Faust:
It glows, it shines, increases in my hand!
Mephistopheles:
How much it is worth, thou soon shalt understand,
The key will scent the true place from all others!
Follow it down!—'twill lead thee to the Mothers![1]
Here the devil again puts into Faust's hand the marvellous tool, a phallic symbol of the libido, as once before in the beginning the devil, in the form of the black dog, accompanied Faust, when he introduced himself with the words:
"Part of that power, not understood,
Which always wills the bad and always creates the good."
United to this strength, Faust succeeded in accomplishing his real life task, at first through evil adventure and then for the benefit of humanity, for without the evil there is no creative power. Here in the mysterious mother scene, where the poet unveils the last mystery of the creative power to the initiated, Faust has need of the phallic magic wand (in the magic strength of which he has at first no confidence), in order to perform the greatest of wonders, namely, the creation of Paris and Helen. With that Faust attains the divine power of working miracles, and, indeed, only by means of this small, insignificant instrument. This paradoxical impression seems to be very ancient, for even the Upanishads could say the following of the dwarf god:
- ↑ Bayard Taylor's translation of "Faust" is used throughout this book.—Translator.
