Die luziferischen wollen am Menschen nur das zur Entfaltung kommen lassen, was ihm in seiner kosmischen Kindheit eigen war; die ahrimanischen als Gegner und doch mit ihnen zusammenwirkend möchten die in späteren Weltaltern erlangten Kräfte allein entwickeln und die kosmische Kindheit verdorren lassen.
[ 16 ] Unter solchen gesteigerten Widerständen wurde von den Menschenseelen Europas das verarbeitet, was an geistigen Impulsen durch die Kreuzzüge an alten Weltanschauungsideen vom Osten nach dem Westen geströmt war. Die Michael-Kräfte lebten ja ganz stark in diesen Ideen. Die kosmische Intelligenz, deren Verwaltung das alte geistige Erbgut Michaels war, beherrschte diese Weltanschauungen.
[ 17 ] Wie konnten sie aufgenommen werden, da eine Kluft lag zwischen den Kräften der Geist-Welt und den Menschenseelen? Sie fielen in die erst leise werdende Bewußtseinsseele. Einerseits begegneten sie dem Hindernis, das in der noch schwach entwickelten Bewußtseinsseele gegeben war. Sie übertönten deren Wirksamkeit, lahmten sie. Aber anderseits auch auf ein noch von Imagination getragenes Bewußtsein stießen sie nicht mehr. Die Menschenseele konnte sie nicht mit voller Einsicht mit sich verbinden. Man nahm sie entweder ganz oberflächlich oder abergläubisch auf.
[ 18 ] In diese Geistesverfassung muß geschaut werden, wenn die Gedankenbewegungen, die an Namen von Wicliff, Huß und andere einerseits, an die Bezeichnung «Rosenkreuzerwesen» andrerseits sich anschließen, verstanden sein wollen.
Davon soll im weiteren gesprochen werden.
(Die Fortsetzung dieser zweiten und die dritte Betrachtung folgen.)
Goetheanum, 30. November 1924.
Weitere Leitsätze, die für die Anthroposophische Gesellschaft vom Goetheanum ausgesendet werden (Mit Bezug auf das Vorangehende aus der zweiten Betrachtung über die Michael-Kräfte in der ersten Entfaltung der Bewußtseinsseele)
[ 19 ] 127. Die Menschenseele entwickelt im Beginne des Bewußtseinszeitalters noch in geringem Maße ihre intellektuellen Kräfte. Es entsteht eine Zusammenhanglosigkeit zwischen dem, was diese Seele in ihren unbewußten Untergründen ersehnt, und dem, was ihr die Kräfte aus der Region, in der Michael ist, geben können.
[ 20 ] 128. In dieser Zusammenhanglosigkeit besteht eine gesteigerte Möglichkeit für die luziferischen Mächte, den Menschen bei den kosmischen Kindheitskräften zurückzuhalten und ihn zur weiteren Entfaltung nicht auf den Wegen der göttlich-geistigen Mächte, mit denen er vom Anfang an verbunden war, sondern auf den luziferischen kommen zu lassen.
[ 21 ] 129. Es besteht die weitere gesteigerte Möglichkeit für die ahrimanischen Mächte, den Menschen von den kosmischen Kindheitskräften abzuschnüren und ihn für die weitere Entfaltung in ihren eigenen Bereich zu ziehen.
[ 22 ] 130. Beides ist nicht geschehen, weil die Michael-Kräfte doch tätig waren; aber die Geistesentwickelung der Menschheit mußte unter den durch diese Möglichkeiten entstandenen Hemmungen geschehen und wurde dadurch, was sie bis jetzt geworden ist.
Second observation: How the Michael forces work in the first unfolding of the consciousness soul
[ 1 ] During the time of the impact of the consciousness soul into the earthly development of humanity, it was difficult for the beings of the spiritual world closest to earthly existence to approach humanity. The events on earth take on a form that shows that conditions of a very special kind are necessary to make it possible for the spiritual to find its way into the physical life of humanity. But on the other hand, this form also shows again, often in the most clarifying way, how the one spiritual, where the powers of the past still work and the powers of the future already begin to work, energetically seeks its way into the earthly life of mankind against another spiritual.
[ 2 ] Between 1339 and 1453, a confusing war between France and England lasted more than a hundred years. In this confusion, caused by a certain spiritual current unfavorable to the development of mankind, events find their inhibitions which would have introduced the soul of consciousness into mankind more quickly if the inhibitions had not been there. Chaucer (who died in 1400) founded English literature. One need only think of the intellectual consequences of this literary foundation in Europe, and one will find it significant that the event could not develop freely, but that it fell into the confusion of war. In addition, political thought had already begun in England (1215), which can receive its proper expression through the soul of consciousness. The further development of this event also coincides with the inhibitions of war.
[ 3 ] We are dealing with a time in which the spiritual forces that want to develop the human being in the way in which he has been predisposed from the beginning by divine-spiritual powers superior to them, find their adversaries. These adversaries want to steer the human being in a different direction than that which was given to him from the beginning. He would then not be able to use the powers of his beginning for his later development. His cosmic childhood would remain unfruitful for him. It would become a withering part of his being. The consequence of this would be that man could become the prey of the Luciferic or Ahrimanic powers and his self-ascending development would be lost to him. If the adversaries of humanity had succeeded in their endeavors not only to the point of inhibition, but to the point of complete success, the impact of the consciousness soul could have been prevented.
[ 4 ] One event in which the influx of the spiritual into earthly events reveals itself particularly brightly is the appearance and fate of Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans (1412-1431). What she does has for her the impulses deep in the subconscious depths of the soul. She follows the dark inspirations of the spiritual world. There is confusion on earth, which is intended to prevent the age of consciousness. Michael must prepare his later mission from the spirit world. He can do this where his impulses are received in human souls. The Virgin has such a soul. He also works through many other souls, even if this is only possible to a lesser degree and is less visible to external historical life. In such events, as in the war between England and France, he finds his ahrimanic opposition.
[ 5 ] The Luciferian adversary that he found during this time was mentioned in the previous observation. But this adversary is also particularly evident in the events that followed the appearance of the Maid of Orleans. One can see from these events that men could no longer gain a position towards an intervention of the spirit world in the fate of mankind, which could be understood and also taken up by men into their will when imaginative understanding was still present. The position for such intervention became impossible with the cessation of the activity of the intellectual or emotional soul; the position that corresponds to the consciousness soul had not yet been found then; it has not yet been achieved today either.
[ 6 ] So it came about that at that time the shaping of Europe came about from the spiritual world without men having an understanding of what was happening and without their being able to have any appreciable influence on this shaping.
[ 7 ] One need only imagine what would have happened in the fifteenth century if there had been no Maid of Orleans, and one will realize the significance of this event, which was caused by the spirit. - There are also people who want to explain such a phenomenon in materialistic terms. Understanding is impossible with them because they arbitrarily reinterpret what is obviously spiritual in a materialistic sense.
[ 8 ] It can now also be clearly seen in certain spiritual endeavors of humanity how it no longer finds the path to the divine-spiritual without difficulty, even if it seeks it intensively. These are difficulties that did not exist in the ages in which insight could still be gained through imagination. In order to judge what is meant here correctly, it is only necessary to see the personalities who appear as philosophical thinkers in a clear light. A philosopher cannot be judged by his effect on his age alone, not by how many people have taken up his ideas. Rather, he is the expression, the revealed entity for his age. What the great part of mankind unconsciously carries within itself as the constitution of the soul, as unconscious feelings and life impulses, the philosopher brings into his ideas. He shows, as the thermometer shows the state of warmth of his surroundings, so the state of soul of his age. Philosophers are no more the causes of the state of the soul of their age than thermometers are the causes of the state of warmth of their surroundings.
[ 9 ] On these premises, look at the philosopher René Descartes, who was active when the age of consciousness was already underway. (He lived from 1596 to 1650.) The narrow pillar of his connection with the spirit world (true being) is the experience "I think, therefore I am". In the center of self-consciousness, the I, he seeks to feel reality; and only as much as the consciousness soul can tell him.
[ 10 ] And he tries to become clear about everything else spiritual in the intellectualistic way by investigating how much certainty the certainty of his own self-consciousness gives about the certainty of others. He asks everywhere in relation to the truths that have been handed down to him historically: are they as clear as "I think, therefore I am"? And if he can answer in the affirmative, he accepts them.
[ 11 ] Is not the spirit of such human thinking, which is oriented towards the things of the world, exorcized? The revelation of this spirit has withdrawn to the smallest support in self-consciousness; everything else proves to be immediate without revelation of the spirit. A light of this spiritual revelation can only be thrown indirectly through the intellect in the conscious soul on that which lies outside of self-consciousness.
[ 12 ] The human being of this age lets the still almost empty content of his consciousness soul flow in an intense longing for the spirit world. A thin ray goes there.
[ 13 ] The beings of the spirit world immediately adjacent to the earth world and the human souls on earth come together with difficulty. Michael's supersensible preparation of his later mission is only experienced by the human soul under the greatest inhibitions.
[ 14 ] In order to grasp the essence of the mood of the soul that is expressed in Descartes, compare this philosopher with Augustine, who, according to the external formulation, asserts the same support for the experience of the spiritual world as Descartes. Only in Augustine's case, it happens from the full imaginative power of the intellectual or emotional soul. (He lived from 354 to 430.) One finds Augustine rightly related to Descartes. But Augustine's intellect is still the remnant of the cosmic, whereas Descartes' intellect has already entered the individual human soul. It is precisely in the progression of intellectual striving from Augustine to Descartes that one can see how the cosmic character of the powers of thought is lost, and how it then reappears in the human soul. At the same time, however, one can see how Michael and the human soul come together under difficulties in such a way that Michael can lead in man what he once led in the cosmos.
[ 15 ] The Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces are at work against this coming together. The Luciferic forces want to develop in man only that which was inherent in his cosmic childhood; the Ahrimanic forces, as opponents and yet cooperating with them, want to develop the powers acquired in later world ages alone and let the cosmic childhood wither away.
[ 16 ] Under such increased resistance, the human souls of Europe processed the spiritual impulses that had flowed from the East to the West as a result of the Crusades. The Michael forces lived very strongly in these ideas. The cosmic intelligence, whose administration was the old spiritual heritage of Michael, dominated these world views.
[ 17 ] How could they be received, since there was a gulf between the powers of the spirit world and the souls of men? They fell into the consciousness soul, which was only just becoming quiet. On the one hand, they encountered the obstacle that existed in the still weakly developed consciousness soul. They drowned out its effectiveness, paralyzed it. But on the other hand, they no longer encountered a consciousness still borne by imagination. The human soul could not connect them with itself with full insight. They were received either superficially or superstitiously.
[ 18 ] This state of mind must be looked into if the movements of thought that follow the names of Wicliff, Huß and others on the one hand, and the term "Rosicrucianism" on the other, are to be understood. This will be discussed below.
(The continuation of this second and the third consideration follow.) Goetheanum, November 30, 1924.
Further guiding principles sent out by the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society (with reference to the foregoing from the second contemplation on the Michael forces in the first unfoldment of the consciousness soul)
[ 19 ] 127 At the beginning of the age of consciousness, the human soul still develops its intellectual powers to a small degree. There is a lack of connection between what this soul longs for in its unconscious subconscious and what the forces from the region in which Michael is can give it.
[ 20 ] 128 In this incoherence there is an increased possibility for the Luciferic powers to hold man back from the cosmic forces of childhood and to let him come to further development not on the paths of the divine-spiritual powers with which he was connected from the beginning, but on the Luciferic ones.
[ 21 ] 129 There is the further increased possibility for the Ahrimanic powers to cut man off from the cosmic forces of childhood and to draw him into their own realm for further development.
[ 22 ] 130. Neither has happened because the Michael-forces were active; but the spiritual development of mankind had to take place under the inhibitions created by these possibilities and became thereby what it has become until now.