(Sunday, 23 November was Remembrance Sunday. The Act of Consecration of Man was preceded by a contemplation to bring to mind the meaning of this Sunday in our year, and to remember those who have crossed the threshold in the last 12 months.)

On this day it is often customary to take a moment and to remember those who have died. Those closest to us, those a little more removed and those completely unknown. We especially remember those who were part of this community who have crossed the threshold in the past year. 

We have the opportunity to be reminded of the fact that the spiritual world is very real and active in our world on earth. It is the place of learning, of initiation, of work, and the spiritual world is very active and interested in it. This includes those who have died. We are invited to think about and endeavour to understand a little more, their presence in our lives.

It is a spiritual reality that those who have died are always with us, interested in us and working for us whether we are conscious of it or nor not. In our sense perceptible world we are able to see everything around us clearly - in colour with outline form and shape. This is all due to the effect of the light - but the light itself is actually invisible - that which reveals remains hidden.

So it is with those who have died. Their presence is invisible but real and we can learn to feel it more and more, recognise it more and more if we endeavour to become a little more conscious. It is only due to a lack of understanding, a lack of thought, a lack of imagination that we do not feel their presence and working.

For the more we think about it and ponder and imagine this world in which the dead are present the more this invisible world will reveal itself to us – to our soul eyes.

We can also be reminded that it is not just the dead working in this realm, but it is also the hierarchies of angels including our own guardian angel as well as the Christ. Just as the sun is constantly shining its light onto the earth so we can be sure that the forces working for the Good in the spiritual world are also working in us and for us – only ever with our co-operation and in freedom.

We can imagine that those who have died, that especially shared a karmic connection with us, unite themselves with us. They remain interested in our work; they help and inspire us. The more conscious we become of this relationship the more fruitful it can become and the more this spiritual reality will become a living one for us – for it is constantly happening in the unconscious realms of our soul.

How do we raise this consciousness?

Words and everyday conversation is not so important and effective in this relationship. Rather it is through our will that we are called to direct our feeling life with thoughts and ideas to the one we are remembering. This is an active task. We are to fill our souls, our hearts with feelings of respect, gratitude, compassion and love for the one who has died, we generate and hold feelings of real warmth. We remember moments when we experienced their true nature, their essence, when they made an impression or showed interest in something specific. We allow these feelings to grow in us and we become aware of the thoughts that accompany these feelings – thoughts that may turn to questions or develop further and we offer these feelings and thoughts to the one who has died. 

We can imagine that just as we offer our thoughts and prayers to our angel or to God we offer these thoughts to those who have died, and it is particularly when we are asleep that these offering have a chance to work and take effect.

It may be that there are times in the day when you feel that from somewhere inside yourself you have received the knowledge, insight, conviction or idea that you have been searching for and needing. You may attribute this to your own work and striving and rightly so. You may at times also feel that this idea or thought may come from your angel as a gift, a form of grace and often this is the case. More and more as you try to become conscious of those who have died you will experience those times when it has been a gift from one who had died. Another form of help from the spiritual world.
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This relationship is not only beneficial to us. Our warm and penetrated thoughts are a gift to them too. We can imagine that this gift is like a beautiful work of art with which they can adorn their new home. These thoughts, heart warmed, inspire them, encourage them, just as their work and presence in our life can inspire and encourage us.

We received a lovely memory from Rev. Dr Liz Carmichael MBE, Emeritus Fellow, St. John’s College, Oxford, of the work she did in South Africa in the early 1990’s in preparation for the first democratic elections. Mavis Cook featured in these memories supported by Derek.

Mavis was a very efficient Secretary to the Midrand Local Peace Committee (LPC) under the National Peace Accord in late 1992 or 1993. Prior to the formation of the LPC, Mavis had been working with Roger Oxlee, who became the Chair of the Midrand LPC. It was the taxi wars that brought the Midrand LPC into contact with Liz Carmichael. Roger was instrumental in many of the emergency meetings that sometimes ran well after midnight, with Mavis keeping meticulous minutes.

Mavis was always cheerful and game for anything.

When Thabo Mbeki, as Deputy President, closed the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RPD) in favour of the macroeconomic trickle-down theory that underlay his GEAR policy (Growth, Employment and Redistribution), training at the grassroots level in community development was needed. Roger, Liz and others founded an NGO that offered such a 2-day basic programme to which permaculture was later added. Mavis, backed by Derek, was the secretary for this NGO. Derek helped with the financial reporting. Mavis served as Secretary for some ten years. This NGO did a lot of good work in Gauteng and also extended its work to the Eastern Cape and elsewhere.

When Liz Carmichael became Chaplain, Fellow and Tutor at St. John’s College, Oxford in April 1996, she kept her flat in Kew as well as a car that Derek and Mavis kept running for her until it was stolen and thereafter would ferry her to and from the airport. We would like to thank the Southern African Region for the warm updraft that has been sent to us in Stuttgart, where we have begun the path of preparation for ordination. We are borne upwards and strengthened by your financial support and the goodwill it expresses.

On 9 October 2025 we lost one of the pillars of our congregation.

Anne-Marie came to South Africa in 1985 to marry Jacob van Dijk and together they set up home on the West Manse. Anne-Marie had been born Catholic and thus felt a very strong sense-of-belong to a church. She had encountered Anthroposophy in her studies as a nurse and had changed her allegiance from Catholicism to The Christian Community.

She had a vibrant personality and immediately engaged in the life of The Christian Community in Johannesburg, which became her home for forty years. She and Jacob were married in The Christian Community and renewed their wedding vows on the event of their 25th anniversary.

Jacob and Anne-Marie became the distributors for Steiner Books on behalf of Armand Nicaise and began importing wooden toys to sell at the Bryanston Organic Market. They were a central feature, quite literally, with their colourful and beautifully crafted wooden toys. They later added wind chimes so no one could miss where they were installed.

Anne-Marie had a passion for miniatures and imported and sold miniature components for miniature houses at markets all over Johannesburg. She was also a very accomplished crafter and the Advent Fair Craft Stall was a cornucopia of crafted, sources and assembled handcrafted treasures for Advent and Christmas that Anne-Marie put together with Hazel Fornali and small dedicated group of crafters. 

Jacob and Anne-Marie bought a house in Cresta with westward views from its high perch on the hill above Cresta Centre. Here Jacob ran a massage practice and Anne-Marie managed her businesses. They transformed the garden into a riot of colours and the swimming pool into a natural pond for koi and water lilies.

Together, they loved to travel and visited many diverse countries returning with slide shows, photos and stories deeply rooted in the history and culture of the countries they had visited.

Anne-Marie was born as the eldest child to a family that would eventually consist of four daughters and one son. Post-World War II Europe was impoverished and large families found it difficult to make ends meet. As a result, Anne-Marie was shipped off to her grandmother where there were also some aunts still at home. She missed out on a large portion of home life with her siblings. No sooner had she come home and she was sent to boarding school. This made her independent and once she had left home to study as a nurse, her siblings received very little news of her personal life. Anne-Marie became a highly qualified cardiac nurse. During further training she encountered Anthroposophic medicine, and this changed her life completely. It was during one of her training programmes that she met Jacob van Dijk who was training in Rhythmical Massage.

Later in life, Anne-Marie began to suffer from mobility issues and placed her full faith in the medical world to come to her aid. She had several joint replacement operations, and each brought her some relief, but the enhanced mobility in one joint placed additional strain on another joint. Eventually, it appears that the cumulative effect of the interventions became too much and she developed complications for which she spent the last 126 days of her life in the Intensive Care Unit.

Anne-Marie came from the hospital directly to the Wake Room. In the last two decades of her life, she had seen the need for the dead to be cared for in a dignified manner. She had taken it upon herself to become the guardian of this threshold for our congregation. With much resistance from undertakers, she had managed to receive training as a mortician and became the person in our community who prepared the bodies of those who had died for their Wake and Funeral. She researched the use of cooling aids in funeral homes and assisted in determining the requirements for the construction of our Wake Room and equipping our facility with a cooling blanket. It was into this well-prepared space that her body came, as she was departing from physical life.
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Anne-Marie’s wish to enjoy colour to the very end was honoured in her request to have ribbons tied to the handles of her coffin and fresh flowers at the altar. The Memorial Gathering was shared with her brother and two of her sisters. Members of the community shared the deep impact she had had in their lives. Finally, her ashes were placed adjacent to the plant she had planted over the ashes of Jacob and a plant selected from garden marks the place where she is now at rest.

The purpose of these talks is to bring the meaning of Michaelmas to greater consciousness.
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The mighty spiritual being that we know as Michael (Micha-el), to whom we often refer as an Archangel, became the spirit of the times in 1879. Anthroposophy was a gift to humanity from this mighty spiritual being.

In 1922 the newly formed Esoteric Youth Group met up with the young people working with Rudolf Steiner to become priests. The members of the Esoteric Youth informed the priests-to-be that Steiner had informed them that Michael was the spirit of their movement and said to the priests that they would have to go in search of another guiding spiritual being. This encounter provided Steiner with the opportunity to explain that each of these two movements – the Esoteric Youth Movement and the Movement for Religious Renewal – has a mighty spiritual being behind the movement, both of whom are angels of Michael.

How can we come to an understanding of this being, Michael? The Book of Revelation contains two imaginations of Michael. In the first, he is mentioned by name; it is the picture of Michael and his angels fighting the Dragon and his angels. The second imagination is that of a mighty angel that stands with one foot on the land and one foot on the water, shining like the sun. (Rev. Michaël Merle has a different understanding of this second mighty angel and we may be able to read his book on the Book of Revelation at some future date.) These imaginations provide an idea of how Michael works in the world through his angels.

The two mighty angelic beings that guide the two movements mentioned above are angels of Michael. Each congregation has an angelic being connected with the mighty angel of The Christian Community, and so does each Region.

The mighty being of Anthroposophy works into The Christian Community in the Act of Consecration of Man through the window of the Sermon, that occasion when the priest wears the berretta and speaks as a human being inspired by their own relationship to what they know through Anthroposophy.

From 1923 onwards Rudolf Steiner spoke more often about Michael. He was that “now it was necessary to have, within the movement, a central festival of Michael in late September”. He said that “it was necessary to live out of the Michaelic Ideals”. The Michaelic Ideals are to change our daily lives, and a Michael festival is the festival to help us do this. It is not enough for us to know the Ideals of the spiritual world, but we must bring them into every aspect of daily life. These Ideals must live in our will.

In March of 1923 the priests of The Christian Community asked Steiner whether The Christian Community should have a Michaelmas Festival. He said that it should but that it would not yet have one in 1923. Something would have to occur before the Festival of Michael could be initiated. Then in September, Steiner came to the priests and gave them the Epistle for Michaelmas and that the Gospel Reading was to be the Parable of the Wedding Banquet. He further instructed that the Michaelmas Festival was to be inaugurated powerfully and therefore that the period of Michael in 1923 was to be from 29 September till Advent. The Parable of the Wedding Banquet was to be read for the first four Sundays of this inaugural Michaelmas Festival. In future years the Michaelmas Festival was to be four Sundays after Michaelmas day, which is to be 29 September, and the gospel reading of the Parable of the Wedding Banquet would be the reading for Michaelmas.

No Michaelmas Festival was proposed for the Anthroposophical Society in 1923. In the Holy Nights of 1923 – 1924 the Christmas Conference of the Anthroposophical Society was held. This initiated the founding of the High School of Spiritual Science, with Steiner giving the lessons of the First Class. Steiner began to give lectures that will require three incarnations to fully grasp. He began sending out weekly Leading Thoughts to the members.

However, Steiner was unable to inaugurate a Michaelmas Festival in the Anthroposophical Society. It is possible that he had planned that the Christmas Conference would initiate something that would make this festival possible.

In one of the last talks Rudolf Steiner gave, he said that when there were four by twelve people who connect themselves with the Impulse of Michael within the Anthroposophical Society, it would be possible to inaugurate a Michaelmas Festival. He made it clear that these people would not self-identify themselves as being connected with the Impulse of Michael, but that the Vorstand at the Goetheanum would recognise them. The task of Anthroposophy is not to be something we know and attempt to understand, it must alter our entire being. Through altering human beings, it will change social life. The Michaelic qualities within the souls of human beings must permeate social life. Rudolf Steiner made it clear that if we wish to follow Michael it must be a priority in the whole of our lives.

What might it be that makes it possible to have a Michaelmas festival in The Christian Community, while this has so far not been possible within the Anthroposophical Society? What forces were at work within the Vorstand that brought about the shattering of the Vorstand after the death of Rudolf Steiner?

The Age of the Consciousness Soul has provided a measure of freedom to the human being. Divine guidance withdrew before 1879, and the human being is now responsible for our future evolution. Yet, we must recognise that the world we live in is the domain of Ahriman, of the Dragon cast down from Heaven. There is a strong temptation to dream into the virtual reality that Ahriman creates. We must also recognise that powerful spiritual forces are streaming onto the earth.

Christian Rosenkreuz brought an impulse to earth that would change society. He wrote a book through his secretary. Adversary forces brought about a 30-year war in order to prevent the impulse of Christian Rosenkreuz from taking hold. Similarly, the first World War was an endeavour to hinder Spiritual Science from entering into the hearts of human beings and developing further.

​It is a very difficult task to speak of a being as mighty as Michael. Whatever one may say to describe any aspect of this being will always be insufficient. And, because the description is so hopelessly incomplete, there is a risk that the information that is provided is not understood in the right context and may mislead rather than inform. It is therefore important to read what is written here with one’s heart and allow it to live within one to obtain an understanding.

Michael is one of the circle of seven Archangels who are entrusted with the destiny of humanity. These mighty beings take turns in guiding humanity for a period of time. They are thus also referred to as Time Spirits. Michael had his regency in the time of the Hellenic period of the Greek Civilisation. He did not again act as Time Spirit until his regency began in 1879. He followed the regency of the Archangel Gabriel.

Rudolf Steiner says that the Time Spirits are connected with the Seven Mobile Stars as they were known to the ancients. Gabriel works from the sphere of the Moon, and Michael works from the sphere of the Sun. The Sun is the heart of our solar system, as each of the planets receives its light from the Sun. The Sun is thus the heart and most important of the Mobile Stars.

Michael had another important task: he was the guardian of the Cosmic Intelligence. Michael inspired humanity from the Sun sphere with this intellectuality. This is very difficult for us to understand today as we now have this intellectuality. Formerly, when a human being looked at an object, an understanding of the object was received from the object itself as inspiration. Today we may imagine how this might be in this way: a rose contains its colour; we see the rose, and we see its colour. Formerly, the thoughts that provided understanding of an object were contained in the object, as the colour is contained for us in the rose. Imagine seeing a rose and having to determine the colour through our own intellectuality because it is no longer visible to the eye, i.e. not contained in the information we receive from the rose directly.

Christ operated from the sphere of the Sun. Then Christ left the sphere of the Sun and descended to the realm of Earth. This means that the angelic beings who have their home in the Sun sphere formerly resided with Christ. These angelic beings now perceive the Christ as being among humanity. These angelic beings had to say farewell to Christ.

When Christ left the Sun sphere, the Cosmic Intelligence, the intellectual forces, followed the Christ from the Sun to the Earth. The result is that human beings are now in possession of these forces of the Cosmic Intelligence. We possess our own intellectuality. This relieved Michael of the task of Guardian of the Cosmic Intelligence. He was freed to take up another task before the time of his regency. All souls who descend from what Rudolf Steiner calls the Midnight Hour to prepare for a new incarnation pass through the planetary spheres. Michael took it upon himself to prepare human souls for their incarnation on earth as they passed through the Sun sphere. This preparation is closely connected with the deed of Christ for which He descended to earth. Thus, in the period that we can connect with the 15th to 17th centuries, Michael was active in the sphere of the Sun, preparing the karmas of those human beings who belong to him. Rudolf Steiner describes this as a School of Michael in the Sun sphere that prepared human souls and their angels for his next period as regent.

This means that our souls are predisposed to resonate with Spiritual Science. Thus, when we encounter Anthroposophy or The Christian Community something within us resonates with what meets us. It is part of cosmic history that human beings will meet Anthroposophy and The Christian Community.

Michael then left the Sun sphere, following the Christ down to earth, shortly before taking on his regency in 1879. He sojourned in the Moon sphere, which is the final sphere human beings pass through before incarnating and where we retrieve, as it were, the karma of unfinished deeds on earth. Here, Michael created a Cosmic Cultus. Within this Cosmic Ritual were great imaginations of that which he had taught when he was active in the Sun Sphere for that brief period between the 15th and 17th centuries.

Rudolf Steiner spoke of those who were the carrying souls within this School of Michael in the Sun sphere. The soul-spirit being of Aristotle was one of these and developed a relationship as of an assistant within this School. Then, souls passing through the Moon sphere in the late 18th into 19th centuries experienced the mighty imagination of the Cosmic Cultus before incarnating in the 19th and 20th centuries. This, Steiner revealed, so as to inform us that we were among the souls that participated in the School of Michael in the Sun sphere and were reminded of the experience as we prepared our karma in the Moon sphere. Some of the souls who had participated in the Michaelic School in the Sun sphere had already incarnated on earth before the establishment of the Cosmic Cultus in the Moon sphere. One of these individualities was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He experienced the mighty imaginations of the Cosmic Cultus unconsciously and, because of his ability as a poet, was able to produce the fairy tale of The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily. This fairy tale provides us with an encapsulated picture of what occurred in the spiritual world.

Rudolf Steiner was born in 1861 and was 18 years of age when the regency of Michael began, the first lunar node. It was the task of Rudolf Steiner to become the teacher of the Michaelic School here on earth. In other words, it was his task to lay the foundation of Anthroposophy here on earth for those who had been with him in the Cosmic School of Michael in the Sun sphere. One may ask how he found the souls on earth who were searching for the beginning of Anthroposophy here on earth? Here we see how the spiritual world directs the karma of human beings and also the karma of Rudolf Steiner.

In his early life, Rudolf Steiner interested himself in philosophy and wrote a treatise on Friedrich Nietzsche in 1895. At that time Nietzsche was one of the most important people being studied in Central Europe. Nietzsche died in 1900. There was a small branch of the Theosophical Society in Berlin, organised by the Countess Sophie and Count Cay Lorenz von Brockdorff. They felt the urge to celebrate the life of Nietzsche and invited Rudolf Steiner to give a talk, based on the reputation of his 1895 book. On 22 September 1900, Rudolf Steiner gave a talk on Nietzsche in the Theosophical Society branch in Berlin. It was in meeting this group of people that Rudolf Steiner recognised people with whom he had been present in the Sun sphere in the Cosmic School of Michael. The Brockdorffs also recognised that Rudolf Steiner had something to share that was valuable to their circle. He was invited to give a second talk on any topic of his choosing.

Rudolf Steiner gave his second talk on 29 September, on Michaelmas Day. He chose to speak on the fairy tale of Goethe, The Green Snake and Beautiful Lily, because he wanted the imaginations of this fairy tale to resonate with Theosophists and allow them to reconnect with the Michaelic Cultus. This was the first esoteric talk that Rudolf Steiner gave. This is how Rudolf Steiner first found souls that belonged to his work for Michael.

In October 1900 Marie von Sivers arrived at this branch of the Theosophical Society and so met Rudolf Steiner. This is how that which has been prepared in the spiritual world began on earth and became a reality. Steiner’s work continued for twenty five years until his death in March 1925.

Rudolf Steiner was in charge of the mission of Michael here on earth. Everything that Rudolf Steiner gave as Anthroposophy is a gift of Michael. Rudolf Steiner began in 1900 to fulfil here on earth what he had prepared with Michael in the spiritual world.

One may now recognise that there are very few people in the Anthroposophical Society and The Christian Community, whereas there are millions of souls who passed through the School of Michael in the Sun sphere. A young man who became a regular driver for Steiner had the opportunity of asking Steiner why so few souls were finding their way to Anthroposophy. Rudolf Steiner replied that these souls had incarnated with the mission of furthering Anthroposophy but, once in a physical body, the Dragon had hindered their mission and prevented them from recognising Anthroposophy.

This is still the case to this day. We may experience Anthroposophy and The Christian Community as an important aspect in our lives, but for many souls connected with the Michaelic impulse, the Dragon has led them to find different priorities in their earthly incarnation.

The aim of this talk is not to expound fully how Rudolf Steiner was one of the most important individualities for the work of Michael on earth in this period of his regency. In the previous talk, some light was shed on the difficulty Steiner had, and by implication, Michael had, in establishing a festival for Michael.

We will now look at the Christmas Conference that took place during the Holy Nights of 1923 into 1924, during which Rudolf Steiner gave the Foundation Stone Meditation. Steiner said this is one of the most important meditations for Anthroposophists because it contains the essence of Anthroposophy. The Foundation Stone Meditation is a working together of Rudolf Steiner with Michael. This helps us understand what Rudolf Steiner meant when he said that Anthroposophy is a gift of Michael.

Once, Rudolf Steiner described how the book Occult Science came into being. Steiner described that when we incarnate on earth in this time, we have a very intellectual way of thinking that has been brought about by the Natural Sciences. This has given humanity an abstract intellectual way of thinking. This means that the words we use have become divorced from any true feeling linked with the word. When Rudolf Steiner began studying, he studied all the fields of Natural Science, which gave him a solid foundation in the intellectual thinking brought about by the Natural Sciences. He was then able to bring this way of thinking to Michael in the spiritual world. Michael, in return, gave Steiner Occult Science, which is all about the spiritual world in the language of modern intellectual thinking. This makes it possible for modern humanity, with its intellectual thinking, to understand the spiritual world from this book. This is a huge development for humanity. Formerly, only picture-imaginations of the spiritual world were available to humanity. Now, clear, intellectual ideas have been made available.

This process of working with Michael has a major next step in the Christmas Conference, in the gifting of the Foundation Stone Meditation. This meditation consists of three verses, each split into two stanzas and then a final verse. Not once during the Conference did Steiner mention the name of Michael. Twelve days later, on 13 January 1924, Steiner gave a lecture in which he described what occurred during the Christmas Conference. This was the Michael lecture. In this lecture, Steiner describes how he worked together with Michael during the Christmas Conference. In the three verses the first stanza concerns itself with one of the soul qualities of the human being: willing, feeling and thinking. In the first verse: “You live in the limbs that carry you through the world-space”. In the second verse, “You live in the heart’s-lung-beat that leads you through the time-rhythm”. And in the third verse, “You live in the resting head that from the eternal-ground opens up the world-thought”. In this description of the human being Steiner presents the human being as three-fold, with the head-nervous system, the heart-lung rhythmic system and the digestive-limb system. This threefold structure of the human being became clear to Steiner during WWI. Rudolf Steiner brought this understanding to Michael, and Michael then gave Steiner the second stanza of each verse in which we find the Father, the Son and Spirit and the First Hierarchy, the Second Hierarchy and the Third Hierarchy and the Elemental Beings. When one studies the Foundation Stone Meditation, one begins to recognise how the first stanza comes from Steiner through his inner work and the second stanza is gifted by Michael. Through their combined work the last verse came into being as a prayer to the Christ Being.

This is an example to help us understand what Anthroposophy is as the inner work of Steiner that he then presented to Michael and for which Michael gifted the cosmic content. In the Foundation Stone Meditation we have the description of the human being, and we have cosmic picture of the human being is described by Michael. This was the last work that Steiner did with Michael, and thereafter, Steiner was able to give the full content of what has been taught by Michael in the Cosmic School. Prior to this the Dragon was preventing Steiner from speaking openly about karma and the angels, although he could recall the information. He said that when he first encountered souls from the Cosmic School, he had wanted to speak about these matters, but it required a necessary “listening-space” from those with whom he was connected. Without this quality Steiner could not speak about spiritual matters. It was a technique of the Dragon to hinder those listening to Steiner from creating the necessary listening quality that would permit him to speak of those things he dearly wished to convey. The quality created by the Christmas Conference kept the forces of the Dragon out. He called these forces the anti-Michael demonic forces. After the Christmas Conference, Steiner was able to speak about the spiritual matters for about nine months, until September 1924.

This presents a picture of the history of the working of Rudolf Steiner for Michael and how we belong to this stream. The question is, how can we work for Anthroposophy, knowing that the anti-Michael forces are still trying to hinder the development of Anthroposophy?

During the period of discussion, Vicke shared that during the founding of the Esoteric Youth Movement, Rudolf Steiner said that Ahriman is at work everywhere in the technological sphere, but most particularly in cinema and in the mechanical printing of the word. What we see on screen works into our imagination, and we derive many of our concepts from the visual screen. This works against our own imagination, which should be the source of our concepts. The mechanical printing is removing the visible effects of the will of another human being, that is contained in their handwriting, from our interaction with others. We live in the realm of Ahriman and the technological sphere is becoming ever more powerful. The aim of Ahriman is that we should lose our “I”-consciousness. One can see this at work in the USA where there are essentially two "herds" of people, one following each political party.  Very few people think outside of the "herd", the mainstream, popular thought. There are many wars ongoing in the world, and here people are giving up their powers of discernment and are instead following the sympathies and antipathies of others. All of this ignores the reality of the spiritual world.

We first considered the last “Leading Thought” Rudolf Steiner gave in March 2025 (before number 183). In these “Leading Thoughts” are extraordinary pictures of Michael, and also pictures of Ahriman. We can read in this last “Leading Thought” a message from Michael that is relevant for today and for the future, as if Michael knew that Steiner would soon be leaving his physical body. The last sentence of this “Leading Thought” is that ‘man is given the strength to confront Ahriman within the world’. We should not try to avoid Ahriman; rather, it is our task to confront Ahriman in the world. Rudolf Steiner describes how the world is changing from the world of Nature to the world of Sub-Nature. From this realm of sub-nature, Ahriman radiates a light which is darkness. This is the realm of the light of our digital screens and the realm of AI. The challenge is to confront Ahriman in this realm. When technology was first created by human beings, we could still understand its working. More and more technology has descended into sub-nature. All of this technology has been made possible by electricity. The electricity we use to drive technology is very different from the electricity that we understand. We have electricity that flows in our body that is natural and connected with etheric forces. Similarly, we have naturally occurring alcohol in our blood that is tied to our etheric forces, which is very different from the alcohol that is manufactured through fermentation, which occurs outside of our etheric forces, which is why it has so potent a reaction when we take it into our body. Electricity is the main tool of Ahriman to create the sub-natural realm. The remedy to withstand Ahriman is to learn to raise ourselves as high above nature into ‘super-nature’ as we are dragged down into the sub-natural world of technology. This may seem easy to understand, but is less easy to accomplish. Through spiritual science we must raise ourselves above nature. In 1925 the realm of technology was far less developed than it is today. Today it seems impossible to live without electricity and the technological world to which it gives access. Therefore, this “Leading Thought” may be a legacy from Michael for us to work with as technology becomes more embedded.

Quoting the last paragraphs of this “Leading Thought”: “In the age when there was not yet a technical industry independent of true Nature, the human being found the Spirit within his view of Nature. But the technical processes, emancipating themselves from Nature, caused him to stare more and more fixedly at the mechanical-material, which now became for him the really scientific realm. In this mechanical-material domain, all the Divine-Spiritual Being connected with the origin of human evolution, is completely absent. The purely Ahrimanic dominates this sphere.

“In the Science of the Spirit, we now create another sphere in which there is no Ahrimanic element.”

Steiner is saying that we must create a sphere into which Ahriman cannot enter. We will gain the power, within this sphere, to withstand or confront Ahriman in the outer world. What does Steiner mean by creating a sphere where Ahriman cannot enter? He said that in the Science of the Spirit we create a sphere in which there is no Ahrimanic element. This means that in what Michael has given to human beings through Anthroposophy, he is helping us create this sphere wherein there is no Ahrimanic element. But what does that require from human beings?

We can consider this from the opposite side. An example would be to celebrate our sacrament online, as other churches have begun doing as a result to physical separation mandated during the period of Covid infections. Placing our sacraments online would invite Ahriman into the sphere of the sacraments. The first step in this direction was taken in many churches by placing a mechanical/digital amplification system between the human voice and the human ear. The human being no longer hears the words of the sacrament as coming from a human voice but instead being broadcast through speakers. This was introduced even in small churches where a human voice could comfortably project into the entire volume of the church. We are able to understand where the motivation for this arises. In The Christian Community the largest churches do not use amplification for the sacraments. We would not wish to invite Ahriman into the sphere of Michael.

We live in a purely Ahrimanic world, and we have the sacraments that have been mediated through Rudolf Steiner from Michael who was the guardian of the Cosmic Intelligence and is the countenance of Christ. How can we ensure that we do not permit Ahriman to follow us from the outside world into the sphere of the sacraments? We travel to church in a motor vehicle, and we carry our smartphones into the church with us and sometimes even leave them turned on. We can be certain that the Act of Consecration of Man is a sphere into which Ahriman cannot enter because we hear it in the Michaelmas Epistle – the letter from the angelic realm – that Michael stands as guardian to this sacred sacrament. Michael stands as a guardian whenever the Act of Consecration of Man begins and prevents Ahriman from entering. We can understand this in the context of the Book of Revelation that Michael and his angels are fighting the Dragon and his angels. Michael is not alone in standing as the guardian of the Act of Consecration of Man. We can therefore be certain that when we fulfil the Act of Consecration of Man, we are creating the sphere into which Ahriman has no entry. We are asked to participate inwardly in the fulfilling of the sacrament; we must be inwardly active.

We can contrast this with the Mass where the priest says, “I step up to the altar …”. There is no participation required in that sacrament. In the offertory of the Act of Consecration of Man the priest says that the offering Is brought together with those present. In the Mass the words are that the priest brings the offering on behalf of those present.

We are able to create this sphere where we keep Ahriman out, not for our own benefit but because Michael gives us a mission, which is to confront Ahriman in the outer world with the powers gained within this sphere. We hear it so clearly described in the Michaelmas Epistle (the words from Michael). Michael says: “Follow me, I bring you to a higher divining of the deed of life and death on Golgotha”. Through Anthroposophy (Spiritual Science), Michael gives us the tools of understanding that will enable us to come to a higher divining. It is important for humanity to take up the call and to follow his so that in the earthly light the light of heaven will not die. This means that in daily life the light of Ahriman – which is darkness – will not overshadow the heavenly light, so that Christ’s light still shines in our daylight.

Through Michael, we are able to transcend the world of Ahriman and live in the higher reality of Christ.

In the discussion that followed, the following came to light:

When we make the choice to take Communion, it should not come from our habit-body, but from our clear, conscious thinking. The suggestion is to prepare for the Act of Consecration of Man the night before and take the decision of Communion into the night. Steiner asked the priests in 1922 to become aware of the impact of taking Communion and to become aware of how long this impact remains within one. For some it may be a day and for other much longer. One can therefore become consciously aware of whether to take Communion again in that period while the impact is still at work within one.

The Christian Community is a church of individual decision. This makes belonging a lonely experience. This can be a very dramatic shift for someone leaving another denomination to come to The Christian Community and especially in taking the step of becoming a member. This requires standing alone before the altar in the Sacrament of Consultation and taking personal responsibility.

In closing, Vicke introduced the idea of what it means for our angel when we choose, in this incarnation, to live within The Christian Community and to actively fulfil the Act of Consecration of Man. It is the first time in evolution that this is a possibility. It means a great deal for the spiritual world, especially for our angel, who has accompanied us through all our incarnations. We are stepping into the freedom of our religious life. It is the first time that human beings are able to do this. When we take this step, it is a major shift for our angel. A new life begins for them. We can imagine what this means in terms of raising a child. During the first 14 years of childhood, the parents are an outer authority for the child. When the child enters youth, the parents can begin to step back and allow the young person to take more and more responsibility for their own lives. The parents are no longer the ones responsible for educating the child, but become the ones who assist the young person in educating themselves. The experience for our angel is somewhat similar. We still have a long way to go before we reach ‘adulthood’. This is be reached after the New Jerusalem. As humanity we are slowly moving into puberty and have the possibility of taking responsibility for our religious life. People who still feel at home in a religious life where there is an outer authority will find a home in the traditional streams. However, more and more people are experiencing the desire to find their own relationship to their inner experience. For some there is a conscious desire to build a personal relationship with the Christ.

Steiner spoke quite a bit about what this step means for our angels. Human beings are perceiving more and more that “I am an I am”. We can link this with the words that Christ says, that is repeated three times in the Book of Revelation: “I make you kings and priests”. The first step is that I become sovereign through my “I”-forces, I take responsibility. When we become sovereigns of our lives, this changes our religious life as well as we will no longer be beholden to an outer authority. Then the second step becomes possible where the priestly quality of the soul develops. Through the priestly quality that exists in our soul we can join in the Act of Consecration of Man together with the priest as is asked of us in the very first sentence: “Let us …”.

What is the experience for our angel? When we take this step, we begin to work together with our angel in the fulfilling of our karma. We begin the very first experience of real freedom in which we make decisions. When we align ourselves with the work of Michael, our angel becomes one of the angels working with Michael. We are in the very first step of becoming responsible for the destiny of our angel through our activity. For more information one can read the last three lectures in volume III of Karmic Relationships, Esoteric Studies, lectures IX, X and XI. In these lectures Steiner describes what happens to our angel when we meet Anthroposophy, as well as what happens to our angel when we refuse Anthroposophy and follow Ahriman into sub-nature.

​The retired Erzoberlenker, Rev. Vicke von Behr, visited Johannesburg in September. During his visit he gave three talks. You may, with luck, find these talks in the October 2025 newsletter. In these talks he presented the spiritual reality behind our Movement.

There is a mighty spiritual being behind our Movement. We know him as Micha-el, the archangel and the Spirit of our Time. Michael is one of seven mighty spiritual beings involved in the destiny of humanity who take their turn to step forward as a regent of the time. For that period they offer a particular direction to the evolution of the human being. Michael was the Time Spirit approximately one hundred years before Jesus was born. He became the Spirit of the Times again in 1879. In the period between his regency, Michael prepared a cosmic reality for the evolution of humanity. He prepared this in the Sun Sphere and as he moved closer to Earth he prepared a reminder in the Moon Sphere. From this cosmic reality Anthroposophy and The Christian Community have their existence.

We can find a mighty imagination in the Book of Revelation relating to Michael. There is a mighty battle described in the heavenly worlds between the Dragon, that ancient of Beasts, and his angels and Michael and his Angels. Michael is victorious and the Dragon is cast upon the earth.

The earth is the realm of the Dragon. We call the Dragon by another name, Ahriman. Ahriman is the lord of materialism.

In this realm of ever-deepening materialism through technology, we have The Christian Community. This movement is guided by a mighty angelic being, who is one of the angels of Michael. This mighty guiding being is assisted by angelic beings who become guiding angels for altars where the sacraments are celebrated. Wherever congregations group themselves consciously together, they are guided by yet another of Michael’s angels.

There is thus a mighty ‘choir’ of angels guiding and protecting our Movement. But our Movement exists in the realm of Ahriman.

Our Movement recently celebrated 100 years since its founding. In spiritual terms this means our Movement is one year old.

Compare our Movement to a human baby. A human baby comes to earth from the spiritual world. In the spiritual world it lives with mighty hierarchies of angels. These might beings help it prepare for a new incarnation. Then it is born. It is alone and vulnerable.

On earth a child is born to parents. The first thing that parents do is to announce the birth. Many people gather to celebrate the birth with the parents, and they bring gifts. The shepherds in the field and the magi brought gifts to the baby Jesus. There is a short period of material flourishing around the child. But then the visitors leave, and the child has only its parents to care for it.

Our Movement saw decades of flourishing. Young people, excited at the birth, filled the chapels and brought their tithes and contributions. Now, only those who recognise the real meaning of this Movement remain. We are the parents.

We are responsible for the worldly needs of this Movement. No matter how mighty the spiritual beings are who guide and nourish this Movement spiritually, in the realm of Ahriman it will die without material nourishment.

We have no idea what this ‘child’, our Movement, will become, when it turns seven and ‘goes to school’, when it turns fourteen and begins to ‘develop its own ideas’, when it turns twenty one and is ‘accepted into the adult world’ and when it is twenty eight and is ‘fully adult’. We will not be around in 700 years, or 1400 years, or 2100 years or 2800 years, but we may experience one or more incarnations in that time.

Our task is now. This ‘child’, our Movement, is one year old and we, who connect ourselves with The Christian Community, are its parents. We may be present parents or absent parents, but the material well-being of this ‘child’ falls on us.

If we do not think of The Christian Community as our one-year-old baby and feed and clothe it as we would a one-year-old baby, it will die in the material world.

It will continue to live in the spiritual world, but the influence on the destiny of humanity will be greatly diminished.

Like any parent, we should think about what it means to care for a one-year-old child in our family. What will we deny ourselves to ensure this child can live and flourish?

​The priests from New York, Windhoek and Cape Town arrived in Johannesburg on Sunday, 10 August to begin the Regional Priest Synod early the following morning. Their days began at 08h00 and finished some twelve hours later. The community were marvellous in providing meals for lunch and supper. On Wednesday, 13 August Rev. Oliver Steinrueck celebrated his birthday and was treated to a South Africa braai before the group went to the Rietfontein Nature Reserve in Paulshof for an outing in nature.

​On Friday, 15 August representatives of the Communities in Cape Town, Windhoek and Hillcrest joined the congregation and trustees of Johannesburg and the priests for the start of the annual Regional Council meeting. The Friday evening consisted of reports on the financial and community status of each congregation. The theme for the weekend meeting was “aware of the Christ in our humanity”. The theme was introduced by Rev. Oliver Steinrueck, as our Lenker, on Friday evening.

Saturday was a working day for the representatives of the communities who make up the Regional Council and its Executive. After the Act of Consecration of Man, the theme of the weekend was explored as a way of adding a sense of orientation to the work on which the meeting was to embark. The formalities of the Annual General Meeting with its reports on the work of the Executive, the reports from the Chairman and Lenker and the financial status of the Region, were followed by the Council spending time on the question of re-enlivening the Hillcrest congregation.

This congregation has a history of growth and contraction. The last growth came with the sending of Rev. Peter Holman as a resident priest. Over the decade of Peter’s residency, the community grew from requiring a lot of financial aid from the Region to being able to repay some of its loans. Then Peter left and Rev. Michaël Merle was sent to the community, and shortly thereafter Covid happened. This began a period of contraction that eventually led to the property, of which the church is a part, becoming in need of major maintenance. In 2024 the Regional Council recommended that the only financially viable option was to sell the property and find a more manageable option for the celebration of the sacraments. One of the members of the Hillcrest congregation decided to purchase the property as they were downsizing from a farm. This congregant offered the space where the church is located to the congregation so that the church would not have to move. This change has opened up options for the Regional Council to discuss and plan a way of supporting the development of the Hillcrest community going forward. The work of the Synod prior to the Council meeting enabled the Council to offer a means of support that has given new hope to the Hillcrest community.

The desire to develop community was discussed along with many other topics. Feedback was given to the Johannesburg congregation on Sunday after the service and by lunch everyone was heading home. The Regional Council will meet next in Cape Town in August 2026.