עברית I believe that after we have worked on the earth for more than 40 years, the time is ripe to lift this veil, and describe, from our spiritual experience, the untold esoteric history of the Michaelic drama from the beginning of last century until now, and its potentials and possibilities for the near future. This story is the true spiritual history of the whole stream of Michael since the death of Rudolf Steiner in 1925, until today, and what is expected from us in the first part of this century.
The New Michaelic Plan
The Twilight and Resurrection of Humanity
From the Foreword
I believe that after we have worked on the earth for more than 40 years, the time is ripe to lift this veil, and describe, from our spiritual experience, the untold esoteric history of the Michaelic drama from the beginning of last century until now, and its potentials and possibilities for the near future. This story is the true spiritual history of the whole stream of Michael since the death of Rudolf Steiner in 1925, until today, and what is expected from us in the first part of this century.
The Platonic souls who stayed in the etheric world, and about whom Rudolf Steiner spoke so warmly and enthusiastically, took an active part, in a most awakened spiritual consciousness, in all the anthroposophical work on the earth; all the more so, as it was progressively spiritualized. They took an intensive part in the great spiritualization process of Anthroposophy in the last seven years of Rudolf Steiner’s life; and their active participation became most intensive during the burning of the first Goetheanum and the Christmas Foundation Conference, the Karma lectures and the lessons of the first esoteric class. During the whole new Michaelic impulse that Rudolf Steiner could give, from the end of 1923 until his death in 1925, they could feel at home on the etheric side of these mighty physical anthroposophical events; what took place on the earth, especially since the Christmas Foundation Conference, was experienced as the beginning of the real incarnation of the School of Michael, in which they lived, moved and had their being since the fifteenth century.
We must also understand that they could participate much more intensively, directly and consciously in these Michaelic events on the earth than the incarnated Aristotelians, because they were free from the obstacles of a physical body and the temptation of an earthly ego. Therefore, they could be much more intimately receptive and open to receive the spiritual work of Rudolf Steiner, which for them was one with the being and work of Michael himself in the real time of these events.
Furthermore, it is important to understand that for these souls, there was no break in the continuation of the Michaelic school from the fifteenth until their first incarnation in the second half of the twentieth century. They also continued with uninterrupted spiritual consciousness to par- ticipate in the supersensible School of Michael when it descended from the sun sphere, which took place from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, to the etheric world closest to the earth in 1879, when Michael began his new earthly ministry. They remained in his school in the etheric world when Rudolf Steiner incarnated on the earth and they followed him most intimately and closely, supporting and inspiring his whole life and anthroposophical work until his death in 1925. This means that from the fifteenth century until today, they work continuously and consciously with Rudolf Steiner and the School of Michael. While on the earth the physical incarnation and activity of the real Michaelic stream and school ended with the death of Rudolf Steiner, in Michael’s stream and school in the etheric world it continued uninterruptedly. But for the souls about which we speak here, this stream never stopped; they were active there in full spiritual consciousness while Rudolf Steiner incarnated on the earth, and they continued to do so also when the earthly centre of the school moved back to the etheric world with Rudolf Steiner after his death. And they were active there in the most intensive spiritual consciousness when, from the end of the 1920s, all the Michaelic forces were mobilized to face the coming threats to the existence of humanity and the earth in the 1930s and 1940s.
Above all, it must be understood today that these souls were also the first human souls who could consciously grasp and participate in the revelation of the new etheric Christ through the School of Michael during the 1930s-1940s. While their Aristotelian partners on the earth- apart from a very few exceptions- lost the track of Michael in the darkness that engulfed humanity, they collaborated consciously and actively with Michael and the Christ during the world-shaking events and catastrophes that threatened the very existence of humanity and the earth. This mighty world drama was described for the first time in 1993, in my book, The Spiritual Event of the 20th Century. An Imagination. The occult significance of the 12 years 1933-45 in the light of spiritual science. The most significant spiritual events that determined the goals of Anthroposophy at the end of the twentieth century and in the beginning of the twenty-first century took place in the etheric world in the 30s, 40s and 50s of last century.
As we shall see in greater detail in the second lecture below, after the apocalyptic crisis of the 1930s and 1940s, Michael gathered his hosts that remained loyal to him in the great tribulations on the earth and in heaven. From the middle of the 1940s until the middle of the 1950s, a new conference and consultations were taking place, about the future of humanity and how the Michaelic stream could intervene again in the totally changed conditions of the earth and humanity. In this conference a new Michaelic plan was drafted, and a new agreement was reached between the leaders of the two streams. Because the first Michaelic plan could not be realized, a new division of spiritual labour between them would be necessary. Instead of the hoped-for incarnation on the earth of the two streams in their entirety at the end of the century, they would again divide their places between the spiritual world (now the etheric world) and earth, and exchange the earthly leadership roles: the small group of Aristotelian souls, who remained loyal to Rudolf Steiner, will remain, to begin with, in the etheric world, while a small group of Platonists will incarnate in the second half of the century to become fully active in the transition between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
At the end of the twentieth century their central task will be—so it was agreed—to resurrect the old Anthroposophy to new life in their etheric hearts. This they will be able to do, provided they can find the way, on the earth, to the new revelation of the etheric Christ that they experienced so vividly in the 1930s and 1940s in the etheric world. On the foundations of this resurrected Anthroposophy, brought to new life through the new forces of the etheric Christ, their task in the beginning of the twenty-first century will be to build anew the foundations of the School of Michael on the earth. This school community, in its turn, will be able to receive the new Michaelic impulses that may begin to flow to the earth in the second and third decades of the twenty-first century. The new Michaelic agreement, described here, was aimed toward this eventuality: that when the centenary of the Christmas Foundation Con- ference would arrive in 2023-2024, there will exist on the earth for the first time since Rudolf Steiner’s death, such a Michaelic community, that will be able to receive the new Michaelic impulse for the first part of the twenty-first century.
The Twilight and Resurrection of Humanity