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Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily
Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe The Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily has been described by Rudolf Steiner as Goethe's "open secret" in which is revealed, in symbolic form, essentials of a modern spiritual world conception. — Two of Steiner's lectures on the "Fairy Tale" are included as an introduction to its inner aspect. D... more »escribing Goethe's works, Steiner states: "We find that Goethe was one of those spirits who had within him an inexhaustible fund of greatness. And if we have learned to add to our own small stock of wisdom, by turning back to Goethe again and again, we are constantly astonished anew and stand in admiration before that which before was hidden from us, because there was in ourselves no responsive echo of the realm which expressed itself through him. No matter how polished a man may be, no matter how much wisdom he may have discovered in Goethe, if after some years he turns to him again, he will convince himself anew that there is still an infinite fund of what is beautiful and good in the works of Goethe. This experience may come in particular to those who believe profoundly in the evolution of the human soul. It has often been said that in his “Faust,â€Â Goethe produced a sort of Gospel. If this be so, then, besides his Gospel, Goethe also produced a sort of secret Revelation, a sort of Apocalypse." That Revelation is contained in the "Fairy Tale".« less