Incomplete drafts for the ninth, eleventh, fourteenth, and fifteenth images, with facsimile

MARIA:
The word is empowered in the light of the world,
Which is familiar to me at midnight.
Memory enlivens the fire of will
With the enduring power of time, the word of the spirit.
In earthly life, it now resounds within me.
In its resounding, my thinking comes back to me
With my self from the heights of the spirit.
My thinking lives—me—with my self
At the midnight hour of the world, my thinking created
From rays of spiritual light,
The self in which the flame is kindled,
Which may shine to the shores of the soul. —
In the course of time, the guide often spoke,
In his words, eternity resounded
In me, it experiences only the present.
The midnight of the world shines in the present
In the light of timeless eternity. —
(Benedictus enters)
The wise guide gave the word of time the power
That created the wings of will in my self,
With it to see the midnight of the world.

BENEDICTUS:
Recognize the power of my word,
Whether truth can shine in it for you.
I may give you the word; its truth
Can only shine in your soul
When the light of my word in you from me
And freely strives toward the light of the spirit.
Then it will shine for you on the shore of your soul,
The bright star of self-knowledge.
Its light will not be able to fade for you,
If you illuminate the word that I am allowed to speak to you
With this starlight.

MARIA:
The star of the spirit, there on the shore of the soul —
It shines — approaches with spiritual brightness —
With my self it approaches — in the near —
Its light gains strength — and also tranquility —
The tranquility of the spirit shines far and wide —
It spreads — it outshines me
The whole circle of souls — in it appears
The soul star in the light of the spirit,
Sublimity radiates from it — its seriousness
Permeates its tranquility far and wide.

BENEDICTUS (alone):
Soon the brave Strader will come to me.
I gave him advice as I have never given
To the students who stand on Strader's level.
My gaze penetrated well into the rich,
Where such advice shines in my soul,
But I did not see the image of its effect.
When I tried this, my gaze died in the looking.
I continue to explore the source of my advice:
I find it in Strader's own self.
I read in his soul what I advised.
In it I recognized the power of the mind,
Which had to lead my students' alert gazes
Towards the midnight of the world.
He is the messenger from the heights of the spirit,
Who could unconsciously guide the others.
They will now willingly follow him
With their now awakened soul gifts.
Where will the messenger of the spirit lead them?

(Strader enters)

STRADER:
You spoke serious, but also bitter words, Maria,
When you both appeared to me
appeared at the abyss of my life.

BENEDICTUS:
You know that the images are not real;
it is the content that penetrates the soul
and wants to reveal itself in the image.

STRADER:
But what these images conveyed was harsh.
"Where is your light—you radiate darkness—
You bring confused darkness into the light—
You want to forget your creative greed,
It reigns unknowingly in your being,
Because you are too cowardly to let your light shine.
You let yourself sink into yourself, dreaming."

HILARIUS' WIFE: How happy it makes me that you, my husband's loyal friend, have overcome your reservations and are now wholeheartedly involved in the work that brings new happiness and joy to Hilarius' life — He needed it, for his lively spirit and fiery soul gradually found the old routine to be a wasteland of life, — whose futility plunged him into a restless state in which he searched — and searched — and again and again, tormented as if by spiritual powerlessness, burst out with the words:
If only I knew what I should do — I want to strive — but I lack a goal. —

OFFICE MANAGER: You know how much I love your husband — and you will believe me when I say that this situation was not only noticeable to me, but also quite painful. It was truly not easy for me to oppose my dear friend — but I needed time to familiarize myself with the situation — as long as I could not count on a secure foundation, it was my strict duty to maintain my opposition. — Only Romanus' certainty could show me the way —

HILARIUS' WIFE: And Straders' spiritual way of thinking, his deep insight — his enlightenment could not give you any certainty —

OFFICE MANAGER: For the task to be accomplished here, this approach seemed to me to be more of an obstacle. —The fire of such a soul storms over the hardships of life with its thoughts. But these must also be treated with a kind of serenity in outward work — one might say lovingly. —Have you yourself never had any reservations about this goal, which seems as daring as possible?

HILARIUS' WIFE: Never — I had two certainties, one that my husband needed this goal for his happiness in life, and the other — that Strader's spirit would succeed in what he had in mind, if only he were placed in the right place that his thoughts required. —

OFFICE MANAGER: I learned to love Strader before I believed his goals were possible — I have come to accept the latter — so I may well believe that he is now in the right place — When Romanus brought me closer to these goals, I often had to think of the words he [Strader] said to me during a discussion — What must happen will happen — his face took on an almost ecstatic expression — and he spoke the following words about the renewed examination of his plans as if his soul were not in his words. —¹

HILARIUS' WIFE: My dear friend of my husband; I want to confide something in you. That was what often seemed so wonderful about him, completely devoted on the one hand to his plans, which rested on the firm foundation of his thinking; on the other hand, how distant he was from all that — lost in thoughts of a spiritual world — he lived in it — completely with his Theodora — she became more and more a living soul to him, staying by his side — He often talks to me about it — then Theodora herself becomes very present to me — one talks to him as if a third soul were present.

OFFICE MANAGER: How grateful I am to you for addressing these words to me — How long I walked among you all and suspected nothing of your souls — now, through life — life here at your husband's side — the school of spiritual knowledge is no longer closed to me. Your words enlighten me as to what Strader may yet become. —

The SECRETARY enters

OFFICE MANAGER: What do you bring? You look distraught. What is it?

SECRETARY: We have just received news that Strader has died.

HEAD OF OFFICE: Died — Strader —

HILARIUS' WIFE: Strader dead —

SECRETARY:
He was still living his plans in recent times,
He heard that Romanus wanted to bring help —
He was deeply saddened when he heard that
they approved of his work, but not that of the other Mystics
— yet he hoped that
their resistance on this point
could still be overcome —
then he heard that the Mystic friends
themselves were abandoning the work — from that
moment, he was no longer
on earth — this morning he was found dead —

HILARIUS: enters
It is as if a part of my own soul had been torn from me — I loved him — loved him very much. — (exits with Mrs. Hilarius) —

OFFICE MANAGER:
It shows, however, that Strader, since he
cannot part with his friends in spirit,
values them more than his work. And good
will this be. So they hold him back
from that deed which would only confuse him.
His inclination in that direction is
a healthy impulse within him. He must first mature in spirit
before he can enter life with energy.
I can freely admit
that this man has also drawn me to his spirit. The way he
lives with Theodora, the way his spirit
is alive and active through him, was a lesson for me. But what I have learned
spirit is alive and effective, was
a lesson for me. But what I learned through him
can only strengthen my opinion.
He will certainly not find our resistance too difficult to bear.
He will surely find comfort in his spirit.
In spirit, he will surely find comfort.

HILARIUS' WIFE:
You are mistaken in this. With his goal,
the man is one. As if you were cutting off his
lifelines, it will be
as if you were taking this goal away from him.
Since he is once again of one mind with his friends, he sees
your resistance and that of Romanus before him like a black cloud.

HEAD OF THE OFFICE:
Could this black cloud be
the enemies of the soul that I pointed out to him
when he sat opposite me
God-fearing. -

The secretary enters.

OFFICE MANAGER: You look distraught, what news do you bring us?

SECRETARY (hesitantly): Doctor Strader died last night.

OFFICE MANAGER: Strader died —

HILARIUS' WIFE: Strader dead.

SECRETARY:
He had been deeply sad lately.
He didn't seem to be ill. Only yesterday evening
did a serious turn occur.
And by morning he was dead. —

OFFICE MANAGER:
Strader died — it affects me — as if
With a serious expression, fate
Stepped before my soul. — Why
Was I brought together with this
man at this time? Why
was I chosen — to be the instrument
that clouded the last weeks of his life
?
Am I the instrument of his fate?

BENEDICTUS:
In his passing, he now reveals himself to me;
he strives in his own way, because in striving
He truly knows himself. But he still cannot
Consciously grasp his worldly goals.
So human thinking can be painful for him,
In which he alone can find salvation
And free himself from torment. — —
He also wanted to seize the moment
In Strader's favor, in his own way;
Hiding himself, but also revealing himself.
To the students of my mystical circle,
He shall not be able to conceal himself in the future.
They will also think of him with vigilance,
When he approaches their gaze,
So that they may interpret the many forms,
Which, while concealing him, are meant to reveal him. — —
But you, Straders' sun-ripened soul,
You will illuminate their being as a spiritual star,
So that they may gain the light within themselves,
And thus, as revelators of spiritual light,
They may then also testify with powerful thoughts,
When over fully awakened spiritual vision
The darkness threatens to spread
The gloomy ruler of the soul's sleep of chaos. —
(Curtain falls) —

[Opposite is the proof, corrected once again.]