Four Mystery Plays

by Rudolf Steiner

Scene 8

Part I

Outside the Egyptian temple. An Egyptian woman is seen crouching by the wall. She is a previous incarnation of Johannes Thomasius.

Egyptian woman:

This is the hour in which he dedicates

Himself to serve the ancient holy laws

Of sacred wisdom,—and in doing this

He must forever tear himself from me.

From out those heights of light to which his soul

Progresses there must flash into mine own

The ray of death. When I am torn from him—

Naught doth remain for me in life on earth

But mourning—resignation—sorrow—death.

(Clinging to the wall.)

Yet though in this hour he abandons me

I, none the less, will stay close to the spot

Where he unto the spirit gives himself.

And if mine eyes are not allowed to see

How he doth tear himself away from earth,

Perchance ’twill be now granted in a dream

To linger disembodied by his side.

Part II

Inside the temple. The hall of initiation. The ceremony is performed on a broad flight of steps descending from the back to the front of the stage. The characters stand in groups below one another and on different steps. The drop-curtain goes up, disclosing everything in readiness for the initiation of the Neophyte, who is to be thought of as an earlier incarnation of Maria; behind the altar and to the left of it stands the Chief Hierophant who is to be thought of as an earlier incarnation of Benedictus; on the other side the Recorder, an earlier incarnation of Hilary True-to-God; a little in front of the altar the Keeper of the Seals, an earlier incarnation of Theodora; in front, on the right side of the altar, the Impersonator of the Earth Element, an earlier incarnation of Romanus, and with him the Impersonator of the Air Element, an earlier incarnation of Magnus Bellicosus; quite close to the Chief Hierophant, stands the Hierophant, an earlier incarnation of Capesius; on the left side of the altar the Impersonator of the Fire Element, an earlier incarnation of Doctor Strader, with the Impersonator of the Water Element, an earlier incarnation of Torquatus. In front of them Philia, Astrid, Luna and the ‘other Philia.’ Four other priests stand in front of them. In front of all Lucifer to the left of altar and Ahriman to the right in the guise of sphinxes, with the cherub emphasized in the case of Lucifer and the bull in the case of Ahriman. Dead silence for a while after the interior of the temple with its grouped mystics has become visible. The Keeper of the Temple an earlier incarnation of Felix Balde, and a Mystic, an earlier incarnation of Dame Balde, lead the Neophyte in through a doorway on the right of stage. They place him in the inner circle near the altar, and remain standing near him.

The Keeper of the Temple:

From out that web of unreality

Which thou, in error’s darkness named’st world,

The mystic hath conducted thee to us.

From being and from naught the world was made

Which to a semblance wove itself for thee.

Semblance is good, by being understood;

Thou didst but dream it in thy sembled life;

And semblance known by semblance disappears.

Learn, semblance of a semblance, what thou art.

The Mystic:

Thus speaks the guardian of this temple’s door.

Feel in thyself the sore weight of his words.

The Impersonator of the Earth Element:

Beneath the weight of earth-life seize upon

The semblance of your being without fear.

That thou mayst sink into the cosmic depths

In darksome cosmic depths thy being seek.

Bind to thy semblance that which thou dost find;

Its weight will give thy being unto thee.

The Recorder:

Thou wilt not understand, as thou dost sink,

Whereto we lead till thou hast heard his call.

We forge for thee the form of thy real self;

Perceive our work; else must thou lose thyself

As semblance in the cosmic nothingness.

The Mystic:

So speaks the guardian of this temple’s words.

Feel in thyself the sore weight of his words.

The Impersonator of the Air Element:

Fly from the weight of earth-life which would kill

The being of thyself, as thou dost sink.

Fly from it on the lightness of the air.

In light of cosmic space thy being seek.

Bind to thy semblance that which thou dost find;

Its flight will give thy being unto thee.

The Recorder:

Thou wilt not understand, as thou dost fly,

Whereto we lead, till thou hast heard his call.

We light for thee the life of thy real self;

Perceive our work; else must thou lose thyself

As semblance in the cosmic weightiness.

The Mystic:

So speaks the guardian of this temple’s words.

Feel in thyself the uplift of his words.

The Chief Hierophant:

My son, thou wilt on wisdom’s noble road

The mystic’s counsel carefully obey.

Thou canst not see the answer in thyself;

For error’s darkness still doth weigh thee down

And folly strives in thee for distant things.

Gaze therefore—on this flame which is more close

(The bright, quivering sacred flame flares up on the altar in the middle of the stage.)

To thee than is the life of thine own self,

And read thine answer hidden in its fire.

The Mystic:

So speaks the leader of this temple’s rites.

Feel in thyself the ritual’s holy power.

The Impersonator of the Fire Element:

Let all the errors of thine own ideas

Be burned in fire that this rite lights for thee.

Let, with thine errors, thyself also burn.

As flame of cosmic fire thy being seek;

Bind to thy semblance that which thou dost find;

Its fire will give thy being unto thee.

The Keeper of the Seals:

Thou wilt not understand why to a flame

We fashion thee till thou hast heard his call.

We cleanse for thee the form of thine own self;

Perceive our work; else must thou lose thyself

As formless being in the cosmic sea.

The Mystic:

So speaks the guardian of this temple’s seals.

Feel in thyself the power of wisdom’s light.

The Impersonator of the Water Element:

Resist the flame-powers of the world of fire

That they may not devour thy being’s might.

From semblance, being will not rise in thee

Unless the wave-beat of the cosmic sea

Can fill thee with the music of the spheres.

As wave in cosmic sea thy being seek;

Bind to thy semblance that which thou dost find;

Its waves will give thy being unto thee.

The Keeper of the Seals:

Thou wilt not understand why to a wave

We fashion thee till thou hast heard his call.

We build for thee the form of thine own self;

Perceive our work; else must thou lose thyself

A formless being in the cosmic fire.

The Chief Hierophant:

My son, by powerful exercise of will

These mystic counsels too thou must obey.

Thou canst not see the answer in thyself;

By cowardly fear thy power is still congealed;

Thou canst not fashion weakness to a wave

That lets thy note ring out amongst the spheres.

So listen to thy soul-powers when they speak;

And thine own voice within their words perceive.

Philia:

In fire cleanse thou thyself;—and lose thyself

As cosmic wave in music of the spheres.

Astrid:

Build thou thyself in music of the spheres;

In cosmic distances fly light as air.

Luna:

Sink with thy weight of earth to cosmic depths;

Take courage as a self in thy sore weight.

The Other Philia:

From thine own being draw thyself away;

Unite thyself with elemental might.

The Mystic:

Thine own soul speaks thus in these temple halls;

Feel thou therein the guidance of the powers.

The Chief Hierophant (addressing the Hierophant):

My brother hierophant, explore this soul,

Which we are to direct to wisdom’s path,

Down to its depths; tell us what thou dost find

Its present state of consciousness to be.

The Hierophant:

All hath been done that our rite doth demand.

The soul no more remembers what it was.

The web of semblance, spun on error’s loom,

Opposing elements have swept away;

In elemental strife it doth live on;

Naught save its being hath the soul retained.

Now of this being it shall read the life

In cosmic words, that speak from out the flame.

The Chief Hierophant:

O human soul, read now what through the flame

The cosmic word declares within thyself.

(A pause of considerable length ensues, during which the stage is darkened till only the flame and indistinct outlines of the characters are visible; at the conclusion of the pause the Chief Hierophant continues.)

And now from out the cosmic vision wake!

Declare what can be read from cosmic words!

(The Neophyte is silent. The Chief Hierophant, much alarmed, continues):

He speaks not. Doth the vision leave thee? Speak!

The Neophyte:

Obedient to thy strict and sacred rite

I sank into the being of this flame

To wait the sound of lofty cosmic words.

(The assembled mystics, the Hierophant excepted, show an ever-increasing alarm during the speech of the Neophyte.)

I felt that I could shake off from myself

The weight of earth and be as light as air.

I felt the loving tide of cosmic fire

Did bear me up on streaming spirit-waves.

I saw the body that I wear on earth

As other being stand outside myself.

Though wrapt in bliss, and conscious of the light

Of spirit round me, yet I could regard

Mine earthly sheath with longing and desire.

(Consternation all around.)

Spirits rayed light thereon from lofty worlds;

Like shining butterflies there hovered near

The beings who attend its active life;

The body by these beings bathed in light

Reflected sparkling colours manifold;

They shone close by, grew fainter further off,

And then were scattered and dispersed in space.

Within the being of my spirit soul

There lurked the wish that weight of earth should sink

Me down into my sheath, that I might feel

And learn the sense of joy within life’s warmth.

So, diving gladly down into my sheath,

I heeded thy stern summons to awake.

The Chief Hierophant (himself alarmed, to the alarmed mystics):

This is no spirit-vision; earth’s desires

Escaped the mystic and as offering rose

To radiant spirit-heights;—O sacrilege!

The Recorder (angrily to the Hierophant):

This could not have occurred, hadst thou performed

The office granted thee as hierophant

As ancient holy duty did demand.

The Hierophant:

I did the duty in this solemn hour

Which those from higher realms did lay on me.

I did not think that which it is my place

To think, according to the ritual,

And which, proceeding from me, should appear

In spirit-working in the neophyte.

The young man therefore hath declared to us

None other’s thoughts but his own being’s self.

The truth hath conquered. Ye may punish me;

I had to do what ye perceived with fear.

I feel the times approach which will set free

The ego from the group-soul and let loose

Its own true individual powers of thought.

What if the youth escapes your mystic path

At present?—Later lives on earth will show

With clearest signs the kind of mystic way

Which destiny hath foreordained for him.

The Mystics:

O sacrilege;—thou must atone—and pay—

(The sphinxes begin to speak one after the other as Ahriman and Lucifer; hitherto they have been as motionless as statues; what they say is heard only by the hierophant, the chief hierophant, and the neophyte;—the others are full of excitement over the preceding events.)

Ahriman as Sphinx:

For my realm I must lay my hands upon

What here doth wrongly seek the way to light,

And in the darkness further foster it;

That it may bring forth spirit-qualities

Which later on will let it weave itself

With rightful meaning into human life.

But till it gains these spirit-qualities,

What in this holy service did appear

As earthly burden, this will serve my work.

Lucifer as Sphinx:

For my realm I shall bear away the things

That joy as spirit-wish in semblance here;

They’ll gladly shine as semblance in the light

And thus in spirit dedicate themselves

To beauty from which they are kept apart

At present by the burden of earth’s weight.

In beauty, semblance into being turns,

Which later shall illuminate the earth,

Descending as the light which flies from here.

The Chief Hierophant:

The sphinxes speak—who were but images

E’er since this rite by sages was performed.

Upon dead form the spirit now hath seized.

O Fate, thou dost sound forth as cosmic word!

(The other mystics, with the exception of the Hierophant and the Neophyte, are amazed at the words of the Chief Hierophant.)

The Hierophant (to the Chief Hierophant):

This holy mystic rite which we perform

Hath not importance for ourselves alone.

Fate’s stream of cosmic evolution pours

Through word and deed of sacred priestly rites.

The curtain falls on the mental atmosphere set up by the preceding occurrences