The Rudolf Steiner Archive

18. Parzival and Lohengrin

[ 1 ] Eight days ago today, I had the privilege of speaking to you about the esoteric core, the spiritual content of those great epic poems that express German—or indeed Central European—thought and feeling in the first third of the Middle Ages, and through whose revival Richard Wagner, at the same time, accomplished something of a prophetic feat for our art. Today we will turn our attention to a different type of legend—two legends that were likewise revitalized by Richard Wagner and have been meaningfully reclaimed by art in our own time. Today we will focus on the legends of Parzival and Lohengrin. With these two legends, we are entering a somewhat different realm than the one we explored eight days ago. I would like to briefly characterize once more what actually ties into the Siegfried and Nibelungen sagas and what lives within them. They express the Central European people’s awareness of an ancient spiritual experience of their ancestors, one that has sunk into the mists of time and which, in the era when these sagas arose, had in fact already been replaced by ordinary, everyday sensory perception—an ancient spiritual experience that still lived on as an echo, precisely as a world of gods and legends.

[ 2 ] If the legend of the Nibelungs and Siegfried is an echo of the ancient pagan era with its secret teachings and its concepts of the initiation of the people’s ancient leaders, and if we have found in Siegfried himself such a great initiate in the tradition—let us say—of ancient Germanic culture, then in Lohengrin and Parzival we find characters of an entirely different kind. With them, we enter the era in which Christianity—a worldview entirely new to Central Europe—spread and gained influence. The very essence of the newly emerging Christianity—and everything that is linked to it as a result or consequence—now lives on in these two legends: the Parzival and the Lohengrin legends. Let us call to mind how the essence of medieval European development first finds expression in this world of legends. Eight days ago, we emphasized that the legends of Siegfried and the Nibelungs point to an ancient past in which a kind of natural bond of love united the individual tribes and segments of the population. There is something of an echo of this time in what Tacitus reports when he says that the Germans still worshipped an ancient tribal god, whom they looked up to as a father, to whom they were bound by family ties that extended to the tribal community. The love that forged these bonds was given through blood, through natural kinship. Each individual tribe had such a tribal deity, who in turn had a kind of ancestral lord. This natural love, which is a consequence of blood kinship, hovers like a breath over those ancient times, and it is precisely the memory of those ancient times and tribal communities—of that ancient love rooted in blood—that finds expression in the Nibelungen saga. We have seen that what is characteristic is precisely that this *Nibelungenlied*, this type of legend, arose at a time when tribal love had already receded. Something else had taken its place: the craving for possessions, everything symbolized by gold, which is connected to and rooted in selfishness. It was no longer the old love based on blood kinship that was decisive, but rather new relationships founded on statutes, treaties, and laws. This shift is reflected very precisely in what lives on in the Nibelungen saga.

[ 3 ] Some time passed, and other goals took the place of these old communities, which were, let’s say, built on gold, property, and mere martial, chivalrous valor—communities that counted on their possessions. Gradually, other goals and ideals emerged. They emerged with Christianity. Perhaps nowhere is the innermost essence of Christianity expressed as powerfully and magnificently as in the legends with which we are gradually becoming familiar—and in which the mission of Christianity within Central Europe is symbolically played out: in the legend of Lohengrin and in the legend of Parzival.

[ 4 ] What, then, was the lifeblood of Christianity? The absolute equality of all people. At least, that is how Christianity was perceived at the time. Freedom and equality before the Supreme Being—the highest concept a human being can conceive—were regarded as the jewel, as the true purpose and mission of Christianity. In ancient times, the ancestors of the Germanic peoples took pride in the names of their forebears, in the name of a tribe, or in a family name. They invoked these when they sought to assign themselves value in the world. They invoked the law, titles, and names in the era that succeeded tribal loyalty. Now neither was to apply anymore, but only the human being, pure and simple, who felt his essential nature in his innermost being. The human being without title, without name, was the Christian ideal. This expressed something profound. It is reflected in the legends of Lohengrin and Parzival.

[ 5 ] To what extent is this reflected in these two sagas? If we take the Parzival saga, we need only consider the structure of the Parzival saga as it existed in the Middle Ages, as it existed in the work of Wolfram von Eschenbach. We are dealing here with a young man who grows up torn away from all community, torn away from what gave people value and significance in that era. His mother, Herzeloide, had learned that suffering and pain could be linked to the old order, which was based on titles, dignities, and names. In the old order, her husband was led to the Orient, where he met with misfortune. She now wants to raise her son far from everything that matters. He was to know nothing of the aspirations of worldly knights. But one day he sees such worldly knights. So he decides to set out on his own, and now he embarks on his journey. We know that this journey takes him to two places that we must regard as something particularly important for the spiritual imagination in the heart of the Middle Ages.

[ 6 ] The first of the places Parzival visits is King Arthur’s Round Table; the other is the Castle of the Holy Grail. What are these two? In the medieval imagination, King Arthur’s Round Table represents a community from which all spiritual power emanates for that which existed in the Middle Ages—before the influence of Christianity—as secular knighthood, and indeed as everything secular. We are taken back to ancient times, to those times we were already able to refer to last time in the lecture on the *Nibelungenlied*. We know, of course, that the Germanic peoples—the ancestors of the German and Anglo-Saxon peoples in Europe—occupied a territory that in ancient times was inhabited by other tribes, namely the Celts. The Celts: Little is known about them historically; history tells us very little of those distant times in Europe when this remarkable people exerted great influence, only to be driven westward by the advancing Germanic tribes, where they too were pushed back as a people. As a people, the Celts were pushed back. Their influence remained. A spiritual legacy remains in Europe from this ancient Celtic era. It was during this Celtic era—when people could still perceive the spiritual realms through clairvoyance—that the conceptions of the spiritual world were formed.

[ 7 ] It was primarily among the Celts—where the ancient art of clairvoyance was at home—that there was a direct awareness that one could have experiences in the divine-spiritual world. The stories and dramatic narratives are essentially an echo of the teachings that the initiated Celtic priests imparted to their students and, through them, to the entire people. This takes us back to those primeval times in Europe when there were true initiates on European soil—initiates of the ancient Celtic paganism.

[ 8 ] What I have told you about the initiation of Siegfried, Wotan, and so on—all of that traces back to the ancient initiations performed by the ancient Celtic priests. These ancient Celtic priests were essentially the same in spirit as the priest-sages who ruled in ancient Egypt, ancient Chaldea, or ancient Persia. They exercised authority here. Everything that took place in the secular realm—everything pertaining to external organization—was carried out under the guidance of the priest-sages. There was nothing in the state or in the community that was not subject to the wisdom of these primordial scholars of Europe.

[ 9 ] King Arthur, who is said to have retired to Wales with his Round Table and to have lived and reigned there, was none other than the learned leader of these sages, who formed a spiritual center, a kind of spiritual monarchy. People sensed that this spiritual center—I would call him the “primordial scholar”—with his select group, usually said to number twelve, was truly present there. There are good reasons to believe this is so. Thus, it is said that King Arthur in Wales was nothing other than the successor to that guiding scholar of the ancient Celtic priests. And this brings us directly to the realization that what we call in spiritual research the so-called “Grand Lodge” did indeed exist in ancient Europe.

[ 10 ] Let us now clarify the concept of a Grand Lodge. Surely you know—and since spiritual scientific matters are discussed here so often, I may well speak here about more intimate matters as well— you know that we are quite serious about evolution and that evolution exists within humanity, that humanity will rise higher and higher, that every individual will ascend the path of knowledge to those levels where he himself will look into the spiritual worlds, where what lies as the primordial source behind the world will be revealed to him. So when we speak of the possibility of humanity’s evolution, it is not far-fetched to realize that there are already highly evolved individuals among humanity today who have gone ahead of the rest of humanity and who, through a life of self-sacrifice, have traversed the paths of knowledge and wisdom so that they may serve as guides for humanity today. Today, when everything is being leveled, when people refuse to acknowledge anything, when they speak of evolution but do not want to believe in it, such ideas are not accepted. But in times when people knew something about this, they did indeed speak of the evolution that exists.

[ 11 ] According to a natural law, we find twelve different powers of the spirit. I have mentioned that Goethe himself speaks of such a secret brotherhood, which he refers to as the Rosicrucians. People spoke of such a Great White Lodge in the Middle Ages. From it emanated the threads that held life together and governed it. And the one who directed it all was recognized as King Arthur, who lived in hiding in Wales. Surrounding him were his knights, who, though no longer quite at the height they once were—like the priests of the ancient Celtic era—for whom the age of love had turned into an age of selfishness, where people sought to conquer lands with the sword in hand, were still under the guidance of the White Lodge.

[ 12 ] Of course, the question naturally arises: If such lodges exist—even today—why don’t they reveal themselves?—I have often said that it does not depend solely on one revealing oneself, but also on whether one can be recognized. Even Jesus would probably not be recognized today. It is difficult to recognize a wise person in one’s own time. This is precisely what the theosophical or spiritual science movement seeks to bring back to humanity. Once this takes hold, people will once again understand concepts such as King Arthur’s Round Table and the guiding White Lodge.

[ 13 ] That was one thing: Arthur. The other is: the Castle of the Holy Grail. We can only touch on this briefly. It is said that the Holy Grail is the cup in which Jesus Christ once shared the Last Supper—the wine—with his disciples, and into which his blood was later collected. It is also said that the lance that pierced Jesus’ side was brought to Europe. The Grail cup is said to be located on Montsalvatsch, where a sacred castle was built. The Holy Grail has the power to bestow eternal youth—and indeed, the very power of eternal life—upon those who are familiar with its miracles and who live in the light of its grace.

[ 14 ] Once again there are twelve, but this time they are Christian, spiritual knights. The ancient Knights Templar guard the Holy Grail, and they use the power they draw from this vigil to pour out the spiritual knighthood of the heart—of the inner life—across Europe. Thus, the spiritual knighthood in the Castle of the Holy Grail, situated on the Spanish mountain of Montsalvatsch, was set in contrast to the White Lodge of secular knighthood, which had been relocated to Wales.

[ 15 ] What was the mission of the knights who were in the Castle of the Holy Grail? The mission of the Knights of the Holy Grail was not to make conquests, not to acquire external possessions, and not to appropriate lands; their mission was to achieve spiritual fulfillment. While the Nibelungenhoard is described to us as gold—a symbol of possession and the goal of the Nibelungs’ striving—the Holy Grail is the spiritualized Nibelungenhoard, the treasure of the soul. What, in reality, is the power that emanates from the Holy Grail? What are those twelve knights, united in its castle, working on? As is often emphasized in the theosophical worldview, a spark of the Divine lives within every human being. The mystics of the Middle Ages had their great ideas during the same period in which these legends arose. They spoke of the human being as a fourfold being. First, there is the outer, physical human being, who lives here in this world, who strives for possessions, who pursues gold in this world. The second is the soul-human, who suffers and rejoices, who has instincts, desires, and feelings that must gradually be refined. The third human being is even more inner. He is a spiritual human being, the one who gradually gains access to the spiritual world. The innermost human being is the divine human being. This is the one who today—and this was felt particularly in the Middle Ages—exists only in the very earliest seeds. To develop this seed of the divine spark more and more, in order to raise the human being into the higher worlds—this was the goal sought in the initiations of ancient paganism. This is now being pursued in a new way within the Christian world. Christian initiation, too, has been internalized.

[ 16 ] You will recall from earlier lectures what initiation ceremonies were like in ancient times, how a person had to undergo procedures that lifted the inner soul out of the physical body, so that the person was transported into the higher world and could witness the qualities of that world for themselves. This involves an external procedure to undergo all of this. Christianity was meant to bring about an initiation that takes place only in the deepest innermost part, in the veiled sanctuary of the soul. There, one was to seek God—the God who, through the shedding of His blood, brought salvation to Christendom; this God was to be found by each individual within their own soul. Indeed, the individual human being was to be able to achieve what Angelus Silesius, the great Christian mystic, later expressed with the words: “If you rise above yourself and let God reign, then the Ascension will take place in your spirit.” This upward development of what was inherent in human beings as an inner spark of life—that was the task of the Knights of the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail was nothing other than the deepest inner core of human nature, and it was a unified whole, because inner human nature is itself unified; for a life devoted to the pursuit of wisdom awakens the hope that one might understand what is meant by the great unity, by the great divine spark.

[ 17 ] They were there as the Brothers of the Holy Grail. Parzival wanted to find the way to the Holy Grail. Now the legend tells us that when he arrived at the Holy Grail, he found Amfortas, the king at that time, bleeding. He had been told not to ask too many questions—and certainly not the wrong ones. Therefore, he did not ask about the king’s wounds or the meaning of the Grail. That is why he was cast out. He should have asked about the qualities of the Holy Grail and the king’s wounds. It is part of the experiences one must undergo in the divine life that one must ask about these things. One must have a longing for them. There it is, the Holy Grail; it can be found, and it will be granted to everyone, but it does not impose itself. It does not come to us; we must feel within our souls the urge for this Holy Grail, the inner sanctuary, the divine spark of life in the human soul. We must have the impulse to seek it. Once the human soul has found its way up to God, then God descends to it. This is the mystery of the Grail itself: the descent of God, who descends when the human being develops upward toward the divine. This is depicted in connection with the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist: a dove descended and alighted upon his head, and a voice from heaven spoke: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The Holy Grail is symbolically represented in the form of a dove.

[ 18 ] Parzival was not yet mature enough during his first visit to the Grail Castle to go through what we have just described. When he felt cast out, something entered his soul—something that must enter every soul at some point if it is to truly mature and reach the final stages of knowledge. Doubt, disbelief, and inner spiritual darkness enter Parzival’s soul. Certainly, anyone who wishes to ascend toward knowledge must at some point undergo the harsh school of doubt. Only when one has doubted and gone through the torments and everything that doubt can bring—only when one has gone through all that—has one gained that inner certainty that one’s insight will never be lost again. Doubt is a wicked brother, but a purifying, a refining brother. Parzival is now going through these doubts, and he struggles his way to a realization that consists of something other than what is usually called intellectual or rational knowledge. It is a realization that Richard Wagner expressed with magnificent accuracy—perhaps not entirely philosophically or psychologically correct, but in essence—by calling Parzival the “Pure Fool” who gains knowledge through compassion.

[ 19 ] This brings us to the description of the path that must be traversed by those who still have to work their way up to the higher levels of knowledge. You know that this is the path of the disciple and that three stages are distinguished along it. When someone has acquired the qualities that constitute the preparatory path, when they have purified themselves of uncontrolled thoughts and lead a pure life, then they are ready to become a chela; then they are ready to receive the Guru, the spiritual guide. The first stage of the higher path of knowledge consists in learning to relate to the world entirely objectively, to practice love from within without the slightest trace of prejudice. Isn’t it true that, in ordinary life, why do people love in the first place? Well, because they are related by blood, because they have long been bound together by some ties. That is correct. But whoever wishes to walk the path of knowledge must advance to a different kind of love. Nothing that connects me to a person in a special way may give that person preference in my love. I must look only to what lies outside of myself. Does the one who is my brother or my brother-in-law have any special privilege? No! This is not meant to speak against the love of kinship; it is only about the character traits of the individual. Even if he is a complete stranger to us, if we recognize that he is worthy of our love, then we love him as one who has long been connected to us. Such a person stands on the first step of discipleship. We call him the homeless person because, in the ideal sense, he has lost what is called a homeland. This is also the meaning of the saying found in Christianity: “Whoever does not leave wife and child, mother and brother for my sake cannot be my disciple.” The same is meant by this saying, and this is how Christianity was also understood in Central Europe. No name and no title should entitle one to preferential treatment in love. The human being, in his innermost dignity and worth, should be the basis of love for one who is ascending the path of knowledge.

[ 20 ] Once a person has climbed the first steps of the path of knowledge, the difficult moments of doubt set in. As we come to know the world more and more and immerse ourselves more and more in love, we also come to know the dark and evil side of the world all the more. These are the difficult days of the initiates. The initiate gradually struggles upward. Then that light of the soul awakens, which, like an inner sun, illuminates the spiritual things and beings around him. We see the objects around us with our eyes because the light shines upon them. In reality, we see only the rays that are reflected back to us from those objects. We do not see spiritual things because no spiritual light shines upon them. But whoever has reached the point where the so-called Kundalini light shines upon them stands on the second step of the path of knowledge. The third step is reached by the one who has come to perceive their “I” without favoritism, who does not regard themselves as superior to other people, and who finds their higher “I” in love for all beings. Of the one who no longer places hope in his own selfish “I,” but hears and perceives the unique nature of beings speaking through them, we say that he has reached the third stage of the path of knowledge. In the Esoteric Teaching, we call him a swan, and this is a term commonly used throughout the world where spiritual research is practiced.

[ 21 ] And what does this level bring? It brings a flowing out over all beings. We are no longer separated from the world as if by a skin. Another’s pain is our pain; another’s joy is our joy; we live and weave within existence. The whole earth belongs to us. We feel ourselves in everything. Then one no longer knows that one is looking at objects from the outside; it is as if one were inside them, as if one had penetrated them through love and thereby knew them. Through compassion, through feeling at one with all things, everything has become knowledge.

[ 22 ] Parzival is initiated into this wisdom by a hermit named Trevrizent. The fact that he is a hermit is significant. He is one who has set himself apart from the rest of humanity, who has truly left everything behind—father, mother, brother, sister—and has become a disciple of the One who knows no such distinctions. There, Parzival is instructed in the higher virtues, and there he matures enough to enter the castle of the Holy Grail and also to ask what the miracles of the Holy Grail are. He is accepted, he frees the wounded Amfortas, and becomes the Grail King himself. It is an inner, human path—the path prescribed by esoteric science throughout the world, translated into Christian terms—a path along which Parzival is portrayed to us. Lohengrin belongs to the Grail Circle. He is the son of Parzival. While *Parzival* itself depicts humanity’s higher ascent toward the Higher Self, *Lohengrin* portrays a historical-social mission from the middle of the Middle Ages. Medieval popular consciousness was guided by initiates; it was not blind, as scholars imagine. This popular consciousness captured an important epoch in the middle of the Middle Ages. What happened there? In short: a significant historical event took place—the so-called urban culture began. The old feudal era underwent a powerful revolution. Whereas in the past one dealt only with land ownership and the rural population, we now see individual cities emerging everywhere—from Germany, France, and Belgium all the way to Russia. Cities are being founded; one can sense a leap forward in human development. What happened during this medieval urbanization? People were torn away from the communities to which they had previously belonged. Everyone who felt oppressed went to the city. There, one was on one’s own. There, one was worth only as much as one could contribute. What was established in the middle of the Middle Ages as the bourgeoisie was emerging. This powerful upheaval is expressed in the legend of Lohengrin.

[ 23 ] Just as *Parzival* shows us how a person finds a higher human self within themselves and how they devote themselves to the pilgrimage toward that higher self, so *Lohengrin* shows us how the people of the Middle Ages were undergoing a momentous epoch in human development—namely, the liberation of the individual and the emergence of the personality from the old social structures. If we wish to understand the connection between this historical event and the legend of Lohengrin, we must recognize that in all mysticism this stage is symbolized by a female figure. This is why Goethe, at the end of the second part of his *Faust*, spoke of the Eternal Feminine drawing us upward. This must not be interpreted in a trivial manner. In truth, it refers to the human soul, which draws the human being upward. Generally, the soul is portrayed as feminine, and that which surrounds the human being from the outside as the masculine. The striving soul is always depicted as feminine.

[ 24 ] In the Esoteric Teaching, it is known that it is the great leaders of humanity—the Initiates—who always advance humanity one step further. Lohengrin is the emissary of the Holy Grail. He is portrayed by medieval consciousness as the great initiated leader who, in the middle of the Middle Ages, takes humanity one step further. He was the bringer of urban culture, the one who inspired the bourgeoisie as it emerged. That is the individuality of Lohengrin. And Elsa of Brabant is nothing other than the symbol of the medieval national soul, which, under Lohengrin’s influence, is to ascend another step in its development. This progress in human history is depicted beautifully and powerfully in the legend.

[ 25 ] We have seen that the disciple initiated into the third degree is called a swan. The Master, who is deeply initiated, ascends higher; he ascends into the world beyond, into the worlds beyond the reach of human consciousness. He knows everything that speaks through humanity solely within himself. One cannot ask him: Where do you come from, what is your name? — It is the swan that brings him from even higher spheres. That is why Lohengrin is brought into the City Epoch by the swan. Consider the progress that was made in ancient Greece. The gods of Greece are nothing other than deified initiates. Take Zeus, who unites with Semele; from this union comes Dionysus. Greek culture springs from this. All of humanity’s great advances are depicted in this way. Elsa must not ask for the name and origin of the one who guides her and becomes her husband. So it is with all great masters; they pass through humanity unrecognized and unnoticed. If they were asked, it would drive them away from humanity. It is necessary that they protect the sanctuary from profane gazes and questions. The same would be true if the nature of such an initiate were made known to human understanding. At such a moment, such a being would also vanish, just as Lohengrin did. And the fact that the liberation of the medieval bourgeoisie took place under the influence of Christianity is itself illustrated by the fact that Lohengrin is named to us as the son of Parzival.

[ 26 ] Thus, we look into the legends of the Middle Ages and see how the realities of spiritual life are beautifully expressed in both legends. Christianity’s mission for medieval culture thus became the mission of liberating humanity from the earthly human body. This mission was portrayed in both legends. It had a particular influence on Richard Wagner. He always sought to portray it: the pure love that makes a person clairvoyant. As early as 1856, he began work on a drama titled *Die Sieger* (*The Victors*): Ananda, a young Brahmin, is loved by a Chandala girl. But Ananda is kept far apart from the Chandala girl’s love by caste prejudice. He is not allowed to pursue her love. He triumphs over his own nature by becoming a disciple of the Buddha. In the Buddha’s community he finds victory; there he finds himself again; there he overcomes human inclination; and it is revealed to the Chandala girl that in a previous life she was a Brahmin girl who had rejected the love of a Chandala youth. She, too, then becomes a victor and is united in spirit with Ananda, the Brahmin youth. Later, Wagner wanted to use the figure of Jesus of Nazareth in a dramatic context. He had in mind the entire inner essence of Christianity and the teaching of the free human being, who is not bound by titles or anything else. *The Holy Grail* seeks only within the human soul. In 1857, on Good Friday—as Wagner recounts—he encountered a wondrous aspect of nature in Zurich. For a moment, something flowed toward him from the world that expressed within him the entire spirit that pervaded the entire era of chivalry and Christian chivalry. He told himself, as if through inner inspiration: On the day that Jesus Christ died, no human being may bear arms. — The full grandeur of the figure of Parzival, who attained knowledge through immersion in humanity and in all beings, dawned on him at that moment. He now took up his unfinished play *Die Sieger* (*The Victors*) in a modern Christian spirit. In Parzival, he portrays the one who leaves his homeland, who knows nothing of names and titles, nothing of ties, and nothing of father or mother; who, on the one hand, encounters Klingsor’s enchanted castle and the sorceress Kundry, and who, in that very moment when Kundry steps before him, experiences the full significance of earthly sensory life and what sensory life means when a person comes to know it solely through desire; and on the other hand, at the very moment it draws near to him through Kundry’s kiss, it becomes clear to him that this sensuality, in its truest sense, only arises in a person when it is free from desire. Richard Wagner now portrays desire-free sensuality—as it is attained through the inner power of the spirit, the Parzival spirit, which he calls the Christian spirit—in a grand and beautiful way. Thus he portrays it as being attained, on the one hand, through the Holy Grail and, on the other hand, in the enchanted castle. Thus, on the one hand, through its conquest; on the other hand, through its mortification. These are the two paths used to ascend to the spirit. Some mortify the sensual; they practice asceticism; they deny themselves the use of their senses so as not to succumb to weakness. Others remain human; they do not seek to ascend to higher knowledge through self-denial, but rather by developing the Higher within themselves into an even greater strength. This is the path that Parzival recognized as the right one. To become stronger, no matter how powerful the temptations that come our way—that is what it is. And now it is time to be received into the Grail. He now asks in the proper way and is initiated into the mysteries of the Holy Grail; he is ripe to become the King of the Holy Grail himself.

[ 27 ] Wagner strives to depict the Holy Grail. For years he conducted research—not in a scholarly manner, but imbued with artistic and visionary gifts. He conducted his research by adhering essentially to the spirit of medieval legends, so that his work truly expresses that guidance of the Middle Ages brought about by an initiate, in which the old order is represented by Ortrud, and the new order by the rising consciousness of the people who wish to free themselves. This consciousness, which is introduced in a most appropriate manner through the swans—the third-degree disciples—is symbolized by Elsa of Brabant and Lohengrin. Thus Wagner aptly reveals the greatness that lies within. Wagner was concerned with a true renewal of art. It was he who wanted to make art once again something akin to religion; who, through his works of art, sought to embody moods that would lead people back to the divine, thereby transforming artists into religious leaders. Wagner needed subject matter that transcended ordinary life. He also wanted to present the spirit of Christianity—the spirit of love—to humanity in an artistic way. He felt deeply and earnestly how, in modern times, the spirit of love had been replaced by the spirit of selfishness, by the spirit of external possessions. He describes the social order that has developed—and with which he has engaged in an intense and radical way—as a pursuit of gold, as an era that must once again be superseded by the genuine Christian spirit of love. In his music dramas, he sought to use the superhuman and divine elements that live within human beings to reintroduce, into a world ruled by gold, something akin to an outpouring of love. That is why he also draws upon the great legends of the Middle Ages when addressing these issues. This was what lived within Richard Wagner.

[ 28 ] From this you can see how theosophy, or spiritual science, must align itself more closely with Wagner’s art through its interpretation of myths. Above all, it is clear to the theosophist that we must see in the legends nothing other than images and expressions of great truths. Through them, the ancient peoples were given images of the development of outer life and the soul. The legend of Lohengrin serves to make something clear, so that people might know what happens to them when they reach certain stages. The truth is proclaimed to peoples in a way they can grasp. There were—and still are—tribes and peoples who can comprehend the great truths only in the form of legends. Today we no longer speak in symbolic forms. Spiritual science contains the same truths that were presented to the ancient peoples in magnificent legends and that Wagner sought to revive. Spiritual science speaks in a different way, but what it seeks to infuse into the world as spirit is the same. And so we feel that it is not only true, as Schopenhauer says, that great minds understand one another across the centuries—that Plato and Spinoza, Buddha and Goethe, Giordano Bruno and Socrates, Hermes and Pythagoras understand one another across the centuries, converse with one another, and are in spiritual communion. Not only is that true—not only do these exceptional individuals understand one another—but so, too, does what lives as truth in the collective consciousness of a people. This resonates together into a great historical harmony, and we sense this when we bring to light today what lives in the legends and myths, when we allow it to rise anew for the higher soul of the present. A truth lives in all ages and expresses itself in the most diverse forms. Let us delve into these truths, and we will understand how peoples and eras speak through these individual forms, and we will hear it resonating—how, in the most varied tones, the one truth reveals itself to all peoples, to all human beings.