The Michaelic stream

From Anthroposophy

Human history is created by the continuous infusion of impulses by 'waves of incarnating souls that influence history and the course of evolution (see Schema FMC00.059 on History).

There is a large group or population of individualities and their incarnations through the ages, that are all part of a such a stream of spiritual scientific teaching and initiation. As cultures and traditions were different, the name and format of the teachings and initiation practices was very different across the ages. Today we use the term spiritual science, one can use other words like theosophy, hermetics, anthroposophy, philosophy, esoteric christianity .. that were more typical or appropriate in other ages .. or refer to the ancient mysteries already starting in the Atlantean epoch down to the mystery schools in the ancient cultures, and the rosecrucian movement in the middle ages.

What cuts across all this, is a stream of Individualities that impact the world through their life and work, surrounded with many souls that are part of these 'waves'. This is what we call a 'stream'.

Through Rudolf Steiner's GA runs a descriptive coverage of a series of such Individualities and their storyline across multiple incarnations. In the Karmic Relationships lectures of 1924 some 50 named cases are presented (see Schema FMC00.241 on Karma research case studies), however throughout the GA the lectures cover personalities that are part of this stream, another example being GA087. This is the case, even if Personalities can not always be mapped to incarnations of Individualities.

Important Personalities and Individualities appear in Sources of spiritual science with pointers to the White Lodge.

Injections of spiritual guidance continue to exists throughout history and are maintained and carried further by the 'waves of incarnating souls'. Thus it is normal that we still find today people very attracted by and resonating with vedanta and bhagavad gita, others to buddhism, others to esoteric christianity, others again to magic or alchemy, and so on. The net effect is that one can speak of many, related, substreams that are all part of (and together make up) a larger current.

As a result of all the substreams and polarities (see below), various authors have written about the substreams that come together in the anthroposophical movement as a merger or various substreams or communities, see references below.

Aspects

  • the White Lodge
  • the ancient Mysteries, or Mystery Schools or Centers - see Mystery School tradition
    • see also Schema FMC00.621 which depicts some spiritual-religious centers dedicated to Michael. An example of someone who investigated the special energies in these places is Jean Dubuis, who experienced spontaneous illumination as a child at age 12 on Mont St. Michel in France.
  • the Michael stream as presented in Rudolf Steiner's Karmic Relationships (KR) lectures
  • the Michael 'prophecy' (about the culmination of anthroposophy at the end of the 20th century) and the millions of Michaelic souls, statement by Rudolf Steiner (for more info, see 'further reading' section below)
  • link with Christ Impulse - meeting of two streams
  • various divisions (see Notes below)
    • Steiner: golden Arthur, silver Grail, and iron streams
    • Lievegoed: anthroposophy as knowledge, rosecrucianism as acting in the world, manicheism as the future to transform evil by good.

Substream polarities

See also Schema FMC00.478: Rudolf Steiner lectured on various occasions, ao in the Karmic Relationship cycles, on the difference or polarities between souls of:

Notes:

  • Rudolf Steiner often describes the difference between souls who had their last incarnation before, or after the Mystery of Golgotha. That is, one group who absorbed the early Christianity, whereas others who were more from the gnostic pagan religiosity. An interesting additional perspective to this is added in the lecture referenced on Schema FMC00.552: in the context of Location of incarnation is described how the population is a mixture of different types of souls, in view of their previous last incarnation. The Schema does not show this, but in the two main lectures, Rudolf Steiner describes the soul characteristics and how they were influenced by early Christianity.

Notes on substreams

1 - Regarding [A] to [E]:

  • [B] has to be looked at on the basis of Schema FMC00.362 on Planets hosting beings at various stages of evolution. The old souls descended earlier, already in the Lemurian epoch .. young souls descended later in the Atlantean epoch. Rudolf Steiner mentions that even in the current Postatlantean epoch there were/are still new souls descending. The pathway can be traced back, from the descent of souls to incarnations on Earth in the Lemurian and Atlantean epochs, over the Human races, and finally after the Atlantean migrations to the Northern and Southern streams in the current Postatlantean epoch. For this the different topic pages and the schemas on these pages are to be studied, to see how they are interlinked and correlated. An illustration is Schema FMC00.205B
  • [C] and [D], these are related to the Northern and Southern streams.
  • [E] finds numerous illustrations that allow to link what is meant with platonic and aristotelian souls. An explanatory case example is Christ Impulse - meeting of two streams#1920-10-17-GA200. The platonic souls have a link to ancient wisdom and the Southern stream, the aristotelian are more grounded in the Northern stream and don't have the luggage of the soul constitution with ties to the spiritual world that are the essence of the Southern stream.

2 - Very noticeable in the history of the anthroposophical movement is the difference between the older generation much geared towards theosophy, and the new generation full of energy to 'do something' on the basis of the insights of spiritual scientists. The audience interests in 1920 were quite different than those in 1904. And similar within the movement there is a 'subcurrent' of souls very much attracted to christianity as a core, see the Christian community (eg Rittelmeyer, Bock). Also, karmic research pointed to previous incarnations in substreams such as the platonic school, the grail stream in the middle ages with the templars versus the christian esoteric or scholasticism wave.

3 - Bernard Lievegoed's view:

  • anthroposophy is a path of inner insight based on knowledge (an 'erkenntnisweg'), hence the term spiritual science as a continuation of centuries of theosophy
  • rosecrucianism acts in the world, exemplified by Hiram Abiff building the temple in the Temple Legend (see: Paradise Legend). The Cain stream is about doing and ennobling the earth, making iron into tools. In anthroposophy we find biodynamic farming, waldorf education, etc (see Schema FMC00.335 on Application areas)
  • manicheism is a third future-oriented stream preparing for the future christianity in the sixth epoch, rooted in deep selflessness and pure good with the goal to transmute evil.


Bernard Lievegoed, in 'Battle for the soul', presents the above three streams as related to:

  • insight and spirit (with a basis in thinking)
  • the deed to act in the world (with a basis in willing)
  • and manicheism as the caring for the soul (with a basis in feeling), whereby he presents Manes or Mani also as the one who is concerned with the independence of the human soul (and who founded the Atlantean Sun mysteries, was a teacher to Skythianos and Zarathustra, see Manicheism)

.

4 - Excerpt from 1924-01-06-GA264 (source tbc, 'The Mysteries of the East and the Mysteries of the West' delivered during the Christmas Conference at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland), here slighly adapted with comments between square brackets:

"They meet us in three streams:

  • the golden Arthurian knights or Michael/Sun knights [associated with the Sun and cosmic forces of light]
  • the silver Grail knights, who guard the [mystical wisdom of the Grail] through the holy wisdom of the moon; and
  • the iron knights, who, in black armour and with the diamond lance, tarry in mortality until, conquering death, Christ with His light will penetrate the darkness. [a.i.: remain in the realm of earthly struggles and mortality, awaiting the light of Christ to conquer death and darkness; the iron also seems to refer to 'working in the world' as in rosecrucianism]

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.478 presents five polarities in two streams of souls in the Michaelic stream, as described by Rudolf Steiner in various lectures and contexts. Focus in the below is not on a full or exhaustive description but rather on the polarity and contrast between main characteristics of both groups.

The table does not represent two groups in the two columns, and so is to be read as five separate sections juxtaposed for comparison: even though the patterns of correspondence or striking, Rudolf Steiner never connected these five polarities (as the table may seem to induce).

FMC00.478.jpg

Schema FMC00.621: shows illustrations of just a few of the special locations with a long Michaelic tradition, known for their special spiritual energies:

  • upper left: Mont Saint-Michel (France) - dating back to the 8th century, with Benedictine abbey as of the 10th century
  • upper right: Saint Michael’s Mount (England) - with legend of 8th century and Benedictine priority as of 11th century
  • lower left: Skellig Michael (Ireland) - isolated island off the Irish coast, with 6th-century monastery
  • lower right: Sacra di San Michele (Italy) - near Turin, with abbey from the 10th century

Other examples of such special places are Sanctuario di San Michele Arcangelo, a cave in Monte Sant'Angelo (Italy) and pilgrimage destination since the 5th century, the small but beautiful San Michele Arcangelo in Perugia (Italy) also dating back to 5th or 6th century, the chapel built on the 60x120m Saint-Michel tumulus in Carnac (France) containing several dolmen of at least 5000 years old.

Note: the Irish island reminds of the more northern Scottish Isles of Iona (with monasteries going back to 6th century or before) and Staffa (with the ancient initiation site Fingal's cave) - for more information see topic page Hibernian Mysteries, and the map on Schema FMC00.622. For the link between Ireland and Scotland and the Christianization of Europe, see Central European cultural basin where Rudolf Steiner describes how Iro-Scottish monks such as a.o. Patrick, Columban, and Gallus spread Christianity in Europe in the 5th-6th centuries.

shows illustrations of just a few of the special locations with a long Michaelic tradition, known for their special spiritual energies: *upper left: Mont Saint-Michel (France) - dating back to the 8th century, with Benedictine abbey as of the 10th century *upper right: Saint Michael’s Mount (England) - with legend of 8th century and Benedictine priority as of 11th century *lower left: Skellig Michael (Ireland) - isolated island off the Irish coast, with 6th-century monastery *lower right: Sacra di San Michele (Italy) - near Turin, with abbey from the 10th century Other examples of such special places are Sanctuario di San Michele Arcangelo, a cave in Monte Sant'Angelo (Italy) and pilgrimage destination since the 5th century, the small but beautiful San Michele Arcangelo in Perugia (Italy) also dating back to 5th or 6th century, the chapel built on the 60x120m Saint-Michel tumulus in Carnac (France) containing several dolmen of at least 5000 years old. Note: the Irish island reminds of the more northern Scottish Isles of Iona (with monasteries going back to 6th century or before) and Staffa (with the ancient initiation site Fingal's cave) - for more information see topic page Hibernian Mysteries, and the map on Schema FMC00.622. For the link between Ireland and Scotland and the Christianization of Europe, see Central European cultural basin where Rudolf Steiner describes how Iro-Scottish monks such as a.o. Patrick, Columban, and Gallus spread Christianity in Europe in the 5th-6th centuries.


Lecture coverage and references

Overview

1 - In terms of 'lineage', essential are:

  • 1901-1902:
    • 1901-GA007: 'Eleven European Mystics' or 'Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age', describing profiles of Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, Heinrich Suso, Jan van Ruysbroeck, Cardinal Nicolas of Cusa, Agrippa of Nettesheim, Paracelsus, Valentin Weigel, Jacob Boehme, Giordano Bruno, and Angelus Silesius.
    • GA087 of October 1901 to April 1902 sketches the lineage from Heraclitus via Pythagoras and the Greek philosophers (Parmenides, Empedocles, Plato, Socrates), Philo of Alexandria and connecting this with the writers of the four gospels, the school of Paul and Dionysus Areopagite and down to Scotus Eriugena. Connecting in the underlying stream of Christ in Egyptian, buddhist, Greek myths and spiritual life.
    • GA008, the book 'Christinianity as a mystical fact' (1902) that covers approximately the lecture contents of GA087
  • 1910-12-GA126 describes varies of the personalities above and on Sources of spiritual science in the cycle 'Occult History - Historical Personalities and Events in the light of Spiritual Science'
  • 1924
    • GA237, GA238 and GA240 contain the lectures of the period between 1 July upto 16 September 1924 in which the Michael School was sketched from the time of Plato and Aristotle, over the School of Chartres, upto the anthroposophical movement; not just on Earth but also in the supersensible world, and including the inspiration by individualities from the spiritual world.

A period of 22 years separates the two main sources. But also the rest of the GA contains very many lectures (and references in lectures) of personalities that fit into this story through the ages, from the old mystery schools up to today.

Further reference reading:

  • Edouard Schuré, in 'The great initiates' (1889) describes Rama, Krishna, Hermes, Moses, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato, and Jesus. See 'further reading' section below for direct links and background. Rudolf Steiner referred to this book:

The thoughts contained in this book have strongly influenced the souls and minds of the present time, but only the future will show the whole extent of this influence.

In conclusion, he prophesied that the day would come when

"this book will be considered an extremely valuable contribution to the spiritual content of our age."

2 - The second aspect to study are the two streams as presented on Christ Impulse - meeting of two streams.

Reference extracts

1911-09-28-GA130

Christian Rosenkreutz selects those whom he wants to have as his pupils in a remarkable way. The one chosen has to pay attention to a certain kind of event, or several events in his life of the following kind

[see lecture] ...

When such an event awakens in a person the inner disposition to look at his life from that time onwards as a gift, nowadays this makes him a follower of Christian Rosenkreutz. For that is his way of calling these souls to him. And whoever can recall having had such an experience can tell himself: Christian Rosenkreutz has given me a sign from the spiritual world that I belong to his stream. Christian Rosenkreutz has added the possibility of such an experience to my karma. That is the way in which Christian Rosenkreutz makes his choice of pupils. He chooses his community like this. Whoever experiences this consciously, knows: a path has been shown me, and I must follow it and see how far I can use my forces to serve rosicrucianism. Those who have not understood the sign, however, will do so at a later time, for whoever has received the sign will not be free of it again.

That a man can have an experience of the kind described is due to his having met Christian Rosenkreutz in the spiritual world between his last death and his last birth. Christian Rosenkreutz chose us then, and he put an impulse of will into us that now leads us to such experiences. This is the way in which spiritual connections are brought about.

1911-11-18-GA130

Many a person of whom we do not expect it, is a pupil chosen by Christian Rosenkreutz. Even today it is possible to speak of a sign by means of which Christian Rosenkreutz calls to one whom he has chosen. Many people can apprehend this sign in their life; it may express itself in a thousand ways, but these different manifestations all lead back to a typical form which may be described as follows.

[see lecture] ...

And when the man in question realises this he will be led to the resolve to work in a spiritual movement.

If the resolve is taken, this means that he has actually been chosen. This is how Christian Rosenkreutz begins to gather his pupils around him, and many human beings, if they were sufficiently alert, would be conscious of such an event in their inner life.

The human beings of whom it can be said that they were, or will now be, united in this way with Christian Rosenkreutz, are those who should be the pioneers of a deeper understanding of esoteric Christianity. This stream of spiritual life connected with Christian Rosenkreutz provides the highest means for enabling the Christ Impulse to be understood in our present time.

1923-06-10-GA258

talks about the homeless souls and the Anthroposophic Movement

... There is something which all those who end up in the anthroposophical movement have in common. And that is that they are initially driven by their inner destiny, their karma, to leave the ordinary highway of civilization on which the majority of mankind at present progresses, to search for their own path.

Let us think for a moment about the conditions in which most people now grow up. They are born to parents who are French or German, Catholic or Protestant or Jewish, or who belong to some other faith, and may hold a variety of beliefs. But among parents is the almost unquestioned assumption, which remains unspoken and sometimes unthought, that their children will, of course, grow up like themselves. These kinds of feelings naturally engender a social ambience, indeed social pressures, which more or less consciously push children into the kind of life which has been mapped out by these more or less clearly defined beliefs. The life of a child then follows its natural course of education and schooling. And during this time parents once again have all kinds of beliefs which exert a decisive influence on their children's lives. The belief, for instance, that my son will, of course, enter the secure employment of the civil service, or that he will inherit the parental business, or that my daughter will marry the man next door. It simply lies in the nature of social circumstances that they are governed by impulses which arise in this way. People have no choice in the matter because that is the effect of the beliefs which govern life. It may not always be obvious to parents, but schooling and all the other circumstances of childhood and youth imprison the human being and determine his position in life. The institutions of state and religion make the adult.

If the majority of people were asked to explain how they got where they are today, they would not be able to do so, because there would be something unbearable about having to think deeply about such matters. This unbearable element tends to be driven underground into subconscious or unconscious areas of our soul life. At best, it will be dredged up by a psychiatrist when it behaves in a particularly recalcitrant manner down there in those unknown provinces of the soul. But mostly one's own personality, the Self, is simply not strong enough to assert itself against what one has grown into in this way.

Occasionally people have the urge to rebel when their situation as a trainee, or even following qualification, unexpectedly dawns on them. You might clench your fist in your pocket, or, if you are a woman, create a scene at home because of such disappointed life expectations. These are reactions against what people are forced to become. We also frequently seek to anaesthetize ourselves by concentrating on the pleasant things in life. We go to dances and follow this with a long lie-in, don't we? Time is then filled up in one way or another. Or someone might join a thoroughly patriotic party because his professional position demands that he belong to something which will reflect his values. We have already been enveloped by the state and our religion; now that must be supplemented by surrounding what one has unconsciously grown into with a sort of aura. Well, there is no need for me to go into further detail. That is roughly the way in which the people who move in the mainstream of life have grown into their existence.

But those who find it difficult to accept this end up on many possible and impossible byways. And anthroposophy is precisely one of these paths on which human beings are seeking to realize themselves; on which they want to live with such an understanding of themselves in a more conscious manner, to experience something which is under their control to a certain extent at least. Anthroposophists are for the most part people who do not walk along the highways of life. If we investigate further why that should be, we find that this is linked with the spiritual world.

Having relived the course of their lives in the spiritual world after death human beings enter a region where they become increasingly assimilated into the spiritual world, where their lives consist of working together with the beings of the higher hierarchies, where all their acts are related to this world of substantive spirit. But a time arrives when they begin to turn their attention to earth again. For a long time in advance of their birth, human beings unite on a soul level with the generations at the end of which stand the parents who give birth to them Ñ not only as far back as their great-great-grandparents, but much further down the line of preceding generations. The majority of souls nowadays look down, as it were, to earth from the spiritual world and display a lively interest in what is happening to their ancestors. Such souls move in the mainstream of contemporary life.

In contrast, there are a number of souls, particularly at present, whose interest is concentrated less on worldly happenings as they approach a new life on earth than on the question of how they can develop maturity in the spiritual world. Their interest lies in the spiritual world right up to the moment before they find their way to earth. As a consequence, when they incarnate they arrive with a consciousness which has its origins in spiritual impulses. With their spiritual ambitions they outgrow their environment, and are thus predestined and prepared to go their own way.

Thus the souls who descend from pre-earthly to earthly existence can be divided into two groups.

  • One group, to which the majority of people today still belong, comprises those souls who can make themselves remarkably at home on earth; who feel thoroughly comfortable in their warm nest, which so fascinated them long before they came down to earth, even if it does occasionally appear unpleasant Ñ but that is only appearance, maya.
  • Other souls, who may pass patiently through childhood - appearance is not always the decisive thing - are less able to make themselves at home, are homeless souls, and grow beyond the warmth of the nest much more than they grow into it.
1924-04-23-GA316

Question: Many of us want to have a far-reaching understanding of the position in which we find ourselves. We feel inwardly that Anthroposophical truths are something radical and that tremendous things depend upon their practical realization. How can that which we feel so deeply, be realized, and how can we reach an understanding of our own destiny and tasks for the future? We feel that we shall only be able to act truly if we get to understand our own karma in its wide connections and at the same time unfold the courage not to run away from it but to fulfill it in practice in the right way.

I think I hear something between the lines of what you have said and realize in what direction your feelings tend. You must enlarge your question if this is not so. The question you have put, touches, of course, something that must be known today.

Especially just recently, there has been a great deal of talk about the end of Kali Yuga among circles of young people, more among the youth than among the old. The reason for this is that at the end of the nineteenth century a new age did indeed dawn in humanity. To begin with, the old life continues. When you have a ball and push it, it rolls and when you take your hand away it still goes on rolling. Similarly, what human beings experienced up to the end of the nineteenth century goes on rolling for the time being. But because the forces are no longer behind it, it is assuming worse forms than it took in the age that has passed away. But side by side with the continuance of the old time, an Age of Light is really dawning in the world, in concealment. An Age of Light is shining into the world and its first rays must be caught by Anthroposophy.

At the present time, of course, I am speaking much more radically about certain karmic relationships than I did before the Christmas Foundation. You will realize this from other lectures which I am giving now. Those who can be at the lecture this evening will find that certain human connections are actually spoken of. But for all that I cannot enter quite concretely into matters which would be beloved by sensationalism. Strict laws must invariably be observed in these things and I know that a certain desire — not necessarily born of a lust for sensation — might be satisfied if one could reveal to every individual his previous earthly life. But one cannot go as far as that. On the other hand certain points of view which may be significant, can be mentioned.

Taking human life in general today, we have, if I may put it so, two kinds of human beings. This is due to the fact that at certain times the spiritual evolution of humanity was different from what it was in other times. There was a wavelike movement, but the waves flowed not only one behind the other, but side by side with each other. For example, at a certain time the evolution of Western Christianity became more superficial, was externalized. It was not possible for human beings to get at the essence of what Christianity had to offer them. A reaction took place among the Kathares. And so there were living, side by side, men who lived very external lives and men who wanted to deepen themselves inwardly. Something similar happened, when, under the influence of Comenius and even earlier than that, the Moravian Brotherhoods were founded far into Hungary and Poland. All the time there were living together men whose souls were striving strongly for spirituality and men who were driven to externalization, simply by the karma of civilization. The fact that one person comes into the one group and another person into another, is connected with earlier karmic conditions. In modern times a great point is how far a Man in his earlier incarnation belonged to the one or the other of these groups. Let us suppose, then, that a Man is born today who lived in a phase of Christianity which was quite externalized. Such a Man will be an entirely different person from one who, let us say, belonged to the Bohemian Moravian Brothers. In what does the difference consist?

We can only discover the essential characteristic of the conclusion of Kali Yuga when we go into the concrete circumstances — otherwise it all remains so much historical construction. The Age of Darkness lasted until the year 1899 when the Age of Light began. This mere fact does not tell us very much. We must enter into the concrete, spiritual facts. Men who are born at the end of Kali Yuga and who have strongly spiritual aspirations — this must not make for conceit, you must receive it simply into your store of knowledge — such men are, speaking in the widest sense, those who have been born from among the heretics, from among those who strove for inner deepening. At the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries there were brought down to the earth human beings who had not lived within the general stream of a Christianity that was being externalized, but in such sects which inserted themselves in this general stream and were striving for greater inwardness. What is the result?

Now when we are passing through the time between death and a new birth we learn, in a spiritual way, to know the Human All, just as here on Earth we can study the World All that is outside the human being — the universe. The Human All is equally great and equally detailed, for the human being has within him just as much as the cosmos. We can study this with our forces of will when they have been transformed. We acquire an exact knowledge of the human being. Now there is a difference between the two groups of which I have just spoken.

  • Those men who had entered more into externalization were not able, in their passage between death and a new birth, to enter into the spiritual world in the right way. In the spiritual world they passed thoughtlessly by the essentials of human nature. They were reborn and especially those people who were born in the second third of the nineteenth century were men of the kind who were thus externalized in their previous life. They brought into their earthly life no understanding of the human being and his nature. They regarded the body as an instrument for eating, drinking, walking, standing, sitting, but they were not interested in the human being in his reality because they had no interest of this kind in their life between death and a new birth. These were the people who were satisfied with materialism, because they felt no need for knowledge of the human being. The materialists who only want to have knowledge of matter understand the human being least of all.
  • It may be said with a peaceful conscience that those who are sitting here are reborn heretics (you must not ascribe this to yourselves as a virtue) heretics who experienced a strong urge between death and rebirth to fathom the nature of the human being and thus, subconsciously, to make the human being into a tremendous riddle. This comes to light in the urge to learn more than materialistic medicine has to offer and so, as you have said, an inner fulfillment of karma is certainly indicated. You must not take these things lightly, for if you were to do so you would fall into misunderstandings. You would not reach what you want to reach because you have had certain definite experiences between death and rebirth. And the result of not finding in earthly life that for which one has striven for centuries is not so that it merely makes one superficial. The Age has passed when people who have received between death and rebirth the truths concerning man can become superficial without being punished for it. At the present time young people are certainly not in a position to lead superficial lives and go Scot-free because they ruin themselves inwardly, ruin themselves organically.

The bad thing is not that people today are materialistic in their thoughts, that they chatter about monism and the like. That is not the really bad thing and they will easily get over it. What a Man speaks is not of such great significance, but what then goes back into his feeling and will — this weaves in his organs, and if people do not deepen themselves spiritually they will not be able to sleep properly. That is the essential thing.

If people undergo no such deepening today what will the consequence be?

The consequence will be that hardly will the years 1940-1950 have come, and over greater and greater areas there will be widespread epidemics of sleeplessness. Such people will no longer be capable of working for civilization.

Therefore your karma leaves you no choice: either you leave it unheeded, as was possible before the end of Kali Yuga, or you must heed it. You must really take in all seriousness what I have now told you about the configuration of your karma.

This, of course, remains a generalized description, but you can certainly find it useful if you frequently ponder the particular circumstances of your own life. You will discover something remarkable when you think about these special circumstances.

1924-08-08-GA237

is advised to be read in full, also describing the chaos in today's society due to a 'disconnect' between incarnating souls and their guardian angels, and how that is brought into order.

... And now we may express something that is deeply connected with the karma of the Anthroposophical Society. It is a thing of immense significance, and, if I may say so, it is only here that we come to the right shade of feeling. For with all that we can describe by choosing comparisons from the conditions that surround us, we cannot exhaustively characterise what is taking place behind the scenes in spiritual worlds. Whatever thoughts we may select from the earthly conditions that surround us, they are but dim and feeble. Having made all these preparations, we must have recourse to the pure description of things spiritual.

Thus we must say: All that has led the souls together into the Anthroposophical Society, all that has brought them into this community through a sincere and inward impulse of their souls, holds good, needless to say.

Yet how does it come about? How are the forces really there, which lead these human beings in our time to find their way together under purely spiritual principles, when in the ordinary world of today they are complete strangers to one another? Where do the forces lie, that lead them together?

My dear friends, they lie in this: Through the entry of Michael's dominion in the Michael age in which we live — with the penetration of Michael to earthly rulership, replacing the rulership of Gabriel — Michael himself is bringing the power which is to bring order again into the karma of those who have gone with him.

Thus we may say: What is it in the last resort that unites the Members of the Anthroposophical Society?

It is that they are to bring order again into their karma. This unites them.

And if any one of them notices in the course of his life that

  • he is entering here or there into relationships that do not conform to his inmost impulse; relationships, perhaps, diverging in one way or another from what we may call the true harmony in man as between good and evil, if he has this on the one hand,
  • while on the other hand he has constant impulse to press forward in the Anthroposophical life,
  • the fact is that such a man is striving back again to his real karma. He is striving once more to live and express the real karma. This is the cosmic ray that pours through the Anthroposophical Movement, clearly perceptible to him who knows. It is the restoration of the truth in karma.

In this connection we can understand very much, both of the destiny of individuals in the Anthroposophical Society and of the destiny of the whole Society. For these, of course, merge into one another.

This, my dear friends, shall now rest in your souls. You must say to yourselves: Those who out of these great decisions feel in themselves the impulse to come to the anthroposophical life today, will be called again at the end of the 20th century, when at the culminating point the greatest possible expansion of the Anthroposophical Movement will be attained. But it will only happen if these things can really live in us, — if there can live in us the perception of what penetrates cosmically, spiritually, into the earthly physical domain. It will only be so if there penetrates even into the earthly Intelligence, into the perceptions of men, the knowledge of the significance of Michael. This impulse must be the very soul of our anthroposophical striving. The soul itself must have the will to stand fully in the midst of the Anthroposophical Movement. Thus we shall find it possible, my dear friends, for a certain time to come, to carry in our souls thoughts of a great and far-reaching nature. But we shall not only preserve them, we shall make them living in our souls. And through these thoughts our souls will grow and develop anthroposophically, so that the soul will become what it was intended to become through its own unconscious impulse to come to Anthroposophy.

I say again: So that the soul may be taken hold of by the mission of Anthroposophy. I have spoken these earnest words to you in this last hour, so that you may let them work in you quietly and in silence for a time: that the soul shall really be taken hold of by the mission of Anthroposophy.

1924-09-12-GA238 

Contemplating the souls who labour in the world, and in the last resort this applies to all men, we no longer have to begin at the point where they enter earthly existence, or cease at the point where they die; for in effect they neither then begin to work, nor do they cease. And in all that takes place spiritually, not only the souls that are incarnated on the earth today are working, but other souls, who are now between death and a new birth, and who send their rays of influence in upon the Earth. In our own actions their impulses are contained. For all these things work together, even as the deeds on earth penetrate into the heavenly regions, and continue working there, as I indicated pictorially, for instance, in the characters of Capesius and Strader in the first Mystery Play.

Brunetto Latini, Dante's teacher, he is there. He died. He went through the gate of death, but death itself is a transformation of life. He is still there. He works on, and we find him if we seek him spiritually.

The picture of the spiritual evolution of mankind is made complete if we are able to include the so-called dead. Nay, in reality, they are far more living than the so-called living. In very many things that happen on Earth we find Brunetto Latini living and working to-day, although he is not incarnate on the Earth.

Thus you will see how intimately united the earthly life is with the super-sensible. We cannot speak at all of a super-sensible world separated from the earthly world of sense. For everything that is of the senses is permeated at the same time supersensibly, and everything that is super-sensible is revealed somewhere and somewhen in the world of sense. Moreover we can only truly receive and understand the earthly life if we recognise that these things are behind it.

This, my dear friends, is tobe the future of the Anthroposophical Movement since the Christmas Foundation Meeting. We must treat of the super-sensible facts openly and without reserve, confessing them in fullness of knowledge. This should be the esoteric trait permeating the anthroposophical movement. Thus alone will it be possible to give it its real spiritual content. For you see, all that I described to you as the stream of Michael has gone on into our time. But Individualities appearing again on earth have to make use, in the first place, of the physical bodies that are possible in a given age. They must find their way into the impulses of education which a given age provides.

...

Discussion

Personal connection

When you have come to this page, there is a chance, or it is likely, that there is a personal connection of your Individuality to the contents of this page. From there the thematic opens up: is it a feeling or a calling, the challenges in today's time and society, etc.

The following pages shed light on various perspectives:

Bernard Lievegoed's views

Bernard Lievegoed, in 'Battle for the soul', presents the above three streams of anthroposophy, rosecrucianism and manicheism (see above) as related to:

  • insight and spirit (with a basis in thinking)
  • the deed to act in the world (with a basis in willing)
  • and manicheism as the caring for the soul (with a basis in feeling), whereby he presents Manes or Mani also as the one who is concerned with the independence of the human soul (and who founded the Atlantean Sun mysteries, was a teacher to Skythianos and Zarathustra, see Manicheism)

Note that ten years before, in 'Mystery stream', he positioned the Christmas Foundation meeting as the 'new mysteries' as a merger of:

  • the Arthur stream
  • the Grail stream
  • the Rosecrucian stream
  • the Vidar stream

Sketching a stream

Below follows a highly condensed summary with names to illustrate interrelationships (non exhaustive, for illustration purpose only). These are only names of personalities with a historical cultural impact, spanning four cultural ages of Persia, Egypt, Greco-Roman, and the current Anglo-German. The information mentioned may only be clear to those who have studied the GA and all related sources, but each statement can be backed up.

The point is the following: a) one can make a graphical map to show how (with a timeline) how a small number of key individualities are 'spider in the web', or backbone of this stream in the world, and 'connect' many well-known historical individualities across the ages, b) in depth research of these names in Rudolf Steiner's GA will show extensive coverage, as well connections and storylines given. It is an underlying, common theme.

The reader is invited to do the exercise and sketch a timeline and make the connections to see the 'stream' effect' emerging from own research.

  • highest individualities
    • Zarathustra is the same individuality as Master Jesus, incarnated also as Zarathos
      • Pythagoras was a pupil of Zarathos
      • Hermes and Moses were both pupils of Zarathustra
    • John, the author of the Gospel of John and Book of Revelation, is Lazarus-John and the same Individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz and Saint-Germain
    • Paul of Tarsus or St Paul is also known as Master Hilarion
    • all are said to be part of the White Lodge
  • 20th century
    • Rudolf Steiner
      • two teachers are said to be Christian Rosenkreutz and Master Jesus
      • previous incarnations as Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas
    • Daskalos refers to John as his direct teacher (same individuality as Christian Rosenkreutz)
    • Franz Bardon belongs to the stream of Hermes in Egypt
  • other important individualities
  • other recurrent names are
    • Pherecydes of Syros (1909-08-26-GA113), Heraclites, Empedocles, Parmenides, Socrates, Plato, Apollonius of Tyana
    • Scotus Eriugena, Dionysus Areopagite, Dante and Brunetto Latini, Alain de Lille and Bernardus Silvestris, Augustinus, Francis of Assisi
    • Jakob Boehme, Lessing, Schelling, Schiller, Hegel, Solovief, Tolstoj, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, August and Friedrich Schlegel, Wagner, Nietzsche, Brentano
  • some anthroposophists
    • Ita Wegman had incarnation as Alexander the Great, Marie Steiner as Hypathia and Albertus Magnus, Willem Zeylmans as Ramon Lull

Anthroposophy and Hermetics and Esoteric Christianity

On the topic page about the teachings of Franz Bardon, the link was made between anthroposophy and hermetics. Rudolf Steiner, Franz Bardon and Daskalos, take a different entry or approach towards initiation.

From the above one can see that Steiner is in the rosecrucian stream (masters Christian Rosenkreutz and Master Jesus), Daskalos in fact in the same stream (master Johannes or Christian Rosenkreutz), and Franz Bardon (master Hermes, closely linked to Zarathustra or Master Jesus).

Going further one can see links with Moses <-> Goethe (who studied the earth's breathing) and Philo of Alexandria (who taught the books of Moses) with his incarnations as Spinoza and Fichte. Furthermore the fact Steiner was told by his master early-on to study Fichte, and later covered both Goethe, Fichte extensively as well as Philo of Alexandria (re GA087). Another clue is offered when Steiner makes an explicit distinction between anthroposophy and theosophy, calling anthroposophy more focusing on the earth and Man, whereas theosophy is more about cosmogony and spiritual evolution.

Steiner did start within the theosophical environment following guidance from his master very early on, coming from the study of the work of Goethe and Fichte. Soon he changed course from the indian-inspired theosophy of Blavatsky towards the rosecrucian stream (see 1907 Munich congress), and - without being outspoken about it - a course of esoteric christianity in the period 1906-7 to 1911. That period has the GA096 and GA097 volumes on the Christ, the courses on the four gospels and the books of Genesis and Revelation, the fifth gospel, the announcement of Christ in the etheric, and many lectures on the Christian and Rosecrucian initiation.

Counterforces

Introduction: Jacob Boehme#Note 1 - Historical perspective - waves and counterwaves

Placeholder to be developed, some references:

Related pages

References and further reading

  • Edouard Schuré: The great initiates (1889)
  • Hans Peter van Manen
    • Twin roads to the new millenium (1988 in EN, original 1980 in DE as 'Christussucher und Michaeldiener - Die karmischen Strömungen der anthroposophischen Bewegung')
  • Bernard Lievegoed
    • Mystery streams in Europe and the new mysteries (1982)
    • The battle of the soul (1994 in EN, original 1993 in NL)
  • Herbert Witzenmann: 'Goethes universalästhetischer Impuls : Die Vereinigung der platonischen und aristotelischen Geistesströmung' (1987)
  • Malte Diekmann: The Circle of Mystery Streams. Karmic Groups in the Anthroposophical Society and Movement (2022 in EN, original in DE 2005 'Der Kreis der Mysterienströmungen. Karmische Gruppen in der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft und Bewegung')
  • Peter Selg
    • Rudolf Steiner and Christian Rosenkreutz (2012 in EN, original 2010 in DE)
    • The Michael School (and the school of spiritual science)
    • The destiny of the Michael Community (2013 in DE as 'Grundstein zur Zukunft. Vom Schicksal der Michael-Gemeinschaft')
  • Rudolf Steiner selected lectures in 'The secret stream' (2000)
  • Mario Betti: 'Platonismus-Aristotelismus und die Zukunft der Anthroposophie' (2003)
  • Lore Deggeller: 'Platoniker und Aristoteliker in der Gegenwart' (2004)
  • Pieter Meester: 'Mysteriestromingen in de antroposofie' (article in NL in 'Motief : Maandblad voor Antroposofie', 168)
  • Roland van Vliet: 'The Four Mystery Streams (2024)
    • audio transcripts of 4 lectures given in 2011

On Platonic and Aristotelian souls

For further reading after 1924-07-13-GA237 and 1924-07-18-GA240, see ao:

  • Luigi Morelli: 'Aristotelians and Platonists: A Convergence of the Michaelic Streams in Our Time' (2015, freely downloadeable online)
  • Andreas Delor: Wo bleiben die Platoniker? (Wo bleiben die Aristoteliker?)

The Michael prophecy

  • Heinz H. Schoeffler: 'Rudolf Steiner's Millennium Prophecies' (lecture delivered in 1995, published in EN in 2007)
  • Joel Kobran: The Missing Michaelic Millions (2000)
  • Gerhard von Beckerath: 'Die Michael-Prophetie Rudolf Steiners zur Jahrtausendwende im Spiegel unserer Seelenwege und Arbeitsweisen: Platoniker und Aristoteliker. Alte und junge Seelen (2010)
  • Stephen E. Usher: Remarks On The Culmination at the End of the 20th Century (2011)
  • Steffen Hartmann: 'The Michael Prophecy and the Years 2012-2033: Rudolf Steiner and the Culmination of Anthroposophy (2020 in EN, original in DE 2017 as: 'Die Michael-Prophetie Rudolf Steiners und die Jahre 2012 bis 2033')
    • reviewed by Matthias Bideau in 'die Drei' 12/2017 (PDF online)

Other

  • Virginia Sease, Manfred Schmidt-Brabant:
    • Paths of the Christian Mysteries: from Compostela to the New World
    • The New Mysteries and the wisdom of Christ
    • Thinkers, saints, heretics: spiritual paths of the middle ages.


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