The Secret Teachings of Opera | Seduction, Black Magic, and Witches’ Sabbaths in Mefistofele (Act II)

Through the gifts of his newfound diabolic companion, Faust recuperates his vitality and youth, capitalizing on his new abilities in the effort to seduce Margherita, a beautiful but naive young woman from town. To assist in the magician’s sensual escapades and dangerous liaison, Mefistofele provides him with a sleeping potion to drug Margherita’s mother and therefore avoid detection during the lovers’ tryst. The couple declares their love despite the rocky foundations of their infatuous and hastened affair. Afterward, the devil transports Faust to the top of a dark (and bald) mountain (sparsely populated by trees) to partake in a Witches’ Sabbath: a Satanic ritual characterized by discordance, chaos, violence, lust, and power. Such dramatizations reflect the tremendous reality of and relationship between seduction and black magic: how the passionate fulfillment of lust and desire are the gateway to spiritual destruction and the development of egotistical powers. While modern people laugh and mock such metaphysical phenomena as the consequence and cause of blind fear, superstition, and ignorance, the truth is that such symbols demonstrate how anyone who cultivates lust with mystical devotion ends up as a demon, a being divorced from the eternal but awakened with powers in, of, and for evil. Such powers are driven by selfishness and produce terror and pain, emotions that are so masterfully depicted in Boito’s terrifying music and choruses in this act. Learn how to conquer lust and to comprehend the essential nature of witchcraft, sorcery, and the machinations of the Black Lodge (the congregations of infernal entities) so as to enact spiritual self-defense and the protection of our spirituality from dark forces.

Resources and References:

• https://chicagognosis.org/lectures/seduction-black-magic-and-witches-sabbaths-in-mefistofele-act-ii
• Boito - Mefistofele: Arena, Ramey, Benackova, San Francisco Opera House
• The Eternal Tarot, Arcanum 18: Twilight