The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. The Realm of Mothers. The Mater Gloriosa

[ 1 ] Let us look back at an earlier scene from the second part of Goethe’s *Faust*, the scene I have mentioned frequently in various contexts, in which Faust is to be allowed to unite with Helena. How is this possibility of Faust’s union with Helena portrayed within the entire *Faust* epic?

[ 2 ] We know that, in order to consummate his union with Helena, Faust must first journey to that region into which even Mephistopheles cannot enter—the realm known as “the Realm of the Mothers.” We have often emphasized that Mephistopheles-Ahriman is only able to hand Faust the key to the realm of the “untrodden, the untrodden.” We have also mentioned how, in this Realm of the Mothers, one finds that which is eternal in Helena, and we have mentioned how Goethe attempted to unravel the mystery of Helena’s return to the earthly world. We found this mystery explicitly expressed by Goethe in that he creates the homunculus, who passes through the course of Earth’s evolution, as it were, making up for this evolution, and that the homunculus, by dissolving into the elements, then passes into the elemental spiritual world in such a way that, by uniting with the archetype of Helena—which Faust retrieves from the Mothers—it, so to speak, “provides the reincarnation with which Faust can now unite.” Faust is, so to speak, elevated to the great stage of history; he seeks Helena. What does he need in order to seek Helena? Helena, the archetype of Greek beauty; Helena, the woman who brought so much ruin upon the Greek world, yet whom Goethe portrays in such a way that she also appears to us—I say this with reference to Gretchen—as innocently guilty in the Greek sense. For this is how Helena appears at the beginning of the third act: innocently guilty. Her deed has caused much guilt. Yet Goethe seeks the eternal in every human nature and, where he wishes to portray the evolution of humanity in the higher sense, cannot reckon with guilt; rather, he can only reckon with necessity,

[ 3 ] When we ask ourselves what enables Faust to ascend into those spiritual realms where he can find Helena, the answer comes to us:

It's the mothers!
Mothers!

[ 4 ] And Mephistopheles hands him the key to the Mothers. In characteristic fashion, we are told that Faust is to descend to the Mothers; one might just as well say “ascend,” for in this realm it does not matter—in a physical sense—to distinguish between descending and ascending.

Mothers! Mothers! — It sounds so strange!

[ 5 ] We hear these words from *Faust*. And when we recall how this realm of the Mothers is described—how they sit around the golden tripod—when we take in the entire scene of the realm of the Mothers, how might Faust’s entry into this realm be expressed? What are they, these Mothers, who reign eternally, yet—depicted as female—represent the forces from which Faust has drawn forth the eternal, the immortal essence of Helena? If one were to express the whole reality at the point where Faust is sent to Helena, one would have to say: Faust will have to express his yearning for Helena and for the Mothers by saying: “The Eternal Feminine draws us upward or downward”—that is not what matters now. We could just as well apply this final motif, which we encounter at the end of *Faust*, to the scene where Faust descends to the Mothers. But as Faust makes his way to the Mothers and to Helena, we stand on the ground of the ancient pagan world, the pre-Christian world, the world that preceded the Mystery of Golgotha. And at the end of *Faust*? We are faced with a similar journey of Faust’s—the journey of the loving Faust, who wishes to draw near to Gretchen’s soul—but we now stand with him on the ground of evolution toward the Mystery of Golgotha. And what is he striving for now? Still for the mothers? No longer for the triad of mothers. Toward the one Mother, toward the Mater gloriosa, who is to pave for him the “path into the untrodden, the untroddable,” where Gretchen’s soul dwells. The mothers, also an Eternal Feminine, are three in number. The Mother, the Mater gloriosa—she is singular. And does not the striving toward the mothers—by transporting us to the time of evolution before the Mystery of Golgotha—and the striving toward the Mother, toward the Mater gloriosa—by transporting us to the evolution after the Mystery of Golgotha—show us, in a wondrous way, poetically magnificent, overwhelmingly magnificent, what the Mystery of Golgotha has brought to humanity? In *Faust*, humanity strives upward from the triad of still astral thinking, feeling, and willing toward the threefold nature of the Eternal Feminine. We have often described how the unity of the human inner being in the “I” came about in humanity through the Mystery of Golgotha. The three mothers become the one mother, the Mater gloriosa, through the fact that the human being has progressed, in the way we know, toward inner union with the “I.”

[ 6 ] The entire mystery of humanity’s transition prior to the Mystery of Golgotha is embodied in the *Faust* epic. And this transition from the Eternal Feminine of the Trinity to the Eternal Feminine of Unity is one of the greatest, most wondrous, and most beautiful climaxes in artistic expression found in this second part of *Faust*. But no matter how deeply we delve into the mysteries of *Faust*, everywhere we find what I expressed pedantically—though I did not mean it pedantically—when I said: Everything sounds so factual and technical.

[ 7 ] I have pointed out before that, if we wish to fully understand the human context, we must emphasize that human beings are first and foremost connected to the macrocosm as whole human beings, and that the macrocosm is reflected within the human being as a microcosm. However, we must remember that human evolution on Earth remains incomprehensible unless we recognize that human beings carry within themselves that which is, at first, transitory in relation to this earthly evolution—yet which is enduring in relation to human evolution—and which has developed within human nature during the passage through the ancient Saturn, Sun, and Moon phases of evolution. We know that the human physical body was first formed during the ancient Saturn evolution. We know that it continued to develop further and further through the Sun and Moon evolutions right up to the Earth evolution. In various ways—as I have pointed out before—what united with humanity during the three preliminary stages of evolution, the pre-earthly evolution, has now become part of humanity’s outer earthly form.

[ 8 ] I was able to touch only briefly on what needed to be said about this matter, and it must remain at this brief mention. I have said: We are touching upon the edge of a significant mystery. — And it is only natural that these things can only be hinted at. Anyone who wishes to explore them further must meditate on what has been hinted at. They will then find what they still desire, even if it may take a little while,

[ 9 ] We must, however, realize that when the lunar phase of development came to an end and the earthly phase began, humanity, so to speak, passed through this transition from the lunar to the earthly phase via a kind of dissolution, spiritualization, and a “world night,” and only then re-formed itself within the material realm. Certainly, the capacities that humanity developed through the Saturn, Sun, and Moon phases have remained with it, including the capacities for the physical body. But humanity also absorbed them into the spiritual realm and then formed them anew from the spiritual, so that we must conceive of a time during Earth’s evolution when humanity was not yet physical.

[ 10 ] If we set aside everything else that contributes to the development of the fact that human beings take on male and female forms during their physical existence on Earth, we can generally say: Just as human beings entered the world in the first place, they initially entered as etheric human beings. — Certainly, this etheric human already contained the predispositions for the physical human, which developed during the Saturn, Sun, and Moon periods; yet they were formed within the etheric. I have already indicated this more precisely in *Outlines of Esoteric Science*. And the physical must first develop anew out of the etheric. But Lucifer and Ahriman both play a part in this entire process of development. For Lucifer and Ahriman intervene even earlier—though their influence recurs during Earth’s evolution—during the Lunar period and even during the development leading up to the Moon, in the entire evolution of humanity.

[ 11 ] Now I have something to say here that is difficult to understand—not so much difficult for the human intellect as it is, I believe, for the entire human soul—but which must nevertheless be truly understood at some point. Let us imagine: human beings were once, in the course of Earth’s evolution—before they gradually developed a physical form starting in the Lemurian and Atlantean periods—ethereal beings, and—to put it schematically—their physical form gradually emerged from this ethereal substance. So human beings were ethereal. Now we know that the ethereal is a fourfold entity. We know the ether as, so to speak, a fourfold entity. As we ascend from the bottom to the top, we recognize the ether as: thermal ether; light ether; the ether of a material nature, or chemical ether, which, however, derives its material nature from the fact that the substance is still inwardly filled with tone—the harmony of the worlds, the harmony of the spheres—for substances are substances precisely because they are expressions of the harmony of the worlds. First of all, we must create a mental image of the world as harmonious. One tone—as it resounds through the world—determines, let us say, gold; another tone determines silver; the third tone determines copper, and so on. Every substance is the expression of a certain tone, so that we can naturally also speak of “tone ether”; however, we must not depict the ether as something perceptible on Earth, but rather as a tone still fading away in the etheric-spiritual sphere. And the final type of ether is the life ether. Thus, when we still have a mental image of the human being as ethereal, the human being is formed ethereally through the interplay of these four types of ether. We can therefore say: The human being appears—where Earth’s evolution is preparing to gradually bring forth the physical human being from the etheric human—as an etheric organism prior to becoming physical, in which the heat ether, light ether, material or tone ether, and life ether are organized in a complex interplay.

[ 12 ] Now, Lucifer and Ahriman are involved in this entire process of human physicalization. They are always present. They participate in this entire evolution. They exert their influence. Of course, there are specific points where they exert this influence quite strongly, but they are always there; these specific points are highlighted in *The Secret Science*. Just as, I would say, the entire plant force is always present in the plant—manifesting itself at times as green foliage and at other times as a flower—so too have Lucifer and Ahriman always been present; as humanity has developed through the various epochs of Earth’s evolution, they have, so to speak, been involved in everything.

[ 13 ] If you now set aside everything else—since one cannot always list everything—you can form a mental image of the physical aspect of the human being arising from the etheric organization—including everything else that I have described in *The Secret Science* and elsewhere, of course—in such a way that a female form and a male form emerge. We will set aside for now what else is at work, but the female and male forms do emerge. Had Lucifer and Ahriman not been involved, neither a female nor a male form would have emerged, but rather what I once described in Munich: a middle form. So we can truly say: it is to Lucifer and Ahriman that we owe the differentiation of the human form on Earth into male and female forms. - Indeed, if we now create a mental image of the state in which the human being approaches the Earth, which is gradually solidifying through the mineral kingdom, and if we further create a mental image of the Earth planet forming and physically solidifying, and that the ether—which also permeates the Earth—is present in the Earth’s atmosphere, then we can form a mental image of the human being emerging from the ether of the entire Earth and thus, in character, also drawing closer to the physical nature of the Earth, so that within him, as it were, the etheric-mineral-physical meets the mineral-physical of the Earth. But Lucifer and Ahriman are at work here; they are truly active in this process. They have many means at their disposal to exert their influence on the evolution of humanity. And they make use of these various means for this or that process that they bring about.

[ 14 ] Above all, Lucifer tends to foster a spirit of lightness; he actually always wants to prevent human beings from becoming truly earthly, and does not want to let them descend fully to Earth. Lucifer, after all, fell behind during the lunar evolution, and he wants to win humanity over to his side, to keep them from entering into earthly evolution. He strives to achieve this by, above all, seizing control of the forces of the warmth ether and the light ether. He employs these forces in his own way in the processes now taking place as human beings become physical beings. Lucifer has power mainly over the warmth-ether and the light-ether; these he dominates above all else. He prepared himself well for this already during the lunar evolution, which he organizes in his own way. Through this, he is able to influence the process of human incarnation in a different way. By bringing the human being into physical existence from the ether—specifically by taking control of the warmth and light ethers and exerting his Powers over them in a different way than would otherwise have occurred without his intervention—he is able to bring about the human form. Just as he now reigns and weaves within the heat-light ether, this reign and weaving does not produce the average human being who would otherwise come into being, but rather the female form of the human being. The female form of the human being would never have come into being without Lucifer. It is already the expression of emerging from the ether, in that Lucifer specifically seizes control of the heat-light ether.

[ 15 ] Ahriman, in particular, exerts his powers over the ether of sound and the ether of life. Ahriman is also the spirit of heaviness. Ahriman strives to counteract Lucifer. In a certain sense, this essentially brings about a balance: the Luciferic Powers—which seek to lift human beings above the earthly realm through the wise, progressive gods—are countered by the Ahrimanic Powers. Ahriman, however, actually seeks to pull human beings down into the physical realm. He wants to make them more physical than they would otherwise be as middle-human beings. Ahriman is equipped for this because he exercises particular powers over the tone and life ethers. And it is in the tone and life ethers that Ahriman works and weaves. And through this, the human physical form—as it emerges from the ether into the physical realm—becomes physical in a different way than it would have become through the purely progressive gods, taking on the male form. The male form would be utterly inconceivable, utterly impossible, without Ahriman’s influence. So one can say: The female form is woven by Lucifer out of the heat and light ethers, as Lucifer instills in this form, on an etheric level, a certain striving upward. The male form is shaped by Ahriman in such a way that a certain striving toward the earth is implanted within it.

[ 16 ] What is now, as it were, intended by the macrocosmic process of world evolution, we can truly observe in human beings from the perspective of Spiritual Science. If we take the female form, depicted schematically, we must therefore say: Warmth and light, in their own way, are woven into it etherically by Lucifer. — The physical female form is thus woven in such a way that not only have the steadily progressing gods developed their powers within the light and warmth ethers, but Luciferic forces are also woven into this female etheric body. Now let us suppose that within this female etheric body, that which the Earth has particularly bestowed—the I-consciousness, the unifying consciousness—is attuned downward, and a kind of down-attuned consciousness sets in, which some people already call “clairvoyance”—a kind of dreamlike, trance-like vision—then in such a case, what Lucifer has woven into the light and warmth ethers emerges as a kind of aura, so that when female visionaries are in their states of vision, they are surrounded by an aura that contains Luciferic forces, namely those of the warmth and light ethers. Now the point is that this aura, which now surrounds the female body when states of vision occur in a mediumistic manner, is not perceived as such. For, of course, when the female body is in the midst of this aura (as illustrated), the female organism looks into this aura and projects all around itself what it sees within it. It sees what is within its own aura. The objective observer sees something he can describe as follows: the human being radiates imaginations; she possesses an aura formed of imaginations. This is an objective process that has no effect on the observer. That is to say, if this imaginative aura is viewed from the outside, by another person, then an aura is simply seen objectively, just as anything else is seen; but if this aura is perceived from within, by the visionary herself, then she sees only what Lucifer is spreading within her. There is a great difference between seeing something oneself and having it seen by others. A tremendous difference!

[ 17 ] This is why, when visionary clairvoyance begins to manifest in a woman, there is a great danger if this visionary clairvoyance takes the form of imaginings. In such cases, the woman must exercise particular caution. And it must always be assumed that this development must be carefully guided to ensure it is a healthy one. One must not dwell on everything one sees, must one? For that may simply be the actual Luciferic aura, viewed from within, which was necessary to form the female body. And much of what female visionaries describe is interesting for a completely different reason than the one for which they themselves consider it interesting. If they describe it or regard it as though it were an interesting objective world, then they are entirely wrong; they are completely mistaken. But when this corresponding aura is viewed from the outside, it is precisely what, emerging from the ether, made the female form possible in the Earth’s evolution. So we can say: A woman must exercise particular caution when visionary or imaginative clairvoyance begins or manifests itself in her, for a danger can very easily lurk there—the danger of falling into error.

[ 18 ] The male organism, however, is different. When we consider the male organism, we see that Ahriman’s power is woven into its aura—but now into the tone and life ethers. And just as it is primarily the warmth ether in the case of the woman, so it is primarily the life ether in the case of the man. In the woman, it is primarily the warmth ether in which Lucifer acts, and in the man, the life ether in which Ahriman acts. When the man now steps out of his consciousness—when the cohesion that expresses itself in him as ego-consciousness is subdued, when a kind of passive state sets in—then one can once again see how the aura asserts itself around him, the aura in which Ahriman holds his Powers.

[ 19 ] But it is now an aura that primarily contains life ether and tone ether. There is a vibrating tone within it, so that one does not actually perceive this aura of the man so directly through the imagination. It is not an imaginative aura, but rather something of a vibrating spiritual tone that surrounds the man. All of this has to do with the form, not with the soul, of course; it has to do with the man insofar as he is physical. So that the one who observes this form from the outside can see: the human being radiates—one might say—intuitions. These are the very same intuitions from which his form was actually formed, through which he exists as a man in the world. A living, vibrating sound resounds all around him. Hence, another danger exists for the man when his consciousness is dampened into passivity: the danger of merely hearing this own aura, of hearing it inwardly. A man must take special care not to lose himself when he spiritually hears this own aura, for then he hears the Ahriman reigning within him. For Ahriman must be there.

[ 20 ] You can now see how there would be no masculine and feminine principles in humanity on Earth if Lucifer and Ahriman had not been at work. I would like to know how a woman could escape Lucifer, how a man could escape Ahriman! The sermon—that one should flee from these Powers, as I have often emphasized—is utterly foolish, for they are part of what lives within evolution, since evolution is already what it is.

[ 21 ] But we can now say: Yes, since the man stands on earth as a man, in a male incarnation, he goes through his life, and what he is as a man, what he can experience as a man—what, in a sense, is the male experience—he derives from the fact that this resonant life-ether is within him, that he always has, so to speak, life-choirs within himself—albeit mixed by Ahriman—which actually build up his male form. He has choirs of life around him and within him, which only become visible and audible around him when he becomes mediumistic.

[ 22 ] Let us now suppose we are dealing with those who died immediately at birth and who wish to express that they did not become “men” here during their incarnation. What would they say? They would say that this did not take effect at their birth—that although they had the predisposition to become men in this incarnation, what makes a man a man did not take effect. They were immediately deprived of what would have made them men in their physical incarnation. In short, they would say:

We were removed early
From Lebechören.

[ 23 ] This is what the blessed boys say.

We were taken away early
From the choirs;
But he has learned,

[ 24 ] That is to say: Faust has gone through this experience. He has lived a long life, a long earthly life. He can convey something to us about this earthly life.

He will teach us.

[ 25 ] So, in a sense, we must look into the deepest depths of occult knowledge if we want to understand why one word or another appears in this particular poem. The commentator then comes along and says: Well, the poet chooses a word like “Lebechöre” and so on. - That’s all well and good to him, as long as he doesn’t have to subject himself to the inconvenience of learning something. Through such examples, I would like to point out to you how objective and expert this Goethean poem is in the sense of a spiritual worldview, and what actually lies at the heart of this Goethean poem.

[ 26 ] Now, perhaps I have—as I said right away: this is something difficult for the human mind to grasp—weighed heavily on your hearts in one way or another by once again pointing out characteristic aspects of how Ahriman and Lucifer work in the world in such a way that we simply cannot escape them. For, no matter how we try, when we prepare for an incarnation—whether into a male or female form, we must enter one or the other—if Lucifer is not present in it, then Ahriman is. So it really is not possible to take the matter so far as to say: “One must flee from both.” — Isn’t it true that I have, in a sense, also weighed heavily on your hearts by showing you that there is a certain danger in observing one’s own aura, in looking, as it were, into that very aura? But therein lies precisely the infinite wisdom of the world: that life is not like a stationary pendulum, but rather that it swings. And just as the pendulum swings to the right and to the left, so does life—not only that of humanity, but of the entire world—swing toward the Ahrimanic and Luciferic sides. And it is only because life swings back and forth between Ahrimanic and Luciferic influences, maintaining a balance between them and possessing the power of this balance, that this life is possible. Therefore, whatever I have just described as dangerous is counteracted by its opposite. If it is Luciferic, then it is countered by the Ahrimanic; if it is Ahrimanic, then it is countered by the Luciferic.

[ 27 ] So let us consider the female organism once more. It radiates, so to speak, a Luciferic aura. But by radiating this aura, it pushes back the life ether or tone ether, and as a result, a kind of Ahrimanic aura forms around the female organism, so that the female organism has the Luciferic aura at its center and the Ahrimanic aura further out. But this female organism can now—if it is not so inactive that it stops at merely observing its own aura—continue to develop. And this is precisely what matters: that one does not remain in an unhealthy way with the first imaginations that arise, but rather that one powerfully applies everything related to the will in order to penetrate through these imaginations. For one must ultimately reach the point where one’s own aura does not appear, but rather what is reflected back, as it were, from a mirror surface—which is now an Ahrimanic aura—appears. One must not look into one’s own aura, but must perceive, as reflected back from the outer aura, what is within one’s own aura. Through this, you see, the female organism receives the Luciferic reflected back from the Ahrimanic and thereby neutralizes it, bringing it precisely into balance. As a result, it is now neither Ahrimanic nor Luciferic, but it is de-feminized; it becomes universally human. Truly, it becomes universally human.

[ 28 ] I ask you only to truly feel this: that a human being, by ascending into the spiritual realm—by escaping the influence of either the Luciferic or the Ahrimanic Powers within their own aura—does not look directly into the Luciferic or the Ahrimanic, but rather allows one to be reflected and thereby receives it back, asexually, without it being male or female. The feminine is neutralized into the masculine within the Ahrimanic, and the masculine is neutralized into the feminine within the Luciferic. For just as the feminine-Luciferic aura surrounds itself with the Ahrimanic aura, so the masculine-Ahrimanic aura surrounds itself with the Luciferic aura, and there, too, what one has within oneself is reflected back, just as with the feminine. One sees it as a mirror image.

[ 29 ] Let us now suppose that someone wanted to describe this process. When would they be in a position to do so? Well, what occurs during clairvoyance also occurs after death. The human being is in the same situation. In clairvoyance, the feminine must be integrated into the masculine, and the masculine into the feminine. This is also the case after death. What kinds of mental images must emerge there? Well, let us suppose that a soul that had been in a female organism had passed through death and, after death, had to undergo various trials intended to serve as atonement for earthly guilt. Such a soul will then slowly strive toward neutralization, seeking to break free from what bound it on Earth. The feminine, as it were, will strive for neutralization through the masculine. This neutralization is to consist in the soul’s striving toward the highest masculine as its redemption. If we find penitent women after death, it must be characteristic of them that their longing in the spiritual world is one of striving toward the masculine—the balancing force. The three penitent women—the Magna peccatrix, the Mulier Samaritana, and Maria Aegyptiaca—are indeed in the retinue of the Mater gloriosa, but they are to strive for neutralization, for balance. Therefore, the Mater gloriosa does indeed work within the aura; it is made very clear to us that the Mater gloriosa can work within her aura and possesses her own aura. Just listen:

To devour her
Little wispy clouds,
Are penitent souls,
A delicate little folk,
Around her knees
Sipping the ether,
In need of mercy.

You, the Untouchable,
Does it not strike you as strange,
That those who are easily seduced
Come to you in confidence.

[ 30 ] But they perceive this only as a kind of awareness. It does not come to them as something that resounds to them as the highest aspect of life. What resounds to them is what they are to experience through Christ in connection with the Mater Gloriosa. That is why we see the words of the three penitent women directed everywhere toward the Masculine, Christ:

By the love at the feet
of Your divinely glorified Son...

[ 31 ] And with the Samaritan woman, Mary:

At the well where, long ago,
Abram led his flock...

[ 32 ] And here, in a spiritual sense:

At the pure, abundant spring,
Which now flows forth from there....

[ 33 ] Christ himself calls himself “the true water” to the Samaritan woman.

[ 34 ] And in the case of *Maria Aegyptiaca*, we are already dealing with the burial:

At that most sacred place,
Where the Lord was laid to rest....

[ 35 ] We see how, within these three, there lives that which, emerging from one’s own aura, seeks to move toward that which neutralizes it.

[ 36 ] And if we ask what it is that the man finds to be the very thing that neutralizes him, that sets him apart from masculinity, it is the longing for the feminine that surges through the world.

Here the view is unobstructed,
The spirit is uplifted.
There, women pass by,
Floating upward;
The glorious one in the midst
Surrounded by a wreath of stars,
The Queen of Heaven,
I can tell by her radiance.

[ 37 ] He is not drawn, as the penitent women are, directly by the Christ-masculine, but is first drawn by that which belongs to Christ as the feminine. And this, in turn, leads him to the Gretchen soul, with which he is karmically connected—once again to the woman. There, delicately woven into the poetry, you see this profound mystery of humanity’s relationship to the spiritual world. For how could it not be—I would say—deeply moving when the occult reality presents itself to us: the disembodied soul, which still contains the elements within itself—nature, which must first be separated—and which must be neutralized through the feminine. And we see how, in the striving toward this neutralization—since we are dealing with the masculine, Faust—the feminine must assert itself as the “drawing near.” Something truly wondrous is depicted in this poem. And it is clearly and unambiguously suggested to us that this is what it is meant to be about. Faust will thus strive, through the mouth of Doctor Marianus, toward the feminine—that is, toward the spiritual, eternal feminine—but also toward the secret, the mystery. When he spiritually beholds the Mater gloriosa, he says:

Supreme Ruler of the World!
Let me, beneath the blue,
Spread-out canopy of the sky
Behold your secret.

[ 38 ] So let us create a mental image: Faust striving toward the spiritual world, longing to behold the mystery of the feminine in the Mater gloriosa. How might this be possible? Well, it could be that the light is neutralized by its counter-radiation—that is, the feminine aura of light and warmth appears, but as a counter-radiation, not as it flows out directly. This must be neutralized; it must be connected to the fact that this light has a counter-radiation. In the vast expanse of the heavens, the mystery is beheld: the woman with her aura, with the sun. When the light is reflected back by the moon: the woman standing upon the moon. You know this image; it should at least be familiar. Thus we see Faust, filled with longing, finally beholding the mystery in the expanse of the heavens: Mary, the woman, clothed with the sun, the moon at her feet, reflecting the light. And together, what he otherwise knows of the Mater gloriosa, combined with this secret, with this mystery in the vast expanse of the heavens, then forms the emotional and sensory content of the Chorus mysticus. For even that which is still human in the Mater gloriosa is a parable, for that is the transitory aspect of her human form, and all of that is a parable. That which is inadequate—that is, what is inadequate in human longing—here it becomes fulfillment for the first time. Here one beholds the aura’s radiance, sun-like, whose light is reflected back by the moon: the indescribable—here it is accomplished. That which cannot be grasped in physical life—that which is sought is what radiates from the Self in selfless reflection: here it is accomplished. — Then, in accordance with the feeling, the whole is spoken from a man’s mouth or spoken for a man’s ears:

The eternal feminine draws us upward.

[ 39 ] It must be said: allowing “Faust” to take effect on oneself truly means, for many aspects of this “Faust,” a direct immersion into an occult atmosphere. - And if I were to tell you everything there is to say about *Faust* in an occult context, we would have to stay together for a long time. You would have to listen to many lectures on the subject. But that is not necessary for now, because what matters is not so much absorbing as many concepts and ideas as possible, but rather—and this is what really matters most for us at this stage—that our feelings deepen. And if we deepen our feelings and sensibilities toward this world-poem to such an extent that we feel a profound reverence for the workings of genius on earth—in whose actions and creations the occult is truly present—then we do the world and ourselves a great service. If we can feel the proper sense of reverence toward the great spiritual, then that is a meaningful path to the gateway of Spiritual Science.

[ 40 ] Let it be said once more: This is less a matter of speculating than of deepening one’s feelings. —- And I would care little if, for example, I were allowed to tell you that the words of the blessed boys, about being swept away by the sound of singing, lead into such occult depths, I would care little for these mere ideas, if only I might know that your heart, your mind, your inner being is so moved by the utterance of such a truth that you sense something of the sacred, profound forces that live in the world, that pour themselves into human creation when this human creation is truly linked to the mysteries of the world. If one can shudder at the very fact that something so profound can lie within a poem, then this shudder—which once passed through our soul, our mind, our heart—is worth far more than the mere knowledge that the blessed boys say they are not united with the Lebechören. It is not the delight in the spiritual richness of the idea that should move us, but the joy that the world is woven from the spiritual in such a way that the workings of the spirit take effect in the human heart, so that such creation can live on in the spiritual development of humanity.