My site
has an abundance of hints regarding the inspiration this awesome work has
had on my life. The title of the site, "Magick Theatre" (note the
different spelling of both "magick" -- pointing up my OTO connections
-- and "theatre" -- just because I like that spelling better); the
background music on the top page by the band, Steppenwolf; the use
of quotes from the work, but now the time has come to create this explicit
tribute.
Steppenwolf exemplifies the melancholy
pathos of a soul's estrangement and loneliness in its isolation from both
"god" and man. Steppenwolf yearns for the absolute and, in his yearning,
he rejects the world but, in so doing, cuts himself off from humanity. His
isolation; his "freedom" is, he realizes, a death. Hermine saves
him from himself by dragging him down from his pedestal and
"forcing" him to partake in the "degradation" of simply
living in the world with all its limitations and confusion. It is in
this world of the "merely" human that we can experience the sweetest
and most poignent essence of our tragic separation from our souls' home. As
Hermine puts it, "Ah, Harry, we have to stumble through so much dirt
and humbug before we reach home. And we have no one to guide us. Our only
guide is our homesickness." In accepting his humanity, Steppenwolf accepts
the very tragedy of earthly existence which is, perhaps, the very reason we
took on physical manifestation in the first place.
Hermine is in a sense the terrible goddess, Kali. She forces Steppenwolf to deal with his mortality.