The Mermaids Tale

The Mermaid’s Tale

Copyright © 2024 by Sophia Delaat

ISBN: 979-8-3303-0382-3 (Paperback)

979-8-3303-0383-0 (Ebook)

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without thepriorwritten permission of the publisher, except in the case brief quotations embodied reviews and other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

The views expressed in this book are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Paper Wrights, LLC

www.paperwrights.co

Soulfulness is an apt description for the mermaid’s quest.

…. the union of person and community, the masculine and feminine the word and the deed, the fairytale and the reality.

Sophia’s depth and scope in describing literature, luminaries, destinations, life experiences, and world events across millennia is phenomenal.

Dr. Sharon Votel

Professor of Human Development

Saint Mary’s University, Minneapolis, MN

For Rian and

in loving memory of Nina LaVern

Love is the triumph of imagination over intellect.

H.L. Mencken

Contents

Prefacevi

Prologuex

Chapter 1 Nothing Is Small1

Chapter 2 Mermaids, the Grail, and Pollywog Tails37

Chapter 3 Dragons Be Here74

Chapter 4 It’s Been a Privilege to Serve You96

Chapter 5 The Shift as Flowering Plane122

Chapter 6 The Scent of the Rose150

Chapter 7 Phantasies166

Chapter 8 All Things Are New173

Quotation References192

Acknowledgements207

References208

About the Author212

PREFACE

An African proverb relates a sad truth:

When an elder dies, a library burns to the ground…

These words resound across cultures. Not only does the library burn down, but in today’`s society, a life well lived is seldom questioned, celebrated, or inspected. Even if the desire to share is present, can anyone answer a question not asked? As I approach my elder years I have chosen to share my story before my library burns down. What is this web of time and what makes living worth the struggle, especially if drugs, money, and sex do not capture your soul? A small still voice whispers to me, Do not forget, do not forget, do not forget to remember. Bit by bit the tale of my life fits together. I am delighted to find upon inspection that I do have something to say.

Not to brag, but as a woman, I have endured the major initiations of surviving the 1950s, ‘’’60s’ and, etc. decades to face a patriarchy, unprepared to stand on my own two feet. My life has been a crash course majoring in physical and spiritual healing. I claim no innocence having been seduced and fallen prey to a multitude of sins. Disappointment has been my family’s poison causing me to collapse in the face of failures. I have been homeless, a single mother, banished from my family, been reborn and resurrected to be patched together by prayer and grace only to be put back on the only path worth following; the practice of becoming a decent enough vessel to hold the precious substance of spirit.

The Mermaid’s Tale proposes a perspective on becoming seen through the lens of sacred texts including myth and fairytale. These stories contain images of soul craft and transformation. They are not to be read, memorized to be test ready, quoting chapter and verse but are living stories we can recognize as we become the heroine in the journey towards autonomy and self-reliance.

When I used to read fairytales;

I fancied that kind of thing never happened

And here I am in the middle of one.

Lewis Carroll

Stories can be medicine that acts as a digestive agent akin to photosynthesis turning experience into wisdom. Robbed of this psychosynthesis (a new word for direct experience) the would-be initiate is tricked into believing truth can be read in a book. Truth is not simple or linear but conveyed as a story to be lived. It is often paradoxical requiring the reconciliation of opposites, solving a conundrum or koan. The reward is the great A HA! that accompanies enlightenment. Albert Einstein would agree with me as he too championed the worthiness of fairy tales.

If you want your children to be intelligent,

Read them fairy tales.

If you want them to be more intelligent,

Read them more fairy tales.

Certainly, tales are multinational and are also interrupted on different levels of understanding of the human condition. Freud, Rudolf Steiner, Carl Jung, and Wolfgang Goethe would also agree with me that fairy tales nurture the dream life and feed the imagination. Symbols or archetypes assist the psyche in negotiating the waking consciousness. My 22 years as a Waldorf teacher taught me how desperate is the need for not only the young child to experience stories and fairy tales, but also the adult. These imaginations of transformation reach into the deepest recesses of the body, mind, and will to foster creativity, the elixir of becoming more truly human.

I had no idea what I would discover when I started on The Mermaid’s Tale. The longer I sat with each question, the more I realized to what extent the feminine aspect of humanity has been amputated from history. Amputated may sound like a harsh word for the veiling, shrouding, and circumcision of women in order that any man’s head not be turned to seduction. I believe attraction is so extreme that the men of history have had to overpower and control the object of desire. Women are not innocent in this tragedy. Everyone uses what power they may have to get what they want. What we read in so many tales are that it is now time for men and women to take control of history and redeem the kingdom. Learning to ride a horse, play an instrument, or carve a gourd requires the would-be artist to know the rules of engagement and the language of the discipline. Language is so important, especially today when words can take on different meanings. Symbols and archetypes stem from a meaning much deeper than individual perception. Learning the world of stories requires further study. They can be our daily bread.

The Brothers Grimm are responsible for the greater work of recording a treasury of stories that led to the study of folklore. Stories like Mother Holle, a Grimm’s tale, reward those who meet everyday tasks with joy and diligence. The Italian tale of The Three Oranges warns that the solution to a problem may be presented by the least suspecting intruder on the journey. Another Grimm’s story, Rumplestilkin tells us that knowing the secret name of things reveals that straw can be spun into gold. Perhaps this world is more supernatural than we have been educated to believe.

I have, however, chosen three tales for The Mermaid’s Tale to point to a tender birthing of the feminine soul that is much more than women‘s liberation. The time has come for the reclaiming of the kingdom lost in the pursuit of money and power. It is time to reclaim the pursuit of the beautiful, to engage in art, and care for the earth as the original mandate for life on this planet. This is the threshold of the SHIFT in consciousness when the unseen values of compassion and integrity are honored as much if not more than the bottom line. These tales have been my tales, but they are also the story of our collective soul as we approach a flowering plane of self-discovery. Nature has her story as well. In the language Goethe may have used, a plant yearns for the light. The flowering process is a part of the plant’s yearning to becoming more, so much more that some plants have learned to produce fruit. The plant’s activity is interesting enough to connect to the next kingdoms of birds and bees. If interesting enough, human creativity can be the elixir to connect to the next kingdom as well - The Angelic Kingdom.

If we as a species have forgotten how to connect, then dreaming, learning the language of symbol and archetype, and seeking the love of the deed are connecting and remembering that life is a gift of discovery.

Teach me to hear the mermaid’s singing.

John Donne

PROLOGUE

What has been will be again,

What has been done will be done again.

There is nothing new under the sun.

This passage from Ecclesiastics 1:9 has gone undisputed for thousands of years, and for those thousands of years, human beings have been assembling and deconstructing these multiple expressions of a Supreme Unknown. The enigma of what is a human being is equally challenging, especially when we move beyond the notion that a human being is incidental as a determining factor in earthly evolution. In his novel, Stranger In a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein labeled attempts at arriving at basic Truths: to Grok. Grok describes intelligence at work as thought: interpreting, synthesizing, and extrapolating impressions in an attempt to decode the essence of the moment. Miraculously, astute questioning leads to answers that seem to fit together in ever-expanding patterns, much like the self-replicating pentagrams.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when families held most of the community’s population in a congruent interpretation of its Truth. Boys were initiated into the family business, guild, or farm at an early age, and girls seldom questioned that their lives would differ very much from their mothers’. Those days of following in the footsteps of a family member have been abandoned. There are now precious few absolute truths or leaders to show the way. Tragically our young are now left to their own devices to create meaning from life’s trials and tribulations.

The resulting dissonance obscures emerging patterns, inhibiting the best of us from being able to grok personal revelation. That being said, I have experienced the great nothing and come to some theories of my own. I have traveled extensively and have lived in more places than I can recount; each move, no matter how far, was another beginning. I have become practiced in the reconstruction of my life and am familiar enough with the process to determine what is essential. This rolling stone has been broken and repaired but has gathered little moss.

Many philosophers, thinkers, and tinkers of the world have influenced me, but Rudolf Steiner and Wolfgang von Goethe have inspired me to love what I do and trust the silent voice of personal revelation. My initiations, however, have not been at the feet of great masters, but by children and through fairy tales. I thank innumerable children who have given me grace and allowed me into their world of wonder where there is the possibility of joy, imagination, and creativity. To know this possibility has been remarkable.

Symbolically, a circle illustrates the intimate connection to everything that the child naturally has prior to, oddly enough, the change of teeth. The lack of what an adult would call judgment allows impressions direct access to the slumbering soul. A child orders these chaotic sense experiences to form the basic constructs of her worldview. However, this tender time of childhood is threatened today.

Young children are rushed to decisions without the benefit of experience on which to base an opinion as simple as whether or not they prefer soda or milk. Indecisive parents look to their children for clues for bedtime, what to fix for dinner, or even what to buy at the grocery store. It is as if adults fear the authority to know what a human being requires to develop the gifts and talents this world so dearly needs. The lack of meaningful rhythm, early intellectualization, and exposure to technology have arrested the child’s natural ability to play. A part of the young heart becomes frozen by predetermined concepts.

Human beings are only fully human when they play,

and they only play when they are human

in the fullest sense of the word.

—Schiller, poet of freedom

Children test moment to moment just to find out what we are made of. They have taught me that no matter what the curriculum, we (teachers and parents) not only teach who we are, but who we aspire to be; we teach our intentions. This is what children want to know first and foremost. Any arbitrary use of authority or power to gain access or control of them is met with a variety of resistances. These assaults on childhood break down the dream, a natural protection of childhood. The greatest gift a child can receive is to gently wake from this dream so that imagination and intelligence can meld into living thinking. From out of the circle, the unique individuality emerges to master left- right orientation or linear capacities.

Fairy tales are written in the language of pictures and with every telling, a tale can take on a new significance. This is the language of the dream where everyone is everything. Dreams are where we go to make sense of the world we encounter in the harsh light of day. In the land of the fairy tale, pearls are mermaid’s tears. Pearls are created by a minor irritation out of which, over time, the oyster creates a valuable treasure. Gratefully I have transformed little and large irritants into pearls of varying degrees of perfection. The Mermaid’s Tale is how I have strung these pearls of experience into something of value. Surely, nothing less will do, as this is the very foundation on which individual freedom is built.

Whosoever survives a test, whatever it may be,

must tell the story. That’s his (her) duty.

—Elie Wiesel, 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner

Free, living thought is the evolutionary goal of spiritual development. The Mermaid’s Tale is not meant to be an absolute Truth, but these are my thoughts, my Truth, and the best representation of the Truth that has led to an intimate conversation with the powers that create me. One Truth I will hold fast to is that in any circumstance, we have the choice to enjoy the ride or not. Simply said, it is best to choose to enjoy it. Charnie Lewis, my favorite riding instructor, told me, Smile, your horse knows if you are enjoying the ride! I have found this to be the best advice in any circumstance.

The writing of The Mermaid’s Tale has given heart to my experience— so much so that I highly recommend the process to anyone over sixty, or with enough life experience to have wisdom based on personal ahas and revelations. I am interested in thinking that redefines established premises. These thoughts don’t have to be magnificent revelations that challenge a world order like whether or not the earth is round or flat, Galileo’s confrontation with the Catholic Church, or the Declaration of Independence that established the value of freedom. What I find most interesting is not research filled with statistics, but in how personal limitations have been creatively redefined. Every victory towards independence, from learning to walk through developmental stages that mark the emerging self is a reason for celebration. How a person becomes real is a matter that should concern all of us.

Some friends are able to shine through life, even making the daily grind look effortless, while others of us wrestle with our demons to learn the sacred arts of becoming. I am thankful for the former because they keep the world in balance while others of us tinker around with basic premises guided by a desire to taste the elixir called Life, reverently served in the most beautiful of chalices: our earth, community, and the living Grail of our own beings.

Once you are Real you can’t become unreal again.

It lasts for always.

—Margery Williams, the Velveteen Rabbit

CHAPTER 1

Nothing Is Small

"Nothing’s small;

...No pebble at your feet, but proves a sphere;

No chaffinch, but implies the cherubim;

…Earth’s crammed with heaven,

and every common bush afire with God:

But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.

The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries…"

–Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Yes, indeed, there is a Santa Claus. There are princesses and wicked stepmothers, kings, and queens, and they all inhabit a world known to many as the Middle Kingdom. These are the cast of characters of the imagination and subconscious. They are remnants and memories from our collective childhoods when eternity was traded in for the experience of Time. Since this forgetting, the human race has turned its gaze ever outward toward adventures of personal invention. These stories have been abandoned or reinterpreted, and the Middle Kingdom has faded from view. Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Rudolf Steiner, to name a few, reveal the story behind these tales. Each rendition is different, each true from its perspective. At whatever level of awareness, understanding is granted to all believers in perseverance, magic, the power of intention, and the grace of a pure heart. Within these stories is the world of God’s creative power. This world exists where Life issues forth, mediating heaven and earth. It is also known as the Land of Heart’s Desire. Many a prince has tried to pass the thorny hedge or sought the Waters of Life only to get lost in searching. It is a perilous endeavor with few guarantees.

What is essential to the heart is invisible to the eye.

—The Fox to the Little Prince

Fortunately, it is a world guarded by virtue, as only the heart may find it. The natural citizens of this land, at the periphery of our understanding, serve as a bridge between the worlds and participate in the vital process of Nature. This Middle Kingdom is a place where Life enchants all it touches. The workforce consists of the elementals: earth, fire, air, and water as represented in story form as gnomes, undines, salamanders, and sylphs. They are respected as those who convey Life through the realms of Nature. Technology and the extreme intellectualism of the Western world have eclipsed our understanding of what we