The Power of Story
Another way to understand how these two
forces or types of consciousness interact is through an imaginal approach - the way of
learning through images. This way speaks
to the heart; it evokes knowledge from within instead of defining and
categorizing it. As the writer George
Mac Donald once wrote, "It is there not so much to convey a meaning as to
wake a meaning."6 As we have seen, stories embody one form of
this imaginal consciousness. Our great
spiritual teachers have used stories to impart knowledge of the Mysteries that
cannot be expressed rationally. A story
can touch our intuitive and feeling faculties, instantaneously imparting
knowledge 'through the heart', which is the seat of feeling. The Native Americans believed that humans
learned and thought with the heart, and they often imparted their wisdom
through teaching stories.
All fairy tales are teaching stories. We have relegated them to the nursery, but
they really speak of the hidden, psychological processes – the archetypal
patterns – that can help us work through our complex problems. Fairy tales are the purest and simplest
expression of archetypal processes. Just
as the hero has a thousand faces, so too does the heroine. Most stories are variations on a basic motif,
and show how different components of an archetype are stressed and transformed
under different circumstances. There are
over seven hundred variations on the Cinderella theme, each reflecting a
slightly different way to deal with not only the human problems of envy,
suffering and redemption, but with redeeming the spiritual energies of life
from the ashes. Many fairy tales deal
with the issue of what happens to a woman when there is no positive mothering,
nurturing principle in her life, and then it shows her how to find that
nurturing within herself. Other tales
deal with the negative dominance of the father, which spurs a woman on to her
own individuality, and which is the major psychological task facing women
today.
I have found a teaching story that
tells us something about the masculine and the feminine spirit in transition,
and I feel that it speaks to what we are experiencing today in the chaos of our
'not knowing', in the bewilderment that we feel about what it means to be a
woman or a man in this day and age. It
is a fairy tale that teaches us how to achieve a conscious feminine standpoint. It speaks to the necessity of working with
different types of consciousness; of understanding images and letting their
transformations teach us something about the essential qualities of our dual
nature as human beings. It says that
through women’s struggle to find our freedom, a whole new way of life is
possible for both men and women. It is a story that can teach women how to
incarnate the Woman Clothed with the
Sun. Retold by the Grimm’s Brothers, Allerleirauh is a story about walking
the path of feminine wisdom.
So imagine, if you will, a small
cottage in the forest. It is nighttime,
the stars are out and the crescent moon floats in the western sky. Inside the cottage there is a hearth fire,
and a few candles glow as everyone settles down around the old woman sitting
next to the hearth. She beckons to
us: "Gather round as I tell you a
tale of a beautiful princess who was intelligent, brave and resourceful, who
accepted hardships, pain and silence, and who, in the end, knew herself and
drew to herself the king of her desires."
ALLERLEIRAUH
(Of
many different kinds of fur)
There
was once upon a time a King who had a wife with golden hair, and she was so
beautiful that her equal was not to be found on the earth. It came to pass that she lay ill, and as she
felt that she must soon die, she called the King and said: "If you wish to marry again after my
death, take no one who is not quite as beautiful as I am, and who has not just
such golden hair as I have; this you must promise me." And after the King had promised her this, she
closed her eyes and died.
For
a long time the King could not be comforted, and had no thought of taking
another wife. At length his councilors
said: "This cannot go on. The King
must marry again, that we may have a Queen." And now messengers were sent about far and
wide, to seek a bride who equaled the late Queen in beauty. In the whole world, however, none was to be
found, and even if one had been found, still there would have been no one who
had such golden hair. So the messengers
came home as they went.
Now
the King had a daughter, who was just as beautiful as her dead mother, and had
the same golden hair. When she was grown
up the King looked at her one day, and saw that in every respect she was like
his late wife, and suddenly felt a violent love for her. Then he spoke to his councilors: "I will marry my daughter, for she is
the counterpart of my late wife, otherwise I can find no bride who resembles
her." When the councilors heard
that, they were shocked, and said:
"God has forbidden a father to marry his daughter. No good can come from this crime, and the
kingdom will be involved in the ruin."
The
daughter was still more shocked when she became aware of her father's
resolution, but hoped to turn him from his design. Then she said to him: "Before I fulfill your wish, I must have
three dresses, one as golden as the sun, one as silvery as the moon, and one as
bright as the stars; besides this, I wish for a mantle of a thousand different
kinds of fur and peltry joined together, and one of every different kind of
animal in your kingdom must give a piece of his skin for it."
For she thought: "To get that will be quite impossible,
and thus I shall divert my father from his wicked intentions." The King, however, did not give it up, and
the cleverest maidens in his kingdom had to weave the three dresses, one as
golden as the sun, one as silvery as the moon, and one as bright as the stars,
and his huntsmen had to catch one of every kind of animal in the whole of his
kingdom, and take from it a piece of its skin, and out of these was made a
mantle of a thousand different kinds of fur.
At length, when all was ready, the King caused the mantle to be brought,
spread it out before her, and said:
"The wedding shall be tomorrow."
When,
therefore, the King's daughter saw that there was no longer any hope of turning
her father's heart, she resolved to run away.
In the night whilst everyone was asleep, she got up, and took three
different things from her treasures, a golden ring, a golden spinning wheel,
and a golden reel. The three dresses of
the sun, moon, and stars she placed into a nutshell, put on her mantle of all
kinds of fur, and blackened her face and hands with soot. Then she commended herself to God, and went
away, and walked the whole night until she reached a great forest. And as she was tired, she got into a hollow
tree, and fell asleep.
The
sun rose, and she slept on, and she was still sleeping when it was full
day. Then it so happened that the King
to whom this forest belonged, was hunting in it. When his dogs came to the tree, they sniffed,
and ran barking round about it. The King
said to the huntsmen: "Just see
what kind of wild beast has hidden itself in there." The huntsmen obeyed his order, and when they
came back they said: "A wondrous beast is lying in the hollow tree; we
have never before seen one like it. Its
skin is fur of a thousand different kinds, but it is lying asleep."
Said the King: "See if you can catch it alive, and then
fasten it to the carriage, and we will take it with us." When the huntsmen laid hold of the maiden,
she awoke full of terror, and cried to them: "I am a poor child, deserted
by father and mother; have pity on me, and take me with you." Then said they: "Allerleirauh, you will be useful in the
kitchen, come with us, and you can sweep up the ashes." So they put her in the carriage, and took her
home to the royal palace. There they
pointed out to her a closet under the stairs, where no daylight entered, and
said: "Hairy animal, there you can
live and sleep."
Then she was sent
into the kitchen, and there she carried wood and water, swept the hearth,
plucked the fowls, picked the vegetables, raked the ashes, and did all the
dirty work. Allerleirauh
lived there for a long time in great wretchedness. Alas, fair princess, what is to become of you
now! It happened, however, that one day
a feast was held in the palace, and she said to the cook: "May I go upstairs for a while, and look
on? I will place myself outside the
door." The cook answered: "Yes, go, but you must be back here in
half-an-hour to sweep the hearth."
Then she took her oil-lamp, went into her den, put off her dress of fur,
and washed the soot off her face and hands, so that her full beauty once more
came to light. And she opened the nut,
and took out her dress which shone like the sun, and when she had done that she
went up to the festival, and every one made way for her, for no one knew her,
and thought not otherwise than that she was a king's daughter. The King came to meet her, gave his hand to
her, and danced with her, and thought in his heart: "My eyes have never yet seen any one so
beautiful!" When the dance was over
she curtsied, and when the King looked round again she had vanished, and none
knew whither. The guards who stood
outside the palace were called and questioned, but no one had seen her.
She
had run into her little den, however, there quickly taken off her dress, made
her face and hands black again, put on the mantle of fur, and again was
Allerleirauh. And now when she went into
the kitchen, the cook said: "Leave
that alone till morning, and make me the soup for the King; I, too, will go
upstairs awhile, and take a look; but let no hairs fall in, or in future you
shall have nothing to eat." So the
cook went away, and Allerleirauh made the soup for the King, and made bread
soup and the best she could, and when it was ready she fetched her golden ring
from her little den, and put it in the bowl in which the soup was served.
When the dancing was over, the King had his
soup brought and ate it, and he like it so much that it seemed to him he had
never tasted better. But when he came to
the bottom of the bowl, he saw a golden ring lying, and could not conceive how
it could have got there. Then he ordered
the cook to appear before him. The cook
was terrified when he heard the order, and said to Allerleirauh: "You have certainly let a hair fall into
the soup, and if you have, you shall be beaten for it." When he came before the King, the latter
asked who had made the soup? The cook
replied: "I made it." But the King said: "That is not true, for it was much
better than usual, and cooked differently." He answered:
"I must acknowledge that I did not make it, it was made by the
hairy animal." The King said: "Go and bid it come up here."
When
Allerleirauh came, the King said:
"Who are you?" "I
am a poor girl who no longer has any father or mother." He asked further: "Of what use are you in my
palace?" She answered: "I am good for nothing but to have boots
thrown at my head." He
continued: "Where did you get the
ring which was in the soup?" She
answered: "I know nothing about the
ring." So the King could learn
nothing, and had to send her away again.
After
a while, there was another festival, and then, as before, Allerleirauh begged
the cook for leave to go and look on. He
answered: "Yes, but come back again
in half-an-hour, and make the King the bread soup which he likes so
much." Then she ran into her den,
washed herself quickly, and took out of the nut the dress which was as silvery
as the moon, and put it on. Then she
went up and was like a princess, and the King stepped forward to meet her, and
rejoiced to see her once more, and as the dance was just beginning they danced
it together.
But when it was ended, she
again disappeared so quickly that the King could not observe where she
went. She, however, sprang into her den,
and once more made herself a hairy animal, and went into the kitchen to prepare
the bread soup. When the cook had gone
upstairs, she fetched the little golden spinning wheel, and put it in the bowl
so that the soup covered it. Then it was
taken to the King, who ate it, and liked it as much as before, and had the cook
brought, who this time like-wise was forced to confess that Allerleirauh had
prepared the soup. Allerleirauh again
came before the King, but she answered that she was good for nothing else but
to have boots thrown at her head, and that she knew nothing at all about the
little golden spinning wheel.
When,
for the third time, the King held a festival, all happened just as it had done
before. The cook said: "Fur-skin, you are a witch, and always
put something in the soup which makes it so good that the King likes it better
than that which I cook," but she begged so hard, he let her go up at the
appointed time.
And now she put on the
dress which shone like the stars, and thus entered the hall. Again the King danced with the beautiful
maiden, and thought that she never yet had been so beautiful. And whilst she was dancing, he contrived,
without her noticing it, to slip a golden ring on her finger, and he had given
orders that the dance should last a very long time. When it was ended, he wanted to hold her fast
by her hands, but she tore herself loose, and sprang away so quickly through
the crowd that she vanished from his sight.
She ran as fast as she could into her den beneath the stairs, but as she
had been too long, and had stayed more than half-an-hour, she could not take off
her pretty dress, but only threw over it her mantle of fur, and in her haste
she did not make herself quite black, but one finger remained white. Then Allerleirauh ran into the kitchen, and
cooked the bread soup for the King, and as the cook was away, put her golden
reel into it.
When the King found the
reel at the bottom of it, he caused Allerleirauh to be summoned, and then he
espied the white finger, and saw the ring which he had put on it during the
dance. Then he grasped her by the hand,
and held her fast, and when she wanted to release herself and run away, her
mantle of fur opened a little, and the star-dress shone forth. The King clutched the mantle and tore it
off.
Then her golden hair shone forth,
and she stood there in full splendor, and could no longer hide herself. And when she had washed the soot and ashes
from her face, she was more beautiful than anyone who had ever been seen on
earth. But the King said: "You are my dear bride, and we will never
more part from each other."
Thereupon the marriage was solemnized, and they lived happily until
their death.7
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