The First Class Lessons and Mantras

The First Class Lessons and Mantras: The Michael School Meditative Path in Nineteen Steps

“Initiation is precisely this: that we are able to see from the other side of the threshold. There, seeing is not just looking but is also reading. We read the spiritual deeds of spiritual beings who have brought everything into existence. And if we read long enough in this silence, if we put our heart and soul into this reading, we begin to hear in the spirit, and then the gods speak to us. And when the gods speak to us we are within the spiritual world.” —Rudolf Steiner (April 25, 1924)

The mantras of the Michael School are, in the truest sense of the word, a path for modern human beings—and indeed not just for our time between birth and death, but even more so for the time after death in the spiritual world. In that world, every soul that has crossed the threshold will experience beings and events that it can comprehend only if it has learned something on Earth about the beings there and processes that take place between them. In his eighteenth lesson Rudolf Steiner said:

“People who have heard this in esoteric schools on Earth will go through the gate of death and will hear these words again sounding in harmony together—in the esoteric schools here and during the life between death and a new birth there. They will understand what rings forth. Or, people will be dull and unwilling to respond to what the esoteric schools, prepared by general Anthroposophy, have to say. They’ll fail to perceive what can be heard through initiation science from the realms of the heights. They pass through the gate of death. There they hear what they should have already heard while here on Earth…but they do not understand it. These words of power—when the gods speak to one another—sound to them like an unintelligible clanging, mere cosmic noise.”

These words alone, heard in real earnestness, should be enough to dispel any reservations about spreading the teaching of the Michael School. This content does not belong only to those who are closely connected with Anthroposophy and its movement; every seeking human being should be able to find them as a path through life on Earth and after death.

C O N T E N T S:

Preface to the First English Edition by T. H. Meyer
Introduction to the Third German Edition by T. H. Meyer

1. The Nineteen Lessons of the Michael School
2. Passages Omitted from the Text
3. Mantras of the Michael School in English and German

Appendix: “The Meditative Path of the Michael School Today,” by T. H. Meyer
1. Rudolf Steiner and the Time Spirit Michael
2. The Suprasensory Michael School
3. The Earthly Michael School and the Role of Ita Wegman
4. The Role of Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz
5. Who is the Guardian of the Threshold?
6. The Structure and Levels of the Nineteen Lessons
7. The Form Language of the Michael Sign

Rudolf Steiner’s Blackboard Drawings

About the Author

Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up (see right). As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe’s scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner’s multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.

T. H. Meyer was born in Switzerland in 1950. He is the founder of Perseus Verlag, Basel, and is editor of the monthly journal Der Europäer. He has written numerous articles and is the author of several books, including Reality, Truth, and Evil (2005) and major biographies of D.N. Dunlop and Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz. He also edited Light for the New Millennium (1997) describing Rudolf Steiner’s association with Helmuth and Eliza von Moltke.

Jannebeth Röell, a pioneer of anthroposophic nursing in North America, received her degree in nursing in The Hague, Netherlands, and worked in private practice with an anthroposophic physician, focusing on external therapies. During the course of her practice she worked extensively with the dying. Presently Jannebeth is making anthroposophic medicine preparations. She is also the translator of Perceiving Plants: Experiencing Elemental Beings: The Influence of Gnomes, Nymphs, Elves, and Fire Spirits upon the Life of Plants and (with James Lee) About Formative Forces in the Plant World,both authored by Dick van Romunde. Jannebeth Röell is also a watercolor and mixed media image artist. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Paul V. O’Leary is a retired real estate appraiser and former attorney who specialized in forensic appraisals and the appraisal of conservation properties. He has written, taught and lectured extensively on real estate economics and appraisal for The Appraisal Institute, The Massachusetts Board of Real Estate Appraisers, the American Society of Appraisers, and the Massachusetts and United States Bar Associations. He is also a special faculty member of the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a Harvard University-associated think tank with an international portfolio, researching, publishing, and teaching about real estate planning and taxation issues.