The Little Mermaid and The Desire for Another World
About this Session
The Little Mermaid is not only a story about wanting a prince. It's a story about wanting a life your world cannot give you.
Before the prince, there is the surface. The sky. The ships. The strange brightness of the human world. The mermaid’s longing begins before it has a person to attach itself to. She is pulled toward something above her, something beyond the life she has been given.
That is the ache at the center of the story.
Most of us know something about that kind of desire. The feeling that the world we come from, the role we were given, or the life we are living is too small for what's moving inside us.
Sometimes that longing is holy. Sometimes it's dangerous. Often, it's both.
The Little Mermaid asks what we are willing to trade in order to cross into another life. Voice. Home. Body. Belonging. Ease. The ability to say what we mean.
Today's Session is about desire as a doorway and desire as a bargain.
What happens when the life we have is not enough for the life we sense is possible?
No preparation needed. Come as you are.
Who is this Space for?
This Space is held for women, those who identify as women, and queer folks.
Just in case...
Want a The Little Mermaid refresher?
About this Space
Please note
This is a six-week Series, not a single drop-in Space. When you sign up for the first Session, you are registering for the full six weeks.
We ask that participants attend the first Session and commit to at least three weeks of the Series. This helps create continuity, trust, and care within the group.
Life happens, and perfection is not expected. But showing up together over time allows for deeper reflection and more meaningful connection.
More about this series
Fairy tales are not as innocent as we remember.
A girl is left in the ashes. A child walks alone through the woods. A woman returns to the beast. Two children outsmart the thing that wanted to consume them.
These stories are told because they know things.
They know about longing. Danger. Hunger. Beauty. Survival. Desire. Timing. The strange bargains we make to be loved, safe, chosen, or free.
In this six-week Series, we will use six classic fairy tales as mirrors for our own lives. Each Session begins with one story and opens into the questions underneath it:
Where have we learned to be good?
Where have we learned not to trust?
What have we returned to?
What have we outgrown?
What are we still aching toward?
What is beginning to wake up?
This is not a lecture or a literature class. It is a place to sit with story, memory, and meaning — and to hear what these old tales still have to say to the lives we are living now.
Schedule
Week One: Cinderella and The Burden of Grace
Week Two: Little Red Riding Hood and The Danger of Charm
Week Three: Beauty & the Beast and The Choice to Return
Week Four: Hansel and Gretel and The Tricks That Save Us
Week Five: The Little Mermaid and The Desire for Another World
Week Six: Sleeping Beauty and The Door That Opens in Time
Meet the Keeper
Vanessa Rae
Vanessa is a Los Angeles-based artist and recovering hot mess. She's battled many challenges, from undiagnosed depression to struggling with alcohol abuse, and knows first hand how hard it is to face complex emotions alone.
Through her personal evolution, she's learned how to take action in her life, transforming negative …
July Check-In
Cinderella and The Burden of Grace
Little Red Riding Hood and The Danger of Charm
Beauty & the Beast and The Choice to Return
Hansel and Gretel and The Tricks That Save Us
Sleeping Beauty and The Door That Opens in Time