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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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Search results 5661 through 5670 of 6551

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273. The Problem of Faust: Some Spiritual-Scientific Observations in Connection with the “Classical Walpurgis-Night” 27 Sep 1918, Dornach
Translated by George Adams

Then, in the further development of his poem, he undertakes to show what sort of experience a man can have whereby his knowledge of man is widened, so that out of Homunculus there may grow something at least approaching Homo.
That is why it is so difficult to come to an understanding. Down there in that sphere the words which we have formed for use in the sense-world cannot be properly applied to what takes place down there.
And from a higher point of view, most modern ideas are confused. They can only be understood—however strange this may sound, my dear friends, it is true—these ideas, these theories can often only be understood if they are translated.
273. The Problem of Faust: Spiritual Science Considered with the Classical Walpurgis-Night 28 Sep 1918, Dornach
Translated by George Adams

What has already arisen, we cannot understand”. And in another place: “Reason as applied to what is becoming, understanding to what has become”.
It shows most distinctly how, in Anaxagoras, Goethe was wishing to portray a personality standing within the spiritual world but only with his understanding, the understanding that only studying the present can never reach the spiritual at all, but, in Anaxagoras, still preserves the spiritual out of the old Mysteries.
When you consider the deep truth I have just shown in connection with the meeting of Mephistopheles with the Phorkyads—a truth that has been preserved in many occult schools of the present day—then you have the opportunity of understanding, together with much else that enables you to realise it, the intense seriousness of our striving after Spiritual Science, the seriousness that must underlie our endeavours.
273. The Problem of Faust: Goethe's Life of the Soul from the Standpoint of Spiritual Science 29 Sep 1918, Dornach
Translated by George Adams

But it cannot be claimed that so far there has really been a very wide understanding of the matter. Perhaps we can get the best view of what Goethe understood by the primal phenomenon in inanimate nature when we consider how he came to build up his special Theory of Colors.
This then was the basis of Goethe's whole understanding of inanimate nature—never to seek for theories or hypotheses. According to him these can be set up as scaffolding.
Here in childish fashion is already pictured forth all that afterwards worked in his most mature conceptions. We understand Goethe only when we are in a position to grasp him rightly in this way, out of his being as a whole.
273. The Problem of Faust: The Vision of Reality in the Greek Myths 18 Jan 1919, Dornach
Translated by George Adams

But Goethe sees clearly that ordinary knowledge, dependent on the senses and conditioned by the understanding, cannot lead to this self-knowledge. For this reason he introduces into the Classical Walpurgis-Night Homunculus, the product that was supposed to be, for mediaeval research, the copy of a human being that, within external nature, the physical understanding was able to put together out of natural forces and natural laws.
All it is possible to grasp with out physical understanding, must be fertilised by knowledge gained outside the physical body. Half the riddle on man is hidden from the mere physical power of understanding.
For on this path we come to a one-sided development, raising the human critical understanding to a demonic height that not only runs to dull criticism but to actual prophetic criticism holding in mind the good side of human criticism.
273. The Problem of Faust: Goetheanism In Place of Homunculism and Mephistophelianism 19 Jan 1919, Dornach
Translated by George Adams

When in the eighties of the last century I wrote my first introduction to Goethe's scientific works, I tried to reconstruct his archetypal plant, tried to bring into a picture this expansion, contraction, expansion, contraction—on and on right up to the blossom. No one can really understand life who does not picture it in rhythm, as a progressive rhythmic process. It must be repeatedly emphasised that to imagine evolution as proceeding in a straight line does not help us to a true understanding of life.
In short, my dear friends, abstract mysticism, the ‘easy understanding of the divine within’, from which nothing results but a terrible egotistical abstraction—this abstract mysticism is just as bad as materialism.
We must find the balance between what belongs to Homunculus and what belongs to Mephistopheles, between not being able to reach ourselves in Homunculus, and grasping the self only to lose it in Mephistopheles. The understanding of this equilibrium is what modern man must gain. And Goethe, foreseeing this in feeling, lived himself into this understanding when with absolute honesty he tried in his Faust to speak as he did of the riddle of humanity.
274. Introductions for Traditional Christmas Plays: Introduction 26 Dec 1915, Dornach

We must not forget that the liturgy was in Latin and that the people understood nothing. Only gradually did people begin to see something more in the sacrifice of the Mass, which was fixed for Christmas, besides the sacrifice of the Mass that was celebrated three times at Christmas.
And it was only in the 13th or 14th century that the mood began to develop within the communities that could be described as people saying to themselves: We also want to understand something of what we see, we want to penetrate into the matter. And so people began to be allowed to play individual parts in what was initially only performed by the clergy. Now, of course, one must know life in the middle of the Middle Ages to understand how that which was connected with the most sacred was at the same time taken in such a way as I have indicated.
274. Introductions for Traditional Christmas Plays: Introduction 30 Dec 1917, Dornach

There were numerous people, clergy, scholars, who had influence over these things, and the things were corrupted. They were preserved unadulterated under the care of those who, in the midst of the Slavic and Magyar populations, had to rely on themselves and who, over the centuries, preserved things in their original form.
Some passages that may be more difficult to understand will also be explained. The whole thing was of course presented in the local dialect, and there are many things in it that may not be immediately understandable.
There are a number of expressions in both plays that may not be immediately understandable. So you will see that one saying in particular is used by the innkeepers: I åls a wirt von meiner gstålt Håb in mein haus and loplaynt gwålt.
274. Introductions for Traditional Christmas Plays: Introduction 06 Jan 1918, Dornach

Women were not allowed to play, I must explicitly note that, which of course must be different for easily understandable reasons in our performance today. The older and younger boys who were to play had to learn their roles in October and November until Advent.
Furthermore, during all this time, they had to follow the instructions given to them by the master of the play to the letter. Under these conditions, the roles were then assigned and learned. The roles of Mary and Eve were also always performed by a younger boy.
And the performances were, as I said, understood without sentimentality, but with a certain real moral seriousness. This can be seen from the fact – as Schröer himself once experienced, for example – that the actors once refused to play in a village – they then went around the neighborhood to perform the plays there – where they were met by a gang of musicians.
274. Introductions for Traditional Christmas Plays: Introduction 19 Dec 1920, Dornach

And from the way in which people had to prepare for the solemnity of these plays, one can see the spirit in which such things were undertaken. There lived, I might say, an inwardly cozy Christianity, an inwardly cozy Christianity. One sees it in the whole way of introducing such plays.
This strict regulation was that during the rehearsals, the rehearsers had to be strictly obedient to the clergyman or teacher, that is, to everyone who had to be a teacher. Well, you will understand that we can never introduce that among ourselves, of course. But you can see from these strict paragraphs how extraordinarily seriously this matter was taken.
274. Introductions for Traditional Christmas Plays: Introduction 22 Dec 1920, Dornach

We talked a lot about the way these plays were performed, and it is quite possible, even though we work under completely different conditions, not in a rural inn or the like and not with the direct participation of the entire population, as it was there, it is still possible to stay in the style approximately.
Such rules, which extended to the whole life of these boys, show how seriously the matter was undertaken. We hear, for example, that the people who were to participate had to fulfill one condition. We do not need to prescribe this because it goes without saying that anthroposophists lead honorable lives, but this does not always seem to have been the case with the local boys.
It is truly a wonderful Christian life that has been preserved. Under modern conditions, these things are also being completely lost. For years, we have considered it one of our tasks to present such things, which lead more than any theoretical historical reflection into the life of the past, in turn vividly to the minds of the present, and we believe that it is really possible in this way to show how Christianity from the 11th to the 19th century lived in numerous minds in Central Europe, far to the south.

Results 5661 through 5670 of 6551

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