Four Mystery Plays

by Rudolf Steiner

Scene 2

A meditation chamber. Prevailing colour violet. Serious, but not gloomy atmosphere.

Benedictus, Maria, then the Spirit-Figures representing soul-powers.

Maria:

Great conflicts in my soul bid me invoke

Wise counsel from my master in this hour.

Gloomy forebodings rise within my heart.

And I am powerless to withstand the thoughts

That overwhelm me ever and again.

They pierce me to my being’s inmost core;

They seek to lay upon me a command

Which to obey doth seem like sacrilege.

Deceitful powers must be obsessing me;

Oh, I implore thee—lend me aid … that I

May exorcise them.

Benedictus:

May exorcise them. Never shalt thou lack

What thou dost need of me at any time.

Maria:

I know how closely to my soul are knit

Johannes’ life and aims. A stony road

Of fate brought us together; and God’s will

Hath hallowed in high spirit-realms our bond.

All this stands out before me e’en as clear

As only truth itself can be. And yet—

Horror o’erpowers me that these lips of mine

Must utterance give to sacrilegious words—

And yet—deep in my soul I hear a voice

Which tells me plainly and repeatedly

Despite my utmost will to fight it down:

‘Thou must give up Johannes, let him go.

No longer mayst thou keep him at thy side

If thou wouldst not work evil to his soul.

Alone he must proceed along the road

On which he travels to his longed for goal.’

I know that if thou dost but speak the word

This lying dream will cease to haunt my soul.

Benedictus:

Maria, noble grief leads thee astray

To see the truth yet call it counterfeit.

Maria:

What I have seen—is truth.… It cannot be!

Between my master’s utterance and mine ear

Delusion steals. O speak to me again.

Benedictus:

What I have spoken, thou hast heard aright:

Thy love is noble, and Johannes stands

Close-knit to thee. But love must not forget

That she is wisdom’s sister. Long indeed

For his salvation hath Johannes been

With thee united. Now his soul demands,

For its own progress, freedom to pursue

Its aims unhindered. Fate doth not decree

That ye shall be no longer outward friends;

But this it doth demand with strict decree

Johannes’ freedom in the spirit-realm.

Maria:

Still do I hear delusion: so let me

Alone continue speaking, for I know

That thou must understand me without fail.

For sure it is no lying shape will dare

To change the words unto thine ear addressed.

My host of doubts were easily dispersed

If earth-life’s tortuous course alone it were

That knits Johannes’ soul unto mine own.

But to our bond was lofty sanction given

Which knits soul unto soul eternally.

And spirit-powers did speak with blessings meet

The word that bans all doubt for evermore:

‘He hath won truth within th’ eternal realms

Because in worlds of sense his inmost self

Already was united with thine own.’

What can this revelation mean to me

If now its very opposite is true?

Benedictus:

Thou hast to learn that even one to whom

There hath been much revealed, may yet be found

Lacking perfection still in divers ways.

Tangled the paths that lead to higher truth: …

And only those may hope to reach the goal

Who walk in patience through their labyrinths.

Thou didst but see one part of what is real

In that great realm of everlasting light,

When with thine inner vision thou didst gaze

Upon a picture of the spirit-land.

Not yet hast thou seen full reality.

Johannes’ soul is knit unto thine own

By earthly ties of such complexity

That it may be allotted unto each

To find his way into the spirit-realm

Through forces borrowed from the other one.

But nothing hitherto hath clearly shown

That thou hast conquered each and every test.

To see a picture hath been granted thee

Of what the future holds for thee in store

When thou canst pass unscathed the full ordeal.

That thou hast seen the ultimate reward

Of unremitting effort is no sign

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.

I need still more than that which thou hast given

To plumb the depth of meaning in thy words.

Thou once didst lead myself to those soul-depths

Wherein a light was then vouchsafed to me

By which I could behold the lives I spent

In previous incarnations long ago.

Thus was it granted me to learn the way

In which my soul was linked unto my friend’s.

My act of bringing, in those days of old,

Johannes’ soul unto the spirit-fount

I felt and recognized to be the seed

Which grew and bore such cherished friendship’s fruit,

As was found ripe for all eternity.

Benedictus:

Thou wast accounted worthy to retrace

Thy path on earth in days long since gone by.

But thou must not forget to look and see

If thou canst be assured with certainty

That of thine actions none remain concealed

When backward thou didst turn thy spirit’s eye.

Maria (after a pause betokening deep reflection):

How could I be so blinded, so misled?

The rapture which I felt on looking back

Over a period of bygone times

Deluded me to vain forgetfulness

Of manifold shortcomings. Not till now

Did I foresee that I must turn my gaze

Into the darkness ere I comprehend

The road that leads back from this present life

To olden days when my friend’s soul sought mine.

To thee, my master, will I make my vow

Henceforth to bridle my soul’s arrogance …!

Now for the first time do I realize

How pride of knowledge leads the soul astray;

So that, instead of its imbibing strength

From freely offered stores of spirit-wealth,

It misapplies the gift in wanton use

And only holds the mirror up to self.

I know at last from my heart’s warning call,

To which thy words lend added power, how far

I am today e’en from the nearest goal.

No more will I be overswift to read

A meaning into words from spirit-lands.

I will esteem them power wherewith my soul

May shape its course—, not as some message sent

To free me from the need of finding out

The goal of action in my daily life.

Had I paid earlier heed unto this truth

And gone my way in due humility;

I had not failed to see that only then

When he decides to tread a path not traced

By me beforehand, can my friend unfold

To fullest bloom his richly-gifted soul.

And now that this is clear I shall not fail

In finding strength sufficient to fulfil

What love and duty may require of me.

Yet do I feel assured this very hour

More clearly than I ever was before

That some grave testing of my soul draws nigh.

For mostly, when men tear from out their hearts

That of themselves which in another lives,

Love hath been changed into its opposite.

Themselves they change the ties that coupled them,

Yet passion’s impulse gives to them the power.

Whilst I must of mine own free will uproot

The workings of my soul’s life, which I saw

Accomplishing themselves in my friend’s acts;

And still unchanging must my love abide.

Benedictus:

If thou wouldst steer thy course direct, thou must

Become aware of what thou most didst prize

In this thy love. For once thou knowst the force

That leads thee all unknown within thy soul,

Thou wilt find power to do what duty bids.

Maria:

By saying this thou giv’st e’en now that aid

Of which my soul so sorely stands in need.

I must investigate mine inmost self

With earnest questioning: and so I ask,

What potent cause impels me in my love?

I see my own soul’s life and strength at work

In my friend’s nature and activities.

So that which I desire to satisfy

Is nothing but the hunger of myself,

Which I, deluded, call unselfishness.

Thus it hath been concealed from me till now

That in my friend I mirror but myself.

It was the dragon Selfishness who veiled

The truth from me in wrappings of deceit.

And selfishness can take an hundred forms:—

I see it clearly now. And when one thinks

The enemy subdued, behold him rise

Out of defeat and stronger than before.

Moreover ’tis a foe with added skill

To hide the truth with cloak of counterfeit.

(Maria sinks into deep thought.)

(The three Spirit-Figures of the soul-powers appear.)

Maria:

Ye sisters, whom I find in Being’s depths

Whene’er my soul expands and guides herself

To cosmic distances, release for me

From out the ether’s heights the powers of sight

And lead them hence to earthly paths, that I

May know myself as I exist in Time,

And may be able to direct my course

From Life’s old ways unto new spheres of Will.

Philia:

From my heart’s depths will I myself imbue

With soul’s aspiring light; I will breathe deep

From spirit-forces living powers of Will;

That thou, beloved sister, mayest seek

And find the light in bygone spheres of life.

Astrid:

With selfhood, conscious of itself, will I

Weave in the self-surrendering Will of love;

I will set free from fetters of desire

The budding powers of Will, and will transform

Thy crippled wish to spirit-certainty;

That thou, beloved sister, mayest learn

To find thyself in distant paths of life.

Luna:

I will call self-denying powers of heart;

And will make firm enduring soul-repose;

Then shall they wed, and raise up spirit-light

In all its power from out the depths of soul.

Then shall they interpenetrate and force

Earth’s bounds to heed the listening spirit-ear,

Compel earth’s distances to answer.

That thou, beloved sister, mayest find

Life’s varied traces in Time’s vast expanse.

Maria (after a pause):

If I can only tear myself away

From my bewildered consciousness of self

And give myself to you: that thus ye may

Reflect my very soul from cosmic space;

Then from this sphere of life I gain release,

And find myself in other states of being.

(Long pause, then the following:)

In you, my sisters, I see spirit-forms

In whom dwell cosmic souls. Ye have the power

To bring seed-forces from eternal realms

To fruitage in humanity itself.

Through my soul’s gates oft have I found the way

Into your kingdom, and have there beheld

The primal shaping of this earthly globe

With inner vision. Now your help I crave

Since I am bidden to retrace the way

That stretches back far from my present life

To long past ages of humanity.

Release my soul from consciousness of self

In time-enclosed existence, and reveal

The duties laid on me by former lives.

A Spirit-voice,—the spiritual conscience:

Her thoughts are seeking now

For clues in Time’s vast space.

What as debt she still doth owe,

What as duty is imposed,

Arise from out her inmost depths of soul,

From whose deepness dreaming

Mankind doth guide his life,

In whose deepness straying

Mankind himself doth lose.

Curtain falls; everybody still standing on the stage