Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts 3

Rudolf Steiner continues in this third installment of the Leading Thoughts to recast anthroposophy in a more succinct, coherent, and elegant form. An austere clarity of style is born of brevity. Steiner begins by describing the inner aspect of the "evolution of consciousness," which reached a watershed in the 15th century. Michael guides the cosmic intelligence down to Earth, from the supra-sensory to the sensory. There it becomes available to humans for the development of their freedom; we see "the coming of freedom, cosmically grounded."The description of this descent is made wonderfully concrete and explicit. The cosmic intelligence descends from "being" to "revelation" to "living working" to "finished work."But in this epochal development lies a great temptation: Ahriman wants to make this intelligence cold, dead, and abstract. This evolution occurred because humanity needed to develop the severed thinking as an all-important step on its path toward freedom. Michael wants to preserve this intellectuality's relationship to the divine, but he stands apart from this process, waiting for humans to reestablish that relationship in freedom. He does not compel, but rather waits earnestly for humans to act. But when we rise in freedom, and learn to speak "the Michael-Christ language" about external nature, Michael can be our guide to Christ, who gives us recompense for the spirituality that has departed from the cosmic intellect.