Magical Helpers
Joseph Campbell, who brought the idea of the universal mythic journey to popular consciousness famously counselled us to follow our bliss, even in the darkest night, to hold the light, hold the light, even if only in the image of a distant star glittering in the heavens far far away, even if such a star cannot be seen with the naked eye, even if it exists only in memory, hold it never-the-less, dear and close to your heart. For it will guide you, always, always home.
There are many stories from our everyday world where people, hostages kept in darkness and isolation not knowing if they might die from one hour to the next, dear souls in concentration camps like Victor Frankel who refused to relinguish his faith and so survived. Heros every one.
We all expeience such times now & then of finding ourselves suddenly out of our depth, times of vulnerability, of feeling abandoned, lost, betrayed even. Maybe hope has dimmed, faith has been thrown into question and we have sunk down into a lightless depths within ourselves.
In myth, legend and fairy-story such times and such experience have been likeened to the wasteland – where no one can live and nothing can grow.
The grief of Isis knew no bounds when she discovered her beloved Osiris had been murdered and her tears filled the river Nile. It was the same with the Summerian goddess Inanna: the same for our own blessed Virgin for her crucified son. Demeter caused such a winter to come upon the land when Hades stole away her beautiful daughter and she refused to let time turn until she was returned to her.
We all expeience such times now & then of finding ourselves suddenly out of our depth, times of vulnerability, of feeling abandoned, lost, betrayed even. Maybe hope has dimmed, faith has been thrown into question and we have sunk down into a lightless depths within ourselves.
In myth, legend and fairy-story such times and such experience have been likeened to the wasteland – where no one can live and nothing can grow.
The grief of Isis knew no bounds when she discovered her beloved Osiris had been murdered and her tears filled the river Nile. It was the same with the Summerian goddess Inanna: the same for our own blessed Virgin for her crucified son. Demeter caused such a winter to come upon the land when Hades stole away her beautiful daughter and she refused to let time turn until she was returned to her.
In the Grail Quest, as we have seen the Wounded King langishes in such a place with his terrible, unhealing wounds endlessly bleeding.
And in fairytales – this is the part of the story where the heroine realises she is all alone, abandoned & prey to the heartlessness of a wicked step - mother or jealous sisters who cast her out from the family home or plot her destruction.
Our sweet Cinderella with her kind heart has such awful siblings as does her predecessor in the Greek myth of Psyche and Eros. The Russian Vassilsa, beautiful by name and beautiful by nature has an evil step- mother too. Snow White is such a child, with her lips as red as blood, skin as white as snow and hair as black as ebony - and the ill- fated brothers in the tragic tale of The Six Swans, cruelly turned to swans and condemed to roam the skies for eternity by their father‘s evil new queen. The real mothers of all these innocent souls having sadly died, leaving them so terribly vulnerable unprotected & unloved.
So they all set off into the wide world, the underworld or the deep dark wood, in search of what has been lost and must keep all their wits about them to just survive.
There are so many heroines and heros, like Frodo in more recent times and Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, slipping through the back of the wardrobe in their big fur coats, straight into the snowy realms of Narnia where a heartless Queen rules and where it is always winter but where Christmas never ever comes.
But the truth is we are not meant to be destroyed such expeience. No! In myth & fairy-tale these are the places of tasks, of trails and temptations that lead the soul to greater understanding. It is where we might meet our ememies - for sure - but also where mentors or magical helpers might suddenly appear.
And in fairytales – this is the part of the story where the heroine realises she is all alone, abandoned & prey to the heartlessness of a wicked step - mother or jealous sisters who cast her out from the family home or plot her destruction.
Our sweet Cinderella with her kind heart has such awful siblings as does her predecessor in the Greek myth of Psyche and Eros. The Russian Vassilsa, beautiful by name and beautiful by nature has an evil step- mother too. Snow White is such a child, with her lips as red as blood, skin as white as snow and hair as black as ebony - and the ill- fated brothers in the tragic tale of The Six Swans, cruelly turned to swans and condemed to roam the skies for eternity by their father‘s evil new queen. The real mothers of all these innocent souls having sadly died, leaving them so terribly vulnerable unprotected & unloved.
So they all set off into the wide world, the underworld or the deep dark wood, in search of what has been lost and must keep all their wits about them to just survive.
There are so many heroines and heros, like Frodo in more recent times and Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, slipping through the back of the wardrobe in their big fur coats, straight into the snowy realms of Narnia where a heartless Queen rules and where it is always winter but where Christmas never ever comes.
But the truth is we are not meant to be destroyed such expeience. No! In myth & fairy-tale these are the places of tasks, of trails and temptations that lead the soul to greater understanding. It is where we might meet our ememies - for sure - but also where mentors or magical helpers might suddenly appear.
Vassilisa has a magic doll bequethed to her by her dying mother who later helps the child to baffle and out wit the witch Baba Yaga who sets her impossible tasks in exchange for the light she has been sent to obtain & like Psyche before her she must sort through heaps and heaps of tiny poppy seeds, but the child is helped by her little doll, as Psyche is assisted by a friendly colony of ants.
Cinderella has her fairy god -mother. There is Gandalf too of course & Dumbledor, Yoda and Virgil, the Roman poet guides Dante through the firey depths of the inferno, through purgatory and to paradise where finally he meets Beartrice his beloved and understands the meaning of all he has seen.
Cinderella has her fairy god -mother. There is Gandalf too of course & Dumbledor, Yoda and Virgil, the Roman poet guides Dante through the firey depths of the inferno, through purgatory and to paradise where finally he meets Beartrice his beloved and understands the meaning of all he has seen.
When no one else would help, Demeter is helped by Hecate, with her firey torches, who heard Persephone’s screems as she was dragged into the underworld.
Isis is helped by her sister Nepethys as she searches for Osiris and Inanna by magical servants who delve down into the depths to reclain her when she is lost.
And who can forget the wonderously uplifting moments in Tolkien's Legendarium, moments when the hero's have given everything they could possibly give - where they are spent & battle weary, gravely wounded too very often. When it seems as if the battle is over, the tale is at an end and all hope is lost - it is then, quite miraculously it seems - that Tolkien's Eagles suddenly appear. It happens in Lord of the Rings when Frodo & Sam are rescued from Mordor & after the final battle in the Hobbit, when the wounded Bilbo cries out....
And who can forget the wonderously uplifting moments in Tolkien's Legendarium, moments when the hero's have given everything they could possibly give - where they are spent & battle weary, gravely wounded too very often. When it seems as if the battle is over, the tale is at an end and all hope is lost - it is then, quite miraculously it seems - that Tolkien's Eagles suddenly appear. It happens in Lord of the Rings when Frodo & Sam are rescued from Mordor & after the final battle in the Hobbit, when the wounded Bilbo cries out....
“The Eagles are coming! The Eagles are coming!”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
And they are lifted up then from the fray & carried to Rivendell - to the safety & healing of it's gentle halls.
The Eagles are a symbol of Grace - as are all these magical helpers.
Divine intervention if you like.
that can't ever be predicted - can't ever be relied upon
- yet sometines - in our hour of greatest need - is there for us.
Much Love
Anne Maria
x x x
The Eagles are a symbol of Grace - as are all these magical helpers.
Divine intervention if you like.
that can't ever be predicted - can't ever be relied upon
- yet sometines - in our hour of greatest need - is there for us.
Much Love
Anne Maria
x x x
Hold the Light/blog published daily during the Crisis @
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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 http://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
