Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs
We are all familiar with the story of "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs." The king and queen of a far away land prayed for a child. Not long after, a daughter was born and they called her Snow White. Soon after the birth her mother died, and in due time her father the king looked for the most beautiful woman in his kingdom, whom he married and made his queen. The stepmother of Snow White was vain and avaricious. Periodically she would ask her mirror, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" The mirror always said "Thou art, O queen" and the queen was content.
But when Snow White was fourteen years of age, the mirror told the queen that Snow White was now the fairest in the land, and the queen planned from that day on to do away with her. A huntsman was to take Snow White into the forest and kill her. Moved by pity and unable to fulfill his duty, the huntsman took the heart of a deer back to the queen as proof of Snow White's death. Meanwhile, frightened and alone in the forest, Snow White found her way to the cottage of the Seven Dwarfs, went in, saw it was in a terrible state and began to clean it up. Tired at last, she went upstairs to bed. At dusk, music could be heard in the distance, the music of the Seven Dwarfs as they came home from their job of mining. They came into the cottage and found, to their surprise, that everything was cleaned up.
When they couldn't see anyone around, they guessed that whoever had cleaned must be upstairs, so Doc lined them all up—Dopey, Bashful, Grumpy, Sneezy, Sleepy, and Happy. Doc said, "Dopey, go on up and find out who is there," and though he didn't want to go, he was obedient, and much to his surprise he found a beautiful princess. When she awakened, she made the acquaintance of the Seven Dwarfs and offered to take care of their house, to bake and cook, in return for being allowed to remain. The dwarfs were very happy with this arrangement.
When the queen questioned the mirror again and was told that "Snow White still lives in the forest with the Seven Dwarfs," she decided to take care of Snow White herself. First, she attempted to cut off Snow White's breathing with laces. Next she tried a poisoned comb, and finally, a poisoned apple which put Snow White in a deep sleep. The dwarfs, thinking her dead, placed her in a glass casket, took her to the highest hill and there kept a constant watch. One day Prince Charming came along on his white horse. He had heard about the beautiful princess in the forest. As he lifted the glass off the casket, he bent down to kiss her. At this point Snow White sneezed, got rid of the apple, and awakened. She and the prince rode off on the white horse, got married, and lived happily ever after.
Symbols in the Story
AGE 12-14 YEARS: puberty, the age of awakening to a higher part of self, the age when awareness of the creative energy is felt, makes us want to know ourselves, to be ourselves, and yet be one with God. This energy is also known as sexual energy, kundalini, spiritual energy.
STEPMOTHER: mother earth, our beautiful earthy nature when properly used; when abused it can be expressed in lust, passion, unrest, vanity, self-indulgence or many other negative traits.
THE HUNTER: habit patterns of the flesh that try to destroy the spiritual nature or our inner knowledge.
FOREST: impenetrable to the eye, the unconscious which contains the unknown, the mysterious.
COTTAGE: in the center of the forest—the temple within. When Snow White got there it was dusty and cluttered (the inner part of ourselves that needs cleansing).
SNOW WHITE: the purity within that motivates us to cleanse.
SEVEN DWARFS: the seven spiritual centers, or the endocrine system (see Spiritual Centers chart). Mining stands for the buried treasures that are within, contacted on a. physical level through the seven endocrine centers. Dopey—the first spiritual center (gonads), the starter, where the energy starts to flow; Bashful—the second spiritual center (cells of Leydig), where the hormone testosterone is produced (male/female differentiation begins here), the area of temptation, also the area that makes people bashful of each other. At the age of fourteen boys and girls become bashful and clumsy with one another because at this point they are not truly differentiated. Grumpy—the third spiritual center (adrenals). The fight or flight attitude is seated here (transformed it becomes forgiveness of ourselves and others); also the Lion, king of the earth in the animal world. Sneezy—the fourth spiritual center (thymus), medically associated with allergies; it is also the love center. Happy—the fifth spiritual center (thyroid), the area of the will; in the Lord's prayer "Thy Will be Done," symbolizes the bringing together of the higher centers and the lower centers, or the awakening to "Happy is the man who does the will of God." Sleepy— the sixth spiritual center (pineal), or the Christ within, the point at which light comes down from above and meets the light coming up from below, also associated with cycles, light and dark, day and night, etc. Doc—the seventh spiritual center (pituitary), the master gland, or the father, controls all the other glands.
WITCH: the witch, who is the stepmother, represents the use of our psychic energy to tempt the spirit. In keeping with a common mythological theme, she poses three temptations. (Jesus had three temptations—of the body, mind, and spirit.) The first temptation of Snow White is the physical one, the laces. They shut off the love center (thymus) or the breath, and without breath you cannot live. The second temptation is the mental one symbolized by the comb—it touches her mind, her thoughts. The third temptation is the spiritual one, represented by the apple, as in the Garden of Eden where it represented the fall from pure spirit. Though Snow White is sufficiently tempted to take the apple into her mouth, she really didn't accept it because she didn't “swallow it."
PRINCE CHARMING: represents the Christ Consciousness. God moves into the world to bring people out of their unnatural relationship to mother earth. It was the Christ Consciousness, acting through love, that was able to remove the apple and bring Snow White back to life.
WHITE HORSE: the King of Kings moving upon the earth. Prince Charming and Snow White symbolize the mystical marriage, that being people's love reaching up to God (eros), represented by Snow White, and God's love as it reaches down to people (agape), represented by Prince Charming. This pattern is also seen in the star of David, two triangles superimposed on each other. Another way of putting it is the unity of the Holy Spirit, or the union of heaven and earth; the unity of the Christ Consciousness and man, represented in the world as service to our fellow man. A true king and queen are servants of their people; a false king and queen want their people to serve them.