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- In the years between 1910 and 1913, Rudolf Steiner wrote his four great Mystery Dramas.
They continue until today to be regularly performed in Switzerland on the hills of Dornach
near Basel at the Goetheanum. Visitors come from great distances in order to experience
in these four dramas the inner life of a community of people, with all their struggles,
their breakdowns, and their true perceptions through an Anthroposophical perspective.
- In the Four Mystery Dramas of Rudolf Steiner we see a community of people in which each
individual goes through his own spiritual education which leads to a confrontation with
the beings of the spiritual worlds. This is shown through images on the stage, in which
the scenes take place at one moment on the Earth, and then in the next moment in the spiritual worlds.
For example, spiritual beings appear to people in meditation in a state of spiritual agitation.
The striving of the characters in the dramas leads them to push the boundaries
of their consciousness, and leads them to the necessity of searching beyond
one single earth life for the causes of life's crises.
A healing connection between the goals of Spiritual life and Earth life is sought for.
The characters that we follow through the dramas are:
The painter Johannes Thomasius, his lady Maria, Professor Capesius,
the Scientist Dr. Strader, and on their side the Spiritual teacher Benedictus.
The beings of the spiritual world with whom they must confront are: the Soul forces of human beings,
Lucifer and Ahriman, the Guardian of the Threshold (who marks the boundary to the spiritual world),
and the beings of the elemental kingdom.
- In the great hall of the Goetheanum which was only completed in impressive form in 1998,
the four mystery dramas in their full length of 21 hours are being performed over four days.
Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge which seeks to unite what is spiritual in
the human soul with that of the World-All. So writes Rudolf Steiner.
Maria: My friend, I am indeed distressed to see your soul and spirit limp from sadness,
and powerless to help the bond that binds and that has bound us both for ten blest years.
Even in this hour, filled with such importance in which we both have heard and learned so much
that brings light to the darkest depths of soul, offers nothing but darkness and shadow to you.
Aye, after many of the lecturer's words, my open heart could feel the very hurt
that deeply wounded thee.
Johannes: Alas 'tis true...I feel as if the fires that before quickened in my soul have vanished.
My eye grown dull, no more catches the gleam shed by the sunlight flickering over the earth.
When changing moods of light and shade flow over the scenes around, no feeling stirs my heart.
My hand is stilled to endure what the powers of the elements fleetingly conjure up before the senses
from the depths of existence.
No new creative fire thrills me with joy. For me dull monotony...covers all life.
Capesius: But it all speaks with such peculiarity, it doesn't seem as if it were really meant
for me to reject this experience. It is almost as if this "something" could not bear
the kind of man I am.
Strader: I will agree myself fully with every one of your last spoken words, and still more strongly
would I emphasize that all results in our soul life, which seem to spring from the influence of ideas,
cannot in any way decide for us what actual worth of knowledge they hide.
Whether there lives within our mode of thought truth or error...it's certain
the verdict of true science only can decide. And no one with honesty would deny that words,
which are in supposed clarity, that claim to solve life's deepest mysteries are quite unfit for such
a scrutiny. It seems to fascinate the mind of man, and only tempts the heart's credibility...
...seeming to open the door into that realm before which, humble and perplexed,
now stands the strict and cautious searching of modern minds.
And he who truly follows such research is bound in honor to confess that none can know
where streams the wellspring of his thoughts, nor fathom where the depths of Being lie.
Theodora: Before my soul a pictured form stands wrapped in robes of light...from which strange
words are sounding in my ears. I feel myself in future centuries, and men I behold not yet born.
They also see the pictured form. They too can hear the words it speaks, which resounds
O ye, who lived in faith's security, take comfort now in sight and look on me.
Receive new life through me. For I am he who lived within the souls of those
who sought to find me in themselves, by following the gospel words my messengers
brought and by their own devotion's inward power. The light of the senses ye saw...
Believe ye now in the creative spirit world beyond. For now indeed you have yourselves achieved
one atom of divine prophetic sight. Oh, breathe it deep and feel it in your souls.
Johannes: Oh, stay a little while by my side. I am afraid...terribly afraid!
Maria: What is it? Tell me!
Johannes: First it was the speaker's lecture, and then the many layered conversations of the
different people here...it has moved and stirred me through and through.
Maria: But how could simple speeches such as these seize your heart with such intensity?
Johannes: Every word seemed in that moment to me a dreadful symbol of our emptiness.
Maria: Indeed it was significant to see the pouring forth in such a short time so many
kinds of life experience and man's conflicting tendencies, in all the speeches that we heard.
Yet it's indeed a most peculiar trait of life, as it is lived among us here,
to bring to speech the inner mind of man. And much that otherwise comes slowly forth,
stands here fully revealed in a little space of time.
Johannes: The whole of life was mirrored and showed me "myself" in the clearest of lines.
The revelation of the spirit allowed me to understand that most people think of themselves
as whole and complete...when in fact they protect and train only one part of themselves.
I sought to unify my many parts in my own self and boldly walk the path that was shown here,
to lead to that goal.
But it has made of me...a nothingness.
Keenly I feel what all these people lack,
and yet I sense that they all stand successful, while I stand on nothing...
Johannes: O Man, know thyself.
(From the springs and rocks:) O Man, know thyself...
Johannes: You lead me back again within the sphere of my own being's former fantasies.
Yet in what shape do I know myself! My human form is lost and gone...
like some fierce dragon do I see myself, begotten out of primal *** and greed!
And clearly do I see how up until now
some dim deluding veil of phantom shapes has hidden from me my own monstrosity.
My own savageness must devour my Self!
And through my veins run a consuming fire of words,
that with elemental force once revealed the core of Suns and Earths to me.
They throb within my pulse, beat in my heart. And even in my inmost thoughts I feel strange
worlds now blaze forth like fierce passions. They are the fruit of these very words...
O Man, know thyself.
(From the springs and rocks:) O Man, know thyself....
Johannes: There...from that dark abyss, what creature glares? I feel the chains
that hold me chained to thee. Who art thou...fearful, sinister shape?
(From the springs and rocks:) O Man, know thyself...
Johannes: Yes I know thee...you are myself! Knowledge clings to thee, monstrous beast.
Chain mine own self...terrible beast...to thee! I wanted to flee from you, but I was blind,
blinded by the bedazzlement of worlds. From in my foolishness I tried to flee
from myself...to free myself. And now once more blind within my own sightless soul!
O Man, know thyself...
(From the springs and rocks:) O Man, know thyself...
Maria: A dark enigma am I to myself, and growing darker. Do not deny me asking this grave question:
Why do I harm the life of friend and child, when in love I attempt to work on them according
to the dictates of my heart and by the inspired spiritual teaching I have learned?
You have often taught me this lofty truth... "The veil of illusion spreads over life's surfaces"
yet I must see with greater clarity why I must bear this heavy fate, which seems so cruel
and that works such harm.
Benedictus: In our circle is formed a knot, from the threads that Karma spins the creating of the world.
Your sufferings my friend, are links in chains, forged by the hand of destiny...
where the deeds of Gods unite with human lives.
Maria: You give me light...but light that deprives me of my sight, and tears me from myself!
Do I seem an instrument to some spirit... no longer master of myself?
No more will I endure that form of mine, which only is a mask and not the reality!
Johannes: O friend, what is happening to you? Vanished is the light that filled your eyes...
Your hand is cold as death! Your body is rigid as a pillar.
Benedictus: My son, many trials have come to you. And now you stand before life's hardest test.
You see the temporary bodily covering of your friend...
but before my eyes her true self is free in spirit-spheres.
Lucifer: O man, know yourself...O man, feel me!
You have freed yourself from spirit guidance,
and into earth's free realms have you fled. In the midst of the world's confusion
you searched for your own existence... to "find yourself" was your reward and destiny.
But instead you found me. Some spirits willed to cast a veil before the senses,
which I tore apart. Those spirits planned to follow out their aims alone in you,
but I gave you "Self-Will" and foiled their aim.
O man, know thou thyself...O man, feel me!
Ahriman: O man, know me. O man, feel yourself.
Thou hast escaped from spiritual darkness
and thou hast found again the light of the earth, so now from my ground drink strength and truth.
I make the Earth hard and secure. Other spirits tried to *** away from you
the wonder of the senses. I am the engineer of this beauty in solidified light.
I lead you unto the TRUE reality.
O man, know me. O man, feel yourself.
Johannes: This is the sign just as Benedictus told. Before the world of souls stand these two Powers.
The one as Tempter, lives within the soul. The other darkens the sight of man
when he directs it to outward things. The one took on the woman's form just now,
and made me see what illusion of the soul is, ...the other may be found in everything.
Strader: But what wondrous being is this? It seems as though the rock itself gave birth to it.
From what world-depths do such strange forms arise?
The Other Maria: I wrestle my way through solid rock, and seek to clothe in human speech its very will.
I know the essence of the Earth, and with the human head I think the thoughts of Earth herself.
I breathe the pure prana of life, and transmute the beings of air
into the flowing feeling that surges and swells within the breast of man.
Strader: Then you cannot halp us in our quest. Far away from man's endeavor stands
all that must stay in nature's realm.
Capesius: Lady, thy words are lovely. I would gladly translate thy language into mine own.
Benedictus: My friend, then tell us now how you have learned
the grief in the Earth's depths within your innermost soul's core.
Felix Balde: The light that shines in men as learning's fruit should become nourishment
to all the powers which serve the evolution of the world within the Earth's dark depths.
Already now a long time they have starved and have been denied this sustenance.
For that which grows today in human brains only serves the surface of the earth,
and does not penetrate its depths. A strange new superstition now haunts these clever human heads.
When they look back to world beginnings they are not willing to see anything
in the spiritual realm other than specters invented from the illusions of the senses.
Germain: Only a dwarf-like image of me lives in man, and therein many things are thought.
When I show them the actual size, in which they appear within my brain,
they are but the mockery of their own very selves.
Felicia Balde: So then you also mock at me?
Germain: I often have to do this task, yet men generally do not hear me,
so I seized for once the chance to be on a spot where I can finally be heard.
Maria: The brothers who serve within the temple, have awakened spiritual sight in you,
yet you can only know what you see is real, only when you find in spirit-realms
a being whom in the worlds of sense you were united to, in your inmost soul.
In order that this being might meet you here, the brothers send me out before you.
And this did prove the hardest of your tests,
when I was summoned here to wait for you. I asked our leader Benedictus,
to solve for me the riddle of my life, that seemed to be so cruel and unkind.
And blessedness streamed from his every word, telling of his own mission and of mine.
He told me of the spirit I must serve with all the strength I have in me.
Capesius: I often hear you repeat that your artistic skill depends alone on the gift
to function consciously in other worlds, and that you can't put into your works what
you haven't first seen in spiritual dimensions.
Indeed your works do show how the Spirit stands revealed in actual life...
Strader: Never have I understood so little of your words...for surely in all artists' work
the living spirit is manifested. How then does your friend, Thomasius, differ
from other masters in his art?
Capesius: Never have I doubted that the spirit shows itself in man, who nonetheless remains
unconscious of its nature. He creates through this same spirit, but perceives it not.
Thomasius however does create in the sense world what he consciously sees in the spiritual world,
and many times he has admitted to me that for men like him no other method of creation is possible.
Strader: A spiritual power does work in an artist's soul...
the same as it works within the trees and stones. But the tree is not conscious of itself.
Only he who sees it from the without, can recognize the spirit's work within.
So too each artist lives within his work and not in spiritual experience.
Lucifer: Now that I can no longer tempt their souls, my power will germinate within their spiritual life
the most beautiful fruits to grow and ripen.
Benedictus: Johannes and Maria's souls have now destroyed all of error's darkness in themselves,
and the eyes of the spirit have been opened to them.
Ahriman: I must then indeed renounce their Spirits. For they will soon turn to the light.
Yet one thing has not yet been taken from me. To delight their souls with sense appearances.
They will no longer believe it to be truth, but they will have the power to see
how through appearances, truth is shown.
Theodosius: Your destiny was closely linked with your sister's higher life.
The light of love I could give to her, but not the warmth of love, so long as you would still
keep the best part of your nature as something that came out of the obscurity of your feelings
and not try to see it in the full light of wisdom. The influence of the Temple's radiance does not
reach into the nature of unconscious impulses even when these impulses work for the Good...
- The second Mystery Drama "The Soul's Probation" leads Professor Capesius, Johannes Thomasius,
Maria and Dr. Strader to difficult obstacles in their lives and spiritual paths,
and they are confronted with an earlier earth life. We witness with them their medieval incarnations,
which reveal the heavy, complicated, guilt-laden destiny relationships
from which their later life crises have resulted.
1st Countryman: Look there, the vile Jew... he surely will not dare to take the same road
that we take. For things he might hear would burn his ears for days.
2nd Countryman: Someday we must make him feel what he deserves for his audacity,
we can suffer him no longer as an intruder in our good land.
1st Countrywoman: He is protected by the noble knights. Who live in the distant castle.
None of us may enter, but the Jew is welcome there. For he does whatever the knights desire.
3rd Countryman: It is very hard to know who serves the Lord and who the devil.
Thankful should we be to the good knights who give us food and work.
What would we be if it were not for them?
2nd Countrywoman: I have to praise the Jew, his remedies have cured me of the
grievous illness I had...Besides, he was so good and kind to me. For many he has done the same.
3rd Countrywoman: A monk told me the truth... the Jew employs the devil's work,
beware his drugs...transformed within the body they grant entrance to all kinds of sin.
Simon: Wherever I go, I always find awaiting me the ancient hatred and bitter scorn.
Yet it pains me each time I find myself exposed to them. There seems to be no reasonable cause
why people should behave like this towards me. And yet one thought pursues me incessantly
which makes the truth apparent to my soul, ...that nothing can befall us without a cause.
There must be a reason for this too, why suffering is the lot of my race.
So with the lords of the distant citadel, I find their lot akin to mine.
But they have chosen out of their own free will, that which by natural powers is imposed on me.
They set themselves apart from other men, and strive in isolation to acquire the powers
through which they attain their goals.
Thomas: Matters of my service led me yesterday
to seek out and speak with my superior. You know how little I respect the knight
who issues directions for my work, since I have learned he is your enemy.
From that time forward I made up my mind to no longer be in service under him and his castle.
The knight alluded in our interview for reasons which are still unknown to me,
matters which made him declare himself to be... ...my father whom I have for so long been seeking!
What followed...I would prefer to leave untold. It would not have been hard to overlook
my mother's sufferings at his hands and mine, but when he and I once more stood face to face,
and when he spoke grief burdened, of old days. In his form stood facing me, your enemy!
And one thing then was made manifest to me... How deep an abyss must forever separate me from him
whom I so gladly would love, and whom I sought so long and ardently.
Now I have lost him for the second time. Such is the lot that has befallen me!
Monk: I would not ever estrange you from those ties imposed upon you by blood-relationship.
But what I can bestow upon your soul shall ever be to you a gift of love.
Monk: A crackling and a rumbling fills the air... I feel the powers of evil gathering around.
I know no sin...I will defy the enemy. This is living hell...
Oh good saints of Heaven, defend me!
Benedictus: Collect and calm thyself, my son. I often came to you, when the fervor of
thy prayers transported thee into the spirit-world. Take therefore courage in this present hour
and learn a truth which thou must realize if clear spiritual light is to hold itself in thee
and drive away the darkness from your soul.
Monk: This warning which I am worthy to receive, how can I act upon it?
It contradicts everything that up to this moment, seemed right to me!
But other beings now are drawing near... why do they come and stand beside you now?
Ahriman: This message comes from other realms. It cannot seem an easy thing for you
to obey your predecessor's instructions. Reflect...he dwells in everlasting bliss.
Actions made by decree and duty there, may well lead to confusion and chaos here.
Lucifer: The error of this spirit-brotherhood is dangerous, because it speaks the truth...
and yet expresses it in such a way that makes the truth more deadly than a lie.
A man who openly admits he lies would have to be deluded to believe that men
would gladly follow him as leader. The spiritual knights are not so foolish!
Monk: Conflicting voices from the soul world assail my ears as often as before,
and always with the aim to counteract the pious promptings of a devout mind.
How shall I find the paths that lead to Good if by the powers of Evil they be praised?
It almost seems to me as if...but No! Such words shall not be thought by me...
The wisdom of my Master shall reveal the meaning of his words, so dark and obscure to me.
First Preceptor: You wanted to speak to me. What is it you wish to say?
Keane: Very weighty matters both for you and me. Do you know the master miner Thomas here,
who is in service with you?
First Preceptor: The worthy man I know well. We prize him for his skills.
Keane: And do you know my daughter Cecilia, too?
First Preceptor: I saw her once when I met your family.
Keane: It happened that soon after Thomas came he paid us frequent visits in our home.
They grew more frequent. It was evident that to Cecilia his whole heart went out to her.
This was not strange for us. But knowing the girl's nature,
we thought it would be a long time before she would return his love.
Her life was one continuous prayer, and she kept away from almost everyone.
Yet it now appears ever more clear to us that to this stranger she has given her heart.
And as things are, we feel ourselves compelled not to oppose the wishes of our child.
Thomas she loves, and she wills to marry him.
First Preceptor: Why is this marriage then against your will?
Keane: My lord, there is no need for me to tell you of my devotion to the brotherhood.
My heart would have to bear a heavy load, if my child's entire love were cast on the side
of those who say that you and me are heretics!
The monk who now rules over at the abbey and our neighbors close by...
all seek to thwart the mission of the brotherhood, have won dominion over my daughter's soul.
As long as she is still living under my roof, I shall not abandon hope
that she may yet again retrace the path which leads from spirit darkness into light.
But I shall have to give her up for lost when she has become the wife of one who...like herself,
looks for salvation's light according to the precepts of that monk.
His reverence has had complete success in forcing such opinions on Thomas,
who receives them in full faith.
A thrill of terror would run over me to hear the curses pour from Thomas...
...whenever speaking about the brotherhood.
First Preceptor: Our enemies are many. If one more is added it cannot affect us much.
Your words have not made it clear to me what my concern is with this tale of love?
Simon: As I return to my senses, the radiant light filled form has vanished...
And when I recall in thought that which my spirit has seen,
before my soul a thought comes up which moves me to the bottom of my heart.
I feel myself drawn to your teachings, in which a Spirit-being is revealed
descending from the Kingdom of the Sun, to take a human form upon himself,
in order to disclose himself to the hearts of men. I cannot keep the glowing beauty out
that pours into me from your noble teachings, and yet my soul will not give allegiance either.
I recognize humanity's primal form in that great high Spirit you described...
but still my individual self rebels when I turn to him in faith and love.
So now within myself, I must wage an inward war. The archetype of every outer strife.
Bertha: Dear mother, I so long to hear the story sister Cecilia often told us years ago.
You know all those fairy tales to tell which father brings back with him from the knights
when he comes home, and with greatest joy so many people are always glad to hear.
Keane: The soul finds real treasures in those tales. The gifts which they confer on the spirit
decay not with the body in the grave, but bear their fruits in later lives on earth.
Darkly, as through a glass we glimpse their truth, and from such darkened sight,
our souls can win knowledge to serve our needs in daily life. If only folk could realize the store
of precious gifts our knights have to bestow, ...since they draw wisdom from another source.
Cecilia and Thomas have, alas, deaf ears at present for such things as these...
Bertha: Today I really would love to listen to that tale about the Good and the evil.
Mrs. Keane: Gladly will I tell it to you, listen...
Once upon a time there lived a man who spent much time in puzzling over cosmic truths.
That which tormented his poor brain the most was, how to learn of Evil's origin.
And to that question he had no answer. The world was made by God, he would say,
and God can only have in him the Good. How then does Evil spring from out the Good?
Time and again he puzzled over this, but could not find the answer that he sought.
Now it befell that one day this seeker on his travels passed a tree that was talking with an axe.
Unto the tree the axe spoke these words:
"That which you cannot do I can achieve, I can fell thee...but you cannot fell me".
To the vain axe the tree replied,
"It was but a year ago a man did cleave with another axe the very wood of which
out of my body your very haft is made!"
And when the man had listened to these words
a thought was straightaway born within his soul which he could not set down in words,
but which completely answered his question: How Evil could originate from the Good.
Cecilia: My dear brother, when in fervent ecstasy of silent prayer my soul bowed herself
to the fountain of the World, and yearned wholeheartedly to be made one with him,
a light appeared before my spirit with gentle warmth and radiancy...
This then transformed itself into a man who looked into my face with tender eyes, and spoke to me.
He spoke thus... "Human delusion left you forsaken once,
and now you will be sustained by human love. Wait therefore until longing finds a way
to bring the seeker safely to your side". So spoke this human figure often to me
nor could I fathom what the words might mean... and yet I divined with quickened feeling,
that someday they should be fulfilled for me. And then beloved brother you came, and when I
first set eyes on you, I felt my senses leave me... for you resembled that human figure's very face!
Thomas: Dream and prophetic feeling did not lie, indeed it was longing that guided me to you.
Cecilia: And when you requested me as your wife, I thought the Spirit had ordained it.
Thomas: In good truth the Spirit's purpose was to re-unite us, clearly it can be seen,
although we misunderstood it at first. As a wife sent from above,
so you seemed to me when we first met. And then my long lost sister did I find.
Cecilia: And now nothing shall divide us.
Thomas: Yet there are many obstacles between us. Your foster parents are bound to that brotherhood
which I must condemn.
Cecilia: They are love incarnate and kindness both...and loyal friendship will they give you.
Thomas: My oath will forever separate me from their love.
Cecilia: Through me you will find the way to them.
Capesius: It seems as if the vision working on my soul restrained itself until the moment
which previously stood before my spirit.
Within a spiritual brotherhood I could clearly see and recognize myself and others.
And just as one often feels a picture of ancient bygone days arise from memory's vaults...
I saw Thomas as my son and as a miner.
And then I must call to mind that soul who as Thomasius, is quite well known to me.
The lady whom I know as prophetess, now stands as my own child before my eyes.
Maria who befriends Thomasius, reveals herself to me in monkish garb,
and condemns our spiritual brotherhood.
And Strader wears the face of Simon the Jew.
In Joseph Keane and his wife I see the souls of Felix and Felicia.
These lives lie open to my view in full clarity... and so too, does my own...
- In the Third Mystery Drama "The Guardian of the Threshold",
the conflict between the beings of the spiritual world becomes more direct.
In particular, Lucifer and Ahriman and the Guardian of the Threshold
want to ensure that a part of the plot takes place directly inside their kingdoms.
The resulting inner conflicts of the protagonists brings them to a new stage of development.
Strader: Perhaps you will allow the inventor to state frankly his opinion about his own work.
Forgive my words which may seem lacking in humility to some,
but they describe the feelings which have sustained me in my work.
Man's history shows that every kind of labor eventually becomes detached from feeling and soul
...and changes into a soulless thing, the more the spirit learns to master forces
which it can find within the senses' realm. Everyday work becomes more and more mechanical
and so does life itself. Many carefully thought out proposals have been put forward to prevent
the cold working arts of technology and machinery from laming the soul life of mankind,
or prove a hindrance to true spiritual aims.
Through such efforts little has been achieved, they always took one question as the main question,
"How man should act towards his fellow men?"
I had to first speak about this hope so that it may not seem out of place
what I have to say about the summons this Rosicrucian brotherhood is now directing
to people outside their own circle.
It's only when a human soul unfolds and finds its own true being in itself,
that those impulses causing our spirit to always seek the spirit can finally come to full expression.
So now it's fair to say that honest thinking
is bound to recognize the correspondence between the summons and the signs we observe.
The brotherhood in the future will bestow its highest treasures freely on mankind,
because all men will feel the need for them.
Thomasius: Before I began my work I gave myself to Lucifer, because I wished
to learn to know and understand his realm. Now I know what I could not see before
when I was lost entirely in my work, that it was he who invaded my thoughts
with those wonderfully compelling pictures, while within my soul he planted wild desires,
which though silent now, will surely one day take control of me.
Trustworthy: How can one who has reached such Spirit-heights and who knows all this for certain,
believe that he has no escape from Evil? But you can see where the danger for yourself lies.
And so you can crush it, and with courage save yourself and the results of the great work.
It is the duty of a pupil of the spirit to kill whatever hinders progress in himself!
Thomasius: I now understand that you do not form your judgement by cosmic laws.
Maria: My friend...you now stand at that threshold, where one must lose all what one has attained.
Many times you have looked into the spiritual world and drew from it the power
that made you capable of your creative work. It seems to me that now, that work is lost.
Do not wish that it be otherwise, for such desire would rob you of all power of further
progress into higher realms. Whether you walk in error or in truth, you can always keep
open before you the sight which lets your soul struggle further if you endure with courage the
necessities imposed on you by the spiritual world. This is the law of spirit discipleship.
As long as you still harbor the wish that what happened to you didn't...
you will not have the power which you will need to hold yourself and stay in the land of the Spirit.
Capesius: They cannot bear the cold clear light of truth. They would be utterly afraid
and stunned if they learned how real spirits guide the course of life as they wish.
Maria: You speak as those who have never been incarnated on the Earth.
They tell you Earth has no significance within the universe.
But he who has belonged to the realm of Earth and owes to it the best powers he has,
will have a different tale to tell of. He finds importance in the many threads of destiny
which bind Earth's life to that of all the worlds.
Even Lucifer who works here with such power must keep his gaze fixed upon the Earth,
and seek to turn men's deeds in such a way that their results may ripen his own soul.
He knows he'd fall victim to the darkness if he could find no prey on Earth,
and so his fate is bound up with that sphere. So too, with those who dwell in other worlds.
And when the human soul can clearly see the cosmic goal which Lucifer desires,
and can compare with it what those powers who have him as an opponent wish,
then will the soul know that he can be destroyed, through conquests which it gains over its own self.
Capesius: The man who here is speaking with you
dreads those times which force him to put on a body still alive that keeps its earthly
form although the spirit can no longer master it. At such times this spirit feels the world
he treasures is collapsing. It seems as if a narrow prison surrounded by nothingness encloses him.
The memory of his life seems then extinguished from his soul.
Lucifer: So work, compelling forces... Ye elemental spirits, feel now your Master's power!
Smooth now for me the way, that leads from out of the realms of Earth so that to Lucifer's domain
there may draw near whatever my wish desires, and whatever obeys my will...
Theodora: Who calls me to such strange places? I do not like it, unless the world of Gods
reveals itself in love to my soul, and glowing warmth entwining my heart
draws spirit speech from out of my innermost heart.
Thomasius' Double: Oh, how you transform my life! You have appeared and here am I,
a man who now can only work when filled by you. Johannes shall through me now be yours,
and from now on you shall finally have the love that was originally meant for Maria...
which was so radiant, and at once...so fearful.
He saw you many years ago, but he did not then feel the warmth of love
which was to grow in secret in the depths of his soul.
Now it will rise up and fill him with great power, and then he will fix his thoughts entirely on you!
Benedictus: The crucial moment is arriving now, Lucifer brings to bear his greatest strength...
Maria, with all your soul's training you must put forth to overcome him!
Maria: O bearer of that light...who would confine love only to the egotistic service of the self.
You have from Earth's beginning granted men knowledge, when men were still guided by the Gods,
who obeyed the spirit and knew nothing of self. But since that time each human soul
has been the battleground in which you fight against the Gods.
Yet the times are now coming, which must bring destruction on yourself and your kingdom.
As a sacrifice, I will protect my heart so that my mind can only think in such a way
that through my thoughts I'll offer the fruits of knowledge only to the Gods.
Cognition will be for me an act of sacred service and what I achieve within
myself shall powerfully stream over to Johannes, and often in the future, when within his heart
these words are whispered from you to him... "Discover that in man's human nature, it is
Love that gives strength to his personality". Then shall my heart give this powerful answer...
"Once you were listened to, at Earth's beginning, when you showed forth signs and fruits of Wisdom.
The fruits of Love can only come to man when they are given to him from the Divine".
Lucifer: I will fight!
Benedictus: And by fighting...serve the Gods.
Strader: It has been seven years to the day since you became my love and dear companion
of my life, and also a source of light who shone upon my life which was threatened
with an approaching darkness.
In spirit I was a starving man when you decided to stand at my side and give that which the world
had always withheld from me.
For many years I earnestly strove to probe the depths of science with my mind
to find the meaning of life and the goal of man.
One day I clearly had to recognize
that all this striving had been in vain, for you showed me the means
which man's spirit seeks how to reveal itself, which was hidden to my knowledge and my mind.
I met you amidst that circle where Benedictus was the guide, and listened to your revelations there.
Later I saw how in Thomasius how spiritual training works powerfully within a human soul.
Mrs. Balde: And so we may not feel her radiant and lovely presence again
until we ourselves enter that world which has taken her from us so soon.
A few short weeks ago we joyfully shared in our little cabin the gentleness 1:12:30.700,1:12:34.800 that streamed so warmly through her every word.
Felix Balde: We both, my wife Felicia and myself loved her from our inmost soul,
so we share and understand your grief.
Strader: My dear Theodora, she often spoke of Lady Felicia and Father Felix in her life's last hours.
...she was familiar with everything about your day to day life up here.
Now I must grope my way alone... She was the sum and meaning of my life,
and what she gave can never die from me, and yet, she is not here.
Lucifer: Within your will...Cosmic Beings work.
Ahriman: These cosmic beings...are confusing you!
Lucifer: Within your feeling...Cosmic Forces weave.
Ahriman: These cosmic forces...are misleading you!
Lucifer: Within your thinking...Cosmic Thoughts live.
Ahriman: These cosmic thoughts...are confusing you!
Capesius: The soul experiences itself inwardly.
She believes she feels, because the feelings do not flash like lightning from the clouds.
She sees the realms of space, and perceives the clouds above it.
But if this were not so, supposing that the lightning were to flash
and no one to see it...she would think that the lightning was inside of her.
She does not see Lucifer, from whom thoughts spring forth, and from whom feelings pour!
And thus she thinks she is alone with these thoughts and feelings.
Why does the soul fall into this delusion?
O Soul, answer yourself...yet...from where?
From out of yourself? Oh, no, perhaps the answer would be, not from you...but from Lucifer!
Maria: And if it were...why then should you not seek?
Descend into the depths to find the answer there...
Capesius: A being here! Who is able to hear the speech of souls?
Maria: Souls here are not divided...only when they use a body are they separated.
Here each soul hears itself in another's words.
You only say it to yourself, when I tell you...
...seek your answer from within the depths.
THE GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD: What violent desires are here resounding?
So rage men's souls who come to me without achieving full serene equilibrium.
It is desire that drives such men and not the creative force that can create with the Word...
since it can create itself in silence.
The souls which show themselves here like this, I must send back again to Earth.
Thomasius: You see upon your threshold, not the soul who came here often as Thomasius
...the spirit pupil of Benedictus, although it still must call Thomasius' form on earth its own.
Therefore I also recognize that I can sense the reality when I must find the soul
which he attached to me while in his kingdom. Armed with all the strength bestowed
on me by Lucifer I mean to force my way past you to Theodora who I know is in the land
on the other side of this threshold!
THE GUARDIAN OF THE THRESHOLD: Thomasius, reflect on what you know.
What is to be perceived beyond this threshold is still unknown to you.
Strader: The practices that Benedictus gave to me in order for me to experience my true self
by cultivating the power of thought, has led me to the kingdom of the dead...
But I hoped that when raised to the spirit I should receive the truth from radiant worlds of wisdom!
Ahriman: The wisdom you can learn in this domain will be sufficient for a long long time...
...if you conduct yourself accordingly.
Strader: What spirit does my soul now confront?
Ahriman: You'll know him soon, when your memory brings back to your mind your experiences here.
Strader: And all these people, why do I find them here within this dark place?
Ahriman: They are present only as souls, knowing nothing about themselves,
...they lie in their homes deeply asleep.
Whatever lives in their souls, here is shown.
For they hardly see it in themselves in daily life. Nor can they hear what we are saying.
Louisa Feargod: The soul should not believe with blind acceptance that it can proudly
raise itself up to the light, then simply unfold its full essence.
I will only acknowledge what I know.
Ahriman: In your haughty pride you do not know how blindly you are leading yourself into darkness.
I must confess I have not yet succeeded. The Earth will not surrender to my will.
But I shall strive on through eternity...
until...I gain the final victory.
One must make use of what is not yet lost.
You see I do not flatter with fine words, indeed I do not wish to please mankind.
If you would like by elegant orations to stir enthusiasm for your lofty aims, you'd best look
to other realms. But, if with reason and a sense for truth you perceive the things here which
I bring to pass, you can acknowledge that it is with me that Power is found...
without which human beings would be lost while living on Earth.
Strader: You cannot think in any other way,
and I can do nothing except regard it as true what you have said. But only here is it the truth,
but in the physical world it all turns to error, should it prove itself there as it appears here.
My human thinking may reach no further within this place, it has reached its end.
Within your hardened words ring out pain, and they are pain within myself as well.
Looking on you...I can only but mourn, and weep.
Capesius: I know you now, and I will follow you. When I turned inwards on my soul after I heard
your words as living beings in the spirit worlds, and you had once again restored me to myself.
Then in the light of the spirit I could see the goals of my future lives having on Earth's history.
And now I know that it was you who chose for me the right paths I should take.
Benedictus: Thomasius and Strader united with you will in the future accomplish much
that will serve to further the well being of humanity's health. The powers of the soul
they possess have been prepared since Earth's beginning, so that they can join together
with your monad to make a trinity, which then will work actively in world processes with Divine force.
Maria: Johannes, your soul has won knowledge for itself from the cold realms of truth,
and what souls live out in dreams within their bodies,
you will no longer draw or paint.
For thoughts wanting to establish themselves only out of themselves lie farfrom cosmic development.
Thomasius: It is the love of self that makes those thoughts do this...
pretending to be thirst for knowledge.
Maria: Whoever desires to dedicate himself to human evolution and wishes to perform works
that will act like substantial forces in the course of time, must first entrust themselves
to those powers that battling order and chaos... bring measure and number deep into reality.
Knowledge, in truth will only come to life and manifest in the soul when it brings remembrance
into its earthly body what it has experienced in the domains of the spirit.
Thomasius: The course of my life is now made clear to me. I feel myself as a duality.
Through Benedictus' help and through you I am a being strong and independent, whose forces
do not yet belong to myself. You have given me new manhood, ready and willing to give to others
what he has gained through spiritual training.
Hilary: My son, the words man utters in this place
creates a guilt which cries aloud to the spiritual worlds, unless the speaker follows truth alone.
As great as the guilt, so too the forces that will unfold from it,
and destroy the one who speaks thus and proves himself unworthy of his task.
He who is standing here before you now, was conscious of the working of his words
in the Temple and tried with the full extent of his powers to render service unto the spirit world,
before the holy symbol of that light which shines upon our earth from the East.
It is the Will of Destiny that you in the future shall stand and serve within this sacred place.
The one who has the obligation to ordain you
and hands you down the key to his high office gives you his blessing,
may it prove for you of good service in so far as he has served the sacred customs worthily.
- The Fourth Mystery Drama "The Soul's Awakening" begins in a factory, where they are attempting
to install production and labour with new impulses based on spiritual perception.
The plan however, changes gears as the protagonists of the Mystery dramas feel that
from within deep layers of the soul there is a distant undealt with incarnation pulling them back.
So we look back on a life before birth in a late Egyptian incarnation, in which we witness
an unsuccessful initiation. The understanding of this retrospection leads to a strengthening
of their spiritual powers, which allows them to better be able to resist the attacks of
Lucifer and Ahriman.
Strader: The goal however, of the spiritual stream
in which I see quite clearly life's evolutionary course, is this...
To join spiritual works with earthly works in the world of the senses.
Manager: As long as spirit offers up to spirit solely what it produces by independent creativity,
it upraises the soul to human dignity, giving them meaning in their existence on earth.
But when it also experiences existence in itself and even wants to master other types of life,
then it approaches domains where delusion can often become dangerous for the truth.
Through my efforts with spiritual things such a knowledge has been revealed to me
which confirms my present attitude.
It is not personal preference, as you were misled to think
by what has been said about me.
Strader: It is an error then in spiritual knowledge that makes you hostile to the views I hold.
Through this the difficulties will increase.
No doubt it's easy for the spiritual researcher
to work in partnership with other men who have already let themselves be taught by Nature and Life
on what the meaning of existence is.
But when thoughts that claim to spring from divine sources join with hesitation with other men's
thoughts flowing from the same origin, ...one can hardly hope for harmony.
Yet that which must, will surely come to pass.
Renewed testing of my plans...
will perhaps may make you change the view, which you on first consideration had to take...
Capesius: What I have lived through in this fateful moment has utterly changed the direction of my soul.
Any kind of earthly activity or work will rob me of my new clairvoyant powers!
Maria: The one who is allowed to walk the spiritual path finds many hints and signs
along the way to shape his destiny. These clues and signs he should follow on his particular path.
And yet he could interpret them quite wrongly if they disturb his duties and obligations on Earth.
Lucifer: Your effort will not bring you much reward, new forces begins to stir within his heart
that opens the portal of his soul to me.
Maria, gaze with thy clairvoyant sight upon his innermost...
and there, behold how he frees himself on wings of spirit from your
warm and loving earthly work.
Theodora: With the Elementals of the Earth you will fashion out forms...
and with the Elementals of the Fire you will ray out power...
Only if you sacrifice your conscious life to that Will whose light strengthens
without the interference of human wisdom.
And so shall you preserve the knowledge from Lucifer that is half your own,
and then give Johannes valuable help to him.
Out of his soul life I will bring to you that
which makes him crave for your existence and offer him refreshing spiritual sleep.
Lucifer: But she can never bestow beauty on you, ...since I boldly dare to take it from her.
Theodora: I shall let beauty spring forth from noble feeling and let it ripen in the work of sacrifice.
Lucifer: She'll tear your free will away from you, and give it to spirits that rule the darkness.
Theodora: I shall awaken vision filled with Spirit, ...which at last is set free from Lucifer.
The Keeper of the Temple: From out of the glimmering web of pretense,
that which you call World in the dark of your error, ...this mystic has brought you here to us.
Woven out of existence and nothingness, the world in its weaving has fashioned itself
into a shining appearance to you. That image is good when looked on from existence, but you
dreamed it from within a life of façade, and an image discerned from an image quickly disappears...
You, image of an image...learn to know yourself!
The Mystic: So speaks this temple's guard.
Feel in yourself the weight of his words.
The Recorder: The understanding of where we are leading you in this downward pull
will come to you only when you carry out his word. We are forging the form of your own Being.
Come to know our work, otherwise you will have to dissolve yourself as an image...
completely into Cosmic nothingness.
The Neophyte: Within my spiritual and soul life
arose the wish that Earth's gravity would pull me down into my body,
where I might feel and hold onto the joy of life's warmth.
Thus, gladly diving down into my body, I heeded your summons to awake...
The Chief Hierophant: This is no spirit-vision! Earthly desires have escaped from the mystic,
and as sacrifice arose to the spirit's radiant heights O sacrilege...Sacrilege!
The Recorder: This would not have happened had you performed the duty granted to you...
which ancient holy custom ordained!
The Hierophant: I did do the duty laid on me from the higher realms during this most solemn hour.
I have held back the thought of that word, which tradition demands me to think,
and which should work in the Ether, over to the neophyte.
What the young man here proclaimed was not the thinking of someone else, but that of his own self!
Maria: The Cosmic Midnight!
Before the sheath of the body enclosed my self on Earth...Saturn's colored light kept endless watch!
Up until this time my earthly thoughts hid what I had obscurely lived in spirit.
Now it rises with the clarity of soul.
Astrid: Within the cosmic light you spoke these words: "O Everlasting Time, I entreat you...
pour out yourself into this blissfulness... and let the leader, let this other soul
peacefully abide with me, within you".
Maria: Dwell with me also, O holy moment... You who are allowed to create what happens
in spirit as a force within my self. Fortify my soul so you don't pass away like a dream.
In the light that illumines the Cosmic Midnight hour, which Astrid creates out of my soul's dullness...
my "I" unites itself to that self that created me, for service within the great Cosmos.
Johannes: Who are you, enigmatic and enchanting Spirit?
You brought true counsel to my soul and yet at the same time deceived me about yourself.
The Other Philia: Johannes, this double aspect of your Being...you created out of yourself.
Just as shades encircle you, so I must too...until you yourself set free
the shadow your guilt created a spellbound life for.
Johannes: This is the third time you have spoken thus, ...I will obey thee.
Point out the way.
The Other Philia: Johannes, seek for that which lives within the Spirit's light and which has been
preserved for you within your very self... It will give you the light from its light.
Then you will be able to behold in yourself how you may wipe out your debt in a later life.
Johannes: How shall I search for what has been stored up in me, while in the spirit's light?
The Other Philia: Give me that which you are when you find yourself thinking,
and lose yourself in me for a little while, but do not change into another self.
Strader: Since these two men are now tearing my field of work from under me,
I can see nothing before me but a life where the very air for living dies away.
In order that the flight of my spirit is not lamed by this,
I'll need the courage you spoke of. But whether I shall find the strength sufficient
enough for the task is more than I can say, for I feel how the energy I want to unleash
is also at the same time turning destructively against me.
Benedictus: Johannes and Maria have progressed in the practice of clairvoyance. What recently hindered them
from bridging the gap between the mystical life and the world of the senses is no longer there...
in the course of time goals will appear in which you both can take part in, as partners.
It is not guidance, but creative strength that flows from these mystic words...
That which must, will surely come to pass.
Ahriman: With all my power I must hold Strader. Once he is mine I'll catch the others too.
Johannes wore himself down and blunted himself badly against my shadow...now he knows me well.
But without Strader, I can't get at him. And in Maria's case it's the same.
Yet Strader will perhaps not recognize the spiritual confusion, which human beings take for Nature.
It is in fact nothing else than my own personal ghost property.
And so he may imagine rather that he sees blind weavings of energy and matter there,
where I...denying spirit, actually spiritually create.
It is true the others have talked a lot to him about me and about my realm.
But still, I think I have not lost him yet.
He will forget that Benedictus sent him here to me, only half-awake...
to drive out any belief that I am nothing but a silly notion in the heads of men.
Yet I will need some earthly help if I wish to bring him here...before it is too late.
Theodora's Soul: You may be able to reach Strader, but I shall be by his side.
Ever since we were united on that radiant soul path, we shall remain united wherever he dwells
on the Earth or in the spirit-realms.
Ahriman: If she indeed will not forsake him now, as long as he is dwelling still on Earth,
...the battle will be lost for me. But there is still hope he will finally forget her!
Capesius: A man cannot attain to the spirit-world by seeking to unlock the gates only by himself.
Truth does not resound in the soul of him, who for many years only seeks a "mood".
Philia: Capesius, you must now pay heed to all that is not yet found in your quest...
nevertheless, it does shows itself.
It's light of many colors will strengthen you, it will permeate you
as an image that has living spirit because your soul forces are revealing it to you.
What the Sun being in your self is raying out, will diffuse Saturn's old wisdom.
It will then disclose itself to your vision, which you as an earthly being will be able to comprehend.
I myself will then guide you to the guardian who maintains his watch at the threshold of the Spirit.
Benedictus: There are just a few more words,
but I cannot decipher them...a chaos covers them... weaving a veil of cloudy thought!
Who are you, you shadow who comes to life from out of the chaos, within my soul's circle?
Ahriman: He sees me, but he does not know me yet. And so he will not cause me that frightful pain
if I should try to be active by his side. I can inform you further of what Strader wanted
to entrust to you for your own benefit and also for the spiritual path of your pupil.
Benedictus: My esoteric group will always be in touch with Strader's soul,
...even if sense existence no longer forms a bridge between us.
But when a spirit-messenger manifests to us, revealing itself from out of its own worlds,
then it must first of all start by gaining our trust.
It can only do so if it's willing to establish itself as fully recognizable for our spiritual sight.
Ahriman: You're still only striving for self-knowledge...
In that case, if an unknown spiritual entity
wanted to render you service, it would first of all have to give itself over
as a part of your self, and it had to be allowed to stand at your side only to be "recognized" by you.
Benedictus: Whoever you are, you only serve the Good when you strive not for yourself
or when you lose yourself in human thinking, ...thus arising anew within cosmic evolution.
Ahriman: I must depart from here as quickly as possible, for as soon as his inner vision
can begin to think of who I may be, there'll soon be created within his thinking
a part of the force that will slowly destroy me.
Benedictus: Only now do I recognize it as Ahriman as he escapes from here,
yet he creates in my thoughts an understanding of his being.
He strives to confuse the thoughts of men because he seeks in them the origins of all his pain,
by a mistake come down from ancient times.
He does not know as of yet that he can be redeemed in future,
only when he discovers his Being mirrored in this knowledge...