Michael (archangel)

From AnthroWiki
Margarita Woloschin: Archangel Michael
Michael as guardian of souls (altar of the Last Judgement in the Hôtel-Dieu in France)
The Archangel Michael weighing a soul (Palazzo Carrara, Padua, 1350)
Paolo Uccello: Saint George Fighting the Dragon (c. 1470 )

Michael (Hebrew: מיכאל; Arabic: ميكائيل/ميكا "Mika'il/Mikaal"; in English: "Who is like God?") is the fourth of the four leading Archangels and carries the flaming sword. He is the defeater of Satan and weighs the souls on the Day of Judgement. Fire is his element, his colour is red. According to the Catholic view, he stands in the East before the Throne of God. The solar sphere is Michael's spiritual home and to promote the Earth's development in the service of the Christ in such a way that the human I can unfold as richly as possible is his main task. In his capacity as dragon vanquisher, Saint George corresponds to him.

„The fourth, who contains within himself the powers of the others and adds his own power, radiates his light from the East in rose-coloured hue and golden radiance. It guides and directs the development of the earth and therefore works into the future. He is called by the name of Michael, a sublime, victorious figure who bears the qualities of the other three. Thus the four mighty archangels stand there and guide the processes of the world. Each of them is connected with one of the four limbs in man, for in each of the planetary states one of these limbs was developed in the disposition. The fourth directs the formation of the human ego. It is most intimately connected with humanity and is the direct servant of the mighty Sun Spirit.“ (Lit.:GA 265, p. 337)

Michael as the Administrator of Cosmic Intelligence

According to Rudolf Steiner, Michael is the administrator of cosmic intelligence, the essential revelation of Divine Thinking:

„The ancient Hebrew word Michael should actually be translated by the word God-seer; God-proclaimer would mean quite the same as Gabriel; God-wisher would mean quite the same as Raphael. While we work in the physical world through our three soul forces, the beings of the higher hierarchies work through beings themselves. As we work through imagining, feeling, willing, a god works through Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. And this means the same for a god: I work through Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, - which means for our soul: I work through thinking, feeling and willing.“ (Lit.:GA 272, p. 203)

Rudolf Steiner very vividly described the nature and work of Michael in the Michael Imagination. According to this, Michael's flaming sword is forged from meteoric iron.

Michael Age

→ Main article: Michael Age

The Michael Age in which we stand today, which replaced the previous Gabriel Age (1510 - 1879 AD), began, according to Rudolf Steiner's spiritual research, in November 1879 after the overthrow of the spirits of darkness by the Archangel Michael. Michael thereby conquered the power by which human beings, if they follow him, can transform the materialistic intellectual power into spritual intellectual power. The paths, the "Michael paths", which lead to a contemporary spiritual knowledge, can be followed through anthroposophical spiritual science. The present Michael Age will end around 2300 AD.

Michael as the Face of Christ

„And there are many such spiritual beings who belong to the same rank. But this particular spiritual being, known esoterically as Michael, is as exalted above his fellows as the Sun is exalted above the planets, above Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, and so on.

He, Michael, is the most outstanding and the most important entity in the hierarchy of the archangels. The ancient Hebrews called Michael "The Face of God". As man reveals himself by his gestures and by the expression of his countenance, so in the mythology of the ancients Jehovah was understood through Michael. Jehovah made himself known to the initiate in such a way that the initiate was able to grasp something that he could never have grasped before with his ordinary capacity, namely, that Michael was the face of Jehovah. Thus the ancient Hebrews spoke of Jehovah-Michael: Jehovah, the Unapproachable One, to whom one could not attain, as one cannot attain to a man's thoughts, to his sufferings and sorrows, which lie behind his outward expression. Michael is the outward revelation of Yahweh or Jehovah, as one recognises in man the revelation of his I on his forehead and countenance.

And so we may say that Jehovah revealed Himself through Michael, one of the Archangels. The knowledge of Him whom we have described as Yahweh was not confined to the ancient Hebrews, it was much more widespread. And if we examine the last five centuries before the Christian era, we find that throughout that time there was a revelation through Michael. We can discover this revelation in another form in Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, in Greek philosophy, even in the ancient Greek tragedies during the five centuries before the event of Golgotha.

If, with the help of occult knowledge, we endeavour to illuminate that which actually took place, we can say that Christ-Jehovah is the entity which has accompanied man throughout his evolution. But during the epochs that follow each other, Christ-Jehovah always reveals Himself through different beings of the same rank as Michael. He always chooses, so to speak, a different face with which to turn to man. And depending on whether one or the other of the hierarchy of archangels is chosen to be the mediator between Christ-Jehovah and humanity, very different ideas and conceptions, impulses of feeling, impulses of willing, and so on, are revealed to men.“ (Lit.:GA 152, p. 36f)

„Michael, the spirit who lived in the Sun, who was the most important servant of the Christ-Spirit in the Sun, experienced the Mystery of Golgotha from the other side. Man on Earth experienced the Mystery of Golgotha in such a way that he saw the Christ arrive. Michael and his followers, who were still in the sun at that time, experienced it in such a way that they had to take leave of the Christ.

Now, my dear friends, one must allow the two poles of this all-surpassing cosmic event to have an effect on one's soul: the hosanna on Earth, the arrival of the Christ on Earth, and the farewell to the multitudes of Michael above on the Sun. This belongs together.

But Michael underwent a great metamorphosis just in our age. The beginning of his reign means a moving down to Earth of the Christ, and in the future it will mean a moving forward before the deeds of the Christ on Earth. One will again come to understand what it means: Michael goes before the Lord. As in the Old Testament - before Oriphiel there was also a time of Michael - the initiates of Asia over there spoke of Michael walking before Yahweh, as the face as the foremost part of a man walks before him, so they spoke of Michael as the face of Yahweh, and so we must learn to speak of Michael as the face of Christ.“ (Lit.:GA 346, p. 95f)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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