Game Fairy Tales as Spiritual Practice

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I suggest playing a game.

We need to recall elements from fairy tales and try to understand how they can be used as a practice—spiritual or esoteric.

All fairy tales have a first element: the beginning.

Some fool, a young man or woman, an inexperienced person, or a loser lives with their parents.

It may be an unloved daughter (an adopted daughter, from another mother, and so on).

And then this fool, the hero of the fairy tale, becomes fired up by some idea. To obtain something. This is already the second element.

And here we can divide fairy tales into female and male ones.

In the male ones, the fool himself trudges off somewhere :)

And in the female ones: “Why don’t you bring me the Scarlet Flower itself?...” In other words, off you go and bring it to me :)

Well, you understand. Female and male.

There is a slight difference.

These two stages are clear.

That is, the person lives in comfort. And then a simply strange thought appears in their mind.

It doesn’t occur to anyone else!

Only to this fool :) Or fool girl :)

Why on earth do you need this Scarlet Flower?

And the second part is leaving your comfort zone.

You have to go somewhere, into the unknown...

That is already a practice—leaving your comfort zone.

How does he leave his comfort zone?

Do you understand the direction of my thoughts?

That is already a practice!

What normal person would think of leaving their comfort zone in order to go somewhere?

But she knows: “I’ve heard that there is such a flower, the Scarlet one...”

Or he knows: “I’m going to seek happiness...”

However, in some cases, it wasn’t this fool or this fool girl who came up with it themselves. There was someone who gave them the advice.

Some character who prompted the idea.

Some old granny...

Though everyone else didn’t care in the slightest, the fool became interested.

That’s how it is.

Many are called, but few are chosen.

And this is another practice—how to begin HEARING what is being said from the Higher Worlds.

And here is a hint straight from fairy tales: be a fool and you will hear :)

Or a fool girl ;)

Do you understand the game now?

There are many such elements in a fairy tale.

You simply recall them and try to understand what kind of practice each one represents.

Let me give a few more examples.

So the fool went off to seek happiness.

But he has no idea where to go at all!

In other words, imagine yourself in his place—you want to go, so you go. But you have no idea where to go.

Yet his determination is enormous.

And when it is LIKE THAT, when such determination and self-sacrifice for the sake of the GOAL suddenly appear, some character suddenly comes along.

“Where are you going, fool?”

“I’m off to seek happiness”...

But you’re going the wrong way!

Where should I go?

Go somewhere without knowing where.
Wherever your eyes lead you, wherever your feet carry you...

And the fool understands!

He goes.

What choice does he have?

So this was the Guru.

Here is another hint straight from fairy tales for you: to go somewhere correctly, you need a Guru.
Who will say, “When you have worn out ten pairs of boots, that is precisely where you will find yourself”...
You will understand nothing of what this Guru says.
But when you arrive, you will understand everything.

Notice that the fool finds what he was looking for by completely foolish means. Not logically, doing everything differently from how others do it.

Even the Scarlet Flower is found in a completely incomprehensible way. It cannot be found by ordinary means.

And why were they so determined to get that turnip, pulling and pulling at it all together...

Notice how the fool begins to perform miracles. Who helps him, what happens beforehand... That is a practice too!

And the heroes of fairy tales are deceived, and even attempts are made to kill them...

And something saves them!!!

What could that be? :)

That’s the game.

It is literally a treasure trove of practices!

The point is to analyze many fairy tales at once, because their elements are similar. The heroes are different, but the elements are the same.
If you catch these elements through this game, you will hear Higher Beings speaking to you through fairy tales.

P.S.
Recently, I tried to analyze which fairy tale I liked in childhood. I discovered that it was Puss in Boots. I was literally engrossed in that fairy tale. To me, it seemed like an amazing story.
And, of course, ordinary people will see nothing there except a cat and a fool :)
 

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Stage in the fairy tale:
The main character of the fairy tale helps some animal or character.
For example, he rescues one from a trap or a net, feeds some old woman, and so on.
This animal or character returns the favor to the main character. It serves him.
It fulfills his wishes.
It possesses superpowers...

This stage of the fairy tale as a practice:
First and foremost—be kind to everyone. You never know whether it is simply a hungry kitten meowing on the street, or whether Your Power is calling you and testing how truly good a person you are...
Of course, if everyone knew that by feeding this particular stray kitten they would make it start fulfilling their wishes, everyone would feed it.
But that is precisely the point: only a fool would give half of their food to someone they do not know at all and from whom there is no benefit... Simply because you have a big heart.
 

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Stage in the fairy tale:
The use of superpowers. Running fast, flying through the air, becoming invisible, transforming into animals, commanding the forces of nature...

This stage of the fairy tale as a practice:
Here, siddhis are listed quite openly. And if you read the fairy tales attentively, they even tell you how to attain them.
Unlike the previous stage, when someone grants the fulfillment of wishes, at this stage the main character possesses them himself or herself.
It is noteworthy that at first they may fool around—using these superpowers to play pranks on other people. For example, making them dance to their tune...
But they do EVERYTHING without malice. Even when dealing with some truly evil forces later on, they fight them joyfully and with kindness. They have no ill will toward anyone. Well, yes, Solovey the Brigand went too far, but in the end it was fun...
There is no need for me to kill him—he is a good fellow, he simply made the wrong choice of life path :)
Of course I will let him go.
No one uses siddhis maliciously. Even if they do use them, it is not to punish anyone, but simply to play around :)
As if to say, “Why have you gotten so angry? I didn’t come to argue with you. I have my own business here, and you immediately start whistling...”
Let’s be friends!
The point is that this is precisely the PRACTICE.
Until you become exactly LIKE THIS, siddhis will not come to you.
Or they may come, but only at the cost of unimaginable effort—and even then, you will be defeated by someone who acts with a pure heart.
Take Koschei, for example. He had siddhis too. He was fearsome. But he was defeated with ease. Playfully.
Having a pure heart, helping others, listening to the Guru, and moving in the right direction—that is what the fairy tales have already hinted to you.
 

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Stage in the fairy tale:
The transformation of the main character. Sometimes they feed, water, and wash him, as in the case of Baba Yaga; sometimes they throw him into fire, into water from a cliff, or start frightening him to death—watching how the hero will behave...

This stage of the fairy tale as a practice:
This clearly refers to initiation. Initiation means change. In other words, a person must change and become different for a new stage of life.
In India, saints are called Baba. For example: Sai Baba. Yaga—Yoga—in essence, is Yoga.
So think for yourselves: whom did the Fool come to? To a holy Yogi! Or to a holy Yogini.
Why?
To undergo the process of initiation.
And everything described in the fairy tale happened to him during the initiation.
It could also be a Yajna. Or a Puja. These are also processes of initiation.
In India, this is given enormous attention. A child is born—the Brahman is invited and a Yajna is performed. The child turns one—a Yajna. Gets married—a Yajna....
I’ll tell you even more. If you analyze your favorite fairy tale (truly your favorite), you will see how much you have in common with it. Perhaps you are seeking your Path precisely on its basis. I’m not joking! Many people are surprised by this. But when they take it seriously, they are shocked. Because even Teachers are often chosen precisely on the basis of the initiation from a favorite fairy tale (as a method).
For example, mine is Puss in Boots. And all my life I have striven toward That Power which would go ahead of me and arrange everything so that I would arrive to find the best possible conditions—conditions created by that Power.
 
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Don't you want to play the game? :)
It’s even scary for me to imagine that your childhood passed without fairy tales :)
 

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All messages have been deleted from the thread.
This is a game!
Off-topic posts will be deleted.
 

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A stage in a fairy tale: The title.
Many people know the expression: “As you name a ship, so shall it sail.” A title is always meaningful, and Sub-Tales can be seen in it. :)

My story
As a child, my grandmother would tell me the fairy tale Ole Lukøje specifically at bedtime. I remember how, when we were little, we would beg Grandma in the evening to come and tell us this fairy tale. A few days ago, I remembered it. But there is an important detail here: for some reason, I do not remember at all what Grandma told us—that is, what the plot was, at all! I remember only the TITLE. Perhaps I would fall asleep immediately; perhaps I needed it precisely this way: to remember only the title, so that later, as an adult, I could unpack the theme of the fairy tale.

What does this mean for me?
- A message from my past self has unfolded this way. In this incarnation, I need to study Dreams, the night, the Moon, ... the ellipsis is there because many other things are connected to this as well (my spiritual name is also related to this). Everything came together.
It was no coincidence that I once came to a Tibetan Teacher for a Dream Yoga Course, and it is no coincidence that here at OM Shanti I bought and am studying the M-Dreams Course.

This stage of the fairy tale as a practice:
A few days ago, while doing this practice, I looked it up on Wikipedia so that I could at least read what the fairy tale was about, since we loved listening to it so much.
It turns out that the fairy-tale character was someone who showed DREAMS to children. I was deeply surprised!

The next step in the practice: I tried listening to this fairy tale on YouTube, chose a nice version, and ... managed to listen to only a little of it; according to the plot, it was Monday and Tuesday. Then, just as in childhood, I fell asleep. o_O

A few days later, I made a little more progress and read the book.

Naturally, I am continuing my studies in M-Dreams and Rod-1 (the fairy tale is connected with my grandmother, and it is especially relevant now to work with all of this together). There is no limit to development; ever-expanding insight into the Topic is taking place.
 

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A stage in the fairy tale:
Interesting moments occur in many fairy tales when the main Fool of the story (incidentally, there is such a major Arcana in the Tarot—the Fool, so this game will definitely be useful for those who have completed my course — Descriptions of all paid School courses) sincerely falls in love with HER, the one who rejected everyone, even the greatest princes in the world.
But he understands that she is completely unattainable for him.
He has some business of his own with her father. He must complete three tasks to receive something from the king. In principle, it is just some trifle—half the kingdom, for example :)
His daughter—yes, she is beautiful, but could she possibly say yes to the Fool? Of course not. That is what the Fool thinks, and he gets on with his task.
And the funny thing is that all those great princes thought the opposite! They thought, “I’m a great prince, so bring me your princess, if you please...” Well, you get the idea :)
So this Fool keeps throwing himself into fire and water... and they should have killed him long ago.
But no. That very daughter secretly helps him...
Sometimes she gives him a handkerchief, sometimes a cloak, sometimes a ball of thread, sometimes God knows what else...
She saves him and constantly tells him how to succeed...
Why would she do that?
In the end, the Fool always succeeds thanks to this princess. With the help of her knowledge, advice, and assistance, he wins!
Yes, at first he thinks that he is so clever for completing the three tasks.
But his natural modesty eventually shows him here too that it was not him who did it all, but HER.
What was required of him, however, was the most important thing—to MAKE THE DECISION.
That is, the princess saw that he was literally walking toward DEATH. His determination was 100%.
That was the only reason she helped him. And there was something else—she had never seen people like that, with such determination. That is why she fell in love with the Fool.

This stage of the fairy tale as a practice:
In principle, today there is no particular point in me explaining the practice itself; after reading my description above, you have probably understood everything already.
No one will start helping you until you begin taking decisive steps!
Only sincere people receive help.
Like this Fool.
You need to be sincere in everything—in love, in friendship, in your desire to help others...
And you will be helped.
This important point can be seen in every fairy tale. Great determination and sincerity come from the main character. And EVERYTHING ELSE IS DONE BY HIGHER POWERS.
You can spend a long time guessing who this princess is.
Or the prince, if it is a woman’s fairy tale.
But the meaning is the same: it is a POWER that rejected EVERYONE. Yet “for some reason,” it helped THE ONE (or THE WOMAN) who seemed least deserving of it (outwardly)—plain-looking, useless, inept, a failure, mocked by everyone... But it was precisely HIM whom the Higher Power chose as the one to whom it was ready to devote ALL of itself.
 
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Namaste!
My sincere gratitude to OM Shanti for this very interesting and educational Game. I noticed that the posts the Teacher shared in this thread help us look at long-known, familiar details from fairy tales from a completely different angle. They help us pay closer attention to details that we previously did not perceive as clues. It turns out to be a very interesting spiritual practice!
And I decided to take a small part in this amazing esoteric game as well :)

A brief preface: my daughter is currently reading Alexander Pushkin’s fairy tale "The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of His Son, the Glorious and Mighty Bogatyr Prince Gvidon Saltanovich, and of the Beautiful Swan Princess" and I used it as the basis for my analysis.

Stage in the fairy tale:
By the will of the Higher Powers, the fairy tale’s heroes find themselves in a barrel and drift at the mercy of the waves. Earlier in the post, OM Shanti wrote about Initiation. This fairy tale describes a particular type of initiation in detail: a dark, small, enclosed space, unstable and subject to the will of the Ocean.
It embodies the precarious and unreliable state of the material world.
A small, inexperienced child finds himself in difficult circumstances that create the conditions for rapid growth and development.
The fairy-tale stage as a practice: temporary restriction of movement, darkness, instability—in order to attain balance and stability in one’s inner world. The small child’s maturation—becoming an adult and accepting an adult position. This is the position OM Shanti often speaks to us about.

Second stage: the prince’s rapid growth, as he grows in this educational space “not by days, but by hours.” Conclusion: Initiation grants rapid growth and development. Then comes the prince’s sincere prayer, in which he appeals to the wave and asks for help. The forces of the material world answer the prayer, completing this stage of initiation and confirming that the prince is ready for the next trials.
The fairy-tale stage as a practice: spiritual growth and, as a consequence, creating one’s own prayer.
A heartfelt prayer addressed to the Higher will always receive an answer. And the Higher Powers will help in any situation in the best possible way.

Third stage: doing a good deed for another character, as OM Shanti wrote. (The prince saves the Swan Princess.)

The next stage: the austerity undertaken by the hero. The princess, symbolizing the Good Force, explained the need for fasting and the benefits of austerity.
This fairy tale speaks of a three-day fast:
“You are a prince, my savior,
My mighty liberator,
Do not grieve that for my sake
You will eat nothing for three days.”

The fairy-tale stage as a practice: it may be assumed that this refers to the day before Ekadashi, the Ekadashi fast itself, and the day after Ekadashi. Thus, a three-day fast.)

Stage in the fairy tale: longing for the Higher Father and the desire to find the way to Him. Everything the prince seeks is the path to the Supreme and His Kingdom of God.
“Greetings, my fair prince!
Why are you quiet, like a stormy day?
What has saddened you?”
She says to him.
The prince sadly replies:
“Grief and longing consume me,
They have overcome the young man:
I would like to see my father.”


The hero uses every possible means to draw closer to the Higher and eventually finds a way to see the Spiritual World:
“He sees Tsar Saltan, all aglow in gold,
Sitting in his chamber,
On his throne and wearing a crown,
With a sorrowful thought upon his face.”

The fairy-tale stage as a practice: the hero is constantly helped by the Goddess—the Higher Energy—in his relentless movement and search, and he gradually draws closer to his Goal.

Stage in the fairy tale: as OM Shanti noted
And here is another practice—how to begin HEARING what is being said in the Higher Worlds.

And here is a clue straight from fairy tales—be a fool and you will hear :)
In this fairy tale, the hero pays close attention to what he hears in the Higher Worlds and carefully prepares everything with care and love in order to attract the attention of the Higher. He notices anything that might attract the attention of the Higher Power toward which he aspires so strongly.
Using siddhis—turning into a mosquito—the hero attentively listens to what is being said there, in the Higher Abode.
The fairy-tale stage as a practice: finding everything that will help one draw closest to the Higher. I think this refers to constant remembrance of God, performing Sadhana, and devoted service.
In the fairy tale, the hero reached his Goal, having traveled his particular Path, following the clues and the call of his Soul.
 

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A stage in the fairy tale: “Go there, I don’t know where, and bring back something—I don’t know what...”

Ever since childhood, these words in the fairy tale have puzzled me greatly, evoking a sense of bewilderment and, to some extent, rejection). How can you go somewhere if you do not even know which direction to take? How can you bring back something without even knowing what it is?:unsure:
Obtain something that even the person giving the order, the one assigning the task, does not know about? Especially since sometimes the task was given to the protagonist not for the sake of the task itself, but in order to test him, or perhaps even destroy him..

Interestingly, in the fairy tale of the same name, even the task of going to the other world and visiting the deceased tsar did not prove difficult for the hero.. Yes, the Goddess—the Higher Power—helped him with this. She showed him the way and gave him her guidance.
But at the same time, the hero himself performed kind and just deeds, which ultimately helped him find friends and comrades’ support.
The next task was to go to the thrice-ninth realm, to the thrice-tenth kingdom. This, too, did not prove difficult for the Higher Power who was teaching the hero.

But the most difficult and seemingly impossible task turned out to be finding that Unknown, Inexpressible, Incomprehensible.. A certain Absolute Power that cannot be heard or seen.. Until That Power responds of its own accord..
And which can go with you only of Its own free will and desire.. Go with you when it sees your sincerity, honesty, and kindness.

A stage in the fairy tale as a practice:
We see how the hero’s readiness and determination guide him, point out the way, and make him move forward. Not for the sake of the task itself, nor for his own sake, and not for praise or glory.., but in order to help the one who is waiting for liberation, hoping and believing in him.
The protagonist is driven by the desire to complete the task before him and solve it at any cost, ultimately attaining freedom for his Soul.
Love drives the protagonist; it helps him perform the most incredible deeds and find what the hero himself could never even have imagined..

Another conclusion that can be drawn from this stage is that there will always be Someone who knows exactly how to complete even the most unimaginably difficult task.
It is important to move forward, perform kind deeds, do what you are told, and, most importantly—trust..
💫 💞🙏
 

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Namaste!🙏
The fairy tale "Cinderella" came to me yesterday in meditation and began unfolding through images and meanings. I hadn’t even been thinking about it—it is revealing itself on its own.
I remember that as a child, this fairy tale deeply impressed and amazed me with its kind magic.
I didn’t read the fairy tale; I saw it at the cinema. In the past, watching films at the cinema was perceived as entering another wondrous space, where an invisible connection with some wisdom took place—moving and captivating.

Stage in the fairy tale:
By the will of fate, a young girl born to a kind and beautiful mother comes under the care of an evil, grumbling stepmother and her capricious daughters.
This stage shows how the soul enters a material world alien to its nature, where all values are reduced to external adornment and pleasure.

Stage in the fairy tale as a practice:
Awareness: remembering yourself and maintaining a calm attitude toward what is happening around you.

Stage in the fairy tale:
Difficulties and trials ordained by fate. The girl has to do the dirtiest work and fulfill every whim of the grumbling stepmother and her daughters.

Stage in the fairy tale as a practice:
When you remember who you are, you accept all difficulties and trials humbly and carry out every task with love and kindness.

Stage in the fairy tale:
Asceticism. The girl sleeps in the attic on straw rather than in a comfortable room with a soft feather bed.

Stage in the fairy tale as a practice:
This is the way of life of a true yogi.
It can also be noted that the girl slept higher than everyone else, under the roof. This means she was under the protection of the Higher Powers—Kryshen.
She remembered this connection in her heart and carefully preserved it. The girl had a Godmother—a Fairy Enchantress—and she knew this, but asked for nothing for herself.

Stage in the fairy tale:
Transformation. From a dirty, downtrodden girl—Cinderella—into a princess.

Stage in the fairy tale as a practice:
When the time comes, the Higher Powers always hear the sincere desire of the heart and help.
First, they give her a chance and a test: to attend the Ball while following special rules and return on time. They make the impossible transformation possible. The girl fulfills these conditions the first time; the second time, she loses her crystal slipper. It might seem like a blunder, but it is precisely this "blunder" that connects her with the goal of her entire life.
The crystal slipper symbolizes the inner purity with which the Higher Powers initiated her. The girl accepted and preserved it worthily—the slipper fit her foot, and her foot fit the slipper.
I feel that this is connected with the theme of the foot in our Mahapurna School. Perhaps an insight will come about how to understand this.
 

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A fairy tale is something told to children before bedtime. It has Ivan the Fool, Baba Yaga, Koschei the Deathless, an enchanted forest, talking animals, mysterious old men, a ball of thread that shows the way, and inevitably some far-off Thrice-Ninth Kingdom.

The child listens.

The adult smiles.

But perhaps it is the adult who understands less than the child at that moment.

Because an ancient fairy tale may have been created not merely for entertainment.

It may have concealed a map.

Not a map of lands, not a description of an unknown country, and not even a set of moral rules.

A map of the human path.

The researcher of Russian folktales Vladimir Propp discovered a remarkable pattern: despite entirely different characters and circumstances, many fairy tales are built around a recurring sequence of events. Names, objects, animals, and places change—but the inner structure of the hero’s journey remains remarkably stable.

This makes us look at fairy tales differently.

Perhaps what we have before us is not merely the free play of the folk imagination.

What we have before us is an ancient way of preserving a certain structure of knowledge, passing it from generation to generation.

And the most interesting thing is that this knowledge could be passed on even when the storyteller herself no longer understood its original meaning.

A grandmother told a fairy tale to her granddaughter.

Decades later, the granddaughter told it to her own child.

The words, intonations, and some details of the plot changed.

But the skeleton of the fairy tale continued to live.

As if the form itself protected what had once been placed within it.

A fairy tale does not convey information
There is knowledge that can be written down.

A recipe, for example.

A formula.

A historical date.

But there are things that are almost impossible to convey through explanation.

You can describe love a thousand times to someone who has never loved—and still they will not know what love is.

You can tell someone in detail about the fear of death—but words will not provide the experience of the boundary itself.

You can write a treatise on inner rebirth—but reading it will not make a person reborn.

And this is where the fairy tale appears.

It works in an entirely different way.

It does not say:

“Now I will tell you about the structure of a person’s spiritual transformation.”

It says:

Once upon a time, there lived Ivan…

And the person enters the forest.

Loses the way.

Meets a strange creature.

Crosses a forbidden boundary.

Finds themselves where an ordinary person cannot go.

Loses something.

Something dies.

Something is found.

And they return already changed.

That is why the fairy tale is viewed not as the transmission of abstract information, but as a form of transmitting the structure of experience. The hero symbolically passes through the death of an old state, the emptiness of transition, and the birth of a new one.

And here the true mystery of the fairy tale begins.

Because the listener walks beside the hero.

Not with their feet.

With their consciousness.

With their imagination.

With their feelings.

When the hero enters the dark forest, some part of us enters it with them.

When Baba Yaga’s hut appears before them, we too find ourselves before the boundary of the unknown.

When the hero goes where one might not return, an ancient pattern of crossing into the unknown is experienced within us.

That is why a fairy tale can be viewed as a kind of meditation disguised as a narrative.

A person is simply listening to a story.

But the story gradually leads them through certain inner states.

The fairy-tale forest begins where the familiar world ends
In ancient fairy tales, the hero almost never receives what matters most at home.

They have to leave to find it.

Cross the threshold.

Leave the familiar village.

Enter the forest.

Cross the river.

Enter another world.

This is a very ancient image.

Because every real change in a person begins precisely where the familiar ends.

As long as everything is clear, safe, and predictable, we remain the same.

But one day a boundary appears.

Beyond it, it is no longer possible to live by the old rules.

This is where Baba Yaga appears.

If we look at her not as the grotesque old woman from a children’s cartoon, but as an archetypal image, she becomes an entirely different being.

She stands at the boundary between worlds.

Her dwelling lies between familiar human space and the unknown. Meeting Baba Yaga is interpreted as a test before the transition: does the person understand where they have come, sense the laws of the other realm, and stand ready to continue the journey?

Then it becomes clear why Baba Yaga both frightens and helps.

She is not necessarily evil.

But neither is she goodness in the usual sense.

She is the guardian of the threshold.

This image appears again and again in the world’s spiritual traditions.

Before a transition, a person must encounter something that will test them.

A Buddhist practitioner will meet their own fear.

A yogi—the limitations of their consciousness.

A shaman—the spirits of the boundary.

The hero of a Russian fairy tale—Baba Yaga.

The names differ.

The inner mechanics are remarkably similar.

The Thrice-Ninth Kingdom is much closer than it seems
In fairy tales, we constantly hear:

“Beyond thrice nine lands, in the Thrice-Ninth Kingdom…”

We take this as a beautiful way of saying: very far away.

But the mystical language of the fairy tale offers another possibility.

The Thrice-Ninth Kingdom may not be a geographical place.

It begins when a person finds themselves beyond the limits of their familiar reality.

The former life has already ended.

The new one has not yet appeared.

The old answers no longer work.

There are no new ones yet.

And for the first time, the person does not know who they are now.

There it is—the Thrice-Ninth Kingdom.

This image is understood precisely this way: as a state in the middle of a serious transition, when former bearings have been destroyed and new ones have not yet arisen.

Almost everyone finds themselves in such a place at least once.

A relationship ends.

A former job is left behind.

Faith in what once seemed unshakable disappears.

An old self-image falls apart.

And a strange timelessness begins.

The person thinks:

“Something is happening to me.”

And an ancient fairy tale might say:

You have simply entered the Thrice-Ninth Kingdom.

Do not rush to consider the emptiness a mistake.

Sometimes emptiness is the space between two lives.

Everyone has their own Koschei
Koschei the Deathless is especially interesting.

He cannot be defeated by ordinary means.

His death is not within him.

It is hidden.

You must find the chest.

Inside the chest is a hare.

Inside the hare is a duck.

Inside the duck is an egg.

Inside the egg is a needle.

And only when the hero reaches the final point does Koschei’s power end.

If we perceive this as mystical psychology, a remarkably precise image emerges.

Sometimes a person is held for decades not by an external force.

They are held by something hidden deep within.

An old grievance.

Fear.

A vow once made to themselves.

Attachment.

An idea of what they must be.

On the surface, the problem may seem enormous.

But its “death” lies somewhere very deep—in one fine inner needle.

And as long as it remains intact, Koschei is immortal.

This is precisely the sequence of inner searching offered by the interpretation of Koschei: liberation comes not through fighting an external figure, but through gradually penetrating to the hidden cause of what keeps a person in the past.

That is why an ancient fairy tale can sometimes prove wiser than direct advice.

It does not tell a person:

“You have a psychological fixation.”

It shows them an egg, a duck, a hare, a chest, and Koschei.

And the image reaches places a dry formula cannot.

That is why a fairy tale should not only be read
An ancient fairy tale is best approached in the same way as meditation.

Do not hurry to explain it.

Do not rush to ask:

“What did the author want to say?”

Perhaps no one knows anymore what the first person to tell this story a thousand years ago wanted to say.

It is better to ask differently:

What does this fairy tale show me?

Where is my forest now?

Where is my threshold?

Who is my Baba Yaga?

What must I leave behind before continuing the journey?

At what point in my life have I entered the Thrice-Ninth Kingdom?

What holds me like Koschei?

Where is that very needle hidden?

And what in me must die—not physically, of course, but inwardly—so that something new can be born?

Then the fairy tale ceases to be literature.

It becomes a practice.

You can read it slowly in the evening, without analysis, and then close your eyes.

Walk through the hero’s path again in your imagination.

Do not observe Ivan from the outside—become Ivan.

Enter the forest.

Approach the hut.

Feel the boundary.

Receive the ball of thread.

Go where you are afraid to go.

See your own Thrice-Ninth Kingdom.

And ask yourself:

What am I looking for there?

This is already very close to ancient forms of inner journeying.

Because a true fairy tale does not so much tell a person something new as awaken what already lies within them.

Perhaps the fairy tales are still waiting for us
The most astonishing thing is that such a system could survive for centuries precisely because of its apparent simplicity.

Treatises are destroyed.

Teachings are banned.

Temples are demolished.

Languages are forgotten.

But try forbidding a grandmother from telling her grandchild the story of Ivan, who once entered a dark forest.

Through her, the fairy tale continues onward.

And perhaps the storyteller no longer understands the full depth of the images.

It does not matter.

The form continues to carry the content.

This is the idea running through the source material: a story can preserve a structure even when the people passing it on no longer realize what exactly they are preserving.

That is why old fairy tales deserve to be treated with greater care.

Especially the strange ones.

Especially those in which much seems illogical.

And especially those that have reached us from the depths of the centuries.

Because behind the simple words:

“In a certain kingdom, in a certain state…”

A door may open.

And it is unknown who once left it ajar for us.

Perhaps it really is just a fairy tale.

Or perhaps fairy tale was once the name for what today we would call a spiritual practice, an inner map, and a journey of consciousness.

And then the words:

“Once upon a time…”

mean not the beginning of an imaginary story at all.

They mean:

the journey begins.
 
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