In this book, Victor MacGill uses the science of systems theory to explore the hidden meanings of fairy tales and myths. He links the scientific with anthropological, mythological, psychological and healing approaches to explore these stories and how they can be applied to emotional healing.

Throughout history, shared understandings of ourselves and our world have enabled us to cooperate. This book uses MacGill’s “Dynamics of Life” model to explore these foundational societal roles – such as the king, warrior, magician, lover, and dragon – and explains how these shared mental patterns within a culture create archetypes that inhabit our inner worlds and guide our lives and can reveal deeper aspects of human behaviour. These archetypes have been exhibited through fairy stories and myths recited around the fireside for millennia. The book uses examples of stories from around the world, such as Greek stories like Perseus, traditional tales like Hansel and Gretel and Sleeping Beauty, Pacific cultures, and more. These tales highlight the hidden depths of meaning within these simple stories, usually relegated to bedtime stories for children. MacGill argues that we can meet and interact with our inner kings and magicians and confront our own dragons through these dreams, meditations, journalling and much more, allowing us to heal our emotional and societal wounds.

With its interdisciplinary exploration of this topic and discussion of Jungian psychology, this book offers a unique resource for postgraduate researchers and other scholars, as well as psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and coaches of all backgrounds.