What The Snow Queen Knows

This essay is part of my book What She Knows – Volume I: Story Threads from Myth, Folklore, and Fairytales. To learn more about the book and order, please visit its official page here.

Many mystical moons ago, when I was a child, I’d sit on a yellow couch every afternoon at three o’clock; my grandmother would pour me some tea in the living room and then play the vinyl record turning fairytales, while she did her work in the kitchen. My favourite was The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. It’s funny how some moments become snapshots – like polaroid photos. They stay forever in our minds. We didn’t have a record at home, so my mom bought me the cassette tape, and I still have it with me now – it’s in a precious box beside my bed.

I grew up with stories and tales. My mom would tell me so many and read me from books each night. I must have known countless, but the story about Kay and Gerda, and their rose garden, stayed with me since the first moment she first read it to me. I keep it sacred in my heart. And I’d dreamt each day and night about having a rose garden someday.

The Snow Queen is a story about love. About trust and believe. About the core essence of who we are. About the deep knowing in our soul and the courage love gives us to follow it through the many changing seasons and unknown wild landscapes.

It’s a story about love not merely because of Kay and Gerda; not because the warmth of Gerda’s tears fell on Kay’s chest melting away the ice from his heart; and not even because she walked through all seasons and landscapes, as barefoot as she was, and all animals and people were moved by love and softened. It’s because of all of these.

Gerda is the love. And Kay is that which makes her always remember; just as she is she who helps him remember.

What I’ve always loved about Gerda is how real and human she is – love is a human thing, a body thing, a hands thing. It only comes alive because of us, otherwise it is merely like a nice idea in the sky we look towards and dream of and wish for. 

Human love isn’t meant to be perfect when we aren’t perfect; but what makes it divine is when we are embodying it and giving it ourselves. We become its bride – and the bride offers herself to it.

Gerda reminds us of our humanness – how we all too sometimes feel lost, hopeless, doubtful, discouraged, trust the wrong people and even take some wrong turns; how sometimes we are a bit naïve, sometimes a bit stubborn, but we can still keep our heart, keep it warm and keep it pure. This is what Gerda shows us.

She moves us through all the seasons; and she too is moved through them and she too touches them all and leaves her light along the way. Everyone who meets her, animal and human, become kinder, more generous, more soft, more trusting and more brave after meeting her – this is how we know love has touched us.   

As I grew older and started studying tales and mysticism more deeply, I found that this fairytale carries within itself deep spiritual essence and layers of wisdom also.

Andersen himself was a spiritual man, so it is no wonder that esoteric aspects would be present in the tale’s symbology. Despite the Christian imagery recurrent in his tales, which was typical of nineteenth century fiction, his writings are actually incredibly earthy, anarchic, spiritual rather than dogmatic, and introspective rather than morally instructive. And while there are Bible quotes in some of his stories, including The Snow Queen, it is more spiritual than religious.

Andersen was a writer during the times of Romanticism and this influence can be seen in the romantic tones of his storytelling. He also grew up reading and loving Thousand and One Nights, which were some of my favourite stories as a child and I still have these books on my shelf.

As we know, his tales explore in the most beautiful way the complex nuances of our human experience and emotional worlds. He gave to the more vulnerable and humble of society, to those whose voices weren’t loud nor wealthy, and he gave them eternal souls with his stories, which still move us centuries later.

 In the Little Matchstick Girl, we are reminded that we always need to keep a few matchsticks for ourselves, because we too need to nurture our inner lands and inner flames, and keep ourselves warm.

In the Little Mermaid, Andersen reminds us that our voice matters, and that we must never sacrifice it and our inner truth for anyone nor anything else.

In Thumbelina, we are taken on a path towards belonging and finding our true friends; we are reminded of the wisdom set in snow, and that our kindness will guide us towards our true heart’s companions.

And then there’s the Snow Queen …

The Snow Queen holds the greatest spiritual truth because it reminds us clearly that the greatest power of all is the power of love and the human heart. As the magic woman says in the tale,

“Yes, I can tie all the winds and storms with a single thread. But I cannot give Gerda any greater power that what she has already. Don’t you see how strong that is? How men and flowers and animals serve her, and how well she got through the world, barefoot as she is? She cannot receive any power greater than she now has, which is held in her own purity and innocence of heart. It is only this love that can defeat snow kingdoms and melt the ice from Kay’s heart. And even with all my magic, I bow to such power.”

Sometimes in life perhaps we look around and wonder, “Where is the love? Where did the compassion go?” It’s as if the sun suddenly asking, “Where is the sun?” It’s you darling, you are the Sun.

In these moments when we look around and wonder this way, perhaps you are it. You are the love. You are the one whose hands and lips love has chosen, so that you can move others and be that which softens them.

Through our expression of love, through our willingness to forgive, to flow, to believe, to trust, to show affection, to see the beauty in the tiny moments, to feed the animals – all those people around us get to experience love; they get an opportunity to respond to love, to show us affection and be loving towards us, to show us compassion, and to even change for the better; some will, and others wouldn’t, and maybe years down the line they’ll remember our gestures – but what only matters is that we stay true to our heart.

Gerda is the love – and through her all others around her experienced love and beauty in their unique way, in their unique worlds. And while sometimes she may have thought that love was gone, taken away from her on a winter’s day, it was with her all along.

Gerda is the expression of divine love itself; she is the extension, the tool through which God and Christ show others what true love and compassion really are; and it is through her that others experience love.  

The Snow Queen can sometimes seen as a reflection on humanity and our human nature, portraying what happens to us as human beings when we lose touch with our heart, tenderness, trust and most importantly, when we lose connection to our true inner self and to one another.

Who has not, like Gerda, been exiled from their familiar comforts of the world they once knew; of the time when perhaps a beloved, person or a dream, was taken away from them? What child, and adult, has not been faced with challenges and a version of reality collapse, when mystical hands reached out to us to limit our experience? Who has been forced to feel a deep yearning that no one else, aside from just one person, could soothe?

Like Kay, who hasn’t experienced despair and a frozen heart, feeling lost from what once warmed his tender heart? Who has not felt estranged in a faraway distant land? Who has not sometimes retreated into a fortress, shining and bright as ice snow, yet lonely and colourless because there was something still missing? Who has not surrounded themselves with logical, material tasks, or work, just to soothe their heart, yet it never truly worked, because when left alone, at night, the soul was still yearning? Who has not romanced a cold Queen, or King? Who has not mistaken intensity and newness for meaningfulness? Who has not denied sometimes the blessing of creativity and the freedom of the soul? And who has not negated their own self, believing themselves unworthy and unloved, and withheld compassion from their self, despite the loving kindness of their friend, family or beloved?

In the first chapter of the tale, we see the devil crafting a mirror, which causes everything good and beautiful in life to be reflected as worthless and ugly. He feels great joy whisking the mirror all across the world, and even greater joy at the idea of lifting it high enough to God and the angels. However, as he lifts it higher, the intensity of the high love vibration in the divine realms causes the mirror to shatter, scattering all its pieces across earth.

One such piece ultimately enters Kay’s eye. At first, he starts seeing all things ugly, and he becomes angry, bitter and mean towards Gerda, who is his one true friend. The piece then goes into his heart, causing it to freeze, and so he becomes completely detached from his own feelings, kindness and compassion.

Kay becomes coldly logical, and dismisses play and affection from Gerda; he becomes obsessed with patterns, smashes the roses and storms out of the house. He goes in the plaza where eventually he ties his sled to the back of the Snow Queen’s sleigh – because coldness is what now he feels belongs to him, rather than the touch of a warm hand. What was once merely a piece of a mirror tainting his way of seeing beauty, warmth and love, has now become a heart with ice.

The rose, the love.

Roses are deeply symbolic in this tale, and in many ways hold it. They are the flowers connected to love, and rose’s petals often symbolize the womb of self; they are also connected to divinity, fertility, birth, devotion, divine love and Christ’s passion for humanity.

Roses are the birth flowers of June and are connected to the elements of water and the planet of Venus, and through cultures and beliefs from around the world they represent the deepest and truest love of all. We see these beautiful flowers in many myths, tales and lore; one of which is the Greek myth of Eros and Psyche.

“The Snow Queen” illustrated by Christian Birmingham

Celebrating the true wedding of Eros and Psyche, the Graces made the entire earth grow with roses. Eros means desire, Psyche means breath of life or our soul; so when Eros marries Psyche, we breathe life into the desires of our soul. When we marry love, when soul merges with love, roses grow and adorn the earth.

The rose is also connected to Christ and Mother Mary – the unconditional love, kindness, compassion, appreciation, gratitude, charity, empathy, surrender, grace, forgiveness, trust, loyalty and faith. In our story, it is Gerda. She is the embodiment of all of these qualities, because she retains her true sense of self despite the challenges she faces; just like a rose is a rose is a rose. In the tale it is referenced that she is the Christ child,,

“where roses bloom so sweetly in the vale, there you’ll find the Christ child, without fail.”

The rose garden sits on the rooftop shared between Kay and Gerda’s homes – holding them together as one. It reminds us to return to our place of belonging, of love and warmth and beauty, and keep returning. It reminds us to let love return us to love. When Kay doesn’t, and winter ends, Gerda decides to look for her.

She puts on her red new shoes and walks down the river, to ask the river whether Kay is dead or alive. The river doesn’t reply. Gerda decides to offer her most prized possession to the river, pleading to the river to please return Kay. Her red shoes are all she has, as she comes from a humble background. The river however returns the shoes back to shore; it can’t return Kay.

Perhaps the river didn’t understand, Gerda thinks, so she hops on a wooden boat to throw the shoes further in.

The river pulls her in with its current, and now without even shoes anymore, Gerda moves into the wild unknowns. Trust now takes her.

Just like Gerda, we won’t always know where we are going nor why, but we can choose to put on our bright red new shoes and try to listen to the river. Maybe it will not reply to us in the way we’ll understand, maybe we’ll have to walk barefoot for a while, but it will lead us. Like the secret threads of a book, one page after another, one foot after the other. Our feet will get tired and we might feel lost and discouraged along the way, but there is an invisible kingdom waiting to guide us.

As Gerda finally enters the Queen’s castle, we see Kay blue, almost black, of coldness and seriously focused on shifting flat pieces of ice in an attempt to make something out of them.

“Kay was cleverly arranging his pieces in the game of ice- cold reason. To him, the patterns were highly remarkable and of the utmost importance, for the chip of glass in his eye made him see them that way. He arranged his pieces to spell out many words; but he could never find the way to make the one word he was so eager to form. The word was “Eternity.” The Snow Queen had said to him, “If you can puzzle this out, you shall be your own master, and I’ll give you the whole world and a new pair of skates.” But he could not puzzle it out.”

Kay’s portrayed obsession with the puzzle in the tale is in ways reflecting the struggle of mankind – to comprehend and experience eternity, to possess it, to liberate himself from it by controlling it and understanding it. We see this reflected in our modern day by transhumanism. We create artificial intelligence to become something super-human, of higher intelligence, and yet it can’t mimic nor achieve nor even reach the power of the human heart. It can’t create the way human hands do, human hearts do, it can’t touch the same way, because it isn’t warm.

We can’t spell eternity that way.

We need Gerda.

“The Snow Queen” illustrated by Christian Birmingham

“And the warmth of Gerda’s tears fell on Kay’s chest melting away the ice from his heart. “Gerda! Where have I been all this time? Oh how I’ve forgotten!”

Gerda’s love melted the ice from Kay’s heart; and he burst into tears himself. He started feeling. They embraced. And their joy was so powerful, even the glass started dancing around them, eventually falling on the floors creating the shape of the word eternity. Eternity itself spells itself when we’ve returned to the home of our hearts.

“The Snow Queen” illustrated by Christian Birmingham

“The roses on the roof looked in at the open window, and their two little stools were still out there. Grandmother sat beside them in the heavenly sunshine and read to them from the Bible: “Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” Kay and Gerda looked into each other’s eyes; there, they sat together, holding hands, the same children still at heart. And it was summer – warm, delightful summer.”

With these lines, the tale of The Snow Queen ends. The beauty of this passage is the reminder to stay innocent and pure in our heart, and keep the wonder in our eyes. To enter the kingdom of love we must open to it, allow it in. And yet it isn’t just a state of mind, it is in our everyday gestures and movements and how we approach life itself, one another and all and everything.  With the right approach, with open palms and open hearts, beauty reveals itself and even more love enters us.

I find that this tale is particularly symbolic for our world today. On a collective level, we’ve become increasingly disconnected from ourselves; we’ve become materialistic and linear in our thinking. When we forget our tenderness, we enter ice worlds, and hearts harden, and we forget our humaneness.

When society exploits the Gerdas of our world – the innocent, pure and kind people – it will eventually fall apart. When the society nurtures the feelings, the emotional worlds, protects the vulnerable, and takes care of and supports one another lovingly and compassionately, it will advance.

There is so much division and separation, and endless arguments about differing perspectives and who’s right and who’s wrong. If we wait for unity to happen externally it may not happen soon. I believe fostering unity begins with us – begins with hands; reaching our hands across the lines and boundaries that separate us. And then, we sit, listen and learn. Worlds may open up.

What I love about The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen is that it is a story about the power of love and the purity of heart. Along the way, just like all of us in life, Gerda makes mistakes, she gets angry, she feels hopeless, she doubts, she trusts the wrong people, she feels betrayed – and yet she remains with warm heart. She shows us the movements of love, and the importance of keeping our tenderness despite thorny or ice landscapes. She reminds us love melts ice.

“The Snow Queen” illustrated by Christian Birmingham

The Snow Queen herself is not a bard character – she is part of nature. In her own self she is needed and purposeful, as she is one that gives the snow and ice for all those who need it, animals and people, to survive in the winter lands.

The story of Gerda shows us the cycles of the land, and of life itself through our various seasons of cold, warm, uncertainty, doubts, fears, hope, friendship and love. With her bare feet, she walks us through it all and we walk with her too.

To this day I have this fairytale, not only as the book my mom read me from, but also as the old cassette tape that I’d listed to with her also. I still love it as much as I did. And I love roses too as much as always, perhaps even more.

I’ve become my own fairy – making my dreams come true, walking the unknown trusting, believing, persevering despite the seasons and landscapes. Like Gerda, I follow my heart.

We have a beautiful rose bush also on our terrace – my own rose garden, just as the one I always dreamt of since I was a child.

And here is the first rose that ever bloomed from it after we planted it; it bloomed exactly on my birthday. We have many roses now, but this was the first – the reminder of a heart’s dream.

And each time I look at my roses, it’s as if it’s the first time, it’s as if they are magic, and so, they are.

For more of my writings, browse through my Art of Love.

If you wish to support me and my work, you may do so by sharing it or donate here. For personal readings with me, you may visit my Offerings. 

Your support means so much to me! Thank you wholeheartedly!

Cover Art by Maxime Simoncelli.

All rights reserved by the artists.