The Being of Strader

The Being of Strader A Talk by Stephen E. Usher Threefold Educational Center, Chestnut Ridge, NY August 15, 2014 by Stephen E. Usher No part of this article may be reproduced without written permission of the author except for small quotes included in reviews and articles. It is a great pleasure to participate in this marvelous celebration of the Mystery Dramas, which are truly among the great works of world literature. Let me express my gratitude to Barbara Renold, the actors, eurythmists, and the behind the scenes helpers for all they have done to bring this about. Thanks are also due all those who made the resources available for this conference, particularly Erika Asten and her late husband Dietrich Asten who established the Rudolf Steiner Charitable Trust, and, last but certainly not least, the Threefold Educational Foundation. It is my task and privilege to address the deeply complex character of Dr. Strader. Of all the characters, Strader is probably the hardest to fathom. Why? Because he suffers tremendously from doubt and loneliness while the context of the plays provides no clues as to why he must so suffer. This lecture will proceed in three parts. First, we will explore the riddle of Strader s destiny, which is found in a significant incarnation that occurred between the Egyptian and medieval ones that are presented in the fourth and second plays respectively. No details of this incarnation are found in the Mystery Dramas. Second, we will consider some key themes of Strader s life. Third, we will look at the Strader machine. The Riddle of Strader s Destiny With the other principal characters their past incarnations, as described in the plays, provide a context for their sufferings and successes. Maria, for example, committed a kind of sacrilege against the Egyptian Mysteries when her ego entered the spiritual world at the time of her initiation. In the times of the Old Mysteries the ego was typically suppressed and the soul without the ego, guided by the hierophant, entered the spiritual world. Maria s sacrilege came about because the second hierophant, Capesius, intentionally failed to manipulate the forces that suppressed the ego, because he had understood in spirit that such an event a sacrilege from the perspective of the ancient mysteries had to happen as a harbinger of a later time, the time of the New Mysteries inaugurated by Christ, when the ego would enter the spiritual world in the process of initiation. by Stephen E. Usher 1

So Maria experienced a kind of fall which is described to her by the Guardian in the Cosmic Midnight Hour during the Saturn scene of the fourth play. [The soul] knows that in the flight to spirit heights the wings of soul gain strength by crashing, too. The soul should never wish for such a fall, but from each fall it must draw forth more wisdom. From these deep experiences, from this fall, Maria has gained wisdom and thus appears as the leading pupil of Benedictus. The destiny of Johannes Thomasius also finds its seed in the events of the Egyptian Mysteries. In that time Johannes was a woman and the lover of the neophyte, Maria, who was a man in the Egyptian incarnation. The woman who becomes Johannes sits outside the temple and vicariously participates in the aborted initiation with her atavistic clairvoyance. The split in his being that manifests in the presence of both his Double and The Spirit of his Youth, find their origins in these events. And of Capesius we know that he was a moral failure in his medieval incarnation when he abandoned wife and children to pursue his spiritual interests, i.e. he joined the Templar Order. But Strader s Egyptian incarnation was exemplary. He was a participant in the Mystery Initiations as the Impersonator of the Element of Fire, and there is no reason to doubt he carried this responsibility well. When we see Strader in the medieval incarnation scenes of the second play, he is already beset with doubt and loneliness. He is a cabbalist Jew, expert in medicinal plants, accepted by the Knights Templar and allowed to roam their lands at will. But he is hated by many of the peasants even thought his medical skills have healed many of them. Most significant, is the moment in the medieval incarnation when Strader (Scene 8, The Souls Probation), then Simon, has a vision of Christ. He wants with all his heart to: [s]ink upon my knees, and humbly submit myself to him, a herald out of other worlds. But just as he tries to do this: a violent rage flames up within my heart. And then I cannot check the urge in me, which kindles opposition in my soul. And I must thrust away the hand so lovingly held out to me. In consequence of this experience Simon is filled with doubt. As to why Simon suffers in this way, the medieval incarnation scenes do not give a hint. So we must conclude that something happened between the medieval incarnation, which by Stephen E. Usher 2

was during the 14th Century, and the Egyptian incarnation, which was during the time of Egyptian pharaoh Akenaton, who died about 1335 BC. Rudolf Steiner resolves the mystery in a lecture of Sept. 18, 1924 (Karmic Relationships IV) where he explains that he used a contemporary, Gideon Spicker, 1840-1912, as a model for Strader. Now it must immediately be made clear that Steiner does not suggest that Strader is Spicker, but rather that aspects of Spicker s life were used to create the character of Strader. Many fiction writers use aspects of real people to create their characters. For example, the Nobel Laureate, Saul Bellow, used the Anthroposophist Peter DeMay as a model for a character in his book Humboldt s Gift. Outer aspects of Spicker resemble details of Strader s life, for example, Spicker leaves the monastic life to become a philosopher. Spicker goes through soul trials of doubt and even speaks of an abyss in these words: No matter what philosophy one confesses, whether dogmatic, skeptic, empiric, transcendental, critical or eclectic: all without exception start out from an unproven and unprovable thesis, namely, the necessity of thinking. No investigation, deep as it may go, can circumvent this necessity. It must unconditionally be accepted as such and cannot be proven by anything; every attempt to prove its correctness already presupposes its existence. Below it gapes a bottomless abyss, a frightful darkness, irradiated by no ray of light. Thus we do not know whence it comes or where it leads. Whether a gracious God or an evil demon forces it upon our reasoning, is equally uncertain. (Riddles of the Soul, Chapter 4, Section 2, Rudolf Steiner quoting Spicker.) Those familiar with Steiner s Philosophy of Spiritual Activity will understand why just this passage from Spicker would be of great interest to Steiner, for in that work Steiner resolves the issue Spicker here finds irresolvable. What is revealed in the Sept. 18, 1924 lecture that sheds light on Strader s difficult destiny? The answer is that in a previous incarnation Spicker was Heinrich von Ofterdingen, a 13th Century bard who competed in the famous battle of Minstrels in the Wartburg, Germany in 1206. The competitors included luminaries such as Walther von der Vogelweide, Wolfram von Eschenbach (famous for his legend of Parzival), and Renmar von Zweter. Heinrich was losing the competition and that apparently meant being hanged! But he managed to escape and return with a great black magician to help him win, Klingsor. Klingsor is one of the greatest black magicians and Steiner discusses him in a number of places (Feb. 5, 1913, GA 144, The Mysteries of the East and of Christianity). Regarding Klingsor and his attack on Anthroposophy, Ita Wegman made the following remarkable statement: One day [sometime after the Christmas Conference] Rudolf Steiner told me about anti- Michael demons working ruthlessly to destroy and invalidate the deeds of Michael. They conceal such intentions, and it is only human beings who are able to wrest the demon s by Stephen E. Usher 3

secrets from them. Only human beings are capable of the knowledge of demonic secrets. The gods are waiting for these secrets, which human beings offer them, and it is the gods alone who will, in their turn, be able to decipher the secrets of the demons. Through such sacrifice to the gods, of secrets wrested from demons by human beings, dark demonic deeds will be averted, so that spiritual light can radiate once again where darkness had reigned. These anti-michael demons, to whom Klingsor and his minions also belong, were busily at work [after the Christmas Conference] and scornfully threatened to assert themselves if the Michael impulses, that had started so mightily, were unable to break through. My fearful question was: what will happen if that does not succeed? And the response [Steiner s] was: then karma will hold sway. Further on Wegman makes clear that the karma in question was the death of Rudolf Steiner, and not what followed his death. (Who was Ita Wegman by J. E. Zeylmans van Emmichoven, p. 312.) Continuing with the history of the battle of the Minstrels, Steiner states that Wolfram von Eschenbach realized that there was dark force involved when Heinrich returned. To defend against this, he sang about the Holy Eucharist, Transubstantiation, the mass etc. This put Klingsor to flight and so Heinrich lost again. Of Wolfram von Eschebach, Steiner observes that the Christian singers, by that time, had lost all cosmic knowledge and could not sing of the higher cosmic mysteries. But Klingsor still knew of them but in a way connected with dark arts; Steiner calls it an unchristian wisdom of the stars. In consequence of associating himself with black magic, Heinrich s consciousness was darkened as he went through that life between death and a new birth, toward his incarnation as Spicker. And as a reaction, in his life on earth [as Spicker], he conceived concepts the more clear and sharply outlined for the bluntness of the conceptual pictures he had experienced between death and a new birth. (Sept. 18, 1924) So the key to understanding Spicker s destiny, which parallels Strader s, is that Spicker had been involved in black magic. Spicker s own biography shows him first ordained and then leaving the church because he could not stand it. So from a theologian he goes on to become a Philosopher. In this capacity he developed a rationalistic approach to Christianity, which he linked to Lessing s freethinking Christianity. Steiner states that he tried to take hold of Christianity in a very penetrating, in a very brilliant, but rationalistic way [and] in the books he wrote, in his rationalistic description of Christianity, we see again and again how the threat of rationalism, the tread of abstract concepts breaks at the critical moment, and in the last resort appalling abstractions are the outcome. He cannot really enter a spiritual conception of Christianity. (Sept. 18, 1924) Steiner goes on to make clear that the soul conflicts of Strader as described in my Mystery Play did indeed take place in real life of this man, though of course with certain variations. (Sept. 18, 1924) And further regarding Spicker, Steiner states that he cannot approach real Christianity because he bore within him the antagonism to Christianity which he had raised in his past life, when he summoned Klingsor to his aid from the land of Hungary Darkly in the unconscious life of this man the unchristian cosmology still by Stephen E. Usher 4

showed itself, but in his ordinary consciousness he evolved a rationalistic Christianity which is not even very interesting. For the interest attaches more to the great conflict of his life, when with a Christian rationalism he tried to found a kind of rationalistic religion. (Sept. 18, 1924) Regarding Spicker s cleverness Steiner makes this extraordinary statement: [I]t is most significant of all to recognize this connection of abstract rationalism, abstractly clear thinking, with that which lives in the subconscious as darkened, veiled conceptions, living in the subconscious, rise into consciousness as abstract thoughts. We can study the karma of the cleverest men of the present day clever in the materialistic sense and we find that as a rule in former earthly lives they had something to do with cosmological aberrations into the realm of black magic. This is a very significant connection. An instinctive feeling of it is preserved in the peasants and country folk, who feel a certain aversion from the outset when they find among them someone who is all too clever in a rationalistic sense. They do not like him. (Sept. 18, 1924) This comment about the reaction of the country folk has direct bearing on what Simon suffered at the hands of the peasants in the medieval scenes of the second play. From these considerations we conclude that a significant incarnation must lay between the one at the time of pharaoh Akenaton (1335 BC) and the incarnation as Simon in the 14th Century. Moreover, in that incarnation Strader must have become entangled in some way with black magic, which does not necessarily mean he became a black magician but perhaps, like Heinrich, associated with one. Key Themes Of Strader s Life This second part of the lecture on key themes in Strader s life is subdivided into five subparts: a. Doubt & Scientific Worldview: First and Second Plays b. Over Coming Doubt and Becoming Spiritually Creative: The Guardian of the Threshold c. The Mystic Mood, a Bankruptcy, and the Abyss: The Souls Awakening d. What Ahriman Had to Say about Strader e. The Riddle Doubt & Scientific Worldview: First and Second Plays Strader tells in the first scene of the Portal that he struggled to leave the realm of belief and ritual and become a natural scientist. It is important to understand that Strader tries to live his entire life as a natural scientist, using the scientific method to form a worldview. In other words he is not a weekday natural scientist who puts his professional life aside on the weekend and attends church. No, his entire soul is caught up in the struggle to understand on the basis of sense observation and logical thinking. by Stephen E. Usher 5

We see in the first play how his worldview is shattered by two events. First, by Theodora s vision in the first scene of the Portal and second by Johannes painting of Capesius in Scene 8 of the Portal. Regarding the first shock, it should be noted that Strader emerges from the lecture by Bendictus that happens before the opening of Scene 1, unimpressed. His scientific mind finds what he has just heard unconvincing, a spinning of thoughts without scientific foundation. But when Theodora steps forth in an altered state of consciousness and declares her vision he is shaken. Why? Because on the one hand what he witnesses does not fit into his natural scientific worldview while, on the other, the event is an undeniable fact. Regarding the painting in Scene 8, Strader is again thrown into confusion because the painting reveals aspects of the soul of Capesius that Strader cannot see when looking at the man. Strader really goes into a meltdown as he struggles with the question of how pigment on canvas can make his friend s soul visible: My friend s soul power shines out of these eyes, though they are merely painted. The scholar s thoughtfulness lives on his brow; the innate warmness of his words streams from each color tone with which your brush has solved this riddle. Of all these colors they are only surface, and yet they re not. It is as if they re only visible to make themselves invisible to me. These forms, emerging as the color s interplay, speak of spirits weaving. Indeed they speak of much that they are not. Where can it be of what they speak? It cannot be upon the canvas for there are only colors stripped of spirit. Then is it in Capesius? But why can I not see it in him? Thomasius, what you have painted itself destroys itself the moment that the eye would grasp it. I cannot understand whereto this picture s driving me. What is it urging me to grasp? What should I look for? The canvas I would like to break through it to find what I should look for. And where do I take hold of what this picture rays out into my soul? Oh, I have to have it! I am a man bereft of reason. It seems that ghosts are tricking me. A ghost that is invisible and in my weakness I cannot discover it. Thomasus, you are painting ghosts, into your pictures you have conjured them. They lure us on to seek them but will not let themselves be found. O cruel are your pictures. (Scene 8, Portal) From these two events we see how Strader suffers when he cannot make sense of his experiences using the natural scientific framework, which he has adopted as a worldview. The consequence of his doubt and suffering culminates in Scene 4 of the Soul s Probation. In that scene Strader visits Capesius whom he has not seen in some time. Capesius is astonished at what has become of Strader: he has foresworn all further research and has taken a job as the manager of a screw factory. As the conversation unfolds Strader explains that by reasoning alone he has reached the truth of repeated earth lives and karma. But this gives him no satisfaction for it implies that his higher being has chosen a lonely existence as he was born an orphan and was thus lonely before he had any free will at all. Strader concludes that there is nothing for him but to await another life, burying himself in the machinery of life for the remainder of this sad incarnation. Capesius departs saying that he cannot believe that the Strader he knew could long remain in such a despondent state. by Stephen E. Usher 6

Parenthetically, it should be observed that Strader appears in a number of scenes in the first two plays where his earthly consciousness has no awareness of what transpired. This is the case with the Sun Temple at the end of the first play, where he speaks of being lost in doubt and where Theadora declares that he will eventually initiate himself. She perceives these words arise from his heart: I have now conquered for myself the power to reach the light. It is also the case that Strader, unlike the other major characters, does not have a conscious experience of his medieval incarnation during the course of the second play. And he remains unconscious in the Sun Temple at the end of The Soul s Probation where he appears but does not even speak. Over Coming Doubt and Becoming Spiritually Creative: The Guardian of the Threshold In contrast, Strader does have conscious spiritual experiences in the third and fourth plays. In Scene 5 of the Guardian we find Strader visiting the Balde cottage. He is in mourning at the loss of his beloved wife Theodora when her soul approaches. After Capesius and Felix explain what her soul is communicating, Strader is also able to communicate with her. His relation to Theodora is, of course, highly significant. The two form a working male-female polarity, which apparently has significance in the process of spiritual development. The other polar pairs in the Mystery Drama are Maria and Johannes on the one hand, and on the other Capesius and Felicia. The polarity between Strader and Theodora is striking as her clairvoyance has a mediumistic quality i.e. behind the times while Strader has a very clear modern consciousness. Scene 5 of the Guardian reveals the occult reason behind the death of Theodora; we also hear her soul, speaking in the spirit, explaining what Strader is intended to achieve. Theodora died owing to the occult machinations of Lucifer who grafted the etheric body of Theodora onto Johannes that thus became associated with the Double of Johannes. This deed of Lucifer brought about Johannes insane attraction to Theodora. i From the soul of Theodora speaking from yonder side of the threshold of death we learn that, Thomasus will be turned with certainty away from evil paths, if Strader gives himself to aims that in future can change all human knowledge in a spiritual way to bring it closer to the knowledge of the gods. Failing which, the occult knowledge of Johannes will pass into the hands of Lucifer. It seems fair to say that Strader s task is to bring the secrets of the demons to the gods, as described by Ita Wegman in the text quoted earlier. This task is evidently connected with his machine and the societal transformation he hopes it will bring about. In trying to comprehend what Strader is to achieve, it is useful to recall that Steiner studied Hackel s research on evolution and then lifted it to the gods who metamorphosed it and returned it to Steiner who was then able to describe the spiritual course of evolution in the great fourth chapter of his Occult Science. (Rosicrucianism and Modern Initiation, GA 233a, Jan. 13, 1924) Further spiritual experiences of Strader are revealed in Scenes 8 and 9 of The Guardian of the Threshold, the Ahriman Kingdom (Scene 8) and the conversation between Strader by Stephen E. Usher 7

and Benedictus (Scene 9). During the conversation, Strader is able to recall his experience in Ahriman s kingdom where he witnessed Ahriman commenting on 12 souls. This allows him to remember his medieval incarnation and his relation to the 12 during that time. Through these recollections Strader comes to insight concerning Ahriman s aspirations, i.e. to use the forces connecting him with the 12 to achieve an Ahrimanic plan. He also becomes conscious of certain laws of the threshold, namely that the way of thinking in Ahriman s kingdom cannot be used in earthly affairs. The last scene of The Guardian of the Threshold, the Earthly Temple, shows Strader replacing Trautman (called Romanus in the other plays) as the Guardian of the West. Trautman explains why Strader had to step into Ahriman s kingdom, a realm that brings all thinking to a standstill. An analogy is developed around the picture of hammer and anvil. As the anvil offers resistance to the hammer, so Ahriman offers resistance to thinking in the form of doubt, so that by working through the doubt the thinking is strengthened, enabling higher awareness. This scene also illustrates how the polar working of Strader and Theodora made Strader s advancement possible. Through the seven years of marriage to the clairvoyant, Strader was blessed with awareness of higher realms. From yonder side of the Threshold, Theodora speaks the words: Because your strength was striving toward my light, I was allowed to gain the light for you as soon as your right time had been fulfilled. In connection with his developing capacity, Strader makes certain discoveries regarding new forms of energy that he hopes will improve the life of humanity. This is first described in Scene 1 of the Guardian where Strader explains how by chance he found a way to harmonize forces so that a new type of power would be available. He envisions a world where each person performs economic work in a house suited to his own needs. Apparently this is to be made possible by a simple device attached to each home which would generate all the power needed thus a totally decentralized and apparently free source of energy, the so called Strader machine. Envisioning the future in this manner is a sign of social consciousness. Strader, unlike the other characters, concerns himself with the practical affairs of humanity. He asks the great question: How can spiritual insights be channeled to practical use on earth? Note that his social consciousness is already exhibited when he manages the screw factory for he is involved, in that activity, in meeting human needs. The Mystic Mood, a Bankruptcy, and the Abyss: The Souls Awakening The theme of spiritual insight taking practical form becomes the theme of the fourth play, The Souls Awakening. The play opens with conversations about a completely new type of business venture, one where spiritual insights are to give direction to the undertaking. But objections arise from the start about the impractical character of such aspirations in conversations driven by the business manager of Hilary s old-line furniture business, which is to be converted into the new venture. by Stephen E. Usher 8

Hilary is turning the business over to the students of Benedictus, and he makes clear why he is not concerned about failure in words that reflect deep esoteric insights about the entire earth evolution: What seems to me of value may go wrong, but even if the world despises it and, on account of that, it falls to pieces, it would at least have been embodied once by souls of men on earth, as an example. In spirit it will work its way in life although it disappears from sense existence. It will contribute part of that great power which in the end must lead to the uniting of spiritual goals and earthly deeds. The science of the spirit confirms this fact. The business manager s objections may be summarized as follows: It is dangerous to mix spiritual experience with practical affairs, because demons encountered in spirit will confound the practical judgment needed for earthly activity. Romanus, a wealthy man successfully engaged in business, gives a nuanced interpretation of the risks. The problem arises when the soul permeated with the Temple s mystic mood is disturbed by earthly reasoning. Romanus explains to the manager that when he leaves the temple for practical life his reason sweeps aside the mystic mood. None-the-less the mood rests in his unconscious depths and indirectly influences his earthly work, but the mood is kept well apart from earthly reasoning. (Scene 4) In defense of Strader, Romanus explains that Strader has not progressed too far on the mystic path, and consequently the good nature demons that guide those who stand as yet outside the spirit realms have not left Strader s side. In contrast Capesius and Johannes have progressed further and have made compacts with questionable nature demons to serve their personal mood and way of spirit. Consequently their involvement with the business venture could prove disastrous. For this reason Romanus offers to back Strader if the others are not involved. As things work out both Capesius and Johannes withdraw from the venture, because they sense the need to shelter their intensifying mystic mood form the harsh light of practical life. Felix also deeply involved in mysticism expresses the mystic s need for solitude and isolation from practical life in these words (Scene 3): To strive for nothing wait in peaceful stillness, one s inmost being filled with expectation that is the mystic mood when waked in us, it leads our inmost soul to realms of light. Our outer work cannot endure this mood. If you through mysticism strive for this your own delusion will destroy your life. The withdrawal of Capesius and Johannes from the venture is, in fact, a necessity of their current state of esoteric development, and Benedictus explains this to Strader. Further owing to her deep karmic connection with Johannes, Maria also must withdraw so she can assist him in his next steps. (Scene 4) by Stephen E. Usher 9

Unwilling to proceed without the other students of Benedictus, Strader faces a life crisis: his aims and plans have been taken from him. He now confronts the Abyss of being which opens before his spiritual gaze. These events unfold in Scenes 3 and 4 of The Souls Awakening. Strader experiences the Abyss after Felix and Capesius have expressed their views concerning the mystic mood, but prior to Benedictus confirming the withdrawal of Capesius, Johannes, and Maria from the business venture. The Abyss experience unfolds with Strader describing what he beholds on the one hand, and on the other hand, with the appearance of Benedictus, Maria and Ahriman as thought forms that interpret what Strader beholds. Ahriman s comments are always cynical attempts to confound what the thought forms of Maria and Benedictus convey. Benedictus as thought form explains that help is approaching Strader for pains of doubt that age-long secrets of Strader s inner life weigh upon his earthly thinking. Could this doubt be linked to a past incarnation when Strader was entangled with the black arts? Benedictus says, Give to your dreams the life which I can offer while bound to you in spirit, but transform to dream existence what your thinking can draw forth for you from sense experience. Capesius and Felix banish you out of the spirit light that they behold. They make a gulf between themselves and you. Do not complain that they have done this thing, but look into your abyss. (Scene 3) This advice from Benedictus seems to point to a fact of modern consciousness, namely that it is highly intellectual, which is particularly true of Strader. Bendictus is urging Strader to put his contemporary intellect to sleep and to awake a deeper kind of experience, a listening or beholding, that does not permeate the content with intellectual reflection. ii When Strader peers into the Abyss he beholds a battle among dark phantoms. Then a redwinged form detaches itself and rises out of the Abyss. Maria, as thought form, speaks words highly critical of Strader. She suggests that his thirst for creativity is actually the way he hides from his true being. She accuses him of being cowardly and of raying out confusing darkness instead of the light he is capable of producing. In consequence of these moral failures he is incapable of understanding the high order in world evolution occupied by the being that arose as colored form out of the Abyss. Benedictus directs Strader s clairvoyant gaze to the battle Felix and Capesius wage against colored shadow beings in order to maintain and protect their mystical experiences. Maria then points to the weapons forged by Felix and Capesius to fight these shadow demons, observing that such weapons would not work for Strader. Because he is attempting to mightily turn his spirit-being, matured for deeds, to earthly activity he needs to forge a different kind of weapon. As a result of all that transpired in Strader s development and apparently in the development of the other main characters Benedictus is able to achieve new insight concerning Strader s destiny. Near the end of Scene 4 in The Souls Awakening, by Stephen E. Usher 10

Benedictus explains that he saw Strader joined to special beings who cannot yet come to earthly manifestation lest they cause evil. He says, [Y]et now they live as seeds in certain souls to ripen for earth in future times That they are unknown to [Strader is for his] own good. But as of now, for them the road is barred which leads them into realms of earthly matter. These evidently are the beings of which Maria as thought form spoke when she told Strader that because he rayed out darkness he was prevented from seeing the high order of the color forms he beheld rising out of the Abyss. It should be noted that these beings are referenced in Scene 5 The Sun Sphere where Luna, speaking to Simon s (Strader s) soul says: The pond rous substance formed from weightiness I ll hide from you within your next sense-body That you, in thinking, turn it not to evil And thus unleash a storm in earth existence. While speaking of the Sun Sphere, it is worth noting a theme that is an aside from the one about Strader s Abyss. This concerns the great fact that in the afterlife souls are endowed with new capacities for their coming incarnations. In this case Strader endows Capesius with the capacity to become a historian. Philia says to Capesius in the Sun Scene: The picture of the one akin to you [i.e. Strader] will plant the roots of thought through Saturn s power into your own soul sheathes. They will reveal for you the meaning of life s course on earth when once again this star is carrying you. (This interpretation from Collion s 1949 commentary on the Mystery Dramas.) Returning to Strader s Abyss experience, let us consider what Rudolf Steiner has to say about it in The Secrets of the Threshold, the cycle given at the time of the premiere of The Souls Awakening at the great 1913 Munich conference. It would take too long to describe what he says there in detail, but a brief synopsis is possible. There are three realms of consciousness immediately above the plane of the senses and the intellect bound to it, i.e. the normal earthly consciousness. The first is the elemental world, which bears some similarity to the sense world. It is a world lacking any fixed forms, where everything is in constant metamorphosis. This world manifests not in color, sound etc., but rather in a palette of sympathy and antipathy that has become objectified. We know beings there by merging with them and feeling their particular palette of sympathy and antipathy well up within ourselves. To experience the elemental world we leave our physical body and consciously live in our etheric body. Above the elemental world is the Spirit World proper. It is totally unlike the sense world. To enter it we leave our etheric body and live within our astral body. In that world the by Stephen E. Usher 11

soul finds itself to be a thought in spiritual conversation with other thought beings. It is there we come to a truly objectified meeting with the three soul forces. Above the Spirit World is what Steiner describes as the Super-Spiritual World. To enter there means to leave the astral body behind and live in the soul and ego. To enter the Super-Spiritual world requires crossing the Abyss. The crossing requires a great act of will and courage: the soul must erase all memory of itself, i.e. delete the biography. Then the soul finds itself coming face-to-face with the true ego, no longer veiled by the lower sheaths. In Secrets of the Threshold Steiner explains that Strader actually approaches this Abyss and has a partially conscious experience of the Super-Spiritual World. The other major characters Maria, Johannes, and Capesius do not cross the Abyss but they do achieve full objective consciousness in the Spirit World. This is revealed in the scenes after the Egyptian incarnation scenes when they each meet, for the first time in full consciousness, one or more of their Soul Forces. Strader does not achieve that, but none-the-less he achieves a hint of the even higher realm. In the later scenes of The Souls Awakening, Strader dies. Collison in his 1949 Commentaries suggests that Strader s etheric body is collapsing in consequence of his prior association with black magic and he dies as a result. Steiner never hints at this, and, indeed, explains (Sept. 24, 1924) that Strader could have lived longer. But around the time of the writing of the fourth play, Spicker, the model, died. Steiner explained that he took a great interest in the progress of Spicker s soul in the afterlife, and this made it impossible for him to develop further the character of Strader. In the latter part of The Souls Awakening, Strader s pending death is prefigured in a number of experiences. His Abyss experience is continued with his vision of the two ships. He receives encouragement from Benedictus who explains the terrible accusation of cowardice in these words: For cowardice indeed is for your soul what would be bravery in lesser souls. As we progress, what formerly was courage turns into cowardice that must be conquered. (Scene 11) While the encouragement comforts Strader s soul he also realizes that his field of action has been torn away and he sees nothing left but life bereft of air that could sustain it. Moreover, he observes, concerning his quest for new forces: I can well perceive how what I m trying to unchain as force can also turn destructively on me. These difficulties, pointing toward his death, are augmented by Ahriman s machinations. In Scene 12, we see him inspiring Ferdinand Fox with a clever but false critique of Strader s theory that shows it is not simply a matter of the time not being ripe for the invention, but rather that there is an error in Strader s thinking. Fox unleashes the critique on Strader with devastating effect. Then in Scene 13, Romanus has a clairvoyant experience of Strader at the side of the Guardian, which probably signals the moment of Strader s death. by Stephen E. Usher 12

Also in Scene 13, we hear Capesius describe a spiritual experience of Strader giving reply to the idea of the mystic mood as portrayed earlier by Felix. This reply turns Felix s conception on its head: The [mystic] mood comes often in our quiet hours, in heat of action too, but then it wants the soul not to withdraw through loss of thought from gently viewing spirit happenings. We cannot hope to find the spirit world by trying to unlock it through mere seeking. Truth does not sound within the soul who through the years has only sought a mood. This reversal of Felix s conception indicates that Strader had broken through to deeper understanding by the time of his death; he enters the spiritual world a triumphant soul who has rectified his difficult karma. What Ahriman Had to Say about Strader Ahriman s comments regarding Strader are instructive. In Scene 12 of The Souls Awakening Ahriman s kingdom in the sixth sub-ring of the earth s interior Ahriman explains his plan to shake Strader s confidence in his own thinking, which he accomplishes through the clever but false ideas he inspires into Ferdinand Fox. iii Ahriman believes this will separate Strader from Benedictus and thereby damage Benedictus. More specifically, Ahriman explains that Benedictus would be unable to use Strader as the vanguard of the great effort to bring real spiritual knowledge to practical expression on earth. It is worth noting that Rudolf Steiner managed to bring spiritual knowledge to practical life, usually with the help of key individuals who asked the critical questions and helped him implement the spiritual insights. Thus, for example, Emil Molt asked the question concerning Waldorf education and established the first school on the grounds of his factory as a school for the workers children. Ita Wegman asked the questions leading to Anthroposophically extended medicine, and collaborated with Steiner in bringing it about. Biodynamics was brought into the world through the help of Count Keyserlingk at whose estate the Biodynamic conference took place in 1924. Count Lerchenfeld asked the critical question that led to the first formulation of the Threefold idea as expressed in the Memorandum of 1917. Marie Steiner asked Rudolf Steiner to speak about esoteric Christianity. Strader, in his own way, was providing the impetus for a new form of energy that arose out of spiritual forces that interacted with natural forces. It was intended that this new source of energy would play a crucial role in the business undertaking. The idea was that workers could work out of their own homes, powered with free energy devices, and create furniture tailored to each customer s tastes and preferences. But through the tragic by Stephen E. Usher 13

events, the cooperation among the students of Benedictus failed, and Strader is left alone unable to proceed. Ahriman observes in Scene 12 that, without Strader, Benedictus would have to rely on himself alone and on his own plans, [but] these says Ahriman, are far from pleasant for the people. This is a very interesting comment. To give some indication of the sort of thing Ahriman might have had in mind, consider that a true implementation of the Threefold Social Organism would do away with all class distinction. This is something that many people do not want, as they take egotistical pleasure in feeling superior to others. Much more could be said about how present humanity would chafe at the requirements of a true Threefold Social Organism, but time does not permit exploration of this theme. At the end of Scene 12 (Ahriman s Kingdom), Theodora appears and makes clear that she will always stand beside Strader. Ahriman in despair states that his only hope is that Strader will forget Theodora, for otherwise his plan to damage Benedictus will be foiled. So we see there is more supporting Strader than confidence in his own thinking. The working occult polarity between Strader and Theodora is also there, and Ahriman s hope that Strader will forget this is in vain. Ahriman s machinations to damage Benedictus are acted out at the very end of the last scene where Ahriman stealthy approaching Benedictus in spirit. Remarkably, Benedictus does not immediately recognize him, and this is evidently the result of the attack on Strader. This moment of failure of recognition offers Ahriman the opportunity he has worked toward. But it is in vain, for the powers of the Strader-Theodora bond are not broken. Benedictus finally recognizes who is at his side, and Ahriman is forced to flee. Then Benedictus speaks the remarkable words concerning the future redemption of Ahriman! This will come about when Ahriman finds his true reflection in human thinking. Benedictus ends the play crediting Strader with this great victory over Ahriman: But you, O soul of Strader, sun-imbued who through the strengthening of your spirit powers have driven error s envoy into flight, you shall as spirit-star shine on your friends. Your light shall in future penetrate into Maria s and Johannes lives. Through you they will be able to prepare themselves with greater strength for spirit deeds. And they will prove endowed with power of thought, revealing inner light at such times, too, when fierce, dark Ahriman, suppressing wisdom, attempts to spread chaos gloomy night across their full-awakened spirit vision. The Riddle We can imagine in the next Saturn time, after the present life, Johannes, Capesius, and Maria will receive new forces of thought through Strader, just as Capesius received the power to become a historian in the previous Saturn time. by Stephen E. Usher 14

And we can really wonder about this astonishing destiny of Strader. Why is it that a soul previously associated with black magic should be the one who on the one hand has the impulse to bring spirit knowledge into practical affairs and on the other can create the power for his fellows thinking power to advance? After all, the other students of Benedictus, who are further along the occult path than Strader, must abandon the path bringing spiritual impulses right into practical life in order to cultivate the mystic mood. We understand that only later, after Strader paves the way, can the others become involved more deeply in earthly matter. A partial answer can be found in the comments regarding Maria s fall during the Egyptian Incarnation: from each fall [the] soul must draw forth new wisdom. Steiner amplifies this thought in a comment he made about the soul of Emperor Nero who fiddled while Rome burned, and who did many other terrible things in his Nero incarnation. Then, in a 19 th -century incarnation, as Crown Prince Rudolf of the Austro- Hungarian Empire, he commits suicide. Of him Steiner states that Earth evolution still has much to expect meant in a positive sense from the Nero soul! (Karmic Relationships Vol. II, GA 236, April 27, 1924) So we see mysterious preparations for a positive future emerging from terrible happenings of the past. This theme is too vast to treat here in any detail, but a couple of insights might prove helpful. In the Light Course, Steiner speaks of the nature not only of light but also of darkness. He observes that darkness is normally visualized as a space totally devoid of any illumination such as the interior of a deep cave. But he points out that there is a deeper darkness that we can experience if a heavy weight is placed on us, indeed, so heavy that we lose consciousness. From this he concludes that matter is an intensification of darkness; it is darker than dark! Now black magic is dark and those who become entangled with it, perhaps, enter matter more deeply than others. And it is a very risky process to go in that direction, for the soul can easily fail to emerge; can commit the great sin of merging with complete egotism and ultimately destroy itself or rather place itself among those who separate off from Earth evolution in an irredeemable moon at the time of the Future Venus evolution which moves toward an evolution, for the character of which no expression can be found because it is too dissimilar to anything that man can experience on earth. (Occult Science, Chapter 6) But apparently those who fall, and then ascend again as Strader is doing in the course of the plays, gain special powers from the experience. But note that no one should intentionally take such a fall. Might such a fall and resurrection be connected with the act of wresting the secrets from the demons and bringing them to the gods! Perhaps these thoughts give some hint about the mystery of Strader. And recall too, that Steiner said of Spicker, that his thoughts were all the more acute during his earthly life owing to the darkness of his consciousness in the prior afterlife. Moreover, many of the brilliant intellectuals of our era had a previous incarnation associated with black magic. With this brilliant thought they become materialistic scientists among other things and penetrate the secrets of the demons. The great question, it would seem, is how this is to be redeemed and led to a greater good. In a way the issue mirrors the destiny of man by Stephen E. Usher 15

himself, who in order to become free had first to fall from Paradise into matter through Original Sin. All of this has the signature of the great Manichian Mysteries, the mysteries of the son of the widow. The Strader Machine Strader s machine first appears in the third drama, The Guardian of the Threshold, where Strader speaks of its potential for transforming the economic life of humanity. The machine is what is called a free-energy device; something deemed an impossibility by establishment science, as it violates a principle of thermodynamics. A stage prop for the machine, designed by Steiner, appeared in the third play, but the prop was apparently lost in the Goetheanum fire. Pictures of the device and a diagram created by Steiner survive. (Free Energy Pioneer: John Worrell Keely, Theo Paijmans, 1998.) The free energy pioneer, John Worrell Keely (1837-98) was an American inventor about whom Steiner lectured on a number of occasions. Keely invented a whole series of so called Keely motors, that purported to be free energy devices, meaning that they produced more output energy than was required to run them. The machine worked on an intricate method of sound energy where resonant frequencies were combined. Keely caught the eye of wealthy American investors including John Jacob Astor, and the Keely Motor Company was floated on the New York Stock Exchange, where it publicly traded for many years. The history of the company is quite strange. Keely was always on the verge of launching a commercially viable motor, but consistently failed to do so. The investors threatened to pull the plug on a number of occasions. Each time Keely invited them to his laboratory to demonstrate yet another version of the motor. The investors would leave convinced again of the marvel. But eventually the plug was pulled and Keely accused of fraud. Steiner argues that Keely was not a fraud, but that the machine actually required that Keely be present for it to run! More generally Steiner spoke of a future technology connected with what he labeled mechanical occultism. He claimed the energy that would drive the technology was known to Secret Societies of the West and that it was to be hoped that it not come into use before civilization had achieved a high level of moral development, for otherwise its impact would be devastating. Steiner stated: Every knowledgeable member of these secret circles is aware that solely by means of certain capacities which are latent in man but are still evolving, and with the law of harmonious vibrations, machines and mechanical constructions can be set in motion. You will find a small indication of this in what I connected with the figure of Strader in my Mystery Plays. The capacity to set motors in motion according to the law of interacting vibrations will develop on a considerable scale among the English-Speaking peoples. (Quoted from Georg Unger, On Mechanical Occultism [http://www.rsarchive.org/relauthors/ungergeorge/mchocc_index.php], and indirectly from Steiner s lecture of Dec. 8, 1918, The Challenge of the Times, GA 186.) by Stephen E. Usher 16

In Karma of Vocation (GA 172, particularly Nov. 12, 1916) Steiner develops a theme that at first might seem remote from the Keely motor, but is in fact related. There he describes a transformation that has come about in the vocational or economic life of humanity since the time of the systematic division of labor. In a word, vocational activity has become boring! Steiner contrasts the work of a medieval shoemaker, for example, to the modern worker. The old guild shoemaker related to his product in a way similar to a work of art. He met with the individual customer, measured his foot, and discussed what the man wanted. Then the shoemaker assembled the components and crafted the shoe. At the end of the process he had the pleasure of presenting it to the individual customer. In contrast, the modern worker in a factory does a tiny component of the work. For example, a laborer in a shoe factory might only apply glue to certain parts. He would do this hundreds of times a day, very efficiently. Such a worker has no artistic experience; his task is all about efficiency. Consequently, explains Steiner, the modern worker makes a sacrifice, laboring at a boring task for hours each day to meet the needs of others. Steiner s spiritual scientific research about this transformation of work leads to the discovery that this sacrifice creates a new class of elemental beings, elementals of the 4th degree. The quality of these beings will depend on the moral and ethical environment of the workplace and the environment in which it is embedded. What is most significant is that these beings have a connection to the powers that drive the Keely motor. It is not without significance that Strader spends part of his life directing a screw factory, which surely was a boring task, but one that met a social need. So Strader has busied himself in those modern processes that lead to the deeper source of forces for the new machines. Only after these experiences does his spiritual research achieve insights regarding the use of these forces. As life imitates art, like Strader several of Steiner s personal students, under Steiner s guidance, explored the forces that are destined to drive the Keely motor. These were Waschmuth, Pfeiffer, and Schiller. The report I read explained that the three would conduct an experiment and report the finding to Steiner. Each time, after listening to what occurred, Steiner stated approximately: This is an astral phenomena and not the etheric phenomena we are looking for; this shows the gods are not ready to release the knowledge. In the 80s I had a conversation with Schiller about these matters. The poor man, not unlike Strader, was depressed at all the effort he had applied without success. Steiner told Pfeiffer that these forces could manifest in sound energy, in chemical energy, and in electrical type systems. Holding a Ph.D. in chemistry, Pfeiffer pursued these ideas along the chemical route and discovered his Sensitive Crystallization technique designed to manifest etheric forces. Though he failed to find the Keely force he did achieve something of interest. Briefly he created solutions of copper chloride (CuCl2) and then introduced living substances into the solution as it crystallized. The crystallized solution created a kind of picture that could be read. For example, crystal pictures by Stephen E. Usher 17