"When religion becomes artificial, art has a duty to rescue it. Art can show that the symbols which religions would have us believe literally true are actually figurative. Art can idealize those symbols, and so reveal the profound truths they contain." - Richard Wagner
Parsifal, the epic, final work by Richard Wagner, stunned audiences, revolutionized theater and music, and set the stage for the decline of modern civilization. For more than one hundred years, Parsifal has been one of the most controversial dramatic works in the world, not only moving the world's top composers and writers to tears and inspiring generations of creative geniuses, but it was also admired by Adolf Hitler.
Wagner's retelling of the myth of the Holy Grail and the knights who protect it showed the secret path to liberation from suffering, but no one understood it. Wagner himself never explained Parsifal, and in his wake thousands of writers, critics, and artists have attempted to penetrate its mysteries yet have failed, since they were not initiated into the secret tradition it came from. Finally, in this book by Samael Aun Weor, the meaning of Parsifal is fully revealed, and the genius and spiritual accomplishments of Richard Wagner are made radiantly clear.
"It is evident by all means and with complete meridian clarity that Wagner was a great initiate, an insightful esotericist, an authentic Illuminated One… Science, philosophy, art, and religion exist within Wagner's Parsifal… A new Dr. Faust was endowed in this great musician. It seems that he had scrutinized very ancient religious scriptures…
"To penetrate within this archaic occultism, to delve within the Christic Mysteries, to examine the esoteric Buddhism contained within this Wagnerian gospel is precisely what we attempt in this book.
"The year 1914 will always be a memorable date among the remarkable dates of this humanity, because of the explosion of the First World War and the simultaneous debut of Parsifal in all the civilized world.
"1914 had a mysterious connubiality… Parsifal and the First World War. It is indubitable that the Wagnerian gospel resounds in the fields of battle; it is catastrophic, terrific; it gloriously shines amidst the tempest of all exclusiveness…" - Samael Aun Weor
Includes a synopsis and full text of the drama.