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INITIATION DRAMA IN RUSSIAN SYMBOLISM stage of the alchemical process, of the work, the Opus, termed nigredo, that is systematically transmuted into an elaborate literary text.!! The process of purification is associated with the black colour of the Rose on Gaetan’s chest. Explicating the symbolism of the colour, Léna Szilard quotes Papus, who links blackness to the black colour of the first hall, where the masonic ritual of initiation starts. In this rite, the colour symbolizes the beginning of ascension to spirituality. This idea also corresponds to Robert Graves’ conclusions, who identifies black as a colour of wisdom in several pre-Christian religions, which manifested itself in the cult of “black goddesses”.” This process, which essentially corresponds to the act of creation in accordance with the credo of the Russian symbolists, complies with an act of initiation. In addition to modelling the process of creation, it also suggests the performance of a hermeneutic act on behalf of the reader or audience. In Blok’s play this idea is thematized by ill-fated Bertran, nicknamed KnightMisfortune, who comments on Gaetan’s words: Your strange words surely have some Hidden meaning that is unclear to me... Initiating Bertran, Gaetan narrates a story about the sunken city, Ker-Is, a legend of the Breton Atlantis. For Bertran, the spiritual faculties of sight and of hearing are definitely not developed at this stage: G. Now, do you see the roses playing upon the waves? B. The sun is rising from the mist. G. Do you hear the moans? The sirens’ treacherous song... B. I hear only the mournful voice of the waves.'* In the final act of the play, however, his initiation is accomplished. After sacrificing himself for the sake of the idolized mistress, assisting her affaire Aunaa OGoaenecka, Posa u poca. O6 aaxmmnueckoM Ko4e ApaMpi À. BAoka «Po3a u Kpect» in B. A. Kacrpeap (ed.),[axmatopckum BecTHnK. Bpinycx 14. AaexcaHAp Baox «Po3a u Kpect». UccaeaoBaHna u HHTepnperaunn, MockBa, AMAM PAH, 2016, 101. À. Cuaapa, «Posa un Kpecr» B cBere poseHnkpeiiyepckux Tpaanumn in B. A. Kacrpeap (ed.), IaxmatoBcknñä BeCTHHUK. Bbinyck 14. AAekcaHAp BAoKk «Po3a 1 KpecT». MccaeaoBanua vu uHTepnpeTaunn, MockBa, AMAM PAH, 2016, 263-264. 13° Blok, The Rose and the Cross, 93. * Ibid., 101. + 263 ¢ Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 263 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:23
