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The Michael Mystery
(CW 26)
Paperback
June 1984
9781621481225
More details
- Publisher
SteinerBooks - Published
1st June 1984 - ISBN 9781621481225
- Pages 180 pp.
- Size 5.5" x 8.5"
$18.00
Letters to Anthroposophical Society members and “Guidelines” (CW 26)
From the time of the Foundation Meeting of the Anthroposophical Society (Dornach, Christmas to the New Year, 1923–24) until his death shortly before Easter 1925, Rudolf Steiner wrote a weekly letter addressed to the members of the Anthroposophical Society. The letters were printed in the members' supplement to the Goetheanum Weekly and in its English edition, Anthroposophical Movement.
This book represents the second part of the volume containing Rudolf Steiner's letters and guidelines. The earlier letters speak of the character and aims of the Anthroposophical Society and the social tasks arising in the anthroposophic movement. They deal with the problems encountered in the common study of spiritual science (Anthroposophy) and in its presentation to the world at large, relating it to the prevailing science and civilization of the time.
With the exception of the first two letters (issued in August 1924 while he was in England), those in this volume were written by Rudolf Steiner from his sickbed during his final illness. During those final six months of his life, the letters—always written in the very early hours of the morning—arrived with unfailing regularity. The last of these letters was not published until two weeks after his death.
These letters form a continuous series and were given the appropriate collective title The Michael Mystery. As such, they constitute an invaluable addition to the great teacher's fundamental works on spiritual science.
GUIDELINES, MARCH 8, 19251. At the beginning of the consciousness-soul age, a dimming of the sense of belonging to the world beyond the earth took place. On the other hand, a feeling of belonging to the earth in experiencing sensory impressions grew so strong, particularly in scientific circles, that it amounted to a state of bedazzlement.
2. The ahrimanic powers have an especially dangerous influence in this condition, because people live under the illusion that a bedazzled experience of sensory impressions is good and right and represents a real advance in evolution.
3. Man must develop the strength to illumine his world of ideas and to experience it as light-filled, even in cases where the ideas involved are not based on the bedazzling world of the senses. An awareness of belonging to the cosmic realm beyond the earth will awaken in experiencing the independent and independently illumined world of ideas. The basis for Michaelic festivals will grow out of this feeling.
This volume is a translation of the final nineteen letters from Anthroposophische Leitsätze, Der Erkenntnisweg der Anthroposophie—Das Michael-Mysterium (GA 26).
C O N T E N T S:
I. At the Dawning of the Age of Michael. Aug. 17, 1924
II. Man's Soul State Prior to the Dawning of The Michael Age. Aug. 31, 1924
III. The Pre-Mlchaelic and the Michaellc Path. Oct. 12, 1924
IV. Michael's Task in the Ahrlmanlc Realm. Oct. 19, 1924
V. Michael's Experiences in the Fulfilling of His Cosmic Mission. Oct. 26, 1924
VI. The Human Future and Michael's Activity. Nov. 2, 1924
VII. Man's Michael-Christ Experience. Nov. 9, 1924
VIII. Michael's Mission in the Cosmic Age of Human Freedom. Nov. 16, 1924
IX. Cosmic Thoughts in the Activity of Michael and in the Activity of Ahriman. Nov. 23, 1924
X. 1st Contemplation: At the Threshold of the Consciousness Soul... November 30, 1924
XI. 2nd Contemplation: How the Michael Forces Work On... Dec. 7, 1924
XII. Continuation of the 2nd Contemplation: Helps and Hindrances to Michael... Dec. 14, 1924
XIII. 3rd Contemplation: Michael's Sorrow over Humanity's Evolution... Dec. 21, 1924
XIV. Christmas Contemplation: The Logos Mystery. Dec. 28, 1924
XV. Heavenly History. Mythological History. Earthly History. The Mystery of Golgotha. Jan. 4, 1925
XVI. What Is Revealed When We Look Back into Repeated Earthly Lives. Jan. 11, 1925
XVII. 1st Part of the Contemplation: What Is Revealed when We Look Back... Jan. 18, 1925
XVlll. 2nd Part of the Contemplation: What Is Revealed when We Look Back... Jan. 25, 1925
XIX. What Is the Earth in Reality in the Macrocosmos? Feb. 1, 1925
XX. Sleep and Waking in the Light of the Foregoing Contemplation. Feb. 8, 1925
XXI. Gnosis and Anthroposophy. Feb. 15, 1925
XXII. Human Freedom and the Age of Michael. Feb. 22, 1925
XXIII. Where Is Man as a Thinking and Remembering Being? Mar. 1, 1925
XXIV. Man in His Macrocosmlc Being. Mar. 8, 1925
XXV. Man's Sensing and Thinking Organizations in Their Relationship to the World. Mar. 15, 1925
XXVI. Memory and Conscience. Mar. 22, 1925
XXVII. The Apparent Extinguishing of Spiritual Knowledge in Modem Times. Mar. 29, 1925
XXVIII. The Historic Upheavals Attendant upon the Birth of the Consciousness Soul. Apr. 5, 1925
XXIX. From Nature to Sub-nature. Apr. 12, 1925
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Steiner (b. Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, 1861–1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe’s scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner’s multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.
