Filename: RC1026.TXT
Source: "Mysteries of the Great Operas" by Max Heindel

[PAGE  892]

    FAUST, PARSIFAL, THE RING OF THE NIEBELUNG, TANNHAUSER, LOHENGRIN:

                           FAUST: DIVINE DISCORD:

   When the name Faust is mentioned, the majority of educated people at once
think of Gounod's presentations upon the stage.  Some admire the music,  but
the story itself does not seem to particularly impress them.   As it appears
there, it seems to be the unfortunately all too common story of a sensualist
who  betrays  a young unsuspecting girl and then leaves her to  expiate  her
folly  and  suffer for her trustfulness.  The touch of  magic  and  witchery
which enters into the play is Thought of by most people as only the  fancies
of an author who has used them to make the sordid,  everyday conditions more
interesting.

   When Faust is taken by Mephistopheles to the underworld and Marguerite is
borne to heaven upon angelic wings at the conclusion of the play, it appears
to  them to be just the ordinary moral to give the story a goody-goody  end-
ing.

[PAGE 893]

   A small minority know that Gounod's opera is based upon the drama written
by Goethe.   And those who have studied the two parts of his presentation of
Faust, gain a very different idea from that presented by the play.  Only the
few who are illuminated mystics,  see in the play written by Goethe the  un-
mistakable  hand of an enlightened fellow Initiate,  and realize  fully  the
great cosmic significance contained therein.

   Be it very clearly understood that the story of Faust is a myth as old as
mankind.   Goethe presented it clad in a proper mystic  light,  illuminating
one of the greatest problems of the day,  the relation and struggle  between
Freemasonry and Catholicism, which we have considered from another viewpoint
in a former book.

   We have often said in our literature, that a myth is a veiled symbol con-
taining a great cosmic truth,  a conception which differs radically from the
generally accepted one.   As we give picture books to our children to convey
lesson  beyond their intellectual grasp,  so the great Teachers gave  infant
humanity these pictorial symbols, and thus, unconsciously to mankind, an ap-
preciation of the ideals presented has been etched into our finer vehicles.

   As  a  seed germinates unseen in the ground ere it can flower  above  the
visible surface of the Earth, so these etchings traced by the myths upon our
finer,  invisible vestures have put us into a state of receptivity where  we
readily  take to higher ideals and rise above the sordid conditions  of  the
material world.  These ideals would have been submerged by the lower nature,

[PAGE 894]

had it not been prepared for ages by the agency of just such myths as Faust,
Parsifal, and kindred tales.

   Like  the story of Job the scene of the Faust myth has its  beginning  in
heaven at a convocation of the Sons of Seth, Lucifer among them.  The ending
is also in heaven as presented by Goethe.  As it is very different from that
which is commonly presented upon the stage, we stand face to face with a gi-
gantic problem.   In fact,  the Faust myth depicts the evolution of  mankind
during  the present epoch.   It also shows us how the Sons of Seth  and  the
Sons of Cain each play their part in the work of the world.

   It  has always been the custom of the writer to stick as closely  to  his
subject as possible, so that any phase of the philosophy under consideration
might receive the full force of concentrated illumination so far as was pos-
sible  to give it.   But sometimes circumstances justify departure from  the
main trend of the argument,  and our consideration of the Faust myth is  one
of them.   Were we to discourse upon this subject only in so far as it has a
bearing upon the problem of Freemasonry and Catholicism,  we should have  to
return  to the subject later,  in order to illuminate other points of  vital
interest in the unfoldment of soul as the work of the human race.  We there-
fore trust that digressions may not be criticized.

[PAGE 895]

   In the opening scene,  three of the Sons of God,  Planetary Spirits,  are
represented  as bowing before the Grand Architect of the  Universe,  singing
songs  of the spheres in their adoration of the Ineffable Being who  is  the
source of life,  the author of all manifestation.   Goethe represents one of
these supernal Spirits of the stars as saying:

   "The sun intones its ancient song,
   `Mid rival chant of brother spheres,
   Its predestined course it speeds along,
   In thund'rous march throughout the years."

   Modern scientific instruments have been invented,  whereby in  laboratory
tests  light  waves  are  transmuted to sound,  thus  demonstrating  in  the
Physical  World  the mystic maxim of the identity of  these  manifestations.
That which was patent formerly only to the mystic who was able to raise  his
consciousness to the Region of Concrete Thought,  is now also sensed by  the
scientist.  The song of the spheres, first publicly mentioned by Pythagoras,
is  not  therefore,  to be regarded as an empty idea originated in  the  too
vivid  imagination of poetical minds nor as the hallucination of a  demented
brain.

   Goethe meant every word he said.   The stars have each their own keynote,
and they travel about the Sun at such varying rates of speed, that their po-
sition  now  cannot  be duplicated until twenty-seven  thousand  years  have
passed.  Thus  the  harmony  of the heavens changes at every moment of life,

[PAGE 896]

and as it changes, so does the world alter its ideas and ideals.  The circle
dance of the marching orbs to the tune of the celestial symphony created  by
them marks man's progress along the path we call evolution.

   But  it  is a mistaken idea to think that constant harmony  is  pleasing.
Music thus expressed would become monotonous; we should weary of the contin-
ued harmony.  In fact, music would lose its charm were not dissonance inter-
spersed  at frequent intervals.   The closer a composer can come to  discord
without  actually entering it in the score,  the more pleasing will  be  his
composition when given life through musical instruments.   Similarly in  the
song of the spheres, we could never reach individuality and the selfhood to-
wards which all evolution trends, without the divine discord.

   Therefore,  the Book of Job designates Satan as being one of the Sons  of
God.   And the Faust myth speaks of Lucifer as also present in the  convoca-
tion,  which takes place during the opening chapter of the story.   From him
comes the saving note of dissonance which forms a contrast tot he  celestial
harmony;  and  as the brightest light throws the deepest  shadow,  Lucifer's
voice enhances the beauty of the celestial song.

   While the other Planetary Spirits bow down in adoration when they contem-
plate the works of the Master Architect as revealed in the universe, Lucifer
sounds  the  note  of  criticism,  of blame, in the following words directed

[PAGE 897]

against the masterpiece of God, the king of creatures, man:

   "Of suns and worlds I nothing have to say,
   I see alone man's self-inflicted pains;
   That little world god still his stamp retains,
   As wondrous now as on the primal day.
   Better he might have fared, poor wight,
   Had You withheld the heavenly light;
   Reason he names it, but doth use it so,
   That he more brutish than brutes doth grow."

   This from the viewpoint of former generations may sound sacrilegious, but
in  the greater light of modern times we can understand that even in so  ex-
alted a being as that designated by the name of God,  there must be  growth.
We can sense the striving after still greater abilities,  the  contemplation
of  future  universes offering improved facilities for those  evolutions  of
other Virgin Spirits,  which are a result of the imperfections noted in  the
scheme of manifestation by its exalted Author.   Furthermore,  as "in Him we
live and move and have our begin," so the discordant note sounded by the Lu-
cifer Spirits would also rise within Him.  It would not be an outside agency
which called attention to mistakes or took Him to task,  but His own  divine
recognition of an imperfection to be transmuted into greater good.

   In  the Bible we read that Job was a perfect man,  and in the Faust  myth
the bearer of the title role is designated a servant of God,  for  naturally

[PAGE 898]

the  problem of unfoldment,  of greater growth,  must be solved by the  most
highly advanced.   Ordinary individuals, or those who are lower in the scale
of evolution,  have still that part of the road to travel which has  already
been covered by such as Faust and Job, who are the vanguard of the race, and
who  are looked upon by ordinary humanity in the same way that  Lucifer  de-
scribes them, namely as fools and freaks:

   "Poor fool, his food and drink are not of earth,
   An inward impulse hurries him afar;
   himself, half conscious of his frenzied mood;
   From heaven claimeth he the fairest star,
   And from the earth he craves the highest, best;
   And all that's near and all that's far,
   Can never still the cravings of his breast."

   For such people a new and higher path must be opened to give them greater
opportunities for growth; hence the answer of God:

   "Though in perplexity he serves me now,
   I soon will lead him where the light appears;
   When buds the sapling doth the gardener know,
   That flow'r and fruit shall grace its coming years."

[PAGE 899]

                     THE SORROWS OF THE SEEKING SOUL:

   As exercise is necessary to the development of physical muscle, so devel-
opment of the moral nature is accomplished through temptation.   The Ego be-
ing given choice,  may exercise it in whatever direction it chooses,  for it
learns  just as well by its mistakes as by right action in the first  place,
perhaps even better.   Therefore, in the Job myth, the devil is permitted to
tempt; and in the Faust myth he makes the request:

   "My Lord, if i may lead him as I choose,
   I wager Thou him yet wilt lose."

To this the Lord replies:

   "`Tis granted thee! Divert
   This spirit from its primal source,
   Him mayst thou seize, thy power exert,
   If he will go the downward course.
   But stand ashamed when thou art forced to own,
   A good man in his darkest aberration
   Still knows the path that leadeth to salvation.
   Go, thou art free to act without control.
   I do not cherish hate for such as thee;

[PAGE 900]

   Of all the spirits of negation
   The cynic is least wearisome to Me.
   Man is too prone, activity to shirk,
   And undisturbed in rest he fain would live;
   Hence this companion purposely I give
   Who stirs, excites, and must as devil work.
   But ye, O faithful Sons of God, none wronging,
   Rejoice in all of everliving beauty,
   The everliving, evergrowing, and becoming;
   Now gird yourselves about with love and duty."

   Thus  the  plot  is ready and Faust is about to become  enmeshed  in  the
snares which beset the path of every seeking soul.  The following lines show
the  beneficent purpose and the necessity of temptation.   The Spirit is  an
integral  part of God;  primarily INNOCENT, but not virtuous.   Virtue is  a
positive  quality developed by taking a firm stand for the right in  tempta-
tion,  or by the suffering endured in consequence of wrongdoing.   Thus  the
prologue in heaven gives to the Faust myth its highest value as a guide, and
its encouragement to the seeking soul.  It shows the eternal purpose  behind
the earthly conditions which cause pain and sorrow.

   Goethe next introduces us to Faust himself,  who is standing in his dark-
ened study.  He is engaged in introspection and retrospection:

   "I have, alas! philosophy, medicine, and law,
   Theology I too have studied, pshaw!

[PAGE 901]

   Now here I stand with all my love,
   A fool no wiser than before.
   I Thought to better humankind,
   To elevate the human mind;
   I have not worked for goods nor treasure,
   Nor worldly honor, rank, nor pleasure.
   With books I all my life have striven,
   But now to magic I am given;
   And hope through spirit voice and might,
   Secrets veiled to bring to light.
   That I no more with aching brow,
   Need speak of what I nothing know.
   Woe's me!  Still prisoned in the gloom
   Of this abhorred and musty room,
   Where heaven's dear light itself doth pass

   But dimly through the painted glass.
   Up! forth into the distant land.
   Is not this book of mystery
   By Nostradamus' magic hand,
   An all sufficient guide?  Thou'lt see
   The courses of the stars unrolled,
   When Nature doth her thoughts unfold
   To thee.  Thy soul shall rise and seek
   Communion high with her to hold."

   A  lifetime  of study has brought Faust no real knowledge.   The  conven-
tional sources of learning prove barren in the end.  The scientist may think
God a superfluity; he may believe that life consists in chemical action  and

[PAGE 902]

reaction--that is,  when he starts.   But the deeper he delves into  matter,
the greater the mysteries that beset his path, and at last he will be forced
to abandon further research or believe in God as a Spirit whose life invests
every atom of matter.   Faust has come to that point.   He says that he  has
not worked for gold "nor treasure, nor worldly honor,  rank,  nor pleasure."
He has striven from love of research and has come to the point where he sees
that a spirit world is about us all; and through this world,  through magic,
he  now  aspires to a higher,  more real knowledge than  that  contained  in
books.

   A tome,  written by the famous Nostradamus is in his hand, and on opening
it he beholds the sign of the macrocosm.   The power contained therein opens
to his consciousness a part of the world he is seeking, and in an ecstasy of
joy he exclaims:

   "Ah! at this spectacle through every sense,
   What sudden ecstasy of joy is flowing;
   I feel new rapture, hallowed and intense.
   Now of the wise man's words I learn the sense:
   Unlocked the spirit world is lying,
   Thy senses shut, thy heart is dead;
   Up, scholar! lave with zeal undying
   Thine earthly breast in morning red.
   How all that lives and works is ever blending,
   Weaves one vast whole from Being's ample range,
   See powers celestial rising and descending,

[PAGE 903]

   Their golden buckets' ceaseless interchange.
   Their flight on rapture breathing pinions winging,
   From heaven to earth the rhythm bringing."

   But again the pendulum swings back.   As an attempt to gaze directly into
the brilliant light of the Sun would result in shattering the retina of  the
eye,  so the audacious attempt to fathom the Infinite results in failure and
the seeking soul is thrown from the ecstasy of joy into the darkness of  de-
spair:

   "A wondrous who, but ah! a show alone.
   Where shall I grasp thee, infinite nature, where?
   Ye breasts, ye fountains of all life whereon
   Hang heaven and earth, from which the withered
         heart
   For solace yearns.  ye still impart
   Your sweet and fostering tides; where are ye--
         where?
   Ye gush, and I must languish in despair."

   We must first understand the lower before we can successfully aspire to a
higher knowledge.  To rant and rave of worlds beyond, of finer bodies,  when
we  have little conception of the vehicles with which we work every day  and
the environment in which we move, is the height of folly.   "Man,  know thy-
self" is a sound teaching.  The only safety lies in climbing the ladder rung
by rung, never attempting a new step until we have  made  ourselves  secure,

[PAGE 904]

until  we are poised and balanced upon he one where we stand.   Many a  soul
can echo from its own experience the despair embodied in the words of Faust.

   Foolishly  he has started at the highest point.   He has suffered  disap-
pointment, but does not yet understand that he must begin at the bottom;  so
he commences an evocation of the Earth Spirit:

   "Earth Spirit, Thou to me art nigher,
   E'en now my strength is rising higher,
   Courage I feel, abroad the world to dare,
   The woe of earth, the bliss of earth, to bear;
   With storms to wrestle, brave the lightning glare,
   And 'mid the crashing shipwreck not despair.
   Clouds gather o'er me, obscure the moon's light
   The lamp's flame is quenched with darkness of
         night.
   Vapors are rising, flashing and red,
   Beams of them dartingly, piercing my head;
   I am seized with a sickening, shuddering dread.
   Spirit, prayer-compelled, 'tis Thou
   Art hovering near, unveil Thyself now.
   My heart I gladly surrender to Thee;
   Thous must appear, if life be free."

   As we have said in "The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception" and as we have fur-
ther  elucidated in the Rosicrucian philosophy relative to a  question  con-
cerning  the  Latin  ritual  in  the  Catholic  Church,  a  name is a sound.

[PAGE 905]

Properly uttered,  no matter by whom, it has a compelling influence over the
intelligence it represents,  and the word given in each degree of Initiation
gives  man access to a particular sphere of vibration,  peopled  by  certain
classes of Spirits.   Therefore, as a tuning fork responds to a note of even
pitch,  so when Faust sounds THE NAME of the Earth Spirit, it opens his con-
sciousness to that all pervading presence.

   And be it remembered that Faust's experience is not an isolated  instance
of what may happen under abnormal conditions.  He is a symbol of the seeking
soul.   You and I are Fausts in a certain sense,  for at some stage  in  our
evolution we shall meet the Earth Spirit and realize the power of His  name,
properly uttered.

[PAGE 906]

  In"The Star of Bethlehem, A Mystic Fact," we endeavored to give students a
glimpse of a certain phase of Initiation.  Most of us walk about upon  Earth
and see only a seemingly dead mass,  but one of the first facts revealed  in
our  consciousness by Initiation is the living reality of the Earth  Spirit.
As  the  surface of our body is dead compared to the organs within,  so  the
outer envelope of the Earth, being encrusted, gives no idea of the wonderful
activity within.   Upon the path of Initiation nine different layers are re-
vealed,  and in the center of this rolling sphere we meet the Spirit of  the
Earth  face  to  face.   It  is actually  true  that  it  is  "groaning  and
travailing"  in the Earth for the sake of all, working and anxiously waiting
for our manifestation as Sons of God so that,  as the seeking soul which as-
pires to liberation is released from its dense body,  the Earth Spirit  also
may be liberated from its body of death in which it is now confined for us.

[PAGE 907]

   The words of the Earth Spirit to Faust, as given by Goethe,  offer splen-
did material for meditation,  for they represent mystically what the  candi-
date feels when he first realizes the actual reality of the Earth Spirit  as
a living presence, ever actively laboring for our uplift.

   "In the currents of life, in the action of storm
   I float and wave with billowy motion;
   Birth and the grave, a limitless ocean;
   A constant weaving, with change still rife,
   A restless heaving, a glowing life,
   Time's whizzing loom I've unceasingly trod;
   Thus weave I the living garment of God."

   Of course,  the Earth Spirit is not to be thought of as a larger man,  or
as  having  physical form other than the Earth itself.   The vital  body  of
jesus,  in which the Christ Spirit was focused prior to its  actual  ingress
into the Earth, has the ordinary human form; it is preserved and is shown to
the  candidate at a certain point in his progression.   Some day int he  far
future it will again house the benevolent Christ Spirit upon His return from
the center of the Earth,  when we shall have become etheric,  and when He is
ready  to ascend to higher spheres,  leaving us to be taught of the  Father,
whose religion will be higher than the Christian religion.

[PAGE 908]

   The esoteric truth that WHEN A SPIRIT ENTERS BY A CERTAIN DOOR,  IT  MUST
ALSO RETURN THE SAME WAY, is taught by Goethe in connection with the initial
appearance of Mephistopheles to Faust.   Faust is not upon the regular  path
of Initiation.  He has not earned admission nor the help of the Elder Broth-
ers;  he is seeking at the wrong door because of his impatience.   Therefore
he  is  spurned by the Earth Spirit and when having seemingly  attained,  is
plunged  from  the pinnacle of joy to the pit of despair where  he  realizes
that he has in reality failed.

   "I, God's own image, from this toil of clay
   Already free, who hailed
   The mirror of eternal truth unveiled,
   `Mid light effulgent and celestial day,
   I, whose unfettered soul
   With penetrative glance aspired to flow
   Through nature's veins, and still creating know
   The life of gods . . . how am I punished now,
   one thunder word has hurled me from the goal!
   Spirit, I dare not lift me to thy sphere;
   What though my power compelled thee to appear,
   My art was futile to detain thee here.
   Fiercely didst thrust me from the realm of
         thought,
   Back on humanity's uncertain fate!
   Who'll teach me now?  What ought I to forego?"

[PAGE 909]

   He thinks the sources of information are exhausted and that he may  never
attain to the real knowledge.   And fearing the dull monotony of a plodding,
ordinary existence, he grasps a phial of poison and is about to drink,  when
songs without,  proclaim the risen Christ for it is Easter morning.   At the
thought,  new hope stirs his soul.  He is also further disturbed in his pur-
pose by the knocking of Wagner, his friend.

   Walking with the latter,  Faust voices the cry of agony wrung from  every
aspiring  soul in the awful struggle between the higher and  lower  natures.
So long as we live worldly lives without higher aspirations,  there is peace
in our breasts.   But once we have sensed the call of the Spirit,  our equi-
poise is gone,  and the more ardently we pursue the quest of the Grail,  the
fiercer is this inner struggle.   Paul thought of himself as a wretched  man
because  lower  desires in the flesh combated the higher  spiritual  aspira-
tions.  Faust's words are of similar import:

   "Two souls, alas, are housed within my breast,
   And struggle there for undivided reign;
   one to the Earth with passionate desire
   And closely clinging organs still adheres,
   Above the mists the other does aspire
   With sacred ardor unto purer spheres."

   But  he does not realize that there is no royal road to attainment,  that
each  one  must  walk  the  path to peace alone.  He thinks that Spirits can

[PAGE 910]

give him soul power ready for use:

   "Oh, are there spirits in the air,
   Who float 'twixt heaven and earth dominion
         wielding?
   Stoop hither from your golden atmosphere;
   Lead me to scenes, new life and fuller yielding.
   A magic mantle did I but possess,
   Abroad to waft me as on viewless wings.
   I'd prize it far beyond most costly dress,
   Nor change it for the robe of kings."

   Because  of this looking to others he is doomed to  disappointment.   "If
thou art Christ help thyself,"  is the universal rule,  and self-reliance is
the cardinal virtue which aspirants are required to cultivate in the Western
Mystery School.  No one is allowed to lean on MASTERS, nor to blindly follow
LEADERS.   The  Brothers of the Rose Cross aim to emancipate the  soul  that
come to them;  to educate, to strengthen, and to make them COWORKERS.   Phi-
lanthropists do not grow on every bush, and whoever looks to a Teacher to do
more  than point the way,  will meet disappointment.   No matter what  their
claims,  no matter whether they come in the flesh, or as Spirits,  no matter
how spiritual they seem, Teachers positively cannot do for us the good deeds
requisite  to soul growth,  assimilate them, nor give us the resulting  soul
power ready to use, any more than they can impart to us physical strength by

[PAGE 911]

eating our food.   True,  Faust the seeking soul, attracts a Spirit ready to
serve him, but it is a Spirit of an undesirable nature, Lucifer.  When Faust
asks his name, he replies:

   "The Spirit of Negation; the power that still
   Works for good though scheming ill."

   People or Spirits who offer to gratify our desires usually have an end in
view.

   Now we come to a point involving an important cosmic law which  underlies
various  spiritualistic phenomena and also supports the unique  teaching  of
The Rosicrucian Fellowship (the the Bible), that Christ will not return in a
dens body but in a vital body.  It also shows why He MUST return.   Students
will therefore do well to read very carefully:

   Attracted by the mental attitude of Faust,  Lucifer follows him into  his
study.   On the floor just inside the door is a five pointed star  with  the
two  horns nearest the door.   In the ordinary process of Nature  the  human
Spirit enters its dense body during antenatal life and withdraws at death by
way of the head.   Invisible Helpers who have learned to transmute their sex
force  to soul power in the pituitary body,  also leave and enter the  dense
body  by way of the head;  therefore,  the pentagram WITH ONE POINT  UPWARD,
symbolizes the aspiring soul who works in harmony with Nature.

   The black magician, who  has  neither  soul nor soul power, also uses the
 
[PAGE 912]

sex  force.   he leaves and enters the body by way of the feet,  the  silver
cord  protruding  from the sex organ.   Therefore,  the pentagram  with  two
points upward is the symbol of black magic.   Lucifer had no trouble in  en-
tering Faust's study, but when he wishes to leave after speaking with Faust,
the single point bars his way.  He requests Faust to remove the sign and the
latter queries:

Faust:   The pentagram your peace does mar,
         To me you, son of hell, make clear,
         How entered you, if this your exit bar?
         Where is the snare,
         Why through the window not withdraw?

Lucifer: For ghosts, devils, `tis a law,
         Where we stole in, there we must forth;
         we're free
         The first to choose, but to the second
         slaves are we.

   Before A.D.  33 Jehovah guided our planet in its orbit and mankind on the
path of evolution FROM WITHOUT.  On Golgotha, Christ entered the Earth which
He now guides from within,  and will until a sufficient number of our human-
ity  have evolved the soul power necessary to float the Earth and guide  our
younger brothers.  This requires ability to live in vital bodies, capable of
levitation.   The vital body of Jesus through which Christ entered the Earth
is His only avenue of return to the Sun.  Hence the Second Advent will be in
Jesus' vital body.

[PAGE 913]

                          SELLING HIS SOUL TO SATAN:

   The  Faust myth presents a curious situation in the meeting of the  hero,
who is the seeking soul,  with different classes of Spirits.   The Spirit of
Faust,  inherently good,  feels drawn to the higher orders; it feels akin to
the  benevolent  Earth Spirit,  and bemoans the inability to detain  it  and
learn from it.   Face to face with the spirit of negation,  who is only  too
willing to teach and to serve,  he finds himself master in a certain  sense,
because that spirit cannot leave,  over the symbol of the five pointed  star
in the position it is placed upon the floor.   But both his inability to de-
tain  the Earth Spirit and obtain tuition from that exalted Being,  and  his
mastery  over the spirit of negation,  are due to he fact that he  has  come
into contact with them BY CHANCE and not by soul power evolved from within.

   When Parsifal, the hero of another of these great soul myths,  first vis-
ited the Castle of the Grail, he was asked how he had come there, and he an-
swered "I know not."  He just HAPPENED to  enter  the  holy  place as a soul

[PAGE 914]

sometimes gets a glimpse of the celestial realms in a vision;  but he  could
not stay in Mount Salvat.   He was forced to go out into the world again and
learn his lesson.   Many years later he returned to the Castle of the Grail,
weary and worn with the quest, and the same query again was asked:  "How did
you  come  here?"   But this time his answer was  different,  for  he  said,
"Through search and suffering I came."

   That is the cardinal point which marks the great difference between  per-
sons who happen to come in contact with Spirits from superphysical realms by
chance  or stumble upon he solution of a law of Nature,  and those,  who  by
diligent research and particularly by LIVING THE LIFE,  attain to  conscious
Initiation  into the secrets of Nature.   The former do not know how to  use
this power intelligently and are therefore helpless.   The latter are always
masters of the forces they wield,  while the others are the sport of  anyone
who wishes to take advantage of them.

   Faust  is the symbol of man,  and humanity was first led by  the  Lucifer
Spirits and the Angles of Jehovah.   We are now looking to the Christ Spirit
within  the  Earth as the Saviour to emancipate us from  their  selfish  and
negative influence.

   Paul gives us a glimpse of the further evolution designed for us, when he
says, that after Christ has established the kingdom, He will turn it over to
the Father, who will then be all in all.

[PAGE 915]

   Faust,  however, first seeks communication with the macrocosm, who is the
Father.   Like  the heavenly centaur,  Sagittarius, he aims his bow  at  the
highest stars.   He is not satisfied to begin at the bottom and work his way
up gradually.  When spurned by that sublime Being, he comes down one step in
the scale and seeks communion with the Earth Spirit who also scorns him, for
he  cannot  become the pupil of the good forces until he  has  conformed  to
their rules,  so that he may enter the path of Initiation by the true  door.
Therefore,  when  he  finds that the pentagram at the door  holds  the  evil
Spirit,  he sees a chance to drive a bargain.   He is ready to sell his soul
to Satan.

   As said before,  however,  he is too ignorant to successfully retain  the
mastery,  and spirit power quickly clears away the obstructions  and  leaves
Lucifer free.   But though he departs from the chamber of Faust, he soon re-
turns ready to barter for the seeking soul.   He paints before Faust's  eyes
glowing  pictures of how he may live his life over,  how he may gratify  his
passions and desires.  Faust, knowing that Lucifer is not disinterested, in-
quires what compensation he requires.  To this, Lucifer answers:

   "I pledge myself to be thy servant here,
   At every beck and call alert to be;
   But when we meet in yonder sphere,
   Then shalt thou do the same for me."

[PAGE 916]

   Faust himself,  adds a seemingly singular condition,  regarding the  time
when  the service of Lucifer shall terminate and his own earth life come  to
an end.

   Strange as it seems,  we have in the agreement of Lucifer and the  clause
proposed by Faust basic laws of evolution.  By the Law of Attraction we  are
drawn  into  contact with kindred Spirits both here and  hereafter.   If  we
serve  the good forces here and labor to lift ourselves,  we find  similarly
minded company in this world and in the next, but if we love darkness rather
than light,  we find ourselves associated with the underworld here and here-
after also.  There is no escape from this.

   Furthermore,  we are all "temple builders" working under the direction of
God and His ministers,  the divine Hierarchies.  If we shirk the task set us
in life, we are placed under conditions which will force us to learn.  There
is no rest nor peach upon the path of evolution and if we seek pleasure  and
joy  to the exclusion of the work of life,  the death knell soon comes.   If
ever  we  come to a point where we are ready to bid the passing  hour  stay,
where  we  are  so contended with conditions that we cease  our  efforts  to
progress,  our existence is quickly terminated.  It is a matter of  observa-
tion, that people who retire from business to live only for the enjoyment of
that which they have accumulated,  soon pass out;  while the man who changes
his vocation for an avocation generally lives longer.   Nothing is so apt to
end an existence as inactivity.  Therefore, as has been said,  the  laws  of

[PAGE 917]

Nature  are enunciated in the bargain of Lucifer and the condition added  by
Faust:

   "If e'er I be content in sloth or leisure,
   Then be that our the last I see.
   When thou with flattery canst cajole me
   Till self-complaisant I shall be;
   When thou with pleasure canst befool me,
   Be that the final day for me.
   Whenever to the passing hour
   I say, 'Oh stay, thou art so fair!'
   Then unto thee I give the power
   To drag me down to deep despair.
   Then let my knell no longer linger,
   Then from my service thou art free;
   Fall from the clock the index finger,
   Be time all over then for me."

   Lucifer requests Faust to sign with a DROP OF BLOOD.   And when asked the
reason,  he says cunningly,  "Blood is a most peculiar essence."   The Bible
says it is the seat of the soul.

   When  the  Earth was in process of condensation the invisible  aura  sur-
rounding  Mars,  mercury and Venus penetrated the Earth and the  Spirits  of
these planets were in peculiar and close relation with humanity.   iron is a
Mars metal, and by the admixture of iron with the blood, oxidation  is  made

[PAGE 918]

possible;  thus  the  inner  heat  required  for  the  manifestation  of  an
indwelling  Spirit  was obtained through the agency of the  Lucifer  Spirits
from  Mars.   They are therefore responsible for the conditions under  which
the Ego is immured in the physical body.

   When  blood is extracted from the human body and coagulates,  every  par-
ticle is of a peculiar form not duplicated by the particles of any other hu-
man being.   Therefore, the one who has blood of a certain person has a con-
necting link with the Spirit that built the blood particles.   He has  power
over that person if he knows how to use this knowledge.   That is the reason
why  Lucifer required the signature in Faust's blood,  for with the NAME  of
his victim thus written in blood,  he could hold the soul in bondage accord-
ing to the laws involved.

   Yes,  indeed!   Blood is a very peculiar essence,  as important in  white
magic as in black.  All knowledge in whatever direction used, must necessar-
ily  feed on life which is primarily derived from the extracts of the  vital
body:  that is to say,  the sex force and the blood.   All knowledge that is
not  thus fed and nurtured,  is as dead and as powerless as  the  philosophy
Faust  extracted  from his books.   No books are of  themselves  sufficient.
only  in the measure that we take that knowledge into our lives and  nourish
it and live it, is it of real value.

   But  there  is  this great difference: that while  the  aspirant  in  the
schools of the Sacred Science feeds his soul on HIS OWN SEX  FORCE  and  the

[PAGE 919]

lower  passions in HIS OWN BLOOD which he thus transmutes and cleanses,  the
adherents  of the black school live as vampires on the sex force  of  others
and the impure blood drawn from the veins of victims.   In the Castle of the
Grail  we  see the pure and cleansing blood working wonders upon  those  who
were chaste and aspired to high deeds, but in the Castle of Herod,  the per-
sonification of voluptuousness,  Salome,  causes the passion filled blood to
race riotously through the veins of the participants, and the blood dripping
from  the  head of the martyred Baptist served to give them the  power  they
were too cowardly to acquire through suffering,  by cleansing themselves  of
impurities.

   Faust aims to acquire power quickly by the aid of others,  hence he  con-
tacts  the  danger  point,  just as everyone  does  today,  who  runs  after
self-styled "adepts"  or "masters,"  who are ready to pander to the   lowest
appetites  of their dupes--for a consideration--as Lucifer offers  to  serve
Faust.   But they can give no soul powers no matter what they  claim.   That
comes from within, by patient persistence in well-doing, a fact which cannot
be too often reiterated.

[PAGE 920]

   Being in a reckless mood,  Faust answers contemptuously the demand of Lu-
cifer for his signature in blood to the pact between them,  with the follow-
ing words:

   "Be not afraid that I shall break my word.
   The scope of all my energy
   Is with my vow in full accord.
   Vainly have i aspired too high;
   I'm on a level but with such as thou;
   Me the Great Spirit scorned, defied.
   Nature from me herself doth hide.
   Rent is the web of thought; my mind
   Doth knowledge loathe of every kind.
   In depths of sensual pleasure drowned
   Let us our fiery passions still;
   Enwrapped in magic's veil profound
   Let wondrous charm our senses thrill.

[PAGE 921]

   Having  been  scorned by the powers which make for good and  being  thor-
oughly inflamed with a desire for first-hand knowledge,  for real power,  he
is ready to go to any length.   But God is represented as saying in the pro-
logue:

   "A good man in his darkest aberration,
   Still knoweth the way that leadeth to salvation."

   Faust is the aspiring soul,  and the soul cannot be permanently  diverted
from the path of evolution.

   The statement by Faust of his purpose bears out the assertion that he has
a high ideal, even when wallowing in mire--he wants experience:

   "The end I aim at is not joy.
   I crave excitement, agonizing bliss,
   Enamored hatred, quickening vexation.
   Purged from the love of knowledge, my vocation.
   The scope of all my powers henceforth be this:
   To bare my breast to every pang, to know
   In my heart's core all human weal and woe,
   To grasp in thought the lofty and the deep;
   Man's various fortunes on my breast to heap."

   Before anyone can be truly compassionate, he must feel, as Faust  desires
to feel,  the depth of the sorrows of the human soul as well as its most ec-
static joys;  for only when we know these extremes of the human passion  can
we feel the  compassion  necessary  for those who would aid in the uplift of

[PAGE 922]

humanity.   by the help of Lucifer, Faust is able to learn both joy and sor-
row, and thus Lucifer is indeed, as he says,

   ". . .The pow'r that still
   Works for good, though scheming ill."

   By  the interference of the Lucifer Spirits in the scheme  of  evolution,
the  passions  of mankind were aroused, intensified and led into  a  channel
which has caused all the sorrow and sickness in the world.  Nevertheless, it
has awakened the individuality of man and freed him from the leading strings
of the Angels.   Faust, also, by the help of Lucifer, is led out of the con-
ventional  paths and becomes thereby individualized.   When the bargain  has
been concluded between Faust and Lucifer we have the replica of the Sons  of
Cain, who are the progeny and charges of the Lucifer Spirits as we have seen
in "Freemasonry and Catholicism."

   In the tragedy of Faust, Marguerite is the ward of the Sons of Seth,  the
priesthood described in the Masonic legend.   Presently the two classes rep-
resented by Faust and Marguerite are to meet,  and between them the  tragedy
of life will be enacted and out of the sorrows encountered by each in conse-
quence, the soul will grow wings that will raise it again to realms of bliss
whence  it came.   In the meanwhile Lucifer conducts Faust to  the  witches'
kitchen where he is to receive the  elixir of youth, so that rejuvenated, he

[PAGE 923]

may become desirable in the eyes of Marguerite.

   When Faust is presented upon the stage,  the witches'  kitchen is full of
instruments supposed to be used in magic.   A hell-fire burns under a kettle
wherein  love potions are brewed and there is much else which is  fantastic.
But  we may pass by the inanimate objects without even mentioning them,  and
consider  with  profit  what is meant by the family of apes  which  we  find
there, for they also represent a phase of human evolution.

   Filled with a passion instilled by the Lucifer Spirits, or fallen Angels,
mankind broke away from the angelic host led by Jehovah.   As a  consequence
of the hardening power of desire,  "coats of skin"  soon enveloped them  and
separated them from each other.   Egotism supplanted the feeling of brother-
hood as the nadir of materiality was approached.   Some were more passionate
than others, hence their bodies crystallized to a greater extent.   They de-
generated and became apes.   Their size also dwindled as they approached the
line where the species must be extinguished.  They are, therefore, the espe-
cial wards of the Lucifer Spirits.   Thus the Faust myth shows us a phase of
human  evolution not included in the Masonic legend,  and gives us a  fuller
and more rounded view of what has actually happened.

   Once,  all  mankind stood at the point where the scientist  believes  the
missing link to have been.  Those which are now apes, degenerated  from that

[PAGE 924]

point  while the human family evolved to its present stage  of  development.
We know how indulgence of the passion brutalizes those who give way to them,
and  we can readily realize that at a time when man was yet in  the  making,
unindividualized, and under direct control of cosmic forces, this indulgence
would  be  unchecked by the sense of selfhood which guards us in  a  measure
body.   Therefore,  the results would naturally be more far-reaching and di-
sastrous.

   Some time the aspiring soul must enter the witches' kitchen as Faust did,
and face the object lesson of the consequence of evil as represented by  the
apes.   The soul is then left to meet Marguerite in the garden, to tempt and
be tempted, to choose between purity or passion, to fall as Faust did, or to
stand staunchly for purity,  as did Parsifal.  Under the Law of Compensation
it  will  then receive its reward for the deeds done in the  body.   Indeed,
luck is twin to merit,  as Lucifer points out to Faust,  and true wisdom  is
only acquired by patient persistence in well-doing.

   "How closely luck is linked to merit
   Does never to the fool occur.
   Had he the wise man's stone, I swear it,
   The stone had no philosopher."

   True  to his purpose to study LIFE instead of BOOKS,  Faust demands  that
Lucifer procure for him admittance to the home of Marguerite,  and  proceeds
to win her affections by a princely gift of jewels smuggled into her  closet

[PAGE 925]

by  Lucifer.   The brother of Marguerite is away fighting for  his  country.
Her mother is unable to decide what is best to do with the gift and takes it
to the spiritual adviser in the church.  The latter loves the shining stones
more  than the precious souls entrusted to his care.   He neglects his  duty
for a necklace of pearls,  more eager to secure th gems for the adornment of
an idol, than to guard the child of the church against moral dangers lurking
around  her.   Thus Lucifer gains his point and quickly reaps  a  reward  of
blood and human souls,  for in order to gain access to marguerite's chamber,
Faust induces her to give her mother a sleeping potion which results in  the
death of the parent.   Valentine,  the brother of Marguerite,  is killed  by
Faust.   Marguerite is cast into prison and sentenced to suffer capital pun-
ishment.

   When  we  remember that the blood is the seat of the soul,  and  that  it
clings to the flesh of a person who meets a sudden and untimely end with the
same tenacity as the kernel adheres to the flesh of an unripe fruit,  it  is
easy to see that there is considerable torture connected with such a  death.
The Lucifer Spirits revel in the intensity of feeling and evolve by it.  The
nature  of an emotion is not so essential as the intensity,  so far  as  the
purpose is concerned.   Therefore, they stir the human passions of the lower
nature,  which are more intense in our present stage of evolution than feel-
ings of joy and love.  As a result, they incite to  war  and  bloodshed, and

[PAGE 926]

appear  evil now but in reality they act as stepping-stones  towards  higher
and nobler ideals,  for through sorrow and suffering such as are  engendered
in the breast of Marguerite, the Ego rises higher in the scale of evolution.
It learns the value of virtue by a misstep in the direction of vice.

   It was with true appreciation of this fact that Goethe wrote:

   "Who never ate his bread in sorrow,
   Who never spent the midnight hours,
   Weeping, waiting for the morrow,
   He knows ye not, ye heavenly powers."

[PAGE 927]

                 THE WAGES OF SIN AND THE WAYS OF SALVATION:

   "The wages of sin is death," says the Bible, and when we sow to the flesh
we must expect to reap corruption.   Neither should we be surprised that one
who is negative of character,  like the class described as the Sons of Seth,
represented by marguerite in the Faust myth, falls a prey to this law of na-
ture at an early date after his measure of sin has been filled.   The speedy
apprehension of Marguerite for the crime of matricide is an illustration  of
how  the law works.   The holy horror of the church that was remiss  in  not
guarding her while there was yet time, is an example of how society seeks to
cover up its negligence,  and holds up its hands,  shocked by the crimes for
which it is itself, in a great measure, responsible.

   Had  the priest sought the confidence of Marguerite instead  of  coveting
the  jewels,  he might have protected her from the fat that befell her,  and
though she might have suffered by losing her lover,  she would have remained
pure.  It is, however, through the intensity of sorrow  that  the  suffering

[PAGE 928]

soul  finds  its way back to the source of its being,  for we  have  all  as
prodigal  sons  left our Father in Heaven;  we have wandered afar  from  the
realms of spirit, to feed upon the husks of matter, to gather experience and
to gain individuality.

   When we are in the slough of despair we being to realize our high parent-
age and exclaim, "I will arise an go to my Father."  membership in churches,
or the study of mysticism from an intellectual point of view, does not bring
the realization of the WHITHER,  which is necessary before we can follow the
Path.   But when we are bereft of all earthly support,  when we are sick and
in prison,  we are nearer and dearer to the Saviour than at any other  time.
Therefore,  Marguerite in prison and under the ban of society,  is closer to
God than the innocent,  beautiful and pure Marguerite, who had the world be-
fore her when she met Faust in the garden.

   The Christ has no message for those who are satisfied and love the  world
and its ways.  So long as they are in that condition of mind he cannot speak
to them nor can they hear His voice.  But there is an infinite tenderness in
the  words of the Saviour:   "Come unto me all ye that labor and  are  heavy
laden, and I will give you rest."  the sinning soul symbolized by Marguerite
in her prison cell, standing alone, ostracized by society as a moral and so-
cial leper, is impelled to turn her eyes heavenward and her prayer is not in
vain.  Yet, even to the last moment, temptations beset the seeking soul. The

[PAGE 929]

gate of hell and the gate of heaven are equally close to the prison cell  of
Marguerite, as illustrated by the visit of Faust and Lucifer who endeavor to
drag  her  from prison and impending death to a life of shame  and  bondage.
But she stands firm; she prefers prison and death to life and liberty in the
company of Lucifer.  She has thus stood the test and qualified for the King-
dom of God.

   Solomon was the serf of Jehovah and as a Son of Seth he was bound to  the
God who created him and his ancestors.   But in a later life,  as Jesus,  he
left  his former Master at the Baptism and then received the Spirit  of  the
Christ.   So every Son of Seth, must some day leave his guardians and take a
stand for Christ, regardless of the sacrifice entailed thereby,  even though
life be the price.

   Marguerite in her prison cell takes that important step and qualifies for
citizenship in the New Heaven and the New Earth, BY FAITH in Christ.  Faust,
on the other hand,  remains with the Lucifer Spirit for a considerable time.
He is a more positive character, a true Son of Cain, and though the wages of
sin must eventually bring him death, salvation may come through a purer con-
ception of love and through works.

   In  the second part of Faust we find the hero broken in spirit  over  the
disaster which has befallen Marguerite through his instrumentality.   He re-
alizes  his fault and begins to climb the road of redemption.   He uses  the
Lucifer Spirit, bound to him by the bargain of blood as a means of attaining

[PAGE 930]

his  end.   He becomes an important factor in the affairs of  state  of  the
country whither he has journeyed, for all the Sons of Cain delight in state-
craft as the Sons of Seth love churchcraft.

   Not content, however, to serve another, under existing conditions,  Faust
sets the diabolical forces under his command to create a land,  to raise  it
out of the sea and make a New Earth.   He dreams a Utopian dream of how this
free land shall be the home of a free people who shall dwell there in  peace
and contentment living up to the highest ideals of life.

   These ideals are generated in his soul by the love of a character  called
Helen,  which is a love of the loftiest and most spiritual nature,  entirely
separate from the thought of sex and passion.  In the course of time he sees
this land rise from the sea but his eyes are growing blind, for he is shift-
ing this gaze from an earthly to a heavenly condition.  While he thus stands
looking at the forces marshalled by Lucifer,  toiling at this behest day and
night, Faust realizes that he has made real the claim of Lucifer, to be

   "The power that still
   Works for good though scheming ill."

   He sees his work with the lower forces nearing completion,  but his sight
grows dimmer, and with that intense longing which comes to the  soul  to see

[PAGE 931]

the  fruitage of its works,  he desires to retain his sight until all  shall
have  been accomplished and his Utopian dream shall have become  a  reality.
Therefore,  as the vision before him--the land rising from the sea  and  the
happy  people who live upon it in good fellowship--fades from his  sightless
eyes, he utters the fateful words named by him in his bargain with Lucifer;

   "Whenever to the passing hour
   I say, 'Oh stay! thou art so fair,
   Then unto thee I give the power
   To drag me down to deep despair.
   Then let me knell no longer linger,
   Then from my service thou art free;
   Fall from the clock the index finger,
   Be time all over then for me."

   By  terms of that bargain,  when Faust has uttered the fateful words  the
forces of hell are loosed from bondage to him,  and he in turn becomes their
prey: at least so it would seem.  But Faust did not desire to stay the march
of  time  for the purpose of enjoying sensual pleasures  nor  of  gratifying
selfish desires, as contemplated by the bargain.  It was for the realization
of an altruistic and a noble ideal that he wished to stay the passing  hour.
Therefore,  he is really free from Lucifer, and a battle between the angelic
forces  and  the  hosts of Lucifer finally results in  the  triumph  of  the
former, who carry the seeking soul to the haven of  rest  in  the kingdom of

[PAGE 932]

the Christ, while they utter the following words:

   "Saved is the noble soul from ill,
   Our spirit peer.  Whoever
   Strives forward with unswerving will
   Him can we aye deliver.
   And if with him celestial love
   Hath taken part, to meet him
   Come down the angels from above;
   With cordial hail they greet him."

   Thus  the Faust of the myth is an entirely different character  from  the
Faust  of the stage;  and the drama which begins in heaven where  permission
was  given Lucifer to tempt him,  as Job was tempted in ancient times,  also
ends  in heaven when the temptation has been overcome and the soul  has  re-
turned to its Father.

   Goethe,  the great mystic, fittingly ends his version with that most mys-
tic of all stanzas found in any literature:

   "All that is perishable,
   Is but a likeness.
   The unattainable
   Here is accomplished.
   The indescribable,
   Here it is done.
   The Eternal Feminine
   Draws us on."

[PAGE 933]

   This  stanza  puzzles all who are not able to penetrate into  the  realms
where it is supposed to be sung, namely heaven.

   It speaks of all that is perishable being but a likeness, that is to say,
the  material forms which are subject to death and transmutation are  but  a
likeness of the archetype seen in heaven.   "The unattainable here is accom-
plished"--that  which seemed impossible on Earth is accomplished in  heaven.
No one knows that better than one able to function in the realm,  for  there
every high and lofty aspiration finds fruition.  The indescribable longings,
ideas  and experiences of the soul,  which even it cannot express to  itself
are  clearly defined in heaven;  the Eternal Feminine,  the  great  Creative
Force in Nature, the mother God, which draws us along the path of evolution,
becomes there a reality.   Thus the Faust myth tells the story of the  World
Temple,  which the two classes of people are building and which will be  fi-
nally the New Heaven and the New Earth prophesied in the Book of Books.

[PAGE 934]

                PARSIFAL: WAGNER'S FAMOUS MYSTIC MUSIC DRAMA:

   As we look about us in the material universe we see a myriad of forms and
all these forms have a certain color and many of them emit a definite  tone;
in fact all do, for there is sound even in so-called inanimate Nature.   The
wind in the tree tops, the babbling of the brook, the swell of the ocean are
all definite contributions to the harmony of Nature.

   Of these three attributes of Nature, form, color,  and tone,  form is the
most  stable,  tending to remain in STATUE QUO for a considerable  time  and
changing  very  slowly.  Color  on the other hand, changes more readily:  it
fades,  and there are some colors that change their hue when held at differ-
ent angles to the light; but tone is the most elusive of all three; it comes
and goes like a will-o'-the-wisp, which none may catch or hold.

   We also have three arts which seek to express the good,  the true and the
beautiful in these three attributes of the World Soul:   namely,  sculpture,
painting and music.

   The  sculptor  who deals with form seeks to imprison beauty in  a  marble
statue  that  will withstand the ravages of time during millenniums;  but  a
marble  statue is cold and speaks to but a few of the most evolved  who  are
able to infuse the statue with their own life.

   The  painter's art deals pre-eminently with color;  it gives no  tangible
form to its creations;  the form on a painting is an illusion from the mate-
rial point of view, yet it is so much more real to most people that the real
tangible  statue,  for  the forms of a painter are alive;  there  is  LIVING
beauty in the painting of a great artist,  a beauty that many can appreciate
and enjoy.

   But in the case of a painting we are again affected by the changeableness
of color; time soon blots out its freshness, and at the best, of course,  no
painting can outlast a statue.

   Yet in those arts which deal with form and color there is a creation once
and  for  all  time;  they  have  that  in  common,  and in that they differ

[PAGE 935]

radically from the tone art,  for music is so elusive that it must be recre-
ated each time we wish to enjoy it, but in return it has a power to speak to
all human beings in a manner that is entirely beyond the other two arts.  It
will  add to our greatest joys and soothe our deepest sorrows;  it can  calm
the passion of the savage breast and stir to bravery the greatest coward; it
is  the most potent influence in swaying humanity that is known to man,  and
yet, viewed solely from the material standpoint, it is superfluous, as shown
by Darwin and Spencer.

   It  is only when we go behind the scenes of the visible and realize  that
man is a composite being,  Spirit, soul and body, that we are enabled to un-
derstand  why we are thus differently affected by the products of the  three
arts.

   While man lives an outward life in the form world,  where he lives a form
life among other forms, he lives also an inner life, which is of far greater
importance to him;  a life where his feelings,  thoughts and emotions create
before his "inner vision" pictures and scenes that are everchanging, and the
fuller this independent life is,  the less will the man need to seek company
outside himself,  for he is his own best company, independent of the outside
amusement,  so eagerly sought by those whose inner life is barren;  who know
hosts of other people, but are strangers to themselves,  afraid of their own
company.

   If we analyze this inner life we shall find that it  is twofold:  (1) The

[PAGE 936]

soul life,  which deals with the FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS:  (2) the activity of
the Ego which directs all actions by THOUGHT.

   Just as the material world is the base of supply whence the materials for
our dense body have been drawn,  and is pre-eminently the world of form,  so
there  is  a  world  of  the  soul,   called  the  Desire  World  among  the
Rosicrucians,  which is the base from whence the subtle garment of the  Ego,
which we call the soul,  has been drawn,  and this world is particularly the
world of color.   But the still more subtle World of Thought is the home  of
the human Spirit,  the Ego, and also the realm of tone.   Therefore,  of the
three arts,  music has the greatest power over man; for while we are in this
terrestrial life we are exiled from our heavenly home and have often forgot-
ten it in our material pursuits, but then comes music, a fragrant odor laden
with  unspeakable memories.   Like an echo from home it reminds us  of  that
forgotten land where all is joy and peace, and even though we may scout such
ideas  in our material mind,  the Ego knows each blessed note as  a  message
from the home land and rejoices in it.

   This  realization of the nature of music is necessary to the  proper  ap-
preciation  of such a great masterpiece as Richard Wagner's Parsifal,  where
the music and the characters are bound together as in no other modern  musi-
cal production.

   Wagner's drama is founded upon the legend of Parsifal,  a legend that has
its origin enshrouded in the mystery which overshadows  the  infancy  of the

[PAGE 937]

human race.   It is an erroneous idea when we think that a myth is a figment
of human fancy,  having no foundation in fact.  On the contrary, a myth is a
casket containing at times the deepest and most precious jewels of spiritual
truth, pearls of beauty so rare and ethereal that they cannot stand exposure
to  the material intellect.   In order to shield them and at the  same  time
allow  them  to work upon humanity for its spiritual upliftment,  the  Great
Teachers who guide evolution, unseen but potent, give these spiritual truths
to nascent humanity, encased in the picturesque symbolism of myths,  so that
they  may work upon our feelings until such time as our  dawning  intellects
shall have become sufficiently evolved and spiritualized so that we may both
feel and know.

   This  is on the same principle that we give our children moral  teachings
by means of picture books and fairy tales,  reserving the more direct teach-
ing for later years.

   Wagner did more than merely copy the legend.  Legends, like all else, be-
come  encrusted  by transmission and lose their beauty and it is  a  further
evidence of Wagner's greatness that he was never bound in his expression  by
fashion or creed.  He always asserted the prerogative of art in dealing with
allegories untrammeled and free.

   As he says in "Religion And Art": "One might say that where religion  be-
comes artificial, it is reserved for art to save the spirit of  religion  by

[PAGE 938]

recognizing  the  figurative value of the mythical  symbol,  which  religion
would have us believe in a literal sense,  and revealing its deep and hidden
truths through an ideal presentation.  ......Whilst the priest stakes every-
thing on religious allegories being accepted as matters of fact,  the artist
has  no concern at all with such a think,  since he freely and openly  gives
out his work as his own invention.  But religion has sunk into an artificial
life  when she finds herself compelled to keep on adding to the  edifice  of
her  dogmatic symbols,  and thus conceals the one divinely true in her,  be-
neath an ever-growing heap of incredibilities recommended to belief.   Feel-
ing this, she has always sought the aid of art, who on her side has remained
incapable of a higher evolution so long as she must present that alleged re-
ality to the worshiper, in the form of fetishes and idols, whereas she could
only  fulfill her true vocation when,  by an ideal presentment of the  alle-
gorical figure, she let to an apprehension of its inner kernel-the truth in-
effably divine."

   Turning  to  a consideration of the drama of Parsifal we  find  that  the
opening scene is laid in the grounds of the Castle of Mount Salvat.  This is
a place of peace,  where all life is sacred; the animals and birds are tame,
for,  like all really holy men, the knights are harmless, killing neither to
eat nor for sport.  They apply the maxim, "Live and let live," to all living
creatures.

   It  is dawn and the wee Gurnemanz, the oldest of the Grail Knights,  with
two young squires under a tree.  They have just awakened from their  night's

[PAGE 939]

rest,  and in the distance they spy Kundry coming galloping on a wild steed.
In Kundry we see a creature of two existences, one as servitor of the Grail,
willing  and  anxious to further the interests of the Grail Knights  by  all
means  within her power;  this seems to be her real nature.   In  the  other
existence she is the unwilling slave of the magician Klingsor and is  forced
by  him to tempt and harass the Grail Knights whom she longs to serve.   The
gate from one existence to the other is "sleep,"  and she is bound to  serve
him  who finds and wakes her.   When Gurnemanz finds her she is the  willing
servitor of the Grail, but when Klingsor evokes her by his evil spells he is
entitled to her services whether she will or not.

   In the first act she is clothed in a robe of snake skins,  symbolical  of
the doctrine of rebirth,  for as the snake sheds its skin,  coat after coat,
which  it  exudes from itself,  so the Ego in  its  evolutionary  pilgrimage
emanates from itself one body after another,  shedding each vehicles as  the
snake sheds its skin,  when it has become hard, set and crystallized so that
it has lost its efficiency.  This idea is also coupled with the teachings of
the Law of Consequence,  which brings to us as reapings whatever we sow,  in
Gurnemanz's answer to the young squire's avowal of the distrust in Kundry:

         Under a curse she well may be
         From some past life we do not see,
         Seeking from sin to loose the fetter,

[PAGE 940]

         By deeds for which we fare the better.
         Surely 'tis good she follows thus,
         Helping herself while serving us.

   When Kundry comes on the scene she pulls from her bosom a phial which she
says  she has brought from Araby and which she hopes will be a balm for  the
wound in the side of Amfortas,  the King of the Grail,  which causes him un-
speakable suffering and which cannot heal.  The suffering king is then  car-
ried on stage,  reclining on the couch.   He is on his way to his daily bath
in the near-by lake, where two swans swim and make the waters into a healing
lotion which assuages his dreadful sufferings.  Amfortas thanks Kundry,  but
expresses the opinion that there is no relief for him till the deliverer has
come,   of  whom  the  Grail  has  prophesied,  "a  virgin  fool,   by  pity
enlightened."  But Amfortas thinks death will come before deliverance.

   Amfortas  is  carried out,  and four of the young  squires  crowd  around
Gurnemanz  and  ask him to tell them the story of the  Grail  and  Amfortas'
wound.  They all recline beneath the tree, and Gurnemanz begins:

   "On the night when our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus,  ate the Last Sup-
per  with his disciples He drank the wind from a certain chalice,  and  that
was  later used by Joseph of Arimathea to catch the lifeblood  which  flowed
from  the  would  in  the  Redeemer's  side.  He  also kept the bloody lance

[PAGE 941]

wherewith the wound was inflicted, and carried these relics with him through
many perils and persecutions.   At last they were taken in charge by Angels,
who  guarded them until one night a mystic messenger sent from God  appeared
and bade Titurel,  Amfortas'  father,  build a castle for the reception  and
safe-keeping of these relics.   Thus the Castle of Mount Salvat was built ON
A  HIGH  MOUNTAIN,  and the relics lodged there under  the  guardianship  of
Titurel with a band of holy and chaste knights whom he had drawn around him.
It became a center whence mighty spiritual influences went forth to the out-
side world.

   "But  there  lived  in yonder heathen vale a black  knight  who  was  not
chaste,  yet desired to become a Knight of the Grail, and to that end he mu-
tilated himself.  He deprived himself of the ability to gratify his passion,
but the passion remained.   King Titurel saw his heart filled with black de-
sire,  and refused him admittance.  Klingsor then swore that if he could not
serve the Grail, the Grail should serve him.  He built a castle with a magic
garden  and populated it with maidens of ravishing beauty,  who  emitted  an
odor like flowers, and these waylaid the Knights of the Grail (who must pass
the castle when leaving or returning to Mount Salvat) ensnaring them to  be-
tray their trust and violate their vows of chastity.   Thus they became  the
prisoners of Klingsor and but few remained as defenders of the Grail.

[PAGE 942]

   "In  the meantime Titurel had turned the wardenship of the Grail over  to
his  son  Amfortas  and  the latter, seeing the  serious  havoc  wrought  by
Klingsor,  determined to go out to meet and to do battle with him.   To that
end he took with him the holy spear.

   "The wily Klingsor did not meet Amfortas in person, but evoked Kundry and
transformed  her from the hideous creature who appeared as the  servitor  of
the Grail to a woman of transcendent beauty.  Under Klingsor's spell she met
and  tempted Amfortas,  who yielded and sank into her arms,  letting go  his
hold upon the sacred spear.  Klingsor then appeared, grasped the spear,  in-
flicted  a wound upon the defenseless Amfortas,  and but for the heroic  ef-
forts  of Gurnemanz he would have carried Amfortas a prisoner to  his  magic
castle.   He has the holy spear, however, and the king is crippled with suf-
fering, for the wound will not heal."

   The young squires spring up, fired with ardor, vowing that they will con-
quer Klingsor and restore the spear.  Gurnemanz sadly shakes his head,  say-
ing  that the task is beyond them, but reiterates the prophecy that the  re-
demption shall be accomplished by a "pure fool, by pity enlightened."

   Now cries are heard:   "The swan!   Oh,  the swan!"   and a swan flutters
across  the stage and falls dead at the feet of Gurnemanz and  the  squires,
who are much agitated at the sight.  Other squires bring in a stalwart youth
armed  with bow and arrows,  and to Gurnemanz's sad enquiry,  "Why  did  you
shoot  the  harmless  creature?"  he  answers  innocently,  "Was  it wrong?"

[PAGE 943]

Gurnemanz  then  tells him of the suffering king and of the swan's  part  in
making the healing bath.  Parsifal is deeply moved at the recital and breaks
his bow.

   In all religions the quickening spirit has been symbolically  represented
as a bird.   At the Baptism, when Jesus' body was in the water the Spirit of
Christ  descended into it as a dove.  "The Spirit moves upon the  water,"  a
fluidic medium,  as the swans move upon the lake beneath the Yggdrasil,  the
tree of life of Norse mythology,  or upon the waters of the lake in the leg-
end of the Grail.   The bird is therefore a direct representation of highest
spiritual influence and well may the knights sorrow at the loss.   Truth  is
many  sided.   There are at least seven valid interpretations to each  myth,
one for each world, and looked at from the material, literal side,  the com-
passion  engendered in Parsifal and the breaking of his bow mark a  definite
step in the higher life.   No one can be truly compassionate and a helper in
evolution while he kills to eat, either in person or by proxy.  THE HARMLESS
LIFE IS AN ABSOLUTE ESSENTIAL PREREQUISITE TO THE HELPFUL LIFE.

   Gurnemanz then commences to question him about himself:   who he is,  and
how  he came to Mount Salvat.  Parsifal displays the most  surprising  igno-
rance.  To all questions he answers, "I do not know."  At last Kundry speaks
up and says:  "I can tell you who he is.  His father was the noble  Gamuret,

[PAGE 944]

a prince among men,  who died fighting in Arabia while this child was yet in
the womb of his mother, Lady Herzleide.  With his last, dying breath his fa-
ther  named him Parsifal,  the pure fool.  Fearing that he would grow up  to
learn the art of war and be taken from her,  his mother brought him up in  a
dense forest in ignorance of weapons and warfare."

   Here  Parsifal chimes in:   "Yes,  and one day I saw some men on  shapely
beasts;  I wanted to be like them,  so I followed them for many days till at
least I came here and I had to fight many manlike monsters."

   In  this story we have an excellent picture of the soul's search for  the
realities of life.  Gamuret and Parsifal are different phases of the life of
the soul.   Gamuret is the man of the world, but in time he became wedded to
Herzleide,  heart affliction,  in other words.  he meets sorrow and dies  to
the world,  as all of us do who have come into the higher life.   While  the
bark of life floats on summer seas and our existence seems one grand,  sweet
song there is no incentive to turn to the higher;  every fibre in our bodies
cries,  "This is good enough for me," but when the billows of adversity roar
around us and each succeeding wave threatens to engulf us, then we have wed-
ded heart affliction and become men of sorrows,  and are ready to be born as
Parsifal,  the  pure fool or the soul who has forgotten the  wisdom  of  the
world  and is seeking for the higher life.  So long as a man is  seeking  to
accumulate money or to have a good time,  so miscalled,  he is wide with the
wisdom  of  the  world;  but  when he sets his face toward the things of the

[PAGE 945]

Spirit,  he becomes a fool in the eyes of the world.   He forgets all  about
his past life and leaves his sorrows behind him, as Parsifal left Herzleide,
and we are told that she died when Parsifal did not return to her.   So sor-
row  dies when it has given birth to the aspiring soul that flees  from  the
world; he may be in the world to perform his duty but is not of the world.

   Gurnemanz has now become imbued with the idea that Parsifal is to be  the
deliverer  of  Amfortas  and takes him along to the Grail  Castle.   And  to
Parsifal's question, "Who is the Grail?"  he answers:

         That tell we not; but is thou has of Him been bidden,
         From thee the truth will not stay hidden
         Methinks they fact I rightly knew.
         The land to Him no path leads through,
         And search but severs from Him wider,
         When He Himself is not its guider.

   Here we find Wagner bringing us back into pre-Christian times, for before
the advent of Christ,  Initiation was not free to "whosoever will"  seek  in
the  proper  manner,  but was reserved for certain chosen ones such  as  the
Brahmins  and the Levites,  who were given special privileges in return  for
being  dedicated  to the temple service.   The coming  of  Christ,  however,
wrought certain definite changes in the constitution of mankind, so  now all

[PAGE 946]

are capable of entering the pathway of Initiation.  Indeed,  it had to be so
when international marriages took away caste.

   At the Castle of the Grail,  Amfortas is being importuned on all sides to
perform  the sacred rite of the Grail service,  to uncover the holy  chalice
that the sight of it may renew the ardor of the knights and spur them on  to
deeds  of spiritual service;  but he shrinks,  from fear and pain the  sight
will cause him to feel.  The wound in his side always starts to bleed afresh
at the sight of the Grail, as the wound of remorse pains us all when we have
sinned against our ideal.   At last, however,  he yields to the combined en-
treaties of his father and the knights.   He performs the holy rite,  though
the while he suffers the most excruciating agony,  and Parsifal,  who stands
in a corner, FEELS SYMPATHETICALLY THE SAME PAIN, without realizing why, and
when Gurnemanz eagerly asks him after the ceremony what he saw,  he  remains
dumb and is thrust out of the castle by the angry, because disappointed, old
knight.

   The feelings and emotions unchecked by knowledge are fruitful sources  of
temptation.   The very harmlessness and guilelessness of the  aspiring  soul
renders it often an easy prey to sin.   It is necessary to soul growth  that
these temptations come in order to bring out our weak points.   If we  fall,
we suffer as did Amfortas,  but the paid evolves conscience and gives abhor-
rence  of  sin.  It  makes  us  strong  against  temptation.  Every child is

[PAGE 947]

INNOCENT because it has not been tempted, but only when we have been tempted
and have remained pure, or when we have fallen, repented and reformed are we
VIRTUOUS.  Therefore Parsifal must be tempted.

   In  the second act we see Klingsor in the act of evoking Kundry,  for  he
has spied Parsifal coming towards his castle, and he fears him more than all
who have come before,  BECAUSE HE IS A FOOL.   A worldly-wise man is  easily
entrapped  by the snares of the flower girls,  but Parsifal's  guilelessness
protects  him,  and when the flower girls cluster around him  he  innocently
asks,  "Are you flowers?   You smell so sweet."   Against him  the  superior
wiles of Kundry are necessary,  and though she pleads,  protests and rebels,
she is forced to tempt Parsifal,  and to that end she appears as a woman  of
superb  beauty,  calling Parsifal by name.  That name stirs  in  his  breast
memories of his childhood,  his mother's love, and Kundry beckons him to her
side  and  commences to subtly work upon his feelings by  recalling  to  his
memory  visions of his mother's love and the sorrow she felt at  his  depar-
ture, which ended her life.  Then she tells him of the other love, which may
compensate him,  of the love of man for woman, and at last imprints upon his
lips a long, fervent and passionate kiss.

   Then there was silence, deep and terrible, as if the destiny of the whole
world hung in the balance at that fervent kiss,  and as she holds him in her
arms  his  face  undergoes  a  gradual  change  and becomes drawn with pain.

[PAGE 948]

Suddenly he springs up as if that kiss had stung his being into a new  paid,
the lines on his pallid face become more intense, and both hands are clasped
tightly  against  his throbbing heart as if to stifle some  awful  agony-the
Grail cup appears before his vision,  and then Amfortas in the same dreadful
agony,  and at last he cries out:   "Amfortas,  oh,  Amfortas!   I  know  it
now-the spear wound in thy side-it burns my heart, it sears my very soul. ..
.....O grief!   O misery!  Anguish beyond words!  the wound is bleeding here
in my own side!"

   Then again,  in the same awful strain:  "Nay, this is not the spear wound
in my side,  for this is fire and flame within my heart that sways my senses
in delirium, the awful madness of tormenting love.  .......Now do I know how
all the world is stirred,  tosses,  convulsed and often lost in shame by the
terrific passions of the heart."

   Kundry  again  tempts him:   "If this one kiss has brought  you  so  much
knowledge,  how much more will be yours if you yield to my love, if only for
an hour?"

   But there is hesitation now;  Parsifal has awakened;  he knows right from
wrong,  and he replies:   "Eternity were lost to both of us if I yielded  to
you even for one short hour;  but I will save you and also deliver you  from
the  curse of passion,  for THE LOVE THAT BURNS WITHIN YOU IS ONLY  SENSUAL,
AND BETWEEN THAT AND THE TRUE LOVE OF PURE HEARTS THERE YAWNS AN ABYSS  LIKE
THAT BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL."

   When Kundry at last must confess herself foiled she  bursts  out in great

[PAGE 949]

anger.  She calls upon Klingsor to help, and he appears with the holy spear,
which he hurls against Parsifal.   But he is pure and harmless,  so  nothing
can hurt him.   The spear floats harmlessly above his head.   He grasps  it,
makes  the sign of the cross with it and Klingsor's castle and magic  garden
sink into ruins.

   The  third act opens on Good Friday many years after.   A travel  stained
warrier,  clad  in black mail,  enters the grounds of  Mount  Salvat,  where
Gurnemanz  lives  in  a hut.   He takes off his helmet and  places  a  spear
against a nearby rock and kneels down in prayer.   Gurnemanz coming in  with
Kundry, whom he had just found asleep in a thicket, recognizes Parsifal with
the holy spear and, overjoyed, welcomes him, asking whence he comes.

   He  had asked the same question of Parsifal's first visit and the  answer
had been:  I do not know."  But this time it is very different, for Parsifal
answers:  "Through search and suffering I came."  The first occasion depicts
one  of the glimpses the soul gets of the realities of the higher life,  but
the second is the conscious attainment to a higher level of spiritual activ-
ity by the man, who has developed by sorrow and suffering, and Parsifal goes
on  to tell how he was often sorely beset by enemies,  and might have  saved
himself  by using the spear,  but refrained because it was an instrument  of
healing and not for hurt.   The spear is the spiritual power which comes  to
the  pure  heart  and  life,  but is ONLY TO BE USED FOR UNSELFISH PURPOSES;

[PAGE 950]

impurity and passion cause its loss, as was the case with Amfortas.   Though
the man who possesses it may upon occasion use it to feed five thousand hun-
gry  people he may not turn a single stone to bread to appease his own  hun-
ger,  and though he may use it to stay the blood that flows from the severed
ear of a captor, he may not use it to stay the lifeblood that flows from his
own side.  It was ever said of such:  "Others he saved; himself he could not
(or would not) save."

   Parsifal and Gurnemanz go into the Grail Castle,  where Amfortas is being
importuned to perform the sacred rite,  but refuses in order to save himself
the pain entailed in viewing the Holy Grail;  baring his breast he  implores
his  followers  to kill him.   At this moment Parsifal steps up to  him  and
touches  the  wound  with  the lance, causing  it  to  heal.   He  dethrones
Amfortas, however, and takes to himself the wardership of the Holy Grail and
Sacred Lance.   Only those who have the most perfect unselfishness,  coupled
with the nicest discrimination,  are fit to have the spiritual power symbol-
ized by the spear.   Amfortas would have used it to attack and hurt the  en-
emy.   Parsifal would not even use it in self-defense.  THEREFORE HE IS ABLE
TO HEAL, while Amfortas fell into the pit he had dug for Klingsor.

   In  the last act Kundry,  who represents who lower nature,  says but  one
word:   SERVICE.   She helps Parsifal, the Spirit,  to attain by her perfect
service.   In  the  first act she went to sleep when  Parsifal  visited  the
Grail.  At that state the Spirit cannot soar heavenward except when the body

[PAGE 951]

has been left asleep of dies.  But in the last act Kundry, the body, goes to
the Grail Castle also, for it is dedicated to the higher self,  and when the
Spirit as Parsifal has attained, he has reached the stage of liberation spo-
ken  of  in Revelation:   "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar  in  the
house of my God:  he shall go out thence no more."  Such a one will work for
humanity from the higher worlds;  he needs no physical body any more;  he is
beyond the Law of Rebirth, and therefore Kundry dies.

   Oliver Wendell Holmes,  in his beautiful poem,  "The Chambered Nautilus,"
has embodied in verse this idea of constant progression in gradually improv-
ing vehicles,  and final liberation.   The nautilus builds its spiral  shell
inchambered section,  constantly leaving the smaller ones, which it has out-
grown, for the last built.

         Year after year beheld the silent toil
         That spread his lustrous coil;
         Still, as the spiral grew,
         He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
         Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
         Built up its idle door,
         Stretched in his last found home, he knew the old no more.
         Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
         Child of the wandering sea,

[PAGE 952]

         Cast from her lap forlorn,
         From they dead lips a clearer note is born
         Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn!
         While on mine ear it rings,
         Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:

         Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul!
         As the swift seasons roll
         Leave thy low-vaulted past,
         Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
         Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
         Till thou at length art free,
         Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

Continued with "RC1027.TXT"

End of File

