Donate books to help fund our work. Learn more→

The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

Three Lectures on the Mystery Dramas
GA 125

17 September 1910, Basel

I. Self-Knowledge as Portrayed in the Rosicrucian Mystery, The Portal of Initiation

Many of you know that recently in Munich we repeated last year's performance of Schuré's drama, The Children of Lucifer. We also put our efforts into the production of a Rosicrucian Mystery in which we tried in a variety of ways to bring to expression what is living in our movement. For one thing, it was meant to show how the life of anthroposophy and its impulses can flow into art, into artistic form. Besides that, we should be aware that this Rosicrucian Mystery contains many of our spiritual scientific teachings that perhaps only in future years will be discerned. Please do not misunderstand me when I say that if people would exert themselves to some degree to read what is in it—not between the lines but right in the words themselves, though certainly in a spiritual sense—if people would exert themselves during the next few years to try to work with the drama, I would not have to give any more lectures for a long time. Much could be discovered in it that otherwise I would have to put forth as one or another theme in lectures. It is much more practical, however, to do this together as a group rather than as single individuals. It is fortunate in one sense that everything that lives in spiritual science also exists in such a form.

In relation to the Rosicrucian Mystery I should today like to speak about certain peculiarities of human self- knowledge. For this we will have to remind ourselves how the individuality living in the body of Johannes Thomasius brings about a characterization of himself. Therefore, I wish to start my lecture with a recitation of the scenes from the Rosicrucian Mystery that portray the self-knowledge of Johannes.


SCENE TWO

A place in the open; rocks and springs. The whole surroundings are to be thought of as within the soul of Johannes Thomasius. What follows is the content of his meditation.

(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
O man, know thou thyself.

Johannes:

For many years these words
of weighty meaning I have heard.
They sound to me from air and water;
they echo up from depths of earth.
And just as in the acorn secretly
the structure of the mighty oak is pressed,
within the power of these words
there is contained
all that my thought can comprehend
about the nature of the elements,
of souls as well as spirits,
of time and of eternity.
The world and my own nature
are living in the words:
O man, know thou thyself!

(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
O man, know thou thyself.

And now!—within me
it is becoming terribly alive.
Around me darkness weaves,
within me blackness yawns;
out of the world of darkness it resounds,
out of soul-blackness it rings forth:—
O man, know thou thyself!

(There sounds from springs and rocks:)
O man, know thou thyself.

And now it robs me of myself.
I change with every hour of the day.
I melt into the night.
The earth I follow in her cosmic course.
I rumble in the thunder,
I flash within the lightning,
I am.—But oh, I feel
already separated from my being.
I see my body's shell.
It is an alien being outside myself;
it is remote from me.
There hovers nearer now another body
and with its mouth I have to speak:
'He brought me bitter sorrow;
I gave him all my trust.
He left me in my grief alone.
He robbed me of the warmth of life
and thrust me deep into cold earth.'
She, whom I left, unhappy one,
I was now she herself,
and I must suffer her despair.
Self-knowledge lent me strength
to pour myself into another self.
O cruel words!
Your light is quenched by its own power.
O man, know thou thyself!

(There sounds from springs and rocks:)
O man, know thou thyself.

You guide me back again
into the spheres of my own being.
Yet how do I behold myself!
My human form is lost;
as raging dragon I must see myself,
begot of lust and greed.
I clearly sense
how an illusion's cloud
has hid from me till now
my own appalling form.
The fierceness of my being will devour me.
And running like consuming fire
through all my veins I feel those words,
which hitherto with elemental power
revealed to me the truth of suns and earths.
They live within my pulse,
they beat within my heart,
and even in my thought itself I feel
those unfamiliar worlds flare up as wild desires.
This is the fruitage of the words:
O man, know thou thyself.

(There sounds from springs and rocks:)
O man, know thou thyself.

There from the dark abyss,
what being gloats on me?
I feel the chains
that hold me fettered fast to you.
Prometheus was not chained so fast
upon the cliffs of Caucasus
as I am chained to you.
Who are you, horrifying being?

(There sounds from springs and rocks:)
O man, know thou thyself.

Oh, now I recognize you.
It is myself.
So knowledge chains to you, pernicious monster,

(Maria Enters, but is not noticed
By Johannes for the time being)

me, myself, pernicious monster.
I sought to flee from you.
The worlds wherein my folly fled,
in order to be free from my own self,
have dazzled and have blinded me.
And blind I am once more within the blinded soul.
O man, know thou thyself!

(There sounds from springs and rocks:)
O man, know thou thyself.

Johannes

(as if coming to himself, sees Maria. The meditation passes over into inner reality.)
Maria, you are here!

Maria

I've looked for you, my friend,
although I know
how dear to you is solitude,
now that so many people's views
have flooded through your soul.
And I know, too, that at this time
my presence cannot help my friend.
An urge that is obscure
is driving me to you this very moment
when words of Benedictus have called up, instead of light, such bitter grief
out of your spirit depths.

Johannes

How dear to me is solitude!
How often have I sought it out,
to find in it myself,
whenever pain and joy of men have driven me
into the labyrinths of thought.
Maria, that is past.
What Benedictus' words at first
drew forth out of my soul,
and what I then lived through
from everything those people said,
seems little to me now
if I compare it to the storm
which solitude has brought
into my heavy brooding.
O this solitude!
It drove me into cosmic spaces;
it tore me from myself.
Within that being to whom I brought such grief
I rose again but as another,
and had to bear the pain
which I myself had caused.
The fierce, dark solitude
then gave me back myself
but only to appall me
at the abyss of my own being.
-----------------------
For me, man's final refuge,
for me, my solitude is lost.

Maria

I must repeat my words to you:
no one but Benedictus can now help you.
The firm support we lack,
we both must have from him.
For know, I also can no longer bear
the riddle of my life,
unless some sign from him
can make the answer clear to me.
The lofty wisdom, pointing out
that only semblance and illusion
are spread out over all our life
as long as human thinking grasps alone its surface,
I've often held it up before my mind.
And every time it says:
you must be clear that an illusion
is shrouding you, though often it may seem the truth:
that evil fruit could come from your desire
to wake that light in others
which lives in you yourself.
My soul's best part can see
that heavy feelings of oppression
in you, my friend,
from living at my side
are too a portion of the thorny path
that leads you to the light of truth.
You must live through each terror
to which illusion can give birth
before the truth reveals itself to you:
thus speaks your star.
Yet through this starry word is also clear to me
that we must wander on the spirit paths together.
But when I seek these paths,
there spreads itself before my gaze dark night.
And blacker still becomes this night
through much which I must meet
as fruit of my own being.
We both must look for clarity in that light,
which for the eye can vanish
but never be extinguished.

Johannes

Maria, are you then aware
through what my soul has fought its way?
A heavy load indeed
has fallen upon you, dear friend.
Yet foreign to your being is that power
which has so wholly shattered me.
You can ascend to brightest heights of truth;
you can direct your steady gaze
at men's confusion.
In light, in darkness,
you will affirm yourself.
But every moment can
deprive me of myself.
I had to plunge into those people
who through their words revealed themselves just now.
I followed one into the cloister's loneliness,
I heard within the other's soul
Felicia's tales.
I was each one,
but for myself I died.
I'd have to have the faith
that beings spring from nothingness,
if I should cherish any hope
that from the nothingness in me
a human being ever could be born.
They force me out of fear into the darkness,
and hunt me through the darkness into fear,
these words imbued with wisdom:
O man, know thou thyself!

(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
O man, know thou thyself.

SCENE NINE

The same placed as in Scene Two

(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
O man, unfold your being..

Johannes

O man, unfold your being!
For three years now I've sought
for power of soul, with wings of courage,
to give these words their truth.
Through them a man who frees himself can conquer,
and conquering himself, can find his freedom.
O man, unfold your being!

(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
O man, unfold your being..

This power of soul is rising from within me
but only gently touching spirit hearing.
It harbours in itself the hope
that, growing, it will lead the human spirit
from narrowness far out to distant worlds,
just as the tiny acorn
mysteriously can expand
into the giant body of the noble oak.
The spirit in itself can bring to life
what weaves in air and water,
what has condensed to earth beneath.
For man can grasp
what has been taking hold of life
within the elements, in souls and spirits,
in time and in eternity.
The whole world-being lives within my soul,
when in the spirit there has taken root
the power that gives these words their truth:
O man, unfold your being!

(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
O man, unfold your being..

I feel them sounding in my soul,
rousing themselves to give me strength.
There lives in me the light,
there speaks around me brightness,
there germinates in me the light of soul,
there works in me world-radiance.
O man, unfold your being!

(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
O man, unfold your being.

I find myself secure on every side,
wherever these words' power follows me.
It will illuminate for me the senses' darkness
and will uphold me in the spirit heights.
It will enfill me with soul-substance
throughout all course of time.
The essence of the world I feel in me
and I must find myself in every world.
I see the being of my soul enlivened
through power that is my own.
I rest within myself.
I gaze on rocks and springs;
they speak the very language of my soul.
I find myself again within that being
to whom I brought such bitter grief,
and out of her I call out to myself:
'Oh, you must find me once again
and ease my suffering.'
The spirit's light will give me strength
to live the other self within myself.
O words of hope,
you stream forth power to me from all the worlds:
O man, unfold your being.

(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
O man, unfold your being.

You let me feel my weakness
and place me close to lofty aims of gods,
and blissfully I feel
such lofty aims' creative might
within my frail earth form.
Out of myself shall be revealed the purpose
for which the seed lies hidden in me.
And to the world I'll give myself
by living out my very being.
I want to feel these words' full power,
although they sound so gently.
They shall become for me a quickening fire
in my soul forces
and on my spirit paths.
I feel now how my thinking penetrates
deep hidden grounds of worlds
and how its radiant light illumines them.
Such is the germinating power of these words:
O man, unfold your being.

(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
O man, unfold your being.

From light-filled heights a Being shines on me,
and wings I feel
that lift me up to him.
I too will free myself, as every being does
who overcomes himself.

(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
O man, unfold your being.

I see that Being.
I shall become like him in future times.
The spirit will then free itself in me
through you, exalted goal of man.
I will now follow you.

(Maria enters)
My eye of soul has been awakened
by spirit beings who have welcomed me.
And as I gaze into the worlds of spirit,
I feel within myself that power:
O man, unfold your being.

(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
O man, unfold your being.

Maria, you are here?

Maria

My soul has led me here.
I could behold your star:
it shines in its full power.

Johannes

I can unfold that power from within me.

Maria

So closely are we linked
that your soul's life
lets its light shine into my soul.

Johannes

Maria, you are then aware
of what has just revealed itself?
For me, man's core of confidence,
for me, the certainty of being has been won.
I feel indeed the power of the words
which everywhere can guide me:
O man, unfold your being!

(From the springs and rocks resounds:)
O man, know thou thyself.

In these scenes two levels of development, two steps in the unfolding of our souls, are shown.

Now please do not find it strange when I say that I do not mind interpreting this Rosicrucian Mystery just as I have interpreted other pieces of literature in our group. What I have often said about other poetry can also be brought before our souls in a lively, spontaneous way by this drama. In fact, I have never failed to point out that a flower knows little, indeed, of what someone who is looking at it will find in it; yet, whatever he finds is contained in it. And in speaking about Faust, I explained that the poet did not necessarily know or feel everything in the words he was writing down that later would be discovered in them. I can assure you that nothing of what afterward I could say about the Rosicrucian Mystery, and that I know now is in it, was in my conscious mind as I wrote down the various scenes. The scene-pictures grew one by one, just like the leaves of a plant. One cannot bring forth a character by first having an idea and then turning this into a concrete figure. It was continually interesting to me how each scene grew out of the others preceding it. Friends who knew the earlier parts said that it was remarkable how everything came about quite differently from what one could have imagined.

This Mystery Drama exists now as a picture of human evolution in the development of a single person. I want to emphasize that true feeling makes it impossible to throw a cloak of abstractions around oneself in order to present anthroposophy; every human soul is different from every other and, at its core, must be different, because each one undergoes the experience of his own development. For this reason, instruction to the many can provide only general directions. One can give the complete truth only by applying it to a single human soul, to a soul that reveals its human individuality in all its uniqueness. If, therefore, anyone should consider the figure of Johannes Thomasius in such a way as to transfer the specific description of that figure to general theories of human development, it would be absolutely incorrect. If he believed that he would experience exactly what Johannes Thomasius experienced, he would be quite mistaken. For while in the widest sense what Johannes Thomasius had to undergo is valid for everyone, in order to have the same specific experiences one would have to be Johannes Thomasius. Each person is a “Johannes Thomasius” in his own fashion.

Everything in the drama is presented, therefore, in a completely individual way. Through this, the truth portrayed by the particular figures brings out as clearly as possible the development of the soul of a human being. At the beginning, Thomasius is shown in the physical world, but certain soul-happenings are hinted at that provide a wide basis for such development, particularly an experience at a somewhat earlier time when he deserted a girl who had been lovingly devoted to him. Such things do take place, but this individual happening has a different effect on a man who has resolved to undertake his own development. There is one deep truth necessary for him who wants to undergo development: self-knowledge cannot be achieved by brooding within oneself but only through diving into the being of others. Through self- knowledge we must learn that we have emerged from the cosmos. Only when we give ourselves up can we change into another Self. First of all, we are transformed into whatever was close to us in life.

When at first Johannes sinks more deeply into himself and then plunges in self-knowledge into another person, into the one to whom he has brought bitter pain, we see this as an example of the experience of oneself within another, a descent into self-knowledge. Theoretically, one can say that if we wish to know the blossom, we must plunge into the blossom, and the best method of acquiring self-knowledge is to plunge again, but in a different way, into happenings we once took part in. As long as we remain in ourselves, we experience only superficially whatever takes place. In contrast to true self-knowledge, what we think of other persons is then mere abstraction.

For Thomasius at first, what other people have lived through becomes a part of him. One of them, Capesius, describes some of his experiences; we can observe that they are rooted in real life. But Thomasius takes in more. He is listening. His listening is singular; later, in SceneEight, we will be able to characterize it. It is really as if Thomasius' ordinary Self were not present. Another deeper force appears, as though Thomasius were creeping into the soul of Capesius and were taking part in what is happening from there. That is why it is so absolutely important for Thomasius to be estranged from himself. Tearing the Self out of oneself and entering into another is part and parcel of self-knowledge. It is noteworthy, therefore, that what he has listened to in Scene One, Thomasius says, reveals:

... A mirrored image of the whole of life,
that showed me clearly to myself.
What is revealed to us out of the spirit
has led me to perceive how many men,
who think themselves a whole, in fact
hear in themselves one single facet only.
In order to unite within myself
all these divergent sides,
I started boldly on the path taught here—
and it has made of me a nothing.

Why has it made a “nothing” of him? Because through self-knowledge he has plunged into these other persons. Brooding in your own inner self makes you proud, conceited. True self-knowledge leads, first of all, by having to plunge into a strange Self, into suffering. In Scene One Johannes follows each person so strongly that when he listens to Capesius he becomes aware of the words of Felicia within the other soul. He follows Strader into the loneliness of the cloister, but at first this has the character of something theoretical. He cannot reach as far as he is later led, in Scene Two, through pain. Self-knowledge is deepened by the meditation within his inner Self. What was shown in Scene One is shown changed in Scene Two through self-knowledge intensified from abstraction to a concrete imagination. Those well-known words, which we have heard through the centuries as the motif of the Delphic Oracle, bring about a new life for this man Johannes, though at first it is a life of estrangement from himself.

Johannes enters, as a knower-of-himself, into all the outer phenomena. He finds his life in the air and water, in the rocks and springs, but not in himself. All the words that we can let sound on stage only from outside are actually the words of his meditation. As soon as the curtain rises, we have to confront these words, which would sound louder to anyone through self-knowledge than we can dare to produce on the stage. Thereafter, he who is learning to know himself dives into the other beings and elements and thus learns to know them. Then in a terrible form the same experience he has had earlier appears to him.

It is a deep truth that self-knowledge, when it progresses in the way we have characterized, leads us to see ourselves quite differently from the way we ever saw ourselves before. It teaches us to perceive our “I” as a strange being.

Man believes his own outer physical sheath to be the closest thing to himself. Nowadays, when he cuts a finger, he is much more connected with the painful finger than when, for instance, a friend hurts him with an unjust opinion. How much more does it hurt a modern person to cut his finger than to hear an unjust opinion! Yet he is only cutting into his bodily sheath. To feel our body as a tool, however, will come about only through self- knowledge.

Whenever a person grasps an object, he can feel his hand to some degree as a tool. This, too, he can learn to feel with one or another part of his brain. The inward feeling of his brain as instrument comes about at a certain level of self-knowledge. Specific places within the brain are localized. If we hammer a nail, we know we are doing it with a tool. We know that we are also using as tool one or another part of the brain. Through the fact that these things are objective and can become separate and strange to us, we come to know our brain as something quite separate from us. Self-knowledge requires this sort of objectivity as regards our body; gradually our outer sheath becomes as objective to us as the ordinary tools we use. Then, as soon as we have made a start at feeling our bodily sheath as separate object, we truly begin to live in the outside world.

Because a person feels only his body, he is not clear about the boundary between the air outside and the air in his lungs. All the same, he will say that it is the same air, outside and inside. So it is with everything, with the blood, with everything that belongs to the body. But what belongs to the body cannot be outside and inside—that is mere illusion. It is only through the fact that we allow the internal bodily nature to become outward that in truth it finds a further life out in the rest of the world and the cosmos.

In the first scene recited today there was an effort to express the pain of feeling estranged from oneself—the pain of feeling estranged because of being outside and within all the other things. Johannes Thomasius' own bodily sheath seems like a person outside himself. But just because of that—that he feels his own body outside—he can see the approach of another body, that of the young girl he once deserted. It comes toward him; he has learned how to speak with the very words of the other being. She says to him, whose Self has widened out to her:

He brought me bitter sorrow;
I gave him all my trust.
He left me in my grief alone.
He robbed me of the warmth of life
and thrust me deep into cold earth.

Then guilt, very much alive, rises up in the soul when, plunging our own Self into another and attaching ourselves to the pain of this other being, the pain is spoken out. This is a deepening, an intensifying. Johannes is truly within the pain, because he has caused it. He feels himself dissolving into it and then waking up again. What is he actually experiencing?

When we try to put all this together, we will find that the ordinary, normal human being undergoes something similar only in the condition we call kamaloka. The initiate, however, has to experience in this world what the normal person experiences in the spiritual world. Within the physical body he must go through what ordinarily is experienced outside the physical body. All the elements of kamaloka have to be undergone as the elements of initiation. Just as Johannes dives into the soul to whom he has brought such grief, so must the normal human being in kamaloka dive into the souls to which he has brought pain. It is just as if a slap in the face has to come back to him; he has to feel the same pain. The only difference is that the initiate experiences this in the physical body, and other people after death. The one who goes through this here will afterward live otherwise in kamaloka. But even all that one undergoes in kamaloka can be so experienced that one does not become entirely free. It is a most difficult task to become completely free. A man feels as if he were chained to his physical conditions.

In our time one of the most important elements for our development—not yet so much in the Greco-Roman epoch but especially important nowadays—is that the human being must experience how infinitely difficult it is to become free of himself. Therefore, a notable initiation experience is described by Johannes as feeling chained to his own lower nature; his own being seems to be a creature to which he is firmly fettered:

I feel the chains
that hold me fettered fast to you.
Prometheus was not chained so fast
upon the cliffs of Caucasus
as I am chained to you.

This belongs to self-knowledge; it is a secret of self- knowledge. We should try to understand it correctly.

A question about this secret could be phrased like this: have we in some way become better human beings by becoming earth dwellers, by entering into our physical sheaths, or would we be better by remaining in our inner natures and throwing off those sheaths? Superficial people, taking a look at life in the spirit, may well ask: why ever do we have to plunge down into a physical body? It would be much easier to stay up there and not get into the whole miserable business of earthly existence.

For what reason have the wise powers of destiny thrust us down here? Perhaps it helps our feelings a little to say that for millions and millions of years the divine, spiritual powers have worked on the physical body. Because of this, we should make more out of ourselves than we have the strength to do. Our inner forces are not enough. We cannot yet be what the gods have intended for us if we wish to be only what is in our inner nature, if our outer sheaths do not work some corrections in us. Life shows us that here on earth man is put into his physical sheaths and that these have been prepared for him by the beings of three world epochs. Man has now to develop his inner nature. Between birth and death, he is bad; in Devachan he is a better creature, taken up by divine, spiritual beings who shower him with their own forces. Later on, in the Vulcan epoch, he will be a perfect being. Now on the earth he is a being who gives way to this or that desire. Our hearts, for one thing, are created with such wisdom that they can hold out for decades against the excesses we indulge in, such as drinking coffee. What man can be today through his own will is the way he travels through kamaloka. There he has to learn what he can be through his own will, and that is certainly nothing very good. Whenever man is asked to describe himself, he cannot use the adjective “beautiful.” He has to describe himself as Johannes does in Scene Two:

Yet how do I behold myself!
My human form is lost;
as raging dragon I must see myself,
begot of lust and greed.
I clearly sense
how an illusion's cloud
has hid from me till now
my own appalling form.

Our inner nature stretches flexibly within our bodily sheaths and is hidden from us. When we approach initiation, we learn really to see ourselves as a kind of raging dragon. Therefore, these words are drawn up out of the deepest perception; they are words of self-knowledge, not of self-brooding:

It is myself.
So knowledge chains to you
, pernicious monster,
me myself, pernicious monster.

At bottom, they are both the same, one the subject, the other the object.

I sought to flee from you.

This flight, however, merely leads the human being directly to himself.

But then the crowd turns up, the crowd we find ourselves in when we really look into ourselves. We find ourselves to be a collection of lusts and passions we had not noticed earlier, because each time we wanted to look into ourselves our eyes were distracted to the world outside. Indeed, compared to what we would have seen inside, the world outside is wonderfully beautiful. Out there, in the illusion, in the maya of life, we stop looking at ourselves inwardly. When people around us, however, begin to talk all kinds of stupidity and we cannot stand it, we escape to where we can be alone. This is quite important at some levels of development. We can and should collect ourselves; it is a good means of self-knowledge. But it can happen that, coming into a crowd of people, we can no longer be alone; those others appear, either within us or outside us, no matter; they do not allow us to be alone. Then comes the experience we must have: solitude actually brings forth the worst kind of fellowship.

For me, man's final refuge,
for me, my solitude is lost.

Those are genuine experiences. Do not let the strength, the intensity, of the happenings trouble you. You do not have to believe that such strength and intensity as described must necessarily lead to anxiety or fear. It should not prevent anyone from also plunging into these waters. No one will experience all this as swiftly or with such vehemence as Johannes does; it had to come about for him in this way for a definite purpose, even prematurely, too. A normal self-development proceeds differently. Therefore, what occurs in Johannes so tumultuously must be understood as an individual happening. Because he is this particular individual, who has suffered a kind of shipwreck, everything he undergoes takes place much more tempestuously than it otherwise would. He is confronted by the laws of self-development in such a way that they throw him completely off balance. As for us, one thing should be awakened by this description of Johannes, that is, the perception that true self-knowledge has nothing to do with trite phrases, that true self- knowledge inevitably leads us into pain and sorrow.

Things that once were a source of delight can assume a different face when they appear in the realm of self- knowledge. We can long for solitude, no doubt, when we have already found self-knowledge. But in certain moments of self-development it is solitude we have lost when we look for it as we did earlier, in moments when we flow out into the objective world, when in loneliness we have to suffer the sharpest pain.

Learning to perceive in the right way this outpouring of the Self into other beings will help us feel what has been put into the Mystery Drama: a certain artistic element has been created in which everything is spiritually realistic. One who thinks realistically—a genuine, artistic, sensitive realist—undergoes at unrealistic performances a certain amount of suffering. Even what at a certain level can provide great satisfaction is at another level a source of pain. This is due to the path of self- development. A play by Shakespeare, for instance, an immense achievement in the physical world, can be an occasion for artistic pleasure. But a certain moment of development can arrive when we are no longer satisfied by Shakespeare because we seem inwardly torn to pieces. We go from one scene to the next but no longer see the necessity that has ordered one scene to follow another. We begin to find it unnatural that a scene follows the one preceding it. Why unnatural? Because nothing holds two scenes together except the dramatist Shakespeare and his audience. His scenes follow the abstract principle of cause and effect but not a concrete reality. It is characteristic of Shakespeare's drama that nothing of underlying karma is hinted at; this would tie the scenes together more closely.

The Rosicrucian drama grew into a realistic, spiritually realistic one. It makes huge demands on Johannes Thomasius, who is constantly on stage without taking part actively or showing a single important dramatic characteristic. He is the one in whose soul everything takes place, and what is described is the development of that soul, the real experience of the soul's development.

Johannes' soul spins one scene realistically out of the one before it. Through this we see that realistic and spiritual do not contradict each other. Materialistic and spiritual things do not need each other, and they can contradict each other. But realistic and spiritual are not opposites; it is quite possible for spiritual realism to be admired even by a materialistic person. In regard to artistic principles, the plays of Shakespeare can be thought of as realistic. You will understand, however, how far the art that goes hand in hand with a science of the spirit must finally lead. For the one who finds his Self out in the cosmos, the whole cosmos becomes an ego being. We cannot bear then anything coming toward us that is not related to the ego being. Art will gradually learn something in this direction; it will come to the ego principle, because the Christ has brought us our ego for the first time. In the most various realms will this ego be alive.

In still another way can the specific human entity be shown within the soul and also divided into its various components outside. If someone asked which person represents Atma, which one Buddhi, which one Manas? ... if someone in the audience could exclaim, “O yes, that figure on the stage is the personification of Manas!” ... it would be a horrible kind of art, a dreadful kind of art. It is a bad theosophical habit to try to explain everything like this. One would like to say, “Poor thing!” of a work of art that has to be “explained.” If it were to be attempted with Shakespeare's plays, it would indeed be absurd and downright wrong.

These habits are the childhood diseases of the theosophical movement. They will gradually be cured. But for once at least, it is necessary to point them out. It might even happen that someone tries to look for the nine members of the human organization in the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven!

On the other hand, it is correct to some extent to say that the united elements of human nature can be assigned to different characters. One person has this soul coloring, a second person another; we can see characters on the stage who present different sides of the whole unified human being. The people we encounter in the world usually present one or another particular trait. As we develop from incarnation to incarnation, we gradually become a whole. To show this underlying fact on the stage, our whole life has somehow to be separated into parts.

In this Rosicrucian Mystery, we will find that everything that Maria is supposed to be is dispersed among the other figures who are around her as companions. They form with her what might be called an “egoity.” We find special characteristics of the sentient soul in Philia, of the intellectual soul in Astrid, of the consciousness soul in Luna. It was for this reason that their names were chosen. The names of all the characters and beings were given according to their natures. In Devachan, Scene Seven, particularly, where everything is spirit, not only the words but also the placing of the words is meant to characterize the three figures of Philia, Astrid, and Luna in their exact relationships. The speeches at the beginning of Scene Seven are a better description of sentient soul, intellectual soul, and consciousness soul than any number of words otherwise could achieve. Here one can really demonstrate what each soul is. One can show in an artistic form the relationship of the three souls by means of the levels at which the figures stand. In the human being they flow into one another. Separated from each other, they show themselves clearly: Philia as she places herself in the cosmos; Astrid as she relates herself to the elements; Luna as she directs herself into free deed and self-knowledge. Because they show themselves so clearly in the Devachan scene, everything in it is alchemy in the purest sense of the word; all of alchemy is there, if one can gradually discover it.

Not only as abstract content is alchemy in the scene but in the weaving essence of the words. Therefore, you should listen not merely to what is said, nor indeed only to what each single character speaks, but particularly to how the soul forces speak in relation to one another. The sentient soul pushes itself into the astral body; we can perceive weaving astrality there. The intellectual soul slips itself into the etheric body; there we perceive weaving ether being. We can observe how the consciousness soul pours itself with inner firmness into the physical body. Soul endeavor that has an effect like light is contained in Philia's words. In Astrid is contained what brings about the etheric-objective ability to confront the very truth of things. Inner resolve connected at first with the firmness of the physical body is given in Luna. We must begin to be sensitive to all this. Let us listen to the soul forces in Scene Seven:

Philia (Sentient soul)

I will imbue myself
with clearest essence of the light
from worldwide spaces.
I will breathe in sound-substance,
life-bestowing,
from far ethereal regions,
that you, beloved sister, with your work
may reach your goal.

Astrid (Intellectual soul)

And I will weave
into the radiant light
the clouding darkness.
I will condense
the life of sound,
that glistening it may ring
and ringing it may glisten,
that you, beloved sister,
may guide the rays of soul.

Luna (Consciousness soul)

I will enwarm soul-substance
and will make firm life-ether.
They shall condense themselves,
they shall perceive themselves,
and in themselves residing
guard their creative forces,
that you, beloved sister,
within the seeking soul
may quicken certainty of knowledge.

I would like to draw your attention to the words of Philia,

Dass dir, geliebte Schwester,
Das Werk gelingen kann.
(that you, beloved sister, with your work may reach your goal.)

and to those of Astrid that carry the connotation of something heavier, more compact,

Dass du, geliebte Schwester ...

Dass dir,” “Dass du,” and then we have the “Du” again in Luna's speech woven together with the still heavier, weighty

Der suchenden Menschenseele
(within the seeking soul)

There the “u” is woven into its neighboring consonants, so that it can take on a still firmer compactness.1In the English translation of The Portal of Initiation these three sound distinctions could not be kept, except in the word “soul” at the end of Luna's speech, in which the (spoken) diphthong possesses a nuance of “u.”

These are the things that one can actually characterize. Please remember, it all depends on the “How.” Let us compare the words Philia speaks next:

I will entreat the spirits of the worlds
that they, with light of being,
enchant soul feeling,
that they, with tone of words,
charm spirit hearing
,

with the rather different ones of Astrid:

I will guide streams of love
that fill the world with warmth,
into the heart
of him, the consecrated one
.

Just here, where these words are spoken, the inner weaving essence of the world of Devachan has been achieved.

I am mentioning all this, because the scenes should make it clear that when self-knowledge begins to unfold into the outer cosmic weaving and being, we have to give up everything that is one-sided. We have to learn, too, to be aware—as we otherwise do only in a quite superficial, pedestrian way—of what is at hand at every point of existence. We become inflexible creatures, we human beings, when we stay rooted to only one spot in space, believing that our words can express the truth. But words, limited as they are to physical sound, are not what best will communicate truth. I would like to put it like this: we have to become sensitive to the voice itself. Anything as important as Johannes Thomasius' path to self-knowledge can be rightfully experienced—it depends on this—only when he struggles courageously for that self-knowledge and holds on to it.

When self-knowledge has crushed us, the next stage is to begin to draw into ourselves, to harbor inwardly what was our outer experience, learning how closely the cosmos is related to ourselves (for this comes to us after we understand the nature of the beings around us); now we must attempt courageously to live with our understanding. It is only one half of the matter to dive down like Johannes into a being to whom we have brought sorrow and have thrust into cold earth. For now, we have begun to feel differently. We summon up our courage to make amends for the pain we have caused. Now we can dive into this new life and speak out of our own nature differently. This is what confronts us in Scene Nine. In Scene Two the young girl cried out to Johannes:

He brought me bitter sorrow;
I gave him all my trust.
He left me in my grief alone.
He robbed me of the warmth of life
and thrust me deep into cold earth.

In Scene Nine, however, after Johannes has undergone what every path to self-knowledge demands, the same being calls to him:

O you must find me once again
and ease my suffering.

This is the other side of the coin: first the devastation and despair, and now the return to equilibrium. The being calls to him:

O you must find me once again ...

It could not have been described otherwise, this lifting into perception of the world, this replenishing of himself with life experience. True self-knowledge through perception of the cosmos could only have been described with the words Johannes uses when he comes to himself. It has begun, of course, in Scene Two:

For many years these words
of weighty meaning I have heard.

Then—after he has dived down into deep earth, after he has united himself with it—the power is born in his soul to let the words arise that express the essence of Scene Nine:

For three years now I've sought
for power of soul, with wings of courage,
to give these words their truth.
Through them a man who frees himself can conquer
and, conquering himself, can find his freedom.

The words, “O man, unfold your being!” are in direct contrast to the words of Scene Two, “O man, know thou thyself!” There appears to us once and again the very same scene. It leads the first time downward to:

The world and my own nature
are living in the words:
O man, know thou thyself!

Then afterward it is the opposite; it has changed. The scene characterizes soul development.

You have also heard the devastating words:

Maria, are you then aware
through what my soul has fought its way?
-------------------
For me, man's final refuge,
for me, my solitude is lost.

But Scene Nine shows how the being of the girl attains first hope and then security. That is the turning point. It cannot be constructed haphazardly; it is actual experience. Through it we can sense how self-knowledge in a soul like Johannes Thomasius can ascend into a self- unfolding. We should perceive, too, how his experience is distributed among many single persons in whom one characteristic has been formed in each incarnation.

At the end of the drama a whole community stands there in the Sun Temple, like a tableau, and the many together are a single person. The various characteristics of a human being are distributed among them all; essentially there is one person there. A pedant might like to object. “Are there not too many different members of the whole? Surely nine or twelve would be the correct number!” But reality does not always work in such a way as to be in complete agreement with theory. This way it corresponds more nearly with the truth than if we had all the single constituents of man's being marching up in military rank and file.

Let us now put ourselves into the Sun Temple. There are various persons standing in the places they belong to karmically, just as their karmas have brought them together in life. But when we think of Johannes here in the middle and think, too, that all the other characters are mirrored in his soul, each character as one of his soul qualities—what is happening there if we can accept it as reality?

Johannes Thomasius

Karma has actually brought these persons together as in a focal point. Nothing is without intention, plan, or reason; what the single individualities have done not only has meaning for each one himself, but each is also a soul experience for Johannes Thomasius. Everything is happening twice: once in the macrocosm, a second time in the microcosm, in the soul of Johannes. This is his initiation. Just as Maria, for example, has a special connection with him, so, too, there is an important part of his soul with a similar connection to another part of his soul. Those are absolute correspondences, embodied in the drama uncompromisingly. What one sees as outer stage- happening is, in Johannes, an inner happening in his development. There has to come about what the Hierophant has described in Scene Three:

There forms itself within this circle
a knot out of the threads
which karma spins in world becoming.

It has already formed itself, and this truly entangled knot shows what everything is leading toward. There is absolute reality as to how karma spins its threads; it is not an aimless spinning. We experience the knot as the initiation event in Johannes' soul, and the whole scene shows us a certain individuality actually standing above the others, that is, the Hierophant, who is directing, who is guiding the threads. We need only think of the Hierophant's relationship to Maria.

But it is just there that we can realize how self- knowledge can illuminate what happens to Maria in Scene Three. It is not at all pleasant, this emerging out of the Self. It is a thoroughly real experience, a forsaking of the human sheaths by our inner power; the sheaths left behind become then a battleground for inferior powers. When Maria sends down a ray of love to the Hierophant, it can only be portrayed in this way: down below, the physical body, taken over by the power of the adversary, speaks out the antithesis of what is happening above. From above a ray of love streams down, and below arises a curse. Those are the contrasting scenes: Scene Seven inDevachan, where Maria describes what she has actually brought about, and Scene Three, where, from the deserted body, the curses of the demonic forces are directed toward the Hierophant. Those are the two corresponding scenes. They complete each other. If they had had to be “constructed” theoretically from the beginning, the end result would have been incredibly poor.

I therefore have based today's lecture on one aspect of this Mystery Drama, and I should like to extend this to include certain special characteristics that underlie initiation.

Although it has been necessary to bring out rather sharply what has just been shown as the actual events of initiation, it should not let you lose courage or resolve in your own striving toward the spiritual world. The description of dangers was aimed at strengthening a person against powerful forces. The dangers are there; pain and sorrow are the prospect. It would be a poor sort of effort if we proposed to rise into higher worlds in the most convenient way. Striving to reach the spiritual worlds cannot yet be as convenient as rolling over the miles in a modern train, one of those many conveniences our materialistic culture has put into our everyday lives. What has been described should not make us timid; to a certain extent the very encounter with the dangers of initiation should steel our courage.

Johannes Thomasius' disposition made him unable to continue painting; this grew into pain, and the pain grew into perception. So, it is that everything that arouses pain and sorrow will transform itself into perception. But we have to search earnestly for this path, and our search will be possible only when we realize that the truths of spiritual science are not at all simple. They are such profound truths for our whole life that no one will ever understand them perfectly. It is just the single example in actual life that helps us to understand the world. One can speak about the conditions of a spiritual development much more exactly when one describes the development of Johannes, rather than when one describes the development of human beings in general. In the book, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment,2Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, Anthroposophic Press, Inc., Spring Valley, NY, reprinted 1983. the development that every human being can undertake is described, simply the concrete possibility as such. When we portray Johannes Thomasius, we look at a single individuality. But therewith we lose the opportunity of describing such development in a general way.

I hope you will be induced to say that I have not yet spoken out the essential truth of the matter. For we have described two extremes and must find the various gradations between them. I can give only a few suggestive ideas, which should then begin to live in your hearts and souls.

When I gave you some indications about the Gospel of St. Matthew,3Rudolf Steiner, The Gospel of St. Matthew, Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1965. I asked you not to try to remember the very words but to try—when you go out into life—to look into your heart and soul to discover what the words have become. Read not only the printed lectures, but read also in a truly earnest way your own soul.

For this to happen, however, something must have been given from outside, something has first to enter into us; otherwise, there could be self-deception of the soul. If you can begin to read in your soul, you will notice that what comes to you from outside re-echoes quite differently within. A true anthroposophical effort would be first of all to understand what is said in as many different ways as there are listeners.

No one speaking about spiritual science could wish to be understood in only one sense. He would like to be understood in as many ways as there are souls present to understand him. Anthroposophy can tolerate this. One thing is needed, however, and this is not an incidental remark; one thing is needed: every single kind of understanding should be correct and true. Each one may be individual, but it must be true. Sometimes it seems that the uniqueness of the interpretation lies in being just the opposite of what has been said.

When then we speak of self-knowledge, we should realize how much more useful it is to come to it by looking for mistakes within ourselves and for the truth outside.

It shall not be said, “Search within yourself for the truth!” Indeed, truth is to be found outside ourselves. We will find it poured out over the world. Through self- knowledge we must become free of ourselves and undergo those various gradations of soul experience. Loneliness can become a horrid companion.

We can also perceive our terrible weakness when we sense with our feelings the greatness of the cosmos out of which we have been born. But then through this we take courage. And we can make ourselves courageous enough to experience what we perceive.

Then we will finally discover that, after the loss of all the certainty we had in life, there will blossom for us the first and last certainty of life, the confidence that finding ourselves in the cosmos allows us to conquer and find ourselves anew.

O man, experience the world within yourself!
For then—in striding forth beyond your self—
You will find yourself at last
Within you own true Self.

Let us feel these words as genuine experience. They will gradually become for us steps in our development.

Über Selbsterkenntnis

anknüpfend an das Rosenkreuzermysterium «Die Pforte der Einweihung»

Die meisten der Anwesenden wissen, daß wir uns in München bemüht haben, außer der Wiederholung der vorjährigen Vorstellung des Dramas «Die Kinder des Lucifer» ein Rosenkreuzermysterium aufzuführen, das mancherlei von dem in der verschiedensten Weise sich darzustellen bemüht, was mit unserer Bewegung zusammenhängt. Dieses Rosenkreuzermysterium soll auf der einen Seite gewissermaßen davon eine Probe sein, wie in Kunst ausfließen kann das, was alles anthroposophische Leben bewegt. Auf der anderen Seite aber soll auch nicht vergessen werden, daß dieses Rosenkreuzermysterium vieles von unseren geisteswissenschaftlichen Lehren in einer solchen Weise enthält, wie man es vielleicht erst im Laufe der Jahre herausfinden wird. Und namentlich ist nicht mißzuverstehen, daß, wenn man sich einigermaßen Mühe geben würde, die Dinge zu lesen, die darin liegen — nicht zwischen den Zeilen, sie sind schon, wenn auch auf spirituelle Weise, in den Worten —, wenn man also sich Mühe geben würde, das Rosenkreuzermysterium so. aufzufassen, daß man diese Dinge in den nächsten Jahren aufsuchen würde, dann wäre es auf viele Jahre hinaus nicht nötig, daß ich irgendwelche Vorträge halten müßte. Es würde sich darin vieles von dem finden, was ich sonst über irgendein Thema vortrage. Es wird sich aber praktischer gestalten, wenn wir es gemeinsam heraussuchen, als wenn dies ein einzelner tut. In gewisser Weise ist es gut, daß auch in solcher Form vorhanden ist, was in der Geisteswissenschaft lebt.

So möchte ich heute, anknüpfend an das Rosenkreuzermysterium, über gewisse Eigentümlichkeiten der menschlichen Selbsterkenntnis sprechen. Dazu ist aber nötig, daß wir uns daran — charakterisierend — erinnern, wie im Rosenkreuzermysterium die Individualität im Leibe des Johannes Thomasius wirkt. Daher möchte ich, daß dieser Vortrag, der über Selbsterkenntnis handeln soll, mit einer Rezitation derjenigen Partien aus dem Rosenkreuzermysterium beginnt, welche die Selbsterkenntnis des Johannes bedeuten.

Zweites Bild

Gegend im Freien, Felsen, Quellen; die ganze Umgebung ist in der Seele des Johannes Thomasius zu denken, das Folgende als Inhalt seiner Meditation; später Maria.

(Es tönt aus Quellen und Felsen: O Mensch, erkenne dich!)

Johannes:

So hör? ich sie seit Jahren schon,
Die inhaltschweren Worte.
Sie tönen mir aus Luft und Wasser,
Sie klingen aus dem Erdengrund herauf,
Und wie ins kleine Samenkorn geheimnisvoll
Der Rieseneiche Bau sich drängt,
So schließt zuletzt sich ein
n dieser Worte Kraft,
Was von der Elemente Wesen,
Von Seelen und von Geistern,
Von Zeitenlauf und Ewigkeit
Begreiflich meinem Denken ist.
Die Welt und meine Eigenheit,
Sie leben in dem Worte:
O Mensch, erkenne dich!

(Aus Quellen und Felsen tönt es: O Mensch, erkenne dich!)

Und jetzt! — es wird
Im Innern mir lebendig fürchterlich.
Es webt um mich das Dunkel,
Es gähnt in mir die Finsternis;
Es tönt aus Weltendunkel,
Es klingt aus Seelenfinsternis:
O Mensch, erkenne dich!

(Es tönt aus Quellen und Felsen: O Mensch, erkenne dich!)

Es raubt mich jetzt mir selbst.
Ich wechsle mit des Tages Stundenlauf
Und wandle mich in Nacht.
Der Erde folge ich in ihrer Weltenbahn.
Ich rolle in dem Donner,
Ich zucke in den Blitzen.
Ich bin. - O schon entschwunden
Dem eignen Wesen fühl’ ich mich.
Ich sehe meine Leibeshülle;
Sie ist ein fremdes Wesen außer mir,
Sie ist ganz fern von mir.
Da schwebt heran ein andrer Leib.
Ich muß mit seinem Munde sprechen:
«Er hat mir bittre Not gebracht;
Ich habe ihm so ganz vertraut.
Er ließ im Kummer mich allein,
Er raubte mir die Lebenswärme
Und stieß in kalte Erde mich.»
Die ich verließ, die Arme,
Ich war sie eben selbst.
Ich muß erleiden ihre Qual.
Erkenntnis hat mir Kraft verliehn,
Mein Selbst in andres Selbst zu tragen.
O grausam Wort!
Dein Licht verlöscht durch eigne Kraft.
O Mensch, erkenne dich!

(Es tönt aus Quellen und Felsen: O Mensch, erkenne dich!)

Du führst zurück mich wieder
In meines eignen Wesens Kreise.
Doch wie erkenne ich mich wieder!
Mir ist verloren Menschenform.
Ein wilder Wurm erschein’ ich mir,
Aus Lust und Gier geboren.
Und klar empfinde ich,
Wie eines Wahnes Nebelbild
Die eigne Schreckgestalt
Bisher verborgen mir gehalten hat.
Verschlingen muß mich eignen Wesens Wildheit.
Ich fühle als verzehrend Feuer
Durch meine Adern rinnen jene Worte,
Die mir so urgewaltig sonst
Der Sonnen und der Erden Wesen offenbarten.
Sie leben in den Pulsen,
Sie schlagen mir im Herzen;
Und selbst im eignen Denken fühle ich
Die fremden Welten schon als wilde Triebe lodern.
Das sind des Wortes Früchte:
O Mensch, erkenne dich!

(Es tönt aus Quellen und Felsen: O Mensch, erkenne dich!)

Da, aus dem finstern Abgrund, —
Welch Wesen glotzt mich an?
Ich fühle Fesseln,
Die mich an dich gefesselt halten.
So fest war nicht Prometheus
Geschmiedet an des Kaukasus Felsen,
ie ich an dich geschmiedet bin.
Wer bist du, schauervolles Wesen?

(Es tönt aus Quellen und Felsen: O Mensch, erkenne dich!)

Oh, ich erkenne dich.
Ich bin es selbst.
Erkenntnis schmiedet an dich verderblich Ungeheuer

(Maria tritt ein, wird von Johannes zunächst nicht bemerkt.)

Mich selbst verderblich Ungeheuer.
Entfliehen wollt’ ich dir.
Geblendet haben mich die Welten,
In welche meine Torheit floh,
Um von mir selber frei zu sein.
Geblendet bin ich wieder in der blinden Seele:
O Mensch, erkenne dich!

(Es tönt aus Quellen und Felsen: O Mensch, erkenne dich!)

Johannes:

(wie wenn er zu sich käme, erblickt Maria. Die Meditation geht in innere Realität über)

O Freundin, du bist hier!

Maria:

Ich suchte dich, mein Freund;
Obwohl bekannt mir ist,
Wie lieb dir Einsamkeit,
Nachdem so vieler Menschen Meinungen
Die Seele dir durchfluter.
Und weiß ich auch,
Daß ich durch meine Gegenwart dem Freund
In dieser Zeit nicht helfen kann,
So drängt ein dunkles Streben
In diesem Augenblick mich doch zu dir,
Da Benedictus’ Worte dir statt Licht
So schweres Leid
Aus deines Geistes Tiefen lockten.

Johannes:

Wie lieb mir Einsamkeit!
- - - - - - - - -
Ich habe sie so oft gesucht,
In ihr mich selbst zu finden,
Wenn in Gedankenlabyrinthe mich
Der Menschen Leid und Glück getrieben hatten.
O Freundin, das ist nun vorbei.
Was Benedictus’ Worte erst
Mir aus der Seele holten,
Was durch der Menschen Reden
Ich erleben mußte,
Gering nur scheint es mir,
Vergleich dem Sturm ich dies,
Den Einsamkeit mir dann gebracht
In dumpfem Brüten.
O diese Einsamkeit!
Sie hetzte mich in Weltenweiten.
Entrissen hat sie mich mir selbst.
In jenem Wesen, dem ich Leid gebracht,
Erstand ich als ein andrer.
Und leiden mußte ich den Schmerz,
Den ich erst selbst bewirkt.
Die grausam finstre Einsamkeit,
Sie gab mich dann mir selber wieder.
Doch nur, zu schrecken mich
Durch meines eignen Wesens Abgrund.
Mir ist des Menschen letzte Zuflucht,
Mir ist die Einsamkeit verloren.

Maria:

Ich muß das Wort dir wiederholen:
Nur Benedictus kann dir helfen.
Die Stützen, die uns fehlen,
Wir müssen beide sie von ihm erhalten.
Denn wisse, auch ich kann länger nicht
Ertragen meines Lebens Rätsel,
Wenn nicht durch seinen Wink
Die Lösung sich mir zeigt.
Die hohe Weisheit, daß stets über alles Leben
Nur Schein und Trug sich breitet,
Wenn unser Denken seine Oberfläche bloß ergreift,
Ich habe sie recht oft mir vorgehalten.
Und immer wieder sprach sie:
Du mußt erkennen, wie dich Wahn umfängt,
So oft es dir auch Wahrheit dünkt,
Es könnte schlimme Frucht erstehn,
Wenn du erwecken willst in andern Licht,
Das in dir selber lebt.
In meiner Seele bestem Teil ist mir bewußt,
Daß auch der schwere Druck,
Den dir, mein Freund,
Das Leben hat gebracht an meiner Seite,
Ein Teil des Dornenweges ist,
Der zu dem Licht der Wahrheit führt.
Erleben mußt du alle Schrecken,
Die aus dem Wahn erstehen können,
Bevor der Wahrheit Wesen sich dir offenbart.
So spricht dein Stern.
Doch auch erscheint mir durch dies Sternenwort,
Daß wir vereint die Geisteswege wandeln müssen.
Doch such’ ich diese Wege,
So breitet sich vor meinem Blicke finstre Nacht.
Und schwärzer wird die Nacht durch vieles noch,
Was ich erleben muß
Als Früchte meines Wesens.
Wir müssen beide Klarheit in dem Lichte suchen,
Das wohl dem Aug’ entschwinden,
Doch nie erlöschen kann.

Johannes:

Maria, ist dir denn bewußt,
Was meine Seele eben durchgerungen?
Ein schweres Los fürwahr
Ist dir geworden, edle Freundin.
Doch ferne liegt ja deinem Wesen jene Macht,
Die mich so ganz zerschmettert hat.
Du kannst in hellste Wahrheitshöhen steigen,
Du kannst die sichern Blicke
In Menschenwirrnis richten,
Du wirst in Licht und Finsternis
Dich selbst bewahren.
Mir aber kann ein jeder Augenblick
Mich selber rauben.
Ich mußte in die Menschen untertauchen,
Die sich vorhin in Worten offenbarten.
Ich folgt’ dem einen in die Klostereinsamkeit,
Ich hörte in des andern Seele
Felicias Märchen.
Ich war ein jeder,
Nur selbst erstarb ich mir.
Ich müßte glauben können,
Daß Nichts der Wesen Ursprung sei,
Wenn ich die Hoffnung hegen sollte,
Daß aus dem Nichts in mir
Ein Mensch je werden könne,
Mich führt aus Furcht in Finsternis
Und jagt durch Finsternis in Furcht
Der Weisheit Wesenswort:
O Mensch, erkenne dich!

(Aus Quellen und Felsen tönt es: O Mensch, erkenne dich!)

(Der Vorhang fällt)

Neuntes Bild

Dieselbe Gegend wie im zweiten Bild. Johannes, später Maria.

(Es tönt aus Felsen und Quellen: O Mensch, erlebe dich!)

Johannes:

O Mensch, erlebe dich!
Ich habe sie drei Jahre lang gesucht,
Die mutbeschwingte Seelenkraft,
Die Wahrheit gibt dem Worte,
Durch das der Mensch, sich selbst befreiend, siegen
Und sich besiegend, Freiheit finden kann:

O Mensch, erlebe dich!

(Aus Felsen und Quellen tönt: O Mensch, erlebe dich!)

Sie kündigt sich im Innern an,
Nur leise fühlbar meinem Geistgehör.
Sie birgt in sich die Hoffnung,
Daß wachsend sie den Menschengeist
Aus engem Sein in Weltenfernen führt,
So wie geheimnisvoll sich weitet
Das kleine Samenkorn
Zum stolzen Leib der Rieseneiche. — —
Es kann der Geist in sich beleben,
Was in der Luft und was im Wasser webt,
Und was den Erdengrund gefestigt.
Es kann der Mensch ergreifen,
Was in den Elementen,
In Seelen und in Geistern,
In Zeitenlauf und Ewigkeit
Des Daseins sich bemächtigt hat.
Es lebt das ganze Weltenwesen in dem Seelensein,
Wenn solche Kraft im Geiste wurzelt,
Die Wahrheit gibt dem Worte:
O Mensch, erlebe dich!

(Aus Felsen und Quellen tönt: O Mensch, erlebe dich!)

Ich fühle — wie es tönt in meiner Seele,
Sich regend kraftverleihend.
Es lebt in mir das Licht,
Es spricht um mich die Helligkeit,
Es keimt in mir das Seelenlicht,
Es schafft in mir die Weltenhelle:
O Mensch, erlebe dich!

(Aus Felsen und Quellen tönt: O Mensch, erlebe dich!)

Ich finde mich gesichert überall,
Wohin mir folgt des Wortes Kraft.
Sie wird mir leuchten in der Sinnesdunkelheit
Und mich erhalten in den Geisteshöhen.
Sie wird mich mit dem Seelensein erfüllen
Für alle Zeitenfolgen.
Ich fühle Weltensein in mir,
Und finden muß ich mich in allen Welten.
Ich schau’ mein Seelenwesen
Durch Eigenkraft belebt in mir.
Ich ruhe in mir selber.
Ich blicke nach den Felsen und den Quellen;
Sie sprechen meiner Seele eigne Sprache.
Ich finde mich in jenem Wesen wieder,
Das ich in bittre Not gebracht.
Heraus aus ihm ruf’ ich mir selber zu:
«Du mußt mich wieder finden
Und mir die Schmerzen lindern.»
Das Geisteslicht, es wird mir Stärke geben,
Das andre Selbst im eignen Selbst zu leben.
O hoffnungsvolles Wort,
Du strömst mir Kraft aus allen Welten zu:
O Mensch, erlebe dich!

(Aus Felsen und Quellen tönt: O Mensch, erlebe dich!)

Du läßt mich meine Schwachheit fühlen
Und stellst mich neben hohe Gottesziele;
Und selig fühle ich
Des hohen Zieles Schöpfermacht
In meinem schwachen Erdenmenschen.
Und offenbaren soll sich aus mir selbst,
Wozu der Keim in mir geborgen ist.
Ich will der Welt mich geben
Durch Leben meines eignen Wesens.
Empfinden will ich alle Macht des Wortes,
Das mir erst leise klingt;
Es soll mir wie belebend Feuer sein
In meinen Seelenkräften,
Auf meinen Geisteswegen.
Ich fühle, wie mein Denken dringt
In tief verborgne Weltengründe;
Und wie es leuchtend sie durchstrahlt.
So wirkt die Keimkraft dieses Wortes:
O Mensch, erlebe dich!

(Aus Quellen und Felsen: O Mensch, erlebe dich!)

Aus lichten Höhen leuchtet mir ein Wesen,
Ich fühle Schwingen,
Zu ihm mich zu erheben,
Ich will mich selbst befrei’n
Wie alle Wesen, die sich selbst besiegt.

(Aus Quellen und Felsen: O Mensch, erlebe dich!)

Ich schaue jenes Wesen,
Ich will ihm gleich in Zukunftzeiten werden.
Der Geist in mir wird sich befrei’n
Durch dich, erhabnes Ziel.
Ich will dir folgen.

(Maria kommt hinzu.)

Das Seelenauge haben mir erweckt
Die Geisteswesen, die mich aufgenommen.
Und sehend in den Geisteswelten
Erfühle ich in meinem Selbst die Kraft:
O Mensch, erlebe dich!

(Aus Quellen und Felsen: O Mensch, erlebe dich!)

O meine Freundin, du bist hier!

Maria:

Mich trieb meine Seele hierher.
Ich konnte deinen Stern erschauen.
Er strahlt in voller Kraft.

Johannes:

Erleben kann ich diese Kraft in mir.

Maria:

So eng sind wir verbunden,
Daß deiner Seele Leben
Sein Licht in meiner Seele leuchten läßt.

Johannes:

O Maria, so ist dir bewußt,
Was sich mir eben offenbarte?
Mir ist des Menschen erste Zuversicht,
Mir ist die Wesenssicherheit gewonnen.
Ich fühle ja des Wortes Kraft,
Die überall mich leiten kann:
O Mensch, erlebe dich!

(Aus Felsen und Quellen: O Mensch, erlebe dich!)

(Vorhang fällt)

In den beiden Bildern: «O Mensch, erkenne dich» und «O Mensch, erlebe dich» treten vor unsere Seele zwei Stadien, zwei Entwickelungsstufen der Entfaltung unserer Seele.

Nun bitte ich Sie, es durchaus nicht sonderbar zu finden, wenn ich sage, daß ich eigentlich nichts dagegen habe, dieses Rosenkreuzermysterium so zu interpretieren, wie ich in unseren Kreisen auch schon bisweilen andere Dichtungen interpretiert habe. Denn in gewissem Sinne darf wohl gesagt werden, daß uns an diesem Rosenkreuzermysterium in lebendiger, unmittelbarer Weise vor die Seele treten kann, was ich öfters in Anknüpfung an andere Dichtungen gesagt habe, die ich interpretieren durfte. Ich habe niemals zurückgehalten zu sagen: So wenig die Pflanze, die Blume weiß, was derjenige, der die Blume betrachtet, darin findet, so ist dennoch das in der Blume enthalten, was er darin findet. — Ich führte aus, als ich die Dichtung des «Faust» interpretieren sollte, daß der Dichter beim Niederschreiben nicht notwendig unmittelbar alle Dinge selber gewußt, selber empfunden hat in Worten, die dann später darin gefunden worden sind. Ich kann die Versicherung geben, daß nichts von dem, was ich hinterher an dieses Mysterium anknüpfen werde, und von dem ich doch weiß, daß es darin ist, mir bewußt war, als die einzelnen Bilder gestaltet wurden. Die Bilder wuchsen so aus sich heraus wie die Blätter einer Pflanze. Man kann gar nicht solch eine Gestalt vorher dadurch hervorbringen, daß man zuerst die Idee hat und diese dann in die äußere Gestalt umsetzt. Es war mir immer recht interessant, wenn so Bild für Bild geworden ist, und Freunde, welche die einzelnen Szenen kennengelernt haben, sagten, es sei merkwürdig, daß es doch immer anders komme, als man es sich vorgestellt habe.

So steht dieses Mysterium da wie ein Bild der Menschheitsevolution in der Entwickelung eines einzelnen Menschen. Ich betone: für das konkrete Gefühl ist es ausgeschlossen, in Abstraktionen sich zu hüllen, um Anthroposophie darzustellen, weil eine jede Menschenseele anders ist als die andere und im Grunde, da sie ihre Entwickelung selbst erlebt, auch anders sein muß. Bei alldem, was als allgemeine Lehre gegeben wird, können wir nur Richtlinien empfangen. Daher kann man die vollständige Wahrheit nur dann geben, wenn man an eine individuelle Seele anknüpft, an eine Seele, die ihre menschliche Individualität mit aller Eigentümlichkeit darstellt. Wenn daher jemand Johannes Thomasius so betrachtet, daß er das, was im Konkreten von ihm gesagt wird, umsetzen würde in Theorien der menschlichen Entwickelung, so würde er etwas ganz Falsches machen. Wenn er glaubte, er werde ganz genau dasselbe erleben, was Johannes 'Thomasius erlebt hat, so würde er sich sehr irren. Denn das, was Johannes Thomasius in großen Richtungslinien zu erleben hat, gilt für jeden Menschen, aber um es so in seiner ganzen Eigenart zu erleben, dazu muß man eben Johannes Thomasius sein. Und jeder ist in seiner Art ein «Johannes Thomasius».

So ist alles in ganz individueller Weise dargestellt. Dadurch ist aber auch in Anknüpfung an die besondere Gestalt in so wahrer Weise wie nur möglich das gegeben, was die Entwickelung des Menschen in seiner Seele ist. Dazu mußte auch diese breite Basis geschaffen werden, daß Thomasius erst auf dem physischen Plan gezeigt wird, daß auf einzelne Seelenerlebnisse hingewiesen wird, so auf jenes, das bedeutsam sein muß, wo er in einer Zeit, die nicht zu fern ist, ein Wesen, das ihm in treuer Liebe ergeben war, verlassen hat. Das geschieht oft, aber dieses individuelle Ereignis wirkt anders auf den, der bestrebt ist, eine Entwickelung durchzumachen. Es ist eine tiefe Wahrheit, daß der, der eine Entwickelung durchmacht, Selbsterkenntnis nicht durch Hineinbrüten in sich selbst erlangt, sondern durch Untertauchen in einzelne Wesenheiten. Wir müssen durch Selbsterkenntnis erfahren, daß wir aus dem Kosmos herkommen. Nur dann können wir untertauchen, wenn wir uns in ein anderes Selbst verwandeln. Wir werden zuerst in das verwandelt, was uns im Leben einmal nahe war.

Es ist ein Exempel des Erlebens des eigenen Selbstes im anderen, wenn Johannes zuerst, da er tiefer in sein Selbst gekommen ist, mit diesem in Selbsterkenntnis untertaucht in ein anderes Wesen, in das Wesen, dem er bitteren Schmerz gebracht hat. So sehen wir, wie in dieser Selbsterkenntnis Thomasius untertaucht. Theoretisch sagt man: Willst du die Blüte erkennen, so mußt du hinuntertauchen in die Blüte. - Aber am besten ist die Selbsterkenntnis zu erlangen, wenn wir in die Begebenheiten untertauchen, in denen wir auf andere Weise selber darin gestanden haben. Solange wir im eigenen Selbst sind, machen wir die äußeren Erlebnisse durch. Wahrer Selbsterkenntnis gegenüber wird das Abstraktion, was wir anderen Wesen nachdenken.

Für Thomasius wird zunächst das, was andere Menschen erlebt haben, ein Eigenerlebnis. Da war einer, Capesius, der seine Erlebnisse geschildert hat. Diese Erlebnisse sind so, daß man erkennen kann, wie sie im Leben darin stehen. Aber Thomasius nimmt anderes auf. Er hört zu. Sein Zuhören aber ist — später wird es im achten Bild charakterisiert - ein anderes. Es ist so, wie wenn mit dem gewöhnlichen Selbst der Mensch gar nicht dabei wäre. Eine andere, tiefere Kraft zeigt sich da, wie wenn er selber es wäre, der in die Seele des Capesius hineinkriecht und das erlebt, was da vorgeht. Daher wird es so unendlich bedeutsam, daß er da sich selbst entfremdet wird. Es ist von Selbsterkenntnis nicht zu trennen, daß man sich losreißt von sich selbst und im anderen aufgeht. Deshalb ist es für 'Thomasius so bedeutsam, daß er, nachdem er diesen Reden [im ersten Bild] zugehört hat, sagen muß:

Ein Spiegelbild des vollen Lebens,
Das mich so klar mir selbst gezeigt.
Die hohe Geistesoffenbarung
Hat mich dazu geführt, zu fühlen,
Wie eine Seite nur des Menschen
So mancher in sich birgt,
Der ganz sich glaubt als Wesenheit.
Die vielen Seiten zu vereinen
In meinem eignen Selbst,
Betrat ich kühn den Weg,
Der hier gewiesen ist.
Er hat ein Nichts aus mir gemacht.

Warum hat er ein Nichts aus ihm gemacht? Weil er durch Selbsterkenntnis untergetaucht ist in diese anderen Wesen. Das Brüten ins eigene Innere macht den Menschen stolz, hochmütig. Wahre Selbsterkenntnis führt zunächst dadurch, daß wir untertauchen in fremdes Selbst, zu dem Leid. Johannes folgt [im ersten Bild] den Menschen so, daß er dem Capesius zuhört und in dieser anderen Seele die Worte der Felicia erfährt. Dem Strader folgt er in seine Klostereinsamkeit. Das ist die Abstraktion zunächst. Da ist er noch nicht dahin gekommen, wozu er jetzt [im zweiten Bild] durch den Schmerz geführt wird. Die Selbsterkenntnis vertieft sich in der Meditation im inneren Selbst. Und das, was im ersten Bild gezeigt worden ist, zeigt die vertiefte Selbsterkenntnis [im zweiten Bild], die aus der Abstraktion das Konkrete vorstellt. Und die gewöhnlichen Worte, die wir durch Jahrhunderte als Merkworte des Delphischen Orakels ertönen hören, gewinnen ein neues Leben für den Menschen, aber zunächst ein Leben der Entfremdung von sich selbst.

Johannes geht als Sich-selbst-Erkennender in allen äußeren Wesen unter. Er lebt in Luft und Wasser, in Felsen und Quellen, aber nicht in sich selber. All die Worte, die man nur von außen tönen lassen kann, sind eigentlich Worte der Meditation. Und schon wenn der Vorhang aufgeht, haben wir uns die Worte vorzustellen, die bei jeder Selbsterkenntnis viel lauter ertönen, als man es auf der Bühne darzustellen in der Lage ist. Dann taucht der Selbsterkennende unter in die verschiedenen anderen Wesen; dadurch lernt er die Dinge kennen, in die er untertaucht. Und dann tritt ihm dasselbe Erlebnis, das er schon früher gehabt hat, in furchtbarer Weise vor Augen.

Das ist durchaus tiefe Wahrheit, daß diese Selbsterkenntnis, wenn sie in dieser Weise verläuft, wie es eben charakterisiert worden ist, dazu führt, uns ganz anders anzuschauen, als wir uns vorher angesehen haben. Sie führt uns dazu, daß wir sozusagen unser Ich als fremdes Wesen empfinden lernen.

Für den Menschen ist eigentlich seine äußere Hülle das Nächste. Mit dieser wird der Mensch in unserer Zeit sich viel mehr verbunden fühlen, wenn er sich in den Finger schneidet, als wenn etwa ein falsches Urteil des Nebenmenschen ihm wehe tut. Wieviel mehr tut es dem heutigen Menschen weh, wenn er sich in den Finger schneidet, als wenn er ein falsches Urteil hört! Und dennoch schneidet es nur in seine Leibeshülle. Daß wir aber das fühlen, daß wir unseren Leib fühlen wie ein Werkzeug, das ergibt sich erst in Selbsterkenntnis.

Der Mensch kann seine Hand schon annähernd als Werkzeug fühlen, wenn er einen Gegenstand ergreift. Aber dasselbe lernt man fühlen mit diesem oder jenem Teil des Gehirns. Dieses innerliche Fühlen des Gehirns als Instrument stellt sich ein auf einer gewissen Stufe der Selbsterkenntnis. Da lokalisiert sich das einzelne. Wenn wir einen Nagel einschlagen, wissen wir, daß wir das mit einem Werkzeug tun. Wir wissen aber auch, daß wir diese oder jene Gehirnpartie dazu benützen. Dadurch, daß die Dinge uns objektiv fremd werden, lernen wir unser Gehirn als etwas von uns Abgesondertes kennen. Selbsterkenntnis fördert diese Objektivität unserer Hülle, und dann ist uns zuletzt unsere Hülle so fremd, wie uns unsere äußeren Werkzeuge fremd sind. Dadurch beginnen wir wirklich in der Außenwelt zu leben, wenn wir anfangen, unser Leibliches als ein Objektives zu fühlen.

Weil der Mensch nur seine Leibeshülle fühlt, ist er sich nicht klar darüber, daß eine Grenze ist zwischen der Luft da draußen und der Luft in seiner Lunge. Trotzdem sagt er, da drinnen sei dieselbe Luft wie draußen. Wenn wir den Stoff der Luft nehmen, dann ist er drinnen und draußen. So ist es mit allem, mit dem Blut, mit allem, was leiblich ist. Leiblich kann er aber nicht innen oder außen sein, das ist nur Maja. Gerade dadurch, daß das leibliche Innere ein Äußeres wird, setzt es sich wahrheitsgemäß in die übrige Welt und den Kosmos fort.

Der Schmerz des Sich-fremd-Fühlens sollte dargestellt werden in der ersten heute rezitierten Szene. Schmerz des Sich-fremd-Werdens dadurch, daß man sich findet in allem Äußeren. Die eigene Leibeshülle des Johannes Thomasius ist wie ein Wesen, das außer ihm ist. Dafür aber, daß er den eigenen Leib draußen fühlt, sieht er herankommen den anderen Leib, den Leib des Wesens, das er verlassen hat. Das kommt an ihn heran, und er hat gelernt, mit den eigenen Worten dieses Wesens zu sprechen. Es sagt zu ihm - sein Selbst hat sich zu ihm erweitert —:

Er hat mir bittre Not gebracht;
Ich habe ihm so ganz vertraut.
Er ließ im Kummer mich allein,
Er raubte mir die Lebenswärme
Und stieß in kalte Erde mich.

Dann aber erst kommt der Vorwurf lebendig in die Seele, wenn das fremde Leid, mit dem wir unser eigenes Selbst verknüpft haben, ausgesprochen werden muß, weil das eigene Selbst in ein anderes Selbst untergetaucht ist. Das ist eine Vertiefung. Da ist Johannes wirklich in dem Leid, weil er es verursacht hat. Er fühlt sich darin ausgeflossen und wieder aufgewacht. Was erlebt er da eigentlich?

Wenn wir alles zusammennehmen, finden wir, daß der gewöhnliche, normale Mensch ein ähnliches nur erlebt in dem Zustand, den wir Kamaloka nennen. Der Einzuweihende muß das, was der normale Mensch in der geistigen Welt erlebt, schon in dieser Welt erleben. Er muß das, was Kamaloka-Erlebnisse sind, was sonst außerhalb des physischen Leibes erlebt wird, innerhalb des physischen Leibes erleben. Daher sind alle Eigenschaften, die man als Kamaloka-Eigenschaften aufnehmen kann, als Erlebnisse der Initiation da. So wie Johannes untertaucht in die Seele, der er Leid gebracht hat, so muß der normale Mensch im Kamaloka in die Seelen untertauchen, denen er Schmerz gebracht hat. Wie wenn ihm eine Ohrfeige zurückgegeben wird, so muß er Schmerz empfinden. Diese Dinge sind nur mit dem Unterschied behaftet, daß der Initiierte sie im physischen Leib erlebt, der andere Mensch nach dem Tode. Wer sie hier erlebt, lebt in ganz anderer Weise dann im Kamaloka. Aber auch das, was der Mensch im Kamaloka erleben kann, kann so erlebt werden, daß er sozusagen noch nicht wirklich frei geworden ist. Und das ist eine schwierige Aufgabe, völlig frei zu werden. Der Mensch fühlt sich wie gefesselt an die physischen Verhältnisse.

In unserer Zeit gehört es zu den wichtigsten Entwickelungserlebnissen — in der griechisch-lateinischen Zeit war es noch nicht so, es ist erst jetzt besonders wichtig geworden —, daß der Mensch erleben kann, wie unendlich schwierig es ist, von sich loszukommen. Daher ist ein wichtiges Initiationserlebnis ausgedrückt in den Worten, wo sich Johannes an den eigenen niederen Leib gefesselt fühlt, wo sein eigenes Wesen ihm erscheint wie ein Wesen, an das er angeschmiedet ist:

Ich fühle Fesseln,
Die mich an dich gefesselt halten.
So fest war nicht Prometheus
Geschmiedet an des Kaukasus Felsen,
Wie ich an dich geschmiedet bin.

Das ist etwas, was mit Selbsterkenntnis verbunden ist, ein Geheimnis der Selbsterkenntnis. Wir müssen es nur im richtigen Sinn auffassen.

Die Frage nach diesem Geheimnis könnte auch so geschildert werden: Sind wir eigentlich dadurch, daß wir Erdenmenschen geworden sind, daß wir in unsere Erdenhüllen untergetaucht sind, bessere Menschen geworden, oder wären wir bessere Menschen, wenn wir allein in unserem Inneren sein könnten, wenn wir einfach die Hüllen abwerfen könnten? Die Triviallinge, die dem geistigen Leben gegenübertreten, können leicht fragen: Wozu erst untertauchen in den Erdenleib? Das einfachste wäre, man bliebe oben, dann würde man nicht die ganze Misere haben, unterzutauchen.

Wozu haben uns die weisen Mächte des Schicksals untergetaucht? Empfindungsgemäß kann man da wenig erklären, wenn man sagt, an diesem Erdenleib haben göttlich-geistige Kräfte durch Jahrmillionen und Jahrmillionen gearbeitet. Wir sollten gerade dadurch, daß es so ist, mehr aus uns machen, als wir Kräfte haben. Unsere inneren Kräfte reichen nicht hin. Wir können nicht jetzt schon so viel sein, wie die Götter gemacht haben, wenn wir bloß das sein wollen, was wir in unserem Inneren sind, wenn wir nicht korrigiert werden durch unsere Hüllen. Das Leben stellt sich so dar: Hier auf Erden ist der Mensch versetzt in seine Leibeshüllen; diese sind von Wesen durch drei Welten zubereitet. Der Mensch soll erst das Innere heranbilden. Zwischen Geburt und Tod ist er ein böses, im Devachan ist er wieder ein besseres Wesen, aufgenommen von göttlich-geistigen Wesen, die ihn mit ihren eigenen Kräften durchgießen. Später, in der Vulkanzeit, wird er dann ein vollkommenes Wesen sein. Jetzt auf Erden ist er ein Wesen, das dieser oder jener Lust frönt. Das Herz zum Beispiel ist so weise eingerichtet, daß es Jahrzehnte standhält gegen die Anstürme, die der Mensch gegen es richtet mit seinen Exzessen, zum Beispiel mit dem Kaffee. So, wie der Mensch heute durch eigene Kraft sein kann, zieht er nun durch Kamaloka. Da soll er kennenlernen, was er durch eigene Kraft sein kann. Und das ist wahrhaft nichts Gutes. Der Mensch kann, wenn er sich selbst bezeichnen soll, sich nicht bezeichnen mit dem Prädikat der Schönheit. Da muß er sich schon so bezeichnen, wie dies Johannes [im zweiten Bild] tut:

Doch wie erkenne ich mich wieder!
Mir ist verloren Menschenform.
Ein wilder Wurm erschein’ ich mir,
Aus Lust und Gier geboren.
Und klar empfinde ich,
Wie eines Wahnes Nebelbild
Die eigne Schreckgestalt
Bisher verborgen mir gehalten hat.

Unser Inneres wird wie elastisch ausgespannt in unsere Leibeshüllen und verbirgt sich uns. Wir lernen uns tatsächlich kennen wie eine Art wilder Wurm, wenn wir die Initiation kennenlernen. Und daher sind diese Worte nun aus tiefster Empfindung heraus geschöpft, die Worte der Selbsterkenntnis, nicht der Selbstbebrütung sind:

Ich bin es selbst.
Erkenntnis schmiedet an dich verderblich Ungeheuer
Mich selbst verderblich Ungeheuer.

Im Grunde genommen sind beide dasselbe, einmal als Objekt, das andere Mal als Subjekt.

Entfliehen wollt’ ich dir.

Aber dieses Entfliehen führt den Menschen gerade nur zu sich selbst.

Und dann kommt jene Gesellschaft, die da auftaucht, in der wir darinnen sind, wenn wir wirklich in uns hineinblicken. Diese Gesellschaft, die wir in uns finden, sind unsere eigenen Begierden und Leidenschaften, das, was früher nicht bemerkt wurde, weil jedesmal, wenn wir in uns hineinblicken wollten, der Blick abgelenkt wurde auf unsere Umgebung. Denn im Vergleich zu dem, in das wir so hineinblicken wollten, ist die Welt eine wunderschöne Welt. Da, in der Illusion, der Maja des Lebens, hört man auf, in sich hineinzusehen. Wenn aber die Menschen allerlei dummes Zeug um uns herum reden, und wenn es uns zuviel geworden ist, dann fliehen wir in die Einsamkeit. Und dies ist für gewisse Stufen der Entwickelung sehr wichtig. Da kann und soll man sich sammeln. Das ist ein gutes Mittel der Selbsterkenntnis. Aber es gibt dennoch Erlebnisse, daß wir in Gesellschaften kommen, daß wir nicht mehr einsam sein können, daß gerade da jene Wesen auftreten — in uns oder außer uns, das ist einerlei —, die uns nicht einsam sein lassen. Dann kommt jenes Erlebnis, das man haben soll. Diese Einsamkeit bringt eben die schlimmste Gesellschaft:

Mir ist des Menschen letzte Zuflucht,
Mir ist die Einsamkeit verloren.

Das sind wirkliche Erlebnisse. Aber lassen Sie sich die Intensität, die Stärke dieser Erlebnisse nicht selber eine Anfechtung sein. Glauben Sie nicht, wenn solche Erlebnisse in starker Intensität vorgeführt werden, daß man Angst und Furcht haben soll. Glauben Sie nicht, daß das beitragen soll, jemanden abzulenken, selbst unterzutauchen in diese Fluten. Man erlebt sie nicht gleich in dieser Stärke wie Johannes, weil er es zu bestimmtem Ziele so erleben sollte, in gewisser Weise sogar verfrüht. Die reguläre Selbstentwickelung geht einen anderen Gang. Deshalb ist das als individuell aufzufassen, was bei Johannes tumultuarisch eintritt. Weil er diese Individualität ist, die Schiffbruch erlitten hat, kann bei ihm, da er diese Gesetze durchmacht, alles viel tumultuarischer erfolgen. Er lernt sie so kennen, daß sie ihn tief aus dem Gleichgewicht bringen. Aber dadurch, daß es hier für Johannes geschildert ist, sollte eines erweckt werden, nämlich das Gefühl, daß mit irgendwelchen trivialen Phrasen wahre Selbsterkenntnis nichts zu tun hat, daß wahre Selbsterkenntnis nicht anders kann, als zuerst durch Schmerz und Leid zu führen.

Dinge, die vorher eine Erquickung für Menschen sind, gewinnen ein anderes Antlitz, wenn sie auf dem Felde der Selbsterkenntnis auftreten. Einsamkeit können wir uns erflehen, gewiß, wenn wir auch schon Selbsterkenntnis gefunden haben. Aber in gewissen Momenten der Selbsterkenntnis kann Einsamkeit das sein, was wir verlieren, wenn wir sie in unserer vorher bekannten Weise suchen, in Momenten, wo wir dann ausfließen in die objektive Welt, wo der Einsame gerade die schwersten Schmerzen erleidet.

Dieses Sich-Hinausergießen in andere Wesenheiten müssen wir in richtiger Weise empfinden lernen, wenn wir das, was in das Drama gelegt ist, fühlen wollen. Es ist ein gewisses ästhetisches Gefühl durchgeführt, alles darin ist spirituell-realistisch. Wer realistisch denkt - ein echt ästhetisch fühlender Realist -, empfindet gewisse Schmerzen bei einer unrealistischen Darstellung. Auch das, was auf einer gewissen Stufe große Befriedigung geben kann, kann auf anderer Stufe eine Quelle des Schmerzes sein. Das hängt von dem Weg der Selbsterkenntnis ab. Ein Shakespeare-Drama zum Beispiel, etwas also, was schon eine große Leistung der Außenwelt ist, kann ein Quell der ästhetischen Befriedigung sein. Aber ein gewisser Moment der Entwickelung kann eintreten, wo man nicht mehr davon befriedigt sein kann, weil man sein Inneres zerrissen fühlt, wenn man von Szene zu Szene geht, weil man keine Notwendigkeit mehr sieht, daß eine Szene an die andere gereiht ist. Man kann dies als unnatürlich empfinden, daß eine Szene neben die andere gestellt ist. Warum unnatürlich? Weil nichts zwei Szenen zusammenhält als der Schreiber Shakespeare und der Zuschauer. In der Szenenfolge ist ein abstraktes Prinzip der Kausalität, nicht ein konkret Wesenhaftes. Das ist das Charakteristische der Dramen Shakespeares, daß nichts angedeutet ist, was sie karmisch durchwirkt und zusammenhält.

Das Rosenkreuzerdrama ist realistisch geworden, spirituell-realistisch. Es stellt große Anforderungen an Johannes Thomasius. Ohne daß er in irgendeiner wichtigen Eigenschaft aktiv mittut, ist er auf der Szene. Er ist es, in dessen Seele sich alles abspielt, und was da geschildert wird, ist die Entwickelung der Seele, das reale Erlebnis dessen, was in der Entwickelung der Seele erlebt wird.

Die Seele des Johannes spinnt realistisch das eine Bild aus dem anderen Bild heraus. Da sehen wir, daß realistisch und spirituell einander nicht widersprechen. Materialistisches und Spirituelles brauchen sich nicht, aber können sich widersprechen. Aber es braucht sich auch Realistisches und Spirituelles nicht zu widersprechen, und es kann etwas spirituell Realistisches von einem Materialisten ganz bewundert werden. Die Dramen Shakespeares können in bezug auf ein ästhetisches Prinzip durchaus realistisch gedacht werden. Aber Sie können auch begreifen, daß eine Kunst, die Hand in Hand geht mit Geisteswissenschaft, zuletzt dahin führt, daß für den, der sein Selbst im Kosmos erlebt, der ganze Kosmos zu einer Ich-Wesenheit wird. Dann können wir es auch nicht ertragen, daß ihm irgend etwas entgegentritt im Kosmos, was nicht in Beziehung steht zur Ich-Wesenheit. Die Kunst wird in dieser Beziehung etwas lernen, was sie zum Ich-Prinzip kommen läßt, weil der Christus uns zuerst einmal das Ich gebracht hat. Auf den verschiedensten Gebieten wird sich dieses Ich ausleben.

Aber noch in anderer Weise zeigt sich dieses konkrete Menschliche in der Seele und das Wiederum-Verteiltsein draußen. Wenn einen damals jemand gefragt hat: Welche Person ist Atma, welche ist Buddhi, welche Manas? - Es wäre eine gräßliche Kunst, eine fürchterliche Kunst, wenn man die Darstellung so interpretieren müßte: Diese Gestalt ist eine Personifikation von Manas. — Es gibt theosophische Unarten, die sich bemühen, alles in dieser Richtung auszulegen. Von dem Kunstwerk, das sich so interpretieren lassen müßte, könnte man sagen: Armes Kunstwerk! — Gegenüber Shakespeares Dramen jedenfalls wäre dies grundfalsch und lächerlich.

Solche Dinge sind Kinderkrankheiten der theosophischen Entwickelung. Man wird sie sich schon abgewöhnen. Aber es ist doch notwendig, daß auf diese Dinge auch einmal aufmerksam gemacht wird. Es könnte sogar vorkommen, daß sich jemand daran macht, die neun Glieder der menschlichen Natur in der Neunten Symphonie Beethovens aufzusuchen.

Und dennoch ist es in gewisser Weise richtig, daß das, was einheitliche menschliche Natur ist, sich wiederum verteilt auf verschiedene Menschen. Ein Mensch hat diese besondere Seelenfärbung, ein anderer jene. So können wir Menschen vor uns sehen, die verschiedene Seiten der menschlichen Gesamtnatur darstellen. Aber das muß realistisch gedacht sein, muß aus der Natur des Menschen heraus kommen. Wie uns Menschen in der Welt entgegentreten, darin stellen sie die verschiedenen Seiten der menschlichen Natur dar. Und indem wir uns durchentwickeln von Inkarnation zu Inkarnation, werden wir eine Totalität. Wenn das betreffende Faktum, das zugrunde liegt, dargestellt werden soll, dann muß das ganze Leben aufgelöst werden.

So ist im Rosenkreuzermysterium das, was in gewisser Weise Maria darstellen soll, aufgelöst in den anderen Figuren, die als Begleiter um sie herum sind, die mit ihr eine Ichheit ausmachen. Man kann insbesondere Eigenschaften der Empfindungsseele in der Philia sehen, Eigenschaften der Verstandes- oder Gemütsseele in Astrid, Eigenschaften der Bewußtseinsseele in Luna. Daraufhin sind schon die Namen geprägt. Alle Namen sind so, daß sie für die einzelnen Wesenheiten ganz wesenhaft geprägt sind. Nicht nur in den Worten, sondern in der Art, wie die Worte gesetzt sind, namentlich wo wirken soll das Spirituelle im Devachan, im siebenten Bild, da ist das, was die drei Gestalten der Philia, Astrid und Luna charakterisieren soll, genau abgestuft. Das, womit da das siebente Bild beginnt, ist eine bessere Charakteristik von Empfindungsseele, Verstandesseele und Bewußtseinsseele, als man sonst in Worten geben kann. Da kann man den Menschen zeigen, was Empfindungsseele, was Verstandesseele, was Bewußtseinsseele ist. In der Kunst kann man die Stufen zeigen in der Art, wie diese drei Gestalten dastehen. In der menschlichen Wesenheit fließen sie ineinander. Werden sie voneinander gelöst, dann stellen sie sich so dar, wie Philia sich hineinstellt in das Weltenall, wie Astrid sich hineinstellt in die Elemente, wie Luna ausfließt in Selbsttat und Selbsterkenntnis. Und weil sie sich da so hineinstellen, ist in der Devachanszene alles enthalten, was im wahren Sinne Alchimie ist. Die ganze Alchimie ist darin. Man muß sie nur nach und nach herausfinden.

Sie ist aber nicht nur in dem abstrakten Inhalt gegeben, sondern in dem Weben und Wesen der Worte. Deshalb sollen Sie nicht nur hören, was gesagt wird, und namentlich nicht bloß, was der einzelne spricht, sondern wie die Seelenkräfte im Verhältnis zueinander sprechen. Die Empfindungsseele schiebt sich hinein in den Astralleib, wir haben es mit webender Astralität zu tun. Die Verstandesseele schiebt sich hinein in den Ätherleib, wir haben es also mit webender Atherwesenheit zu tun. Wir sehen, wie sich wie mit innerer Festigkeit die Bewußtseinsseele in den physischen Leib hineinergießt. So ist das, was seelenhaft wirkt wie Licht in der Seele, in den Worten der Philia gegeben; was ätherisch objektiv wirkt, so daß man den wahren Dingen gegenübersteht, das ist in Astrid gegeben; was innere Festigkeit gibt, so daß es mit dem physischen Leib verbunden ist, das ist in Luna gegeben. Das müssen wir erfühlen. Hören wir die Seelenkräfte im siebenten Bild:

Philia: (Empfindungsseele)

Ich will erfüllen mich
Mit klarstem Lichtessein
Aus Weltenweiten,
Ich will eratmen mir
Belebenden Klangesstoff
Aus Ätherfernen,
Daß dir, geliebte Schwester,
Das Werk gelingen kann.

Astrid: (Verstandesseele)

Ich will verweben
Erstrahlend Licht
Mit dämpfender Finsternis,
Ich will verdichten
Das Klangesleben.
Es soll erglitzernd klingen,
Es soll erklingend glitzern,
Daß du, geliebte Schwester,
Die Seelenstrahlen lenken kannst.

Luna: (Bewußtseinsseele)

Ich will erwärmen Seelenstoff
Und will erhärten Lebensäther.
Sie sollen sich verdichten,
Sie sollen sich erfühlen,
Und in sich selber seiend
Sich schaffend halten,
Daß du, geliebte Schwester
Der suchenden Menschenseele
Des Wissens Sicherheit erzeugen kannst.

Ich mache darauf aufmerksam, daß wir haben bei der Philia: «Daß dir, geliebte Schwester... .», daß wir bei Astrid in das Dumpfere, in das Dichtere hineinkommen: «Daß du, geliebte Schwester .. .», «Daß dir...», «Daß du...». Und jetzt haben wir es bei Luna verwoben mit dem noch schwerer Wiegenden: «Der suchenden Menschenseele». Da ist das U so verwoben mit den benachbarten Konsonanten, daß es noch festere Dichtigkeit erlangt.

Das sind die Dinge, die man tatsächlich charakterisieren kann. Auf das Wie kommt es an, das muß festgehalten werden. Vergleichen wir die Worte, die Philia weiter spricht:

Ich will erbitten von Weltengeistern,
Daß ihres Wesens Licht
Entzücke Seelensinn,
Und ihrer Worte Klang
Beglücke Geistgehör

mit den ganz anders gearteten, die Astrid spricht:

Ich will die Liebesströme,
Die Welt erwarmenden,
Zu Herzen leiten
Dem Geweihten

so ist gerade da, wo diese Worte durchgeführt sind, das innere Weben und Wesen des devachanischen Weltelementes durchgeführt.

Wir müssen uns klarmachen an solchen Dingen, und deshalb erwähne ich es, daß, wenn Selbsterkenntnis anfängt aufzugehen in äußerem Weltenweben und Weltenwesen, es darauf ankommt, alle Einseitigkeit aufzugeben, und daß wir fühlen lernen, wie wir sonst nur in Philisterart erleben können, was in jedem Punkte des Daseins vorhanden ist. Das macht uns Menschen zu starren Wesen, daß wir an den Punkt im Raume gebannt sind und glauben, mit Worten Wahrheiten aussprechen zu können. Aber Worte sind das, was weniger gut die Wahrheit aussprechen kann, weil es an den physischen Klang gebunden ist. Wir müssen, ich möchte sagen, den Ausdruck mitfühlen. Daher kommt es darauf an, daß ein solcher wichtiger Vorgang wie der Selbsterkenntnisvorgang des Johannes Thomasius nur so richtig erlebt werden kann, wenn er dann die Selbsterkenntnis mutvoll erringt und ergreift. Das ist der nächste Akt, nachdem die Selbsterkenntnis uns niedergeschmettert hat, daß wir anfangen, das, was wir draußen gelernt haben, indem wir den Kosmos als uns verwandt begriffen haben, nachdem wir das Wesen der Wesen erkannt haben, in uns jetzt hereinzunehmen, daß wir uns mutvoll erkühnen, das zu leben, was wir erkannt haben. Nur die Hälfte der Sache ist es, daß wir untertauchen wie Johannes in ein Wesen, dem wir Leid gebracht haben, das wir in die kalte Erde hinuntergestoßen haben. Denn wir empfinden jetzt anders. Wir fassen Mut, den Schmerz auszugleichen. Dann tauchen wir unter in dieses Leben und sprechen im eigenen Wesen anders. Das wird zunächst dasjenige, was uns im neunten Bild entgegentritt. Während im zweiten Bild das Wesen dem Johannes zurief:

Er hat mir bittre Not gebracht;
Ich habe ihm so ganz vertraut.
Er ließ im Kummer mich allein,
Er raubte mir die Lebenswärme
Und stieß in kalte Erde mich

rief dasselbe Wesen im neunten Bild, nachdem Johannes sich da erlebt hatte, wohin jede Selbsterkenntnis drängt, ihm zu:

Du mußt mich wieder finden
Und mir die Schmerzen lindern.

Das ist die andere Seite: erst das Niederschmetternde, dann das Ausgleichende des Erlebens. Da ruft ihm das andere Wesen zu:

Du mußt mich wieder finden.

Es könnte das anders nicht dargestellt werden, dieses Heraufheben des Erlebens der Welt, dieses Sich-Ausfüllen mit dem Erleben der Welt. Wahre Selbsterkenntnis im Auftauchen innerhalb des Kosmos könnte nicht geschildert werden, wenn nicht mit den Worten, mit denen Johannes aufwacht. Selbstverständlich muß sie so beginnen, im zweiten Bild:

So hör’ ich sie seit Jahren schon,
Die inhaltschweren Worte.

Dann, nachdem er untergetaucht ist in den Erdengrund, nachdem er mit dem Erdengrund vereinigt ist, entsteht in der Seele die Kraft, die Worte so entstehen zu lassen. Das ist das Wesentliche im neunten Bild:

Ich habe sie drei Jahre lang gesucht,
Die mutbeschwingte Seelenkraft,
Die Wahrheit gibt dem Worte,
Durch das der Mensch, sich selbst befreiend, siegen
Und sich besiegend, Freiheit finden kann.

Das sind die Worte: «O Mensch, erlebe dich!» im Gegensatz zu den Worten im zweiten Bild: «O Mensch, erkenne dich!» So tritt uns immer wiederum dasselbe Bild entgegen. Während das eine Mal das Bild hinunterführt:

Die Welt und meine Eigenheit,
Sie leben in dem Worte:
O Mensch, erkenne dich!

ist es dann umgekehrt. Das wechselt. Das Bild gibt den Seelenvorgang wieder.

So haben Sie auch gehört das furchtbar niederschmetternde Wort:

Maria, ist dir denn bewußt,
Was meine Seele eben durchgerungen?
- - - - - - - - - -
Mir ist des Menschen letzte Zuflucht,
Mir ist die Einsamkeit verloren.

Dann wird im neunten Bild gezeigt, wie das Wesen erst Zuversicht und dann Sicherheit gewinnt. Das ist die Kongruenz. Nicht Konstruktionen, sondern selbstverständliche Erlebnisse müssen es sein. Dadurch sollen wir fühlen, wie in einer solchen Seele, wie der des Johannes 'Thomasius, Selbsterkenntnis sich abklärt zum Selbsterleben. Wir sollen auch fühlen, wie sich verteilt dieses Erlebnis des Johannes Thomasius auf einzelne Menschen und damit seine eigene Erkenntnis über die gesamten Menschen, in denen sich in den einzelnen Inkarnationen ein Teil seiner Wesenheit ausprägt. Zuletzt steht da im Sonnentempel eine ganze Gesellschaft, alle wie ein Tableau, und alle zusammen sind ein einzelner Mensch. Auf alle sind Eigenschaften eines einzigen Menschen verteilt; es ist im Grunde genommen ein einzelner Mensch. Aber ein pedantischer Mensch müßte sagen: Es sind ja zu viele Teile, es müßten neun statt zwölf sein. — So schafft aber die Wirklichkeit nicht, daß sie im Einklang steht mit den Theorien. Und dennoch steht sie mehr im Einklang mit der Wahrheit, als wenn man in regulärer Weise die einzelnen Glieder der menschlichen Wesenheit aufmarschieren ließe.

AltName

Versetzen wir uns jetzt in diesen Sonnentempel. Da sind die einzelnen Menschen, die so hineingestellt worden sind, wie sie wirklich karmisch zusammengehören, wie Karma sie im Leben zusammengestellt hat. Aber wenn wir uns jetzt den Johannes hier denken und uns eines jeden einzelnen Charakter so gespiegelt denken in der Seele des Johannes und jeden Menschen als Seeleneigenschaft des Johannes - was ist denn dann, wenn wir das als Realität fassen, geschehen? Da hat Karma tatsächlich wie in einem Knotenpunkt diese Menschen zusammengebracht. Nichts ist absichtslos, zwecklos, ziellos, sondern was einzelne Menschen getan haben, bedeutet nicht nur ein Einzelereignis, es bedeutet jeder ein Seelenerlebnis des Johannes 'Thomasius. Es spielt sich alles zweimal ab: im Makrokosmos und im Mikrokosmos der Seele des Johannes. Das ist seine Initiation. Wie Maria zum Beispiel zu ihm selber steht, so steht ein wichtiges Glied seiner Seele zu einem anderen Glied der Seele. Das sind absolute Kongruenzen, streng durchgeführt. Was äußerliche Handlung ist, ist in Johannes innerlicher Entwickelungsvorgang. Es will da geschehen, was der Hierophant ausdrückt im dritten Bild:

Es formt sich hier in diesem Kreise
Ein Knoten aus den Fäden,
Die Karma spinnt im Weltenwerden.

Er hat sich geformt. Und dieser so recht geschürzte Knoten zeigt, wozu alles führt. Auf der einen Seite absolute Realität, wie Karma spinnt, aber nicht ein zweckloses Spinnen. Wir haben den: Knoten als den Initiationsvorgang in der Seele des Johannes, und wir haben das Ganze so, daß doch noch eine menschliche Individualität steht über all diesen Menschen: der Hierophant, der eingreift, der die Fäden lenkt. Wir brauchen nur an den Hierophanten und sein Verhältnis zu Maria zu denken.

Aber gerade daran können wir ersehen, daß dieser Vorgang etwas ist, was Selbsterkenntnis erleuchten kann, an dieser Stelle im dritten Bild. Ein Spaß ist dieses Heraussteigen aus dem Selbst nicht. Ein ganz realer Vorgang ist es, ein Verlassenwerden der menschlichen Hüllen von der inneren Kraft. Dann bleiben diese menschlichen Hüllen übrig und werden ein Kampfplatz für untergeordnete Mächte. Wo Maria den Strahl der Liebe zum Hierophanten herunterschickt, das kann nicht anders dargestellt werden als: Da unten der Leib, der ergriffen wird von der Macht des Widersachers und das Gegenteil sagt von dem, was da oben vorgeht. Da oben strahlt ein Strahl der Liebe herunter, da unten entsteht ein Fluch. Das sind die kontrastierenden Szenen: Im Devachan, wo Maria schildert, was sie wirklich getan hat, und im dritten Bild, wo sich unten beim Verlassen des Leibes das Fluchen der dämonischen Mächte gegen den Hierophanten abspielt. Da haben wir zwei sich ergänzende Bilder. Es würde wirklich ganz schlimm werden, wenn man sie erst so konstruieren müßte.

So habe ich dem heutigen Vortrag eine Seite dieses Mysteriendramas zugrunde gelegt, und ich hoffe, daß wir gerade daran einige besondere Charakteristika anknüpfen konnten, wie sie der Initiation zugrunde liegen.

Es darf der Umstand, daß manches scharf betont werden mußte, wenn wirkliche Vorgänge der Einweihung dargestellt werden sollen, Sie nicht mutlos, kleinmütig machen gegenüber dem Streben nach der geistigen Welt. Die Schilderung der Gefahren hat nur den Zweck, den Menschen zu stählen gegenüber den Gewalten. Die Gefahren sind da, die Schmerzen und Leiden stehen uns bevor. Es wäre wahrhaftig ein schlechtes Streben, wenn wir nur sozusagen in der bequemsten Weise hinaufrücken wollten in die höheren Welten. So bequem, wie in modernen Eisenbahnzügen sich hinrollen zu lassen, wie die äußere materielle Kultur es in bezug auf das äußere Leben macht, läßt es sich noch nicht machen in bezug auf das Erreichen der geistigen Welten. Nicht mutlos machen soll das hier Geschilderte, sondern gerade durch das Sich-Bekanntmachen in gewisser Weise mit den Gefahren der Initiation soll der Mut gestählt werden.

Gerade wie bei Johannes 'Thomasius, den seine Neigung unfähig gemacht hat, den Pinsel zu führen, sich das umsetzt in Schmerz, dann aber Schmerz in Erkenntnis, so wird alles, was Leid und Schmerz erregt, sich in Erkenntnis umsetzen. Wir müssen diesen Weg aber ernsthaft suchen. Dies können wir nur, wenn wir einmal versuchen, uns vor Augen zu führen, daß doch die geisteswissenschaftlichen Wahrheiten nicht so einfach sind. So tiefe Lebenswahrheiten sind das, daß man niemals fertig werden kann damit, sie. genau. zu fassen. Gerade das Beispiel im Leben gestattet uns, die Welt zu erfassen, und noch viel genauer kann man sprechen über die Bedingungen der Entwickelung, wenn man die Entwickelung des Johannes darstellt, als wenn man überhaupt die Entwickelung eines Menschen darstellt. In dem Buch «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» ist die Entwickelung dargestellt, wie sie bei jedem Menschen sein kann, also einzig die Möglichkeit, wie sie real sein kann. Wenn man Johannes 'Thomasius darstellt, schildert man einen einzelnen Menschen. Aber dadurch beraubt man sich der Möglichkeit, die Entwickelung im allgemeinen zu schildern.

Ich hoffe, Sie werden möglichst Veranlassung nehmen, zu sagen, daß ich im Grunde genommen die Wahrheit doch noch nicht gesagt habe. Wir haben zwei Extreme und müssen die Abstufungen zwischen beiden finden. Ich kann immer nur einige Anregungen geben. Diese müssen dann weiterleben in den Herzen und Seelen.

In den Anregungen, die ich über das Matthäus-Evangelium gab, habe ich gesagt: Suchen Sie sich nicht zu erinnern an den Wortlaut, sondern suchen Sie, wenn Sie hinausgetreten sind in die Welt, in Herz und Seele zu schauen, was da die Worte geworden sind. Suchen Sie nicht nur zu lesen in Zyklen, sondern auch wirklich ernstlich in Ihrer Seele zu lesen.

Dazu muß aber erst etwas von außen gegeben werden, muß erst etwas hineingegangen sein. Das andere wäre ein Selbstbetrug der Seele. Verstehen Sie das in der Seele zu lesen, und Sie werden sehen, daß, was von außen geklungen hat, in viel anderer Weise noch innen klingen wird. Das würde erst das richtige anthroposophische Bestreben sein, wenn jedesmal das, was gesprochen wird, auf so viele Arten verstanden würde, als Zuhörer da sind.

Niemals kann derjenige, der über Geisteswissenschaft sprechen will, versuchen, nur auf eine Art verstanden zu sein. Er möchte auf so viele Arten verstanden sein, als Seelen da sind. Anthroposophie verträgt dies schon. Aber eines ist notwendig. Ich sage das nicht, um etwas Nebensächliches zu sagen. Eines ist nötig, daß jede einzelne Art des Verstehens richtig und wahr ist. Individuell kann sie sein, aber wahr muß sie sein. Manchmal besteht das Individuelle der Auffassung darin, daß das Gegenteil dessen, was gesagt wird, aufgefaßt wird.

So müssen wir uns, wenn wir von Selbsterkenntnis sprechen, auch das vor Augen führen, daß es nützlicher ist, so zu sprechen, daß wir die Fehler in uns und das Wahre außer uns suchen.

Es wird nicht gesagt: Suche in dir selbst das Wahre! - Das Wahre findet man in der Tat draußen. Man findet, daß es ausgegossen ist in die Welt. Wir müssen durch Selbsterkenntnis von uns frei werden, müssen durch solche Seelenstadien durchgehen. Einsamkeit kann ein ganz schlechter Gesellschafter sein. Aber wir können auch unsere ganze Schwäche fühlen, wenn wir die Größe des Kosmos, aus dem wir geboren sind, in unserer Seele nachfühlen. Dann aber fassen wir Mut. Erkühnen wir uns, das, was wir erkennen, zu erleben.

Dann werden wir finden, daß in der Tat aus dem Verlust der letzten Zuversicht unseres Lebens heraussprießen wird des Lebens erste und letzte Zuversicht, jene Zuversicht, die uns, indem wir uns im Kosmos wiederfinden, uns selbst überwinden und uns aufs neue finden läßt:

O Mensch, erlebe die Welt in dir!
Dann hast du dich,
Über dich selbst hinausschreitend,
Erst recht in deinem wahren Selbst gefunden.

Fühlen wir diese Worte als Erlebnisse, dann werden sie uns Etappen der Entwickelung.

About Self-knowledge Based on the Rosicrucian mystery “The Portal of Initiation”

Most of those present know that we have endeavored in Munich, in addition to repeating last year's performance of the drama “The Children of Lucifer,” to stage a Rosicrucian mystery play that attempts in various ways to depict what is connected with our movement. On the one hand, this Rosicrucian mystery play is intended to be a kind of test of how everything that moves anthroposophical life can flow into art. On the other hand, however, it should not be forgotten that this Rosicrucian mystery play contains much of our spiritual scientific teachings in a way that may only become apparent over the years. And it should not be misunderstood that if one made some effort to read the things that lie within — not between the lines, for they are already there, albeit in a spiritual way — if one made an effort to understand the Rosicrucian Mystery in this way, then it would not be necessary for me to give any lectures for many years to come. in such a way that one would seek out these things in the coming years, then it would not be necessary for me to give any lectures for many years to come. Much of what I otherwise lecture on any subject would be found there. However, it will be more practical if we search for it together than if one person does so alone. In a certain sense, it is good that what lives in spiritual science is also available in this form.

So today, following on from the Rosicrucian Mystery, I would like to speak about certain peculiarities of human self-knowledge. To do this, however, we need to remember — in a characterizing way — how individuality works in the body of Johannes Thomasius in the Rosicrucian Mystery. Therefore, I would like this lecture, which is to deal with self-knowledge, to begin with a recitation of those parts of the Rosicrucian Mystery that signify Johannes' self-knowledge.

Second scene

Outdoors, rocks, springs; the entire surroundings are to be imagined in the soul of Johannes Thomasius, with the following as the content of his meditation; later, Mary appears.

(It sounds from springs and rocks: O man, know thyself!)

John:

I have heard them for years,
The words heavy with meaning.
They sound to me from the air and water,
They ring up from the depths of the earth,
And as mysteriously as in a tiny seed
The giant oak tree grows,
So finally the power of these words closes in,
What is the essence of the elements,
Of souls and spirits,
Of the passage of time and eternity
Is comprehensible to my thinking.
The world and my own nature,
They live in the words:
O man, know thyself!

(From springs and rocks it sounds: O man, know thyself!)

And now! — it becomes
Terribly alive within me.
Darkness weaves around me,
Darkness yawns within me;
It sounds from the darkness of the world,
It sounds from the darkness of the soul:
O man, know thyself!

(It sounds from springs and rocks: O man, know thyself!)

It now robs me of myself.
I change with the passing hours of the day
And transform myself into night.
I follow the earth in its worldly course.
I roll in the thunder,
I twitch in the lightning.
I am. - O already vanished
I feel myself separated from my own being.
I see my body's shell;
It is a strange being outside of me,
It is far away from me.
Another body floats toward me.
I must speak with its mouth:
“He brought me bitter hardship;
I trusted him completely.
He left me alone in my grief,
He robbed me of the warmth of life
And cast me into the cold earth.”
The one I left, the poor thing,
I was her myself.
I must suffer her torment.
Knowledge has given me strength
To carry my self into another self.
O cruel word!
Your light is extinguished by your own power.
O human, recognize yourself!

(It sounds from springs and rocks: O man, recognize yourself!)

You lead me back again
Into the circles of my own being.
But how do I recognize myself again!
I have lost my human form.
I appear to me as a wild worm,
Born of lust and greed.
And I clearly feel
Like a mirage
My own terrifying form
Which has been hidden from me until now.
The wildness of my own nature must devour me.
I feel like a consuming fire
Those words flow through my veins
Which otherwise revealed to me so powerfully
revealed to me the nature of the sun and the earth.
They live in my pulse,
they beat in my heart;
and even in my own thoughts I feel
the strange worlds already blazing as wild impulses.
These are the fruits of the word:
O man, recognize yourself!

(It sounds from springs and rocks: O man, know thyself!)

There, from the dark abyss, —
What creature stares at me?
I feel chains
That bind me to you.
Not so firmly was Prometheus
was chained to the rocks of the Caucasus
as I am chained to you.
Who are you, terrifying creature?

(It sounds from springs and rocks: O man, know thyself!)

Oh, I know you.
It is I myself.
Knowledge binds you, perishable monster

(Mary enters, initially unnoticed by John.)

I am a perishable monster.
I wanted to escape you.
The worlds blinded me,
into which my folly fled,
to be free from myself.
I am blinded again in my blind soul:
O man, recognize yourself!

(It sounds from springs and rocks: O man, recognize yourself!)

John:

(as if coming to himself, he sees Mary. The meditation becomes inner reality)

O friend, you are here!

Mary:

I was looking for you, my friend;
Although I know
How dear solitude is to you,
After so many people's opinions
Have flooded your soul.
And I also know
That I cannot help my friend
In this time by my presence,
Yet a dark longing
Urges me to you at this moment,
Since Benedictus' words, instead of light,
Have brought you such heavy suffering
From the depths of your spirit.

Johannes:

How dear is solitude to me!
- - - - - - - - -
I have sought it so often,
To find myself in it,
When in labyrinths of thought
The suffering and happiness of men had driven me.
O friend, that is now over.
What Benedictus' words first
brought out of my soul,
what I had to experience through people's words,
seems only insignificant to me,
compared to the storm
that loneliness then brought me
in dull brooding.
O this loneliness!
It drove me into worlds far away.
It tore me away from myself.
In that being whom I had caused suffering,
I arose as another.
And I had to suffer the pain
That I myself had caused.
The cruel, dark loneliness
Then gave me back to myself.
But only to terrify me
With the abyss of my own being.
I have lost the last refuge of man,
I have lost solitude.

Mary:

I must repeat the words to you:
Only Benedictus can help you.
The support we lack,
We must both receive from him.
For know that I too can no longer
Endure the mystery of my life,
Unless through his sign
The solution is revealed to me.
The high wisdom that always over all life
Only appearance and deception spread,
When our thinking merely grasps its surface,
I have often reminded myself of this.
And again and again it said:
You must recognize how delusion surrounds you,
No matter how often it seems to you to be truth,
It could bear evil fruit,
If you want to awaken in others a light
That lives within you.
In the best part of my soul, I am aware
That even the heavy burden
That life has brought you, my friend,
By my side,
Is part of the thorny path
That leads to the light of truth.
You must experience all the horrors
That can arise from delusion,
Before the essence of truth reveals itself to you.
So speaks your star.
But through this starry message, it also appears to me
That we must walk the paths of the spirit together.
But when I seek these paths,
A dark night spreads before my eyes.
And the night grows blacker still through many things
That I must experience
As the fruits of my being.
We must both seek clarity in the light
That may well disappear from the eye
But can never be extinguished.

Johannes:

Mary, are you aware
Of what my soul has just gone through?
A heavy burden indeed
Has fallen upon you, noble friend.
But far removed from your nature is that power
Which has so completely shattered me.
You can ascend to the highest heights of truth,
You can direct your confident gaze
into the confusion of mankind,
you will preserve yourself in light and darkness.
But every moment can rob me of myself.
I had to immerse myself in the people
who had just revealed themselves in words.
I followed one into the solitude of the monastery,
I heard in the other's soul
I followed one into the solitude of the monastery,
I heard in the other's soul
Felicia's fairy tale.
I was everyone,
Only I died to myself.
I would have to believe
That nothing is the origin of beings,
If I were to cherish the hope
That out of nothing within me
A human being could ever come to be,
Leads me out of fear into darkness
And chases me through darkness in fear
The word of wisdom:
O man, know thyself!

(From springs and rocks it sounds: O man, know thyself!)

(The curtain falls)

Ninth scene

Same setting as in the second scene. John, later Mary.

(It sounds from rocks and springs: O man, experience yourself!)

John:

O man, experience yourself!
I have sought it for three years,
The courageous power of the soul,
Which gives truth to words,
Through which man, liberating himself, can triumph
And, defeating himself, find freedom:

O man, experience yourself!

(From rocks and springs resounds: O man, experience yourself!)

It announces itself within,
Only faintly perceptible to my spiritual hearing.
It holds within itself the hope
That, growing, it will lead the human spirit
Out of narrow existence into distant worlds,
Just as mysteriously
The tiny seed
Grows into the proud body of the giant oak. — —
The spirit can enliven within itself
What weaves in the air and in the water,
And what holds the earth together.
Man can grasp
What has taken hold in the elements,
In souls and spirits,
In the passage of time and eternity
Of existence.
The whole world lives in the soul,
When such power is rooted in the spirit,
Which gives truth to the words:
O human being, experience yourself!

(From rocks and springs resounds: O human being, experience yourself!)

I feel — how it resounds in my soul,
Stirring, empowering.
The light lives in me,
The brightness speaks around me,
The light of the soul germinates within me,
It creates the brightness of the world within me:
O man, experience yourself!

(From rocks and springs resounds: O man, experience yourself!)

I find myself secure everywhere,
Wherever the power of the word follows me.
It will shine for me in the darkness of my senses
And sustain me in the heights of my spirit.
It will fill me with soulfulness
For all time to come.
I feel the existence of worlds within me,
And I must find myself in all worlds.
I see my soul
Enlivened within me by my own power.
I rest within myself.
I look at the rocks and the springs;
They speak to my soul in its own language.
I find myself again in that being
Which I brought into bitter distress.
Out of it I call to myself:
“You must find me again
And ease my pain.”
The light of the spirit will give me strength
To live the other self within myself.
O hopeful word,
You stream power to me from all worlds:
O human being, experience yourself!

(From rocks and springs resounds: O human being, experience yourself!)

You let me feel my weakness
And place me beside God's lofty goals;
And I feel blissful
At the creative power of the lofty goal
In my weak earthly human being.
And from myself shall be revealed,
That for which the seed is hidden within me.
I will give myself to the world
Through the life of my own being.
I will feel all the power of the word,
Which at first sounds softly to me;
It shall be like a life-giving fire
In the powers of my soul,
On the paths of my mind.
I feel how my thoughts penetrate
Into the deeply hidden foundations of the world;
And how they shine through them.
Such is the germinating power of this word:
O human being, experience yourself!

(From Sources and Rocks: O human being, experience yourself!)

From bright heights a being shines upon me,
I feel wings
Lifting me up to him,
I want to free myself
Like all beings who have conquered themselves.

(From Springs and Rocks: O human, experience yourself!)

I look at that being,
I want to become like him in the future.
The spirit within me will free itself
Through you, sublime goal.
I want to follow you.

(Mary joins them.)

The eyes of my soul have been awakened
The spiritual beings who have taken me in.
And seeing into the spiritual worlds,
I feel the power within myself:
O human being, experience yourself!

(From springs and rocks: O human being, experience yourself!)

O my friend, you are here!

Mary:

My soul drove me here.
I could see your star.
It shines in full power.

John:

I can experience this power within me.

Mary:

We are so closely connected
That the life of your soul
Lets its light shine in my soul.

John:

O Mary, are you aware
Of what has just been revealed to me?
I have gained man's first confidence,
I feel the power of the word,
Which can guide me everywhere:
O man, experience yourself!

(From Rocks and Springs: O man, experience yourself!)

(Curtain falls)

In the two images, “O man, know thyself” and “O man, experience thyself,” two stages appear before our soul, two stages of development in the unfolding of our soul.

Now I ask you not to find it strange when I say that I actually have nothing against interpreting this Rosicrucian mystery in the same way that I have sometimes interpreted other poems in our circles. For in a certain sense it may well be said that this Rosicrucian mystery can bring before our soul in a living, immediate way what I have often said in connection with other poems that I have been permitted to interpret. I have never hesitated to say: Just as little as the plant, the flower, knows what the person who looks at the flower finds in it, so what he finds in it is nevertheless contained in the flower. When I was asked to interpret the poem “Faust,” I explained that the poet did not necessarily know or feel all the things himself in words that were later found in the poem when he wrote it down. I can assure you that nothing of what I will later add to this mystery, and which I nevertheless know to be there, was conscious to me when the individual images were formed. The images grew out of themselves like the leaves of a plant. It is impossible to produce such a form in advance by first having the idea and then translating it into external form. I always found it quite interesting when a picture emerged in this way, and friends who were familiar with the individual scenes said how strange it was that it always turned out differently from what they had imagined.

Thus this mystery stands there like a picture of the evolution of humanity in the development of a single human being. I emphasize: it is impossible for concrete feeling to cloak itself in abstractions in order to represent anthroposophy, because every human soul is different from every other and, since it experiences its own development, must also be different. In everything that is given as general teaching, we can only receive guidelines. Therefore, the complete truth can only be given if one connects with an individual soul, a soul that represents its human individuality with all its peculiarities. If, therefore, someone regards Johannes Thomasius in such a way that they would translate what is said about him in concrete terms into theories of human development, they would be doing something completely wrong. If he believed that he would experience exactly the same thing that Johannes Thomasius experienced, he would be very much mistaken. For what Johannes Thomasius has to experience in broad outlines applies to every human being, but in order to experience it in all its uniqueness, one must be Johannes Thomasius. And everyone is a “Johannes Thomasius” in their own way.

Thus everything is presented in a completely individual way. But this also means that, in connection with the particular character, what is given is the development of the human being in his soul in as true a way as possible. To achieve this, it was necessary to create a broad foundation by first showing Thomasius on the physical plane and pointing to individual soul experiences, such as the one that must have been significant when, in a time not too long ago, he left behind a being who was devoted to him in faithful love. This happens often, but this individual event has a different effect on someone who is striving to undergo development. It is a profound truth that those who undergo development do not attain self-knowledge by brooding within themselves, but by immersing themselves in individual beings. We must learn through self-knowledge that we come from the cosmos. Only then can we immerse ourselves when we transform ourselves into another self. We are first transformed into what was once close to us in life.

It is an example of experiencing one's own self in another when John, having first come deeper into his self, immerses himself in self-knowledge into another being, into the being to whom he has brought bitter pain. Thus we see how Thomasius submerges in this self-knowledge. Theoretically, one says: If you want to recognize the flower, you must dive down into the flower. But the best way to attain self-knowledge is to submerge ourselves in the events in which we ourselves have stood in a different way. As long as we are in our own selves, we go through external experiences. In contrast to true self-knowledge, what we think about other beings becomes abstraction.

For Thomasius, what other people have experienced first becomes his own experience. There was a man named Capesius who described his experiences. These experiences are such that one can recognize how they fit into life. But Thomasius takes in something else. He listens. His listening, however, is different—this will be characterized later in the eighth picture. It is as if the ordinary self of the person were not there at all. Another, deeper power reveals itself, as if it were he himself who were creeping into Capesius' soul and experiencing what was going on there. That is why it becomes so infinitely significant that he becomes alienated from himself. It is inseparable from self-knowledge that one breaks away from oneself and merges with another. That is why it is so significant for Thomasius that, after listening to these words [in the first scene], he must say:

A reflection of the fullness of life,
Which showed me so clearly to myself.
The high revelation of the spirit
Has led me to feel
How only one side of man
Is hidden within many
Who believe themselves to be whole beings.
To unite the many sides
In my own self,
I boldly set foot on the path
That is shown here.
He has made nothing of me.

Why has he made nothing of him? Because through self-knowledge he has immersed himself in these other beings. Brooding over one's own inner self makes people proud and arrogant. True self-knowledge initially leads to suffering because we immerse ourselves in a foreign self. John follows [in the first image] the people in such a way that he listens to Capesius and experiences Felicia's words in this other soul. He follows Strader into his monastic solitude. This is abstraction at first. He has not yet arrived at what he is now led to [in the second image] through pain. Self-knowledge deepens in meditation within the inner self. And what was shown in the first picture shows the deepened self-knowledge [in the second picture], which presents the concrete from abstraction. And the ordinary words that we have heard for centuries as the maxims of the Delphic Oracle take on a new life for human beings, but initially a life of alienation from themselves.

John disappears into all external beings as one who knows himself. He lives in air and water, in rocks and springs, but not in himself. All the words that can only be uttered from outside are actually words of meditation. And even when the curtain rises, we have to imagine the words that sound much louder in every self-realization than can be portrayed on stage. Then the self-realized person sinks into the various other beings; through this he learns about the things into which he sinks. And then the same experience that he had earlier comes back to him in a terrible way.

It is a profound truth that this self-knowledge, when it proceeds in the manner just described, leads us to see ourselves in a completely different light than we did before. It leads us to perceive our ego, so to speak, as a foreign being.

For human beings, their outer shell is actually the closest thing to them. In our time, people feel much more connected to this shell when they cut their finger than when, for example, a false judgment by a fellow human being hurts them. How much more does it hurt modern man to cut his finger than to hear a false judgment! And yet it only cuts his physical shell. But the fact that we feel our body as a tool only becomes apparent through self-knowledge.

Man can already feel his hand as a tool to some extent when he grasps an object. But one learns to feel the same with this or that part of the brain. This inner feeling of the brain as an instrument arises at a certain stage of self-knowledge. That is where the individual localizes itself. When we hammer in a nail, we know that we are doing so with a tool. But we also know that we are using this or that part of the brain to do so. By becoming objectively alien to us, things enable us to recognize our brain as something separate from ourselves. Self-awareness promotes this objectivity of our shell, and then our shell ultimately becomes as alien to us as our external tools are. This is how we begin to truly live in the outside world, when we start to perceive our physical body as something objective.

Because humans only feel their physical shell, they are not aware that there is a boundary between the air outside and the air in their lungs. Nevertheless, they say that the air inside is the same as the air outside. If we take the substance of the air, then it is inside and outside. This is the case with everything, with blood, with everything that is physical. But it cannot be inside or outside in a physical sense; that is only Maya. It is precisely because the physical interior becomes an exterior that it continues truthfully into the rest of the world and the cosmos.

The pain of feeling alienated should be depicted in the first scene recited today. The pain of becoming alienated by finding oneself in everything external. Johannes Thomasius' own physical shell is like a being that is outside of him. But because he feels his own body outside, he sees the other body approaching, the body of the being he has left behind. It approaches him, and he has learned to speak with the words of this being. It says to him—his self has expanded to include him—:

He brought me bitter hardship;
I trusted him so completely.
He left me alone in my grief,
He robbed me of the warmth of life
And cast me into the cold earth.

But then the accusation comes alive in the soul when the foreign suffering with which we have linked our own self must be spoken, because our own self has been submerged in another self. This is a deepening. John is truly in suffering because he has caused it. He feels drained and awakened again. What is he actually experiencing?

When we take everything together, we find that the ordinary, normal human being experiences something similar only in the state we call Kamaloka. The initiate must experience in this world what the normal human being experiences in the spiritual world. He must experience within the physical body what Kamaloka experiences, what is otherwise experienced outside the physical body. Therefore, all the qualities that can be perceived as Kamaloka qualities are present as experiences of initiation. Just as John submerges himself in the soul he has caused suffering, so the normal human being must submerge himself in the souls he has caused pain in Kamaloka. Just as when he is slapped in the face, he must feel pain. These things are only different in that the initiate experiences them in the physical body, while the other person experiences them after death. Those who experience them here live in a completely different way than in Kamaloka. But even what a person can experience in Kamaloka can be experienced in such a way that he has not yet become truly free, so to speak. And it is a difficult task to become completely free. Man feels as if he is bound to physical conditions.

In our time, it is one of the most important experiences of development — in the Greek-Latin period it was not yet so, it has only now become particularly important — that man can experience how infinitely difficult it is to break away from himself. Therefore, an important initiatory experience is expressed in the words where John feels bound to his own lower body, where his own being appears to him as a being to which he is chained:

I feel chains
That bind me to you.

Not so firmly was Prometheus
Was chained to the rocks of the Caucasus,
As I am chained to you.

This is something connected with self-knowledge, a secret of self-knowledge. We just have to understand it in the right sense.

The question of this secret could also be described as follows: Have we actually become better people by becoming earthly human beings, by immersing ourselves in our earthly shells, or would we be better people if we could be alone within ourselves, if we could simply throw off our shells? The trivial people who oppose spiritual life can easily ask: Why immerse ourselves in the earthly body in the first place? The simplest thing would be to remain above, then we would not have all the misery of immersing ourselves.

Why did the wise powers of destiny immerse us? Intuitively, it is difficult to explain by saying that divine-spiritual forces have been working through this earthly body for millions and millions of years. Precisely because this is so, we should make more of ourselves than we are capable of. Our inner powers are not sufficient. We cannot already be as much as the gods have made us if we merely want to be what we are inside, if we are not corrected by our shells. Life presents itself as follows: Here on earth, human beings are placed in their physical shells, which are prepared by beings from three worlds. Human beings must first develop their inner selves. Between birth and death, they are evil beings, but in Devachan they are better beings again, taken in by divine-spiritual beings who infuse them with their own powers. Later, in the volcanic age, they will then be perfect beings. Now on earth, he is a being who indulges in this or that pleasure. The heart, for example, is so wisely constructed that it can withstand decades of attacks directed against it by man through his excesses, for example, with coffee. Just as man is today through his own power, so he now passes through Kamaloka. There he is to learn what he can be through his own power. And that is truly no good. When humans have to describe themselves, they cannot describe themselves with the attribute of beauty. They have to describe themselves as John does [in the second image]:

But how do I recognize myself!
I have lost my human form.
I appear to me as a wild worm,
Born of lust and greed.
And I clearly feel
Like a mirage of delusion
My own terrifying form
Which has been hidden from me until now.

Our inner being is stretched out elastically in our physical shells and hides itself from us. We actually get to know ourselves as a kind of wild worm when we experience initiation. And so these words are drawn from the depths of our feelings, words of self-knowledge, not self-contemplation:

It is I myself.
Knowledge forges you into a destructive monster
Me myself, a destructive monster.

Basically, both are the same, once as object, once as subject.

I wanted to escape from you.

But this escape only leads man to himself.

And then comes that society that emerges, in which we find ourselves when we truly look within ourselves. This society that we find within ourselves is our own desires and passions, that which was not noticed before because every time we wanted to look within ourselves, our gaze was diverted to our surroundings. For in comparison to what we wanted to look into, the world is a beautiful world. There, in the illusion, the Maya of life, we stop looking within ourselves. But when people talk all kinds of nonsense around us, and when it becomes too much for us, we flee into solitude. And this is very important for certain stages of development. There we can and should gather ourselves. It is a good means of self-knowledge. But there are still experiences in which we find ourselves in societies where we can no longer be lonely, where precisely those beings appear — within us or outside us, it does not matter — that do not allow us to be lonely. Then comes the experience that one should have. This loneliness brings with it the worst society:

I have lost my last refuge,
I have lost my solitude.

These are real experiences. But do not let the intensity, the strength of these experiences be a challenge to you. Do not believe that when such experiences are presented with great intensity, one should be afraid or fearful. Do not believe that this should contribute to distracting someone, to submerging them in these floods. You do not experience them in the same intensity as John, because he had to experience them for a specific purpose, in a certain way even prematurely. Regular self-development takes a different course. Therefore, what happens to John in such a tumultuous way must be understood as individual. Because he is this individuality that has suffered shipwreck, everything can happen much more tumultuously for him as he goes through these laws. He gets to know them in such a way that they throw him deeply off balance. But by describing this for John, something should be awakened, namely the feeling that true self-knowledge has nothing to do with trivial phrases, that true self-knowledge cannot help but lead first through pain and suffering.

Things that were previously a source of refreshment for people take on a different aspect when they appear in the field of self-knowledge. We can certainly beg for solitude if we have already found self-knowledge. But in certain moments of self-knowledge, loneliness can be what we lose when we seek it in the way we have known before, in moments when we then flow out into the objective world, where the lonely suffer the most severe pains.

We must learn to feel this pouring out into other beings in the right way if we want to feel what is laid out in the drama. It is a certain aesthetic feeling that is carried out, everything in it is spiritually realistic. Anyone who thinks realistically—a truly aesthetic realist—feels a certain pain when faced with an unrealistic representation. Even that which can give great satisfaction at a certain level can be a source of pain at another level. This depends on the path of self-knowledge. A Shakespeare drama, for example, something that is already a great achievement of the outer world, can be a source of aesthetic satisfaction. But a certain moment of development may occur when one can no longer be satisfied with it because one feels torn inside when moving from scene to scene, because one no longer sees the necessity for one scene to follow another. One may find it unnatural that one scene is placed next to another. Why unnatural? Because nothing holds two scenes together except the writer Shakespeare and the audience. In the sequence of scenes there is an abstract principle of causality, not a concrete essence. This is the characteristic feature of Shakespeare's dramas, that nothing is hinted at that karmically interweaves and holds them together.

The Rosicrucian drama has become realistic, spiritually realistic. It places great demands on Johannes Thomasius. Without actively participating in any important capacity, he is present on the stage. It is in his soul that everything takes place, and what is depicted is the development of the soul, the real experience of what is experienced in the development of the soul.

The soul of Johannes realistically weaves one image out of another. Here we see that the realistic and the spiritual are not contradictory. The materialistic and the spiritual do not need each other, but they can contradict each other. However, the realistic and the spiritual do not need to contradict each other, and something spiritually realistic can be greatly admired by a materialist. Shakespeare's dramas can certainly be thought of as realistic in terms of an aesthetic principle. But you can also understand that an art that goes hand in hand with spiritual science ultimately leads to the whole cosmos becoming an I-being for those who experience their self in the cosmos. Then we cannot bear that anything in the cosmos should oppose him that is not related to the I-being. In this relationship, art will learn something that allows it to arrive at the I-principle, because Christ first brought us the I. This I will live itself out in the most diverse areas.

But this concrete humanity in the soul and its redistribution outside itself is also evident in another way. If someone had asked you back then: Which person is Atma, which is Buddhi, which is Manas? — It would be a terrible art, a dreadful art, if one had to interpret the representation as follows: This figure is a personification of Manas. There are theosophical bad habits that strive to interpret everything in this direction. Of a work of art that could be interpreted in this way, one could say: Poor work of art! In comparison to Shakespeare's dramas, this would be fundamentally wrong and ridiculous.

Such things are teething troubles of theosophical development. People will grow out of them. But it is nevertheless necessary to draw attention to these things. It could even happen that someone sets out to find the nine members of human nature in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

And yet it is true in a certain sense that what is uniform human nature is distributed among different human beings. One person has this particular soul coloration, another that. Thus we can see human beings before us who represent different sides of the total human nature. But this must be thought realistically, must come out of human nature. The way we encounter people in the world is how they represent the different sides of human nature. And as we develop from incarnation to incarnation, we become a totality. If the underlying fact is to be represented, then the whole of life must be dissolved.

Thus, in the Rosicrucian mystery, what is supposed to represent Mary in a certain way is dissolved into the other figures who surround her as companions and who together with her form a unity. One can see in particular the qualities of the sentient soul in Philia, the qualities of the intellectual or emotional soul in Astrid, and the qualities of the consciousness soul in Luna. The names are already shaped accordingly. All names are such that they are essentially characteristic of the individual beings. Not only in the words, but also in the way the words are arranged, namely where the spiritual is to work in Devachan, in the seventh picture, there is a precise gradation of what is to characterize the three figures of Philia, Astrid, and Luna. What begins in the seventh picture is a better characterization of the sentient soul, the intellectual soul, and the conscious soul than can otherwise be given in words. Here one can show people what the sentient soul, the intellectual soul, and the conscious soul are. In art, one can show the stages in the way these three figures stand there. In human beings, they flow into one another. When they are separated from one another, they appear as Philia appears in the universe, as Astrid appears in the elements, as Luna flows out in self-activity and self-knowledge. And because they appear in this way, the Devachan scene contains everything that is alchemy in the true sense. All alchemy is contained therein. One only has to discover it little by little.

However, it is not only given in the abstract content, but in the weaving and essence of the words. Therefore, you should not only hear what is said, and especially not merely what the individual speaks, but how the soul forces speak in relation to one another. The sentient soul pushes itself into the astral body; we are dealing with weaving astrality. The intellectual soul pushes itself into the etheric body; we are therefore dealing with weaving etheric being. We see how the consciousness soul pours itself into the physical body with inner firmness. Thus, what works soulfully like light in the soul is given in the words of Philia; what works etherically objectively, so that one stands face to face with true things, is given in Astrid; what gives inner firmness, so that it is connected with the physical body, is given in Luna. We must feel this. Let us hear the soul forces in the seventh picture:

Philia: (sentimental soul)

I want to fill myself
With the clearest light
From worlds far away,
I want to breathe into myself
The invigorating substance of sound
From the distant ether,
So that you, beloved sister,
You may succeed in your work.

Astrid: (intellectual soul)

I want to weave together
Radiant light
With dampening darkness,
I want to condense
The life of sound.
It shall sound glittering,
It shall glitter resoundingly,
So that you, beloved sister,
May guide the rays of the soul.

Luna: (consciousness soul)

I will warm the substance of the soul
And harden the ether of life.
They shall condense,
They should feel themselves,
And being within themselves
Keep themselves creative,
So that you, beloved sister
Of the searching human soul
May create the security of knowledge.

I would like to point out that in Philia we have: “So that you, beloved sister... .” In Astrid's version, we enter into something more muffled, more dense: ‘That you, beloved sister...,’ ‘That you...,’ ‘That you...’ And now, in Luna's version, we have interwoven this with something even heavier: ”The searching human soul.” The U is so interwoven with the neighboring consonants that it achieves an even greater density.

These are the things that can actually be characterized. How this is achieved must be noted. Let us compare the words that Philia continues to speak:

I will ask the spirits of the world
That the light of their being
Enrapture the soul's senses,
And the sound of their words
Delight the ear of the spirit

with the very different ones spoken by Astrid:

I will direct the streams of love,
Which warm the world,
To the heart
Of the consecrated one

so it is precisely where these words are carried out that the inner weaving and essence of the devachanic world element is carried out.

We must realize from such things, and that is why I mention it, that when self-knowledge begins to dawn in the outer world-web and world-being, it is important to abandon all one-sidedness and learn to feel what is present in every point of existence, which we can otherwise only experience in a philistine way. What makes us humans rigid beings is that we are bound to a point in space and believe that we can express truths with words. But words are less capable of expressing truth because they are bound to physical sound. We must, I would say, empathize with the expression. That is why it is important that such an important process as Johannes Thomasius's process of self-knowledge can only be truly experienced if he courageously achieves and grasps self-knowledge. This is the next act, after self-knowledge has crushed us, that we begin to take into ourselves what we have learned outside by understanding the cosmos as related to us, after we have recognized the essence of beings, that we courageously dare to live what we have recognized. It is only half the story that we submerge ourselves like John into a being whom we have caused suffering, whom we have cast down into the cold earth. For we now feel differently. We gather the courage to compensate for the pain. Then we submerge ourselves in this life and speak differently in our own being. This is what we first encounter in the ninth picture. While in the second picture the being called out to John:

He brought me bitter hardship;
I trusted him so completely.
He left me alone in my grief,
He robbed me of the warmth of life
And thrust me into the cold earth

the same creature cried out in the ninth image, after John had experienced what every self-aware person strives for, to him:

You must find me again
And ease my pain.

That is the other side: first the crushing blow, then the balancing of experience. Then the other being calls out to him:

You must find me again.

There is no other way to depict this elevation of the experience of the world, this filling oneself with the experience of the world. True self-knowledge emerging within the cosmos could not be described except with the words with which Johannes awakens. Of course, it must begin this way, in the second image:

So I have heard them for years,
The words heavy with meaning.

Then, after he has submerged himself in the earth, after he has become one with the earth, the power arises in the soul to let the words emerge. That is the essence of the ninth image:

I have sought it for three years,
The courageous power of the soul,
Which gives truth to words,
Through which man, liberating himself, can triumph
And, defeating himself, find freedom.

These are the words: “O man, experience yourself!” in contrast to the words in the second image: “O man, recognize yourself!” Thus, we are always confronted with the same image. While one time the image leads downward:

The world and my individuality,
They live in the words:
O man, recognize yourself!

it is then the other way around. It changes. The image reflects the process of the soul.

You have also heard the terribly devastating words:

Mary, are you aware
of what my soul has just gone through?
- - - - - - - - - -
I have lost my last refuge,
I have lost my solitude.

Then, in the ninth picture, we see how the being first gains confidence and then security. This is congruence. These must be real experiences, not constructions. This is to help us feel how, in a soul such as that of Johannes Thomasius, self-knowledge clarifies itself into self-experience. We should also feel how this experience of Johannes Thomasius is distributed among individual human beings and thus his own insight into all human beings, in whom a part of his essence is expressed in the individual incarnations. Finally, there stands a whole society in the sun temple, all like a tableau, and all together they are a single human being. The characteristics of a single human being are distributed among all of them; it is basically a single human being. But a pedantic person would have to say: there are too many parts, there should be nine instead of twelve. — But reality does not work in such a way that it is in harmony with theories. And yet it is more in harmony with the truth than if the individual members of the human being were to march in regular formation.

AltName

Let us now place ourselves in this sun temple. There are the individual human beings who have been placed there as they really belong together karmically, as karma has brought them together in life. But if we now think of John here and imagine each individual character reflected in John's soul and each person as a soul characteristic of John — what then, if we take this as reality, has happened? Karma has actually brought these people together as if at a junction. Nothing is unintentional, purposeless, aimless; rather, what individual people have done does not merely signify a single event, but each signifies a soul experience of John 'Thomasius. Everything takes place twice: in the macrocosm and in the microcosm of John's soul. That is his initiation. Just as Mary, for example, stands to him, so an important link in his soul stands to another link in the soul. These are absolute congruencies, strictly carried out. What is external action is Johannes' inner process of development. What the Hierophant expresses in the third picture wants to happen there:

Here in this circle
A knot is forming from the threads,
Karma is spinning in the becoming of the world.

It has formed itself. And this knot, so neatly tied, shows where everything is leading. On the one hand, there is absolute reality, as karma spins, but not a purposeless spinning. We have the knot as the initiation process in the soul of John, and we have the whole thing such that a human individuality still stands above all these people: the hierophant, who intervenes, who directs the threads. We need only think of the hierophant and his relationship to Mary.

But it is precisely here, at this point in the third picture, that we can see that this process is something that can illuminate self-knowledge. Stepping out of the self is no fun. It is a very real process, a leaving of the human shell by the inner power. Then these human shells remain and become a battlefield for subordinate powers. Where Mary sends down the ray of love to the Hierophant, this cannot be depicted in any other way than as follows: down below, the body is seized by the power of the adversary and says the opposite of what is happening above. Above, a ray of love shines down, below, a curse arises. These are the contrasting scenes: in Devachan, where Mary describes what she really did, and in the third picture, where the cursing of the demonic powers against the Hierophant takes place below as they leave the body. Here we have two complementary images. It would be really bad if one had to construct them in this way first.

So I have based today's lecture on one page of this mystery drama, and I hope that we have been able to link it to some of the special characteristics that underlie initiation.

The fact that some things had to be emphasized sharply in order to describe the actual processes of initiation should not discourage you or make you faint-hearted in your striving for the spiritual world. The description of the dangers serves only to steel people against the forces. The dangers are there, the pains and sufferings lie ahead of us. It would truly be a poor endeavor if we wanted to ascend to the higher worlds in the most comfortable way, so to speak. It is not yet possible to achieve the spiritual worlds as comfortably as one can roll along in modern trains, as the outer material culture makes it possible in relation to outer life. What is described here is not intended to discourage, but rather to strengthen courage by making people aware, in a certain way, of the dangers of initiation.

Just as with Johannes Thomasius, whose inclination made him incapable of wielding a paintbrush, which was transformed into pain, but then pain into knowledge, so everything that causes suffering and pain will be transformed into knowledge. But we must seriously seek this path. We can only do this if we try to realize that spiritual scientific truths are not so simple. These are such profound truths of life that one can never finish grasping them precisely. It is precisely the example in life that allows us to grasp the world, and one can speak even more precisely about the conditions of development when depicting Johannes' development than when depicting the development of a human being in general. The book How Does One Gain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds? describes the development that is possible for every human being, that is, only the possibility of how it can be real. When one describes John Thomasius, one is describing an individual human being. But in doing so, one deprives oneself of the possibility of describing development in general.

I hope you will take the opportunity to say that I have not yet told you the whole truth. We have two extremes and must find the gradations between them. I can only give a few suggestions. These must then live on in your hearts and souls.

In the suggestions I gave about the Gospel of Matthew, I said: Do not try to remember the wording, but when you go out into the world, try to look into your heart and soul to see what the words have become. Do not just read in cycles, but read seriously in your soul.

But for this, something must first be given from outside, something must first have entered. Otherwise, it would be self-deception of the soul. Understand this in your soul, and you will see that what has sounded from outside will still sound within in many other ways. That would be the true anthroposophical endeavor, if what is spoken were understood in as many ways as there are listeners.

Those who wish to speak about spiritual science can never attempt to be understood in only one way. They want to be understood in as many ways as there are souls. Anthroposophy can handle this. But one thing is necessary. I am not saying this to make a point about something incidental. It is necessary that every single way of understanding be correct and true. It can be individual, but it must be true. Sometimes the individuality of a view lies in the fact that the opposite of what is said is understood.

So when we speak of self-knowledge, we must also bear in mind that it is more useful to speak in such a way that we seek the errors within ourselves and the truth outside ourselves.

It is not said: Seek the truth within yourself! The truth is indeed to be found outside. We find that it is poured out into the world. We must free ourselves through self-knowledge; we must pass through such stages of the soul. Loneliness can be a very bad companion. But we can also feel all our weakness when we feel in our soul the greatness of the cosmos from which we were born. But then we take courage. Let us dare to experience what we recognize.

Then we will find that out of the loss of the last confidence in our lives will spring forth the first and last confidence in life, that confidence which, by finding ourselves in the cosmos, allows us to overcome ourselves and find ourselves anew:

O man, experience the world within you!
Then you will have found yourself,
transcending yourself,
and truly found your true self.

If we feel these words as experiences, they become stages of development for us.