An interesting article. Fairy tales are so often underestimated, in terms of their benefit. Working with these stories on an archetypal level, they reveal much more than moral lessons. They encode deep wisdom and patterns long held in the human psyche. When they are told richly, rather than superficially, they engage us with archetypal characters, conflicts and situations that we absorb and understand at the deepest levels. We all contain the full spectrum of characters and puzzles and challenges and journeys in our own psyche. Stories engage deeply with our unconscious and often speak in the enigmatic language that is also used by our dreams. This language is also the language of creativity, of art making, or symbol and metaphor. Stories are cultural containers of intricate design. So nourishing! Every indigenous culture has its own story tradition that has often been passed on orally for hundreds or thousands of years. Mortal things die, but the stories live on. This alone should remind us of their significance. Disney has done terrible damage to many stories. They are not only for children. They were not designed to be sweet. In the contemporary world, they are threatened with becoming trademarked commodities and are often butchered to suit the socio-political agendas of a few. Stories belong to everyone. They are wild things that we each learn to dialogue with, or to ride, or to run with - in our own way. Set them free!
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 23:22:37 +0000