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mesh shield
is remarkably like the network
of lies
discussed earlier. This is so both in that the network
has
many holes in it and
also that the Shadow tries to
overcome by requiring the Ego to defend himself against
this network. The Shadow never uses
the fork which
could represent truth. The fact that
he has brought it,
however, suggests the obvious
fact that the truth is
hidden behind, though contained as a
concomitant of,
the network of lies.
After a long struggle
the dreamer gets the fork, the
truth, in hand and sticks it through the holes
in the wire
mesh into the wood floor. It seems plain from this point
that the four tines suggest wholeness
so that the fork
comes to represent the whole truth. And this truth must
be firmly embedded, or grounded, in the solid
wood of
reality.
However, only a little pinning
into wood is required
to subdue the Shadow and
allow the real work of
redemption to begin. Other
dreams and fairy tales
suggest the need for grounding, or pinning, in reality
as
the essential element in breaking a bewitchment.
Once
the bewitchment is broken, the fairy tale
hero, the Ego,
is allowed to be transformed and is returned to
his true
heroic form. But it doesn't take much to get the process
started.
For example, in the
tale of Tamlane, a young knight
is captured and bewitched by a band of elves. He
finally
manages to get a message to his lady that he will be part
of a parade of elves which she should attend. When
she
sees him, she is to pull him to the ground from his horse
and then hold him firmly no matter
what happens. She
does this and as soon as he touches the ground he
goes
through incredible fires and tortures at the
hands of the
elves, finally emerging as a hot
steel sword which she
must plunge into the cold
lake water. After this he
emerges naked and restored to his true nature.
We can continue the
nuclear analogy by observing
that even a critical mass of nuclear
material can be
controlled. This is done by inserting rods of a very dense
material into the nuclear material
to absorb radiated
nuclear particles before they start a chain reaction.
The
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