The Rudolf Steiner Archive

18. Goethe’s “Faust”: A Portrait of His Worldview from the Perspective of a Theosophist

I. Article in the “Mühlheimer Zeitung” dated March 20, 1905

[ 1 ] On Saturday evening, Dr. Rudolf Steiner of Berlin, Secretary-General of the German Section of the Theosophical Society, spoke on “Goethe’s Faust in the Light of the Theosophical Worldview.” The speaker explained that one cannot fully grasp the depth of Goethe’s life’s work if one views Faust merely as a poetic expression of the external life surrounding us and of the inner life in its outward manifestations. Faust offers infinitely more; it seeks to provide a picture of human development and humanity’s place within the world and the universe. Goethe had insight into the teachings of mysticism, which correspond to those of theosophy; in the spirit of mysticism, he presented in his Faust a picture of the human being, its development, and its ascent. He had rendered the ancient teachings as only a poet could—namely, through a poet’s portrayal—while making use of mystical terminology. Goethe was familiar with the ancient division of the universe into a physical, a soul, and a spiritual world; it was clear to him that human beings, too, are composed of three parts: a physical, a soul, and a spiritual. He therefore understood the human being as a microcosm in which the image of the universe—the macrocosm—was reflected. Just as the ancient wisdom teachings of the Indians, Egyptians, Persians, and Greeks conceived of the course of human development, so too did Goethe. He adhered to the view that the human soul had existed from the very beginning, that it had evolved through all the realms of nature and had become the creator of these realms, that on this journey of development through the most diverse states it had created humankind in its present form, and that it now strives to further spiritualize it. To clarify this view of Goethe’s work, the speaker pointed to the many expressions of mystical terminology scattered throughout Faust, such as the passage in the Prologue in Heaven, which can only be understood in a mystical sense:

The sun resounds in the ancient way
In the spheres of the brotherhood, a contest of song,
And its prescribed journey
It completes with a thunderous roar.

[ 2 ] These processes, which can only be perceived in the world of the spirit—where the ear of the spirit listens and the eye of the seer can no longer follow, not to mention the physical eye—are described in mysticism as “resonant” or “sounding.” In the first act of the second part, Ariel calls the organ that is to be understood as the organ of perception in these worlds the “spiritual ear.” Ariel says:

Listen, listen to the storm of the Horae!
Resounding to the ears of the spirit
The new day is already dawning.
Rock gates creak and rattle,
Phoebus’ wheels roll with a crackling sound;
What a din the light brings!
It drums, it trumpets;
The eye blinks and the ear is astonished,
The unheard cannot be heard.

[ 3 ] The first part of the tragedy, as Dr. Steiner explained, presents humanity to us as it struggles with the lower physical passions. In the second part, the development of his inner life is illustrated, along with his ascent into the purely spiritual realm. Mephisto embodies the principle of desire and longing until the soul is spurred on to a higher life. The “Realm of the Mothers” refers to the spiritual realm into which Faust descends to attain the spiritual archetypes of things (Helena as a symbol of beauty). In The Homunculus, the soul’s journey of development is shown as it passes through the realms of nature; in Euphorion, the moment of higher enlightenment is depicted—a moment that comes to us in a happy hour and vanishes again in an instant, and so on. The captivating presentations, of which we could reproduce only a few here, were met with great applause.

II. Article in the “Kölnische Zeitung” dated March 22, 1905

[ 4 ] On Saturday evening in the Isabellensaal of the Gürzenich, Dr. Rudolf Steiner—Berlin—gave a lecture at the Theosophical Society on “Goethe’s Faust: A Reflection of His Worldview from the Theosophist’s Perspective.” The speaker is often characterized by a mystical and obscure style of expression; in his deeply spiritualized presentation—which, in broad strokes, traced a journey through Goethe’s life’s work as viewed from a theosophical perspective—the speaker also wove in reflections on the history and nature of theosophy during his roughly one-hour speech. Even if the Theosophical Society as such had existed for only 30 years, the spirit of this worldview would nonetheless have been active from the very beginning in esoteric Buddhism and later in the most significant minds of the East and West throughout the ages. Drawing on fundamental ideas from theosophical teaching, the speaker elaborated—as in earlier lectures—on the three worlds of theosophy: life, soul, and spirit. Regarding the topic itself, he remarked that one could only truly understand Goethe’s “Poem of Life” by illuminating it with the meaning of the theosophical worldview, which Goethe had given special expression to in The Mysteries and in the fairy tale of the green serpent and the beautiful lily. As he grew older, he said, he had delved ever more deeply into this world and realized that when we come to know the world, we also come to know the fragmented details of our own being; there is no end to knowledge, only stages. That is why Goethe had to conclude Faust as a mystic, after having said in his youth: “A good person, in his dark yearning, is well aware of the right path.” After examining the prologue from the mystic’s perspective, the speaker described Faust in the first part as weary of the sensual world; none of the sciences of the intellect satisfied him, and within him there was a yearning for a spiritual world in the sense of mysticism. That is why Goethe has Faust reach the Earth Spirit within the flame and, at the end of the first part, recognize that true self-knowledge is knowledge of the world. In the second part, he has Faust become acquainted with the three worlds of theosophy. The imperial court embodies the great sensory world—Mephisto, “the impulse of development,” draws him back into it again and again—the mothers represent the spiritual principle that is fertilized so that the higher human being may be born within the human being. The mystic, too, said to the materialist: “In your nothingness I hope to find the universe.” The homunculus, which can also be understood only mystically, is the representative of mystical clairvoyance; the birth and demise of Euphorion are the mystical moments of celebration that quickly vanish. Finally, it was explained how Faust becomes entirely independent of the sensory world, how he goes blind, how darkness surrounds him, yet within him there is bright light. The “Chorus mysticus” is a Goethean creed. The lecture, which was very well received, was followed by a stimulating discussion.