When I was a child my mother invested in a very large book of fairy tales. I was often fascinated by the antique art and the strange twist of tales discovered within its bound pages. As I grew older I often thought of those stories and the sometimes hidden meanings within their words. We could consider many aspects of ourselves found in the symbolism within the story of Snow White.
The King and Queen can be considered symbols of divinity. The King is our thinking nature and the Queen is our feeling nature. The birth of the Princess Snow White is our birth, the birth of our being. But as the story goes the Queen dies and the King disappears, off doing kingly things. We too often lose our awareness of the Divine Mother along with the Father (wisdom and power).) The King later takes another wife, the step mother. within our symbolic view of the story we can the see the stepmother as our vanity (“mirror, mirror,” and all that). We end up serving a power “out there,” where we “we are driven to serve the image with the proverbial mirror.” Anything that stands between us and the image we see/seek is to be taken into the woods and done away with. Our divine nature can be suppressed and put into the subconscious (the woods). But our truth always remains within.
When Snow White reaches the dwarves, the mirror tells the new Queen that Snow White is the fairest, which so angers the Queen that she orders the huntsman to take Snow White out into the woods and kill her. But he can’t do it. So the Princess, at 7 years, goes over 7 hills to the house of the 7 dwarfs. (A subtle reference to the 7 chakras.) There she (we) begin to awaken to early spiritual growth (the dwarfs represent some of our aspects with names like Dopey, Happy, Sleepy, etc.). But Snow White grows up to symbolize our own maturity of understanding. Our unconscious become conscious. Our spirituality awakens. Our brain grows up to the fact that we give our power away to the false perception of “out there. But the step mother and the poison apple cause Snow White to “die” (fall into a deep sleep, a “death”).
To possess the secret of anything is to have power over it, and that knowledge of natural goodness within is power over all. But thinking it isn’t enough. It has to be felt. That’s the important part. Snow White shows us how: she is awakened when the Prince kisses her (love and selfless compassion for others). So let us all kiss and get kissed!
In Snow White there is the death of the old and the awakening of the adult (the mature spiritual self). That’s when the Prince and Snow White go to the castle to live out live together (the consciousness; the plan). Within the frame work of this childhood tale we are exposed to the amazing power which flows through each of us. What we seek is not “out there” (center to circumference) but within and through recognition and understanding we actualize our being. Please feel free to revise the tale and re-interpret its framework. The small literary journey may reveals something to you and at the very least you will learn it’s ok to be kissed!
Peace and Love, Jim
