The Power of Myth

Diptych by Meredith Chandler

Full Moon | May 1, 2026 | 11 Scorpio 21’

“And they lived happily ever after,” he said.

It did not seem like a lie.

On a Youtube Video, a father fixes his daughters’ hair for school. The girls ask him to tell them a story which begins: “Once upon a time” . . . The father casts the girls as central characters who live happily ever after.

When we grow up and put away childish things, we poo-poo, the refrain “they lived happily ever after.” We see living happily ever after as impossible— as a lie like Santa Claus. But this video got me thinking that storytelling could be a useful device to affirm and encourage.

Joseph Campbell, whose work in comparative mythology examined the universal functions of myth across human cultures and literary traditions, understood myth as a powerful vehicle for meaning-making. For Campbell, myth helps us navigate life’s transitions, recognize recurring patterns in the human journey, and feel connected to a guiding presence larger than ourselves.

Fantasy and reality, side by side and hand in hand are companionable (like Saturn and Neptune in Aries in this Full Moon chart). Saturn and Neptune move suavely and with great ingenuity like the two serpents on the healer’s caduceus. Fantasy means that you are not talking it all so seriously, yet you are lining up with truth (Saturn).

Mental health professionals remind us that our trials and tribulations are a story we’re telling ourselves and believing. You know how it goes: first it was the parents, then the system. It is this policy, the way things are, the way people are, and it is the man. Therefore, these are not happy times and I am not happy. Don’t tell me tales of happily ever after—ever!

What tone would my life take if I said, once upon a time, there was an old lady of seventy and seven years. She sat at her desk in her Baltimore, Maryland apartment with her back to the Eastern wall and a North facing window that showed lush green trees outside, and a wore a curtain of multi-colored strands of glass beads called light catchers that made the window look holy.

She reflected on being shown, courtesy of the full moon in Scorpio, that she had realized something in her life that she dearly desired. She knew that life was real and life was magic. Her soul was satisfied. She intoned: bless my steps from day to day as I do my best to walk in your way. Thank you that the way is made.

Deep desire can answer prayers is one of the things she learned this Full Moon in Scorpio opposed the Sun in Taurus. Ask and it is answered. Seek and ye shall find. Doors open. The path is shown.

I consider “happily ever after” not as a promise of permanent ease, or a life without hills and valleys, but as a deeper confidence that the hills and valleys are not interruptions of happiness. They are part of the very terrain of a life fully lived.

Practicum

Write a four-sentence “once upon a time” about today: name the setting, the challenge, the hidden help, and the next step. Circle one belief that makes you smaller and rewrite it as a kinder, truer, braver line. Read it aloud nightly for seven days, then take one practical action that matches the new story.