Stillness: Surrounding, Sustaining, Strengthening -- 2

Stillness in The Magic Flute

I do not know if perhaps you have seen the movie of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute made by Ingmar Bergman. If you have, perhaps you can recall images of the film or perhaps you have seen a stage production of the opera. In the story, again and again that which seems good turns out to be not so good, that which appears evil turns out to be something else. Institutions and events are found to have quite different meaning from what first appears. And characters are discovered to be duplicitous, deceptive, liars. In the opera’s world, even stillness turns out to be deceptive. It fails to communicate the loving thoughts of the central figures to one another, causing confusion and pain. And it serves as a shield for the mounting of the forces of evil.

The story begins with a charming prince, Tamino, running for his life. He is saved from a fearsome beast, by three veiled ladies. Noting how charming the prince is, they quickly become competitive with one another and each seeks to talk the others into leaving herself alone with the desirable young man, without acknowledging her intentions. Tamino awakens to find the beast dead and no one else around. "Is it my imagination," he wonders to himself, "that I am still alive?"

Papageno, a bird catcher, appears and allows Tamino to believe that he, Papageno, has killed the monster and claims that he used his bare hands in doing so. His lie is punished by a padlock on his mouth. Later the Queen of the Night, in whose land the story has begun, pardons him and allows her ladies to release him. With the removal of his padlock he must promise never to lie again. All sing together that if all liars had their mouths padlocked, there would be less hate and defamation in the world – love and brotherhood would endure.

Yet, the Queen of the Night is far from a figure of virtue, herself. Tamino is entangled by her in a real love for her daughter Pamina who has been kidnaped and is being held in a castle. But the Queen’s primary interest as the story unfolds is in having the kidnapper killed and her own power augmented. At one point she tells Pamina to perform the murder or cease to be her daughter.

Tamino and Papageno are sent on their way with gifts from the Queen and her ladies – a set of magically lovely bells and the magic flute. "But how do we find the castle?" asks Papageno. The Queen’s ladies tell them that three boys, young, handsome, sweet and wise, will hover above them on their journey. The boys will guide them and advise them. "Follow only their advice." And in fact the boys do give very good advice and much needed.

They are called upon to intervene later when the prince and the bird catcher are engaged in an arduous testing and development of their commitment to wisdom.

Tamino finds the castle, the Temple of Wisdom, at a moment of confrontation with reversals and duplicity. Having been refused entrance into the temples of nature and reason, he walks with less assurance into the Temple of Wisdom. He knocks. An old priest is surprised when, in answer to his question, Tamino says he is seeking Love and Virtue within the walls of this temple.

"The words are from a high-minded individual!" says the priest. "However, from your demeanor, I can see that you are inflamed with thoughts of death and revenge."

"Only to take revenge on a villain."

"No villain is to be found here," replies the priest. He acknowledges that the kidnapper, indeed, does rule these lands and that he rules within the Temple of Wisdom.

"Everything is hypocrisy!" cries Tamino and is about to depart.

He is enticed into a conversation that begins to unfold wisdom for him. Tamino is convinced after this conversation that he should enter an arduous ordeal to seek wisdom and Pamina’s hand as a reward. He is willing to undergo every trial. Papageno is more hesitant. He thinks maybe a good meal would be satisfactory until he sees there’s a chance there’s girl in it for him, too. So off they go to their unknown trial.

Included in these trials is the anguish of being with their beloved partners and unable to speak to them. In this stillness everything is miscommunicated. Stillness here is not the answer, it is more of the confusion. At one point, having vowed silence, Tamino is turned away from his beloved as she pleads with him, "Speak to me, speak to me," and he can only sigh and turn away.

This is a very different form of stillness, a very different side of stillness.

The reversals of the opera reach their climax toward the end, when the wicked are gathering their forces to storm the Temple of Wisdom and take down all that has been built there. The leader of that group says, "Stille, stille, stille." In the cloak of silence they mount their attack. In the stillness evil is flourishing.

All of a sudden, however, bright sunshine breaks through, casting the dark ones into eternal night. The rays of the sun expel the night and annihilate the power of the hypocrite.

It is a familiar conclusion to us. Light casts out darkness. The light is triumphant. And we are gratified to see that the happy lovers get to have their party at the conclusion of the story and are left in charge of the world.

In many ways, the world of Mozart’s imagination is very like the world in which most of us live every day. Things, people, situations are not what they first appear. Hypocrisy and simple illusion, lack of wisdom or knowledge, and intentional commitments to evil are all jumbled together in the world around us and in the world within us. We hurt the people we love. We lack the information we need and make mistakes of judgement. We believe a good story and are taken in by claims that are unjust. We are weak and foolish and anxious. And we experience stillness that generates pain instead of healing and covers a world of sin.