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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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Search results 5681 through 5690 of 6552

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274. Introductions for Traditional Christmas Plays: Introduction 06 Jan 1918, Dornach

Women were not allowed to play, I must explicitly note that, which of course must be different for easily understandable reasons in our performance today. The older and younger boys who were to play had to learn their roles in October and November until Advent.
Furthermore, during all this time, they had to follow the instructions given to them by the master of the play to the letter. Under these conditions, the roles were then assigned and learned. The roles of Mary and Eve were also always performed by a younger boy.
And the performances were, as I said, understood without sentimentality, but with a certain real moral seriousness. This can be seen from the fact – as Schröer himself once experienced, for example – that the actors once refused to play in a village – they then went around the neighborhood to perform the plays there – where they were met by a gang of musicians.
274. Introductions for Traditional Christmas Plays: Introduction 19 Dec 1920, Dornach

And from the way in which people had to prepare for the solemnity of these plays, one can see the spirit in which such things were undertaken. There lived, I might say, an inwardly cozy Christianity, an inwardly cozy Christianity. One sees it in the whole way of introducing such plays.
This strict regulation was that during the rehearsals, the rehearsers had to be strictly obedient to the clergyman or teacher, that is, to everyone who had to be a teacher. Well, you will understand that we can never introduce that among ourselves, of course. But you can see from these strict paragraphs how extraordinarily seriously this matter was taken.
274. Introductions for Traditional Christmas Plays: Introduction 22 Dec 1920, Dornach

We talked a lot about the way these plays were performed, and it is quite possible, even though we work under completely different conditions, not in a rural inn or the like and not with the direct participation of the entire population, as it was there, it is still possible to stay in the style approximately.
Such rules, which extended to the whole life of these boys, show how seriously the matter was undertaken. We hear, for example, that the people who were to participate had to fulfill one condition. We do not need to prescribe this because it goes without saying that anthroposophists lead honorable lives, but this does not always seem to have been the case with the local boys.
It is truly a wonderful Christian life that has been preserved. Under modern conditions, these things are also being completely lost. For years, we have considered it one of our tasks to present such things, which lead more than any theoretical historical reflection into the life of the past, in turn vividly to the minds of the present, and we believe that it is really possible in this way to show how Christianity from the 11th to the 19th century lived in numerous minds in Central Europe, far to the south.
274. Introductions for Traditional Christmas Plays: Introduction 23 Dec 1921, Dornach

This is evident from the strict rules that existed for those who had rehearsed these plays for many weeks under the direction of the master. Such rules were, for example, that those boys who were chosen to study and perform this Christmas play had to show unconditional obedience to their master in an extraordinary way during the time of rehearsals; that they had to lead a moral life during this time.
If you perform them sentimentally, you simply show that you have no understanding for an element that was particularly present in the religious life of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern times.
274. Introductions for Traditional Christmas Plays: Introduction 01 Jan 1923, Dornach

Great pain knows how to remain silent about what it feels. And so you will understand me when I say just a few words to you before we begin the Epiphany play. The work that was created by the self-sacrificing love and devotion of numerous friends enthusiastic about our movement within ten years was destroyed in one night.
275. Art as Seen in the Light of Mystery Wisdom: Technology and Art 28 Dec 1914, Dornach
Translated by Pauline Wehrle, Johanna Collis

If we want to understand what these indications actually mean we must recall to memory a spiritual scientific truth which you no doubt know, namely, that whilst we are asleep our ego and astral body are outside our physical and etheric body.
Mankind was torn away from the genius of language. Nobody can understand the actual jolt mankind was given in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, unless he studies the special character of this damping down of undertones in the experiencing of speech.
If you once envisage history with these subtle language undertones in mind, you will understand why, at the point of time I have indicated, the various European nationalities grouped themselves together, those nationalities who before that time had quite different relationships with one another; who were governed by quite different impulses in their relationships to one another.
275. Art as Seen in the Light of Mystery Wisdom: Impulses of Transformation for Man's Artistic Evolution I 29 Dec 1914, Dornach
Translated by Pauline Wehrle, Johanna Collis

Therefore the first step towards initiation is to gain an understanding of how these forces act upon the human being. I have tried to show here what is involved even in a movement as simple as resting the head in the hand.
When we thus explore the connection that exists between man and the whole cosmos, which we can do to a certain extent under the guidance of art, we can bring a certain measure of life into what otherwise remains a mere skeleton of ideas.
Those who make this comparison will see that, unless there is an understanding of the human organisation, it is impossible to reach a real comprehension of what lives around us and gives us joy.
275. Art as Seen in the Light of Mystery Wisdom: Impulses of Transformation for Man's Artistic Evolution II 30 Dec 1914, Dornach
Translated by Pauline Wehrle, Johanna Collis

If you try to enter a little into what is described in Occult Science as the Saturn, Sun, and Moon evolutions, you will discover that an architectural mood underlies the description of the Saturn evolution, a sculptural mood underlies the description of the Sun evolution, and a pictorial mood underlies the description of the Moon evolution; an attempt was made to express these moods by choosing suitable words.
Of course this is only possible up to a certain point, and you will understand why this is so when you perceive all the implications of what has been said about the technical environment.
I shall not elaborate on these concluding remarks or go into more detail because I believe that there are a good many among you who will perhaps understand much of what is meant by them, who will understand that they were intended as an indication of a number of things that are satisfactory and a number that are disappointing.
275. Art as Seen in the Light of Mystery Wisdom: Cosmic New Year: the Dream Song of Olaf Asteson 31 Dec 1914, Dornach
Translated by Pauline Wehrle, Johanna Collis

It was a profound necessity that these words were heard at a certain time in modern civilisation. People will only really understand these words when the threefold membering of the human being is understood, because until then they will not realise the significance these words can have with regard to man's real being.
The divine-spiritual universal order implanted them into the human soul at a time when we did not understand them, in order that key words of this kind might lead us on to true universal understanding. We can notice the wise guidance in world evolution even in things like this.
The time arrived when all our spiritual forces were applied to understanding and grasping material life. Insights, understanding and visions of the spiritual world existing in ancient knowledge were forgotten more and more, as we have seen.
275. Art as Seen in the Light of Mystery Wisdom: Moral Experience of the Worlds of Colour and Tone 01 Jan 1915, Dornach
Translated by Pauline Wehrle, Johanna Collis

Yesterday it was my task to point out to you that through a feeling understanding of our spiritual-scientific world outlook, the human soul should acquire reverence and devotion for the spiritual worlds.
We can also experience the form red takes on when it enters space. We can then understand how we can experience a being that radiates goodness and is full of divine kindness and mercy, a being that we want to feel in the realm of space.
We shall learn to experience something of the creative activity of the Spirits of Form who are the Elohim, and we shall then understand how colour can create forms, as indicated in our first Mystery Play. We shall also understand something of how the surface nature of the colour becomes something that has to be overcome, as it were, because we accompany colour into the cosmos.

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