Goethe S Fairy Tale Of The Green Snake And The Beautiful Lily

Goethe's Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily

In 1794 Goethe and Schiller were engaged in a correspondence concerning the connection of the human soul with the world of the senses on one hand and with the supersensory on the other. While Schiller approached the question in a philosophical way, Goethe embodied his thoughts in a fantasy entitled The Fairytale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily. In his fantasy, Lily represents the ideal world of the supersensory that is separated from the Green Snake, or the sensory, by a river. The goal is to build a bridge across the river that will connect the sensory and super sensory realms, and thereby establish a new, conscious spiritual awareness. The other characters in the fairytale-the Ferryman, the Old Woman, the Youth, the Will-o'-Wisps and the Old Man with the Lamp represent various aspects of the soul working together to accomplish this mighty task. A commentary on The Character of Goethe as shown in the Fairy Story is provided by Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian philosopher and thinker. An invaluable guide, it illuminates much of the deep symbology that is contained in this simple, universal fairytale.

Tales for Transformation

In 1768, at the age of nineteen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe began to study hermetic literature. This exploration had a huge impact on the early aesthetic education of Europe's great man of letters, the last renaissance titan. In the years that followed, Goethe immersed himself in the hermetic tradition, and even set up an alchemic laboratory and attempted to make an elixir of immortality. Although he eventually gave up his alchemical experiments, he was to believe in the validity of the Great Work for the rest of his life. Alchemic symbolism is prominent in many of Goethe's works, and it is particularly abundant in the tales of self-mastery and transformation presented in this collection. Included here are new translations of "Fairy Tale" ("Marchen"), Goethe's alchemical allegory; "The Counselor" and "The New Melusina," stories of temptation and the tests of love; "The Good Woman," a curious discourse on aesthetics and the rights of women; and the lyrical prose masterpiece "Novelle." Here also for the first time in English is "The Magical Flute," Goethe's sequel to Mozart's opera, with themes of initiation, the magical power of music, and liberated genius.

The Art of Goethean Conversation