# Scene 2

*A meditation chamber. Prevailing colour violet. Serious, but not gloomy atmosphere.  
  
Benedictus, Maria, then the Spirit-Figures representing soul-powers.*

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

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

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

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

*Maria:*  
What I have seen—is truth ... It cannot be!  
Between my master's utterance and mine ear  
Delusion steals. 0 speak to me again.

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

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

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

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

*Benedictus:*  
Thou wart accounted worthy to retrace  
Thy path on earth in days long since gone by.  
But thou must not forget to look and see  
If thou canst be assured with certainty  
That of thy past lives none concealed doth stay  
When backward thou dost turn thy spirit's eye.

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

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

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

*(Maria sinks into deep thought.)*

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

*Maria:*  
O ye my sisters, whom  
I find in Being's depths,  
Whene'er my soul expands  
And guides itself within  
The cosmic distances:  
The powers of sight for me  
From ether's heights release  
And lead to earthly paths  
That I may know myself  
As I exist in Time  
And may direct my course  
From out old ways of life  
Unto new spheres of Will.

*Philia:*  
I will myself imbue  
With soul's aspiring light  
From my heart's inmost depths:  
I will breathe deep within  
Will's might that giveth life  
From out the spirit powers:  
Dear sister, that thou may'st  
Experience the Light  
I thine old ways of life.

*Astrid:*  
I will weave self-hood in  
All conscious of itself  
With Love's submissive will;  
I will release forthwith  
The budding powers of Will  
From fetters of desire  
And change thy yearning weak  
To spirit certainty;  
Dear Sister, that thou may'st  
In distant paths on earth  
Unravel thine own self.

*Luna:*  
The self-denying powers  
Of heart will I call forth,  
And will make hard and fast  
Enduring soul-repose  
Then shall they wed, and raise  
The powerful spirit light  
From out the depths of soul.  
They shall impenetrate,  
And force Earth's bounds to heed  
The listening spirit ear;  
Dear Sister, that thou may'st  
Find in Time's vast expanse  
The traces of thy life.

*Maria:*  
If I could only tear  
My 'wildered self away  
And give myself to you  
That ye from cosmic space  
Might thus reflect my soul;  
Then could I loose myself  
From out this sphere of life  
And find myself again  
In other states of being,

*(Long pause, then the following:)*

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

*A Spirit-voice,—the spiritual conscience:*  
Her thoughts are seeking now  
For Clues in Time's vast space.  
What as debt she still loth owe,  
What as duty is imposed,  
Arise from out her inmost depths of soul,  
From whose deepness dreaming  
Mankind doth guide his life,  
In whose deepness straying  
Mankind himself doth lose.

*Curtain falls; everybody still standing on the stage*