Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), the founder of Waldorf education and biodynamic agriculture, also opened new paths for architecture, the visual arts, medicine, and socioeconomic life. His collected works, dedicated to his spiritual view of humanity, Anthroposophy, are filled with a multitude of concrete spiritual-scientific exercises and meditations. He also left behind brief hints and general indications of new forms of spiritual-scientific practice, which he did not complete during his lifetime. One of these hints about a future form of spiritual practice suitable for modern humanity concerned a "Michaelic Yoga." He mentioned this briefly in several lecture series from 1919/20 (GA 194 and 322). This new rhythmic practice would not focus on physical breathing, like the pranayama exercises of older yoga, but rather on the spiritualization of thought activity and sensory perception, which alternate back and forth, one after the other.

First, the activity of thinking can be transformed into a contemplation of the essential beyond concepts, and second, sensory perceptions such as sight, hearing, and smell can be "evaporated" and interwoven with the body. In a cyclical pulse, we can unite the inner essence of our concepts with the world of ideas we contemplate in conscious thought (this is like an "exhalation"), and then we draw the living forces behind color, sound, smell, touch, and warmth into our expanded life-body and light-body (this is like an "inhalation"). This practice, achieved by penetrating the unconscious elements of cognition and perception, and also enhancing moral powers by examining our ego and our subjective projections, needs, and desires with rigorous and objective self-knowledge, gives rise to a new kind of spiritual self. This seems like a difficult process!

In the excellent new book Michaelic Yoga However, we thankfully discover that Dr. Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon has developed Steiner's suggestions into a complete practice over several hundred pages. Ben-Aharon is a leading spiritual researcher who has published ten books, beginning with The spiritual event of the 20th century in the 1990s and most recently Twilight of Mankind and Resurrection of MankindMichaelic Yoga not only collects Steiner's quotations on Michaelic Yoga, but Ben-Aharon develops a new cognitive yogic practice that truly complements the richness of anthroposophy. Almost every sentence in this book is a step-by-step guide on how to perform this new art, meditation, and cognitive-spiritual practice. It is a solid and profound introductory course on how to transform thinking and perception into a new kind of imaginative or clairvoyant insight. It is based solely on anthroposophy and does not incorporate any other currents or approaches.

After giving an overview of Steiner's notes on this topic, Ben-Aharon shows us that the first step is to clearly separate our sensory impressions from our mental images, memories, ideas, and reflections. In other words, we learn to look at an apple and separate its color and sensation from our thoughts about the apple, in the flow of consciousness from moment to moment. This is directly related to the actual spiritual-scientific practice of Steiner's substance. Philosophy of Freedom, in which recognizing the difference between perceptions and concepts is fundamental. Ben-Aharon compares this first step to the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis.

Having learned how to "dissect" the concept based on normal consciousness, Ben-Aharon emphasizes that none of these exercises should compromise the sense of self-identity. On the contrary, the practice of cognitive Michaelic yoga should build only upon the strong sense of self-awareness and the modern feeling of being an individual ego or self. The limitations and isolation of the modern self can, with the balancing forces of the new etheric Christ impulse and its gifts, evolve into a free and creative spiritual individuality. We read this astonishing statement:

“Even in the higher spiritual worlds, among the highest beings of the spiritual hierarchies, one finds no self-awareness and no freedom such as humans can develop on Earth. Nor can they be created there. Consequently, in the divine worlds there is no individually developed capacity for love, which can only be born from true freedom. … This is what spiritual science means when it speaks of ‘the Christ impulse’: to find the true self in the earthly ego, and to the extent that we achieve this, the more we truly transform our egoism…” (pp. 63–64)

Then the first steps of perceptual transformation begin with chapters on "etherization," or the spiritual development of sight and smell. I have never read another book that has anything in common with these rich practices. This material is absolutely original and, I would say, unprecedented in anthroposophical literature. In the practice of "color breathing," Ben-Aharon goes far beyond Goethe's developed moral sense of the pure qualities of colors. He uses the example of separating the red from a rose and experiencing its pure intensity, surrendering oneself in profound moral self-knowledge and humility to the spiritual process of becoming the essence of red. He writes:

"Only by generating and realizing this selfless driving force and surrendering everything we have to the nascent red process... can we allow red to completely replace our own ordinary self. World-red becomes the self and leads to... Precisely at the moment when we have become completely red, the former experience of the quality of red, which we had separated from the physical object, disappears. From that moment on, we have not only lost the ability to imagine the external color, but have also lost its qualitative soul experience. ... this colorless color becomes pure intensity, which feels, wills, and thinks through us." (p. 85)

And this is just an intermediate step!

During the development of decades of Michaelic cognitive yoga practice, Ben-Aharon discovered that there is a major blockage or gateway that closes off the purest etheric forces in the lower part of the body. The key to opening this blockage lies in the spiritualization of the senses of smell, taste, and touch. He focuses primarily on the sense of smell to provide an overview of how this is achieved with the other middle senses. This involves locating a third olfactory stream behind the nasal cavity and following it into the etheric body and the sentient soul. Through this process, we discover that the sense of smell actually unconsciously forms a large part of our feeling of being embodied and living in a solid physical shell. He writes:

“Thus, the attempt to let go of this self-loving… warm body of smells, tastes, and… inner touches and sensations is like a voluntary decision to die; to separate oneself from a beloved and comfortable place of safe and hidden, private, earthly dwelling. Only when we are ready to face this fear and let it go will the scent aura and substance truly be free to leave us. … As an act of gratitude for this selfless liberation, [the scent aura and substance] can graciously allow us to participate in its return to its cosmic source and from now on to share in its true nature and becoming as a genuine objective world force…” (p. 136)

The most advanced part of the book then describes the liberation and individualization of the entire etheric body and the creation of a new etheric individuality. It shows us how we can enter a new garden of teaching or learning in the new earthly-human solar sphere that is now growing in the spiritual foundations of our Earth. The final chapter culminates in a description of how this etherization process leads to an intimate encounter with the Second Coming of Christ in the etheric world. I have found that practicing this new art of Michaelic Yoga, even in its initial stages, is a challenging but healthy spiritual endeavor. I highly recommend this book.

Scott Elliot Hicks, author of The Resurrection of Thinking (The Resurrection of Thought, 2018), and Earthly, Transcendental, & Spiritual Logic (Earthly, transcendental, and spiritual logic, 2019).