The Maiden Stuffed with Puppet Strings, a fairy tale for enlightenment

Stoke the fire on this chill and leafy autumn night. Though you’re sleepy from our heavy meal, keep wide awake. The crone is ready to tell her tiny tale, so open you mind and heart and find what meaning you will.

 

 

There was a maiden who was neither pretty nor good at heart, a calamity.

Her tongue was sharp, and she found fault in others as a matter of course. This led to a glaring absence of suitors upon her father’s front porch.

Every night she stared at the stars from her bedroom window and knew this: God had made her wrong.

A traveling puppet show arrived in our maiden’s village one fine summer evening. As fate would have it, when the colorful curtain parted, a villain-puppet appeared which bore an uncanny physical resemblance to our maiden. Not only this. The villain-puppet called the other puppets bad names and was overall insufferable.

Eyes turned in our maiden’s direction. Her name did float upon the warm and pleasant air, and there was much snickering laughter. At last, our maiden’s father and mother did rush away with tears and rosy faces.

The maiden felt dizzy as her heart failed to beat. No part of her body would move, not even her lips. Fervently, she willed herself to vanish from the world, so great was her humiliation. An old crone moved beside her and asked why she did weep.

“They all believe me to be the awful puppet!” our maiden whispered with rage.    

“And so you are,” the crone agreed. “But notice how the villain-puppet knows not what it does. Puppets are not real. And yet this one pulls its own strings, no matter there is someone behind the curtain who wishes to do so. I suppose you had not noticed.” The crone eyed our maiden. “I can rid you of the puppet, but there is a price.”

Our maiden first glared at the rude puppet which indeed pulled its own strings. Second she glared at the crone. “What does your foolish talk mean? Never mind. I only want to be rid of that puppet!” 

“Then you must cough up every lie in which you have faith. I can help. Hold still.” The crone grasped our maiden’s chin, pried open her jaw, and shoved a hand and arm down our maiden’s throat. With a grunt, the crone yanked out a tangled wad of puppet strings, dropping them upon the ground. 

Our maiden blinked in surprise. “I never knew I was a puppet!” 

Without her swallowed puppet strings, our maiden had nothing to believe. All of sudden, she became someone entirely quiet and unknown. “All this time, I am what stands behind the curtain!” she blurted. 

“And wanting to come out. This is true of everyone else as well,” added the wise crone. “Therefore, go, and call no one bad names.”

After this, our maiden was set free. No longer did she entertain false notions that God had made herself or anyone else wrong. Puppets were not real! And so, it made good sense to come out from behind the curtain and be kind to all she met.

Next a curious thing did happen: many in the village did cough up puppet strings. 

Heaven on earth is like this.

 

 

If an angel named Clarence visited you, and suddenly you were like George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life, with no history BUT ALSO WITH NO MEMORY…

Who would you be? Right here and now, who are you? If you can’t identify yourself by the curtain of your gender, name, personal history, talents, career, nothing at all—things get very quiet. The puppet collapses. And so, the curtain may as well come down.

Enter the Real You.

Be still, and sense into who you truly are. It will pass all your current understandings and take you into peace. And compassion. For our maiden forevermore was known to show great compassion to all who still believed in shame.

 

A FEW RELEVANT QUOTES TO TAKE YOUR TIME AND PONDER:

 

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players

~As You Like It, Shakespeare

 

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

~Luke 23:34

 

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human

experience.

~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 

 

Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and over again.

~ Joseph Campbell 

 

“Enlightenment means waking up to what you truly are and then being that.”

~Adyashanti