Four Mystery Plays
GA 14
The Soul's Probation (Written 1911)
Scene 3
A room whose prevailing tint is rose-red; cheerful atmosphere.
Johannes at an easel; Maria enters later; finally the Spirit-Figures representing soul-powers.
Johannes:
Maria, when she saw my picture last,
Stood silent. Heretofore she ever gave
Hints to assist the progress of my work
From her rich store of wisdom manifold.
Little as I can trust myself to judge
Whether my art indeed accomplishes
The task our spirit-current hath imposed,
Yet is my confidence in her complete.
And ever through my spirit ring her words
Which lent me strength and brought me happiness
When I took courage and began this work.
‘In such a way as this,’ she said, ‘thou canst
Attempt this enterprise, and so reveal
Thy spirit's visions unto earthly eyes.
Thou wilt not fail to recognize how forms,
Fashioned like thoughts, shape matter to their will;
Nor yet how colour, to desire akin,
Doth fill thy vital energy with warmth.
In such wise canst thou even represent
On canvas through thy skill the higher realms.’
I feel the power that dwells within these words
And diffidently yield to that belief
That I am drawing nearer to the goal
Which Benedictus hath appointed me.
Full oft I sat discouraged at my work;
It seemed at one time so presumptuous,
And at another so impossible
To represent in colour and in form
The visions that are granted to my soul.
How can the ceaseless web of spirit-life,
Which is revealed to inner sight alone
And is so far withdrawn from outward sense,
Be manifest in matter which is drawn,
As drawn it must be, from the realm of sense?
This question have I asked myself full oft.
Yet when I banish personality,
And follow spirit-teaching faithfully,
And feel myself caught up in blessedness
Unto creative forces of the worlds,
At once belief awakens in an art
As true and mystic as our spirit-quest.
I learned to live with light, and recognize
In colour's power the action of that light,
As faithful students of true mystic lore
See in realms reft of colour and of form
The spirit's deeds and soul's reality.
Relying on this spirit-light, I won
This power, to feel in flowing sea of light,
And live within the stream of glowing tints;
And sense those spirit-forces which maintain
Their might in non-material webs of light,
And radiant colours filled with spirit-life.
(Enter Maria, unobserved by Johannes.)
And when my courage faileth me, once more
Of thee, my friend most noble, do I think.
At thy soul's fire my love of work is warmed;
Thy spirit-light awakes my faith anew.
(He sees Maria.)
Oh, thou art here ... Impatiently I craved
Thy coming, yet I marked not thine approach!
Maria:
I must rejoice to find my friend so wrapt
In work as to forget his friend herself.
Johannes:
Nay, speak not thus, since thou dost know full well
That I cannot create one single thought
Which hath not first been hallowed by thine aid.
No work of mine owes not its life to thee.
Through thy love's fire have h been purified;
Through thee my art hath learned to represent
The beauty of the truths revealed to thee,
Which warm my heart, illuminate my sense,
And clothe in radiant light the spirit-world.
The current of my work must take its rise
From thy soul's spring and flow thence into mine,
Ere I can feel the wings that lift me,up
To lofty heights of spirit, far from earth.
I love the life that quickens in thy soul,
And, loving it, can give it form and hue.
Love only can beget artistic power
And make an artist's work bear fruit and live.
If I, as artist, am to. carry back
Pictures of spirit to the world of sense,
Then cosmic spirit must speak forth through me,
My personality be but its tool.
First must I burst the bonds of selfishness
Ere I can know that I shall not mistake
For spirit-worlds my own vain fantasies.
Maria:
And if thou hadst to seek through thine own sight
And not through mine the true course of thy work,
It may well be that, coming from one soul
Thy beauty's being might be unified.
Johannes:
I should be spinning webs of idle thought
In speculating which I should prefer:
Whether to incarnate thy spirit-sight,
Or in myself to seek my vision's source.—
I am convinced I could not find it thus.
I can withdraw to deep retreats of soul
And find delight in wide-flung spirit-worlds:
I can pour out my soul in worlds of sense
And follow colour-wonders with mine eye
And watch creative energies at work,
If I am left with mine own soul alone.
Whate'er may thus befall me I am not
Thereby impelled to my creative art.
But if I follow thee to cosmic heights,
And in warm rapture live again what thou
Already hast in spirit there beheld,
I feel a fire in thy spirit sight
Which burns on in me also, and whose flames
Kindle the powers that drive me to my work.
If my desire were simply to relate
That which I can find in higher worlds,
Then with my soul I well might upward soar
To spheres where spirit unto spirit speaks.
But as an artist I must find that fire
Which lights the picture and inflames the heart.
And my soul cannot to my picture give
The magic warmth that streams through human hearts,
’fill it can quench its thirst with spirit-truths
Revealed from out the depths of thine own heart.
How primal force by longing is condensed,
How powers creative blaze with spirit-light,
And, sensing even then their need of man,
Display themselves as gods in earliest times.
All this, my friend, thy soul in noble speech
Hath often led me on to learn unseen.
In hues ethereal of the spirit-world
I sought to densify what hid from sight;
And felt how colours longed to see themselves
Mirrored as spirit in the souls of men.
So loth my friend's soul speak as it 'twere mine
Out of my pictures to the human heart.
Maria:
Bethink, Johannes, how the One Soul must—
A personality apart from all—
Evolve from out the womb of time.
Love serves to knit together separate souls
Not kill their individuality.
The moment is upon us, when we twain
Must test our souls, and find the spirit-path
That each must follow for its separate good.
(Exit.)
Johannes:
What meant my friend? Her words did sound so strange.
Maria, I must follow thee forthwith.
(The three Spirit-Figures of the soul-powers appear with the Other Philia.)
Luna:
Thou canst not find thyself
Portrayed in other souls.
The power of thine own self
Must root in cosmic soil,
If from the spirit-heights
Thou wouldst indeed transplant
Their beauty to earth's depths.
Be bold to be thyself,
That thou, strong souled, mayst give
Thyself to cosmic powers—a willing sacrifice.
Astrid:
In all thy ways on earth
Thou must not lose thyself;
Mankind doth not attain
To sun-kissed distances
If he would rob himself of personality.
So then prepare thyself,
Press on through earthly love
To utmost depths of heart
Which ripen cosmic love.
The Other Philia:
O heed the sisters not;
They lead thee far astray
To cosmic distances,
And rob thee of earth's touch.
They do not understand
That earthly love bears trace
Of cosmic love itself.
In cold their natures dwell
And warmth flies from their powers.
They fain would lure mankind
From out his own soul depths
To cold and lofty worlds.
Curtain: Johannes, Philia, Astrid, Luna, and the Other Philia still standing
Drittes Bild.
(Zimmer in rosenrotem Grundton, freundliche Stimmung. Johannes vor einer Staffelei; Maria, später eintretend; dann Geistgestalten als Seelenkräfte.)
Johannes:
Maria schwieg vor meinem Bilde,
als sie zuletzt es sah. –
Sie schenkte mir vorher doch stets
Aus ihrer Weisheit reichem Schatze,
was meines Werkes Fortgang fördern kann.
So wenig ich mir selbst getraue,
ein Urteil mir zu bilden,
ob ich mit meiner Kunst erfülle,
was unsre Geistesströmung fordert,
so sehr vertrau’ ich ihr –.
Und immer wieder höre ich im das Wort im Geiste,
das kraftverleihend mich beglückte,
als ich an dieses Bild mich wagte.
»Du kannst auf diesem Wege, sprach sie,
das Wagnis unternehmen,
was geistig nur die Seele schaut,
dem Sinnenschein zu offenbaren.
Es wird dir nicht verborgen bleiben,
wie Formen, Gedanken gleichend,
den Stoff bezwingen;
und Farben, gefühlsverwandt,
die Lebenskraft durchwärmen.
So darfst du auch die höhern Reiche
Mit deinem Können bilden.«
Empfindend dieser Worte Kraft,
ergeb’ ich zaghaft mich dem Glauben,
daß ich dem Ziele näherkomme,
das Benedictus mir gewiesen hat.
Ich saß oft mutlos vor dem Bilde;
Vermessen schien es mir so manche Stunde,
unmöglich dünkt es mir zu andern Zeiten,
in Farben und in Formen nachzubilden,
was meine Seele schauen darf.
Wie kann man webend Geistessein,
das allem Sinnenschein entrückt,
sich nur dem Seheraug’ erschließt,
mit Mitteln offenbaren,
die doch dem Sinnenreich gehören.
So fragt’ ich mich recht oft.
Wenn ich jedoch verbanne Eigenwesen,
und nach der Geisteslehre Sinn
zu schaffenden Weltenmächten
in Seligkeit entrückt mich fühlen darf,
erwacht in mir der Glaube
an solche Kunst, die mystisch wahr
wie unsre Geistesforschung ist.
Ich lernte mit dem Lichte leben
und in der Farbe des Lichtes Tat erkennen,
wie echter Mystik wahrer Schüler
im Reich des form- und farbenlosen Lebens
die Geistestaten und das Seelensein erschauen.
Vertrauend solchem Geisteslicht,
erwarb ich mir die Fähigkeit,
zu fühlen mit dem flutenden Lichtesmeere,
zu leben mit den strömenden Farbengluten;
erahnend waltende Geistesmächte
im stoffentrückten Lichtesweben,
im geisterfüllten Farbenwesen.
(Maria tritt ein, ohne von Johannes bemerkt zu werden.)
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
Und wenn mich dann der Mut verlassen will,
so denk’ ich deiner, edle Freundin. –
In deinem Seelenfeuer
Erwarmet meine Schaffenslust;
In deinem Geisteslicht
Erwachen mir die Glaubenskräfte.
(Er sieht Maria):
O – du bist hier – – – – – – –,
ich harrte deiner ungeduldig
und konnte doch dein Nahen übersehn!
Maria:
Erfüllen muß es mich mit Freude,
den Freund in seine Arbeit so vertieft zu sehn,
daß er der Freundin selbst vergißt.
Johannes:
O sprich nicht solches Wort –,
du weißt, wie nichts ich schaffen kann,
das nicht von dir gesegnet ist.
Es gibt kein Werk von mir,
daß dir nicht seinen Ursprung dankt.
Du hast im Liebefeuer mich geläutert;
daß ich vermag, durch meine Kunst zu bilden,
was dir sich offenbart im Schönheitsglanz,
der wesenwärmend, seinsverklärend strahlt,
und strahlend offenbart das Geistesland.
Empfinden muß ich meines Schaffens Strom
Aus deiner Seele Quell’ in meine fließen;
Dann fühle ich die Schwingen, die mich heben
Zu erdenfernen, geisterfüllten Höhen. –
Ich liebe, was in deiner Seele lebt,
und kann ihm liebend Bildgestalt verleihn.
Nur Liebe kann dem Künstler Kräfte zeugen,
die in den Werken fruchtbar weiter leben.
Und soll ich Bilder aus den Geistesweiten
Als Künstler in die Sinneswelten tragen,
so muß der Weltengeist durch mich erscheinen,
und Werkzeug nur mein Eigenwesen sein.
Der Selbstsucht Fesseln muß ich sprengen können;
daß ich nicht eigner Willkür Wahngestalten
statt Geisterwelten kunstvoll bilden möchte.
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ –
Maria:
Und wenn du, statt durch meine Seelenschau,
aus dir des Werkes Urbild holen müßtest,
es könnte dann aus Einem Seelengrunde
der Schönheit Wesen einheitvoller wirken.
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ –
Johannes:
Ich müßte nur nach eitlen Denkgespinsten jagen,
wenn ich ergübeln wollte, was mir besser ist:
ob deine Geistesschau verkörpernd schaffen,
ob in mir selbst der Bilder Ursprung suchen.
Ich weiß, daß ich ihn so nicht finden könnte.
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ –
Versenken kann ich mich in Seelengründe,
und selig mich in Geisteswelten finden;
ich kann am Sinnenreiche mich verlieren
und mit dem Auge folgen Farbenwundern,
die Schöpfungstaten mich erschauen lassen.
Bin ich mit meiner Seele nur allein,
so führt, was ich erleben kann in mir,
ein Dasein nur, das nicht zum Schaffen drängt.
Doch darf ich dir in Weltenhöhen folgen,
und warm in Seligkeit dir nacherleben,
was du schon dort im Geist erblicken konntest,
empfind’ ich Feuer in der Geistesschau,
das in mir selbst dann weiterflammt, und flammend
in mir entzündet Kräfte, die zum Schaffen zwingen.
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ – ‒ –
Wenn ich in Worten wollte Menschen künden,
was ich in Höhenwelten kann erkennen,
so dürft’ ich mich mit eigner Seele heben
in Sphären, wo der Geist zum Geiste spricht.
Als Künstler muß ich jenes Feuer finden,
daß aus dem Werk in Herzen strahlend wirkt.
und meine Seele kann dem Bild nur geben,
was magisch Geistesglut in Herzen strömt,
wenn sie erst selbst aus deinen Herzenstiefen
die Geistesoffenbarung trinken kann.
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ –
Wie Ursprungskräfte sich in Sehnsucht dichten,
und Schöpfungsmächte geistend sprühen,
und schon, den Menschen fühlend, seinsbedürftig,
als Götter sich im Zeitbeginn erschaffen,
dies hat der Freundin Seele oft mit edler Rede
in unsichtbarer Art mich greifen lassen.
Im zarten Ätherrot der Geisteswelt
versucht’ ich, Unsichtbares zu verdichten;
empfindend, wie die Farben Sehnsucht hegen,
sich geistverklärt in Seelen selbst zu schauen.
So spricht der Freundin Seelenwesen wie mein eignes
Aus meinen Bildern zu den Menschenherzen.
Maria:
Bedenk’, Johannes, daß die Eine Seele,
getrennt von andern, als ein Eigenwesen
seit Weltbeginn sich selbst entfalten muß.
Die Liebe soll getrennte Wesen binden;
doch nicht die Eigenheiten töten wollen.
Es ist der Augenblick für uns gekommen,
in welchem wir die Seelen prüfen müssen,
wie sie des Geistespfades weitre Schritte
zu einer jeden Heil zu lenken haben. (Geht ab)
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
Johannes:
Was sprach die Freundin?
So unverständlich klangen ihre Worte!
Ich muß dir folgen, Maria! – – –
(Die drei Gestalten der Seelenkräfte erscheinen.)
Luna:
Du kannst dich selbst nicht finden
Im Spiegel einer andern Seele.
Die Kraft des eignen Wesens,
sie muß im Weltengrunde Wurzeln schlagen,
wenn sie aus Geisteshöhn
die Schönheit in Erdentiefen
mit echtem Sinn verpflanzen will.
Erkühne dich zum Eigensein,
daß du als starke Seelenform
dich Weltenmächten opfern kannst.
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
Astrid:
Du sollst auf deinen Weltenwegen
Dich nicht verlieren wollen;
Zu Sonnenfernen dringen Menschen nicht,
die sich des Eigenseins berauben wollen.
So mache dich bereit,
durch Erdenliebe vorzudringen
in tiefe Herzensgründe,
die Weltenliebe reifen lassen.
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
Die andre Philia:
O höre nicht die Schwestern;
Sie führen die in Weltenweiten;
und rauben dir die Erdennähe, – ‒
sie sehen nicht wie Erdenliebe
der Weltenliebe Züge trägt.
In Kälte walten ihre Wesenheiten;
die Wärme fliehen ihre Kräfte,
und Menschen wollen sie entführen,
aus ihren Seelentiefen
in kalte Höhenwelten.
(Vorhang während Johannes, Philia, Astrid, Luna noch stehen bleiben.)
Scene Three
(Room with rose-red walls, friendly atmosphere. Johannes in front of an easel; Maria enters later; then spirit figures as soul forces.)
Johannes:
Mary was silent before my painting,
when she last saw it. –
Before that, she always gave me
from her rich treasure of wisdom,
whatever could promote the progress of my work.
As little as I trust myself
to form a judgment
as to whether I fulfill with my art
what our spiritual current demands,
I trust her all the more.
And again and again I hear in my mind the words
that empowered me and made me happy
when I ventured to create this image.
“You can take this path,” she said,
"and undertake the venture
what only the soul sees spiritually,
to reveal to the senses.
It will not remain hidden from you,
how forms, resembling thoughts,
conquer matter;
and colors, akin to feelings,
warm the life force.
Thus you may also shape the higher realms
with your skill.
Feeling the power of these words,
I timidly surrender to the belief
that I am coming closer to the goal
that Benedictus has shown me.
I often sat disconsolate before the image;
it seemed presumptuous to me for many an hour,
at other times it seems impossible to me
to reproduce in colors and forms
what my soul is allowed to see.
How can one weave spirit,
which is removed from all sensory perception,
revealed only to the seer's eye,
with means
that belong to the realm of the senses.
I ask myself this question quite often.
However, when I banish my own being,
and, according to spiritual teachings,
feel myself transported into bliss
by the powers of the world to be created,
faith awakens in me
in such art, which is as mystically true
as our spiritual research.
I learned to live with the light
and to recognize action in the color of light,
as true disciples of genuine mysticism
behold the deeds of the spirit and the being of the soul
in the realm of formless and colorless life.
Trusting in such spiritual light,
I acquired the ability
to feel with the flowing sea of light,
to live with the streaming colors of light;
sensing the ruling spiritual powers
in the substance-free weaving of light,
in the spirit-filled realm of color.
(Mary enters without being noticed by John.)
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
And when courage threatens to desert me,
I think of you, noble friend. –
In the fire of your soul
My creative zeal is warmed;
In the light of your spirit
The powers of my faith are awakened.
(He sees Mary):
O – you are here – – – – – – –,
I waited impatiently for you
and yet I failed to notice your approach!
Mary:
It must fill me with joy
to see my friend so absorbed in his work
that he forgets his girlfriend herself.
John:
Oh, don't say such things –
you know that I can create nothing
that is not blessed by you.
There is no work of mine
that does not owe its origin to you.
You have purified me in the fire of love;
so that I am able, through my art, to form
what is revealed to you in the radiance of beauty,
which shines, warming the essence, transfiguring being,
and radiantly reveals the land of the spirit.
I must feel the stream of my creativity
From the source of your soul into mine;
Then I feel the wings that lift me
To distant, spirit-filled heights. –
I love what lives in your soul,
And can lovingly give it pictorial form.
Only love can give the artist powers
that live on fruitfully in his works.
And if I, as an artist, am to carry images from the vastness of the spirit
into the sensory world,
then the spirit of the world must appear through me,
and my own being must be only a tool.
I must be able to break the chains of selfishness;
so that I do not want to artfully form delusional figures of my own arbitrariness
instead of spirit worlds.
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ –
Mary:
And if, instead of through my soul's vision,
you had to draw the archetype of the work from within yourself,
then it could emerge from a single soul foundation
of beauty, appearing more unified.
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ –
John:
I would only have to chase vain fantasies
if I wanted to ponder what is better for me:
whether to embody your spiritual vision,
or to seek the origin of the images within myself.
I know that I could not find it that way.
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ –
I can immerse myself in the depths of my soul,
and blissfully find myself in spiritual worlds;
I can lose myself in the realm of the senses
and follow with my eyes the wonders of color,
which let me behold the acts of creation.
When I am alone with my soul,
what I can experience within myself
leads only to an existence that does not urge me to create.
But if I may follow you to the heights of the worlds,
and warmly relive in bliss what you could already see there in spirit,
I feel fire in the vision of the spirit,
which then continues to blaze within me, and blazing
ignites forces within me that compel me to create.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ – ‒ –
If I wanted to tell people in words
what I can recognize in the higher worlds,
I would have to lift myself with my own soul
into spheres where the spirit speaks to the spirit.
As an artist, I must find that fire
that shines from the work into hearts.
And my soul can only give to the image
what magically flows from the spirit's fervor into hearts,
when it can first drink from the depths of your heart
the revelation of the spirit.
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ –
How primal forces condense into longing,
and creative powers sparkle with spirit,
and already, feeling human, in need of being,
create themselves as gods at the beginning of time,
this is what the soul of my friend has often let me grasp
in an invisible way with noble speech.
In the delicate ether red of the spirit world,
I tried to condense the invisible;
feeling how the colors cherish longing,
to see themselves spiritually transfigured in souls.
Thus speaks my friend's soul being like my own
From my images to the hearts of men.
Maria:
Consider, Johannes, that the One Soul,
separated from others, as a being of its own,
must unfold itself since the beginning of the world.
Love should bind separate beings;
but it should not seek to kill their individuality.
The moment has come for us
in which we must examine the souls
to see how they must guide the further steps
of the spiritual path to salvation for each one. (Exits)
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
John:
What did the friend say?
Her words sounded so incomprehensible!
I must follow you, Mary! – – –
(The three figures of the soul forces appear.)
Luna:
You cannot find yourself
In the mirror of another soul.
The power of your own being,
it must take root in the foundation of the world,
if it wants to transplant beauty from the heights of the spirit
into the depths of the earth
with genuine meaning.
Dare to be yourself,
so that as a strong soul form
you can sacrifice yourself to the powers of the world.
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
Astrid:
You should not want to lose yourself
on your worldly paths;
People who want to rob themselves of their own being do not reach distant suns.
So get ready
to penetrate, through love of the earth,
into the depths of the heart,
which let love of the world mature.
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
The other Philia:
O do not listen to the sisters;
They lead you into the vastness of the world;
and rob you of your closeness to the earth, – ‒
they do not see how love for the earth
bears the traits of love for the world.
Their beings reign in coldness;
their powers flee from warmth,
and they want to carry people away,
from the depths of their souls
to cold, lofty worlds.
(Curtain while Johannes, Philia, Astrid, and Luna remain standing.)