The Magic Porridge Pot

 

The Magic Porridge Pot is a children's fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. In German it's called "Der süße Brei", which means "Sweet Porridge". 

The tale is about a single mother living with her daughter in poverty, and one day the daughter met a kind elderly woman who wanted to offer help. She gave her a pot and told her it made porridge from nowhere, but would continue cooking until it was told to stop. The exact words to tell the pot are "cook, little pot, cook" and then "stop, little pot."

This simple pot was able to make nice tasty porridge and then no more appeared once it was told to stop. The girl and her mother were not about to die of hunger and so the girl was often telling the porridge to make more. Then the girl went out and her mother was at home, feeling like eating porridge. She told the pot to make some porridge and she forgot the exact words to tell it to stop. Porridge kept appearing, and then it covered the whole kitchen and spread outside in the street. Soon, the porridge covered the houses. Nobody knew how to properly stop it. 

The little girl returned home and found the entire village covered in porridge. She said "Stop, little pot!" and it worked. The entire villagers had to eat all of the porridge and never went hungry.

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Chrysanthemum, November flower

The actual flowers of November is both a chrysanthemum and also a peony. It's described as the birth flower of November, the chrysanthemum is also called chrysanths and mums. The name comes from the ancient Greek words "chrysos" and "anthemom" to mean golden flower. Of the flower family Asteraceae, native to Asia and eastern Europe. These flowers are associated with autumn and they tend to bloom during the season.

Chrysanthemums have so many various different species today including Chrysanthemum Arisanense, the subarctic Chrysanthemum Integrifolium and the Bonsai Chrysanthemum, with more other hybrids. 

The Chrysanthemum has been used in food including tea and wine. Parts of the flower and leaves are edible and turned into vegetables for cooked meals. They can be used to clean polluted air of indoor spaces. In the New World chrysanthemums flowers are positive symbols while in Europe and Asia these flowers are associated with mourning, graves and death. These flowers have been favourite subjects for poetry with their decorations giving spicy and sugary fragrance.  

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Fairy tales and mental health

 It's believed that depression is connected to monsters. For centuries, people associate scary supernatural creatures with sickness, plague, and mental illness. They can come in the form of evil beings that target healthy people and strike them down with some infection or other, or driving them to despair and suicide. Among the nasty monsters that cause grief includes ogre, demons, vampires, werewolves, zombies, and many others. These are personification of human misery and suffering. It's also believed that these are characterised in myths, legends and folklore stories and fairy tales.

The Three Little Pigs are terrorised by a wolf that threatens to destroy the safety of their homes. This reflects the vulnerability of people targeted by violent intruders and burglars. The wolf may symbolise the villain and is monstrous in the way he behaves towards the small innocent pigs, who come across as frightened children almost. It's said break-ins and victims for example may suffer because of it and leads them to have feelings of agoraphobia.

Rumpelstiltskin is a goblin like creature that offers help to the young girl who seems to be in a difficult place. Her life is at stake, as the king wanted her to fulfil an impossible job but if she didn't, she would be executed. She was afraid of what would happen if she didn't produce gold from ordinary straw, so here comes the little goblin named Rumpelstiltskin who seems to be kind at first. Once she has been helped by the supernatural entity, the king decides to spare her life and marry her. When she's had her child, Rumpelstiltskin demands payment for the help he gave her by taking her child. She refuses and then a whole lot more trouble follows. This story may be about blackmail and also bullying, and it's obvious that Rumpelstiltskin symbolises the controlling manipulative source of trouble. However the story overlooked the cruelty of the king. Almost like a piece from a soap opera script, where villains transform into friends and friends turn into villains. 

As for teenage depression and body dysmorphia, stories like Cinderella and Snow White. In Cinderella, the wicked stepmother and the two wicked stepsisters force Cinderella into doing horrible chores with no nice rewards. Cinderella is constantly punished and even denied decent clothes and dresses. She becomes lonely and depressed. In Snow White, the evil queen is vain and obsessed that she is the fairest of all in the land. While these two stories are about looking beautiful, the villains are humans while the supernatural beings are friends. Sometimes the fairies, dwarfs, gnomes and angels step in to help. 

Written by Storm Valkyrie.

If you like this subject on monsters and mental health, about the subject with a bigger exploration into this so visit Medium and read the article "Monsters and Demons As Symbolic of Struggles/Fear" by Emma Wilson Smith. 

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It's now November

This is a time when the lights go on as it is much darker, and celebrating the dead, spirits and cold soil bringing spirits. The Wild Hunt charges across the night skies soon, and so be prepared. If you hear any distant sounds of thunder, it is really the Wild Hunt. 

If you see the eerie strange flickering lights in the sky, it might be the aurora or it's the spectral Wild Hunt. They often come with sounds that are loud and chilling. It is wise to go indoors on such nights during this time of year until a while after the New Year, as Winter passes in the beginning of a Gregorian calendar of January. Between November and Late December, stay indoors and keep yourselves safe. The cold itself, not just the Wild Hunt, is also a danger during the Winter months. 

As the season is still Hallows Day, Day of the Dead and Remembrance, wearing red flowers, eating skull cakes and lighting lanterns, either praying, singing or making quiet words, gathering like this keeps away the dangers of the Wild Hunt and the frost. The vulnerable and the busy will be given blessings and then join in a spirit of community, compassion, union and love. 

The cold and the predators will be kept away from the door.

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