22. The Freedom of Man and the Age of Michael

Thus in his momentary ideation or forming of ideas man lives not in an element of real being, but only in a mirroring of being—in a picture-being. In this fact the possibility of development of Freedom lies inherent. All that is being in consciousness has power to compel. But a picture cannot compel. If anything is to be brought about through the impression that the picture makes, it must happen quite independently of the picture. Man becomes free through the fact that with his Spiritual Soul he rises out of the ocean of being and emerges in the picture-existence which has no being.