And if Fairy tales were actually stories about journeys of Initiation?
Over Christmas I was reading the new book “Im Land der Seele: Märchen", by Ursula Seghezzi, who reimagines 19 fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm as a hero’s or heroine's journey: A young man or woman on the brink of adulthood leave their home to enter the forest, the land of the soul. Lost, hungry and frightened they meet their mentor, the wise woman. Through experience of trance or near death (the dark belly of the wolf, the deep waters of the well, the silence of a glass coffin), they surrender all personal perceptions and convictions and are reborn gilded in gold into the realm of Holle, the all-knowing Earth Mother.
A Hero’s Journey
by Uta Brouet
Sculpture, Jesmonite, 42 x 23 x 13 cm
This anthropomorphic totemic sculpture is an intuitive response during a time of my life where I had to abandon everything I knew to trust my intuition as a gift of connection to a wisdom greater than myself.
In Old German “hel” meant holy, bright, healing, all-encompassing. “Hel" became "Hell”, the wise woman was made the witch or the wicked despiteful mother-in-law. The witch trials appear to be the last battle between Paganism and Christianity and a victory of patriarchal society over women. The value system of the occidental world trivialises emotional truth and intuitive wisdom. The demeaning control of the woman in many countries today can be seen as misplaced hatred of the unknown, of the uncontrollable, of the magical.
Part of my installation:
VENUS MATERNITYSculpture in jesmonite, 36x14x12cm
VENUS FRUIT ISculpture in jesmonite, 8x12x9cm
TRANSCENDENCESculpture , 8x12x9cm, Wood, glass, photograph
