Goethe’s The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily is a mystical tale full of symbols that speak to the spiritual seeker. Written in 1795, this enigmatic work has inspired generations of readers to reflect on the inner journey of transformation. The story unfolds in a dreamlike landscape where earthly and heavenly forces meet, hinting at an alchemical process that ultimately leads to the human and divine union. But what does this tale really mean for the modern seeker? This article offers an interpretation rooted in the teachings of the Gnostic Rosycross, focusing on the gentle, transformative path of the kundalini of the heart. This true power leads to spiritual liberation.
Jesus said, “Let him who seeks continue seeking until he finds. When he finds, he will become troubled. When he becomes troubled, he will be astonished, and he will rule over the All.” (Gospel of Thomas, logion 2) [1]
Be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves. (Gospel of Thomas, logion 39)
According to esoteric teachings, in the human energy system lives a “seven-headed serpent”. Its body is made of invisible astral fire that fills the seven brain chambers and surrounds the human spinal column, from the medulla oblongata to the sacrum. This fire is the carrier of consciousness, the soul, and because of its shape, it is called the serpent fire. Thanks to this knowledge, we can better understand ancient myths, stories, and legends in which the serpent motif appears.
Genesis
The most popular European parable featuring a snake is probably from chapter 3 of the Book of Genesis, about the Fall of the first people. We learn from it that the snake, the most crafty of all animals, tempted Eve and Adam to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As a result of this event, the first parents discovered that they were naked, received garments made of skins and were expelled from Paradise. The snake was cursed and, as a punishment, is to crawl upon its belly and feed on dust all the days of its life. Moreover, between him and the “woman” there was put “enmity”. It is to strike the heel of her offspring (in the Hebrew original – “zera” – “seed”), and her offspring (“zera”) is to strike its head.
What does this parable tell us? First of all, it must be said that its symbolism is deep, multidimensional and refers to many aspects of the human condition. The most popular interpretation of this myth associates the first manifestation of human disobedience to God with the sexual act. This association is justified, but the “original sin” and its consequences should be seen in a much broader context.
Kabbalistic interpretation
As we said at the beginning, the snake represents human consciousness. We can also see Adam and Eve as aspects of this consciousness. In esoteric Gnostic and Kabbalistic teachings, there is talk of three centres of human consciousness:
- The head centre – associated with the brain and thinking.
- The heart centre – related to emotional or mystical life.
- The pelvic centre – associated with animal instincts in Man, his desires and lusts. This centre is controlled by the liver.
One of the Kabbalistic interpretations identifies the figure of Adam with the head centre, the figure of Eve with the heart centre, and the figure of the snake with the pelvic centre. The connection of these three tabernacles is expressed by the Hebrew word “melekh”, which means “king”. This word is an acronym, hiding in itself the first letters of the three mentioned centres. MeLeKh: m = moach (brain), l = lev (heart), k = kaved (liver). As long as a person is guided by reason and with its help controls his emotions and instincts, he is “melekh” – a king. If he is guided by the heart, he becomes “LaMeKh” – “mighty” (cf. Gen. 4). If, on the other hand, he allows himself to be ruled by animal instincts, he becomes “KLuM” – nothing.
Through the prism of this interpretation, we can understand that the biblical story of original sin speaks of the Fall of the divine consciousness of the original man, who from a “king” became a “beggar”, a slave to emotions and instincts characteristic of the animal world. He lost control over the Kingdom of his body and became subject to forces he cannot control. Chaos reigns in his head; he does not think, but “is thought”, that is, in a way “possessed” by mental obsessions, his heart has become a “den of robbers”, full of greed. These desires do not align with real needs, jealousy, resentment, complaints, etc. He is by no means a “lamekh”, a “powerful” man, guided in life by the highest, pure feelings. He is ruled by unbridled emotions and instincts, imprinted in the “reptilian” and “mammalian brain”. So he has fallen into a state called “klum”, which expresses the state of Man’s loss of his true essence.
This state of consciousness is reflected on the physical, corporeal level. The discovery of one’s own “nakedness”, described in the Bible, refers to the loss of luminous bodies, which were exchanged for “garments of skins”, i.e. organic, coarsely material bodies in which animal, biological instincts are inscribed. In this sense, original sin can be associated with sexuality, with desire and sexual reproduction. Aggression, fighting (for territory, a partner, food) and fear of survival also go hand in hand.
The seven-headed Serpent, the carrier of divine fire, was sentenced to “going upon its belly” and feeding on “dust”. Instead of soaring in the air and absorbing high, luminous spaces in ecstasy, human consciousness feeds and lives on banal, mundane matters. It crawls on the Earth, which, despite Man working “by the sweat of his face”, “brings forth thorns and thistles”. Man suffers.
Within him is a conflict between the higher and the lower, between “good” and “evil”. It cannot be otherwise as long as he feeds on the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and his reasoning is dual. The “enmity” between “woman” and the Serpent may refer to this division and conflict prevailing in Man. We can consider the striking of the head and heel both as a metaphor for the state of Man’s consciousness after the Fall, and as a foreshadowing of rising from the fallen state. We will discuss the meaning of the latter later in this article. Now, let us deal with the metaphor concerning the condition of Man after the Fall. In this context, the head and heel symbolise the “serpent” of consciousness, to its “head and tail”. The higher reason is that man has been poisoned by the venom of low instincts and the desires of the pelvic sanctuary. The pelvic sanctuary, the lowest of all three centres, is symbolised here by the “heel” – the part of the body that has the closest contact with the Earth, matter, and physicality. The crushed heel represents the disabled movement in this world. It is caused by karmic baggage accumulated in the plexus sacralis (sacral plexus, root chakra, snake’s tail), which firstly chains a person to the Earth, and secondly constitutes a reservoir of ungodly (fear-laced) forces from the past that rule him and often make his life hell. There is an interesting similarity between the words “heel” and “hell” in English.
Ouspensky and “Eastern Fairy Tale” [2]
In Chapter XI of “In Search of the Miraculous Fragments of an Unknown Teaching”, P. D. Ouspensky cites the following fable:
A very rich wizard lived in a distant land with a huge flock of sheep. Because he was stingy, he refused to hire shepherds or build a fence around the pasture where the sheep grazed. Because of this, the sheep often got lost in the forest, fell into ravines, and above all ran away, because they knew that the wizard wanted their meat and skins, which they did not like.
The wizard finally found a way to do this. He hypnotised the sheep and suggested to them the following:
- First, that they were immortal, that skinning them did them no harm;
- Second, that he was a good shepherd who loved his flock very much;
- Third, if anything were to happen to them, it would not happen now, or at least not that day, and therefore they did not need to think about it.
- Then he made the sheep believe they were not sheep but lions, eagles, men, and even wizards.
That was the end of all his worries and troubles. The sheep never ran away again, but calmly awaited the moment when the wizard would strip them of their flesh and skin.
According to Ouspensky, this story shows Man’s situation and the “serpent” of his consciousness. In esoteric literature, the latter is called “kundalini energy”.This force is related to sexuality and, as many believe, can be stimulated to gain supernatural powers. Ouspensky, however, writes that the kundalini of the earthly soul is the power of imagination and fantasy, which keeps Man in a state of hypnosis and does not allow him to see his true, terrifying situation, trapped in the vicious circle of birth and death.
The kundalini coiled near the root chakra of Man is a force that arose due to the violation of divine power. As a result, the serpent energy is present, a reservoir of karmic burden and keeps people in a “dreaming state”. This karmic baggage, which is constantly renewed or even increased, is a ballast that prevents us from liberating ourselves from the circle of birth and death in this world.
In the apocryphal “Gospel of Thomas” (hereinafter G.T.), we find the following words: Jesus said, “I took my place amid the world, and I appeared to them in flesh. I found all of them intoxicated; I found none of them thirsty. And my soul became afflicted for the sons of men, because they are blind in their hearts and do not have sight; for empty they came into the world, and empty too they seek to leave the world. But for the moment, they are intoxicated. When they shake off their wine, they will repent.” (Logion 28).
Ouspensky writes that if people opened their eyes, they would begin frantically seeking a way out of their tragic situation.
“Jesus said, “Whoever has come to understand the world has found a corpse, and whoever has found a corpse is superior to the world.” (G.T. Logion 56)
Awakening of the kundalini
We live in times when, as humanity, we are beginning to wake up en masse from a state of hypnosis and realise that we live in the “Matrix”, in an invisible prison, in the slavery of the mind. It has become a widespread belief among the “awakened” that activating the full potential of the kundalini, the serpentine energy coiled in the plexus sacralis, is the way out of our present bondage; that it is what can make us gods.
This view can be commented on with the words from the Gospel of Thomas: “There are many around the drinking trough, but there is nothing in the cistern.” (logion 74), which in this context will mean the same as: “The lights are on, but nobody’s home.” And also: “Many are invited, but few are chosen” (Mt 22:14).
In Kabbalistic teachings, the opaque skin (or shell) surrounding all things and beings is referred to as the skin of the snake (mashka d’chiviya), because thick matter appeared only after the snake tempted the first parents. The opacity of our bodies (“clothes of skins”), the opacity of the bodies of living beings and objects, which characterises our world, causes the illusion of multiplicity, separateness and independence from God. It gives rise to the illusion of separation from the Absolute and a sense of self-rule, self-determination that constitutes our egocentrism.
The kundalini serpent coiling in modern Man is a self-centred, self-willed serpent, with a “struck head and a struck tail.” The three centres of consciousness mentioned at the beginning of this article are also the three centres of kundalini energy, the three sanctuaries in which we can awaken this force.
However, as we said, two of these centres are “struck” and are unsuitable for this purpose. The head centre is dominated by egocentrism, illusions and pride. The pelvic centre, the snake’s tail, the “heel”, is controlled by animal instincts, desires and burdensome karmic forces. When a person tries to awaken the kundalini in the centre of the head by force, the energy in his upper chakras begins to flow very intensively, which causes a significant increase in intelligence and occult abilities. However, because his consciousness remains egoistic and selfish, the stimulation of these centres threatens the birth of enormous, satanic pride, a sense of superiority, contempt for others, which will most likely push him to manipulate and exploit them. The feeling of separation from God will only increase, and with it the karmic baggage of Man, tying him to the Matrix, to the Earth. When we try to awaken this energy in the plexus sacralis, the dormant instinctive forces are usually activated, leading to a state of total animalism, connection with the lowest drives and astral demons. In addition, this powerful energy destroys, “burns out,” the energy centres and nervous system of an unprepared person and is often the cause of their premature death.
Neither of these methods liberates a person from their false identity, but on the contrary, strengthens it. They distance them from Paradise, leading them to even greater imprisonment and suffering. Logic suggests that the centre in which the kundalini must awaken is the heart centre.
“The Hymn of the Pearl” [3]
The key importance of the heart centre in the transformation process is described, among others, in the “The Hymn of the Pearl”. “The Hymn of the Pearl” is a fragment of the apocryphal text “The Acts of Thomas”, dating from the 3rd century AD. Even though this text was written so long ago, its message has lost none of its relevance.
The piece opens with the words: “When, a quite little child, I was dwelling/ In the House of my Father’s Kingdom, (…)”. The term “little child” in the old Syrian tradition referred to Adam in Paradise and symbolised the lack of experience that led him to disobey God. The hero of the hymn, sent by his parents to unclean, dark and dangerous Egypt for “[The Pearl] that lies in the Sea/ Hard by the loud-breathing Serpent”, is the archetype of an earthly man who at a certain point in his life wakes up and remembers the mission with which he came to this world. He finds in his heart a letter that is an agreement he made in the spiritual world with his divine “parents”. To obtain the pearl, he must lull and neutralise (not awaken!) the Serpent that guards it. Only then will he be able to regain the glorious robe, the purple mantle and dominion over the Kingdom that he left.
The Pearl, the Woman, and the Lily
“Jesus said, “The Kingdom of the Father is like a merchant who had a merchandise consignment and discovered a pearl. That merchant was shrewd. He sold the merchandise and bought the pearl alone for himself. You too, seek his unfailing and enduring treasure where no moth comes near to devour and no worm destroys.” (G.T., logion 76)
What is this pearl, the finding of which is to be the goal of Man’s life? We must understand this pearl as spiritual wealth, an immaterial treasure hidden within Man. This pearl comes from the “sea” of pure primordial substance, from the world of divine revelation, called in various esoteric traditions Isis, Mary, Woman, Virgin, etc. Inside us is an atom from this divine world, an unearthly, luminous seed from which subtle bodies from before the Fall can develop, a “glorious robe and purple mantle” enabling us to return to the spiritual land of the “Father”. This particle is hidden in Man’s heart and is called a spark, seed, mustard seed, atman, purusha, lotus, jewel in the lotus, rose, etc. She is the seed, the “zera” of the woman from chapter 3 of the Book of Genesis, which is to strike the head of the Serpent, i.e., dissolve Man’s egocentric consciousness. This divine particle is dormant in most people. However, when it awakens and a person begins to follow its voice, it becomes “lamech” – powerful.
This purest aspect of the human being, called Lily, became the central figure of Goethe’s esoteric, symbolic and mysterious Fairy Tale. In this short piece from 1795, the last of the stories included in the collection “Conversations of German Refugees”, Goethe included an alchemical formula for Man’s return to the royal state before the Fall, i.e. liberation from the Matrix. We will discuss it below.
“The Fairy Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily”
As in the biblical parable of original sin, all the characters in this fairy tale should be treated as aspects of one Man’s psyche. This is not an “average Joe”, but an initiate reminiscent of the Prince from “The Hymn of the Pearl”, whom we meet at the moment when, after his countless incarnations on Earth, the mission with which he came to this world is finally fulfilled. The mission of uniting with Lily is tantamount to conquering the pearl.
The beautiful young Prince (a soul seeking liberation) from Goethe’s fairy tale is dressed in shining armour and a purple cloak, which he earned after years of “wise rule.” However, he must still acquire the royal insignia: a crown, sceptre, and sword. Without them, he feels “as naked and poor as any other son of the Earth.” His only, desperate desire is to unite with his beloved Lily, whose beautiful eyes “have taken away his strength” and made him feel transferred “to the state of living, wandering shadows.” Lily is a beautiful maiden who has the “unfortunate power” to kill any living creature that her hands touch. At the same time, she can also revive dead creatures, but not those that have fallen by her hand. In this dual power of reviving and killing, we can recognise the power of the kundalini, called in Eastern literature, among other things, the World’s Mother. She owes this name to, among other things, its ability to revive dormant aspects of the human system, thanks to which it opens up higher and higher spiritual worlds to Man. However, its power is also deadly – it destroys everything that does not come from the light, from the Truth, that is impure. Therefore, an unpurified, immature and unprepared man cannot play with it and experiment.
The term “World’s Mother” brings to mind Eve, “the mother of all living” (Gen 3:20), which in turn leads us to the heart centre, where the Lily, the pearl, the Rose, the Spark – the true seed of kundalini energy- live. In order to become “life”, “the mother of all living”, Eve must be freed from the Serpent that “strikes her heel”. The impure Serpent of human consciousness must be destroyed, with it the karmic baggage that prevents Man from returning Home.
The three centres of kundalini energy are shown in Goethe’s tale through the figures of the older man with the lamp – symbolising the head sanctuary, the Lily – symbolising the heart, and the Green Serpent – symbolising the pelvic centre.
The lamp held by the man suggests the pituitary gland, ignited by the Light of Gnosis. When the Lily awakens in the heart’s sanctuary, a person begins to yearn for his spiritual Home and attracts the force of light, which climbs up from the heart through the small bloodstream and begins to cleanse and illuminate the seven-headed Serpent. It raises a person’s thoughts to a higher level, awakening hidden powers in their head sanctuary. When the mental body reaches the appropriate vibrations, it connects with the pituitary gland, which is the true seat of the soul. There it awakens insight into spiritual domains and deepens understanding of the Gnostic, liberating path. That is why the man with the lamp is in the Fairy Tale, who seems to be in charge of the entire process of liberation. His enlightened head sanctuary and the heart illuminated by the Lily become a mirror image of each other. The forehead of the person ennobled in this way is sealed with a special, luminous sign (cf. Ez 9:1-11, Rev 9 1-4).
At the next stage, the light begins to descend along the right strand of the sympathetic nerve, the energy channel, called in Eastern terminology “ida”, cleansing the chakras there along the way, until it reaches the root chakra. In it is the seat of the Green Serpent, carrying within itself the entire karmic past of the person, with which the light undertakes the fight. This karmic baggage symbolises the debt incurred by the Will-o-Wisps to the Boatman. After the Serpent is neutralised, the gate is opened, and the force of light can continue its upward course along the left nerve strand (called the pingala). On this path, it flows again through the chakras and changes the direction of their rotation. The chakras stop sucking in the power of the earthly world and begin to radiate Divine Light. The last chakra to be reached by the light is the crown chakra, which cooperates with the pineal gland. A special force field is created around the pineal gland, distinguished by its golden colour, resembling a halo. This victory is described in the Gospel as the Transfiguration on the Mountain. Through two strands of the sympathetic nerve, the Serpent of new consciousness has made a circle and girdled Man’s entire body.
Through persistent self-denial, the two strands of the sympathetic nerve slowly grow together to extinguish the old “snake”, the snake fire that still burns in the canal of the spinal cord. This central channel is called in Sanskrit sushumna, reminiscent of the Hebrew words shushan, shoshan, or shoshannah, meaning “lily.” Eventually, the three channels merge into one perfect whole.
This process is foreshadowed and symbolically shown in the fable first by the two Will-o’-the-Wisps, who laugh at the Green Serpent, mocking its horizontal position and creeping, and stretching vertically upwards, like the two strands of the sympathetic nerve running down either side of the spine. Then, as first the Prince and then the Green Serpent sacrifice themselves, losing their unholy lives to bring about the alchemical wedding and rebirth, we see the dying process of the Serpent of old consciousness.
This is shown, among other things, through the ancient symbol of Ouroboros – a snake eating its own tail. When the Prince loses his life after throwing himself into the arms of Lily, the Green Serpent grabs its tail with its mouth. It creates a magic circle around the dead body of the young man. It gives its life and transforms into thousands of precious stones so that the Prince, symbolising the renewed soul, can be reborn and a bridge can be created between the spiritual and the corporeal. Interestingly, the phenomenon of eating oneself, autophagy, actually occurs in the world of snakes. Ouroboros is therefore a wonderful symbol of sacrificing one’s own ego, dissolving karma and liberating oneself from the wheel of birth and death, thanks to which Man achieves eternal life.
After the sacrifice made by the Serpent, the Prince, the New Soul, rises from the dead but is still semi-conscious. The Man with the Lamp leads him, Lily, Willows and his wife to the temple, which undergoes a radical transformation after they enter. It increases in size and becomes large, beautiful, and magnificent. A magnificent silver altar appears in its centre, created from a transfigured wooden ferryman’s hut.
In this temple live four kings: one of gold, the second of silver, the third of bronze and the fourth, shapeless, of a mixture of metals. The first three kings represent the renewed human ego (called in theosophy Manas, Buddhi and Atman). The fourth king symbolises the earthly ego of Man and his reasoning, feeling, and desires, which are a caricature of the ability to think, feel, and will the true Threefold Ego. The Fiery Fires cause the fourth King, the old human ego, to collapse and cease to exist. On the other hand, the Three Noble Kings give the Prince a crown, sceptre and sword, thanks to which he becomes fully awakened and regains his royal status. In this way, he becomes ready for the alchemical wedding, for the union with the Lily.
The magical transformation of the temple represents the transformation of the candidate’s etheric body, thanks to which he is renewed up to his material body. A completely new, divine man appears instead of the fallen earthly man. Adam and Eve have freed themselves from sin and can return to Paradise. Conversely, the Serpent has transformed into a bridge that connects the earthly and spiritual worlds. This bridge is teeming with travellers. This image brings to mind Jacob’s ladder, the base of which is rooted in the Earth and the top in heaven. The bridge and ladder are symbols of the new serpentine fire, into which Angels – divine forces – descend and ascend through the open crown chakra.
Such a person becomes a great servant of the light, ready to help others in the process of liberation. Jesus said, “Preach from your housetops that which you will hear in your ear. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, nor does he put it in a hidden place, but rather he sets it on a lamp stand so that everyone who enters and leaves will see its light.” (G.T. logion 33)
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[1] “Gospel of Thomas“, translated by Thomas O. Lambdin, https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/Gospel of Thomas Lambdin.pdf
[2] P.D. Ouspensky “In Search of the Miraculous Fragments of an Unknown Teaching” 1977
[3] The Hymn of the Pearl (The Hymn of Judas Thomas the Apostle in the Country of the Indians) translated by G.R.S. Mead, https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/The Hymn of the Pearl.pdf
