The Witch in Fairytales

 

Any fairytale would be bland without a wicked witch to spice things up.

Carl Jung has a theory that archetypes in our subconscious manifests or is projected in stories and our lives, and the witch is no exception. The interesting thing is that the witch is a projection of the "negative mother" image in folk and fairytales.

The first great love in our lives is our mother - the figure that gives us life, food, attention and shelter.
But nobody is perfect and mothers can be neglectful, angry, critical, selfish, egoistic at times. The Witch in fairytales represents this inner psychological experience we have developed of the negative side of our mothers - whatever that causes pain and not joy from mothers.

In most fairytales, the witch is eliminated either by killing them, torturing them or they die of their own bad deeds or karma. The interesting bit is for example Snow White's example, where the witch manifests in 3 different forms in order to kill Snow White. In our subconscious, don't our perception of our mothers shift from time to time, from life stage to life stage?

© Little Pixy Boots

In Snow White's tale, the evil Queen/stepmother/witch dies by dancing in red-hot iron shoes and falls down dead. The shoes are symbolic of non-grounding - so hot that one has to always jump in the air and not stay on the ground. The fruit of the Queen's greed and superficiality (to be the most beautiful of all), not "grounded" by values of truth, love and kindness, resulted in her death in scalding shoes, watched by everyone, not loved by anyone.

It teaches us one of life's most important lessons that mums ought to teach us - beware of getting caught in superficiality, be grounded, learn what are the real values in life. Not fame, not money, not looks - only kindness and love will get you somewhere (i.e. Snow White getting married to the Prince).

I could go on about this subject, but it's bedtime for me unfortunately.

Take care in the meantime :)
Pixy
xoxox