RecitalDie Schone MullerinConclusionCinemaseekersSt. Matthew PassionWinterreiseIntroduction
 
 
 
Ian Bostridge's latest recording of Schubert's "Die schone Mullerin" (with Mitsuko Uchida) is an amazing achievement. No one is better able to express the child-like wonder that characterizes the protagonist of this song cycle. Talking to a brook, hearing the singing of the water-nymphs, turning to nature in both joy and sorrow is a way of life, which has come to be associated with poets or lovers, but which in reality should be part of our everyday experiencing, had we not deviated so sharply from our normal course of spiritual development. And this heightened state of being is what Bostridge brings to the work, infusing it with all the vigor and enthusiasm which usually only youth has at its disposal, but which the connection to the Luminous Heights of the spirit grants at any time. And when one "hears" this special luminosity in the voice ringing out right from the start, in the opening songs of the cycle, one can't help wondering: has there ever been a more spiritual singer?
 
The last five songs of the cycle are performed by Mr. Bostridge with devastating beauty and with the subtlety of shading that borders on the unbelievable. Mitsuko Uchida is a marvelous partner for him: she has that wonderful feminine presence, in the best sense of the word. She is lyrical and sensitive, powerful when needed, but never harsh or aggressive. Together they create an atmosphere, which is at once spontaneous and masterfully controlled. Mitsuko Uchida seems to have a liberating effect on Mr. Bostridge, where as Mr. Andsnes seems to us to have a somewhat constricting effect on him in their recording of "Winterreise", lacking the subtlety to match Bostridge's. So for us, their "Winterreise" is like a rose that never quite unfolded. By contrast, this recording with Mitsuko Uchida is a rose in full, glorious bloom: breathtakingly beautiful, and so alive and natural as if it never could have formed in any other way. This said, it is still the incomparable Julius Drake, who in our view remains the most ideal partner for Mr. Bostridge. Their work together stands on a plateau all its own. And their earlier recording of "Winterreise", which was made for the David Alden film, seems quite unsurpassable to us.
 
In "Die schone Mullerin" we find ourselves, together with Bostridge, reliving the joy and naiveté of youth's first love - without the "help" of psychoanalysis, which is always the quickest way to murder all fresh and genuine experiencing (in life as well as in art). This "murdering" inevitably occurs because psychoanalysis fails to take into consideration the spiritual essence of man, instead directing everything downwards (literally and figuratively) towards the lowest common denominator. It denies man a chance to see the perfection of the ideal in what is yet imperfect as real. And yet it is just the longing for the ideal that makes a human being, that shapes him into what he should become in Creation - just as the lack of that longing makes him into something that he was never meant to become. As Oscar Wilde so keenly observed: for all its intellectual appeal, cynicism is a perfect philosophy for a man without a soul. Genuine love, like nothing else, helps us to strive upwards to the height of existence worthy of man, so it is essential not to succumb to cynicism in these matters by quickly putting things into a sobering "perspective". Abd-ru-shin restores the natural perspective on a man/woman relationship:
"...in every normal development all that is womanly exercises a strong and solely uplifting influence (which in its unconscious beginnings always swings purely) upon the male as soon as the latter attains physical maturity. With physical maturity there simultaneously awakens the great generative sensing, which forms the connection or the bridge for the activity of the spiritual core of earthman in the plane of coarse matter, i.e., here on earth.... 
 
I... purposely said that in the 'unconscious' beginnings of maturity the womanly influence will always result in a pure upward swinging to the heights on the part of the male, because it then operates uninfluenced by the decadent intellect and only according to the Laws of God in Creation! Not until the intellect with all its cunning is also awakened in this, and sets to work, does this purity and all the aids with it become dragged into the dirt and debased through evil thinking! 
 
The evil thinking is brought about through the impurity of womanhood, moral corruption, persuasions by false friends, bad examples, and last but not least also through the false trend in art and literature...
      
...really strong and genuine manhood never manifests otherwise than in gentle consideration towards genuine womanhood; with increasing spiritual values this becomes ever more clearly expressed.
 
Just as with the body real strength never becomes evident in weighty, heavy steps, but through the control of all movements results in an elastic and light step clearly indicating security and firmness, so genuine manliness shows itself in respectful gentleness towards all womanhood which swings in purity.
 
This is the absolutely natural process in the swinging of the undimmed radiations in accordance with the Laws in Creation. All else is distorted!" (Abd-ru-shin, "IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE", chapter "Woman and Man".) 
 
There is no question that Schubert carried the longing for this ideal of womanhood deep within his soul, as practically every one of his songs testifies. It was the longing that no amount of life's disappointments could tarnish. His irony never turned into cynicism, and his despair only served to intensify his longing. And it is self-evident that all the great German poets of that same period  (Goethe, Heine, Schiller, Morike and many others) also had this longing, intuitively sensing the high place that a genuine woman was meant to occupy in Creation. But it is only Abd-ru-shin, who finally reveals the actual nature of the lofty task assigned to woman in the Divinely ordained order of Creation, from which we have all deviated such a long time ago that even a memory of it hardly stirs within us anymore:

"Only genuine, purest womanhood can awaken and lead a man to great deeds! Nothing else! And that is the vocation of woman in Creation according to God's Will! Through this she uplifts her nation and all humanity, yes even the whole of Subsequent Creation, for in her gentle working alone lies that sublime power which is irresistible and compelling and, if of the purest volition, blessed by Divine Power. There is nothing to equal it, for she carries beauty in its purest form into everything she does and everything that proceeds from her!

That is why her weaving should permeate the whole Creation, refreshing, uplifting, furthering and animating, like a breath from the longed-for Paradise!

This was the pearl among the gifts of your Creator that Lucifer grasped at first of all, with all his cunning and malice, knowing that that was the best method with which to tear away your hold and your striving towards the Light! For in woman lies the precious secret that is able to set free the purity and sublimity of every thought, the inspiration to the greatest activity and noblest deeds - provided that she is the woman the Creator intended her to be when He lavished these gifts upon her.

You let yourselves be duped too easily! You succumbed to the temptations without a fight! As a willing slave of Lucifer woman now directs her beautiful Divine gifts to serve a contrary purpose, and thereby brings the entire Subsequent Creation under the domination of the Darkness.

Of everything that God wanted to come into existence for the joy and happiness of all creatures in this Creation, only repulsive caricatures are present! Of course everything did come into existence, but changed and distorted through the influence of Lucifer. Wrong!

The woman of Subsequent Creation made herself the mediator in this matter. A gruesome bog spread over the clear soil of purity, and radiant enthusiasm was replaced by sensual orgies!..

Just as woman was able to drag the whole Subsequent Creation down deeply, so also has she the power once more to uplift and further it, for man will follow her lead in this." (Abd-ru-shin, "IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE", chapter "Watch and Pray!")

"I have already stated once before that through womanhood Lucifer sought to deliver the most crushing blow against real humanity and, alas, he succeeded only too well!

Follow for yourselves the thought he has sown among you with great cunning and malice! He deceitfully flattered you with the thought that motherhood was woman's highest task. But to attain to motherhood the earthly instinct is needed, and it is this latter which he wanted to place on a higher pedestal through the thought of motherhood, so that it would become the dominant factor and force the thinking of mankind on earth into one direction. A plan which was conceived with admirable cunning! He played upon your feelings as carefully as a first class artiste plays upon his instrument, dangling motherhood and mother-love alluringly before your eyes as a shield for his intentions, so that you were unable to recognise what was lurking in the background! And he succeeded completely!

You heard the alluring tune vibrating purely within you, but you overlooked the dirty, greedily clutching hands that brought forth the melody! The highest goal and most sacred calling! That was before your eyes, you saw it bright and luminous! But in spite of all its brightness it is merely the purest radiation of the animistic, not of the spiritual! The animal is set aglow and attains its greatest height in motherhood, becoming merged in it and yielding itself completely to it, because the animal itself originates in the Animistic Sphere. It attains greatness therein and becomes bright and luminous. Man, however, possesses something still stronger which should and must stand above the animistic if he wishes to be a complete human being ... the spirit!            

Being of the spirit he cannot and must not remain in the animistic. He must refrain from making the highest of his goals something which belongs unconditionally to the Animistic Realm, and which must forever remain there in accordance with the Primordial Laws of Creation. With exceptional cleverness Lucifer thus laid his snare, forcing the human spirit into the animistic and holding it captive there. This was achieved all the more easily because man saw all the beauty and luminosity which emanates from everything that is pure, and which is therefore also a part of the highest animistic radiation.

Yes, motherhood is certainly sacred, and its crown mother-love, but nevertheless this is not the highest goal of human womanhood, not their mission in Creation!..       

What Lucifer intended with his scheming came to pass, for he knew precisely what would be the consequences of distorting the Divinely-instituted Primordial Laws, which he thereby achieved through men themselves! He only gave men a false goal which was nicely suited to their spiritual indolence and weaknesses, and all their thinking and perceiving were adjusted accordingly, causing them inevitably to take wrong paths!

Thus Lucifer only shifted the points, and the catastrophe of derailment was bound to follow! Lucifer had merely flattered the physical instinct in a deceitful manner, thereby elevating it to an immense force and power.

Furthermore, he knew very well that the intellectual development of man was bound to strengthen this powerful instinct through the corresponding effect of thoughts which may increase the pernicious desires to fever heat. Thus man finally became completely enslaved within, something which can never happen to an animal!

The beautiful word "motherhood" remained nothing but the deceptive shield which Lucifer deceitfully conjured up in your imagination. However, the strengthening of the physical instinct, which was the inevitable consequence, was his goal. As he had plainly foreseen, it finally developed into morbidity, enslaved the minds of all people of both sexes, and turned for many into the baffling sphinx - the form in which the unhealthy instinct shows itself today, and against which man so often fights a losing battle!         

The root of the problem, as also its solution, lie solely in this Luciferian thought, which was thrown out to you in defiance of the Laws which the Will of God instituted in Creation for your benefit and for the general development. And you, you reached out for it and were caught on it like a hungry fish on the angler's hook, just because you found pleasure in it! As for the male sex, its effect was like a serious and incurable plague!..

Only when she has become truly conscious of her womanhood does woman stand at the highest place spiritually! And her task is not primarily dedicated to motherhood! As I have already stated motherhood exists for your earthly body only, that is all! Yet womanhood is to be found in all spheres, even in the Primordial Realm among the Primordial Beings, at the highest point! But it is true womanhood in all its sublime, unapproachable dignity!

It may seem as if I am taking much away from you when I now say that motherhood belongs only to the Animistic Realm. It is a keen cut that I am now forced to make if I am to help you! Motherhood remains within the realm of the animistic, and manifests on that plane. If this were her highest goal, woman would be in a very sad plight!..

The highest task in the life of woman on earth is the same as it has always been in the higher regions - to ennoble her surroundings and ensure a continuous flow of radiation from the Light, which only woman through the delicacy of her intuitive perception can mediate. Ennoblement, however, is bound to bring about ascent towards the Luminous Heights. That is spiritual law! For this reason the existence of genuine womanhood is alone enough irrevocably to ensure the ascent, ennoblement and continuous purity of the entire Creation.

Lucifer knew this, because it is contained in the Laws of Creation, and he tried to cut off the development of this natural process with the harmful and false basic idea which, in an enticing manner, portrayed the instinct of the physical body and its effects as of the highest value. He thereby poured poison into all true humanity, which thereupon unsuspectingly - and to its own detriment - distorted the purely upward movement of the straight paths of these Primordial Laws of Creation, so that they were compelled to bring about a standstill and thereafter lead downwards, thus bringing harm instead of blessing to all human spirits.

He knew what he was doing thereby! By submerging and losing themselves in the animistic, women on earth could not develop properly; they were bound to become confused about themselves and their main vocation, and thus even brought confusion into the Animistic World because they do not belong there.

Thus woman's principal task also here on earth, in the World of Matter, is to ennoble her environment. Coming as she does from above, holding herself above with her delicate intuitive perception, and thus leading upwards in turn, she forms the anchorage of man with the Light, the support which he needs for his work in Creation. No marriage is required to accomplish this, not even an acquaintanceship or personal meeting! The mere existence of woman on earth already brings about fulfilment!

Man stands in Creation facing outward ready for battle while woman, in shielding his back, maintains the connection with the Light, thus constituting the core, the supply of power and the strengthening. Wherever decay is permitted to creep into this core, however, the "front" is also lost. Bear this in mind at all times! Nor is it then of any avail for woman to try and place herself at the front beside the man, where she does not belong. Her delicate intuitive perception only hardens through such a struggle, and thus the highest ability and power once bestowed upon her as her own becomes exhausted, and everything must fall into ruin!

It is known to everybody, however, that even in the most remote regions of the earth men immediately pull themselves together and try to behave in a more respectful manner as soon as even one woman comes near them, with whom they need not necessarily exchange a single word!

Such is the effect of the mere presence and appearance of a woman! Even in its curtailed expression this quite clearly reveals the mystery of woman, the power and the sustaining force that emanate from her in accordance with the Laws in Creation, which are not directly related to procreation on earth. Procreation is for the most part animistic in character!

You girls and you women, you must first of all remember that you are the bearers in this Creation of the highest tasks, with which God has endowed you! Neither marriage nor motherhood are your highest goal, sacred as they are! You stand alone and firmly for yourselves as soon as you stand aright!

How ridiculous and disgusting will the present fashion craze appear, to which you have always readily and even unconditionally submitted! Every nonsensical creation thrown on to the market for the sake of money-making by the fashion designers you seized like an animal to which titbits are thrown!

You will live to recognise the disgrace contained in this, even in the reception you gave to the sometimes quite questionable aberrations from the concepts of true beauty, not to mention purity at all! Purity has always been soiled in these matters with an impudence that could not be further increased. Years afterwards you will still blush with shame at the recognition of how deep you really sank in this respect!

What is still worse is the conscious and deliberate exposure of the body (which should be sacred to everyone), as fashion so often demands. Only the basest form of vanity could cause woman to sink to such a depth. And this vanity, which has long since been proverbially associated with woman, is but the abominable caricature of the effect womanhood should really have in accordance with the Divine Laws!

Man, however, is just as guilty as woman! It is only necessary for him to show contempt for such things, and woman would soon stand aside, solitary and ashamed, even if her first reaction was unjust anger! But instead man welcomed the fall of woman because she therewith corresponded more nearly to the weaknesses and desires which he already carried within himself, increased to a state of morbidity by the Luciferian idea!

Woman can never fulfil her vocation on earth while she has any vanity, which always involves shamelessness, but only through that grace with which she alone is endowed as the most beautiful spiritual gift. Every look, every movement, every word of a woman must bear the stamp of her nobility of soul. Therein lie her task, as well as her power and her greatness!" (Abd-ru-shin, "IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE", chapter "Woman and Her Vocation". Read the entire chapter  or listen to MP3 audio, 27 min.)

"You know that all womanhood on earth must keep awake the longing for the Light as the guardian of the flame of the preserving-and-upward-leading longing for the Light.

For this purpose a more delicate capacity to perceive intuitively develops within woman for, in her urge towards a more delicate activity, less of the spiritual substantiality detaches itself from her than from the man, who inclines towards coarser activity.

Through this every woman is the receiver and mediator of radiations which men can no longer receive. Womanhood stands therein half a step higher, turned more towards the Light than any man. Provided, of course, that she stands aright and does not fritter away her abilities or obstruct them herself!

Man subconsciously senses that woman thereby possesses refinements which he no longer bears within himself, nor can he bear them within him in view of the nature of his activity, since they would restrain him from many a coarse matter which has still to be dealt with. It is true that he does not become quite clear about this, or at least very rarely, but he perceives a treasure therein which needs to be preserved. He feels urged to protect this invisible treasure in the World of Gross Matter, because he feels himself the stronger one in the earthly, i. e., in the gross material sense.

There are only a few men who do not intuitively perceive this. But these have in any case become brutalised and can no longer be counted as men in the true sense.

The desire to protect which remains unuttered because only subconsciously felt, has now brought man gradually and erroneously to view womanhood as the weaker sex, the sex which needs his protection. Thus this designation does not perhaps originate from an evil volition or a depreciatory judgment, but only from ignorance of the true reason for his own intuitive perceptions.

Along with the beginning and advancing dullness due to earthmen's false ways of thinking, and along with the ever-increasing limitation of their ability to understand things lying outside the coarsest World of Matter, there also naturally arose an interpretation of the expression that became ever more base.

In reality man is not the stronger sex but only the coarser sex, i. e., the more gross material one, and therefore the denser one; womanhood, however, is not the weaker sex, but merely the more delicate, the more "loosened" one, which has nothing to do with weaknesses." (Abd-ru-shin, "IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH: THE GRAIL MESSAGE", chapter "The Weak Sex".)

 
May 30, 2005
 
 
 
Photo of Mr. Bostridge taken from "Winterreise" by David Alden
Background painting (before alterations) by Caspar David Friedrich
 
Copyright (C) 1997 - 2006 Gregory Pearse & Maria Wagner