The Bridge Between the Worlds

As a kid, what type of characters lived most vividly in your imagination? Which kinds of heroes felt like your closest friends: movie characters, cartoon characters, superheroes, ghosts or zombies, elves or robots, dragons or fairies, knights or space marines, horses, flowers, movie stars, historical or political figures, or themes such as moon landings, sea battles, time travel, or revolutions? When listing the most influential people from our childhoods, I bet most of the list turns out to be fictional characters. You may have been so obsessed that maybe you were teased about it or maybe sought others with the same obsessions so you could share your enthusiasm. Instead of settling with the idea that we are just really big fans of these fictional characters or we just really like to watch those movies or play those games or read those comics or collect those posters, we can recognize a deliberate spiritual connection to the archetypes that those characters embody. It is no accident that certain archetypes inspire you more than others. Mythic energies light us up for a reason - they are a clue to our deepest patterns and paths. Carolyn Myss explains that each of us responds to specific archetypes because "we get what we need in pieces until we can handle the whole," and learning to recognize and acknowledge what speaks to us from the archetypal world unlocks the secrets of our own inner identity.

When I started to learn how to do inner work and began learning visualization exercises (still pretty undisciplined) and studying Tarot (took some time to get past the sense of taboo), I happily discovered that many of my lifetime favorite types of characters, many of which I was shocked to admit I had forgotten about as a grownup, reappeared in the symbolism of the cards or showed up in visualizations. I was surprised. I thought some character types like ship captains or dragons must just be overdone or overused and must eventually be replaced by something different. There are archetypal energies, however, in stories that never change substantially, and this has nothing to do with the (false) assumption that there are a limited set of ideas out there. Even though I had read this kind of thing about archetypes, it only became real when I saw how substantial they became in my inner world. Myss teaches that archetypes are very real and exist on their own as types of beings, as "psychic entities." Well, that came out sounding creepier than I meant it to, but it's true in many ways I am only beginning to understand.

How Inspiration Travels Between the Worlds

We are meant to explore many realms. Two of these are the shared outer world and our own inner world. Understanding why other creations inspire us is related to how we connect to the outer world, and understanding where "my" ideas come from is related to how we explore the inner world. The purpose of connecting to the inner world is to sense and communicate with the Higher Self, and this communication extends into our experience of the outer world. We cannot control or anticipate our experiences in either world, but one thing we can focus on is the doorway between them. Believing there is a doorway is one step, as is knocking on the door and trusting that it is never locked. There is a doorway. It is meant for you to use.

The Higher Self uses archetypal symbolism to send messages and awaken our deepest inspirations. Archetypes are energetic patterns that we can relate to. When these patterns appear in the external world, as mythic archetypes and folklore characters do, they are outer world symbols that come into our imagination and awaken our inspirations. When these patterns appear in our inner world, as poetry and stories and art, they come through us to the outer world as our own creations and manifestations.

There is a structure like a bridge that connects both realms, and this bridge is the act of creating/creativity. Creativity welcomes external symbolism and inspiration from the outer world, and Creativity is the pathway through which inner mythic energies are expressed. The bridge is used by mythic energy patterns, archetypes, and symbols as a two-way portal between the worlds.

The material that makes up the portal or the bridge is made of our own spiritual and artistic practices. When it is damaged or neglected, this bridge can be rebuilt and strengthened more easily than we realize. For example, daily journaling or visualization or sketching were once activities I avoided because I felt like I would never get very good at them, like doing something creative meant I had to be really creating something great. But once I learned to see these things as a spiritual practice or an artistic practice, it took all of the pressure off and they became fun. I was introduced to ideas and voices and faces that I fell in love with instantly, and felt their love for me, and I had no idea where they came from except it was from somewhere within.

The point of allowing mythic archetypes to come into or out of us is to guide us toward accessing the self-love and effortless action that come from the power of our Higher Self. Our mastery lies in our ability to do nothing yet trust that everything is accomplished as it should be, and that energy comes from the different masteries we have within us in the warriors, messengers, and Kings that are a part of us.

In the Celtic tradition, the Elder tree symbolizes a guardian of the portal between the worlds. Why does the bridge need guards? Maybe sometimes we just need to make the bridge a priority and protect the time and energy needed to maintain our spiritual and artistic practices. A tree's trunk is another appropriate symbol for the bridge between the worlds, the portal of creativity. While our branches touch the sun and are material and observable by others in the world, our roots are hidden and where they extend is a mystery to anyone walking above the ground.

So this was never something I knew before, but studying/creating mythic writing and art, exploring modern fairy tales and retellings of classic fairytales, and learning about the symbolism of fantasy are my keys to connecting to my Higher Self and allowing mythic energies to cross the bridge in both directions. Everything created by others that speaks to me, and anything I create that communicates to me, is meant to further my own connections within myself. Until I become a more accomplished traveller, the bridge is where we meet.

The Child-Hero

A modern-day peasant/princess gazes into a candle flame. The white candle represents her purity of intent, and the candle flame symbolizes the uniqueness of her divine light in the world.

The Child-Hero

In the Fairy Tale Tarot, Isha Lerner describes the fairy tale as a mirror of the Hero's Journey, and she relates fairy tales mythology to the Fool's Journey of the Tarot. The Child archetype, who also represents the Tarot pattern of the Fool or the Page, is the primary archetype in fairy tale art that speaks to me the most clearly. When gathering inspiration from retold folk tales and folk art, the energy of the Page brings the clearest messages with her. When creating a sketch or a story, the Page/Princess is usually what comes through the most naturally. Even though I pursue the others, the Knight and the Sovereign and the Magician, and attempt to create them, they don't come to me like the Child does. I think that's just because that's about how far along I am in the Journey.

And also … the Child archetype correlates to our Throat Chakra, our center of expression. The Throat Chakra archetype is the Messenger. The broken or shadow side of the Messenger chakra archetype is the silent inner child. If we can connect to the Page archetype in fairy tales, we access a key to that part of ourselves that can receive and express mythical ideas. When the Page is portrayed, she is usually bringing a message. This is what the heroine of a fairy tale does. The mystical meaning of a tale is delivered most by its little heroine.

The Page - The Hero

The Page of the Tarot is often described as the princess of the court cards. She has an energy of innocence and effortlessness. We are rooting for Snow White or Little Red Riding Hood, even though they don't seem to change during the course of the fairy tale. They started out sweet and innocent, and they finished the same way. The Messenger/Princess represents a type of mastery that the Child archetype embodies. The power of the Child to inspire everyone else to help her is the same power that makes her irresistable to the evil queens and bad wolves who terrorize her. Everything wants to be close to her. Everything wants to be in her life. Even baddies.

The Page/Princess in a fairy tale is caught at the most interesting part of the Love Story - she is at the part where she has gotten into some trouble and meets up with the One who will save. This is the Divine Self. The multitudes within us can save the multitudes within us.

The Page and Her Place in the Journey

Each archetype has masculine/feminine aspects. The Page is a feminine archetype but a male or female character can represent her. This is Jack of the Beanstalk, the Lost Boys of Neverland, and the Earl and Valentine of Tremors.

Later, when the princess becomes a Queen or a King, she will become a creator and a sovereign and a conscious magic-user. For now, the princess has power that comes only from her uniqueness in place and time. For now, her place in the story is what makes her so perfect. For now, the princess is a reminder that we are innocent, no matter what we have gotten ourselves into. Everything that happens is for devotion to us.

The beauty of a princess character or a folk art angel or a child sage in the Sunday Funnies is a pretty powerful beauty. The Child archetype is a reminder that we are born into original innocence. Most of all, when the Child archetype calls to us, we find ourselves, along with the monsters and princes, instantly loving her. We adore the beautiful little characters in tales and art. And when we find out we have the Child archetype living within us, the child hero of our own inner realm, we find we have been tricked into loving a part of ourselves.

The Messenger is the archetype that speaks the most to me right now. The Page from the Tarot in her perfect role--setting out, making mistakes, selling the only cow for magic beans, wandering off the path, talking to animals, finding guidance, needing protection and never realizing how much--has been the first to speak.

Story of Awakening

"Our lives are our mythic journeys"

- Terri Windling

For about the last four years, I have been experiencing my own creative awakening. It is extra intense because I had become as disconnected from my creativity as it's possible to be. I have changed a lot on the inside because of it. But not on the outside. Still waiting on that part.

Until four years ago, I had allowed life and my own thoughts to turn me into a miserable negative adult, so I did not like to try anything creative. It's too easy to come up with something that looks like garbage when attempting creativity, so I stayed away from that. I took low skill levels when trying new things as a sign that I was not meant to do creative things. I hadn't had an idea of my own in a long time. I was too busy focusing on what made me bitter to note the things that made me feel joyful. My most loved one is the most creative, visionary person I know, but of him and of my creative friends, I just thought: "they are just creative and I am not." Even though our dream for a long time had been to create our own cartoons, I didn't believe then that anything "that good" was possible for me to create. I thought creative ideas were something a certain few creative people came up with, and I thought that I was not one of those people.

Then a series of things happened to wake me up and to put me on the spiritual path. Most of these things involved job burnout, psychosomatic physical ailments, living like someone who has lost herself, and all the other results of despair and denial. These things were very hard on me and I realize now it was because my unconsciousness required a harsh wakeup call. Sorry to use the words wakeup call - I don't know a better word for it but I'll try to think of one. But a lot of positive things happened too to introduce me to a better path. One of the really positive things to help me awaken was stepping way out of my comfort zone, learning how to play World of Warcraft with my most loved one, and developing a healthy addiction for fantasy genre video games. Suddenly I was having a lot of fun, I wasn't obsessing as much about my job, and the extensive affirmation I received in the game for performing the smallest tasks was slowly healing my damaged soul.

The world of online gaming opened up to me the gorgeous world of video game art, fantasy art, and fan art. This led to other internet browsing that led to the discovery of mythic art, folk art, and primitive and mixed media art. I became inspired by the websites of artists and creative bloggers who gave encouragement and guidance to my hungry heart. Friends happened to mention authors like Lynn Grabhorn, Wayne Dyer, Martha Beck, Julia Cameron, and others to me as sources of new thinking that changed my life. I had forgotten but was starting to return to an old love for fairytales and high fantasy, which I know every single person has and some of us just lose at times. At the same time, I was being encouraged to take up drawing and cartooning again. This time, I had a whole new belief about "where Ideas come from" and I suspected that it wasn't me.

I started applying myself more seriously to drawing, thinking it could be fun and I might get a little better. I don't get better at things very fast, and this no longer discourages me because of this one thing: the less skill I have at an artistic practice like drawing or writing, the more immediately obvious it is when Something is sent through me to the page. I would usually draw or journal something that was enjoyable but not anything showing any level of mastery. Every so often, however, during a clumsy session on the pressure tablet or during hours of typing daydreams into the journal, something would "come through" that was so shockingly perfect it made me stop completely in awe. It might be a perfect little face at a level far above what I normally draw, just literally materializing through the pixels into life, or it might be the perfect cartoon gag at a level way above what I normally write, or it might be an elegant storyline that I know would not come from my conscious mind in a thousand years.

I was inspired by these wonderful little characters that were coming through somehow. I could see them and hear bits of their stories. I began meditation and visualization practices. For the first time, I wanted to explore where these ideas might have come from. I learned that I was exploring my own inner realm. The fairy tales and fantasy worlds that had inspired me to try art for art's sake had connected me to little faces and little stories and I wanted to know more about them. I realized that I had not been giving any energy to my inner self. That's not quite true. Really I never believed in my inner self so after I realized I had one, I then realized I had completely neglected Her.

I became intensely interested in studying mythic symbolism, divination, and shamanic journeying. I used to think that whole area was too overwhelming so I stayed far away from it most of my life. But I have learned that what I was once most turned off to often ends up being my greatest passion.

Exploring mythic stories and fairytale symbolism inspires me endlessly. Myths and folktales inspire me to explore my inner realm. And creating mythic and folk art is a practice that both keeps me connected to the inner realm and allows these elements expression into the material realm. Fairytale and spiritual symbolism, such as the tarot elements or the mythic archetypes, full of kings and queens and knights and towers, are the road maps to navigating our inner realm. The fairytale symbolism mirrors our inner realm, and that is why it both speaks to us as so familiar and also inspires us to explore within. In turn, when we explore our inner realm, and when we at last glimpse the Queen and her Knights and Pages, we bring these unique parts back through with us as Ideas to the outer realm, as creative expression in story or art or shared insights.

The little messenger archetypes, the little fairytale children, were the first to come through to me and that means they speak to me the most clearly and easily. These random perfect drawings have stories and wit and wisdom all their own, and they share pieces at a time with me and I love them. I follow them back where they came from and back out again, each time with a little more of their story revealed. All creative ideas, insights, and flashes come from a real place. It is a place full of you and for you and everything that lives there loves you more than you can imagine. Exploring mythic journeys and incorporating artistic practices into my life is connecting me to such joy in discovering the world of the Higher Self. When we have not had it for a while, self-love is a captivating theme, and I never tire of it. Mythic art inspiration and creation connects me to this. They connect me to the Beloved. This is my favorite thing to do.

But blogging is still pretty uncomfortable. Like I never meant this post to be in any way autobiographical - I was just going to talk about archetypes and ideas in a very general way. And like the Taoists tell us, and this is very true, anyone who claims to be awakened is not.

What Does Not Confound Me Makes Me Clearer

Fairy tales and mythic journeys are confounding to me. I am beginning to realize that mythic stories draw us because we sense a deep understanding in them and I have recently realized that I love exploring what these tales mean to me. Fairytales represent the process of spiritual awakening. They are a mirror of the Divine Love Story with the Higher Self.

Fantasy worlds and fairytale realms remind us that we are more special than we know. Entering these worlds of magic--whether it's in a YA book or a cool video game--makes us feel inspired and at home. We remember that we have always liked it here.

In fairytales like Snow White, the Goose Girl, Sleeping Beauty, the hero of the story is a Princess before and after the ordeal. She is as beautiful at the end of the story as she was in the beginning, so it's hard to tell sometimes if she changed as a result of her trials.

Yet there is a transformation in the story. The hero does change. Everything changes by the end of the story. By the end of the fairytale, the hero has changed completely because she is now awakened by the kiss of enchantment. The prince represents the Higher Self that has been watching us, adoring us, and waiting to save us. When a dark enchantment is lifted, when a princess is rescued, when children escape danger in folk tales, this represents the Higher Self and its power to save and free us. In our lives, which are mythic journeys, we are part of this love story with the Higher Self. When we step into our journeys with innocence, encounter dark times, and awaken to the magic of transformation and self-love, we come through the darkness changed because we are connected to something we were not connected to consciously before.

This is a positive message because the way the hero retains her sweetness and beauty is a reminder that although we must change, it is not because we are horrible or bad. We must change to be brought through the love story. You were never awful or wrong --you were always always always the beloved of the Beloved. You had to change because you were meant to be connected to the Higher Self and change is just what makes that happen.

Why does the princess go through such a dark time? Why are many fairytales so full of violence? Why is the princess so helpless? I think these elements are meant to send a message about how much the Higher Self loves us and wants us to be happy. We don't understand why dark scary forests happen to beautiful innocent children. You never did anything to bring that dark time upon you. You were always good - you never never deserved pain or suffering or loss that came to you. You were always white as snow and born beautiful as the dawn. Fairytales remind us to just know that at the other side of those dark times is a rescue that you do deserve because you are sweet and beautiful and you always have been. All we know is that through the other side is a new level of connection to your Self.