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[[File:Theodor Hosemann Illustration Hochzeit.jpg|thumb|300px|[[w:Theodor Hosemann|Theodor Hosemann]], Illustration to the fairy tale: ''The wedding of a young royal couple accompanied by angels and dwarfs''. Watercolour over black pencil, on wove paper (papier vélin).]]
[[File:Theodor Hosemann Illustration Hochzeit.jpg|thumb|300px|[[w:Theodor Hosemann|Theodor Hosemann]], Illustration to the fairy tale: ''The wedding of a young royal couple accompanied by angels and dwarfs''. Watercolour over black pencil, on wove paper (papier vélin).]]
[[File:Great Sphinx Tanis Louvre A23 - 02a.jpg|thumb|Great Sphinx of Tanis]]
[[File:Great Sphinx Tanis Louvre A23 - 02a.jpg|thumb|250px|Great Sphinx of Tanis, [[w:Louvre|Louvre]]]]


'''Fairy tales''', also '''fairytale''', '''wonder tale''', '''magic tale''', '''fairy story''' or '''''Märchen''''' (from {{MHG|''maere''}} "news, report, message") are stories that seem fantastic at first glance, but which often contain echoes of the old natural [[clairvoyance]]. Like [[myths]], they can be an expression of spiritual truths.  
'''Fairy tales''', also '''fairytale''', '''wonder tale''', '''magic tale''', '''fairy story''' or '''''Märchen''''' (from {{MHG|''maere''}} "news, report, message") are stories that seem fantastic at first glance, but which often contain echoes of the old natural [[clairvoyance]]. Like [[myths]], they can be an expression of spiritual truths.  

Revision as of 09:26, 2 July 2021

Theodor Hosemann, Illustration to the fairy tale: The wedding of a young royal couple accompanied by angels and dwarfs. Watercolour over black pencil, on wove paper (papier vélin).
Great Sphinx of Tanis, Louvre

Fairy tales, also fairytale, wonder tale, magic tale, fairy story or Märchen (from Middle High German: maere "news, report, message") are stories that seem fantastic at first glance, but which often contain echoes of the old natural clairvoyance. Like myths, they can be an expression of spiritual truths.

Fairy tales as remnants of the old clairvoyance

„Fairy tales are not invented anywhere, they are the last remnants of the old clairvoyance, which was experienced in dreams by people who still had the powers for it. What was seen in dreams was told, like the fairy tale of Puss in Boots, which is only an alteration of the fairy tale I told you today. All fairy tales ultimately existed as the last remnants of the original clairvoyance. Therefore, a real fairy tale can only come into being if - either consciously or unconsciously - the imagination is present in the soul of the fairy tale writer, projecting itself into the soul, otherwise it is not right. A fairy tale made up at random can never be right. If today a real fairy tale is still being created here or there by some human being, it is not created in any other way than by the awakening in the human being of a longing for the old times which humanity once went through. This longing is present, only it sometimes creeps into even hidden depths of the soul, and man, in what he can consciously create, often greatly fails to realise how much comes up from the hidden depths of the soul-life, and how much is only distorted by what man can do with his present consciousness.“ (Lit.:GA 127, p. 207f)

In the ancient Indian culture clairvoyance was still widespread. It is therefore not surprising ...

„... that by far the greatest number of all fairy tales, legends and fables can actually be traced back originally to India. If you go through the animal fables and other fairy tales of the various European countries, you will find minor or major changes, but you will see that the basis of many European fairy tales can be found in the old Indian books. This is not surprising to us, since the cultures together belong to the fifth root race, which spread from the Gobi desert via Egypt and Greece to Europe.“ (Lit.:GA 92, p. 45)

The most important Indian collection of fairy tales is the Panchatantra (Sanskrit: पञ्चतन्त्र "Five Treatises"), which, however, was not written before the 3rd century BC and contains many folk animal fables. By the 6th century, the Panchatantra was already so popular that it was translated into Pahlavi. Via Persian and Arabic translations, the collection came to Europe in the 13th century and was known at most European princely courts by the end of the 15th century.

Lucifer and Ahriman

All fairytale motifs are ultimately connected with man's relation to the Luciferic-Sphinx-like and to the Mephistophelian-Ahrimanic forces:

„Legends and fairy tales, which are so incomprehensibly regarded by the scholars of our present day, point by their structure either towards the Mephistophelian, the Ahrimanic, or towards the Sphinx-like, the Luciferic. All sagas and fairy tales derive from the fact that their content was originally experienced either through the relationship that man has to the Sphinx, or through the relationship that man has to Mephisto. In the legends and fairy tales we find more or less hidden either the question motive: that is the Sphinx motive, the motive that something must be solved, that a question must be answered, or the motive of enchantment, of being spellbound by something: that is the Mephistophelian, the Ahrimanic motive. For what does the ahrimanic motive consist of in more detail? It consists in the fact that when we have Ahriman beside us, we are constantly in danger of falling into his clutches, of passing into his nature, of no longer being able to tear ourselves away from him. And one would like to say: towards the Sphinx, man feels something that penetrates him and, as it were, tears him apart; towards the Mephistophelian, man feels something like: he must submerge himself in this Mephistophelian, he must devote himself to it, he must become a slave to it.“ (Lit.:GA 158, p. 107f)

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
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