The Queen of Wonderland

This little story is meant to represent the type of prelude that can occur in dreams and fantasies that have their beginnings a long time before any signs of fantasy – what psychiatrists call delusional – ideas begin to crop up in the individual herself. According to legends, the demon does not come into one’s inner chambers uninvited. There is always something about one’s personal experiences or personality that attracts the sort of spirits who have the potential to cause havoc.

Fantasies of this sort represent a vulnerable predisposition for developing a fantasy style of thinking if the normal development of the personality becomes thwarted. Fantasy thinking was the original form of thinking of primitive human beings before mankind developed consciousness. Some fantasies symbolically represent the transformation of the personality that involve an archetypal figure of the primordial mother or a tragic lover. The story on this page is a fantasy about the primordial mother archetype. The ancient Greek mythology about the fate of Persephone represents a fantasy involving the soul’s relationship to the primordial Mother, and a tragic romance with a dangerous lover. The demon lover may appear in a future addition to this story as he is wont to show up as the disembodied voice that an anorexic hears or silently perceives.

Use you imagination and create your own fantasized stories about Alice’s adventures. Keep in mind that Alice isn’t the person with anorexia or cutting, but her dream-personality, so let your imagination run wild.

Chapter Six

The Enchantment of the Wildflowers

by

Malcolm Timbers

copyright 2008 

The Old Woman Who Knows Everything

While her doctor was busy trying to devise some plausible explanation for Alice’s malady, the fairies already knew what had actually transpired: Alice had been enchanted by the Old Woman Who Knows Everything and now Alice has the secret desire to become the Queen of Everything herself. Although Alice began to act rather peculiar, she wasn’t the least bit crazy as her doctor might have suggested.

It all started one Sunday morning in late summer several years ago as a result of Alice’s refusal to put up with her mother’s constant nagging her father about this and that. Alice picked up her toy white rabbit and ran outside, slamming the screen door behind her.

At her mother’s command Alice’s older sister, Miriam, soon followed in pursuit of Alice who was wont to go off wandering whenever family fights broke out.

After asking several of the neighbourhood children if they had seen Alice going by, Miriam eventually caught up with Alice who was, by now, busy picking wildflowers in a large meadow on the edge of town.

“These pretty flowers should make mommy happy, so she won’t be so mean to daddy!” exclaimed Alice.

Not knowing what else to do, Miriam joined Alice in gathering wildflowers unmindful of where the flowers were leading the children. There was always one especially enchanting flower off in the distance whose loveliness always seemed to be jumping ahead of the girls. But as they neared the flower that seemed to radiate with a vibrant colour from a distance it always turned out to be just another ordinary wildflower whenever it came within their grasp.

Before the girls knew it, they had crossed the meadow and found themselves before a deep forest where an old woman was busy gathering flowers and wild herbs on the edge of the meadow.

Alice and Miriam greeted the old woman with the usual pleasantries, to which the old woman replied, “Alice, my dear, you look so pale. Come to my cottage and I will make a special tea for you that will put some colour back in you cheeks.”

Alice was taken aback because she could not remember ever having known the old woman. Yet, despite her sister’s nudges of protests about talking to strangers, Alice was curiously fascinated by the kindly old woman and her basket full of wildflowers and herbs. So Alice politely asked the old woman what her name was and how she knew Alice’s name.
The old woman replied, “Alice, my child, because I am so old, I know everyone in our town. My name is Hecate and I have lived in these woods for a very long time.”

“What will you do with all those things you’ve collected?” Inquired Alice.

“Every summer I collect herbs and wildflowers to prepare potions to treat the people who come to me seeking relief from their ailments,” explained Hecate.

“Oh! This sounds so exciting,” Alice exclaimed. “Let’s visit her cottage and see her collection of medicines.”

So with her toy rabbit in one arm and a bouquet of wildflowers in the other hand, Alice and Miriam set off with Hecate to her cottage which was hidden deep in the woods that bordered on the meadow.

Located in the middle of a clearing in the woods, the old women’s cottage was a lonely looking place but the garden that surrounded the cottage gave it an inviting charm. Miriam expected the front door to open with a spooky creaking noise, but the door opened smoothly to reveal a brightly lit cozy cottage with a fire place and an old fashion wood burning cook stove.

“Oh what a lovely cottage!” exclaimed Alice as they stood in the doorway admiring the well-kept interior.

As they entered, Alice and her sister became fascinated by the old women’s collection of dried herbs and other strange objects that filled numerous shelves and hung from rafters above their heads.

Alice suddenly piped up and said, “Don’t you get lonely living here all alone?”

“Gracious no my dear, I have my cats and all the forest creatures to keep me company,” replied Hecate. “And I see you have your companion with you to keep you company.”

“This is Buggsey,” exclaimed Alice enthusiastically as she held the toy up in front of her face. “He doesn’t say very much because he’s a rabbit, but neither does Miriam because she is shy.”

“Let’s pretend Buggsey can talk; what would he say?” suggested the old woman.

But he can talk,” Alice protested. “He talks to me whenever we are alone.”

“Don’t mind Alice,” Miriam quipped. “She’s always imagining things.”

While pouring her special herbal tea for the threesome, Hecate suggested to Alice, “Let us cast a magic spell that will make Buggsey come alive whenever the full moon rises in the sky.”

“Oh, that would be so fantastic!” Squealed Alice in excitement.
So Hecate arranged everyone in a hand-holding circle while sitting on the floor. Buggsey was placed in the middle of the circle and Hecate recited the magic words from a dusty old book while the girls held their eyes tightly closed.

After tea and biscuits, Miriam suggested that it was getting late and they should get home or their parents would become worried.

So the girls said they would be back for a visit soon and parted.

The pathway leading through the woods was well worn and marked out here and there with stones, so the children had no difficulty finding their way back to the meadow. As Alice and Miriam exited the woods they were greeted by a gentle summer breeze of sweet-smelling meadow grass and wildflowers. The sun was beginning to set behind the wooded lot where it cast long shadows that reached halfway across the meadow.

When the children reached a sunny spot part way across the meadow, Alice decided to pick a fresh bunch of wildflowers before continuing on home.

“Do you really think that Buggsey can become alive during the full moon?” inquired Alice as she finished gathering a handful of flowers.

“Don’t you remember what we learned in Sunday school that there is no such thing as magic? Hecate was only playing a silly game,” replied Miriam in a serious tone.

When they arrived home they excitedly told their parents about the kindly old woman and her collection of magic herbs and potions. However, Alice’s parents said they never heard of such an old woman named Hecate living anywhere near their village and suggested that the girls were making up stories again.

The very next morning Alice asked her mother if she could take some of her homemade peanut butter cookies along on a visit to Hecate’s cottage. Alice carefully tucked Buggsey into a basket with the cookies and set off for the Old Woman’s cottage with Miriam. Across the meadow they went but when they got to the far side, they could not find the pathway that led into the woods. Their way was blocked by a mass of blackberry briars that had grown over a rusty barbed wire fence that ran the entire length of the meadow in front of the woods and looked as if had been standing there for more than half a century.
 
Chapter Seven

Anorexia Nervosa as a Spiritual Problem

The Archetypal Wise Woman
{7-1} The Old Woman Who Knows Everything is a manifestation of the archetypal primordial mother. She is the moon goddess who waxes and wanes with good and evil, light and dark who appears in many manifestations that are both helpful and harmful. She is both the good Queen and the deadly Sphinx in the Oedipus myth. In many fairytales she appears as the devil’s grandmother who pursues frightened children into the wilderness. She is also the old witch who lures children into her magical oven and transforms them into gingerbread. At one time she imprisoned Rapunzell in a tower, and placed Sleeping Beauty in a swoon that lasted a hundred years. She was the wicked stepmother who gave the poisoned apple to Snow White. Nowadays she has been implicated in the act of enchanting children under the spell of an eating disorder. Alice’s attachment to her white rabbit suggests that she is under the spell of the moon’s magnetism and is seeking after the mythological wisdom of a moonlit Wonderland that is presided over by the archetypal Wise Woman.