The Soul’s Awakening

The Soul’s Awakening: A Drama of the Soul & Spirit (CW 14)

Premiered August 17, 1911, Gardener’s Place Theater, Munich; published 1912 (CW 14)

Rudolf Steiner said of his mystery dramas—written between 1910 and 1913—that they contain the whole essence of anthroposophy and that if, through some unlikely chance, only these dramas were to survive, the essential content of anthroposophy would nevertheless be preserved.

These dramas are powerful portrayals of the complex processes of reincarnation and karma. In them, we are led to inhabit the living landscape of the human soul-spirit where suprasensory beings work at weaving the destinies of individuals.

Here we find a connection with the spiritual reality of human life itself by following the dramatic interplay of the joy and sorrow, struggle and striving of a group of individuals attempting to apply spiritual knowledge to their practical lives and relationships. To read, watch, or act in these plays is an initiation experience.

In The Soul’s Awakening, the fourth mystery drama, an enlightened entrepreneur appoints a scientist, a historian, and an artist to use their spiritual perceptions to transform his business into one that serves spiritual as well as practical needs. A long-standing colleague objects, and a series of conflicts and crises develops.

As the plot unfolds, we follow the characters on a journey that moves from business meetings through various states of consciousness, into worlds known before birth and previous lives in Egypt.

This translation of Steiner’s fourth mystery drama was created for Portal Productions’ international tour of the drama during mid-1990s.

This classic translation by Ruth and Hans Pusch was revised for this volume by Ruth Pusch. Included is Hans Pusch’s “Thoughts on the Seal,” in which he discusses the Rosicrucian meaning of the seal represented on the cover.

This book is a translation of “Der Seelen Erwachen,” published as part four of Vier Mysteriendramen (Four Mystery Dramas: “The Portal of Initiation”; “ The Trial of the Soul”; “The Guardian of the Threshold”; and “The Souls’ Awakening”).

About the Author

Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe’s scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner’s multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.