Much is said about the significance of flowers and the white lily is one such flower with many meanings according to several long traditions.
One of the more interesting attachments to white lilies is from ancient Spain where it was long ago believed that the taste or even the smell of the delicately scented pedals of the white lily would relieve and even reverse the curses received from enemy spirits that might ravege the soul with the violence of mindless rage.
The flower also signifies the passing of time that we humans experience whether we like it or not -- that incredible, often times unnerving awareness we have of our own being-towards-death.
White Lily
What Fassbinder film is it?
The one-armed man walks into a flower shop
And says: What flower expresses
Days go by
And they just keep going by endlessly
Pulling you Into the future
Days go by
Endlessly
Endlessly pulling you
Into the future?
And the florist says: White Lily.
Laurie Anderson ("White Lily" from the film, Home of the Brave)