Steiner Said

October 14, 2018

THE ARCHANGEL, THE DRAGON,

AND OUR MICROSCOPIC ENEMIES

Here are excerpts from a lecture by Rudolf Steiner. This lecture is among those featured today (October 14, 2018) at the Rudolf Steiner Archive and eLib.

Steiner delivered this lecture on October 14 in the year 1917. A transcript of the lecture can be fund in the book THE FALL OF THE SPIRITS OF DARKNESS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993). The lecture is the ninth in the book.

The title of the lecture is “The Battle Between Michael and ‘The Dragon’”. As the title suggests, the lecture deals with various subjects that have cropped up in Waldorf news items during the last few weeks (Michael, Ahriman, “the dragon”, and so forth).

Excerpts from

“The Battle Between Michael and ‘The Dragon’”

(Preliminary note: Steiner is hard to read. Some people find him virtually incoherent. I have edited these excerpts to give them clarity they otherwise don’t possess. If you still find them tough going, you might consult the paraphase I have appended.)

[I]n the middle of the nineteenth century, and especially in the 1840s…the materialistic point of view [1] came to its peak [on Earth].…

The deeper sources of such events…must be sought in the world of the spirit … To have the right idea about these things, you must visualize a battle which continued for decades in the spiritual worlds, from the 1840s until the autumn of 1879. [2]

This may be called a battle which the spirits who are followers of...Michael fought with certain ahrimanic powers [3] … The battle [reached] a conclusion in the autumn of 1879, when Michael and his followers won.…

To see something like this in the right way, we can always call on an image which humanity has known throughout its evolution — the fight between Michael and the dragon. [4] … [E]very battle between Michael and the dragon is similar to the one in the 1840s … We may say that a particular crowd of ahrimanic spirits seek over and over again to bring something into world evolution [5], but they are always overcome. And so they also lost the battle in the autumn of 1879….

Losing the battle means they are no longer to be found in the heavens … Instead they are to be found in the human realms…. [6]

The people who do not turn away from the ahrimanic, materialistic way of thinking and want to keep it, would then be in league with everything which has come about through similar victories won over the dragon by Michael. [7] They therefore would not unite with spiritual progress in human evolution but with material progress. And a time would come in the sixth post-Atlantean age [8] when the only thing to please them would be to live in something which will have been brought about by bacilli, those microscopically small enemies of humanity.… [9]

[T]he individuals who have become so tied up with the materialistic way of thinking…find ways of involving themselves in the activities of bacilli … Today’s bacilli are merely the prophets, let us say, of what will happen to the whole earth in future. Then a time will come when those who cling to the materialistic way of thinking will unite with the moon powers…. [10]

— Rudolf Steiner, “The Battle Between Michael and ‘The Dragon’”.

Interpretive Paraphrase

Human materialism [1] reached its peak in the mid-nineteenth century, particularly in the 1840s.

The causes of such things are found in the spirit realm. The culmination of materialism on Earth reflected a long-running battle in the spirit realm, a battle that ran from the 1840s until the autumn of 1879. [2]

This was a battle between the forces of the archangel Michael and the forces of the arch-demon Ahriman. [3] The conclusion of the battle came in 1879, when Michael and his followers won.

To understand this correctly, we can call up an image that humans have known throughout their evolution: It is the image of Michael fighting a dragon. [4] Michael and the dragon have fought many times, and these battles have alway been like the one in the 1840s. We may say that certain minions of Ahriman have tried, over and over, to interfere in human evolution [5], but they have always been defeated. And so they were defeated again in 1879.

Each time they lose one of these battles, Ahrimanic spirits are cast out of the spirit realm. They fall to Earth, into the realm of human activity on Earth. [6]

Humans who embrace the materialistic way of thinking promoted by Ahriman and his minions make themselves servants of these dark spirits, the Ahrimanic who have fallen to Earth after each victory attained by Michael over the dragon. [7] The humans therefore cut themselves off from the spiritual progress of humanity; they focus instead on mere material progress (such as the development of physical science and technology). This means that in the near future, during the sixth epoch since the destruction of Atlantis [8], they will choose to live in the diseased conditions caused by bacilli — bacteria that are microscopic enemies of humanity. [9]

Humans who are tied up in materialism find ways to become involved in the dire actions of bacilli. The bacilli found on Earth today are merely the forerunners of bacilli that will infect the entire Earth in the future. Then the materialists on Earth will ally themselves with the baleful influences streaming down from the Moon. [10]

— Paraphrase by Roger Rawlings

The prospect is dire. But Steiner’s vision is not wholly bleak. The fall of the spirits of darkness has provided us a huge potential benefit. The positive effect of Ahrimanic powers coming down into human affairs has been to create great possibilities for human freedom. We gain the knowledge of good and evil — a terrible knowledge, but also a potentially beneficial knowledge.

Here is a passage occurring elsewhere in this lecture:

Everything which happens within the great scheme of things does also have its good side. It is because the ahrimanic powers entered into us when Michael won his victory that we are gaining in human freedom. Everything is connected with this, for the crowd of ahrimanic spirits has entered into all of us. We gain in human freedom, but we must be aware of this. We should not allow the ahrimanic powers to gain the upper hand, as it were, and we should not fall in love with them.

We must accept the potential benefits of Ahriman’s influence. But at the same time, very importantly, we must reject the terribly evil side of his influence. We must not be materialistic purveyors of moon powers; we must not be human pawns of demonic bacilli.

Explanatory Footnotes

[1] “Materialism,” as Steiner used the term, is excessive involvement in the material or physical level of existence. Importantly, it includes reliance on the brain (a physical organ) for thinking. Such thinking is dead and generally wrong, Steiner said. Thus, in this lecture, Steiner describes materialistic thinking as “a way of grasping dead, outer facts with the intellect, refusing to enter into living reality.” Living reality is spiritual reality, Steiner taught, and we cannot approach it through rational thought.

[2] The year 1879, Steiner taught, marked an important turning point. In that year, a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil was won in the spirit realm. Simultaneously, at about that time, Steiner received initiation into occult mysteries — he started traveling the path that would lead him to become a great spiritual leader. [See “What a Guy”.]

[3] I.e., the battle in the spirit realm was fought by the Archangel Michael with his legions against the arch-demon Ahriman and certain of his legions. (Steiner will go on to say that Michael and Ahriman have fought many times. Generally speaking, the battles have occurred on the Moon, as it were.)

[4] The dragon is Ahriman and/or Ahriman's minions (subordinate demons) and/or Ahriman's works. Battles between Michael and Ahriman (and/or Ahriman's minions and/or his works) are symbolized by the image of St. Michael fighting a terrible dragon. Steiner says we humans have known this image throughout our evolution.

[5] I.e., in each battle between Michael and Ahriman (the dragon), various minions of Ahriman attempt to derail “world” evolution (the evolution of the Earth and humanity).

[6] When Ahriman and his hordes lose a battle in the spirit realm, they are cast out of the spirit realm to the earthly realm below. This is what Steiner meant by “the fall of the spirits of darkness”— the title of the book containing this lecture.

[7] Each victory by Michael in the spirit realm sends Ahrimanic spirits down into the earthly realm, where they influence human life on the Earth. Materialistic people are particularly receptive to the foul influences of these Ahrimanic spirits. (Materialism is, in a sense, the consequence of Ahrimanic influence among humans.)

[8] According to Steiner, we currently live in the fifth post-Atlantean age — the fifth major epoch since the sinking of Atlantis. During the coming sixth post-Atlantean age, Steiner says, people who embrace “the ahrimanic, materialistic way of thinking” will separate themselves emphatically from the correct line of evolution. They will devote themselves to material progress, not spiritual progress.

[9] I.e., materialists will ally themselves with disease-causing bacilli. (“Bacilli” is the plural of “bacillus.”) Bacilli, Steiner taught, are essentially demonic, and as such they are our enemies.

At another point in the lecture, Steiner says this about bacilli:

After one of these battles...the crowd of ahrimanic spirits populated the earth with the earthly life-forms which the medical profession now calls bacilli. Everything which has the power to act as a bacillus, everything in which bacilli are involved, is the result of crowds of ahrimanic spirits being cast down from heaven to earth at a time when the dragon had been overcome.

[10] I.e., in the future, materialists who ally themselves with evil bacilli will unite with evil powers (Ahrimanic powers) streaming downward from the dead and deadly Moon.

Sans Ellipses

Here are full, unedited versions of the paragraphs I excerpted, above, from Steiner's lecture:

I have frequently spoken of the significant break which occurred in the spiritual development of the peoples of Europe and America in the middle of the nineteenth century, and especially in the 1840s. I have pointed out that this was the time when the materialistic point of view came to its peak, with a peak was reached in what we may call a way of grasping dead, outer facts with the intellect, refusing to enter into living reality.

The deeper sources of such events — and today we are very much involved in their after-effects, which will continue to have an influence for a long time to come — must be sought in the world of the spirit. And if we investigate the processes in that world which have come to outer expression in the event of which I have just spoken, we have to point to a struggle, a real war in that world, which began then and came to a certain conclusion for the world of the spirit by the autumn of 1879. To have the right idea about these things, you must visualize a battle which continued for decades in the spiritual worlds, from the 1840s until the autumn of 1879.

This may be called a battle which the spirits who are followers of the spirit belonging to the hierarchy of Archangels whom we may call Michael fought with certain ahrimanic powers. Please consider this battle to have been in the first place a battle in the spiritual world. Everything I am referring to at the moment relates to this battle fought by Michael and his followers against certain ahrimanic powers. A good way of strengthening this idea, especially if you want to make it fruitful for your life in the present time, is to have it in your mind's eye that the human souls who were born exactly in the fifth decade of the nineteenth century actually took part in this battle between Michael's followers and the ahrimanic powers when they were in the spiritual world. If you think on this, it will give you a great deal of understanding of the outer and inner destiny experienced by these individuals, and above all of their inner constitution. The battle thus took place in the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s and came to a conclusion in the autumn of 1879, when Michael and his followers won a victory over certain ahrimanic powers.

What does this signify? To see something like this in the right way, we can always call on an image which humanity has known throughout its evolution — the fight between Michael and the dragon. This image has come up again and again in the course of evolution. We may characterize it by saying that every battle between Michael and the dragon is similar to the one in the 1840s, but it is about different things — harmful and damaging things. We may say that a particular crowd of ahrimanic spirits seek over and over again to bring something into world evolution, but they are always overcome. And so they also lost the battle in the autumn of 1879, and, as I said, this was in the spiritual world.

But what does it signify that the powers of the dragon, this crowd of ahrimanic spirits, are driven down into the human realms, banished from heaven to earth, as it were? Losing the battle means they are no longer to be found in the heavens, to use the biblical term. Instead they are to be found in the human realms, which means that the late 1870s were a particular time when human souls became subject to ahrimanic powers with regard to certain powers of perception. Before this, these powers were active in the spiritual realms and therefore left human beings more in peace; when they were driven out of the spiritual realms they came upon human beings. And if we enquire into the nature of the ahrimanic powers which entered into human beings when they had to leave the realms of the spirit, the answer is, the ahrimanic materialistic view with its personal — mark this well — its personal bias.

◊

This is tremendously important. There always is the danger of people continuing in materialism, in the materialistic, ahrimanic way of thinking, and carrying this on into ages when, according to the plan of things, it should have been overcome. The people who do not turn away from the ahrimanic, materialistic way of thinking and want to keep it, would then be in league with everything which has come about through similar victories won over the dragon by Michael. They therefore would not unite with spiritual progress in human evolution but with material progress. And a time would come in the sixth post-Atlantean age when the only thing to please them would be to live in something which will have been brought about by bacilli, those microscopically small enemies of humanity.

◊

You see from this how unconsciously human beings are, in fact, being guided. But we are now in an age when such things must be perceived and understood. It is necessary to link such an idea with the other ideas we have characterized today. A time will come when we must have transformed our materialistic ideas to such an extent that we can progress to a more spiritual form of existence, but by then the earth will have been a corpse for a long time. It will no longer support us, and incarnations in the flesh such as we seek today will no longer be sought. But the individuals who have become so tied up with the materialistic way of thinking that they cannot let go of it will still sneak down to that earth and find ways of involving themselves in the activities of bacilli — the tubercle bacillus and others — bacillary entities which will be rummaging through every part of the earth's corpse. Today's bacilli are merely the prophets, let us say, of what will happen to the whole earth in future. Then a time will come when those who cling to the materialistic way of thinking will unite with the moon powers and surround the earth, which will be a burnt-out corpse, together with the moon. For all they want is to hold on to the life of the earth and remain united with it; they do not want to take the right course, which is to progress from the earth's corpse to what will be the future soul and spirit of the earth.

◊

These things really do belong together, in a way, and it is extremely useful to consider this, for it has profound significance. Some individuals develop an irresistible hankering for intellectual materialism which arises from being in league with the fallen Ahriman. They gradually come to love the impulses which Ahriman raises in their souls and, indeed, consider them to be a particularly noble and sublime way of thinking. Once again, it is necessary to be fully and clearly aware of these things. Unless they are in our conscious awareness and we have clear insight, we cannot make head or tail of events. The danger inherent in all this must be looked at with a cool eye, as it were, and a calm heart. We have to face them calmly. We shall only do so, however, if we are quite clear about the fact that a certain danger threatens human beings from this direction. This is the danger of preserving what should not be preserved. Everything which happens within the great scheme of things does also have its good side. It is because the ahrimanic powers entered into us when Michael won his victory that we are gaining in human freedom. Everything is connected with this, for the crowd of ahrimanic spirits has entered into all of us. We gain in human freedom, but we must be aware of this. We should not allow the ahrimanic powers to gain the upper hand, as it were, and we should not fall in love with them.

◊

If you were to go back to very early times in evolution, you would find a battle similar to the one I have just described. As already mentioned, these battles have recurred over and over again, but always on different issues. In the distant past, the crowd of ahrimanic spirits were also cast down from the spiritual worlds into the earthly realm when they had lost such a battle. You see, they would return to the attack again and again. After one of these battles, for example, the crowd of ahrimanic spirits populated the earth with the earthly life-forms which the medical profession now calls bacilli. Everything which has the power to act as a bacillus, everything in which bacilli are involved, is the result of crowds of ahrimanic spirits being cast down from heaven to earth at a time when the dragon had been overcome. In the same way the ahrimanic, mephistophelean way of thinking has spread since the late 1870s as the result of such a victory. Thus we are able to say that tubercular and bacillary diseases come from a similar source as the materialism which has taken hold of human minds.

To read the entire lecture (which I strongly recommend), but THE FALL OF THE SPIRITS OF DARKNESS, or go to https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA177/English/RSP1993/19171014p01.html.