Why Women Need Fairy Tales Now

Sharon Blackie is a unique and important voice. This year marks the 10th anniversary of her book If Women Rose Rooted, which reintroduced the world to the forgotten stories of the feminine in European culture.

Sharon loves fairy tales as much as I do. I love her vast knowledge of different tales, and her commitment to mine the old collections for hidden gems. I appreciate her ability to trace cultural patterns through these tales — and to remind us that we are still facing the same age-old challenges and fairy tales still supply needed wisdom.

Sharon and I do differ a bit in how we think about fairy tales. Sharon references James Hillman’s stance that images make a moral claim on us. Fairy tale images present themselves to us in all of their beauty, darkness, and complexity, and ask to be met on their own terms. I agree with Sharon here. Interpretation of a fairy tale — or for that matter a dream — can do violence to the image, robbing it of its juiciness and rendering it stale.

However, I have also been stunned at the way that fairy tale images come to life in a dynamic way when engaged with psychologically. For example, I have worked with the tale “Rumpelstiltskin” many times. I’ve included it in lectures, and written about it in my first book Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself. I wouldn’t have thought I could find anything new to say about it, and yet every time I give it a close reading, I see something new. Fairy tales are inexhaustible.

Sharon’s new book, Ripening: Why Women Need Fairy Tales Now, is a beautiful overview of women’s seasons, with rich offerings of fairy tales to go alongside. I’m so grateful to her for joining me for a live conversation with my Spinning Straw audience. I hope you’ll enjoy this recording.

Dr. Sharon Blackie is an award-winning and internationally bestselling author, speaker and teacher. She’s a former neuroscientist and a psychologist with a background in mythology and folklore, and her work is focused on the mythic imagination and its relevance to the personal, cultural and environmental issues we face today. Her latest book, Ripening: Why Women Need Fairy Tales Now, was published in May 2026. Sharon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an Honorary Member of the UK Association of Jungian Analysts, awarded ‘in recognition of the importance of lifetime achievement and contribution to Jungian ideas in the world’.