Cinderella's TOP 10
Metaphysics 101
I have a confession to make. Cinderella is my favorite fairy tale. Disney was a big part of my childhood and it was the show to watch on Sunday evening with my family. I realize that this was a cartoon made in 1950, so there are of course some issues with it today, but it’s still a gem. I had no idea how incredible it really was as a child and by the end of today, you may see this movie AND your own life in a new light.
Fairy tales refer to events taking place once upon a time, in a faraway realm—not here and now. They are not to be taken literally as we tend to do when we’re younger, but as art or even the sacred scriptures, it seems everyone has a different take on their deeper meanings and metaphors.
This month we’ve been looking at Manifesting in a different light and today I want to highlight the sheer exponential and unmeasurable POWER of our minds and dreams.
Manifesting any dream can send ripples out into the world in ways that are even hard for us to imagine. What we create in our lives affects us all not only today, our individual and colletive creations echo in eternity.
If I told you that a simple fairy tale about a girl named Cinderella singlehandedly saved Disney, would you even believe it?
Sometimes it’s not just fairy tales that seem far-fetched, but how the power of ONE of our ideas can change our global trajectory. It always begins with a thought. A doodle on paper. An inspiring idea. A cartoon.
This is about one story with a tale as old as time.
In fact, it’s even hard to wrap our heads around the effects of just this one iconic production. If this movie had never been made we may never have grown up with movies like Star Wars, Aladdin, Frozen, The Lion King, or any Marvel movies let alone the famous theme parks we all know and many of us love, so it seems like the magic that was supposed to only last until midnight has made it over 73 years and it’s still entertaining and culturally defining us in unimaginable ways.
Even the phone or computer you are reading this on can be traced back to this fairy tale and others. George Lucas (the creator of Star Wars) and Steve Jobs both loved cartoons and science fiction and wanted to create the technologies they imagined as young boys and eventually grew up to do the work they did together at Disney and Pixar. Steve Jobs was one of the three founding fathers of Pixar Animation Studios and his dream was to bring fictional characters to life with computer technologies.
Going back to the early 1900’s, “Dream, Believe, Dare, Do” was the motto of Walter Elias Disney which is not coincidentally pretty much the steps to manifesting anything that we’re all so familiar with from books, courses and movies like “The Secret”.
What I love about this particular global manifestation is that Walter wasn’t really different from any of us. He was born in this little house in Chicago in 1901 and he had big dreams as most of us do. He loved to sketch and draw as a little boy. Arriving in Hollywood with just $40 and an unfinished cartoon would have dampened anyone’s spirits, even at the young age of 22, he believed in possibilities.
What I find inspiring is how just following our hearts and taking baby steps toward what we love doing and that feels good can lead us to places we may have never even HAVE imagined.
Walter didn’t set out to have a global media empire that would affect millions of lives. I once heard the story of how he flew in a helicopter over the swamp lands in Florida and vividly imagined the whole theme park of Disney World spread out in his mind’s eye. From that day he began to secretly buy up land and he drew up the blueprints from that one helicopter ride and we all know how that turned out.
Disney is the second largest employer in the State of Florida with a vested interest in the welfare of the families they employ. It’s no secret that this year that when Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis called Disney the “Magic Kingdom of Woke Corporatism” and tried to seize control of them for opposing his proposed banning of gender identity discussions in schools and demonizing transgender people, Disney fought back and sued the government. In the early years, the US Department of State influenced Disney's content to help prevent Latin America from Nazi involvement so it’s safe to say that Disney has become a force in the world not just in entertainment but in International politics which was all made possible because of this story of this young cartoon girl that was covered in ash and soot.
To me, this movie has been misunderstood by many so today let’s see how it’s more than just a cartoon or a simple rags-to-riches story about a passive girl that is saved by marrying a prince.
It’s a metaphysical masterpiece as there is so much for us to see.
In fact, if I didn’t know better I’d guess that Cinderella spent time studying A Course In Miracles because her “Christ consciousness” is NEXT level.
I was surprised in researching the movie to find out that the story began way back in the 1st century BC in Egypt and there are up to 1500 versions today I’d like to base my interpretation on the 1950s Disney movie version that I grew up watching that borrowed heavily from the French story.
To some people, the animated version of Cinderella was more about post-war culture and commercialism. Cinderella’s gown was even inspired by Dior fashion but to me, that is just the surface or effect of the successful story that captivated a nation after the war.
I know Disney’s size alone and impact makes it an easy target for critics, but I appreciate that Disney’s Parks are rated the most sustainable theme parks in the world. They have big goals focused on achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions, reducing waste, building more sustainably, and developing packaging and products that help lessen their footprint. They have invested more than $120 million to help protect more than 1,000 species and provide millions of nature experiences to kids around the world.
So yes it’s a profitable media empire and definitely has its faults, but what makes their Kingdoms magical to me is that it’s fun. It’s ALL about dreams, transformations, and miracles.
You may be rolling your eyes right now, I get it, I mean if any of us lost a shoe at midnight these days, it’s probably because we’re drunk so yes, any cynic or feminist could easily tear this fairy tale to shreds and some of the quotes and cliches about dreams coming true ARE saccharine enough to even make even Pollyanna cringe, but today I’d like to share some of the reasons just beneath the surface why it’s so timeless and Cinderella has something to teach us all that we may have missed.
I love looking to nature to uncover our own true nature because it seems like nature is always organizing itself to create the next best thing for all aspects of life. Fairy tales do that for me too, and I’m not alone. They powerfully and silently show us the way to a deeper eternal truth that we may not perceive at first glance.
Margaret Atwood considering the influence of fairy tales on her writing, asked, “Where else could I have gotten the idea, so early in life, that words can change you?”
Let’s do a quick deep dive into the metaphysical symbolism of this one special story that has indirectly affected all of our lives.
In no particular order, here are my top 10 manifesting and life tips from Cinderella:
tip #1 Believing is seeing…
There’s a line in the movie I love when Cinderella first saw her Fairy Godmother she exclaimed, “Oh Fairy Godmother, I thought you’d never come!” And the Fairy Godmother responded, “Oh that’s not true dear, or I couldn’t be here!”
We’re being shown that we need to be open to miracles or we won’t experience our Higher Selves (aka Fairy Godmother, Holy Spirit, Angels, Shakina, Guides). When we consider the possibility of infinite possibilities in our minds, the world opens up for us. Alternately, consider something impossible, and for you, it will be. Cynicism is a form of fear, not intelligence.
tip #2 - Choose one: a grievance OR miracle - you can’t have both…
Our current circumstances are no indication of future outcomes. Our life is far more malleable than we could imagine and we may miss the magic of our own divinity if we lose heart. After life dealt her some personal blows and grief, Cinderella worked hard cleaning and serving in her family’s home. She cared for the livestock and cleaned out the ashes from the fireplace and earning the nickname “cinders”. She demonstrates how not to complain but rather to transcend our “doing” self while “being” fully present or living primarily in her depth or vertical dimension and when we do our egos fall away. She sang merrily and found joy in the present moment no matter what the chore and made the best of her circumstances with a sense of humor no matter how she was treated. We think that our circumstances and even our chores or who is or isin’t doing them are the problem. We’re the ones giving it all the meaning it has. It’s our egos that keep track of who is doing what and making things fair - the gospel is filled with advice not to because that is the false self speaking first and loudest. Cinderella is showing us how to forgive ALL debts. The sun doesn’t turn to the moon or the trees to tell them “YOU owe me”, only a human ego does that. Cleaning toilets and floors and serving ungrateful family members may not bring out the best in us every day, but it’s us and what we tell ourselves that creates our own experience and emotions.
tip #3 The Golden Rule…
Cinderella is kind to everyone and sees them as no better or worse. She talks to animals like they are her friends and so they are. She feeds and loves them, reads to them, and keeps them safe from the cat ironically called Lucifer. She treats everyone with kindness and is very giving so basically she’s mastered the ecumenical Golden Rule. The ego is about hierarchies, class, race, sex and caste systems all born in fear. We’re all chosen ones and the same in the eyes of God.
In her service to others’ polarity (as opposed to the egoic service to self) she’s forgiving and giving tow sides of the same coin. She demonstrates that we receive what we give. Her animal companions and every life form that is seen in the light of love becomes an advanced being or transforms. Even the pumpkin transforms into a carriage. She benefits from her relationship with all of them and they are the ones that go to great lengths and risk their lives to free her in the end.
She didn’t get the key to unlock the door herself it was done for her. When we align with God, (with goodness) first, the rest is taken care of. Seek first the kingdom of Heaven, then all will be added unto you. Any coincidence that it’s called the Magic Kingdom?
tip #4: Being the change…
Cinderella would make Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi proud. She forgave and didn’t resent her sisters and mother and she didn’t defend herself or attack them back. A Course In Miracles teaches that energetically any defense IS an attack and you can have a grievance or a miracle, but you can’t have both. She may even have earned a nod from Michelle Obama with her motto: “When they go low, we go high”. She stayed grounded in her love no matter what happened or how unfairly she was treated or harsh things became in her outside world. Instead of focusing on her grievances, she gave love and kindness in return.
tip #5 The Transformation happens from within…
It would be hard not to notice even as a child that all fairy tales are rife with transformation — from beast or frog to handsome prince, from dirty scullery maid to well-dressed prince. What’s not always obvious to us is that it’s not coming from an outside source. They have an adventure but in the end, the transformation is already IN the person, in the before picture ALL along. Like Dorothy’s ruby slippers - the power was IN the ground of her being (rep by her shoes -again with the shoes!!) all along. The magic wand represents our Higher self’s focused energy (light) to our imagined desired outcome. Always from where we are with what we have. Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother doesn’t take her shopping at Nordstrom’s Rack for a dress, she focuses on her with light which symbolizes enlightenment or understanding of what is and it is instantly transformed. MATTER is the effect, and a focused and convicted MIND is the cause. The world we see as Einstein explained is a projection or an illusion of consciousness, albeit a persistent one he joked. We’re not being duped, in fact, the illusion is a wonderful thing because it comes FROM us, it’s not happening to us. The pumpkin is transformed into a golden carriage, mice into horses, a rat into a coachman, and lizards into footmen.
tip #6: ASK and it shall be given…
Cinderella took a risk and asked for what she wanted. The animals helped free her but in the end, but She took the chance and answered the call to ask for what she wanted calling out: “Your Grace, please wait may I try it on?”. She felt the impulse and politely ASKED. Sometimes it can feel impulsive to act, because we don’t have much time to think things through in a divinely inspired moment that is leading us to our highest good. We lose our courage and miss the chance if we don’t act first and think second. When we learn to trust the divine information we receive through coincidences we can also strengthen our attitudinal muscles by listening and taking more immediate action with faith that it will be so. We will be guided, supported, and provided for along the way 100% of the time.
tip #7 Love WINS…
Cinderella demonstrates how to get what we dream of without manipulation or egoic striving but with love. Her aim was not to snag a Prince or get rich, only an ego could do that. Cinderella is in her divine essence or being and so in the positive polarity of service to others. The ego in Cinderella’s story is represented by the StepMother and Stepsisters, blinded by personal desires they do whatever it takes to look good and get what they want no matter who they secretly hurt or manipulate on the way. They put on a show for others, but deep down in their insecurity they are genuinely convinced that if they just had more, got their needs met, THEN they’d feel satisfied, and live happily ever after. They are in their lower vibrational negative polarity or service to self. Until we dissolve our egos by shining a light on them we will stay in a lower density believing our experience of being body and ego identified. We know we are still living from our egos if we believe that life is about us and we believe that by achieving worldly success we will shift the emptiness we feel. In the end, the only person we really end up hurting with our accumulating is ourselves. The pain we project on others on our way up our success ladder comes back to us because what we do to others is done to us. We reap what we sow.
"Now, let me see ... There's the large carpet in the main hall. Clean it! And the windows, upstairs and down. Wash them! Oh yes. And the tapestries and the draperies. Do them again! And don't forget the garden. And scrub the terrace, sweep the halls and the stairs, clean the chimneys, and of course, there's the mending and the sewing and the laundry. Oh yes, and one more thing. See that Lucifer gets his bath.”
Lady Tremaine (Cinderella’s Stepmonster) a.k.a. OUR ego/taskmaster/the doing or horizontal dimension
tip #8 If the shoe fits…
Cinderella's crystal shoes represent the clarity of her being and they are the symbolic connection between the material world and her dream world. Our shoes are the layer that protects us from the sharpness of the material world or the effects of our creations. Cinderella’s higher self was initiated and her beauty, glowing and flawless radiance symbolizes the purity of her soul is reflected in her crystal shoes (later called a glass slipper in this version) and the ground of her being. At the ball, she was moving gracefully as her Higher Self. She appeared breathtaking to others. They stood aside and let her pass and no one could take their eyes off of her. There was a room full of beautiful eligible future princesses but she stood out because of her vibrancy. The familiar masculine (Prince) and her feminine energies danced in a deep connection as old as time.
“Well, if I may say so, Your Majesty, I did try to warn you, but you, sire, are incurably romantic. No doubt you saw the whole pretty picture in detail. The young Prince bowing to the assembly. Suddenly, he stops. He looks up. For, lo, there she stands. The girl of his dreams. Who she is or whence she came, he knows not. Nor does he care. But his heart tells him that here, here is the maid predestined to be his bride. A pretty plot for fairy tales, sire, but in real life. Oh no, no. It was foredoomed to failure.”
The Grand Duke (aka. our rational mind)
She was so present (the way we all get when we’re in the zone or the flow doing what we love), that she lost track of time. At midnight she went back to her physical “reality”. The dream seemed so Real and more ultimate than her old life and it was as if she was forever changed by PURE divine love. She was in her old clothes in her old life, but her vibration was still raised so she couldn’t help but glow. Her even stepmother noticed her humming happily despite the evidence of her lack and she was suspiciously puzzled by it. Her new disposition and higher vibration from her higher level of consciousness were creating a new reality. It was just a matter of time and space for her to re-attracted the dream all over again now that she was a vibrational match. A so-called perfect fit. It was already felt, but it took some time to match her foot and for the manifestation to be seen in physical “reality”.
tip #9 The Miracle…
At the climax of the story, Cinderella experiences a “dark night of the soul” when she begins to feel crushed and overwhelmed by the weight of her hopeless circumstances and the critical voices of others. Her ego is getting the best of her. As she loses faith and withdraws emotionally. Her outside world and physical environment begin to shrink along with it and she’s eventually confined to the attic in a dusty room. She comes to a painful acceptance and surrenders. She’s not trying to escape. She makes peace with her circumstances and then has a mystical or astral experience that seems otherworldly.
Her angelic F.G.M. (Fairy God Mother ) suddenly appears to her (from her own higher level of consciousness) and uses the wand of her focused attention to create a new reality. The FGM uses ALL the elements of her focused thought: Desire. Intent. Passion. Focus. Conviction. Faith. All fused to a point of light. A high pulsating vibration creates a new alternate dimension instantly with her command in affirmation of expectation with faith. (In this case: “Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo”. ) The words themselves are not magic, they are merely symbols, the feeling and energy and higher vibration from her own recognition of her I AM Being or true nature (Divine Essence) created the vortex.
tip #10 Happily Never After…
When the attic door was unlocked it symbolized her receiving help, unlocking a portal to a new reality. Her ego (in the form of her Stepmother and Stepsisters) dissolved. They lost their hold on her showing us that our greatness was within us all along, it is just beyond our ego identity. Our egos seek to destroy us by locking us away in fear. Their brilliant disguise as a protector or a familial comfort promise to keep us safe with guilt and shame but all they do is keep us from our true power.
Wow. SO MUCH goodness in that story for us to see.
At the end of good stories, characters like Cinderella and Pollyanna aren’t overly optimistic, they are miracle workers. They are an irritant to our ego because the strength of their genuine optimism is impossible for our egos to beat. Our egoic cynicism prevents us from seeing that their way of being by the end of the story is that everyone is happy.
We ARE ALL Cinderella. She is showing us our true nature that we’ve forgotten beneath the cloak of fear we’ve covered over our birthright. We’re all connected to that source, that transformational light. Darkness is not a thing, it’s simply the absence of light. Our happiness is here now, in the before shot, we just missed it.
Is it just me or are cartoons a bit less threatening and a bit more helpful than just about anything to help us see metaphysical truths?
This summer series on manifesting is pointing to something that is hard for us to see for ourselves.
We’re experiencing the effects of our OWN minds it’s the reason why aligning with our Divine essence and having a shift in our OWN perception is the cause of any miracle.
Remembering WE are the ones manifesting the outcomes we see, life is not simply randomly happening TO us.
It’s a brilliant perfect natural guidance system for all of us as creators.
We make it all evident or certain by having our past level of consciousness or thinking shown or displayed in our physical lives. We don’t or can’t even consciously see this for ourselves, until we’re ready. It’s hard to see because we are caught up in hte thinking of the world and we may be experiencing the devastating effects of our thinking. It’s only when something has become clear or obvious to the eye or mind in our reality, and by simply shifting our focus, like magic we can experience something else.
We think we have a lot of problems but we really only have one, our separation from Source. From God. From our TRUE NATURE. From the depth dimension of our being and our ability to see this for ourselves.
It’s not religious. There is no dogma. No doctrine.
It’s our misunderstanding of ourselves that keeps us stuck and relapsing.
The stories we tell and the narratives we hold dear are made real BY us when we identify with them.
That has been my personal experience and it’s nothing like what I’ve found in self-help, coaching, recovery rooms or even in church. It’s so intelligent and different that at first it’s understandably hard to grasp it through the fearful thought system we’ve inherited but once we do, we realize that we are in possession of an inheritance so great and powerful that we’ll finally understand the meaning of Jesus and Buddha’s non-dual teachings in an experiential way.
We grow up asleep or forgetting our true nature. It’s like waking up in the morning with only one shoe and no memory of the night before.
If we’re all the same and our minds are joined… it’s good news in the sense that a young boy name with a love of drawing and dreams can create a $159.30 billion company and then a cartoon girl named Cinderella can save it.
This brilliant movie disguised as children’s entertainment not only has the power to show you who you truly are on a metaphysical level, it can also make you wonder what’s REALLY possible for you or for all of us collectively when more of us are aligned with our divinity and do the work we are inspired to do instead of serving our egos trapped in our fear?
No matter what challenges are being presented to you in your life this very week, we all have the power to imagine something new this week that’s never been and listen to be guided to what comes next.
Steve Jobs was once quoted as saying that: “the most powerful person in the world is the storyteller”.
US scholar Jonathan Gottschall says that we are addicted to the story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up, telling itself stories.
The effects of our stories and imaginings are eternal.
Our anxieties and fears become the happenings and characters in our own lives affecting everyone including ourselves.
We can make up whatever comes next not by what we see in the world today but what we truly desire.
On the surface our egos may see stories about skin colour, sexism and having to follow the whims and fancies of a king or a damsel in distress that needd to be rescued by a knight in shining armor but if we dig a little bit deeper we’ll find the magic.
Life is happening all around us and will keep throwing curve balls at us, but ANYTHING is possible for us in response with our active imaginations we can choose our reaction and our perception which will govern by this spiritual law what we see and experience tomorrow.
A story is as good as a storyteller and our lives are as good as the stories we tell about them with the light from the magic wand of our focused minds connected with our true nature.
We could start small…with a simple cartoon doodle today or maybe feel inspired to clean out our fireplaces or homes and hum a tune and then go from there.
When we get quiet and still or occupy our brains on a task we can hear the hints and be guided by something greater than our fears.
And they all lived happily in this moment, excited about tomorrow.
No longer afraid to dream.
With love,
Rev Nona