Chapter VII

PARSIFAL: WAGNER'S FAMOUS MYSTIC Music DRAMA

AS we look about us in the material universe we see
a myriad of forms and all these forms have a
certain color~and. many of them emit a definite tone;
in fact all do, for there is sound even in so-called in-
animate nature. The wind in the tree tops, the bab-
bling of the brook, the swell of the ocean are all defi-
nite contributions to the harmony of nature.

Of these three attributes of nature, form, color and
tone, form is the most stable, tending to remain in
statu quo for a considerable time and changing very

4

50 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

slowly. Color on the other hand, changes more read-
ily: it fades, and there are some colors that change
their hue when held at different angles to the light;
but tone is the most elusive of all three ; it comes and
goes like a will-o'-the-wisp, which none may catch or
hold.

We also have three arts which seek to express the
good, the true and the beautiful in these three at-
tributes of the World Soul : namely, sculpture, paint-
ing and music.

The sculptor who deals with form seeks to imprison
beauty in a marble statue that will withstand the
ravages of time during niiLlenniums ; but a marble
statue is cold and speaks to but a few of the most
evolved who are able to infuse the statue with their
own life.

The painter 's art deals pre-eminently with color ; it
gives no tangible form to its creations ; the form on a
painting is an illusion from the material point of view,
yet it is so much more real to most people than the real
tangible statue, for the forms of the painter are alive ;
there is living beauty in the painting of a great artist,
a beauty that many can appreciate and enjoy.

But in the case of a painting we are again affected
by the changeableness of color; time soon blots out
its freshness, and at the best, of course, no paint-
ing can outlast a statue.

Yet in those arts which deal with form and color
there is a creation once and for all time; they have
that in common, and in that they differ radically

PARSIFAL: WAGNER 's MYSTIC DRAMA 51

from the tone art, for music is so elusive that it must
be recreated each time we wish to enjoy it, but in re-
turn it has a power to speak to all human beings in a
manner that is entirely beyond the other two arts. It
will add to our greatest joys and soothe our deepest
sorrows; it can calm the passion of the savage breast
and stir to bravery the greatest coward ; it is the most
potent influence in swaying humanity that is known
to man, and yet, viewed solely from the material
standpoint, it is superfluous, as shown by Darwin and
Spencer.

It is only when we go behind the scenes of the
visible and realize that man is a composite being,
spirit, soul and body, that we are enabled to under-
stand why we are thus differently affected by the
products of the three arts.

While man lives an outward life in the form world,
where he lives a form life among other forms, he lives
also an inner life, which is of far greater importance
to him; a life where his feelings, thoughts and emo-
tions create before his "inner vision" pictures and
scenes that are everchanging, and the fuller this inner
life is, the less will the man need to seek company out-
side himself, for he is his own best company, inde-
pendent of the outside amusement, so eagerly sought
by those whose inner life is barren; who know hosts
of other people, but are strangers to themselves, afraid
of their own company.

If we analyze this inner life we shall find that it is
twofold: (1) The soul life, which deals with the

52 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

feelings and emotions: (2) the activity of the ego,
which directs all actions by thought.

Just as the material world is the base of supply
whence the materials for our dense body have been
drawn, and is pre-eminently the world of form, so
there is a world of the soul, called the Desire World
among the Rosicrucians, which is the base from
whence the subtle garment of the ego, which we call
the soul, has been drawn, and this world is particu-
larly the world of color. But the still more subtle
World of Thought is the home of the human spirit, the
ego, and also the realm of tone. Therefore, of the three
arts, music has the greatest power over man ; for while
we are in this terrestrial life we are exiled from our
heavenly home and have often forgotten it in our ma-
terial pursuits, but then comes music, a fragrant odor
laden with unspeakable memories. Like an echo from
home it reminds us of that forgotten land where all
is joy and peace, and even though we may scout such
ideas in our material mind, the. ego knows each blessed
note as a message from the home land and rejoices
in it.

This realization of the nature of music is necessary
to the proper appreciation of such a great master-
piece as Richard Wagner's Parsifal, where the music
and the characters are bound together as in no other
modern musical production.

Wagner's drama is founded upon the legend of
Parsifal, a legend that has its origin enshrouded in

PARSIFAL: WAGNER'S MYSTIC DRAMA 53

the mystery which overshadows the infancy of the
human race. It is an erroneous idea 'when we think
that a myth is a figment of human fancy, having no
foundation in fact. On the contrary, a myth is a
casket containing at times the deepest and most pre-
cious jewels of spiritual truth, pearls of beauty so rare
and ethereal that they cannot stand exposure to the
material intellect. In order to shield them and at the
same time allow them to work upon humanity for its
spiritual upliftment, the Great Teachers who guide
evolution, unseen but potent, give these spiritual
truths to nascent humanity, encased in the picturesque
symbolism of myths, so that they may work upon
our feelings until such time as our dawning intellects
shall have become sufficiently evolved and spirit-
ualized so that we may both feel and know.

This is on the same principle that we give our chil-
dren moral teachings by means of picture books and
fairy tales, reserving the more direct teaching for
later years.

Wagner did more than merely copy the legend.
Legends, like all else, become encrusted by transmis-
sion and lose their beauty and it is a further evidence
of Wagner 's greatness that he was never bound in his
expression by fashion or creed. He always asserted
the prerogative of art in dealing with allegories Tin-
trammeled and free.

As he says in Religion and Art : ' l One might say
that where religion becomes artificial, it is reserved
for art to save the spirit of religion by recognizing

54 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

the figurative value of the mythical symbol, which
religion would have us believe in a literal sense, and
revealing its deep and hidden truths through an
ideal presentation. * * * Whilst the priest stakes
everything on religious allegories being accepted as
matters of fact, the artist has no concern at all with
such a thing, since he freely and openly gives out his
work as his own invention. But religion has sunk into
an artificial life when she finds herself compelled to
to keep on adding to the edifice of her dogmatic sym-
bols, and thus conceals the one divinely true in her,
beneath an ever-growing heap of incredibilities recom-
mended to belief. Feeling this, she has always sought
the aid of art, who on her side has remained incapable
of a higher evolution so long as she must present that
alleged reality to the worshiper, in the form of fetishes
and idols, whereas she could only fulfill her true voca-
tion when, by an ideal presentment of the allegorical
figure, she led to an apprehension of its inner kernel —
the truth ineffably divine."

<•*• Turning to a consideration of the drama of Parsifal
we find that the opening scene is laid in the grounds
of the Castle of Mount Salvat. This is a place of
peace, where all life is sacred; the animals and birds
are tame, for, like all really holy men, the knights
are harmless, killing neither to eat nor for sport. They
apply the maxim, ''Live and let live," to all living
creatures.

It is dawn, and we see Gurnemanz, the oldest of the
Grail Knights, with two young squires under a tree.

PARSIFAL: WAGNER'S MYSTIC DRAMA 55

They have just awakened from their night 's rest, and
in the distance they spy Kundry coming galloping on
a wild steed. In Kundry we see a creature of two
existences, one as servitor of the Grail, willing and
anxious to further the interests of the Grail Knights
by all means within her power; this seems to be her
real nature. In the other existence she is the unwilling
slave of the magician Klingsor and is forced by him
to tempt and harass the Grail Knights whom she longs
to serve. The gate from one existence to the other is
"sleep," and she is bound to serve him who finds
and wakes her. When Gurnemanz finds her she is
the willing servitor of the Grail, but when Klingsor
evokes her by his evil spells he is entitled to her serv-
ices whether she will or not.

In the first act she is clothed in a robe of snake
skins, symbolical of the doctrine of rebirth, for as the
snake sheds its skin, coat after coat, which it exudes
from itself, so the ego in its evolutionary pilgrimage
emanates from itself one body after another, shedding
each vehicle as the snake sheds its skin, when it has be-
come hard, set and crystallized so that it has lost its
efficiency. This idea is also coupled with the teach-
ings of the law of consequence, which bring to us as
reapings whatever we sow, in Gurnemanz 's answer
to the young squire's avowal of distrust in Kundry:

Under a curse she well may be
From some past life we do not see,
Seeking from sin to loose the fetter,

56 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

By deeds for which we fare the better.
Surely 'tis good she follows thus,
Helping herself while serving us.

When Kundry comes on the scene she pulls from
her bosom a phial which she says she has brought
from Araby and which she hopes will be a balm for
the wound in the side of Amfortas, the King of the
Grail, which causes him unspeakable suffering and
which cannot heal. The suffering king is then car-
ried onto the stage, reclining on a couch. He is on
his way to his daily bath in the near-by lake, where
two swans swim and make the waters into a healing
lotion which assuages his dreadful sufferings. Am-
fortas thanks Kundry, but expresses the opinion that
there is no relief for him till the deliverer has come,
of whom the Grail has prophesied, "a virgin fool,
by pity enlightened." But Amfortas thinks death
will come before deliverance.

Amfortas is carried out, and four of the young
squires crowd around Gurnemanz and ask him to tell
them the story of the Grail and of Amfortas' wound.
They all recline beneath the tree, and Gurnemanz
begins :

4 'On the night when our Lord and Saviour, Christ
Jesus, ate the Last Supper with his disciples He drank
the wine from a certain chalice, and that was later
used by Joseph of Arimathea to catch the lifeblood
which flowed from the wound in the Redeemer's

PARSIFAL: WAGNER'S MYSTIC DRAMA 57

side. He also kept the bloody lance wherewith the
wound was inflicted, and carried these relics with him
through many perils and persecutions. At last they
were taken in charge by angels, who guarded them
until one night a mystic messenger sent from God ap-
peared and bade Titurel, Amfortas' father, build a
castle for the reception and safe-keeping of these
relics. Thus the Castle of Mount Salvat was built on
a high mountain, and the relics lodged there under
the guardianship of Titurel with a band of holy and
chaste knights whom he had drawn around him. It
became a center whence mighty spiritual influences
went forth to the outside world.

"But there lived in yonder heathen vale a black
knight who was not chaste, yet desired to become a
Knight of the Grail, and to that end he mutilated
himself. He deprived himself of the ability to gratify
his passion, but the passion remained. King Titurel
saw his heart filled with black desire, and refused him
admittance. Klingsor then swore that if he could not
serve the Grail, the Grail should serve him. He built
a castle with a magic garden and populated it with
maidens of ravishing beauty, who emitted an odor
like flowers, and these waylaid the Knights of the
Grail, (who must pass the castle when leaving or re-
turning to Mount Salvat), ensnaring them to betray
their trust and violate their vows of chastity. Thus
they became the prisoners of Klingsor and but few re-
mained as defenders of the Grail.

58 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

1 'In the meantime Titurel had turned the warden-
ship of the Grail over to his son Amfortas and the
latter, seeing the serious havoc wrought by Klingsor,
determined to go out to meet and to do battle with
him. To that end he took with him the holy spear.

' ' The wily Klingsor did not meet Amfortas in per-
son, but evoked Kundry and transformed her from the
hideous creature who appeared as the servitor of the
Grail to a woman of transcendent beauty. Under
Klingsor 's spell she met and tempted Amfortas, who
yielded and sank into her arms, letting go his hold
upon the sacred spear. Klingsor then appeared,
grasped the spear, inflicted a wound upon the defense-
less Amfortas, and but for the heroic efforts of Gurne-
manz he would have carried Amfortas a prisoner to his
magic castle. He has the holy spear, however, and
the king is crippled with suffering, for the wound
will not heal."

The young squires spring up, fired with ardor, vow-
ing that they will conquer Klingsor and restore the
spear. Gurnemanz sadly shakes his head, saying that
the task is beyond them, but reiterates the prophecy
that the redemption shall be accomplished by a ' ' pure
fool, by pity enlightened."

Now cries are heard: ''The swan! Oh, the swan!"
and a swan flutters across the stage and falls dead
at the feet of Gurnemanz and the squires, who are
much agitated at the sight. Other squires bring in a
stalwart youth armed with bow and arrows, and to
Gurnemanz 's sad enquiry, "Why did you shoot the

PARSIFAL: WAGNER'S MYSTIC DRAMA 59

harmless creature?" he answers innocently, ""Was it
wrong?" Gurnemanz then tells him of the suffering
king and of the swan's part in making the healing
bath. Parsifal is deeply moved at the recital and
breaks his bow.

In all religions the quickening spirit has been sym-
bolically represented as a bird. At the baptism, when
Jesus' body was in the water the Spirit of Christ
descended into it as a dove. "The Spirit moves upon
the water, ' ' a f luidic medium, as the swans move upon
the lake beneath the Yggdrasil, the tree of life of
Norse mythology, or upon the waters of the lake in^
the legend of the Grail. The bird is therefore a direct
representation of highest spiritual influence and well
may the knights sorrow at the loss. Truth is many
sided. There are at least seven valid interpretations
to each myth, one for each world, and looked at from
the material, literal side, the compassion engendered
in Parsifal and the breaking of his bow mark a defi-
nite step in the higher life. No one can be truly com-
passionate and a helper in evolution while he kills to
eat, either in person or by proxy. The harmless life is
an absolute essential prerequisite to the helpful life.

Gurnemanz then commences to question him about
himself : who he is, and how he came to Mount Salvat.
Parsifal displays the most surprising ignorance. To
all questions he answers, "I do not know." At last
Kundry speaks up and says : ' * I can tell you who he
is. His father was the noble Gamuret, a prince among

60 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

men, who died fighting in Arabia while this child was
yet in the womb of his mother, Lady Herzleide. With
his last, dying breath his father named him Parsifal,
the pure fool. Fearing that he would grow up to
learn the art of war and be taken from her, his mother
brought him up in a dense forest in ignorance of
weapons and warfare."

Here Parsifal chimes in: "Yes, and one day I saw
some men on shapely beasts ; I wanted to be like them,
so I followed them for many days till at last I came
here and I had to fight many manlike monsters."

In this story we have an excellent picture of the
soul's search for the realities of life. Gamuret and
Parsifal are different phases of the life of the soul.
Gamuret is the man of the world, but in time he be-
came wedded to Herzleide, heart affliction, in other
words. He meets sorrow and dies to the world, as all
of us do who have come into the higher life. While
the bark of life floats on summer seas and our exist-
ence seems one grand, sweet song there is no incentive
to turn to the higher ; every fibre in our bodies cries,
"This is good enough for me," but when the billows
of adversity roar around us and each succeeding wave
threatens to engulf us, then we have wedded heart
affliction and become men of sorrows, and are ready
to be born as Parsifal, the pure fool or the soul who
has forgotten the wisdom of the world and is seeking
for the higher life. So long as a man is seeking to
accumulate money or to have a good time, so miscalled,
he is wise with the wisdom of the world ; but when he

PARSIFAL: WAGNER'S MYSTIC DRAMA 61

sets his face toward the things of the spirit, he be-
comes a fool in the eyes of the world. He forgets all
about his past life and leaves his sorrows behind him,
as Parsifalleft Herzleide, and we are told that she
died when Parsifal did not return to her. So sorrow
dies when it has given birth to the aspiring soul that
flees from the world; he may be in the world to per-
form his duty but is not of the world.

Gurnemanz has now become imbued with the idea
that Parsifal is to be the deliverer of Amfortas and
takes him along to the Grail Castle. And to Parsifal's
question, * ' Who is the Grail 1 " he answers :

That tell we not; but if thou hast of Him been

bidden,

From thee the truth will not stay hidden.
Methinks thy face I rightly knew.
The land to Him no path leads through,
And search but severs from Him wider,
When He Himself is not its guider.

Here we find Wagner bringing us back into pre-
Christian times, for before the advent of Christ, Ini-
tiation was not free to "whosoever will" seek in the
proper manner, but was reserved for certain chosen
ones such as the Brahmins and the Levites, who were
given special privileges in return for being dedicated
to the temple service. The coming of Christ, however,
wrought certain definite changes in the constitution

62 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

of mankind, so now all are capable of entering the
pathway of Initiation. Indeed, it had to be so when
international marriages took away caste.

At the Castle of the Grail, Amfortas is being im-
portuned on all sides to perform the sacred rite of the
Grail service, to uncover the holy chalice that the
sight of it may renew the ardor of the knights and
spur them on to deeds of spiritual service; but he
shrinks, from fear of the pain the sight will cause
him to feel. The wound in his side always starts to
bleed afresh at the sight of the Grail, as the wound
of remorse pains us all when we have sinned against
our ideal. At last, however, he yields to the com-
bined entreaties of his father and the knights. He
performs the holy rite, though the while he suffers
the most excruciating agony, and Parsifal, who stands
in a corner, feels sympathetically the same pain, with-
out realizing why, and when Gurnemanz eagerly asks
him after the ceremony what he saw, he remains dumb
and is thrust out of the castle by the angry, because
disappointed, old knight.

The feelings and emotions unchecked by knowledge
are fruitful sources of temptation. The very harmless-
ness and guilelessness of the aspiring soul renders it
often an easy prey to sin. It is necessary to soul
growth that these temptations come in order to bring
out our weak points. If we fall, we suffer as did
Amfortas, but the pain evolves conscience and gives
abhorrence of sin. It makes us strong against tempta-

PARSIFAL: WAGNER'S MYSTIC DRAMA 63

tion. Every child is innocent because it has not been
tempted, but only when we have been tempted and
have remained pure, or when we have fallen, re-
pented and reformed are we virtuous. Therefore
Parsifal must be tempted.

In the second act we see Klingsor in the act of evok-
ing Kundry, for he has spied Parsifal coming towards
his castle, and he fears him more than all who have
come before, because he is a fool. A worldly-wise
man is easily entrapped by the snares of the flower
girls, but Parsifal's guilelessness protects him, and
when the flower girls cluster around him he innocently
asks, "Are you flowers? You smell so sweet. "
Against him the superior wiles of Kundry are neces-
sary, and though she pleads, protests and rebels, she
is forced to tempt Parsifal, and to that end she ap-
pears as a woman of superb beauty, calling Parsifal
by name. That name stirs in his breast memories of
his childhood, his mother's love, and Kundry beckons
him to her side and commences to subtly work upon
his feelings by recalling to his memory visions of his
mother 's love and the sorrow she felt at his departure,
which ended her life. Then she tells him of the other
love, which may .compensate him, of the love of man
for woman, and at last imprints upon his lips a long,
fervent and passionate kiss.

Then there was silence, deep and terrible, as if the
destiny of the whole world hung in the balance at that
fervent kiss, and as she holds him in her arms his
face undergoes a gradual change and becomes drawn

64 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

with pain. Suddenly he springs up as if that kiss had
stung his being into a new pain, the lines on his pallid
face become more intense, and both hands are clasped
tightly against his throbbing heart as if to stifle some
awful agony — the Grail cup appears before his vision,
and then Amf ortas in the same dreadful agony, and at
last he cries out: " Amf ortas, Oh, Amf ortas! I know
it now — the spear wound in thy side — it burns my
heart, it sears my very soul. * * * 0 grief! 0
misery! Anguish beyond words! the wound is bleed-
ing here in my OWTL side ! ' '

Then again, in the same awful strain: "Nay, this is
not the spear wound in my side, for this is fire and
flame within my heart that sways my senses in delir-
ium, the awful madness of tormenting love. * * *
Now do I know how all the world is stirred, tossed,
convulsed and often lost in shame by the terrific pas-
sions of the heart."

Kundry again tempts him: "If this one kiss has
brought you so much knowledge, how much more will
be yours if you yield to my love, if only for an hour ? "

But there is no hesitation now; Parsifal has awak-
ened; he knows right from wrong, and he replies:
"Eternity were lost to both of us if I yielded to you
even for one short hour ; but I will save you and also
deliver you from the curse of passion, for the love
that burns within you is only sensual, and between
that and the true love of pure hearts there yawns an
abyss like that between heaven and hell."

When Kundry at last must confess herself foiled

PARSIFAL: WAGNER 's MYSTIC DRAMA 65

she bursts out in great anger. She calls upon Klin^sor
to help, and he appears with the holy spear, which
he hurls against Parsifal. But he is pure and harm-
less, so nothing can hurt him. The spear floats harm-
lessly above his head. He grasps it, makes the sign of
the cross with it and Klingsor's castle and magic
garden sink into ruins.

The third act opens on Good Friday many years
after. A travel stained warrier, clad in black mail,
enters the grounds of Mount Salvat, where Gurne-
manz lives in a hut. He takes off his helmet and
places a spear against a nearby rock and kneels down
in prayer. Gurnemanz coming in with Kundry, whom
he had just found asleep in a thicket, recognizes Par-
sifal with the holy spear and, overjoyed, welcomes
him, asking whence he comes.

He had asked the same question on Parsifal's first
visit and the answer had been: "I do not know."
But this time it is very different, for Parsifal an-
swers : ' ' Through search and suffering I came. ' ' The
first occasion depicts one of the glimpses the soul gets
of the realities of the higher life, but the second is the
conscious attainment to a higher level of spiritual ac-
tivity by the man, who has developed by sorrow and
suffering, and Parsifal goes on to tell how he was often
sorely beset by enemies, and might have saved himself
by using the spear, but refrained because it was an in-
strument of healing and not for hurt. The spear is
the spiritual power which comes to the pure heart and
life, but is only to~be used for unselfish purposes; im-

5

66 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

purity and passion cause its loss, as was the case with
Amfortas. Though the man who possesses it may
upon occasion use it to feed five thousand hungry peo-
ple he may not turn a single stone to bread to appease
his own hunger, and though he may use it to stay the
blood that flows from the severed ear of a captor, he
may not use it to stay the lif eblood that flows from
his own side. It was ever said of such : ' ' Others he
saved; himself he could not (or would not) save."

Parsifal and Gurnemanz go into the Grail Castle,
where Amfortas is being importuned to perform the
sacred rite, but refuses in order to save himself the
pain entailed in viewing the Holy Grail; baring his
breast he implores his followers to kill him. At this
moment Parsifal steps up to him and touches the
wound with the lance, causing it to heal. He dethrones
Amfortas, however, and takes to himself the warder-
ship of the Holy Grail and Sacred Lance. Only those
who have the most perfect unselfishness, coupled with
the nicest discrimination, are fit to have the spiritual
power symbolized by the spear. Amfortas would have
used it to attack and hurt an enemy. Parsifal would
not even use it in self-defense. Therefore lie is able
to heal, while Amfortas fell into the pit he had dug
for Klingsor.

In the last act Kundry, who represents the lower
nature, says but one word: Service. She helps Par-
sifal, the spirit, to attain by her perfect service. In
the first act she went to sleep when Parsifal visited
the Grail. At that stage the spirit cannot soar heaven-

PARSIFAL: WAGNER'S MYSTIC DRAMA 67

ward except when the body has been left asleep or
dies. But in the last act Kundry, the body, goes to
the Grail Castle also, for it is dedicated to the higher
self, and when the spirit as Parsifal has attained he
has reached the stage of liberation spoken of in Kevela-
tion: "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in
the house of my God: he shall go out thence no
more. ' ' Such a one will work for humanity from the
higher worlds; he needs no physical body any more;
he is beyond the law of rebirth, and therefore Kundry
dies.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, in his beautiful poem, ' ' The
Chambered Nautilus, ' ' has embodied in verse this idea
of constant progression in gradually improving ve-
hicles, and final liberation. The nautilus builds its
spiral shell in chambered sections, constantly leaving
the smaller ones, which it has outgrown, for the one
last built.

Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,'

Stretched in his last found home, he knew the
old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,

68 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

Cast from her lap forlorn,
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Titon blew from wreathed horn !
While en mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice
that sings :

Build thee more stately mansions, 0 my soul !
As the swift seasons roll
Leave thy low-vaulted past,
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life 's unresting
seal

of

71

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