Os simbolismos em A FLAUTA MÁGICA, de MOZART - Lúcia Helena Galvão - Nova Acrópole

Today I was invited to chat with you about the symbolism of the Magic Flute. This work is so wonderful that is an unanimity for those who know the opera genre, although at first it didn't even have that category, but today it's considered. And grandiose from a point of view that I think neither the Wagner's musical dramas are so symbolic. There is not a comma in the magic flute that is not symbolic. I am a professor of philosophy, and studying symbolism for the philosopher is one of the fundamental things. We believe that our life is symbolic.

And if we want to understand the language of life we have to understand a little more the language of symbols. This ends up allowing us to transit a little about the mythology, about the symbology of many other people in history. And here, Mozart, although directly inspired by Masonic symbolism, also takes inspiration from several other civilizations. We have here elements from Egypt, from Greece itself, elements from medieval alchemy, primarily, but peripherally some others. Mozart was Austrian, born in Salzburg in 1756, his father was a musician and composer. At the age of four, he begins to study

harpsichord, and shows a tremendous talent. At the age of six, he made his first composition, and the father begins to travel with him and show his little virtuoso, to exhibit your child from all four corners. Proud of his son's unusual abilities. Let's skip a part of your story, because we are not here to write a biography, but to talk about the Magic Flute. An important fact in relation to this work is the date on which he joins Freemasonry. This happens in 1784, at the age of 28. Mozart already presented, in addition to his fantastic love

for music, which is more than a simple and pure love, it is an identity. He and the music merge as if they were a single being, he expresses himself musically at all times, he sees music everywhere. But he also had a great interest in metaphysical knowledge, for symbolic knowledge, for something beyond pure everyday life. And he demonstrates this from an early age. At the age of 28, his entry into Freemasonry shows this desire to know more, go beyond appearances. We all know that he died at just 35 years of age, in 1791. And I always

wonder what it would have been like for mankind the gift of another 20 years of life to Mozart. What would it have been for humanity, what he would have been able to create in 20 years of life. But anyway! The loss was not his, who always faced death very naturally. The loss was ours. But also the gain was ours, because what he was able to produce in such a short life it is something that marks like the passage of a meteor. Although it's a bit commonplace, but we do not know what heritage the work of

Mozart was for us. As I told you, he was a seeker of knowledge, he had a very interesting apprentice spirit, wanted to better understand the backstage of life, what was behind the curtains, had great feelings of love for others, of respect for others, a willingness to contribute to the world, and this will also lead him to Freemasonry, as a way of learning how to serve better. And he had a curious trait, that he claimed the artist's total independence. At that time it was very common and much later this continues, the lords of the time, the

nobles ordering certain creations according to the model they intended. Artists were kind of servants, they did what was ordered. When they were going to present themselves in the houses of these gentlemen, they ate in the kitchen with the servants, they were quite secondary, treated like servants. And Mozart, despite his financial need, didn't give in to that sort of thing. He had a very hard life, died and was buried in a mass grave, but he never surrendered to selling his music, in the sense of only doing what was ordered. He demanded for himself this freedom to

express what his genius commanded. Yes, made songs by order, but he also did a lot that released what he intended to say. In other words, he is a pioneer, a great daring in this aspect. He didn't feel inclined to teach, which was another complicated thing, because it was one of the ways in which a musician guaranteed his survival. The gentlemen who had the wealth for that, put their children to study music. Often without any talent and even without any interest. Mozart did not accept this type of student. He demanded that if the student had something

of the gift, something of the genius deep love for music, a dose of creativity, of delivery, to this one he gave himself and was an excellent teacher. To others, no. That is, it was more a source of survival that was cut off, he did not accept teaching music to the disinterested. Composing was his vocation, and this is quite interesting because they had a sense of mission in what they did. He had a sense of value in what he was doing, of value and importance. And he knew that music was his mission, it was his meaning

of life. This is indubitable throughout the various statements he makes in life, well known. He had a very interesting stance on death. I find it curious because I never heard that Mozart had contact, for example, with the Roman Stoic philosophy, Marcus Aurelius, the great stoic emperor. Because what he says here is very similar to what Marcus Aurelius said, that we must take death as a counselor and imagine: "If I were to die tomorrow, what would I be doing now? What would my day be like? Because this question gives us a sense of giving our best

to today, to seek perfection. And he said something very similar. Said that every day before bed, imagined as if tomorrow was his last day. So he tried to do his best to everyone to leave something eternal. Every day. As if it were the last day. For him to go to his limits and give his best. That made his limits, his best still resonates with such intensity more than 200 years after his death. Entering now what interests us most only as a preamble, the work itself, the way it was raised. Everyone knows that he takes a

librettist, Schikaneder, who is inspired by various things, he doesn't do it alone either. And they, on February 7, 1785, decided to write and compose this play. At first it wasn't exactly an Opera, was what in Germany called a singspiel, which literally means to speak, to sing. It is as if it were a spoken and sung work. Today it is regarded as an opera. But at first it was a singspiel. The libretto, as we have already said, was by a friend who was also a Freemason. And that's interesting. That the two showed a great curiosity for

the Masonic mysteries, by Masonic symbols. And they agree among themselves to do an eminently Masonic, mysterious, symbolic work, and so they do. Although the libretto was in Schikaneder's hands, It is known that Mozart from time to time interfered, and also collaborated in the writing of this libretto. And made a very special song, to such an extent that he dispenses with words to demonstrate the characters' emotions, and takes an unusual innovation and does something extremely intense. Too bad he wasn't alive for more two months to see the success of his work. Was premiered on September 30,

1791 in Vienna. He dies on the fifth of December. That is, just over two months after the premiere. This work was on display for a year and was a resounding success. And it continues until our days. It is one of the most represented classics in the world. Schikaneder has the support, the influence of another fellow Mason, known as Jezek, he is inspired by a fairy tale of the time, Lulu o La Flauta Mágica, that had been written a few decades earlier. And the magical elements of the play are inspired by Philipp Hafner's play Megara, and

also in the Masonic novel called Sethos, by Jean Terrasson. In other words, I don't know what else they were inspired by. We see characteristics in the middle of the Opera that remind us too much, for example, Greek mythology. Clearly referenced to medieval alchemy and that was natural, because they were very studied within Freemasonry, but that sometimes reminds other mythologies in parallel, that is, who knows what was the set of elements that contributed for that inspiration. But fundamentally the elements studied within Freemasonry. And he says... It's interesting that he says a sentence: "If the opera turns

out to be a failure, I can't do anything about it, for I have never composed a magic opera before." That is, he shows a certain apprehension, because for him that was a territory he was still probing, that he had never tried to express through music. His preceding plays were often comic, often with a historical background, but symbolic at this point, it was unprecedented. He never had the experience of writing something where each line represented something more than the music itself, than a banal story. Okay, and now for the story. A previous element of a philosophical

nature that I would like to pass on to you: Every myth actually deals with a single character, the human being. In this case, The Magic Flute is the story of Tamino, who is the central character. For those who know Aristotle, when he writes about poetic art, he cites this: the myth has a single character, which is the human being, and everything else are psychological, moral and spiritual factors, all the elements that are happening around you to make you grow. That are personified in other characters, but which are actually internal factors of the human being, that

he is dealing with. So that are projected from the outside. And then, as Aristotle said: all secondary elements, because everything is secondary in the myth, with the exception of its protagonist, they are simply elements that prove the aspirant on the path of wisdom. For those who know, for example, a little of Joseph Campbell's work, he talks about it in the monomyth. Monomyth is a circular structure, where man returns to the starting point with more conscience than when he left. So he receives the call, he resists, he ends up being summoned, his master appears, has the

refusal, the mentor, the first threshold, then a second threshold, the final tests, the rebirth and the return to the common world but on another level of conscience. That is, these elements of Joseph Campbell's monomyth, with a lot of creativity, happiness, represents this structure that Aristotle wanted to write, which is the Hero's journey, the path of the protagonist of a myth. In fact, all these externalized elements are projections of the moment of growing up. A bell rang, a bell rang inside him saying it's time to grow. And untie this whole process. The outer characters are representations

of these inner characters. So it's like a spiral, he returns to the starting point, but with a higher and higher conscience. This spiral will taper until it reaches the apex. The one that in Celtic mythology they represented by placing a five-pointed star, the Vitruvian Man, the birth of the fifth element, that reason awakens by imposing itself on the four elements of the personality, that are the practical physical, energetic, emotional and mental body. So this five that crowns the spiral represents the meeting of full wisdom. So the myths in general are structured with this idea, the

man walking back to the starting point, soon there's another call, another cycle begins, and so it goes until it reaches the fullness of the human condition. History has references to various mythologies, especially to Egypt, which is based as if it were set in the neighborhoods of an Egyptian temple, references to medieval alchemy very clear. Occasionally references to Greek mythology, some Celtic echoes sometimes, anyway, a lot revolves around it. For Egypt the serpent is the Uraeus. Of course, there are other symbolisms, other snakes in other roles. You have Apophis which is something else, but considering the

plot, the way this serpent is placed, the serpent that begins the story, serpent or dragon, who has been chasing Prince Tamino, it is a serpent which probably represents the same as that Uraeus of Pharaoh's forehead. It represents the moment of awakening of wisdom. So it's like wisdom ran after Tamino, whether in its serpent form, which awakens this spiritual vision, be in the form of a dragon, who is the lord of fire. Fire is very much associated with that mental, vertical glow of a higher mind, illuminating, pure. Fire is also associated with wisdom. Fire is the

fifth element, it is from the pure mind of the altruistic mind, what the Indians called manas. So being chased by a dragon or a serpent in this context it means: wisdom walked after him. It was time to wake up, he had already had some contact with this wisdom. He still feared. That's really what happens. If you read a wonderful Indian book one day, called Bhagavad Gita, you will see that it says exactly that, that if one day a pandava appeared before us, representing our virtues, our spiritual self, our full self. If he appeared adult and

armed before us, we would be terrified of him, because our true identity, our destiny as full human beings, would not at all admit the way we live today. So many of our whims, our inertias would have to be banished. As if you were in the future, took the full you and contrasted with what we are today. We would be afraid of it, we would be scared. So this impact of Tamino run away from the serpent or the Dragon, it is likely to be this fear, and the fear of wisdom evidently will throw you into the

realm of the Queen of the Night. In fact, it is said that his father already professed this. That if he ever wanted to grow up, and he would have to, would have to pass through the realm of the Queen of the Night. He has to go in, dive into it and get over it. And that within the alchemical tradition is "The Work in Black". The transformation of the human being in alchemy goes through a first stage, perish to the subterranean depths of his conscience, which is "The Work in Black". And there you will find all

those little animals that dominate you, that aren't evil, but that weren't made to dominate you. That is, to discipline your instincts, your impulses, your anger, your inordinate desires. All this animal self that is not evil, it's for your survival, but wasn't meant to dominate your life. Carl Jung talks about this in a wonderful way, the psychological key to alchemy. Then he would have to pass through the realm of the Queen of the Night. This was already half foreseen, he runs away from the light, from the serpent, he runs away from the fire, and will fall

right into the realm of the Queen of the Night. When he arrives there, he goes to meet the Queen of the Night's three ladies-in-waiting. Some interesting placements I made here for you before we enter that moment of encounter is that at the same time he was running of this serpent or dragon, whatever it is, the symbolism is more or less the same, Princess Pamina, who is nothing more than his counterpart, his soul, had been kidnapped by the Temple of Sarastro, by the Egyptian temple that represents wisdom. That is, he feared, but his conscience had already

had contact with it. More or less the same thing, it's a single being Tamino and Pamina. His conscience had already had contact with this world of wisdom and now he was its prisoner, he feared but he could not free himself so easily. It's like you imagine that one day you had contact with something very beautiful. You will never forget that human beings can create such high things. Contact with high things marks for us our ceiling of possibilities, is very difficult to forget. They even say that Leonardo da Vinci would say something similar, that once you

were in heaven, you will walk the earth always looking up, remembering this meeting point. So Pamina who was his conscience soul, we will explain this later, she had already had that contact, had been kidnapped by Sarastro's temple of wisdom. We arrived at that moment of shock in which he says: wake up! As if it were a first test, the first rebirth. This is very common within the myths. He says "wake up" when he enters this realm of the Queen of the Night. And the three ladies dressed in black, the three ladies of the Queen of

the Night, can kill, can fight that serpent or dragon. In other words, they can smother it. They do not kill the pursuit of wisdom, but they manage at that moment to repress it so that Tamino could take a breath and he could rethink, and they could draw him into the realm of the Queen of the Night. More than that, put him in the service of the Queen of the Night. So they don't kill properly, they placate, they scare away. Because there's no way to completely kill the call to wisdom that exists in a man's life.

One element that is interesting, which I would like to bring to your attention is a symbol that is very constant in various traditions, that talks about the human being: a triangle facing upwards connected by a wire to a downward facing triangle. The downward facing triangle is our animal self, geared only to survival, as pleasant as possible, consists of our physical, energetic, emotional, and this more practical, everyday mind that serves the emotional. There is an upward-facing triangle, which is the spiritual triangle. Which is represented by this pure mind, this selfless mind, this luminous mind who seeks

wisdom. A component that in India they call Budhi, which is a perception, an intuition and a component that also in India they call Atma, which is our element of will, of determination, the divine spark in us. Then man would be the combination of the upper and lower triangles connected by a thread. The thread of consciousness that we are going to see. And it is curious because there are two very present trinities within this story: one representing the inverted triangle and the other representing the upper triangle. The trinity of the inverted triangle are these three ladies.

The ladies of the night, the Queen of the Night's ladies-in-waiting, always dressed in black, always quite dark. And there is an upper triangle that are three children, three boys that sometimes appear flying and are always encouraging the rise of consciousness, the continuation of the journey. Everyone knows these two will be there all the time, the Queen of the Night predicts, because the world is dual. There will be summons to one side and the other. The Queen of the Night predicts that he will be accompanied by these three spirits. Even though this was not desirable for

her who intended to keep him trapped in the realm of night, but she knew that these beings would also manifest. Then two trinities: the three children and the three ladies. Two triangles rotated up and down. So the ladies fight the serpent dragon and save him, that is, pull him out to serve at night. When he awakens, he doesn't see the ladies, he sees Papageno. This curious character who was a bird hunter, dressed generally in green, with a lot of feathers stuck to his clothes, he opens his eyes and sees Papageno, which is pretty obvious. He

entered a very material, very dense world, in that world Papageno reigns. To live in this world you have to be a little Papageno, this cheerful, irresponsible man, who wants nothing more than to eat, sleep well in his little house and have a Papagena, that is, someone who gives you affection, who loves you. An ordinary man, typical of the man who lives trapped in the realm of the Queen of the Night. And that has a great identity with birds. We'll see right away, why. When he wakes up and sees Papageno, thinks he was the one who

freed him, who killed the serpent. Papageno confirms, says yes. Talks too much, his name comes from parrot. He talks like a parrot, inconsequentially. It is typical of this common man, who lives only for comfortable and pleasurable survival. And then the three ladies come and punish him for lying. Close your mouth with the golden padlock and they say that they had saved Prince Tamino. This symbolism is curious. Why a gold padlock? Look! No wonder Mozart was insecure. Because what he wanted to build was the structure of a myth, and the structure of a myth is a

very complex thing because there is absolutely nothing in vain. For example, if you take a fairy tale that inherits many elements from the myth, it makes sense for Snow White to have black hair and skin as white as snow and lips red as blood. These are the three alchemical steps: The Work in Black, The Work in White and The Work in Red. Nothing is in vain, nothing is by chance within the myth, so it is also no accident that this golden padlock has been placed in Papageno's mouth. Papageno is an ordinary man, although not evil,

he's simple, cheerful, well-meaning, but he's a common man and who lives for rewards, which is receiving food, affection, love from someone. And it's like the ladies of the night had imposed their silence, bought your silence with a weight of gold, that is, be quiet. Here we are in charge. It is not you who will receive the credit for this feat, but us. If you understand well, Papageno and Tamino are actually a single character. There we have three elements that are one, which is Tamino, Pamina and Papageno. Papageno is your deadly, banal personality who simply wants

to survive. And when he enters the realm of night it is Papageno who starts to be active, it is Papageno who will accompany him, that is, Papageno is very protagonist in this world. Tamino is half asleep there, there is not a very clear role for him. So one of the ways to get Tamino trapped in the realm of night was to buy him through gold, that is, to promise some compensation for him to stay there. And that's what he will try to do. So even that is endowed with a sense. The ladies automatically show the

prince the portrait of the Queen of the Night's daughter, Princess Pamina, and he falls madly in love with her. An interesting thing just to talk a little more about Papageno, some more elements that I brought here. For the Greek tradition, and here it's clear that there is influence from the Greek tradition, perceptible, the human being would be composed of a physical world, in India there is a lot of talk about it too, the physical world, the energetic world, the emotional world and the mental world. And these four worlds in general, medieval alchemy also worked a

lot with that, are associated with the four elements. So the physical world, that of the body, of material things around us is associated with the earth element. The energetic element, the energetic body of man that vitalizes it, which the Indians call Prana, is linked to the water element. The emotional body, those emotions of ours that generate neediness, generate loneliness, generate the desire to be loved at any price, are represented by the air element. While the mind is associated with the element of fire, as I said just now, when I spoke of the dragon. See that

Papageno is a very strange character, because he is identified with the bird. He's a bird hunter because he trades for food and also he is all dressed up as if he was a bird. That is, he is linked to the air element, to the emotional plane. And he doesn't go beyond that, his conscience doesn't go beyond that, as he further declares, he has no interest in wisdom. He wants his little house, good food and a Papagena to love him and generate lots of parrots. He doesn't want more than that. The roof of his consciousness is

the emotional or astral plane, as it is also called. That's why I said he's the typical resident of the Queen of the Night's realm. We have the vision of these two points: above the serpent and below Papageno. That is, we will see him divided between two worlds as well: above the world of fire that awaits you in the temple of Sarastro, down the world of the Queen of the Night, where a Papageno life is reserved for him. The Queen of the Night, when she sees Tamino's reaction to Princess Pamina's portrait, she approaches. Tamino's reaction is

one of sudden enormous passion. He is furious to know that they had taken her, realizes that she is his, that she has always been, he falls madly in love. There the Queen of the Night appears for the first time and sings her aria, which is a curious thing that Mozart created, because there is a very big contrast between the tone she uses there and the tone he will use in the famous aria of the Queen of the Night, who is totally choleric, enraged. Shows your ability to disguise, to be seductive, to show pain when it

is necessary. That is, it shows the plots, the voices of the night. As for the night, with its interests, the night is ignorance. As for the night with its interests, with its games, it can be very seductive or very violent. Basically as a starting element of this story this and all mythical stories deal with a single theme, which is man's way out of ignorance into wisdom. This story and all the other stories dealt with by Campbell's monomyth, dealt with by mythology, they deal with man's journey from ignorance to wisdom. So you will see that everything

dark is associated with the realm of the Queen of the Night, because it is associated with ignorance. It's a symbol. Even further on we will see Monostatos, who was an obscure man, it was not so much the color of the skin that was considered anymore, he was a Moor, but what was considered was the obscurity of his character. So he ends up associating with the Queen of the Night. Don't be literal, it's one of the worst things you can be in a myth. One of the worst things you can do in a mythical story is

to take things literally. It makes us too shallow. We have to learn to symbolically read our life and consequently the life of myths. If there is one thing that drives a philosopher mad is to hear that the prince, by kissing Snow White, was committing sexual harassment. When in fact the symbolism of the Prince kissing Snow White it is the same symbolism as the Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel. It is the divine, the sacred that exists in us awakening us from matter, lifting us from the horizontality of matter, from the horizontality of the waters.

So don't take things literally. We have here a double key that is present in several myths, it is the obscurity of Ignorance and the luminosity of Wisdom. And the whole story is about the clash between these two worlds, exactly what happens inside and outside of us. Plato said that we are all a mixture of one and the other, in other words, beware of manicheism, the good and the bad guys, that's just a symbol. Within us there is a portion of light and a portion of darkness. And there's something about us that's like Tamino, it's always

running from the light. But that at a certain moment is obliged to confront it, that your consciousness touches this luminous world and becomes enamored with it. And he is then forced to face this new dimension. Then the queen, in such a forceful manner, recounts the supposed abduction, kidnapping your daughter, all your suffering, all that tearful scene of how they took Pamina from her mother's arms, and says that if he could rescue her and bring her back, he would have his daughter's hand. An element that I searched a lot because I like to do it, but

I had some difficulty finding it accurately, was the etymology of the names of Tamino and Pamina. Evidently Mozart must have been inspired somewhere, either he or the librettist, somewhere they were inspired, but they made a combination which is sometimes difficult to find in ancient languages. Some say that Tamino comes from the Greek Tamias, which means lord, master. That is, he would be a little lord, a little master, a little king, that is, the one who is still crawling on the path of sovereignty about his own life. And Pamina, who is his counterpart, would be the

same. The little lady, the little queen, the little mistress, because the two are actually one. She is his counterpart. And this is likely to be it. He is a man with a vocation of sovereignty, of reigning over himself, but still small, innocent, still subject to the errors and snares of the Queen of the Night, from the realm of night, from the realm of ignorance. It is then decided that Tamino would leave for the Temple of Sarastro. to get your princess back. But it is also decided that he would take Papageno with him. Evident! He would

have to take Papageno, because without Papageno it is very likely that he, who was the highest consciousness within man, who was the noblest point, if he went there he wouldn't go back. So Papageno is a counterweight that takes you back, guarantees your return to the world of the night. Papageno wants nothing that the luminous world has to offer. So he has to be active, he has to be chattering in Tamino's ear, remembering the past, pulling him back. Although unaware of it, because Papageno shows no malice in what he does. But he is totally identified with

the limited world of very low ceilings. So naturally everything he does is in that direction. And they go, but they choose to go separately. Each one goes down a path until they meet there. And it's interesting because, before they leave, let's talk about the musical instruments they receive. Which are the set of silver bells that is given to Papageno and the golden flute, the magic flute that is given to Tamino. Before that, I'd like to open up to you a little bit about Pamina's character. It is very common if you take, for example, a poem

by Fernando Pessoa called Eros and Psyche, read that you will see the Magic Flute. This idea of ​​the feminine is very common within the myths representing the soul, the conscience that was asleep and had to be rescued, had to be awakened, this duality between human beings wanting to recover their soul is very common. Now what is the soul outside of a theological context, within a philosophical context? What is the soul? Soul comes from anima, what moves motivates and animates man. And the soul works like an elevator, if, for example, someone at that moment steps on

your foot, your soul, conscience goes to your feet and totally identifies with that pain. If at a certain moment you start to feel tired, the soul goes totally into this realm of energies. The other time you miss someone, it rises to the emotional plane. If at a certain moment you have an altruistic thought, a thought of concern for humanity, a desire to be a sum factor in the world, all those things which characterize the highest mind, your soul has gone to that point. Pamina was the conscience soul of Tamino and she was at that moment

abducted in the upper realm. You will see that it is very interesting within the Greek representation, I ask you to do this homework too and look for an image of the Greco-Roman God Hermes, Mercury. He walks with a stick in his hand and this stick is nothing more than three intertwined circles. It has two snakes and there's a story for it, that look at each other up there and make three circles. This is the representation of man, the Soma which is his most physical part, that brings together the physical body and energies, the Psyche, which

brings together the emotional plane and this practical mind, this lower and the Nous, which is the spiritual world, the noetic world, where the great ideals reside, a superior perception, an iron will, all that man has of highest. And for all these traditions, conscience is born of contrast. This is interesting to understand. For example, if the whole world were, let me take one element, this pillow. If everything were red, everywhere in the world, I would not be aware of red. I am aware of red because here begins the silver and in the contrast between the two

I perceive both. You all know this very well in relation to music. You know that Pythagoras said that a musical note sounds all the time in the universe. But that we don't realize, because it doesn't have a break, and without gaps between sound and silence there is no contrast, no consciousness. We'll deal with that later. Therefore, when there is contact between the world of Sarastro, which is the world of wisdom, the world of the Dragon, the world of the serpent and the world where Tamino resided, which was the world where he was still unconscious, in

contact, consciousness realizes that there is another possibility, another dimension, and this need to know this other dimension makes it more or less stuck there, it doesn't forget anymore. I realized that there is another possibility of life. This is now going to strain me eternally, I have to know what this is. In a moment I had contact, from the contact consciousness was born. And the awakened consciousness to a higher world is Pamina trapped in Sarastro's temple. The name Sarastro is interesting, even this one is more obvious, it's not too hard to imagine, it is evident that

Mozart, Schikaneder and whoever else inspired them, was inspired by the name of Zoroaster, the Persian Grand Master. And this master had a very interesting characteristic. Another homework for you. When you can, read about the life of this Great Master, who is for the Persian world, what was a Buddha for the Indian, Chinese world. What is a Christ for Christianity, a master of Wisdom. But Zoroaster had a very interesting feature, he had no special powers, he was simply a man who was able to use his good mind. One day he meets an angel named Vohu Mano

which tells him that he would be an emissary of the will of God to men. He says: "But how so? I have no power". You have the only power that is needed, a good mind, a mind developed and turned to serve the good. And that all men have latent among themselves, within each of them. and you will really teach them to awaken that potential, that power "paranormal", in quotes, because it's more than normal, your good mind, Vohu Mano means exactly the good mind. Therefore, the lucid, luminous mind that works for the good and therefore is

the good mind. So you will see that this is very interesting to be associated with Sarastro, who worked precisely for the light, light as lucidity, as wisdom, like the good mind, like a luminous, transmuting, awakened fire. So the name of Sarastro I think came from Zoroaster. There was, at the time of the Renaissance, a recognition, a translation by Marsilio Ficino, of the Chaldean oracles, that although they are more connected to Mesopotamia, they also talked a lot about Zoroaster, about the mysteries of this Persian, Babylonian, and that at that moment still echoed in history, in the

middle of the 18th century it still echoed. So it is very likely that Sarastro is associated with Zoroaster, and he is the lord of this luminous world. The Silver Bells and The Golden Flute. It is also not very difficult for us to get a symbolic key that even serves for anything else you will read, taking the context to see if it's appropriate, because no symbol is absolute, but silver, very evidently, is associated with the moon, with the lunar world, that is, nocturnal, while gold is associated with the sun, to the solar world, that is, diurnal,

luminous, is nothing more than in many myths a representation, that sometimes this nocturnal aspect is not bad, this lunar aspect is not bad, when it works associated with the solar aspect. You will see a very interesting detail. Whose daughter was Pamina? Pamina was the daughter of an ancient priest who was from the same temple as Sarastro, who preceded Sarastro, that is, a priest of light, and this priest was married to the Queen of the Night. This Queen of the Night who is anonymous, because she is kind of abstract, represents all that maintains ignorance. This material

world was once associated with light and it tried as far as possible to bring that light into its dark world. It's possible that the material world associates, that ignorance is not bad, pejorative. The ignorance is the one who ignores, but wants to know, not ignorance with a spirit of conservation, which hates the light. So there was a time when the Queen of the Night was linked to this solar world. She was the wife of the lord of the Egyptian temple of Sarastro. Then there was a time when these two worlds were in harmony and from

that union was born Pamina, a consciousness that recognizes both worlds. But now they divorced. With the death of Pamina's father, as Sarastro ascends, the Queen of the Night, this world of ignorance, became ignorance with self-preservation instinct of those who: I don't know, I don't even want to know and I'm angry with those who know. Do you know this curious phrase? That is, ignorance became closed and took the light as an enemy, as so often happens in history. So it doesn't mean that the lunar world, the moon, the night aspects are bad. They are bad when

they dissociate themselves from the light aspect. When the moon no longer wants to shine with the glare it reflects from the sun, but with its own light, which in Greece becomes the mysteries of Hecate, the dark moon, the Black Moon and a bunch of other things out there. But anyway, the silver bells of our friend Papageno are able to pull people, animals, whatever, to have a great joy, a euphoria with the things of life, with the mere survival. So they paralyze aggression and it's a form of security. They attract and harmonize what is typical of

common life, of material life. It will generate this effect a lot, for example when he rings his bells for Monostatos and the other temple slaves. Everyone starts to feel very happy and starts dancing, it is a way of appease difficulties, of opening the way. And the flute that Tamino carries, this one of gold, it harmonizes in its orifices the seven worlds of man, the 7 dimensions that we just saw. It harmonizes and opens the way in the spiritual plane. So they needed both because they would get there and they would need to enter the temple

to get Pamina. They needed something to make a way where there was darkness, and something that would open the way where there was light. So the two go with these tools which are really elements to open the way to reach your goal. They split up and who arrives first is Papageno. It is curious because he arrives exactly at the moment when Monostatos, who is a Moorish slave of Sarastro, Moorish slave of the temple, tried to molest Pamina. He was madly in love with her, it's interesting because he felt desires for her, but he himself says

in the lyrics of one of the arias, that he knew he wasn't for her and she wasn't for him. He belonged, his affinity was a world of darkness, the world of the Queen of the Night, while she was pure light. He desired her perhaps because he envied her, perhaps because he dreamed of the world he was not prepared to enter, for some reason the bright attracts the dark a lot, or with a feeling of wanting to possess it, or with a feeling of wanting to destroy it. There he felt bewitched by Pamina's beauty. He was

trying to desecrate her, attack her, when Papageno arrives dressed as a bird, in green. At first the two are terrified of each other. This is very interesting, it's a big scare. Papageno later says: "I don't know why I was so scared". They are scared because they represent actually another duality game. On one side you have Papageno all dressed in green, That is, he serves the laws of nature, but has no malice, has no fraud in Papageno. He just wants to live well, he's innocent, it's his time to experience the things of nature, that's why he's

green. He's identified with this world, is absolutely ignorant and unprepared for wisdom, but he has no malice, he has no blemish. While Monostatos is totally unprepared for this luminous world, but he is already endowed with malice. He already has this element of envy, of wanting to destroy everything that is luminous. That is, the two are two facets of ignorance: pure ignorance and willful ignorance, the one who already wants to destroy the light. And we see it throughout history many times. The one who ignores out of purity or because it's not his moment, by ingenuity. And

the one who ignores because he wants to ignore and hates anyone who serves the light. It's a confrontation where the two are a little scared of each other. And Papageno then manages to interrupt this moment and tries to escape with Pamina, but Monostatos comes. They sing a beautiful aria which is one of the most beautiful parts of the work. You know it! Papageno with Pamina. Monostatos comes with the slaves and tries to capture him and he then rings his bell. Makes a toll of his magic bells and everyone begins to feel great joy, to dance.

Never heard such a happy song, they begin to dance, and so he escapes capture with Pamina by Monostats. An interesting thing that I've also been looking for too much to try to understand where did Mozart or the librettist get that name from and the reference I find to Monostatos is a word in our vocabulary, which is monostatic. Monostatic is a word that exists and certainly Monostatos is related to it. Monostatic is a geometric object that only on one of its faces is stabilized. It only has one face, a piece where it stabilizes. I explain: if

I had a cube here in my hand from any face I touched, it stabilized, it was balanced. But imagine a geometric object and it actually exists, it was built, has a name that I don't remember right now, where it only has a dot that if you touch it there, it stabilizes. All others it's unstable. It does not balance in any of the other facets, only at that point, therefore monostats, monostatic. And I think it might have something to do with it, although it's a mere guess, because Monostatos balances on a single thing, which is an

unbridled desire, a mad passion, a violent passion, that is the only point that moves him. He has his conscious support base there. He's not like Papageno, that he wanted someone to love him on the same level as him, he wanted to live in his little house, wanted to have good food and that's it. No! He has an obsession. And I think obsession is pretty monostatic, it's based on just one point. He wanted that one point. He wanted Pamina, meaning he's a bit obsessed. Meanwhile we see that Pamino also arrives at the doors of the Temple.

And arriving at the doors of the temple, those three children who appear and accompany us, speak to him and indicate that there is the entrance, in fact there are portals of three temples, that there is the entrance where he would find Sarastro. And he asks, "Will I find Pamina?" We cannot say that. That's your merit. They recite a verse to him. For those who know the libretto, the boys say the following: "The path leads to your destiny: You will overcome it manly. Listen, then, to our teaching: Be firm, silent and patient." Tamino mastered that magic

flute very well. He knew how to generate wonderful sounds. Now he needed the silence for the contrast. And in that contrast, he could rescue his consciousness that was already there, it was Pamina. He needed to pass the test of silence first. Before entering, he plays his magic flute, enchants animals, knows how to deal with sounds. But he still didn't have to deal with the silence. Your first test will be a test of silence, because in the contrast between sound and silence, consciousness is produced, so much so that when he begins the test of silence, Pamina

appears. Consciousness is born of contrast. Then the boys, the children, these pure spiritual voices speak to him: to keep, be firm, silent and patient, that is, to maintain firmness, patience and silence. And he then arriving at the castle finds the three temples, wisdom, reason and nature. See how interesting, because you had this superior reason on one side, luminous, which was pure fire, and on the other side pure, brute nature, maybe pure like Papageno, maybe contaminated like Monostat, but nature. And a bridge had to be made between these two temples, between these two worlds. Who makes

the bridge and harmonizes the two worlds is wisdom, which was the temple in the center. He balanced this spiritual world with this material world, this world of nature with this world of reason. How they had once been united and then parted. So it is necessary to rebuild the bridge, be a pontiff and reconnect heaven and earth. So the first temple he will be destined to enter is the Temple of Wisdom. He talks to the priest and tells him everything he went to do, asks for Pamina. He doesn't give answers, because he has a vow of

silence, but he implies that Tamino's conceptions of Sarastro, about what had happened, they were very wrong. That is, he begins to put doubts about the convictions that Tamino had acquired in the realm of ignorance. See how interesting that is one of the first things that wisdom will do. All that you think you're so sure of, this polarized world, full of passions, of mutual hatred, this world where everyone plots against everyone else. Are you sure things are that way? Isn't there a greater truth above all this? When you doubt, you start to crack this empire of

ignorance inside you, and through these cracks light begins to enter. That's why Aristotle talked so much about doubt in philosophy. And that first priest of wisdom inspires in him doubts concerning that monolithic opinion which was given to him on the plane of ignorance. It makes him realize that his concepts may be wrong. And at that moment, too, he plays his flute. At that moment where all the animals gather, they are enchanted and dazzled, the birds are around him and there is communication, contact, because he listens to Papageno's flute and Papageno listens to his wonderful flute.

They notice each other, they are close to each other. And soon with the arrival of Sarastro, who arrives in a car pulled by lions, which are a clear solar symbol, are related to the sun. Even in the twelve labors of Hercules, the Nemean lion is related to the sun. That is, the lion is a solar symbol. Sarastro comes in a car driven by lions, that is, the clear solar symbol, he is the priest, the hierophant in this Egyptian temple. He is the master of wisdom who will do the initiation, from both Tamino and Pamina. He

arrives and at that moment everyone meets. Pamina complains to Sarastro because Monostato was trying to seduce her, was being aggressive with her. Sarastro takes care of it and calls the two. Papageno is even called by the priests, and Tamino, to begin his trials. And the two then enter a crypt where they are instructed not to speak a word, especially if women appear. That is, everything that can be reflected by the woman, or on a lower plane, which are the emotions, the passions, or on the highest plane, which are their own souls. This is the time

to be silent, so that they can concentrate and have the contrast, and recover consciousness. It's time to dive into themselves and for that the silence has to be absolute. It's time to meet again and set out on their decisive journey in relation to the tests of water and fire. Very similar to Christian baptism. Baptism in water and fire, of course, also has a symbolic influence. So to be taken to this space, there is still another interesting thing, that they are taken to a grove of palm trees, and the palm tree is a symbol of peace,

of conquering peace, symbolizes the entry into the world of peace, where all internal conflicts pacify. It's interesting because some priests carry silver palm branches some montages of the opera even show this. That silver, that luminous white means: we already passed the Queen of the Night's plan, we left The Work in Black and we are entering The Work in White, which is purification. It is the second stage of the alchemical work: I saw all these animals, I'm working to master them and now I have to purify myself to see something beyond that, to take the reins

of everything that lives inside me, to control me and raise my consciousness to perceive my way forward, which will be The Work in Red. So this moment is interesting, the palm forest it is an entrance to a peaceful world, an entrance to a world of purification. And the first test is the test of silence. Evidently, inside, the two are instructed to remain in absolute silence. It reminds a little of the tradition of which Helena Blavatsky speaks to ignore all the noises to hear The Voice of Silence, this voice that is our very essence, our very

Being, and it is also a principle of various norms of reflection, meditation, that is, to focus on the search for a deeper understanding of yourself. Not responding to anyone, especially a female who appears, and of course this was very difficult for Papageno. We know that Tamino concentrates and is absolutely silent. Enter the three ladies of the Queen of the Night, trying to provoke him in every way, and they are able to resist the Queen of the Night's ladies. But soon Papageno starts chattering, soon Pamina appears. We are going to see that an event happens almost

in parallel, when she was in her bed, and she, when she leaves there, runs to come towards Tamino, her beloved, and finds him utterly silent, he doesn't answer a word, neither he nor Papageno speak to her. And she is desperate with pain and thinks: he doesn't love me anymore, he ignores me, he doesn't want me anymore. And she returns to her rooms, we will see this scene soon after. But then Tamino, despite being madly in love with Pamina, remains totally turned to silence, while Papageno is there anxious and says: look, I didn't want any wisdom,

I just wanted a Papagena, and I can't see her. And then the priest allows him to see his Papagena, but not to possess her, first he must have merit. A woman appears with the appearance of a very old woman, horrible, and talks to him and asks if he would agree to marry her. And he feels so lonely, so afraid of ending his life alone, that despite the appearance of this old woman, he says yes, that he accepts to marry her. That is, she was a little of the merit he had, go beyond the mere appearance

of the physical plane and enter the emotional plan, which was the plan on which he lived. The plan of a love, although simple, not very spiritualized, very simple, but with a certain loyalty that goes beyond appearances. And he, when accepting the old woman, reminds a lot of the myth of Ragnell in the mythology of King Arthur, once again a Celtic myth here. Meet the Ragnell myth, it's very similar. He then accepts to marry this old woman, and she transforms into a very beautiful young woman who is Papagena. He sees her, he's crazy about her and

she disappears very quickly. He had yet to finish his silence test to join her. But he fails this test, speaks several times, cannot control himself, and has no interest in that trajectory. In parallel we will see that when Pamina was in her room, she receives a visit from the Queen of the Night. The three ladies had even said that to Papageno and Tamina, that the Queen of the Night was in the palace. She really was and goes to her daughter's room and then comes that aria, which is an impressive thing, because it expresses feelings, sometimes

without speaking a word, only with sounds, with interjections where she shows all her fury and demands that Pamina kill Sarastro with the dagger that she hands to her, because otherwise she would no longer be her daughter. And Pamina starts to look and sees that her mother was crazy, pure hate and she is scared of that. And backstage, Monostatos watches it all, and when the Queen of the Night leaves and leaves the dagger with her, he threatens her and says he would tell everything that happened, takes her dagger and demands that she surrender to him or

die. And at that moment, Sarastro himself appears, that is, everyone was looking at this scene. Sarastro had seen it too, knew what had happened and she there, very dismayed, goes into Sarastro's arms and he asks her to be patient, patience with all these elements of life. And so, whoever needs to reach wisdom, whoever loves wisdom, has to be patient with the one who is manipulative, with the one who is choleric, with the one who wants to keep power at any price, with the one who wants to possess the things that are the object of his

desire at any price... You have to be patient and keep steady to the path. Let none of these elements that belong to the obscurity world of ignorance, be able to stand in your way. Don't let these elements have power over you. The children of light move through the light, even though there is darkness around them. It is very interesting within the very symbology of the Egyptian Tarot. You will see at a certain moment the Ram God Khnum, moving through the smoke, walking almost crouching, looking for his way, ignoring all that chaos around him. That is,

the son of light, and who is not exactly the deceitful of darkness, the son of light may be in the midst of darkness, that he continues to walk determinedly his way. Much to do with Plato's golden man, that wasn't vulnerable to the influences of the environment. Wherever he was, he didn't lose his color, his properties. Like a golden object that is with you. He never gets dark, he does not lose his properties, it is true to himself to the point that nothing external can change him, and that is why Plato called him the golden man.

Sarastro passes this on to Pamina and after that the scene happens where she goes after Tamino and he doesn't talk to her, and she gets desperate, takes the dagger that her mother gave her and thinks about killing herself. And she even thinks about suicide. And here come the three angels, those three pure boys. They start singing with her telling her not to do this foolishness, that it's just a moment, that she shouldn't believe in that dark moment, let her not be guided by appearances, which also belongs to those who follow the path of light. Let

her drop that knife and look for Tamino again. And she, faced with that advice, regains her lucidity, don't be impressed by appearances, which is also a necessity of the one who seeks the light, and seeks again Tamino. And in that moment he had completed his test of silence and was preparing to enter the water and fire tests. And she asks that she can enter these tests together with him and that is accepted. She also passed her tests, so she is able to walk along with him, guided by the magic flute, which opens the way so

that they pass the tests of water and fire. I told you that these tests are very reminiscent of Christian baptism in water and fire, but they also recall a universal symbolism. If you take a container of water, no matter how you turn it, it's always horizontal. The waters represent the horizontality of the manifested world. If you take a torch of fire, whichever way you turn your base it is always vertical. It represents the verticality of the spiritual world, a luminous, altruistic and true world. Therefore, the tests of water and fire are the tests of passage

through these two worlds, that is, to pass through these worlds and harmonize them. That's exactly what they do, it's like a cross stuck to water and fire, he is able to harmonize it and emerge victorious on the other side. You will often see symbols of the one who is swallowed up by the waters, of the one who floats on the waters, who often, in various mythologies, is associated with one who has been swallowed up by materialism, and the one who, despite being in the world, continues to face the sky, facing the stars, facing the sun.

That is, the one who, despite being in the world is not of the world. This description for wises is very characteristic. As Sarastro was in the world, his temple was in the world. So they go through these tests. Meanwhile, Papageno, who evidently had not proceeded, that had nothing to do with him, he is so sad that he also decides to commit suicide. A very funny scene, the humorous part of the story, he decides that he's going to hang himself, because his Papagena is gone and he has no one, nobody loves him, he has no reason

to live. But he keeps giving him a chance: I'm going to count to that number, Let's see if a woman comes along who loves me. No one appears and he decides to hang himself. When he is about to hang himself, those angels appear again, the three boys, those voices from the spiritual plane. And they respect Papageno for what he is, pure, simple, and for his pure and simple needs . And they tell him: "don't do that! Simply ring your bells. The little bells enchant everything in the material world. They will bring Papagena to you." And

so he does. When he rings his bell, Papagena appears for him. And like every good story, they are very happy, get married, generate lots of parrots and are happily ever after. And on the other side, Tamina and Pamino manage to win the tests, that weren't easy. The text is very beautiful in the libretto, in fact it seems to me that it is also in Sarastro's aria, when he asks Isis and Osiris to be with them, whether they are victorious or die, and if they die, die in glory. The tests are not jokes, they are difficult

tests. But the magic flute, the one that evokes the harmony of the seven planes, that evokes the power of solar wisdom, gilded, made of gold, it will allow all difficulties to be pacified, and luckily they arrive victorious in these difficult tests. And then at that moment when they are being received victorious in their tests for what is called hierogamy in alchemy, which is the sacred marriage of the king and queen. I don't know if you've heard of a work called "The Chymical Wedding", by Christian Rosenkreuz, who speaks clearly about the nuptials of the king and

queen. Who are there to unite, and in fact they are one, victorious over all tests. At that moment, the Queen of the Night with her three ladies and Monostatos decide to attack the temple to try one more time to bring Tamino and Pamina back and preferably destroy the temple, destroy Sarastro. But at that moment when unity had already been conquered that world was impregnable. As long as there is some fragmentation, darkness can enter. Once cohesion has been achieved, there are no more gaps through which the darkness can penetrate. Therefore they are soundly defeated and thrown

into the darkness of eternal night. That is, in order to exhaust your need for darkness and ignorance, or that they remain there as abstract factors that are, to test the new walkers coming. And then there's the wedding of the two and there's Sarastro's speech, which I think is very beautiful. He says this: "The night was driven out by the glare of the day, that annulled the false power of hypocrisy..." And the choir of priests responds: "Glory to the initiates! Of the night, winners! To Isis and Osiris, Thanks and Praises! Strength triumphed, and as a reward,

blesses Knowledge and Beauty with an eternal crown". That is, the wisdom and beauty that it brings to the world marry, integrate and conquer unity. And it is also a very Egyptian symbol. The more beings grow by the faces of a pyramid, the closer they get to unity. The unity that is the divine absolutely luminous, the apex of the evolution of all beings That is why it is said that the positive path, the path towards unity, it's the path that also contains unity, a path of fraternity, of union, recognition of the other in myself, empathy, that

is, walk to the apex of the pyramid, also brings us closer to all those who walk through all the other faces. Therefore evolution is a path of union, and everything that takes us towards the luminous apex of the pyramid makes us more united inside and out. It causes greater harmony, the harmony of the Magic Flute. That is, all the symbols fit together and arrive at this glorious moment where this unity is achieved thanks to perseverance, persistence, humility. It's an interesting thing because when Papageno and Tamino enter in the crypt to undergo the test of silence,

ask them to cover themselves, that is, to cover themselves as a symbol of humility, respect, to recognize its small size before the enormity of the wisdom that lies ahead. That is, humility, perseverance, constancy and thirst for light, being chased by a dragon or a serpent, having our consciousness kidnapped by the luminous world of Sarastro. All these previous elements are merit which causes the two to now merge within the temple of wisdom and be luminous and have reached their apex, their best as human beings. They are wise, they have realized human nature, in its sunniest and

brightest aspect. And so our story ends. I brought you a phrase, which is by Goethe, in which he talks about Mozart, which I thought it's very beautiful. And I thought it would be a good ending to our story. "All of Mozart's works are of this genre; there is a creative force in them which continues to operate from generation to generation and which must never be exhausted or destroyed." That is, the way Mozart dresses this story, this myth, the way he interferes with it, how he gives a magical dimension to the story through his wonderful music,

makes him reach a timeless plane which is the plane of myths. They are always there. As long as man exists as such, until man has attained the fullness of wisdom, Myths are a good reference map. And Mozart's music merges with mythical orientations, in such a way that it's inseparable from it. This music sometimes separated, without knowledge of the text, if you focus on it, you will realize that it is a blunt invitation to ascend, for elevation. It pulls your consciousness to a higher degree as few are able to do. And this effect, it seems, is

not accidental, it is intentional. He made this work for this, for this purpose. And that's it! I hope it was a good reflection for you, a little long, but useful, and that can serve to chew these ideas, that when we understand, we go beyond the childlike literality that we live. Man knows so little about himself because he doesn't know symbolic language, he is not able to see the symbolism of the coincidences in your life, of the reiterative facts that are usually showing what he needs to overcome. Cannot see the elements that are represented through nature,

cannot read life, therefore cannot read any of the myths, interprets literally in a way that not even a child would. A child has much more symbolic mentality and sometimes it exposes wonderful myths to ridicule, as we often do these days. Those of you who are in the music field and know that music itself lives on the plane of myths, I hope you can reflect a little on all this and enter this sacred temple of Sarastro cleaning the feet of materialism, superficiality and learning to develop something of symbolic language. Thank you all so much and a

hug!