Fairy Tale Coaching
“Fairy tales, as in a mirror, reflect a simpler, but at the same time more basic structure of the psyche, its skeletal basis”
Maria Louise von Franz
In my Life Coaching practice, I often use Fairy Tale Coaching as one of my methods to work with clients. In this post, I would like to briefly explain what Fairy Tale Coaching is and how it could be used for such situations as forced immigration, carrier changing, personal development, spiritual seeking, or even gender transition and coming out.
Fairy Tale Coaching is based on a psychological approach to analyzing fairy tales. It was developed by Carl Jung, Bruno Bettelheim, Hans Dieckmann, Robert Bly, Max Luthi, and Maria Louise von Franz.
Fairy Tales are a symbolic representation of the collective psyche and can be used to understand our individuality better. Every Fairy Tale has objective and subjective levels of interpretation. The objective level describes the events that occur in our life, and the subjective level expresses our inner state as if all the characters in this fairy tale are different parts of our soul. Working with objective and subjective levels of fairy tales allows us to think about why one character resonates with me and why I can't stand another.
Reading fairy tales, we evoke different associations from our life stories. Every image or figure in a fairy tale can symbolize something meaningful for us now. Moreover, fairy tale symbols can help us work with trauma indirectly when it is too painful to touch past negative experiences. It means a person can use Fairy Tale Coaching to work with fears, search for solutions in a particular situation, create a picture of the future, and be aware of their current role and identity in their life. Also, Fairy Tale Coaching can be used as a Community Building Tool. If we read fairy tales in a group, we share our reactions to them, share our experiences, and form an emotionally comfortable environment in telling a fairy tale; we create our group's safety culture.
Let's see how Fairy Tale Coaching works on the example of analysis of the German folk tale "The Pot of Gold in the Oven."* P. S. Beckmann and I made this fairy tale interpretation for our graduation project on the "Fairy Tale Analysis" course presented by The Assisi Institute.
This Fairy Tale is about a refugee soldier who returned from the war and faced devastation in his new home. He gets married again, and he dreams day by day that one day his life will change.
"Hunger settled down on his house, and his wife began to bicker and nag like a spiny hedgehog. One day his wife was away longer than usual. The afternoon passed, and before long, it was evening. Time was on the soldier's hands, and he began poking at the crumbling concrete until the stones were free of it. The little man started to stretch and bend like a bunny in clover. Suddenly blue smoke poured out of the stove, and it threw a light as strong as a lantern. The soldier jumped up, for he knew that some kind of treasure must be buried around there. The little man on the wall protected it and pointed him to it. In a flash, he took the entire stove apart and discovered a copper pot, larger than a helmet, filled right up to the top with big gold coins. Skilled in the art of looting, he put his hand above it and chanted:
"The cock crows and the spell breaks,
I'll speak my piece whatever it takes.
First I'll saddle the dragon of gold,
Then spit at the devil until he's out cold."
Just then, the soldier's wife screeched: "Turn around! Turn around!" In a fright he turned around, went over to the door, and looked out, but no one was there. A ruckus broke out in the ruins, and strange beaks began poking their way out of the rocks and crowing and screeching. When he ran over to the stove, he saw that the little round opening where the pot had been was still there, but the pot was gone and the stony little man on the wall had vanished, never to return."
So what can this story tell us? Is it about the search for meaning in a situation of loss and uncertainty? Or is it about how to cope with trauma experience? What images and associations come to mind when reading this tale?
For a better understanding of this folk tale, let's think about what can be hidden behind the symbols "House", "Oven", and the "little Man/Devil"?
The French philosopher Gaston Bachelard in his book "The Poetics of Space" (1958), describes the house as a metaphor for the perception of our inner space: "Our soul is home. Remembering different houses, different "rooms," we learn to live inside ourselves." The house symbolizes the human soul (we all have our closets where we keep our secrets, attics where we climb to dream, and windows of the soul). In this story, we see the image of the soul of a soldier, its dissociation from reality, and the devastation caused by trauma or conflict.
Marie-Louise von Franz talks about the importance of the Oven: "As the place where food is chemically transformed, the kitchen is analogous to the stomach. It is the center of emotion in its searing and consuming aspect and in its illuminating and warming function, both of which show that the light of wisdom only comes out of the fire of passion." Thus, the oven does not contain the fire of passion for the soldier. The oven and hearth at the center of his dwelling could also be seen as the loss of feeling or fervor; the loss of a forthright desire to act in the world.
Little Devil - a symbol of being engulfed by the Shadow (dark side of ourselves that we repressed), such mental states as depression, aggression, when a person cannot realize what he/she/they are doing; or vice versa, give out wishful thinking. The confrontation with the devil is the center of the tale. Through symbolic vision (little devil), the ego can access what is going on in the unconscious and gain inspiration, meaning, and energy (a pot of gold coins). However, the lack of genuine contact with Anima (feeling and our needs) returns the mind to the original state of depression and despair.
This is a fairy tale about a man who has lost the ability to hear Self and inner needs. It is a tale of a person who faced some unimaginable horror in real life and could not restore a life because he/she/they continued to use all the same ways of interacting with self and the world, again filling the stove with ashes instead of firewood.
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If you would like to know how this approach can help you and what hidden gifts it may contain, please feel free to contact me.
Warmly,
Your Dance of Polychrome
*A POT OF GOLD IN THE OVEN// von Schonwerth, Franz Xaver (1810–1886) von Schonwerth, Franz Xaver. The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics) . Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. . The Turnip Princess and Other Newly Discovered Fairy Tales (Penguin Classics) (p. 167). Penguin Publishing Group. 2015.