Unlimited : Behold, I make all things new : First-Class Lesson #19

 

I am come to send fire on the Earth;

and what will I, if it be already kindled?

But I have a baptism to be baptized with;

and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

—Luke 12:49-50

 

"Behold, I make all things new."  — Revelation 21:5

 

Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, Switzerland

First-Class Lesson #19

August 2, 1924

My dear friends! Once again, we will begin by allowing the verse to flood into our souls, the verse that can presently bring to us how all that is and is becoming in the world, what has been in times long past, is in the present, and will be in the future, how out of all sounds forth to us, evermore resounds in us, and calls out to us to seek self-awareness, and as such is the foundation for true, for truly balanced world-awareness.

O Man, know yourself!
So sounds the word of worlds.

You hear it soul-forcefully,
You feel it spirit-powerfully.

Who speaks so world-mightily?
Who speaks so heart-inwardly?

Does it work streaming through space
Into your sense’s self-experiencing?

Does it sound weaving through time
Into your life's evolving stream?

Are you the one, who yourself
In sensing space, in experiencing time
Creates the word, feeling yourself
Estranged in space’s soul-emptiness,
As you lose the power of thinking
In time’s destroying stream?

 

Well, my dear brothers and sisters, we have allowed mantric verses to pass by our souls, which in their craft comprise the way forth into spirit-land, past the Guardian of the Threshold, into what is at first the dim, dark, night-bedecked spiritual world, which at first just feels light, then for soul-perception becomes light. In this spiritual world we have seen how a person partakes, generally unawares although he can become aware, how a person partakes of the dialogue of the higher hierarchies among themselves, which the hierarchies among themselves work on and interweave into the world, which itself is spoken forth in word-of-worlds. And finally, we have been able to situate ourselves in that world-domain in which the various hierarchy choirs ring all together. Let us bring to mind once more how the choirs of the various hierarchies resound within one another, there, where we are infused with what the high beings of the Second Hierarchy are saying, where we are infused with what the beings of the First Hierarchy are speaking forth. As they speak, we presently begin to hear them resounding together as a choir.

The Guardian makes us mindful, as we have already become acquainted with in previous lessons, of the following:

See the ethereal iris’s
Light-abundant round.
Through your eyes’
Light-forming force
Let your “I” penetrate through the arc,
And then behold from yonder watch
Color flooding the world’s chalice.

After the Guardian of the Threshold has advised us about the spirited mystery of the rainbow, the Angels, Archangels, and Archai peal forth as if from a choir:

Sense our thoughts
Color breathing living
In the chalice's flood of light;
We carry the sensory-semblance
Into spirit-being-realms
And turn ourselves world-infused
To the service of higher spirits.

The spirits of the third hierarchy clarify how in service to humanity they apply in supplication to the Second Hierarchy, to the Exusiai, Dynamis, and Kyriotetes. Out of their domain we hear, once again in chorus:

What you have taken up,
Enlivened from dead sensory-semblance
We wake it in existence;
We add it to the rays of light,
So that the emptiness of matter
Will bear spirit nature
And manifest endowed with love.

And when we have heard how the spiritual beings of the Second Hierarchy align with our “I-am” in world-creativity, then the Thrones, Seraphim, and Cherubim of the First Hierarchy peal forth in choir:

In your worlds of will
Feel our world-wide impact;
Spirit shines in matter,
When we are thinking working;
Spirit works in matter,
When we are willing living;
World is I-willing spirit-word.

And now we stand within the spirit word, within the spirit word that lies at the foundation of world formation. We feel this spirit word around about us. We feel the world infused throughout with this spirit word. We feel ourselves interwoven with this spirit word. We feel the influx of this spirit word into our most intimate human nature. And finally, we feel this world-wide spirit word streaming into our hearts. We feel ourselves there with the whole of our human nature in the surging of this spirit word. We feel ourselves there in spirit in the word-interlaced world spirit.

There is the Guardian in the distance. We have walked past the Guardian. Presently he is quite distant. We hear him yet softly, as he now allows a final admonishing word to stream forth to us from his distant reach.

The Guardian speaks from afar. The human I knows itself in the realm of the Seraph-Cherub-Throne borne Spirit-Word. The Guardian speaks:

Who speaks in spirit-word
With voice
That blazes in world-fire?

There sounds forth in answer from the realm of the First Hierarchy:

Speaking is star-flaming,
Flaming are Seraphic fire-powers;
They flame also

– we feel the world-speech, the language of the world-word within ourselves –

in my heart.
In the primal source of love¹
The human heart finds
Creative spirit-flaming-speech:
It is I.

My dear brothers and sisters! Whoever would penetrate into the esoteric realm should certainly feel at once the primeval sacred ehyeh asher ehyeh,² the I am which is a sacred holy word, that resounds here but emerges from a reality on the other side. The I am that we take hold of in fleeting thoughts is merely a reflection.

We must most certainly make ourselves aware that the true I am does not emerge from us in speech within the earthly realm, initially. If we are worthy and would say the I am, we first must come into the realm of the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones, for there the I am rings true. Here in the earthly realm, it is somewhat illusory.

But there, in yonder watch, in order to experience truly and inwardly the I am, there we must hear world-words. We must solemnly hear the question of the Guardian of the Threshold, who most certainly speaks there in world-words. With thunderous flaming — spiritually thunderous flaming — the Seraphim, who forge their way through the world, there where we now stand the Seraphim speak the world-word’s fiery speech. The word is flame, flaming voice. And as we experience ourselves in this blazing world fire, in this fiery speech speaking in flaming voice, then we experience the true I am.

That is contained in these words, which come now as a question from the distant Guardian of the Threshold, whom we have long ago passed by, and then in answer comes forth from the domain of the First Hierarchy:

Who speaks in spirit-word
With voice
That blazes in world-fire?

Speaking is star-flaming,
Flaming are Seraphic fire-powers;
They flame also in my heart.
In the primal source of love
The human heart finds
Creative spirit-flaming-speech:
It is I.

[The first part of the mantra was now written on the board.]

The Guardian speaks from afar (The human-I knows itself in the realm of the Seraph-Cherub-Throne borne Spirit-Word.):
Who speaks in spirit-word
With voice
That blazes in world fire?

From the realm of the first hierarchy:
Speaking is star-flaming,
Flaming are Seraphic fire-powers;
They flame also in my heart.
In the primal source of love
The human heart finds
Creative spirit-flaming-speech:
It is I.

When a person’s customary word resounds, then what speaks by means of the person’s word is human thinking. And when the spiritual world-word resounds, then what speaks by means of spiritual world-word is world-thinking. This lies embedded within the following question of the Guardian, that he now sets forth as a second from the distance.

The Guardian speaks from afar. The human-I knows itself in the realm of the Seraph-Cherub-Throne borne Spirit-Word:

What thinks in spirit-word
With thoughts
That form out of world-souls?

These are the very thoughts issuing, coming forth, of world-souls, from all world-souls, from all the beings belonging to the various hierarchies. They sculpt, form, fashion everything that exists in the world’s realms. Therefore, the Guardian asks who it is that thinks the potent thoughts that form and fashion all things:

What thinks in spirit-word
With thoughts
That form out of world-souls?

Again, coming to us from the realm of the First Hierarchy:

Thinking are stars luminaries,

First it was the flaming speaking the words. The stars flaming speak the words. The luminaries, from which the flaming comes, think.

Thinking are stars luminaries,
Illuminating are cherubic form-forces.
They illuminate also in my head.

—So says the person to himself, standing within it all.—

In the primal source of light³
The human head finds
Thoughtful soul-forming work:
It is I.

That is the second colloquy, the second call, as if the beings of the First Hierarchy were giving us world-permission, that we within ourselves may experience the "I am".

What thinks in spirit-word
With thoughts
That form out of world-souls?

Thinking are stars luminaries,
Illuminating are cherubic form-forces.
They illuminate also in my head.
In the primal source of light
The human head finds
Thoughtful soul-forming work:
It is I.

[The second part of the mantra was now written on the board.]

The Guardian speaks from afar:

What thinks in spirit-word
With thoughts
That form out of world-souls?

From the realm of the first hierarchy:

Thinking are stars luminaries,
Illuminating are cherubic form-forces.
They illuminate also in my head.
In the primal source of light
The human head finds
Thoughtful soul-forming work:
It is I.

The world-spirit-word must speak. From it, thoughts stream forth. But the thoughts are formative, the thoughts are infused with force; the thoughts stream forth and world beings and world events thereby come into being, becoming all that is. In it the word-formed world-thoughts live, the thought-laden world-words. It is not a simple sort of thinking; it is not a simple sort of speaking; it is formation, creative forceful crafting, forces streaming forth in words. Forces imprint the thoughts out into world-beings, into world-events.

All this is indicated, pointed to, in the third question which the Guardian of the Threshold puts to us from afar:

What crafts⁴ in spirit-word
With crafting strengths⁵
That live in the body of worlds?

The whole world, which there resounds with the world-word, which there is thoroughly illuminated with world-thinking, is just the same as what thinks and speaks in human beings, is incorporated or embodied, is just the same as what resounds in the world-word. What shines thoroughly illuminated by thinking is world-embodiment. The Thrones carry it, bear it, or said somewhat better, it is that within which the Thrones bear the thoroughly thought-illuminated, world-spirit-word.

To this the answer comes, from the realm of the First Hierarchy, to the question of the Guardian:

Crafting is star-world-embodiment,⁶
Embodying⁷ are thronal bearing-powers;

We must build a word that is rather uncommon. But just as one illuminates by light and as the verb to live is built from the noun life, likewise in what emerges as a force in what is borne by the body, likewise one can build the word abide, or embody. Then to embody is nothing that is dead, to embody is nothing that is finished, to embody is something that is active at all times, is versatile, is moving, it embodies.

Embodying are thronal bearing-powers;
They embody also in my limbs.
In the primal source of life⁸
The human limbs find
Crafting world-bearer-power.
It is I.

World-word, world-thinking, then world-embodiment. Speaking, then thinking, and in the third question the Guardian refers to world-embodiment:

What crafts in spirit-word
With crafting strengths
That live in the body of worlds?

Crafting is star-world-embodiment,
Embodying are thronal bearing-powers;
They embody also in my limbs.
In the primal source of life
The human limbs find
Crafting world-bearer-power.
It is I.

[The third part of the mantra was now written on the board.]

The Guardian speaks from afar: (The human-I knows itself in the realm of the Seraph-Cherub-Throne borne Spirit-Word.)

What crafts in spirit-word
With crafting strengths
That live in the body of worlds?

From the realm of the first hierarchy:
Crafting is star-world-embodiment,
Embodying are thronal bearing-powers;
They embody also in my limbs.
In the primal source of life
The human limbs find
Crafting world-bearer-power.
It is I.

In a certain way, my dear brothers and sisters, it is a sort of closure along the path, the path that began in the realm of illusion, in the realm of maya, that has led us to the Guardian of the Threshold, that has led us in self-awareness through to self-awareness in the spiritual realm, and that has allowed us to hear the choirs of the Hierarchies. In a certain way it is a closure, for we now stand in the position of being allowed to experience in ourselves the true I am, the ehyeh asher ehyeh.

We are able to experience it in this dialogue, as the threefold It is I springs us forth from the heart, allows us to spring forth from the heart, so that when it springs us forth from the heart, it will allow into our heart the echo of what the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones allow to resound within this heart.

Who speaks in spirit-word
With voice
That blazes in world-fire?
Speaking is star-flaming,
Flaming are Seraphic fire-powers;
They flame also in my heart.
In the primal source of love
The human heart finds
Creative spirit-flaming-speech:
It is I.

What thinks in spirit-word
With thoughts
That form out of world-souls?
Thinking are stars luminaries,
Illuminating are cherubic form-forces.
They illuminate also in my head.
In the primal source of light
The human head finds
Thoughtful soul-forming work:
It is I.

What crafts in spirit-word
With crafting strengths
That live in the body of worlds?
Crafting is star-world-embodiment,
Embodying are thronal bearing-powers;
They embody also in my limbs.
In the primal source of life
The human limbs find
Crafting world-bearer-power.
It is I.

With that, my dear brothers and sisters, the first stage of the school’s First Class has in a certain sense been completed.

We have allowed those impartations that we could receive from the spiritual world — for this school is a school constituted by the spiritual world itself — we have allowed those images and inspirations that can come from the spiritual world to be drawn into us. They constitute what for our souls is the way to go forth in capturing the true human "I" in the vicinity of the Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Thrones.

My dear brothers and sisters, as you have heard in general anthroposophical proceedings concerning the supersensory School of Michael, it had initially resounded inwardly in such heart-felt lessons. The mighty images, cultivated imaginatively at the start of the nineteenth century, and then placed before the soul, if one was so destined to be in the vicinity of Michael, the revelations of the school of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, which in the supersensory world was led by Michael himself and high spiritual beings, in the aforementioned sense. And now we stand before this anthroposophical school founded by Michael. We feel ourselves within it. Michael-words they are, Michael-words that ought to characterize the way that leads forth into the spiritual world and into the human "I". These Michael-words of the esoteric Michael-school have built, so to say, the first stage.

As will then be announced, when we meet once again in September for these Class lessons, then it will be the will of the Michael-power to begin by highlighting the imaginative cultus-revelations from the beginning of the nineteenth century. That will be the second stage. All that has now been brought before our souls as mantric words will stand before our souls more fully in imagery which, insofar as is possible, will be the imagery as brought down here of the supersensory imaginative cultus from the beginning of the nineteenth century.

The third chapter of this school will build what will lead us on to those interpretations that were given to the mantric words in the supersensory Michael School of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries.

---

We should feel that we place ourselves in the midst of all that is within the spiritual world itself. Ever and again, however, we should look back upon the physical-sensory world, and in exemplary-unassuming fashion accommodate ourselves to that which has dominion in the sensory-physical earthly world. To this end, and in closing, let us once more allow to sound before our souls all, if we are capable of receiving it, if we are able to sense it, all that sounds forth from every stone, from every plant, from every animal, from every billowing cloud, from every bubbling spring, from every rushing gust of wind, from the woods and mountains, and everywhere from the things and events of the earth all around, if we can sense it there as it sounds forth.

We were in the realm of the Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Thrones. By itself the voice of the Guardian sounded forth from afar. We go in modesty back again, past the Guardian, back into the realm of the sensory show, into what is apparent to the senses. And again, we allow the words to reverberate within us:

O Man, know yourself!
So sounds the word of worlds.

You hear it soul-forcefully,
You feel it spirit-powerfully.

Who speaks so world-mightily?
Who speaks so heart-inwardly?

Does it work streaming through space
Into your sense’s self-experiencing?

Does it sound weaving through time
Into your life's evolving stream?

Are you the one, who yourself
In sensing space, in experiencing time
Creates the word, feeling yourself
Estranged in space’s soul-emptiness,
As you lose the power of thinking
In time’s destroying stream?

 

Blackboard (left side)

Blackboard (right side)

Blackboard Text for the Nineteenth Lesson

Der Hüter spricht aus der Ferne: Das Menschen-Ich weiß sich im Bereich des seraphisch-cherubinisch-throne getragenen Geistes-Wortes: Wer spricht im Geistes-Wort Mit der Stimme, Die im Weltenfeuer lodert? Aus dem Reich der ersten Hierarchie: Es sprechen Sternen-Flammen, Es flammen seraph’sche Feuer-Mächte; Sie flammen auch in meinem Herzen. In des Urseins Liebe-Quell Findet Menschen-Herz Schaffendes Geistes-Flammen-Sprechen: Es ist Ich. Der Hüter spricht aus der Ferne: Das Menschen-Ich weiß sich im Bereich des seraphisch-cherubinisch-throne getragenen Geistes-Wortes: Was denkt im Geistes-Wort Mit Gedanken, Die aus Weltenseelen bilden? Aus dem Reich der ersten Hierarchie: Es denken der Sterne Leuchter, Es leuchten cherubin’sche Bilde-Kräfte; Sie leuchten auch in meinem Haupte. In des Urseins Lichtes-Quell Findet Menschen-Haupt Denkendes Seelen-Bilde-Wirken: Es ist Ich. Der Hüter spricht aus der Ferne: Das Menschen-Ich weiß sich im Bereich des seraphisch-cherubinisch-throne getragenen Geistes-Wortes: Was kraftet im Geistes-Wort Mit Kräften, Die im Weltenleibe leben? Aus dem Reich der ersten Hierarchie: Es kraftet der Sternen-Welten-Leib, Es leiben der Thron Trag-Gewalten; Sie leiben auch in meinen Gliedern. In des Urseins Lebens-Quell Finden Menschen-Glieder Kraftendes Welten-Träger-Walten: Es ist Ich.

The Guardian speaks from afar: The human-I knows itself in the realm of the Seraph-Cherub-Throne borne Sprit-Word: Who speaks in spirit-word With voice That blazes in world-fire? From the Realm of the First Hierarchy: Speaking is star-flaming, Flaming are Seraphic fire-powers; They flame also in my heart. In the primal source of love The human heart finds Creative spirit-flaming-speech: It is I. The Guardian speaks from afar: The human-I knows itself in the realm of the Seraph-Cherub-Throne borne Sprit-Word: What thinks in spirit-word With thoughts That form out of world-souls? From the Realm of the First Hierarchy: It is stars luminaries thinking, Illuminating are Cherubic form-forces. They illuminate also in my head. In the primal source of light The human head finds Thoughtful soul-forming work: It is I. The Guardian speaks from afar: The human-I knows itself in the realm of the Seraph-Cherub-Throne borne Sprit-Word: What crafts in spirit-word With crafting strengths That live in the body of worlds? From the Realm of the First Hierarchy: Crafting is star-world-embodiment, Embodying are Thronal bearing-powers; They embody also in my limbs. In the primal source of life The human limbs find Crafting world-bearer power: It is I.

Source: August 2, 1924

Jñāna Yoga — Anthroposophy — culminates in Hatha Yoga

"The Marriage of the Virgin" by Raphael

Hatha Yoga: The union of the Sun (Ha) and the Moon (Tha)

The concluding lessons of the First Class:

Lesson 16:The chela becomes Anthropos-Sophia

Lesson 17: [Manas] The Bride of Christ: The microcosmic Anthropos-Sophia becomes the macrocosmic Moon Sophia

Lesson 18: [Buddhi] Ha-Tha Yoga: The union of Sophia and Christ the Sun God

Lesson 19: [Atman] Advaita (Nonduality): Not I, but Christ in me

Related post: Sophia

The Angel of Gautama Buddha: The Successor to Michael in the Archangelic Realm. Michael and the Dragon of Materialism.

 

Rudolf Steiner, Stuttgart, May 20, 1913

We have tried to throw some light upon the character of our present age as it shows itself in relation to the working of cosmic law. This is a matter that should not be lightly passed over. For when we speak of the spiritual forces, the spiritual influences, of a particular age, these are likewise the forces and impulses which are working in the soul of each one of us. We cannot understand our own souls unless we are able to place ourselves in right relation to these forces and influences of our age, which are at the same time the spiritual forces and impulses of our own souls. In whatever way individuals among you may account for your belief in something that is given in Spiritual Science, it is absolutely true that in the souls of all those who fairly and honestly come to Spiritual Science there lives, perhaps unconsciously, an urge that comes from the genuine spiritual impulses of our time.

In the last lecture I endeavored to show you that at the present time we are living in what one may call the Michael Age. An understanding for spiritual things is now becoming possible for an increasing number of souls. Whereas during the course of previous centuries it was possible to acquire an understanding above all for the things of external natural science, for physical, chemical, and physiological laws, for everything related to external space and time, whereas during the Gabriel Age understanding was awakened for all that went from triumph to triumph in the natural sciences and inclined men to a scientific conception of the world, we are now entering upon an age in which it will be just as possible to understand the things of the spirit.

At no time in human evolution have two successive epochs been so radically different from one another as that which has just run its course and the epoch upon which we are now entering. And never before have souls been more alien to one another than will be the souls of those who incline to what is spiritual and the souls who still adhere to what past centuries have brought. Nor will it be long before those who believe they stand firmly in materialistic Monism will be quite out of date in comparison with those who are earnestly seeking an understanding of supersensible worlds. For since the last third of the nineteenth century a spiritual ‘tidal wave’ from higher worlds has been flowing into our world, and making it possible for man to understand the way in which human and world evolution are spiritually guided.

My dear friends, nearly two thousand years ago the event took place which you all know under the name of the Mystery of Golgotha. Of this Mystery of Golgotha we have often spoken here. We have approached it from many different sides, and have seen it to be the great center of gravity of all human evolution. It has been possible to show quite clearly that without reference to any religious views or creed, but purely out of spiritual science itself, an understanding of this event is possible, and in such a way that one may expect understanding from every shade of current religious belief. We have also spoken at some length about the reasons why certain people are not prepared to accept the Christ Event as the great center of gravity of human evolution. But now we must turn our minds to something else which was mentioned yesterday in the public lecture. (see Note 1)

It might well be that out of prejudice a person wished to know nothing of what took place in a certain small country at the beginning of our era, did not want to trouble himself about what we call the Mystery of Golgotha. Very well, let us even assume that it would be natural for him to imagine the whole course of history in such a way that what happened on Golgotha could be struck out. Let us make that hypothesis. In the course of his study of the evolution of mankind, such a person will nevertheless discover a special characteristic of that age. We spoke of this yesterday. The epoch immediately preceding the Mystery of Golgotha was a time of transition in the attitude and direction of the human soul. From having been directed more to the surrounding world in an external way, man's soul began to be turned within to its own inner nature — and this, quite apart from the Mystery of Golgotha. At the time into which the Mystery of Golgotha was placed, the great transition was occurring from a life in outward surroundings to a more inward life. And anyone can feel this, even if he ignores the Mystery of Golgotha altogether. Mankind was in that time at a turning-point. It is not necessary even to speak of the Mystery of Golgotha, one can point to quite other events to show that formerly man's life had an outward direction, but that afterwards those who are animated by the impulse of the age, by the true genius of the age, begin to make their life more inward.

When anything of this kind happens, it does not happen without being prepared beforehand. I have no desire to quote the trite saying: "Nature, or history, does not proceed by leaps." The expression holds good only within certain limits. Even the blossom is already prepared in the green leaves — although here we have, have we not, a clear case of a ‘leap’ in development? Similarly there was a preparation beforehand for what appears as a sudden incision in human history at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha. When we go deeply into what we can find of the teaching and outlook of the last centuries of ancient Hebraism, we find a spirit — of a Hebrew kind, of course — a spirit of preparation for the Mystery of Golgotha; and not in Hebraism alone, for in other regions of the Earth too we can find such a spirit of preparation.

In Hebraism new features began to show themselves of quite a different order from those that were there formerly. In the sixth century before the Mystery of Golgotha we find an altogether new mode of regarding the world, compared with what we find earlier in the spiritual life of the Hebrews; it marks a new epoch. This reveals itself clearly enough to the careful observer. And if it shows itself here in a different manner — since the old Hebrew people were differently constituted — yet it is the same spirit, expressing itself differently, which prevails in Greek philosophy and even in the Greek art of poetry, in the last centuries before the Mystery of Golgotha. We find it everywhere. One has only to make a serious study of spirits like Plato and Aristotle — yes, and even Socrates — to see that this turning point is everywhere being prepared.

Now, events that happen here on Earth are guided and controlled from the supersensible world. Before the incision entered into the physical life of the Earth which we call the Event of Golgotha, the earlier guidance of evolution sent out a Messenger — at that time still a Messenger of Jehovah — to guide this event. He was the Spirit who prepared the period of civilization up to the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, the same Spirit who is the Leader of our own culture epoch just beginning, the Spirit we have called Michael. Just as Michael gives its character to our age, so did he give its character to the whole civilization which prepared the way for the Mystery of Golgotha. The Power, however, who sent forth Michael from the higher worlds was at that time Jahve or Jehovah.

In those days it was not as it is in our time, when, as soon as one speaks of spiritual things the objection is so easily raised: You often speak of the Folk Spirit or Time Spirit, and of other spiritual facts, but you rarely speak of God. — People do not notice why one does not speak of God — for the reason, namely, that no human concept can embrace that in which we live and move and have our being. Here one also meets with points of view which are, from a certain aspect, very interesting. When I gave a public lecture recently in a certain town, and as the practice often is, questions were sent up to be answered, one man put a very clever question. He asked: “If logically one recognizes an object through the fact that one looks at it as an object and can stand before it, if we cannot have an objective picture of an object which we have in ourselves — like the pupil of the eye, for example — because we cannot look at it, then how does this fit in with the opinion of many mystics that one must remove oneself from God in order to be able to contemplate Him?”

Certainly many mystics have maintained that one must withdraw from God in order to contemplate Him. It was a clever question, but the only answer that can be given is: “You may withdraw from God as much as you please, but you still remain in Him, you cannot get out of God.” Logic may often be very logical but fall short of reality.

In times when men stood nearer to the spiritual they had a feeling of reverence for the Divinity in which we live and move and have our being, the Divinity which it was not even always right to call by name; and for that reason the ancient Hebrews, in order not to pronounce the name, used the expression the ‘Countenance of Jehovah.’ In man, the countenance is what he turns outwards, that by which he reveals himself. It is not the whole of man. One knows a man as he is in his inner being by the features of his countenance, but one does not on that account presume to speak of the whole man when one means his face or countenance.

At that time therefore Michael was called the ‘Countenance of Jehovah’; men preferred to speak of the representative through whom Jahve revealed Himself to mankind as in an external countenance. Even in intimate circles they would rather name the representative than speak of Jahve Himself. Michael was in fact at that time looked upon as the spiritual Regent of the age, as the Messenger of Jahve, as the member of the hierarchies from whom streamed forth the impulse that was to come for the understanding of the Event of Golgotha.

In the intervening centuries other beings from the rank of the archangels have had the guidance of mankind's spiritual evolution, but the being who had the guidance when preparation had to be made for the Mystery of Golgotha is the same being as is now again sending the floods of supersensible life down into the world of the senses. There was a Michael Age then, and a Michael Age is the one that is now beginning. There is, however, a vast difference between that Michael Age and ours which has just begun.

It would take us too far today to describe what kind of understanding men have been able to bring to the Mystery of Golgotha during the period which has elapsed between that Michael Age and ours. There have been deeply fervent souls who out of a more or less intense need for belief have gained a relation to the Mystery of Golgotha and its Bearer; there have been deeply religious natures all through the centuries since the Mystery of Golgotha down to our own time. But the Mystery of Golgotha is a Mystery which, notwithstanding that it took place as a real fact at the beginning of modern times, is yet of such a nature that human souls cannot presume to understand it fully without preparation. New epochs will continually arise which will bring a greater deepening to human souls, and which will have an increasing understanding for what happened in the Mystery of Golgotha. The Event itself stands there as the great turning-point in human evolution; the understanding of the Event will continuously grow and ripen in the spiritual evolution of the Earth. This fact cannot be engraved deeply enough into our minds and hearts.

Let us grasp in a certain metaphysical abstraction what actually took place at that time. We have described it from various points of view; let us now choose a more abstract point of view, but one which, if we allow it to work upon us, can call forth a deep feeling in our souls.

When with ordinary powers of observation and even with scientific observation we study the things around us, we learn to know by means of ordinary thinking and ordinary science the laws of existence in the mineral, plant, animal, and human kingdoms. These laws all culminate in an ideal: to understand life. But life is not to be understood here on Earth. Occultism alone can give knowledge of life; external science can never fathom it. It would be the wildest fantasy to believe that one could ever penetrate the laws of life as one can physical or chemical laws. To do so remains an ideal; it can never be reached. On the physical plane there is never any possibility of giving a knowledge of life. This knowledge of life must remain the preserve of supersensible knowledge.

But now, impossible as is a sense knowledge of life, equally impossible is a supersensible knowledge of death. There are conditions of terrible isolation of consciousness in the spiritual worlds, there is such a thing as a temporary immersion as though into a condition of sleep, but there is no death in the higher worlds. Death is impossible in the higher worlds. All the beings we have learned to know as beings of the higher hierarchies have this distinguishing characteristic: they do not know death, they never pass through death. Just as we are told in the Bible that the angels covered their faces before the secret of birth, the secret of Man's becoming, so must they and all other higher beings cover their faces before death. For death is an event that is only possible in the sense world, not in the supersensible.

Among all the beings of the higher worlds there was One and One alone Who had to go through death — we may also say, Who willed to go through death; that is, the Christ. To that end He had to come down to Earth. In order that a being of the higher worlds might be able to accomplish what was necessary for Earth evolution, the Christ had to descend from a world in which there is no death to the world in which there is death.

If such ideas are at first abstract, it is for us to change them into feeling and experience. The full understanding of what I have now described in an abstract way will become a concern of the evolution of humanity. With a certain reverence, together with humility and delicacy, let us approach today the secret of the Mystery of Golgotha.

For what was it that really happened then? It has often been described. The Christ descended from the supersensible worlds into the world in which He has since lived as a hidden Force — a Force however which will make itself manifest from this century onwards. He descended out of a world in which there is no death, into the world of death, and He — this Force — has united Himself with the Earth; from being a cosmic Force He has become a Force of the Earth. He went through death in order to come to life in Earth existence, in order to be within the Earth world. And all through the centuries there has come to expression in souls which were filled with this Impulse the striving of mankind to understand Him. But the nearer evolution approached the close of the Gabriel Age, the more this understanding receded, until today just where there should be understanding, it is sadly lacking, and materialism prevails not only in modern science but consequently in theology too. The real understanding of the Christ Impulse has grown less and less. Materialism has seized upon men's souls and deeply ensconced itself in them. Materialism became in many respects the fundamental impulse of the epoch which has just elapsed. Countless souls died during that epoch who went through the gate of death with a materialistic outlook. For such numbers of souls to go through the gate of death with a materialistic outlook would have been impossible in earlier ages. These souls then lived in the spiritual world between death and a new birth without knowing anything of the world in which they lived. A being came towards them; they perceived Him in that world. They had to perceive Him because this being had united Himself with the Earth, although for the present He rules invisibly in physical Earth existence. And the exertions of these souls who had gone through the gate of death succeeded — we cannot express it otherwise — in driving the Christ out of the spiritual world. The Christ has had to experience a renewal of the Mystery of Golgotha, although not in the same magnitude as before. At that time He went through death; now He had to undergo banishment from His existence in the spiritual world. And thus there was fulfilled in Him the eternal law of the spiritual world: that what disappears for the higher spiritual world arises anew in the lower world.

If it is possible in the 20th century for souls to evolve to an understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha, then it is due to this Event — that Christ, through a conspiracy of materialistic souls, has been driven out of the spiritual worlds, and transferred into the sense world, into the world of man, so that even in this world of the senses a new understanding for the Christ can begin. Hence, too, Christ is still more nearly and intimately united with the destiny of men on Earth. And while in the past man could look up to Jahve or Jehovah and know that He was the being who sent out Michael to prepare the way for the transition from the Jahve Age to the Christ Age — while in earlier ages it was Jehovah who sent Michael, it is now the Christ who sends us Michael.

This is the new and important fact which we must transform into a feeling. As formerly man could speak of Jahve-Michael, the Leader of the age, so now we can speak the Christ-Michael. Michael has been exalted to a higher stage — from Folk Spirit to Time Spirit, inasmuch as from being the Messenger of Jahve he has become the Messenger of Christ. And so when we speak of a right understanding of the Michael Impulse in our age, we are speaking of a right understanding of the Christ Impulse.

An abstract understanding always deals in names, simply in names, and thinks it will arrive somewhere if it asks “What kind of Being is Michael?” and wants to be told that he comes from this or that hierarchy, that he is an archangel, that archangels have such and such qualities. Then it is all defined and people think now they know what such a being is. They do not know it by speaking of Michael in this way. If one wants to understand the evolution of mankind, one must understand that Michael too has evolved: one must understand that it is the same being who paved the way for the preparation of the Mystery of Golgotha, and who now in our day paves the way for the understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha. Then, however, he was a Folk Spirit, now he is a Time Spirit; then he was the Messenger of Jahve, now he is the Messenger of Christ. We speak of the Christ in the right way when we speak of Michael and his mission, knowing that Michael, who was formerly the bearer of the Jehovah-mission, is now the bearer of the Mission of the Christ.

My dear friends, we have been able to follow the path of Michael, a Spirit who has, so to say, ascended in order to communicate a new impulse to mankind; who has ascended, or rather is ascending, from the rank of the archangels to the rank of the archai. His place will be filled by another being who succeeds him.

I have spoken here on different occasions of the evolution which Buddha passed through. The puerile objections which are now being made against us (see Note 2) are brought also against our understanding of the Christ Impulse in the world — as though we had ever been one-sided in our representation of the Christ Impulse. We turn our gaze to evolution as a whole and describe what different impulses underlie it, giving to each its due value. Again and again we have spoken of the Bodhisattva who was born as Gautama Buddha and have shown that for us it is truth that he became ‘Buddha’. We have followed his evolution until the time when he received his mission on Mars. And of that mission we have also spoken here.

As long as man dwells on Earth, there is always for each human being, however high he may stand, an individuality who guides him from incarnation to incarnation. The individual guidance of human beings is made subject to the angeloi, the angel beings. When a man from being a Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, then his angel is, as it were, set free. And it is such angel beings who, after the fulfillment of their mission, ascend into the realm of the archangel beings.

Thus if we really understand how to penetrate ever more deeply into the supersensible evolution which lies behind our sense evolution, we are actually able to perceive at some point how an archangel ascends to the nature of the archai, and an angel being to an archangel being.

My dear friends, what I have said to you about the spiritual background of the world in which we live and in which we wish to take our stand as Anthroposophists — I have not said it in order that you may merely theorize over these things, but that you may transform into feeling and experience what has been expressed in words and ideas. Yes — to be an Anthroposophist in our age means to know the nature of the supersensible world which underlies the sense world of human evolution, to feel oneself in the spiritual world, as physical man feels himself physically in the atmosphere. But we do not feel ourselves in the spiritual world by merely repeating: Spirit, Spirit, Spirit is in us! Just as one has to gauge in a practical concrete way — from the formation of the clouds, from the humidity and other phenomena — the state of the atmosphere of the Earth, so we must ‘feel’ in quite a concrete way the spiritual world into which we are submerged every night when we fall asleep; we must feel and know how there lives in this spiritual world what is now happening as a result of the mission entrusted by Christ to Michael — that is, to the same Spirit of the hierarchy of archangels who in earlier times had been used by the impulse of Jahve for the preparation of the Mystery of Golgotha. That is what is happening behind our physical sense evolution. And to feel ourselves within such happenings in the spiritual world in the same way as we feel ourselves physically within the atmosphere which we breathe in and out, means to have the right consciousness today in relation to the spiritual world.

Try to receive into your whole heart and soul these results of occultism which I have now endeavored to lay before you; try to have a sensitive understanding of them, and to consider what it means now in this age to live consciously in the spiritual events that are taking place around us, to live consciously in that world whither our soul goes every night when we fall asleep and whence we come every morning when we awake. Try to lead the soul into the direct and concrete experience of what is so often abstractly called Divine Providence. For it lies in the true character of our age to do this. Try now in this present time to know and experience as individual beings what men in past ages could only feel in an undefined way as a Providence moving through the world.

Place as a picture before your souls that the task of the previous epoch was to find natural science. At that time the laws of nature were good if they were rightly used by man to build up external world conceptions. But there is nothing absolutely good or bad in this external world of maya. In our time the laws of Nature would be bad and evil were they still to be used to build up a world conception at a time when spiritual life is flowing into the sense world. These words are not to be taken as directed against what past ages have done; they are directed against what wants to remain as it was in earlier ages and will not put itself at the service of the new revelation.

Michael did not fight this Dragon in the ages that are past, for then the Dragon which is now meant was not yet a Dragon; it will become a Dragon if those concepts and ideas which belong only to natural science were to be used to construct the world conception of the coming age. For the monster that will then rear its head among mankind will be rightly seen in the picture of the Dragon that must be vanquished by Michael, whose Age begins in our own time.

That is an important Imagination, — Michael overcoming the Dragon. To receive the inflow of spiritual life into the sense world — from now on, that is the service of Michael. We serve Michael by overcoming the Dragon that is trying to grow to his full height and strength in ideas which during the past epoch produced materialism and which now threaten to prolong their life on into the future. To defeat this means to stand in the service of Michael. That is the victory of Michael over the Dragon. It is the old picture over again, which for earlier times had another meaning and which must now acquire the right meaning for our age. When we are conscious of the part we have to play as men of a new age, then our task can stand before us in the picture of Michael conquering the Dragon.

Let us take this picture and make of it an Imagination. Let us try to understand our times through knowing ourselves to be in a spiritual guidance that is the true spiritual guidance of our age, and that can be the spiritual guidance of every human soul who is sincerely and honestly seeking evolution on the path of spiritual life.

Source: The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Michael Impulse and the Mystery of Golgotha

 

Rudolf Steiner, Stuttgart, May 18, 1913

In order to describe the supersensible events which are of special importance for the time in which we are living, we must remind ourselves that all life in the universe rests upon an ascending evolution. If we follow the path of man's evolution we find him first as he was endowed in the beginning, in the old Saturn period; then we find him penetrated by a new element in the old Sun period; still further developed in the old Moon period; and in the Earth period endowed with the fourth element, the ego. And we know moreover that in the Jupiter period his soul forces will take on such a form as will make him comparable with the beings of the hierarchy of the angels.

Now, just as man advances and ascends in his evolution, so do the other beings of the different hierarchies proceed from lower to higher stages. It is not only the human hierarchy which is subject to this ascending evolution, but also the hierarchies who are above mankind.

From among these hierarchies let us take the one which stands two stages higher than man, the hierarchy of the archangels. As I said yesterday, many intellectual people are prepared to accept it if one speaks of ‘spirit’ in general; but if one proceeds to classes, orders, individuals — as one does in speaking of plants, animals, and other spheres in natural science — then the educated man of today feels hostile. But we must do so, if we wish to deal with the spiritual world in a real and concrete way.

If you will look at the lecture cycle I held in Christiania on the evolution of the races of mankind, you will see that the evolution of the races is connected with the hierarchy of the archangels. The successive epochs of mankind are subject to the archai, the Spirits of Personality.

Now, if we take the most important beings in the ranks of the achangels, we have names which we have met with in other connections and which we can use like other names — Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, and so on.

We can call these beings by such names, for the name is in no way the essential thing. We give them names in the same way as we give other things names; that plays a certain role in what we find as facts of supersensible evolution. Our physical evolution is however dependent upon this supersensible evolution.

As a matter of fact we can distinguish scientifically between the separate beings of the hierarchy of the archangels; not abstractly by mere name-labels, but in such a way that we can see how the principal impulses in civilization which appear, for instance, in the sense world in a particular part of the Earth in the first Christian centuries are governed by a different being from the one who directed the principal impulse of civilization, say, in the 12th and 13th centuries, or from the one who directs the cultural evolution of our own day.

Let us for the moment confine ourselves to what relates to our own epoch of civilization. We have to distinguish quite sharply from other epochs the period which began about the 15th - 16th century and which received its character from the rise of the new natural science. This epoch brought natural science to the height it attained in the 19th century, a greatness which cannot be sufficiently admired. When one surveys the work done by humanity as a whole in natural science in these centuries, one sees that it has been accomplished by certain peoples who were guided from the supersensible world by a being appointed from among the hierarchy of the archangels, and that this being is quite distinct from the one who is directing from the supersensible world the spiritual culture of the epoch which is just beginning. If one gives the names which in the West have become customary for these leaders among the hierarchy of the archangels, then from the Christian era onwards one can point to different beings who have guided the progress of civilization. Without wishing to lay stress on the names as such, I will enumerate the names of beings in the hierarchy of the archangels, just as one mentions the names of men who have taken part in something on the physical plane. The order of beings of the hierarchy of the archangels who have in turn controlled the progress of civilization are Oriphiel, Anael, Zachariel, Raphael, Samael, Gabriel, and Michael.

Gabriel was the guiding spirit in the cultural epoch which came to an end for the spiritual world with the last third of the 19th century. For with the last third of the 19th century — and this is a fact that will become more and more evident — an epoch begins into which quite different influences and impulses flow from the supersensible into the sense world. Whereas during the previous period men's souls were bound to what the senses observe and what the mind can grasp, in the coming period the man who is not going to sleep through the march of evolution will above all have to observe how supersensible wisdom and knowledge will flow increasingly from the supersensible world into earthly sense-evolution.

Speaking in an external way, one might describe it as follows. In the period of evolution that is now passed, the supersensible beings were engaged in guiding the forces from the supersensible worlds so that as far as possible they should flow into man's earthly physical body; the hierarchies had to prevent these forces from flowing into man's soul. From now on, however, the supersensible forces will be so directed and guided from the supersensible world that as much as possible may be able to flow into the human soul, so that a knowledge of Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition may lay hold of the human soul. The truly living impulses in the civilization of the coming epoch will be as charged with Inspiration and Intuition as the preceding epoch has been lacking in all Inspiration and in all knowledge of the spiritual.

Fifty years ago it would have been impossible to speak to men of what through the necessary course of world evolution can be said to them today; because at that time it would have been impossible for them to receive these things directly out of the spiritual world. The door has only now been opened, and as the times that are past were the most favorable for the development of the intellect, so will the immediate future be the most favorable for the development of Inspiration and Intuition.

Two epochs of time meet sharply at this point: one to which all Inspiration was denied, and one in which, although mighty forces will undoubtedly use every available means to fight against it, it will yet be possible to receive Inspiration, to make it the determining element in the mood and character of the soul.

And if we look further into the question, we discover that the supersensible forces which did not flow directly into the soul in the past epoch were by no means inactive. What an external physiology cannot prove is nevertheless true: in the Gabriel period the supersensible world was at work in the world of the senses, influencing man's physical body. During that period delicate structures arose within the front part of the brain, and were gradually implanted into the reproductive system. Thus it came about that the majority of human beings were born with a brain possessing other and more delicate structures than was the case, for example, in the 12th and 13th centuries. That was the special task of the age in which man turned his mind to the physical plane of the senses and was shut off from Inspiration: the impulses of the supersensible world poured themselves into the body and developed this fine structure in the brain.

And this structure will more and more be present in those who now feel themselves capable of progressing to active thinking and to an understanding of spiritual science. And then in our epoch, in the epoch at the beginning of which we stand, supersensible forces will not be used to form structures in the brain but to work in the soul through Imagination and Inspiration, to flow directly into the human soul.

This is what the Michael Rulership means.

Two beings of the archangels are to be distinguished in this way: one who guided man immediately before our time and worked upon the structure of the brain, and one who now works upon man and has to let stream into the human soul receptiveness for spiritual wisdom. Thus we can divide from one another the beings who belong to the hierarchy of the archangels.

In these two examples I have tried to present to you concrete attributes and characteristics of these beings. We shall not content ourselves with names; for even as we know nothing of a man when we merely know he is called Miller, so we know very little about Gabriel if we only know his name. But we do know something of a man when we can say of him that he is a man of compassion, or that he has done this or that. And it is the same when we can say of a supersensible being that he causes forces to flow into man's physical body, forces which can instill certain structures into the power of propagation, and when we can say of another being that he helps to stimulate the perception for intuitive truth. Michael does not work so much for the spiritual investigator, the initiate himself, but for those who wish to understand spiritual investigation, for those who are endeavoring to pass on to active thinking; it is for these that Michael will work, as these forces accumulate in mankind in the coming centuries.

This transition is an important one in another respect. Through what happened at that time, a race of men is being formed who, owing to the whole way in which they are organized, will in future incarnations be in a position to look back on their earlier earthly lives.

The human race must however first give itself this possibility. One cannot remember something one has not thought about. If at night you take off your cufflinks without thinking, and without thinking put away the cufflinks, then you cannot find them next morning, because you had not thought about them. If you had taken care to impress upon yourself a picture of the whole surroundings where you put your cufflinks down, then next morning you would go straight to the place.

If this is true as regards memory in ordinary life, we must look at the matter in the same way on the wider horizon of different  Earth-lives. It is the innermost nature of the soul that we must remember, that which really passes over into the being of the soul; but to do so, we must first have comprehended the life of the soul. And that can only be done through occult training. If one has not troubled in the earlier incarnation to have thoughts about the nature of the soul, one cannot of course recollect it. Men will be constituted to remember, but they will experience this constitution at first as illness, as a dreadful nervous condition. For they will be constituted to remember the past, and yet they will have nothing which they can remember. When a man has impressions which he cannot turn to account, organs in him which he cannot use, then he falls ill.

This is the state of things we are approaching, Mankind will be organized to remember, but only those who have something to remember will be able to remember — that is, those who by means of occult training have recognized the human soul in its special character as a member of the spiritual world. In every life that follows after one in which a man has recognized the soul as a spirit-being there will be remembrance of former Earth-lives.

We are standing at an important turning-point. To understand Spiritual Science means fundamentally nothing else than to have a true feeling for the turning-point to which we have come in our age.

Now, all the beings who belong to the hierarchy of the  archangels are not of the same nature nor of the same rank. When we speak of the hierarchy of the archangels we can say that they ‘relieve’ one another in the way I have described to you, but the highest in rank, as it were the chief, is the one who takes over the leadership in our age: Michael. Michael is one of the order of archangels, but he is from a certain aspect the most advanced. Now there is, as you know, evolution; and evolution embraces all beings. Beings are in an ascending evolution, and we live in the era when Michael, the chief of those of the nature of the archangels, passes over into the nature of the archai. He will gradually pass over into a Guiding Being, he will become the Spirit of the Time, the being who leads and guides the whole of humanity. It is of the utmost importance that we should understand this. It means that something which in all previous epochs has not been there for the whole of mankind now can and must become a possession of all mankind. What formerly appeared among certain peoples here and there — spiritual deepening — can now be something for the whole of humanity.

And when in this way we point to what happens behind the world of the senses, we can also point to what takes place here in the sense-world as an imprint or copy of the event that has just been described — that a promotion, so to say, of this archangel takes place behind the world of the senses. Hitherto man has been able to possess personality. In the future he will also possess personality, but in a different way. Man has always participated to some extent in the supersensible worlds — at any rate he always could do so with his life of soul; but the personal note, the personal coloring which he then showed in his life in the sense world did not come down from above, it came up from below, it came from Lucifer. It was Lucifer who gave man personality. One could therefore say: Man cannot enter the supersensible world with his personality, he cannot bring it into the spiritual world, he must blot out his personality — otherwise he will pollute the spiritual world.

In future it will be required of man to allow his personality to be inspired from above, so that it can receive what will then flow out of the spiritual world. A personality will receive its stamp from what it has been able to absorb of spiritual knowledge; personality will become something quite different. In a sense man was formerly a personality through what separated him from the spiritual, through what was impressed into him from the body. In future he must be a personality through what he is able to receive from the spiritual world and work upon in himself.

In the past, blood and temperament determined personalities, and into these personalities impersonal elements streamed from the supersensible world. Less and less will man be a personality on account of his blood and temperament. In future he will be able to become a personality through the character that he acquires from his participation in the supersensible world. The Michael impulse which brings into the human soul an understanding for the spiritual life will achieve this. Men with a pronounced character and personality will in the future have this character and personality through what they bring to expression from their understanding of the supersensible worlds. The Alexanders, the Caesars, the Napoleons belong to the past. Certainly the supersensible element flowed into them too, but their highly personal coloring they received from what came to them from below. Men who are personalities from the way in which they carry the spiritual world into the sensible, men who carry personality into mankind from the soul, will take the place of the Alexanders, the Caesars, the Napoleons. The strength of human deeds will in future come from the strength of the spiritual influence working into these human deeds.

All this belongs to what is important in the transition from one epoch into another. The transition, however, from the Gabriel epoch into the Michael epoch in our time has all the characteristics of a transition of the utmost significance.

It is possible, even with ordinary sound human reason, to come to an understanding of what has been said today, if one is only unprejudiced enough to observe our times and see how two possibilities come right up against one another in the last third of the 19th century.

The first possibility is to form a world-conception based upon natural science. Today that is out of date; it has become antiquated, it no longer lies in the character of the age. People still do so because they simply carry forward what comes from the past. It lies in the character of the age, however, to construct a world-conception from the inspirations coming from the spiritual world and an understanding of them. We must receive this into our souls as a feeling, as an experience; then we shall learn to know what the anthroposophical world-conception means for individual souls, we shall learn to perceive what evolution is for mankind. It is given to us to be partakers in things of great significance.

And now I will remind you of something that I mentioned in the lectures I held here last time, the lectures where I spoke of the change in the function of the Buddha. (see Note 1) And here too is the point where the next lecture will join on to today's.

Today's lecture may close with a question — a question that can arise in every soul and that will lead us from the important considerations which have occupied us today to considerations of still greater importance. When a promotion of Michael has been accomplished, when he has become the Guiding Spirit of Western civilization, who will take his place? The place must be filled. Everyone must say to himself: “Then some angel must also have been promoted, and must enter the ranks of the archangels. Who is it?”

I will close with this question, a question, as I said, that leads to still more important considerations which must occupy us in the next lecture.

Today I wished to place before your souls the important character of this transition: the fact, namely, that those souls who can rouse themselves to activity will now be able to find an understanding for inspired truth. For that is the will of those who stand behind mankind, the guiding World-Powers of man's evolution. And the expression of this in the sense world is that whereas during past ages temperament and heredity gave personality its individual coloring, in the future spiritual understanding will be the determining element. Spiritual understanding will determine the tone and character of a man's personality.

It is important to understand this — still more important to carry it out. From this point we will pass on in our next lecture to a consideration which will find a response in every one of our souls.

Source: The Rudolf Steiner Archive