Читать книгу Four Mystery Plays - Rudolf Steiner - Страница 11

Table of Contents

A subterranean rock-temple: a hidden site of the Mysteries of the Hierophants.

At the right of the stage, Johannes is seen in deep meditation.

Benedictus (in the East):

Ye, who have been companions unto me

In the domain of everlasting life,

Here in your midst I stand today to ask

The help of which I stand in need from you

To weave the thread of destiny for one,

Who from our midst must now receive the light.

Through bitter trials and sorrows hath he passed,

And hath in deepest agony of soul

Prepared the way to consecrate his life

And thus attain to knowledge of the truth.

Accomplished now the task assigned to me,

As spirit-messenger, to bring to men

The treasured wisdom of this temple’s shrine.

And now, ye brethren, ’tis your sacred task

To bring my work to full accomplishment.

I showed to him the light that proved the guide

To his first vision of the spirit-world,

But that this vision may be turned to truth

Your work must needs be added unto mine.

My words proceed from mine own mouth alone,

But through your lips world-spirits do sound forth.

Theodosius (in the South):

Thus speaks the power of love, which bindeth worlds

And filleth beings with the breath of life:—

Let warmth flow in his heart that he may grasp

How by the sacrificing of that vain

Illusion of his personality

He doth draw near the spirit of the world.

His sight from sleep of sense thou hast set free;

Love’s warmth will wake the spirit in his soul:

His Self from carnal covering thou hast drawn;

And love itself will crystallize his soul

That it may be a mirror to reflect

All that doth happen in the spirit-world.

Love too will give him strength to feel himself

A spirit, and will fashion thus his ear

That it can hear and know the spirit-speech.

Romanus (in the West):

Nor are my words the revelation true

Of mine own self. Through me the world-will speaks.

And since thou hast thus raised unto the power

To live in spirit-realms the man to thee

Entrusted, now this power shall lead him forth

Beyond the bounds of space and ends of time.

To those realms shall he pass wherein do work

Creative spirits, who shall there reveal

Themselves to him; demanding from him deeds;

And willingly will he perform their work.

The purposes of Him who moulds the worlds

Shall fill his soul with life; there too the earth’s

Primeval sources shall enspirit him;

World potencies shall there empower him;

The mights of spheres shall there enlighten him,

And rulers of the worlds fill him with fire.

Retardus (in the North):

From the foundation of the world ye have

Been forced to suffer me within your midst.

So must ye also to my words give ear

In your deliberations here today.

Some little time must surely yet elapse

Before ye can fulfil and bring to pass

What ye have set forth in such beauteous words.

No sign as yet hath come to us from earth

That she doth long for new initiates.

So long as this spot, where we council hold,

Hath not been trodden by the feet of those

Who, uninitiate still, cannot set free

Their spirit from realities of sense,

So long the task is mine to check your zeal.

First must they bring us message that the earth

Doth seem in need of revelations new.

For this cause hold I back your spirit-light

Within this temple, lest it may bring harm

Instead of health to souls that are not ripe.

Out of myself I give to man on earth

That faculty which lets the truths of sense

Appear to him the highest, just so long

As spirit wisdom would but blind his eyes.

Nay more, e’en such belief may also lead

Him nearer to the spirit, for the aims

Formed by his will may yet be guided right

Through his blind tastes and gropings in the dark.

Romanus:

From the foundation of the world we have

Been forced to suffer thee within our midst.

But now at length the time hath run its course

That was allotted to such work as thine.

The world-will in me feels that they approach—

(Felix Balde appears in his earthly shape: the Other Maria as a soul-form from out of the rock.)

—Who, uninitiated, can release

The spirit from the outward show of sense.

No more ’tis granted thee to check our steps.

They near our temple of their own free will

And bring to thee this message, that they wish

To help our spirit labours, joined with us.

They found themselves till now not yet prepared

For union, since they clung to that belief

That seership’s power with reason needs must part.

Now have they learned whither mankind is led

By reason, which, when severed from true sight,

Doth err and wander in the depths of worlds.

They now will speak to thee of fruits which needs

Must ripen through thy power in human souls.

Retardus:

Ye, who unconsciously have forwarded

My work till now, ye shall still further help—

If ye will distant keep from all that doth

Belong unto my realm and that alone.

Then shall ye surely find a place reserved

For you to work as hitherto ye worked.

Felix Balde:

A power, which speaks from very depths of earth

Unto my spirit, hath commanded me

To come unto this consecrated place;

Since it desires to speak to you through me

Of all its bitter sorrow and its need.

Benedictus:

My friend, then tell us now how thou hast learned

The woe of world-depths in thine own soul’s core.

Felix Balde:

The light that shines in men as learning’s fruit

Must needs give nourishment to all the powers

Which serve world-cycles in the earth’s dark depths.

Already now a long time have they starved

Well-nigh entirely reft of sustenance.

For that which grows today in human brains

Doth only serve the surface of the earth,

And doth not penetrate unto its depths.

Some strange new superstition now doth haunt

These clever human heads: they turn their gaze

Unto primeval origins of earth

And will but spectres see in spirit spheres,

Thought out by vain illusion of the sense.

A merchant surely would consider mad

A purchaser, who would speak thus to him:

‘The mists and fog, that hover in the vale,

Can certainly condense to solid gold;

And with such gold thou shalt be paid thy debt.’

The merchant will not willingly await

To have his ducats made from fog and mist;

And yet whene’er his soul doth thirst to find

Solution of the riddles set by life,

Should science offer him such payments then

For spirit needs and debts, right willingly

Will he accept whole solar systems built

Out of primeval world-containing fog.

The teacher who discovers some unknown

And luckless layman, who hath raised himself

To heights of science or of scholarship

Without examinations duly passed

Will surely threaten him with his contempt.

Yet science doth not doubt that without proof

And without spirit earth’s primeval beasts

Could change themselves to men by their own power.

Theodosius:

Why dost thou not thyself reveal to men

The sources of this light of thine, which streams

Forth from thy soul with such resplendent ray?

Felix Balde:

A fancy-monger and a man of dreams

They call me, who are well-disposed to me:

But others think of me as some dull fool

Who, all untaught of them, doth follow out

His own peculiar bent of foolishness.

Retardus:

Thou show’st already how untaught thou art

By the simplicity of this thy speech:

Thou dost not know that men of science have

Sufficient shrewdness to make just the same

Objection to themselves as unto thee.

And if they make it not they know well why.

Felix Balde:

I know full well that they are shrewd enough

To understand objections they have made,

But not so shrewd as to believe in them.

Theodosius:

What must we do that we may forthwith give

The powers of earth what they do need so much?

Felix Balde:

So long as on the earth men only heed

Such men as these, who wish not to recall

Their spirit’s primal source, so long will starve

The mineral forces buried in earth’s depths.

The Other Maria:

I gather, brother Felix, from thy words,

That thou dost think the time hath now expired

When we did serve earth’s purposes the best

Through wisdom’s light, ourselves unconsecrate—

When we showed forth from roots in our own life

The living way of spirit and of love.

In thee the spirits of the earth arose

To give thee light without the lore of books:

In me did love hold sway, the love that dwells

And works within the life of men on earth.

And now we wish to join our brethren here—

Who, consecrate, within this temple serve—

And bring forth fruitful work in human souls.

Benedictus:

If ye unite your labour now with us,

Then must the consecrated work succeed.

The wisdom which I gave unto my son

Will surely blossom forth in him as power.

Theodosius:

If ye unite your labour now with us,

Then must the thirst for sacrifice arise.

And through the soul life of whoever seeks

The spirit-path, will breathe the warmth of love.

Romanus:

If ye unite your labour now with us,

Then must the fruits of spirit ripen fast.

Deeds will spring up, which through the spirit’s work

Will blossom from your soul’s discipleship.

Retardus:

If they unite their labour now with you

What shall become of me? My deeds will prove

Fruitless to those who would the spirit seek.

Benedictus:

Then wilt thou change into thine other self:

Since now thou hast accomplished all thy work.

Theodosius:

Henceforth thou wilt live on in sacrifice

If thou dost freely sacrifice thyself.

Romanus:

Thou wilt bear fruit on earth in human deeds

If I myself may tend the fruits for thee.

Johannes (speaking out of his meditation, as in the previous scene):

The brethren in the temple showed themselves

To my soul-sight, resembling in their form

Men whose appearance I already know.

Yet Benedictus seemed a spirit too.

He who stood on his left seemed like that man

Who through the feelings only would draw nigh

The spirit-realms. The third resembled him,

Who doth but recognize the powers of life

When they show forth through wheels and outward works.

The fourth I do not know. The wife who saw

The spirit’s light after her husband’s death,

I recognized in her own inmost being.

And Felix Balde came just as in life.

The curtain falls slowly.