Four Mystery Plays

by Rudolf Steiner

Scene 13

The Temple of the Sun; hidden site of the Mysteries of the Hierophants; Lucifer, Ahriman, the three Soul-Figures, Strader, Benedictus, Theodosius, Romanus, Maria.

(Enter first Lucifer and Ahriman.)

Lucifer:

The Lord of Wishes stands as victor here—

He hath been able to o’erpower the soul

Which even in the light of spirit-sun

Still had to feel akin to this our realm.

I seized th’ auspicious hour in which to cast

A glamour o’er its vision of the light

To which in dreams alone it had bowed down.

Yet all my hopes must forthwith disappear

That victory is ours in spirit-realms,

Since thou art worsted, comrade of my fight.

Thou wast unable to o’erpower the soul

Which was to bring our labours to their goal.

The human soul that gave itself to me

I can possess and in our kingdom hold

For short earth-lives alone, but all in vain;

For then I must restore it to our foes.

To win outright we need the other, too,

That hath withdrawn itself from thy domain.

Ahriman:

The times are not well suited to my arts,

I find no means of access to men’s souls.

See, here comes one whom I did sorely plague.

Though ignorant in spirit he draws nigh;

For reason doth compel him to push on.

So I withdraw from him and from this place

Which he can only tread unconsciously.

(The three Soul-Figures with Strader.)

Philia:

With faith’s clear power will I myself imbue

And force of living trust will I breathe deep,

From out the soul’s glad striving that the light

May dawn upon the spirit-slumberer.

Astrid:

With humble joy of soul will I entwine

That which hath been revealed; and will condense

The rays of hope that light in dark may shine;

And twilight in the light, that thus the powers

May bear aloft the spirit-slumberer.

Luna:

Soul light will I make warm, and will make hard

The power of love. Then shall they daring grow,

And shall release themselves, and mounting up

Endue themselves with weight, that cosmic loads

May fall from off the spirit-slumberer

That his soul’s love of light may set him free.

Benedictus:

My comrades, I have hither summoned you

Who with me seek to find the spirit-light

That should flow streaming to the souls of men.

Ye know the nature of the sun of soul;

Oft doth it shine with fullest noontide glare,

And then again like feeble twilight steal

Powerless through mists of visionary dream.

And often doth the darkness drive it out.

The temple-servants’ spirit-gaze must pierce

To soul depths where there shines with powerful ray,

The spirit-light that comes from cosmic heights.

Then too it must disclose mysterious aims

That lurk unnoticed in the soul’s dark lairs

Intent on shaping man’s development.

Those spirit-beings who from cosmic powers

Bestow the spirit-food on human souls

Are present now within the sacred fane

To guide this man’s soul from the spirit-night

Into the kingdom of the light on high.

The sleep of knowledge still envelops him;

But spirit-calls already have been heard

In his soul’s depths of which he never knew.

That which they spoke deep in his inmost soul

Will shortly find its way to spirit-ears.

Theodosius:

This soul hath not been able hitherto

To recognize itself in spirit-light

That through sense-revelation is outpoured,

To show the meaning of all earthly growth.

It saw God’s spirit stripped of nature’s guise,

And Nature’s self estranged from deity.

And so through many lives it had to pass

And stay a stranger to the sense of life;

It could but find alone such carnal tenements

To carry out its individual work

As barred it from the cosmos and from man.

Now in the temple it will earn the power

To recognize strange Being as its own,

And so be able to attain the force

That leads out from the labyrinths of thought

And points the way unto the springs of life.

Benedictus:

Another man strives to the temple’s light;

Though not at once will he approach its doors

And seek for entrance to this hallowed spot.

Throughout a life of studious research

He planted germs of thought in his soul-depths.

And so perforce the spirit-light went forth

To ripen them outside our temple’s doors.

’Twas given him to know his present life

To be the product of a former one

Lived in a time that now hath long gone by.

Now he can see the errors of that life

And realize what their result will be,

But lacketh power, those duties to fulfil,

Which through self-knowledge he can recognize.

Romanus:

Capesius shall, through the temple’s power,

Learn how a man must, in a single life,

Take up a load of duties which demand

For their entire accomplishment the space

Of many lives of earthly pilgrimage.

So casting fear aside he will admit

That ancient errors with their consequence

Pursue the soul e’en past the gate of death.

Nor shall he then be vanquished in the fight

By which the spirit-portals are flung wide

If eye to eye, undaunted, he shall brave

The Guardian of the Threshold of that realm.

To him shall by that guardian be revealed

That none may climb up to the heights of life

Who fears to look on destiny’s decrees.

His insight will admit with courage then

That of self-knowledge suffering is the fruit

For which she knows no words of comforting.

Will shall become his comrade on the way

Which faceth boldly all that may befall,

And, heartened by a draught from hope’s clear spring,

Endures the pain of widening consciousness.

Benedictus:

Ye have, my brothers, at this present hour,—

True servants of the temple that ye are,—

Set forth the ways in Wisdom’s outlines drawn

By which these two who seek the spirit-truth

Shall have their souls brought to their goal by you.

Yet other work the temple-service claims.

Here by our side the Lord of Wishes stands;

He can be present in this holy place

Because Johannes’ soul unbarred for him

The gates which he would otherwise find barred.

The brother who is our initiate

Lacks for the moment courage to withstand

With power the words that from the darkness rise.

The powers of good can only strengthen him

When on their opposite they test themselves.

’Twill not be long ere he again appears

Here in this temple, compassed by our love.

Yet must his spirit-treasure guarded be

Now that he must descend into the dark.

(Turning to Lucifer.)

Thee must I now address who not for long

Canst occupy the ground where thou dost stand.

The temple’s power can at the present time

Not yet release Johannes from thy grasp.

In times to come he will be ours again,

When those fruits of our sister shall be ripe

Whose blossoms we already see unfold.

(Maria appears.)

She could behold in bygone earthly lives

How closely linked Johannes was to her.

He followed after her so long ago

As in these days when she would fain oppose

The light whose humble handmaid now she is.

When soul-links prove themselves so staunchly true

As to outlast the spirit’s wanderings

Then shall the Lord of Wishes find his power

Unable to effect a severance.

Lucifer:

But Benedictus’ will itself compelled

Johannes’ and Maria’s souls to part.

And wheresoe’er men from each other part

There is the field made ready for my power.

I ever work for separateness of soul,

To set the earth-life free, and for all time

To break its servitude to cosmic chains.

Maria’s being, in monastic garb,

Turned from its father yonder soul away

That now is dweller in Johannes’ form.

This too hath caused some germs of mine to sprout

Which I shall surely bring to ripening.

Maria (turning to Lucifer):

In human nature there are springs of love

To which thy power can never penetrate.

They are unsealed when faults of former lives—

A load unwittingly assumed by man,—

Are in a later life by spirit seen,

And by the free-will of self-sacrifice

Transformed to earthly action, which shall tend

To bear fruit for the real good of man.

The powers of destiny have granted me

The vision which can penetrate the past;

Already too have I received the signs

So to direct my free-will sacrifice

That good may pour therefrom for every soul

Whose thread of life shall have to twine with mine

Throughout the evolution of this earth.

I saw how in its earthly frame of yore

Johannes’ soul turned from his sire away,

And saw the forces that compelled myself

To make the son repel the father’s heart.

Thus is the father now opposed to me

To bring to mind my own offence of old.

Plainly he speaks in cosmic language clear

Whose symbols are the actions of man’s life.

That which I set between the sire and son

Must reappear, though in another form

In this my life in which Johannes’ soul

Hath once again been closely knit to mine.

The suffering which I had to undergo

In severing Johannes from myself

Was but my own act’s fated consequence.

If now my soul is faithful to the light

Which from the spirit-forces comes to it,

It will be strengthened by the services

Which it may render to Capesius

In this sore stress of his life-pilgrimage.

And with such forces, similarly won,

Will also learn to see Johannes’ star

When he, by fetters of desire misled

Treads not the way illumined by the light.

The spirit-vision which hath led me back

To distant days on earth will teach me now

How I must deal with soul-links at this time

So that life-powers unconsciously prepared

Shall henceforth work awakened for man’s weal.

Benedictus:

In olden days on earth was formed a knot

Of threads which Karma spins world-fashioning.

Three human lives are interwoven there,

And now upon this fateful knot there shines

This holy temple’s lofty spirit-light.

’Tis thee, Maria, I must now address;

Of these three souls at this time thou alone

Art present at the place of sacrifice.

May this light operate within thyself

And turn to welfare those creative powers

Which once upon a time thy life-threads wove

Fast in a life-knot with those other two.

The father could not in his former life

His son’s heart find; but now in other scenes

The spirit-seeker will accompany

Thy friend’s self on its way to spirit-land.

And thine is now the duty to maintain

Johannes’ soul in light by thine own force.

Once didst thou hold it in so fast a bond

That it could only blindly follow thee.

Thou didst then give it back its liberty,

When still it clung to thee in fancy fond.

But thou shalt once more find it, when, self-willed,

It wins its individuality.

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.

Curtain