# Second and third acts

JOHANNES:  
O wonderful forms, towering,  
Tinted so richly by the breath of sunlight,  
And reflecting the glittering rays of the sun —  
Overflowing with life in this place,  
As bare walls towering rigidly there,  
And how the breath of air sends the mist upward  
In many places, enchantingly — — —  
And green fading into blue,  
Expressive —  
I want to learn to hold you as an artist,  
Who lets it shine back in his work,  
What is silent and yet so obvious in nature  
Proclaimed a thousand times in a thousand riddles.  
But the way is still long, and what I create  
Is dead and weighed down by matter — I must find it,  
What recreates from the soul  
The magic power that from the depths of existence  
In the human soul, works wonders.  
I do not yet know you, creative powers,  
Which I can nevertheless sense within myself.  
Use you: that is what I want, what I must.  
But I cannot do it alone, nor do I want to.  
I do not want to know how human wit  
Solves riddles in the dark depths of the soul;  
But I want to create, I want to work as an artist.  
So remain hidden from me, what in me  
As a creator masters the magical powers of the world.  
My inner self is not mine — it is given to you,  
May my soul find itself, Maria,  
Losing itself in you as a human being.

CAPESIUS:  
What strange things Johannes speaks,  
Lost in his soul's long-gone desires,  
He seems dreamlike to me, forgetting  
What many years of striving have given him.  
He once imagined his artistic goal  
And the state of his soul towards Mary  
In such a light, before the spiritual realm  
Revealed itself to him in her circle — — —

JOHN (noticing Capesius only now):  
A human being in this quiet place of consecration,  
Where I, with you, sublime divine nature,  
And with Mary's image in my soul  
Wanted to remain alone for a short time.  
Who is it who wants to disturb me so cruelly?

CAPESIUS:  
Capesius, he will leave the place as quickly as he can;  
To disturb you here,  
He certainly did not intend to do so.

JOHN:  
Capesius, I have already seen you  
And heard much of your knowledge as well.  
You are a man who masterfully explains  
Thoughts that work in human beings;  
I now want to turn to you as a student.  
I feel how the artist loses himself  
In the delusion of his own unworldly vision,  
When he keeps himself away from the light of knowledge,  
Which interprets the artist's enthusiasm for art.

CAPESIUS (who has moved to a more distant place):  
Is that Johannes, or is it not him!  
Is that the man with whom I fought side by side  
In spirit worlds, raising myself up?  
Is it he who, dreaming of distant times,  
Has lost himself completely — am I the dreamer,  
Who, deluded, now sees the past as real  
Before his confused mind?  
— But no, — it is something else that I know him,  
Recognize as the peculiarity of the spirit;  
He brings his own essence above himself  
In flight to worlds far away;  
But it must also separate human souls,  
Which feel connected in the earthly realm.  
Only because I dwell far from John  
In worlds that are home to my soul,  
Must what reveals itself to him seem strange to me.

LUCIFER:  
When the spirit reveals itself to you in this way,  
Then surely in the depths of your soul will germinate  
What gives me the power to unite you with me;  
Experience this proud feeling fully within yourself;  
It shall seize you in your entire being.  
CAPESIUS: It was a thought of light that just now  
Came unconsciously from my soul;  
Inner and solitude thrives  
The true world of the genuine spiritual man;  
Capesius may therefore be certain,  
If Johannes is incomprehensible to him,  
Not to burden his heart with worries about knowledge.  
I feel how I will grow spiritually,  
If I do not explore the nature of others.

BELLICOSUS:  
And if the stubborn man cannot be swayed,  
The work that Hilarius wants to dedicate to the service of humanity  
Will be shattered by him.

ROMANUS:  
He will not be shaken in his opinion.  
We must admit that he puts forward reasons  
That are also decisive for people  
Who stand on the ground of mysticism.

BELLICOSUS:  
But these are not essential for us.  
We are close to Hilarius,  
The common mystical union unites us.  
His work must be our work.  
In our circle is Benedictus,  
Guided by the spirit with his disciples.  
Hilarius puts into practice in his outer life  
What we have experienced in spiritual spheres  
In the temple.  
He takes the people who are led to him  
in spirit, also in life,  
into the circle of his work.

ROMANUS:  
Whether he thereby wisely follows the law of the spirit  
is clear to you.  
It is possible, however, that the union  
formed between Benedictus  
And our venerable temple service,  
Must first mature within the temple,  
Before it can have an effect on the outside world.  
The path from the spiritual worlds  
To external reality is always dangerous.

BELLICOSUS:  
So I must also hear from you the objection,  
Which opposes God-Faithful's fellow workers  
To the beautiful work.  
The spiritual powers counted on you,  
Who led us Strader into the temple.  
They directed your gaze to him.  
Are you not obliged to ease his path,  
that he is to find through God-Faithful?

TORQUATUS:  
Can the blessing of the spiritual powers still be expected on this work,  
since Capesius has been separated from it?  
That he does not show himself to have grown,  
taking the step from the inner spirit  
to the realm of outer life,  
into the realm of outer life,  
it must be a sign of fate  
not to take the step from spirit to life  
without careful consideration.

BELLICOSUS:  
So far, the spiritual path  
has denied me the gift of vision.  
However, I have learned to respect  
Everything that dawns softly on me  
In the depths of my soul, when in existence  
Things happen. When Capesius  
Found himself in the interior of our temple,  
I felt a quiet premonition in my heart,  
As if in his and in our karma  
There was something that could not completely  
keep him in our circle of life.

ROMANUS: I also find this premonition  
quite understandable. But when  
the mystics from Benedictus' school  
approached me in the temple, I could only recognize in Strader  
the man who, as a Carniolan,  
already belonged to our circle of influence.  
Thomasius, Maria, and even  
Benedictus seem to me for now  
Better off remaining inside the temple.

BELLICOSUS:  
You seem to be serving the spirit that you  
Should harmonize with the demands of life  
In your place.

ROMANUS:  
I truly would not have thought  
That Bellicosus already considers me  
Lost to Ahriman.

BELLICOSUS:  
But how do you intend to find the way for Strader  
When you have shown yourselves to be connected to the others,  
Who have shown themselves to be connected to him,  
And whom he himself now  
Does not want to separate from himself,  
Does not consider worthy of promotion?

TORQUATUS:  
Hilarius' faithful colleague mostly finds  
That Strader is questionable for the work.  
And if I let speak what  
And if I speak what  
The inner voice of my soul has shown me,  
I find that Strader is furthest from us  
In the circle of the new mystics.  
The mood of the mystic is  
Really not to be seen in him.  
When spiritual signs approach him,  
Which approach him as if by force,  
He submits, but within himself  
The inner essence of the spirit is still far from him.

ROMANUS:  
This is precisely the sign  
which shows me that powers are at work in Straders' fate,  
which brought him close to us,  
because he is connected to us from previous lives.

BELLICOSUS:  
If this premonition fills you,  
then it is up to you to take care of Straders' work,  
whatever needs to be done for it.  
God's faithful friend will certainly listen to you.  
Give him the advice that will help Strader,  
then the rest will fall into place.

ROMANUS:  
My dear God-faithful, if you  
put Strader at your side  
And leave the others with Capesius  
To the spiritual sleep they so desperately need,  
Then you will also find me at your side with my good,  
And that we three will not find deaf ears  
With your friend,  
Let me take care of that.

HILARIUS:  
I cannot separate my work from Benedictus.  
I must think of it as one with him.

ROMANUS:  
It seems to me that what is happening will  
win the victory over your opinion.

CAPESIUS:  
At this time, I can only do one thing,  
Follow the spirit on inner soul paths.  
I feel how everything that is external work  
I now want to impose on myself,  
The light, essential being that is revealed to me  
In gentle waves as if from worlds far away  
Clearly within my soul,  
When external life does not beat upon the shores of the soul  
And it is peaceful within.[^1]  
Alone, what flows from your spirit,  
I feel is kindred to my own.  
FELIX BALDE: Basically, that is the true mood of the mystic.  
Only when it completely dominates the soul,  
Does the inner soul unite with the spirit of the world.  
I sought to hold on to it for many years.  
And to keep everything that serves external life,  
As a second world, far away from me.  
I modestly provide for everything  
that Felicia and I need  
for daily use—we can also piously and divinely worship  
in the external course of life—  
But we are denied the ability to recognize it there.  
We must seek it if it is to be bestowed upon us there.  
But the more we strive to seek it with the gifts of earthly man,  
The more the realm of light of being Removes itself from us.  
Only when we wait peacefully and quietly  
Only when we wait peacefully and quietly  
And strive for nothing — only keep ourselves calm,  
Then the spirit world finds us.  
My heart was truly warmed  
When you, my dear Strader, spoke of enlightenment,  
Through which your work revealed itself to you.  
Then I could understand you. But now  
I cannot. Capesius is closer to me this time,  
Who feels alien to the spirit,  
When he knows himself to be touched by this work.  
I believe that it is not the mystic path alone that guides you.  
It seems to me that earthly understanding is having a questionable effect  
On your spirit now.

CAPESIUS:  
It seems that earthly understanding  
is not favorable to the plan that inspires you.  
The friend who stands faithfully by your side  
wants nothing to do with it.

STRADER:  
It touches me little that he is opposed to it.  
His resistance can be overcome.  
And even if it were otherwise, if I were to be shattered by him  
Or by his ilk, I would bear it easily.  
But it is unbearable for me  
To see myself now rejected by people  
Whose souls I believed to be close to mine,  
such as yours and Capesius', my old friend.  
I know that there is a bond between spirits,  
an invisible one, woven from spiritual matter.  
Consciously feeling myself in it,  
only it can give me the strength to work.  
As an earthly human being, I need the support of other people.  
But the powers that flow to me from your thoughts,  
When they resonate with mine,  
They are what I must know within myself,  
If I am to carry the spirit effectively into life.

CAPESIUS:  
Man can feel very close to other souls  
And yet very distant from them  
What we recognize as the world, {his.  
When we enter the spiritual path,  
It does not unite us with other soul worlds.  
In each one there is a world of its own.  
And only because the spirit spreads everywhere,  
It is also in our world,  
Even if we create it as our own.  
As long as we dwell within ourselves,  
We are also in the spirit,  
Even if we see only folly.  
I could see into a person's soul,  
When I had to see folly in it.  
This was because I was only ripe for folly.  
Thus, folly became clearest to me.  
What I saw from spheres of wisdom soon clouded  
Again in the soul.

FELIX BALDE:  
When one hears a person speak such words  
And one can know that he has not learned them,  
That he feels them springing from his own soul,  
Then he reveals himself to the mystic as a mystic.  
No, dear Strader, he is now unsuitable for your work.  


STRADER:  
In the depths of my heart I feel it,  
How distant and more distant your souls are becoming to me.  
With such an opinion as Capesius now has,  
One truly cannot carry the spirit in earthly works.  
For with every step one would have to fear  
Only giving one's own folly to the world. —  
But I also feel that my tree of life is withering,  
The further I find its roots from yours.

BENEDICTUS:  
You now ask the bright expanses of the mind  
For the primordial secret of your soul's life.  
You shall hear the answer, as it  
The expanses of the mind from the depths of the soul  
Through my voice.  
Capesius and Felix banish you,  
They place the abyss between themselves and you.  
Do not lament  
That they do so. But look  
Into your abyss.

STRADER:  
I will do it — but what? — Figures, confused?  
They change — entwine — but only  
To disturb each other — again other forms —  
To them — the ethereal light — reddish, undulating.  
I see one very clearly now,  
It appears to me as a figure of light, but now  
It disappears, but now it is within me,  
It speaks within me: "You see demons before you, —  
They are not — you yourself create them  
To their being —  
If only you would hold them, they would be  
Before you what they are before themselves.  
They allow themselves to be held — if you shine  
Your light upon them." —  
Your light — where is my light — I find  
Only darkness within me. But here — from the light:  
- - -

MARIA:  
Recognize your darkness — you are it.  
You create darkness in the light.  
You feel it — when you have created it.  
Then you can forget your creation.  
You let it reign — because you are too cowardly  
To shine your light into it.  
You want to enjoy this light.  
You want to enjoy yourself in it.  
You search for yourself — and search in forgetfulness,  
You let yourself sink into yourself in your dreams.

STRADER:  
What does this word mean, Mary — is it my light,  
Is it my darkness — to which you speak.  
I cannot understand you; but there is something within me  
That tells me: you speak the truth.

BENEDICTUS:  
She sought you at the abyss.  
Thus spirits seek those people  
Whom they want to protect from beings  
Who strive to beguile their souls in the spirit realms  
With shadows, so that they  
Do not recognize the rule of the world spirits  
And lose themselves  
In the weaving of their own being alone.  
Do you not see the shadows that lure Felix,  
And others that hover around Capesius.  
They feel their power, they create for themselves  
In solitude the light that paralyzes shadows.

STRADER:  
The word comes to me from Benedictus  
That I heard from God's faithful advisor.  
I considered it the word of a fool there  
And here it resounds in my mind.

MARIA:  
Father Felix hardens his weapons,  
Which cannot serve you, shadows would be  
For Strader, what Capesius forms as a sword  
In the battle with the superior power of the mind.  


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[^1]: One line is missing from the draft here as a conclusion.