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Three Lectures on the Mystery Dramas
GA 125

31 October 1910, Berlin

2. On the Rosicrucian Mystery, The Portal of Initiation

The light of the sun is flooding
The realms of space;
The song of birds resounds
Through fields of air;
The tender plants spring forth
From Mother Earth,
And human souls rise up
With grateful hearts
To all the spirits of the world.

Those of you who were present at the performance in Munich will remember that this children's song was the prelude to the Rosicrucian Mystery. Tonight, something of a spiritual scientific nature should unfold itself to us in connection with the content of this drama and with what, one could say, has come to life in it.

If I may, I would like to touch on the long, slow spiritual path that led to this Mystery Drama. When I think about it and look at it, its origins go back to the year 1889, twenty-one years ago; it is not approximately but exactly twenty-one years that bring me back to the germinal point of this drama. In these matters, absolute exactness can be observed. The direction has been quite clear to me in which, in 3x7 years, these seeds have grown (without any special assistance, I can say, on my part), for they have led their own individual life in these 3x7 years. It is truly remarkable to follow the path of such seeds to what may be called their finished form. Their progress can be described as a passage through the Underworld. It takes seven years for them to descend; then they return, and for this they need seven more years.

By then, having reached more or less the place where they first engaged a person before their descent, they must go in the opposite direction for seven years toward the other side; one could even say, onto a higher level. After twice seven years, then, plus seven more years, it is possible to try to embody them, foreseeing that whatever has been right in their development can take on a distinct form. If I were not convinced that within the Rosicrucian Mystery an individual organism has lived and grown for 3x7 years, I would not venture to speak further about it. I feel not only justified in speaking, however, though this is not really the question, but also in a sense obligated to speak about what lives in this Rosicrucian Mystery, not only between the lines, between the characters, in the What and the How, but what is alive in everything in the drama and what must be alive in it.

In various places since the performance of the drama in Munich, I have stated the fact that many, many things of an esoteric nature would not need to be described, that lectures would be unnecessary on my part, if only everything that lies in the Rosicrucian Mystery could work directly on your souls, my dear friends, and on the souls of others, too. I would have to use the enormous number of words necessary in my lectures and speak for days, for weeks, even for years, in order to describe what has been said and what could be said in the single drama. Everything you find in my book, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment,1Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment, Anthroposophic Press, Inc., Spring Valley, NY, reprinted 1983. which is written in a somewhat tentative style—and in esoteric matters it is certainly correct to write thus as a description of the path into higher worlds—combined with what was said in Occult Science,2Rudolf Steiner, An Outline of Occult Science, Anthroposophic Press, Inc., Spring Valley, NY, 1979. can be found, after all, in a much more forceful, true-to-life, and substantial form in the Rosicrucian Mystery. The reason is that it is more highly individualized. What is said in such a book as Knowledge of the Higher Worlds about human development had to be applicable to every individual who wishes to direct his path in some way into higher worlds, applicable to each and every person. Because of this, the book takes on—even with as much concreteness as possible—a certain abstract character, or you might call it a semi-theoretical character. We must hold fast, however, to this point: human development is never merely development in general. There is no such thing as development per se, no such thing as common, ordinary, orthodox development. There is only the development of this or that particular person, of a third, fourth, or twentieth human being. For each individual in the world, there must be a different process of development.

For this reason, the most honest description of the esoteric path of knowledge must have such a general character that it never in any way will coincide with an individual development. Should one actually describe the path of development as seen in the spiritual world, one can do it only by shaping the development of a single human being, by altering for the individual whatever is universally true. The book, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, contains, to a certain extent, the beginning of the secrets of all human development. The Rosicrucian Mystery contains the secrets of the development of a single individual, Johannes Thomasius.

It was a truly long descent from all the occult laws of development down to a single, actually real human being. In this process, on this path, what has a tendency to become theory in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds had to be turned almost completely upside down. If it was to go beyond mere theory and particularly if it was to enter the artistic sphere, it had to be completely reversed, because the laws of art are quite different from any others. Just as there are natural laws, so there are also artistic laws, and these cannot be manipulated by the ordinary human consciousness, for then only dry-as-dust allegories would be the result.

Artistic laws must be handled just as Mother Nature handles her own laws when she lets a child, a plant, or an animal come into existence. If everything we can know about the world of nature is to be seen from the one direction that reveals its laws and secrets to the beholder, then whatever is to be revealed in art—any kind of art—must be seen from the other side, from just the opposite point of view. Therefore, it would be the worst imaginable interpretation of a work of art to start from ideas, concepts, or laws we have picked up somewhere, when we approach, say, a poem. Whoever thinks of explaining a work of art by means of abstract or symbolic ideas cannot be considered artistic. The poorest method of looking at a piece of work from the past in which true esoteric power has been invested, for instance, Goethe's Faust, would be to search within this work of art for the ideas and concepts one already has. Bad habits of this kind once prevailed in the theosophical movement in the most horrible way. I can remember something that happened just last year when we were performing Schuré's play, The Children of Lucifer. How shocking it was to the dramatist, who is an artist in the best sense of the word, when someone came up to him to ask, “Does this character represent Atma, this one Buddhi, a third Manas, or maybe this one is Kama Manas?” etc., etc. This kind of allegorizing is simply impossible in a truly creative, artistic process, and it is just as impossible in an explanation or interpretation. Therefore, it can now be said that no one should be pondering the anthroposophical meaning of Johannes Thomasius. To this question there is only one answer: as the main character in the drama, he is nothing more than Johannes Thomasius. He is nothing more than the living figure, Johannes Thomasius, in whom nothing more is portrayed than the mystery of development of one man, Johannes Thomasius.

If one speaks in too general a way about the various characters, one thing will be missing, which is hinted at in the words of the drama itself:

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

There is no development evolving at any point of human history without the knotting of threads within that development, “spun by karma in world becoming.” And no individual development can be described without showing what is at work in the realm of the occult, that is, in the physical environment one looks at with the forces lying behind that physical environment. Therefore, Johannes Thomasius must be placed in the human surroundings out of which his development is proceeding in the real world of physical men and women.

For this reason, the drama has to have a double introduction. The Prelude shows how the cosmic world in which the threads are knotting together for Johannes, threads that “karma spins in world becoming,” how this world confronts the ordinary outside world. One can certainly ask if this must be shown, if there must be a Prelude to show how this cosmic world looks from outside. Yes, it has to be shown. Something would be lacking if it were not so presented. The world in which karma spins its knots was quite different in 5000 B.C., for instance, from the world in 300 B.C. or in 1000 A.D. or today. The exoteric, ordinary, outside world is always changing, too, and its own karma is connected with the environment of a person who wishes to develop himself. Thus, the circle is drawn from outside inward. On the inside is the small circle in which Johannes Thomasius stands: the second Prelude. In the ordinary world outside there are trivial waves touching the shore; in the small circle, great waves are surging high. They show their turbulence, however, only within the soul of Johannes. That is why we are introduced first to the physical plane, and it is shown to us in such a way that the threads, which karma is spinning everywhere within this physical plane, are pointed out.

When you look with occult vision at any group of people, you will find that there are strands extending from one person to another, tangled in the most astonishing way. You see human beings who apparently have little to do with each other in ordinary life, but between their souls are flung the most important, most vital connections. Everything so tangled together has gradually to be illuminated, with the focus on one particular knot. Sometimes, however, whatever is in the process of becoming must be hinted at more subtly. These delicate tones had to be sounded in Scene One, where the action is taking place on the physical plane and people with a wide variety of interests are coming together. Outwardly, they chat about this or that. As they talk, however, more or less on the surface, they are revealing karma. Everyone we first meet in Scene One on the physical plane is bound to the others by destiny. What is most fundamental is how they are bound by destiny. None of the connections have been simply thought out; they are all based on esoteric life. All the threads can come to life, and each thread is quite unique.

The remarkable character of these connections you can guess at when you find such figures as Felix and Felicia Balde meeting with Capesius and Strader. What they say is not the important thing; it is that just these persons say it. They are living persons, not invented characters. I, for one, am well acquainted with them; by that I mean they are not thought out but fully alive. They are real. I have taken especially the figure of Professor Capesius, who has grown quite dear to my heart, directly from life. The extraordinary scene of the seeress Theodora had to be brought into this setting of our ordinary world. She, as one who sometimes looks into the future, now foresees the event that is to happen before the end of the twentieth century, the coming Christ event. It is a future event that can be explained karmically, although it would be wrong to interpret other events so precisely.

Then there is the karmic relationship existing between Felicia Balde and Professor Capesius, which we find hinted at by the peculiar effect on Capesius of Felicia's fairy tales. When, too, we see Strader deeply moved by the seeress Theodora, it suggests that karmic threads are arising in Strader's heart, connecting him to her. These are all threads that lie occultly behind the physical occurrences, and they seem to be spun by karma and directed toward one point, Johannes Thomasius. In him they come together. While so much is being spoken about on the physical plane, a light begins to radiate in Johannes' soul, a light that arouses terrible waves within him. At the same time, however, this light kindles his esoteric development; as a distinctly individual development it will cross his own karma with world karma. We see, therefore, what a strong impression the happenings around him on the physical plane are making on him and how the unconscious greatness in his soul is striving upward to higher worlds.

The journey into higher worlds, however, should not take place without a compass; there must be guidance and direction. Into the midst, then, of these many relationships comes the one who is described as the leader of the group. He is also the one who understands the cosmic relationships and discerns therefore “the knots that karma spins in world becoming”; it is Benedictus, and he becomes Johannes' guide. The karma working in Johannes Thomasius, which perhaps otherwise would have to work another thousand or even thousands of years, is kindled and set ablaze in one particular moment through a karmic relationship between Benedictus and Johannes, lightly drawn in the Meditation Room scene (Scene Three). There we find ourselves at the point where a human being, destined by karma to develop himself, begins to strive upward into higher worlds. In order not to do so blindly, he will be led by Benedictus in the right direction. These thoughts will become clearer when the following passages of Scene Three are presented.

A room for meditation.
Benedictus, Johannes, Maria, and a Child.

Maria

I'm bringing you the child.
He needs a guiding word from you.

Benedictus

My child, from now on you shall come
to me each evening to hear the words
that then should dwell with you
before you enter the soul realm of sleep.
Will you do this?

Child

I'll do it gladly.

Benedictus

This evening fill your heart,
till sleep enfolds you,
with strength from these few words:
‘The heavenly powers of light are carrying me
into the spirit's house.’

(The Child is taken out by Maria, who then returns.)

Maria

And now that this child's destiny shall in future flow
within the shadow of your paternal care,
I too may ask your guiding counsel,
for I've become his mother
through powers of destiny,
if not by blood.
You showed me how
to bring him up
from that first day
when I discovered him,
left by his unknown mother at my door.
And all your rules
I followed for his guidance
worked wonders on my foster child.
For every force could come to light
that in his body and his soul lay hidden.
It soon was clear that your advice
sprang from the realm
which sheltered this child's soul
before it built its body's sheath.
We saw it hopefully unfold
and shine more brightly each new day.
You know how hard it was for me at first
to gain the child's affection.
He grew up in my care,
yet nothing more than habit
first joined his soul with mine.
He looked at me, perceiving only
that I gave him all he needed
for the well-being of his body and his soul.
Then came the time when in his heart
love was enkindled
for me, the foster mother.
An outer cause brought forth this change.
The seeress came into our circle.
The child became attached to her
and learned, enchanted by the way she spoke,
one or the other charming word.
Then came a moment when exaltation
laid hold of our strange friend;
our child could see
the glimmering light within her eyes.
He felt his young soul shaken to the core
and, frightened, rushed to me.
From this time on
the child has been devoted
to me in warmest love.
Yet since he now received his care from me
not just through natural impulse
but with awakened feeling—
since his young heart stirs warmly
whenever he looks lovingly at me—
the treasures of your wisdom
have lost their fruitfulness.
And withered now is much
that had already ripened in the child.
I saw revealed within his being
what for my friend has proved so terrible.
I'm ever more a dark enigma to myself.
Do not deny my asking this grave question:
why do I ruin friend and child
when lovingly I try to do for them
the work that spirit guidance
lets me perceive within my heart as good?
You've shown to me the lofty truth:
illusion's veil is covering the surface of our life.
Yet I must have clear knowledge,
if I must bear this destiny
which is so cruel and which works such evil.

Benedictus

There forms itself within this circle
a knot out of the threads
which karma spins in world becoming.
O friend, your sorrows
are part of such a knot of destiny in which
the deeds of gods entwine themselves with human life.
When on the pilgrimage of soul
I had attained that stage
which granted me the honor
of serving with my counsel in the spirit spheres,
there came to me a higher being
which should descend into the realm of earth
to take up its abode within a human body.
Man's destiny is now demanding this
at such a turning point of time.
A great step forward in our evolution
is only possible when gods
unite themselves with man's own lot.
For spirit eyes, which should awake
in human souls, can only be evolved
when first a god has laid the seed
within a human being.
The task was now assigned to me
to find that human being
who might be worthy to accept within his soul
the seed-force of the god.
I had to link a deed of heaven
unto a human destiny.
My spirit's eye made search—
it fell on you.
Your course of life had fitted you
as mediator for new healing forces.
In many lives you had acquired
an openness for the nobility
alive in human hearts.
The precious quality of beauty,
the highest claim of virtue,
you carried in your gentle soul
as spirit heritage.
What your eternal ego
brought down into this life through birth
matured to ripened fruit
in your first youthful years.
You did not scale too soon
the lofty spirit heights.
The longing for the spiritual world
did not arise in you
till you had fully grasped
the senses' innocent delights.
Your soul encountered love and anger while as yet
your thought was far away
from all desire for spirit.
To drink the joy of Nature in her beauty
and pick the fruits of art
was all you wished to find as riches in your life.
And you could gaily laugh
as only a small child can laugh
who has as yet no knowledge
of life's grey shadow side.
You learned to fathom human happiness,
and mourn men's pain, in times
when not an inkling had yet dawned
of questioning the roots of joy and sorrow.
The soul who shows such character
encounters earthly life
as the ripe fruit sprung from many lives.
Its childlike nature is its blossom, not
its root of being.
It was this soul alone that I could choose
as mediator for that spirit
who should attain to active power
within our human world.
So comprehend now that your being
must change into its opposite
when pouring forth from you to other beings.
The spirit in you works
in everything that can grow ripe in man
as fruit for realms eternal.
And therefore much it must destroy
that only has its place within the realm of time.
Its sacrifice in death, however,
is seed of immortality.
What flourishes for higher life
must bloom from death of lower being.

Maria

So this is how it stands with me.
You give me light,
but light that robs me of the power of sight
and tears me from myself.
Am I then nothing but a spirit's mediator
and not my own true being?
No more will I endure
this form of mine,
which is a mask and not the truth.

Johannes

Dear friend, what is it?
Your gaze has lost its light.
Your body's turned into a pillar.
I take your hand—
and it is cold as death.

Benedictus

My son, you've had to meet with many trials;
but now you stand before the hardest one.
You see her body's covering.
And yet before my gaze
her Self soars into spirit spheres.

Johannes

O see, her lips begin to move.
She speaks ...

Maria

You gave me clarity,
yes, clarity that shrouded me
in darkness on all sides.
I curse your clarity,
and you I curse
who made of me
a tool of those wild arts
through which you seek to misguide men.
Not for one moment have I ever doubted
how high you stand in spirit.
Yet now one single instant has sufficed
to tear all faith in you out of my heart.
And I must recognize that they are hell-born beings,
the spirits whom you serve.
I had to mislead others
because you misled me!
I'll flee from you to regions
wherein no word of yours can penetrate,
and yet be near enough
so that my curses can still reach you!
The fire of my blood
you've torn away from me
and given to your own false god
what must be mine.
The fire of this blood,
O may it burn you!
I had to trust
in lying and deceit,
and to accomplish this
you had at first to make of me
a phantom form.
I've often had to see
how deeds and thoughts of mine
were changed into their opposite.
So now let all
that once was love for you
be changed into wild hatred's fire.
I'll hunt through all the worlds
to find that fire
that can consume you.

I cur ... ah ...

Johannes

Who is it that is speaking here?
I do not see my friend—
I see a gruesome being!

Benedictus

Maria's soul is hovering in the heights;
she's left behind her here with us
her mortal semblance only.
And where a human body
is left without a spirit,
there's room which then
the enemy of good seeks out
to step into the realm of visibility.
He finds a body's covering
and through it he can speak.
Just such an adversary spoke
who strives now to destroy the work
I must fulfill
for many human beings' future,
for you as well, my son.
For could I take these curses,
just spoken by Maria's vacant shell,
as other than the tempter's guile,
you should not follow me.
The enemy of good was at my side;
and you, my son, have seen
plunge down into the darkness
the temporal part of her
to whom your whole love radiates.
Because so often spirits
have spoken to you through her lips,
world karma has not spared you
from hearing through them also
the prince of hell.

Now you can seek her finally
and learn to know her being's core.
For she shall be the image of that higher man
to whom you shall aspire to raise yourself.
Her soul is soaring forth to spirit heights
where men can find their being's primal form
that in itself is rooted.
You now shall follow her to spirit realms
and see her in the Temple of the Sun.
There forms itself
within this circle
a knot out of the threads
which karma spins in world becoming.
My son, you have stood firm so far;
you will progress still further.
I see your star in its full radiance.
There is no place in sense existence
for battles such as men must fight
who strive for consecration.
What sense existence hides as riddles
which can be solved by intellect,
what human hearts receive from such existence—
no matter if it comes from love or hate
or whether it bursts forth with frightful power—
this for the spirit seeker must become
a field on which he, uninvolved,
directs his vision from without.
For forces must unfold themselves for him
which are not found upon this field itself.
You had to wrest your way through trials of soul
which only come to those
well-armed to meet those powers
belonging to the spirit worlds.
And had those powers not found you ready
to tread the path of knowledge,
they would have had to lame your feeling
before you were allowed to know
what now has been revealed to you.
The beings who can gaze at world-foundations
lead men who strive into the heights
at first up to that summit
where can be shown
if they have strength
for conscious spirit sight.
Those who possess such forces
can be released out of the world of sense.
The others still must wait.
You have sustained your Self, my son,
when powers of the heights have shaken you
and spirit forces shrouded you in dread.
Your Self has strongly battled its way through,
when doubts were wrestling in your breast
and sought to give you over to dark depths.
You have been my true pupil only
since that portentous hour
when you, despairing, felt
that you yourself were lost,
and yet the strength in you still held you firm.
I was allowed to grant from wisdom's treasures
what gave you strength
to hold yourself,
though you believed no longer in yourself.
So was the wisdom which you conquered
more truthful than the faith
bestowed on you.
You are now found mature.
You now may be released.
Your friend has led the way.
In spirit you will find her.
I can still further give you the direction:
Call forth the fiery power of your soul
with words which, uttered through my mouth,
give you the key to spirit heights.
They will accompany you
when nothing longer guides you
which eyes of sense can still behold.
With your whole heart now willingly receive them:

Light's weaving essence radiates
through far-flung spaces
to fill the world with life.
Love's blessing pours its warmth
through time's long ages
to call forth revelation of all worlds.
And messengers of spirit join
light's weaving essence
with revelation of the soul.
And
when with both, the human being
can jo
in his own true self,
he is alive in spirit heights.

O spirits who can be perceived by man,
quicken with life the soul of this our son.
Let shine in him
what can illumine
his soul with spirit light.
Let sound in him
what can awaken
his self to joyous spirit growth.

Spirit Voice (behind the scene):

Thoughts now guide him
to depths of world-beginnings;
what as shadows he has thought,
what as phantoms he has felt
soars out, beyond the world of forms—
world, of whose fullness
men, when thinking,
dream in shadows;
world, from whose fullness
men, when seeing,
live within phantoms.

(As the curtain falls slowly, the music begins.)

Those last tones of music, composed by our dear friend, Arenson,3Adolf Arenson (1855-1936) composed the music for the four Mystery Dramas at the request of Rudolf Steiner. bring to expression what is echoing from higher worlds into Johannes Thomasius' soul in the drama. It follows the solemn experience he has had in the Meditation Room, which proved him genuinely mature and strong enough to ascend into these higher worlds. At the end of the scene just recited, we hear words actually sounding out of the spiritual worlds in a completely real way, into a soul that up to a certain level, if I may so describe it, has stood the test. The imponderable had to be touched on gently with words that are more meaningful than one at first believes.

It must be quite clear that the knot spun out of the threads of world karma presents to Johannes Thomasius a fact of the most sublime and powerful nature in that solemn place. What is actually happening?

Johannes Thomasius has to perceive a soul to whom he is joined karmically in a wonderful way (as shown later in Devachan, Scene Seven), ascending directly before him into the spiritual world. It is a unique moment in world history when such a soul enters divine worlds. Naturally, not everything connected with this moment can be fully described, but it is definitely a real happening that anyone conversant with occult life will recognize in its frightening and powerful interweaving of light and shadow.

Such a person knows, too, what happens in the physical world at the shattering moment when a soul disappears into the spiritual world, not with the gradual step of individual karma but suddenly, challenged by world karma. These are moments that are vital for the evolution of mankind. They are also moments when the real, ever-present forces of temptation, peering into our physical world out of the spiritual world (just as the powers of good do), have the strength to take possession of deserted physical sheaths and use them as platforms for their guile and powers of deception. The body is the point from which they launch their attack. Immediately, then, the situation will show itself as maya, illusion, of the worst kind.

Confronted with the small deceptions of karma, a person who is not far developed will be unable to withstand temptation. Confronted with much greater deceptions of karma, something that at a certain stage of development one would no longer have believed to be possible, a soul will recoil terrified, unless it has already gone through certain tragic depths of life experience. One can imagine some people saying that they, too, could have withstood what happened in the Meditation Room—but they should really find themselves sometime in the same situation! The reality is far different from what we might think it to be. In a spiritual reality, strange forces are at work. If someone does not believe this, he should just consider whether or not he has had any genuine experience with a human physical body abandoned by its own soul. Human beings know only ensouled bodies. In this case quite different forces come into play, and it is against these forces that Johannes Thomasius has to stand firm, having been guided to this moment in world karma.

Now two things come into question. Johannes Thomasius first has to endure what is usually known as kamaloka, the world in which there appears to us as a mirror image what we ourselves truly are. Again, this sounds milder when spoken about than it is in reality. When it appears in its reality, there is not merely a picture limited in space to tell us what it is, but it intones this from every corner of the world around us. The whole world is we ourselves. For this reason, when you hear in Scene Two how Johannes Thomasius descends into the depths of his soul where he is “among rocks and springs,” it is not a single mirror image he conjures up, speaking to him out of his soul, but it sounds to him from everywhere around him, out of the rocks and springs, out of his whole surroundings. At such a moment, words that were tame enough as they came out of world theories or philosophical works, or even spiritual scientific writings, suddenly grow into terrifying power, for they sound forth out of the whole world from every side as though, reflected from unending space, they are caught up in the various processes of nature.

O man, know thou thyself!

Thus, they sound when they become audible after living year after year within the soul. The soul then is left, lonely and forsaken, and stands before its Self. Nothing is there but the world—but this world is one's own soul; it contains everything the soul is, what its karma is, everything it has perpetrated.

In a poetic work, only a special theme can be singled out—for instance, an action far in the past, the desertion of a woman—but this comes fully alive to confront Johannes Thomasius' soul. I can say only a few words about this. When it happens, Johannes loses what is necessary for him to lose: confidence in himself, in his strength, even in the ability to find in loneliness the healing for what brings him such agonizing pain on the physical plane when experiencing it there. The following words, therefore, I beg you to take as they should be taken, that is, as shaking the soul and filling it completely. When Johannes Thomasius hears from all the world around him the words, “O man, know thou thyself,” his soul answers, as though his ego were not present:

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!

This is answered powerfully “from the springs and rocks.” Then his whole inner being is turned outward:

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
!)

You must try to imagine how the Self joins the cosmic process outside. Usually, we stand still or go about our hourly tasks and fail to see what is happening out there. We have no idea of it and believe that we are within our own inner being. But Johannes is following consciously what is going on. Consciously, he keeps pace with the power of all the elements, moves with the hours of the day and transforms himself into the night.

The earth I follow in her cosmic course.
I rumble in the thunder,
I flash within the lightning.

All this leaves the impression with him: I am. This is the moment, however, when the I am becomes the Daimon of his own soul. In the process, man's self-assertion is completely silenced. One can scarcely try to speak out, “I am,” but the soul replies:

... But oh, I feel
already separated from my being.

Then Johannes' own being appears in a limited, constrained form:

I see my body's shell.
It is an alien being outside myself;
it is remote from me.
There hovers nearer now another body ...

Now he can no longer speak with his own mouth but with the mouth of another person. It is the woman to whom he has done a wrong:

‘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 he returns to his own body:

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.

At this point a path is begun that is afterward described at the close of the scene in the words showing the effect of the world and the effect of solitude. In the world everything that streams in from outside works in the most frightful way. What comes from within works in such a way that the solitude is absolutely filled with people. This is a test, a test designed for the purpose hinted at in the words recited to you earlier:

The beings who can gaze at world foundations
lead men who strive into the heights
at first up to that summit
where can be shown
if they have strength
for conscious spirit sight.
Those who possess such forces
can be released out of the world of sense.
The others still must wait.

At this moment Johannes Thomasius would have lost consciousness and been flung back into the sense world if he had not held his ground in Scene Two, the scene we have been discussing in which he confronts his Self. Two things then became clear: his Self, as far as it is aware, has little strength; this deprives him of self-confidence. But the eternal “I” within him, of which he as yet knows nothing, has immense strength. It buoys him up and helps him to surmount the experience in the Meditation Room when Maria's soul departs. He needs, therefore, only the words of Benedictus, the force of those words, to guide him upward.

In the lines read to you, you must sense a Mystery of Words. What this means is not merely something written down in a play. In these lines, cosmic forces are actually contained, down to the very sounds. Indeed, the sounds cannot be changed. The opening of a door into the spiritual world is provided by these words; therefore, they must be heard just as they are spoken. Anything of the nature of the following lines cannot be put together in an arbitrary manner:

Des Lichtes webend Wesen, es erstrahlet
Durch Raumesweiten,
Zu füllen die Welt mit Sein.
Der Liebe Segen, er erwärmet
Die Zeitenfolgen,
Zu rufen aller Welten Offenbarung.
Und Geistesboten, sie vermählen
Des Lichtes webend Wesen
Mit Seelenoffenbarung;
Und wenn vermählen kann mit beiden
Der Mensch sein eigen Selbst,
Ist er in Geisteshöhen lebend.

Light's weaving essence radiates
through far-flung spaces
to fill the world with life.
Love's blessing pours its warmth
through time's long ages
to call forth revelation of all worlds.
And messengers of spirit join
light's weaving essence
with revelation of the soul.
And when with both the human being
can join his own true self,
he is alive in spirit heights.

Only after this can there sound from out the other world what is to sound into the soul. These are only hints, as has been said before.

Johannes Thomasius is then really impelled into the spiritual world. He cannot, however, rise directly into this world into which every person must go; he must first pass through the astral world. In Scene Four you have the astral world represented as Johannes Thomasius perceives it on the background of his own particular, individual past experience. It is not a universal description of this world but rather a description of what, for example, Johannes Thomasius had to experience there. The astral world is quite different from the physical. It is possible to meet a person there and see him as he was decades before, or to see a young man as he will become in future years. They are both realities. In your soul nature, you are still the same today as you were as a child of three. What you see in the soul world is by no means what is shown in man's outer physical form. The physical appearance conceals at every moment what was true before and what will come as truth in the future. When we look into the astral world, it is first of all necessary to overcome the primary maya of the sense world in order to understand the illusory power of time. For this reason, Johannes Thomasius sees in the astral world the person he has met on the physical plane, Capesius, as he once was as a youth, and he sees the one he knows as Strader just as he will be as an old man. What does this mean? Johannes knows Strader as he is now in the sense world with the forces present in his soul on the physical plane. But already within Strader are the conditions for what he will become after several decades. This also has to be included in our knowledge of a human being. Thus, time is rent asunder. It is really so that time is quite elastic in its nature when one enters the higher worlds. In the physical world Johannes Thomasius knows Capesius as elderly, Strader as young; now they stand together in the astral world: Capesius young, Strader old. It is not that time is stretched forward and backward but that one man is shown in his youth, the other in his old age. It is an absolutely real fact.

Something more is shown in this scene, something people react to with adolescent scorn. This is the fact that our soul experiences are greater than we usually think they are, that good and bad have their consequences when experienced within the soul. For example, if we think thoughts that are cruel or even false, they stream into the depths of the world and back again; we are closely connected in our soul experiences with the elemental powers of nature. This is no mere image. From the esoteric point of view, for example, it is a reality when Capesius is brought before the Spirit of the Elements, who leads every human being into existence. Actually, Capesius is confronting what the Spirit of the Elements is concerned with—and concerned with in such a way that when we experience anything in the soul, it is related to the elemental forces of nature. Johannes Thomasius is shown that both Capesius and Strader, out of the depths of their souls, can arouse the opposing powers of the elements. In that world, therefore, thunder and lightning follow what they have felt in their souls as pride or haughtiness, error, truth or lies. In the physical world, the error or lie a person has in his soul is quite peculiar. Someone can stand before us with error and lying in his soul and may appear to be quite innocent. But the moment we look at him with astral vision, we can see raging storms that otherwise are represented on earth only as a picture by the most terrible convulsions of the elements. All this Johannes has to experience and everything, too, that in the astral world can show him the remarkable connections he did not recognize when he met them on the physical plane.

The names given in this Rosicrucian Mystery are not given just by chance. Names such as “the Other Maria,” and so on, all point to definite relationships, so that the “one” and the “other” Maria are not merely “two Marias” but present themselves as Maria-forces to the other characters. “The Other Maria,” the mysterious nature figure, is revealed to Johannes Thomasius as the soul living below the ordinary conscious soul quite inaudibly and imperceptibly as long as man lives only in the physical world. But you must not take these relationships and characters as symbols. The Other Maria is absolutely a real person, a reality, just as the first Maria is. They should be taken for what they really are.

Everything that Johannes Thomasius has experienced passes before the eyes of his soul. He has experienced the astral world. This he can now bring into his consciousness by saying:

In realms of soul I find again
the human beings who are known to me.
The man who spoke about Felicia's fairy tales:
I could behold him here
as in his younger years;
and also he who as a youth
had chosen to become a monk:
here as an old man he appeared to me.
And with them was the Spirit of the Elements.

(End of Scene Four)

Johannes Thomasius has passed through what wipes out time before his eyes, because he has now become mature, sufficiently mature to see into the astral world. Is this world free from error? No, it is not. But in the astral world one thing can become a certainty for man. It will become a certainty for him, if he enters it in purity and without guilt, that there is a higher world shining into the astral world, just as the astral world shines into the ordinary physical world. The only question is whether or not he can see this as it actually is. People who go about in this physical world are themselves only a kind of illusion, in that they have something behind them leading them into the higher world. They stand in contrast to what they have perhaps been in distant or more recent times and what they will become in the future. But certain errors do not show us the astral world in which one is quite entangled in the world of the senses. For instance, they do not show the relationship of the three great forces of our existence: Will, Love, and Wisdom. This is so difficult to discern and understand in its reality that it remains hidden for a long time in the astral world. It is not an easy matter to discover it there. Besides, some relationships that are errors in the sense world are continued on into the astral world.

The working together of will, wisdom, and love, which at this point can only be touched on, takes place in the physical world through human beings. In the higher worlds, it takes place through the beings who expend their forces whenever, on the physical plane, the forces of supersensible beings descend into human souls. This happens through initiates in those temples where there are human representatives for the single world-forces, where human beings have come so far as to renounce the desire to portray the whole human being as he is but limit themselves to portraying a single force. It is the representatives who have taken over. But when man looks into the astral world, those holy places of the representatives of the powers of will, wisdom, and love are shown to him in a picture filled with maya. Therewith is woven a fearful web between the illusion of the sense world and of the astral world.

Now, I should have to talk for weeks if I wished to explain how it is with that figure of the higher powers shown as the initiate of the powers of will; he has met Johannes Thomasius on the physical plane, and there he really seems to be an ordinary, superficial fellow. In such a case the question can arise: are the primal forces of will supposed to work through such a person? Yes, they are. We can perhaps understand that the force manifesting the powers of will can permeate just this kind of less developed human being in the same way as the radiance of wisdom enters a man like Benedictus. We must grasp the following. If we have a beautiful flower in full bloom and place a seed beside it, it may be that the seed when developed will bring forth a still more beautiful flower. The flower can at this moment be considered quite perfect, but, according to cosmic reality, the seed is actually something more perfect. Hence, we have these opposites: Benedictus, the eminent bearer of wisdom, and the man who on the physical plane behaves in such a strange way toward everything said about the spiritual worlds and in such a strange way rejects it all. When in a group of people he hears talk about the spiritual worlds, he says, as if he were unwilling to listen:

I cannot find the bridge that leads across
from mere ideas to actual deeds.

(Romanus, Scene One)

He is a man who finds elsewhere what leads to deeds; to him, any talk about the spiritual is simply empty talk. You could tell this fellow beautiful things about theosophy; to the man he is, now, on the physical plane, it is nothing but words. What he finds worthwhile is the working of machines. When he hears about the Other Maria, how spiritual power has become part of her, kindling a strength of feeling and love in her so that she can perform healing deeds, he is the one who rejects all this, saying merely, “That comes from her having a good heart!” He remains wholly on the physical plane, where he is indeed a philistine, an ordinary fellow, but also at the same time an energetic, determined man of will. Hence, he says:

If this good person has achieved so much
the impulse lies
in her warm heart.
When work is done, men surely need
refreshment and renewal from ideas.
But only training of the will,
combined with skill and strength
in all the genuine work of life,
will further human progress.
When whirr of wheels
is humming in my ears,
and when contented human hands
are labouring at machines,
it's then I feel the powers of life at work.

This is the man of will, the man of action. If you were to talk to him day in and day out about the spirit, his only response would be, “You can't turn a winch with that; meanwhile, what are people going to eat?” This amounts to saying, “Turn your winches all day long, and then, if you have a little spare time, talk about the spirit for amusement!” Here are the forces still latent in the seed, and they are good forces, important forces. Through the powers of will they stream into the world. When people hear about spiritual worlds and receive what is said, each in his own way, this must not be judged theoretically, for it is extremely difficult to arrive at the truth. If you do not understand that a seed must be looked upon as the counterpart to such a person as has just been described, you will be experiencing the same kind of illusion as the one presented by the Subterranean Temple. There it is an astral maya. There is reality in what Johannes Thomasius perceives in the scene with Capesius and Strader when he sees them at different ages. But in Scene Five a maya, a Fata Morgana of the spiritual world, is pictured, from which, after it has been experienced, the soul must free itself. Therefore, you have to take Scene Five as justified only by the fact that reality is intermingled with the maya.

No part of this scene would contribute to Johannes Thomasius' development unless it bore the same relationship to astral experience that the concepts and ideas of the physical world bear to our understanding of the world. What scientific knowledge is for the physical plane, the “Maya Temple” is for the astral world. The “Maya Temple” is no more a reality rooted in the spiritual world than a concept is something we can eat. But concepts must live in the world for an understanding of the world to be possible. Only in this way can there play in from another world what is profoundly illuminating for Johannes Thomasius, that is, to recognize the definite knot in world karma formed when Felix Balde comprehends that in solitary wanderings about the world he must not bury his soul treasures but must bring them to the temple.

Then, for the first time, it is possible for Johannes Thomasius to perceive relationships in the spiritual world that are, so to speak, much more real, and of a more delicate and intimate nature. For example, the projection of the astral world into the physical world takes place when such a thing happens as the inspiring of a man like Capesius by someone who does not really know, herself, how much is living in her soul. In the Mystery Play, Felicia Balde does not know this. In the case of a man of intellect, a man who works intellectually, everything passes through his intellect. There is nothing whatever in the intellect that can give us strength while it instructs us about the world. This lies outside the capacity of the intellect. In a person of exceptional intelligence, a force coming from the spiritual world may pass through the intellect and then continue. At this point, he will be able to speak of the spiritual world in splendid, theoretical terms. The mind, however, does not influence the degree of inner esoteric life or the content of the soul. What comes from theories may reach the soul even without passing through the intellect; it can discover a person who is receptive to the fountainhead of spirit and who can summon up something there that Capesius, for instance, describes on the physical plane. This is clearly shown in his words about Felicia Balde, who lives out there in the solitude with Felix, and what she really means to him—when he says how gladly he listens to her because she speaks out of the most profound, age-old wisdom. It is important for us to grasp fully what Capesius is saying: on the physical plane, there is a woman to whom he likes to listen and from whose lips come things welling up from occult sources. She cannot clothe them in elegant words, but when her words reach the ear of Capesius, he can say:

I must allude
if I'm to tell about it,
to something which in truth
seems far more wonderful to me
than much that I have heard of here,
because it speaks more to my heart.
I scarcely should be able in another place
to bring the words across my lips
which here I find so easy.
I feel my soul, at times,
as though entirely empty and exhausted;
it is as if the very fountainhead
of knowledge had run dry within me,
as if I could not find one word
that seems worthwhile to speak or to be heard.

(Scene One)

Such things exist. Such people, however much they know, feel at these times as if they could get no further.

And when I feel such barrenness of spirit,
then I escape and go where these good people
have their refreshing, quiet solitude.

Then his soul begins to open out, because that is for him the door into the occult world.

And there Felicia tells me many a tale
in pictures fabulous,
of beings dwelling in the land of dreams
and in the realm of magic fairy tales,
who live a motley life.
The tone in which she tells of them
recalls the bards of ancient times.
I do not ask the sources of her words,
but this one thing I clearly know:
that new life wells and flows into my soul
dispelling its paralysis.

The reality of all this Johannes Thomasius can observe on the physical plane, for he is present, but to be able to explain it to himself he has first to look into the astral world. In Scene Six then, in the astral world, Felicia Balde appears to him “just as she is in life.” She gives the Spirit of the Elements one of the hundreds of fairy tales she has told Capesius. Now, however, comes the reciprocal movement to what takes place below the threshold of consciousness.

Felicia has told Capesius her fairy tales. When she tells one that she herself does not understand, the forces arise in his soul that banish his mental paralysis; then he can, in turn, relate something to his audience. It sounds, however, quite different from what Felicia has related. Mysterious forces are active even in Capesius. When one seeks to discover them, he will find their origin in the astral world, where it can be seen how they call forth countercurrents. Wherever there are elemental powers, they call up the kind of reverberations that Felicia's words awaken in the soul of Capesius. The same kind of thing occurs in our brain. A little spirit lives there who perhaps thinks out the most wonderful things. When we try to discover how he comes out of the macrocosm, we are likely to find the Earth-brain, which thinks thoughts on quite a different scale from those appearing in the small human brain. A man will often assert something he does not see in his own brain, but it will look grotesque when it is reflected in the giant Earth-brain. This has to be reflected; hence, the relationship of Gairman, who appears on the physical plane and then as the Spirit of the Earth-brain. About this, too, one could speak for a long time. Were we to look with soul vision at what takes place in the lonely cottage when Felicia tells her fairy tales and afterward behold the Spirit of the Earth-brain, we would discover many a secret, as, for instance, how ironical this Spirit of the Earth-brain is and how often he mocks. Ridicule has to be a concern of his, because he finds much to laugh at in what human beings do.

From an artistic point of view, it is justifiable that the moment this mockery is out of place, Gairman appears in the role he has so often to play and shows himself in his true guise. We see then, after Felicia Balde has told one of her fairy tales before the Spirit of the Elements in Scene Six, how an abnormal effect is produced on the Spirit of the Earth-brain, who translates the tale in quite different words. Felicia relates the story:

... Once upon a time
there was a Being
that flew from East to West,
following the journey of the sun.
It flew on, over lands and over seas;
and from the heights it watched
the busy life of men.
It saw how men love one another,
and how in hate they persecute each other.
Nothing could hinder
this Being in its flight;
for hate and love create
always the same a thousandfold.
But over one house on its way
the Being had to pause.
Within, there was a tired man
who pondered over human love
and pondered, too, on human hate.
His pondering had carved
deep furrows on his brow,
had turned his hair quite white.
In its concern for him,
the Being lost its guide, the sun,
and stayed at this man's side.
It was still in his room
at evening when the sun went down;
and when the sun returned,
the Being was once more
caught upward by the spirit of the sun.
Again it saw the many people in love, in hate,
continue on their earthly course.
And when it came a second time
above the house, still following the sun,
its gaze fell there
upon a dead old man.

The Spirit of the Earth-brain responds in a way that is naturally not at all justifiable:

Once upon a time there was a man
who tramped from East to West;
the urge for knowledge lured him on
to travel over lands and seas,
and by his rules of wisdom
he watched the busy life of men.
He saw how men love one another
and how in hate they persecute each other.
At every single instant
he saw himself at all his wisdom's end.
For how it is that hate and love
forever rule the earthly world
could not be brought into a law.
He noted many thousand cases,
yet lacked a comprehensive whole.
This dry researcher
encountered on his way
a Being of the Light,
upon whom life weighed heavily,
for it was in a constant battle
with a dark shadow-form.
‘Well, who are you?’
inquired the dry researcher.
‘Oh, I am Love,’
one being answered.
‘In me behold dark Hate,’
so spoke the other.
The man, however, could
no longer hear these beings' words.
As deaf researcher, tramped on
from East to West, this man.

These things are distinct experiences of the astral world. Johannes Thomasius has to pass through them in order to ascend into the spiritual world.

Today I will only say briefly that it is necessary for Johannes Thomasius, in order to reach the spiritual world itself, to make a real connection with that world on threads already woven in the physical world. As you will hear later in the recitation of Scene Seven, his connection with the spiritual world arose out of the karma encompassed by incarnations, and this could be revealed only to Devachanic vision. Devachanic elements actually have to play their part. Therefore, I ask you to notice how everything is alive in the living, weaving Devachanic ocean. This can be described, but the details must more or less be hinted at. For a real description, we must go further. Let us not think that we know anything of higher worlds by speaking about them with the words sentient soul, intellectual soul, consciousness soul, alluding to Philia, Astrid, and Luna. These three figures are in no way personifications of the three soul principles, nor are they symbols for them. Listen to the vowels with which each of these characters describes her activities. Try to hear what lives in the vowels. Then you can follow how the sequence of single vowels and single words make clear what is given in a different way as sentient, intellectual, and consciousness souls. Should you delete any part of it, it will no longer be intact. Therefore, it is important to listen carefully to the words when, for instance, Luna speaks, so as to get an understanding of the Devachanic element in the consciousness soul:

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.

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.

(Scene Seven)

In the movement of the words can be heard in this description of Devachan what otherwise cannot in any way be expressed. This, too, must be taken into consideration. When speaking about higher worlds, we are definitely obliged to speak in many different ways. What I could never say theoretically about the sentient, intellectual, and consciousness souls you may perceive, if you have the desire to understand it, from the characterization of the three figures, Philia, Astrid, and Luna. But you must understand that these three are not symbols or allegories of the sentient, intellectual, and consciousness souls. Should you ask, “What are these three?” the answer would be, “They are persons who are alive; they are Philia-, Astrid-, and Luna-people.” This always must be kept firmly in mind.

How karma, finally intertwining and twisting itself together, can display in a picture what as microcosm Johannes Thomasius experiences in his soul—this was portrayed in the whole closing scene of the Munich performance. Showing how karma is at work, the various characters stood in their places. Each had his position according to his relationship to another person. If you imagine this actually mirrored in the soul of Johannes Thomasius, you will then have more or less what is contained in this picture of the spirit realm in Scene Seven, which could only with great difficulty be given verbal expression.

(There followed a recitation of Scene Seven by Marie von Sivers, accompanied at the beginning and end by the music of Adolf Arenson.)

Einiges Über Das Rosenkreuzermysterium «Die Pforte Der Einweihung»

Der Sonne Licht durchflutet
Des Raumes Weiten,
Der Vögel Singen durchhallet
Der Luft Gefilde,
Der Pflanzen Segen entkeimet
Dem Erdenwesen,
Und Menschenseelen erheben
In Dankgefühlen
Sich zu den Geistern der Welt.

Mit diesem Kinderliede wurde eingeleitet, wie diejenigen von Ihnen wissen, welche die Aufführung des Rosenkreuzermysteriums in München mitgemacht haben, der Inhalt dieses Mysteriums. In dieser Stunde soll sich einiges Geisteswissenschaftliche vor uns entwickeln in Anknüpfung an dasjenige, was in diesem Mysterium liegt, man könnte auch sagen, Leben bekommen hat.

Es ist, wenn ich das andeuten darf, ein langer geistiger Prozeß, welcher zu diesem Mysterium geführt hat. Wenn ich ihn überdenke oder überschaue, so gehen sozusagen seine Keime zurück in das Jahr 1889. Es sind nicht etwa ungefähr, sondern mit einer in solchen Dingen beobachtbaren Genauigkeit einundzwanzig Jahre, die mich selbst auf den Keim dieses Rosenkreuzermysteriums zurückführen. Und es ist für mich sehr genau zu verfolgen, welche Wege in diesen dreimal sieben Jahren diese Keime durchgemacht haben, und zwar, ich darf wohl sagen, ohne mein besonderes Zutun, indem sie ein ihnen eigenes Leben in diesen dreimal sieben Jahren geführt haben. Es ist so merkwürdig, solche Keime auf ihrem Wege bis zu dem, was man Gestaltung nennen kann, zu verfolgen. Sie machen einen Weg durch, den man nennen könnte einen Gang in die Unterwelt. Da brauchen sie sieben Jahre, um hinabzusteigen. Dann kommen sie wieder zurück, und zu diesem Hinaufsteigen brauchen sie wieder sieben Jahre. Sie sind dann dort angekommen, wo sie ja im Grunde genommen dem Menschen gegenüber waren, als sie ihren Abstieg begonnen haben, und gehen dann in einer entgegengesetzten Seite sieben Jahre nach der anderen Seite, man könnte sagen, die nach der Höhe geht. Das gibt zweimal sieben plus sieben Jahre, das sind einundzwanzig. Jahre. Dann konnte mit einiger Aussicht, daß das Richtige, was mit diesen Keimen gemeint ist, auch wirklich in Gestalt übergehen kann, an die Gestaltung herangetreten werden. Und wenn ich mir dessen nicht bewußt wäre, daß ein eigener Organismus, der ein Leben von dreimal sieben Jahren wirklich in sich geführt hat, in dem Rosenkreuzermysterium lebt, so würde ich es gar nicht wagen, irgendwie weiter davon besonders zu sprechen. So aber fühle ich mich nicht nur berechtigt, was ja nicht in Frage käme, sondern in einer gewissen Weise verpflichtet, auch von demjenigen zu sprechen, was nicht nur zwischen den Zeilen, nicht nur in den Personen, nicht nur in dem Was und Wie, sondern was auch in vielen Dingen gerade dieses Rosenkreuzermysteriums, ich möchte nicht einmal sagen, lebt, sondern leben muß.

Es ist von mir schon da und dort seit der Münchner Aufführung dieses Rosenkreuzermysteriums ausgesprochen worden, was ja wahr ist, daß über viele, viele Dinge, die es auf dem Gebiete des Esoterischen, des Okkulten gibt, nicht mehr von mir gesprochen zu werden brauchte, daß von mir keine Vorträge mehr nötig wären, wenn alles das auf die Seelen der lieben Freunde und mancher anderer Menschen wirken würde, unmittelbar aus dem Rosenkreuzermysterium heraus, was in demselben liegt. Und in Worten, wie man sie in den Vorträgen in der Regel gebraucht, hätte ich vieles, vieles zu reden, nicht nur Tage, Wochen, Monate, sondern jahrelang, wenn ich das umschreiben wollte, was durch das Rosenkreuzermysterium gesagt sein sollte und gesagt sein kann. Alle die Dinge, die Sie - und gegenüber okkulten Dingen ist es gewiß berechtigt, so zu sprechen - in einer Art von stammelnder Sprache finden in der Schrift «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?», was da enthalten ist als eine Beschreibung des Weges hinauf in die höheren Welten, das alles verbunden mit dem, was in der «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß» in einer anderen Form gesagt werden durfte, ist im Grunde genommen viel intensiver, lebensrealer und wirklicher, weil viel individueller, in dem Rosenkreuzermysterium zu finden. In einer solchen Schrift wie zum Beispiel «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» kann man das, was über die menschliche Entwickelung gesagt werden soll, doch nur so bringen, daß es gewissermaßen anwendbar ist auf jede menschliche Individualität, die daran geht, in gewisser Weise die Schritte hinaufzulenken in die höheren Welten, auf jede menschliche Individualität. Dadurch gewinnt eine derartige Schrift bei aller Konkretheit dennoch einen abstrakten Charakter, man möchte sagen, einen halb theoretischen Charakter. Denn das eine müssen wir festhalten: Entwickelung ist nicht Entwickelung überhaupt! — Es gibt keine Entwickelung an sich, keine Entwickelung im allgemeinen; es gibt nur die Entwickelung des einen oder des anderen oder des dritten, des vierten oder des tausendsten Menschen. Und so viele Menschen in der Welt sind, so viele Entwickelungsprozesse muß es geben. Daher muß die wahrste Schilderung des okkulten Erkenntnisweges im allgemeinen einen Charakter haben, der in einer gewissen Weise sich nicht deckt mit einer individuellen Entwickelung. Will man Entwickelung, so wie sie sich erschaut in der geistigen Welt, wirklich hinstellen, so kann das nur geschehen, wenn man die Entwickelung eines einzelnen Menschen gestaltet, wenn man in die Individualität umsetzt, was für alle Menschen wahr ist. Liegt in der Schrift «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» gewissermaßen der Anfang des Entwickelungsgeheimnisses eines jeden Menschen, so liegt in dem Rosenkreuzermysterium das Entwickelungsgeheimnis eines einzelnen Menschen, des Johannes Thomasius.

So war ein weiter Weg von alledem, was okkulte Entwickelungsgesetze sind, bis herunter zu einem einzelnen, wirklich realen Menschen. Und bei diesem Entwickelungsprozeß, bei diesem Wege mußte sich etwas fast ganz umkehren, was in den «Erkenntnissen der höheren Welten» enthalten ist, und was dort Theorie werden kann. Wenn es nicht Theorie werden soll, ganz besonders wenn es Kunst werden soll, muß es sich völlig umkehren. Denn ganz besondere Gesetze sind die der Kunst. Und wie es Naturgesetze gibt, so gibt es Gesetze der Kunst, die man nicht etwa mit dem gewöhnlichen menschlichen Bewußtsein handhabt, denn dann kommt nur etwas ähnliches wie stroherne Allegorie heraus. Die Kunstgesetze müssen gehandhabt werden, wie die Natur selbst ihre Gesetze handhabt, wenn sie einen Menschen, ein Tier oder eine Pflanze entstehen läßt. Ist das, was wir über die Welt wissen können, von der einen Richtung her angeschaut, daß wir in die Welt hinschauen und sie uns ihre Gesetze und Geheimnisse enthüllt, so ist das, was in der Kunst und in jeder Kunst zutage treten muß, etwas, was von der anderen Seite durch den entgegengesetzten Sinn in das betreffende Kunstwerk hineingelegt werden muß. Daher wäre die denkbar schlechteste Interpretation eines Kunstwerkes die, welche darauf ausginge, Begriffe und Ideen, Gesetze, die man von sonst irgendwoher weiß, in eine Dichtung zu bringen. Und der würde nicht künstlerisch prägen, der abstrakte oder symbolische Begriffe in irgendein Kunstwerk hineinbringen würde. Daher würde es zu den schlechtesten Methoden gegenüber Kunstwerken der Vergangenheit gehören, in denen wirklich okkulte Kraft gewirkt hat, wie zum Beispiel im «Faust», wenn wir Begriffe und Ideen, die wir kennen, wieder in den Kunstwerken suchen würden. Eine solche Unart hat eine Zeit in der theosophischen Bewegung in der furchtbarsten Art grassiert. Ja, ich weiß mich zum Beispiel noch zu erinnern an etwas, was im vorigen Jahr stattgefunden hat, als wir Schures Drama «Die Kinder des Lucifer» aufführten, wie der Verfasser dieses Dramas, der im besten Sinne des Wortes ein Künstler ist, entsetzt war, als jemand mit der Frage an ihn herantrat: Bedeutet diese Gestalt «Atma», bedeutet jene Figur «Budhi», diese Gestalt «Manas», diese «Kama Manas» und so weiter? — Diese Art von Allegorisieren würde bei einem künstlerischen Prozeß unmöglich sein. Daher muß sie unmöglich sein bei einem Erklären, bei einem Interpretieren. Deshalb darf auch gesagt werden, daß nicht darüber nachzudenken ist: Was ist etwa im anthroposophischen Begriff der Johannes Thomasius? — Auf diese Frage gibt es nur die eine Antwort: Er ist als die Hauptgestalt dieser Dichtung nichts anderes als Johannes Thomasius. Gar nichts anderes ist er als diese lebendige Figur des Johannes 'Thomasius, in die nichts anderes hineingelegt ist als das Entwickelungsgeheimnis eines einzelnen Menschen, nämlich des Johannes Thomasius. - Sobald man von den einzelnen Gestalten im allgemeinen spricht, bleibt eines weg. Es bleibt weg, was in den Worten des Dramas angedeutet ist in den Zeilen: «Es formt sich hier in diesem Kreise ein Knoten aus den Fäden, die Karma spinnt im Weltenwerden.» — Keine Entwickelung vollzieht sich an irgendeinem Punkte des Menschheitsdaseins, ohne daß in dieser Entwickelung rings herum die Fäden sich knoten, welche Karma spinnt im Weltenwerden. Und keine individuelle Entwickelung kann man zeichnen, ohne zu zeigen, was alles in der okkulten Umgebung spielt, das heißt in der physischen Umgebung, aber wie man sie sieht mit den Kräften, die hinter der physischen Umgebung sind. Daher muß Johannes Thomasius hineingestellt werden in die menschliche Umgebung, aus der seine Entwickelung herauswächst, in die reale physische Menschenwelt.

Und deshalb mußte wohl das Drama eine doppelte Einleitung haben. Die erste Einleitung zeigt, wie sich gegenüber der Außenwelt die Welt ausnimmt, in welcher sich für Johannes Thomasius zusammenknüpfen die Fäden, die Karma spinnt im Weltenwerden. Man könnte fragen: Mußte das gezeigt werden, mußte gerade in dem «Vorspiel» gezeigt werden, wie diese Welt von außen sich ansieht? — Das mußte gezeigt werden. Und es wäre nicht alles getan, wenn es nicht gezeigt worden wäre. Es mußte gezeigt werden, weil die Welt, in welcher Karma seine Knoten spinnt, eine andere ist in der Zeit zum Beispiel des fünften Jahrtausends vor unserer Zeitrechnung, eine andere dreihundert Jahre vor unserer Zeitrechnung, wieder eine andere tausend Jahre seit dem Beginn unserer Zeitrechnung und eine andere auch wieder in unserer Gegenwart. Auch die exoterische Außenwelt ist immer eine andere, und sie hängt mit ihrem Karma zusammen, mit dem, was Umgebung wird für den, der sich entwickelt. So wird der Kreis gezogen von außen nach innen. Und im Inneren ist dann der kleine Kreis, in dem Johannes Thomasius selber steht. Das ist das Zweite. In der Außenwelt sind es triviale Wogen, die da schlagen; in dem kleineren Kreis Wogen, welche hoch aufbranden. Aber sie können sich nur zeigen in ihrem Hochaufschäumen in der Seele des Johannes Thomasius selber. Deshalb werden wir zuerst auf den physischen Plan geführt. Der physische Plan wird uns so gezeigt, daß sozusagen auf die Fäden hingedeutet wird, die innerhalb des physischen Planes überall Karma spinnt.

Wer mit okkultem Blick in irgendeinen physischen Kreis hineinschaut, findet überall, daß Fäden gehen von Mensch zu Mensch, die sich in der merkwürdigsten Weise verschlingen. Da sind Menschen, die scheinbar im Leben wenig miteinander zu tun haben. Zwischen Seele und Seele aber spinnen sich die wichtigsten, die wesentlichsten Fäden. Das alles verknotet sich. Und das alles muß nach und nach so gezeigt werden, daß sozusagen klar hingedeutet wird auf irgendeinen Knoten. Das andere Mal kann es nur subtil, nur andeutungsweise gezeigt werden, weil es im Werden ist. Diese verschiedenen Nuancen mußten angeschlagen werden, wo die Sache auf dem physischen Plan spielt, wo wir in einer rein physischen Umgebung sind, wo zusammenkommen Leute aus den verschiedensten Interessenkreisen. Äußerlich reden sie dies und das. Indem sie äußerlich reden, sind sie aber Manifestanten des Karma. Alle die Personen, die uns auf dem physischen Plan zuerst entgegentreten, sind karmisch miteinander verbunden. Und das ist das Wesentliche: wie sie karmisch verbunden sind. Da ist kein einziger erdachter Fall; alles ist okkult begründet. Alles Fäden, die leben können. Und sehr merkwürdig sind diese Fäden.

Die Merkwürdigkeit dieser Fäden können Sie ahnen, wenn Sie solche Gestalten zusammenstellen wie Felix Balde und Frau Balde auf der einen Seite und Capesius und Strader auf der anderen Seite. Es ist nicht das Wichtigste, was sie im Inhalt ihrer Worte sagen; das Wichtigste ist, daß es diese Personen sagen. Und diese Personen sind lebendige Personen, keine Personen, die erdacht sind. Sie sind mir zum Beispiel sehr wohl bekannt. Ich meine mit bekannt nicht ausgedacht, sondern stehend und lebend. Sie sind real, und besonders auch die mir so sehr ans Herz gewachsene Figur des Professor Capesius ist eine aus dem Leben gegriffene Figur. Und es ist unsere Welt. Daher mußte hineinspielen das merkwürdige Ereignis, das durch die Seherin Theodora sich darstellt, die zeitweilig in die Zukunft sehen kann und das merkwürdige Ereignis voraussieht, das noch vor Ablauf des 20. Jahrhunderts kommen wird als das nächste Christus-Ereignis. Das ist etwas, was karmisch gedeutet werden kann. Falsch wäre es, wenn auf andere Ereignisse ebenso klar gedeutet würde. Dann wird jener karmische Bezug, der besteht zwischen Frau Balde und Professor Capesius, angedeutet in dem sonderbaren Bezug, den die Märchenerzählungen der Frau Balde auf Capesius haben. Karmische Fäden sind angedeutet, die deshalb entstehen in dem Herzen des Strader zu der Seherin Theodora, da er durch sie besonders ergriffen wird. Das alles sind Fäden, die okkult liegen hinter dem, was sich äußerlich auf dem physischen Plan abspielt. Wie gesponnen auf einen Punkt hin sind vom Karma diese Fäden. Dieser eine Punkt ist Johannes Thomasius. Da treffen sie sich. Und innerhalb der Erzählung auf dem physischen Plan leuchtet ein Licht auf in der Seele des Johannes 'Thomasius, ein Licht, das eben furchtbare Wogen schlägt in seiner Seele, das aber zu gleicher Zeit seine esoterische Entwickelung entfacht als eine ganz bestimmte individuelle, als die Durchkreuzung seines eigenen Karma mit dem Weltenkarma. Daher sehen wir, welchen Eindruck es auf ihn macht, was da um ihn herum auf dem physischen Plan vorhanden ist; wie das Große in seiner Seele, das Unbewußte, hinaufdrängt zu den höheren Welten.

Nun darf diese Fahrt in die höheren Welten nicht steuerlos beginnen. Sie muß gelenkt und geleitet werden. Da tritt dann hinein in alle diese Verhältnisse derjenige, den Sie geschildert sehen als den eigentlichen Führer dieses Kreises, aber zu gleicher Zeit als den Wissenden der Weltenverhältnisse, als den, der durchschaut den Knoten, den Karma spinnt im Weltenwerden, da tritt Benedictus dazu. Und er wird zum Führer. Das Karma, das in Johannes 'Thomasius arbeitet, das arbeiten würde vielleicht durch Jahrtausende oder Jahrtausendjahrtausende, das wird in einem ganz bestimmten Moment angefacht durch eine karmische Beziehung zwischen Benedictus und Johannes 'Thomasius, welche sich in der Szene im Meditationszimmer leise zeigt. Da stehen wir an dem Punkt, wo ein vom Karma zur Entwickelung bestimmter Mensch hinaufstrebt in die höheren Welten. Und damit er nicht als ein Blinder hinaufstrebt, wird er in der richtigen Weise durch Benedictus geführt. Was damit gemeint ist, soll sich zeigen, wenn jetzt gerade einige der in Betracht kommenden Stellen vorgetragen worden sind.

Es folgte die Rezitation der genannten Szene: Drittes Bild; Benedictus, Johannes, Maria, Kind.

Maria:

Ich bringe euch das Kind,
Es braucht ein Wort aus eurem Munde.

Benedictus:

Mein Kind, du sollst fortan
An jedem Abend zu mir kommen,
Zu holen dir das Wort,
Das dich erfüllen soll,
Bevor das Seelenreich des Schlafes du betrittst.
Willst du es so?

Kind:

Ich will es so gern.

Benedictus:

Erfülle dein Gemüt an diesem Abend,
Bis dich der Schlaf umfängt,
Mit dieses Wortes Kraft:
«Es tragen Lichtgewalten
Mich in des Geistes Haus.»

(Das Kind wird von Maria hinausgeführt.)

Maria:

Und nun, da dieses Kindes Schicksal
In Zukunft fließen soll
Im Schatten eurer Vaterhuld,
Erbitten darf des Führers Rat
Auch ich, die Mutter ihm geworden,
Wenn nicht durch Blutesbande,
So doch durch Schicksalsmächte.
Ihr wieset mir den Weg,
Den ich es führen sollte
Von jenem Tage an, daiches fand
Von seiner unbekannten Mutter
Mir vor die Tür gelegt.
Und wunderwirkend zeigten
Sich an dem Pflegling alle Regeln,
Nach welchen ich ihn führen durfte.
Zutage traten alle Kräfte,
Die in dem Leibe und der Seele keimten.
Es zeigte sich, wie eure Weisung
Entsprossen war dem Reiche,
Das dieses Kindes Seele barg,
Bevor sie baute ihres Leibes Hülle.
Erwachsen sahen wir die Menschenhoffnung,
Die heller strahlte jeden neuen Tag.
Ihr wißt, wie schwer des Kindes Neigung
Ich erst gewinnen konnte,
Es wuchs heran in meiner Pflege,
Und mehr nicht als Gewohnheit
Verband erst seine Seele mit der meinen.
Es stand zu mir, empfindend,
Daß ich ihm reichte, was ihm nötig war
Für Leibeswohl und Seelenwachstum.
Es kam die Zeit, in welcher
Im Kindesherzen sich erzeugte
Die Liebe zu der Pflegerin.
Ein äußrer Anlaß brachte solche Wandlung.
Es trat in unsern Kreis die Seherin.
Das Kind war gern um sie,
Und manches schöne Wort
Erlernte es in ihrem Zauberbann.
Da kam ein Augenblick, in dem Begeisterung
Erfaßte unsre wundersame Freundin,
Und schauen konnte unser Kind
Der Augen glimmend Licht.
Erschüttert bis ins Lebensmark
Empfand die junge Seele sich.
Sie kam in ihrem Schreck zu mir.
Von dieser Stunde an
War mir das Kind in Liebe warm ergeben.
Doch seit bewußtes Fühlen
Von mir empfing die Lebensgaben,
Und nicht der Trieb allein,
Seit wärmer dieses junge Herz erbebte,
Sobald sein Blick den meinen liebend traf,
Verloren eure Weisheitsschätze ihre Fruchtbarkeit.
Verdorren mußte vieles,
Was schon gereift dem Kinde.
Erscheinen sah ich an dem Wesen wieder,
Was an dem Freunde furchtbar sich erwiesen.
Ich bin mir immer mehr ein dunkles Rätsel.
Du kannst mir wehren nicht die bange Lebensfrage:
Warum verderb’ ich Freund und Kind,
Wenn liebend ich das Werk versuch’
An ihnen zu verüben,
Das mich die Geistesweisung
Als gut erkennen läßt im Herzen?
Du hast mich an die hohe Wahrheit oft gewiesen,
Daß Schein sich breitet an des Lebens Oberfläche,
Doch muß ich Klarheit haben,
Soll ich ertragen dies Geschick,
Das grausam ist und Böses wirkt.

Benedictus:

Es formt sich hier in diesem Kreise
Ein Knoten aus den Fäden,
Die Karma spinnt im Weltenwerden.
O Freundin, deine Leiden
Sind Glieder eines Schicksalsknotens,
In dem sich Göttertat verschlingt mit Menschenleben.
Als auf dem Pilgerpfad der Seele
Erreicht ich hatte jene Stufe,
Die mir die Würde gab,
Mit meinem Rat zu dienen in den Geistersphären,
Da trat zu mir ein Gotteswesen,
Das niedersteigen sollte in das Erdenreich,
Um eines Menschen Fleischeshülle zu bewohnen.
Es fordert dies das Menschenkarma
An dieser Zeiten Wende.
Ein großer Schritt im Weltengang
Ist möglich nur, wenn Götter
Sich binden an das Menschenlos.
Es können sich entfalten Geistesaugen,
Die keimen sollen in den Menschenseelen,
Erst wenn ein Gott das Samenkorn
Gelegt in eines Menschen Wesenheit.
Es wurde mir nun aufgegeben,
Zu finden jenen Menschen,
Der würdig war, des Gottes Samenkraft
In seine Seele aufzunehmen.
So mußte ich verbinden Himmels-Tat
Mit einem Menschenschicksal.
Mein geistig Auge forschte.
Es fiel auf dich.
Bereitet hatte dich dein Lebenslauf zum Heilesmittler.
In vielen Leben hattest du erworben dir
Empfänglichkeit für alles Große,
Das Menschenherzen leben.
DerSchönheitedles Wesen, der Tugend höchste Forderung,
Du trugst als Geisteserbe sie
In deiner zarten Seele.
Und was dein ewig Ich
Ins Dasein durch Geburt gebracht,
Es ward zur reifen Frucht
In deinen jungen Jahren.
Zu früh nicht stiegest du
Auf steile Geisteshöhen.
Und so erstand dir nicht
Der Hang zum Geisterland,
Bevor du voll erfaßt
Der Sinne unschuldvolle Freuden.
Erkennen lernte deine Seele Zorn und Liebe,
Als ihrem Denken jeder Trieb
Zum Geist noch ferne war.
Natur in ihrer Schönheit zu genießen,
Der Künste Früchte pflücken,
Erstrebtest du als deines Lebens Reichtum.
Du durftest heiter lachen,
Wie nur ein Kind kann lachen,
Das von des Daseins Schatten
Noch nichts erfahren hat.
Du lerntest Menschenglück verstehn
Und Leid beklagen in den Zeiten,
Da deinem Ahnen selbst nicht dämmerte,
Zu fragen nach des Glückes und des Leides Wurzeln.
Als reife Frucht von vielen Leben,
Betritt das Erdensein die Seele,
Die solche Stimmung zeigt.
Und ihre Kindlichkeit ist Blüte,
Nicht Wurzel ihres Wesens.
Nur diese Seele durfte ich erkiesen
Zum Mittler für den Gott,
Der Wirkenskraft erlangen sollte
Durch unsre Menschenwelt.
Und nun begreife, daß dein Wesen
Sich wandeln muß zum Gegenbild,
Ergießt aus dir es sich in andre Wesen.
Der Geist in dir, er wirkt in allem,
Was für das Reich der Ewigkeit
An Früchten reifen kann im Menschenwesen.
Ertöten muß er darum vieles,
Was nur dem Reich des Zeitenseins gehören soll.
Doch seine Todesopfer
Sind Saaten der Unsterblichkeit.
Dem höhern Leben muß erwachsen,
Was aus dem niedern Sterben blüht.

Maria:

So also steht’s mit mir. - - -
Du gibst mir Licht,
Doch Licht, das mir die Kraft des Sehens raubt
Und mich mir selbst entreißt.
Bin ich denn eines Geistes Mittler nur
Und nicht mein eigen Wesen,
Dann dulde ich nicht länger
Die Form an mir,
Die Maske und nicht Wahrheit ist.

Johannes:

O Freundin, was ist dir!
Es schwindet deines Blickes Licht,
Zur Säule wird dein Leib,
Ich fasse deine Hand,
Sie ist so kalt,
Sie ist wie tot.

Benedictus:

Mein Sohn, du hast der Proben viel erfahren,
Du stehst in dieser Stunde vor der stärksten,
Du schaust der Freundin Leibeshülle,
Vor meinem Blick jedoch
Entschwebt ihr Selbst in Geistersphären.

Johannes:

O sieh! die Lippen regen sich.
Sie spricht - - -

Maria:

Du gabst mir Klarheit,
Ja, Klarheit, die in Finsternis
Mich hüllt nach allen Seiten.
Ich fluche deiner Klarheit,
Und dich verfluche ich,
Der mich zum Werkzeug
Der wilden Künste formte,
Durch die er Menschen täuschen will.
Ich habe keinen Augenblick bisher
An deiner Geisteshöhe zweifeln können,
Doch jetzt genügt der eine Augenblick,
Aus meinem Herzen mir zu reißen jeden Glauben.
Erkennen muß ich, daß sie Höllenwesen sind,
Die Geister, welchen du ergeben bist.
Ich mußte andre täuschen, Johannes:
Weil du erst mich getäuscht!
Ich will dich fliehn in Fernen,
Wohin von dir kein Laut mehr dringt,
Und die doch nah genug,
Daß meine Flüche dich erreichen können!
Des eignen Blutes Feuer,
Du hast es mir geraubt,
Um deinem falschen Gott zu geben,
Was mein sein muß.
O dieses Blutes Feuer,
Es soll dich brennen!
Ich mußte glauben
An Trug und Wahn.
Und daß es möglich wurde,
Zum Truggebilde mußtest du
Mich selbst erst machen!
Ich mußte oft erleben,
Wie meines Wesens Wirkung
Ins Gegenbild sich wandelte.
So wandle jetzt,
Was Liebe war zu dir,
In wilden Hasses Feuer sich.
Ich will in allen Welten
Nach jenem Feuer forschen,
Das dich verzehren kann.
Ich flu---- ach - - -

Johannes:

Wer spricht an diesem Ort?
Ich schau die Freundin nicht!
Ich schau ein grausig Wesen.

Benedictus:

Der Freundin Seele schwebt in Höhen,
Sie ließ ihr sterblich Scheinbild
An diesem Ort zurück uns nur.
Und wo ein Menschenleib
Vom Geist verlassen wird, Ist Raum, den sich
Des Guten Widersacher sucht,
Um einzutreten in das Reich der Sichtbarkeit.
Er findet eine Leibeshülle,
Durch die er sprechen kann.
Es sprach ein solcher Widersacher,
Der mir zerstören will das Werk,
Das mir obliegt
Für vieler Menschen Zukunft
Und auch für dich, mein Sohn.
Und könnt’ ich halten jene Flüche,
Die unsrer Freundin Hülle eben sprach, Für andres als Versucherlist,
Du dürftest mir nicht folgen.
Des Guten Widersacher war an meiner Seite; Und du, mein Sohn,
Hast stürzen sehn in Finsternis,
Was zeitlich ist an jenem Wesen,
Dem deine ganze Liebe strahlt.
Weil Geister dir so oft
Aus ihrem Mund gesprochen,
Ersparte dir das Weltenkarma nicht,
Den Höllenfürsten auch
Durch sie zu hören.
Nun darfst du erst sie suchen
Und ihres Wesens Kern erkennen.
Sie soll dir Vorbild jenes höhern Menschen sein,
Zu dem du dich erheben sollst.
Es schwebet ihre Seele in die Geisteshöhen,
Wo Menschen ihres Wesens Urform finden,
Die in sich selbst sich gründet.
Du sollst zum Geistgebiet ihr folgen,
Und schauen wirst du sie im Sonnentempel.
Es formt sich hier
In diesem Kreise Ein Knoten aus den Fäden,
Die Karma spinnt
Im Weltenwerden.
Mein Sohn, da du bis jetzt gehalten dich,
Wirst du auch weiterdringen.
Ich sehe deinen Stern im vollen Glanze.
Es ist nicht Raum im Sinnensein
Für Kämpfe, welche kämpfen Menschen,
Die nach der Weihe streben.
Was Sinnensein an Rätsel hat,
Die mit Verstand zu lösen,
Was solches Sein erzeugt in Menschenherzen,
Es mag durch Liebe oder Haß entstehen
Und sich entladen noch so schauervoll:
Dem Geistessucher muß es werden
Ein Feld, auf das er unbeteiligt
Den Blick von außen richten kann.
Ihm müssen Kräfte sich entfalten,
Die nicht auf diesem Feld zu finden sind.
Du mußtest dich durch Seelenprüfung ringen,
Die dem nur werden kann,
Der sich gerüstet
Für solche Mächte findet,
Die Geistes-Welten angehören.
Und wärest du von diesen Mächten
Nicht reif befunden zum Erkenntnisweg,
Sie hätten dir das Fühlen lähmen müssen,
Bevor du wissen durftest,
Was dir bekannt nun ist geworden.
Die Wesen, die in Welten-Gründe schauen,
Sie führen Menschen,
Die zu den Höhen streben,
Zuerst auf jenen Gipfel,
Wo es sich zeigen kann,
Ob ihnen Kraft gegeben,
Bewußt zu schauen Geistessein.
Die Menschen, welchen solche Kräfte eigen sind,
Sie werden aus der Sinnenwelt entlassen;
Die andern müssen warten.
Du hast dein Selbst bewahrt, mein Sohn,
Als Höhenkräfte dich erschütterten,
Und als dich Geistesmächte
In Schauer hüllten.
Und kraftvoll hat dein Selbst sich durchgekämpft,
Auch als in eigner Brust die Zweifel wühlten
Und dich den dunklen Tiefen überliefern wollten.
Du bist mein wahrer Schüler
Erst seit der inhaltvollen Stunde,
Wo du an dir verzweifeln wolltest,
Wo du dich selbst verloren gabst,
Und wo die Kraft in dir dich dennoch hielt.
Ich durfte dir an Weisheitsschätzen geben,
Was Kraft dir brachte,
Dich selbst zu halten,
Auch da du selbst an dich nicht glaubtest.
Es war die Weisheit,
Die du errungen,
Dir treuer als der Glaube,
Der dir geschenkt.
Du bist als reif befunden.
Du darfst entlassen werden.
Die Freundin ist vorangeschritten,
Du wirst im Geist sie finden.
Ich kann dir noch die Richtung weisen:
Entzünde deiner Seele volle Macht
An Worten, die durch meinen Mund
Den Schlüssel geben zu den Höhen.
Sie werden dich geleiten,
Auch wenn dich nichts mehr leitet,
Was Sinnesaugen noch erblicken können.
Mit vollem Herzen wolle sie empfangen:
Des Lichtes webend Wesen, es erstrahlet
Durch Raumesweiten,
Zu füllen die Welt mit Sein.
Der Liebe Segen, er erwarmet
Die Zeitenfolgen,
Zu rufen aller Welten Offenbarung.
Und Geistesboten, sie vermählen
Des Lichtes webend Wesen
Mit Seelenoffenbarung;
Und wenn vermählen kann mit beiden
Der Mensch sein eigen Selbst,
Ist er in Geisteshöhen lebend.

O Geister, die erschauen kann der Mensch,
Belebet unsres Sohnes Seele.
Im Innern lasset ihm erstrahlen,
Was ihm durchleuchten kann
Die Seele mit dem Geisteslicht.
Im Innern lasset ihm ertönen,
Was ihm erwecken kann
Das Selbst zu Geistes Werdelust.

Geistesstimme: (hinter der Bühne):

Es steigen seine Gedanken
In Urweltgründe.
Was als Schatten er gedacht,
Was als Schemen er erlebt,
Entschwebet der Gestaltenwelt,
Von deren Fülle
Die Menschen denkend
In Schatten träumen,
Von deren Fülle
Die Menschen sehend
In Schemen leben.

(Die Musik setzt ein, während der Vorhang langsam fällt.)

Das waren die Töne, mit denen unser lieber Freund Arenson musikalisch zum Ausdruck gebracht hat, was aufsteigt in der Dichtung als ein Widerklang aus den höheren Welten in des Johannes Thomasius’ Seele, nachdem er an dem großen Erlebnis, das im Meditationszimmer vorgeführt wird, sich fähig erwiesen hatte, wirklich in die höheren Welten hinaufzusteigen, daß er als reif aus diesem Erlebnis hervorgegangen war. In den Worten, in denen ausgeklungen hat, was rezitiert worden ist, haben wir etwas zu sehen, was in durchaus realer Weise hereintönt aus der geistigen Welt in eine Seele, die bis zu einem gewissen Grade, wenn wir so sagen dürfen, die Prüfung bestanden hat. Das Schwergewicht wird zuweilen leise angedeutet in Worten, in denen mehr liegt, als man zuerst vielleicht glaubt.

Man muß sich zunächst klar sein, daß aus den Fäden des Weltenkarmas ein Knoten gesponnen wird, der eine Tatsache großartigster, gewaltigster Art in ihrer Wirksamkeit an heiliger Stätte vor den Johannes 'Thomasius hinstellt. Was geschieht denn eigentlich?

Johannes Thomasius muß erleben, daß eine Seele, mit der er, wie sich in der Devachanszene später zeigen wird, karmisch auf eine wunderbare Weise verbunden ist, unmittelbar vor ihm in die geistigen Welten hinaufsteigt. Es ist ein welthistorischer Moment, wo eine solche Seele in die geistigen Welten hinaufsteigt. Es kann natürlich jetzt nicht auf alles hingewiesen werden, was mit einem solchen Moment verbunden ist. Aber es ist eine durchaus reale Tatsache, die jeder, der mit dem okkulten Leben bekannt ist, in ihrer furchtbar gewaltigen, lichtvollen und schattenvollen Gestalt kennt. Und ein solcher kennt auch von ihr, was dann in der physischen Welt geschieht, wenn die Erschütterung eintritt, daß eine Seele in die geistigen Welten unmittelbar, nicht etwa mit gelassenem Gang des eigenen Karma, sondern durch das Weltenkarma herausgefordert, in die geistige Welt verschwindet. Das sind Momente, die für die Evolution der Menschheit wichtig sind. Aber das sind auch diejenigen Momente, in welchen wirkliche, real vorhandene versucherische Mächte, die aus der geistigen Welt ebenso hereinschauen in unsere physische Welt wie die guten Mächte, die Kraft haben, verlassene physische Hüllen zum Schauplatz ihrer Versucherlist und Versucherkraft zu gewinnen. Das sind die Angriffspunkte; da werden sie gleichsam losgelassen. Und dann treten die Verhältnisse auf, in denen sich Maja in der furchtbarsten Weise zeigt. Gegenüber den kleinen Täuschungen des Karma kann der Mensch, der vielleicht nicht weit ist, der Versuchung nicht widerstehen; aber gegenüber den großen Täuschungen des Karma, wenn es etwas vorführt, von dem man auf einer gewissen Entwickelungsstufe auch nicht mehr ganz glauben kann, daß es so sein könnte, schrickt eine Seele zurück, die nicht durch gewisse Abgründe des Lebens gegangen ist. Man kann sich vorstellen, daß manche vielleicht sagen werden, sie hätten es auch ausgehalten, was da im Meditationszimmer vorgegangen ist. Sie sollten aber nur einmal da hingestellt werden! Die Wirklichkeit ist noch etwas ganz anderes als das, was wir denken. In der Wirklichkeit spielen noch andere Kräfte. Wer das nicht glaubt, soll sich nur vorstellen, ob er jemals eine wirkliche Erfahrung gemacht hat von einem Menschenleib, der von seiner Seele verlassen worden ist. Die Menschen kennen nur Menschenleiber, die beseelt sind. Da spielen eben noch andere Kräfte. Und um diesen Kräften standzuhalten, mußte Johannes Thomasius gerade vor diesen Punkt im Weltenkarma hingeführt werden.

Nun handelt es sich um zweierlei. Johannes 'Thomasius mußte zuerst das durchmachen, was man gewöhnlich das Kamaloka nennt. Das ist diejenige Welt, in der uns das, was wir selber sind, sozusagen wie in einem Spiegelbilde erscheint. Das ist wieder etwas, was ausgesprochen leichter sich ausnimmt, als wenn es in Wirklichkeit auftritt. Und tritt es in Wirklichkeit auf, so sagt uns nicht ein im Raum beschränktes Bild, was es ist, sondern dann raunt es uns das aus allen Gebieten der Welt zu. Dann ist die ganze Welt wir. Deshalb hören Sie in der Szene, wo dargestellt ist, wie Johannes 'Thomasius in die Tiefen seiner Seele hinuntersteigt, wo er unter Felsen und Quellen ist, daß nicht irgendein einzelnes Spiegelbild, das er beschwört, aus seiner Seele zu ihm spricht, sondern da tönt es ihm aus allem zu, aus Felsen und Quellen, aus der ganzen Umgebung. Und zwar werden in einem solchen Moment die Worte, die so zahm durch die Weltentheorien, durch die philosophischen und geisteswissenschaftlichen Werke gehen, zu furchtbaren Gewalten. Denn sie ertönen aus der ganzen Welt, wie reflektiert von überallher aus dem unendlichen Raum und sich fangend in den einzelnen Geschehnissen der Natur. «O Mensch, erkenne dich!» So ertönen sie, wenn sie gehört werden, nachdem sie Jahre und Jahre in der Seele gelebt haben. Dann steht die Seele in ihrer Einsamkeit, in ihrer großen Verlassenheit sich selbst gegenüber. Nichts ist da als die Welt. Aber diese Welt ist sie selber. Und in dieser Welt ist das darinnen, was sie selber ist, die Seele; auch das, was ihr Karma ist, alles, was sie verübt hat. — In einer Dichtung kann nur einzelnes herausgegriffen werden. Eine alte Tat, das Verlassen einer Persönlichkeit, tritt auf. Aber in aller Lebendigkeit tritt es vor Johannes Thomasius’ Seele. Ich kann nur einzelne Worte anführen.

In diesem Zusammenhang verliert Johannes 'Thomasius, was er verlieren muß: das Vertrauen zu sich selber, zu seiner Kraft, selbst dazu, in der Einsamkeit Heilung zu finden für das, was ihm auf dem physischen Plan so ungeheure Qualen verursacht, wenn er es aus dem physischen Plan heraus vernimmt. Deshalb diese Worte, die ich Sie bitte so zu nehmen, wie sie eben genommen werden sollen, als die Seele sprengend und ganz erfüllend. Als Johannes Thomasius aus allen Welten hört die Worte «OÖ Mensch, erkenne dich!», da antwortet seine Seele, als ob sein Ich nicht dabei wäre:

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
In 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!

Was aber gewaltig beantwortet wird: «O Mensch, erkenne dich!» Dann kehrt sich das ganze Innere um:

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!)

Sie müssen sich denken das Mitgehen des Selbstes mit dem Weltprozeß. Sonst stehen wir da, gehen mit den Stunden und verfolgen nicht, was sich da vollzieht. Wir wissen es nicht, glauben in unserem Inneren zu sein. Dies aber vollzieht sich wissend. Wissend folgt er allen elemen tarischen Gewalten, geht mit des Tages Stundenlauf und wandelt sich in Nacht.

Der Erde folge ich in ihrer Weltenbahn.
Ich rolle in dem Donner,
Ich zucke in den Blitzen.

Das alles gibt ihm den Eindruck: Ich bin. - Das ist der Moment, wo das Ich-bin zum Dämon der eigenen Seele wird. Davor verstummt alle Selbstbehauptung des Menschen. Und kaum hat man es versucht auszusprechen, das Ich-bin, dann sagt die eigene Seele:

...O schon entschwunden
Dem eignen Wesen fühl' ich mich.

Dann tritt das eigene Wesen in einer beschränkten Weise, in begrenzter Gestalt auf:

Ich sehe meine Leibeshülle;
Sie ist ein fremdes Wesen außer mir,
Sie ist ganz fern von mir.
Da schwebt heran ein andrer Leib.

Jetzt kann er nicht nur mit seinem Munde sprechen, sondern mit dem Munde des anderen Menschen. Da ist der Mensch, dem er ein Unrecht getan hat:

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.

Nun wieder zurück in den eigenen Leib:

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.

Damit ist ein Weg begonnen, der dann noch gekennzeichnet wird mit den Worten, die am Schlusse dieser Szene andeuten sollen, wie die Welt und wie die Einsamkeit wirkt. In der Welt wirkt alles, was von außen strömt, in der furchtbarsten Weise. Von innen wirkt das, was von innen kommt, so daß die Einsamkeit das Bevölkertste wird, was es geben kann. Das ist eine Prüfung, die angestellt ist zu dem Zweck, der angedeutet ist in den Worten, die Ihnen vorgelesen worden sind:

Die Wesen, die in Welten-Gründe schauen,
Sie führen Menschen,
Die zu den Höhen streben,
Zuerst auf jenen Gipfel,
Wo es sich zeigen kann,
Ob ihnen Kraft gegeben,
Bewußt zu schauen Geistessein.
Die Menschen, welchen solche Kräfte eigen sind,
Sie werden aus der Sinnenwelt entlassen;
Die andern müssen warten.

In dem Augenblick, vor dem wir hier stehen, würde das Bewußtsein verlorengehen, und Johannes Thomasius würde zurückgeworfen werden in die Sinneswelt, wenn er nicht standgehalten hätte in der Szene, die ich angedeutet habe, wo er gegenübersteht dem eigenen Selbst. Da kamen zwei Dinge in Betracht: Das eigene Selbst, soweit es weiß, hat wenig Kraft, das nimmt ihm das Selbstvertrauen. Aber was ewiges Ich ist in ihm, wovon er noch nichts weiß, das hat die große Kraft. Das hält ihn aufrecht und läßt ihn hinwegkommen über das, was er im Meditationszimmer als die Entseelung der Maria erlebt. Dann braucht er nur durch die Worte des Benedictus, durch die Kraft dieser Worte hinaufgeführt zu werden.

Und in den Worten, die Ihnen vorgelesen sind, müssen Sie ein Geheimnis von Worten sehen. Was damit gemeint ist, kann nicht so wie vieles andere einfach hingeschrieben werden. In diesen Zeilen liegen tatsächlich Weltenkräfte bis auf die Laute hin. Und da können die Laute nicht eigentlich geändert werden. Da ist tatsächlich in diesen Worten gegeben ein Öffnen des Tores gegenüber der geistigen Welt. Deshalb sind diese Worte tatsächlich so zu nehmen, wie sie eben hier gesagt sind. So etwas kann man nicht in einer beliebigen Weise zusammensetzen, wie zum Beispiel diese Zeilen:

Des Lichtes webend Wesen, es erstrahlet
Durch Raumesweiten,
Zu füllen die Welt mit Sein.
Der Liebe Segen, er erwarmet
Die Zeitenfolgen,
Zu rufen aller Welten Offenbarung.
Und Geistesboten, sie vermählen
Des Lichtes webend Wesen
Mit Seelenoffenbarung;
Und wenn vermählen kann mit beiden
Der Mensch sein eigen Selbst,
Ist er in Geisteshöhen lebend.

Dann erst kann aus der anderen Welt in die Seele hereintönen, was hereintönen soll. Aber das alles sind, wie gesagt, nur einzelne Andeutungen.

Dann wird Johannes Thomasius nun wirklich in die geistige Welt entrückt. Er kann aber nicht unmittelbar in die geistige Welt hinauf, in die jeder hinauf muß. Er muß durch die astralische Welt durch. Da haben Sie dann im vierten Bilde eine Darstellung der astralischen Welt so, wie sie eben wieder gerade Johannes Thomasius erleben muß nach seiner besonderen individuellen Vorbedingung. Es ist nicht eine allgemeine Schilderung der astralischen Welt, sondern eine Schilderung dieser Welt in der Art, wie sie Johannes 'Thomasius erleben muß an besonderen Beispielen. Diese astralische Welt ist anders als die physische. Da ist es möglich, daß wir einen Menschen, dem wir begegnen, so sehen, wie er vor mehreren Jahrzehnten war, oder wir sehen einen jungen Menschen so, wie er in Zukunft sein wird. Das sind alles Realitäten. In Ihrer Seele sind Sie heute noch derselbe, der Sie als Kind von drei Jahren gewesen sind. Was Sie in der astralischen Welt sehen, ist gar nicht das, was einem das äußere physische Menschenbild zeigt. Das physische Menschenbild verbirgt in jedem Augenblicke dasjenige, was vorher berechtigt war und was nachher berechtigt ist. Da muß vor allen Dingen der Blick in die astralische Welt so wirken, daß wir die erste Maja der Sinneswelt überwinden und die Zeit in ihrer illusionären Kraft durchschauen. Daher sieht Johannes 'Thomasius denjenigen, den er als Capesius auf dem physischen Plan kennengelernt hat, in der astralischen Welt so, wie er als Jüngling war, und den er in der physischen Welt als Strader kennengelernt hat, sieht er so, wie er sein wird als Greis. Was heißt das? Johannes Thomasius kennt den Strader, wie er jetzt ist in der Sinneswelt mit den Kräften, die jetzt in seiner Seele sind auf dem physischen Plan. Aber da drinnen ist die Vorbedingung für das, was er sein wird nach Jahrzehnten. Das muß man auch erkennen, wenn man einen Menschen erkennen will. Also die Zeit reißt sich auseinander. Die Zeit ist wirklich ein recht elastischer Begriff, wenn man in die höheren Welten hinaufkommt. Johannes Thomasius kennt von der physischen Welt her den Capesius alt und den Strader jung. Nun stehen sie in der astralischen Welt nebeneinander: Capesius jung und Strader alt. Da wird die Zeit nicht etwa nach vorwärts und rückwärts gedehnt, sondern es ist so, daß der eine in seiner Jugend, der andere in seinem Alter dargestellt wird. Das ist eine durchaus reale Tatsache.

Damit aber ist etwas anderes verbunden, das sich tatsächlich zeigt und dem die Menschen heute wie mit Kinderspott begegnen, daß unsere Seelenerlebnisse noch mehr sind, als wir gewöhnlich von ihnen denken, daß nicht ungestraft etwas Böses oder Gutes in der Seele erlebt wird, so zum Beispiel wenn wir Schlimmes oder auch nur Unrechtes denken, daß dies in die Tiefen der Welt hineinstrahlt und wieder zurückstrahlt, und daß wir in einem Zusammenhange stehen in unseren Seelenerlebnissen mit den elementaren Kräften der Natur. Das ist kein Bild. Das ist im okkulten Sinne eine Wirklichkeit, wenn zum Beispiel Capesius geführt wird vor den Geist der Elemente, der jeden Menschen in sein Dasein hineinführt. Da ist es tatsächlich so, daß Capesius auch vor dem steht, was mit diesem Geist der Elemente verknüpft ist. Und verknüpft ist damit, daß, wenn wir irgend etwas in der Seele erleben, dieses mit den elementaren Gewalten der Natur im Zusammenhange steht. Da zeigt sich vor Johannes Thomasius, daß Capesius in seiner tiefsten Seele, und Strader auch, die Widerkräfte der Elemente erregen können. Daher folgt Blitz und Donner in dieser Welt auf dasjenige, was sie selber in ihren Seelen im Stolz oder im Hochmut, in Irrtum oder in Wahrheit oder Lüge erleben. In der physischen Welt ist das, was ein Mensch an Irrtum oder an Lüge in seiner Seele hat, etwas höchst Merkwürdiges. Da steht zum Beispiel ein Mensch vor uns, in seiner Seele leben Irrtum und Lüge, er steht vielleicht ganz unschuldig vor uns. Aber in dem Augenblick, wo der astralische Blick sich auf ihn richtet, toben Stürme, die sonst nur in den furchtbarsten Entladungen der Elemente der Erde im Bilde sich darstellen. Das alles hat Johannes Thomasius zu durchleben. Und auch das, was sich ihm schon in der astralischen Welt von den merkwürdigen Zusammenhängen zeigen kann, die noch nicht von ihm erkannt wurden, als sie ihm auf dem physischen Plan entgegentraten.

Was sich in diesem Rosenkreuzermysterium an Bezeichnungen findet, ist nicht zufällig. Bezeichnungen, wie zum Beispiel die andere Maria und so weiter, deuten alle auf bestimmte Verhältnisse hin, so daß die eine und die andere Maria nicht bloß die beiden Marien sind, sondern als die Marien zu allen anderen Personen sich darstellen. Und die andere Maria, die geheimnisvolle Naturfigur, enthüllt für Johannes Thomasius jene Seele, welche unter der gewöhnlichen, bewußten Seele lebt, und die durchaus unhörbar, unvernehmbar bleibt, solange der Mensch nur in der physischen Welt lebt. Aber Sie dürfen diese Verhältnisse und Figuren nicht als Symbole nehmen. Bei alledem ist wieder die andere Maria absolut, gerade wie die erste Maria, eine reale Figur, eine Realität. Und nur als das sind sie zu nehmen, was sie sind.

Was Johannes Thomasius erlebt hat, ist alles vor dem Auge seiner Seele vorübergezogen. Er hat die astralische Welt erlebt. Das kann er sich jetzt ins Bewußtsein bringen, da er sagt:

So finde ich im Seelenreich
Die Menschen wieder, die bekannt mir sind:
Den Mann, der von Felicias Geschichten sprach —
Nur konnt’ ich hier ihn schauen,
Wie er in jungen Jahren war;
Und jenen, der als junger Mann
Zum Mönche sich bestimmt
Als alter Mann erschien er mir.
Der Geist der Elemente war bei ihnen.

Das alles hat Johannes Thomasius durchgemacht, was sozusagen die Zeiten vernichtet vor seinem Blicke. Und wozu ist er jetzt reif geworden? Er ist reif geworden, den Blick hineinzutun in die astralische Welt. Ist die astralische Welt irrtumfrei? Nein, das ist sie nicht. In dieser astralischen Welt kann aber eines für den Menschen zur Gewißheit werden. Und eines wird für den Menschen in der astralischen Welt, wenn er sie rein betritt, nicht schuldvoll, zur Gewißheit, nämlich, daß es eine höhere Welt gibt, die in die astralische Welt hereinscheint wie die astralische Welt in die gewöhnliche physische Welt. Es fragt sich nur, ob er sie so sehen kann, wie sie in Wirklichkeit ist. Die Menschen, die da in der Welt herumwandeln, sind nur selber eine Art von Trugbild, so daß sie selber jeder hinter sich etwas haben, was sie in die höhere Welt hineinführt, daß sie sich abheben von etwas ganz anderem, was sie vielleicht gewesen sind in längst oder weniger lange verflossenen Zeiten, was sie werden in der Zukunft. Aber gewisse Irrtümer zeigen einem die astralische Welt, in die man sehr verflochten ist in der Sinneswelt, nicht. So zum Beispiel zeigen sie nicht das Verhältnis der großen Kräfte des Daseins, das Verhältnis von Wille, Liebe und Weisheit. Das ist ein so schwer zu Erkennendes in seiner Wahrheit, daß es sich noch lange, lange in der astralischen Welt verhüllt. Da ist es nicht so leicht dahinterzukommen. Und da setzen sich Verhältnisse, die Irrtümer in der Sinneswelt sind, noch fort in die astralische Welt hinein.

Dieses Zusammenwirken — auch das kann jetzt nur angedeutet werden - von Wille, Weisheit und Liebe geschieht in der physischen Welt durch die Menschen. In den höheren Welten geschieht es durch diejenigen Wesen, welche ihre Kräfte hereinsenden, wenn auf dem physischen Plan die Kräfte der okkulten Wesenheiten in Menschenseelen tauchen. Das geschieht durch die Initiierten in jenen Tempeln, in denen die menschlichen Repräsentanten sind für die einzelnen Weltenmächte, in jenen Tempeln, in denen es die Menschen schon so weit gebracht haben, daß sie verzichtet haben, den ganzen Menschen auf einmal darstellen zu wollen, wo sie sich darauf beschränken, eine Kraft darzustellen. Da walten dann die Repräsentanten. Aber da, wo der Mensch in die astralische Welt hineinblickt, zeigt sich ihm jene heilige Stätte, wo die Repräsentanten der Willens-, Weisheits- und Liebesmächte sind, gerade in einem majaerfüllten Bilde. Und da spinnt sich ein furchtbares Gewebe zwischen Täuschung der Sinneswelt und der astralischen Welt.

Und jetzt müßte ich wochenlang reden, wollte ich erklären, wie es sich verhält mit jener Gestalt der höheren Mächte, die als der Initiierte für die Willensmächte sich darstellt, der auf dem physischen Plan dem Johannes 'Thomasius entgegentritt und sich eigentlich wie ein Trivialling auf dem physischen Plan ausnimmt. Da kann die Frage entstehen: Sollen gerade durch einen solchen die Urkräfte des Willens hereinwirken? — Und sie tun es doch. Aber man wird es begreifen können, daß gerade durch einen vielleicht weniger entwickelten Menschen dasjenige hereindringen kann an solcher Kraft, was Offenbarung der Willensmächte sein soll, wie der Strahl der Weisheit hereinkommen kann durch einen solchen Menschen wie Benedictus. Man muß nämlich folgendes begreifen. Wenn wir jetzt hier eine erblühte, wunderbar gewachsene Blume haben und daneben ein Samenkorn legen, dann kann es sein, daß das Samenkorn, wenn es ausgewachsen ist, eine noch viel schönere Blume abgeben wird. Die Blume wird man jetzt schon für sehr vollkommen halten, aber in Wahrheit ist der Weltenrealität nach das Samenkorn etwas viel Vollkommeneres. Daher stehen sich gegenüber Benedictus, der große Träger der Weisheit, und daneben der Mensch, der sich auf dem physischen Plan in einer merkwürdigen Weise benimmt gegenüber allem, was von den geistigen Welten gesprochen wird, indem er es alles in einer merkwürdigen Weise abweist. Da, wo er in dem Kreise von Menschen über die geistigen Welten reden hört, sagt er wie ein Mensch, der nichts von geistigen Welten hören will: «Ich finde nicht die Brücke, die von Ideen zu Taten wahrhaft führen könnte!» Er ist ein Mensch, der ganz woanders das findet, was zu Taten führt, und dem das Reden vom Geiste nur leere Worte sind. Diesem Menschen könnten Sie, so wie er jetzt auf dem physischen Plan lebt, alles Schönste von Geisteswissenschaft erzählen, leere Worte sind es für ihn. Und wertvoll ist es für ihn, wenn die Räder der Maschinen gehen. Und als er durch die andere Maria hört von der Geisteskraft, die sich mit ihr verbunden und in ihr die Gefühls- und Liebeskräfte entzündet hat, um diese oder jene Tat zu tun, ist er wieder derjenige, der alles das abweist und einfach sagt: Das kommt daher, weil sie ein gutes Herz hat! - Er bleibt ganz auf dem physischen Plan und so recht ein Trivialling des physischen Planes, aber ein energischer, tatkräftiger Willensmensch ist er. Deshalb sagt er: |

Wenn diese Frau des Guten vieles leistet,
So liegt dazu der Trieb
In ihrem warmen Herzen.
Es ist gewiß dem Menschen nötig,
Wenn Arbeit er geleistet hat,
Erbauung zu empfangen von Ideen,
Doch wird allein die Zucht des Willens
Im Bunde mit Geschick und Kraft
Bei allem echten Lebenswerk
Der Menschheit vorwärtshelfen.
Wenn Räderschwirren
Mir in die Ohren tönt,
Und wenn zufriedner Menschen
Hände An Kurbeln ziehen,
Dann fühle ich die Lebensmächte.

Das ist der Willensmensch, der Tatenmensch. Und wenn Sie ihm tagelang mit Worten reden könnten vom Geiste, so würde er sagen: Damit kann man nicht einmal eine einzige Kurbel drehen, und wovon sollten erst die Leute essen! — Also kann man tagsüber an Kurbeln drehen, und wenn man dann ein freies Stündchen hat, mag man zum Amüsement vom Geist reden! Das sind die noch nicht aufgegangenen Samenkräfte. Aber es sind gute Kräfte. Es sind Kräfte, die sehr wichtig sind und durch die Willensmächte hereinstrahlen in die Welt. Man darf dabei nicht theoretisch vorgehen, wenn Menschen von geistigen Welten hören und es verschieden aufnehmen, denn da ist furchtbar schwer durchzukommen. Wer nicht begreift, daß im Samen so etwas gesehen werden muß wie ein Gegenbild zu solchen eben charakterisierten Menschen, der erlebt eine solche Illusion, wie sie in dem unterirdischen Tempel dargestellt ist. Das ist eine astralische Maja. Während es Wirklichkeit ist, was Johannes 'Thomasius erlebt in der Szene mit Capesius und Strader, wo er sie in anderen Lebensaltern sieht, ist im fünften Bilde eine Maja, eine Fata Morgana der geistigen Welt geschildert, die sich zunächst auf die Seele abladen muß, durch die durchgegangen werden muß. Daher müssen Sie das fünfte Bild als etwas nehmen, was nur dadurch gerechtfertigt ist, daß sich in die Maja gleich hineinmischt Realität.

Diese ganze Szene würde gar nichts zur Entwickelung des Johannes Thomasius beitragen, wenn sie sich nicht zum astralischen Erlebnis verhielte wie die Begriffe und Ideen der physischen Welt zu unserem Weltverständnis. Was die Wissenschaft für den physischen Plan ist, das ist der Majatempel für die astralische Welt. So wenig ein Begriff etwas ist, was man essen kann, so wenig ist der Majatempel etwas Wirkliches, was in der geistigen Welt wurzelt. Aber es müssen die Begriffe in der Welt leben, damit Weltverständnis wirklich eintreten kann. Und nur so kann hereinspielen aus einer anderen Welt, was nun doch wieder eine tiefe Aufklärung gibt für Johannes Thomasius, indem er jetzt erkennt, wie ein bestimmter Knoten im Weltenkarma sich dadurch spinnt, daß Felix Balde eingesehen hat, daß er nicht im einsamen Weltenwandern die Schätze seiner Seele vergraben soll, sondern sie hintragen muß zum Tempel.

Dann ist erst für Johannes Thomasius die Möglichkeit gegeben, sozusagen viel realere Verhältnisse in der geistigen Welt zu sehen, unter anderen auch jene Verhältnisse, die feinerer und intimerer Art sind, zum Beispiel das Hereinragen der astralischen Welt in die physische Welt, das dann stattfindet, wenn so etwas geschieht wie die Inspiration eines Menschen wie Capesius durch jemanden, der selber eigentlich nicht weiß, wieviel er in seiner Seele hält. Nicht weiß in dem Mysterium dies die Frau Balde. Bei einem Menschen, der Verstand hat und aus dem Verstande heraus wirkt, geht alles durch den Verstand durch. In dem Verstande liegt gar nicht, was uns ein Kraftwissen über die Welt geben kann. Das liegt alles außerhalb des Verstandes. Bei einem Menschen, der viel Verstand hat, kann eine Kraft, die aus der geistigen Welt kommt, durch den Verstand gehen und dann weitergehen. Dann wird er in schönen "Theorien von der geistigen Welt sprechen können. Aber der Verstand macht nichts aus für den inneren okkulten Grad, für den Inhalt der Seele. So kann das, was von Theorien kommt, auch ohne durch den Verstand zu gehen, in die Seele gelangen und so auf einen Menschen kommen, der Empfänglichkeit hat für den Quell und kann dort dasjenige aufrufen, was zum Beispiel Capesius auf dem physischen Plan schildert. Das ist gezeigt, wo er sagt, was ihm diese Frau eigentlich ist, die draußen einsam mit Felix Balde lebt, wo er sagt, daß er gern zuhört, wenn sie spricht, und daß sie dann tiefste uralte Weisheit spricht. Es ist wichtig, daß wir voll fassen, was Capesius erzählt. Auf dem physischen Plan gibt es eine Frau, der er gern zuhört, die mit ihrem Munde Sachen spricht, die von okkulten Quellen voll sind. Sie kann es nicht in besondere Worte kleiden. Wenn es aber in die Ohren des Capesius kommt, dann kann er so sprechen:

Berühren muß ich,
Will davon ich erzählen,
Ein Ding, das wahrlich wunderbarer mir erscheint
Als manches, was ich hier gehört,
Weil mehr zu meiner Seele sprechend.
Ich könnte kaum an andrem Orte
Die Worte aus dem Munde bringen,
Die hier so leicht mir werden.
Für meine Seele gibt es Zeiten,
Wo sie wie ausgepumpt und leer sich fühlt.
Es ist mir dann, als ob des Wissens Quelle
In mir erschöpft sich hätte;
Als ob kein Wort ich finden könnte,
Das wert zu halten wäre
Gehört zu werden.

Es gibt so etwas. Solche Menschen, wenn sie auch noch so viel wissen, fühlen sich dann, als ob es nicht mehr weitergehen könnte.

Empfind’ ich solche Geistesöde,
Dann flüchte ich in dieser guten Leute
Erquickend stille Einsamkeit.

Jetzt geht ihm selber die Seele auf, weil da für ihn das Tor in die okkulte Welt hinein ist.

Und Frau Felicia erzählt
In Bildern wunderba
Von Wesen, die im Traumeslande wohnen
Und in den Märchenreichen
Ein buntes Leben führen.
Es ist der Ton der Rede
Wie Sagenweise aus den alten Zeiten.
Ich frage nicht, woher sie ihre Worte hat.
Ich denke dann an eines nur mit Klarheit,
Wie meiner Seele neues Leben fließt,
Und wie hinweggebannt
Mir alle Seelenlähmung ist.

Wie so etwas in der Realität ist, das sieht auf dem physischen Plan Johannes 'Thomasius, der dabei ist, der aber erst in die astralische Welt hineinschauen muß, um es sich erklären zu können. In dem astralischen Bilde erscheint ihm daher gerade Frau Balde, die er jetzt sieht, wie sie in der Gestalt der physischen Welt ist. Und sie gibt dem Geist der Elemente eines ihrer Märchenbilder, wie sie Capesius Hunderte erzählt hat. Jetzt kommt aber das Wechselspiel zu dem, was unter der Schwelle des Bewußtseins vorgeht.

Sie erzählt dem Capesius die Märchen. Und hat sie eines erzählt, was sie selber nicht versteht, dann gehen in seiner Seele die Kräfte auf, welche seine Seelenlähmung hinwegbannen, dann kann er wieder seinen Hörern etwas erzählen. Das klingt dann ganz anders als das, was Frau Felicia erzählt hat. Da spielen geheime Kräfte aber auch bei Capesius. Wenn man diesen nachgeht, findet man ihren Ursprung in der astralischen Welt. Dort ist dann zu schauen, wie sie Gegenströmungen hervorrufen. Und ein solches Echo, wie die Worte der Frau Felicia hervorrufen in der Seele des Capesius, rufen sie hervor überall dort, wo elementarische Gewalten sind. Auch für unser Gehirn gibt es so etwas. In unserem Gehirn lebt ein kleiner Geist, der vielleicht die wunderbarsten Sachen ausdenkt. Wenn wir suchen, wie er aus dem Makrokosmos heraus ist, finden wir etwa das Erdgehirn. Das denkt die Gedanken in ganz anderer Größe, als sie im kleinen Menschengehirn erscheinen. In seinem eigenen Gehirn sieht der Mensch manchmal nicht, was er eigentlich behauptet. Aber grotesk nimmt es sich aus, wenn es sich widerspiegelt in dem Riesen-Erdgehirn. Das muß sich auch abspiegeln. Daher jene Beziehung, die besteht zwischen German, der auf dem physischen Plan erscheint und dann als Geist des Erdgehirns. Auch darüber müßte man lange sprechen. Aber wenn man mit dem astralischen Blick sehen würde, was sich im einsamen Häuschen abspielt, wenn Frau Felicia ihre Märchen erzählt, und wenn man dann schauen würde bis auf den Geist des Erdgehirns, dann würde man manches Geheimnis sehen, zum Beispiel wie dieser Geist des Erdgehirns ein Ironiker ist, manchmal ein Spötter ist. Und er muß zum Spott angelegt sein, denn er hat viel zu lachen über das, was die Menschen tun.

Künstlerisch ist es berechtigt, daß er in dem Augenblick, wo er deplaciert ist, auch auftritt in der Rolle, die er so oft spielen muß, und sich in seiner wahren Gestalt zeigt. Da sehen wir denn nach der Szene, wo Frau Balde vor dem Geist der Elemente eines ihrer Märchen erzählt hat, eine abnorme Wirkung auf den Geist des Erdgehirns, der das Märchen in ganz andere Worte übersetzt. Frau Balde erzählt:

Es war einmal ein Wesen,
Das flog von Ost nach West
Dem Lauf der Sonne nach.
Es flog hin über Länder, über Meere;
Es sah von seiner Höhe
Dem Menschentreiben zu.
Es sah, wie sich die Menschen lieben
Und hassend sich verfolgen.
Es konnte nichts das Wesen
In seinem Fluge hemmen;
Denn Haß und Liebe schaffen
Das gleiche stets vieltausendfach.
Doch über einem Hause,
Da mußt’ das Wesen halten.
Darinnen war ein müder Mann.
Der sann der Menschenliebe nach
Und sann auch über Menschenhaß.
Ihm hatte schon sein Sinnen
Ins Antlitz tiefe Furchen eingeschrieben.
Es hatte ihm das Haar gebleicht.
Und über seinem Kummer
Verlor das Wesen seinen Sonnenführer
Und blieb bei jenem Mann.
Es war in seinem Zimmer
Noch, als die Sonne unterging,
Und als die Sonne wiederkam,
Da ward das Wesen wieder
Vom Sonnengeiste aufgenommen. —
Und wieder sah es Menschen
In Lieb’ und Haß
Den Erdenlauf verbringen.
Und als es kam zum zweiten Mal,
Der Sonne folgend über jenes Haus,
Da fiel sein Blick
Auf einen toten Mann.

Und der Geist des Erdgehirns tönt das wider, durchaus unberechtigt natürlich:

Es war einmal ein Mann,
Der zog von Ost nach West;
Ihn lockt der Wissenstrieb
Hin über Land und Meer.
Er sah nach seinen Weisheitsregeln
Dem Menschentreiben zu.
Er sah, wie sich die Menschen lieben
Und hassend sich verfolgen.
Es sah der Mann sich jeden Augenblick
An seiner Weisheit Ende.
Doch wie stets Haß und Liebe
Die Erdenwelt regieren,
Es war in kein Gesetz zu bringen.
Er schrieb viel tausend Einzelfälle,
Doch fehlte alle Überschau.
Es traf der trockne Forscher
Auf seinem Weg ein Lichteswesen;
Dem war das Dasein schwer,
Da es in stetem Kampfe war
Mit einer finstern Schattenform.
Wer seid ihr denn,
So frägt der trockne Forscher.
Ich bin die Liebe,
So sagt das eine Wesen;
In mir erblick’ den Haß,
So sprach das andre.
Es hörte dieser Wesen Worte
Der Mann nicht mehr.
Als tauber Forscher zog fortan
Von Ost nach West der Mann.

Diese Dinge sind durchaus Erfahrungen der astralischen Welt. Durch sie muß Johannes 'Thomasius durch, um hinaufzukommen in die geistige Welt.

Und für heute will ich nur kurz sagen, daß für Johannes Thomasius notwendig ist ein realer Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt, der schon in der physischen Welt angesponnen worden ist, um in die geistige Welt selbst hinaufzukommen. Und das ist, wie Sie nachher vernehmen werden, der Zusammenhang aus jenem Inkarnationen umfassenden Karma, das sich erst enthüllt im devachanischen Schauen. Da müssen aber wirklich die devachanischen Elemente spielen. Daher bitte ich zu beachten, daß in dem Weben und Leben des devachanischen Meeres alles darinnen lebt. Da kann man nicht nur schildern, sondern da kann man nur immer annähernd dieses oder jenes andeuten. Wenn man aber real schildern will, muß man weitergehen. Man glaube nicht etwas zu wissen, wenn man von höheren Welten spricht, und nennt die Worte: Empfindungsseele, Verstandesseele, Bewußtseinsseele, womit gemeint sein sollen Philia, Astrid und Luna. Es sind diese drei Gestalten nicht etwa Personifikationen jener drei Seelenglieder oder Symbole für dieselben. Wenn Sie hinhören auf die Vokale, mit denen diese drei Gestalten ihre eigenen Beschäftigungen charakterisieren, und wenn Sie hinhorchen auf das, was in den Vokalen lebt, so können Sie verfolgen, wie in der Folge der einzelnen Vokale, der einzelnen Worte das gegeben ist, was man sich in einer ganz anderen Weise als Empfindungsseele, Verstandesseele und Bewußtseinsseele klarmachen kann. Und wenn Sie irgend etwas herausnehmen, ist es nicht mehr das Ganze. Daher ist es wichtig, auf die Worte hinzuhorchen, um einen Begriff zu bekommen von dem devachanischen Element der Bewußtseinsseele, zum Beispiel wenn Luna die Worte sagt:

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.

In der Bewegung der Worte liegt in der Schilderung des Devachans das, was man sonst auf keine Art aussprechen kann. Darauf muß auch geachtet werden. Man ist nämlich in die Notwendigkeit versetzt, wenn man von höheren Welten spricht, dies auf mehrfache Art zu sagen. Und was ich nie theoretisch sagen könnte über Empfindungsseele, Verstandesseele und Bewußtseinsseele, das können Sie aus dem vernehmen, wenn Sie es verstehen wollen, was in der Charakteristik der drei Gestalten: Philia, Astrid, Luna enthalten ist. Aber Sie werden es gut verstehen, daß diese drei nicht Symbole oder Allegorien sind für Empfindungsseele, Verstandesseele und Bewußtseinsseele. Wenn Sie sich fragen: Was sind diese drei? — so ist die Antwort: Es sind Personen, die da leben: Philia-, Astrid- und Luna-Menschen. Das muß immer festgehalten werden.

Wie nun das Karma sich zuletzt zusammenschlingt und sich im Bilde zeigt, was als Mikrokosmos in der Menschenseele Johannes Thomasius erlebt, das konnte bei der Münchner Aufführung in dem ganzen Schlußbilde gezeigt werden. Wie Karma wirkt, so standen die einzelnen Personen an ihren Plätzen. Wer der einen Person näherstand, hatte dementsprechend seinen Platz. Wenn Sie sich das real gespiegelt denken in die Seele des Johannes Thomasius hinein, dann haben Sie ungefähr das, worüber man nur sehr schwer sprechen kann, was in dieser Szene des siebenten Bildes, dem Geistgebiet, darinnen steckt.

Es folgte die Rezitation des siebenten Bildes durch Marie von Sivers (Marie Steiner), eingeleitet und ausklingend durch die Musik von Adolf Arenson.

Some Information About the Rosicrucian Mystery “The Gate of Initiation”

The light of the sun floods
The vastness of space,
The singing of birds resounds
The airy realms,
The blessing of plants germinates
The earth's creatures,
And human souls rise
In feelings of gratitude
Towards the spirits of the world.

As those of you who attended the performance of the Rosicrucian Mystery in Munich know, this children's song introduced the content of that mystery. In this hour, some spiritual science will unfold before us, building on what lies in that mystery—one might even say, what has been brought to life.

If I may suggest, it is a long spiritual process that has led to this Mystery. When I think about it or look back on it, its seeds go back to the year 1889, so to speak. It is not just approximately, but with a precision that can be observed in such things, that twenty-one years lead me back to the seed of this Rosicrucian Mystery. And I can trace very precisely the paths that these seeds have taken during these three times seven years, and I may say without my particular intervention, as they have led a life of their own during these three times seven years. It is so strange to follow such seeds on their way to what can be called formation. They make a journey that could be called a descent into the underworld. It takes them seven years to descend. Then they come back up again, and this ascent takes another seven years. They then arrive where they were in relation to human beings when they began their descent, and then they go in the opposite direction, seven years at a time, one could say, toward the heights. That makes two times seven plus seven years, which is twenty-one years. Then, with some prospect that what is meant by these seeds can actually take shape, the process of creation could begin. And if I were not aware that a separate organism, which has truly lived a life of three times seven years, lives in the Rosicrucian mystery, I would not dare to speak about it in any way. But as it is, I feel not only entitled, which is beyond question, but in a certain sense obliged to speak also of that which lives, not only between the lines, not only in the characters, not only in the what and how, but also in many things of this Rosicrucian mystery in particular. I would not even say lives, but must live.

I have already said here and there since the Munich performance of this Rosicrucian Mystery that it is true that I no longer need to speak about many, many things that exist in the field of esotericism and the occult, that no more lectures by me are necessary, if all of this would have an effect on the souls of my dear friends and many other people, directly from the Rosicrucian Mystery, which lies within it. And in words as they are usually used in lectures, I would have much, much to say, not only for days, weeks, months, but for years, if I wanted to describe what should be said and can be said through the Rosicrucian Mystery. All the things that you find—and it is certainly justified to speak this way about occult matters—in a kind of stammering language in the book How to Know Higher Worlds, which contains a description of the path up to the higher worlds, all connected with what in Outline of the Secret Science in another form, is basically much more intense, more real and more true to life because it is much more individual. In a text such as How to Know Higher Worlds, what needs to be said about human development can only be presented in such a way that it is applicable to every human individuality that is striving, in a certain sense, to take the steps up into the higher worlds. As a result, despite all its concreteness, such a book nevertheless takes on an abstract character, one might say a semi-theoretical character. For we must hold fast to one thing: development is not development in itself! There is no development in itself, no development in general; there is only the development of one person or another, or of the third, fourth, or thousandth person. And as many people as there are in the world, there must be as many processes of development. Therefore, the truest description of the occult path of knowledge in general must have a character that in a certain way does not coincide with individual development. If one wants to truly portray development as it appears in the spiritual world, this can only be done by shaping the development of a single human being, by translating into individuality what is true for all human beings. If the book How Does One Achieve Knowledge of the Higher Worlds? contains, as it were, the beginning of the secret of every human being's development, then the Rosicrucian Mystery contains the secret of the development of a single human being, Johannes Thomasius.

So there was a long way to go from all that are occult laws of development down to a single, truly real human being. And in this process of development, in this path, something had to be almost completely reversed that is contained in the “Knowledge of the Higher Worlds” and that can become theory there. If it is not to become theory, especially if it is to become art, it must be completely reversed. For the laws of art are very special. And just as there are laws of nature, there are laws of art that cannot be handled with ordinary human consciousness, for then only something like a straw allegory comes out. The laws of art must be handled as nature itself handles its laws when it brings forth a human being, an animal, or a plant. If what we can know about the world, viewed from one direction, is that we look into the world and it reveals its laws and secrets to us, then what must come to light in art and in every art is something that must be placed into the work of art in question from the other side, through the opposite meaning. Therefore, the worst possible interpretation of a work of art would be one that sought to bring concepts and ideas, laws known from elsewhere, into a work of art. And anyone who introduced abstract or symbolic concepts into a work of art would not be making an artistic contribution. Therefore, it would be one of the worst methods to use with works of art from the past in which truly occult forces have been at work, such as in Faust, if we were to search for concepts and ideas that we know in these works of art. Such a bad habit has been rampant in the theosophical movement in the most terrible way. Yes, I remember, for example, something that happened last year when we performed Schuré's drama “The Children of Lucifer,” how the author of this drama, who is an artist in the best sense of the word, was horrified when someone approached him with the question: Does this character mean “Atma,” does that figure mean “Budhi,” this character “Manas,” this one “Kama Manas,” and so on? This kind of allegorizing would be impossible in an artistic process. Therefore, it must be impossible in an explanation or interpretation. That is why it can also be said that it is not worth thinking about: What, for example, is the anthroposophical concept of Johannes Thomasius? There is only one answer to this question: as the main figure in this poem, he is nothing other than Johannes Thomasius. He is nothing other than this living figure of Johannes Thomasius, into whom nothing else has been placed than the secret of the development of a single human being, namely Johannes Thomasius. As soon as one speaks of the individual figures in general, something is left out. What is implied in the words of the drama in the lines: “Here in this circle a knot is forming from the threads that karma spins in the becoming of the world,” is left out. No development takes place at any point in human existence without the threads spun by karma in the becoming of the world becoming entangled around it. And no individual development can be traced without showing everything that is happening in the occult environment, that is, in the physical environment, but as it is seen with the forces that are behind the physical environment. Therefore, Johannes Thomasius must be placed in the human environment from which his development grows, in the real physical world of human beings.

And that is why the drama had to have a double introduction. The first introduction shows how the world appears to the outside world, in which the threads that karma spins in the becoming of the world are woven together for Johannes Thomasius. One might ask: Was it necessary to show this, was it necessary to show in the “prelude” how this world appears from the outside? — It had to be shown. And it would not have been complete if it had not been shown. It had to be shown because the world in which karma weaves its knots is different in the fifth millennium before our era, different three hundred years before our era, different again a thousand years since the beginning of our era, and different again in our present time. The exoteric outer world is also always different, and it is connected with its karma, with what becomes the environment for those who are developing. Thus the circle is drawn from the outside to the inside. And inside is the small circle in which Johannes Thomasius himself stands. That is the second thing. In the outer world, there are trivial waves beating; in the smaller circle, there are waves that rise high. But they can only show themselves in their high foaming in the soul of Johannes Thomasius himself. That is why we are first led to the physical plane. The physical plane is shown to us in such a way that, so to speak, the threads are pointed out that spin karma everywhere within the physical plane.

Anyone who looks into any physical circle with occult vision will find everywhere that threads run from person to person, intertwining in the strangest ways. There are people who seem to have little to do with each other in life. But between soul and soul the most important, the most essential threads are spun. Everything is knotted together. And all this must be shown little by little, so that some kind of knot is clearly pointed out. Other times it can only be shown subtly, only hinted at, because it is in the process of becoming. These different nuances had to be struck where the matter plays out on the physical plane, where we are in a purely physical environment, where people from the most diverse circles of interest come together. Outwardly, they talk about this and that. But by talking outwardly, they are manifesting karma. All the people we first encounter on the physical plane are karmically connected to each other. And that is the essential thing: how they are karmically connected. There is not a single imagined case; everything has an occult basis. Everything is threads that can live. And these threads are very strange.

You can get an idea of the strangeness of these threads when you put together figures such as Felix Balde and Mrs. Balde on the one side and Capesius and Strader on the other. It is not the most important thing what they say in their words; the most important thing is that these people say it. And these people are living people, not fictional characters. I know them very well, for example. By “know,” I don't mean that they are fictional, but that they are real and alive. They are real, and especially the character of Professor Capesius, who has grown so dear to my heart, is a character taken from real life. And it is our world. That is why the strange event that occurs through the seer Theodora, who can temporarily see into the future and foresees the strange event that will come before the end of the 20th century as the next Christ event, had to be included. This is something that can be interpreted karmically. It would be wrong to interpret other events in the same way. Then the karmic connection that exists between Mrs. Balde and Professor Capesius, hinted at in the strange connection between Mrs. Balde's fairy tales and Capesius, would be implied. Karmic threads are hinted at, which arise in the heart of the beggar toward the seer Theodora because he is particularly moved by her. These are all threads that lie occultly behind what is happening outwardly on the physical plane. These threads are spun by karma toward a single point. This one point is Johannes Thomasius. This is where they meet. And within the narrative on the physical plane, a light shines in the soul of Johannes Thomasius, a light that strikes terrible waves in his soul, but at the same time ignites his esoteric development as a very specific individual, as the intersection of his own karma with the karma of the world. That is why we see the impression made on him by what is happening around him on the physical plane; how the great thing in his soul, the unconscious, pushes upward toward the higher worlds.

Now, this journey into the higher worlds must not begin without guidance. It must be directed and guided. Then, into all these circumstances steps the one whom you see described as the actual leader of this circle, but at the same time as the one who knows the circumstances of the worlds, as the one who sees through the knot that karma weaves in the becoming of the worlds: Benedictus steps in. And he becomes the guide. The karma that is at work in Johannes Thomasius, which might have worked for thousands or thousands of years, is kindled at a very specific moment by a karmic relationship between Benedictus and Johannes Thomasius, which is quietly revealed in the scene in the meditation room. We are at the point where a person destined by karma to evolve is striving upward into the higher worlds. And so that he does not strive upward blindly, he is guided in the right way by Benedictus. What this means will become clear when some of the relevant passages are now recited.

The recitation of the scene mentioned followed: Third scene; Benedictus, John, Mary, Child.

Mary:

I bring you the child,
He needs a word from your mouth.

Benedictus:

My child, from now on
You shall come to me every evening
To receive the word
That shall fill you
Before you enter the realm of sleep.
Is that what you want?

Child:

I want it so much.

Benedictus:

Fill your mind this evening,
Until sleep envelops you,
With the power of these words:
“The forces of light carry me
Into the house of the Spirit.”

(The child is led away by Mary.)

Mary:

And now, since this child's destiny
Is to flow in the future
In the shadow of your father's grace,
May I, who have become his mother,
Also ask for the leader's advice,
If not through blood ties,
Then through the powers of fate.

You showed me the way
That I should lead him
From that day on, when I found him
Left by his unknown mother
At my doorstep.
And miraculously
All the rules appeared to the foster child,
According to which I was allowed to guide him.
All the powers came to light
That had germinated in his body and soul.
It became clear how your instruction
Had sprung from the realm
That sheltered this child's soul
Before it built its body's shell.
We saw the hope of mankind grow up,
Shining brighter with each new day.
You know how difficult it was for me to win the child's affection,
He grew up in my care,
And it was nothing more than habit
That bound his soul to mine.
He stood by me, feeling
That I gave him what he needed
For his physical well-being and spiritual growth.
The time came when
In the child's heart there arose
A love for his nurse.
An external event brought about this change.
The seer entered our circle.
The child was fond of her,
And many beautiful words
He learned under her spell.
Then there came a moment when enthusiasm
Seized our wonderful friend,
And our child could see
The glowing light in her eyes.
Shaken to the core of its being,
The young soul felt itself.
In its terror, it came to me.
From that hour on,
The child was warmly devoted to me in love.
But since conscious feeling
Received the gifts of life from me,
And not just instinct alone,
Since this young heart trembled with warmth,
As soon as his gaze met mine lovingly,
Your treasures of wisdom lost their fruitfulness.
Much that had already matured in the child
had to wither away.
I saw in his nature
what had proved so terrible in his friend.
I am more and more a dark mystery to myself.
You cannot prevent me from asking the anxious question of life:
Why do I ruin my friend and my child
When I lovingly try to do
What the wisdom of the spirit
Lets me recognize as good in my heart?
You have often pointed me to the high truth,
That appearances spread across the surface of life,
But I must have clarity,
If I am to bear this fate,
Which is cruel and evil.

Which is cruel and has evil effects?

Benedictus:

Here in this circle
A knot is forming from the threads
That karma spins in the becoming of the world.
O friend, your sufferings
Are links in a knot of fate,
In which the deeds of the gods are intertwined with human lives.
When, on the pilgrim's path of the soul,
I had reached that stage
Which gave me the dignity
To serve with my counsel in the spirit realms,
There came to me a divine being
Who was to descend into the earthly realm
To inhabit the flesh of a human being.
This is demanded by human karma
At this turning point in time.
A great step in the course of the world
Is possible only if gods
Bind themselves to the fate of humanity.
The eyes of the spirit can unfold,
Which are to germinate in human souls,
Only when a god has planted the seed
In a human being's essence.
It was now my task
To find that human being
Who was worthy of receiving the seed of God
Into his soul.
So I had to connect the deed of heaven
With a human destiny.
My spiritual eye searched.
It fell upon you.
Your life had prepared you to be a healer.
In many lives you had acquired
Receptivity for all that is great,
That lives in human hearts.
The beauty of being, the highest demands of virtue,
You carried them as your spiritual heritage
In your tender soul.
And what your eternal self
Brought into existence through birth,
Became ripe fruit
In your young years.
You did not rise too early
to the lofty heights of the mind.
And so you did not develop
a penchant for the realm of the spirit
before you had fully grasped
the innocent joys of the senses.
Your soul learned to recognize anger and love
when every impulse of its thinking
was still far from the spirit.
To enjoy nature in its beauty,
To reap the fruits of the arts,
You strove for the riches of your life.
You were able to laugh cheerfully,
As only a child can laugh,
Who has not yet experienced
The shadows of existence.
You learned to understand human happiness
And lament suffering in times
When even your ancestors did not realize
To ask about the roots of happiness and suffering.
As the ripe fruit of many lives,
The soul enters earthly existence
When it displays such a disposition.
And its childishness is blossom,
Not the root of its being.
Only this soul was I allowed to choose
As a mediator for God,
Who was to gain power
Through our human world.
And now understand that your nature
Must be transformed into its opposite,
Pouring out of you into other beings.
The spirit within you works in everything,
What for the realm of eternity
Can ripen in human beings.
Therefore, he must destroy much
That belongs only to the realm of time.
But his death sacrifices
Are seeds of immortality.
From the lower realm of death
What blossoms from lowly death.

Mary:

So that is how it is with me. - - -
You give me light,
But light that robs me of the power of sight
And tears me away from myself.
Am I then only a mediator of a spirit
And not my own being,
Then I will no longer tolerate
The form upon me,
Which is a mask and not truth.

John:

O friend, what is the matter with you!
The light in your eyes is fading,
Your body is turning into a pillar,
I take your hand,
It is so cold,
It is as if you were dead.

Benedictus:

My son, you have undergone many trials,
You stand at this hour before the strongest,
You look upon your friend's body,
But before my eyes
Her soul floats away into the spirit world.

John:

Oh, look! Her lips are moving.
She is speaking...

Mary:

You gave me clarity,
Yes, clarity that envelops me in darkness
Envelops me on all sides.
I curse your clarity,
And I curse you,
Who made me a tool
Of the wild arts,
Through which he wants to deceive people.
Until now, I have never for a moment
Doubted your spiritual greatness,
But now a single moment is enough
To tear every belief from my heart.
I must recognize that they are creatures of hell,
The spirits to whom you are devoted.
I had to deceive others, Johannes:
Because you deceived me first!
I will flee from you into the distance,
Where no sound from you can reach me,
And yet close enough
That my curses can reach you!
The fire of my own blood,
You have stolen it from me
To give to your false god
What must be mine.
O fire of this blood,
It shall burn you!
I had to believe
In deceit and delusion.
And that it became possible,
You had to make me
A delusion first!
I had to experience often
How the effect of my being
Was transformed into its opposite.
So transform now,
What was love for you,
Into wild fires of hatred.
I will search in all worlds
For that fire
That can consume you.
I fly—ah—

John:

Who speaks in this place?
I do not see my friend!
I see a gruesome creature.

Benedictus:

The soul of your friend floats in the heights,
She left her mortal image
Behind in this place for us alone.
And where a human body
Is abandoned by the spirit, There is space
the adversary of all that is good seeks,
To enter the realm of visibility.
He finds a body,
Through which he can speak.
Such an adversary spoke,
Who wants to destroy my work,
Which is my duty
For the future of many people
And also for you, my son.
And if I could hold those curses,
Which our friend's shell just spoke,
For anything other than the tempter's trickery,
You could not follow me.
The adversary of goodness was at my side; And you, my son,
Have seen what is temporal in that being fall into darkness,
Which shines with all its love
On which all your love shines.
Because spirits have so often spoken to you
From their mouths,
The karma of the world did not spare you
From hearing the prince of hell
Through them.
Now you may seek her
And recognize the core of her being.
She shall be your example of that higher human being,
To whom you shall rise.
Her soul floats in the heights of the spirit,
Where human beings find the original form of their being,
Which is rooted in themselves.
You shall follow her to the realm of the spirit,
And you will see her in the temple of the sun.
Here, in this circle,
A knot is formed from the threads
That karma spins
In the becoming of the world.
My son, since you have held fast until now,
You will also press onward.
I see your star in full splendor.
There is no room in the realm of the senses
For the struggles that people fight,
Who strive for consecration.
What the realm of the senses holds in mystery,
To be solved by the intellect,
What such existence produces in human hearts,
It may arise through love or hate
And discharge itself in such a terrifying way:
It must become for the seeker of the spirit
A field on which he can look impartially
From outside.
Powers must unfold within him
That cannot be found in this field.
You had to struggle through trials of the soul
That can only be endured
By those who find themselves equipped
For such powers
Belong to the spiritual worlds.
And if these powers
Had not found you ready for the path of knowledge,
They would have had to paralyze your feelings
Before you were allowed to know
What has now become known to you.
The beings who look into the foundations of the worlds
Lead people
Who strive for the heights,
First to that summit,
Where it can be revealed,
Whether they have been given the power
To consciously see the spirit.
Those people who possess such powers
Are released from the world of the senses;
The others must wait.
You have preserved your self, my son,
When forces from on high shook you,
And when spiritual powers
Enveloped you in shivers.
And your self fought its way through with strength,
Even when doubts stirred in your own breast
And wanted to deliver you to the dark depths.
You are my true disciple,
Only since that momentous hour,
When you wanted to despair of yourself,
When you gave yourself up for lost,
And when the strength within you nevertheless held you up.
I was allowed to give you treasures of wisdom,
Which gave you the strength
To hold on to yourself,
Even when you did not believe in yourself.
It was wisdom
That you attained,
More faithful to you than the faith
That was given to you.
You have been found mature.
You may be dismissed.
Your friend has gone ahead,
You will find her in spirit.
I can still show you the way:
Ignite the full power of your soul
With words that come through my mouth
And give you the key to the heights.
They will guide you,
Even when nothing guides you anymore,
Nothing that the eyes of the senses can still see.
Receive them with all your heart:
The weaving beings of light, they shine
Through the vastness of space,
To fill the world with being.
The blessing of love warms
The succession of times,
To call forth the revelation of all worlds.
And messengers of the spirit marry
The weaving beings of light
With the revelation of souls;
And when man can unite with both
His own self,
He lives in spiritual heights.

O spirits, whom man can behold,
Enliven the soul of our son. Let it shine within him,
What can shine through him,
The soul with the light of the spirit.
Let it resound within him,
What can awaken him
The self to the joy of becoming spirit.

Voice of the spirit (behind the stage):

His thoughts rise
Into the depths of the primordial world.
What he thought as shadows,
What he experienced as phantoms,
Float away from the world of forms,
From whose abundance
People think
In shadows,
From whose abundance
People see
And live in phantoms.

(The music begins as the curtain slowly falls.)

These were the notes with which our dear friend Arenson musically expressed what rises in poetry as an echo from the higher worlds in the soul of Johannes Thomasius, after he had proved himself capable of truly ascending to the higher worlds during the great experience presented in the meditation room, emerging from this experience as a mature person. In the words with which the recitation ended, we see something that sounds in a very real way from the spiritual world into a soul that has, to a certain extent, passed the test, if we may say so. The emphasis is sometimes quietly hinted at in words that contain more than one might think at first glance.

First of all, we must be clear that a knot is woven from the threads of world karma, which presents a fact of the most magnificent and powerful kind in its effectiveness in a sacred place before Johannes Thomasius. What is actually happening?

Johannes Thomasius must experience that a soul with whom he is, as will later be shown in the Devachan scene, karmically connected in a wonderful way, ascends into the spiritual worlds right before him. It is a world-historical moment when such a soul ascends into the spiritual worlds. Of course, it is not possible here to point out everything connected with such a moment. But it is a thoroughly real fact, known to everyone familiar with occult life in its terribly powerful, light-filled and shadow-filled form. And such a person also knows what happens in the physical world when the shock occurs that a soul disappears into the spiritual worlds, not with the calm passage of its own karma, but challenged by the world karma. These are moments that are important for the evolution of humanity. But these are also the moments in which real, actually existing tempting powers, which look into our physical world from the spiritual world just as the good powers do, have the power to win abandoned physical shells as the scene of their temptations and tempting power. These are the points of attack; this is where they are let loose, so to speak. And then conditions arise in which Maya manifests itself in the most terrible way. Faced with the small deceptions of karma, a person who is perhaps not very far along cannot resist temptation; but faced with the great deceptions of karma, when it presents something that, at a certain stage of development, one can no longer quite believe could be true, a soul that has not passed through certain abysses of life recoils in horror. One can imagine that some people might say that they could have endured what happened in the meditation room. But they should only be put there once! Reality is something quite different from what we think. In reality, other forces are at work. Anyone who does not believe this should just imagine whether they have ever had a real experience of a human body that has been abandoned by its soul. People only know human bodies that are animated. There are other forces at work here. And in order to withstand these forces, Johannes Thomasius had to be led to this point in the world karma.

Now there are two things at work here. Johannes Thomasius first had to go through what is commonly called Kamaloka. This is the world in which what we are ourselves appears to us, as it were, like a mirror image. This is again something that seems much easier than when it actually occurs. And when it does occur in reality, it is not an image limited to space that tells us what it is, but rather it whispers to us from all areas of the world. Then the whole world is us. That is why, in the scene where John Thomasius descends into the depths of his soul, where he is among rocks and springs, you hear that it is not a single mirror image that he conjures up that speaks to him from his soul, but that it sounds to him from everything, from rocks and springs, from the whole environment. At such a moment, the words that pass so tamely through the theories of the world, through philosophical and spiritual works, become terrible forces. For they resound from the whole world, as if reflected from everywhere in infinite space and caught up in the individual events of nature. “O man, know thyself!” Thus they resound when they are heard after having lived for years and years in the soul. Then the soul stands in its loneliness, in its great abandonment, facing itself. There is nothing but the world. But this world is itself. And in this world is what it itself is, the soul; also what is its karma, everything it has done. — In a poem, only individual elements can be singled out. An old deed, the abandonment of a personality, appears. But it appears in all its vividness before Johannes Thomasius' soul. I can only quote individual words.

In this context, Johannes Thomasius loses what he must lose: confidence in himself, in his strength, even in finding healing in solitude for what causes him such immense torment on the physical plane when he perceives it from the physical plane. That is why I ask you to take these words as they are meant to be taken, as soul-shattering and completely fulfilling. When Johannes Thomasius hears the words “O human being, recognize yourself!” from all worlds, his soul responds as if his ego were not there:

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

But what is answered powerfully: “O man, know thyself!” Then the whole inner being is turned upside down:

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!)

You must imagine the self going along with the world process. Otherwise we stand there, passing with the hours and not following what is happening. We do not know it, believing ourselves to be within. But this happens knowingly. Knowingly it follows all elemental forces, goes with the passing of the day and changes into night.

I follow the earth in its world orbit.
I roll in the thunder,
I flicker in the lightning.

All this gives him the impression: I am. - This is the moment when the I-am becomes the demon of one's own soul. Before that, all self-assertion of man falls silent. And no sooner has one tried to utter the I-am than one's own soul says:

...O already vanished
I feel myself from my own being.

Then one's own being appears in a limited way, in a limited form:

I see my body shell;
It is a foreign being outside of me,
It is completely distant from me.
Another body floats toward me.

Now he can speak not only with his own mouth, but with the mouth of another person. There is the person whom he has wronged:

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

Now back in his own body:

The one I left, the poor thing,
I was them myself.
I must suffer their torment.
Knowledge has given me strength
To carry my self into another self.

This marks the beginning of a journey that is then characterized by the words at the end of this scene, which hint at the nature of the world and the effects of loneliness. In the world, everything that flows from outside has the most terrible effect. From within, what comes from within has such an effect that loneliness becomes the most populated thing there can be. This is a test that is set for the purpose indicated in the words that have been read to you:

The beings who look into the foundations of the worlds,
They lead people,
Who strive for the heights,
First to that summit,
Where it can be revealed,
Whether they have been given the power,
To consciously see the spirit.

The people who possess such powers,
Are released from the world of the senses;
The others must wait.

At the moment we are standing here, consciousness would be lost, and Johannes Thomasius would be thrown back into the world of the senses if he had not stood firm in the scene I have described, where he stands face to face with his own self. Two things came into consideration: his own self, as far as he knows, has little power, which robs him of his self-confidence. But what is eternal in him, of which he knows nothing yet, has great power. This keeps him upright and allows him to overcome what he experiences in the meditation room as the deanimation of Mary. Then he only needs to be led upward by the words of the Benedictus, by the power of these words.

And in the words that have been read to you, you must see a secret of words. What is meant by them cannot be simply written down like so many other things. In these lines, there are actually world forces down to the very sounds. And the sounds cannot really be changed. In these words, there is actually an opening of the gate to the spiritual world. That is why these words must be taken exactly as they are written here. Something like this cannot be put together in any arbitrary way, such as these lines:

The weaving beings of light shine forth
Through the vastness of space,
To fill the world with being.
The blessing of love warms
The succession of times,
To call forth the revelation of all worlds.
And messengers of the spirit unite
The weaving beings of light
With the revelation of souls;
And when man can unite with both
His own self,
He lives in spiritual heights.

Only then can what is meant to enter the soul from the other world resound within it. But all this is, as I said, only a few hints.

Then Johannes Thomasius is truly transported into the spiritual world. However, he cannot ascend directly into the spiritual world, where everyone must ascend. He must pass through the astral world. In the fourth image, you then have a representation of the astral world as Johannes Thomasius must experience it again according to his particular individual preconditions. It is not a general description of the astral world, but a description of this world as Johannes Thomasius must experience it through specific examples. This astral world is different from the physical world. There, it is possible to see a person we encounter as they were several decades ago, or to see a young person as they will be in the future. These are all realities. In your soul, you are still the same person you were as a three-year-old child. What you see in the astral world is not at all what the outer physical image of a human being shows you. The physical image of a human being hides at every moment what was justified before and what will be justified afterwards. Above all, looking into the astral world must have the effect of enabling us to overcome the first Maya of the sensory world and see through time in its illusory power. That is why Johannes Thomasius sees the person he knew on the physical plane as Capesius in the astral world as he was as a young man, and the person he knew in the physical world as Strader, he sees as he will be as an old man. What does that mean? Johannes Thomasius knows Strader as he is now in the sensory world with the forces that are now in his soul on the physical plane. But within him lies the prerequisite for what he will be after decades. One must also recognize this if one wants to know a person. So time tears itself apart. Time is really a very elastic concept when one ascends to the higher worlds. Johannes Thomasius knows Capesius as an old man and Strader as a young man from the physical world. Now they stand side by side in the astral world: Capesius young and Strader old. Time is not stretched forward and backward, but rather one is represented in his youth and the other in his old age. This is a completely real fact.

But this is connected with something else that is actually evident and that people today treat as childish nonsense, namely that our soul experiences are even more than we usually think of them, that nothing evil or good is experienced in the soul with impunity, for example when we think bad or even just wrong thoughts, that these radiate into the depths of the world and radiate back again, and that we are connected in our soul experiences with the elemental forces of nature. This is not a metaphor. It is a reality in the occult sense, for example when Capesius is led before the spirit of the elements, which leads every human being into existence. There it is actually the case that Capesius also stands before that which is connected with this spirit of the elements. And connected with this is the fact that when we experience anything in our souls, it is connected with the elemental forces of nature. It becomes clear to Johannes Thomasius that Capesius, in the depths of his soul, and Strader too, can arouse the counterforces of the elements. Therefore, lightning and thunder in this world follow what people themselves experience in their souls in pride or arrogance, in error or in truth or lies. In the physical world, what a person has in their soul in the way of error or lies is something highly remarkable. For example, a person stands before us, error and lies live in his soul, he stands before us perhaps completely innocent. But at the moment when the astral gaze is directed at him, storms rage that are otherwise only depicted in the most terrible discharges of the elements of the earth. Johannes Thomasius has to go through all this. And also what can already be shown to him in the astral world from the remarkable connections that he did not yet recognize when they confronted him on the physical plane.

The names found in this Rosicrucian mystery are not accidental. Names such as the other Mary and so on all refer to specific circumstances, so that one Mary and the other are not merely the two Marys, but represent the Marys to all other persons. And the other Mary, the mysterious figure of nature, reveals to Johannes Thomasius the soul that lives beneath the ordinary, conscious soul and remains completely inaudible and imperceptible as long as the human being lives only in the physical world. But you must not take these relationships and figures as symbols. In all this, the other Mary is again absolute, just like the first Mary, a real figure, a reality. And only as such are they to be taken for what they are.

Everything Johannes Thomasius experienced passed before the eyes of his soul. He experienced the astral world. He can now bring this into consciousness, for he says:

Thus I find in the realm of the soul
I find the people who are familiar to me:
The man who spoke of Felicia's stories —
Only here could I see him,
As he was in his younger years;
And the one who as a young man
Decided to become a monk
Appeared to me as an old man.
The spirit of the elements was with them.

Johannes Thomasius went through all this, which, so to speak, destroyed time before his eyes. And what has he now matured into? He has matured into being able to look into the astral world. Is the astral world free of error? No, it is not. But in this astral world, one thing can become certain for human beings. And one thing becomes certain for humans in the astral world when they enter it in a pure state, namely, that there is a higher world that shines into the astral world just as the astral world shines into the ordinary physical world. The only question is whether they can see it as it really is. The people who wander around in the world are themselves only a kind of illusion, so that they themselves have something behind them that leads them into the higher world, that sets them apart from something completely different, what they may have been in times long past or less long past, what they will become in the future. But certain errors do not reveal the astral world, in which we are very much entangled in the sensory world. For example, they do not reveal the relationship between the great forces of existence, the relationship between will, love, and wisdom. This is so difficult to recognize in its truth that it remains veiled in the astral world for a long, long time. It is not so easy to get to the bottom of it. And so conditions that are errors in the sensory world continue into the astral world.

This interaction—which can also only be hinted at here—between will, wisdom, and love takes place in the physical world through human beings. In the higher worlds, it takes place through those beings who send their forces in when the forces of occult entities emerge in human souls on the physical plane. This happens through the initiates in those temples where the human representatives of the individual world powers are, in those temples where human beings have already progressed so far that they have renounced the desire to represent the whole human being at once, limiting themselves to representing one power. There the representatives then rule. But where human beings look into the astral world, they see that sacred place where the representatives of the powers of will, wisdom, and love are, precisely in a maja-filled image. And there a terrible web is spun between the deception of the sensory world and the astral world.

And now I would have to speak for weeks if I wanted to explain how it is with that form of the higher powers which presents itself to the initiate as the powers of the will, which confronts John 'Thomasius on the physical plane and actually appears like a trivial figure on the physical plane. The question may arise: Is it through such a person that the primordial forces of the will are to work? — And yet they do. But one can understand that it is precisely through a person who is perhaps less developed that something can penetrate which is to be a revelation of the powers of the will, just as the ray of wisdom can enter through a person such as Benedictus. For one must understand the following. If we now have a blossoming, wonderfully grown flower here and place a seed next to it, it may be that when the seed has grown, it will produce an even more beautiful flower. The flower will already be considered very perfect, but in truth, according to the reality of the world, the seed is something much more perfect. Therefore, Benedictus, the great bearer of wisdom, stands opposite the human being who, on the physical plane, behaves in a strange way toward everything that is spoken of in the spiritual worlds, rejecting it all in a strange way. When he hears people talking about the spiritual worlds, he says, like someone who does not want to hear anything about spiritual worlds: “I cannot find the bridge that could truly lead from ideas to deeds!” He is a person who finds what leads to action somewhere else entirely, and for whom talk of the spirit is nothing but empty words. You could tell this person, as he now lives on the physical plane, all the most beautiful things about spiritual science, but they would be empty words to him. What is valuable to him is when the wheels of machines turn. And when he hears from the other Mary about the spiritual power that has connected with her and ignited the forces of feeling and love in her to do this or that deed, he is once again the one who rejects all of this and simply says: That is because she has a good heart! He remains entirely on the physical plane and is thus really a trivializer of the physical plane, but he is an energetic, energetic man of will. That is why he says:

If this woman of good deeds accomplishes much,
Then the impulse for this lies
In her warm heart.
It is certainly necessary for man,
When he has done his work,
To receive edification from ideas,
But it is only the discipline of the will
In union with skill and strength
In all genuine life's work
That will help humanity forward.
When the whirring of wheels
ring in my ears,
And when contented people
pull on cranks,
Then I feel the forces of life.

That is the man of will, the man of action. And if you could talk to him for days on end about the spirit, he would say: You can't even turn a single crank with that, and what would people eat? — So you can turn cranks during the day, and when you have a free hour, you can talk about the spirit for amusement! These are the seed forces that have not yet sprouted. But they are good forces. They are forces that are very important and through which the powers of the will shine into the world. One must not proceed theoretically when people hear about spiritual worlds and take it up in different ways, because it is terribly difficult to get through. Those who do not understand that something like a counter-image to such people must be seen in the seed experience an illusion like that depicted in the underground temple. This is an astral Maya. While what John Thomasius experiences in the scene with Capesius and Strader, where he sees them at different ages, is reality, the fifth picture depicts a Maya, a mirage of the spiritual world, which must first be unloaded onto the soul, through which one must pass. Therefore, you must take the fifth image as something that is only justified by the fact that reality immediately interferes with the Maja.

This entire scene would contribute nothing to the development of Johannes Thomasius if it did not relate to the astral experience in the same way that the concepts and ideas of the physical world relate to our understanding of the world. What science is to the physical plane, the Maya temple is to the astral world. Just as a concept is not something you can eat, the Maya temple is not something real that has its roots in the spiritual world. But concepts must live in the world so that an understanding of the world can truly emerge. And only in this way can something from another world come into play, which now provides a profound explanation for Johannes Thomasius, as he now recognizes how a certain knot in the world karma is unraveled by Felix Balde's realization that he should not bury the treasures of his soul in lonely wandering through the world, but must carry them to the temple.

Only then is Johannes Thomasius given the opportunity to see, so to speak, much more real conditions in the spiritual world, including those conditions that are of a more subtle and intimate nature, for example, the intrusion of the astral world into the physical world, which occurs when something like the inspiration of a person like Capesius by someone who himself does not actually know how much he holds in his soul. Mrs. Balde does not know this in the mystery. In a person who has understanding and acts out of understanding, everything passes through the mind. What can give us a knowledge of power over the world does not lie in the mind at all. That lies entirely outside the mind. In a person who has a great deal of intellect, a power that comes from the spiritual world can pass through the mind and then continue on. Then he will be able to speak in beautiful “theories about the spiritual world.” But the mind has no bearing on the inner occult degree, on the content of the soul. Thus, what comes from theories can also enter the soul without passing through the mind and thus come to a person who is receptive to the source and can call up there what Capesius, for example, describes on the physical plane. This is shown where he says what this woman actually is to him, who lives alone outside with Felix Balde, where he says that he likes to listen when she speaks, and that she then speaks the deepest ancient wisdom. It is important that we fully understand what Capesius is saying. On the physical plane, there is a woman whom he likes to listen to, who speaks things that are full of occult sources. She cannot put it into specific words. But when it reaches Capesius' ears, he can speak like this:

I must touch it,
If I want to tell of it,
A thing that seems truly more wonderful to me
Than many things I have heard here,
Because it speaks more to my soul.
I could hardly find another place
To utter the words
That come so easily to me here.
There are times for my soul
When it feels drained and empty.
It is then as if the source of knowledge
Has been exhausted within me;
As if I could find no words
That would be worth
Being heard.

There is such a thing. Such people, even if they know so much, feel as if they cannot go on.

When I feel such spiritual emptiness,
I flee to these good people
And their refreshing, quiet solitude.

Now his soul is opening up, because there is a gateway to the occult world for him.

And Mrs. Felicia tells
In wonderful pictures
Of beings who live in the land of dreams
And in fairy-tale realms
Lead a colorful life.
It is the tone of speech
Like sayings from ancient times.
I do not ask where she got her words.
I think then of only one thing with clarity,
How new life flows into my soul,
And how all the paralysis of my soul is banished.

Johannes Thomasius, who is present but must first look into the astral world to explain it to himself, sees how such a thing is in reality on the physical plane. In the astral image, Mrs. Balde appears to him just as he now sees her in the physical world. And she gives the spirit of the elements one of her fairy tale images, as she has told Capesius hundreds of them. But now comes the interplay with what is going on below the threshold of consciousness.

She tells Capesius the fairy tales. And when she has told one that she herself does not understand, forces are released in his soul that banish his spiritual paralysis, and he can once again tell his listeners something. This sounds very different from what Mrs. Felicia told us. Secret forces are also at work in Capesius. If we follow these forces, we find their origin in the astral world. There we can see how they give rise to countercurrents. And such an echo, like the words of Mrs. Felicia in the soul of Capesius, is produced wherever elemental forces are at work. There is something similar in our brain. A small spirit lives in our brain, which perhaps thinks up the most wonderful things. If we look for how it is connected to the macrocosm, we find, for example, the Earth brain. It thinks thoughts on a completely different scale than they appear in the small human brain. In their own brains, people sometimes do not see what they actually claim to see. But it seems grotesque when it is reflected in the giant Earth brain. This must also be reflected. Hence the relationship that exists between German, who appears on the physical plane, and then as the spirit of the Earth brain. This, too, would require a long discussion. But if one could see with the astral eye what goes on in the lonely little house when Mrs. Felicia tells her fairy tales, and if one could then look up to the spirit of the Earth's brain, one would see many secrets, for example how this spirit of the Earth's brain is an ironist, sometimes a mocker. And he must be inclined to mockery, because he has much to laugh about in what people do.

Artistically, it is justified that at the moment when he is out of place, he also appears in the role he so often has to play and shows himself in his true form. After the scene in which Mrs. Balde tells one of her fairy tales to the spirit of the elements, we see an abnormal effect on the spirit of the earth brain, who translates the fairy tale into completely different words. Mrs. Balde tells the story:

Once upon a time there was a creature
That flew from east to west
Following the course of the sun.
It flew over lands and seas;
From its height it saw
The bustle of mankind.
It saw how people loved each other
And pursued each other with hatred.
Nothing could hinder the creature
In its flight;
For hatred and love create
The same thing many thousands of times over.
But above a house,
The creature had to stop.
Inside was a weary man.
He pondered human love
And also pondered human hatred.
His musings had already
Carved deep furrows in his face.
They had bleached his hair.
And above his sorrow,
The spirit lost its sun guide
And remained with that man.
It was still in his room
When the sun went down,
And when the sun came up again,
The spirit was taken up again
By the spirit of the sun. —
And again it saw people
In love and hate
Spending their earthly lives.
And when it came for the second time,
Following the sun over that house,
Its gaze fell
On a dead man.

And the spirit of the earth's brain echoes this, quite unjustifiably, of course:

Once upon a time there was a man,
Who traveled from east to west;
He was drawn by the thirst for knowledge
Across land and sea.
He observed the human race
According to his rules of wisdom.
He saw how people loved each other
And pursued each other with hatred.
Every moment, the man saw
The end of his wisdom.
But as always, hatred and love
Rule the earthly world,
And there was no law that could govern them.
He wrote down thousands of individual cases,
But he lacked the big picture.
The dry researcher
A being of light;
Its existence was difficult,
For it was in constant battle
With a dark shadow form.
Who are you,
Asked the dry researcher.
I am love,
Said one being;
See hatred in me,
said the other.
The man heard these words
but heard no more.
From then on, the man wandered
from east to west as a deaf researcher.

These things are definitely experiences of the astral world. Johannes Thomasius must go through them in order to ascend to the spiritual world.

And for today I will only say briefly that it is necessary for Johannes Thomasius to have a real connection with the spiritual world, which has already been established in the physical world, in order to ascend to the spiritual world itself. And that is, as you will hear later, the connection from that karma encompassing incarnations, which is only revealed in devachanic vision. But the devachanic elements really have to play a role here. So please keep in mind that everything lives in the weaving and life of the devachanic sea. You can't just describe it, you can only hint at this or that. But if one wants to describe it realistically, one must go further. One should not believe that one knows anything when one speaks of higher worlds and uses the words: sentient soul, intellectual soul, conscious soul, by which Philia, Astrid, and Luna are meant. These three figures are not personifications of those three soul members or symbols for them. If you listen to the vowels with which these three figures characterize their own activities, and if you listen to what lives in the vowels, you can follow how, in the sequence of the individual vowels, the individual words, there is something that can be understood in a completely different way than the soul of feeling, the soul of understanding, and the soul of consciousness. And if you take anything out, it is no longer the whole. Therefore, it is important to listen carefully to the words in order to gain an understanding of the devachanic element of the consciousness soul, for example when Luna says the words:

I want to warm the soul substance
And harden the life ether.
They shall condense,
They shall feel themselves,
And being within themselves
Keep creating themselves,
So that you, beloved sister,
May give the searching human soul
The security of knowledge.

In the movement of the words lies that which cannot otherwise be expressed in the description of devachan. This must also be taken into account. For when speaking of higher worlds, one is compelled to express oneself in multiple ways. And what I could never say theoretically about the sentient soul, the intellectual soul, and the conscious soul, you can hear in the characteristics of the three figures: Philia, Astrid, and Luna, if you are willing to understand. But you will understand well that these three are not symbols or allegories for the soul of feeling, the soul of understanding, and the soul of consciousness. If you ask yourself, “What are these three?” the answer is: They are persons who live there: Philia, Astrid, and Luna. This must always be kept in mind.

How karma ultimately intertwines and reveals itself in the image of what Johannes Thomasius experiences as a microcosm in the human soul was shown in the Munich performance in the entire final scene. The individual characters stood in their places according to how karma works. Those who were closer to one character had their place accordingly. If you imagine this reflected in the soul of Johannes Thomasius, you will have an approximate idea of what is so difficult to describe in words, what is contained in this scene of the seventh picture, the spiritual realm.

This was followed by the recitation of the seventh scene by Marie von Sivers (Marie Steiner), introduced and concluded by music by Adolf Arenson.