Rudolf Steiner

“ Must be fulfilled through power from Lucifer?
Capesius:
Thou dost desire this duty to fulfil,
And that can only be through Lucifer.
Look! Here he comes, the Spirit of the Light.
(Lucifer appears and, in the course of his speech, Benedictus.)
Lucifer:
Maria, thou art asking at my throne
Self-knowledge for that very human soul
Who standeth near thee in the life on Earth.
It cannot learn to know itself aright
Except by gazing deep into myself;
And that it will achieve without thine aid.
How canst thou think that I would grant to thee
All that thou mayst desire for this thy friend? ”

“ As purest life, brought death, my friend, to thee
And slew thy spirit.
Johannes:
And slew thy spirit. Aye. ’Tis so indeed.
What lifts thy soul to Heaven’s sun-kissed heights
When through thy life it comes into mine own
Thrusts my soul down, to death’s abysmal gloom.
When in our friendship’s rosy-fingered dawn
To this revealment thou didst lead me on,
Which sheds its light into the darkened realms,
Where human souls do enter every night,
Bereft of conscious life, and where full oft
Man’s being wanders erring: whilst the night
Of Death makes mock at Life’s reality. ”

“ I’ll change it into soul-power for thy use.
The message I direct unto thy soul
Absorbs the glimm’ring light of shadow-souls,
Who, during earth-life will arouse in thee
The thoughts they brood on through eternity.
And thou, the penitent of spirit-realms,
Direct thy soul-steps onward to the stars;
There nature-spirits long to use thy work
Wherefrom they will beam fantasy to souls
And so will fashion wings for life on earth.
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Dame Balde’s Soul:
I follow thee, dear sister of my soul,
My Philia, who dost weave love from star
To star and from one spirit to the next. ”

“ That work, as in an ocean’s unseen depths,
And see revealéd all the life of men,
As wavelets on the ocean’s upturned face.
I am at one with all the sense of Life
For which men restless strive, and which to me
Is but their inner self that stands revealed.
I see, how oftentimes it binds itself
Unto the very kernel of man’s soul,
And lifts him to the highest that his heart
Can ever crave. Yet as it lives in me
It turns to bitter fruitage, when mine own
Touches another’s being. Even so
Hath this, my destiny, worked out in all
I willed to give thee, when thou cam’st in love. ”

“ A soul may never wish itself to fall;
Yet, when it falls it must a lesson learn.
Astrid:
The lightning’s power and thunder’s will I guard
And keep them safe within the cosmic life,
Till Saturn turns toward the soul once more.
Maria:
I feel the blessedness of stars endure,
And in the stream of time I enter it.
I’ll live and work within its kindly sway
With this soul-being long since knit to mine.
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Luna:
I will protect thy work in spirit here,
That thou mayst reap the fruits in life on earth.
Johannes’ Soul:
Within my soul’s domain—I see this star! ”

“ I’ll bring thee treasure that will light for thee
The dark seclusion of the shadow-realms.
But thou wilt not be fully freed till he
Can once again unite himself with thee.
This act he can delay ... but not prevent.
For Lucifer will well protect his rights.
Theodora:
Thou spirit-child, thou liv’st Johannes’ youth
In gloomy shadow-realms. To thee in love
Bends down the soul which o’er Johannes broods
From realms ablaze with light, aglow with love.
She will from thine enchantment set thee free
If thou wilt take so much of what she feels
As shall procure thee life in blessedness. ”

“ Benedictus:
My mystic group will always know itself
To be in touch with Strader’s soul, although
The life of sense no longer forms a bridge.
But when a spirit-messenger draws near
And manifests to us from his own worlds,
Then he must needs first win our confidence.
This he can only do if he appears
Without disguise unto our spirit-gaze.
Ahriman:
Thou art but striving for self-consciousness:
So stranger spirit-beings, who might wish
To render thee a service, are compelled
To show themselves as parts of thine own self,
If they may only help thee undisguised. ”

“ Was but the vain delusion of thy soul.
Maria:
In thee I see the sire of all deceit;
Yet know I too thou oft dost speak the truth.
And any one who chose to set aside
All counsel that might reach him through thy words
To utmost error soon would fall a prey.
And as illusion wears the mask of truth
The better to ensnare the souls of men,
So ’tis but easy for a man to yield
Thereto, by trying like a coward to slink
Past every place where error might be hid.
More than illusion finds the soul in thee;
For in the Spirit of Deceit doth live
The force that gives mankind discernment true. ”

“ That thou hast reached the end of all thy strife.
Thou hast beheld a picture, which thy will
Alone can turn unto reality.
Maria:
Although thy words just spoken fall on me
Like bitter pain that follows hours of bliss,
There is at least one lesson I have learned,
Which is to bow my head to wisdom’s light
When it doth prove itself through inward force.
Already something is becoming clear
Which up till now lay hidden in my heart.
But when in highest bliss delusion’s snare
Doth wear the mask of truth to human minds,
Darkness of soul is difficult to ban. ”

“ Black night doth spread a curtain round my sight.
And many things that I must live and do,
Which spring as fruitage from my character,
Intensify the darkness of that night.
We two must seek clear vision in that light,
Which, though it vanish for a while from sight,
Can never be extinguished in the soul.
Johannes:
But then, Maria, dost thou realize
Through what my soul hath fought its way but now?
A grievous destiny awaiteth thee,
Most noble friend. For well I know that far
From thy pure nature lies that potent force,
That hath so wholly shattered me to bits. ”

“ Maria, Philia, Astrid, Luna; the child; Johannes, first at a distance, then coming nearer; Theodora; lastly Benedictus.
Maria:
Ye sisters, who so often proved of old
My helpers, help me also in this hour;
That I may cause to vibrate in itself
The ether of the worlds. Let it resound
In harmony, and thus resounding reach
And permeate a soul with knowledge true.
Signs can I see which guide us to our work;
For your work must unite itself with mine.
Johannes, he who strives, by our designs
To real existence shall be lifted up. ”

“ Romanus:
The fact that thou hast hither found thy way
Gives me the power to give light to the will
Of both Johannes and Maria here.
That it no more may follow forces blind,
But from world-aims henceforth direct itself.
Maria:
Johannes, thou hast seen thine own self now
In spirit in myself. Thou shalt live out
Thine own existence as a spirit, when
The world’s light can behold itself in thee.
Johannes (to Felix Balde) :
In thee, good brother Felix, do I see
That soul-power which did hold my will fast bound
In its own spirit. ”

“ Lucifer:
He never will forsake thee,—I behold
Deep in his nature longings after light
Which cannot follow in Maria’s steps.
And when the radiance which is born of them
Doth fully light Johannes’ artist-soul
It must bear fruit; nor will he be content
To cast this fruit away in yonder realm
Where love divorced from beauty reigns alone.
His self will no more seem of worth to him
Which fain would cast his best gifts to the shades
Because it sets by knowledge too much store.
When wisdom shall throw light on his desires
Their glorious worth will be revealed to him ”

“ But never seek me in the realm of shades,
Where outlived soul-experience wins by guile
A transient life from out illusion’s web,
And dream’s frail phantoms can the spirit cheat;
So that in pleasure it forgets itself
And looks on serious effort with distaste.
(Benedictus and Maria disappear.)
Johannes:
She saith illusion ...
... yet ’tis passing fair.
It lives; Johannes feels it in himself,
He feels Maria’s nearness in him too.
Johannes will not know how spirit works
To solve the riddles of the soul’s dark depths.
He will create and will as artists work. ”

“ Maria (to the Guardian) :
Thou knowest well, who hast been guardian
Of this realm’s threshold since the world began
What beings need to cross the threshold o’er
Who to thy kind and to thy time belong:
So too with men, who meet thee at this gate
If they do come alone, and cannot show
That they have done true spirit-good they must
Go back again from here to life on Earth.
But this man here hath been allowed to bring
That other soul unto thy threshold now
Whom fate hath bound so closely with his own. ”

“ If thy soul to that light holds ever true
Which powers from spirit-realms bestow on thee,
Johannes’ soul will thirst to drink of thine
E’en where the Lord of all Desire holds sway;
And through the love which holds it bound to thee
It will regain the path to light on high.
For ever must a living being strive
Through light or darkness, which hath once beheld
And known the heights of spirit in its soul.
It hath drawn breath from cosmic distances
Of air that pulseth with immortal life,
And living raiseth all our human kind
From its soul depths up to the sunshine’s heights. ”

“ On what can one rely, when nothing holds?
The friends of Benedictus are by thee
Kept far from our endeavours; Strader, too,
Is torn by bitter agonies of doubt.
A man who, full of shrewdness and of hate,
Hath oft opposed the mystic life and aims,
Hath pointed out grave errors in his plans
And shewn that his invention cannot work,
And is not only stopped by outward checks.
Life hath not brought me any ripened fruit;
I longed for perfect deeds. And yet the thoughts
That bring deeds unto ripeness never came.
My soul was ever plagued by loneliness. ”