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Four Mystery Plays

Chapter 20: PERSONS, FORMS, AND FEATURES
By Rudolf Steiner
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About This Book

A sequence of four linked stage mysteries depicts the soul’s progress through initiation by dramatizing meditative practices, inner trials, visionary encounters, and ritual councils that reveal moral debts and past-life ties, including a retrospective traced to ancient Egypt. Elemental beings and two antagonistic spiritual influences appear as catalysts that test free will and the balance between spiritual striving and materializing tendency. Scenes move between contemplative mountain meditations, subterranean and temple settings, and soul-world visions, while individual development culminates in an integrating finale that foregrounds self-knowledge, expanded perception of the beyond, and the unfolding significance of a renewed spiritual event.

THE SOUL’S PROBATION

SUMMARY OF THE SCENES

Scene 1: Capesius. His occult exercises and his despair.

Scene 2: Meditation chamber the same as Scenes 3 and 10 of Play 1. Benedictus warns Maria that Johannes must be free. She resolves to look back upon past incarnations.

Scene 3: Johannes and his painting. Maria resolves not to hinder his freedom by her love.

Scene 4: As Scene 1. Capesius and Strader.

Scene 5: Capesius at the Balde’s cottage. Dame Felicia’s fable. Johannes and his double.

Scene 6: The 14th century. The meadows by the Castle of the Mystic Knights. Country folk. The Jew. Thomas confesses to the Monk his love for Keane’s daughter.

Scene 7: Same period. The Interior of the Castle. The Grand Master and Council. The Monk’s demand. The apparition of his late Master, Benedictus.

Scene 8: Same period. Keane has discovered that Thomas and his sweetheart are the children of the 1st Preceptor and informs the 1st Preceptor of the fact. The scene closes with a discussion on evolution, and the inspired warning of the Second Master of Ceremonies.

Scene 9: Same period. The Keanes. Dame Keane’s fable. The Country folk. Thomas and Cecilia.

Scene 10: Scene same as Scene 5. The return to the present day. Explanation of Scenes 6 to 9.

Scene 11: Meditation chamber as in Scene 2. Maria defeats Ahriman.

Scene 12: The same. Johannes and Lucifer.

Scene 13: The Temple of the Sun. Destiny.

PERSONS, FORMS, AND FEATURES

The spiritual and psychic experiences of the characters appearing in this “Soul’s Probation” are a continuation of the experiences given in the scenes of “The Portal of Initiation,” and the events related occur several years later.

  • Benedictus Hierophants of the Temple of the Sun.
    Theodosius
    Romanus
  • Professor Capesius.
  • Philia The spiritual beings who facilitate the connection between the Soul and the Cosmos. They are not allegorical, but are realities for the spirit Seer.
    Astrid
    Luna
  • The Other Philia, The spiritual being who hinders the connection between the Soul and the Cosmos.
  • The Voice of Conscience, not allegorical, but a reality, for the spirit Seer.
  • Maria.
  • Johannes Thomasius.
  • Doctor Strader.
  • Felix Balde.
  • Felicia, his wife.
  • The ‘Double’ of Johannes Thomasius.
  • Lucifer.
  • Ahriman.

The events of the Sixth to the Ninth Scenes contain the spiritual vision of Capesius into his former life. Maria and Johannes share the experiences at the same time; but Strader’s former incarnation is only seen by Capesius, Maria, and Johannes.

These scenes back into the fourteenth century are conceived as results of imaginative cognition, and in the physical world are only recognizable by their effect. The way in which a life is repeated (from occurrences of the fourteenth century into the present day) should not be taken arbitrarily, but merely as what may happen at any turning point of time. These conflicts and consequences of a former life are only possible at such a time.

The Vision of Capesius into the Fourteenth Century

  • The Spirit of Benedictus.
  • The Grand Master, chief of a branch of mystic brotherhood.
  • First Preceptor, of the mystic brotherhood. (A former incarnation of Professor Capesius.)
  • Second Preceptor, of the mystic brotherhood.
  • First Master of the Ceremonies, of the mystic brotherhood.
  • Second Master of the Ceremonies, of the mystic brotherhood.
  • Simon, the Jew (a former incarnation of Dr. Strader).
  • Thomas (a former incarnation of Johannes Thomasius).
  • A Monk (a former incarnation of Maria).
  • Joseph Keane (a former incarnation of Felix Balde).
  • His Wife (a former incarnation of Felicia Balde).
  • Bertha, their daughter (a former incarnation of the Other Maria).
  • Cecilia, their foster-daughter (a former incarnation of Theodora).
  • Six Country Men, and
  • Six Country Women.

Note on the Costumes Worn (see also notes to the “Portal of Initiation”). The knights are in chain armour and dark blue robes of their order, with a white Maltese cross on their mantle and on their tunic. The mantle of the Grand Master is crimson; his tunic is white with a red cross. Their blue caps and the Grand Master’s red cap are flat and triangular. The apparition of Benedictus in Scene 7, is in pink peach blossom colour. He appears in the background about nine feet above the stage and remains rigid with his arms extended in cross fashion the whole time of his appearance in this scene.