# Michael's Age: Esoteric Preparation for Humanity's Future

## GA 266I — 5 December 1907, Munich

### Esoteric Lesson

At the beginning of an esoteric lesson, it is always good to clarify what an esoteric lesson actually means. What we deal with in such a lesson does not differ in substance from what we hear in an exoteric lesson. Everything that is explained in an exoteric lesson is also under the influence of those high beings whom we call the Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings. But what we experience in an esoteric lesson is under the direct influence of the exalted Masters and is communicated only under their immediate influence and under their complete responsibility. Therefore, it is less important what we hear in an esoteric lesson in terms of content than that our souls experience something. What matters is how the soul relates to the spiritual currents that flow toward it. The mood of the soul before and after an esoteric lesson must be completely different. And it is not at all essential that the soul always has the experience of an esoteric lesson present in its consciousness, but it must have the feeling that it has experienced something, that it has taken something with it. It must be like an electrifying machine that is charged with electricity at one moment and not at another. Just as one knows one's name, so must one carry in one's soul what one has received in the esoteric lesson. One knows one's name as soon as one is asked for it, even if one does not repeat it over and over again. In the same way, the stream of esoteric life must always rest in the soul. Esoteric life will then deepen our soul more and more, and this is necessary for the coming time.

All our culture has its origin in the spiritual world. There the plans are made according to which our life then takes place on the physical plane. Down here we only see how, according to physical laws, one event follows another, but the great spiritual causes remain hidden from us at first. It is the events on the higher planes of our existence that cause the physical events. Let us make this very clear and take an example.

A particularly important event took place in November 1879 on the astral plane.


From this point on, esoteric life took a completely different direction, very different from previous times. The esoteric current that had been alive in humanity since the 14th century was replaced by a new current. Esoteric life from the 14th century until November 1879 was very different from that of our time. At that time, all occult life took place in the greatest silence and secrecy from the outside world and matured in complete seclusion toward that year 1879 under the guidance of a high spiritual being, the archangel Gabriel.

Gabriel means proclamation, advance announcement. That is why the archangel Gabriel also plays the role of the herald in the Gospels. Under his guidance, spiritual life matured in silence, well protected and secure, like a child in its mother's womb. And in November of the year 1879, something very similar to a birth took place on the astral plane. What had slowly matured since the 14th century could now be carried out into the world in a freer way, even if only for a minority of people.

For Gabriel's reign was replaced by another archangel, under whose leadership we now stand, the archangel Michael. He is the shining sun that allows esoteric wisdom to shine forth to a small group of people. Under Gabriel's reign, it remained hidden, and materialism developed in outer life. But we should not regard materialism as something evil, for it is included in the divine plan of creation and has a purpose and destiny in the whole world. But now the time has come, under Michael's radiant leadership, when the esoteric sun is to shine brightly. For the dark forces of materialism are gaining the upper hand.

Michael's reign of light will in turn be replaced by a dark and terrible age that will begin around the year 2400. Already today, at the same time as Michael, a dark god has begun his reign: the god Mammon.

For occultism, Mammon is not only the god of money. He is rather the leader of all base, black forces. And his hosts attack not only human souls, but also the physical bodies of human beings, in order to devour and corrupt them. People today do not talk so much about germs because they know more about them, but because they have really taken on a very special form today. And in the future they will gain the upper hand in a terrifying way. When that black age approaches, brotherly strife and brotherly war will rage in a gruesome manner, and poor human bodies will languish in a terrible way, afflicted by diseases and epidemics. The mark of sin will be imprinted on human bodies for all to see. Then another archangel will rule: Oriphiel. He must come to shake people up, to shake them up through cruel torments to their true destiny. And so that this can happen in the right way, a small group of people must be prepared today so that in four to six hundred years, in the dark age, they can spread esoteric life and guide humanity.

Those who today, under Michael's rule, feel the urge to participate in spiritual life are called to serve the archangel Michael and learn under him, so that they may one day be ready to serve the terrible Oriphiel in the right way. A sacrifice is demanded of those who want to dedicate themselves to a higher life. Only on this condition should one desire to receive spiritual life and experience the awakening, if one later wishes to devote oneself, one's will, and everything to the service of humanity.

In four to six hundred years, the small group of people who are being prepared today will serve the god Oriphiel so that humanity may be saved. If, in that age, people who have not been prepared to withstand all storms and defy the hordes of Mammon were to take over spiritual leadership, they would not be able to serve the archangel Oriphiel in the right way, and humanity would not be lifted out of its misery. But in order for this to happen, we must work with all seriousness today so that we may then fulfill our tasks in the right way.

But when the dark forces rage most terribly, the brightest light also shines. Oriphiel has already held sway once before. That was at the time when Christ appeared on earth. At that time, evil forces of decay and decadence reigned everywhere on earth. And only by cruel means could the human race be shaken up. Oriphiel is called the angel of wrath, who purifies humanity with a strong hand.

The biblical story of Christ wielding the scourge to cleanse the temple of the money changers has a profound meaning. At that time, when it was darkest on earth, Christ appeared as the savior of mankind. 109 years after Christ's appearance, Oriphiel's reign came to an end and was replaced by Anael. Then came Zachariel, then Raphael. At the time of the Renaissance, Samael ruled, and from the 16th century until November 1879, Gabriel ruled. Then Michael took over, and around the year 2400, Oriphiel, the terrible angel of wrath, will once again take charge. And as before, the spiritual light will shine brightly and radiantly in the darkness: Christ will appear again on earth, albeit in a different form than before. We are called to welcome him and serve him.

If you, my sisters and brothers, allow what flows into your souls from spiritual life to live within you, so that it echoes in your meditation formulas, then you will bear the right fruit. You should allow what you have received to continue to work and echo in your meditations. While you do this, the spiritual powers of the world will flow into you. The world is always permeated by spiritual currents that emanate from the great masters of wisdom and the harmony of feelings. The masters continually pour streams of love and wisdom over humanity, but the souls of human beings are not always ready and open to receive them.

The words of meditation, however, are magic words that open the gates of the soul so that divine life can enter. Therefore, one should not merely speculate about the words of meditation with the intellect, but open the soul to higher powers than the mere powers of the intellect. If one speculates about them with the intellect, only those forces that are already within one come into activity. But higher forces should be awakened. One should not try to solve riddles with one's meditation words, but allow them to solve riddles for one. For they are much wiser than the intellect can ever be. Therefore, one should let them work on oneself completely and take in what they allow to flow into the soul, letting them live completely in the soul.

The words of meditation are not speculated out, but born out of the laws of the spiritual world. Something very special lives in every vowel. The vowels have a specific sound value, and not every one has the same. And just as the soul feels the effect of the sounds, so should it surrender itself to the images that the words convey. During meditation, one should be as far removed as possible from abstract mental images, but rather strive to think as concretely as possible.

Let us take a meditation formula that almost all of you know: “In the pure rays...”

In the first line:

> In pure rays of light

one can imagine, for example, the dull glow of moonlight, which represents the gentle light of the deity that floods creation. This mental image should live clearly and deeply in the soul when the words are spoken:

> In pure rays of light  
> Gleams the Godhead of the world.

Then follow the lines:

> In pure love for all beings  
> Radiates the godliness of my soul

Now one seeks with one's love to penetrate the gentle moonlight completely, to pour it into oneself, so that through the warmth of one's own love the mild light begins to shine, and one feels in the floods of rays the divinity glowing in one's own soul. With the following words:

> I rest in the Godhead of the world,

one tries to imagine that one is completely surrounded by the divine spirit. One can feel as if one were in a warm bath, completely enveloped by divine substance, which surrounds the whole person like a mild, warm bath.

> I will find myself  
> In the Godhead of the world:

These words may make one think of a distant lighthouse shining toward you, and one may be filled with the feeling that one will find one's own self in the divine.

But it is not only the images that live in the soul during meditation that draw us toward the divine and open the gates of the soul. A deep wisdom and high divine life are also embedded in the vowels. It is not insignificant which vowels resound in the soul. Let us take the vowel **i** as an example. The **i** always expresses a centralization, a striving toward the middle, the center. The **a** means something completely different. It is the expression of inner worship of the divine. The **i** strives toward the center of the universe, while the **a** remains distant and bows in worship before the most holy.

Let us now consider our formula:

> In the pure rays of light

In the first **i**, the soul strives toward the divine center, in the **a** it recedes in worship, and in the second **i** it rushes toward the divine again.

In the second line we have the **ä**:

> Erglänzt the divinity of the world

The **ä** represents a weakened **a**. The adoring devotion of the **a** is transformed into shy reverence in the **ä**. In holy, shy reverence, man does not dare to approach God. In the following **o**, however, the soul rushes forward to embrace the divine completely with holy love and intimacy. The **o** always expresses loving embrace. The following line:

> In pure love for all beings

Here, the **i** leads the soul directly back to the divine center. Then, in the **a**:

> The divinity of my soul resounds

the soul is once again completely worshipful. And just as the shy reverence of **ä** in the second line was transformed into an intimate embrace of the divine, so in the fourth line the full, warm, devout worship of a weakens into a shy desire to embrace, which hardly dares to touch the deity: **ö**.

In the fifth line:

> I rest in the divinity of the world

the **u** predominates. It always expresses a resting, a being embedded. Now the soul is merged with the divine in blissful rest.

In the last two lines, the **i** always returns:

> I will find myself  
> In the divinity of the world

In the end, the soul is led ever deeper into the divine center of the world.

This is *one* way of understanding the formula, and a small part of the profound wisdom that lies within it. It would be confusing if I were to tell you what other profound secrets are hidden within it. There is not a single letter or sign in it that does not contain a deep, deep meaning. This is how the divine word of creation sounded when it once brought the universe into being. You heard it once, but your souls were not yet aware of it. At that time, you descended from the spirit, and you will return there in full consciousness. Born of the spirit, living in the earthly body, you will return through the power of the spirit to the divine spirit of the world.

> **i** - Striving toward the center  
> **a** - Worship  
> **ä** - Timid reverence  
> **o** - Embracing  
> **ö** - Timid touch  
> **u** - Resting in God