SCENE 9
A pleasant, sunny morning landscape, in a terraced garden overlooking a town with many factories.
Benedictus, Capesius, Maria, Thomasius, and Strader are discovered walking up and down and engaged in leisurely conversation. Benedictus wears a white biretta and is in his white robe, but without the golden stole.
CAPESIUS:
Here is the place, where Benedictus oft In soft warm sunlight of a summer morn Gave himself to his pupils that they might In reverent mood receive his wisdom's words. Out yonder lies what ever must divide With pitiless intent the souls of men From all the wondrous beauty of the earth, That nature's God doth shower so bounteous here. In yon waste sea of houses in the town Doth Benedictus ever nobly strive To heal this human woe by deeds of love. And when with human words so wise and true He tells his pupils of the spirit-world, He seeks for hearts, which free creative power That here reveals itself in wakening souls, Hath filled with sunshine and with love for men. I, too, may now behold the happiness Which through his words doth reach the heart of man. Since he in love hath underta'en the task Of guiding me within the spirit-world: And now when I may feel that he is near I shall again discover mine own self.
BENEDICTUS:
Within the circle of my pupils here Through free-will acts of others and thyself A knot shall one day loosen in the threads Which Karma spins in lives of men on earth. Thy life itself will help to loose this knot. In hearts of men who give themselves in truth To follow wisdom, which I serve myself, Thou canst by thine own power discover those Joined unto whom thou wilt complete the work For which in spirit thou hast been prepared.
CAPESIUS:
Thee have I known, and I will follow thee. As I held converse with mine inmost soul, When I had been allowed to hear thy words Within the spirit-realm in their true form, And thou hadst brought me to myself again, Then could I see portrayed in spirit-light The aims which in the progress of the earth I was to follow in my future lives. And now I know that thou didst choose for me The one right way for this to be revealed.
BENEDICTUS:
Thomasius and Strader will henceforth United with thyself accomplish much That best may serve to further human health. They have prepared the soul-powers which are theirs With such intent since first the Earth began That they can join to form a trinity With thine own spirit in the cosmic course.
CAPESIUS:
So I must thank my fate's unbending powers Which seemed at first incomprehensible, That when the rightful moment came at last My life's aim suddenly revealed itself.
(He pauses meditatively.)
How wonderfully hast thou led me on: It seemed at first as if I strove in vain To enter with my spirit consciously Into those worlds which by thy words are placed So thoughtfully before the souls of men. For many years I could find nought but thoughts When in thy writings I absorbed myself. And then, quite suddenly, around me flowed The spirit-world in its reality; I scarce knew how to find myself aright Within my former more accustomed world.
BENEDICTUS:
That would have hid the spirit-life from thee For ever by its strong effective power Unless the stronger forces of this life Had first reduced it to a shadow dim. And so thou too, with thy full spirit-sight Must on that threshold learn to know thyself, Where others first can gain their spirit-sight.
(During the last words Strader walks up to Capesius and the three go away together: after a short time Benedictus returns with Strader.)
STRADER:
It gave deep pain, within mine inmost self And weighed with heavy pressure on my soul When on awaking to myself I found I was again within my body pent From which thy words had given me release. My deadened soul-life first tormented me On my return, yet 'twas not only pain; For it brought forth in me the memory Of all I lived through ere I saw with dread What I could learn from Ahriman himself, That every thought must cease its progress there. I had to ask myself why I was set By Benedictus' word within this realm Where souls alone are taken into count And only those are valued which can help Toward the objects, which that power desires To make his own through deeds that I have done. He, in his wisdom, wanted to select Twelve helpers from the number of mankind.
BENEDICTUS:
Yet 'tis well known to thee why all these souls, Which Ahriman showed forth, drew near to thee, When he would force himself upon their fates.
STRADER:
That also bitter pain revealed to me: It showed how in a former life on Earth I was united to a brotherhood Which now hath formed again its mystic league, And how those people stood towards myself, Who were in their true nature then revealed. And I could feel quite sure that Ahriman Will use the bond, which e'en in future lives Must ever surely bind their souls to mine.
BENEDICTUS:
The cosmic powers do so direct their deeds That these with cosmic progress may unite By following in wisdom number's laws. The sign how this direction is fulfilled Shows itself clearly to the outer sense; If it doth watch the Sun upon the course He takes throughout the constellations twelve. It is his place amongst those very signs Which shows how on the Earth things come to pass In strict succession in long course of time. So Ahriman desired to mould the souls Of those who are united thus to thee To powers from whence thy work might shine afar. He also wished to follow number's laws In binding their soul-nature unto thine.
STRADER:
Since I have learned the sense of number's law, So shall I too succeed in rescuing My work from out the realm of Ahriman And offering it to the gods of Earth.
BENEDICTUS:
It was through Ahriman thou hadst to learn The sense of number in the universe; So was it needful for thine own soul's good. 'Twas spirit-pupilship that guided thee Into that realm, which thou didst need to know If thy creative power should bloom aright.
(Exeunt Benedictus and Strader. Maria and Thomasius appear from the other side.)
MARIA:
Johannes, knowledge hath thy soul acquired From truth's cold realms. No longer wilt thou now Weave only in thy pictures that which souls, Still pent within the body, live in dreams, For far from cosmic progress are those thoughts Which but as self-begotten show themselves.
THOMASIUS:
'Tis love of self--although they may pretend 'Tis thirst for knowledge maketh them do this.
MARIA:
Whoe'er desires to dedicate himself To human progress and perform such work As shall in course of time prove living force Must first entrust himself unto those powers Who work in deep realities and bring, Where order with confusion aye doth fight, The rhythmic law of number and its power. For knowledge only hath true active life, That can reveal itself within the soul When it can bring to men, still clothed in flesh, The memory of life in spirit-realms.
THOMASIUS:
My course of life is thus made clear to me. I had to feel myself a twofold man. Through Benedictus' help and through thine own I am a being standing by myself; And all the forces that within me stir Do not belong at all to mine own self. Ye now have given me a manhood new Who must be willing to give other men What he hath gained by spirit-pupilship. He must devote himself unto the world As best he can: naught from that other man Must mingle and disturb what now at last He hath as true self-knowledge recognized. Contained in his own world he will go on, If his own strength and help from both his friends Shall in the future serve to form his fate.
MARIA:
Whether thou walk'st in error or in truth Thou canst keep ever clear the view ahead; Which lets thy soul press farther on its path, If thou dost bravely bear necessities Imposed upon thee by the spirit-realm.
Curtain