Who is the Sugar Plum Fairy?
Anne Maria Clarke @ the ballet
The Sugar Plum Fairy is related to a group of make - believe characters traditionally placed on the top of Christmas Trees or - fashioned from icing or marzipan – are used to decorate birthday cakes and the like. Frivolous creations yet frequently treasured by their owners, like the brightly coloured Nutcracker doll in the ballet story - each year brought down from lofts and attics where they reside for most of the year, carefully wrapped in tissue and old newspaper.....but please do not imagine that this is all they are.
The Sugar Plum Fairy has deep roots in myth, in centuries old stories of mortal beings spirited away into other realms, magical realms that do not conform in the slightest to our everyday world. Oisin is famously carried away to Tir Nag Nog in the Irish legend, Taliesin to Annwn, the Welsh Other world and Thomas the Rhymer in the Scottish poem, who accompanies a beautiful lady to Elf land where he remains for seven full years.
There are various ways of arriving in such places or states as they might be more helpfully understood. In the Nutcracker story, young Clara falls asleep beneath the lighted tree on Christmas Eve and like Alice, who drinks her magic potion, shrinks down to the size of her toys and dreams of journeying to an enchanted realm with the Nutcracker doll given to her as a gift by her uncle, the local toymaker. The imaginal world, the 'let's pretend place' if you like, is all at once animated, made real and true and the everyday world for the duration, pales into a kind of bland insignificance. Yet it is precisely because of these 'adventures' these extra-ordinary journeys into the beyond, that our everyday mortal world is enriched and made new.
The Sugar Plum Fairy has deep roots in myth, in centuries old stories of mortal beings spirited away into other realms, magical realms that do not conform in the slightest to our everyday world. Oisin is famously carried away to Tir Nag Nog in the Irish legend, Taliesin to Annwn, the Welsh Other world and Thomas the Rhymer in the Scottish poem, who accompanies a beautiful lady to Elf land where he remains for seven full years.
There are various ways of arriving in such places or states as they might be more helpfully understood. In the Nutcracker story, young Clara falls asleep beneath the lighted tree on Christmas Eve and like Alice, who drinks her magic potion, shrinks down to the size of her toys and dreams of journeying to an enchanted realm with the Nutcracker doll given to her as a gift by her uncle, the local toymaker. The imaginal world, the 'let's pretend place' if you like, is all at once animated, made real and true and the everyday world for the duration, pales into a kind of bland insignificance. Yet it is precisely because of these 'adventures' these extra-ordinary journeys into the beyond, that our everyday mortal world is enriched and made new.
Joseph Campbell called such adventures The Heros Journey, the pattern of which is reflected in stories from across the globe. First he says, the hero must leave the familiar world, he or in this case she, must break away, however fleetingly from the enthral of the parent, she must cross the threshold between what is known and what is unknown. There will inevitably be difficulties along the way, obstacles and challenges to face that will ultimately lead her to grow up and she will come back changed, no longer a child but a young woman with the knowledge gained – the treasure if you like that she brings home from her adventure.
In our story, it is almost as if in crafting and giving Clara the handsome Nutcracker doll her uncle is enabling this important transition from childhood to adolescence. In Joseph Campbell's scheme, this uncle could well be the wise helper whom the heroine is destined to meet. He is clearly the initiator of the adventure and knows full well the powers invested in his Christmas Nutcracker doll. He knows too of the Sugar Plum Fairy who inhabits the heart of the make – believe kingdom whom Clara is destined to meet.
Parents of course are reluctant to let their children go and often do not recognise the moment when it is right to do so and so it falls to others, like Clara's uncle to create the opening for the adventure.
In our story, it is almost as if in crafting and giving Clara the handsome Nutcracker doll her uncle is enabling this important transition from childhood to adolescence. In Joseph Campbell's scheme, this uncle could well be the wise helper whom the heroine is destined to meet. He is clearly the initiator of the adventure and knows full well the powers invested in his Christmas Nutcracker doll. He knows too of the Sugar Plum Fairy who inhabits the heart of the make – believe kingdom whom Clara is destined to meet.
Parents of course are reluctant to let their children go and often do not recognise the moment when it is right to do so and so it falls to others, like Clara's uncle to create the opening for the adventure.
In Tolkien's tale Smith of Wootton Major, it is the apprentice baker who steps in with a similar sort of magic. Every year a beautiful cake is made for the village children and in it is placed a lucky charm ( in truth a Fay-Star ) whose finder can thereafter travel there and back into the realm of Faery.
A pretty pink fairy, not unlike our Sugar Plum is placed on top of the cake to add to the enchantment – but no one ever knows that she is actually a manifestation of the mighty Fairy Queen herself who rules over the enchanted realm with her husband the Fairy King – humbly disguised in this tale as the apprentice cook. Not all is what it seems to be at first glance you see and the fairy on the cake and indeed our own Sugar Plum are merely ways in which these immense archetypal energies choose to clothe themselves at what we might call - their lower octave - or frequency, the outer ripples if you like, of the deep, deep source from which they come to form.
Well, the young boy who finds the Fay-Star ....Tolkien's alter ego it has been said.... travels at will between the worlds and becomes known as Star-brow, for whenever he returns from Faery, the star which is stuck to his brow glows and glows especially after he meets the Fairy Queen.
A pretty pink fairy, not unlike our Sugar Plum is placed on top of the cake to add to the enchantment – but no one ever knows that she is actually a manifestation of the mighty Fairy Queen herself who rules over the enchanted realm with her husband the Fairy King – humbly disguised in this tale as the apprentice cook. Not all is what it seems to be at first glance you see and the fairy on the cake and indeed our own Sugar Plum are merely ways in which these immense archetypal energies choose to clothe themselves at what we might call - their lower octave - or frequency, the outer ripples if you like, of the deep, deep source from which they come to form.
Well, the young boy who finds the Fay-Star ....Tolkien's alter ego it has been said.... travels at will between the worlds and becomes known as Star-brow, for whenever he returns from Faery, the star which is stuck to his brow glows and glows especially after he meets the Fairy Queen.
But before Clara and her Prince can tavel to such a realm, they must first do battle with the seven headed Mouse King who appears after midnight in the sitting room with his army of mice. The battle is hard fought with each side alternately gaining and loosing in ascendency but then the mice get the upper hand and for a scary moment it seems as if the Nutcracker is defeated. The Mouse King swells with pride, momentarily taking his eye off the battle – but that one moment is all that is required by an emboldened Clara who grabs a gigantic slipper ...and hurling it across the room with all her might, hits the fearsome Mouse King in the head, knocking him down dead.
Triumphant, Clara and the Nutcracker then journey across the skies to the enchanted Land of Snow during which time they fall sweetly in love. The Nutcracker becomes Clara's beloved, completing her introduction to the adult world. On arrival in the snow clad kingdom they are greeted by a troupe of delightful Dancing Snowflakes before continuing their journey onward to the delicious Land of Sweets, presided over by the Sugar Plum. They tell her of their battle with the household mice and she rewards their courage with a spectacle of seven lovely dances culminating in her own exquisite Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy with it's tricky turns that is the pinnacle of the entire ballet.
Clara then awakens from her dream, still clutching her beloved Nutcracker doll. She dances with him in her arms savouring the wonders of the night before. The curtain falls, the audience applaud rapturously if all has gone well, willing the curtain to rise up once more. The characters then dance one last time onto the stage to take their well earned bows, each in order of importance concluding of course with the delectable Sugar Plum who completes the grand finale.
Yet surely this is a story for children and it is to the soul of the child or indeed the inner child that it calls. It is nostalgic certainly, a recreation of an ideal Christmas adventure into the world of the imagination – and - if you have spent any time with very young children, those who have not yet lost their innocence, you will know that this is just the kind of adventure they adore and from which they benefit hugely. They know full well the difference between dimensions – that toys don't actually come to life, that children don't actually shrink down to join them and do battle with household mice. They know clearly that the Land of Sweets is imaginary and that the Sugar Plum Fairy is a figment of this realm ....and yet....and yet...within its own ontology... to use a clever, yet perfectly precise word, such things are as real as real can be.
So please don't scoff and turn up your intellectual nose - for the Sugar Plum Fairy, albeit fashioned from festive marzipan and frosted icing ... is not at all discontinuous with the Fairy Queen proper – as Tolkien has clearly shown us - the archetype - the goddess in fact before whom men quake in their boots and bow down.....and to whom, unless we have hearts of stone, we are all ineffably drawn.
At Christmas time, in our Western traditions, alongside the more sober Mother of God, this is clearly how she finds her way into our everyday lives. We can make her small if we wish, we can diminish her significance, like TinkerBell in Peter Pan - yet there she still is, every year delighting us with her magic.
Like Oisin, Taliesin, Thomas the Rhymer and Star-Brow, Clara and the Nutcracker Prince all meet a Fairy Queen of sorts – and maybe it is fitting that our Christmas adventurers meet her in the form of the Sugar Plum, for it is said that to meet her within her higher octave, so to speak, is sometimes too awesome an experience. The Nutcracker is a taster therefore, a prepatatory initiation into the more grown up wonders to come.
So have a mind to these deep connections when you place your own manufactured fairy atop your Festive Tree. She is no lightweight - as innocent children see very well - she is a reflection of light itself - glorious and utterly compelling to behold - the feminine aspect of the the Divine within creation.
Happy Solstice
&
Merry Christmas to all
Anne Maria Clarke
x x x
So please don't scoff and turn up your intellectual nose - for the Sugar Plum Fairy, albeit fashioned from festive marzipan and frosted icing ... is not at all discontinuous with the Fairy Queen proper – as Tolkien has clearly shown us - the archetype - the goddess in fact before whom men quake in their boots and bow down.....and to whom, unless we have hearts of stone, we are all ineffably drawn.
At Christmas time, in our Western traditions, alongside the more sober Mother of God, this is clearly how she finds her way into our everyday lives. We can make her small if we wish, we can diminish her significance, like TinkerBell in Peter Pan - yet there she still is, every year delighting us with her magic.
Like Oisin, Taliesin, Thomas the Rhymer and Star-Brow, Clara and the Nutcracker Prince all meet a Fairy Queen of sorts – and maybe it is fitting that our Christmas adventurers meet her in the form of the Sugar Plum, for it is said that to meet her within her higher octave, so to speak, is sometimes too awesome an experience. The Nutcracker is a taster therefore, a prepatatory initiation into the more grown up wonders to come.
So have a mind to these deep connections when you place your own manufactured fairy atop your Festive Tree. She is no lightweight - as innocent children see very well - she is a reflection of light itself - glorious and utterly compelling to behold - the feminine aspect of the the Divine within creation.
Happy Solstice
&
Merry Christmas to all
Anne Maria Clarke
x x x
Subscribe to Anne Maria Clarke's YouTube channel
http://www.youtube.com/c/annemariaclarke
More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
http://www.archivepublishing.co.uk/Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness
www.annemariaclarke.net
www.annemariaclarke.net/blog
http://www.youtube.com/c/annemariaclarke
More fairy-stories, myths, legends and books by
Anne Maria Clarke
http://www.archivepublishing.co.uk/Transpersonal Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness
www.annemariaclarke.net
www.annemariaclarke.net/blog
