Chapter V

SELLING His SOUL TO SATAN (cont.)

BEING in a reckless mood, Faust answers con-
temptuously the demand of Lucifer for his signa-
ture in blood to the pact between them, with the fol-
lowing words :

"Be not afraid that I shall break my word.
The scope of all my energy
Is with my vow in full accord.
Vainly have I aspired too high;
I 'm on a level but with such as thou ;
Me the Great Spirit scorned, defied.
Nature from me herself doth hide.
Rent is the web of thought ; my mind
Doth knowledge loathe of every kind.
In depths of sensual pleasure drowned
' Let us our fiery passions still;
Enwrapped in magic 's veil profound
Let wondrous charm our senses thrill.

34 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

Having been scorned by the powers which make for
good and being thoroughly inflamed with a desire for
first-hand knowledge, for real power, he is ready to
go to any length. But God is represented as saying
in the prologue :

"A good man in his darkest aberration,

Still knoweth the way that leadeth to salvation. ' '

Faust is the aspiring soul, and the soul cannot be
permanently diverted from the path of evolution.

The statement by Faust of his purpose bears out the
assertion that he has a high ideal, even when wal-
lowing in mire — he wants experience :

"The end I aim at is not joy.
I crave excitement, agonizing bliss,
Enamored hatred, quickening vexation.
Purged from the love of knowledge, my vocation.
The scope of all my powers henceforth be this :
To bare my breast to every pang, to know
In my heart's core all human weal and woe,
To grasp in thought the lofty and the deep ;
Man's various fortunes on my breast to heap."

Before anyone can be truly compassionate, he
must feel as Faust desires to feel, the depth of the
sorrows of the human soul as well as its most ecstatic
joys; for only when we know these extremes of the
human passion can we feel the compassion necessary

SELLING His SOUL TO SATAN 35

for those who would aid in the uplift of humanity. By
the help of Lucifer, Faust is able to learn both joy
and sorrow, and thus Lucifer is indeed, as he says,

". . . The pow'r that still
Works for good, though scheming ill."

By the interference of the Lucifer spirits in the
scheme of evolution, the passions of mankind were
aroused, intensified and led into a channel which has
caused all the sorrow and sickness in the world. Never-
theless, it has awakened the individuality of man and
freed him from the leading strings of the angeJs.
Faust, also, by the help of Lucifer, is led out of. the
conventional paths and becomes thereby individ-
ualized. When the bargain has been concluded be-
tween Faust and Lucifer we have the replica of the
Sons of Cain, who are the progeny and charges of the
Lucifer Spirits as we have seen in ' ' Freemasonry and
Catholicism. ' '

In the tragedy of Faust, Marguerite is the ward of
the Sons of Seth, the priesthood described in the Ma-
sonic legend. Presently the two classes represented
by Faust and Marguerite are to meet, and between
them the tragedy of life will be enacted and out of the
sorrows encountered by each in consequence, the soul
will grow wings that will raise it again to realms of
bliss whence it came. In the meanwhile Lucifer con-
ducts Faust to the witches' kitchen where he is to re-

36 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

ceive the elixir of youth, so that rejuvenated, he may
become desirable in the eyes of Marguerite.

When Faust is presented upon the stage, the
witches' kitchen is full of instruments supposed to
be used in magic. A hell-fire burns under a kettle
wherein love potions are brewed and there is much
else which is fantastic. But we may pass by the in-
animate objects without even mentioning them, and
consider with profit what is meant by the family of
apes which we find there, for they also represent a
phase of human evolution.

Filled with a passion instilled by the Lucifer spirits,
or fallen angels, mankind broke away from the an-
gelic host led by Jehovah. As a consequence of the
hardening power of desire, " coats of skin" soon en-
veloped them and separated them from each other.
Egotism supplanted the feeling of brotherhood as the
nadir of materiality was approached. Some were
more passionate than others, hence their bodies crys-
talized to a greater extent. They degenerated and be-
came apes. Their size also dwindled as they ap-
proached the line where the species must be extin-
guished. They are, therefore, the especial wards of
the Lucifer spirits. Thus the Faust myth shows us a
phase of human evolution not included in the Masonic
legend, and gives us a fuller and more rounded view
of what has actually happened.

Once, all mankind stood at the point where the
scientist believes the missing link to have been. Those

SELLING His SOUL TO SATAN 37

which are now apes, degenerated from that point
while the human family evolved to its present stage of
development. We know how indulgence of the pas-
sions brutalizes those who give way to them, and we
can readily realize that at a time when man was yet
in the making, unindividualized, and under direct
control of cosmic forces, this indulgence would be un-
checked by the sense of selfhood which guards us in a
measure today. Therefore, the results would naturally
be more far-reaching and disastrous.

Some time the aspiring soul must enter the witches '
kitchen as Faust did, and face the object lesson of the
consequence of evil as represented by the apes. The
soul is then left to meet Marguerite in the garden, to
tempt and be tempted, to choose between purity or
passion, to fall as Faust did, or to stand staunchly
for purity, as did Parsifal. Under the law of com-
pensation it will then receive its reward for the deeds
done in the body. Indeed, luck is twin to merit, as
Lucifer points out to Faust, and true wisdom is only
acquired by patient persistence in well-doing.

"How closely luck is linked to merit
Does never to the fool occur.
Had he the wise man's stone, I swear it,
The stone had no philosopher. ' '

True to his purpose to study life instead of books,
Faust demands that Lucifer procure for him admit-
tance to the home of Marguerite, and proceeds to win

38 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

her affections by a princely gift of jewels smuggled
into her closet by Lucifer. The brother of Marguerite
is away fighting for his country. Her mother is un-
able to decide what is best to do with the gift and
takes it to the spiritual adviser in the church. The
latter loves the shining stones more than the precious
souls entrusted to his care. He neglects his duty for
a necklace of pearls, more eager to secure the gems for
the adornment of an idol, than to guard the child of
the church against moral dangers lurking around her.
Thus Lucifer gains his point and quickly reaps a re-
ward of blood and human souls, for in order to gain
access to Marguerite's chamber, Faust induces her to
give her mother a sleeping potion which results in the
death of the parent. Valentine, the brother of Mar-
guerite, is killed by Faust. Marguerite is cast into
prison and sentenced to suffer capital punishment.

When we remember that the blood is the seat of the
soul, and that it clings to the flesh of a person who
meets a sudden and untimely end with the same tenac-
ity as the kernel adheres to the flesh of an unripe
fruit, it is easy to see that there is considerable torture
connected with such a death. The Lucifer spirits re-
vel in the intensity of feeling and evolve by it. The
nature of an emotion is not so essential as the inten-
sity, so far as the purpose is concerned. Therefore,
they stir the human passions of the lower nature,
which are more intense in our present stage of evolu-
tion than feelings of joy and love. As a result, they

SELLING His SOUL TO SATAN 39

incite to war and bloodshed, and appear evil now,
but in reality they act as stepping-stones towards
higher and nobler ideals, for through sorrow and
suffering such as are engendered in the breast of
Marguerite, the soul rises higher in the scale of evolu-
tion. It learns the value of virtue by a misstep in the
direction of vice.

It was with true appreciation of this fact that
Goethe wrote :

* ' Who never ate his bread in sorrow,
Who never spent the midnight hours,
Weeping, waiting for the morrow,
He knows ye not, ye heavenly powers."

40