Читать книгу Four Mystery Plays - Rudolf Steiner - Страница 9

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A room for meditation. The background is a great purple curtain. The scene is purple in colour with a large yellow pentagonal lamp suspended from the ceiling. No other furniture or ornaments are in the room except the lamp and one chair. Benedictus, Johannes, Maria, and a child.

Maria:

I bring to thee this child who needs some word

From out thy mouth.

Benedictus:

From out thy mouth. My child, henceforth each eve

Thou shalt come unto me to hear the word

That shall fill full thy soul ere thou dost tread

The realm of souls in sleep. Wilt thou do this?

Child:

Most gladly will I come.

Benedictus:

Most gladly will I come. This very eve

Fill thy soul full ere sleep embraceth thee,

With strength from these few words: ‘The powers of light

Bear me aloft unto the spirit’s home.’

(Maria leads the child away.)

Maria:

And now, that this child’s destiny doth flow

Harmoniously through future days beneath

The shadow of thy gracious fatherhood,

I too may claim my leader’s kind advice,

Who am its mother, not by bond of blood

But through the mighty power of destiny.

For thou hast shown to me the way wherein

I had to guide its footsteps from that day,

When I discovered it before my door

Left by its unknown mother desolate.

And wonder-working proved themselves those rules

Whereby thou madest me train my foster-child.

All powers, that deep in body and in soul

Lay hidden, issued forth to light and life:

Clear proof it was that all thy counselling

Sprang from the realm which sheltered this child’s soul

Before it built its body’s covering.

We saw the hopes of manhood blossom forth

And radiate more brightly each new day;

Thou dost know well how hard it was for me

To gain the child’s affection, at the first.

It grew up ’neath my care, and yet nought else

Save habit chained its soul at first to mine.

It only realized and felt that I

Gave it the nurture and the food that served

The needs of body and the growth of soul.

Then came the time when in the child-like heart

There dawned the love for her who fostered it.

An outer incident brought forth this change—

The visit of the seeress to our group.

Gladly the child did go about with her

And soon did learn full many a beauteous word

Steeped in the mystic charm that graced her speech.

Then came the moment when her ecstasy

Descended on our friend with magic power.

The child could see her eyes’ strange smouldering light,

And, terrified unto its vital core,

The young soul dawned to consciousness of self.

In her dismay she fled unto mine arms;

And from that hour did grow her love for me.

Since that same time she doth accept from me

The gifts of life with her full consciousness

Not with blind instinct: aye, and since that day

When this young heart first quivered into warmth,

Whene’er her gaze met mine with loving glance,

Thy wisdom’s treasures of their fruitage failed,

And much already ripe hath withered up.

I saw appear in her those tokens strange

That proved so terrible unto my friend.

A dark enigma am I to myself,

And grow still darker. Thou wilt not deny

To solve for me life’s fearful questionings?

Why do I thus destroy both friend and child,

When I in love approach my work with them

To give them knowledge of that spirit-lore

Which in my soul I know to be the good?

Oft hast thou taught me this exalted truth—

‘Illusion’s veil o’erspreads life’s surfaces’—

Yet must I see with greater clarity

Why I must bear this heavy destiny,

That seems so cruel and which works such harm.

Benedictus:

Within our circle there is formed a knot

Of threads that Karma spins world-fashioning.

Thy sufferings, my friend are links in chains,

Forged by the hand of destiny, whereby

The deeds of gods unite with human lives.—

When in life’s pilgrimage I had attained

That rank which granted me the dignity

To serve with counsel in the spirit-spheres,

A godlike Being did draw nigh to me,

Who would descend into the realms of earth,

And dwell there, veiled in form of flesh, as man.

For just at this one turning-point of time

The Karma of mankind made this demand.

For each great step in world-development

Is only possible when gods do stoop

To link themselves with human destiny.

And this new spirit-sight that needs must grow

And germinate henceforth in souls of men

Can only be unfolded when a god

Doth plant the seed within some human heart.

My task it was to find that human soul

Which worthy seemed to take within itself

The powerful Seed of God. I had to join

The deed of heaven to some human lot.

My spirit’s eye then sought, and fell on thee.

Thy course of life had fitted thee to be

The mediator in salvation’s work.

Through many former lives thou hadst acquired

Receptiveness for all the greatest things

That human hearts can e’er experience.

Within thy tender soul thou didst bring forth,

As spirit heritage, the noble gift

Of beauty, joined to virtue’s loftiest claim:

And that which thine eternal Self had formed

And brought to being through thy birth on earth

Did reach ripe fruitage when thy years were few.—

Too soon thou didst not scale steep spirit-heights;

Nor grew thy yearning for the spirit-land

Before thou hadst the full enjoyment known

Of harmless pleasures in the world of sense.

Anger and love thy soul did learn to know

When thy thoughts dwelt yet far from spirit-life.

Nature in all her beauty to enjoy,

And pluck the fruits of art—these didst thou strive

To make thy life’s sole content and its wealth.

Merry thy laughter, as a child can laugh

Who hath not known as yet life’s shadowed fears.

And thus thou learn’dst to understand life’s joy,

And mourn its sadness, each in its own time,

Before thy dawning conscience grew to seek

Of sorrow and of happiness the cause.

A ripened fruit of many lives that soul,

That enters earth’s domains, and shows such moods.

Its childlike nature is the blossoming

And not the ground-root of its character.

And such a soul alone was I to choose

As mediator for the God, who sought

The power to work within our human world.

And now thou learnest that thy nature must

Transform itself into its opposite,

When it flows forth to other human souls.

The spirit in thee ripens whatsoe’er

In human nature can attain the realm

Of vast eternity; and much it slays

That is but part of transitory realms.

And yet the sacrifices of such deaths

Are but the seeds of immortality,

All that which blossoms forth from death below

Must grow unto the higher life above.

Maria:

E’en so it is with me. Thou giv’st me light:

But light that doth deprive me of my sight,

And sunder me from mine own self in twain.

Then do I seem some spirit’s instrument

No longer master of myself. No more

Do I endure that erstwhile form of mine

Which only is a mask and not the truth.

Johannes:

O friend, what ails thee? Vanished is the light

That filled thine eye: as marble is thy frame.

I grasp thine hand and find it cold as death.

Benedictus:

My son, full many trials have come to thee;

And now thou stand’st before life’s hardest test.

Thou seest the carnal covering of thy friend;

But her true self doth float in spirit-spheres

Before mine eyes.

Johannes:

Before mine eyes. See! Her lips move; she speaks.

Maria:

Thou gav’st me clearness; yet this clearness throws

A veil of darkness round on every side.

I curse thy clearness; and I curse thee too,

Who didst make tool of me for weird wild arts

Whereby thou willedst to deceive mankind.

No doubt at any moment hitherto

Had crossed my mind of heights thy spirit reached;

But now one single moment doth suffice

To tear all faith in thee from out my heart.

Those spirit-beings thou art subject to,

I now must recognize as hellish fiends.

Others I had to mislead and deceive

Because at first I was deceived by thee.—

But I will flee unto dim distances,

Where not a sound of thee shall reach mine ears;

Yet near enough that thy soul may be reached

By bitter curses framed by these my lips.

For thou didst rob my blood of all its fire,

That thou mightst sacrifice to thy false god

That which was rightly mine and mine alone.

But now this same blood’s fire shall thee consume.

Thou madest me trust in vain imaginings;

And that this might be so, thou first didst make

A pictured falsehood of my very self.

Often had I to mark how in my soul

Each deed and thought turned to its opposite;

So now doth turn what once was love for thee,

Into the fire of wild and bitter hate.

Through all worlds will I seek to find that fire

Which can consume thee. See—I cur—Ah—woe!

Johannes:

Who speaketh here? I do not see my friend.

I hear instead some gruesome being speak.

Benedictus:

Thy friend’s soul hovers in the heights above.

Only her mortal image hath she left

Here with us: and where’er a human form

Is found bereft of soul, there is the room

Sought by the enemy, the foe of good,

To enter into realms perceptible,

And find some carnal form through which to speak.

Just such an adversary spake e’en now,

Who would destroy the work imposed on me

For thee, my son, and millions yet unborn.

Were I to deem these wild anathemas,

Which our friend’s shell did utter here and now,

Aught else but some grim tempter’s cunning skill,

Thou durst not follow more my leadership.

The enemy of Good stood by my side,

And thou hast seen into the darkness plunged

All that is temporal of that dear form,

For whom, my son, thy whole love burns and glows.

Since through her mouth spirits spake oft to thee,

The Karma of the world could not restrain

Hell’s princes also speaking thus through her.

First now thou mayst seek her very soul

And learn her nature’s inmost verity;

For she shall form for thee the prototype

Of that new higher type of humankind

To which thou dost aspire to raise thyself.

Her soul hath soared aloft to spirit-heights,

Where every man may find his being’s source

Which springs to life and fulness in himself.

Thou too shalt follow her to spirit-realms,

And see her in the Temple of the Sun.—

Within this circle there is formed a knot

Of threads which Karma spins, world fashioning.

My son, since thou hast now attained thus far,

Thou shalt still further pierce beyond the veil.

I see thy star in fullest splendour shine.

There is no place within the realm of sense

For strife, such as men wage when they do strive

And struggle after consecration’s gift.

The riddles which arise in worlds of sense

Must find solution through man’s intellect;

From all that sense engenders in man’s heart

Whether of love or hate, whate’er its source

And howsoever direful its results,

The spirit-seeker needs must stand aloof,

Whence he may cast his glance all undisturbed

Upon the fields where such contentions rage.

For him must other powers unfold themselves

Which are not found upon that field of strife.

So didst thou need to fight to prove thy soul

In combat such as comes to him alone,

Who finds himself accoutred for such powers

As do belong unto the spirit-worlds.

And had these powers found thee not ripe enough

To tread the path of knowledge, they needs must

Have maimed thy powers of feeling, ere thou daredst

To know all that which now is known to thee.

The Beings, who can gaze into world-depths,

Lead on those men, who would attain the heights,

First to that summit whence it may be shown

Whether there lies in them the power to reach

To conscious sight within the spirit-realms.

And those in whom such powers are found to lie

Are straightway from the world of sense set free.

The others all must wait their season due.

But thou, thou hast preserved thy Self, my son,

When Powers on high stirred to its depths thy soul.

And potent spirits shrouded thee with fear.

Right powerfully thy Self hath fought its way

E’en though thy very heart was torn by doubts,

That willed to thrust thee into darksome depths.

True pupil of my teaching hast thou been,

First since that hour, so fraught with fate for thee,

When thou didst learn to doubt thy very self,

And gavest up thyself as wholly lost,

But yet the strength within thee held thee fast.

Then might I give thee of my treasured store

Of wisdom, whence to draw the strength to stand

Assured, e’en when mistrusting thine own self.

Such was the wisdom which thou didst attain

More steadfast than the faith once given to thee.

Ripe wast thou found, and thou may’st be set free.

Thy friend hath gone before and waits for thee

In spirit-worlds, and thou shalt find her there.

I can but add this guidance for thee now:

Kindle the full power of thy soul with words

Which through my lips shall grant to thee the key

To spirit-heights, and they will lead thee on

When naught else leads, that eyes of sense can see.

Receive them in the fulness of thy heart:

‘The weaving essence of the light streams forth

Through depths of space to fill the world with light;

Love’s grace doth warm the centuries of time

To call forth revelation of all worlds.

And spirit-messengers come forth to wed

The weaving essence of creative light

With revelation of the souls of men:

And that man, who can wed to both of these

His very Self, he lives in spirit-heights.’

O spirits, who are visible to man,

Quicken with life the soul of this our son:

From inmost depths may there stream forth for him

That which can fill his soul with spirit-light.

From inmost depths may there resound for him

That which can wholly wake in him his Self

To the creative joy of spirit-life.

A Spirit-Voice behind the stage:

To founts of worlds primeval

His surging thoughts do mount;—

What as shadow he hath thought

What as fancy he hath lived

Soars up beyond the world of form and shape;

On whose fulness pondering

Mankind in shadow dreams,

O’er whose fulness gazing forth

Mankind in fancy lives.

Curtain