Story Apothecary

The Rx of Fairytales

The most constantly recurring theme in fairytales, are those dealing with the descent of the soul into the world, its experiences in life, initiation and the quest for unity and the trials and tribulations that beset its journey through the world…

...Possibly the best known and most frequent of motifs is that of paradise lost and regained, of which the story of Cinderella is a classic example, though the theme runs through most fairytales in the form of initial misfortune leading eventually to a Happy ending.”

—J.C. Cooper

Fairytales: Allegories of the Inner Life

Image: Katerina Plotnikova

This is only one wisdom perspective available on the medicine of fairytales. You can read many more- from Bruno Bettelheim and Freud to Jung and Von Franz; Rudolf Steiner to Goethe ; Dr. Estes and Sharon Blackie; Martin Shaw and Robert Bly.

But the best medicine in the fairytale is waiting for you to hear it, to sleep with it, to dream with it, to journey with it, to slow cook and simmer inside of it. 

Not quite here, not quite there is like uttering an ancient spell: abracadabra. A door or portal opens to the liminal . 

Snip snap snout and happily ever after. The door, the portal slams shut.

We are humble, open, cautious , innocent, guarded, curious, hopefull

When we cross the threshold of story.

We begin in the here and now and we venture to the timeless mundane

We face ordeals and trials, initiations and ritual deaths. 

We descend, or venture to the deep dark forest with revolving huts, revolving worlds. We are devoured by beasts. We shapeshift or witness shapeshifters and tricksters, ogres and evil stepmothers. We journey to heaven or hell and return. Stronger.

Vasalisa Illustration, unknown

Fairytales speak of the human soul and psyche and what’s its archaic ancestors knew. Once upon a time is the souls timelessness.

"Fairy tales are about trouble, about getting into and out of it, and trouble seems to be a necessary stage on the route to becoming. All the magic and glass mountains and pearls the size of houses and princesses beautiful as the day and talking birds and part-time serpents are distractions from the core of most of the stories, the struggle to survive against adversaries, to find your place in the world, and to come into your own.

Here’s the thing, some fairytales begin with getting lost. In the dark woods, where things are not like they used to be where it is more challenging to see, and where it is possible to encounter a hut on chicken legs, turning around in circles, waiting for travelers, to riddle them into wisdom, bones, or butter.

Most if not all fairytales tell us that life is a frickin ordeal. You might get hurt walking out your front door. Someone might put a spell on you and turn you into a swan. Somewhere a wolf lurks behind a grove of trees, daydreaming about how he will devour you. Somewhere a snake is causing havoc sacrificing the young brides.”

—Rebecca Solnit, The Faraway Nearby

Once upon a time, metaphor, symbol is the language of the soul. We have forgotten how to read the complex simplicity of soul. Soul language is a healing language. Fairytales are an Apothecary of Story. We need them now more than ever. When we connect with Fairytales, we connect with the truth of the wildness of the soul. It’s like discovering one’s selkie skin after years of hardening, drying. Fairytales restore. I guide you into that restoration. I guide you to your hidden lantern, or your selkie skin; the wolf’s belly for deeper story retrieval. It’s like a reforestation of the ecology of soul.

Image: Lucy Campbell

I write about fairytales in poetry. I guide women through fairytales on retreats and workshops. They dive in deeply and unlock doors within their own psyches, illuminating how the fairytales move through them. Then they write their way through. It’s a very living, dynamic process. We face brambles and discover roses hiding Eros. We go back in time to well maidens. We discover wastelands and restore them. We restore the wilds in our own tattered inner lands.

I’d love you to join me in the simplest way possible. To give you a taste —of the profound wisdom and medicine of Fairytale. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber (only 7/month). You can always switch to becoming an unpaid subscriber again. If you are a paid subscriber, you have access to an occasional live telling on zoom (you can receive the recording) of a seasonally selected, newly spun fairytale. Each event will include a provocative tale, a song or simple ritual and writing prompts. We have one coming up in December. December 1!

We may not physically enter Baba’s hut, or the Siberian tundra, Rapunzel’s tower,  but as human beings we still have the possibility to face fears, to face inner and outer challenges, to rise above. To die to the self and be born anew. To write our way through initiatory moments of our own lives, sparked by the inspiration of fairytale. We enter the interior of the Soul. Once upon a time lifts a veil, conjures magic, utters a spell, opens the liminal, sends us on a transformative journey.

We follow the thread of story to the Siberian tundra in search of a woman, a one-eyed story…and the magic of fox…

image: Anastasiya Dobrovolskaya

December 1st

1pm Mountain time (US time zone)

—for paid subscribers only: zoom. Please consider an upgrade of your subscription below so you can join me live, for the magic and medicine of story, from the comfort of your own home:

Leaving the One Eyed Story (a Siberian tale)