The times are not well suited to my arts, I find no means of access to men's souls. See, here comes one whom I did sorely plague. Though ignorant in spirit he draws nigh; For reason doth compel him to push on. So I withdraw from him and from this place Which he can only tread unconsciously.
With faith's clear power will I myself imbue And force of living trust will I breathe deep, From out the soul's glad striving that the light May dawn upon the spirit-slumberer.
With humble joy of soul will I entwine That which hath been revealed; and will condense The rays of hope that light in dark may shine; And twilight in the light, that thus the powers May bear aloft the spirit-slumberer.
Soul light will I make warm, and will make hard The power of love. Then shall they daring grow, And shall release themselves, and mounting up Endue themselves with weight, that cosmic loads May fall from off the spirit-slumberer That his soul's love of light may set him free.
My comrades, I have hither summoned you Who with me seek to find the spirit-light That should flow streaming to the souls of men. Ye know the nature of the sun of soul; Oft doth it shine with fullest noontide glare, And then again like feeble twilight steal Powerless through mists of visionary dream. And often doth the darkness drive it out. The temple-servants' spirit-gaze must pierce To soul depths where there shines with powerful ray, The spirit-light that comes from cosmic heights. Then too it must disclose mysterious aims That lurk unnoticed in the soul's dark lairs Intent on shaping man's development. Those spirit-beings who from cosmic powers Bestow the spirit-food on human souls Are present now within the sacred fane To guide this man's soul from the spirit-night Into the kingdom of the light on high. The sleep of knowledge still envelops him; But spirit-calls already have been heard In his soul's depths of which he never knew. That which they spoke deep in his inmost soul Will shortly find its way to spirit-ears.
This soul hath not been able hitherto To recognize itself in spirit-light That through sense-revelation is outpoured, To show the meaning of all earthly growth. It saw God's spirit stripped of nature's guise, And Nature's self estranged from deity. And so through many lives it had to pass And stay a stranger to the sense of life; It could but find alone such carnal tenements To carry out its individual work As barred it from the cosmos and from man. Now in the temple it will earn the power To recognize strange Being as its own, And so be able to attain the force That leads out from the labyrinths of thought And points the way unto the springs of life.