Four Mystery Plays - Rudolf Steiner

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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

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