Thank you so much for this! It brought to my mind a talk I listened to a while back about how when we come to live in heaven with God we will say “was that all we needed to go through for all of This?”
Please, could you tell me how you’re able to understand these stories with such profound spiritual meaning?
Thank you! It is one of my favorites. As to your question about how one grows in their understanding of fairy tales: it becomes more natural to see the symbolism of stories when you have been exposed to people who teach that way! I spent a lot of time listening to Jonathan Pageau and the Literary Life podcast a few years ago that prepared and launched me into my own studies. I still listen to Pageau regularly, I think he is one of the best there is to teach symbolism in fairy tales and stories! I also read Vigen Guroian’s book Tending the Heart of Virtue more than once, and he does a great job drawing out themes. I was excited to “discover” an interpretation in the Ugly Duckling on a section he said he didn’t have an answer for though, so it’s neat to see how you can be influenced by someone but build out and grow in your own understanding and interpretations too. One thing that helped me grow my own understanding was when I started doing things like reading the Grimms’ Notes on the different fairy tales and studying things like medieval symbolism around animals. So many strangely delightful rabbit holes to go down!
Thank you so much for this! It brought to my mind a talk I listened to a while back about how when we come to live in heaven with God we will say “was that all we needed to go through for all of This?”
Please, could you tell me how you’re able to understand these stories with such profound spiritual meaning?
Thank you! It is one of my favorites. As to your question about how one grows in their understanding of fairy tales: it becomes more natural to see the symbolism of stories when you have been exposed to people who teach that way! I spent a lot of time listening to Jonathan Pageau and the Literary Life podcast a few years ago that prepared and launched me into my own studies. I still listen to Pageau regularly, I think he is one of the best there is to teach symbolism in fairy tales and stories! I also read Vigen Guroian’s book Tending the Heart of Virtue more than once, and he does a great job drawing out themes. I was excited to “discover” an interpretation in the Ugly Duckling on a section he said he didn’t have an answer for though, so it’s neat to see how you can be influenced by someone but build out and grow in your own understanding and interpretations too. One thing that helped me grow my own understanding was when I started doing things like reading the Grimms’ Notes on the different fairy tales and studying things like medieval symbolism around animals. So many strangely delightful rabbit holes to go down!
I appreciate your response, I’m at the beginning of my journey and will definitely look into the references you mentioned!