The transformative wisdom of the fairy tale

One way to enter into the deep symbolic language of our soul is through a fairy tale. When we write a fairy tale, the words “Once upon a time” opens up a portal to another world. We step into shamanic terrain. I have used fairy tales in my groups, classes and individual sessions for years. They never fail to reveal something unique and interesting, offering a perspective that seems both profound and simple at the same time.

For example, here is a fairy tale that one of my students wrote:

Once upon a time, way up on a high hill, on a grassy spot surrounded by tall trees, there sat a young girl. She had eaten all the fruits off all the trees surrounding this grassy spot and now there was nothing left to eat. And that was OK, it’s just that she was so used to looking for rich, juicy red fruit, that she didn’t know what else there was to look at. And so she just needed to sit there, until her vision readjusted to this new inner and outer place and she could see with fresh eyes again, all the beauty in this world.

Every fairy tale is psychologically significant. The narrative and images that show up are metaphorical, not literal. Through the metaphorical images that show up in the tale, we are able to “tune in” to a deeper place within ourselves. These  images are powerful because they’re working on all levels at once. They reveal perspectives that we wouldn’t have seen in any other way. When you enter into this metaphoric terrain, an expansion happens. Space is opened up and you naturally see other options and possibilities that wouldn’t have occurred to you otherwise. Your brain starts firing in a different way.