From the Preparations to the Laying of the Renewed Foundation Stone of the Michaelic Movement in the 21st Century in Christmas 2023

We are the Preparers of the Preparers

From the Preparations to the Laying of the Renewed Foundation Stone of the Michaelic Movement in the 21st Century in Christmas 2023

Extract from a lecture to the Global School of Spiritual Science

21 October 2023

Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon

 I was glad to hear what our members reported from the breakout-groups with such heartfelt feeling for the work in which spiritual content is taken so deeply into the heart and hopefully also one day into the will as well, because it should lead from the head to the heart and then to the will, to become active will to carry the Michaelic impulse to the wide world. But the first step is to lead it from the head to the heart because the greatest obstacle for thinking people lies in the head, where it is taken hold of by the Ahrimanic intellect and never makes it to the heart, not to mention the limbs. I believe that if we continue with our work, in the near future this threefold experience of the whole human soul, will be realized.

  We have repeatedly raised during this year, the question: What did actually happen in the Christmas Foundation Conference? We have contemplated this question and riddle, for almost a year, because such profound, epoch-making mystery event must be contemplated for long time and from many points of view. We can approach this mystery again if we view it also in this context.

 Recall how often Rudolf Steiner said, when he spoke about the Mystery of Golgotha, that everything Anthroposophy is investigating, teaching and communicating, has one central aim, to make the first step to throw the light of spiritual knowledge on the Mystery of Golgotha and the Christ impulse. He described from many points of view what led to the Mystery of Golgotha in the past, what prepared it and made it possible, and how the spiritual impulse flowing from the Mystery of Golgotha influenced the whole evolution of humanity and the earth in the last 1900 years, until the beginning of the 20th century, and how it must work far into the future, until the end of the evolution of the earth. In ten years, in 2033, the time will arrive, in which exactly 2000 years have elapsed since Christ became the spirit humanity and earth. He said that more and more, as the age of Michael develops, also anthroposophy will assume new forms and will be able to bring this event into ever greater light. Everything will be illuminated by the light that flows from the Mystery of Golgotha to which, and from 1933 on, also the new light of the etheric second coming will be added.

 This is the mission of spiritual science in this Age of Michael: To bring this event into greater comprehension and deeper life, until everything in earth and heaven, from the remotest stars down to the last insect and atom will be illuminated by the light and vivified by the love flowing from the first and second Mysteries of Golgotha. When each star, insect and atom is Illuminated by this light and enlivened by this love, it is not like been illuminated with external light. External light show the things as they are, as a result of their past evolution. It shows their finished form. The light and love of Christ comes not from outside but from the innermost spiritual kernel of the being it illuminates and vivifies; it awakens this kernel from its slumber; it is transformative; Christ awakens and fructifies what He illuminates; He works inside each star, insect and atom, plant, animal, man. His light and love is creative forces of life, the highest transformative power in the universe. To be illuminated by the living, love filled light that flows from the physical and etheric Mysteries of Golgotha means that you are transformed by this light. Then for the first time in human evolution, the primordial cosmic light of the Sophia, that illuminated the cosmos from the beginning, descends to earth with Christ and becomes the light filled wisdom of Christ, and then, since the beginning of the 20th century- becoming through Rudolf Steiner, what he called, ‘the human Anthroposophia’; Cosmic Sophia is thus also resurrected in man on earth, through the active and creative forces of the indwelling being of Christ, and illuminates with it creative magic light everything it touches. Its light awakens everything to new life and reveals the transformation of the entire earth, all the substances, forces and kingdoms of nature,  the elemental beings, all humans and the higher hierarchies as well. The entire earth and cosmos light up through the impulse flowing from the first and second Mysteries of Golgotha, revealed through the light of Anthroposophia. This is what modern spiritual science is truly about; any other conception of this modernist of all modern sciences, not only misses its true nature, but also inevitably reverses its true meaning into its stark opposite.

 This is the main task of modern spiritual science in the present age of Michael and the consciousness soul. And then Rudolf Steiner adds, dear friends, that the form of spiritual science that he could communicate at the beginning of last century, is but its rudimentary preparation, the ABC of what this knowledge will become in the future. Just consider this: The immense outpouring of living wisdom and life forces that Rudolf Steiner gave humanity a century ago, is only the first beginning, the ABC of what it will become in the near and far future!

  Now I ask you to take all the contents of Anthroposophy that you have studied and practice, and add to it everything Rudolf Steiner spoke about and wrote, that you didn’t yet study, and everything he actualized that you have not yet practiced. And consider that all this is only the ABC of what in future Anthroposophy is going to become, and that also all the knowledge communicated about the Mystery of Golgotha and the Christ impulse, like  everything else, about all the stars and insects and so forth, is only the ABC of this future spiritual knowledge. I aways experienced this as a remarkable, deeply moving truth. First, because I invested many years in studying this knowledge, and have a certain perspective of what was given. But if Rudolf Steiner would not have said that this is only the ABC, I would certainly believe, that this knowledge, so immensely vast and deep, will suffice for long ages to come. And then he comes and says it’s only the ABC! To this he adds a statement that I often remind us of. In 1908 in Nürnberg in the lecture cycles about the revelation of John, he said: We are only the preparers of the preparers! Spiritual science in our time is but a small flame that one day will become a mighty fire.

  Only much later, in his last efforts to awaken human hearts to the meaning of the totally new and future oriented impulse of Michael, given in the Christmas Foundation Conference, in the karma lectures in 1924, he described the new Michaelic plan, about the possible culmination of Anthroposophy at the end of the 20thcentury. The little flame of 1908 could have become at the end of the 20th century this mighty flame and the ABC would have expanded to include also DEFG. But for this, the new Michaelic impulse of Christmas 1923 must have been accepted by humanity. As we know all too well, this didn’t happen, and the worst turn in human history came about. At the end of the century, evil culminated, and only thanks to the grace of the new Christ impulse and the new guidance of Michael, could we gain some inklings of the new Michaelic impulse and communicate it as newly gained spiritual scientific knowledge.

 Now, about the deeper meaning of the Christmas foundation conference Rudolf Steiner could naturally communicate very little, because he had to take leave of the earth a short year and a half later. Rudolf Steiner described the many impulses that came out of the Mystery of Golgotha in the human history until the 19thcentury. He described from many points of view the spiritual streams of esoteric Christianity and its great teachers, and the people inspired by this then through the centuries. But consider that in comparison to this rich knowledge, how much less do we know about the true meaning of the Christmas foundation conference, which signifies the I birth and transformation of Anthroposophy after 21 years, and planted the potential seed for the beginning of a totally new Michaelic impulse that should have developed through the whole 20thcentury. Rudolf Steiner was very scarce with superlatives, he was not the kind of sentimental person, he was a empirical scientist, investigating facts, creating new concepts and social realities in human life. Therefore, when he said, that the Christmas foundation conference is ‘einen Welten-Zeitenwende-Anfang’, he wished to turn our attention to something truly profound. In the lectures included in the book, The Twilight and Resurrection of Humanity, I described the meaning of this statement, from various points of view. Now I only wish to remind you of this fact. It can be pointed out that such an expression was used previously only to describe the impact of the Mystery of Golgotha. Of course, many significant events since then have been great turning points in world history, but the Christmas Foundation Conference stands there in all its unique significance, and we must contemplate also for a long time to begin to understand its true nature.

 As we know, the impulse of the Christmas Foundation Conference died in 1925 with Rudolf Steiner, only for the physical earth. In the etheric world it continued to guide human evolution, as was described for the first time in 1993, in the book, The Spiritual Event of the 20th Century. In the 30 years that passed since then, this impulse could begin to descend to earth, and in the centenary event of 2023, it must find its fullest expression.

 As we draw near to the. centenary of the Christmas Foundation Conference,  illuminate and resurrect it with the light of the twilight and resurrection of humanity and the Spiritual Event of the 20th century, its meaning must be comprehended on three levels. First, what really happened in 1923-4, second, what happened to this impulse after it was rescued from the earth, and taken with Rudolf Steiner to the etheric world, and what was its role in the Spiritual Event of the 20th century, and third, what should it become on earth in 2023-4, after 3x33 years? - Of course, this can only be done by ‘practicing spirit remembrance’ by looking spiritually backward, from the future to the past, in the real stream of supersensible time, bringing the past to the living presence through the practice of ‘spirit awareness’, until it lights up in our ‘spirit seeing’, as we communicated from our various investigations.

 Think about what Rudolf Steiner could have said about the Christmas Foundation Conference if it was accepted and Rudolf Steiner could have lived on, as we pointed out, reaching his 72 year of life, creating the anthroposophical bridge to the appearance of the Christ and the Beast in 1933? You know that he said that if the impulse of the Christmas Foundation Conference is not received by the newly founded anthroposophical society it will leave the earth and be relocated to the moon sphere, the etheric world. That is, he had only 9 short months to refer to it until Michaelmas 1924, when he was forced to give up his mission, expressed in 24 years of lecturing about spiritual science, and had to take leave of the earth at Easter Eve 1925. What was possible if this impulse would have been accepted, was only portrayed, briefly, in his indications concerning the hoped for ‘culmination’ of the entire Michaelic impulse at the end of the 20th century. But how this impulse could have matured from the 20s, 30s, and 40s until the end of the century remained a mystery because it could not remain on earth and fulfil its true goals, and its further life and development could not develop on earth- but all the more so in the Spiritual Event of the 20th century in the etheric world and its continuation ever since.  

 When we investigate in the supersensible backward stream of time, what took place at the Christmas Foundation Conference, we realize to what an extent this is a future impulse, a future potential that been laid as a seed in human evolution, expecting its further development in the near and far future. But its present actualization and future development depends, as we know so well, if humans may hear, understand, and actualize it. Therefore, we contemplate the true esoteric meaning of the Christmas Foundation Conference in relation to the two Mysteries of Golgotha and what the spiritual impulse of this event accomplished in the Spiritual Event of the 20th century, as we are doing now for some time. As we became more and more acquainted with the two aspects of this event, on earth in 1923-4 and in the etheric world in 1933-1945, we will be also able to grasp what it is doing today and tomorrow in the etheric world, and then we shall grasp the true meaning of the coming centenary event of Christmas 2023.

 Now the Christ light that begun to shine at the end of the last century- about which  Helmuth von Moltke spoke to his wife through Rudolf Steiner in January 1924- illuminates the development and activity of the school of Michaelic backwards and forwards, because in the etheric world time forms a unity, in which past, present and future exist side by side. If we use this supersensible light of knowledge to look backward in the etheric stream of time, we come first to the great events, totally hidden from human consciousness, that took place at the end of last century, that illuminate backward the Spiritual Event of the 20th century, and from there, we look further back to Rudolf Steiner’s deed in Christmas 1923 and experience its esoteric significance from the spiritual side, that was never realized on earth.  And then we may really ask the question, in all earnestness: What did Rudolf Steiner accomplish then? What was in reality the Christmas Foundation Conference? One can have many different opinions about it, of course, from different points of view. But kindly notice that our point of view is difference from the others, because we communicate the purely supersensible meaning of this event grasped in the light of the spiritual evolution of humanity through the whole 20th century, and we do this from the suprasensible point of view of the first quarter of the 21st century. Let me just say one essential thing about it that I believe is very important, that we should contemplate further together...