Change perspective and change the story: thought experiment with "Briar Rose"

"But people must be taught lessons. Without them, none of them will ever learn.
People are dreams and awkwardness and gawk. They prick their fingers
Bleed and snore and drool. Politeness is as quiet as a grave,
Unmoving, roses without thorns. Or white lilies. People have to learn."

-- excerpted from "Observing the Formalities" by Neil Gaiman

Our myths and old stories play a complicated role in our personal and collective evolution. On the one hand, they are conservative carriers of social values that impede change. On the other, they are tools for de-conditioning and vehicles for liberation.

The role they play depends on the perspective we take and the interpretative lens that we bring to them. We inherit our myths and we're taught how to receive them.

This episode is an exploration of this idea, a thought experiment using a fairy tale that you may know, "Briar Rose" AKA "Sleeping Beauty." I found something new in this story and hope that you do too.

Thanks for listening and keep the mystery in your life alive...

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Myth Matters an exploration at the intersection of mythology, creativity and consciousness. I’m your host Dr. Catherine Svehla. Wherever you may be in this wide beautiful crazy world of ours, I’m glad that you decided to join me here today.

Happy equinox and welcome to spring, friends in the northern hemisphere. The energy of the spring equinox is the energy of fresh beginnings, and resetting or reframing perspectives. Today I want to tap into this energy of fresh perspectives.

Deconstructing, decolonizing, deconditioning, expanding, evolving- these are some of the terms that we use to describe shifts in consciousness that lead to greater freedom. To an inner source of authority, a more authentic way of being, and a truer expression of the self. Many of us want more of this freedom, and whether you experience it as a spiritual longing or a soul desire, this quest for fulfillment is both personal and collective. 

Our mythological inheritance and the role that myth plays in contemporary life occupy an interesting place in the process of individual and community transformation and the quest for freedom. When the myths that support our societies are simply believed, when they are unexamined and  unquestioned, taken as literal truth or allowed to operate invisibly, they perpetuate the status quo. They reinforce the existing system and social values. They're part of the conditioning.

But when we consciously engage with myth as myth, it can become an aid for liberation and the revelation of new possibilities. This is why I work with myth the way that I do. I want to be free. I want the more beautiful, just, and sustainable world that I mention at the end of every episode of this podcast.

Our mythological inheritance is part of our cultural conditioning and so is the way that we're taught to think about stories, whether we're encouraged to see them as teachers or merely entertainment, for example. We're taught how to receive stories, the correct perspective to take, what to accept as true or false, and where to focus our attention. In other words, we're conditioned to interpret our myths and stories through a socially developed lens.

I want to work with this understanding a bit today by telling you a fairy tale that you probably know in one of its various forms, a fairy tale that has a history of revision to align it with dominant cultural values. The story is "Briar Rose" as collected by the Brothers Grimm. 

"Briar Rose" is the source story for the fairy tale known as "Sleeping Beauty," a fairy tale that became a cultural touchstone as the result of Walt Disney's 1959 movie. If you reflect on the differences between "Briar Rose" and the Sleeping Beauty that you know, I think you'll see how the old stories are used to support cultural values, often unconsciously. Disney wanted to bring wonder into the world for adults as well as children and that's a beautiful agenda and yet, times change. 

Times change and I want to help them change because I want more freedom. Real freedom. So, although this is ostensibly "just" a little fairy tale, I'll poke into some of its nooks and crannies and pose some questions about the story after I tell it,  so we can think together about how much a shift in perspective, a change in the interpretative lens, can open things up and stimulate more creative possibilities. The episode is an experiment in deconstructing a story and our interpretative lens at the same time.

Now, I invite you to relax, listen, and let yourself enter the story. Note the details that call to you or the questions that arise. These can be great food for thought about the story and your life, and your view of the world and these times. They are clues to your journey that can open up the meaning that this story holds for you right now.

Briar Rose 

A long time ago, there lived a king and a queen who had everything but a child. Every day they looked at each other and said, "If only we had a child." But for a long time, they had none. And then one day, when the Queen was in her bath, a frog crept out of the water onto the land and said to her, "Your wish shall be fulfilled. Before a year has passed, you shall bring a daughter into the world."

The frog's words came true. The queen had a little girl who was so beautiful that the king could not contain himself for joy. He prepared a great feast to celebrate and invited his relatives, his friends, his acquaintances, and also the fairies, so that they might be favorably and kindly disposed toward his daughter. 

There were 13 fairies in the kingdom. But the king only had 12 golden plates for them to eat from, and so one of the fairies had to stay home. 

The day of the feast was beautiful, sunny and calm, and everything was just splendid. At the end of the meal, the fairies each came forward to present the baby with a magical gift. One gave her virtue. Another gave her beauty. A third bestowed riches, and so on. It seemed that the infant princess would be gifted with everything in the world that she could possibly need or wish for. 

But after the 11th fairy offered her gift, the party kind of fell apart. The 13th fairy, the one who had not been invited, suddenly appeared and she was in a foul mood. She didn't greet anyone. She didn't glance around at the company. She strode up to the crib at the front of the room and called out in a loud voice, "The princess shall prick herself with a spindle in her 15th year and fall down dead." 

Then she turned around on her heel and stormed out of the party. 

Everyone was horrified. No one knew what to do. Then the 12th fairy who'd been invited to the party, who had not yet spoken her wish for the princess, stepped forward. She couldn't cancel the curse of one of her fellow fairies. But she could soften it a bit. So, she said "The princess won't die, but rather she'll fall into a very deep sleep that will last 100 years." 

And that was the end of the celebration. 

Now, the king was very anxious to guard his daughter from this misfortune. He commanded that all of the spindles in the kingdom should be burned. And for a while, things were okay. The princess grew up and all of the promises of the fairies came true. She was so beautiful, so modest, so kind, so clever that everyone who met her, loved her. The curse of the 13th fairy was largely forgotten.

Now, it happened that on the very day that the princess turned 15, on that birthday, the king and the queen were away from home. The princess was left quite alone in the castle. She wandered about the place, looking for entertainment, peeking into the different rooms and halls as she pleased. She came to an old tower. 

Hmm. Had she been to this old tower before she wondered? 

Curious, the princess climbed the narrow, winding staircase and at the top there was a little door with a rusty key sticking in the lock. When the princess turned the key the door flew open. There sat an old woman with a spindle, spinning her flax. "Well, good day, Granny," said the princess. "What are you doing?"

"I'm spinning" said the old woman, and nodded her head toward her work. "What's the thing that whirls around so merrily?" asked the princess. She took the spindle and tried to spin too and she had scarcely touched it before she pricked her finger. The curse was fulfilled. The moment the princess felt the prick, she fell onto the bed that was standing nearby. 

And there she lay in a deep sleep, which spread over the whole castle. 

The king and queen came home. As soon as they stepped into their hall, they fell asleep and all of their courtiers along with them. The horses went to sleep in the stables. The dogs in the yard, the doves on the roof, the flies on the wall, everything in the palace went to sleep. Even the fire flickering on the hearth grew still. The wind dropped and not one leaf on the trees in front of the castle stirred.  

The castle sat in a deep quiet stillness. But a hedge of briar roses began to grow around the castle. The hedge grew vigorously, quickly. Every year, it grew higher and higher until it surrounded the whole castle so completely that you couldn't even see the place. You couldn't even see the flags flying from the turrets of the high towers. 

Time passed and a legend developed in the land, about a lovely sleeping princess they called Briar Rose, who slumbered behind that fearsome hedge. 

A prince came along from time to time. Each one heard the story and tried to force his way through the hedge into the castle. But each one found it impossible. The thorns acted as if they were hands to hold them fast, and one prince after the other got caught in the hedge, and unable to free himself, died a miserable death.

Many years passed and a prince once again came into the country. He met an old man on the road, who told him about a castle that stood behind the briar hedge and how there was supposedly a beautiful princess called Briar Rose fast asleep inside. "The princess has been asleep for many years," the old man said, "as well as the King and Queen and all of the courtiers." He warned the prince against going to the castle. "My grandfather told me that other princes came here in the past and sought to slash their way through the briar hedge. And well, they were not successful. It's an awful death." 

The prince listened to the old man. "You know, I'm not afraid, "he said. "I'm determined to look upon this lovely maiden called Briar Rose." The old man tried to discourage him. He mentioned all of those dead princes hanging up in the rose bushes once again, but this prince wouldn't listen. He made his way to the castle and the fearsome hedge. 

Now, the 100 years had just ended. The day that Briar Rose was destined to wake up had come. So, when the prince approached the hedge, it was covered with beautiful large flowers, and the flowers and the thorns parted as he approached. A clear path appeared and the prince passed through the hedge unharmed. He stepped into the courtyard without a scratch. He saw the horses and the dogs all fast asleep and went into the castle. He noticed the flies asleep on the walls and the king and the queen sound asleep in their throne room. He noticed the still fire on the hearth. 

The prince wandered around for some time. Finally, he came to the tower and went up those narrow stairs. He opened the door into the little room where Briar Rose was asleep. She looked so beautiful that he couldn't take his eyes off of her. 

The prince bent down and gave her a kiss. Briar Rose opened her eyes. She got up and they went down the stairs together. Everything she passed, woke up as she walked by. When she reached the throne room, the king and the queen and all of the courtiers woke up and looked at each other with astonished eyes. And then the horses in the stables stood up and shook themselves and the dogs got up and wagged their tails, and the flies began to crawl around again, and the fire started crackling and blazing.

The whole palace was awake. And then, you know what happened next. The wedding of the prince and  Briar Rose was celebrated with all splendor, and they all lived happily until they died. 

Like Sleeping Beauty, Briar Rose is awakened with a kiss but not because the prince was brave, although he was. He was willing to face a gruesome death. Briar Rose is awakened with a kiss and the prince needed to show up to bestow it and yet the curse was lifted and everything unfolded without trouble or threat because it was time. The 100 years had ended.

This is pretty different from the Disney movie version. In 1959, Disney captured the hearts of huge audiences with a story about a beautiful, helpless princess and the strong, courageous prince who rescues his damsel in distress from the villainous cruel fairy. A familiar patriarchal model with a dash of wonder and true love that many of us feel has outgrown its cultural usefulness. But what about this older story? Should we encourage it to fade from our collective memory or does it hold other possibilities?

Right now, I interpret this story as a story about a mysterious process. About the way that we move within deep, long cycles of change that we don't control. Time and right timing are central to the story. The longing for renewal, for new life, is present at the beginning of the story and that desire is fulfilled when the princess is born. Or so it seems. Matters are swiftly taken out of the hands of royal authorities. Early in the story, we're invited to see the curse as a tragedy and this is a reasonable position. It's only at the end of the story that we can appreciate that the required change in the kingdom was something radical, something that required a cessation of the everyday routine for a century.

The renewal symbolized by the princess was radical and it wasn't going to happen overnight. Wasn't going to take place without a process. The process is mysterious. Who knows what took place in the course of those long years of shared slumber? Although a sleeping person may appear inactive, some functions of the brain and body are actually more active during sleep than when we're awake. Sleep is vital for learning and memory formation –i.e. for becoming ourselves. 

And then, there's the mystery of dreaming. Was there a common dream in that century, I wonder? A shared dreaming and a shared becoming that would blossom into a new and vibrant kingdom when every part of it woke up and joined this world again? When what had passed into legend became an active participant in the world?

The hedge of roses that grows up around the palace walls acts like a protective kind of cocoon reinforces the sense of incubation and transformation. The prickles and thorns prevented any interruption of the process. Does the presence of the roses suggest anything about the process that's underway? Are the roses a clue to the value symbolized by the princess? The renewal that she brings? 

Roses are associated with love. The rose is a mystic symbol of the heart, of the center, and a flower of the goddess Aphrodite who carries the energy of relatedness, sensuality, sexuality, beauty, and feeling. The rose is also emblematic of generative power, it's the Western equivalent of the lotus, of awakening and manifesting. And in alchemy, the process of psychic transformation takes place sub rosa, “under the rose,” which means in “silence.” 

This metamorphous is interior work. 

Now, let's consider the fairies. The word “fairy” has a long history and connections to the fictitious, supernatural, and legendary, to magic, sorcery, and witches. If we reach back further and look at the etymology of the word "fairy," we find that fae  or. "fay," comes from the Latin fata or fatum, meaning  "that which is ordained; destiny, fate," alongside "to speak."  

The 13th fairy, the uninvited fairy, ties her curse of death to a spindle. Spinning creates a  continuous thread from tangled fibers. Spinning produces the threads needed for weaving, an image of  storytelling-“text” and “textile” share a common root meaning ‘to weave-” and for creation and the mystery of existence. The Hindu image of Indra's net is one example.

So, we could say that these fairies are spinners of story and destiny, related to the 3 fates in Greek mythology who spin, measure, and cut the thread of life for every being, or the Norns of Norse mythology seated at root of the world tree. The fairies are among the mythical wise women, witchy crones, and goddesses who carry the power of transformation and they take their positions, for good or ill, depending on the needs of the situation. They create or destroy, bless or curse, in service to the cycles of life and cosmic mysteries.

13th fairy in particular. She is the pivot of the story. The catalyst. In the words of P.L. Travers, the author of Mary Poppins and a thoughtful examiner of fairy tales,  “she becomes the necessary antagonist, placed there to show that whatever is ‘other,’ opposite and fearful, is as indispensable an instrument of creation as any force for good." 

Destiny is the thread of life. What do you make of the fact that the princess was essentially forbidden to spin but mysteriously led to the spindle, and ushered into the long sleep ordained by the fairies at her birth?

I have a bit more to say about the story and the culturally inherited perspectives that we're taught to utilize but first let's pause for announcements and to welcome new email subscribers:  Sherry, Annie, Kay, Jonathan, Desiree, Marcus, Janet, Denice, Ralph, and Judith. Welcome to Myth Matters!

If you would like to receive links to new Myth Matters episodes in your inbox, head over to my Mythic Mojo website and sign up.  In addition to the podcast you'll also find information about my upcoming offerings and the ways that you can work with me 1:1. If you're an artist or creative individual with a vision of what you want to offer the world and you need counsel and support, collaboration with me may be what you need. 

I'm very excited to offer my weekend workshop for women, Psyche's Quest, April 24-26th in Woodstock, NY as part of the Greater Mysteries project. Psyche's Quest is an exploration of your heroine's journey through the lens of the ancient Greek myth of Psyche and Eros. Decades ago, women asked Joseph Campbell where they fit into his hero's adventure if they wanted to be more than the prize or hero's reward waiting at the end. Answer: women need to reflect on their lives, decide what is significant, and tell us the heroine's story. 

Psyche's Quest is powerful, enriching work. I'll include the link to details about Psyche's Quest and the rest of the springtime Greater Mysteries offerings with this transcript. What are you dreaming into being? What wants to be born through you and are you ready to live that story?

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Now, the last time that I worked with Briar Rose for this podcast, I was thinking about the hero and how we’re so attached to the pattern of the hero's adventure identified by Joseph Campbell. His idea has had huge resonance. It's easy to see the pattern of the hero's adventure in our lives and can be a very useful context for making sense and meaning of the experience. At the same time, it's not the only lens. 

Even if we stick with the pattern as a model of the cycle of transformation, we do not have to identify a "hero" and put that character at the center of the story. Walt Disney created a hero for "Sleeping Beauty." I've been talking about Briar Rose as a story about a deep transformative process without a hero. Hero stories also have enemies and evil to fight. In "Sleeping Beauty," the 13th fairy is the villain. I've suggested an alternative to that view, a story without a villain. 

Now, you may be thinking this is all well and good but this discussion of the story has removed all human agency. It might be a great symbolic description of a process that occurs and accepting this may be a challenge to meet. But if we want to actively engage with the dynamics, where's that opportunity? Can we reflect further on the situation in the kingdom, the nature of the needed transformation, and the action of the fairies?

I wonder about the king and his party plans. I mean, the king knew there were 13 fairies. And apparently he limited his invitations to 12 because he only had 12 gold plates. But he’s the king, right? He could have 13 gold plates, don't you think, even if he had to have another made special for his event? And yet, he chose to leave out a powerful fairy, to forego her company, gifts, and blessings on his newborn daughter. Twelve, a dozen, is a powerful number that feels complete. We use it for eggs, donuts, and months of the year but you know, there are 13 full moons in every calendar year.

Or maybe the king couldn't add another plate. Gold speaks to us of value and the essence of things. And the power of 13 comes from its liminal nature, in some instances part of the set and in others the outlier. A symbol of the disruptor, of the unexpected visitor, the accident, the moment of grace. It often takes times to tell the difference.

It can take a long time.

If we have a better understanding of our need for myth, and all that our old stories offer, we can live more satisfying lives. We can inhabit a better story and create a more beautiful, just and sustainable world. 

And that's it for me, Catherine Svehla and Myth Matters. Take good care of yourself and until next time, keep the mystery in your life alive.