The Red Shoes

What a terribly truthful and wonderfully insightful story. So much symbolism. There are 2 pairs of Red shoes and they represent 2 very different psychological aspects of human nature... The first pair of shoes represents the girl's creativity and ingenuity. She has made them from scraps and wears them with joy and pride. Her creation lifts her spirit and she is full of a sense of who she is and happy in her own skin. She is poor but happy in her life ... she is strong in her own creative energy. Although she is an orphan and she is penniless, she has found the key to her happiness within her self...which is her creativity...and she has manifested the shoes. They, literally and figuratively, keep her gounded in herself and upon the earth. They are her core and they take her from place to place in the world with the knowledge that she is whole within herself. Her wild and authentic nature is intact, despite her outter worldly conditions. After she is taken in by the wealthy old woman, and provided materialistic comforts...she becomes trapped. Her shoes are looked down upon by the old woman, and eventually by the community that she is now living in. Steadfast, she continues to wear them, even though her benefactor insists that she not wear them anymore. She is unconcerned by the reactions of those around her. The old woamn and the community become increasingly outraged by her non-conformism and, eventually, the old woman takes the shoes away from her and burns them. The Girl becomes depressed. She sadly goes through her days and nights missing a piece of herself. Her creative core has been burned away by the old woman's (and the community's) insistance on her conforming to their ideas of "normalcy". Her true nature has been burned in the fire along with the shoes. Her soul is no longer alive...and she has a deep seated hole in herself that she cannot seem to escape. Over time the hole becomes larger and larger until she is starved for the missing piece. The second pair. As the girl wanders through the vendor carts of the village she seeks for something to replace what she has lost. And then she sees them...a shiny and perfect pair of red shoes. They are not of her own creation, but they are so much prettier than the ones she made. She tries them on and they fit perfectly. The vendor gives her the shoes as a present with a glint of sinister knowledge in his eyes. She skips down the road so happy in her new shoes. As she skips along she begins to dance. She dances all the way to her house and into the front door. She begins to tire now and sits to remove the shoes, yet her feet keep moving and dancing even while she sits...and the shoes won't come off of her feet. So she goes out into the night dancing away...at once thrilled and terrified. She dances throughout the night, unable to stop...out of control of herself...she stops eating and does nothing but dance, because she cannot stop. The shoes will not allow her to rest or to eat. They have taken over her life and they will kill her, in time. she knows she must remove the shoes and returns to the vendor who tells her they can never be removed. The terrible ending is that she has to have her feet cut off in order to be able to live. The second pair of red shoes represent the thing that we choose that is outside of ourselves to fill the void inside. Having lost her core creative nature...she seeks outside of herself, rather than returning to her core...and the thing outside cannot replace what was lost internally. The second pair traps her into madness which will kill her, in time. This story brings up many personal events and times when I have felt the creative core and then lost it and then turned to outside replacement only to find that the outside replacement is not only dissatisfying but also dangerous....more to come on this.

The Ugly Duckling's Mother

The story of The Ugly Duckling and the analysis of the internal and external mothers was very insightful. As I linger over thoughts of my own external Mother I am overcome with feelings of gratitude for her Love and acceptance of me. Going through the process of planning my daughter's wedding is showing me the depth of my Love for my daughter...and also the depth of the Love my mother carried in her heart for me during her lifetime. And even after her lifetime! During a psychic reading I had last year much came through from my Father about how much my Mother Loves me. I wasn't really understanding that at the time...but now...Now that I am going through this "empty nest" transition...I understand much more. A Mother's Love for her daughter, not always, but often and in my case...is eternal! In many ways it is the closest thing to God's love that we have in this realm of life. My mother loved me and continues to love me without condition...just as I love my daughter. Then there is the internal Mother. For some time this internal Mother was dampening of spirit and hampering of creativity. She always loved me and wanted me to be happy...but she wanted me to conform....she was afraid that my non-conformity would bring me sadness and pain. It was what she had to deal with in her life and she wanted to "protect" me from the pain of her own "wildish nature". The dampening, however, only served to create guilt...which was/is a trap that seeks to keep us from our true nature. I use the past tense in this because my internal mother has evolved to a place that is much more accepting and loving of non-conformity, now. She encourages me to seek out adventures in the world and encourages me to take risks of the heart...and she is always there to hold me when I fall down. This is the external mother I strive to be for my daughter....we cannot protect them from Life...for only in living Life out loud, will they learn the secrets of their own hearts. I love my Mother and my Daughter with every fiber of my being.... Namaste :)

Skeleton Woman

The images invoked in the story of Skeleton woman are almost amusing. I see this man rowing his boat as fast as he can in order to get away from her but because of the "bond" between them, the fishing line, she "runs" just as quickly after him...even standing up on top of the water. Then when he gets to shore and continues to run from her....still she is "bonded" and continues to chase after him. Finally when he gets home and feels safe he begins to see her in the softer light of the fire's glow and he likes her presence. Then she begins to drink from him...taking in his tears to quench her thirst. It was especially interesting to me when she took out his heart and held it in her hands feeling his heartbeat and pulse course through her...bringing her back to life. Until, finally she becomes fully fleshed and fully alive again...and she sneaks her body next to his, skin to skin, where they become one flesh...and, it seems, live happily ever after. I am conflicted with this story as it pertains to external elements. Being single and learning to embrace being a single woman, I tend to reject the image of a woman not being whole without the love and acceptance of a man. Yet, I sense truth in the story even in the external elements. It seems true that once a woman is "bonded" to a man she "runs" after him when he runs away...sensing his fear....and wanting to prove to him there is nothing to fear. However, when this story is applied to the internal elements of a woman, it has a much deeper meaning and, I believe, a more truthful message. The man embodies the Fear within us. The skeleton woman is, in essence, our true nature, yet to be embraced...but which cannot be embraced until the Fear is overcome. The skeleton woman, as an image of our true nature is not fully formed and lies at the bottom of the lake awaiting wholeness and transformation. When she is "caught" by the fishing net...a metaphor for being "caught" by a transformative, and fearful life event...she cannot escape the "chase". She is drawn, inescapably, towards the thing which will bring her Fear to the light. In the story the fear is, literally, brought to the light of the fire. In the light her fear, itself, begins to re-member her body and put the bones of her Self back together. She is remembering her true essence. The frame of her body is put back together in proper order by her fear. Eventually, her fear subsides and rests. This is when she begins to embrace it. She looks at it, it is quiet and sleeping, and she begins to drink in the feelings of sadness and life through the drinking of the tears. She drinks and drinks and begins to feel emotions, again. Love begins to replace fear. She holds the heart of fear in her hands and feels the warmth of its drumming. Although the story doesn't go this far, I would say that she spends a long time in each of the phases. I imagine her crying and feeling and understanding the depth of life and death and life, again, as she hold this heart so lovingly. In time her body becomes flesh again and her soul comes to life. She becomes the living, breathing, loving heart, mind, body and soul that she is and always has been. Then she fully embraces the fear...as it is no longer fear, but it has become her teacher and her lover...she becomes one with it...and as she merges with the thing that once despised her, (the thing she once despised in herself) she reaches full forgiveness and full wholeness. Very Beautiful! :)

RUN WOLF SISTER