The High Wall

Let’s continue with Rapunzel's story by going back to the beginning of the tale. The story begins with a barren couple, they have “been wishing in vain for a child.” The couple’s fertility is in question. There is a sense of stagnation where new life is wished for, but is wished for “in vain.”

This is a common human experience: “I’m bored.” “Nothing is happening.” “Nothing ever changes.” At some point in everyone’s life, we meet this psychological space of stagnation.

At this point in the story, we hear of the beautiful garden that is “filled with the most beautiful flowers and herbs. The garden, however, was surrounded by a high wall, and nobody dared enter it because it belonged to a sorceress who was very powerful and feared by all.”

What is this “high wall” that keeps our dear couple from the fertile energies of nature, the garden experience? What does that look like in us as a psychological experience?