June 11, 2022
A central figure in the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty is an Evil Fairy who is incensed by what she considers to be an unforgivable slight. She was not invited to the christening party for the infant princess. Not satisfied by assurances that the lack of invitation was an oversight, the Evil Fairy condemned the princess to die when she reached the age of fifteen!
But, a ‘Good Fairy’ heard the mother’s plea for mercy. Fortunately, the Good Fairy had not as yet bestowed her gift upon the infant, and stepped in to save the day. Although she was unable to completely abolish the curse, she had the capacity to reduce the power of the Evil Fairy’s wicked spell. Now, instead of dying as the Evil Fairy intended, the princess would fall asleep on her fifteenth birthday, and sleep without aging until the spell was broken by—the kiss of one who truly loved her.
Also, the Good Fairy arranged that the entire kingdom, including the animals and plants, would fall into a deep slumber at the same time, and would not awaken until the princess did.
The Sleeping Beauty fairytale that we know today has been summarily dismissed by many modern day feminists. They consider the protagonist, the Princess, to be a passive twit—of no redeeming value to our society. In fact, some, including a portion of those in charge of teaching our next generation, advocate that we altogether stop telling the story to our children.
That would be a mistake! The root of the true Sleeping Beauty story has great power in it. Power that awakens us all from the cursed dream spell put upon us to steal our personal freedom and liberty by King Henry VIII of England.
During the time of King Henry’s rule, a very brave writer in Italy named Basile created the story of Pentamerone. This Italian tale is the origin of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale, and is based on the news of King Henry VIII killing several of his wives that circulated in Europe during the sixteen century.
To gain lands and titles, Thomas Boleyn, had encouraged an illicit liaison between his eldest daughter, Mary, and the king before Henry even knew of Anne. Thomas’ efforts were successful, and she had the king’s bastard. But, Henry grew fickle. He wanted to marry Anne, the youngest daughter. Trained in the art of love at the French court, Anne Boleyn would only permit the king ‘seductive kissing’ privileges until after they were married.
But, Henry had a bigger problem. He already had a wife. His queen, Catherine, had failed to produce a male heir for him. Although Henry desperately wanted to marry Anne, the Catholic Church forbade divorce. Consequently, he sought Papal intervention to annul his marriage, to declare that it had never attained the validity that would render it insoluble.
When Pope Clement VII rejected his request for an annulment, Henry chose another route to achieve his goal, one that set in motion a chain of events that led to England‘s schism with the Catholic Church, and a brutal civil war in which many English Catholics lost their heads. History reads Henry wanted a ‘legitimate’ son, to rule England. But across the centuries, many bastard sons have been recognized as legitimate. So, there is more to the story …
Henry defied the Pope by abolishing Catholicism in England, and assuming the position of Supreme Head of the Church of England. He now controlled all religious matters inside the English realm with no deference to Rome. King Henry declared himself anointed by God! In other words, King Henry VIII pulled the biggest POWER GRAB in history from the Catholic Church.
After seven long years of courting and teasing, Henry and Anne married, and soon after had a son. Unfortunately, the infant only lived a few days. Throughout the land, Anne Boleyn was widely disliked. It was rumored that her lustful ways both before and after she married the King of England caused Anne to be cursed by the Devil . She was rumored to be a wicked witch with six fingers and toes on each hand and foot, and had even slept with the Devil himself!
Needless to say, Anne’s marriage to King Henry did not last long. After giving birth to their daughter, Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn, the victim of plotting by Vatican spies and paid traitors at court, became the first of King Henry VIII’s wives to be beheaded.
In the ethos of the time, the monarch was ordained by God, and could do no wrong—not even when he committed regicide and uxoricide, the killing of his queen and wife. Not only did he control the ‘little people’; he decided who lived or died for he was ordained by God.
Mary Boleyn visited her ex-lover, the king, and begged for her sister Anne’s life while Anne awaited execution in the tower. King Henry scoffed at Mary’s request. He had lost all interest in both Boleyn sisters, and had moved on.
So, Anne, accused of being a whore who had slept with her own brother and the Devil, lost her head to the executioner’s blade. Her brother also lost his head. However, the beheading was not the cause of his death. He had been tortured, drawn and quartered prior to that event.
On his death bed, King Henry repented the injustices he had done to Queen Anne Boleyn. He admitted she had been falsely accused. He regretted the punishment imposed upon her, vowed she had died in good Christian standing, and indicated she should be buried in accordance with the practices of the Church of Rome. So, the King asked for forgiveness from God, gave the Pope Anne’s angelic, headless body for a proper Catholic burial, and died, leaving England in total chaos and civil war.
This sordid slice of history is the basis for the Sleeping Beauty fairytale. Even though the Italian fairytale of Sleeping Beauty has a much darker storyline than the Disney one—they share a common theme in that in both versions the Sleeping Beauty’s mother begs for mercy for her cursed child much as Mary pleaded for her accused sister.
In the Italian tale, King Henry VIII’s character became a prince. The transformation hid his identity, and spared the author the king’s well-known and rightfully feared wrath. Still, the author felt secure enough with this revision of a king-to-a-prince that he had the prince nefariously rape an unconscious Sleeping Beauty which is only marginally better than killing her.
In the Grimm’s Fairy Tale version, the tale was further modified for English consumption. Not only did the violating king became a prince—younger, more potent and spared the infection of syphilis, he also spared the slumbering princess his phallic blade. Instead, he bestowed upon her a loving kiss that awakened her.
Figuratively, the English version rewrote the king’s atrocities, portraying them in a much kinder fashion. The English fairytale hides King Henry VIII’s promiscuous, adulterous copulations and his impotence from syphilis. Instead, the fairytale has a literal kiss to awaken an unconscious young princess. King Henry’s undying love for his headless Queen Anne is rewritten and propagandized. Not even King Henry could have disapproved of such chivalrous pulp fiction based on his love story with Anne Boleyn for no people lost their head over the tale.
In the Disney cinematic version, the question is not whether the prince will get the girl, and they live happily ever after—they will. The darker elements of the story were taken out and consequently, forgotten.
The root of the story is that the authors of that day, when penning this fairytale, were encrypting the message that the evil monarch had put an evil spell on the land. The ‘little people’ were told that they were not equal to the King for he was God on Earth, and could do whatever he wished—even chop off his queen’s head.
In the fairytale, a hedge of thorny briar covered the land after the princess pricked her finger and fell asleep. Every year it grew higher until nothing could be seen, and the people forgot what truly happened.The wind died down, and the leaves on the trees in front of the castle no longer stirred. Everyone pretended that everything was normal when nothing could be further from the truth! Deceit and lies had begun to grow in the land, and the truth was hidden and forgotten.
In effect, over the centuries everyone went to sleep in the Sleeping Beauty Dream Spell. The ‘little people’ loved to hear about the royals and ‘daydream’, forgetting the true story of Sleeping Beauty. The common folk went numb and oblivious for they had forgotten they had the God-given right to be equal and free. They went to sleep as EVIL rewrote and rewrote the telling of the story. The horror and atrocities of the monarch were hidden.
Sleeping Beauty is one of the most powerful fairytales, and has a vital message for us today. The castle of old is a symbol for the modern internet. Like the thorny boughs that hid the castle, the internet banished the truth with lies to keep us all asleep.
The matrix that now surrounds us, and chokes our individual freedoms must be shattered. So, like in the Sleeping Beauty fairytale where the writer knew that someday a prince would come and awaken the land, we wait for the moment of truth—for ONLY the TRUTH will set us FREE.
The story has been adapted many times throughout history. It has continued to be retold by modern storytellers through various media. However, it cannot be denied that this fairytale has a deeper meaning. It has meaning for what has happened to mankind since the time of the English monarch King Henry VIII. His cursed spell fell on the people so that he could have more power, and continue to live his excessive lifestyle that ended with him afflicted with gout and syphilis.
The Sleeping Beauty fairytale is an encrypted truth that may allow our generation to awaken from the deep sleep. As in the fairy tale, we are the ones who are awakening from amnesia—a sleep of ignorance that obscures that the monarch stole our God-given freedoms.
The rewrites over the centuries have hidden the truth of the EVIL corruption of the existential monarchies. Fortunately, we are awakening from the Sleeping Beauty curse of lies and deception that has all but destroyed our God-given rights. It has been a lethal, thorny briar hedge.