A Spiritual Interpretation of Snow White
So we carefully stalk our wild hearts, lest they become further injured, run away into a deep forest
and we lose their trail.
As I read this sentence, sent to me by Hayashi, it lingered on and triggered some strangely familiar deja-vu . Someone, somewhere, sometime whom I knew must have felt the same. Deep from the level of childhood sentiments came the memory of a book, with yellow edges and pencil-colored pictures within. Who ran away into a deep forest with a heart in peril? Yes, slowly the picture of Snow White came back into my mind... I still read fairy tales, I still have a copy of the Brothers Grimm on my shelf, so I re-read the familiar story and found myself drawn into the rich symbology of the tale.
Snow White has been interpreted quite a few times. We have the psychoanalytic read: portraying the story as a case of the Oedipal complex. We have the feminist read: emphasizing the battle of two female stereotypes, the innocent, sweet, pure young Snow White and the stepmother as her canny and jealous older rival. At the same time, it has been pointed out that the story of Snow White is far less popular these days than comparable tales, like Cinderella, which still "sells" and is a recurring plot for many Hollywood adaptations.
and we lose their trail.
As I read this sentence, sent to me by Hayashi, it lingered on and triggered some strangely familiar deja-vu . Someone, somewhere, sometime whom I knew must have felt the same. Deep from the level of childhood sentiments came the memory of a book, with yellow edges and pencil-colored pictures within. Who ran away into a deep forest with a heart in peril? Yes, slowly the picture of Snow White came back into my mind... I still read fairy tales, I still have a copy of the Brothers Grimm on my shelf, so I re-read the familiar story and found myself drawn into the rich symbology of the tale.
Snow White has been interpreted quite a few times. We have the psychoanalytic read: portraying the story as a case of the Oedipal complex. We have the feminist read: emphasizing the battle of two female stereotypes, the innocent, sweet, pure young Snow White and the stepmother as her canny and jealous older rival. At the same time, it has been pointed out that the story of Snow White is far less popular these days than comparable tales, like Cinderella, which still "sells" and is a recurring plot for many Hollywood adaptations.
I came to realise the reason: Snow White is a story of spiritual awakening. As such it is much less popular than the a simple rags-to-riches formula of Cinderella. On the surface, the two stories might be similar: two fairy-tale princesses assuming their rightful places at a prince's castle. However, Snow White is so rich in symbolic messages that it becomes apparent: it contains alchemical depths of psychological and spiritual transformation. There are some theories about the origin of the story (which was first published by the Brother Grimm in 1812) according to which it has historic origins based on actual people and events of the 16th and 17th century. However, I wouldn't be surprised if folklorists one day found that it has alchemical origins, for symbolically it reads like the story of an initiation.
At the beginning, the signature colours of Snow White give us the first hint to the spiritual nature of her story. The original version begins with her mother sitting in an ebony framed window watching snowflakes big as feathers falling down, when she pricks her finger and sees three drops of blood falling on to the white snow. The mother loves this combination of the colours, and so desires a child with skin white as snow, lips red like drops of blood and hair as black as ebony. On the surface, this scene easily suggests itself for a sexual interpretation of the Freudian kind, especially as the birth of a child really followed it. However, the colour combination black, white and red is of deeper significance: in medieval alchemy, it was taught that the great work, the opus magnum was completed in four stages: nigredo (black), albedo (white), rubido (red) and citrinitas (yellow). It was C G Jung who first discovered (having read through tomes of obscure medieval alchemical texts) that the opus magnum referred to inner transformation at least as much as to an external transmutation of physical elements.
In inner alchemy, the nigredo (black) stage refers to the famous dark night of the soul: these are times of our lives characterized by depression, times when we fail to walk our purpose, times when we are overwhelmed by shadow elements and cannot free up enough energy to move on. It may start with something natural as the necessity to hibernate and recharge after times of enhanced activity, but the darkness can become excessive and self-destructive. Once we accumulate too much negativity, it becomes a downwards spiral, unless we are willing to purify. If we do so, we reach the albedo (white) stage. This is the stage of conversion and redemption, a kind of saintly existence. In history, the greatest sinners often became the greatest saints: the mass murderer Milarepa became Tibet's more treasured poet-saints, like Saul became Paul. However, as important as purification is, for people who remain indefinitely in the white stage, life can become sterile. The monk, who forever alone meditates in his cave, and never takes on a disciple, will ultimately die with his potential teachings unheard. The rubido (red) stage is reached through passion, the desire to change something and benefit others. Only then can the good one generates in the white stage, become part of the blood-stream of life. Those who begin to serve others, in one way or another, have completed these first three stages.
At the beginning, the signature colours of Snow White give us the first hint to the spiritual nature of her story. The original version begins with her mother sitting in an ebony framed window watching snowflakes big as feathers falling down, when she pricks her finger and sees three drops of blood falling on to the white snow. The mother loves this combination of the colours, and so desires a child with skin white as snow, lips red like drops of blood and hair as black as ebony. On the surface, this scene easily suggests itself for a sexual interpretation of the Freudian kind, especially as the birth of a child really followed it. However, the colour combination black, white and red is of deeper significance: in medieval alchemy, it was taught that the great work, the opus magnum was completed in four stages: nigredo (black), albedo (white), rubido (red) and citrinitas (yellow). It was C G Jung who first discovered (having read through tomes of obscure medieval alchemical texts) that the opus magnum referred to inner transformation at least as much as to an external transmutation of physical elements.
In inner alchemy, the nigredo (black) stage refers to the famous dark night of the soul: these are times of our lives characterized by depression, times when we fail to walk our purpose, times when we are overwhelmed by shadow elements and cannot free up enough energy to move on. It may start with something natural as the necessity to hibernate and recharge after times of enhanced activity, but the darkness can become excessive and self-destructive. Once we accumulate too much negativity, it becomes a downwards spiral, unless we are willing to purify. If we do so, we reach the albedo (white) stage. This is the stage of conversion and redemption, a kind of saintly existence. In history, the greatest sinners often became the greatest saints: the mass murderer Milarepa became Tibet's more treasured poet-saints, like Saul became Paul. However, as important as purification is, for people who remain indefinitely in the white stage, life can become sterile. The monk, who forever alone meditates in his cave, and never takes on a disciple, will ultimately die with his potential teachings unheard. The rubido (red) stage is reached through passion, the desire to change something and benefit others. Only then can the good one generates in the white stage, become part of the blood-stream of life. Those who begin to serve others, in one way or another, have completed these first three stages.
The fact that all three colours are present at the beginning of the story, suggest that Snow White's story begins at a stage of spiritual development, where these three stages are already mastered. (Physical birth in a fairy tale often signifies the beginning of the individuation process, a particular part of the soul journey.) Snow White is born into the fourth stage of development: citrinitas, the yellow or golden phase, which is the accepting of and opening up to higher dimensional spiritual energies.
Snow White's birth mother dies as this stage begins. In archetypal psychology, all figures of a fairy tale are seen as parts of the psyche, not external people. This means that something in Snow White dies, something motherly, something nurturing. We often experience this death of the old "mother" when we outgrow a previous stage of development: things which were previously nurturing, no longer sustain us. Our old interests are becoming boring, old habits need to change. Our old friends perhaps hold on to those bad habits we want to rid ourselves of, therefore their company becomes toxic. Snow White still has a father: the masculine, rational left-brain structures are intact. She manages to function in the world, but the new "mother," the new nourishing system her rational part (father) chooses for her, turns out to be a fatal choice. She now has to face the evil stepmother: spiritually, the Self has to face an Ego sidetracked by vanity. To the Ego, the Self is a constant threat, for the genuine and authentic impulses of the Self (to thrive spiritually higher) threaten the Ego's illusions of influence and power.
There are times when we begin to grow, but for lack of experience we sabotage ourselves: we choose something that's comfortable (or pretty or flattering or convenient) but lacks substance, and we get trapped. The ways in which the evil stepmother tries to kill Snow White gives us hints about the nature of these traps.
At first, she does not hide her intent: she summons the hunter and orders him to kill her. The evil queen also demands proof that the hunter killed Snow White: her heart or in other versions of the story, her liver or some other vital organs. Yet, the hunter provides an escape and fools the queen by presenting her a deer's heart. The hunter symbolizes the part of the psyche which is still connected with nature, one's own instincts and unconscious impulses. In an non-nurturing, hazardous psychological environment (which may be an abusive or dysfunctional family for example) instincts become activated to preserve us, but that comes with a cost. The Self has to pretend to be dead: all our higher thriving is suppressed in a situation like this. Like the hunter who presents a fake heart to the evil queen, we must pretend something, while our own authentic Self is on the run, hiding, shivering, shrinking in the dark forest. Children who are abused or otherwise maltreated, often fantasize that they are somebody else or somewhere else: because they cannot run away physically, they run away mentally. They shrink energetically: this is an effective survival mechanism, but only allows one to live a life of bare minimum.
It is at this stage that Snow White begins to live with, work for and work with the seven dwarfs. The number seven has a high significance in the tale, as it has spiritually. The Grimm original version also makes it explicit that Snow White was seven years old, when her father re-married. Many folklore traditions hold that significant life circles occur every seven years. For example, in ancient Hungarian shamanic tradition, when a youngster was meant to become a shaman, the signs became apparent at the age of either seven, fourteen or twenty-one. This is the beginning of an initiation process. There are seven dwarfs in the story, as the human energy body has seven main chakras or energy centers. Each of the chakras correspond to certain areas of life and psychological development. Neither of them is more important than the others and need to be in balance, but they do form a hierarchy: a bit like Maslow's pyramid of needs, normally the lower ones need to be satisfied first. Snow White's involvement with the seven dwarfs (she stays in loving service for them, tends the house and cooks the food) symbolically indicates that she is working on all of these chakras. She is putting energy into her own personal development. This is supported by the symbolism of the mine, into which the dwarfs descend every day: the mine is a classic symbol of the subconscious, the place of buried feelings and memories. Sometimes the coal which can be found here and which serves as fuel for the emotional life, can turn under tremendous pressure into diamonds.
The dwarfs are looking for treasure, and this is an important point. They do not dive into the depth to clean sewage water or clean out dirt, they go there to find something of value. Psychologically this corresponds to working on oneself in a way which is not directed towards forever fixing problems, dwelling on old shames and prolonging the victim mentality, but towards finding one's own resources which can be used to build a better future. For a long time, psychotherapy has been directed towards searching for the negative: what have the parents done wrong, how dysfunctional the family of origin was, what kind of neurosis the patient developed. While it is important to acknowledge things that went wrong, to learn from them and to do things differently in the future, an obsessive "working on" the negative is counter-productive. The unconscious mind tends to draw in and manifest things which it focuses on: if one focuses on the negative, more negative things will result. Snow White and her seven dwarfs focus on treasures - but the seven dwarfs also remain vigilant. They suspect, once the evil stepmother finds out that Snow White is still alive, she will come to kill her.
Indeed, the evil stepmother tries to kill Snow White three times, at last seemingly with success. She disguises herself as a merchant woman, and each time, she attempts to assassinate her with a different type of merchandise: first, with a dress she laces too tight, second, with a poisoned comb she pushes straight into her skull, and finally through a poisoned apple. Unsuitable families and environments make children feel exactly like these things: they feel like they are bound too tight and cannot live freely, or the parental control (comb) goes under their skin and skull (censors their individuality and thinking), or the nourishment they receive (especially the intellectual or spiritual nourishment) is not appropriate. During these assassination attempts the dwarfs go increasingly on guard, and they command Snow White not to let anyone in. When children grow up (or adults live) in psychologically dangerous environments, they are becoming increasingly suspicious and self-protective, as a result of which they close down to everyone, even those who might be of help. At the end of the story, Snow White seemingly dies, the dwarfs put her in a glass coffin, but the prince luckily finds her.
The story contains many happy accidents at crucial turning points: Snow White accidentally finds the dwarf's house, and after she has bitten into the poisoned apple and laid in a glass coffin by the dwarfs, the prince accidentally finds her coffin. One of the servants accidentally stumbles to dislocate the apple stuck in Snow White's throat. What is the meaning of these "accidents?" Is there no better way to tell a story than to leave all the good bits to chance? How can we learn to make our good luck happen, if it merely seems to be accidental?
Snow White's birth mother dies as this stage begins. In archetypal psychology, all figures of a fairy tale are seen as parts of the psyche, not external people. This means that something in Snow White dies, something motherly, something nurturing. We often experience this death of the old "mother" when we outgrow a previous stage of development: things which were previously nurturing, no longer sustain us. Our old interests are becoming boring, old habits need to change. Our old friends perhaps hold on to those bad habits we want to rid ourselves of, therefore their company becomes toxic. Snow White still has a father: the masculine, rational left-brain structures are intact. She manages to function in the world, but the new "mother," the new nourishing system her rational part (father) chooses for her, turns out to be a fatal choice. She now has to face the evil stepmother: spiritually, the Self has to face an Ego sidetracked by vanity. To the Ego, the Self is a constant threat, for the genuine and authentic impulses of the Self (to thrive spiritually higher) threaten the Ego's illusions of influence and power.
There are times when we begin to grow, but for lack of experience we sabotage ourselves: we choose something that's comfortable (or pretty or flattering or convenient) but lacks substance, and we get trapped. The ways in which the evil stepmother tries to kill Snow White gives us hints about the nature of these traps.
At first, she does not hide her intent: she summons the hunter and orders him to kill her. The evil queen also demands proof that the hunter killed Snow White: her heart or in other versions of the story, her liver or some other vital organs. Yet, the hunter provides an escape and fools the queen by presenting her a deer's heart. The hunter symbolizes the part of the psyche which is still connected with nature, one's own instincts and unconscious impulses. In an non-nurturing, hazardous psychological environment (which may be an abusive or dysfunctional family for example) instincts become activated to preserve us, but that comes with a cost. The Self has to pretend to be dead: all our higher thriving is suppressed in a situation like this. Like the hunter who presents a fake heart to the evil queen, we must pretend something, while our own authentic Self is on the run, hiding, shivering, shrinking in the dark forest. Children who are abused or otherwise maltreated, often fantasize that they are somebody else or somewhere else: because they cannot run away physically, they run away mentally. They shrink energetically: this is an effective survival mechanism, but only allows one to live a life of bare minimum.
It is at this stage that Snow White begins to live with, work for and work with the seven dwarfs. The number seven has a high significance in the tale, as it has spiritually. The Grimm original version also makes it explicit that Snow White was seven years old, when her father re-married. Many folklore traditions hold that significant life circles occur every seven years. For example, in ancient Hungarian shamanic tradition, when a youngster was meant to become a shaman, the signs became apparent at the age of either seven, fourteen or twenty-one. This is the beginning of an initiation process. There are seven dwarfs in the story, as the human energy body has seven main chakras or energy centers. Each of the chakras correspond to certain areas of life and psychological development. Neither of them is more important than the others and need to be in balance, but they do form a hierarchy: a bit like Maslow's pyramid of needs, normally the lower ones need to be satisfied first. Snow White's involvement with the seven dwarfs (she stays in loving service for them, tends the house and cooks the food) symbolically indicates that she is working on all of these chakras. She is putting energy into her own personal development. This is supported by the symbolism of the mine, into which the dwarfs descend every day: the mine is a classic symbol of the subconscious, the place of buried feelings and memories. Sometimes the coal which can be found here and which serves as fuel for the emotional life, can turn under tremendous pressure into diamonds.
The dwarfs are looking for treasure, and this is an important point. They do not dive into the depth to clean sewage water or clean out dirt, they go there to find something of value. Psychologically this corresponds to working on oneself in a way which is not directed towards forever fixing problems, dwelling on old shames and prolonging the victim mentality, but towards finding one's own resources which can be used to build a better future. For a long time, psychotherapy has been directed towards searching for the negative: what have the parents done wrong, how dysfunctional the family of origin was, what kind of neurosis the patient developed. While it is important to acknowledge things that went wrong, to learn from them and to do things differently in the future, an obsessive "working on" the negative is counter-productive. The unconscious mind tends to draw in and manifest things which it focuses on: if one focuses on the negative, more negative things will result. Snow White and her seven dwarfs focus on treasures - but the seven dwarfs also remain vigilant. They suspect, once the evil stepmother finds out that Snow White is still alive, she will come to kill her.
Indeed, the evil stepmother tries to kill Snow White three times, at last seemingly with success. She disguises herself as a merchant woman, and each time, she attempts to assassinate her with a different type of merchandise: first, with a dress she laces too tight, second, with a poisoned comb she pushes straight into her skull, and finally through a poisoned apple. Unsuitable families and environments make children feel exactly like these things: they feel like they are bound too tight and cannot live freely, or the parental control (comb) goes under their skin and skull (censors their individuality and thinking), or the nourishment they receive (especially the intellectual or spiritual nourishment) is not appropriate. During these assassination attempts the dwarfs go increasingly on guard, and they command Snow White not to let anyone in. When children grow up (or adults live) in psychologically dangerous environments, they are becoming increasingly suspicious and self-protective, as a result of which they close down to everyone, even those who might be of help. At the end of the story, Snow White seemingly dies, the dwarfs put her in a glass coffin, but the prince luckily finds her.
The story contains many happy accidents at crucial turning points: Snow White accidentally finds the dwarf's house, and after she has bitten into the poisoned apple and laid in a glass coffin by the dwarfs, the prince accidentally finds her coffin. One of the servants accidentally stumbles to dislocate the apple stuck in Snow White's throat. What is the meaning of these "accidents?" Is there no better way to tell a story than to leave all the good bits to chance? How can we learn to make our good luck happen, if it merely seems to be accidental?
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We see this in life: there are always people who grow up under adverse circumstances, yet their lives remain undamaged. Some children of alcoholics, or those coming from extreme poverty or places of political persecution shake it all off. The right people, the right opportunities, sometimes even just the right ideas come into their lives, and they make it against the odds. Is that all just "luck?"
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Syntropy: The Spirit of Love by Di Corpo/Vannini is an interesting contemporary book about the power of the future to influence our present.
New ideas in psychology suggest otherwise. Cutting edge research indicates that the future plays at least as much part in the present, as does the past. The original idea goes back to the mathematical theories of Luigi Fantappiè and his concept of syntropy. Most of us know about entropy: the physical law which states that within a system energy always moves towards greater levels of disorder and matter towards chaos. Life, however, is the famous exception: life moves towards greater organisation and coherence. This process is called syntropy: it produces a continuous increase not in chaos, but in organised complexity, it draws individuals together based on their similarities. Mathematically, this requires retrocausality: the existence of certain attractors, which are pulling the system towards greater focus and organisation. Life, as it emerges from Fantappiè's system, is caused by the future. This might sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but from psychology we already know this to be true. Imagine, for instance, a talented athlete, say a swimmer, who trains 8 hours a day. If you go and ask why she swims so much, she says, because she wants to qualify for the Olympics. The particular Olympic Games she wants to qualify for, are in the future. Therefore, the cause (the Olympic Games) for her present action (intensive training) lies in the future (retrocausality = a pull factor instead of a push factor).
We are, of course, not always conscious of the future (as we are not always conscious of the past). The same way, however, as an unconscious past event can influence our present (we might have forgotten how our phobia came into being, but we're still suffering from it), an unconscious future event (or its probability) can influence the present. Current studies indicate that consciously unknown future events can also influence the present.
Living at the Prince's court signifies being all you are capable of being, living your highest, most fulfilled version. Knowing in advance that this is possible and visualising your own highest life at the fullest will trigger the pull factor. It will draw lucky accidents into your life, to bring you there, where you were always meant to go...
P.S.: It all sounds like happily ever after, but the story also tells that the evil stepmother once again showed up: at Snow White's wedding. However, she was put on shoes made of hot iron and made to dance in it until she collapsed dead. What does that supposed to mean?
Do not grieve, do not feel sorry for the lower vibrations left behind: if you create a new version of you, the old must die. And that is all right. Healthy life involves change, letting go of the old. It requires that we do not return to old patterns even if it would temporarily be convenient. Instead, we strive for our highest good: evolution.
We are, of course, not always conscious of the future (as we are not always conscious of the past). The same way, however, as an unconscious past event can influence our present (we might have forgotten how our phobia came into being, but we're still suffering from it), an unconscious future event (or its probability) can influence the present. Current studies indicate that consciously unknown future events can also influence the present.
Living at the Prince's court signifies being all you are capable of being, living your highest, most fulfilled version. Knowing in advance that this is possible and visualising your own highest life at the fullest will trigger the pull factor. It will draw lucky accidents into your life, to bring you there, where you were always meant to go...
P.S.: It all sounds like happily ever after, but the story also tells that the evil stepmother once again showed up: at Snow White's wedding. However, she was put on shoes made of hot iron and made to dance in it until she collapsed dead. What does that supposed to mean?
Do not grieve, do not feel sorry for the lower vibrations left behind: if you create a new version of you, the old must die. And that is all right. Healthy life involves change, letting go of the old. It requires that we do not return to old patterns even if it would temporarily be convenient. Instead, we strive for our highest good: evolution.