Richard Wagner

From Free Man Creator

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a German composer that revolutionized opera through his concept of the 'Gesamtkunstwerk' ("total work of art"), a synthesis of the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts (as described in a series of essays he wrote in the period 1849-52).

He is most known for his unique four-opera cycle 'Der Ring des Nibelungen' (The Ring of the Nibelung), written over a period of 26 years between 1848 to 1874. Performance is about 15 hours over four nights at the opera. Besides this, his final work Parsifal is considered (one of) his masterpiece(s).

Aspects

  • see also: Christ Module 4 - Mystery of the Blood#Wagner on MoG and the excess blood vs the purified blood
  • biography and karmic relationships
  • spiritual forces working through Wagner
    • "Mankind will gradually learn to realize that there is very large measure of occult power in Wagner's work" and "What Wagner achieved in Parsifal is intimately connected with the spiritual power that has been active in such a striking manner in and since the last third of the Nineteenth Century" and "... there is a deep connection between the artistic work of Wagner and the spiritual movement" (1906-07-29-GA097) - see link with archangelic period of archangel Michael as of 1879 (see Schema FMC00.239)
    • Wagner himself did not have this conscious wisdom though: "much more was living in Wagner than he himself was conscious .... he was never able to reach the last stages of wisdom" .. and again "there lived in Wagner a great deal more than he himself could have knowledge of". Hence, in spiritual research one finds deep mysteries in his work but "one could be in danger of looking in Wagner for something that is not there" (1906-07-29-GA097)
  • example of esoteric wisdom: time becomes space
    • "Richard Wagner showed that he had knowledge of this by the remarkable words: “Time here becomes Space”. It is an occult fact that in the spiritual world there are distances which do not come to expression on the physical plane." (1918-02-10-GA182) and "There the saying is true, spoken with remarkable intuition by Richard Wagner: ‘Time becomes space.’ In the super-sensible world, time really does become space, one point of space here, another there. " (1918-05-GA181)

Music

  • the 'Tristan chord' (from the beginning of the prelude in Tristan und Isolde) is one of the most famous and revolutionary chords in Western music history, because it became a turning point in harmony, marking the shift from traditional tonal music toward modern chromaticism and ultimately atonality. The chord doesn’t resolve in the expected classical way as Wagner prolongs its tension through delayed resolutions, shifting chromatically to create a sense of unfulfilled longing that mirrors the opera’s theme of unattainable love. This harmonic ambiguity was shocking for its time and profoundly influenced composers like Debussy, Mahler, Schoenberg, and Strauss.
  • Wagners work has been subject of study and extensive literature from a spiritual scientific perspective, see 'Further reading' section below, eg by Friedrich Oberkogler
Most important opera works

The works in Italics make up The Ring of the Nibelung. For music excerpts of (*) see Discussion area below Note [1] - Introductory music fragments

The Ring of the Nibelung

general introduction: 1905-03-28-GA092 and 1905-05-05-GA092; see also: Nibelungen

  • Das Rheingold - The Rhinegold
    • concise exoteric summary (from internet)
      • chronicles the theft of the magical Rhinegold by the dwarf Alberich, who forges a powerful ring after renouncing love. The gods, led by Wotan, steal the ring from Alberich to pay a debt to the giants who built their fortress, Valhalla. This act, fueled by greed and deceit, is immediately shadowed by a curse on the ring that promises death and destruction to all who possess it, setting the stage for the subsequent operas in the cycle
      • The dwarf Alberich renounces love to forge the Ring, granting world-dominating power. The gods’ ruler Wotan, seeking authority without paying its price, steals the Ring with the help of Loge. The giants Fasolt and Fafner demand payment for building Valhalla; Wotan reluctantly gives them the Ring. Fafner kills Fasolt and keeps the Ring, symbolizing power corrupted by greed. A curse is set in motion as the gods enter Valhalla under a cloud of doom.
      • Key symbols: the Ring (power through domination), Rhinegold (natural harmony), Valhalla (power built on debt), the curse.
    • opening E flat major
      • "In the [E flat] major chord, Richard Wagner presents us with the creation and work of the Godhead in the world of spiritual forces." (1914-12-06-GA246)
      • think of the beginning of the Rhinegold. Is not the coming of this I-consciousness expressed in the opening notes themselves, in the long E flat on the organ? Do we not feel here that individual consciousness is emerging from the ocean of consciousness universal? (1907-12-02-GA092)
      • what was connected with the rise of the new I-consciousness was characterized profoundly in the first E flat major chords of Rhinegold (1905-03-28-GA092)
      • "No human ear could fail to hear in that long E-flat major in the Rhine-gold the impact of the emerging human I". (1907-03-28-GA055).
  • Die Walküre - The Valkyrie
    • concise exoteric summary (from internet)
      • focuses on the love between twins Siegmund and Sieglinde, which angers the gods. Wotan's daughter, Brünnhilde, the Valkyrie, defies her father's orders to ensure Siegmund's death by instead aiding him. In punishment for her disobedience, Wotan places her in a magical sleep on a rock surrounded by fire
      • The mortal twins Siegmund and Sieglinde fall in forbidden love. Wotan wants Siegmund to reclaim the Ring but is bound by his earlier contracts. His wife Fricka demands Siegmund’s death. The valkyrie Brünnhilde, moved by compassion, defies Wotan to protect Siegmund. Siegmund is killed; Brünnhilde rescues pregnant Sieglinde, who will bear Siegfried. For her disobedience, Brünnhilde is punished: she is put into a magical sleep on a fire-surrounded rock.
      • Key symbols: Nothung (the shattered sword of freedom), fire-sleep (punishment and transformation), fate vs. will.
  • Siegfried
    • concise exoteric summary (from internet)
      • Siegfried is a hero of Germanic legend who kills the dragon Fafner, claims the cursed Ring of the Nibelung, and awakens the slumbering valkyrie Brünnhilde. Raised in the forest by the dwarf Mime, he reforges the sword Notung to complete his tasks, and after killing Fafner and then Mime, he seeks out Brünnhilde and awakens her with a kiss, and they fall in love
      • Raised by the scheming dwarf Mime, the fearless youth Siegfried reforges Nothung, kills the dragon Fafner, and gains the Ring and the Tarnhelm. After tasting the dragon’s blood, he understands birds and learns of Nibelung treachery; he kills Mime. Following the Woodbird’s song, he climbs the fire mountain, awakens Brünnhilde, and they fall in world-creating love: a union meant to redeem the Ring’s curse.
      • Key symbols: fearlessness, dragon-slaying (self-knowledge), awakening (love as liberation from the curse).
    • 1905-05-12-GA092
  • Gotterdämmerung - Twilight of the Gods
    • concise exoteric summary (from internet)
      • It tells the story of the tragic downfall of heroes Siegfried and Brünnhilde, orchestrated by Hagen who uses a magic potion to erase Siegfried's memory of his wife. The opera culminates in Siegfried's death and the immolation of Brünnhilde, which ultimately leads to the destruction of the gods and the renewal of the world
      • The Gibichungs (Gunther, Gutrune, and their schemer Hagen, Alberich’s son) manipulate Siegfried using the Tarnhelm so that he forgets Brünnhilde and betrays her unwittingly. Hagen murders Siegfried to reclaim the Ring. Brünnhilde realizes the gods’ corruption and Siegfried’s innocence. She returns the Ring to the Rhine, rides into Siegfried’s funeral pyre, and ignites the end of the gods. Valhalla burns; the old order ends, and nature is restored.
      • Key symbols: betrayal, funeral pyre, Rhinemaidens, Twilight of the Gods (collapse of corrupt power).
    • 1905-05-12-GA092
Parsifal
  • " if the soul of Richard Wagner had not ripened in a certain passive way, if concerning the Mystery of Golgotha he had not in some sense surmised the flowing forth of that which came drop by drop into the spiritual atmosphere of earthly humanity, we could not have had his Parsifal" (1911-10-08-GA131)
The Victors
  • Wagner developed plans for an opera titled Die Sieger (The Victors) and sketched ideas for a work based on Buddhist themes and the Norse myth of Baldur, but this was not completed.
    • this work, to be entitled 'The Victor' "shows us the deep world-conception which was the source of the poet's intuitions" ... "Wagner grasped the problem of karma in all its depth, out of the true spirit of Buddhism; when he was about fifty years old he had developed to the extent of being able to create a drama of such deep moral force and earnestness" (1905-05-19-GA092)
    • "he tried research into the mysteries of reincarnation .. we have evidence of this in his draft for a drama called “Die Sieger” (“The Victorious,” or, “The Conquerors.”) He abandoned the attempt, because the music for the drama proved to be an insoluble problem. ... This theme was sketched out by Wagner in 1855, with the intention of elaborating it. He did not succeed, but a year later the same impulse presented itself to him in a new way." ... with the inspiration for Parsifal (1906-07-29-GA097)
    • The storyline: Arnanda, a youth of the noble Brahmin caste, is loved passionately by Prakriti, a Chandala maiden of a lower, despised caste. He renounces this love, withdraws from the world and devotes himself to the religious life, becoming a disciple of Buddha. She is thrown into the utmost distress and sorrow. An explanation of her destiny is then given to the Chandala maiden by another Brahman. She had, he told her, in an earlier life been a Brahman and had rejected the love of this very youth who was at that time in the Chandala caste. Deeply impressed with the teaching conveyed in this explanation, the girl then attaches herself also to the Buddha, and the two become followers together of the same teacher. (1905-05-19-GA092, 1906-07-29-GA097)

Other

Inspirational quotes

1906-07-29-GA097

Wagner's music .. is of such a unique character that those who listen to it receive in their ether body quite special vibrations.

Therein lies the secret of Wagner's music. One does not need to understand it — not in the least! One receives in one's ether body the benign and healthful effect of the music. And man's ether body is intimately connected with all the movements and throbbings of the blood.

Wagner understood the mystery of the purified blood. In his melodies are rhythms and vibrations that must needs beat in the ether body of Man if he is to be cleansed and purified so as to be ready to receive the Mysteries of the Holy Grail.

1908-04-13-GA102

Anyone in the slightest degree capable of interpreting the signs of the times will perceive in the art of Richard Wagner the first rays of Christianity emerging from the narrow framework of the religious life into the wider horizons of modern spiritual culture.

1906-07-29-GA097 link with archangelic period of archangel Michael as of 1879 (see Schema FMC00.239)

What Wagner achieved in Parsifal is intimately connected with the spiritual power that has been active in such a striking manner in and since the last third of the Nineteenth Century.

and

... there is a deep connection between the artistic work of Wagner and the spiritual movement of the present day that is known as [anthroposophy].

That there is in Wagner and in his works a very large measure of occult power, is something that mankind is gradually learning to realize. And in the future something further will also become clear to us; namely, that there lived in Wagner a great deal more than he himself could have knowledge of.

This is, in truth, the secret of many a work of art, that a force and a power live in it of which its creator knows nothing.

1907-03-28-GA055

All this is intimated in the world of sagas that took hold of Wagner. He had such inner kinship with that lofty spiritual being who preserves memory of the past, whose spirit lives in sagas and myths, that he extracted from myths the whole essence of his view of the world.

1915-11-28-GA064

In Richard Wagner, we have in modern times the spirit that has triumphed over the merely external, emotional element in music, that has sought to deepen the setting of the thoughts so that the thought itself could take hold of the element that was thought to live only in music. To spiritualize music from the standpoint of the spirit, to show that, was also only possible for German idealism. ... the element that flows in the immediate sensual sequence of tones has been allowed to seek its connection, its marriage, with that which leads the human soul to the highest heights and depths in the realm of thoughts, in Wagner's music, which has thus effected an elevation of an artistic-sensual element into a directly spiritual atmosphere.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.702: provides an overview table with the characters in Richard Wagner's opera tetralogy 'Der Ring des Nibelungen'. The four main characters are in bold and highlight. For the high-level storyline, see Richard Wagner#Summaries of operas.

For the spiritual scientific meaning of what the ancient stories of Nibelungen and Ragnarok (= Twilight of the Gods) are all about, see the contextual narrative Current Postatlantean epoch#Note 4 - About 'the great goodbye' (a.o. step 4)

provides an overview table with the characters in Richard Wagner's opera tetralogy 'Der Ring des Nibelungen'. The four main characters are in bold and highlight. For the high-level storyline, see Richard Wagner#Summaries of operas. For the spiritual scientific meaning of what the ancient stories of Nibelungen and Ragnarok (= Twilight of the Gods) are all about, see the contextual narrative Current Postatlantean epoch#Note 4 - About 'the great goodbye' (a.o. step 4)


Lecture coverage and references

Overview coverage

Rudolf Steiner covered Wagner and his music rather extensively in the period 1905-1907. Below are the key lectures. First, for the music:

  • 1905-03-28-GA092: Lohengrin and the Ring of the Nibelungs, Siegfried legend
  • 1905-05-05-GA092: The Ring of the Nibelungs.
  • 1905-05-12-GA092: The Valkyria, Siegfried, Twilight of the Gods
  • 1905-05-19-GA092: Parsifal, The Victors, Parsifal and Holy Grail

and

  • 1907-01-16-GA097
  • 1907-03-28-GA055: The Ring, Holy Grail
  • 1907-12-02-GA092: The Ring
  • 1914-12-06-GA246: Ring, but then focusing on Parsifal

but also others lectures like:

  • 1906-07-29-GA097 - The secret of the grail in the works of Richard Wagner (key lecture!)
  • 1907-01-16-GA097 - The supersensible brought to expression in the music of Parsifal

Reference extracts

1853-02-11 - Wagner

in a letter to Liszt

Mark well my new poem - it contains the world's beginning and its end

1905-03-28-GA092

Lohengrin and the Ring of the Nibelungs, and the three stages of the Siegfried legend

1905-05-05-GA092

Ring of the Nibelungs

1905-05-12-GA092

Valkyrie, Siegfried, Twilight of the Gods

1905-05-19-GA092

Parsifal and the Holy Grail

1905-12-10-GA90B - Q&A

Richard Wagner intuitively grasped great realities and expressed them in his great opera works. The spiritual streams made various attempts to bring these realities and messages to humanity. Wagner was inspired as an artist to do so, and similarly also Nietzsche was choosen as a vehicle to express the reality of the consciousness soul, however his physiology and brain did not withstand it and he had to pay for this attempt with his death.

1905-12-03-GA092

Parsifal and Lohengrin

1906-02-03-GA097

Q&A: question on Holy Grail

1906-03-22-GA054

see: Nibelungen#1906-03-22-GA054

1906-07-29-GA097

is called 'The secret of the grail in the works of Richard Wagner'

I want to speak to you today about the truths of occultism and of theosophy, relating what I have to say with Richard Wagner's Parsifal. For there is a deep connection between the artistic work of Wagner and the spiritual movement of the present day that is known as Theosophy.

That there is in Wagner and in his works a very large measure of occult power, is something that mankind is gradually learning to realize. And in the future something further will also become clear to us; namely, that there lived in Wagner a great deal more than he himself could have knowledge of.

This is, in truth, the secret of many a work of art, that a force and a power live in it of which its creator knows nothing.

When this has come home to us; namely, that more—much more—was living in Wagner than he himself was conscious of, we must at the same time not forget that Wagner was never able to reach the last stages of wisdom.

On this account the art of Richard Wagner has for the occultist quite a unique character; for while he knows that something more, something of deep mystery, is hidden behind it, he knows on the other hand that one can be in danger of looking in Wagner for something that is not there.

[Music as etheric medium for 19th century]

In the nineteenth century it was not possible to make clear to Man the deep meaning of that great process of initiation in a drama. There is, however, a medium through which Man's understanding can be reached, even without words, without concepts or ideas. This medium is music.

Wagner's music holds within it all the truths that are contained in the Parsifal story. His music is of such a unique character that those who listen to it receive in their ether body quite special vibrations. Therein lies the secret of Wagner's music.

One does not need to understand it - not in the least. One receives in one's ether body the benign and healthful effect of the music. And Man's ether body is intimately connected with all the movements and throbbings of the blood.

Wagner understood the mystery of the purified blood. In his melodies are rhythms and vibrations that must needs beat in the ether body of Man if he is to be cleansed and purified so as to be ready to receive the Mysteries of the Holy Grail.

1906-11-17-GA054

when the I is wrapped up in looking at a piece of art and receives an inkling that an eternal may be embodied behind the sensory existence, then the artistic image works not only in the astral body, but the human being improves and purifies the etheric body. If you – as practical occultist – may observe how a Wagner opera works on the various members of the human nature, it would convince you that it is especially music that lets sink its vibrations deeply down into the etheric body.

1906-12-04-GA068B
1907-01-16-GA097

is called 'The supersensible brought to expression in the music of Parsifal'

1907-03-28-GA055
1907-09-15-GA244 - Q&A 137.5

asks for a spiritual scientific perspective or comment on Wagner's Siegfried

The music of Richard Wagner is expression to the deepest mysticism. This does not imply that Wagner consciously had this mysticism in mind, this is not required.

...

He deeply experienced and felt what appeared to him as in the Germanic myths as an expression of the great spiritual science.

[summary sketch of Atlantis upto development of the I]

...

Siegfried is the ancient primal germanic initiate who still has the ancient wisdom and has not been caught on the by the human I. He is the hero, that will be superseded by a higher one, by Christ carrying his cross.

...

Wagner expressed in his music the impact of the human I. In the long prelude to Rheingold one can hear this first. One who can experience this, experiences the mysticism in Wagner's music.

1907-12-02-GA092

is called 'Richard Wagner and Mysticism'

and covers: Ring of the Nibelungs, legends and myths

1908-02-25-GA068B
1908-04-13-GA102

The subject of the three public lectures in Stockholm was Wagner's “Ring of the Nibelungs,” and, walking along the streets, the announcements of the last performance at the Opera of Wagner's Ragnarök, the “Götterdämmerung” (Twilight of the Gods), were to be seen on the kiosks. These things are really symptomatic, interweaving in a most remarkable way. Underlying the old Nordic sagas there is a note of deep tragedy, indicating that the Nordic Gods and Divinities would be superseded by One yet to come. This motif and trend of the Nordic sagas reappears in a medieval form in Wagner's. Siegfried is killed by a thrust between his shoulder-blades, his only vulnerable part. This is a prophetic intimation that here, at this place in his body, something is lacking, and that through One yet to come it will be covered by the arms of the Cross. This is no mere poetic image, but something that has been drawn from the inspiration belonging to the world of saga and legend. For this same note of tragic destiny was implicit in the Nordic sagas, in the Mystery-truth underlying them, that the Nordic Gods would be replaced by the later, Christian Principle. In the Northern Mysteries the significance of this ‘Twilight’ of the Gods was everywhere made plain.

It is also significant — and here again I mean something more than a poetic image — that in the very hearts of these people to-day the remembrance of those ancient Gods lives on in peaceful reconciliation with all that has been brought there or made its way thither from Christianity. The presence of the Gothic Bible amid the memories of ancient times is verily a symptom. One can also feel it as a symptom, as a foreshadowing of the future, that in lands where more intensely than anywhere else the ancient Gods are felt as living realities, these Gods should be presented again in their Wagnerian form, outside the narrow bounds of ordinary religion.

Anyone in the slightest degree capable of interpreting the signs of the times will perceive in the art of Richard Wagner the first rays of Christianity emerging from the narrow framework of the religious life into the wider horizons of modern spiritual culture. One can discern quite unmistakably how in the soul of Richard Wagner himself the central idea of Christianity comes to birth, how it bursts the bonds of religion and becomes universal. When on Good Friday, in the year 1857, he looks out of the Villa Wesendonck by the Lake of Zürich at the budding flowers of early spring, and the first seed of “Parsifal” quickens to life within him, this is a transformation, on a wider scale, of what already lives in Christianity, as a religious idea. And after he had reached the heights of that prophetic foreshadowing of Christianity to which he gave such magnificent expression in the “Ring of the Nibelungs,” this central Idea of Christianity found still wider horizons in “Parsifal,” becoming the seed of that future time when Christianity will embrace, not only the religious life, but the life of knowledge, of art, of beauty, in the widest sense of the words.

This is the theme that will be presented to you today, in order to kindle the feeling of what Christianity can be for mankind in times to come.

1914-12-06-GA246

quote A

The inner mission of Richard Wagner's Parsifal in connection with the task of the fifth cultural age

From Richard Wagner's poem “The Ring of the Nibelung” one can recognize

  • how the I, the self-consciousness of the fifth age, our age, was born out of the original wisdom of the Atlantean age,
  • and linked to this is the task of becoming a free, independent, capable I and bringing the intellect to its highest development.

...

This is what we must learn from Richard Wagner: nowhere in occult training has there been more danger since the Mystery of Golgotha than where this egoism speaks.

quote B

In the [E flat] major chord, Richard Wagner presents us with the creation and work of the Godhead in the world of spiritual forces.

[beginning of Rheingold]

In the fundamental tone of the third, the fifth, which is already in motion, in the triad we have that which creates, weaves and works in figured motion. In this triad the divine lives and works and in this divine trinity the divine I itself lives and works; what underlies it is wisdom, is holy spirit.

Divine wisdom pervades the astral plan. And today it works from the center of the Earth in the densest forces to spiritualize the Earth again, to dissolve that which is compressed, constricted by being special. The ring of egoism is dissolved again by those forces of love that came in through the deed of love that took place in the Mystery of Golgotha.

Brunhilde knows about this. She knows that the love fire of the spirit purifies the ring from the curse, that this fire burns away egoism, that the gold, the intellect is purified from egoism, that it must be dissolved in wisdom. But selfless love is born out of wisdom. The I is redeemed from the constraints of the earthly realm in the water and fire of the pure astral forces, the forces of the spirit, and it must be returned to the originally pure fire and water elements.

longer extract

From Richard Wagner's poem “The Ring of the Nibelung” one can recognize how the ego, the self-consciousness of the fifth age, our age, was born out of the original wisdom of the Atlantean age, and linked to this is the task of becoming a free, independent, capable ego and bringing the intellect to its highest development. The intellect must first be linked to egoism, to being special, which on the other hand gives man personal freedom, which makes him strong for the physical plan. Man originally received the impulse of freedom through the will of the gods. Wotan, the gods led man in renouncing love. In the “Ring” it says: “Whom I love, I leave to himself, he stands or falls, his lord is he.”

The principle of freedom must be there in order to give people the opportunity to find their way back to the divinity of their own free will, completely independent of any higher divine will or any divine influence. Intellectual knowledge was born out of wisdom, out of the originally pure flame, which is represented in the Rhine River. The intellect is represented in gold, which was originally pure, pure power in the daughters of the Rhine. The ego of man with its thinking, feeling and willing is born out of the Rhine current, out of the soul: Man was always a part of God.

In the [E flat] major chord, Richard Wagner presents us with the creation and work of the Godhead in the world of spiritual forces. In the fundamental tone of the third, the fifth, which is already in motion, in the triad we have that which creates, weaves and works in figured motion. In this triad the divine lives and works and in this divine trinity the divine I itself lives and works; what underlies it is wisdom, is holy spirit. Divine wisdom pervades the astral plan. And today it works from the center of the earth in the densest forces to spiritualize the earth again, to dissolve that which is compressed, constricted by being special. The ring of egoism is dissolved again by those forces of love that came in through the deed of love that took place in the Mystery of Golgotha. Brunhilde knows about this. She knows that the love fire of the spirit purifies the ring from the curse, that this fire burns away egoism, that the gold, the intellect is purified from egoism, that it must be dissolved in wisdom. But selfless love is born out of wisdom. The ego is redeemed from the constraints of the earthly realm in the water and fire of the pure astral forces, the forces of the spirit, and it must be returned to the originally pure fire and water elements.

The personal I should come to open itself to the divine like a blossom, as a blossom opens itself to the rays of the sun. The fifth age, which brings forth the mature ego, must find a connection to the divine if the further development of humanity is not to lead to a hardening of the ego. In the present development of time we have arrived at the point where, through the serious time in which we now stand, the trials are beginning which will lead us through purifications, which must lead us in such a way that our specialness gradually dissolves again. If we can sacrifice a little of our small special interests, our selfish ego interests, to the great interests of the world, then what must happen will be able to happen. The fifth cultural epoch should bring about an internalized Christianity that is free from those influences that are selfish in nature. True Christianity should show that it is possible for the human soul to rise above that which degrades the soul in thinking, feeling and willing. For the true man is degraded by the desires and passions of the lower nature on the one hand; but man also degrades himself when he degrades the best thing he possesses, the spirit, when he misuses it for low purposes, for purposes that only serve to increase his personal power. The killing of a Siegfried nature, the spiritual of a Baldur, was perceived as a deep tragedy by our Germanic ancestors. Siegfried-Baldur could not yet be armed to defeat the dark forces depicted in the Twilight of the Gods that bring it about. He could not yet defeat and see through the Ahrimanic that confronts him in Hagen; he could not yet conquer the egoistic-Luciferian within himself. For Siegfried should have recognized that he should have given the ring back to the Rhinemaidens; he should have finished hearing Lodge-Lucifer saying that the ring must be given back. We hear him to the end when we have learned to distinguish between good and evil and when the intellect returns to wisdom. But man should learn to resist Lucifer in his attempts. Lucifer, however, leads man back to recognizing wisdom in a negative way - by the fact that man forces himself on him, that man learns to see through him. Lucifer is dangerous where human passions speak: in thinking, feeling and willing; man must overcome him. He must overcome the egoistic ego-desire in thinking, feeling and willing.

Why did the sword Nothung not protect Siegfried from Hagen's malice?

In the four individual works - “Rheingold”, “Walküre”, ‘Siegfried’ and “Götterdämmerung” - there is a descent to solidified earth until the human being becomes a personal I. Siegfried descended to the last phase, to the personal ego. The old wisdom was lost to him, he did not yet possess a new one, which is why he could not yet defeat the forces that bring danger to the personal ego. He had, so to speak, the last remnants of the old wisdom that he still had at the transition from tribal consciousness to the personal ego - this is also lost to him, it is no longer of any use to him. People who have fully experienced the fourth phase - Siegfried did not, he is a man of the transitional period - no longer have this consciousness, it has become dark in us. We do have Grane, the steed, the earthly wisdom. But this does not protect us sufficiently from the dark forces. And even the sword of old powers of initiation, old wisdom and knowledge, which now return to Siegfried, cannot protect Siegfried from the dangers of the now emerging intellect - that is why he had to succumb to the dark forces. The spiritual and light of old perishes - the treacherous intrigues of Hagen triumph. But he too meets his fate, he too must take the path back to catharsis, to purification, through the Rhinemaidens who drag him into the depths, and this leads into the depths of his own soul. Baldur-Siegfried must be overcome by the dark forces that have their seat in egoism. And humanity would have fared badly if the Mystery of Golgotha had not occurred, if it had not entered the wonderful pure shell of Jesus of Nazareth, which the great Master Zarathustra-Jesus worked through and spiritualized, the Christ-Jesus. The Christ-Jesus had to die like Baldur, like Siegfried died. But he, the Christ, overcame the dark forces. Therefore, for all times of development through the Mystery of Golgotha, we now have the guarantee, through the powers that have been placed in us since then, to overcome the dark powers that have their seat in egoism through the powers of the higherI that has been placed in us, germinally, by awakening it - to become master over egoism. It is only unjustified egoism that becomes terrible to us, as it manifests itself as sensuality, lust for power, megalomania or vanity of the personal ego.

This is what we must learn from Richard Wagner: nowhere in occult training has there been more danger since the Mystery of Golgotha than where this egoism speaks. If we overcome it, and we can overcome it, we go through the occult training without danger. But we are free to decide which paths we want to take. We have been given the thinking to be able to act freely from our own insight.

But we should also keep our thinking free from ahrimanic and luciferic influences with regard to the moral element, then it can come to recognize the paths to take. If we want to realize the truly human, we must learn to look at our soul in its three parts in courageous self-knowledge in relation to the moral, from our ego, and learn to see through the dangers and the good in thinking, feeling and willing. The Christ triumphed over the dark powers in the Mystery of Golgotha, over everything that entered man through the Fall. The fall into sin was necessary in order to lead man to freedom and either to open himself up to the divinity or to continue being special.

1916-03-23-GA065

title: Nietzsche's Psychological Life and Richard Wagner

In a strange way, the Feuerbach worldview, and with it everything that now set the tone, was confronted by a musician, a personality in whom abstract thinking did not live so much, who initially did not want to follow the usual path of abstract thinking in matters of worldview, in order to arrive at the solution of the world's riddles. A personality was confronted with Feuerbach's question who, in his deepest inner being, lived and worked musically and wanted to work in this way: Richard Wagner.

It was in the forties when Richard Wagner grappled with Feuerbach's world view in his soul. Before Richard Wagner's soul, in which everything was alive musically, not in concepts, ideas and thoughts, stood the man whom one had placed at the center of the world view and who, for the reasons characterized earlier, was first and foremost a mere sensual man. But this man was confronted by a soul that was musically active. The musical element lives and moves in the sensual realm. But it cannot live and weave only in the sensual, unless it is grasped as in the soul of Richard Wagner. Here in the musical, the sensual itself works as a spiritual, it must work as a spiritual. For if we turn our senses to nature, wherever we want, what is in the truest sense of the word musical content cannot come to us directly from nature. Goethe says: Music is the purest form and content, for it has no actual model in nature, as the other arts do. And yet, it makes a complete impression on the mind; and everything that makes an impression on the mind is spiritual. Thus in music there is an element that cannot be attained by following the paths of mere observation of nature, that cannot be seen by the human being that Feuerbach placed in the image of nature. And yet, in the realm of music, there is an element that, to an extraordinary degree, accommodated the urge of the time for sensory perception and sensory comprehension.

And since Richard Wagner's soul lived in the remarkable (one cannot say discord, but rather consonance), being entirely musical, but not as a philosopher's soul, but rather as a musical soul, a soul seeking knowledge, it could not be otherwise than that in Wagner's musical ideas, in Wagner's musical feelings, the questions mentioned played a role in a completely different way than they could have done in a philosopher's soul.

And another element was added. It would be fascinating to characterize in detail how this second element came to be in Richard Wagner's soul. But there is no time for that. I will only hint at what this second element is and how it was added to the first. A second element is added: the contemplation of what had been created out of the Germanic spirit and soul within Central Europe in the way of myths and of the permeation of life with the mythical. Gradually, a wonderful contrast emerged in Wagner's soul, which, as it appeared in Central Europe, is nowhere else present in the spiritual development of mankind. And recently it appeared in Richard Wagner's soul like a renewal of Germanic myth. There we have an intimate coexistence and interweaving of the human soul with all that is elemental in nature, a loving engagement precisely with the sensually alive. It is to the Teutonic view of nature that we are appealing in these words, to that view of nature which can only live in souls that feel no direct discord between the soul and the physical in human life, because they sense the soul in such a way that this soul not only lives within the human being, but is one with that which blows in the wind, works in the storm, in everything that lives and pulsates in nature as soul and, I would say, the human being himself, who can be experienced inwardly, experienced again outwardly. And in addition to this feeling, this recognizing feeling and feeling-recognizing of nature, which is contained as a basic drive in all the abilities of the Germanic people, there is also a looking up to a world of gods that is well known, that can of course be interpreted in a naturalistic way, but this interpretation is at least one-sided. This upward gaze to Wotan, this upward gaze to Donar, this upward gaze to Baldur, to the other Germanic gods and to all that is connected with these Germanic gods in Germanic myth, this upward is really what the spiritual man finds when he does not merely direct himself towards nature, but when he abandons himself to his own productivity, his creative power. This world of Germanic gods and heroes and heroic geniuses is full of life. But it is not exhausted if it is seen as mere symbolism of nature.

Now Richard Wagner had taken up the view that the human being initially appears to be an end of nature's creation. What the human being forms in terms of ideas about a higher world arises in the human being. According to the newer world view, as it has just emerged, no such reality can be ascribed to it as to sensory things. The anxious question arose in him: How can one even come to a creative process in human life? Nature creates. It creates through its various stages of being up to and including the human being. The human being becomes aware of himself. The human being experiences what he produces. It appears merely as something created by the human being, which has no value in terms of reality. How can we have confidence in what the human being creates within himself? How can one trust it so that it forms a basis for man not merely to place himself in nature as it has created him, but so that he can place himself in the creation with something valid?

A figure, a central figure, had to arise in Wagner's soul, who would place himself in nature in this way, but also, with all the powers that nature itself has given him, give himself strength, security, and the ability to develop beyond the natural existence. But Richard Wagner had to assume that when man creates from his inner being, he is in fact only projecting the images that his imagination has produced, adding a non-real realm to the real realm.

What right does the human soul have to create something beyond nature? This question of feeling and emotion arose. What right is there, already in the existence of nature itself, in the blowing wind, in lightning and thunder, to sense spirituality and even more: to create a spiritual being above all of nature, as in Germanic mythology? How can one find a link between the two?

Philosophy could not do it in those days, insofar as it was the prevailing philosophy. Richard Wagner's musical soul undertook it. It actually undertook it out of an urge that was at the same time a deeply characteristic trait of the newer Central European essence in general.

How so? Yes, if you compare what Germanic myth, the Germanic way of penetrating into the natural world, is with what Greek myth, Greek penetration into natural life, was, then only an external observer can believe that the two are in the same field. Because that is not the case. Here too it would be interesting to probe into the deeper psychological underpinnings, but again, one can only characterize them with a few sketchy strokes.

1917-11-10-GA178

But how was Schopenhauer situated in the spiritual realm?

From 1860 through the years when Nietzsche was reading his books, Schopenhauer was in the midst of the spiritual battle that was still being fought out on that plane. Therefore Schopenhauer's inspiration of Nietzsche was colored by what he himself gathered from the battle of spirits in which he was involved.

In 1879 these spirits were cast down from heaven upon the earth. Up to 1879 Nietzsche's spiritual development had followed very curious paths.

They will be explained in the future as due to the influence of Schopenhauer and of Wagner. In my book Friedrich Nietzsche, a Fighter against his Time, you may find many supporting details.

Wagner had up to that time no particular influence except that he was active on earth. For Wagner was born in 1813; the battle of spirits only began in 1841. But Wagner died in 1883, and Nietzsche's spiritual development took its peculiar direction when Wagner's influence began. Wagner entered the spiritual world in 1883, when the battle of spirits was over, and the defeated spirits had been cast to earth.

Nietzsche was in the midst of things when the spirits began to roam around here on earth. Wagner's post mortem influence upon Nietzsche had an entirely different object from that of Schopenhauer.

Here begin the super-personal but definite influences, not those abstract demonic ones, of which the psychoanalyst speaks. Humanity must resolve to enter this concrete spiritual world, in order to comprehend things which are obvious if only the facts are tested. In the future Nietzsche's biography will state that he was stimulated by that Richard Wagner who was born in 1813, and took part up to 1879 everything that led to the brilliant being whom I described in my book; that he had the influence of Schopenhauer from his sixteenth year, but that Schopenhauer was involved in the spiritual battle that was fought upon the super-physical plane before 1879; that he was exposed to Wagner's influence after Wagner had died and entered the spiritual world, while Nietzsche was still here below, where the spirits of darkness were ruling.

Jung considers this a fact: that Nietzsche found a demon, and projected it without upon Wagner. Oh well—projections, potentials, introverted or extraverted human types—all words for abstractions, but nothing about realities! These things are truly important. This is not agitation for an anthroposophical world-conception for which we are prejudiced. On the contrary, everything outside of anthroposophy shows how necessary this conception is for present-day humanity!

1923-06-10-GA258

in a lecture on the anthro movement, and the fact the music of Wagner was a pole of attraction for 'homeless souls'. More on this on: Spiritual minority in a materialistic world#homeless souls

We might quite well take any other field; but let us take a very characteristic field; and here we find coming into prominence at a particular time what one may call ‘Wagnerianism’: the cult of Richard Wagner. There was, no doubt, mixed up with this Richard Wagner cult, a great deal of fashionable affectation, desire for sensation, and so forth.

...

And if these happened to be persons, who as homeless souls were more particularly impelled in this direction, they were stirred up by what I might call a sort of suggestive force in the Wagner dramas, particularly in the life that the Wagner dramas brought with them into our civilization, and began to have all sorts of hazy, emotional intuitions.

...

And so I made acquaintance at the end of the 'eighties with a group of this kind, composed in other respects of people of every variety of calling, with every different shade of colouring in life, but who were all homeless souls of this kind; and of whom a number, as I said, had come over from the Wagner region, and were people whose spiritual novitiate, so to speak, had been made in the Wagner region.

1924-03-15-GA235 Nietzsche on/and Wagner

I was also intensely interested in the connections of destiny of a man with whom my own life brought me into contact, namely Friedrich Nietzsche. I have studied the problem of Nietzsche in all its aspects and, as you know, have written and spoken a great deal about him.

His was indeed a strange and remarkable destiny.

...

There are three strongly marked and distinct periods in Nietzsche's life.

  • The first period begins when he wrote The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music while he was still quite young, inspired by the thought of music springing from Greek tragedy which had itself been born from music. Then, in the same strain, he wrote the four following works: David Friedrich Strauss; Confessor and Author, Schopenhauer as Educator, Thoughts out of Season, Richard Wagner in Bayreuth. This was in the year 1876. (The Birth of Tragedy was written in 1871). Richard Wagner in Bayreuth is a hymn of praise to Richard Wagner, actually perhaps the best thing that has been written by any admirer of Wagner.
  • Then a second period begins. Nietzsche writes his books, Human, All-too Human, in two volumes, the work entitled Dawn and thirdly, The Joyful Wisdom.

In the early writings, up to the year 1876, Nietzsche was in the highest sense of the word an idealist.

In the second epoch of his life he bids farewell to idealism in every shape and form; he makes fun of ideals; he convinces himself that if men set themselves ideals, this is due to weakness. When a man can do nothing in life, he says: Life is not worth any thing, one must hunt for an ideal. And so Nietzsche knocks down ideals one by one, puts them to the test, and conceives the manifestations of the Divine in nature as something “all-too-human,” something paltry and petty. Here we have Nietzsche the disciple of Voltaire, to whom he dedicates one of his writings. Nietzsche is here the rationalist, the intellectualist. And this phase lasts until about the year 1882 or 1883.

  • Then begins the final epoch of his life, when he unfolds ideas like that of the Eternal Recurrence and presents the figure of Zarathustra as a human ideal. He writes Thus spake Zarathustra in the style of a hymn.

Then he takes out again the notes he had once made on Wagner, and here we find something very remarkable! If one follows Nietzsche's way of working, it does indeed seem strange. Read his work Richard Wagner in Bayreuth. It is a grand, enraptured hymn of praise. And now, in the last epoch of his life, comes the book The Case of Wagner, in which everything that can possibly be said against Wagner is set down!

If one is content with trivialities, one will simply say: Nietzsche has changed sides, he has altered his views. But those who are really familiar with Nietzsche's manuscripts will not speak in this way.

In point of fact, when Nietzsche had written a few pages in the form of a hymn of praise to Wagner, he then proceeded to write down as well everything he could against what he himself had said! Then he wrote another hymn of praise, and then again he wrote in the reverse sense! The whole of The Case of Wagner was actually written in 1876, only Nietzsche put it aside, discarded it, and printed only the hymn of praise. And all that he did later on was to take his old drafts and interpolate a few caustic passages.

In this last period of his life the urge came to him to carry through an attack which in the first epoch he had abandoned. In all probability, if the manuscript he put aside as being out of keeping with his Richard Wagner in Bayreuth had been destroyed by fire, we should never have had The Case of Wagner at all.

Summaries of operas

from information in the public domain, 'Making Sense of Wagner’s Ring: A Viewer’s Guide' by Warren Bebbington

The storyline is essential to connect Rudolf Steiner's explanatory statements of the spiritual scientific context of the symbolism of the legend.

Rheingold

Deep in the Rhine River, three daughters of the Rhine swim and play. A lusty Nibelung dwarf Alberich appears and tries to trap one of them, but is suddenly distracted when a shaft of morning sunlight reveals a hoard of gold on a rock on the river’s bed. The Rhine-daughters tell him that whoever can forge a ring from the gold will gain power over the world, but only by first renouncing love. Alberich quickly swears he will renounce love, grabs the gold and races away with it to his home in the underworld, Nibelheim.

Above on a mountain top, the one-eyed Wotan is about to occupy Valhalla, a new castle built for the gods he leads. But his wife the goddess Fricka, who had requested the new home, is furious because he had agreed to pay the two giants who built it by handing over to them a goddess, Fricka’s sister Freia. The giants arrive to collect their payment, and Wotan intervenes with his all-powerful spear to stop the other gods attacking them to protect Freia. Wotan had sent the half-god Loge down into the world to find an alternative payment: he returns empty-handed, but with the tale of a hoard of gold in Nibelheim, stolen from the Rhine, from which Alberich has forged a ring of magical powers. The giants agree they would consider having gold instead of Freia, but they take her away as hostage until Wotan can obtain the gold to pay them.

Descending into Nibelheim, Wotan and Loge find Alberich has used the ring’s power to enslave the Nibelung race, who sit at anvils endlessly forging objects for him from the gold. Alberich is taunting his brother Mime with the Tarnhelm, a magic helmet that transforms its wearer into any shape. He brags to the two visiting gods of the Tarnhelm’s powers, demonstrating by turning himself into a large serpent. Loge feigns terror, and asks if Alberich can also turn himself into something small. Alberich then becomes a toad, which the gods immediately trap, and take back to the mountaintop, along with the gold. Wotan takes the ring from Alberich and puts it on his own finger; so the furious Alberich puts a curse on the ring: anyone who possesses it will die.

The giants return and reluctantly agree to release the attractive Freia, but only if the gold makes a pile high enough to conceal her form from their sight. The gods pile up all the gold, adding the Tarnhelm, but Wotan is loath to part with the ring. A wise spirit Erda then appears and warns him that possession of the cursed ring will bring the end of the gods. Wotan reluctantly adds the ring to pile, and Freia is released. The giants immediately squabble over dividing their shares of the gold, and one kills the other—first victim of the ring’s curse.

The gods turn away to enter their new home Valhalla, across a bridge of rainbow, created from lightning and thunder by the storm god Donner. As they do so, the wails of the Rhine-daughters can be heard from the valley below, lamenting the loss of their gold.

Walkure

[Act 1]

It is at least 18 years after the events of Rhine Gold. In a dark forest during a violent thunderstorm, a young man flees for his life, stumbling exhausted into the warrior Hunding’s cottage for shelter. Hunding’s wife Sieglinde enters and brings the man water. Hunding returns home and questions the man, who calls himself “Woeful,” his woes including a mother murdered, a father vanished and a twin sister abducted. He explains he is being chased by the Neiding clan, one of whom he killed at a wedding for trying to force a girl into marriage. But Hunding announces he is a kinsman of the Neiding: the young man may spend the night but in the morning they will fight to the death. Left alone, Siegmund calls for his vanished father to give him the sword he promised him in his hour of need. Sieglinde reappears, having drugged her husband Hunding. She tells him of her own forced Neiding wedding, at which a one-eyed stranger appeared and sank a sword into the ash tree that grows through the centre of the cottage, promising great things to the man who could pull it out; no wedding guest was able to. She believes the young man has come to deliver her and that he will be able to draw out the sword and use it in the fight with Hunding. A door swings open, revealing the storm has subsided, and the man celebrates the passing of winter. In the dawn light, Sieglinde recognises his face: it is her long-lost twin brother: they are twins of a Volsung mother. She will call him Siegmund (Victorious one); he draws the sword out of the tree, naming it Nothung (Needful). They embrace passionately, she will be both “bride and sister” to him.

[Act 2]

On a craggy mountain, Wotan tells his favourite daughter, the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, to protect Siegmund in his coming fight with Hunding. But his wife Fricka arrives, incensed that not only have Wotan’s infidelities produced nine Valkyrie daughters with the spirit Erda, but worse, now he has fathered the incestuous twins Siegmund and Sieglinde with a mere mortal, a Volsung woman. She demands the death of Siegmund as punishment for his incest.

Wotan tries to explain that he needs a man not controlled by him, to act of his own free will to get the gold back from the giant Fafner; his own hands are tied by his contract to pay the gold to the giants, a contract which, as the world’s ruler he is obliged to honour. But Fricka ridicules him: Siegmund who he fathered and left a sword for is hardly free. Wotan despairs: he must obey Fricka and uphold the law.

In a long monologue he explains to Brunnhilde how he is “the least free of all things”; with rising frustration he rages he would abandon Valhalla and his rule to Alberich in an instant. He can see no way out, and orders Brunnhilde that she must now withhold protection from Siegmund in the fight, she must see he dies.

With a heavy heart, Brunnhilde appears to Siegmund to announce his impending death, and explain how she is a Valkyrie whose role is to convey his dead body to Valhalla where he will be granted eternal life. To her astonishment, Siegmund declares he would rather stay with his beloved Sieglinde than have eternal life. She cannot see such a fervent human love destroyed, and resolves she will disobey her father’s order, and allow the loving twins to live on. As the hour of the fight approaches, Sieglinde has a nightmare of the death of her mother. Hunding enters and calls on Siegmund to face him; Brunnhilde appears in a white cloud protecting him. Wotan, enraged to see his daughter’s betrayal, appears in a red cloud and with his spear smashes Siegmund’s sword to pieces, enabling Hunding to kill him. Quickly, Brunnhilde gathers up the pieces of the smashed sword, bundles the now fainted Sieglinde onto her horse and rides off for Valhalla. Desolate over his dead son, Wotan strikes Hunding dead, then in a fury rides off in pursuit of Brunnhilde.

[Act 3]

The Valkyries call to each other as they ride into Valhalla, each with a dead warrior to whom eternal life will be granted. But when they see Brünnhilde arrive with Sieglinde on her horse, fleeing from Wotan, they will not disobey their father to assist her.

Brünnhilde tells Sieglinde that she is pregnant with Siegmund’s child, and must flee to the forest for her safety: Fafner lives there with the gold, and Wotan avoids it. She gives Sieglinde the pieces of the sword to hold for her expected son, whom she requests be called Siegfried (victorious peace); Sieglinde thanks her profoundly, and rides off.

Wotan rides in and angrily berates Brunnhilde, announcing she will be punished by being removed from the gods, left in sleep on a mountaintop as an ordinary mortal woman, vulnerable to being possessed by any man. Brünnhilde is horrified, and pleads that she tried to do only what her father wished to do but could not. She begs him, if she is to be punished in this way, to surround her sleeping body with a ring of fire, so that only a hero with no fear can reach her. Wotan’s heart is softened, and he agrees: in tears he kisses her eyes and she falls into a deep sleep, he covers her body with her armour, and summoning Loge, the god of fire, he surrounds her with fire. Heartbroken by having to enforce such a punishment against his favourite child, he withdraws sadly from the scene

Siegfried

[Act 1]

It is perhaps 16 years after the end of The Valkyrie. In the forest, Fafner lives with the gold, having turned himself into a dragon to protect it. Sieglinde has died in childbirth, and her son Siegfried is being raised by Mime, Alberich’s brother. In his forest cave, Mime repeatedly forges swords for Siegfried, but each one the teenager smashes as too weak. Siegfried enters, terrifying Mime with a bear. Mime gives him the latest sword, which again he smashes on the anvil. Siegfried forces from Mime the true story of his parents, how his father was killed, his sword smashed to pieces, and his mother died in childbirth. As proof Mime produces the pieces of his father’s sword, which Siegfried immediately tells him to repair, and bounds off into the forest.

Presently a much older Wotan enters disguised as a “Wanderer,” and challenges Mime to a game of 3 questions each, in which whoever loses will forfeit his life. Mime asks three simplistic questions, which the Wanderer answers in some annoyance. The Wanderer then asks his three, the last of which—Who will forge the smashed sword?— Mime cannot answer, and complains that he has been trying endlessly to forge it, but cannot. The Wanderer says Mime wasted his questions, and could have asked who will forge the sword, which will be the man who knows no fear. He leaves, telling Mime his life is now forfeit.

Siegfried returns, and finding the sword still not repaired does it himself. He heats the bellows to a high temperature and melts the pieces down to base metal, remaking the whole sword afresh, singing its name Nothung to himself as he works. Watching this, Mime realises it is Siegfried who knows no fear, that he can use him to slay Fafner, fantasizing that then he will then poison the boy to obtain the gold for himself. Siegfried slams the finished sword down on the anvil to test it, as he did with the others, but this time the sword is so strong it breaks the anvil in two.

[Act 2]

Alberich is hiding outside Fafner’s cave. The Wanderer appears, telling him that Mime approaches bringing Siegfried to fight the dragon. He wakes the dragon and Alberich offers to deflect Siegfried in return for the ring, but Fafner refuses.

Mime enters with Siegfried, telling him here he will learn fear; Mime then hides to watch what will happen. Siegfried lies down to wait, listening to the murmurs of the forest and wishing he could understand the forest birds he hears singing. He tries making a reed pipe to communicate with them, then tries playing his silver horn, which rouses the dragon. Siegfried is delighted to find a companion, but Fafner thinks he will eat Siegfried for lunch. So Siegfried kills the dragon, and withdrawing his sword from the body, is scalded by the dragon’s blood. Putting the blood on his finger to his mouth, he can suddenly understand the singing of the woodbird, who tells him to take the ring and Tarnhelm from the cave for himself, and warns him against Mime.

While Siegfried is in the cave, Alberich and Mime come out of hiding and start arguing over who will have the gold. Siegfried reappears, now understanding that Mime’s offer of a refreshing drink is poison that will kill him; he strikes Mime dead with his sword. He rests under a linden tree, but hearing from the woodbird that a wife awaits the man with no fear on the mountaintop, surrounded by a ring of fire, he sets off for the mountain.

[Act 3]

Below the rocky mountain summit, Wotan summons Erda, to ask how he can stop events unfolding he can no longer control. She tells him he is no longer what he once was, and should consult Brunnhilde for advice; but he explains he has locked Brunnhilde in sleep as a punishment for disobedience. She tells him the end of the gods is coming, and sinks back into the Earth.

Seeing Siegfried coming up the path, he steps out, yearning for an encounter with the grandson he has never met. But the teenager’s lack of respect infuriates him, and he tries to bar the way to the mountaintop, warning that his spear had shattered the sword Siegfried holds. Siegfried then thinks this must be his father’s killer, so he draws his sword and shatters Wotan’s spear. Wotan, the agent of his power now destroyed, disappears.

Siegfried passes through the fire and sees what he thinks is the armour-clad body of a dead male warrior. He lifts the shield and sees breathing, then removes the breastplate, and draws back in fear at his first sight of a woman’s breasts. He cries out for his mother, but is soon overcome with unfamiliar emotions of arousal. After trying in vain to wake her, he kisses her lips. Slowly opening her eyes, Brünnhilde greets the sun, but is ashamed, reminded by the presence of her horse nearby that she is no longer a Valkyrie. She sees the burning ardour of the young Siegfried, whose existence she had known about since before he was born; she tries to have him leave her be. But soon she is moved by his passionate pleading, and they embrace, declare their love to each other, and adjourn to a cave for the night.

Gotterdammerung

[Prologue]

It is before dawn the next morning on Brunnhilde’s rock, around which the ring of fire still glows. Outside the cave where Brunnhilde and Siegfried are asleep, three Norns recline, reflecting on the past and prophesying the future as they spin the rope of Destiny. They recall Wotan’s originally carving his all-powerful spear from a branch of the World Ash Tree, but now without his spear he has felled the Ash Tree, piling it up as firewood around Valhalla, which he waits to light when the end of the gods threatens. But they cannot foresee the events that will lead to this, the rope snaps, and they return to the Earth.

At dawn Siegfried and Brünnhilde emerge from their cave. He gives her the ring as a token of love, and she gives him her horse to ride down the mountain, where he takes a boat down the Rhine.

[Act 1]

Further downstream, the home of the Gibichung stands on the Rhine’s banks. The Gibichung king Gunther and his sister Gutrune are both unmarried, and seek the counsel of their half-brother, Hagen as to who they should court. Hagen advises Gunther to marry the woman on the mountaintop Brünnhilde: she will need to be brought through the ring of fire by Siegfried (Hagen thus hopes to secure the ring from them for himself).

They hail Siegfried to shore as his boat approaches down the Rhine, and Hagen contrives to have Gutrune offer him a drink, which contains a powerful potion that wipes his memory and puts him at once in their power. Immediately, all knowledge of Brunnhilde vanishes from Siegfried’s mind, and instead he sees Gutrune, who Gunther says he can marry in exchange from bringing him Brünnhilde. Siegfried agrees, they swear blood brotherhood, and Siegfried returns to the mountain to fetch Brunnhilde. As evening falls Hagen gloats over the unfolding events as he keeps watch.

Meanwhile on the mountain, Brünnhilde’s Valkyrie sister Waltraute arrives to tell her of the gloom pervading Valhalla because of Alberich’s curse on Wotan, and to ask her to return the ring to the Rhinemaidens, which would end the curse’s effect. But Brunnhilde will not give up what was a symbol of love given her by Siegfried.

Dusk falls and Siegfried returns thorough the fire, disguised as Gunther; wresting the ring from the horrified Brünnhilde, claiming her as his (Gunther’s) bride and dragging her into the cave to consummate her union with the Gibichung king.

[Act 2]

During the night as Hagen keeps watch at the Gibichung hall, his father Alberich appears and urges him to swear he will regain the ring for them. As dawn breaks, Siegfried returns, telling Hagen he has done as agreed, won Brünnhilde for Gunther, who approaches with her in a boat on the Rhine. He can now claim Gutrune’s hand in marriage in return. Hagen summons the vassals to welcome back the king and his bride-to-be as they arrive.

Brünnhilde is horrified to see Siegfried unknowing of her and on the arm of another woman. But seeing the ring on his finger, she knows trickery has been at work. She tells the assembled throng that Siegfried has already slept with her, and thus King Gunther has been dishonoured. Siegfried swears he has never done this, and all withdraw in confusion. Hagen quietly asks Brunnhilde if it is true that Siegfried is fearless and undefeatable; in a jealous rage Brunnhilde reveals that his back is unprotected, so he can be defeated by stabbing his back. All return, dressed for the double wedding, with children throwing garlands, as Siegfried and Gurtune eagerly join the wedding procession, while Brunnhilde begrudgingly follows Gunther.

[Act 3]

The next morning, the Gibichung menfolk hunt in the forest. Siegfried has become separated from the hunting party, following a bear, which he loses, and comes out on the banks of the Rhine to see the Rhine-daughters swimming towards him. They offer to give him a bear in exchange for the ring, but he tells them he won it fighting a dragon, so would not give it up; he ignores their warnings about the curse on it. Presently, the hunting party catches up, and while Siegfried is distracted by two ravens flying overhead, Hagen spears him in the back. Siegfried falls dying, in his delirium the effect of the potion lifts and he can clearly see Brunnhilde and their love again, but he expires. The men raise him on a bier and carry him in funeral procession back to the Hall of the Gibichung.

There, Gutrune awaits the return of her new husband from the hunt, but instead receives back his dead body. After first claiming Siegfried was killed by a wild boar, Hagen admits he killed him to avenge Gunther’s hon- our, and that he should be rewarded with the ring. But Gunther says then ring now belongs to Gutrune, as a widow inherits her husband’s possessions; Hagen becomes enraged and kills Gunther. He then scrambles to take the ring from the dead Siegfried’s finger, but the hand of the corpse with the ring suddenly rises up, and all fall back in terror.

Brünnhilde then steps forward, calling for a funeral pyre of logs to be built, laying Siegfried’s body on it, and calling for a flaming torch.

She then takes the ring from his finger, tossing it back into the Rhine and the care of the Rhine-daughters. She declares Siegfried a great hero and rails against Wotan for betraying them both. She throws the torch on the pyre. Mounting her horse, she rides into the flames, greeting her husband as hero, crying out as the flames engulf them both that she will embrace him as husband in mightiest love.

The flames of the pyre rise up and consume the Gibichung Hall, which comes crashing down. The Rhine overflows its banks, and Hagen dives in, trying to retrieve the ring; but the Rhine-daughters pull him under the water and drown him. In the distance a red glow can be seen as the logs of the World Ash Tree burn and consume Valhalla, with the gods sitting silently, awaiting their end. They are finally engulfed in the flames.

Discussion

Note 1 - Introductory music fragments

Introduction

For people not familiar with Wagner's music, below are five short pieces of orchestral music (so without the vocals from the opera), all fragments between 2' and 4' (so the time of a pop song). Advised to listen fully focused and immersed for a conscious soul experience.

The first three excerpts offer a 9' introduction to the music to start with (2'+4'+3')

  • [1] Parsifal (ouverture)- the first two minutes
  • [2] Rheingold (ouverture) - first four minutes
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiyoLa9z1ao
    • various quotes on this higher on this page, just one quote from 1907-12-02-GA092

      The old Atlanteans were possessed of a consciousness of brotherhood in the truest sense of the word. This was followed by the transition to I-consciousness. And now think of the beginning of the Rhinegold. Is not the coming of this I-consciousness expressed in the opening notes themselves, in the long E flat on the organ? Do we not feel here that individual consciousness is emerging from the ocean of consciousness universal?

  • [3] Götterdämmerung - Siegfried's death and funeral march - < 10' listen eg from 4' to 7'
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXh5JprKqiU
    • note: example of online comments on this excerpt:

      "4:03 - 4:40 - no matter how many times I hear that, I still can't quite believe what I'm hearing. " ... indeed a key passage with this spiralling .. may be about a deep cosmic impulse that comes to Man .. the sensitive reflective 3’35-4’03 preceeding it .. this new un-earthly sounding impulse comes from very deep (the basses) but has these unstoppable whirling forward moving waves that bring something totally new .. which erupts out of it .. this deep cosmic current gives birth 4’40-5’15 to something totally new .. like the christ impulse that transforms death into resurrection .. and then, as the grim death sounds resurface again 5’35 this theme manifests again so as to transform and lead into sounds of glorious victory 6’00 onwards .. life forces over death

If you want some more, here's two more excerpts for another 8'

and last but not least, in a special category for many people - like [1]

.

But it's not just music, it's opera, a few very short movies for an impression:

Extended versions

Related pages

References and further reading

  • Edouard Schuré: 'Le drame musical. Richard Wagner, son œuvre et son idée' (1875, 2 volumes)
  • Max Heindel:
    • 'Mysteries of the Great Operas' (1921)
      • operas of Faust: Parsifal; the Ring of the Niebelung; Tannhauser; Lohengrin
    • 'Mysteries of Parsifal: Wagner's Mystic Music Drama' (lecture published as separate booklet and in 'The Rosicrucian Christianity Lectures', 1909 and 1939, 2024)
  • Ernst Uehli
    • 'Die Geburt der Individualität aus dem Mythos : als künstlerisches Erlebnis Richard Wagners' (1920)
    • 'Richard Wagners mystisches Lebensbild' (1953)
  • Hermann Beckh
    • 'Richard Wagner und das Christentum' (1936)
    • 'Die Sprache der Tonart in der Musik von Bach bis Bruckner : mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Wagner'schen Musikdramas' (1936)
    • The Essence of Tonality / The Parsifal Christ-Experience: An Attempt to View Musical Subjects in the Light of Spiritual Science (2022)
  • Johannes Bertram: 'Mythos, Symbol, Idee in Richard Wagners Musikdramen' (1957)
  • Otto Julius Hartmann
    • 'Die Esoterik im Werk Richard Wagners' (1960)
    • Die geistigen Hintergründe der Musikdramen Richard Wagners (1976)
  • Friedel Lenz: 'Die Bildsprache der Mythologie. Richard Wagners Ring, 4 Hefte (1970)
  • Friedrich Oberkogler
    • Richard Wagner und das Christentum (1967)
    • Parsifal : eine Bühnenweihfestspiel von Richard Wagner ; eine musikalisch-geisteswissenschaftliche Einführung und Werkbesprechung (1969)
    • Merlin - Richard Wagner : Versuch einer geisteswissenschaftlichen Betrachtung über die karmischen Hintergründe der Biographie Richard Wagners (1974)
    • Richard Wagner vom Ring zum Gral : Wiedergewinnung seines Werkes aus Musik und Mythos (1978) (note: 730 pages)
    • Der Fliegende Holländer von Richard Wagner : eine musikalisch-geisteswissenschaftliche Werkbesprechung (1983)
    • Parsifal : der Zukunftsweg des Menschen in Richard Wagners Musikdrama (1983)
    • Lohengrin von Richard Wagner : eine musikalisch-geisteswissenschaftliche Werkbesprechung (1984)
  • Franz E. Winkler
    • The mythology in Richard Wagner's 'The ring of the Nibelung' (1966)
    • The mythology in Wagner's 'Parsifal' (1967-68)
    • The mythology in Wagner's 'The Rhinegold' (1964)
    • The mythology in Wagner's 'The twilight of the Gods' (1968)
    • For freedom destined : mysteries of man's evolution in the mythology of Wagner's Ring Operas and Parsifal (1974)
    • Richard Wagner : Der Ring des Nibelungen ; verbunden mit einer Betrachtung über Parsifal - das Mysterium des Grals ; Versuch zu einem tieferen Verstehen (1981)
  • Oskar Andree
    • Ein Geistesruf für unsere Zeit in Richard Wagners 'Meistersingern' (1974)
    • Richard Wagners 'Ring der Nibelungen' (1976)
  • Carl Albert Friedenreich: 'Richard Wagner : Eine geisteswissenschaftliche Studie ueber Wesen und Aufgabe seiner Musik' (1967)
  • J. Vanvinckenroye: 'Parsifal van Richard Wagner' (1979)
  • Ewald Koepke: Richard Wagners Gralsimpuls : ein Vortrag (1983)
  • Walter Beck: 'Richard Wagner : neue Dokumente zur Biographie : die Spiritualität im Drama seines Lebens' (1988)

Wagner and Steiner

  • Camille Schneider: 'Edouard Schuré : seine Lebensbegegnungen mit Rudolf Steiner und Richard Wagner' (1971)
  • George Hastings: 'Richard Wagner, Rudolf Steiner & Allegories of the Ring: From the Mundane to the Esoteric' (2011)
  • Udo Bermbach: 'Der anthroposophe Wagner: Rudolf Steiner über Richard Wagner' (2021)
    • In 1905 Steiner gave a total of six lectures in Berlin, Cologne and Vienna on Wagner and his work, in which he placed the composer within the cosmos of his own thinking. These lectures have not yet received any attention in Wagner literature, presumably because these adaptations are hardly compatible with the general Wagner discourse. Nevertheless, they are an important document of Wagner's influence on non-musical areas. The book presented here is the first attempt to introduce them to a wider audience.

Additional

  • Patrick Mason: 'Der Ring des Nibelungen
  • Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington: 'Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung: a companion' (1993, edition 2010)
Retrieved from "https://anthroposophy.eu/w/index.php?title=Richard_Wagner&oldid=33584"
Powered by MediaWiki
Powered by Semantic MediaWiki