{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13","ga":"14","lecture":"ga014-2_scene13","lecture_number":null,"title":"The Soul's Probation: Scene 13","site_heading":null,"date":null,"location":null,"lang":"en","edition":"APC1925","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"passage_count":21,"word_count":1908,"translation_credit":null,"witnesses":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"first_passage":1,"last_passage":6,"passage_count":6,"word_count":1592},{"lang":"en","edition":"APC1925","is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"first_passage":1,"last_passage":21,"passage_count":21,"word_count":1908,"completeness":{"ratio":1.2,"band":"comparable","note":null}}],"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.2,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":1908,"original_word_count":1592,"may_be_abridged":false},"passages":[{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p001","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p001","passage_number":1,"word_count":23,"text":"*The Temple, of the Sun; hidden site of the Mysteries of the Hierophants; Lucifer, Ahriman, the three Soul-Figures, Strader, Benedictus, Theodosius, Romanus, Maria.*"},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p002","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p002","passage_number":2,"word_count":5,"text":"*(Enter first Lucifer and Ahriman.)*"},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p003","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p003","passage_number":3,"word_count":144,"text":"*Lucifer:*  \nThe Lord of Wishes stands as victor here—  \nHe hath been able to o'erpower the soul  \nWhich even in the light of spirit-sun  \nStill had to feel akin to this our realm.  \nI seized th' auspicious hour in which to cast  \nA glamour o'er its vision of the light  \nTo which in dreams alone it had bowed down.  \nYet all my hopes must forthwith disappear  \nThat victory is ours in spirit-realms,  \nSince thou art worsted, comrade of my fight.  \nThou wast unable to o'erpower the soul  \nWhich was to bring our labours to their goal.  \nThe human soul that gave itself to me  \nI can possess and in our kingdom hold  \nFor short earth-lives alone, but all in vain;  \nFor then I must restore it to our foes.  \nTo win outright we need the other, too,  \nThat hath withdrawn itself from thy domain."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p004","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p004","passage_number":4,"word_count":58,"text":"*Ahriman:*  \nThe time is not well suited to my arts,  \nI find no means of access to men's souls.  \nSee, here comes one whom I did sorely plague.  \nThough ignorant in spirit he draws nigh;  \nFor reason doth compel him to push on.  \nSo I withdraw from him and from this place  \nWhich he can only tread unconsciously."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p005","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p005","passage_number":5,"word_count":5,"text":"*(The three Soul-Figures with Strader.)*"},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p006","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p006","passage_number":6,"word_count":34,"text":"*Philia:*  \nI will myself imbue  \nWith power of Faith's clear light,  \nI will breathe deep within  \nThe living force of Trust  \nFrom soul's aspiring joy;  \nThat thus the light may rouse  \nThe spirit slumberer."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p007","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p007","passage_number":7,"word_count":43,"text":"*Astrid:*  \nWith humble joy of soul  \nI will inweave forthwith  \nSure revelation's word.  \nI will make dense and thick  \nThe shining rays of Hope;  \nThat light in dark may shine  \nAnd twilight in the light,  \nSo powers may bear aloft  \nThe spirit slumberer."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p008","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p008","passage_number":8,"word_count":52,"text":"*Luna:*  \nSoul light will I make warm  \nLove's power will harden too:  \nThat thus they may grow bold  \nAnd thus may raise themselves  \nAnd mounting up on high  \nEndow themselves with weight  \nAnd free from cosmic loads  \nThe spirit slumberer;  \nThat his soul's love of light  \nAt last may set him free."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p009","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p009","passage_number":9,"word_count":177,"text":"*Benedictus:*  \nMy comrades, I have hither summoned you  \nWho with me seek to find the spirit-light  \nThat should flow streaming to the souls of men.  \nYe know the nature of the sun of soul  \nOft doth it shine with fullest noontide glare,  \nAnd then again like feeble twilight steal  \nPowerless through mists of visionary dream.  \nAnd often doth the darkness drive it out.  \nThe temple-servants' spirit-gaze must pierce  \nTo soul depths where there shines with powerful ray,  \nThe spirit-light that comes from cosmic heights.  \nThen too it must disclose mysterious aims  \nThat lurk unnoticed in the soul's dark fairs  \nIntent on shaping man's development.  \nThose spirit-beings who from cosmic powers  \nBestow the spirit-food on human souls  \nAre present now within the sacred fane  \nTo guide this man's soul from the spirit-night  \nInto the kingdom of the light on high.  \nThe sleep of knowledge still envelops him;  \nBut spirit-calls already have been heard  \nIn his soul's depths of which he never knew,  \nThat which they spoke deep in his inmost soul  \nWill shortly find its way to spirit-ears."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p010","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p010","passage_number":10,"word_count":121,"text":"*Theodosius:*  \nThis soul hath not been able hitherto  \nTo recognize himself in spirit-light  \nThat through sense-revelation is outpoured,  \nTo show the meaning of all earthly growth.  \nHe saw God's spirit stripped of nature's guise,  \nAnd Nature's self estranged from deity.  \nAnd so through many lives he had to pass  \nAnd stay a stranger to the sense of life;  \nHe could but find such carnal tenements  \nTo carry out his individual work  \nAs barred him from the cosmos and from man.  \nNow, in the temple he will gain the power  \nHimself in other beings to behold,  \nAnd so at length he will attain the force  \nThat leads from out the labyrinths of thought  \nAnd points the way unto the springs of life."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p011","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p011","passage_number":11,"word_count":108,"text":"*Benedictus:*  \nAnother man strives to the temple's light;  \nThough not at once will he approach its doors  \nAnd seek for entrance to this hallowed spot.  \nThroughout a life of studious research  \nHe planted germs of thought in his soul-depths.  \nAnd so perforce the spirit-light went forth  \nTo ripen them outside our temple's doors.  \n'Twas given him to know his present life  \nTo be the product of a former one  \nLived in a time that now hath long gone by.  \nNow he can see the errors of that life  \nAnd realize what their result will be,  \nBut lacketh power, those duties to fulfil,  \nWhich through self-knowledge he can recognize."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p012","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p012","passage_number":12,"word_count":167,"text":"*Romanus:*  \nCapesius shall, through the temple's power,  \nLearn how a man must, in a single life,  \nTake up a load. of duties which demand  \nFor their entire accomplishment the space  \nOf many lives of earthly pilgrimage.  \nSo casting fear aside he will admit  \nThat ancient errors with their consequence  \nPursue the soul e'en past the gate of death.  \nNor shall he then be vanquished in the fight  \nBy which the spirit-portals are flung wide  \nIf eye to eye, undaunted, he shall brave  \nThe Guardian of the Threshold of that realm.  \nTo him shall by that guardian be revealed  \nThat none may climb up to the heights of life  \nWho fears to look on destiny's decrees.  \nHis insight will admit with courage then  \nThat of self-knowledge suffering is the fruit  \nFor which she knows no words of comforting.  \nWill shall become his comrade on the way  \nWhich faceth boldly all that may befall,  \nAnd, heartened by a draught from hope's clear spring  \nEndures the pain of widening consciousness."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p013","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p013","passage_number":13,"word_count":147,"text":"*Benedictus:*  \nYe have, my brothers, at this present hour,—  \nTrue servants of the temple that ye are,—  \nSet forth the ways in Wisdom's outlines drawn  \nBy which these two who seek the spirit-truth  \nShall have their souls brought to their goal by you.  \nYet other work the temple-service claims.  \nHere by our side the Lord of Wishes stands;  \nHe can be present in this holy place  \nBecause Johannes' soul unbarred for him.  \nThe gates which he would otherwise find barred.  \nThe brother who is our initiate  \nLacks for the moment courage to withstand  \nWith power the words that from the darkness rise.  \nThe powers of good can only strengthen him.  \nWhen on their opposite they test themselves.  \n'Twill not be long ere he again appears  \nHere in this temple, compassed by our love:  \nYet must his spirit-treasure guarded be  \nNow that he must descend into the dark."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p014","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p014","passage_number":14,"word_count":3,"text":"*(Turning to Lucifer.)*"},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p015","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p015","passage_number":15,"word_count":56,"text":"Thee must I now address who not for long  \nCanst occupy the ground where thou dost stand.  \nThe temple's power can at the present time.  \nNot yet release Johannes from thy grasp.  \nIn times to come he will be ours again,  \nWhen those fruits of our sister shall be ripe.  \nWhose blossoms we already see unfold."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p016","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p016","passage_number":16,"word_count":2,"text":"*(Maria appears.)*"},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p017","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p017","passage_number":17,"word_count":64,"text":"She could behold in bygone earthly lives  \nHow closely linked Johannes was to her.  \nHe followed after her so long ago  \nAs in those far-off days when she opposed  \nThe light whose humble handmaid now she is.  \nWhen soul-links prove themselves so staunchly true  \nAs to outlast the spirit's wanderings  \nThen shall the Lord of Wishes find his power  \nUnable to effect a severance."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p018","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p018","passage_number":18,"word_count":87,"text":"*Lucifer:*  \nBut Benedictus' will itself compelled  \nJohannes' and Maria's souls to part.  \nAnd wheresoe'er men from each other part  \nThere is the field made ready for my power.  \nI ever work for separateness of soul,  \nTo set the earth-life free, and for all time  \nTo break its servitude to cosmic chains.  \nMaria's being, in monastic garb,  \nTurned from its father yonder soul away  \nThat now is dweller in Johannes' form.  \nThis too hath caused some seeds of mine to grow  \nWhich I shall surely bring to ripening."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p019","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p019","passage_number":19,"word_count":328,"text":"*Maria (turning to Lucifer):*  \nIn human nature there are springs of love  \nTo which thy power can never penetrate.  \nThey are unsealed when faults of former lives—  \nA load unwittingly assumed by man,—  \nAre in a later life by spirit seen,  \nAnd by the free-will of self-sacrifice  \nTransformed to earthly action, which shall tend  \nTo bear fruit for the real good of man.  \nThe powers of destiny have granted me  \nThe vision which can penetrate the past;  \nAlready too have I received the signs  \nSo to direct my, free-will sacrifice  \nThat good may pour therefrom for every soul  \nWhose thread of life shall have to twine with mine  \nThroughout the evolution of this earth.  \nI saw how in its earthly frame of yore  \nJohannes' soul turned from his sire away,  \nAnd saw the forces that compelled myself  \nTo make the son repel the father's heart.  \nThus is the father now opposed to me  \nTo bring to mind my own offence of old.  \nPlainly he speaks in cosmic language clear  \nWhose symbols are the actions of man's life.  \nThat which I set between the sire and son  \nMust reappear, though in another form  \nIn this my life in which Johannes' soul  \nMath once again been closely knit to mine.  \nThe suffering which I had to undergo  \nIn severing Johannes from myself  \nWas but my own act's fated consequence.  \nIf now my soul is faithful to the light  \nWhich from the spirit-forces comes to it,  \nIt will be strengthened by the services  \nWhich it may render to Capesius  \nIn this sore stress of his life-pilgrimage;  \nAnd with such forces, similarly won,  \nWill also learn to see Johannes' star  \nWhen he, by fetters of desire misled  \nTreads not the way illumined by the light.  \nThe spirit-vision which hath led me back  \nTo distant days on earth will teach me now  \nHow I must deal with soul-links at this time  \nSo that life-powers unconsciously prepared  \nShall henceforth work awakened for man's weal."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p020","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p020","passage_number":20,"word_count":283,"text":"*Benedictus:*  \nIn olden days on earth was formed a knot  \nOf threads which Karma spins world-fashioning.  \nThree human lives are interwoven there,  \nAnd now upon this fateful knot there shines  \nThis holy temple's lofty spirit-light.  \n'Tis thee, Maria, I must now address  \nOf these three souls at this time thou alone  \nArt present at the place of sacrifice.  \nMay this light operate within thyself  \nAnd turn to welfare those creative powers  \nWhich once upon a time thy life-threads wove  \nFast in a life-knot with those other two.  \nThe father could not in his former life  \nHis son's heart find; but now in other scenes  \nThe spirit-seeker will accompany  \nThy friend's self on its way to spirit-land.  \nAnd thine is now the duty to maintain  \nJohannes' soul in light by thine own force.  \nOnce didst thou hold it in so fast a bond  \nThat it could only blindly follow thee.  \nThou didst then give it back its liberty,  \nWhen still it clung to thee in fancy fond.  \nBut thou shalt once more find it, when, self-willed,  \nIt wins its individuality.  \nIf thy soul to that light holds ever true  \nWhich powers from spirit-realms bestow on thee,  \nJohannes' soul will thirst to drink of thine  \nE'en where the Lord of all Desire holds sway;  \nAnd through the love which holds it bound to thee  \nIt will regain the path to light on high.  \nFor ever must a living being strive  \nThrough light or darkness, which hath once beheld  \nAnd known the heights of spirit in its soul,  \nIt hath drawn breath from cosmic distances  \nOf air that pulseth with immortal life,  \nAnd living raiseth all our human kind  \nFrom founts of soul to spirit-sun sublime."},{"locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene13/p021","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene13/p021","passage_number":21,"word_count":1,"text":"*Curtain*"}]}