The Rudolf Steiner Archive

25. The Music of “Parsifal” as an Expression of the Supernatural

Here, where my delusion found peace,
Wahnfried
let this house be named by me.

[ 1 ] Richard Wagner wrote these words about the house he built for himself in Bayreuth. He had longed deeply for this house. He had perceived all of life as a struggle and a delusion. He found the peace of his delusion in his stage consecration play Parsifal.

[ 2 ] It is generally believed that a work of art such as Wagner’s Parsifal comes into being as if the artist had consciously incorporated all the thoughts that can be found within it. But a mystic never conceives of the work he has created in this way. Even a plant is unaware of the laws that a botanist discovers within it. Invisible forces hovered over Richard Wagner. What lies within Parsifal originates from them. Much of what we call “esoteric training” lived within Wagner. A wondrous effect can arise from tracing the development of his personality throughout his life. One then observes how truths dawn within him that have been systematically cultivated in the secret schools for centuries.

[ 3 ] Let us consider how the initiates were introduced to such mysteries, which later came to life instinctively in Wagner. A wide variety of exercises for the body and the soul were undertaken, through which an intimate shaping of the occult imagination took place. Above all, the teacher awakened a fundamental feeling in the student in order to evoke an intimate relationship with the surrounding nature. The student was guided through the realms of nature and taught to feel toward nature just as one feels toward human beings. Just as one perceives the cheerfulness of the soul behind a smile in a human being, or a certain other feeling behind tears, so the student was taught to recognize the correspondences between physiognomy and the soul in nature as well. An occultist is one who, through his or her feelings in these matters, can penetrate fully into the concrete. As the student looked into nature, he was told: Everything is physiognomy and an expression of the spiritual. — A plant with vibrant colors appears to him as the smiling face of the Earth Spirit—another as the face of the mourning Earth Spirit. Thus, the occultist carries emotional impressions throughout the entire world.

[ 4 ] The crystal allows light to pass through it chastely. Within it, matter is not permeated by lust and desire. Human matter is more perfect, but it is permeated by pain and joy, lust, and passions. One day, human matter will be as chaste and noble as that of the crystal. Thus, the student’s mind was attuned to seeing in nature models of the future development of the physical body. With the same objectivity with which a mathematician imagines spatial structures, the objects of the external world appear to the occultist as expressions of the soul of the world. Just as it is impossible for two mathematicians to teach different things about a theorem, so it is impossible for two who have truly penetrated higher knowledge to perceive things differently. There is just as little dispute about the mystical as there is about the mathematical.

[ 5 ] Once the student had practiced in this way and was finally deemed ready, he was taught another concept. He was to come to know that which is most beautiful, purest, and yet most subject to doubt. Then he was told: Look at the plant. Its calyx faces the sun. It is influenced and sustained in its growth by the sun’s rays. It stretches its reproductive organs chastely toward the sun. What is now modestly concealed in humans and animals is, in the plant, chastely directed toward the sun. Look back to time immemorial. Back then, humankind was at the stage where the plant has remained. At that time, humankind, too, had its reproductive organs directed toward the sun. The head—the root—was in the earth. The mystics have always known that humankind is an inverted plant. Only in the course of evolution did he progress further, first becoming horizontal like the animal and then assuming the upright human form we see today. He passed through the plant and animal kingdoms on his way to the human kingdom. Plato alluded to this when he said: “The world soul is crucified on the body of the world.”—But humanity has not yet reached the end of its evolution. He is in a transitional stage in which he must overcome desire and penetrate to a higher spirituality. In that which he turns away from the sun, desire must be overcome and a higher spirituality attained. Then, as pure and chaste as a plant, he will hold forth the chalice of his being toward the higher spiritual sun.

[ 6 ] This ideal of the spiritualized plant calyx was presented to those who were disciples of the Holy Grail. That sacred chalice is said to be the plant calyx that has passed through the animal realm and been purified back to spirituality. The disciple was told: This chalice, which absorbs the rays of the spiritual sun, is inherent in the human organism. — Human beings have organs that are already fully formed and others that will only develop in the future. Just as we now produce sound waves through speech, so too will this be the way in which human beings will bring forth their own kind in the distant future. When human beings imbued themselves with such feelings, they could sense during the Good Friday and Easter season, in those secret festivals, how a driving force springs forth from the plants—a force that, purified and refined, will also appear within human beings in the future. On Good Friday in particular, this sprouting was experienced together with the feeling that Christ’s sacrificial death provided a pledge that human beings could strive to attain possession of the Holy Grail. The blood sap of Christ purifies human beings, just as the plant is permeated by pure sap. The students experienced this during the most solemn moments. Then they felt themselves to be initiates. The idea of redemption stood clearly before them as they sensed the connection between Christ’s sacrificial death and the sprouting plant. This idea was always present in Richard Wagner’s mind.

[ 7 ] Wagner depicted the birth of the “I” and of egoism in the character of Alberich. To do so, he used the E-flat major pedal note.

[ 8 ] In 1856, he attempted to explore the mystery of earthly life in the play The Victors: A young man is loved by a Chandala girl. However, the differences between their castes are so great that he is compelled to turn away from the girl in order to become a disciple of the Buddha. The great pain this causes the girl makes him realize that in a previous life he was a Brahmin and had then rejected the hand of a Chandala girl. Thus, Wagner sought a representation through which to grasp the idea of the world.

[ 9 ] On Good Friday in 1857, Richard Wagner stood in front of the Wesendonk Villa near Zurich and gazed out over Lake Zurich and the surrounding fields. As he looked at the sprouting plants, the thought occurred to him of the connection between redemption and the existence of plants. In his heart, the fundamental feeling of the ideal of the chalice—which the Grail students had always held—emerged like a vision. Later, he sought the musical notes to express the development leading from the plant chalice to the Grail chalice. Through this, he found peace in his musings.

[ 10 ] The idea of Parzival has always been latent in modern culture. In his poem “Die Geheimnisse” (The Mysteries), Goethe describes how a young man wanders through the forest to a monastery and is accepted there into the community of the initiated. This young man appears like a Parsifal journeying to the Castle of the Grail. Goethe later explained this poem to a fraternity that asked him about it: There are many religious views in the world. Each of the twelve men in the monastery where Brother Markus arrives represents one such view. The thirteenth among them is the leader.

[ 11 ] In this poem, Goethe depicted the occult lodge, where there is no conflict of opinions, but only love. When the Wanderer arrives at the monastery, he sees a cross above the monastery gate, entwined with roses. He asks: “Who has placed roses upon the cross?”—The symbol of the Rose Cross expresses an idea that runs through the entire evolution of the world. Whoever understands the ideal and the symbol can find it everywhere. The ancient legend tells how Cain sought entry into Paradise. It was not he, but Seth, who was allowed in. There, Seth finds the two intertwined trees of knowledge and life. He takes three seeds from them and places them on the tongue of the dying Adam. A tree springs forth. This is the same tree on which Moses perceives the formation of flames and hears the words: “I am who was, who is, and who will be.” From this tree, Moses’ staff is taken. From its wood comes the gate of Solomon’s Temple, the bridge over which Christ walked as he went to the Mount of Olives, and finally the cross of Golgotha. The Grail Vision adds: When the wood had dried and become a cross, it sprouted living shoots as a pledge of eternal life. The Grail disciple saw this in the form of roses. Here, the past and the future join hands. Goethe touches upon this mystery in these verses:

“Tell no one, only the wise,
For the crowd will mock you at once...”

[ 12 ] This mood also underlies the line: “Who has placed roses beside the cross?” - Wagner portrayed this stage of evolution most intensely in Parsifal. Everything Parsifal does is meaningful. He does nothing outwardly. He is allowed to act in the supersensible world. He achieves the most where he reaches the highest peak of his inner development.

[ 13 ] This resonates so beautifully throughout Wagner’s final work. When we see that sacred assembly gathered around the Grail, along with Parsifal—who first kills (he shoots the swan) and then becomes a savior—we understand what Wagner meant by the words “to find peace in delusion.” He wanted to show that music can achieve what dramatic art had not been able to achieve. Until now, music has expressed only inner feelings. On the other hand, the word “drama” has been perceived as intrusive. The deepest emotions begin where words end. Wagner sought a connecting link. That was to be the music drama. The spoken word was to cease at the right moment and make way for the music. Without Parsifal, Wagner would not have attained the ideal of his striving. Where he advanced furthest into the supernatural, he needed the most intimate musical expression. In Parsifal, he found the purest musical expression of this. As an artist and musician, he sought to portray what lived within him as a mystic.