The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Seventh Lecture

[ 1 ] This lecture, as you will assume, must be a continuation of the reflections that have been presented here regarding the inner development of the Anthroposophical Society within the context of karma. We have traced the events in the physical and supersensible worlds that underlie what anthroposophy is currently seeking to reveal to the world. We know, my dear friends, that we have witnessed two significant turning points in the course of human development, particularly in recent decades. One of these turning points is the one to which I have often drawn attention: the end of the so-called Dark Age at the close of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. An age of light, in contrast to the dark age, has begun. We know, of course, that this dark age gave rise to a state of the human soul that closes people’s spiritual eyes to the supersensible world. We know that in earlier times of human development, it was a general condition of human beings—albeit in a dreamlike way, albeit more or less instinctively—to look into the spiritual world. To doubt the reality of the spiritual world was entirely impossible in earlier times of human development. Had this state, however, persisted—had humanity continued to live in this instinctive insight into the spiritual world—then what we might call the intelligence of the individual human being, the exercise of intellect and reason by the individual, by the personal human being, would not have emerged in human development. And linked to this is what leads human beings to freedom of will. One is inconceivable without the other.

[ 2 ] In that dull, instinctive state of experiencing the spiritual world—as it once existed—human beings cannot attain freedom. Nor can they attain that independent thinking which might be called the use of intelligence by the individual human being.

[ 3 ] Both were bound to come: the free, personal use of intelligence and the freedom of the human will. That is why the original, instinctive insight into the spiritual world had to be obscured for human consciousness. This has all come to pass—if not entirely clear to every individual, then certainly to humanity in general; so that with the passing of the 19th century, this dark age—which obscures the spiritual world but in turn opens the way to the use of intelligence and free will—has now come to an end. We are entering an age in which the true spiritual world is to reach out to human beings once more, along the paths where this is possible.

[ 4 ] Certainly, one could say: this era did not begin in a particularly bright way. It is as if the very first decades of the 20th century had brought upon humanity all the evil that humanity has ever experienced in the course of history. But that does not prevent the possibility, in general, from having entered into human development to penetrate into the light of spiritual life. And it is simply that people have, I would say, out of inertia, clung to the habits of the dark age, so that these habits extend into the 20th century and, because the age could become one of light centered on truth, appear worse than they did before, when they were justified in the dark age, the Kali Yuga.

[ 5 ] Now we also know that this turning of all humanity toward an age of light was prepared by the fact that the Michaelic Era began at the end of the 1870s. Let us try to grasp what it means that the Michaelic Era began in the last third of the 19th century.

[ 6 ] We must realize that just as the three kingdoms of external nature—the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom—surround us in the physical-sensory world, so too in the spiritual world we are surrounded by the higher kingdoms, which we have already referred to in various contexts as the kingdoms of the hierarchies. Just as, when we descend from the human realm into the realms of nature, we arrive at the animal kingdom, so too, when we ascend into the supersensible, we arrive at the realm of the Angeloi. The Angeloi have the task of guiding and protecting individual human beings as they pass from one earthly life to the next. Thus, the tasks that arise in the spiritual world with regard to individual human beings fall to the beings of the realm of the Angeloi.

[ 7 ] When we then ascend into the realm of the Archangels, we find that these Archangels have a wide variety of tasks. But one of these tasks is to direct and guide the fundamental trends of successive ages as they relate to humanity. Thus, for about three centuries, up until the end of the 1870s, what might be called the reign of Gabriel prevailed. For those who observe the development of humanity not on the surface—as is customary today—but in its depths, this “Reign of Gabriel” manifested itself in the fact that immensely significant impulses for human events were channeled into those forces that can be called hereditary forces. Never were the forces of physical heredity, which act through the generations, as significant as they were in the last three centuries before the final third of the 19th century.

[ 8 ] This was reflected in the fact that the question of heredity became a truly pressing issue in the 19th century, as humanity came to realize how psychological and intellectual traits in human beings depend on heredity. People finally came to appreciate what had prevailed as a natural law in human development during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries and throughout much of the 19th century.

[ 9 ] During this period, the characteristics inherited from one’s parents and ancestors were also incorporated into one’s spiritual development. In particular, all characteristics related to physical reproduction became especially important during this time. Once again, an outward sign of this is the interest shown in questions of reproduction—and indeed in all sexual matters—at the end of the 19th century. The most significant spiritual impulses reached humanity during the centuries mentioned in such a way that they sought to realize themselves through physical heredity.

[ 10 ] In complete contrast to this will be the age in which Michael guides and leads humanity—an age that began at the end of the 1970s, in which we now find ourselves, and whose impulses are intertwined with what we are now also coming to know as the age of light that began in the 20th century. These two streams of impulse interact with one another. Today we want to begin by looking at what constitutes the distinctive character of a Michael Age. I say, “a Michael Age”: for you see, with this guidance and direction I have just spoken of, the situation is such that for about three centuries, one of the beings from the realm of the Archangels holds the spiritual leadership of human development in that area where civilization unfolds in a particularly prominent way.

[ 11 ] As mentioned, Gabriel was in charge during the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. He is now being succeeded by Michael. There are seven such archangels who guide humanity in such a way that the individual periods of guidance by the archangels repeat cyclically. Since we are living in the Age of Michael today, we have every reason to recall the last Age of Michael, which once guided humanity. This Age of Michael, which preceded both the founding of Christianity and the Mystery of Golgotha, came to a close in antiquity with the deeds of Alexander and the establishment of Aristotle’s philosophy.

[ 12 ] If we trace everything that took place in Greece and the surrounding region from pre-Christian times through three centuries, up to the time of Alexander the Great and the time of Aristotle, we find that this, too, was a Michaelic Age. Such a Michaelic Age is characterized by a wide variety of conditions, but in particular by the fact that, in such an age, humanity’s spiritual interests—depending on the specific disposition of that age—set the tone. Specifically, in such an age, a cosmopolitan, international trend sweeps through the world. National distinctions will cease. It was precisely during the Age of Gabriel that national impulses took root within European civilization and its American offshoot.

[ 13 ] In our Michael Age, these will be completely overcome over the course of three centuries. In every Michael Age, a general trend sweeps through humanity—a trend that transcends the specific interests of individual nations or groups of people. During that time when the Michael reign was on Earth before the Mystery of Golgotha, this manifested itself in the fact that, out of the conditions that had developed in Greece, arose that powerful tendency which led to the campaigns of Alexander, in which Greek culture and civilization were spread in a brilliant manner into Asia and as far as Africa—and this by peoples who, until then, had identified with something entirely different. This entire monumental undertaking found its culmination in what was established in Alexandria: a cosmopolitan movement that sought to impart the spiritual forces that had gathered in Greece to the entire civilized world of that time.

[ 14 ] Such things happen under the impulse of Michael and also happened back then under the impulse of Michael. And those beings who were involved in these earthly deeds, which took place in the service of Michael, were not on Earth during the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. All those beings who belonged to the realm of Michael, whether they were human souls who, following the end of the Michael Age, had been taken into the spiritual world through death—that is, whether they were disembodied human souls or those who had never incarnated on Earth—were all connected to one another in a shared life in the supersensible world during the time when the Mystery of Golgotha was unfolding on Earth.

[ 15 ] One simply has to bring to mind, in a way that is truly present to the mind, what is actually taking place. If one considers the matter from the Earth’s perspective, one says to oneself: Humanity on Earth has arrived at a certain point in the Earth’s evolution. The high Solar Spirit, Christ, arrives on Earth and incarnates in the human being Jesus of Nazareth. The inhabitants of Earth experience Christ, the high Solar Spirit, arriving among them. They do not know much that might lead them to appreciate this event in the appropriate way.

[ 16 ] All the more do the disembodied souls who are with Michael, and who live in the sphere of solar existence in superterrestrial worlds, appreciate what happened to them from that other perspective. They experienced what happened to the world at that time from the perspective of the Sun. And they witnessed how the Christ, who until then had worked within the solar realm—so that He could be reached through the Mysteries only by ascending into that realm—took His leave of the Sun to unite with humanity on Earth.

[ 17 ] This was, for that very reason, a tremendous, immense event, especially for those beings who belong to the Michael Community, because this Michael Community has a special connection to all that constitutes the cosmic destiny emanating from the Sun. They had to bid farewell to the Christ, who until then had held his place in the Sun, and who from that point on was to take his place on Earth. That is the other aspect.

[ 18 ] However, something else was connected to this. One can only assess this properly by taking the following into account. The people of ancient times were not able to think in this way—to live in thoughts that welled up from within. They may have been wise—infinitely wiser than modern humanity—but they were not “smart” in the sense that we use the term today. Today, we call a person “smart” if they can generate thoughts on their own, think logically, connect one thought to another, and so on. That did not exist back then. Independently generated thoughts did not exist in ancient times. Thoughts were sent down to Earth at the same time as the revelations that came from the spiritual world. People did not think for themselves, but received the spiritual content through revelation—yet they received it in such a way that thoughts were part of the process. Today, people think things through; back then, the soul impressions brought the thoughts with them. These thoughts were inspired thoughts, not thoughts conceived independently. And the one who organized the cosmic intelligence that came to humanity in this way through spiritual revelations—the one who, so to speak, had dominion over this cosmic intelligence—is precisely the spiritual being whom we, using Christian terminology, designate as the Archangel Michael. He was in charge of the administration of cosmic intelligence in the cosmos.

[ 19 ] One need only realize what that means. For even if in a somewhat different context of ideas, a person such as Alexander the Great, for example, was nonetheless fully aware that his thoughts came to him through the Path of Michael. Certainly, the corresponding spiritual being was called by a different name. We are using Christian terminology here, but the terminology itself is not what matters. A person like Alexander the Great saw himself as nothing other than a missionary of Michael, an instrument of Michael. He could not think otherwise than that Michael is actually acting on Earth, and I am the one through whom he acts. That was the view. And that, of course, provided the strength of will for his actions. And a thinker of that time would not have thought any differently: Michael works within him and gives him his thoughts.

[ 20 ] Associated with this descent of Christ to Earth was the fact that Michael, together with his own, not only witnessed Christ’s departure from the Sun, but above all saw how he, Michael, was gradually losing his dominion over the cosmic intelligence. It was quite clear at that time, as seen from the Sun, that things would no longer come to human beings from the spiritual world with intelligent content, but that human beings themselves would one day have to attain their own intelligence on Earth. It was a momentous, significant event to witness, as it were, intelligence streaming down to Earth. Little by little, it was no longer—if I may use the expression—found in the heavens; rather, it was sent down to Earth.

[ 21 ] And this was particularly true during the first centuries of Christianity. We see how, even in those early Christian centuries, people who were capable of such things had at least some insight into what was flowing to them through the content of their intellect from the supernatural revelations. This continued into the 8th and 9th centuries A.D. Then came the great decision. The decision was such that Michael and his followers—regardless of whether they were incarnate or disincarnate—had to admit: People on Earth are beginning to become intelligent, to develop their own intellect from within; but cosmic intelligence can no longer be administered by Michael. Michael sensed how his dominion over cosmic intelligence was slipping away from him. And down below, when one looked toward Earth, one could see how, beginning in the 8th and 9th centuries, this intelligent age dawned and people began to form their own thoughts.

[ 22 ] I have now described to you how, in certain specific schools—for example, the great school of Chartres—the traditions were carried on from what had once, immersed in cosmic intelligence, revealed itself to humankind. I have described to you all that was accomplished at this school in Chartres, particularly in the 12th century, and I have also attempted to show how the stewardship of this intelligence on Earth then passed, in particular, to certain members of the Dominican Order. One need only look at the works that sprang from Christian scholasticism—that marvelous intellectual current which is today completely misunderstood by both its adherents and its opponents because it is not viewed in terms of its essential nature. Consider how intensely they struggled to discern what concepts actually mean, and what intellectual content truly signifies for humanity and for the things of the world. The great controversy between nominalism and realism developed particularly within the Dominican Order. Some saw general concepts as mere names, while others saw in them spiritual content that is revealed in things.

[ 23 ] Scholasticism as a whole is humanity’s struggle to gain clarity about the intelligence pouring into the world. It is no wonder that the primary interest of those around Michael was directed precisely toward what was unfolding on Earth as scholasticism. In what Thomas Aquinas and his students, as well as other scholastics, put forward, one sees the earthly manifestation of what was then the Michael Current. Michael Current: the administration of intelligence—the luminous, spiritual intelligence.

[ 24 ] Now this intelligence was on Earth. Now it was necessary to gain clarity about its meaning. Viewed from the spiritual world, one could look down upon Earth and see how that which belongs to the realm of Michael was now unfolding below, outside Michael’s dominion, precisely at the beginning of Gabriel’s dominion. Initiatory wisdom, Rosicrucian wisdom, as it then spread, consisted precisely in having some clarity about these relationships. It is particularly significant at this time to look at the way in which the earthly is connected to the supersensible. For the earthly appears, as it were, to have been torn away from the supersensible—but it is connected! And you can see from what I have described in the last few hours how it is connected. I can now summarize what these supersensible facts are only in images, in imaginations. This cannot be expressed through abstract concepts; it must be described pictorially. That is why I must describe what took place at the beginning of that age in which the conscious soul—and with it, intelligence—became integrated into humanity.

[ 25 ] Several centuries had already passed since Michael had witnessed, on Earth in the 9th century A.D., what had once been cosmic intelligence. And he saw it flowing out across the Earth, flowing out now particularly into scholasticism. That was down below. But he gathered those who belonged to his realm in the solar regions; he gathered them, whether they were human souls who were currently in the life between death and a new birth, or those who belonged to his realm and who would never find their development in human bodies, yet who had a certain connection to humanity. You can imagine that, in particular, those human souls were present whom I have mentioned to you as the great teachers of Chartres. One of the most significant figures who, at that time—in the early 15th century—had to carry out their tasks in the supersensible worlds among the hosts of Michael was, of course, Alanus ab Insulis. But all the others whom I have named to you as belonging to the School of Chartres were also united with those who had already returned to the life between death and a new birth—those who had come from the Dominican Order; souls belonging to the Platonic current were intimately united there with those souls belonging to the Aristotelian current. These souls had gone through all that which constitutes the Michael impulses. Many of these souls had lived in such a way that they had experienced the Mystery of Golgotha not from the earthly aspect but from the aspect of the Sun. At that time, in the early 15th century, they held significant positions in the supersensible world.

[ 26 ] Under Michael’s leadership, something came into being—we must, after all, use earthly terms—that could be called a supersensible school. What had once been the Michael Mystery—that which had been proclaimed to the initiates in the ancient Michael Mysteries, and which now had to change because cosmic intelligence had found its way to Earth—Michael himself summarized in immensely significant terms for those he was now gathering in this supersensible Michael School at the beginning of the 15th century. There, in the supersensible worlds, everything that had once lived as Michael wisdom in the Sun Mysteries came alive again. There, in a magnificent way, was summarized what, in the Aristotelian tradition, was Platonism and had been brought over to Asia by Alexander the Great and down to Egypt. It was explored how the ancient spirituality still lived within it. All the souls who had always been connected to that current—which I have already been speaking of in individual lectures—those souls who are predestined to belong to the anthroposophical movement and to shape their karma for the anthroposophical movement, took part in that supersensible school of instruction. For everything that was taught there was taught from the perspective that the Michaelic principle must now be developed in a different way in the course of human evolution down below, through the human soul’s own intelligence.

[ 27 ] It was pointed out that at the end of the 19th century—in the last third of the 19th century—Michael himself would resume his reign on Earth, marking the beginning of a new Age of Michael, after the six other Archangels had, in the meantime—since the time of Alexander—exercised their various reigns; but this Age of Michael would have to be different from the others. For these other Michael Ages were such that the cosmic intelligence had always expressed itself through the universal human nature. But now—as Michael said to his disciples in the supersensible realm at that time—the Age of Michael will be about something entirely different. That which Michael has administered for humanity over the eons, that which he inspired into earthly existence, has slipped from his grasp. He will rediscover it when he assumes his earthly rule at the end of the 1870s. He will rediscover it because an intelligence—initially stripped of spirituality—will have taken root among humanity below; but he will rediscover it in a special state; he will rediscover it in such a way that it is exposed to the Ahrimanic forces to the greatest degree. For at the very time when intelligence descended from the cosmos to Earth, the aspiration of the Ahrimanic forces grew ever stronger to snatch this cosmic intelligence—as it became earthly—from Michael, and to assert it on Earth alone, free from Michael.

[ 28 ] This was the great crisis from the beginning of the 15th century to the present day, the crisis in which we are still immersed, the crisis that manifests itself as Ahriman’s struggle against Michael: Ahriman, who spares no effort to contest Michael’s dominion over the intelligence that had now become earthly—Michael, who strives, with all the impulses at his disposal, now that his dominion over the intelligence has been lost, to reclaim it on Earth at the beginning of his earthly reign, starting in 1879. The development of humanity in the last third of the 19th century hinged on this very decision. The former cosmic intelligence had become earthly; there was Ahriman, who wanted to make this intelligence entirely earthly, so that it would continue in the manner in which it had been initiated in the Gabrielic Age. This intelligence was to become entirely earthly; it was to be merely a matter of the human blood community, a matter of the succession of generations, a matter of the forces of procreation. All of this was what Ahriman wanted.

[ 29 ] Michael descended to Earth. He could only find on Earth that which had to take its course in the meantime so that human beings might attain intelligence and freedom; thus he must now take hold of it on Earth, so that within the Earth he may once again become the ruler of intelligence—which now, however, is at work within humanity. Ahriman opposed to Michael, Michael compelled to defend against Ahriman what he had administered for the benefit of humanity throughout the eons—humanity is caught up in this struggle. To be an anthroposophist means, among other things, to understand this struggle at least to a certain degree. And it manifests itself everywhere. Its true form lies behind the scenes of historical development, but it reveals itself everywhere in the facts that lie in the realm of the manifest.

[ 30 ] My dear friends, those souls who were once in Michael’s supersensible school took part in the teachings I have just briefly outlined for you—teachings that consisted of a repetition of what had been taught in the Sun Mysteries since ancient times, and of a prophetic foreshadowing of what is to come when the new Michael Age begins; they consisted of the stirring exhortations that those around Michael might throw themselves into the Michael current and take up its impulses, so that intelligence might once again be united with the Michael Being.

[ 31 ] While these wonderful, these magnificent teachings were imparted to the appropriate souls in that supersensible school, directed by Michael himself, these souls took part in a momentous event that occurs only after long periods of time in the evolution of our cosmos. As I have already hinted, when we speak of the Divine from here on Earth, we are pointing upward toward the supersensible world. But when we are in the life between death and rebirth, we are actually pointing downward toward the Earth—though not toward the physical Earth; what reveals itself there is something immense, magnificent, and divinely spiritual. And precisely at the beginning of the 15th century, when the school I spoke of was founded—where numerous souls in the realm of Michael participated in this school—one could at the same time witness something that, as I said, repeats itself only after long, long periods of time in the cosmic process of becoming: Looking down upon the Earth, one saw, as it were, how the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones—that is, the members of the highest, the first hierarchy—were accomplishing a mighty deed.

[ 32 ] It was during the first third of the 15th century, at a time when, behind the scenes of modern development, the Rosicrucian School had been founded. If one looks down from the life one leads between death and rebirth toward the earthly realm, one sees the steady, ongoing work of the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones. One sees how the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones carry the spiritual down from the realms of the Exusiai, Dynamis, and Kyriotetes into the physical realm, implanting the spiritual into the physical through their power. Amid what one usually observes in the course of becoming, something magnificently different always manifests itself after long periods of time: it was most recently during the Atlantean epoch that something of this kind had also manifested itself from the perspective of the supersensible. What is happening within humanity is revealed by the fact that, viewed from the spiritual world, one now sees the Earth’s regions streaked with lightning and hears mighty rolling thunder. It was, so to speak, one of those cosmic storms—unfolding for the people of Earth as if in a dream, yet manifesting with great power to the spirits surrounding Michael.

[ 33 ] Behind what historically unfolded in human souls at the beginning of the 15th century lies something truly immense. This immensity manifested itself precisely while the Michael disciples were receiving their teachings in the supersensible realm. Most recently, during the Atlantean era—when cosmic intelligence had remained cosmic but had taken possession of human hearts—something similar occurred that is now once again unloading itself in spiritual flashes and thunder upon the present realm, the earthly realm. Yes, it was indeed so. In the age that was now experiencing earthly upheavals, in which the Rosicrucians spread, in which all manner of remarkable things occurred—which you can, of course, trace in history—in this age, the Earth appeared to the spirits in the supersensible realm to be ravaged by mighty flashes of lightning and thunder. This was because the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones channeled the cosmic intelligence into that part of the human organism which is the nervous-sensory system, the head organism.

[ 34 ] Another event had taken place, the full significance of which is not yet apparent today but will only become clear over the course of centuries and millennia, and it consists in the complete transformation of the human being. Humanity was previously a heart-centered being. Humanity has since become a head-centered being. Intelligence becomes its own intelligence. From a supersensible perspective, this is something of immense significance. All of this is perceived within the realm of power and strength belonging to the first hierarchy—the realm of the Seraphim and Cherubim—who express and reveal their power and strength not only by administering the spiritual within the spiritual realm, as do the Dynamis, the Exusiai, and the Kyriotetes, but by carrying the spiritual into the physical, thereby making the spiritual the creative force of the physical. These Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones had deeds to accomplish which, as I said, repeat themselves only after eons. And one might say: what Michael taught his own at that time was proclaimed amid lightning and thunder down there in the earthly worlds. This should be understood, for these flashes of lightning and claps of thunder, my dear friends, were meant to become enthusiasm in the hearts and minds of anthroposophists! And the one who truly feels the urge toward anthroposophy—who, even today, still unconsciously carries within his soul the aftereffects of having absorbed, back then in Michael’s sphere, that heavenly anthroposophy that preceded the earthly one (though people know nothing of this yet; they will come to know it)—that person still carries these aftereffects in his soul today. For the teachings Michael gave were those that prepared, back then, what is to become anthroposophy on Earth.

[ 35 ] And so we have a twofold supersensible preparation for what is to become anthroposophy on Earth: that preparation in the great supersensible school of the 15th century onward; and then what I have described to you—what took shape in the supersensible realm as an imaginative cult at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, where what the Michael disciples had learned at that time in the supersensible school of instruction was elaborated in powerful imaginative images. In this way, the souls were prepared who would then descend into the physical world and who, through all these preparations, were to receive the impulse to move toward what was then to work on Earth as anthroposophy.

[ 36 ] Just think—the great teachers of Chartres took part in all of this. As you know from my recent account, they have not yet descended again. They sent those souls ahead, who then worked primarily within the Dominican Order, after first holding a sort of conference with them at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries.

[ 37 ] So all these souls have come together again: those who had proclaimed ancient teachings in Chartres with fiery eloquence, and those who struggled in the most arduous yet wholehearted work to grasp the essence of intelligence in scholasticism. They all belonged to the hosts of Michael who studied at the school I mentioned. And the others were souls such as I have described to you in the two groups I have presented.

[ 38 ] We have this school of Michael. We have the imaginative cult, the effects of which I have also hinted at, at the beginning of the 19th century. What is significant is that, with the end of the 1870s, Michael’s reign begins anew; that Michael is preparing to once again receive, down here on Earth, the intelligence that has slipped away from him in the meantime. This intelligence must become Michaelic. And one must understand the meaning of the new Michaelic Age. Those who today are drawn to a spirituality that already contains this intelligence within itself—as is the case in the anthroposophical movement—are, in a sense, souls who are here in the present age in accordance with their karma, and who must take note of what is happening on Earth at the dawn of the Michaelic Age. And they are connected with all those who have not yet come down again; above all, they are connected with those who, from the Platonic current under the leadership of Bernardus Silvestris, Alanus ab Insulis, and the others, have remained up there in the supersensible realm.

[ 39 ] But those who today can embrace anthroposophy with true inner devotion of the heart, who can connect with anthroposophy, they carry within them the impulse to appear on Earth at the end of the 20th century, drawing upon what they experienced in the supersensible realm at the beginning of the 15th and the beginning of the 19th centuries, together with all the others who had not since returned to the physical world. By then, anthroposophical spirituality will have prepared the ground for what is to be realized collectively as the complete revelation of what has been prepared supersensibly through the aforementioned currents.

[ 40 ] My dear friends, the anthroposophist should take this to heart and be clear about how he is called to prepare, even now, for what is to spread more and more as spirituality, until the culmination comes when the true anthroposophists will be there again—but united with the others—at the end of the 20th century. The true anthroposophist must be aware that what is at stake today is to look in with participation and to cooperate in the struggle between Ahriman and Michael. Only when such spirituality—as it seeks to flow through the anthroposophical movement—unites with other spiritual currents will Michael find the impulses that will reunite him with the intelligence that has become earthly, which actually belongs to him.

[ 41 ] It will now be my task to show you the sophisticated means by which Ahriman seeks to prevent this, and the fierce struggle in which this 20th century is engaged. From all these things, one can become aware of the gravity of the times and the courage required to integrate oneself properly into spiritual currents. But as one takes these things into oneself, as one says to oneself: “You, human soul, you may be called upon to do this if you understand how to contribute to securing the reign of Michael”—at the same time, what one might call a devotional inner jubilation of the human soul can arise from being allowed to be so powerful. But one must find the mood for this courageous strength, for this vigorous courage. For it is written above us in supersensible letters: Become aware that you will indeed return before the end of the 20th century—and at the end of this 20th century, which you yourselves have prepared! Become aware of how what you have prepared may then take shape!

[ 42 ] To know that one is part of this struggle, to know that one is part of this conflict between Michael and Ahriman—that, my dear friends, is something that can be called anthroposophical enthusiasm, anthroposophical fervor.