Parsifal

Parsifal - or also in German Parzival - refers to

• a historical figure that really existed (incarnation of Mani)
• a legend story told, with various copies from the 13th century but also artworks such as the opera by Richard Wagner (see below)
• the name given to all candidates mature enough for initiation
  • all pupils of the great initiate Titural were called Parsifal: everyone mature enough for initiation, to receive the secret of the Holy Grail: a Parsifal had to have freed himself from all influences that would pull him down through exercises (this is described in 1909-08-27-GA266/1, see Schema FMC00.394 below)
  • Parsifal (or Perceval, “pass through the vale”) was the name given in medieval times to all such candidates for initiation into the Mysteries. A 'Parsifal' had to undergo three stages in inner experience. The first stage was known as 'dumbness', the second `doubt, the third 'godliness'.

• but most importantly in spiritual science: an archetype for Man and the initiate in the age of the consciousness soul. The legend story referred to above is deeply symbolic and contains the challenges for Man in this new age. In that respect the Parsifal story is to be positioned together with the stories and streams of Arthur and the Holy Grail. For a broader perspective, see also: Christ Module 6 - Principle in image and story, Schema FMC00.118A and Schema FMC00.114

Aspects

• the Parsifal storyline - see 1914-12-06-GA246 below for link with esoteric meaning
  • main characters
    • Parsifal
      • see also, on earlier incarnation of Mani, coverage on Manicheism#Individuality of Manes or Mani
    • Herzeleide: Parsifal's mother
      • earlier incarnation of Individuality of Julian the Apostate or KRI - Karmic Relationships Individualities#KRI 44: Tycho Brahe - Julian the Apostate
    • Feirefiz: Parsifal's half-brother
• stages in Parsifal's experiences from an esoteric perspective
  • stages are described as:
    • 1/ compassion (also for animals)
    • 2/ rising above desire (without killing desire from outside) or: emancipation from a love dependent on the senses
• Amfortas and Parsifal: astrality's struggle with egoism (1913-03-26-GA145)
• the relation of Parsifal, the Son of Light (Abel), and Feirefis, the Son of Fire (Cain) - re Keyserlinck reference below, and Streams of Abel and Cain
• Parsifal is permeated by the motif of 'Sälde', 'being penetrated by a certain feeling or inner sensation of happiness or bliss'. This arises because the transition from the kidney activity to the liver activity takes place in this period. In the 12-14th century the liver activity becomes most important, whereas before it was the kidney activity .. a change from 'dullness' to 'illumination' (see Spiritual scientific physiology#1922-10-22-GA218)

.

• [2.5] - literature and versions
  • the opera by Richard Wagner (1813-1883): Wagner's inspiration on Good Friday 1857 near Lake Zurich (as referenced by Rudolf Steiner), he worked on the opera in the period 1857-1882
• [2.6] - historical research into people and events
  • Individualities
    • Parsifal as the only incarnation of an important individuality on Earth, Mani or Manes - re Keyserlinck reference below, and Schema FMC00.117 on Bodhisattva
  • location

Inspirational quotes

1914-01-06-GA148

We must learn to ask questions in the spiritual stream. In the materialistic stream everything is designed to stop people from asking questions.

and

Parsifal was therefore not meant to learn of the sacrifice by Christ at Golgotha, nor what the Apostles, the Church fathers and others later taught in different theological streams. He was not meant to know how knights put themselves and their virtues at the service of Christ.

He was meant only to be in touch with the Christ impulse deep down in his soul to the extent that this was possible at the time.

His connection with this would have been clouded if he had learned doctrinal teachings about the Christ. The Christ impulse works less in what people do or say than in the soul’s experience when it is given up wholly to this supersensible influence.

1919-12-06-GA194

we cannot look for any further development of Man from sources outside himself. The impulses for the progress of human evolution must in future be called forth from within; they must proceed from our connection with the spiritual world,

2024-08-20 - Rawn Clark taken from Musings #4 youtube video

we all have to address the ways in which our behavior is shaped and manipulated by external forces

and we have to look at why and who ... these are important questions for the modern human being: who? why? where? when? ask ..

ask questions .. just always ask questions - it's the most powerful thing you can do .. is to question everything

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.116 shows the symbol for Good Friday and Easter: the spiritual sun in the physical sun.

Schema FMC00.114 is an overview table with the key names for the three stories, and the link to the threefold soul (see 1913-02-07-GA144)

See also: Human character - the I and threefold soul

Schema FMC00.380: shows the polarity during the development of Man's I-consciousness, from sentient soul to intellectual soul. Above in the language of the Bhagavad Gita, below in the language of the Grail.

On the right: Man's sentient consciousness in the world, illustrated by the sensory perception and cosmic influences from nature working from outside: in-streaming from without. On the right, Man developing the twelve-foldness from out of his own inner center.

For an explanation see: Enlivened images#1920-05-16-GA201 as well as Human character - the I and threefold soul

Schema FMC00.394 are the illustrations for the elaboration of a feelings based process that a Parsifal candidate initiate was brought to feel with his whole soul experience (see lecture references, p 427-454 in the 2007 EN edition). See the link with the pentagram symbol, and compare with meditation image given a few years later on Schema FMC00.629.

Lecture coverage and references

General

1905-12-03-GA092

note: the below is another translation than the version on rsarchive

We want to look today at the world of medieval legends from the perspective of the theosophical (anthroposophical ) worldview. There are two important legends that are characteristic of the intellectual and spiritual development of Europe in the Middle Ages: the two legends connected with the Grail.

Concerning the deepest truths, the sagas of earlier spoke to the people through myths and legends. If, in those times, one had tried to teach the people living in the regions of Northern and Central Europe the sort of concepts we hear today in the theosophical world view, the people of that period would have got nothing from it. The sagas spoke to every nation and era in a way that nation and era could understand. In doing so, they always took account the law of rebirth and reincarnation.

[Druids]

The sagas who told the peoples of Northern and Central Europe the secrets of the world, were Druids. Druid means "oak". When it is said that the Teutons worshipped "under oak trees", this did not only mean that they worshipped under actual oaks, but also that they were led by Druids. And when it is said that Boniface "cut down the oak tree" this signifies that the old Druid religion was conquered by Christianity.

Note: Winifrid Boniface (Saint Boniface) ca. 675-754 was an Anglo-Saxon Christian missionary to Germanic parts of the Frankish empire. He is said to have cut down the Donar Oak ( Oak of Thor), a sacred tree of the Germanic pagans and by doing this showing the victory of Christianity over pagan religion.

A real truth is related here in legend form: the Druids wove real truths into their legends. All the souls who take up our worldview today were once addressed by a Druid priest. He spoke to them in a way that was suited to those times. All of us who absorb the theosophical worldview have heard the same things before in myths and legends, otherwise we should not understand them at all. This is the secret of the great Masters: they live in the consciousness that they are among people who incarnate again and again.

[the legend]

Throughout the Middle Ages the fundamental truths of Germanic Central European culture lived in great legend. When we get acquainted with this legend, we understand the nature of the Middle Ages. The Druid priests cultivated an awareness that, far in the West, there had once been an advanced civilisation. This civilisation had been in a land called Nifelheim (German Nebel = mist) because of its peculiar atmospheric conditions which were completely different from our own.

This primordial Germanic legend is thus really relating the truth. It points to an ancient primal land (Atlantis) that once existed between Europe and America, where the Atlantic Ocean now is. This very ancient land of Atlantis sank, and with it went treasures of power and wisdom. These treasures are referred to as gold, and their demise is related in the legend as the sinking of the Nibelungs horde of gold. The Nibelung treasure has to be raised up in a new way, awoken, and further towards the East, in Europe.

First Wotan and then Siegfried were the initiates whose task it was to bring back to present-day Europe the ancient treasure, to make fruitful once more, in a certain way, the Nibelung horde for the newer civilisation. The fact that the legend presents us with an initiate Wotan, helps us to look deeply into another very ancient civilisation. The letters W and B correspond to each other. Wotan, Woden is the same as Bodha, Buddha. Wotan is indeed the Germanic form of the word Buddha.

[see: Wotan Impulse]

This brings us to a common origin of the European Wotan religion and the Asiatic Buddha religion. The Buddha religion did not spread so much in India as among the peoples of Asia who still had something of the Atlantean culture in them. The Wotan peoples had also brought their way of seeing things from Atlantean culture. Their further development was expressed in the legends told to them by their Druid priests. The rescuing of the Nibelung treasure — Atlantean culture — is expressed particularly beautifully in Wotan and Siegfried.

In these legends, which can be found from Russia to France and England via Germany, there is a tragic prophetic quality which can be seen everywhere where the Druids taught. This prophecy said: A Twilight of the Gods will come. We are what remains of Atlantean civilisation. We have to die out so that something better can enter. Our initiates are prophets of what is coming . In all those who are initiated in the same way as Siegfried, a definitive quality of tragedy comes to expression.

"The Song of the Nibelungs" contains a very ancient form of initiation: the Nibelungs' distress, the Nibelungs' lament.

[see: Nibelungen]

The very advanced pupils were taught that another would come who would bring spiritual life. The mood of the Twilight of the Gods spread everywhere.

[for twilight of the Gods, see Ragnarok]

All lived with a sense — and the advanced pupils with the certainty — that another would come who would be completely different from their initiates. This was expressed in the legend of Siegfried.

In Scandinavia and Russia they had the Drotte mysteries which corresponded to the Druid mysteries. Drotte is another term for Druid.

[see Druidic and Trotten mysteries]

Everywhere in the old mysteries the name of the original great initiate is Sig. All names that contain "Sig" can be traced back to Sig, like Sigurd, Sigmund, Sieglinde and so on, for example. Siegfried was the initiate who found peace in initiation. "Friede" ( Ger. = peace ) means that which leads people beyond all doubt: it is the satisfaction of a longing, the longing for knowledge, for power. In all the portrayals of him, Siegfried is depicted as being invulnerable.

[see also: Spiritual guidance of mankind#Sig - Wotan]

The Greek initiate Achilles, was vulnerable on one spot, on his heel. After slaying the dragon, Siegfried becomes invulnerable except for a spot between his shoulder blades. This is where the cross is to be borne. This symbol played a profound role in the ancient mysteries. They said there: You are all vulnerable on the place where One will have to carry the cross, the cross-bearer, will be the great initiate who is no longer vulnerable. This gives the Nordic legend its great quality. This wisdom was an apocalyptic wisdom.

All occultists know that this wisdom spreads out from a central oracle-site of twelve initiates, from the so-called White Lodge.

[see: White Lodge]

Wisdom is carried out from there into the world. And never is the situation other than that each individual is aware of his connection with the others. Everywhere there were twelve members of the Lodge.

[for circle of twelve, see also Druidic and Trotten mysteries#Overall - general]

Such too were the Apostles. The consciousness of those who only had intimations, and the wisdom of those who really knew, led back to the Round Table of King Arthur.

[see: Arthur stream]

This is no less than the great White Lodge which, in the Siegfried initiation, related to the people what it had to say to the world. Great initiates were members of the Round Table, which existed up to the time of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Then it closed down for political reasons.

Two very distinct political currents led the consciousness of ordinary people in the Middle Ages back to primal times. Among the Franks, who were fortunate enough to conquer the west of Europe, there was a ruling dynasty which actually traced its origin back to the time of Atlantis. They were called the Wibelungs or Nibelungs, from which the word Ghibelline later arose.

Note: From the time of the Hohenstaufen kaisers (1138 - 1254), this is what the followers of the German kaiser was called, in contrast to the Guelphs, who followed the Pope. The Ghibellines were sympathetic to the Holy Roman Emperors.

Historians are uncertain as to the origin of the name, and opinions differ. This duality contributed to the chronic strife in the cities of northern Italy in the 13th and 14th centuries which was reflected in Dante's "Divine Comedy"

Originally, the assumption of power was derived from what had been brought over from Atlantis. Because it was thought and sensed that a Twilight of the Gods was coming, a certain tragic quality was connected with the ruling dynasty. It was said: Those who want to know can certainly become initiates, but they must be superseded by something else.

[legend of Barbarossa]

This mood was initially expressed in the well-known legend of Barbarossa. Something was then added that is not included in the original legend. Barbarossa was rightly seen as a continuation of the old Frankish rulers. The Hohenstaufen were the Ghibellines, Waiblings, Wibelungs, Nibelungs, in contrast the Welfs, the Guelphs.

The more penetrating tale adds to the well-known Barbarossa legend that Barbarossa brought the Holy Grail from Asia to Europe. As a physical personality, he himself lost his life in the process, and now waits for his time to come. In this is expressed the whole mood of the Middle Ages with regard to the old heathendom and the new Christiandom.

People began to consider their own folk- soul and said: We brought our culture from old Atlantis. But it is destined to perish; Christianity must take its place. But it will rise again purified, cleansed, raised up to Christianity. People began to make a transition from the end of the decline to the beginning of the ascent. People began to regard the course of a deeper Germanic spiritual culture as one whereby the clairvoyant Atlantean consciousness was superseded by something still to come. One had once more to master natural boldness, piety, virtue, but in a new way.

People had three notions, an idea of three definite forces: Wotan (Odin), Villi and Vé (in Norse mythology, Villi and Vé were the brothers of Wotan). Wotan is intuitive power as depicted by the initiate; Villi is the will itself; Vé is the heart (in DE: Gemüt) with a tragic quality, where it becomes apocalyptic. Now a new time was to come. Now, through Christian teaching, a transition was to be made, and one was to ascend again to what had been before the Twilight of the Gods.

[see Schema FMC00.618 and variants]

That Barbarossa is waiting in a mountain indicates that he is an initiate. A "mountain" is the place of initiation. Christ went with his disciples "up into a mountain" — into mysterium. Ravens signify an initiation for Barbarossa.

In Persian initiation ritual a distinction was made between seven levels of initiation. "Raven" means the first level of personal initiation. Ravens indicate the connection that still exists between the initiate and his surroundings. We can think of Elijah's ravens. We also find ravens in relation to Wotan: they transmit his communications to the surrounding world. Thus the initiate Barbarossa also had ravens around him, which maintained his connection with the world.

Barbarosa had brought the Holy Grail from the Orient. This Holy Grail was preserved on Mons Salvationis, the mountain of salvation. It is now surrounded by the successors of King Arthur's Round Table, the twelve knights who received Christian initiation in addition to the old pagan initiation. One who wished to be initiated into the secrets of the Holy Grail became a Christian initiate.

One became a Christian initiate by passing through all forms of doubt, and then finding a firm footing in connection with Christ himself. One thing is necessary for this: direct trust in the figure of Christ. The first disciples laid such particular emphasis on the fact that Christ had been among them. They said: We want to bear witness that we were with him. We touched his wounds with our hands. What we make known is what we have seen and heard ourselves. Paul became an Apostle because he truly saw the Risen One in spirit. What matters is the unmediated experience, attained not through wisdom and logic but directly.

[Parsifal]

It is clear to us what Parsifal needs to achieve on his wanderings. Parsifal's mother is called Herzeleide (German Herz = heart; Leiden = suffering). Wolfram von Eschenbach was an initiate; if we read his Parsifal with profound attention, between the lines and words, we find that the name Herzeleide, Parsifal's mother, is precipitated from the tragic quality that lay in the German heart. One who does not take the Parsifal path bears suffering in their heart; they have to struggle through to peace.

Wolfram von Eschenbach knew how to clothe the legend in a wonderfully beautiful form. With this one fact ( i.e. the name Herzeleide ) he intended a deeply inward symbol ( bearing in mind that a feminine individual always signifies consciousness ): namely, that Herzeleide is the condition of consciousness with which Parsifal sets out. Initially he has a tragic consciousness. He struggles his way, with a naive, simple consciousness, through everything that worldly knighthood can offer, in order to come to the secret of the Holy Grail.

[see Holy Grail]

We must hold this in conjunction with the Barbarossa legend. Barbarossa went to Asia to seek the secrets of the Holy Grail, Christian initiation. But he lost his life on his way to the Holy Grail. He has to wait "in the mountain" until Christianity can connect with the former initiation. Barbarossa brought Christianity but did not achieve the deeper initiation of Christianity.

Parsifal is the new Christian initiate, the great symbol that succeeds the Siegfried initiation. Siegfried conquered his lower nature, the dragon, the snake. Parsifal becomes the initiate of the Holy Grail, who comes to know Him who is invulnerable. The original idea of Christianity is brought to expression in Parsifal. He no longer knows the idea of reincarnation. A single life between birth and death was seen as the only one. It was one incarnation that had value. People no longer looked up to manas, buddhi and atma.

[see Man's higher triad and the 'Golden triangle' in the legend and secret of the Molten sea]

Parsifal-initiation was directed only towards reaching a consciousness of our connection with Christ, to considering only one incarnation in which the human being reaches knowledge through compassion, and not compassion through knowledge as happens in theosophy.

Theosophy teaches us to recognise how we are connected with all human beings. Through it we realise that we are ourselves responsible for what our brother does. Theosophy leads to compassion through knowledge. But humanity had for a time to pass through a period of development where it was to find knowledge through compassion. It had to go down into the depths of compassion, because one can also reach knowledge there.

It had to be like this so that people learnt to know the full importance of this earthly world. Christianity was to educate humanity so that the significance of the earthly world would be understood. For this reason humanity had first, in a moral respect, to be conducted, led down to physical life. Only then could it come to the great achievements that begin in urban culture...

1913-03-26-GA145

covers Amfortas and Parsifal: astrality's struggle with egoism

1914-01-01-GA149

Parsifal  <-> subconscious, historical Christ Impulse: "the Christ Impulse flows on as though through subterranean channels in the depths of the soul. " and .. "how the soul of Parsifal is related to the new, subconscious, historical impulse permeated by the Christ aura, the Christ Impulse, although he knows nothing of it"

1914-01-02-GA149

explains how the Christ Impulse works in the subconscious 'under the surface' of contemporary human daily consciousness .. we are not consciously aware that we have a seed or spark of Christ consciousness in our 'I' .. and the etheric aspects of our heart and blood

quote A

.. the soul of Parsifal is related to the new, subconscious, historical impulse permeated by the Christ aura, the Christ Impulse, although he knows nothing of it ..

see the spiritual nature of the consciousness soul, flowing from right to left on Schema FMC00.431 on Human character - the I and threefold soul quote B

It can be left to each individual to judge whether the religious faiths scattered over the Earth will one day find themselves in agreement with what is here meant by the harmony of all religions. And he can decide also whether what should be understood by the unity of religions is not more closely related to the secret of the Holy Grail, as we have tried to describe it, than is a great deal of talking about the unity of religions, which may in fact be about something quite different.

Anyone who wishes to hold fast to a narrow creed will certainly not be immediately convinced by what has been said. This is because he pays heed to the superficial course of events, and so to the external aspect of the real deeds of Christ, which are themselves of a spiritual nature.

How a man was led by his karma to the spiritual deeds of Christ; how Parsifal was driven along this path, wherein is prefigured the unity of religions on Earth—that is what we have wished to bring before our souls. And we should keep in mind that continuation of the Parsifal saga which says that when the Grail became invisible in Europe, it was carried to the realm of Prester John, who had his kingdom on the far side of the lands reached by the Crusaders. In the time of the Crusades the kingdom of Prester John, the successor of Parsifal, was still honoured, and from the way in which a search was made for it we must say: If all this were expressed in terms of strict earthly geography, it would show that the place of Prester John is not to be found on Earth.

Was that meant to be a hint, in the European saga that continued the Parsifal saga, that since then, without our being conscious of it, the Christ has been working in the hidden depths of the East; that the religious controversies, which take their course on the conscious level in the East could be assuaged by the outflowings and revelations of the true Christ impulse, as was meant to happen, in accordance with the Parsifal revelation, in the West?

Was the sunlight of the Grail called upon to shine above all other gods on Earth as is symbolically indicated by the fact that when the maiden carried in the gold-gleaming vessel with the secret of the Grail within it, the radiance of the Grail outshone, the other lights?

Ought we to expect - quite contrary to current beliefs - that the Christ power, still working unconsciously, will appear in a changed form and as Ex oriente lux, in the old phrase, will meet with that which has appeared as light in the West?

Should one light be able to unite with the other light?

But for that it will be necessary for us to be prepared - we who are placed by karma in the geographical and cultural environment over which passed the path of the Christ .. when in higher realms, He had permeated Jesus of Nazareth in order to journey to the East.

Let us look up and feel that the Christ passed through our heights before He was revealed on Earth. Let us make ourselves capable of so understanding him that we shall not misunderstand what He will perhaps be able to say to us one day when the time has come for his impulses to flow through other earthly creeds.

1914-01-06-GA148

Parsifal was therefore not meant to learn of the sacrifice by Christ at Golgotha, nor what the Apostles, the Church fathers and others later taught in different theological streams. He was not meant to know how knights put themselves and their virtues at the service of Christ.

He was meant only to be in touch with the Christ impulse deep down in his soul to the extent that this was possible at the time.

His connection with this would have been clouded if he had learned doctrinal teachings about the Christ. The Christ impulse works less in what people do or say than in the soul’s experience when it is given up wholly to this supersensible influence. That was to be the case with Parsifal.

1914-12-06-GA246

goes into Richard Wagner's Parsifal

The Godhead gave us the ability to think so that we could learn to distinguish between good and evil. But in order to do this, we must think thinking through to the end if we really want to learn to distinguish between good and evil. Thinking is brought to an end by realizing that it must open itself up to the Godhead. To do this, thinking must be purified, for the purification of the soul forces gives rise to the spirit self, Manas. God-wisdom, which is a part of the divine self, emerges. Wisdom, which is a unity with the spirit of life, the spirit of spiritual love and the spirit man, which is spiritual will. This is what we must understand, that Godly wisdom is something we can attain if we truly walk the paths that first lead to the liberation of thought from egoism. Otherwise we follow the paths that lead to ego-hardening. However, full God-wisdom can only be attained by purifying the whole soul of selfishness, including in feeling and willing.

The task of the fifth cultural age is firstly to develop the mind and secondly to free the mind from egoism. The purification of the will consists in gaining the good will that leads up to the wisdom of God, for: “Blessed are those of good will.” Godliness is the end of this path, which, however, leads the will more and more to difficult trials. But ultimately, spiritual thinking, spiritual willing and godliness must result from the purification of thinking, feeling and willing.

When we gain the good will, which should already be started now, then we purify the I from egoism, then we ourselves become a part of merciful love by connecting with that which is itself merciful love, by allowing our small I to become an image of the great I. And this spiritual love will always be connected with wisdom.

This is all given in Parsifal.

True Christianity must blossom from the fifth, the Germanic cultural age. What descends ever deeper from the spiritual worlds to the matured I, what sinks ever deeper, connects ever more with the matured I, that is what we call grace.

The difference between Parsifal and Siegfried is that Siegfried could not protect himself against the dark forces of Hagen. Parsifal is similar to Siegfried in the first part. Parsifal enters the territory of the Grail with his purity, his innocence; to mankind he appears as a gate, for how could the world understand that this gate is wiser than they are? Perhaps such a gate, more than the world can, could know the deep meaning of the words that Wotan addressed to Mime where he, as a wanderer, takes refuge with Mime: “Many a man thought he was wise, only he did not know what he needed.” Such a Parsifal soul seems childlike to us. Parsifal could not have entered the Grail region without this childishness, which is the world's folly, but which it needs.

What is the Grail region? In a way, it is the same as the forest in which Siegfried slays the dragon. It is the elemental-astral world in which the Grail Castle is sought.

Klingsor, the opponent of the Grail Brotherhood, is an entity similar to the powers that can unfold their effectiveness in the egoism of man, just as Alberich and Hagen were.

Amfortas is initially not so advanced that he would be able to defeat Klingsor. Great sanctuaries are kept in the Grail Castle, of which Amfortas is the guardian.

[storyline]

The sacred spear is snatched from Amfortas by Klingsor during the battle, so that Amfortas succumbs to the seductive woman, who is an evil entity that can act as an evil force in the soul and also works in the egoism of man. She can be called Venus or Paradise, for Lucifer and Ahriman are interwoven and intermingled in her.

Richard Wagner describes Kundry in such a way that she serves the Knights of the Grail when she is conscious during the day, and when she is conscious at night, when her I is not free, when she is under the compulsion of Klingsor due to the dishonesty of her I, she is unintentionally enslaved to Klingsor at night. Thus she appears as the soul that wavers back and forth between good and evil and is no longer master of evil.

Amfortas wanted to defeat the sorcerer, the black magician, with the divine powers of the spear, but fell victim to Kundry's violence. He was therefore not mature, had not reached the full height of purification of the I. He was not yet able to overcome egoism, which has its seat in covetousness. He lacked the purity of the I.

One was to come, “the pure gate, knowing through compassion”. But this one was to bring the full strength and maturity of the I.

Parsifal had killed a swan. This swan-killing has a lot to say. After all, the personal I has still killed the spiritual, which is represented in the swan, through its egoism. Parsifal learns what it means to kill in the breaking gaze of the swan. He learns to have compassion and love for the animal world, to which man is indebted; he recognizes what it means to cause pain.

A second lesson he has to learn from the questions Gurnemanz asks him. Parsifal does not know the answers. But to the “Tell me what you know, for you must know something”, he replies: “I have a mother, Herzeleide is her name.” Without this mother, a person cannot enter the Grail region, indeed, he cannot get there without going through trials that bring him heartache.

So what is Herzeleide, the mother? Kundry knows it, she tells him that his mother has died out of grief over his departure. This is something that every human being does, unknowingly. Every one of us has run away from this mother. The original legend tells how Parsifal learns from the hermit that no one has abandoned his mother.

Parsifal has left his mother Sophia, the divine wisdom that is always connected with heartache. The latter is the old pre-Christian wisdom, the mother of the personal I. This divine wisdom dies when the human being gains the personal I. We have left the old divine wisdom, we have not yet received the new divine wisdom; we must first attain it.

• We must take the mother to us in a new way. This is said of John, the disciple whom the Lord loved. On the cross he takes to himself the mother, the divine wisdom, which is now a new, temporary wisdom, but which is regained with heartache.

[Siegfriend vs Parsifal]

Siegfried did not fully experience the personal realization of his I. Parsifal, on the other hand, has this personal I, even though he is a hair's breadth similar to Siegfried. He initially arrives in the Grail region completely ignorant of this new wisdom.

Parsifal is in the fifth cultural age. Siegfried is in the transition from the third to the fourth cultural age.

Parsifal had to leave his mother, the old wisdom, in order to become independent. Man is led out of the old wisdom to the personal I.

Parsifal had many names, but he no longer knows any of them. He had gone through many incarnations in which he always had different names, but he no longer knows any of them. The personal human no longer knows that he has been there many times and has always had different names.

[two paths]

The recovery of Amfortas is intertwined with the development of Parsifal. There are two paths, the Amfortas path and the Parsifal path, which humanity has before it. Both must unite if the recovery of the soul is to be achieved.

[Amfortas]

Amfortas appears to us as a sufferer who is mentally ill from the spear.

What is the spear? “He who fears the point of my spear never passes through the fire.” The spearhead is to be feared by those who are not yet able to pass through the fire. Such a person is Amfortas. He falls prey to the element of desire, to Kundry, who dwells in the realm of desire. He must fear the tip of the spear, it wounds him. He suffers from it mentally and physically.

The spear is portrayed to us as the divine spear of love, as the solar lance of the godhead. Like rays of sunlight that pierce the human being, the spearhead has a spiritual effect. The deity with its bright radiance illuminates man's own imperfections. However, it is not the deity who punishes man, but man judges himself; he comes to self-awareness through the light powers of the spear. Amfortas is in this situation. He has to realize that he, the chosen guardian of the Grail, cannot bear the divine because he is not sufficiently purified, because he cannot safely pass through the fires of passion. That is the wound, that he has to say to himself: I must reveal the sanctuary to those who are pure in the Grail Castle, and I am unworthy to do so.

Klingsor used the creative powers of the spear in a selfish way, and that is the terrible thing. Egoism must not possess such powers, for that would be terrible for world affairs. This battle has not yet been fought out in world affairs and will continue until all people have decided for the good.

[Parsifal]

Parsifal must disappoint Gurnemanz by the fact that he is only now learning the lesson of compassion, the eightfold path. Parsifal should have asked the sick man an important question: “What is wrong with you, Oheim?” He should have had compassion and at the same time (because otherwise the question makes no sense) possessed the helping powers that lie in the spear. But he doesn't have it. He has to conquer it first. “He who was allowed to close your wound, I will let holy blood flow from him.” The spear carries the helping, healing powers within it.

The address “Oheim” is intended to express the fact that Parsifal is in the Grail Castle with his spiritual relatives, i.e. his spiritual brothers. However, he does not know that Amfortas is his spiritual brother, a brother who is higher in spiritual rank and should therefore be addressed as Oheim. He therefore does not recognize his spiritual brother.

Thus Parsifal also does not know that Titurel is his grandfather, Titurel, the aged builder of the Grail Castle, who is really there in the higher worlds, who can really be found if the gaze is directed there with clairvoyant recognition; he is always the great ancestor, the great master, of the Grail brothers.

[story cont'd]

Through his innocence, Parsifal is allowed to enter the Grail Castle, to experience the mysteries, to see the sick king in his pain. The Holy Grail is revealed to him: “The holy blood glows”. He is allowed to experience the rejuvenating powers that are also transferred to him. As ignorant as he is, he can already experience the rejuvenating powers by seeing how the chalice glows, by receiving what radiates from the glowing chalice.

He sees all this, but he cannot ask the question, he does not have the knowledge. Parsifal still has to learn “world experience”. He must learn to see through what Siegfried could not yet. He must defeat the deceitfulness of Klingsor and Kundry: Ahriman and Lucifer forces now approach him temptingly. By passing through the temptation, through the tempting forces, he is to gain what he does not yet possess but is now to acquire.

Kundry is summoned by Klingsor. She appears as if she were not really physically present; she seems almost transparent, as if only her Iand astral body had appeared, dreamlike, asleep, as if her daytime consciousness were not present. Then she is artificially awakened under the spell of Klingsor. But one has the feeling that all this, the entire second act, is now taking place not on the physical but on the astral plane.

Klingsor succeeds in waking her up so that she sinks into the depths with a horrible laugh in order to tempt Parsifal. Kundry suffers from this laughter. She once laughed this laugh when the Savior walked the Way of the Cross. Where there is frivolity in the soul, there is this laughter. And frivolity always laughs at the pure, the innocent, the spiritual.

Parsifal does not fall for the flower girls, and at the moment when he could fall for Kundry, who approaches him in the most refined manner, Parsifal triumphs; at this moment compassion is born in him. Now he feels the terrible pain of Amfortas! He understands him, he now feels his way into the soul of the Grail King, into his pain-stricken soul, and cries out: "Amfortas! The wound, the wound, it burns in my heart!"

Kundry tempts Parsifal by reminding him of his mother. She accuses him of having caused his mother's death, so that he exclaims: "Ha, what else have I forgotten? What was I ever mindful of? Only dull folly lives in me!" Kundry answers the tempting words: “Confession will turn guilt into repentance, knowledge in the mind will turn folly!” Kundry does not mean divine knowledge. Everything the temptress says is twisted, turned around in a sophistical way, twisted from white to black.

However, she is not victorious; for it is precisely at this moment that victory is won, when Parsifal feels the pain of the other in his own body; when divine, merciful love is born in him. To feel this pain of others in our own bodies is what we are led to in the presence of wartime by having to practise the mantra:

As long as you feel the pain,

Who avoids me,

Christ is unrecognized

Working in the being of the world.

As long as we cannot empathize with the pain of others, there is no true Christianity.

So Parsifal does indeed become “worldly-wise” through Kundry, but in a way that Kundry certainly does not want. Now he has gained experience of the world, now he sees through Kundry's soul. Now he has conquered the Luciferian temptation, he has world experience, world clairvoyance, now he recognizes the wound that burns in Amfortas' heart.

At Kundry's call for help, Klingsor commits a delusion, the most unwise thing he can possibly do: He hurls the spear at Parsifal, he gives it out of his hand. Parsifal grabs it and strikes the cross with it. With this sign, Kundry and Klingsor are defeated and the entire magic garden falls into ruins.

Parsifal knows about the cross that Siegfried has not yet been able to take up. He knows that one must take up the cross, the cross of purification of the whole human being, if one wants to become worthy of the spear and if one wants to partake in turn of the love of God, which is represented in the lance of the sun, the lance of love, the holy spear.

The Godhead turns its sunbeams of love towards every being, but this love, which shines like sunbeams into the human soul, has an effect on the nature of man - although it does not do so - as when man receives wounds, as when these wounds, which the spear strikes, so to speak, are also healed by him. “The wound is healed only by the spear that strikes it.”

There are well-meaning but unrecognizing Christians who like to speak of the Saviour's love, who say: The Saviour is always loving. But we must not forget that we cannot come to the Savior without preparation. That is why we must speak of the path that leads to him.

Christ demands - and must demand - that we make an effort to purify our being. And when we approach him immaturely, he acts on us in his glory as one who judges us, even though he never judges. He affects us in this way solely through the glory of his appearance, which we have to compare with our imperfection, of which we often do not even know how great it is.

[Paul's Damascus experience]

What Amfortas had to go through in this way was experienced in the Palestinian period, and was in fact experienced by a man who first persecuted the Savior and his followers in ignorance: Saul. The light in which the voice of Christ resounds, which brings him self-knowledge, works in him like the spear that strikes the wound. This is how he knew that he was pursuing the spiritual. He knew that the Christ in us, the christened human being, could unite with the Christ outside of us.

To do this, however, we have to do many, many things on our part. The Christ cannot dwell in a clouded soul without further ado.

So he works through his appearance alone to separate good and evil in us, even though he does not judge our most secret thoughts, feelings and emotions. But if we can bring a pure mind to him, we need not fear the shining through of the Christ sun, the holy spear.

Christ is, so to speak, educationally active in us by illuminating the good and evil of our soul with his divine lance, the spear of love. We must therefore take into ourselves what he has to keep in order, the divine law of harmony, and realize it in us if we want to learn to bear the spear. The spear is taken in the sign of the cross.

Parsifal is able to conquer the spear by defeating Kundry, the lower nature of desire. In doing so, he regains the helping, healing powers that belong to white, selfless magic, which must not fall into the hands of the selfish, black magicians.

But Kundry sends a curse after him: "Mad, mad! So familiar to me - I consecrate you to him!" This curse has such an effect that Parsifal has to go through many more experiences. But then he appears armed in his armor. There we have the armor, the armour that Lohengrin possesses, the armor, the weapons of the spirit, the armor that consists of being armed to face the world and people, to see through them and to be able to resist the lower passions: Those powers of knowledge and world clairvoyance which defeat the error to which the soul is exposed from without and from within, which could conquer and attain new christened wisdom.

Man does not know when he will be allowed to enter the Temple of the Holy Grail for the first time, nor does he know when he will be allowed to do so for the second time.

[redemption of Lucifer]

Kundry is allowed to undergo an awakening, to emerge from the long hibernation of her misguided ways. She is allowed to experience the conversion of her soul, which awakens from darkness and error. “Serve, serve.”

Parsifal has arrived at the holy source, which represents wisdom, the wisdom of God, which in fact cleanses him from error.

The foot washing begins. The washing of the feet, which always means the “will to serve”.

After Parsifal has been cleansed from a long wandering in the dust, he experiences a newfound relationship, an inner relationship to the plant world, to plant nature, to the soul of man in the magic of Good Friday.

This is how the forest bird speaks to Siegfried, because Siegfried had this relationship with nature and its essence after Fafner was killed. When we have gained this relationship with nature, then we hear what nature is saying to us, then we become clairaudient. We find the Grail Castle within ourselves, but only if we build the temple ourselves, if we allow the supporting columns to arise in our souls with our own hands.

In Twilight of the Gods we are told how Valhalla is destroyed by the moon fire of Loki. This means that the fire of Lucifer causes the decay of the physical body. The egoism of the passions brings about the decay of the human body, which leads to death.

From now on, however, man should create a new temple out of his own strength by using the powers that have been placed within him since the Mystery of Golgotha, by recognizing his I task in the right sense; then the new temple of the eternalized soul will arise.

Parsifal is first allowed to atone for Amfortas, to bring him union with the Godhead. Thus the soul heals in purification. The Godhead wants our whole soul, our whole I, and this I must carry within itself the processed powers gained on the physical plane. This I, which is capable on earth and has gone through purification, is called to become the bearer of the higher I.

Then, however, we must die, but we die in order to become. We die into the Christ, into the sacred wisdom hoard of the Rhine, which was originally with the Godhead, which was given to humanity in the Mystery of Golgotha, and which arises anew for us, as Richard Wagner expresses it, a holy grail in the rejuvenating powers of the Rose Cross. Man is the temple that the divinity wants to inhabit.

Parsifal and Feirefis

See also Paradise legend and Streams of Abel and Cain.

Johanna von Keyserlingk

reports on her esoteric conversations with Rudolf Steiner:

In the Uhland edition of Parsifal with a foreword by Rudolf Steiner, an episode occurs that is not found anywhere else: the journey of the young Grail Queen Repanse, who is awaited in India as the wife of `Fire-Fils' (Feirefis). She had embarked in Marseilles to take the emerald-green vessel, containing the Blood of Christ, the Graul, to the land of Priest-King John. When the Grail was carried ashore, the Grail Castle upon the heights lit up in flames to receive it.

I thought about this for a long while, and the `Fire-Sons' of India who are to appear as magnificent figures at some future time, merged in my mind with the word Fire-Fils, which has the same meaning as Fire-Son. Feirefis is the dark brother of Parsifal, who is to succeed the latter as Grail King.

Following on this thought I then enquired: `Is Feirefis a Fire-Son?'

Rudolf Steiner: 'Yes, Feirefis is the Fire-Son.'

I: 'And Parsifal the Light-Son?'

Rudolf Steiner: 'Yes,' and then he said a few words which I wanted to write down, but could not quite manage, and so he dictated them to me: `'Parsifal is the Light-Son. He is the only incarnation of an important individuality on Earth.

and continues:

Thus:

• Feirefis, the Son of Fire (= Cain)
• Parsifal, the Son of Light (= Abel), and

are the sons of God, divine brothers of Man, whom he has lost

• and whom Seth, the son of Earth, must get back again.

They meet us in three streams:

• the golden Arthurian knights or Michael/Sun knights;
• the silver knights, who guard the Grail through the holy wisdom of the moon; and
• the iron knights, who, in black armour and with the diamond lance, tarry in mortality until, conquering death, Christ with His light will penetrate the darkness.

Notes:

• see Streams of Abel and Cain and a.o. Schema FMC00.652
  • regarding 'sons of fire', see also the description of the descent of the monads in the Lemurian epoch (Development of the I#process description 'descent of the monads') and the "the great Sons of the Fire nebula, the Arhats" (Gender and sexuality#1904-12-31-GA090A)
  • contemplate with Schema FMC00.652 whether "Parsifal is the Light-Son" means that Parsifal is a 'light bringer' luciferic SoF on the right of that Schema
  • observe in the last statement, that Cain and Abel are linked to Sun and Moon, with Seth representing Earth in the middle
• regarding 'the only incarnation of important individuality': GA264 maps various incarnations of high individualities to storylines in the gospels and the Bible, and there Mani or Manes is stated to be the individuality that incarnated as Parsifal. However Mani also incarnated in Babylon in the 3th century. See outer right on Schema FMC00.638.

Wagner's 19th century opera

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) worked on the opera Parsifal in the period 1857-1882

More than anyone else, Richard Wagner made it possible for people to take this in without knowing it. Richard Wagner was a missionary whose mission it was to give something full of significance to the world, without humanity being aware of this truth. .. .. The strange music written by Wagner would create quite specific vibrations in the ether bodies of those who listened to it. The ether body is connected with all the profound motions of the blood. Richard Wagner understood the secret of the purified blood. His melodies hold the vibrations that have to be in the human ether body when it becomes purified in the way that is necessary so that the secret of the grail may be received.

Related pages

• Christ Module 6 - Principle in image and story
• Holy Grail
• Christ Impulse - meeting of two streams

References and further reading

See also more under the 'References and further reading section' of related topics such as Holy Grail.

General

• Assja Turgenieff: 'Parsivals Suche nach dem heiligen Gral' - illustrations (12 Steindrücke) (1952)
• Charles Kovacs: Parsifal and the search for the grail (1998)
• Ewald Koepke:
  • Richard Wagners Gralsimpuls : ein Vortrag (1983, after a lecture 1983-02-09)
  • Rudolf Steiner und das Gralsmysterium : Der Prüfungsweg des Parzival (2005)
• Ueli Seiler-Hugova:
  • Das grosse Parzivalbuch: Wolfram von Eschenbachs Parzival als ein moderner Einweihungsweg, der zur Integration und Individuation führt (2014)
  • Table of Contents
• Ellen Schalk: Kyot and Parsifal stellar script

• Mathieu Laffrée/Marianne Holberg: 'Die Suche nach dem Heiligen Gral : Seelenentwicklung und Geistesschulung' (1986 in DE, original based on four lectures in NL: 'Parzival en het mysterie van de graal')
• Wolfram von Eschenbach: 'Parzival (Prosafassung von Richard Baumann. Mit Kommentaren von Werner Greub und Walter Johannes Stein) (2019)
• Eileen Hutchings: 'Parzival - An introduction'
• Eric G. Müller: 'Why Parzival?: An Epic of our Age with Global Reach and its Secret Connections to Waldorf Education' (2023)
• Sonia A.L. Setzer: 'Parzival, a Forerunner of the Modern Human Being' (2024)

Wagner's Parsifal

• Hermann Beckh: Das Christus-Erlebnis im Dramatisch-Musikalischen von Richard Wagner's Parsifal (1929)
• Franz E. Winkler: 'For freedom destined : mysteries of man's evolution in the mythology of Wagner's Ring Operas and Parsifal' (1974)
• J. Vanvinckenroye: 'Parsifal van Richard Wagner' (1979)
• Bernd Lampe: Parzival (1986)
• Franz E. Winkler:
  • The mythology in Wagner's Parsifal (1968)
  • Richard Wagner : Der Ring des Nibelungen ; verbunden mit einer Betrachtung über Parsifal - das Mysterium des Grals ; Versuch zu einem tieferen Verstehen (1981)
• Friedrich Oberkogler:
  • Parsifal : eine Bühnenweihfestspiel von Richard Wagner ; eine musikalisch-geisteswissenschaftliche Einführung und Werkbesprechung (1969)
  • Parsifal: der Zukunftsweg des Menschen in Richard Wagners Musikdrama (1983)