Shadows and Evil in Fairy Tales
Franz, Marie-Louise von. Shadows and Evil in Fairy Tales. Spring Publications, 1974. Softbound. Cover design by Jeffrey Isaac. In 1933, at the age of 18, von Franz was invited along with seven of her classmates to Carl Jung's Bollingen Tower, a 'decisive encounter' in the young woman's life which precipitated an understanding of the profound reality of myths and symbols when the analytical psychology founder told the group about a 'mentally ill woman, who [actually, not to be taken symbolically] lived on the moon'. Von Franz went on to train under Jung, doing translation work in payment for his mentorship and attempting to decipher alchemical manuscripts (including the Aurora consurgens and the Musaeum hermeticum), an experience that would influence her later analyses of phenomena including the I Ching, the visions of Saint Perpetua, and, as articulated in this book, the shadow work implicit in folktales and fairy stories. 'One must never hurt the helpful animal in fairy tales. . . .' she writes. 'If you do not listen to the helpful animal or bird, or whatever it is, if any animal gives you advice and you don't follow it, then you are finished. In the hundreds and hundreds of stories, that is the one rule that has no exception.'
