VIDEO
AUDIO
What wisdom do fairy tales hold about childrearing in our modern world?
Briar Rose is the foundation for the familiar fairytale Sleeping Beauty. It addresses the complicated consequences of unconscious parenting. While it is understandable we wish to protect our children from harsh realities, too much shielding can hobble them later in life. We may hide our shadow from ourselves and our children, but it will irrupt uninvited one day, casting the family into chaos. Instinctive reactions often hold us in suspended animation, but they may also offer a way toward healing.
“Parents too easily content themselves with the belief that a thing hidden from the child cannot influence it.”
CG Jung, CW 18, para 1793
Prepare to discover where fairytales intersect with modern parenting, what impact avoiding shadow has on the family, whether parental fears affect child development, why understanding psychological stagnation is essential, how symbolic stories help children face challenges, and so much more…
HERE’S THE DREAM WE ANALYZE:
I am in a house in France. I am having an affair with one of my father’s old friends, someone I loved deeply. He was funny and charismatic. His wife was nearby chatting to someone. He was being kind and attentive to her. I took him into the house and hugged him. I explained that I was grateful he was being kind to his wife. I wanted him to know. We got into a car. He may have turned into my husband; I’m not sure. He was driving erratically but in full control. We drove up to the village wildly and exhilaratingly – past the cemetery where my mother and father are buried.
UNLOCK THE SECRETS OF YOUR DREAMS:
Dream School provides a gently paced program with live interactive webinars, an uplifting online community, thought-provoking audio modules, and guided journaling to deepen your experience. Lisa, Deb, and Joe crafted the program with you in mind and companion you through the process. “Step-by-step, we’ll teach you how to interpret your dreams.” Join the revolution of consciousness! Join Dream School and Transform Your Sleep into the Greatest Adventure of Your Life: LEARN MORE
PLEASE GIVE US A HAND:
Hey folks — We need your help. Please BECOME OUR PATRON and keep This Jungian Life podcast up and running!!
YES, WE HAVE MERCH:
SHARE YOUR DREAM WITH US:
SUBMIT YOUR DREAM HERE for a possible podcast interpretation.
In an early Grimm’s Fairytale, invitations are sent out to 12 fairies to give a blessing to a newborn princess. When a 13th, uninvited fairy, finds out, she ruins the party by showing up and delivering a curse rather than a blessing.
The uninvited fairy is the part of ourselves that we ignore, at our peril. Whether out of carelessness, blindness, or over-valuing appearance over completeness, our psyche lets us know.
Is the 13th fairy the wisdom held by the shadow? Who is it that we have not invited to the party?
In Andreas Schweizer’s ‘The Sungod’s Journey Through the Netherworld’, the twelfth hour (just before the sun is to leave the underworld and rise again into the morning sky) contains an important group of deities aiding the process – 12 gods and 13 goddesses. Okay, 12 gods for twelve hours of the sungod’s journey – that’s solar. But 13 goddesses makes no sense unless it’s lunar. (I’m speculating here, it’s not Schweizer’s idea). So, both energies are required, and both are involved – god/goddess, solar/lunar. The Egyptians seemed to understand both energies are required. By contrast, the Briar Rose story seems to say ‘and this is what happens when one of those principles isn’t honored’.
Here’s another frame:
– The Princess is the Anima
– The tower is the Patriarchy
– The spindle is Phallic, a Prick
– Thorns are the cage of Patriarchal protections and defenses
– The Prince is the animus, the one that gets through for genuine Growth and Awakening
Waiting for the resolution of the tensions held in abeyance when the Feminine is denied or dismissed or held captive must feel like a 100 years.
The insights all three of you had on this episode were extraordinary helpful.