The Age of Michael has dawned. Hearts are beginning to have Thoughts. The springs of spiritual fervour no longer flow from the darkness only of mystical feeling, but from clear soul-brightness—thought-informed and thought-sustained. To understand this, is to receive Michael into the heart. Thoughts which seek today to grasp the Spirit must spring from hearts that throb for Michael, the fiery Thought-King of the Universe.¹
Thoughts for Michaelmas
Light of thinking! Warmth of soul! Hearts with thoughts long to receive Michael, the protector against the darkness. At Michaelmas, when we celebrate Michael’s day, we can let these words live within us.
Who is Michael?
Rudolf Steiner calls Michael the guiding spirit of our age, who gives us the courage to fight against the forces of the ‘dragon’ within – egoism, untruthfulness and selfishness.
The name Michael is derived from the Hebrew name Mikha’el, meaning ‘who is as God’. The ancients of the Bible called him the messenger of Jehovah. But in our modern era that Rudolf Steiner calls the age of the Consciousness Soul, Michael is now the messenger of Christ Himself, and the leading spirit of our time.
Just as Hebrews turned to Michael as the outer revelation of Jahve or Jehovah, so we now are able to turn to Michael to receive from him the spiritual revelations needed for us, for humanity, to withstand the challenges that come to meet us today in these increasing dark times.
Light of thinking, warmth of heart, courage in both hearts and minds.
Michaelmas
The Archangel Michael
Michaelmas day, celebrated on 29th September each year, is the day of the archangel Michael, This festival honours him, who is portrayed in the Bible as the protector of humanity and the warrior in spiritual warfare who fought against Satan (more frequently portrayed in art as a dragon) with his sword of meteoric iron.
Traditionally associated with the coming of Autumn, in the Southern Hemisphere, of course, Michaelmas falls in Spring, However, we can still meaningfully celebrate Michaelmas on 29 September because what takes place outwardly the Northern Hemisphere in nature, simultaneously takes place inwardly in the Southern Hemisphere in our souls. And vice versa.
Rudolf Steiner states² that we should not, as we do in Spring and Summer, give ourselves over to a nature-consciousness in Autumn, losing ourselves in the melancholy fading of nature’s life forces at the approach of Winter. On the contrary, this is the time to strengthen our inner self. As external nature is dying into Winter, we should overcome our natural tendency to this nature-awareness with the forces of self-consciousness.
Then will the ‘form of Michael stands before us’ (Steiner 5 October 1923, Dornach), majestically overcoming the dragonish forces within. The picture of Michael with the dragon can become a powerful Imagination that summons us to inner activity.
The Michael Mystery
The Michael Mystery is a collection of 29 letters to the members of the Anthroposophical Society. These letters are in addition to the eighteen letters contained in the previous collection, The Life, Nature and Cultivation of Anthroposophy.
From the time of the Foundation Meeting of the Anthroposophical Society (Dornach, Christmas to New Year, 1923–24) until his death shortly before Easter, 1925, Rudolf Steiner wrote a letter week by week, addressed to the members of the Society. In his Christmas letter to the members that forms part of the Michael Mystery letters, Rudolf Steiner in 1924 emphasised in a single compressed paragraph the task of humanity, especially in the middle period of the age of the Consciousness Soul in which we are now living.
He said:
In its essential nature the Spiritual Soul (Consciousness Soul) is not cold. It seems to be so only at the commencement of its unfolding, because at that stage it can only reveal the light-element in its nature, and not as yet the cosmic warmth in which it has indeed its origin.³
Notes
This collection of thoughts are drawn from The Michael Mystery letters and other lectures on the theme, listed in the footnotes.
Images of St George and the dragon are just one of the many versions of the ancient depiction of the conflict between Light and Darkness or Michael’s battle against Satan.
Footnotes
¹Rudolf Steiner, At the Dawn of the Michael Age, The Michael Mystery, CW 26
² Rudolf Steiner, The Cycle of the Year as a Breathing Process of the Earth, CW223,
³ Rudolf Steiner, ‘Introduction’, Michaelmas and the Soul-Forces of Man CW223
Feature image: Icon of the Miracle of St. George and the Dragon. 12th Century
Insert image: Michael and the Dragon, by Fiona Campbell
Insert image: Archangel Michael, by Margarethe Woloshina