Hold the Light: Wisdom from Myth, Legend & Fairy - tale for Times of Uncetainty & Transformation 11: The Wounding

The Wounding

For fifteen years to the very day, there will be no price to pay.
But on that day when you have no care.
She shall wander alone up a winding stair.
And there in the darkness we shall meet.
My task will almost be complete.
Spinning wheel & silver thread,
She'll be pireced by a spindle & fall down dead.
This shall be your reward oh foolish King.
This shall be the wish of the uninvited guest. 
 Anne Maria Clarke: Adaptation of The Sleeping Beauty

 And with these terrible words the thirteenth fairy gathered her dark robes about her and swept away from the hall like a raging storm.
 Everyone was shocked and stunned. The Queen wept bitterly as she rocked the tiny child endlessly back and forth.

 But just then the twelfth fairy came forward and whispered to the king and Queen.

---

Do you not remember I too have a wish to make?
So calm yourselves & hear my words, for soon we must leave your mortal world.

And then, lighter than air the misty blue figure rose high above the new born child and spoke to the entire gathering.
 
Although it is true what my sister has said,
Beauty will prick her finger yett she'll not fall down dead.
Death will not claim her, so dry your tears,
Instead she will sleep for One Hundred Years.

Remember! Remember! Remember!

The words of the twelfth fairy echoed through the hall as she gradually faded from view with her sisers and was gone.

But what does all this mean? And what in heaven's name could it possibly have to do - or to say - about our current crisis? More than we might ever think or have ever thought! 

To penetrate the mystery we must  - as with all such tales, think symbolically. The girl at the heart is called Beauty! She does not have a regular name precisely because she is a symbol and not an ordinary girl. She is Beauty!
What happens  to her - happens to Beauty within the entire Kingdom - and by inference in our world too.
 
Other characters are symbols too of course - like the 13th Fairy. The King has not invited her to his daughter's Christening Party - but she turns up anyway & and casts the fateful spell. The King, as we have seen represents the dominant principal in the realm; the rational, logical, matter of factness of the material world. In contrast - the 13th fairy represents the irrational, the repressed - the unconscious with all it's unresolved dimensions. She comes because she has to - because the kingdom has fallen into a state of inbalance that is not sustainable. The masculine - the yang, has overidden the feminine, the lunar, the yin and the soul, without which it is impossible to thrive individually or collectively.  

After the Christening Party the King ordered ever last spindle in the land to be sought out and publically burned. He assured his wife that the child was safe. But of course - this was just more of the same short-sightedness that had got them all in trouble in the first place - and  inevitably  - when Beauty's 16th birthday comes around she somehow finds her wat to the very place - at the top of the old tower - where the 13th fairy is waiting with her spindle - just as it had been foretold.  

Come in my dear, whispered the old woman, beckoning the girl toward her.
 Do you know what I am doing?
I do not, replied the girl. I have never seen such a contraption before. What is it?
It is a spindle my child, the only one left in the whole land and I am spinning my fine silver thread upon it. Would you like to try?
 
The princess was fascinated by the strange contraption and was eager to try herself, yet no sooner
had she sat down to spin than she pricked her finger and fell down upon the cold stone floor.

Now in that same moment, the King and Queen who had just arrived in the great hall fell instantly to sleep on their thrones. All the guests who had been arriving fell to sleep as they spoke. The servants who were busy preparing the birthday feast fell asleep at their work. The royal horses fell asleep in their stables, the dogs in the yard and even the flies on the walls.

There was not a living thing in the whole palace that remained awake for all that was mortal slipped into a deep and dreamless river of sleep.
 
....and in that same instant the sun darkened and faded from the skies and a dense forest of cruel thorn encircled the entire palace.

For One Hundred Years, all was lost & hidden from view.
 
Remember, Remember, Remember.

We all know what happens in the end of course - that eventually these sleepers with Beauty at the heart of their realm will eventually be re-awakened and the story will arrive at it's Happy Ending - but what might it be asking us to remember?

The realm of myth and fairy-tale is full of symbols of longing for the lost soul. The soul that once was and which might one day be re-animated and  return.
 
Such tales speak not only to that which might slumber within the self, but to that which slumbers and is lost within the collective too.
 
In some ways the Sleeping Court symbolises Western civilisation or perhaps the whole modern world, where the feminine principle has lain under a spell for many centuries.

Some people say we are on the cusp of a paradigm shift - a great change in our collective values - a revalueing of our relationships to each other & to our world. And maybe this is true. We have an incredible opportunity to change right now - in order to do so - we need to ask some interesting questions.  

'What is it in us that at a certain moment
suddenly falls asleep?
'Who lies hidden within us?
And who will come at last to awaken
us, what aspect of ourselves?
 
To give an answer, supposing we had
it, would break the law of the fairy
tale. And perhaps no answer is
necessary. It is enough that we ponder
upon and love the story and ask
ourselves the question.'
 P.L.Travers
ALL ABOUT THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

To be continued....
Much Love
Anne Maria Clarke

Hold the Light/blog published daily during the Crisis @
www.annemariaclarke.net/blog
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/​T... Books - Transpersonal Psychology. Understanding the Soul - Expanding Consciousness ​ ​www.annemariaclarke.net http://www.annemariaclarke.net/blog
www.annemariaclarke.net/blog