The experience of powerlessness is part of inner transformation. Some thoughts on encountering the spirit of the times.
Every day, the news shows us a world in distress. On top of this, we have challenges and threshold moments in our own personal lives. These experiences can paralyze us—or they can initiate an inner movement. If, instead of repressing our pain and suffering, we allow ourselves to feel them deeply and consciously, we can come to an experience of compassion that takes us farther than our emotional upheaval. Compassion can transform into a force: a power that connects our thinking, feeling, and doing. A will for healing activity can arise from this force—at first quietly within us; then eventually visibly in the world.
It’s precisely in the moment of feeling utterly powerless that the seed of a new beginning lies. Our compassion for the plight of others or for the turmoil of the whole world can become the threshold where an inner door opens. Concerned attention gives rise to new responsibility—we don’t wait for external salvation but instead listen to an inner voice that leads us to a new, creative impulse. This inner impulse can be experienced as our conscience—not an admonishing view on past actions but rather a forward-looking force of strength that initiates a process of creatively imagining future possibilities.
Compassion is not the endpoint but the starting point. It’s the soil upon which the courage to become creatively active grows. We find a new relationship to our lives, to the world around us, and to the spiritual forces that accompany us—to Michael, the spirit of the times, and to the Christ-being. Compassion creates confidence that even the smallest impulses, when born from an inner truthfulness, can have a great effect.
From Inner Powerlessness to Creative Impulse
The new often announces itself in moments when there seem to be no possibilities left. In this experience of powerlessness, a small spark can ignite—an impulse kindled by our higher self. From this initial spark, an inner image begins to form, motivated by the question, “What could the future look like if I take this first step myself?” This is not an appeal to an external savior, nor is it waiting until “someone else” finally takes responsibility. The inner voice says, “It is I who is able to take on this task.” Once we realize this, our courage grows and gets us moving, gets us to take initiative freely, without coercion, carried by our own willingness to take on new responsibility. Compassion is not the goal; it’s the beginning. Those who cultivate compassion develop a faculty for insight, one that not only perceives the suffering in the world but also senses how healing might begin.
New Sense of Conscience
Conscience is the driving force; it’s not a backward-looking judge of the past but a trusted advisor open to the future.1 This new conscience arises from a conscious approach to memory and time. It can become a kind of karmic preview. The possible consequences of our actions appear to us inwardly. These images can then be taken into our hearts and deeply felt. Ultimately, they are to be handed over to the spiritual world as a question.
This work with our conscience awakens a new moral posture. It opens our eyes to the interconnectedness of all life and transforms compassion into a creative will to shape the world. This new posture touches on a sphere close to Christ: “Every time a feeling of compassion or joy is developed in the soul, it forms an attraction for the Christ impulse, and Christ connects with the soul of the human being through compassion and love. Compassion and love are the forces from which Christ forms his etheric body until the end of Earth evolution.”2
Here, karma is no longer passively endured but actively shaped as love that turns toward humanity and the world around us. Initiatives that arise from such moral depths can be taken up and strengthened by the spirit of Michael.
The Path of the Rückschau or Daily Retrospective
Regular practice is needed for this approach to bring real results. A key practice is the daily review: conscious, active thinking backward in time. This allows us to pause the rushing stream of time that the spirit of the times brings about. This retrospective can cover the course of the day, individual events, or longer periods of our lives. It brings us inner peace and a new perspective on connections in our lives. By recalling moments when compassion was or wasn’t felt, a space opens up for us to shape our actions more consciously in the future.
Journaling as a Tool
A personal diary or journal deepens this regular life review. It need not be a place for extravagant prose but rather a workshop for thoughts, sketches, questions, observations, and inner images. Franz Kafka put it succinctly:
“Keep a diary from today onwards! / Write regularly! / Don’t give up! / If there is no redemption, / then, I want to be worthy / of each and every moment.”3
A journal can become a source of new ideas and a collection of future initiatives born out of genuine concern.
From Memory to Initiative
Working with the Rückschau and journaling help separate the essential from the inessential. The essential questions are then consciously offered up to the spiritual world. This process forms an inner image that matures into a deed. Whether or not to take action remains a free decision. No one can force you. But when the step is taken, the spirit of Michael can accompany you and deepen the effect of your activity. Compassion is like fertile soil: it keeps the heart warm and the mind clear—even in the midst of a deeply discordant world.
Michael, the Waiting, Silent Spirit
Michael does not impose himself. He waits silently for personal initiatives, without prescribed words—just the powerful gaze of what happens out of freedom. “Michael is a being who actually does not reveal anything unless you approach him with diligent spiritual work from Earth.”4 The alliance with Michael is not formed with words but through modest, inspired action.
Dr. Thomas Stöckli is educational researcher at the Institute for Practice Research [Institut für Praxisforschung].
Translation Joshau Kelberman
Footnotes
- Rudolf Steiner, From Jesus to Christ (Forest Row, East Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2025), lecture in Karlsruhe, Oct. 14, 1911.
- Rudolf Steiner, Three Paths to Christ: Experiencing the Supersensible, CW 143 (Forest Row, East Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2023), lecture in Cologne, May 8, 1912.
- Franz Kafka, The Diaries of Franz Kafka (New York: Schocken Books, 2023), Oct. 14, 1921.
- Rudolf Steiner, Rosicrucianism and Modern Initiation: Mystery Centres of the Middle Ages. The Easter Festival and the History of the Mysteries, CW 233a (Forest Row, East Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press, 2020), lecture in Dornach on Jan. 13, 1924.
