Once upon a time, a queen ruled a tropical empire with kindness and generosity. One of her subjects – a lonely young woman – would sometimes sneak into the thick jungle surrounding the capital to practice magic, which was forbidden.
One night the secretive sorceress did not return home. A search party found her the next morning. She was unconscious with a magical text lying next to her. The maiden was taken to the best healers in the land, but none could help her. She had been practicing a potent form of witchcraft. Everyone who succumbed to this kind of self-enchantment wasted away from an inability to eat or drink.
The comatose girl’s only living relative was her frail mother. Shunned by her neighbors and shamed by her daughter’s terrible mistake, she died of a broken heart.
The Queen had the girl brought to the palace so that she would not die alone. She was moved with compassion when she saw the young woman. When taking her hand, the Queen received a vision of the lost and confused soul wandering hopelessly in a colorless world. The Queen felt the child’s despair as if it were her own and sobbed. From that moment on, the Queen refused to leave her new ward’s side.
The Queen’s offspring could not understand their mother’s decision to care for this criminal who had broken their most sacred laws. The Queen told them, “This child is now my beloved daughter just as you are all my precious children. I will not leave her side until she wakes or dies. Deep pain caused her to break our laws, and her suffering is even greater now. I love her with all of my heart, and I will not abandon her.” The Queen’s children were shocked and angered. They said the witch was a lawbreaking commoner who was getting what she deserved, but the Queen persisted.
Rumors of what happened at the palace spread throughout the realm. Some people marveled at the Queen’s compassion. Others joked about how the Queen would take in a viper that had lost its venom or a jaguar whose claws had become dull. They grumbled about how they would be punished instead of being rewarded with palace living and royal adoption if they were in the girl’s place.
The Queen’s heirs grew impatient with their mother’s insanity and took over her responsibilities with her blessing. The Queen would have given up the throne if necessary. The Queen loved all of her children more than they knew but would not abandon the young woman who was getting weaker every day.
The Queen wanted to set the child free from her self-made prison but didn’t know how to do it. The oldest and wisest healers said there was no way to undo the spell. The Queen had the faintest hope that the curse might be lifted by an appeal to the Gods. She performed every sacrifice and ritual with full devotion so that the girl might be saved. Nothing worked.
As death drew near, the Queen bathed her adopted daughter and clothed her in a soft, white gown with intricately woven threads. She held her close and gently stroked her hair. Tears streamed from the Queen’s eyes as she kissed the dying child. As the girl’s spirit slipped away, the Queen’s breaking heart cried out with a powerful rush of love and desire that she would live.
The adopted princess’s eyelids fluttered, and her body shuddered with a ragged inward breath. She opened her eyes, looked up at the Queen, and smiled weakly. With her dry tongue and cracked lips, she silently mouthed the words, “Thank you.”
Secrets of the Story
What if we have cursed ourselves? Have we been playing with the “magic” of free will, imprisoning ourselves within deadly illusions? Can the light of love dissolve our fears? What if our Heavenly Mother is doing everything She can to help us wake up before we die from spiritual thirst and starvation?
What if our soul is like a sleeping princess in a fairy tale? Does the kiss of true love that we need to awaken come from our Heavenly Parent? Is She kissing our souls at this very moment? Could She be holding us close, hoping that we will be revived? What if God is performing CPR on our souls right now? Can you feel the Divine rescue breaths filling the lungs of your soul, the chest compressions restarting your spiritual heart? What if it’s up to us whether we will allow ourselves to be saved or not?
I contend that all of the speculations raised by this story are true. Our beautiful souls are sleeping in a land of deadly shadows, even though we think we are fully awake and alive. May we allow our Creator’s Compassion to save us from ourselves.
