PSYCHOLOGY / MOVEMENTS / JUNGIAN · PSYCHOLOGY / MOVEMENTS / JUNGIAN The intensive study of Jungian...

PSYCHOLOGY / MOVEMENTS / JUNGIAN

The intensive study of Jungian psychology was amplified by another subject, taught continuously while I was a student at the Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland: the psychology of fairy tales. The study of fairy tales was the specialty of a fairly young, single woman, Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz. She lectured to us English-speaking students in well-spoken English, and the conviction and power of her voice made me feel how deep and meaningful these stories were to her. Not only that, I, myself, was immediately, deeply affected by the convincing, spiritual reality that was being presented to me in the stories themselves. It was as if the reality of life came out here in a wholly new form, untouched by the standard accepted form of common life.

What most struck me, I think now, was the following realization: here, in this story, is a completely insoluble problem. I want to follow it all the way through and, to my surprise, finally feel that this problem has been solved. This outcome has been both essential and unbelievable to me. As one who felt that life posed just such an insoluble problem, I found the typical fairy tale both impossible and incredible. I found in fairy tales a healing presence and possibility for the terror of my own early life. This is the unexpressed feeling that kept me fastened on the totally unexpected subject of fairy tales.

David. L. Hart studied at Williams College (B.A.), the University of Zurich (Ph.D) and the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich, Switzerland (Diploma). As a 1955 diplomate of the Zurich Jung Institute, David knew C.G. Jung and analyzed with Emma Jung, Toni Wolff and C.A. Meier. David’s lifelong love of fairy tales began in his years at Williams College where he majored in German. He was especially aware of the theme of spiritual renewal in fairy tales, an approach to the tales he developed in his thesis for the Jung Institute on fairy tales. Dr. Hart was a practicing Jungian Analyst in the Philadelphia area from 1955 to 1986 and in the Boston area from 1986 until 2011, when he died. He was a founding member of PAJA, a member of NESJA, of the IAAP and of NESJA’s Training Board. Dr. Hart gave many workshops on the psychological and spiritual meaning of fairy tales, enriching and deepening the lives of many.

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The Water of Life

Spiritual Renewal in the Fairy Tale

David L. Hart

The Water of Life Spiritual Renewal in the Fairy Tale

Copyright © 2013 by David L. Hart & Demaris WehrRevised Edition

ISBN 978-1-926715-98-8 Paperback

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief

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Many thanks to all who have directly or indirectly provided permission to quote their works. Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders; however, if any have been overlooked,

the author will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Many thanks to:

Psychological Perspectives for granting permission to reprint the following articles: “Lessons from the Unexpected,” V. 13, #2, 1982, p.159

“The Evolution of the Feminine in Fairy Tales,” V.9, #1, 1978, p.46“The Path to Wholeness,” V.3, #2, 1972, p.150

“The Healing Properties of a Fairy Tale,” V.11, #1, 1980, p.19“The Time of Transformation,” V.5, #1, 1974, p.21

Chiron Publications for granting permission to use “The Water of Life” as the title of this book. “The Water of Life” was the title of a chapter that David Hart wrote for a Chiron

Publication, Psyche’s Stories, edited by Murray Stein and Lionel Corbett, 1992.

Iris Anne Grant for granting permission to use the interior illustrations and the book cover image Swan Maiden a painting © 2013 Iris Anne Grant.

ConTenTS

InTRoDuCTIon 1

1. THe TIme oF TRanSFoRmaTIon 5

2. THe WaTeR oF LIFe 16

3. THIngS aRe noT aS THey Seem 34

4. LeSSonS FRom THe unexpeCTeD 40

5. THe HeaLIng pRopeRTIeS oF a FaIRy TaLe 48

6 . THe evoLuTIon oF THe FemInIne In FaIRy TaLeS 59

7. THe BLaCk pRInCeSS 71

8. BeWITCHmenT: THe SToRy oF TamLane 91

9. THe HunTeR anD THe SWan maIDen 103

10. THe paTH To WHoLeneSS 128

aBouT THe auTHoR 141

aCknoWLeDgemenTS 143

InDex 145

DeDICaTIon

“I sense that Love is all around us… And Love is our guide too.”

—David L. Hart, August 12, 2011

These were the last words David spoke and which I wrote down before he died in our Vermont home, appropriately named “Sanctuary,” on August 26, 2011. Indeed, David himself was a channel for that Love to pour through him, both in his clinical practice of Jungian psychology and in his love for fairy tales. Though David would not have thought of it that way, many of his patients spoke of his wondrous capacity to listen. David had a way of listening with the “third ear,” of hearing be-yond hearing, into the depths of the one speaking. He was also able to listen deeply into the depths of the fairy tales he loved. With his gift of listening and for understanding and sharing his beloved fairy tales, he often restored Soul to his patients. In my mind, this is an act of great love, perhaps of the very Love that David sensed all around us at the end of his life.

David, my love, I dedicate this republishing of The Water of Life to you in gratitude for your Soul-given capacity to listen—to hear the depths of your patients and of these fairy tales—illuminating both with Light. In your gifted hands, these tales soar with new meaning.

On behalf of all who have benefited from your wise and deep percep-tion of the spiritual meaning in fairy tales, including myself, I thank you.

Your grateful soul mate and wife,Dee (Demaris Wehr)

1

FaIRy TaLeS

The intensive study of Jungian psychology was amplified by an-other subject, taught continuously while I was a student at the Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland: the psychology of fairy

tales. The study of fairy tales was the specialty of a fairly young, single woman, Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz. She lectured to us English-speak-ing students in well-spoken English, and the conviction and power of her voice made me feel how deep and meaningful these stories were to her. Not only that, I, myself, was immediately, deeply affected by the convincing, spiritual reality that was being presented to me in the stories themselves. It was as if the reality of life came out here in a wholly new form, untouched by the standard accepted form of common life.


The condition that I had been dealing with since early childhood, as I now see, was alienation, both from other people and from myself. In the work on fairy talks at the Zurich Jung Institute, it gradually came to me that some of the most widely known traditional tales presented states of being that could be called horrendous—isolated, insane, terrified, heading for doom. I felt that we students had been called to know and even feel these horrendous states, and then to take in a final solution or resolution, which unbelievably, could overcome such states. This I sup-pose more than anything else, explains the love of fairy tales and their deepest meaning which has pursued me all of my long life.

David Hart, June 2011

The Water of Life2

InTRoDuCTIon

This collection has grown out of many years of absorbed preoccupation with certain fairy tales. I have told, retold, examined and re-examined them in different settings, with different groups of people and approach-ing them from different angles. In the form in which this material is given here, in every case it was intended as the basis for a seminar or lecture, and was so used.

Although it is written down, however, this subject matter will not “stand still.” There is an energy in it which keeps inquiry and reappraisal alive. Every return I have ever made to the same story has yielded, in the new setting and the new telling, a new vision and meaning. This is the result partly of different participants, partly of changes in my own life experience and perspective, and partly of a kind of ongoing unfoldment of the material itself. I am convinced that there is an organic life in these stories which seeks to reveal and confirm itself through those who take them up and seriously expound them. There is a meaning which “wants” to become known and which “uses” us for that purpose.

This is different from our using fairy tales for our purposes. There has been an astonishing variety of interpretations applied to this mate-rial from proponents of theories ranging from the cosmological to the psychoanalytic to the sociological and, thanks to the peculiar depth and universality of these stories, all of these theorists seem able to support their perspective position by them. And, of course, I bring my own perspective, which can best be comprehended as both spiritual and psy-chological. Nevertheless, it has become clear to me that, just as any new person in our life needs and seeks to become known by us, so a fairy tale presents an active challenge to be seen and known for what it is, not just used to prove a theory or justify a position.

Fairy tales have been told, retold and handed down as sacred stories because they are expressions of a reality which has been traditionally rec-ognized throughout the world as precious and vital to human life. Long before our contemporary interpretations, they stood for themselves as self-sustaining and self-explanatory. They had the “rightness” and finality of myths. When my children were small, I noticed that whenever I told

David L. Hart 3

them a story I had just made up, they tended to question it, to ask why this or that had happened in this or that way. But when I told them a fairy tale, it was accepted just as it was: it did not need to be questioned. For them, the story itself was somehow satisfactory and complete.

Among the many contemporary studies of fairy tales are a number of books which point out the extent to which even the most “traditional,” orally transmitted folk and fairy tales have been shaped or altered to suit certain definite social or polemical purposes. Jack Zipes, for instance, has brought a useful feminist and Marxist perspective to the understanding of some of our best-loved European fairy tales, pointing to the evidence within them of social and class oppression as well as of attempts to over-throw it. Maria Tartar has shown how substantially the Grimm brothers altered the content of the tales in their collection to conform to popular taste and tolerance on social and moral questions. These studies put the “timeless” world of the fairy tale into explicit historical-social context, and would thus seem to undermine any attempt to give it a lasting meaning beyond its own time and social setting.

My own approach, nevertheless, seeks out the non-historical and un-conditioned, the kind of unfoldment and insight which takes us imme-diately into our own spiritual and psychological existence. I throw myself on the fairy tale in a wager that it will support this approach. I expect it to yield not merely gems of wisdom, but an entire, encapsulated, meta-phorical history of the potential of human spiritual transformation. The fairy tales that I have discovered, and that comprise this book, all reveal this transformative and liberating character, and can continue to speak to us in our present circumstances, in so far as we remain engaged in en-hancing our self- and world-understanding. For all their relativity as to time and location, they maintain an unmistakable groundedness in the fundamental problems, and possibilities, of psychological development, at least as these present themselves to us in the Western World.

Having begun my analysis of fairy tales within the Jungian frame-work and as pupil of Marie-Louise von Franz, I owe to this interpre-tive direction more insights than I can possibly acknowledge. Especially meaningful to me is the awareness of the fairy tale as an intrapsychic event, a story of what happens or can happen within the individual per-sonality, told in a metaphor of action exactly as in a dream. This Jungian

The Water of Life4

“subject level” of interpretation, applied to the fairy tale as well as to the dream, relieves the hearer or reader of that objective literalness which too often condemns fairy tales (and dreams) to the discard pile of either “wish fulfillment” or “an interesting story.”

On this basis of understanding, the fairy tale’s typically supernatural world can be regarded as the best possible metaphor for the actual arena of psychic happening which we confront within ourselves in the course of our reaching, groping or growing towards becoming more fully hu-man. The conflicts and dire choices we encounter there are our own; the awful alternatives of success or death, regularly thrown to the hero or heroine, are actual life-choices between daring to live and giving in to despair. From the attitudes and decisions of both successful and unsuc-cessful heroes we learn practical and vital facts about spiritual life, that life which is our real inner “environment” and which holds the key to whatever ultimate meaning we find.

But the validity of the “subject level” in the understanding of fairy tales does not imply the kind of mistake that can also be made in inter-preting dreams—namely, that all that goes on there is “part of myself.” The fairy tale is far more subtle and wide-ranging than that, and the best way to characterize it in a few words is to say that it appears to be a metaphor for the conflicts, perils, failures and triumphs of spiritual existence. This formulation puts it beyond the closed boundaries of the single individual—such boundaries in fact do not exist—and into the realm of the individual’s psychological and spiritual interactions, both with inner powers and with forces and influences of the world outside. Both are areas to which we are fatefully and inescapably related, and we will find that the fairy tale does justice to, and illuminates, our experi-ence of both.

5

Chapter 1

THe TIme oF TRanSFoRmaTIon

Agirl of 28, single, living with a man, has consulted me about her problem with her friend. They have terrible fights and she consistently feels that “this is the end.” But they go on together.

As we talk about it, she admits that she does not know her own feelings about anything. She has grown up aware only of the feelings of others: her mother, then the various men she has known, and so on. She has never had the slightest sexual response, since she is only interested in the feelings of her partner. She has never done anything just for herself. Even a diary was kept with the expectation that her friend would read it. The only time she expresses anger is when he asks her for it—so this, again, is for someone else.

As she talks about herself, she experiences for the first time a deep futility. She sees clearly how meaningless this life has been and is. The focus shifts from her relationship to herself, and there it remains. There is now nowhere to go; her whole way of life is meaningless, but she sees no other way.

She has knocked herself out, and for what? She has been like an obliging, good-natured, bumbling puppy, falling all over itself to please; and as she talks about it, she loathes herself. No dignity, no center, no reserve, no substance at all.

Her habitual smiling begins to stop as her despair becomes manifest. I encourage her to find out what is really going on in herself by simply being attentive to it. Every time she gives up again, I tell her not to take despair as the end, but to continue to search.

Finally, late one night, she gets up and confronts her inner self. She sees what is there: fear, the fear of not pleasing, of not being acceptable, etc. She sees it for the first time, and therefore feels equal to it. It is the

Chapter 16

first time that the un-nameable thing, from which her whole life has been a running away, has been named and stood up to.

This apparently small shift in the girl’s attitude to herself was actually the pivot on which her entire existence changed. Being separate from her fear she has also become separate from others around her. She began to make legitimate demands on her friend, where before she had always immolated herself in service to him. She began to stop wishing to please and oblige. She actually began revealing to me that quiet and that dig-nity which had seemed totally impossible to her before. From the mo-ment the inner confrontation happened she knew that “this change was for the good;” and so it has proved to be, as I have learned since from occasional contact with her.

I have always stood in awe of this moment of transformation, sens-ing behind it some force of destiny greater and more inscrutable than almost any other. How are we ever to account for this fundamental shift which brings movement out of despair?

There is one way to account for it. The girl’s transformation came after she had clearly seen the futility of her life. Before that, although she had lived in despair she had not recognized it. Her exterior, in fact, had always been “happy, friendly, optimistic, ebullient.” Feelings, especially those of any dark nature, had not been admitted at all.

She had paid the price of this lie (by which she kept control of life) in the devastating fights with her friend, and also in other curious ways. She used to drink uncontrollably in the evening then talk in her sleep, then get up, argue and in various ways disrupt her peace and the peace of her friend. She never knew anything of this in the morning. So there had been a total separation between the controlled “public” life and the unadmitted “private” or inner life; they had even occupied the separate worlds of waking and sleeping. It was not until she admitted in her waking life that something was wrong that the transformation became possible.

A wonderful fairy tale emphasizes the same principle. It is from Ice-land and is called “Hild, Queen of the Elves.”

There was a farmer who had no wife, but a very capable and industri-ous housekeeper named Hild. No one knew where she came from.

The Time of Transformation 7

Everything went well on the farm, except that every year, on Christ-mas Eve, the shepherd died. He was always found in his bed, dead, the following morning.

On Christmas Eve, everybody on the farm went to church. It was a long journey, and they left at mid-day, to return at night. As a rule, however, they arrived home earlier than the shepherd, who had to stay out very late. Besides him, Hild also remained at the farm, watching it and getting everything ready for the Christmas celebration. She, too, was often up even later on this night than the churchgoers.

Because of the regular death of the shepherd at this time, the farm-er decided not to hire any more shepherds. His stock would just have to get along as best it could.

Then a strong cheerful man came to the farm, and offered his ser-vices as shepherd. The farmer warned him of the fate of the other shepherds, but he had heard the story and was not afraid. So he was hired, and proved to be a capable man. All went well for a while.

The next Christmas Eve, as usual, the farm people went off to church. The shepherd went to bed before they returned, but even though he was tired, he kept himself awake. He heard everyone come back and go to bed. Then, a little later, Hild came into his room. While he pretended to be asleep, she put a bridle on his face. Then she rode him like a horse, out across the fields and up to a ditch in the earth. She jumped off him onto a stone, and vanished into the ditch.

The shepherd discovered that he was bewitched and incapable of movement so long as the bridle was on. So he rubbed it off on the stone, and then jumped into the ditch himself.

He could see Hild ahead, walking over pleasant meadows. He thought how much more cunning she really was than one would have suspected. To avoid being seen, he took from his pocket a small stone which made him invisible, and concealed it in his left hand.

Hild approached a great hall, out of which a crowd of people came to meet her. Her husband and their two half-grown children came up to her. Hild and her husband now proved to be the king and queen: they were led into the hall, and Hild was dressed in royal garments with beautiful gold rings on her arms.

The shepherd went into the hall where he stood invisible and watched Hild take her place beside the king at a banquet more mag-

Chapter 18

nificent than any he had ever seen. They all danced and enjoyed them-selves while the royal pair presided.

Three very young children came up to Hild who showed them great affection. She took the baby on her lap and, when it became rest-less, gave it one of the rings from her arm. The child dropped it, and the shepherd quickly picked it up and concealed it.

Then Hild, against the entreaties of everyone, said she must leave for the night was almost over. The king turned to his mother, an ugly old woman, and begged her to take back her curse on Hild, but the woman refused. So Hild said that she must go, but that she hoped the deaths which she had been forced to cause would soon be explained and she herself punished for them—though they were not her fault.

The shepherd ran ahead to the ditch and waited for Hild who mounted him and rode him sadly back to the farm. He pretended to be asleep till she put him to bed. Then he went to sleep.

The next morning the farmer was thankful to find the shepherd alive. The shepherd related to everyone, as a “dream,” all the events of the night. Hild said, “It’s a lie. You must prove it.” The shepherd showed the ring he had picked up. Hild thanked God, for now her mother-in-law’s curse was dissolved. Then she told her story.

She had been a common elf-maiden whom the king had married against his mother’s will. His mother had promised him scant enjoy-ment of her. Hild must be a servant with human beings and must, every Christmas, cause the death of a man by riding him when she visited her husband. When her evil was discovered, Hild would be killed—unless a man should appear who was so courageous as to go with her to the elves’ home and bring back proof that he had seen what went on there. She now begged forgiveness for the deaths she had caused; but no one had ever before found the subterranean way and penetrated, out of curiosity, into the house of the mountain sprites. The shepherd had released her, and she would reward him. Now she longed to go home. She left, and was never again seen by man.

In the spring, the shepherd married and settled down in his own home, for the farmer was generous. Everyone round about came to the shepherd for advice and to offer assistance. He was so well beloved in spite of his good fortune that people could not understand it. Ev-erything went fabulously well for him. But the shepherd knew that he had Queen Hild to thank for this.


The point of transformation really comes when the farmer admits that something is terribly wrong. Before that, he has been going on year after year maintaining his security by hiring shepherds—ignoring the terrible tribute that is being taken from him. That is the equivalent of the girl’s keeping secure control of her conscious life, while a ter-rible drain works on her from the unconscious. In this state, we brush aside all intimations of any claim from the inner life. Security is the thing, keeping control and warding off intrusion (the farmer guarding his flock).

This prosperous life, however, is also an illusion. The very heart of it is the housekeeper, Hild: she keeps it going, she is the “anima” or animat-ing center. And yet she is herself, in this role, under a curse, bound to servitude in exile, not known and not admitted as herself at all. So there is a lie at the very core of life. No wonder the farmer hesitates a long while before admitting his losses! He must sense that the admission will open up a whole new and irreversible development. It is understandable that we persist in discounting the cost of our unredeemed life, for to take the cost seriously means that nothing will be the same again.

The girl I have spoken of had just this feeling at the time that I sug-gested her continued probing into her depths. She sensed that she could become a different personality entirely. This is frightening. And after her experience of confronting herself that night, she felt that forces had been awakened which were really more than she could deal with. She was full of anxiety as well as of new self-confidence.

So it is in the story of “Hild.” The farmer’s decision not to hire more shepherds is truly that turning point we are speaking of. It brings forth new powers, and the control of life is no longer with the farmer, who is in some respects the equivalent of our conscious ego.

The first thing that happens is that a strong, cheerful man comes to the farm and offers his services as shepherd: a new, independent and totally confident power has been awakened. It comes, like Hild herself, from the unknown. So, in admitting his helplessness, the farmer has evoked unexpected help. Just at the point where he really gives up, a power comes to him. This fact about the transformation is very mysteri-ous.

Chapter 110

I have always been struck by this motif in the fairy tale: the hero trying his best, thinking of everything he could, exhausting his powers, finally falling to weeping and admitting that the assigned task is simply beyond him—and then, the sudden appearance of a strange and magical power in the form of some helper or other. Again, the hero has fully ad-mitted his impotence; he has admitted he is up against something quite beyond him. Like the girl, he confesses a fact which before was buried. She had never faced her fear, and the hero has never before faced the true limit of his competence.

Perhaps, then, we are brought to this crisis first of all in order to admit our limits and, in this admission, our necessary relation to some-thing beyond our limits. It is certainly true that the moment of true and open despair is most often the time of transformation. For then the “ego” really lets go, holds nothing anymore; so that whatever lies thence-forth is, as St. Paul said, “not I.”

This “not I” represents a bridge between those two worlds that always seem to characterize the unredeemed state. The shepherd, to whom life and power pass in our fairy tale, is capable of making the journey from the one world to the other, and thus of dissolving the separation. So what has been unloosed in the transformation is a redemptive power that can set everything right. But this is enormous, for the unredeemed state of the separate worlds is the natural state into which we are born. The suffering Hild, disguised and condemned to do violence, is our own soul as it is mis-applied to the rat-race of our daily lives. The witch mother-in-law is that natural law of ours which separates conscious from unconscious, good from bad, light from dark, and Hild from her true home. This is the bewitchment that is our normal life. We grow up with the “security” of this separation, and every fairy tale, in some ways, depicts the need to overcome it and arrive at genuine redemption. Al-ways in tales the two worlds impinge on each other, always with fateful consequences, and not always with a happy ending.

Besides the farmer, the shepherd, too, can tell us much about the saving attitude in this redemptive task. He is, first of all, prepared; he has heard the story of the previous shepherds and is not afraid. Being prepared, he can face the task consciously, thus giving it his consent. This is the totally new thing in the situation. The other shepherds were


quite unprepared and evidently remained asleep, and this unawareness was their death. Apparently Hild kept on possessing them in order to try to find one who could respond and give himself consciously to her possession—as the shepherd does. In our own lives this seems to indi-cate that our state of possession (by anima, animus, rage, resentment, etc.) are tests; if we can consent to them, we can penetrate beyond the limits of our “known world.” As C.G. Jung saw, the intrusion of the anima is to be taken quite seriously, as the effort of the soul toward its redemption. So the new shepherd in effect can say, as Jung said to his disruptive anima, “Where are you taking me?” He can keep his eyes open to the changes that she brings and not flinch from the strangeness of new land.

Then there is the fact of the shepherd’s invisibility, that he can make himself invisible by means of a stone. In doing so, he disappears as a human being and becomes sort of a penetrating spirit. This too says something about the necessary attitude: it is (as Hild herself later calls it) “curiosity,” i.e., a pure inquiring spirit not making the ordinary human claims. It lets Hild and her world be what they are for the first time, for she has always lived under distortion from the human world. This power of invisibility always enables fairy tale heroes to penetrate to that un-known and forbidden land. It is the attitude that gives respect and value to whatever it meets, since “I” am not intruding myself into things.

So the shepherd, although possessed, is not possessed, truly a para-dox. Outwardly he suffers all the indignity and un-freedom of the oth-ers; but inwardly he is himself and free. Outwardly he fails to make the journey as the others do; inwardly his spirit goes where it will, and inevitably dissolves the witch’s curse.

The transformation seems to bring with it a previously unknown de-tachment. We have mentioned that the girl, in confronting her true self, acquired a new way of confronting everything. In one stroke, appar-ently, she ceased to be identified with both inner and outer worlds. That is, a new “self ” emerged that was not really the one or the other, but as Jung once put it, a “midpoint between conscious and unconscious.”

This emergence of a self is beautifully portrayed in a woman’s paint-ing published by Jung in which a stroke of lightning seems to be loosen-

Chapter 112

ing, out of a mass of black rock, a living ball of the rock, which becomes a free, independent entity within the whole.

The shepherd, then, also represents this self; and he has been brought into existence by the farmer’s release of control. The whole process is thus full of paradoxes and subtleties. Things are not as they seem. As I freely admit that which controls me, I am no longer controlled by it. The farmer’s admission of helplessness leads inevitably to the shepherd’s admission of control by Hild; it is, in fact, the same admission. But it is the beginning of true freedom and of true change.

This chain of events helps to explain a point of view which I find hard to accept. Regarding the perennial question of freedom of will, a teacher of mine at the Jung Institute said: “We have the freedom to ac-cept or reject our fate.” That is, freedom is not unlimited, but involves us precisely in our limits; we are free to the extent that we know our limits and decide accordingly. This accords with what I have said about the fairy tale hero; the release that comes in the fairy tale comes after his admission of his limits, that is, of his fate. So that real freedom which is redemption depends upon our acceptance of all our un-freedom.

A doctrine that is rather distasteful, you may say. We Americans be-lieve in wading right in and changing things. We are very impatient with patient acceptance and with resignation, and a doctrine like this looks like defeatism. All around us are forces bent on changing everything. Life as it is is not right and should not be accepted.

What then are we to make of Jung’s statement: “You cannot change what you cannot accept?” What does this mean? Certainly our fairy tale bears it out. But does it apply to our lives generally?

True transformation is always unsought and unexpected. It comes, as I have said, precisely at the time when it is least expected, for everything has been admitted just as it is and allowed to be so. When I am able to accept a person—and this is a matter of good fortune—I have seen how the person may begin to flower, literally, as the perennial conflict between his or her inner and outer worlds is finally lifted. At last the in-ner reality has an outer as well; those two separate worlds are no longer wholly separate.

But what happens then? The person begins to change! My genuine acceptance, and his genuine self-acceptance, do not mean that he is


stuck forever in his faults and self-indulgences. They mean that, in ac-cepting himself as a whole, he can finally become what he was intended to be; the growth that was stunted by rejection can commence again. So acceptance does not mean condoning a bad situation; it means seeing the whole of the situation and thereby letting it straighten itself out, as the shepherd does in the story of “Hild.” It is a view oriented towards wholeness: not towards partiality and taking sides, but towards what can transcend and reconcile all sides.

It is in this sense that I believe Jung’s statement is to be understood. The statement implies that transformation is the law of life, depending only on our acceptance for its inevitable operation. We become stuck not when we accept, but when we reject things as they are, no matter how fervently we then try to change them. How many times do you hear people say: “I’ve tried everything and she won’t change,” or “I just can’t seem to break myself of that.” Basically a situation is felt to be in-tolerable, and it is this that makes change impossible.

But when someone, for some mysterious reason, says (and means it) “All right; so be it; I can’t do any more,” that person’s negative energy has left the situation, which then can stop holding the line against it and begin developing in its own way. But this does not mean turning one’s back on the situation in bitterness and exasperation. That is only the same rejection expressed more openly. It means, rather, seeing and accepting the situation as it is and must be.

The shepherd accepts Hild just as she is; the girl accepts her inner state just as it is. At that point, Hild, and the inner state, begin to change and become what they truly are before the distortion of the human at-titude has worked on them.

Thus there is a real question whether true development is not so much a matter of change as rather of uncovering what already is. Thus the very first thing that had happened in the story of “Hild” was that the elf-king had married a common elf-maiden. The opposites, male-female, high and low, royal and common, were already united. Then came the revenge of the king’s mother who could not tolerate this union. So the whole work of the tale is to find a new, untried human way to restore the union and make it real in human life. To do this, the status quo of secu-rity must be rejected, and the true nature of things must be penetrated.

Chapter 114

We must give ourselves to what is both within us and quite beyond us so that, for the first time it receives its true, undistorted nature.

It seems to me that we have a deep and powerful intuition of this truth. There are all the myths of the original oneness of things, of the Golden Age, the really perfect time before man’s history began, which marked the disruption of this perfection. In our individual lives, there is the often-replayed conviction that “things were so much better once”; or that things could be so much better if it were not for so-and-so or such-and-such conditions. These deep feelings, it seems to me, are the genuine expressions of a secret knowledge of original oneness which we are being always called on to restore. The fact that we feel powerless to do so does not make the call any less genuine. Somewhere and in some way, we are being told that the present level of life is not all there is, and that this level does not even get its true meaning except in a much more profound context.

Out of experiences like that of the girl and that of the fairy tale we have been considering, I really feel that our divine opportunity lies in our disillusionment. Each disillusionment is a real death, and the problems arise not from death itself, but from the failure to accept it. Neurosis seems, among other things, to be the end-effect of failing to accept the series of deaths which is the process of growth in man. The maintaining of security against death becomes the overwhelming con-cern, and for that reason, growth and transformation stop. For trans-formation, the law of life, depends on continual dying. The system that once held value inevitably loses it to another as we are led to wider and deeper awareness, that is, towards the true nature of things. Not that I can say that your value is an illusion. But when it dies for you, it is for you to celebrate its death. For the life-energy that was invested there wants to move elsewhere.

So, as the girl discovered, despair is not so much the end as the be-ginning. It is the release of energy from a false investment, a seeing that no truth is there in that particular way of life. With this admission, life can move of itself towards a truer level. The girl spontaneously became more serious, more responsible, more of a person, more settled. She did not will to change, for will is never a part of transformation. She only


stopped willing not to change. She put herself in the way of life, which is change.

Another way of seeing transformation, and Jung’s particular contribu-tion, is as withdrawal of projections. This is obviously of the same nature as the “disillusionment” I have been talking about. The fairy tale “Hild” illustrates it perfectly; for instead of being limited to the view of Hild as a real woman, the new shepherd is able to penetrate beneath that projec-tion (literally go underground) and see her real nature, thereby dissolv-ing the projection (for Hild never serves among men again). The anima, that is—and every such content of the soul—is first met in projected form, and in that form it supplies the actual motivation and energy for real life, as Hild is the hub of the life of the farm. The withdrawal of the projection actually begins at that mysterious time when the farmer, in effect, says, “Things are not going swimmingly after all; in spite of fine appearances, something is wrong underneath.” At that point of transfor-mation, value goes out of the established way and (in keeping with the principle of equivalence) enriches life somewhere else.

There is often objection to the idea of the withdrawal of projections, as if it meant an increasing selfishness and isolation. Actually, I believe this is only the external view and that, if the inner experience is taken into account, the process can be recognized for its real value. The projec-tion puts us in a half-way state, like the unconscious unsuccessful shep-herds—led to the ditch, but unable to go farther. For an encounter with the anima, or with the self, is unavoidable as soon as we are involved in projection at all; thus it is the same “Hild” who sustains life and who constitutes the deadly challenge. To avoid her challenge is to avoid true life, since its law is, as I have said, transformation. So to take the appear-ance of life and avoid inner reality is a stagnation that does no service to anyone. What have I to give the world if I am not trying to be real?

But if I do try to be real, I start from that which involves me (what Tillich called “ultimate concern”), and, by using inner eyes and ears, seek to penetrate the truth within and behind it. Projection is always meant for us; but not “just as it is”; there is an inner task of penetration to which our very disillusionment draws us by saying, “It” is not here, but elsewhere; follow this involvement faithfully back to its reality, and all life will be transformed back to what it is.

16

Chapter 2

THe WaTeR oF LIFe

Because fairy tales deal in the extremities of life, there is a wide-spread feeling that they are uncanny or spooky. By facing into the supernatural, they totally relativize our accepted world of

experience, giving it a weird, unheard-of dimension. And yet it is just this new dimension that allows us to see that there is no extremity of life, however dire, that does not offer a way out. The threat of death, which is standard fare in fairy tales, leaps up to confront us in order to show, ultimately and finally, what life is. We begin to see that “death” and “life” may not be quite what we had thought. Perhaps they are qualities of our living experience, the fairy tale then being a guide to the way that leads to life. If this is so, it is clear that we are dealing with something very different from the physical life and death.

Fairy tales are certainly instructive in the broadest possible sense, but I do not feel that they can be explained away on that ground—for in-stance, as moral or social instruction, illustrating that virtue is rewarded and vice punished. They reflect rather the acute, living confrontation between the human world and another world which it is difficult not to call the divine. Although it is true that this other world is frequently weird, we shall see from our present tale that this weirdness is really our own reaction, and that the supernatural proves to have ultimate power and life.

It can even be said that fairy tales often seem to carry the hidden thread of a spiritual understanding whose efficacy has been lost in the official religious life. Thus spiritual healing, a vital part of Jesus’ minis-try, certainly got buried in Christianity, at least until recently; yet many great tales, such as our story, “The Water of Life,” convey just this mes-sage of the healing power of the divine. The restoration and healing

141

David L. Hart

David L. Hart studied at Williams College (B.A.), the University of Zurich (Ph.D.) and the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich, Switzerland (Diploma). As a 1955 diplomate of the Zurich Jung Institute, David knew C.G. Jung and analyzed with Emma Jung, Toni Wolff, and C.A. Meier. David’s lifelong love of fairy tales began in his years at Williams College where he majored in German. He was especially aware of the theme of spiritual renewal in fairy tales, an approach to the tales he developed in his thesis for the Jung Institute on fairy tales. Dr. Hart was a practicing Jungian Analyst in the Philadelphia area from 1955 to 1986 and in the Boston area from 1986 until 2011, when he died. He was a founding member of PAJA, a member of NESJA, of the IAAP and of NESJA’s Training Board. Dr. Hart gave many workshops on the psychological and spiritual meaning of fairy tales, enriching and deepening the lives of many.

143

aCknoWLeDgemenTS

The genesis of this republication of David Hart’s book, The Water of Life: Spiritual Renewal in the Fairy Tale, had its origin on the two coasts of the United States at about the same time. On the east coast, in our homes on Martha’s Vineyard and Jamaica Plain, MA, Jim and Iris Grant and David and I met together once a month as a small “Creativity Group,” listening to each others’ hopes and dreams for our creativity. This small group stayed together for nearly twenty years, up to and after David’s death in August of 2011. In this group the wish was hatched for a re-publication of David’s book. Iris volunteered to illustrate it. We dreamt of its beauty with the form of the book matching its illuminated con-tent. Unbeknownst to us on the west coast in Seattle, Anne de Vore, a long-time colleague, friend and analysand of David’s, also began dream-ing of a republication of David’s book. When Anne proposed the idea to David, he was ripe for it. Anne came up with the practical knowledge of how to make this dream a reality.

Anne, this has been a long project and a labor of love on all of our parts. I can only imagine how much time you have devoted to it this past year. Please accept my heartfelt gratitude, not only for your devotion to making this project work, but also to helping David make it through his final transition. Without you, this new publication of David’s book would never have seen the light of day. I can’t thank you enough.

Iris, for your beautiful, shimmering illustrations, I am grateful and in awe. The spirit moved you to create images that would have deeply moved David. I wish he could see them. Maybe he does.

Jim, for your ongoing support of David and especially for the depth of your companionship of him during his last year, for your belief in the viability of this project and for your friendship, I am grateful beyond words.

Linda Fulsaas did the initial conversion from book to editable text. Linda, thank you for the many hours you spent on that initial editing work.

The Water of Life144

Many thanks to the Jungian Journal, Psychological Perspectives, who gave us permission to reprint five articles originally published by them. They were very helpful in the process of permission. Those five articles are: “Lessons from the unexpected”; “The evolution of the feminine in fairy tales”; “The path to wholeness”; “The healing properties of a fairy tale” and “The time of transformation.”

Chiron Publications gave us permission to use “The Water of Life” as the title of this book. “The Water of Life” was the title of a chapter that David wrote for a Chiron publication, Psyche’s Stories, edited by Murray Stein and Lionel Corbett, 1992. Thank you.

To Mel Mathews and Patty Cabanas at Fisher King Press who made this republication possible, thank you!

Demaris Wehr

145

InDex

aabandon 139abandonment 115addiction 135affliction 65Alcoholics Anonymous 135ambiguous 114anger 5, 22, 122, 123, 131, 134,

135, 138anima 9, 11, 15, 24, 31, 32, 38,

43, 47, 64, 81, 101, 111, 112, 115, 134

animus 11, 81, 101, 131, 132anxiety 9, 68, 69archetype 94, 115, 134archetype of life 115, 134arrogance 23, 38, 131, 135assumptions 39, 40authority 20, 86

BBaba Yaga 115Bach, Richard

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah 46

bargain 44Beast 120, 125, 126, 131, 132,

136Beauty and the Beast (fairy tale)

132betrayal 26, 95, 134betrayed 20, 44, 52bewitchment 10, 24, 65, 67, 93,

94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 101, 112, 117, 118, 119, 120

Bewitchment 98, 100

black calf 42, 46black daughter 72, 78, 79Black Mountains 41blackness 77Black Princess 71, 72, 73, 79,

80, 81, 83, 86, 89blind 48, 51blindness 51, 138blissful 45blood 60, 61, 66, 82, 109, 115,

116, 124, 126bondage 38, 68, 87boredom 47bride 41, 43, 44, 63, 69, 70bridle 7, 35, 92Buddha 59Buddhism 96buffalo 51bumbling puppy 5Burd, Janet 91, 92, 93, 94, 95,

96, 97, 98, 100, 101

CCaermarthenshire 41Carterhaugh Wood 91, 94castle 19, 23, 24, 50, 57, 133Christ 76, 139Christianity 16Christmas 7, 8, 34, 35church 7, 35, 72, 73, 74, 83, 84,

89Cinderella 25, 88competition 33complex 53, 55, 78, 86, 87, 130complex of rejection 130coniunctio 94conscious 9, 10, 11, 22, 23, 29,


58, 69, 70, 87, 90, 131, 137consciousness 24, 25, 28, 29,

31, 33, 37, 38, 39, 43, 44, 56, 57, 59, 64, 65, 67, 69, 70, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84, 88, 89, 101, 111, 115, 118, 124, 135

contradictory attitudes 44crime 81, 137criminal 28crisis 10, 20, 21, 51, 52, 58, 85,

113crucifix 71, 76, 77crucifixion 126Cupid 66cynicism 30, 119

Ddeath 7, 8, 11, 14, 16, 18, 19,

20, 21, 22, 23, 28, 36, 37, 51, 52, 66, 80, 86, 88, 89, 96, 114, 137

deception 53, 96, 126demonic 77, 84, 85, 86demonic opposite 77demonic possession 86denial 100depression 81, 130desolation 115despair 5, 6, 10, 14, 20, 21, 47,

56, 61, 67, 100, 119, 135despairing 30destiny 6, 65, 97destructiveness 87detachment 11, 83, 139development 9, 13, 21, 26, 28,

38, 65, 66, 70, 78, 94, 100, 101, 111, 112, 114, 115, 117, 123

Devil 74, 101devious 77devious character 77diary 5

dignity 5, 6disillusionment 14, 15, 53divine 14, 16, 39, 47, 56, 57, 76,

85, 86, 135divine guidance 135divine presence 135dragon 108, 109, 120, 121, 122,

123, 124, 125, 126, 127dream 8, 36dualistic 22, 27, 44, 53, 69dwarf 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 26

eeagle 63, 69, 70, 106, 107, 110,

117, 126eagle’s talons 69ego 9, 10, 27, 64, 69, 77, 86,

125, 126, 127, 135egocenteredness 31egotism 135elf-maiden 8, 13, 36Elves 6, 91, 92enchantment 24, 108, 118enemy 33evil 8, 17, 63, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80,

81, 83, 85, 87, 88, 89, 90, 133, 137

evil spirit 80evolution 59, 64, 67, 70expectation(s) 5, 40, 44, 45, 54,

56, 76, 116

Ffairness 45famine 19, 26, 29farm 7, 8, 9, 15, 34, 35, 36, 37farmer 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 34,

35, 36, 37, 38father 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27,

28, 32, 33, 48, 49, 51, 56, 72, 76, 77, 108, 118, 131, 133, 134

Index 147

fear 5, 6, 10, 23, 24, 35, 38, 55, 57, 63, 65, 66, 79, 83, 84, 86, 90, 91, 100, 122, 130, 132, 134

feelings 5, 14, 45, 81, 99, 131, 134, 138

feminine 32, 59, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70

fight and flight 101“forbidden” territory 55fortuitous 40freedom 11, 12, 68, 93, 126,

135, 138free will 133Freud 96funeral 42, 46

gGarden of Eden 94, 95generosity 37glass mountain 105, 106, 107,

108, 110, 114, 117, 119, 120, 122, 123, 126, 127

God 8, 44, 45, 55, 67, 73, 74, 77, 84, 85, 86, 87, 90, 94, 105, 106, 107, 108, 114, 115, 116, 122, 127

Golden Age 14golden bed 50good fortune 8, 12, 37, 38Grimm’s Fairy Tales 17grudge 29, 32

Hhabitual 5, 25, 27, 65, 69, 116Halloween 91, 97haughty 18, 31healing 16, 22, 24, 26, 27, 28,

30, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 66, 67, 68, 116, 119

Hercules 137hermit 106, 107, 114, 115, 116,

117hero 10, 11, 12, 21, 22, 23, 24,

25, 27, 28, 31, 32, 39, 40, 43, 44, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 64, 65, 68, 69, 70, 71, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 94, 96, 97, 98, 99, 107, 109, 110, 112, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 133, 134, 135, 137

heroine 21, 25, 28, 39, 40, 44, 52, 54, 83, 88, 90, 94, 95, 97, 98, 99, 121, 133

hero’s journey 52, 116hidden reality 39Hild, Queen of the Elves (fairy

tale of) 6Hildur (the Elf Queen) 34, 35,

36, 37, 38, 39Hildur the Elf Queen (fairy tale

of) 34holy water 91, 92, 93, 97, 98horse 7, 17, 41, 42, 44, 48, 98,

99, 133housekeeper 6, 9, 34, 35, 37,

113hunter 103, 105, 106, 107, 110,

111, 115, 118, 121, 124, 127

huntsman 19, 20, 29husband 7, 8, 35, 41, 42, 44, 45,

46, 63, 105, 108, 114, 118, 121, 129

IIceland 6, 34Ice Mountain 48, 49, 50identity 26, 38, 88, 124, 135illness 51, 65illusion(s) 9, 14, 22, 25, 28, 31,

32, 47, 57, 85, 96, 100, 101, 117, 126, 127, 134


image 24, 85, 87, 111, 122, 124, 126

immortal 43, 46impotence 10, 51, 67, 87impotent 131incompatible 29individuation 59, 112, 115, 116,

122, 127inflation 31, 64, 69, 77, 81, 85,

90, 135inner awareness 38, 39, 85inner confrontation 6inner freedom 93inner life 6, 9, 38, 54, 66, 70,

93, 94, 95inner voices 134inner work 30, 66, 101, 132,

134insanity 123intolerance 83invisibility 11, 35

JJesus 16, 21, 44, 46, 87, 125,

134journey 7, 10, 11, 22, 27, 35,

38, 52, 63, 66, 67, 69, 95, 108, 116, 122

joy 24, 26, 29, 31, 42, 45, 71judge 28, 76Jung, C.G. 11, 128Jung. C.G. 11, 12, 13, 15, 24,

25, 27, 38, 47, 55, 57, 71, 77, 87, 89, 94, 101, 111, 112, 113, 115, 128, 135

justice 32, 34, 38, 39, 45justification 28

kking 7, 8, 13, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22,

23, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 42, 48, 51, 52, 53, 57, 58, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75,

76, 77, 79, 82, 83, 85, 89, 103, 107, 108, 110, 116, 117, 119, 120, 132

kingdom 17, 20, 21, 23, 25, 27, 31, 32, 35, 36, 51, 56, 58, 87, 94, 125, 126

Kingdom of God 90knight 91, 92, 93, 95, 97, 99,

100

Llake maiden 46lament 30, 101Lamut 61, 64, 69laughter 42, 46liberation 24, 45, 97, 138life-energy 14lion 19, 23, 106, 107, 109, 125Liturgy 68living water 21loathes 5lofty attitudes 31logic 58loss of energy 26lost direction 51love 30, 32, 35, 36, 38, 41, 66,

70, 87, 94, 95, 96, 100, 101, 115, 116, 117, 132, 135, 137

love addiction 135Lucifer 71, 76, 77, 85Lyn y Van Vach 41

mmagical 10, 93magic cape 116maiden 8, 13, 19, 36, 41, 42, 43,

44, 45, 46, 47, 74, 75, 90, 103, 105, 111, 112, 135

mandala 68marriage 31, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46,

58, 68, 94, 105, 112, 131masculine 69, 70, 123, 131

Index 149

Meddygon Myddvai 43, 47metanoia 28Minotaur 96Minotaur of Crete 96mirror 51, 56, 100, 108, 118monster 60, 65, 66, 68, 96, 123monster-wife 65, 68mortal 20, 25, 41, 43, 66mother 5, 8, 10, 13, 35, 36, 38,

51, 72, 73, 74, 86, 87, 92, 98, 103, 105, 106, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 123, 125, 133, 134

Mother of God 73, 74, 86, 87Murray, Earl 91Myddvai (physicians of) 41, 43,

47mystical union 25myth 34, 136

nnegative attitude 90Neurosis 14newlyweds 45New Testament 87, 90nobleman 108, 109, 110, 122,

126

ooblige 6Odyssey 70old king 20, 23, 28, 51, 53, 57,

71, 119old man 17, 21, 22, 25, 48, 49,

50, 53, 55, 86old queen 71, 76, 77Old Testament 76opposites 13, 45, 67, 68, 71, 76,

77, 94, 100, 101, 121other world 16, 39, 43

p

palace 17, 20parson 72, 73, 74, 75, 83, 88path to wholeness 128, 129,

137perception 39, 137permanent peace 25permanent solution 25pig 108, 109, 110, 120, 122,

123, 124, 125, 126pigs’ blood 109pop-psychology 113pregnancy 76, 77pregnant 71prejudice 22, 38, 138pride 23, 38, 53, 57, 65, 77, 83,

98, 99, 135prince 19, 20, 24, 25, 26, 29, 51,

53princess 20, 24, 25, 31, 32, 71,

72, 73, 74, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 86, 87, 89, 105, 108, 114, 123, 133, 134, 138

projection 15, 77, 111, 112psychological 20, 21, 29, 77, 84,

88, 96, 99, 125, 131, 139pulpit 72, 73, 84, 86punish 20, 33

Qqueen 6, 7, 8, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39,

48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 71, 72, 76, 77, 91, 92, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101

quest 17, 21, 22, 23, 43, 49, 53, 57, 116, 117, 133, 135

quid pro quo 44

Rrage 11, 38, 85, 101, 132reconciliation 28, 33, 57, 69,

121, 132redemption 10, 11, 12, 17, 68,

71, 79, 83, 84, 86, 87, 95,


110, 113, 114, 122, 133, 134

reflection 40, 118rejection 13, 79, 130repetition 40, 47, 89repressing 29resentment 11, 135, 136retribution 28revelation 45revolution 72, 81road of gold 31royal 7, 8, 13, 21, 51, 87, 107,

127royal family 21

Ssacrifice 53, 96, 97sacristan 72, 73, 74, 80salvation 77, 97, 125, 133savior 20, 31, 76, 97, 110sea-serpent 63, 68secret knowledge 14, 125seduction 81self 5, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 21, 22,

23, 27, 28, 29, 32, 39, 53, 54, 55, 65, 67, 82, 84, 87, 89, 97, 98, 99, 101, 117, 119, 123, 124, 125, 131, 134, 137, 138

Self 25, 64self-accusations 134self-bedevilment 134self-esteem 55, 98selfhood 65, 127shadow 121shepherd 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13,

15, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 43, 44, 45, 47

sick king 27sign of the cross 133, 134Sleeping Beauty (fairy tale of)

40Snow Mountain 48, 49, 50

sobbing 42sober reality 101soldier 72, 73, 74, 79, 80, 82,

86, 89, 133, 134sorcerer 68sorceress 62, 69soul 10, 11, 15, 24, 30, 31, 32,

38, 51, 65, 69, 70, 101, 111, 136

spirit 11, 27, 31, 43, 59, 68, 69, 80, 84, 122

spiritual 16, 17, 25, 26, 28, 29, 31, 43, 44, 51, 58, 67, 68, 69, 70, 76, 77, 78, 79, 83, 84, 88, 93, 99, 117, 134, 139

spiritual achievement 26state of oneness 58Steiner, Rudolf 40stork 61, 62, 63, 66, 67, 68, 69,

70St. Paul 10, 25strife 33succumb 64, 81, 84supernatural 16, 32, 43, 44, 76,

93, 113suppressing 29swan 92, 100, 103, 104, 105,

112, 113, 114swan maiden 105sword 19, 24, 26, 96, 101, 134symbol 66, 68, 77, 111synchronicity 128, 129, 136

TTamlane 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96,

97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102temptation 26, 84, 85, 89, 90,

137tempting 27terrible mother 123, 125The Black Princess (fairy tale)

71

Index 151

The Enchanted Princess (fairy tale) 133

The Frog King (fairy tale) 132The Shepherd of Myddvai (fairy

tale) 41The Virgin Queen (fairy tale)

48, 50, 51The Water of Life (fairy tale) 16,

17, 28thimble 60Tillich 15transformation 6, 9, 10, 11, 12,

13, 14, 15, 26, 28, 29, 56, 69, 70, 90, 112, 119, 131, 135, 136, 138

trap 25, 121twelve-headed dragon 120

uunconscious 9, 10, 11, 15, 28,

64, 79, 90, 95, 96, 111, 114, 118, 131, 135

unfulfilled love 66unhappy father 72unhappy mother 72unworthiness 31

vvicious circle 79victim 37, 84, 123victor 123vindication 33violence 10, 37, 101, 137Virgin Queen 48, 49, 50, 51, 52,

54, 55, 56, 57, 58

Wwandering 91, 94, 106, 115water-hole 65weakness 26weeping 10, 20, 42, 60, 65white bull 42

wife 6, 20, 41, 44, 45, 46, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 68, 104, 105, 107, 110, 112, 113, 116, 117, 118, 119, 121

wish 17, 25, 26, 31, 34, 53, 90witch 10, 11, 35, 37, 83, 115,

133, 135witching hour 98wounded girl 66, 67, 68

you might also enjoy reading these Jungian publications:

Re-Imagining Mary: A Journey Through Art to the Feminine Self by Mariann Burke, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 180pp, Index, Biblio., 2009 — ISBN 978-0-9810344-1-6Threshold Experiences: The Archetype of Beginnings by Michael Conforti, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 168pp, Index, Biblio., 2008 — ISBN 978-0-944187-99-9Marked By Fire: Stories of the Jungian Way edited by Patricia Damery & Naomi Ruth Lowinsky, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 180pp, Index, Biblio., 2012 — ISBN 978-1-926715-68-1Farming Soul: A Tale of Initiation by Patricia Damery, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 166pp, Index, Biblio., 2010 — ISBN 978-1-926715-01-8Transforming Body and Soul:Therapeutic Wisdom in the Gospel Healing Stories by Steven Galipeau, Rev. Ed., Trade Paperback, 180pp, Index, Biblio., 2011 — ISBN 978-1-926715-62-9Lifting the Veil: Revealing the Other Side by Fred Gustafson & Jane Kamerling, 1st Ed, Paperback, 170pp, Biblio., 2012 — ISBN 978-1-926715-75-9Resurrecting the Unicorn: Masculinity in the 21st Century by Bud Harris, Rev. Ed., Trade Paperback, 300pp, Index, Biblio., 2009 — ISBN 978-0-9810344-0-9The Father Quest: Rediscovering an Elemental Force by Bud Harris, Reprint, Trade Paperback, 180pp, Index, Biblio., 2009 — ISBN 978-0-9810344-9-2Like Gold Through Fire: The Transforming Power of Suffering by Massimilla & Bud Harris, Reprint, Trade Paperback, 150pp, Index, Biblio., 2009 — ISBN 978-0-9810344-5-4The Art of Love: The Craft of Relationship by Massimilla and Bud Harris, 1st Ed. Trade Paperback, 150pp, 2010 — ISBN 978-1-926715-02-5Divine Madness: Archetypes of Romantic Love by John R. Haule, Rev. Ed., Trade Paperback, 282pp, Index, Biblio., 2010 — ISBN 978-1-926715-04-9

Eros and the Shattering Gaze: Transcending Narcissism by Ken Kimmel, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 310pp, Index, Biblio., 2011 — ISBN 978-1-926715-49-0The Sister From Below: When the Muse Gets Her Way by Naomi Ruth Lowinsky, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 248pp, Index, Biblio., 2009 — ISBN 978-0-9810344-2-3 The Motherline: Every Woman’s Journey to find her Female Roots by Naomi Ruth Lowinsky, Reprint, Trade Paperback, 252pp, Index, Biblio., 2009 — ISBN 978-0-9810344-6-1Jung and Ecopsychology: Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe (DFGU) Volume 1, by Dennis L. Merritt, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 242pp, Index, Biblio., 2011 — ISBN 978-1-926715-42-1The Cry of Merlin: Jung the Prototypical Ecopsychologist: (DFGU) Volume 2, by Dennis L. Merritt, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 204pp, Index, Biblio., 2012 — ISBN 978-1-926715-43-8Hermes, Ecopsychology, and Complexity Theory: (DFGU) Volume 3 by Dennis L. Merritt, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 228pp, Index, Biblio., 2012 — ISBN 978-1-926715-44-5Land, Weather, Seasons, Insects: An Archetypal View: (DFGU) Volume 4, by Dennis L. Merritt, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 134pp, Index, Biblio., 2012 — ISBN 978-1-926715-45-2Becoming: An Introduction to Jung’s Concept of Individuation by Deldon Anne McNeely, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 230pp, Index, Biblio., 2010 — ISBN 978-1-926715-12-4Animus Aeternus: Exploring the Inner Masculine by Deldon Anne McNeely, Reprint, Trade Paperback, 196pp, Index, Biblio., 2011 — ISBN 978-1-926715-37-7Mercury Rising: Women, Evil, and the Trickster Gods by Deldon Anne McNeely, Revised, Trade Paperback, 200pp, Index, Biblio., 2011 — ISBN 978-1-926715-54-4Four Eternal Women: Toni Wolff Revisited—A Study In Opposites by Mary Dian Molton & Lucy Anne Sikes, 1st Ed., 320pp, Index, Bib, 2011 — ISBN 978-1-926715-31-5Gathering the Light: A Jungian View of Meditation by V. Walter Odajnyk, Revised Ed., Trade Paperback, 264pp, Index, Biblio., 2011 — ISBN 978-1-926715-55-1

The Promiscuity Papers by Matjaz Regovec, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 86pp, Index, Biblio., 2011 — ISBN 978-1-926715-38-4Enemy, Cripple, Beggar: Shadows in the Hero’s Path by Erel Shalit, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 248pp, Index, Biblio., 2008— ISBN 978-0-9776076-7-9The Cycle of Life: Themes and Tales of the Journey by Erel Shalit, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 210pp, Index, Biblio., 2011 — ISBN 978-1-926715-50-6The Hero and His Shadow: Psychopolitical Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel by Erel Shalit, Revised Ed., Trade Paperback, 208pp, Index, Biblio., 2012 — ISBN 978-1-926715-69-8The Guilt Cure by Nancy Carter Pennington & Lawrence H. Staples, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 200pp, Index, Biblio., 2011 — ISBN 978-1-926715-53-7Guilt with a Twist: The Promethean Way by Lawrence Staples,1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 256pp, Index, Biblio., 2008 — ISBN 978-0-9776076-4-8The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholeness by Lawrence Staples, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 100pp, Index, Biblio., 2009 — ISBN 978-0-9810344-4-7Deep Blues: Human Soundscapes for the Archetypal Journey by Mark Winborn, 1st Ed., Trade Paperback, 130pp, Index, Biblio., 2011 — ISBN 978-1-926715-52-0

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PSYCHOLOGY / MOVEMENTS / JUNGIAN

The intensive study of Jungian psychology was amplified by another subject, taught continuously while I was a student at the Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland: the psychology of fairy tales. The study of fairy tales was the specialty of a fairly young, single woman, Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz. She lectured to us English-speaking students in well-spoken English, and the conviction and power of her voice made me feel how deep and meaningful these stories were to her. Not only that, I, myself, was immediately, deeply affected by the convincing, spiritual reality that was being presented to me in the stories themselves. It was as if the reality of life came out here in a wholly new form, untouched by the standard accepted form of common life.


David. L. Hart studied at Williams College (B.A.), the University of Zurich (Ph.D) and the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich, Switzerland (Diploma). As a 1955 diplomate of the Zurich Jung Institute, David knew C.G. Jung and analyzed with Emma Jung, Toni Wolff and C.A. Meier. David’s lifelong love of fairy tales began in his years at Williams College where he majored in German. He was especially aware of the theme of spiritual renewal in fairy tales, an approach to the tales he developed in his thesis for the Jung Institute on fairy tales. Dr. Hart was a practicing Jungian Analyst in the Philadelphia area from 1955 to 1986 and in the Boston area from 1986 until 2011, when he died. He was a founding member of PAJA, a member of NESJA, of the IAAP and of NESJA’s Training Board. Dr. Hart gave many workshops on the psychological and spiritual meaning of fairy tales, enriching and deepening the lives of many.

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