Fairy tales
In yoga, we listened to a story about ghosts and goblins since we are in the Halloween season. It was a fable, a fairy tale, a short story about a woman whose mother dies and leaves her a doll that is to help guide her through life.
Her father remarries a woman with two children – so it is the Cinderella story – and her stepsisters and mother send her to the forest to find wood but really to die – while walking in the dark woods, she comes across a witch’s house – so it is the Hansel and Gretel story too – after much ado, she leaves and the witch gives her a flaming skull on a stick to light her way home through the dark forest.
The lessons pile on in this story woven tight by using one fairy tale plot on top of another. The take aways though are worth retelling no matter how dense the plot. I’ll just give you the bullet point version:
1. The doll is intuition – her mother tells her to trust that it will guide her.
2. Her tasks are accomplished by mysterious helping hands – the world provides.
3. The skull on fire begins to burn so bright she almost throws it aside – don’t be fearful of your own power, let your light blaze against the darkness.
4. The skull’s eyes burn the stepmom and sisters as soon as she arrives home – this is not merely a good triumphs over evil (because, well, it just doesn’t), but more of allowing the cycle of life to prevail – the death of situations/people/places that no longer serve you to allow for rebirth.
Ghosts and goblins never were so deep.