The difficult path..

And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

- Luke 18:9-14

So Siegfried has to pass the ordeal to gain entrance into that level of development. And to do so he has to confront Wotan, but he does not know who Wotan is. In other words, Siegfried does not yet know his own self, his own Inner Father, his own Kether. But he has courage, he has willpower to proceed.

Wotan blocks his way with his staff. He says, "You cannot advance; you have to go through me first." So we would say symbolically that Wotan is appearing here as Loge, as Lucifer, as the tempter, as the Guardian of the Threshold, this apparition which we have to have courage to confront and overcome.

Siegfried swings his sword and breaks the staff of Wotan. And what is that? You will remember of course that in the previous opera, Wotan broke the sword. But now the same sword reforged breaks the staff. What has happened? What has changed?

In the previous opera, that sword was the sword of a walker on the First Mountain, who only had a certain level of development, who is still bound by certain laws, certain commandments, certain ways of understanding, certain ways of behaving. But through great works and development of consciousness, Siegfried has arrived at the precipice, the entrance into the Second Mountain. In other words, he has more understanding, he needs to develop his will in a greater degree, and he is able to break the staff of Wotan. This is a very deep symbol.

The staff represents, naturally, the spine. But the staff in particular is Wotan's symbol of his contracts, of his rules, of his laws. What is interesting is that when someone is in the very beginning stages of initiation, this person is bound by the Ten Commandments, by certain rules, by certain contracts that we make with God. We are bound by that, and this is what Moses delivers to the people-basic rules that one must follow in order to reach a certain stage of initiation. But to go beyond, to go into further levels of development, one has to transcend even that.

Now you will remember that those Ten Commandments are given in Deuteronomy. Do you know that Deutero means "second?" In other words, the Ten Commandments are the second law. They are the law given to the beginners. But there is a first law, and that is, "You shall love your God with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength." In other words, you shall do the will of your God above all things.

The walker of the Direct Path transcends the Ten Commandments and begins to act in a revolutionary way in accordance with his own will. But that is the will of God in him. By appearances it looks contradictory. It appears that he is breaking the law, and Jesus naturally ran into this all the time with all the Pharisees accusing him, "You are breaking the law! You are breaking the law! You are breaking the law!" And what does He say? "I am the law." The Christ is the First Law which transcends the Second Law.

Siegfried represents the Christified initiate who breaks his contractual obligations with lower laws. He is revolutionary. He is beyond the law. He is becoming Christ, to incarnate that.

And this is how we can understand when we look into many Initiatic stories, stories of the lives of great initiates. They appear to do things which contradict those Ten Commandments, or the basic precepts. They appear to do things that are against what we call "moral." And that is because they answer to a higher law.

- Siegfried (Transcription)

And precisely this is the first step (in order to kill Kamaduro and Karmasaya), this is to marry Gutrune, by toasting to Brünnhilde, he drinks the cup; because this is his last task: when his inner being says: “well now you have to confront the women with which you fell in the past. And you have to marry her, you have to transmute with her, because with her you fell. And with her you have to be lifted up and become completely resurrected. If the initiate refuses, he says “Well if you want to rise yourself into the level in which you were united with me you have to confront that. You betrayed me with her in the past now you have to face the consequences. Go with her and transmute with her but be careful because she will try to make you fall again from the level in which you now are. And the initiate does it; because if he does not do it he will not resurrect. Because the karma of Kamaduro and Karmasaya is rooted there in the treason he committed in the past and he has to face that. However, if he doesn’t do it of course he will be invulnerable, protected by the force of the Spirit, yet, if he does it he will lose that protection and this is necessary so that the karma that is a damnation, that is of course rooted in Hagen from the past because of the treason committed by Alberich become fulfilled, which is the damnation of the ring.

Everybody has the damnation of the ring inside his own psychology. But you pay that only at the end. Remember how the great initiates at the end die. And they pass a great humiliation. And of course when the initiate enters and confronts his new partner in the physical world. It sounds like adultery right? It is adultery. An every body will see it. And it will be a scandal but that is precisely the way. This is unforgivable karma and you have to face it. And in the moment when he starts to practice sexual magic with his new wife, from that cup he receives all the damnation, all the ego. Remember that it is written you shall not commit adultery. Because when you commit adultery you absorb the psychological elements from the partner you are committing adultery with. Then you not only have to fight against your psychological elements but also those elements of your partner. You poison yourself in other words. And this is something very delicate that nobody understands. This is why you shall not commit adultery.

- Götterdämmerung (Transcription)