With our children we sometimes use stories that mirror energetically a situation they are experiencing in order for them to process what is happening and find their own inner strength to face the situation without getting direct information that may be too freightening, personal or detailed for their developmental age.
As adults we learn to dissociate ourselves from a crisis when we are in it – in a similar way. By becoming observers of the situation from our soul/highest self and being very present. When we can take ourselves out of the crisis and observe it from the higher perspective we can navigate the drama and move through to a resolution more easily. A pedagogical story helps a child learn this tool of presence and observation.
Here is a story I have written for my own kids recently:
Once in a land not so far away and not so long ago there was a King and a Queen. They lived in a castle on a beautiful knoll overlooking the sea with their horse, Winney and two adorable children, Lion and Tanzy.
Lion and Tanzy liked to run in the fields and slay dragons on the knoll. They made fairy houses and lived a loving and beautiful life. But they were afraid of the dark like all children in their kingdom. They went to a magic school with other children. Their teachers were wizards who taught them everything they needed to know about how to live and rule their land when they grew up.
In the castle, Lion had a room way up in the tower that he had to climb into with a special ladder that his father, The King had built. Tanzy liked to stay close to her mom in the downstairs room near the kitchen where she could always smell the bread that the Queen baked and the delicious food that she prepared for her family. The Queen loved to cook and tend her garden. They had lots of helpers who worked in the garden and took care of the land for them.
One day some new helpers arrived from a different land. They seemed happy to have a place to stay and work to do because they had traveled from far away and needed a shelter. The king showed them the garden and where they could work and then they went to bed in a small shelter near the garden, agreeing to come work the next morning.
The next morning the helpers did not come to work in the garden. The king thought maybe they didn’t want to work in his garden so the King showed them a different garden at the magic school where they could work. and again they agreed they would work in the garden at the magic school the next morning and went to sleep that night in the shelter. The next morning the helpers never went to the garden at the magic school to work. The King and the head wizard of the school kept offering the weary travelers work in the garden in exchange for for staying in the shelter in their kingdom and sometimes they would come to work but mostly they would not.
Finally the wizard and the King asked the travelers to move on. The travelers became enraged and said they didn’t want to leave. They had planned to stay as long as possible. But the king and wizard insisted and gave them 30 days to find a new home.
The travelers began to complain to the villagers who also sent their children to the magic school and who worked in the garden. One villager in particular was really a confused witch with super powers. She had the power to mix up a potion and cast spells but she often got the potion wrong and cast the spell in the wrong direction. She had been confused like that since she was a child and no one could untangle her on the inside.
When she heard the travelers complaining about the King she started to make a potion that would help them feel better but she mixed it up and cast it in the wrong direction. The spell made the Kings knights think that the King was evil and that the prince and princess were in danger. Wanting to protect the prince and princess they hid them in the cellar of the castle to keep them safe from the evil King while they decided what to do.
When the Queen could not find her children she was besides herself. She was worried sick and very sad. So she called all the wizards and good village people to come help. Some of the good people were also good witches and they were able to break the spell so that the knights would return brave Lion and Tanzy back from the cellar into the loving arms of their father and mother the King and Queen.
Lion and Tanzy never forgot what it was like in the cellar and they told all of their friends how make it more cozy if everything got mixed up again and they ever got taken to the cellar by the knights. They told their friends how to open the window really high up so the light would come in and warm them. Because of their experience children in their village stopped being afraid of the dark.
For awhile the confused witch continued to mix up potions and cast them in the wrong direction and so the magic school and the castle had to put up some very strong shields and boundaries until the wise men and women in their village could cook up a medicine in the Queen’s kitchen to cure her. And so they did and I’ve heard that over time the kingdom returned to happiness and joy and all the children grew up to be fierce and brave healers in their kingdom helping all the people who passed through to become better.
