Unveiling the Wild Woman Archetype in Fairy Tales

HIDDEN INSTINCTS

Below the surface of folklore and fairy tales hides the forgotten instinctual soul of the wild woman archetype, and while the morality of these tales may be questionable, I believe they are the trigger in bringing the forgotten instincts to the surface. The stories can bring empowerment as we interpret them to understand why we have lost our instincts and guide us in our transformation back to this forgotten self. This paper will discuss the connection between the wild woman and the tales, along with the meanings behind some of the stories.

Fairy Tales, Folklore and the Unconsciousness

While we are all aware of the Disneyfied versions of fairy tales and folklore, however, long before Walt Disney, the stories were not so

pretty and most parents these days would not be willing to read the original dark versions to their children. In the original versions you can find premarital sex, violence, child abuse, and even murder which are morally questionable. Coincidentally even the versions we heard as children growing up have stuck with us and when you think about the story, if you are like me, you can see yourself in each part of the tale. We all have dual natures and each part of the fairy tale or folklore story is in someone way connected to a part of us, even if it is part that we have hidden so far away that we cannot even remember it ever existed. The characters resonate with the dual natures within us, our strengths and weaknesses, the failures and successes we have had so far in life, well you can find them all in story and characters.
Repressed Memories
These stories can provide basic insights into our inner identity as they can be analyzed in a way to help us reflect upon repressed instincts.

Because when we look for the hidden meanings in the tales that seem similar to our circumstances we can look at the meanings we uncover from the story to help recover the buried memories or instincts. Certainly we all have parts of ourselves that we hide away from the world and even from ourselves, because as we all know sometimes it is easier to forget them rather than facing the fact we are not living the life we wish. Though we habitually bury them so deep that even our consciousness itself is unaware, however, they are always present in the unconscious and this effects the decisions we make along with the feelings or thoughts that appear and we are unable to explain them to ourselves until we begin to remember and set ourselves free (Radulescu,

2014).
Jungian psychology
Freud, Rank and Jung are among the psychoanalysts that believe fairy tales and folklore are tied to our inner psyche along with the fact that they also believed each character represents a part of the psyche that represents diverse parts of the inner self and by understanding the hidden meanings in the tale you can begin to comprehend that part of yourself. With this in mind by placing yourself in the story it can help transform your conceptions and break the patterns that are holding you back while you begin to understand the inner conflicts that have obstructed you from finding those forgotten instincts (Kiernan, n.d.).
Analyze your life
Estés recommends mapping out areas of your life such as spiritual, family, learning, healing, etc.

and using that to outline your life cycle (Estés. 2010). Coincidentally Estés also practices Jungian Psychology; in general this method of using fairy tales to understand your inner psyche seems very popular with those that practice this type of psychology. First by analyzing your life you can see where the ups and downs have been, what caused them and how you brought yourself out of the down cycles, while this is not exactly how she does it, if you just do it anyway you can and make the effort, this will start you on your journey. For myself, I am undertaking this using years and what happened those years along with how I felt, problems, and accomplishments to help me focus on improving my future and letting that wild woman out to create the life I wish for. Once this has been accomplished you can take the stories that resonate with you and read, research and start healing your life, in particularly stopping the poor choices that are holding you down as you begin to understand the reasoning you made those

choices.
Understanding why they are hidden
From the beginning of childhood most of us are taught to follow the correct path, to become what society expects of us and by doing so forcing us to repress our true instincts. I am sure the same applies to males but I am focusing on women for this study. When we are told by our parents or caregiver that we have to do things a certain way, we do it, because at that young age what we want the most is their approval and love. So we grow up repressing who we really are just to be acceptable to society and live a proper life so we can continue to have their approval and love. As part of my research I sent out a survey and I had nine women return them, as a result when four of the nine subjects choose Beauty and the Beast as the fairy tale they identified with I discovered from their answers that they identify with the central theme of the struggle between innocence and evil, along with the courage to be yourself and that the outside is not always what it seems to be. As a whole, most women are worried about what others believe about them and always try to produce a “perfect” life, which in the end does not create the happiness they continuously seek. When you find that courage to go after what you crave and face whatever “evil” that tries to stop you, well that makes you the winner and in doing so, I believe you recover the lost wild woman archetype in the process. When you discover that mysterious wild woman, you become unstoppable in achieving your heart's desires that have become hidden while wanting the world to accept you.
Abuse
To grow up with a parent or caregiver that may provide the basics of shelter, food, and water to keep you alive while depriving you of any nurturing care leads to a future full of repressed memories and instincts. When you are young and unable to care for yourself, you look to the adult in your life to care for you, sadly some of these adults are themselves not capable of this and look to the child to satisfy their own emotional needs which are not being met and this leads to a child that is not allowed to develop proper coping mechanisms along with a psyche that is developmentally flawed after years of such emotional abuse.
The other side of this is growing up with a parent or caregiver that abuses you physically and this can also lead to a psyche that is not allowed to develop normally while leading to more of those repressed memories and instincts. Either form of abuse leads to a life that is floundering until the courage is found to seek the answers that can bring up the repressed memories and deal with them along with finding those instincts that allow the wild woman in you to surface.
Research
Further on the research showed a theme with them picking an abused character as their favorite when they had experienced abuse in their life. Out of the nine subjects, five have never spent a significant amount of time single after the age of eighteen. Interestingly enough, the four that spent considerable time alone in life chose a character that was abused by another in the tales, which was a reflection of the answers I received from these women as they had all experienced abuse of some kind. Cinderella, Snow White, and Maleficent were the three chosen, and their stories show that the world is not fair, good people get exploited and all had experienced being unwanted and unloved at some point. While at the same time desiring to be loved and needed by others, they never stopped hoping to find that "happily ever after" that we all incessantly seek. My belief in creating this thesis is that you have to find that happiness in yourself before you can be happy with another. When you free that wild woman archetype and permit yourself the freedom to be that wild woman who has remained hidden to please the world, well then you will attract others to your life that will accept you for who you are and not attempt to change you.
How to uncover the instincts
At some point in life you will experience the incessant pull of a restlessness that you may be unable to identify, however once you feel it, it will not go away to until you acknowledge it. There are many things this is called, but what I believe is that this is your inner self wanting to be set free from the ties you have held it down with. To begin with think about the stories you were told growing up and how they were able to enchant you while at the same time inspire you with their meaning and direction. The basic message that anyone can take away from any of these tales is to know yourself and in order to do that you have to understand those dark parts you have hidden away.
According to Estés, the ability to access these layers is activated by deep meditation, solitude, or any activity that puts you into an altered consciousness, by doing so you bring the wild woman to the surface and your natural intuition to surface (1992, p. 27). As you acknowledge this restlessness and began to use these methods you will find your memories that have been repressed coming back to you, dreams that you had lost along the way and possibly even horrible things that you don’t want to remember. Acknowledge all of them and set them free so you can begin to focus on what you want to happen now. Releasing the ideals and attitudes that no longer nourish you while at the same time picking something that you can work toward, something you truly want that can challenge you and help increase your intuitiveness (1992, p.78-79). In the long run if you do not answer that call or if you try to bury it again, you will simply be destroying yourself slowly until your soul is lifeless.
Transformation
There is a folktale by the name of Sealskin, that is one of many names I am sure, where a selkie (a seal that becomes a human when on land) female is caught on land by a male and he takes her seal skin and hides it so she has to stay with him. In the version Estés tells of, the son she has with the man eventually finds the sealskin and gives it to his mother. His mother is thankful as she has begun to dry out and wither away after being away from her home for so long and without her sealskin to protect her. Upon her return to the sea she once again becomes full of life and vitality showing that you cannot ignore what you soul needs to thrive (1992, chap. 9). I feel we all have a home and it does not have to be a place, it could be a person, way of feeling or even an activity, because each woman has to identify what it is that makes her feel like she is home and alive.
Morality of the Tales
As I mentioned previously the older tales were a lot darker than the versions we are told about in this day and age. The question of morality has been around for many years being modified to be used for entertainment purposes, essentially stripping them of their deeper meanings. Tales that were used as lessons with the ordeals and misfortunes of everyday life were changed to fit the morals suitable to aristocracy of whichever era. As an example in the Grimm’s original version of Cinderella the stepsisters chose to cut off parts of their foot to attempt to fit into the shoe (Carnegie Mellon, n.d.) though there is nothing of this in the newer versions.
Researching any fairy tale or folklore story will show you many different versions as they change by country and over the years to fit the morality of the culture of that generation. While the morality of the original stories would never be allowed in in today’s culture, the fundamentals of the meanings behind them stay the same and will continue to guide us if we allow ourselves to understand the hidden meanings in the story. No matter what brings us down, we can always ascend again. There will constantly be challenges but like the Phoenix, who burns to ashes yet rises again each time, we are all capable of standing again and defeating whatever demons that are holding us back.