The magic of the overlooked - a writing exercise
For the third week in my short story course, we looked at fairy stories and folk tales. We discussed how they can be updated, and how they can be used to 'hold up a mirror' to the world nowadays. I read this quote from the introduction by Alison Lurie to The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales:
The fairy tale survives because it presents experience in vivid symbolic form. Sometimes we need to have the truth exaggerated and made more dramatic, even fantastic, in order to comprehend it...
'Hansel and Gretel', for instance, may dramatize the fact that some parents underfeed and abandon their children physically and/or emotionally, while others, like the witch, overfeed and try to possess and devour them.
Of course, the question is whether we actually need to have the truth exaggerated right now but that’s another story! We all came up with a list of issues – small and large – we could use the fairy tale format to cover, using variants of the ‘Once upon a time…’ first line. And then…
Our last exercise of the session was me bringing in one of my favourite brown crackly paper bags... what was in it?
Ha! Everybody took a pinecone to look at, feel, smell while I read out these beliefs/facts about them that I had gathered from all over the internet...
Maybe you have a cone handy, or if not you can just imagine! Here... take one... And here is what I read out...
For native Americans, pine cones represent wisdom and longevity…
they are also known to represent, fertility and life
in northern Europe, fir trees were decorated at the end of the year to celebrate the birth of Frey, the Norse god of the sun and fertility
the tops of the trees were lit because in winter as the days were getting shorter, northern people thought that the light would attract the sun.
they are seen as a symbol of human enlightenment, the third eye. this is because they are the same shape as the pineal gland in your brain, from which the gland takes its name
your pineal gland is responsible for melatonin and therefore sleep patterns
it sits in the centre of your brain, linked to your body’s perception of light
the pinecone is the evolutionary precursor to the flower –
the tree is one of the most ancient species on the planet – has existed three times longer than all flowering plant species.
the pine cones spines spiral in a perfect Fibonacci sequence in either direction, much like sacred geometry of a rose or a sunflower.
Dionysus, or Bacchus, carried a fennel staff topped with a pinecone - this dripped with honey and used in religious rituals.
Romans built an enormous bronze sculpture, the Pigna, in the shape of a huge pine cone four metres high.
It used to be a fountain overflowing with water next to the Temple of Isis
This now sits directly in front of the Catholic Vatican in the Court of the Pinecone
The sacred staff the pope carries is topped with a pinecone
the fir tree is also the symbol of peace.
It can withstand many temperature ranges, such as cold climates, snow, rocky soil, and drought.
The soothing scent has been shown by research to make people ‘feel at home’…
in the United states, often found growing beside graves because they represent eternal life, and pine cones represent the continuity and renewal of life.
If you dream of a pine tree, this refers to a new place, an environment or new persons
to see a pine cone in your dream, that indicates there will be a job chance and you will quickly adapt.
If you dream of climbing a pine tree, you will have problems – and get exhausted because you are preoccupied with these
If you sleep under one, it signifies your achievements and success.
So much in just one little overlooked thing I'd picked off from the ground. And then there were more. One writer told me you could tell the weather using them, another remembered making necklaces from them at Christmas. I'm sure you have more of your own too, I'd love to hear them.
The writing prompt was to listen to all the different points above while listening also to the cone. What was it telling you? And then write.
It was an exercise in finding out more about things we think we know about already. Perhaps it was more of finding the magic, and slowing down enough to let the magic find us.