# Goethe and the Present

## GA 68c — 23 September 1909, Basel

### XXVII. The Secret Secrets in Goethe's “Faust”

Not long before the completion of the second part of his “Faust,” Goethe told his faithful Eckermann that he had taken great care to ensure that this work, in particular, met theatrical and artistic standards so that those who merely wanted to enjoy it with their senses would get their money's worth. And Goethe himself adds that those who are initiated into the secrets will indeed find the deeper meaning behind these images.

> But everything is sensual and, conceived for the theater, will catch everyone's eye. And that's all I wanted. If it's just that the crowd of spectators enjoys the appearance; at the same time, the initiate will not miss the higher meaning, as is the case with The Magic Flute and other things.

This, my honored audience, can be an indication of how justified it is to look for deeper secrets in this, Goethe's most mature work. And he himself knew that not everyone could easily succeed in understanding these deep secrets. For another time he said to Eckermann:

> I will confide something to you that will help you in many ways and will benefit you for the rest of your life. My works cannot become popular; anyone who thinks or strives for this is mistaken. They are not written for the masses, but only for individual people who want and seek something similar and who are moving in similar directions.

However, on the path that we characterized here yesterday, which Goethe himself had to ascend from decade to decade to a certain human perfection, only a few can follow; and if everyone had to go through this lengthy path of life in spirit, then the understanders of the second part of “Faust” would indeed be few and far between. But through theosophy, which seeks to penetrate into the depths of life, there is the possibility that the soul first summons its innermost powers in order to see spiritually what it can see with the senses. When man penetrates into the results of spiritual research, he certainly arrives at a quicker understanding of what personalities of such rich content as Goethe have to say.

Yesterday we saw how Goethe ascended to perfection, as the stages of this appear to us in his “Faust”. We also pointed out that the first part of Faust was actually only published in its completed form in 1808. We pointed out what a personal, individual work Faust was at first and how it becomes more and more impersonal, talking more and more about matters of the human soul that are more or less meaningful to every human being.

In this way, Goethe removes his Faust from the narrow confines of the individual and into the struggle of the objective powers of the world. That is why he has to organize what you know as “Prologue in Heaven”. There it is not only the inner powers of the soul, but the objective world spirits, which are behind the worlds, that begin their contest for the soul of Faust. There [Goethe shows us how deeply he has penetrated in understanding that it is a mistake] when man regards himself as a separate being; how it is an illusion. Our finger does not do that. It would say to itself: the moment I am cut off, I am no longer a finger. If it wanted to succumb to the same delusion as a human being, it would disintegrate. It would disintegrate if it could walk around on our body – cut off. A human being can walk around on the earth, which is why he succumbs to the delusion of being a separate being. If only he would devote himself with all his soul to the fact that he can no longer live physically just a few miles above the earth, he would not give himself over to this delusion, would feel how the forces not only of the physical but also of the spiritual world play into his own soul. For Goethe, this happened visibly from decade to decade. Thus the powers of the human soul grew into world powers. And in his poetry, he shows us the representatives of the good spirits confronting the representatives of the evil spirits. And it seems to him, Goethe, that man is not just a “fearfully cringing worm”, but someone who understands how, from millennium to millennium, human affairs go through the process of becoming earthly and take hold of the individual human being. Hence the marvelous similarity to the old Biblical record where he has God say to Mephistopheles: “Do you know Faust?” — Mephistopheles: “The doctor?” — The Lord says: “My servant,” as we find it again in the Old Testament Book of Job, where Satan appears before the Lord and the Lord asks him:

> Have you taken care of my servant Job?

[Now it seems to us that not just any human being appears to us in Faust; now Goethe appears to us as one who understands how, from stage to stage, human affairs pass through the evolution of the world.] Thus, as Goethe matured, Faust gradually became a world poem. It could only become one because Goethe, through his own development, was able to experience more and more in his inner life how the forces that he had sensed back then in Frankfurt could really be there, developing out of the depths of the soul. In his restless striving, he finally brought them out of himself. And so he knew that man can look into the supersensible world, that there are spiritual eyes as there are sensory eyes, that there are spiritual ears as there are sensory ears.

As early as 1808, he speaks as one knowing about all the things that were still closed to him when he first stood before the Earth Spirit: He speaks as one knowing about the phenomenon that the Pythagorean school recognizes under the name “music of the spheres”. [There, the soul foundations appear to man as harmonies. It is not music, but it is something that can be compared to it, something real that becomes the inspiration of the soul.

When the soul draws from the depths what lies dormant there, the inner tones appear to it as harmonies, as something that is heard with spiritual ears.

It is what is expressed in inspiration. Then the human being feels what this spiritual music is. Then he no longer looks through external vision and admires the appearance of light, but then the soul feels that something behind it is inspired. This is what Goethe expresses in the prologue:

> The sun sounds in the old way.

And may those who believe that they are standing on the ground of realistic aesthetics say: the poet allows himself such images. A poet like Goethe, who only gives what he has experienced, does not write nonsense, as in the external realistic sense, when speaking of the sounding sun. He speaks of it only when he has experienced it as something spiritual and real, when he knows that such a resounding exists for the human being who enters into the higher spheres of existence. Therefore, he sticks with this image when he lets Faust ascend to a real insight into the foundations of this world (after the impetuosity and sin of the first part). When Faust, at the beginning of the second part, is to look deeper into the spiritual world, we read the words:

> Hark! listen to the storm of the hours!  
> For the ears of the spirit  
> The new day is already being born.  
> Rock gates creak and clatter,  
> Phoebus' wheels roll and clatter,  
> Light brings a mighty roar!  
> It trumpets, it trompets,  
> Eyes blink and ears are amazed,  
> the unheard do not hear.

Goethe already presents his Faust as someone who listens to the deeper essence of things. And Goethe truly expresses that he wants to say that “Faust” has ascended from the point of view where he longed for these things but could not grasp them. There he had only one certainty:

> The spiritual world is not closed;  
> a sense is closed, your heart is dead!  
> Rise up, bathe, disciple, undaunted,  
> the earthly breast in the dawn!

But the “timidly coiled worm” was then far from bathing the “earthly breast in the morning dawn”.

In the second part, we see how Faust awakens; and how wonderfully described it is, how he bathes in the dawn, how revelation comes to him from the very foundation of things! Such is the inward artistic consistency of Goethe in the continuation of his “Faust.” And Faust is now to be introduced to the great world, to learn to recognize in it all that comes from the Mephistophelian power. Since man is a part of the whole human essence, the power that - as we have characterized - creeps into the human soul and permeates it with deception and lies, will also show itself [not only where man is alone with himself, but also where] man creates without having raised himself above the ordinariness of existence. Therefore, Faust must be led from the small world to the imperial court, must be led to where the great world destinies are decided for his time. It must be shown how the power of Mephisto also leads from error to error there. Therefore, Faust appears with Mephisto at the imperial court. He intervenes in world-historical events. With exquisite humor and precisely for that reason, Goethe describes the scene of Mephisto's hand in the invention of paper money. In the history of literature, it has hardly ever been described with such delicate humor how these forces intervene in world history. There is also this Mephisto in it.

People have often scoffed at the masquerade that is enacted in the second part. If one could take the time to interpret each individual figure from Goethe's mind, one would see how every thought is realized down to the smallest detail, and each would show us the way in which the powers play into everything. [They show us the reflection of Mephistophelean power.] This can be shown in a palpably realistic way. That is why Goethe shows it in a masque. There Goethe showed how the Mephistophelian powers work. He wants to take this even further, showing how Faust and Mephisto relate to each other by moving forward, awakening more and more of the slumbering powers of his soul. He wants to show at court that not only the outwardly sensual appears in the masque plays [but also the ancient, not belonging to the sensual present]: one demands to see the ancient figures of Paris and Helen. There we are led out of a realm that belongs to the sensual present into something that is not in the present in any sense.

But Goethe shows very clearly that he has insight into the conditions of existence. He knows that there is not only something transient but also something eternal in human life, and that something of what has lived as a human being in times as old as can be is present in the world: that the spirit can be found in the spiritual world. And in his picture, Goethe wants to tell us that those people who connect with their own eternal in the soul can penetrate into the realm that lies beyond what eyes can see and ears can hear. [This spiritual realm is not theoretical.] This realm is an experience for those who prepare themselves in an appropriate way. [It is] very real. And it was there for Goethe too, very present.

However, this realm differs quite significantly for the student from what the eyes can see outside. Let us first point out one difference between the two worlds: in our world, things appear with sharp contours, so that we have, so to speak, quite a bit of time to get an idea of how things are. It is different when the soul enters the spiritual world. Then a realm appears to us that shows us the entities that are there in continuous transformation. Just as our feelings change from moment to moment in our own soul, and our passions change from hour to hour, so in the spiritual world there is a continuous transformation.

> Formation, transformation,  
> eternal sense's eternal entertainment,

as Goethe [characterizes it]. He knows that the sensual is born, crystallized out of the spiritual [world], which lies behind our world. He seeks an understandable expression for what the soul sees behind this sensory world. He found the expression.

He had once read in Plutarch. He read about the city that was in the possession of the Carthaginians and that Nicias was supposed to win back for the Romans. Therefore, the Carthaginians considered him a traitor and he was to be imprisoned. As Plutarch recounts, he then behaved as if he were possessed; he ran through the streets shouting: “The Mothers, the Mothers are pursuing me!” Thereupon no one dared to lay a hand on him. The expression ‘the Mothers’ made a special impression on the ancients. ‘The Mothers’ were goddesses who were supposed to represent those powers of the soul that were to lead into the spiritual world, to crystallize out of it like a crystal from the mother liquor. Therefore, Goethe found the name and called this realm ‘the realm of the Mothers’.

What then remains of Paris and Helen after their earthly personalities have sunk into the realm of decay? In the realm of the supersensible world, in the realm of the Mothers. Therefore, if Faust is to bring forth what is demanded of him, he must bring forth the immortal and imperishable in Paris and Helen. To do so, he must descend into the realm of the Mothers. He knows that this realm of the mothers exists and that he can find the immortal in human beings there. But how does he get there? He has not yet banished all Mephistophelian forces from himself; so Mephistopheles must give him advice on how to find the entrance, how to get from the outer world into the realm of the mothers. At his stage of development, Faust cannot yet enter the spiritual realm, although he is certain of its existence. Mephisto belongs to the spiritual world, but is not in fact an externally visible being. He rules in the sensual world, but does not belong to it. Therefore, he has understanding and even the key to lead Faust there; but he does not know what it looks like there. Where he rules, there is no understanding for the supersensible world. Mephisto is the power that presents the external world to us as an illusion: He rules in the realistic world. [This Mephistophelian power also rules today in the materialistic mindset. The error that the material world is the only true one is an influence of Mephisto, who prevents the soul from recognizing the reign of the supernatural. Realism is therefore only possible if Mephisto rules in the soul. And he can only go as far as the external material man can come. But he provides the key to the supernatural world, but can only come to the gate himself. [Thus one can go far through the outer science, up to the gate of the supersensible world, but one cannot enter through it.] Because he has no sense for the supersensible forces, Mephisto only delivers the key. This allows Faust to enter the realm of the mothers. For anyone who experiences the realm that is behind our sensory world, this is an appropriate representation.

And now the dialogue between Faust and Mephistopheles unfolds, which shows how far Goethe was able to penetrate into the relationship between the sensual and the supersensible world. Mephisto describes the realm of the mothers, where the eternal beings of Paris and Helen are, in such a way that he says: You may swim across the sea as far as you like, you see the sun, moon and stars moving; but when you enter the realm that you now want to enter, you see nothing, space seems empty to you, time seems empty. Mephistopheles sees nothing in the realm of the mothers, just as materialism sees nothing where the supernatural world is. But Faust replies to Mephistopheles, as always the spiritual researcher does to the materialist:

> In your nothingness, I hope to find the all.

Thus the two stand facing each other: the eternal question of materialism and that world view that seeks to penetrate the supersensible – formulated in this dialogue. Faust even suggests that precisely because Mephisto is the power we characterized yesterday, he must also lead to lies and deception with regard to the supersensible world, and so Goethe has Faust say to Mephisto:

> You speak as the first of all mystagogues,  
> who has ever deceived faithful neophytes  
> Only the other way around.

I have shown how easily one becomes entangled in error and lies when entering the spiritual world while still embraced by Mephisto, how one becomes a charlatan instead of a spiritual researcher. How justified, therefore, is the fear wherever the charlatan is near the spiritual researcher. Faust calls him a “mystagogue,” because the term used for the leader of the Eleusinian mysteries is rightly used for the charlatan who, without having made the journey, wants to point the way to the spiritual world. [This is the charlatanry that is only separated from the noblest spiritual research by a fine cobweb.] So Faust calls the mystagogue, who speaks of error from the spiritual powers that he cannot recognize – only the other way around, you speak, he says to Mephisto. While they speak of the many things they have seen, you speak of nothing. Mephisto speaks in the opposite, lying way to the spiritual world, just like those deceitful mystagogues. He speaks of it as a nothingness; they fantasize about some kind of spiritual world.

Goethe expresses himself so precisely because he speaks from the innermost experience. But that is why he also shows us what is necessary to penetrate into this world. One can, of course, if one penetrates unworthily – if one has not yet banished from one's soul everything that works as selfishness and egoism – one can indeed see many things in the spiritual world and penetrate, as Faust is now penetrating; but Goethe wants to make it clear that he is not yet inwardly mature, wants to show how difficult the path is to rid the soul of all Mephistophelean influences, wants to show how selfish passions still prevail in Faust. To be worthy, one needs a soul completely cleansed of selfishness. In Faust, personal passion still asserts itself. He wants to possess Helena for himself; but in that moment, the apparition becomes a danger to him. Even his consciousness becomes clouded – the [Helena] figure disappears into the realm of mothers.

Faust must seek another way to free himself from Mephistophelean powers, must develop his soul in such a way that he does not want to conquer the spiritual world at a double march [as in the first part]. [And even not at a single step, as he now entered the spiritual mother realm, he is not allowed to enter there.] He must conquer it in slow inner soul life, so that he follows step by step the inner spiritual conditions. If he really wants to go to Helena, then he must first himself attain full knowledge of how one can ascend again when one has descended, and must look into the secrets of how man really comes into existence. [He must look into those processes that accompany man's entry into life.]

Here, Theosophy shows that it is justified to present man as a threefold being. [How man consists of three bodies: the physical body, the soul body and the spiritual body. He who truly looks into the spiritual world with dignity sees how these three parts of man are combined.] And there, first of all, what we can see with our eyes and hear with our ears presents itself: his physicality. Then his soul shows itself. Thereupon spiritual science structures further and higher up. Today we are only interested in the spirit; so these three: body, soul, spirit. These three are here together. But anyone who looks into the spiritual world must know how they are structured out of the supersensible, these three. Only when it is shown how the immortal spirit of Helena unites with a soul and the connection from soul to body takes place, only then can Faust approach Helena, who is re-entering humanity, [then he is worthy for the spiritual world]. And from this man can see – for spiritual research shows him, but what Goethe knew: the view of the re-embodiment of the innermost human being.

It may seem quite strange when people today speak with certainty of the fact that Goethe had the idea of re-embodiment. But it is indeed the case that what lives in us returns not once, but often and often. Gradually, our time is approaching what will once be of the greatest satisfaction to our time, what will give the greatest satisfaction [where this idea, which will give people the greatest comfort, will appear to them as truth, where it will become popular. Truths only come gradually]. In Goethe's time, people had to lock such truths deep within their souls, for this and another reason: because they knew how infinitely many-faceted and ambiguous truth is [as soon as we approach the spiritual world], and how human words are so easily suited to present this truth with outlines that are too sharp. Therefore, Goethe could not but express in hints what lived in the depths of his soul. He expressed it in the second part of “Faust”. In his “Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years” he also expresses what man's innermost being is, the reappearance to be of use to one's great-grandchildren in this world:

> [...] we hope that such an entelechy,

that is, the innermost essence of man,

> will not leave our solar system entirely, but, when it has reached the boundary of it, will long to return in order to have an influence on earthly life and well-being again for the benefit of our great-grandchildren].

He does say it with great significance, but he hides his deepest conviction because people were not yet ready for [this idea, which will gradually and consistently emerge from natural science as well].

He expressed this idea poetically in the second part of Faust. He shows that there is a part of the human being that must join with, or be added to, the physical part in order to place the whole person in the sensory world: that there is a soul. And he was familiar with the term for this, which stands between spirit and body. The old terminology recognized it. In medieval literature it was called the “little man” in the big man, the same as what is called “purusha” in Indian literature, the little being that permeates the human being in countless personalities. It is the soul, not yet the spirit. Therefore, one who has not yet risen to the spirit can also penetrate to this soul. [To symbolically conceal this, Goethe has Wagner, who

> greedily digs for treasure and is happy when he finds earthworms,

find the homunculus.

Goethe speaks very precisely, much more precisely than people are accustomed to reading. It should be explicitly pointed out that [with the homunculus] one is not dealing with something that belongs to the sensory world, but rather something that is added to it. Therefore, he coins a special image for the creation of the homunculus. All coming into being is called a creation. Here he coins a word himself, [as he had already done in “Faust” for the man striving beyond himself in the earth spirit scene, the word “superman” (Übermensch)]: “Überzeugung” (Über-zeugung) and means by Über-zeugung what extends beyond the ordinary man. That is what the scene with Wagner is about. Read the passage:

> It will! The masses are stirring more clearly,  
> the conviction of the true, the true.

[Read what is usually written about this in the commentaries.] Goethe wanted to point out that the creation of the soul is a conviction. Such writings, which arise from inspiration, must be read carefully; they stand up to scrutiny.

[So now we have the soul.] Helena is to appear to Faust on earth. Faust wants to have her in his possession on earth. We only have the soul of Helena in the Homunculus. This soul must first unite with the body before the spirit can enter.

Now it is shown how the physical is stored in the soul. For this purpose, the homunculus must be guided into a world where it is known how the soul can be incorporated.

> [He is not lacking in spiritual qualities,

— Spiritually, it is used in a trivial, soul-like way.

> But it is used too much in a tangible, efficient way. So far, the glass alone gives it weight, but he would like to be more embodied.

He should be embodied by taking the natural path of how man develops; developing himself in the sense of the wisdom taught by Thales, for example. This leads him to Proteus. He must be taught and led to where the elements prevail, so that they can integrate into his soul. [He must be led into the classical Walpurgis Night, where the elements prevail, so that his soul can integrate into them.] Thales advises him

> to start creation from the beginning

— to go through it —, and advises the homunculus to start with the mineral kingdom, then continue through the plant kingdom. [This is how he comes to Anaxagoras first. Then he seeks to classify the laws of the plant kingdom.] Goethe finds an expression for going through the plant kingdom:

> It grunts so.

This describes the soul's passage through the plant element;

> until you reach man, you have time,

it is said. [From the beginning, through the kingdoms of nature, the homunculus must embody himself.

The whole process that takes place on Walpurgis Night is the incorporation of the physical body into the soul, so that at the end we have before us the connection between the soul and the body. The soul or homunculus is characterized in such a way that when Faust, [still paralyzed by Helena], is lying in bed, he has a dream. The homunculus can look into the dream of “Faust” and describe the events. [Because he still belongs to the soul world, he could see him.] Every word in the second part of “Faust” could be a clue for the soul to merge with the body. Once this connection is made, the spirit that was present in previous embodiments can be absorbed. [At the end of the second act, the soul is connected to the body.] In the third act, the reincarnation of Helen appears to us, [after Faust had recognized in full detail how body, soul and spirit are joined together]. Now Faust has her before him as he can have her before him as an external human being.

At the same time, however, this poem shows us how Faust's soul forces are increasingly stirring. [When the mighty event of reincarnation presents itself to him, so that he recognizes it, his soul forces grow.] The characteristic of such a poem is that, alongside what is shown externally, there is an inner soul experience at the same time. By recognizing and seeing, his soul forces grow. What unfolds becomes a process of developing his soul. He makes mystical progress. We are presented with a mirror image of what Faust experiences in his soul.

From the union between Faust and Helena, Euphorion is born, the child of Faust and Helena. The aim is to show how Faust's soul has entered into a marriage, as it were, with the spiritual world. By increasing its powers, the soul feels something like a spiritual marriage. And what then arises in him appears to him as an image of the external spiritual world. [The soul feels supersensible knowledge as a child of itself with the universe. Thus Euphorion is like an image of mystical inner knowledge.]

Thus we are shown an image of the spiritual experience of Faust himself. [And at the same time, the stage at which Faust now stands is to be indicated]. He has not yet reached the stage of one who can permanently hold on to his supersensible experience; he can only catch certain glimpses of the spiritual world, then he must return to ordinary external life. And this is the experience of the developing mystic. [In a moment of celebration, the spiritual world opens up to him.] He knows how the descent from spiritual experiences affects the soul, knows that mood of the soul when what was knowledge sinks again and the soul calls for it. This is echoed in the words of Euphorion, who dies young and cries out [from the realm of shadows]:

> Let me in the dark realm,  
> Mother, not alone!

That is the mood that our soul feels: it must, according to its insights, which have once again disappeared.

In a wonderful way, Goethe describes in the events what can appear as an inner soul experience of man as he progresses into the spiritual world. But Faust must go further when what he experiences fades away again. [The soul must regain what it once saw.] This is shown in the fact that the veil and the dress of Helen remain behind for him, Faust. Thus, such a personality retains only the memory of the spiritual experience. Faust must go further. These steps, too, are fully characterized by Goethe. First, it is shown how difficult it is – even for someone who has gained deeper insights into the spiritual – to guard against what still works in the world as the last Mephistophelian forces: Faust becomes a military leader in the [fourth] act, to accomplish a humane deed. He is not yet so far advanced that he can lead purely spiritual forces into the field. The Mephistophelian still mingles with what is around him. [It is not yet possible to see through what forces are leading Faust into the world.] Here the armor from old armories is presented. [Not only the natural, but also history], the historical appears here. The path that a person has to take to mature and to face nature is long. When contemplating nature, the powers of deception can interfere. [Yes, you can go very far with knowledge of nature and history]. The Mephistophelian powers interfere with what is presented as armor. We do not face the phenomena with pure knowledge, the fourth act should also show that.

Faust must be purified more and more, that he may be freed from all that still adheres to our desires of Mephistophelian power. That is difficult. It is the fact that he does not see them that makes it so difficult for man to free himself from these powers. [Again and again, things approach us in which Mephisto is hidden.] Faust does not yet see how the elements that can lead to deception are mixed into the actions of the mountain people. As long as we cannot see into these powers, we cannot free ourselves from them. We must bring it to the point where we are face to face with Mephisto in the flesh. Then he appears in the form in which he is depicted in all religious documents, then he appears as the tempter. Then we know what has power over us. Thus Mephisto must present himself to Faust as tempter, must emerge from unconsciousness into consciousness. Only then does Faust know what Mephistophelian power is. He must confront that power as a tempter. Goethe also indicates that in the course of his supersensible development, Faust confronts Mephisto in the form of the tempter, in that he lets him say:

> But, that I may at last speak quite understandably,  
> Didst thou not favor anything on our surface?  
> In immeasurable expanses thou overlooked  
> The realms of the world and their glories.  
> But, insatiable as thou art,  
> Didst thou not feel any desire?

The Riches of the World and their Splendor: In the same sense as he speaks in the Gospels, Goethe has Faust face the tempter and be offered the glories of the world. [Man wants to possess them as long as the Mephistophelian power has power in him.] Man must renounce what things are. [That too is only possible in stages.] Faust learns to renounce. He has come so far that he rejects these glories [as immediate possessions; he takes them as a fief, not because he wants to possess them, but because he wants to make them fruitful]. He wants a piece of land that he can win from the sea; he wants

> to stand on free ground with a free people,

wants to realize:

> Action is everything.

He wants to work selflessly, not for his personal possessions, not for his own selfishness. This is the answer he gives to Mephisto, who offers him

> the riches of the world and its glories.

He rejects it, even in the form of a small piece of land.

But [only one step on the way to shedding selfishness has been taken, and there is still something selfish about him]. He cannot yet renounce the unobstructed view. He still wants what he wants from the sea to appear free before his external gaze. The hut of Philemon and Baucis hinders him from this free view. This is a sign that he has not yet overcome the last stage of selfishness. But for Mephisto to once again make such a mistake, [the last remnant of Mephistophelian power must intervene in him, so to speak]: it is he who burns down the hut belonging to the old people.

Now Faust encounters something that even the advanced student knows from experience. [He falls prey to a final danger.] [He who can renounce sensual possessions but not yet miss the view.] The things of the outside world cannot harm him; not harm, want, guilt. He is freed from the fetters of these things. But that which is the last to depart from our soul and which clings until the last remnant of selfishness has vanished, that is worry. He will not be rid of it until the last remnant of selfishness has vanished. Worry! There is a far, far higher form of it, a far, far more heavenly form than the one we encounter in ordinary life. When a person tosses and turns in bed at night and cannot sleep because of worry, [this is also a sign that he has not entered the spiritual world, where he should be at night]. In the symbol, it appears: how he is not allowed into the spiritual world, the higher power of worry. Worry exists as long as he is chained to the sensual world. Man can find the key and block his way down from the spiritual world into the sensual world. If he has not yet separated himself from everything in the sensual world, then worry creeps into his life. [It blocks his access to the spiritual world. And so it happens to Faust as well.] Then it also shows that man still has something to overcome in his nature. Goethe expresses this by making Faust physically blind. Now he can no longer express this selfishness, outwardly he has gone blind. But

> inside a bright light shines

– a brighter one. Now Faust is ready to enter the spiritual world.

Because Goethe knew these secrets, he spoke the word at the sealing of his package, which contained the second part of “Faust,” which contains Goethe's testament to humanity. He was satisfied because he could say to himself: I have expressed the abilities that I brought with me into this life as much as I could in this incarnation. He had come so far. Since most people will find it difficult to understand this word of the inner soul-becoming of man, from physical to spiritual vision and the possibilities that the soul must go through to ascend to such spiritual vision, Goethe had to depict in pictures what can only be expressed in words today: what he knew about the secrets of existence, about the supersensible powers of the soul life.

Now he had so much of what he desired during the Frankfurt period. But he could only present it to humanity in images because he knew how few words are suitable to express it. Because first people have to shape their words — as spiritual science is now trying to do — to express the tremendous content of the supersensible world.

Goethe was aware of the soul's inner progress. He expressed it in images. If we understand the term “mystical” correctly, this experience of the soul is called the “mystical life”. And because Goethe expresses this mystical life in his mighty testament to humanity, he allows what he has to offer humanity to fade away in the “Chorus mysticus”. That the soul has dormant powers within it, through which it can become aware of the eternal. For Goethe, this substantiates the saying that everything sensual in the world is an image, a parable for the immortal. What Goethe felt, that it is difficult to characterize the comprehensive things of the soul with words, he wanted to suggest by depicting in images what people cannot grasp. He presents what cannot be described, only seen, as an inner deed of the soul, in a very realistic way. What can be illustrated for the outer senses is done here in the second part of “Faust”. [Everything that is transient is only a parable for the immortal, everything sensual only an image for the supersensible. He felt that it is difficult to describe these transcendental phenomena in their fleeting movements with words. What is inadequate for ordinary life, he made an event in “Faust”.

The soul is certain that such a realm exists and that it can work its way up. It feels that it is something like a feminine that allows itself to be fertilized by the spiritual masculine forces of the universe. When it unites with all such creative forces of the universe, it feels itself to be the eternal feminine in relation to these forces. It is a sin against the great nature of Goethe to accept profane explanations of this sentence. [The eternal feminine of the soul allows herself to be fertilized by the cosmic forces in a cosmic marriage.] What the fertilizing of the universe brings forth is the feminine, that is what Goethe wants to say. This is what is presented to us only through experiences, what he himself has experienced - what man can experience in his mystical experiences. [Only when we have fully understood and experienced Goethe's Faust do those words resound powerfully in our ears.] Goethe's “Faust” ends with the mystical choir depicting this experience. [What a person can achieve in mystical development through spiritual research is summarized in the magnificent sentences that apply to every striving soul.

All that is transitory Is but a parable The inadequate, Here it becomes an event; The indescribable, Here it is done;

The eternal feminine
Draws us on.