Chapter II

THE SORROWS OF THE SEEKING SOUL

AS EXERCISE is necessary to the development of
physical muscle, so development of the moral
nature is accomplished through temptation. The soul
being given choice, may exercise it in whatever direc-
tion it chooses, for it learns just as well by its mis-
takes as by right action in the first place, perhaps
even better. Therefore, in the Job myth, the devil is
permitted to tempt ; and in the Faust myth he makes
the request:

4 ' My Lord, if I may lead him as I choose,
I wager Thou him yet wilt lose. ' '
To this the Lord replies :

'Tis granted thee! Divert

This spirit from its primal source,

Him may'st thou seize, thy power exert,

If he will go the downward course.

But stand ashamed when thou art forced to own,

A good man in his darkest aberration

Still knows the path that leadeth to salvation.

Go, thou art free to act without control.

I do not cherish hate for such as thee ;

THE SORROWS OF THE SEEKING SOUL 13

Of all the spirits of negation

The cynic is least wearisome to Me.

Man is too prone, activity to shirk,

And undisturbed in rest he fain would live ;

Hence this companion purposely I give

Who stirs, excites, and must as devil work.

But ye, O faithful Sons of God, none wronging,

Rejoice in all of everliving beauty,

The everliving, evergrowing, and becoming ;

Now gird yourselves about with love and duty. ' '

Thus the plot is ready and Faust is about to become
enmeshed in the snares which beset the path of every
seeking soul. The following lines show the beneficent
purpose and the necessity of temptation. The spirit
is an integral part of God; primarily innocent, but
lire virtuous. Virtue is a positive quality developed
by taking a firm stand for the right in temptation, or
by the suffering endured in consequence of wrongdo-
ing. Thus the prologue in heaven gives to the Faust
myth its highest value as a guide, and its encourage-
ment to the seeking soul. It shows the eternal purpose
behind the earthly conditions which cause pain and
sorrow.

Goethe next introduces us to Faust himself, who
is standing in his darkened study. He is engaged in
introspection and retrospection:

"I have, alas! philosophy, medicine, and law,
Theology I too have studied, pshaw !

14 MYSTERIES OF THE GREAT OPERAS

Now here I stand with all my lore,

A fool no wiser than before.

I thought to better humankind,

To elevate the human mind;

I have not worked for goods nor treasure,

Nor worldly honor, rank, nor pleasure.

With books I all my life have striven,

But now to magic I am given;

And hope through spirit voice and might,

Secrets veiled to bring to light.

That I no more with aching brow,

Need speak of what I nothing know.

Woe 's me ! Still prisoned in the gloom

Of this abhorred and musty room,

Where heaven's dear light itself doth past

But dimly through the painted glass.

Up ! forth into the distant land.

Is not this book of mystery

By Nostradamus' magic hand,

An all sufficient guide ? Thou 'It see

The courses of the stars unrolled,

When Nature doth her thoughts unfold

To thee. Thy soul shall rise and seek

Communion high with her to hold. ' '

A lifetime of study has brought Faust no real
knowledge. The conventional sources of learning prove
barren in the end. The scientist may think God a

SORROWS OF THE SEEKING SOUL 15

superfluity ; he may believe that life consists in chemi-
cal action and reaction — that is, when he starts. But
the deeper he delves into matter, the greater the mys-
teries that beset his path, and at last he will be forced
to abandon further research or believe in God as a
Spirit whose life invests every atom of matter. Faust
has come to that point. He says that he has not worked
for gold "nor treasure, nor worldly honor, rank, nor
pleasure." He has striven from love of research and
has come to the point where he sees that a spirit world
is about us all; and through this world, through
magic, he now aspires to a higher, more real knowl-
edge than that contained in books.

A tome, written by the famous Nostradamus is in
his hand, and on opening it he beholds the sign of the
macrocosm. The power contained therein opens to his
consciousness a part of the world he is seeking, and in
an ecstasy of joy he exclaims :

' ' Ah ! at this spectacle through every sense,

What sudden ecstasy of joy is flowing;

I feel new rapture, hallowed and intense.

Now of the wise man 's words I learn the sense :

Unlocked the spirit world is lying,

Thy senses shut, thy heart is dead;

Up, scholar ! lave with zeal undying

Thine earthly breast in morning red.

How all that lives and works is ever blending,

Weaves one vast whole from Being 's ample range,

See powers celestial rising and descending,

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Their golden buckets' ceaseless interchange.
Their flight on rapture breathing pinions winging,
From heaven to earth the rhythm bringing. ' '

But again the pendulum swings back. As an at-
tempt to gaze directly into the brilliant light of the
sun would result in shattering the retina of the eye,
so the audacious attempt to fatnom the Infinite re-
sults in failure and the seeking soul is thrown from
the ecstasy of joy into the darkness of despair :

' * A wondrous show, but ah ! a show alone.
Where shall I grasp thee, infinite nature, where !
Ye breasts, ye fountains of all life whereon
Hang heaven and earth, from which the withered

heart

For solace yearns. Ye still impart
Your sweet and fostering tides; where are ye — •

where ?
Ye gush, and I must languish in despair."

We must first understand the lower before we can
successfully aspire to a higher knowledge. To rant
and rave of worlds beyond, of finer bodies, when we
have little conception of the vehicles with which we
work every day and the environment in which we move,
is the height of folly. "Man, know thyself" is a
sound teaching. The only safety lies in climbing the
ladder rung by rung, never attempting a new step

SORROWS OF THE SEEKING SOUL 17

until we have made ourselves secure, until we are
poised and balanced upon the one where we stand.
Many a soul can echo from its own experience the
despair embodied in the words of Faust;

Foolishly he has started at the highest point. He
has suffered disappointment, but does not yet under-
stand that he must begin at the bottom; so he com-
mences an evocation of the Earth Spirit :

' ' Earth Spirit, Thou to me art nigher,
E 'en now my strength is rising higher,
Courage I feel, abroad the world to dare,
The woe of earth, the bliss of earth, to bear ;
With storms to wrestle, brave the lightning glare,
And 'mid the crashing shipwreck not despair.
Clouds gather o 'er me, obscure the moon 's light,
The lamp's flame is quenched with darkness of

night.

Vapors are rising, flashing and red,
Beams of them dartingly, piercing my head;
I am seized with a sickening, shuddering dread.
Spirit, prayer-compelled, 'tis Thou
Art hovering near, unveil Thyself now.
My heart I gladly surrender to Thee;
Thou must appear, if life be free."

As we have said in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Concep-
tion, and as we have further elucidated in the Rosi-
crucian philosophy relative to a question concerning

2

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the Latin ritual in the Catholic Church, a name is a
sound Properly uttered, no matter by whom, it has
a compelling influence over the intelligence it repre-
sents, and the word given in each degree of Initiation
gives man access to a particular sphere of vibration,
peopled by certain classes of spirits. Therefore, as a
tuning fork responds to a note of even pitch, so when
Faust sounds the name of the Earth Spirit, it opens
his consciousness to that all pervading presence. .

And be it remembered that Faust's experience is
not an isolated instance of what may happen under
abnormal conditions. He is a symbol of the seeking
soul. You and I are Fausts in a certain sense, for at
some stage in our evolution we shall meet the Earth
Spirit and realize the power of His name, properly
uttered.

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