The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Final Address

[ 1 ] I was unable to speak to you yesterday or the day before. But I did not want to let today’s St. Michael’s Day spirit—which must surely radiate into our hearts and souls tomorrow—pass by without at least saying a few words to you, my dear friends.

[ 2 ] The fact that I am able to do this is only possible thanks to the devoted care of my friend, the physician Ms. Ita Wegman. And so I hope that I will indeed be able to say today what I would like to share with you, especially on this occasion or in light of this festive atmosphere.

[ 3 ] My dear friends, we have indeed had much to discuss lately about the influx of the Michael force into events—into the spiritual life of human beings on Earth. And it will surely rank among the finest achievements—I would say—of anthroposophical interpretation of the signs of the times, when we are finally able to add Michaelmas celebrations, properly attuned, to the other annual festivals. But this will only be possible when the power of the Michael-thought—which is, after all, only just being sensed and intuited today—has taken root in a number of souls who can then form the proper human foundation for such a festive atmosphere.

[ 4 ] At present, we can, so to speak, evoke Michael-like moods around the time of Michaelmas by devoting ourselves to thoughts that prepare us for a future Michaelmas festival season for humanity. And such preparatory thoughts become particularly vivid within us when we turn our gaze to that which we have seen at work over such long periods of time—partly on Earth, and partly in the supersensible worlds, to prepare the way for what can be accomplished in the course of this century by those souls who, in reality and in the right spirit, feel drawn to the Michael current—what those souls can achieve for the development of humanity.

[ 5 ] And to make it clear to you, my dear friends—insofar as you are sincerely drawn to the anthroposophical movement—that you belong to these souls has indeed been my aim in recent weeks, particularly in those discussions in which I spoke about certain aspects of the karma of the Anthroposophical Society itself.

[ 6 ] There is something else we can point out—and we wish to do so today—that brings to our attention beings who are intimately connected, and will become ever more closely connected, with what has been described here as the Michael current; we turn our gaze to beings who make a profound impression on a large portion of humanity—at least over the course of two successive incarnations: Beings who, however, only coalesce into a unified whole for us when we recognize them as the successive incarnations of a single being.

[ 7 ] When we cast our spiritual gaze back to ancient times, we see the prophetic nature of the era emerge before us within the Jewish tradition. We know what a defining significance this guiding force of the prophet Elijah had for the people of the Old Testament—and thus for humanity as a whole. And we have, of course, pointed out how, over the course of time, at the most crucial junctures of humanity’s earthly development, the essence that was present in Elijah has reappeared—reappeared in such a way that the initiation it was meant to provide for humanity’s development Christ Jesus himself could bestow—and how the essence of Elijah reappeared in Lazarus-John, who is, after all, one and the same figure, as you can already see from my Christianity as a Mystical Fact.

[ 8 ] But we have also seen how this essence reappears in that painter of the world who was able to let his artistic expression soar so tremendously and impressively precisely through the Mystery of Golgotha. And we have then seen how that which, in a deeply Christian impulse, like the very essence of Christianity itself, finds its way into color and form, lived within Raphael; how it was revived in the poet Novalis; and how, through the poet Novalis, that which Raphael had presented to humanity in the most beautiful colors and forms was revealed in exquisite words. We see the succession of beings that unite into a single whole through the idea of incarnation.

[ 9 ] We know, for I have often drawn attention to these matters here: how, when a person has passed through the gate of death, they enter the starry worlds; how what we outwardly refer to as stars in the physical sense is, in fact, merely the outward sign of spiritual worlds that look down upon us, yet are actively involved in every aspect of humanity’s evolutionary development.

[ 10 ] We know that human beings pass through the Lunar, Mercury, Venus, Solar, Martian, Jovian, and Saturnian spheres so that, once they have worked out their karma with the beings of these spheres and with those human souls who are also in the afterlife, they may return once more to an earthly existence.

[ 11 ] From this perspective, let us take a look at Raphael as he passes through the gate of death, as he enters the realm of the starry worlds—the realm of spiritual development—with his artistic genius, which already shone with the brilliance of the stars while he was on Earth, and we will become aware of the following, my dear friends: We become aware of how Raphael enters the lunar sphere, enters into relationship with those spirits who live in the lunar sphere—who are, after all, the spiritual individualities of the great primordial teachers of humanity of old, by whose wisdom Raphael, as Elijah, was still deeply inspired; we see how, in communion with these lunar beings and with all the souls with whom he has passed through and lived through earlier earthly stages, we see how he unites himself spiritually with all that constitutes the spiritual origins of the Earth, with all the essential being that made humanity and a divine permeation of the earthly realm possible in the first place; we see Raphael, so to speak, so truly among his own kind, connected to those with whom he most loved to be during his time as Elias, because they were the ones who, at the end of earthly existence, set the goal for this earthly life.

[ 12 ] We then see him wandering through the sphere of Mercury, where, together with the great cosmic healers, he develops for his spiritual nature all that which has enabled him—even in his early work—to create something so healthy, so infinitely healthy, in color and line. Everything he painted there on canvas or on walls—which brought such great comfort and infinite inspiration to discerning people, and which was so luminous and radiant—revealed itself to him within the entire cosmic context in which it can exist, through his passage through the beings of the Mercury sphere.

[ 13 ] And so he, who had developed such a love for art on Earth, who was completely absorbed in his love of color and line, was then transferred to the sphere of Venus, which lovingly carried him over to that solar existence that has lived out its course in his incarnations known to us thus far—to that solar existence through which, as the prophet Elijah, he taught humanity, through his people, the great, purposeful truths.

[ 14 ] We see how he is once again able to live intimately within the sphere of the Sun, though now in a different way than before, when he was a companion of Christ Jesus on Earth—that is, what he had gone through when, through the initiation of Christ Jesus, he was transformed from Lazarus into John.

[ 15 ] And we see how, in the cosmic reflection of the human heart, he beholds—in the radiant brightness of the world—that which he has depicted in such brilliant light for the believers in Christ Jesus.

[ 16 ] And we then see how, in the sphere of Jupiter, he wisely penetrates that which lay at the very foundation of his life; we see how, in wisdom, he is able to synthesize—both in collaboration with spirits such as Goethe, the later Goethe, and with spirits who were more or less astray, yet who nevertheless conveyed what constitutes worldly being and worldly thought into the realm of the magical—and how he laid the foundation for his magical idealism there through his shared experience of the evolution of the later Eliphas Levi. We see how he participates in all that lived over there in Swedenborg.

[ 17 ] And there is one thing that is remarkable, my dear friends, and deeply significant: Herman Grimm, a man wholly devoted to Raphael, set out four times to write Raphael’s biography. Yet—even though he so beautifully rounded out Michelangelo’s life—he never managed to truly portray Raphael’s earthly life in a way that would have satisfied him. Herman Grimm always produced works that, in his own view, were imperfect with regard to Raphael’s life.

[ 18 ] And so his first book on Raphael was published—a book that was supposed to be a biography of Raphael. What is it? It is a reprint of Vasari’s old anecdotes about Raphael. And it contributes nothing to Raphael’s biography, but rather something entirely different: it offers a description of what Raphael has come to represent here on earth—in people’s veneration, recognition, and understanding—only after his death. Herman Grimm recounts how people have thought of Raphael—how the Italians, the French, and the Germans have thought of him—through the course of the centuries. He recounts a biography of the memory of Raphael that has lived on here on earth after his death. He finds a way to access what has remained of Raphael in people’s remembrance, veneration, and understanding; he does not find a way to describe Raphael’s earthly life.

[ 19 ] And after he had made four attempts, he said: The only thing one can really do for Raphael personally is to describe how one painting flows into the next, as if it had been painted by a supernatural being who, in fact, never truly touched the earth with his earthly life. The paintings are there, and one can completely set aside Raphael, who painted them, by focusing on the sequence of what is expressed in the inner content of the paintings and by conveying this.

[ 20 ] And so, in fact, when Herman Grimm spoke once more about Raphael shortly before his death—and made yet another attempt to put pen to paper on the subject—he spoke only about Raphael’s paintings, not about Raphael’s earthly persona.

[ 21 ] This earthly personality of Raphael—it was, after all, completely absorbed and existed solely through what Lazarus-Johannes had given this soul, my dear friends, so that it might flow forth in color and line for humanity.

[ 22 ] And then this being lived—it lived in such a way that, in a sense, it was able to live out this “Raphael life,” once again with a lifespan of only thirty years, a second time in Novalis. And so we see Raphael die young, Novalis die young—a being who emerged from Elias-Johannes, presenting himself to humanity in two different forms, thereby preparing, in an artistic and poetic way, the Michael mood, sent down as a messenger from the Michael current to the people on Earth.

[ 23 ] And then we see Raphael’s great artistry emerge in Novalis’s enchanting poetry, which speaks so deeply to the heart. Everything that human eyes had seen through Raphael—human hearts were able to be moved by it when it was brought to life again in Novalis.

[ 24 ] And when we consider this Novalis: How vividly does that “Raphael-like life”—so finely perceived by Herman Grimm—resonate in this very Novalis! His beloved dies at a young age. He himself is still young. What kind of earthly life does he wish to lead now that she has died? He expresses this himself by saying that his earthly life is to be a following-in-death after hers. Already he wants to pass into the supersensible; already he wants to live the life of Raphael once more—not to actually touch the earth, but to live out his magical idealism in poetry, by refusing to be touched by earthly life.

[ 25 ] And how do we see—when we take in what he poured into his fragments—how do we see it when we let it sink in? It has such a profound effect because everything that lies before us in immediate sensory reality—everything that the eyes can see and perceive as beautiful on Earth—appears in Novalis’s poetry, through what lives in his soul, as magical idealism, in an almost heavenly poetic radiance. Through his poetic-magical idealism, he knows how to make even the most insignificant material things rise anew in his spiritual radiance.

[ 26 ] And so it is precisely in Novalis that we see a brilliant harbinger of that Michael current, my dear friends, which is now to guide you all as you live, and then, once you have passed through the gate of death, you will find all those—including the being of whom I have spoken today—in the spiritual-supernatural world; you will find all those with whom you are to prepare the work that is to take place at the end of this century and that is to lead humanity beyond the great crisis into which it has been plunged.

[ 27 ] Only when this work—this great, powerful permeation with the Michael force, with the Michael will—which is, after all, nothing other than that which precedes the Christ will and the Christ force in order to implant this Christ force into earthly life in the proper way—only when this Michael power can truly triumph over the demonic, dragon-like forces—which you, of course, know well—and if all of you who have taken the Michael-thought into yourselves in the light of anthroposophical wisdom, if you have received and preserved this Michael-thought with a faithful heart and in deep love, if you strive to take this year’s Michael consecration mood as the starting point for that which which can not only reveal this Michael-thought to you in all its strength and power within your soul, but also bring it to life in all your actions—then you will be faithful servants of this Michael-thought, and then you will be able to become noble co-workers in that which, in the spirit of Michael, is to assert itself in the development of the Earth through anthroposophy.

[ 28 ] If, among four times twelve people, the Michael-thought comes fully to life—at least in the near future—among four times twelve people who can be recognized as such not by their own efforts but through the guidance of the Goetheanum in Dornach; if, among such four times twelve people, leaders emerge to foster a festive spirit for Michael, then we can look forward to the light that will spread over humanity in the future through the Michael current and Michael deeds.

[ 29 ] That this is so, my dear friends, is why I have tried to muster the strength to tell you this, at least in these few words, today. My strength would not suffice for more today. But this is what may speak to your souls through these words today: that you may receive this Michael-thought in the spirit of what a heart faithful to Michael can feel when, clothed in the sun’s radiant robe of light, Michael appears, who first points and explains what is to come, so that this garment of Michael, this garment of light, may become the waves of words—the words of Christ, the words of the worlds—which can transform the Logos of the worlds into the Logos of humanity.

That is why my words to you today are these:

Sprung from the powers of the Sun,
Radiant, world-blessing
Spiritual powers; to Michael’s robe of light
You are predestined by the Divine Thought.

He, the Messenger of Christ, reveals within you
the sacred Will of the Worlds that sustains humanity;
You, the luminous beings of the etheric worlds
carry the Word of Christ to humanity

Thus does the Herald of Christ appear,
in souls that wait and thirst.
To them your radiant Word shines
In the world-time of the spiritual human.

You, the disciples of spiritual knowledge
Receive Michael’s wise beckoning,
Receive the loving Word of the World-Will
And make it effective in the soul’s highest aspirations.