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Goethe's Secret Revelation
GA 57

12 March 1909, Berlin

Translator Unknown

IV. The Riddle in Faust: Esoteric

One idea Goethe had for his ‘Faust’ was that at the end of Part II, Act 3, Mephistopheles, who in this Act had worn the mask of Phorkyas, should step in front of the curtain, take off the mask, descend from the Kothurni and deliver a kind of Epilogue. The idea, as the now meaningless stage instruction tells us, was that this Epilogue was to indicate the manner in which the final figure of Faust was to be taken. The words Mephistopheles was to speak as Commentator are not in ‘Faust,’ but they have been preserved on a single sheet among Goethe's literary remains. Through the mouth of Mephistopheles Goethe seeks to tell the public in a not unhumorous way what attitude to adopt towards his Faust. These words are worthy of notice, and in a certain respect to-day's study is to be conducted in their spirit. They refer to Euphorion who was born in some spirit fashion, and jumps and hops about immediately after his birth and utters ‘a tender word.’ In this way these words refer to him:

‘Enough, ye see him, though it is much worse
Than on the British stage, where a small child
Grows step by step to take heroic shape.
Here it is madder still: for, scarce conceived,
He's also born:
He leaps and dances, speaks a tender word.
If many criticize,
There are who think this is not to be taken
So straight and crudely, that there's more behind.
One scents the Mysteries, perhaps withal
Mystifications, Indian and may be
Egyptian; for the man is right who knows
How to squeeze all together, brew it well
And twist and turn in etymology.
We say it also, and the true disciple
Of the newer symbolism will agree.’

Thus all such explanations as rest on a basis of old traditions are to be straightway excluded. On the contrary, an explanation is demanded drawn from the depths of spirit-life. Therefore also Mephistopheles says: ‘We say it also, and the true disciple of the newer symbolism will agree.’ If you read carefully Part II of ‘Faust,’ you will know that Goethe is rich in word-construction in this poem, and that we must not therefore cavil at what appears to be ungrammatical. Here in this sentence is clearly expressed that the man who understands Faust rightly in Goethe's sense, also sees that deeper things lie behind. But everything that rests on study or might lead to a merely symbolic explanation is discouraged. The demand is that the explanation of Faust is to depend on the faithful discipleship which is aware of the spiritual experience which we may call ‘experience in the sense of the new Spiritual Science.’ ‘The true disciple of the newer symbolism’ is the commentator of Faust in Goethe's sense. Thus it is to be done by drawing direct from spirit-life; and Goethe no doubt here betrays that he has put something into it which made it possible for him to get away from old symbols and to coin new and independent symbols out of direct spirit-life. If we want to compare the presentation of the spiritual world in the two parts of ‘Faust,’ we might say that Part I presents to a large extent the fruits of knowledge—the outer influences on one who has dim ideas of the spiritual world, and who tries to enter it through reading all kinds of things and conducting all kinds of experiments. Part I contains this studied view of the supernatural world.

Part II contains experience, living experience, and if you understand rightly, you know that it can derive only from a personality which has learnt to know the reality of the spiritual, supernatural worlds behind the physical world. Truly, Goethe was consistent in his presentation, although some things in Part II are so dissimilar from Part I. What he had learnt in Part I, he experienced in Part II, he has seen it. He was in the spiritual, supernatural world: he indicates this, too, clearly enough, where in Part I he makes Faust say:

‘What says the Sage, now first I recognize:
“The Spirit-world no closures fasten;
Thy sense is shut, thy heart is dead:
Disciple, up! untiring, hasten
To bathe thy breast in morning-red!”‘

Scene I, p. 15.

Goethe can point—from personal knowledge—to what he sees who ‘bathes his breast in morning-red,’ in order to await the rising of the spiritual sun. We find in the whole of Part I—no doubt you realize it from yesterday's discourse—an energetic upward-striving of Faust the student, to this dawn, but we also find clearly indicated that the path is nowhere traversed in a satisfactory way. Now how does Part II begin? Is the advice of the wise man, ‘to bathe the breast in morning-red,’ carried out in one respect?

We find Faust ‘bedded on flowery turf, fatigued, restless, endeavouring to sleep,’ surrounded by spiritual beings. We find him withdrawn from all physical vision, veiled in sleep. Beings from the spiritual world are busy with his spirit, which is withdrawn from the physical world. Marvellously and forcefully we are told what direction Faust's soul takes in order to grow into the spiritual world. Then we are shown how his soul really does grow into that world which is described as the spiritual world in the ‘Prologue in Heaven,’ in Part I. Goethe says from deep experience what was always told the pupil in the School of Pythagoras, that he who enters the spiritual world is met by the secret music of the universe:

‘The sun-orb sings, in emulation,
'Mid brother-spheres, his ancient round:
His path predestined through Creation
He ends with step of thunder-sound.’

This must be the music from the worlds of the spiritual life, if they are to be depicted as they are. What is said here of the ‘music of the spheres’ is not a poetic image, nor a metaphor, but a truth, and Goethe remains consistent to it, in that Faust, withdrawn from the physical world, now proceeds to grow, like an initiate, into that world from which this music comes. Therefore, in the scene where at the beginning of Part II Faust is withdrawn into the spiritual world, it is written again:

‘Hearken! Hark!—The Hours careering
Sounding loud to spirit-hearing.
See the new-born day appearing!
Rocky portals jarring shatter,
PhSbus' wheels in rolling clatter,
With a crash the Light draws near!
Pealing rays and trumpet-blazes—
Eye is blinded, ear amazes:
The Unheard can no one hear!’

Faust II, Act I.

Would that those people who think that they can understand a poem only if they can say ‘Such things must be taken as the poet's images, created by right of poetic licence’—would that they would cease to call these things realistic. The physical sun makes no sound! It is the spiritual sun behind the physical which sounds in the ears of him who is entering the spiritual life. They are spiritual, not physical sounds. In this passage, again, we hear the sounds of thousands of years harmonizing. Unconsciously he who can follow the course of the human spirit through thousands of years will be reminded in this passage of some great words spoken thousands of years ago; words spoken by one who through his initiation knew that what appears to us as the physical sun is the expression of the sun-spirit and the sun-soul, as the physical human body is the expression of the human spirit and the human soul. He looked up to the spiritual sun and called it ‘Ahura Mazdao,’ ‘The great sun-aura.’ We are reminded of Zarathustra, who, looking thus at the sun, and feeling the world full of spirit, spoke the great and powerful words:

‘I want to speak! Listen to me, all ye who from far or near, desire to listen: Mark well, for He will be revealed. No more shall the False Teacher destroy the world—he who has professed evil faiths with his tongue. I shall speak of what is the highest in the world, what He, the Great, Ahura Mazdao, has taught me. Whosoever will not hear His Words, as I speak them, will suffer misery when the Earth-Cycle is fulfilled!’

Before the spiritual sun rises in the soul, the learner must bathe in the dawn which precedes it. Hence the words of the Wise Man: ‘Disciple, up! untiring hasten to bathe thy breast in morning-red!’ Does Faust, the disciple, do this?

After the spiritual beings which surrounded him had been busy with him while his soul was for a time withdrawn from his body, he awakes as a changed man. The soul has entered the body, so that he has a dim idea, or he bathes in the morning-red, of the rising sun of the spirit:

‘Life's pulses now with fresher force awaken
To greet the mild ethereal twilight o'er me;
This night, thou, Earth! hast also stood unshaken,
And now thou breathest new-refreshed before me,
And now beginnest, all thy gladness granting,
A vigorous resolution to restore me,
To see the highest life for which I'm panting.—
The world unfolded lies in twilight glimmer,
A thousand voices in the grove are chanting;
Vale in, vale out, the misty streaks grow dimmer;
The deeps with heavenly light are penetrated;
The boughs, refreshed, lift up their leafy shimmer
From gulfs of air where sleepily they waited;
Colour on colour from the background cleareth,
Where flower and leaf with trembling pearls are freighted,
And all around a Paradise appeareth.’

Faust II, Act I.

Faust now feels also that he has awakened in that world, into which he has been translated during his unconsciousness, and he bathes his earthly breast in the morning-red. But it is only the beginning of the journey. He feels that he is at the gate of initiation, and thereupon he cannot yet bear the direct vision of the spiritual sun:

‘But if there burst from those eternal spaces
A flood of flame, we stand confounded ever;
For Life's pure torch we sought the shining traces,
And seas of fire—and what a fire!—surprise us.’

Wherefore he sees at first the world of the spiritual—but still, as we shall see in a moment, as a symbol.

‘Behind me, therefore, let the sun be glowing!
The cataract, between the crags deep-riven,
I thus behold with rapture ever-growing.
From plunge to plunge in thousand streams't is given,
And yet a thousand, to the valleys shaded
While foam and spray in air are whirled and driven.
Yet how superb, across the tumult braided,
The painted rainbow's changeful life is bending,
Now clearly drawn, dissolving now and faded,
And evermore the showers of dew descending!
Of human striving there's no symbol fuller:
Consider, and 't is easy comprehending—
Life is not light, but the refracted colour.’

Faust II, Act I.

This is Faust bathing his earthly breast in the morning-red, in order to prepare himself to look straight at the spiritual sun, which rises at initiation.

Now Faust is to go into the great world with the gifts he has received as one approaching illumination. It might be thought remarkable that Faust is now transplanted to the Imperial Court, when he is in the midst of all kinds of masques and revels. All the same, these masques and pranks contain deep truths and are everywhere significant. It is not possible to enter upon this significance to-day. It will be in any case the task of this study to bring out only a few moments from the whole content of Part II of ‘Faust’ Many lectures would have to be given, if we wanted to throw light on everything. We shall say only this about the general idea of these Masque scenes: For a man who surveys human life with an enlightened eye, certain words will have a different meaning from what they have in ordinary external life. Such a man, steeping himself in the whole great course of human evolution, knows that such words as ‘Folk spirit’ (Volksgeist), ‘Time-spirit’ (Zeitgeist), are not mere abstractions. He sees in the spiritual world the true and real beings corresponding to what one ordinarily calls abstractly ‘Folk spirit and Time-spirit.’1See Cycle XIII, Mission of the Folk-Souls, by R. Steiner. Thus, since he has the vision, it is made clear to Faust as he enters the great world where decisions affecting the world are made from a Court, that in all these happenings there are supernatural powers at work. Outside in the physical world one can observe only individual people and the laws they have. In the spiritual world there are beings behind all that. Whereas people are under the impression that what they do is prompted by their own souls, and that they make their own resolutions, human acts and human thoughts are really pervaded and permeated by beings from the supernatural world—national spirits, time-spirits, and so on. People think they are free to make resolves, to think and to form ideas, but they are guided by spiritual beings behind the physical world. What men call their understanding, by which they believe they can control the course of time, is the expression of spiritual beings behind. Thus, the whole Masque, which is to have some meaning, becomes for Faust the expression of the fact that one can realize how in the course of world-events a part is played by powers originating in those beings which Faust met already in Part I, originating, in short, in Mephistopheles. Man is surrounded by such spiritual beings, towering above him. Thus Mephistopheles appears at the turn of the modern age as that being which prompts the human intellect to the discovery of paper money. And Goethe presents the whole affair with a certain humour: how the same spirit, the same intellect which in man is bound to the physical instrument of the brain, when inspired by the related spirit which lets nothing count but the physical, gives rise to such phenomena as can control the world—phenomena however which have an importance only for the physical world. In this way the deeper sense of development is indicated precisely in this Masque and mummery. But we are soon led out of the world which lies before us, where we are shown the part played by supernatural powers, and into the really spiritual world.

After it has been made rich, the Court wishes to be amused by the presentation of figures from ancient history. Paris and Helena are to be conjured up from the past. Mephistopheles, who belongs to those powers of the spiritual world which inspired the discovery of paper money, cannot penetrate to the worlds which give rise to the whole deeper development of men. Faust carries in him the soul and spirit which can penetrate these spiritual worlds. For he is the disciple who has bathed the earthly breast in the morning-red, and we are shown how Faust has already experienced something which can be looked upon as the first stage of clairvoyance—the stage completed by the clairvoyant when he has put his soul through the appropriate exercises. There are certain exercises which the student has to perform, in meditation, concentration, and so on, which are set him in occult-scientific symbols, in which he steeps himself, whereby the soul, withdrawing from the physical and etheric body, is transfigured in the night, as it at first becomes clairvoyant in the spiritual world. What is it that the student experiences here, when he has received the effect of those exercises?

The first stage of clairvoyance is something which can bring people to a condition of great confusion. We shall see best why this is if we look at what are sometimes called the ‘dangers of initiation.’

Living in the physical world of the senses, one sees the objects round one in sharp contours, outlined in space, and the human soul makes halt at or attaches itself to these firm outlines, which one finds everywhere, filling the soul when it gives itself to sense-phenomena. Now just imagine for a moment all these objects round you becoming misty, losing their contours, merging into each other, becoming like cloud-pictures. It is something like this in the world into which the clairvoyant enters after the first exercises have taken effect. For he arrives at what is behind the whole sense-world, what lies behind all matter, what gives rise to the sense-world. He arrives at the stage where the spiritual world first approaches him. If you think how, in the mountains, crystals form themselves out of their mother-substances into their shapes and lines, so is it, roughly, when the clairvoyant human being comes into the spiritual world. At first it all appears confusing if the student is not sufficiently prepared. But the figures of the physical world grow out of this chaotic world, like the crystal shapes out of their mother-substance. At first the spiritual world is experienced like the mother-substances of the physical world. Into this realm man enters by the gates of death. The images, indeed, will take on other, fixed shapes, when the clairvoyant is further developed, shapes which are interwoven with those outlines which exist in the spiritual world, and which resound with what we have called in the spiritual sense, the music of the spheres. The clairvoyant experiences this after a time, but at first it is all confusing. Still, into this realm enters man.

Now if the images of Helena and Paris are to be brought up, it must be from this world. Faust alone, who has bathed the earthly breast in the morning-red, and found the entrance to the spiritual world, can step into this world, Mephistopheles cannot. He can achieve only what the world of reason can achieve. He can go as far as the key that opens the spiritual realm. But Faust has the confidence and certainty that he will find there what he seeks: the everlasting, the permanent residue when the physical form of man is dissolved at death into its elements.

Now it is wonderful how we are told the way in which Faust is to descend into the spiritual realm. The introduction already shows us that the man who depicts it is well acquainted with the facts—as well as with the perceptions and feeling which come over anyone who really knows these things and does not merely play at them. It all stood in grand manner before Goethe's soul—all that exists of this world of feeling when the seed for initiation, described yesterday, was opened by a particular event.

He read a passage in Plutarch, where is described how the city of Engyium seeks an alliance with Carthage. Nicias, the friend of the Romans, is to be arrested. But he poses as a man possessed. The pro-Carthaginians want to seize him, but they hear these words from his mouth: ‘The Mothers, the Mothers press hard on me!’ That was a cry which in old times one heard only from a man who was in a condition of clairvoyance and withdrawn from the physical world. Nicias could be regarded either as a fool, as one possessed, or as a clairvoyant. But how could this be known? Because he said what those who had some knowledge of the spiritual world recognized. At the utterance of: ‘It is the Mothers who press hard on me!’ the citizens realize that he is not possessed, but inspired; that he can say something as a real witness which can be learnt in the spiritual world—and so he remains unmolested.

On reading this scene, there is released in Goethe's soul something which had been sown as the kernel of initiation already during his Frankfort period. He knew what it meant to penetrate into the spiritual world. Hence also the words put into the mouth of Faust, when Mephistopheles speaks of the ‘Mothers,’ Faust shudders. He knows what it means—that lie touches on a holy but forbidden kingdom, forbidden, that is, for him who is not sufficiently prepared. Mephistopheles, indeed knows also of this realm, that he may not enter it unprepared. Hence the words: ‘Unwilling I reveal a loftier mystery.’ Still, Faust must descend into this kingdom in order to bring to pass what has to be brought to pass—into this kingdom where one sees what is otherwise firm and solid in transfigurations of eternal being. Here the spiritual sense catches sight behind the physical forms of the sense-world of what penetrates into this sense-world to maintain in it its sharp outlines. And then Mephistopheles says, describing this realm as it appears to all who step into it:

‘Escape from the Created
To shapeless forms in liberated spaces!
Enjoy what long ere this was dissipated!
There whirls the press like clouds on clouds unfolding.’

One cannot depict more vividly a real experience of a man truly initiated. The things ‘long ere this dissipated’ will be found in this world, when it is presented thus. ‘To shapeless forms of liberated spheres,’ i.e., into that realm where the forms of the sense-world are no more, where they do not exist, which is ‘liberated’ from them—there where ‘what long ere this was dissipated’ does exist—into this realm Faust is to betake himself. And when one reads ‘There whirls the press, like clouds on clouds unfolding,’ one recognizes again something which is characteristic in the highest degree. Let us think of the entry into the supernatural world as a gate. Before one enters, the soul has to be prepared by means of worthy symbols. One of these is taken from the appearance of the rising sun, and completes the image of bathing the earthly breast in the morning-red: the sun making a particular triangle round itself. The soul goes through this symbol and experiences its after-effects when it has passed through the gate, when it is within, in the spiritual world. Hence these effects: ‘There whirls the press, like clouds on clouds unfolding.’ Every word would be a living proof of what this scene is meant to be: Faust's penetration to the first stages of the supernatural world, which you find called the ‘imaginative world.’ When Goethe presented this, he was not obliged to compound a picture of the spiritual world from old Indian or Egyptian descriptions; he was able to put down quite realistically what he himself had experienced; and this he did.

Now Faust brings up the ‘glowing tripod,’ round which the Mothers sit, the sources of existence in the spiritual world. With its help Faust is able to conjure up Paris and Helena before men, and to present pictures from the spiritual world. It would lead too far to explain in detail the important symbol of the glowing tripod. We are concerned to show how a kind of initiation is really depicted in Part II of ‘Faust.’ But we see how carefully and correctly Goethe proceeds by the fact that he shows us the way into the spiritual world which he only who is worthy can tread slowly and with resignation. He shows us that Faust is not even yet worthy enough. Only he is worthy to enter the spiritual world who has put off everything that is connected with narrow personality so that no wishes or desires, arising from it, any longer exist. This is apparently to say little, but in truth it is saying a great deal. For usually between what is sought and what is to be achieved by the cancellation of all personal wishes and desires, there lies not only one human life, but many. Goethe shows with the certainty of knowledge that Faust is not yet worthy. Desire awakes in him; he wants to embrace Helena from a personal desire. Whereupon the whole thing collapses—it vanishes. He has committed a sin against the spiritual world. He cannot hold her. He must penetrate further into the spiritual world. And so we see him in the course of Part II going further on his way. We see him after being ‘paralysed by Helena’ again in another state of consciousness, withdrawn from the physical body and fallen into sleep; and how something happens around him which as it were clambers from the sense-world into the supersense-world. What this is shows us nothing other than that Faust, once again withdrawn from the physical world, experiences something which can only with full consciousness be experienced in the supersense-world. What he has now to go through is the complete growth of man. He must go through those mighty events which take place behind the scenes of the stage of the physical world, so that he really can behold what he wants to behold. Helena must be brought back again into the physical world, she must be reincarnated into a new body. When he brings back the merely imaginative image from the spiritual world the whole thing breaks down. He must go deeper. We see him now overcoming a second stage. In this state in which he is put we now see how the consciousness gradually lives upward from the sense-world into the supersense-world. This is done in a poetically masterly way. It is not a case of marvelling at the reality of it, for that is explained simply by the fact that Goethe depicts Part II of ‘Faust’ from his own experience. But the way is masterly in which Goethe represents the secret of Helena's becoming mortal, it is also poetic.

Whoever is acquainted with the elementary truths of Spiritual Science, knows that man, in assuming life on our earth, brings with him an eternal, spiritual part from quite other realms, that this spiritual part is combined below with the physical hereditary line, taken from the physical-sense-world and bequeathed finally by father and mother. On the whole—taking the various parts of man altogether without entering more precisely upon human nature—we may say that in man are combined something eternal and something earthly. The eternal part, going on from life to life, which descends from the spiritual world to be embodied in a physical form—this we call ‘spirit.’ And in order that this spirit can combine with physical matter, there must be an intermediate part, and this in terms of Spiritual Science is the soul. Thus spirit, soul and body are combined in the formation of a human being.

Now Faust with his increased consciousness is to experience how these parts of human nature combine. The spirit descends from spiritual spheres, gradually surrounds itself with the soul which is derived from the psychic world, and then draws the physical covering round itself in accordance with the laws of the physical world. If one knows the principle which attaches itself as ‘soul’ around the spirit, and often called by us the ‘astral body,’ if one knows what is between spirit and body, one has that intermediate member, which as it were binds together spirit and body.

The spirit Faust finds in the realm of the Mothers. He knows already where to look for it, whence it comes, when it betakes itself into a new embodiment. But he has yet to learn how the tie is formed, when the spirit comes into the physical world. And now we are shown in that remarkable scene, how, starting from the sense-world and touching the boundary of the supersense-world, the ‘Homunculus’ is produced in Wagner's laboratory. Mephistopheles himself has a hand in it, and we are told in spirited words that only the conditions of his creation are provided by Wagner. Thus this remarkable figure, the Homunculus comes into being, assisted as it were by the spiritual world. Much thought has been spent on this Homunculus. But thinking and speculating on such things lead nowhere. The problem who he is can be solved only by real creation out of Spiritual Science. To those who spoke of him in the Middle Ages he was no other than a definite form of the astral body.

This scene is not to be pictured in the sphere of sense—but in such a way that it must be thought of as quite removed into the spiritual world. You must follow all the events in Faust's condition of consciousness. The way in which the Homunculus is described in the subsequent scenes shows him to be really the representative of the astral body.

‘He has no lack of qualities ideal
But far too much of palpable and real.’

That is the characteristic of the astral body, and he says of himself:

‘Since I exist, then I must active be.’

an astral figure, which cannot stay still, compelled to live in continuous activity. He must be taken away to those spheres, where he can actually combine spirit and body.

And now we see the creation of man, which Faust experiences, represented to us in the ‘Classical Walpurgis-Night.’ There we are shown the sum of all the powers and beings which are active behind the physical-sense-world, and spirits from the physical world are continually being interspersed, which have trained their souls so far that they have grown together with the spiritual world, and that they are at the same time conscious in the spiritual world. The two great philosophers Anaxagoras and Thales are figures of this kind. The Homunculus wishes to find out from them how one can come to be, how one can proceed to a physical form, when one is spiritual. All the figures which we see in this ‘Classical Walpurgis-Night’ are there to assist—figures of the realization of the astral body which is ready to enter the material, physical world. If one could follow it all exactly, every detail would be a proof of its meaning. The Homunculus seeks information from Proteus and Nereus as to how he can enter the physical world. He is shown how he can wrap himself in the elements of matter, and how the spiritual qualities are in him—viz., how the soul gradually betakes itself into the physical-sense elements—through that which has played its part in the realms of nature kingdoms. We are shown how the soul has to traverse again the states of the mineral, the plant and the animal realms, in order to rise to human shape:

‘On the broad ocean's breast must thou begin!’

that is, in the mineral realm; then you must go through the plant realm. Goethe, indeed, invents an expression for it, which does not otherwise exist. He makes the Homunculus say: ‘Es grunelt so:’2Dictionary: grows green. – Ed.

‘Here breathes and blows a tender air;
And I delight me in the fragrance rare.’

It is pointed out to him what road he has to take till a physical body is formed by degrees round him. Finally comes the moment of love. Eros will complete the whole. Thales gives the advice:

‘Yield to the wish so wisely stated,
And at the source be thou created!
Be ready for the rapid plan!
There, by eternal canons wending,
Through thousand, myriad forms ascending,
Thou shalt attain, in time, to Man.’

Then, when the Homunculus has entered upon the physical world, he loses his qualities, the ego becomes his master!

‘But struggle not to higher orders:
Once Man, within the human borders,
Then all is at an end with thee.’

So says Proteus—i.e., at an end with the astral body which has not yet penetrated into the human realm.

Goethe's whole theory of nature, with its relationship between all life, and its metamorphosic development from the incomplete to the complete appears here in the picture. The spirit can at first be only like a seed in the world. It must pour itself into matter, into the elements, and dive below in them, in order to assume from them a higher form. The Homunculus is shattered on Galatea's shell-chariot. He dissolves into the elements. It is a marvellous presentation of the moment when the astral body has enwrapped itself in a body of physical matter—and can now live as man.

These are experiences Faust goes through while he is in another state of consciousness, a condition outside the body. He is becoming gradually ready to behold the secrets lying behind physical-material existence. And now he is able to behold the spirit of Helena, from the realm of things ‘long ere this dissipated’ appearing in bodily shape before him. We have in Act 3 of Part II the re-embodiment of Helena. Goethe represents the idea of re-incarnation cryptically—as he had to in his day; how spirit, soul and body unite from the three realms, to form a human being—and before us stands the re-incarnated Helena.

We must of course remember that, since he is a poet, Goethe presents in pictorial form the experience of the clairvoyant consciousness. Wherefore we must not rush in with heavy-fisted criticism and ask: ‘Is Helena now really re-incarnated?’ We must keep in mind that a poet is speaking of what he has himself experienced in spiritual worlds.

In this way Faust, after having conquered a new stage of life, is able to experience harmony with what is ‘long ere this dissipated,’ the union with Helena. We see now how a being springs from the union of the human soul with the spiritual when the soul has raised itself up into higher worlds; a child of the spirit, subject not to the laws of the sense-world, but to the laws of the spiritual world: Euphorion. We shall understand what springs from the union of the raised spirit with the sense-world if we remember the previously-quoted passage from the proposed Epilogue of Mephistopheles-Phorkyas at the end of Act III, and if we realize that Goethe has in ‘Euphorion’ put in traits which belong to Byron, whom he much honoured. In doing so he may, after all, apply the laws of the spiritual world to it, since he is concerned with events in the spiritual world. And so Euphorion, though scarce conceived, may be already born and at once jump about and stir himself and say spirited things. Once more we see how strictly and conscientiously Goethe takes the entry into the spiritual world. In his aspiration for supernatural worlds, Faust is far beyond his present experiences. But even so he is not free from those powers from which he must liberate himself, if his soul is to unite completely with the spiritual world. He is not free from what Mephistopheles mixes into these spiritual experiences. Faust is what one calls a mystic, who—in the Helena-Euphorion scene—lives and moves completely in the spiritual world. But because he has not yet scaled the necessary step which makes him capable of being absorbed entirely by the spiritual world, so, once more, what he can experience in it escapes him: viz., Helena and Euphorion. What he had brought by his experience from the spiritual world eludes him yet again. He has become capable of living in the spiritual world, of experiencing Euphorion, the child of the spirit, who springs from the marriage between the human soul and the world-spirit—but it escapes him again and vanishes. Now there sounds from the depths a remarkable call. He is now like a mystic, stumbling for a time, one who has had a glimpse into the spiritual world and knows what it is like, but could not remain, and sees himself suddenly cast out again into the material world: he feels his soul to be the mother of what was born from the spiritual world, but what he has born sinks again into the spiritual world, and it is as if it were to call out to the soul itself:

‘Leave me here, in the gloomy Void,
Mother, not thus alone!’

as if the human soul had to follow into the realm which has once more disappeared. Faust retains nothing more than Helena's robe and veil. The man who goes deeper into the meaning of such things, knows what Goethe meant with the ‘robe and veil;’ it is so exactly what remains when one has once peeped into the spiritual world and has then had to withdraw. There remains with one what is nothing else but the abstraction, the ideas, which stretch from epoch to epoch—nothing else but robe and veil of spiritual powers which endure from age to age.

So the mystic is again thrust out for a time and confined to his thoughts, like the intelligent historian, with everywhere robe and veil which carry him from age to age. These ideas are not unfruitful; for him who is limited to the sense-world, they are very much of a necessity. For him, who has already a feeling and an experience of the spiritual world, they contain another importance. They stand out dry and abstract for the man who in any case is an abstractionist, but the man who has once been touched by the spiritual world—even if he grasps only these abstract ideas—is carried by them through the world into quite another age, in which he can again experience something of the effect of the powers throughout the great world.

Faust is transplanted again into the world he once before experienced at the Court. He sees again how the beings, in whose deeds man is only embedded, play the chief part. He sees again how supernatural threads are spun, and how the same power which he knows as Mephistopheles helps to spin them. So his life passes once more from the sense-world into the super-sense—he learns how powers worm themselves into our sense-world which we see out there in the world of nature, how Mephistopheles leads, as it were, the spirits behind the forces of nature on to the battlefield: ‘Hill-folk,’ he calls them. The powers behind the material world are represented as if the hills themselves bring their people into the war. But here is a life that stands on a subordinate plane. This participation of a world that lies below the realm of man, though directed by spiritual forces, is here plainly depicted. There follows, grandly shown, the description of the part played by the historical forces, which are real forces for the spiritual spectator. Out of the old armouries and storerooms where lie the old helmets, come those beings of whom the abstractionist would say they are ‘historical ideas’—of whom, however, he who can look into it knows that they live in the spiritual world. And we see how Faust in his higher state of consciousness is led to the great powers in history, we see these powers of history arise and being led into the field. Faust's consciousness is to be raised still higher. The whole world must appear to him spiritualized—all the events we see around us, which the ordinary abstractionist describes only with his understanding, for being limited to a physical brain, he imagines he has done everything when he describes the externals. But all this is connected, and is guided and directed by supernatural beings and forces.

When man's life is carried in this way to spiritual heights, he discovers the whole might of that which is to drag him down again into the material world. He gets to know in a remarkable manner him whom he has not quite got to know before. So it is now with Faust. He stands now at an important point in his inner development: he has to complete the journey: Mephistopheles is involved in everything he has seen up to now. He can be free from Mephistopheles—from those spiritual forces which bind man to the sense-world, and try to prevent his liberation—only when he accosts Mephistopheles as the Tempter. There where the world with its realms, nature and history with its spirituality confront Faust, he experiences something in which the man who understands these things can without difficulty recognize from what depths Goethe spoke. The ‘Tempter,’ who would drag man down when he has risen a certain way into the spiritual world, comes to man and tries to give him false feelings and sensations concerning what he sees in the supernatural world. The approach of the Tempter to man is presented in the grand manner. He is the same who came to the Christ and promised him all the kingdoms of the world and their glories.

Something like this happens to the man who has entered into the spiritual world. He is promised by the Tempter the world with all its glories.

What does this mean? Nothing else than that he may not believe that anything of this world could still belong to his narrow egoism. That all personality with its egoistic wishes and desires must be thrust away, that the ‘Tempter’ must be overcome, Goethe points out through Mephistopheles in such a way that it may be a touchstone for us of what his meaning is:

‘Yet now, with sober season to address thee,
Did nothing on our outside shell impress thee?
From this exceeding height thou saw'st unfurled
The glory of the Kingdoms of the World.’

(Matt. 4.)

One might say that Goethe points out with these words, more than clearly enough for those who refuse to understand, what he really intends, in order to represent also this important stage in the spiritual growth of man. Then Faust succeeds in so far overcoming the egoism of persona! wish and desire, that he dedicates all his activity to that piece of land with which he has been enfeoffed. He does not desire possession of this land—he does not desire fame—nothing of all that—he wants only to devote himself to work for other people:

‘Stand on free soil among a people free!’

We must take these words to mean that personal egoism gradually departs from the human soul. For no one who has not overcome this personal egoism, can really reach the last stage, which Goethe still wants to depict. So he shows Faust at the point where the garments of human personal egoism fall away like scales, where Faust gives himself absolutely to the spiritual, where in fact all the frippery of fame and external honours in the world are nothing more to him. But one thing Faust has not even yet overcome. And again we see from a spiritual point of view deep, deep into Goethe's heart, as he now describes what happens next.

Faust has become a selfless man up to a point. He has learnt what it means to say: ‘The act is all, the glory is nothing.’ He has learnt to say: ‘I desire to be active. My activity must flow out into the world—I will have nothing as reward for this activity!’ But in one small incident it is revealed that his egoism has not completely disappeared. On his wide territories there stands an old cottage on rising ground, in which lives an old couple, Philemon and Baucis. In all things Faust's egoism has disappeared, except with regard to this cottage. Here there is a last remnant of egoism which speaks in his soul. What he could do with this rising ground! He could stand up there and survey at a glance the fruits of his labour—and rejoice at what he had accomplished! That is a last bit of egoism, the enjoyment in a physical survey. Gratification in a commanding material view, that remains to him still. He must get beyond. Nothing of desire and comfort, i.e., of direct surrender to the outer world, with which egoism is connected, may remain in his soul. And once more we see Faust in touch with spiritual forces. In the ‘Midnight’ scene, enter four Grey Women. They come up near to him. Three of them, Want, Guilt and Necessity cannot do anything to him, but now something emerges which belongs to the experiences of the Way of Initiation. Along the Way of Initiation there is a secret connection between all that a man's egoism can make him do and that attitude of soul which is expressed by the word ‘Care.’ In that man who is far enough to look selflessly into the spiritual world, there is no care. Care is the companion of egoisms. And as little as some can perhaps believe that when Care is present, egoism has not disappeared, so true is it that on the long, self-denying path into the spiritual world, egoism must completely vanish. If man steps into the spiritual world and brings with him into it any trace of egoism, Care comes and reveals itself as a disturbing power. Here we have something of the dangers of initiation. In the material world, the kindly powers of the spiritual world take care to see that the power of Care cannot thus come near human beings. But the moment they grow together with the spiritual world, and learn to know powers which are at play there, such things as Care become disturbing forces. Some things may have been overcome by means of the keys which lead into the spiritual world, but Care slips through all key-holes. To be sure, if man is far enough, and faces Care bravely, Care becomes a power that can remove from him this last remnant of egoism. Faust goes blind. Why? He goes blind because the power of the last bit of egoism remaining in him is cancelled by the power of Care. The last possibility of personal enjoyment is removed. It gets darker and darker all round. Now his soul feels the last remnant of egoism when he has ordered the cottage to be pulled down, from whose site the selfish pleasure of satisfaction in his work could have been derived.

‘But in my inmost spirit all is light!’

Now Faust's soul belongs to that world over which Care and all the disturbing elements which vex the body have no power, and he experiences what those about to be initiated into the spiritual world experience. He takes part as an outside observer, in events which he does not experience in the physical world, his own death and burial. He looks down from the spiritual world upon the physical world and upon all that happens to him as if it were another. The events concern now only those powers which are in the physical world.

It would take us far to explain how Goethe now makes the ‘Lemures’ appear, which consist only of sinews and bones, so that they have no soul; they represent man at the stage before he has received a soul. But Faust himself is carried into the spiritual world. We see Mephistopheles fighting a last battle for Faust's soul—a significant and remarkable battle. If one were to divide this battle up into its details one would see what a deep knowledge of the spiritual world Goethe had.

There lies the dying Faust. Mephistopheles fights for the soul. He knows that this soul can leave the body at several places. Here there is much to be learnt by those who read in one or other handbook how the soul leaves the body. Goethe is further. He knows that it is not always the same place, but that the soul's departure from the body in death depends entirely on the state of development of the person. He knows that the soul, while in the body, receives a shape corresponding to the body only because of the elastic power of love. Mephistopheles believes Faust's soul to be ready for the Kingdom of darkness. In that case it could have only the shape he describes as a ‘hideous worm.’ When a soul has given itself to its own powers, it can have only a shape expressing its virtues or vices. If Faust's soul were ripe for the Kingdom of darkness, its shape would have been as Mephistopheles thought. But now it is developed and is carried away, because its virtues are such as correspond to the spiritual world and spiritual worlds take possession of it.

Next we meet those people who are, so to speak, the connecting units between the physical and the spiritual world, who stand as initiates in the physical world and range with their spirit into the spiritual world: supernatural men of experience and observers—so they are introduced to us. Goethe tells in his poem that he has inscribed as ‘Symbolum’ how two voices resound out of the spiritual world:

‘Still call from beyond
The voices of spirits,
The voices of masters:
To exercise fail not
The powers of goodness.’

Here also Goethe is consistent with his knowledge. He represents the spirits which are not incarnate in the material world. But first he represents those to whom the name ‘Masters’ is often applied, who are incarnate in the material world. He represents them in the garb which was the handiest in his day, as ‘Pater Ecstaticus,’ ‘Pater Seraphicus,’ and ‘Pater Profundus.’ Concerning this he said to Eckermann: ‘In any case you will allow that the ending, where the rescued soul rises to heaven, was very difficult to do, and that I might have easily lost myself in vagueness with such supernatural, scarcely guessable things, unless I gave my poetic intentions a delimiting form and firmness by means of the sharply-outlined, ecclesiastical figures and ideas.’

Whoever heard here the lectures on ‘Christian Initiation’ will recognize again to what extent Goethe was initiated into those things.

Thus Faust's soul rises through the regions, through which those souls have passed which have grown accustomed to the spiritual world and are active in it, and assist in bringing other souls into it. And then we see how Goethe lays down, so to speak, his ‘credo’—that ‘credo’ which marks him as a member of that spiritual-scientific stream, which has also so often been spoken of here, especially in the lecture ‘Where and how does one find the Spirit’315th October, 1908, Berlin. in which an example was given of how man ‘lives’ himself into the spiritual world. There was mentioned the ‘black Cross with the red roses.’ Powers are awakened in the soul when man yields himself to this ‘Cross of roses,’ which represents in the black cross the sinking down of the sense world and in the red roses the blossoming up of the spiritual world. It represents what the abstract words say:

‘And until thou this thing hast,
This death and birth,
Thou art but a sorry guest
On the dark earth.’

What man attains through spiritual understanding, through the power of the red roses, Goethe was well aware, and he confesses it: the red roses fall down from the spiritual world, as the immortal part of Faust is taken up. And so we see how Goethe really shows us the path of the human soul into the spiritual world.

Some things could be presented only sketchily. For there is something peculiar about this ‘Faust’ of Goethe: it becomes deeper and even deeper, the more one grows into it, and only then one learns what Goethe can become for humanity. One learns to recognize what he will one day become, if Spiritual Science or Anthroposophy will illuminate Goethe's esoteric poetry, where he speaks of the spiritual world from his own experiences. Goethe depicts realistically what he knows to be facts of the spiritual world. This second Part of Faust is a realistic Poem—closed of course to those who do not know that the spiritual worlds are realities.4See Rudolf Steiner's Spiritual Scientific Elucidation of Goethe's Faust, Vols. I and II, in course of translation (1933). What we have are not ‘symbols,’ but only a poetic clothing up of quite realistic, albeit supernatural events, such as the soul experiences when it becomes one with the world that is its original home; when it feels itself possessed, not of knowledge which is only an abstraction, a growing together with sense observation or abstract understanding, but of knowledge which is a real fact of the spiritual world. Certainly one will for a long time yet be far from an understanding of Goethe's ‘Faust;’ for one will first have to learn the language of ‘Faust’ if one wants to get inside it. One can take up commentary after commentary: not only once are the words explained by otherwise quite clever people. As Wagner sees the ‘Homunculus’ sprouting in the retort, he says—(you can read in commentaries what his words are supposed to mean):

‘'Twill be! the mass is working clearer!
Conviction5Uberzeugung. gathers, truer, nearer!’

I say it as wrongly as all those since Goethe have said, who make it mean that Wagner has the conviction that the Homunculus will come into being: ‘The conviction in Wagner is working clearer!’ And the explainers of ‘Faust’ imagine they can ladle out the whole of its depth with such trivialities! Certainly our age, which has also another word coined by Goethe in its mouth, viz. ‘superman,’ without grasping its deeper meaning, could not explain these words otherwise. Their true meaning, however, is this: that which is conceived in the physical world is a ‘conception’ (‘Zeugung ‘); that which is conceived here in the astral world is a ‘super-conception,’ (Uberzeugung—conviction). One has first to learn how to read Goethe, when like all great minds, he makes his own words. Then one will be able to measure the whole earnestness, out of which the Faust arose. Then one will, above all, not commit the triviality of understanding the final words of Faust to mean by ‘eternal-feminine,’ something which has to do with the feminine in the sense-world.

The ‘eternal-feminine’ is that power in the soul which lets itself be fertilized by the spiritual world, and thereby grows together in its clairvoyant and magical deeds with the spiritual world. What can be fertilized there is this ‘eternal-feminine’ in every human being, which draws him up to the spheres of the eternal; and Goethe has depicted in Faust this course of growth of the eternal feminine into spiritual worlds.

Look round in the physical world: we really see everything properly for the first time, when we see in it, not the true reality, but a symbol of eternity. This eternity is experienced by the soul when it passes the gates into the spiritual world. There it experiences what can be explained in matter-of-fact sense terms, if they are used in a quite special way. On this point Goethe has also expressed himself—and as a great warning for all who of set opinion insist in abstractions concerning something or other. In two successive poems Goethe has expressed, like a great exhortation to mankind, that when someone speaks of a thing in the spiritual world, he can express it in diametrically opposite views. In the first poem he says:

‘The eternal must persist through all:
For into nothing all must fall
If it insists in being.’

While he here gives utterance to the thought of his ‘eternal flux’ philosophy, he says immediately afterwards in the next poem:

‘No being can to nothing fall,
Eternity persists in all,
Rejoice in that thou art.’

While the opposite thoughts of the sense-world are used as the contrasted reflexions of the super-sense world, the latter cannot be described in terms of the former. Material words are always insufficient when used in a special sense.

So we see how Goethe, while representing the ‘indescribable’ from the most diverse sides, causes it to be done before the eyes of the spirit. What is ‘unattainable’ for the material world is within the reach of spiritual vision, if the soul schools itself in that part which can be developed by means of the powers which Spiritual Science can give it. It is not for nothing that Goethe makes that work in which he has exposed the most exquisite and richest of his experiences, ring forth in a ‘Chorus Mysticus,’ which of course must contain nothing trivial. For in this Chorus Mysticus he points out to us how that which is indescribable in material words is done, when the language of imagery is used: how the soul, by means of the eternal womanhood in it is drawn into the spiritual world.

‘All things transitory
But as symbols are sent:
Earth's insufficiency
There grows to Event:
The Indescribable,
Here it is done:
The Woman-Soul6Ewig-Weibliche; the Eternal Feminine. leadeth us
Upward and on!’

In such words could Goethe speak of the way to the spiritual world. In such words could he speak of the powers of the soul, which when developed, lead mankind step by step into the spiritual world.

Die Rätsel in Goethes «Faust» Esoterisch

In einer der Fassungen, die Goethe seinem «Faust» geben wollte, sollte im zweiten Teile, am Ende des dritten Aktes, Mephistopheles, der in diesem Akte die Maske der Phorkyas getragen hat, vor die Rampe treten, die Maske fallen lassen, von den Kothurnen herunter treten und eine Art Epilog sprechen. Es war gedacht, wie uns die szenische Bemerkung sagt, die jetzt ohne Sinn geblieben ist, daß in diesem Epilog hingedeutet werden sollte auf die Art und Weise, wie die letzte Gestalt des Faust aufzufassen ist. Die Worte, welche da Mephistopheles gleichsam als Kommentator sprechen sollte, stehen nicht im «Faust»; sie sind aber auf einem Blatt in Goethes Nachlaß erhalten geblieben. In einer gewissen humorvollen Weise sucht da Goethe durch den Mund des Mephistopheles darauf hinzuweisen, wie sich eigentlich das Publikum zu seinem «Faust» stellen sollte.

Diese Worte sind bemerkenswert, und in einer gewissen Beziehung soll die heutige Betrachtung in ihrem Geist gehalten werden. Sie knüpfen an den Euphorion an, der auf eine geisterhafte Art geboren worden ist, gleich nach seiner Geburt springt und hüpft und «ein zierlich Wort» sagt. Und so knüpfen diese Worte an:

Genug, ihr seht ihn, ob es gleich viel schlimmer ist
Als auf der britischen Bühne, wo ein kleines Kind
Sich nach und nach herauf zum Helden wächst.
Hier is’s noch toller: kaum ist er gezeugt, so ist er auch geboren,
Er springt und tanzt und ficht schon! Tadeln viele das,
So denken andere, dies sei nicht so grad
Und gröblich zu verstehen, dahinter stecke was.
Man wittert wohl Mysterien, vielleicht wohl gar
Mystifikationen, Indisches und auch
Ägyptisches, und wer das recht zusammenkneipt,
Zusammenbraut, etymologisch hin und her
Sich zu bewegen Lust hat, ist der rechte Mann.
Wir sagen’s auch, und unseres tiefen Sinnes wird
Der neueren Symbolik treuer Schüler sein.

Also alle solche Erklärung, welche auf Grundlage alter Überlieferung baut, wird, man darf sagen, schlankweg abgewiesen. Dagegen wird eine Erklärung aus den Tiefen des Geisteslebens gerade gefordert. Daher spricht Mephistopheles auch: «Wir sagen’s auch, und unseres tiefen Sinnes wird der neueren Symbolik treuer Schüler sein.»

Wer sich hineinliest in den zweiten Teil des «Faust», der ! wird wissen, daß Goethe an Wortbildungen in dieser Dichtung reich ist, und daß wir uns daher nicht stoßen dürfen an dem, was scheinbar der Grammatik widerspricht. Hier in diesem Satz ist ausdrücklich ausgesprochen, daß derjenige, der den «Faust» recht im Sinne Goethes versteht, auch sieht, daß Tieferes dahinterliegt. Aber abgewiesen wird zugleich alles, was auf Studieren beruht und was zu irgendeiner bloß symbolischen und dergleichen Auslegung führen könnte. Es wird gefordert, daß die Auslegung des «Faust» leisten solle jene treue Schülerschaft, die ein solches Erleben des Geistigen kennt, das wir nennen können das Erleben im Sinne der neueren Geisteswissenschaft. «Unseres tiefen Sinnes», «der neueren Symbolik treuer Schüler» soll derjenige sein, der im Sinne Goethes den «Faust» kommentiert. Also aus dem unmittelbaren Geistesleben heraus soll das geschöpft sein, und Goethe verrät wohl hier, daß er etwas hineingelegt hat, was es ihm ermöglichte, sich nicht wieder an alte Symbole zu halten, sondern neue, selbständige Symbole aus dem unmittelbaren Geistesleben heraus zu prägen. Wenn man den ersten Teil des «Faust» mit dem zweiten Teil vergleichen will in bezug auf die Darstellung der geistigen Welt, so darf man wohl sagen, daß der erste Teil zum großen Teil Erlerntes darstellt, das, was von außen herandringen kann an den, der Ahnungen hat von der geistigen Welt, der sich aber durch allerlei Lektüre, durch allerlei Operationen in die geistige Welt hineinversetzen will. Erlerntes in bezug auf die übersinnliche Welt enthält der erste Teil des «Faust».

Der zweite Teil enthält Erlebtes, durchaus Erlebtes, und wer es versteht, der weiß, daß es nur herrühren kann von einer Persönlichkeit, welche die Realität der geistigen übersinnlichen Welten, die hinter der physischen Welt sind, kennengelernt hat. Wahrhaftig, Goethe ist sozusagen im Faden der Darstellung geblieben, trotzdem manches im zweiten Teil so unähnlich sieht dem ersten Teil. Was er da erlernt hat, das hat er im zweiten Teil erlebt, das hat er geschaut. Er war drinnen in den geistigen, in den übersinnlichen Welten. Er deutet das auch genügend an in dem, was er im ersten Teil den Faust sprechen läßt: Ich sehe aus meiner Ahnung heraus, daß es wahr ist, was der Weise spricht:

Die Geisterwelt ist nicht verschlossen;
Dein Sinn ist zu, dein Herz ist tot!
Auf, bade, Schüler, unverdrossen
Die irdsche Brust im Morgenrot!

Darauf kann Goethe hinweisen, da wo er selbst mitteilen kann — was derjenige schaut, der «die irdsche Brust im Morgenrotbadet», um zu warten auf die aufgehende Geistessonne. Im ganzen ersten Teil finden wir — das mag wohl aus den gestrigen Darlegungen hervorgegangen sein — zwar ein energisches Hinaufstreben des Schülers Faust in dieses Morgenrot, aber wir finden auch klar und deutlich angedeutet, daß der Weg nirgends in einer befriedigenden Weise durchmessen ist.

Wie beginnt nun der zweite Teil? Ist die Weisung des Weisen «die irdische Brust im Morgenrot zu baden» erfüllt in einer Beziehung? Wir finden Faust «auf blumigen Rasen gebettet, ermüdet, unruhig, schlafsuchend», umspielt von Wesen der geistigen Welt. Wir finden, daß er entrückt ist aller Sinnesanschauung, in Schlaf gehüllt. Mit seinem Geiste, der aus der physischen Welt entrückt ist, beschäftigen sich Wesenheiten der geistigen Welt. Großartig und gewaltig wird uns angedeutet, welchen Gang des Faust Seele nimmt, um hineinzuwachsen in die geistige Welt. Und dann wird uns gezeigt, wie des Faust Seele wirklich selber hinein. wächst in die Welt, die uns angedeutet ist als die geistige Welt im «Prolog im Himmel» im ersten Teil. Goethe sagt aus tiefer Erfahrung heraus das, was immer dem Schüler in den Pythagoräerschulen gesagt worden ist, daß dem eine geheimnisvolle Weltenmusik entgegendringt, der in die geistige Welt eintritt.

Die Sonne tönt nach alter Weise
In Brudersphären Wettgesang,
Und ihre vorgeschriebne Reise
Vollendet sie mit Donnergang.

So muß es herausklingen aus den Welten des geistigen Lebens, wenn diese sachgemäß geschildert werden. Nicht ein poetisches Bild, nicht eine Metapher ist es, was da von der Sphärenmusik gesagt wird, sondern eine Wahrheit; und Goethe bleibt bei dieser Wahrheit, da Faust jetzt selbst, dem physischen Dasein entrückt, wie ein Eingeweihter hineinwächst in die Welt, aus der es so heraustönt. Daher heißt es in der Szene, wo am Beginn des zweiten Teiles Faust in die geistige Welt entrückt wird:

Tönend wird für Geistesohren
Schon der neue Tag geboren.
Felsentore knarren rasselnd,
Phöbus Räder rollen prasselnd;
Welch Getöse bringt das Licht!
Es trommetet, es posaunet,
Auge blinzt und Ohr erstaunet,
Unerhörtes hört sich nicht.

Mögen diejenigen, welche glauben, eine Dichtung nur dann zu verstehen, wenn sie sagen können, man solle solcheDinge des Dichters hinnehmen als seine Bilder, die er in dichterischer Freiheit schaff}, mögen sie es ablehnen, diese Dinge realistisch zu nennen. Die physische Sonne tönt nicht! Die geistige Sonne, die hinter der physischen steht, ist es, aus welcher der sich in die geistige Welt Einlebende Töne hört, allerdings geistige, nicht physische Töne. Und auch hier hören wir wiederum, wie die Töne von Jahrtausenden zusammenklingen. Unwillkürlich wird, wer den Gang des menschlichen Geistes durch die Jahrtausende zu verfolgen vermag, bei der Stelle der «tönenden Sonne» erinnert an große Worte, die vor Jahrtausenden einmal gesprochen worden sind, Worte, die einer gesprochen hat, der durch seine Einweihung wußte, daß das, was uns als die physische Sonne erscheint, der Ausdruck ist des Sonnengeistes und der Sonnenseele, so wie der physische Menschenleib der Ausdruck ist des Menschengeistes und der Menschenseele, und der da hinaufgeschaut hat zur geistigen Sonne und sie die große Sonnen-Aura, Ahura Mazdao, nannte, An Zarathustra werden wir erinnert, der, als er die Sonne so geschaut hatte, als ihm die Welt so durchgeistigt war, die großen, gewaltigen Worte sprach:

Ich will reden! Hört mir zu, ihr, die ihr von fern, ihr, die ihr von nah darnach Verlangen tragt! Merket alles genau, denn Er wird offenbar sein! Nicht mehr soll der Irrlehrer die Welt verderben, er, der schlechten Glauben mit seiner Zunge bekannt hat. Ich will reden von dem, was in der Welt das Höchste ist, was Er mich gelehrt hat, der Große, Ahura Mazdao. Wer nicht hören will seine Worte, wie ich sie sage, der wird Elendigliches erfahren, wenn der Erdenzyklus erfüllt sein wird!

Bevor die geistige Sonne in der Seele aufgeht, muß der Schüler baden im Morgenrot, das vorangeht. Daher spricht der Weise: «Auf, bade, Schüler, unverdrossen die irdsche Brust im Morgenrot!»

Tut das der Schüler Faust?

Nachdem die geistigen Wesenheiten ihn umspielt und sich mit ihm beschäftigt hatten, während seine Seele eine Zeitlang entrückt war dem Leibe, da wacht er auf als ein Gewandelter. Die Seele ist hineingerückt in den Leib, so daß er ahnt, badend im Morgenrot, die aufgehende Sonne des Geistes:

Des Lebens Pulse schlagen frisch lebendig,
Ätherische Dämmerung milde zu begrüßen;
Du, Erde, warst auch diese Nacht beständig
Und atmest neu erquickt zu meinen Füßen,
Beginnest schon mit Lust mich zu umgeben,
Du regst und rührst ein kräftiges Beschließen,
Zum höchsten Dasein immer fortzustreben. —
In Dämmerschein liegt schon die Welt erschlossen,
Der Wald ertönt von tausendstimmigem Leben,
Tal aus, Tal ein ist Nebelstreif ergossen;
Doc senkt sich Hiimmelsklarheit in die Tiefen,
Und Zweig und Äste, frisch erquickt, entsprossen
Dem duftgen Abgrund, wo versenkt sie schliefen;
Auch Farb an Farbe klärt sich los vom Grunde,
Wo Blum und Blatt von Zitterperle triefen,
Ein Paradies wird um mich her die Runde.

Faust fühlt sich nun auch erwacht in derjenigen Welt, in die er hineinversetzt worden ist während der Entrückung, und er badet die irdische Brust im Morgenrot. Aber es ist erst der Anfang des Weges. Er fühlt sich beim Tor der Initiation. Daher verträgt er noch nicht das, was da scheint, wenn das geistige Auge direkt der geistigen Sonne ausgesetzt wird:

Nun aber bricht aus jenen ewigen Gründen
Ein Flammenübermaß, wir stehn betroffen;
Des Lebens Fackel wollten wir entzünden,
Ein Feuermeer umschlingt uns, welch ein Feuer!

Daher sieht er zunächst die Welt des Geistigen, aber doch, wie wir gleich sehen werden, als ein Gleichnis.

So bleibe denn die Sonne mir im Rücken!
Der Wassersturz, das Felsenriff durchbrausend,
Ihn schau ich an mit wachsendem Entzücken.
Von Sturz zu Sturzen wälzt er jetzt in tausend,
Dann abertausend Strömen sich ergießend,
Hoch in die Lüfte Schaum an Schäume sausend.
Allein wie herrlich diesem Sturm ersprießend,
Wölbt sich des bunten Bogens Wechseldauer,
Bald rein gezeichnet, bald in Luft zerfließend,
Umher verbreitend duftig kühle Schauer.
Der spiegelt ab das menschliche Bestreben.
Ihm sinne nach, und du begreifst genauer:
Am farbigen Abglanz haben wir das Leben.

Das ist Faust, der die irdische Brust im Morgenrot badet, um sich reif zu machen, der geistigen Sonne ins Auge zu schauen, die bei der Einweihung aufgeht.

Nun soll Faust mit den Gaben, die er als ein geistiger, in die Erleuchtung gehender Mensch erhalten hat, in die große Welt versetzt werden. Man könnte es merkwürdig finden, daß Faust jetzt versetzt wird an den Kaiserhof, daß allerlei Masken und Scherze ihn umspielen. Dennoch, diese Masken und Scherze enthalten tiefe, tiefe Wahrheiten und sind überall bedeutungsvoll. Es ist nicht möglich, gerade heute in die Bedeutung dieses Maskenspieles einzudringen. Es wird ja ohnedies das Schicksal dieser Betrachtung sein, nur einzelne Momente aus dem ganzen Inhalt des zweiten Teiles des «Faust» herauszugreifen. Man müßte sonst viele Vorträge halten, wenn man in alles hineinleuchten wollte. Nur das ist aber zu sagen über den Gesamtinhalt dieser Maskenbilder: Für denjenigen Menschen, der mit erleuchtetem Blick das Menschenleben überschaut, werden gewisse Worte andere Bedeutung erhalten als sie sonst im äußeren, nüchternen Leben haben. Ein solcher Mensch, der sich hineinlebt in den ganzen großen Gang der Menschheitsentwickelung, der weiß, daß solche Worte wie Volksgeist, Zeitgeist, nicht bloße Abstraktionen sind. Er schaut in der geistigen Welt die wahren realen Wesenheiten, die dem entsprechen, was man sonst so abstrakt Volksgeist und Zeitgeist nennt.

So wird dem Faust, da er erleuchtet ist, klar, als er eintritt in die große Welt, wo von einem Hof aus Weltgeschicke bestimmt werden, daß in dem, was sich ereignet, übersinnliche Kräfte spielen. Außen in der. sinnlichen Welt kann man nur einzelne Menschen und das, was sie als Gesetze haben, beobachten. In der geistigen Welt liegen dem allem Wesenheiten zugrunde. Während die Menschen glauben, daß dasjenige, was sie tun, aus ihrer eigenen Seele kommt, daß sie ihre eigenen Entschlüsse fassen, durchpulsen und durchdringen die Taten der Menschen, die Gedanken der Menschen Wesenheiten aus der übersinnlichen Welt, Volksgeister, Zeitgeister und so weiter. Die Menschen glauben, frei zu sein in ihren Entschlüssen, Gedanken und Begriffen, aber sie werden geleitet von dem, was hinter der physisch-sinnlichen Welt als geistige Wesenheiten vorhanden ist. Was die Menschen ihren eigenen Verstand nennen, von dem sie glauben, daß durch ihn der Gang der Zeiten gelenkt wird, das ist zu gleicher Zeit der Ausdruck für dahinterstehende geistige Wesenheiten.

So wird für Faust das ganze Maskenspiel, das etwas bedeuten soll, der Ausdruck dafür, daß man erkennen kann, wie in den Gang der großen Weltereignisse Kräfte hineinspielen, herkommend von derlei Wesenheiten, die Faust schon im ersten Teil kennenlernte, herkommend von Mephistopheles. Eingefaßt sind die Menschen von solchen sie überragenden geistigen Wesenheiten. So erscheint denn Mephistopheles an der Wende der neueren Zeit als diejenige Wesenheit, die dem menschlichen Intellekt die Erfindung des Papiergeldes einbläst. Goethe stellt den ganzen Gang der Sache mit einem gewissen überragenden Humor dar: wie aus demselben Geist, aus demselben Intellekt, der sich beim Menschen nur an das physische Instrument des Gehirns bindet, wenn er inspiriert wird von dem ihm verwandten Geist, der nur das Sinnliche gelten lassen will, solche Erscheinungen hervorgehen, welche die Welt beherrschen, die aber nur für die sinnliche Welt eine Bedeutung haben. So wird auf den tieferen Sinn der Entwickelung gerade in diesem Masken-Mummenscherz hingedeutet.

Im weiteren werden wir aber gleich aus der Welt, die vor uns liegt, und von der uns gezeigt wird, wie übersinnliche Kräfte da hineinspielen, hineingeführt in die wirklich geistige Welt. Der Hof wünscht, nachdem er reich gemacht worden ist, auch in der Weise amüsiert zu werden, daß ihm Gestalten aus längstvergangener Zeit vorgeführt werden. Paris und Helena sollen aus der Vergangenheit heraufgezaubert werden. Mephistopheles, der denjenigen Mächten der geistigen Welt angehört, welche dieErfindung des Papiergeldes inspirierten, er kann dahin nicht dringen, wo die Welten sind, aus denen die ganze tiefere menschliche Entwickelung hervorgeht. Faust trägt in sich die Seele und den Geist, die eindringen können in diese geistigen Welten. Denn Faust ist der Schüler, der die irdische Brust im Morgenrot gebadet hat, und es wird uns gezeigt, wie Faust schon etwas erlebt hat, was man als die erste Stufe der Hellsichtigkeit betrachten kann, die Stufe, die der Hellseher durchmacht, wenn er die entsprechenden Übungen auf seine Seele hat wirken lassen. Es sind da gewisse Übungen, die der Schüler durchzumachen hat in Meditation, Konzentration und so weiter, die ihm aufgegeben werden in geheimwissenschaftlichen Symbolen, in die er sich vertieft, und wodurch dann die Seele, wenn sie hinausrückt aus dem physischen Leib und Ätherleib, umgestaltet wird in der Nacht, so daß sie zunächst hellsichtig wird in der geistigen Welt. Was der Schüler da erlebt, wenn er diese Übungen hat auf sich wirken lassen, was ist das?

Die erste Stufe der Hellsichtigkeit ist etwas, was zunächst den Menschen in große Verwirrung bringen kann. Wir machen uns am besten klar, woher das kommen kann, wenn wir uns vor Augen halten, was manchmal auch als die «Gefahren der Einweihung» geschildert wird. Wer in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt lebt, sieht die Dinge um sich herum in scharfen Konturen. Im Raume gezeichnet stellen sich ihm die Dinge dar, und an den festen Konturen, die Sie überall finden, mit denen sich Ihre Seele erfüllt, wenn sie der sinnlichen Erscheinung sich hingibt, hat die menschliche Seele einen Halt. Denken Sie einmal für einen Augenblick, alle die Gegenstände, die um Sie herum wären, würden nebelhaft, verlören ihre Konturen, eines dringe in das andere ein, alles ziehe wie Wolkengebilde herum, metamorphosiere sich. So ungefähr ist es in der Welt, in die der hellsichtige Mensch nach den ersten Wirkungen der Übungen eindringt. Denn er kommt zu dem, was hinter der ganzen Sinneswelt ist, was aller Materie zugrunde liegt, woraus aber die Sinneswelt herausgeboren ist, er kommt zu der Stufe, wo ihm die geistige Welt zuerst entgegentritt. Denken Sie sich, etwa wie im Gebirge die Kristalle sich herausgestalten aus ihren Muttersubstanzen zu ihren Kristallformen und kristallinischen Linien, so etwa ist es, wenn der hellsichtige Mensch hineinkommt in die geistige Welt. Zunächst verwirrend erscheint es dann, wenn der Schüler nicht genügend vorbereitet ist. Aber aus der Welt, die ihm wie ein Chaos erscheint, wachsen die Gestalten der sinnlichen Welt heraus, wie die Kristallformen aus ihren Muttersubstanzen. Wie dieMuttersubstanzen der physisch-sinnlichen Welt erlebt der Mensch zunächst die geistige Welt. In dieses Reich geht der Mensch hinein durch die Pforte des Todes. Zwar werden die Gebilde, wenn der hellsichtige Mensch sich weiterentwickelt, andere, feste Formen annehmen, die durchzogen sind von denjenigen Konturen, die wiederum in der geistigen Welt sind und die durchklungen sind von dem, was wir als Sphärenmusik angedeutet haben im geistigen Sinne. Das erlebt der hellsichtige Mensch nach einiger Zeit, aber zunächst wirkt das alles verwirrend. Hinein aber in dieses Reich geht der Mensch.

Soll nun das Bild von Helena und Paris heraufgeholt werden, so muß es aus dieser Welt geholt werden. Nur Faust, der die irdische Brust im Morgenrot gebadet hat, der den Eintritt gefunden hat in die geistige Welt, kann in diese Welt hineinsteigen. Mephistopheles nicht; er vermag nur das, was die Verstandeswelt zuwege bringen kann. Bis zum Schlüssel bringt er es, der das Reich des Geistigen aufschließt. Faust aber hat das Vertrauen, die Sicherheit, daß er da finden werde, was er sucht: das Ewige, das Bleibende, wenn die physische Gestalt des Menschen mit dem Tode sich auflöst in ihre Elemente.

Nun ist es wunderbar, wie uns in einem grandiosen Sinn angedeutet wird, wie Faust da hinuntersteigen soll in das geistige Reich. Aber schon die Einleitung zeigt uns, daß derjenige, der das schildert, wohl bekannt ist mit den Tatsachen, auch mit den Empfindungen und Gefühlen, die den überkommen, der nicht mit solchen Dingen spielt, sondern der sie wirklich kennenlernt, So grandios stand vor Goethes Seele alles, was es von dieser Empfindungswelt gibt, als der gestern besprochene Keim der Einweihung herauskam durch ein besonderes Ereignis. Er las im Platarch eine Stelle, wo geschildert wird, wie die Stadt Engyion den Anschluß sucht an Karthago. Nikias, der Freund der Römer, soll verhaftet werden. Er stellt sich aber als ein Besessener. Die Karthager wollen ihn ergreifen. Da hörten sie aus seinem Munde die Worte: «Die Mütter, die Mütter verfolgen mich!» Das war ein Ruf, den man im Altertum nur kannte von einem Menschen, der in einem Zustande der Hellsichtigkeit entrückt war der physischen Welt. Man konnte Nikias entweder als einen Narren, als einen Besessenen auffassen, oder als einen hellsichtigen Menschen. Aber woran konnte man das erkennen? Daran, daß er etwas sprach, wovon diejenigen etwas wußten, welche etwas kannten von den geistigen Welten. An dem Ausspruch: «Die Mütter sind es, die mich verfolgen!» erkennen die Karthager, daß er nicht ein Besessener ist, daß er ein Inspirierter ist, daß er aus eigenem Zeugnis heraus etwas sagen kann, was man nur aus der geistigen Welt heraus wissen kann, und so bleibt er ungeschoren.

Bei der Lektüre dieser Szene löste sich los in Goethes Seele, was schon während seiner Frankfurter Zeit als Keim der Initiation in ihn gelegt war. Da wußte er, um was es sich handelt, wenn man hineindringt in die geistigen Welten. Daher auch die Worte, die dem Faust in den Mund gelegt werden. Wo Mephistopheles von den «Müttern» spricht, da schaudert es dem Faust. Er weiß, um was es sich handelt, daß er ein heiliges, aber auch ein «nicht zu betretendes» Reich berührt, nicht zu betreten für den, der nicht genügend vorbereitet ist. Zwar weiß auch Mephistopheles von diesem Reich, daß er unvorbereitet es nicht betreten soll. Daher die Worte: «Ungern entdeck’ ich höheres Geheimnis.» Aber Faust muß doch hinunter in dieses Reich, um das zu vollbringen, was zu vollbringen ist, in dieses Reich, wo man das, was sonst fest und starr ist, in Umgestaltungen des ewigen Seins erblickt. Hier erblickt der geistige Sinn hinter den physischen Gestalten der Sinneswelt dasjenige, was hineindringt in die Sinneswelt, um in ihr feste Konturen zu erhalten. Und dann sagt Mephistopheles, so charakterisierend dieses Reich, wie es sich jedem darbietet, der es betritt:

... Entfliehe dem Entstandenen
In der Gebilde losgebundne Reiche;
Ergötze dich am längst nicht mehr Vorhandnen;
Wie Wolkenzüge schlingt sich das Getreibe.

Man kann nicht anschaulicher schildern, was ein wirkliches Erlebnis des wahrhaft eingeweihten Menschen ist. Was «längst nicht mehr vorhanden» ist, es wird gefunden in dieser Welt, wenn es so dargestellt wird. «In der Gebilde losgebundne Reiche», das heißt in das Reich, wo die Gebilde der Sinneswelt nicht sind, das solche Gebilde nicht hat, das losgebunden von ihnen ist. Da hinein, wo das längst nicht mehr Vorhandene ist, soll Faust sich begeben. Und wenn man liest «wie Wolkenzüge schlingt sich das Getreibe», so erkennt man wiederum etwas höchst Eigentümliches. Denken wir uns den Eintritt in die übersinnliche Welt wie ein Tor. Bevor man eintritt, hat man die Seele vorzubereiten durch würdige Symbole. Eines von diesen Symbolen ist entnommen gerade von dem Anblick der aufgehenden Sonne, und es ergänzt das Bild vom Baden der irdischen Brust in der Morgenröte: die Sonne, die ein eigentümliches Dreieck um sich bildet. Dieses Symbolum durchlebt die Seele, und die Nachwirkungen eines solchen Symbolums erlebt sie, wenn sie durch das Tor geschritten ist, wenn sie drinnen ist in der geistigen Welt. Daher diese Nachwirkungen: «Wie Wolkenzüge schlingt sich das Getreibe.» Jedes Wort würde ein lebendiger Beweis sein für das, was diese Szene sein soll, für ein Eindringen des Faust in die ersten Stufen der übersinnlichen Welt, dieSie genannt finden als die imaginative Welt. Als Goethe das darstellte, war er nicht darauf angewiesen, aus altem Indischem oder Ägyptischem zusammenzubrauen, was eine Schilderung der geistigen Welt sein sollte, sondern er konnte Erlebtes ganz realistisch darstellen; und das tat er.

Da bringt Faust nunmehr herauf den glühenden Dreifuß, an dem die Mütter sitzen, die Quellen des Daseins in der geistigen Welt. Mit seiner Hilfe ist Faust imstande, Paris und Helena vor die Menschen hinzuzaubern, Bilder der geistigen Welt vor die Menschen zu bringen. Es würde zu weit führen, das wichtigeSymbolum des glühenden Dreifußes auszuführen. Es handelt sich hier darum, zu zeigen, wie wirklich eine Art von Einweihung in dem zweiten Teil des «Faust» geschildert wird. Aber wie vorsichtig und richtig Goethe vorgeht, das sehen wir daran, daß er uns den Weg zeigt in die geistige Welt, den nur der Würdige langsam und mit Resignation gehen kann. Er zeigt uns, daß Faust auch jetzt noch nicht würdig genug ist. Derjenige erst ist würdig, in die geistige Welt einzutreten, der alles, was mit dem engen Persönlichen zusammenhängt, so abgestreift hat, daß sich keine Wünsche und Begierden mehr regen, die aus diesem engen Persönlichen kommen. Das ist scheinbar wenig gesagt, aber in Wahrheit ist außerordentlich viel damit gesagt. Denn es liegen gewöhnlich zwischen dem, was angestrebt, und dem, was erreicht werden soll durch die Austilgung der persönlichen Wünsche und Begierden, nicht nur ein Menschenleben, sondern viele Menschenleben.

Gewissenhaft wird von Goethe gezeigt, daß Faust jetzt noch nicht würdig ist. Die Begierde erwacht in ihm; er will Helena aus einer persönlichen Begierde umschlingen. Da zerstiebt das Ganze, es ist dahin. Er hat sich versündigt an der geistigen Welt. Er kann sie nicht halten. Er muß tiefer hineindringen in die geistige Welt. Und so sehen wir ihn im Verlaufe des zweiten Teils weiter seinen Gang gehen. Wir sehen ihn, wie er, nachdem er von «Helena paralysiert» ist, wiederum in einem andern Bewußtseinszustande, entrückt dem physischen Leibe, in Schlaf versunken. Da sehen wir, wie um ihn herum etwas vorgeht, was sich wie hinaufschlingt aus der sinnlichen Welt in die übersinnliche. Was sich da hinaufschlingt, soll uns nichts anderes darstellen, als daß Faust, da er jetzt aufs neue der physischen Welt entrückt ist, etwas erlebt, was nur in der übersinnlichen Welt mit vollem Bewußtsein erlebt werden kann. Das völlige Werden des Menschen ist es, das er jetzt erleben muß. Er muß jene gewaltigen Ereignisse, die hinter den Kulissen der physischen Welt sich abspielen, erleben, damit er wirklich das schauen kann, was er will. Die Helena muß wiederum herauf in die physische Welt; wiederverkörpert muß sie werden, in eine neue Inkarnation eintreten. Da, wo er das bloße imaginative Bild heraufholt aus der geistigen Welt, bricht er mit dem Ganzen zusammen. Er muß tiefer hineingreifen.

Wir sehen ihn nun eine zweite Stufe überwinden. In diesem Zustand, in den er hineingestellt ist, sehen wir jetzt, nachdem er neuerdings dem physischen Leibe entrückt ist, wie das Bewußtsein allmählich sich hinauflebt aus der sinnlichen Welt in die übersinnliche. Das wird geradezu in einer dichterisch meisterhaften Weise ausgeführt. Zu bewundern, was Realität ist, das schickt sich hier nicht, denn das wird einfach damit erklärt, daß Goethe seinen zweiten Teil des «Faust» aus dem Erlebnis heraus schildert. Aber grandios ist es, wie Goethe darstellt das Geheimnis der Menschwerdung Helenas, auch dichterisch.

Wer die elementaren Wahrheiten der Geisteswissenschaft kennt, der weiß, daß der Mensch, indem er sich in unsere irdische Welt hineinlebt, einen ewigen, geistigen Teil aus ganz anderen Reichen hineinbringt, daß sich dieser geistige Teil verbindet mit dem, was physisch unten in der Vererbungslinie sich vollzieht, was zuletzt gegeben wird von Vater und Mutter, was der physisch-sinnlichen Welt entnommen wird. Im ganzen — wenn wir nicht genauer auf das Wesen des Menschen eingehen, sondern die verschiedenen Glieder des Menschen zusammenfassend charakterisieren — können wir sagen, daß sich im Menschen zusammengliedern ein Ewiges und ein Irdisches. Ein Ewiges, das von Leben zu Leben geht, das aus der geistigen Welt heruntersteigt in eine physische Verkörperung — wir nennen es zunächst den Geist. Und damit dieser Geist sich verbinden kann mit dem, was sich herumgliedern soll als physische Materie, muß ein Zwischenglied sein; und dieses Zwischenglied, dieses Glied zwischen dem eigentlichen Leib und dem Geistigen ist, im geisteswissenschaftlichen Sinne gesprochen, die Seele. So gliedern sich zusammen Geist, Seele und Leib in der Menschwerdung.

Nun soll Faust mit seinem gehobenen Bewußtsein erleben, wie diese Glieder der Menschennatur sich zusammengliedern. Der Geist steigt herunter aus geistigen Sphären, umgibt sich allmählich aus dem, was er entnimmt aus der seelischen Welt, mit seiner Seele, und zieht dann nach den Gesetzen der physischen Welt die physische Hülle um sich herum. Kennt man das Prinzip, das sich als Seele um den Geist herumgliedert, was wir oftmals den astralischen Leib genannt haben, kennt man das, was zwischen Geist und Leib mittendrinnen steht, so hat man das Zwischenglied, das sozusagen den Geist und den Leib zusammenbindet.

Den Geist findet Faust im Reiche der Mütter. Er weiß bereits, wo dieser Geist zu suchen ist, woher er kommt, wenn er sich zu einer neuen Verkörperung hinbegibt. Er muß aber noch kennenlernen, wie das Band gebildet wird, wenn der Geist hineinkommt in die physische Welt. Und nun wird uns vorgeführt in der eigenartigen Szene, wie, vom Sinnlichen ausgehend und sich an der Grenze des Übersinnlichen berührend, im Laboratorium Wagners der «Homunculus» hergestellt wird. Mephistopheles selber trägt dazu bei, und geistvoll wird uns gesagt, daß von Wagner nur die Bedingungen hergestellt werden, daß er entsteht. Und so entsteht, indem sozusagen die geistige Welt mitwirkt, dieses eigenartige Gebilde, der Homunculus.

Man hat viel gedacht über den Homunculus. Das Nachdenken und das Spekulieren über diese Dinge hilft aber nicht. Nur aus dem wirklichen Schöpfen aus der Geisteswissenschaft heraus kann enträtselt werden, was der Homunculus ist. Denen, die während des Mittelalters von ihm sprachen, war er nichts anderes als eine bestimmte Form des astralischen Leibes. Man darf sich diese Szene nicht in der sinnlichen Sphäre vorstellen, sondern so, daß die ganze Szene entrückt gedacht werden muß in die geistige Welt hinein. Man muß gleichsam mit dem Bewußtseinszustande des Faust den ganzen Vorgang verfolgen. Wie dann Homunculus charakterisiert wird in den folgenden Szenen, so stellt er sich wirklich als der Repräsentant des astralischen Leibes dar.

Ihm fehlt es nicht an geistigen Eigenschaften,
Doch gar zu sehr am greiflich Tüchtighaften.

Das ist die Charakteristik des astralischen Leibes; und Homunculus selbst sagt von sich:

Dieweil ich bin, muß ich auch tätig sein ...,

ein astralisches Gebilde, das nicht stille stehn kann, das in fortwährenden Tätigkeiten sich ausleben muß. Er muß hingeführt werden in solche Sphären, wo er wirklich Geist und Leib miteinander vereinigen kann.

Und nun sehen wir das, was Faust da durchmacht, die Menschwerdung, dargestellt in der klassischen Walpurgisnacht. Da werden uns vorgeführt die Summen von all den Kräften und Wesenheiten, die hinter der physisch-sinnlichen Welt wirken; und fortwährend werden hineinverwoben Geister aus der physischen Welt, die ihre Seele so weit ausgebildet haben, daß ihre Seele zusammengewachsen ist mit der geistigen Welt, daß sie gleichzeitig auch 'in der geistigen Welt bewußt sind. Solche Gestalten sind die beiden griechischen Philosophen Anaxagoras und Thales. Von ihnen will dieser Homunculus sich sagen lassen, wie man entstehen kann; wie man, wenn man geistig ist, zu einer physischen Gestaltung vordringen kann. Und mitwirken sollen alle die Gestalten, die uns in dieser klassischen Walpurgisnacht vorgeführt werden, die Gestalten der Verwirklichung des astralischen Leibes, der reif ist zum Eintritt in die Sinnlichkeit, in die physische Welt. Wenn man das alles genau verfolgen könnte, würde selbst im einzelnen jede Wendung beweisend sein für das, was gemeint ist. Bei Proteus und Nereus sucht Homunculus Kundschaft, wie er hineindringen kann in die physische Welt. Es wird ihm gezeigt, wie er sich die Elemente der Materie herumgliedern kann, und wie bei ihm die geistigen Eigenschaften sind, das heißt, wie die Seele sich nach und nach hineinbegibt in die physischsinnlichen Elemente, durch das hindurch, was sich abgespielt hat in den Reichen der Natur. Es wird uns gezeigt, wie die Seele wieder zu durchlaufen hat die Zustände des mineralischen, des pflanzlichen, des tierischen Reiches, um hinauf sich zu gestalten zum Menschen:

Im weiten Meere mußt du anbeginnen!

das heißt im Mineralischen. Dann mußt du durchgehen durch das pflanzliche Reich. Goethe erfindet sogar einen Ausdruck dafür, den es sonst nicht gibt. Er läßt den Homunculus sagen:

Es grunelt so, und mir behagt der Duft!

Es wird ihm angedeutet, wie er den Weg zu machen hat bis dahin, wo allmählich sich um ihn herum ein physischer Leib bildet. Zuletzt tritt der Moment der Liebe ein. Eros wird das Ganze vollenden. Thales gibt den Rat dazu:

Gib nach dem löblichen Verlangen,
Von vorn die Schöpfung anzufangen!
Zu raschem Wirken sei bereit!
Da regst du dich nach ewigen Normen,
Durch tausend abertausend Formen,
Und bis zum Menschen hast du Zeit.

Denn wenn der Homunculus in die physische Welt eingetreten ist, verliert er seine Eigenschaften. Das Ich wird sein Beherrscher:

Nur strebe nicht nach höheren Orden:
Denn bist du erst ein Mensch geworden,
Dann ist es völlig aus mit dir.

So sagt Proteus; das heißt, aus mit dir, dem astralischen Leibe, der noch nicht in das Menschenreich eingedrungen ist.

Die ganze Goethesche Naturanschauung von der Verwandtschaft aller Wesen, von ihrer metamorphosischen Entwickelung aus dem Unvollkommenen zum Vollkommenen, tritt hier im Bilde auf. Der Geist kann in der Welt zunächst nur keimartig sein. Er muß sich in die Materie, in die Elemente ausgießen, in sie untertauchen, um aus ihnen erst höhere Gestalt anzunehmen. Homunculus zerschellt am Muschelwagen der Galatee. Er löst sich in die Elemente auf. Der Moment wird in wunderbarer Weise dargestellt, wo wirklich der astralische Leib sich umgliedert hat mit einem Leibe aus physischer Materie und nun als Mensch leben kann.

Das sind Erlebnisse, die Faust durchmacht, während er in einem andern Bewußtseinszustand, in einem dem Leibe entrückten Zustand ist. Reif wird er nach und nach, die Geheimnisse zu schauen, die hinter dem physisch-sinnlichen Dasein liegen. Und jetzt kann er schauen, wie das, was in dem Reiche des «längst nicht mehr Vorhandenen» ist, der Geist der Helena, verkörpert vor ihm auftritt. Wir haben den dritten Akt des zweiten Teils des «Faust», die Wiederverkörperung der Helena. Goethe stellt geheimnisvoll, wie er es damals mußte, die Idee der Wiederverkörperung hin: wie aus den drei Reichen sich zusammenschließen Geist, Seele und Leib, um einen Menschen zu bilden, und vor uns steht die wiederverkörperte Helena.

Wir müssen uns natürlich klarsein, daß Goethe, indem er Dichter ist, dasjenige, was das hellseherische Bewußtsein erlebt, gleichsam im Bilde darstellt. Daher dürfen wir nicht mit grobschlächtiger Kritik eingreifen und fragen: Ist nun wirklich Helena wiederverkörpert? Wir müssen uns klarsein, daß ein Dichter spricht über das, was er in den geistigen Welten erfahren hat. So kann Faust, nachdem er eine neue Stufe des Lebens überwunden hat, erleben den Zusammenklang mit dem «längst nicht mehr Vorhandenen», die Verbindung mit der Helena.

Nun sehen wir, wie aus der Verbindung der Menschenseele mit dem Geistigen, wenn die Seele sich in höhere Welten hinaufgehoben hat, ein Wesen entspringt, das als ein Kind des Geistes nicht die Gesetze der sinnlichen Welt, sondern die Gesetze der geistigen Welt darlebt: Euphorion. Gerade wenn wir uns an die vorhin besprochenen Sätze von dem beabsichtigten Epilog der Mephistopheles-Phorkyas am Schluß des dritten Aktes erinnern, so werden wir begreifen, was entspringt aus der Vermählung des so gehobenen Geistes mit der Sinneswelt, wenn wir verstehen, daß Goethe in den Euphorion Züge hineingelegt hat von dem von ihm so hoch verehrten Byron. Dabei darf er, weil es sich um Erlebnisse in der geistigen Welt handelt, die Gesetze der geistigen Welt darauf anwenden. Daher darf Euphorion, kaum gezeugt, auch schon geboren sein und sogleich springen, sich bewegen und geistvolle Worte sprechen.

Und wiederum sehen wir, wie Goethe nochmals den Einzug In die geistige Welt streng und gewissenhaft faßt. Faust ist im Hineinstreben in die übersinnlichen Welten weit über dem, was er da erlebt. Aber auch da ist er noch nicht frei von den Mächten, von denen er sich befreien muß, wenn seine Seele sich ganz verbinden soll mit der geistigen Welt. Nicht frei ist er von dem, was ihm Mephistopheles hineinmischt in diese geistigen Erlebnisse. Faust ist das, was man einen Mystiker nennt, der, in der Helena-Euphorion-Szene, ganz darinnen lebt und webt in der geistigen Welt. Aber weil er doch noch nicht die nötige Stufe erstiegen hat, die ihn fähig macht, um ganz von der geistigen Welt aufgenommen zu werden, so entfällt ihm das, was er darinnen erleben kann, noch einmal: Helena und Euphorion. Was er sich durch sein Erlebnis aus der geistigen Welt herausgeholt hat, es entfällt ihm noch einmal. Er ist fähig geworden, sich hineinzuleben in die geistige Welt, den Euphorion zu erleben, das Kind des Geistes, das entsteht durch die Ehe zwischen der menschlichen Seele und dem Weltengeiste, aber es entfällt ihm wieder und versinkt.

Nun ertönt ein merkwürdiger Ruf aus der Tiefe. Es ist Faust jetzt so, wie es dem für eine Weile gestrauchelten Mystiker ist, der hineingeschaut hat in die geistige Welt und weiß, wie es darinnen ist, der aber doch nicht darin bleiben konnte und sich plötzlich wieder hinausversetzt sieht in die Gebilde der sinnlichen Welt: seine Seele selbst empfindet er als die Mutter dessen, was er geboren hat aus der geistigen Welt. Das aber, was er geboren hat, versinkt wieder hinein in die geistige Welt, und es ist da, wie wenn es nachrufen würde der Seele selber, die so etwas gebiert:

Laß mich im düstern Reich,
Mutter, mich nicht allein!

Wie wenn die Menschenseele nach müßte in das Reich, das ihr noch einmal entschwunden ist. Es bleibt dem Faust zurück nichts anderes als das Kleid und der Schleier der Helena. Derjenige, der tiefer eindringt in den Sinn solcher Sachen, weiß, was Goethe mit «Kleid und Schleier» meinte. Es ist so recht das, was dem verbleibt, der einmal einen Einblick hineingetan hat in die geistige Welt und dann wieder heraus mußte. Es verbleibt ihm das, was eigentlich nichts anderes darstellt als die Abstraktion, die Ideen, die sich von Epoche zu Epoche hin erstrecken, was nichts anderes weiter ist als Kleid und Schleier von geistigen Mächten, die sich von Epoche zu Epoche hinleben.

So ist denn der Mystiker wieder für eine Weile hinausversetzt und angewiesen auf sein Denken, wie der geistvolle Historiker angewiesen ist auf sein Denken, nur überall Kleid und Schleier hat, die ihn von Epoche zu Epoche tragen. Diese Ideen sind nicht unfruchtbar. Sie sind für den, der auf die sinnliche Welt beschränkt ist, durchaus notwendig. Sie sind sogar für den, der nun schon ein Gefühl und ein Erlebnis aus der geistigen Welt hat, noch etwas Besonderes. Sie nehmen sich trocken und abstrakt aus bei dem, der überhaupt ein Abstraktling ist. Aber wer einmal von der geistigen Welt berührt ist - wenn er auch nur diese abstrakten Ideen erfaßt —, den tragen sie jetzt durch die Welt hin in eine ganz andere Zeit, wo er wieder etwas erleben kann, wie die Kräfte durch die große Welt spielen.

Wiederum wird Faust in die Welt, die er schon einmal am Hofe erlebt hat, hineinversetzt. Wiederum sieht er, wie die Wesenheiten, in deren Taten die Menschen nur eingebettet sind, sich geltend machen. Wiederum sieht er, wie übersinnliche Fäden sich spinnen, und wie dieselbe Macht, die er als Mephistopheles kennt, Mitspinnerin ist an diesen übersinnlichen Fäden. So lebt er sich wiederum von der sinnlichen Welt in die übersinnliche hinein, lernt kennen, wie sich hineinschlingen in unsere Sinneswelt Mächte, die wir draußen im Naturdasein erblicken, wie sozusagen Mephistopheles die Geister hinter den Naturgewalten in das Kriegsfeld hineinführt. «Bergvolk» nennt er es. Die Gewalten, die hinter der sinnlichen Welt stehen, werden dargestellt, wie wenn die Berge selbst ihre Völker hineinspielen in den Krieg. Aber hier geht ein Leben vor sich, das auf untergeordneten Stufen steht. Dieses Hineinspielen einer unter dem Menschenreich liegenden, aber doch von geistigen Mächten gelenkten Welt wird hier anschaulich geschildert.

Dann wird geschildert, grandios anschaulich, wie hineinspielen die historischen Mächte, die für den geistigen Anschauer wirkliche Mächte sind. Aus den alten Rüstkammern und Rumpelkammern, wo die alten Helme liegen, gehen hervor diejenigen Wesenheiten, von denen der Abstraktling sagen würde, es sind die historischen Ideen, — von denen aber der, der hineinsehen kann in die geistige Welt, weiß, daß sie in den geistigen Welten leben. Und wir sehen da, wie Faust in seinem höheren Bewußtseinszustand zu den Mächten in der Geschichte geführt wird; wir sehen die Mächte der Geschichte aufstehen und ins Feld geführt werden. — Noch höher soll sich Fausts Bewußtsein erheben. Die ganze Welt soll ihm durchgeistigt erscheinen, alle die Ereignisse, die wir um uns erblicken, die der gewöhnliche Abstraktling nur mit dem Verstande schildert, der an ein physisches Gehirn gebunden ist und dann glaubt, alles getan zu haben, wenn er das Äußere schildert. Aber das ist alles gebunden, und wird gelenkt und geleitet von übersinnlichen Wesenheiten und Mächten.

Wenn der Mensch sich so hinauflebt in die geistigen Höhen, dann lernt er die ganze Gewalt dessen kennen, was ihn wiederum herunterziehen soll in die sinnliche Welt. Er lernt in einer merkwürdigen Art denjenigen kennen, den er früher noch nicht ganz kennengelernt hat. So geht es Faust jetzt. Hier steht Faust an einem wichtigen Punkt seiner inneren Entwickelung. Er soll den Weg vollenden. Mephistopheles ist in alles das verknüpft, was er bis jetzt gesehen hat. Frei kann er nur werden von Mephistopheles, von denjenigen geistigen Mächten, die den Menschen an die Sinneswelt fesseln, und die ihn nicht loslassen wollen, wenn ihm Mephistopheles als der Versucher entgegentritt. Da, wo sich die Welt mit ihren Reichen, die Natur und die Historie mit ihrer Geistigkeit vor Faust hinstellen, da erlebt er etwas, woran derjenige, der von diesen Dingen etwas versteht, ohne weiteres erkennen kann, aus was für Tiefen heraus Goethe gesprochen hat. Der Versucher, der den Menschen herunterziehen will, wenn der Mensch schon ein Stück hinaufgegangen ist in die geistige Welt, er trittan den Menschen heran und versucht, ihm falsche Gefühle und Empfindungen beizubringen über das, was er erschaut in der übersinnlichen Welt. Grandios wird dargestellt, wie der Versucher dem Menschen entgegentritt! Er, der auch an den Christus herantrat da, wo ihm der Versucher verspricht alle Reiche der Welt und ihre Herrlichkeiten.

So etwas tritt an den Menschen heran, der sich hineingelebt hat in die geistige Welt. Es wird ihm vom Versucher versprochen die Welt mit allen ihren Herrlichkeiten. Was heißt das? Es heißt nichts anderes, als er dürfe nicht glauben, es könne irgend etwas von dieser Welt noch seinem engherzigen Egoismus gehören. Daß alle Persönlichkeit mit ihren egoistischen Wünschen und Begierden hingeschwunden sein muß, daß der Versucher überwunden sein muß, das deutet Goethe geradezu durch Mephistopheles so an, daß es uns ein Prüfstein sein kann für das, was er meint:

Doch daß ich endlich ganz verständlich spreche:
Gefiel dir nichts an unsrer Oberfläche?
Du übersahst in ungemeßnen Weiten
«DieReiche der Welt und ihre Herrlichkeiten.»
(Matth. 4.)

Man möchte sagen, zum Überfluß für die, welche nicht verstehen wollen, deutet Goethe gerade mit diesen Worten an, was er eigentlich will, um auch damit diese wichtige Etappe des geistigen Werdens des Menschen darzustellen. Dann gelingt es Faust, den Egoismus des persönlichen Wünschens und Wollens so weit zu überwinden, daß er alle seine Tätigkeit widmet dem Stück Land, mit dem er belehnt worden ist. Er will nicht Besitz von diesem Lande, er will nicht Ruhm, nichts von alledem, nur hingebungsvoll arbeiten für andere Menschen: «Auf freiem Grund mit freiem Volke stehn.»

Wir müssen diese Worte so nehmen, daß sich nach und nach ablöst von der Menschenseele der persönliche Egoismus. Denn niemand, der diesen persönlichen Egoismus nicht überwunden hat, kann die letzte Stufe, die Goethe auch noch schildern will, wirklich erreichen. So schildert er den Faust da, wo wie Schuppen abfallen die Hüllen des menschlichen persönlichen Egoismus, wo Faust sich ganz dem Geistigen hingibt, wo ihm wirklich all der Firlefanz von Ruhm und äußerer Ehre in der Welt nichts mehr ist. Aber eines hat Faust auch da noch nicht überwunden. Und wiederum sehen wir Goethe vom spirituellen Gesichtspunkt aus tief, tief ins Herz hinein, wenn er jetzt schildert, was weiter vorgeht.

Ein egoismusfreier Mensch ist Faust bis zu einem gewissen Grade geworden. Gelernt hat er, was es heißt sich zu sagen: «Die Tat ist alles, nichts der Ruhm!» Gelernt hat er zu sagen: Ich will tätig sein. Meine Tätigkeit soll hinausfließen in die Welt; ich will nichts haben als Lohn für diese Tätigkeit! — Aber es macht sich auf einem ganz kleinen Felde bemerkbar, daß der Egoismus noch nicht verschwunden ist. Auf seinem weiten Besitz steht ein altes Häuschen auf einem erhöhten Platze, in dem ein altes Paar, Philemon und Baucis, wohnt. Allem andern gegenüber ist Fausts Egoismus geschwunden, diesem Häuschen gegenüber noch nicht. Da ist ein letzter Rest von Egoismus, der sich in seiner Seele geltend macht. Was könnte er von diesem erhöhten Platz aus haben! Er könnte da oben stehen und die Früchte seiner Tätigkeit mit kurzem Blick überschauen, und sich erfreuen an seinem Geschaftenen! Das ist ein letzter Egoismus, der Genuß am sinnlichen Überschauen. Der Rest von Behagen im sinnlichen Überschauen ist ihm geblieben. Er muß noch heraus, er muß weg. Nichts darf in seiner Seele zurückbleiben von Lust und Behagen, das heißt von unmittelbarer Hingabe an die äußere Welt, mit der der Egoismus sich verknüpft.

Und wiederum sehen wir Faust in der Berührung mit geistigen Mächten. In der «Mitternacht» stellen sich vier graue Weiber ein. Sie treten an ihn heran. Drei von ihnen, der Mangel, die Schuld und die Not, vermögen nichts an ihm. Aber jetzt stellt sich etwas heraus, was zu den Erlebnissen des Initiationsweges gehört. Es ist bei dem Initiationsweg ein geheimnisvoller Zusammenhang zwischen alledem, was der Mensch aus dem Egoismus heraus tun kann, und derjenigen Seelenverfassung, die mit dem Wort Sorge ausgedrückt wird. Bei demjenigen Menschen, der so weit ist, daß er egoismusfrei hineinschaut in die geistige Welt, gibt es keine Sorge. Sorge ist die Begleiterscheinung des Egoismus. Und so wenig es vielleicht mancher glauben kann, daß, wenn die Sorge vorhanden ist, der Egoismus noch nicht verschwunden ist, so wahr ist es doch, daß auf dem langen, entsagungsvollen Wege in die geistige Welt hinein der Egoismus restlos schwinden muß. Betritt der Mensch die geistige Welt, und trägt er in sie hinein noch etwas von Egoismus, dann kommt die Sorge und zeigt sich in ihrer zerstörenden Gewalt.

Da haben wir etwas von den Gefahren der Einweihung. In der sinnlichen Welt sorgen die gütigen Mächte der geistigen Welt dafür, daß die Macht der Sorge so nicht an den Menschen herantreten kann. In dem Moment aber, wo der Mensch zusammenwächst mit der geistigen. Welt, wo er Kräfte kennenlernt, die in der geistigen Welt spielen, werden solche Dinge wie die Sorge zu zerstörenden Mächten. Manches kann man überwunden haben durch die Schlüssel, die in die geistige Welt hineinführen; die Sorge schleicht sich durch alle Schlüssellöcher hinein. Ist der Mensch allerdings weit genug, dann wird die Sorge, wenn sich der Mensch ihr mutig gegenüberstellt, eine Macht, die ihm diesen letzten Rest von Egoismus noch nimmt: Faust erblindet. Warum? Durch den Austausch der letzten Kraft des noch in ihm befindlichen Egoismus und der Kraft der Sorge erblindet er. Die letzte Genußmöglichkeit ist von Faust weggenommen. Finsterer und finsterer wird es ringsherum. Jetzt erlebt es seine Seele, daß der letzte Rest des Egoismus in ihr waltete, als sie das Häuschen zerstören ließ, von dessen Platz aus egoistischer Genuß in Befriedigung über das Erschaffene hätte erreicht werden können.

«Allein im Innern leuchtet helles Licht!» Jetzt gehört die Seele des Faust derjenigen Welt an, über welche die Sorge und alle die zerstörenden Elemente, die den Körper zerreißen, keine Macht haben. Und jetzt erlebt Faust etwas, was der in die geistige Welt Einzuweihende erlebt. Er macht mit als ein äußeres Ereignis die Geschehnisse, die er in der physischen Welt nicht erlebt: seinen eigenen Tod, seine eigene Grablegung. Er schaut von der geistigen Welt aus auf die physische Welt und auf alles, was mit ihm vorgeht, wie auf einen andern herab: Damit haben jetzt nur diejenigen Mächte zu tun, die bloß in der physischen Welt sind.

Es würde weit führen, wenn man darstellen wollte, wie Goethe jetzt die «Lemuren» auftreten läßt, die nur zusammengefügt sind aus Sehnen und Knochen, so daß sie keine Seele in sich tragen; die den Menschen in dem Zustande darstellen, als noch keine Seele in ihn hineingestiegen war. Faust selber aber wird entrückt in die geistige Welt. Wir sehen Mephistopheles jetzt einen letzten Kampf kämpfen um die Seele des Faust, einen bedeutungsvollen, bemerkenswerten Kampf. Wenn man diesen Kampf im einzelnen zergliedern wollte, würde man sehen, welch ein tiefer Kenner der geistigen Welt Goethe war.

Da liegt der sterbende Faust. Mephistopheles kämpft um die Seele. Er weiß, daß an verschiedenen Partien des Leibes diese Seele heraustreten kann. Hier würde viel zu lernen sein für die, welche aus diesen oder jenen Handbüchern lernen, wie die Seele den Leib verläßt. Goethe ist weiter. Er weiß, daß es nicht immer derselbe Ort ist, daß der Heraustritt der Seele aus dem Leibe im Tode ganz abhängig ist von dem Entwickelungszustande eines Menschen. Er weiß, daß die Seele, während sie im Leibe ist und da eine dem Leibe entsprechende Form erhält, diese Form nur haben kann durch die elastische Kraft der Liebe. Mephistopheles glaubt, daß die Seele des Faust reif ist für das Reich der Finsternisse. Dann kann sie nur die Gestalt annehmen, die er bezeichnet als einen «häßlichen Wurm». Wenn die Seele ihren eigenen Kräften hingegeben ist, kann sie nur eine Gestalt haben, die der Ausdruck ihrer Tugenden oder ihrer Untugenden ist. Wäre Fausts Seele reif für das Reich der Finsternisse, dann wäre sie so gestaltet, wie Mephistopheles es annimmt. Jetzt aber hat sie sich entwickelt, und sie wird entrückt, weil ihre Tugenden so sind, wie sie der geistigen Welt entsprechen, und wird in Besitz genommen von den geistigen Welten.

Da treten uns nun zuerst entgegen diejenigen Menschen, die sozusagen die Verbindungsglieder sind zwischen der physischen Welt und der geistigen Welt, die als Initiierte dastehen in der physischen Welt und mit ihrem Geist hinaufragen in die geistige Welt: übersinnliche Erleber und Anschauer. So werden sie uns vorgeführt. Goethe spricht in seinem Gedicht, das er «Symbolum» überschrieben hat, davon, wie aus der geistigen Welt heraus zwei Stimmen klingen:

Doch rufen von drüben
Die Stimmen der Geister,
Die Stimmen der Meister:
Versäumt nicht zu üben
Die Kräfte des Guten!

Goethe bleibt auch hier wieder im Einklang mit seiner Erkenntnis. Er stellt dar die Geister, die nicht verkörpert sind in der sinnlichen Welt. Zuerst aber stellt er dar diejenigen, für die vielfach der Name der «Meister» gebraucht wird, die in der sinnlichen Welt verkörpert sind. Er stellt sie dar in dem Kleid, das ihm damals das nächstliegende war, als Pater ecstaticus, Pater Seraphicus und Pater profundus, und worüber er zu Eckermann sagte: «Übrigens werden Sie zugeben, daß der Schluß, wo es mit der geretteten Seele nach oben geht, sehr schwer zu machen war, und daß ich, bei so übersinnlichen, kaum zu ahnenden Dingen, mich sehr leicht im Vagen hätte verlieren können, wenn ich nicht meinen poetischen Intentionen- durch die scharf umrissenen christlich-kirchlichen Figuren und Vorstellungen eine wohltätig beschränkende Form und Festigkeit gegeben hätte.»

Wer die Vorträge über die christliche Einweihung hier gehört hat, der wird wiedererkennen, wie Goethe in diese Dinge eingeweiht war.

So lebt sich die Seele des Faust hinauf durch die Regionen, durch die sich solche Seelen schon hindurchgelebt haben, die hineingewachsen sind in die geistige Welt und in ihr tätig sind; die auch dabei tätig sind, die Seelen hineinzubringen in die geistige Welt. Und dann sehen wir, wie Goethe sozusagen sein Bekenntnis ablegt, jenes Bekenntnis, welches ihn als einen Angehörigen derjenigen geisteswissenschaftlichen Strömung charakterisiert, von der auch hier öfter gesprochen worden ist, vor allem in dem Vortrag «Wo und wie findet man den Geist?», wo ein Beispiel gegeben worden ist, wie der Mensch sich hineinlebt in die geistige Welt. Da wurde angeführt das schwarze Kreuz mit den roten Rosen. Kräfte werden in der Seele wach, wenn der Mensch sich dem hingibt, diesem Rosenkreuz, das in dem schwarzen Kreuz darstellt das Heruntersinken der sinnlichen Welt, und in den roten Rosen das Aufsprießen der geistigen Welt, das darstellt, was abstrakt die Worte sagen:

Und solang du das nicht hast,
Dieses: Stirb und Werde!
Bist du nur ein trüber Gast,
Auf der dunklen Erde.

Was der Mensch erreicht durch das spirituelle Verständnis, durch die Kraft der roten Rosen, das kannte Goethe, und er bekennt sich dazu: Herunter fallen die Rosen aus der geistigen Welt, da Faustens Unsterbliches aufgenommen wird. Und so sehen wir, wie Goethe uns wirklich den Weg der menschlichen Seele hinein in die geistige Welt darstellt.

Nur skizzenhaft konnte manches dargestellt werden. Denn es ist etwas Eigenartiges mit diesem Goetheschen «Faust»: tiefer und immer tiefer wird er, je mehr man in ihn hineinwächst, und da lernt man erst kennen, was Goethe der Menschheit sein kann. Man lernt kennen, was einstmals Goethe der Menschheit werden wird, wenn Anthroposophie hineinleuchten wird in die esoterische Dichtung Goethes da, wo er aus seinen eigenen Erlebnissen heraus über die geistige Welt spricht. Goethe stellte realistisch dar, was er als Tatsachen der geistigen Welt kennt. Eine realistische Dichtung ist dieser zweite Teil des «Faust», verschlossen aber natürlich für die, welche nicht wissen, daß die geistigen Welten Realitäten sind. Nicht Symbole haben wir, sondern nur dichterische Einkleidung ganz realistisch dargestellter, aber übersinnlicher Ereignisse; derjenigen übersinnlichen Ereignisse, welche die Seele erlebt, wenn sie eins wird mit der Welt, die ihre Urheimat ist, wenn sie sich fühlt nicht in einer solchen Erkenntnis, die nur eine Abstraktion ist, ein Zusammenwachsen mit den sinnlichen Beobachtungen oder Verstandesabstraktionen, sondern die eine reale Tatsache der geistigen Welt ist.

Freilich, man wird noch lange von dem Verständnis des Goetheschen «Faust» entfernt sein, denn man wird erst die Sprache des «Faust» erkennen müssen, wenn man da hinein will. Man kann Faust-Kommentare über Faust-Kommentare in die Hand nehmen: nicht einmal die Worte werden von sonst ganz klugen Leuten gedeutet. — Als Wagner in der Retorte den Homunculus ersprießen sieht, da sagt er — Sie können in Faust-Kommentaren lesen, was die Worte heißen sollen, die da Wagner spricht:

Es wird! die Masse regt sich klarer!
Die Überzeugung wahrer, wahrer.

Ich spreche so falsch, wie alle jene Menschen seit Goethe gesprochen haben, die damit meinten, daß Wagner die Überzeugung habe, daß der Homunculus entstehen wird: Die Überzeugung in Wagner regt sich klarer! — Und die FaustErklärer denken mit solchen Trivialitäten die ganzen Tiefen des «Faust» ausschöpfen zu können! Freilich unser Zeitalter, das ja auch ein von Goethe geprägtes Wort, den «Übermenschen», im Munde führt, ohne seinen tieferen Sinn zu erfassen, konnte diese Worte nicht anders deuten. Der wahre Sinn aber ist dieser: Das, was in der physischen Welt gezeugt wird, ist eine Zeugung; das, was hier in der astralischen Welt gezeugt wird, ist eine Überzeugung, eine Zeugung in den übersinnlichen Welten, eine Überzeugung. Aber man muß eben Goethe erst lesen lernen, da, wo er, wie alle großen Geister, wortbildend auftritt. Dann wird man den ganzen Ernst, aus dem der «Faust» heraus entstanden ist, ermessen können. Dann wird man vor allem auch nicht mehr die Trivialität begehen, die Schlußworte des «Faust» in dem Sinne zu verstehen, daß unter dem «EwigWeiblichen» etwas gemeint ist, was mit dem Weiblichen in der Sinneswelt zusammenhängt.

Das Ewig-Weibliche ist diejenige Kraft in der Seele, die sich befruchten läßt aus der geistigen Welt und daher zusammenwächst in ihren hellsichtigen und magischen Taten mit der geistigen Welt. Was da befruchtet werden kann, ist das Ewig-Weibliche in jedem Menschen, das ihn hinaufzieht zu den Sphären des Ewigen. Und diesen Werdegang des Ewig-Weiblichen in die geistigen Welten hinein hat uns Goethe im «Faust» geschildert.

Sehen wir uns um in der physischen Welt: Alles, was uns da entgegentritt, wir sehen es erst recht an, wenn wir in ihm nicht die wahre Realität sehen, sondern ein Gleichnis für das Ewige. Dieses Ewige erlebt die Seele, wenn sie die Tore durchschreitet in die geistige Welt hinein. Da erlebt sie das, was mit sinnlichen Worten angedeutet werden kann, wenn man diese sinnlichen Worte in einer ganz besonderen Weise hinstellt. Auch darüber hat sich Goethe einmal ausgesprochen, und damit etwas ausgesprochen wie eine große Warnung für alle diejenigen, welche in einer abstrakten Meinung über dieses oder jenes beharren wollen. Wie einegroße Mahnung an die Menschheit hat Goethe in zwei Gedichten zum Ausdruck gebracht, daß, wenn jemand etwas aus der geistigen Welt heraus sagt, er es in einander ganz entgegengesetzten Anschauungen zum Ausdruck bringen kann. In dem ersten Gedicht sagt er:

Das Ewige regt sich fort in allen,
Denn alles muß in Nichts zerfallen,
Wenn es im Sein beharren will.

Während er hier also den Gedanken seiner Philosophie des Ewig-Fließenden ausspricht, sagt er darauf in dem nächsten Gedicht:

Kein Wesen kann zu nichts zerfallen!
Das Ewge regt sich fort in allen,
Am Sein erhalte dich beglückt!

Während man die entgegengesetzten Gedanken für die sinnliche Welt als die sich gegenüberstehenden Spiegelungen der übersinnlichen Welt darstellt, kann man die übersinnliche Welt nicht so beschreiben wie die sinnliche. Die sinnlichen Worte sind immer unzulänglich, wenn sie im besonderen Sinne gebraucht werden.

So sehen wir, wie Goethe, gerade indem er von den verschiedensten Seiten darstellt, was «unbeschreiblich» ist, es vor dem Auge des Geistes getan werden läßt. Was für die sinnliche Welt «unzulänglich» ist, dem geistigen Anschauen ist es erreichbar, wenn die Seele sich schult in jenem Teil, der zu entwickeln ist durch die Kräfte, die durch die Geisteswissenschaft der Seele gegeben werden können. Nicht umsonst läßt Goethe dasjenige Werk, in dem er das Herrlichste und Reichste seiner Erlebnisse dargelegt hat, ausklingen in einen «Chorus mysticus», in den aber auch gar nichts Triviales hineingelegt werden darf. Denn in diesem Chorus mysticus deutet er uns an, wie das, was durch sinnliche Worte nicht zu beschreiben ist, wenn man spiegelnde Darstellung gebraucht, getan wird, wie die Seele durch ihre ewig-weibliche Kraft hingezogen wird in die geistige Welt.

Alles Vergängliche
Ist nur ein Gleichnis;
Das Unzulängliche,
Hier wird’s Erreichnis;
Das Unbeschreibliche,
Hier ist’s getan;
Das Ewig-Weibliche
Zieht uns hinan.

So konnte Goethe sprechen von dem Weg hinein in die geistige Welt. So konnte er sprechen von den Kräften der Seele, die, wenn sie entwickelt werden, den Menschen nach und nach hineinführen in die geistige Welt.

The Mysteries in Goethe's “Faust” Esoteric

In one of the versions Goethe wanted to give his “Faust,” in the second part, at the end of the third act, Mephistopheles, who had worn the mask of Phorkyas in this act, was to step in front of the proscenium, drop the mask, step down from the koturni, and speak a kind of epilogue. As the stage direction, which now remains meaningless, tells us, the intention was that this epilogue should hint at the way in which Faust's final character is to be understood. The words that Mephistopheles was to speak as a kind of commentator do not appear in Faust; but they have been preserved on a sheet of paper in Goethe's estate. In a somewhat humorous way, Goethe seeks to point out through the mouth of Mephistopheles how the audience should actually respond to his Faust.

These words are remarkable, and in a certain respect today's reflection should be kept in their spirit. They tie in with Euphorion, who was born in a ghostly manner, jumping and hopping immediately after his birth and saying “a dainty word.” And so these words tie in:

Enough, you see him, though it is much worse
Than on the British stage, where a little child
Gradually grows up to be a hero.
Here it is even more incredible: no sooner is he conceived than he is born,
He jumps and dances and fights already! Many criticize this,
Others think that this is not so easy
And to understand roughly that there is something behind it.
One senses mysteries, perhaps even
Mystifications, Indian and also
Egyptian, and whoever puts it all together,
Brews it together, etymologically back and forth
Has the desire to move, is the right man.
We say it too, and our deep meaning will
be faithful to the newer symbolism.

So any explanation based on old traditions is, one might say, flatly rejected. On the contrary, an explanation from the depths of spiritual life is demanded. That is why Mephistopheles also says: “We say it too, and our deep meaning will be faithful disciples of the newer symbolism.”

Anyone who reads the second part of “Faust” will know that Goethe is rich in word formations in this poem, and that we must therefore not take offense at what appears to contradict grammar. This sentence explicitly states that those who understand Faust correctly in Goethe's sense also see that there is something deeper behind it. But at the same time, everything that is based on study and could lead to a purely symbolic or similar interpretation is rejected. It is demanded that the interpretation of Faust should be carried out by those faithful disciples who are familiar with such an experience of the spiritual, which we can call the experience in the sense of the newer spiritual science. Those who comment on Faust in Goethe's sense should be “of our deep mind,” “faithful disciples of the newer symbolism.” So it should be drawn from immediate spiritual life, and Goethe reveals here that he has put something into it that enabled him not to stick to old symbols, but to coin new, independent symbols from immediate spiritual life. If one wants to compare the first part of Faust with the second part in terms of the representation of the spiritual world, one can say that the first part largely represents what has been learned, what can come from outside to those who have premonitions of the spiritual world but who want to enter the spiritual world through all kinds of reading and all kinds of operations. The first part of Faust contains what has been learned about the supersensible world.

The second part contains experiences, real experiences, and those who understand this know that it can only come from a personality who has come to know the reality of the spiritual, supernatural worlds that lie behind the physical world. Truly, Goethe has remained, so to speak, within the thread of the narrative, even though some things in the second part seem so dissimilar to the first part. What he learned there, he experienced in the second part; he saw it. He was inside the spiritual, the supernatural worlds. He also hints at this sufficiently in what he has Faust say in the first part: I see from my intuition that what the sage says is true:

The spirit world is not closed;
Your mind is closed, your heart is dead!
Come, bathe, student, undaunted
Your earthly breast in the dawn!

Goethe can point this out where he himself can communicate what is seen by those who “bathe their earthly breast in the dawn” to wait for the rising sun of the spirit. Throughout the first part, we find — as may well have emerged from yesterday's explanations — an energetic striving of the student Faust toward this dawn, but we also find a clear and distinct indication that the path is nowhere satisfactorily traversed.

How does the second part begin? Is the sage's instruction to “bathe the earthly breast in the morning glow” fulfilled in any way? We find Faust “reclining on a flowery lawn, weary, restless, seeking sleep,” surrounded by beings from the spiritual world. We find that he is detached from all sensory perception, enveloped in sleep. Beings from the spiritual world are concerned with his spirit, which is detached from the physical world. We are given a magnificent and powerful indication of the path Faust's soul takes in order to grow into the spiritual world. And then we are shown how Faust's soul truly grows into the world that is hinted at as the spiritual world in the “Prologue in Heaven” in the first part. Goethe speaks from deep experience when he says what has always been said to students in the Pythagorean schools, that a mysterious music of the world resounds to those who enter the spiritual world.

The sun resounds in the old way
In brotherly spheres, singing in competition,
And completes its prescribed journey
With a thunderous roar.

This is how it must sound from the worlds of spiritual life when they are described appropriately. What is said about the music of the spheres is not a poetic image or a metaphor, but a truth; and Goethe remains true to this truth, since Faust himself, now removed from physical existence, grows into the world from which it resounds like an initiate. Hence, in the scene at the beginning of the second part, where Faust is transported into the spiritual world, it says:

Resounding to spiritual ears
The new day is already born.
Rock gates creak and rattle,
Phoebus' wheels roll with a clatter;
What a din the light brings!
It drums, it trumpets,
The eye blinks and the ear is astonished,
The unheard is not heard.

May those who believe that they can only understand a poem if they can say that one should accept such things from the poet as his images, which he creates in poetic freedom, may they refuse to call these things realistic. The physical sun does not sound! It is the spiritual sun, which stands behind the physical one, from which those who live in the spiritual world hear sounds, but spiritual sounds, not physical ones. And here, too, we hear again how the sounds of millennia harmonize. Anyone who is able to follow the course of the human spirit through the millennia will involuntarily be reminded of the “sounding sun” of great words spoken millennia ago, words spoken by someone who, through his initiation, knew that what appears to us as the physical sun is the expression of the sun spirit and the sun soul, just as the physical human body is the expression of the human spirit and the human soul, and who looked up to the spiritual sun and called it the great sun aura, Ahura Mazdao. We are reminded of Zarathustra, who, when he had seen the sun in this way, when the world was so spiritualized for him, spoke the great, powerful words:

I will speak! Listen to me, you who are far away, you who are near and long for it! Take note of everything, for He will be revealed! No longer shall the false teacher corrupt the world, he who has professed evil faith with his tongue. I will speak of what is highest in the world, what He has taught me, the Great One, Ahura Mazdao. Whoever does not want to hear His words as I speak them will experience misery when the earth's cycle is fulfilled!

Before the spiritual sun rises in the soul, the disciple must bathe in the dawn that precedes it. Therefore, the wise man says: “Arise, disciple, and bathe your earthly breast in the dawn without fail!”

Does the disciple Faust do this?

After the spiritual beings had played around him and occupied themselves with him while his soul was absent from his body for a time, he awakens as a changed man. The soul has moved into the body, so that he senses, bathing in the dawn, the rising sun of the spirit:

The pulse of life beats fresh and alive,
Gently greeting the ethereal dawn;
You, Earth, were also steadfast this night
And breathe anew, refreshed, at my feet,
Already beginning to surround me with joy,
You stir and move a powerful resolve,
To strive ever onward toward the highest existence. —
In twilight, the world already lies open,
The forest resounds with a thousand voices of life,
Out of the valley, into the valley, a strip of mist is poured;
Doc descends heavenly clarity into the depths,
And twigs and branches, freshly refreshed, sprout
From the fragrant abyss where they slept submerged;
Color upon color also clears itself from the ground,
Where flowers and leaves drip with trembling pearls,
A paradise surrounds me all around.

Faust now feels awakened in the world into which he has been transported during his rapture, and he bathes his earthly breast in the morning glow. But this is only the beginning of the journey. He feels himself at the gate of initiation. Therefore, he cannot yet bear what appears when the spiritual eye is directly exposed to the spiritual sun:

But now, from those eternal depths,
An excess of flames bursts forth, we stand astonished;
We wanted to light the torch of life,
A sea of fire surrounds us, what a fire!

Therefore, he initially sees the spiritual world, but, as we will soon see, as a parable.

So let the sun remain behind me!
The waterfall, roaring through the rocky reef,
I gaze at it with growing delight.
From fall to fall it now rolls in a thousand,
Then pouring forth in a thousand streams,
High into the air, foam upon foam rushing.
But how glorious, springing from this storm,
The colorful arch arches, ever changing,
Now clearly drawn, now melting into the air,
Spreading cool, fragrant shivers all around.
This reflects human endeavor.
Contemplate it, and you will understand more clearly:
In the colorful reflection we have life.

This is Faust, bathing his earthly breast in the morning glow to prepare himself to look into the eye of the spiritual sun that rises at the initiation.

Now Faust is to be transferred to the great world with the gifts he has received as a spiritual man on the path to enlightenment. One might find it strange that Faust is now transferred to the imperial court, that all kinds of masks and jokes surround him. Nevertheless, these masks and jokes contain deep, deep truths and are meaningful everywhere. It is not possible, especially today, to penetrate the meaning of this masquerade. In any case, the fate of this reflection will be to pick out only individual moments from the entire content of the second part of “Faust.” Otherwise, one would have to give many lectures if one wanted to shed light on everything. But this much can be said about the overall content of these masked images: for those who view human life with an enlightened gaze, certain words will take on a different meaning than they otherwise have in outward, sober life. Such a person, who lives and breathes the entire great course of human development, knows that words such as “folk spirit” and “zeitgeist” are not mere abstractions. He sees in the spiritual world the true, real beings that correspond to what are otherwise so abstractly called the spirit of the people and the spirit of the times.

Thus, Faust, being enlightened, realizes when he enters the great world, where world events are determined from a court, that supernatural forces are at work in what is happening. Outwardly, in the sensory world, one can only observe individual human beings and the laws they have. In the spiritual world, all of this is based on beings. While people believe that what they do comes from their own soul, that they make their own decisions, the deeds of human beings, the thoughts of human beings are permeated and penetrated by beings from the supersensible world, folk spirits, zeitgeists, and so on. People believe that they are free in their decisions, thoughts, and concepts, but they are guided by what exists behind the physical-sensory world as spiritual beings. What people call their own mind, which they believe guides the course of time, is at the same time the expression of the spiritual beings behind it.

Thus, for Faust, the whole masquerade, which is supposed to mean something, becomes an expression of the fact that one can recognize how forces play into the course of great world events, coming from such beings, whom Faust already encountered in the first part, coming from Mephistopheles. Human beings are surrounded by such spiritual beings that tower above them. Thus, at the turn of the modern era, Mephistopheles appears as the being who inspires the human intellect to invent paper money. Goethe depicts the whole course of events with a certain superior humor: how from the same spirit, from the same intellect, which in humans is bound only to the physical instrument of the brain, when inspired by the spirit related to it, which will accept only the sensual, such phenomena emerge that dominate the world, but which are only significant for the sensual world. Thus, the deeper meaning of development is pointed out precisely in this masquerade.

Further on, however, we are led out of the world that lies before us and shown how supersensible forces play into it, into the truly spiritual world. The court, having been made rich, also wishes to be entertained in such a way that figures from times long past are presented to it. Paris and Helen are to be conjured up from the past. Mephistopheles, who belongs to those powers of the spiritual world that inspired the invention of paper money, cannot penetrate to where the worlds from which all deeper human development emerges are located. Faust carries within himself the soul and spirit that can penetrate these spiritual worlds. For Faust is the student who bathed his earthly breast in the dawn, and we are shown how Faust has already experienced something that can be regarded as the first stage of clairvoyance, the stage that the clairvoyant goes through when he has allowed the corresponding exercises to work on his soul. There are certain exercises that the student must go through in meditation, concentration, and so on, which are assigned to him in secret scientific symbols, into which he immerses himself, and through which the soul, when it moves out of the physical body and etheric body, is transformed during the night, so that it first becomes clairvoyant in the spiritual world. What does the student experience when he has allowed these exercises to take effect?

The first stage of clairvoyance is something that can initially cause great confusion for people. We can best understand where this comes from if we bear in mind what is sometimes described as the “dangers of initiation.” Those who live in the physical-sensory world see the things around them in sharp contours. Things appear to them as drawn in space, and the human soul finds support in the fixed contours that you find everywhere, which fill your soul when it surrenders to sensory appearances. Imagine for a moment that all the objects around you became foggy, lost their contours, one penetrated into the other, everything drifted around like cloud formations, metamorphosed. This is roughly what it is like in the world that the clairvoyant person enters after the first effects of the exercises. For he comes to what is behind the whole sensory world, what underlies all matter, but from which the sensory world is born; he comes to the stage where the spiritual world first confronts him. Imagine how crystals in the mountains develop from their parent substances into their crystalline forms and crystalline lines; this is roughly what happens when the clairvoyant person enters the spiritual world. At first, it seems confusing if the student is not sufficiently prepared. But out of the world that appears to him as chaos, the forms of the sensory world emerge, just as crystal forms emerge from their mother substances. The human being initially experiences the spiritual world as the mother substances of the physical-sensory world. The human being enters this realm through the gate of death. As the clairvoyant person develops further, the formations will take on other, fixed forms, which are permeated by those contours that are again in the spiritual world and which are resonated by what we have indicated as the music of the spheres in the spiritual sense. The clairvoyant person experiences this after some time, but at first it all seems confusing. But the human being enters this realm.

If the image of Helen and Paris is to be brought forth, it must be taken from this world. Only Faust, who has bathed his earthly breast in the dawn, who has found entry into the spiritual world, can enter this world. Mephistopheles cannot; he can only do what the world of the intellect can accomplish. He manages to obtain the key that unlocks the spiritual realm. But Faust has the confidence, the certainty that he will find what he is looking for there: the eternal, the lasting, when the physical form of the human being dissolves into its elements with death.

Now it is wonderful how we are given a grandiose hint as to how Faust is to descend into the spiritual realm. But already the introduction shows us that the person describing this is well acquainted with the facts, as well as with the sensations and feelings that overcome those who does not play with such things, but who really gets to know them. Everything that exists in this world of feeling stood so magnificently before Goethe's soul when the seed of initiation discussed yesterday emerged through a special event. He read a passage in Plutarch describing how the city of Engyion sought to join Carthage. Nicias, the friend of the Romans, is to be arrested. But he presents himself as a man possessed. The Carthaginians want to seize him. Then they heard the words from his mouth: “The mothers, the mothers are pursuing me!” This was a cry that in ancient times was known only from a person who was in a state of clairvoyance, detached from the physical world. Nicias could be regarded either as a fool, as a possessed man, or as a clairvoyant. But how could one tell? By the fact that he spoke of something that those who knew something about the spiritual worlds were familiar with. From the statement, “It is the mothers who are pursuing me!”, the Carthaginians recognize that he is not possessed, that he is inspired, that he can say something from his own testimony that can only be known from the spiritual world, and so he remains unharmed.

While reading this scene, what had already been planted in Goethe's soul during his time in Frankfurt as the seed of initiation was released. He knew what it meant to penetrate the spiritual worlds. Hence the words put into Faust's mouth. When Mephistopheles speaks of the “mothers,” Faust shudders. He knows what it means, that he is touching a sacred but also “unenterable” realm, unenterable for those who are not sufficiently prepared. Mephistopheles also knows about this realm, that he should not enter it unprepared. Hence the words: “I am reluctant to reveal higher secrets.” But Faust must descend into this realm in order to accomplish what must be accomplished, into this realm where what is otherwise solid and rigid is seen in the transformations of eternal being. Here, the spiritual meaning behind the physical forms of the sensory world is seen as that which penetrates the sensory world in order to take on solid contours within it. And then Mephistopheles says, characterizing this realm as it presents itself to everyone who enters it:

... Flee from what has come into being
In the realms unbound by form;
Delight in what is long since no longer there;
Like clouds, the bustle winds its way.

One cannot describe more vividly what a truly initiated person experiences. What is “long gone” is found in this world when it is presented in this way. “In the realms unbound by form” means in the realm where the forms of the sensory world do not exist, which has no such forms, which is unbound by them. Faust is to enter this realm, where that which has long since ceased to exist is found. And when one reads “the bustle winds like clouds,” one recognizes something highly peculiar. Let us imagine entering the supersensible world as if through a gate. Before entering, one must prepare one's soul with worthy symbols. One of these symbols is taken from the sight of the rising sun, and it complements the image of bathing the earthly breast in the dawn: the sun forming a peculiar triangle around itself. This symbol permeates the soul, and it experiences the aftereffects of such a symbol when it has passed through the gate, when it is inside the spiritual world. Hence these aftereffects: “Like clouds, the bustle winds its way.” Every word would be living proof of what this scene is supposed to be, of Faust's penetration into the first stages of the supersensible world, which you will find referred to as the imaginative world. When Goethe depicted this, he did not have to concoct a description of the spiritual world from ancient Indian or Egyptian sources, but was able to portray his experiences in a very realistic way; and that is what he did.

Faust now brings up the glowing tripod on which the mothers sit, the sources of existence in the spiritual world. With its help, Faust is able to conjure Paris and Helen before the people, to bring images of the spiritual world before the people. It would go too far to explain the important symbolism of the glowing tripod. The point here is to show how a kind of initiation is actually described in the second part of Faust. But we can see how carefully and correctly Goethe proceeds by the fact that he shows us the way into the spiritual world, which only the worthy can walk slowly and with resignation. He shows us that Faust is still not worthy enough. Only those who have stripped themselves of everything connected with narrow personal interests to such an extent that no desires or cravings arising from these narrow personal interests remain are worthy of entering the spiritual world. This may seem like little, but in truth it says a great deal. For between what is sought and what is to be achieved by eradicating personal desires and cravings lies not just one human life, but many human lives.

Goethe conscientiously shows that Faust is not yet worthy. Desire awakens in him; he wants to embrace Helena out of personal desire. Then the whole thing shatters, it is gone. He has sinned against the spiritual world. He cannot hold on to it. He must penetrate deeper into the spiritual world. And so we see him continuing on his path in the course of the second part. We see him, after being “paralyzed by Helena,” again in a different state of consciousness, detached from his physical body, sunk into sleep. There we see something happening around him, something that seems to ascend from the sensory world into the supersensible world. What is spiraling upward represents nothing other than the fact that Faust, now that he is once again removed from the physical world, is experiencing something that can only be experienced with full consciousness in the supersensible world. It is the complete becoming of the human being that he must now experience. He must experience those powerful events that take place behind the scenes of the physical world so that he can truly see what he wants to see. Helena must return to the physical world; she must be reincarnated, enter into a new incarnation. When he brings up the mere imaginative image from the spiritual world, he breaks down with the whole. He must reach deeper.

We now see him overcoming a second stage. In this state in which he finds himself, now that he has recently been removed from the physical body, we see how consciousness gradually rises from the sensory world to the supersensible world. This is done in a truly masterful poetic manner. It is not appropriate here to admire what is reality, for this is simply explained by the fact that Goethe describes the second part of Faust from his own experience. But it is magnificent how Goethe depicts the mystery of Helena's incarnation, also poetically.

Those who know the elementary truths of spiritual science know that, by living into our earthly world, human beings bring with them an eternal, spiritual part from completely different realms, that this spiritual part connects with what takes place physically below in the line of inheritance, what is ultimately given by father and mother, what is taken from the physical-sensory world. Overall — if we do not go into the nature of the human being in detail, but characterize the various parts of the human being in summary — we can say that an eternal and an earthly element are linked together in the human being. An eternal element that passes from life to life, descending from the spiritual world into a physical embodiment — we will initially call this the spirit. And in order for this spirit to connect with what is to be structured around it as physical matter, there must be an intermediate link; and this intermediate link, this link between the actual body and the spiritual, is, in the spiritual-scientific sense, the soul. Thus, spirit, soul, and body are structured together in human incarnation.

Now Faust, with his elevated consciousness, is to experience how these members of human nature are structured together. The spirit descends from spiritual spheres, gradually surrounds itself with its soul from what it takes from the soul world, and then, according to the laws of the physical world, draws the physical shell around itself. If one knows the principle that structures itself around the spirit as the soul, what we have often called the astral body, one knows what stands in the middle between spirit and body, one has the intermediate link that, so to speak, binds the spirit and the body together.

Faust finds the spirit in the realm of the mothers. He already knows where to look for this spirit, where it comes from when it moves on to a new incarnation. But he still has to learn how the bond is formed when the spirit enters the physical world. And now we are shown in a peculiar scene how, starting from the sensual and touching on the border of the supersensible, the “homunculus” is created in Wagner's laboratory. Mephistopheles himself contributes to this, and we are told wittily that Wagner only creates the conditions for it to come into being. And so, with the cooperation of the spiritual world, so to speak, this peculiar creature, the homunculus, comes into being.

Much has been thought about the homunculus. But thinking and speculating about these things does not help. Only by drawing on spiritual science can we unravel the mystery of what the homunculus is. To those who spoke of it during the Middle Ages, it was nothing more than a certain form of the astral body. We must not imagine this scene in the physical realm, but rather think of the entire scene as being transported into the spiritual world. One must follow the entire process with the state of consciousness of Faust, as it were. As Homunculus is characterized in the following scenes, he truly presents himself as the representative of the astral body.

He does not lack spiritual qualities,
but he lacks tangible competence.

This is the characteristic of the astral body; and Homunculus himself says of himself:

Since I am, I must also be active ...

an astral entity that cannot stand still, that must live out its life in constant activity. He must be led into spheres where he can truly unite spirit and body.

And now we see what Faust is going through, the incarnation, depicted in the classic Walpurgis Night. There we are shown the sum of all the forces and beings that work behind the physical-sensory world; and spirits from the physical world are constantly woven into it, spirits who have developed their souls to such an extent that their souls have grown together with the spiritual world, so that they are also conscious in the spiritual world at the same time. Such figures are the two Greek philosophers Anaxagoras and Thales. This homunculus wants them to tell him how one can come into being; how, if one is spiritual, one can advance to a physical form. And all the figures presented to us on this classical Walpurgis Night are to play a part, the figures of the realization of the astral body, which is ripe for entry into sensuality, into the physical world. If one could follow all this closely, even in detail, every turn of phrase would be proof of what is meant. Homunculus seeks knowledge from Proteus and Nereus about how he can penetrate the physical world. He is shown how he can structure the elements of matter around him and what his spiritual qualities are, that is, how the soul gradually enters into the physical-sensual elements through what has taken place in the realms of nature. We are shown how the soul must pass through the states of the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms in order to develop into a human being:

You must begin in the vast sea!

that is, in the mineral realm. Then you must pass through the plant realm. Goethe even invents an expression for this that does not otherwise exist. He has the homunculus say:

It grumbles like this, and I like the smell!

He is given an indication of how to make his way to the point where a physical body gradually forms around him. Finally, the moment of love arrives. Eros will complete the whole process. Thales gives the following advice:

Give in to the laudable desire,
To start creation from the beginning!
Be ready for swift action!
Then you will move according to eternal norms,
Through thousands upon thousands of forms,
And you have time until you become human.

For when the homunculus enters the physical world, it loses its characteristics. The ego becomes its ruler:

Just don't strive for higher orders:
For once you have become human,
Then it is completely over for you.

So says Proteus; that is, it is over for you, the astral body, which has not yet entered the human realm.

Goethe's entire view of nature, of the kinship of all beings, of their metamorphic development from the imperfect to the perfect, appears here in this image. At first, the spirit can only be a seed in the world. It must pour itself into matter, into the elements, submerge itself in them, in order to take on a higher form from them. Homunculus shatters on Galatea's shell chariot. He dissolves into the elements. The moment is wonderfully depicted when the astral body has truly merged with a body of physical matter and can now live as a human being.

These are experiences that Faust goes through while he is in a different state of consciousness, in a state removed from the body. He gradually becomes mature enough to see the secrets that lie behind physical and sensory existence. And now he can see how that which is in the realm of the “long since no longer existing,” the spirit of Helena, appears embodied before him. We have the third act of the second part of Faust, the reincarnation of Helena. Goethe presents the idea of reincarnation mysteriously, as he had to do at the time: how spirit, soul, and body come together from the three realms to form a human being, and before us stands the reincarnated Helena.

We must, of course, be aware that Goethe, being a poet, depicts what clairvoyant consciousness experiences in images, as it were. Therefore, we must not intervene with crude criticism and ask: Is Helena really reincarnated? We must be aware that a poet speaks about what he has experienced in the spiritual worlds. Thus, after overcoming a new stage of life, Faust can experience harmony with what “has long since ceased to exist,” the connection with Helena.

Now we see how, from the connection of the human soul with the spiritual, when the soul has been lifted up into higher worlds, a being arises who, as a child of the spirit, lives not by the laws of the sensory world, but by the laws of the spiritual world: Euphorion. When we recall the lines discussed earlier from the intended epilogue of Mephistopheles-Phorkyas at the end of the third act, we will understand what springs from the marriage of the elevated spirit with the sensory world, when we understand that Goethe has imbued Euphorion with traits of Byron, whom he so greatly admired. Because these are experiences in the spiritual world, he is allowed to apply the laws of the spiritual world to them. Therefore, Euphorion, barely conceived, may already be born and immediately jump, move, and speak witty words.

And again we see how Goethe once more takes a strict and conscientious approach to entering the spiritual world. In his striving to enter the supersensible worlds, Faust is far above what he experiences there. But even there he is not yet free from the powers from which he must free himself if his soul is to connect completely with the spiritual world. He is not free from what Mephistopheles mixes into these spiritual experiences. Faust is what one calls a mystic who, in the Helena-Euphorion scene, lives and weaves entirely within the spiritual world. But because he has not yet climbed the necessary steps that would enable him to be completely accepted by the spiritual world, what he can experience there is once again lost to him: Helena and Euphorion. What he has gained from his experience of the spiritual world is once again lost to him. He has become capable of immersing himself in the spiritual world, of experiencing Euphorion, the child of the spirit, who is born of the marriage between the human soul and the world spirit, but it is lost to him again and sinks into oblivion.

Now a strange call sounds from the depths. Faust is now like a mystic who has stumbled for a while, who has looked into the spiritual world and knows what it is like inside, but who could not remain there and suddenly finds himself transported back into the structures of the sensory world: he feels his own soul to be the mother of what he has given birth to from the spiritual world. But what he has given birth to sinks back into the spiritual world, and it is there as if it were calling after the soul itself, which gives birth to such a thing:

Leave me not alone in the dark realm,
Mother!

As if the human soul had to return to the realm that has once again disappeared from it. Faust is left with nothing but Helena's dress and veil. Those who delve deeper into the meaning of such things know what Goethe meant by “dress and veil.” It is precisely what remains to those who have once gained insight into the spiritual world and then had to leave it again. What remains to them is nothing more than abstraction, ideas that extend from epoch to epoch, which are nothing more than the dress and veil of spiritual powers that live from epoch to epoch.

Thus, the mystic is once again displaced for a while and dependent on his thinking, just as the spiritual historian is dependent on his thinking, only everywhere he has garments and veils that carry him from epoch to epoch. These ideas are not barren. They are absolutely necessary for those who are limited to the sensory world. They are even something special for those who already have a feeling and an experience from the spiritual world. They seem dry and abstract to those who are abstract thinkers. But once someone has been touched by the spiritual world—even if they only grasp these abstract ideas—they now carry them through the world into a completely different time, where they can once again experience how the forces play through the great world.

Once again, Faust is transported into the world he once experienced at court. Once again, he sees how the beings, in whose deeds human beings are merely embedded, assert themselves. Once again, he sees how supersensible threads are spun, and how the same power he knows as Mephistopheles is a co-spinner of these supersensible threads. Thus he once again lives his way from the sensual world into the supernatural, learning how powers that we see outside in nature become entangled in our sensory world, how Mephistopheles, so to speak, leads the spirits behind the forces of nature into the battlefield. He calls it “mountain people.” The forces behind the sensory world are depicted as if the mountains themselves were playing their peoples into the war. But here, a life is going on that is on subordinate levels. This interplay of a world that lies beneath the human realm but is nevertheless guided by spiritual forces is vividly described here.

Then it is described, in a magnificently vivid way, how the historical powers, which are real powers for the spiritual observer, play into the picture. From the old armories and junk rooms, where the old helmets lie, emerge those beings which the abstract thinker would call historical ideas — but which those who can see into the spiritual world know live in the spiritual worlds. And we see how Faust, in his higher state of consciousness, is led to the powers of history; we see the powers of history rise up and be led into battle. Faust's consciousness is to rise even higher. The whole world should appear to him as spiritualized, all the events we see around us, which the ordinary abstract thinker describes only with the intellect, which is bound to a physical brain, and then believes he has done everything when he describes the outer world. But all this is bound, and is directed and guided by supersensible beings and powers.

When a person lives his way up to the spiritual heights, he learns the full power of that which is supposed to pull him back down into the sensory world. In a strange way, he gets to know the one he did not fully know before. This is what is happening to Faust now. Here Faust stands at an important point in his inner development. He is supposed to complete the path. Mephistopheles is connected to everything he has seen so far. He can only become free from Mephistopheles, from those spiritual powers that bind man to the sensory world and do not want to let him go when Mephistopheles confronts him as the tempter. When the world with its realms, nature, and history with its spirituality stand before Faust, he experiences something that anyone who understands these things can readily recognize as the depths from which Goethe spoke. The tempter, who wants to pull people down when they have already ascended a little way into the spiritual world, approaches them and tries to teach them false feelings and sensations about what they see in the supernatural world. The way the tempter approaches people is portrayed magnificently! He who also approached Christ, where the tempter promises him all the kingdoms of the world and their glories.

Something like this approaches the person who has lived their way into the spiritual world. The tempter promises them the world with all its glories. What does that mean? It means nothing other than that he must not believe that anything in this world can still belong to his narrow-minded egoism. That all personality with its egoistic desires and cravings must disappear, that the tempter must be overcome, is what Goethe suggests through Mephistopheles in such a way that it can be a touchstone for us to understand what he means:

But let me finally speak quite clearly:
Did you not like anything about our surface?
In immeasurable vastness, you overlooked
“The riches of the world and its glories.”
(Matthew 4.)

One might say that, for those who do not want to understand, Goethe uses these very words to indicate what he actually wants, in order to illustrate this important stage in the spiritual development of man. Faust then succeeds in overcoming the selfishness of personal desires and will to such an extent that he devotes all his activities to the piece of land with which he has been entrusted. He does not want to own this land, he does not want fame, none of that, only to work devotedly for other people: “To stand on free ground with a free people.”

We must take these words to mean that personal egoism gradually detaches itself from the human soul. For no one who has not overcome this personal egoism can truly reach the final stage, which Goethe also wants to describe. He thus depicts Faust at the point where the veils of human personal egoism fall away like scales, where Faust devotes himself entirely to the spiritual, where all the trappings of fame and external honor in the world really mean nothing to him anymore. But there is one thing that Faust has not yet overcome. And again, we see Goethe looking deep, deep into the heart from a spiritual point of view when he now describes what happens next.

Faust has become, to a certain extent, a person free of egoism. He has learned what it means to say to himself: “Action is everything, fame is nothing!” He has learned to say: I want to be active. My activity should flow out into the world; I want nothing as a reward for this activity!" But it becomes apparent in a very small area that egoism has not yet disappeared. On his vast estate there is an old cottage on a raised platform, in which an old couple, Philemon and Baucis, live. Faust's egoism has disappeared in relation to everything else, but not in relation to this little house. There is a last remnant of egoism that asserts itself in his soul. What could he gain from this elevated spot! He could stand up there and survey the fruits of his activity with a quick glance and rejoice in his achievements! This is a last remnant of egoism, the enjoyment of sensual contemplation. The remnant of pleasure in sensual contemplation has remained with him. He must still get out, he must leave. Nothing must remain in his soul of pleasure and comfort, that is, of immediate devotion to the external world with which egoism is connected.

And again we see Faust in contact with spiritual powers. In “Midnight,” four gray women appear. They approach him. Three of them, want, guilt, and need, have no power over him. But now something emerges that belongs to the experiences of the path of initiation. On the path of initiation, there is a mysterious connection between everything that a person can do out of egoism and the state of mind expressed by the word “worry.” For those who are ready to look into the spiritual world free of egoism, there is no worry. Worry is a side effect of egoism. And as little as some may believe that selfishness has not yet disappeared when worry is present, it is nevertheless true that on the long, renunciation-filled path into the spiritual world, selfishness must disappear completely. If a person enters the spiritual world and still carries some selfishness into it, then worry comes and manifests itself in its destructive power.

Here we have something of the dangers of initiation. In the sensory world, the benevolent powers of the spiritual world ensure that the power of worry cannot approach human beings in this way. But the moment a person grows together with the spiritual world, when they become acquainted with forces that operate in the spiritual world, things like worry become destructive powers. Some things can be overcome with the keys that lead into the spiritual world; worry creeps in through all the keyholes. However, if the human being is far enough along, then worry, when the human being courageously confronts it, becomes a power that takes away that last remnant of egoism: Faust goes blind. Why? Through the exchange of the last power of egoism still within him and the power of worry, he goes blind. The last possibility of enjoyment is taken away from Faust. It becomes darker and darker all around him. Now his soul experiences that the last remnant of egoism reigned in it when it had the little house destroyed, from whose place egoistic enjoyment could have been achieved in satisfaction with what had been created.

“Alone within shines bright light!” Now Faust's soul belongs to the world over which worry and all the destructive elements that tear the body apart have no power. And now Faust experiences something that those who are to be initiated into the spiritual world experience. He participates as an external event in the events he does not experience in the physical world: his own death, his own burial. From the spiritual world, he looks down on the physical world and on everything that is happening to him as if on another person: now only those powers that are merely in the physical world have anything to do with this.

It would take us too far afield to describe how Goethe now presents the “Lemurs,” who are composed only of tendons and bones, so that they have no soul within them; they represent human beings in the state before a soul had entered them. Faust himself, however, is transported into the spiritual world. We now see Mephistopheles fighting a final battle for Faust's soul, a meaningful, remarkable battle. If one were to analyze this battle in detail, one would see what a profound connoisseur of the spiritual world Goethe was.

There lies the dying Faust. Mephistopheles fights for his soul. He knows that this soul can emerge from different parts of the body. There would be much to learn here for those who learn from this or that handbook how the soul leaves the body. Goethe goes further. He knows that it is not always the same place, that the departure of the soul from the body at death depends entirely on the state of development of a human being. He knows that while the soul is in the body and takes on a form corresponding to the body, it can only have this form through the elastic power of love. Mephistopheles believes that Faust's soul is ripe for the realm of darkness. Then it can only take on the form that he describes as an “ugly worm.” When the soul is devoted to its own powers, it can only have a form that is the expression of its virtues or its vices. If Faust's soul were ripe for the realm of darkness, it would be shaped as Mephistopheles assumes. But now it has developed, and it is raptured because its virtues are in accordance with the spiritual world, and is taken possession of by the spiritual worlds.

Now we first encounter those people who are, so to speak, the connecting links between the physical world and the spiritual world, who stand as initiates in the physical world and tower up into the spiritual world with their spirit: supersensible experiencers and observers. This is how they are presented to us. In his poem, which he titled “Symbolum,” Goethe speaks of how two voices sound from the spiritual world:

But from beyond
The voices of the spirits call,
The voices of the masters:
Do not neglect to practice
The powers of good!

Here again, Goethe remains consistent with his insight. He depicts the spirits that are not embodied in the sensory world. But first he depicts those who are often referred to as “masters,” who are embodied in the sensory world. He depicts them in the guise that was most familiar to him at the time, as Pater ecstaticus, Pater Seraphicus, and Pater profundus, about which he said to Eckermann: "Incidentally, you will admit that the conclusion, where the saved soul ascends, was very difficult to write, and that, with such supernatural, barely conceivable things, I could very easily have lost myself in vagueness if I had not given my poetic intentions a beneficially restrictive form and solidity through the sharply outlined Christian-ecclesiastical figures and ideas."

Anyone who has heard the lectures on Christian initiation here will recognize how Goethe was initiated into these things.

Thus the soul of Faust lives its way up through the regions through which such souls have already lived, souls that have grown into the spiritual world and are active in it; souls that are also active in bringing other souls into the spiritual world. And then we see how Goethe, so to speak, makes his confession, the confession that characterizes him as a member of that spiritual scientific movement that has also been mentioned here frequently, especially in the lecture “Where and how does one find the spirit?”, where an example was given of how human beings live their way into the spiritual world. The black cross with the red roses was cited. Forces are awakened in the soul when the human being surrenders to this Rosicrucians, which represents in the black cross the descent of the sensual world, and in the red roses the sprouting of the spiritual world, which represents what the words say in abstract terms:

And as long as you do not have that,
This: Die and become!
You are only a gloomy guest,
On the dark earth.

Goethe knew what a person can achieve through spiritual understanding, through the power of the red roses, and he professes this: The roses fall from the spiritual world as Faust's immortal essence is absorbed. And so we see how Goethe truly shows us the path of the human soul into the spiritual world.

Some things could only be presented in sketch form. For there is something peculiar about Goethe's “Faust”: the more one grows into it, the deeper and deeper it becomes, and only then does one learn what Goethe can be to humanity. One comes to know what Goethe will one day become for humanity when anthroposophy illuminates Goethe's esoteric poetry, where he speaks of the spiritual world from his own experiences. Goethe realistically depicted what he knew to be facts of the spiritual world. This second part of Faust is realistic poetry, but of course it is closed to those who do not know that the spiritual worlds are realities. We do not have symbols, but only poetic clothing of very realistically depicted, but supersensible events; those supernatural events that the soul experiences when it becomes one with the world that is its original home, when it feels not in a knowledge that is only an abstraction, a merging with sensory observations or intellectual abstractions, but in a real fact of the spiritual world.

Of course, we are still a long way from understanding Goethe's “Faust,” because we first have to recognize the language of “Faust” if we want to get into it. One can pick up commentaries on Faust about commentaries on Faust: not even the words are interpreted by otherwise very intelligent people. — When Wagner sees the homunculus sprouting in the retort, he says — you can read in Faust commentaries what the words Wagner speaks are supposed to mean:

It will happen! The mass is stirring more clearly!
The conviction truer, truer.

I speak as falsely as all those people since Goethe who meant that Wagner was convinced that the homunculus would come into being: The conviction in Wagner stirs more clearly! — And the Faust commentators think they can exhaust the whole depth of Faust with such trivialities! Of course, our age, which also uses a word coined by Goethe, “Übermensch” (superhuman), without grasping its deeper meaning, could not interpret these words differently. But the true meaning is this: what is begotten in the physical world is a begetting; what is begotten here in the astral world is a conviction, a begetting in the supersensible worlds, a conviction. But one must first learn to read Goethe where, like all great minds, he appears as a word creator. Then one will be able to appreciate the whole seriousness from which Faust arose. Then, above all, one will no longer commit the triviality of understanding the closing words of Faust in the sense that the “eternal feminine” refers to something connected with the feminine in the sensory world.

The eternal feminine is the force in the soul that allows itself to be fertilized by the spiritual world and thus grows together with the spiritual world in its clairvoyant and magical deeds. What can be fertilized there is the eternal feminine in every human being, which draws him up to the spheres of the eternal. And Goethe described this development of the eternal feminine into the spiritual worlds in “Faust.”

Let us look around us in the physical world: Everything we encounter there, we see even more clearly when we see in it not true reality, but a parable for the eternal. The soul experiences this eternal when it passes through the gates into the spiritual world. There it experiences what can be hinted at with sensual words, if these sensual words are arranged in a very special way. Goethe also once spoke about this, issuing a kind of grand warning to all those who insist on holding on to abstract opinions about this or that. In two poems, Goethe expressed a great admonition to humanity, saying that when someone speaks from the spiritual world, they can express it in completely opposite views. In the first poem, he says:

The eternal stirs forth in all,
For everything must decay into nothingness,
If it wants to persist in being.

So while he expresses the idea of his philosophy of eternal flow here, he goes on to say in the next poem:

No being can decay into nothingness!
The eternal stirs forth in all,
Be happy in your existence!

While the opposing ideas for the sensory world are presented as the contrasting reflections of the supersensible world, the supersensible world cannot be described in the same way as the sensory world. Sensual words are always inadequate when used in a specific sense.

Thus we see how Goethe, precisely by depicting what is “indescribable” from various angles, allows it to be seen by the eye of the spirit. What is “inadequate” for the sensory world is accessible to spiritual contemplation when the soul trains itself in that part which is to be developed through the powers that can be given to the soul through spiritual science. It is not for nothing that Goethe ends the work in which he has presented the most magnificent and richest of his experiences with a “Chorus mysticus,” in which, however, nothing trivial may be included. For in this Chorus mysticus he indicates to us how that which cannot be described in sensual words is done when one uses reflective representation, how the soul is drawn into the spiritual world through its eternally feminine power.

Everything transitory
Is but a parable;
The inadequate,
Here becomes achievement;
The indescribable,
Here it is done;
The eternally feminine
Draws us upward.

This is how Goethe was able to speak of the path into the spiritual world. This is how he was able to speak of the powers of the soul which, when developed, gradually lead human beings into the spiritual world.