Spirits rayed light thereon from lofty worlds; Like shining butterflies there hovered near The beings who attend its active life; The body by these beings bathed in light Reflected sparkling colours manifold; They shone close by, grew fainter further off, And then were scattered and dispersed in space. Within the being of my spirit soul There lurked the wish that weight of earth should sink Me down into my sheath, that I might feel And learn the sense of joy within life's warmth. So, diving gladly down into my sheath, I heeded thy stern summons to awake. THE CHIEF HIEROPHANT (himself alarmed, to the alarmed mystics): This is no spirit-vision; earth's desires Escaped the mystic and as offering rose To radiant spirit-heights;--O sacrilege! THE RECORDER (angrily to the Hierophant): This could not have occurred, hadst thou performed The office granted thee as hierophant As ancient holy duty did demand. THE HIEROPHANT: I did the duty in this solemn hour Which those from higher realms did lay on me. I did not think that which it is my place To think, according to the ritual, And which, proceeding from me, should appear In spirit-working in the neophyte. The young man therefore hath declared to us None other's thoughts but his own being's self. The truth hath conquered. Ye may punish me; I had to do what ye perceived with fear. I feel the times approach which will set free The ego from the group-soul and let loose Its own true individual powers of thought. What if the youth escapes your mystic path At present?--Later lives on earth will show With clearest signs the kind of mystic way Which destiny hath foreordained for him. THE MYSTICS: O sacrilege;--thou must atone--and pay-- (The sphinxes begin to speak one after the other as Ahriman and Lucifer; hitherto they have been as motionless as statues; what they say is heard only by the hierophant, the chief hierophant, and the neophyte;--the others are full of excitement over the preceding events.) AHRIMAN AS SPHINX: For my realm I must lay my hands upon What here doth wrongly seek the way to light, And in the darkness further foster it; That it may bring forth spirit-qualities Which later on will let it weave itself With rightful meaning into human life. But till it gains these spirit-qualities, What in this holy service did appear As earthly burden, this will serve my work. LUCIFER AS SPHINX: For my realm I shall bear away the things That joy as spirit-wish in semblance here; They'll gladly shine as semblance in the light And thus in spirit dedicate themselves To beauty from which they are kept apart At present by the burden of earth's weight. In beauty, semblance into being turns, Which later shall illuminate the earth, Descending as the light which flies from here.