Rudolf Steiner's Mystery Dramas Explained

Rudolf Steiner wrote four plays that follow the initiation journeys of a group of fictional characters through a series of lives. These plays were intended to be modern mystery plays. Steiner outlined the plot of a fifth play to be set at the Castalian spring at Delphi, but due to the outbreak of First World War, this remained an unfulfilled project.[1]

The titles of the completed plays are:

Genesis of the characters

In these four plays. Steiner intended to show how spiritual development might manifest in a karmically-intertwined group of people. The experiences of the main characters of the play, particularly Johannes Thomasius, Capesius and Strader, represent aspects of the path of initiation "differing according to the karma of the respective individualities."[2]

Steiner based the first play on Goethe's "Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily". In his first draft of the play, the names of the characters were those of the characters in Goethe's tale, but in the course of his work, he replaced the fairytale characters with characters of his own imagination. The following table shows the names from Goethe's fairy tale and the characters these turned into in this first drama:

Goethe’s fairy taleSteiner’s character
LilyMaria
Young ManJohannes Thomasius
1st IrrlichtCapesius
2nd IrrlichtDr. Strader
King of the WillRomanus (Bronze King)
The old man with the lampFelix Balde
King of FeelingTheodosius (Silver King)
SnakeThe other Mary
Wife of the old manFelicia Balde
1st MaidenPhilia
2nd MaidenAstrid
3rd MaidenLuna
GiantGairman (Gold King)
CanaryChild
Mixed King Retardus
The HawkTheodora
HierophantBenedictus
The MacrocosmThe Spirit of the Elements
ManEstella
WifeSophia
The characters of Helena and Lucifer have no precedent in Goethe's fairy tale and were to be played by the same actress.

Historical antecedents

In 1907, at the Munich Theosophical Congress, Rudolf Steiner had directed a play by Édouard Schuré, "The Sacred Drama of Eleusis". Two years later, Steiner staged Schuré's "The Children of Lucifer". At this time, Steiner was looking for a spiritual content and artistic form that could reflect what he believed to be a new age in human consciousness.

Reincarnation and karma

For the first time in dramatic poetry, Rudolf Steiner in his dramas presents the driving forces of destiny events, openly and consistently on the stage. The success of the characterizing people towards the inevitability of fate, has always been the main nerve of tragic poetry, and Steiner's characters also remain true to these causes, which are ultimately enigmatic. Rudolf Steiner was the background of the fate complications to their true causes, namely karmic entanglements in former lives on earth, returning and brought dramatically to display in the present for the characters on stage. This is a critical and necessary impetus for the progress of dramatic art, even if it may take long time until it is taken up more widely by the public.

Lectures

Lectures on The Portal of Initiation:

Lectures on The Trial of the Soul:

Lectures on The Guardian of the Threshold:

Lectures on The Soul's Awakening:

Music

Adolf Arenson composed the original music to accompany the four plays. Later productions had music by Elmar Lampson and Pedro Guiraud.

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Hammacher (1995), p 112
  2. Steiner, Von der Initiation. Von Ewigkeit und Augenblick. Von Geisteslicht und Lebensdunkel. (GA 138), p. 106

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