Christ, Michael, and Humanity's Spiritual Evolution

GA 266I — 19 April 1909, Düsseldorf

Esoteric Lesson

Record A

Upon entering the school, the esoteric student has only one condition to fulfill, namely that he apply his reason and intellect entirely to the teachings he receives, that he ask himself while listening to the teachings: Is it reasonable for me to follow this path? That he recognize and comprehend with his reason and intellect what is given to him. This is absolutely necessary so that what we have to work on esoterically has the right effect. Only under this condition can our esoteric work bear the right fruit. The school, on the other hand, must fulfill the condition that everything that flows through it comes only from the great teachers whom we call the masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings.

What purpose do you associate with these esoteric schools? The aim is to educate a small group of people who will be equipped with knowledge about the development of the world and humanity and who will have the right attitude toward the great spiritual truths behind world events. They will then be able to feed these truths back into the development of humanity for its advancement. How is it that this spiritual movement has arisen at this particular time? This is due to important events in the spiritual worlds, for everything on earth is only a reflection of them. We have seen that great spiritual hierarchies carry out the commands of the Deity and guide the destiny of humanity. Eight centuries before our era, it was necessary, on the one hand, to prepare for the mystery of Golgotha by sending hindering forces into the development, and for this purpose the hordes of a leader called Mammon in occultism were unleashed. They increasingly darkened people's consciousness of their connection with the divine. The ancient clairvoyance was lost to humanity, and Western science and philosophy flourished. Ancient Eastern philosophy has its origins in ancient clairvoyance, while Greek philosophy grew entirely out of materialism. Thales' statement, “Everything comes from water,” was gradually understood in a purely material sense. The memory of the spiritual behind the water was lost. But even in these times of darkness, great teachers worked to remind people of their spiritual origins. Let us assume that a person of that time had no opportunity to listen to the teachings of a Buddha, a Zarathustra, and so on. What would have happened to such a person after death?

You know that life between incarnations is just as subject to change as historical life in the physical world. The darkening of human consciousness had, of course, only occurred gradually, as everything in evolution happens gradually. These spirits of Mammon had only been able to assert their influence gradually, and each time the son was less clairvoyant than the father, the grandfather even less clairvoyant, and so on. If a person died with a completely darkened consciousness of the divine, he took this darkening with him and had to work his way out of this cloud very gradually, figuratively speaking, by passing from hand to hand, up the line of his ancestors, until he reached the forefather who still had the full old clairvoyance. In this way, the cloud gradually dispersed for him. This naturally took a long time, and it could happen that such a person no longer encountered his ancestor because the latter had been reincarnated in the meantime, and so he had to return to a new incarnation while still immature. This path was called the “path of the fathers” or “Pitriyana” in Eastern wisdom. But those who accepted the teachings of a Zarathustra or a Buddha, who followed a great teacher, were received on the other side by his hand, and the teacher shortened their Pitriyana, parted the cloud for them, and led them to their divine origin. In Eastern wisdom, this path was called the “Devayana” (path of the gods).

In the time of deepest darkness, the mystery of Golgotha shines forth as a light. Esoteric students know, or should know, that at the moment when the blood flowed from the wounds, Christ began his journey into the spiritual world, that he appeared in Devachan! This was the spiritual reflection above of the physical events below. What the mystery of Golgotha has brought to humanity is there, but understanding of it can only gradually dawn in human souls; indeed, even today it cannot yet be universally accepted. At the time of the Mystery of Golgotha, the leading power in human destiny had been taken over from Michael by Oriphiel, who is one of the leaders serving the hosts of Mammon and who has to oppose the development with obstacles and hindrances.

Michael replaced Gabriel, who returned in the 16th century after four other archangels had followed Oriphiel and took over the reign once again. Gabriel is in charge of human births, which is why he is the one who announces the birth of John the Baptist, for example. In the 16th century, he prepared our brains, the forehead of human beings, by selecting births in such a way that an organ developed within them which cannot be discovered by the means of material science, but which makes today's brain appear different from that of a human being from the 13th or 14th century, for example.

Since the 16th century, therefore, the human brain has changed in a way that is clearly perceptible to clairvoyants, and this has been done for the purpose of enabling people to gradually learn to understand Christianity in its full meaning.

We have seen that in the 4th/5th to 14th centuries, the multiplications of Christ's etheric and astral bodies were bestowed upon personalities who in this way kept the spirit of true Christianity alive. Augustine, who had received an impression of the etheric body, arrived after many errors at mystical insights that bear such a resemblance to our theosophical teachings. The sevenfold division of the human being, for example, was a known fact to him, even if he had other names for it. All those gifted with the etheric or astral body were characterized by a deep humility, because they carried within themselves the awareness that the great truths they proclaimed came to them as illuminations, as a grace, that they could not understand them with their ego. When such cosmic events occur, such as the bestowal of an etheric or astral body of Christ upon a human being, they are usually accompanied by natural phenomena which we are inclined to regard as coincidences, but which are deeply connected with the spiritual events. To give just one example, when Thomas Aquinas received the astral body of Christ as a small child, a bolt of lightning struck and killed Thomas Aquinas' little sister, who was lying in a cradle in the same room, but made the boy's astral body elastic enough to take up the high astral body.

Through Gabriel's preparation of people in the 16th century to develop a new organ in the forebrain, it became possible in the last third of the 19th century, after Gabriel had handed over the government to Michael, what we call theosophy could flow in from the great masters of wisdom and harmony of feelings in order to gradually bring the meaning of the mystery of Golgotha in all its effect closer to humanity. When human beings now pass through the gates of death, each and every one of them can find their great master, who can already be found by every human being living in the physical world.

Record B

In the first to third millennia BC, humanity had a dim clairvoyance, which, however, became increasingly obscured as daytime consciousness became clearer. Clairvoyance gradually diminished, and descendants became less clairvoyant than their ancestors. When a person who had heard nothing of the teachings of Zoroaster, Hermes, or Buddha died, his clairvoyant consciousness in the spiritual world was enveloped as if by a black cloud, and he had to follow the so-called Pitriyana (path of the fathers). He had to go from hand to hand of his ancestors, who took over the guidance, until he came to the one who had been the most clairvoyant. (The judges of the dead in the ancient exoteric Egyptian teaching are nothing other than ancestors.) Now it could happen that the deceased did not encounter such an ancestor at all, but that he had already been reincarnated, and therefore such a person came to rebirth immature.

However, if the person had absorbed the teachings of the great religious leaders, then after going through his personal Kamaloka, he could be guided by such a religious founder, and this was called Devayana (the path of the gods).

Until about 600 AD, the great church teachers, such as Augustine, could only regard the knowledge of Christian truths as a gift of grace. This is because they received images of the etheric body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into their etheric bodies. Their brains were not yet developed enough to comprehend these teachings with their intellect. Later, these teachers received images of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into their astral bodies. Francis of Assisi had such an astral body. A process such as weaving is always connected with an external natural phenomenon. When little Thomas Aquinas lay in his cradle with his little sister beside him, lightning struck. It killed his sister, but the lightning bolt made Thomas' astral body receptive to receiving the image of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth.

Before the appearance of Christ, Michael was the archangel who had to carry out the commands of Jehovah. He was replaced by Oriphiel, who ruled at the time of Christ. At that time, deepest darkness lay over humanity, as Mammon and his hosts were particularly strong at that time. Several other archangels followed, and in the 16th century the reign of the spirit Gabriel began. He has to prepare in embryonic form what is to come later. He is the leader of birth. That is why Gabriel is also the herald of the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. Under his rule, the frontal brain changed so that people can now understand the truths of Christianity with their minds.

In November 1879, something significant happened in the astral world. It was the victory of the archangel Michael over the god Mammon and his hosts, and now spiritual life can flow into humanity again (theosophy).