Rudolf Steiner's Vision for the Future - Anthroposophical Society in ...

the Hagens Recording Studio on Harrison
Street in Princeton for many years, and Ernst
and Marie Fetzer sometimes hosted larger
gatherings at their biodynamic farm outside of
New Hope, Pennsylvania. Other early members
of the Group included Sonia Tamara Clark,
Maria and Adolph Renold, Emilia Schmidt,
Harriet Myers and Herbert H. Hagens, son of
Henry Hagens. One longtime member was
Trudy Kren, who had been present at the
Christmas Foundation Stone Meeting in
Dornach in 1923. Rose Herbeck often gave
talks, especially at Christmas. Another active
member of the Princeton Group is Caroline
Phinney, who spearheaded the founding of
the Waldorf School of Princeton and now
operates a co-op farm nextdoor to the school.
Herbert H. Hagens continues to support the
work of the Princeton Group.
The Group now holds its study meetings
and lectures at the Waldorf School of Princeton.
Herbert O. Hagens, grandson of Henry
Hagens, is responsible for holding the First
Class Lessons in Princeton.
Herbert O. Hagens
Mystery Dramas at the
Goetheanum, Summer 2010
At the end of July, 2010, one thousand
people gathered at the Goetheanum in Dornach,
Switzerland for four days to witness a
completely new production of Rudolf Steiner’s
four Mystery Dramas: new cast, new sets, new
music and an enthusiastic younger audience!
The performance occurred just shy of the
100th anniversary of the premier production
of the first play in Munich, August 15, 1910.
Sitting through all four plays (over five
hours each in length!) within a four-day period
tested everyone’s stamina and concentration:
the event was by no means a matter of
ordinary theater entertainment! But for the first
time the speakers of English and French
enjoyed the benefit of hearing the plays in
translation via headsets.
The remodeled grand hall of the
Goetheanum with the sculpted columns
(stages in planetary evolution), the painted
ceilings (cultural epochs), the colored windows
(initiation) and the musical interludes
composed by Elmar Lampson surrounded the
audience with the appropriate “cosmic”
environment.
The house lights dimmed and the soft
voices of children echoed from the back of the
hall, singing:
The light of the sun is flooding the realms
of space;
The song of birds resounds through fields
of air;
The tender plants spring forth from Mother
Earth
And human souls rise up with grateful
hearts
To all the spirits of the world.
These are the words that sound at the
beginning of The Portal of Initiation. The verse
sets the meditative mood for all four Mystery
Dramas.
In scene one of this first play we meet a
group of people who have just heard a talk on
spiritual science by their teacher Benedictus.
They share, one after the other, their reactions
to the content of the lecture. Those who are
familiar with Goethe’s Fairy Tale of the Green
Snake and Beautiful Lily will recognize Maria
as the “Lily,” Johannes Thomasius as the
“Youth,” and Professor Capesius and Dr.
Strader as the two “will-o’-the-wisps.”
One of the highpoints of this lengthy first
scene occurs when the seeress Theodora (the
“hawk”) has a vision of the Christ in the
etheric. Rudolf Steiner had already introduced
this teaching about the reappearance of Christ
earlier in the same year (1910) and he chose
to render this experience on stage. All of the
characters feel deeply stirred within their
souls, especially the artist Johannes. Steiner
ingeniously transformed various scenes from
the Goethe tale into “happenings” within the
soul of Johannes. Just as the “Youth” dies and
undergoes a kind of death and rebirth, so too
does Johannes experience a similar transformation
in his soul life. This is merely a preliminary
stage of initiation; we see him taking a
first step across the “portal,” starting to
awaken in realms of soul and spirit. Benedictus
points to the heart of this process:
What flourishes for higher life
must bloom from death of lower being.
Rudolf Steiner taught that we wake up “to
a higher consciousness in the encounter with
the soul and spirit of our fellowman. Man must
become more to his fellowman than he use to
be: he must become his awakener. People
must come closer to one another than they
used to do, each becoming an awakener of
everyone he meets…Now it has become
necessary to be awakened not just by nature
but by the human beings with whom we are
karmically connected and whom we want to
seek.” These remarks characterize the basic
dynamic of Steiner’s Mystery Dramas.
The second drama, The Soul’s Probation,
explores the karmic connections (and debts!)
by taking us back to see previous incarnations
in the Middle Ages. Maria, Johannes and Capesius
undergo a retrospect into their lives in
Central Europe on the eve of the demise of the
Knights Templar. Being introduced to who you
were in an earlier lifetime is not for the fainthearted!
All stages and trials of initiation require
strength of soul and necessary preparation.
Lapses, weaknesses or deviations open the
doors to the ever powerful temptations of
Lucifer and Ahriman. Both Johannes and Capesius
end up under the influence of Lucifer;
Maria manages to defeat Ahriman. She says to
him: “You spoke to me with words of flattery
intending to unloose my deepest self-conceit.
Remembrance of this time (back in the Middle
Ages) bestows on me the strength to make a
stand against you” (scene 2).
first issue 2011 • 85