I follow thee, dear sister of my soul, My Philia, who dost weave love from star To star and from one spirit to the next. I follow thee aloft to starry worlds, I take thy words to many cosmic spheres, And thus by spirit-work build up myself For mine own future wanderings on earth. (Felix Balde's soul disappears slowly, led by Dame Balde's soul; Theodora stands motionless looking at Johannes' soul, then she also disappears, as does Lucifer with the soul of Johannes.) ROMANUS' SOUL: That which we just have witnessed in this place, How love's word works with the creative word In closest union, doth arouse in us Germs we shall need in future lives on earth. (The souls of Romanus, Torquatus, and Bellicosus disappear--Benedictus' soul and Maria's soul appear by the side of the Guardian of the Threshold, who now enters.) THE GUARDIAN: Behold the cosmic midnight of yourselves! I hold you 'neath the spell of ripened light Which pours on you from Saturn, till your sheaths, More strongly waking through this same light's power Become self-luminous, with living hues. MARIA'S SOUL: Doth cosmic midnight come when souls awake? It was the moon-time, when the sun declared The earnest word of Fate, that human souls, Who see their cosmic midnight hour awake, See lightnings, which with instantaneous flash Light up the things that are to be, but pass Again so quickly that the spirit-sight Dies at the very moment of its birth-- And death becomes a seal of destiny For ever stamped upon the souls who saw. Such souls hear too the words of thunder clear Which dully roll through cosmic fundaments And threaten soul-illusion as they roll. (Lucifer reappears with the Soul of Johannes.) BENEDICTUS' SOUL: From ever empty fields of ice fate's cry Doth reach to us from our dear mystic friend. When we the cosmic midnight can perceive, We reach the spirit-circle of the soul. MARIA'S SOUL: The flames draw nigh, they draw nigh with my thought There from my distant cosmic shore of souls; A fierce strife doth draw nigh;--'tis mine own thought Which battles with the thoughts of Lucifer;-- Mine own thought battles in another's soul,-- The hot light issues--out of gloomy cold-- Like lightning flashes. Is this hot soul-light-- This soul-light--in the cosmic fields of ice? LUCIFER: The light thou seest--'tis my hot cosmic light-- See too the lightning flashes of thy thought Strike from the bounds of Lucifer's domain. I bring within the focus of thy gaze The soul so long and closely bound to thee When thou dost feel thy cosmic midnight hour. Henceforth thy search must find another way To come into communion with this soul. O soul, who to this place hast followed me, Display and use the forces of the light Which Saturn on her cosmic midnight pours. JOHANNES' SOUL: