The Origin and Development of Eurythmy 1920–1922

GA 277c — 1 January 1922, Dornach

Address on Eurythmy

The performance took place in the dome room of the Goetheanum.

Ladies and gentlemen!

Today, I will again limit myself to saying just a few words about how a stylization that can be brought to life in a particularly effective way through eurythmy on stage will be presented today in a few pieces from the “Mystery Dramas” I have attempted. In the second part of today's performance, we will present a scene from “The Awakening of Souls,” a scene that actually preceded yesterday's performance.

This scene also reveals something of the soul life of Johannes Thomasius – and in such a way that this soul life is not meant in an allegorical or symbolic sense, but is to be portrayed as it presents itself through sensory-supersensory vision. First, a double choir will appear: a choir with gnome-like figures and a choir with sylph-like figures. The purpose of the gnome choir is to show how those soul forces that are more on the intellectual side are at work in the soul of Johannes Thomasius; the sylph choir shows how those forces that are more on the emotional and sentimental side are at work.

The reason why one is compelled to resort to such nature-spirit-like scenes when depicting the soul life of a human being is that, in reality, the connection between human beings and nature is such that it cannot be exhausted in an abstract lawfulness, as we are accustomed to in our present-day understanding. One can ponder at length how the relationship between humans and nature can be expressed in such laws alone in a scientifically justified manner. Since this is not the case, and since one must be guided by reality and not by human cognitive requirements, one must resort to that which expresses the relationship between humans and matter in a realistic way.

But when a person is engaged in genuine self-reflection—as is the case with Johannes Thomasius—then at certain moments in their life they also come particularly close to nature. They then feel, in a sense, particularly connected to nature. And this connection is to be represented by the chorus of gnomes, which reveals itself from nature as a reign of purely intellectual, cunning, and ironic powers, and by the chorus of sylphs, which reveals everything that can be imagined in nature in terms of soul forces and emotional forces when one remembers the soulfulness of nature from within. Then three figures appear, complemented by a fourth: Philia, Astrid, Luna, and the other Philia.

These figures appear because it is necessary to show – again, not in a symbolic way, but just as such things appear to the discerning, supersensible gaze – [because] it is necessary to show what Johannes Thomasius brings about, on the one hand, in self-contemplation. That which, I would say [gap in the text], is experienced by the human soul is expressed through that which works in the figure of Philia. The figure of Astrid expresses that which wisely glows through the soul. And the figure of Luna expresses everything that represents strength of character, that appeals to strength of character. The other Philia expresses precisely that which threatens to lead people out of their soul forces — I would say out of their own heads — into a mystical revelry. All these soul paths come into consideration when people face true self-contemplation.

Once again, as yesterday, we are confronted with the spirit of John's youth, that is, the youthful John himself, but for him it has become as objective as an external entity, so that for him, this youth, it has special destinies. [It enters] into a relationship with the Luciferic world, represented by Lucifer, and is even so objectified from John [that] John Thomasius can see it as another personality — Theodora, who appears in all four mystery plays, representing a kind of retarded clairvoyance, who thus in a certain way looks into the spiritual world, [can see] how these [figures] will behave in it — [how Theodora] will intervene in the fate of the spirit of Johannes' youth in a certain way.

Thus, the soul life of John — captured at a certain moment — is presented on stage, dramatically performed. Everywhere, the aim is to bring the characters to life, not to let them become straw allegories or abstractions. This can then be achieved in a particularly stylized way through those qualities of eurythmy that I have often described here.

For in fact, what is portrayed in these “mystery dramas” in the supersensible world is conceived in such a way that it already contains an inner eurythmy—also a thought eurythmy—so that, basically, the content of these “mystery dramas” can be translated into the visible language of eurythmy as a matter of course.

Today we will arrange the performance so that all kinds of poetic works are presented in the first part, and there will be an intermission after the performance of “Artemis.” After the intermission, the dramatic scene just discussed will be performed first, followed by Goethe's poems.