Related drafts for the first, second, and third scenes

THE GRAND MASTER: We feel ourselves to be guardians of ancient wisdom light. It was first entrusted to humanity shrouded in thick veils. It could be felt as dark impulses leading to the right. Humankind had to find itself in darkness before it was allowed to see its true origin. Only in this way could its nature be guided by its own power toward virtue, beauty, and wisdom. It would have had to drown in the foreign spirit if it had been spared the search. Only those who were willing to forego the happiness that springs from earthly spheres for the sake of human salvation were allowed to approach the source of the spirit. We do not say this out of arrogance that we may count ourselves among such people. We would only have to thank the grace of higher spiritual powers who chose us as their instruments. You will find it difficult to believe us now. But you will find faith when you realize that through many lives we had to let the treasures of the soul, which are to form your wealth in the future, dry up uncultivated. As much as appearances may conceal this, we were only allowed to guard the treasures of the temple because we proved ourselves indifferent to the gifts of the world. Thus we may approach you as brothers find brothers. We possess what you lack and what you shall become when your souls find their way back to the realms from which they sprang. Human souls today stand before times of great decision. And what Thomasius has accomplished is destined to significantly change the face of the spiritual striving of all people. The new science, which everyone can learn, incorporates the high spiritual light that until now could only be revealed to human beings who had struggled through hard trials and become familiar with the nature of the hard, to which we were appointed as guardians. That a man of Thomasius' kind must come one day: we have known since time immemorial, since our souls dwelt in bodies on earth in days long past. And our spiritual eyes were fixed on the moment when our mysterious signs would be imprinted in general forms of knowledge. The moment has come: it must also be recognized by human souls = knowledge of this kind can become yours if you come to yourselves in the right sense.