One of my hobbies has a pretty bad reputation. It´s often seen as an escape from reality, a way to distract oneself from problems and feelings. I´m talking about fairy tales. Tales of worlds that seem fantastic, impossible and / or childish to the ones gone astray in the footsteps of greed.
Once upon a time I just turned thirteen and was put into a juvenile center. Surrounded by pent-up aggression and ego I felt really out of place. On my very first day there was a brawl in the inner courtyard and a guy broke another ones arm. This made me really anxious. Where the hell did they put me? I didn´t drink alcohol, I didn´t smoke anything, I never broke any laws… All I did was ditch school. After my first try to run and the police bringing me back I gave up and tried to embrace the situation fully.
Though I tried I didn´t really like any of the people there. So when I had free time I “hid” in my room and read stories on my phone. This is also the way I learned english. My grade in school were really bad. Sometimes I stopped for a while, but there was always a story pulling me back. I´ve read just as many bad ones as good ones. Though both were important to realize this: There are actually real fairy tales.
These real fairy tales are not fantasy. They emerge from the place where fantasy and reality merge into one. They are not mere miracle stories that 'ignorant and superstitious people' used to make up.
“The people do not invent such things, but they pass them down word for word from generation to generation because they sense the truth in them.” - Michael Ende
The truth is fairy tales are actual testimonials of real experience by (mostly) anonymous authors. These people knew what they were saying down to the very last detail. Our modern mind - thinking mostly conceptually - misinterprets these fairy tales regularly the rare times it even takes note of them at all.
It´s sad, but most of us have lost touch with the world real fairy tales invite us in. Instead we try to interpret these tales either historically or psychologically, not realizing that both ways are wrong or at very least inadequate. What we need is a heartfelt approach when reading or listening to these tales. We need to allow ourselves to read with our whole being, not just with our heads. We need to melt away into the story until nothing of us is left anymore. Try it, it´s fun.
The Tale of the Fairy
Most people believe fairy tales talk about an external social world because the authors often use elements and words based on what they consider to be part of our external social world. Yet if a fairy tale is using these words it´s only as a metaphor to describe the other reality, the one reality we are all part of, the inner world of consciousness.
The reality where
a djinn fulfilling your deepest wish
a witch casting a spell on someone
a king knighting you to fight for his kingdom
a lich promising you eternal life
…
are eternally as real as you reading and me writing this article. We are actually living in a real fairy tale. One written before time and beyond space. If you listen deeply you might hear the fae laughing in the whispers of the wind. Don´t hear it? You might be tone-deaf or just not as crazy as I am :D
Interpretation: The Fall(acy) of the Fairy
I´m assuming you wonder why interpreting a fairy tale is inadequate. So let me tell you a secret. In a nutshell interpretations are the work of the mind when forgetting the heart. It´s logic without emotion, it´s thinking without feeling. It´s trying to understand when all we have to do is feel over and fall.
The reason psychological interpretations are inadequate is because they usually understands stories only symbolically. They assume the “painting” of the fairy tale needs to be interpreted and transformed into concrete terms to understand it.
Historical interpretations are wrong because the world real fairy tales talk about isn´t embedded into a specific time. In other words real fairy tales describe a world which is true in all times for all people.
What happens is we fall prey to our very own thinking - which is always limiting. We are detaching from the emergence of something new and instead try to put what we experience into a box of old patterns. We don´t even allow the fairy tale to take us to the place it wants to show us.
“This (interpretation) introduces a causal logic that has a certain justification for external reality into this other reality, in which completely different rules and laws apply.” - Michael Ende
Feeling the Fairy
Michael Ende was convinced that the possibility of experiencing this other world of reality is originally inherent in every human being. I agree with him, I never met anyone who couldn´t access their reality within. Sometimes it takes a while, but it´s what we are made for.
This reality is the space of feeling your own fairy tale in the bigger fairy tale of life. Here, where you ask your questions and get an answer. Here, where you experience and master the trials of your own becoming. Here, where you begin to truly dream unbiased by your cultural imprint. Here, where you create from your very essence to ring the bells of reminiscence in every soul that loves and listens.
Of course this presupposes that your access is not blocked by something. That you actively cultivate the knowledge of this space and maintain the connection you have to it.
A few practices and tools to cultivate this access:
Writing Poetry (why you should write poetry)
Walking Meditation (why you should do daily walks)
Reading and / or Empathic Listening to Real Fairy Tales
Audiobooks
Books
Dia-Logos / Conversational Meditation (This is conversation without ego, where the speakers become one subject together with one common object - the conversation following the logos into the unknown)
(Sou)listening to Music (letting the true story of other you´s touch you)
The Truth of the Fairy
The fae they came to bring us truth,
in tales so old they speak of you.
Swords and dragons, lords and wagons,
bringing love to form a legend.
This world we make it with our words,
we hurt forgot the key to birth,
a brand new space in time for all,
in hate we rise in love we fall.
Let´s meet in life, god’s fantasy,
let all the lies, forever be,
cause truth is our very essence,
if we lie we kill our heavens.
Hell we made it on our own,
running from a dirty home,
time to tidy up and down,
left and right this fucking town.
Michael Ende talked about the day we begin or remember to see our own story in the fables and fairy tales. A time when our ability to imagine bleeds into reality with every stroke of our brush. When we remember that we invented money, taxes, cars and laws and that we have the power to invent tools and systems that better serve us.
We have the power to create a completely new world, new rules, new ways. We can create new patterns that serve us and create a future that gives everyone the chance to manifest their gifts. We don´t have to repeat old patterns and make history rhyme again. We can write her story into existence…
I´ll end this with a little poem by Novalis, a member of our tribe of love, who lived a long long time ago. It says:
“That one day even the so-called adults will be grown up enough to let poetry tell them what is true and what is not. Then there will also be a completely different kind of science that finds truths that people can not only live with, but that reveal to them their true humanity.” - Michael Ende
Here is the actual poem and prophecy (freely translated be me):
When no more numbers and figures,
are key to all creatures.When they who sing and kiss,
know more than every scholar.When the world turns to free living,
and back to the world all the giving.When light and shadow meet again,
to clarity they mate and dance.And in fairy tales and poems,
we recognize the worlds true story.Then flies in front a secret word,
the whole inverted being `way.
Thanks for reading. And infinite thanks to Michael Ende who inspired this very post. May we meet in heaven when this is all over. Also I would love to hear about your favourite fairy tales and fables. So please leave me a comment.
Marco
Frau Holle / Mother Hulda
My favourite!
Because, it tells us how to live life.
we are here to embody Goldmarie.
Asking, how may I serve? listening to what life asks us to do. being blessed abundantly because every act was an act of love - unconditionally.