The Life, Nature, and Cultivation of Anthroposophy

http://wn.rsarchive.org/Books/GA026/English/ASGB1963/GA026_c10.html [1]

23 March 1924

TO ALL MEMBERS • X
On how to present Anthroposophical Truths

There will be the more life in the imparting of anthroposophical truths the more they are presented from the most varied points of view, in the most manifold descriptions. For this reason, active members in the Society should not be afraid of treating the same subject again and again in their Group meetings. Only they should always approach it from different directions. We shall be led to this quite naturally if our attitude to the questions of others is as I described in my last letter. Along this line we first gain a real insight into the livingness of anthroposophical knowledge. We feel how every thought or picture in which we clothe it must needs be incomplete. We feel that what we bear in our soul is infinitely richer than what we can express in thought; and as we grow aware of this more clearly, the reverence for the spiritual life increases in us. Now this reverence must be present in all anthroposophical descriptions. It must be one of the fundamental notes. Where such reverence is absent, there is no power in the discussion of anthroposophical truths.

The Story of the Green Serpent and the Beautiful Lily

http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/SerpLily/19041127p01.html [2]

DAS MÄHRCHEN VON DER GRÜNEN SGHLANGE
UND DER SCHÖNEN LILIE
VON GOETHE

SECOND LECTURE ON THE FAIRY TALE
BY DR. STEINER

27th November 1904

Goethe Faust  “The Sage speaks”.

“The Spirit world is not locked;
Thy mind is closed.
Thy heart is dead!
Up, Disciple, bathe, and cleanse.
Thy earthly breast in Morning-Redness.”

“The Divine”, Goethe

In accordance with mighty iron laws
We must all accomplish the cycles of our being —
Hail to the unknown higher Beings
Whom we divine!

“Symbolum”, Goethe

The voices of spirits,
The voice of the Masters,
Call from above.

“Fate and the Soul”, Goethe

                  “Soul of a man,
                   How like to the water!
                   Fate of a man,
                   How like to the wind!”

                   “Westöstlichen Divan”, Goethe

                   “As long as thou hast not got
                    This dying or becoming
                    Thou art but a gloomy guest
                    Upon the dark Earth.”

That which in the Pythagorean schools was called the “Rhythm of the Universe”, “The Music of the Spheres”, of the planets, rhythmically revolving around the Sun, is brought about by the accomplishment of Divine Thought. To the mystic a planet was a Being of a higher order. Thus Goethe too says;

Die Sonne tönt nach Alter Weise,
In Bruder-Sphären Wettgesand,
Und ihre vorgeschriebene Reise
Vollendet sie mit Donnergang.

Rough translation: —

The sun rings forth in ancient fashion
In the spheres of his brother-singers.
He accomplishes his allotted journey
‘Midst resounding claps of thunder.

That man indeed has the capacity of developing to the highest Divine, Goethe says in the words; “Wär nicht das Auge sonnenhaft, Die Sonne könnt es nicht erblicken; wohnt nicht in uns des Gottes eigene Kraft, Wie könnt uns Göttliches entzücken?”

           If the eye were not fashioned for the sunlight
              It could not gaze upon the Sun!
              If there were not in us the very force of God
              How could we be charmed by the Divine?