Four Mystery Plays
GA 14
The Soul's Probation (Written 1911)
Scene 10
The same landscape as in Scene 5.
Capesius (waking from the vision which had brought his previous incarnation before his soul):
This unfamiliar landscape, and this seat,
A cottage and a wood in front of me!
Are they familiar? Urgently they claim
Familiarity; yet they do lie
Upon my nature, like some heavy. weight.
They seem like real things. But no; all this
Is but a picture of soul substance spun.
I know how pictures such as these are made
Out of the thirst and longing of the soul.
As if awaking from my craving's dream
From out the spirit-ocean I have come
And memory; dread and shuddering shape, appears
To bring to mind these longings of my soul.
How burnt my thirst to know the world's design!
This longing vain, of self-denial born,
Consumed my nature to its very roots.
Sought I existence with impetuous will,
Then all the world's design did flee from me.
A moment, of eternity methinks,
Poured out such storms of suffering on my soul
As only can be felt in life's full course.
Between me and this craving fear there stood
That which had brought this fear to life in me.
I felt myself embrace the universe,
And all my personality was lost—
But no, it was not I who felt like this,
It was another being sprung from me.
I saw mankind and all its works evolve
From cosmic thoughts which rushing fast through Space,
Pressed on in eagerness to be revealed.
They drew the picture of a living world
In all its detail spread before my gaze.
From my soul-substance did they draw the power
With which to fashion Being out of Thought.
And as this world condensed before mine eyes,
My personal sense of feeling passed from me,
And words resounded from this picture-world,
Thinking themselves; and thrust themselves on me.
From out life's needs they brought to being things,
And gifted them with power from deeds of good.
Thus they resounded through the breadth of Space:
‘O man know thou thyself within thy world.’
Then saw I one who stood in front of me
And, showing me his soul, displayed mine own.
‘And then the cosmic words went on to say:
So long as in the circle of thy life
Thou canst not feel this being close entwined,
Thou art a dream, and dost but dream thy life.’
I could not think in figures clear and plain;
I did but see bewildering forces press
From nothingness to life, and back to nothingness—
But if my spirit seeks yet further back
And recollects what I beheld before,
A living picture stands before my soul,
Which is not blurred, as was all else that I
In later moments could experience,
But which more plainly sets before my soul
Men's lives and actions with each detail clear.
I gaze upon this picture, and can tell
What men these are, and what it is they do;
I recognize each soul I look upon,
Although their bodies' shapes are not the same.
I look upon all this as though myself
Were then a person living in this world;
But none the less with cold unfeeling eye
I scan a picture that seems life itself.
It seems as if its working on my soul
Withheld itself until that later time
Which to my spirit earlier was displayed.
Within a spirit-brotherhood I could
Myself and others clearly recognize;
And just as man doth often feel a scene
Of bygone days arise from memory's fount,
Thomas I see, a miner and my son,
And forthwith I must call to mind that soul,
Who, as Thomasius, is known to me.
The lady whom I know as seeress now
Stands there before mine eyes as mine own child.
Maria, who befriends Thomasius,
Reveals herself to me in monkish garb,
And doth condemn the spirit-brotherhood.
And Strader wears the visage of the Jew.
In Joseph Keane and in his wife I see
The souls of Felix and Felicia.
The others' lives lie open to my view
Without concealment; so too, doth mine own.
But while I am engrossed in reading it,
The picture fades and disappears from view.
And I can feel that those soul-elements
Of which that living picture was composed
Themselves are pouring into mine own soul.
I feel myself endowed with strength of soul
In my whole being, and I seem set free
From all the fetters of the world of sense:
My being doth embrace the universe.
Thus do I feel that instant so prolonged
Which I was able to live through, before
That living picture rose before mine eyes.
And now still further backward can I look.
Itself condensing out of cosmic thought
This forest doth appear before my gaze,
This house where Felix and Felicia
So often brought me comfort in distress.
Now—in the world I find myself once more
From which a moment since I felt myself
Removed by vast expanse of time and space.
And that which latterly I still could see:
The picture which disclosed to me myself
Is wafted like some misty fantasy
O'er all that now I feel by means of sense.
It is a nightmare, that oppresseth me;
It gropes in deep recesses of my soul;
It opens cosmic doors to breadths of Space.—
What storm is this that shakes my being's depths?
What enters forcibly from cosmic space?
A Voice (representing spirit-conscience):
Feel now what thou hast seen,
Live o'er what thou hast done
Refreshed from Being's source;
Thine own life hast thou dreamed.
Work out this deed in thee
With noble spirit-light
Regard thy daily task
With force of spirit-sight.
If this thou canst not do,
To empty Nothingness
Thou art for ever doomed.
Curtain, before capesius has left the stage
Zehntes Bild.
Das folgende ist die Fortsetzung der Ereignisse, die in den ersten fünf Bildern dargestellt sind.
(Dieselbe Landschaft wie im fünften Bilde; Capesius erwacht aus der Vision, welche ihm seine vorige Incarnation vor die Seele gestellt hat.)
Capesius:
O diese fremde Gegend! Eine Bank,
ein Häuschen und ein Waldesgrund vor mir ...
Ob ich sie kenne? Sie verlangen dringlich,
daß ich sie kenne. Sie bedrücken mich.
Sie legen sich auf mich wie schwere Lasten.
Sie scheinen Wirklichkeit. Doch nein, dies alles –
Ist nichts als Bild, aus Seelenstoff gewoben.
Ich weiß, wie diese Bilder sich aus Sehnsucht
und aus dem Seelendurst gestaltet haben.
Ich tauchte, wie erwachend aus der Sehnsucht –
und aus dem weiten Geistesmeere auf.
Erschauernd schreckhaft steigt Erinnerung
an diese Sehnsucht mir aus Seelengründen.
Wie brannte doch ihr Durst nach Daseinswelten, ‒
die Wahneslust, die aus Entbehrung kam,
verbrannte meine ganze Wesenheit.
Ich mußte stürmisch nach dem Sein begehren,
und alles Dasein wollte mich nur fliehen.
Ein Augenblick, der Ewigkeit mir dünkt,
ergoß in meine Seele Leidensstürme,
die nur ein volles Leben bringen kann.
Und vor dem Sehnsuchtsschrecken stand vor mir,
was diesen Schrecken mir erschaffen hatte.
Ich fühlte mich zum Weltenall erweitert,
und aller eignen Wesenheit beraubt ‒ ‒
Doch nein, der war nicht ich, der so empfand,
ein andres Wesen, das aus mir entsprang.
Erwachsen sah ich Mensch und Menschenwerk
aus Weltgedanken, die den Raum durcheilten
und wesend sich zur Offenbarung drängten.
Sie stellten eine ganze Lebenswelt
mir vor die Augen bildhaft greiflich hin.
Sie nahmen mir aus meinem Seelenstoff
Die Kraft, um aus Gedanke Sein zu schaffen.
Je mehr die Welt vor mir sich dichten konnte,
verlor ich selbst an meinem Eigenfühlen.
Und Worte tönten aus der Bilderwelt,
sie drangen auf mich ein, sich selber denkend.
Sie schufen aus den Lebensmängeln Wesen
und gaben ihnen Kraft aus guten Taten.
Sie klangen aus den Raumesweiten mahnend:
»O Mensch, erkenne dich in deiner Welt.«
Ich sah ein Wesen, das vor mich gestellt,
mir meine Seele als die seine zeigte.
Und jene Weltenworte sprachen weiter:
»So lang du nicht in deine Lebenskreise
dies Wesen ganz verwoben denken kannst,
bist du ein Traum, dich selber träumend nur.«
Ich konnte nicht in klaren Formen denken,
nur Kräfte wirksam schauen, die verworren
vom Nichts in Sein, vom Sein ins Nichts sich drängten.
Doch strebe ich im Geiste weiter rückwärts,
erinnernd mich, was ich vor diesem schaute,
so steht ein Lebensbild vor meiner Seele,
das nicht verworren ist wie alles war,
was ich in spätren Augenblicken fühlte;
das klar vielmehr mir Mensch und Menschenwerk
in allen Einzelheiten deutlich zeigt.
Es ist in diesem Bilde mir vertraut,
wer jene Menschen sind, und was sie tun:
Ich kenne alle Seelen, die ich schaue,
doch sind die Leibesformen umgestaltet.
Ich blick’ auf alles dies, wie wenn ich selbst
als Wesen dieser Welt mich fühlen müßte;
und trotzdem läßt mich kalt und ohne Fühlen,
was gleich dem vollen Leben vor mir steht.
Es scheint, als ob die Wirkung auf die Seele
sich für den spätern Augenblick bewahrte,
der mir jetzt früher vor dem Geiste stand.
In eines Geistesbundes Mitte konnt’ ich
mich selbst und andre Menschen wohl erkennen,
doch so, wie man ein Bild aus alter Zeit
Gedächtnisquellen sich entringen fühlt.
Ich schaue Thomas, meinen Sohn, als Bergmann,
und muß der Menschenseele mich entsinnen,
die als Thomasius mir sonst sich zeigte.
Das Weib, das mir als Seherin bekannt,
es tritt als leiblich Kind vor meine Augen.
Maria, die Thomasius befreundet,
sie offenbart sich in des Mönches Kleid,
der unsre Geistesbrüderschaft verdammt,
und Strader trägt des Juden Simon Antlitz.
In Joseph Kühne und in seinem Weibe
erblick’ ich Felix’ und Felicias Seele.
Ich kann der andren Menschen Leben
und auch mein eignes deutlich überschauen,
Doch da ich mich noch ganz ihm hingegeben,
entschwindet alles meinem Geiste wieder. ‒
Empfinden kann ich, wie die Seelenstoffe,
aus welchen jenes Bild gewoben war,
in meine eigne Seele sich ergießen.
Mich aber fühle ich von Seligkeit
in meiner ganzen Wesenheit ergriffen.
Befreit erschein’ ich mir von Sinnenschranken,
mein Sein, es ist zum Weltenall erweitert.
So fühle ich den langen Augenblick,
den ich durchleben konnte, ehe ich
vor jenem Lebensbilde mich befunden.
Und weiter noch zurück kann ich jetzt schaun ‒ ‒:
Verdichtend sich, aus Weltgedankenkraft,
erscheint vor meinen Blicken dann der Wald,
das Haus, in welchem mir Felicia und Felix
so oft in Lebenssorgen Trost gewährten.
Und jetzt – ich finde in der Welt mich wieder,
aus der ich mich entfernt noch eben fühlte
durch Erdenzeiten und durch Weltenfernen.
Und was ich jüngst noch fühllos schauen konnte:
Das Bild, das mich mir selber hat gezeigt,
es legt sich Seelennebelformen gleich
vor alles hin, was jetzt die Sinne fühlen.
Zum Alp wird mir das Bild, der mich bedrückt.
Es wühlt in meinen Seelentiefen. ‒
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
Er öffnet Weltentore, Raumesweiten ‒
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
Was stürmt in meinen Wesensgründen,
was dringt in mich aus Weltenfernen?
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
(Eine Stimme als Geistgewissen):
Erfühle, was du geschaut,
erlebe, was du getan.
Du bist dem Sein nun neu entstanden. ‒
Du hast geträumt dein Leben.
Erwirk’ es dir
Aus edlem Geisteslicht;
Erkenne Daseinswerk
mit Seelenblickeskraft.
Vermagst du dieses nicht,
bist wesemlosen Nichts
in Ewigkeit verbunden.
(Vorhang fällt, während Capesius noch anwesend ist.)
Tenth picture.
The following is the continuation of the events depicted in the first five pictures.
(Same landscape as in the fifth picture; Capesius awakens from the vision that his previous incarnation has placed before his soul.)
Capesius:
Oh, this strange place! A bench,
a small house, and a forest floor before me...
Do I know them? They urgently demand
that I know them. They weigh heavily on me.
They lie upon me like heavy burdens.
They seem real. But no, all this—
Is nothing but an image, woven from the fabric of the soul.
I know how these images have been formed out of longing
and out of the thirst of the soul.
I emerged, as if awakening from longing—
and from the vast sea of the spirit.
Shuddering, startled, the memory
of this longing rises from the depths of my soul.
How fiercely burned their thirst for worlds of existence, ‒
the delusional lust that came from deprivation,
burned my entire being.
I had to stormily desire existence,
and all existence only wanted to flee from me.
A moment that seems like eternity to me
poured storms of suffering into my soul,
which only a full life can bring.
And before the terror of longing stood before me,
that which had created this terror for me.
I felt myself expanded to the universe,
and robbed of my own being ‒ ‒
But no, it was not I who felt this way,
another being that sprang from me.
As an adult, I saw people and human works
from world thoughts that raced through space
and, being, pushed themselves toward revelation.
They presented a whole world of life
before my eyes in a vivid, tangible way.
They took from my soul
the power to create being from thought.
The more the world could condense before me,
the more I lost my own feelings.
And words sounded from the world of images,
they penetrated me, thinking themselves.
They created beings from the deficiencies of life
and gave them strength from good deeds.
They sounded admonishingly from the vastness of space:
“O human, recognize yourself in your world.”
I saw a being standing before me,
showing me my soul as its own.
And those words of the world continued:
"As long as you cannot think of this being
as completely interwoven into your life cycles,
you are a dream, dreaming only yourself."
I could not think in clear forms,
only see forces at work, confused,
pushing themselves from nothingness into being, from being into nothingness.
But as I strive further backward in spirit,
remembering what I saw before this,
an image of life stands before my soul,
which is not confused as everything was,
what I felt in later moments;
rather, it clearly shows me man and man's work
in all its details.
In this image, I am familiar with
who those people are and what they do:
I know all the souls I see,
but the forms of their bodies are transformed.
I look at all this as if I myself
had to feel myself a being of this world;
and yet what stands before me, like full life, leaves me cold and without feeling.
It seems as if the effect on the soul
was reserved for the later moment that now stood before my mind earlier.
It seems as if the effect on the soul
is reserved for a later moment,
which now stands before my mind earlier.
In the midst of a spiritual union, I could
recognize myself and other people well,
but in the same way that one feels an image from ancient times
from the depths of memory.
I see Thomas, my son, as a miner,
and must remember the human soul
that otherwise appeared to me as Thomasius.
The woman known to me as a seer
appears before my eyes as a physical child.
Maria, Thomasius' friend,
reveals herself in the monk's robe
that condemns our spiritual brotherhood,
and Strader bears the face of Simon the Jew.
In Joseph Kühne and his wife,
I see the souls of Felix and Felicia.
I can clearly see the lives of other people
and also my own,
but since I have devoted myself entirely to him,
everything disappears from my mind again. ‒
I can feel how the soul substances
from which that image was woven
pour into my own soul.
But I feel myself seized by bliss
in my entire being.
I appear to be freed from the barriers of the senses,
my being expanded to the universe.
So I feel the long moment
that I was able to live through before I
found myself before that image of life.
And now I can look even further back—:
Condensing from the power of worldly thought,
the forest then appears before my eyes,
the house in which Felicia and Felix
so often comforted me in my life's worries.
And now—I find myself back in the world,
from which I felt myself removed just a moment ago
by earthly times and by worlds far away.
And what I could still see insensitively just a moment ago:
The image that showed me myself,
it lies like soul mist
before everything that the senses now feel.
The image that oppresses me becomes an alp to me.
It stirs in the depths of my soul. ‒
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
It opens the gates of the world, vast spaces ‒
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
What storms within my being,
what penetrates me from distant worlds?
‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒ ‒
(A voice as spiritual conscience):
Feel what you have seen,
experience what you have done.
You have now been reborn into being. ‒
You have dreamed your life.
Achieve it for yourself
From the noble light of the spirit;
Recognize the work of existence
with the power of your soul's gaze.
If you are unable to do this,
you are bound to meaningless nothingness
for eternity.
(The curtain falls while Capesius is still present.)