American drama

Glastonbury Archive UK and Studio Editions USA present

A Twentieth Century Trilogy
Golden River
by

Martha Keltz

Characters:
Wellesley Tudor Pole
The Guide
J. Robert Oppenheimer
A Young Scientist
The First Herald
A Man-Lion Creature
An Angel
Three Young Japanese Women:
A Schoolgirl
A Bride
A Mother
Two Angels
Two Young Indian Men
Two Young Indian Women
The Initiate
The New King Cepheus
Grace, a Child, daughter of the Young Scientist

Time:
July and August, 1945; September, 1966.

Place:
The spiritual World; the Los Alamos Mesa; the Southwest Temple; a park near the home of Oppenheimer in Princeton, New Jersey.

Scene:
The set is the same as for The Triad and, at the opening, warm gold and glimmering rainbow colours are diffused throughout the entire stage.

At Rise:
From the upstage-right entrance, the Guide and Wellesley Tudor Pole enter. They wear the same costumes as in the second and fourth scenes of The Triad, and the Guide still carries the strong, hooked stick. They remain on the upstage-right platform, the Guide frowning and looking intensely down-left, and Tudor Pole transfixed by the scenes around them.






WELLESLEY TUDOR POLE
Ah, wondrous journey on the rainbow arch! Our Herald but pointed the way and we ascended... ascended above the green, fathomless ocean, moving, breathing; expanding into a purple horizon. The calm, eternal bounty of the stars dipped down onto the plains and mountains of the vast continent below. I had but to glimpse this continent and my limbs seemed to turned to iron, drawn to the land as to a magnet.

GUIDE
America exerts a strong pull on the limbs, yes.

TUDOR POLE
We’ve descended now onto a flat, though elevated area; the ancient mountains around us are sacred. We saw sheep grazing on the mountain slopes, and antelope running free. Here the sun shines with great power and beams rainbows through the thunderclouds. The clouds disperse rapidly, yet are still flecked through and through with powerful lightning.

The colours on the stage begin to change, first to red, and then to violet and blue.

The sun begins to set – its fiery redness is almost palpable...

GUIDE
The very soil is red; the mountains are called Sangre de Cristo, the blood of Christ.

TUDOR POLE
The sacrificial blood?... Do you hear that sound in the distance, as though a music echoing?

GUIDE
That is the song of the river, a few miles away, yet spiritually near. Its music echoes off the ancient cliffs. The river is called the Rio Grande.

TUDOR POLE
Rio Grande... I should be delighted to meet your Grande Elemental!

GUIDE
He is presently removed from the body of water itself. Radioactive pollution...

TUDOR POLE
Not too much at once, I beg you... So, we are in the Southwest United States?

GUIDE
Indeed we are, in northern New Mexico. As our Herald explained, this area is full of significance for the future. From our vantage, it would not be too difficult to glimpse this future in the cosmic archetypes. But on Earth, the future is enchanted, held as though in countless infinitesimal seeds – also called atoms, as you know.

TUDOR POLE
Destiny awaits free will. The seeds must be enlivened by the touch of the awakened true self of humanity.

GUIDE
But mankind sleeps soundly!

TUDOR POLE
And so long as human beings sleep to the spirit whilst remaining fully engrossed in matter, they shall be manipulated by dark forces....

GUIDE
The future of Earth and humanity are imperilled as never before.

TUDOR POLE
My soul is uplifted by our journey, and by the glory and beauty of the land, but you did not lead me here for my own upliftment.

GUIDE
Take strength in what you have seen; the rainbow colours of the arch will surround and protect you. Yet even this would not be enough –

TUDOR POLE
Let no fear enter.

GUIDE
You were prepared, like many present-day generals, on the battlefield of World War I.

TUDOR POLE
And by the bombing last year of my Duke Street offices? Curious that every attempt to destroy me has failed. I suppose my usefulness is what matters, and so the miracles continue.

GUIDE
Even the London bombings could hardly have prepared you for what we are about to witness.

TUDOR POLE
You permit a fearful darkness, a deadly fog, to curl into the outer edges of our light.

GUIDE
Far enough.

He lifts up the hooked stick firmly in his left hand, then points it toward the down-left area of the stage. Gradually the colours of the stage change from blue to an eerie green.

Slowly, at the left, a huge, black void, a pit opens to our vision, a pit of enormous diameter and depth. It tunnels down into the earth – a hellish vortex, and with unbalanced power, for the massive tension of its centripetal force is hardly ever relieved. That would indeed be too harmonious; that would be within the sphere of our true heavenly world.

TUDOR POLE
What is it?...

Repelled, he steps back slightly on the platform.

GUIDE
The pit wherein dwell the inspirers of atomic weaponry, and I would not say what else dwells there... It is not physically visible, of course. I have said the tension of its contracting force is unbalanced, but there was a certain release two weeks ago, when the atomic bomb was successfully tested.

TUDOR POLE
The atomic bomb?... Here?

GUIDE
No, in southern New Mexico, in the desert, where, it is claimed, there is no life.

TUDOR POLE
Then why is this here?

GUIDE
We’re on a mesa called Los Alamos, where the government has established a guarded community of scientists and their families.

TUDOR POLE
Those scientists who are responsible, from Europe and America.

GUIDE
Yes, just beyond those rocks and crevices – and the pit – are residences and great laboratories. This is where the atomic bomb has been developed. The scientists believe they have created something new under the sun.

TUDOR POLE
They are deceived.

GUIDE
Certainly... When the bomb was exploded as a test, the flash could be seen in three of these United States. This occurred a few seconds before dawn, on July 16th, a Monday. It was said, "The sun came up in the west, and in a few minutes went down again in the west." Of course the people do not know what is happening; they have been told that an ammunition dump exploded. Do you comprehend the import of this? The American people know nothing of what is occurring here.

TUDOR POLE
What must we do to amend this?

GUIDE
Think not of amends now, worse is to come....

He draws the stick back and the lights slowly change again to blue.

TUDOR POLE
Mercifully, we can no longer see the pit.

GUIDE
Follow me...

The Guide steps down from the upstage platform.

TUDOR POLE
Where?

GUIDE
Where we can find a more comfortable vantage.

The Guide sits down on the right platform and gestures for Tudor Pole to sit beside him.

TUDOR POLE
Well, I’ve little doubt I should be sitting down for what we’re about to witness.

GUIDE
Two scientists are coming this way; soon they will be in sight.

TUDOR POLE
We shall see and hear them?

GUIDE
An exception can be permitted because many occurrences of the present day are unprecedented. You shall need to undergo special purification before returning to your physical body. Even so, I fear we shall not be able to prevent a severe headache upon your awakening. It will pass. Here are the scientists now....

J. Robert Oppenheimer enters from the left, followed by a young scientist. They are dressed lightly and casually for the warm summer evening and the young scientist carries a large flashlight, still unlit. Oppenheimer wears his "pork pie" hat and fidgets with a pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket. He is tall, and very thin and agile, but with occasional disjointed movements. The lights fade up gradually on the two scientists and dim on Tudor Pole and the Guide.

OPPENHEIMER
This is the spot. You can see the remains of our campfires. It won’t be pitch-black for a while; besides, I know this area like the back of my hand. There’s a certain privacy here, a sense that you’re removed from it all. I tell you, we came out here last week and those who had had a bit too much to drink formed a circle around our campfire and were soon engaged in a fire dance. No one knows how it started precisely. It was bizarre.

He removes his hat and reveals a high forehead and dark, curling hair. The intense blue eyes in the thin face mark him as a great tragedian. His charisma is obvious in every glance, gesture and movement, and this is aided greatly by his eloquent manner of speaking.

SCIENTIST
Fire dance?

OPPENHEIMER
I suppose they needed to express what we all felt – a sense of relief, a sense of release, when the test proved successful beyond our wildest imaginings. We felt the awesome power, the magnitude of what we had achieved.

SCIENTIST
I cannot comprehend how an atomic explosion, even a test, could be a cause for celebration, but of course I’m newly arrived. I can understand the satisfaction of good results from years of hard work.

OPPENHEIMER
Hard work, yes, but the challenge, the stimulus, the support! Everything we need comes to us in abundant measure, for our work as well as personally. However, believe me, your misgivings about the aim of our work has my total sympathy, and we are here for honest discussion of your concerns.

He sits on the left platform in a casual attitude, partially reclined.

What troubles you the most? Don’t hesitate to tell me; come right out with it.

SCIENTIST
I spoke with Lawrence yesterday; he would only say that he was the last to give up hope for a demonstration of the bomb, which would obviate military use and terrible loss of life. He would not discuss the decision to use the bomb as a weapon of war.

OPPENHEIMER
You believe a demonstration would be effective?

SCIENTIST
Wasn’t your test effective? And the decision to use the bomb was made before Trinity; before the effects were fully understood.

OPPENHEIMER
I can assure you, all breath on behalf of a demonstration has been wasted breath from the beginning. Whether before or after the test makes no difference. General Groves and those whom he calls "the upper crust" were determined to use the weapons from the onset of the Manhattan Project. We are without power in this regard; we are merely scientists. We began our work in fear that Germany would develop nuclear weapons first; we end our work assured of American superiority. We are proud in that sense; we are patriots.

SCIENTIST
I heard that you yourself recommended use of the bomb. Is that true?

OPPENHEIMER
I have advised restraint.

He removes the pack of cigarettes from his pocket, starts to remove a cigarette, then changes his mind.

I’ve already smoked two packs today. My wife wants me to cut down, though she smokes more than I do....

He rises from the platform and crosses to centre.

The rationale for use is so totally reasonable no one could argue with it. You must believe me when I say there are limits to my influence... You probably already know most of the reasons: the Japanese generals will not be impressed with a display of fireworks over some deserted island. Even if convinced the weapon is horribly lethal, they will deny so; they will not tell the people; they will not give up their determination to fight to the bitter end. Moreover, demonstration of the weapon means the shock value is pre-empted and a bomb is wasted. We haven’t many. Use of the weapon – and more than once – is militarily sound and will end the war immediately. It will save many American lives. You’re about to ask me, why more than once? The Japanese generals will not inform their people of the range of destruction of the first bomb. The military controls the press. They will also assert that we have no more than one bomb...

A pause.

This recipe of reasons, however, lacks one item: a secret ingredient. Something’s missing.

SCIENTIST
The secret ingredient has clearly to do with the fact that the people do not know, neither the American nor the Japanese people.

OPPENHEIMER
You are right... And nothing bothers my conscience more than this. The people should know; the nations should know.

SCIENTIST
As a recent report stated, "Nuclear power is fraught with infinitely greater dangers than were all the weapons of the past."

OPPENHEIMER
I’m sure you’re aware there are petitions circulating, as Leo Szilard and others are taking a moral stand against use of the bomb. You might still be able to sign it and participate, though Groves has taken action against Szilard, so it will ruin your chance of remaining here; it could ruin your career.

SCIENTIST
Be that as it may...

OPPENHEIMER
So you’ve decided.

SCIENTIST
I am sickened by all this, literally sickened.

OPPENHEIMER
I’m sorry.

SCIENTIST
I appreciate your taking time with me; I appreciate your interest.

OPPENHEIMER
I myself plan to leave here as soon as the war is over. That won’t be long now, yes?

He begins to pace.

You must understand my circumstances. I am a theoretical physicist and was teaching at Berkeley when the news about nuclear fission reached myself and my colleagues – it was Niels Bohr who told us. We began thinking about the practical uses of nuclear energy. I recall there was a conference, and it was Edward Teller who suggested the possibility of a nuclear bomb – he’s already talking about bigger and better bombs. So even before I was approached by Groves and the government, development of the bomb was inevitable. Science was ready, we saw that... When I was appointed director here, I had an opportunity to exert a good influence. We focused entirely on beating Germany to the trigger, to put it crudely. When Germany was defeated there could be no turning back, and Japan became the immediate target, with American post-war dominance running a close second.

He begins to talk more to himself than to the young scientist.

Is it possible for me to oppose any use of the bomb?... I alone am not responsible for it, and yet I will always be the personality most closely associated with it – a mere figurehead in many ways. You are not the first to approach me about the moral implications and you will not be the last. I ask myself over and over, where is the true moral wrong in all of this, and the answer is always as we have discussed: that the people do not know. Thus my response will always be: tell the people, tell the nations; grant complete access to nuclear knowledge; permit international control of nuclear weapons.

He removes a cigarette from the pack, but does not light it.

Perhaps we’ll have an end to all war, for we have a state of affairs in which two great powers – Russia and America – will each be in a position to put an end to the civilisation and life of the other, though not without risking its own.

There is a pause and Oppenheimer crosses to right of centre and stoops down.

Have you heard you should be careful about looking under rocks in this country?... Turn your flashlight on and bring it over here.

This the young scientist does.

You see them? Scorpions. Suppose I put two of them inside a bottle. Each is capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of its own life.

Another pause and Oppenheimer rises.

It’s getting darker.

SCIENTIST
Could you please tell me... I mean, I hope you don’t mind my asking... Do you have any religious beliefs?

OPPENHEIMER
Another frequent question; difficult to answer. I will say I’m free of convictions; of blind, compelling beliefs. Of course, there has been no leisure time for any of us, but all the work around Neddermeyer’s idea of implosion or compression has led me to thoughts about complementarities, and hence dualities or opposites. Contraction and expansion, time and eternity, light and shadow, the wave and the particle; objective, subjective; the known and the unknown... It appears we exist in a world of endless dualities, so our human experience is endless conflict and war. The two scorpions in the bottle are of the same nature, and so are we, and like them we kill one another. And there you have it: two at odds. It has been thought for some centuries now that reason or knowledge would be the cure for conflict, but as I pointed out, the rationale for using the atomic bomb is exemplary... If knowledge of the other side cannot connect the two, what will? Just as we determined there was a reason missing for the use of the bomb, something is missing in this concept of a world of dualities, a third factor. And this is lately what I’ve been preoccupied with, the unknown factor. Do you know the seventeenth-century poet John Donne?

SCIENTIST
Let’s see... the seventeenth century was the age of reason.

OPPENHEIMER
And his reasonable verse has always spoken profoundly to me:

Batter my heart, three person’d God, for, you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend.
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn and make me new.

Three-personed God... It’s from the ancient Hindu faith, and clearly the poem speaks to Shiva, who is not death in the sense of annihilation, but transforming death. The others are Brahma, God of Life, and Vishnu, God of Conservations. So we have a trinity. In our work we are most identified with Shiva, and I can only find solace in Shiva as transformer. But there are not two here, there are three. A missing link is referred to, and surely we can find an analogy in physics. So I named our site Trinity, some will say as a mockery, but no, as a reminder from the past to look to the future. In nuclear fission and atomic explosion duality has reached the limit, and this sundrance could become permanent unless... Do physicists have the answers? Where does hope lie now? In these lines:

... As West and East
In all flatt Maps – and I am one – are one,
So death doth touch the Resurrection.

What we must do is flatten the maps and make West and East and all the nations one, and from the doubt and darkness, this will bring the atomic age – and man – into the light. From duality to trinity to unity.

A pause.

So your question about my beliefs has led to these meanderings. As I said, I’m a physicist – and one for hire – not a philosopher... We should be getting back. I’ve a meeting. You won’t change your mind – about leaving here? You’ve so much to offer.

SCIENTIST
I don’t think so, but you’re quite a compelling person.

OPPENHEIMER
No one knows this better than Groves. He missed his call as a Hollywood casting director.

Oppenheimer puts on his pork pie hat and takes the flashlight from the young scientist.

Seriously, while we’ve still time, is there anything else troubling you?

SCIENTIST
Are the bombs to be dropped on military targets?

OPPENHEIMER
Absolutely, and that is what the public will be told. But the key targets are all in urban areas, and that is what the public will learn much later.

SCIENTIST
I can’t live with this.

OPPENHEIMER
Neither can I, so we’ll try to destroy or render ineffectual what we have created, in our own time, in our own way...

SCIENTIST
Not soon enough.

OPPENHEIMER
No... Perhaps the generals are right and more lives will be saved than lost. No, we cannot stop the course of events now, but we can hope to influence the future, with openness... openness.

They exit left and the lights slowly fade up on Tudor Pole and the Guide, who rise and cross to centre.

TUDOR POLE
The course of events cannot be stopped? There must be a way we can stop this horror, or at least warn the people.

GUIDE
These are deeds of free will. As to warnings, most of the people have not developed the ears to hear.

TUDOR POLE
I did not witness this to do nothing!

GUIDE
Let your spirit be calmed; only then can you help. What we have learned must be conveyed to spiritual councils of the people, and to the Atlantean Initiate who dwells now in the Southwest Temple. When you have rested, you shall enter the Temple.

TUDOR POLE
The older scientist spoke of a missing factor in the concept of duality, and yet named it: Vishnu, the Conservator God, the link, the neutral centre between Brahma and Shiva.

GUIDE
Both also referred to a missing ingredient in the recipe of reasons. They are a hair’s breadth from the truth. But we cannot discuss these matters now; you must confer with the Heralds. Come, it is time for your purification and your return to the earthly body. Remaining here longer could cause irreversible damage....

Tudor Pole follows the Guide up the platform and through the upstage-right entrance. The lights fade out.

Lights fade up on the Southwest Temple of the Atlantean Initiate. Background colours of blue, violet and magenta are at left; red, orange and gold are at right. However, the red colours predominate, even touching the magenta at left.

Shortly, the First Herald and Wellesley Tudor Pole enter from and stop at the right.

FIRST HERALD
The entrance to the interior of the Temple... I hardly need tell you that you are to be challenged here because you are still incarnate. Inviolable law. What the nature of your test shall be I cannot say. We have not long to wait – look!

A ferocious creature bounds toward them from the left. This is a man-lion creature, but distinctly mountain lion, or cougar. The man aspect of this creature threatens Tudor Pole with a spear – he threatens to draw blood with the tip of the spear.

CREATURE
If the forces of your blood are not pure you are dead! Let us have a drop of your blood!

TUDOR POLE
I wouldn’t take that sort of extreme measure if I were you. Rather test me with questions, and if I fail to answer correctly, allow me to leave unharmed.

CREATURE
Why are you here?

TUDOR POLE
The Herald and myself are here to commune with the one who has returned to his home. I alone seek another who has lost his home.

The creature softens somewhat.

CREATURE
What is my name?

TUDOR POLE
(After an emotional hesitation) Tearful Heart, Wounded Heart.

A tense pause, then the creature steps aside.

CREATURE
You may pass.

The creature exits right and the Herald and Tudor Pole cross to right of centre.

HERALD
How did you know his name?

TUDOR POLE
I didn’t. I named him as a ray of compassion flooded my heart with light. No man can enter this Temple who is without compassion for the Earth’s Elementals during this dark period of history. In addition, he knows full well which of his compadres I am seeking.

HERALD
Good for you.

They gaze about the Temple.

Solemn stillness.

TUDOR POLE
The stillness that reveals infinitely greater depth than any spoken word.

They concentrate, listening.

HERALD
The potent silence will absorb the traces of our thoughts and speech, and outer forms will be changed forever.

TUDOR POLE
We are at the very crossroad of the malleable future.

An Angel enters from the upstage-left entrance and remains on the platform. The Angel’s garment, from top to bottom, is blue, violet and magenta. There is a moment of silence as the Angel reads from the Being of Tudor Pole.

ANGEL
‘Twas known of old
That men would fissure
The confines of the abyss
With atomic force.
Fallen Gods and corrupted Priests
Have moulded the lower man,
In some measure,
To their own likeness.
Thus was the scientist led
Through special destiny
To the beloved land
Of his youth,
A fiery land of radiant,
Swiftly dissolving force,
With power to dispel effects
Of radioactivity.
In the red rock,
Saturn bears the heavy burden
And dissolves it....

Yet radiation cannot reverse
To further dissolution,
As is the evil intent
Of the annihilators.
Therefore seed-atoms
Are generated here
From the purest source;
Their copies dispersed
Throughout the Southwest.
From a point
Of exhausted radial force,
Jupiter ensures
Further evolution
For the higher man:
He who chooses to climb
From the abyss,
Who chooses to tread
The true and selfless
Path of God.

Just as in the time
Of the Atlantean destruction,
When the Initiate
Led righteous men
From the atomic chaos,
So he helps them today,
Yet in new ways....

Beware! Deeper admittance
To the Southwest Temple
And its manifold secrets
Will be dangerous and painful,
Especially for one incarnate.
Grail Knight, beseech your Herald
Protect you, that you may survive
And return to physical life
Laden with fruits and gifts
For the nurturing of mankind....

The Angel withdraws. Tudor Pole is about to speak, but the Herald places a hand upon his arm.

HERALD
The past and the future cross in humanity... You will now witness results of recent atomic catastrophes on Earth.

TUDOR POLE
How can I bear this after all the war suffering I’ve already experienced?

HERALD
Take strength – God has fructified our work. Many victims have come unconsciously to the Southwest Temple in search of answers – and they have found the doors open! Listen....

The colours of the stage dim and three Japanese women enter from the three upstage entrances. They are: a Schoolgirl, a Bride and a Mother. The Mother is in the centre. They are dressed as on the last day of their lives.

SCHOOLGIRL
We were at work that morn by eight
To help defend our city.
We laid our barricades out straight –
Invaders have no pity.

We laughed to be away from school
On a lovely summer morn,
Yet now would cherish every rule
Had our lives not been so shorn.

I recall a blast followed light
And I wandered with a group.
A water trough soon came in sight
And the others bid me stoop

To drink of the cooling water.
I submerged my face and freed
My soul from the evil slaughter;
Then followed my school friend’s lead.

She was pointing to a river,
Though she said it led not back.
At the gate a ticket-giver
Was forgiving us our lack,

And He showed us a new dwelling
Across the glorious stream,
A school brilliant and compelling,
Of which schoolgirls only dream.


BRIDE
I went to the river, my arms
Full of flowers from my maids.
I tossed the blooms to the wind’s charms
And the water’s foamy braids.

My soldier-groom, I saw his face
In a light that dazzled me,
And he reached as though across space,
But he could no longer see....

I wandered in a hellish land.
How could I have lost my way?
I saw my flowers in the sand;
They formed a cross where they lay.

A little dove alighted there;
Then she rose toward the East.
I heard her sing, "Oh, do you dare
To come to this Wedding Feast?"

I ran as I had never run;
Ran as though from an abyss.
Below it seemed the world had spun
Inside out; all was amiss.

Then I came to sanctuary.
There was a banquet beside
The Lord’s cosmic estuary;
There He held me as His Bride.

MOTHER
Down the rocky path of the hill
To the singing creek we went.
My children jumped and climbed until
Their thin little limbs were spent.

There was a flash and booming sound;
I woke, as from a black dream,
And strode upon the blazing ground –
My children could not be seen.

Though weak, I called each one by name –
They should find me if they could.
And one by one my babies came
And hugged me tight where I stood.

"Mama! Mama! We are so hot!
Let us wade in the water!"
Had Nature placed me in this spot?
Did She so love Her Daughter?

I took my youngest on my hip
and led the others along,
And when the water touched my lip –
It was then I heard the song.

Singing creek was Golden River;
My children ran where He led.
By nightfall we had come hither;
My babies are safe in bed.

Slowly the stage lights brighten and the women gradually lapse into more ordinary consciousness, looking around them.

SCHOOLGIRL
Where are we?

BRIDE
This is a wondrous place... over a strange and powerful land.

MOTHER
Our soul’s questing brought us here.

SCHOOLGIRL
Who are they?

The women look at the Herald and Tudor Pole; then they descend slowly from the platform and cross to the left. Tudor Pole crosses to them and silently greets each in turn.

MOTHER
Thousands and thousands crossed the river suddenly, as did we... I heard it said often that we dead were to be envied, and the survivors pitied.

BRIDE
I heard someone say an atom bomb was dropped on our homeland.

SCHOOLGIRL
Why? Why has this happened?

MOTHER
How long have we been here? Who are you, and....

She looks at the Herald. Tudor Pole also turns and waits for the Herald to speak to the women. After a pause, the Herald crosses to centre and speaks.

HERALD
We have been engaged in a leavening process which can only have the most detrimental effects upon those who will not develope spiritually. Just as the so-called atom itself has been split, resulting in the immense destruction you have experienced, mankind has likewise sundered himself into two halves, lower and higher. The wars and atomic explosions upon Earth reflect this.

BRIDE
Two halves....

HERALD
Only consciousness of the "I am" – which exists in neutrality between the higher and lower selves – only this can hold the two selves together in balance and harmony. Neither the majority upon Earth nor the millions who have tragically crossed to Borderland have developed sufficient consciousness. Universal Laws of the Father God require the essential balance of the three, and the present sunderance would be permanent, except...

He looks at Tudor Pole.

TUDOR POLE
Except for the Son.

A pause.

It is all passing through my consciousness now... the horrors below on Earth; the expanding radiance here. The hellish flames of blood-filled rivers below; the Golden River here.

SCHOOLGIRL
So there is not permanent sundrance?

TUDOR POLE
No... for there are streams of blood and tears ascending, like a bridge, and a pitiable humanity is crossing. They are like ghosts, in shredded garments, shades of their former selves... But they are crossing, for there is the bridge... Who is greeting and embracing them on this side? The disciples and followers of Christ; warriors of Michael emulating Christ’s Deed of Sacrifice.

HERALD
Thereby is Christ’s own descent deepened, and our leavening work fructified. The doors of the Temple are open and our three ladies – albeit chosen – have entered a holy dwelling that would have been closed to them.

TUDOR POLE
The mystery of what dwells in the darkness, in the pit... The mystery of evil....

Momentarily, Tudor Pole remains staring as though transfixed, then he collapses to his knees and covers his eyes.

I can’t bear anymore – I can’t bear the sight of it anymore!

MOTHER
Let us help!

BRIDE
Would we have developed? Would our spiritual eyes have been opened?

SCHOOLGIRL
No! But now – now we can see!

MOTHER
We must help! Can we rest here while strife and war continue?

BRIDE
Why do the people permit the governments to lead them into wars? Why have the people permitted the building of atomic bombs?

SCHOOLGIRL
Give us guidance and instruction – please!

Tudor Pole rises slowly from his knees.

TUDOR POLE
You must join ranks with the mighty unseen armies here. Armageddon is upon us in a way I would never have comprehended, despite the warnings of my dear comrade who died in the first world war. When I return to my limited existence, I must continue to do what I can... Momentarily I am at a loss, overwhelmed by the magnitude of the suffering I have just witnessed, and a glimpse of what is yet to come. In order for you to help us effectively upon Earth, the silent minute must grow in strength and numbers. Should it take my last breath!....

HERALD
Let us look upward now, and draw strength and courage from the Light that descends deeper and deeper into the darkness on Earth, carrying with it the Blended Ray.

TUDOR POLE
Child of the union of Love and Wisdom. Nevermore shall man’s heart and intellect be separated. Nevermore shall the scientist we witnessed be able to act solely from the intellect, without the heart’s warmth and compassion.

HERALD
Look now to the Temple wherein we dwell.

The Herald and Tudor Pole cross to the right and the three women to the left, clearing the centre stage.

As at the opening scene, the stage is again diffused with warm gold and glimmering rainbow colours. Above the upstage-centre entrance, a brilliant, radiating white triangle gradually becomes visible. From the right and left upstage entrances, two Angels in white appear. Each carries one-half of a white semi-transparent cube. They stand at right and left.

Two young Indian men, dressed simply, enter behind each Angel. One carries a small earthen bowl with water and the other a flat red rock. They descend from the platform and place the rock at centre and the bowl upon it. They then cross to the right. Next, two young Indian women enter behind each Angel. One carries corn and the other wheat. They descend, place these next to the altar, then cross and stand to the left.

From the upstage-centre entrance, the Atlantean Initiate enters. He wears the same white robe and head-dress as in The Triad.

FIRST ANGEL (RIGHT)
Two aspects of the One,
Two sides of the indivisible,
Sanctified before time began.

SECOND ANGEL
Preserved and protected
From deep within
The sacred mountaintop.

FIRST ANGEL
From this highest source,
Seed-atoms are generated
And dispersed throughout the land.

SECOND ANGEL
In the centre of the eternal now,
In the sanctum of humanity,
The past meets the future.

FIRST ANGEL
And from the mountaintop,
Angels may receive the seed-atoms
And pour them upon the Earth –

SECOND ANGEL
Upon the Earth and mankind
Where the wounds are deepest.
May the wounds be cleansed and closed.

INITIATE
Sacred stones of old lie ruined on the Earth,
Reminders of a distant past
When high priests summoned Gods
To their Temples –
Summoned Gods along the serpentine paths
Of starry forces on Earth –
That their circles and communities
Be blessed and renewed.

Atlantean Temples rose again
After atomic corruptions and floods.
The preserved thoughts in purest form –
Seed-atoms of electrical matter –
Were dispersed from the sanctuaries,
For Hope of Worlds would come again.

The Indian peoples, Atlantean descendants,
Built earthly models of the great cosmic Temple here,
Ruled by the constellation Cepheus,
For it was known that men of free will
Would not hold the rock sacred
And hence would be bound to it,
Like Prometheus...

The newly-crowned King Cepheus
And Sophia, Queen of Earth,
Have absorbed many wounds
That belong rightfully to Amfortas, below.
Through the regency of Michael
They instruct their servants – all of us –
In deeds long anticipated
In the silent, majestic centres –
Deeds for the present salvation.

(To Tudor Pole)
Knight of the Grail,
Europe has collapsed
As centre of material power,
But may radiate harmoniously
As muted balance
Between forces of East and West.

A new nation of Israel
Emerges from the Shoah...
She shall strengthen the East
As America dominates the West.

(To the Japanese Women)
Japan was led into a war
She could not win...
She has broken vices of the past
But must safeguard herself –
And all of Asia –
From further war
And extreme westernisation.
So be it with her ill-suited comrade,
Russia....
(To the Indians)
America must lead her people
In the quest for spiritual gold.
The eyes of Americans,
Unable to bear the horrors
Of wars, atomic destruction
And material disintegration,
Will at last turn inward,
In search of the spiritual.

My people wander in dreams
To the ancient Indian ruins,
Recalling an earlier existence
In harmony with Earth
And the starry worlds...
Yet America’s physical strengths
Shall dominate for long ages,
For as greater light descends to Earth
Through the leavening,
Greater forces of evil
Shall be released from the darkness.
Against these evils,
All we have recently witnessed
Shall fade by comparison....

After a pause, the Initiate descends from the platform and crosses to the Herald and Tudor Pole, greeting them warmly as friends.

My Brothers... I wish especially to tell this noble Knight of the centre that we are aware of his concern for the Elemental of the Golden River, who has sought refuge in the sacred mountaintop.

He gestures to one of the Indian men, who steps slightly down-right.

Here is someone who chooses to serve me, but his present youthfulness belies a courageous and wizzened chief of the past.

INDIAN
(To the Mother) And I have just chosen my new name: it is Singing Creek.

INITIATE
When the waters have been replenished with the seed-atoms, Singing Creek will guide you to a spring of Shamballa, which is the true source of the Rio Grande. There, in the rainbow aura of the San Juan Mountains, you may place a shrine which cannot fail to attract the Elemental.

INDIAN
This will be the time when Cepheus will be seen in the northern sky – in September. The Mountain King believes the River Elemental should not be at the mountaintop in winter, for he will try to melt all of the snow, and this will cause flooding.

TUDOR POLE
I can see the shrine....

HERALD
Cepheus, celestial symbol of the fourfold lower nature of man and the threefold higher nature – a square and a triangle.

INITIATE
The new King Cepheus sits on His throne, on the fulcrum between the two, assuring the universal balance. He searches in the darkness below for any glimmer of emerging light – worlds – universes – depend upon it. (To the Japanese women) When the work here is completed, you must go with Singing Creek to the spiritual councils of your people. Placement of shrines must begin for the sacred waters and mountains of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which have borne a horrible destiny.

He crosses to the centre and stands behind the altar.

The deeds of Shamballa must be followed by deeds upon Earth. The spiritual warriors of Michael and the millions of war dead will descend again into incarnation. They will engage in the battle for the survival of Earth... They will protest against war, and against corruption in governments. They will fiercely oppose nuclear weaponry. They will cry for restoration of nations, yet with increased consciousness of global and universal humanity. They will struggle for restoration of ecology. We will see the emergence of archaeo-astronomy... the unification of diverse spiritual disciplines... awareness of what is called the Second Coming... awareness of the Antichrist and new evils, yet with increasing effort to transform the deeper darkness into the greater light and harmony...

He descends to his knees before the altar, and all follow.

We will see the unfoldment and upliftment of the Holy Grail on Earth...

He picks up the bowl from the altar and raises it upwards.

I am.

From the centre entrance the New King Cepheus enters. He is clothed in white garments. He raises His arms in greetings then folds them across His chest. Slowly all lights fade on the stage, then on the Initiate, who continues to hold the bowl aloft, and lastly and very slowly on the New King Cepheus, the two Angels with the white cubes, and the white triangle.



After an interval during which the stage is in darkness, the lights again fade up. As in the last scene of The Triad, the setting is outdoors, although in a park. A park bench has been placed to the right of centre and lighting suggests the shadows of trees. The time is September, 1966, and the park is near the home of J. Robert Oppenheimer in Princeton, New Jersey.

Oppenheimer, 63 years old, is aged, with white hair, and obviously ill with a somewhat enfeebled walk. He carries a manuscript. Slowly he crosses to the bench at right and sits down. He glances at his wrist watch.

OPPENHEIMER
I’m early for our meeting. Good.

He opens the manuscript and a folded letter falls to the ground. With difficulty he rises, retrieves the letter from the ground and opens it.

So here is Edith Warner’s letter... What it’s doing in this manuscript, I can’t imagine. I thought it was lost, but here it presents itself to me at a propitious time... Now why should I say that? Propitious time... There’s nothing propitious about an old physicist making his way to the park for a meeting with his younger colleague – aside from his good fortune at being able to walk at all. Edith Warner... Yes, well I remember her peaceful house "Down by the Rio Grande," and the simple meals she would prepare for her Los Alamos guests, those "illustrious" scientists. And there was her husband Tilano, the Indian. She was a Quaker... Why did she write? Oh, yes, she had read my farewell speech when it was published in the local paper. That was when we told the world what we had done at Los Alamos.

He reads the letter.

"Dear Mr. Opp... As I read your speech, it seemed almost as though you were pacing my kitchen, talking half to yourself and half to me. And from it came the conviction of what I’ve felt a number of times... I think of you, hopefully, as the song of the river comes from the canyon and the need of the world reaches even this quiet spot. May you have strength and courage and wisdom... Edith Warner."

My dear friend, you, like so many, were naively trusting, and you were deceived. Well...

He sits down on the bench.

I shall put your letter with the other documents I’ve been asked to send to the Library of Congress. They shall have a hideously complete archive.

He re-folds the letter and sets it on the bench, then opens the manuscript.

On the abuses of secrecy... The Consequences of Action, 1951... The Open Mind, 1955... I believe I understand now why this letter was in this manuscript.

He locates a certain passage and reads.

"Nowhere has there been a more eloquent and more general account of this ideal of an open world, an ideal in which secrecy would not be used for national purposes, in which everything of relevance to the common security and common welfare would be accessible, than in the efforts, and the writings of the beloved and eminent physicist, Niels Bohr. If we ever hope to see the world put peacefully together again, it will have to involve, as one of its essential ingredients, an openness with regard to those parts of life which, if held secret, can be a menace to all mankind....". The song of the river....

The young scientist, now in his 40s, enters from the left. Oppenheimer rises to greet him and they shake hands.

SCIENTIST
Dr. Oppenheimer –

OPPENHEIMER
Oppie to you.

SCIENTIST
(Laughing) I was never comfortable calling you Oppie.

OPPENHEIMER
We’ve bonded in a very special way. Recall our meeting one evening on the mesa – you had decided to leave and consulted with me.

SCIENTIST
I’ll never regret my decision.

OPPENHEIMER
It wasn’t long after that I left. Sit down then, tell me how your life has gone.

They both sit down on the bench, the scientist looking with concern toward the left.

SCIENTIST
I just need to keep an eye on my daughter. She’s playing on the hill, over by the marigolds.

OPPENHEIMER
What is her name?

SCIENTIST
Grace, and she’s a smart little girl – perhaps I should say wise. She’s very different from her mother and myself in many ways.

OPPENHEIMER
For example?

SCIENTIST
It’s subtle – very difficult to describe... But yourself – how are you?

OPPENHEIMER
Shockingly changed. Surely you noticed.

SCIENTIST
I shall be honest. Your visage presents an image of a tortured, though noble soul. What tortuous paths have you walked? Every step is showing in your face, your frame. You’ve always been a striking figure, but now... What have you been through?

OPPENHEIMER
I have cancer, which is tortuous path enough. But that’s not all....

SCIENTIST
I followed the unfortunate events of the last decade, when the Atomic Energy Commission suspended your security clearance.

OPPENHEIMER
J. Edgar Hoover went after me, you know, on pretence of so-called communist affiliation. Yes, I dabbled in communism when I was young. But it wasn’t that. He was against my very public platform of openness and international control of nuclear science. As I was just reviewing, many of us wanted the ideal of the open world, for when the world itself is at stake, there must be no secrets kept from the people. You can be sure that is not the aim of certain highly-placed figures in government. Hoover tried to stop us. Somehow – I believe it was my fame – I escaped the clutches of his power and eventually my reputation was restored.

SCIENTIST
I know you received the Enrico Fermi award a few years ago.

OPPENHEIMER
That was no small compensation... But would you believe me if I told you that the farcical drama with the AEC, in addition to my cancer, are not the primary contributors to the precarious state of my body and soul? After all, public processes and private illnesses are transient. What then, you might ask, has brought me to my present condition?

He rises, and with the energy acquired from deep insight, speaks and paces with renewed strength.

It was after I arrived at Princeton and began teaching – well, it must have been a year or two – that I began to have a recurring dream. It was a long, long time before this dream filtered up into my consciousness – with the result of course that I began to think about it and to analyze it. Now you’ll not find my experience pleasant... You see I had been cut in half – or perhaps torn in half would be more apt – and had somehow lost the lower part of myself. So I had to use my arms to walk about; very often I had to get about very fast and it was quite a strain on my arms. Pull, pull, pull along; get where you must go; hurry now; quickly. In time I was able to ask myself in my dream: where is the lower part of me? And I would seek to find it. Imagine the nightmare of not being able to find it... Such nightmares were mine... But then, a certain dim light began to penetrate this nightmare, out of which a figure or a person would emerge. He would say, "I have restored your self to you; you are whole." Then I would feel a certain shame, and ask "Why have you done this for me? Do I deserve such?" He would then say something to the effect that he had a good heart – something about his heart – or my heart. Then I would wake up – in a sweat, you may believe.

SCIENTIST
And you no longer have these dreams?

OPPENHEIMER
No. But dream or reality? As I said, I am but precariously held together. It is as though I literally had been torn apart and put back together, not as in a dream, but in actuality, in life.

SCIENTIST
It is what your work has done.

OPPENHEIMER
(After a pause) So be it. Now, you my friend – what of your life? Yes, you have a wife and child – the girl, Grace.

The young scientist rises from the bench and calls at the left.

SCIENTIST
Stay where I can see you, Grace! (Turning back to Oppenheimer) Sit down, I insist.

Oppenheimer slowly sits down on the bench.

My life has not been nearly as dramatic as when I walked out of Los Alamos. Because I walked out with no notice I had little hope of finding further work in physics, and of course my security clearances were revoked and the FBI had me under investigation for quite some time. Soon I was just another forgotten number and I went back to graduate school and studied botany. This is what I now teach, and in any time I can spare away from my family, I’m involved with preservation of the environment.

OPPENHEIMER
Physics will never recover the loss of your great talents, but your subsequent career in botany is splendid. You are here in Princeton for a conference, you have informed me, and how long will that be?

SCIENTIST
Only a few days.

OPPENHEIMER
You and your family must find an evening to join Kitty and myself for supper.

SCIENTIST
We would be honored and delighted.

Grace, a child of about ten years of age, enters from the left. She carries marigolds.

GRACE
Daddy –

SCIENTIST
Did you pick these flowers? You should not have.

GRACE
Marigolds: any of various plants of the genus Tagetes.

SCIENTIST
Now how could I possibly scold her?

GRACE
Daddy, I found a fountain, on the other side of the hill –

SCIENTIST
Where I could barely see you.

GRACE
An old lion-head fountain, all crumbling and overgrown with ivy. There was once a spring coming out of the hill, and the water came out of the lion’s mouth. It’s dry now. Couldn’t it be restored, Daddy? Couldn’t it? Not a spring should ever be lost – not one, not ever.

SCIENTIST
What did I tell you? There’s a subtle difference....

OPPENHEIMER
I see, yes.

SCIENTIST
We had best be getting back to our hotel, young lady. We’ll still need to get some lunch before I return to the afternoon sessions.

OPPENHEIMER
Give Kitty a call as soon as you find time.

SCIENTIST
I certainly will. Good day then.

OPPENHEIMER
Good day....

Oppenheimer rises from the bench slowly and embraces the young scientist with deep feeling.

GRACE
I would like you to have my marigolds.

OPPENHEIMER
Why, thank you.

Taking the marigolds from Grace, Oppenheimer again sits down on the bench. The young scientist and his daughter exit. Oppenheimer gazes at the marigolds for a few moments, then sets them down on the bench with trembling hand. He picks up the manuscript, opens it and finds another passage. He reads aloud.

The Open Mind... "This cannot be an easy life. We shall have a rugged time of it to keep our minds open and to keep them deep, to keep our sense of beauty and our ability to make it, and our occasional ability to see it in places remote and strange and unfamiliar; we shall have a rugged time of it, all of us, in keeping these gardens in our villages, in keeping open the manifold, intricate, casual paths, to keep these flourishing in a great, open, windy world; but this, as I see it, is the condition of man; and in this condition we can help, because we can love, one another."

Lights fade on the stage and very slowly on Oppenheimer.