Hermann Hesse And The Glass Bead Game How I know Castalia….

Hermann Hesse 

And The Glass Bead Game

How I know Castalia….

***

I have returned to the tranquillity of Castalia, in Hermann Hesse's final literary gift to the world, the Glass Bead Game.

Castalia is a future utopia that Hesse created between 1932 and 1943, during the darkest year's of Nazi's in Europe.

Hesse, who has a Jewish wife, was fortunate to to live in Switzerland, where he was safe during World War 2.

I can reamember reading this when I was 22, on the beach in Ocean City MD where I worked summer of 1988.

So what is the origin of Castalia?

"Castalia (/kəˈsteɪliə/; Greek: Κασταλία), in Greek mythology, was a nymph whom Apollo transformed into a fountain at Delphi, at the base of Mount Parnassos, or at Mount Helicon.Castalia could inspire the genius of poetry to those who drank her waters or listened to their quiet sound; the sacred water was also used to clean the Delphian temples."

I remember being in awe of the Glass Bead Game, but knowing it was a book I could only understand with time.

Now at 50, when the world future feels very uncertain, I have returned to the Glass Bead Game and I am savoring every word.

This book to me is alive, a portal to a place of peace far from these times.

How beautiful, a sacred spring whose waters when drunk turn one into a poet.

We need more poets. We need to storm the gates of darkness with poetry, music, art, all in the spirit of timeless unconditional love.

In the end the hero of the Glass Bead Game rejects the rarified realm of Castalia, in order to serve suffering humanity.

He leaves the lofty realms to serve others in the present, out of love, compassion he leaves Castalia.

I know I must leave also, but plan to stay here awhile longer.

I had forgotten this quiet still place from which all life unfolds.

I now remember. Like someone who had lost their homeland, lost in the wastelands, I drink from the sacred fountain, and watch the kaleidoscope of time ebb and flow.

I go under these waters, looking up through the clear magical waters, where the light of the sun, illuminates the pathway towards the light, where not even the word "darkness" is known or spoken.

Just the nurturing waters, the healing water's, of Castalia.

I offer all of this up to those whose spirits have been crushed.

The poets of old reclaim the power of the Word.

Poetic incantations, mantra, divine music, awaken all from the slumber of ignorance.

From seed syllables the play of appearances, come in and out of being.

We journey together in dreamtime.

We are waking dreamers, bringing forth a new world.

Come, lets dream together, one last time.

Let us dream again. Let us dream.

Be practical, demand the impossible.

***

David Arndt 2022

Artwork by Paul Meijering - Hermann Hesse