II. The Human Soul before the Dawn of the Michael Age

Thought-construction is not in itself, of its own character, a development in the direction of materialism. What in earlier ages had come to Man as though be inspiration—the world of Ideas—became, in the time that preceded the Michael Age, a property of the human soul. The soul no longer receives her Ideas given to her ‘from above’ out of the spiritual fullness of the Cosmos; she fetches them forth actively, out of the inner spiritual life of Man himself. With this, Man becomes ripe for the first time to reflect upon his own individual spirit-being. Previously, he never penetrated to this depth in his own being; he saw in himself, so to speak, a drop, separated out for the span of his earth-life from the sea of cosmic spirit, to re-unite with it again after this earth-life is over.