The Rudolf Steiner Archive

25. The Music of Parsifal as an Expression of the Supernatural

Here, where my delusions found peace,
Wahnfried
let this house be named by me.

[ 1 ] Richard Wagner wrote these words about the house he built for himself in Bayreuth. He had longed deeply for this house. He had perceived all of life as striving and delusion. He found peace from his delusions in his stage consecration play Parsifal.

[ 2 ] It is commonly believed that a work of art such as Wagner's “Parsifal” comes into being as if the artist had consciously put all the thoughts that can be found in it into it. But a mystic never perceives the work he has created in this way. Even a plant does not know the laws that the botanist finds in it. Invisible powers hovered over Richard Wagner. They are the source of what lies in Parsifal. Much of what we call secret training lived in Wagner. A wonderful effect can result from following the development of his personality throughout his life. One then observes how truths dawned in him that had been systematically cultivated in secret schools for centuries.

[ 3 ] Let us consider how the secret students were introduced to such secrets, which later came to life instinctively in Wagner. A variety of exercises for the body and soul were performed, resulting in an intimate formation of the occult imagination. Above all, the teacher awakened a basic feeling in the student in order to evoke an intimate relationship with the surrounding nature. The student was guided through the kingdoms of nature and instructed to feel towards nature in the same way as one feels towards human beings. Just as one perceives the cheerfulness of the soul behind a smile in a human being, or a certain other feeling behind tears, the student was guided to recognize the correspondences between physiognomy and the soul in nature as well. An occultist is someone who can enter completely into the concrete with his feelings in these things. When looking into nature, the student was told: Everything is physiognomy and expression of a spiritual being. — A plant with bright colors appears to him as the smiling face of the earth spirit — another as the face of the mourning earth spirit. Thus, the occultist carries emotional impressions throughout the world.

[ 4 ] In it, matter is not permeated by desire and longing. Human matter is more perfect, but it is permeated by pain and joy, desire and passions. One day, human matter will be as chaste and noble as that of the crystal. Thus, the student's mind was attuned to seeing models of future physical development in nature. With the same objectivity with which the mathematician imagines spatial structures, the occultist sees the objects of the outer world as expressions of the soul of the world. Just as it is impossible for two mathematicians to teach different things about a theorem, so it is impossible for two people who have truly penetrated into higher knowledge to perceive things differently. There is as little dispute about the mystical as there is about the mathematical.

[ 5 ] When the student was thus trained and finally found to be mature, he was taught another concept. He was to learn about the most beautiful, the purest, and yet the most contestable thing. He was told: Look at the plant. Its calyx faces the sun. It is influenced and sustained in its growth by the sun's rays. It chastely stretches its reproductive organs toward the sun. What is now bashfully covered in humans and animals is chastely directed toward the sun in plants. Look back to ancient times. At that time, humans were at the stage where plants have remained. They too had their reproductive organs directed toward the sun. Their head, their root, was in the earth. Mystics have always known that humans are inverted plants. Only in the course of evolution did they advance, first becoming horizontal like animals and then assuming the upright human form we see today. They passed through the plant and animal kingdoms to reach the human kingdom. This is what Plato meant when he said: The world soul is crucified on the world body. But man has not yet reached the end of his development. He is in a transitional stage in which he must overcome desire and penetrate to a higher spirituality. In that which he turns away from the sun, desire must be overcome and penetrated to higher spirituality. Then human beings will become as pure and chaste as the plant of the higher spiritual sun, holding out the chalice of their being.

[ 6 ] This ideal of the spiritualized plant chalice was presented to those who were disciples of the Holy Grail. That holy chalice is the plant chalice that has passed through the animal realm and been purified again to spirituality. The disciples were told: This chalice, which absorbs the rays of the spiritual sun, is inherent in the human organism. — Human beings have organs that are already formed and others that will only develop in the future. Just as we now produce air waves through the word, so in the distant future will be the way in which man produces his own kind. When man was imbued with such feelings, he could feel at Good Friday and Easter in those secret festivals how a driving force springs forth from the plants, which in the future will also appear purified and refined in man. On Good Friday in particular, this sprouting was experienced together with the feeling that Christ's sacrificial death was a pledge that human beings could strive to attain the Holy Grail. The blood of Christ purifies human beings, just as the plant is permeated by pure sap. The students experienced this in the most solemn moments. Then they felt themselves to be knowledgeable. The idea of redemption stood clearly before them as they felt the connection between Christ's sacrificial death and the sprouting plant. This idea was always before Richard Wagner.

[ 7 ] Wagner depicted the birth of the ego and selfishness in the form of Alberich. He used the E-flat major pedal point for this purpose.

[ 8 ] In 1856, he attempted to elaborate on the mystery of earthly life in the piece “Die Sieger” (The Victors): A young man is loved by a Chandala girl. However, the caste differences are so great that he is compelled to turn away from the girl in order to become a disciple of Buddha. The great pain this causes the girl makes him realize that in a previous life he was a Brahmin and had rejected the hand of a Chandala girl. Wagner thus sought a representation that would help him understand the idea of the world.

[ 9 ] On Good Friday in 1857, Richard Wagner stood in front of Villa Wesendonk near Zurich and looked out over Lake Zurich and the fields. As he gazed at the sprouting plants, the thought occurred to him of the connection between salvation and plant life. In his heart, the basic feeling of the chalice ideal that the disciples of the Grail had always had emerged like an image. Later, he sought the notes to express the development that leads from the plant chalice to the Grail chalice. In this way, he found peace in his delusion.

[ 10 ] The seed of the Parzival idea had always been hidden in modern culture. In his poem “Die Geheimnisse” (The Secrets), Goethe describes how a young man wanders through the forest to a monastery and is accepted into the community of initiates. This young man appears like Parzival wandering to the Grail castle. Goethe later explained this poem to a student fraternity that asked him about it: There are many religious views in the world. Each of the twelve men in the monastery where Brother Markus arrives represents one such belief. The thirteenth among them is the leader.

[ 11 ] In this poem, Goethe depicts an occult lodge where there are no disputes of opinion, only love. When the Wanderer arrives at the monastery, he sees a cross above the monastery gate, entwined with roses. He asks: “Who has placed roses on the cross?” The sign of the Rosicrucians expresses a thought that runs through the entire development of the world. Those who understand the ideal and the symbol can find it everywhere. The old legend tells how Cain sought access to paradise. It was not he, but Seth who was allowed to enter. There Seth finds the two intertwined trees of knowledge and life. He takes three seeds from them and places them on the tongue of the dying Adam. A tree grows from them. It is the same tree on which Moses perceives the formation of flames and hears the words: “I am who was, who is, and who will be.” Moses' staff is taken from this tree. Its wood is used to make the gate of Solomon's temple, the bridge over which Christ walked when he went to the Mount of Olives, and finally the cross of Golgotha. The Grail tradition added: when the wood was dry and had become the cross, it sprouted living shoots as a pledge of eternal life. The Grail disciple saw this in the form of roses. Here, the past and the future join hands. Goethe touches on this mystery in the following verses:

“Tell no one, only the wise,
Because the crowd will immediately mock...”

[ 12 ] This mood also underlies the words: “Who has placed roses on the cross?” Wagner depicted this stage of evolution most intensely in Parsifal. Everything Parsifal does is meaningful. He does nothing outwardly. He is allowed to be active in the supersensible world. He accomplishes the most where he reaches the highest level of his inner development.

[ 13 ] This resounds so wonderfully through Wagner's last poem. When we see that holy band gathered around the Grail, and Parsifal, who first kills—he shoots the swan—and then becomes the savior, we understand what Wagner meant by the words “finding peace in delusion.” He wanted to show that what could not be achieved with dramatic art could be achieved with music. Until now, music has only expressed inner feelings. On the other hand, the word “drama” has been perceived as intrusive. The deepest feelings begin where words end. Wagner sought a connecting link. That was to be the music drama. The external word should cease at the given moment and give way to the music. Without Parsifal, Wagner would not have achieved the ideal he was striving for. Where he penetrated deepest into the supernatural, he needed the most intimate music. In Parsifal, he found the purest musical expression for this. As an artist and musician, he attempted to portray what lived within him as a mystic.