Chapter XIV

THE TWILIGHT OF THE GODS

WHEN Siegfried reaches the court of Gnnther,
Gutrune, the fair sister of the king hands him
the magic cup of forgetfulness. Forthwith, he loses
memory of the past and of Brunhilde, the spirit of
truth, and stands a naked soul ready to fight
the battle of life. But he is armed with the sub-
limated essence of former experience. The sword
of Nothung, the courage of despair, wherewith lie
fought greed and creed symbolized by Fafner,
the dragon, and Wotan the god, is still with
him; also Tarncap, or the helmet of illusion, which
is an apt symbol of what we in modern times call
hypnotic power, for whoever put this magic cap on
his head appeared to others in whatever shape he
desired; and he has Brunhilde 's horse Grane, dis-

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cernment, whereby he, himself, might always perceive
truth and distinguish it from error and illusion. He
still has powers which he may use for good or evil ac-
cording to choice.

As we have said previously, our idea of what truth
is changes as we progress. We are gradually climb-
ing the mountain trail of evolution, and as we do
phases of truth appear which we never before per-
ceived ; and what is right at one stage, is wrong at an-
other. Though, whenever we are in the flesh we see
through the veil of illusion symbolized by Loge's
flame which encircles the rock of Brunhilde, her sv, if t
charger Grane, discernment is also with us ; and if we
only give him free rein, the material brain-mind,
which is charged with the lethal drink of forgetful-
ness, can never gain the ascendancy over the spirii:.

The early Atlantean Epoch, when mankind lived
as guileless "Children of the Mist" (Niebelung) in
the foggy basins of the earth, is represented in the
Bhinegold. The later Atlantean time is an age of
savagery, where mankind has forsworn love, as Al-
berich did, and forms "the Ring" of egoism, where it
devotes its energies to material acquisitions symbolized
by "the hoard" of the Niebelung, over which giants,
gods, and men fight with savage brutality and
low cunning, as set forth in the "The Valkuerie."

The early Aryan Epoch marks the birth of the
idealist, symbolized as the "Walsungs" (Siegmund,
Sieglinda, and Siegfried), a new race which aspires
with a sacred ardor to new and higher things — valor-

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ous knights who had the courage of their convictions
and were ever ready to fight for truth as they saw it,
and to give their lives as forfeit to uphold their heart-
felt convictions. Thus the age of realistic savagery
gave place to an era of idealistic chivalry.

We are now in the latter part of the Aryan Epoch.
The truth seekers of the past have again left the fire
girt rock of Brunhilde. We have again assumed the
veil of flesh and partaken of the lethal drink, and we
are today actually playing the last part of the great
epic drama, "The Twilight of the Gods," which is
identical in its import with our Christian Apocalypse.
"The gospel of the Kingdom" has been preached to
us, "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" has been
opened to us, as it was to Siegfried; and we are on
trial now, as he was at Gunther's court, to see if we
will live as "married to truth," or whether we will
drag her from her retreat and prostitute her, as Sieg-
fried did. In order to gain the hand of Gutrune, he
wrested the emblem of egoism, the Ring of the Niebe-
lung, from Brunhilde 's hand and put it on his finger
again ; he bound her and carried her to Gunther to be
his wife; he prostituted her, and himself committed
adultery with Gutrune — for having once married truth,
it is spiritual adultery to seek the honors of the world.

Heaven and earth are outraged at this colossal be-
trayal of truth. The great World-Ash, the tree of
life and being, shakes at its root, where Urd, Skuld,
and Verdande, the past, present, and future, spin the
thread of fate. It grows dark on earth; Hagen's

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spear finds the only vulnerable point in Siegfried's
body — his life is the forfeit, and as the highest ideal
of the age has failed, there is no use in perpetuating
the existing order of things. Therefore, Heimdal, the
heavenly watchman, sounds his trumpet, and the gods
ride in solemn procession over the rainbow bridge for
the last time, to meet the giants in final battle involv
ing the destruction of heaven and earth.

This is a very significant point : At the opening of
the drama we find the Niebelungen "at the bottom
of the river." Alberich, later forges "The Ring"
in fire, which can only burn in the clear atmosphere
such as we have in the Aryan age. During this age
the gods also hold their sacred councils at the rain-
bow-bridge, which is the reflection of the heavenly
fire. When Noah brought the original Semites through
"the Flood," he kindled the first fire. "The bow"
was then set in the cloud to remain for the age
and during that time it was covenanted that the
alternating cycles, summer and winter, day and night,
et cetera, should not cease. In the Apocalypse,
(IV:3), John is offered instruction concerning
"things which must be hereafter," by "One having
a rainbow around Him"; and later, (X:l-6) a mighty
angel with a rainbow on its head solemnly proclaims
the end of time. Thus it is plain from the northern
myth and the Christian teaching, that the epoch began
when the bow was set in the cloud; when the bow is
removed the epoch will end and a new condition of
things, physical and spiritual, be ushered in.

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The other phenomenon attending this time of
trouble is set forth in the ancient myth. Loge, the
spirit of illusion, has three children: the Migaard
Serpent which encircles the earth, biting its own tail,
is the ocean which refracts and distorts every object
immersed therein. Men fear the treacherous element ;
their cheeks have always paled at the thought of what
it may do when unleashed. The wolf Fenris, the at-
mosphere, is also a child of illusion (optical), and the
dread roar of the tempest may strike fear into the
stoutest heart. Hel, death, is the third of Loge 's chil-
dren, and the " queen of terrors." Before man en-
tered concrete existence, as described in the beginning
of the great myth and in Genesis, his consciousness
was focused in the spiritual worlds where the illusive
elements, Loge (fire), Fenris (air), and the Serpent
(water), are nonexistent; hence, death also was an
unknown quantity. But during the present epoch
when the constitution of the human body is subject
to the action of the elements, death also holds sway.

At the sound of the trumpet of Heimdal, all the
factors of destruction press forward to the plain Vig-
rid, the counterpart of Armageddon, where the gods
of creed and their sworn supporters have assembled
to make a last stand. The sons of Muspel (physical
fire), press forward from the south, demolishing the
rainbow bridge. The Frost Giants advance from the
north. With an awful roar, Fenris, the tempest-
driven atmosphere, rushes upon the earth. So terrific

122 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

is its velocity that the friction generates fire, hence it
is said that its lower jaw is upon the earth, its upper
reaches the sun, and fire streams from its nostrils. It
swallows Wotan, the god in charge of the age of air,
when the bow was in the cloud. The Midgaard Ser-
pent or watery element is vanquished by Thor, the
god of thunder and lightning, but when the electrical
discharges have finally disposed of the element,
water, there can be no thunder and lightning, hence
the northern myth informs us that Thor dies of the
fumes from the Serpent. In our Christian Apocalypse
we also hear of thunders and lightnings, and are told
that finally ' ' there shall be no more sea. ' '

But as the Phoenix arises rejuvenated and beauti-
ful from its ashes, so also a new earth, fairer and more
ethereal, was seen by the ancient prophetess to arise
from the great conflagration where ''the elements melt
with fervent heat "— ' ' Gimle, " she called it. Nor
was it without population, for, while the great con-
flagration was in progress a man and a woman called
Lif and Liftharaser, (lif means life), were saved
and from them springs a new race which lives in peace
and close to God.

"A hall I see,

More brilliant than the sun,

Roofed with gold.

On the summit of Gimle,

There shall live

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A virtuous race,
And enjoy blessedness
To eternity.

''Thither cometh the Mighty One— all-
Father,

To the council of the gods,
In His strength from above.
He who thinketh for all,
Issueth judgments;
He causeth strife to cease,
And establisheth peace
To endure forever."

Thus the ancient northern myth teaches, but from
a different angle, the same truths as found in greater
fullness in the Christian Scriptures from Genesis to
the Apocalypse, and it is important that we should
realize the truth of these tales. There are, alas, too
many in the class described by Peter as saying:
" Where is the promise of His coming? For since the
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were in
the beginning. ' ' There are few who realize the import
of the statement in the second chapter of Genesis, that
"a mist went up from the ground and watered the
earth before it rained, ' ' and that thus the children of
the mist must have been physiologically different
from the man of today who breathes air since "the
Flood," when the mist condensed and became the tea.
But just as sure as these changes happened in the

124 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

past, so there is now another change impending. True,
it may not come in our time — ' ' that hour knoweth no
man neither the angels, neither the Son," and re-
peatedly the warning of Noah is held up before us in
this connection. In that day they ate and drank,
married and were given in marriage, but suddenly
the waters engulfed them and all who had not
evolved the physiological requisites, lung*, necessary
to live in the new condition perished. The Ark car-
ried the pioneers safely through the catastrophe.

To make the next change safely, a wedding gar-
ment is required, and it is of utmost importance that
we should work upon it. The same soma psuchicon or
"soul body" which Paul mentions (I Cor. XV: 45),
is an etheric vehicle of paramount importance; for
when the present elements have been dissolved in the
impending change, how shall we survive if we can
function only in a dense body as now !

The Germano-Anglo-Saxon race will of course be
succeeded by two more before the Sixth Epoch is defi-
nitely ushered in, but today, and from our stock,
there is being prepared the seed for the New Age. It
is exactly the mission of the Rosicrucian Order,
working through the Eosicrucian Fellowship, to pro-
mulgate a scientific method of development suited
particularly to the Western people whereby this wed-
ding garment may be wrought, so that we may hasten
the day of the Lord.

•jjjatbulum of fog mth

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