Time Spirits

Most of us can easily recall with gratitude a person who positively influenced our life. We honestly don’t know where we’d be without them; they led us in the right direction. We might also feel gratitude for someone who influenced our whole nation of people to become better. The study of the angelic hierarchies explores the influences of those beings we cannot see. When we learn about these beings, when we actually acknowledge their work, we feel gratitude towards them, too.

Every time we fall asleep, we commune with our Guardian Angel—we enter that realm of angels which is closest to the human being. (See March and April 2021.) Every time we are born, we enter the culture of our birthplace, we are influenced by the Archangel of that people. (See March 2022.) The realm of the Archangels is higher than that of the Angels; whereas Angels guide individuals, Archangels guide groups of people, even nations. We are also born into a specific time, an Age, and this period that lasts over 2000 years is guided by the realm above the Archangels, the realm of the Spirits of Time, historically called the Archai.

Let’s see what Dr. Steiner has to say:

In addition to the evolution of the peoples and all that is associated with their evolution, a progressive evolution of mankind takes place. Whether we consider one particular civilization to be superior to another is of no consequence.

In every age there is something that transcends the Folk Soul (Archangel), which can bring the various Folk Souls together, something that is more or less universally understood. This is the Zeitgeist or Time Spirit, the Spirit of the Age, to use an unfortunate term which is in common usage. Each epoch has its particular Zeitgeist; the Zeitgeist of the Greek epoch is different from that of our own age. Those who understand the Spirit today are drawn towards Spiritual Science. It is this Spirit which, reflecting the Spirit of the Age, transcends the individual Folk Souls…

Thus, for every epoch we can discover the Spirit of the Age (Archai), which is something that permeates the activity of the Archangels. To the materialist of today, the Spirit of the Age is an abstraction, devoid of reality; still less would he be prepared to accept the Spirit of the Age as an authentic entity. Nevertheless, the term ‘Spirit of the Age’ conceals the existence of a real Being who is three stages above man. It conceals the identity of the Beings, the Archai…

We are here dealing with exalted Beings, and the contemplation of their attributes might well overwhelm us. They are the Beings who might be described as the inspirers—or if we choose to use the technical expression of occultism—the “intuitors” of the Spirit or Spirits of the Age. They work in such a way that they take over from one another and mutually support each other. From epoch to epoch, they pass on their mission to their successor. The Spirit of the Age who was active in the Greek epoch handed on his mission to his successor, and so on…

These Spirits of Personality, these inspirers of the Spirit of the Age, are of a higher order than the Archangels. In every epoch one of these Spirits is predominant and sets his seal upon the whole epoch, assigns to the Archangels their specific tasks so that the whole spirit of the epoch is determined by the special or individual characteristics of the Archangel. Then, in the following epoch, another Archai takes over.

Excerpt from: The Mission of the Individual Folk Souls, Lecture: Angels, Folk Spirits, Time Spirits: their part in the Evolution of Mankind, Oslo, Norway, June 7, 1910.

Understanding of the idea of a Spirit of the Age is easier when we recognize that we have an overarching idea about Ancient Greece or Ancient Egypt or Ancient India. In a lecture that follows the one excerpted above, Steiner tells us, for example, that “Kepler, Copernicus and Pericles could not possibly have lived in any other age or under other circumstances” than the epoch into which they were born. Our current Age began in the early 1400s and will end in the late 3500s, so we have a way to go before we reach the goals for humanity of this epoch.

What is the stamp of our Age? One hint is that meditation in our time is becoming ubiquitous. In education, in healthcare, in science, in business, in sports, meditation is being touted as a benefit to everyone. We human beings are recognizing that we have to make an effort to connect our earthly consciousness to our spiritual consciousness—a goal of our epoch—in order to live healthy lives. We are being inspired by the Spirit of our Age to do so.

Knowing ourselves is impossible without acknowledging that we are spiritual beings evolving in a world of other evolving spiritual beings. Learning about these spiritual entities is essential to learning about ourselves.

Our People

Each man on earth has his own fate,
Each one his highway wide:
This one builds up, that one lays waste,
And that casts greedy eyes
O’er all the globe, to find somewhere
A land not yet enslaved,
Which he could conquer and then bear
With him into the grave.
From “A Dream” by Taras Shevchenko

Many Ukrainians interviewed since Russia’s attack say that the people of the country are united as never before. Many of us can recall similar responses when national tragedies or disasters struck our own countries. Even those of us who criticize our country’s policies and actions and feel various levels of discomfort at its aggressions and failures, will feel outraged when it is attacked by an outside force. Suddenly, we feel united with all our fellow citizens.

What is the source of this feeling? Why does the country in which we were born matter to us so much?

A few months ago, we discussed the work of the angels, especially that of our own guardian angels. Rudolf Steiner reminds us that humans are spiritual beings in physical bodies and that we are not alone in the spiritual world. Our physical body is our lowest aspect (as discussed last month) and our second aspect, the etheric body, is the lowest body for angels. Our third aspect, the astral body, is the lowest body of the archangels. So, only when we gain sight on the astral plane will we see archangels. Just as angels devote themselves to individual human beings, archangels devote themselves to groups of people – some of them to nations.

Let’s see what Dr. Steiner has to say:

“[Angels] are directly connected with the individual human being. They lead or guide him in so far as he needs guidance, from one earthly life to another and are his Guardians, his Protectors, whenever and wherever he needs their protection. Therefore, supersensible though they be and imperceptible to earthly sight, the Angeloi are directly connected with mankind's evolution.

In the next immediately adjacent spiritual realm, the Beings whom we call the Hierarchy of the Archangeloi, the Archangels, unfold their activity. The Archangeloi have to do with much that also plays a part in the evolution of humanity. They have to do, not with the individual human being, but with groups of human beings. Thus, as I have said in many anthroposophical lectures, the evolution of the peoples is under the rulership of Archangelic Beings.”

Excerpt from: The Mission of the Individual Folk Souls. Lecture I: Angels, Folk Spirits, Time Spirits: their part in the Evolution of Mankind. June 7, 1910, Oslo, Norway.

Let’s try to understand a little of what our relationship as a people is to the archangels from the work of Adam Bittleston (1911-1989).

“As the Angel gazes upon the development of an individual soul, the Archangel indwells the development of a nation. But just as a man may look at an event as one of his successes while the Angel may see it as a misfortune distracting him from his real task—so what seems a victory to the people of a nation may be a spiritual defeat for its Archangel. What the Archangel wants for his nation is not power, but ways of life which serve the great purposes of humanity. He works above all among the artists, the thinkers, and the reformers among his people… Just as a man’s pride in his own genius is a great hindrance to his Angel, national pride blocks the work of the Archangel, produces indeed an appalling caricature of it. Human beings do not support the spirit of their country by trying to be French, or Italian, or English, but by working for justice, or the freedom of the oppressed, or beauty in the arts and in the environment. The Archangel wishes to see what is achieved or hoped for by individuals pass over into general habits and customs which enrich life.” (Bittleston, Our Spiritual Companions.)

The truly frightening world confronting us today with war, poverty, disease, inequality, and on and on, can make us feel helpless, even hopeless. What can we do about any of these things? We need to prepare ourselves for our contemporary world by embracing a larger perspective of knowledge. We need to accept that the material world is just one part of the world not the whole world. We need to think more deeply than the words shouted to us from all sides (or one side). We need to think for ourselves. What would it mean to replace nationalism with a sense of what one can do within a nation for the good of all humankind? How does the culture of my people contribute to the good of the world? How do I contribute to the good of my people? If we look closely, we will see the people around us who are already responding to this question. After all, nations are built of individuals.

In our highest quest to “know thyself” we need to contemplate what belonging to a nation means to us and why. Certainly, the Ukrainians are doing that. And the war? And the wars yet to come? They will be fought until we wake up.