Wagner’s Ring Cycle — Der Ring des Nibelungen
A few fragmentary notes from talk by MBM, April 19, 1949
This theme not used otherwise.
Touches on cosmogony, – Beginnings.
Brings in elementals, (a subhuman order of life.)
Comes from a Norse source. Long verbal tradition, later recorded in the Eddas.
Rheingold: Brings in Water-maidens and Gnomes, – earth and water elementals. In the water is a treasure, the Rheingold. It is pure gold. The other elementals (gnomes) who live in the dark. Alberich, (chief of the Gnomes) is drawn to make some sort of a journey outside of his own realm, beguiled by the Rhine maidens.
The gold is that which belongs to the soul, and the soul is the surrogate of the sun — gold, spirit, or nous. The interweaving of earth and water in the beginning of the drama. The gold shines. Earth always covets that which is above it.
Whoever denies the power of love can take the gold. Revenge of the earth: it will deny love and clutch the gold. The folk of earth grab the treasures of the above (?) and think they have it. And it is, for a time, down in the underworld. They drag it down. He who can use the gold can be master of the world.
The ring, the power motif, that weaves its way through the four librettos. The early battles between earth and water foreshadow the battle in man.
Now we are transported to the world of the gods. Black and white in conflict.
Giants: the great forces that shape all things. Ask for Frya, the goddess of life and light, and beauty and happiness. Wotan agrees. Instigated by Loki – the desire forces. Has skills, determination; is never without an answer; trickery: the subtle resourcefulness of the world.
Alberich, overcome by the gods, curses the ring. Claims of the elemental powers, and the drama that is to be with man.
Die Walküre: Now the drama is on the earth. Gradual process of involution. The Rheingold a kind of allegorical prelude, and the struggle between earth and water (probably refers to Eden and the earth state.) Earth, the stage on which life will be lived.
Now a royal soul comes to earth. . . . . Fricka like Juno.
Love affairs of the gods their relations to earth, continually fructifying it. And Fricka is the opposition of heaven to this. Inevitable. It must be continued by the Father-god, to continue the processes of evolution. The life forces from above are progressively drawn down into earth. So with Brunhilde. A process. The soul waiting for the processes in earth to unfold, so that it can have a fitting mate — Siegfried.
Siegfried: In “Seigfried” the drama is again in the underworld. He has been brought up by the dwarfs. Siegfried, a smith, who shapes things out of earth: Notung (the sword) built on need and power. Growth of power in earth, and a waning of power in heaven. The serpent moving into the earth side of things.
Götterdämmerung: In earth again. The real action takes place in the heavens. Wotan sees that the twilight of the gods has come. He could not stop Siegfried. Walhalla and the Bridge, the same.
The powers of heaven have been minimized as they were drawn down into earth. Why Wotan must go to Erda for wisdom. Why he is not above deceit. The Edenic stage. Not knowing the difference between that which is constructive and that which is destructive. Has not yet gone through the human evolution.
His is the aspect of the self which has not yet gone through the evolution. It is on higher planes, and would like to remain there; yet is forced, again and again, to participate, or cohabit, with the earth. But the treasure is to be won only in earth. Not by deceit; for the Rhine-Maidens get back their gold. The gold is only to be won by the hero, who recognizes it for what it is.
The knowledge and experience that Erda alone can give. Hers is the wisest voice in all the four operas. (She is the Earth-spirit.) Living according to the laws of earth, – cause and effect, that are progressively a matter of evolution. And in which the elementals first, as it were, prepare the earth.
The earth and the soul in him (man) struggle. What you become is the result of the mating of heaven and earth. Draws the full power in you, and evolves it from below up. Like the seed.
Loki: One of the main figures in the drama. He is the dramatization of that energy—objective, – out in the creative worlds, but also in you, the microcosm — that is ever active, ever resourceful. He is energy par excellence. Adaptable to any ends and circumstances. Like Mercury. Yet having another quality than water, – fire. Not moral or ethical. It just is. It is what you use it for, to learn what is constructive, that makes of you, gradually, the wise being, or the one who goes through the evolution, and comes out enriched by it. Wotan really wants the wisdom of earth.
The gold: the treasure in the water world. In other traditions, the pearl in the depths of the sea. Actually a symbol for soul power. May be conquered, or apparently conquered, and dragged down into the lower worlds. Must be won honorably.