The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourth Lecture

[ 1 ] If we wish to restore human thought and action imbued with spiritual life, it will be necessary to take up once again, with the utmost seriousness, such insights into the spiritual world as have passed through our souls in the recent lectures—insights that have, in fact, been lacking in civilized humanity for centuries.

[ 2 ] When we look back at the various epochs of human historical development, we see that in earlier times human activity on Earth was universally linked to what takes place in the supersensible realm. This is not to say that the vast majority of humanity in recent times has lacked a certain abstract awareness of the supersensible; that is not the point. What has been lacking, however, is the courage to connect what actually happens in the earthly realm to concrete forms of spiritual life and activity.

[ 3 ] With considerations such as those we have just made, we come back to this point. Specifically, we arrive at this point when we are able to relate human life on earth—as has indeed been done here—to the life between death and a new birth, and when we are able to connect what happens in one earthly life to what unfolds in successive earthly lives.

[ 4 ] We have now begun to examine that spiritual-supernatural current which I was permitted to describe as being connected to our present Michael current, to whose service anthroposophy has dedicated itself. With this, we have set out on a path that, in a certain sense, is intended to approach the karma of the anthroposophical movement itself—and thus also the karma of the individual personalities who, in an honest way—that is, out of a natural inner impulse—are able to unite the life of their soul and spirit with the anthroposophical movement.

[ 5 ] And I have pointed out how, as it were, under the auspices of the Michaelic power, a supernatural event took place at the very same time that, in the year 869, that council was held on Earth—a council that profoundly influenced the entire Middle Ages in terms of its civilization. One need only observe the deep reluctance with which the enlightened minds of the Middle Ages avoided speaking of the threefold human being—body, soul, and spirit. For it was precisely this Eighth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople that declared the doctrine of the threefold human being—body, soul, and spirit—to be heretical; and given the power that such spiritual decrees held in the Middle Ages, it is evident that, in a certain sense, the entire spiritual life here on earth now unfolds under the shadow of this condemnation of the so-called trichotomy.

[ 6 ] But all the more intense, in fact, is the spiritual life that has long been working to prepare the Michael current for the twentieth century—the Michael current in which we have been living since the last third of the nineteenth century and in which we, as humanity, will remain for three to four centuries. Today we would like to point out the progress of this current, which we have indeed begun to consider, so that the day after tomorrow, next Sunday, we may delve more deeply into what is karmically connected, on the one hand, with the karma of the anthroposophical movement and, on the other hand, with the spiritual life of the present.

[ 7 ] I have said that, during a kind of supernatural, otherworldly council that took place at the same time as the Eighth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople, the individualities of Harun al-Rashid and his wise advisor, as well as those of Alexander and Aristotle, came together; that some individualities from the time of Arthur’s reign were also present there, and I explained how all of this took place under the aegis of Michael.

[ 8 ] Then I pointed out how Harun al-Rashid reappears—bringing Eastern intellectual life to Europe along with an Aristotelian doctrine that had become non-Christian—how Harun al-Rashid appears as Lord Bacon, as Bacon of Verulam, who had a great influence on European intellectual life, but an influence that is entirely of a materialistic nature. And I drew attention to how Harun al-Rashid’s advisor, whom I have characterized, in turn appears as Amos Comenius—about whom, of course, much is rightly said in a positive sense, but who nevertheless also has the aspect that, in his endeavor to to introduce vivid imagery into teaching, he promoted materialism by, in essence, placing strong emphasis on immediate sensory perception.

[ 9 ] Here, so to speak, we see a current breaking into earthly life at the end of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth century—a current that does not lie in the direct continuation of Christianity, but rather introduces an element foreign to Christianity into the development of the European spirit. But on the other hand, the individualities of Aristotle, Alexander, and all those who belong to this group—who remain connected to the Michaelic current—continue to exert their influence, now in the supersensible worlds.

[ 10 ] But in addition, within this current—partly in the supersensible worlds and partly on Earth itself—something is at work through certain personalities who were connected to these supersensible currents while they were between death and rebirth; these were individualities who then appeared as personalities on Earth over the course of the following centuries; individualities who were less connected to Alexandrianism or Aristotelianism, but rather to Plato and to everything that had developed from Plato’s philosophy.

[ 11 ] Specifically, in the centuries following the ninth century, we see Platonic-minded, Platonic-oriented spirits descending to Earth. And these are, of course, the ones who, in the Middle Ages, continued a Christian doctrine that was regarded as heretical by official Christianity and official Catholicism, but which was in fact the truer Christian doctrine. The individualities who continued Christian Aristotelianism initially remained in the spiritual worlds, for on Earth—in the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries—given the prevailing conditions of civilization, there was no real point of connection for this spiritual current. In contrast, one might say, those with a more Platonic inclination were able to develop with particular intensity in certain isolated spiritual spheres. Scattered here and there within the officially increasingly widespread Catholic-influenced Christianity, one finds figures in schools who continued the ancient mystery traditions and illuminated Christianity through these ancient mystery traditions. And one place into which everything that has been carried on as such traditions has flowed is, of course, the thoroughly spiritual School of Chartres—which I have mentioned frequently of late—within which such figures as Bernardus Sylvestris, Alanus ab Insulis, and others were active.

[ 12 ] What kind of spiritual life actually developed there, one that ultimately found its way into this remarkable School of Chartres, which humanity has really only known superficially? It is a spiritual life that has, in essence, been completely buried in more recent times—a spiritual life in which ancient mystery traditions are still carried on. In particular, we find throughout this spiritual life that a view of nature prevails that is deeply imbued with the spiritual—a view of nature that is still entirely different from the abstract view of nature that later swept through all circles, that abstract view of nature which recognizes only natural laws expressible in thought.

[ 13 ] What the spiritual current I am referring to absorbed from nature into the soul was something thoroughly spiritual; it meant that everywhere in nature, people saw not merely abstract, lifeless, conceptual laws of nature, but rather living activity and interplay. Little attention was paid at that time to what later became so admirable to people: our modern chemical elements. Instead, all the more attention was paid to what were called the elements in the ancient sense: earth, water, air, and fire. But the moment one comes to know these elements—not through mere verbal tradition, but through a tradition still imbued with the most ancient of the mysteries—at that very moment one perceives what is indeed absent from our seventy to eighty chemical elements, yet present in those four elements: the world of elemental spirituality, the world of certain elemental beings, into which one is immediately immersed when one attunes oneself to these elements.

[ 14 ] And then one sees how human beings themselves, in terms of their outer physicality, participate in this life and interweaving of earth, water, air, and fire, and how this takes on an organic form within them. And then those who looked in this way into the life and interplay of the elements did not see natural laws in the interplay and life of earth, water, fire, and air; rather, they saw behind this interplay a great, living being—the goddess Natura. And from this contemplation they gained the immediate sense that this Goddess Natura initially turns only a part of her being toward human beings, that the other part of her being is hidden in that world which human beings experience in sleep, between falling asleep and waking up—where the I and the astral body are in a spiritual environment underlying nature, where the I and the astral body are together with the elemental beings, which underlie the elements. And in these isolated spiritual places and schools to which I have alluded, we find everywhere teachers of larger or smaller groups of people who speak of how the Goddess Nature reveals a part of her living and weaving being in the outer phenomena that appear to human beings in the waking state, but how in all elemental activity, in wind and weather, in all that surrounds and constitutes human beings, there is at work that which human beings cannot see, but which is hidden from them in the darkness of sleep.

[ 15 ] Thus, the scholars of that time perceived the great Goddess Natura as the one who ascends in the middle of time and reveals herself in the outer workings of sensory nature; but also as the one who descends every night, descends every year, and works and weaves in the realms that are hidden from human beings through the consciousness of sleep. And this was the direct continuation of that view which existed in the ancient mysteries as the view of Proserpina.

[ 16 ] You just have to consider what that means. Today we have a view of nature that is woven from ideas, that consists of natural laws, that speaks and thinks abstractly, and in which there is nothing alive. Back then, there was still a view of nature in which people regarded nature in a similar way to how they regarded the active goddess Proserpina, the daughter of Demeter. And in the ideas that were taught in those schools as the correct ones—as those arising from a still-living tradition—there were many sayings and expressions that proved to be direct continuations of what was said about Proserpina in the ancient mysteries.

[ 17 ] If one were to guide a person toward an understanding of their soul life by starting with an understanding of their physical life, one would explain the following to them: In terms of your physical being, you consist of the elements in which the elemental beings interweave, but you carry the soul within you; which is not subject to the influence of these elements alone, but rather governs the organization of the elements within you; this soul is under the influence of the planetary world of Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus, as well as under the influence of the Sun, the Moon, Saturn, and Mars.” — When psychology was to be studied, the human gaze was directed upward toward the mysteries of the planetary world. Thus, the concept of what it means to be human expanded from the physical into the soul, but within the perspective of interconnectedness with the world—from the workings and interplay of the elements earth, water, air, and fire to that which the planets accomplished in human soul life through their orbits, their radiance, their luminous effects, and their mysterious occult influences. And from the goddess Natura, formerly Proserpina, people turned their gaze upward toward the intelligences, toward the genii of the planets, to whom they looked up when they sought to understand human soul life.

[ 18 ] And then, when it came to understanding spiritual life — for the teachers of these isolated schools had not allowed themselves to be deterred from contemplating the spirit by the dogma of the Eighth Council of Constantinople — when it came to understanding spiritual life, they turned their gaze upward to the fixed stars, to their constellations, and especially to what is represented in the zodiac. And they understood what the human being carried within as spirit from the constellations, the light, and the spiritual powers known to reside in the fixed stars.

[ 19 ] Thus, humanity was understood through the world, through the cosmos. In reality, there was the macrocosm and the microcosm—humanity. That was the teaching about nature at that time. It was enthusiastically presented to humanity in isolated schools, but also by individuals scattered here and there. And it was then, as if in a kind of culmination, wonderfully presented by such figures as Bernhardus Sylvestris, Alanus ab Insulis, and others at the School of Chartres.

[ 20 ] This School of Chartres is actually something truly wonderful. When you pick up the writings today—as I’ve already said, they read like catalogs of names. But at that time, it simply wasn’t customary to write about what one wished to convey in a living spiritual sense in any other way than, I would say, in such a catalog-like manner. But anyone who can read such things—who can read, in particular, the arrangement of the material—will already perceive how what comes from the teachers of the School of Chartres is imbued with ancient spirituality. The deep spirituality of the school, however, did not merely exert its influence through teaching and the presence of numerous students who in turn carried forth what they had learned; rather, it exerted a direct, spiritual influence. It worked in such a way that what lived as living spirituality in Chartres was radiated in an occult manner into the spiritual atmosphere of humanity. That is why we can see the spiritual rays of this School of Chartres extending through France all the way to Italy. In various schools that have become known in history by their external names, however, a natural philosophy such as the one I have described was taught.

[ 21 ] This is precisely a concrete example: When Brunetto Latini, Dante’s teacher, returned from his diplomatic post in Spain and suffered a mild case of sunstroke and a great fright near his hometown of Florence, he became receptive to the occult influences of the School of Chartres. He experienced what he himself later described as follows: as he approached his hometown of Florence, he entered a deep forest, where he first encountered three animals, and then met the goddess Natura, who established the realms of nature in the manner taught for centuries, as I have indicated. But he beheld this; in this semi-pathological state—which, however, soon passed—he was granted a vision of what was taught in the schools. And then, after seeing the goddess Natura—the successor to Proserpina—at work, he observed how human beings are formed from the elements, how the soul weaves within the forces of the planets; his thoughts are led all the way up into the starry heavens. He experiences this entire mighty medieval science firsthand.

[ 22 ] Brunetto Latini was Dante’s teacher. Had he not been so—had he not passed on to his student Dante what he had received in such a majestic vision—we would not have the Commedia, for it is the reflection of Brunetto Latini’s teachings in Dante’s soul. You see, there was simply no other possibility at that time—when the ecclesiastical structure was still much more restrictive than it would later become—than for such things to be brought to bear, and we can see, after all, that all these teachers from Chartres were members of religious orders. We see them wearing the Cistercian habit. We see them associated with the more enlightened currents within Christian monastic life.

[ 23 ] Now a peculiar phase of development began. Throughout this entire period, during which the Platonists, so to speak, had been active in the manner just described, the Aristotelians were unable to be active on Earth. The conditions simply were not there. But in the supersensible realm, they were preparing the Michael current for this purpose. From the supersensible world, they also maintained a continuous connection with the teachers who were working in the same direction—those who would later gravitate toward Chartres. But then, during the heyday of the School of Chartres—which was at the end of the eleventh century and into the twelfth century—one must describe these things using earthly terms, although of course these earthly terms are inaccurate and one can easily be ridiculed for using them— a kind of supersensible consultation took place between those souls who ascended into the supersensible world through the gate of death, emerging from the current of Chartres—between the Platonists and those who had remained above, the Aristotelians and the Alexandrians—a consultation that took place around the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the Middle Ages, a compromise on how to proceed from there.

[ 24 ] This led to the following: since new conditions had now arisen in the spiritual life of the European people, the Platonists—who had most recently exerted their great influence in Chartres and were active in the supersensible world—entrusted their mission to the Aristotelians. And the Aristotelians now descended into the physical world to continue, as far as possible, what I would like to call the cosmic Michael service.

[ 25 ] Once again, we find those who worked in this more Aristotelian vein playing a wide variety of active roles within the Dominican Order. In a sense, the spirits of the Aristotelians replaced those of the Platonists in their earthly work, and what developed was something that today is truly appreciated only within the anthroposophical movement—I once gave a series of lectures here on Scholasticism in its true form and origin— what developed was medieval Scholasticism, that doctrine which, in an age already drifting toward materialism, sought to preserve whatever spirituality could be retained in human views.

[ 26 ] Even before Bacon of Verulam and Comenius appeared on earth, Scholasticism was already working on continuing the service of Michael. We see how salvation is to be achieved in Scholasticism; in the so-called realist school, the origin of what a person carries in their thoughts is to be preserved for spirituality. Spiritual reality is attributed by the realist Scholastics to that which a person grasps through their thoughts—spiritual reality. It is a tenuous spirituality that could be preserved there, but it is spirituality.

[ 27 ] It is indeed true, my dear friends, that spiritual life continues in the evolution of the world in such a way that, when one surveys it in its reality and possesses the knowledge of initiation, one cannot help but view the physical—or anything at all that takes place in physical history on Earth—in conjunction with that which, from the spiritual realm, spiritually permeates this physical realm. One arrives at a unified perspective: first, how the Platonic souls work all the way to Chartres; then, how the Aristotelian souls work. One first observes the Aristotelian souls as they work inspiringly from the supersensible world toward the teachers who live on Earth as Platonic souls, working there, teaching, and developing science on Earth in accordance with earthly understanding. One looks into this interplay, sees how the teacher of Chartres walks upon the earth, carries out his studies imbued with visions, and how the inspiring ray from the Aristotelian soul descends from the supersensible realm and steers that which is Platonic in character onto the right path. One then gains a completely different perspective on life than the one that is very often held. For in outward life, people are so quick to distinguish between Platonists and Aristotelians as if they were opposites. In reality, however, this is not the case at all. The epochs of Earth’s history require that we speak sometimes in the Platonic sense and sometimes in the Aristotelian sense. But when one surveys the supersensible life against the backdrop of the sensible life, one enriches the other; one is embedded within the other.

[ 28 ] And again, when the Aristotelians taught within the Dominican Order, the Platonic souls—who were now dwelling in the spiritual world—served as the inspiring geniuses after they had come to an understanding with the Aristotelian souls who had later fallen. Life was entirely different in those days. Whether one believes it today or not, the fact is that when one looks back spiritually at those times, one finds a mind like that of Alanus ab Insulis sitting in his solitary cell, absorbed in his studies, receiving a spiritual visit from the supersensible world—a visit from an Aristotelian soul that joins him. Yes, there is a strong sense of belonging to the spiritual world—even when the Aristotelians appeared in the Dominican Order—a strong sense of belonging to the spiritual world. This can be seen from facts such as the following: One of the Dominican teachers descends into physical earthly life earlier than another soul with whom he is connected; the latter remains in the spiritual world for the time being in order to carry down, somewhat later, to the one who descended earlier, something that first had to be completed there, so that it may then work together again with the one born earlier. And this takes place in full consciousness. One is aware that one’s actions and one’s work are connected to the spiritual world.

[ 29 ] All of this has been erased by later history. But one need not seek the truth about historical life in the documents of more recent times, but rather in life itself. And one must have an unbiased view of life. One must also see life unfolding even where it develops within circles that may be rather unsympathetic—as something that has been placed within these circles by karma, but which inwardly signifies something entirely different.

[ 30 ] Such interpretations of events, my dear friends, have truly come my way in a most remarkable manner throughout my life. And now, for the first time, I look upon many things—penetrating them with my gaze—that have appeared to me in the course of my life as clearly as an occult script. Karma, after all, weaves and works in quite mysterious ways, especially in connection with the most significant events one experiences. And I would like to say: There is also a peculiar karma underlying the fact that I am speaking today—and at other times in other places—precisely now, at this time, about such things as the School of Chartres and everything that preceded it, everything that follows it. For it was precisely the most outstanding individuals who taught at the School of Chartres who belonged to the Cistercian Order.

[ 31 ] Now, the Cistercian Order, like the other orders within the development of Catholicism, has become decadent; but much of this decadence is merely superficial. Individuals, by continuing old traditions that are also extraordinarily valuable for anthroposophy, sometimes find themselves embedded in contexts to which they do not actually belong; yet life—karma—brings them into these contexts. So I always found it remarkable that—from my earliest youth up to a certain point in time—something from the Cistercian Order always drew me in. After I finished elementary school, I did not end up at a high school—solely because, for the reasons I have explained in my life story, my family sent me to a secondary school instead—and I only narrowly missed becoming a student at a Cistercian order high school. It was actually quite natural that I should have become one. I did not, of course, for good karmic reasons as well.

[ 32 ] But the secondary school I attended was, after all, just a stone’s throw away from the Cistercian Order’s high school. There, one got to know all those Cistercian teachers who, at the time, still made a truly outstanding impression. One need not speak of the Order itself, but rather of the individual personalities. Even today, I think back with deep satisfaction on one such Cistercian priest who taught German literature at that high school with such infectious enthusiasm, and I can still picture them all in their own unique ways, on that street in Wiener-Neustadt called Alleegasse, where the professors always went for a walk before school started: these Cistercian priests in civilian clothes, immensely gifted people. And since, at that time, I was far more preoccupied with reading the teachers’ essays in the school handbook at the end of the school year than with the textbooks during the school year, I truly read with eager devotion what these Cistercians had written down as their own wisdom in the school handbook of this Wiener-Neustadt high school. In short, the Cistercian Order was close to my heart. And one thing is certain: if I had attended the Cistercian high school—these are, of course, mere hypotheses, the kind one can only pose for illustrative purposes—I would naturally have become a Cistercian myself.

[ 33 ] Things then continued in Vienna—I’ve recounted all of this in my memoir. After some time, I joined the circle that gathered around delle Grazie, which included many of the theology professors from the Faculty of Theology in Vienna. I became very close friends with some of them. All those active there were members of the Cistercian Order. I was reunited with the Cistercians. And through what is currently flowing through the Cistercian Order, I have, in a sense, been able to trace back many things.

[ 34 ] To show you how karma works, I’d like to mention an incident. I was giving a lecture, and—thanks to the “five-o’clock teas” in England, or the “jour-Tage” in Vienna—I had become quite well known through the “jour-Tage” at delle Grazie among the professors from the Faculty of Theology who frequented the place, the Cistercians. I was giving a lecture. There was a Cistercian priest present, a man of exceptional character, and when I had finished my lecture, he said something quite peculiar, something I would like to hint at only in general terms: He addressed me with a remark that alluded to his recollection of a time he had spent with me in a previous earthly life.

[ 35 ] Such things are truly instructive for life. It was in the year 1889. Of course, I could only describe the outward aspects of these things at the “Goetheanum,” and the essays will, after all, be published as a book, with notes that will also take the inner aspects into account.

[ 36 ] Well, you see, here you have some of the karmic reasons that have enabled me to speak at all in this way about these spiritual currents. The preparation for this can only come from life experience, not from study.

[ 37 ] So I showed how the Platonic and Aristotelian currents interacted. Then the Aristotelians, too, passed through the gate of death. And indeed, in the age of the conscious soul, materialism began to rise more and more on Earth. But precisely at the time when materialism was beginning on Earth, a kind of Michael School—as I said, one must describe these things in trivial terminology—was established in the supersensible worlds: an extensive Michael School in which spirits such as Bernardus Silvestris after his death, Alanus ab Insulis, but also Aristotle and Alexander were united; in which human souls who were not incarnated on Earth at that time were united with spiritual beings who live out their lives without being incarnated on Earth, but who are connected to earthly souls, Michael himself as the teacher, looking back on all that constituted the great teachings of the ancient mysteries, maintaining a wondrous overview of the secrets of the ancient mysteries, yet at the same time offering a magnificent outlook on what is to come.

[ 38 ] And you see, in one form or another, one finds certain souls who, over the course of many earthly lives, have more or less come together within these groups, participating in this supersensible school in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, groups of souls striving toward the Michael Current—souls who incorporate into their impulses of will what might be called the desire to connect with the Michael Current.

[ 39 ] One can look for these souls. One finds them there, so to speak—because at that time very few of them were on Earth; most were in the life between death and rebirth and were participating in the supersensible assembly of this supersensible school—one finds them there, these souls. One finds them there, listening to the teachings of Michael. One finds them again today in those souls who, incarnated on Earth, develop an honest, inner, and sincere striving toward the anthroposophical movement.

[ 40 ] The karma of those who are drawn to the anthroposophical movement in an honest, inwardly sincere way contains the impulses that must also be studied in the supersensible world in relation to karma. Of course, the fact that these souls were driven by their karma to such a heavenly community at that very time has its reasons in the fact that, in their previous earthly lives, they had shaped their karma in such a way that it led them precisely there. But one cannot truly understand the karma of souls without looking not only at what takes place on Earth, but also at what will take place between death and a new birth.

[ 41 ] Observing the world is infinitely enriching when—if I may put it this way—in contemplating the souls active in the world—and ultimately, these are all human beings—one does not always have to begin where people enter the earth and end where they die; for that is not where they begin to act, nor is it where they cease to act. In what takes place spiritually, it is not merely those souls who are incarnated on Earth today who are active, but also other souls who today stand between death and a new birth and who send the rays of their activity down to Earth. The impulses of such souls lie within our own actions. All of this works together, just as earthly deeds, in turn, extend into the heavenly realm and continue to have an effect there, as I have already vividly indicated, for example, through the characters of Capesius and Strader in the first Mystery Drama.

[ 42 ] Brunetto Latini, Dante’s teacher—he is indeed there. He died back then, passed through the Gate of Death, but that is, after all, a transformation of life. He is indeed there. He continues to have an influence, and one can find him if one seeks him spiritually.

[ 43 ] Well, this completes the picture of humanity’s spiritual development, provided one can always include the so-called dead, for they are, in fact, much more alive than those who are the so-called living. In many respects, someone like Brunetto Latini is involved today—even though he is not incarnated on Earth—in an immense number of things that happen on Earth. But you can see from this how intimately connected earthly life is with the supersensible life, how one cannot really speak of a supersensible world separate from the earthly world, from the sensory world, for everything that is sensory is at the same time permeated by the supersensible; everything that is supersensible reveals itself somewhere or at some time in the sensory realm. And one can truly comprehend earthly life only when one sees these things behind it.

[ 44 ] This, my dear friends, is the trend that has entered the anthroposophical movement since the Christmas Conference: that the supersensible facts are discussed in a completely open and unbiased manner, with full awareness of the truth. This is to be the esoteric trend running through the anthroposophical movement. Only through this will it be possible to give the anthroposophical movement its true spiritual content.

[ 45 ] For you see, what I have described to you regarding the Michael Current has continued ever since. But when individualities reappear on Earth—since they are, after all, dependent on first using the physical bodies available in any given age—they must adapt to the educational impulses present in that age; all of this forms an outer garment in a materialistic age. And our materialistic age presents the greatest conceivable obstacles for souls who possessed a great deal of spirituality in earlier earthly lives, preventing them from infusing this spirituality into bodies that are, moreover, shaped by today’s educational practices. So you need not be surprised when I say: The souls who sincerely strive toward anthroposophy can be found in the manner described in earlier periods of Earth’s development. And one cannot establish true knowledge unless one can perceive this interplay of everything that acts and lives in the world. For spiritual research is, after all, entirely dependent on spiritual life; spiritual research necessitates that the spirit itself be sought along its own path. And the paths of the spirit are different in every age. In our age, they can only be walked if the firm foundation of a spiritual understanding of external nature is also present.

[ 46 ] The age I have described—within the Michael current—is followed by an age that manifests a thoroughly materialistic aspect here on Earth, shaping everything in a materialistic way. And in the supersensible realm, the most intense preparation is taking place for the Michael impulses, which in our present age have, so to speak, been brought down from heaven to earth. Our age cannot build upon what has preceded it in the past centuries; we must be aware of that, but it cannot build upon it. With today’s sense of the times, we must connect to what has taken place in the supersensible realm over the past centuries. By pointing this out, we then touch upon the ground that must be the foundation for anthroposophical activity and anthroposophical life in the present. And such views as those I have expounded in these lectures should not merely be received by the cold intellect and the sober heart; they must be received by the whole, full human being, with the entire scope of the human soul. Anthroposophy can only mean something to humanity if it is received with the entire scope of the human soul. This has been the underlying intention of the anthroposophical movement united with the Anthroposophical Society since the Christmas Conference. It is to be hoped that this will penetrate deeply into the souls of those connected with it, so that they may gain an awareness of what is actually connected with their karma in the depths of their souls.

[ 47 ] And with that, my dear friends, we have laid a kind of foundation for what will guide us forward next time, next Sunday, at the Sunday Members’ Meeting, where we intend to consider the further development of the Michael Stream and what this implies for the tasks of anthroposophy—as the task of spiritual life in the present day.