Emerging into the World (Leah's Story)

"The Princess who became Real"

When the princess was born she was taken and left at the entrance to a great maze.

It was winter and she crawled inside to get warm. She kept crawling as she could feel there was warmth at the heart of the maze.

The maze was green and beautiful, she held the princess in her arms for many days and many nights.

At night, the stars twinkled through and she was wrapped in luminous colours, the glowing patches of light from other worlds.

She longed to stay.

But one morning she woke up and saw she had left herself in body. She saw herself outside cold and pinched and stiff in the snow.

So she crawled out. She crawled and crawled and crawled to her body. She cried tears and she climbed inside. She was grieving to enter the world again.

She didn't know what happened after that. She could never remember any of it.

But one day she found herself walking. It was summer time. It was warm. She was surrounded by beauty. She stretched her limbs and then she ran.

She ran and ran across the whole world.

Leah

Published in Making Moves Newsletter Spring 2004

 

Commentary by Claire

This story was written by Leah (her name has been changed), a member of a personal development group I have been working with for almost a year. I had asked the group to write a story that they would be interested in exploring dramatically.

Leah took the role of the princess and the group created the maze out of chairs and coloured cloths. Leah wanted the curtains closed so that an enclosed, safe world was created. It was very important to Leah that she was dumped at the entrance of the maze by the group, whilst a tape of a baby's heart beat was being played. Leah slowly crawled into the maze, guided by the rest of the group. As she arrived in the centre, the group gathered around and became the Maze Mother offering nurture and support. Leah said that it felt impermanent—she knew she couldn't stay there. Another group member began to cry as Leah's story had touched something deep inside her.

Leah chose one of the group to represent her body and it was important for her that her “body” lay on a white cloth to simulate the snow. Slowly Leah crawled out of the maze emotion welled up inside her and she struggled to move her own body, she seemed to be trying to cast off a burden she was carrying so she could enter the world. The group moved around her after she had released the burden and she cried in their arms.

An important moment came when Leah felt an impulse to move, to move out in the world. First she walked then she began to run and run. The “Chariots of Fire” music by Vangellis was played and the whole group ran with her, running to express her being part of the world and belonging to the world.

Leah's story was about birth, and the difficulty of living in the world. Many of us although we have been physically born do not feel we have really entered the world. Leah's story put into metaphorical language the process of being conceived, of being dumped at the entrance of the maze (womb) and having to crawl into the centre of the maze to discover its containing warmth.

For Leah this maze became a magical and transforming place where she was connected to awarenesses beyond herself. It was healing for her to be contained and held by the group and to feel their support when at times she has felt held by the group and to feel their support when at times she has felt excluded or on the outside of the group. It was healing too for her to symbolically enact re-joining her body as a way of affirming her willingness to be part of the world, of being real—instead of feeling detached and separated.

For me a very significant part of the story is the moment that the princess finds herself out in the world, surrounded by the beauty of the world (perhaps it connected her to the beauty of the maze) and she suddenly finds the impulse to run. It expressed the moment of realisation when suddenly things feel OK, when what felt so hard and painful is now just a memory. This moment might happen some time after the healing work or catharsis has taken place, it is not dramatic or cataclysmic, but quiet. It is a moment when a sense of happiness is felt when it is possible to move forward and to embrace what life has to offer. It is a moment of noticing that “life is beautiful”.