Fairy Tales from Around the World

This rich and soulful course invites you on a journey through five fairy tales from across the globe—each revealing something essential about the human psyche and our shared longing for wholeness. Guided by respected Jungian analysts, storytellers, and shamans, we travel through Southern Africa, India, China, Japan, and the Western world.

Each story opens a doorway to the deep symbolic language of the soul. Though rooted in different cultures, these tales reveal that beneath our surface differences lives a shared human nature—one that wrestles with love, creativity, betrayal, purpose, and transformation.

We meet the fiery elemental power of the African Rainbird, the feminine self-initiation in Rumpelstiltskin, the cosmic longing of Chinese star-crossed lovers, the subtle presence of “Nothingness” in Japanese stories, and the Indian prince’s journey of individuation and anima discovery.

This course brings together depth psychological insight, cultural wisdom, and symbolic imagination. It invites you to listen with the ears of the heart. These are not just stories to be understood—they are experiences to be felt and remembered, as mirrors to your own inner journey.

You will become part of a like-hearted community of seekers who value meaning, myth, and soul. In a divided world, this course is a healing act—reminding us that, at our core, we are deeply connected.

In this class, Colin Campbell explores The Firebird, an initiatory tale from the Bangwaketsi tradition. This enigmatic Rainbird, both guardian of rain medicine and arbiter of weather, embodies the interplay of fire and water—forces central to transformation in mythic and psychological journeys. Capricious and phoenix-like, the Firebird challenges the seeker, offering insight into the nature of initiation, liminality, and the dynamic relationship between human beings and the elemental world.

Originating in ancient China, The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl is a timeless tale of love, longing, and reunion. The Milky Way becomes a celestial river dividing two lovers who meet just once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, when a bridge of magpies forms to reunite them—a moment celebrated in the Qixi Festival. From a Jungian perspective, the Cowherd represents the earthy, grounded hero within us, while the Weaver Girl reflects the divine anima—our inner source of beauty, creativity, and longing. Their story reveals the deep yearning for inner wholeness, as the transcendent function—symbolized by the magpie bridge—guides us to unite what has been separated in the psyche. In this class, we explore this myth through the lens of Chinese culture and the “Knowledge of the Heart,” uncovering how the story speaks to the universal journey toward love, meaning, and soulful connection.

This is a delightful fairy tale which was edited by Englishman Joseph Jacobs in 1892 to introduce the British school children to Indian culture. In its simplicity, it lays out the process of individuation under the auspices of the Self archetype. It is the story of the search for the Anima – the princess. It explores the mystery of the “Fourth” that so fascinated Carl Jung. The dynamics of the missing fourth are amplified in Goethe’s Faust and established a core tenet of Analytical psychology. The fairy tale meanders in the three forests, each amplifying a crucial step in the individuation process. The prince encounters the princess in the fourth leg of his journey. It uses the motif of a talking parrot, ant and a lion – examples of the animal theomorphism, a very central theme in Hindu mythology. We will explore the archetypal motifs this tale uses as its’ GPS to navigate the journey. While the archetypes are the architects of the psyche, fairy tales are the builders that implement the intent of the Self archetype. True to the Kundalini Yoga tradition, the story creatively integrates our Triune brain – reptilian, limbic and neocortical. Join Ashok in exploring the mystery of this enchanting fairy tale from a Jungian, Indian and Neuroscience perspective as a template for the individuation process.

This class explores Rumpelstiltskin as a tale of feminine self-initiation. The miller’s daughter faces impossible demands and meets the trickster, Rumpelstiltskin. He reflects the shadow—those unknown and dangerous forces in the unconscious. By naming him, she begins a path of healing and individuation. The tale shows how knowledge, not force, brings true empowerment. We will follow this story into the depths of the feminine psyche. It invites reflection on betrayal, sacrifice, creativity, and inner authority. This tale helps us meet what lives hidden in our inner world.

In general, it is almost impossible to analyze Japanese fairy tales as clearly as Western folktales, and it is often difficult to tell what exactly happened. In this class, Megumi will introduce popular Japanese fairy tales (The Bush Warbler’s Home and Urashima Taro) in which the protagonists do not go on a dramatic adventure, slay a dragon, or get married, and at the end of the story, the protagonists are in the same situation as at the beginning of the story. Kawai Hayao（1982）mentions, “ ‘nothing has happened’ can be interpreted as ‘The Nothingness has happened’” Then what exactly is ‘The Nothingness’? Does it mean really nothing at all? Megumi will talk about Japanese culture and Japanese psyche, drawing on her personal experiences of living in the US and UK, exploring the meaning of ‘nothingness’ as depicted in fairy tales.

Pictet will discuss how understanding fairy tales can be instrumental for personal development. She will demonstrate methods for reading and interpreting the symbolic and metaphorical nature of fairy tales and their parallels with psychological processes. This provides a marvelous introduction to both fairy tales and this course!