A poor woman gives birth to a boy with a caul, and it is foretold that he will marry the King’s daughter when he turns fourteen. Hearing this prophecy, the King, in disguise, offers the parents gold for the child, pretending kindness. They agree, believing their son is a “luck-child.” The King seals the boy in a box and casts it into the water, hoping to thwart fate. Instead, the box floats safely to a mill, where the child is rescued and raised by the miller and his wife. Fourteen years later, the King discovers the boy still alive and tries again to destroy him by sending him to the Queen with a letter ordering his death. But fate intervenes: robbers intercept the letter, replace it with one commanding the boy’s marriage to the princess, and thus the prophecy comes true. Furious, the King sets a new, impossible task—fetching three golden hairs from the Devil’s head—hoping to be rid of his unwanted son-in-law.

‍Working with Fairytales

For Jung, fairy tales reflected the anatomy of the psyche. According to Marie-Louise von Franz, fairy tales represent “the purest and simplest expressions of the processes of the collective unconscious.” Stripped of the cultural, historical, and personal layers that often obscure myths and legends, fairy tales offer the clearest window into archetypal patterns at work within the psyche.

In each session, working with a fairy tale involves four steps:

1. Reading the tale — engaging directly with the narrative.
2. Exploring the imagery — identifying the key symbols and motifs.
3. Psychological interpretation — understanding the archetypal meaning and its relation to the collective unconscious.
4. Personal reflection and application — discovering how the tale’s message relates to one’s own life and individuation process.