The Maiden, The Mother, The Crone
Unsurpassed in the looking glass
Defying my soul, my body, my psyche
Taming my tresses ever so fine
The forbidden fruit lodged in my throat
Waiting in a glass sepulcher
For my chrysalis stage to end
The day my caterpillar will turn into a beautiful butterfly
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall -
ReplyDeleteWho in the land is the fairest of all?"
one of the most famous fairy tale lines belongs to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by the Grimms Brothers. We all know that it was the wicked evil step-mother of Snow White who asked this question of her magic mirror. But I wanted to talk from the point of view of the small lost girl, abandoned by her father out of his love for his second wife.
Snow white, they say, had skin white as snow, lips red as blood, and hair black as ebony. She was in short the embodiment of the Goddess represented by the Maiden (white), The Mother (red) and The Crone (black). She turned out to be prettier than the prettiest woman in the land - her step-mother and the magic mirror could no longer deny it. This led to envy and the queen had Snow White banished to be killed, but she somehow survived and ends up living with the seven dwarfs.
The story follows with many attempts by the Queen on Snow White's life. Under one of these attempts the Queen dressed as a peddler brought a braided stay lace of yellow, red and blue and tricked Snow White into wearing it (thereby suffocating her). The colors here are all symbolic, yellow (soul), red (body) & blue (psyche). The next attempt has the Queen / peddler woman sell a (poisonous) comb to Snow White for her beautiful hair. In the last attempt the Queen once again disguised sold an apple to the gullible Snow White who ate it. But unlike previous times when the dwarfs had saved Snow White, they could not do a thing. So they created a glass coffin for her and placed her in it & the coffin in the woods hanging between two trees where she awaits her prince to come and set her free.
This poem is dedicated to Snow White who lies waiting in sleep for her prince to come and dislodge the forbidden fruit from her throat so that she can come back to life.
"I don't wanna be like Snow White waiting for a handsome prince to come and save me on a horse of white, unless we're riding side by side"