The Beauty of Apples

One of the greatest fairy tale controversies is the dispute over whether or not the apple was evil. If Snow White was inherently good, then it was not (apple) evil that lulled this fairy princess to sleep, it was her own desire, her mesmerization with the possession of goodness, personified in the beauty of the apple. 

The softest of human tendency is quietude, being quiet with oneself allows one to notice the insideness of all things. When this fairy princess gazes at a bunny rabbit, a bird, or an apple, she is seeing it for its inherent goodness, a reflection of her own internal affinity or appreciation for such. 

Snow White looks deeper into the apple to get to know the apple. She recognizes an inherent difference between this apple as compared to other apples. She knows this before she bites into the apple. What happens next is a combination of the inherent properties of the apple in conjunction with Snow White's willingness to give herself permission to bite into the apple, the persistency to bite that comes from her desirous attraction to certain conditions as exhibited by the apple, and her preparedness or present disposition of mind, otherwise called her openness or innocence toward that which is she perceives as good or beautiful.

As said Diotima in Plato's Symposium, 'the happy are made happy by the acquisition of good things. Nor is there any need to ask why a man desires happiness; the answer is already final.' 

Desire is common to all, replies Socrates.
The apple is delicious, responds Snow.

Malcontents insist that the apple is evil, whereas defenders of beauty and goodness adhere to the notion that the apple itself is inherently beautiful and that it is not merely the apple but the combined effect with the princess' own desirous nature that lulls her into the slumber. 

In other words, Snow White's slumber is the effect of her natural desire combined with the apple's inherent beauty or goodness.

Zealous provocateurs place blame on fruit when in reality effects are a result of collective conditions. Fairy tale aficionados understand that happily ever only comes true when one recognizes combined goodness or beauty in all things, even in so-called poisoned apples. 

The Forest of Enchantments

The Forest of Enchantments is my muse, a place of magic and wonder. Home to wizards, witches and little fairies, wherever the land exists in its wildly noble, natural state is where fairy tales begin. 

Unsuspecting travelers who rarely travel far from their villages sometimes whimsically wander off,  encountering Enchanted Beings when they do. Fascinated and enthralled by their presence, they continue navigating her many labyrinths and towering high cliffs, seeking only to remain in her presence. 

But how does one arrive to the Enchanted Forest? How does one recognize her presence in another?

ALLOW YOUR MIND 

TO WANDER AWAY FROM HOME

One must wander away from home if one seeks to find the Forest of Enchantments. A journey through imaginary places and the marvels they behold, delivered under the similitude of a dream, whispered in discovery, and across the river ... this is where our story begins.

BEWARE: 

The tracks through the forest are difficult to find and dangerous underfoot. At times they are almost impossible to follow because of the dense undergrowth. Travelers are warned that at one spot in the forest there is a bottomless pit into which they are likely to stumble. 

There are no inns or houses in the forest; there are several arbors but they should be avoided, as those who fall asleep in them will never again awaken. 

In fact it is dangerous to fall asleep anywhere in these Enchanted Lands because thieves and monsters abound. It is during the wee hours of the morning that the forest is her most lively. 

The forest is under the spell of the Mistress of this Land, who makes all those who travel here happy. She is tall, regal in stature, and carries her head erect with a dignity identifying her as goddess. There are no colors to paint such freshness, such delicate tints, which alone are hers, and which has been seen in no other being. 

She welcomes pilgrims on their journey, speaking gently and smiling at them; those who surrender to her vision of beauty will never again return home. She is the Goddess of Freedom, no soul leaves her. 

She is fond of feasting and can often be found at banqueting tables. A Queen in exile, she promises crowns and kingdoms by appealing to desires and ambitions, but only those with pure hearts receive her treasures. An enchanted crown may only be placed upon the head whose flesh and heart are in harmony.

Beyond the River of Deeper Slumber, travelers encounter the tunnels of twisted wood, whose low prodigious oaks extend their groping boughs laden with blossom and shine dimly with a phosphorescence of strange and magical fungi. 

Here the furtive and secretive creatures of the forest lurk. It is where the most obscure secrets are hidden. Those with a taste for her sweet nectar enter the Forest of Enchantments and never return. 

Her land is where heroes of legend are born. Their affinities and hers naturally unfold and reveal themselves to one another. Once the hero spends the night in the forest, this union endows him with the ability to evoke her enchantments. 

Bears, butterflies, and all magical creatures follow in her very footstep. Extensions of her essence, they bewilder travelers, greeting only those whom the Queen welcomes. Her choices often bewilder, for only those who can harmoniously traverse her labyrinthine complexity receive her gentle guiding hand. 

The quest for her enchantments become the stories of folklore. 

The Forest of Enchantments is a safe haven and refuge for those who have not been affected by the Dark Curse. Travelers are advised that the only safe time to enter is while she is in repose.

Her land remains unknown. Her graceful shadowy form is an infinite forest with the power to magically restore all that has been lost by restoring something that never leaves us ... our true essence. 

Revisiting Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales happen one page at a time.

          The farcical tales upon which we get our first glimpse of the world teach us about all the painful (such as getting one’s tail cut-off) as well as joyous (living happily ever after) aspects of living. 

          The entire gamut of feelings and emotions that express in some way or other the joys and sorrows of existence surface story after story, page after page, as we make our way through the subliminal emotions that little bears, mice, and curious little children awaken within us.  

      

            Fairy Tales firmly anchor our imagination into the whimsical musings of childhood innocence while manifestly immersing our minds into the very depths of subliminal emotions that grow-up with us as the years fly by.

            Revisiting Fairy Tales is not new … until we actually unleash our mind through an emotive identification of self, empathizing with heroes and heroines, crystallizing our own latent feelings, dispersing our judgment deep within the forgotten forests and, finally, bringing them all right back into focus so that our entire self might extract the essence of each tale and forge, or, in some cases, strengthen, that creative urge we all share to unleash our minds in every conceivable direction… arriving to a place where dreams are born, and time is never planned.  

            Accompanied by Fairies that are so small they only have room for one feeling at a time, Fairy Tales awaken our deepest empathetic feelings, leaving us gasping for air the first time Peter Rabbit sneaks under the fence, right into Mr. McGregor’s garden!

            The land of Fairy Tales is the feeling ground of childhood innocence. The stories weave their way into our subconscious, culminating in the attitudes that flow forth from our own personal existence ~ across the frozen wastelands of the Arctic Circle, past the hillside where the three Billy goats Gruff have long since stood and, then, off toward a land far, far away where a Princess invites a frog to dine, breaks the spell of an evil enchantress, and frees a Prince, her future husband, from a dreaded amphibian enchantment.

            Fairy Tales bring to the surface our intimately personal responses to tragic conflicts and happy-endings. Our dreams and fears unfold in an unavoidable denouement. By the time the stories come to an end ~ and every story does indeed have its ending ~ we have aestheticized our deepest self, which, raised up from the brightest star in the sky, twinkles and reminds us that our hopes lie deep within the recesses of our imagination.

            In the place where feelings are a contagious thing, Fairy Tales bring to light the intricacies of human self-interpretation-in-existence in a creative unfolding; balancing the innumerable modalities of human feelings with a simple lightness of being, and we feel happy to be alive!

            The stories we tell ourselves and each other carry with them the dynamic spark of life, first, in their elementary function of liberating feelings to the realm of the conscious mind, something essential to their advancement and nourishment, as well as in all the other journeys that make up their creative becoming.

           

            Allowing our imagination to run free requires courage, a soothing and calming intrepidness where we gallantly and daringly careen the human spirit toward the sublime.

            Revisiting Fairy Tales is not new ~ but it does corroborate further our hitherto unleashed ideas, brining forth the eminent role of creative self-expression in the Human Condition, by revealing, one page at a time, an essential understanding that awakens our spirits to the importance of feeling so free inside ourselves that the notion of flying is not only entirely and utterly imaginable, it is something we achieve.