53. Eurythmy Performance

Therefore, those who are not yet fully mature enough for such introspection are held back by certain inner forces. These are represented by two figures: Under the figure of the Guardian of the Threshold, then Ahriman appears, the figure that is absolutely predisposed in every human being, if man had no heart at all, if he had only powers of understanding, hallucinations that prevent him from taking in the world inwardly with his heart - then man would tend more and more to that which shows itself here in a one-sided way [and] appears in the Ahriman figure. This Ahriman therefore makes fun of the reverent way in which the Guardian of the Threshold draws John's attention to all the dangers that lurk in illusions, in fantasy, in false mysticism and so on, if one really wants to look into one's inner self independently. Only by being prepared in this way can those personalities reappear to him at the end of the scene who have intervened deep inside him: Mary and Benedict, who now appear before him like a thought, but who are definitely real figures in the other, in the overall dramas, [which] now, however, only after Johannes Thomasius has prepared himself to look at himself by looking at the conversation with the doppelganger, which now rise fleetingly before his soul as thoughts at the end, so that he can really now grasp himself, that he can now grasp the whole weaving of his soul again in full prudence.