Metaphysical Interpretations of Fairy Tales
by Joan McKenna
Contents of the Series
Healings: The Journey of
Transformation in Fairy Tales
The Kingdom Won With A Needle
All that we require is at hand to meet every need, expected or unexpected. Can we see value, where other's see nothing? Can we serve the needs of the
time and win the kingdom?
A Celtic Tale
A divine discontent leads us into a quest in which we receive the gifts of the spirit and the powers of discernment. All along, the Divine has been luring us
into Self discovery and empowerment.
Only One, the great shaman
From the Native American tradition, our journey requires that we enter
the Cave of Fear, and meet there our darkness and our destiny.
Empowerment gifts us with Divine Protection and Guidance but necessitates
we go further...to the Land of Ghosts...and raise the dead.
Cinderella
To dance is to create a symbolic life.
To enter the spiritual realm, we must
learn to transform our experiences into symbols or ideas.
Grief and hardship
must become a source of nourishment:
the means to strength, power and
wisdom.
Our feet must fit
the shoes of right understanding before we can
allow joy to claim us.
The Magic Cap
Understanding the languages of animals and plants can give you a definite
advantage in finding the cause of sickness in the land.
Can you listen and
hear your own mistakes?
King Frost
In the Long darkness, when the wind howls and the shadows of despair and
depression threaten, there is that which brings light and life.
An inner fire...
The Firebird
Our journey of transformation is guided by the Inner Divinity expressing as our desires. To allow the true Self to emerge, we must be willing to leap into
the cauldron of our fears, lose all by our own choice, and thereby, win the
kingdom.
Seven Foals
Often we must lose one good to claim a greater good.
Keep your promises!
Break the spell!
Even if
heads may fall!
Winnings: The Journey of
Empowerment in Fairy Tales
The Three Wishes
Be careful what you wish for, you may get it ...and all its consequences.
Baba Yaga, the Witch
Into the cauldron of the subconscious is all that has ever been said to
us or
about us. Are we under the
spell of the past? Are we
expressing our own aliveness or are we shackled to the shapes and forms of other people's
agendas? That which binds us
is that which can free us, but witch is which?
A Russian tale, spiced with cackles & howls.
The Master Cat or Puss in Boots
We have an inheritance that will serve us, if we can listen and trust its guidance. Can we claim more than the eye can see? Can we live into
a new
idea of ourselves?
The Magic Mirror
In this African tale of magic and imagination, the shamanistic traditions teach
the Infinite Power of Divine Law to protect and serve us.
Keep growing! Immaturity or
carelessness may surrender the gift and defeat us.
Do not confuse the power we use with the Source of the power or our
success will be our undoing!
Seven in One Blow
Ha! We accomplish something that impresses us mightily with ourselves!
We take on a posture and a
presence more than we deserve....and we become it!
Mischief or metaphysics?
The Man Who Bought A Dream
Some can hear the promptings of intuition as a resonating truth.
Some act upon their own intuitions...or those of another.
The Griffin
Seeking wisdom, we find there are lessons everywhere.
To claim our Good,
we must let go of false responsibilities, know where the key to our power
lies,
and make our thinking noble.
Awakenings: The Journey of
Forgiveness in Fairy Tales
The Princess and the Pea
Some little thing...something nobody else would be bothered by...disturbs our
soul. Is this our perfectionism or
our unrecognized Divinity?
The Pied Piper
Stories tell and retell older symbols of our awakening spirituality.
Directions
are given for how to meet and honor our agreements.
Beware of cheating
spiritual laws! That which
helped you will strip you bare!
Merlin's Story
Isn't all of this vaguely familiar?
Didn't we meet already and haven't I already answered the question?
Have we simply forgotten what we know?
The Crock of Gold
Unless we find the inner truth, all of our success mocks us.
We must find a
new way of seeing, a new way of being to heal and grow our spirits.
Sleeping Beauty
Our spiritual consciousness is under a spell, surrounded by thorns and our
efforts are frustrated.
What metaphysical secrets can awaken the Imprisoned Splendor?
Eros and Psyche
Love is not enough. Our soul
desires to know more and startles herself into
a journey of a lifetime.
The Fisherman's Wife
Our desires keep growing as we receive from the Divine.
Will we never be
satisfied? What next?
Enchantments: The Journey into
Consciousness in Fairy Tales
Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle
Honoring each individual's journey in the relationship between men and women
requires that the question be raised and answered:
what do women really want?
Beauty and the Beast
How strange and mysterious the Divine seems to us as we search for what gives
beauty and meaning to our lives.
Can we accept that here is the unrecognized Divine, in all its majesty and
terror? Can we come to love it and
give it life through our life?
Where The Wolves Have Gone
Spirituality is not for the faint hearted.
There is power, ability and fierceness
inherent in those who live from a larger vision.
Iron John
The metaphysical journey detours from the psychological realm.
Unrecognized, the Divine requires us to serve and utilize it to enter our
full empowerment. The Key is found
beneath the dreaming of our soul.
King Midas
Are you resistant to change?
Do you think that there is only one right way of
doing or being? Are people
leaving you in order to grow or be who they are?
A spell
breaker!!
The Ravens
Knowledge is not enough. We yearn for the feeling of fulfillment, and when our soul is born to us, what we know leaves us for a time and must be
reclaimed spiritually.
Snow White
All the parts and players are within us.
Our envious hearts, our innocent souls, our diligent friends and our
beloved. The poison is in
your mouth. Break the spell!
Promises: The Journey into Dominion
in Fairy Tales
The Frog Prince
The keys to our transformation are often the people who will not accept
the
un-transformed parts of ourselves--our excuses, our faults, our
self-pity.
Rejection is often the point at which we begin to change.
The Tinder Box
Why does a man's spiritual path require material success?
Why is there that
love of competition and sharp-edged justice?
If this isn't fair, why is it right?
Faithful John
After you have gained your heart's desire, you are not finished.
You must now learn how to keep it, let it grow, and regenerate.
Rumplestiltskin
In the journey of spiritual growth, we encounter forces within ourselves that seem to meet our most pressing needs: psychism, telepathy, mental
manipulations. But when the consciousness of our divinity is born, we must
recognize the true nature of
these energies to keep what is our own.
Quan Yin and the Proud Youth
From India to China, from Malay to Japan, the Goddess of Infinite Compassion,
the Bodhivista, is renowned for blending humor and spice in the lessons of
consciousness. She is the aspect of
the Divine known as the Law of Cause and Effect...always just.
Remember to honor your promises to the Divine.
What you make can be unmade...as you wish.
The Unwilling Magician
OOPS! We passed ourselves off as greater, wiser, more able than
others...and
now we must live into our reputations!
Stumbling, groping, sweating and
praying, we're rising higher and higher!
The Salmon of Knowledge
Celtic legends speak of the Salmon of Knowledge bringing wisdom and
insight and
reactivating the memory of past incarnations of the soul.
Fionne MacCool served truth, knowledge and poetry, burned his thumb and
found his destiny in his hand.
Betrayals:
The Journey into Freedom in Fairy Tales
The Blue Light
We can discover for ourselves how the spiritual laws work.
By trial and error, we may strike it right and light the inner knowing.
Vasilisa The Beautiful
In this Russian version of Cinderella, Vasilisa must obtain the light
of a new awareness from Baba Yaga, the Witch, cunning and sly, to
be freed from the
tyranny of the
un-en-lightened self.
The Water of Life
Spiritual journeys require that we obey an inner integrity. We must
recognize the sign posts of the Divine and bring its inspiration into
consciousness.
Rapunzel
If we are trapped, can we grow great in our imagination such that a
new idea arrives to free us? Or shall the old judgments blind us until
we find the power that transforms us?
A disproportionate sense of our own importance is referred to as
"spiritual pride". Appropriate boundaries and right relationships
allow us to act with power and effectiveness in claiming our
birthright.
Stand back!
Giants are falling!
Do we plot and scheme for success? Do we want our share and that
of our brother, too? Or do we heed our inner promptings, allow
our soul to lead us and claim wealth, safety and success through an
inner opening
The Golden
Goose
If we dabble with spirituality to adorn ourselves or to control the
behavior of others, we find that we become caught in very sticky
business.
Geas or Testings: The Journey of Commitment in Fairy Tales
King Thrushbeard
Often we criticize and reject the people and conditions that will be of
greatest benefit to us. Our perfectionism leads to an emotional
impoverishment. Our journey of unfoldment leads through service
and acceptance into the sovereignty of spirit.
The Glass
Mountain
Is your inner critic interfering with your spiritual development? Have
you conflicting opinions on which path to take? Do you struggle for
success, for happiness, for recognition only to have it slip away?
There are spiritual rules for success. Do you unknowingly violate
them?
The Eternal
Return
From the beginning of history, legends and stories have told of the
one who returns from death to bring new life. By many names,
comes the hope and the promise of the divine. Demeter seeks her
daughter in the Underworld but there are tasks to
complete.
You're willing, but are you ready to live with Divine consciousness?
Follow the signs, heed the warnings, be polite and of service, and
fearlessly
greet the
Bridegroom and your destiny.
The Shoes That
Were Danced to Pieces
Go down. Follow your feelings. Discover the ideas associated with
them. But if they are not answerable to the Inner King, your
understanding--the
shoes of your
consciousness--will be ragged.
The Tramp and
The Old Woman
An old Swedish tale or chance encounters and unexpected good.
Do we
know who we meet or who sits at our table?
Finn MacCool
and the Irish Gods
We usually mistake the Divine for a problem or a pest. It entangles
us with difficulties and requires we claim our own divinity to hold our
own again.
Listen! Is that a knock at your door?
Enlightenment:
The Journey into Sovereignty in Fairy Tales
The Soldier and
the King
In the spiritual journey, we go toward the light and then away as we
utilize the subconscious mind to gain our way. Our use of the power
of consciousness may lead us into new understanding of the Divine
Law of Cause an Effect.
The Divine knocks on the door, coming to us in a private place. We
may not know how to handle them when they arrive. That which
challenges us holds the secret we are seeking. We must go
deeper...and face the dragons.
The Boots of Buffalo Leather
Self-confidence or arrogance? Effectiveness or grandiosity? How
the powers of the subjective or subconscious mind are governed by
conscious
awareness of Something More.
Hasjelti's
Dance
We have to stay awake! When all the rest sleep, we must keep
watch, follow the signs and bring back the magic that will drive away
evil and bring
health
and well being.
Manawee:
The Power of Two
Women are strange. Each has an outer nature and an inner nature.
The soul is always
feminine. Ah, the power of two
again.....
Tom Thumb
How we long for the Divine Presence in our lives! We imagine all it
will bring to us, all it will do for us, how we will cherish it and keep it
with us. The Divine has Its own agenda, and its arrival may not be
quite what we expected!
Tales of
Aladdin (two tales)
Oriental metaphysics are elaborate and ornate storehouses of
symbol and meaning. As Allah-din--the son and religion of God---
finds the Divine and all Its richness and power, he must grow in
consciousness and character. A rich journey. Full of spices and
magic!