THE ROCK SPRING WONDER
A therapeutic Fairy Tale given by Frau Felicia Balde
in Scene 5 of ‘The Soul’s Probation’ , the Mystery Drama, which was
first performed 100 years ago in August. Rudolf Steiner was 50
years old at that time.
There
was a boy who lived -
the
only child of needy forest-folk -
Deep
in a woodland solitude.
Few
people had he met besides his parents.
His build was slender,
his skin appeared almost
transparent.
Within his eyes were hidden
the deepest wonders of the
spirit;
and one could look into them
long.
Although few human beings ever
came
into the circle of his daily
life,
the boy was well befriended
nonetheless.
When golden sunshine bathed the
mountain tops,
with thoughtful eye, he drew the
spirit-gold
into his soul, until his heart
became
much like, the morning glory of the
sun.
But
when the morning sunshine could not
break
through banks of cloud, and
dreariness
had covered all the heights,
his eye grew dull,
and sorrow filled his
heart.
So he was given over to
the spirit-weaving of his
world,
which seemed to be as much a part of
him
as did his limbs and body. All the
woods -
the trees and flowers grew to be his
friends;
From crown to calyx, and from tops of
trees,
the spirit beings often spoke with
him,
and
all their sounding he could
understand.
Of hidden secrets, wonders of the
world,
they spoke to this young boy; thus he
could talk
within his soul to certain
things,
which people might think lifeless.
Evening came,
and still the child would be away from
home.
This caused his loving parents much
concern.
Then he was found nearby:
A rock-born spring rose up among the
rocks
to dance in misty spray upon the
stones.
When moonbeams silver glance
enchanted colour-light,
which mirrored on the surface of the
spray,
the boy could stay for hours
beside the spring.
And spirit forms appeared before his
sight,
resplendent in the moonlit
waterdrops.
They grew into three women’s
forms
who spoke to him about those things on
which
his yearning soul had
turned its sight.
And when, upon a gentle summer’s
eve,
the boy was once more sitting by the
spring,
one women of the three caught
up
a
myriad of sparkling drops
out of the rainbow spray,
and gave them to the second woman
there.
She fashioned from the tiny
drops
a
chalice with a silver gleam
,
and passed it to the third.
She filled it with the moonlight’s
silver shine,
And gave it to the boy.
who had beheld all
this
with youthful inner sight.
Now in the night
that followed this event,
he dreamed a savage dragon
had
robbed him of the chalice
.
The boy beheld just three more
times
the wonder of the rock-born
spring.
Henceforth the women came no
more,
although
the boy sat musing
beside the spring in silver
moonlight.
And when three hundred sixty
weeks
had run their course,
the
boy had since become a man
and left his parents’ home and forest
land
to move and work in a strange
town.
One night , exhausted from his
toil,
he
pondered on what life had left for
him.
Then suddenly he felt he was a
boy,
brought back to where the spring rose
forth.
Again he could behold the water -
women,
And, this time he could hear them
speak
The first one said to him:
‘Think thou of me at any
time
when thou dost feel alone in
life.
I lure man’s yearning heart
to
starry spaces and ethereal realms.
To whosoever wills to feel me,
I
give the
drink-of-living-hope
Out of my wonder chalice.’-
And then the second spoke:
‘Forget not me at any time
when
thy life’s courage may be
threatened.
I lead the yearning heart
to deepest grounds of soul, and heights
of spirit.
And whosoever seeks his strength from
me
For him I forge the
steel-of-living-faith
Formed with my wonder hammer’.-
The third one could be heard:
‘To
me lift up thy spirit-eye
when thy life’s riddles storm
thysoul.
I spin the threads of thought that
lead
Through labyrinths of life and depths
of soul.
For whosoever harbours trust in
me,
I weave the
living-rays-of-love
Upon my wonder loom’.-
And it befell the man
that in the night that followed,
he dreamed a dream:
A savage dragon prowled
in circles round about -
and
yet could not come near him.
He was protected from that dragon
by
the beings he had seen beside the
falls,
who had accompanied him from
home
to this far distant place.
Rudolf Steiner
Translation by Katherine Rudolph
(with special attention given to the metre)
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