"The Michael age has dawned. Hearts begin to have thoughts. Enthusiasm no longer flows from mystical obscurity, but from the inner clarity that thought conveys. To grasp this is to receive Michael into one's soul. Thoughts that today seek to grasp the spirit must spring from hearts that beat for Michael as the fiery cosmic prince of thought." --Rudolf Steiner For centuries, the tradition of the "mystical chronology" of the world's seven archangelic regents has been part of Western esoteric teaching. According to this tradition, 1879 marked the return of the solar spirit Michael--the archangel of the Sun--to oversee earthly evolution. Steiner always placed his life and work in the service of Michael's evolutionary task. And he recognized that, at the beginning of the twentieth century, humanity emerged from the Kali Yuga--the Dark Age--and entered the Age of Light. Against this background, Steiner described the ascent of Michael as cosmic ruler, his battle with the "dragon" of the spirits of darkness, and his roles as the countenance of Christ and the guardian of cosmic intelligence. He also gave many profound indications of how Michael's evolutionary task depends on the free and independent collaboration of human coworkers. Speaking on behalf of Michael, Steiner laid out the essentials for a new Michaelic path to full humanity. Among the elements of this path are the development of selfless individuality; cosmopolitanism; the practice of the presence of Christ; fearlessness; the transformation of thinking and perception in a new synthesis of science, art, and religion; the spiritualization of space; and the separation of thought from language. The Archangel Michael gathers most of Steiner's statements on this subject, making it an important source for coming to terms with today's political, social, psychological, and spiritual crises. C O N T E N T S Introduction by Christopher BamfordPrologue: Intimations of the Archangel Michael in Different Traditions PART ONE1. Rudolf Steiner's Early Accounts of the Michael Event of 18792. The Integration of Humanity into the Ranks of the Hierarchies3. Michael, the Messenger of Christ4. The Archangel Michael: The Time Spirit5. Michael and the Buddha6. Behind the Scenes of External Happenings: The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness7. Signs of the Times: Michael's War in Heaven and Its Reflection on the Earth PART TWO THE MISSION OF THE ARCHANGEL MICHAELSix Lectures in Dornach, November 21-30, 1919 PART THREE1. Michael's Mission: The Spiritualization of the Knowledge of Space2. Michael, the Dragon, and the Human Soul, or Gamüt3. The Michael Imagination4. The Tasks of the Michael Age5. From the Gabriel to the Michael Age6. The Michael Impulse: To Read in the Book of Nature7. Michael, Sophia, and Marduk8. Michael, Arthur, and the Grail9. From Rudolf Steiner's Last Address10. From the Michael Letters Appendix Johannes Trithemius, A Treatise on the Seven Secondary Causes