The Rudolf Steiner Archive

27. The Deeper Mysteries in Goethe’s “Faust”

[ 1 ] Not long before completing the second part of his Faust, Goethe told his faithful friend Eckermann that he had made a special effort with this work to ensure it met theatrical and artistic standards, so that those who wish to enjoy it purely with their senses would be satisfied. And Goethe himself adds that those who are initiated into the mysteries will surely find something deeper behind these images.

But everything is indeed sensuous, and, when presented on stage, will appeal to everyone’s eyes. And that is all I intended. If only the audience takes pleasure in the spectacle; the initiate will at the same time grasp the deeper meaning, just as is the case with The Magic Flute and other works.

[ 2 ] This, ladies and gentlemen, may be an indication of how justified it is to seek out the deeper mysteries hidden within this, of all works, Goethe’s most mature work. And he himself knew that not everyone would be able to grasp these profound mysteries so easily. For on another occasion he said to Eckermann:

I want to share something with you that will immediately help you overcome many things and that will benefit you for the rest of your life. My writings cannot become popular; anyone who thinks that or strives for it is mistaken. They are not written for the masses, but only for individual people who want and seek something similar, and who are moving in similar directions.

[ 3 ] However, along the path we described here yesterday—the path that Goethe himself had to ascend, decade by decade, toward a certain human perfection—[only a few] can follow him; and if everyone had to undergo this arduous spiritual journey throughout their lives, then indeed, those who understand the second part of Faust would be few and far between. But through theosophy, which seeks to penetrate the depths of life, there is the possibility that the soul may first draw upon its innermost powers to perceive spiritually what it can perceive with the senses. When a person delves into the findings of spiritual research, he or she will likely arrive at a quicker understanding of what personalities of such rich substance as Goethe have to say.

[ 4 ] Yesterday we saw how Goethe ascended to perfection, just as the stages of that ascent appear to us in his Faust. We also pointed out that the completed first part of Faust was not actually published until 1808. We noted how Faust was initially a deeply personal, individual work and how it becomes increasingly impersonal, speaking more and more of those matters of the human soul that are of significance to more or less every person.

[ 5 ] This is how Goethe transports his Faust from the narrow confines of the individual into the struggle of the objective forces of the world. That is why he must also stage what you know as the “Prologue in Heaven.” There, it is not merely the inner powers of the soul, but the objective world spirits, lying behind the worlds, who begin their contest for Faust’s soul. There [Goethe shows us how deeply he has penetrated the understanding that it is a mistake] for a human being to regard himself as a separate entity; how it is an illusion. Our finger does not do this. It would say to itself: The moment I am severed, I am no longer a finger. If it were to succumb to the same delusion as human beings do, it would disintegrate. It would disintegrate if—once severed—it could walk around on our body. Human beings can walk around on Earth; that is why they succumb to the delusion of being separate beings. If only they would devote themselves with their whole soul to the realization that they can no longer physically live even a few miles above the Earth, they would not succumb to this delusion; they would feel how the forces not only of the physical but also of the spiritual world flow into their own souls. This happened to Goethe more and more visibly from decade to decade. Thus the powers of the human soul grew into cosmic forces. And in his poetry, he shows us the representatives of the good spirits standing in opposition to the representatives of the evil spirits. And to him, Goethe, the human being appears not merely as a “timidly curled-up worm,” but as one who comprehends how, from millennium to millennium, human affairs pass through the process of becoming earthly and take hold of the individual human being. Hence that wonderful similarity to the ancient biblical text where he has God speak to Mephisto: “Do you know Faust?” — Mephisto: “The doctor?” — The Lord says: “My servant,” as we find it again in the Old Testament book of Job, where Satan stands before the Lord and the Lord asks him:

Have you paid attention to my servant Job?

[ 6 ] [Now it seems to us that in Faust it is not merely a human being who appears before us; now Goethe appears to us as the one who understands how, step by step, human affairs unfold through the course of world history.] Thus, as Goethe matured, Faust gradually became a cosmic poem. It could only become so because, through his own inner development, Goethe was able to experience more and more how the forces—which he had sensed back then in Frankfurt as emerging from the depths of the soul—could truly exist. He finally drew them forth from within himself through ceaseless striving. And so he knew that human beings can look into the supersensible world, that there are spiritual eyes just as there are physical eyes, and that there are spiritual ears just as there are physical ears.

[ 7 ] As early as 1808, he speaks with the authority of one who knows about all the things that were still hidden from him when he first stood before the Earth Spirit: He speaks with the authority of one who knows about the phenomenon that the Pythagorean school recognizes under the name “music of the spheres.” [To the human being, the depths of the soul appear as harmonies. It is not music, but it is something comparable to it—something real that becomes an inspiration to the soul.] When the soul draws forth from the depths what lies dormant there, the inner tones appear to it as harmonies, as something heard with the ears of the spirit.

[ 8 ] It is what is expressed in inspiration. There, the human being senses what this spiritual music is. Then one no longer looks through outward sight and admires the manifestation of light, but rather the soul senses that something behind it is, as it were, inspired. This is what Goethe expresses in the prologue:

The sun sings in the old way.

[ 9 ] And let those who believe they stand on the ground of a realistic aesthetic say: The poet allows himself such images. A poet like Goethe, who writes only of what he has experienced, does not write nonsense—as it would be, in the outwardly realistic sense, to speak of the “resounding sun.” He speaks of it only [when he has experienced it as something spiritual and real], when he knows that such a sound exists for the person who enters the higher spheres of existence. That is why he sticks with this image when he has Faust [after the impetuosity and sin of the first part] ascend to a true insight into the depths of this world. When Faust is to look deeper into the spiritual world at the beginning of the second part, we read the words:

Listen! Hear the storm of the Horae!
Resounding to the ears of the spirit
The new day is already being born.
Rock gates creak and rattle,
Phoebus’ wheels roll with a crackle,
Every roar brings the light!
It drums, it trumpets,
The eye blinks and the ear is astonished,
What has never been heard cannot be heard.

[ 10 ] Here Goethe already portrays his Faust as one who delves into the deeper essences of things. And Goethe truly expresses that he means to say that “Faust” has risen from the point where he longed for these things but could not grasp them. There he had only the certainty:

The spirit world is not closed off;
your mind is closed, your heart is dead!
Come, bathe, disciple, undaunted
your earthly breast in the morning glow!

[ 11 ] But the “terribly contorted worm” was far from bathing the “earthly breast in the morning glow” back then.

[ 12 ] In the second part, we see Faust awaken; and how wonderfully it is described—how he basks in the morning glow, how the true nature of things is revealed to him! Goethe is so artistically consistent in the continuation of his Faust. And Faust is now to be introduced to the wider world, where he will learn to recognize everything that stems from the Mephistophelean power. Since the individual is part of the whole of humanity, that power—which, as we have characterized it, creeps into the human soul and permeates it with deception and lies—will also reveal itself [not only where the individual is alone with himself, but also where] the individual creates without having risen above the ordinariness of existence. Therefore, Faust must be led from the small world to the imperial court; he must be taken to the place where the great destinies of the world are decided for his time. It must be shown how the power of Mephisto leads him from one error to another even there. Therefore, Faust appears with Mephisto at the imperial court. He intervenes in the events of world history. [With delightful humor—and precisely for that reason so] subtly, Goethe depicts the scene in which Mephisto has a hand in the invention of paper money. In the history of literature, there is scarcely ever a depiction with such subtle humor of how these powers intervene in world history. And Mephisto is right in the thick of it.

[ 13 ] People have often mocked the masked plays performed in the second part. If one could take the time to interpret every single character there in accordance with Goethe’s intent, one would see how every thought is realized down to the smallest detail; each would show us the interplay of forces in everything. [They show us the reflection of Mephistophelean power.] This can be depicted in a tangibly realistic way. That is why Goethe portrays it in a masquerade. Here, Goethe has shown how the Mephistophelean forces operate. He wants to take this even further, to show the relationship between Faust and Mephisto, as he proceeds and increasingly awakens the dormant powers of his soul. He wants to show at court that it is not only outwardly sensual elements that appear in the masquerades [but rather something ancient, not belonging to the sensual present]: People demand to see the ancient figures of Paris and Helen. There we are led from a realm that belongs to the sensual present into something that is in no sense present.

[ 14 ] But Goethe clearly demonstrates that he has insight into the nature of existence. He knows that human life contains not only the transitory but also the eternal, and that something of what lived as a human being in even the most ancient times still exists in the world: that the spirit can be found in the spiritual world. And through his image, Goethe wants to tell us that those who connect with their own eternal essence within the soul can penetrate the realm that lies beyond what the eyes can see and the ears can hear. [This spiritual realm is not merely theoretical.] For those who prepare themselves appropriately, this realm is an experience. [It is] absolutely [real]. And it was also there for Goethe; it was absolutely present.

[ 15 ] For the student, however, this realm differs quite significantly from what the eyes can see out there. Let us first point out one difference between the two worlds: In our world, things appear with sharp contours, so that we have, so to speak, ample time to form a picture of what things are like. It is different when the soul enters the spiritual world. Then a realm appears to us that shows the beings who are there in a state of constant transformation. Just as our feelings change from moment to moment and our passions from hour to hour within our own soul, so too is there a constant transformation in the spiritual world.

Creation, transformation,
The eternal delight of the eternal mind,

[ 16 ] as Goethe [describes it]. He knows that the sensory world has emerged and crystallized from the spiritual [world] that lies beyond our world. He seeks a comprehensible expression for what the soul perceives beyond this sensory world. He found that expression.

[ 17 ] He was once reading Plutarch. He read about that city, which was in Carthaginian hands and which Nicias was supposed to recapture for the Romans. For this reason, the Carthaginians regarded him as a traitor, and he was to be taken prisoner. Then—as Plutarch recounts—he behaved as if possessed; he ran through the streets, crying out: “The Mothers, the Mothers are pursuing me!” Upon hearing this, no one dared lay a hand on him. The expression “the Mothers” made a particular impression on the ancients. “The Mothers” were goddesses meant to represent those forces of the soul that lead into the spiritual world, crystallizing from it just as a crystal forms from the mother lye. That is why Goethe adopted the term and called this realm “the realm of the Mothers.”

[ 18 ] Where, then, is that which remains of Paris and Helen after their earthly forms have sunk into the realm of transience? In the realm of the supernatural world, in the realm of the Mothers. Therefore, if Faust wishes to bring forth what is demanded of him—the immortal, the imperishable essence of Paris and Helen—he must bring it forth. That is why he must descend into the realm of the Mothers. He knows that this realm of the Mothers exists and that there he can find the immortal essence of humankind. But how to get there? He has not yet reached the point where he has banished all Mephistophelean forces from within himself; Mephistopheles must therefore advise him on how to find the way in—from the outer world into the realm of the mothers. [At his current stage of development, Faust cannot yet enter the spiritual realm, the existence of which he knows for certain.] Mephisto, after all, belongs to the spiritual world; in reality, he is not an outwardly visible being. [Admittedly, he initially rules only the outer world of the intellect, but he is not a “sensual human being,” as Schiller would say.] He reigns in the sensory world, but does not belong to it. Therefore, he has the understanding—and even the key—to lead Faust there; but he does not know what it is like there. Where he reigns, there is no understanding of the supersensible world. Mephisto is the power that presents the external world to us as an illusion: he reigns in the realistic world. [This Mephistophelean power also reigns today in the materialistic mindset. The error that the material world is the only true one is an influence of Mephisto, which prevents the soul from acknowledging the workings of the supersensible.] One is therefore a realist only when Mephisto reigns in the soul. And he can go only as far as the outer, material human being can go. Yet he provides the key to the supersensible world, though he himself can reach only as far as the gate. [Thus, one can go far through external science, all the way to the gate of the supersensible world, but one cannot enter it through science alone.] Because he has no sense of the supersensible forces, Mephisto provides only the key. Through this, Faust is able to enter the realm of the Mothers. For anyone who experiences the realm that lies beyond our sensory world, this is an accurate depiction.

[ 19 ] And now unfolds that dialogue between Faust and Mephistopheles, which reveals just how deeply Goethe was already able to shed light on the relationship between the sensory and the supernatural worlds. Mephisto describes the realm of the mothers, where the eternal beings of Paris and Helen reside, saying: “You may swim across the sea as far as you wish; you will see the sun, the moon, and the stars; but when you enter the realm you are now about to enter, you will see nothing—space will seem empty to you, and time will seem empty.” Mephisto sees nothingness in the Realm of the Mothers, just as materialism sees nothing where the supernatural world exists. But Faust replies to Mephisto, just as the scholar of the spirit always replies to the materialist:

In your nothingness, I hope to find the universe.

[ 20 ] Thus the two stand in opposition: the eternal question of materialism and the worldview that seeks to penetrate the supernatural—as articulated in this dialogue. Faust even hints at how Mephisto—precisely because he is the force we characterized yesterday—must also lead to deceit and trickery in relation to the supernatural world, and Goethe therefore has Faust say to Mephisto:

You speak as the foremost of all mystagogues,
Who have ever deceived the faithful neophytes
Only the other way around.

[ 21 ] I have shown how easily anyone who enters the spiritual world becomes entangled in error and falsehood as long as he is ensnared by Mephisto, and how he becomes a charlatan rather than a spiritual researcher. How justified, then, is the fear when the charlatan is so close to the spiritual researcher. Faust calls him a “mystagogue,” because the very term used for the leader of the Eleusinian Mysteries is rightly applied to the charlatan who, without having paved the way, wishes to guide others into the spiritual world. [This is the charlatanism that is separated from the noblest spiritual research by nothing more than a delicate cobweb.] Thus Faust calls “mystagogue” the one who speaks falsely of the spiritual powers he cannot perceive—“You speak only in reverse,” he says to Mephisto. “While they speak of the many things they have seen, you speak of nothing.” [Mephisto speaks just as deceitfully as those fraudulent mystagogues of the spiritual world—but in exactly the opposite way. He speaks of it as nothing; they fantasize about some kind of spiritual world.]

[ 22 ] Goethe expresses himself so precisely because he speaks from his innermost experience. But that is also why he shows us what is necessary to penetrate this world. It is true that if one enters unworthily—if one has not yet banished from one’s soul everything that appears as selfishness and egotism—one can indeed see many things in the spiritual world and enter it, just as Faust does now; but Goethe wants to make it clear that Faust is not yet inwardly mature; he wants to show how difficult the path is to rid the soul of all that is Mephistophelean; he wants to show how selfish passions still reign within Faust. Anyone who wishes to be worthy needs a soul completely purified of egoism. In Faust, personal passion still asserts itself. He wants to possess Helena for himself; but at that very moment, her apparition becomes a danger to him. It even clouds his consciousness—the figure of [Helena] vanishes into the realm of the mothers.

[ 23 ] Faust must find another way to free himself from Mephistophelean forces; he must develop his soul in such a way that he does not seek to conquer the spiritual world in a stormy rush [as in the first part]. [And he must not even enter it in the manner in which he now entered the spiritual mother realm.] He must conquer it through a slow, inner spiritual life, so that he follows the inner spiritual conditions step by step. If he truly wishes to reach Helena, he must first attain full understanding himself of how one can ascend again after having descended, and he must look into the mysteries of how a human being truly enters into existence. [He must look into those processes that accompany a human being’s entry into life.]

[ 24 ] Here, Theosophy shows that it is justified to view the human being as a threefold being. [Just as the human being consists of three bodies: the physical body, the soul body, and the spiritual body. Those who truly look into the spiritual world with worthy eyes see how these three parts of the human being are structured.] And what first presents itself is what we can see with our eyes and hear with our ears: the physical body. Then the soul reveals itself. Thereafter, spiritual science delves further and higher. Today we are interested only in the spirit; that is, these three: body, soul, and spirit. These three are present here together. But anyone who looks into the spiritual world must know how these three are structured from the supersensible realm. Only when it has been shown how Helena’s immortal spirit unites with a soul, and the connection between soul and body takes place, only then can Faust approach Helena as she re-enters humanity, [then he is worthy of the spiritual world]. And from this, a person can see—for spiritual research reveals it to them, though Goethe already knew it—the concept of the reincarnation of the innermost human being.

[ 25 ] It may seem quite strange today to speak as if it were an absolute certainty that the idea of reincarnation was characteristic of Goethe. But it is indeed true that what lives within us returns not just once, but time and time again. Gradually, what will one day be the greatest source of satisfaction for our time—what will grant us the greatest satisfaction—is drawing near, [when this idea, which will give people the greatest comfort, will appear to them as truth, and when it will become widely accepted. Truths come only gradually]. Faced with the world of Goethe’s time, a person still had to lock such a truth deep within their soul, for this and another reason: because they knew how infinitely multifaceted and ambiguous truth is [as soon as we approach the spiritual world], and how human words are so easily prone to depicting this truth with contours that are too sharp. Therefore, Goethe had no choice but to express in hints what lived in the depths of his soul. He expressed it in hints in the second part of Faust. In his Wilhelm Meister’s Journeyman Years, too, he articulates what constitutes the innermost essence of the human being: the reappearance to be of benefit to one’s great-grandchildren in this world:

[... we hope that such an entelechy,

[ 26 ] that is, the innermost essence of a human being,

will not completely leave our solar system, but rather, once it reaches its outer limits, will yearn to return, so that it may once again influence earthly life and do good for the benefit of our great-grandchildren].

[ 27 ] He already articulates it in a meaningful way, but he conceals his deepest conviction because people were not yet ready [for this idea, which will eventually emerge gradually from the natural sciences as well].

[ 28 ] He expressed this idea poetically in the second part of Faust. He shows that there is a component of human being that must unite with—or, rather, approach—the physical in order to place the whole human being within the sensory world: that there is a spiritual aspect. And he was familiar with the term for this entity that stands between spirit and body. The ancient terminology recognized it. In medieval literature, it was called the “little human” within the “great human”—the same entity referred to in Indian literature as “purusha,” that which permeates humanity as a small entity within countless personalities—it was called the homunculus. It is the soul, not yet the spirit. Therefore, even [one who] has not yet risen to the level of the spirit can penetrate to this soul. [To symbolically veil this, Goethe has Wagner, who

digs for treasure with a greedy hand And is happy when he finds earthworms,

[ 29 ] find the homunculus.]

[ 30 ] Goethe speaks very precisely—much more precisely than people are accustomed to reading. It should be explicitly noted that [in the case of the homunculus] we are not dealing with something that belongs to the sensory world, but rather with something that is added to it. For this reason, he coins a special image to describe the creation of the homunculus. All coming into being is called “creation.” Here he coins a word himself, [just as he had once before in Faust for the human being striving beyond himself in the Earth Spirit scene, when he coined the term “Übermensch”]: “Überzeugung,” and by “Über-zeugung” he means that which extends beyond the ordinary human being. That is what the scene with Wagner is all about. Read the passage:

It is happening! The masses are stirring with greater clarity,
Their conviction growing truer and truer.

[ 31 ] [Read what is usually said about this in the comments.] Goethe wanted to point out that the creation of the soul is a conviction. Such writings, which spring from inspiration, must be read carefully; they stand up to close scrutiny.

[ 32 ] [So now we have only the soul.] Helena is to appear to Faust on earth. Faust wants to have her in his possession on earth. In the homunculus, we have only Helena’s soul. This soul must first unite with the body; only then can the spirit enter it.

[ 33 ] Now we will show how the physical is embedded within the soul. To this end, the homunculus must be guided into a world where one knows how the soul can be integrated into it.

[He is not lacking in intellectual qualities,

[ 34 ] — Mentally trivial, emotionally worn out.

But all too focused on tangible competence. So far, only the glass gives him substance, yet he would like to be embodied first and foremost.]

[ 35 ] He should be embodied by following the natural path of human development; by evolving in accordance with the wisdom taught, for example, by Thales. This leads him to Proteus. He must be taught this and guided to the place where the elements reign, so that they may become integrated into his soul. [He must be guided into the classical Walpurgis Night, where the elements reign, so that his soul can become integrated into them.] Thales gives him the advice,

to start creation all over again

[ 36 ] — to go through —, advises the Homunculus to begin with the mineral kingdom and then continue through the plant kingdom. [Thus, he first comes to Anaxagoras. Then he seeks to classify the laws of the plant kingdom.] Goethe finds a way to express this journey through the plant kingdom:

It's growling like that.

[ 37 ] This refers to the soul’s passage through the plant element; for

You have time until you become human

[ 38 ] it is said. [From the very beginning, through the realms of nature, the homunculus must take on a physical form.]

[ 39 ] The entire process that takes place on Walpurgis Night is the incorporation of the physical, corporeal into the soul, so that in the end we are presented with the union of the soul and the body. The soul, or Homunculus, is characterized by the fact that when Faust—[still paralyzed by Helena]—lies in bed, he has a dream. There, the Homunculus can look into “Faust’s” dream and describe the events. [Because he still belongs to the world of the soul, he was able to see him.] Every word in the second part of Faust could serve as a clue to the union of the soul with the body. As soon as this union is established, the spirit that existed in earlier incarnations can be received. [At the end of the second act, the soul is united with the body.] In the third act, the reincarnation of Helena appears to us, [after Faust had come to understand in every detail how body, soul, and spirit are united]. Now “Faust” sees her before him just as he can see her as an external human being.

[ 40 ] At the same time, however, this poem shows us how Faust’s spiritual powers are increasingly stirred. [As the momentous event of reincarnation reveals itself to him, allowing him to recognize it, his spiritual powers grow.] The characteristic of such poetry is that, alongside what is shown externally, there is simultaneously an inner spiritual experience. As he recognizes and observes, his spiritual powers grow. What unfolds serves to elevate his soul. He advances on a mystical path. Here we are presented with a mirror image of what Faust experiences in his soul.

[ 41 ] From the union of Faust and Helena comes Euphorion, the child of Faust and Helena. The intention is to depict how Faust’s soul has, as it were, entered into a marriage with the spiritual world. As it elevates its powers, the soul experiences something like a spiritual marriage. And what then rises within him appears to him as an image of the external spiritual world. [There the soul feels supersensory knowledge as if it were a child of the universe. Thus, Euphorion is like an image of mystical inner knowledge.]

[ 42 ] Thus we are shown a picture of Faust’s own spiritual experience. [And at the same time, the stage at which Faust now stands is to be indicated]. He has not yet reached the point where he can sustain his supersensory experience; he can only catch brief glimpses into the spiritual world, after which he must return to ordinary external life. And this is the experience of the developing mystic. [In a moment of ecstasy, the spiritual world opens up to him.] He knows how the descent from spiritual experiences affects the soul; he is familiar with that state of mind in which what was once knowledge sinks back down, and the soul calls out after it. This echoes the words of Euphorion, who dies young and calls out [from the realm of shadows]:

Don't leave me alone, Mother,
in this dark realm!

[ 43 ] That is the feeling our soul experiences: it longs for the insights that have once again slipped away from it.

[ 44 ] Goethe so wonderfully depicts in The Events what may appear as a person’s inner spiritual experience as they progress into the spiritual world. But Faust must move on when what he experiences fades away again. [The soul must regain what it once beheld.] This is depicted in the fact that the veil and Helena’s gown remain with him, Faust. Thus, such a personality is left with only the memory of the spiritual experience. Faust must move on. Goethe also fully characterizes these steps. First, he shows how difficult it is—even for one who has gained deeper insights into the spiritual realm—to guard against what still acts in the world as the last Mephistophelean forces: In the [fourth] act, Faust becomes a military leader and is to carry out a human deed. He is not yet ready to lead purely spiritual forces into the fray. The Mephistophelean still mingles with what surrounds him. [It is not yet clear what kind of forces Faust is bringing into the world.] There, the armor from ancient armories is displayed. [Not only the natural, but also history]—the historical element makes its appearance here. The path that humanity must travel to reach maturity and stand up to nature is a long one. The powers of deception can intrude upon the contemplation of nature. [Yes, with knowledge of nature and history, one can go very far]. The Mephistophelean forces interfere with what is depicted as armor. We do not confront phenomena with pure knowledge; the fourth act will also demonstrate this.

[ 45 ] Faust must be purified more and more so that he may be freed from everything that still clings to our desires through Mephistophelean power. This is difficult. The fact that he does not see it is what makes it so hard for a person to free himself from these powers. [Time and again, things approach us in which Mephisto hides.] Faust does not yet see through how the elements that can lead to deception intermingle with the deeds of the mountain people. As long as one cannot see into these powers, one cannot become free of them. One must bring it to the point where one stands face to face with him—Mephisto—in the flesh; then he appears in the form in which he is depicted in all religious texts; then he appears as the tempter. Then we know what holds power over us. Thus, as the tempter, Mephisto must reveal himself to Faust; he must emerge from the unconscious into consciousness. [Only then does Faust know what the Mephistophelean power is. He must confront that power as a tempter.] Goethe also explicitly hints that, in the course of his supernatural development, Faust confronts Mephisto in the form of the tempter by having him say:

But, so that I may finally speak quite clearly,
Did nothing on our surface please you?
You overlooked, in boundless expanses,
The realms of the world and their splendors.
Yet, insatiable as you are,
Did you feel no desire?

[ 46 ] The riches of the world and their splendors: Goethe has Faust confront the Tempter—in the same sense as he speaks in the Gospels—who offers him the splendors of the world. [Man desires to possess them as long as the Mephistophelean force holds sway within him.] Man must renounce what things are. [This, too, can only happen gradually.] Faust learns to renounce. He has reached the point where he rejects these glories [as immediate possessions; he takes them on loan, not because he wants to possess them, but because he wants to make them fruitful]. He would like a piece of land that he can reclaim from the sea; he wants

to stand on free soil with a free people,

[ 47 ] wants to achieve:

Action is everything.

[ 48 ] He wants to work selflessly, not for his personal gain, not for his own selfish interests. That is the answer he gives to Mephisto, who offers him

The kingdoms of the world and their splendors.

[ 49 ] He drives them out, even in the form of that small piece of land.

[ 50 ] But [this represents only one step on the path toward shedding selfishness; a trace of self-interest still clings to him]. He cannot yet give up the unobstructed view. What he seeks to gain from the sea, he still wants it to appear freely before the outside gaze. Philemon and Baucis’s hut obstructs this unobstructed view. This is a sign that he has not yet crossed the final threshold of selfishness. But in order to commit such an error once again, [the last remnant of Mephistophelean power within him must, so to speak, come into play]; Mephisto must have a hand in the matter: it is he who burns down the hut belonging to the old couple.

[ 51 ] Now Faust faces something that even those who are advanced know from experience. [He falls prey to a final danger.] [He who can thus renounce sensual possessions but cannot yet do without the view.] The things of the outside world can do him no harm; neither want, nor hardship, nor guilt can harm him. He is freed from the bonds of these things. But that which is the very last to depart from our soul—and which clings until the last remnant of selfishness has vanished—that is worry. [He cannot rid himself of it until the last remnant of selfishness has vanished.] Worry! There is a far, far higher form of it, a far, far more heavenly form, than the one we encounter in ordinary life. When a person tosses and turns in bed at night and cannot sleep because of worry, [that, too, is a sign that he has not entered the spiritual world, where he ought to be at night]. It appears as a symbol: just as he is not admitted into the spiritual world—the higher power of worry. Worry exists as long as he is chained to the sensory world. A person can find the key and lock the path from the spiritual world down into the sensory world. If he has not yet separated himself from everything in the sensory world, then worry creeps into his life. [It blocks his access to the spiritual world. And this is exactly what happens to Faust.] Then it also becomes clear that the human being still has something to overcome within his nature. Goethe expresses this by having Faust physically go blind. Now he can no longer express this selfishness; outwardly, he has gone blind. Yet

A bright light shines inside

[ 52 ] — brighter. Now Faust is ready to enter the spiritual world.

[ 53 ] Because Goethe knew these secrets, he spoke these words as he sealed his package, which contained the second part of Faust—Goethe’s testament to humanity. He was satisfied because he could say to himself: I have expressed the abilities I brought with me into this life to the fullest extent possible in this incarnation. — He had come this far. — Since most people will find it difficult to understand this word in terms of the inner development of the human soul—its ascent from physical to spiritual vision—and the processes the soul must undergo to attain such spiritual vision, Goethe had to depict in images what can only be described in words today: what he knew about the mysteries of existence and the supersensible powers of the soul’s life.

[ 54 ] Now he had so much of what he had longed for during his time in Frankfurt. But he could only portray it for humanity through images, because he knew how few words are adequate to express it. For it is only when people shape their words—as spiritual science is now attempting to do—that they can give expression to the immense content of the supersensible world.

[ 55 ] Goethe was aware of the soul’s inner progress. He expressed it through imagery. If one understands the term “mystical” correctly, this experience of the soul is called “mystical life.” And because Goethe expresses this mystical life in his monumental testament to humanity, he concludes the “Chorus mysticus” with what he has to offer humanity: that the soul possesses powers slumbering within it, through which it may behold the eternal. This reinforces for Goethe the idea that everything sensory in the world is an image, a parable, of the imperishable. Goethe felt that it is difficult to characterize the all-encompassing aspects of the soul with words alone; he sought to hint at this by depicting in images what human beings cannot grasp. He presents—in a very realistic way—that which cannot be described but only beheld as an inner act of the soul. What can be illustrated to the external senses is done so in the second part of Faust. [Everything transitory is merely a parable for the imperishable; everything sensual is merely an image for the supersensual. He felt that it is difficult to depict these supersensual phenomena in their fleeting movements with words. What is inadequate for ordinary life, he made into an event in Faust.]

[ 56 ] The soul is certain that such a realm exists and that it can work its way up to it. It feels this: that it is something like a feminine force that allows itself to be fertilized by the spiritual masculine forces of the universe. When it unites with all such creative forces of the universe, it feels itself, in relation to these forces, to be the Eternal Feminine. It is a betrayal of Goethe’s great nature to accept profane explanations of this sentence. [The eternal feminine of the soul allows itself to be fertilized by the forces of the world in a cosmic marriage.] What the fertilizing force of the universe seeks out is the feminine; that is what Goethe means. This is what is revealed to us only through lived experience—what he himself experienced—what a human being can experience in their mystical experiences. [Only then do those words resonate powerfully with us—once we have fully understood and experienced Goethe’s Faust.] Goethe’s Faust culminates in the depiction of this experience in the mystical chorus. [What a human being can attain through mystical and spiritual-scientific development is summarized in the magnificent sentences that apply to every striving soul.]

All that is fleeting Is but a parable The inadequate, Here it becomes an event; The indescribable, Here it is accomplished;

The eternally feminine Draws us upward.