Fourth Form of Madness

I was on a plane recently and I am not much of a sleeper on planes, so I flicked through the movie selection on the entertainment centre.  I love movies always have, to lose yourself in someone else’s vision, creation is quite a nice treat once and a while, particularly when they tell a story that is everyones.  Anyway there was a modern day take on Snow white and the seven dwarfs, Mirror Mirror.  Oh goodie a fairy tale my favourite as there is usually something there for everyone and they operate on so many levels and speak to so many parts of us.  This was no exception.

I love the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, not just because it has a strong chick lead, which thankfully this movie played up even more 🙂 but because it so nicely tells the story of the growth of consciousness hidden within a common experience or life as some of us like to call it.  Snow white, the feminine, and central character gets flung out of the castle by her wicked, self-centred step-mom who is as conceited as she beautiful.  Step-mommy could be seen to represent our attachment to the external the aesthetic, representing aesthetic beauty, fleeting with all it’s beguiling ways,  but not the beautiful which is eternal.  This is a little tricky as it seems it is Snow White who is getting flung out into the external, but actually she is getting flung into the internal as she has began the journey of the hero and this is always internal.  The white, the pure, the seemingly nothingness of the colour gives the clue that this is the inner world and yet she is always depicted as a dark haired women, darkness covering the top of her head, perhaps hinting at the darkness that invariabley must travel with pureness until they negate each other or as some like to say, become one.

Then come seven supposed dwarfs, details on names are not important as you will find that these guys have been renamed many times over the ages, but the concepts behind them are eternal, unchanging.  Some say they represent the seven deadly “sins” that we all must befriend when on our journey.  Me, I never did care for the world “sin” it conjures up a whole lot of guilt complexes over events that were always going to happen ie. the knowledge of your bodies mortality.  Me I have no problem with Eve biting the apple, and thus I prefer the word chakras.  The dwarfs could be seen to represent charkas (let’s not get into the debate of how many there are in the body – arguments over metaphysical structures always become a little boring after a while).  These little, or not so little guys, are the path of Snow Whites journey.  Her feminine influence and her pureness (love in it’s eternal form not romantic), courage and strength of character (surrendered “will”), tames them all one by one and they all work in harmony together. Snow White (or individual consciousness) and the seven elements that belong to an eternal consciousness, the collective.

Now to the pesky prince that she is attracted to :-).  In no way, and let me stress this again, is he her saviour or her reason for breathing.  Yes breathing is important, very important, but there is something that comes before breath, something that hangs around long after breath has ceased.  This relation between the two is an important one, to add balance, for one to be able to see the presence of the other and therefore to bring it into it’s very existence.  These two, no matter what their individual abilities and nature, are equal.  Any bias to the contrary is just plain ego and dare I say cultural influence.  When we speak of feminine and masculine here we aren’t really talking to the external representation of the sexes but forces, energies that although very different, are very much the same, that will always attract to each other if reduced to their purity, or returned to the unfettered.

Now once these two kids come together, Snow white and the prince, or if you like, ida and pingala, they form an unstoppable duo, yes better than batman and robin. As they move through their  journey entwined or at least indistinguishable from each other, they can overcome any obstacle.  It is through this union which occurs within Snow White, but is played out nicely on the outside through her relationship with the prince (because let’s face it is hard to represent the internal in the external), that Snow White is able to conquer her self created fears (yay) and over turn her somewhat beautiful but hideously ugly step-mom (the aesethic and the dogmatic ethical) with the eternal (or the abyss where dogma is not welcome or even rates an invite) .

As I said I love a good fairy tale, but this depiction, Mirror Mirror, was even better as it ended with a Bollywood style song and dance. I think Snow White’s journey should so fittingly end with lots of song, dance and joy.  Don’t you?