Four Mystery Plays
GA 14
The Soul's Awakening (Written 1913)
Scene 5
The Spirit Realm. The scene is set in floods of significant colour, reddish deepening into fiery red above, blue merging into dark blue and violet below. In the lower part there is a globe symbolising the earth. The figures that appear seem to blend into a complete whole with the colours. On the left of the stage the group of gnomes as in Scene 2, page 173, in front of them Hilary, and in the immediate foreground the soul-forces.
Felix Balde's Soul:
(Seated at the extreme right of stage, having the form of a penitent, but arrayed in a light violet robe girdled with gold.)
I thank thee, Spirit, wise to govern worlds,
My saviour from my gloomy loneliness;
Thy word awakens unto work and life.
I will make use of what thou giv'st to worlds
About which I can meditate, whilst thou
Dost let mine own become,, insensible.
For then thou bearest to them on thy rays
That which in pictures fashioneth powers for me.
Lucifer:
(Bluish-green glittering under-garment, reddish outer-garment, shaped like a mantle and gleaming brightly, which extends into wing-like outlines; his upper part is not an aura but he wears a mitre of deep red bordered with wings; on his right wing a blue shape having the appearance of a sword; a yellow shape, like the ball of a planet (Venus), is supported by his left wing. He stands somewhat behind and to the right, towering over Felix Balde's soul.)
My servant, such activity as thine
The sun-time needs, in which we find ourselves.
The earth-star now receives a faded light;
It is the time when souls like thine can work
Unto the best advantage on themselves.
On thee I ray forth from my fount of light
The germs that tend to raise self-consciousness.
Go, gather them to make thine ego strong.
In later earth-life they will come to flower.
There shall the blossoms by thy soul be sought;
In its own nature it will take delight
When it can joy in planning its desires.
Felix Balde's Soul:
(Gazing at the group of gnomes. From this moment, the gnomes becoming conscious, keep swaying up and down, slightly raising and lowering themselves, as if the group was breathing from above.)
There far away, bright being disappears;
It floats in shadow-pictures through the deeps;
And, floating, strives to gain some steadying weight.
Hilary's Soul:
(With the figure of a steel-blue-grey elemental spirit modified to resemble a man's; the head less bowed, and the limbs more human.)
The mist of wishes doth reflect the light
Thrown on the realm of spirit by earth's star,
The star for which in this world thou dost form
From soul-material a thinking self.
For thee 'tis but a fleeting web of mist,
But to themselves they seem like solid souls.
On earth they work, by cosmic reason led,
In old fire forces, thirsting after form.
Felix Balde's Soul:
I will that their weight shall not burden me,
Which grievously resists the soaring will.
(The gnomes cease their movement.)
Ahriman:
Thy speech is good. Swift will I seize thy words
That I may keep them for myself unharmed.
Thou canst not yet develop them thyself;
But on the earth they would fill thee with hate.
Strader's Soul:
(Toward the left of the stage; only his head is visible; it is in a yellowish-green aura with red and orange stars. At this moment on Strader's immediate left appears the soul of Capesius. Similarly only his head is to be seen. It is in a blue aura with red and yellow stars.)
I hear a word which sounds and sounds again.
It seems significant, and yet the sound
Doth vanish, and the lust for life doth seize
Its echoed answer. Which road would it take?
The Other Philia:
(Arrayed like a copy of Lucifer, though the radiance is lacking. Instead of the sword she has a kind of #8224, and in place of the planet a red ball like a fruit.) It travels onward in its search for weight
Unto the place where radiant being fades
And misty pictures surge into the deep.
If thou dost keep its meaning in thy realm
I'll bring its power to thee within the mist;
Then thou wilt re-discover it on earth.
Philia:
(Figure like an angel, yellow merging into white, with wings of a bright violet, a lighter shade than Maria has later.—All three soul figures and the Other Philia are near Strader's soul and stand in the centre of the stage.)
The mist-creations I will tend for thee
That they may not when conscious guide thy will;
That will I unto cosmic light entrust
Wherein they form the heat thy nature needs.
Astrid:
(Figure like an angel, robed in bright violet, with blue wings.)
I beam forth clear and wondrous life of stars
To beings, that they may make forms therefrom. They to thine earthly body shall give strength, From knowledge far, but near to heart's intent.
Luna:
(Figure like an angel, robe of blue and red, with orange wings.)
The weighty beings, who with toil create,
In thy sense-body will I later hide;
That thou mayst not in thought turn it to ill
And thus stir up a storm in earthly life.
Strader's Soul:
The three were speaking to me sunshine's words,
They work for me where I can see them work.
Full many figures are they fashioning;
I feel an impulse by soul-power to change
Them with design, and make them one with me.
Awake in me, O royal Solar power
That I may dim thy might by the resistance
Which my desire from the Moon sphere brings.
A golden glow now stirs, I feel its warmth,
And silver sheen, forth-spraying though yet cold;
Awake in me O Mercury again
And wed my severed cosmic self to me.
Well do I feel that once again a part
Is formed from out that picture, which I here
From cosmic spirit forces must create.
Capesius' Soul:
On that far shore of souls I see emerge
A picture that ne'er touched my being yet
Since I escaped the clutch of earthly life,
It rays out grace and soothes with soft appeal.
The warming glow of wisdom streams therefrom,
And clarifying light gives to my soul.
Could I but make this picture one with me
I should attain the end to which I strive.
Yet know I not the power which could avail
To make this picture active in my sphere.
Luna:
That which two earth-lives gave thee thou must feel.
One, many years ago, slid gently by
In earnest effort; later on thou hadst
One by ambition soiled; which must be fed
With strengthening grace descending from the first,
That Jupiter's fire-souls may be revealed
Within the circle of thy spirit-sight.
Then shalt thou feel that wisdom strengthens thee.
Then will the picture, which thou see'st afar
Upon the borders of thy soul's expanse,
Be set at liberty to come to thee.
Capesius' Soul:
I needs must be indebted to the soul
That now prepares for being, since it shows
A warning picture in my soul's expanse.
Astrid:
Thou art indeed but not as yet doth it
Demand a payment in, thy next earth-life.
This picture serves to give thee powers of thought
That thou as man mayst recognize the man
Who shows his earthly future to thee here.
The Other Philia:
The picture may indeed come closer yet
But cannot penetrate thy very self;
And so restrain its longing for thyself,
That thou mayst find thyself on earth again
Ere it can flow into thine inmost self.
Capesius' Soul:
I feel before what I shall owe to it
When I shall will to bring it near to me,
Yet can assert that I am free therefrom.
From Philia's domain I now behold
in picture-sequences the energy
Which I shall gather from its near approach.
Philia:
When Saturn soon his many-coloured light
Shall ray on thee, use well the favour'd hour.
Then through his power in thy soul's vehicle
That which in spirit is akin to thee
Will plant the roots of thought, which will disclose
The meaning of the cyclic life of earth
When thou dost tread again this star thyself.
Capesius' Soul:
Thy counsel shall become my monitor
As soon as Saturn pours his light on me.
Lucifer:
One thing more will I waken in these souls:
The view of worlds whose light will cause them pain,
Ere they can leave this sun-time fortified
With powers for later life upon the earth.
Pain must through doubt mature their fruit in them;
So will I summon up those spheres of soul
Which they have not the strength to look upon.
(The souls of Benedictus and Maria appear in the middle of the region. Benedictus, in dress and in figure, is a microcosmic counterpart of the entire scenic effect. Below, his robe, becoming broader, shades into blue-green; around his head is an aura of red, yellow and blue; the blue blends into the blue-green of the entire robe. Maria on his right is an angelic figure; yellow shading into gold, without feet and with bright violet wings.)
Benedictus' Soul:
Ye do weigh heavy on my cosmic task
With these opaque earth-laden spheres of yours.
If ye will still assert the sense of self
Then wilt ye find that in this spirit-life
Mine own sun-nature will not shine on you.
Maria's Soul:
He was unknown to you, when ye did last
The robes of earthly matter woven, wear;
Yet doth it still bear fruit in your soul-sheath—
The sunshine's word of power, with which he fed
You kindly in far distant times on earth.
Search out your nature's deepest impulses
And ye shall feel him near you then with power.
Felix Balde's Soul:
Words issue out of circles strange to me,
And yet their tones illuminate me not:
And so they are not fully real to me.
Strader's Soul:
On spirit-shores illumination works,
Yet howsoe'er I strive to understand
The sense of these light-forces, they are dumb.
Dame Balde's Soul:
(Figure of a penitent with white coif, like that of a nun; robe yellow-orange, with silver girdle; she appears quite close to Maria; on her right and near Felix Beide.)
Ye souls now summoned up by Lucifer!
The penitent doth hear your voices tone,
But only sunshine's voice doth give him light;
Its super-splendour doth destroy your voice.
The other can behold your starry light,
But starry writing is to him unknown.
Capesius' Soul:
The starry writing! this word wakens thoughts,
And bears them on the waves of soul to me.
Thoughts which in earth-lives in the distant past
Were to my being wondrously revealed.
They lighten still, yet—as they grow, they fade;
Oblivion sheds its gloomy shade around.
The Guardian:
(Enter the Guardian of the Threshold, like an angel, symbolically arrayed, to the side of the souls of Maria and Benedictus.)
Ye souls who now at Lucifer's demand
Have drawn near the bounds of other souls,
In this domain ye are within my power.
The souls whom ye are seeking seek you too.
Within this cosmic age 'tis not ordained
Their beings shall touch yours within their spheres,
Not e'en in thought;—and so do ye beware
Lest to their orbits ye should force your way.
Should ye do this, 'twould harm both them and you.
I should be bound to take away from you
The starry light, and banish you from them
For cosmic ages into other spheres.