The Rudolf Steiner Archive

18. Goethe's Secret Revelation III

“The New Melusine” and “The New Paris”

[ 1 ] In the two previous lectures, I attempted to analyze the fundamental symbols in Goethe’s profound fairy tale. We have seen how Goethe, like the mystics of all ages, expressed the truths he considered most profound through evocative, colorful symbols.

[ 2 ] Today, allow me to add two more fairy tales: “The New Melusine” and the so-called boys’ fairy tale “The New Paris.” It might perhaps seem that there is something contrived or contrived about these fairy tales, but you will see, if you immerse yourself in these images, that here too only an esoteric, mystical interpretation makes it possible to arrive at an explanation.

[ 3 ] Goethe inserted the fairy tale of “The New Melusine” at a significant point in his *Wanderjahre* (1807). Anyone who delves into Goethe’s mind will never succumb to the superficial view that this was merely a juxtaposition of images, like in a kaleidoscope, or a mere play with images. Rather, they will realize that Goethe was expressing his deepest inner self here.

[ 4 ] A man recounts that, in order to elevate his soul to higher capacities, he “has renounced language insofar as it is used to express anything ordinary or incidental; from this, however, a different talent for speech has developed in him, one that intentionally appears wise and delightful.” — Like this man, Wilhelm Meister himself is involved with secret societies and is guided by mysterious leaders.

[ 5 ] The man reflects on and organizes the rich experiences of his life in his quiet mind. This is combined with imagination, which brings life and movement to what has happened. It is, therefore, a philosopher who speaks to us in this fairy tale, and at the moment when, at the end of the story, he feels the longing to elevate his soul to a higher state, he also comes to understand the ideals of the philosophers.

[ 6 ] Let us now allow the main themes of the fairy tale of the “New Melusine” to pass before our minds, as they lead us deep into Goethe’s very being.

[ 7 ] A young man meets a strange woman at an inn who makes a great impression on him. He notices that she is carrying a small box and guarding it carefully. He asks if there is anything he can do for her, if he can do her a favor. She asks him, since she must stay here for a few days, to continue the journey with the box in her place. However, he must always take a separate room for the box and lock it with a special key so that the door cannot be opened by any other key. He sets off. On the way, he runs out of money; the lady appears and helps him out. He spends the money again; he believes there might be something in the box that could be turned into money. He discovers a crack in the box, looks inside, and sees something bright shimmering within. He sees a living quarters filled with a whole tribe of dwarves, including the girl. So it exists in two forms: a large one on the outside and a small one on the inside. He is terribly frightened; the lady appears to him again, and he learns the truth about the box. The lady tells him that her true form is that of the dwarf girl.

[ 8 ] This race of dwarves is said to have existed long before humans, when the earth was still in a fiery state. It was unable to survive because a race of dragons waged war against it. To save the dwarves, a race of giants was created, but they soon sided with the dragons, so that to protect the dwarves, who had retreated into the mountains, yet another new race of knights—or, as it was called in the original version, heroes—had to emerge. Thus, dragons and giants now stand against dwarves and heroes. But the dwarves are growing smaller and smaller, so that it becomes necessary for someone from their race to come to the overworld from time to time to draw new strength from the realm of men.

[ 9 ] The young man wishes to be united with the lady, and after a few more adventures, she tells him that to do so, he must become a dwarf himself. She slips a ring onto his finger; the young man shrinks to the size of a dwarf and now enters the world he had seen in the box. He is now united with the lady. But soon a longing for the land of humans awakens within him; he procures a file, saws through the ring, shoots suddenly upward, and is human once more.

[ 10 ] At the end of the fairy tale, when the young man feels a longing to become human again, Goethe makes an interesting remark that is key to understanding the story. He has the young man say: “Now, for the first time, I understood what the philosophers mean by their ideals, which are said to torment people so much. I had an ideal of myself, and sometimes in my dreams I appeared to myself as a giant!”

[ 11 ] Let us now see what Goethe intended to convey with this fairy tale. The race of dwarves, created before dragons, giants, and humans, puts us on the right track. The people of the dwarves “are still as active and industrious as in ancient times. In the old days, their most famous works were swords that pursued the enemy when thrown at them, invisible and mysteriously binding chains, and impenetrable shields. Now, however, they are mainly concerned with matters of comfort and adornment.” Here reference is made to what the mystics call the “spark” in the human soul, the human ego, which the Deity implanted into the human body. This human ego once possessed magical powers, secret magical forces; now it serves to make the earth subservient to humanity in all works of culture; in all this, the human spirit, the ego, is at work.

[ 12 ] What is the box? A world—a small world, to be sure, but a complete world. Man is a microcosm, a small world within a larger one. The box is nothing less than an image of the human soul itself. The human mind, the consciousness of the present, as we have come to know it in the fairy tale of the green snake in the old man’s wife, is what creates images of the whole great world, images in the small. What is it that is summed up in the human soul as the sum of thoughts? It is the spiritual spark. If we could look into the human soul, we would discover the spiritual spark, which was kindled in the distant past in a human being endowed only with a dull dream-consciousness, along with the seed of future stages. Preceding all physical states is this spiritual spark, which glows within the human soul. Compared to the future greatness, the perfection of the human being, what lives within him today is but a seed, but a dwarf.

[ 13 ] In the past, there were other human races; before ours came the Atlanteans, before them the Lemurians, and so on. It was in the midst of this third, the Lemurian race, that the endowment with the spiritual spark—with consciousness—took place. The “I” is the seed of the eternal within the human being, which, through human development, can strive upward to self-conscious life.

[ 14 ] This consciousness came from another world; it thus preceded the origin of humankind and existed earlier than the other components of the human being (Kamamanas). Even today, this sense of self is still paired with passion. The true philosopher strives to liberate the divine in humanity from the sensual, so that it may become aware of its divine origin; Manas is liberated from Kama. This liberated Manas will then develop from within itself the Buddhi, the consciousness of being in the divine world, in order to then strive toward Atma.

[ 15 ] We know that this spiritual essence of the human being has passed through a wide variety of forms. One of these states is referred to as that of the dragons. In H. P. Blavatsky’s *The Secret Doctrine*, we also hear of fiery dragons as symbols of the time when humanity descended from its higher spirituality.

[ 16 ] The passage through the crude physical form is represented by the giants. Man must be ennobled; he ascends to ever finer forms; he becomes a hero, a knight. These knights of the spirit have always sought to form an alliance with the ideal of true humanity; they are meant to live in harmony with the dwarves. “And it comes to pass that thereafter giants and dragons, as well as the knights and dwarves, have always held together.”

[ 17 ] Now the woman is said to have remarked, “Everything that was once great must eventually grow small and diminish; we, too, are in the same situation, for since the creation of the world we have been steadily diminishing and growing smaller, but above all the royal family.” Therefore, “from time to time, a princess must be sent out from the royal house into the land to marry an honorable knight, so that the dwarf lineage may be refreshed and saved from complete decline.” For the younger brother turned out to be so small “that the nurses even lost him from his swaddling clothes, and no one knows where he has gone.”

[ 18 ] A ring is now brought forth—the ring is always a symbol of the personality—and through this ring, the dwarf becomes human and unites with the Spirit Knight.

[ 19 ] How does the race of dwarves evolve? By passing through physical humanity and the various states of consciousness. How does present-day consciousness continue to develop? Through the law of karmic human evolution. Let us first consider an example. The child learns to read and write; the efforts and exercises involved in this process all pass away; what remains is the ability to read and write. The fruit of their labor has been absorbed into the person. What was initially external, spread out in physical nature, has become a part of themselves. “What you think and do today, you will be tomorrow,” or as the Bible puts it: “What you sow, you will reap.”

[ 20 ] We are the products of times past. Our soul would be empty if it did not gain experience from the outside world. How would the soul fade away if it did not learn the lessons from the outside world.

[ 21 ] If we truly want to internalize the things we experience, we must process them. This is the law of evolution and involution, through which we elevate our being. We must draw strength from our surroundings. We gather experiences in the outer world in order to make them our own spiritual property. During moments of contemplation, the spirit then processes the experiences it has gathered, only to return again and again to the outer world. Our concepts would wither away if we were to withdraw from the outer world. It is a spiritual breathing process, a “give and take.” We project our inner world outward; we absorb the outer world. Goethe has depicted this process of evolution and involution in a meaningful way in this fairy tale. This is what the young man’s words about what are called ideals point to. Ideals are what do not yet exist, what is to be realized in the future. What sets human beings apart from everything else is the ability to set ideals for themselves, the ability to move toward a higher future. By giving reality the opportunity to grow into a higher future, human beings cultivate idealism.

[ 22 ] Goethe also beautifully expressed this truth in the fairy tale “The New Paris.” In this tale, Goethe speaks of himself. It appears at the beginning of *Poetry and Truth*. Shortly before that, in “Poetry and Truth,” the young Goethe seeks to “draw near to the great God of Nature, the Creator and Sustainer of heaven and earth” by erecting an altar to Him. “Natural products were to represent the world in a parable; above them a flame was to burn, symbolizing the human mind looking up to its Creator.” The boy lights the incense sticks by the light of the rising sun. But in doing so, he damages all sorts of things and comes to the conclusion “how dangerous it is, in general, to try to approach God in such ways.” We have shown in the fairy tale of the green snake and the beautiful lily that Goethe was convinced that the only way to approach the divine is for man to awaken the abilities slumbering within him. In the “Boy’s Fairy Tale” as well, he points to this path.

[ 23 ] This fairy tale begins with Goethe describing how, as a boy on Pentecost Sunday, the god Mercury appeared to him in a dream and gave him three beautiful apples—a red one, a yellow one, and a green one. In his hand, they transform into gemstones, and he beholds within them three female figures, for whom he is to select three worthy young men at Mercury’s behest.

[ 24 ] As he stares at them in amazement, they vanish; a fourth female figure appears, dances on his hand, and, as he tries to catch her, strikes him on the forehead, causing him to lose consciousness.

[ 25 ] When he wakes up, he dresses in his finest clothes to go visiting and comes to the gate, where he finds a strange opening in the wall. It has no key.

[ 26 ] A man with a long beard opens the door from the inside; he looks like an Oriental, but he makes the sign of the cross, thus showing that he is a Christian. He shows the boy the garden, which is wonderfully beautiful. From the bushes, the birds call out clearly: “Paris,” “Paris,” then again “Narcissus,” “Narcissus.”

[ 27 ] Then the new Paris catches sight of an even more magnificent garden behind a sort of living wall. He asks if he may enter. The old man grants permission after he has removed his hat and sword. Led by the old man’s hand, he sees something even more wondrous. Behind a latticework of swords and pikes, he beholds an even more beautiful garden, surrounded by a canal. Now he must first put on a different garment; he is given a sort of oriental costume. As a warning, three strange ropes are shown to him. Now the swords and pikes lie across the water, forming a golden bridge, and he steps across. On the other side, the girl he once held dancing on his hand—the one who slipped away from him—comes to meet him. She leads him to the three ladies from the apples, who are dressed here in appropriate garments and playing certain instruments.

[ 28 ] The female figure, whom he has recognized as his own, refreshes him with fruit. He delights in magnificent music. Then he and the girl begin a game with little warriors. Despite the warning, he and the girl become caught up in the heat of the moment; he destroys their warriors; they plunge into the water, which foams up, the bridge on which the game was taking place breaks apart, and the boy finds himself soaked and thrown out onto the other side.

[ 29 ] The old man enters, brandishing the three ropes intended to punish anyone who abuses the trust placed in him. The boy saves himself by saying that he has been chosen to bring three worthy young men to the three maidens. He is now politely escorted out the door. The old man points out various landmarks to help him find the gate again. The significance of their positions relative to one another points to medieval astronomy.

[ 30 ] When the boy returns, the gate is no longer there; the three objects—the tablet, the well, and the trees—are arranged differently in relation to one another. Yet he believes he notices that, after some time, they have shifted slightly in relation to one another, and thus hopes that one day all the signs will come together. He concludes significantly: “Whether I can tell you what happens next, or whether I am expressly forbidden to do so, I cannot say.”

[ 31 ] This fairy tale, written in 1811, reveals in every detail that there is something deeper to be found within it. It is no coincidence that Goethe linked it to the legend of Paris, nor that he altered it in this way. The legend of “Paris and Helen,” the Trojan War, is well known. Paris is to present the apple to the fairest of the three goddesses; in return, he wins Helen. Goethe turns the story on its head: there are three women—later four—for whom the new Paris must choose the young men. The boy is led into a kind of mystery; it is enclosed on three sides, and he must fulfill ever-changing conditions. A kind of war game develops—a representation, not a real war. Let us now follow the fairy tale step by step.

[ 32 ] By attributing the content of the fairy tale to the god Mercury, Goethe indicates that he perceives what he experiences in this fairy tale as a message from the divine. Mercury tells the boy that he has been sent by the gods with an important mission for him.

[ 33 ] Goethe consistently maintains that the states of human consciousness are represented by women. In this fairy tale, too, there are four women who, right at the beginning, appear before the boy as if sent by the god Mercury. Significantly, it is apples that Mercury first places in his hand. The apples transform into beautiful gemstones—one red, one yellow, and one green. The three gemstones then become three beautiful female figures, whose dresses are the color of the gemstones. However, they float away from the boy when he tries to hold them. But in their place, a fourth female figure appears to the boy, who then becomes his guide.

[ 34 ] In the fairy tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily, Goethe also uses four female characters to symbolize four states of consciousness of the human soul. In the fairy tale for boys, these four women are characterized even more intimately by the mystical colors they wear. If we wish to understand the nature of these women more closely, as well as the colors they wear, we must look at the states of consciousness that human beings currently possess, and those they can acquire through the development of their soul powers.

[ 35 ] Humanity today lives on Earth within the mineral cycle; through their physical body, human beings are related to minerals. All substances found in the physical human body in chemical compounds—be they salts, types of lime, metals, and so on—are also found in nature. Within this physical human body lives the human soul. Moving from incarnation to incarnation, the human soul repeatedly lives a life between birth and death in a body that it receives at birth or even at conception. In every incarnation, the human soul has a wealth of experiences to undergo. Through this, it becomes ever richer and richer. One could also say that it becomes ever purer and purer through this process, for the soul, which originally lived in crude instincts and desires and then reappears within a civilized world in a new body, lives differently in this civilized world than, for example, within a body belonging to a primitive tribe. Now the human soul lives in the Kamamanas, that is, in a spirituality that is still used to satisfy human instincts and passions. But increasingly, a longing also arises in the human soul to ascend to a higher spirituality. In occultism, this state of the soul is symbolized by the color red, which is illuminated from within—that is, not a dull red—but a bright red, radiant from within; in the knowledge of initiation, red signifies awareness of the astral world. When a person increasingly draws the content of their soul—the inner life of their soul—not from what the physical environment provides, but instead kindles an inner, spiritual life within their soul, this life of the human soul is characterized by the color yellow—again, a bright, radiant yellow.

[ 36 ] When a person has reached the point where they no longer live solely within the confines of their own narrow-mindedness, when they feel connected to the whole world through sympathy, when they feel as if they are merging with the universe, this state of the human soul is described in occultism by a shade of green—a light green. This is the color that the human soul displays in the aura when the individual consciousness pours out into the whole world.

[ 37 ] Thus, these women, who are also gemstones, serve as symbols of what the boy is meant to make of his soul. The connection to these soul forms is established by the present consciousness, which guides and leads us to all knowledge. It is symbolized by the fourth form, by the little figure that “danced back and forth” on the boy’s fingertips. This is the ordinary mind. Through his present consciousness, man ascends to higher realms; it serves as the guide into the sanctuary. Only the fourth state of consciousness, represented by the girl, is already present; the other three are present only in potential and must first be developed. There is something that emerges in the soul like a memory; there lives in the soul something that points back to earlier states. In particularly solemn moments, the human being penetrates into these earlier states of the soul. The young man has received a special commission from Mercury. Goethe points here to his mission; he recalls earlier initiations.

[ 38 ] The fairy tale now tells how the boy is miraculously led to a place he has never set foot in before—indeed, a place he has never even seen in the surroundings he otherwise knows so well. An old man comes to meet him and leads him into a beautiful garden; at first, he takes him on a tour of the garden’s outer circle. Birds call out to the boy, especially the chatty starlings; “Paris! Paris!” cry some—and “Narcissus! Narcissus!” cry others. The boy would also like to venture into the inner part of the garden; he asks the old man for permission; the old man grants his request only on the condition that he remove his hat and sword and leave them behind.

[ 39 ] Then the old man takes him by the hand and leads him closer to the center of the garden. There he finds a golden gate. Behind it, the boy sees gently flowing water, in whose clear depths he can make out a great number of gold and silver fish. He wants to go further to discover what lies at the heart of the garden. The old man agrees, but only on new terms: the boy must change his clothes. He is given an oriental robe, which he likes very much. In doing so, he notices three green cords, each twisted in a particular way, so that they appear to be a tool for a rather undesirable purpose. When he asks about the meaning of the cords, the old man says they are for those who abuse the trust one is willing to bestow upon them here. Now the old man leads him to the golden gate; there are two rows of golden spikes, an outer and an inner one; both lower toward each other, forming a bridge over which the boy now enters the innermost part. Music sounds from a temple, and as he enters it, he sees the three female figures sitting in a triangle; the wondrous music emanates from their instruments. The little guide is also there again and takes the boy under her wing.

[ 40 ] These are the three realms of existence into which the boy is gradually led by the Old Man. He emerges from the world of everyday life into the first realm, the astral world; there he finds the animals calling out to him. But he wants to go ever further into the center of existence. Something in his soul urges him to develop—to ascend ever higher. He has carried the predisposition for this ascent with him since birth; there he has come from a world in which he was a spiritual-soul being, into the obscuring of this spiritual-soul being by the physical world. But the urge toward the spirit has remained alive in his soul—it points out to the soul that there is something it remembers in the solemn, sunlit moments of life. Then the memory of earlier stages of existence also surfaces, and that from these arises a mission for the present stage of existence. The boy feels that this mission is based on experiences from his earlier incarnations. “I once received the initiation”—he has brought this initiation with him from earlier stages of existence. The memory surfaces within him of a former initiation he received in a past life. There the Master took him by the hand; there the Master guided him from stage to stage. There he also had to perform the symbolic act: to lay aside his hat and sword. He had to lay aside everything that connects him to the everyday life of the physical world. This is what one who ascends to become a Chela, a spiritual disciple, must always do; he must do it within himself. That is why such a person is called a “homeless man”; he has laid aside what the ordinary person calls his home. This does not mean a tearing away from life; he stands firm at his post, but his own life is withdrawn from the world that surrounds him.

[ 41 ] Then, if he wishes to be guided further by the Master, he reaches the second stage; he must change his entire appearance—laying aside all the garments of his present existence. He is clothed in Oriental attire. This is an indication that all the impulses for humanity to attain ever-new wisdom have come from the East. (Ex oriente lux.)

[ 42 ] Now the boy, dressed in his Oriental garb, is endowed with what, in the “Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily,” the Old Man with the Lamp represents as the ancient wisdom of the human race; he is endowed with a soul capacity to recall ancient states of initiation —he is led to the stream that separates the realms of the soul from the realm of the spirit proper. The stream of passions, the astral world, is not raging and roaring; it is “a gently flowing water, in whose clear depths one could see a great number of gold and silver fish, moving now gently, now swiftly, now singly, now in schools, back and forth” . This is an image of how, once a person has brought the astral world within themselves to rest, they can find insights in this world instead of raging passions.

[ 43 ] Swords lie across the stream that separates the astral world from the inner, spiritual realm. Human beings must sacrifice that which otherwise serves as their protection. That which allows them to remain in their separateness—their personal ego—must be sacrificed; it must become a bridge to cross over into the spiritual realm. Human beings must experience “die and become.” Two rows of swords bend toward one another and form the bridge across which the boy passes—an inner row and an outer row. This is an image of how a lower and a higher sense of self must unite with one another to make the transition into the spiritual world possible for the human being.

[ 44 ] Now we can also see why this children’s story bears the title: “The New Paris.” It is Paris of whom Greek mythology tells that, before his birth, his parents were terrified by the prophecy that the boy to be born would consume everything with his fire. He is therefore abandoned after his birth; a she-bear nurses him for five days. He grows up, and after various adventures he is rewarded: he is married to Helen. But Helen is synonymous with Selene—the daughter of the light of wisdom. Selene is the symbol of the moon. Thus, in Greek mythology, the marriage of Paris and Helen represents the union of humanity with the consciousness that is to lead it to ever higher levels.

[ 45 ] Narcissus is the other name the chattering starlings called out to the boy. It is said that Narcissus was the son of the river god Cephissus and was conceived in union with a nymph. Narcissus, therefore, is not of earthly origin, but of a supernatural one.

[ 46 ] It is also said that he once saw his own reflection in the surface of a spring. This delighted him so much that he could do nothing but stare at himself. He rejected all the advances of a nymph who approached him, completely absorbed as he was in his own image.

[ 47 ] Narcissus is a symbol of the human ego, which seeks to remain trapped in its own separateness, in its own self. If a person remains fixed in their ego, becomes hardened in their ahamkara, if they cannot step outside their own small human being, if they always look only within themselves, are in love with their own ego, then they cannot rise above themselves; then they lose the awareness that their ego has its true home in a spiritual world; then they cannot ascend with their ego to this spiritual home of theirs, he remains “a gloomy guest on the dark earth”; he cannot then develop within himself the higher consciousness that leads him upward; he must wither away. Only he who can unite with the higher feminine in his soul will thereby ascend. Paris marries the daughter of light, Selene-Helena. Narcissus, however, is in love with his own nature and rejects union with the spiritual being who approaches him as a nymph.

[ 48 ] When the boy is called out to: “Paris—Narcissus,” he is faced with a choice: Which nature do you wish to carry within you, the nature of Paris or the nature of Narcissus? — Everyone who wishes to become a chela, a spiritual disciple, is faced with this question. Everyone must choose for themselves the path they wish their soul to follow.

[ 49 ] Driven by an impulse rooted in a past incarnation, the boy chooses the path of Paris; he wants to become “the new Paris.” Therefore, if he chooses the path of initiation, he must also come to know the so-called dangers of initiation. These are symbolically represented by the three ropes. In the schools of initiation, the ropes that are placed around the student’s neck represent various symbols. Among other things, they represent the threefold nature of the human being in the world. That which stems from this threefold nature of the human being binds itself around his neck when he breaks the trust placed in him at initiation.

[ 50 ] Since the boy wishes to become “the new Paris,” he is allowed to be led across the bridge by the old man who guides him. He enters the second circle, which is surrounded on all sides by the stream—the waters of the astral world. There he finds a marvelous garden that appears to him as a reflection of heaven on earth. And in the midst of this magnificent garden, he now sees the innermost center, a temple surrounded by colonnades, from which heavenly music emanates. He has arrived in the realm of the spiritual world, which reveals itself through sound: in the realm of the creative Word of the world, which resounds through the world in the harmony of the spheres. Here he finds once again the three female figures who were first sent to him by the god Mercury.

[ 51 ] The image that the boy now experiences expresses what a person can experience once they have reached the stage of initiation. At that point, the person is able to receive messages from higher worlds.

[ 52 ] The woman in the red robe turns first to the boy; when the red stone is bestowed upon a person, it gives them the power to gain insight into the spiritual world. This is the first stage of initiation. The second stage is not merely imagination, but life in the spiritual world. There, the person still feels like a separate being; they feel like a spirit among spirits, but still set apart on their own. They feel, so to speak, like a note that has not yet entered the symphony. This stage is represented by the woman in the yellow robe.

[ 53 ] Then the human spirit learns to blend into the harmony of the spheres; it learns to feel itself as a part of the spiritual world, like a note resonating in the symphony of the worlds. Then the human being attains the green stone; this is symbolized by the woman in the green robe. The fairy tale says of this woman in the green robe: “She was the one who seemed to pay the most attention to me and direct her play toward me; only I could not make sense of her . . ., yet no matter how she presented herself, she won little of my heart, for my little neighbor . . . had completely captivated me . . . and when I clearly saw in those three ladies the sylphs of my dream and the colors of the apples, I well understood that I had no reason to hold them back.”

[ 54 ] The boy senses that, even though his initiation grants him insight into those lofty, creative realms of the world, he will still have to earn his place in them. First, he must come to terms with his little guide, the fourth woman—the human intellect.

[ 55 ] This takes place through a war game. The fairy tale says: The little girl led the boy onto the golden bridge, where the war game was to take place. They lined up their armies. Despite the warning, he and the girl became caught up in the excitement; the boy overcame the little girl’s armies, which “running back and forth, finally lost themselves against the wall, I don’t know how.”

[ 56 ] In Greek mythology, Paris is the cause of the Trojan War, which symbolically depicts the downfall of one race of humanity and the rise of a new race, in which the ego is to unfold its power within the individual human being. The “new Paris” emerges victorious in a battle that is actually a game, merely the image of a battle that has no external reality. This war-game between the human intellect and that part of the human being which bears within itself the consciousness that it descends from the divine is not something that has external reality; it is something that lives only in the spirit, something that unfolds as if in the mirror image of a spiritual event within the human soul. It was not in life, but in art that Goethe was to proclaim the higher reality he beheld. He was to speak through ideas and images.

[ 56 ] In Greek mythology, Paris is the cause of the Trojan War, which symbolically depicts the downfall of one race of humanity and the rise of a new race, in which the ego is to unfold its power within the individual human being. The “new Paris” emerges victorious in a battle that is actually a game, merely the image of a battle that has no external reality. This war-game between the human intellect and that part of the human being which bears within itself the consciousness that it descends from the divine is not something that has external reality; it is something that lives only in the spirit, something that unfolds as if in the mirror image of a spiritual event within the human soul. It was not in life, but in art that Goethe was to proclaim the higher reality he beheld. He was to speak through ideas and images.

[ 58 ] Then he was outside. The old man “pointed out a few objects on the wall, across the path, while at the same time gesturing backward toward the little gate. I understood him well; for he wanted me to commit the objects to memory so that I might find the little gate more easily, which had suddenly closed behind me. I now took good note of what stood before me. The branches of ancient walnut trees stretched over a high wall... the branches reached as far as a stone tablet... whose inscription I could not, however, read. It rested on a corbel, a niche in which an ornately carved fountain poured water from bowl to bowl into a large basin that... disappeared into the ground. Fountain, inscription, walnut trees—everything stood directly one above the other.”

[ 59 ] The boy stands outside; looking back, he recalls the experiences of his previous incarnation, and at the same time he looks forward to a moment in the future. This initiation, which he remembers, is followed after some time by a second one; the initiation into wisdom was once followed by the spiritual initiation.

[ 60 ] The image of the tree, the tablet with the inscription, and the fountain from which water flows embodies a symbol of knowledge that found expression in medieval astrology. It grants the boy a glimpse into the future: when the same constellation of the stars occurs again—the very one under which you have now found entry to the place where man is initiated—when the constellation of the stars repeats itself for you in the future, then the gate will be opened to you anew—then the initiation will be repeated for you on a higher level!

[ 61 ] He looks forward to a moment of reality in which he will relive what he experienced as a prelude to initiation. He looks toward a distant future in which he will enter the world and embody what he has experienced in previous incarnations.

[ 62 ] A certain constellation of stars was present at the moment he was initiated. These signs must recur if initiation is to be possible at a higher level. Then the gate will be visible again, and whether more can be said about what happens next will depend on permission.

[ 63 ] This subtle atmosphere, the intimate forces at play here—all of this must be taken into account when discussing this fairy tale.

[ 64 ] As we can see, Goethe depicts the evolution of the human soul in these two fairy tales as well. While in his “Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily” he expressed his conviction of a spiritual development valid for all humanity through vivid, rich, and colorful imagery, in these two fairy tales, “The New Melusine” and “The New Paris,” he presents the initiation into the higher mysteries to our soul in a way that was appropriate to his own nature. An individual path of the development of Goethe’s own soul is presented in these two fairy tales. His entire later spiritual striving—in the manner of mind appropriate to Goethe’s soul—is contained in a very special way in the “Boy’s Fairy Tale.”

[ 65 ] In a fragment titled “The Journey of the Sons of Megaprazon”—which he began in 1792 but never completed—Goethe also sought to depict the path of development of the human soul. This fragment, too, hints at the greatness of what he had to say; here, too, he refers to a constellation. “Venus” and “Mars” are the last words that have been preserved for us.

[ 66 ] A father sends his seven sons on a long journey to strange lands that have not yet been discovered by others. These are the seven fundamental aspects of the human being to which Theosophy refers. — The father gives these seven sons his blessing: “Happiness and prosperity, good courage, and the joyful use of their powers.” Each of the seven sons has received his own gifts from nature; he is now to apply them and seek his happiness and perfection through them, each brother in his own way. In this fragment, “The Journey of the Sons of Megaprazon,” the journey to the spiritual land of ancient wisdom was also to be depicted—a land that humanity can reach when, from the fundamental parts of its being, it develops what lies dormant within them; when, through this development, it attains higher states of consciousness. A fragment of the plan for the spiritual journey into the spiritual realm shows how Goethe intended to depict this journey.

[ 67 ] Thus, we have gained only a few brief glimpses into Goethe’s innermost being and discovered more and more wisdom and truths that shine through his wonderful poems.

[ 68 ] It is therefore understandable that his contemporaries looked up to him as a guide to unknown worlds. Schiller and a few others recognized—or at least sensed—what lived within him. Many, however, passed him by without understanding. The German people still have much work to do to fully grasp what is revealed in their great minds. Otherwise, the words Lessing spoke about Klopstock may all too aptly apply to them as well:

Who would not praise Klopstock?
But will everyone read him?—No.
We wish to be less exalted
And read more diligently.

[ 69 ] Our great minds want to be recognized; when they are, they lead to an immense depth of thought.

[ 70 ] They also lead to the worldview espoused by Theosophy. Wilhelm von Humboldt, one of those who sensed what lived in Goethe’s soul, welcomed the first translation of the *Bhagavad Gita* in 1823 with the deepest understanding. “It is worth it,” he says, “to have lived this long in order to take in these treasures.”

[ 71 ] Thus, those who had studied Goethe were prepared for the theosophical worldview.

[ 72 ] There is still so much to learn from Goethe!