Four Mystery Plays
GA 14
The Portal of Initiation (Written 1910)
Scene 6
Scene the same as the Fourth.
(The Spirit of the Elements stands in the same place.)
Felicia:
Thou calledst me. What wouldst
thou hear of me?
Spirit:
Two men did I present unto the earth
Whose spirit-powers were fructified through thee.
They found their
soul's awakening in thy words
When barren thought had paralysed
them both.
Thy gifts to them make thee my debtor too.
Their
spirit doth not of itself suffice
To render full repayment unto
me
For all the service which I did for them.
Felicia:
For many years one of these men did come
To our small cottage, that he might obtain
The strength that
lent unto his words their fire.
Later he brought the other with
him too;
And so they two consumed the fruits, whose worth
Was then unknown to me: but little good
Did I receive from them as
recompense.
Their kind of knowledge to our son they gave,
With good intent indeed, but yet the child
Found nought therein
but death unto his soul.
He grew to manhood steeped in all the
light,
His father Felix, through the spirit-speech,
Taught
him from fountains and from rocks and hills:
To this was joined
all that had lived and grown
In my own soul from my first
childhood's years;
And yet our son's clear spirit-sense was
killed
By the deep gloom of sombre sciences.
Instead of some
blithe happy child, there grew
A man of desert soul and empty
heart.
And now forsooth thou dost demand of me
That I should
pay what they do owe to thee!
Spirit:
It must be so, for thou at first didst
serve
The earthly part in them; and so through me
The spirit
bids thee now complete the work.
Felicia:
'Tis not my wont to shrink from any debt;
But tell me first what detriment will grow
In mine own self
from this love-service done?
Spirit:
What thou at first didst do for them on
earth,
Robbed of his strength of soul thine only son;
And
what thou givest to their spirits now
Is lost henceforth to thee
from thine own self;
Which lessening of the powers of life in
thee
Will show as ugliness in thine own flesh.
Felicia:
They robbed my child of all his strength of
soul,
And in return I needs must wander forth
A monster in
the sight of men, that fruits
May ripen for them, which work
little good!
Spirit:
Yet thy work aids the welfare of mankind
And leads as well to thine own happiness.
Thy mother's beauty and
thy child's own life
Will blossom for thee in a loftier way,
When one day in the souls and hearts of men,
New spirit-powers
shall seed and fructify.
Felicia:
What must I do?
Spirit:
Mankind thou hast inspired
Full often with thy
words. Inspire then now
The spirits of the rocks: in this same
hour
Thou must bring forth from out thy treasured store
Of
fairy pictures some one tale to give
Those beings who do serve me
in my work.
Felicia:
So be it then: — A being once did
live
Who flew from East to West, as runs the sun.
He flew
o'er lands and seas, and from this height
He looked upon the
doings of mankind.
He saw how men did one another love,
And,
how in hatred they did persecute.
Yet naught could stay this being
in his flight,
For love and hatred none the less bring forth
Full many thousand times the same results.
Yet o'er one house
— there must the being stay;
For therein dwelt a tired and
weary man,
Who pondered on the love of humankind,
And
pondered also over human hate.
His contemplations had already
graved
Deep furrows on his brow; his hair was white.
And,
grieving o'er this man, the being lost
His sun-guide's leadership,
and stayed with him
Within his room e'en when the sun went
down.
And when the sun arose again, once more
The being
joined the spirit of the sun;
And once again he saw mankind pass
through
The cycle of the earth in love and hate.
But when he
came, still following the sun,
A second time above that selfsame
house,
His gaze did fall upon a dying man.
(Germanus, invisible behind the rock, speaks. As
he speaks, he gradually drags his unwieldy size on to the stage; his
feet like clogs are almost earth-bound.)
Germanus:
A man once lived, who went from East to
West:
Whose eager thirst for knowledge lured him on
O'er
land and sea; with learned pedantry
He looked upon the doings of
mankind.
He saw how men did one another love,
And, how in
hatred they did persecute;
And every day anon he fondly hoped
His wisdom's goal was now at length in sight.
But, though the
world is ruled by love and hate,
Yet could he not combine them
into law.
A thousand single cases wrote he down,
Yet still
he lacked the comprehending eye.
This dull, dry seeker after truth
once met
Upon his path a being formed of light;
Who found
existence fraught with heaviness
Since it must live in constant
combat with
A darksome being formed of shadows black.
‘Who art thou then?’ the dry truth-seeker asked.
‘Love,’ said the one; the other answered,
‘Hate.’
But these two beings' words fell on deaf
ears;
The man heard not, but wandered blindly on
In his dry
search for truth from East to West.
Felicia:
And who art thou, who thus against my wish
Dost parody my words in his own way
Until they sound a very
mockery?
Germanus:
Only a dwarf-like image of me lives
In
man, and therein many things are thought,
That are but mockery of
their own selves,
When I do show them in the actual size,
In
which they do appear within my brain.
Felicia:
And therefore dost thou also mock at me?
Germanus:
I must right often ply this trade of
mine;
Yet mostly men do hear me not, so now
I seized for
once this opportunity
To speak as well where men can hear my
words.
Johannes (out of his meditation):
This was the man,
who of himself did say
That spirit-light grew of its own accord
Within his brain; and Dame Felicia came,
Just like her husband,
as she is in life.
Curtain