Trafford Publishing: The Third Mystery Drama

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The Third Mystery Drama

by Rudolf Steiner, trans. by J. C. McCulloch; co-published with Modern Spirit Press

132 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-1921; ISBN 1-4120-4114-7; US$17.50, C$19.90, EUR14.50, £10.00

An ethical life today requires we consciously become aware of what our actions mean for others and frankly recognize how we shape our relation to others will work back upon ourselves.

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About the Book About the Author Excerpts Catalogue Information

About the Book

The four Mystery Dramas were created, produced and printed one each year, one after the other, from 1910-1913. They took place in different theatres in Munich but always in the month of August. The writing of the dramas, the creating of the scenery, the making of the costumes, the learning of roles, the general directing, the organization of the printing and all the other inummerable things connected with such a major production happened within a matter of weeks before the main performance. There was a literal whirlwind of activity, and it is reported that often the scenes were written during the night before a scheduled rehearsal, and that at five or six in the morning a boy would come from the press to pick up the manuscript for the printing of the scene for that day's rehearsal.
All this activity centered around Rudolf Steiner who gave directions or advice on every aspect of the production down to the smallest details. He not only wrote the dramas themselves, but also indicated how such soul and spiritual pictures could be presented and played on stage.
A fifth drama was also planned, which was to include scenes from Ancient Greece and its mystery centers, but the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 meant that it had to be postponed. Rudolf Steiner's early death in 1925 resulted in it never coming to production, nor ever being written down.
The Third Mystery Drama
The Third Mystery Drama brings the First and Second to a conclusion in certain respects, and the original viewers saw them as a trilogy. The first steps into an actual seeing of one's Karma were presented in the Second Drama, and now the integration of what was seen has to be brought about. For indeed, seeing into the spiritual world is not like seeing a landscape – where it is clearly before one's eyes; rather it is more like seeing into a microscope or space telescope, totally new things appear which one does not know how to categorize or in the case of the spiritual world, to find a relation to. Not only outer visible aspects have to be integrated though, also new feelings, but especially new moral attitudes have to be integrated. This is often difficult.
We, as personalities, are imbedded in the thoughts and feelings and experiences we have had; if we were suddenly confronted with some of these that are ours but that we have never had in this life, it is not surprising that we would feel strange and confused. Essentially, to be 'full' human beings, we will eventually have to integrate all thoughts, feelings and experiences possible for us as human beings. This will be an actual growing of the our soul and will allow us to integrate ourselves into the spiritual world, for the spiritual world is a 'full' world.
Through conscientuous hard work, Johannes has created a new book about spiritual knowledge, but just because of this, his own spiritual knowledge has grown and he can now encouter another side of himself he had not recognized previously. This knowledge now warns him what he is about to do is incorrect, so he turns away from the success he might have had giving out the book. Just this lets him then see what he really lacks in terms of spiritual insight and where this does actually lie for him. So he seeks Theodora's light. That seeking in turn, with Maria's help, brings him to the discovery of his own light.
Strader experiences the powerful illuminating nature of Theodora's light directly, and it changes his whole life. But then through the loss of of that light, after something new has been established within him, it causes him to seek help Johannes, following Benedictus's guidance. This in turn brings him into a direct experience of the strongest side of his own inner nature and what he has actually developed in his previous lives and this one. Such an insight gives him at the end, his own inner self-confidence in what he has to contribute to the others, to mankind.
For Capsesius, the shock of his moral failure and guilt from a past life was more than he could integrate into his present life. But the sojourn in the spiritual world also was a growing one for him, and he experienced much more there which had a bearing on his own Karma. Thus, by being able to come to Stader's help, he helps Theodora where one part of his Karmic debt lies. Then by accepting the help of Maria and becoming aware of the real nature of certain parts of himself, he actually allows her to make spiritual progress which she can use to help Johannes, where another part of his Karmic debt lies.
The Karmic knot that binds these individuals together can be brought to a higher stage of development, a stage where these individuals are prepare to help each other to help themselves and humanity, and where a social work may be undertaken which will also be in harmony with the spiritual forces in the world.

About the Author

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was born of German parents in eastern Austria at the time of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. His father was a station master on one of the new railways and Rudolf Steiner's education was oriented towards engineering and scientific subjects.
At the age of about seven, he reports having had a spiritual encounter in the middle of the day with a relative who asked for his future help. He found out later that she had died at that moment by her own hand.
Steiner had a strong personal interest in philosophical questions and, studying in Vienna at the university, in 1883 obtained his doctorate in philosophy on the subject of theory of knowledge.
Closely tied to his philosophical and scientific studies was his interest in Goethe, the Shakespeare of German culture. After graduating, Steiner obtained the commision to help prepare Goethe's scientific papers for publication within the complete works of Goethe. In 1889 he took up residence in Weimar and lived there while working at the Goethe Archives. He remained there until the publication of his fifth and last volume of Goethe's scientific works in 1897. In addition, in 1893 Steiner published his own first book, and the foundation of all his future work, entitled 'The Philosophy of Freedom'.
In the summer of 1897 Steiner moved to Berlin where he married Anne Eunike (died 1911) soon afterwards and, having obtained "The Magazine for Literature", he edited and gave it out until it closed in September 1900. In 1899 he began, and continued for several years, to give lectures on culture and history at the College of the Workers' Educational Association in Berlin.
Steiner reports that in about 1899 he had another major spiritual experience which enlightened his relationship to Christ and Christianity. Following this, he was asked by Marie von Sivers if there could not be a unifying of traditonal eastern spirituality with the modern western conception of Christianity. He saw it as his task to attempt to achieve this, and thus in 1902, when asked he took up the leadership of the German section of the Theosophical Society, which was then headquartered in London and under the general leadership of Annie Besant. He lectured and worked unceasingly with Marie von Sivers, with whose help the production of the Four Mystery Dramas was brought about from 1910-1913.
Differences with Annie Besant led to the establishing of the Anthroposophical Sociey in 1913. In 1913 he married Marie von Sivers, and through a donation of land they and the headquarters of the Anthroposophical Society moved to Dornach, Switzerland. Their activities were severely restricted by the outbreak of the First World War, but in Dornach they began to build out of wood a large specially designed temple as a center and a theatre for the Mystery Dramas.
After the war, Steiner attempted to give practical impulses to the then shattered social life, but these were only haltingly taken up. The temple, The Goetheanum, was burned down by arson on December 31, 1922, but was rebuilt a few years later in concrete. After apparently suffering from poisoning at the end of 1923, Steiner was weakened and subsequently died in 1925. His life's work encompasses about 50 books and over 6000 lectures and numerous artistic and social impulses.

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