posted September 05, 2012 05:04 PM            

When the eye rests for the first time on the design as a whole, it is most intrigued and impressed by the picture of the snake, forming the outer circle, as it were, in a protecting gesture. It brings to mind the situation in Goethe's Tale of 'The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily' when the green snake formed a wide circle around the lifeless body of the Youth, and, 'seizing the end of her tail between her teeth, she lay quite still'.

But the picture, as it presents itself here, wants to tell us much more. Is it not puzzling that the mouth of the snake is open and that the tail does not touch it? It 'breathes' a mystery which unravels gradually when one tries to forget for a moment the complete design, and begins with the so unobtrusive ring in the centre. One can identify oneself with it by feeling the smallness and within-oneself-secluded day-reality of Self. The person one is in this present incarnation has his own limited horizon; he lives in a world which he is shaping into his own world of soul. It is a decisive step when one tries to reach out to what is around and about one, what goes beyond this ring-existence.

In the drawing, this step is made by the twelve lines of radii in the direction towards the periphery. Three of them, on the left side, show a zig-zag form, reminding one of the dynamics of lightning. With this twelve-fold direction one is already aware of a world outside oneself; one may call it a world oriented to the cosmos. >

What one next meets in the design is a complete surprise. Letters, forming words, are displayed in a circle. One may remember that the spirit-researcher speaks of illumining guidelines which can be seen and read in the 'astral light' of the cosmos. Something similar is expressed here. Where the zig-zag lines have attracted our attention, we begin to read: ICH ERKENNET S . . . up to here the circle is complete. We grasp the meaning(7), and read on by adding the next three letters which overlap: ICH. 'ICH ERKENNET SICH.' In English, a not quite satisfying equivalent would be SELF KNOWS ITS (ELF). It can be taken as a cosmic script, expressing the task of man's repeated lives on earth: that the I recognizes itself.

It is worth the effort to dwell on this mantric line with the awareness of its cognitive character. It speaks to one's mind as a challenge to thinking. Then one is prepared to appreciate the next step in the drawing: the thought transforms itself into a picture. Now one has arrived at the image of the snake, forming a circle by turning its tail towards itself. Moreover, the three zig-zag lines point in the direction of the letters T S I and from there to the tail, approaching the open mouth, and the opened, watchful eye of the snake. The mystery that 'breathes' there is the awakening of the higher self in man. It becomes aware of the task to let live and weave and breathe in itself the Spirit in the Paulinean sense of the word. The ancient symbol of the snake that 'seizes the end of her tail between her teeth' is a pre-Christian one. With the design for The Souls Awakening, something is brought into the picture which is deeply connected with Theodora's prophetic 'vision in the First Scene of The Portal of Initiation: 'Not I, but Christ lives in my life and being.

There is still another riddle left to be solved in the fact that the three zig-zag lines, the letters T S I and the tail and face of the serpent are placed at the left side of the circular drawing. There is a certain orientation evident, which could be connected with the four main directions in which the altars of the Sun Temple as initiation center are oriented, the Eastern altar in the zenith, the others clockwise, so that the Northern altar stands at the left side. The design for the fourth play emphasizes this Northern aspect. It has to do with the encounter of the forces of evil, in our time predominantly the ahrimanic forces. It makes sense that the three letters T S I in their sequence are part of the mantric line, described above. Read backwards, I S T, they express as 'IS' a state of mere existence(8) without the I's activity, the ahrimanic aim in earth evolution.

The most decisive moment in the struggle with Ahriman is the time between lives when the souls of men prepare themselves in the spirit world for the shaping of a new earthly body, during the so-called cosmic midnight(9). It is portrayed in Scenes Five and Six of this fourth play. One can assume then that the North must play a vital part. Looking at the composition of the design with its emphasis on the dynamics of the left side, the words of the Guardian of the Threshold toward the end of Scene Six verify the significance of the North:

[page 94]
'So shall the lightning melt now into naught,
having shone dazzlingly on what must be
when wakeful souls live through the Cosmic North.
Thunder shall lose its rumbling, rolling tone of warning at the cosmic midnight hour.'

After having gone through the process of developing the design step by step, from the center to the periphery, the eye looks again at that tiny ring, expressing the. limits of our Self. Now it grows to something stronger, a condensed mirror-image of the circumference, not shrunk to a point, but a spheric microcosmic, living image of its macrocosmic origin.

http://books.google.dk/​books?id=7HrGLhcYtqwC&print​sec=frontcover&hl=da&sourc​e=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v​=onepage&q&f=false

posted September 05, 2012 05:11 PM            

The pentagram in the center reminds us of the figure of a man standing in space: his legs placed firmly on the ground; his arms stretched out to the right and left; his head
aiming skyward. This picture represents man in harmonious balance between heaven and earth, and in full control of his body.
Moving to the periphery, we find repeated patterns of outspread wings, influenced, as it were, by forces coming from the circumference, directed toward the center. The middle part of the seal shows forms which respond to them by opening themselves like a blossom or chalice. The two forms, without touching each other, come close together like in- and out-going spirals. The designs I around the periphery and those in the middle can be seen as a five I times repeated double-form. Recognized as such, an astonishing relationship to the pentagram in the center becomes evident.

One can make the experiment of cutting out a thin-lined copy of the pentagram and of laying it, with its 'feet' toward the center, over one of the double-forms. It is now obvious that the straight lines and angles appear exactly metamorphosed into curves and wings. The free space between the in- and out-going spirals falls directly there where the points of the two arms end. A mere description cannot give the picture as it presents itself in such an experiment, but one can also try to set one's imagination in motion and let the mind achieve the transformation of one form into the other.

We know that the law of metamorphosis is fundamental to an understanding of reincarnation. The changes from one life to another are only explainable if one can apply this law to the physical, psychic and mental differences. Nothing remains the same, but undergoes a vital 'sea-change'. This form-design helps to make our mind flexible enough to follow the process of metamorphosis, based on the pentagram, representing the human figure.

It is this central form which plays an important part in the experience of transformation, because it remains the solid basis from which one starts out and to which one returns. And the return is necessary, in order to keep a balance. The swinging, winging, curving, spiraling forms can tempt us to lose ourselves in them.
If we apply the dynamics of the seal to the play itself, the essence of the dramatic action becomes evident. 'The Soul's Probation' deals with a retrospect into the former incarnation in medieval times, consciously experienced by Maria, Johannes and Capesius — with different results, however. Capesius is so intrigued by the periphery and its cosmic dimensions
that he cannot find his way back into his present body (his pentagram). Johannes lives on, unable to discard or erase the past for the sake of strength in the present. This conflict throws him into the arms of Lucifer. Maria alone remains soundly united with her pentagram, clearly aware of the law of metamorpho.. sis. By virtue of her integrity, her 'star' nature, she defeats Ahriman.
Thus the seal can offer exercises in the metamorphoses of forms, and at the same time prepare a deeper understanding of the central dramatic events of the play itself.

posted September 05, 2012 05:14 PM            

The first impression is that of continuous motion. It is as if a whirlwind is bending, c
urving and sweeping everything along with it so that no straight line remains. It characterizes the atmosphere surrounding the Guardian, created by the earthly desires souls bring with them. But the seal reveals within this turbulence also a process which develops stage by stage: the building and shaping of a community of free individuals.

This process starts in the center where two curved lines cross each other. Wherever man experiences such a crossing, whether physiologically in the crossing of the nerves that lead from the eyes to the brain, for instance, or by an outward gesture, crossing his legs or folding his hands, he creates awareness or sustains consciousness. In the central crossing of the seal we become conscious of the four directions aiming out towards the circumference.

But the aim itself seems to be interrupted by the four separate, isolated curves. It is a phase in the attempt towards a community, familiar to those seeking a balance between the individual and the whole. These four forms remain each for itself, and yet they follow nevertheless the radii of the circle.

The periphery is set in motion by a fourfold wave-like thrust. One can feel a pull from the center which bends the regular circular swing downward. But the dynamics of this form overcomes the pull and it swings energetically back into the circle. Here the individual motion through its own energy and activity joins the all-embracing circle. But out of it something new is created:
the small figures above each downward-upward curve are a replica of this happening in the circle. They stand out as individual outposts, breathing the air of the circumference.

What is developed in these several phases of the seal depicts the action in the play leading to the climactic movement at the end: when individuals take over the duties of the Brotherhood. The altars in their sanctuary are still symbols of the overcoming of the downward trend of an earth-bound existence, and the cultivation of a spirit life which follows the guidance of higher beings. Now free individuals take on themselves this spirit-inspired guidance.

posted September 05, 2012 05:35 PM            

^^amazing ^^