SCENE 2

A meditation chamber. Prevailing colour violet. Serious, but not gloomy atmosphere.

Benedictus, Maria, then the Spirit-Figures representing soul-powers.

MARIA:

Great conflicts in my soul bid me invoke Wise counsel from my master in this hour. Gloomy forebodings rise within my heart. And I am powerless to withstand the thoughts That overwhelm me ever and again. They pierce me to my being's inmost core; They seek to lay upon me a command Which to obey doth seem like sacrilege. Deceitful powers must be obsessing me; Oh, I implore thee--lend me aid ... that I May exorcise them.

BENEDICTUS:

Never shalt thou lack What thou dost need of me at any time.

MARIA:

I know how closely to my soul are knit Johannes' life and aims. A stony road Of fate brought us together; and God's will Hath hallowed in high spirit-realms our bond. All this stands out before me e'en as clear As only truth itself can be. And yet-- Horror o'erpowers me that these lips of mine Must utterance give to sacrilegious words-- And yet--deep in my soul I hear a voice Which tells me plainly and repeatedly Despite my utmost will to fight it down: 'Thou must give up Johannes, let him go. No longer mayst thou keep him at thy side If thou wouldst not work evil to his soul. Alone he must proceed along the road On which he travels to his longed for goal.' I know that if thou dost but speak the word This lying dream will cease to haunt my soul.

BENEDICTUS:

Maria, noble grief leads thee astray To see the truth yet call it counterfeit.

MARIA:

What I have seen--is truth.... It cannot be! Between my master's utterance and mine ear Delusion steals. O speak to me again.

BENEDICTUS:

What I have spoken, thou hast heard aright: Thy love is noble, and Johannes stands Close-knit to thee. But love must not forget That she is wisdom's sister. Long indeed For his salvation hath Johannes been With thee united. Now his soul demands, For its own progress, freedom to pursue Its aims unhindered. Fate doth not decree That ye shall be no longer outward friends; But this it doth demand with strict decree Johannes' freedom in the spirit-realm.

MARIA:

Still do I hear delusion: so let me Alone continue speaking, for I know That thou must understand me without fail. For sure it is no lying shape will dare To change the words unto thine ear addressed. My host of doubts were easily dispersed If earth-life's tortuous course alone it were That knits Johannes' soul unto mine own. But to our bond was lofty sanction given Which knits soul unto soul eternally. And spirit-powers did speak with blessings meet The word that bans all doubt for evermore: 'He hath won truth within th' eternal realms Because in worlds of sense his inmost self Already was united with thine own.' What can this revelation mean to me If now its very opposite is true?

BENEDICTUS:

Thou hast to learn that even one to whom There hath been much revealed, may yet be found Lacking perfection still in divers ways. Tangled the paths that lead to higher truth: ... And only those may hope to reach the goal Who walk in patience through their labyrinths. Thou didst but see one part of what is real In that great realm of everlasting light, When with thine inner vision thou didst gaze Upon a picture of the spirit-land. Not yet hast thou seen full reality. Johannes' soul is knit unto thine own By earthly ties of such complexity That it may be allotted unto each To find his way into the spirit-realm Through forces borrowed from the other one. But nothing hitherto hath clearly shown That thou hast conquered each and every test. To see a picture hath been granted thee Of what the future holds for thee in store When thou canst pass unscathed the full ordeal. That thou hast seen the ultimate reward Of unremitting effort is no sign That thou hast reached the end of all thy strife. Thou hast beheld a picture, which thy will Alone can turn unto reality.

MARIA:

Although thy words just spoken fall on me Like bitter pain that follows hours of bliss, There is at least one lesson I have learned, Which is to bow my head to wisdom's light When it doth prove itself through inward force. Already something is becoming clear Which up till now lay hidden in my heart. But when in highest bliss delusion's snare Doth wear the mask of truth to human minds, Darkness of soul is difficult to ban. I need still more than that which thou hast given To plumb the depth of meaning in thy words. Thou once didst lead myself to those soul-depths Wherein a light was then vouchsafed to me By which I could behold the lives I spent In previous incarnations long ago. Thus was it granted me to learn the way In which my soul was linked unto my friend's. My act of bringing, in those days of old, Johannes' soul unto the spirit-fount I felt and recognized to be the seed Which grew and bore such cherished friendship's fruit, As was found ripe for all eternity.

BENEDICTUS:

Thou wast accounted worthy to retrace Thy path on earth in days long since gone by. But thou must not forget to look and see If thou canst be assured with certainty That of thine actions none remain concealed When backward thou didst turn thy spirit's eye.

MARIA (after a pause betokening deep reflection):

How could I be so blinded, so misled? The rapture which I felt on looking back Over a period of bygone times Deluded me to vain forgetfulness Of manifold shortcomings. Not till now Did I foresee that I must turn my gaze Into the darkness ere I comprehend The road that leads back from this present life To olden days when my friend's soul sought mine. To thee, my master, will I make my vow Henceforth to bridle my soul's arrogance...! Now for the first time do I realize How pride of knowledge leads the soul astray; So that, instead of its imbibing strength From freely offered stores of spirit-wealth, It misapplies the gift in wanton use And only holds the mirror up to self. I know at last from my heart's warning call, To which thy words lend added power, how far I am today e'en from the nearest goal. No more will I be overswift to read A meaning into words from spirit-lands. I will esteem them power wherewith my soul May shape its course--, not as some message sent To free me from the need of finding out The goal of action in my daily life. Had I paid earlier heed unto this truth And gone my way in due humility; I had not failed to see that only then When he decides to tread a path not traced By me beforehand, can my friend unfold To fullest bloom his richly-gifted soul. And now that this is clear I shall not fail In finding strength sufficient to fulfil What love and duty may require of me. Yet do I feel assured this very hour More clearly than I ever was before That some grave testing of my soul draws nigh. For mostly, when men tear from out their hearts That of themselves which in another lives, Love hath been changed into its opposite. Themselves they change the ties that coupled them, Yet passion's impulse gives to them the power. Whilst I must of mine own free will uproot The workings of my soul's life, which I saw Accomplishing themselves in my friend's acts; And still unchanging must my love abide.

BENEDICTUS:

If thou wouldst steer thy course direct, thou must Become aware of what thou most didst prize In this thy love. For once thou knowst the force That leads thee all unknown within thy soul, Thou wilt find power to do what duty bids.

MARIA:

By saying this thou giv'st e'en now that aid Of which my soul so sorely stands in need. I must investigate mine inmost self With earnest questioning: and so I ask, What potent cause impels me in my love? I see my own soul's life and strength at work In my friend's nature and activities. So that which I desire to satisfy Is nothing but the hunger of myself, Which I, deluded, call unselfishness. Thus it hath been concealed from me till now That in my friend I mirror but myself. It was the dragon Selfishness who veiled The truth from me in wrappings of deceit. And selfishness can take an hundred forms:-- I see it clearly now. And when one thinks The enemy subdued, behold him rise Out of defeat and stronger than before. Moreover 'tis a foe with added skill To hide the truth with cloak of counterfeit.

(Maria sinks into deep thought.)

(The three Spirit-Figures of the soul-powers appear.)

MARIA:

Ye sisters, whom I find in Being's depths Whene'er my soul expands and guides herself To cosmic distances, release for me From out the ether's heights the powers of sight And lead them hence to earthly paths, that I May know myself as I exist in Time, And may be able to direct my course From Life's old ways unto new spheres of Will.

PHILIA:

From my heart's depths will I myself imbue With soul's aspiring light; I will breathe deep From spirit-forces living powers of Will; That thou, beloved sister, mayest seek And find the light in bygone spheres of life.

ASTRID:

With selfhood, conscious of itself, will I Weave in the self-surrendering Will of love; I will set free from fetters of desire The budding powers of Will, and will transform Thy crippled wish to spirit-certainty; That thou, beloved sister, mayest learn To find thyself in distant paths of life.

LUNA:

I will call self-denying powers of heart; And will make firm enduring soul-repose; Then shall they wed, and raise up spirit-light In all its power from out the depths of soul. Then shall they interpenetrate and force Earth's bounds to heed the listening spirit-ear, Compel earth's distances to answer. That thou, beloved sister, mayest find Life's varied traces in Time's vast expanse.

MARIA (after a pause):

If I can only tear myself away From my bewildered consciousness of self And give myself to you: that thus ye may Reflect my very soul from cosmic space; Then from this sphere of life I gain release, And find myself in other states of being.

(Long pause, then the following:)

In you, my sisters, I see spirit-forms In whom dwell cosmic souls. Ye have the power To bring seed-forces from eternal realms To fruitage in humanity itself. Through my soul's gates oft have I found the way Into your kingdom, and have there beheld The primal shaping of this earthly globe With inner vision. Now your help I crave Since I am bidden to retrace the way That stretches back far from my present life To long past ages of humanity. Release my soul from consciousness of self In time-enclosed existence, and reveal The duties laid on me by former lives.

A SPIRIT-VOICE,--THE SPIRITUAL CONSCIENCE:

Her thoughts are seeking now For clues in Time's vast space. What as debt she still doth owe, What as duty is imposed, Arise from out her inmost depths of soul, From whose deepness dreaming Mankind doth guide his life, In whose deepness straying Mankind himself doth lose.

Curtain falls; everybody still standing on the stage