Monday, April 28, 2008

Fairy Tales in Your Astral!




Here's an interesting article about the do's and dont's for the shamanic traveler using germanic magic. It's based upon the rules of fairy tales which the author, Jenny Blain, has so politely broken down to their key elements:

"Ground rules for conduct

Basic principles

  1. Be aware of what is around. Look before leaping. Don't rush into situations.
  2. Speak to those that you meet. Always be polite and courteous. Be truthful when they ask you questions
  3. If a creature asks to come with you, accept their company or help. (Caveat below -- if they put conditions on their help, be wary!)
  4. If some creature or person asks for help, give it. If the help is beyond your means, explain this -- the creature may tell you how to fulfil it. Your ally may assist you, if you ask. The help may be needed within the journey, or in ordinary reality.
  5. If you make a promise, keep it. This is regardless of whether it refers to actions within the journey, or those you should complete in ordinary reality.
  6. If some creature or person asks you to share food, share it.
  7. If a creature you've helped gives you a token, poem, or anything else, keep it. It will later be useful.
  8. If you undertake a task, do it to the best of your ability.
  9. If you cannot do a task, ask your ally or those with you.
  10. If you want to go home (return to a safe place in the journey, or wake to ordinary reality), say so."


I've always loved fairy tales, and feel like their importance is oftentimes in a very cliched way dismissed. Or certain fairy tales are in favor of others. But I just love the sense in which we project nightmares into our children's psyche at such a young age, and the stories or at least pieces of them stay with you for the rest of your life. I can still go to that place in my head where Little Red Riding Hood is walking through the dark forest on the way to grandma's house. I can still see the bread crumbs that Hanzel and Gretel tried to leave. I can see cackling wild hags of the forest. And I haven't probably heard these stories in quite some time.

It's so hard to do modern day fairy tales I think. I'm not sure why. Perhaps the magic is missing? How were these original stories crafted? I know according to the wiki the Grimms were primarily linguists whose by-product was fairy tales. But a lot of those stories are older than them. I'd like to think these stories were crafted around campfires with everyone entranced, from states of shamanic storytelling ecstasy.

I was thinking maybe Texas Chainsaw Massacre might be something of a modern fairytale. In particular the chase scene through the woods, because that taps into a primordial shared nightmare, of never being able to outrun the wolf. That blue darkness, and how she keeps going back and forth through those woods, in almost never-ending loops, with the chainsaw breathing closer and closer. And then we have like American Tall Tales, which tend to lack the proper horror to really have the weight to stay. With the possible exception of John Henry. But those stories seem to occur past a point historically where storytelling was already quickly being engulfed and avoided by things like the radio and the television.

So I dunno.

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